One For Love

CHAPTER 11; VILLAINS AND THE VISIT FROM MEDUSA

Some characters in this chapter belongs to Rick Riordan. I own the Aikaterini and the demigods mentioned.

Percy swung, dodged and killed monster after monster, relieving the stress, anxiety and tension he'd been feeling for a long while. He swung and swung until he looked up and saw only dust and spoils laying around him, with all the demigods and a few smaller monsters standing near the wall, careful not to come near him.

Percy looked at his hands. They were coated with dust and a little blood from the multiple cuts and welts on his body from where various people and monsters had managed to hit him.

"Did I kill them all myself?" He asked softly to the girl nearest to him. The girl nodded frantically.

Percy felt exhausted and empty. The shock that he was powerful enough to defeat a whole army of monsters overwhelmed him. He knew he was powerful. But even while fighting Gaea's army, he had never been able to kill so much of them all by himself.

Percy used the edge of his T-shirt to wipe away some monster dust from Zulfiqar. He then sheathed it and asked the demigods, "When will they resuscitate?"

A girl with jet black hair, who looked at him with awe, said that they'd be back within three hours.

Percy then asked them to take him to somewhere where he could sit down. The girl said, "Follow me." And walked through another set of doors.

Percy followed the girl through so many corridors that his ADHD could keep up with it. He tried to remember the route he was being taken but failed. After a long while, she stopped at room #3 and tilted her head. "This is your room. There's a door in there that'll lead you to the throne room." She then turned and ran back the way they came.

Percy opened the door and saw a normal room. It was maybe thrice the size of his room back in New York. But other than that, it looked like any room one would imagine. A four poster bed with translucent drapes, a table big enough to fit a map, a collection of books and some stationeries, a cupboard with more books, a wardrobe, opened to reveal a few shirts and pants, and a shrine with a few drachmas, flowing water and some kind of artificial sunlight, causing a rainbow to form in the brightly lit area. That was the only brightly lit area of the room. The furnitures were all made of wood with the walls being a beige color and the floor having black carpeting. The walls had various doors on it. They were labeled in white paint with a cursive font. Throne Room, Washroom, training room, and many more.

Percy walked through a door to the washroom. He showered, washed his face, wore a pair of pajamas from the wardrobe and went to sleep on the bed which was more comfortable than he imagined.

*********

Nightmares swam in his head. Every little bad thing he did came over his head. He was left overthinking everything. He finally came to the conclusion that he was not a hero. He never was.

He was the villain.

Sure, he'd saved Olympus twice and went on many quests to save the world. But many of those problems started because of him. He was the one who caused them.

If that was true, the deaths..... Zoë, Silena, Beckendrof, Bianca, everyone who died, they all died because of him. Percy woke up then, covered with sweat. He was panting. The wounds on his arms from the army had already faded after his shower.

He changed, grabbed Zulfiqar and went to the training room, where there were no others, demigods or monsters. Percy went into the seven point fighting stance that he'd seen Chiron instruct others on, and started whacking at the dummy wearing armor. He was careful not to exert himself too much.

He slowly and steadily went over each move and stance as he hacked and hit dummy after dummy until someone from the back said, "You'll collapse if you keep up at it."

Percy whirled around. "You've been here for four hours. You're already weak from yesterday's spar. Rest." Nyx was leaning against a pillar beside the door he came through.

"Where's Annabeth?" Percy asked.

"We don't have a tonic for whatever the poison in her body is. Our best healers are working on it. We even snuck Patroclus in."

"I need to see her." Percy insisted.

"Don't be silly. You have an army to manage. Our main captain will be with you after breakfast to give you some details." Nyx walked up to Percy. "It's all for the best. And don't worry. We'll never allow Annabeth Chase to die."

Percy tried to interrupt, "But-" Nyx raised her voice in a sing-song tone and said, "Breakfast is in room 663,000,000." Before vanishing away.

Percy walked through a few doors, trying to find room 663,000,000. Finally, after twenty minutes, he found number 662 million and walked through it until he reached the breakfast hall.

Before he could open it, both the doors sprung wide open and the army inside, most of whom were resuscitated within the past few hours, stood up with a deafening noise of wooden stools scraping the concrete floor.

There was a path in front of him, leading to a table on the opposite side of the room, where a meal of a stew and bread was laid.

Percy supposed it was his seat. He sat down and started eating, albeit unwillingly. He'd forgotten the last time he ate stew. But it was really good. The moment he sat down, the army sat down and they all resumed eating.

Percy looked around while he ate. There was a homey feeling to the dining room, unlike the throne room. There were portraits of all the cooks of the castle around the wall. The current one happened to be....Medusa. Percy choked on his food.

"Commander..." A rough, scrappy voice in a middle Eastern accent came from beside him. Percy swiveled around faster than he'd ever thought possible. "How was the food? Was it to your satisfaction?"

Medusa looked just like in his nightmares and from the first and only time he'd met her. She looked nothing like her sisters. She wore a long black gown that covered everything but her hands, and her head was completely veiled. Her eyes glinted behind a curtain of black gauze, her gaze uncertain. Her coffee-colored hands which used to be well-manicured and elegant, was now grimy and looked weird.

"I- uh" Percy couldn't speak. He spent a moment having flashbacks to the inner terror he felt while he killed Medusa when he was 12. "I'm sorry." He managed to splutter out.

Medusa was taken aback. "The food?" She inclined her head towards his plate.

"It was wonderful."

"Thank you. This is my first meal as head cook." She seemed to fold inward "I only resuscitated last week."

"I'm sorry for killing you. I didn't want to." Percy had tears in his eyes.

"You're not the first to kill me, Jackson. I feel no ill unless you try to kill me for no apparent reason." Medusa turned and walked through a door, probably back to the kitchen.

Percy was still in shock. He thought about all the monsters he's killed before. There must have been a few, at least, who didn't want to fight but had to for survival.

Percy vowed to himself that for once, he'll fight for the monsters and not against them. It was the least he could do after all. He'll command the army and fight until Olympus decides to back down from Tartarus.

With renewed vigor, he started eating. After all, he had an army to train.

Word count: 1295
A/N: Tysm for reading. Vote and comment if you liked it.

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