Thaw (MCU//PJO)

Chapter 2

Two years earlier

"You are hereby exiled from Olympus for your crimes against the very livelihood of our existence, for spying, feeding our enemy information, and more heinous crimes," Zeus stood from his throne, master bold in hand, the rest of the Olympian Council looking on with blank faces. They did not feel pity, they were far too old for that, but they did feel amusement. Another demigod being driven into the ground after thinking that he could possibly be anything like his immortal brethren. Percy Jackson was on his knees before them, held down by lightning cuffs that were attached to the ground. He'd been electrocuted by them several times by now, for his trial had lasted two days, and he couldn't help but think how humiliating of a punishment that was. Demigods were behind him, watching, too. He could hear Annabeth Chase, his ex-girlfriend, crying. Percy's arms were rippled with reddish marks from the lightning. "If you wish to state something, now is your opportunity."

Percy tried to open his mouth to say something to Annabeth, to try to comfort her, tell her that everything was fine and he'd find her way back to her. But nothing came out- it was as if his vocal cords had been singed like the hairs on his arms.

"Nothing? So be it," Zeus whispered softly and pointed the master bolt at him. Percy felt tears forming in his eyes and he tried so hard to fight them, but they started pouring nonetheless.

That's when his world when black.

A crash. He was falling. A jolt. Had he hit the ground? He was shaking. He couldn't stop shaking. The world around Percy went a horrific bright white, hurting his eyes, but not nearly to the extent that his whole body hurt- it was excruciating, like nothing he'd ever felt before. He couldn't move. He couldn't move. He couldn't-

Present day

Percy Jackson gasped for air as he sat up abruptly in his bed, then he rubbed his eyes in frustration. Another nightmare. They never seemed to cease- he didn't remember the last time he had a good night's sleep.

The ghosts of his past clutched him when he closed his eyes, scraping at him, scratching at him, screaming at him. Why couldn't you have done more?

He rose from his bed slowly in the ruins of his father's mansion on Olympus, although it felt wrong to sleep there. He didn't feel like he deserved to be associated with Poseidon anymore, not after what he had done. Still, where else could he have gone? Certainly not to the other gods' old homes, that would feel even stranger. The sun shone in from the window, hurting his eyes, a remnant of Apollo's old power. Percy wondered if he was doing it on purpose.

He got up and walked to the makeshift altar to the gods at the foot of his bed, kneeling before it. The gods may have been gone, but Percy wondered if they could still hear him pray, for no immortal was ever truly gone, they just faded, parts of their energies scattered across the Universe. Perhaps in some void millions of light years away Zeus had heard him sobbing in prayer the night before, begging for his family's forgiveness. Or maybe he heard nothing. Whatever the case, Percy closed his eyes in prayer. He knew he had no right to even begin to think of himself as the son of Poseidon, but there was part of him that wondered if that was the only thing that would keep him sane. If he accepted that he had been disowned, if he accepted that his father, in his last months alive, had hated his son, he wondered if that would be his last straw. Would that be what drove Percy Jackson to madness? Or had he already crossed that line long ago?

Opening his eyes, he wished the gods prosperity, wherever they may be, even if that was impossible. As he got dressed, he looked at his body in the mirror, tracing the now stark white scars that made intricate designs all over his dark arms and back. It made him shiver. He left the mansion to go for a walk.