madness and ecstasy // leo valdez

-a dash of tragic backstory-

Percy sneezed again, the dust wafting off Bob's broom making its way into his airways. He tried to stifle the sound, as to not wake Annabeth up, but she looked like she wouldn't be waking up for a while. She was so cute when she wasn't glaring at him.

There wasn't a lot to do while making sure they didn't get ambushed, so he had taken to trying to figure out what was on the altar. He knew it wasn't empty, because every now and then the mist would flicker the tiniest bit, and he'd catch a glimpse, just a sliver of light or reflections. Nothing that showed what was really there. Of course, he could ask Teqi, but he wasn't sure if she would decide to slit his throat instead of answering him.

He had figured out she didn't like him very much quite a while ago, but he still didn't know why. Of course, most people [monsters] he met hated him on sight, but he assumed that was just because of his amazing way to insult his enemies and escape mostly unharmed.

The silence stretched on for a while, until Bob started humming a song Percy vaguely recognised the tune of. He didn't know they had Spotify in the Underworld.

"Na, na-na, na-na, na-na," Teqi sung quietly, tapping her fingers on her knee in rhythm. "Drugs, gimme drugs, gimme drugs. I don't need it, but I'll sell what you got. Take the cash and I'll keep it."

Bob bobbed his head along to the tune for a few moments. Percy recognised the song then; it was from My Chemical Romance. Teqi pulled her knee's up to her chest. "He's an emo little shit, isn't he?"

"Why do you hate me?"

Shit. Percy probably shouldn't have said that, but he hoped Teqi would blame it on his ADHD and pretend he hadn't spoken.

"Why shouldn't I?"

No such luck. Percy fiddled with Riptide, twisting the cap around in circles. Teqi took a deep breath before she spoke, and years of being told off by Annabeth meant he knew he was in a for a shit storm.

"Whenever people I care about have died, you were there. You caused it, always." Teqi said bitterly, her eyes trained on the shadows around them, like people made of the dark were coming for them. "Bianca, Lee, Castor, Beck, Silena, Michael, Luke."

Percy focused on the wrong part; he could tell as soon as he had spoken. "Wait...You knew Luke?"

Teqi's eye didn't darken with anger, it literally got lighter, glowing a bright purple as she glared at him. "I went to camp when I was four, Percy, I know everyone. And you do too, but you let them die."

"Bianca chose to sacrifice herself," he said quietly, fiddling with the end of Annabeth's ponytail, her dirty blonde hair on his lap. "So did Beckendorf, and Luke, and Silena, and-"

"Michael Yew didn't."

He felt the guilt he could never shake crash over him like a tsunami, an uncontrollable and unrelenting chorus of your fault, your fault, your fault. He knew it was his fault, but that didn't make it any better to deal with, that didn't make it easier to sleep at night. "I know. I'm sorry."

"That won't bring him back, being sorry doesn't bring anyone back," Teqi hissed, still not looking at him. "Staying in Manhattan with Nico and making plans to break into the underworld does though, and I had to do that because of you, Percy, it's always you."

Percy was lost. Fear crept into his veins. Who else had he got killed? "What do you mean? What are you talking about?"

"You forgot about us, you left us in Manhattan, the first time we'd been out of camp since we got there." Teqi's voice was quiet now, like she was flitting in and out of memories. "You forgot us, and now Tony's dead. Because of you."