Erased Memories

I See Double

I See Double

I gulped. I knew Tartarus was somehow blocking any power that gave me a fighting advantage, so it would only be my skill against his. The only good thing from that was that since I was the original Percy Jackson, his powers would be blocked too. I knew his weakness. He didn't know mine though, which was a good thing. No one besides the team knew.

He pulled out Riptide and expected me to be confused by its pen form. My face was emotionless.

He shrugged and uncapped it. Anaklusmos grew into a large bronze sword, identical to the one in my hand. A nearby monster offered him a shield but he just pressed the button on his watch, and his shield appeared.

I knew it wouldn't matter much if he knew who I was, so I pulled off my hood.

Everyone demigod, god, and monster around us gasped. "You! From three years ago! I wondered where you went. Why do you look like me? There is only one Percy Jackson, and that's me."

"Not really, there's two, and I'm the real one. Now, enough talk." I lunged to the right. He jumped out of the way, and parried.

We moved around, using the whole cavern as our battle ground. Monsters were constantly getting stabbed by accident, but hey--I didn't complain.

Eventually, after neither of us getting nowhere, he tried something I recognized, but couldn't place. He executed a poorly performed backflip, grabbed a dracaenae's trident and threw it at me.

I rolled out of the way and came up kneeling. I looked around to find him, but felt the cool metal of a sword on the small of my back.

That's when I had a great idea. I pulled my hood back up and secretly smirked. Good thing I changed the spot.

I sighed and dropped my sword in defeat. As a precaution, I was letting them think that the small of my back was still my mortal spot, in case they tried to kill me later on.

The monsters and fake me cheered. I had been "defeated." Tartarus smiled. "Not so cocky now, are you?" His hands glowed with power and it shot towards me.

I threw myself down on the ground, hoping to give the impression that I was in pain. I writhed around on the ground and screamed, while Tartarus and his goonies laughed.

The glow disappeared and I relaxed, panting on the ground. "Percy" spit at me in disgust, and two monsters grabbed my arms. They dragged me across the rough ground and tossed me into a pit, then slammed steel bars over the top.

I sat down and prayed to all the gods that Annabeth and Daedalus had made it back safely. I didn't want my sacrifice to be for nothing.

Weeks passed. At least, it felt like that. The truth was that it had only been a few hours. The pit was pitch black. I couldn't create a light or anything. Tartarus had blocked every single power I owned. I knew that when the war started though, he would get out of the way and I would be fine. That doesn't help me right now though.

The metal creaked as a Laistrygonian lifted up the bars. The phony's face peeked over the edge. "We need you." Before I could protest or try to get away, the giant reached down and plucked me up.

I was thrown down to the ground, again, and then picked up and thrown some more. Finally, they not-so-gently settled me in front of Tartarus, where he locked chains around my hands. "Would you like to say hello to your demigod friends?"

This was bad. I knew what would happen. I'd been in situations like this before. My captor would demand we surrender. My team never would, they knew I would be fine. But this is Camp. They would think about surrendering. I just hope my team would convince them not to.

Tartarus laughed at my expression, and created an Iris-Message. Either Iris was going crazy, or she had sided with Tartarus. I hoped it was the first one. That would be better.

Fake me was standing next to me, close enough to keep me from doing anything, but far enough away so that the campers wouldn't see him. "Camp Half-Blood." He spoke, and the mist in front of us shimmered until Camp was visible. We had interrupted them in the middle of dinner.

All chatter stopped and every head was looking at us. I kept my head low as Tartarus forced me to stay on my knees. It was a code. We had plans for one of us getting captured, this was one. Remain emotionless, and they will know you are fine.

"Hello demigods. I can tell you've seen him before." He pointed at me. "Good. Now, you must surrender in one week or he will die. To give you some motivation, I will show you who he is." I laughed inside.

Tartarus dramatically reached over to pull down my hood. His hand lowered, he grasped the end of the fabric, and pulled.

And pulled, and pulled. I smirked. "You do know that this hood can only be pulled down by its wearer, right?" My team laughed, while the campers stared at them in shock. Apparently I was in danger, but they had the nerve to laugh. Danger, yeah right. I focused on the campers. "Why don't I show you something a bit more interesting? It seems you have a traitor." I swiped my leg out to the side and kicked over my double's left leg. He fell over towards me, just as I had planned. He wouldn't have any time to keep the camp from seeing him.

As he fell into the line of sight, gasps echoed. The campers glared. Annabeth's face was the fiercest. "Perseus Jackson, you traitor! How could you?" She stepped forward to get a better look, as if to confirm that it was him.

Tartarus growled. "Back to the point. One week, or he dies." With that, he broke the connection. He turned to me. Percy Jackson stood up and glared at me.

"Time to deal with you."