Time and Earth: A Doctor Who and PJO Crossover (Bk 1)

Chapter 14: Nightmares

Chapter 14: Nightmares

The sleep which greeted me was perhaps the greatest one I'd ever had. It was total, all consuming, and best of all, there were no nightmares. Going by demigod standards I might as well have gone to Elysium.

The next morning, if it could be called a morning anyway, I shot out of the galaxy blankets and gazed upon my new self. Amy was right. I was different.

As the Scottish woman had said, my hair was softer, a darker brown now with green streaks. The latter was something I wasn't expecting to enjoy, but they were growing on me already. If I ever ran into Thalia Grace again, I'd show them off, enough to be threatened with her shield. 

My eyebrows were no more the monsters that they used to be, and beneath thick lashes were green irises, vibrant like the Demeter cabins' gardens. Everything else seemed to be similar, if you didn't count the skin tone. I was no more the plain white British girl. Rather, I was...well I wasn't sure exactly which ethnicity I'd taken on, but it wasn't far from Leo's Latino background.

Wonderful.

So I'd shifted out of my white and brown self and into the ultimate mix of Leo and a Demeter kid. My heart faltered in longing for the son of Hephaestus' commentary, never more needed to lighten the mood. I imagined that the way his eyes would light up at my new self, thought of the joke he'd spew and the way we'd fall into each others' arms in laughter. I imagined the feel of such arms, how comforting they'd be, knowing that the same arms which had cleaved and shaped metal chose instead to be kind.

Not even a day in, and I'd already broken my promise to him, somewhat.

My heart faltered again when I thought of what Leo would say, what I might say when I saw him again. Now that I knew how I really felt, I wouldn't be able to hold it in for too long; I'd never been good at hiding things.

The utter impossibility that I'd shifted bodies, existences, posed a new problem though. How I'd explain it to Camp Half Blood.

But not now. I'd think of it later.

As much as I loved this new self though, the skin pulled too tight on my bones, as if it needed wearing in. The sensation was odd, being in a new body, but there was no choice but to get used to it. That, and being a claimed demigod.

Demeter, my mother. I wondered if the nuns had seen her the night she'd dropped me off, or if my father had. If they'd sensed my inhuman blood and tried to make me a dedicated religious girl to protect myself from the demonic presence in my veins.

Maybe I'd always had my abilities, and the fear which the nuns created had made me push them down, far away within. I bristled in anger; if that was the case, then they'd been too successful.

Maybe if Demeter had taken me to a better orphanage, or straight to Camp Half Blood, anywhere then maybe-

I stopped.

This was the type of thinking that Luke would've started off with. Thinking these things would make me weak, more so than when I'd been tempted in the same way as the son of Hermes had.

I left my room, my Celestial bronze dagger twirling in my hand.

Daniel and the Doctor were talking in the console room when I emerged. Daniel's eyes doubled in size when he saw me approach.

To fit into my new alias I'd changed things up. It had become my personal mission to keep my identity from him for as long as possible, or until I was ready.

I'd play things as they went. I'd been taught by Annabeth; I knew what I was doing.

So, with the discovery of the TARDIS wardrobe's abilities, I'd donned an all black outfit, of course wearing my usual combat boots. As much as it had pained me, I left my Camp Half Blood necklace in my room.