Destiny Calls (A Percy Jackson Fanfiction)

49: A time for explanations

"What in Hades?" Max asked as he stumbled through the doorway, a tray of food in his hand. The smell wafted towards my nose, the familiar scent of beef brisket from Camp Halfblood, and a cupcake, probably courtesy from Percy from the fact that it was purely blue.

"Hey Max, good to see you too..."I started coughing, my throat still raw from the screaming I must have done in my 5 month coma. I landed gently so it looked like I was just standing, even though my legs still had no feeling. "Now that Max is here, you can start explaining what has happened to me."

Dom looked at his toes, and Leah at hers. "So..." Leah started. "After you went kaboom, Max and I came back out of the Labyrinth to look for you, since the explosion was so big it shook the earth. It caused earthquakes to run through the coast of California, and people were starting to realise that it was so big it was hardly natural. So, that's not the point. After that, we found you two. Dom was conscious for the first half of it before he collapsed as well, and he managed to tell us that you had saved him before he dropped unconscious. We rescued both of you and brought you to the med bay in Camp Jupiter, but they could only heal Dom. You were in a state that nothing could get near you without your vitals peaking dangerously high, so me and and Max decided to bring you to Olympus."

"We told everyone we were going to New York, and Nico shadow travelled over and brought us to Camp Half Blood. Percy and Annabeth found away to get you, Thea, to the Empire States building by encasing you in water so you travelled around in a portable bubble for a while. The water healed your minor wounds, but you still had a few major broken bones and all the shrapnel in your body." Max continued. "We managed to push you all the way to Artemis's palace before she saw us, and she whisked us here, to Apollo's private infirmary, so that Apollo could possibly heal you."

"Using the largest piece of shrapnel, I configured it into a sort of antidote that helped destroy all the rest of the shrapnel in your body, and healed some of your wounds, but in doing so, I might have accidentally added a bit more godly essence into your system." My expression must have hardened because he suddenly looked scared. "Usually, nothing happens, but with your high concentration of godly blood already in your blood stream, my extra boost that healed your bones must have triggered it to form pure godly blood, and I didn't realised it until afterwards that you were glowing a smidge, but I thought it was just an after effect. That was basically it, I didn't know you would have lost your voice momentarily and sprout wings."

"The wings were a gift from Aether and the primordials." I said, "and my voice lost was just from all the screaming. But, I can sorta feel everything around me. It's unnerving. I can actually sense everything."

"I guess that would be your huntress abilities at full blast. You become hyper aware, as I am." Artemis said gently. "What you should do now is use your abilities to create something to support yourself, instead of relying on those wings. Since Apollo's carelessness has created another god, which is against the laws of Olympus, you must keep it hidden for now. Now, you are simply an enhanced demigod, not a goddess." I nodded, and in my mind, I imagined a wheelchair. Surely, they appeared at my hands, and I sat down, my new and strange wings automatically retracting as I fell into my seat.

For once, the construct I had created was not made of the normal silver energy I generated, but an actual physical object. I stared at my hands in awe, and faintly, I could see the faint scars that ran down my arms and legs. Pale, thin whip marks from the times I had been imprisoned by Nyx, and long jagged scars that had been inflicted on me by the raining shrapnel that fell from the sky as it exploded.

I then realised that I was wearing nothing but a simple silver dress that shimmered, and the wings that had sprouted from my back oh so painfully had simply phased through the material without a single rip. My hands were remained calloused, and I could still see the muscles that ran across my forearms from all the climbing I had done on the lava wall. My legs too, remained at their prime state, but without the ability to connect with the nerves of my feet, I would remain worthless in this seat.

A small detail nearly fled my mind, and it would have, was it not for my new godly reflexes in my mind. The orb, that had caused me so much pain, had disappeared. The orb that had contained all the remaining essence of Kronos had vanished, and nothing but a faint tingling in my hand reminded me of what it had been used for. All of my scars, all caused by that single object. "Where's the orb?" I asked

"What orb?" Leah asked.

"The orb I was holding when I fell, the one that held Kronos's essence." I answered.

"There was no orb. You were just glowing gold and screaming and writhing when we got there."

"It's nothing. Let's get to camp. Does anyone know I'm here?" I asked. They shook their heads.

"They know Dom is here, but Dom has been stuck here for the past few months, since he's not fully recovered as well." Leah answered. "Everyone thinks you just vanished without a trace, except for Annabeth and Percy, since they came immediately the moment they heard about what happened. Max and I have been coming in and out with supplies and food, and trying to maintain the story that Dom is injured and you are MIA. But, it's been getting harder."

"People have been getting suspicious, so it's faster and better to just get down there and get it done." Max added, supporting Dom slightly, and it was only now I realised that he was limping slightly, supporting himself by leaning against the walls. Leah took hold of the handles of my wheelchair, and started to wheel me towards the entrance. Apollo had generated a mini portal at the end of a hallway, and we slid through gently, landing next to the Athena Parthenos on Half Blood Hill.

"The hill is too steep." I said, sighing. I guess I could Elsa it.

"What do you mean, Elsa it?" asked Max. I sighed again. I needed to control this new godly telepathy.

"Watch." I gripped the handles of my wheelchair, and my silver energy reached the ground at our feet and formed a small break off of a bridge. "Push me." Leah ran, and I focused on creating a pathway across the skies towards the Big House, while Max struggled to keep up, Dom hobbled as fast as Leah ran, and soon, we were all out of breath, me from sustaining that much energy after not using it for a long time, Leah from running while pushing a wheel chair, Max from running, and Dom from hobbling and his bad leg.

Chiron stood outside the Big House, with a huge crowd forming, and shock and awe were pasted on everyone's faces as they registered who had just came. A girl in a wheelchair with eyes at bright as the moon, a boy who reeked darkness, a daughter of Aphrodite, and a mortal. Who else could it be?

A shriek from Piper uncovered who we were immediately. "Thea!" she rushed towards me. "What happened to you?"

"I can't feel my feet. Or my legs." I answered. I coughed slightly, and nearly gagged from it. "And I have a terrible sore throat, since I've been screaming in pain for the last few months."

Piper nodded, and then gave a pointed look at Leah. "Leah Kingsley. As your appointed Head Counsellor, you must report to me for anything unexpected. Your MIA daughter of Poseidon best friend appearing healthy is something unexpected."

"Sorry." Leah scratched her head. "I was preoccupied with taking after her and keeping her a secret before she was near healthy."

"Was I sick?" I tried to turn in my wheelchair, but it was too painful.

"You were fine." Max answered immediately. Too quickly. Way too quickly.

It was something familiar that happened all the time.

It was something that I did all the time.

Especially when I was avoiding a question.