Amidst the Chaos ( A Percabeth Chaos Story)

"Kathy the Ritual"- Chapter 3

When Percy came to he was sitting in nothing. Not meaning he was on the floor, or in the air or anything. There was just...nothing. The space around him felt tight and pressed against him, and a chill involuntarily ran through his body. He slowly climbed to his feet, or stood, or...something that made him feel as if he was standing. He walked slowly forward, with his hands out in front of him like a zombie.

Who knows what you run into in the middle of a black spacious nothing thingy majigger.

He suddenly stumbled. He reached down and waved his hand around, praying that he would feel something tangible. His hand brushed against a strand of a cold, wet, something, but it was almost immediately gone. Then his hand started burning. The fire swept over his entire inner body. His eyes felt like they were going to pop out from the pressure, and he was pretty sure he was steaming. From his body heat, his clothes slowly started to melt to his skin. Then, everything went white, with a loud BANG.

He blinked his eyes a few times to get the spots out of his vision. Now, he was also standing on nothing, but this was like, air nothing. Below him, people and children and kids ran about. They weren't normal, or at least normal by his standards. Percy got onto his knees, hoping that whatever was holding him up wouldn't disappear and drop him down. A boy with big angel wings ran below him, and crashed into an old man-lady-thing with the face of a badger and more double chins than the author who was writing down what he was thinking. She stumbled, and then dropped the purse she was holding. Out of it, a strange cat-horse pranced out. The angel boy laughed, then kept running. Percy suddenly caught the eye of a girl staring up at him. She had her head half shaved, and out of the side that was not shaved, a shimmery green hair-like something grew. Her skin shimmered in the sun (?) and her eyes were solid black like onyx. The large sword strapped to her back made him nervous, but when she yelled up a "Hey!" he decided she was nice enough.

He opened his mouth to say hey back, but a hand pulled him up to his feet by his collar. "I wouldn't do that if I was you," Chaos told Percy. Dumbly, Percy nodded.

"Where was that place I ended up before being up here? Where is here?"

Chaos rolled his eyes. With far too much sass for a millennium old god, "You new boys are so demanding." Percy's eyes widened. "That place you were in was called the void. Before entering Arkadia, it is necessary for the void to carry out the Katharistikó teletourgikó, or Kathy."

"Kathy?"

Ignoring Percy, Chaos continued. "You see, the soul has two sides, like a coin. To put it simply, a dark and a light side. By doing Kathy," Percy snorted and Chaos glared, "you remove a large portion of the dark side, nearly guaranteeing that there will be little to no evil in Arkadia."

"And what exactly is Arkadia?"

"Well here, obviously." Percy felt like slapping the god, but that would probably be a bad idea. "Arkadia is my kingdom, or HQ if you would like to call it that. The leaders and important members of my army stay here, as well as their families, protected people and refugees and important figures in other ways."

"How exactly are we standing on air? Why couldn't I talk to that girl either?"

"We are not on air. We are on molecules. This is my throne room. I made it like this so that I can see my favorite part of Arkadia in person. As for the girl, she didn't say 'Hey' as hello. In her language, 'Hey' is a mating call. If you had responded, she would have been magically bound to you. How would Annabeth," Percy was grimacing, and winced more at her name, "feel about you having a mate?"

"Uhh" was Percy's intelligent response.

"Exactly, now follow me so we can discuss this more." Chaos spun and walked toward a large black square. Percy hadn't seen it before, and even though it had no labels or handles, he knew that it was a door. Then he and Chaos stepped through it.

On the other side, a huge brown mahogany desk with a rolly chair sat. Chaos sighed as he sat into it and he propped his feet on the desk. He waved his hand and a fancy reliner appeared.

"Sit, sit! This will take a while." Percy reluctantly sat down, rather primly. Another wave of Chaos' hand and the recliner popped into the reclining position, forcing Percy down as well. "There we go."

"So?" Percy asked, rather rudely.

"So what?" Chaos laughed. "I am kidding young hero. You already know parts of my proposition. I want you to become the commander of Sector 4, and in turn a member of my elite squad."

"Why Sector 4?"

"That's your section. Sector 4 is your galaxy( Milky Way) and the one next to it, Snickers. My former commander, Acis, son of Pan, is stepping down and I feel you would be the best to succeed him." Percy didn't say anything. "There is also the matter of your Adelphi. Annabeth Chase has suffered a rough fate that only you can save her from."

"You mentioned that. What sort of fate?" Percy wasn't sure if he really wanted to know the answer.
"You see Percy, for someone to join my army, they must either have died in the last week, or still be alive." Percy stood up suddenly and slammed his hands down on the Creator's desk, a rash decision on his part.

"What. Does.This. Have. To. Do.With.Anything?" He grit out.

"Patience," Percy sat back down, not of his own will, but nonetheless sat down. "The fates have been angry with me, despite my higher power, because I have given Commanders the opportunity to pick 3 people to pull from the underworld who have died/ been dead for a while.

"I alerted the Fates that I wished to make you commander, and about the unique predicament that you were in almost immediately after Annabeth's death. Commanders receive immortality as well as one other person of their choice. I knew that you would choose Annabeth, and if she was alive you would accept as well. When the fates pulled out your string however, it was already gold.

"Furious, they demanded I leave and told me they would get back to me. I figured they would punish Zeus. However, they couldn't because of an ancient ritual that Zeus has performed that protects him. They could punish the next best person."

"Annabeth," Percy mumbles

"Yes Percy, Annabeth. They turned her to a monster and put her in Tartarus, where she now resides. The ritual they put her through changed her, it made her dark soul come to the surface, and now it is taking over. Her only hope is for you to rescue her, then perform the Kathy in an abridged version on her."

Percy didn't hesitate, "When do I leave?"

"Not yet, first a lot more must happen. You will not go through Tartarus alone again. You will need to choose your Anavióseis, train with them, then travel down."

"My Anavióseis?" Percy whispered, confused.

"Your revivals. Three souls who you wish to bring back and have been dead for an extended period of time."

"Oh."

"Yes Percy,Oh. I will have Jesua lead you back to your chamber where you can consider this for as long as you wish. Ask him to escort you back here when you have made your decision. Have at least 5 choices in the case of.. Unique cases."
Percy was exhausted, and the adrenaline that had kept him going since his battle with the Othopos was far gone. He had too much to think about. He merely gave Chaos a quick bow and followed the man Chaos called Jesua out of the room.

word count: 1311

I'm sorry It's so short everybody, and might feel a bit rushed, but I really wanted to get this posted and don't have much time to make it a super long chapter. I promise the next chapter will be super super long however. Thank you,

In all that demiwizardness-

GodNamedFred