When You're Gone

Chapter 26

Hazel and her friends managed to brave their way through the House of Night. Despite the mangled shrieks, drowned out cries of agony, they didn't back down.

The murals of the walls were murky, constantly shifting from gray to black, as if it couldn't decide which color to decorate itself. But the screams remained, but somehow familiar to Hazel in a way.

Surprisingly, there was light. Not much, but enough for them not to trip on each other and land in Octavian.

The Mansion reflects its owner's soul, Celeste had said.

Hazel tried to make sense on what was happening. So the condition of this place is a mirror of Percy?

Silence was all there was, the exception of their gentle footsteps and Festus's creaking joints.

As they went on, scenes started to depict themselves on the walls. None of them were Percy's memories, but their own.

Hazel saw her younger self meet Pluto, her godly parent. When she walked out of the attic, she witnessed her Mother and the god of wealth arguing. Her Mother told her to pack and they were reviving the Giant Alcyoneus.

She glanced at her friends. Leo was staring at a young Leo burn down the storage house with his Mother inside. Reyna was glaring at herself and her sister, Hylla being held captives by pirates. Piper paled at the sight of Tristan McLean being tortured by another Giant. Calypso witnessed her first love taken away from her at the island.

And Octavian... he pursed his lips as he prophesied that a son of Poseidon would lead Camp Jupiter into its downfall, when he was first appointed the augur.

Suddenly Hazel understood why Octavian was such a jerk when it came to Greeks. He had seen the future, that Percy would whip the Romans into a frenzy to destroy the Greeks. Their tradition would crumble. The world that their ancestors worked so hard to build will fall apart. He was only trying to save his own camp, but no one will listen to him.

"Oh, Octavian." Hazel wanted to apologize, but she couldn't bring herself to. She didn't want to. He still had caused everyone misery. "Why couldn't you just tell us? It saves us a lot of pain and anguish."

Octavian pretended he didn't hear her.

"This – this..." Reyna turned her head away. "What is this sorcery?"

"It's your past."

Everyone turned to the end of the halls.

On the very center of it all, was Percy Jackson, recreating history like a high-schooler defacing his history textbooks.

"Perce!" Leo shouted.

Hazel had no idea what to do. What could she say to a guy who'd recently kicked a premedial goddess out of her home? Hey, like your new crib?

Yeah. Stole it from Night!

"Guys!" He spread his arms like he was welcoming them at a sleepover. "What are you doing down here? In Tartarus?"

She didn't appreciate the fact that he was treating this so casually and reality where she's never been to a sleepover where there weren't any monsters trying to murder them.

"Why are you doing this?" Calypso demanded. "What are you doing?"

"That's my girl," Leo murmured. Calypso nudged him in the ribs. "Ow."

Percy's face darkened instantly. "I'm doing this for your sakes. I don't know why you're here, but you better not try to stop me."

His sea-green eyes had returned to its usual color, but not its common sheen. They were dull and dark like the deepest parts of the ocean – cold, dangerous, mysterious and unforgiving.

"For our sakes? You kicked Night out of this place!" Leo gaped. "What do you mean by that, actually? Forget that, what are you even doing?"

"He's rewriting... our past?" Reyna's eyes fell on a misty scene, one that portrayed her and her sister living happily on Circe's spa.

"That's impossible." Piper frowned. Festus creaked in agreement.

"It cannot be Saturn's power, can it?" Reyna wondered. "Even he has limits."

"This place stores only pain," Octavian reminded them. "Which means..."

Everyone's faces dimmed, sensing the weight of Percy's actions.

"You want to rewrite history?" Leo demanded. "That's awesome and all, but dumb. You know you can't mess with time itself!"

"Percy, this is madness!" Reyna shouted. "Don't be like any other god. You're better than this!"

"What? Like any other god?" Percy snorted. "What have they done for us? I can give everyone I know better lives. Piper can spend time with her dad, her dad won't get bankrupt; Gaia will never rise so Leo's mom would still be alive; Calypso and Hazel won't have to endure their curses... Frank, Jason, Nico, Will, Silena, Bianca... can all be living, breathing, alive."

The demigods fell silent, even Octavian.

If Hazel said she wasn't the least bit tempted, she would be lying. Who wasn't? She could grow up a normal girl with a normal life and marry Sammy. She might not even have to deal with bullies like Rufus.

But looking at it now... it was their hardships that made them stronger, brought them together. The scars were what haunted them, but it also reminded them of who they are. Nobody can take that away, but Percy was about to.

"Percy, listen," Calypso said gently. "If you change our pasts, you change everything. Gaia may not rise, neither will Kronos, but every change, every single victory comes with a cost. Surely Leo could understand. Don't you?"

Leo nodded soberly. "I do, surprisingly. Perce... why not just leave things the way they are?"

"Why? When I can make it better?" Percy leered. "You won't even remember this conversation. You won't remember anything. We'll be normal, maybe still demigods... but we won't have to suffer. We can be happy."

"We're already happy the way we are." Reyna's voice was like steel, cutting through his words. "Even if you don't change it, we will still be happy, creating the best among the worst."

Percy didn't answer. He didn't need to. One by one, scenes behind him spread out in the air like mirages.

"I don't need your permission," he said. "Because this mansion is under my power."

With every word, every little bit of Reyna's history shifted. There were no pirates, no crazy phantom fathers, just her and Hylla working together in the spa.

Hazel caught sparks at the corner of her eye. She thought she was seeing things, but when she turned, she realized that Reyna was literally changing. From the Roman praetor she knew to a girl she didn't recognize slathered with makeup and a white Greek-style dress.

"What?" Reyna cursed. "What is going on?"

Octavian stared at her, stunned. "He's changing your history! It's sending you back where you were the happiest!"

Hazel had never concluded the sentence as a bad omen, but this is. Weird.

"Stop this!" Reyna demanded. "I don't want this! None of us do!"

Percy smiled bitterly at her before she vanished into white sparks. On Reyna's history, the spa had been rebuilt to its former glory, and not the Amazon base that Hazel had once trespassed.

"No," Piper breathed. "She's – she's–"

"Happy," Percy quipped as the smiling face of Reyna came into view, aglow with happiness.

The mirage was no longer a phantom, for it had become a reality.

"Who's next?" he asked to no one in particular.