Not Your Hero ✔

-27-

Just like they promised, Chaos' forces never came to bother Percy again for the remainder of his stay on Planet Dray. The people were quiet whenever they saw him, Randel, or the clone, and the soldiers never attacked them again. There was no surprise there. They had chased off one of the most powerful groups of their universe.

Mel had decided to become friends with the clone, who had even begun listening to her orders when Percy didn't tell him what to do. Randel went out daily to get exercise in his new human clone and getting any needed supplies while Percy stared blankly at the wall, ignoring his surroundings completely.

The nightmares had started after what happened with Travis, and Percy assumed it was guilt that brought it on to him. But as time passed, he stopped reliving throwing a handful of boiling blood at Travis, stopped reliving seeing him in pain, pain that Percy himself caused.

He began taking mind trips to Earth, seeing Annabeth again, reliving her betrayal, reliving the years of hiding, reliving the years of being hated, the feeling of finding out about his parent's deaths. But then, he stopped reliving things that really happened, and things he had never seen before, places he had never seen before, began creating themselves in his mind, and cities with their streets running with blood, screams mixed with maniacal laughter filled the air.

He always heard the same thing.

You can stop this.
You can prevent this.
Join us. We will always find you.

Like a broken record in his mind, the words repeated. Dam Chaos and his mind games.

He hadn't slept for more than three hours in the last few years, and Randel and Melody were on the lookout for the bus as their last month came to the end.

"Maelstrom, we saw the bus. The people wish to walk you out." Randel said, still in Percy's clone. Mel stood there next to him, herself having a cloak that was a little too big for her but she didn't seem to grow, like, at all.

Her silver eyes glowed mischievously in the darkness of the cloak.

"What all did you two do out there?" The clone that had a knack for torture said. Percy had decided to call him Mystique since Mel was steadfast in calling him Misty the second. The clone had grown a bit of a personality, not too similar to Percy's own personality, but there were similarities.

Percy stood up, cloakless, and officially markless. The marks of the dead king of which Percy had forgotten his name- Carrot, right?- and Silas had printed themselves on the clones.

Percy hastily put on his cloak and threw the hood onto his head. "Oh, nothing much..." Randel trailed off. Melody looked away, whistling some upbeat tune as she swung on her feet.

"Come on, we don't want to keep Tim waiting," Percy said. They all nodded, and picked up their few belongings and exited the house. They had taken residence in Silas' home, and after cleaning it up and demanding Silas get a proper funeral service even though no one had a clue where Silas' actual body had disappeared to, it was very homely. Despite the weird pipe that leaked water and sometimes this weird green-brown liquid.

They were met with a gathering of people, with gifts of food and money to weapons and exotic looking flowers. They walked with them all the way to the bus, and Percy was unsure if they were celebrating their King's assassin or just the fact that they were finally getting rid of them. Maybe both.

They entered the bus but Percy noticed something off with Tim. He didn't give some smart comment or even look his way. He looked forward. Straight forward. His tentacles were moving weirdly, and Percy was about to ask if there was anything wrong.

A single thought that Percy knew wasn't his ran through Percy's mind. I'm sorry. Percy was confused about why his tentacle covered bus driver was apologizing, but his confusion was later resolved when the bus driver flipped the bus over, in the middle of space. 'It was either obey Chaos so you can be brainwashed and controlled, or disobey and watch them kill my family. They can't do the latter if I'm dead. I do apologize.'

The bus flipping threw the clones and Percy through the roof of the bus, Melody clinging to Mystique. Randel growled as he flailed in the air. Percy felt faint, not being able to move. W-what happens to humans in space again? And his eyes involuntarily closed.
++

Percy woke up to an uncomfortable amount of light. With great effort, he turned his head to both sides. Randel, the clone, nor Melody was anywhere to be seen. I know the saying 'we're all going to die alone' but this is one lonely afterlife. Percy thought to himself. And a painful one.

"Rise, Percy Jackson."

And that's a wrap. Hope you enjoyed, until next time,
                  ~DemonsFromAbove