Before I Die (Split Souls part 1)

26: Young For An Eighty-Year-Old

TONY PoV

Percy's body healed up. The doctors were enthusiastic with their new mystery.

They kept asking  me questions. Ones they'd already asked me before. About his life, about the scars, any diagnosis... It's hard to answer when you don't know everything, and when you can't share what you do know.

As amazingly as his body had healed, we soon realized that he was getting weaker as time went on. It was kind of like watching him starve.

I hated it. I hated it so much. I wanted to hit something every time I saw him stumble. He obviously hates it too, though he tries to hide it.

But Percy has been really out of it. Our conversations lean more towards me talking and him listening than an actual conversation.

I hate it so damn much. I'm watching him starve. That's what it is. I'm watching him starve. We're feeding him. He says all the food just feels like an unappetizing goo in his stomache. It does nothing.

Percy has passed out for a nap, and I am interrupted from my research on mythology, specifically demigods and healing. I don't research when he's awake. I don't want to lose that time with him.

It's that other boy. I think his name was mentioned in my memorry somewhere, but I just don't remember. When he introduced himself to the Avengers(minus Thor), he simply said: "The Ghost King."

This time though, he is accompanied by none other than one sea god.

"Lord Poseidon." I stand up from my chair abruptly. Hope. Maybe he can help. That is what he's here for, right?

"Anthony Stark." He glanced to my tablet, where I was researching. "What do you search of us for?"

"Trying to find anything. Any lead on how to help him." My fingers run through my hair.

Poseidon looks like he's about to ask who, and instead looks around. He finds Percy asleep in the bed.

"Why is he like this? Why does he refuse to eat?" The sea god's voice is quiet.

"Refuse to eat? He's hungry. All the time. But the food does nothing!"

"What do you mean? You give him mortal sustainence?"

"What other 'sustainence' is there?" I blurt, somewhat rudely.

"Nectar. Ambrosia. The food of the gods. He has not been given any?" Poseidon looks at me like I'm an idiot.

"We don't even know what that is, so how would we give it to him?" I return.

Poseidon conjures a pitcher. A pitcher. He places it down, and a basket appears. Like, a woven basket.

He turns to the boy with him. "Di Angelo. Please take care of my son."

"I will."

"I trust that he will be in good hands." He says to the boy, and then turns to me. "Listen to him. He knows what he is doing." And he fades into a mist. like when he took Percy away.

"When do you think he'll wake up?"

"An hour, maybe. He's pretty restless. Can't stay awake, can't stay asleep." I tell him. "And what's that? What did Poseidon bring?"

"Nectar and Ambrosia. The food of the gods. It heals us half-bloods." He tells me.

"Like what you gave him back then?" I ask.

"Yes. Like that." He says. "Now, take a nap or something. You're starting to look as sick as him." 

I probably am. I sit down in the recliner that I brought in here. It was the truce. I wouldn't leave, but I had to sleep. I pass out pretty quickly.