Clockwork

24

"Dylan was born with brittle bones, and he could easily break. When he was 8, his rib cage collapsed on his lungs, and while he was in the hospital, his mother begged me to save him." Hephaestus said. Percy had begun to sprint down the path Artemis had gone after Eleven.

"And obviously, you did," Percy said aloud.

"Yes. At first, I was reluctant, but only because there was a chance for him to survive on his own. But he died. His mother continued to pray, hoping that I'd cause some miracle to happen to get his heart beating, for him to open his eyes. But bringing him back to life completely was beyond my power." Hephaestus said.

"His soul had already entered the underworld, so I couldn't do as I did with you and there was no bringing it back. But still, his mother cried and begged, and so I did something."

There were two important parts to bringing someone back to life and giving them a somewhat new body; The soul and the brain. Alarms sounded off in Percy's head. He didn't like where this story was going.

"I went to his mother, we went to his grave, and I took his remains to Olympus. I tried to make him as human as possible, though he had been buried for over a week and a lot of him was missing. Eleven days give or take. He looked human when I was finished with him, but he was almost like a computer. He died as a child but when I brought him back he had aged."

"I brought him back to his mother, and everything was fine for a few months. Then I heard my name being called out. It was his mother. I made it just in time to see her die. She bled to death, and Thanatos shunned me when he collected her soul, saying 'this is what happens when you try to bring back the dead.' Dylan killed his mother and ran away. I haven't seen him since."

Hephaestus finished, and there was silence on his end.

Percy stopped his running. He could her Eleven's voice ahead, and Artemis' cold voice, menace laced through the words that she spat at him. She was so angry, that Percy couldn't make out what she was saying. Her voice was almost muffled.

Percy looked at his still injured arm. The nanobots were working tirelessly to keep it together, but whatever Eleven did to it had nearly decimated it to where the nanobots were actually becoming his arm. And with them blinking in and out of actual solid form, they wouldn't be able to hold a weapon.

Then again, he needed an arm. Percy remembered something

"He was mumbling about a mission. Like he'd do anything to complete it." Percy said.

"I didn't have a soul to bring him back with. He didn't have a will to live, so I had to give him one."

He's able to be programmed. He's probably prone to viruses, glitches, getting hacked, and other malfunctions. That's how Du Vel got him to do his bidding. He's actually controlling him.

"That is correct. Though defense against hacking takes care of itself over time. But then again..."

The god of blacksmiths was drowned out by the sound of metal piercing through metal as something stabbed it's way to Percy's brain. The metal in Percy's skull strengthened itself tenfold, absorbing the force it was hit with and protecting Percy's brain.

The defense mechanism in Percy's body began to go off. Anything that could actually harm Percy's brain could set it off. Percy has had stab wounds to the head, gunshots, lashings, and has even fallen headfirst off of buildings, yet the mechanism never had to go off.

The metal that reinforced Percy's skull was a type of metal that absorbed force and used that to become stronger. And whatever hit him was stronger than all of that.