Percy Jackson - An Echo of What Is to Come

Back Above Ground

As Percy carried Annabeth through the Mansion of Night, he knew something. He felt weird. Not weird as in "I feel uncomfortable and a little sick," even though there was that feeling too, Tartarus sucked. But he also felt energized. Even though he knew this place was literally killing him, Percy had never felt so formidable in his entire life. It was weird to feel both at his weakest and his strongest.

Ignoring the fact that it most likely had to do with the ring on his necklace, Percy ran further with his eyes shut tightly, and eventually sensed the river right in front of him. How the Hades was He supposed to get across the River... Achy? It was easily twenty feet across, and based off of the whispers he was currently trying to ignore, didn't hold any similarities to the lazy river at Six Flags. Percy knew he needed to hurry up and get away from the Mansion of Night. Even with Nyx's promise of help, Percy could feel the Death Mist and the atmosphere of the mansion literally draining away his life. Feeling great and having his body slowly die was very strange to him, and yet he knew that he was a mortal in a place that was not built for mortals.

But Percy didn't know how big of a mistake it was to stand on the banks of the river. He couldn't ignore the voices. Bianca di Angelo whispering that it should have been Percy, not her, that died at the hands of Talos. Zoe Nightshade accusing him of not being strong enough to help save her life. And maybe she was right. If Percy had been stronger, he could have defeated Atlas, and potentially saved her life. "Join us," the voices muttered, "you're a murderer. How many are dead at your hand?" A lot, if Percy stopped to count. "You killed Micheal Lee, you abandoned him to the watery depths. Why didn't you do more? What about the monsters you slaughter everyday?" But they were monsters. "They still had souls, were still living and breathing beings." The voices did not let up. "If you could just die, think of how many would be saved? Swim with us. Join. Us. It's what you deserve." Where the voices wrong? "We can take away the pain of existence. Suffer with us, murderer."

"Percy?" A voice softly broke through the onslaught of accusations in his head. Maybe Percy should just walk into the River, it would be a proper punishment. Better for everyone. "Join us. Join. Us. JOIN US. JOIN US JOIN USJOINUSJOINUS-"

"Percy!" Suddenly a hand roughly grabbed the neck of his shirt, and pulled him back. Without even realizing it, Percy had been leaning towards the river, on the verge of falling in.

"You're awake." Percy breathed, pulling her tightly against him. "We can't stay here. Nyx told me this is the River Acheron. We need to cross it."

"The River Acheron? Nyx! Percy - wait hold on, why was I unconscious? What is going on?" Annabeth was nearly yelling by now.

"Annabeth, just calm do-"

"Don't you dare tell me to calm down Perseus! I swear to the gods if you don't start explaining right now you won't like finding out what I can do with my new sword!" She was glaring murduriously at him, and Percy would have thought it cute if she didn't look dead at the same time.

"I'll explain everything, after we cross the river. This is not a good place to be. The second I look away from you I start to hear the voices. We need to go Annabeth, we can talk later." Percy asserted. But what could he do? At this point his only option was to jump across the river, and there was no way he could possibly do that... And then Percy reached forward and picked her up again.

"What are you doing." Annabeth's voice had gone suspiciously flat, which Percy recognized as her I am on the verge of killing you in a painfully slow way voice.

"Trust me." Percy said, doing his best to assuage her with his trademark grin, ignoring that it lost a lot of its power with the Death-Mist. And this really was just a bluff. He had no idea why he suddenly felt incredible, but he also knew that feeling incredible and slowly dying was not a good combination. In his greatest bout of rash decision making, Percy crouched down, and as Annabeth opened her mouth to once again question him, he jumped.