Struck by Lightning

XXX

AN: this is going to be different from most of the other storys i think so i hope youll like it

Percy groggily opened his eyes as the sensations of the outside world became apparent. Blinking a few times, he acquiesced to letting his eyes rest behind heavy eyelids. After a handful of moments, he finally forced his eyes open and raised his wrist to see the time through his bleary vision. Six fifty-six – a good four minutes before he actually needed to rise. The bright numbers stood out against the near pitch-black room, nearly searing his poor, freshly-awoken retinas. Letting his arm fall onto the blanket, he turned and nuzzled his cheek into his soft pillow. In front of him, a headful of messy, long black hair splayed out, obscuring his vision of the hints of light that peeked out from under the heavy curtains that kept the room in darkness.

What had he been dreaming about? Or was it, perhaps, a nightmare that he would rather not remember? The hazy details of his sleep eluded him, and in the few seconds it took for him to ask these questions, he also promptly forgot about them; he rarely, if ever, remembered the details of his sleeping life, and in all honesty, he cared little to know. Forgetting all about those brief concerns, Percy wrapped his arms around his wife of nine years, his breathing becoming rhythmic and steady as he fell back into his former, restful state.

–there was only light, shining and blinding, and suddenly there was nothing. No light, no dark, but rather simply nothing at all, its depth unfathomable and its extent undefinable. It was a nothingness that stretched into infinity beyond the comprehension of any mortal mind, with the only surety being that it was irrevocably oblivion. And then it all snapped back into an instant – less than an instant, a measure of time so miniscule that it could scarcely be said to have passed at all.

A microcosm of space and time, ending as it collapsed upon itself, with just the barest hints of light at the very center, flickering dimly in the gnawing void–

2008 – Fifteen Years Earlier

Percy flinched. His vision snapped into focus from darkness and he suddenly realized that he was still standing on the peak of Mount Othrys. He blinked. Everything was the same. Atlas' decapitated body lay unmoving on the ground, his head a few feet away after it had rolled away. Aphrodite – Chaos – was standing still just a handful of yards away with its head down.

Percy finally unfroze, stumbling slightly as he heaved air in and out of his body. It felt like someone had coursed electricity through his body – every muscle had seized up and moved erratically in ways he could not control. In the corner of his eye, he could see that Thalia had fallen to her knees, more or less in a similar state as he was.

"What..." Thalia breathed out beside him, "was that?"

"I don't know," Percy gritted out, clenching both of his fists to stop his fingers from bending backward too much. He focused all of his mind's energies for a single moment to the sole task of controlling his rebelling body, and after a few horribly tense moments of tortured pain and frustration, he felt a certain calm relaxation flood his limbs and muscles.

He looked up, eyeing Chaos with a weary and wary glare. It was quite noticeable that they no longer had any weapons – his trident was in Thalia's sword, and Thalia's sword, it seemed, was long gone, nowhere to be seen on the peak of Mount Othrys.

Or it could be called Othrys at all anymore?

Chaos' head snapped upward, its eyes wide and hair wild.

"What have you done?" it cried, splattering out golden ichor from its mouth as it spoke. The fluid spat into the air, hissing as it dissolved into a fine mist before it fell to the ground in a reaction that Percy had never seen before. "What did you do to me?"