Another War

Chapter 8 : Come Alive

Percy looked around in confusion.

The last thing that he remembered was collapsing on the ground, feeling as though something was being teared away from him, like having an arm torn away in the most excruciating way. Then, he woke up here, in a hallway.

Percy looked behind him to only see black nothingness; the only way was forward. Reluctantly, Percy began to walk, glancing at every door he past. Each door had a bronze plate drilled into it with a word written in Ancient Greek. One said technics, another monsters; but the only one that caught his full attention was the door that had "unknown" written on it.

Percy didn't like that. It was the unknown knowledge, people, and actions that caused trouble. So, Percy grasped the door knob and turned it.

Sometime while walking down that long hallway, Percy had figured out where he was.

He was in his own mind.

Percy heard things he wasn't supposed to hear, like a nurse talking to him, like Nico snoring or muttering to himself. Next he noticed that his body wasn't a body. He was consciously in the hallway, but his body wasn't there. In fact, when he focused, he noticed how still and heavy his actual body was. If he focused, he noticed the itch of the hospital "clothing" and sheets.

Percy was wandering around in his own mind, his subconscious creating the hallway mindscape as a way to help Percy navigate in his mind, and now, he was entering into the unknown section of his mind.

On the other side of the door were two more doors, one a vivid, violent pink, another a soothing, silvery white.

Percy decided to go through the pink door first, feeling the urgency emitting from inside the door; but he was already feeling drained and tired. He wanted nothing more than to sink into the calm waters of whatever was on the other side of the white door, but Percy somehow knew that he had to fight whatever was behind the pink door first.

So, Percy opened the pink door, aching at the feeling of passive aggressive magic constantly stabbing at his conscious. The magic was a vivid, violent pink in the center, threads of magic leaking out and trying to take over the rest of the room, which was blue.

Of course, Percy didn't know that this was the way his mind portrayed Aphrodite's affection implant in him, slowly taking over his emotional center.

The instinct to kill off the vivid pink was overwhelming, and Percy always followed his instinct, because it always got him out of sticky situations. So, he threw all of his effort into killing off the pink source.

But, with all of his magic focused on killing off the affection implant, none of his magic was self-healing the tear that Aphrodite made when she forcefully cut the natural bond between him and Draco.

The heart monitor attached to Percy skipped a beat, Nico looking at the machine with wide eyes as it showed Percy's heartbeat as continued to slow, nurses and doctors immediately bumbling around Percy's body.

"What's going on?!" One nurse exclaimed, looking at her colleague in panic. "He was doing fine before!"

"The only explaination is that his magic stopped healing itself!" Another  doctor said grimly, hooking up Percy to an oxygen machine to help the boy breath. The nurse let out a distressed sound, preparing an electrical muggle machine that would shock Percy's heart into beating if he ever flat-lined.

The healers didn't want to risk using magic on Percy in case it hurt him even more.

Inside of his head, Percy was attacking the pink force with all of his might, ripping the pink thing piece by peice until it was killed. Percy didn't stop, not when he felt an excruciating pain, nor when he heard all the doctors and nurses talking about his heart failing. He had to get rid of whatever the pink thing was, and he had to do it fast.

The doctor started to sweat nervously as his patient flat-lined, the heart monitor letting out a long, continuous beep. "Now!" He exclaimed to the nurse.

The nurse nodded and put the two shockers over Percy's chest. Percy's back arched up as electricity flowed through him, his heart aching painfully.

Percy's heart didn't start beating.

"Again!"

The nurse put the shockers to Percy's chest for a second time, tears filling up in her eyes as she had forgotten to blink regularly with all that was going on around her.

It was only when the nurse put the shocker over Percy's chest for a third time did his heart start to beat weakly again.

The doctors and nurses let out a collective sigh of relief upon hearing the weak heartbeat through the heart monitor.

Percy groaned inside of his head, the pink stuff fading into blue. He did it, he defeated the pink stuff- and now he was tired and in pain. He felt every electrical shock the nurse gave him, and it wasn't pleasant.

Percy wandered out of the now completely blue room, the pink door fading into a regular blue wall behind him. Percy let himself be drawn into the silver white door, letting out a relieved sigh as he felt cool water surround him, comforting him, soothing him.

Sleep. The essence seemed to say. Sleep.

So, Percy relaxed and fell into the deepest, most restful sleep he ever had in St. Mungo's, and possibly in his entire life.

Far way in Malfoy manor, Draco Malfoy finally calmed down from the screaming fit he just had, his pain being washed away as the scent of the sea infiltrated his senses.

The Malfoy healer looked at his patient in shock, glancing at Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy, who were equally flabbergasted. The pain usually drove Draco insane as the Sleeping Draught wore off. They could only give Draco the Sleeping Draught twice a day because of it's addictive properties (and the purebloods never thought to use muggle sedatives), so Draco was usually awake for 5 hours of the day. In those 5 hours, Draco would cry and scream, his magic in havoc as it desperately tried to heal itself.

This was the first time Draco fell asleep by himself after coming back from the Quidditch World Cup weeks ago.

After the Malfoy healer left the manor, Narcissa and Lucius slumped down in a loveseat couch outside of Draco's room, their calm composure slipping away to reveal worried, fearful parents.

They didn't know what to do to help Draco other than letting him sleep and heal himself. Any spells used on him would set back his recovery, even the Sleeping Draught made Draco have minor setbacks, but they couldn't let their boy be in so much pain.

The healers in St. Mungo's theorized that this episode would set Percy back another week, which was pretty good considering how close he came to slipping away from life.

But, that theory was contradicted as Percy's magic was back to healing itself, and it was moving at a rate faster than ever, confusing the healers endlessly.

Before, Percy's magic was split between healing himself and fighting off the affection implant. Now, it was solely focusing on healing itself, making the healing process go twice as fast.

With this progress, Percy was due to wake up on August 28th (around a month away) and should be fully healed by September 16th.

What an anomaly Perseus Olympas was.