"Because I never realised the implications of what I did that day," Percy shot back, "all the people I saved...they were dead because of me. It was my duty to save them and I was willing to face the consequences. But what you're doing...it's robbing them of the will to chose!"
"Who would chose to die for people who never cared for them?!"
"ME!" Percy yelled, "and Thalia, and Annabeth and Michael and so many more demigods! You say you know their true selves? Then tell me now, is there a single demigod there who won't fight for Olympus? Who won't fight for humanity?!"
"You do this...and you would be robbing those who wish to not fight a chance of happiness."
"Then I'll take that burden. If they want too they can leave, no one ever forced them to stay. They stayed though...because it's who we are. We are demigods, being the hero is in our blood."
"You still don't see do you? You never never their children....you were always their weapon. They leave you, abandoned you to the wild and then when you are broken, isolated and desperate for attention they will come and act as benevolent beings offering you a place to stay. If the God truly cared about you they would have never left you alone. At the very least they would have left you in camp half-blood, with your fellow siblings."
"Yes...we know. But we don't care. Do you know the reason we all act like heros? The reason we have such a....such a hero complex? It's because we know we are screw ups, we know that we don't belong with humanity. They reject us, they look down on us, calling us worthless. But we protect them....because we want to prove them wrong. We want to prove them that their hate,their rejection doesn't bother us, that whatever they say to us won't make us become like them. They can hate us, but we won't hate them. We are better than them, we are heroes."
"Sentimental rubbish," Morpheus growled. He snapped his fingers causing the white pods above to glow. Slowly shadows began to fall down from the pods, they flew towards Morpheus, surrounding him like a cloak before slowly transforming into the worst creatures Percy had ever scene.
There were monsters of old, chimeras, minotaurs, a hydra, a fury and even a demented looking clown with a blood red smile and a very sharp knife. Each figure was darkened like a shadow, their eyes glowing red. Percy could feel power rolling of them, through his mana scene he could tell that Morpheus had created them.
The Legendary Minotaur,
Lv— 100
Chimera,
Lv— 100
Fury,
Lv— 100
Evil Clown,
Lv— 100
And they were much stronger than their original counterparts. Percy gulped, he was in deep do do this time.
"You wish to be a hero then JAckson?" Morpheus asked, "then take on their nightmares! Fight for them! Prove you're worth demigod! Or die!" The god threw his hands forward causing the monsters to charge Percy.
'Well shit,' Percy cursed lowering his visor. He raised his weapons just as the shadows landed on the ground and charged at him. Percy ducked down and raised his blades. The Chimera reached him first, it pushed its powerful legs and leaped at him with its mighty jaws wide open. Percy dodged at the last moment rolling away as the Chimera fell into the giant opening her created in wall and down into the bottomless pit behind.
"GRRR!" it cried out as it's voice grew distant. Percy smirked as he got up, 'nice,' and then began to run. The shadow monsters followed him, managing to keep up despite his impressive speed. So he activated his strength;
STR— 0.146 (+11+20+75+2) = 108.146
Seal Release: Layer 10 Time: 1 1.2 Months
STR— 42,467,328 (+11+20+75+2) = 42,467,436
Percy turned back and saw them gaining on him, seeing no point in running he trailed around and brought waverider down hard. The air in front of Percy was sent forward due to the force behind the slash, the shadow minotaur was cleaved in half.
Percy then began his attack. His swords flashed blue and bronze as he hacked and slashed through the swarm of shadow monsters. The beasts cried out as Percy carved through them, each swing carrying with it enough force to turn stone to dust and carry entire buildings on his back.
The monsters kept coming though, they didn't care for their own lives for they had nothing to live for. They lived only to torture, only to hurt. Percy saw them in different forms, most were greek monsters, the kind any demigod would be naturally afraid, while a few looked human, Percy swore he saw one that looked exactly like a disappointed Julia.
Percy didn't stop, he kept attacking. Each monster he cut down he felt a wave of appreciation come upon him. Like the person whose nightmare he killed was thanking him for it. He looked into those red eyes and he didn't blink, he didn't stop. But then he saw it. A shadow that gave him pause. A shadow that took on the form of Percy Jackson.
The demigod halted, for a whole second he halted. He slowed down, and just stared at the blackened red eyed figure before him. 'W-who's nightmare is that?' he wondered, and in that moment, a shadow lion plunged it's teeth into Percy's shoulder, biting into his armour and biting skin.
Percy's eyes went wide with pain, "ARGH!" Percy bent his knees from the pain, he dropped Riptide and immediately punched the lion's jaw breaking it off easily. The shadows saw their chance and launched themselves on him. Percy kicked his own shadowy self into dust, but they came on too fast.
The dog piled him, another minotaur pinned him down, showing it's smelly mouth near his helmet. A hydra came on top of them and then a giant bear of top of the snake. Monster after monster jumped onto, and Percy could slowly feel himself being crushed under the weight.
Percy panted, 'why did that hurt? How did that lion hurt me? My armor, it was like my armor wasn't even there! Okay, so maybe these things can bypass my armour...and my marble skin...then I can't afford to let them hurt me, meaning...'
Percy focused on his mana and gathered it into his core. The mana traveled through his body and suddenly was released all at once sending out a wave of energy that blasted the monsters off off Percy;
Energy blast, Lv— 1 (43%)
Sends out a blast of energy.
Cost— 100 MP
Damage— 100 MP
The monster's weren't hurt, but this gave Percy a chance to escape as he launched himself into the air using his telekinetic flight. The monster quickly got back to their feet and jumped up to attack Percy in the air. The demigod cut them down, spinning on the spot to strike down monsters that attack from the back.
Slowly Percy spun around faster and faster, his very form reminiscent of a tornado of death, a storm of swords. He kept cutting them down, one after another. Monster after monster fell to his blade, it cut through them like butter. He didn't even register what form they took now, all he care about was destroying them.
And then something came from him. It was a blue in the corner of his eye, but he caught it and moved just in time to avoid a downward slash of a black and white blade. Morpheus had entered the battle.
The God swung his blades at Percy. The demigod dropped down to the floor, cutting the monsters under him to form a fighting space. Morpheus looked down and followed Percy, dropping down as his swung his sword sideways.
Percy twirled Waverider between his fingers turning into it's trident form once again. He then held it up catching the two blades on the shaft of the trident. The blades clashed with an audible ring, a wave of force was sent out knocking back the shadow monsters a good ten feet.
Percy held Morpheus there with his trident, with his free hand he reached into a compartment in his leg gaurd and found a re summoned Riptide. He took the pen out and uncapped it in one motion. Morpheus tried to move back but before he could Percy thrusted the bronze blade forward piercing the God's right wing.
"BASTARD!" the god of dreams yelled. He sent out a blast of energy similar to Percy's own energy blast throwing the demigod into the monsters behind, killing several before landing outside the ring.
Percy growled in frustration as he slowly got on his feet. Morpheus held his now bleeding wing in pain as he walked out of the swarm of monsters.
Percy narrowed his eyes at the ichor bleeding out of the God, "I'm sorry...I truly am."
"I know," Morpheus growled, "but you can't afford to be. You need to be ruthless, you need to kill without mercy. If you want to lead the demigod, if you want any hope of carrying their dreams and defeating their nightmares...then you need to be more than just a sad demigod."
"I know what I have to be," Percy answered back, "but that doesn't mean I have to be cruel."
"Yes...it does," Morpheus snapped his fingers and suddenly the shadow monsters disappeared. The turned into a thick fog, slowly joining together to form a sphere of darkness so thick Percy couldn't see what was being formed inside it.
"You used to come here didn't you Percy?" Morpheus said as he flexed his injured wing, which was already almost healed, "you used to dream, I remember...I always remember. You used to dream of days where you and your mother could live a happy life, away from Gabe....away from school. Away.....from the freak that you were."
Percy narrowed his eyes, he remembered them, of course he remembered them. Those dreams, the ones which he was glad he no longer dreamt. The days when he blamed himself for his mother's sufferings, the days when his biggest issues were his abusive step-father. The days...the days which he missed if only because he was truly free of responsibility back then.
Morpheus flicked his hands forward and suddenly the shadow sphere charged at Percy. The demigod turned to run away, but when he did he found himself facing a wall of shadows. Percy cursed and turned back again, but it was too late.
His vision turned black. He couldn't see a thing. He was standing in a spot light, but the shadows were surrounding him.
They moved like water, the water from the deepest parts of the sea, so deep not even the light of the sun could reach it. And out of the shadows came a shadow figure in the form of Percy's mother.
"Why did I ever have you?" she cried, tears came down heavy, "why?! If you weren't born then I wouldn't have to live like this! I would have had a normal life!"
"M-mom I-" Percy stopped, 'no, this...this is wrong. She isn't my mother.' And just as Percy realised that a grey hand came out from the shadows and grabbed Sally by the hair.
"Ah!" she screamed as she pulled back and forth, shaken like a leaf. Out of the shadows Gabe stepped out, in one hand a can of beer and in the other Sally's hair.
"You ungrateful bitch! I take you and your idiot son in and this is the thanks I get?!" He emptied the can of beer and threw it away. He pulled her hair up to eye level before swinging his palm across her face, slapping it hard enough to throw her down to her knees.
"Mom!" Percy cried out, he turned to Gabe, his eyes turning red, "you bastard!" Percy leapt out of the shadows to attack Gabe, but the moment he did a flash of white flashed across his chest cutting him hard.
Percy moved back into the spotlight and held his chest in pain, "what the hell?!" He could feel himself bleed, and yet his armour wasn't cut, he marble skin wasn't hurt. Again the power of Morpheus overwhelmed his defenses, luckily though it seemed other than pain Percy hadn't lost any HP, considering his health bar was still full.
"You shouldn't get so riled up Percy," Morpheus's mocking tone called out, "you know these aren't real...right?"
The shadows spat out another person, this time it was Thalia. She smirked at him, "you stupid boy, you actually thought I loved you didn't you?"
Percy growled, "you're going to have to do better than that Morpheus."
"Hm...yes, I think so," the God agreed. Suddenly a black and red blade pierced Thalia through the chest, the daughter of lighting looked down as she gulped blood out of her mouth, she looked at Percy as the light faded from her eyes.
The blade swung up throwing her limp body into the spotlight underneath Percy. Blood came flowing out of her chest and mouth, dark red blood. The colour shook Percy, shadows couldn't bleed, what if....what if...
Percy bent down and touched her cheek, it was warm. "No...no" target="_blank">No...no, no, no!" Percy threw his weapon to the side and kneeled down. He held her head on his lap, "Thalia? Thalia?!" The shadowy skin slowly started to shed away, her black hair grew a strip of blue, the same blue strip that he loved so much. Her skin became clear, her previously red eyes turned blue.
"Pathetic," a figure stepped out of the shadows. He was big, bigger than anything Percy ever saw. The shadows covered him from the chest down, but Percy recognized the cape he had tied around his neck. It was the second half of the golden fleece, and that meant this could only be one person.
"Kronos," Percy spoke.
"How can you stop me? If you can't even save one little girl?" the Titan asked as he wiped her blood from his blade onto the golden fleece.
Percy looked at the titan and then to Thalia. He sighed, "I can't believe I feel for that again," he pushed the dead body off of him and stood up straight, "I must be slipping or something."
Kronos raised an eyebrow, "really? You treat your love as so? Maybe you and I aren't so different after all Jackson."
"Cut the act Morpheus," Percy growled, he summoned Waverider and Riptide and leveled it at him, "you aren't fooling me."
The titan smirked before turning into the God once more, "clever. What gave me away?"
Percy formed, "you weren't scary." It was true. The first time Percy meet Kronos is was just a glimpse at his arm, but even that frightened him. And then back in the dream world created by the entities who gave him waverider, when Percy fought that Kronos he was scared, his every voice shook his bones, this one however was a pathetic clone.
The God chuckled, "true, true. I'll admit I'm not that good of an actor. Bu admit it, I had you going for a second," he snapped his fingers causing 'Thalia' to disappear.
"What was the point of all of this?" Percy asked, "why did you even bother?"
"Because I wanted to show you that even you had demons, that you have nightmares to run from."
"And?" Percy asked, "I faced them...and I'll continue to face them."
"And where would that leave you?" the god asked, "what would happen if you continued on this path?"
"I don't know....I don't think anyone knows," Percy admitted.
The God laughed, "yes, that's true. No one knows the future....but I do."
Percy stopped, "w-what do you mean?"
