Mortals meet Percabeth (and others)

Coming to Terms

Part 5 I think of the Percy Falls Alone I do hope you enjoy

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Coming to Terms

NO MIST

After everything that has happened, Percy just wanted to quit but the Gods were always going to be rude and entitled and they would always force their problems onto innocent and untrained demigods.

Percy didn't know whether he was lucky or not that the Gods decided to leave him alone

After his heart to heart with Nico on the beach a few weeks ago, he had started to feel a little better, knowing that at least if no one else got it, he had one person by his side. But he pulled away from everyone else ( not because he wanted to but because everyone wanted to know what had happened to him or try to help him and it was getting annoying ) and unfortunately his relationship with Annabeth was over, not because they wanted it to be. That was the last thing that they wanted but Percy just couldn't open up and Annabeth being a daughter of Wisdom just tried to pry the information out of him

They remained friends but Percy didn't have very many friends anymore

Most of the Camp avoided him like the plague, the hero that they all looked up to had fallen from grace and he just had to accept that. He was left alone to stew in his own failure and he spent most of his days inside his cabin avoiding the world outside and continuing to spiral deeper into his own mind

War and grief had always played a part in his life, even before he found out who he was and that he was supposed to save the world at the age of sixteen. He has lost many friends along the way, many that he felt were completely his fault and he could prevent there was an endless cycle. For him, war and grief had always been bonded together by a fickle marriage stirring up chaos and being his only friends when he found himself alone staring up at the ceiling 

The soulless eyes of his two friends and their wicked grins that he sees every time they claim the life of another one of his friends and the way it's boring into his soul, leaving him trapped and helpless as his mind taunts him for being so weak. For not being strong enough

And maybe he wasn't strong enough

It was slowly breaking him and the son of Poseidon wasn't sure whether he could recover

The one's that weren't afraid of him like Nico Annabeth and Grover and Thalia (when she was around) would visit his cabin and tries to get him to come out, but he wouldn't budge, his mind on a constant loop of why did he do that? And why couldn't he do more? why couldn't he do more? Why did he do that? Why couldn't he do more? Why couldn't he do more? Why did he do that? Why couldn't he do more? Why did he do that?  Why couldn't he do more? Why did he do that?

Those questions circled his head leaving him crazy as he flops back down on his bed, staring lifelessly at the ceiling as his mind continued to buzz with questions. He didn't know how long he had laid there, not having the energy to do much of anything but lie there and stare but his mind was alight with critiques and mocking comments and most of all those damn questions that never even seemed to give him even a minute of peace

He wasn't aware when the door opened and in burst four people, anger over Percy not seeking help stronger than any concern they might have had for him before long go as they had been more than patient with him, giving him space and doing whatever he asked but it only further seemed to give him ammunition to push them away. His fatal flaw was loyalty they knew this and yet Tartarus had changed him in the ugliest way

"Kelp head. Get up. We need to talk" Thalia said, all nicety from her voice vanishing

"I don't want to" Percy mumbled back

"Well too bad, look we thought you were getting better but then you backslid which I suppose is normal and so we gave you space thinking that when you were going to come back to us. Your family, when you were ready to talk again but that hasn't happened so instead we're coming to you" Thalia exclaimed, anger shaking her voice and Percy sits up thinking he may have to use his powers ( which probably wasn't the best idea since he hadn't really used his powers since he had been down there ) to control him

"I'm fine guys" Percy defends, suddenly feeling very tired

"No your not Perce, you may think your fine but this -- whatever this is -- isn't fine," Annabeth says, speaking to him for the first time in months, her voice is soft as she searches his face for any sign of the boy she fell in love with but all she could see was dead and lifeless eyes that stared back at her, not the eyes of the boy she fell in love with, it was like every emotion he used to feel had been sucked out of him leaving him nothing more than an empty shell "I'm sorry that I broke the promise when I said I don't know what you endured in there I can't possibly know but know this I will be by your side every step of the way, every flashback every nightmare, every panic attack. I will stay by your side because that's what you deserve. But I'm back now and I'm not going to force you into a relationship I know you're not ready for that, but I do want you to talk to us. Or at least try to"

"Y-You don't know what it's like though"

"But I do I was in there too and it messed me up for months and like you, I tried to push people away I told myself that nobody but you could possibly understand what I was going through but then I started opening up. Little by little every day and soon it did help to talk about things and now I'm here to tell you to get your butt in gear and talk because that's the only thing that is really going to help. Not smoking ciggerates  or trying to run away from your friends and we're not leaving until you do talk. So talk" Nico says, an edge to his voice that makes Percy believe he wasn't one to be argued with 

Percy sighed, they weren't going to leave him alone if he didn't talk and so he did, he talk about near enough everything, he had to to take many breaks and had to stop a lot to even get his words out but everything eventually came out to the four people who had never given up on him 

He wasn't healed and he doubted he would ever be: But it was one step closer.