His Dark Side (Edited Version)

Chapter Eight: Sickening

This chapter has a major gore warning. If you have a sensitive stomach, I would not recommend you read this. I will provide a description/summary at the bottom of the chapter if you chose to read that instead of this.

They all hovered around the mirror, which looked beyond heavy and was encrusted with gold and dust. Chiron hastily brushed off the dust, looking more nervous than anyone had seen in a long time- And Annabeth had been here since she was seven. "Annabeth, you'll need to put both hands on the mirror and say 'Show me Perseus Jackson, Son of Poseidon'. As long as an immortal isn't masking his location, it should give us a vision of where he is."

Annabeth swallowed thickly, taking a deep breath as she nodded. Tentatively, she brought her hands up, pressing her palms into the ice-cold glass, chills running up her spine. "Show me Perseus Jackson, Son of Poseidon."

The mirror swirled, creating a vortex of black smoke before it all blew away like a handful of glitter in a strong gust of wind, finally revealing Percy. She wasn't sure whether to sob of horror or relief.

He was knelt before the Phlegethon river, staring into the swirling flames, looking absolutely miserable.

His eyes were puffy and red, same as his nose, and his cheeks were wet with tears.

"Well since we're here... Might as well let me, right?" Alt Percy chided cheerfully, not longer in Percy's head- Instead, Percy's lips were moving and a deep voice was coming out. Chiron pursed his lips.

"Shut the fuck up. You've ruined my life."

"Oh boo-hoo, you'll get over it. You could always just live down here, that way I can kill things and you can... Be boring, I don't know."

"You- We," Percy corrected weakly, "we hurt Annabeth and Jason. I nearly strangled Annabeth."

"You did strangle Annabeth. D'ya reckon she liked it?"

"Shut the fuck up and let me be for just a few minutes. Please."

A shrill scream startled all of them, including Percy as he looked around, hand immediately going to Riptide, looking around him. "Percy! Help!"

Annabeth blinked in shock as her own voice shouted desperately to him, begging for help.

Finally, she spotted it- An illusion of herself being dragged away by monsters. Percy jumped up and immediately started sprinting, stumbling a few times.

"Let me take control. I'll kill the monsters and I won't hurt Annabeth, I promise. Please Jackson, I'm so uptight, I need to move! I promise I won't hurt her, and as soon as we find her you can have your body back, please!"

Percy grit his teeth. "For fucks sake, if you hurt her I swear I'm going to kill myself so that we both die, got it?"

"Sounds great to me."

Percy stumbled for a second, pausing as he shook his head, looking at his hands before grinning. "Oh hell yeah."

He drew his sword and took up a sprint once more, weaving through trees that seemed to ooze blood, vines that undulated and reached for Percy's limbs and giant demon insects that could probably kill in one bite, but he avoided them all, darting directly for the two monsters dragging fake Annabeth away.

"If you want her, you're gonna have to get her! Nyx's palace, lover boy!" A cyclops called, and Percy reached out just after they disappeared into a puff of smoke. He growled, swiping his sword through the smoke, clearly irritated.

"Where's the palace, Jackson?"

"A lot further down- It would take a week to reach it by foot."