PJO Ship-shots

Maybe I Could

Hey y'all!!! Welcome back to angst town. Best place right? Today's subject *drumroll for effect*
MAGGIE'S TRAUMA!!!! Fun fun. This is a request from the amazing _Icarus_Falls_. I hope everyone enjoys!!!!
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Magnus's POV:

My mind is truly the scariest thing of all. Yes, in this hotel we have dragons and dinosaurs. We have swords and knives, no rules or laws, and we can kill one another as many times as we like. Yet I've never found anything that can battle the fear that my own mind instills into me every night.

Most times it's mild. I'll see dashes of my old life, unpleasant parts mixed with the pleasant. It makes it bearable to see someone chase me out of an alleyway where I was sleeping only to see who I now know as Blitz giving me a spare blanket. Good coupled with the bad, it made it okay.

Then there were the worst. The worst nights were when I saw the wolves. The fire. Her face in my mind, screaming at me to leave. She said she'd be right out after me. She never came out of that building again.

I'd wake up drenched in cold sweat, the blankets a knot around my feet. Most of the time I'd kick everything to the floor, unable to deal with feeling of anything touching me. I'd cry, or scream till my feelings were out enough to go back to sleep. Sometimes I wouldn't sleep at all to try to fight the nightmares.

But sometimes I would wake up and the nightmares wouldn't stop. Yes I could tell I was awake, but it was almost as if I had woken up into the reality I was dreaming of. I would see people in the dark corners of my room. I would stand, grab Jack and try to fight them, but there was never anyone there. All that ever resulted in was me breaking things.

I took shuddering breaths as I held my hands around my knees. "It's just a dream. Just a dream." I muttered to myself as I rocked back and forth, my tears choking my words. "A dream, a dream." I hated this so much. The not having control of my own mind.

"But it doesn't have to be a dream." I whipped around towards the voice, the silhouette in my corner. I grabbed Jack and hurled myself at it, but it dissipated into smoke just like everything else. There had never been anything there.

I sunk to my knees on the cold tile, and just as I was about to curl up into another ball and cry again I heard the voice.

"No, you could make all those bad memories disappear." I turned again, ready to hurl myself at whatever nightmarish monster stepped out of the shadows. What emerged was worse. It was Loki.

"Yo-you have no place here! So leave!" I choked out. Loki shrugged and turned on his heel towards Alex's room. "And-and
don't you dare touch her!" I stuttered.

He laughed, a cruel smile spreading across his face as he turned back around. "Like you could stop me if you wanted to. But that's not why I'm here. I've been watching you Magnus. I've seen your dream. You feel guilty for not being able to save her. I have the solution."

He snapped his fingers and a book appeared with a thud on the ground in front of me.

"This old tomb will explain to you what to do. Complete the ritual, and you will get your mom back, safe and sound."

"You're lying." I whispered. "I know you are. That's all you do is you lie and trick people." Even though I believed my own words I couldn't help but reach for the book. What if there was a way that I could bring my mom back from the dead? Annabeth told me all about her and Percy's first quest. Percy's mom and died on half-blood hill. But then he had brought her back! Maybe I could go on a quest and do the same. Maybe, just maybe Loki was going to make up for all the miserable things he had done.

My fingers grazed the edge of the book, and a golden light shone over the room. Loki disappeared into a cloud of glitter like he had never existed. I clutched the book to my chest. Hesitantly I flipped open the cover. The inside page read 'If you are reading these words, you are desperate for a miracle. Here's how to perform one.'

I read into the night, and into the morning too. Actually I wasn't sure what time it was when I finally finished the book, but now I understood what I had to do.

I could sum it up like this.

I had to go to the human realm, where my powers would be weaker. Then I had to stay there for a week. I couldn't eat or drink for the week. If I did I would have to start again. Then, and this was the difficult part, I had to go to Tartarus. Like the one my cousin said her gods were from. Once I jumped in, I would somehow survived the fall, then I could write the runes that were in the book onto the black sands. I would have to sit in that circle until a monster approached me. Then, and only then, I could slay the monster, and if a drop of it's blood hit the rune circle, the spell would be complete and my mom would be in the human realm, safe.

It sounded hard. Like, impossible hard. But I had to try. There was a chance it would work. It was almost crazy enough it sounded like it would work. But I wasn't an idiot. I would do the quest, but I would train first. See, not an idiot!

The next few weeks, I put everything I had into my training. I didn't show up for any 'to the death' classes, I didn't hang out with Alex even once, or see any of my hallmates for our regular relax times. I trained with Jack dedicatedly, making sure I was ready for whatever this quest would throw my way. I also tried to figure out how I was going to survive the fall into Tartarus.

The only way I could think was that I would use the river of fire, Phlegethon. I would fall, probably be very injured, then I could crawl to the river and drink to stay alive. That way I could finish the spell. Then my mom would be okay.

After finishing an especially hard training day with Jack, I sat him down on the hooks in the wall. He had tried to convince me that this quest was pointless, fighting me everyday during our training sessions, but after enough times of yelling at him he finally let it go. He seemed to understand that I was doing this whether I had his help or not.

I went to my kitchen ready to make myself a small meal. I'd condensed how much I was eating, getting ready for my fasting in the human world. As I pulled out the bread to make a sandwich I saw a note fall to the counter. It was from Alex. She had written it weeks ago, when she had come over to stare at the world tree with me. It was almost like TV for us, watching the giant deadly squirrels hop about from branch to branch.

She said whenever I found the note I would get to read it. I had kind of forgotten about it after she'd left, but now I looked down at it. It read:

Haha you found my letter!! Took ya long enough loser!! Jk I love you. Surprise date night when you finally find this!! I'll be waiting to kill you!! >:)

I slammed it down on my counter, the untouched food beside it. It was just like Alex to hide a note inside a loaf of bread. I hadn't really thought much about it, but I realized I would never see her again. Tears pricked my eyes. It would be nearly impossible for me to get out of Tartarus. It was a sacrifice I had to be willing to make. It was my fault my mom was dead. It would be me who brought her back.
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Hey y'all!! Sneaking a part two on you guys. Hope you don't mind too much. Anyhow, have an amazing day/night/whatever time you guys read this, but most of the time the comments I get from y'all are from 3:00 a.m. 🤔🤔 Anyhow, I can't really be one to judge 😅. See you next time!

Word count: 1469