Apollo Gets Wrecked: A Trials of Apollo fanfic

1

New cuts every night.
I sleep, yet still feel tired.
Anxious, scared... but why?

FROM THE MINUTE I got up that morning, I could instantly tell something was off.

    Ever since I had gotten to the Waystation, they insisted on getting up at first light, with 'they' being Emmie and Josephine. With all due respect to my friends, I found that prospect to be pointless. I am the light, or at least the sun. Why they constantly woke me up at the break of dawn was beyond my comprehension.

    But I'm getting ahead of myself. For those of you who don't already know, I am Lester Papadopoulis, but you can call me Apollo. Last summer, Zeus blamed me for causing the Second Great War and nearly destroying everything in this realm of existence. He took my godly powers and confined me in this flabby, acne-ridden teenaged mortal body.

    What's the Second Great War...? Hmm... what is that saying you mortals use today? 'Go read a book'? Well, in that case, go read the book! I don't have time to explain everything those seven heroes did in the span of several chapters! Mortals and their silly problems...

    Anyway, back to the story. By the time I had opened my eyes, the sun was already up in the sky. Yet despite the signs of how late it was, I didn't feel rested at all. Reluctantly, I pulled myself out of my hay pile, scanning my surroundings. Valdez was not in the room that we shared, and a small trail of red dots led from the door to his bunk, and then back to mine.

    My heart pounded away dangerously in my chest, but I tried to rationalize and give myself a chance to think. I listened hard, and heard the faint sound of an explosion. My eyes widened and before I could think about it, I was in the hallway, running towards what was probably going to be my doom.

    I turned the corner sharply and ran into one of my comrades, Calypso. She had a stack of dirty towels in her hand, which promptly went flying and landed all over the floor. One especially muddy one landed on my head, which I quickly grabbed and flung down in disgust. Then I looked up at her. "Good Gods of Olympus, girl, you scared me!"

    Calypso rolled her eyes with the look of of one who had dealt with major annoyances before and pulled herself up quickly so she towered over me. She crossed her arms too, for good measure, I guess. "I see you have finally decided to grace us with your presence, Apollo."

    I waited for Calypso to offer an arm or something, but she stood stock still. Sighing, I pushed myself up onto my feet and met her gaze. "I thought you were going to do your usual thing and get me up at first light."

    Calypso rolled her eyes yet again and sighed with gusto to rival my own. "Yes, because we all live to serve you, Apollo. This morning, you were sleeping like the dead, so we figured that you'd wake up when you were ready. And here you are."

    In my sleepless state, I wished to call her names that even Nero wouldn't dare repeat. But I drew in a deep breath, willing myself to calm down before replying. Absentmindedly, I held my left arm, which had begun to throb painfully. "Well, okay then."

    Calypso started to talk again, but stopped and stared at the arm I was holding. "How long have you been scratching that arm?"

    I raised an eyebrow. "Uh, not at all, really... Why are you asking...?"

    Suddenly, Calypso grabbed my arm and pulled it towards her like she wanted to rip it out of my socket. I resisted valiantly, but decided to let Calypso believe that she was stronger because of the pain I was feeling. Perturbed, I asked "What are you doing, woma..." before I finally saw my arm.

    My arm, the beautiful left arm of Apollo himself, was covered in scratches and cuts. Some were white marks, most likely from my nails, but some were deep trenches carved in at odd angles, with blood oozing from them at a strangely lethargic pace. One particularly nasty cut was almost a quarter of an inch deep and ran from the tip of my elbow to my middle finger in a straight line. It almost looked as though someone had taken a knife and gone crazy with it.

    I pulled back the mangled thing that was supposed to be a limb and gasped suddenly at the pain, tears springing to my eyes. I looked down, then back at Calypso in shock. "How in Olympus... I don't... Who did this?!"

    A cold look washed over Calypso's face, and her expression hardened. "I'm not sure... but if this some sort of twisted sympathy plea from you, Apollo, I find this incredibly distasteful."

    I stared at her with a look on my face that I'm pretty sure expressed my feelings on the matter, which were something along the lines of, Did Hera just drive you insane? "Why in the world would I purposefully do something like this?! I like myself too much to do that!"

    Her expression lifted, if only slightly. "Now that I can believe. Come on, I'll bandage up your arm for you. Unless you would prefer to do so yourself..?"

    I thought of trying to tie a bandage with one hand. Even with my amount of natural godly skill, it would be incredibly difficult. "Okay... Ladies first."

---------

    On the walk to the nurses station, Calypso and I managed to run into Leo. His hair was a mess, with little fires burning on one of his hair follicles. Calypso licked her index finger and thumb before grabbing said strand and putting out the flame. Leo looked up and smiled. "Hey, mamacita! Where are you guys headed?"

    As a way of explanation, Calypso grabbed my left shoulder and forced my arm to extend, while I winced valiantly. Leo sucked in a breath, and I could see his eyes fill with sympathy. (Well, not really see, since I was averting my eyes from the mess that was my arm, but I knew that he cared... somewhat.) "Woah, Apollo, what did you do? Wait, lemme guess... you tried to juggle knives!"

    I glared at him angrily, or as angry as one could look while in pain. "No, Valdez, I did not try to juggle knives. I just... woke up like this."

    Leo gave me a sideways glance, confused. He set down his tools and put his focus on Calypso and I. "Hate to break it to you, Apollo, but I don't think that's how injuries work."

    I felt my face flush. A voice in the back of my mind yelled, How dare this son of Hephaestus try to lecture me! "I know that, Repair Boy! I am the god of medicine!"

    Now it was Calypso's turn to raise an eyebrow. "Lord Apollo, that would actually be your son's role. You gave up that title, though you kept some of the skills."

    I wanted to say things I knew I would regret, but I tried my best to keep calm. I wasn't Ares, and getting people mad would most likely only make my situation worse. "Right... of course. That was... foolish of me. My bad."

    Leo looked back and forth between Calypso and me, then shrugged. "Whatever you say, man. Have fun with... whatever you were doing! Oh, and by the way, if you see a rod of metal about yea long, can you let me know? Cool, thanks, bye!"

    He zoomed off in the other direction, and it wasn't long before I heard a distant crash followed by Leo yelling, "I'm okay!"

    I turned back to Calypso, but as soon as I did I was suddenly overcome with a wave of drowsiness. I stumbled and managed to steady myself by using the nearby wall. Calypso didn't seem to notice and kept walking. I tried calling to her, but my voice wouldn't work, which was odd. My thought weaved in and out like radio stations, but the channels were changing too fast to hear anything coherent. I closed my eyes in hopes of regaining my focus, but instead I was met with the sweet yet all-too familiar embrace of unconsciousness.