Fatal Flaw: Empathy (Nico di Angelo)

Chapter Nine

Percy woke up when he heard the door slam shut. The light hadn't peeked through the blinds yet, and Aletha tip-toed in. Why was she awake? Was she seeing a boy!? Percy was going to get to the bottom of this. "Ahem."

Aletha stopped moving and whirled around before tripping over thin air, landing on the carpet in front of Percy. She gave a dazzling smile, while still on her face. Percy used some water to help her stand up, and once she did, he wrapped the water around her. And trapped her there.

He gave her a similar dazzling smile, only getting an pout in response. 'Mine was cuter,' she mouthed at him.

"That's because you're little. And speaking of little, where were you coming from, little sister? Need I remind you that there are cleaning harpies that are not nice? To little campers."

Aletha blew a strand out of her face, and mouthed, 'sorry?' And tilted her head to the side. Percy ran his hand through her hair to mess it up even more.

Aletha suddenly felt something. In the pit of her stomach, she felt a sharp opening. It didn't physically hurt, so she just frowned. It was how she felt when she was worried. She looked in Percy's eyes; they were like hers but more tired, and less silvery. She could practically feel the worry emitting from his eyes. No, it wasn't practical, she actually could feel it.

Her eyes widened. Percy didn't seem to notice, since he just turned around and got back to business.

"Aletha, where did you go?" He asked.

She couldn't exactly respond. She opened her mouth and closed it again. Percy facepalmed.

"Sorry, you're just so sarcastic it's hard to remember you can't talk sometimes. Here," he released the water, and brought her Hephaestus pad to her.

She wrote on it, "Thanks, Percy, and don't worry about it. I actually could talk about a month and a half ago, so I understand. I went out to get some weapons. Everyone is always on about how you have Anaklusmos, and I don't have any weapons. So I'm setting out to prove everyone wrong." She wiped it once Percy finished reading it. "And I met Dad, last night. He's so casual for a god! He gave me two daggers."

Now that she thought about it, she had hugged her dad yesterday and felt his pain for having left her and Percy. And when she met Will Solace, she'd sensed his wartime memories and his guilt. And Nico. She couldn't sense a lot, but she could feel his turmoil. 'Why was Nico in turmoil? More importantly, why do I know what he felt? What dad felt? I'm going crazy. Maybe being quiet had made me perceptive? Or insane?'

"Cool!" Percy said, reading the last sentence, snapping Aletha out of her thoughts. "Can I see?"

She pulled her sleeves up, and showed him the arm bands. She pulled Scylla off her right arm and Charybdis off her left. But when she went to pull the arm bands off, they made sounds like unsheathing a sword, and came in to her hands as daggers.

Aletha has to stop herself from yelping, opting to gasp loudly. And almost drop them.

Percy looked at them. "Scylla and Charybdis?" He read off them. "Sea of Monsters? I've been there. Had to fight those two. Charybdis is our half sister and Scylla's our half brother's daughter. Triton's daughter, I mean."

Aletha nodded. She wondered about something. She moved the blades in a form. She concentrated her power on Charybdis, on the water. It moved up, and she smiled triumphantly before enveloping Percy in water and freezing it. Scylla's teeth were glowing, and Charybdis' jewel was radiating power. She hadn't even used Scylla yet. 'They must be connected in more ways then one.'

Aletha instinctively put the blades on her skin where they melted back into her silver armbands.

"I thought you couldn't move water," asked Percy from his place on the wall. He wasn't fighting the current that was holding him up, but he was certainly confused.

Aletha shrugged. She did what she did before, and nothing happened. She couldn't control the water soundlessly unless she had the Charybdis.

Percy has released himself. "I know what you're thinking. Maybe the blade gives you the power?"

Aletha nodded. That was what Poseidon had told her, right? So she shouldn't be so disappointed.