Assassin of Worlds {Percy Jackson Fanfiction} 🗸

Chapter 36 - Bad News

Prophecy:

Order rises from its chains,

End cannot be restrained,

Heroes of the past face ancient evil,

The cost of life shall stop upheaval.

Allies will be unmasked,

And Death will be tasked.

Previously

Nebula smiled a soft smile, one so filled with peace and calm that it made Theron sob at its presence. Nebula didn't deserve this. She deserved a long, healthy life with a happy spouse, and maybe even kids. She deserved life, not death.

Nebula breathed in a shaky breath. A single tear rolled down her cheek.

She did not move again. 

Now

Why do good people always die, Mama? A young boy asked his mother. They were reading a story, The Story of Aeneas, and had just passed the part where Aeneas had sacrificed himself for the gods and his people.

The boy's mother sighed and gently closed the book, bookmarking the page before it fully closed. When you go to a garden, what flowers do you pick? She asked her son. A look of deep thought crossed over his face.

The prettiest ones! The boy exclaimed. And the blue ones...

His mother laughed, a hearty sound that seemed to brighten up the room. The same is with death, Percy. The noblest have the worst fate. All I can do is hope you don't have such a fate. She reached a hand out and gently caressed the boy's cheek as his eyelids fluttered shut into a deep slumber.*

Percy stared down at the lifeless body of Nebula Reanstrin. Her eyes were open, staring endlessly at the sky. His knife was still impaled in her chest. Blood. There was so much blood. Too much. Percy was used to dealing with blood, he was an assassin, but this scene made him sick. He turned away and vomited. He wiped his mouth on his sleeve and turned back, the rancid smell burning his nose. It was a Tianopian tradition to fix up the body as best as possible before burial or cremation.

He grabbed the knife, his knife, that was protruding from Nebula's chest and gently tugged until it came out, whimpering as he did so. The flesh gave away easily. He could hear the clanking of metal on metal in the distance as he did this, but his only focus was on Nebula. He set the bloody blade on the ground and then placed his hand over her chest, a few inches above the wound. He closed his eyes and prayed to Apollo to bless him with a small favor. The god granted his wish, as if he too were mourning the death of the Queen.

A stream of gold shot out of his palm and covered Nebula's entire body. When it was gone, any cut that the Queen had was no longer visible. Her clothes were replaced, too. A simple white T-Shirt with some jeans. Her hair looked as if it had been combed thoroughly and washed with care. It looked as if she were asleep.

Percy sobbed. He let out all the emotion that had been building up since the beginning of this all and sobbed. He cried for the deaths of demigods who didn't get to say one last goodbye, he cried for the siblings that would come home after this war and wake up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night, having dreams about their sisters, or brothers, or loved ones dying right before their eyes. Percy would know. He had been through this system twice.