Fall From Glory || A Percy Jackson story

Chapter 9: The Ancient One

For future reference, if anything is inaccurate to Marvel's comics it's probably on purpose. I don't like including characters with the ability to destroy entire dimensions, it's boring and over-complicated. I'll try to stay as accurate as I can to the MCU, in terms of personalities and abilities. Not quite so much storyline, because, you know. Percy changes everything. But yeah, I'll be including bits and pieces from the comics but they'll be modified to fit the MCU/Percy Jackson setting.

I followed Hecate through the streets at a fast pace, trying my best to keep up. She was certainly in a hurry, but I could move pretty darn fast. She took me to a big building that I didn't know the purpose of, but it looked old-fashioned and it had a big domed window on the front with a weird design on it.

"Who is this Ancient One character?" I asked, looking apprehensively at the building. 

"She is the Sorcerer Supreme of your realm," Hecate said. I raised my eyebrows. 

"We have a Sorcerer Supreme?" I asked. "What do they do?"

"They protect the world from mystical and dimensional threats, just as you protect them from Ancient Greek ones."

"I see," I said. "And that's what I'll be helping with?"

"Yup," Hecate agreed. "An entity named Shuma-Gorath is attempting to enter this dimension through the Ancient One's mind. The only way she knows how to stop this is to cause her own physical death and send her spirit into transcendence, but if she did that there would be no Sorcerer Supreme to guard the earth. She has nearly lost hope, Percy. You must help her."

I sucked in a breath and nodded. No pressure, right? Just make sure that all our saving the world wasn't for nothing, only to have some other dimensional baddie take over. "What do I do?"

"You're taking this better than I expected," Hecate admitted.

"It's gonna take a hell of a lot more than that to surprise me," I said flatly.

She nodded and cleared her throat, back to business. "You must allow me to send you into the Astral Plane as a projection, where you will gain the ability to enter the mental battle. It will feel more physical than you might expect, but remember that any damage taken there is damage to your mind and spirit. You have been blessed by Apollo; try to heal her and yourself before returning. It will be much more difficult to heal those wounds here."

I nodded. "Let's do it."

"Go inside and sit down, first," Hecate suggested. "It might not be in your best interest to pass out on the floor out here."

"Good idea," I admitted. I followed her inside and sat down on a comfortable cushioned chair. I was about to give her the go-ahead again when I started floating. I looked down at my body, still in the chair. It was pretty trippy, not going to lie. My skin was glowing gold and I was slightly transparent. "Right," I said. "Thanks for making sure I was ready."

"I'm sorry, hero, but we mustn't waste time. She is fighting a losing battle and desperately needs your help. Now, go!"

Before I could respond, I was sent flying through the walls. Reality bent around me, and I watched with wide eyes. Once upon a time, I would have been screaming. Now, I was just unsettled. I wondered if this was what LSD felt like, or maybe acid. This is similar to what I'd always imagined, anyways, when someone mentioned a "trip" on either of them. Lots of swirling colors, things that should be straight turning into circles as the world turned inside-out.

When the world stopped spinning, I found myself in a burning wasteland. I turned slowly to see a bald woman in yellow monk's robes, fighting an identical copy of herself that had a maniacal smile and black streaks eroding her skin.