Work Text:
The two of them are approaching the River Styx, the air around it already vibrating with an aura of misery. The water is abyssal dark, and just as polluted as it was the first time Percy saw it. Very much not the kind of place he’d want to swim in, he’d gladly spend several hours in the Mississippi River over ten seconds here. The things he does for Camp and his friends.
“So … I just jump in?”
Nico turns slightly from where he’d been giving the river disgusted looks, nose turned up. He shakes his head. “You have to prepare yourself first, or the river will destroy you. It will burn away your body and soul.”
Oh joy. Let’s not be burned into non-existence. He likes his soul where it is. “Sounds fun.”
Nico glares. “This is no joke. There is only one way to stay anchored to your mortal life. You have to-” He stops talking, his gaze trained over Percy’s shoulder.
Nico’s eyes widen, and Percy turns. There is a greek warrior just inches from him, clad in gleaming armour. It’s old armour, older in design than the stuff they use at camp. Clarisse and Annabeth would probably love it. A plumed helmet is stuck under one arm, but Percy can still tell that it’s made of boar tusks rather than metal. He’s a tall man, his hair golden and hanging to just past his shoulders.
His face is scarred with proof of battle, and it reflects in his eyes. They’re the pale green of shallow waters along the coast, but they’re cold. Almost cruel, unlike the water Percy knows. There is hatred in those eyes, the hatred of a man whose life didn’t go the way he wished and whose afterlife involved such a role as the one he takes up now. Percy knows who he is even before he takes note of the arrow stuck deep into his left leg just above the heel.
“Achilles.”
The spirit nods, his gaze trained on Percy’s face. The glare may even have deepened. “I warned the other one not to follow my path. Now I will warn you .” He mutters, lower, “Not that you deserve it.”
He also says something about tying Percy to his chariot and dragging him behind the thing for being a smug brat, coming to taunt him with life and his existence and cowardice at trying to take this way and… Percy starts to tune the man out. Percy can’t really blame him, he wouldn’t want to be stuck guarding this river for eternity. It’s the river of misery, no wonder he looks so pissed. And Percy did come here already knowing the risks. But he has to confirm it, before the ghost devolves much further into his ramblings.
“Luke? You spoke with Luke?”
“Do not do this, boy. If you have the luck to survive, if your character does not damn you as it surely will, you cowardly oath-breaker-” Rude, Poseidon was the one to break that oath, not Percy . “ you who would kill those undeserving,” What, is the man suddenly a friend of monsters now? Percy and Nico share a look of confusion. “the river will amplify all of you. It will make you powerful, but it will also make you weak. Your prowess in combat will be beyond any mortal, but your weaknesses and failings will increase as well. Your friends,” He looks to Nico. “should be wary of your hospitality, for surely you are the kind of man so bold as to break it. You, boy , will be weaker than you think.” For a man who has never met Percy before, he has some opinions on Percy as a person. Just like every awful teacher he’d had who judged him before knowing him.
“You mean I’ll have a bad heel? Couldn’t I just, like, wear something besides sandals? No offense.” Well, a little offense. The man was rude to him first.
Achilles looks torn between glaring at him again and looking down at his blood-stained foot. “The heel was only my physical weakness, boy. My mother, Thetis, held me there when she dipped me into the Styx. What really killed me was my own arrogance upon your forefather’s shores.” Weird phrasing, but sure he died along the shoreline of the Mediterranean which meant it was his dad’s shore. “As surely as your own will be your end. Beware! Turn back!”
He almost sounds like he regrets those words, like he wants to watch Percy die. If Percy was here for any other reason, perhaps he would heed them, forced as they are, and go back the way he came. But Luke came here first, and he hadn’t changed his mind. If Percy is to have a chance, he has to enter the river.
“I have to, otherwise I don’t stand a chance.”
A nod. “Let the gods witness I tried. Boy, if you must do this, if you wish to live ,” said in such a way that implies it would be a disservice to humanity, “concentrate on your mortal point. Imagine one spot of your body that will remain vulnerable. This is the point where your soul, ragged and undeserving as it is, will anchor your body to the world.” Wow, really showing your arrogance there, dude. “It will be your greatest weakness, but also your only hope. No man may be completely invulnerable, it would be so arrogant as to style yourself a god.” He eyes Percy like he expects Percy to be doing that. As if. “Lose sight of what keeps you mortal, or be weak of spirit, and the River Styx will burn you to ashes. You will cease to exist.”
Percy sighs. “I don’t suppose you could tell me Luke’s mortal point?” Stabbing it would be preferable to jumping in that water.
Achilles just scowls. “Prepare yourself, foolish boy. Whether you survive this or not, you have sealed your doom! A doom that will find you just as it did him .”
Percy doesn’t get the chance to ask who the ‘him’ in question is before Achilles vanishes as if he was never there. Lovely. Cryptic warnings from a half-insane dead guy and now he gets to jump into the river of doom.