Chapter Text
Percy woke up to a persistent ringing that plagued his ears. His head heavy, requiring effort to lift like weights in work outs. His vision swam hazily, unidentifiable blobs of colour lounging about.
Two blobs pulled him forward in the water, as he floated along languidly. His eyelids threatened to drop again, isolating him from the world, barricading him in the consuming darkness.
——
A cold sensation pressed against his wrist and ankles, and he numbly registered how they pulsed with power. Unnatural. Restrictive. Like a void that sucks power and binds nature.
Percy peeled his eyes open to find himself in a dark room, the only source of light the incandescent glow of a fluorescent flame that rests high upon the wall. The steel-like material that creates the walls radiates a sense of nefariousness; it’s monotone palette maliciously encourage a fall to madness, a lost of hope. Perched upon the wall were chains of different lengths, each holding a cell not unlike the one he has been forced in. Metal of an unknown name glowed sharply in the face of the fire, the ruins of a yore language etched onto it. It radiated power like the restraints on him.
Percy vaguely registered how his blood thrums and burns, like searing flames replaced his blood after invading its residence. His head throbs, as little rivulets of blood trickles and escapes into the otherwise pellucid sea.
He tried to summon the currents in his favour, but it only caused an unpleasant claustrophobic sensation that spiked around his chained limbs. In desperation, he struggled and yanked against the bothersome cuffs, only for it to interrupt the ringing silence that has perpetuated until this moment.
Clang!
The sound of metal against metal: a sonorous melody that acts as a call. The door that was previously invisible, embedded in the lifeless walls, swing open slowly, threateningly. The water held its breath in anticipation and trepidation as a figure emerges.
——
It was his last day of his trip to Atlantis before he returns to the surface, to his other family. Percy had stayed in his father’s kingdom for a month. A month of admiring the bioluminescent walls that radiated a kaleidoscope of colours, as the chatoyant pearls illuminated the opulent surroundings. A month of transversing with merfolks, their eyes shone with adoration and care, as they relay their lives and culture with their little prince. A month of his father and family fussing over him, ridding him of responsibility of being depended and looked upon for his leadership. A month of freedom. Of being a kid.
So naturally, it really shouldn’t have been a surprise when he was kidnapped on the last day. Peace never lasts long for Percy Jackson. He has battled Kronos and Gaea before he was an adult. He had treaded across the body of Tartarus, even faced and escaped the primordial’s clutches. He had battled a multitude of monsters, each being decimated by his power and fierce protection of his friends. Yet when he felt a rough hand suddenly choking him, the unrelenting fist tightening and tightening around his neck, he was powerless to stop it.
——
The figure was decrepit, an ancient being whose visage for once does reflect his age. Bags of darkened circles lined his wrinkled eyebags, a head of unkept grey hair flushed about like dead seaweed in the currents, his eyes a colour of polluted water that emanated the same unease that monsters cause.
His gaze was trained on Percy, being in the only cage that is used. His mouth twisted into a taunting grin as he announced, ‘Why, if it isn’t the infamous Percy Jackson himself! Captured in his father’s own domain!’ A thunderous laughter followed in mockery as the boy’s dazed look cleared, transforming into one of anger, obsfucating the permeating fear.
In seeing the boy’s consciousness, the man bellowed, ‘If you are looking for ways to escape, know that the restrains on you have been infused with power to suppress the usage of yours. I have need of you,’ he flashed a predatory grin, ‘and you will comply’.
Now everyone who knows Percy knows of his impudence even in the face of danger, reflected in his murderous face, as he stared silently, defiantly at the captor.
‘I will never help you,’ he whispered into the silence, breath shallow but determination unshaken.
‘It is not a matter of choice, your compliance or defiance will not be affecting the outcome,’ the looming man answered, his eyes flashing a glowing cerulean as his power is diffused across the room, causing a suffocating feeling.
To Percy, this tinge of power feels sadly familiar, as he croaked out in a whisper, ‘Oceanus’.
Oceanus’ grin widened, as his glowing eyes evicted the crepuscular shadows that resided in the corners of the room. ‘Yes, I am glad one of his spawns finally have enough common sense to recognise me.’
‘Now, I do not want to keep waiting, so let us proceed.’
‘What?’ came a weak reply, as Percy’s red blood steadily ran into the water.
‘I have need for your power to take back my realm.’
And that was all the warning Percy received before a searing pain shot through his entire body, like his soul is being forcefully ripped out of his body. It continued for an unknown amount of time until he fell victim to unconsciousness.