~Frozen Soul~

Have you ever felt fear before? Has your heart ever pounded so hard in your chest you thought it would burst? Have you palms ever been so drenched in sweat you feared it would never wash off?

Percy had. He had felt fear for as long as he could remember be it from Gabe, Monsters or even bullies at his school. Percy had wandered the endless lengths of Tartarus, fought creatures as old as the world itself and still lived to tell the tale.

But now he feared he would never walk free again; feared he'd never hear the musical laugh of those he loved. After all the demons that hunted him now couldn't be killed, he couldn't cut them down with steel, gold or bronze – Percy couldn't fight something he couldn't see.

How could Percy fight his demons if he created them in the first place? How could he win a fight against his own thoughts; his own fears, loves and desires?

He couldn't. So he had to submit to them, become one with his own darkness.

...Flashback...

They had won.

Percy still couldn't believe it; he probably wouldn't ever be able to believe it. How could they, mere demigods, have won against an immortal older than time himself? Yet here they all were even Leo, who had dramatically re-entered the world of the living a few hours ago on a golden dragon with a young girl by the name of Calypso. They had all been summoned to Olympus to 'discuss their great victory' but the idea that Zeus even wanted silly mortals in his throne room instantly had Percy expecting the worst.

"Heroes of Olympus you have all done a great deed for us and we are grateful," The King of the gods began his unnecessarily loud voice echoing around the room the God, as usual, sounded annoyingly confident, causing Percy to narrow his eyes at him – there was something about the set of his face Percy didn't like, the smug smile and the glint in his eyes made him uncomfortable. In an act to reassure himself Percy let his right hand stray to his pocket were his loyal sword rested, waiting.

"You showed great power and skill during our battle against Gaea," Zeus continued and Percy had to bite down on his lip hard to stop himself from laughing at the pained expression on the God's face. "Your help will be remembered and you shall be rewarded in time but for now we have something else to discuss."

Percy huffed under his breath- 'in time they'll be rewarded' yeah right. The gods only ever gave out rewards when it would help them in the long term – they offered Percy Godhood so that they could control him, made Annabeth's dream come true; gave her the job of designing Olympus, so that they didn't have to do it. Blinking, Percy realised that Zeus had continued talking whilst Percy had been thinking.

"… too powerful and as a result-" Zeus was saying and Percy tried to remember what the conversation was about before his mind had wandered.

"What do you mean 'too powerful'" Jason interrupted, causing everyone – including the Gods – to stare at the son of Jupiter, not that Jason looked even fazed by the number of eyes on him, he merely straightened his back and stared back at his father. "How could we possible be 'too powerful'?"

Percy frowned at that, Zeus thought a bunch of teenagers were 'too powerful' what a bunch of rubbish. If anything the god should be worried about whatever life changing prophecy was going to come next. From Percy's limited knowledge it could be assumed that there is always, if not most of the time, a prophecy going around.

"Together you managed to pull of impossible-" Zeus pressed on in that same cocky tone he'd used earlier.

"Improbable." Athena corrected, causing Leo to snicker at the stricken look on the King of the Gods' face, Leo soon shut up after multiple death glares were thrown his way.

"Together you managed to pull of an improbable mission, saving the world from the rule of Gaea and the destruction she would have, no doubt, unleashed upon the world." Zeus drawled letting his gaze fall over each of the Demigods, lingering on Jason for a few seconds, when Zeus' gave fell on him Percy jutted his chin out and glared at the God, the action was a little bit childish but it made Percy feel a little better and, more importantly, he hoped the god could see the words hidden in Percy's sea-green eyes – I won't go down without a fight.

"We have decided-" Zeus declared, before Poseidon interrupted him.

"You have decided, brother; the rest of us haven't heard of and decision until today." Something about the anger in his dad's voice made Percy assume the worst and he pulled Riptide out of his pocket and whirled it around his fingers, he didn't doubt the God's noticed the action but they should know that despite the fact the Demigods were impossibly powerless against the Olympians Percy and his friends could still fight.

"What?" Percy growled, tired of the hurricane of questions in his brain, "What did you 'decide'?" Annabeth gave him a sharp glare but Percy was too tired to care- he'd been up since dawn rebuilding the camp after the miniature battle that took place when Gaea attacked he hadn't had any breaks and all he really wanted was some blue cookies and his bed.

"You forget your place, boy." Zeus snapped, eyes flashing like lightning, and Percy suddenly understood where Thalia got her temper from.

"And you forget yours, in case you forgot we saved you. You are in our debt not the other way around." Percy barely registered that he'd taken a step forward until Frank put a hand on his shoulder and shook his head; Percy sighed but didn't move again.

"If it wasn't for us you wouldn't have had the power to save us in the first place." Zeus snapped, the room began to smell faintly of ozone but Percy didn't care, he'd had enough of respecting and fearing the Gods, he'd had enough of saving their godly behinds only to have the gods make the same mistake again.

"If it wasn't for you we wouldn't have had to save you to begin with. If it wasn't for you ignoring the fact Kronos was rising he could have been stopped before the war had even begun. If it wasn't for the fact you sulked your way through the first half of the war with Gaea maybe we wouldn't have had to almost die every day for a month to win a war we were doomed to lose."

Percy had gone too far; had said too much. He was sure of it when Zeus' eyes took on a wicked gleam and Percy and his friends were suddenly enveloped in a bright light, the last thing Percy saw was Zeus' smirk before the world turned on its side and faded away.

Percy woke up in his cabin and immediately pulled Riptide out of his pocket and crouch on his bed, ready to fight. What he didn't expect was for a wave of dizziness to hit him and he fell right off his bed and landed on the unforgiving wooden floor with an oof. It took him approximately two minutes to untangle himself from his duvet, a fact he had no intention of sharing with anyone ever.

When he did manage to get to his feet he immediately fell to his knees, his head in his hands trying to keep the contents of his stomach down to no success – three seconds later he had his head in the toilet and was retching. His vomit sent a disgusting smell through the cabin and Percy was suddenly immensely grateful that he was alone-he didn't want anyone else to see him like this.

Once his body was happy that his stomach was empty Percy slumped against the wall behind him and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, it wasn't the sanitary option but Percy wanted the vomit gone as soon as possible. When he pulled his hand away and looked at it he was almost sick again. Red liquid covered his hand – he was vomiting blood.

"Gross" he muttered to himself, a huge draw back to having his own cabin was that he often thought out loud, which caused an awful lot of embarrassing conversations over the years – mostly when someone came into his cabin to make him jump or prank him he'd be standing with his back to them talking to himself.

"Blood, that's totally normal, ok yep totally one-hundred percent normal."

." Percy groaned, head spinning and stomach churning again. Percy buried his head in his knees and drew in deep breaths, just like Chiron had taught him after he had his first relapse due to spending endless hours in Greek Hell.

In, out. In, out. Percy breathed his breaths painfully loud in the silent cabin. For a few minutes Percy sat there looking completely and utterly calm, a complete illusion to his internal storm, but after a while he calmed his thoughts until mere ripples against his usual calm personality.

A thought suddenly occurred to him and his head snapped up and he glanced at the toilet opposite him, eyebrows raised. Usually when he panicked the pipes in his bathroom would burst, but now they seemed complete normal. Frowning, Percy tried to focus on the water humming silently in the pipes. Nothing. Huh.

Percy blinked slowly and clambered to his feet and walked over the sink, which sat next to the toilet in his blue tiled bathroom. He twisted the tap and water trickled free, so the plumbing wasn't broken, then why….

His mind stuttered to a stop and his mind flashed back to Olympus, 'you're too powerful' Zeus had told them, did he? No surely not. Percy looked up into the mirror above the sink and gasped at what he saw – his eyes once a beautiful (others word not his) sea-green colour were now a milky blue, almost colourless, further confirming his theory.

"No, he couldn't have. Oh gods no," he whispered eyes stinging, suddenly an arch of white hot anger shot through him and he raised his fist and smashed it into the face looking at him with those horrible eyes. The glass smashed and some shards rained down into the sink, like innocent snow-flakes.

Determined to still prove his theory wrong, Percy ran out of his bedroom to his bedside table where an empty glass sat, gleaming in the early morning light. He then charged back into the bathroom and filled it with water. Sitting on the toilet, with the lid down, for a moment he sat there until he pivoted in his seat and flushed the toilet. Looking down into the glass of water in his hand, Percy narrowed his eyes and used all his powers of concentration on the water sitting devastatingly still in the glass.

"Come on, please." Nothing, "Move, gods-damned it." Percy sat there for what could have been decades for all he knew. Eventually he gave up, his anger rose to dangerous heights again ad without his powers to release it on Percy curled his hands around the glass so hard it smashed. Percy cursed and opened his hands, only for a criss-cross of angry, red gashes to stare back at him.

"Percy?" Jason called from the main room in his cabin, how had he not heard him enter? Percy dismissed the thought and got to his feet trying to get his hands into a position that wouldn't let the son of Jupiter would see the cuts , and wasn't painful because holy-Hera his hands hurt, he went with crossing his hands over his chest, and then he walked out of the door.

"Hey Jay, what's up, don't say the sky again, 'cause it's not funny." He greeted, grateful that his vice wasn't trembling as much as he was. Jason turned to him frowning and Percy's eyes widened at the purple bags under his friend's eyes, Jason looked relieved, causing Percy to take a wary step forward.

"Hey, you alright man?" he asked, almost going to put his hand on Jason's shoulder, he managed to stop himself when his hands throbbed again.

"Am I alright? Dude, you've been unconscious for three days." Jason huffed and Percy's eyes widened.

"'Three days', what do you mean 'three days'? Why have I been unconscious? Why do you look so tired? What-" Jason cut him off by slapping his hand over Percy's mouth.

"One at a time dude, jeez. Alright question one: I mean about thirty-five hours give or take. Question two: we're not sure because we all woke up a few minutes after the gods flashed us here after our little chat with father dearest." Jason took a deep breath, whether to calm his own anger or to prepare for the next answer Percy wasn't sure. "It's gone Perce." He whispered and Percy deflated a little in understanding.

"What's gone Jay?" he asked anyway, just to be sure he was aware what was going on.

"Our powers - me, Piper, Frank, Hazel, Annabeth and Leo, we all woke up weak and disorientated, and disgustingly powerless." Percy stopped breathing entirely, how could their powers be gone. How could Zeus do such a thing? Why would he? Percy knew perfectly well why but still…why?

"Zeus did this, that bastard," Percy growled, vision going red….actually it didn't go red at all more of a light blue but Percy didn't dwell on that particular strange bit of information.

"Percy…" Jason warned, gazing at the ceiling. Percy followed his gaze and frowned – what was he looking at. "The Gods may be listening." Jason clarified, Percy blushed – what had Jason thought as Percy stared at the ceiling like a twat?

"You don't know that, they might be massive stalkers but I don't think they'd go as far as watching sixteen year olds in their cabins," Percy squinted out the window. "At night especially." Jason didn't look convinced and, in all honesty, Percy wasn't that convinced either, shivering Percy wrapped his arms around himself.

"Are you alright?" Jason inquired placing a hand on Percy's shoulder; the latter cocked his head to the side and stared at his friend, Jason huffed "You look pale that's all and … Percy what happened to your hands!" Percy flinched at the sudden loud noise and Jason looked mildly guilty.

"It's nothing – just a scratch, that's all." Percy muttered, folding his hands behind his back to hide them from his friends view, the action caused pain so rip up his arm and he flinched –an action that didn't go unnoticed by Jason who grabbed him by the forearms and gently, as if Percy was something fragile; breakable, unclasped his hands and brought them into the light.

"Looks like more than a 'scratch' in my opinion." Percy rolled his eyes at the patronising tone in Jason's voice.

"Alright multiple scratches." Percy allowed, Jason glared at him and Percy smiled back. He didn't look impressed but Percy was going slightly loopy from all the blood loss.

"And some- a lot of glass." Jason pointed out, Percy scowled and snatched his arm back, silently, and he examined the cuts and winced at the scarlet blood dripping on his oak floor, a sharp contrast to the otherwise blue and green cabin, turns out Jason was right, Percy glared through his fringe at the smug blond, Jason wisely looked away.

"Pft, I'm fine." Percy huffed, Jason through his hands in the air in exasperation, then proceeded to bodily drag him into the bathroom, no way Percy was letting that happen. Percy swung his weight around and to the ground, pulling Jason down with him. He then rolled to his feet and pressed his foot to Jason's throat.

"I get the feeling that I won," Percy tapped his chin thoughtfully, "Yeah, it think I won." He grinned down at the boy on the floor but the look faded and he drew his eyebrows together. "Hey, Jay, you ok?"

Percy removed his foot from the boy's throat and crouched down, Jason looked awful – his face was green and his eyes bloodshot, he somehow looked ten times worse than he did moments ago.

"I'm ok," Jason muttered in Latin, Percy hardly understood the words but he knew what 'fine' was so It was pretty easy to figure out what he said.

"Dude, you lost your powers but can still speak Latin? That's messed up." Percy noted squinting into the distance, trying to recall some Greek but he was unable to. "Oh my gods I can't remember Greek, I'm so jealous." Percy pouted; unaware of the strange look the boy on the floor was giving him.

"Percy, shut up." Percy jumped at the sudden return of Jason; it was a manly jump of cause. Jason huffed clumsily got to his feet, Percy reached out to help him up but a sudden wave of dizziness hit him and he bolted into the bathroom and locked to door.

Percy held his head in his hands and took deep breaths again, not wanting to vomit. He managed to calm himself down after a few minutes, until he looked up and the walls began closing in around him, and the lack of humming power within him made him want to cry, he didn't but it was tempting.

He tried to calm himself down; tried to direct his thoughts away from the all-encompassing emptiness that clung to him.

"Percy? Are you ok?" Percy snapped his head up so fast he could a bit of whiplash; he'd, once again, forgotten he wasn't alone. He latched onto Jason's voice and tried to use it to ground himself but he just kept drifting further and further away. He was alone.

All alone in the dark, where was Annabeth? She helped him through the dark…Annabeth left him, just like everyone else did, no, not Annabeth, surely. A voice rang through his head and Percy curled in on himself. Gaea. It had to be her, it sounded like her.

"Percy?" No not Gaea, Jason. His friends – his OCD friend, the son of Zeus – no Jupiter, that's right Jupiter. Who was he? He was the son of someone important too, who was it again? Water, Percy could remember water, salt water to be exact, and warm sea-green eyes staring down at him with warm pride. Poseidon – he was the son of Poseidon, God of the Sea.

But was he? He wasn't sure, he couldn't feel anything, he couldn't feel water… what did water look like?

Thought and memories swirled in his head then tumbled down, like a Tsunami before draining through a plug hole, the same plug hole that had stolen everything from him. He was nothing; he was an empty shell, left on the side to be thrown away.

Percy snapped his eyes open; he was lying back in his bed. Had it all been a dream – a mere flicker of picture created by his mind? For a moment he felt light and alive again but all that faded when pain whispered up his arms, teasing his heart, causing it to pound in his chest. He clasped his hands together, he could feel the bandages that had been wrapped around him wounded skin, presumably by Jason, he didn't think the boy was strong enough the carry him down to the infirmary to have a child of Apollo fix him up.

He'd have to thank the son of Jupiter later, if he could ever bare to stand up and face the world again. Percy grimaced at the memory of his mini breakdown last night. Was it last night, or last century? He wasn't sure, he was equally unsure if he wanted to know in the first place.

Eventually lying in bed got boring, of course he'd loose his powers yet keep his ADHD, because wasn't that just his luck? He got to his feet and turned to go to the bathroom, he stopped outside the room, his head telling him that he should probably get as far away from water as possible, it was a strange feeling that made his shift from foot to foot uncomfortably.

'What are you so afraid of?' He asked himself, he received no answer, because he honestly didn't know anymore, monsters, water and death? He was afraid of them all, yet they didn't make him wake up covered in sweat and screaming, they didn't make him freeze whenever he was near them, witnessed them. If anything those fears made him stronger.

A burning sensation filled his stomach and Percy doubled over in pain. Gods, it was painful, like something was trying to tear its way out of him; trying to find its way out of the calm and quiet into the terrifying reality Percy found himself living in.

Percy clumsily got to his feet once the pain had passed, he tiptoed back to his bed and slumped face first down on the duvet, he wasn't ready to face the world yet, he would never be ready, he knew that much, he'd have to go and face the world at some point though it didn't matter if he felt ready or not. For now, though sleep seemed like a fantastic option.

When Percy came back around the first thing he did was frown 'he must've woken up on the wrong side of the bed' Percy thought sitting up to face the day before retreating back into the warmth, because what the Hades had happened while he'd slept.

The windows of his cabin were covered in frost; beautiful swirling patterns that made him gawk in awe. Percy huffed, his breath visible in the cold, dancing through the air, before being chased away by the lingering warm. It was missing, but not gone.

When Percy's feet touched the floor he slipped and collapsed to the floor, for what felt like the millionth time, however, this time, it wasn't his fault- the floor was sleek with frost and very slippery. Percy lay there for a while, letting his pride heal before he grasped the edge of his bed and pulled himself to his feet, he totally got to his feet immediately – of course, he didn't fall over multiple times.

Once on his feet Percy braced his hands on the wall and shoved himself in the direction of the door, surprisingly, he made it all the way there without falling over, well, he did crash into the door, but at least it wasn't the floor. Percy shoved his shoes on his feet and opened the door.

The world outside his meaningless, cabin was as cold as the arctic, not the Percy really felt it that much; he guessed it was because of the lingering shock of the sight before him: trees had been torn in half by wicked, sharp icicles that looked ominously like teeth. The sky was grey with clouds, the ground crunchy with a thick veil of snow. Percy pivoted to take in as much of the winter wonderland as he could.

On his left he saw what looked like a pathway; the trees were bent inwards casting the path in shadow and all the icicles seemed to be pointing that way, intrigued, Percy followed. He wished he'd brought his coat with him, but didn't want to turn back, besides the cold was a helpful reminder that this wasn't a dream, Camp Half-Blood was frozen, and last Percy checked it was summer.

Shadows loomed over him, the darkness would have usually triggered some… unpleasant memories, but somehow the biting cold kept calling him, his concentration never wavered from the path ahead; what was behind him faded away, into whispers and emptiness.

The lack of fear was so relaxing Percy started humming along to the whispers of the wind around him; he became one with the cold around him. The winter didn't complain.

He walked for a while, but his footsteps never faltered and his arms hung next to him, neither of them were covered in goose bumps despite the needle like pain that occasionally sprinkled them, whenever the pain came the wind howled and apology and Percy forgave it, too mesmerised to really care.

"Hello," A voice called and Percy stumbled slightly, taking cover behind a tree, hoping that reality hadn't come to claim him again so soon, it wouldn't have surprised him if it had; the Fates seemed to like to mess with him as much as possible. "Is anyone out there?" Percy sighed but walked towards the voice, the cold called him back but he shut it out, hurt, the cold blew away, Percy didn't allow himself to care.

"Yeah, it's me." Percy called out; hoping whoever found him knew who he was; the last thing he wanted was some stranger walking out to ask who 'me' is.

"Percy?" Thank the Gods. "There you are!" Now Percy was confused, had someone been looking for him? A blond head emerged from the trees and piercing grey eyes met his and Annabeth sagged in relief.

"Annabeth, what's going on with-" He waved his arm vaguely, "this?" Annabeth sighed and rubbed her temple, Percy mentally slapped himself – Jason told him they'd all had their powers taken, Annabeth included, and there he was pointing it out to her and probably making her feel even worse than she already did. "Sorry, I didn't-"

"Don't worry about it, I might not be a 'Wise-Girl' anymore but I can still answer simple questions" Percy noticed the way her eyes darkened at her old nickname and mentally slapped himself again.

"Does that mean I'm not a 'Seaweed Brain' anymore?" He hadn't liked where that conversation had been going and humour was his anchor, he hoped it would be Annabeth's too.

"Not a chance," She grinned and Percy dramatically threw his hands in the air before wiping his eyes.

"My dreams will come true one day, I shall have a new nickname better than any others-" Percy wasn't an expert at speaking like a posh person so he tried to mimic Jason as best he could, Jason would deny it until the end of the universe but the Son of Jupiter did sound like a posh bastard.

"'Shark Boy' shall be your nickname." Annabeth tapped him on his left shoulder then his right, as if knighting him, Percy grinned stupidly at that, and then he reconsidered the nickname.

"I'd rather be called anything else but that, milady." Percy shrugged as if his dislike of the nickname was completely out of his control, which was kind of the case.

"How about 'Aqua Boy'?" Annabeth shrugged, yet her eyes were shimmering and a smirk graced her tired features, the cold had almost vanished from their minds.

"Yeah, cause that's so much better." Percy snorted, Annabeth laughed at him and Percy's spirit rose slightly.

"I'm not going to call you handsome if that's what you had in mind." She slapped him on the arm, Percy hardly felt the pain, he wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

"You could call me 'Guapo'," Percy suggested, biting his cheek to prevent himself from grinning and giving his plan away.

"Is that just handsome in another language?" Percy reeled in his surprise at the question, he honestly thought Annabeth knew what the word meant, but then again what did he know about what was left of Annabeth's brilliant mind?

"Nope," He told her popping the 'p', Annabeth's smirk flickered slightly, before her confident smile was back on her face.

"Is it just a synonym of 'Handsome' in another language?" Annabeth huffed, Percy cursed internally, no matter how much the Gods messed with the daughter of Athena's brain, she would always outwit him, he was glad she did, it made him feel human, a feeling he hadn't known for years, until now.

"No." He said unconvincingly and Annabeth laughed throwing her head back and releasing great gasps of air towards the sky, Percy thought she was laughing at him but was she? Or was she laughing for some deeper reason than he realised?

Before he could ponder the thought any longer, Annabeth head snapped back to him and she wrapped her arms around him, Percy tensed in surprise and then relaxed, hugging her back.

"Thank you." Annabeth muttered into his shoulder, Percy narrowed his eyes and as if she could sense his confusing Annabeth continues, "Everyone else has been acting to different since Olympus, but you're still you and when I'm around you I feel like me again." Annabeth took a deep breath and her shoulders briefly shook, she held onto him a little harder.

"You are still you, Annabeth. No power could ever change who you are, sure we adapt and shift in and out of focus, but we don't change, not really." He told her gently, the words echoing around them and Percy briefly hoped his words made their way all the way back to the camp and into the ears of his friends – he hoped they understood that the shadow they had fallen under won't last forever.

~Thanks for Reading!

Please tell me what you thought of this rewrite- did you like it? Hate it? plz let me know!

P.S: There are quite a few mistakes but the grammar check I usually use won't let me log in for some reason - sorry

P.P.S: I don't own anything