In Pursuit of Power (A Percy Jackson Fanfic)

Gods are weird. That's something I always knew, but I didn't understand the full extent of it until I became one myself. I didn't mean just the incredible things they could do, either. The very core of their being, the stuff that made them tick, was weird.

Even though they couldn't die, there were tons of things that they had to pay attention to. For powerful ones, sacrifices from mortals kept them strong and sated. For weaker gods, those same sacrifices were critical. Without them, it was possible to waste away.

Fortunately, despite being the youngest god on the face of the entire planet, I seemed to fall into the first category. Even if my control over my powers was terrible and I could only handle a part of my true form, the raw strength currently buried out of reach was still a part of who I'd become.

Calypso and I had set up a fire pit using an old trash can in the room where everybody ate their meals, but I wasn't going to fade if nobody scraped a side of beans off their plate for me every night. Which wasn't to say I wasn't grateful for every donation I did get.

Somehow, the sensation was twice as incredible as actually eating the food itself.

All of that was good news. Unfortunately, there was something else I needed that I couldn't provide for myself. Calypso explained it this way:

"Think of your father," she had said as the two of us sat alone one night, not long after Rio's enforced vacation from life. "He is the god of the ocean, correct? Would you not agree that he reminds you of what he rules?"

I thought of my father— which hurt a little, because I still wasn't sure what had become of him since I saw him last. But I pushed past that and considered what she was saying.

Poseidon could be kind, and he always was to me. But his moods changed incredibly fast when challenged. At times he was wild. You didn't have to look any further than Medusa's origin, or Antaeus, my giant half-brother that sacrificed every kill in his depraved fighting pit to our father. Kind, but quick to anger. Sometimes calm, sometimes wild. I couldn't think of a better representation of the ocean than that.

"Yeah," I said, "that's definitely accurate."

"Then consider this," Calypso said. "When he was born, he was not the god of the sea at all. It was that way until his father was defeated and he and his brothers split the world between themselves. How, then, could he be so perfectly suited to something he ended up with by chance?"

I tried to come up with an answer without success. Calypso giggled.

"You are cute when you are confused. Do not worry, it was rhetorical. The answer is this: he is so much like the sea because he has become like the sea. When he chose it as his domain, it became a part of him, a pillar of his very being. Domains are extremely important for gods. Not only do they increase their powers, they stabilize their very existence. Without them, a god's presence on this earth is tenuous, always at risk of slipping away."

That was fascinating, but it brought up a very worrying thought.

"I don't have a domain," I said.

"Correct," Calypso said. "Which is why you, like other young gods who have not come into their own, must be careful! Until a domain has become a part of you, you will not be complete. You must fill that void with something else."

"What could possibly substitute for an entire domain?"

She looked me directly in the eyes, gripping my hands.

"Faith," she said.

All of which just about brings us back to the current moment.

I shifted the collar of my shirt uncomfortably, checking my reflection in a slightly cracked mirror. My Hawaiian shirt was a far cry from the suit I wore to my mom's wedding with Paul, but it was still the best Calypso and I could find. There wasn't any kind of dress code and none of the audience waiting for me would really care, we just felt we should try at least this hard.

Speaking of the beautiful Titaness, she'd left our shared room a half hour earlier to gather every single person under our protection. The city hall had an event space on the third floor that was just big enough to fit everyone if the squished in. I didn't know if I was relieved that I'd only have to give this speech once, or intimidated knowing just how many eyes were going to be on me. Even at the battle of Manhattan I'd only been rallying a little over forty. For demigods that might be an army, but it was significantly less than the amount I was about to face.

The door swung open. It wasn't Calypso. Mikey stuck his head inside, still wearing Rio's cowboy hat. He'd hardly taken it off since the river god's defeat.

"Calypso says they're ready," he said.

I gave him a confident grin that didn't quite reach my eyes and planted a hand on his head.

"What're you waiting for then? Lead the way!"

He squirmed out from under my hand with a glare before confidently taking me out of the room and down the hall. We both knew that I could find my way there as easily as he could, but he seemed to be enjoying the fact that he had a job.

We were almost to the elevator when Mikey said, "You're leaving, aren't you?"

"What makes you say that?"

"You're all dressed up. And I didn't like the look in Calypso's eyes."

"Sharp kid."

Mikey just shrugged as if to say, obviously.

We stood in silence waiting for the elevator to arrive.

"...Please don't go."

Mikey said it quietly, basically under his breath. He was doing his best not to look at me.

"I have to," I said. Before he could react, I patted him on the back hard enough that he took a step forward. "You know you can come too, right? If you want."

His eyes gleamed as he forgot all about avoiding looking. "You mean it?"

I smiled as the elevator doors opened.

"I'm taking as many people as will go," I said, stepping inside. Mikey followed a moment later. "That's what this is all about. I've got to convince the others to leave with us. At least some of them."

Mikey considered that as he pressed the button for floor three. "You're going to fight bad guys, right?"

"Sure am."

"Guys like Rio?"

"Some of them will be even more dangerous," I said. "He was mean, but he wasn't even close to the strongest."

"I don't get it." Mikey frowned. "Why wouldn't the others want to help with something like that?"

"Well, probably because they're scared." We reached our floor and the doors slid open. "They aren't like me— they can't fight like I can. If I mess up even once, they could die. That's not an easy choice to make."

Mikey thought about that. Up ahead, I saw the auditorium doors. We stopped just outside.

"I'm scared too," he finally said, "but that means I have to go. I don't want other people to feel the way I do. So we have to get rid of all of them, all the guys like Rio."

He said it so simply, like it was so easy, that I couldn't help but laugh.

To tell the truth, over the last half hour the confidence I had when talking to Calypso had started to fade. I wondered if I was doing the right thing. Did I have any right to risk so many lives like this? What if there was another way?

What would happen if I messed up?

It was like Mikey's words vacuumed all those eerie questions straight out of my head. This wasn't the same world I was used to; it was built on the ruins of everything I had cherished. I wasn't the only one that lost what he loved. Every one of those people in the next room had been put through hell without even knowing why it was happening to them

The ones that did this had to pay. I was the one with the power to do it, and this was the first step on the path I needed to take.

It really was as simple as that.

I held my fist out to Mikey.

"I really hope I meet lots more people as cool as you," I said.

He gave me my fistbump. "Not possible," he said stubbornly. "I'm the coolest."

Grinning, I stepped up to the door and booted it open.

The hinges whooshed, followed by a bang as the door collided with the wall. Every single head swung toward me as I sauntered into the room, still grinning.

"Good evening ladies, gentlemen and vipers!" I said. "I'm Percy, if you didn't already know, and I've got a few things to say."

A mahogany rug ran between rows of chairs, leading up to a raised dais with a podium on it. Nobody was actually sitting so that we could conserve what space we had. Every inch of the room was packed except for the narrow aisle. Beside the podium I spotted Calypso with a palm pressed to her face while Annie busted a gut in the front row. Not far from them, Grace gave me a thumbs up and a goofy grin. I sauntered up to the podium as Mikey trailed me like a bodyguard.

I thought my confidence might crack when I got up on stage and actually faced the crowd all at once, but I was worried for nothing. My self-confidence was running way too high.

It wasn't that I was certain I would succeed. I just knew that this was what I had to do. Second guessing would only slow me down.

Most of the front rows\ I recognized, although I was still working on learning their names. They were the ones that Annie and Grace primarily worked with. The ones that were more alert and full of life. Past them were ones whose faces I only vaguely knew. These were the ones that used to spend their time loitering at the edge of camp, wasting away. Since Rio's defeat there had been positive signs, though. The fact that they were here at all tonight was proof of that.

Other than those two there was only one more group. In the back left corner a collection of grim men and women with hard faces watched with their arms crossed. Even in the crowded room these ones had been given a wide berth. That was understandable.

A month ago they had been enemies.

The remnants of Rio's mortal forces, spared at the last second on a whim, were far from integrating in with the others. Both sides didn't seem to have any interest in building bridges, and if I was being honest, I totally understood. The ex-fighters wouldn't have been allowed to roam free like this at all if it wasn't for one thing.

A cottonmouth was wrapped around the arm of each of them. The snakes were docile… for now. If they sensed so much as one bad thought, though, they'd been instructed to bite without hesitation.

We hadn't had any problems yet.

I cleared my throat, tapping the microphone on the podium. Shockingly, it worked perfectly. I wondered if another one of Calypso's spells was involved.

"I guess you could call all of this an announcement," I said. "The short version is that I'm going on a trip. The long version is what I'm about to tell you now, because the short one doesn't give you squat. I recently defeated Rio Grande, one of the governors of the West."

More than a few eyes turned toward Rio's old troops, but their expressions didn't change. The rest went on looking at me, waiting for more.

"I'm sure you all knew that already. What you might not have known, is how I could pull something like that off. Let me reintroduce myself: my name is Perseus Jackson, and I am a god."

That got some widening eyes. I waited for the slight chatter to settle before continuing.

"Three years ago, I fought… and I lost. I faced the king of the Titans when he was on the verge of victory. I gave everything to stop him. As you might be able to guess, my everything wasn't good enough. I was completely defeated. But I gained power in the process, power I never could have dreamed of before. The enemies are stronger now than they ever have been, but so am I. This world they created… I cannot accept it. So I'm going to continue to fight. Even if I have to take them down one by one, even if it takes me hundreds of years, I will destroy what they've created. Because that's the only way normal people will be able to live their lives again, the way they used to."

The entire room was silent as I paused. It was almost freaky, like every single person present was holding their breath. I was doing something dangerous. I was giving them hope.

"There is a catch," I said. "There always is, isn't there? I can't do it alone. In order for me to fight, I need help. Not on the frontlines, but in the form of support. I need people who will follow me, who will believe I can do what I'm promising."

"That's asking a lot," Grace said from the front row.

Mikey glared like she'd turned traitor, but I only nodded.

"I can't promise it won't be dangerous. In fact, I can promise it will be dangerous. The only thing I have to say is this: wouldn't it be better to face risks on your feet, than crawl for the rest of your lives?"

When Grace smirked, I realized it had been a leading question all along. She turned to the crowd, riding off my momentum.

"He's right!" she shouted. "I don't know about you all, but I'm sick of living like this! You all didn't see it, but Annie and I did. They didn't just beat Rio, Percy and Calypso toyed with him. If anyone can pull of what they're talking about, it's them!"

"Rio was nothing," said a voice from the back.

It wasn't loud, but it was so deep and baritone that it cut across the rising chatter like a speed boat through a wake. One of Rio's mercenaries stepped forward, a skinny boy that despite not looking much older than I was, had a haggard face with far too many lines from stress.

"You all wouldn't know," he said. "For you, Rio was the worst you saw. But we worked under him. We saw what's really out there. There are things scary enough to make Rio wet his leather pants just because they looked in his direction. Talking about changing this world, only tells me how little you've seen of it."

Everyone turned, waiting for my response. I leaned into the microphone.

"There's a lot I don't know," I admitted. "You're half-right. You've definitely seen more than me. You're also half-wrong, though."

"Oh yeah? How's that?"

"Because the Titans made a mistake," I said. "They took away everything I had to lose, but not my life."

Changes swept my arm. People yelped and cowered as I adopted one part of my true form, just as I had when I beat Rio into the ground. A partial transformation wasn't enough to vaporize mortals like the full version would've been, but it still bathed the room in my presence. All of a sudden they couldn't just see me, they could feel me.

They could taste a sliver of what I was really walking around with.

As quick as it came I let the transformation fade. A few people had stumbled, and a few more had fallen over. The ex-mercenary that started it all seemed to have kept his feet under the brunt of my attention through sheer persistence and nothing else.

"You speak of dangerous things in this world," I said, unable to stem the smile that formed on my lips. "I know for a fact that they exist— because I am one."

We looked at each other for a long moment, neither of us moving.

"Was there anything else?" I asked.

He stepped back, rejoining his friends without another word. I couldn't hide my smirk as I faced the room.

"That's all I have to say," I said. "Now, it's your turn. If you're with me, stay. If you'd rather remain in Spokane, I won't hold that against you."

For a long moment nobody moved, and I allowed myself to hope. Then the first person excused themselves from the back. It was like a damn had broken. More and more followed, leaving the room. I didn't hold it against them, but the same didn't go for my friends. Mikey glared at each one, and Annie actually joined him. Calypso merely looked nervous.

When the room was a little over half-empty, the flood turned to a trickle. Over the next few minutes only a few left. Finally, even that stopped. I was looking out over roughly thirty people. Less than half of what we started with, but more than I'd feared.

"That'll do," I said, allowing myself a relieved sigh.

Of the ones that remained, almost the entire front row was represented. Maybe that shouldn't have been surprising. Not a single one of the mercenaries had left, either.

When he caught me looking, the boy that had publicly questioned me just raised an eyebrow.

"I wasn't under the impression that the offer to stay extended to us," he said simply.

I smiled. He was right.

There was no way I was leaving them here to boss around the ones we left behind.

Turning to the rest of the crowd, I bowed.

"Thank you," I told them simply.

To my surprise, most bowed back. Being on this side of worship was really going to take some getting used to.

Sensing things were wrapping up, the mercenaries left the room after getting a nod from me that it was alright. I shook hands with quite a few of the others as they approached me, before sending them on their way too. When the auditorium was nearly empty I allowed myself to sink against the podium with a weary sigh.

"What is my god acting tired for?"

A hand landed on my shoulders as a body pressed in beside me. I turned my head to find Annie's grinning face right there.

"She's right." Someone else slid in on the other side of me. Grace leaned forward to catch my eye. "It wasn't quite what we hoped, but you succeeded! Instead of sitting around sighing, we should celebrate."

When she slid her hand over my shoulder from the other side the same way Annie had, I realized just how close they were sitting.

I looked over my shoulder—

Mikey was gone. He'd left with the others. It was just the four of us in the room.

Calypso, the last of the four, caught where I was looking.

"I sent him to join the others going to bed," she said. "Sleep is very important at that age."

Annie smirked. "But we're big girls, and our bed times are very flexible."

"They're not the only thing that's flexible," Grace said close to my ear.

Contrary to popular opinion around Camp Half-Blood, I was not, in fact, dense. I could tell where this was going. I looked up at Calypso, asking a silent question.

She bent forward, caressing my cheek.

"I didn't put them up to this," she assured me. "They came up with it themselves. And really, they're right. Tonight we celebrate."