Remember (A Percy Jackson Fanfic)

26. Fulfilled

Third-person POV

Percy's vision blurred. Everything around him was muffled to him. He could feel Geras pulled off him, her grip on the knife loosening, leaving it embedded in Percy's abdomen. He still couldn't feel pain but he felt dazed and weakened. Only one weapon made him feel like that and it was Kronos' Scythe. Percy hoped the knife wasn't a manifestation of it.

'Percy!' he heard Will shout as he helped Percy to the ground 'Stay with me, man. Come on.'

'I'm not going anywhere.' Percy muttered softly as he felt more people gather around him.

'Alright, Perce. Look at me,' Apollo said seriously 'I'm going to pull the knife out, okay?'

Percy set his jaw and nodded, 'Do it.'

Percy felt the knife slide out of his wound like it was a greased cork. Apollo carefully removed the knife to prevent any further damage and it came out with a sickening squelch. Fortunately or unfortunately, there was no blood. Apollo brought the knife up to his face and after a few seconds, he tossed it to the ground and started working on Percy.

'Poison,' Apollo said as he placed both his hands on the wound 'I don't know which poison.'

Apollo started chanting in Ancient Greek as his hands started glowing. Percy looked around to see everyone who was uninjured surrounding him in a circle. He could see his friends looking at him in worry and Thalia looked like she was one second away from panicking.

'Why can't I heal you!' Apollo said in frustration. His hands were glowing so much they looked like they were about to explode.

'Apollo stop,' Percy whispered 'Dude, stop.'

'What?' Apollo asked surprised 'What are you talking about?'

'The prophecy,' Percy croaked '"Old age shall kill the hero". Geras is the goddess of Old Age.'

Percy watched as realisation dawned on everyone around him. He even saw some tears being shed. It seemed he was the only person to have figured it out.

'That's not going to stop me from trying.' Apollo said before lifting Percy's shirt. What he saw made the god falter.

'Is it bad?' Percy asked before lifting his head and looked at his wound 'Okay, it's bad.'

The wound itself was a sickly shade of black, the hole where the knife was looked like an endless pit. Spiderwebbing out from the wound were black lines that were slowly inching towards an unknown destination. The poison was unlike anything Apollo had ever seen.

'Let me try something.' Poseidon came up and said sadly. He hated seeing his son in this state and how little he could do. When Apollo nodded and backed away, he held his hand above Percy's body.

'I can't sense any water in the poison,' Poseidon said dejectedly 'I won't be able to get it out.'

'It's okay, dad,' Percy said softly with a smile on his face 'You did everything you can do.'

As Percy's eyes drooped, Apollo shook his shoulders gently, 'Hey, hey. Stay with me, Perce.'

'Let me go, Apollo,' Percy said looking at the god with a sad smile 'You said so yourself. You can't save everybody.'

'But I can save you.' Apollo said stubbornly. He had tears in his eyes as he chanted in Ancient Greek once again, trying to heal his friend.

The black lines had already reached Percy's chest and they were still going. The surrounding demigods and gods all looked upon the scene with teary eyes as Apollo continued chanting.