Percy's POV
My blinded eyes become uncovered by the light, finding ourselves within a desolated landscape of dead bushes and crumbled buildings. I pick up a rock, skimming it against the floor and much to my denial, it acts like any other rock. Crumbling after three bounces and scattering against the tall standing structure in the centre.
"Cliodhna said this was supposed to be similar to the mirror? Or was I just imagining that" I sound out to the others.
"Is it not?" Nimue responds.
"No, that place didn't have anything. Not until it was envisioned by someone...or something." We walk closer to the building, sliding my hand across the wall and causing chiseled stone to fall against my hand. Wiping it away on my clothes we begin to circle it, eventually finding a door with large proportions with two hand slots on either side of it.
"Ready?" I signal to Nimue as she places her hand against one side similar to me. Pressing against it with an increasing grip, only to flop entirely with my growing impatience.
"I don't think that's for you, Percy" Jackson murmurs out from behind us.
"Who else would it be for?" I stand out of his way, watching him gently place his hand on it, looking towards the other empty slot.
"Irene" He calls out.
A figure with white hair gradually fades in, looking towards me and then back towards the door. 'Something about her face...I've seen her before' I feel my heart racing for some reason as if my body's responding to something before I can properly recall it.
The door rumbles, removing the giant cloak of dust that buried the covered symbols along the door. From Jackon's extends the gold, from Irene extends the Violet. Twisting and turning across each other until reaching the top of the door frame, diluting the colours to a pure white and bursting the door down into dust. I back up slightly compared to Nimue's curiosity getting the better of her as she only gets closer.
"Hear that?" She whispers under the sound. Something soothing plays from the building, a piano of sorts entangled around strings of a violin ring out from the space. "Let's go" She says without hesitation.
"Hmm..." Jackson clicks his fingers, releasing sparks from the motion that lay across the floor, removing the colour from the terrain and replacing it with a pure white. He keeps going further in as we follow.
The brightened space immediately filling Nimue with awe as we glance at the floating objects, slowly spinning around a spire of bookcases and collectibles. "What's this?" I reach out to one of the many blobs of dark that's rises from the ground.
"Ink" Irene answers. Making me retract my hand out of worry for it.
"Has anyone else noticed?" Nimue speaks.
"The music stopped" Jackson points out.
All of the rising ink collects itself, circling into a ball of dark. Taking in colours from the surrounding environment and adding it to the orb, "This isn't a love story...this isn't a story told through the hero crafted through pain and sorrow." A feminine voice weakly speaks from it, "No, this is a tragedy. One of loss...the loss of many." the ink flows to the ground, flowing into the form of a woman.
"Why-" Nimue tries to speak
"I was calling to Jackson and Irene. Why would you people come here willingly!?" She speaks out.
"We needed to ask some questions" I try to inform her.
"No." She releases a high pitched screech from a finger snap, crippling me to the floor as I hold my ears desperately. "Oh right, not a wolf." She notices Nimue still standing.
"Pl-ease-" I glance at my stomach from under the clothing as I pick myself up from the floor. Lifting it up and showing her with immediacy.
"I'm well aware of your situation, there's no need to show me."
"So then help us figure this all out!" I yell out. Watching as she raises her fingers again, ready to snap. "Wait! Okay! Please, help us". I plead this time but she remains silent.
Her eyes graze over Jackson before looking back towards me, "No." She commands, snapping her fingers together and shifting the very reality from where we stand. Throwing us outside of the door we just opened, darkening the short distance we were thrown through.
"Why!?" I cry out through a small pain from being thrown to the floor. Looking towards Nimue who looks blatantly pissed off. But that woman's action just now...it looked similar to something I've seen before.
"Irene" She commands through the dark. Through it walks the white haired girl, a saddened look on her face as she approaches us. Looking nowhere but the floor even as the door behind her thumps back shut.
"You're just going to let her take him!?" I scream.
She extends her hand out, releasing similar sparks to Jackson. "If my hand touches you...then you die." Her hair flows freely as a sudden wind blows past her, covering my eye sight with sand and forcing me to cover my eyes.
"Percy!" Nimue shoves me to the floor and out of the way. Irene's breakneck speed colliding with the ruined buildings behind us, the sparks from her hand scattering like flames across the rock and wood. Turning them to nothing more than a patch of grass and pebbles along the floor. She turns around to face us with her pearl white eyes, still refusing to look directly at us.
"I'm sorry" She calls out, running towards me again with a blinding speed. Once again Nimue kicks me out of the way, pulling out Arthur's engraved sword and slicing down to the side of her as Irene spins past the downward strike. Blasting Nimue with her leg, sending her flying into a nearby pillar.
"You've...been able to see me for a while now. Haven't you?" She walks towards me.
"W-what!?" I scramble to my feet, something inside of me screaming to keep my eyes on her hand.
"When did that happen..." She continues thinking. She leaps towards me and this time aiming towards my arm, throwing myself to the floor I desperately roll across the rough terrain. Watching as the sparks spread again, creating a large perfectly circular pit within the floor. Leaving something shining within it.
"You've been staring at me with something more than interest...almost as if you've seen me before" She slowly picks herself up from the floor.
"I haven't!" I try to think back to what she's saying but I can't remember anything.
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She slides her hand across the floor this time, spreading the sparks and flicking pebbles towards me. Inch by inch they grow by the millisecond, now big enough to crush me by the force they fly at. 'Percy' Crest tries to speak to me.
'What is it!?' I panic, swerving under them with the tiniest open gap.
'She-' I block out his comment as a newly sized boulder splits open to reveal her extended hand. I look towards her face, only to see boredom written all across it. My heart races as the black smoke runs along my body, her eyes trace it. Arching her hand back from my body but still filling the smoke with some of the sparks.
"FU-" I hold my stomach in pain as I feel something burst from it. Sending Irene crashing back into the sealed door. Before I can even return to my feet she looks up with...concern? Written across her face.
"You can get back up" She continues speaking.
"I can't!" I yell through pain.
Her steps become louder, visible iridescent glows release from her hand and spark against the ground as she extends it to me. I look up through the light, seeing Nimue's desperation shine through her eyes while she swings her blade down towards Irene's neck. Cutting nothing more than a few hairs before she notices Nimue, touching the blade and reforming it into bundles of glistening rock against the floor.
She backs up as Nimue stands in front of me. "She wasn't talking to you Percy" Blood runs down Nimue's head and onto the partial sand beneath us. "Yeah and so what if I've been looking at you!? Forgive me for being curious and wanting to understand why the hell something like you was so tethered to Jackson!?" She ties her hair behind her head, grinning through the pain.
"I thank you for taking care of him..." Irene's eyes finally look from the floor, meeting Nimue's gaze. "You were so nice..." She holds her hands down to the floor, turning the sand into stone before kicking off it and darting towards Nimue.
The rushed action phases from my eyes, reappearing inches away from Nimue but she knowingly kicks Irene back to the floor. "Nimue, how did you se-" Irene briefly smiles before dashing back towards her, throwing one kick after another towards Nimue. Block after block Nimue's grin gets wider with enthusiasm with an increasing pace, steadily waiting for her chance to retaliate.
'Get up!' Crest barks from inside me, ceasing the pain and jolting my body up. Just as Nimue raises her arms to block another hit, Irene changes back to her glowing hand. Promptly changing Nimue's form and causing her to flinch back a bit, call it a hunch or just plain luck. But something's inside of me, and it's telling me to take it.
Dashing from under Nimue's arm I push her back to the floor, opening my chest up to take the hit for her. Irene's expression changing to an immediate shock, lightly grazing my body and changing the direction of her palm towards the floor. Creating a gigantic pit incomparable to the earlier one which removes the ground from us, throwing our bodies together and forcing us to meet eye to eye.
Her head arches down, covering her eyes with her thick white hair. Repositioning myself on my knees to face her I wait defensively, quickly looking back to see Nimue eagerly peeking over the edge of the pit.
"Your power...it wouldn't of killed us, would it?" Nimue tosses down one of the glistening rocks made from the iron sword.
"Please...don't let him forget me." She whimpers as tears gently fall to the floor, "It won't be like the last times! We won't meet again! Not what after she did to me!" Her whole body becomes cloaked in the same light as her hand, picking herself up and stomping to the floor. Breaking away the sealed door and returning the ground to its natural state.
"You weren't actually damaging the environment...you were reverting it. That's why you didn't actually want to touch us, did you?" Nimue throws the glistening rock down into Irene's hand. Reforming it back into Arthur's sword. "You're not sure what would happen to Percy or me if that were to happen"
"I knew...that's why I didn't" She wipes her tears away.
"Explain" I confusingly demand as she drives the sword into the ground.
She turns, urging us on to follow her as we make our way back towards the entrance of the colossal building.
-
Jackson's POV
"Why'd you do that!?" I scream at her, turning my head from the entrance to meet eyes to her. Only to find myself being embraced by her arms.
"I'm sorry...I'm sorry. It's all my fault they've done this to you. It's my fault you won't see each other again." She brings her head from behind me, facing me eye to eye.
"You...really don't remember me, do you?" She questions as I shake my head in denial. She holds her heart as if feeling a sharp pain. "My name is Eurynome, you can call me Eury." Her black tears fall to the ground, reconstructing the space around us to a bedroom?
"I can't explain everything to you Jackson. But I can return your memories to you, what you are. Who you both are." Her hands, nothing except runny ink given a form. She bends down to me, forming a dome that covers my entire head. "You'll be there...for a bit. Please just remember." Her voice fades out as my vision changes to a room of white.
-
"Hey we're alone again! Let's go out and find her like before!" A faceless girl jumps up and down, grabbing my hand and pulling me along towards a bright light.
"But she's just going to leave us again, she doesn't want us" I feel my lips move as if knowing the next lines by heart.
"Then we'll find her again"
"Then she'll leave us, again"
"Then again, again and again!" She screams out like a joyful child.
The light blinds my vision. Fighting through the struggle of opening my eyes I find myself looking towards the vast sky, "Doesn't that one look like a sheep!" She laughs out.
"It really doesn't"
"Okay smart guy! You pick a cloud and tell me what you see!?". I fold my hands across my chest, glancing at the flowing clouds and picking from all their unique shapes.
"That one" I point towards an almost perfectly circular one resting by the sun.
"Really? The circle?" She sighs with disappointment.
"It's not a circle..." I mumble out.
"Oh really then what do you see?" She teases me.
"I-" I lose my breath. Inhaling sharply and closing my eyes through pain before opening them again to find myself in a new space.
-
A woman with an unrivalled shine to her beauty, her divine luminous glow that would make the sun bellow with envy. "Stand still. I'm using you." She leans down to look between us.
"What's-"
"Shut up" She grazes her nail across my face to silence me.
"You're a fucking object, stop speaking." She cusses out, kicking us to the side and under a table. "Tss, what was she thinking in making something like you!? I never needed you to remind me of my own magnificence" She kisses her teeth before slamming the door shut.
My body's stunned, unable to move from the fear of her. "It's not your fault" The girl tilts her head to me, holding my hand tighter before sitting us back up. The slice along her face slowly seeping blood that drops against her white figure.
I hold my hand to it, feeling my own face for the slice but I don't feel anything. "It's right here..." She murmurs with sympathy, leading my hand towards it.
"But she didn't cut you..." I comment.
"No, but she cut you" She raises her hand to cover my eyes with a smile.
-
A wet sensation hits my head, my body sunk into something soft and grueling. My eyes open to the now dark sky, blinking rapidly as rain drops across my head and runs down my face. My body sudden feels lighter as something picks me up, a beast of beasts.
Looking around I notice bodies on-top of bodies surrounding the area, slowly sinking into the mud and broken beyond belief. His eyes stare into me, ones I've never seen before. "Show me...show me what I look like...one last time." He asks me with a voice full of hesitation. A small smile releasing through his toothy grin. He gently places me back down in front of a puddle...in front of the girl.
His heavy stomps gradually make their way away from us, allowing me to wave to her.
The same arm of hers raises, I wave again, only for her same arm to raise.
"What's wro-" Our voices speak in unison. Cutting myself off in surprise.
I quickly stand up to lean over the puddle, meeting face to face with her. Leaning closer and closer, I stick my hand through it, feeling a slight tug turn into a full pull as I fall into it. Finding myself in the pearl white room...my pearl white world.
"All things must meet this boy" She whispers.
"All things must meet this girl" I whisper.
"They denied them, they forgot them...they hated them. For their existence has pained them, but they were never wrong as this life has only lived out its purpose. They chased their mother day in and day out until she unsheathed her golden sword, split...right down...the middle. Having lost themselves within their own identity, their own world. They made a choice: live as two, or return to one." Our voices blend into one, our identifiable features crystalize and shatter into the air.
I calmly sit myself down in my plain white world, wrapping one leg across the other. Raising one hand and snapping my fingers to revert the reality around me with an Ideal...reflecting nothing but the Truth. Steadily blinking and reopening eyes to the boy who fought against a god for his freedom, climbing the ethereal stairs, leaping through the doors that burn open throughout the sky. Placing my hand against my chest in a hollow sensation...sparking something within me that pains my chest so deeply...what would humans call this-jealousy?
I find my hand extended towards them in an open grasp just as the door shuts itself with a booming slam, leaving me behind, but not alone this time.
My name is Jackson, her name is Irene. Our name...is Veritas.