I stayed around until I was sure that everything was under control, my hands never straying far from Riptide’s pen form. I was glad that Armsmaster and the PRT troopers had gotten Hookwolf into their van and out of my sight before I’d handed Crystal’s care over to her cousin. I wasn’t sure how well I could have controlled myself if I’d had to look at him every time I scanned the street for new threats.
I was honestly slightly shocked I hadn’t killed him there at the end. I’d torn his metal body to pieces in a matter of seconds, but he’d just reverted to his human form and collapsed with only a few minor wounds. That was some very impressive durability. I’d only ever fought a handful of monsters––Kampê, Antaeus, Echidna, perhaps a few others––who wouldn’t have been reduced to dust by the amount of force I’d used against him.
I wasn’t really sure how I felt about that. On one hand, killing Hookwolf would have probably gotten me in trouble with the PRT. Everything I’d read on PHO told me that they didn’t look kindly at independent heroes killing people, even dangerous villains already sentenced to the birdcage like Hookwolf.
I could have probably handled it, but at the same time the PRT were the ones providing me with a legal identity and housing so pissing them off right now was probably kind of stupid. Not the stupidest thing I’d ever done, but still the sort of thing that would have had Annabeth calling me seaweed brain and yelling at me for days.
On the other hand, it pained me to leave a dangerous––if not to me, than to people I was starting to care about––enemy alive, particularly with the PRT’s track record of keeping villains contained. Crystal had cautioned me not to believe everything I read on PHO, but the sheer number of people complaining about revolving-door prisons for supervillains was concerning. At least when I was sending monsters back to Tartarus, it usually took them a while to reform. Some villains were apparently back on the street mere days after they’d been captured! I could beat Hookwolf up as many times as was needed, but how many people would die or be horribly injured before that?
Only once it looked like Amy was finishing up with Crystal, Glory Girl floating beside her with her hands balled into fists, did I carefully close off the pipe I’d torn open and sharply turned off the street. A few of the PRT agents still on the scene looked poised to follow me, but they were neither close enough, nor fast enough.
The alley I stepped into was narrow and windowless, a tiny, dirty pathway between two towering apartment buildings. Between one step and the next, my armor vanished, withdrawing back into the unobtrusive harness under my clothing. Nothing Hookwolf had thrown at me had so much as scuffed the godforged celestial bronze, much less gotten close to injuring me, but I still felt utterly exhausted by the fight.
I could feel the agents approaching, but I really just didn’t have the energy to talk to them. I could feel the comforting call of the sea and I just needed some time to close my eyes. To think. To rest.
The Curse of Achilles was powerful, but as I’d learned over the past months, that power came at a cost. Fighting was exhausting in a way it never had been before I’d taken a dip in the Stix, even when I was using my armor and not relying on the curse to protect me. The revitalizing energy of the sea helped, but there was only so much it could do to stave off the effects. According to Chiron, Achilles used to take twenty naps a day and spend most of the time he wasn’t fighting either eating or sleeping. I didn’t have it nearly that bad, but my stamina certainly wasn’t what it once had been.
The hat was in my hands almost before I thought of it. I turned it around to face me, my finger tracing the hard white lettering. Then I spun it around and placed it on my head at just the right angle, Annabeth’s smirk dancing before my eyes before it vanished just like she always had.
When I looked down, there was a thin, smoky haze covering my body and I could feel the Mist around me humming softly. I swallowed heavily past the sudden lump in my throat, then let my feet carry me away. When the agents rounded the corner they found no one.
I only made it back to the Pelhams hours later, the last rays of sunlight painting the gloomy city with rosy colors. I’m not really sure what I had been expecting. Anger maybe? I was supposed to get access to my PRT-provided apartment in a few days; I could just sleep in the sea or maybe find a motel room to stay in until then.
I almost didn’t come back, but that would have felt too much like running away. And I needed to see it for myself. I knew of Panacea’s reputation as a healer, but there was a difference between hearing about something and seeing it for yourself. It was hard to believe that anything short of divine medicine could fix the injury that Crystal had sustained, and yet Amy had looked focused, but confident when she’d told me that Crystal would be okay.
I knocked softly on the heavy door, my eyes focusing on minute scratches and imperfections in the shiny white paint. I felt awkward and out of place, and, as the moments dragged on, I was tempted to turn around and leave.
Injuries were common among demigods. It had been years since anyone actually died at camp––the battle of the labyrinth notwithstanding––but even before the war, injuries were common. Between training, capture the flag, the climbing wall, and some of the other activities we got up to, it was a rare day where no one didn’t hurt themselves. That didn’t even go into the many injuries demigods arrived or returned to camp with. Chiron and the Apollo kids were never lacking work.
It was different for mortals though. I’d seen how parents reacted when one of my classmates in school broke his leg during gym class. Even my mom, as amazing and understanding as she was, didn’t see things the way we demigods did, and my stepdad Paul always looked so worried when things like that came up during my stories.
The door was pulled open and suddenly I was looking down into Vicky’s bright blue eyes. She had changed out of her blood-splattered costume and was wearing a loose-fitting long sleeved gray shirt and sweatpants. There was a hint of red at the edges of her eyes, but before I could see anything else I was swept into a hug that could have broken a bear’s back.
“Percy!” Vicky exclaimed, a tiny hitch in her voice. “You’re back!”
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I awkwardly patted her on the back, not entirely sure how I was supposed to respond. Vicky pressed her face into my chest and mumbled something, but her voice was so quiet and muffled that I couldn’t make out what she’d said. Vicky was pretty tall for a girl her age, only a few inches shorter than Annabeth. However, I had something like two-thirds of a foot on her and she was left talking to my shoulder, not to me.
Behind Vicky, I could hear footsteps rapidly approaching down the stairs. I tried to pull away, but Vicky was clinging to me like a barnacle and the amount of force needed to dislodge her probably would have damaged the doorway I was standing in.
“Are you okay Vicky? Did something else happen? Is Crystal alright?”
Vicky looked up at me. I had been right, her eyes really were pretty red, and there were unshed tears brimming up around their edges. “Ah, I’m alright, yeah. And Crystal’s fine. Amy finished up with her about an hour ago.” She took a deep breath and choked back a sob, then continued shakily. “I…I should be asking that. Are––are you okay? You looked fine, but––” She choked back another sob. “I’m so sorry. It was my fault! I wasn’t thinking and I––I could have killed you! I could have––”
At that moment, Eric rounded the corner and paused, slowly looking between me and Vicky. “Uhhhhhhh. Hi Percy, welcome back. We were starting to get worried about you. Crystal was asking for you earlier, she’s up in her room with mom. You guys take your time. I’m just…gonna go.” And then he very quickly vanished back around the corner.
Vicky and I exchanged looks, Eric’s sudden appearance and disappearance having broken Vicky out of her brewing apology.
“It’s okay. I’m completely fine. He didn’t even scratch my armor,” I quickly interjected before she could say anything else. “I’m just happy that you and Crystal are okay. You guys really scared me.”
Vicky took a deep, shuddering breath, and her grip slackened slightly. “That’s good. But still, I’m really sorry. Mom always told me it was dangerous to interrupt an ongoing cape fight, but I wasn’t thinking. I just saw him about to grab you and––”
“And you just moved,” I finished for her. “It's alright. It happens. You’re alive, Crystal’s alive, I’m alive, and Hookwolf is in jail. Everything worked out in the end.” I thought back to another person who had ‘just moved’. She’d had the best of intentions. She’d probably saved my life. I so fervently wished she hadn’t.
It was my turn to choke back the sob I could feel rising up in the back of my throat. I swallowed heavily and patted Vicky on the back again. What would Chiron have said? “What’s important is learning from your mistakes and making sure they never happen again. That’s why we train.”
Vicky laughed weakly. “You sound like Uncle Neil.”
“Well, your uncle sounds like a wise man then.”
Vicky sighed and finally let go of me, her arms falling slack at her sides. “You should go talk to Crystal. Amy regrew her leg and woke her up, but she’s still pretty worn out and Aunt Sarah has been fussing over her since she got home. I bet she’d love to see you now.”
Vicky looked and sounded so despondent. It reminded me of talking to some of the campers in the wake of the Battle of New York. No one had died, but Vicky clearly wasn’t handling things particularly well.
I wrapped an arm gently around her shoulders. “Let’s go. I’m sure she’d love to see her cousin right now too. I don’t want to imagine what might have happened if you hadn’t gone to get Amy when you did.”
Vicky’s smile looked hollow, but she didn’t protest when I dragged her with me up the stairs and down the hall to Crystal’s room. The door was open slightly and a ray of warm purple light shone through the crack and under the door.
The light cut out as we approached, and Sarah, Crystal’s mom, opened the door for us. She was still wearing the same white suit as she had been this morning, though it looked significantly more rumpled than it had before. She smiled tightly at the two of us. “Don’t keep her up for too long, okay? Amy said that she needs her rest. I should go get changed––dinner will be ready in about an hour.”
I was expecting more, but she simply nodded her head and brushed past us, leaving the bedroom door open behind her.
I stopped just outside the door, my eyes focused on the corner of Crystal’s bed that I could just barely make out from this angle. Of all the people I’d met so far in this strange new world, Crystal was the one I knew best. I’d only spent more time with Carol Dallon, but that had all been work related. Even though it had only been a few days, I liked to think of her as a friend. I hoped––
Vicky pushed me forward and I stumbled forward through the doorway, more out of surprise than any actual force Vicky had used. Crystal was half-sitting on her bed, propped up by three big pillows and with her phone held loosely in one hand. She was wearing an oversized baby-blue t-shirt and had the sheets bundled up around her legs.
She smiled at me brightly and I instinctively smiled back. “Hey Percy. Hey Vicky. I hear you saved my life.”
“It was my fault that you were in danger in the first place,” I began, but Crystal negligently waved my words aside.
“You didn’t make me do anything. It's my own fault. I know how strong Hookwolf is, I shouldn’t have gotten so close. I was being stupid and I’m lucky everything worked out as well as it did.” Crystal sat up fully and scooted to the side, then patted the bed beside her. “Come on, take a seat and tell me about the fight! I missed all the good parts!”
I felt rather strange as I took a seat beside her, but slowly my discomfort faded as I told her about my fight with Hookwolf. Towards the end of my story, Vicky took over, telling me that I was completely underplaying how cool I had been and completely overblowing the last few seconds Crystal had missed while she’d been unconscious.
From there, the conversation shifted slightly. Vicky complained about me completely missing our lunch together, Crystal whined about how much she’d need to eat and exercise to make up for some of the biomass Amy used to heal her, and soon it felt like nothing at all had happened.
At one point, Crystal clambered out from under her sheets and I saw that both her legs looked completely fine. The only difference was that one leg was slightly more tan and had visible stubble, but with it being the middle of winter, even that was barely noticeable.
Eventually, Vicky was called down to help set the table and I was left alone with Crystal. She slumped back slightly the moment Vicky was gone. “You know Percy,” she began softly, “Amy told me what you did. She said I lost a lot of blood. If you hadn’t been there, I could have bled out before she got to me.”
“I’m just glad it was enough. You scared me.”
“Sorry about that. And thanks again. You saved my life Percy. I won’t forget that.” And then, without any warning, she leaned in and gently kissed me on the lips.
I froze. Her lips were very warm against mine and suddenly I was very aware that I was alone in the room with her and that she wasn’t wearing anything at all under her wide-necked t-shirt.
Crystal pulled away, smiled, and then stood up and slowly walked out of the room, her hips swaying with every step. “I’ll see you at dinner, Percy,” she called out behind her. “Mom made stuffed shells and they’re absolutely to die for.”