Chapter 12 - Domain of Lost Experiment

Themyscira

Percy was getting a lot better with his trident, he knew that much at least. He could now go toe-to-toe with Diana and not fear that he would lose an eye from her unique fighting style. Which was good.

He was also trying to learn to how to go from duel wielding both his swords, to switching his godly weapon into his trident and dual wielding trident and sword. That one was a lot harder than he thought it was going to be.

It was on a day where he just finished sparring with Diana that he went to the showers to clean up. As he changed in the changing room, he set his clothes down and he wrapped a towel around his waist. He entered the shower turning it to cold and standing under it, relaxing.

He's been on Themyscira for just over three weeks now, and so far he liked it. To be fair though, when compared to the Pit, anything is better than there. That's not the only reason he liked it though, Diana was a big part of that reason. The daughter of Zeus reminded him a little of Thalia, but while she did she was also so different and Percy was starting to see her as a good friend and an even better cousin. He was tempted to open up to her, but he was still a little reserved as well.

As he was thinking about how much he liked it here, he realized he had been standing there for awhile. With a sigh, he got out of the shower, wrapped himself in his towel and went out to the changing room to put his clothes on. Usually it was empty because they designated one set of showers to the young god, however when he walked out there, it was not.

Diana sat on the bench where his clothes was, said clothes now missing. He just stared at her, stunned, before speaking.

"Diana, what are you doing? Also, where are my clothes? " He asked carefully.

"Have I ever told you about the time I became the God of War Perseus?"

"Uh, no?"

"The Ares of this world tried to take over as King of the Gods, and almost succeeded. As I was Athena's champion as well as blessed by most of the Olympians, and by being a daughter of Zeus, I was sent to battle him. He was a tough opponent, but eventually I killed him."

"Wait, you killed Ares?"

"Yes Perseus, were you not just paying attention just now?"

"Oh I was,

just respect for that, that's all."

She laughed and continued, "Very well then. Anyways, after I killed him somebody needed to take his place as the God of War, and that was me. Eventually he came back to fulfill his duties, but that's besides the point."

Percy sat down and nodded, "Cool, still don't know what this has to do with my missing clothes though, but cool."

She reached over and slapped him playfully on the head, "I'm trying to explain something to you, you idiot!"

He smiled sheepishly and raised his hands to his head, "Okay okay! You may continue, without the, you know, head slapping." He grinned at her while she just rolled her eyes.

"You're something else. Anyways, as God of War, I had to learn my domains as well. Every battle, every kill, every war I could fill inside of me. It gave me power if it fell inside my domains. At first I didn't realize it, but as time went on and more and more Wars raged on I realized I was stronger during that period of time, making me more powerful. I could feel where the battles were taking place, who was winning, who was losing, how many died, what weapons they used and everything. All that fueled my power. If there was no war, I would go back to being powerful, but never as powerful as I was in times of bloodshed. Do you see where I'm getting at?"

Percy nodded, "Uh, yeah. Yeah I do."

She stared at him, completely ignoring all his scars, which he appreciated. "Okay then, if you see, explain it to me."

"Um, Ares sucked at his job and you were better?"

Diana smacked her own forehead hard, the sound of the slap echoing throughout the room. "Perseus, let me ask you something. What are you the god of again?"

"Hero's, Vengeance, and the Lost?"

"Right, the Lost. But Lost what?"

He shrugged, "I never really knew, I think that Fates kind of had a mental breakdown or something when the said that because it doesn't make any sense to me."

"Perseus, look. You are the God of the Lost, not the God of a Lost object or something similar, but the god of the Lost as a whole. What I'm trying to say is this, Anything lost you should have access too and that should fuel your powers. Anything lost you should be able to feel and find again. It doesn't matter how it was lost, what was lost, why, where, when or who took it. This domain might be one of the biggest ones I've ever seen. Now do you get it?"

Percy just sat there trying to process everything. "So, anything lost?"

"Yes, at least that was my theory, and I wanted to test it out."

"How are you going to do that?"

"Sometimes, I wonder how you survived, Cousin. Let me ask you something. Would you say that your clothes are, oh I don't know, Lost?"

"Oh! Oh, oh, oh! I get it! I think. But now what?"

"Just focus on the fact that you're clothes are missing and that they are lost to you. You should feel where they are at."

Percy nodded and closed his eyes, trying to stretch out his senses. He imagined his clothes, which he left right on the bench, and he pictured them where they should've been. They were his clothes and they were Lost. Before he knew it, he felt something in the vent above him. As he looked up, however, his clothes appeared right where they were before he got in the shower.

"Huh. I think I did it?"

Diana looked at the clothes before looking at the vent where she hid them. "It would seem, that maybe you indeed feel Lost things as well as are able to summon them. This should only be a very small part of what he can do with this. Wait, I wonder..." Diana got a faraway look in her eyes before he waved his hands in her face.

"Yo, Diana snap out of it! Now that I passed your little experiment, can you leave so I can change now?"

She looked at him again before standing up and laughing a little, "Yes, hurry up though because I'm hungry."

With that she left to leave Percy to change. As he did he thought about how he just used his new power and domains. 'I guess that's pretty cool, seems like there's a lot more I can do with that domain though. But at least with that one there's progress. Now about the other two.' He finished getting dressed when a thought hit him.

'Wait a minute. I'm the God of Vengeance. If I get power from my domains, was that why..? Shit, I need to ask her , but should I tell her?' He started to develop a theory but in order to get an answer he would have to tell Diana some more about his past. He trusted her, it was just something he didn't like thinking about.

He left the changing room and made his way to the mess hall where Diana was waiting for him. She was eating some type of meat and looked up at him when he arrived. "Glad you could make it cousin," she joked, but seeing his expression hers turned serious. "Are you alright?"

"I had a thought, and I wanted to ask you something."

"Go ahead."

He took a deep breath and tried to think of how to phrase his question. "Alright then. So, let's say before I became a god I swore to get vengeance for someone. Made a promise on the Styx and what not. Then before I could make do on that promise, I was turned into a god and got my domains. Every person I faced after that, I felt stronger and I not just like 'I'm a god I'm stronger now,' but stronger meaning while I was facing them, I could feel myself getting more powerful during the battle. I never knew what it meant, because in my head all I could think about was fulfilling a promise I made to someone and beating my enemies was something I had do to. Did I feel stronger during the battles because I was getting Vengeance?"

She thought about his question before nodding, "I would assume, yes. Being the God of Vengeance would most likely mean that while you were getting vengeance, you were incredibly strong. I would assume a lot stronger than what you are now I'm guessing."

"So, while getting my vengeance, I almost couldn't lose, could I?"

"Well you probably could, it would just be harder because you also have a bunch of other powers."

"Yeah, yeah that would make sense, I guess." He zoned out while he started thinking about his time in the pit. He didn't mean to, but he couldn't help himself as he thought back too everyone he had faced before his personal quest was over. Looking over it, there was so many...

"Perseus? What's wrong?" He snapped out of it and looked at her before smiling sheepishly. He rubbed the back of his neck as he replied, "Sorry, I wasn't here for a sec, I drifted off. I was just thinking about the pit, that's all."

"Can I ask you something, cousin?"

"Sure, what's up?"

"What was your personal quest, exactly?"

He froze, he knew that she had been curious ever since she found out he went to Tartarus, but he was hoping she'd never ask. He didn't want to tell her, ever, but he did need to talk to someone about it. For over two centuries it was just him, and his way of processing everything down there was to just slay anything he could that would attack him. He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself.

"Do you remember how I said I saved Olympus twice?" She nodded. "Well, there was two wars. A lot of people died during both, but the second war, the Second Giant War, the enemy killed someone very close to me. As they died they made me promise them to do something, and I did. But I knew before I could fulfill that promise, I had to make another.

"I swore that the enemy, every single one of them would get what they deserved. The people that they killed for no reason? They would have their justice.

The monsters, gods, Titans, anyone who sided with the enemy just because they wanted to eat and kill demigods, mortals, and nature spirits? They would get every ounce of pain coming to them. I had had enough, enough of the needless deaths, needless wars. So, I tracked down every single being who sided with them, and I killed them. After I got everyone on the surface, I went to the pit to make sure that they knew, never to declare war for unjust causes like that again. They deserved everything that they got, and more.

"I finally fulfilled my promise around 75 years ago. Since then, it's just been about survival and trying to escape. That was my personal quest that led my to Tartarus for a second time." As he finished his explanation he looked at her.

Diana was silent for awhile as she looked at him closely. Finally she asked the question he dreaded most, "What was the promise you made to them?" He closed his eyes as they started to get a little sweaty.

A single tear started to roll down his cheek. "To move on."