#when i finish shattered timelines (ignore my loud laughter)

[sergeantsporks]

Can You Die of a Broken Heart?

Teen

Gen

When Nari said "the order will rip your soul to pieces," Douxie thought she meant literally. Turns out, they can do it figuratively AND literally.

Ao3

Series: I Can Make RotT So Much Worse

Based on this post by @spellcasterdouxie

“Why don’t we try to get a little information out of him, first?”

Douxie’s head jerked up. He couldn’t betray his friends—but if they were interrogating him, it meant they wouldn’t have Nari for just that much longer.

Bellroc rolled their eyes. “What information could he possibly have?”

Skrael shrugged. “A secret weapon? An idea left behind by Merlin? I think we should take a look around inside of that stupid, stupid head of his. Since he’s around, anyway.” His hands glowed with magic. “You made a mistake, wizard. You put your soul in the body of another. That makes it… vulnerable. Exposed.”

Magic pulsed out of Skrael’s hand, striking Douxie’s head. At first, it seemed like nothing had happened. Then hundreds and hundreds of glowing strands erupted from his head, stretching out.

Bellroc’s eyes seemed to light with a cruel glow. “Memories…” they hissed, reaching out.

When their hand touched a glowing strand, it erupted into a scene Douxie knew well—a lecture from Merlin. Over something he’d broken, of course.

“Useless,” Bellroc growled. They seized the glowing thread, and with a flick of their wrist, it snapped off.

Douxie felt a tug in his gut, and an overwhelming feeling of something being… missing. He’d just seen the memory—and he knew there was something that he’d remembered before, but it was gone, and no matter how he tried, he couldn’t find it.

The order tore through memories like a wildfire, pulling up and discarding them. Planning the subway trap with the other guardians of arcadia—gone. Krel’s designs for the amulet—Bellroc and Skrael watched for a bit, then ripped those away, too. The empty pit in Douxie’s stomach grew wider and wider, and the missing memories left him with a spinning head. It didn’t hurt, per se, it was just… disorienting. He knew he should feel upset—but it was hard to feel upset over losing something you didn’t remember having.

“Remember when I told you magic is mastery over life?”

Douxie lifted his head. “N-no,” he gasped, trying to pull back, “That’s—that’s—don’t—please—”

“My, Hisirdoux, what a life you’ve lived.”

Bellroc grabbed one of his horns and yanked him up. “What a pathetic life you’ve lived.”

“What a wizard you’ve become.”

“P-please—”

Skrael seemed to take special delight in ripping that one away.

“N—” Douxie’s heart hurt, but he didn’t know why, he just knew that he’d lost something, something important to him.

“A wizard does not make mistakes. He makes unexpected—”

Douxie screamed as the Order ripped through memories, until he wasn’t sure why they were important anymore.

A gentle purr—nothing but stone.

Smiles and laughs—a circular room

Moments with his student—train tracks and darkness.

A being made of ice tilted his head up, sharp claws tracing his face but not breaking skin. “Have you ever heard the Egyptian’s theory on the soul? They believed it was made of several parts. One was the ren—the name. But it was more than the name—it was memories.”

His head was spinning, and spinning, and he couldn’t remember anything but this room of stone and darkness. He managed a guttural moan—he wanted someone, needed someone so badly it hurt, but he couldn’t remember who—

The ice being jerked on one of his horns. “Your memories are an important part of you, wizard.”

Wizard? What…?

“Experience makes you who you are—without your memories, you’re just a sad, sad husk.”

A fire being spat. “Enough. We have spent long enough on this creature. Return it to its body. Without its memories, it would not even know to attack us.”

“I’d rather not take the risk.” The ice being leaned back. “When you see its soul…”

“We’ll get Nari back. But he… he will not go home.”

What… he was too tired, too sick, too lonely to figure out what they were talking about.

And then the two beings started chanting, and the world dissolved into pain, soul-crushing pain.

At least, he’d thought it was soul-crushing. Until he felt himself tearing out of his body, and the ice and fire being grabbed hold of his soul and pulled.

Turned out, there was a feeling worse than soul-crushing.

Soul ripping.

They tore at his being, and even though he was out of a body, he somehow still felt it, in every fiber of his being, that horrible, horrible tearing sensation, like taffy that had been pulled just a little too far.

Some instinct, some nagging voice in the back of his head screamed at him to end it! End the spell now, before they destroy you!

And he didn’t know what that meant, he didn’t know what spell, but maybe the little voice in the back of his head took over because he was waking up in a completely new place, in a body that was different, but felt… more familiar.

“Wha—huh—I—”

“Douxie!” A cat barreled into him, and he instinctively hugged it. It just felt… right, but he didn’t know why.

Some kid with scars on his face stared him meaningfully in the eye. “Douxie, do you know where they are?! Where’s the order, where do they have Nari?”

That sure was a lot of words that probably meant something. He shook his head. “I—I’m sorry—I really am—but—who’s Douxie?”

Xxx

“I can lock onto Nari. We’ll get her.”

Jim glanced back at the vacant Douxie, who was patting Archie, apparently with no clue of who he was. “We might need his magic.”

“We can’t take him along like this! It would be murder!” Claire twisted around to look at him, shaking his head. “Besides, I… I don’t know if he remembers how to do magic. Jim, what if we lost him?!”

Jim brushed her cheek with one hand. “Hey… look at me. Look at me. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about Douxie, it’s that he always finds a way to come back. He died, remember? And he still came back to us. He’ll get better.”

“He doesn’t remember who he is, who we are! What if he can’t come back?!”

“Then we’ll find a way to bring him back. We’ll find a spell, or Krel will be able to invent something—we won’t leave him like this. I promise.”

Xxx

Douxie—apparently that was his name. That’s what they kept telling him. He didn’t know. All he knew was the last hour of his life—the last horrible, painful hour of his life.

He hadn’t known it was so bad—not until he came here, where there was light, and everything was soft and kind, instead of harsh and painful.

And there was Archie, the cat.

Jim and Claire approached. “We’re heading out,” Jim said quietly to Archie.

Archie jumped up with a hiss. “Douxie’s not going. He needs to recover.”

“We weren’t planning on it,” Claire soothed, “No taking Douxie into dangerous situations right now. Promise.”

Archie leapt into Douxie’s lap. “I’m staying with him.”

“But what if we need—”

“Douxie needs me more. Go.”

Claire and Jim exchanged a glance, then left without a word. Archie snuggled down further in Douxie’s lap. Douxie absentmindedly stroked the cat. “Who’s your owner?”

“I don’t have one.”

“Then… who takes care of you?”

Archie gave him a look that was just so deeply sad it made Douxie want to cry, although he wasn’t sure why. “I… have a friend. My familiar.”

Douxie settled back, petting him. “What happened to him? Why isn’t he here?”

Archie started to shake a little bit. “He… didn’t come back from a fight.”

Douxie gave the cat a little squeeze. “I’m sorry.” They sat in silence, then, “Tell me about him?”

And Archie did.

He told Douxie about a wizard. About all of the adventures they’d shared. All of the hardships they’d endured—but all of the good times they’d had, too. He told him about a strict master who’d eventually given his own life for his apprentice. About how his familiar had taught Claire magic. How he’d saved the world, at the cost of his own life—then had come back from the dead.

He told him about how strong the wizard was. How brave. How kind. How clever, even if sometimes his “cleverness” backfired in his face.

Douxie’s heart ached for the cat and his familiar. It was obvious how much Archie had loved his wizard—and he’d lost him. Would have to live without him. “I’m sorry,” he said again, “He sounded…”

Archie buried himself in Douxie’s jacket. “Yes. I have to believe…”

“Believe what?”

“I have to believe that he’ll come back.” Archie twisted out, his eyes desperately searching Douxie’s. “That you’ll come back.”

An eerie sense of familiarity swept over him, the worst déjà vu.

Those stories.

They were… his stories?

He was the wizard?

What had the order done to him?!

Tears for his lost life sprang up in his eyes, and he hugged Archie, mind whirling in a thousand directions at once. It was like the Order was shredding his soul all over again—he’d had a whole life, 900 years of it, and it had been taken away. He didn’t know who he was—the only thing he had was stories of who he’d used to be, echoes of friendships he used to have. And now? What was he supposed to do?

“Douxie?” Archie asked quietly.

“I want to be him. I want to be him again, I want to be your familiar, I want to be Douxie again.” He scrubbed at his eyes. “There has to be some way to get back the memories they took, please—I… I don’t want to lose you.”

Archie purred. “Memories or not, you will always be my familiar. Nothing will change that. You won’t lose me.” He tilted his head at Douxie. “I know the world might be ending soon and all, but… how would you feel about going on a different adventure?”

“What?”

“I don’t know if we can get your memories back, Douxie. But we can certainly make new ones.”

[waitingforsols]

Will Solace: Hidden Powers

This is not supposed to be at any one point or time in the timeline of Percy Jackson, so I don’t know where it would fit between all the wars. I’m also assuming there are no more than 50 campers… ANYWAY! HERE YOU GO! Also Aviana is just a filler character I made up, she has no real purpose other than to fill the gap. Dedicated to @the-jackson-files for motivating me to make this an actual story! This is basically a part one btw. ALSO POSTED ON MY BLOG OF WILL SOLACE STUFF SO NO COPYRIGHT HERE!

SUMMARY: During a battle, Will unlocks powers he didn’t even know he had. 
They came out of nowhere. No one knew how they had gotten in the borders of camp near Zeus’ fist and the Pegasus Stables. One minute everything was calm, and the sound of laughter resonated from all over camp where demigods were simply enjoying their lives, as twisted as they were. All that stopped once the attacked. There were dozens of hell-hounds everywhere, attacking everything moving, and only so many campers to fend them off.Despite their efforts, many of the campers were injured one way or another; some were able to walk it off while others were immobilized. Percy and Annabeth were back-to-back fighting them off with their sword and dagger, gold dust on and surrounding them. Both quest-veterans were clearly tiring with each swipe, but they kept going. Nico was slashing hell-hound after hell-hound, though he felt a twinge of guilt seeing as he personally knew a couple of hell-hounds, despite being unlike these. Most of the able-bodied campers were defending their knocked out and/or injured fellow campers; which cabin you were in aside. A few of the Apollo campers, the medics, were running around and dragging off injured campers to safety with the help of a few other Apollo and even some Ares campers. Many just grab their fallen friend, bring them to the medics, and run back into the fight. Will Solace was one of the few Medics standing, which forced him to work even harder and faster.

He silently cursed his father for not giving him any athletic ability what-so-ever, not even when it comes to archery. He sprinted across the battlefield, heaving a camper onto his shoulders or scooping one into his arms and running back to the area designated for the makeshift medical zone in the Stables. Just because he didn’t have his father’s athletic build doesn’t mean he isn’t fast or strong; Will can thank vigorous camp training for that. All the pegasi had been let out of their confinement and some were currently circling above camp while others fled to the strawberry fields on the other side of the stables; this had let the campers safely hide the injured, for the time-being. In the stables laid about a dozen campers, a good chunk of their forces, immobilized on the fairly clean hay and straw in the stalls. Will silently thanked whoever had the stable chores for getting them done earlier that day, otherwise this would have been disgusting. There was about 2 campers per stall, and two Apollo campers rushing around healing whoever they can. Will enters and lays young boy on the straw next to another young boy. He then sprints back to the battlefield, adrenaline continuously circling through his veins. He skids to a stop, almost tumbling head over heels when he hears a scream. He knows that scream. Will quickly spins around, eyes searching the demigods, scanning for the source of the scream. There it is again. Will spins around and sprints towards the sound, and there she was.

“Aviana,” Will whispered under his breath, chest heaving. The youngest daughter of Apollo, no more than 10, with normally bright blonde hair pulled back into two braids and stunning green eyes, laid on the ground with her eyes squeezed shut and red mixed in her now frazzled. Her orange camp t-shirt had a huge gash through it and her A hell-hound more than ten times her size was only a few feet away and was slowly creeping its way over her. Will quickly looked around and saw a sword off to the side; he picked it up, though it was heavy in his arms as he held it with two hands. He prayed to the gods that this would work, but he doubted himself. With a loud battle cry Will ran as fast as he could towards the tank-sized beast and swung the sword down on its side. Though the beast was practically unaffected, it took its focus off of his youngest sibling and turned on him instead. Will mentally sweared as he faced the hell-hound. It lifted one of its massive paws and swung at Will, sending him flying near Aviana. He got up painfully onto his hands and knees, a hand clutching his side. Once he took his hand away, it was coated in a thick red substance that was very much common to Will. He wiped it on his shirt and stood up shakily, wincing in pain. He glanced towards the sword that was off to the side, and back at the hell-hound, who was making its way over to him quickly. Something tugged inside Will’s chest, which turned to the feeling of something pounding on a wall in his chest as if it wanted out. He gasped in pain, that got more and more intense in a matter of milliseconds. Will let out a cry as his hands flew to his chest. What he didn’t notice was the bright glow that replaced his clear blue eyes; nor did he notice that the glow was spreading out from his chest to surround his body. Then suddenly he he felt as if the dam that had been had broken. Shattered into a million pieces, you could say. He let out a blood-curling scream, one that resonated throughout the battlefield; its occupants trying to ignore the screams as a sinking feeling grew in their stomachs. All of the campers had a somewhat grim look on their face; they knew what those kind of screams normally meant. But then there was a large bang and a bright light almost as bright as the sun that followed; blinding all the campers. They turned their heads away from the light as they shielded their eyes with their arms, but it was over almost as soon as it started. Once they darted back towards their opposing enemy, they noticed it was gone. They all were. Percy glanced at Annabeth, who turned back to face him; both with confused faces. There was not a trace of them anywhere, only the dust remained. Both veterans turned to look around, and noticed the injured campers, were not injured anymore. Connor, who had taken a hit for Travis as was lying on the ground, had sat up and was being helped up by his brother who instantly pulled him into a hug. Clarisse was helping up some of her siblings as well. Friends helping friends, and sibling helping siblings. Though, no one was injured, not even a scratch was found. “Annabeth,“ Percy whispered reaching for her face, which turned back grey eyes meeting sea green. “Your face,” he muttered again in disbelief. What once was a large slash across her face was no more, nor was any other injury. 
 "What about it?” She questioned. Percy shook his head and let his hand drop to his side. "That’s just it,” he looked towards the other campers and gestured in a sweeping motion. 
 "Everyone is healed. Not a single sc–” Percy didn’t get to finish his sentence due to a terrified scream coming from off to the edge of the battlefield. Percy looked at Annabeth, who nodded, and readied her dagger as Percy readied his sword. The duo took off towards the scream, other campers not far behind, all with what weapons they had, drawn and ready. The cries of help got louder as they approached.

"Help! Please!” A young girl sobbed. Percy recognized the blonde haired girl as Aviana, the daughter of Apollo. Percy mainly saw her at the campfires where she sang with her cabin, albeit Will; though he sometimes played his ukulele or guitar while she sang. Both Percy and Annabeth stopped short once she was in plain sight. She was on her knees sobbing with blood thickly coating her arms up to her elbows and splattered all over her clothes.

"What’s wrong sweetie?” Annabeth crouched in front of the girl. “Are you hurt?”

"Aviana!” Annabeth turned to see Kayla, another older daughter of Apollo running towards them. The little girl turned and ran into her older sister’s arms sobbing, causing Kayla’s clothes to be smeared with blood and tears. She had previously checked everyone for injuries and everyone seemed better than okay, and everyone looked as if they were ready for a second round.

"Avi, what’s wrong?” She asked her sister softly. Aviana let go and started sobbing harder as she grabbed Kayla’s hand and started pulling her over into taller grass quickly. She then pointed at a matted down area of grass that was concealed from their position. Kayla ushered Aviana to Annabeth while she turned to check out what was causing the girl’s cries. Then Kayla screamed in horror and surprise causing everyone to jump.

"Austin! I need help” She yelled out her siblings name with panic lacing her voice, causing Austin to run over quickly, having had a medical backpack strapped to his back. Then the other demigods as well as Chiron who had gathered behind Percy and Annabeth started murmuring. Urgent, yet soft words, could be heard from the two children of Apollo.

"Apollo Cabin! Urgent medical Evac to Infirmary stat!” Austin ordered as the others pushed through the crowd quickly. Everyone’s eyes widened at those words. Who could be injured? Everyone else was fine! Everyone tried to get a good look at who was injured while the Apollo Cabin minus Aviana aided in evacuating the camper with Nico, for some odd reason, and Chiron not far behind having been informed of the situation by Kayla as they quickly walked towards the infirmary. Suddenly, Aviana, who had stayed pretty quiet, burst back into tears.

"Will!” She sobbed as she tried pulling on Annabeth’s hand, clearly wanting to follow her siblings.

"That’s right honey,” She soothed gently trying to keep her away from the trauma. “Will can heal them right up,” though that made the girl sob harder.

"NO!” She cried out. “WILL!” She pulled harder pointing towards the group in the distance. Suddenly, the other campers caught on, as did Annabeth. Everyone suddenly got nervous, if that was Will’s blood on Aviana’s shirt, then they were in trouble. Will’s the best healer they had, but he’s not able to heal himself. “He saved me! He used special powers to save me!” She cried softly collapsing into Annabeth’s arms.

"What powers Aviana?” Annabeth asked softly as she rocked the young girl.

"I-I got h-hurt,” she stuttered out, not crying as much but more dry-sobbing. “A-and the b-big dog was ‘bout to k-kill me! B-but Will, ‘e-‘e stopped it. Then ‘e g-got h-hurt too! B-but then h'e started g-glowin’ really p-pretty like daddy.” She spoke, clearly tired, but in a bit of a mesmerized state. “B-but then 'e started s-screaming 'n hurting! I-I though he w-was going to d-die too! But then it was bright 'n he healed me 'n killed the bad dog!” She stopped stuttering, but was still teary eyed. Every camper was listening to the little girl tell the story, unsure whether or not to believe her. “Is Will goin’ to go by Michael and Lee? He told me stories 'bout them sayin’ the’re the best brothers ever and how 'e wished I coulda’ met them, and that one day he’ll go with 'em. I don’ wan’ Will to die!” She started crying softly again. Many campers knew Michael Yew and Lee Fletcher, but they never realized how hard Will took their deaths.

"So it was Will,” Percy muttered under his breath.

"What was that seaweed brain?” Annabeth asked him.

"Will was the one who killed all the hell-hounds, and apparently healed everyone too…” Percy trailed off.

"Huh,” Travis stated in shock.

“I guess-” Connor started in shock as well.

"He did!” Travis finished.

"But now what?” Clarisse, who was in the front near the twins asked, in just as much shock as the Stolls.