In Pursuit of Power (A Percy Jackson Fanfic)

"Come on lad, grab hold!"

Alastor jabbed a long pole tipped by a hook out over the lava pool. Eventually, after a few seconds of floundering, the last Telekhine managed to get his fingers around it. Alastor dragged him back toward solid ground, where he crawled from the lava and lay shuddering on all fours. Alastor mopped his brow.

"Nothing will change without my pack," he'd told us up above. "I can't do everything by my lonesome."

So we let him clamber down to a low ledge and pull his underlings out of the lava before they cooked any further than rare. Aubrey was looking at the rest of us like she thought we were insane for letting him fish out reinforcements, but at the end of the day, it just didn't matter. Whether it was one or a dozen Telekhines, they couldn't touch us if we got serious.

"That's all of them," Alastor said. "You want my oath now, or later?"

"Now," all of us said together.

He snorted. "Right then. I, Alastor the Telekhine, swear on the River Styx to offer my workers days off, humane conditions, and overtime bonuses once Pompona is defeated."

You could only barely hear it so deep in the mountain, but thunder crashed far overhead. The oath was legitimate.

"Now." He crossed his arms. "Ye've got work to get to, you lot do."

He was right about it being our turn. Unfortunately, how we approached this was going to take a little bit of planning.

"Percy can just blast her away, right?" Aubrey asked. "Like he did with Menoetius."

Alastor's eyes widened. I could see his thoughts racing, and just a second later he belted out, "I swear on the River Styx not to tell a single soul what I've heard here!"

The panic in his voice startled his underlings, but not nearly as much as when he wheeled on them shouting, "Swear that oath!"

They must've trusted him. I could tell they were still confused, but one by one they did exactly as he said.

"See now," Alastor said when they were finished. "No loose lips here. No reason to shut any of them forever, right?"

I was honestly impressed. He had recognized Menoetius's name. And he knew right away that anybody who could take down a Titan like that, wouldn't want it blabbed about… and would be more than capable of demolishing a few monsters in an instant. So he swore an unbreakable oath with no loopholes as fast as possible, before we could get any ideas.

Thalia was thinking the same thing. "You're pretty clever for a sea dog."

"Save your backhanded compliments," Alastor muttered. "Focus on Pompona."

"It won't be that simple," I warned Aubrey. 

"Why not?" she asked.

"Blasting her would be the fastest way, but it would be way too obvious. It would draw in things much worse than Pompona."

We'd just gone to so much trouble not to get caught with Menoetius. If Krios arrived now, sensing the power of another major god, all that work would be for nothing. We'd be exposed way earlier than we could afford.

"What's plan b?" Thalia asked.

"I could try to take her without using my powers," I offered. "I won't be vaporized by her true form. And I'm sure I'm a better fighter."

"Too risky," Piper said. "What if you get caught? The rest of us can't even look at her. We'd have to run back to camp for Calypso."

"Shouldn't we do that anyway?" Aubrey asked. "I know you guys seem confident, but gods in the South are scary. It would be so much easier if Calypso were here..."

"I don't think we need her, though," Piper said.

The rest of us looked at her. She paced toward me, sizing me up from head-to-toe.

"You're pretty decent looking, Percy."

"Thanks?"

"Muscular and well-fed," she said. "Good face, too. Way better than any beat-up slave."

"Oh," I said. "Ohhhhhh."

She straightened. And when she did, she wore an absolutely devious smirk.

"Why fight fair," she said, "when you can suckerpunch her when her guard is down?"

Alastor laughed. "Know what, Lassie? I think I like the way you think." 

O-O-O

I was thankful from the bottom of my heart that it was so warm inside the volcano. Otherwise, I would've been freezing dressed like this.

A human slave around my size loaned me his trousers. The holes were bigger than the parts that were in-tact, and they smelled like they'd been rubbed along the insides of a chimney, but I was still grateful for the gesture.

I had a few accessories to go with my new threads. A dark satin blindfold was wrapped around my forehead, and a steel collar chafed against my throat.

Two Telekhines walked ahead of me, one leading me with a grip on a chain tied to my collar. Alastor swore they could be trusted. I, too, hoped they could be trusted… not to tell a soul about what I looked like right now. For their sake.

Not that they were the ones I was most worried about .

Thalia hadn't stopped laughing for the last five minutes.

"You—!" she said, pointing at me, but every time she doubled over before she could get any more out.

"You look great Percy," Piper said. "Don't pay her any mind."

But even she couldn't completely hide her smile.

The girls were trailing me. They were my back up. They would wait outside, only looking away if it seemed like Pompona would take her true form. When I ambushed the goddess once her guard was down, they would step in to help if needed. Audrey was there too, but that was mostly because she didn't feel comfortable staying behind with a bunch of monsters, even ones that had sworn some very generous oaths.

"You humans should dress like that more!" said one of the Telekhines leading me. "In fact, you should get rid of the pants entirely! True dominant lifeforms have no need for clothes!"

"Just look at us," said the other, gesturing at his body. "Flippers and fur on full display."

Something about their squeaky voices reminded me of Mount St. Helens, and the Telekhine pups I'd stumbled into a seminar for. They'd been cuter things, with extra energy, high voices, and an even greater thirst for demigod suffering.

"You're young, aren't you?" I asked.

The Telekhines leading me looked at each other.

"You can tell?" one asked me.

"Well, I had a feeling."

"The elders were right," said the other, and for some reason he sounded genuinely sad. "We really do stand out. What else were they right about? Maybe Alastor really is an upstart, and maybe the Scythe really can't be topped, and maybe—"

His friend slapped him on the snout.

"Don't go talking that way!" he snapped. "We'll do it! Just believe, like Alastor does!"

But the sad one only rubbed his snout where he'd been hit.

"Alastor might believe," he said, "but all we've done for years is watch humans make chains for other humans. It's not grand at all. It's boring!"

"Is that what you do here?" I cut in, before he could get sidetracked further by his whining. "You make chains?"

"That's right," said one of the Telekhines.

"But it looks like you already have plenty."

They were everywhere. When we left, the first mortals were already being freed from them as part of Alastor's oath, but there had been enough chains and shackles for the entire workforce of hundreds to thousands.

"They aren't for here," said a Telekhine. "These slaves make them. But this is only an outpost. Most of the slaves are in the capital of the South, and for that many you need chains and chains and more chains on top of that."

"Dallas," Aubrey said very quietly from the back. 

"That's the old name," said the Telekhine. "The mortal one. But Krios calls it Kriosopolis."

"How humble of him," I said.

The Telekhine shrugged. "You don't need to be humble when you rule the South. You just have to be strong enough for nobody to take it from you."

Up to that point we'd been walking through narrow caves. Some were lit by lava, while others were dark and smokey. But now the tunnel was widening. Luminous moss appeared on the walls, giving us enough light to see by. Fenced-in rectangles began cropping up filled with small garden plants, like tomatoes and zucchini. It was impressive they existed at all considering there was no sun, but they still looked thin and sickly, more brown than green. A solid wall of interlocking vines appeared in our path, slithering and interchanging with each other like a nest of snakes. The only different spot across the whole wall was a single, ordinary door directly in our path.

The Telekhines stopped and turned to me. One undid the chain from my collar while leaving the steel around my neck. The other pulled my blindfold over my eyes. I heard the sound of something wet on their hands, and a moment later they were rubbing something into my exposed skin. It smelled sweet and floral, pleasant and natural all at once.

"Soap," one explained, although I couldn't see any longer to tell which it was. Not that I could tell them apart in the first place. "Slaves aren't exactly clean when Pompona finds them. She insists we give 'em this treatment. Should be pleasant enough for you."

"Yeah, Percy," someone said, and this time I definitely recognized Thalia's voice. "Go on and enjoy those demons scrubbing you."

I flipped off the direction I thought she was standing in.

Soon the preparations were completely. Smelling a whole lot better and feeling a bit more violated, I allowed the Telekhines to lead me forward. I heard the sound of the door opening. Someone gave me a gentle push, and I stumbled a few steps ahead.

The door creaked most of the way closed behind me. I was standing on something soft, bouncy almost like a trampoline. What I thought was pollen tickled my nose. Usually that would make me sneeze, but this time it only made me sleepy, like I was sinking into a trance. A woman giggled.

"Look what we have here," she said. "I should trust those demons more often. What a succulent fruit they've plucked for me!"

It was… What was her name again… Pompona! I recognized her voice, but matching it to the right name took a crazy amount of effort. It was like my memories had turned to molasses.

"Come here," she said.

My body reacted too fast, as if it skipped the part where my brain got to decide whether I wanted to listen.

Something was hanging from the ceiling. A kind of moss? All I knew was that the tendrils brushed my bare shoulders as I walked through them.

My body stopped suddenly. I still couldn't see, but somehow I could sense that I was in the spot I was supposed to be.

Springs on a bed uncoiled with a quiet groan. 

I felt hands on my body. They slid across my muscles, feeling up my chest still slick with floral soap. A hand touched the base of my chin, tilting it up. 

"Oh, yes," Pompona said. "You'll do fantastically."

The fingers pulled away and I heard the bed squeak again. A moment later the command came, "Follow."

Again my body lurched forward. I dropped onto the bed on all-fours, crawling forward a bit before stopping. The mattress bounced slightly under my weight. I could feel satin sheets oozing between my fingers.

"You have been chosen," Pompona said. "First of all, congratulations. This is your chance to transcend a dull slave life in a way others could only dream of. I expect you to remember what an honor that is, and to channel it into giving me good service."

A leg landed on my shoulder. It was wide and soft, a total contrast to the lithe legs of Calypso, Grace, or the Hesperides. An identical one slid over my other shoulder a second later. They pushed down, lowering my upper body until my face hit something delicate and hairy.

"Be a good mortal. Go on and lick."

My tongue burst from my mouth. It dug straight past the hairs that tickled it, sliding into Pompona's warmth until it couldn't reach any deeper. It lapped at her body, unstopping. Every single trick I could think of was executed one after another in a lustful frenzy. Hands mixed into my hair, pressing my head down until my nose sunk into the thin layer of fat running beneath her muff.

"Yes," Pompona breathed. "Ohhh, yes."

My hands moved. One I planted on her upper thigh, gripping her gooey flesh to hold myself up. With the other I shoved two fingers under my tongue, darting through her folds.

I was here for something. What had it been again? It must've been to make Pompona feel as good as possible, right? It was to do as she asked. It was to draw out the pleasures of her body, like the great honor that was.

I blinked. No. None of that was right. But what…

The pollen thickened around me. Pompona brushed her fingers against my metal collar. Something looped through it, where the chain was before, and a moment later she was yanking a leash, dragging my face so deeply into her crotch I could hardly breathe.

That didn't matter. I would gladly suffocate, if my last breath was of her body. I—

Was Perseus gods damned Jackson, and it would take ten goddesses as great as this one to break me.

The feeling of the pollen faded. My thoughts cleared. But my body kept moving, working against Pompona. From the sound of it, she hadn't noticed a thing. She went on moaning, periodically stopping to say, "Lick me until I cum!"

Each time her words yanked against my will, something deep and foreign commanding me to listen. But I was wise to it now, and it couldn't affect me.

Charmspeak. That's what she was using. But unlike on Circe's island, I had caught onto it. Which wasn't to say the feeling was pleasant. I decided I liked this power better when Piper was using it on unsuspecting monsters.

I could've still played along. I could've kept fucking exactly the way Pompona wanted until she got her rocks off.

The thing was, I wanted to weaken her as much as possible. I wanted to totally unbalance her. And, alright, I'm going to be honest. I was mad at the woman who tried to control me, the same woman that took advantage of who knows how many slaves before this.

Without a command telling me to, I shoved my whole fist into her.

It slid in easily with the help of all that soap I'd been lathered with. Pompona yowled. She pulled my leash harder, which I used as an excuse to shove my fist deeper.

"Slave!" she cried. "Overeager! Too much! Stop!"

I pulled my tongue out of her, leaving all the work to my hand. And, with my other hand, tore away my blindfold.

It ripped easily under my strength. I stared at the naked goddess, looking up from between her legs. 

Her hips were so wide that she had a hint of an hourglass figure despite the small rolls on her stomach. Two enormous breasts swelled above her chest, and between them, I could see her beautiful blond face staring at me in shock.

"No!" she said. "You aren't supposed to do that yet! Put it back, or else it'll end too quickly!"

I didn't put the blindfold back. It was torn now anyway. Instead, I slid my knees up, resting my weight on them. Instead of grabbing her inner thigh, this time I reached up to the side of her stomach, fingers gripping the fattiest part of her side.

I continued pumping my fist inside her. And now, I pulled her whole body into it, pummeling her insides.

Pompona screamed. Her back arched, making those breasts jiggle. A tremor wracked her body as she orgasmed against my hand.

I didn't stop. She was whimpering now, and she said, "Slave, I already came!"

"You don't get to choose when it ends," I said. "I do."

The noises were growing increasingly loud and wet. There was hardly enough room inside her for my hand, but that didn't stop me from greedily pushing through every inch she would give me.

"I could take my true form and vaporize you in an instant!"

"Try it," I said. "I'll only fuck you harder.

She pulled the leash she had me on. I could see it now. A thick green vine not unlike the ones at the entrance had taken the place of the Telekhines' chain, fastened on my metal collar. Pompona pulled with all her might, but it wasn't enough to move me. She orgasmed a second time and lost her grip on it.

Only when she'd cum multiple more times did I decide I was satisfied. My hand was glistening when I pulled it free, while the sheets beneath Pompona's legs had been thoroughly stained.

I rolled her over onto her stomach, lifting her hips a moment later. Her enormous ass was as well-cushioned as the rest of her. I gave it a hard smack and watched the ripples pass through her body.

"Not like this," Pompona protested. "I'm always on top!"

I smacked her ass. "I'm sure you are." I smacked it again, bringing my other hand against the other cheek. "Did you ever give those mortals a choice? That's what I thought. So now, you're just going to take it."

The lips of her pussy glistened. It was right there, begging to be filled. But I wanted something more. I wanted to prove a point. Suddenly, I got an idea.

I pulled apart those voluminous cheeks and plunged directly into her asshole.

Pompona shrieked in a way I didn't know voices could sound. I didn't know a woman could feel this way, either. It was so tight that I never would've fit without the soap for lube.

My hips crashed into hers. The contrast between her soft body and tight hole was incredible.

"Nooooooo!" Pompona wailed.

Her legs shook. Another orgasm erupted from her, this one squirting out across the bed. She shook from the head to the tip of her toes, and a moment later she changed.

Her true form burst to the surface. It looked almost the same as her mortal form, only with copper skin the color of autumn leaves and hair made from vines.

"You're still alive?" she cried when she felt my cock hadn't stopped. "You weren't mortal at all!"

"Don't waste your voice talking about things that don't matter."

I grabbed the vines her hair had become and wrapped them around her throat, pulling them tight. She gasped and gagged, but she was a goddess. She couldn't truly choke, only feel the constriction. Even in this form she lacked the strength to overpower me. I ravaged her body from behind, unstopping and uncaring.

For the first time I got a look at the room around us. It was incredible. The floor I walked across was nothing but layer after layer of flowers, one on top of another. Long tendrils of moss sunk down from the ceiling. Everywhere you looked was filled with greens and browns and golds. Unlike the plants outside, these blossomed and bore thick fruit. I saw everything from grape vines to apple trees. I wondered what was different about here, how plants grew in this room but nowhere else.

Pompona came again while I was hardly paying attention. Drops of her juices flew out, spilling off of the bed… and that was when I saw something strange.

The flowery floor opened up. At first I thought it looked like a sinkhole, but that wasn't quite right. The drops flew into the gap, and the moment they were through, the gap shut after them. More like a…

Like a mouth.

I looked more urgently around the room, my eyes picking out details they missed before. The flowery ground was uneven, with lumps in places. I flicked my hand out, hurling old bits of juice at one of the largest mounds.

The ground opened again, swallowing it. And in the brief gap I saw it.

A metal collar just like the one I was wearing.

I yanked Pompona's viny hair with all my strength. Her body jerked up, burying me uncomfortably deep in her improper hole.

"What happened to the slaves?" I demanded. "Why did they never come back? Tell me the truth!"

Pompona gagged and gasped. I lessened my grip just enough for her to speak.

"They served well…" she moaned.

"That's not what I asked!"

"Fruit gets picked," she mumbled, and I got the feeling she wasn't quite lucid anymore. "Picked fruit is eaten. Even eaten fruit has a purpose. It's thrown away to rot, and new life springs from it!"

I shoved her forward with a hand on her back. She fell forward, sliding directly off my dick and landing face-down in a heap. I was breathing hard. I didn't want this anymore. I felt sick to my stomach.

How many lives… Alastor said dozens had disappeared. I looked around this unnatural paradise. All the new life here had to come from somewhere, and I knew now exactly what Pompona had used. 

"I didn't kill them!" Pompona was trying to push herself up, doing her best to look defensive. "They just couldn't keep up with me! All of them wore out eventually, and from little things too, like no sleep or dehydration! Why should I stop because a weak mortal needs water?"

"You're sick."

"Oh, and you who snuck into my chambers is not?" Pompona sneered. "I rule this place! I'll chain you up the moment your guard is down, and use you for eternity! If you disobey, I can have Krios here in seconds. You're done for!"

"You're right," I said. "I am done."

I grabbed her ankle. Before she could react, I threw her off the bed.

The plants seemed to react to organic life. Someone must control them, or at least they obeyed Pompona to an extent. Otherwise, I couldn't have walked across them in the first place. Pompona landed on her back, but she didn't sink in.

"You think my own plants will turn against me?" she said. "You are a fool! You—"

I tuned out her rant. Instead, I let my skin burn away.

I didn't transform my entire arm. Instead, only one fingertip changed. I bent off the lip of the bed, digging the finger into the plants.

Even as in the moment I didn't understand what I was doing. It felt like muscle memory, only for something I'd never tried before. A miniscule amount of my power pulsed through the weeds.

Pompona was still ranting about my idiocy, but she cut off abruptly. Underneath her, the flowers had opened.

It's difficult to describe what happened next. Pompona screamed. Then she screamed again. The floor consumed her whole, spat her out, then ate her again. As I watched she died a dozen deaths, then a dozen more.

At times her skin was cracked and dry. At others, bones broke, usually around the pelvis. In moments she simply froze up, as if her body unexpectedly ceased functioning. And at the end of each cycle, after each 'death', the plants consumed her. Eventually she sunk under the surface…

And she didn't rise up again.

I pulled my finger up. Already the greenery was beginning to brown without Pompona's power keeping it healthy. I didn't know what I'd just done. And I couldn't figure it out, because my brain wouldn't think of anything but the victims that came before me.

My loins raged that they hadn't been allowed to finish. It was unsatisfying after getting so worked up. But that was only a small part of my brain complaining. The rest of me was in no mood for that.

At least Pompona was gone. Our deal with Alastor was complete. That was something.

Can you tell how hard I was trying to cheer up?

O-O-O

When the others burst into the room, Thalia in front and Piper and Aubrey just behind, they found me sitting naked at the edge of the bed, rubbing my face in a room of rotted plants.

"Help me tear this stuff out," I said. "There's bodies to bury."