Chapter 76

A/N: I like how this chapter turned out so I'm releasing it earlier than planned, there's 2.2k words so yeah... I want to see how you guys react, I just know I'm going to get flamed in the comments lol

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[Third Person's PoV] 

As Annabeth, Luke, and Thalia reached the entrance to the garden and were about to exit, they looked back and realized Lucian wasn't with them, causing them all to sigh.

"You guys don't think he's still tormenting Atlas, is he?" Luke asked with a weary expression.

"No, although Lucian is cruel, he isn't a monster," Annabeth said adamantly.

"Are you sure you aren't just biased?" Thalia asked.

To which Annabeth nodded her head with a serious expression. "If he was, I'm pretty sure none of you guys would have continued being friends with him up to this point. Lucian just doesn't know when he goes too far. I think it's our job as his friends to tell him that and to stop him when he does."

Luke and Thalia once again sighed as they realized Annabeth was telling the truth.

"So what do you think he's doing?" Thalia asked.

"Only one way to find out," Luke said as they started going back the way they came, which took them a couple of long minutes. When they arrived, they stood frozen in shock.

Lucian was seen pouting as he wiped Atlas' wet face while feeding him food, which looked like he recently made based on the pots around his surroundings.

"And you better finish everything. One thing my mother taught me was to never waste food. Oh, and I apologize for my previous comments. I need your tears for something, but that still doesn't excuse what I did."

The three didn't say anything except look at each other before they all started smiling between themselves.

Lucian cleaned the corners of his mouth before feeding him some water and putting everything else away. "Anyways, I have to go. It was nice to meet you, I guess, although I doubt you would think the same."

Atlas didn't say anything and just nodded his head.

After Lucian finished putting everything away, he saw the others looking at him with a smile. Lucian just looked coldly towards them. "Not a word."

Thalia, who was about to ignore his warnings, ate her words upon hearing his next sentence.

"Say a word, and I swear I'll make it so you guys would be the ones to meet my father before I do."

As Lucian walked past them, they followed him still smiling ear to ear.

"Now that the journey is over, I'll be teleporting us back to camp. For one, I'm tired, and two, I have something important I really have to do."

Luke, Annabeth, and Thalia nodded their heads as they believed they too were exhausted after their adventure.

"Wait, I just realized, since when can you teleport multiple people at once? Shouldn't it be dangerous for you?" Annabeth asked in confusion.

"It's not. I've been practicing and recently developed a technique called shadow tethering. It'll connect us together through the power of shadows, thus you wouldn't be lost or unexpectedly taken. That way, we would be able to travel using my shadows together," Lucian explained.

Lucian connected them before they were all engulfed in his shadow, making them reappear on top of the hill looking down on Camp Half-Blood.

As they walked down, Luke took out his golden apple and held it towards the skies, and as he entered, the people near the entrance of the camp announced his presence.

"THE QUEST TAKERS HAVE RETURNED!"

There were a lot of cheers as Luke walked around with the golden apple.

Annabeth just smiled before taking a hold of Lucian's hand. Lucian was confused by her actions, but before he could say anything, Annabeth started dragging Lucian back to his cabin, making him even more confused. Meanwhile, Luke and Thalia went to report their quest completion to Chiron.

As they entered his cabin, Annabeth started dragging Lucian down some stairs that weren't definitely there before when he first constructed the cabin.

As they reached the bottom, there was a red door with a symbol of a skull with a sun in the middle of its forehead.

"Open it," she said coldly, taking Lucian by complete surprise.

"What? Why? You know you're not allowed to go in. This is like the only place I forbid you to go in. No," Lucian said with a serious expression.

Annabeth placed her hand on Lucian's chest and slowly pushed him against the wall.

'What the heck is happening…?' He thought, looking at Annabeth's serious expression.

"I know you, Lucian, probably more than anyone else in my life. I probably know you more than I do about myself. I know that place right there is the most secure place in the entire camp, and knowing you, you most definitely enchanted it to keep away from prying eyes.

You are doing something dangerous, Lucian, extremely so. If you, the most powerful demigod I know, are saying that you only have a 1% chance of survival, then I want in. I want to hear it. There's no denying that I care deeply about you, Lucian, so hearing you are doing something that may cost you your life, I can't help but want in on what you are planning. And since you can't say it in the open, say it in there.

I want to help you in your goals. If by yourself you have a 1% chance of survival, then with me, that chance might increase to 2% or even 1.1%. That .1% might just be the deciding factor on whether you live or die, so I'm taking that risk. If you die, I'm dying with you."

Lucian gave her a teasing smirk, "Careful, Annabeth, if I didn't know any better, I would have thought you were proposing."

"Take it however you want," Annabeth said without a change of expression, making sure Lucian understood how serious she was being.

Lucian groaned and threw his head back, "You're such a pain in the ass."

"Call me whatever you want. I'm not leaving you alone," Annabeth said.

Seeing that his attempt to hurt her feelings and make her go away wasn't working, Lucian sighed.

"Fine, but don't touch ANYTHING! Got it?"

Annabeth nodded with a serious expression.

Lucian held out his hands and created a key using his shadows. Instead of putting it near the doorknob like a normal person, he shoved it in the skull's mouth before turning it.

Instead of opening like a normal door, this one split down the middle.

Annabeth looked at Lucian's back with a weird expression. 'Just why? Why would he design a door like this? What's the point of the doorknob?'

Annabeth was surprised by what she saw inside. The room was dark, with the only lighting coming from candles. Papers covered every surface - the floor, the walls, even the ceilings.

She saw magic circles of different designs, parts of monsters in large containers filled with water - a giant eyeball, parchment of skin, a large beating heart. Jars were filled with teeth, claws, even feathers.

'A stuntman, Artisan, Treasure Seeker? What? What is going on?' Annabeth was confused by some of the words she read on the ceilings. She saw the word "Faith" in big bold letters with a question mark next to it.

Annabeth saw the room grow darker and the lights turn brighter as the door behind her closed.

Lucian grabbed a chair from his desk and sat down with the back of it towards Annabeth, while Lucian faced her.

He crossed his arms on top of the chair and laid his head on his arms.

"You want to hear my goals so bad, fine. But be warned, once you do, there is no going back. Once you learn, your life will be tied together with mine for as long as I live. This could put you in danger. Are you sure you want to continue?"

Annabeth didn't even hesitate as she nodded her head as soon as Lucian finished speaking, causing him to sigh.

"Very well. When I was little, I had a goal. I wanted to leave my mark in this world. I wanted everyone to know about me, to have a defining existence that would be remembered for a long time. So I set my goal in becoming the first mortal to become a God!" Lucian exclaimed, spreading his arms.

Annabeth was surprised, but then grew confused. "But you wouldn't have been the first mortal–"

Lucian interrupted her, "That's the thing. The reason why my goal was so outlandish - Hercules and all the other beings that turned into Gods didn't do it on their own. They were given their godhood. But that's another thing. If it could be given to them, it could also be taken away.

And to me, that's not godhood. That's not what being a true God is about. Why should others decide whether I get to be a God or not? Why should they have the power to take that power away? If one can't have that freedom, then that being isn't a god but an immortal with power, plain and simple. Hell, the gods we know aren't truly free. They are all following what is already determined by Fate!

I wanted to be different. I wanted to become a God of my own creation, a self-made God like never seen before. I would have started from the bottom and slowly made my way towards the top," Lucian explained with a faraway look.

Annabeth was flabbergasted. 'I see, so this is why. This is why he couldn't say anything about his goals and dreams outside in the open. If he did, he would have been struck down. I'm starting to understand why he's doing everything here, underground. Zeus isn't able to spy on him here underground. Underground is his father's domain. Hell, I wouldn't even be surprised if his father supports him… but wait.'

"You keep talking in past tense. Why is that?"

Lucian smirked, "Because I realized something important. Gods have fear. There is a power out there that goes beyond the Gods…" Lucian exclaimed with a large grin.

Lucian shouted the answer in ecstasy, and Annabeth whispered it, both saying it at the same time, "A Primordial…"

"Forget being a God. They're too weak. I want to be more. I want to be something never seen before, something so impossible that when they mention it, only my name would appear. I want to be the first mortal to transcend Godhood and become a Primordial being!" Lucian continued.

"That's impossible…" Annabeth whispered.

Lucian just smirked, "Why is that?"

"I… I… don't know. I just know it should be impossible. A mortal can't possibly become a Primordial being… Wait, didn't you say you and your mother calculated the odds of your goals' success? 1% is actually a lot," Annabeth said, realization dawning on her.

Lucian's eyes closed as he smiled, "I was lying…"

A horrified look overcame Annabeth as her eyes widened, "What…" she muttered.

"Like I said, my goals when I was little was to become a God. When I was little, my mother was alive, and she helped me calculate that. What I told you guys was the odds of me becoming a God. If I said the actual percentage of me becoming a Primordial, you would have been too worried, so I lied."

 "What is the percentage now…?"

"This is a calculation I did on my own, so my numbers may not be accurate, but I checked it 10 times, and all 10 times came with the same number, 0.000001%," Lucian smiled.

"And you're truly going to go on with it?" Annabeth asked, her lips quivering.

Lucian closed his eyes and nodded slowly. Tears started pouring down Annabeth's face as she wrapped her arms around his head.

"Please, Lucian, please don't do it. The percentage is too low. You'll undoubtedly die, so please don't go through with this," she pleaded through sobs.

Lucian didn't have an expression on his face. He looked up at her with his black orbs for eyes, devoid of any emotion.

With those spiraling black orbs, he looked into her eyes and asked in a confused tone, "Why are you fake crying?"

"What?" She asked, tears still flowing.

"Just like you know me, I know you. I know your real tears. You're clearly fake crying, and I'm genuinely curious as to why?" 

Annabeth sighed as she cleaned her face and wiped her tears, clicking her tongue. "I thought if I cried and pleaded, you would drop this stupid idea of yours."

She sighed as she pushed her hair back, then grabbed Lucian's face and pressed her forehead against his, making him look into her eyes which, although gray, matched his same intensity.

"You seriously leave me no choice, Lucian. If you plan to become a Primordial, then include me, make me one as well. I don't care how you do it, I don't care about the process. If you plan on getting yourself killed in the process of this stupid idea, then I'm dying with you. I said this once, and I'll say it a million more.

Even though the odds are against us, you said it has a 0.000001% chance of success, which means you are totally focusing on the 1 at the end. Although I'm not as strong as you, I'm just as smart if not smarter, so we will succeed. I'll make sure of it. It's definitely going to be a pain in the ass, I can already feel it, but seriously, like I said, you leave me no choice."

Annabeth looked into his black orbs for eyes and closed hers before leaning down and stealing a kiss from Lucian's lips.

"..."

'I'm going to jail…' Lucian thought throughout the entire process.