Chapter Text
‘’What the fuck…’’, Vax muttered as an uneasy stillness settled over the group, static crackling dangerously in the air.
‘’Is that supposed to happen?’’, Keyleth chuckled wearily, her eyes darting from one person to another until they stopped to linger on Percy once more.
Percy was too busy staring blankly at his pepperbox, all noise muted into a faint buzz in his ear as dark smoke crept along the edges of his vision.
No.
It couldn’t be…
‘’Darling, are you-‘’, Vex’s hand hung uncertainly in the air, caught between retreating and reaching out to him.
Low whispers filled the cavern as his grip on the gun tightened, his fingers spasming at the sudden change in pressure.
Percy found himself staring down the barrel of his trusted weapon.
‘’No…’’, he muttered as he grit his teeth, his forefinger wrapping around trigger.
Sweat beaded down his temple as he willed the muscles of his fingers to move to his will.
Nothing.
‘’The smoke. It’s even worse now’’, Cassandra commented, her brows drawn ever tightly together as her eyes traced the smoke currently spilling out from the pepperbox.
‘’It’s some sort of curse’’, Vax replied.
‘’Pike sensed that something was clouding his soul earlier. I thought she meant that he was depressed.’’
‘’Something has possession of you.’’
‘’And we are better for it’’, a low snarl erupted from the depth of his throat, his limbs starting to jerk wildly, ‘’As the list is finished our contract is forfeited, and so is the ownership over your soul.’’
‘’Our contract? What- Percy!’’, exclaimed Vex.
‘’That’s not Percy’’, Keyleth breathed out, her heart seizing in her throat as realisation dawned within her. She felt as if her body was being showered in ice, any warmth previously contained within her cloak now stolen in a whim.
Vax turned to look at her, ‘’Keyleth?’’
Her trembling finger found its target on Percy.
‘’Look-‘’
‘’Holy shit’’, Vex muttered as the smoke arranged briefly over Percy’s face into something otherworldly. Its monstrous features, its yellow eyes piercing into their souls as it sent shivers down their spine, something that was trying to appear human but so evidently not in its clumsy imitations, ‘’How?’’
‘’This is wrong, it’s all wrong’’, Keyleth continued, ‘’If it gets what it wants, I don’t think much of Percy will be left.’’
‘’Vex’ahlia, what are you doing?’’, Vax shouted as he noticed his sister starting to approach Percy.
‘’Step aside’’, Percy’s voice overlapped with Orthax’s harshly.
Vex just stared at him, a pained look flitting across her face as she looked into blackened eyes, desperate to find any trace of icy warm familiarity within them, ‘’You’re going to shoot me too?’’.
‘’If we must.’’
The barrel of the gun found its way to her, the darkness of the hollowed barrel causing unease to settle heavily in her gut.
She had seen plenty of times what it was capable of in Percy’s hands, as it split the skulls of their enemies in the heat of battle. The ear shattering bang and the tear-jerking sting of the smoke its pellets left behind in the wake of its bodies.
Yet deep down she knew Percy would never dare to turn the weapon on any of them. His initial faith in them while hard-won, felt like something they snagged for life once they conquered it. For as hard as he tried to initially seem detached and level-headed, he grew to care for them.
She saw it in the way he volunteered first for night watches and wood collecting, or how he helped Pike collect herbs for her medicinal kit, how he listened to Keyleth’s ramblings, how he bantered with Vax, how he-
How he came to them, clearly battling something within him from his life before, but allowed his guard to lower overtime anyways. Maybe not all the way, because Percy was starved for connection as he was wary of it and while he never seemed to let his secrets slip past his lips, he learned to trust them in his own way.
Vex shook her head. As well-intentioned Percy was, it did little to erase the fact that the demon currently occupying his soul held Percy’s pepperbox in line with her forehead.
‘’I know you’re in there.’’
Through gritted teeth, Percy’s eyes filled with tears as Vex’ahlia slowly brought her hand up to his.
‘’It’s all right’’, she murmured softly, careful not to set him off with her butterfly touch as she intertwined her fingers with his, ‘’You can put it down. You don’t have to do this.’’
‘’It…It won’t let me’’, Percy strained to budge his arm even a little, his finger dangerously unsteady on the trigger, a hair’s breadth away from upsetting it.
Percy stumbled away as he fought the force within him for control over his limbs.
He used his free arm to grip at his gun wielding hand as it resisted his advances.
The barrel pointed back at him, the cold snout now digging directly underneath his chin.
‘’Don’t do it’’, Vex warned.
‘’Percy, you can’t!’’
Percy’s eyes met Cassandra’s scarily similar icy ones as he filled with despair.
His little sister, who he unwittingly abandoned to those monsters for years while he was allowed to roam free.
He couldn’t leave her alone, not again. He had so much time to make up for with her, she was all he had left-
‘’I don’t know what else to do-‘’, he rasped out.
‘’Yes…Yes…’’, Orthax growled.
Silent horror grew within the group as orange smoke spread amidst the inky black, revealing Orthax’s black talons and piercing orange eyes.
Grog shook his head, ‘’Nope, do not like.’’
‘’Yeah, no kidding-‘’, Scanlan responded.
The black smoke morphed dramatically, slithering on the floor towards them.
‘’Everyone get back’’, Vax interrupted, his voice echoing off the walls, "Don't let it touch you."
‘’Wait! He’s not in control…If we try to fight that thing, it won’t bleed but Percy will. If it’s inside his mind, his soul, only he can stop it’’, Keyleth explained as she gripped her staff tightly with whitening knuckles.
‘’We’ll buy time then. Oi, keep him from shooting himself!’’
‘’Piece of cake!’’
Scanlan whipped out his lute and summoned his signature move to distract Percy.
Percy shot at the purple apparition before making his way to Scanlan, the smoke causing him to glide over at the speed of light.
As he was about to shoot another shot at Scanlan, Grog’s axe pivoted the bullet away before it could reach its target.
‘’Shall I take over?’’, Orthax murmured in his ear.
‘’No…No!’’
Percy looked up at them, orange and black contrasting with blue and white, his vision doubling as he tried re-focusing his eyes.
‘’I’m afraid I must.’’
The smoke swirled dangerously fast around him, disorienting him even further as it finally clouded his vision.
As if he were underwater, he heard the muffled shouting of his name.