Thunder boomed and lightning struck the sky. Oh yeah, it's game time. The Titans have definitely upped their game. Well, we're not going to let ourselves lag behind. It's time we end this.
I was inside the Plaza Hotel, in one of the suites that the campers had occupied. I opened my eyes to find myself staring at the Crème colored ceiling. I had just woken up from yet another disturbing dream – you know the kind wherein for some reason my subconscious travels to enemy lines and spies on them. Well, all in a sleep's work of a demigod.
I pushed the sheets off me and went to the balcony. I was at least three stories from the ground. I could see Manhattan. Oh yes, dear old burned-and crater-filled Manhattan. Gotta love it.
I surveyed the area in case there were any demigods that we've left out. Dead or alive, they must be brought back.
I feel my gut twisting into several knots thinking about all the damaged we've caused – all the lives lost. My gaze focused on the sunrise seeping between the small breaks in between two skyscrapers in front of the hotel. The sunlight reflected of the glass windows of both buildings and shone on the Plaza.
Kronos does not fight during the day. I'm glad for this momentary peace; well not really peace, but maybe some form of—heck, like I should know. Truce, I guess.
I went back into the room and saw that some of the campers had been lying on the floor. Their arms in slings, their legs in splints, but otherwise they were still alive.
I heaved a sigh of relief mixed with a little anguish. I don't want to think about how many more we will lose tonight. I don't want to think about how close to death each and everyone is. Most of all, I don't want to think about the prophecy.
I made my way to the door, making sure I don't step on any campers. I closed the door as gently as not to wake them.
I walked down the corridor to the elevator. I went in, the door almost closed but somebody called out, "Percy!"
There was a button on the control pad that reopened the door. Too sure of who called, I wasn't surprised to see Annabeth standing in front of me.
"To the ground floor, Madam?"
She raised her eyebrow and smiled sideways giving that shut-it-seaweed-brain kind of smile.
She got in and we started to descend. From all the years I've known Annabeth, she would sometimes just blab out some random facts or something food-for-thought-worthy. But with the war and all, I couldn't blame her if she just fell silent. She leaned on the elevator wall and just stared at the controls. War has worn out everybody.
"So," I started, "how's it going with the defenses." Anything just to break the silence. And why was taking the elevator so long?
"Well, 5th avenue needs to have more defenses considering that that's where Kronos' army has appeared quite a few times already. I've already managed to place able guards—those who aren't seriously injured so far—to guard that area. I coordinated with Thalia to place some hunters there. The Demeter cabin and the Satyrs are working on the other entrances. The Hermes cabin is gathering supplies—I really hope they don't forget to leave money at the counter. Apollo's cabin is treating the injured and transferring them to the Empire State Building considering we have to block the way to Olympus. And…"
She trailed off. There was silence again.
"What?"
"Nobody's left in the Aphrodite cabin. Most of them are missing and some of them died. I've had search parties after them but still no sign of any of them."
"Oh," I focused on my feet, "I see."
Her hair was tucked behind her ear showing off her scarred face. Some cuts had been covered while the fresher ones hadn't been treated yet. We had only stopped fighting a few hours ago, but that wasn't enough to shake whatever feelings we had when we fought.
"Seriously," Annabeth said as she stomped on the ground, "what in Hades is wrong with this elevator?"
Just as the name Hades was mentioned, the elevator suddenly shot down at great speed.
We both pushed ourselves against the corners of the elevators for support. After it dropped – which surprisingly did not crash, thank the gods – we got out.
"What just happened?" I looked at Annabeth.
"Beats me," she said as she examined the elevator. "I guess names really are powerful."
We went down the steps of the Plaza and headed towards 5th avenue. Sure enough, Thalia had been positioning the Hunters of Artemis in strategic locations: places wherein they are hidden and in range of each other.
"How are things going?" Annabeth asked.
"Fine really," Thalia managed. The silvery glow which usually surrounded the Hunters was faint. They were all tired—worn out and even grieving. But they know better than to let that distract them. "Our numbers are just seriously low. We can't hope to survive the next attack tonight. The Centaurs are starting to disappear, nature spirits have faded, and satyrs, Hunters, and campers have fallen. This is not a good sign, Percy. This has probably just begun but we are already on the losing side."
I clenched my fist. I could feel my shoulder tensing but Thalia was right. We are losing in numbers, but what are we to do? The Ares cabin—curse them and their father—were back at the camp sitting as the rest fought for our lives and for Olympus.
Annabeth glanced at me and started, "True, our numbers are dwindling and we can't hope to win the battle tonight." Gee, that really helped.
"But," she continued, "we have to make do with whatever resources we have left. We can sit and complain about how much at a disadvantage we are but doing that isn't going to change anything."
She stretched her hand and Thalia handed her a piece of paper – the battle plan. All of our defenses and offensive plays were on that piece of paper.
"I'll make some improvements on the plans. I have to adjust according to how many we actually are." She talked mostly to Thalia. I ignored that fact considering that I have absolutely no hold on the plans for the time being. All I do with the plans are follow it at the beginning, start changing as the middle part progresses and finally come out with a totally different outcome. Yeah, that's what I do – not that I'm proud of it. I just do things impulsively really.
Without another word, Annabeth turned and walked back into the Plaza.
"So," Thalia started, "how's she dealing?" Her voice was casual yet unnerving.
"She's doing fine," I lied. How could she possibly be fine with Kronos taking over Luke's body and bringing forth the end of both the world and Olympus? Luke was probably the most important person in her life. I couldn't blame her for defending him. It's just that…
"Hey," Thalia's voice grabbed me from whatever pit of misery I let myself sink into. "Don't think about it too much. Luke may have been important to both of us but he's turned against us. He is not the same person he once was. Annabeth knows that." Wow, I wonder if the Hunters suddenly gained mind reading powers. If they did, I have to learn how to block them before Thalia pulls something out of my subconscious that I don't want to surface.
"Hah," I said rather mockingly, "right. Annabeth knows that he's not Luke anymore. If she really did abandon the thought that Luke was still in there, then she wouldn't bother acting so defensively when I bring up the subject."
"Percy," Thalia sighed, "you have to understand, Luke, Annabeth and I have gone through a lot—"
"I know that!" I let my emotions get the better of me before I could compose myself.
"The thing is, Luke and I were probably the closest thing that Annabeth had to an actual family. You can't just sever your ties with something like that."
"You kind of did it instantly," I mumbled.
"No, I didn't. It took me some time after I joined the Hunters to actually think straight. It really is hard. Imagine Kronos using your mother instead of Luke—"
"Don't go there," I said. My fists were balled up. I can't have anybody talk about my mother that way even if she is the daughter of Zeus.
"My point exactly. You wouldn't believe it at all. You'd do anything to defend your mom, the same way Annabeth would for Luke. You can't just forget who they were Percy, you just can't"
One of the Hunters called out to Thalia. "Think about it," she turned and left.
I just stood there. I mean, I know that Annabeth cared a lot for Luke, my first year at camp told me enough about that. But he tried to kill us countless times and still Annabeth keeps reminding herself that Luke might still be in there. I knew for a fact that he wasn't in there anymore, but why do I still think that somehow Annabeth may be right?
"Percy," speak of the devil herself. I turned to see Annabeth running towards me. "We've found the Aphrodite campers."
We reached the third floor where the Apollo campers were treating the wounded. We entered the first door to the right of the elevator and found six or seven girls lying on the floor.
"Where did you find them?" Annabeth asked one of the Demeter campers.
"Caved in a tunnel. We managed to get the girls out but their brothers are nowhere to be found. We theorize that they may be somewhere in the middle of the cave—hopefully alive."
Annabeth couched down next to one of Aphrodite's daughters. "How are you holding up?"
"Could've been worse," she grinned with those incredibly white teeth.
"Do you know where your brothers went?"
The expression on the Aphrodite girl's face turned anxious. "I-I don't know," she stammered. "They were supposed to fend off the monsters as we set the traps but…" A tear snuck down from her eye. "A huge explosion throughout the whole tunnel…The monsters got passed us and…and…we had no choice. We couldn't let them go through s-s-so w-w-we activated the traps and the walls caved in. We heard their screams, the monsters and our brothers, but b-b-but we just couldn't get to them in time. The debris trapped us, sealing our exit and cutting us off in the middle." She started crying, large tears streaming from her eyes to her chin. Her eyes began to redden and puff.
Annabeth placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "We'll do our best to find the rest of them."
Annabeth stood up and walked over to some of the other Aphrodite campers, leaving me alone with the girl she just talked to.
"You guys were brave to do such a thing," I told her. "We'll find them and give them a hero's welcome when we do." I smiled at the girl. She'd calm down and just started whimpering.
"Percy," she mumbled, "there's something you should know. The monsters that went through that tunnel were just a diversion."
"What made you say that?" I crouched down beside her.
"Well, I figured that if they were truly planning a full scale invasion they would at least try to outnumber us at first. But they didn't – I mean we were still outnumbered."
"What do you mean?" Right now I'm sure I was giving her that Watchu-talkin'-about kind of look.
"Well, if they were seriously planning to invade Manhattan, they would've deployed some diversion units to keep us all spread thin. I guess that's the kind of unit we got. The monsters weren't all that scary, some Cyclopes, some hellhounds and a bunch of other weak looking creatures. They were easy to handle for our size."
Her gaze dropped. "Which is why I feel so ashamed," she sobbed. Her hands immediately went to cover her face. "We lost most of our siblings," her voice muffled. "Simply because we thought there were more coming so…so we lost our ground. I admit we were preparing to retreat when we saw the monsters come at us, because we thought that our traps were sufficient enough. I don't really know what came over us I-I-I…"
"It's fine," I smiled. "You guys were just burned out from all the fighting. I don't blame you."
She just kept sobbing. I simply patted her shoulder and went off to follow Annabeth.
She was by the terrace conversing with Will Solace.
"So how are things?" I started.
"Not looking good Percy," Will said glumly. "We've lost a lot of campers. There are hardly any left from Aphrodite not to mention all the campers lost in the earlier fights. At this rate we will have no choice but to surrender unless more reinforcements come in or unless the gods turn around and help us here."
"Well," Annabeth said, "we have no choice. We can't just back up now, not with all the campers that have gone down and all the sacrifices made. We just have to keep fighting." Annabeth said it as though she forced those words to come out of her mouth. As daughter of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and battle strategy, she had enough sense to know that we were really losing this war. I guess she just tried to lift our spirits a bit. I knew Will wasn't buying it, neither was I. It just felt good that we still had some hint of a fighting chance.
"Let's face it; we probably can't win this war." It spilled like milk on the floor. I couldn't catch myself.
Annabeth just pursed her lips in annoyance – or was she actually agreeing with me? I shook and scratched the back of my head. "I think I need some air right now. I'll see you guys later. Ignore what I said."
With that I turned on my heel and headed for the door, not daring to look back.
If it weren't for the fact that we were fighting in a war, I would've appreciated this lovely sunny day sitting on a bench in front of the fountain at the Plaza Hotel. There was not a cloud in the sky but in the distance you could see dark clouds approaching. We didn't have that much time left. Typhon was approaching and here we were getting beaten up by Kronos.
I thought I would be able to stand a fighting chance with this guy if I bathe in the River Styx. Apparently, there is hardly any difference except the fact that I can mow a lawn of monsters like a turbo-charged lawn mower of destruction. But the thing is, monsters just keep coming back.
I buried my face in my hands and threw my head back. I inhaled, my hands covering my face parted in middle for my nose, and exhaled as I slumped back.
I just don't want to think about a lot of things really: the war, Luke being Kronos, how to kick Luke/Kronos' butt, Annabeth kissing me...Whoa. What's that doing in my head?
Okay so she kissed me when she thought I was about to die in the Labyrinth, so what? It's not like it really means anything. I guess it was just the spur of the moment. I mean, I probably would've done the same thing if I were in her place. Okay, maybe not. If I tried that, I'm pretty sure that she would just shove me off and say, "What are you doing?"Yeah, probably.
Though I really do wonder: did she really fall in love with Luke? Does she still love him even now? Thalia thinks it's just some protective brother-sister thing. But remembering how much she'd blush every time she saw Luke in my first year of camp really confuses me. Does she like him or not? I just really don't get it.
Somebody sat next to me and guess who it was. Man of the hour – Woman of the hour actually.
"You okay?" Annabeth asked, her brows knotted in worry.
"Sure, fine. Never better. You?"
"Probably same as you," she slumped in her seat.
And awkward silence hung in the air. She shifted uncomfortably as though she was sitting with an actual stranger. She collected her hair to one side of her shoulder and started combing it with her fingers. Her intense storm gray eyes looked intently onto the sparkling water in the fountain as though using whatever elements she could see to think of a plan.
"So," trying to break the ice, I started, "how are your defense plans going?"
"Fine, I guess. But Will is right. We won't hold out for much longer."
Another awkward silence.
"Percy," she started. Boy I was so glad that she started this time, this might not give us any awkward silences. I mean if she talked, she could talk. "There's something I want to ask you."
If I didn't know any better, I think she was blushing.
"Shoot," I said.
"Well, when we separated in the Labyrinth, you know with the Telkhine, where did you drift off to after that?"
You know, I was pretty sure she had a pretty good idea where I went. I let silence hover in the air. I was pondering whether I should tell her or not. But right now, I mean, we might die anyway so what the heck?
"Uhm, Hephaestus came and picked me up. Took a while for him 'cause it was kind of far." I thought we were going for honesty? Smooth, Jackson.
"Oh," she said her arms crossed now. "So I suppose you treated your wounds there on the island; probably used some herbs and all those other medicinal plants."
"Yeah," okay let's go with that.
"You know what," Annabeth said, her voice rather dangerous now, "You are such a liar Percy Jackson!"
"Excuse me?" Okay, not the best thing to say.
"You expect me to believe that you were able to heal yourself on an uncharted island with medicinal plants without nectar or ambrosia?" I don't like it when she shrieks. "I'm not the daughter of Athena for nothing!"
She stormed off the bench, but I caught her hand.
"Let go of me," she said as she thrashed her arm around trying to loosen my grip.
"Okay, Annabeth listen!"
"Listen, hah! I tried doing that, but no! You just couldn't tell me where you were for the past couple of weeks. I was so worried about you, don't you know that?"
I didn't want to do this but she wasn't listening to reason; something that is totally not like her. Okay, I admit there was absolutely no reason behind what I just did. I pulled her back to her seat.
She looked at me murderously.
"Okay," I started gently, "I'll tell you where I went. After the eruption I caused, I woke up in a cave. Somebody had treated me there. Her name was Calypso."
Her eyes widened and I could see her face get red – she may be blushing, but I'm sure she would kick my butt.
"So, you were on the island for weeks probably enjoying yourself in the company of one of the most beautiful women in Greek mythology making me – I-I mean the camp worried sick about where you went." She said it as though I had betrayed her. "Why did you even come back?"
"Listen," I tried not to get angry but she was seriously making it hard. "I was treated there and I was," I stopped and studied her for a while. She was like a bomb, any second she would explode if I cut the wrong wire. "I…I thought about staying." KABOOM! Annabeth just exploded silently. Her face was pretty much blood red and I tell you, she looked furious.
Well, actually, I'm kind of guilty about even thinking about staying. Back then, I never even thought about the fact that Annabeth had considered joining the Hunters. That made me feel –oh, nevermind. I guess I never thought I'd ever make her feel that way.
"Yeah, like I asked, why did you even come back?"
"It's not like I can leave you," my throat felt dry. "I-I mean, you guys," I added hastily. "There was more to do than just runaway and not take up any responsibility. I had to come back."
"So you had to come back, but you didn't want to come back?" Her eyebrow raised.
"No no, that's not what I meant! What I mean is I had to come back to finish the quest. I wanted to come back because…" I locked eyes with her.
I could see her eyes searching mine as though she was trying to get an answer that seemed right – something that she wanted to be right. I just held my breath and just looked at her. I know that my face was hot right now and probably blush crawled over my cheeks but I just hoped she didn't notice.
"I wanted to come back because—!" There was an explosion behind me.
I turned and saw a building smoking and crumbling to pieces. In the distance I could see birds flying toward us. But they were large birds. Okay they were bigger than large birds. Okay they were scaly, they were obviously not birds. They breathe fire and had claws that could fit two of me in them. Those things were—
"Dragons!" Annabeth grabbed me by the shoulders and pulled my out of the way right before the dragon could take a swing at my head.
If we weren't being terrorized by the dragons, I would have seriously just jumped back a couple feet realizing I was on top of Annabeth right now. I had my hands around her and her hands around me. Okay, we may be terrorized, but the color really did show on my face. I could tell because she gave me an Is there something wrong with you kind of look. But she was also blushing, but not as hard as I was.
Luckily, it wasn't that long before we scrambled to our feet. I whistled and Blackjack came over. I hopped on.
"You go tell the others to stand ready and all other able campers to transport the wounded into Olympus. We have to get the remaining campers safe." I watched as Annabeth headed towards the entrance of the Plaza. Before I kicked off the ground, she called back.
"I'll help you once I get everything settled." With that she just ran back.
I took to the skies and started battling one of the dragons. Times like these make me SO happy I bathe in the River Styx.
The dragon clawed at me but it's as though the claws just slid off my skin. I drew Riptide. I got close to the head of one of them and poked him in the eye. It roared and clutched its wounded eye while the other dragon charged at me.
The sky was dark now. All cloud filled and thunder boomed while lightning streaked across the sky.
I got distracted for one second. One measly second and I got thrown off my Pegasus. I was falling hard. Now I'm not sure whether the River Styx guaranteed not being turned into pavement pancake in case I fell about a thousand feet from the sky, but this was something I would like to find out.
I was falling back first and I saw Blackjack diving towards me. But, with my luck, any form of help would always be knocked out of the way – literally. And so, Blackjack was knocked out of the way when the dragon swung its tail. And now, the dragon was coming after – no, make that two of them coming after me because the other one got over the shock of being blinded in one eye and followed after the previous.
Okay, Dad, if you could hear me, can you like make the water particles in the air cushion me as I fall or just please SAVE ME!
Lightning struck again and I was blinded. The dragons disappeared. I thought to myself about thanking Zeus for vaporizing the dragons. But oh, was I wrong.
From beneath me, I could feel hot air sticking to my skin and the smell of a thousand ogres did not make me feel reassured. I dared not to look, but if you're a demigod with ADHD, that was hard not to do. I looked. The dragons had their mouths wide open waiting for me to fall. They were shoving each other out of the way so that one of them could have me for their own.
Okay, mom, I'm sorry I worry you so much, I probably deserve this but I'm pretty sure you would've said otherwise. Dad, well you tried I think you just couldn't. Zeus, tell Hades to have pity on me. Clarisse you weren't as bad as I thought until you stayed at camp just waiting for me to die. Ares, you suck. Grover, you can have anything I own that would suit your taste; you can even eat my bed if you want. Annabeth…Annabeth, there are so many things I wanted and I still do want to tell you. I'm sorry for being the worst person you've probably ever met. I just hoped that maybe we could've… Wait, what's that?
I squinted at the sky and saw a figure in the distance. It had wings. It was coming closer and closer. It's seriously long mane billowing behind it. It has arms and it held up a dagger. Wait, can Centaurs fly?
The dragon roared and I looked back. I was so close to becoming dragon chow, but luckily that figure in the distance caught me by my shirt and with a loud grunt she swung me over the back of the Pegasus. Annabeth!
"Five minutes," she bellowed over the roars of the dragon, "five minutes, and you can't even stay out of trouble? What on earth is up with you?" I couldn't really decipher her tone but it sounded as though she was really mad or she was just glad that she got to me in the nick of time.
"Thanks," I yelled over the roars, "I owe you one!"
"You always do Seaweed Brain," I saw her smile. Man, I love it when she smiles – even in the face of death.
Annabeth made Porkpie dive into the dragon with the wounded eye. She held her dagger ready to strike and she did. She took out the dragon's other eye. It roared in pain and the other dragon hissed and began to charge.
"Percy, call Blackjack!"
Blackjack, I concentrated all that I can so that the horse could respond.
On my way boss!
I looked behind and saw the black Pegasus right on our tail.
"Percy, when Blackjack gets near enough, jump off and let's bring these dragons down," she needn't look at me for me to determine how determined she was to finish them off.
"Now!" I jumped off of Porkpie and onto Blackjack. Not really that comfortable.
I uncapped Riptide and charged at the dragon with the two seeing eyes. It opened its mouth to roar but before any sound came out, I charged at its open mouth.
Boss this is crazy! But the horse just went on. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Annabeth taking on the blinded dragon. She was practically winning but I have to finish quick to help her just in case.
"Percy!" I heard her, but the dragon had closed its mouth. I led Blackjack to the throat and we stopped there. I saw some glowing liquid below us. That's acid.
Without hesitation, I stabbed Riptide through the dragon's throat and made a full 360-degree turn. Blood splattered all over me and Blackjack. The dragon's throat slid of the rest of its body and disintegrated into dust.
The other dragon, realizing I had defeated one of them, roared and charged far into the distance. I'm sure it's not about to leave yet. But for now, it was nowhere in sight.
I steered Blackjack toward Annabeth who looked like she was about to punch me. But I remember she had the same face on last year when she thought that I was about to die, but she kissed me. I'm hoping for that instead.
"Oof!" I just got punched.
"You moron! You could've been digested!"
Well, I guess I deserve that. She really didn't hold back. I might've fallen off of the horse if I hadn't pulled on its mane for support.
"Just consider yourself lucky."
Before I could say anything, we heard an earsplitting roar like the sound of nails scratching on a blackboard. The dragon was coming back.
"Incoming!" I yelled. I turned to Annabeth and she looked at the dragon coming straight toward us. We were both ready to strike. But something caught my eye. The dragon had called for reinforcements. Now I could see different creatures following it.
"Warn the rest of them. Get all able men ready. I'll hold them off." Annebeth nodded.
Lightning struck and I felt a tug on my shirt. Before I could react I found my lips pressed on hers. Okay, this was not really something you should do in the middle of an attack but I'm not complaining.
I closed my eyes and instinctively caressed her face as the kiss went deeper.
She pulled back and faced the enemy. Now, I really would've fallen off the horse –and probably not even mind it– had she not grabbed my arm. She steadied me and before I could say something intelligent, luckily she said something.
"It's for good luck. It's sort of a tradition, right?" She didn't meet my face. But when the wind blew her hair away from her face, I saw her cheeks were tinted pink.
I went ahead of her, Riptide at my side ready to charge.
"Come back alive, Seaweed Brain," she said.
"Yeah, you know I will," I glanced back and smiled at her and she did the same. She steered Porkpie in the direction of the Plaza and disappeared in the clouds.
I feel good. Not only did I just not say something stupid after we kissed, but I just went for it – and it felt great. I don't know if she'll deny it later on. I doubt it. She can't say she didn't because I responded. But whatever, I'll think about it later.
Right now I feel more invincible than when I bathed in the River Styx. Bring it on you stupid monsters.