I Get Some Very Unexpected Help
I ran into the throne room. Kronos was reclining leisurely on his throne. His scythe propped beside it. His golden eyes gleamed evilly.
"I have to admit, I never expected you to make it this far." said Kronos casually. "But no matter. This gives me the privilege of killing you myself."
"Let Luke go, Kronos." I said, uncapping Riptide.
"Funny how you think you can just march in to my fortress and start barking orders." said Kronos harshly.
"I won't tell you again." I said angrily. "Let - Luke - go."
Kronos stood up and picked up his scythe.
"Why don't you make me."?
I don't know why I did it, but I did by far the stupidest thing I have EVER, and I mean EVER done. I charged at Kronos.
He casually held up a hand and as I got closer, he flicked me in the forehead with one finger and knocked me back all the way across the room. He began walking towards me.
"Well, well, aren't we anxious?" he said mockingly as he swung his scythe at me and I rolled out of the way and picked up Riptide. I blocked as he swung again. I got up and ran at him, but he just weaved to the side and swung at me again. I ducked just in time and took a swipe at his legs, but he just laughed, blocked it and kicked me in the ribs, causing me to keel over.
"Well, Perseus Jackson, it's been fun....." he said.
As Kronos raised his scythe to finish me off something happened. He froze.
"What is this?!"
A burst of golden light filled the air and there, standing in front of Kronos, slightly ethereal, and arms outstretched, was Luke.
He was like I remembered him. Orange tank top, khaki shorts, the leather necklace, more so, the old unruly sandy hair and kind, bright sapphire blue eyes.
"What?! Impossible!" said Kronos.
"I've let you do a lot of things Kronos. I let you warp my mind; turn me against my friends and family. I've done your dirty work, trained your army, and set you and your brothers free. But I never, NEVER said you could have my body!" Luke shouted.
"How!?" Kronos bellowed.
"Percy!" Luke shouted, "Speak the incantation! I can't hold him for much longer!"
That was just about the biggest red flag I had ever seen. I extended my arms and waved my hands "By the power of Hades, purge his essence from this vessel and hurl it back to the abyss from whence it crept!" I shouted.
Kronos roared with rage and an aura of darkness surrounded Luke's body as he hovered into the air.
"Thanks Percy." said Luke's image as it vanished and the aura of darkness dissipated and formed into a small black ball.
Luke's body fell from the sky. I ran forward and caught him.
"Thanks... again... cuz." he said then lost consciousness.
"It's O.K, Luke, you rest." I said and laid him down gently on the ground.
"Pity." said the voice of Kronos. "He was such an excellent pawn, but I must admit, a most unsuitable vessel."
The Titan appeared in full form. Twenty feet tall, heavily armored, wielding the scythe. Two gold eyes gleamed out of the darkness within the helmet.
"How?" I asked. "That spell should have sent you back to Tartarus!"
" 'Should have'." said Kronos. "I merely drained the boy's life force to be able to withstand it. Much like I've been doing for years now." he looked at the unconscious Luke. "I don't think he has much left. He used a good bit of what he had left to project and bind me. Maybe I should just-" he began to walk towards Luke, but I stepped in front of him.
"I don't think so." I said.
"Why save him?" Kronos asked. "He tried to kill you in cold blood numerous times."
"I don't care." I said, "He's my friend."
"Friend?" Kronos asked. "I thought you hated him?"
"Yeah, I did. But that was before I knew the truth...."
"How foolish." said Kronos, firing a blast of darkness at me.
I jumped out of the way and ran.
As I turned around I saw Kronos getting ready to fire another blast at me.
And I had no time to defend. I closed my eyes and waited for the end, then came the sound of darkness rushing towards me.
But I was still standing. I opened my eyes to see Luke standing in front of me, arms spread out, smoke rising from his body. Then he fell to the ground.
He had taken the hit for me.
"Luke!" I shouted, and ran over to him. His chest was badly burned; he was pale and obviously growing weaker. He was fading, and fast.
He looked up at me and gave a strained smile. I could tell he was barely clinging to life.
"Finally..............I.... find..... redemption........" he murmured weakly.
"Luke, stay with me!" I told him, but suddenly Kronos picked me up and hurled me to the side, then ran after me.
I landed on my feet and dodged Kronos' swift downward slice. I ran back towards Luke, and stood in front of him and raised my hands as Kronos charged towards me. I willed the water in the fountains to rise and hurled them at him, delaying his advance for a few moments.
"Father......................please..................help...................me........" I heard Luke murmur weakly.
"Don't speak." I told him. "Save your strength."
I barely had time to parry Kronos' strikes. I knew I wouldn't be able to keep it up for much longer. If Hermes was going to answer Luke's prayer, he'd better do it fast.
I kept blocking for a few moments until Kronos broke through my guard. It was over, I knew it, but suddenly I felt a rush of wind from behind me and he was blasted backwards across the room.
I turned around to see Luke propped up on his right arm, his left hand extended, the symbol of Hermes, the caduceus, was glowing on it. I had to admire his resiliency.
His prayer had been answered.
"How?" bellowed Kronos.
"The Messenger travels across the four winds therefore they do his bidding." Luke said standing up. "As one of his sons, they will do so for me as well." a caduceus appeared in his hand. "And now it's payback time."
I walked up to him. "Good to have you back."
"Good to be back." said Luke, giving me a weak smile, despite being empowered by his father, in reality; he was still very, very, VERY weak.
"Two on one?" I asked.
"You know it." he twirled the caduceus and the orb with dove wings descended to the bottom of the shaft and its wings folded up. and the snakes moved down along it and tightened to form a grip and widened their last link to form a kind of cross guard, the shaft lengthened and flattened into a blade.
"Cool." I said.
"Now we draw blades together."
I smiled.
"Well, looks like two for the Pit." said Kronos. Then he charged.
"What do we do?" I asked him.
"Fight for as long as we can. With any luck the others are on their way." said Luke then he raised his hand. "Wind, become my binding chain."
Four air currents rippled from his hand and wrapped around Kronos, then Luke flicked his wrist slamming him into the wall. Kronos burst out of the wall and rushed at Luke who leapt into the air, and wings burst from his shoes. Hermes was answering in overdrive. Luke took a downward swipe as he did a back flip over Kronos, leaving a gash in the Titans armor and landed behind him. Kronos spun around and swung across with his scythe, Luke leapt into the air and out of the way. I ran towards the Titan but he was too fast, he spun kicked me and sent me flying backwards, Luke ran as the wings grew from his shoes and he flew towards me, got behind me and caught me. Lucky thing too because at the speed I was going, if I had hit that wall I'd have been squashed flat. But now we were both rocketing towards the wall, but Luke pushed off with his feet and forced us towards the ground. We landed and he set me down.
"Thanks."
"Let's call it even." he said.
I nodded. I had to admit, Luke had an advantage. Having been Kronos vessel meant he knew all his moves and was able to attack, defend, and counter attack easily. He was being careful to avoid being hit and I couldn't blame him. He was running on his father's energy. One solid hit and he'd be down if not totally out.
Kronos charged at Luke, who started dodging and weaving to avoid getting nailed. Kronos tried to punch him, but Luke weaved to the side and dug his blade into a chink in Kronos armor, right above the elbow and the blade passed all the way through his arm. Kronos roared in fury.
That's when it happened. Kronos kneed Luke right in the stomach and kicked him back. Luke fell to his knees clutching his chest and gasping for breath. I didn't think he'd be getting back up.
"Aim for the chinks!" he shouted at me, his voice was so strained it was barely even human. He propped himself up with his sword. But Kronos had turned and ran down a hallway behind the throne.
I turned to Luke. "Where does that lead?"
"Up to the Sarcophagus Room. Where he heals. Go, I'll be fine."
I didn't want to leave him but I turned and followed Kronos. I was halfway up the second flight of stairs when he turned around and grabbed me.
"You have nerve to follow me." he said, I remembered what Luke had said and embedded my sword in his left arm above the elbow. He dropped me and swung his scythe, I parried, He continued swiping and I continued parrying as we started backing back down the stairs and hallway. As we neared the Throne room I heard Thalia's voice.
"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you!"
"I don't have one." I heard Luke's strained voice say. "I've been terrible to all of you. But I'm not his vessel anymore, I swear."
"Why should we believe you!" I heard Annabeths voice says. "Why should we trust you?"
At that moment, Kronos kicked me and hurled me back over the throne and across the room.
Everyone looked over at me. Luke was lying on the ground and Thalia had her spear pointed at his throat. Annabeth had grabbed his sword and was holding it an inch from his chest. Clarisse had her spear pointed at him as well, Lee had an arrow notched and pointed at him.
"Well, there's that." said Luke weakly, pointing at me. "And then there's that." he pointed down the hallway where Kronos was emerging.
"Oh, Luke!" said Annabeth, her eyes filling with tears, kneeling down next to him.
"It is you!" said Thalia dropping her spear and falling to her knees beside his broken body, placing a hand on his cheek, tears welling from her eyes as well. Tyson walked over to him, got behind him and propped up his upper body.
"I missed you." he whispered to her. "Both of you." he weakly raised a hand and caressed Annabeths cheek. She took hold of it and held it.
"You girls take care of Luke." I said. "Beckendorf, Nico and I will hold off Kronos."
"Hey!" said Clarisse.
"Ok, fine." I said, "Clarisse'll be with us."
Beckendorf and I charged at Kronos from the sides while Nico conjured a pillar of hellfire and Clarisse lept into the air and came down on Kronos with her spear. Beckendorf swung his hammer but the blow was parried and Kronos picked him up and hurled him at Clarisse, which knocked both of them back across the room.
"Listen to me." I heard Luke tell Annabeth and Thalia. "I don't have much time."
"What do you mean?" Thalia asked tearfully.
"I've......lost too much life force." murmured Luke. "I don't have the strength to get up, let alone fight. I barely have the strength to speak. Just know that I love both of you, very, very much."
A look crossed Thalia's face, like she had an idea. She took out the bag of ambrosia squares and broke some off and gently fed it to him. Annabeth took out the nectar thermos and poured some down his throat.
"Without these, your wounds never healed properly." Thalia told him gently, softly stroking his face and continuing to feed him ambrosia.
Luke's breathing steadied and some color began to return to his face. He began to get up uneasily. Thalia and Annabeth flung their arms around him, nearly knocking him back over. He hugged them both as Annabeth handed him his sword.
"Now let's kick some Titan tail." he said and smiled.
They ran up beside me as Silena took out her butterfly knives and Lee notched a few arrows
Luke stood beside me.
"You gonna be O.K?" I asked him.
"Five ambrosia squares and a full thermos of nectar and I feel better than ever." he said, breaking into a large grin.
I laughed.
"Olympus prevail?" he asked holding out his fist.
"Olympus prevail." I said and bumped his fist with my own.
"Not so fast." said Kronos as he snapped his fingers, and we where all blasted backwards. Then he turned and walked back down the hallway.
We ran towards the doors but they slammed shut and iron bars braced them shut.