Hi guys!
So, this new story is set in an alternate universe- medieval vibes. Hope you enjoy reading as much as I enjoyed writing this!
Disclaimer: Rick Riordan the great owns these characters, I do not, however much I may wish to. therefore, only the story plot is mine. (Don't we all wish Percy was ours...*sighs dreamily*)
PROLOGUE
The throne room was packed.
The Olympians themselves sat on their respective thrones, their golden, silver, bronze, the gilded, customized armrests, the velvet cushions- resplendent in all their glory. Excited chatter echoed across the halls.
Nymphs, their eyes and noses green from crying in relief, satyrs tipsy from the nectar, braying and tripping over their feet in the absence of their hooves, sorcerers with their fairly useless staffs and assortment of weaponry- the air was filled with their anticipation, their triumphant exhilaration.
"Gods, I can't wait to get my hooves back!" sniffed one old satyr, his bulbous nose red.
"I've missed my elm so much!" whispered a green-eyed nymph to her sister, hugging her stomach.
Zeus raised his bolt, and it morphed into a sleek staff which he proceeded to bang against the floor.
At that sound, all talk stopped. All heads turned toward the High King of Olympus.
"My fellow Olympians, nymphs, satyrs, mortals and magicians! We are gathered here today for a momentous occasion." his booming voice soared across their heads, further stirring up the anticipation that already existed. "For today- we shall restore the magic that the vile tyrant Kronos stole from this land centuries ago! Our father he may be- but we recognize him as none of our own blood!"
The crowd roared in assent then, warriors beating their weapons against their shields, goblets of wine and nectar slammed against trays and tables. Outside, the birds gathered, fluttering around, agitated- black specks against the gold-streaked pink sky. They sensed the oncoming storm and the change in the ripple of woven fate.
When they finally quieted, the man on King Zeus's right stood from his ornate throne. A steel-tipped green trident glowed in his arm.
"My people." he began, the deep baritone echoing. "Kronos trapped most magic in this land- stole it from all the remaining creatures of magic- and today… we return it to you. I and my eleven brothers and sisters-" he glanced at them then, proud and confident. "- shall return your magic to you- your hooves shall return, and you shall once again be able to mold into your trees! We shall break it free from Kronos's frame and reduce him to the pile of ashes he deserves -"
A single cold laugh interrupted.
A lone figure stepped out from within the crowd, and the people gasped, scrambling away from him as he leisurely paced up to the 'U' of thrones, surveying them with a predator's gaze. All was silent. The assorted scores of gathered creatures said nothing, wide eyed, watching them with bated breath. The cawing and screeching of the birds outside quieted. The storm had come.
"A pretty speech that was, Poseidon, Zeus. Hades, a man of few words as usual." His golden eyes swept over the rest of the Olympians, who had now risen from their perches, each with their weapon aimed at him. "And the rest of my lovely children are doing well too, I see."
He ambled along, not in the least unnerved by the sheer power and sharp points of weapons facing him.
"If you are here to persuade us to join you or to submit to you- you may leave right now, Kronos." Artemis's silver arrow was nocked in her bow, her arms steady, aim unwavering. "You committed great treachery- stealing from your own people-"
"Do not speak to those more powerful than you with impertinence, girl." he spat out the word. "You- you are all children! You only have your powers because my blood runs through your veins!"
"Powers that came into your sole possession because you stole them! We might have had them through the fates' will, otherwise!" Athena lifted her sword higher, and stepped forward. "You made a deal with Tartarus! The ends do not justify the means, father."
Kronos threw back his head and laughed. And laughed. Until he had to wipe away his tears of mirth.
"The ends? You mean how I prolonged the lives of those who shared my blood and made it nigh impossible to kill us, so that we may become the greatest and most powerful rulers in the world?" He drew his scythe then, the curved, double-sided blade glinting dangerously in the wan sunlight. "No one can stop us now! Isn't this what you want? For the Empire's flag to fly on every land in this world?"
"What you seek is madness, Kronos. Endless battle and bloodshed." Athena's gray eyes shone with an infinite wisdom. "Even with the powers of the Olympians-"
"Nobody can defeat us with our powers!" he bellowed, face reddening, veins sticking out on his forehead.
He panted with barely concealed rage, then shook his head. The cruelly carved gold crown on his head sparkled like tears on a sharp sword. The Renown crown forged by the cyclopes themselves, drenched with the blood of thousands, or so many said.
"No sense can be knocked into your heads, after all. I am disappointed in you, my children. It seems power shouldn't be given to the weak."
"Too bad. We have finally found the spell to release the magic you have stolen and kept within yourself, and with the combined magic of the twel-" Zeus began.
"If you take my magic, then the powers you have- you all have- will be taken too! They came from me!"
"Actually, no it will not." Athena looked almost smug. No one prided herself on acquiring knowledge as she did. "The magic that runs in our blood was given naturally to us, whether it was because of your blood or not. So when you lose, father- only you lose."
Kronos smiled, a dangerous, half-mad smile of a power-hungry dictator, at his last desperate attempt to win.
"Very well, then. You leave me no choice. I'll have to take it from you before you take it from me!"
He raised his arms, and began to chant.
"Stop!" a shrill voice rang out from behind them all.
Kronos whirled toward it, scythe poised.
"You!" his eyes narrowed, and hate filled his golden irises… and a touch of fear.
"Me." she said, white robes shimmering, red hair cascading down her back and her shoulders. The gold and silver armbands entwining her biceps and down her arms gleamed as she calmly walked past the thrones, down the hall, green eyes fixed on Kronos. "You may steal more powers, including theirs, I suppose-" she gestured to the tense Olympians standing around them. "-but not mine."
"Oracle of Delphi." he hissed. "I may be vulnerable to your curses- but you are vulnerable to my blade. I ca-"
"Save your threats, Lord of time." there was a strange sort of gleam in her eyes. "For I have one of my own. I know what it is you have planned, and to save you the time-" she laughed at the pun "-I can tell you it will not work. Your truce with Evil himself cannot save you and you will be trapped in it for a longer eternity than you can imagine. The Fates will curse-"
"The Fates? Even the Fates will not be able to stop this!" Kronos's voice was quiet, pure rage coalescing in those metallic irises, knuckles whitening as he gripped his blade that much tighter. "If you think to scare me with your empty words, think again. I may not have all the allies or the power I need now, but I will."
He turned then, to the crowd and boomed for them all to hear: "And when I return- all of you will SERVE ME OR DIE!"
The crowd gasped, and the tension in the room climbed up a notch.
"That is enough! Zeus, Poseidon, Hades- do what is necessary now!" Apollo roared, hands shaking slightly with barely concealed anger.
"Too late you insufferable children!" Kronos cackled gleefully, the blade in his hand glowing. "I win this battle!"
And with a resounding war cry, he plunged the scythe into the floor.
There was a moment of ringing silence.
Then the ground rumbled, and the ceiling shook, dust and stones raining down on the crowd below. Cracks appeared on the floor, and the entire throne room groaned in a cacophony of screeching metal and stone as the engraved stone pillars careened sideways and into the crowd, with a sickening crunch. It was utter chaos, everyone scrambled away screaming for each other, and ran, tripping over themselves to get out.
The Olympians themselves were on their knees or their backs, blinking in disorientation at the sudden destruction of their haven.
Kronos alone knelt in the center of the room, head bent, cracks spreading out from where his scythe cleaved the ground in two. The very air around him was a diluted gold and steady stream of chanting erupted from his mouth.
Sprawled sideways, head ringing, Apollo yelled: "What is happening?!"
Even Athena, always the one with an answer, was speechless. But this time, it was the Oracle who spoke: "He's buying himself time."
"Still not clearing things up!" Hades yelled from the other side of the hall. His muscles strained as he extended his magic- controlling the crumbling underground, calming the wave after wave of seismic disturbances.
"He's using his powers to construct a limbo state- for all of you! You'll all be trapped in time- your minds will be the same but your powers will be lost- all except his! And when he is ready- only he will escape!" she shouted, cupping her hands around her mouth, against the grating noise. "The Fates have not woven this ending-" she ducked as Dionysus swatted away a particularly big chunk of rock that could have smashed her skull. "-so I have no way of knowing what happens!"
All of a sudden, the rumbling and churning of the ground stopped. Dust rose in suffocating spirals, and they all coughed sporadically, searching the ruined hall...for something.
And did they find it.
The three Fates themselves had joined the fray.
They stood between Kronos and the Olympians, the middle one with her hand on the hilt of the Lord of Time's weapon. He looked enraged beyond belief.
Then they spoke, as one, voices raspy from disuse: "Kronos, son of Ouranos, Lord of Time- you have attempted to weave the world's own future- and for this, you shall pay."
Kronos grunted, veins in his arms bulging, as he attempted to pry the scythe out of the old woman's grasp.
But it is quite hard to wrestle with Fate herself.
"Oracle, come forward, and deliver your last prophecy in decades to come."
The Oracle of Delphi knelt reverently, the whites of her eyes turning green. Green smoke coiled forth from her like a great serpent, and when she spoke, the spirit of Delphi, speaker of riddles, the seer of fate echoed through her in a hiss:
"Seven heirs shall answer the call,
through flame and mist since the kingdoms' fall,
The dove, the owl, the trident's wave,
restore fate in the lost one's grave,
The bolt, the witch, the forge and the boar,
to search and find the curse's cure,
A second chance, to retrieve what was stolen,
Fail and leave the world broken."
With that, the Oracle shook herself, back to normal, and stood. Ares stepped forward with a yell and raised his spear, an arc of destruction heading straight toward-
An arm shot out and grabbed his arm. The Oracle herself looked surprised, as she stared down at her hand clamped on Ares's.
"The future has been woven, Ares." the Fates said. "Best to see it play out. What comes to pass will pass."
Ares snarled, extricating his arm. "There is only one right thing to do here, and that is to defeat this-"
The air turned deadly quiet, and everyone froze.
Everyone, that is, except Kronos. The Lord of Time's form was ablaze, radiating power. "Enough." he hissed, eyes molten gold. "I care not for your blasted prophecies! I control the future! I control time!"
Ares struggled against the restraints of frozen time, a vein pulsing in his forehead, but to no avail. The rest of his siblings were much of the same state. Zeus's master bolt was crackling and spitting sparks, but made no difference.
Even the Oracle and the Fates were bound by his magic. They stood, teeth gritted, glaring at him.
"And now." his teeth gleamed as he grinned at them. "I shall begin to take what is mine."
He raised his scythe above his head, and brought it down once more onto the ground with a battle cry. An arc of light exploded forth from the fissure and enveloped everything in blinding golden light.
Annabeth woke up gasping.
It was the same dream again. Had been the same one for weeks, now. What was happening?
Feeling disoriented, she looked around her room, reveling in the tranquil silence and calm that came with the distance from the rest of the palace. She could hear the hoots of the owls outside and the crickets.
Her skin was clammy and feverish. Throwing back the covers, she reached the pitcher of water by her bedside and splashed some on her face, sighing as the cool liquid soothed her.
"Oh Gods,..." she whispered into the wind, staring out of her window, at the town in the valley below. "What the heck is happening to me?"
Not twenty miles away, Percy Jackson wondered the same thing.
Soooo, lemme know what y'all think in the review section-it really warms my heart! Please? Pretty please with cherry on top?