Finally got to work on this story, YES! Anyways, this is just a version of how I think the end of HoO should end, if you guys like it, WOO-HOO if not, then it's all good. But this is only out of my imagination. Now, let's see how they get out of this one.
Percy'sPoV
Gaea's victory was one that I did not expect. I did not expect to have had our ship blown up easy by one of her minions, even though that the Argo II was equipped with weapons. AND even with the Archimedes installed too, (so Leo says). But they were too much. Too much enemies against us, fighting with anger and hate running in their veins.
All our hard work, the death of the giants we have already killed, is now reborn. So is their brethren. Worst, the titans are back, all of them, feasting on a mountain that used to be the home and the roots of the gods, but now, it has been destroyed, and left the gods vulnerable. but the gods are not dead yet. No, Gaea has seen fit to destroy all of humanity, EXCEPT the children of the gods, both Roman and Greek. Especially the gods themselves. No, she saw fit to torment us, use us for entertainment. For humiliation. To show everyone the failure of the gods. Me being me, that's just not okay with me.
She is now currently using what used to be Mount Olympus, as her new home. From there, she has manipulated everything, destroyed everything, and just plain chaos. Death has now been banished and imprisoned in the depth of what used to be Tartarus. Gaea saw fit to name the place, Pit. Very subtle of a name. Oh, did I also mention Tartarus has now a fully functioning, strong body. So now, not only the spirit of Tartarus is a spirit of the pit, now he's a walking warrior stronger than possibly almost anything in the world.
Back to where we are.
The prison she has built was on the city of Rome. She destroyed the majestic city of the old empire and what remains there. Now, there's this large, made out of earth and basically impenetrable castle-like prison. The walls were thick, about almost 10 meters thick. Inside the walls were a battalion of all her baddies, and do you knows who's in charge? Ma Gasket. Like seriously, I'm not complaining, but that lady can AND will make the toughest drill sergeant in the world cry and go to preschool. Plus, she can't die.
Great.
Within the castle walls was a prison that looked almost like a castle. Just not that pretty and majestic. Imagine the Disney castle at the beginning of a Disney movie, picture that, but more horrifying and more dangerously looking. There were crows flying in and out of the place, sending messages from somewhere I don't even know. Ballistas and scorpions were mounted all over the place, in every tower, literally.
Inside that "castle", was a huge shaped well, with cells that surrounds it's walls. Also, there was no opening at the top so all you could smell are... Well I'm not even going to go through THAT detail.
MY friends, and the gods and goddesses were all locked up in that one prison. But some gods were taken somewhere else. I could try and tell you all the names of each and everyone of them, but by the time I would be done, I would almost be near my grave. Well, that could happen any day in this pit.
Annabeth cell was right next to mine, which I kinda liked. But in all honesty, I just want this over with. Be with her, somewhere alone, and not in this hell hole.
"Up and about prisoner, it's lunch." the guard walked by and shouted at my face.
The guards here were a mix of Cyclopes, Centaurs (not the Party Ponies), trolls, and their captain, the Minotaur. Yep. Old beefhead. And I wasn't too happy to know that either. I walked over and he opened the cell.
In all of honesty, escaping this place would be technically easy. But where would you go? Gaea has now controlled everything.
I got out and saw a few of my friends, and gods. None of them looked any more depressed than I was.
How did we lose? Me and Annabeth were thrown into Tartarus, I know, but that was how Gaea caught Annabeth and I so easily.
After a few minutes of letting everyone else out, we walked outside to the eating area. We all lined up and got our rations. I picked a table, and I got to sit down, with Ares, who was very opposite of himself, rather than shouting out nicknames and trying to start a fight, he just sat and grumbled and ate his food. I never thought I'd feel bad for him. He was just out of it, you know? Annabeth, Frank, Hazel, Hades, my dad Poseidon, Athena and Piper sat down all at the table and occupied it.
I saw Leo throw his food at one of the guards and just mocked them, but he was picked up by one of the centaur and he was brought to the Hole. It was a small opening on the ground where you have to stay there for who knows how long. He tried to escape, but the centaur just opened one of the hole and dropped him in there. He'll be fine, I hope.
The centaur then looks at us, trying to see if anyone else want to go down. Apparently, the food looked more interesting than a hole.
A guard hit me on the head with the butt of his sword. I got up, used my table knife and I pointed it at him. It wasn't threatening, but I was just plain mad. The guard smirked and asked mockingly, "Whatcha going to do about it?" With all the people on the table who could have told me to sit back down, I would have thought it be Athena, or my dad. Or maybe even Annabeth. But it was...
"Kid, don't even try wasting your time with them." Ares spoke, I look at him and his eyes, the flames that used to burn mischievously now only burnt half of the passion of the flame. I looked at him with frustration. Then I threw the knife aside, and I sat back down. The guard walked past chuckling to himself.
"What was that about?" Ares spoke to me without interest. He picked with his food.
"Perce, I know that we are all living in hell right now, but you have to understand that we will try to get out of this place." Annabeth told me with a forced enthusiasm.
"She's right you know, we always have a plan." Athena winked at me. Before, me and her never got along fine, but right after I took the punishment instead of Annabeth suffering, because she apparently, "didn't do as the guard told her to", and they cut open the back of her shirt, so that her bare back was visible enough, and just as before the whip touched her, I caught the blow on my own back, and the guard just brought her away and whipped me instead. After that, I gained Athena's full respect and trust.
"What was that about? What are you talking about Ares? Aren't you the one who used to like fights? The blood? The pounding? What happened then?" Ares looked at me with his burning eyes with anger.
"There's no reason to fight here kid, we've lost." He said hopelessly. Athena wrinkled her nose with disgust.
"Technically ..." Athena was saying something, but I interrupted her.
"TECHNICALLY?! What do you mean technically? WE LOST!" I shouted right at her face.
"Son, calm down." My dad put his hands out in a gesture that said let'snotmakethisworse. That only made me madder than how I already am.
"Look kid, just listen alright. If we stick together in this, we still have some chances of surviving. Remember, it's Gladiator's week, we can try and get more food and supplies if we win again. Gaea may be some jerk-buttface, but she wants us alive, and that's only going to happen if we have something to let us live." Ares pointed out.
Back then, he would probably just have said something likegograbaweaponandlet'sgoandkickherbutt! But I guess the schizophrenic senses of the gods have finally calmed down and settled. Because Ares still looks like Ares, but thinks a lot more like Mars. I just went back to eating and planning. I remembered Gladiator's week. It was a whole week just for fighting in the Colosseum, (the one thing she didn't destroys in Rome was the Colosseum. She even rebuilt the place. So now, it's back to it's old, well new, self). The prisoners get to try and fight in the arena against hordes of monsters. the demigods are barely even healed after each battle and fights. The gods are not allowed to fight in the arena. They suffer by watching their kids get tormented. It was horrible. I pushed the thought aside and the only thing that was kept in my mind was: Isthereanyoneouttherewhocouldhelpus?
-First day of Gladiator's Week-
What do we do on the first day? Team battles. In these fights, they send out at least two dozen demigods and have them fight against swarms and swarms of enemies. Frank was the picked team leader for this fight, so he was in charge of leading the team into victory. Since he was the son of Mars, his dad gets to sit at the very front, to which we call the "blood zone".
As we all filed towards the Colosseum, Athena was blabbering something about how Gaea was a novice in "architectural designing". Honestly, lady, we're already imprisoned and yet you worry about an inch of misplaced block on an arch. Oh, I forgot to mention, the Colosseum was re-built right next to our lovely prison. Hmm I wonder why?
The lights at the end of the tunnel blinded me. As we reached the Colosseum, it was already jam packed with Gaea's baddies, but still enough space for all of us prisoners to sit. The battle has already begun.
Frank and his group of soldiers were trying to make a stand against Lycaon's wolves. But the animals just kept pouncing, and attacking. I felt bad for Frank, after we lost, his self-esteem was all the more worse. He looked to his dad for guidance, his dad only looked to his left. Frank was confused, but as he looked to where his father was looking, he saw bows and arrows. His tactical war mind danced. He ordered a distraction from his soldiers and they separated into two groups, one defended one side and the second group holding off the wolves on the other. Leaving a clear path for Frank to the bow and arrows. He ran and grabbed them and trained his sights at one of the biggest wolf. No one knew it's name, but everyone knew how it looked like, he was big, almost the size of a full grown lion, teeth almost the size of daggers, and blood red eyes. Frank fired it directly at the head, and...
Plunk! Frank hit his target and it went down.
After that, the battle turned to Frank's favor and ready to be finished. The rest of the wolves were defeated and Frank looked at the crowds of demigods cheering his name. That's one for this week. We need at least more than five (at least) wins just to survive.
The rest of the day went by pretty fast. The demigods were sent to yard duty and the gods just have to stay in their cells.
"You did awesome kid." I heard Ares/ or Mars, whichever (the gods may not be schizophrenic anymore, but it made us demigods more confused than ever). He hugged his son and he went back to his cell. Frank walked up towards me.
"One down, at least five more to go." He said depressingly. I patted his back.
"Don't worry, we'll win again." Sure we won the last time but the casualties... Well, I just wish that Jason wasn't dead...yet. You see, Jason had to fight the Minotaur last Gladiator's week, bare-handed. I mean, I've heard he fought Krios also in hand-to-hand combat, but in this fight, he had a huge wound on his head.
"I hope he's ok." He said still sad and hopeless.
"Jason's gotten hit on the head outside and inside, literally, he'll be fine." I told Frank that just to try and lift his moods up.
"Your right. Anyways, let's go and fix some stuff. huh?" He said, sighing and getting up, ready to work. "Yard duty" was basically fixing things that our monster guards mess up. Fixing broken stuff, no problem, cleaning stuff? Uh yeah, no.
I hated the fact that Gaea had to humiliate us like this. It was unfair, we were so close, but how did we even lose? I just can't seem to wrap my mind around that simple fact.