Chapter 2: Redemption and Betrayal

Percy's POV

I rolled out of the way of a devastating swipe from the scythe only to be kicked in the back as I stood up. I lay sprawled on the ground ready to give up as coughed violently and spat out blood. As iI was about to give up I was about to give up when I remembered all the lives that were sacrificed so that I could get to where I am and kill Kronos.

My mother was the first, she sacrificed ten years of her life living with that loser Gabe to mask my scent so that I could live my first twelve years of life without having to run away from monster (even though Gabe was a monster in his own way).

Beckendorf sacrificed a great future and life with his girlfriend on that ship so that I could get off. He was planning on heading off to University after this war, except he died that day on that ship, he died a hero.

Silena nobly joined her boyfriend, pretending to be Clarisse and leading the Ares cabin to war. Dying to the Lydian Drakon so that reinforcements could get to us. She may have been spying for Kronos at first but she righted her wrongs and was able to be rejoined with Beckendorf in Elysium.

Those were to name but two sacrifices. Most of our small defense force had ascended to Elysium in such a short space of time.

There was Zoë back at Mount Tamalpais. Zoë. She was the bravest. She knew she was going to die but she still went on the quest. It was undeniable that I had feelings for her even if it would have been impossible due to her being in the hunt. Now isn't the time to dwell on thoughts of her. I promised Zoë that I would defeat Kronos with her sword.

I slowly but surely picked myself off the ground. I would honor my promises. I never wanted to break another promise after what happened to Bianca. I grasped Anaklusmos in my hand pivoted on the ball of my foot to deliver a powerful slash at Kronos.

"Such courage and bravery, you would have been a better host and an even greater ally. You willingly took the curse of Achilles. I had to have my servants throw Luke in the river. I offer you another chance Jackson. Join me and we can rule the world together. I offer you immortality and you shall be the general of my armies. I offer the same Annabeth. Choose wisely because if you make the wrong choice, it shall be your end."

"Never!" I snarled before charging at Kronos and feinting a strike at his head. When he moved to parry the strike I lashed out with my foot and kicked him between the legs. With lightning quick succession I Sparta kicked Kronos in the chest sending him flying back into the throne of Ares. The war god's throne started crumbling as light flowed freely from cracks that were growing in size. I realized what was happening and quickly averted my eyes. There was a bright flash of red light and a moment later there was an earsplitting explosion.

All was silent.

I slowly turned around only to hear an earsplitting scream. I looked at Kronos and walked over to him. I lit my foot on fire and was about to kick him but stopped in shock that his eyes were blue.

"Percy, please. You were right. My Achilles point is —" Luke's eyes widened as he reached for the scythe. I raised my sword thinking he was going to attack me but quickly realised he was looking at what was behind me and I saw a shadow with a dagger raised behind me.

Annabeth.

It would be too late for me to do anything about it. Annabeth's dagger would strike. Luke lashed out with the weapon and the long blade impaled Annabeth between slicing through her bones, lung and heart like a knife through butter.

I looked at Luke in surprise at his sudden change of heart. The dagger fell out of her hand and bounced off my back dangerously close to my Achilles point.

"Why —"

"Look Percy i'm running out of time. My Achilles point is at my armpit. Please Perce. Put me out of this misery. Quick, Kronos is about to burst into true form. I'm fighting him for control over my body but my life will end either way. Either that evil bastard dies with me or I die and he destroys the world." Luke said all while unstrapping a special piece of armor that he must have had made to protect his Achilles point.

I looked at him feeling a tinge of sympathy. I aimed Anaklusmos at his armpit.

"Ready?"

"Ready." He said nodding his head. I closed my eyes and plunged the sword into his armpit. I felt the blade sink into his flesh. I opened my eyes and saw a his eyes glowing gold again. A wispy gold gas flowed from his eyes as the eyes slowly turned blue. The gas moved towards Anaklusmos. I panicked as I saw the sword absorbing the gas as like a sponge would a liquid. Once all the gas had left his eyes and entered the sword a gold powder began draining out of his eyes as pooling on the ground next to Luke's body.

"I will return, Jackson." Kronos choked out through Luke's body before the powder stream stopped.

"Percy," Luke croaked, "the gods, make them change their ways. Demigods deserve to be claimed and minor gods are treated terribly. Please, that's all I ask of you."

"I promise Luke. I will make them change. You're a good man Luke. I always told you that. You will go to Elysium. I'll make sure of it. You deserve it for fighting Kronos in the end. We couldn't win without you." I replied reassuringly

Luke smiled, "Tell my father I forgive him and I understand."

I smiled back to him before moving to get up but stopped when Luke began to speak again.

"Oh and Percy, thank you, for helping me see things clearly, I just wish we could have been on the same side as friends."

"Me too Luke. Goodbye my friend." Percy said earning a grateful smile from Luke. Luke's eyes rolled back and his head fell back with a smile still painted on his face. I reached down and closed his eyelids with my right hand while drawing two golden drachmas with my left a placed them, one on each eye.

Thalia walked in leaning on my patron Hestia right then and gasped when she saw me honoring Luke.

"Traitor!" She snarled while Hestia just smiled knowingly and nodded towards me. Thalia pulled the can of Mace out of her pocket and turned it into her spear.

"Whoah, Thalia I can explain –"

Go on, explain then, and I will decide how painful your death should be!" She growled, tears falling from her eyes as she looked at Annabeth's body angry that he honored Luke and not Annabeth.

"Hear him out" Hestia said simply as the Olympians teleported into the throne room and warily looked around expecting to have to fight something only to see Thalia leaning on Hestia and growling at me. I gulped noticeably.

"What is this!" Zeus shouted making me wince under the pure power that flowed from his words.

"He's a traitor." Thalia snarled. Zeus' eyes widened before he turned on me with a stormy expression that told me if I didn't choose my words carefully I would be his next victim.

"Is this true?" He growled with sparks flying off of him and the room smelled strongly of ozone.

"No! I'm not a traitor. Luke redeemed himself whilst Annabeth, "I pointed at her corpse, "Betrayed us!" I stuttered the whole thing out and probably looked as nervous as some people when lying.

"Liar!" Athena snapped before turning to Zeus, "My daughter is smart enough not to do that! Look at the way he trembles in fear! He is so obviously lying!"

Zeus raised the master bolt to smite me.

"Stop!" Both Hestia and Apollo shouted at the same time before Hestia continued. " He tells the truth. As his patron I was watching the entire battle. Kronos persuaded Annabeth to join his side. Luke was fighting Kronos mentally and managed to regain control of his body for a short time. He killed Annabeth before she could kill Percy. He then showed Perseus his weak point and let himself be killed. Luke was a hero in the end and should be arriving in Elysium sometime around now. And Athena, use that overly large brain of yours, what mortal wouldn't tremble in fear when they have the king of Olympus growling at them." Apollo just nodded. He is quite literally the world's best lie detector because of his status as god of truth.

Zeus looked disappointed that he couldn't shock anyone into oblivion today even though he already got enough of that from Typhon in one day. I then moved to pull out Anaklusmos but stopped when I saw the engravings on the sword glowing gold with power. It had never done that before. I shrugged and risked it. As soon as my hand touched the hilt a sharp pain shot through my body.

I couldn't let go and I screamed out as the pain were worse than being thrown into the Styx. My cries drew the attention of the gods again as Hestia, Poseidon and Apollo rushed to me. Then all the sudden the pain stopped.

I let go of the sword which still glowed gold with power and collapsed to the ground as everything went dark.

I awoke five minutes later to find myself lying by my patron's fire with Hestia poking at it. When she heard me moving her face snapped towards me and she dropped her stick and hugged me with a wide smile on her face.

"My champion awakes!" She cried out gleefully. You're probably wondering how she came to be my patron, well when I gave her pandora's pithos she was extremely happy that I trusted her that much. She asked me if I wanted to become her champion. Of course like any person in a right state of mind would do, he accepted. Hestia's probably the best patron to have as she has no children and she is the known to be the kindest goddess. What does that equate to? Lots and lots of gifts. But really having a patron is just generally helpful as it makes that particular god more free to help you without trouble from the ancient laws.

I stood up and looked around me to see all the Olympians seated and staring at me and looked behind me to see all the other demigods, nature spirits, minor gods, and others that fought for us seated on the ground. Hades was seated by the fire next to Hestia staring blankly into the hearth.

I gulped and bowed down on one knee in front of Zeus.

Everything was silent, except for the crackling of the fire.

It stayed that way for a few minutes and I was beginning to get really scared, nervous and anxious and my emotions were obvious. I felt all the eyes that bored into my soul. How my ADHD hadn't killed me yet I could never understand.

Suddenly the whole throne room burst into laughter and I looked around confused. Everyone and everything was laughing heartily. It was so loud that it seemed as if the room itself was chuckling. Zeus was the most hysterical of them all. I was surprised to see even Hades, the most grim god laughing.

"Sorry Perseus, But your just too funny when your anxious so we just let you stew a bit. Time to get this meeting started though." Zeus cleared his throat and the laughter died down, "We are come here today to discuss post-war precautions and the rest of that boring stuff. But first! I must thank my brothers Poseidon and Hades for it would have been … difficult"

"Difficult, brother?" Hades and Poseidon retorted at the same time.

Zeus sighed and muttered a curse in a mixture of Greek and Latin under his breath before correcting himself, "Impossible to win without."

"Talk about a huge ego huh?" Poseidon joked sending the gods into laughter however everyone else kept silent for fear of Zeus smiting them.

Zeus growled but continued. "First we shall reward the heroes who fought ever so valiantly in the war. Thalia Grace lieutenant of the Hunters of Artemis, my daughter step forward."

Thalia nervously got up from where she sat, walked until she was in front of Zeus and dropped into a low bow.

"Rise daughter, for you I have decided to give you the choice of two gods to bless 2 weapons or weapon sets of your choice with they're godly powers, do you accept." Thalia's eyes widened and she grinned evilly. I winced, that look just meant that she has more ways to torture me when she visits camp.

"I would like my spear to be blessed by lady Hestia with fire and my hunting knives by Hypnos with sleep." Thalia said while beaming a pearly celebrity smile. I had to resist every fibre of my body to stop myself running away. Look at that, my name is Perseus Jackson, I defeated Kronos, but I'm terrified of my cousin. Well, I can't exactly go killing Thalia, can I?

"An interesting choice, may I ask why you want me to bless them though?" Hypnos inquired from where he sat with the minor gods.

"Because cuts made by sleep blessed knives should make the recipient of the cuts feel drowsy or even fall asleep." Thalia said grinning obviously proud that she came up with such a good idea.

"Hmm, I never thought of that. I guess that's because I never fight. Very well I will do it, but I can't guarantee it'll work that way." Hypnos smiled, happy that he was chosen as most minor gods are ignored.

"Hestia, Hypnos step forward. Thalia, if you would place the weapons on the ground in front of the gods of choice." Thalia unsheathed two arm-length hunting knives that originally belonged to Zoë Nightshade and placed them on the ground in front of Hypnos before pulling reaching into her pocket and elongating the mace canister into a spear and placing it in front of Hestia.

When the blessing were finished the spear was permanently engulfed in flames while the knives glowed silver and seemed to radiate an aura of sleepiness which Percy could feel from 5 feet away. Hypnos stepped back proud of the power that the weapons. Thalia hesitantly picked the weapons up and saw that the spear didn't burn her. She grinned evilly and winked at me.

"You forgot, I'm fireproof, my patron is Hestia you moron. And you call me a kelp head." Everyone laughed and Thalia looked aghast and her shoulders slumped.

As everyone laughed the Annabeth's betrayal finally hit home. After all we did together she tried to kill me. Sure I had feelings for her I'll admit and that just added to the pain.

"Now Perseus Jackson, step forward. You will be offered one gift and one gift only. And we know what you shall ask. If you accept, then you shall be made a god."