Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or HOO.
Once the pain had subsided I felt the overwhelming presence of hope overtake me and I gave Gaea my signature crooked grin, and I took solace to the sight of her visibly shrinking away from me.
Hestia POV
I observed the scene through the hearth with worry. There was no way that Perseus could win this fight. Sure he had done many impossible things in his lifetime, from defeating Ares when he was 12 to defeating Kronos when he was 15. But alas this was pushing his luck, which had always been bad. It was as if the Fate's had personally cursed him.
"Ha! It would amuse me to watch you try and fail you arrogant fool." snapped Gaea, her voice slightly distorted by the soft crackle of the flames.
He proceeded to stare into her eyes in an intimidating manner that made both me and her alike shrink back into our skins. Gaea was scared.I had no doubt about that in my mind.
She only reinforced that idea when she spoke next, "You do not frighten me, boy". She was a scared child cornered by a vicious beast. The way she responded and acted was eerily similar to Artemis; they both tried to dispel their fears by intimidation.
I sighed at the thought of my stubborn niece, but quickly cleared my mind of that worry.
'Peruses' struggle is far more important than Artemis's petty behaviour.' I chided myself.
Very few things surprised me nowadays after my millennia of life, but my protective behaviour regarding Perseus was simply an enigma.
Was it because he had shown me respect when no one else did? Or was it because he had entrusted me with safeguarding hope and freeing him from the temptation of opening Pandora's Pithos?
After a few more moments of deep thought, my eyes flashed back to the scene in the orange flames that were situated in the centre of the mighty Olympian throne room; Perseus and Mother Earth had ended their stare-downs and were obviously preparing to attack.
Just as Percy opened his eyes and tensed his muscles in preparation for one final charge, I let out a pained scream. "No!" and what I did shocked me even more. I felt a part of my essence and power flow from out of me, into the hearth, and into young Perseus.
I gasped.
I had inadvertently given him my blessing and made him my Champion, to be more specific, the first Champion I had ever had. Although that added another unanswered question into my mind; how did I ACCIDENTALLY bless him?
Percy POV
I had thought that I was powerful after receiving Kronos's blessing, but I had never envisioned myself becoming THIS powerful. Yeah yeah I know I'm not as powerful as Gaea or anything but still. The raw power coursing through my veins was simply intoxicating.
Although multiple questions tugged at my mind; like who gave me their blessing and why? What did the blessing entail? Did I receive some super amazing abilities?
Despite the predicament I was currently in I was acting like a child in a candy store.
At the thought of a candy store, my mind subconsciously flashed back to the times my mum walked into our run-down apartment wearing the red and white striped uniform from the candy store at Grand Central Station that she worked at, smelling like all the sweets in the world…
'CONCENTRATE PERCY!' I mentally screamed.
This was most definitely neither the time nor place to get so distracted, and if I continued on this tangent there wouldn't be any traces of my mother left. Well, and the fact I wouldn't really have a mind to think with, with all the death and stuff.
After I managed to wrangle my mind back into my body and the coming battle, I stole one more gaze at my family. The sight of their broken forms gave me all the reason to finish this.
'Damn. There it was again' I thought. It had first appeared when I was hit with that blessing from an unknown person or god, but at first it was a mild tingling sensation at most. Now it was an overwhelming force that lifted up my head and spirits, encouraging me to never give up. And I intended to follow that instruction to the end.
My eyes snapped towards the Goddess of mud, and I noticed her eyes slightly widen, before narrowing again.
'Hm, I wonder what's up with her. It's not like I pose any risk to her." I thought, but I tend to have a knack for surprising myself and annoying my enemies.
Not wanting to waste any more time, I let loose a war cry that created a small shockwave that stunned the goddess slightly. Capitalising on this opportunity, I charged Gaea. All that was on my mind was slash stab slash, well, that and how I've got to save the world again.
I crossed the 30ft between us in the blink of an eye and launched my first attack; a fast and powerful slash aimed at her legs. Quickly snapping out of her gaze, Gaea condensed her aura and released it, blowing me back about 10ft.
Being hit by a silver wall of blisteringly hot primordial energy was not a good start to the fight, nevertheless, I recovered my wits and observed my opponent carefully.
Her earthen form stood at a proud 9ft tall, looking as if she was sculpted out of the purest marble available, and her eyes were a solid and vibrant green. She didn't have a weapon, but I saw the wisps of pure energy gathering in her palms, pulsating menacingly.
In a split second the energy in her right hand condensed into the form of a spear, albeit with no detailing whatsoever; it was essentially a rod of her own essence. As she pulled her arm back reading to propel her weapon, time seemed to slow and my vision became clouded with a golden hue.
On instincts alone, I rolled to the side and narrowly missed the speeding projectile. As I looked behind myself in curiosity and saw a mile long trench of dug up dirt and destroyed trees.
I gulped. This was not looking good at all.
"I must say, Jackson, I'm quite surprised," Gaea boomed, "Although I have a sneaking suspicion you are harnessing the power of my weak son."
I narrowed my eyes and replied in an innocent tone, "And why would you think that o mighty primordial of the Earth?"
Obviously unaware of my blatant sarcasm and mockery Gaea continued, "You managed to bend time to your will, and your eyes… they are laced with the golden sands of time, as well as the burning fires of hope."
"What?" I questioned.
"It is of no concern now for you will have all of eternity to reflect on your appearance in Tartarus!" she sneered triumphantly.
I prepared to launch another offensive, only to be beaten to the punch. Literally. Gaea disappeared in a dazzling green flash only to reappear behind of me and punch me in the small of my back. The moment her fist made contact with my body, I was launched forward like a rocket, eventually landing face first in the bone-dry soil 50ft away.
I won't lie, the location of where she punched me really struck a nerve. It seemed as if she knew about where my old Achilles heel was, and that this was simply a show of power and dominance.
I grimaced at that thought and slowly pulled myself up off the ground. As I turned to face the silhouette of the woman in the distance, I formulated a plan in my head, knowing that brute force wasn't going to cut it.
"Use the power inside you, my hero," a melancholic voice rang out in my head.
'What the…' I muttered to myself. What power did I have inside of me? As I pondered this question I finally realised what the voice meant, and just in time as well as Gaea was barreling towards me with another javelin of energy aimed straight at my head.
I faced my enemy and looked her dead in the eyes and observed the release of her javelin. As it sped towards me, I tapped into the power I held deep within.
Time slowed to a crawl. I calmly stepped out of the path of the deadly projectile and walked straight up to Gaea. At this point, everything had stopped. I couldn't see any signs of movement from her or the javelin. But I'm not really in a position to question my luck so I carried on.
As I reached her side, I pulled back riptide only to launch it straight into her chest. As soon as I felt it make contact, I lost all control over time and was blasted back by a blinding light.
'Huh?' I thought, confused as to what happened.
Once I landed back onto the firm ground and my vision had returned, I saw Mrs Killjoy standing up straight with a smirk etched into her face.
"Silly hero, you cannot harm me with your little toothpick." she chided menacingly.
"This is no toothpick," I spat, "This sword holds the immortal essence of one of the Hesperides!"
At the sound of that Gaea appeared to gag slightly, "Pooh! They are but ants to me. They hardly classify as immortals."
That enraged me, Zoë Nightshade was no lesser immortal! She was a fearsome Hunter of Artemis and a daughter of Atlas. Scrap that, she was a HERO in every sense of the word.
Noticing my scowl Gaea laughed. "You're going to have to do better than that to defeat me Perseus," she replied condescendingly.
In a desperate attempt I charged towards her and as I reached her, I swung my sword in a wide arc. Time seemed to slow as I saw my faithful sword Riptide morph into a 7ft long celestial bronze scythe that was glowing defiantly with a golden energy. The divine weapon seemed to strengthen my hold on time and it swiftly sliced across its creator's chest, creating a deep gash.
"GAH!" Gaea screamed in anguish. Glittering silver ichor; the blood of the primordials, trickled down her chest slowly and as it pooled onto the soil, patches of green grass started to spread across the barren landscape.
"You… You imbecile!" she screamed in a fit of rage. "How did you get that scythe!" she demanded, her voice so shrill I feared my eardrums would burst.
"Your son gave it to me of course," I replied, my voice void of all emotions.
At the mention of her once-prized son, her face soured and the sky darkened and she summoned another bolt of energy. Anticipating this move, I simply swung the blade of the scythe to intercept it. As soon as the two divine powers met, there was a blinding light.
As the light dimmed I saw green energy pulsating and running up and down the length of the gleaming bronze scythe. I could feel the metal start to heat up much like Anaklusmos had when my father and I had summoned that earthquake earlier.
Not wanting to waste this opportunity, I slammed the butt of the handle into the ground with all the force I could muster and was exceedingly pleased with the result. A golden cocoon of light illuminated the area and blasted Gaea all across her body.
I turned the scythe in my hands and marvelled at what had just happened. The weapon just absorbed her javelin of crackling energy and was able to channel it in my favour. Wanting to learn more about the powers that were hidden within this ancient blade, I charged my foe once more with renewed vigour.
This time I varied up my strike; instead of swiping low, I opted to go for an overhead swing, bringing down the blade towards Gaea's head with alarming speed.
At the last second before impact, she lifted her arm to cover her face and the scythe promptly made contact, shearing her left forearm clean off the bone.
She let loose a tormented sheik as a torrent of gleaming and glistening silver blood gushed out of her arm and onto the battlefield. She looked at me, then at her dismembered limb, and then at me again with an expression of pure shock.
"Wha… wha… what?" she stuttered.
"Looks like you underestimated me and my abilities goddess" I spat uncharacteristically, but hey don't judge, with the amount of adrenaline coursing through my veins, I wasn't even sure if the rational side of my brain had any control over my actions.
I quickly glanced at the scythe blade and saw that it was stained with a vibrant silver. 'Huh,' I murmured. I'll admit, it did look pretty badass.
Unfortunately for me, I had stalled and become lost in my thoughts, but luckily Gaea, being the genius she was, drew me out of my musings instead of striking while I wasn't focused.
"I WILL DESTROY YOU PERSEUS JACKSON!" she screeched in fury.
"Join the queue lady," I snapped, "Although unfortunately you're behind a lot of people." I continued. "The Minotaur, Medusa, Ares, Polyphemus, Hyperion, Kronos, Polybotes… I think you get the idea."
"YOU INSOLENT BRAT! YOU DARE TAUNT ME?"
Instead of responding and sealing my fate, I simply gave her my one of my signature crooked grins, which infuriated her even more.
Growing tired of this meaningless charade, and not wanting to allow her anymore opportunity to curse or attack me, I swung the god-killing weapon once more, but this time it was aimed at her exposed neck.
It travelled through all of the flesh and bone and sinew like a hot knife through butter. All I heard was a gurgling scream; Gaea was chocking on her own ichor. The sight of the beaten primordial brought me back to when I almost suffocated Akhlys with her own poison.
I involuntarily shivered at that thought. I still couldn't believe I almost allowed myself to DROWN a goddess with her OWN poison, especially one as miserable as Akhlys.
I was brought back to the current moment by the sound of something hard thumping on the ground; Gaea's decapitated head.
3rd Person POV
As the once mighty Protogenoi's head hit the ground, her body started to burn with pale wisps of silver smoke. The smoke travelled across her pale and lifeless body, igniting every inch of it in a faint golden light. Both her physical body and her soul was being eaten away by the various strikes of Kronos's scythe.
Little did Percy or any of the gods know, the damage she sustained was so great that this would be her last reincarnation. She was fading after millions of years of existence and pain.
As her body and decapitated head were finally eaten away by the ravenous fires the earth shook with an intensity felt never before. The Earth itself was reacting to the loss of its mistress.
The shaking continued for multiple minutes until finally subsiding. It had destroyed the constraints that had bound the 'mighty' Olympian gods and their children. They immediately fell to the ground in a stunned state, unaware of the only remains of Gaea; dazzling green energy, rushing into young Perseus's body.