Chapter 7 - Reading the River of Fire
A/N 1: This beginning will be longer, due to me having many ideas before the chapter starts.
A/N 2: I am very sorry this was late! I meant to update this last week, so I rushed to have this published, hope you like it!
A/N 3: Okay, since I absolutely love Poseidon and Percy, I have decided to have Poseidon know about KronosxPercy. He won't like it… but as long as Percy is happy…
…
Iapetus looked up at the stars; they had stopped reading the book because it was seven o'clock and the demigods and some gods couldn't even keep still, or be quiet. Fidgeting after sitting still for so long with only a few short breaks; no one had gotten up to go to the washroom either. So for the demigods there was a long line up, lots of shouting and with the Ares kids a small fight broke out.
Kronos had summoned his brothers and Luke to him and told them to be weary of them, let no information of him and Percy out. Luke was told to stay near the king at all times, because along with Iapetus and Hyperion they were Percy's "royal" guards (only when Kronos wasn't present); Though the turned Titan argued briefly that he didn't need guards.
"You going to eat?" a soft feminine voice asked, turning Iapetus saw Annabeth; Her blond hair was up in a ponytail and she held out a platter with a mixture of foods, ambrosia and Nectar, large quantities, to fulfil a Titans need of it daily. Because it tasted much better than the smelly food the gods liked to smell when burnt as offerings.
"No, not really, I am thinking of what happened in my timeline, how things escalated to how they are in my timeline, compared to yours. Because yours is already in motion, but frozen right now, and it might change…. Or stay the same."
"Can, you shed some light on what happens in your timeline so that we can change ours…?" Athena walked up and stared at the Titan, who was still staring up at the stars.
"No, my King requests me not to tell, all will be revealed in the book, and I will not willingly lose my Kings faith in me again. So good day to you," Iapetus walks away his eyes lowered until they reach his brethren.
"They know too much, Annabeth, be weary, especially of Luke, he is loyal to the Titans, don't be near them, alone," Athena said.
"Yes mother…"
With that done Athena walks away, her eyes looking at Olympus's worst enemies in their throne room… something wasn't right and she the goddess of wisdom and Knowledge of battle was going to figure it out.
…
Athena waited until dinner was done, and everyone was gone to their palace and their children sleeping, before she took off to the Throne Room.
The throne room was a place where the main Olympians went to think about things, and it wasn't unusual that the Wisdom goddess was there.
Athena glanced at the book that was on a small table, it was faintly glowing: it glowed a golden colour, with the book outlined by the sea green trimmings, and lightening flashed every few seconds, and along with the lightening, there was a dark spot.
Slowly Athena walked to the book and opened it, it went to the last chapter that they were on, which was chapter 6, and when she flipped the page, so it would go to the next chapter…. It was blank!
Flipping a few others, resulted in the same results.
"Not ready to know yet…" a voice whispered three voices, once the Fates finished speaking, Athena fell un-gracefully in her chair.
…
Poseidon sat in his throne room, on Olympus, in his palace. He had called his wife, Amphitrite, and said that he wouldn't be back in a while, because he had this book to read. She said she wasn't coming because she didn't want to read or listen to any book.
So Poseidon was startled out of his thoughts when Triton opened the door.
"Father, are you going to sleep yet?" he yawned.
"No, not yet, son, you can turn off the lights. I will close the blinds." The king of the sea said to his heir.
Since they were up in the sky, the sun/ Apollo didn't set until a few hours after midnight. So they had blinds that blocked the sun out, so they could sleep.
Twenty minutes alone did Poseidon feel tired enough to sleep, so he flashed to his bedroom and was asleep when his head hit the pillow.
Even though the Fates thought Athena didn't need to know…. They thought Poseidon should know…
*DREAM*
"Let him go! You have no right to do this!"
-Poseidon heard someone speak. Then his dream changed to fast for his eyes to see before they settled on blurry images of people.-
"You'll be the death of me Percy Jackson," Kronos murmured.
"I did swear on the Styx to kill you," Percy said.
"I know…" Kronos smirked; he moved closer to Percy, and then pressed his lips to the demigods.
-Poseidon gasped, his eyes froze on what he was seeing; Kronos' sword dropped from his hand and fell to the floor, and his son frozen before he started to respond to the kiss.
"Kronos get back here!" his son yelled when the titan king left him, mocking laughter as the king was teasing him.
-the scene shifted to a different day, showing his son storming to what looked like a mess hall, where Titans, monsters, and demigods sat eating food.
"….the FUCK was last night?" Percy yelled.
"This?" Kronos asked.
"Swear on the River Styx that you don't like me and I will stop."
"I swear on the River Styx that I don't love-"
-His son struggled on the word "love" and Poseidon slumped.
Than all the sudden his son was kissing Kronos, the titan pushing Percy up against the wall, hands moving low to his back than- Iapetus walked in.
A dream change and Poseidon saw snow whipping around, his son stood there, eyes looking at his hands that were covered in gold… ichor.
"He is so cold…"
-Faintly Poseidon realized that it was Kronos, the merciless strong Titan…. Vision blurred and a new image was seen.
It was a bedroom with a king sized bed in the middle, there was two forms on the bed, and with shock Poseidon realized that it was his son and Kronos.
Percy lay on Kronos' chest.
"Firefly..." Percy muttered.
"Hero" Kronos murmured his voice soft, not hard like usual.
-they were kissing again, a small fight for dominance; it ended with Percy on top, hesitantly kissing the titan under him. Kronos' hands slid down to the demigods back, hitting a sweet spot that made Percy shudder. He saw his son's eyes close as pleasure filled his body…
"His Achilles Heel..." the Fates whispered. When the voice stopped it showed Percy healing him, his face grim and hands heating up from an unknown source.
Kronos walked up and kissed Percy with passion, Poseidon in the dream looked away, his face betrayed, he heard his son shudder and breath in deeply as Kronos hit that spot again.
"Why turn against Olympus?..." Poseidon in the dream asked.
-it changed 'gain, showing a restaurant, the two of them eating, walking hand in hand in a street- California- .
Percy now stood in front of Kronos, the titan was bloody and Percy looked sad and shocked. Poseidon saw himself watch as they fought, the titan crushing his sons wrist, his son unable to hold himself up as he glowed a cruel golden colour.
His son looked in pain, calling out to Kronos whom, just stood there.
"Please..."
-Kronos picked his son up and kissed him, but he saw the bright light get sucked up into the titan.
"Soon, you'll be one of us, and I will be waiting..."
"All hail Perseus," Oceanus said, though he didn't look pleased. "Titan Lord of Healing and Disasters; All hail King Perseus!"
-Poseidon saw it speed up and it showed Percy and Kronos fighting the Olympians, while he hung in the back watching his son, like right now. Percy stabbed Hermes, beheaded Iris, fought Athena and knocked arrows shot from Apollo.
"Why don't we go in a blast?" Percy asked as he held his shoulder, while Kronos protected him from Zeus and Hades.
"Yes…" Kronos murmured, and with a bright light the two disappeared and landed in his cabin.
"We can't do that here!" Percy hissed.
"You promised me..."
Poseidon than saw his son and Kronos on the bed with Percy under the Titan, muffled moans heard, just as he woke up.
*DREAM DONE*
Words were heard throughout his brain, but the ones that stayed in Poseidon's head were: "All hail Perseus, Titan Lord of Healing and Disasters; all hail King Perseus!"
…
Kronos felt his second oldest son's anger, his despair, and his faith shattering with the gods. The water were he sat was quivering in response to his sons feelings, waves crashed below and he frowned.
Not much could shake Poseidon's feelings, beside his son… his Percy.
Poseidon was running, his hands in front of him, like a scared child. Tears were blinding him, the guilt and the anger, he felt was flowing off him in waves. Something told him to wait in the shadows as his son fell to his knees.
"Why?" he heard Poseidon shouts to the sky as if talking to someone.
"You needed to know," the ancient voice says.
"But why my SON, hasn't he done enough for you?"
"He is needed, if all of you want to survive, the things in what happens in the book, must happen."
"Father… for your sake, you must love him very much, after all, he is my last demigod child…" Poseidon murmured and lowered his head.
"You know..." Kronos said and saw his sons head whip towards him.
"Did, did you brainwash my son?"
"No, I love him. Percy holds what is left of my heart and soul; he is mine as I am his." Kronos said.
"Don't break him, don't break my son. When he loves someone he will do everything in his power so they don't die…. He doesn't care if he dies in the process..."
"I know Poseidon, my son, he cares for you and will never betray you, but you need to be careful on what side you chose." With that said Kronos stands and walks away.
…
After they eat and have everyone settled, Poseidon looking ancient and Kronos a bit weary do they open the book.
Conner starts to read his voice loud and clear for all the beings in the room to hear.
Annabeth sucked in a breath, "Oh this is going to be hard." The demigods had followed the cliff sand immediately found a vantage point that overlooked the entire plain.
"How many are there?" Piper asked with wide eyes.
"Millions, obviously, and I should know!" Iapetus says.
"A few thousand," Clarisse said grinning widely as she looked down at the hordes of monsters roaming the plain.
"Your daughter is insane, grinning at the monsters?" Apollo said to Ares.
"Everyone is insane within the folds of Greek Mythology," Kronos said and stared pointedly at the book, but his hands were around Backbiter…
"Yeah I guess so, huh…"
"I can sense ten, maybe twelve Titans," Nico muttered. "That's including Kronos."
Thalia frowned slightly, "How will we do this then?"
"Recklessly!" Hyperion said rolling his eyes at the glares he got from the demigods.
Annabeth crept back from the ledge and took out her laptop, quickly clicking on the design of the cells that Bob had drawn. "Percy's in the lower levels. We can cause a distraction by setting free the captives in there."
"Horrible plan, MOST of them ARE monsters!" laughed Hyperion, though he stopped at a jab from his king. "Let the mortal read."
"Aren't most of them monsters?" Nico asked carefully.
"We have to hope that they'll hate the Titans and want to help," Annabeth said.
"What're the chances of that?" Hazel asked.
"Not very high," Annabeth admitted as she closed up the laptop.
Frank stepped away from the other demigods and changed his form into a Chinese dragon. They quickly scrambled into his back as Annabeth put away the laptop. "Be very quiet as you fly, Frank," Annabeth said warningly as she climbed onto him. "We don't want to draw attention."
Frank slowly moved to the edge of the vantage point and looked over the edge. Thalia paled, "Maybe this isn't such a good idea."
"Too late now," Jason called back.
"It's never too late, haven't you heard of that song?" Apollo says with a frown.
"Uh… no?" Jason says.
"That's what I'm afraid of," Thalia muttered as the edge was almost right below her.
"Just shut your eyes," Nico advised, "it'll be fine."
Zeus looked at his daughter, she was afraid of heights?! She was the freaking daughter of the king of the skies! He thought and he saw Thalia avoid his eyes.
"Could have told me…" he muttered.
"Knew torture device..." Oceanus chuckled and looked at Kronos who slowly nodded, eyes distant, but body alert.
Frank slithered off the edge and his wings immediately caught, flaring out as he slowly glided over the plain. Without thinking about what she was doing, Thalia wrapped her arms around Nico in her fear. Nico tensed and was very tempted to throw her off Frank's back.
Below them, the monsters roamed around and occasionally started fights. Clarisse saw the Minotaur as it charged a hellhound, and Piper saw a flash of gold darting amongst the monsters. "Holy Hades," Jason muttered, "there are tens of thousands of them."
"This is terrible," Hazel said, "if they get out of Tartarus we'll all be swamped in days."
Annabeth made split second decision. "Leo, you see Hyperion?"
"Yes," Leo said once he had found the Titan of Light, "why?"
"OOHH! OHHH! I got a joke!" Leo yelled and waved his hands around.
"Yes, son?" Hephaestus asked.
"How many Titans fans does it take to change a light bulb?"
Everyone looked confused and started to murmur.
"None they are happy living in the Texans shadow!"
"HEY! You got that off of, JOKES 4 US!" Hermes yelled and pouted.
"Think you can make his fire go out of control to kill off some monsters?" Annabeth asked.
Leo concentrated on the Titan's flaming armour and felt a force blocking him at first, but he soon managed to break through it. As the demigods watched, the Titan suddenly flared up like a bonfire and the fire burst out in all directions. Leo collapsed forward and would have rolled off Frank if Clarisse hadn't grabbed him.
"What happened?" Clarisse demanded.
"You didn't!" Hyperion yelled and held Leo by his collar.
"OOOhhh, but the book says I did!"
"It's a disgrace to play with a titan's powers! How would you like it if someone did that to you and you couldn't control it?!"
"It was like a nail was being driven into my head," Leo winced as he looked down. Nearly two hundred monsters had been killed by the sudden burst of fire.
"Let's not try that again," Jason said with worry clear in his voice.
Leo nodded in agreement, "That sounds like a good idea." He looked in front of them and his eyes widened. "Hey, Annabeth, where are we landing?"
"As low as we can where there is a ledge and we're not visible," she replied as she studied the structure in front of them. "The fifth floor, there's an entrance."
"How do you know it's not purposefully left open?" Nico asked.
"I don't, but it's better than nothing."
"JYNX!" yelled a son of Hermes.
"Good point," Clarisse muttered.
"Everyone, keep your weapons sheathed until absolutely, remember, monsters and Titans can sense celestial bronze and imperial gold," Annabeth warned. "Leo, now would be a good time to give us some bombs."
Leo grinned and reached into his tool belt, "Careful. If you drop them now they'll know we're here." He passed them back. "Everyone gets a Greek fire bomb and a celestial bronze shrapnel grenade. Be careful with them, anything could set them off."
Jason held it like it was literally about to go off as he handed them down the line of demigods. "Thought of a plan yet, Annabeth?"
"It's hard," she admitted, "I don't know how many monsters and Titans are in there."
"Can't we just go in and turn everything we see into dust?" Clarisse complained, "It'd be so much easier."
"Everything?" Annabeth asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Everything?" Annabeth asked carefully.
Everyone laughs.
"Obviously not Prissy, but otherwise, yes," Clarisse said.
Frank landed carefully and all of the demigods jumped off to let him shapeshift back. Leo handed the son of Mars his grenades and all of the demigods looked to Annabeth for orders. Annabeth took a breath and looked at Clarisse, "We go in, and blow everything to pieces."
"Even Kronos?" Nico asked carefully.
"Especially Kronos," Annabeth growled.
Poseidon looks at his father and frowns; he doesn't see what his son loves in him. The titan has black hair, golden eyes that are cold and hard. Slightly muscular frame and he is very dangerous, merciless in his killings.
Clarisse grinned widely, "That's more like it!"
Annabeth turned to Leo, "Would you like to do the honours?" She asked as she gestured to a door.
Leo grinned mischievously and lit his hands on fire, "My speciality." He blasted the doors open.
Thalia and Frank moved forward with normal arrows knocked and ready to fire. Thalia fired at a passing dracaenae before looking back and nodding. "Clear."
"You sound like you guys are on an army mission!" Conner says and closes the book he is reading to take a sip of water, to cool his dry throat.
Annabeth and the other demigods moved forward. "We have to keep going down to the bottom floor," Annabeth said.
"There," Piper said as she pointed. Jason moved forward, his body crackling with electricity, and carefully pushed open the door.
Frank fired his arrow at a surprised empousa the other side, and Thalia quickly put down the second one. Annabeth quickly moved into the hallway, ignoring the monsters that hissed upon seeing her, and pulled a shrapnel grenade out. She peered through the window and saw dozens of monster in the corridor. Annabeth slipped open the door and pulled the pin out, rolling the grenade through the gap. Several seconds later, a muffled boom came from the other side of the now shut door, and Annabeth waited a few beats before looking into the window.
Annabeth happily pushed open the door and stepped over the piles of monster dust that were the monsters. Leo whooped as he saw the monster dust scattered around. "My bomb did that!"
"Good job son," Hephaestus praises.
Annabeth jogged over to the stairs and almost fell down them in her hurry. "One more floor down," she called back, "and, Leo, have you got another shrapnel grenade?"
Leo dug one out of his tool belt and handed it to her. "Use them sparingly please, we can't waste them."
Annabeth took out her dagger and crept to the doors. "Piper, get the other one?"
Piper nodded and crouched under the other door. Annabeth counted down on her fingers until she reached zero. She rose and stabbed her dagger through the slit in the door that served as a window. The empousa clutched at her throat as she fell to the ground almost completely in unison with her friend that Piper stabbed. Thalia and Frank quickly shot the empousai the other side of the corridor as Nico stabbed the one that Annabeth had taken down. Annabeth ran forward as she sheathed her dagger and took out her drakon bone sword, the other demigods quickly doing the same. Annabeth took the stairs two at a time and stopped outside the doors to peek into the room as the others caught up to her.
"Annabeth," Thalia hissed, "stop going so fast."
"You should listen, when you get to hyped up you make mistakes," Athena said and nodded in respect to her half sister.
Annabeth didn't listen; she was too busy trying to figure out how they were going to get through the block of cells to Percy. "What's wrong?" Leo asked uncharacteristically serious as he saw her expression.
Annabeth held five fingers up and gestured to the room the other side of the doors as she mouthed: Titans.
The demigod's eyes widened. "Five Titans?" Frank hissed. "How are we going to get past them?"
"You won't be able too!" Luke says with a frown, he still knelt near Kronos' place, though he didn't speak often, and yesterday at supper, he had stayed near Kronos as well. Shied away when Hermes went to speak to him.
Leo looked down to where he could sense the river Phlegethon curling under their feet and directly below the corridor. He took another Greek fire bomb out of his tool belt which was closely followed by a shrapnel grenade. "Wish me luck," he said before shoving the doors open.
He immediately felt fear grip him as the Titans stared at him. "What do we have here?" One of them asked, "A lost demigod."
"I'm sorry," Leo said, "I don't think we've met before. Who are you?"
The Titans looked slightly taken aback at his apparent lack of fear. "Why don't you fear us?" One of them growled, "You're a puny son of Hephaestus."
"So you've heard of me then?" Leo asked feeling slightly proud, "But I don't know any of you. If you're going to kill me, I'd at least like the pleasure of knowing who I died against first."
Hermes, Apollos and a few demigods looked ready to burst out in laughter, but they refrained from laughing at the glares they got, the Titans could be REALLY scary, because if looks could kill, almost everyone in the throne room, on Olympus would be dead.
The one Titan that Leo knew the name of grunted, "At least he has respect."
"He's playing us," another growled. "It's obvious."
"Boys," a Titaness said smoothly, "he wants to know our names. It's the least we can do before we tear him apart."
"See?" Leo asked, "I want to know who Lord Kronos has deemed worthy to guard this area." All of them looked pleased at that so Leo deemed it safe to continue. "I already know you, Hyperion, since your fame has spread greatly over the past centuries."
"What about mine?" A Titan that looked younger than most of the others asked as he shouldered his way in front of Hyperion.
"Lelantos," another one said sharply, "you don't have any fame. Our Lord Kronos didn't decide to involve you in the last war, and I don't know why he does now."
"Sorry, Father," Lelantos muttered, but he didn't look very sorry.
"You didn't have all the titans with you at the first war?" Zeus asked.
"No, and I am not telling you why so." Kronos sneers and motions for Conner to continue reading.
Leo quickly tried to figure out who Lelantos' Father was and snapped his fingers. "Got it, you're Koios. The one that guarded the Doors of Death so Percy and Annabeth couldn't get out." He looked at the last Titan and Titaness, noting the Titaness' deep blue eyes that resembled the sea… "You're Tethys, consort of Oceanus," he frowned slightly and turned to the last Titan, "and I'm sorry, but I don't know you. Maybe you're not powerful enough to be known," he shrugged, "sorry."
The Titan's eyes darkened and a low rumble built up in his chest. "NOT POWERFUL ENOUGH?" He roared, "I'M PERSES! THE TITAN OF DESTRUCTION!"
"He is like Percy, when he is angry..."
"All hail Perseus, Titan Lord of Healing and Disasters; all hail King Perseus!" Poseidon whispered, and he saw Kronos', Hyperion, Iapetus and Luke's head snap towards him.
"You might want to be louder, Lord Poseidon." Luke said, and smiled a bit when all heads turned to Poseidon.
"Brother, anything you wanted to say?" Hades asked.
"No"
Leo winced and took a step back, "Yeah, sorry," he said as he rubbed the back of his neck, "it's not ringing any bells."
"It shall be a pleasure to tear you apart," Perses hissed as he summoned a massive great sword to his hand.
"Not going to give me the option of classic or modern?" Leo asked in fake disappointment.
Perses blinked in confusion. "What're you talking about, demigods?" He demanded.
Leo showed him the fire grenade in his hand. "This is modern, and it causes a lot of destruction. Want to see?" He asked as he glanced back at the door.
Perses' eyes gleamed as he nodded. Leo grinned and nudged the pin out with his thumb before tossing the Titan the now live grenade. "See you around," Leo waved as he darted towards the doors with the Titans shouting and ordering him to come back. He shut the door behind him not a moment too soon as the grenade exploded.
The Titans howled in pain and Koios roared: "VALDEZ!" Leo concentrated on the river below them and tried to assert control over it. The river of Fire surged up and made the floor break apart as it covered the five Titans from head to toe.
"SON OF HEPHEASTUS, I'LL RIP YOU LIMB FROM LIMB AND TURN YOUR REMAINS INTO ASH!" Hyperion bellowed.
Hephaestus looked at his son and he looked concerned, Leo was more like him than most of his children, yeah sure he loved them all, but Leo could control fire, the fire was a gift and should be used when in dire need.
"I don't think I like that offer," Leo called, "I'll have to think about it." He peered into the room and quickly ducked as a ball of flames shot through the hole. Leo pulled the pin out of his shrapnel grenade and threw it through the hole. A loud explosion echoed around followed by complete silence.
"Leo," Nico said, "that was-"
"Amazing!" Jason exclaimed, "How'd you know you could control the Phlegethon?"
"Sort of called the river of Fire. I just assumed I could and went from there."
Annabeth shook her head in wonder. "That was incredible, Leo."
Leo shrugged, clearly uncomfortable with the attention. "Yeah, well it'll be for nothing if we stand here waiting for every Titan and monster to investigate."
Thalia nodded, "He's right. We have to get Kelp Head quickly and soon before we're overwhelmed."
"Please tell me I didn't say that to a Boy?" Thalia asked.
"You did," Rosy, a huntress of Artemis said.
Leo raised an eyebrow, "Did you just say I'm right?"
"Yes," Clarisse said as she shoved open the doors, "now come on. I want to show a certain King why he shouldn't mess with demigods." She started down the corridor that had small pieces of shrapnel scattered around and five piles of golden dust that were the Titans. The other demigods quickly followed her with their weapons out and ready, none of them noticing Leo stop beside Hyperion's weapon which was still aflame.
The other demigods quickly followed her with their weapons out and ready. They reached the end of the corridor, and their eyes widened. "It's like a maze!" Hazel exclaimed, "How're we going to find him now?"
"Use my DGPS." (1) Nico said.
"DGPS?" Apollo asked.
"Yeah! Demigod Positioning System"
"I've got it covered," Nico promised as he shut his eyes and concentrated, trying to find Percy's aura. He frowned slightly as he sensed another being. "Found him," Nico said as he opened his eyes, "this way." He started leading them to the right, readying his sword for the fight he knew was about to come as Leo hurried to catch up with them. Nico easily led them through the maze of cells, trying to ignore the monsters that hissed when they saw the immortal demigods pass.
He took a breath as they rounded a corner, a staircase behind them and a long line of cells in front. "Nico, why've we stopped?" Piper asked.
Nico took a breath, "The cell straight in front of us. Percy's there."
Annabeth immediately started forward, but Nico quickly grabbed her arm. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."
"Why not?" Annabeth demanded as she blew some of her blonde hair off her face. "Percy's right there, why-"
"In the cell," Nico said as his eyes flickered over her shoulder to look, "he's standing in the shadows and watching us even now."
Annabeth's blood ran cold, "He's here, watching us?"
"That sounds creepy," Hermes said.
"Uber creepy." Apollo said.
Nico nodded grimly and stepped away from Annabeth. The daughter of Athena turned at quickly scanned the cell. When she saw who Nico had sensed she didn't feel fear grip her, or at least she wouldn't admit it.
In the corner of Percy's cell two golden eyes were staring at her, like headlights of a car in the shadows. The Titan King chuckled coldly, "Well done for getting this far, demigods, but I'm sorry to say you won't be going any further." He took a step forward and the demigods could see him clearly, though they didn't really want to, "I believe this is called 'check'?" Kronos asked in amusement as he looked at their various expressions of fear. "Next step – checkmate."
"It was a trap?!" the demigods said.
"Chaos, they are dense." Atlas said.