Our utmost apologies for taking SOOO long to update. There's been a bit of other-fandom meddling that has got us distracted (coughDOCTORWHOcough) so we've been a little distracted.
It was our plan to have this whole story done before House of Hades, but that's obviously not happening. We couldn't even get THIS chapter done before HoH, so we cut it short just so we'd be able to update before The Book comes out.
Hope y'all aren't disappointed! Enjoy.
oOo
This war was unlike any I'd been in before. During the war with Kronos I had the mark of Achilles on me. I felt indestructible; nothing could hurt me and nothing could slow me down. This time it was different.
The second I joined in the fighting in the valley, everything seemed to get blurry and slow down and speed up at the same time. The smell of blood and sweat and monster body odor was all around me, as was the noise. Swords crashed, arrows flew, creatures of all shapes and sizes screeched so loud my eardrums felt like they were going to burst.
Everywhere I looked there were people getting hurt. Scarlet, iron-smelling liquid stained the grass and I couldn't block out the sound of demigods yelling and screaming and crying to one another. Again and again I thrust my sword out, dodging claws and steaming monster goo. Some just laughed and let earth crawl up their limbs and heal them.
My skin was broken and I was covered in my own blood. My muscles burned like they'd never burned. We hadn't fought for ten minutes, even, and I was already feeling like we'd lost.
Part of me distractedly noticed that not all of these monsters were Gaia-related. There were a lot of giants, sure, but none had really targeted me quite yet. Mostly I just fought your every-day monsters like hydras and that gods-forsaken Minotaur and things like that. Some of them, however, seemed to possess the qualities that the Earth-born did. The ground healed them. It made killing these stupid things a lot harder.
As I shoulder-rolled under a steaming fountain of acid, I heard someone yell and an explosion shook the ground. Seconds later, nasty bits of flesh and goop rained upon the fighters.
Annabeth, who had found her way to me, scowling angrily and pointed up at the sky.
The Argo II was busy reloading its canons.
"Call the airships off," I shouted to her, barely heard over the noise. My sword deflected some claws and lopped a monster head off. "They're going to kill us if they shoot again!
My girlfriend yelled something into one of the walkie-talkies Leo had handed out before the ground troops left, and then a minute later, we saw the huge shapes of the airships fly out of sight, probably docking themselves on the other side of Mount Parnassus. The other demigods who hadn't been part of the ground troops were probably on their way.
Good. We needed reinforcement.
The mass of creatures washed over the space between Annabeth and me, and I lost sight of her quickly.
As our numbers grew, so did the monsters' it seemed. Giants—from twelve feet to thirty feet—erupted from the ground, screaming in rage and grabbing blindly at demigod's heads. I quickly found myself locked in a one-on-one combat with a particularly nasty Laistrygonian that seemed to remember I killed a couple of his kin when I was in middle school.
"Just let it go already," I grunted, forcing him back into another giant, momentarily directing them so I could send them right back to Hades. Every cell in my body was screaming with exhausting and pain, but I didn't even stop to breathe before turning around and running after another monster.
When would this end? Would it even end at all?
Annabeth. I squeezed my eyes shut for a second and swallowed lumps of frightened tears. Was she doing okay? She had to be. I couldn't fight for the both of us.
"Yo, Perce!"
I opened my eyes just in time to stick my sword right through the stomach of a surprised, greenish (literally) Hellhound. He landed half-on me and coughed, puking up what looked like soil, and dissolved the rest of the way.
"What the…?" Only sparing a moment to stare at the monster in confusion, I looked up to see the source of the shout.
Leo had joined us in the fight, leaping straight up onto the back of a giant, sticking something on his head, and jumping back down. Before the giant could chase him too far, Leo pulled something from his tool belt and pressed a button, causing metal tentacles to burst from the spot on top of the giant's head and wrap around him, pinning his limbs together and immobilizing him permanently.
The son of Hephaestus caught my eye and pointed at the bellowing giant with a great look of pride, before his gaze being completely distracted with something off to his right. He cursed—not in ancient Greek, mind you—and ran off.
Something flashed in my peripheral vision, and I spared only a second to look. A huge bird—an owl, I think—was swooping over our heads, baring the meanest-looking talons I'd ever seen on a bird. It landed on a giant's face and dug its claws into his bloodshot eyes.
Well, I guessed he was on our side.
Bile rose behind my teeth and a wave of dizziness hit me after I watched the giant's face get torn out by the owl. Gore and soil burst from the wounds, and he slowly dissolved into a cloud of wailing dirt.
Wait—I thought the ground could heal him? Giants could only get defeated if they're gone against by both demigod and god.
Something hit my shoulder, jolting me from my nauseated bewilderment, and immediate pain shot down my arm. It felt like fire, and I screamed, instinctively trying to bat away the burning feeling. My hand came back covered in thick, dark blood that I knew from training came from a deeper vein.
When I turned around, an ogre was standing there, dressed in nothing but what looked like a loincloth made out of grass. It didn't leave quite enough to the imagination. I wasn't sure what hurt worse: my shoulder or my eyes.
I lifted my sword to kill him, but the pain in my arm made me cry out and the sword dipped in my fingers. The ogre charged, raising his rusty weapon to deliver the final blow when something flashed and he stumbled back, dazed.
"You alright there, Percy?" asked a familiar voice, and I saw Will Solace from the Apollo cabin standing a few feet away, holding a dagger. His quiver was empty and his bow looked cracked, but he seemed mostly okay.
"Yeah," I groaned, shifting my sword to my left hand. "Thank y— Will, watch out!"
He spun, but there was barely any time to raise his dagger before the ogre was upon him. It buried its huge teeth in Will's shoulder, biting clean through the armor and sending blood gushing out. Will screamed, the most awful sound I'd ever heard, but it was cut short when the ogre's rusty sword-like weapon was brought down upon his torso.
I couldn't bring myself to watch, but even over the sound of the whole battle, I swore I could hear Will's innards falling onto the ground and the ogre gurgling in triumph.
Oh gods.
I'd grown up with Will in camp. I'd taken healing lessons with him. He told me I wasn't the worst student he'd ever had, even though it was only to be nice.
I dropped onto my knees and threw up.
"Son of Poseidon!" boomed the ogre. When I lifted my head, only the shape of its massive body lumbering towards me registered.
My arm still hurt like Hades, but I somehow found the strength to stand and face the monster.
When it roared, I saw bits of flesh stuck in his brown teeth.
Maybe it would be best if I let it kill me.
I didn't even have the strength to fight back.
My eyes closed, but the blow never came. Instead of seeing the gates of the Underworld when I opened them again, I saw a very surprised-looking ogre teeter; a bright golden arrow was lodged into the middle of its forehead.
When I looked around for the source of the shot, no one came to view. All I saw was demigods fighting monsters, blood, the howl of the wounded and the yell of the victorious, sweat, javelins flying and even a mace or two swinging.
The ogre ended up exploding, but I never got the chance to do anything about the ravaged body of my old camp-mate, because as the monsters pressed me backwards, I saw some of my other friends, and it did not look like they were having an easy time of it.
I only caught glimpses from between bodies, but I could have sworn I saw Hazel frozen into a block of ice, and Frank trying to fight his way to her, using his bow to beat back monsters and looking like he'd been run over by a lawnmower.
It was hard, but I inched my way in their direction. The wound on my shoulder made me want to cry, but I did no such thing. Though fighting with my left arm didn't come as easy to me as with my right, I managed to get within twenty feet of Frank and Hazel before getting caught up with a really gnarled, evil-looking nature spirit.
She was wearing rags made from wilted leaves, and her filthy hair was matted around her face, which was so black it was almost blue. Both of the spirit's ears were pointed, but her teeth were, too, and there seemed to be thorny plants woven around her neck and in her hair. Correction—the thorny plants were growing out of her neck and hair.
I didn't even have time to curse before vines sprung from the ground, hooked like barbed wire, and lashed at my legs, trying to trip me and wrap around my ankles. I tried cutting them with my sword, but the more I cut, the more they grew.
I was starting to get real fed up with this plant-lady.
From the corner of my eye I could see that Frank had made it to Hazel, and he was kneeling down, something small and aflame in his hands.
Was that—?
"Aaugh!" I cried out, falling to the ground and landing badly. It felt like acid filled my shoulder, making me black out for a second. When I came to, the nature spirit was bending over me, venus fly traps as big as horses growing from the ground beside her.
I was about five seconds from being the biggest Percy-flavored snack for a hungry seven-foot plant. How sad would that be, getting eaten by a plant?
Suddenly, a hammer that was definitely on fire flew out of nowhere and nailed the spirit in the forehead, sending her flying back and landing so hard she erupted like a piñata, clumps of dirt tumbling out from where she landed. The vines let go of me and the man-eating plants wilted and died.
That was, what, the third time I'd been saved in the past twenty minutes?
"Percy," Leo panted, grabbing his hammer again and skidding next to me. He offered me his hand and helped me up. There were gashes on his face, and his entire left sleeve was burnt off, showing an awful burn. Even that elfish, determined smile he had on when he first joined was gone, fizzled to a look of fear and exhaustion.
He pointed to where Frank and Hazel were, and then practically disappeared, weaving in and out of bodies to get to them.
I'm coming. Just give me a second.
Breaths were coming and going from my lungs wheezing like a broken-down car, and with every wheeze it felt like I was inhaling fire. I tried not thinking of how long this all would go on, and how badly everyone was doing even though Gaia hadn't showed up yet.
After only pausing for a second, I shifted my sword in my hand and limped after the son of Hephaestus.
It took me a while to slither past all the bodies that were in motion, but when I found them they were at a gap in the fighting. All three of them—Leo, Frank and Hazel—were screaming at one another, but I had a feeling their pitches weren't just to be heard over all the noise. As I inched closer, I heard a little bit of what they were saying.
Leo was yelling at Frank for using his firewood to melt Hazel, Frank was yelling at Leo for stopping him when he was just doing his job, and Hazel was screaming at both of them to shut up and just melt her already.
"Frank," I shouted over the others, and grabbed the Roman's shoulder. "If you die, you won't even be able to help Hazel again. Why don't we just guard them and make sure no monsters sneak up on them?"
The son of Mars looked hurt and angry and stressed, like everyone, but on top of that he looked like twenty years were sucked from his life. He was about to pass out, swaying left and right and blinking as though about to fall asleep. When he stuck the bit of firewood back in his pocket, I noticed it was no bigger than the size of a gumball.
Frank took a shaking breath and glanced over at Leo. "…Sorry for yelling at you, Leo. Thanks." He turned his back to his girlfriend and the other demigod, and accepted my offer of my spare dagger.
I pretended not to notice the tears streaming down his face.
It was hard work defending the area; the giant that had frozen Hazel was one of the northern types. They were not supposed to be there in Greece, especially in late summer, and most of all, they were supposed to be peaceful. This one, however, looked angry and cold (go figure) and swung its crystal-white spear at us. The bellow coming from his mouth sounded like world's most annoying squealing pigs in the world's loudest blizzard.
Frank said he would take him while I fought another monster a ways off. Hazel was only about half-melted by then, only her hips-down frozen, but she was too numb and cold to do much more than encourage Leo.
"Percy," Frank puffed, stumbling as his gaze was momentarily preoccupied at something on the mountain across from Parnassus. I followed his pointing finger and saw movement.
It took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust, but squinting, I made out what looked to be a herd of red boars only slightly smaller than cars storming down the mountainside, baring tusks and spitting fire.
What in the world?
I squinted harder, but the closer they came the more they were definitely boars. My eyes followed the herd right up until they disappeared into the mass of monsters and demigods.
Great. As if we needed more bloodthirsty beasts to fight. Wait—they were trampling the giants. What was going on?
It clicked. The only explanation for all of these crazy occurrences I'd been witnessing. The golden arrow, the owls, the boars. It had to be.
Suddenly, Hazel screamed. It was a terrified noise, loud and curdling, but when I leapt back to help her, nothing was wrong.
She was completely melted by then, but still looked frozen, and stared in horror and shock. Her mouth was open in the scream that had slowly died, and tears were pouring down her cheeks.
My heart thumped once, painfully, and I turned slowly to see where she was staring.
The world seemed to move in slow motion. Frank was standing frozen, too, looking at Leo, and Leo was—
Leo.
I saw the Hyperborean behind him.
I saw the icy spearhead sticking out from just under his sternum.
The giant lifted Leo ten feet into the air on his spear. The effect the blow had on Leo looked unreal, like on a movie. All I could hear was my own heartbeat in my ears, the panicked huffing between my lips.
I watched as Leo's torso around the spearhead turned to solid ice. Cracks spread from the spot, like thin ice on a lake breaking. It cut his body down the middle, twining around his stomach and reaching all the way up to his neck.
Leo's eyes rolled back into his head, arms hanging limp, jaw drooping.
Hazel screamed again, and I regained hearing.
Next to me, Frank was trembling all over. His voice was cracked and nearly silent, though it sounded loud over the battle. "I…Leo…" Tears were pouring down his face, also, and he clenched his fists tight. "The giant…was…and Leo…" A sob ripped from Frank's mouth and he grabbed onto his hair, looking wild. "…He saved me. And I…I…"
Leo had put himself between the giant's javelin and Frank.
The crazy little dude who'd installed a hundred different gaming systems into their warship, who'd once managed to eat a whole pizza during dinner despite his scrawny looks, who hadn't rested until he knew his friends were safe.
Leo Valdez, whose mother had been killed by Gaia, who always thought himself a seventh wheel, who'd given up everything he had and despite everything was the best friend he could be to all of us.
He'd saved our lives, and he was gone.
Just like that.
The giant turned the spear to the side to get a good look at his handy work, a twisted and grotesque grin plastered on his deformed face. He chuckled like he'd just smashed a funny looking bug, and tossed frozen Leo on the ground. For some reason, the body glowed bright gold and seemed to just vanish as the Hyperborean stepped over it.
I wish I could say I rushed up to the giant and stabbed him in the face in revenge for my fallen friend, and I wish I hadn't hesitated in dispatching the giant for the unspeakable crime I had just witnessed, but I couldn't help but stare stupidly into nowhere, Leo's gruesome death replaying over and over in my mind. I stood there with my mouth open and tears welling in my eyes like the hero I was, watching my friend's killer towering over Hazel with another ice javelin in his grubby, bloody hands.
As if I was experiencing another slow-motion moment, I saw the giant's javelin fly down towards Hazel's small body, which was crouching down and holding her head screaming in pure terror. I watched Frank run bravely over to the giant, only wielding a meager dagger and the most dangerous battle-cry I had ever heard. He wasn't going to make it in time, I was sure of that.
Just as the javelin was bloodcurdlingly close to Hazel's body, the giant suddenly stopped, leaving a quivering ice shard just inches away from the daughter of Pluto's head. A fountain of blue blood came rushing out of his mouth and onto a confused Hazel, the giant's face frozen in complete agony. His massive hulk of a body then turned into solid ice.
Behind the giant's large cloth covered rump, Nico stood, holding his sword deep within the giant's back, his pearly white teeth bared like a ferocious animal about to bite.
I couldn't take it anymore.
I was a coward.
Hand gripped on my sword, I stumbled away, running blindly from the scene. Blood ran from my arms and down the blade as tears ran down my cheeks. It hit me over and over again, like someone hammering a nail into my forehead.
Leo.
Leo.
Leo's dead. Leo was murdered. Leo sacrificed himself to save Frank. Leo sacrificed himself.
What was it that Apollo had told me?
"Just remember, Percy Jackson; this war will come to an end, but before it does, sacrifices must be made. One day you're going to be faced with a choice you cannot make, an action you cannot prevent. The only thing you can do is prepare for the pain when it happens, and know that it must."
Sacrifices must be made. I had just witnessed a horrific one. One of my friends sacrificed himself right in front of my eyes. He'd given his life for Frank. He'd given his life to Frank, one life for the other. He knew the consequences. That was his role.
What was mine going to be?
I looked around me. Every direction I turned I saw teeth and claws and blood, heard screams and bellows and evil laughter. I saw bits of flesh on the ground. We couldn't destroy the giants completely without the help of the gods, though for some reason the number of monsters seemed to begin outweighing the number of giants. Everything seemed to have barbed tails or spit acid or get healed automatically by the ground.
I knew we were losing. Gaia hadn't even arrived yet and we were weak, tired, hurt.
My friends were getting slaughtered all around me and I was helpless. With every creature I killed two more took their place, like a hundred-headed hydra. I could kill them until I died and everyone I loved would still fall.
Something caught my eye and I saw Annabeth about twenty feet away. Her figure dashed between bodies, limping and bleeding—like everyone else there—but holding her sword high. She looked awful, but I loved her. I loved seeing her, even then, with her in her dented armor like she was born to wear it.
She'd never make it. She was doomed.
Just like everyone here, and I couldn't do a single thing about it.
Anger began bubbling inside of me. It burned red-hot, first filling my stomach and flooding into my head so fast my vision turned red.
Nobody else was going to die that night, not if I could help it.
I was vaguely aware I'd stop stumbling. My feet seemed rooted into the ground, throbbing, but nothing touched me.
My whole body shook.
The anger boiled my insides and sent terrifying waves of adrenaline into my arms and legs.
The gods may have abandoned us, but we forgot something; they were inside of us. Their blood ran through my veins, pumping painfully in my throat.
I was Percy Jackson.
I was the son of Poseidon, and no one was going to touch my friends again.
A scream rose in my lungs. It was unlike anything I'd ever heard come out of myself before, and I was hardly even aware of making it.
The sky flashed with red lightning, sending sudden torrents of rain crashing down into the valley.
I lifted my sword and sank it into the earth.
Time stopped and then started again so abruptly it was like a hiccup. One second I was screaming until the skin of my throat ripped, and then the next something happened.
It was like a sonic wave erupted from my sword, energy blasting outwards with so much force it ripped the sword from my grip and my feet from the ground. As if watching from someone else's eyes, I saw my own body get shot backwards into the air with the energy of a canon.
Third Person
Annabeth wasn't sure what happened. She was trying to get to Percy, but every time she'd take a step closer to him, a monster would block her path. It was only when she was close enough to run when she heard his scream.
He was petrified on his feet, fists balled and eyes glowing—literally glowing with anger.
"Percy!" Annabeth yelled, but her boyfriend didn't hear her.
He was screaming the most awful scream, and then stuck his sword into the ground.
Annabeth tried to call Percy's name again, but the second she opened her mouth, a blast of pure energy exploded from there. It knocked her right off of her feet and made her fly over the heads of the fighters, slamming against the beginning slope of the mountain and tumbling down it.
Luckily, she hadn't gotten thrown too far.
Unluckily, the world seemed to be ending.
Ever since the first wave, the ground hadn't stopped shaking. It rumbled and roared like a herd of a thousand angry Minotaurs, lurching and heaving under their feet. The rain continued to pour, drenching the whole valley with sour, hot water.
Around them, Annabeth made a blurry mental note that all of the campers had been thrown away from the valley. Her head was killing her from where she hit, and she was fairly certain she re-broke that stupid ankle, but it was nothing serious. She glanced back in the other direction in which Percy had been thrown, but he was—
He was flying into the sky.
As the demigod lay there, cheek pressed up against the grass as she let the pain in her head clear, she watched as the tiny form of Percy shot like a bullet through the curtains of rain and disappeared through the clouds.
Wait a second.
Holy Hera, he wasn't flying. Through the storm, Annabeth squinted to see the form of Percy smash against the near-top of the mountain with such power he bounced right off.
Percy's body tumbled down the mountain, gaining speed, but then finally landed face-first on a shelf of rock that jutted out of the face, nearly leaving a Percy-shaped dent in the mountain.
He was still.
Against her body's screams for rest, Annabeth got up from the ground and started scrambling towards her boyfriend, limping and crawling as fast as she could to the giant mass of earth Percy had landed on. The world was spinning and lurching underneath her, but she kept going, calling Percy's name over and over.
Fear stabbed Annabeth's lungs; Percy had just fallen over three hundred feet after smashing into the side of a mountain and wasn't moving a bit. He couldn't be dead, he just couldn't. She felt the worry in her heart sink down to her stomach as she hurried her painstakingly slow limp towards Percy, tearing up over the possible fate of her boyfriend.
It took her quite some time, but Annabeth finally reached the spot where Percy had stopped. All around, the effects of what had happened showed clearly. It was a terrible sight; monsters and demigods alike lay in the grass, groaning painfully, dirt and debris decorating their clothes and hair like the aftermath of a dirt bomb.
The more she looked, however, the stranger everything became. The monsters recuperating on the mountainsides were only a tiny fraction of their numbers. The rest were down in the valley—which was splitting apart.
Annabeth forgot about Percy for a millisecond and stared as the otherworldly earthquake cracked a rift the size of a small town into the valley, swallowing the rest of the monsters and giants whole. Even over the sound of the storm and the crying, roars of angry, terrified creatures faded swiftly as they dropped down into the crevice. Streams from the rainwater ran into it, making the whole gorge a muddy pit of death, leading to Zeus-knows-where.
What did Percy do?
All of that power in one demigod seemed impossible…but she'd seen so many impossible things that summer. Even for Percy, that was startling. Sure, he was the son of Poseidon, one of the strongest gods, but to rip a hole in the Earth the size of an entire valley was incredible, and something only a god should be able to do. What Percy had done was unnatural and stupid (or unnaturally stupid), but…brave.
Annabeth just hoped with all her being he hadn't paid the debt with his life.
Suddenly, she felt a hand grip her hurt ankle. Annabeth quickly drew her knife and yanked her foot away from the hand, trying not to scream. However, she only found her friend, Jason, with confused blue eyes.
"…Annabeth?" His voice was so quiet it was just barely a whisper. He had a nasty gash on his jaw, leaking blood all around his mouth and neck. He looked bad. "Where's…where's Percy? What happened?"
"He's…" Annabeth's voice caught in her throat and she found herself shaking. "He's hurt. If you can stand, find the others. I'll take care of Percy." Without waiting for a response, she left, hating for anyone to see her like that: broken, weak, on the verge of an emotional explosion.
She dragged herself up a slope and farther on, past bloodied bodies of her camp-=mates and dissolving monsters that were soaked with rain. She trudged until she got to the edge of the rock jut, and then hoisted herself up painfully.
"Percy?" Annabeth cried, scrambling over to his motionless body. "Percy?"
Trembling madly, she slipped her arms under her boyfriend and flipped him over carefully, gathering him up into her lap. What she saw nearly made her faint.
There was a horrific-sized slice taken from his skin that started above his right ear, went across his forehead and up into his hairline another two inches. It gushed dark, evil-looking blood, covering everything. His eyes were closed, nose obviously broken, and he looked for the world like he was dead.
Annabeth put her fingers to Percy's slick throat to check for a pulse, fingers instantly becoming stained with his blood.
Nothing.
She moved her fingers to his wrists.
Still nothing.
With a heart breaking with realization that Percy Jackson, the only person she'd ever loved, was dead, the sob she'd been holding back broke free. It ripped from her lungs and split the air around, cutting through the noise of the pounding rain.
He had used so much strength cracking the valley open he'd killed himself.
He'd killed himself to save them all. To save her.
Annabeth felt her tears roll down her cheeks, mixing with the rain. Her cries were lost in the mountains.
Percy Jackson was dead.
Dead.
Percy, Percy.
Annabeth growled and pounded her fist on his armor in anger. "Don't' leave me like this, Perce! Don't you dare leave me!" She pounded him again and threw herself over his torso, holding onto him like she'd never let go.
So abruptly it scared Annabeth half to death, Percy's mouth opened and a long, rasping breath was sucked in.
"P-Percy?!" Annabeth shrieked, having a moment of panic before fumbling to feel for a pulse once again.
Thump thump…thump thump...
"Percy!" she screamed, a little louder than necessary. Her arms wrapped around his neck and she squeezed him to her chest.
A noise bubbled from Percy's lips, a soft moan that could have been either "Hey" or "Ow." Annabeth didn't mean to, but the wave of relief hit her so hard that it forced more maniac sobs from her throat.
"P-Percy—Perce—I'm sorry—I-I thought… I'm sorry. Are you okay? Are…" The repeated question died on her lips. Of course he wasn't.
Percy let out another quiet groan, but he didn't move at all. Not even a twitch of his hand. Blood was pouring down his cut and his chin quivered slightly before he spoke.
"…My bad," Percy mumbled. "Is everyone…" He started coughing, choking a little on the rain. When Annabeth curled her body over his head, the coughing sputtered away and he swallowed. "Is everyone okay?"
"Wh-Who? Oh yeah, they're fine. Percy, you…you saved everyone." She stroked a hand over Percy's slippery, red cheek, appreciating every ounce of his existence. "You saved everyone, whatever it was that you did. Can you…can you move?"
It wasn't likely that he could.
He looked so bad, Annabeth was sure that most of his bones were shattered. Hitting the mountain at a speed like that, then tumbling hundreds of feet down to land face-first on a rock face couldn't possibly leave one unbroken.
Forcing air out of his ripped lungs, Percy managed to move his head up off his girlfriend's lap, gurgled in pain, and quickly laid it back down. "I can't. Please, Annabeth, just…just go. I'll be fine."
"W-What? Why?"
"There's no way I'm going to be able to get up, and there's no way you could carry me down the mountain, either. Just go. See if everyone else is really okay."
"I am not leaving you, Percy," Annabeth said sternly, and then softened her voice. "I sent Jason to check up on them. I'm not going."
When her boyfriend didn't answer, she worked to cut a strip of cloth from the bottom of her shirt with a dagger and tie it around his head wound. The injury bled so much it soaked through the makeshift bandage within two seconds. After doubling it with another strip, the daughter of Athena did a brief once-over to inspect the damage.
"If I was to give it my best guess," she said, "you have the nastiest concussion I've ever seen—" Percy tried to roll his eyes in a "duh" expression. "—and many broken bones. Ribs, legs, that wrist definitely looks snapped…"
"Annabeth." Percy raised his eyes to meet her gaze and he struggled to raise his hand to touch her, but couldn't. "I'm hurt."
Annabeth felt her eyes stinging and she looked away.
"I'm hurt, but I'll get better. I'll be fine, okay?"
She put her hand on his cheek and wiped some blood from his eyes. "I'm all out of ambrosia, so you'll just have to wait until…until…" Annabeth didn't even know what the Hades was going on or what had happened or anything. She hung her head. "…Gods, Perce." She wiped at her tears with the back of a hand, only succeeding in smearing her boyfriend's blood across her face.
His head was cradled in the groom of her elbow, and she held him like a child, holding his cheek to her collarbone.
Percy closed his eyes against her touch, once again bringing on the appearance of death.
Annabeth was so wound up in how awful Percy looked that she wasn't paying any attention to anything going on around them until his eyes fluttered open again.
"…What's happening?" he asked, straining to move his head even an inch.
Shaking rain-soaked hair from her eyes, Annabeth tried focusing on their surroundings.
The storm was causing everything to be blurry and grey, but she was able to make out what was happening in the valley. All of the monsters appeared to have vanished, either dropped into the pit or disintegrated from the blast. Demigods were scrambling around the edge of the pit, finding one another and shouting over the noise of the rain. The majority—if not all—of them seemed to have not fallen into the pit.
A crack that big in the Earth would have swallowed everyone.
"Percy," Annabeth asked the half-blood in her lap, brushing more blood from his eyes and mouth, "what did you do? I saw you stick your sword in the ground, and something exploded, but…but I think all of the demigods just got blow back into the mountain. Only the monsters were sucked in. Was...that on purpose?"
The son of Poseidon just kept his eyes closed and murmured something that sounded like "I don't know," and let out a painful cough.
The rain continued pounding on the valley. Thunder crashed and rolled, and bloody water ran into the chasm. All around, demigods were clutching each other and looking around.
Was it over?
Annabeth kept Percy on her lap protectively. His wound soaked her jeans completely with blood, but there wasn't anything either of them could do. Annabeth considered leaving him there and trying to gather people back into the warships, but she knew deep down that it wasn't over. Maybe it hadn't even begun.
Percy twitched and mumbled something, feebly spitting blood from his mouth.
"What?" The daughter of Athena wiped his face again and bent closer to hear.
"Tell me...tell me something about this place."
Annabeth almost laughed. He never wanted to hear her stupid facts. However, he never made a habit of dying on a mountainside in the middle of a fairly-lost war, so she obliged.
"Well, um..." Annabeth swallowed, blinking rain from her eyelashes. "Odysseus used to go hunting on this mountain. He used to sail his ships down a gulf near here and hunt for days in these valleys."
Percy grunted quietly, a hint of a smile on his bloodied lips. It faded quickly and a sound gurgled from his throat. "My...my head..."
"I know, Perce." A tear fell onto her boyfriend's neck and Annabeth shivered, but not because of the cold. Her hand stroked Percy's cheek and hair. "I know... We'll get you out of here soon."
"...But Gaia-"
As if on cue, the mountain shook, one sudden boom that felt like a gong being hit. The Earth roared and shook in rhythm with the thunder, only making the people down near the valley scream in terror again.
Lightning flashed in the sky, great streaks of electricity striking the dead grass on the opposite hill. It charged the whole valley with electricity, lighting up even the darkest of corners.
Annabeth shielded her and Percy's eyes, fear coursing through her. She wouldn't be able to defend them. She had to protect him, she had to.
Clouds rolled overhead, thickening to a noxious black blanket. A web of lightning streaked down from the sky and hit the grass with a screech.
Suddenly, the rain stopped quicker than it had started. The heavenly faucet just shut off, leaving a silence that felt louder than the storm.
"A-Anna...Annabeth..." Percy breathed, tears cleaning tracks down his bloody face. "What is...?"
"Don't." Annabeth gripped her hand into a fist around his sleeve and held him tight. Her vision was blurring from fright. She didn't want to tell her boyfriend what was happening; he was in enough pain. If she could shield him, she would.
Far down in the valley, the rest of the seven demigods were gathering. Frank had his arm around Hazel's shoulder, limping heavily and holding his right eye. Piper was trying to wrap a bandage around her boyfriend's wrist, but she kept fumbling and shaking like sobs kept her from concentrating. Where was Leo, though?
Annabeth watched them talk, Jason holding Piper's hand with his good one. It seemed like they were huddled close, talking amongst each other and to the massive group of half-bloods around them. Then, they all lifted their heads and started looking around, as though someone lost was mentioned.
Their eyes fell on Annabeth and Percy, and a muted roar grew from them and the mass rolled like boiling water. People began scrambling up the side of the mountain towards them, reaching out hands and calling to see if they were all right.
Annabeth held Percy tighter, wiping at his face and apologizing over and over again.
Yet another tremor hit the Earth, bigger than the last. Percy cried out in pain and all of the demigods scrambling up the hill fell onto their knees, tripping over one another and shouting in surprise. With that last quake, the ground across the chasm from them exploded.
The grass ripped, dirt spilling from the Earth like blood from a wound. Then, from the dirt, came a woman.
Her skin was a rich, deep brown; her eyes were the brightest green Annabeth had ever seen in anyone, but not necessarily kind; her hair was black and curled down her back; the dress she wore seemed to be made of woven leaves and long grass and soil, and every time she moved light rippled on it like light filtering through leaves on a forest floor. She looked fifty feet tall and five feet tall at the same time, everywhere and anywhere at the same time. Every time she blinked a gust of wind blew that didn't move a single hair on Annabeth's head.
An aura pulsated from her direction so strong it made everyone's ears throb. It spoke of power and control and a force as old as the Earth itself. After all, that's what she was.
Gaia had risen.