12. All Hades Breaks Loose

My Uncle Nico wasn't really my uncle. He was actually my second cousin on the godly side of the family tree. I'd just called him Uncle Nico since I was a little kid. He and Aunt Rachel—who wasn't really my aunt either—were good friends with my parents, and I'd grown up with them pretty much acting as my uncle and aunt. I had two real uncles, Matthew and Bobby, but I hardly ever saw them. Uncle Matt lived in Arizona and Uncle Bobby in California.

Nico strode forward between the monster army that had parted for him. The guy radiated death—he always had. It took some getting used to. He was wearing a badass skull-shaped helmet, but you could see the kid grinning through the face guard.

"Is it too late to join the party?" he asked.

"Oh, my gods," Noah gaped and pointed at the son of Hades. "That's…that's Nico. He's…so little."

At that point I giggled a bit. I couldn't help it.

"What's so funny?" Lexie asked me.

"The image of Nico wielding a sword in his judicial robes just flashed through my head." These days Nico wasn't the Prince of Darkness so much as a judge in the juvenile court system. Yep, that kid would grow up to be a lawyer and a judge. Who would've guessed?

Lexie looked at Nico and blinked when he drew his Stygian iron sword. She shook her head. I guess the image flashed in her mind, too.

The ground began to rumble and cracks began to spread across the street, sidewalk, and buildings. Skeletons began to claw their way out of the fissures in the ground. There were thousands of them. It was an amazing if not disturbing sight.

"Death Boy's got some serious mojo," Morgan observed.

"HOLD YOUR GROUND!" I heard Kronos yell to his army who was backing away. "The dead are no match for us."

Then everything went dark. The sky turned black, and the shadows seemed to come alive, darkening the street. A horn sounded ahead of a huge chariot that was barreling down Fifth Avenue. The chariot was the epitome of darkness—black obsidian with shadow-horses, and the Lord of the Dead at the reins.

I'd never seen Hades in person until then. He was terrifying in his black armor and red cloak, but the worst was his helm of darkness. My curse didn't protect me from the helm's power to reach into my mind and twist my thoughts into something my worst fears and nightmares couldn't even touch. It was a horrifying experience that made me want to breakdown and sob. I think everyone, including the enemy, was having the same experience, because they all looked like they were only a few seconds from bolting from the scene.

I closed my eyes tight for a few seconds to clear those horrifying thoughts from my mind. When I opened my eyes, I focused on the chariot's other occupants: Demeter and Persephone.

"Wow," Morgan said quietly. "Mom looks a lot like her."

"Wait," I said. "You've never met your grandmother?"

She shook her head. "No. I've never met Hermes, either. Does that surprise you?"

I thought about it. She was a mortal legacy, which—to the gods—was insignificant. She was nothing special to them, even after she became the Oracle. I'd only met my godly grandparents a few times and probably would've never met them if I hadn't been the child of prophecy.

I shrugged. "No, I guess not."

"Hades," Kronos growled, and I turned my attention back to the titan and god. "I hope you and the ladies have come to pledge your allegiance."

"I'm afraid not." Hades sighed. "My son here convinced me that perhaps I should prioritize my list of enemies."

"Go, Nico," Noah smiled. I think he was enjoying seeing Nico be so influential. Noah and Nico had become close in the past year. I'm sure Nico had told Noah stories about this moment.

Hades drew his black and silver double-edged sword. "Now fight me!" Hades yelled at Kronos. "For today the House of Hades will be called the saviors of Olympus."

Kronos snarled, "I don't have time for this."

He slammed his scythe into the ground, and a crack appeared, spreading out and around the Empire State Building. The air shimmered along the crack in the ground; he was creating a barrier around the building and the spell over the rest of Manhattan was disintegrating; people were waking.

It was too late to run for the building. We were trapped outside the barrier while our parents were inside with Kronos and his vanguard. I gripped my sword tightly and pulled my hat down a little more. I knew all hell was about to break loose.

Hades crashed his chariot into the wall of force that was surrounding the Empire State Building. The wall didn't budge, but the chariot overturned. He blasted it with black energy, but it had no affect. There was no getting on the other side.

"ATTACK!" Hades roared.

And that's when all hell broke loose. Armies crashed together and innocent mortal bystanders who had just woken from Morpheus's spell screamed and ran in panic. No telling what the Mist manipulated the battle into, but I'm sure it was damn scary.

We began fighting with Hades's army. I got backed right up to the force wall where I heard a voice gasp, "What in Hades?"

I turned to see the traitor demigod with an eye-patch standing beside me, just out of reach on the other side of the barrier. He blinked, turned and looked at my dad, then looked back at me. He blinked again. "Two Percys?"

I grinned. "Makes you wanna cry like a baby, doesn't it?"

"Nakamura," Kronos called to the stunned eye-patch guy. "Attend me."

The kid took one more good look at me, then turned tail and ran to his master.

I went back to fighting. The monster army was still overwhelming—even now that we had reinforcements. There were just so many monsters in Kronos's army, and though we now had an army of the dead, we were still outnumbered.

I surveyed the scene to see where I was needed most, and I did a double take when I saw that two mortals that had just woken from their slumber had joined the fight. Two mortals who looked strangely familiar. Two mortals who were…holy crap, it was Nana and Grandpa! And they were so young. Nana's hair wasn't gray, and Grandpa Paul actually had hair. Grandpa was wielding a sword and Nana had a shotgun in her hands. It was pretty awesome.

Now, Grandpa Paul knew about all the gods and monsters stuff, but he wasn't a clear-sighted mortal like Nana, so I was really impressed to see him joining the fight and with a sword no less. I never knew they picked up arms in this battle. Dad never told me.

"Percy," Nana yelled to Dad. "We'll be fine. Go!"

"Yes," Nico agreed. "We'll handle the army. You have to get Kronos."

In just a moment, my parents disappeared into the Empire State Building, and I knew that would be the last time I ever saw them in this timeline. As much as I wanted to follow, I couldn't. They'd win this one without me, anyway. I need to stay behind on the ground to help save as many lives as I could.

We fought what still felt like a hopeless battle. My friends and I stood in a circle, our backs to one another, and took on the enemy that was ringed around us. Nico was fighting alongside my grandparents further down Fifth Avenue, and Hades fought from his chariot, summoning waves of zombies to take on the seemingly endless forces of the Titan's army. And on top of the fighting, the mortal world was awake and terrified. The mortals of Manhattan were running for their lives and destroying the city in the process. Even more disturbing than all of that was the sound that was approaching the city from the west.

It sounded like a thunderstorm, and it was quickly pushing toward Manhattan. I knew what it was, and it was far worse than any thunderstorm. It was Typhon, and the gigantic monster and the gods who were fighting him would be in Manhattan soon. I could already see the western sky lighting up from Zeus's thunderbolts.

The monster army began to back off in anticipation of Typhon's arrival. The enemy didn't want to be destroyed during Typhon's barrage on the city. Little did they know, Typhon would never make it to the city.

The monster was so enormous that I could see him over the Manhattan skyline. I could also see the gods fighting him from their chariots. They were little flashes of silver and gold and red that zipped into the cloud that surrounded Typhon and attacked the monster within. Explosions and fire flashed inside the cloud, and suddenly a blast lit up the world. The shockwave from the thunderbolt Zeus had fired at Typhon shook the ground beneath my feet and the sound of thunder broke windows in the buildings around us.

The monster roared in anger, but kept on coming. The gods were having little impact on the monster's progression, but that all changed when Typhon stepped into the Hudson River. That's when my grandfather, Poseidon, went to work.

The river erupted like a geyser all around Typhon, and out of the churning water came a new chariot—Poseidon's chariot. My grandfather rode a circle around Typhon's legs, his chariot glowing with a blue aura. As the chariot circled, a funnel cloud developed around the monster.

"NOW, MY BRETHREN!" Poseidon roared. His voice was so loud that I heard it all the way in Midtown. "STRIKE FOR OLYMPUS!"

An army of Cyclopes burst out of the Hudson, and leading them into battle was my Uncle Tyson. And he was huge. He was a big guy anyway, but he'd somehow magically grown into a thirty foot giant.

The Cyclops army carried enormous lengths of black chains and grappling hooks, and they swung them like lassos, snaring Typhon's legs and arms. The monster roared and tried to break free, but there were too many chains.

Poseidon threw his trident, piercing Typhon's throat. A golden stream of ichor poured from the monster, and the trident flew back into my grandfather's hand. He was such a badass. I wished I knew him better. I think we would've gotten along great.

Following Poseidon's lead, the other gods struck with renewed force. Balls of glowing light slammed into Typhon as the Hudson River rose, wrapping the gigantic monster in a blanket of filthy water. The weight of the chains and the barrage of the gods were wearing on Typhon. He bellowed in agony and thrashed with anger as he began sinking into a whirlpool that would take him straight to Tartarus. Then the monster's head went under, silence fell, and he was gone.

The gods disappeared, too. They'd gone to Olympus. I'd been so wrapped up in watching Typhon that I hadn't noticed that most of the Titan's army had been either destroyed or had retreated. We were finally winning for a change.

I felt someone grip my shoulder and turned to see Lexie. "Hey," she said. "I think it's over. I think Kronos has been defeated."

I looked toward the Empire State Building and saw that the barrier Kronos had made earlier was gone. My parents did it. They defeated the Lord of Time, which meant we could finally try to get back to our timeline.

"We should probably get back to Montauk now," I said.

"Do I get to steal another car?" Morgan asked hopefully.

"Sure, why not?"