Santa Monica, California: EVERYONE
Thalia, Nico, Clarisse and I circled around and slowly descended with our pegasi. It was pretty dark and a full moon was shining high in the sky. The waves were crashing along the coast and everything looked like it had six years ago. When we smoothly landed in the sand, we all jumped off of the pegasi and they flew back up, probably heading back to the Amazons in Seattle.
"We're here Ares! Come out and fight us, you monster!" I yelled into night.
Just then there was a blinding light and I yelled at my team. "He's coming in his true godly form, close your eyes!"
There was a supernova of energy and Ares appeared in his Ancient Greek battle armor. He had on an orange tunic with a golden breastplate and wooden sandals. He wore a helmet with a red plume and had a ten-foot long sword in his hand and he stood about twenty five feet tall himself. At his feet were the two gorgons, Euryale and Stheno, undead soldiers, storm spirits, Dracnae, and telkhines, all equipped with armor and weapons. There were about a total of eighty troops in all.
"All in good time, Percy Jackson," Ares said in a loud booming voice. "If my timing's correct, the beach is about to get even more crowded right about…now."
In the ocean I could see a strange light. Then I could see about fifteen large bubbles shoot out from the water and float towards the shore. They flew over Ares and his troops and touched down behind me. They bubbles' walls started to degenerate and fifteen figures stepped out. I was speechless. Not only I, but Nico, Thalia, and Clarisse had their jaws dropping too. I could feel them picking up their jaws and dusting them off.
Annabeth got out of her bubble with armor that I remembered from our first Capture the Flag game together. She looked around and as soon as she saw me, she ran toward me. I ran toward her and…we bonked our heads together. Yeah…not one of my smoothest moments. We just sat there in the sand and held our hands and laughed for a little bit. Then she kissed me and stood back up.
"How were things up here?" she said as she helped me get up.
"Oh, it was great! How was your second trip to…oh my gods I forgot about your arm" I said as I grabbed for her arm. It was made of pure bronze.
"Hephaestus forged it for me. I actually think it's…"
"Awesome. It's totally amazing." I said, even though this new addition to her body made me even more scared of making my girlfriend angry.
Thalia rushed over to Jason and they hugged for about forever. Nico just stood there as he saw someone he never thought he'd see again. Bianca di Angelo hovered towards her brother and they both started tearing up.
"I…missed you so much," Nico said his voice breaking.
"So did I…our father and I are very proud of you, Nico," Bianca said.
Thalia left her brother and slowly walked over to the ghost of Luke Castellan. He just smiled and didn't say anything. Then Thalia slapped him…or tried to. Her hand just went through him.
"That didn't hurt. I can be intangible if I want to" he said.
"I'm sorry, I…you're here…" Thalia said. Then she slapped him again.
"That didn't hurt either," he said.
"You're not a power crazy titan, right?" Thalia asked. Luke nodded and then stepped closer to her. Thalia slapped him again.
"Okay, why are you slapping the guy that-"
"I'm sorry," Thalia said, "but I've sworn off boys for eternity."
"Just a hug then" Luke said as he hugged Thalia.
I went over to Beckendorf, Silena, Leo, Frank, and Hazel.
"Are you guys alright? I now that's a incredibly stupid question, but-"
"Yeah, Percy. It's going to a LOT more than Tartarus to kill the Leo…that didn't make sense," said Leo. Hazel and Frank nodded that they were okay with a smile.
Then I turned over to Beckendorf and Silena's ghosts. "I'm sorry that the both of you had to die."
"It was our decisions, Percy. And we're alright with them" said Beckendorf.
"ENOUGH!" boomed Ares. The gods, the ghosts, and the demigods all stopped talking and looked up at Ares. There smiles vanished and their serious faces turned on. "I HAVE BEEN STANDING HERE WAITING LONG ENOUGH!"
"Ares! Why did you decide to do this now! We just won a war against the giants and Gaea. Why can't you leave that battle from six years ago alone?!" I asked him.
"BECAUSE YOU'VE FOILED EVERYTHING, JACKSON!" he yelled furiously. "I suppose now that everyone is present, I should reveal my role in all of this. Six years ago, the titan lord Kronos affected me and that blasted boy, Luke Castellan. I secretly served him over the years, and knew that a war was bound to come. But you and your band of demigods defeated the freaking titans!" Ares paced the beach and his troops stared and us the whole time, ready to attack on his command.
"So I decided it was time to step up my game. I knew that you all could not defeat the giants and the primordial beings. It was time for me to awaken Gaea. But my mother, Hera, discovered what I was doing. Gaea was awakened enough to trap her, but not before she could swap Jason Grace and Percy Jackson. Even after my mother was freed, she decided not to tell anyone that it was me who started it all. I am one of her only sons, and revealing my plans would send me to Tartarus."
"Then, the gods were incapacitated; their Roman and Greek sides fought each other. I didn't know this would happen, but it would make no one suspect me. But that idiot Mars was in my head. He was more 'rational' and he could hear my thoughts. He knew what his Greek side had done, so he appeared in front of his son, Frank Zhang, and gave him his blessing, hoping to help the side of the demigods. After you defeated Gaea, I decided it was time that I finally ended your meddling, and kill you were you first humiliated me."
All of us let those facts sink in. I couldn't believe that all the crap in my life had happened because of Ares. Anger boiled up inside of me and the other demigods, and as one, we charged into battle, to destroy that stupid monster and put him in chains.
All ten demigods and four ghosts yelled loudly as we charged. Not a single monster would survive our fury. Annabeth and I fought side by side and decapitated skeletons with our swords. We had always worked best together. Hazel lifted sand from underground and through mini sandstorms in the ways of the telkhines. Thalia and Bianca fought together once again and shot arrows charged with Greek fire into the ranks of the Dracnae. Jason flew over the troops with Piper and they both chopped away at the monsters. Clarisse disassembled about a dozen skeletons using hand to hand combat and Nico popped in and out of black holes, confusing the monsters and sending them to the Underworld. Beckendorf charged throughout the army and rearranged some faces with his hammer and Silena fought beside him unlike any daughter of Aphrodite I had ever seen. Luke and his sword, Backbiter, clashed with the gorgons' talons and he skewered both of them until they exploded into golden dust. Leo seemed to be having more fun than he should have. He laughed and hooted as he lighted up the night and blowtorched several telkhines. Frank grew in size and became really hairy. He was a seven foot tall gorilla and threw some Dracnae into the sea.
Then the gods decided to intervene.
"We can handle the monsters children," said Hades. Then he disappeared and reappeared somewhere else in the troops.
"He's right. Your battle is with Ares!" said Zeus as he incinerated a few monsters with his master bolt.
We all nodded and Ares readied himself. Jason flew up to Ares's shoulder and dropped Piper. With a yell she stabbed him with her dagger, Katoptris, and then slid down his arm. Ares roared and he shook Piper off of hm.
"Percy! Help me!" she screamed. I urged for a pillar of water to sprout out underneath Piper and catch her. The water dropped her off in the sand.
Ares put his hand on his shoulder and golden ichor dripped down his side. Then he raised his sword and dropped it fast onto the beach. We all dodged him but Silena and Beckendorf saw an opportunity. They ran up his hands and his arms. Silena sliced at Ares and then jumped off. Beckendorf striked down with his hammer, probably breaking part of Ares's arm, but Ares picked him and throw him fifty feet away. Leo took out his own hammer from his tool belt and ran to Ares' feet, which were in the water. I controlled the water to grab his feet and not let him go while Leo banged at him and used his fire powers. Jason flew down to Bianca and picked her up. She shot a sonic arrow into his ear and a fart arrow up his nose. Ares bellowed and grabbed his ear in agony.
Behind Ares, I could see someone scaling up his back, but I couldn't make out who it was. The person had a dagger and was a girl. I looked for Annabeth and Piper but they were next to me.
"Percy! I'm using my sword, so I gave Clarisse my dagger! That's her!" Annabeth said.
With a frightening yell, Clarisse struck Annabeth's dagger in his back and held onto it. The dagger cut through his back and kept coming down. Ares screamed as gold ichor poured out of his back. He reached for the demigod on his back and grabbed them. Without checking who it was he crushed the camper with his fists and threw them onto the beach.
"NO! CLARISSE!" yelled Annabeth. She and Luke ran over to her body in the sand.
Ares looked surprised, and then the color drained from his face. "What? Clarisse…" He started stepping towards her, but Hazel pushed a sandstorm into him.
"Now!" I yelled at Frank. He understood. Frank ran like a cheetah towards Ares and then started growing. His hands morphed into his body and his skin became murky and scaly. He jumped into the body and rose as an enormous sea serpent. He wrapped himself around Ares's ankles and Jason and Thalia pushed him back with a blast of lightning and wind. Ares fell back, his entire body splashing into the water. I urged the water to hold him inside. There were large bubbles of air coming up and the water looked like a unicorn had peed in it because of all of the bloody ichor. There was a bright light inside of the water and Ares started to revert back to his regular-sized form.
Jason flew over to the light-headed god and picked him up. He carried him over to the gods, who were just finishing their own battle with the monsters. "Lord Vulcan!" he yelled as he dropped Ares.
"It's Hephaestus, kid" he said as Ares dropped in front of him. "Hello brother. Oh, I've wanted to put you in chains ever since you started going out with my wife, Aphrodite." Hephaestus pounded his hammer on Ares's wrists and ankles and golden shackles forms around them.
All of ran over to Clarisse, where Annabeth was sobbing next to Luke. She wouldn't stop crying. Clarisse's arms and legs looked broken and he bleeding from her mouth. She was having a hard time breathing.
"The prophecy…" she said weakly. "It said that an intruder would fall…I wasn't supposed to go on this quest. Stupid me...I…I hated him for what he did…" then she closed her eyes and stopped moving. All of us had tears running down our cheeks and the gods came over to us with Ares in chains. Ares just stood there, looking at his daughter. When Annabeth saw him, she punched him in the face and then came over to me. She hugged me and kept sobbing.
"She will be buried on Mount Olympus…" said Athena quietly.
"No, mom, I think we should bury her at Camp Half-Blood. Near Thalia's Pine…she would've liked that."
Athena nodded and everyone took a moment of silence as the sun rose again.
Ω
The next day, all of the gods except Ares came to Camp Half-Blood for Clarisse's funeral. Everyone seemed depressed and the Ares Cabin tried not to cry. Even the ghosts were present for the funeral because after it was over, they had to go back to Olympus to deal with some matters. He grave was at the bottom of Half-Blood Hill and her tombstone said:
CLARISSE LA RUE
1996 – 2014
A TRUE WARRIOR AND A TRUE FRIEND
After the funeral was over, the campers returned to their cabins for the reception and the gods took us all to Olympus. The throne room was repaired from the damage I had caused and Ares's throne was intact. Looking at it made me want to destroy it again, but I controlled myself. All of the gods were sitting in their thrones, including my father who looked at me proudly, but he also showed sympathy, like he knew I felt horrible about Clarisse's death.
The gods were now conversing about what to do with Luke Castellan. Then Zeus cleared his throat.
"Alright, time to take a vote. All in favor of ending Luke Castellan's sentence in Tartarus, and returning him to the Underworld, say I" Zeus said.
All of the gods said "I" together and so did all of the demigods. Luke sighed with relief and the gods laughed a little. Hermes looked delighted. But then I had an idea.
"I have a proposition," I said as I stepped forward. "When I was in New Rome, Camp Jupiter's deceased campers were allowed to stay there. I propose that the gods allow the ghosts of campers to reside in Camp Half-Blood, as mentors and teachers."
"He always asks too much, this boy," said Hades. "Claim your children at age thirteen, build cabins for minor gods, now send ghosts back to the camp…"
"Hmmm…" said Zeus. The gods started talking again. Hades stared at Nico and his sister standing together and something inside of him seemed to snap.
"Oh, fine. I second Percy Jackson's proposition" he said. I smiled at him…he frowned back, but at least he agreed.
"More campers? I definitely don't like that idea" said Dionysus.
"Why, Dionysus? It's not like they need food nor need to use the bathroom or anything. I support Percy" said Aphrodite.
"So do I" said Apollo.
"I don't think it's rational…but I can see that it might be the right thing to do. I favor Percy" said Athena.
"Fine," said Zeus. "All gods in favor of Mr. Jackson's proposition, say I"
Eight of the twelve gods present said "I". "It's settled then. The ghosts of the deceased campers will be sent to reside at Camp Half-Blood as mentors. Council meeting adjourned."
The gods started disappearing as the fourteen of us cheered. Nico and Bianca hugged each other and so did Luke and Thalia.
"Yippee. More paperwork for me," said Hades as he disappeared.
We started to head out of the throne room, everyone in an extremely good mood when the fire in the hearth started to roar. A goddess stepped out of the flames and looked straight at me. She had glowing, yellow eyes with smoke coming from them and a green hood.
"Lady Hestia?" I said. Then I turned around to the others. "You guys go ahead. I'll meet up with you guys in the lobby of the Empire State Building. They looked a little confused but eventually they all headed out."
"Perseus Jackson, there is a major problem."
"What's happened, Lady Hestia?"
"Do you remember the gift that you gave me after the Battle of Manhattan?" she asked.
I had to think a little but then I remembered. "Yeah…I gave you Pandora's box. Why, what's wrong?"
"Pandora's pithos," she corrected me, "and…it's been stolen."
Ω
Hey people! My first FanFiction is over. I really hope that you guys enjoyed it. Tell your friends about it! It's going to be a while before I start writing my second book, but I can assure you that it will happen after the events of this book. Thanks for you're support!
-TushiSushi