Chapter 13 (Written by Chomper, Beta'd by Chomper):
3rd Person POV
Bianca looked around at all the faces of the quest and relented. "I guess it is time for me to tell you why I'm here."
"That would be appreciated." Thalia cut in.
"It all began when I 'died' in Talos" Bianca began.
"If you died then how are you here?" Thalia cut in again.
"If you want to hear it stop interrupting!" Bianca said, slightly annoyed. "As I was saying, when I "died" my father, Hades," Both Maddy and Thalia looked shocked at that one, "was able to save me. He said that because the prophecy only said 'lost in the land without rain' not 'died in the land without rain' that he got to me in time, before the robot was destroyed. I had to stay away from you guys until now because otherwise I wouldn't be 'lost' and we weren't sure what would happen."
The quest all stared at her in shock. Then Zoe spoke; "Your father broke the ancient laws when he saved you. Will there be any consequences because of that that you know of?"
"No," Bianca lied, but she knew the truth.
Flashback To Time With Hades
"Relax my daughter, you are not dead, although you should be."
"Father?"
"Yes, it is I, Hades. Now I have a proposition for you. I have saved you from your untimely death, although it breaks the ancient laws. There is a way around it, but I'm afraid it would defeat the purpose of brining you back. But it is the only choice. I saved you so that you would know your father before death, and now I can either send you to Elysium, or you can go back to the quest, for a price. Unfortunately I can not tell you what that price is unless you accept."
Bianca looked doubtful for a moment, before determination flashed in her eyes and replied with "I accept."
"Hades looked depressed, at least more than normal, before he replied. "Then here is what you will face…" (I'm sorry for continuing to cut this off, but it adds to the suspense!)
End Flashback
"Good. I'm not sure I could deal with more stress about punishment for Ancient Laws" Thalia said, breaking Bianca out of her flashback.
Zoe and Percy looked at her doubtfully, as if they knew she was hiding something, but said nothing.
"Alright then," Said Thalia, "I guess its time we take a trip over to the mountain of despair to free Lady Artemis and Annabeth from an evil titan. Piece of cake."
Everyone looked at her quizzically before nodding, then started towards the mountain. After just 20 minutes though, Zoe spoke up.
"This will not work. We must enter the garden by sunset and walking will not get us there fast enough. We must find some other way."
"What do you suggest?" Percy asked, "We can't just teleport there."
Then Bianca spoke up; "I've seen a few cable cars go by, (if you don't know what they are look them up, they're cool) we could take one of those. I can pay for it, my father gave me a few things while i was 'lost' with him."
"I think that should work, we'll at least be moving faster than walking."
The quest all agreed and walked towards the nearest cable car stop and waited. When the cable car pulled up thy all got on and Bianca payed for their tickets. When they all sat down Zoe looked at a map of the cable car route and confirmed that it would be taking them to Mount Tam. After a quick 30 minute ride, they got off at the bottom of the mountain and started hiking their way up. They hiked up to the entrance to the garden, but found they could not enter for another 10 or so minutes, so they all sat down to rest and plan their rescue.
"There will be 2 main threats at the summit, one is Atlas, and the other is Luke." Percy said, "Zoe and I can take Atlas, but we need one of you to take Luke. There will probably also be a bunch of monsters that the other two of you can fight."
"I can take Luke," Thalia said, "and the two hunters can take the monsters from afar with their bows."
"That sounds like it will work, but let Percy and I go in front of you all, we are in the least danger of being picked off." Zoe added.
They continued to plan and before they knew it, sunset was upon them. As soon as they realized this they all stood up and entered the Garden of The Hesperides. When they had all entered the garden a strong veil of fog appeared behind them restricting them from seeing outside. Then, before their eyes, 4 figures shimmered into existence.
"Sisters." Zoe said mockingly. "It has been too long."
The tallest one stepped forward. "We see no sister, just 3 half bloods and 2 hunters, all of whom shall soon perish."
Thalia stepped forward; "Yeaaaaaah, I don't think so. I don't know about the rest of them," She said this gesturing to the quest, "but I'm not really in the mood for dying right now." Then she did the last thing anyone expected and charged strait at the Hesperides. The one in front, caught completely off guard, had no choice but to yell for Laden to wake, meaning that they wold have to leave the garden as well. As soon as she yelled to Laden the dragon, stated to move, it's 100 heads writhing like a massive pile of snakes.
"Move!" Percy yelled, breaking them all out of their stupor. "Stay to the edges of the garden and he should not bother you."
And they did. They all ran as fast as they could, skirting around Ladon, while Percy and Zoe distracted the dragon. After they had made sure that everyone made it past the garden Percy and Zoe distracted the dragon with a few arrows before bolting to the rest of the quest.
When they got there Zoe turned to Thalia and said; "That was both brave, but also very stupid. If you hadn't caught them by surprise you could have di-"
"It worked, didn't it?" Thalia said, cutting her off, "Now lets go save Artemis and Annabeth before its too late."
Zoe looked miffed at being interrupted but nodded nevertheless. They all continued the next 100 or so meters in silence before they reached the summit and gasped in shock. In front of them was Artemis, holding the sky, but thats not what made them gasp, no, it was what was behind her that did it. Behind Artemis stood not only Luke and Atlas like they planned, but the Titan Krios was also there, ready for battle. Forgetting any plans of being stealthy Maddy rushed forward to Artemis and started hacking at the chains with her hunting knife.
Atlas just laughed and said; "Good luck with that my daughter, you may be a daughter of the Titan of Strength but you will never have the strength to break those chains." Then he noticed Zoe and looked shocked. "You!? You died millennia ago! How are you here!?"
But Zoe just smiled at him and charged straight at him. This caused the rest of the quest to rush to the beings they planned to fight as well. Except, instead of Percy and Zoe fighting Atlas it was just Zoe because Percy had to fight Krios.
Bianca ran to help Maddy free Lady Artemis, but also made sure to keep an eye on the two people fighting Titans, if anyone would need help it was them. When she got to Maddy she pulled out two stygian iron daggers that her father gave her and started hacking at the chains beside her. With only 3 swipes from the stygian iron the chains gave way and Artemis was free. Partially. She was still stuck under the sky but now her legs were free. Maddy remembered the prophecy and realized what she had to do.
"Milady, give me the sky."
Line Break (Of Sorts)
When Zoe charged her father she knew she was being rash. The prophecy called for one to perish by their parent's had and she was rushing at said parent intending to fight. But it was necessary. She figured that Percy would be able to take out Krios rather easily before coming to help her. All of this went through her head as she ran at her father with her sword drawn. When they clashed, sparks flew as their weapons met. Sword against spear, father against daughter. Atlas withdrew, only for a second, before going back and swiping at her legs with a spear. She block and dodged a kick he threw at her chest. She retaliated with a quick stab at his arm before slicing across his chest, leaving a small line of ichor behind. They continued to fight for a small bit longer before Atlas made the same move he had at the start of the fight. He swiped low at Zoe's legs where she went to block, but being tired she forgot about the possibility of a kick until Atlas's boot smashed into her chest, knocking the wind out of her. Before she could recover he quickly disarmed her and knocked her on her back. Zoe knew this was how she would die. Sure, she would reform, in 20 or so years maybe, but by then the great prophecy would have come to an end and she wasn't sure that Percy would still be alive.
Trying to look at him one last time before she died, she looked over to her left, but instead of Percy she saw Bianca running straight at her. Just when Atlas thrust his spear at Zoe Bianca jumped in the may, his spear going straight through her stomach and throwing her to the side. Then, adding to Zoe's surprise Artemis appeared next to her and started fighting Atlas. This gave Zoe enough time to stand back up and retrieve her sword and turn back to the fight. But there wasn't much she could do. While she was retrieving her sword Percy had come over from dispatching Krios and was helping Artemis push Atlas back towards the sky that Maddy was holding for the time being. Zoe noticed that Percy was slightly injured, and seemed to be unfocused as he was back As soon as he was within range Artemis swept his legs out and Percy kicked him into Maddy, who had loosened her grip on the sky and allowed herself to get pushed away, trapping Atlas under the sky once again.
"Nooooooooooo!" Atlas Let out a loud bellow, "Not Again!"
As soon as they knew he was trapped they turned away, Maddy and Artemis towards Bianca, while Zoe and Percy turned to help Thalia battle Luke. As it turned out, no help was needed because they were face to face with their weapons at a standstill with each other. Both their faces were beaded with sweat when suddenly Luke seemed to lose his grip on his weapon and it slipped out of his hands. Without anything holding it back, Thalia's spear shot forward into Luke's chest, piercing his heart, killing him instantly. Thalia's face shifted into one of horror as she saw Luke's limp body on her spear.
"Luke!" They all turned to hear a voice that Percy and Zoe didn't recognize. It seemed that Artemis and Maddy had found Annabeth and freed her. Annabeth ran up to Thalia sobbing but angry. "You killed him! How could you!"
Thalia looked stunned before her face shifted to one of steel. "I didn't mean to kill him, he lost his grip on the sword. Besides, he had chosen his path and he would not have showed me the same mercy you are suggesting."
Annabeth looked at her best friend, stunned that she looked so calm having just impaled, and killed, her once family. Percy and Zoe looked between the two talking and decided to let them figure it out and instead walked over to Artemis and Maddy, who were also crying, but this time over the death of one of the Hunters. They all realized that Bianca was the one to perish by a parents hand. When Hades saved her, he also sealed her doom.
"Lady Artemis." Percy said, ignoring Zoe whispering for him to stop.
"Who are you?" She replied, looking up with tear stained eyes.
"My name is Perseus."
"Perseus…" She whispered quietly, before a fog seemed to cover her eyes, then clear just as quickly, now showing recognition. "Perseus!"
A/N
And here it is! The final(ish) chapter of The Titans Curse section of The Forgotten King! I told you some major changes would be coming. I had this weird idea while I was writing that I didn't implement but it was really wacky. It was where on the mountaintop Annabeth's dad comes in with his plane but accidentally shoots his daughter, causing Thalia to join Kronos and fight against the gods. Then Nico would be the kid of the prophecy and they would go to the Primordial of Time Chronos to accelerate his growth and age to fight in the same timeframe. Basically it would have been really really weird, so I didn't do it. If you guys think that it's a good idea I have a way to incorporate it into my next story if you want, just say so. Now I'm really sorry for this update taking forever but I'm hoping it was up to your standards. Its the first chapter over 2,000 words and I think it went pretty well. I know I say it a lot, but please review! I didn't get many last chapter so I don't know if it just wasn't on par to my others, or people were just too lazy. If you don't like a chapter, please say how I can improve, if you like it just say what you liked. It really helps with not only motivation but also improves my writing. On a good note, starting next week I believe I have found a way to use this fanfiction as a school project, giving me a decent amount of time each day, in school, to write. If all goes well, I should be back to quicker uploads so lets hope so! See you in a little while! -Chomper
P.S. Sorry for the stupidly long A/Ns on every chapter, I just have a lot to say :)