A/N: Hey all. This may well be the last chapter in the story, but be assured; the very last one will be an epilogue.
Date: November 30th, 2012.
Time: 00:03 (12:03 AM EST)
Location: New York City – Lower Manhattan, near the un-shrouded Olympus.
"Sword of Fire, this is Echo squadron. I've got a line of sight targeting on a Chalrus Capital Ship. Name: Ascension, near the newly risen landmass, over."
Indeed, high above the burning city, as the fires below threatened to consume district after district, an MN fighter squadron had a line of fire on Mobius's command ship, which was moving to support the Chalrus forces marching on Olympus.
"Roger that, Echo Squadron. This is the corvette 'Mercury.' Clear out of the area immediately, orbital defense is standing by to take the shot."
True to their word, a few moments later, a bright blue flash of light shot down from above, like a bolt of Zeus's lighting. The shot tore through the ship, splitting in two, and causing a massive explosion which tore through the city's streets, almost immediately killing hundreds of soldiers on all sides.
"Mercury, this is Echo Squadron. Confirmed…target destroyed."
In orbit, high above the streets, the space around the Earth was becoming closer and closer to looking like a floating junkyard, as MN's superior numbers began to tear into the Chalrus armada.
With contact with Mobius severed, individual ship commanders were taking matters into their own hands, largely concerned with destroying as much as they could.
However, despite this, the new High-Admiral of the Chalrus Imperial Navy – Grand Admiral Khyron, worked tirelessly to re-organize what was left of the Chalrus fleet.
Aboard his command ship, Admiral Grissom – Khyron's counterpart, simply watched the waning battle, his arms folded behind his back, as his bridge was alight with activity.
"Sir, we're detecting a large super-structure that…just appeared on our screens. It's towering above New York City."
"Have the Chalrus made any move against it?" Grissom asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes sir, at least a battalion is confirmed to be there…the radio chatter we're picking up from the ground suggests that the Emperor may be there as well."
"Mobius, hm?" Grissom pondered, running two fingers along the stubble on his chin. "Order the 9th Legion forces that are en-route to the surface to clean house up there. Take the Emperor alive if possible. High Command has some questions for him."
While MN re-arranged its men, and Khyron worked desperately to cover his master, Percy and Annabeth were crossing the link between Olympus and the mortal world. A link that was rapidly fading.
"Look at this mess." Annabeth said, her voice depressingly low, as she noted that the devastation she'd seen from Ares's coup attempt had only gotten worse with the arrival of Mobius's army.
"We'll stop them…though I'm not helping clean up." Percy smirked a bit, kicking a stray piece of rock off of a pathway.
"If you think I'm doing this alone, you really must be indoctrinated, Seaweed Brain." She smirked back, offering him a weary, but sincere smile.
The two were interrupted by the sound of an engine tearing through the air, when they noticed a shuttle with MN markings on it making a strafing run near the Acropolis.
"Guess MN must've noticed Olympus too." Percy said, his voice almost bitter.
"Or Mobius made a show of his presence, and got their attention." Annabeth remarked, watching the shuttle's occupants lay down a dedicated spread of gunfire in their distance. The Chalrus had likely set up sniping positions near there.
"With any luck, MN will keep Mobius's lackeys busy. He's here…I can feel it."
"Then we don't have any time to waste. Let's finish this." Annabeth nodded, eager to spill Mobius's blood. He would pay for all that he'd done, for all the lives he'd ordered be ended.
As the two made their way to the Pantheon, its front door was already being kicked in by a vanguard of Imperial Bodyguards, which were struck down the moment the Gods could see them.
It was the presence that followed them that angered the Gods the most. Mobius's smirking form entered the room, brandishing a pistol, his glowing red eyes alight with delight.
"Good afternoon, Lord Zeus and company. Or, perhaps 'good morning' would be more appropriate." Mobius smirked, looking them over.
"And so the puppet master reveals himself at last." Zeus snarled out, nodding his head to the other Gods to ready their weapons.
"Yes…please don't think I've been avoiding you. Many, many matters have demanded my attention, you see."
"Like turning the mortal world into a battleground?" Athena demanded, her face stoically neutral, but her fists visibly clenched.
"All of this could have been avoided had Zeus simply cooperated in the first place. But now, our time runs short."
And it was then, as if on cue, that Percy and Annabeth entered the room, Annabeth kicking one of the dead Imperial Bodyguards out of the way.
"Mobius." She spat out, both she and Percy had their weapons trained on the dictator's still-smirking form, as he turned around to notice them both enter.
For being a desperate man, leading a desperate people on the verge of extinction, on a final crusade, Mobius looked surprisingly well-made up, Annabeth noticed.
He wore a dark brown, almost Armani-style suit, with a white undershirt visible from the wrists and chest. His knuckles glimmered with shiny, expensive looking rings. His pants matched his suit, and one of the legs had a holster for his pistol strapped to it, and his black shoes glimmered in the light.
Were circumstances different, Annabeth might have considered him attractive, but her hate and vitriol for him was far too high to permit that.
"Well, well…isn't this one big, family reunion?" He smirked, his eyes fixing on Percy.
"Perseus, I'm surprised at you. After all I showed you, when you were finally given the chance to think for yourself, you still chose the wrong side."
"You mean when you tried to have me killed?" Percy retorted, rage cropping his voice. "Oh wait…you DID have me killed! Then you brought me back, tried to turn me against my family and friends, and now you're acting disappointed when I choose to fight you?"
"All of it was necessary, Jackson. If you can't see that by now, then you are as thick-headed as our files suggest. But, it doesn't matter now."
"I would argue much, MUCH differently, Mobius." Annabeth growled, raising her gun, and fixing her eyes on him. "Twitch one muscle, and I WILL kill you, do you understand?"
Mobius laughed, lowering his gun, and grinning evilly at the two of them, his arm lighting up.
"There isn't any time for this, you bothersome children. At any rate, I'm impressed at your boldness, if nothing else. After all. Why should I fear a bullet? Look at the power I command!" he exclaimed, before extending his wrist.
In a similar fashion to when Raptorius killed Hades, or when Percy killed Poseidon, from Mobius's arm extended several purple tendrils of pure energy, which wrapped around all of the Gods, and an evil smirk drew across his lips as he looked back at them.
"Say your last words to your progenitors, Half-Bloods!" he exclaimed, before the energy dissolved each of the Gods in unison, and pulled them into Mobius's wrist.
"Mother!" Annabeth exclaimed, rushing at Mobius, trying her damndest to stop him, but it was too late. The harvest was complete, and Mobius's rear-arm collided with Annabeth's face, sending her half-way across the room.
"Now then, since you two are here, and since you seem so curious, would you like to see what all of this was for?" he asked, his face returning to an eerie calm.
"It doesn't matter, you're a dead man." Percy barked, as Annabeth pulled herself up, keeping her gun trained on Mobius, her face an undoubted contortion of rage and hatred.
"Well, well…we can't have talk like that. I'm afraid you two vastly overestimate your position." He spoke, his wrist glowing again, a line of purple light enveloping both of them, their color remaining intact, but lined with a purple edge. It…compelled them to keep their guns aimed, but also forced them to turn and face each other…ensuring that Percy and Annabeth, were staring down the barrels of each other's guns.
"Annabeth!" Percy cried out, gritting his teeth as he struggled against the field. "I…can't…move!"
"I…can't either!" she called back, trying desperately to point the gun away from Percy, as Mobius's evil grin returned.
"Now that I've ensured you two will not be a problem…I'd like to introduce you to Olympus's true function!"
Mobius stood at the foot of Zeus's throne, accessing the same console Annabeth remembered Percy messing with the last time he was there.
This time, however, the essences of the Gods flowed from his wrist and into the green data stream, and it was then that the Pantheon began to shake.
The Thrones of the Gods descended into the floor, and the room's walls began to collapse, as what looked like a massive beam of light emerged from the floor, and jutted up into the skies, to Zeus-knows how high up.
"Perseus, Annabeth, allow me to introduce…the Tower of Athalus! The most dangerous weapon in existence!"
"Weapon?!" The two exclaimed at once, still struggling against their bonds.
"Correct, dear children. It was built almost sixty millennia ago by a long-lost species. It uses technology unthinkably complex, even by today's modern standards. It can annihilate an entire race, based on the thought patterns of the person accessing it."
"This…this is what all of this was…for? All those dead…all of the Gods…for this?" Annabeth asked, her voice disbelieving.
"You know far less than you believe, dear girl!" Mobius exclaimed, a hint of anger entering his tone. "The Invid are coming, Percy. You know that. You think they can be defeated? You think that the humans…or anyone else can triumph against them? This is not a battle mortals can win! The Tower is our only hope!"
"You…weren't trying…to save…anyone. You wanted…revenge." Percy scowled, having given up on escaping the bonds that forced him to keep his gun aimed at Annabeth.
"And that's only part of it. I will save this galaxy from the Invid, and then I will avenge the death of my Empire by exacting revenge on the races that destroyed us!" Mobius yelled, pacing around the pair.
"But, before that…I must decide what to do with you two." He looked them over.
"Let…us…go." Annabeth demanded, her tone barely-containing her anger.
Mobius laughed heartily, keeping his gun close to his side, as he eyed the two over like a predator.
"That would be quite foolish, I think. I cannot indoctrinate Perseus, and you will prove likely quite as difficult, Annabeth. That only leaves me with one choice, really…" he trailed off, and the horror of what he intended dawned on them.
Right as the purple field compelled the two to shoot each other in the gut.
Mobius smirked victoriously, as he crossed his arms, and stepped behind Percy.
However, he wasn't expecting what was coming next. The shot Annabeth had been forced to fire at him had hit him…but it also broke the field.
While Mobius's back was turned, with one hand clutching at the wound from Raptorius's sword that that shot had just re-opened, Percy grabbed his gun, and fired every shot in the clip into Mobius's back.
Mobius's eyes widened, and he draped an arm across his gut, falling to his knees on the Pantheon floor, as Percy and Annabeth deliberately moved toward him, adrenaline allowing them to ignore the feeling of the shot wounds they had.
Mobius laid on the ground, blood slowly pooling around him, the same haughty smirk still on his lips, as his skin began to pale.
"Your arrogance costs you your life, Mobius." Percy said simply, placing a hand at Mobius's side.
Mobius chuckled, looking them over, his red eyes having lost a little of their glow.
"So it seems…I would not be the first Chalrus Emperor killed by ones so young…but it seems I will be the last." He laughed at the irony, clutching at his wounds, his eyes drawing to the beam before them. The Tower of Athalus.
"I know what you're going to do, Perseus. You will use the Tower's strength…you will waste it…destroying a people already confined to a death sentence."
"The Invid aren't real, Mobius. You used them simply to help indoctrinate me." Percy declared, Annabeth remaining silent, but a look of utter contempt on her face as she glanced at Mobius.
Mobius laughed again, taking hold of Percy's hand, and grinning maliciously at him.
"You have less than ten minutes…we'll see how real they are…" he paused, coughing up blood, and looking at them again.
"Claim your prize…destroy my people. Finish us off. Just…don't say you were not warned…" he trailed off, as his eyes fell into the back of his head, and his body went limp.
In a single instant, the two of them felt a massive weight be lifted from their hearts and minds. Emperor Mobius, the man who'd spent the last few weeks terrorizing them, and destroying both the Olympian world, and their own…was dead.
"It's not over yet…" Annabeth trailed off, looking at the green beam of light before them.
The two then looked past Mobius's body, and over to the Tower of Athalus. It hardly seemed like a tower, just a beam of energy. A beam that clearly required the very essences of the Gods themselves to become fully active.
"What do we do?" Percy looked to Annabeth, who seemed lost in thought.
"I…I don't know…" Annabeth admitted, standing herself up and extending a hand to Percy, the both of them clutching at their wounds.
"What if Mobius was right…and we can use this to end this?" Percy asked, looking to her, and slowly stepping forward.
Annabeth placed a hand on his shoulder, stopping him, and looking sternly into his eyes.
"No Percy…we do this together." She smiled, and met his gaze.
For an all-too brief moment, her grey eyes met his green, and they shared a long, deep kiss…a kiss that they, somewhere deep inside them, knew would be final.
Taking hold of each other's hand, they stepped toward the beam, concentrating their thoughts on destroying the Chalrus armies that continued to wage war in the streets below, and even right outside, as they could still hear the gunfire as they stepped closer to the light.
True to the feeling they both had in their gut, as soon as they came into contact with the beam, Percy and Annabeth both slowly began to disintegrate.
They both had a shared feeling that whatever this beam would give them would cost them their lives…so they wrapped each other in an embrace they prayed would last forever.
As they felt each other began to fade away, they knew that they would fade together. The beam began to glow even brighter, as their last traces were consumed.
"I love you, Percy…" Annabeth breathed one last time, before the beam finished her off, consuming the last bit of her body.
"I love you too, Annabeth…" Percy spoke, as he too faded away, at nearly the same time she did, the two final sentiments almost overlapping.
Far below them, in the streets of New York City, and all over the world, battles continued to rage in the streets. MN and the world's military forces fought the Chalrus armies valiantly.
In New York in particular, the fighting was at its worst near the ruins of Grand Central Terminal. MN and American soldiers held deep, entrenched lines, and the Chalrus were relying on their Battlepods and mechs to push forward.
As their gunfire filled their air, and bullets panged from every visible surface…the final sacrifice of the last Half-Bloods was about to make itself known.
From the very top of Olympus, a bright light shot forth like a shockwave, spreading all throughout New York City.
Soldiers of all sides who saw it coming ducked their heads, not sure what it was. However, when it passed…its effects became completely clear.
The Chalrus Imperial Army was…dissolving. Chalrus soldiers were literally being turned to dust from inside their armored suits, leaving their plates of metal behind, and nothing else…as if they'd never been worn at all.
After this pulse had circled the entire Earth, it came flooding back to Olympus…only to be shot out again…this time into space.
Admiral Grissom and his men could only watch in complete disbelief, as the Chalrus ships stopped firing entirely…stopped moving at all, as each ship's crew disappeared into nothing, one by one.
Grand Admiral Khyron looked out his window, and was terrified.
"They can't….the Tower's malfunctioned! It's targeting US! All Chalrus ships, evacua-" Khyron was cut-off mid-sentence, as the pulse overwhelmed his ship, making him disappear right out of his Admiral's uniform.
With the Chalrus Imperial forces decimated, the pulse simply carried off into space, destined to eventually thin to absolute nothingness.
On Earth, civilians and soldiers alike cheered, waved their guns and celebrated the destruction of the Chalrus…even as the battered, useless hulk that was Olympus, began to crumble.
With the Tower having been used, and its purpose completed, Olympus's façade began to fall apart, and the entirety of it collapsed into the massive, ruined cityscape below.
It didn't matter anymore. All the Gods were dead, all the Half-Bloods were dead, or had been harvested by the Chalrus. And now…Olympus could rest with them.
In orbit, Admiral Grissom's ship, along with every other ship in the MN fleet was filled with cheering, as Grissom simply sat back down with a smile.
"Alright boys, we've got a hell of a…" he was cut off, however…by the flashing of emergency lights.
"Sir, we're picking up massive atomic activity on the edge of Earth's orbit!" an officer shouted.
"It's the Invid, sir!" Another officer declared.
Sure enough, just as Mobius promised Percy and Annabeth before his death…the Invid's Symphony of Light arrived as a brilliant, yellow beam of light.
Admiral Grissom's eyes widened in horror, as he watched the light tear through every single ship in its way, on its route down to Earth, where it spread out, and began bombarding the entire world.
The major cities of Earth were all destroyed utterly in a single, terrifying wave of light that melted them down completely.
Admiral Grissom put his cap back on, and looked over the screens. Secondary flashes of light were tearing through his armada.
"All MN forces, The Invid have arrived in this system! Regroup and counter-attack! I repeat, consolidate and attack!"
It would prove a useless attempt, however. Within three days, MN would sustain nearly 40% losses, and be forced to retreat…to abandon Earth, and the human race, to its fate.
The Invid, meanwhile, would need only a month to subjugate the entire planet…and so…the harvest would truly begin.
The people of New York City, watched in horror, as the Invid descended upon their world, shooting through the sky like shooting stars off in the distance…millions of them.
They could see the ruins of Olympus…of a world that no longer existed. And then it dawned on them. This was not merely the fall of Western Civilization…or even Civilization in general...
This was the fall of humanity…