Percy Jackson

In my dreams, I am back in the Battle of Manhattan. More specifically in front of the Empire State Building. I am staring at a fallen girl, Annabeth, Chris and Clarisse by her side. The drakon escapes the brick wall that it's head had gotten caught in and rears back.

"YOU WANT DEATH? WELL COME ON!"

Clarisse charges the drakon by herself and makes quick work of it. We both run back to the fallen girl. Silena Beauregard.

Rachel's warning resonates through my mind.

Something is about to happen. A trick that ends in death.

I awake with a start to a loud crash from outside my cabin wall. I am sweating heavily, but I hurriedly stumble into my clothes and curse Leo for not adding windows. I rush on deck and hurry to the railings to see a fallen tree and Calypso examining it with her knives out.

Calypso notices me and gives a small wave. "Sorry! I was practising!"

I sigh and run a hand through my hair. "Mind if I join?" There's no way I can get back to sleep now. Not after that dream.

Calypso nods and I climb down the ladder, moving towards her.

I don't know why'd I'd have a dream about that now. It's been almost half a year. The nightmares had stopped.

"Have you been practising what I taught you?" Calypso asks me.

I nod. "I think I've got it down."

"You'll have time to recover," Calypso says before pointing at a tree. "That tree over there."

I raise a hand and focus. I even out my breathing like Calypso taught me, and try to visualise the small particles of water in the leaves. Slowly, a frost spreads across the tree, leaving the large branches alone, but covering the leaves and smaller branches connected to the leaves.

Calypso raises her bow and nocks an arrow. She squints and adjusts her angle before releasing. The arrow flies faster than I can see and strikes a large leaf, which shatters upon impact.

"Nice," Calypso says approvingly. "That was an easier one though. Do the ground."

I drop to one knee and place a palm on the ground, slowing my breathing. I picture my power spreading through the earth until it reaches the groundwater that is inevitably there. I learnt that in year seven. I bring the water up through the ground and a bead of sweat trickles down my face. When just reaches the surface, I imagine it hardening and the ground below my palm goes cold. I close my eyes tightly as I focus on freezing it with all my power. After a few seconds, I collapse onto the freezing, hard ground.

Calypso helps me up and I open my eyes. The entire clearing is frozen over, the grass frozen into tiny spikes and the ground covered by a partially light blue ice.

For the last week or so, Calypso has been training me to freeze the ground. She couldn't do much but explain how other children of Poseidon had said it happened, but eventually it started working. I'd frozen water before without much effort, but this was different. The water particles are spread thinly through the ground, even if I bring them to the top layer. I have to take control of each particle throughout the field, bring them to the surface, and freeze them.

The plan is that I'll be able to cut Gaia off from her source of power. I've fought Antaeus, son of Gaia. The way I killed him was by luring him off the ground and killing him. Without contact with the earth, Antaeus couldn't heal, whereas before the dirt had risen to fill in any wounds I'd given him. Calypso says that Gaia will be the same. Cut her off from her energy source and she won't heal. Gaia will still be immensely hard to kill, but this way we've got a fighting chance.

That's not the only way she's been training me. Calypso has spent most of the last week with me outside, both of us battling the other until we were physically unable to keep going. The others trained too, but it wasn't as intensely as us. Calypso was determined to bring me up to her level, and further if she could.

When I asked her why, she responded with, "Don't underestimate yourself, Percy. You could be the deciding factor in this war if you train hard enough. Privately, besides Annabeth and Jason, the others have never been in a war. But I need Annabeth fighting Porphyrion. He'll try to toy with her because she's a girl, and before he knows it, she can have him down. Jason's good at fighting, but he's cautious and thinks things through carefully before he does them."

"That's a bad thing?" I asked, confused.

Calypso smiled at me. "Forget about the people who call you reckless. Recklessness is a good thing a lot of the time. You can take risks Jason would be too careful to do, and it may just win you the battle. Come on, I'll teach you some strategies."

I refocus just in time to dodge an arrow coming towards my head.

Calypso has her bow out and a smirk on her face. "Come on then. Today's the big day. You need practice."

I grin and bring up Riptide to block another arrow. Calypso grins before starting to shoot arrows at impossible speeds. I duck and weave through them, but make little progress on an advance towards her, ending up going sideways instead.

"Come on, Percy!" Calypso shouts. "Think about what I've taught you!"

It's hard to think properly when I'm dodging arrows, but this is what demigods are built for. My mind plucks a piece of advice from Calypso out of my memories automatically.

Use your surroundings to your advantage.

I dart to the side and take cover behind a tree, breathing heavily, and my fingers close over the hilt of a dagger strapped to my ankle. I cap Riptide, favouring my new dagger from Calypso for mobility. I hear faint footsteps getting closer and bide my time. At the last second, I swing myself around and up the tree, quickly jumping to the tree beside me.

Calypso still has her bow out but didn't see my quick escape. She moves her bow from where it was pointed, which was where I'd been hiding, and instead aims it at the forest, slowly turning in a circle.

I drop down beside her, slicing her arrow in half. I twist the bow out of her grip and bring my dagger to her throat. This happens in seconds, and I stare in amazement at her. I just beat Calypso.

Calypso smirks and before I can react, hits the back of my hand with her left hand, knocking the dagger out of my heart. Her right hand comes forward for a punch and I dodge to the side, only for Calypso to sweep my legs out from beneath me. As I fall, Calypso's right hand grabs at my collar and stops me from falling. The impact hurts the back of my neck and I yell out in pain.

Calypso laughs and drops me. "You had me, Percy. But you got distracted, your grip on your dagger loosened, and everything fell apart."

"If you're done-" A voice shouts from the ship. I turn to look. It's Annabeth. "-Breakfast is ready!"

I grin and accept Calypso's hand up. She smiles at me. "Good fight."

"Ditto."

We head to the kitchen where Hazel and Piper have made us vegetable pikelets for breakfast. I load up my plate and sit down beside Annabeth.

"So can we go over the plan again?" I ask for the fourth time, even though we straightened out all the details last night.

Calypso rolls her eyes. "For the gods' sakes, Percy! This is the last time!"

Calypso lets out a sigh and looks up at the ceiling briefly. "For the final time, myself and Piper already did some scouting. They're posted at the base of Mount Olympus. We know their guard shifts, when they swap over, which areas they cover and so on. Our help from the Romans no longer exists, as they have to go fight the army marching on Camp Half-Blood before they reach Manhattan. Morpheus has been spotted with that army, so we can assume it is him that is casting the spell over Manhattan. If the Romans can kill him, Camp Half-Blood can help them defeat the army. All we have to do is kill the Giants and not bleed over Mount Olympus."

I look to Annabeth for help.

"Calypso, Leo and Hazel are going in first," Annabeth says. "They'll take out the guards. Hazel with make it look like the guards are still there, and keep the two of them unseen. Calypso will shoot them down. They're gonna attach Greek Fire bombs to every statue of the Giants or Gaia. Leo will rig them. We're sending them a message. Then the rest of us will come in in groups of two from different directions. Then we pray that the gods will carry through on their word and arrive to help us."

"Okay," I say nodding. "So we're basically screwed."

Annabeth smiles and pecks me on the cheek. "Have some faith in the gods, Seaweed Brain."

"Basically," Leo agrees.

"How do we know when they're done?" I whisper to Annabeth.

We're in the Argo 2 above the Giants' camp. Invisible, and undetectable. We're hovering at the very top of the mountain, and the Giants' camp is built into the less steep side of the hill below us. We're high enough to drop safely, but not low enough to be detected.

Suddenly explosions go off in the camp.

"GO!" Annabeth shouts, and we take off.

We see them immediately. Hazel and Leo are being held by two Giants - Porphyrion and Periboia - and are struggling helplessly. Calypso has her bow out and keeps switching from Porphyrion and Periboia.

We break through the lines behind them and come up behind Calypso.

"What is this?!" Porphyrion bellows. "WHAT IS THIS?!"

"More demigod scum," Enceladus snarls. "Quick, brother! Spill their blood!"

Porphyrion raises his sword and fixes his eyes on a struggling Leo. "For Gaia!"

Calypso acts before he can do anything, firing three arrows in rapid succession at Porphyrion's hand. Piper acts seconds after Calypso, throwing her dagger at Periboia's forehead. Porphyrion howls and drops Leo, who just about manages to roll, easing his fall. Hazel drops and falls through the floor immediately. Leo acts quickly, driving a dagger into Porphyrion's knee.

Porphyrion shouts out and kicks Leo back. He goes flying through the air and crashes into the ground beside us, scraping nastily into the harsh rocks. Hazel appears seconds after beside us, stumbling slightly. She stuffs a piece of ambrosia in her mouth quickly.

"Thank you," I hear her whisper to Piper.

Annabeth helps Leo up. Other than a few minor cuts and a large gash down his arm, which is dripping blood onto the ground, he seems unscathed. The cut on Leo's arm bleeds onto the ground, and the drops last no longer than seconds before sizzling and being absorbed into the ground.

The blood of Olympus.

"You traitor!" Porphyrion shouts at Calypso. "How dare you interrupt the awakening of your own grandmother?!"

"Gaia is no grandmother of mine!" Calypso spits at the Giant. "And you just tried to kill my boyfriend. You're dying by my hand, uncle."

Porphyrion tilts his head, amused. "Little girl. You really think you could defeat me? Me, the the great Porphyrion?!"

The monsters behind him roar loudly to emphasis his statement.

"Yes," Calypso says steadfastly. "With my eyes shut."

"Calypso?" I hear Leo whisper. "What are you doing?"

"Talk," Calypso hisses at us. "Buy time until the gods come."

"The ritual is half complete," Porphyrion announces loudly. "All we need is the blood of a female demigoddess."

His eyes fix on Annabeth. "Annabeth Chase. Heroine of Olympus. Favoured daughter of Athena. You'll do nicely."

Annabeth unsheathes her sword, forged by Leo. "Come and get me then."

Porphyrion throws back his head and bellows in laughter. "Seven demigods and a traitor sneak into our camp, blow up our statues and expect to be able to defeat us? Your arrogance will be your death."

"Brothers!" Enceladus shouts. "Rise! Let us defeat these demigod scum! Let their blood soak the earth and wake our Mother!"

All of the Giants stand up and we all unsheathe our weapons. Calypso fires a single arrow and it hits Porphyrion dead on in the forehead. He stumbles back, bellowing in pain.

The arrow does little to injure him, but Calypso smirks like she hit her mark. The Giants don't charge us, instead glancing uneasily at one another.

"ENOUGH!" Porphyrion bellows. "These demigods cannot kill us! They are completely without aid! Remember yourselves!"

The Giant start to close in slowly, but a voice halts them.

"Not completely without aid," Artemis calls, standing in front of her Hunters.

This sends ripples of noise through the monsters and clear unease through the Giants.

"Yes!" I hear Calypso hiss under her breath.

Porphyrion recovers quickly. "A single goddess and her band of girls means nothing! Crush them!"

Artemis only smirks and raises two fingers to her lips. She whistles loudly, and the sound pierces the air for several seconds before stopping.

Porphyrion laughs. "And what was that supposed to-"

And then the sky opened up and the gods descended from the sky in chariots.

-SAW