Chapter 25

As we started walking toward the Empire State Building, a hand grabbed my pant leg. I looked down and saw Mark gripping my pant's leg. "W-Wait," Mark said.

I pulled my leg away from him. "What do you want?" I growled.

"J-John...he's going to attack Olympus," Mark told me.

"He can't possibly think that he could take on Zeus, let alone the other gods by himself," Pollux said.

"You don't know John. He's different. You've got to stop him," Mark pleaded.

"Why would you want us to beat John?" I asked.

"He killed me. Then brought me back, but I haven't been alive that long," Mark replied.

I nodded. "We'll try our best.

Mark smiled weakly and released my pant leg. He rolled over on his back and starred at the sky. Rain started coming down from the dark clouds. "Come on," I said and walked toward the Empire State Building.

"Percy, what are we going to do once we find John?" Annabeth asked.

"We'll have to stab his Achilles spot," I said. "That's the only way to kill him."

"Yeah, the only problem is: getting to that spot," Travis noted.

"Annabeth and I are the only ones who know where it actually is," I told them.

"So we'll distract him, while you two get close enough to kill him, right?" Thalia asked.

"Yep, that should do." I reached for the Empire State Building's door.

A small shock went through my body. I winced and continued to open the door. Inside, it looked like a lightning storm had blown through it. Burn marks covered the floor. Bodies laid scattered on the floor. They had burn marks on them too.

A figure stepped out from behind a pillar. "John," I said under my breath.

His head snapped toward me. John's eyes were green, but they reminded me of Thalia's eyes because it looked like lightning was flashing. Somehow, his eyes also looked dead, like Hades.

"Percy, I'm so glad you could make it," John purred. "Though, I didn't expect you to make it away from the castle. Tell me, how did you get away and not freeze to death?"

"Athena," I replied.

John nodded. "Alright, then. When I kill her, I must remember to make it painful."

Annabeth tried to step toward John. I put my arm in her path. "Don't," I whispered.

"What happened to my Hunters?" John asked.

"Dead, they're all dead," Clarisse growled.

"Well, that won't do will it?" John sighed, shaking his head.

His arm shot out. A green crack appeared in the ground. The whole building started to shake. Pieces of the ceiling began falling down. "What's he doing?" Grover shouted.

Green mist was forming over the crack. It got so thick, we couldn't see John anymore. Suddenly, the shaking stopped. Someone started to appear out of the mist. Though, it wasn't John.

"Hello, Jackson," Cain growled.

Cain eyes were glowing green. When we was completely out of the mist, I noticed that the left side of his mouth was eaten through to the bone. His shirt had scorch marks all over it. Dirt was underneath all of his fingernails and in his hair. Cain's right shoe had to tip of his burnt off so his toes were sticking out.

"Whoa, dude what happened to you? You look like crap," I said.

Cain's face twisted. "Fields of Punishment. Not a pretty place. I don't have plans to go back there any time soon."

John had disappeared. Cain studied my face. "He's gone to Olympus," he told me. "But if you want him, you'll have to go through me first."

"I killed you once, it shouldn't be to hard to kill you again," I growled.

Cain grinned and charged at us. But his speed wasn't human speed. A sword appeared in his hand. I was frozen. Did he hit me? I didn't see any blood. I turned around to my friends. Cain was standing behind Travis. Blood dripped from Travis's stomach.

Travis looked down at his stomach and looked at me with innocent eyes. Then he fell on his knees and fell backwards.

"TRAVIS!" I cried.

"I'm different now, Percy. I'm not alive, I'm dead. Honestly, I feel like a zombie. Though, my speed has increased my strength too," Cain said.

My eyes couldn't leave Travis. I had let his brother to die and now...I couldn't keep Travis safe. The weight of how many friends had died because of me was crushing me.

"Percy! Move!" Annabeth tackled me.

Cain's sword barely missed her back. My friends had scattered throughout the room. Annabeth grabbed my shirt and hulled me to my feet. We ran behind a pillar. Annabeth pulled her knife out.

"Annabeth, that won't work on Cain," I hissed.

"He's not mortal anymore, Percy. Like he said, he's like a zombie," Annabeth told me.

I drew Backbiter and peered out from behind the pillar. Cain was bending down to pick up his sword. Then Pollux raised his sword and charged at Cain. Swiftly, Cain whipped around and grabbed Pollux's blade.

"NO! CAIN, DON'T!" I yelled.

Cain laughed and broke Pollux's sword in half. Then he kicked Pollux's face. Pollux flew backwards and slammed into the wall. Cain took a piece of Pollux's broken sword and hurtled it at him. I felt Annabeth grab my sleeve and hide her eyes. The blade hit Pollux's throat.

I knew he would bleed out. I ripped my eyes away from the horrible sight. At that point, I thought we really couldn't win. "I'm sorry, Jackson! Was that your friend?" Cain howled with laughter.

I growled and Annabeth grabbed my arm. "Percy, please, don't," she whispered.

I ripped my arm from her hand and charged at Cain. He grinned and easily blocked my attack. Cain foot tripped me and I landed on my face. Quickly, I rolled on my back. Backbiter had fallen out of his hand. "Got you," Cain laughed and raised his sword.

The sword never hit me. I opened my eyes. Clarisse had taken the blow. The sword had made a bloody gash in her back. Clarisse grunted and stumbled. She hit the ground. "C-Clarisse, why? I thought you hated me," I stammered.

"M-Maybe I did at first. But it doesn't matter. You have to kill John. Before the gods fall," Clarisse told me. "Percy, when you kill John, get a punch in there for me, okay?"

I nodded weakly. "Clarisse..."

"This is sad, but I really have to get back to killing you now," Cain growled.

He grabbed Clarisse's body and threw it across the room. "No!" I cried and grabbed Backbiter.

I got to my feet. Cain didn't waste any time. I knew I would die if I didn't do something...fast. Cain said he was like a zombie. How do you kill a zombie? How do you kill a zombie? I tried to think straight and remember all those zombie movies I had watched. Kill the brain, kill the zombie.

Cain was pretty dedicated to killing me. I hit his face with the hilt of Backbiter and ran toward Thalia. "The head," I panted. "Aim for the head."

Thalia nodded. "I'll tell the others. In the meantime, don't get killed."

Suddenly a hand grabbed the back of my shirt. I was thrown into a desk. "Ow," I muttered.

"I didn't say I was done with you," Cain snarled.

In a few short minutes, I was thrown every single place in the room. I would probably get a black eye. I wouldn't be surprised if my face was purple. I saw Nico and Thalia behind a pillar. Grover threw a piece of the ceiling at Cain.

He growled and whipped around. I took my last chance and stabbed Backbiter through the back of Cain head. Cain turned to look at me. I took Backbiter out of his head. The green crack in the floor opened back up and the green mist started dragging Cain back into the Underworld.

"NO! I"M NOT GOING BACK!" Cain screamed.

He wasn't a match for the mist. Cain disappeared in seconds. "That's another victory for us," Thalia said.

"He killed half of us," I muttered. "It sure as hell is not a victory!"

Thalia held her hands up. "Sorry. But we don't have time to argue. John is probably destroying Olympus right now."

I stood up. We went to the elevator and as soon as the doors closed we shot up toward Olympus.

Author's note: Wow. This is like the major kill chapter. Like I said before everything will work out in the end. Man, do you guys think Cain is like the major a-hole or what?