…Percy…
I never thought I'd be so happy to see daylight when we finally escaped Athena's labyrinth.
Annabeth threw off her backpack, gently taking out the object we had been carrying with us for so long and putting ourselves through torture and trauma to build. "This is it," Annabeth said as she held it up to her chest with both hands.
"This better be worth it," Thalia said under her breath.
I held the last piece we needed to complete the shield, and it glowed in my hands as I walked towards Annabeth. Right before I touched it to the shield, I found myself wishing Thalia's words were true. We had just nearly drowned and gone insane in this cave for this last piece.
The shield lit up with vibrant white light that flashed brighter than the daylight just inches away from us as I clicked in the last piece. It bound with the object immediately, completing the shield.
The next time I looked at my friend's faces, I knew what we all were thinking. We had to do this, and we had to do this now.
Outside, we could hear Raevin's barks, and I suddenly remembered when she had scurried away from the chaos. "C'mon," Thalia said, starting out into the light.
It didn't surprise me to find ourselves straight at the top of Mount Olympus. Sure enough, Athena's labyrinth had brought us here. The temperature at this altitude was much colder, and a light frost coated the ground. The air was a lot drier and thinner up here compared to the inside of the cave. Just the feeling up here creeped me out, and the feeling of Hecate's presence all around us didn't help.
It took my eyes a second to adjust to the light since we had spent what felt like hours trapped in darkness. The first thing I saw when I finally stopped blinking was Amber's face. Her mouth was partially open, and her violet eyes were huge. She stared straight up at the sky.
My friend's followed Amber's gaze too as we all watched a patch of air in front of us shimmer with sparkles. It was as if someone had sprinkled glitter in the air. Then, right before our eyes, Hecate unveiled herself, appearing before us.
I hadn't known what to expect, but now as we stood across from her, Hecate's presence was overwhelming for a minor goddess. There was a feeling of immense power and danger swirling all around her that made it hard to even look up at the goddess. It didn't take me long to spot the tool belt around her waist and suddenly the unbearable aura around her made sense. The deadliest weapons of all the gods rested in that belt. She had gotten it.
Hecate had long black hair that seemed to float around her head as if she were underwater. I could recognize her attire as one of the most ancient forms of clothing as she wore a Peplo and Chiton, which looked kind of like a royal-looking toga. Heavy armor covered the minor goddess from head to toe. She didn't appear to be quite in her godliest form, but from what I could tell she looked larger and at least ten feet taller than an average human.
For a second, I got lost in a trance as I stared at Hecate, quickly realizing it was from the whirlpool of purple swirling in Hecate's glowing eyes.
It was Amber's voice that brought me out of the trance. "Mother," Amber stated, swallowing hard. As I looked over at her, I noticed her head raised and her own eyes hard with a tint of purple.
I suddenly thought back to my first meeting with Poseidon. It was intimidating as it was, and I had knelt to the grown in respect for him. I couldn't even imagine what it must have felt like for Amber to meet her mother under these circumstances.
"So it is as I suspected," Hecate said, her voice effortlessly reaching us across the mountain. "My own daughter, Amberlynn Astoria Ellis, is here to stand before me."
Now, I know from personal experience that it is not a good sign when your mother uses your full name, but nothing could compare to the chills sent down my spine when Hecate addressed Amber.
I didn't know when I moved, but I did so without thinking as I walked over to stand next to Amber. She looked absolutely broken as she stared back at Hecate, and it was painful to watch. Nico wasn't slow to join me on the other side of Amber.
But what surprised me the most is when Amber balled her fists. "Mother, you can't do this!" she shouted in despair as her eyes fell to the tool belt. "You have no reason to do this! You're acknowledged, now. My brothers and sisters and I are accepted at camp! We have our own cabin and everything. You know this, and I know this, so why are you prepared to attack Olympus, your home?"
Nico and I drew our weapons, ready for the fight we could all feel was coming. Behind me, Annabeth and Thalia were fidgeting with Annabeth's backpack, and although it was concealed so Hecate couldn't quite see it yet, I knew they were preparing the shield.
"Oh, Amberlynn, this goes beyond what you know," Hecate sighed, not even taking note of Nico and I as she gave her daughter a hard look. "They acknowledge you demigods and allow cabins at Camp Half-Blood, yes, but the gods still ignore the rest of us. We're not as powerful as they are, so we're not important," she said bitterly. "The minor gods and goddesses still have no real place on Olympus. Despite everything that happened during the war, the gods and goddesses learned nothing about how to treat the minor gods! Our children are treated better; there's no doubt about that. But us? Oh, no, we cannot be anywhere near the level of the Olympians!"
Amber was shaking her head, pushing back her emotion as she tried to keep a strong face. The entire quest, I hadn't seen this side of Amber, and I realized just how much she was bottling up and was ready to explode.
"Kronos may have been wrong in wanting to destroy the mortal world, but he had the right idea in teaching the Olympians a lesson," Hecate stated. "It's time they realized we minor gods and goddesses have powers of our own. Ignoring us is just as bad as ignoring their own children. Perhaps they will finally learn."
"You have a right to be angry, mother, but this isn't the way to go about fixing it!" Amber cried, and I looked over at her quickly to see tears forming in her eyes as she looked upon her mother for the first time only to see her attempting to destroy what we demigods had just sacrificed so much to protect. "Mother, you've made your point. Now you need to talk to the gods! Gather the minor gods and make an example of your anger and frustration. Destruction isn't the right way to go about this! Talk to the demigods; they'll side with you after the war. Why are you trying to destroy what took so much effort to protect? Kronos lost the war; you lost the war. So stop fighting it!" Amber was crying at this point, tears falling down her face.
"I've tried to convince the others to fight back against the lack of change, but they wouldn't listen," Hecate said, eyes fierce and hard with anger. "They're afraid to challenge the Olympians. Instead, I need to do this by force. Either leave me alone or fight me, Amberlynn. Would you fight against your own mother as she attempts to continue the changes Perseus Jackson there began in August?"
Amber looked so pained when I glanced again at her face, but her eyes were determined. She twisted her ring around on her finger and drew her sword, giving her mother a fierce look as she raised her chin and straightened her shoulders. This daughter of Hecate was a girl ready to go to war if it was required, exhausted from all the fighting before this but still ready and willing to fight for Olympus. It reminded me of the campers in Manhattan back in August when Kronos invaded. Despite what this battle held in store for us, right then, I knew Amber was a true hero.
"Every single time, mother, if it means fighting for Olympus and what's right," Amber stated.
Shock briefly flashed over Hecate's face before the minor goddess concealed her emotions. "Very well," she said. "On your own head, be it." Hecate reached into the tool belt to pull out the prototype Master Bolt, purple magic gleaming on it as she enhanced it to be as strong as the one Zeus used.
It was time to fight.
…Thalia…
I saw Hecate was about to attack the trio standing in front of Annabeth and me, and I knew it was time to act. Nodding at Annabeth, I took the shield from her, strapped it to my arm, and pulled out a hunting knife. The plan was for me to try out the shield and get it to Percy once I could tell him exactly how to use it. By doing it now, when Hecate was using lightning, if I messed up, I at least had a chance of surviving, something none of the others had.
Hecate pulled her arm back to throw the Bolt pulsing with purple energy, and I ran forward, throwing myself in front of the others just as the Bolt left her hand. Pulling my left arm up in front of me, I put my right arm behind it to form an X in front of me. The Bolt hit the shield dead on. Blue energy surrounded the shield that appeared to be just a regular Celestial bronze shield, absorbing the power of the Bolt. I even noticed what appeared to be an almost-invisible force field that expanded from the shield and could have protected all of us.
This shield was apparently built to protect large areas, with the shield as its focus.
Hecate appeared shocked that I managed to stop her attack, and I smirked at her. The Bolt returned to her hand, slightly weakened but still powerful; I could feel the power of it. I stepped back to where Percy was.
"What were you doing?" he demanded.
"Testing the shield," I said. "Out of all of us, who has the best chance at surviving a blast from a lightning bolt?" I asked before he could complain about reckless moves, which would be hypocritical since he would have done the same thing. "You need to create an X with your arms, the shield in front of you, to activate it, but then it creates a wide-spread shield that extends from this," I explained, moving my arm a little so they realized I meant the physical shield.
Once I saw Percy nod from the corner of my eye, I undid the strap holding the shield to my arm and shifted so I could put it on Percy. I didn't take my eyes off Hecate, and I never turned the shield away from her. There was no taking chances with the sort of power she now held at her fingertips. We had to be cautious.
Once Percy had the shield, I backed away behind him and slid the hunting knife in my hand back into my belt. Instead, I called upon my bow and quiver, drawing out a few arrows. I suspected we would need my archery skills, if she had two weapons I suspected she did.
Hecate threw the Bolt at us even faster than before, but just like last time, the shield absorbed it once Percy activated it. It was obvious Hecate hadn't expected us to have a shield strong enough to stand up to a god's weapon. At least we had a chance, now.
When Hecate reached down into the tool belt again to grab something, I launched an arrow, hoping she wouldn't notice in time due to her distraction. Instead, she actually grabbed it out of the air with the hand holding her Bolt and had the gall to smirk at me while pulling out the prototype Helm of Darkness and Trident. I glared at her in response.
She placed the Helm on her head, and all of a sudden, I was faced with a sense of fear I couldn't even understand. There was nothing attacking me, nothing I could see that would scare me, yet I felt fear like I hadn't in a long time. As the Helm began to glow with purple power, the fear within me grew to outright terror.
In front of me, Percy attempted to use the shield, but it was built for physical attacks, not mental, so it couldn't help us. Then I remembered Aegis and activated my shield. I knew it wouldn't scare Hecate, but just as I had hoped, the power of Aegis began to fight against the power of the Helm. It wasn't enough to cancel out the Helm, but it weakened its hold on me, and glancing around, I saw it was helping the others as well.
To respond to my trying to stop the Helm, Hecate used the Trident to control water in the area. Apparently the Trident, once powered up by her, could call upon the water in the air, and she threw a huge wave at us. Fortunately, this water wasn't like what had been in that cave, because Percy could control it. He actually used it to lift all of us up in the air above Hecate, and it allowed me to launch arrows at her. When we landed, I realized Percy had shifted us so that we surrounded Hecate now.
On the ground around us was a large amount of water, and I smirked as I had an idea. Glancing at Percy, I knelt on the ground, the tip of the arrow I was holding touching the wet ground. He met my eyes, and I saw water shift to make certain Hecate's feet were wet and none of it was touching anyone else. Once he had done that, I let loose and called down a bolt of lightning. It hit my bow, which I raised to the sky, and traveled through my body and out the arrow, electrocuting Hecate.
She hadn't been expecting that and screamed in pain until a burst of purple erupted from her, throwing my lightning off of her. Glaring at me and Percy, Hecate pulled out a pair of flying shoes from the tool belt and put them on, allowing her to fly just above the ground so we couldn't do that again. At least we had managed to injure her slightly.
Now up in the air, Hecate pulled out two bows I recognized instantly as the prototypes of the bows Lady Artemis and Apollo now used. My eyes widened in fear as I saw her power them up, and I drew as many arrows as I could hold and still fire with from my quiver. Percy separating us was a good idea to keep Hecate in place and give us a chance to attack her, but I was almost certain the shield only protected those behind it; it wouldn't be able to protect us.
When arrows began to appear from nowhere, nock the bows, and fire, I quickly fired my own arrows at them. Silver arrows hit silver and gold arrows straight on, knocking them from the air. I think it shocked everyone including myself with how I was hitting every single arrow, especially when I ran out of arrows in my hand, yet I just continued to pull back the bowstring and an arrow appeared there, no matter how fast I fired. Then I noticed the silver glow around my bow, and I realized Lady Artemis was watching and had blessed my bow so that I never ran out of arrows and would never miss, something she only rarely did and only when absolutely necessary.
"Thank you, Lady Artemis," I whispered even as I continue to fire, the glow brightening for a moment in response.
Eventually, Hecate must have noticed the glow around my bow, because she put the bows away. It was then, as she did that, that Annabeth attacked her while invisible. Hecate was just standing there one moment, and the next she was thrown to the ground. Percy jumped forward and swung Riptide at her to keep her off balance, and Nico joined in as well. I personally used my still-blessed bow to hit any part of Hecate that I could find without armor, making her bleed golden ichor.
It seemed like we were overpowering her, but then she began to glow purple. The purple burst away from her again just like when I had shocked her, and Annabeth, Nico, and Percy were thrown away from Hecate onto their backs. Only Amber and I were left standing as Hecate pulled out and put on a necklace and bracelet before drawing her own version of Aegis and a sword, all from the tool belt. The goddess had put away the bows, Trident, Bolt, and Helm, though she was still flying using the shoes.
Her version of Aegis didn't affect me, possibly because my own was still out or I had grown immune to its effects after years of my own, but I could tell it was affecting the others as they all at least flinched from it when it was first brought out. What worried me most was the jewelry she had put on. They wouldn't have been added to that tool belt if they didn't belong to at least one of the goddesses, and they would be powerful in their own ways.
Just then, the necklace began to glow purple, and I felt something trying to enter my mind. I tried to focus on Hecate, but whatever she was doing with that necklace, I couldn't focus. Things were beginning to blur, like I was in a daze. This wasn't like Hera's protection where I lost sight of what I was doing and where I was; this was almost worse because I felt like I couldn't control myself right now, couldn't protect myself. I felt my grip on my bow begin to loosen and only just managed to keep a grip.
Then Annabeth's voice broke through the fog in my mind. "Amber, try to use your powers to stop this!"
Annabeth's voice cleared my head slightly, allowing me to hold my bow properly, and I had to hope Amber had more control of her powers now. Fortunately, only moments after Annabeth spoke up, I saw a burst of purple around the field we were fighting in, and the fog in my mind went away. Amber had managed to break whatever spell Hecate had put on us.
Looking around, I was shocked and upset to find Percy and Nico still on the ground; it seemed like whatever Hecate had used had affected them more deeply than it had me. That was when it hit me: the necklace was Aphrodite's. It had to have been, if it only dazed me slightly and highly affected the boys; Annabeth and Amber looked somewhere in between the two.
Not waiting, Hecate charged forward, her sword turning into a spear as she moved, aiming for Nico. "NO!" Amber yelled, her hands shooting up, glowing purple, to slow her mother down just enough that I was able to run over and use Aegis to stop the spear from hitting Nico. I pushed with Aegis, forcing the spear away from Nico, and Hecate snarled while pulling away.
The spear shifted into a sword, and she swung at me. I raised Aegis, but she continued to attack me so quickly I couldn't even pull out my spear or a hunting knife. I was even forced to make my bow disappear for fear of it being broken by Hecate. With how she was attacking me, my blocking was becoming closer and closer to not making it. It would only take moments for her to hit me.
Just as she was about to manage a blow past my defenses, a force field appeared in front of me, and I turned my head to see Percy had recovered and was using the shield to protect me. I backed away from Hecate, and Percy moved forward to attack with Riptide and the shield. Breathing heavily, I retreated to where Nico, Amber, and Annabeth had all gathered together. At least they had figured out the problem with being separated when I was knocking those arrows out of the sky. With all of us together, Percy could use the shield to protect us from physical attacks like he was doing now.
In the sword fight before us, it was obvious Percy was the better swordsman. Hecate may be a goddess, but she wasn't one used to fighting with weapons; she used her magic instead. While she held her own well, Percy eventually managed to send her sword, which I suspected was a prototype for Ares, flying away from her. Just as he went to press his advantage and take her out, Hecate glowed purple, and Percy immediately backed away with the shield active. He ended up standing right in front of us, ready to protect us if she attacked us with anything physical.
When the purple glow around her body shifted to surrounding the bracelet she had put on, I tensed even more than before, looking around warily. My eyes were drawn to the ground, where the plants around us began to shift, and just as I made a noise to alert the others, vines shot out of the ground from every direction. The shield blocked those coming from Hecate's direction, but it left Percy unable to use Riptide to help the rest of us.
A vine hit me in the cheek before I managed to draw two hunting knives and begin slicing up any vine I could reach. Around me, Nico and Amber had drawn their swords and Annabeth her knife, all of us trying to destroy the vines while Percy kept the shield active. Unfortunately, Hecate stopped all vines coming from Percy's direction, increasing the number from all other directions, yet Annabeth had to shout for Percy to "Keep the shield up so she can't attack us the moment it's down!" which meant he still couldn't help us. We were quickly becoming overwhelmed by the number of vines.
Amber's sword arm was suddenly grabbed by a vine, her sword slapped from her grasp, and it only took moments for her to be held up by dozens of vines above our heads. The vines were too far away for any of us to rip apart, so no one could help her. In fact, her scream when she was grabbed distracted Nico long enough that he soon joined Amber in the air.
Annabeth and I backed away so that our backs were to Percy's, but we only had knives. While we were excellent fighters with knives, they just didn't have the same reach as a sword, and soon, all five of us were trapped by the vines, stuck in the air.
"You're done, you've lost," Hecate said, eyes and bracelet glowing a deep purple. The rest of the weapons had been put away, and she was flying in the air right next to us. Then she specifically flew over to Amber. "Oh, Amberlynn, how I wish you hadn't chosen to go against me." Hecate did sincerely look sad about Amber's choice.
"We haven't lost yet, mother," Amber said, her voice hard.
When I managed to turn my head enough to see her, my eyes widened. Amber's entire body was glowing purple, which she had never done before. I realized she was putting all of her power into whatever she was doing right now. If she wasn't careful, she was likely to faint from this.
The vines holding me began to glow purple, and I finally understood Amber's idea. She was using her magic to control all of the vines, ripping control away from her own mother, a goddess. Slowly but surely, they loosened before lowering us to the ground, letting us all go. We were all left standing on the ground as the vines disappeared back into it. Hecate looked shocked, proud, and worried all at once as she stared at Amber, who was still glowing purple. Hecate's eyes and what I suspected was Demeter's bracelet were no longer glowing.
Then, all of a sudden, Amber just fell, no longer glowing. Hecate was there to catch her, holding her close and tight. I took a step closer, changing my angle, and saw that Amber had fallen unconscious from exhaustion. She had poured too much of herself into that act. In fact, she could have killed herself if she had gone even a little bit further, but I could see she was still breathing.
"Oh, Amber…" Hecate whispered, completely ignoring the rest of us coming closer as she stared down at her daughter, caressing her face and hair. "Do you feel so strongly against what I'm doing that you'd use up almost all of your magic to stop me?"
"Yes, mom," Amber groaned, shifting and opening her eyes. It seemed she had only been unconscious for a minute or so, probably to allow her magic to settle after using up so much of it. She still seemed very weak, almost unable to move, though. "Right reasons, wrong way."
"I'm so sorry," Hecate said. "I love you, and I didn't realize how much I was hurting you. I should have listened to you sooner. Please, don't do this again, Amber. You could have died."
"Not sorry," Amber said, smiling up at her mother. "It made you stop."
I had to stop myself from laughing at that. It was such a stubborn answer. No wonder the Fates sent Amber on this quest with the rest of us. She fit in so well with the rest of us stubborn demigods she had just spent the whole quest travelling with.
Hecate finally looked up at the rest of us, looking regretful. "I apologize, young demigods, that it took my daughter putting herself in so much danger for me to stop. I'll face my punishment from the gods, now."
Just like that, because of the actions of Amber, daughter of Hecate, we had won, the danger to Olympus was gone.
Well, as you can tell, this story is almost done. Only two more chapters left of it. And hey, sometimes it just takes your own kid to make you realize just how wrong you are. We hope you enjoyed this chapter, and apologies for it taking two weeks, but well, it obviously was an important chapter and had to be just right.