-25-

Despair at the World's Edge

"I'm afraid I'm going to kill you now."

Percy found out immediately that when Thorne meant he was going to kill them now, he meant now. He was forced to dodge a whirling ball of dark matter, zipping by his face and searing cold. It wasn't the type of attack that would cause gaping wounds, or burn their skin off. Percy was more worried about being freeze dried like beef jerky before being sliced and diced. He wasn't even sure if Thorne had a weapon on him, besides for his darkness.

He felt his movements slowing down as the effects of the lake and the golden wisps dragged him down. They were still tugging at his subconscious, urging him to lay down and sleep, to let the sluggish and gentle current take him. His eyelids felt heavy and scratchy, as if he had just gone three all-nighters and missed he last dose of caffeine.

The worst thing was, he wasn't even sure he could fight it off for very long. It was like a soothing lullaby, the sound of his mother's voice when he was child, sending him into a dream-like state. Fighting against the power of Chaos, even while the primordial was sleeping, was like an ant trying to battle a dragon.

One might even say it's an impossible battle.

Percy had never felt so weak. His arms were heavy, his feet struggling to move. He attempts to avoid Thorne's hits were pathetic at best. He couldn't remember the last time he felt so helpless, so useless against the face of a stronger enemy.

The longer he thought on it, the more impossible it seemed. It was as if a lead weight had settled in his chest, smothering his lungs and straining his breathing. This wasn't a battle he could win. He would fail. Everyone he cared about would die because he wasn't strong enough to protect them, to defeat his enemy. They were all about to die.

Pain exploded in his shoulder, and for a second he thought he had been hit by Thorne. However, when he looked down at the injury, he saw a slim silver knife embedded in his muscle. A thin line of blood collected around the weapon, most of the blood flow blocked as the knife acted as a cork.

He looked up in surprise at Katelle, her arm still held out after she threw the knife.

"Snap out of it!" she yelled. "It's Thorne - he hasn't mastered Chaos's power yet, but he can still mess with your head. Just stop thinking and kill him!"

Percy drew back, a little shocked. Kill him.

He had never killed a human being before.

And just like that, the hesitation left. He had never had to kill a human being before, but as he thought on it, it really didn't matter. Thorne could hardly be counted as human. He was threatening his friends and family, his girlfriend – everything that mattered most to him. He was trying to destroy Percy's world.

In the end, it didn't matter if Thorne was human or not. He was going down.

Percy's grip tightened on Riptide. There was no water in this precipice world, barring the eerie lake which Chaos slumbered in. However, water or no water, Thorne was going down.

~o0o~

Nico barely managed to keep from having half his face blasted off by one of Thorne's attacks. He had been worried about Percy's behavoir, his slow and painstaking movements. For a second, he was certain that the son of Poseidon's lackluster performance was going to get him killed. He had been a split-second from jumping in a giving Percy and good shake.

Then Katelle saw fit to impale him with her gods-damned knife. Her way of "helping" had worked, but that didn't stop Nico's eye from twitching. He had always known she was going to stab one of them at least once. (Even if it was to save Percy's life).

He kept close to Harry, as out of all of them there, he had the least experience in a straight-out battle like this. It was true he had fought other wizards before, and he had done very well defending himself, but even so, Nico didn't want to risk the Boy-Who-Lived getting frozen to death. Somehow he didn't think Dumbledore and Sirius would thank him for that.

Tenebris seemed to hum for a second, responding to the call of Chaos.

Nico eyed his weapon, feeling dread rising. There was one thing that had really been bothering him since Chaos came into the mix. If the primordial could create all things, it would make sense if it could also destroy them. He knew Thorne didn't have a full grasp on his newfound powers and

he was afraid of what would happen if they didn't subdue him in time.

Just thinking about what Thorne could do with the power of Chaos was disturbing. The ability to create and destroy all things, to rewrite the very laws of the universe and order of the world. Such a power should never belong to anything but Chaos itself. It was especially bad since Thorne seemed to have a few screws loose upstairs.

"How do we take him down?" Piper asked.

Jason scowled. "I don't suppose you can charmspeak him down?"

She shook her head. "My charmspeak doesn't work on him."

"We have to end him before he figures out the extent of his power," said Katelle as she joined them. She was ashen, her forehead beaded with sweat. The side of her jacket was seared off, revealing burned and mottled skin. She had been hit. "Just one of those things he's lobbing drain your energy to near depletion. Don't let yourself get hit."

"I didn't plan on it," Nico muttered.

That was when Thorne launched himself into the sky, a half-circle of black matter swirling to life

around him twelve spheres. He flung his arm out, as if he was commanding an army to charge, and the spheres catapulted towards them at all angles.

Nico let out a sharp curse and grabbed Harry and Katelle, while Jason and Piper nimbly leaped out of the way. Harry wasn't used to dodging these kinds of attacks and Katelle was injured. The shadows angled around him and he stepped into them, dragging Katelle and Harry with them.

He emerged outside the blast radius, cringing as the lake rippled from the shock wave. He didn't want whatever was sleeping under those depths to wake up. It would be just their rotten luck that they would have to fight Chaos, the primordial that created everything. He didn't even know if it was possible to battle Chaos.

He deflected a ball of dark matter with Tenebris, sending it crashing to the ground. Every impact of the energy made the lake's water stir. If Chaos really was sleeping down there, it was about to get a nasty wake up call.

Nico just wished he wasn't part of the wake-up parade.

Jason knew this was a losing battle.

The moment Thorne started levitating, Jason just knew they were up the creek without a paddle.

With every advancement the cloaked man made, it meant he was gaining more control over his power. To top it off, the lull of sleep was still there in the back of his mind, like a subtler version of charmspeak. It was like a slow hypnosis.

He was just glad Piper could hold her own with only her Katoptris. Every time a volley of attacks was sent their way, they were forced to dodge and then regroup, desperately formulating a plan to launch a counter attack of their own. If they wanted any chance of defeating this guy in a timely fashion (which was important), they were going to have to land a hit.

Landing a hit was the issue. It was incredibly difficult to get anywhere near him, let alone actually strike a decisive blow.

He gritted his teeth, blocking another blow from the dark matter orbs. His feet slid back from the force and he had to duck and roll to avoid the oncoming explosion. Even so, he felt the intense cold sear at his back, like the opposite of a hot poker.

Jason landed on his feet, a couple yards away from Piper. There was a thin trail of blood trickling down her forehead. She had been nicked at some point, just like him. Even Nico was sporting a slight limp in his right leg. The only ones who were generally unscathed were Percy and Annabeth. Katelle looked one hit away from dropping.

The cold hard fact was that they were being driven back. The most all of them could do was dodge and hope they didn't get hit. It stung Jason's pride. He was the son of Jupiter, the king of the gods. Percy was the son of Poseidon, and Nico the son of Hades. Children from all of the Big Three were joined together in combat, and the best they could do was dodge. They also had Aphrodite's most powerful child, Piper, and magic on their side in the form of Harry Potter.

This couldn't be the best they could do. What happened to the strength he felt while fighting Gaea?

Katelle seemed to materialize next to him, a trait she had never kicked, it seemed.

"I can tell what you're thinking," she said.

"So you're a telepath now?" he asked in a pathetic attempt to sound upbeat.

She frowned. "He's got an advantage over us, with Chaos on his side. Plus, we're literally inside Chaos's territory. It's like . . . like . . ."

"Battling Jupiter in the sky," Jason finished for her. "Or Neptune in the ocean. I get it. That doesn't make it any easier."

"You forgot the add Hades in there," Nico said, having appeared via shadow-travel.

Jason snorted. "Hades is difficult to fight anywhere."

"I'll take that as a compliment," said the dark-haired demigod, right before disappearing again.

A few dodges and missed hits later, Jason scowled and shifted his grip on his gladius. Attacking like this was getting them no where. The more he studied Thorne's movements, the more he realized the man had literally no plan of action in mind. He was going off a whim, attacking when he pleased with no strategy of any sorts.

They could use this to their advantage.

"We're going to have to outsmart him," Jason stated firmly.

He had appeared by Annabeth and Percy, transported after asking Nico to shadow-travel. Harry was flanking his left while Piper was at his right side. Despite his arguments that she was injured,

Katelle had volunteered to keep Thorne distracted while they coordinated. So far, she seemed to be doing a fairly decent job. She hadn't been blown up yet, at the very least.

Annabeth nodded, "I was thinking that myself. He's mostly a long-range attacker. I can't think of a single time Thorne's ever out right attacked us close-range."

"So he's most vulnerable with up-close attacks?" said Harry.

The daughter of Athena hummed her agreement.

"How do we get close, though?" asked Percy. "I don't know about you, but that dude is throwing

those things like popcorn on movie night. . . . Just an endless bag of popcorn."

"Popcorn?" Harry echoed.

"Where do you come up with these things?" Nico grumbled.

The ground rattled as Thorne launched another attack, bringing them back to the problem at

hand.

"We're going to have to attack all at once," Jason surmised, "as a distraction."

"All long-range attacks," Annabeth concluded. "That way, he'll be too worried about blocking them

mid-air. Meanwhile, someone nimble will have to slip around all of that and land a good hit."

"I can do it," Piper said.

Jason felt a tinge of alarm.

"You sure?"

She nodded, "Leave it to me."

Annabeth chewed her bottom lip worriedly. "I was think I'd do it -"

"Trust me, I can do this," Piper insisted.

Percy let out a curse in ancient Greek. "We've gotta make up our minds soon. Katelle can't handle this much longer."

The blond girl was started to move sluggishly, the strain on her body catching up to her. She narrowly missed on attack – and Jason's heart nearly leaped out of his throat when she took a straight-on hit to her chest.

"Damn it!"

Jason didn't know who cursed, as they all charged at once. He hadn't known Katelle long, and he had been around her even less. Honestly, she had struck him as mentally unstable. After learning about her past, the extent of her mental instability had really struck home. No normal nine year old could just take up a scalpel and slaughter over two hundred people in one night, even if those people had caused her a lot of pain.

Despite this, Katelle Sparrow was their friend. The demigods of Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter didn't let a friend die.

"I don't know if this will work," he muttered, lifting his golden-bladed gladius skyward.

He reached, feeling for that tug in his gut that always accompanied and very loud –

CRACK!

A flash of electricity almost blinded him, striking home. Thorne fell out of the air, the spheres of dark matter imploding. His body was covered with flickering sparks.

" . . . It worked?!"

"Hurry, before he gets up!" Katelle shouted, before dissolving into a coughing fit.

Piper hurried to her side, pulling out a bag – which was empty. She cursed softly.

"We're out of ambrosia and nectar."

Katelle closed her eyes, face strained to hold her nonchalant expression.

"Don't worry," she said. "I'll start regenerating soon. Freaky lab rat, remember?"

Reassured, Jason and Percy edged closer to where Thorne laid, utterly still. The blond demigod could hardly believed that his attack actually worked. Apparently Thorne hadn't counted on their powers being affecting in Chaos's precipice world. Even Jason himself wasn't entirely sure how he had managed to pull that off.

"We're in Chaos," Annabeth surmised. "I guess it shouldn't be too surprising. . . . While Chaos as plenty of destructive power, its also the creator of everything. You probably formed that bolt from your will, using Chaos's energy.

"Remember? Thorne said pieces of Chaos were woven into us after passing through many

Anomaly gates to different times. It makes sense we can use that power ourselves."

Percy grinned crookedly. "There's the Wise Girl."

"But is he finished?" Nico asked grimly.

They slowly approached Thorne's body, edging around him. None of them were too keen to go right up and check his pulse. Jason was hit by the sudden urge to take off Thorne's hood. They had never seen his entire face, only his smirking or sneering lips. Maybe the top of his face was horrifically scarred from his time spent in a laboratory with Katelle.

"Well, I doubt his pulse is poisonous," Annabeth said.

Nobody moved.

Harry sighed. "I'll do it."

"No – wait!"

The seemingly fearless Gryffindor ambled forward, kneeling by Thorne's side. He pulled back instantly, rejoining them.

"He's alive. There's a pulse."

The moment become very awkward.

"So . . . do we kill him?"

Percy hesitated. "He is human . . . sort of."

"Percy, I don't think locking him up in prison's going to cut it."

"Never worked for Batman."

Jason never got to glare at who said that comment, because at that moment, the person they previously thought was unconscious started laughing.

"Just . . . kidding," Thorne said.

Jason barely had time to widen his eyes before six spheres of dark matter slammed into him.

~o0o~

"JASON!" Piper shrieked.

Percy snarled, lunging with Riptide held aloft, his target directly beneath him. He barely had enough time to swing to the side, darkness streaming by his left ear. The side of his head felt as though he had been laying on ice for an hour. On top of that, he couldn't hear a single thing from his injured ear.

A stream of red fired by him, launched from Harry. The wizard looked furious.

Nico grabbed Percy and Harry, shadow-traveling them out of the danger zone. On the other side of the lake, Piper was waiting. She was tending to Jason, who was unconscious with severe frost bite, his stomach and chest black and blue. His skin was flaking away. The injury looked gruesome and Percy didn't want to think of what would happen if he didn't get serious medical attention soon.

"We have to get out of here," Piper said, keeping her cool despite the turmoil she was going through. "We have nothing to bandage this, no ambrosia or nectar."

Annabeth was white-faced. "I have no idea how we can escape, though. We can't shadow-travel out of here."

"I've already tried," Nico said grimly. "It's like I'm running into a wall. We'll have to use one of those portals to get out of here."

Harry clenched his hands in fists. "Tom can use dark power . . . but he's not here right now."

"He was probably excluded from this party for that reason," said Annabeth. "Thorne is playing with us now. He doesn't think we've got a chance of winning."

No one said a word, but they could all tell what the others were thinking: Thorne was probably right.

"How do we escape?" Harry asked.

Again, no one said anything.

Nico pinched the bridge of his nose. "You guys come up with something. I'm going to distract Thorne."

He disappeared into the shadows. A second later, explosions started sending ripples down the Chaos's lake again.

There seemed to be a void where he stood before. Percy didn't know what to say, or think. He didn't know how to get out of this situation. When it came down to it, they were looking for a way to defeat a primordial.

Katelle stirred, opening her eyes. "I have an idea."

"We're all dead," snarked Percy.

She snorted. "Just shut up and listen. It's a good idea."

The resounding silence spoke volumes.

"So little faith," she grumbled.

Katelle struggled to sit up, ignoring Piper's attempts to stop her. She stood, swaying slightly in her weakened state. She was paler than ever, her eyes glazed over in pain. In her condition, it was a wonder she could stand, let alone actually think up a coherent plan to escape. She closed her eyes, as if drawing in her strength.

"His ultimate goal is to absorb all of us," she said. When she opened her eyes, they were clearer than before. "I'm going to let him absorb me."

The resulting response was explosive. Everyone started yelling at the same time.

"WHAT?"

"You can't possibly mean –"

"She's finally lost it!"

"No way!"

"Do you seriously think we'd just let you –"

"SHUT THE HELL UP!" Katelle shouted. She looked very annoyed.

Percy would have thought she'd look more worried, considering she was gambling her own life. Instead, she just looked mildly irritated at their strong opposition to her "genius" plan. Maybe she had finally cracked somewhere in her mind.

"Look, if you're that worried," she said, her voice softening, "then just promise me you'll beat the crap out of him and separate us."

"Is it even possible to do that?" Annabeth asked, her stormy eyes unreadable.

Katelle brushed a lock of hair out of her face. "We're not like you humans. Thorne and I were created outside of time. As long as my mind can overwhelm his, I can open a portal to get you guys out of here."

"Then what?" Percy asked, glancing around. The others couldn't seriously be considering this.

"Thorne will have free reign with Chaos's power. We'll be right back to square one!"

"No," Katelle said. "There are pieces of Chaos's power scattered in ADAM's laboratories around in different timelines. Find those and figure out how to use them, and you'll be even with Thorne. Just don't take too much time."

"How are we suppose to find –"

"Allan knows all the answers," she said. She adverted her eyes. "Just . . . have faith in him. He can do it."

Annabeth hesitated. "Isn't he . . .?"

"Yeah, he's a clone," Katelle said. "He doesn't have Allan Saures's memories, but I know he can lead you to the pieces of Chaos. I know he can."

"Are we actually going through with this?" Harry asked, aghast. "We can't just abandon Katelle!"

"There's no choice," Katelle declared. "It's not the end for me. Like I said, I'm different. Just make sure you defeat Thorne."

"How are you going to even . . . get absorbed?" Perch asked reluctantly. "Thorne's going to know something's up."

"Leave it to me," she said. "Just get me close to him."

Percy scowled, his mind grasping at straws for anything other than this plan. The annoying thing was that it made sense. Katelle really wasn't a normal human being and she most likely could survive this. It didn't change the fact that he felt like he was throwing a comrade under the bus.

Every part of his being was staunchly against this plan, even as the others nodded.

A hand suddenly gripped his own. He looked and found Annabeth standing by him.

"Trust in her," Annabeth said. "She can do this."

" . . . I just don't want her to disappear, like Leo," said Percy.

That was still a sore subject, even after the son of Hephaestus had returned. His brilliant comeback hadn't erased the pain of the time he hadn't been there – the time they had believed him dead.

"She'll come back," Annabeth stated. She released Percy's hand, drawing her dagger. "Ready?"

"One last attack," Piper said quietly.

"We only need to stall him a second," Katelle said. "Just long enough for me to get close."

Percy shoved his rebellious thoughts toward the Plan away.

"Leave it to us."

AN: Yo! And...here's another chapter! It's been a long time in the making, but it's finally out! However, I've finally got the final chapters and last arc of the plot out lined, so here's to hoping it's smooth sailing from here.

I just jinxed myself. XD

Ja ne!