San Francisco
Percy went door-to-door in the motel, doing one last check before he turned in for the night himself. Everyone he met had much the same emotions – apprehension and fear for what was coming, but also a resolve and commitment to see it through to the end. There was a shared comradery among the 'campers', if they could be called that anymore – the Camp was long gone – and they were all willing to stand together at the brink to finish the fight.
He quietly opened the door to his own motel room, letting it close behind him as he strode over to the room's small desk. The lamp was still lit, just as Percy left it, and he slumped into the seat, angled slightly away from the desk from when he had initially left it. With a sigh, he rubbed the bridge of his nose and glanced at the messy desk. Papers were strewn all about its surface, ranging from local maps with markings and arrows to documents that detailed the logistics of sustaining nearly two hundred demigods across the entire width of the United States. Not every demigod had agreed to begin the equivalent of a war campaign that could cost them their life and Percy was not going to force anyone to join, but virtually everyone in the camp knew someone that had fallen in the ashes of Camp Half-Blood, and many had seen close friends perish in the unrelenting fire. The resulting "army" of demigods who wanted to fight was more than enough.
It had been a long and hard journey to get to where they were now. After his call to arms in June, the gods had met with Percy, Thalia, and Chiron. The agreement they had reached called for Percy to be given command of the camp and its resources for the duration of the summer – an end that the gods had defined as August 15th. They had until the start of the new school year to fight the looming threat in front of them.
They had wasted no time. Chiron's own sources quickly pinpointed the base of the Titans – Mount Tamalpais, where Kronos and Atlas had tried to raise Mount Othrys just a year earlier. It made sense considering that it was about as far as they could get from Camp Half-Blood and Olympus in the continental United States, and thus much harder for the aforementioned groups to combat the growing threat.
In the last two months, they had methodically swept across America. Splitting into three smaller groups, each stopped at major cities to clear out any major monster infestations before moving westward. By doing so, they had purged every agent of Chaos and the Titans that they could find. There was no mercy shown to the enemies they found – what was left of the campers' mercy lay in the rubble of Camp Half-Blood. They were on a warpath, and there was nothing that could stop their march.
The quiet squeak of Percy's motel room door opening caused him to turn his head and stiffen. He unconsciously loosened when he realized that the person standing in the doorway was none other than Thalia. She gave him a small smile as she closed the door behind her. Still clad in her day clothes – t-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops – even given the late hour, she walked over to Percy, glancing down at the scattered papers on his desk. It was nothing that she did not already know, considering how integral a part she was in their planning. Annabeth had done much of the heavy lifting, figuring out supplies and transportations, but Thalia had provided an element of essential inspiration during the process, something not entirely quantifiable.
"Hey there," Percy whispered, acquiescing to her soft hands on his shoulders.
"Mhm," Thalia warmly intoned, resting her chin in his dark hair. "Everyone good?"
"Last group just came in from Phoenix."
"Anyone hurt?"
Percy shook his head. "Not really. Lee sprained an ankle but that's about it. They wiped out a nest of stymphalian birds and handed off two demigods to Chiron." The campers gave no quarter to monsters, but generally tried their best to avoid killing other demigods or humans. It was a largely unspoken moral agreement – one that they all knew could very well be broken when push came to shove.
"And Chiron's group?"
"He says they'll scale the mountain first to scout it out and meet us in front of the palace itself tomorrow."
Thalia loosened her arms from around Percy's chest and fell backwards onto covers of the bed, daintily crossing and slightly swinging her legs as she sat on its edge. Percy quietly spun around in his chair to face her, prompting a sharp smile and laugh from the girl.
"So, what's up?" Percy prompted, leaning back in his seat as he crossed his arms. "Something happen?"
Thalia playfully posed for a few moments, scrunching up her forehead as if in deep thought, before reaching out, taking hold of his knees, and pulling Percy's chair forward. She quickly leaned forward, her lips just fractions of an inch from his right ear.
"Not really," she whispered. Percy turned to face her, a bit surprised by her behavior. Her warm breath wafted over his skin, and as he breathed, he narrowed his eyes slightly.
"Thalia," Percy hesitantly began, standing up and gently pushing her back to sit on the bed as he held her by her shoulders, "have you… been drinking?"
She looked upward, her electric blue eyes seemingly twinkling from the small room's sole ceiling light.
"Maybe a little," she innocently replied, before giving a small hiccup.
Percy was not quite sure whether he should verbally disapprove of her choice or not – she was, after all, her own person, and under the weight of the stress that she and he both shared, it was understandable why she would choose to try it out. They could not know whether she would have another chance to.
As he stewed in his own thoughts, Thalia suddenly stood up. "I know what," Thalia defiantly said, an air of bravado developing around her. "Let me go grab some for you too!" Before Percy could get in a word edgewise, she had already flung his motel room door open and was around the corner, flip-flops clapping as she ran down the motel's second-floor outdoor walkway. He only had time to slink back in his seat and sigh once before she bounded back into his room, one hand clutching a tall bottle by its neck as she closed the room's door with the other. Striding across the room, Thalia plucked the two glasses sat upside down by the bathroom sink and slammed them down onto his desk. She picked up the tall bottle, pulled off the cork with a great pop, and poured its contents into both glasses, ignoring Percy's weak protests as she sloppily spilled some of the alcoholic beverage onto the many papers that were scattered about his desk.
Percy abruptly found a half-full glass of clear liquid in his right hand as Thalia sat back in her spot on the edge of the bed, a similar glass clutched in her own hand. She gently swirled the glass in her hand, the liquid moving in a spiral pattern as she did so.
"Wait, Thalia," Percy finally spoke up, gathering his bearings. He turned to look at the nondescript bottle. "Wait, Vodka? This stuff is forty-percent alcohol!"
"Uh-huh," Thalia nodded, looking at him with expectant eyes as if she were waiting for his point.
"We shouldn't be drinking this." Percy paused, before speaking again with a slightly quieter voice. "I mean, we're not even legal yet."
Thalia laughed, a light tinkling sound that made Percy's metaphorical heart swell with desire and his mouth unconsciously curl upward into a smile.
"Legal? That's funny, Percy. Honestly."
In a more strained voice, Percy looked back at the bottle. "Where did you even get this?"
She waved it off with a hand. "Oh, I know a guy… who knows a guy. I'm sure you can imagine how that works."
Percy grunted, before looking down at the glass of vodka. In actuality, he was far less opposed to downing the glass than his words would have him appear. There was something… tempting about finding absolution at the bottom of a glass of burning fire. There were a great many things Percy regretted – both things that he had done, and equally many things that he had not, but should have.
"Bottoms up?" Thalia asked, her voice reawakening him to the world. Percy stared at the sight of his glass of vodka into view, and, with naught but a moment's hesitation, held it up.
"Bottoms up," he concurred, and with a swig, he downed as much of the clear liquid as he could. For both of them, that was not very much, and just about as soon as they had started drinking, they had finished, both spluttering and coughing as they felt liquid fire burn on its way down their throats.
"Oh gods, that's awful," Percy hoarsely muttered as he leaned back into his seat. He could dimly see Thalia nodding in agreement, but even as she did so, she took another drink of her glass. For his part, Percy also took another long draught of his drink, this time ready for the sting. The vodka poured down his throat, searing on its way down, but he kept drinking and drinking–
Percy blinked. The light was off. Somehow, he found himself on the bed, his empty glass still in his hand. He slowly turned to see Thalia similarly sprawled out on the bed beside him, her glass long forgotten on the carpeted floor of the motel room. Between them, the empty tall bottle was a damning testament to the impropriety that had just taken place. After all, finishing a whole bottle of hard alcohol, demigod metabolisms or not, was something that could only happen at the brink, and neither of them could be said to be functional in any traditional sense of the word.
"Th-Thalia," Percy softly stuttered, turning over slightly to prod the girl.
"Whaat?" Thalia slurred, her eyes struggling to focus on him.
"You still okay?"
She groaned in response, her left hand coming up to massage her forehead while her right arm fluttered to rest on his stomach. "Maybe in the morning." The blanket rustled slightly as Thalia rolled over to face Percy.
"Hey," she quickly whispered. In the faint glow of moonlight that had snuck through the gap in the window curtains, Percy could see her eyes focusing on him. "Do you… want to, um, sleep together tonight?"
As if Kronos himself had burst through the door and summoned every last ounce of his Titan power, time felt like it had stopped. Percy's heart grew heavy with a mixture of confusion, fear, and anticipation. He liked her – loved her, even, in a deeper sense than any other teenager could possibly mean when they said those words to a peer – but it still all seemed too quick. They had gone through so much, both independently and with one another, but even with all of that, their relative youth and physical immaturity was undeniable.
"Err, uh, Thalia?" Percy hesitantly began. "Do-don't you think that's too fast? I mean, I love you and I think you're really beautiful and all but–"
He was cut off by a single finger placed on his lips. Thalia looked at him with amusement, before bursting into laughter.
"No, you kelp head!" Thalia cried out in humor. "I meant 'sleep together' as in sleep together, like actual sleeping. Not sex."
"Oh," Percy whispered, letting out a deep breath he did not know he had been holding. "Okay, yeah, that's fine." Most of him was relieved – he had no idea what to do in that situation, but a not insignificant part of him was also disappointed at what may have been. Still, the majority of him won, and he fell back into the mattress of the bed with the intent of finding that one comfortable spot where he could just fall into a restful sleep.
In the darkness, he felt the blankets scrunch up as Thalia pushed herself closer to him under the sheets. The warmth of her body was a pleasant feeling to him, and he welcomed it as she snuggled against his prone form.
"You know," she whispered in the dark, "I wouldn't be opposed to it."
The sound of a body shifting on sheets. "What do you mean?"
"You know," Thalia repeated. "What you thought."
"Huh."
"If we win tomorrow." A pause. "That feels like… a good way to celebrate."
"When we win tomorrow."
Percy caught the smile on Thalia's face in the pale moonlight.
"Yeah, when we win."
The two of them fell silent after that. Within a minute, Percy could feel the gentle, rhythmic rise and fall of Thalia's chest against his body and could hear the soft and steady breaths she took as she swiftly fell asleep. He closed his own eyes, letting his weariness and the comfort of his surroundings – with the warm room, the relative quietness only punctuated by the comforting sounds of Thalia's own sleep, and the thought of what her warmth meant brought – quickly pull him into his long-desired slumber.
The sun had already risen as the Greek demigods marched up one of the paths of Mount Tamalpais, but the morning air was still brisk and cool, courtesy of the moderate climate of the Bay Area in late summer. Clad in armor and armed to the teeth, the demigods had emptied out of a variety of vans just a half-hour earlier, beginning their climb just as the sun crept past the tip of the peak they faced.
Percy and Thalia were, naturally, at the head of the column. They had changed out their modern teenaged choices for more appropriate clothing – t-shirts covered by celestial bronze chest plating, a short armored skirt to protect the upper thighs, shoulder guards, and forearm and shin protectors. Their preference for updated versions of ancient Greek armor did not, however, mean that they were against modern advances – on the contrary, instead of older Greek-style sandals, every demigod present had opted for a pair of Nike running shoes. For one, they were considerably more comfortable and robust than sandals could ever be. They had chosen Nike specifically also because of the connotation associated with the name – the Greek goddess of victory was a desirable patron to have before war, even if the enemies they now faced were beyond the control and powers of the Olympians.
The higher they climbed, the more noticeable the effects of Chaos and his subservient Titans became. The weather, with its oddities largely contained by the power of the Mist, had worsened, with the air becoming thicker and darker and the temperature dropping rapidly as they climbed. A sense of foreboding only grew among the demigods as they scaled the peak, with the eerie feeling of death and decay strengthening in the ground and in the very air they breathed.
They were approaching a center of power, chaotic and entropic in nature, beyond their limits of their comprehension.
"Where's Chiron?" Thalia whispered, looking around hesitantly. Her left hand rested on the hilt of her sword, its immense power humming quietly at her touch in its leather scabbard.
"I don't think we're there yet." Percy responded.
They both fell silent for a few moments before a voice rang out from behind them.
"I think I hear something!"
The entire group of demigods halted in an instant, the sound of shoes on the dusty gravel coming to an abrupt stop along with the clinking of pieces of metal armor. Each demigod strained their ears to hear.
It was faint, in the distance. To the undiscerning listener, it could have been mistaken for the strange patterns of a blowing wind. But after a few seconds, it was evident that it was no wind. The sound of cries, of yells, of screams and roars echoed over the side of Mount Tamalpais to reach them.
"Let's go!" Percy yelled, rousing all of the demigods behind him. "Come on!" The demigods behind him gave a great roar, and they all took off at speed, running up the path where they had previously been slowly marching.
In a matter of minutes, the path they were on led to a plateau of sorts on the side of the mountain. Percy paused for the briefest of moments at the sight before him, but it was enough to take it the entire picture.
There were hundreds, maybe even over a thousand, of beings fighting. Centaurs, satyrs, all sorts of nymphs ranging from dryads to naiads, pegasi, and more fought alongside each other against an equally assorted set of monsters interspersed by the occasional human demigod clad in armor. There were dozens of bodies from both sides already on the ground, but neither side paid much attention to the fallen, as locked in combat as they were. To Percy's eye, it seemed as though Chiron's force was both smaller and being pushed back. In the distance lay a completed version of the evil-looking Parthenon-style building that Percy had noted on his first visit to Mount Othrys. It was rebuilt, complete with a protective wall and tall metal gates that the two armies now fought outside of.
"Demigods!" Percy yelled, his voice carrying as far he could make it go. It echoed down the side of the mountain and toward the clashing armies, causing the combatants closest to the path to stop and turn. "Prepare yourselves for battle!"
In preparation for the decisive battle that all knew had to happen, the demigods had drilled themselves as best they could in the most effective melee formations they could find. For them, that meant a phalanx. It was not perfect by any measure, nor even remotely well-formed given the time they had to train, but it was better than nothing, and it still presented a formidable wall of weaponry that was hard for an enemy force to break.
The mass of demigods all climbed onto the plateau and assembled into six lines of thirty or so demigods. Many of them were armed with spears and shields – those that were not held their swords at the ready as they waited on either flank of the formation. Percy and Thalia put themselves on the left side of the phalanx, while the right side of the phalanx was protected by a disproportionate number of demigods to account for the strength of their leaders.
"Demigods!" Thalia yelled this time, drawing her sword. Pointing it forward, she yelled, "Advance!"
The pseudo-Greek army lumbered forward, their spears pointed forward as the demigods on the side slowly kept pace and watched for flanking attempts. In the thick of combat in front of them, Chiron extricated himself from the fighting and saw the forward march of the demigods. Smiling with relief at the sight of reinforcements, he grabbed a horn that dangled from his neck by a leather strap and blew as hard as he could into it. It thundered over the multitude, and with swift recognition, Chiron's troops pulled back to either side of the plateau. Forming around the advancing demigod phalanx, it immediately took the form of the letter 'c' – a classic envelopment formation. The monsters and enemy demigods still left standing and able to fight could only retreat backward into the unforgiving stone of Othrys' wall as the encirclement grew.
A single brave, or perhaps exceptionally dim dracaena rushed forward, her sword ready, only to impale herself on the celestial bronze end of a demigod's spear. Ignoring the monster dissolving into the wind, the phalanx continued its advance. Soon, more monsters, driven by desperation, rushed forward, with some impaling themselves on the row of spears and others managing to batter away the first row only to feel the sting of the second. It was a brutal affair, advancing, but one that was absolutely necessary. After minor fighting on the sides of the encirclement by some that had tried to break out on the sides, they had soon encircled the few enemy humans that remained.
"Surrender," Percy offered as the phalanx's advance ground to a halt, "or else."
The lead enemy demigod who stepped forward, a boy who looked about as old as Percy, raised his sword. He glared at Percy through his one good eye.
"Surrender and what, be condemned by the gods to a lifetime of suffering? The reason we chose to follow the Titans was because the Olympians had abandoned us! They had this coming!"
Percy frowned. "You don't serve the Titans. Kronos is dead."
The demigod frowned and dropped his arm to his side. "What? What do you mean by that?"
"Kronos was defeated months ago. The Titans are being controlled by another."
The demigod raised his sword again and snarled. "You lie! Why else would the Titans still take orders from someone else?"
Percy stuck his trident into the dirt of the plateau and strode forward, unarmed. His mere presence caused a prickling feeling on the back of the enemy demigods' necks, and they all backed up as he strode forward. Soon, they had backed up as far as they were willing to against the encirclement, and Percy stopped just a few steps before them.
"You all have no idea what's going on," Percy solemnly stated, shaking his head a little. "There's so much at stake here."
"Just tell us!" the eye-patched demigod yelled.
Percy eyed him carefully. "The Titans are being controlled by Chaos. It has taken over their minds and bent them to its will. They cannot resist – Chaos is a far more powerful being than any they have ever faced."
The mention of Chaos was enough to stir fear in the hearts of those who heard Percy's words. The enemy demigods all unconsciously flinched at the truth they knew in their hearts to be real.
"That doesn't change anything!" the demigod spat. "Our beef is with the Olympians, and if Chaos is what's needed to get us our revenge, then so be it!"
"Chaos would destroy this world!" Percy immediately roared in rebuttal. The intensity of his reply shocked everyone around him. "Yes, you could get your revenge, but it would be at the cost of your own life and everything else! Do you consider that a good trade?"
The demigod fell silent and looked downward, unable to answer the truth he knew.
"I'll say it again – I offer you this chance to surrender and get off of this mountain, or else."
"That's it, then?" the demigod looked up again, his tone despondent. "Are we doomed to face a life of failure and regret for having been born to the wrong Olympian?"
Percy sighed, strode forward, and placed one hand on the demigod's right shoulder. Even though the two of them were ostensibly around the same age, Percy had gone through an extraordinary series of events that had grown him both mentally and physically. As such, he stood nearly half a head over the scrawnier and smaller demigod.
"Being a demigod doesn't have to define who you are. You're also a human being. You're a person. You have worth and value that goes past who your parents are and what you can do. Don't let yourself be held down by whatever you think the Olympians robbed you of. In all honesty, they've failed all of us, but we can all also move past that and live our lives the way we want to."
The demigod looked up, tears forming in his one good eye.
"So, will you please surrender?"
The lead demigod slowly nodded, as did the few that stood behind him. Throwing down their swords and shields, the encirclement broke ranks to open a hole for the surrendering demigods to leave through. Percy watched them disappear down the path they had used to climb Mount Tamalpais for a few seconds before turning to find Chiron.
"Percy," the centaur mentor warmly said, galloping forward to meet him in the middle of the circle.
"Chiron," Percy responded in kind. "So, what's it like?"
Chiron frowned. "Bad. We came up here early this morning for a reconnaissance-in-force, only to get caught out by some of their own scouts. It forced a battle that we were losing until you and Thalia showed up with the rest of the Camp. However," the centaur paused as he turned to face Othrys, "that was only a small part of the problem. The bigger problem is that." He pointed at the wall that separated them from the palace of Othrys. "We can't get through that. We just don't have enough firepower."
Percy grimaced. Nothing he and the other demigods had brought could break through it either. Additionally, it was also too high to simply scale. None of them had anticipated Othrys being so unlike Olympus in design, with a wall they needed to get through on top of defeating whatever forces the Titans had at their disposal.
"Worse yet," Chiron continued, "is what is going on inside of the walls." Percy looked up at the wise centaur attentively. "I believe that Chaos is gathering, for lack of a better term, chaos inside of Mount Othrys. For what reason, I can only imagine – maybe to use as a weapon of some sort. Nonetheless, we must stop this before it is too late."
Percy pondered Chiron's words. His explanation made sense, but their only problem was a seeming lack of ability to carry out the solution.
A loud horn blew from within the walls of Mount Othrys, shaking Percy out of his reverie.
"Quickly!" Chiron yelled. "Reform the lines! Reform the lines!" Demigod and nature spirit alike hastily assembled themselves into their crude phalanx just as the tall gates of the wall opened. From within the walls, a veritable army marched out – far larger than the one they had just defeated. Thousands of monsters streamed out of the gates, ranging all different types that had historically composed the Titan army.
"Keep steady!" Chiron bellowed, but it was of little use as the monsters ran into the poorly constructed phalanx. Under the weight of the full-frontal assault, the assembled lines crumbled and disintegrated as demigods broke in fear and the other elements of Chiron's forces were scattered.
Percy and Thalia saw their allies begin to break, and without hesitation, Thalia jumped into the fray, landing in the middle of a group of telekhines. With a roar, she spun her sword around, spitting lightning and death in a circle and evaporating dozens of monsters before they even had the chance to notice there was an enemy. Percy, not one to be outdone, pushed forward, smashing a pit scorpion in an explosion of guts and juice with the back of his trident before impaling a hellhound with the front. Turning to see the a herd of colchis bulls imminently about to smash into what was left of the phalanx, Percy strained for a moment to summon all of the water he could out of the ground, forming a small tidal wave that smash into the herd, rolling past the disintegrated monsters and into the main body of the Titan army that had streamed out. Cries of pain filled the air as the water blew through dozens of monsters.
"Push forward!" Chiron ordered over the noise. Those left in the phalanx that could hear him obeyed, slowly advancing with their spears at the ready. Unlike the previous advance that had broken the enemy, the Titan army this time was prepared, and it became a true battle as the phalanx faced off against hordes of various monsters, not all of which were easily beatable by something as human and mortal as a phalanx.
Percy yanked his trident out of the mouth of the Nemean Lion – which he annoyingly noticed had reformed after only a single year – and looked up in minor exhaustion. He and Thalia could destroy waves of monsters with relative ease at a time, but it seemed like the enemy had endless waves to send. The other demigods along with Chiron's forces had harder time, barely able to hang on as the enemy's waves battered against them.
It did not seem like a situation they could win. Slowly, but very surely, they were being pushed backward to the cliffside of the plateau.
Annabeth suddenly appeared on one side of Percy, while Grover showed up on the other.
"Hey there, Percy," Grover panted, trying to act nonchalantly as he stared possible, imminent death in the face. "It's been a while."
"Sure has, G-man," Percy replied, readying his trident.
"Got a plan, Seaweed Brain?" Annabeth asked, readying her already-stained dagger.
"Aren't you the one who normally comes up with those?"
"Guys!" Thalia cried out in front of them. "Enough chit-chat, and more fighting!" The daughter of Zeus half-turned to summon a bolt of lightning, blowing the Minotaur – another powerful monster with an unusually short reforming period courtesy of the Titans and Tartarus – into smithereens, along with a side of telekhines. Sweat dripped from her damp locks to the ground, and even though she was still beating every monster she faced, it was apparent that physically, she was tiring.
For a moment, as they surged forward, Percy felt his spirit waver. Already, they were facing such difficulty against the hordes of Chaos' army. How could they ever face any of the Titans, much less Chaos itself? The idea now seemed ludicrous, and the despair that began to set in was like an anchor in the ocean, pulling Percy into the depths…
A sound blew through the air. Turning rapidly, as did everyone and everything else beside him, Percy looked to see the source of the sound. Up a different path to the plateau, the sound of marching and clinking metal grew. An unfamiliar standard, carried on a wooden pole, could be seen over the incline of the path. Within seconds, the tops of what appeared to be helmets became visible. Soon after, the rest of helmets became visible, as did the heads they were worn on and the bodies those were attached to.
Percy felt his jaw drop.
He was staring at a full-blown Roman legion.
It was like an old movie about the Roman Empire, except he could actually see them with his own two eyes in the flesh. Complete with the armor and colors, they marched in a way that the Greek demigods could not hope to match – evenly, with a set rhythm and pace, and with a practiced smoothness that could not come except from years of practice.
The Roman horn blew again and the entire legion came to a stop. There was a moment of stillness, and then the legionnaires suddenly moved. In a matter of seconds, they had formed into four distinct groups. Three of them were prominent with three lines each – one on the left, one on the right, and one in between the other two in the center. The fourth mass of troops stayed behind the first three.
"Advance!" a male cry came from the Romans, and the legion began to move in earnest. They were much faster and far more coordinated than the Greek phalanx had been just minutes before, and it was, to Percy, an admittedly intimidating sight to see a Roman legion in modern day marching, ready to kill.
"Scatter!" Chiron yelled as he galloped through the plateau. "Scatter!" The demigods, nymphs, satyrs, centaurs, and others of the combined Greek forces quickly got the memo and made for the sides of the plateau, but the Titan army dumbly stood there, unsure of what exactly they were supposed to do.
"Wait," a dracaena hissed, "we outnumber them. We should attack!" A murmur of agreement came from the Titan army, and soon enough, the entire army was riled up and charging at the Roman formation.
It was an absolute massacre.
The Roman formation was nothing like the hastily constructed Greek phalanx. If the Greek phalanx had been a blender, the Roman legion was like a woodchipper. It was a machine of destruction, purpose-trained for that reason. The two side formations rotated to act as funnel, pushing monsters toward the middle to be slaughtered. Still, the Titan army had vast numbers on its side.
"Help the Romans!" Percy yelled, before jumping back into the battle himself. With a twirl of his trident, he blew apart a multitude of different monster varieties. All around him, the Greek forces had rejoined the fray, helping the Roman formation funnel monsters into the central meat shredder.
And it still was not enough.
Even with the addition of several hundred Romans, they were still being pushed back by the sheer weight of thousands of monsters. It was impossible odds. For every monster they cut down, ten more would seemingly replace it. Every demigod or nature spirit that fell was another substantial reminder of the heavy price they were paying and the numerical inferiority they fought against.
Percy panted for a few moments as he caught his breath. His trident felt so heavy in his arms…
"Watch out!" a Roman cried, before moving between Percy and an empousa. The empousa raised a metal bat and swatted the Roman aside, and as if in slow motion, Percy saw the Roman twirl in mid-air before falling and settling to the ground. It was a crude display of inhumanity, colored by the flecks of red that spurted throughout the air.
"No!" Percy roared, something snapping inside of him. With a jab of his trident, he blew the empousa into pieces, sending its guts and innards flying across the battlefield. With another grunt, he slammed the trident into the ground as he felt something well up inside of him. Taking hold of the feeling, he called the water to him in a way he had never tried before.
Before, he had simply called the water to him. Now, he called the water to him.
The clinking of metal and yells and screams of battle slowed before stopping entirely as man and monster alike stared in a daze. Gasps and shocked shrieks replaced the ambient sounds. A shadow covered the entire plateau.
Percy opened his eyes, revealing glowing green irises as the massive wall of water taken from the Pacific covered the entirety of the plateau and a good portion of the side of Mount Tamalpais. He had no idea what the Mist would construe it as, but he didn't care either.
Willing the water to fall, he split it into hundreds of smaller streams, plucking his allies out of the battle and leaving them on the side. After a few seconds, all that was left was the Titan army that was now suddenly bereft of enemies to fight. That is, except for the shadow above them.
The water crashed into the Titan army much like a human would crush an ant by stepping on it – it was nothing the monsters could fight, nothing they could stop, and certainly nothing they could survive. The water washed up to the wall itself, where it slammed against the stone to no avail.
Percy gasped and fell to the ground, leaving his trident implanted in the ground. His body failed to respond to him, and he felt like a limp puppet with its strings cut.
"Percy!" Thalia yelled, kneeling by his side. To him, he could clearly make out her face, but everything else was blurry. Annabeth, Grover, Chiron – they all melded together.
"Ambrosia! Someone get some ambrosia and nectar!" Thalia cried out.
Percy could barely focus on her as she whispered in his ear. "Here, eat this." He felt a crushed-up chocolate chip cookie slip through his teeth, and hesitantly, he let it slide down his throat. Next came a chocolatey drink, which easily passed through his mouth. A few seconds passed, and Percy blinked. His vision had refocused, and he felt warmth flowing back into his extremities. After a few more seconds, he felt the wholesale return of strength into his muscles, and he quickly pushed himself back up against the protests of those around him. He felt a little unsteady from his expenditure of power, but it was nothing that he hadn't felt before.
Thalia simply smiled at his speedy recovery. She was used to his headstrong behavior at this point and knew that there was no point to force him to rest. He would not, not until his task was complete.
Percy strode over to the Romans, who had reformed themselves into a line, though not nearly as ready for battle as they had been earlier, nor were they nearly as at attention and ready to fight either.
"Who's the commander here," Percy asked, looking around. A tall, muscular demigod stepped out from behind the line.
"I am," the demigod announced. "I'm one of the praetors of the Twelfth Legion Fulminata. What do you want?"
"We need to regroup everyone we have for another attack," Percy stated. "It's our only chance."
"No way," the demigod replied, gesturing at his troops. "I've lost too many good legionnaires already, and you want me to send more lives to be lost in an attack?"
Percy pursed his lips in frustration. "Look, if we don't attack now, then we might not get the chance to again. In there," he pointed at Othrys, "they're preparing to end the world as we know it!" He stepped backward for a moment after shouting to cool himself down. "We need to attack one more time, one last time, or we might never get the chance to stop them again."
The demigod eyed Percy. "I don't think you're in any shape to fight right now. At the very least, we have to rest and recuperate for a little while before coming back out here."
Percy squeezed his eyes shut for a second, ignoring the dull throb of pain in his head. "I'll be fine." Just as he said that, he stumbled, and would've fallen to the ground had Thalia not been there to catch him.
The demigod did a double-take when he saw Thalia, stepping backward a few paces.
"No, it can't be…" he whispered.
The Greek demigods looked at the Roman demigod strangely.
"Thalia," he breathed.
"What?" Thalia replied. "How do you know my name?"
The Roman demigod hurriedly pulled off his legionnaire helmet to reveal short blond hair and a pair of electric blue eyes. Percy heard Thalia's breath hitch for a moment and felt her body stiffen in shock.
"Thalia, Thalia Grace!" the praetor of the Twelfth Legion, Jason Grace, exclaimed. "Thalia, it's me – it's Jason."
A/N: Just two more chapters to go.
