Chapter 22: Reading Taken
Percy had known his glamour would fall, had felt it, but had done nothing, he knew he would have to show himself soon. He just hadn't known it was going to be now, so he would deal with it and bear it. But he had been born with ADHD and one of the many perks of being a demigod was to expect the unexpected. Kronos had also taught him many things, sure the king had been torturing him, but they were also lessons. Lessons on sword fighting, verbal, to survive poison, to survive a manhunt.
Zeus was on his feet in an instant, his master bolt crackling and the sound of thunder could be heard. The god reminded him of those cartoons he watched a long time ago; though he would never say that to his uncle's face.
"YOU CHOSE TO BECOME A TITAN?!" Zeus roared his master bolt loud and echoed in the room. Even when the damned god was yelling in his face, making Percy want to snap sense into the god, that not everything revolved around him.
Percy brought Tsunami up, they clashed, and Percy grinned, now was time to show his powers, it was going to be epic. Both fought, Percy defending himself against the god, and the god with anger.
Yes, Percy maybe his nephew but he did not handle betrayal well.
With a jump backwards Percy brought his sword round and they clashed, Percy using his powers as Zeus made it loud and thunderous, his anger seeping into the air, making it smell like ozone.
Even in the sword fight Percy couldn't help but think that the bolt sounded a bit like a lightsaber, it was koosh szoo. alive longer then him, didn't mean he knew everything. Percy had learned from the best. Kronos.
Learned some of his powers.
As Zeus swung the sword, they danced a bit back and forth, grunting with effort, or with anger at not being the other. Finally, they drew blood, Zeus had flung his lightening at him, hit his cheek.
Percy fell, and Zeus went to tower over his nephew.
'Now' Percy said looking at Kronos.
The king smirked and slowed time down for the god and flung his powers out.
with a bright light Zeus was shoved backwards, shouting out as he hit the wall, Ares rushing up behind to help, Atlas walked over to Kronos' left side and stood there, sword drawn but not up.
the gods stood up, their weapons drawn and pointing to Percy and the crew of the titans. Said Titan rolled his eyes, stood up and motioned to Kronos. The older stood, pushed his hands outward and all the gods were pushed back into their seats.
Poseidon had drawn his Trident when he saw Zeus walk towards his son, but a look and he had sat down, his son was old enough to fight his battles, and yes he might be with Kronos and he could totally see them talking to each other through the Titan mind link.
He saw Iapetus wince in pretend disgust at whatever they were talking about.
"Now, no need to get antsy, lets all sit down and listen to the damned book," Kronos said, he waved his arms and summoned all the demigods, and his army, he stepped back and sat on his throne. "Aphrodite can read." Kronos sneered, tossing the book to the startled goddess who laughed and began to read in an excited kind of tone.
"We've got to go after them!" Thalia exclaimed. "How hard can it be?"
"Never say that on a Quest, because everything can go wrong," Annabeth muttered and decided to ignore the looks she got from her fellow demigods. "especially with Percy." she added angrily.
While it had been less loud than she expected, the demigods had all argued outside, half supporting Percy and his choice the other half angry.
"You weren't even here!" Clarisse shouted angrily.
"I was with my Lady," Thalia growled as thunder rumbled overhead, "and if I was here, I wouldn't have just stood by and let the Titans take Percy!"
"Then you would have fucking died, Titans are strong," Artemis said and turning to her lieutenant, the girl bowed her head and accepted the words the goddess was throwing at her. But Thalia knew she would have rather died than let Percy get kidnapped, they had been through so much. She owed him that.
"You'd be dead then," Nico retorted. "Kronos toyed with Percy, Thalia. We wouldn't have been able to do anything, and the other Titans would have stopped us if we'd tried."
"Why can't we just go after them?" Thalia demanded.
"Because they could be anywhere by now," Athena said, pressing her fingers to her forehead. "Anywhere in the entire world. It's been over an hour."
"Surely we can track them," Thalia said, her voice tense. "Just give the word, Lady Artemis, and we'll be on our way," she said, looking pointedly at the goddess of the Hunt.
Artemis knew she could use the dogs, but that was a big no, they were for the Hunt, but they didn't have the scent of a newly changed immortal Because gods did have a strong sense of smell, though they turned it off most of the time because it was tiresome smelling smelly mortal things.
"No," Zeus said firmly. "Perseus will have to fend for himself for a while. We can't risk sending out a group yet, even if it is the Hunters. We have no idea where the Titans have gone. We've alerted Camp Jupiter and they're already sending a small scout group up to Mt. Othrys, but they have specific orders to not engage any Titans or monsters up there."
"I don't think you're realising something, Zeus," Poseidon rumbled. "Remember Nico told us Percy would have broken long ago without Tartarus' influence? Well now Tartarus is dead, and Percy's mind is unprotected. What do you think that means?"
"Oh crap, that is so right!" Nico said and grumbled to himself, Hazel sadly rubbed her brother's arms, this was one thing she hated, that they couldn't change this, and that one day this would be their future.
"We can try to change it, after all, good always wins right?" she whispered, Nico looked at her and nodded slowly.
"Yes," he said.
Zeus looked slightly sheepish for a split second before he shook his head. "I don't like it," he admitted, "but we can't go after him. It's too dangerous."
"It'll be worse if we wait!" Thalia exclaimed. "They'll be stronger than!"
"And so, will we," Zeus retorted. "I'm sorry, Thalia, but we can't risk it. Perseus will have to last until we're able to get to him."
"That's impossible," Annabeth said carefully, finally speaking up. "Trust me. From the... condition Percy was in when we got him from there the first time, he's not going to be able to do it."
"He was pretty bad, and " Poseidon said, he smiled at his son who had a stony face on and was ignoring everyone, he had a position to remain in.
Sure, the Olympians were his family, but Kronos was too, and he was with him, the gods hadn't come for him, they said they tried, but that was lies. They hadn't tried until Kronos had wanted them in the underworld. The King was a genius. The others were just fools who didn't understand.
"We have to trust that he will," Athena said with a note of finality in her voice.
"What now then?" Leo asked as he pressed a cloth covered in nectar to the side of his head where Hyperion had knocked him out. "Percy's gone, and he was the one training all of us to be able to fight the Titans."
"Lot of good it did him," Clarisse muttered sadly.
"You'll have to train yourselves," Poseidon said. "I doubt we'll be able to do Percy's job."
"The class he was teaching though," Piper said quietly, "who'll take over that."
"Annabeth?" Thalia asked. "You're the wise girl, aren't you?"
"But that doesn't mean I was ready for the task," Annabeth muttered, she had vague memories of what had happened, and she wasn't prepared for this.
Annabeth winced at Percy's nickname for her. "I don't really know the Titans as they are now. I only know what they were in ancient times from the Greek texts."
"But the texts don't really mention their fighting styles," Athena said and glanced at the Titans. "Mortals can see only so much through the Mist." she explained to a few puzzled souls.
"That'll have to do," Zeus nodded. "We'll have to make do without Perseus. I'm sure we can do it."
Annabeth shook her head slightly. "It's not just that, Lord Zeus. The campers all loved Percy because of what he's done in the past – because of the legends. Now that he's gone – the famed bane of Kronos and the Titans defeated by Kronos – they're all going to be terrified."
"Lord Zeus," Iris' voice suddenly said, echoing around the rec room. "You have an Iris Message from Hazel Levesque."
"We seem really close with all the demigods at Camp Half-blood, Apollo commented and looked at Aphrodite who was fussing at the papercut she got when turning the page.
"Here, I can't read anymore if this is going to happen!" she said.
Apollo summoned a glass of Nectar and began to read.
Zeus immediately straightened up and nodded. "Accepted."
The air shimmered as an Iris Message formed in front of him, and Hazel appeared. "Lord Zeus," she immediately started, "we've reached the peak of Othrys, but nothing's here. Even Atlas is where he's supposed to be," she said.
"Are you sure?" Annabeth frowned.
Hazel nodded. "I get the feeling that they've been here, and not long ago, but the rubble from Othrys is still on the ground, so Kronos' presence hasn't started changing anything yet, which can only mean either he's not very strong at all, or he doesn't want us to think he's that strong and is attempting to make us complacent."
"Is there any sign of Percy?" Poseidon pressed; his eyes hopeful.
Hazel frowned and shook her head. "Absolutely nothing."
"Not the best news for a scout mission, but it shall do," the Ocean King said and rolled his trident between his hands. Yes, he knew Percy would make it, after all the Titan was sitting not to far from them. But he wished that wouldn't happen.
"Kronos was likely shielding his presence," Frank spoke up. "He probably doesn't want us to be able to glean any information off of Percy's emotions."
"So, it's safe to say that the Titans aren't at Othrys?" Apollo asked.
Hazel nodded slightly. "I sense a lot of Mist in the area, but that's just because of Othrys. Nothing else."
Zeus nodded. "Very well, Hazel. Return to Camp Jupiter and we will discuss our next movements."
Hazel nodded, bowing slightly before swiping her hand through the Iris-Message. "We should go back down to Camp Jupiter," she said as she frowned at the rubble on the floor. "I've got a bad feeling about this place."
"Demigods feelings are best when listened too, because that's when they are real, and when they should be acted upon," Luke said. "Because so far they haven't led me astray."
Frank nodded in agreement. "It feels dark," he mused as he turned and followed Hazel down the path, the rest of the roman demigods following them.
All of them missed the way the area shimmered with a white mist as they left, and Atlas disappeared from his position holding the Sky, in his place time seemed at a standstill, preventing the Sky from dropping and crushing the mountaintop. Then as soon as the last roman demigod stepped out of sight a completely reformed fortress made of black marble appeared, with an amused Titan King leaning on the great black doors as he watched the demigods go.
"That was the end of the chapter," Apollo closed the book.
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A/N; So I have written this chapter so many times trying to get the right way to the last cliff-hanger, I watched many fight videos, I am no expert on fighting maneuvers, so I try to make them short, but I hope this was okay! This song was a constant in my writings: Falling by Trevor Daniels.
And this was finally finished January 31st at 918 pm.
JIO