Please note: I do not own Percy Jackson or related characters. This story is just an opportunity for me to play around with these characters and my creativity. I love getting feedback and you all deserve the best stories, so feel free to review so I can be the best storyteller I can be! Thank you!
Percy
Rain blew through the air on the top of Mount Olympus. The water on the surface of the mountain raged and screamed around them. The wind howled. The lightning flashed. The thunder echoed through the skies.
His vision held a green tinge to it. He felt himself seething.
His back hurt from Thalia's kick. His chest hurt from the several attacks she levied against him. He tasted blood from the gash Thalia gave him on Olympus. Pain resounded through his arms and knees from Aegis' unforgiving weight and edges. Even his chin hurt, from Thalia's lightning punches. Occasionally, one part of his body would shoot out or pulse from the lingering electricity from Thalia's multiple shocks.
Thalia was strong, but he was stronger.
He would not lose to her.
He would stop her.
He would not show weakness, the weakness that Lupa detested.
And she would know to never challenge him again.
Percy willed his water twister to push towards Thalia. He streaked through the air, towards his former ally. Thalia flew towards him as well, backed by her own wind twister. Her face was twisted into one of concentration and focus.
Percy raised Riptide up in the air and back past his head. Thalia mirrored his movement, but with her spear. The two of them executed their overhead attacks at the same time. Riptide met the body of her spear, and a clap of force erupted from the collision- strong enough to blow Percy's hair back.
They attacked each other again and again, with reverberations of force exploding from each contact. Even though Percy was confident that he was channeling the sea into each one of his attacks, he figured that Thalia must have been putting the power of skies in her attacks as well. She was easily able to hold her ground and match his force. With each strike, the tops of the mountains around them sliced off. Avalanches tumbled down the mountains, out the corner of his eye.
It seemed like Thalia was no longer worried about the Ophiotaurus, or even battle strategy or tactics- she was just worried about beating Percy. Percy could still feel the spear wound in his chest.
This was no longer an attempt to get around him. She was ready to kill him. She was going in for the kill with each strike.
He would live, though. He wouldn't let her kill him.
Percy and Thalia's weapons became blurs of golden, black, and silver, striking and parrying against one another. The rocks beneath them shook with the ferocity of each strike. Thalia gave feral screams with each movement, like she was getting angrier with each passing minute.
He was not unfamiliar with the concept of fighting someone or something looking to kill him. Thalia, however, had an animalistic bloodlust in her eyes. Other monsters didn't compare- they usually fought for their next meal, or to please their masters. Thalia, however, was fighting out of intrinsic, concentrated rage. Another difference was that Percy's encounters with monsters were usually limited in time. With one well-placed swing of Riptide, they usually disappeared in a shower of golden dust.
Thalia wouldn't disappear, though. She just kept coming, continuing to fight. He would have to beat her down.
Percy reached out to the water around him, and felt his gut pull a little. He willed the water to form a large fist. The water fist punched Thalia away from him. Her wind twister was still intact, though, as it broke her fall. Instead of falling, the ropes of wind simply caught her.
Percy raised his hand, and his large fist of water morphed into several shards of hard water. Percy pointed at Thalia, and the shards of water buffeted against her. Thalia, however, used Aegis to block the majority of them. The shards hit the magical shield, and exploded into harmless drops of water.
Percy noticed dark fog growing around them as the battle went on. Percy eventually realized that it wasn't just fog- it was clouds forming around them. The clouds were black with power and storm. The mini-hurricane surrounded around them. It began to even form rain, thunder, and lightning, adding to the storm surging above.
Thalia flew towards him, only to be hit by some tiny lightning from Percy's mini-hurricane.
Thalia's wind twister was dispelled as she fell hard onto the mountain. Aegis and her spear rattled away from her.
She looked at Percy quizzically. Her eyebrows almost looked singed off, but she seemed barely fazed. She just seemed more confused, like she had multiple questions.
Percy didn't have time to explain or make quips, though. Percy rushed towards her. He tried to knock her down with a two-handed strike. He used his water vortex to push him towards Thalia as quickly as he could. As he brought the sword down, Thalia grabbed his wrists. She tried to push his hands away from her, but Percy pushed back. The two of them pushed against each other like a two-handed arm-wrestle, with both demigods attempting to overpower the other.
Thalia then gritted her teeth and channeled electrical energy through him. He fully expected to be knocked prone, but realized that he actually felt okay. In fact, he felt more than fine. Instead of the usual vibrating heat that came with Thalia's shocks, he felt an internal cooling feeling flow through his body. The sea inside him and the water around him protected him from Thalia's lightning.
Thalia's eyes widened as Percy began to gain ground, pushing her down until Thalia went to a knee.
She yelled in frustration as she ducked out of the grapple and swept his feet out from him. It was a solid kick- if it was any lower, it would've hit the water twister and lost momentum. A sharp bludgeoning pain came from Thalia's kick, and he fell to the ground. His water twister fell back to the mountaintop ground.
Percy looked up to see Aegis hurtling at him like a Frisbee.
Percy, like the masked woman earlier that day, put his hand up to catch it. Despite it being nearly a blur, Percy was able to snatch it out of the air like picking an apple of an apple tree. Percy then charged Thalia, throwing the shield back as hard as he could.
Thalia oriented her arm so her arm fell into the straps of Aegis- one of the coolest catches Percy had seen in a while. However, as she was catching it, Percy was already winding up. If he could break her guard, he could get the upper hand in this.
Thalia was strong, though, and he needed to be stronger.
He reached out to the water around him, as well as the nearby sea. He needed to put everything into this. He felt a quiet, cool strength course through his arms. He saw images of waves sinking boats, and of predatory sea creatures consuming lesser ones. Percy could've sworn that Riptide was glowing as he swung it hard at Thalia. She put Aegis up at the very last second, for a two-handed block against Percy's two-handed swing.
Riptide met Aegis with thunderous force.
An implosion of force, light, and energy erupted from the collision.
Percy and Thalia went flying in opposite directions. He landed hard on the ground, and felt the rock scrape his elbows and neck as he tumbled.
All Percy could feel was pain for a second. He tried to stand up, but stumbled back to the ground.
He heard ringing his ears and smelled ozone in the air. He waited until the stars were gone from his vision, and then stood up slowly. Percy thumbed Riptide's hilt, and held Riptide up.
However, he felt that it was no longer well-balanced.
Percy looked at the sword slowly to see a broken Riptide.
The usually three-foot blade was now about a foot and a half long. There were only jagged edges where the rest of the sword should have extended. If Percy squinted, he could see the tips of the edges coursing with blue and green energy. The energy eventually fizzled out.
Percy's heart flipped in his chest. He had never thought Riptide would ever break in battle; part of him even thought it was incapable of doing so. Yet, here it was- broken like Percy swung a stick at a metal wall.
Seeing it break was like seeing an old friend fall in battle. In his periphery, he saw the remaining half of the blade on the mountaintop, by the Ophiotaurus' cage. He remembered meeting Magnus' talking sword, who admitted that Riptide was female. Such a statement implied that Riptide had a spirit, therefore having life. Needless to say, it only made the break more frustrating.
Percy looked up to see Thalia on the ground, examining Aegis. There was a deep crack in the shield, so deep that it looked like a fissure. It must've been an adjustment for her as well, because Thalia's eyes darted between Riptide's fragments and her shield.
Thalia then ground her teeth and roared with the water around them. Thalia reached towards the sky and a huge lightning bolt arced from the clouds and into her body. Thalia exhaled and shook as the bolt hit her, like she had just eaten something very spicy. The energy held in her body as opposed to redirecting anywhere. She then straightened up and looked at Percy. Her eyes glowed blue-white. Her body flamed with an energy field of pure lightning.
"You cracked my shield," she growled. She opened her hands, and some of the lightning fell to her hands. The lightning solidified into whips, and Thalia snapped them experimentally. The lightning whips struck into the mountain, creating burning gashes into the mountain.
Percy scowled. She snapped Riptide in half, and she was complaining a crack in shield?
Thalia ran towards him, with ropes of wind flying towards him as well. Percy felt the ropes of wind strike him, holding him in place. Thalia approached him, swinging the lightning whips so fast that they looked like rolling wheels. She then lashed one at Percy. The whip sliced against Percy's chest, slicing his breastplate in half. The breastplate fell off his body, as Thalia came for another strike from her left side. It struck against his neck, and a simultaneous burning and shocking pain exploded.
Percy went down from the force of the strike, but Thalia didn't let up. She continued to lash Percy's back, screaming as she did so.
While on his stomach and being lashed by lightning, Percy understood what Hazel was saying about lightning being like ropes of fire. He didn't realize the heat aspect that came with lightning, and how much it burned.
He couldn't just sit here and get killed, though.
Percy willed the hurricane winds around them to blow towards Thalia. It blew against her ropes of wind, but in the opposite direction, neutralizing them. It also succeeded in distracting Thalia as well. Percy jumped to his feet, and kicked Thalia away. The ends of his combat boot began to char and fry as they entered the electrical aura that was coming off Thalia.
Percy then summoned a large wave from the water beneath them. The wave snaked and wove until it was above Thalia, and then dropped onto her head. The wave drenched her and her energy aura. The force of the water knocked her to the ground.
"And you broke my sword," Percy breathed heavily. "So, I guess we're even."
Thalia's face was to the ground. She seemed like she was struggling to get up. Her body was shivering. Percy remembered Akhlys from his time in Tartarus. He thought about how he was able to subdue her. Annabeth's horrified face flashed through his head as well, but Percy pushed it out.
He needed to finish this now.
Percy raised his arm and felt his gut warm with anger. The dirty water on the ground went right up Thalia's orifices- her mouth, her nose, and her eyes. Thalia tried to cry out, only for a distressed gargle to come out. She reached out towards him as if to plead with him.
He was done with mercy, though.
He kept drowning her, weaving the water through her face. Veins popped out of her neck and her body convulsed. He imagined the water filling her throat and her lungs. In response, more of the water forced itself into her mouth, in a quantity that likely wasn't safe for consumption. Thalia clawed and scratched furiously at her throat, her neck, and her face. It was to no avail, though. The assault continued.
Percy opened his hand and pulled all the water in her body towards him. Thalia's body slowly began dragging towards him like Grover did whenever the two of them would play tug of war.
As Thalia was pulled closer to him, Percy held up Riptide's shard to end the fight.
She was bad, Percy heard in his heart. She didn't deserve mercy. She didn't deserve to live.
Behind Thalia, Percy saw Annabeth. She wore what she wore in death- a white shirt, black windbreaker, and light blue distressed jeans. She smiled towards Percy; a sad, wistful smile like looking at him helped her remember what it was like to live. A horrifying, brutal red slashing wound was on her neck, though, so deep that she shouldn't be standing.
Percy stared at her, unable to form any words towards her. A lump appeared in his throat.
"Kill her, Percy," Annabeth said, without breaking her smile. There was something off about her voice, like it was a very good imitation of it as opposed to her actual voice. "We can't afford for her to be alive. She's too dangerous. Too sure of herself. You two never got along. Show her who's more powerful between the two of you, once and for all."
Percy looked down at Thalia, who was screaming and thrashing as she was pulled towards Percy. Somehow, she was still clinging to consciousness, refusing to give into the attack. Percy stipulated that she was probably in great pain at the moment. Having water forced through your mouth, nose, and eyes probably wasn't a fun experience, just as drinking from the River Phlegethon was probably not the most refreshing option. He looked to his right to see himself gripping the shard of Riptide in an offensive position.
When did I raise this sword? Percy thought to himself.
Percy looked at Annabeth, whose smile wavered. She beckoned towards Thalia as if to say, Any day now. Kill her!
"She's your friend," Percy said.
"She's no friend of mine," Annabeth said.
Percy felt the water roaring in his ears. It was screaming at him, as if to say that this was some kind of ploy- perhaps a trick of the Mist by Thalia. Then again, demigods generally didn't use the Mist to encourage others to kill them. Annabeth would never have said something like that. Percy truly believed that she would have done what he did, try to save Thalia from herself before it was too late. And the fact that this mirage of Annabeth was saying this proved her artificial nature. With a start, he remembered Thalia talking to him about larger forces at play. He remembered her kneeling to an empty throne. He wondered if the vision of Annabeth had anything to do with that.
"You're not Annabeth," Percy said. "You're not even real."
Annabeth scowled. "I am very real. You shall see," she said.
Percy made a clawed salute over his chest. It was an old gesture that he first saw from Grover, years ago- a gesture to ward off evil. Percy pushed it towards the vision of Annabeth, and watched as she gave an unnatural, bestial scream. She then got ripped through reality, into a void full of red light. In a flash, she was gone, leaving the unholy chill of malevolence in the air.
Percy blinked and looked down to see Thalia at his feet. Somehow, he was pointing Riptide's shard at her forehead.
Percy pulled it back quickly. What was he doing? How was he doing this without feeling or noticing himself do it? Percy stopped drowning Thalia. She shivered on the ground, making inhuman noises with her mouth and nose. Her eyes were pulsating in pain.
Percy kneeled down, shaking her. "Thalia. Thalia."
Thalia was unresponsive. She continued making noises and shaking. Percy put his hand out, focusing on the water in her lungs. His gut pulled as he pulled the water out in a slick rope, like he did with the Hunters.
In a flash, Thalia opened her eyes. Her eyes were so red that they looked infected. She quickly grabbed Percy's neck, made a different kind of motion with her fingers, and funneled electricity through her thumb, her index, and her ring fingers. She then slammed her fingers into Percy's core. Electrical pain forced through his body and instantly rushed to his joints. Percy's form shook against his will, and felt the makeshift taser interrupt the flow of his mind. His body froze up, and his muscles became unresponsive. Percy slumped down, with his limp body falling on top of Thalia.
The pain stopped, but Percy couldn't fight the panic. For more than a few seconds, he couldn't move. He felt like his mind was disconnected from his body.
Thalia threw Percy off of her with a scream. She then dry heaved a few times, making strangled choking noises while she did so. Thalia then raised one arm towards the sky and one arm towards Percy. Lightning curved through the sky and hit Percy's unresponsive form.
A huge percussive force thundered through Percy, like he was inside a bass speaker. Intense burning heat flowed through Percy's body. His insides felt like they were all getting individually defibrillated. As Thalia hit him over and over again with separate lightning bolts, the heat got hotter and the defribillating force became more intense.
His teeth began chattering.
Not even the rain was able to heal his injuries up quickly enough.
He felt a hole being burned in his chest, around the same spot where Thalia had stabbed him with her spear.
He began to smell charcoal, which he figured was his clothes burning.
He felt himself passing on.
Percy wanted to tell the Ophiotaurus to swim away, to swim for its life. To go do anything other than be stuck up in Olympus, doing nothing but being caged. Maybe he could meet another Ophiotaurus and start a family. He figured Bessie was miserable here, scared for his life. Percy didn't blame him.
He wanted to tell Thalia sorry, for failing to save her. They used to be friends, and now she was trying her best to kill him.
Granted, in her defense, he did essentially try to drown her. Thalia was right- he didn't come here to just save her. He came here to stop her, if necessary. If he truly came in peace, he supposed that he wouldn't have come in armor and with Riptide in hand.
Then again, if he was unarmed, the Triumvirate fighters may have taken him down quickly.
The crescent moon began to become faint in the sky.
He wanted to tell Annabeth, the real Annabeth, that he missed her. He wanted to warn her that he'd be joining her soon, and to not reincarnate before he gets there. He wanted to see her one more time. He wanted to tell her sorry for failing to save Thalia.
As he thought about Annabeth, Percy felt his motor skills return. He felt the last stripes of his strength renew. Percy used the remaining energy he had to roll out of the lightning blast and pop up to his knee.
He wouldn't die. He wouldn't die quite yet.
Anger, loss, regret, coalesced once more into a whirlpool that pulled Percy in. He was done with this- done with the fight, done with fighting his friends, and done with all of this.
"ENOUGH!" he yelled, thrusting the Riptide shard into the mountain. A rumble sounded throughout the ground, and he felt Mount Olympus shake. Percy felt a huge tremor cascade from himself, down the mountain, and into the ground.
Mount Olympus itself then split in a deafening krakoom.
A zig-zag fractured the ground between Thalia and Percy, at that point where the Riptide shard was. The ground began to shake, and pull apart as the mountain began to fall apart. Percy pulled the blade shard back before it fell through the cracks.
Thalia's eyes widened as she realized what was happening. As the mountain sides were falling away from one another, Thalia backed up.
"Thalia, no!" Percy yelled.
Thalia didn't listen. She got a running start and jumped with all her might. She almost didn't make it, but Percy saw an air draft suspend Thalia in the air- just long enough for Thalia's hand to shoot out and grab onto the ledge.
The sides of the mountain began to fall away. Percy turned and willed the Ophiotaurus cage to rush towards him. It flew to his hand, and he turned back to Thalia. She struggled to hold on, as the mountain shook violently. The storms raged on, blowing sheets of rain and wind against Thalia.
Thalia's eyes, however, didn't ask him to save her. They weren't scared. Rather, they looked steely calm, like she had already made peace with the possibility that she would die doing this.
For the quickest of seconds, he heard Annabeth's voice telling her to let her fall.
For a split second, he considered it.
She wouldn't stop if he saved her.
But then, he pushed it out of his mind. He wasn't going to let her go out like this. He wouldn't let her become another constellation, frozen in the stars. He needed to keep going, to push through the bad thoughts.
Not so he could hurt Thalia.
Not to kill her.
Not necessarily to stop her.
But to save her. To truly save her, and to let her make her own choice.
Years ago, Thalia made a choice to take herself out of the chess game that was the Great Prophecy.
Percy made the choice to give Luke the knife.
Luke made the choice to sacrifice himself and eventually died a hero.
Now, Percy needed to give Thalia the opportunity to make her own choice. He knew she wouldn't give up otherwise, especially not if Percy tried to impose his will upon her by overpowering her.
Percy rushed over to her, shifting the Ophiotaurus cage to his left hand as he reached his right hand out to her. As he made contact, though, sparks flew from her hand. Percy's hand recoiled from the static shock.
He frowned at Thalia, then put his hand back out. "Grab my hand!"
Thalia scowled at him, then winced as the rocks dug into her hands. Blood streaked out her palm and fell onto her face. "What are you doing?"
"Trying to save you," Percy yelled over the storm and earthquake.
"That's the dumbest thing I've heard in a while," Thalia spat. "If you were really a fighter, you'd let me die."
"I'm not going to let you die," Percy projected. "Grab my hand!"
The tectonic plates shifted, and the mountain shook and shifted. Thalia's part of the ledge fell a little bit, so Thalia was a little further away. The boisterous noises of avalanches filled the air.
"LEAVE ME!" Thalia screamed.
"NO! Stop being dumb and grab my hand!"
"Percy!" Thalia spat. "If I take your hand and you pull me up, here's exactly what I'm going to do. I'm going to twist your arm and break your nose. Maybe break your legs too. Then, I'm going to walk over to that cage, break the ice on the cage, funnel enough electricity to cook that sea-cow, and then sacrifice it."
Percy's mouth went dry, even in the storm. Thalia was still ready to take him out, with extreme prejudice. He swallowed the fear, though. He refused to leave her. If even that meant her hurting him. Mount Olympus could come crumbling down, and Percy would be focused on two lives- the Ophiotaurus' and Thalia's own.
"I don't care," Percy said. "I'm going to save you!"
"I tried to kill you," Thalia countered. "Several times. And your dumbass kept getting back up. Have some respect for yourself and save yourself. Save the Ophiotaurus from me."
Percy felt himself get desperate. It seemed like Thalia was steadily slipping away, both literally and metaphorically. The rain fell on her face, washing away some of the blood. Dust and rubble covered her face from the shaking mountain. Even with all of that, her eyes remained bright, electric, and vibrant.
"I won't leave you, Thals," Percy said, feeling a few tears run down his face.
"You will die," Thalia said simply. "Whether by this mountain, life itself, or by my own hand."
"I won't leave you," he repeated, reaching as far as he possibly could. She was just out of reach.
"You're an idiot," Thalia cried.
"Use the air or something. Fly up here. Do you even want to live?" Percy said. He felt his voice pleading with her.
A mountain next to them crumbled down in segments, like a hill of rice.
Thalia stayed silent. She tried to pull herself up with her arms, but she couldn't. Percy saw her pulse in her neck throbbing quickly.
She was nervous.
Even though her eyes reflected calm, her pulse betrayed her. She was panicking. That's why she couldn't save herself. Deep down, she was probably scared of something. Whether that was losing, death, or of being so high enough, he wanted to save her. He wanted to protect her from whatever it was.
"Thalia. You can do whatever you want to do to me. Just let me save you. You want to bring Annabeth back, don't you?" Percy asked. He forced himself to not break eye contact from Thalia. He looked at her, rather than the mountain crumbling around them.
Thalia glared at him like she was trying to shoot a beam of energy through her eyes.
She then let go of the ledge.
She fell for a second, along with Percy's heart.
However, she then reached out with all her might and grabbed Percy's hand. Her weight almost brought Percy over the edge, but he used the water on the mountain to steady himself. He pulled Thalia up with one hand, a feat of strength which seemed to surprise even Thalia.
He pulled her back to the top of the mountain. Thalia then exhaled and looked right at him. She then twisted his arm until Percy heard a sickening crack. Pain shot from his elbow to the rest of the arm. He began to panic. He couldn't straighten out his arm.
Thalia then switched arms and punched Percy square in the face. Getting hit point blank by her punch was like getting hit by a baseball bat. She didn't even charge it with electricity- it was just a bar punch. Percy's nose was crushed by her fist, with a nasty squelch.
Thalia then jumped up and kicked Percy twice. He fell to the ground, and could only give a whimper as the Ophiotaurus cage fell from his hand.
"You risked your entire fight to save me," Thalia muttered. "I can't believe it. You're truly an idiot."
Percy couldn't move his right arm. Ringing sounded in his ears. He couldn't even feel any water on the mountain anymore. The rain was no more. Now, the sky was overcast as the mountain crumbled.
"Thalia, please don't do this," Percy whispered, as Thalia stepped past him. "Please. Annabeth wouldn't want this. Let her rest in peace."
"Shut up," Thalia said bluntly. She grabbed the Ophiotaurus cage, kicking it away from Percy."
"Please, Thalia. If you don't do it for you or for Annabeth, do it for me. For old times' sake."
"I said," Thalia said. "Stop talking." Thalia struck him with a blast of static electricity for good measure. "That's for drowning me, asshole."
"Don't do it," Percy cried weakly. The pain in his nose had turned aching. "Annabeth always made the wise choice. Make the wise choice."
Thalia then raised her spear and stabbed it into the cage as Percy's consciousness slipped away from him.