Chapter 22: The Prophecy Comes True

I flew into a rage. Thalia was clearly going to die, and there would be time to grieve later. First, Pontus would pay. I used all of my powers together (except my water powers, which would be useless against the primordial of the sea). I vaguely heard my friends calling me back, but I ignored them, trusting my abilities. I transformed my pendant into a trident, and enveloped it in hellfire. Before Pontus could do anything further, I threw it toward him. After doing so, I unleashed more hellfire toward him, and created a barrier around all of his sides except forward so he couldn't escape. The trident struck home, and Pontus howled in pain. Hellfire and the power of Chaos entered his body, and he fell to the ground, looking similar to his younger brother Ouranos when he was killed. Pontus bled ichor from hundreds of wounds, and died within seconds. While I should've been shocked that I had managed to kill not one but two primordials, I had other problems. Pontus's power had been the only thing keeping the air bubble in existence. When he died, the air bubble vanished. I used creation to create a new air bubble of the same size. Then I turned around, incredibly sad about Thalia's death. But then I saw a sight that would haunt me for the rest of my life.

Nico and Leo were both badly wounded, bleeding from several wounds. And Mom… Mom was lying on the floor, dying.

In shock, I fell to the floor and fainted.

When I woke up, Nico and Leo were looking at me, worried, and there was a huge pine tree that for one shouldn't have been in the ocean, and for another had not been there before.

They explained that they had all tried to save me. Mom had been closest to Thalia when the boulder made contact, so the debris hit her and killed her. Apparently Chaos had appeared before them after I had fainted. He had offered both of them a choice: to either die or be preserved as a tree. Thalia had chosen a tree, choosing to go back to how she was a couple of years ago. Mom didn't want such an end, and chose to die and go to the Underworld. Excited for a second, I said, "But that's great! We can use the Golden Fleece to bring Thalia back!"

But this hope was also dismantled by Leo: "We thought so as well, but Chaos said that because she was killed by a primordial, this wouldn't work. Besides, you can't just bring everyone back to life by turning them into a tree and using the Golden Fleece on them. Thalia coming back to life the first time was actually a gift from Chaos, who had sensed your potential."

Then Nico said, "The prophecy came true, didn't it? The slayer of gods, Godslayer, showed the way for the five of us to go to the Labyrinth, which was an endless gray. Thalia was lost to your cause, because you were betrayed by Annabeth, and we would've failed without her because she saved your life."

I finished for him, "My mom revealed that Primos was the true leader of our enemies, but she died due to the stone debris. The cyclone created by Oceanus led us to the depths of the sea, and Thalia was killed down here, recreating the spirit of the tree."

Leo said, "Actually, some parts of the Great Prophecy have been fulfilled too. The general, Ouranos, created havoc, but died in the air. You found out to use creation down here, but paid the price with the deaths of Thalia and your mom."

"Of course! Thalia and Mom's deaths were the price of finding out about both creation and the trident! This is all my fault. If I hadn't gotten frozen in fear, Thalia wouldn't have died, and neither would Mom. I could've used the trident to stop the boulder."

"Of course not, Percy," Nico responded. "Nobody could've done anything in your position."

"You guys managed to move, didn't you? You guys were all willing to sacrifice yourself."

"But that's because the boulder wasn't coming at us," Leo said. "We all wanted to save you, which motivated us to move."

Eventually they managed to convince me it wasn't my fault, though I still felt a little guilty. We returned to Camp Half-Blood, carrying Mom's body with us. Thalia's body could not be taken because she had been turned into a tree.

At the funeral, we created a beautiful shroud for the daughter of Zeus, despite having no body with us. Mom also got a brilliant shroud. Primos made no attempt to attack me or the camp for the next few weeks, which I used to recover from my grief. He was probably gaining the support of others and building up power to attack.

Around a month after Thalia and Mom's deaths, Poseidon called me and my friends to Olympus. We arrived at the throne room, and immediately Annabeth ran to me. "I'm so sorry, Percy! There - there was an eidolon in me! I had this cold feeling within me, and I tried to resist but it was too powerful. None of those words were mine!"

"It is up to you, Percy," Dad said from the throne. "We all now know you were innocent. You can forgive Annabeth, or you can choose to have her punished. There is no proof she was possessed by an eidolon."

Athena glared at Poseidon, but couldn't say anything as he was now the king. She then turned to me and started glaring.

I remembered the glint of gold I had seen in Annabeth's eyes. I knew that if an eidolon wanted to, while possessing you it could turn your eyes golden.

So I looked up, smiling. "My fatal flaw always was loyalty, Dad. I forgive Annabeth." Athena smiled at that. "But I don't want my immortality back. When I was a demigod again I realized I don't want to abandon my friends. I'd rather live and die with them than live forever and watch them die. Annabeth can stay if she wants to."

But Annabeth immediately said, "I was going to say the same thing. I couldn't bear the idea of Percy and my other friends dying while I lived forever."

While the gods that supported us were a little sad, the Council removed Annabeth's immortality and let us return to Camp Half-Blood together, as demigods.

A/N: Now there's just an epilogue to go! That will be posted tomorrow, it leads you into the next book. By the way, I've finally started on the sequel!