Author's Notes:
Ladies and Gentlemen, Nerds and Geeks, if you are reading this then I either welcome you to a new adventure or bid you ado from the last. I believe I owe anyone who has spent the time reading the last story an apology as I am transitioning away from the Wolf of the Water Tribe's original narrative as it has just moved too far away from what I had originally envisioned at this time last year. One year ago - to the day - this was first uploaded to AO3 and that was where it began and grew but it has really flourished here on Fanfiction, and for that, I could never be more grateful. But I no longer believe that the story is what you, the reader, deserve. For that reason, I am in the process of rewriting this story with my wonderful, awesome beta Hkurtz2013 without whom I would not be half the writer I am today. I am so, so, so grateful that all of you have taken the time to read this fic and I apologize for the long update times but that was mostly due to the fact that I had not found a solid direction for the fic to take from where I had wanted it to go originally to where it's destined today.
I thank all my reviewers without whom I would be relaxed and happy to just spend my time doing something actually productive with my life instead of writing fanfiction but, as they say, part of the ship, part of the crew. I thank all my readers who are silent yet steady in reading, those who enjoy the work in peace. Now, we move onto the newly rewritten Wolf of the Water Tribe, another victim of 2020. I wish you all well and thank you all very much.
Wolf of the Water Tribe
"Enough!" Percy Jackson's voice thundered over the smoking battlefield. Iapetus stood by his side, his spear raised and ready as Percy's green eyes pulsed with an eerie light. The past three weeks had been nothing short of eternity for the mortal prince of the sea and storm, trapped in Tartarus with Annabeth for seventeen days only to watch her slowly slip into madness - and worse - courtesy of the pit and four days to reach Athens after escaping the pit. Annabeth was not as fortunate.
"That's enough, Gaia," Percy growled at the towering figure of the Earth mother, his sword - Riptide - gleaming and pointed directly at her chest with Poseidon's trident in his left hand, "I challenge you to single combat."
The last five mortals on the battlefield stared at the son of Poseidon like he was insane, but what could they do to stop him? Frank was missing his leg, Leo had a gash across his face running through his left eye, Piper was on her knees beside her mother at the feet of Periboia, and Hazel was relatively unharmed but her signature Spatha was missing as she laid in the dirt - semiconscious. Jason was the worst off though, his sword arm was severed at the elbow and his leg was obviously broken, his powers over the air the only thing keeping him aloft beside his father - Jupiter - who was staring at Percy the same way one would watch a train wreck knowing there was nothing they could do.
A strange feeling for the king of the Gods.
Poseidon fell trying to finally slay Polybotes. It took Him, Percy, and Iapetus, to succeed but the god of the seas paid with his life. Now Percy stood with his father's trident in one hand, his sword in the other, and the Titan of the West by his side. The Trident's prongs pulsing with grey-green light - the same color as the raging sea behind him while two pinpricks of light, one of gold and one of bronze, shone at his neck.
"What say you?" Percy's voice was resolute as his right arm pulsed with the same light the Trident gave off.
"You're a fool, boy," Gaia sneered, her own swirling green and brown eyes alight with madness and rage, "you think to challenge me!? The Primordial of Earth!? I'll give you this, whelp, Tartarus has either driven you mad or you have more courage than sense," she said with a predatory grin.
"I think to challenge the bitch who's responsible for my dad's death, who unleashed her forces on Annabeth and I, and who is trying to kill my family. Let's dance, bitch," he growled as the sea behind him exploded into a storm that blew over every Giant standing save Porphyrion who raised his shield and snarled a challenge to the raging storms only to be crushed by a rogue wave that carried Hazel, Frank, Leo, Jason, and Piper away from the fray while the gods held their ground. Immediately, the drowning giants were set on by the enraged Olympians who saw the opening Percy gave to them.
"My children!" Gaia screeched, closing her eyes to try and recall them from Tartarus only to open them in shock, "I can't feel them… What did you do to them, cur!?" the towering Primordial screeched.
"Cut their connection to you," Percy said with the Trident raised, "you command the ground, I command the seas - they died by my power and you won't feel them again unless you join them in Tartarus! Bob, go!" Percy roared and promptly used the gales to launch himself toward the Earth Mother as the Titan scrambled away.
XXX
With Frank…
I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Percy had launched himself at Gaia while the Olympians joined us on the top of the small hill we were standing on overlooking the beach. Jupiter was holding the gales back but he was obviously struggling to do so.
"What is this," Piper whispered, horrified.
"He's ascended…" Venus - 'Aphrodite, she's greek right now,' said in quiet awe, "no mortal has that kind of power. How'd he do it?"
"It's the Trident," dad said, his palms on the pommel of his bastard sword plunged into the ground in front of him, "it was Neptune's symbol, and now it's controlled by a mortal. Nothing like that has ever happened before. He truly commands the fury of the sea with that spear."
"What if he held your sword?" I couldn't help the question that spilled from my lips from while I sat on the ground, Apollo attending to my leg as quickly as he could.
"Then he would be able to command war itself, boy," Mars said in a quiet voice, "this sword once belonged to Kronos, Castellan called it Backbiter. It's the most potent symbol of war in this time."
My eyes widened in surprise as Jupiter twisted his javelin in his hands, the storm increased in intensity with lightning flashing and thunder clapping like mad. I couldn't help myself as I looked around to see a shield in Minerva's - 'Athena's,' I reminded myself - hands as Venus fiddled with a dagger of her own, one markedly similar to Piper's. Pluto appeared out of the air and stood beside Hazel, his hand going down to her shoulder as he tucked a helmet under his arm, the helm of darkness… I glanced around for any of the other gods but Apollo simply had a strung bow slung over his shoulder while Vulcan, Mercury, Diana, Juno, Ceres, and Bacchus were nowhere to be found.
I looked back out onto the battlefield and watched in curiosity mixed with horror as Riptide, Percy's faithful sword shattered like glass against a sword of Earth Gaia summoned. Percy didn't pause for a beat as he picked up a hammer from the battlefield and swung it with all his might, the Trident trapping Gaia's foot as the hammer slammed into her kneecap with a sickening crack and drawing a scream from the Earth goddess.
"That's dad's hammer," Leo said hoarsely. I glanced over at him and saw the tear falling from his intact eye. I cringed remembering how Porphyrion had run the God of the Forge through with his spear, "get the dirt bitch, Perce…" he whispered across the field and we could only watch as the hammer pulsed bright orange. I felt my jaw drop at the sight but the hammer wasn't nearly as potent as the trident was. I could only wonder why until I heard Leo mutter, "but was he..." the rest of his thought was cut off by the wind until:
"Zhang! You have to promote him!" I heard Jason's utterly desperate cry, he was the closest to Leo and I suddenly knew what he and Leo were getting at. That weapon wouldn't work for him if it was made for Vulcan since Percy was Greek, but if Percy was even considered Roman...
"Perseus Jackson!" I cried out as loudly as I could, praying he would hear me over the storm, "I, Frank Zhang, Praetor of the Twelfth Legion Fulminata, give you my final order: I resign my post and give you emergency field promotion to Praetor, with the full power of that rank! For Rome!" (Riordan - House of Hades).
Immediately, the fury of the storm picked up and the winds howled white as sheets of rain pelted against the shield that Jupiter strained to hold. For a fraction of a second, we watched the shield buckle against Percy's wrath. But as strong as the Storm was, Gaia was just stronger. Even while buffeted by the gale, she still managed to still beat Percy back inland.
And I wasn't the only one to notice.
Jupiter stepped forward through the veil of wind and water and threw his javelin toward Percy, falling to a knee as he did. Percy had to pause for a split second, the hammer falling from his fingers and disappearing into a ball of fiery orange as the spear streaked toward the two combatants.
The split-second of hesitation was all Gaia needed to drill a left cross into Percy's ribs. Percy flew into the waves as the bolt of lightning slammed into Gaia's wrist instead of into Percy's hand. With a flash of light brighter than the sun and a thunderclap louder than anything I had ever heard, Gaia fell to the floor screaming. But the bolt didn't return to Jupiter's hand. An imperial purple orb flew from the impact crater and into the waves.
No one knew what to do as Jupiter stood there with Gaia turning her full rage on him. Slowly, Athena stepped into the gale alongside her father. Mars, Pluto, and Venus soon followed suit and the five gods stood ready to weather whatever the Earth Mother would throw at them.
Athena broke the tenuous peace as she stepped forward and threw her shield at full strength. The Earth mother took the discus of bronze to the jaw but acted as if she didn't notice. The shield coalesced into an orb of grey light and streaked to where the Orb of Purple shot seconds before.
"Is that all you have? I expected better, little Olympians," was all Gaia said as dad and Venus stepped forward as Pluto disappeared into the gale, "so, the lovers come to die?"
"Not to die, Gaia," Mars said as he raised his sword higher, the dual metals glittering in flashes of lightning.
"But to avenge," Venus said.
"I am Mars Ultor. You have slain many, Gaia. This madness ends today."
"Something will," Gaia proclaimed as the two gods inexplicably charged down the Primordial. Mars swiped the sword through where Gaia's neck was as Venus tried to drive the knife into Gaia's good leg. It wasn't fast enough.
The love goddess took a boot to the face, her dagger flying through the air in a miasma of pink light toward the sea as Gaia was forced onto the defensive against Mars' fury. The god of war held nothing back as his sword clanked and clashed against the goddess's own sword of stone. The half steel, half celestial bronze sword - reworked by Hephestus into a slightly shorter blade - glowed crimson as Mars attacked.
Mars forced her back to the edge of the sea but was unable to hold the offensive long enough as Gaia sent a pillar of stone through his back and out his belly. I could only watch in horror as dad fell limp but pulled the Earth Goddess into the sea with him as Pluto came into view, shoving Gaia deeper into the drink by bodily tackling her. As that happened, Backbiter fell from dad's limp fingers as he weakly mouthed something - causing the blade to shoot like an arrow after Gaia in a haze of red in tandem a ball of black light that rose from the waves - almost mixing with the red sphere. Gaia's wake didn't even have time to settle as the sea erupted into a geyser of raging, roaring water and furious gales of wind.
Bur Gaia somehow rose, coughing and sputtering all the while but she somehow stood on the water's surface anyway. She glared at the eye of the Hurricane meters ahead of her and roared:
"Jackson! You challenged me to single combat yet you hide like a rat while these puny gods fight your battle! Come out and fight me!"
That taunt would be the last mistake she would ever make.
The sea parted before our eyes with a flash of blue-white light, revealing Percy standing on a wave, his eyes closed and his raven hair whipping in the wind. He opened his eyes and I heard Jupiter catch his breath only moments after he dragged Mars behind the shield as Pluto - who had reappeared at Jupiter's side as he was saving his son - did the same with Venus. The last of the seven stared in shock at the power Percy commanded, but there was something wrong…
"Look at his eyes," Piper said quietly. Lo and behold, his eyes were pulsing that same, strange white-blue, his usually green irises drowned under the light, "what happened to them?"
"I don't know but I think Gaia should run screaming. Have you ever seen Percy look so serious?" Leo said gravely but no one was able to answer before Neptune's trident appeared in his right hand in a flash of green light while Athena's shield appeared in his left with a flash of grey.
"Never," a weak voice said from behind us. I whipped my head around as quickly as I could and saw Reyna standing there, alone. I looked into her eyes and she shook her head slowly, I could only take a shuddering breath as I realized what she meant. "But if he's this angry, Gaia should be wary if he truly holds Neptune's Trident."
"You wanted this fight," Percy's voice rang with the chorus of a legion behind it, interrupting Reyna and making all of us stop short - including the gods. "It ends today," he said nothing else as he rocketed forward, his trident slamming into Gaia's chest with the force of a raging Drakon. The Trident sunk deep into her rock armor, drawing a scream of pain and hate from the dirt bitch. She grabbed the trident and ripped it from Percy's hands, disarming him but Percy was always a master of improvisation. He backhanded her with the shield even as she sent the Trident sailing into the sea, I couldn't help but flinch at the cannonlike sound of her jaw snapping and her howl of agonized rage. Percy flicked his hand and Backbiter appeared in his hand in a flash of red as a small ball of green light slammed into his chest. Percy brought the long blade up and down, the Earth Primordial barely managed to dodge out of the way but she lost her left arm for her trouble. My jaw fell as Percy tossed the sword to the side and the master bolt appeared in his hand in a flash of purple. He brought the javelin back and over, throwing it like a cannonball into the Primordial's chest where the Trident had impaled her just moments before. To my surprise, the Bolt didn't kill her but it did knock her back long enough for Percy to raise his hand and unleash a torrent of fire at the goddess.
"How did he do that!" Leo cried out, "no one should be able to do that!"
"He has the hammer," Apollo said as he rose from tending to Jason to get to Mars, "you know what a symbol of power can do and Percy commands the Trident, the Bolt, the Aegis, the Hammer, the Dagger, Backbiter, and the Helm of Darkness," Apollo said in an uncharacteristically serious tone as he knelt beside Mars, "and he may die for it…"
I felt my jaw slacken and eyes widen as I turned back to the raging fight, but Percy was nowhere in sight.
"Jackson!" Gaia howled as she looked around for Percy, I couldn't help but notice the storm was picking up in intensity. I sat in utter confusion as a gale visibly turned around and slammed into Gaia's chest, tossing her further out to sea as another gale whipped into her chest and threw her back toward us. I could barely track what happened as Percy reappeared in a miasma of black light as the hammer appeared in his with a short pulse of orange. I couldn't tell if lightning clapped at the same time Percy brought the fire-wreathed hammer down on the back of the Earth goddess's head or if the impact was just that terrible, the sound of impact could have easily been mistaken for a loud clap of thunder. There was another flash of purple and Percy was holding the bolt. He drew back his arm and deliberately cast it down on the rapidly falling Earth goddess.
We only heard the explosion of thunder mixed with Gaia's howl of pain for a split second before she crashed into the waves, but landed as if the raging, roiling water was solid land. I couldn't help but wince slightly but also couldn't tear my eyes away from Percy as he dove perfectly toward and into the water. I lost track of the fight for a beat as a pillar of ice, ice of all things, erupted from the sea, launching Gaia skyward again.
She came down screaming at Percy's feet. She staggered to her own feet, still standing defiant, but it didn't matter as Percy had retaken the trident with a flash of green and the shield in a pulse of grey.
"This is the end, Gaia," the voice of the legion boomed from Percy's lips as he braced his feet and pulled the spear back. The storm paused for a beat until he drove it forward in a concussive cone of light as the end of the duel was finally veiled by the raging storm.
Hazel tried to run through the shield Lord Jupiter created but Apollo jumped up and stopped her from doing it by grabbing her in a bear hug, "let me go!" she screamed, trying to get to Percy.
"If I let you go in there, you'll die, girl!" Apollo yelled, more panicked than I thought a god could be, "I haven't seen a storm like this since the Ninth disappeared," that got Hazel to stop struggling and we both understood completely.
Legio Novem, Hibernian, the Ninth Legion that marched into a thunderstorm, never to be seen again. A Legion famous for being composed of Demigods even more powerful than what made up Legio Duodecimus, Fulminata. They were considered to be Neptune's chosen troops until they disappeared beyond Hadrian's Wall without a trace. Not even a hidden camp like what the twelfth currently has, they just vanished - never to be seen again. And thus the legend began of the Lost Legion, a story told to all new campers at New Rome about marching into a storm without Jupiter's blessing.
A second later, there was another flash of that strange blue-white light streaked with green, grey, pink, purple, red, black, orange, bronze, and gold. As quickly as it appeared, the light vanished and the storm broke - disappearing like it was never there at all. The only evidence of the fight was the still raging waters and Gaia's unmoving body that washed onto shore with the surf. The earth's goddess' body was sickly and ashen grey, crumbling into ash mere seconds after washing up but Percy was nowhere to be found.
Apollo knelt down at Mars' side once again to finish his work on the God of War while the last five of the seven, Reyna, and the remaining gods stared out to sea, praying for a glimpse of our lost friend.
"Do not mourn him, Demigods," a gravelly voice said from behind us. I jerked around having completely forgotten the Titan that was with Percy, "the Storm took him and never again shall you see him - consider it a final kindness Chaos granted him."
"How so?" Jason asked cautiously, eyeing the Titan's spear wearily but I couldn't tear my eyes away from the purring kitten under his left arm. I just shook my head, the gods and titans could be weird like that.
"He did not tell you what happened to Miss Chase, did he?"
"No, he didn't," Hazel said in a weak voice.
"Then sit, gather round, and listen, children. I shall tell you the story of the final battle for the Pit. Valdez?"
Leo didn't even stop to think about it as he pulled a few wooden handled tools out of his magic belt and piled them up before pointing at them and hitting the pile with a small bolt of white fire. The tools erupted in a flash of fire before pulling down into a small campfire.
"Lady Hestia," Iapetus murmured as he knelt down by the fire, "would you join us?"
"It would be my pleasure, Bob," I jerked in surprise as a little girl appeared out of nowhere.
"Lady Vesta," Jason murmured, bowing his head.
"Reyna Ramírez-Arellano, Jason Grace, Frank Zhang, Hazel Levesque, Leo Valdez, and Piper McClean… I have wanted to meet you all for so very long, but not under circumstances such as these…" she said quietly and gazed over to where Apollo was helping Mars to his feet, the direction of the sea.
"Percy was a brave man," Iapetus said as he folded into Lotus position, the kitten clambering into his lap, "I thought Annabeth's death would kill him but it only strengthened his resolve, but he lost a part of himself when she was lost."
"Annabeth's dead!?" Leo barked, "I thought she was hurt but dead!? Di Immortales…"
"Aye," Iapetus said sagely, "a fighter to the end."
"What happened to her?" Piper asked in a strangely watery voice.
"For her and Perseus to survive Tartarus, one had to stay behind. A decision had to be made," the Titan said heavily.
"No," I said, shaking my head, "he'd have never left Annabeth down there on her own, no matter what happened."
"Aye," Iapetus said quietly, "originally, I was to stay. But Annabeth, in a madness gifted to her by the pit, decided to charge into a Horde of Monsters - alone, unarmored, and armed with a sword made of Drakon bone."
"Madness?" Jason said hollowly, "what the hell did they face down there?"
"They braved the House of Night, faced Akhlys, the Keres, and the hordes of Tartarus. We were assisted by Damasen - the Giant bane of Ares - in our struggle to escape, but Annabeth was unable to face the trials of Tartarus even with Perseus' assistance. I believe her mind began to fracture in the House of Night and the confrontation with Akhlys and the Keres certainly drove her into true madness. Even a mere glance at some of the terrors in the house of night can drive immortals mad. I believe she accidentally saw just a small portion of what it held before being tortured by the Keres. You know the old saying," Iapetus said toward the gods. Hestia nodded heavily.
"To stare into the Night is to invite horror… though, I believe the mortals have a saying of their own? 'Sometimes the Abyss stares back.' She always tried to protect him, even though he was much better suited to protect her," Hestia said wearily before turning her eyes to Iapetus, "where is she now?"
"Elysium, I believe. I thought I had managed to tether her soul to the underworld before her final stand."
"Good… She deserves that much," Hestia said quietly, Pluto, though, was suspiciously quiet as he templed his fingers under his chin with his face a mask of concentration as he frowned deeply.
"Do we know where Percy is?" Reyna asked weakly, Apollo tending to her wounds as her pain filled brown eyes met Hestia's mournful ones and immediately we all knew the answer.
"Beyond," Jupiter rumbled as he knelt beside Jason, "beyond our plane or beyond our reach though? That is the question we must answer."
"Beyond our plane?" Leo asked slowly, "like parallel worlds?"
"Aye," Mars growled as Venus helped him to the small campfire, "we are aware of at least fourteen seperate realms that are only accessible when we have our symbols of power, but some are restricted to us, boy. Of the fourteen realms we know of: nine are on this plane and only the Norse can tread eight of them while you stand on Midgard, three can be accessed only after certain rituals at certain times, while the last has been barred to us entirely. It's been theorized that this is only until a set of circumstances in that realm have been achieved, but we have no way of knowing this to be true. Our best chance at locating that particular realm before those circumstances were dealt with was Neptune and he, too, is beyond our reach. Do you understand, boy?" Leo nodded hesitantly and Mars grunted approvingly before he soldiered on. "That being said, we would need our Symbols to so much as begin the search. My symbol is not as restricted as others, the other Olympians are aware that I change symbols based on the strongest, most violent conflict we were most recently engaged in - that is how I came to own Backbiter. Jupiter conditionally allowed me to wield the blade as it represents the conflict between man and gods along with gods and titans. Right now, it, along with the Bolt and the other symbols are now with Percy who is beyond us for at least a century if he is not in a realm unknown or barred."
"A century? Why so long?" Leo asked as Jason sat quietly off to the side with Piper.
"We'll need time to forge and consecrate new symbols, boy," Athena said quietly, "those are not easily replaced, save for Mars' weapon of power. And you assume he's in our reach at all, we were never able to find the Ninth Hibernian - this should tell you of how slim the odds are to find one man in realms unchartable."
"Aye," Pluto growled and changed the conversation's track before Leo could have another outburst, "my symbol will have to become the sword Jackson retrieved with the Chase girl, the blade my own wife had forged without my knowledge." The Lord of the dead snarked, visibly tense at the mention of the sword.
"The Telkhines or Cyclopes will be busy… And Triton and Amphitrite must be informed of what has happened here today, I doubt we will see Neptune again," Jupiter said heavily.
"You believe he has faded?" Venus asked, aghast.
"Aye," Mars said quietly, "but how did Jackson claim our symbols?"
"The ancient laws," Jupiter said quietly, "you know what it states if a Primordial becomes belligerent. We are allowed to choose a champion, I believe Perseus made the choice for us. When Gaia defeated us, or if we threw away our weapons, they went to the only fighter still standing and in possession of a weapon of power. Or potentially the one who challenged her to single combat…" Jupiter said as he stroked his beard thoughtfully.
"Indeed, Lord Jupiter," Iapetus said solemnly, "now we must ask a potentially unanswerable question, where is Percy now?"