Interlude III
The sea was calm in the early afternoon. A tall man wearing short pants and an open Hawaiian shirt took a puff out of his cigar while he stared at the horizon as the landscape behind him burnt.
His black hair waved loosely in the wind, and he rejoiced for a moment as he felt the sand in his toes. He sighed heavily as he closed his eyes and remembered all that had gotten him where he was.
He had always been hailed as he strongest, but only he knew it was a lie. He had faced down countless opponents, monsters of the worst kind, even remnants of the Titans -or worse, the Giants- yet he would always remember the first time he lost and the woman who had defeated him.
Sally Jackson, so beautiful, so untameable. When he walked the halls of Olympus, Poseidon needn't to speak the word and he would have lines of women and even men begging him to take them, yet it was the one woman who had never showed interest in him that had captured his heart. What was more surprising, the woman was human. Mortal. Blind.
Perhaps that was the reason he was immediately drawn to her? After being surrounded by so many powerful people, woman and men who flaunted their power to see who was the strongest, it was the one who didn't have anything to prove who caught his eye that day in the New York café.
He had been exhausted after a raid. He remembered vividly the twenty seven monsters he had killed that day, they were some of the worst. Before heading to Olympus, however, Poseidon wanted a few minutes to rest, a few minutes outside of the world of Gods amongst humans. He had begun to grow tired of them. Their jealousy, their corruption. So he had sought a small café on the other side of Long Island. That was when he met her.
Sally Jackson had taken the breath out of him like a punch from Ares. In three seconds she had managed to incapacitate Poseidon merely by looking at him. She was more beautiful than Aphrodite, kind as Hestia herself, and he would later learn that she was fiercer than Athena and Artemis combined.
At first she hadn't paid attention to him, however when he had begun to visit the place too often she called his bluff. She had asked him if he liked the coffee so much that he had gone there every day for a week. When he had stuttered an answer -he had stuttered!- she merely laughed and told him to meet her after her shift.
They had become a couple after that.
For months they had gone out in secret. Sally's parents were quite protective of her and wanted her to marry a monster by the name of Gabe Ugliano, some heir to a computer company. Poseidon, on the other hand, had responsibilities of the Guild, something he had not told her about. In fact, Poseidon had hidden his entire Enlightened life from her, fearing she would run away.
One night, however, Poseidon walked back to Olympus alone and heard a scream coming from an alley near Sally's work place. He had wanted to ignore it, yet his fatal flaw of Justice had kicked in, and he had gone to check it out.
What he had discovered made his blood boil, and for the first time Poseidon had felt the darkness within the light. Three men were accosting Sally, they had the signature Tattoos of the Cyclops, an eye within a triangle, and were about to rip her clothes off.
Poseidon had jumped in, and without warning had slayed the three men with his bare hands. Sally was shocked, and when she asked him what he was, he was forced to tell her he was a Hunter, and Enlightened fighting for Olympus.
He thought he had lost her, seeing her in fear of his power. Yet she hadn't. She had embraced him, and whispered that she understood. In return he had begged her to hate him, he was a monster after all. She merely took his face in her hands and smiled at him, telling him he wasn't a monster if he had protected her.
That was the day Poseidon decided he would tear the world down if it meant having Sally. He nearly had.
When his father had found out, he wasn't happy. And he grimaced as the memories of the duel with Zeus and Hades came to his mind. Those memories always made him uncomfortable. There was a moment, a single period where the scenes within his mind didn't line up. Zeus and Hades fighting him, then Hades in the floor bleeding out and Zeus with a hand to his eye. What had happened?
Poseidon sighed and took another puff, he then sensed something behind him and exhaled the smoke in preparation.
"You destroyed a very beautiful landscape in an otherwise not so beautiful country to draw me out." A man said, "I must say, is this really the way a Hunter of Olympus should be acting?"
"I am no Hunter." Poseidon said.
"Clearly not." The man replied, "Many would call you a Monster for what you did here today. I respect the thought, however. Tell me, are you sure you're not one of them?"
"I have wondered that myself many times, however the thing that differentiates me and a monster is that I do not enjoy the pain I cause."
"Are you sure about that?" the man asked again, and Poseidon turned to face him. "Look around you, Earthshaker! We stand amongst ruins, amongst corpses of thousands, you and me both. We are monsters, and the sooner you admit it the better you will sleep at night."
They shared a look, and Poseidon took in the features of the man he was about to kill. He was not tall, average height. His dark curls fell from his head in patches, and his eyes seemed crazed and glazed over with exhilaration.
"I have only one question for you. Where are the Titans?" Poseidon asked.
"Is that really what you wish to ask me, Earthshaker?" the man said, "I know you for a cautious man, and I respect your determination. But I am not stupid, and I feel terribly insulted that you question my intelligence in this way. Let's try again, shall we?"
Poseidon thought for a moment, and then the question came to him.
"Why are they looking for it?" he asked.
"Ah," the man said, "Now that is the true question, isn't it?"
"Enough games, Iapetus. Answer me." Poseidon flared his power, and the man flinched in front of him.
"No need for that…" Iapetus said, "You see, you and I both know what the Titans are after, and you and I both know where it is. However, what you don't know and I do is that the first Titans were incredibly smart, prodigies even. They were ruthless, sanguinary, yes, even downright evil, but they did great things. They erected Olympus, Othrys, Underworld and Atlantis, they found ways to use Enlightenment that hadn't been thought of before! They werw, for all intent and purpose, gods. Yet what does a god fear, Earthshaker? What does a god Covet? I will give you a hint, it is the same thing you fear."
Poseidon's eyes narrowed.
"What do you know?"
"Oh, nothing." Iapetus smiled, "Only that you left your precious home fifteen years ago with the honourable idea of finding the titans and ending them, just like the prophecy promised. However that wasn't the real reason why you left, wasn't it? No, something else was driving you too. I wonder which one was the side mission? What do you really want? Is it truly to protect your family, or is it perhaps…power?"
Poseidon snapped his fingers, immediately a beautiful sea blue trident formed on his hands from the foam of the sea. He pointed it towards Iapetus' throat, and the man's eyes widened in fear.
"I grow tired of your games, Iapetus. I know you and your ilk do not take sides, but consider this me forcing you to side with me. Now answer! Why do the titans want the Scythe?"
"You're asking the wrong questions, Earthshaker! I can't tell you why they want it because we swore to protect the knowledge! We created the weapon for Saturn, we forged it from the pits of Damnation itself, the power of Domination courses through the cursed blade, souls to gather!" Iapetus was growing crazier with every minute. "The Scythe is a masterpiece, a beauty, a creation of the devil itself! I already told you the answer, Earthshaker, it is now up to you to figure it out. What does a god fear?"
Poseidon was about to strike him, however something grabbed him from his shirt and threw him towards the ocean. He fell with a splash, his trident dissipating next to him.
"Hehe…they found us." Iapetus laughed in a crazed voice. That man was losing his mind quicker than he thought. "I wish you luck in your search, Poseidon. Your only chance is to decipher the mystery before he finds it first. For if he does…the Great Five will become Four!"
Poseidon stared towards the man, but a huge creature stood in front of him. It was bigger than any human Poseidon had seen. Its chest large, his arms the size of watermelons. His head was covered in a metallic helm, and he carried with him a bloody axe almost as tall as Poseidon himself. He knew well who this was.
"Pallas the Cruel…" he breathed. "Born a Titan…trained by Giants…"
"Earthshaker." Pallas said. Poseidon narrowed his eyes. This was not going to be an easy fight, after all Pallas was not a simple Hunter anymore.
"I see you've thrown your lot with the Titans."
"The titans threw their lot with me, little Godling, I suggest you kneel and beg me not to kill you."
"I was about to suggest the same." Poseidon's eyes glowed, and with a powerful lunge, the ocean exploded in wrath.
A few hours later Poseidon threw the remainder of his Hawaiian shirt to the sand. He looked behind him, where the body of Pallas lay unmoving, dead, with his broken axe stabbing him through the chest, and his legs missing. The crater around them was beginning to flood, and it was a pity that even more of the landscape had been destroyed.
He had learned much from this day.
During his battle with Pallas, he had realized something. There was a moment, a fleeting moment, where the mad-dog of the Titans had truly felt fear. It was when Poseidon had seized control of his Enlightenment. He had become mortal, normal, a human, for a fleeting moment. It didn't last more than a few seconds, the trick took too much of Poseidon, but he had seen true fear and he knew it.
"What does a god fear?"
"Power." Poseidon realized. "A god fears a being more powerful, and he fears loosing that power."
He could hear, within his head, Iapetus congratulating him for putting the pieces together.
"Yet how does—"
That's when it hit him. That's when the puzzle became complete. His eyes widened, and Poseidon cursed Iapetus for he was right. Poseidon felt fear at the thought of what was coming. He was a God, and he was afraid of only one thing.
"I need to find the scythe." Poseidon said, clear urgency in his voice. He had to make it his priority, but getting to where it was would be no easy task. Yet he had to try.
With a powerful lunge, Poseidon jumped into the sea.
He needed to find it before he did, for if he didn't…
"May the Gods help us all…" Poseidon thought, swallowing the terror that had begun to grow in his throat.
Let us talk.
So there are a few things that I want to address in this week's A/N.
First is the issue of Pairing. While many of you have been quoting me on previous A/N of the pairing and calling me out for it, I would invite you to go read Chapter 8's A/N again, then read it again, and once more for good measure. I have never hidden the fact that the final pairing of the STORY will be Percabeth. By the end of book 3, the final chapter, Percy and Annabeth will be together. That is how I always intended my STORY to end. Now, this current BOOK is a start on the relationship between Bianca and Percy and for this BOOK they will be a couple, but since a very select group of people cannot handle this uncertainty I think its my job to explain how relationships work both in-world and IRL.
Relationships aren't a magical match made in heaven. They happen through time, they take work, and they develop slowly. Sometimes we rush into things, and while in the beginning everything looks magical and beautiful, soon enough you start to realize that you don't quite know the person on the other end. It often happens that the person who we are fated to be with is not the person who we intend to match. You realize that perhaps your true love is not who you are currently dating, but someone else from your circle or someone you haven't even met. I have always disliked having stories where the characters have only 1 love interest and they basically form a love-at-first-sight to high-school-sweetheart romance. I find it unrealistic, its very strange that it happens like this. Love comes in different forms, sometimes unexpectedly, and this is the type of love I want to explore in my series.
Harry Potter dated Cho Chang before he dated Ginny Weasley, Percy Jackson had a fling with Rachel before he dated Annabeth, and most stories who try to tackle teenage love in a sort-of realistic way try to show that who we start is not usually who we end up with. Keep that in mind next time you send me an angry PM about how i'm changing the pairings on my story. I have been very open about it, and will continue to do so. This Book, Book 1, has Percy and Bianca dating. It will be nice, it will be fluffy, but it will not be perfect. Book 2 will see these imperfections amplify, and book 3 will see Percy and Annabeth get together. What happens in book 2? I guess you have to wait and figure it out.
Another thing I want to talk about is for all of those out there who intent to write their own stories. Don't get attached to what you write the first time, because most likely you will end up scrapping it anyways. It happened to me, I read over my drafts of Part II and decided that I didn't like it, so I deleted everything and now i'm rewriting everything. I'm six chapters in! There is much more meat added to Part II than I originally intended and this is fine, i'm happy with how its looking. So if you ever need advice on writing, is 'just write'. Editing comes later. Have your story written down and add onto that, and if it comes that you want to delete everything, that's fine too, because you already have your skeleton down.
Finally, someone mentioned that they feared that I wouldn't finish this story. While I don't intend to stop, there is a possibility that something happens that takes away my time from writing. If the moment ever comes where I don't continue writing, I will release the full plotting outline of book 1 and my notes on book 2 and 3 so that someone else may adopt it and finish it. :)
And that concludes this week's A/N. I think I had to address some of the...more heated comments that I received both in review and internally. All I can say is that everything will make sense. You are trusting me to write a story that you want to read, all I'm asking is that you trust me a little more and wait. Everything will come full circle, the insight that I give in this A/N may be subject to change, yes, but it is also me trusting you with some things that have me excited and keep me motivated to write. Its an insight into things that I want you to get excited about, not fight or get angry. Don't take them as fact, as they haven't been written yet, and don't take them as silly ramblings because they are influencing the story.
There are a thousand things I want to say, but I want to keep you on the edge of your seats. I want you to be excited, and I want you to be happy with my story. Let us be happy together. Next week I begin publishing Part II, and I have a feeling you're going to like some of the reveals.
Stay safe, respect each other, and happy reading.
- CML
