Percy, Reyna and Jason walked slower than the other group, which Percy now realized were Greek demigods. He still wasn't completely trustworthy, but wasn't declining their help.
"Guys." Percy started, halting Reyna and Jason, "If Atlas show himself and asks for a fight, we fight him together. I do not trust these other demigods to be strong enough to defeat a titan." Reyna nodded, and Jason clapped Percy's back.
"Aye aye, Captain." Jason saluted. They continued walking, where both groups stopped at large gates connecting a big black wall.
"Anyone?" the blonde demigod asked. Jason stepped forward, flipping his coin. His gold sword appeared, much to the surprise of the Greeks.
"If I may," Jason said. He raised his sword to the sky, and thunder clapped above them. He point his sword at the door, and lightning began to thrash the gate, until it broke open. The lightning stopped. They walked forward, and before them were dozens of monsters, from hellhounds to cyclops to telkhines, all scrambling to get into a fighting position. The Lieutenant of Artemis pointed forward, where Percy clearly saw a certain goddess holding the sky.
"Fight to Artemis!" Artemis?
Percy raised his trident, "For the Twelfth Legion!" he screamed, and pushed forward. He was ruthless, cutting down giants, cyclops, hellhounds alike. He burned through the group like it was nothing, creating a pathway to the goddess, where Zoe Nightshade ran forward, kneeling before the goddess.
"Lady Artemis!" Zoe said worryingly.
"It is a trap Zoe. Atlas… is…" she barely got out, before the titan emerged from the temple right next to where Artemis was holding the sky.
"Demigods! I hope you are here to swear loyalty to Kronos…" he grumbled off, smirking at the group. Percy stepped forward. The blonde girl tried to grab his shoulder, but he shrugged her off.
"Atlas!" he called to the titan.
"Ah, the son of Neptune. How good to see Romans and Greeks fighting alongside each other. Unfortunately, after I slaughter you and your friends, nobody will know of such reunions." He said, stepping towards Percy. Percy was tall, nearly six-foot-four now, but the titan was over seven feet tall. Percy was intimidated, truthfully, but didn't care.
"The last titan to challenge me was Iapetus, and I don't know if you got his letter, but he's dead." Percy said jokingly. Atlas growled.
"You'll pay for what you did to my brother." He said, and another person stepped out from the shadows, standing next to Atlas. Percy recognized him as another demigod. He had blue eyes, and blonde hair, with an orange t-shirt.
"Luke?" the blonde girl yelled at the guy, and 'Luke' laughed.
"Annabeth, how nice of you to bring friends." Percy hated his voice instantly. "Perseus Jackson! I've heard so much of you from my master." The guy said, pointing his sword at Percy.
"Should I know you?" He asked, and Luke smirked.
"No, I believe not. But I know you." Percy sighed.
"Look man, I'm here for a titan, not a demigod. If you want to fight, I'm sure we can schedule something…" Percy trailed off, a smile creeping onto his face. He turned to Jason, whose eyebrow raised at him.
"Sneak behind Atlas." He whispered, and Jason nodded, walking back to where they came from. He turned back to the titan and the demigod, shrugging. "Look, I'm on a time crunch, we've got a goddess to save. Are we doing this or what?" he said, and Atlas growled, walking towards Percy, who readied his trident. Atlas lunged first, going for Percy's midsection, who dodged and poked at Atlas's defense.
The courtyard turned into mayhem. He didn't look, or care, frankly, to see what the Greeks were doing, but he and Reyna were locked in a dance with Atlas, who was barely handling the two of them. Percy's mind was on autopilot, attacking with aggressiveness he wasn't known for. He knew Atlas was outnumbered, giving him more room to operate. He got a little to close to the titan, who managed to bat him away. He growled and turned to the Greeks, they were locked in battle with other demigods.
"Thalia!" Percy yelled, and the daughter of Zeus snapped to him. "Take the sky from Lady Artemis. They are at the advantage, and we need to tip the scales." Percy said hastily, but Thalia stood shocked. Percy walked to her. "You are a daughter of Zeus. I don't know much about the Greek world, but if it's anything like mine, he's a powerful god. You're a powerful demigod. Go free your goddess." He hissed at her, and Thalia nodded. Percy was pretty sure it wasn't from confidence, but because of fear. He wasn't good at pep-talks. Thalia ran to the goddess, and Percy rejoined Reyna in fighting Atlas. Reyna was holding her own, until she glanced at Percy, and was swatted back by the dull of Atlas's spear.
"I'll kill you for hurting her." Percy growled, and Atlas laughed, blocking an attack from Percy.
"Care for the daughter of Bellona now do we. Maybe I'll have fun with her after I've killed you!" Atlas snapped, pressing forward on Percy, who barely managed to dodge an attack, but the next caught him off guard. Before he knew it, Atlas's spear was sticking through his stomach, and the Titan was laughing. He left the spear in Percy, walking to the demigod, his joy evident.
"You may have killed Iapetus, but you'll never defeat me." Atlas spat, and Percy recoiled back.
"You-you need a breath mint." Percy whispered, low on strength. He managed to raise his arm, pointing behind Atlas. "You-al-also have bigger pro-problems." He said, smiling. Atlas turned, and his smile faded, seeing Jason and Artemis standing side-by-side, staring down the titan.
"It appears I have bigger fish to fry, son of Neptune." Atlas said, twisting the spear out of Percy's gut, who fell to the ground, a smile plastered on his face. Atlas turned away, and Percy heard the stomping of feet coming towards him. He turned to his left and saw Reyna unconscious.
'Percy!' a voice called, but he wasn't paying attention. All he saw was Reyna, as well as Atlas failing to hold off the Olympian and Jason. He heard Atlas cry in pain but didn't know how much time had passed.
'Percy!' the same voice. He felt a hand on his shirt and his senses came back slightly.
'Get water!' He noticed that there was no feeling in his arm. His body wasn't healing.
You've become too reliant on self-harm, Perseus, to a point where regular harm can't summon it. We can work on it when you get back.
The familiarity of himself brought him back to the real world. He heard Atlas and Artemis still fighting, and saw Jason knocked out.
Perseus. I need your help. A woman's voice said in his head. Artemis, he assumed. He looked, and she was losing the fight to Atlas.
'I can help, but you must swear on the Styx to not paint me as a criminal, or an enemy afterwards.' He thought back, and he could feel her pride brimming in his mind.
Fine.
"Knife. Get me… a knife…" Percy growled, barely sitting up. The blonde girl, Annabeth, stood above him. She took out her knife and handed it to him, questioningly. He raised it to his left palm, before closing his hand around the blade. He lifted his shirt into his mouth, giving him something to bite. He slashed the knife out, cutting his hand open, screaming into the roll of cloth in his mouth.
"Hades! What are you doing?" Annabeth asked, yanking the knife from his hand. His shirt still in his mouth, he smiled at her. The darkness started to come from the wound, spiraling up his body faster than he'd ever seen it do before. It came to his gut, where he instantly felt the wound close. He sat up fully, and sat for another moment, regaining some energy.
"What in Zeus' name was that, Percy?" the demigod boy, Nico, asked. He ignored him.
He stood and held his hand out. His trident flew to him, and he walked forward.
"Atlas!" he yelled, and the Olympian and Titan stopped fighting. Atlas frowned.
"I killed you." Atlas growled. Percy laughed at him.
"Clearly, you are mistaken. I am not dead!" he said, and the darkness spiraled down his leg, and to his other arm. Percy raised his trident, cocking it back, and throwing it at the titan, running in sync with the throw. Atlas managed to deflect it, but Percy summoned his whip from his ring, cracking at the legs of the titan. Atlas stumbled back, snarling at Percy. He charged the demigod, but Percy raised his hand, and tendrils of darkness started to slash and whip at the Titan, who couldn't dodge all the attacks. Percy controlled the power, forcing it to lock Atlas's limbs in place, just like how his other self-did with Iapetus. Atlas struggled against the restraints, sputtering nonsense. Percy summoned his trident, and threw it into the Titan's chest, who screamed in pain. Atlas fell backwards, Percy's trident five inches deep in his chest.
"You fought well, Atlas." Percy said, walking to Atlas's head. "You've made your brethren proud, I'd believe. At least, I'm not the worst demigod you could've lost to." He said nonchalantly, before taking the spear out of Atlas's chest, who cried once more at the pain. "I believe I won't see you until I'm sixteen, Atlas. I enjoyed this battle. Thank you for the challenge." He said, raising the Trident.
"Halt, demigod." Artemis commanded, and the trident lowered. "We need him alive. Your fellow demigod cannot hold the weight of the sky for eternity." Percy looked, and Thalia was struggling. His eyes widened. "And I've lost my Lieutenant already. Nobody needs to die anymore." Percy saw the lifeless form of Zoe Nightshade in the background. He didn't really know her, but he understood she was a fierce warrior, and got a hero's death.
"Yes, Lady Diana." Her form flickered and her hand went to her head. "Lady Artemis. My apologies." The goddess glared at him.
"Get the titan back to his burden." She hissed. Percy nodded, and he and the goddess, along with the son of Hades threw the titan under the sky, and helped Thalia out.
"Thalia! Are you okay?" The son of Hades, Nico, ran to the girl. Nico kneeled next to her, and Thalia nodded.
"Just… tired." She said, before passing out. Percy had since left the Greeks, meeting with a now-awake Jason tending to Reyna.
"What's the status, boss?" Percy asked, and knelt next to Jason, who was bandaging a wound in her gut.
"She'll be fine, but I imagine you two won't be able to do any shenanigans for a bit." Jason said, a smirk forming on his sweaty face. Percy punched his shoulder. "What you did there was crazy, Percy. Even Diana was losing to Atlas." Percy nodded, looking into the ground.
"I hate that I had to rely on it to win, though. I was dead to rights to Atlas, and if I wasn't my father's son I would've died." Percy growled, and Jason stepped back from Reyna's form.
"All done." He said quietly and turned to a still-knelt Percy. "You need to stop being so hard on yourself for having the powers of whoever, whatever your father is. Just because he never helped you doesn't mean you can't use what I assume he gave you to help others." Percy looked at the blonde boy, and smiled.
"Thanks, Jason. Needed that."
"Of course. I am, after all, the best pep-talker in the Legion." Percy laughed.
"Demigods! We must get to Olympus!" Artemis called to them two, and Percy stood. They picked up Reyna's unconscious form and walked her to the demigods & goddess.
"If I wasn't aware of your connection, I'd slaughter you for touching an unconscious woman, Perseus." Artemis growled at him, and Percy almost cowered in fear.
"Apologies, milady." Percy nervously mumbled, and he felt his body dissolving.
sorry for not posting over the weekend, got a little lazy :)