People! A friend has pointed out to me something that saddens me greatly- by avoiding smelly Gabe I made it so Sally never got the chance to be the ultimate badass and murder her abusive husband! Which was just iconic as her. All abusive husbands should be murdered. I apologise for the oversight lol. But yeah, now I'm sad we won't get to see any Jackson killing their partner- but I mean let's face it, Perachelbeth, Solangelo, Thaluke, Caleo and Sally/Paul are all goals. And they haven't even all officially become couples yet. Also, I'm curious, should Drew be a happy single in the future or should she fall in love and who should it be with? Anyways, please please do read and review, it means a lot to me.
Percy was moving almost instantly, pushing away her pain- she was good at that. She needed to stop Iapetus from killing Bianca- who Iapetus was attacking. He slashed at her with his spear and Bianca leaped out of the way, drawing her knives- but she'd never last against a Titan Percy was sure of that much.
She spotted Ethan going to draw his sword- and Nico noticed too, yelling, "I don't think so!" and the ground erupted in front of the son of Nemesis, three armored skeletons climbing out and engaging Ethan, pushing him back.
"Neeks! The sword!" Percy called back, and he nodded, scrambling towards it.
And Thalia was following Percy's lead, rushing at the Titan- but Percy reached him first, her white knuckle grip on Riptide the only giveaway of the fact that her shoulder was agony, and she launched herself at him, stabbing downwards and impaling the blade in the Titan's calf.
He let out a scream of pain, golden ichor gushing from the wound. Iapetus whirled and the shaft of his spear slammed into Percy's chest, sending her flying, knocking Thalia over with a flailing arm as she flew backwards and she crashed into the rocks right next to the River Lethe.
"That's it!" there was fury in the Titan's voice, "You'll pay for that girl! I don't care if my brothers wants to marry you!" he roared the words as he hobbled towards Percy.
Thalia was scrambling to her feet, trying to get his attention by zapping him with an arc of electricity from her spear- but she might as well have been a fly for all the effect it had on him. "I'll kill you first and then I will kill your friends and cast your souls into the eternal darkness of Tartarus."
And Percy was dizzy- she could barely see her vision was so fuzzy, let alone move, though she had enough presence of mind to blurt out, "You wouldn't be the first to try. It'd be better than marrying your brother." if she'd been thrown any further she'd have fallen into the river head first and she wasn't sure she'd have had the presence of mind to use her powers to shield herself from the water.
She blinked rapidly, trying to clear her vision as her mind raced.
Well. It was an idea. Probably not a good one as such but it was definitely an idea. She swallowed hard. He was already angry. She needed to make him angrier, make him act rashly. "You're even uglier than your son you know that. I see where he gets his stupidity from. I'm the one who freed Artemis so she could kick his ass you know-"
Iapetus snarled and limped forward, raising his spear- and she could hear the screams from the others.
Percy lurched sideways. The shaft impaled the ground right next to her. She reached up and grabbed his shirt collar, gripping it tightly, a grim smile on her lips. He was off balance from the attack, and he was hurt, it was the best chance any of them were likely to get against him.
He tried to regain his footing, his eyes widening in panic as he realized what she was about to do but she didn't give him the chance to react.
She pulled him forward with all of her body weight. He stumbled and fell, grabbing Percy's arms in his panic, and together they pitched into the Lethe.
They hit the water hard and Percy focused desperately on staying dry- and it did, she felt herself sinking to the bottom of the river but she was dry, and she could remember anything- and even better she had the Titan by the shirt collar still.
She let out a breathless little laugh, a disbelieving noise.
The current of the river should have ripped the Titan out of her hands but somehow it was channelling itself around Percy, leaving her alone.
She used the last of her strength to climb out of the river, dragging Iapetus with her with her good arm- the other arm was hanging limp and useless at her side.
When they were finally out they collapsed on the riverbank, Percy perfectly dry and the Titan dripping wet, his pure silver eyes as big as moons.
She managed to lift her head and she gave a weak grin at the sight that met her. The others had all rushed towards the river when they'd seen her hauling the Titan in, and they gaped at her in amazement, looking down at them both.
And Nico was clutching the sword of Hades tightly. "Did- did you just do what I think you just did?"
"I think she did." Thalia breathed the words, "I think I speak for all of us when I say what the actual-"
"She- she just beat-" Bianca was cut off by Iapetus sitting up and looking around- he spotted Percy and gave a wide, innocent smile that was incredibly different than the looks he'd given her less than five minutes earlier.
"Hello. Who am I?"
And Percy was speaking before she even thought about what she was going to say. "You're my friend of course. Bob. Your name is Bob-" and Nico let out a choked little laugh, and she spotted Bianca kicking Thalia's ankle to stop her from bursting out laughing.
And the Titan for his part seemed incredibly happy at that, his face lighting up. "I am your friend. Bob!"
"Only you Percy." Nico managed after a moment, his voice incredulous, "Only you."
"You are Percy?" Iapetus- though now, strangely enough, Bob seemed to suit him better, "You are my friend."
"That's right." Percy sat up herself, wincing in pain- and honestly the fact that she was awake right now was a miracle in and of itself, and she looked around, eyes narrowing,
"Where's Nakamura. I wanted to shove my sword where the sun doesn't shine-"
And Nico winced, "I'm sorry- I would have had him but- then I saw you going in and-"
"You got distracted and he got away." Percy let out a breath, "Well at least we've got the sword right?"
"Yeah." Nico lifted it slightly, "We did it. We actually did it."
"And Percy made a new friend." Bianca shook his head, "I know I went on one quest with you and it was crazy but- is it always like this?"
"Pretty much." Nico nodded, "I feel like you dodged a bullet by joining the hunters." he gave her a faint smile, though Bianca flinched.
"I left you though-"
"Bi, we've been through this." Nico's voice was soft, "I forgave you for that and I'm happy now and so are you."
"I'm proud of you. You know that?"
"You were both pretty good today." Thalia spoke up, "So what next?"
"I'm not gonna be able to do much walking." Percy admitted, "And I definitely can't get us across again." she could barely even sit up- even doing that much was agony.
"Percy is in pain?" Ia- Bob frowned, his eyes focusing on her, "But Percy is my friend."
"It's okay big guy." and weirdly enough his innocence almost reminded her of Tyson so she gave him a small smile, "I have a bad shoulder is all- some monsters attacked me earlier."
The Titan frowned before he reached out slowly, pressing his finger to Percy's shoulder- and it took all of Percy's willpower not to panic and pull away- he had tried to kill her recently, it was a perfectly reasonable reaction!
"You have an owie." he could see the blood that had started coming through the white bandages, "I can fix it-" and Percy's mouth dropped open in shock when suddenly the pain faded. She glanced at the others- and they looked just as stunned and uncertain as her at that.
"I can send word to dad." Nico managed after a moment, "He can send someone to get us and help us across. I'm not sure about... Bob."
"We're not leaving him here." Percy declared, "No way-" the Titan had sat back and he was examining the rocks curiously- a wondrous look on his face.
He might not be a baby but he was like a little kid, all filled with joy and curiosity for the world.
"I'll tell him to make sure he sends someone who can get all five of us back." Nico decided, running his fingers through his dark hair, quickly summoning up a ghost and sending it off to report to his father.
Then he was moving to sit down next to Percy, who felt a thousand times better thanks to Bob.
"We should have a lift pretty soon." he handed her the sword, "You should give it to him-"
"Nico-"
"It's not like I need to prove myself." Nico gave a small shrug, "I know dad loves me and he's proud of me. And you're the only reason we managed to get the damn thing-"
"You'd have got it without me-"
"Percy without you I'd have been killed." Bianca pointed out, "And we'd have never gotten past the Lethe-"
"Eh, I dunno." Thalia's voice was teasing, "I think she was pretty useless."
"Don't be mean." Bob's eyes narrowed at Thalia. "Percy is my friend. I like Percy-"
"It's okay Bob." Percy patted his arm comfortingly, "Thalia's family. She's just teasing me."
"Thalia is a friend too?"
"Yeah." Percy nodded, "And so are Nico and Bianca. Nico's my little brother," She pointed to Nico, who raised a hand and gave a little awkward wave, "And Bianca is a friend and she's Nico's sister."
Bob stared at them for a moment before beaming widely.
"I have lots of friends."
"Yeah." Bianca nodded, "We're all your friends." Then- in an act of kindness that Percy would remember forever, Bianca crouched in front of Iapetus, smiling warmly at him, "Do you want to see my bow and arrow Bob?"
"Oooh. Yes please." the Titan beamed, and Percy watched as Bianca talked to him warmly while Thalia shifted and moved so that she could sit down on Percy's other side.
"Okay. So, let's just recap. We just fought a Titan."
"Yeah." that came from Nico."
"And instead of us getting killed, Percy managed to drag him into the Lethe and erase his memory."
"She did." Nico's voice was amused, if still somewhat disbelieving.
"And when they got out of the Lethe, said Titan who was literally trying to brutally murder us was completely memoryless so Percy decided to call him Bob-"
"You try coming up with a better name after all I've been through. You're lucky I was awake to even come up with a name-"
"Percy. I genuinely don't know anyone else who would decide to befriend him." Nico shook his head, a fond smile playing across his lips, "If it was just me I'd have probably- I don't even know. Tried to bring him in."
"He's like a kid you guys- maybe he can become something better."
"Maybe." Thalia admitted after a moment, "At least he's one less Titan on Kronos' side. That's a small mercy."
"It really is." Nico twisted the ring on his thumb. "Not sure what we'll do when we go home though- we can't exactly take him with us."
"No." Percy's brows furrowed, "We'll have to figure something out."
"We will." Thalia snorted, "Just as long as you don't try bringing him home we'll be fine- gods I remember when Mrs O'Leary decided she missed you-"
"She just wanted to play-"
"Percy she nearly knocked a hole in the wall." Thalia let out a laugh, "I don't know how you do it. I really don't."
"Honestly, neither do I." Percy's lips twitched and she shook her head, tilting it back to look up at the dark sky of the Underworld.
And in the distance she could hear a familiar shrieking and she knew that their ride would be with them soon enough.
Hopefully Alecto wouldn't be too annoyed that she didn't have an excuse to claw Percy open as she'd so dearly wished to do ever since that fateful day at school.
And gods but it was strange to look back on that.
So much had happened since then- everything had changed- and yet as Percy glanced at Nico and Thalia and across at Bob and Bianca she decided that, no matter how traumatic and difficult it had been at times, there were definitely some good points.