Second update today because I'm in a good mood and also I am over 80 chapters ahead so like, I can afford to post another chapter today lol- I've gotta say I'm enjoying writing the Lost Hero- I'm not as confident with the characters but I do love my more confident Leo- I feel like a lot of chapters will be more from his point of view- though so far I've also written two Piper chapters because I just needed to have her interacting with her siblings.
Anyway I hope you guys enjoy this chapter- with a nice big heap of angst- and also- Rachel. And that is all I will say. Just, Rachel.
Just as Clarisse was about to reach the rail the horses reared up, whinnying and breathing flames. Phobos and Deimos appeared in the chariot, both of them now dressed in pitch-black battle armour. Phobos grinned, his red eyes glowing. Deimos's scarred face looked even more horrible up close.
"The hunt is on!" Phobos yelled. Clarisse stumbled back as he lashed the horses and charged the chariot straight towards Percy and Rachel.
Percy reacted automatically even as Rachel grabbed her hand, both of them turned around and took off- the gods were clearly screwing with them, Percy was pretty sure that if they tried to dive out of the way the two sons of Ares would just follow them.
Percy half dragged Rachel with her as they jumped over a trashcan and an exhibit fence- not that the fence even slowed the chariot down- and Percy knew there'd be no way they could outrun it as it crashed through the fence behind them, ploughing down everything in its path.
"Percy! Rachel look out!" Clarisse's voice was almost panicked.
Percy cursed under her breath, yanking Rachel around, almost throwing her out of the way as she sped up- she heard Rachel letting out a frantic yell as she hit the ground hard but Percy couldn't focus on that as she jumped and landed on a rock island in the middle of an otter exhibit.
She willed a column of water out of the pond, her mind racing as she moved, dousing the horses temporarily extinguishing their flames and sending them into confusion. The otters weren't happy to say the least. They chattered and barked, and Percy figured she'd better get off their island quick, before there were crazy sea mammals after her.
She ran as Phobos cursed and tried to get his horses under control. Clarisse took the opportunity to jump on Deimos's back just as he was lifting his javelin. Both of them went tumbling out of the chariot as it lurched forward, and she could see Rachel getting to her feet as she heard Clarisse and Deimos starting to fight.
"Percy-"
"Rache, act as back up for Clarisse!" Percy called quickly, "I'll deal with Hobo." and she saw the gods eyes narrow at the mangling of his name.
"It's Phobos you brat." he growled the words as Percy took off, sprinting towards the aquarium as the chariot sped after her- Phobos clearly had it out for her.
"Hey! Percy-" the voice was taunting and Percy glanced back towards Phobos as he called for her, "I've got something for you."
She felt her heart pounding as she saw the chariot melting, the horses turning into steel and folding into each other like clay figures being crumpled. The chariot refashioned itself into a black metal box with caterpillar tracks, a turret and a long gun barrel. A tank. Percy felt her heart sinking, she recognised it from a research report she'd done for history class. Phobos was grinning at her from the top of a World War 2 Panzer.
"Say cheese!" he was grinning manically and Percy tossed herself to the side, rolling as the gun fired.
KA-BOOOOM! A souvenir kiosk exploded, sending fuzzy animals and plastic cups and disposable cameras in every direction. As Phobos re-aimed his gun Percy was already on her feet and dodging into the aquarium- she felt safer if she was surrounded by water, even if she hopefully wouldn't end up getting wet- she really didn't want Phobos to smash the glass and hurt the sea creatures- she adored them all.
Hopefully he wouldn't be able to fit through the doorway and he'd be smart enough to know that smashing the water and dousing her would end badly for him so it should hold him back.
She clung to that thought as she ran through the rooms washed in the weird blue light from fish tank exhibits and all of the fish- and usually she'd take her time to admire them and maybe chat to them, who all stared at her as she passed- she could hear their excited whispers but she didn't have the time to focus on that.
She reached the back of the aquarium, panting slightly as she listened.
For just a moment she thought she'd gotten lucky, because she could hear nothing, the tank clearly wasn't after her right now- and then there was a noise. A familiar noise. A Vroom, Vroom. She'd heard it before- technically she'd heard similar noises fairly often, motorcycles were hardly uncommon but she'd heard this specific one before, there was something about it that stuck in the memory.
Her mouth dropped open in shock as Phobos came riding through the aquarium on a familiar bike. It was a Harley-Davidson, and it had been years since she'd seen it before- black flames decorated the engine, there were the shotgun holsters, the leather seat that looked disgustingly like human skin.
And huh, that did kind of make sense, she just hadn't really thought much about the bike Ares had ridden the first time they'd met, but of course it was reasonable that it was his chariot.
She pushed away those thoughts. She needed to focus. Phobos was a son of Ares he was bound to be a skilled fighter- though hopefully not on his dads level. She might stand a chance if she focused, if not she'd be in trouble.
She focused on the god, her eyes narrowing as he pulled a huge sword out of it's sheath, "Hey bitch. You're going to pay for interfering with Deimos and I's fun. It's time to be scared."
Percy raised Riptide, a determined look on her face as she moved to rush him, but then Phobos' eyes were glowing and Percy made a fatal mistake.
She met his eyes.
One second she was in the Aquarium and then next she was in Olympus- in the throne room.
Percy let out a horrified gasp, her eyes going wide.
The once beautiful throne room was destroyed, the thrones had been torn down- she could hear screaming, the air was filled with smoke- and Percy screamed, she screamed at the sight of bodies amongst the rubble. Her friends from camp- their bodies pale and still, eyes blank. Tyson and Grover's bodies crumpled in a heap at the foot of one of the thrones- Percy didn't even know which throne it had been they were so destroyed.
Leo's body was at the foot of another, charred- as if he'd finally found a fire too hot for him, as if he'd been burned up beyond any help, Percy's hand flew to cover her mouth, to try and stifle her horrified screams as her head snapped around- she couldn't look, couldn't look- except her gaze landed on Silena, a jagged scar tracing down her face as she sobbed, clinging to Beckendorf, Clarisse and Drew's bodies, her gaze moved again- unable to linger, unable to stand the horror- and there were Will and Kayla, sobbing over- Percy sobbed, a desperate broken noise as she saw Nico's crumpled too pale form, dead. Dead dead dead.
She moved her head again and there were Luke and Thalia, and Percy could see who's throne they were crumpled at the foot of, Zeus'. Thalia's body was battered and bloody and Luke- Percy was heaving and sobbing, shaking her head frantically as she stepped back slightly, the left side of his face had been caved in by something- he wouldn't even be recognisable there was so much blood if she couldn't see the familiar scar he'd earned defending her from Alabaster all those years before.
Then she saw Annabeth and Rachel.
Rachel was clearly dead- no ones head should be at that angle, she had paint on her face, and there wasn't even any blood- if it wasn't for the unnatural angle Percy could almost think that the red haired girl was just sleeping- other than the fact that Annabeth was sobbing as she clutched Rachel's body.
Annabeth was at least alive, though Percy could see from the way she was bleeding from a jagged deep wound across her gut, she wouldn't be long.
She was shaking violently as Annabeth lifted her head to meet Percy's gaze.
"Why didn't you save us?" and no. No that wasn't right that wasn't- a hand was on Percy's arm, whirling her around and Percy didn't think she could scream more than she already was- she stumbled backwards, shaking her head frantically.
"No- no no no-" It was Kronos- Kronos was stood, in Alabaster's body, that smug infuriating smirk on his lips as he looked down at her, golden eyes turning her bones to lead as he smirked at her.
"Happy birthday my beautiful bride, it's time to say I do-" and she caught a glimpse of herself, a reflection in a puddle of blood on the floor.
She was clad in a white gown. A wedding dress- her gaze swung back to Kronos except now one of his eyes was green- Alabaster's, but that didn't make anything better and his voice was suddenly two toned, like they were both speaking at once. "You shall be my queen princess. Aren't you happy?"
"No- no-" Percy was stumbling backwards- and she could hear voices in the distance, calling her name, calling for her.
"Lady Persephone! Wake-" but Alabaster, Kronos, he was reaching out for her, and she couldn't breathe. She was screaming and screaming and swinging Riptide with a
scream, lurching forward and-
Something hit her, knocking her to the ground, and Percy's head hit the concrete hard and she cried out in shock and pain- but the images, those horrible horrible images were gone. She was in the Aquarium still she realized with a rush of shock- and she heard the sound of metal on metal and she twisted quickly, expecting to see Phobos towering above her about to kill her- or maybe Clarisse fighting her brother- instead Rachel was there, hair flying about her face as she caught Phobos' blade with her own dagger.
Percy's mouth dropped open with shock and she scrambled to her feet quickly as Phobos froze, his eyes wide with shock as Rachel snarled at him. "No one hurts my girlfriend you asshole, she kicked out- and wow but Percy had never seen Rachel kick so high or so hard, Phobos staggered back, even as Rachel surged forward, ducking under his frantic attempt to slash at her, and she got inside of his guard, stabbing him in his shoulder in a quick motion, jerking the dagger out quickly, golden ichor soaking through his shirt from his wound before she darted back, and Percy was on her feet, gripping Riptide tightly as she surged forward and blocked Phobos' next wild swing, which would have caught Rachel's side.
"Thanks for the save Daredevil." Percy gave her girlfriend a grin, as Phobos pulled back quickly, his eyes wide.
"No problem honey." Rachel winked and darted backwards, "I get to say I fought a god, I think I've done enough."
"More than enough." Percy declared as she fought Phobos- and- huh.
She'd assumed he'd at least be able to fight but now that she was fighting him it was easy to see how even Rachel, someone who didn't even have a years worth of training could get past his guard.
Seriously, even Leo would probably be able to take him- their blades clashed and Percy almost relaxed as she fought the god.
He was terrible! Within less than ten minutes his arms and face were littered with cuts, golden ichor was dripping onto the ground- he was ridiculously outclassed, Percy felt a feral grin spreading across her lips as they fought.
A god was scared of her- he looked genuinely terrified.
She lashed out, slashing across his face before she twisted, foot hitting the centre of his chest sending him flying backwards into the water fountain, his sword flying from his hand and skittering across the ground.
Percy advanced on him, her eyes almost glowing in the eerie light of the aquarium as she grabbed the straps of his armour and pulled him up to face her.
"Alright." her voice was a low growl. "You jumped up little bitch of a god. You're going to disappear now, and you're going to stay away from Clarisse or I'm going to kick your ass so hard that you'll run begging for daddy to protect you."
"Y-you won't get lucky next time-" the god stammered the words and Percy sneered at him.
"Learn how to actually fight and you might stand a chance. Until then fuck off with your mind games. My mortal girlfriend can beat you in a fight. I bet your daddy would be real pissed off over that-"
"Next time I'll destroy you-"
"Just you try." Percy spat the words, "I'll be looking forward to it. You just get in line behind Kronos and your dad." she let him go, pushing him back into the water of the fountain- and he glared at her, a look of pure hate on his face before he disappeared into a cloud of yellow vapour.