Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson or Harry Potter
The Unrelenting Frozen Seas: Symphony of Tempering
Chapter Twenty Seven: The Battle of Manhattan
Beta:
Riding on Flóga's back as she, Su, Thalia and Ares Cabin made their way towards the Empire State Building on the two flying chariots, Flóga and the Thestrals supplied by Lord Thanatos, Rhode flew up alongside Thalia in the automaton chariot to speak to her sister.
"What's with the city?" Rhode asked the daughter of Zeus as she gestured as the deathly quiet city below. Yes, it was late in the evening but New York City, like all major metropolises, was a city that never sleeps. For it to be this silent was unnatural.
"Morpheus put all the mortals to sleep for the duration of the battle." Thalia explained, her voice carrying despite the howling winds that surrounded them as they flew.
"The Titans care about the mortals' safety?" Su asked dubiously as she pulled up beside Rhode.
"Not in the slightest." Clarisse shouted from her spot in the winged chariot flying on Thalia's other side. "According to Lady Ariadne, it's more they don't wanna piss off the Overgods. Apparently if they dragged too many mortals into the battle, they'll get pissed."
"Overgods?" Rhode asked with a frown. She had an inkling who Clarisse was referring to but the idea just refused to gel in her mind for some reason.
"Yeah, apparently they're the gods' bosses. They along with the Fates and whatnot, enforce the Ancient Laws-"
"Rhode!" One of the Ares Campers on the right flank of their roughly wedge shaped formation shouted, pointing off into the distance. "There's something happening over there!'
Looking in the direction he was indicating, Rhode saw a helicopter coming under heavy attack from a large flock of Harpies. Harpies that were being held at bay by conjured winged Mist constructs and a number of other elemental attacks.
"I think I recognize those constructs! Move, move, move!" Rhode shouted as she nudged Flóga in the direction of the beleaguered helicopter, the whole formation of Campers following her lead.
Get lost, you ugly bird ladies! Flóga shouted at the Harpies as they closed, even as Rhode used a Sagitta Infernum (Arrow Hell) to send a brace of arcane arrows at the flock of monsters. Something that proved more than enough, combined with the efforts of the helicopter's own occupants, to send the Harpies fleeing in terror.
You're right to run! Flóga taunted. You were seconds from getting gutted by Bosslady!
"Form up around it! Protective detail!" Rhode ordered, ignoring her excitable mount, and guiding her so she could pull up beside the helicopter and glance inside.
A look that proved her suspicions were correct. The helicopter was being piloted by Sue Lilly with her wife, Maud, in the copilot's seat. But they weren't alone. Seated in the back of the heli were a group of what must've been other Half-bloods.
Seeing they had her attention, Maud waved and pointed at the Empire State in the distance.
Getting the message, Rhode nodded back.
They could chat at the Empire State.
A few minutes later, they had all landed at the foot of the Empire State Building where it seemed the Campers had set up their last line of defense.
"Thalia, go find whoever is in charge." Rhode ordered her sister before turning to the Counselor for Ares Cabin. "Clarisse, take your siblings and go rest. It doesn't seem like the enemy are attacking for now."
"Right!" "Okay." The two girls replied as they moved to obey.
"What are we going to do?" Su asked as she loyally stayed by her side.
"Greet some old friends." Rhode told her as she led the both of them over to the Lillies' helicopter.
"Sue, Maud," Rhode greeted the dirty blonde and refined brunette that were the married daughters of Hermes and Hecate. "It's so good to see you."
"The same, Rhode." Maud said with a warm smile, even as Sue shook Rhode's hand. "You too, Su."
"Likewise," Su offered with a welcoming smile. "But what are you doing here? And who did you bring with you?"
"We're here to help with the defense." Sue said, before nodding to the group of teens and young adults milling about nervously behind them. "These guys and gals are Half-bloods which were hunkering down with us at our house. They decided to come with us to help too."
"Your help is greatly appreciated." Rhode said, offering the newbies a grateful grin and got tentative ones in reply.
"I just hope it is enough." Maud said with a frown. "The situation seems grim. We had to fight our way through the Titans' lines to get here. Manhattan is completely surrounded."
"That can't be right." Su said with a frown. "Last we heard Lord Eros and Lord Thanatos still held the George Washington Bridge."
"Dunno about that, Su." Sue said with a shrug. "BBut we passed over the area between the bridge and where we met up with you guys and it was crawling with monsters."
"You guys saw that from your heli?" Rhode asked with a frown. She didn't doubt what they were saying per se but the news was jarring enough that she wanted confirmation.
"I'm a son of Apollo and I've got supervision. I saw it." One of the demigods that had been in the back of the heli piped up. "There were a lot of monsters on the move. I'd need a map and an idea of the route you guys took, but I'm pretty sure they moved in behind your group."
"Those sneaky bastards," Rhode hissed with annoyance. "That means the Titans' encirclement of the Empire State is complete."
"That's what seems to be the case." Maud agreed. "But to manage something like that, the Titan's army must be massive. To encircle Manhattan like this, it would have to number in the thousands."
"Probably," Sue said with a thoughtful frown. "But where is the money coming from to fund it? The logistics alone can't be handled with the Mist and stealing funds."
"That's a question we can answer after we win." Annabeth said as she walked over escorted by Thalia, looking every bit the commander in her full armor and her blonde locks pulled into a tight bun.
"I'm glad you're back, Rhode." The daughter of Athena said as she pulled her into a quick hug even as she offered Su a smile. "You too, Su."
"Glad to be back, Bethy." Rhode said as she returned the hug.
"Yes, it's good to be back." Su echoed. "You're in charge, Annabeth?"
"For now," Annabeth confirmed before turning to Sue, Maud and their entourage. "I'll make some room for the new arrivals and figure out where to put them in the battle lines. Rhode, you need to go and get briefed on everything before you take over. Malcolm can do that. I'll continue to stand in till then."
"Right," Rhode nodded before turning to Sue. "But before that, I have one question."
"Go ahead, Rhode."
"What about Soteria? I met her and she mentioned she's living with you two now. You think you can call her in?"
The faded goddess would be a big help here, what with her power to make instant fortifications.
"We tried." Sue said with a shake of her head. "Dropped her a text as we were flying over. But she replied that she was headed back to our house to keep it safe in our absence. She said she was more suited to that than coming to the frontlines."
Rhode frowned. If she wasn't willing, Rhode wouldn't force her. But it was a real shame.
Breathing a tired sigh, she nodded and turned back to Annabeth. "So where's Malcolm?"
"He's in the Empire State's first floor security office." Her sister paused in asking the new arrivals about their abilities to reply. "It's where we've set up our headquarters."
Nodding, Rhode, with Su dutifully following behind her, headed off to get briefed. She had a battle to take charge of.
The next morning, Rhode surveyed the defenses around the Empire State Building from a window on the building's observation deck. She was seated, trying her best to conserve what energy she'd recovered from last night's restless sleep as she could. Even with Lord Thanatos granting her unending stamina for the duration of the battle, she still wanted to be sure she was in the best shape possible for when the fighting started up. So she was taking it easy as much as possible and looking through a set of binoculars to see things more clearly whilst Malcolm stood next to her, reading reports to her on the situation.
"We lost a few on the east side and it spiked morale badly. Thankfully the defeat of Koios really shook up the opposition for us. It's given us breathing room that's allowed us to reorganise our-"
"Hold up, Malcolm. We have company." Rhode said as she spotted a large group of new arrivals being allowed through their lines below, prompting her to stand up and head towards the elevator.
"Who is it?" Malcolm asked from her side as they rode the elevator back down to the lobby.
"Couldn't be sure," Rhode told him. She had a fair idea, but it was better to be sure. "We'll find out soon enough."
Malcolm nodded and they rode the rest of the way down in silence. One that was broken only by the sound of the chime signalling they'd arrived. As they hurried out of the elevator and into the crowded lobby beyond, Rhode was relieved to see that her observation from the deck had been correct. The new arrivals consisted of Bianca with the Hunters along with Chiron and a few chapters of the Party Ponies. Those were expected. But she was pleasantly surprised by the presence of a dozen warriors that by their armor and equipment, Rhode guessed, based on what the Trainer of Heroes had taught her, were probably the Kouretes, the mythical warriors that through their loud war dances had hidden Zeus' cries as a baby from Kronos during the Silver Age.
The top tier backup that her mentor had brought with him brought a smile to Rhode's face. But it was a short-lived one. It was soon displaced with a frown as she remembered their situation. Even with these new reinforcements, their forces were greatly outnumbered. They barely held the couple of blocks around the Empire State and were surrounded by an army of monsters that was at least ten times their number.
"Chiron," She greeted and clasped his hand, looking up at the weathered sage. "Welcome to the party."
"It's good to see you back with us, Rhode."
Taking her hand back, she looked seriously at her mentor and asked. "Can we really win this? Be brutally honest, Chiron."
"We will have to." Was his firm answer, his face set into a grim visage.
"Fair enough." Rhode acknowledged, her tone just as grim.
"Rhode," Malcolm said, cutting in even as one of the younger Hermes kids that had been acting as one of their runners slinked off towards the camp kitchen they'd set up to grab a bite to eat after delivering whatever message he'd been tasked to carry. "We just got word from our pickets. Percy, Thalia and Grover are on their way back from the parley the Titans called."
Rhode nodded, her anger peaking a little at the reminder of the Crooked One's insulting demand to speak to Percy and not her. A wound he had rubbed salt into by adding that he refused to speak to her. It was a petty little thing and she knew she shouldn't let it get under her skin like this, which was likely her grandfather's plan, but it did.
"Rhode," Chiron said, putting a hand on her shoulder that served as an anchor to the present that helped her keep her cool. "We should go see what the Titans had to say."
It was a few minutes later when Percy's group made it back into the lobby and over to where Rhode was waiting for them.
"Percy," Rhode said, eyeing the ominous amphora that he was carrying. "Please tell me that's not what I think it is?"
"It's Pandora's Amphora." Percy confirmed with a growl. "Prometheus gave it to us as part of his attempt to convince us to surrender. He said that if we wanted to surrender, we just needed to release Elpis, the daimon of hope, from within."
"Give it here, Percy." Rhode said, beckoning him to hand it over.
"Hey, you want this pot? By all means, Rhode." Percy replied, happily handing it over to her. "I know you'll never give up on hope."
Taking it in her arms, she looked at the amphora with a firm stare. She turned to her little brother and nodded. "Of course I wouldn't. If I did, everything I love would die."
Looking to her wife, who after spending the morning conferring with her siblings in Demeter Cabin had once more returned to her side, she handed it off to her. "Su, can you put this somewhere safe? Maybe the safe in the security office or something?"
"Of course, Rhode." Su smiled as she gathered the container of hope in her arms and headed off to the security office which they had converted into their command center.
Seeing her wife head off, Rhode turned back to her brother and looked him over with the worry only an older sibling could feel. "Are you okay? Prometheus is a crafty SOB. Did he mess with your head?"
Percy frowned, his eyes jumping all over the place and one of his sneakers tapping the floor as his ADHD acted up. "I'm just a little frazzled. Prometheus tried to use some visions to show me how Hermes knew Luke would become what he did. That he didn't try to stop him. It... It was total bull, Rhode."
Her brother simmered with anger, his rage something she'd seen in her own reflection far too many times when her Fatal Flaw got its hooks into her.
"Hermes did loads to try and change Luke's fate, to save it. It's not his fault that nothing worked. Luke had all the friends and people who loved him in the world! People that he could have asked to help him with his issues! And he screwed it all over for a power trip because he didn't like the system."
The daughter of Poseidon could only nod, lending a listening ear as she looked away with a saddened look. Her gut curled at the reminder of those attempts, attempts that her refusal to help with had probably contributed to the failure of.
"But, I can handle it." Percy said, raw determination on his face as his hands tightened into fists, his shoulders tense. "I have to."
"You do." Rhode agreed with him, the Great Prophecy was about him after all. That hadn't been in doubt for a while now. "And since you got the Curse of Achilles, you're our MVP now, brother. Only someone with the Curse can match another with it. Which means you're our best shot to take down Gramps. No pressure."
"I think you could still kick his butt even without it." He offered her one of his forced smiles, which she didn't call out this time.
"Maybe. On a good day." Rhode hedged with a small smile of her own. "But you're our best chance. So is your head in the game?"
"I am," Percy reassured her, with what looked like all the confidence he could muster. It still looked forced. Like he was uncertain if he could succeed, but he would die trying.
That's good enough. Rhode concluded. She couldn't realistically ask anymore of anyone.
"That's very good, Percy." Chiron said, offering Percy's shoulder a reassuring squeeze.
"Rhode! Chiron!" One of the runners from Hermes Cabin said as she ran over, looking flustered. "The scouts report the enemy are forming up and preparing to advance."
Rhode nodded and sucked in a breath before shouting loud enough to catch the attention of everyone in the lobby. "Everyone! Break time is over! The enemy is coming so it's time we sent them back to the Pit!"
This was met with tired but still enthusiastic cheers as the gathered defenders of Olympus, half-bloods, nature spirits, Party Ponies and Kouretes, scrambled to their battle stations. Chiron among them as he trotted off to join the healers in the first aid station.
"Let's move people, we have monsters to dust and losers' asses to kick!" Percy shouted as he too rushed off to join the frontlines.
Rhode for her part exchanged a look with a freshly returned Su. One of love, devotion and determination. Before, as one, they nodded and without a word, rushed to join the battle alongside their comrades.
As was only appropriate, Rhode and Su joined the lines where the fighting was fiercest, which turned out to be the section where their adult former Camper friends were. This wasn't because said friends weren't individually skilled fighters but because there simply weren't that many of them. Unlike other sections of their lines which were held by at least two dozen Campers at a time as spread out by Rhode and Bethy, this part of the line was being held by only five half-bloods and one automaton. To the monsters of the Titan's Army that was like blood in the water.
Not that their friends were making the lives of the monsters easier as they sought to sink their teeth into their prey.
Any who tried first had to get past Gaige's rain of death. The daughter of Hephaestus having somehow had Deathtrap transform into a suit that had a definitely copyright infringing similarity to the Iron Man's Hulkbuster suit from the Marvel franchise but with an eclectic array of various energy weapons. Dressed in this suit of deadly Powered Armor, the daughter of Hephaestus was racking up an impressive kill count as she blasted away at the rear lines of the monstrous hordes. Oh and she was cackling like a lunatic and ranting about how the monsters should cower before the "might of machina!"
"Gaige sure is having fun." Rhode noted with a grin as she sent a rain of icicles at the charging phalanx of Dracanae that had somehow survived Gaige's artillery bombardment of the enemy ranks and were advancing down the street they were fighting on towards her friends as she and Su arrived.
"Yup. She really is." Lee agreed as he rained down a barrage of Confringos on the formation of snakewomen from his vantage point in the air that he maintained courtesy of his winged sneakers.
Together her deadly hail and his Blasting Curses shattered the formation and left them open to being picked off. A task that their other friends split between them.
Penny and Emily took the right side of the street. Bolts of plasma and electricity form the rotary plasma cannon and Tesla cannon that the automaton had transformed her arms into taking out any monsters that got within the range of her guns. And whilst her daughter took them out from afar, Emily dealt with those Dracanae that got close, her whip cracking through the air in blurs as it reduced the snakewomen into gold dust by the dozen.
Meanwhile, on the left, Fergus and Atlanta followed a similar pattern. The daughter of Apollo sniping enemies from afar with her archery even as her boyfriend charged in, smashing Dracanae skulls with his Celestial Bronze gauntlets.
And in the center, Su took care of the rest by tossing a handful of seeds in the direction of the enemy and causing a field of sunflowers to spontaneously grow to maturity and fire a barrage of bullet seeds that took out any surviving Dracanae.
In the face of this, the vanguard of the enemy was routed and the enemy pulled back and regrouped, giving everyone a breather as they dealt with the stragglers.
Crushing the skull of one unlucky Dracanae under his boot, Fergus turned to Rhode with a smirk. "Ya bring along some reinforcements, lass?"
Rhode answered by pulling water from her magical water bottle to create ramparts of ice, the water rising up as she chilled it and transformed it into glistening ice. "Nope, just Su and I. You know we don't exactly have reserves, Fergus."
"Works for us. Been hell here."
"Look lively everyone!" Lee shouted from above them as Gaige let loose with another barrage of her cannons off into the distance. "The next wave is coming!"
Despite their best efforts, after an hour of hard fighting, Su, Rhode and their friends were being pushed back. But it wasn't just them. The Olympian loyalists' lines were shrinking across the board!
To the point that their group soon found themselves fighting alongside the Hunters of Artemis which were supposed to have been holding the line one street over but like them now found themselves barely holding the line at the mouth of a street that was a straight shot to the Empire State. Heck, the skyscraper was by now close enough that Su could touch it with Helel if she had him really stretch himself. It was basically spitting distance!
We have our backs to the wall. Su thought, her morale flagging as worry and desperation started to consume her.
The only reason they hadn't been forced back to the Empire State's lobby was Gaige's Powered Armor and its insane firepower. Thanks to Deathtrap's heavy fire support, they'd been able to mostly keep the enemy from completely overwhelming them.
That, unfortunately, was something that the enemy had realised too and was intent on changing.
"Is that what I freaking think it is!?" Gaige shouted as what Su recognised as one of the Mobile Suits that the Wizarding Resistance had used began jetting towards them whilst blasting away at them with its spiked club cum beam rifle.
"A Mobile Suit!" Rhode shouted as she created pillars of ice to deflect the beams the Titan's warmachine shot their way even as she was neck deep in a melee against a pack of Telekhines. "Tanya had a bunch of them. She must've sold one to the Titans."
Because of course she did. Su thought with a frown as she had her Ent armor lock hands with a Laistrygonian as they pushed against each other whilst she had Helel act autonomously and pepper other enemies around her with bullet seeds from vines he'd transformed into sunflowers and Manticore quills from others he'd shifted into scorpion-like tails.
"Gaige, go deal with it!" Rhode ordered as she gutted a trio of Empousai that had tried to sneak up on her with a wide swing of Spellbound.
"Gotcha, Rhode!" Gaige shouted back as she activated a set of thrusters built into her Deathtrap Powered Armor and shot into the sky to engage the Mobile Suit. The two machines soon taking their fight into the skies, trading energy beams as they did.
"Need a hand?" Bianca asked as she Shadow Traveled out from the Laistrygonian's shadow.
"Not really," Su said as she poked her human arm out from her armor and stabbed the giant with her trusty sword. The giant was so distracted by their contest of strength that he didn't even realise what killed him and had a look of confusion as he collapsed into gold dust.
"Showoff." The Lieutenant of Artemis said even as she shot a silver arrow skyward where it multiplied into hundreds that fell back onto their enemies as a deadly rain.
"Now, who's talking?" Su asked with a grin as she pulled her arm back into the safety of her armor and the pack of a dozen ghosts of bloodhounds that followed Bianca everywhere since she'd arrived with the Hunters to the battle, eagerly ran towards their mistress, swarming any monsters in the way and leaving piles of gold dust in their wake.
"Still you, Su." Bianca retorted as she fired off three arrows at once, taking out the eyes of a Hyperborean Giant that was stomping towards them and sending it staggering. More importantly, it left the thirty-foot tall giant with blue skin and icy-gray hair blind to the massive California redwood Su used her chlorokinesis to grow at its feet and imaple it, reducing it to gold dust.
"Let's say we're both showoffs and leave it at that, okay?" Su suggested as she took a moment to take a sip of nectar. Growing something as big as she had to kill that Hyperborean had taken a lot out of her.
"I can live with that." Bianca conceded as they both turned their attention back to their immediate surroundings and the hordes of monsters that still surrounded them.
Though before they could make much of a dent in that, what looked like an orbital laser suddenly shot down from the sky. A laser that consumed Lee! One second, her friend was flying to rain his homing knives and spells on their foes and the next a pillar of light just fell on him from out of nowhere.
In an instant her fellow Hogwarts Demigod from the good ol' days of her youth just ceased to exist. He didn't even get a chance to cry out. In less than a heartbeat, he just died.
And standing in the glassed crater created by the laser that killed Lee was a fifteen foot tall woman with the most gaudy armor Su had ever seen. It was a set of gold armor with silver lining, covered in all types of gleaming gems of such splendor it would make jewelers weep.
"Greetings to all you foolish Olympian soldiers!" The woman boomed, her voice somehow forcing everyone present, regardless of which side they were fighting on, to turn to look at her. "It is I, Theia, Titaness of Sight and Splendor! Surrender now and you will die quickly. Or don't! You sealed away my perfect shiny husband Hyperion and for that you should all die painfully anyway."
Rhode let out a battle cry, charging at the Titaness with a hail of icicles covering her as she did. Panic flared inside Su at the sight as she tried to move to help her wife, only to be blocked off by another cannibal giant.
"Su, go!" Bianca shouted as she distractedly killed the Laistrygonian with a bolt of darkness she shot from one of her Stygian Iron knives as she used the other to duel with an unfamiliar traitorous half-blood. "My dogs and I will cover your back."
"Thank you!" Su shouted back as she broke into a run towards Rhode whose own charge had been unceremoniously cut short as Theia just swept a hand in the daughter of Poseidon's direction and unleashed a dozen lasers, each as thick as a bus that streaked through the air at strange, impossible angles that forced Rhode back.
Rhode wasn't the only one who had charged Theia though. Enraged by Lee's death, all the adult former Campers had disengaged from their fights, leaving it up to the Hunters to watch their backs as they collectively turned their attention to the Titaness.
"The only thang croaking here today is you, ya glowin' tart!" Fergus shouted as he ran at Theia whilst a furious looking but silent Atlanta provided covering fire by firing arrows so fast she was imitating a machine gun. Despite the speed of her shots, the daughter of Apollo's aim was true and any monster who so much as tried to get in her boyfriend's way was killed before they so much as twitched a muscle to do so.
"Did you forget, mortal, that I've already killed one of your little friends?" Theia shot back tauntingly as she snapped her fingers and a wall of light appeared in front of her and began to sweep in Fergus' direction, one that vaporised anything it touched.
Before it could reach the son of Ares though, the battered remains of the Titans' Mobile Suit was tossed in its way. It too was reduced to its constituent atoms but it still slowed it down long enough for Emily's whip to pull Fergus to the side and out of the deadly wall's path.
"You like lasers, lady? Eat ours!" Gaige shouted as she and Penny unleashed the full weight of their assorted energy weapons on the Titaness.
"How plebeian." Theia said with a yawn as screens of light formed around her that deflected the barrage.
The screens did not fully cover her body though and that gave Su the opening she was looking for. As discreetly as she could, she fired seeds through the gaps in Theia's defenses.
She otherwise didn't make a move against the Titaness though, instead choosing to rush to Rhode's side. In the process, killing a dozen or so Hellhounds and Harpies that tried to waylay her along the way.
"Rhode, you alright?" She asked her wife worriedly. The daughter of the seas was sporting some nasty burns from Theia's lasers. Considering she was wearing her Pallas Armor and that meant her regeneration was active, that she was still sporting them after what must've already been a minute spoke volumes of how serious they must've been.
"I'm fine." Rhode said as they both worked to kill off the squad of Dracanae that had moved to attack them as they reunited. "Su, cover me. I want to take another shot at-"
Before Rhode could even finish, the smallest of shadows underneath Theia suddenly opened up and Bianca leapt out of it. She landed right on the Titaness' back, digging her daggers into it to act as handholds. The underworld metal of her weapons literally sucking in the light that Theia radiated.
"G-Get away from me, you filthy creature!" She shrieked and blasted Bianca off of her, stumbling forward as she did so. Her glowing eyes frantic as her Ichor dropped onto the ground. "H-How dare you, all of you!"
She was raving now, firing blasts of light in all directions, even at her allies. "Just all of you die!"
This was the chance that Su was waiting for and with a burst of her power, she had the seeds she'd planted on Theia's body sprout to life and wrap her up in thick vines. It wouldn't hold or even impede the Titaness for long. But it would be long enough.
"Bianca! Telefrag her!"
"On it!" The Lieutenant of Artemis said as she stepped out of a shadow behind the temporarily immobilized Theia, her twin knives raised to make the killing blow.
"No!" Theia screamed in fearful panic as she transformed into a laser that shot skyward as she fled the battlefield.
But not without leaving a present behind. Well, besides a badly burnt Bianca. The Hunter had only just managed to Shadow Travel out of the way to avoid emulating Lee's fate. That was however not the big problem right now.
No, that honor went to the ball of light that Theia had left behind before she'd fled like a coward. A ball that was starting to bleed harsh beams that burst from its meager shell and radiated an immense sense of power.
"Bomb!" One of the Hunters shouted in a panic. "Everyone! Take cover!"
Walls of ice and plants shot up around the bomb in a bid to contain the bomb but Su knew despite her and Rhode's best efforts, they would barely make any difference. Not against a bomb of this magnitude. She was thus incredibly relieved when shadows shot up from the ground and proceeded to swaddle the ball. Just in time too as it had barely done so before the bomb exploded.
The blast was so intense that the shadows that contained it struggled to do so, expanding like a balloon to the size of a bus and straining with slivers of destructive light escaping as lasers that disintegrated anything they touched. It mostly held though and after a moment, deflated. As it did, the shadows began to peel away to reveal nothing but molten earth where the bomb had been.
"Bianca, was that you?" One of the Hunters asked in amazement.
"No." The second in command of Artemis shook her head as she scarfed down some ambrosia for her burns. "But I have an idea who did it."
She had barely finished speaking when the ground began to tremble. A quake that quickly built in intensity and sent the monsters of the Titan's Army in the area running away in terror.
And for good reason, for as the shaking reached a crescendo, the ground tore open and skeletal soldiers spilled out of the earth itself. And at their head, riding on a chariot of bone pulled by skeletal steeds that left hoarfrost with every step and being driven by Nico was no less than Lord Hades himself. Bident in one hand, the Sword of Hades in the other, the Helm of Darkness atop his head and flanked on either side by Mum and her divine sister, Persephone, he cut a terrifying figure. One that struck fear into the enemies of Olympus.
"Thank Olympus." Su murmured with some relief.
Their reinforcements had arrived.
Rhode watched with satisfaction as with the House of Hades joining the battle, the enemy didn't stand a chance. Skeletons by the hundreds charged the enemy with the tireless and unrelenting ferocity that only the undead possessed, overwhelming the Titan Army in skirmish after skirmish. Persephone and Demeter turned the weapons of the foes of Olympus into flowers and grains. Hades rained bolts of darkness into their ranks and turned the very earth against them as sinkholes swallowed whole battalions and forests of jagged earthen spikes grew out of the ground to impale whole brigades.
"Leave the battle here to Lord Hades and the armies of the Underworld!" Rhode shouted to her friends and the Hunters. "The rest of us need to fall back to the Empire State."
A quick glance in the direction of the entrance to Olympus showed that even though the line had held in their section, the same could not be said elsewhere and there was intense fighting literally feet from the Empire State.
Just as worrying was the looming figure of Typhon in the distance. When the battle had started, heck this morning even, the Father of All Monsters hadn't even been visible and now he looked like was wading down the Hudson and was just seconds away from making landfall in Manhattan.
They were already almost overwhelmed by fighting the Titan Army. If the Storm Giant joined the fray, then all hope was lost. Even with the help of the House of Hades, Rhode doubted they could hold against Typhon.
Not when she could see in the distance, the Olympians strike the Husband of Echidna with all their might whilst the giant ignored their efforts like a man might pesky but harmless mosquitoes.
If they wanted to win this, they needed to defeat the Crooked One before Typhon made landfall. That was their only hope.
That was why despite the dire situation it represented, Rhode's heart was buoyed when she saw a Kronos possessed Luke use a shockwave of raw kinetic force to blast aside a wall of Kouretes and Party Ponies that had tried to block his way as he marched towards the Empire State's lobby.
Though Rhode barely recognised the creature that did so as Luke. She'd heard from Thalia after the Battle of Camp what he'd done to the arm Su had blown off but it seemed that after what her sister had done to him in that battle, he'd had to undergo even more cybernetic augmentation. This time, his entire lower body from the waist down had been cut away and replaced with robotics. In what was likely supposed to be an insult to Luke, a further degradation of his already ravaged human form, Kronos hadn't even replaced his lower body with anything humanoid. Instead, he'd grafted on what looked like a robotic imitation of a giant crab, complete with a pair of pincers.
After all, Rhode doubted her grandfather cared what his Vessel looked like. Not when he was just gonna ditch it and get his actual body back once he defeated the gods. Punishing Luke for his failures was probably more important to him. The Crooked One was a sadistic piece of crap like that.
Case in point, he wasn't satisfied with just sending the Kouretes and Party Ponies flying, he had to go the extra mile and use his powers over time to freeze them in place so they hovered in midair, powerless to do anything as he skittered past them.
Not everyone was frozen though and Chiron who had been fighting with the Party Ponies staggered to his feet and charged at his father, shouting a defiant battle cry and firing arrow after arrow in rapid succession. Arrows that Kronos used his mechanical crab claws to dismissively knock out of the air, not that they would've hurt him now that his host had gained the Curse of Achilles.
"Begone, boy." Luke's face sneered as he waved his hand at the Trainer of Heroes.
It was like a bomb went off at that simple gesture and Chiron was sent flying right into a wall of the Empire State Building lobby. He hit it with such force that not only did the wall crater from the impact but a whole section of it collapsed on top of the centaur, burying him alive with only a hoof sticking out of the rubble and his golden ichor beginning to pool around it.
The sight made Rhode's blood boil.
"Kronos!" Rhode roared with all the fury that the seas could offer her as she charged forward. She wasn't the only one. Infuriated by the sight of their mentor being so badly hurt, all her friends were right with her as they made a beeline for the Titan King.
"I'm afraid I have no time for you, little spare." Kronos laughed as with a snap of his fingers he summoned a horde of Laistrygonians, Telekhines, Empousai and Dracanae in front of Rhode and her friends.
The intensity of her fury grew at the Titan King's casual dismissal of her and her form bled purple hazy fire, as her patron's, Lord Dionsysus', power filled her and aided her as she cut a bloody swath through the monsters as if they were nothing but wheat and she was the harvestman's scythe. Sadly, it wasn't enough and the monstrous horde served its purpose.
Laughing at their efforts, Kronos casually skittered past them as he made his way into the Empire State and into an elevator.
"Enjoy the front row seat to the fall of Olympus, Half-bloods." The Cannibal King taunted with a tinge of Luke's sarcasm as the elevator's doors shut and it began taking him up to the Home of the Gods.
"Rhode!" Su shouted as she used a combination of Helel and her Ent armor to massacre her way to her side amidst the chaotic melee. "You need to calm down! If you lose your cool, we won't be able to come up with a plan and we can't beat him without one."
Rhode growled angrily but she knew her wife was right. But anger was her Fatal Flaw. Reining it in wouldn't be easy. There was really only one way to do so when it was flooding her veins like this.
With gritted teeth, Rhode thought back to the Seashell Incident and instantly it was like a bucket of cold water was flushed through her body, washing away her anger at the reminder of all the death and destruction she could create if she did things without thinking things through.
"Emily, Penny, Fergus!" Rhode shouted at her friends. "Guard Atlanta! Atlanta, when Su and I clear a way, go to Chiron and heal him. Gaige, fire support all around! Hunters, support us where you can!"
Rhode didn't wait to hear her friends shout their affirmatives, she trusted them to do what needed to be done. Instead, she acted. Using her toxikinesis, she pulled all the toxins she had stored away in the pouches of her utility belt and had them swirl around her and Su in a protective bubble to keep any monsters who might want to interfere in what she was doing away.
At the same time she stabbed Spellbound into the ground in the direction facing the pile of rubble that Chiron was buried under and channeling the power of her hydrokinesis, she burst the water pipes buried under the road. As the water burst out of the ground at her command, she froze it solid with her cyrokinesis into a forest of deadly ice pikes that impaled half of the monsters between them and Chiron.
The rest died by Su's hand. Even as Rhode had slammed her trident into the ground, her wife had done the same with Helel's tendrils and the hands of her Ent armor. In response, massive vines erupted out of the ground alongside Rhode's water and ice, floral tendrils that proceeded to wrap around every monster within reach and crushed them to death with their coils.
Into the path they'd cleared, Atlanta ran, flanked in a protective guard by Emily, Penny and Fergus as they made a beeline for Chiron. The trio killed any monster that had somehow managed to survive Rhode and Su's efforts and got within ten feet of them. Helped along by covering fire from Gaige's Deathtrap Hulkbuster armor.
A large boulder was thrown their way in a bid to stop them but Rhode was having none of that.
"Bombarda!" Rhode shouted, ripping Spellbound out of the asphalt where she'd embedded it and pointing it at the incoming rock and used the Exploding Charm to blast the thing into dust that rained down harmlessly around them.
"Stay out of my way!" She roared at the Hyperborean Cyclops that had tossed the boulder, causing it to flinch back at her ferocity and right into the grasp of one of Su's vines whose tip burst open into a massive Venus flytrap that proceeded to swallow the monster whole.
"Su! A little help!" Fergus shouted and Rhode turned back to the rescue effort around Chiron to see the son of Ares struggling to move the rubble off Chiron whilst Emily, Penny and Gaige kept any monsters away. Atlanta meanwhile was clutching the Trainer of Heroes' exposed hoof and channeling her meager Vitakinesis, she was more an archer than a healer, into the centaur.
"Step back!" Su ordered as she had the tip of the vine nearest to them burst open and transform into a mass of smaller tendrils that proceeded to worm their way into the pile of rubble, delicately lifting it away chunk by chunk.
Seeing what they had in mind, a flock of Harpies suddenly swooped down towards them, heedless of the rain of silver arrows the Hunters shot their way, intent on attacking the group around Chiron even at the cost of their lives. A cost that Rhode was happy to make them pay.
"Gaige, blast them!" Rhode ordered as a hail of lasers did just that. At the same time, she rushed forward, swinging Spellbound ahead of her as she did and using the motion to send a hail of icicles to kill the pesky harpies as well. Between the two of them and the brace of shadow bolts that Bianca sent their way, they swept the monsters out of the sky well short of their targets.
With them out of the way, there was nothing to stop Rhode from bulldozing right through the broken glass of the entrance to the building, sending glass shards flying as she finally made it to Chiron's side.
"Rhode, I've got him stable." Atlanta told her as Rhode looked Chiron over. He was banged up bad. Even with Atlanta's Vitakinesis, it looked like his breathing was labored like his lungs were hindered by some broken ribs and at least one, possibly two, of his legs were broken. His left arm definitely was. It would take nothing less than a hours long, dedicated healing session to heal all the injuries.
They didn't have time for that though.
"We need to get him out of there." Rhode declared, turning to her wife as she came to join them. "Su, it's your job to get Chiron to safety."
"What? But Rhode-!"
"Su, Chiron's safety is a priority! I have to go help Percy. I need you to trust me, Su. Please?"
As if to prove this point, this was exactly the moment when Rhode's brother along with Annabeth and Grover ran past them and snatched an elevator headed up to Olympus.
"See what I mean?" Rhode said, gesturing at them.
Before Su could reply, a thick bank of Mist suddenly surrounded the area and shaped itself into an army of classical hoplites that helped to reestablish the loyalist lines around the Empire State.
That's Maud's work. Rhode noted, even as Gaige suddenly turned to her.
"Rhode, just got a call from Thalia," the daughter of Hephaseus said over Deathtrap's external speakers. "She's with the Ares and Apollo Cabins. The Apollo kids got driven out of the first aid station but she and the Ares guys helped them set up shop again in St. Francis of Assisi Roman Catholic Church. It's not far. She's telling everyone to bring their wounded there."
"Right," Rhode nodded before looking at Su meaningfully. "Su, please."
"Fine!" Su growled angrily before pulling Rhode into a hungry kiss.
"But you better come back," Su said firmly as they pulled apart. "Or I'll march down to the Underworld and drag you back! And I'll never let you hear the end of it! Got it?"
"I promise to come back to you." Rhode swore. "Always."
Su just nodded briskly before she gingerly picked Chiron up in the arms of her Ent armor.
"Let's go!" She barked as she broke into a run towards St. Francis Church, Atlanta keeping pace and never once letting go of Chiron as she did, their friends keeping a protective cordon around them.
Rhode watched them go for a moment before taking a deep breath. Even as she exhaled, she burst into motion and ran towards the elevators. Some god must've been paying attention and feeling generous because there was an elevator just waiting for her.
The moment she was in the cab, its doors snapped shut and without any input from her it began heading up and towards Olympus.
As the elevator opened up, Rhode was greeted with a grim sight. Olympus was as grand as ever but there was a pall that now hung over it. One of impending doom. It probably had something to do with the trail of destruction that Kronos had left in his wake as he made his way to the Hall of the Gods. Buildings were damaged, some collapsed outright. And the empty suits of wrecked armor and dozens of broken weapons that littered the road into the city spoke volumes of what the Crooked One had done to the brave minor gods and spirits who had tried to stand in his way.
Rhode was surveying all this as she ran across the ethereal bridge that separated the elevator from Olympus proper. But her observation was cut short as she stepped foot on Olympus when suddenly Despoina in all her coral armor and fishnet cape wearing glory appeared before her and barred her way.
"Are you serious? I don't have time for you, Sister!"
"You are no sister of mine, mortal bastard." Despoina spat as she swept an arm in Rhode's direction and unleashed a storm of lasers her way.
"You're directly manipulating photons! That's how you're creating lasers." Rhode shouted even as she rolled out of the way of the initial barrage, thanking Athena that she'd taken that one elective course on optics back at Atlantis University, abruptly causing the rest of the goddess of mysteries' attack to peter out into nothingness.
"Argh! You think you're so smart!?" Despoina shouted angrily as she stamped her feet and caused a lance of raw darkness to shoot out of her shadow that she grabbed with ease.
"To pick the winning side? Sure." Rhode shouted back as she parried the goddess' thrust. "Oh and that's an easy one. You're just manipulating photons again, this time to create shadows."
"Wrong!" Despoina said as she spun in an overly elaborate way to recover from Rhode's parry and come in for another thrust that the mortal daughter of Poseidon just sidestepped. "This lance isn't one of my mysteries. It's my Symbol of Power! You can't dispel it!"
So custom weapons last time didn't cut it, so she's upped the ante to using her Symbol of Power? She really wants to kill me, doesn't she?
"So it's as fake as you?" Snarked Rhode as she parried a thrust from the shadow lance with Spellbound, twisting in for a stab into her divine sister. "And isn't it supposed to be a veil?"
Just like how unraveling the mystery behind Despoina's attacks caused them to fail, revealing the true nature of the goddess' Symbol of Power forced it into its true form and the lance she'd transformed it into unfurled itself into the veil it truly was.
However, if Rhode thought that disarming her sister would grant her victory, she was wrong. As the Veil of Despoina teleported itself around its owner, and Spellbound deflected off the Symbol of Power. The divine artifact acting as the goddess' armor.
"Got you!" Despoina crowed as suddenly the night sky that played across her Veil churned, the stars and constellations that moved across it accelerating in their paths even as a powerful pulse of power exploded out of it.
Caught entirely unprepared by the sudden attack, Rhode was sent flying.
"Tsk." Rhode sneered as she pulled herself up, the waters that poured out of her Pallas Armor already healing her injuries, and launched a wave of ice towards the goddess to buy her some time to think. "Hiding behind your Symbol so quickly? I thought you had more self respect! Or is that a mystery too?"
"Foolish mortal," Despoina spat as Rhode's ice just sublimated into vapour as it neared her and with the constellations on her Veil swirling, she raised a finger and fired off a beam of raw destructive power from its tip at Rhode. "A Symbol of Power is as much a part of a god as their domain. I am hiding behind nothing!"
Apparating out of the way of the beam and rematerializing behind her opponent, she leveled Spellbound at the goddess' back and let fly.
"Scorpionem Seras (Crossbow Bolt)!" She incanted, sending a bolt of arcane energy at Despoina's unguarded back.
"Pathetic!" The goddess of mysteries taunted as the spell bounced off her Veil and she unleashed another pulse of raw power. "Did you think mere mundane magic could harm me through my Veil?"
"No, but that's the mystery isn't it? Why did I do it, huh Sister?" Rhode smiled from under her helm as she dropped out of the apparition that she'd used to evade the goddess' counterattack.
"Stop mocking me, you wretch!" Despoina spat as a number of stars in the starfield that covered her Veil began to glow brightly before they spat out beams of raw power.
"You do that all on your own!" Rhode countered as she cast her own spell. "Επικαλούνται: Βασίλισσα του Αιγαίου (Epikaloúmai: Vasílissa tou Aigaíou/Invoke: Queen of the Aegean)!"
"What?! Why would you-? That makes no sense!" The goddess exclaimed as she looked befuddled by Rhode conjuring an icy trireme to block her attack.
"Ain't it a mystery?" Rhode taunted as she once more apparated behind Despoina. She didn't bother with magic this time though and simply thrust Spellbound at the goddess' back.
"I will mount your head on my wall!" The goddess raged as she spun around, her Veil's imagery shifting into a vision of a nebula even as it released a trail of blue fire.
Rhode ignored the flames though, trusting in her Pallas Armor to keep her safe as she hooked Spellbound on one trailing end of Despoina's Veil and with one sharp tug pulled it off the goddess.
"What, no!" The goddess cried out, reaching out for her Symbol of Power.
"You lose, Sister." Rhode declared as she used her Toxikinesis to lash at Despoina's face with Scropio and Chimera venom.
The goddess screamed as the deadly toxins burned her skin, and she clutched her face in pain.
"AAAAHHH!" Despoina screamed in agony, wailing as she rolled side to side on the ground. "Y-You'll pay for this mortal! Burn! Burn, like I am burning!"
With that Despoina began to glow gold.
Knowing what was coming, Rhode turned and shielded her eyes against Despoina's transformation into her true divine form but even as she tried, the Veil of Despoina flew into her face. It wrapped itself around her like some kind of fabric octopus and proceeded to force her eyes open and turned her to face its owner.
"Burn! Mortal!" Despoina howled triumphantly as her human form wavered and she was surrounded by a blinding golden light.
Shit! Rhode cursed as she struggled to rip the Veil of Despoina off her and turn away in time, even though she knew she wouldn't make it. Is this how I die?
It was not however the time for Lord Thanatos to collect her soul though and with the sound of crashing waves, suddenly there stood Mum a trident in hand that she'd used the butt of to smash Despoina's head. It was an almost comical sight, if not for the blow slamming the goddess of mystery's head so hard into the ground that it created a crater wider than she was tall.
"Touch my daughter again, and I'll gut you like a fish." Amphitrite, Queen of the Seas, said with a cold fury as she glared down at the now unconscious Despoina.
"Holy shite, Mum, what are you doing here?" She asked as Despoina's Veil released her and she moved over to Mum and was taken into a caring hug.
"That's simple dear." She said, pointing off to the coast where Typhon's advance was halted by chains of Celestial Bronze rising from the sea, criss-crossing around the Father of Monsters.
Father and his cyclops army burst out from the ocean behind the chains, and proceeded to drag the monster down into a deep pit that Rhode was pretty sure Uncle Hades had made. The Storm Giant roared in denial, releasing wisps of dark storm clouds as he did, but he could do nothing more than that as Uncle Zeus blasted him with a blast from the Master Bolt right to the face and sent him tumbling down into the fissure in the earth that Rhode could just tell led all the way down to Tartarus.
"It's to Tartarus. A joint effort from your father and Uncle Hades." Mum confirmed to her as she released the hug and pointed forward. "But you have more important things to worry about. Go and help your brother. I'll make sure Despoina doesn't cause you anymore trouble."
Rhode nodded and dashed through Olympus as fast as she could towards the Hall of the Gods where she knew the final battle of this war was to be fought.
Rhode arrived at the Hall of the Gods to see Bethy lying slumped against Athena's throne, Grover holding and shielding her and an unarmed Percy standing in front of Luke's monstrous form. But whilst the traitor looked like some horror movie reject with all his cybernetics, he wasn't radiating the same malice that Rhode had seen him wear like a cloak when Kronos was in charge.
Can it be? Is Lu- Rhode began to hope when she noticed what was in Luke's hands: Annabeth's knife. A knife that he proceeded to use to stab his armpit where his cybernetic arm met his organic torso. It wasn't a deep cut, but with his Curse of Achilles that it could wound him at all meant it was his weak spot. And even this light cut there was fatal.
As if that act of suicide wasn't enough, Luke threw himself backwards into the central hearth that dominated the throne room of the gods. In response, flames that flared a brilliant white roared into life as Aunt Hestia manifested beside it, glaring daggers at the son of Hermes as her fire consumed his body.
"Luke!" She called out, watching her brother in his final moments as the Flame of the West burned away his mortal flesh and stripped his soul bare.
"R-Rhode, forgive me!" Luke cried out over the crackling fire seconds before his body exploded and golden particles began to swarm out of his body.
Aunt Hestia wasn't about to let the particles, what Rhode realised must be the essence of the Crooked One, escape though and her flames reached out like tentacles to wrap around them. She caught most of them, but a handful escaped. Presumably to be drawn back into Tartarus where he belonged.
"Goodbye, Father. Burn away into nothingness and never return, jerk." The goddess of the hearth said with an uncharacteristically bloodthirsty glare as her flames burned away every last mote of her father that she could capture.
Rhode fell to her knees, not knowing how to feel.
Luke seemed to have come to his senses at the end. Being the hero he always dreamed he could be. What was more original than taking a stab and foiling Kronos of all people. But yet…
Rhode couldn't forget all the horrible things he'd done. To her. To her loved ones. She couldn't forget that he was the one who killed Jack. No matter that Luke had been a hero at the end, to her he would always be a monster.
Despite that… Rhode couldn't help but cry. Not for the monster that Luke had become, but for the long dead but still beloved brother that she'd known in her childhood that was finally put to rest.
"May you be at peace at last, brother." Rhode whispered softly, offering her final eulogy to the boy who once was.
Rest in Peace
Lee Jordan, son of Hermes
The Best Wingman
Done and done! Thanks to Nameless as always!
And it's here, the second to last chapter of Book 3! Man, it was a wild chapter to write. The fights, the twists, the stratagems to use to win! It was one heck of an action packed chapter that we hope you all enjoyed. Not going to lie, all this action was one heck of a whirlwind to write, I'm thankful it's our last Second Titan War to write out of all our stories. Though that does lead to the next series, the Civil War of the Demigods, part 2. Maybe? Who knows!
Nameless: Yeah, this was a truly epic chapter to write and we hope for you to read as well.
Can we get a RIP for Lee. Yes, we needed someone to die that would impact the audience. And who better than an OG of the fic series? May you spin records in Elysium on winged sneakers, you glorious man, you. Salute!
Nameless: Salute! You will be remembered, Lee. RIP.
And yep, Kronos is dead. Luke is dead. Bad guy is done, thank the gods for that! We really went nuts with what happened with Luke, huh? Kronos was not a good boss.
Nameless: Understatement of the century there, my friend.
You know what to do! Smash that review button and tell us what you love! No flames and peace off my peeps!