The World-Bearer's Daughter
I have been made aware of plagiarism.
An author known as SpartanWartastic has copied this story, almost to the very letter, and posted it as his own version, the purpose of which is to correct my mistakes regarding this story, according to the opening Author's Note. This is the link to his page if you don't believe me:
u/12435693/SpartanWartastic
I would like to say not cool.
Anyway, we're moving along with this chapter.
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Inspired by historical events and an over-active imagination, this story was designed, developed, and produced by a single-cultural team of one religious faith and belief, sexual orientation, and gender identity.
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A tenth of a second after those lips met his, the palm of Percy's hand collided with the reincarnation of Arno's chest and blasted him across the restroom to smack solidly into the tiled walls, breaking the tiles and showering the area with debris. Before Percy could thoughts of whether he'd just killed the young man, he heard the distinct chittering of the Spartoi.
The group of skeleton warriors rounded the corner of the alcove to the restrooms, and barged through the door to the men's room. The toilets erupted and encased them all in ice.
With them neutralized, and still aware of the hazard of time, Percy checked on Arno, stepping out of the family stall. The young man was still alive, but it was obvious he didn't have the same body he had back then. His ribs were splintered front and back, his lungs punctured with bone fragments, and the concussion had knocked him out.
Grimacing, Percy called on some water and got to work using his powers in healing Arno. While doing that, he fished around the pockets until he found the wallet. Inside was over two hundred in assorted bills, a credit card, and a school ID.
"Robert Eliezer Dare," Percy read. "That is such a downgrade."
Beyond just that, it was a really big problem. Well, not so much big as it was annoying. He was already having to contend with Zoë and Cheyenne's feelings about her, on top of developing a relationship with Lou Ellen—what he did not need was to have Arno added to this clusterfuck of romance.
"This is exactly why the resurrection is supposed to only coincide with Jesus coming back," Percy huffed. "We avoid this kind of stuff."
He finished healing Arno-now-Robert, who was still unconscious, figured he was going to have to deal with this sooner or later, and so left a scribbled message on a dollar bill promising that they'd speak later, and it was great to see him again. Percy left the restroom and wiped his mouth with his sleeve.
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Percy joined everyone at the angels atop the dam, managing to arrive just in time.
"You okay?" Lou Ellen asked.
"Arno's back," Percy admitted with a tired voice.
Zoë went rigid with a look of annoyance. "Him too? Did everyone from your past lives reincarnate in this one?"
"I certainly hope not."
That was a whole lot of people, and most of them would really like to see him dead.
Thalia remembered the name of Arno in conjunction with Cheyenne, and she frowned from memory. As far as Assassin history went, Arno Dorian was directly accredited with the dilapidated state the Brotherhood had declined into during the nineteenth century with his massacre of the Parisian Brotherhood. It was because of Arno that the Templars were able to gain control of London, and much of Europe through the city.
"We'll deal with that later," Thalia affirmed. "Lou Ellen? Could you be a dear and-"
"Emoc ot efil," the witch said with a smirk.
The statues pulsed with light and magic as Lou Ellen's Backwards spell brought them to life.
"Whoa man!" the left statue declared. "That feels so much better."
"Heck yeah, it does," agreed the right statue.
"Hey, guys," Lou Ellen greeted. The statues looked down at her and beamed, recognizing her as a daughter of Hecate and the one that brought them to life. "We need a ride to Mt. Tamalpais in California. Can you get us there?"
"Best we can do is San Fran," Lefty said.
"That mountain is bad news," Righty confirmed.
"That's good enough," Lou nodded. "Thanks."
The statues brough their arms down and took off. Lou Ellen grabbed on to the legs of Lefty, Nico grabbed her legs, and Thalia grabbed his, while Percy grabbed on to Righty, and Zoë onto him. Magically brought to life statues apparently had magic travel powers as well, because when they entered a bank of clouds and came out, they'd gone from the Hoover Dam at the bottom of Nevada to San Francisco in the middle of the west coast, 600 miles away.
"Thanks guys!" Lou Ellen waved at the statues as they flew away to go flirt with woman statues elsewhere in the city.
"Anytime!" the statues called back.
"And now we just have to travel sixteen miles and up a mountain," Zoë said nonchalantly. "Any ideas?"
Thalia looked around and noticed something. "I have one. Annabeth's dad lives close by. He'll probably give us a ride once we tell him his daughter's in mortal peril at the top of the nearby mountain."
"Probably?" Percy asked, brow raised.
"There's a reason Annabeth ran away from home when she was seven."
Percy's mind instantly went to physical abuse, and the atmosphere around him became charged. "By all means, lead the way."
Thalia smiled hesitantly. "I mean he was just neglectful….He didn't beat her or anything…that I know about."
"Ah. In that case I shall only break his spine instead of ripping off his genitals."
Thalia nodded finding that to be acceptable.
Nico recalled how the thing Virgil hated most in the whole world was irresponsible fathers, and offered a prayer for Annabeth's dad.
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As was typical of a bustling city on a winter evening, no one paid a group of teenagers any special attention beyond a second glance at the girls' butts, and so Thalia successfully led the group through the streets to the house that she was mostly positive belonged to the Chase family.
Percy rang the doorbell and stood with his hands clasped before him, a posture that everyone emulated, to display that they were unarmed.
Technically.
After a few seconds, the door opened to reveal a tall, mostly muscular man that was clearly Annabeth's dad.
"And how can I help you kids?" he asked.
"You can give us a ride to Mt. Tam," Percy said. "Annabeth's been captured by evil Titans and her life is danger."
Fred's mouth dropped open and his eyes went wide.
"Honey, is everything alright?" a feminine voice called from inside the house.
"Uh…yeah!" Fred called back inside. He turned around. "You guys need to come in."
Percy hummed in a negative way with a smile on his face.
Inside was a mostly aesthetically pleasing woman and a couple of little boys, twins, obviously children of Frederick and the woman. Percy felt his eye twitch.
"And who are…these…dear?" the woman asked.
"Friends of Annabeth," Percy said on behalf of Frederick, who almost ran to his bedroom. "She's in a spot of trouble and we need something of a set of wheels to get her out."
Mrs. Chase's eyes lit up with legitimate concern and worry. "Is it a…ah, substance trouble or a…special trouble?"
"Special, ma'am."
"Oh…boys, go to your room, now."
The twins didn't argue and scrambled down the hall.
"What's happened?" Mrs. Chase demanded.
Percy turned a raised brow to Thalia, who looked stunned at this genuine concern and offered a clueless shrug. Percy turned back to the woman of the house.
"Annabeth was taken captive by force of monsters and was used as bait to trap a goddess. We're here to save her from that force, and rescue the goddess, who are both being held captive on Mt. Tam."
Frederick came back from his bedroom, dressed in urban warfare fatigues with combat boots, kneepads, elbow pads, a Kevlar vest, padded gloves, and a belt with pouches and pockets full of gadgets and small weapons. There was also a machete handle sticking over his right shoulder.
Percy turned and gave Thalia another look, and she just gave another clueless shrug.
"Let's go get my daughter back."
"Well said."
When everyone was heading out for the SUV, Percy grabbed Thalia.
"You said Annabeth was seven when she ran away due to neglect?"
"It is entirely possible that what she viewed as neglect was just misconstrued tough love."
"That, or her family has had a massive change of heart in the past seven years."
Thalia shrugged for the third time in five minutes.
Percy rode shotgun while everyone else rode in the back. Frederick had a death grip on the wheel and a look of determination on his face that few men could match as he traversed the streets to the bridge.
"What happened, Fred?" Percy asked. "Annabeth ran away due to feeling unwanted and neglected."
Frederick sighed.
"That was my fault. I didn't know that was Athena and I had zero intentions of having a child at the time. Athena either misread my intentions or saw something else, because when we stopped seeing each other, Annabeth was literally dropped on my doorstep. I had no idea how to be a father or what to do, so I did what I thought was right. I took her to the doctor, bathed her, fed her, clothed her, put her into school….As far as loving her, I…I didn't know how to do that. Then I met Mandy, we fell in love, got married, had kids, and then I just…knew. I was able to be to my sons what I couldn't be to my daughter, and…"
Frederick swallowed heavily.
"The monsters started coming when Annabeth was six, and that was when my career started to really take off. I couldn't spend a lot of time with my family, so my totally mortal wife was left to handle potty training the boys, Annabeth having stress accidents night and day, the monster attacks, and the nightmares. Annabeth reported having nightmares of spiders coming in the night, biting her and wrapping her in webs, but Mandy never saw any bites nor webs. She thought Annabeth was lying and soiling herself on purpose for attention, so her solution was to start playing the bad cop so I could come back and start being the good cop."
"Wow," Lou Ellen said. "You suck as a dad."
Of course, her point of view was her trucker of a father who grew up with no dad of his own and an alcohol and drug-addicted mother, who did everything he could to make sure Lou Ellen knew she was a loved and valued daughter, and that she was safe. Hecate had told him about Lou's power and the cost of it, so he did what he thought was right in making sure she didn't feel embarrassed or humiliated about her bedwetting or the means used to keep her pajamas dry.
It backfired during her first sleepover when she learned that it was not, in fact, normal for nine-year-olds to wear diapers as everyday underwear. They laughed at Lou Ellen and she turned them all into cockroaches…then turned them back after her dad made her and she didn't speak to him in earnest until Percy talked with her two years ago.
Frederick adopted a strained expression at Lou's observation. "I know."
"You're doing better now," Percy said.
"Annabeth talked about you."
"Did she?"
"She said you were a whole lot older than you looked, and she hoped to be as wise as you are one day."
"She has no idea what she's talking about."
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Frederick got the SUV as far as it could go, and he piled out with the rest of the demigods.
"No," Percy said to him, voice hard as steel and unrelenting as a hurricane's winds. "You have no powers and no weapons. Right now, you are a hindrance and will in no way help in rescuing Annabeth. Unless you can find a way to be useful—stay. Out. Of. Our way."
Frederick stared at Percy for a few seconds before he muttered, "So that's what she meant."
Percy nodded and led the procession for a few minutes up the mountain before he sent everyone ahead besides Zoë.
"We are not having this conversation," the Huntress asserted. "You are not about to tell me I can't come because Atlas is up there and the prophecy talks about a parent killing their child and you're worried about my safety and-"
Percy stood on tip-toes and silenced Zoë with a quick peck on the lips. He took her hands in his.
"Please…be careful, more so than you ever have before. For me, okay?"
"Anything for you, Perseus Nightshade," Zoë said with a wink in her voice.
They shared another kiss and went back up the mountain.
Percy could hear Amon grinning as the words of the prophecy reverberated through his head.
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As they went higher up the trail of the mountain, they all felt it get colder, the air heavier, thicker with the magic of the Titans. Despite the cold oppression, Percy felt sweat break out across his brow. His heartrate elevated as adrenaline surged through his bloodstream. His fists kept clenching and unclenching at his sides.
The prophecy weighed on him in a way that it hadn't two years ago during the events of the Lightning Thief quest, but that was way before he remembered Cheyenne, way before her thoughts, opinions, and emotions were added to the mix, her doubts. It felt like Cheyenne was a nervous, crying wreck, worried sick for Zoë, and Virgil was trying to calm her down and keep her together.
By a parent's hand one dies
That was the line of the prophecy that was causing Percy so much anxiety. True, that line applied to everyone here as it was possible that anyone could be struck down by their parent, but Zoë was the most likely candidate since her father Atlas was atop this mountain, and he would very much like to kill her. It made Percy's blood boil and his killer instinct trigger.
He wanted to kill Atlas. He wanted to get his hands on the Titan and slice him into pieces and then burn those pieces just to make sure that he couldn't come anywhere near Zoë. Once Atlas was cleared away and Zoë was safe, well…shit happened, and Percy was good at dealing with shit happening.
The problem with this situation was that, as a person that called himself a Christian, he wasn't allowed to want to kill a person. Granted, it was a stretch to think of Atlas as a person, but he was alive, and he was allowed to exist for a reason. All arguments aside for and against, Percy still felt it was wrong to want to kill Atlas, just like he'd always felt it was wrong to want to kill any man.
Despite how much he'd wanted it, even Virgil knew it was wrong to want to kill Cesare, just like he knew it was wrong to want to kill all the other Borgias, Templars, and beyond during his career as an Assassin. Wanting to kill someone was a sin, and it was sin that fueled Amon.
The group crested a rise and found themselves in a clearing occupied by a large tree laden with golden apples, a mass of scales and teeth wrapped around the trunk. Beyond the tree, on the other side of the clearing, was the passage to where Atlas was supposed to be imprisoned.
"Hera's wedding gift to Zeus," Thalia said. "That mean-"
"Ladon," Zoë affirmed grimly.
At his name, the hundred-headed dragon stirred, raising some of its heads to stare hatefully and warningly at the quintet.
"No sudden movements," Zoë said. "Ladon only protects the tree, but the specifics on what's a threat to the tree and what's not are intentionally vague. Stay at the edge, and move slowly."
"We could do that," Lou Ellen trailed off, "or…"
With a snap of her fingers, the witch opened a breach in space, opening a portal right in front of them that opened up on the other side of the clearing, completely bypassing Ladon.
"That works," Thalia chirped.
Everyone casually went through the portal, Lou closing it behind her. Ladon went back to sleep, the possible threats to the tree now far enough away to not worry about anymore.
Before anyone could make a quip, a cold wind whipped past them all, rustling the trees and the bushes. When the wind settled, the quintet had visitors.
"Sisters," Zoë greeted.
"We do not see a sister," the four nymphs said in unison. "We see-"
Percy stepped forward with his Sword drawn. "Beat it, pauvre con!"
Zoë's hand flew to her mouth the same way a mother's did when she heard her toddler say fuck, as her Cheyenne delivered the most insulting insult the French language had to offer.
The four Hesperides didn't know French, but they knew who Cheyenne was, they knew who Percy was, and they knew a powerful sword coupled with killer intent when they saw it. Scared almost out of their minds, the sisters vanished in a swirl of wind and leaves.
"Salopes sales," Percy cursed with a huff.
"Wow, Dad," Nico said with his arms crossed, remembering all the times well into his adulthood that his father would scold him for his filthy language.
"Zip it, mon garçon."
Nico pursed his lips and shared a look with Thalia and Lou Ellen. Percy had slipped almost fully into Cheyenne, and that wasn't good. Lou Ellen especially knew how dangerous that was right now, since unlike everyone else, she knew the whole prophecy, and so she knew that it was almost time to step up to the plate. That was why she was silently, frantically praying to God for help, because she was fairly certain that not even Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades together could handle what was coming.
They moved forward, all of them noting the developing architecture made of unnatural black stone.
"These are the ruins of Othrys," Zoë said to herself more than anyone. "This should not be here."
"But it is," Percy said. "Let's go. I smell Windex."
The reason for that soon became clear when they left the palace and found the backyard, where Artemis was stuck on her knees with the sky on her back, looking like hammered shit, to put it nicely. Luke held Annabeth down to her own knees, sword at her throat.
"Welcome, everyone, welcome," Atlas greeted, his bald head shiny in the firelight that illuminated the garden-like area. "I was worried you wouldn't get passed Ladon, but I see the infant witch has her ways."
Lou Ellen rolled her eyes. "Such original, much insult, very wow. Honestly, what is it with people and slagging a bedwetter for wearing a diaper to keep her bed and pjs dry?"
"Don't mind him, Lou," Percy said, "he's just jealous he's not as awesome as you are."
"One of many askew ways to view it, daughter-in-law," Atlas said with a cordial tone. "Now, since you, Nico, and Thalia are all here, we can talk business."
"Don't listen to him!" Artemis cried. "All of you, run!"
"No. You were saying?" Percy prompted.
"Yes, as I was saying before being so rudely interrupted, business. The Titans are coming back, ladies and gentlemen. We are coming back to put an end to the corrupt and decadent reign of the Olympians to restore order to this chaotic world. No more neglectful parents, no more injustice…no more children suffering unspeakable horrors in the name of some trial."
Percy went stiff as a board.
Atlas's expression changed of his volition, becoming a mix of genuine pity and righteous anger. With a small jolt, Percy realized that Atlas was well and truly disgusted about what he gone through at the hands of Nero, and was angry about it on his behalf, since he was Zoë's wife. Percy and Zoë both didn't know what to think about Atlas expressing honest concern for their wellbeing.
"This is the promise of Kronos to all of you: revenge against the parents who wronged you, peace in the world you all have fought and died for, and divine justice. All you have to do is swear your loyalty to my Lord, and it will be done."
"Thalia, don't-"
Luke pressed his sword tighter against Annabeth's throat, making a thin line of red appear.
Thunder rumbled overhead as Thalia's eyes glowed just a bit brighter.
"There a lot of ways to achieve peace," Percy said. "The Titans aren't one of them."
Atlas shook his head sadly. "If only you knew the whole truth. Very well, if any of you survive this battle, you may yet have another chance at joining the right side of the coming war."
"Don't hold your breath."
Percy discharged a bolt of energy from the Sword. Atlas summoned his own broadsword and deflected the bolt. The Titan let out a shrill whistle, and the foliage erupted with opponents. Thalia ran at Luke who jumped away from Annabeth, and the two engaged in a painful duel. Nico was left to contend with a particularly vicious manticore, Zoë with a battalion of dracaena, and Lou Ellen got stuck in magical combat with people wielding sticks and Australian boomerangs.
Percy went for Atlas.
The Titan grinned. "Round two."
His broadsword came hard and fast, a streak of bronze in the firelight. However, despite the terrific speed and unbelievable strength, Percy matched Atlas blow for blow, his hair and coattails dancing in the shockwaves.
"Ha! You're nothing without that sword, little girl!"
Percy's eye twitched, suddenly recalling the youth of this life in which he'd been bullied as a child for his girlish appearance. "I'm a boy, you twat."
"Keep telling yourself that."
Unbidden, Percy's hand went to his crotch to make sure he hadn't spontaneously turned into a girl at some point in the recent past. The half-second lapse in focus was enough for Atlas to give his sword another mighty swing, Percy tuning back in with only enough time to raise the Sword of Destiny and go flying through the air.
He spun backwards and landed in a crouch, skidding across the grass. Atlas appeared in a blue, standing over him with his huge sword coming down fast. Percy sprang up and was blasted away by the shockwave of the swing and its connection with the ground, sending up a cloud of dirt. Atlas shot right out of it like a cannonball. Percy was forced on the defensive, rapidly backpedaling to keep his balance under the onslaught of Atlas' Titanic strength.
It was clear that back in DC Zoë's dad still had some rust on him from being trapped and immobile under the sky for thousands of years. Not so much now, it seemed. Atlas might not have been at full power, but he was much stronger than a few days ago.
And getting stronger.
Each second the duel went on, it felt like Atlas got just a little bit faster, just a little bit stronger. The worst part was that there was no crazed or sadistic look in his eye, only focus on the battle at hand, so Percy couldn't even hate him for being a bad sport.
Percy's slammed into something behind him, a generating wall of Othrys, and while he blocked Atlas's next swing, he was sent through that wall with a cough, his arms feeling rattled all the way up his shoulders. Atlas lent not a single moment of respite, and was back on the attack with a battle roar, crossing the distance between them in the blink of an eye, pushing off the ground so hard that it buckled and splintered, sending wads of dirt and stone everywhere.
Percy gripped the Sword of Destiny and displaced in a flash of light, teleporting from one spot to another instantaneously. It was actually the spot all the way back where Atlas had gouged the mountaintop. The way Percy figured, he could only teleport to places in his line of vision. Now that he was over here though, he could see Nico lopping off the manticore's head with his big stygian iron bastard sword summoned from the shadows, Zoë slicing off the head of the last dracaena warrior, and Lou Ellen releasing a blast of light from her palms that engulfed the enemy magicians, overwhelming their own magical defenses, and turned them all back into little kids about five years old.
"Beat it!" Lou shouted. The kids screamed and fled. The way the witch hmph'd and crossed her arms told Percy that they'd made fun of her bedwetting, which left him to wonder just what was wrong with people. Why would you ever make fun a witch of all people for her disability?
Anyway, that left Percy with backup to fight Atlas. The way the Titan came marching up told Percy that he knew he was at a numbers disadvantage and would be cranking it up a notch to compensate. Percy closed his eyes in concentration, and the Sword of Destiny glowed brightly before fading.
"Nico, stick to the shadows. Zoë, archer support. Lou, help Thalia mop up Luke, tell her to come help us, and then go see what you can do for Artemis."
No one argued. Nico dropped into the shadow at his feet and Zoë darted away, drawing her bow and some arrows, and Lou Ellen ran for the dueling old friends.
"Bah," Atlas said.
He started glowing, releasing light from every skin cell, dispelling the shadows immediately around him. Nico was nothing if not adaptive, however, his training and experience as a Master Assassin combining well with his authority over the shadows. Zoë was hardly deterred, her father making himself glow only making him an easier target.
Percy attacked, sparks and a thunderclap ensuing from the colliding of blades, but this time Atlas grit his teeth as his hands stung. The blades danced through the air, releasing showers of light and an orchestra of shockwaves. The ground at their feet crack and buckled, and Atlas was left grunting and crying out as Zoë peppered him with arrows from all sides as she remained on the move, Nico timing his appearances to land superficial blows about the distracted Titan.
Granted, those arrows were barely more than paintballs for all the damage they did, and Nico's strikes hardly more debilitating than a papercut. Atlas was still growing in power, and this battle was helping him along exponentially. Already, he was at a level that he could fight any full-powered Olympian and win, and easily be able to hold his own against the likes of the Big Three, though he would be toast if more than one of those gods joined another against him. It was a testament, then, that the combined efforts of Nico, Zoë, and mainly Percy, were enough to keep the mighty Atlas at the disadvantage.
Atlas grunted as another set of arrows struck his body while his sword was engaged with Percy. He shouted and released a wave of power the expelled all the porcupine-like arrows and sent Percy skidding backwards before he dashed forward. In that brief window, Atlas created a huge crossbow with a bolt loaded and primed and fired it at Zoë. The Hunter dodged, but just barely.
Even with her speed and reflexes, that bolt had come fast.
Atlas changed the crossbow into a second, shorter broadsword, and met Percy head-on.
"Recognize this style?" the Titan taunted.
Percy very much did recognize the new style: one long sword, one shorter, almost like a dagger—that was Shay's style of dual-wielding. Through Cheyenne, Percy was filled with fury and anger at how Atlas mocked the memory of Shay.
"How dare you!? RAAAGH!"
Atlas realized he made a slight miscalculation when Percy started to attack with renewed, furious vigor. The Sword of Destiny glowed just a bit brighter, and where Atlas had grown strong enough to defeat the likes of Hermes, Athena, or Ares—not that anyone could fight Ares anymore—he found himself becoming overwhelmed by Percy's lightning-fast attacks, faster than bullets.
To an onlooker that wasn't enhanced with godly essence or any other form of bodily enhancement, the only thing you'd be able to see were blurring figures and sheets of light going all over the place as Percy attacked hard and furious.
It got to the point that Zoë really couldn't keep up with her arrows and Nico with his shadows. Thalia arrived, Lou Ellen attending to Artemis since they blasted Luke off the edge of the mountain and onto the rocks hundreds of feet below, but Thalia found herself unable to get an opening for a lightning bolt, much less an opportunity to rush in with her spear.
Percy was supercharged and too fast thanks to the power of the Sword reacting to his emotions.
But Atlas was a Titan who had spent centuries training and sparring with other Titans, all of it culminating in a violent war with the upstart gods who had only barely one. Atlas had defeated his fair share of the Olympian's forces. His experience was overwhelming when it came to a demigod, even one who had lived multiple lives and carried their experiences and wisdom with him. Atlas just sat back waited, calling upon his domain of endurance to give him what he needed.
Zoë's eyes widened when she saw that look in her father's eyes, and she knew what it meant. Hurriedly, she took off across the ruins, running at a breakneck pace for the highest vantage point she saw. As a streak of silver in the night, Zoë darted up the height of a pillar and crouched upon the top, arrow nocked and waiting for release.
After three thousand years of service to Artemis, Zoë felt that this was going to be her hardest shot. Not because of distance or wind or obstacles, but because of timing. She was going to have to time this shot in accordance with Atlas's counter, interrupt it at just the right moment, and then it was up to Percy to either strike or dodge.
Percy kept his intensity up without fail, angrily slashing and hacking and stabbing, Cheyenne almost in full control, metaphysically speaking, overcome with fury at Atlas's mocking of her beloved Shay. Just what the Titan wanted. The seconds ticked by agonizingly slow, each one full of clanging metal and flashing light, and then—!
Atlas moved with a roar, throwing his arms out with Titanic force and a wave of power, timing his move perfectly. The exchange of energies through physics and magic left Percy swordless and on his knocked to the ground. Atlas raised his sword; the synapses in Thalia's brain fired, sending signals down through her spine and into her arm, telling the muscles to move and thrust the spear. Likewise, Nico had a similar reaction, his arm starting to thrust his sword into the shadows.
They were all too slow for the Titan.
But not Zoë.
Atlas howled when his daughter's arrow went right through the side of his ribs and into his divine lung. Thalia's lightning bolt struck him right in the chest and he was sent flying backwards. Nico's sword erupted out of the shadows, and where the trajectory had been for the Titan's heart through the back at ground level, Atlas getting sent flying changed where the sword cut him.
From right in the middle of his spine through below his naval at angle, and everything below that between the legs.
Ichor splattered all over the ground in Atlas's wake as he was blasted through a wall and out of sight.
Thalia her crotch as phantom pain emanated from between her legs. Even Nico had his knees crossed with a grimace on his face.
"That is not what I intended," he said weekly. "I was aiming for the heart."
Percy stared open-mouthed at the empty space Atlas had just been standing, poised to kill him. Inside his subconscious, he felt Virgil bonk Cheyenne on the head for attacking so recklessly like that, and ignoring everyone's warnings about calming down. She'd almost gotten them all killed, and they all shared the feeling that Percy's life was it. They had too much to do to die at the hands of a pagan deity.
Percy got back to his feet and held out his hand. The Sword flew into his grasp. He eyed the place where Atlas had been blasted away to, and went for there, Sword of Destiny at the ready. He was not surprised to find no Atlas in the central crater where he had crash landed, but there was a pool of ichor from his wounds. The problem was that that was all there was.
No drops or trails elsewhere to signal Atlas had gotten up and moved.
Percy's blood practically froze in his veins. "ZOË!" he cried at the top of his lungs.
It was only matched by the scream of the Huntress herself as a javelin went rocketing through her torso, taking her with it on a brief flight above the mountain, a flight that ended with an unforgiving splat of a landing just feet away from Artemis and Lou Ellen, the latter looking stunned, the former screaming in anguish.
Percy saw the bleeding figure in the shadows, and his eyes turned solid yellow.
Inside, Amon smiled as the doors of the church opened and he left the sanctuary, the Bible upon its stand being set ablaze.
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Yeah, Arno didn't have a big part here, mostly because Percy didn't have time for that, but more to come in the future on that avenue.
Next chapter is going to be a whole lot of fun. For me, anyway. I'm debating whether or not to take this to New Rome and bring back Reyna and Hylla, and introduce Jason/Jacob Frye, Peter's big brother, and then use that as a means to trigger the Fifth Life. Thoughts and opinions are welcome.
Personally, I like the idea of Frederick Chase that tried to be a good dad but failed abysmally, and is seeking redemption. It's also a canonically supported thing that Annabeth misinterpreted her father and stepmother's intentions regarding her youth, according to the wiki, anyway.
Hoping all of you are warm, and that this brings a little extra warmth to you tonight!
Fav, Follow, and Review please!