Note: This is a work of Fanfiction, all characters of Percy Jackson Universe and Marvel Universe belong to Rick Riordan and Marvel.
A/N: New chapter is here. Thank you to all those who had reviewed, followed, and favorited my story. A shout-out to okden185, CRUDEN, dxlxtxd xccxxnt, PerseusH, ArashiNokisune, Matt and robogamer11041 for their review and feedback, I have tried to work on it. Thanks for the support. This is the penultimate chapter of the canon followed story, so please bear with me :)
IV
Jason's head hurts with how fast the situation keeps changing. Jason and Zeus came back from defeating Porphyrion and witnessed Percy cursing Athena. Jason smelled ozone around him. With one look at his father, and he knew somebody was going to taste his Master Bolt. Jason could bet a hundred denarii that, that somebody is Percy. He had heard the rumors that Athena had always been the king's favored child. And if Zeus action, a contrast to their earlier conversation is any evidence. Then he is sure that those rumors held some merits. But before his father could blast his friend to pieces. Jason's nightmare came alive. Gaea stood hundreds of yards away, in all her glory.
"Gaea." Percy breathed out.
"Ah! You turned out even more valuable than I thought, Perseus." Gaea praised Percy. "Come. Join me. Help me destroy these wretched gods and I shall bring your lover back to life."
Percy just stood there and stared at her.
"For I am the Nurturer, Life-Bringer, Mother of All, the first child of Chaos. These Olympian had plagued my world for eons. They sat on their thrones while mortals destroyed nature. They are unworthy rulers. It is time to bring back the First Age of the world." Gaea continued.
"It big talk for one who had birthed most of her kids to fulfill her selfish needs, Dirt Face." Percy retorted.
Rage burned in Gaea's eyes. Fear as palpable as a cold front washed over the city. It reminded him of his encounter with Father of the Giants. Percy had frozen in terror once before and had dropped his sword in front of Tartarus. He was not going to repeat that, Percy vowed. He was going to face this protogenos head-on.
"Beware, mortal! I am not some Olympian who will listen to your hurling insults."
She spread her arms and ground bent towards her – trees tilted, bedrock groaned, and soil rippled in waves. Gods and demigods alike started to sink into the ground as if it was water. Jason rose on the winds alongside his father. He looked around the field. Everyone was buried knee-deep into the earth, barring a few. Demeter and Poseidon look unaffected – former being the Earthshaker and latter, the goddess of Agriculture – and Percy was on his knees, holding the grip of his and Annabeth's still halfway buried swords. The land surrounding him was relatively solid – son of Poseidon, Jason concluded.
As other gods worked to make Acropolis stable, Jason noticed his father neither aided the other gods nor tried to confront Gaea. Zeus, just suspended in air – motionless, his Master Bolt in his hand – intently stared at Gaea, who found their struggle amusing. Just as he pondered over his father's strange behavior, realization struck him. Ancient Laws. Immortals cannot directly battle unless being challenged. That was the very first lesson Annabeth had ingrained into the demigods' minds when they first prepared for their quest to rescue Juno. Thinking about Annabeth made Jason sad. Regardless, nobody in their sane mind would challenge a primordial in battle without any backup – not even king of the Gods; and Gaea was too amused to strike first.
The ground condensed slowly. Jason saw Percy standing up and pulling out both swords off the ground. How Gaea had hasn't confiscated his weapons yet? Jason did not know. It might have something to do with him being able to resist Gaea's slimy land. Percy brandished his swords – Riptide in his right hand and Annabeth's drakon bone sword in his left. He zeroed his eyes on the Earth Mother and started walking.
It took Jason a second to grasp what Percy was doing. And another realization struck him. Percy was doing exactly what nobody in their sane mind would do. Challenge a primordial in a battle without any backup. Jason opened his mouth to warn Percy, stop him from doing anything stupid or irrational but halted abruptly. A look of surprise and shock appeared on his face as Percy suddenly disappeared. Jason looked around in fear and concern. He sighed in relief as a few seconds later, Percy miraculously appeared – staggering and coughing – several yards away from before.
Percy looked around in dazed, tried to figure out what had just happened. A melodious, honey-like laugh rang across the city. Somehow in the middle of a destroyed citadel, amid a war which started almost seven decades ago. Gaea found the sight of a confused and struggling demigod amusing.
"There is a reason they don't make heroes like they used to," Gaea said as her laughter subdued. "Ichor is most powerful in the ancient lands. We are at the roots of the pantheons. When the roots die, the rest of the tree comes crumbling down with it. I will cleanse my world from Olympians forever!"
Gaea laughed again, but this time it was cruel. Instead of sweet honey-like, they were of growing corn – crackling, hissing, hot and persistent.
"Then I will slay you at the roots." Percy proclaimed. The sky darkened at his words. Thunderclouds covered the sky of Acropolis, banning the sun from reaching the grounds. Winds picked up, and all the water around the city drew toward the Son of Poseidon.
"Enceladus's biggest mistake was killing Annabeth," Percy said as he brandished his swords again. "And yours was not killing me in Portland."
Percy walked toward Gaea. With every step he took, the sky rumbled, winds picked up faster, and hurricanes formed under his feet. "You are going to crumble today, Gaea. And my sword will tear your heart apart. I swear it on the Styx!" Percy declared. In the midst of rumbling clouds, a loud crack of thunder boomed and sealed his solemn oath.
Percy was few feet away from her, standing in the middle of his own personal thirteen-foot hurricane. Clouds of water vapor swirled around him, winds so powerful dust and debris swirling with them. The drizzle started falling from the heavens, slowly settling the swirling dust. Earth Mother looked unbothered by the changes in her surroundings. Gaea acted as if she was enjoying an afternoon rain in her garden, and it irked Percy.
"Powerful, but futile," Gaea commented offhandedly. "These petty winds and water sprinkles won't help you, demigod. You should have joined my ranks when you had the chance. But alas, you mortals are naïve." Gaea's statement irked him even more. Percy roared in annoyance and charged at her.
Gaea sent shrapnel blasts of stone and soil his way. The storm knocked aside most of the projectiles. Few who got past it, Percy dodged easily. In mere seconds, Percy was in front of her. He reacted fast and slashed her midsection. To his surprise, instead of ichor, a spout of sand spilled out of her wound. As soon as the wound appeared, some soil raised from the ground and covered the gash. When the dust fell away, the wound was gone.
The gash didn't bother Gaea, but now fury filled her eyes. She sent more dirt missiles, this time more powerful. Percy dodged most of them and blocked a few with his swords. He was in defense now. Every time he attacked her, the soil cast would heal her instantly.
You can't kill who you can't hurt.Percy thought. Just as he thought of these words, his mind replayed a few years old memory. A maniacal smile adorned his face. He called upon his power, and his gut twisted even more. Lightning flickered around him. The clouds darkened, and the rain swirled faster. His hurricane grew larger, winds blew even more rapidly, and suddenly Gaea was aloft.
They were inside the eyewall – storm's most powerful winds swirl around them, separating them from the outside world. Hurricanes kept growing bigger and lifting them more and more off the ground. Percy struck again, but this time vulnerable to her attacks, he didn't have powerful gusts to shield him from shrapnel.
"You cannot defeat me. The whole earth is my body," Gaea boomed. "How would you fight the embodiment of Earth?" Gaea challenged.
Instead of a retort, Percy slashed Riptide and nicked her collarbone. To his relief, ichor trickled down, streaking her grass-woven dress with gold. That cut didn't pain Gaea, but it did surprise her. Her eyes widened as golden liquid seeped out her wound. Percy smirked at her expanse.
"You can thank Antaeus for that. Pity I sent him to Tartarus." Percy quipped.
"You will die for that!" Gaea roared and sent a large boulder on his way.
"Your son said that too." Percy gleefully replied, as he dodged the boulder and slashed her arm again. Anybody else seeing this would have called him insane for riling up a primordial. Well, that's debatable.
Percy's shirt was tattered, his breastplate had a lot of scrapes and few dents from the shrapnel attacks. But Gaea wasn't faring any better. There was a noticeable golden tint on her dress. She was powerful, insanely so. But just like Tartarus, her power lied in the manipulation of Earth, and not in her combat prowess. This gave Percy an upper hand, and her being out of her element weakened her attacks. Deciding her assault was not having the desired effect, Gaea created a staff out of Ebony wood and soil, and attacked.
As soon as Gaea achieved lift-off, the ground solidified. Demigods stopped sinking, though still buried upto their waists. Efforts of gods had slowed them from immersing fully into the ground. Gods themselves were only knee-deep. As demigods started digging themselves out, Jason landed next to Piper to help her. Once everyone out was out and making sure Piper was fine, he focused back on the raging storm and Gaea in front of him.
Even with the rain and flying debris, Jason could see clearly what was happening in the middle of the storm, and he didn't like the sight one bit. Percy was there – battered and bruised – weapon locked with Gaea, his two swords tangled with some weird wooden Gandalf staff belonging to their big bad. Both trying to outmaneuver the other.
Suddenly, as if Percy had sensed him watching, he looked in Jason's direction over Gaea's shoulder. Percy's eyes locked with his, trying to convey a silent message. Oddly so, he understood. How? He was going to marvel at that forever, but now wasn't the time. They had a primordial to defeat. He gave a brief nod in return to Percy – which Jason doubted would have been perceptible to Percy fighting yards away.
"It's time. Let's go." Jason told Piper looking back at her.
Piper looked at now untangled Percy. He blocked an oncoming strike from staff with Riptide and slashed at Gaea with Annabeth's sword, which she effortlessly avoided by twisting her body. Piper looked back at Jason and gave him a nod and an "Alright.", albeit with a brief hesitation, which was strange to Jason, but Jason dismissed it as nerves to battle a protogenos. He nodded back and curled his arm around Piper's waist. She moved closer, hooked her own arm around his neck, and pressed against him as Jason took flight.
Piper was worried about a lot of things. First and foremost, she had lost the cure. If there is another death battling Gaea, Piper won't have a physician cure to administer. And as selfish as it may sound, she doesn't want it to be Jason. They had finally started moving forward in their relationship, and he had implied several times that he might stay at the Greek establishment rather than back in Camp Jupiter. She didn't want to lose something this good to Gaea.
Another source of her worry was the source of weather wonder in front of – Percy Jackson. Ever since she discovered her Greek heritage, she had a lot of near-death experiences. She had seen things that would have plagued nightmares to any ordinary sixteen-year-old teenager. But watching Percy's eyes glow so dangerously as he stared at her was the most terrified she had ever been. Even thinking about him ordering her to bring the cure to him makes her spine freeze in dread.
Now she was flying toward that very son of Poseidon. Even from so far away, she can feel emotions rolling off of him. Rage, sadness, hatred, loss, bloodlust, and thirst for revenge overwhelmed her. He was an embodiment of the wrath of the seas that Romans feared so much. Piper feared if he made her the prey of that wrath, there was nothing anybody could do before Percy acted upon his earlier threat. Piper knew this was her paranoia, but she couldn't help but feel wary after witnessing Percy's fury.
Despite her fear of losing her beloved and her own life, what worried her most was the immortal they were approaching. Gaea. Last winter, Piper had slowed the power of Gaea at the Wolf House, helping to free Hera from a cage of earth. Now she would have an even bigger job. She had to subdue a fully awakened Gaea.
As they neared the storm, another emotion joined the fray. The new sentiment puzzled Piper as it felt like… envy? It in fact was envy, but it felt different – it was frail and foreign. The emotion was more controlled than ballistic, like Percy's. She realized it felt foreign because it didn't belong to Percy, rather than a son of Jupiter. The revelation puzzled her even more. Why would her boyfriend feel envy in the middle of a war? Then she followed his vision, he was looking at the majestic storm Percy had conjured, and she understood Jason's reason, he was a son of Jupiter – Lord of the sky, contriving storms has always been his thing, even her sister Thalia cannot summon them – or so have she heard. So seeing such a massive hurricane could cause petty jealousy. Strangely, Piper found it cute.
Jason constantly dodged flying debris as they entered the giant hurricane. Astonishingly, they didn't find any resistance from the whirling water. As if the storm had a mind of its own and granted them access, allowing them to aid their master in his battle. Piper had a vast imagination. Sue her.
As they ascended to Percy, they noticed he had lost one of his swords and was fending off Gaea's attacks using only Annabeth's drakon bone sword. He looked worse for wear. Cuts and bruises ornate his body, splinters peeking out of his arms and cheeks. He looked as if he had lost a fight with Echidna (and not the immortal one). To his credit, Gaea didn't look any better. Her originally green dress, now stained with gold, and her solid green eyes turned to a fiery orange as if they held erupting volcanos in them.
Percy blocked another attack and slashed Gaea's chest when Piper and Jason arrived. In retribution, Gaea sent a wave of projectiles his way. Jason borrowed Percy's thunderclouds and gathered wind and clouds around him. The sky responded with frightening speed and made the storm even more deadly.
Unbothered by the sudden increase in the intensity of his surroundings, Percy kept fighting. With a start, Piper understood why. He was buying them time. He was buying her time. All this while, from the moment Gaea emerged, he had kept her engaged, focused on him rather than trapped and struggling demigods. He had faced doom so that others could gather their bearings and aid him. So she could work her magic safely.
Lightning burned her eyes. Thunder made her teeth vibrate. But with a determined look and a goal in mind, she turned towards her boyfriend.
"Get me closer," Piper urged. "I need to be next to her."
"Piper, the fight and the shrapnel–"
"I know." Piper cut into Jason's words of worry. She had to do it. She can't let it all go in vain. Not now.
Jason gave her a hesitant nod and moved in until they were right next to Gaia. The winds encased them, keeping them stable, and barricaded them from Gaea's earthen shrapnel. But it was all Jason could do while sending his own wind gust and bolts to assist Percy by distracting Gaea.
"FOOLISH CHILDREN!" Her face contorted in disgust.
"You are so weary," Piper told the protogenos, her voice radiating kindness and sympathy. "Eons of pain and disappointment weigh on you."
"SILENCE!" Gaea bellowed and sent her shrapnel in all directions, her staff left forgotten.
The force of Gaia's anger was so great that Jason momentarily lost control of the wind. He focused on them again, and in a moment of concentration, stray shrapnel hit his shoulder. He grunted in pain but kept them stable.
Piper didn't have time to worry about her boyfriend. She had a much greater task at hand. She knew the Roman was strong enough to take a hit, so Piper kept her focus.
"Millennia of sorrow," she told Gaia. "Your husband Ouranos was abusive. Your grandchildren, the gods, overthrew your beloved children, the Titans. Your other children, the Cyclopes, and the Hundred-Handed Ones were thrown into Tartarus. You are so tired of heartache."
"LIES!" Gaia sent another wave of projectiles and tried to defend against Percy's oncoming attacks, but her movements were more sluggish than before.
"What you want," Piper continued, "more than victory, more than revenge… you want to rest. You are so weary, so incomprehensibly tired of the ungrateful mortals and immortals."
"I – YOU DO NOT SPEAK FOR ME – YOU CANNOT –" Gaea tried to form coherent words, all the while Percy kept slashing and stabbing her.
Unfortunately, Jason begins to blackout, too. The winds encasing the pair were dying. The storm lost its intensity. Before Piper could speak out her worries, a small blob of water splashed Jason's face, spraying her hair wet in the process. Jason focused back with a start. He gathered his strength and focused solely on keeping them stable, losing control of the storm. Once Piper knew she wouldn't free fall to death, she continued.
"You want one thing," Piper said soothingly, her voice resonating throughout the eyewall. "One word. You want permission to close your eyes and forget your troubles. You – want – SLEEP."
Percy slashed again, giving her a big gash across her abdomen. Gaea started swaying with the winds, her head lolled, her eyes closed, and she went limp in the middle of the hurricane.
"SLEEP." She advised again, gathering as many emotions as she could muster in one last command.
Suddenly winds slowed down, water dissipated, and all four of them freefall toward the earth. Jason took hold of the winds, but already tired from her charmspeak, could only be able to keep two of them afloat. She watched in horror as Percy, along with Gaea, plummeted toward the earth. Sight all too similar to one she witnessed underneath the parking lot of Emmanuel Building in Rome.
Being the bigger of two, Gaea fell first, sending dust and debris up into the air. Once the dust rested and the air got cleared, Piper found Gaea in a small crater. Percy on top of her, in a weird, poorly executed superhero landing position she used to see in his father's movies. He was panting heavily. Jason was so shocked he didn't move an inch. He kept them floating several feet in the air.
"It was us who raised you. And it will be us who will perish you." Percy said in a feral tone. His thundercloud cleared away, and a heavenly bolt fell from the clear sky toward the unsuspecting half-blood.
"FOR ANNABETH!" Percy screamed with a guttural roar. He raised the drakon bone sword, and with all his might, he plunged it into her heart just as the bolt connected with the pommel of his sword. Electricity flowed through his sword to limp protogenos. Gaea glowed, cracks formed in her body. With a bright, blinding light, Earth Mother exploded and shattered like a clay sculpture. Sending its pieces in all directions with a blast so powerful, it hurtled the son of Poseidon in the air.
Percy fell yards away from the crater – motionless.
.
A/N: And Period. The next chapter will be up soon. Gaea asking for Percy to join seemed a bit uncharacteristic, but it's not. Gaea doesn't care if they were allies or enemies or if she had killed Percy's girlfriend. For her, everyone is a means to an end. Also, Gaea is manipulative, and at the moment, Percy was angry and irrational. It would have been easier for her to turn him against others if their talk had stretched longer. I had also added a little homage to Percy-Echidna's talk from The Lightning Thief. And finally, what Piper heard about Thalia's ability to generate storms is in fact FALSE. In The Titan's Curse, she had conjured a lighting storm while fighting Luke. The extent of Thalia's power is not well known to campers because of her brief stay (6 months) in Camp Half-Blood. The 'us' here is Percy and Annabeth. It was their blood (Annabeth wiped Percy's nosebleed from her already bloodstained hand when she died and her palm hit the ground) which raised Gaea, and in the end, it was those two (Percy and Annabeth's sword hit the final blow) who sent her back. Please review what you think about it. Constructive criticism is appreciated :)