A Demigod out of time
The Lightning Thief V
It didn't take much time to pack, so they were ready to leave in the afternoon. Once again the camp store loaned them one hundred dollars and twenty golden drachmas, and he vowed to himself that he wouldn't lose them on their very first day this time around. All three of them also got a canteen of nectar and a bag full of ambrosia squares.
Percy was kinda relieved that this time they didn't use some normal bag like the last time, but some more robust and enhanced ones made by the Hephaestus cabin.
He couldn't suppress a nostalgic smile when he saw that Annabeth also decided to take the same book about famous classical architecture he remembered. Or at least he thought it was the same, he couldn't really be sure. She had learned that there normally wasn't enough time to read a book during a quest, but he guessed this Annabeth lacked the experience to know that yet.
She would learn, he was sure.
Beckendorf carried two bags; one for casual stuff and one for all kind of odds and ends, from a pile of scraps to precise tools.
Chiron waited for them on Half-Blood Hill, sitting in his wheelchair next to the pine tree that was Thalia Grace (should he try to get her out of this tree sooner?) and next to him was-
"This is Argus," Chiron said, "our camp's head of security. He will drive you into the city, but afterwards, you will be on your own."
Percy raised an eyebrow in surprise -hadn't Chiron made some terrible pun about 'keeping an eye on things' the last time?- and greeted the other with a nod.
The moment he heard footsteps behind them he knew who was coming, and a glance over his shoulder proved him right. "Hey!" Luke panted. "Glad I caught you."
He had hoped to leave before Luke had the chance to catch up on them. He couldn't have known for sure, but it had been pretty likely that he would once again give him these cursed sneakers of doom.
He was also uncomfortably remembered about Annabeth's crush on the boy and didn't like the way she blushed the moment he appeared at their side.
"Just wanted to wish you good luck," he continued. "And I thought... um, maybe you could use these."
To his surprise, he didn't give the sneaker to him, but Annabeth.
Annabeth's eyes were wide, but she visibly tried her hardest to appear nonchalant and normal. Needless to say, it didn't work. "Oh, um, thank you, but aren't that, you know, your father's...?"
Luke nodded. "Yeah, they were a present from Dad. I used them on my quest, but right now they are only catching dust in my wardrobe, you have more use of them. Besides, I would feel better if you take them, you know. With them, you can escape nearly every monster, so I don't need to fear as much about you as I would otherwise."
Annabeth's blush was much more pronounced after he finished talking, but she held her composure admirably. "Thank you, I will not lose them!" she declared determined.
Luke laughed. "I know you will not. You know how to activate them?"
"Of course! 'Maia'" -white bird's wings sprouted out of the heels- "to activate them, and 'Stasi'" -the wings folded up and disappeared- "to deactivate them."
Luke nodded with a smile
He didn't know why Luke gave the shoes to Annabeth instead of him, but he knew there must be some sort of plan involved. The only thing he was reasonably sure of was that Luke certainly didn't plan for Annabeth to fall into Tartarus. For all his wrongdoings, and even his willingness to harm Annabeth in the process of his plans, he always drew the line at her death. And what was Tartarus but definitive death?
The only theory as of why Luke did what he did he could come up with was that he probably concluded that it would weird for him to give these sneakers to him, considering they knew each other for only three days in which Percy had kept him on distance, and decided to give them to Annabeth because nobody would think of that as strange.
"Well," Beckendorf said once Luke was gone and started to make his way over to the SUV that was waiting at the other side of the hill. "I think we should go now. We have a long way ahead of us, the sooner we leave the further we get." Annabeth nodded and followed suit, still distracted by the sneakers in her hands, but Percy lingered. He didn't know what he would do if Chiron didn't give him Riptide this time, but-
Chiron caught his arm. "You should have had more time to train, Percy. Hercules, Jason, all of them got more training."
He gave the old centaur what he hoped was an encouraging smile. "It's okay. I have Annabeth and Beckendorf, we'll be fine."
Chiron gave him a small, sad smile of his own before pulling a very familiar pen from his coat pocket. "It would be unfair if only Annabeth got a present, wouldn't it?" He tossed him the pen and he caught it with familiar ease, relishing in the feeling of finally holding it in his hands again. "It's a gift from your father. I have kept it for years, not knowing who I was waiting for, but it's clear to me now. You are the one."
He took off the cap, and then the pen grew longer and heavier until he held a three feet long and about five pounds heavy sword of celestial bronze in his hands, letting him admire the sharp double-edge blade, the wrapped grip, and the flat hilt riveted with gold studs.
"The sword has a long and tragic history that we need not go into right now," Chiron continued, making him think about Zoe Nightshade again. He wondered what she would have said if she knew that he destroyed her sword once before. "Its name is Anaklusmos."
"Riptide," he said like in a trance, still captured by the sensation of having his weapon back.
Chiron nodded with a smile. "Now recap it. And don't worry, it's enchanted to always return to your pocket. You will not be able to lose it."
"Cool," He finally looked up and gave Chiron a thumbs up, trying to look as confident as he could be. He didn't want his teacher to worry more than necessary. "I guess I should go now, the others are surely wondering why I need so long."
And so he was once again on his way to retrieve Zeus' Master Bolt.
Argus drove them out of the countryside and into western Long Island. There had been an awkward silence ever since they started their quest, resulting in Annabeth beginning to read her book and Beckendorf starting to play around with some scraps he had brought with him.
By the time they got into Manhattan, it was already sunset. Argus dropped them at the Greyhound Station on the Upper East Side, just like the last time. At least I'm not a national fugitive this time around, he thought sardonically. Or at least not yet.
A short time later they stood at the bus station, waiting for or ride.
"So," he said, thinking about the Kindly Ones and how they had attacked them the last time they rode the bus. "Is there any reason we are taking the bus instead of a taxi? Or any other form of transportation, like a pegasus for example?"
Annabeth looked at him as if he was especially stupid right now. "Do you have any idea how expensive a taxi would be? We have not even close to enough money for that."
"Riding a pegasus would be a good idea for you, as you're a son of Poseidon, but both Annabeth and I would have serve problems with them. Annabeth, as a daughter of Athena, because of the rivalry between your parents and me... well, children of Hephaestus have a problem with heights. It comes from the time Hera threw our father from Mount Olympus. I'm trying to get over it, but a prolonged flight with a pegasus just isn't feasible yet," Beckendorf added.
"Isn't there some sort of magical way of transportation? I mean, if gods and monster are real, why not some magical subway system or something like that?" He hoped either of them knew about the Gray Sister's Taxi, the one Annabeth, Tyson and he had used once, because he couldn't bring it up himself.
"Well," Annabeth started hesitantly, "there is one, actually. Some sort of taxi," Percy was already fist-bumping himself inwardly for a job well done, but then Annabeth continued. "Sadly it's operators don't accept jobs from demigods on a quest, something about it 'making things too easy for us' and 'having bad experiences with that'."
He grimaced. There goes his idea.
"I guess the idea wasn't too stupid though," Annabeth told him without looking at him, banishing his bad mood for the moment and making him grin stupidly at her. This was the nicest thing she had said to him so far!
"Well, Wise Girl, good ideas are my speciality. Better get used to it" He ignored Beckendorf's snort from his right.
She glared at him half-heartedly, her lips twitching upwards. "I'll believe it when I see it."
"Oh, you will."
"We are doomed," Beckendorf added from the sideline, his amusement audible in his voice.
They spent the rest of the wait talking about this and that, generally just having a good time. Still, he couldn't help but wonder why it was so much easier to get along with Annabeth now when they had argued and squabbled with each other all the time the last time around. Was it because he didn't hit her with toilet water when Clarisse did her thing? Maybe because they missed Capture the Flag and thus she hadn't had the opportunity to set him up against Ares' kids?
Personally, he liked to think it was because he was more mature than when he was twelve. Of course, he didn't feel more mature, but a man could hope, couldn't he?
He also couldn't suppress the bad feeling he had, as if something was gonna completely wrong.
Sure, they would probably be forced to fight the Kindly Ones again, but they should be fine. After all, they had managed it the last time too! And back then he was a lot less experienced and they had Grover with them instead of Beckendorf. And nothing against Grover, he was a badass satyr and all, but Beckendorf was a lot more intimidating and a better fighter.
Still, he couldn't shake this feeling off and it made him uncomfortable.
Finally, the bus came and they entered, found places together (again in the back of the bus which obviously had no back exist) and sat down. Annabeth and Beckendorf stowed their backpacks in the storage space above their heads, but he put down his between his feet. He didn't want risk losing it again, thank you very much.
He watched the other passengers on the bus, as well as the ones still entering, but couldn't spot any trio of scary old ladies. In fact, he couldn't spot anyone fitting that description outside of the bus either. The fact that they weren't here became more apparent when the doors closed and the bus started driving without him catching sight of either his old teacher or her sisters.
He should be relieved, happy even, but somehow this made his anxiety even worse. If it weren't the Kindly Ones, what else made him so nervous?
They were driving for nearly half an hour, Annabeth and Beckendorf keeping themselves busy again with the stuff the had brought with them, when he finally started to calm down. He had probably just imagined things, his knowledge of 'what should be' making him assume the worst-case scenario instead of letting him just enjoy the peace.
Obviously, that was the moment he heard the echo of a loud roar in the distance.
His head snapped around, and he could see that his companions had the same reaction while all the mortals didn't seem as if they had heard anything at all.
"What was that?" Beckendorf asked, reaching for his bag in the storage space. Percy guessed he had his weapon in there and wanted to be prepared for whatever they inevitably would face.
"I have no idea, but for a monster to be heard over such a distance..." Annabeth said.
He narrowed his eyes. He knew this roar from somewhere, now if he could just remember where he had heard it before...
His eyes widened when he saw a glimpse of a figure in the distance.
The Minotaur!
"We need to get out of here!" he whispered urgently.
"What! Why?" Beckendorf demanded, a little terror in his voice.
"I saw it, it's the Minotaur!"
"Don't say his name, Percy!" Annabeth said. "Names have-"
"That's not the time!" he interrupted her. "If he catches up with us, which will probably happen soon enough, we are the perfect target. The bus can't outrun him, and once he gets here all the mortals will die! If we leave the bus we have at least a fighting's chance and all the people will be safe!"
"Annabeth," Beckendorf said insistently before the girl had any chance of replying. "He's right. You have an invisibility cap, don't you? Use it to go to the driver and then push the emergency stop button so we can leave."
Annabeth looked like she wanted to argue, more for the sake of arguing than because she actually disagreed, but finally swallowed her protest and did as told. Less than a minute later the bus came to an abrupt stop and Percy and Beckendorf used the momentary chaos to slip through the coincidentally open doors, their and Annabeth's backpacks over their backs.
"We need to get off the street and into the woods!" Annabeth said just as another roar, much closer this time, could be heard. "The Minotaur can only run in a straight line. Once he reaches his highest speed, the trees should hinder him!"
He couldn't help but smile. Seems like she said the truth when she told us she read about the weaknesses of monsters to be as prepared as she could be. Not that I thought she was lying or anything!
They ran only for a minute or two before Beckendorf called them to stop. "We can't outrun it anyway, no need to waste our energy." Both he and Annabeth nodded. "I have some useful stuff in my bags; if I have enough time I might be able to make something that could help us."
"We have around two or three minutes before he is here," Annabeth said, "maybe a bit longer if his senses are as bad as I have read. Will that be enough?"
Beckendorf grimaced. "Ten minutes would be better."
"We will stall him until you're ready," he promised.
He might have killed the Minotaur twice already, but both times were under special circumstances; the first time was more luck than everything else, and the second time he had the Curse of Achilles. Luck was a fleeting thing, and he hadn't the curse right now, so Beckendorf's plan was the best chance they had at surviving the coming confrontation.
Unfortunately, Annabeth had been right, and barely three minutes later he could see the Minotaur stomp into the small clearing they had chosen as their battlefield.
He gulped. Now that the monster stood before him he was suddenly much less motivated to fight it than he had been before, which was rather impressive considering he hadn't been looking forward to it at all in the first place.
The Minotaur looked just like the last time he had seen it, which was bad. As if a monster with superhuman strength wasn't enough, the Minotaur had decided to cloth up and wear an entire set of armour in addition to a large axe he remembered from the battle of Manhattan. He never thought he'd miss the view of the Minotaur in Fruit of the Loom underwear one day, but now he did.
Finding the motivation to fight that thing again was pretty much a lost cause.
It also didn't help that he felt pretty alone right now, standing opposite to their foe on his own. The knowledge that Annabeth was somewhere around, using her mother's gift to stay invisible, didn't help much with that.
Just a short while ago he had thought that he and Annabeth had a better start this time around, partly because she hadn't had the chance to set him up against the Ares cabin, but now a small, traitorous voice in his mind that somehow resembled Kronos' voice couldn't help but make him fear what he would do if she used this opportunity to set him up now instead.
He could have hit himself for thinking about Annabeth betraying him like that, and not even the excuse that this younger Annabeth wasn't quite the same as the one he remembered was enough to justify this fear. No matter what Annabeth, be it the younger or the older one, thought about you, she would never abandon another demigod to a monster like that. Never. He couldn't believe that.
He was pulled out of his thoughts when the Minotaur let out another roar and started to storm towards him.
The moment the fight started his instincts took over; he waited until the monster was only about thirty meters away, turned around and ran into the woods behind him. He only needed to wait a few seconds until he could hear the Minotaur do the same. He forced himself to look ahead instead of turning around, running as deep into the woods as he could until suddenly his instincts screamed at him. Knowing better than to doubt his gut feeling he instantly jumped to the side, just in time to escape the rampaging monster that had been behind him. Without hesitation, he jumped back on his feet and ran back towards the clearing.
Their plan was simple: buy enough time for Beckendorf to finish whatever he was building so that they didn't need to actually fight the Minotaur if they could help themselves. They would wait on the clearing until it stormed towards them and then run into the woods, hoping that all the trees were hindering it enough to buy them more time before it could get back to them. Then repeat.
He entered the clearing again and continued to run until he reached its other end, waiting for the Minotaur to attack him again.
It was less than a minute later, much less time than they had hoped, that the monster appeared from the woods again, and this time there wasn't a staredown between them. He wasted no time and ran into the woods once again, only to return to the clearing by running around a big tree out of sight of the Minotaur when he heard the monster getting close to him again.
This was when the plan went wrong.
He hadn't even finished half of the way he needed to run before he would reach the other end of the clearing when the Minotaur ran out of the woods, barely twenty meters behind him.
Hie eyes widened and he could feel his heart pounding painfully in his chest. He instantly knew that there was no chance he could reach the woods before the Minotaur reached him, so he changed the plan. He thought back to what his mother had told him all these years ago and stopped running, waiting for the monster to come closer.
It ran at him with his head bent forward, aiming to maim him with its horns, while raising its axe high in the air with its right hand. Seconds felt like hours, and Percy could swear that he could feel the ground shake with every step it made.
He waited until the very last moment to jump to his left, escaping just barely first the axe it swung at him from its right and then the monster itself. Ignoring the weapon that slashed through the air just a few centimetres from his head, he swung his own weapon at the monster's knee, only to be disappointed when he hit it's armour instead.
He didn't waste any time though and instantly started to run back to the edge of the clearing as soon as he got back to his feet. After all, just because the Minotaur figured out their initial plan didn't mean he couldn't use the trees to his advantage.
He didn't turn around when the Minotaur let out another angry roar, nor did he turn around when he could feel the ground starting to vibrate again once the monster began to run after him, starting to catch up. Instead, he continued to run straight in the direction of the thickest tree he could see. Only when he had nearly reached it he threw a glance over his shoulder, and he needed all his willpower not to scream; the Minotaur was not far behind, holding his axe with both hands and preparing to cut him in half.
With renewed energy he ran as fast as he could, praying to all gods that would hear him to let him reach the tree in time.
It were his instincts that saved his life once again.
He was only about five meters away from his goal when he heard a whistle cut through the clearing and before he knew what he was doing he jumped forward, just to the side of the tree. A moment later the blades of the axe swung through the air at the position he had been a second ago, continuing on its path until it hit the oak tree he had tried to reach so desperately.
It cut nearly completely through its six-meter thick trunk.
He had not much time stare at this sign, as the Minotaur, who was not able to stop in its tracks so easily once it started running, rammed against the trunk with a loud clang.
With a lot of groaning and cracking the oak tree, which had been an imposing and strong looking barrier of wood less than a minute before, fell.
In any other situation, he would have watched this process with an open mouth, wondering how something so strong could be felled so easily. He would have mourned for the wood nymph that must have died in this attack. Maybe he would even have felt disheartening. But all he could do right now was to stare at the Minotaur's head, wondering if he should laugh or not, for where should have been the beast's second horn, all that was left was a white stump. The rest of it was stuck in the fallen trunk.
This decision was made for him when he saw the monster's surprised expression (or at least as much as a bull could show such an expression) and heard its confused huff; he couldn't help himself and snorted. And how could he not? Once again he fought the Minotaur, and once again he lost a horn. And this time not even because of him, or at least not directly!
Sadly this caught the monster's attention and it turned all its attention to him.
He gulped.
He jumped to his feet and wanted to swing his sword at it again, this time aiming at a part that wasn't protected by armour, but never got the chance because the Minotaur roared again, now angrier than ever, and hit him with a backhand blow of his free hand. The next thing Percy knew was that he was lying on his back several maters away from his prior position.
The first thing that went through his head was gratefulness that he had had enough time to put on some armour before the fight. He had been able to raise his left arm to block the blow that would have otherwise hit his head, and he was sure that it would be useless now instead of just hurting like Tartarus hadn't he worn some protective armour.
He narrowed his eyes at his foe who was slowly coming closer to him with a victorious expression on its face and tried to vanish all the white flecks that were hindering his vision. He tried to stand up, but his legs felt like jelly and he had no strength in his arms left, so the process was slow.
Now would be a great moment for you to help me, Annabeth, he thought.
Suddenly the Minotaur roared in agony, and Percy caught a glimpse of a nasty wound at the beast's neck before it covered it with one of his gigantic hands. The monster than proceeded to shook around and buckle like a rodeo bull, and that was all he needed to see to know that Annabeth was on it's back.
He resumed his efforts to stand up, desperately wanting to help Annabeth. There was no way he would let her get killed by the beast that had taken his mother from him once before, especially not because this time it would probably end to be a permanent separation instead of only a temporary one.
He finally managed to stand up just in time to see Annabeth -who must have lost her cap at some point- falling from the monster's back to the ground. He had no idea how she did it, but somehow she must have managed to loosen the straps that held the armour together, leaving the beast vulnerable. He had no time to celebrate though, as the next moment the Minotaur grabbed Annabeth by her throat and lifted her into the air.
His vision got blurry, and suddenly he wasn't quite sure what he was seeing; one moment it was Annabeth that was lifted into the air, and the next moment it was his mother. Blonde hair was replaced by brown one before changing back to blonde, the fists that were pummeling in the air and the legs that were ineffectively kicking at the monster were continuously changing between that of a young girl and that of an adult woman, and he could hear two different voices choke out his name. It was like two videos were played at the same time and the scenes overlapped with each other, making it impossible for him to find out which video was the right one. All he knew was that he couldn't let the Minotaur kill its victim, no matter whether it was Annabeth or his mother.
Anger replaced his dizziness and newfound strength burned through his limbs. He grabbed his sword so tightly that his fist was white, but he ignored it. With all the power that his rage-fueled body could muster and an inhuman roar, he threw his sword.
The weapon spun through the air for less than a second before it hit its goal, resulting in Annabeth falling to the ground and starting to gasp for air.
The Minotaur looked dumbly at the stump that once was his right arm for a few moments before it let out an agonizing scream that drowned out every other sound on the clearing and the surrounding woods. Then it proceeded by ignoring Annabeth and directing it's gaze solely on him, making him feel satisfaction for all of three seconds before it changed into dread when the realization that he had no weapon set in.
He looked around in a panic when the monster pawed the ground and prepared to charge at him, desperately searching for a weapon of sorts. His sword was too far away, making it impossible to reach even if the monster wouldn't be between it and him, and there wasn't any other weapon-
The horn! he suddenly thought. He had managed to kill the Minotaur with it once before, so why not again? But then, the monster was even closer to the fallen tree than him. His chances to reach it before getting killed were small, but not zero. Sadly his time to plan was cut short when the monster started to charge.
He prepared himself to use the same old strategy of jumping to the side at the last possible moment, hoping that the missing arm would prevent it from grabbing him even though he figured this trick out already, only to stare in surprise when the Minotaur let out another scream and fell to one knee after only a few steps.
He didn't need to search long figure out why: there, in the hollow of his knee, stuck a knife. A short glance behind the beast at Annabeth only further strengthen his suspicion as of where the weapon came from as her hand was still outstretched, just as if she had just thrown something. His chest filled with new hope; with this additional injury, the monster should be slower than before, improving his chances to get himself a weapon tremendously. Now he only needed to-
A whistle could be heard, and one second later an arrow made of celestial bronze and with some weird capsule at its end embedded itself into the Minotaur's chest. The monster didn't react as much to it as it did to the previous injuries and just grunted before it laid down his axe and made to grab for the arrow, presumably to pull it out. It never got the chance though, because the next moment his chest area was consumed by a small explosion of green fire.
Percy recognized what it was instantly, having seen it before often enough: Greek Fire.
The amount of it used in the attack wasn't enough to kill the Minotaur, but it seriously hurt it. The monster roared and simultaneously tried to extinguish the flames and to attack his new, invisible enemy, but not finding anyone.
Then another arrow hit him, this time at his shoulder, and this one exploded as well.
The Minotaur, who had just been in the process of trying to stand up, roared again, noticeable weaker than before, before falling back on his knees. A clear sign of his falling energy levels was the fact that he now needed to support himself with his remaining arm to not lay flat on the ground.
The next time an arrow hit him and exploded, having hit his hips this time, the beast's voice was barely audible above the sound of the explosion.
When the fourth arrow hit him at his neck Percy knew that this would be the last one. The green fire exploded once again, the bright light of it making it impossible to look directly in its direction. Percy turned back once the light vanished, just in time to see the Minotaur's head disintegrate in golden dust.
He stared at the pile of monster dust for a few moments, silently wondering how he managed to survive another encounter with a monster as dangerous as the Minotaur, but turned his head when he could see a figure running towards their position from the corner of his vision. It was Beckendorf, carrying something that remotely reminded him on a crossbow.
"Hey!" the older boy called once he reached them. "Are you two alright? Here, take some ambrosia. You look like shit."
He took the offered food thankfully before exhaustion overcame him and he let himself fall to the ground, favouring sitting over standing for now. He threw a glance at Annabeth to see how she was and felt relief when he saw that she was fine. Exhausted, but fine. She sent him a small smile when she saw him looking at her, and he couldn't help but remember a saying he had heard once, about finding your true friends on the battlefield, when he returned the smile.
"I'm sorry that I needed so long," Beckendorf said once he had given both of them some ambrosia. "But it was harder to build this thing" -he pointed at the crossbow that was laying next to him on the grass- "than I thought. Well, not really the crossbow, more like the arrows. You can't be too careful when you're handling Greek Fire, you know?"
He was pretty sure that he could spot his pride for creating this weapon through all his worry, and he really couldn't begrudge him for it. It was really impressive, after all.
"So it really was Greek Fire." Annabeth mused, her voice still raw from being choked by the Minotaur. "Wasn't it a bit risky to use it? What if you started a forest fire?"
Beckendorf grinned, which stood in a surprisingly big contrast to his usual permanent scowl. "My cabin experimented a bit with the recipe. This mixture isn't as strong as the original, which makes it less risky to handle. It also has the additional benefit of extinguishing it's own flames after one or two seconds if the amount of liquid used for the explosion is rather small, which means that there was no risk at all."
That explains why the Minotaur wasn't set on fire after each explosion, he thought.
Annabeth's eyes started to shine in a way he recognized as one of the signs of her becoming intrigued, and he decided to intervene before she could start asking questions.
"Anyway," he said loudly. "I think we should make our camp for the night right here." He glanced at the rapidly darkening sky. "It will be night soon, and I have no energy left to start searching for another place to rest for the night."
Both his companions looked at him and nodded after a few seconds.
Beckendorf stood up. "You two should rest some more, I didn't lie when I said you two look like shit. I will get our stuff and prepare everything."
Percy sent the other boy a thankful smile before running his hand through his hair and letting himself fall back to lay on the grass. He knew they wouldn't have much time to rest, that was a constant through all his quests so far. It was better to relax and regenerate every chance you got, and that was exactly what he planned to do for now.