The Sue's Curse Chapter 23 (Peter), a percy jackson and the olympians fanfic

Chapter 23: New Moon's Hope Is Extinguished

(Peter) [1]

I climbed up flight after flight of stairs inside the Empire State Building. When I had checked the elevators, they, of course, had not been operational, so I was now traversing the six hundred stories on foot.[2] If time was to be considered, this trek was taking me hours, but I was used to the toil. It had been over a year since the world had stood still and this would hopefully be the last stop on my harrowing journey.

It had begun in Hawaii. I spent my first week praying to every god I could think of and combing the Hawaiian island of Moloka'i for another living breathing soul. All I found were more statues. That is what became of the mortals, satyrs, and Party Ponies.[3] There were no monsters and there were no gods, major or minor, Greek or Hawaiian. The rest of the island was as still and unmoving as the jungle I had left behind.

It was not encouraging, but I did not give up. I returned to the hot spring. After I said my goodbyes to Thalia and Annabeth and gathered all the gear that I thought would be useful, I took the best boat I could find and left the island.

The best boat available was a rowboat. Nothing moved without my help, so the more modern contraptions did not work for me. I rowed to Maui and then the island of Hawaii, but my brief survey showed no signs of life.

At that point, I decided I would need to seek out the gods in their sacred places, so I rowed my boat out to the open sea and dropped my makeshift anchor. Then I brought out the Hunters of Artemis underwater hunt equipment and dove into the Pacific Ocean.

Most believe Atlantis is in the Atlantic Ocean or the Mediterranean Sea, but Poseidon, despite his faults, is a clever god full of wiles. His city exists within the unseeable depths of the sea, meaning that any body of saltwater with unseeable depths can be used as a portal.[4] Even the Great Salt Lake of Utah has access to his domain if you know how to find it and thanks to my experience, I was versed in that particular mystery.

Soon enough, I arrived at the underwater kingdom. The city's abalone buildings shone like a moonbow thanks to the luminescent jellyfish, shining as brightly and motionless as the artificial flames during midwinter. The effect of the multi-colored lights on the hovering merfolk and other inert sea creatures bordered on uncanny, but it still filled me with hope.

Atlantis did not look like the world above. I could not see the dark empty sky or the shimmering haze here. The city was bright and seemed almost normal, almost alive.

Almost.

When I checked the city, I found nothing new. I looked in the palace next, but it was just a beautiful shell of emptiness, an oyster without a pearl. No Lady Amphitrite, Lord Poseidon, Lord Triton, or even Lord Delphin graced its hollowed halls.

Finally, I went to the volcanic forges in the hopes of finding a friendly cyclops working at their station or Lord Hephaestus himself, but the forges too were empty. In some cases, hammers hung suspended above their workstations so that you could almost see the hands and beings that held them.

Again, almost, but almost was not nearly enough.

I left Atlantis with a heavy heart, but I pressed on. Months later, I went to the underworld, hoping that the gods of death had fared better in this tragedy, but the souls of the underworld hung about, hazy and lifeless as a Kodak and there was no Charon to ferry me across the River Styx, nor was Cerberus there to block my path on the other side. The judgment pavilion stood unmanned, with King Minos and the other judges gone. The Kindly Ones too were absent and when I arrived at Hades' Palace, it was the same. The bronze and dark stone building did not house the rulers of this land. It was just filled with the deadly stillness of the underworld, but I was not done.

After steeling myself, I followed the Lethe River into Tartarus. I was more determined in those days so I was not tempted to drink from its waters and forget everything and everyone. Instead, I reached the darkest part of the world, hell itself, and found myself wishing, it was more dangerous and viler, but all that was there was confirmation.

As I had long suspected, Kronos was missing. However, unlike the other unaccounted-for gods and titans, this was a mixed blessing. With Kronos gone, there was finally a plausible explanation for my current predicament. Someone I could blame. Someone I could talk to. Someone I could reason with, and if all that failed, someone I could hunt down, trap, and torture for information on how to rectify this situation.

Such were my thoughts.

I surmised that since Kronos was not here, there were only two places he was likely to be. I left the underworld with purpose. I acquired a bicycle and rode it through California's empty golden hills to San Francisco, thankful to Annabeth for insisting I learn how to operate one in days past.

Yet knowing how to ride a bicycle did not help me overcome my disappointment when I, at last, arrived at the Mountain of Despair. There was no Kronos, no titan army, no rebuilt palace of the titans, no gods in chains, or any other grotesque displays of power to be seen there. Ladon and the Hesperides were also nowhere to be found and Lord Atlas's post was empty with the celestial heavens frozen in place above me. Seeing the sky and its myriad of colors reminded me of the shell that was the Palace of Atlantis. It had been months and the only thing that had changed was the thickness of the shimmering fog. I was just as alone on this mountain as I had been there.

A wave of despair crashed upon me. The beauty and enormity of the sky made me feel so small and insignificant. I felt lost and afraid and lonely. I was so lonely. I was just one person in this big empty world and I was tired of being alone.

Wave after wave overtook me and this became the only stop during my entire trip where I lost track of my relative time completely. I have no idea how many minutes, hours, or days, I spent up there.

However, even though time did not pass for others, it did for me. I was still alive. I still reacted. I grew hungry and thirsty and it was enough to remind me of my humanity and my mission. I was weak by the time I returned to my bicycle and supplies, but I did return. I ate and slept and then I rode away from that place as fast as I could.

After the Mountain of Despair, I almost opted to skip my last detour, but I could not risk it. Thus, I headed to the land of the Lotus Eaters in Las Vegas, a place that exists outside of time. It was a long shot, so I was not surprised when I found nothing, save the temptation of the lotuses.[5] However, I was humbled by my breakdown at the Mountain of Despair, so it was easier to resist them than it might have been. I told myself that I could not afford to lose more time. I left the hotel and continued on to my last hope:

Mount Olympus.

I knew that if Kronos was alive and able and if he was not at the Mountain of Despair, then he had to be there. I suspected he would be torturing the gods by taking over their home.

Thus, I traversed the country on a series of bicycles, switching one out for another when the former was worn out. I rode as fast and as far as I could. Every time I stopped, I could not resist looking around, in case I found someone, anyone, wandering this hellscape as I was.

There, of course, was no one, but it did not matter.

For now, I was finally here. I crested the last flight of stairs and faced a silver door that glowed with its own light. I licked my lips and clenched my hands into fists. This was it, the last stronghold of the gods. I had made it. And yet, I did not know how to feel.

I was not the same person who left Hawaii or even the same person who left the Mountain of Despair. As I had traveled in darkness and silence, I had felt fear and doubt grow within me. The longer I rode, the less sure I became of Kronos's involvement. What was the point of stopping time like this? Even in New York City? Even for the elevator to Mount Olympus?

It felt wrong and yet, if it wasn't Kronos, who was doing this? It simply had to be him. I needed it to be him. I needed to be right, so I dreaded coming here as much as I knew it was necessary. Mount Olympus was the home of the gods.

If they were not here, then all that would be left would be Greece itself.

That last thought was like a festering wound. I did not want to cross another ocean. I did not want to start another search, but I would have to. I knew I could not give up, no matter how much I wanted to.

I was alive. I was moving. That had to mean something, right?

It had been many months since I had been sure of that. Many months since I had been sure of much of anything. There was only one truth these days or this night, this endless night of despair and quietude, I had to keep moving or I'd be lost to it, just like everyone else.

I let out a deep breath and pushed open the door. The door was heavy especially in this time of viscosity and stillness, but it gave way quickly under my insistent pressure. Physically at least, I was so much stronger than when I had started my quest.

And I was here.

Mount Olympus.

At last.

Just like in the Mountain of Despair, there were no signs of Kronos or a hostile takeover. There was only the all too familiar quiet that stalked me wherever I went and here in the most sacred of places, it was even worse than usual. The fog was thicker than ever and there was no one to greet me, no statues, not even satyrs. I was completely alone. I walked quickly to the marble white and silver-grey palace at the top of the mountain as if I could outrun my growing despondency. As if it would not find me and snare me like a hare in a trap soon enough.

I cannot say how I crossed the distance from the stairwell of the Empire State Building to the throne room of the palace. I was so much faster these days. So used to moving without thought, for nearly all my thoughts were nothing worth dwelling on. Thus, in less than a quarter-hour, I was there and I could not breathe.

I was frozen.

My whole body seized up. I could barely think. All because it had finally happened. Finally, my prayers had been answered. Gods, this truly was heaven. For there, by the hearth fire, was a solitary figure dressed in a russet brown robe tending the flames and they were moving! Both the figure and the flames!

I knew her immediately and was hit with a sharp feeling of self-reproof. How could I have neglected to think of her before now? I had prayed to all the Olympians. I had prayed to minor gods, even titans, and yet I had somehow forgotten her.

"Lady Hestia!" I rasped. My voice was raw from disuse and the unexpected joy of this moment.

The figure turned and I saw her round face, kindly features, and unmistakable glowing amber eyes. "Why hello there, child," she said, "I was hoping that you would stop by."

I strode forward and began, "Lady Hestia, Goddess of Home and Hearth." Already, there were tears in my eyes. I pressed on and started the speech that I had prepared a year ago for when I finally came across someone of power. I said, "Please. I beg of you. Can you tell me what—" I stopped talking.

Hestia had walked over to me. She was hugging me. It was the first true human contact I had received all year. It was so good, and yet it burned. Such a gentle embrace was foreign to my hard, jaded body.

"Lady Hestia," I sobbed. "I…I…"

"Shush," she said. "I am here now. You're safe." She petted my head and for a wild moment, I wished Lady Hestia was my mother. She was far warmer than her fellow virgin goddesses. For longer still, I was overcome and could not say more than her name, but eventually, the tears stopped and I was able to pull away. I looked into her warm hearth eyes and finished my original question, "Can you tell me what has happened to the world?"

Lady Hestia turned to the fire. We were closer somehow and I realized the hearth fire was not nearly as large and lively as it should be. It was a small thing, a collection of flames and embers.

Lady Hestia sighed and the flames diminished even more. "I am sorry to say child," she said in somber tones, "but the world is fading."

No.

"That's not possible," I said.

Gods and titans could fade but the whole world?

Lady Hestia's face turned grim. "It's more than possible. It is reality. Worlds disappear more often than you would believe. It will not be long before this fire burns out and this world ceases to exist. If time were still a relevant concept, I'd say we have perhaps a couple more weeks, no more than a month. Almost all of the other gods and titans have gone from here. Even Kronos has left this earthly plane, but the process has been going on for a long time. It started with the monsters and minor gods and slowly one by one without most beings realizing it, gods, titans, and monsters, all the things that are more belief than flesh, began to vanish. Soon the last being will be gone from this place and be reborn in a world filled with more love. All but me I shall remain until the very end."

She looked up at me. Even her glowing amber eyes were duller than they should be. "And you," she said, "I was not sure you would make it here, but you have, and you have neither frozen nor left. You child, have a choice."

My head was filled with new questions. "I do not understand." A choice? I felt so confused. Kronos and the gods were gone? How could that be? How could the world be fading and what did she mean by them being reborn? I started with that last question. "What do you mean by rebirth?" I asked. "Are you speaking of an afterlife?"

Lady Hestia frowned. "Not in the way you are thinking. It is…" she paused and began again. "A god is many things and exists in many places. They have stopped existing here, but they are not dead. They simply exist elsewhere."

I swallowed. "What about the mortals? And the Hunters of Artemis?" And me? She said I had a choice. Did that mean Artemis's blessing still applied, making me special, or was it something else? What if I had never been mortal to begin with?

It was a question I had asked myself many a time on my journey. Why me? Why had I been left to wander this timeless wasteland alone? It had been one of the queries in my prepared speech, but now that I was here, I was not sure it mattered. When the very world was trying to reset itself, did anything truly matter anymore? I had been alone for so long. If I could get a new start that would not be a bad thing, would it?

"The mortals," Lady Hestia answered, "including what is left of the Hunters, will disappear when this world fades."

Disappear? The Hunters would all be gone, wiped. Even…

Annabeth.

"Is there nothing I can do?" I asked with some renewed desperation. It was less than it should have been. Even with Lady Hestia before me to give guidance, I did not know how to make myself feel as I ought. I was so tired. I had to drag the next words out of my mouth like they were a dead animal carcass. "Is there a prophecy or some sort of…quest?" The last word felt like an arrow throw my very heart. With each pulse of my blood, it drew pain and suffering.

I truly could not imagine accomplishing a quest after this unholy year, and yet if the goddess's answer was yes, I would have to. I had no choice. I had to try for her and for Thalia and the rest.

However, Lady Hestia shook her head. "We are beyond such things, I'm afraid." Then her voice became gentler than a kiss of death and she said, "This is the end."

And just like that, the last embers of hope that I had been trying to ignite since I had seen Lady Hestia at her hearth were completely extinguished.

There was nothing.

I glowered at her and then I turned to the fire, wanting to wish for her to be wrong, wanting to care, but instead I was relieved. I was relieved! What was wrong with me? My friends were are going to die and I was on the edge of happiness?

Lady Hestia put a hand on my shoulder. "Child."

I blinked back more tears.

Lady Hestia could sense my pain and was trying to comfort me, but she did not understand. She thought I was mourning the world. She thought I was being a good person. When in reality, I was worse than a worm, worse than the most lecherous and prideful of men. I deserved to be strapped down by malicious snakes or have an eagle eat my liver.[6] I deserved to be Sisyphus with his rock or Danaus's daughters with their ever-leaking basin.[7] I deserved to suffer from eternal hunger and thirst.[8] But no, none of that was truly fitting. For my disloyalty and selfishness, I should be turned into a monster and be hunted and killed by my fellow Hunters for eternity.[9]

That is what my fate should be.

For, beyond the insult of the solace growing inside me, Lady Hestia's words had spoken to some deep knowledge within myself. Her final words of resignation had not been as shocking as they should have been. Rather they had been more like a confirmation. For, in sooth, I had long since intuited all of this was beyond me. Even before the world had stopped, I had sensed something was amiss. I had seen the shimmering haze of the fog, no, the mist that had seemed to cover all things long ago. I had noticed there were fewer monsters to hunt as well. I had ignored my unease and the dreams. The dreams! I never thought those would come to anything.[10] I never thought they would because I did not want to think about them and now, though it was not nearly enough, I was receiving punishment for my inaction.

That was the heinous truth of it all. From the beginning, I had known in my heart of hearts that this quest, long though it was, could not repay years of enforced ignorance and I had no one to blame, but myself. I was a failure. Plain and simple.

I must have said those last words aloud, for Lady Hestia gave my shoulder a squeeze and said, "You are not a failure, child. You have made it here. You have found out what has become of your home."

Home. The word cut through my self-recrimination.

"I want to go back," I decided, suddenly. The sentence was like a moonbeam coming through the clouds on a starless night. I realized that if this was truly the end and the world had reached its final chapter, I did not want to be here when it happened. If I was going to die, I wanted my deathbed to be beside my best friend's.

"Lady Hestia," I asked in a voice that finally sounded like my own, "Can you take me home?"

After everything I had done, it would have been just if she had laughed at my impertinence and said no, or worse, if she had frozen right then and there, but Lady Hestia did none of those things. The merciful goddess of the hearth gave me a mother's smile and her eyes flared, a degree brighter. "I cannot do much, but that is within my power." She reached into her robes and pulled out yet another brown robe.

"Put this on," she instructed. "It is a piece of home and will protect you as only a home can."

I slipped on the robe and felt its warmth. It was like another hug from the goddess herself. Somehow, despite all the tears I shed, I found more. This was not fair. I did not deserve such kindness.

"Hush now, child," she said. "Hush." She enveloped me again and petted my head.

I forced myself to quiet. It was harder than it should have been, but it was the least I could do.

When I was done, she spoke again. "Good. Now close your eyes," she said before stepping away, "and think of your homestead."

I did as she bid me. I forgot my self-hatred as I thought of camp, of the other Hunters, of Lady Artemis, of Zoë, of Thalia, and of Annabeth.

Annabeth, who had made the Hunters finally seem like a family to me, more than anything or anyone else, she was my home.

I could picture her so clearly in my mind. Her serious steel grey eyes, her beautiful blonde hair, her sun-kissed skin that always made me feel self-conscious of my fair complexion, the stubborn set to her chin, that almost too long nose, and her mouth half-scowling, half-smiling.

Annabeth. The image of her brought me peace and safety.

The warmth of the robe increased, but it was not an unpleasant feeling. It was pure and so welcoming that I could not question it. For, this was not a matter of deserving or not deserving. This was unconditional. This was love.

Even before, I spoke, before I opened my eyes and breathed in the familiar fragrant steamy sulfur-tinged air, I knew it had worked. I knew I had returned to her. I knew:

I was home.

Footnotes

[1] This is another full New Moon chapter.

[2] Artistic License. The real-life Empire State Building is 102 stories. In PJO, Olympus is on the 600th floor by elevator. So, I guess after the 102nd story, New Moon was walking up magic stairs.

[3] You may remember that Party Ponies are centaurs.

[4] This is more artistic license. I always had the impression that Atlantis and its underwater forges were somewhere in the Sea of Monsters which the PJO wiki confirms for the forges at least. This idea of Atlantis being Schrödinger's saltwater city is interesting though and it technically doesn't contradict the canon.

[5] Even more artistic license. The lotuses aren't really mentioned in PJO Lightning Thief. The hotel itself does all the work. Though we could assume the lotuses here function as they do in the PJO movies, I don't like the movies (Does anyone?). Thus, I theorize that the lotuses probably work like they do in mythology. In the Odyssey, the lotuses are a delicious narcotic that causes Odysseus's men to become lethargic, filled with contentment to the point of bliss, apathetic towards the outside world, and super reluctant to leave the Lotus-Eaters' island.

[6] These are both Greek myth punishments. An eagle eating one's liver on a daily loop is Prometheus's punishment for giving humans fire and the chair snakes is the punishment of Theseus and his best friend Pirithous. Pirithous was trying to marry Persephone who was already married to Hades, you know, the god known for holding grudges. Yeah, there's a reason why Theseus and Prometheus get saved by Heracles and Pirithous is left behind.

[7] More Greek punishments: Sisyphus earned his by being a very bad king who liked murdering his people and visitors. And Danaus's daughters received their punishment for killing their husbands as part of a court intrigue plot.

[8] Being cursed with hunger is a punishment that happens in a few myths. There's the famous one of Tantalus being unable to sip water or bite into food that is almost in his reach. What I didn't know is that he's being punished for stealing the food of the gods and then serving his own son to the gods as food! The other one I found is about Erisychthon who pissed off Demeter by cutting down too many trees in her sacred garden. She made him so hungry that in the end, he ate himself…

[9] Being turned into a monster and being hunted are also common Greek mythology punishments that usually have to do with having too much hubris. Though I find New Moon's version extra gruesome because she wants her fellow Hunters to chase her down and slay her repeatedly.

[10] Are you thinking what I'm thinking? More on this later.

A/N: Hi all,

At this point, in the story, I know you must be full of questions like:

Where is Iowa and who did Andi meet in the last chapter?

Why has Zoë started calling Her Ladyship, "Lady Andi"?

Why the fuck is Peter in a coma? (I miss him too)

Why are there two versions of Thalia?

How is New Moon going to prevail against the end of the world?

Who IS New Moon!?

And, of course:

When's the next chapter?!

Whelp… I can't tell you the answers to most of those questions without giving out spoilers, but let's start with what I promised:

Who IS New Moon!?

I don't have a true answer, but I'll give you my original and incorrect guess for New Moon after reading Chapter 21. So, in that chapter:

- Thalia (daughter of Zeus?) probably almost says New Moon's name.

- We get introduced to the Hunter officers.

- The world stands still.

- Artemis, the goddess, and Zoë, the nymph, have disappeared.

- And all the other Hunters have frozen (FYI: those historical hunters were all mortals by birth).

After absorbing all these facts, I guessed that Phylonoe was a mythological Greek name and did some googling. When I found out that Phylonoe was the name of one of the human Artemis hunters, I got excited. I looked up all the other mortal hunters and started to make the connection. See, at this point, I was pretty sure New Moon was not a goddess. She calls Artemis "Lady Artemis". I also did not think New Moon was a nymph because of how she speaks of naiads and because she is presumably not as old as Genia, a mortal. However, New Moon is still a little old-fashioned. Thus, I was almost positive that New Moon was a human Hunter of Artemis from mythology with a name that starts with N.

Unfortunately, there aren't many people with N names in Greek mythology. I found a nymph Hunter, Nikaia (who gets kicked out because Dionysus raped her), but I found no mortal Hunters with N names. Hence, my idea was officially sunk even before the new information we learned in this chapter.

So, here I am with another fruitless guess and another author's note story. But we have dwelled on the past for long enough. Onward to the next question:

When's the next chapter?!

Ah…I'm just getting out of the frying pan and into the fire, aren't I? Well…

Me and my Bianca timing, you see. I'm going on break again. In my defense, the OG authors took a break after this chapter too. But in sooth, that's not why I'm breaking here. I love editing Sue's Curse, but in my heart of hearts, I am a writer, and the RCU calls to me. (In a shameless plug, if New Moon's devotion is a thing you like, you should check out my other major fic, Rajah's Curse. Dhiren has knightly devotion in spades. I am also told he's funny, in a dry sarcastic way.)

So, once again, I'm planning to switch gears and work on my expanded universe. I'll be back, but I don't have an exact timeline this time. It's more about seeing how far I can get in my other fics. Rajah's Curse, especially, is very close to the climax (though I keep changing my mind) and I want to see the ending.

As for the other questions…

Say it with me: