Gabriel: An unexpected but massive blast from the past
Find Hyperion's fortress after four days of journeying? Check. Bust down the door and begin fighting my way to my cousin? Check.
Find out where my cousin was being hidden? Well, I still had to find out from one of the soldiers since my logic was that they all had to know if they were to keep her hostage. I grabbed one and demanded to know where she was immediately after busting down the front door and killing hundreds if not thousands of them in a blur of movement. "She dwells in torment at the top of the tallest tower of this fortress, her arms chained so that she is hung up a few feet off the ground," he said before I finished him.
I used him as a shield against the arrows of his buddy then continued my journey from there. Breaking through the lower levels, I made it to the elevator that would take me by all but the last six floors before the top of the high tower. In all, I traveled up one hundred and forty-two floors without opposition from the enemy forces that dwelled in Hyperion's home. It was when I arrived at my stop that I knew I would be facing the true might of the defenses Hyperion had activated in case he was unable to return home.
Thousands upon thousands of soldiers swarmed upon me but I knew I could wipe away these bums like I was wiping a stain off glass. The power of the Sky Sword saw through most of them but whatever it didn't kill was killed by a mix of hand-to-hand martial art techniques. I even used a move to throw one soldier into a wall hard enough to shatter every bone and leave a massive crater in the wall. Nonetheless I climbed ropes, ran along short bridges that required incredible balancing skills, and fought soldiers until at last, I reached the final floor of the tower.
There, I saw someone I would never expect to have seen here: Sakon. For a brief time, we fought fiercely at the entrance to the top floor of the tower then I came up with an idea. Since I saw that there was a keyhole in the shape of a blade too big for my Sky Sword, I goaded Sakon into trying to skewer me on his spear. I dodged in the nick of time and saw that his spear fit perfectly inside the key to the doorway.
His spear was immediately absorbed into the door and it opened with a slow creak and a gradual turn inward. Sakon and I watched as the gate opened to reveal a teenage Little Mary, chained by her arms so that she was hanging several feet off the ground. "Hmm, perhaps it's best you and I don't fight right now. If anything happens to her, I'll be behind you," Sakon said.
"Whoa, what?" I asked. It didn't make sense because for one thing, this guy had been sent to kill me by Hera. Now he was saying he was going to help me if anything happened with my cousin? Well, I had little choice but to trust him especially after he told me that though Hera's order had been to destroy me, Zeus' overruling order was to try and prevent me from reaching my cousin even if it did take killing but protect me if I did reach her anyway.
Nonetheless, reached her I had and after years of speculation about her existence, my questions were answered. Or so I initially thought before I asked Sakon to help me break the chains that held her up. I caught her in my arms while Sakon sheathed his sword and told me to be careful. Since she was her eyes were closed and she didn't seem to move, I asked if she could hear me and introduced myself as her cousin.
"I… can… hear you… perfectly," she said with effort. "I've come to get you out of here. Come with me back to this cool place called Camp Half-Blood where you'll be safe," I told her. "I cannot," she said. "What has you so certain when I know someone can heal you of your torment here at least physically and if Dionysus happens to be there, he can heal any developing madness in you?" I asked.
"Hyperion cursed my body to explode if I ever left this tower, that's what. And you, Mr. Beefcake, don't have much time before the remainder of his forces find and overwhelm you," she answered. At first, I thought she was talking to Sakon because she turned slightly toward him then I remembered she always called me Mr. Beefcake because of the build I had even when I was a kid. Suddenly, I saw Sakon fighting off the bulk of Hyperion's forces and I knew she was right and I would have to either help Sakon or leave him and hope he died.
As much as he had tried to kill me twice and I hated him for it, I kind of liked him in a strange way. "Leave him, your mother needs you more than he does," she said. I paused there and remained in a near-catatonic state of surprise. My mother alive when I had seen her killed her by Kronos and the gods confirming it?
"My mother? But she has been dead since I was just a couple years old," I told her. "No, your housekeeper was the one who died that day. She sacrificed herself to save you and her from the bulk of Kronos' anger but it was when Kronos was calmer that he decided to think of something worse for your mother and she still suffers it to this day," she explained to me.
"If my mother is alive, where is she?" I asked her. "To know would only bring pain upon you," she answered. But I pressed on, about to do anything to have my mother after these years of believing she was dead and believing she wasn't simultaneously. I was not about to lose a chance to save her now and I would go to any depth of this world or the Underworld to rescue her.
That was just a coincidence for what I found out: she was in fact in the Underworld in spite of her status as a living person. She was in the Heart of Tartarus itself, trapped in torment in Kronos' place, the Titan having cursed her to never be free unless either I rescued her or she willingly fell into oblivion. I was determined to let it be the former rather than the latter and asked Little Mary about how I could enter the Underworld. "Only with the guidance of the son of Hades or the permission of the Lord himself can you hope to enter the Underworld without having some defense measure against the Furies and Cerberus," Little Mary said.
"Come with me, I can protect you from the curse that keeps you in this tower. Hell, I can probably undo it!" I begged. "You cannot undo the powers of a god and be a mortal," Little Mary replied. "I've killed gods Little Mary and I did kill Hyperion," I told her.
"Listen to him, lass. It's all truth and no deceit," Sakon added. "Curses cannot be undone solely with the death of the god themselves. Only one of Hyperion's children who is closest to your heart can undo the curse," Little Mary replied.
"I think I know who meets those requirements," I said. For a brief moment, I gently placed Little Mary on the floor and used telepathy to call to Eos. Oh divine love of thy mortal life, I call upon thou to free thy sister from the curse thy father hast left on her I said. She was always attracted to Medieval English rather than Modern English so I simply did what would attract her to my location better.
And just like that the roof to the fortress was torn away as a shooting star descended from the skies, shrinking until it was about the size of a person and metamorphosed into a human form. "Let me see her," Eos said, immediately after arriving. I handed my cousin over to Eos and she went straight into her examinations of Little Mary. After quickly examining her, Eos told me something I wished I didn't have to hear from her.
"My love, I have to take her with me. She is freed of the curse but something else has sprung in its place and is working to kill her. If I succeed, you will see her again but if I don't then forgive me," she said before flying into the skies again. I watched as she took my cousin to Olympus and Sakon told me that I had to go before it was too late.
"What about you?" I asked. "Though I served Hera, Zeus' orders took precedence over hers. His orders were to help you through this as best I could and right now, the best way is for you to get out of here while I hold off Hyperion's forces," he answered. I nodded and turned toward the balcony that was not too far away from where I was and decided to make a mad dash for it.
I made it with ease but before I jumped, Sakon called back to me. "Don't trust the gods fully Gabriel, it will cost you everything," Sakon said. "I already don't," I said before jumping and seeing Sakon turn himself into a suicide bomb. Just as I was about halfway across to the nearest tower, the one I escaped exploded and fell opposite of my direction.
What a dedicated warrior although I didn't like that shift in loyalty I said to myself. Then I had to remember that I had made such a shift when I had served Hera but not on any orders from Zeus. My reason was good but it was definitely not on orders from Zeus. There is a time and place for the past and now is not it a foreign voice said to me.
Who are you and how do you know me? I asked the voice. You will come to know soon enough but now, you must hurry back to Camp Half-Blood. Prometheus means to launch his assault in a few hours and neither you nor Percy Jackson are there to lead them the voice answered. Where did Percy go? I inquired.
To find help more quickly while you were away via the request of his girlfriend Annabeth the voice explained. I knew I had to get back to Camp now and ran just as the fortress that had once belonged to Hyperion began to crumble and explode in my face. I had just barely got past the walls of the place when it fell before me and I saw the magic of that palace unleashed across the plains where it had been contained in.
As for that voice, I wondered what if could have been. Something familiar was carried within it, something that I had lost long ago and was about to recover. But finding out what it was would have to wait for another time. A time when I wasn't running like there was no tomorrow to reach the Camp before it was attacked.
I even had to use the supersonic speed of the gods in order to even cover enough ground to reach it walking in an hour. When I was back, I immediately told the campers to seal the gates and prepare for war. "What about calling for the help of the gods?" one camper asked. "The hell with that besides, they can't help us anyway as Zeus has forbidden it," I answered.
That was true and Zeus had even taken the liberty of telling me that himself along the way via telepathy. I have faith in your leadership. Prove Hera wrong about you like you tried, years ago he said. Now I knew this battle was not just a battle for revenge: it was a battle for my very soul and to decide whether or not I would be damned or blessed.