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Percy was the only one who had shadow traveled before, and he didn't feel like leading a tutorial at that moment. He walked over to the corner of the room where some shadows were. He stood in it and held out his hands. Thalia and Grover hesitated for a second, then rushed over. Percy's senses told him it was about 2:00 in the morning. He hoped to catch Annabeth by surprise, save Cyrene, save Nico, and finish this.
Thalia grasped Percy's hand while Grover grabbed his shoulder. Thalia's hand was sweating. Percy held out his left hand and the ring seemed to sparkle. Thalia and Grover did the same with their free hand. Percy clenched a fist and they followed suit. Percy thought, 2500 West End Avenue, Nashville, Tennessee, 37203. 36 degrees North, 86 degrees West.
They melted into the shadows. Percy felt the usual shivers, weird noises, and the feeling of going so fast that his face seemed to be peeling off. However, he felt Thalia's hand the whole time. They came to a stop, and they stepped out of the shadows in the same 150-foot room he saw in his dream. Grover and Thalia shivered their ways out the shadows. Grover threw up behind the Athena Parthenos. Percy uncapped Riptide and got ready to cut Nico's bonds on the other side of the statue. They crept out to the other side and saw that Nico was gone from the base of the statue.
The three of them turned towards the direction that the Athena Parthenos replica was facing, and they had seen that there was a small door. Percy beckoned towards the door, and he ran towards it with his friends behind him. He felt adrenaline, anger, sadness, despair, and even fear as he ran towards the door. He needed to find Cyrene as soon as possible. He pushed open the door and saw them. Annabeth had Cyrene in a sleep sack that was attached to her back, and his baby sister was comfortably sleeping. Annabeth was wearing the same outfit as she was in the dream, and she was pulling Nico by his restraints. She, Nico, and Cyrene all had a band around their wrist that glowed with orange/yellow hieroglyphs.
Following them was a large panther the size of a car. Its black fur was so sleek that it seemed to be moving along the body as the panther moved. The strangest part about it; it had fire coming out of its eyes and ears. The fire seemed to be coming from an endless source, and evaporated as the fire got a foot into the air. Percy wasn't sure what the creature was, but he lost all thoughts when Annabeth turned and saw them. Time seemed to stop as they regarded one another. Her gray eyes fixed on him and Percy realized that he was wrong. All of his anger at the hotel and his confidence in him killing Annabeth had no footing. He could never kill her. That was Annabeth; she had saved his life countless times and had showed him that a troublemaker like him could have happiness.
Thalia and Grover stepped up on either side of him. "Who's taking who?"
Percy looked at Thalia, and she nodded to Percy. She was tacitly allowing him to take Annabeth while they took the fire panther. Percy shook his head, and Thalia seemed to understand immediately. It was almost like she had expected it. She opened her hands and she changed into her Hunter outfit. She materialized her spear and charged Annabeth with a scream. Grover ran towards Nico. Percy raised Riptide and attacked the panther.
Annabeth immediately took Cyrene off her back and placed her on the ground. Annabeth tapped on Cyrene's bracelet thing and it released a flickering energy shield. Annabeth drew her new Stygian ice-iron hybrid sword and ran towards the Parthenon replica. She slid in between two of the columns, away from Cyrene. It was a brave move to bring the battle away from his sister, but Percy shook the positive thought away. Annabeth had betrayed them. However…the markings on that wristband looked familiar, but he didn't have time to think as the panther attacked him.
The panther was deathly fast, a blur of black and fire. It attacked Percy head on. It reminded Percy of Thalia coming at him, so he sidestepped and knocked it away with the flat of his sword. The panther turned its head in annoyance, then turned its fiery eyes on Percy. It started to sit back on its hind legs. Percy saw the same behavior with the alley cats in his neighborhood and with the Nemean Lion. It was getting ready to pounce. Percy dove out of the way when it did, and opened his shield. He threw it at the panther, and it hit the big cat right in its nose. The panther roared and attacked Percy once more. Percy swung Riptide, but the panther dissolved into black mist-smoke once Riptide made contact. Percy was caught off guard, and smelled the fire behind him now. He turned and met a wall of black fur and fire. It knocked him to the ground and the panther was pinning him down.
Percy stared in its fiery eyes, and thought, Okay…a teleporting panther. That's new.
Percy saw Annabeth and Thalia fighting about seventy-five feet behind the panther. They were moving quickly from pillar to pillar, Annabeth backflipping and dodging Thalia's electric strikes. They ended up killing the pillars instead. Thalia had tried for a heavy swipe and Annabeth jumped out the way. She waited until Thalia's follow through and punched her in the jaw. Thalia was stalled for a second and Annabeth delivered multiple body shots to Thalia's core. Thalia caught the last blow, and crushed Annabeth's hand a bit. She flipped Annabeth into one of the pillars and tried for a perfect form thrust that would've gone straight through Annabeth's neck. Annabeth side-stepped and the thrust ended up taking out another one of the pillars. Percy saw what she was doing; she was trying to get Thalia to take out all the pillars and bring the Parthenon replica down on Thalia.
Percy cried out to Thalia to watch out, but the panther swiped Percy's face, leaving a scar that burned orange/yellow, then cooled into his regular blood. Percy grimaced and the panther rose its paw again. However, he heard a battle cry and Grover was on top of the panther, yelling and stabbing it multiple times with his knives. The panther writhed and threw Grover off him with its hind legs. The scratch on his face was burning, but Percy raised Riptide. The panther turned to Percy and snarled. Percy threw Riptide and it embedded itself in the panther's forehead. It roared and Percy scooped up his shield. He attacked the panther with his shield, hitting it on its body. The beast turned its head to Percy. Grover slid on the other side of the beast and used his goat legs to kick the creature's exposed neck. Percy tossed his shield over the beast to Grover, who attacked the creature on his side of the beast. The panther turned towards Grover, who tossed the shield to Percy as he was pulling out Riptide. He capped it quickly and swung the shield as hard as he could. He hit the panther again. The panther roared and slammed its paw on the ground, erupting in a fiery burst of energy that blew both Percy and Grover back.
Percy hit the ground hard and the panther was on top of him in a flash. Percy uncapped raised Riptide, but the cat knocked it away. It sunk its teeth into Percy's neck, and he felt the familiar burning feeling and subsequent pain/blood. Percy kicked the beast off and covered his throat to stop the blood. His wound was burning, hurting, and bleeding simultaneously. He saw the Parthenon collapse and saw Annabeth dash away from the ruins. Percy yelled "THALIA!" His senses started to deafen. He put his hand on the ground and he felt all the vibrations in the ground. He heard odd things; he heard Grover's staggered breathing, he heard Cyrene's exhalations, he heard Annabeth's footsteps. He heard Lupa call him weak and he looked towards Cyrene. The pain turned into anger, and he saw red. He felt like a wolf and adrenaline went through his body. He attacked the beast with bare hands and the two of them leapt towards each other.
The panther extended its claws, which Percy saw caught on fire as well. They met in the air and Percy reached for its throat. He took hold and employed the vice grip he utilized on Nereus years ago. The panther and Percy fell to the ground as Percy strangled the beast. It roared and thrashed, flinging Percy off it. It tried for a swipe, but Percy dodged it. He punched the beast with all of his force, and the panther staggered. Percy punched it again, then grabbed its head and brought it down on his knee. The fire pierced Percy's leg as he did that, but the panther's head flying back and falling to the ground was worth it. The panther spit out teeth and Percy held out his hand. In the Parthenon replica, all the water in the pipes of the water fountain and the bathrooms burst out and collected behind Percy. He cracked his knuckles created water fists. If it could, Percy thought the panther looked scared.
Percy went crazy on the cat. The water fists came down savagely, coming up and down, up and down, right and left, right and left. After three minutes of the water attack, Percy let the water collapse in a wave all over the panther. Percy was breathing hard and saw that the panther was lying in a pool of blood. Its never-ending fire was extinguished, and steam was coming from the places where the fire was previously roaring. The fire must have been its life force. Percy was breathing heavily and he felt the adrenaline leave his body. The pain from the bite and the swipe hit him like sixteen collapsing walls, and his skin was burning in those places. He turned towards Cyrene and took multiple steps. Blood was still flowing from his wound and he covered his neck one more. He was about fifty feet away, and it was still nighttime outside. The cool September air was freezing as it passed through his exposed internal body. Percy took a survey of the area. The Parthenon replica was reduced to rubble, Grover was knocked out, and Thalia was nowhere to be found. He struggled towards his baby sister, and even from that distance away, Cyrene seemed to make eye contact with him. Percy screamed, "CYRENE!" His mother had told him that at three months, babies would start to smile and recognize their family members' voices. That's exactly what happened, as Cyrene started to smile wider and thrash around in her swaddle.
Every step was hell, but he had closed the distance to twenty feet. However, Annabeth jogged up and scooped Cyrene up in her arms. She had a few cuts on her, but looked relatively unscathed from her scuffle with Thalia. She took one look at Percy, who was bleeding out. She reached into her pants pocket and threw a square of ambrosia at him, as well as some medical gauze/tape. She put Cyrene on her back, and went to grab Nico. He started to thrash around in his bounds, as Grover had only made about 20 percent progress with his knives. Annabeth easily picked Nico up by his bounds and started to drag them away. She said a silent prayer, and a black and blue portal opened up, swallowing Annabeth, Cyrene, and Nico whole. Percy saw the trees through the destination Annabeth was going before the portal closed, and those trees looked familiar.
They were headed to Camp Half-Blood.
Percy weakly raised a hand to warn them, then succumbed to his injuries and lost consciousness.