Percy Jackson, Guardian of Tartarus
The Final Chapter
Foreword: Well, readers, I've kept you waiting long enough. This story has spanned well over a year of my life now, and this is finally the chapter where it all concludes. As promised in some of my older chapters, it won't end quite the way you would expect it. Well, it's been a solid 14 months now, and I won't keep you waiting, so… roll… the final chapter!
Percy POV
After Annabeth and I had finished laughing, the full impact of what had just happened hit me. This would be the final chapter of our stories- of the Titan Wars. One way or another, after the final blow on Kronos that would happen in four days, there would never be another war on the Titans. Either Kronos would be destroyed for the next several eons, or Kronos would topple Olympus and there would no longer BE anyone to wage a war on the Titans. It would have to be the largest operation Camp Half-Blood had ever pulled off. It would take every camper we had, and as much transport as we could lay hands on in seventy two hours. As soon as Annabeth decided we'd had enough time to relax, we pulled every camper into the command center for the briefing. As we'd expected, there was a general air of shock in the room after we finished the speech. It was several minutes before one of the campers found his voice. "But… This means… Kronos is going to be… eradicated, right?" As soon as he began to speak, the rest of the room seemed to find its voice as well, and a comforting babble settled into our ears. "Yes. This will be the final blow against Kronos," came my simple answer. The inquiring camper sank back into his chair as he digested that fact. "Get as much rest as you can, everybody, you'll need it. We move out in three days!" There was a round of cheering as the campers acknowledged the statement. I walked up to one of the Stoll brothers, and asked him to come out of the room with me. "Can you and the rest of the Hermes campers hotwire as many cars as you can? We've got a hundred and fifty demigods to get to Jersey, and something tells me the camp van won't do it." A mischievous glint crept into his eyes as he contemplated it. "All right, Percy. We'll do it." With that, he re-entered the room and rounded up the twenty or so campers who were the children of Hermes. After about an hour, I, along with Annabeth, had given every cabin a task, and we retreated back to the intelligence center, where we and the rest of the Athena cabin began to work on our plan of attack. Sixty hours later, the plan was done, and we beheld it in all its glory, stretching across three whiteboards and some sixty sheets of paper. It was a rather impressive plan if I do say so myself, and I do.
Twelve hours later- twelve short hours of sleep later- we all piled into the sixty or so vans the Stoll brothers had managed to hotwire. They had done one thing for the commanders though- they hotwired a limo for the command center. While the other head campers enjoyed the experience, Annabeth and I fell asleep in each other's arms. Just a few hours later, we pulled up two miles from the mine. We would go the last two miles on foot, as to avoid alerting Kronos' cronies. We had the Hephaestus cabin add a layer of silver to our celestial bronze weapons, just in case any one of us ended up facing Kronos alone. The Hunters, of course, needed no such help, seeing as they already shot silver arrows from their bows.
Annabeth POV
I woke up in the command limo, and more importantly, in Percy's arms. Actually, I'd woken up almost a quarter hour before, but I decided to enjoy the moment. After all, this could all too possibly be the last time I ever saw him… alive, anyways. Too soon, the convoy carrying Camp Half-Blood stopped, and Percy woke up. I pretended to be asleep, and he shook me gently, murmuring, "Come on, Annabeth. We're here." As we exited the car, I checked to make sure my dagger was loose in its sheath. It took a good fifteen minutes to get all the campers out of the vans- mainly because it took so long to wake up the Hypnos kids. We were all half asleep, but after we'd settled into the rhythm of the easy jog we chose, we woke up pretty quickly. I could see Percy jogging back and forth, giving encouragement to every cabin he came across. He knew every camper's name, too. He'd learn Mallory's soon enough, though she seemed happy enough with Melanie. We arrived at the mine not long after leaving the cars. I saw a different side of Percy now. This Percy was more focused, and he was no longer running around, offering encouragement. He had uncapped Riptide, and he ran more softly on his feet. If the regular Percy was his normal Greek aspect, then the best description of new Percy would have been his Spartan aspect. If we had ten or twenty warriors like him, I figure Kronos would last about four and a half minutes. Also, if worst came to worst, Percy could go into his true form and vaporize everyone except himself and Kronos, and then they could fight on even terms. At least, I hope they'd be on even terms. After all, Kronos was one of the original sons of Gaea and Ouranos, while Percy was just a demigod who became a god a few years ago. If everything went according to plan, though, Per- perhaps Kronos might actually be destroyed.
Mystery POV
The Chase girl seems to believe that her plan could actually defeat the Lord. She is gravely mistaken. For exactly the space of one minute, the upstart godling would be defenseless. One of the more subtle nuisances of immortality is the fact that it comes with a price. For exactly one minute every year, you were completely, totally defenseless. For Jackson, that one minute would happen in twenty-seven minutes. As they charged into the mine, they would find that it was not, in fact, a silver mine, but a gold mine. No ordinary gold mine, either- this gold was tainted with oricalcum, the metal that gave the Time Lord even greater power. By strange coincidence, this year, Jackson's defenseless minute came at the exact same time as the Lord Kronos' minute of greatest power. When the time comes, the upstart and his friends shall feel the wrath of the greatest Titan to walk the earth! Naturally, the Lord's spies- including myself- will be spared from such a doom.
Percy POV
It was time to enter the mine, and I could actually feel a change coming over myself. I became more single-mindedly focused on victory. I was a warrior, in the purest sense of the word. I was a Spartan warrior, and felt as though I had fought alongside Leonidas- perhaps one of the most famous demigods in Hollywood. By strange coincidence, his actor in that movie, Gerard Butler, was also a demigod. I uncapped Riptide, and we closed in on the mine. With a word, I blew the plywood that barred our entry to shreds. I had no idea when I had learned to do that, or when I had become strong enough, but I wasn't complaining. As soon as the dust cleared, however, twenty dracanae swarmed out of the entrance. That was wrong- Kronos wasn't supposed to have any warning of our attack. Luckily for us, though, we didn't lose any campers, but one camper did get a nasty gash across the bicep, and we had to send him back to the Apollo cabin to get it checked. A bad start. We swarmed in, and it was pretty quiet for a few turns. Maybe the dracanae earlier were just guards, and they didn't have the chance to raise the alarm. Of course, the moment I thought that, the Minotaur came into sight. This was the third time I had come face to face with him. It's like Tartarus has a grudge against me or something, so it keeps vomiting the Minotaur out to try and kill me. For the third time, I prepared myself to fight a giant bull-man. For the third time, he lowered his head and charged. I sidestepped, waited for the moment, and swung my sword in a glittering arc, intercepting his neck and cutting his head off. For the third time, I watched as the Minotaur dissolved as all monsters do when they die. We kept walking, and we met a larger party of armed and armored dracanae. This time, they all grouped around me, and somehow, they knew to aim for the spot on the small of my back- the only place I could be harmed. Since I was a god now, it wouldn't kill me, but it could strip me of my invincibility, and the amount of energy released when it happened could easily kill all the campers. Something seemed wrong, though- Kronos would never have told the dracanae, who were basically foot soldiers in his army, about my weak point… Unless he knew that we would come. The only way he could have known that… It'd mean that Silena wasn't the only spy in the camp. I couldn't agonize about it now, though- there were about fifty lizard women trying to kill me. We dispatched them quickly enough, but there was one close call when a dracanae almost hit me, only to be killed at the last minute by an arrow from a Hunter. I spared a second to call, "Thanks," and then I had to stab yet another dracanae. We suffered another three injuries in that attack, and we had to send them all back to the Apollo campers at the entrance. As I turned to assess our troops, I noticed a glimmer of metal in one of the walls. I looked closer, and I saw something that disturbed me greatly. It wasn't silver that I saw- it was gold, tinted with a touch of red. I looked closer, and I realized it was oricalcum. I realized in a second that we had been tricked, but it was too late to turn back now- If we retreated, we would be at Kronos' mercy. Oh well, nothing for it now but to charge in and hope for a stroke or ten of luck. We progressed down the mine for about the next two hours, in largely the same way, losing a few campers at every attack, and every now and then, regaining a few as the Apollo cabin saw fit. Before long, we came to a chamber that must have been a good three miles underground, allowing for the huge arced ceiling, which stretched up at least a half mile. Sitting at the far side of the chamber, with one leg draped over the armrest of his throne, which was, of course, made of oricalcum. Being a Titan, he could chose to assume whichever form he wished, so for some reason, he looked almost exactly like Gerard Butler. His voice, though, was nothing like Butler's. Kronos' voice was deep and melodious, and it seemed to be streaked through with hints of magic. "Ah, Jackson and Camp Half-Blood. I have awaited you for some time now. I had assumed you would come sooner, as soon as the message allowed you to. Instead, you kept me waiting for an additional thirty-six hours. I am most… displeased." Annabeth moved closer to me, dagger drawn and held low in front of her in a two handed grip, ready to fight. Kronos lifted the third finger on his right hand, and an armed company of five hundred dracanae appeared from the shadows to ambush our company. It was sheer agony for me to watch as my campers were slaughtered. The only camper left after all the dracanae had dissolved was Travis Stoll, from Hermes, and he was slashed up pretty badly, even by demigod standards. He couldn't even stand up because he'd gotten stabbed through the thigh. Kronos raised his finger again, and one last dracanae lopped off Travis' head. In turn, I lopped off the dracaena's. Now the only ones left in the chamber were me, Annabeth, and Kronos. Kronos was a Titan who was multiple millennia old, and we were a three year old god and a demigod who was barely getting her mood swings. Naturally, we didn't do the smart thing and run. No, that's not what we do at Camp Half-Blood. Instead, we charged him head on. I was halfway to his throne and Annabeth was right behind me when there was a sudden pricking sensation in the small of my back- my only weak point. I felt a moment of pain, and then there was a flash of light. I landed on my stomach, but I managed to twist around onto my back to see if Annabeth was still alright, and to see who stabbed me. I vaguely heard Kronos' voice, telling me how he had modified his scythe so it could now absorb the essence of a god, and make that essence a part of his power. I didn't hear anything, though- I was in shock. The last thing I heard before I felt a sudden pain in my gut and I realized I was being absorbed into Kronos was a voice, saying, "Well Percy, it's finally over. I was a spy for the Lord ever since I came to Camp Half-Blood. He has promised me that when he overthrows Olympus, I will have everything I ever desired. I will redesign the human race in my own image. You might call it… the ultimate architecture. There was one thing I didn't expect, though. I never thought I'd fall in love with you, Percy." That was the last thing I ever heard. The last thing I ever saw was Annabeth's face, grinning down at me. The smile was full of greed, but there was a hint of sadness buried deep inside of it. The last thing I ever did was force out one word. "Why?" I couldn't fight being absorbed for long enough to hear the answer. I felt a pulling throughout my body, centering in my gut, where the pain had started. And then, there was nothing.
Hello readers, it's me. It didn't end the way I originally intended it to, but I think I like it better this way. This story has spanned 16 months of my life, from August 2010 to November 19, 2011. Before today, there was something always nagging at me to finish this story. Now that I've finished the story, I feel like I've finally closed another chapter in my life. I started this story when I was twelve. Now, I'm fourteen, and I'm a different person than I was. I hope I've been able to bring you on as much of a journey while reading this as I have been on while writing it. It's now 8:40 PM on November 19, 2011, and this story is almost at its close. I have only one thing to say, but it may come a few days early. Don't worry though; this won't be my last story on this website. Goodbye for now, America, and happy holidays!