Disclaimer: No, no, way. There's absolutely no chance that...It can never happen. No, nope, nay, na, niet...
In case you are wondering, I was merely lamenting the fact that I could never have the rights to the Percy Jackson Universe. Rick Riordan gets to have all the fun. Now on with the story...
Chapter 10: Blood Is Thicker Than Water...So Is Friendship
"You can't be serious!" Percy glared at Chiron, who looked un-intimidated by the Hero. In Percy's defence, Chiron had a lot of time to practice over the years.
The day was pretty special, one could say. Today was the day the Hunters arrived on Camp Half-Blood to play the annual game of 'Capture the Flag'. Percy was quite looking forward to it; after he had received closure from Artemis, he felt he could meet with them again. After all, he must be reacquainted with both old and new Campers if they are to ever respect him and follow his lead in battle. That was a role he would eventually have to fulfil. This game would be a perfect opportunity to truly display his skills, even if he had to take care to prevent overkill.
He had arrived, met with friends, already been insulted twice from various sources, had his lucky donut stolen by a new Hermes Camper, patted on his back quite a few times, looked up at as if he was Superman...nothing unusual. But, this meet up with Chiron was not going according to the plan. Someone had diverted the waters of the nearby creek using canals and weirs, to other surrounding areas. According to Chiron, the mortals in the nearby area were suffering from water scarcity, and it would have been inhumane to deny them this resource. The number of Hecate and Hephaestus Campers had also swelled during his absence, and both the Cabins had jumped at this chance; the Hecate Cabin, with their magic, made it so that the mortals could never truly view them, while the Hephaestus demigods were having fun tinkering with the machines, schematics and designs. Even the naiads who normally populated the waters had grudgingly relocated to a deeper part of the forest.
The argument and banter continued, but Percy had to eventually concede defeat to his former teacher. But it was bloody unfair! It meant no water manipulation for him during the Game, or at least, not the waters of the creek.
Another thing that truly bugged Percy was the reaction of his former best friend, Annabeth Chase. He had been pretty nervous about the meeting; after the events that had transpired between them few years back, he was unsure of how this would go down. All in all, it was okay; she had greeted him, but the fact remained that the smile had never reached her eye. Yeah, she probably wasn't too pleased to see Percy, and she had plenty of reasons, but acting like this was just not her. She had also been truly evasive during the brief time they had rested, and to all of Percy's queries, there was almost always the same answer: She was fine. It was as productive as talking to a log.
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"So, Prissy, figures that I'd find you here. You better think of stepping away and let us take the take the flag if you know what's good for you." Clarisse warned Percy in her usual brash tone, flanked by two of her minions (Percy had no reason to insult them, but the intelligence of most of the Ares children usually spoke for them).
Percy was left to guard the flag by the Hunters. It might not have been a significant gesture to any other people, but it touched Percy's heart, and that of the girls' too. In a way, this was making up or compensating for their initial treatment of Percy. Seeing Clarisse's team in front of him only made him smile more fondly as it brought back many memories of his first game. Some things never truly change...Zap!
Note to myself, Percy thought with a wince, don't think about the past when you have angry friends with an electric spear in front of you. However, he couldn't resist asking, "Well, that's nice. What do you call this spear, Clarisse? Maimer II?"
His attempt at humour was lost on the three attackers as one of them rushed him with his sword. Percy casually side-stepped the attack before rolling away to dodge the second guy. He leaped up on one of the rocks to let the first sword meet air and almost immediately Riptide spun back to catch Maimer II; he would call it that. Using the gaps in the rock as footholds, Percy turned horizontally in the air and punched the first guy in the jaw without losing his balance. He then literally flew from the rocks with his hand still making generous amounts of contact with the opponent's flesh and by the time they landed, Percy had easily disarmed him. Clarisse seemed to grunt in anger before throwing her spear at Percy like a javelin, but Percy easily deflected it by spinning his swords to resemble a merry-go-round. From his daily practice with the Hunters, he knew that he could block virtually any projectile attack on him now, except from the best. He then grinned and jumped up in the air, only to vanish before their shocked eyes and appearing just in front of them, with the twin swords at their throats. Both of them instantly ducked to their opposite sides, but that was just what Percy wanted as he casually managed to trip both of them and led them to stumble on the ground; even watching your foot during a battle was very important. Then, he embedded both his swords into the ground as a geyser of water shot up and immediately spread on both their bodies to cocoon them in an icy block.
He grinned, "Give up yet?" They were furious but nodded their heads in assent as they really had no way out. Percy then grinned at the second guy, "What's your name? I didn't see you the last time I was here."
"I am Mike Wilsford, son of Ares. I have been here for a couple of years now"
"Ah, pleased to meet you...and Clarisse, stop trying to, ahem, 'break the ice'. If I am right, the Hunters have already won."
Indeed they had, and it put the score to 65-0. Pretty lousy, won't you say?
As the day came to a close, Artemis had to leave as the next day was the winter solstice and the time for the Annual Meeting on Olympus. The Hunters left too, but Percy stayed back to enjoy a bit of his old life in Camp with his friends. He was quite put out, however, when all the Campers swiftly vetoed his proposals to sing a chorus song before turning in for the night.
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Waking up in the middle of the night to see that his house was on fire was not one of Percy's preferred wake-up calls. He tried to shield his face from the scorching fire and tried to gain his bearings. It was useless. The fire was running wild, spreading everywhere. How the heck did this happen? Suddenly, a thought popped into his ADHD brain; weren't Poseidon Cabins supposed to be shielded against burning? Like, he had an advanced degree of heat resistance?
Probably not. Percy focussed hard and formulated a plan. He couldn't use the water from the creek, because of the problems of the mortals, which further convinced him that this was a trap. Since when had Camp Half-Blood gone to their aid? Yet, this was a poor plan if someone truly meant to contain him. The Varunastra left his bow and as soon as it hit the sky, storm clouds started brewing. In a whirl of unmistakable magic, it conjured up a gushing storm and the rain started falling down hard, working it's way on extinguishing the flames. Percy then used his newfound senses the same way he had used to track Artemis when she was facing off against Pratihasta-namely, he let the 'Shabdavedi baan', or the arrow which could track the littlest of sounds and impale your enemy. Think of it as an equivalent of your modern heat seeking missiles, only much more effective. He concentrated as once again his body dissolved into water molecules and followed the trajectory of his weapon; that is to say, he teleported, but it only took place once he was out of his cabin. It caused quite a deal of injury to his liquid form, but Percy was more focussed on his goal. It was worrying that someone could block his teleportation ability, however.
Percy softly reformed very close to his assailant. She (as Percy deduced from the person's choice of clothes) was gazing at the burning cabin (which, incidentally was almost doused by now), with a distanced look on her face. She didn't look to be completely sane and there was a certain deadness in her eyes.
Two things took place simultaneously; Percy placed Riptide close to her neck and before she could react, stuck her left temple with his knuckle. It immediately rendered her unconscious and as it happened, the illusion hiding her true face went off. Percy stared in disbelief at his former best friend, Annabeth Chase. The same girl who had stood with him through thick and thin, was trying to kill him now? Then his eyes suddenly swivelled on to her arm and he gasped. Surely not...
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Percy Jackson had always been impulsive, reckless, heroic and many other delightful adjectives could be used to describe him, but coward was not one of them. He had never given up, never ran away from a fight or avoided a confrontation, except once.
After the Titan War was over and Percy gained the new experiences, he had to try long and hard to control his feelings. His own mind would have been overwhelmed easily had he not succeeded in that attempt. During that time, he came to a startling conclusion; he considered Annabeth Chase a great friend, someone he could truly be at ease with, but did he really have any thoughts on the subject beyond that? The feelings he had felt towards her now seemed more like a crush-a infatuation to him now. He had experienced much more loving bonds from his memories and though he knew it was foolish to expect that he would gain anything remotely similar to what the Pandavas had experienced-after all, not every one finds love to their heart's content-he knew that he couldn't stay with her anymore. I would be like cheating and denying himself a chance in life. Still, he had a tremendous sense of loyalty and he would have gladly traded his own happiness to give his friend a better life. However, it had appeared to him that Annabeth didn't truly love him either. He remembered the way she looked at Luke during their early years, and he had received the same consideration during the end of the war. Even if it could develop into something more, at that moment it was nothing but a form of Hero Worship. Percy had been determined not to lead her on, not to allow himself to hurt her in any way. So, he had never really spoken with her in the past five years. A sense of shame and guilt crept up within him for literally abandoning her, but he consoled himself with the fact that it was necessary. He longed to just talk to her with an Iris Message-she could keep the secrecy, but it never panned out. He had forgotten her in essence-as if something or someone truly obscured her.
The way she had acted during today should have been his first clue, Percy mused bitterly. What kind of jerk was he if he couldn't pick it up? Being so emotionless and in essence, 'dead', was not like her. Now Percy knew the reason-on her arm, were engraved the same Scythe Charm he had seen on his fallen friend, Silena; however, it looked like a bull's head was also pushing through it. Using all his experience, Percy set to work on gently pulling the parasitic communication device out of his friend's body and mind.
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Annabeth Chase seemed to wake up from a very heavy sleep. Just what had happened? She remembered...it was all hazy. Shaking her head to clear it of the cobwebs, she was startled by the call, "Are you all right?" coming from her left side. Surprised, she turned to look at...him. In an instant, every memory that seemed glazed over, crashed back into her conscience with the ferocity of a freight train. She recalled everything now.
She remembered how sad and dejected she had felt after the War. In a way, she had felt alone, because many of her friends were not present there anymore. She was both worried about and angry with Percy, but truly not as sad as she had thought she should feel. Ironically, she had also come to the almost the same conclusion as Percy and was thankful that her eyes had been opened. She had then devoted all of her abilities to create designs for reconstructing the city of Olympus. It was a challenge and she relished it. But then, she couldn't keep her curiosity in check and did something truly unsuitable; she nicked Silena's Charm from the museum of Olympus, hoping to decipher all the mysteries of it and make her mother proud. That was truly special. It almost seemed to have a conscience of its own as it guided Annabeth during her drawings. She finished them up far faster than she would have thought possible. That night, before beginning the practical construction work, she slept, fully exhausted but satisfied.
She had a dream that night. A being of un-reckonable powers appeared within it and offered to give her access to unimaginable wisdom if she desired it. He let her view tomes, manuscripts and heaps of archaic, ancient, forgotten knowledge. He would help her in her goal but in return, she had to help him to find Percy Jackson. She was truly surprised at this and had commented that she had no knowledge of Percy and was trying to locate him by herself. He had laughed and had asserted that Percy Jackson had used her memory to survive a bath in River Styx-no matter whatever he felt about her, at that moment, he had cared deeply about her and they had a connection which can't be broken even by divine magic. She had allowed him free access to her mind and that was probably her last conscious decision.
Oh, they had found Percy of course, in the middle of a desert, fighting off a monster which she didn't recognize, but was actually Bakrakshasa (he had made a deal with all the families in a city-either they would send him a big basket of food every day, as well as a member of their family for him to consume, or else he would devour them all. A high standard Minotaur, you might agree). The other figure had snarled and she had been stunned when Percy showed some skills and techniques she had never found any mention of, and destroyed the monster by trapping him in the middle of a powerful sandstorm he himself had conjured. At that point, the being's eyes had glowed red, and Annabeth woke up-but she never was really out of the dream. She became a shadow of her former self, but managed to act convincingly enough to fool all. It, however would have been obvious to Percy Jackson that she wasn't all right. But, that was not to be and she went on to design Olympus-with special wax, dried grass, camphor...and a variety of other flammable things. She had done the same to the Big Three cabins at Camp Half-Blood which had also suffered from the ravages of the war. She had gone on to inscribe the Christahic Runes, or Flame Circle Runes on strategic places in both these sites; it directly hindered one of the biggest advantages the Gods had-teleporting. No gods, save probably Hestia or Hephaestus could even try to teleport through it without burning him/herself out. Plus, if someone else first tried to get out, even the two gods using the element of fire would be blocked as it would directly sap the godly energy from the first intruder! Her last command had come a few days ago, and it had been particularly clear; kill Percy Jackson when he arrives in Camp Half-Blood. She had certainly made preparations, even managing to use their Oracle-Rachel's connections in the mortal world to great effect and neutralizing Percy's greatest strength, water. If he had not been powerful as he was, she might even have succeeded.
"No!" She exclaimed, horrified at what she had done. The entire Olympus was now a death trap, and she was responsible entirely for it. She had even tried to kill her best friend just a while ago. What could she do? What could possibly be the solution? A sudden panic, chilling and fatal, tried to seize control of her body as she felt her mind about to give away under the intense pressure and returned memories. Yet, that didn't happen. Suddenly, Percy was beside her, pouring in words of encouragement in her ears, trying to help her deal with the situation. He was fully qualified in this field, as you can decipher. Slowly, her panic ebbed, as Percy managed to gently bring the story out of her. The fact that she had a fairly good perception of Percy's abilities and could truly appreciate the help he provided didn't hurt any. Cries, smiles and jokes frequently accompanied the conversation, and both of them could scarcely believe that it had not even been two hours before this emotional roller-coaster was over. Annabeth was still confused, but to Percy's mind it was infinitely better as she wasn't quite so hysterical anymore.
Both of them were sitting with their backs to the trees, emotionally spent-and in Percy's case, quite a few parts of his anatomy stung painfully. He still wore a lopsided grin as he blurted out the latest thought in his ADHD brain, "So, you managed to block the Gods from teleporting? Pretty cool, that." Then, he frowned, "But...I am fairly certain that both my dad and Artemis was able to do that without any difficulty during my last visit."
"Ooh, Percy, you are in a first name basis with her?" Annabeth seemed to squeal in an overly girlish voice, before she covered her mouth in shock. What the...?
Percy groaned, "Probably that charm poured some Aphrodiastic traits into you." Then he blushed at his own slip-up and before Annabeth could catch the double enterade, he pushed again, "No, really, how is it possible?"
"That wasn't very difficult. As you can see, the gods couldn't teleport to the Throne Room directly. It is a treaty dating back to 1917, from the time the Gods are in America. They appear at only a designated point, besides Lady Hestia, who could appear at all sources of fire, but as I explained, she isn't hindered by the Runes. I inscribed the symbols everywhere but there, and it doesn't prevent one from teleporting inside the building."
"Got that...but seriously, the whole Olympus can now be set to fire so easily? And, I would have at least expected your mom to pick up something was wrong."
"It is not exactly Jatugriha...I had to wait until the whole construction was complete or else it could have suddenly caught fire all over the palace. It requires a certain amount of latent heat to reach the burning point, and by my estimation, it is still relatively safe as it would take about one month more to reach the burning point. Even if the gods used fire within their Olympian palace, the extra heat was again sapped up by the Runes. As for the other gods not noticing...well, I am not an ametaur." Here, she looked just a bit like the girl Percy remembered, smug and proud, before continuing, "Plus, the Greeks have never truly been very observant...honestly, would anybody fall for the scheme of the Trojan Horse now? They would blow the horse up." She passed her hands through her hair, and spoke nervously, "As for my mom...I think I placed another artefact in her room which I created based on Mahishasura's design. It must have prevented from probing too deeply into the matter. Plus these attacks...she probably had been quite busy."
Percy was still frowning a bit. It seemed to him that some things didn't add up. He believed that the timing was too unpredictable for Mahishasura to reap any benefit from this scheme, especially if he had gone to such lengths to manipulate Annabeth. Things truly didn't add up, unless...
Percy Jackson had a dreadful epiphany. The Colchis Bulls were still in Olympus.
They were manufactured on the day of winter solstice, and especially to that commemorate that event, every year they burst into flames on that particular day at sunrise, on their own, to prove their majesticity.
The winter solstice was tomorrow, or rather today. It meant, all the Gods would be there for the Council Meeting and none of them would have any medium of escaping once the monsters turned Olympus to a burning hell.
It was two hours before the Sun would rise. No Iris message could reach the Olympians now, nor could he teleport directly there today-it was barred to all beings save the twelve gods. Yet, it was up to Percy Jackson-again-to save Olympus. And he intended to do his duty perfectly, no matter whatever be the consequences or cost. And a plan was forming in his head...
A/N: I just wanted to shout out a big load of "Thank You" to two of my reviewers- WhiteEagle1985 and the guest reviewer named Smartboy, who stuck with me for the first arc. Your support was widely appreciated. Now, we are going to venture into completely uncharted territories; plans within plans, intrigue, wild emotions and get to see a scary Percy. For the Pertemis fans, the next chapter should be very interesting and satisfying ;) .Even if you are worried due to this chapter, rest assured that this would NEVER be a Percabeth story. Thanks for reading.