AN: Well, here we are. Chapta twenty, y'all. Never thought I'd get this far. And it's all thanks to you! So you, know, thanks. Remember to review, eh?
I own nothing, not even a mountain goat. There aren't any in this chapter, but I still don't have one.
Camp Life, Chapter Twenty
Let's Not Die Again/Primordial Bitchiness
Percy Jackson almost trips as he charges down the rough-hewn stairs.
In his defense, there's not a lot of light in this tunnel.
He can feel Annabeth's hand on the small of his back, where his weak spot used to be. The sounds of footsteps and harsh breathing reach his ears from behind him. Very quickly he glances behind him, catching a quick glimpse of Hazel's face and behind her, Luke.
Every once in a while, he's sure he hears the sound of Ana's foot hitting the ground ahead of them.
The son of Poseidon grips Riptide tighter and increases his pace.
Jess throws himself to the ground as Rust's sword whistles over his head.
The son of Aeolus, his eyes still glowing gold, extends his other arm and catches the knife Amanda throws at him, his metal fingers curling around the blade. With a contemptuous look the Camp Armorer flips the knife up and flings it back at her.
Jesse draws his pistol, wondering if he can maybe shock Rust back to his senses. He'd rather not actually put a bullet in the older boy, but, well, he already has a metal arm. A little hole won't make much difference.
He doesn't get a chance. Rust's foot comes down on Jesse's wrists, making the son of Hermes cry out in pain. Amanda tries to come to Jesse's rescue, but Steven pulls a sawed-off shotgun from inside his coat. Amanda, acting on instinct, falls to her knees, sliding the rest of the way to Rust as the scattershot sprays over her head.
The daughter of Apollo tries for a smash to Steven's knees, but her swing only connects with empty air.
Jesse and Amanda stare up at their friend, who is now floating twenty feet over their heads with a sneer on his possessed face.
"I think I may try and keep this body," says the Eidolon cheerfully, "It has a wonderful array of abilities. I wonder what this does?"
Rust drops the shotgun and raises the sword over his head.
The weapon bursts into red and blue flames, running along the silver blade. Jesse shades his eyes. They both can feel the heat from here.
"I've heard of this sword," The Eidolon says, examining the fiery weapon greedily. "They call it Carinae's Fire. Amazing weapon. I –"
Jesse depresses the trigger of his semiautomatic. The round hits Rust in the leg just below the knee. The possessed man tumbles from the sky, startled.
He hits the ground with a thump; Amanda leaps through the air at him, knife outstretched. Rust kicks her in the stomach, knocking her away; he tries for a decapitation blow as she sails backward. The flaming sword grazes her cheek, leaving a scratch from her nose to her cheek. Jesse hesitates, then flicks the safety to the 'on' position on his pistol and puts it in his jacket. He gets to his feet and draws Biter, his wrists still burning from being stomped on.
Rust stands also, taking his time. He whirls his sword in arcs around him, creating a thrum-thrum sound in the air.
Amanda touches his shoulder to let him know she's there, her bat in hand.
"Did you see his eyes?" she asks quietly, keeping her gaze on their foe.
"What do you mean?" Jesse whispers back.
"They stopped glowing after you hit him. We have to keep doing that."
"We'll kill him!"
"C'mon, Jesse. We have to try. Or do you have any other brilliant plans in that cute head of yours?"
"What did you just say?!"
"You heard me – "
"If you two are quite done?"
Rust appears behind them, sword swinging.
Amanda and Jesse dive in opposite directions; Amanda rolls backwards and around, springing up at Rust's back. She lands a blow with the hilt of her bat on Rust's shoulder; instead of turning to engage her Rust presses the attack on Jesse. He pummels the younger boy with sword swings, knocking the son of Hermes to the dirt.
Amanda tries desperately to stop him, smashing him in the back of the skull with her bat. Rust lurches backward, holding his head with his hand, and slashes behind him blindly with Carinae's Fire. Amanda dodges; the flames singe her face. Jesse kicks Rust in the shin, then closes his eyes tightly and backflips away, ignoring the pain in his wrists.
As his feet touch the ground Jesse knows Rust will already be behind him; he leaps to his right and hears the sword smacking into the dirt.
"I think you trained us too well," Jesse says, straightening up. He's going to have a million bruises after this, he knows, but he can't resist a taunt. The Eidolon is just standing there, glaring at him, with blood dripping from the back of Rust's head. Amanda is standing in front of the mouth of the cave, blood staining her cheek. Normally Jesse would notice how badass-sexy that looks, but he doesn't now. He's not an idiot; he knows the chances of even one of them surviving this encounter are slim. Rust is simply too good. Their only chance is to get the spirit possessing him to fuck off somehow.
Rust sneers at him. "You haven't a chance, little boy. Surely you realize that."
"No idea what you're talking about," Jesse says, gripping the hilt of his sword tighter. He begins praying desperately to his father.
Rust smiles condescendingly. Then he vanishes; Amanda's surprise attack doesn't even get close. Rust reappears several feet away.
"How the hell does he do that?" Amanda growls, hefting her bat.
Jesse shrugs.
"I think it's an Aeolus thing," he says. "I remember Annabeth talking about him one time, apparently Aeolus can move faster than most of the gods can. Well, Steven can move faster than most of us."
"You're both so chatty," The Eidolon scolds. They tense.
Rust appears between them. One hand slips into Jesse's jacket and grabs the pistol, the other sweeps the sword through the air, attempting to dismember the girl from Tennessee. Amanda twists away, once again barely avoiding the blade.
She isn't out of range enough; Steven presses the barrel of the Browning 9mm to Amanda's ear. The Eidolon smiles victoriously. Jesse swings Biter as hard as he can, his mind screaming protests even as he watches the scene unfold in slow motion.
Rust pulls the trigger.
Reyna watches the approaching army with distinct unease.
Maybe even a little fear.
She can already make out the distant shape of a Giant towering over the rest of the monsters. She wonders who it could be.
Scipio shifts nervously underneath her; she pats his neck soothingly. She almost wishes someone would do the same for her.
There's a clattering sound to her left; that girl Clarisse pulls up in a magnificent but battered war chariot.
"Are we gonna fight them or just sit here?" she snarls.
Reyna sighs. "Just be patient, Clarisse. Jason, Percy, and the others need all the time they can get."
Clarisse snorts but relaxes grudgingly. Reyna thanks Bellona and Mars the girl has enough sense not to just charge into the enemy line and leave it all to the Gods. She's an awe-inspiring warrior and a master of small-unit tactics, but Reyna feels comfortable saying she's a better general.
There are gasps and curses from the troops around her. Reyna sees the flash and the trail of smoke as something rises from the mass of the Giant army into the sky.
"Surface to air missiles," says a Centurion from Fourth Cohort grimly.
Reyna glances at Clarisse. "Do we have any way to talk to those aircraft up there?"
Clarisse shakes her head darkly. "Fucking smoke signals? I don't know. The radio was on the ship, which has left somewhere."
Even as she finishes that sentence, the Argo II suddenly dips below the early morning clouds. The sound of the ballistae isn't audible from this distance, but Clarisse and Reyna can see the fiery streaks smashing into the monster's ranks.
"Well, at least we know it wasn't stolen," Clarisse grumbles.
Unless it has been stolen, and Gaea is sacrificing a few dozen minions to lower our guard, Reyna thinks, but she keeps that thought to herself.
A Centurion approaches them, followed by his standard-bearer. They salute at a respectful distance from Scipio, who eyes them closely.
"Madame Praetor, the enemy will be upon us in eighteen minutes at their current speed. We await your orders."
Reyna leans back in the saddle, thinking. She knows they really only have one option; and that's charge. They can't let the monsters push them up against the mountain and slaughter them. They could retreat and hide in the trees in small groups, wearing down the enemy with guerilla tactics, but that could just lead to a stalemate.
Reyna digs her heels into Scipio's flanks, he canters to the front line. On one side, grim Greek warriors holding spears watch the oncoming army, standing in a relaxed but dangerous posture. On the other, orderly files of Roman lancers stare straight ahead.
Reyna looks out at the mass of monsters approaching, and her face tightens.
She raises her hand. The ranks of warriors behind her twitch.
She lowers her hand and heels Scipio to a trot.
The Greek-Roman army moves toward the enemy.
Butch watches the two waves of soldiers meet with a wince.
Lances splinter against monster hide, claws rake against shields, and people die.
Kevin, leaning over the railing with his eyes wide open, quails. Butch puts a steadying hand on the boy's shoulder, though he doesn't feel any less frightened by the spectacle below. His musings are interrupted by Rachel Elizabeth Dare, who gives him a swift kick to the butt and hollers at him to help her pilot the ship.
As Butch and Kevin climb into the rigging, Tyson meticulously reloads the ballistae, heaving round boulders into the hands and patting the gray rock, whispering to them cheerfully.
"This is crazy!" Kevin hollers as he holds tightly onto a crossbeam. Butch nods grimly. The force of the wind up here is probably gale-force, and all they have to hold onto are ropes and wooden beams.
He's going to make Rachel pay for this when this is all over. He doesn't know how. He doesn't know why, really. But somehow this is her fault.
Rachel holds the pilot wheel steady with her right hand and stretches to peer over the side of the ship. She pulls back abruptly as an arrow comes whistling up past her face.
"Holy shit!" she says, putting her hand over her heaving chest. She sneaks a second glance at the armies below and sees the source of the projectile – a type of monster in the reserve of the Giant army, tall and broad shouldered, with what appear to be at least four arms, which are holding longbows of immense size.
Rachel carefully banks the Argo II in a lazy circle over the battlefield, wincing as a few arrows strike the hull. She shouts at Tyson and points out the archer-beasts down below; he gives her a goofy grin and a thumbs up.
The entire ship shudders and creaks as the ballistae fire. Rachel almost loses her balance again, grabbing onto Lacy behind her for support.
There's a cracking sound from the center of the ship, and the crossbar Butch is hanging on to plummets to the deck.
Rachel listens to the barely audible swearing coming from the son of Iris and remarks, "I don't think he likes me very much right now."
Lacy shrugs awkwardly.
The tunnel is getting gradually warmer.
Luke doesn't consider this to be a good sign.
In his somewhat extensive experience, the only thing that make tunnels warmer as you go downward is lava, and he would really rather not have to deal with any more variables in this ridiculous situation than he has too. He catches a glimpse of Percy's face as the son of Poseidon glances behind at Annabeth, and Luke winces. He hadn't thought about this before, but being this far underground, away from water, can't be in any way good for Percy, and compounded with this heat – Percy could very well die of dehydration down here, prophecy or no.
A slightly more honest part of himself snidely remarks that Luke does wish it was him holding Annabeth's hand, smiling gently at her in reassurance, as they plunge down into danger and probable death, but he quashes it immediately. This is in no way the time for that. There probably won't ever be a time for that conversation. He certainly doesn't blame Annabeth for steering clear of his newly reanimated self these last couple of days – after all, when you bury someone, they are kinda supposed to stay dead.
Whatever, he thinks sourly as he runs down the stairs behind Jason. Stupid self-conversation anyway. He grips his sword tighter and vows to spend his second chance protecting the seven demigods in front of himself with his life.
He's not an idiot, after all. The prophecy said seven demigods, but there are eight in this tunnel.
Ana Massri descends the final step and enters the Chamber.
Her Mother's prescence is stifling in here, staggering. It makes it hard to breathe. It's not just the heady vapors and mists issuing from cracks in the otherwise smooth floor and walls, but also the physical being that is suspended from the ceiling.
'Being' is probably stretching it a little, but there's not many more accurate descriptions. The sphere of molten earth churning in the center of the Chamber is impossible to look away from. It provides the only light in the room.
SO.
Ana kneels before her divine parent.
YOU HAVE COME. AFTER AQUITTING YOURSELF POORLY.
Ana doesn't dare say anything to this accusation, even if it seems a little unfair.
AT LEAST YOU HAVE LEAD SOME INTERESTING INSECTS TO MY HOME.
Ana wonders, besides Jackson, who followed her. Probably his admittedly attractive but annoying girlfriend. And that idiot Grace.
LET'S PLAY A LITTLE GAME, SHALL WE?
The small clicking sound of the 9mm's hammer seems to echo throughout the clearing. Nothing happens.
Amanda twitches. The Eidolon frowns.
"I put the safety on," Jesse says helpfully, and simultaneously rips the pistol from Rust's hand and kicks him in the midsection.
Jesse covers the understandably shell-shocked Amanda with his body and flicks the Browning's safety off with his thumb.
He empties the clip in Rust's general direction, then glances at Amanda's face. The fear has worn off, she looks pissed. He grins reassuringly at her, and she kisses him.
"Oh, for the love of the Gods," mutters the Eidolon from the dirt a few feet away.
Jesse ignores him, just grins from ear to ear. At this point he supposes some zippy, sarcastic hero would have said, 'well, I can die happy now!'. But all Jesse wants is to get through this so he can get a little more of that. Because, godsdamn. Now he knows why people do it all the time.
He performs a quick mental inventory. Biter, check. Shield, check. Browning with one twelve-round magazine left, check. Rif –
Wait. His shield.
The shield that Rust and Drew had given them for killing those monsters in the forest months ago. A lifetime ago.
What was it Rust had said?
'This button makes it give an electric shock, see, for when you wanna bash someone with it, and this one here makes the surface reflective so you can send messages and blind enemies, and this here- '
Jesse smiles at Amanda. "I've got an idea," he says profoundly.
"Good boy," she says brightly.
Reyna grunts in pain as she blocks a third consecutive blow on her scavenged infantry shield. She whips the heavy, clumsy device to the side and thrusts her Imperial Gold javelin into the evil Cyclops' eye. She tosses the shield aside and remounts Scipio, trying to peer over the battlefield.
Her battalion is swamped by Cyclops and evil mermen, and doesn't even have a hint of forward motion any longer. The Greeks are faring little better; their magnificent archery line giving them only a little breathing room.
As Reyna watches, a squadron of griffons crashes into the Greek's right flank, pushing them towards the Romans. Several startled Greek and Roman soldiers take accidental swings at each other, barely stopping short. Reyna screams angrily for some support to that side, but even as Winston Churchill hefts a broken whiskey bottle and shouts for a charge, Clarisse howls like a demon and decapitates a fully grown griffon with a casual swipe of her short sword. A second and third griffon die the same way, then the daughter of Ares tosses the blade away and puts both hands on her electric spear, decimating the squadron single-handedly. The entire battlefield watches in terrified awe as a red aura expands from her body.
"The blessing of Mars," says Dakota in a stunned whisper.
Clarisse throws her spear straight into the final griffin, piercing its throat and exiting under its lion tail. The two bloody, messy halves of the creature fall away. Clarisse roars in wordless defiance at the mass of monsters staring at her.
Then a massive foot descends on the electric spear lying on the ground, snapping it in two. Porphyrion smiles mockingly at Clarisse, who realizes too late that she's overextended far too much; the forward Greek line is at least fifty yards away.
The monsters close in on her, howling with hideous glee. Chris Rodriguez, Travis Stoll, and Jake mason try desperately to reach her, cutting down anything in their path, but Reyna can see they will be too late. The monsters swarm her as Porphyrion watches, chuckling lightly.
Reyna feels a solitary tear running down her cheek as she raises her sword in a salute to the dead.
Percy slows to a stop as he comes to the final stair. Annabeth runs into his back, and judging from the repeated thumps against his body, everyone else ran into her. He hears Hazel snicker quietly behind him.
The room before him is circular and round. It's dark on the edges but lit up in the center by a glowing ball of magma that Percy can only guess is Gaea.
HELLO, MY NAME IS GAEA. WHAT'S YOURS?
Yep, that's her.
The world turns white.
It's a strange moment, because Reyna can't hear anything. Later she's told that people who were farther away say that the sound was like a thousand earthquakes, a million simultaneous blasts of TNT.
When the harsh light fades, Clarisse is standing in the middle of a perfectly symmetrical circle of charred corpses, looking like she's about to faint. Her clothes are ripped to shreds, barely decent. The red aura of Mars still clings to her.
But she's not alone. Standing back-to-back with her, like warrior brothers, is Zeus, the Greek King of the Gods, looking windswept and wildly angry.
Clarisse seems to come to her senses and looks at Porphyrion's burnt cadaver, and spits on it.
"Bitch," she says coolly.
Chris is the first to reach Clarisse as The Lord of Thunder begins striding into the enemy army, systematically vaporizing the enemy. He slams into her, wrapping his arms around her. She reaches up and cups his cheek with weary affection.
"Holy crap, Clarisse," Travis says, running up behind them, glancing around and keeping his sword raised just in case. "We thought you were boned – "
Clarisse uses her free hand to punch him in the face. "Please, dickless wonder. You expect me to get defeated by a bunch of scrawny wimps like that? As if."
The sound of hooves makes Clarisse and Chris look over; Scipio is cantering up to them. Reyna reaches behind her head and rips her purple Praetor's cloak from her shoulders, tossing it down the daughter of Ares.
"Nice work out there," the Roman says in an unreadable tone.
Clarisse examines the cape with a slightly unenthusiastic air, but shrugs and tosses it over her shoulders carelessly. Chris sighs and fixes it, hastily ducking an arrow passing overhead.
"It looks like at least half of the Olympians are here, so I'm going to hold the majority of our remaining forces in reserve," Reyna says to Clarisse. "We're still pretty beat up. I've ordered only experienced fighters forward."
Clarisse nods briskly. "Good idea, girly." She squats and examines the bloody ground for a moment, then produces a slightly bent but still serviceable scimitar from underneath a dissolving monster corpse.
"Oh, no you don't," says Chris, grabbing the weapon from her hand. It's a testament to how worn out she is that she can't stop him.
"You're going to go rest. Travis can handle this," he continues, grinning at Travis over his shoulder. The son of Hermes, holding his bleeding nose and looking sour, glares at him in alarm.
"He can? Excellent," a new voice purrs.
Travis jumps as a shapely arm, elegantly adorned in shining diamond bracelets and a brilliant white tunic, drapes itself around his shoulders. The owner of the arm is the most beautiful woman in the world.
"I do like a man who can handle himself in these kind of . . . situations," Aphrodite says brightly, waving a slender, beautiful sword about in her other hand as if to make her point. Her snow-white tunic stops at the beginning of her thighs, displaying long, tanned legs, and the neckline swoops much farther south than is probably practical in a battle garment.
Travis splutters something completely incomprehensible, mostly staring at the goddess's boobs, then about-faces towards the battlefield. But before he can advance on the enemy, a noise curiously similar to the sound a pump-action shotgun makes when you chamber a round, similar to a jet fighter's engine roaring overhead, similar to the rasp of a sword leaving its sheath, similar to the non-sound a nuclear ICBM makes upon impact, causes him to freeze in his tracks.
The sound goes something like this: "Hey, Travis . . . who's your new friend? And where are you going?"
Reyna, Clarisse and Chris look between Travis, Aphrodite, and Katie, and decide to brave the monsters and chaos after all.
Jesse's first move is to position the shield between him and rust, sword raised over his head. Amanda kneels in a firing position, her massive revolver pointed steadily at Rust.
The possessed young man sighs. "Won't you two just give up and let me cut you? It's not like you actually have a chance."
Jesse ignores him and leaps within range of that devastating sword. Sure enough, the Eidolon ignites Carinae's Fire and swings hard. Jesse dodge-rolls to the right as Amanda fires three quick shots. Instead of leaping into the air again, Rust blocks with the sword, whipping it back around in the path of the bullets. Jesse leaps forward, desperately trying to touch the surface of the shield to Rust's body, but Rust kicks the shield and launches Jesse away before he can click the trigger to activate the electric shock.
Jesse tries again and again. Each time the Eidolon knocks him away or stops Amanda's fire, looking bored.
"Your plan isn't working," says Amanda at one point, as Jesse lands in the dirt near her, panting and bruised.
"Not really," admits Jesse. "I was hoping to smack him with the shield and electrocute him back to normal, but . . ."
"Yeah, I know. So give it to me."
Nonplussed, he unstraps it and hands it to her. Rust yawns.
"Okay," she says confidently. "Go distract him. I'll hit him with it."
"That's your plan?"
"Yep."
"I don't like your plan."
"Sweetie, shut up and go be the bait."
Jesse sighs to cover the slight blush that colors his cheeks when she calls him sweetie. He gets to his feet, holds Biter in one hand and fumbles for a second weapon about his person, and settles on a hacking knife. Then he straightens up and strides purposely towards Rust, who brightens up and waves his sword around.
Jesse dives into the fight, blocking a swing from the fiery sword with Biter and trying a slash at Rust's forearm (which fails). It becomes a dance, with Rust leading, swinging the large sword to and fro as Jesse dodges or parries, then tries to cut him with the knife.
As Jesse takes a step back, avoiding a punch from Rust and praying that the Eidolon hasn't figured out that Steven can crush boulders with his wind powers, Amanda leaps in, wielding Jesse's shield on her left arm and her bat in the other. Rust tries to kick her and gets a bat swing to the thigh for her trouble, but he bashes her shield arm with his sword before she can touch him with it. The fight continues back and forth for ten minutes like this; Steven, increasingly frantic, attacks both antagonists and takes blows from Amanda's bat and a few from Jesse's knife but succeeds in keeping the sword and shield away from him.
But ten minutes in, he finally falters.
A blow from Carinae's Fire glances off the edge of Amanda's shield. She immediately bashes his elbow with the shield and clicks a trigger near the grip.
Electricity flows into Rust's body, sending him flying into the air. He collapses in the dirt, twitching. Jesse catches his breath, his hands on his knees.
Amanda approaches the fallen Camp Armorer with trepidation, her bat extended in her hand, ready to smack him again if he stirs. He doesn't until both of them are standing over him.
His eyes open. They're no longer gold but dark brown, filled with their usual wry amusement.
"Hey guys," he offers. Amanda grins and taps his chest with the tip of her bat.
"Hey yourself, big guy," she says cheerfully. "How you feelin'?"
Steven pushes himself up on his elbows, wincing. "Like people were just hitting me with bats. Where the hell is everyone?"
They glance around. The clearing, and the crumbling abandoned temple, are deserted.
"Well, Percy and the rest of them – the prophecy kids – went down the hole. With that weird blonde guy. And King Arthur and his guys took those other enemy kids away down the hill. So it was just us. Oh, and I think there's more fighting down on those plains."
Steven runs a hand through his short hair and glances down the mountain.
"Okay," he says thoughtfully. "Where's Drew?"
"Back down the mountain, I think. You don't remember?"
Steven scratches his head. "Kinda?"
Amanda rolls her eyes. "Great. Well I'm not oh fuck."
Jesse and Steven give her a puzzled look.
She points at the two giants looming over them.
Steven and Jesse follow her guys. Steven shields his eyes from the sun.
"Hey, guys," Rust says.
Leon smiles widely and waves. Hippolytus sniffs haughtily.
"What's up?" the Camp Armorer asks.
"Felt Mother in danger," Leon explains helpfully. "Came here to help. Also kill you."
Rust groans and rubs his eyes. "You and everyone else on the godsdamn planet."
Percy frowns at Gaea's 'body'.
"It's Percy Jackson," he says, annoyed. "We've sort of met."
HAVE WE?
"Yes! You've been making my life miserable for the last like ten months!"
I DON'T THINK I REMEMBER YOU.
Percy grinds his teeth together. "Enjoying this, huh? Well, you should, since you're going to be dead – or as close to dead as we can get you – very soon."
THAT'S NOT VERY NICE.
"Shut up."
CHILDREN SHOULD RESPECT THEIR ELDERS.
"Go to Tartarus."
SO ORNERY. YOU YOUNG PEOPLE NEED TO THINK OF YOUR BLOOD PRESSURE. YOU MAY NOT THINK IT'S IMPORTANT NOW, BUT –
Percy actually stamps his foot in anger. Then he draws Riptide.
Luke blinks and grabs Percy's wrist. "Whoa, Percy. Shouldn't we think of a plan first?"
"How'd that work for you when you were Kronos's henchman?"
". . . good point."
"Children of Posiodon's motto, dude. 'Just fin it'."
"'Just fin it'?"
"Yeah. Like 'just wing it', which is what I always do, but cooler. More fish-ier."
"Come up with that yourself, huh?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Well, A) you're the only child of Poseidon, and B) it's stupid."
"It's not stupid! Annabeth thinks it's cute!"
Luke turns to her. "Do you really?"
"Well, I mean – "
"It's pretty stupid," says a new voice. The demigods swivel around in surprise.
Ana stands next to a stalactite near her mother, looking weary. Her spear is in her hand, but she looks relaxed.
"You're stupid," says Percy in retaliation.
Ana rolls her eyes.
THIS CONVERSATION IS EXCEPTIONALLY TEDIOUS. COULD WE GET ON WITH IT?
"You can shut up too."
I DON'T THINK I WILL, ACTUALLY. I THINK WHAT I WILL DO IS ASK MY DELINQUENT DAUGHTER TO RIP YOU ALL INTO LITTLE PIECES AND DRINK YOUR BLOOD.
"Do I have to drink their blood, Mother?"
WELL. I SUPPOSE WE COULD SKIP THAT PART.
"Also, I'm tired. Maybe you could just kill them instead?"
DON'T BE LAZY.
"Yes, Mother."
Ana shrugs her shoulders, working some kinks out. Then she twirls her spear menacingly.
Luke laughs and leaps for her, sword snaking out. Ana blocks the blow but her face tightens as she realizes she's let him in to far; he's now outside the range of an effective blow from her spear. She tries to leap backward; he grabs her by the throat and throws her into the wall.
Percy takes this as the signal to attack. He reaches in the pocket of his jeans and produces a vial of water, unscrews the lid, and pours it over his head. The power of the sea surges slightly within him. He concentrates, and Riptide becomes covered in a thin coating of water, making the blade almost ten feet longer and paper thin.
Percy swings his sword; the blade disturbs the surface of the molten Gaea-sphere, leaving an angry, deeper red welt.
WHAT A RUDE YOUNG MAN. DIDN'T YOUR MOTHER TEACH YOU NOT TO TOUCH LADIES WITHOUT THEIR PERMISSION? NO WONDER YOU HAVEN"T GOTTEN PAST SECOND BASE.
"That's not true!" Percy says indignantly.
"Percy!" Annabeth says, turning scarlet.
Frank guffaws. "Need some help there, buddy?"
Annabeth whirls on him. "Exactly what do you mean by 'help', Franklin Zang?"
"I meant with Gaea."
"Oh." Annabeth pauses. "Carry on."
Frank transforms into an eagle and snaps at Gaea with his beak. Hazel raises her spatha, but before she can act, Luke's body slams into her, knocking them both to the ground.
Annabeth, Jason, and Piper, still reeling and quiet from her wounds taken aboveground, step forward to engage Ana, who looks relatively unhurt.
With a flick of her wrist, the Egyptian girl conjures streams of liquid rock that wrap around her body, encasing herself in armor. Annabeth slips on her Yankees cap, bill backwards, which doesn't appear to affect her invisibility powers. Jason, the most powerful fighter of the group, engages first, performing a laser-quick decapitation blow that would have dismembered a wild rhinoceros. Ana raises an armored forearm and absorbs the attack but gets knocked off-balance. Piper takes advantage of this distraction to grab for the spear; Ana tugs on her weapon but a pair of invisible arms wrap around her neck. She struggles, succeeding in ripping the spear back solely into her grasp, but Jason slams the butt of his gladius into her earthen chestplate, cracking it.
Ana reaches a gauntleted hand over her head and gropes for her attacker, succeeding in snagging Annabeth's shoulder. In an explosive movement she throws the daughter of Athena over her head, sending her crashing to the floor of the chamber.
Percy tries to keep an eye on the fight evolving on the other end of the chamber, but his focus is on Gaea. Her ball of lava is now scarred and scratched from his and Frank's blows; she hasn't said anything annoying for a while, which he hopes means she's concentrating on not dying. Because that would mean she is, ergo, dying.
Or going back to sleep. Whatever.
Hazel gets a dazed Luke back to his feet behind Percy; the son of Hermes falters and stumbles, but then gains his balance and indicates he wants to return to the fight. Hazel shakes her head warningly, but he ignores her.
Then two things happen at once.
Ana, her armor in pieces but her attackers on the ground before her, stops dead as a knife is pressed to her throat. And Percy's strongest attack finally cuts through the sphere of lava. It shatters and collapses to the ground in a bubbling, steaming pile of molten rock.
Ana doesn't seem to register the destruction of her mother's 'body'. She is too shocked by the figure holding her at knifepoint.
Adalina stands behind her sister, looking unbelievably weary. Her face is coated in blood and grease, her hair is a tangled mess.
Percy and Annabeth, who has removed her hat, exchange puzzled looks. Neither recognize the girl. Jason keeps his blade pointed at Ana's exposed midsection – her armor and shirt ripped clean away – and kicks the spear away from her.
Adalina sees the confused expressions on the faces of the demigods and says, in a veritable croak, "Adalina Castillo, Echelon. Serial number one-five-seven-three-zero-nine. Reporting for duty."
Percy relaxes for the first time in a long time. Annabeth grins hesitatingly. It all seems so anticlimactic.
Ana stares at the ceiling of the chamber.
"How long?" she murmurs.
Ady winces.
"The whole time, sister," she answers sadly, giving Ana a hesitant, gentle, regretful kiss on the cheek
Ana doesn't acknowledge the kiss or Adalina's words. "You can put the knife away. I surrender."
Percy and Jason frown, and Luke starts forward, but Ady doesn't hesitate, she removes the weapon and tosses it on the ground. Ana slumps down to her knees.
"I just want to stop fighting," she mumbles. Ady sinks down and puts her arms around the other girl.
Frank hugs Hazel, but he looks mystified by something, a little uneasy. Piper finally sits down, letting Jason tip her head back and pour nectar down her throat.
Percy sighs and tosses an arm around Annabeth's shoulders. She presses her face to his chest. "Well, that was fun. Can we please get out of this damn place though? I feel like I can't breathe." The others nod and turn to the door.
It's gone.
The whirl about, looking for the circular opening to the stairs. They don't see it.
"Oh, shite," Ana mutters.
"I knew that was too easy," Jason mutters.
Percy nods wearily.
Rachel Dare watches Apollo lead a sweeping charge of Roman cavalry into the final mass of monsters.
The crew of the Argo II had not fired the ballistae, or done much of anything, in a while. They hadn't needed to. The last of the F-18's had exited Mt. Olympus's airspace upon Zeus's arrival, and the AC-130 had left a half hour before that.
"I didn't know Lord Apollo was a horse person," Lacy says, peering over the side of the ship.
Rachel rolls her eyes. "He's not, he's allergic. Some tiff he had with Percy's dad a while back. But he thinks they look cool, so he rides one every chance he gets."
Lacy giggles.
Jacob Van Isaac, reduced to kicking his heels and staring downwards at the battle with a look of agonized longing on his face, says, "Can we please land this thing already? I want to kill something."
"That's a nice thing to say."
"Look who's talking, oracle girl."
Rachel ignores this, though inwardly she's inexplicably pleased by the Roman soldier's remark. Maybe because it's nice to know that Annabeth isn't the only one who can dish it out.
She turns to Tyson. "Admiral, shall we –"
She blinks. Tyson is already at the helm. The Argo II begins to bank to starboard. "Ty, where are we going?"
"Got to go help Daddy," Tyson says cheerfully, allowing Ella to perch on his shoulder. "On top of big mountain."
Rachel exchanges looks with Van Isaac, Butch, his little sidekick, and Lacy. They simultaneously reach for weapons. Anything Poseidon needs help with sounds exceptionally dangerous.
As Tyson expertly maneuvers the ship to the side of the mountain, Jacob settles down beside the gangplank and aims a tricked-out G36C assault rifle into the opening.
"Me first," he says calmly, the consummate professional. "I'll give you guys the all clear."
Butch doesn't look happy, but Rachel is more than willing to let the black boy have first dibs. She glances at the rifle. "Hey, Roman boy. Where'd you get the gun?"
"My name is Jacob. And it's from a friend."
"Is your friend's name S-"
"Yep."
The ships settles down, and Jacob pushes the gangplank down, then peeks out. He's silent for a second, then relaxes, standing up and waving the others forward.
The clearing and the abandoned temple are silent but not deserted. Two massive, fishy-smelling giant corpses lay at the edge of the trees. There are scorch marks and craters everywhere. Poseidon, dressed in his usual bright Hawaiian shirt and deck shorts, stands in the center, waiting for them. Jesse and Amanda are laying on the grass beside him, Jesse's head resting on Amanda's chest. Rachel's heart leaps into her throat at the sight, but she can see both of their chests rising and falling steadily.
"They're fine," Percy's dad assures her as she approaches. "But – once again – I'm afraid I came too late."
Rachel follows his gaze, and feels sick.
Steven Rust is sitting against a demolished pillar inside the temple. His torso is crumpled and missing a huge round chunk on the left side. His entire left arm is missing. His eyes are rolled back into his head, and blood is crusted on his face from his nose, ears, and mouth. He's obviously dead.
"Ah, shit," Jacob mutters tiredly, and bows his head to his fallen comrade.
Lacy can't handle the sight and retches into some bushes. Rachel goes to comfort her.
Tyson solemnly reaches down to gather the Camp Armorer's body in his arms, but before he can, something causes the ground to shake.
Trees begin to snap and fall. Kevin loses his balance; Butch catches him before he can face-plant a rock.
"What the hell is going on?" Rachel asks Poseidon, alarmed.
The god strokes his beard thoughtfully.
"In my professional opinion," he says, "everything is about to go to shit."
From the pool of magma on the chamber's floor – all that was left of Gaea's 'body' – rises a statue.
Percy actually thought it looked a bit like the Statue of Liberty – a beautiful, stern face, hair bundled tight to the head under a spiked crown, and flowing robes.
Except the Statue of Liberty held a torch, not a sword about as long as he is tall.
The statue's lips curve in an amused smile at their expressions.
YOU REALLY THOUGHT IT WOULD BE THAT EASY? I'M ACTUALLY INSULTED.
With a casual flick of its right hand, the sword smashes Ana and Adalina into the wall of the chamber. Neither of them move.
"Well, that pisses me off," Piper growls. Jason nods and together they leap at the statue.
Jason's blade causes a decent dent in its stone leg. Piper chips its arm.
PLEASE.
Gaea explodes into motion; Jason tackles his girlfriend out of the way in the nick of time. Frank becomes a massive, glowering grizzly bear and tries to swat the sword out of the primordial goddess's hand, to unspectacular results.
Percy tries to leap to Frank's aid, but Gaea swats him and Hazel both like flies.
The statue buries a stone fist into Frank's midsection, causing the bear to revert to a stunned Chinese-Canadian demigod. Gaea deftly plucks the piece of charred wood from Frank's pocket.
OH MY. WHAT HAVE WE HERE?
She crushes the wood to powder. Hazel screams, and the chamber becomes a roaring inferno.
Frank dies, then opens his eyes.
The world is weird – blurry and monochrome. Black and white. Like an old movie.
He's lying on his back, wearing a purple t-shirt and jeans. Barefoot, for some reason. He feels like he recently had a warm shower.
It's a feeling that seems oddly pleasant, considering he's dead. It always seems all ghost-y and miasmatic when you think about being deceased.
He sits up. He's vaguely aware that something is going on around him.
He's sitting in the shadow of a doorway taller than his mind can really conceive. The Empire State building could probably fit in it vertically, and the Titanic horizontally. It looks a bit like the façade of a fancy government building in Washington D.C., but he can't really remember which one. One of the Greek-looking ones.
He squints, looking around, as his mind turns unpleasantly to thoughts of Hazel and his friends. Some weird part of him hopes his death sent his girlfriend into a raging fury that allowed her to destroy Gaea single-handedly. It'd be nice to know he hadn't died for nothing.
He finally settles on the moving people around him.
'People' is probably a bit of a misnomer in this case. Wraiths? Spirits? Yeah, spirits. He tries to remember the Chines word for spirits, which he knows for sure his grandmother drilled into him long ago, but his brain feels a bit fuzzy right now.
The spirits are all streaming out of the doorway. Into . . . something. Life, he feels instinctively. They're heading into life. That feels wrong. They shouldn't be doing that.
There's something else here besides spirits, though.
Monsters. Two of them. Big and insectile. Wearing chitinous armor and holding spears. Carelessly watching the dead stream past them. Not guards, then. Well, at least, not to them getting out.
Gaea's men, then. He sighs.
Frank suddenly gets the feeling that someone is next to him.
He looks up sharply.
The tall figure detaches from the shadows and grins unpleasantly at him. "Hey there, buddy. How's it going?"
Frank frowns. "I know you."
"Yeah, I know you too. Don't worry, I can't remember your name either. But your Jackson's friend."
"Yeah. Aren't you too?"
The older guy looks pained. "I guess."
Frank frowns, then snaps his fingers. "You're that Greek they always talk about. The crazy one."
"Who, Clarisse?"
"No, I know who she is. She's my sister. You're the other crazy Greek. The one who . . ." Frank pauses, abruptly crestfallen. "Something."
"That was eloquent."
"Shut up."
"That was even more elo – aw, fuck it. Look, can I be honest? I'm pissed about dying. I want to go kill something. And possibly make love to my lady. Like at least one more time. You want to go through that door?"
Frank feels alarmed. "Are we allowed to?"
"Well, why not? Their side's doing it. Fight fire with fire, bro. Don't you listen to Metallica?"
"Not really."
"Your loss. Anyway, come with me. It'll be fun. We'll get to kill stuff."
Frank glances up at the misty top of the doorway. "How is she holding the doors open?"
"It's not those freaky ass bugs, if that's what you're wondering. Hades could vaporize them with his eyebrows. No, she's got like a magic spell on them or some shit. I don't know. Not really my forte."
Frank thinks about it for a moment. The Greek waits patiently.
"Okay," he says finally, his heart beating Hazel's name. "Let's go through."
The Greek hauls him to his feet, beaming. "That's the spirit! I knew you had it in you. You seem a bit more intelligent than the rest of your Roman buddies, so I had faith in you."
"Gee, thanks."
"I was mostly joking. Seriously though, the whole idiosyncratic command structure thing sounds fucking terrible. You should try our system: basically, I do whatever the hell I want, and Chiron complains about it and then lets me do it anyway."
Frank follows him out into the crowd of spirits gliding towards life. The bugs pay them no mind. Past the doors are stairs leading down into white mists.
"Hey," Frank says suddenly as they reach these, "I remember who you are. It's Rust, right?"
Steven turns and beams. "Was, technically! It's nice to see you too, uh . . . John."
"It's Frank."
"Is it really? Wow. Learn something new every day, huh? See you on the other side, bud. Kill something for me, eh?"
AN: Hey, another great end to another great chapter. I feel like me apologizing for it's lateness is getting kinda tedious, so I'll just try not to do it again, eh? Review please! :D
Also, I recently wrote and published a Glee one-shot. If that's your cup of tea, go check it out!
If it's not, check it out anyway, or Ganondorf will eat your soul. ;)
Next time: The war ends, duh. One way or another. Also, Lou Ellen, Castor, and the road trip gang will be back! Thought I'd forgotten them, huh? Don't worry, I did.