I bet I am spoiling you.
I sighed, and looked at my quest companions.
"Anna is my ex," I began simply. This was only going to get rougher as I went on...
"A year ago, she and I went on a quest to cancel the worst wedding since the Royal Olympus couple... Our Satyr friend Grover got caught, while looking for Pan, and was almost married to Polyphemus. (The living trio grimaced, and Anna's ghostly hands touched mine, while she smiled sadly at me.) We met up with some friends, who were on another quest, and crossed the Charybdis together.."
As I paused, Anna took over.
"Oceanus appeared, and we got separated. Perce, Poseidon, Amphitrite, and Triton fought him, but they were in his domain, so the fight dragged on. We made it to Polyphemus' Island, but something went wrong," she said.
I took over again.
"I'm dying. That's the cost of my powers. Lady Artemis said it was somethin' to do with the fact my body couldn't handle the power I wield. It's like housing a fire in a paper mâché box, and I'm that box. But anyways. I blacked out from blood loss, and something took over my body. When I regained consciousness, I was riding a wave onto Polyphemus' Island, and summoning massive hailstorms to do my part in the fight. I tipped him over, but what I didn't know was that Anna was behind him. And he fell on her..."
I could feel myself shaking. Bianca was getting paler by the second, and the other two were frowning.
Unbidden, the memory of Anna's corpse jumped the front of my mind. It was rash, what I did next. I threw on Beth's Cap, a name I gave the Yankee hat, and ran from the compartment.
"You'll have to forgive him, Zoë, Phoebe, Bianca. He's apparently changed more than I thought," Annabeth said. Inside, she was worried more than she was showing.
Where was the Percy Jackson she'd known? That one never ran away from anything. And he certainly wouldn't have kept her hat...
"I once was more carefree. Before Huntresses began to die in front of me," Phoebe said, scowling slightly at Percy's back.
"No matter. He'll be back by the time the train stops," Zoë said. She, too, was scowling at Percy's back.
The train stopped a while later. Annabeth told them the name, Gila Claw, New Mexico, but I, having came back in the night, insisted on calling it Lizard Finger, Old Spain.
"Jackson!" The group turned, and I sighed.
"Finally recovered, Ares? No more time in the brain," I said. Ares stood in a ceremonial military uniform, one of a brigadier general with various stars and medals pinned to his chest.
"No. But I owe you an ass kicking, boy. But you're lucky. Aphrodite wants to see you," the war god said.
He opened a door on a previously unnoticed limousine, and shoved me inside.
As soon as the door shut, I heard a voice speak.
It was pleasant, and sounded like a perfect blend of both of my girlfriends' and Annabeth's voices.
What it said, I don't know. I was too out of it to hear.
For in front of me sat a woman. A striking woman that could only be one Olympian.
She had black hair with blonde streaks, rust colored eyes, and tanned skin, and had Thalia's frame, but Clarisse's hairstyle, and Annabeth's eyebrow shape.
"You are such a WONDERFUL story, Perseus! The ending sucks, but they always do. A good love story never ends happily ever after."
I digested this, and then glared at the Titaness. A sudden wave of energy washed over me, and I felt my mind go fuzzy.
And then I had a vision of Thalia slapping me. With a jolt, I snapped out of the trance.
"What does the Titaness of Lust, Love, and Beauty want with me," I asked.
Aphrodite pouted, and suddenly turned serious.
"To warn you. Zeus knows what you tried to do, and has forbidden Apollo from helping. He cannot leave Olympus the day you climb Mount Othyrs. Nobody can help you. So the way I see it, you have two choices. Either you give up more years to help your sister figure see, or you can die knowing a blind goddess is useless against my cousin."
I merely glared at her, and exited the car with a single parting sentence.
"I'll freeze that lake when I get to it."
We walked a fair ways from the town, and didn't stop until we encountered a junkyard. There was no way around it, forcing us to go through it.
I looked at the gate, studying it intently, and saw the Eta symbol cleverly hidden by a gear pattern on the gateway top.
Drawing a Nemean Lioness claw, I stepped cautiously into the mechanical graveyard. My eyes scouted out any threats, and found none.
"Do not touch anything. This is Hephaestus' Junkyard. Gods know what the item here have on them," I said to my companions.
Behind his back, where he couldn't see, Annabeth smiled and glided right into a pile of gears.
They, much to her shock, shifted.
A rumbling across the earth made me sigh, and stand up straighter, in preparation for a battle.
"Anna. You're not a ghost. Dead Greek souls sent from the Underworld to the surface of Earth are daimon. You're solid-ish. That warning DID mean you too," I said, lightly glaring at her. There was no real heat behind it, as I was anxious for a good fight.
Annabeth looked sheepish, and gasped, before pointing up. I turned and scowled.
"DI immortales... Talos," Zoë whispered. A twenty foot tall bronze giant was above us, with a pile of junk in hand.
"The claws. Use them. They can pierce anything," I said. The questers nodded, and drew the claws. I yanked water from the earth, and grimaced. The only water was a ways down.
He'd be drawing on the confined aquifers to fight with.
Which means, he'd be left open for almost fifteen seconds.
In a battle, that was fourteen extra seconds of imminent death.
He rolled left as a massive gear hit where he was just standing.
'Ten.'
He dashed forward, and cut the automaton's foot open. A thin, black liquid bled out, and I face palmed.
Oil. It had enough water to be liquid, and burned well enough.
Thrusting my hands out, I concentrated. I willed the oil to burn.
Physical Science 101: Vibrating molecules equals fire, and/or gas.
Either way, it couldn't run without the oil, which had by now vanished.
The bronze man's body groaned, and I felt the water from the aquifer rise to my knees.
It was nice and cold, exactly how I liked it.
Twitching his pinkies, and flicking them forward, the water rushed into the giant's knees and elbow joints, where it froze into ice.
And then it fell forward. Towards Phoebe and Bianca.
I froze for a split second, my mind going back to Polyphemus's Island, but recovered faster, using the remaining water to enhance my speed.
I ran under the giant's chest, and the water whirled around my arms, back, and shoulders. My strength was enhanced, and I felt my fatigue begin to fade away.
Bianca and Phoebe stared at me, as I struggled and succeeded in holding the multi-ton robotic being above us.
"STOP GAWKIN AND MOVE YOUR ASSES," I shouted. The physical effort was showing in my voice.
Idly, under the stress to hold the weight, I noticed my older self coming back to the surface.
My words produced the desired effect, however, as the Huntresses ran out from the area where the beast would fall.
I lifted once, but my legs gave out underneath me. I fell, and everything began to slow down.
The giant fell, and I was quick to throw my hands up in a futile attempt to guard my face.
"Percy!"
Then my world went black.
In the shadows of a distant junk pile, a tall man wearing an all black cloak smirked, and lowered his hands. The shackles on his wrists clinked together as he did so.
Under his cloak, a pair of white gold eyes glowed, and he vanished, taking Percy's body with him.
CUT!
Yeah. This chapter stayed mostly the same.
In case it isn't clear, Percy's dying from the stress it takes to use ice. He isn't a son of Khione, and isn't converting it to water. This makes his cells speed up their life cycle by spending more energy, and shortens his life span.