Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or Camp Half-Blood or mythology. Rick does. Well, at least the characters and Camp Half-Blood.
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Chapter 20
Imagine the largest concert crowd you've ever seen, a football field packed with a million fans.
Now imagine a field a million times that big, packed with people, and imagine the electricity has gone out, and there is no noise, no light, no beach ball bouncing around over the crowd. Something tragic has happened backstage. Whispering masses of people just milled around in the shadows, waiting for a concert that will never start.
Picture that, and you have a pretty good idea what the Fields of Asphodel looked like.
The black grass had been trampled by eons of ghostly feet. A warm, moist wind blew like the breath of a swamp. Black trees grew in clumps here and there.
The cavern ceiling was so high above them it might've been a bank of storm clouds, except for the stalactites, which glowed faint grey and looked wickedly pointed. They looked like they were about to fall on them at any moment. Some had already fallen. Dotted around the fields were several that had fallen and impaled themselves in the black grass.
Percy could see the Fields of Punishment and Elysium from here. They contrasted each other perfectly. One was full of tortures he didn't want to describe. The other looked like a whole community of beautiful houses from every time period in history. Silver and gold flowers bloomed on the laws. In the middle of the valley that the community resided in was a glittering blue lake with three small islands—the Isles of the Blessed, for people who had chosen to be reborn three times, and three times achieved Elysium.
But that was the least of Percy's worries right now. The winged shoes were fast, and he wasn't sure if he could keep up for long. They'd been running for miles. He'd been reduced to a jog. Annabeth was huffing by his side as Thalia screamed for help. She looked like she was trying to take the shoes off, but Percy wasn't sure if it would work.
At first, the shoes were dragging her toward Hades' palace, but then the shoes veered sharply to the right and dragged her in the opposite direction.
The slope got steeper. Thalia picked up speed. He and Annabeth had to sprint to keep up. The cavern walls narrowed on either side. They entered a tunnel. No black grass or trees now, just rock underfoot, and the dim light of the stalactites above.
"Thalia!" Percy yelled, his voice echoing. "Hold onto something!"
"What?" Thalia yelled back.
"Look for a rock!"
She looked down past the shoes for a moment but suddenly screamed and tried clawing at the gravel, which didn't help at all.
The tunnel got darker and colder. The hairs on Percy's arms bristled. They were getting closer to Kronos. The evil voice was penetrating his mind.
The tunnel widened into a huge dark cavern, and the middle was a chasm the size of a city block.
Thalia was sliding straight toward the edge.
She dropped Ares' backpack, but it slowly rolled down to follow her.
For a moment, everything froze. Wasn't this the whole point of the mission? To get the lightning bolt to Tartarus? If he stopped, he could fulfill the Titan lord's wishes. But everything from the quest came crashing down on him. Kronos wasn't better than the gods. Maybe the gods were horrible but… Camp Half-Blood would be destroyed if Kronos won today. He didn't want to lose his friends. He remembered how the spirit of his mother warned him to wake. Was that actually her?
And fall to your death without your equal match.
Time resumed again, and Percy ordered: "Annabeth, grab the backpack and back up. I'll go help Thalia!"
Percy pretended he was trying to beat the dryads in a race. He was tired and sleepy, but he couldn't give up now. Thalia would not die on his hands. If anyone deserved to fall into Tartarus, it was him.
They were fifty feet from the drop off when Percy was within arm's length of Thalia. He could see everything behind her, including a big rock that the shoes were pulling her toward. He warned her, "There's a rock behind you. Grab onto it!"
She did as he asked and used it as an anchor to slow herself down. Percy rushed to her feet and began untying the left shoe. The left shoe came flying off and it sped into the darkness, down into the chasm. But he could only get one shoe off when Thalia lost her grip and began sliding even further toward the pit.
Percy managed to grab her hand just as she went over the side. He was using the rock as an anchor, just as she had, but he could feel her slipping from his grasp. She needed to take that last shoe off.
"Take the last shoe off!" he screamed.
Thalia struggled as she lifted her foot. She managed to get her free hand on the laces and untied the knot. The shoe flew down into the chasm to join its twin. It wasn't over yet. Thalia was going to fall in if he didn't get a second hand to help her. But he would fall in if he let go of the rock. He was leaning back, but the weight of Thalia was pulling him forward.
"I'll help!" Annabeth voice said from beside him.
"No!" he shouted. "Don't get close to the pit's edge."
"I can help," she insisted.
He tried to think of something quickly. He could feel Kronos' consciousness trying to wake up from slumber. "If you want to help, you'll use the rock as an anchor and grab onto my waist."
"What?"
"Just do it!"
Annabeth hesitated for a second but realized that it was the only way. She grabbed onto his waist and leaned back. Percy let go of the rock and reached forward to grab Thalia's arm with both of his. She reached up with her free hand and grabbed his second hand. Percy pulled as hard as he could, lifting Thalia from the edge and deposited her on the obsidian gravel.
They ran back up the slope a good length away before collapsing, exhausted, on the gravel. Percy's limbs felt like lead.
Thalia was scratched up pretty bad. Her hands were bleeding, and her jeans had been torn.
"What was that?" exclaimed the daughter of Zeus, who was clearly terrified.
"Wait, shh." Annabeth stood. "Do you guys hear that?"
Percy listened closely. There was a muttering, evil voice from far, far below them. Coming from the pit. It was Kronos. The words were enchanted. Magic.
"We have to get out of here," he said.
Together, they hauled themselves up toward the tunnel. Annabeth was having a bit of difficulty, as if something was weighing her down.
The voice got louder and angrier behind them, and they broke into a run.
Not a moment too soon.
A cold blast of wind pulled at their backs, as if the entire pit was inhaling. For a terrifying moment, Percy lost ground, his feet slipping the gravel. If they'd been any closer to the edge, they would've been sucked in.
Annabeth was being pulled back even further than they were, and Percy realized she had Ares' backpack on. He rushed to help her, pushing her up toward the top of the tunnel. When they finally got to the top, where the cavern widened out into the Fields of Asphodel, the wind died and a wail of outrage echoed from deep in the tunnel.
Annabeth looked frightened. "Percy, that was—"
"Tartarus," he said. "I know."
They made their way to Hades' palace—anything to get away from Tartarus. The outer walls of the fortress glittered black, and the two-story-tall bronze gates stood wide open. Up close, Percy saw that the engravings on the gates were scenes of death. Some were from modern times—an atomic bomb exploding over a city, a trench filled with gas mask-wearing soldiers, a line of African famine victims waiting with empty bowls—but all of them looked as if they'd been etched into the bronze thousands of years ago. Percy realized he was looking at prophecies that had come true.
Inside the courtyard was the strangest garden he'd ever seen.
Multicolored mushrooms, poisonous shrubs, and weird luminous plants grew without sunlight. Precious jewels made up from the lack of flowers, piles of rubies as big as his fist, clumps of raw diamonds.
Standing scattered around like frozen party guests were Medusa's garden statues—petrified children, satyrs, and centaurs—all smiling grotesquely.
In the center of the garden was an orchard of pomegranate trees, their orange blooms neon bright in the dark.
"The garden of Persephone," Annabeth said. "Keep walking."
"Don't have to tell me twice," muttered Thalia.
Percy suddenly had the desire to eat one of them, but he knew if he had one bite of the Underworld food, he'd never be able to leave.
They walked up the steps of the palace, between black columns, through a black marble portico, and into the house of Hades. The entry hall had a polished bronze floor, which seemed to boil in the reflected torchlight.
There was no ceiling, just the cavern roof.
Every side doorway was guarded by a skeleton in military gear. Some wore Greek armour, some British redcoat uniforms, some camouflage with tattered American flags on the shoulders. They carried spears or muskets or M-16s. None of them bothered them, but their hollow eye sockets followed them as they walked down the hall, toward the big set of doors at the opposite end.
Two U.S. Marine skeletons guarded the doors. They grinned down at them, rocket-propelled grenade launchers held across their chests.
A hot wind blew down the corridor, and the doors swung open. The guards stepped aside.
"I guess that means entrez-vous," Annabeth said.
Hades' throne room was a lot different than he imagined. But for some reason, he could see the resemblance to Olympus. Percy found himself in a vast room with black marble walls and bronze floors. The horrid throne was made from human bones fused together. And in it sat the Lord of the Dead.
Now that Percy thought about it, Hades' palace looked like Olympus underground with all bright white colours replaced by black and bronze.
Hades looked more god-like than he did at the Winter Solstice. He was dressed the same: black silk robes and a crown of braided gold. His skin was albino white, and like his brothers, his hair was jet black. But he was bigger. He wasn't bulked up like Ares, but he radiated way more power. He looked lithe, graceful, and dangerous as a panther.
"You are brave to come here, son of Poseidon," he said in an oily voice. "After what you have done to me, very brave indeed. Or perhaps you are simply very foolish."
Hades had intense eyes with a mesmerizing, evil charisma.
Percy grabbed the bag from Annabeth's back.
"Percy," she hissed. "What are you doing?"
He opened it and looked inside. Inside was a two-foot-long metal cylinder, spiked on both ends, humming with energy: the master bolt. But there was nothing else inside. He paled as he looked up to the god.
Both Thalia and Annabeth looked stunned.
"Percy, what is that?" Thalia asked.
"So you didn't tell them," Hades said. He smiled evilly. "You didn't tell them you were the thief at the winter solstice. That you took both the bolt and my helmet."
"Percy didn't take it!" Annabeth argued. "He didn't—This bag was a gift… We didn't have the master bolt until now."
"Silence!" bellowed the god. "Do not argue his case, girl. You have been helping this hero—coming here to threaten me in Poseidon's name, no doubt—to bring me an ultimatum. Does Poseidon think I can be blackmailed into supporting him?"
"Your helm is missing too?" asked Thalia.
"Don't play innocent with me," Hades snarled. "I have said nothing of the helmet's disappearance because I had no illusions that anyone on Olympus would offer me the slightest justice, the slightest help. I can ill afford for word to get out that my most powerful weapon of fear is missing. So I sent my Furies after you. When it was clear you were coming to me to deliver your threat, I did not try to stop you."
"What do you mean you didn't try to stop us?"
"Return my helmet now, or I will stop death," Hades threatened. "That is my counterproposal. I will open the earth and have the dead pour back into the world. I will make your lands a nightmare. And you, Percy Jackson—your skeleton will lead my army out of Hades."
The skeletal soldiers all took one step forward, making their weapons ready.
"You should see, daughter of Zeus, that this scum should not be trusted," Hades said sneakily. "He took your father's weapon and pretended the entire time."
"No he didn't!" Thalia crackled with energy. "He didn't take the bolt! I know he didn't take the bolt!"
At that point, Percy probably should have been terrified. The strange thing was, he felt offended.
"You're as bad as Zeus," Percy growled. "You think I stole from you? That's why you sent the Furies after me?"
"Of course," Hades said.
"And the other monsters?"
Hades curled his lip. "I had nothing to do with them. I wanted no quick death for you—I wanted you brought before me alive so you might face every torture in the Fields of Punishment. Why do you think I let you enter my kingdom so easily?"
"Easily?"
"Return my property!"
"I don't have your helmet!"
"Liar!"
Percy was in a desperate situation. There seemed to be no way out of this. Both Thalia and Annabeth realized the truth—that Ares had given them the backpack… that they'd been tricked. Percy could play his most desperate hand and betray what he'd worked on for the past few years. He could turn the god's anger into fear. He could chill the entire Underworld with the utter cry of a name.
"Kronos!" Percy yelled, and all thoughts in his mind stopped.
Hades' eyes were cautious now. "What did you say, boy?"
"Kronos ordered the theft of the master bolt," Percy said, anger and confidence swelling in his chest. "A thief stole it from Olympus, along with your helmet, and got caught by Ares. They tricked him into keeping it safe. And then Ares handed it to us so that we could bring it to Tartarus. We were just there. The bolt almost made it to its destination. The helm is still with Ares."
"Nephew…" Hades said in a threatening voice.
Percy realized something. "You knew the entire time. You were the first god aside from my father to learn about me. I had a dream on our way to Las Vegas. Kronos was going to use me to get out of the pit. But you sent my mother's spirit to warn me. You're just paranoid and fearful. You're choosing to ignore the truth!"
While Hades sat there, stunned, Percy gave a pearl to Annabeth and Thalia each.
"I'll get your helmet, Uncle," Percy told Hades. "I'll return it. I swear to the Styx."
"Godling…?"
"And it wouldn't hurt to play with Cerberus once in a while. He likes red rubber balls."
"Percy Jackson, you will not—"
"Now, guys!"
They smashed the pearls at their feet. For a scary moment, nothing happened.
Then, the pearl fragments at his feet exploded with a burst of green light and a gust of fresh sea wind. He was encased in a milk white sphere, which was starting to float off the ground.
"I will make sure you keep your promise, or I will make your death more painful than you can imagine!" Hades yelled. "You will pay, son of Poseidon!" He yelled with such power, the whole palace seemed to shake with his rage.
"Where are we going?" Thalia yelled. "We're going to crash!"
"No." Percy looked up with grim determination. "'What belongs to the sea will always return to the sea.'"
They raced through solid rock as easily as an air bubble in water. For a few moments, he couldn't see anything outside the smooth walls of his sphere, then his pearl broke through on the ocean floor. The two other milky spheres, Thalia and Annabeth, kept pace with him as they soared upward through the water. And ker-blam!
They exploded on the surface, in middle of Santa Monica Bay, knocking a surfer off his board with an indignant, "Dude!"
Percy grabbed Annabeth and hauled her over to a life buoy. He caught Thalia and dragged her over too. A curious shark was circling them, a great white about eleven feet long.
He said, "Beat it."
The shark turned and raced away.
The surfer screamed something about bad mushrooms and paddled away from them as fast as he could.
In the distance, Los Angeles was on fire, plumes of smoke rising from neighbourhoods all over the city. There had been an earthquake, all right, and it was Hades' fault.
But the Underworld wasn't his biggest problem.
He needed to have a serious conversation with the god who'd turned.
A Coast Guard boat picked them up, but they were too busy to keep them for long, or to wonder how three kids in street clothes had gotten out into the middle of the bay. There was a disaster to mop up. Their radios were jammed with distress calls.
They dropped them off at the Santa Monica Pier with towels around their shoulders and water bottles that said I'M A JUNIOR COAST GUARD! and sped off to save more people.
Percy willed himself to get soaked so it wouldn't look suspicious when he got picked up.
After reaching dry land, they stumbled down the beach, watching the city burn against a beautiful sunrise.
"Percy—" Annabeth's voice caught in her throat. She looked like she'd been through hell—which she had, in a sense. "You… Titans…?"
"It was a trick," he said. "A strategy worthy of Athena."
"Hey," she warned.
"You get it, don't you?"
She dropped her eyes, her anger fading. "Yeah. I get it."
Thalia didn't have the heart to be angry. She looked like she was about to give up on life. That's how miserable and frightened the daughter of Zeus looked. Percy never thought he'd see her in such a state, but he understood, given the circumstances. For most, hearing the words "Minotaur" or "Fury" was enough to throw them off. To hear the name of a feared Titan lord so close to Tartarus was something on another scale.
"That's what I wanted to tell you guys when we reached the Underworld," Percy said grimly. "That he is the one behind this entire mess. I had dreams… I wanted to keep it a secret. And… and in truth, my mission was to sabotage the quest. With the shoes, lure the bolt down into the pit—Tartarus—and then watch the gods fight it out."
"But… the shoes…" Thalia was still soaking it in.
Annabeth's eyes widened with realization. "No… that can't be possible!"
"The thief and I were working together," he said. "I am a traitor. At the time, I thought Hades was the one that killed my mother, and down there, I had the feeling too… but when I realized that he helped me wake up from that dream a long time ago, I knew he couldn't have. Then the thief said to take the helm in revenge. What I didn't realize was that it was premeditated. They would steal Zeus' master bolt and Hades' helm, and framed me because I'm Poseidon's kid. Poseidon will get blamed by both sides. The monsters weren't sent by either Zeus or Hades."
"So Hades wasn't the god that turned," Annabeth said. "Hades doesn't want a war among the Big Three. That means the god who gave us the backpack—"
"Is the one who's turned," Percy finished. "Is the one who caught the thief and then hid the weapons."
"And that god is—"
Percy stopped in his tracks, looking down the beach. "Right there."
There he was, waiting for them, in his black leather duster and his sunglasses, an aluminum baseball bat propped on his shoulder. His motorcycle rumbled beside him, its head light turning the sand red.
"Hey, kid," Ares said, seeming genuinely pleased to see him. "You were supposed to die."
"Why do you have no common sense?" growled Percy. "I've known for a long time, but it still shocks me to see how easily a god can be goaded."
The god's eye twitched. "Doesn't matter. The point is, kid, you're impeding the war effort. See, you've got to die in the Underworld. Then Old Seaweed will be mad at Hades for killing you. Corpse Breath will have Zeus' mater bolt, so Zeus'll be mad at him. And Hades is still looking for this…"
From his pocket he took out a ski cap—the kind back robbers wear; was it called a balaclava?—and placed it between the handlebars of his bike. Immediately, the cap transformed into an elaborate bronze war helmet.
"Hades will be mad at both Zeus and Poseidon," Ares said with a devilish grin, "because he doesn't know who took this. Pretty soon, we got a nice little three-way slugfest going."
"But they're your family!" Annabeth protested.
Ares shrugged. "Best kind of war. Always the bloodiest. Nothing like watching your relatives fight, I always say."
"A war between the Big Three will destroy Western civilization," Percy growled. "Without demigods, Titans will come and take the thrones from right underneath you gods. Are you insane?"
"Psh, like that would ever happen."
"Arrogance will be your downfall. You're being controlled by a Titan right now. You aren't thinking about this on your own. Remember? You caught the thief. The Titan convinced you by planting the idea of the war. The Titan is ordering you around."
"I am the god of war! I take orders from no one! I don't have dreams!"
Percy hesitated. "Who said anything about dreams?"
Ares looked agitated, but he tried to cover it with a smirk.
"Let's get back to the problem at hand, kid. You're alive. I can't have you taking that bolt to Olympus. You just might get those hard-headed idiots to listen to you. So I've got to kill you. Nothing personal."
He snapped his fingers. The sand exploded at his feet and out charged a wild board, even larger and uglier than the one whose head hung above the door of cabin five at Camp Half-Blood. The beast pawed the sand, glaring at Percy with beady eyes as it lowered its razor-sharp tusks and waited for the command to kill.
Percy stepped back.
"You've only got one talent, kid, running away. You ran from the Chimera. You ran from the Underworld. You don't have what it takes."
"Fight me yourself! Or are you scared?"
"In your adolescent dreams." But his sunglasses were starting to melt from the heat of his eyes. "No direct involvement. Sorry, kid. You're not at my level."
Annabeth said, "Percy, run!"
The giant boar charged.
But before it could reach him, a huge lightning bolt flew from the sky, coming down like a hammer and smashing into the ground. The boar was fried before it even got within five feet. The people on the beach all looked this way. There were sudden screams. But when Percy turned, Thalia was standing there, her spear out, chest heaving as she breathed.
Ares looked even more surprised than him or Annabeth, which was a pretty great accomplishment. They stood there for a good ten seconds as Thalia shouted, "You're a coward! Percy's right. All you do is hide behind your pets. Percy doesn't run away. He's protected us this entire time, and it's time we fight alongside him."
"Thalia, don't!" Percy exclaimed, breaking out of his stupor.
"Let me fight with you and give him what he deserves," argued Thalia.
"I promised to protect you," he insisted. "I'm not breaking that promise. It's about time I repay you for Half-Blood Hill. For saving my life there."
"Percy—"
"This is my mess. I'm not letting anyone clean it up for me."
He turned back to Ares. "Fight me. Or are you going to hide behind another pet, like Thalia said?"
Ares' face was purple with rage. "I'll turn you two into… into—"
"A cockroach," Percy said. "Or a tapeworm. Yeah, I'm sure. That'd save you from getting your godly hide whipped, wouldn't it?"
Flames danced along the top of his glasses. "Oh, man, you are really asking to be smashed into a grease spot."
"If I lose, turn me into anything you want. Take the bolt. Let my friends go. If I win, the helm and the bolt are mind and you have to go away."
Ares sneered.
He swung the baseball bat off his shoulder. "How would you like to get smashed: classic or modern?"
Percy showed him his sword.
"That's cool, dead boy," he said. "Class it is." The baseball bat changed into a huge, two-handed sword. The hilt was a large silver skull with a ruby in its mouth.
"Percy," Annabeth said. "Don't do this. He's a god."
Thalia shook her head. "He's a coward."
Annabeth swallowed. "Wear this, at least. For luck." She took off her necklace, with her one year's worth of camp beads and a mysterious ring, and tied it around Percy's neck. "Reconciliation," she said. "Athena and Poseidon together."
Percy smiled tiredly at her. "Thanks."
"And take this," Thalia said. She handed him her bracelet. "You know what it does."
He almost felt like crying. "Thanks, you two, for everything."
"You all done saying goodbye?" Ares came toward him, his black leather duster trailing behind him, his sword glinting like fire in the sunrise. "I've been fighting for eternity, kid. My strength is unlimited and I cannot die. What have you got?"
A smaller ego, Percy thought, but he said nothing. He backed into the water up to his ankles. He thought back to what Annabeth had said at the Denver diner: Ares has strength. That's all he has. Even strength has to bow down to wisdom sometimes. He thought about the training he'd received at camp from Nathan and other instructors: Fighting two-handed gives you more power, but fighting with a shield gives you better defence and versatility.
Percy activated Aegis, and power surged through his veins.
Ares cleaved downward at his head, but he wasn't there.
The water pushed Percy into the air and he catapulted over Ares, slashing as he came down. But Ares was just as quick. He twisted, and the strike that should've caught him directly in the spine was deflected off the end of his sword hilt.
He grinned. "Not bad, not bad."
He slashed again, and Percy raised Aegis. Like his sword, the shield was indestructible. Ares' power nearly knocked Percy to the ground, but the shield never gave way. He thought about the rage and the happy moments, drawing power from them. He drew from his strength, and he drew from strategy. What would a child of Athena do?
Percy feinted for a strike to Ares' side then slashed downward, but Ares' seemed to understand the move. Ares parried the strike and went to stab Percy through the abdomen. Percy managed to dodge at the last moment, the edge of the blade barely touching him. The son of Poseidon whirled around for a hack, but Ares blocked that as well.
Then, Ares made a move the forced Percy to jump onto dry land. Percy tried to sidestep, to get back to the water, but Ares seemed to know what he wanted.
He began pressing so hard that Percy had to put all his concentration on not getting sliced into pieces. Percy kept backing away from the surf. He couldn't find any openings to attack. Ares' sword had a reach several feet longer than Anaklusmos.
Get in close, Percy thought.
He stepped inside with a thrust, but Ares was waiting for that.
Ares knocked the blade out of his hands and kicked him in the chest. He went airborne—twenty, maybe thirty feet. He would've broken his back if he hadn't crashed into the soft sand of a dune.
"Percy!" Annabeth yelled. "Cops!"
Percy was seeing double. His chest felt like it had just been hit with a battering ram, but he managed to get to his feet. He couldn't look away from Ares and get distracted, but out of the corner of his eye he saw red lights flashing on the shoreline boulevard. Car doors were slamming.
"There, officer!" somebody yelled. "See?"
A gruff cop voice: "Looks like that kid on TV… what the heck…"
"That guy's armed," another cop said. "Call for backup."
Percy waited for Ares to raise his blade to slash down. As the god began his movement, Percy launched off his back foot, dodged the sword and used Aegis to smash the god in the face. Using Ares' face as another Launchpad, Percy pushed himself away and ran to his sword. He raised Aegis in time to stop another attack from Ares, who was looking murderous.
Percy stepped back toward the surf, forcing him to follow.
"Admit it, kid," Ares said, contorting his face where he was hit with the shield. "You got no hope. I'm just toying with you."
As soon as he hit the water, his senses worked overtime. Annabeth and Thalia were thirty feet to his left. He saw a second cop car pulling up, sirens wailing. Spectators, people who had been wandering the streets because of the earthquake, were staring to gather. Among the crowd, Percy thought he saw a few who were walking with the strange, trotting gait of disguised satyrs.
There were shimmering forms of spirits, too, as if the dead had risen from Hades to watch the battle. His mother was among them, as if cheering him on. There were also the flapping sounds of leathering wings circling somewhere above.
More sirens.
Percy stepped farther into the water, but Ares was fast. The tip of his blade ripped the demigod's sleeve and grazed his forearm.
A police voice on a megaphone said, "Drop the guns. Set them on the ground. Now!"
Percy didn't bother with the Mist.
Ares turned to glare at their spectators, which gave Percy time to plan a strike. There were five police cars now, and a line of officers crouching behind them, pistols trained on them.
"This is a private matter!" Ares bellowed. "Be gone."
He swept his hand, and a wall of red flame rolled across the patrol cars. The police barely had time to dive for cover before their vehicles exploded. The crowd behind them scattered, screaming.
Percy backed up farther. He felt the rhythm of the sea, the waves growing larger as the tide rolled in, and the idea popped into his head. Little waves, he thought. And the water behind him seemed to recede. He was holding back the tide by force of will, but tension was building, like carbonation behind a cork.
Ares came toward him, grinning confidently. Percy lowered his blade and loosened the shield on his arm. The pressure from the sea was almost enough to lifting him off his feet. Ares raised his sword. Then Percy released the tide and jumped, rocketing straight over Ares on a wave.
A six-foot wall of water smashed him full in the face, leaving him cursing and sputtering with a mouth full of seaweed. As Percy landed, he threw the shield at the back of Ares' head, which struck him hard, distracting him further. Then the son of Poseidon thrust Riptide into the back of the god's thigh.
The roar that followed made Hades' earthquake look like a minor event. The sea blasted back from Ares, leaving a wet circle of sand fifty feet wide. Ichor flowed from a gash in the back of his leg. The expression on his face was beyond hatred. It was pain, shock, complete disbelief that he'd been wounded.
He limped toward Percy, muttering ancient Greek curses, beginning to glow with blinding power.
"Do it!" Percy threatened. "You'll face the wrath of all of the Big Three!"
As if proving his point, thunder rumbled off in the distance. The water tugged at Ares' legs, trying to hold him back.
Before Ares could lift his sword, something stopped him.
Light faded. Sound and colour drained away. A cold, heavy presence passed over the beach, slowing time, dropping the temperature to freezing, and making Percy feel like life was hopeless, fighting was useless.
Don't, hissed Kronos' voice. You'll kill the daughter of Zeus.
The darkness lifted.
Ares looked stunned.
Police cars burned on the street. The crowd of spectators had fled. Annabeth and Thalia stood on the beach, in shock, watching the water flood back around Ares' feet, his ichor dissipating in the tide.
Ares lowered his sword.
"You have made an enemy, godling," he said. "You have sealed your fate. Every time you raise your blade in battle, every time you hope for success, you will feel my curse. Beware, Perseus Jackson. Beware."
His body began to glow. Percy turned away as the god Ares revealed his true immortal form. The light died. Percy looked back. Ares was gone.
The tide rolled out to reveal Hades' bronze helm of darkness and Aegis.
He picked them up and turned Aegis back into a bracelet.
On his way to his friends, the three Furies dropped down in front of him. They looked more disappointed than anything, as if they were planning to turn him into a three-course meal.
"We saw the whole thing," the middle one hissed. "So… it truly was not you?"
Percy tossed her the helmet, which she caught in surprise.
"Return that to Lord Hades," he said. "Tell him the truth. I try not to break my promises."
She hesitated, then ran a forked tongue over her green, leathery lips. "Live well, Percy Jackson. Become a true hero. Because if you do not, if you ever come into my clutches again…"
She cackled, savouring the idea. Then she and her sisters rose on the wings and fluttered into the smoke-filled sky, disappearing.
Percy joined his two friends and tossed the punk chick her bracelet.
"Percy…" Thalia said. "That was so incredibly…"
"Terrifying," said Annabeth, who looked like she wanted to either hug him to death or punch him to death.
"Awesome!" Thalia corrected with a grin.
Annabeth decided to do both. She gave him a good, hard punch across the shoulder before embracing him.
"We have to get back to New York," Percy said. "ASAP. Things are getting out of hand."
"That's impossible," Annabeth said, "unless we—"
"Fly," Thalia agreed.
Annabeth gave her an incredulous look. "Fly, like, in an airplane where Zeus will strike Percy, and us, out of the sky while carrying a weapon that has more destructive power than a nuclear bomb?"
"If my dad wants to kill me, I'll accept it," Thalia said confidently. "It's my turn to protect us now."
"Thanks, Thalia," Percy said gratefully.
The daughter of Zeus smiled and grabbed his and Annabeth's arms. "Now, come on. We've got a flight to catch."
So here's the plan. I release a chapter today, tomorrow and Thursday. You get a break for over a week, and voila! I'll be back! How does that sound? Cool? Now, to address the thing most of you will be thinking:
Yes, I understand that you're basically reading the Lightning Thief with Thalia instead of Grover, and it will be this way. However, this is how I planned it out. I'm trying to change stuff for the Titan's Curse, which will be coming out next, but as a warning, I have a feeling things will be kind of canon. I want a similar ending to the Titan's Curse part, but the path to getting there could be different. I have an idea as to how to do it, but that would negate a whole relationship that I wish to begin developing. So, I want you guys and girls to tell me what you think could happen. What would be interesting to see? It'll kickstart me into the next part of the story well. Anyway, thanks for everything!
Domo arigato,
SharkAttack719