Chapter 2: Flame On!

Annabeth woke up to a crash. She could suddenly feel weightlessness overcome her, and she felt nauseous for some reason. And she didn't become airsick.

She stumbled to the single round window in her cabin. She gripped the sill to steady herself and peered out. She paled and whirled around, her hand on her dagger. She walked up to the door and opened it, steadily keeping her balance in check. She sprinted up the hallway and out to the deck, where the others were gathered.

Hmm, looks like they were fighting humongous birds. That's bad.

She cursed herself for oversleeping while quickly surveying the surroundings. The sky was still on eye level, but she felt like flying. Looking up, the skies were getting darker and darker, plus the thunder and lightning from Zeus.

Realization struck her. They were crashing. The Argo II was falling.

She called Leo to perhaps try to maneuver the ship to crash in a safe distance from the army gathered before the original Mount Olympus while she took his place. She deflected a beak aiming at Jason, who was electrocuting the birds into KFCs. She sliced at its wing, severing it from the body before the bird fell from the sky completely.

She fought off some more Stymphalian birds from hurting her friends and received a couple of pecks and scratches. And before she knew it, the impact of the landing almost threw her off her feet if she had not been ready. She leapt off the deck and slammed into one of the huge birds. She drove her knife into its skull and yanked off, dropping roughly to the ground.

Strangely enough, the rest of the birds fled towards the direction of the original mountain. She turned back to her friends to see them patching up their wounds, helping each other up to make the other in shape for the coming battle. Except for one.

"Where's Leo?" she inquired.

Jason shrugged unknowingly. "He's probably fussing over his—"

A loud banging sound cut their conversation. They turned, and what they saw made them furrow their eyebrows worriedly. Behind them was a huge metal part of the Argo II, preferably the part that covers the engines. Piper was banging on it looking down, while Hazel was trying to lift it with her power over the earth.

The two rushed to them as Frank transformed into an eagle to keep watch and follow them. Nico followed suit. Suddenly his shoulders slumped and Hazel's concentration broke at the very moment. Piper stopped.

"What..?"

Hazel shook her head frantically. "No. He isn't here. He's gone. He's," she glanced around worriedly, "disappeared suddenly!"

Nico nodded solemnly. "I can't feel his presence back there. But he's still alive," he added quickly seeing the horror-struck expressions on his friend's faces. "We just don't know where. It's like the earth—" He stopped abruptly.

They all looked at him. His face was paler than usual, but not much more than earlier. He looked like he was trying to swallow a shield. "The... the earth swallowed him. Gaea took him."

Jason's eyes widened. Oh no, what was the Earth goddess planning for his best friend? He couldn't stand to think Leo being hurt. Gaea already took his other best friend; she isn't going to succeed this time. Quickly, he drew his gladius just as the others drew their own weapons. No more is going to be lost.

No one.

They stalked towards the noisy battlefield. The air had a peculiar scent of evil to it, as well as the scent of wet and dry forest soil. The noises became louder and louder, decreasing the ominous feeling a bit before increasing up a notch more than the last.

Once they stepped into the battlefield, their eyes zoomed onto a figure tied to a rock twice his size, conscious yet unmoving. Adjacent to it was another rock the same size as the first, but it was empty. Behind the boulders was a large chasm, driving straight to the earth's core. Their blood boiled when they saw a gigantic, bulk figure right in between. He has his own set of bronze armor, and his eyes were a shiny, polished marble color. His dirty, green hair was decorated with all sorts of swords, war axes, and daggers, some of which were bloody and/or bent. The demigod's eyes hardened when they thought of from whom those weapons came from.

"Ah, my precious seven," Porphyrion cooed in mock adoration, "come to help your little parents at last?"

In their haste, they failed to notice the ongoing battle around them. The gods were present, fighting off monsters and giants with the rest of the hunters helping. The gods were fighting the giants who were supposed to oppose them, but they lacked demigods to help finish the job.

And they still failed to notice now, only watching the giant's eyes dart from a prophesized demigod to another, until they stopped on Annabeth and he frowned confusedly. This doesn't seem to be a trick, as the demigods could see his expression was indeed genuine.

And it confused them as well.

"Where is Jackson?" he asked them, although his gaze was still glued to Annabeth's.

The daughter of Athena blinked, unshed tears seen in her eyes. "Don't rub it in," she growled angrily. "Release Leo. Now."

Porphyrion raised an eyebrow. "Rub it in? What would I 'rub' in?"

They glared at what they thought was fake innocence. "You killed Percy!" they exclaimed, and for a while the world went silent. The sounds of battle were suddenly lost in the humid atmosphere. Time seemed to slow, as the foolish giant thought this over, and the demigod's anger only grew when he gave a booming laugh.

His laugh seemed to make the ancient land quake. The sky appeared to gather storm clouds. The heavens went angry. He stopped laughing and rewarded them with a smug smile.

"That is very amusing, for pawns like you, I must say; but I can't deny that your lot has always been," he declared arrogantly, though now he seemed to look at them with wariness.

Jason glared at his father's giant enemy with increased hatred. "Shut up! Release my best friend, now!" he bellowed angrily.

Porphyrion's gaze drifted to the son of Jupiter, who stared back at him defiantly. "I will release him in due time, Jason Grace," he told him, much to his annoyance. "But you still haven't answered my question. Where is Jackson?"

"We told you—you killed him," Hazel replied a bit stiffly, not used to saying the statement over and over again. "He was locked up in Tartarus."

For a while his blank white eyes appeared to show panic, before it turned to acceptance, and then once again became smug pleasure. "We'll get the next demigod in line then." He patted the rock that had their friend Leo tied to it. "The rise of the Earth will not be thwarted by a single, worthless demigod. In fact, he just made it easier," he grinned, showing his crooked teeth.

The sounds of battle slowly began to reach their ears. The clangs of metals, the thuds of bodies, the falls of dust, and the works of magic. The sound of metal through flesh occasionally made a disturbance. Seeing only red, the demigods charged.

They each went with their godly parents who were fighting their own giant enemies—except for those ones who had theirs still back at the House of Hades. Nico and Hazel fought and defeated surrounding monsters, trying to decimate the army with their powers. The rest joined their godly parents—namely Jason, who went on his way frying monsters while trying to reach his Greek dad; Piper, who charmspoke and brained monsters with Katoptris while her mother did the exact same thing; Frank, who transformed into a dragon and shot waves of fire-breath while making his way towards Ares; and Annabeth, who basically massacred every monster that crossed her way while sprinting towards her mother.

The boys fought like demons, and the girls—well, they fought fiercely yet gracefully unlike she-demons, the heads of which the six had always toppled off their bodies.

They didn't want that to happen to them, of course.

In a way, the battle had to be a blur from the painful past. With the help of the heroes, Hippolytus, Thoon, Eurtyus, Mimas, and Pelorus had their essences sent back to Tartarus after being defeated by Hermes, Apollo, Dionysus, Hephaestus—when he came back—and Ares, respectively. Pallas, Agrios, and Enceladus were yet to be defeated. The monster army had mostly been out as well. Only four giants remained, and Gaea had yet to rise.

The demigods believe they were in for success.

Or nearly, should I say.

Whilst Zeus was distracting Porphyrion, Jason made to help Leo out of his current predicament so he could at least help out. He sneaked past the giant and in front of the rock that held his now awakened friend, and began to untie him. He was sure that he'd get out just fine, but Leo believed to think otherwise.

"Um, dude?" he asked uncertainly. "Are you sure this isn't a trick? I'd gladly die for you, you know..."

Jason shushed him. "That's the problem! They're using you as a sacrifice to awaken Gaea!" he notified as he tugged on the knot, feeling defeated but not giving up. He wondered why the fire-user still hasn't burned the thing; it feels like rope, that's for sure. "Wouldn't you hate yourself when you know you're the reason for the gods to die?"

Leo shrugged his shoulders. "Gods don't die."

Oh how he wanted to beat the sarcastic shit out of him right now.

But then as soon as he untied the last knot, the ropes went around him and this time he was the one tied to the boulder. He cursed himself for his stupidity; why didn't he just cut the rope instead of untying it? Panic was visible in his body language. He struggled to draw his gladius.

Leo panicked as well and tried to burn the rope. But just like it did earlier, the flame had no effect on the rope. So instead, he helped Jason and took the former praetor's gladius, and proceeded to cut the rope with it.

He wondered if he just didn't know how to use a Roman sword, or if the rope was literally metal, because it did nothing. No effect at all.

By then, the king of the giants had noticed them and blasted the closest person with electricity, which unfortunately was Leo, and he flew several yards back. The giant seemed pleased with his work.

"Perfect. Just what I planned!"

Jason felt fear strike him. He had planned this? But why did he.. It struck him. Of course! He had taken Leo in order to lure Percy, which probably explains why he didn't know that the son of Poseidon was killed. And the next demigod in line wasn't Leo... it was him!

Well sure, just like Leo said, he'd be ready to die for his friends and for the sake of the world. The world, not the earth; because, I mean, this is Gaea we're talking about!

Okay, let's rephrase that. He wasn't going to die for Mother Gaea. If he could, he'd kill himself right now just to stop her rising, but he doubted that it would do anything right now. And the prophecy said To storm or fire, the world must fall. So maybe, he was the storm, not Percy, and his world was about to fall.

Ha-ha. Funny.

After must've hearing the statement, the rest of the gods turned to their direction with apprehension evident in their eyes. The other three giants—Pallas, Agrios, and Enceladus—have been slain with the help of Ares and Artemis and her hunters—who had recently joined the fight. Porphyrion was the only one left.

Piper gasped. "J-Jason.." She charged at the giant, her mind blank with rage. The bane of Zeus merely summoned his spear and swung at her, giving her a less painful treatment than Leo, but mostly similar.

"You are powerful. But I want a more powerful specimen to sacrifice to my mother!" he bellowed as the storm clouds rushed in, angry and showing off lightning.

There was an interesting turn of events. The gods and heroes attacked the giant, who was doing his best to defend himself while waiting for a chance to snatch up his target. But eventually, he managed to pick a certain daughter of Athena off the battlefield and chanted a ritual.

"I, Porphyrion, son of the Earth and Pit, king of the giants, offer you, Gaea, goddess of Earth, the lives of these demigods. Let their blood seep into your cracks, and give you power to awaken! Hail, Mother Gaea, goddess of the earth!"

A bright light emanated from the abyss, surprising almost everybody. The ground sounded to hum with power. The air smelled distinctively of wet earthen soil. And the earth... the earth was trembling.

Jason and Annabeth began to scream. The pain was awfully unbearable. It was like the hottest fire was burning you from the inside and out. It made you want to wish for a quicker death.

Leo knew that he had to do something. In a way, Jason had practically traded himself in to save him. And Annabeth fought with her life to get Jason back, indirectly saving him as well. He won't let his friends die, after what they've done for him.

The winds started to pick up. And before he knew it, he had charged the figure that the light was forming, regardless of how it almost makes him blind. He felt himself go warm, and so he knew he had fire covering him. He shut his eyes. At least I knew I had succeeded...

The fire-user tackled the slender figure that had been forming. It was solid enough to be touched, and fragile enough to be attacked easily. The eyes had begun to form at the same time, and all he saw were a pair of completely black pupils and forest green irises. And for some reason he could not fathom, something told him that they used to be a vibrant neon green.

Not knowing the connection to the situation, he emptied his thoughts and awaited his death.

AN: Thank you for reading, have a nice day! ~SmartzyFan