"I may not be Uncle Hades' biggest fan, but he sure knows how to pick a place to live," Merri commented as they drove into L.A. The thick storm clouds that were gathering on the sky with the hour didn't really manage to dampen Merri's mood of going here. It's been almost four years since she's last been to L.A., let alone Hollywood.
"And now, the latest breaking news from KZLY," the radio said as Merri drove them in the direction of the Hollywood sign. She and Grover swapped places about an hour or so after Merri fell asleep in the car. She wasn't all that excited about being woken up but, once she sat behind the wheel, she slammed down on the gas pedal, practically plastering the others to the backs of their seats. Nevertheless, she got them here in just under three hours, so her insane speeding was a necessary evil. "An unprecedented storm cloud has covered most of North America. Authorities in several states are ordering evacuation and are reporting severe weather conditions." Merri pulled over not far from the sign.
Everybody was quick to gather their belongings and get out of the car. They hastily made their way up the hill to the sign with Merri and Percy in the lead and Annabeth and Grover fast behind.
"Watch your step!" Merri called behind her without looking at her own feet- they always managed to find good leverage no matter the terrain- as she sped through the knee-high dried grass and weeds that grew along the path.
"Hold it!" Percy called to them. They were standing in front of the letter 'H' and it seemed there was some Greek graphite sprayed on it in black paint. Before their eyes, the letters seemed to change into readable script. "Woe to all depraved souls," Percy read. He shared a look with all of them.
As he spoke the words, an entrance opened in a pile of dirt behind the big white metal letter. There was no doubt it was the entrance to the Underworld and to Hades' lair.
Merri clapped her hands together. "Alright, kiddies!" she said with a grin on her face. She was slightly glad she would be getting them out of her hair but it still pained her little that she was letting her younger brother go down into the Underworld without her. Alas, they only had three pearls and she knew that that wouldn't be enough to take them all home if the plan went okay. "This is as far as I go."
Percy turned to her with a sad look. "Are you sure about that?"
She shrugged. "I guess. It's you guys' quest after all and I'm just the fourth wheel in this story." Merri smirked at the looks she received. "Ah, don't tell me you're gonna miss me!" she teased. "Look, don't worry about me. You should be worrying about getting your mum back," her words were directed at Percy. "I'll be just fine and will meet you at the entrance to Olympus like I said back at the camp."
They seemed to accept her words and turned back to enter the Underworld. Merri turned back to the path they came from before remembering something.
"You better still have those drachmas 'cause you're gonna need them!" she yelled over her shoulder as she watched the entrance close before her. She was left wondering if they had managed to hear her last words or not. Silently praying to Poseidon that they did, Merri made her way back down the hill to the car. With all the storm clouds and the wind, she was getting chilled in her thin clothes, so she decided to go into the car and change for the colder climate she knew would await her up north at the Olympus entrance that just so happened to be located on top of Empire State Building in New York.
Getting in the car, Merri proceeded to quickly take off her clothes and pull out new ones before stuffing the old ones into her bag. She pulled on a white long sleeved shirt over which she put her Led Zeppelin T-shirt, dark blue skinny jeans, her red chucks and her plaid hoodie. All dressed, Merri exited the car. She pulled her hair back into a pony tail and stepped a few feet away from the car. She extended her hand before her, palm up, concentrating on the familiar pull of water within the air surrounding her. Focusing on the tiny particles, she let her body change into steam before being carried on the breeze.
This was one of the powers she rarely used since it required great physical and mental stamina. On normal conditions, it left her only slightly dizzy but with only an hour of sleep in five days there was she had no idea what consequences this trip would have on her.
...
It was almost sundown when Merri entered the skyline of New York in her steam form. She rode the winds all the way from Hollywood to here and could already feel exhaustion settle in her body even if it wasn't exactly solid now. With some of her last strengths, she directed herself onto the roof of the ESB where she promptly fell to her knees, heaving, as she returned to her normal form. She was drenched in cold sweat, some of it trickling down her face and dripping onto the floor from the tip of her nose, her arms shook with the effort of holding her body and her bag upright so she took off her bag and set it next to her. Composing herself a little, Merri sent up a prayer for Percy and the others' safety before her body gave out and she toppled down onto the cold floor.
...
She wasn't sure how much time had passed but Merri was aware of someone shaking her shoulder and calling her name. She could feel their hands on her face, patting her cheeks in an attempt of waking her up. Merri let out a groan, her sea-green eyes fluttering open, seeing the person trying to wake her was Percy. "What's going on? How long was I out?" she asked while rubbing her temple with her hand and being helped to sit up by Percy.
"We just got out of the Underworld," Percy informed her. "It's ten to midnight so we managed to get here on time. Are you alright?"
Merri nodded. "Yeah, I'm okay. Just tired, that's all." She looked around seeing Annabeth standing next to a woman in her late thirties with dark hair, who she presumed was Sally, Percy's mum, but there was no sign of Grover. "Where's Grover?" she asked standing up.
They all hung their heads. "He stayed behind," Annabeth answered. "So that we could escape."
Not wanting to delve on the topic of the missing satyr, Merri looked at Sally. "Hi, you must be Percy's mum, Sally," she said offering her hand. "I'm Merri."
Sally shook her hand with a small smile. "Percy told me about you. You're his sister, right?"
Merri nodded. She turned back to the others. "We need to hurry up. Time's running short on us. The door's this way," she ran towards the entrance with the others following her. She was just about to open the door when a familiar voice caused her to freeze in place.
"PERCY JACKSON!" She turned her head slightly and saw Luke landing on the rooftop with his flying shoes and a leather jerkin. "Well, you weren't supposed to make it out alive," he said looking straight at Percy. Merri quietly ushered Sally to take cover and moved away from the door to stand closer to Percy's side, a look of pure shock etched on her face. "I can't let you take that Bolt to Olympus."
"What do you mean by that?" Merri asked. Her fingers were twitching at her side, ready to grab her sword on a moment's notice. Luke finally acknowledged her presence on the roof.
With a look she'd never seen on him before, he spread his arms and said: "I'm the Lightning Thief."
Time seemed to stand still for Merri as she processed what he'd just admitted. Luke, her best and only friend, the person who managed to make her smile with his stupid jokes, the only person who was brave enough to go head-to-head in sparring matches, the person who decided to befriend the socially outcast ginger menace that was Merriall Rafter, was the Lightning Thief?! He was the one who betrayed Olympus and caused the manhunt on Percy? He was the one who stole her Uncle's most prized possession that caused her Father being accused of having a part in it? The move that could bring complete and total annihilation of the world they know and the end of the Gods' reign? Why? Why would he do such a thing?
She was aware of his discontempt with the gods and the way they seemed to abandon their own children. He was angry with his father for doing that to him. Hell, her own father did the same thing to her but that didn't mean that she despised the man. True, she was mad at him for leaving but she always believed that he had his reasons for leaving her when she was only a baby. Luke, however, was not nearly as forgiving and understanding to his father as Merri was to hers. Often, he spoke to her of how it would be great if the gods never existed and if there were no Olympus. Sometimes, he even went so far as to explain various plans of bringing the gods down to her but would always pass it off as a joke when she would tell him that it wouldn't be right and that everything would come crumbling down if that were to happen.
All of the thoughts passing through her head seemed like hours ticking by while, in reality, it all happened in only less than a few seconds. Something visibly broke inside of her and her sea-green eyes seemed duller. They darkened into a cold dark blue, the colour of the ocean during a savage storm. Anger was coursing through her veins and all the fatigue she was experiencing not a minute ago, vanished completely, leaving only adrenalin in her system.
"You hid the Bolt in my shield. Why?" Percy asked. Merri grabbed Annabeth's arm behind Percy's back and gestured her to take cover with Sally. Despite disliking the blonde, she had no interest in seeing the younger girl getting hurt in the cross-fire of the fight that was most certainly to ensue within moments. From the corner of her eye, Merri located her bag lying on the floor not three feet away from her. Knowing there was still a bottle full of water in there, she concentrated on trying to make the bottle explode within the bag and then pulling the liquid out without being noticed. She thanked the gods for a moment for Percy still talking to Luke and, thus, keeping the blonde's attention away from her.
"Well, when you said you were going to the Underworld, it hit me," Luke told Percy. "That is the perfect opportunity to get the Bolt to Hades."
"Why would you do that?" Percy insisted. Merri felt the bottle give way under the water's pressure and the liquid pouring out of the plastic container and thoroughly soaking through all her belongings, including her casete collection and her iPod. Not having time to delve on that, she focused on getting the water to her without being conspicuous.
"To bring Olympus crumbling down."
"Percy, let's go," Sally called. "Let's go!" Percy and Annabeth made to follow Sally into the entrance but Merri stood still with a bad feeling swirling in her gut.
"Well, it's too late 'cause I'm returning the Bolt back to Zeus," Percy taunted and Merri fought the urge to slap her forehead and to kick Percy's ass. He just had to be cheeky, didn't he!? Water coiled around her half-hidden arm like a transparent snake ready to attack and her muscles tensed in expectation of the assault that was to ensue.
Luke frowned at Percy. "Not before midnight."
He lunged at Percy with the help of his flying shoes, his hands going for the Bolt but narrowly missing it, as both Percy and the Bolt were pushed to the side at the last minute, and, instead, slamming into Merri. Reflexively, she rolled back on her feet when she fell down on the floor from the force of the blow. Her fingers wrapped themselves around the water, her wrist flicking the stream and using it as a whip to wrap it around Luke's ankle that was flying in the direction of Percy's head. She gave it a hard yank, pulling Luke lower, and twisting herself on the ground, delivering a roundhouse kick to his chest that sent him slamming into the railing on the building.
Luke quickly recovered and lunged at Percy again with his dagger drawn. Percy parried the blow with the Bolt, sending sparks flying and blinding Luke for a second before the blonde delivered a hard kick to Percy's chest, sending the younger teen sprawling on the ground and causing him to drop the Bolt.
From the corner of her eye, Merri saw Annabeth making to dash for the Bolt but raced ahead of her after yelling: "Cover Sally!" to which the girl reluctantly abided. Just before Merri's fingers could touch the Bolt, Luke managed to snatch it away and turned to face her, now armed with one of the most powerful weapons in existence. Forming a blade of ice in her hand, she attacked him with a series of brutal and swift blows but he managed to parry every single one and even deliver some of his own, all of which left cuts on her upper arms and some nasty gashes on her face. Getting angrier by the failed blow, she tried using her superior agility and flexibility to try and knock the Bolt out of his hand. With a precise and swift kick of her leg, she managed just that and the Bolt was sent flying into the air where Luke managed to catch it once more with the help of his flying shoes. She was really starting to hate those little buggers!
Percy ran to her side, inspecting the cuts that she'd sustained; Luke had always been much better with a dagger than she was. "Are you alright?" he asked worriedly.
"I'm fine." Her answer was briefly snapped before she turned back to Luke with a murderous look. She would never be able to forgive him for attacking Percy and her. To her, family was sacred and she would go to the ends of Earth just to see them safe. Percy was her half-brother so the same thing applied to him as well. "Why would you want the war of the gods?" she asked trying to understand his reason behind his actions. He was her friend, her only friend, and she would not give up on him.
"Control," was his answer as he floated in the night sky, the Bolt tightly clutched in his hand.
Confusion made its way onto Merri's features. "What the bloody hell is that supposed to mean?"
He sent her a crooked smile that once made her smile back but now sent anger coursing through her veins. "It's simple, Mer. I already explained it to you many times before but you'd never listen. They've been ruling for too long and I say it's time for our generation to take over! Remould the world in our image, a world of new heroes!"
Percy looked like he was about to say something but Merri beat him to it. "You're crazy!" she shouted at him. "It would never work and you know it! A true hero fights for the weak, for what's right! This, what you're doing is wrong! Can't you see it?! You're angry at the gods because your father left you! Well newsflash, my father left me too! You're angry at your dad so you're causing a war that will end up tearing more families apart just like ours were torn apart! And you... You're no hero," she pointed an accusing finger at him. She could see rage in his eyes at her words but she didn't care. She was too far gone in her words to register the fact that he was about to attack her. She wouldn't believe he would attack her.
Faster than Merri could react, Luke raised the hand he was holding the Bolt with, pointing it in her direction. Fear overtook her as the shot of lightning crackled through the night air, closing in on her. Everything seemed to go in slow-motion. Percy grabbed Annabeth's arm and pulled her to cover the moment Luke's hand started moving. Merri barely found it in herself to raise her own hands and summon a shield of water that she had no time to freeze. The lightning hit the shield, the electricity coursing through the liquid and into her body that was still connected to it by her hands. A feeling of unspeakable agony went through her body as she hit the ground from the momentum, a bloodcurdling scream tearing itself from her lips as a heavy stench of burned flesh filled the air. Most of the pain was located in her burned arms but she could still feel a pain in her thigh and something warm trickling from it, as well as a series of pricks on the unburned expanse of her arms and on her face. She must've landed on some rock or something when the lightning sent her flying and cut her up badly.
Merri didn't have time to react as she heard the crackle of lightning again and more debris was sent to her face from the second blast. Her eyes were firmly shut to avoid getting dust in them and from the pain. Someone pulled her to the side by grabbing her shoulders and hauling her back. Merri guessed it was either Annabeth or Sally. A warm comforting hand took hold of her cheek and Merri hissed at the contact.
"Merri! Merri! Open your eyes, please!" Annabeth pleaded with her. The ginger demigoddess managed to open her eyes a fraction through the pain and send the blonde a smirk.
"Guess you were right after all," Merri said sarcastically.
"What d' you mean?"
"You... you said that it was... suspicious of Luke... to-to send us to M-me-medusa," Merri ground through the pain as Sally helped her slowly to sit up, mindful of her wounds. She spared a quick look around and noticed that the three females were the only people on the roof. "Where... uh, where's Percy?" Concern for her little brother was, at that moment, stronger than the agony of getting burned to crisp by Zeus' Bolt.
"He and Luke fell of the roof fighting," Sally supplied.
For a few moments they all sat in quiet as Merri tried to gather her strength back up. Soon enough, she could hear the sound of flapping wings of the shoes and was ready to jump from the wall she was leaning heavily on and at the person wearing them before she saw a familiar mop of dark hair. Percy was back and he managed to get the Bolt back.
Overhearing anything that was being said, Merri limped inside with Annabeth's help. Sally pulled some switches on the side that revealed a golden lift door that lead to Olympus. The four huddled inside and Merri leaned on one of the sides for support while Sally pressed the top button.
AN: That's it folks, the end is near! Since I'm in such a good mood today (despite having three major exams in Math, Philosophy and Biology next week, with Math being tomorrow) I've decided to update and complete this story with this double update.
Chapter finished at 4:40pm, on November 2nd, 2014.
I hope you've enjoyed this story so far and that I've managed to meet your expectations. The only thing that could make this day even better for me would be a ton of reviews to say 'farewell' to this fic.
Fear not, I'm already planning on writing a sequel and even a series of oneshots that would be about Merri and Luke's relationship before the beginning of PJO series.