A/N: I was definitely right to split them up; this is also nearly 4k words. Did not want to upload a single chapter that was 8k. Anyways, hope you enjoyed this double post weekend! I'd love some feedback with your thoughts.
Chapter 7: Malice Then Malevolence
Eleven elemental columns erupted inside the Parthenon, momentarily stunning giants, monsters, and demigods alike. The lights disappeared, unveiling the Olympians' arrival on the flame-rent battlefield. Polybotes heaved up from his haunches in alarm, only to meet a violent skewering at the hands of a golden trident. The giant, crippled from the beginning of the battle, only caught a glimpse of the sullen god he was meant to oppose before he dissolved into a murky puddle.
Porphyrion reacted instantly, roaring a battlecry that united many of the straggling giants, and the hulking behemoths rushed towards their smaller Olympian counterparts. The gods were no sentinels, bounding forward in tandem, and furious clashes broke out all along the nearly-destroyed Parthenon.
Boosted by the winds, Jason launched skyward as the gods arrived. He caught sight of his father, in his Roman form, crossing his Master Bolt against Porphyrion's spear. The son of Jupiter kicked in the duelists' direction when a vice grip caught hold of his lead foot.
"Leaving so soon?" Hippolytus grunted.
The Bane of Hermes had hung back, previously locked in battle with the demigod, when many of the other Gigantes had chased towards the Olympians. Jason shouted in pain as Hippolytus dragged him down roughly, nearly pulling his leg off. He didn't have time to bide the mind-numbing agony; Hippolytus let go and swung his massive sword.
Jason somersaulted back midair, raising his gladius to shield his back, and hissed through his teeth when the arcing blade struck his. The weapon's heaving force shook the demigod, and he shouted when its long edge raced up past the gladius and sliced a gash down his forearm. Jason didn't register the river of blood pouring from his arm as he dove back and fought to remain steady in the sky. From his arm, the red stream released droplets that doused the ground of the Parthenon. Nobody was keen to the sizzling hiss as the spilled blood of Olympus was ingested by the earth.
When Jason's vision had cleared well enough, he watched Hippolytus' arrogant grin crumple into an anguished wince. Something had struck him behind the knee, and his leg collapsed beneath him. A bright figure flashed behind the giant faster than Jason could follow, and he didn't have time to consider it; the Messenger God suddenly whipped past him on his winged sandals, and Jason dashed closely behind.
Hippolytus groaned as he raised himself to one knee, looking up to find two diving figures. Hermes and the son of Jupiter closed the gap in less than a second. Wielding caduceus and gladius in unison, the pair each stabbed through one of the giant's eyes before even giving him a chance to shield himself. Jason's concerns about the flash of white vanished alongside the dissolved giant as he and Hermes broke off into the surrounding flurry of clashes.
Piper stood with the Parthenon's pillar at her back. With her shoes buried in the remnant muck Thoon had left, she hadn't moved from her spot. The daughter of Aphrodite could see almost the whole battlefield laid flat before her, but it took all of her attention to focus on the seraph that'd saved her.
It moved like lightning, maybe even faster. Piper could barely track the flashes of white light rippling across the Parthenon, dipping in and out between monsters and giants. The daughter of Aphrodite would see a flash behind a giant, and the towering creature would collapse the next second. The gods locked in their battles didn't even seem to notice when their opponents would stumble, their legs taken out or a crack against their skulls or a massive gash across their shoulders.
The seraph didn't seem to be killing any more giants itself, instead focusing attention on maiming them. But what it was killing was lesser monsters. Piper watched swaths of them dissolve to dust like pastures of grass beneath an unforgiving scythe. Hundreds of monsters flooding into the Parthenon, the entire army stationed in the Acropolis, razed to nothing by blinks of light leaving nothing behind but fields of golden dust.
Piper was only snapped out of her frozen stupor by a shrill laugh from her side. Her heart clenched as she remembered her giant captor that'd clawed its way from her cavernous prison. Hazel and Arion were nowhere to be seen. Digging her feet out from the thick mud, adrenaline torrented through her as Piper sprinted unarmed towards the discordant noise.
Periboia stomped around, swinging her bronze mace wildly. It crashed against the earth with every whip and threw up dirt as it lifted. Piper didn't slow down as she approached the flailing giant, and she caught a glimpse of a figure in a red dress vaulting over the towering creature.
"Slip!" a familiar voice shouted, laced with overwhelming persuasion.
Periboia stumbled. So did Piper. The demigod crashed to the ground, seemingly tripping over nothing, and a sharp gasp from the same voice followed from above her. Off-balance, Periboia caught a heeled kick to the nose and groaned as she was sent careening into the earth. Piper felt a soft presence land behind her followed by arms lifting her up. She turned to find a beautiful woman.
"Piper! Oh, I'm so glad you're still alive!" Aphrodite exclaimed, pulling her into a hug.
The human-sized goddess' cheery voice sounded jarringly out of place on the ichor and golden dust-soaked battlefield. The only thing that made even less sense to Piper was Aphrodite's dual knives. They were tucked into one delicate-looking hand to ensure neither one cut Piper as the goddess let go of her. Looking her up and down, Aphrodite breathed a sigh of relief.
"Lots of bruises and a few fractures, but no bleeding cuts. Good girl, we can't have you accidentally waking up the big bad, now can we?" the goddess praised.
Behind them, Periboia moaned, clutching her nose as she climbed to her feet. Piper was still fixated on the blades.
"Mom, you can fight?" she asked, surprised.
The Goddess of Love rolled her eyes, but she smiled.
"I'm the most sought-after woman in history; you think I don't have claws?" she purred, her smile shifting to a smirk.
Before Piper could respond, Aphrodite tossed her one of her knives.
"Dig your friend out. She's right over there," Aphrodite pointed, "And then come destroy a giant with me!"
The Goddess of Love conjured another knife to complete her pair and bound up Periboia's body, who was already swinging her mace. Piper had no chance to sort her thoughts before her body moved on its own, dodging the spiked ball and diving towards where her mother had pointed. She could wonder about the goddess suddenly caring about her friends' well-being later; right now, one needed her help.
Periboia became more and more frustrated with every swing and miss. Aphrodite continued to duck her attacks and seemingly fly around the giant like an acrobat, slicing gaping cuts all over her body. Meanwhile, Piper dug furiously into the rubble until she met a caramel hide. She gasped as she cleared the rocks, the weak whinnying getting louder.
She dug out Arion's head, and the horse brayed before he also started kicking. The loose earth gave way, falling apart and revealing Hazel tucked underneath Arion's curled form. Conscious but breathing weakly, Hazel smiled at Piper looming over her. Her eyes darted behind the daughter of Aphrodite, widening before she pointed. Piper spun around and found Aphrodite grown to her godly height, no longer in her nimbler size, wrapping Periboia in a headlock. Piper reared her good arm back, holding her gifted knife by the tip, and launched it at the giant clawing at her mother's forearms. The blade struck the center of Periboia's stomach, and the giant dissolved into earthen muck.
Across the Parthenon, the giants fell one after another. Ephialtes and Otis crumbled to dirt beneath Ares' hulking broadsword and Frank's arrows. Mimas had returned only to be impaled on Hephaestus' staff and pincushioned by a thousand arrows courtesy of the twin archers. A sudden lurch and a burst of light had rendered him dust, and the gods figured he must have been struck by the shrapnel of Leo's rockets. Over a dozen lesser-known giants joining the battle had been crippled by the Argo II's onslaught of rockets that had blown apart the Parthenon, and were eviscerated by Olympians that had found them shattered messes.
The gods that finished their battles stood fixed on Porphyrion's final moments against Jupiter and Jason. The King of the Giants was missing a leg, hobbling on one foot as he crossed his spear against two channels of lightning. Everyone knew the battle was over, but Porphyrion remained standing when Jupiter tore down another bolt of lightning. Enamored with the climax of king against king, none of the other Olympians or demigods noticed Athena's finishing duel with Enceladus in the corner of the landmark.
The Goddess of Wisdom outmaneuvered her opponent, driving her spear into his stomach again and bashing his nose in with her Aegis. Her bane fell to his knees, clutching the staff protruding from his torso as he begged for mercy. Athena's eyes were hollow, an addition to her expression that had nothing to do with her former splitting personalities or the enemy before her. Disinterested in her victory, she sullenly looked towards the crowd around the battle of kings. But before she could call for a demigod to finish the mangled form before her, twin daggers from behind Enceladus cleanly lopped off his head. The Bane of Athena dissolved off of the spear impaling him and left his glowing executioner in full view of the goddess.
The white warrior stood frozen for a moment, invisible gaze locked with the goddess that held nothing but abject shock written across her features. The owl-browed helm began to glow brightly, and Athena felt a much greater danger than her giant enemy could ever hope to pose. Before she could ready herself, let alone attack, massive white wings spread before her and the white warrior vanished in an explosion of light.
Athena dashed towards the crowd just as Jason slipped underneath Porphyrion's spear. The demigod stabbed the giant in the chest with his gladius as Jupiter brought down a rain of lightning, leaving nothing remaining of the King of the Giants. The Olympians burst into shouts of victory as Athena arrived and made a beeline to Jupiter to tell him what she'd seen. As she grabbed his shoulder and opened her mouth, the earth itself shook.
The Argo II, smoking with debris after firing so many projectiles, stilled its complete descent when its captain saw the ground lurch. Everyone present looked around madly as the earth erupted, creating gaping sinkholes that refilled moments later. The violent shaking was rhythmic, and Piper felt chilling terror when she realized it was laughter.
Blood.
Her mother had warned her not to spill blood. She looked down at herself, horrified, but found none anywhere. She saw only bruises and felt only fractures, just as her mother had said. Piper whirled around and found Hazel. The daughter of Pluto was hunched over Arion's side, spitting up blood. Piper hadn't even considered internal bleeding when she'd pulled her friend out of the wreckage and dusted her off. Her heart sank as a mound rose.
Out of the burgeoning rubble, growing fifty feet tall, a feminine figure took shape. Piper's fears were confirmed when the laughter continued, becoming earthen and strangely melodic for who she knew the creature to be. The mud figure's eyes opened as her face formed, and what should have been an impossibly beautiful woman instilled nothing but terror because of the malice in her gaze.
"All of that effort only to come so close, and to die!" Gaea laughed.
All of the Olympians backed away from the primordial that rose before them. Gaea's sinister gaze became thoughtful for a brief moment.
"You will wait your turn. First feel the deaths of your united demigod children."
The primordial cackled again, sparing the eleven Olympians a final glance before she crumbled into the earth. The Argo II finally completed its descent, but its landing would be short-lived. Zeus, who'd returned to his Greek form, whirled on the remnants of the Seven, ignoring their condition. As Leo leaned out from the decks of the ship, the King of the Gods bellowed.
"All demigods, on the ship now!"
(Line Break)
The base of Half-Blood Hill rippled. Next to the tree marking the camp's borders, the Athena Parthenos began to glow. Its intensity heightened second over second, becoming almost blinding to the demigods. The Greeks and Romans protected their eyes with hands and shields alike. Shouts erupted from all sides when the earthquakes began, fighting back against the statue's power. The ground lurched violently, and hundreds of demigods fought to steady themselves.
Reinvigorated by fear, Reyna mounted the pegasus she was lying on as a new burst of adrenaline kept her upright. She goaded the equine into the sky, taking her place as Praetor of the Legion.
"Secure the onagers!" she commanded, terrified of the outcome if the payloads misfired.
Even though the catapults were designed to rain fire on Camp Half-Blood, both the Greeks and Romans mobilized towards the siege engines lined at the edge of the Roman campsite. Dozens of demigods braced the onagers with their bodies against the turmoil beneath them while others decommissioned their projectiles.
Just moments after the final vial of sulfur was removed from the last onager, the Athena Parthenos' burgeoning aura vanished completely. As the statue fell dark, the earth became silent before one hulking mound took shape at the top of the hill. Gaea, in all her malicious, earthen glory, bore down at the combined army of Greek and Roman demigods beneath her.
"Congratulations, insects," the primordial seethed, her voice dripping hate, "The magic of your statue, your pathetic unity, your gods and quests, all of it has amounted to noth–"
A sonic boom erupted over Long Island Sound. A fiery explosion and an orchestra of distant screams closely followed. Every head, including Gaea's, snapped towards the Atlantic as a massive plume of smoke brewed high over the water. Demigods squinted at it, trying to figure out what exactly had exploded and who exactly had screamed, when a massive bronze dragon tore through the grey veil.
Too far away to see, a flying demigod and a Roman eagle followed behind the creaking dragon, each carrying another person. Festus tore forward, fires blazing as thrusters rocketed it faster, and Leo steadied himself on the dragon's back. He'd rebuilt his mechanical friend into the hull of Argo II, the ship sinking as debris into the Atlantic after Zeus' maneuver to get them back to the States in time. Leo shuddered as he shrugged off the turbulent ride home.
Nearly upon the towering primordial, Leo gritted his teeth in anticipation. His spine chilled when Gaea mirrored his expression, thrusting out her hand and conjuring hundreds of Earthborn that immediately charged the combined demigod army. The primordial raised her hand to grab the bronze dragon as it reached her, but Leo bucked against Festus' neck. His iron compatriot tilted skyward, dodging her open palm and wrapping her shoulders and arms in its claws.
Gaea shrieked as Festus lifted her from the earth, tearing her from her roots, and rocketed into the open air. With the bronze dragon lurching violently, doing its best to keep steady as it climbed, Leo risked a final glance at the ground below to find Jason and Frank landing safely with Piper and Hazel. He grimaced as he met Jason's eyes, finding the same stare that he'd seen just minutes before they'd reached Camp Half-Blood.
Rocketing over the final stretch of the Atlantic, their ship served like a volleyball by the King of the Gods, the demigods had drawn up their makeshift battle plan against earth itself.
"I can't," Piper had wheezed, delirious as she gripped her shoulder.
Zeus hadn't taken any injuries into account with his chosen method of travel. The shuddering ship had only exacerbated her fractures. Hazel had been in even worse shape, a horrible shade of purple as the ship barreled forward at impossible speeds.
"What do you mean you can't? Leo lifts her away from her source of power and sets her on fire, I suffocate her with the winds, and you charmspeak her back to sleep!" Jason had shouted through the torrent of air.
Piper could only shake her head, mute from the pain. She'd bit back a reply, too; Jason was barely conscious with all the blood he'd lost, and there was no chance he was in a state to control the wind precisely enough to choke out someone like Gaea. Leo had taken her side, half-voicing her retort.
"She's right. Look at you both; you've done more than your part. I can do it on my own."
"Leo," Jason's voice had had edge in it, "I can do it."
"Your wind would only smother the fire, anyways. We'd be working against each other."
Jason had gritted his teeth, swaying on the deck, and Piper had stopped holding her tongue.
"Do you need to be the hero so badly that you'll risk us all?"
Jason had silently stared at Leo with a look that the son of Hephaestus didn't want to call crazed envy.
Leo shook off his thoughts, focusing single-mindedly on the screaming primordial in his dragon's clutches. Their elevation continued to rise as they tore through lower-level clouds when Festus creaked warningly. Through the clicking language they'd developed, Leo knew the dragon was signaling that there was something on its tail. The son of Hephaestus looked behind him again, but the bottom of the dragon was obscured by fog as they continued to ascend through the clouds.
He turned his attention back to the primordial; at worst, Festus' tail was rusting. The real threat was screaming right before them. The air was getting thin, and Leo didn't want to get high enough that his fire couldn't feed on oxygen. He lurched Festus around just as Gaea clawed her way through one of the dragon's upper talons.
Festus grabbed on with one of its legs, still holding the shrieking primordial in place, and the dragon unleashed a blast of fire from its maw. At the same time, Leo released his own. He created massive streams of flames from his hands, arcing them at the burning primordial, as he allowed his whole body to catch fire.
The blessed son of Hephaestus didn't let up as Gaea flailed, fighting as viciously as ever to remove herself from Festus' clutches. He thanked whatever existed beyond the gods and primordials that they were in the sky; besides being completely separated from her domain, it had to help that he'd taken her into the realm that belonged to the husband she'd betrayed and had cut up by their kids. Leo also thanked Ouranos just in case as sweat encased his body.
The demigod was drenched and lightheaded in just minutes of the continued eruption that he and Festus were releasing into the charbroiled primordial. Right before he fainted, Leo willed the flames off and his dragon's died down as well. In the dragon's bronze talons, which were dripping molten metal, a thoroughly blackened Gaea twitched with an expression contorted in rage. Leo held his breath as he leaned over Festus' neck for a closer look. Her eyes snapped open, feral.
Leo's heart sank, but the melancholy was trampled under an overwhelming urgency of terror.
"Not enough!" she shrieked, ripping off Festus' claws and latching her own into its neck.
The dragon groaned, powerless to stop the primordial that had torn onto its back in a fit of rage. Leo clambered backwards on his elbows and feet, heart racing as his eyes locked onto the towering, now-vengeful Mother Earth before him. The burnt creature took one step forward before she froze, her baleful gaze shifting to confusion as it saw past the son of Hephaestus.
Leo didn't understand until he felt the presence before he saw it. He'd had it in himself to stumble away from Gaea's malicious image, but the malevolent aura behind him kept him frozen. The son of Hephaestus could feel his will abandon him, his body refusing to move, as hate that dwarfed the primordial before him bolted him in place.
"Tar–," Gaea started.
The shape was a blur, over Leo before he realized it'd moved from behind him, and a black blade drove through Gaea's chest. Leo watched the remaining strength drain from the primordial's eyes, horrified by the molten body falling apart before him. Gaea vanished, leaving no trace of her presence behind, and the son of Hephaestus realized he was alone with something much more sinister.
The black sword, that Leo noticed was inlaid with orange cracks, returned to a seemingly invisible sheath as the newly arrived monster turned around unarmed. The wolfish eyes of the gothic armor's helm glowed red as they traced Leo. The son of Hephaestus finally twitched. The moment he did, an armored fist entered his chest. He was dead before he realized what happened, and the monster was gone in red haze before Leo's body fell flat against bronze.
(Line Break)
On Half-Blood Hill, Jason clopped through the muck that had been an endless army of Earthborn less than an hour ago. He winced against the downpour, but was grateful for the rain washing the blood out of his wound and off of his arm. It'd come at a good time, just minutes after the Earthborn had collapsed into ugly piles of mud after Gaea had presumably been defeated. Jupiter and Neptune must have felt gratuitous to the demigods, silently sending the natural cleanup to wash away the remnants of the earthen army into the sea.
The united demigods had massively expanded the infirmary, using both the Big House and the Pavillion to house and care for the wounded. Though taking losses, the Greeks and Romans had been steadily holding off waves of Earthborn, but weren't far from being overrun when the ceaseless army had fallen apart before their very eyes. They'd all looked to the sky, expecting to find Festus and Leo descend as victorious heroes. Jason, Piper, Hazel, and Frank had hoped to see a glimpse of his old personality– an exaggerated bow, a puffed out chest, a Mr. Olympia pose, maybe just a devilish grin.
But they'd seen nothing at all. The group of four had waited until Will Solace, a Greek son of Apollo, had all but dragged Piper and Hazel to the infirmary. Frank had gone with them, but Jason still waited. He stared through the downpour waiting for the son of Hephaestus to return. There was envy, anger, agitation, and a dozen other selfish emotions brewing in him, but he also just wanted to see his friend. It wouldn't be until hours later that he'd accept Leo wasn't coming back down.
A/N: I felt terrible writing that for Leo. Loved that guy, and I'd honestly grown a little attached to the version I'd written and expanded on in Divergent Path. But this isn't that story, and the poor guy met a pretty brutal end. Anyways, I'll get over it.
SentinalSlice: Don't be bummed out. It's rare that I see Percy actually carry a source of water with him. I'm hoping he isn't too strong, because the fire water heals him. How awesome would it be if he is fighting someone and then they wear him down and are about to defeat him, before he drinks the fire water and then heals back up and beats them. Like a boss entering phase two. Although if he does have the curse of Achilles that would be interesting, but I imagine it requires his mother's blessing each time.
If you had a curse of Achilles where would you have the mortal spot be? I once considered that the best place to have it would be the roof of my mouth. But then I realized I would probably get killed by eating a pointy chip.
I'm going to do my best to keep his power corralled. I was worried typing out that he was more "sinister" than Gaea because I don't want anyone to jump to the conclusion that I was implying he's stronger than a full-on primordial. He's absolutely not; he was just much scarier to Leo in that scenario. Won't reveal anything about how I intended to use the rivers, but I do like your idea. Sounds very cool to use him like a phase boss. But I can certainly confirm he won't be getting the Curse of Achilles because I never really liked the "invulnerability" mechanic where you have a single spot that insta-kills you if someone gets lucky. Your chip comment made me laugh, though. If I had the curse, I think I'd make my mortal spot the "pit" of my left knee. It'd be an awkward place to strike in most situations and I have pretty strong knees from running so I think it'd be safe from natural deterioration for a while.