AN: Hello everyone. Before I start, I would like to point out this is my first fanfic, so don't judge me like you would Anaklusmos14 or vPxforerunner x, both of whom have incredible stories. You should definitely check them out if you haven't. Before you start reading, you should know that except for Percy and Annabeth's relationship, this story follows the main PJO plot up until the battle of Manhatten. In this story, they started dating not long after the events of The Titan's Curse. The battle and everything after it will be different. Now, without further ado, enjoy :)
(Manhattan, Percy POV)
One look at the battle told me everything. 'We are winning,' came the giddy thoughts as the monsters were being pushed back at a steady pace. The huntresses were doing their job flawlessly, slaying hordes of enemies with volley after volley of their silver-tipped arrows. They rained death on all assortments of creatures; Laistrygonians, Dracanae, Hellhounds, Telekhines, and many other horrors.
The campers, meanwhile, were divided in two. The Ares, Hephaestus, Dionysus, and Aphrodite cabins had set up their entrance with myriads of traps, well-placed ballista towers, and a spartan phalanx formation led by Clarisse spearheading their defense. The Athena, Apollo, and Hermes cabins guarded the other entry. The Athena cabin had set up maze-like barricades, forcing wave after wave of monsters was into narrow paths where their overwhelming numbers were no longer an issue.
I was standing at the base of the Empire State Building, waiting for my inevitable showdown with Kronos, when an overwhelming presence approaching drew my attention away from my friends slaughtering monsters. From the mayhem of the battle emerged a lone figure wielding a dual-colored sword. I uncapped my trusty blade, Riptide, as I came face to face with the Titan Lord inhabiting my old friend's body.
I took one look at his glowing eyes, and fear shook me to the core. It felt like those golden pools of malevolence were dragging my soul into the pits of Tartarus. Steeling my nerves, I looked him dead in his golden eyes and said, "If you think for one second you're making it past me into Olympus, then you're getting delusional in your old age."
Luke's expressionless face morphed into a hideous grin as the Titan snickered. "I've always liked you, Perseus Jackson. It's a shame I have to kill you. You could have been my right-hand man."
"Like Luke was your right-hand man? Yeah, thanks, but no thanks." I replied, feeling an unusual heat rising inside me.
"Hmph, fine, but don't say I didn't warn you," he said, brandishing his sword.
I braced myself for the fight with Kronos, all the while hoping and praying I came out the victor because this battle would decide the fate of everything. If I failed now, everyone was doomed. Olympus would fall, and I would be to blame. Everyone has done their parts perfectly so far, so it's time for me to finish this long war.
We began circling each other, and his grating voice filled the air once more. "How do you see this battle ending? Do you really expect to defeat a Titan? Now, I know demigods are born with a certain amount of hubris but aren't you being a little unrealistic here? And even if, by some miracle, you manage to defeat me, what then? The gods thank you for saving their sorry asses and then send you back down here because you're not good enough for Olympus? Do you know how many times the great Olympians were almost destroyed, only to be saved by some demigod? Do you think you're the first? Well, you're not, and you won't be the last, either. When you're no longer useful, they'll give you some little gift and forget all about you. You're nothing but a shield meant to take all the hits for them. So why lay down you're life for a bunch of gods who only keep you around to fight their battles? You and your friends would have a much better life under my rule. There's a reason the reign of the Titans was known as the Golden Age."
"Save your pretty little speeches for the gullible fools willing to listen, like Luke, who believed in your better future. Look at him now. His body is literally burning away as we speak," I spat. Taking the initiative, I stepped forward and slashed at his sword arm in an attempt to throw him off balance. He brought his sword up, and our blades clashed, sparks flying.
"That was your last mistake, boy," he said in a mocking voice. He swung Backbiter viciously, testing my reflexes. His blows were powerful, and every hit sent shooting pain up my arm. If I didn't do something soon, the battle would be over before it had even started. I sidestepped his next swing, crouched down, and swiped at his legs. This caught him off guard, and he stumbled. While he was recovering, I thrust Riptide in between his hand and the hilt of his sword. That was the biggest mistake I would ever make because it would cost me a dearest friend.
Kronos grinned as he unexpectedly parried my blow and kicked me in the chest, sending me to the ground. He slowly walked up and stood over me with a triumphant smirk. "Come now, did you really think you could disarm me so easily? Well, say hello to Hades for me, will you? Not that he'll be around for much longer anyway."
He raised his dual-colored blade to the sky and shot it down towards my stomach. I closed my eyes, expecting a swift and brutal death, knowing that not even my Achilles curse would protect me because the power behind the blow would crush my body in whether it cut me or not. But it never came. I heard a shout of alarm, and a shadow flitted over me. The sword found its mark, and a scream issued from my savior as it tore through both flesh and soul. With a thud, the body fell to the ground.
Kronos screamed in rage. His golden eyes flicked towards the lifeless body in front of me. "Pathetic child," he said. "How dare you go against your father. This is the fate that awaits betrayal," he spat, sneering at my now dead savior.
I sat up and got a good look at who had sacrificed their life for me, and a terrifying rage took hold of me. My blood rushed to my head as an unearthly scream issued from my mouth. The only thing in my head was the image of the now-dead Chiron and the thirst for vengeance for my fallen mentor.
(Thalia POV)
I tore my gaze from the monster I was firing at to find the source of the savage scream I heard echo through Manhattan. My eyes widened as I saw a massive hurricane envelop Percy and Kronos. I felt a jolt of surprise as the water turned pitch black, and forks of bright red lightning were flashing around, zapping both Percy and Kronos. It only seemed to affect Kronos, however. I could see Kronos was also caught off balance by the hurricane and unsettled by the crimson hue the normally green eyes took. The last I saw of the duo was when the storm expanded and completely hid them from view.
(Percy POV)
I felt nothing but hatred towards the golden-eyed Titan who killed Chiron, who had been like a father to me. I uncapped Riptide and swung it viciously at him. I felt his powers trying to slow me down, trying to take me to its honey-like world, but they couldn't. I would not let some time slowing abilities stop me from getting revenge. 'I will avenge you, Chiron,' I thought as determination rippled through me.
Unfortunately, Kronos had recovered from his shock and parried before retaliating with an equally powerful strike. I dodged as the hurricane expanded in width to accommodate our fighting. Fortunately, every time he tried to use his power to slow me down, a fork of red lightning struck him, making him lose focus and freeing me from his time spell. Although I had no idea how I was doing it, I decided it would be best to think about it later. I ran towards the golden-eyed Titan, and our blades met once again. Sparks flew as our weapons became nothing but deadly blurs of the orangish tint of bronze and the black of mortal steel. Kronos slashed at my abdomen, and I brought my blade down to parry. I thrust at his shoulder, forcing him to jump back. He jumped forward quickly and sent his blade straight for my head. I ducked, just barely avoiding the blow, when I saw a blur jump right over my head, twisting in midair and slashing at my back. Moving quickly and sending a quick prayer to anyone that would listen, I swung my sword around and grabbed the top of the blade with my other hand, holding it right above the back of my neck. I braced my arms for impact as Backbiter struck my trusty sword. I jumped up and spun around to face those two orbs of gold once more. I swung Riptide right into an exposed part of his neck, and although it glanced off his body because of Luke's Achilles' Curse, it still knocked Kronos off balance. He stumbled, and with a well-placed kick to the leg supporting most of his weight, he fell. Backbiter skidded to a stop a few feet away from him. As I neared him, sword poised to strike, Kronos had something similar to a seizure as his golden eyes flickered blue.
"Stop, you fool, you'll get me killed," Kronos whispered harshly, as his eyes were changing color rapidly. Eventually, they turned solid blue. "Percy! Please! Kill me! My Achilles spot is-" "Enough you fool!" Kronos growled as Luke's human eyes morphed back into those accursed golden balls of hate. Kronos began to get up but fell back down as his eyes flickered once more. In the end, they settled with one eye blue and the other yellow. Strands of gold started to fill the blue eye slowly. Luke lifted one of his arms and muttered his final words with what little strength he had left. "The underarm, Percy. Please, Give me peace." I watched on in sick fascination as the last speck of blue held out resiliently.
I steadied my hand, gripped Riptide, and plunged it into his Achilles spot.
In a scream of abysmal rage, Kronos turned to me and said, "You think you have won, but my death will end Olympus, you fool," before he burst into a fit of maniacal laughter.
Deciding to throw his words to the winds, I began walking away before his raspy voice filled me with dread. "A long time ago, I sealed away most of the primordial Pontus' strength, and it requires my essence to maintain it, but now I will fade, and there will be nothing keeping the seal intact. Eventually, Pontus will regain enough strength to break the seal completely, and he will unleash hell upon you and the Olympus you so desperately protect. I tied all my immortal essence to this body just in case I failed. I will now fade, and Olympus will go down with me." He continued to laugh before he convulsed one more time, and the gold slowly drained from his eyes as the Titan Lord died for the final time.
I looked at Luke's lifeless blue eyes and sighed as I knelt and closed them. 'He died a hero,' I thought as the hurricane around me dissipated, and the reddish glow I didn't even realize until now that surrounded me faded, along with my vision.
(Olympus, after the battle, Artemis POV)
I watched on from my throne as the heroes of the battle received their rewards, some asking for specific weapons and magical items, others asking for alone time with their parents, and some even asking for more time with their parents. We were still in the middle of these proceedings when a still half asleep Percy crashed into the throne room and began waving his arms around like a lunatic while talking extremely fast.
Everyone had stopped what they were doing and stared at him, mostly with sympathetic expressions, probably thinking he was still suffering from his battle with the Titan Lord and was delusional. Something, however, told me differently.
"Percy, my son, why don't you calm down so we can all understand you," Poseidon said with a smile, happy that his son had woken up. No matter how proud any Olympian was of their children for their actions in the battle, none had the swagger that Poseidon possessed. No one said anything about it, either because they were scared of the mighty sea god's wrath or because they thought he was right in feeling so proud. It was mostly the first one.
"I said, we can't start celebrating now because we have to prepare for another war," he said much slower and calmer than last time, his face grave. There was something we didn't know. Something big.
"What are you on about punk? Everything's fine if you hadn't noticed," Ares said while sneering down at Percy. He had hated Percy ever since he had upstaged him in that fight all those years ago and since then has always looked for ways to undermine him. It must be eating him inside for Percy to receive so much praise. Granted, he did singlehandedly take Kronos down. I looked at the oaf in sunglasses with distaste. I had never liked the way he did things; he was such an irrational being.
"You don't understand!" Percy said as he started to get frustrated at the Olympians not taking him seriously. "When I stabbed Luke in his Achilles spot Kronos told me that he put all his immortal essence into Luke so that if he died, he would fade and-"
"Then I fail to see what the big problem is," Athena spoke up as she glared at him. She had despised the spawn of Poseidon since learning of his existence, and I could tell that she was angry that Percy was once again the center of attention. "If Kronos has finally faded, then that means peace will return, and there will be no more Titan uprisings. With Kronos gone, there will be no one to spur them on into another war.
"You're right. Everything should be great," the sea-green-eyed hero said as he took a deep breath and mentally readied himself for whatever announcement he was about to make. "Except for the fact that Kronos had sealed away the primordial Pontus' power with a powerful curse that required him to exist to keep the seal intact. So now that he has faded, Pontus will regain his strength enough to break the last of the seal. Then he will be at full strength, and Kronos seemed to think for some reason that he would attack Olympus." Percy spoke much slower, and the urgency drained from his voice as realization hit the gods and goddesses.
"Even if what Kronos said is to be believed, what makes you so sure Pontus will attack? After all, he has not done anything hostile towards Olympus since our beginning," Athena said. Being the goddess of wisdom, she was smart enough to put aside her hate for the hero and focus on the new potential threat.
Suddenly everything clicked in place. I realized what not even Athena could. "If what Kronos said was true, and we clearly had no idea of the curse, Kronos must've done it during his reign. This would mean that when we overthrew Kronos, Pontus was still under the curse, so he must have been trying to act nice towards us to help him with the curse. Although I'm guessing he gave up when he asked to meet with the Olympian Council, and Poseidon shut him down." I said, recalling the time when Pontus asked Poseidon to set up a meeting with the Olympians as my brother looked at me in amazement.
"Wow, sis, you can be pretty smart, eh," he said with a smirk as a silver arrow embedded itself just short of where his Apollo doesn't shine. "Whoa geez, I was just joking," he said under his breath as I glared at him. "Next time, I'll make sure you never have another child again," I said, reveling in my ability to shut him up quickly. I noticed him looking at me like I had sprouted another head, but honestly, what did he expect would happen when he made that remark, that I would just ignore him or even smile sweetly at him like an idiot?
"If this is true and Pontus had wanted us to lift the curse when he asked an audience, then he will most definitely be angry with us," Athena said wide-eyed as she realized that Olympus was in for yet another war.
"So why did you not hear him out?" Percy questioned, looking at us each in turn before his eyes landed on mine, and I glared at him distastefully. I refuse to be shamed by a little boy and expected him to shrink away from my gaze, but was stunned when he continued to stare at me defiantly
"We had just finished a war with the titans. We didn't want anything to do with the primordials," Hermes said, avoiding his gaze as saying it now made us sound foolish.
"So you would anger a primordial because you were scared that he might attack you?! He's gonna do that now for sure!" he said incredulously. Now that it was said out loud, we did sound like a bunch of idiots.
The rest of the Olympians broke into an argument about what to do about the situation. However, Athena, Hephaestus, and I remained silent, watching the other Olympians shouting their panicked plans at each other. Zeus slammed his Master bolt into the pearly white floor. "Enough!" he shouted across the throne room.
"We shall look into this matter further, and if, in fact, Pontus is getting ready to declare war, we will prepare with everything we've got. No doubt Pontus will have the means to amass an army the likes of which we have never seen," Zeus said in a commanding tone before dismissing the council.
One by one, the Olympians left the throne room, leaving Percy in the throne room with me, Zeus, and Poseidon.
Upon noticing, he visibly paled and bowed to me, something in which I took great relish.
"Is there something you wanted from me, my lady?" he asked. My only reaction was a smirk.
"You seem to be quite the celebrity up on Olympus," I said. This served to frighten him even more as he could not make out where this conversation was heading.
"I guess," he said sheepishly. For some reason, he didn't make eye contact with me, which was strange, seeing as he had foolishly defied my withering gaze not so long ago.
"Well, I would just like to say thank you for saving Olympus, and in turn, my hunters," I allowed myself to smile in his direction, and he gave a clumsy smile. I noticed the astonishment in his eyes and was a little upset. Even though I didn't particularly like males, I wasn't above thanking one when they helped me out, although it rarely happens.
"Thank you, my lady," he said after finally regaining his composure. I simply smiled before vanishing in a soft silvery glow.
(Olympus, Percy POV)
With Artemis gone, I was left alone in the room with Zeus and my father. I turned to them both and bowed to my father, then to Zeus. Zeus looked a little annoyed at that but didn't say anything about it. "Did you need me for anything, my lords?" I asked as I saw my father beaming down at me, pride and love in his eyes.
"I told you, Zeus. You wanted to kill my son, and I told you he wouldn't turn against us," my father said as Zeus rolled his eyes. "Yes, Yes, I feel like you're not going to let this go anytime soon, are you?" He asked as my father let out a rumbling laugh. "Of course not," He said, continuing to laugh.
Zeus cleared his throat as my father settled down. "Perseus Jackson, for your brave and heroic actions in protecting Olympus, you will get one free wish. Anything you want. Yes, that includes everlasting immortality." He said as he looked at me with something similar to respect.
"With all due respect, my lord, may I ask a favor of you along with my wish?"
(Camp Half-Blood, The next day, Percy POV)
It was early morning, and after spending the night with my mom and Paul, I arrived at camp, where the dead were being honored, and Chiron was paid his respects. As I listened to the campers saying their eulogies, I felt my throat begin to hurt as I restrained my tears. I was able to keep my face dry for only about a minute before the tears burst from my eyes and trickled down my face.
It was the following words that left Dionysus' mouth, however, that numbed me to the core. "Next, we have Annabell, who died of unknown causes as her body was never found. The only things of hers that we have are this Yankees cap and this dagger," he finished speaking as I looked at the charred hat and the bent blade she used to wield.
I suddenly found it hard to breathe as the realization hit me. The girl I loved was ripped away from me. This whole time I had thought that when I returned from Olympus, the two of us could finally live life peacefully and had even prepared a dinner at the bottom of the sea in Atlantis, courtesy of my dad.
As the sadness threatened to swallow me completely, I remembered the mysterious message I had received not too long ago.
I rushed to the Poseidon cabin and packed all the needed things to survive in the wilderness. Once I was ready, I ran to the borders of the camp, turning to look at my home one last time, watching my friends gathered around, consoling each other before I fled into the shadows.
(Olympus, Artemis POV)
We were in the middle of yet another meeting, which was unusual because we rarely gathered for two meetings in two days. Athena was listing off specific strategies that we could use to counter this new threat when Aphrodite gasped, clutching her chest. She seemed to be in shock. "Aphrodite, is everything all right?" Zeus asked, annoyed she had interrupted Athena.
"Wow, that's... a lot of pain," she said as she shuddered, her face drained of color.
"What are you on about?" Zeus asked, a hint of worry in his voice.
"Percy," the love goddess whispered, not seeming able to speak any louder.
"What about my son?" Poseidon said, growling, worry shining in his turbulent sea-green eyes.
"I just felt a lot of heartbreak coming from Percy. Like a lot," she muttered, worry covering her face.
"Iris, show me, my son!" Poseidon growled, anxiousness and worry mixing in his voice. "Of course, Lord Poseidon," the rainbow goddess said calmly. Poseidon stirred the water vapor in the air into mist, and a vast screen appeared, showing us Percy, with tear-stained face, grabbing things that he would need for survival. We watched as he set off from camp half-blood. "Why?" Poseidon growled. "What could possibly get him so upset?" the sea god asked.
"My daughter, Annabeth. She... she didn't make it after the battle," Athena quietly answered as she tried to hide the pain in her eyes.
I noticed many Olympians were looking at Percy with sympathetic expressions and couldn't help but think about how far he has come. Just a couple of years ago, the very same Olympians looking at him with love wouldn't have been bothered to care if he lived or died.
My attention snapped back to the image of Percy suddenly vanishing from view.
"What happened!" bellowed Poseidon, "Find him!" he said, his voice cracking with fear.
"I'm sorry, Lord Poseidon, but I cannot locate Perseus Jackson," Iris said as the image faded into oblivion.
"We must find my son!" Poseidon yelled at Zeus. Which surprisingly, Zeus didn't take badly. He merely nodded.
"We will find him, don't worry," he said calmly, which shocked us all.
'Since when did Zeus care enough about Percy to not even be angry at Poseidon yelling at him?' I thought as the sky god turned to me.
"Artemis get your hunters and track down, Percy," he said. I started to protest, but a quick glare told me it was not up for debate.
"Very well, father," I said, flashing out of the throne room, fuming. 'My hunters have much more important things to do than hunt down a lost demigod,' I thought as I flashed to Thalia and prepared to tell her the next mission. I saw the worry in her eyes as she saw my grim face.
AN: There you have it, my first chapter, so tell me what you think as I am open to constructive criticism. Thank you for reading, and have a good day :)
