Heheheheheheh. Am I sorry? Hmmm... I think not. Percy is badass and Kronos is a dick. And Luke is doing his best.
Replies:
Undeath9087: Yep, Kronos is officially back, much earlier than in canon- but the mortal form means he won't be leading any attacks yet. And honestly I do to a certain degree understand where Luke was coming from. He got twisted and became real bad but he didn't start evil. He was an angry kid dealt a shit hand who had no real support network watching other kids be mistreated and he became the villain in the pursuit of justice because he listened to the wrong person. If he'd just had someone there then things could have been different. Don't get me wrong in cannon Luke got to a point where it was just too far for real redemption but he didn't start evil and his story is just really sad.
Wisestriker: That's a fair reaction.
Zephyr0f8: Hah, I love that. Percy's just like 'Hm, Chaos sounds good to me!'.
NuzhatT: that he is! I hope you enjoy.
Guest: At this stage Percy's more like 'Yeah I do not have the time to answer the inevitable questions right now so vague now answer later'. It's not because she doesn't trust him. Him helping her stop the ritual was very much the moment in which he officially proved himself. And yeah Kronos is very powerful still but he's not immortal. And since the spell was incomplete Artemis will once more be a goddess. As for Carter, well, do you really think I'd kill him off? Actually I see why you'd ask that lol.
DualEquinox: I mean the Shabti's probably could, though it wouldn't necessarily cross Percy's mind at this point. She's dealing with a lot lol.
"You mean this?" Percy held up the Scythe, trying to put on her best, innocent look.
"No, I mean my other sacred weapon-" Kronos' voice was filled with sarcasm before, "Yes I mean my Scythe you foolish girl. Now give it to me and I may spare your friends. But not the traitor. He's mine."
"Uh, you have noticed that you're bleeding right?"
"A minor inconvenience." Kronos gritted his teeth, "Because of your well timed interruption. My power will return to me in time. Just as it was before. And I now don't need a host." The look he shot Luke was poisonous and Percy felt Luke stiffen beside her, which made her eyes narrow as she stepped in front of Luke.
"Okay, okay first of all you are not touching Luke. And second I am not giving you the Scythe-"
"You will." Kronos raised a hand- and Percy felt time itself slowing around her, slowing her.
Well, she had felt the power rolling off him. She'd known that he had to at least have some of his power. And he was starting to walk towards her.
Okay. Okay she had to move quick except she couldn't. Getting it away before Kronos could reach them would be impossible- she could put it in the Duat but there was still a risk of what would happen if he used her friends and family to blackmail her.
No she had to destroy it.
And lucky her.
Percy just so happened to have access to the single most destructive force in existence.
She focused, red tendrils curling down her arm and around her hand- and somehow the power of Chaos seemed to counteract Kronos' power. Luke still seemed to be affected- he looked practically frozen in time, his mouth open, a desperate cry cut off before he could start it.
But Percy felt herself speeding up again. And she saw Kronos' eyes widening in fury as he realised what he was doing.
But even the Lord of time wasn't fast enough to stop Percy from channelling the power of Chaos into the Scythe.
It fought back of course. She would expect no less from something so powerful, she felt it burning in her hand as the red light crackled up and down the staff and across the curved razor sharp blade.
Kronos reached her, reaching for the Scythe- and as his fingers curled around the staff it disintegrated, crumbling into dust.
The bellow of fury that Kronos let out was chilling, and before Percy could react she was being flung backwards, landing hard, skidding across the sand, and he was on her, hands wrapped around her throat, his grip tight and crushing.
Her thoughts were a little hysterical- she found herself making a quick list of powers that seemed to have remained for Kronos despite his now mortal form.
Ability to control time? Check.
Some sort of telekinetic power? Check.
Extreme strength and speed? Check.
Percy swung her fist, wincing at the pain that shot up her arm as her fist impacted his face- which snapped to the side, his lip catching against his teeth and tearing open, blood dripping from it.
Kronos was startled enough that Percy bucked herself upwards, knocking him off balance in the moment of his distraction and twisting herself, tossing him off of her- for all of five seconds before he was on her again, landing a punch to the side of her head that made her ears ring and her vision swim.
Not fun. It dazed her for just a moment but he didn't land another blow before Luke was tackling Kronos off her.
"Don't fucking touch her!" and Percy swung herself around, pushing herself up onto her elbows.
Luke was on top of Kronos, fists swinging down on Kronos' face- once. Twice. Three times before Luke was being thrown back off of him.
"Pati!" Percy thrust her hand forward, and she felt a rush of relief as Luke's flight through the air slowed, and when he hit the ground it was softer. Thank fuck because with how hard he'd been thrown back there was a genuine concern of broken bones if he'd hit the sand at full speed. And that would have probably been a best case scenario.
"Nice trick Princess." Kronos was on his feet, stood between her and Luke.
That was not good. Percy scrambled to her feet quickly, pulling Riptide from her pocket, though she didn't uncap it yet.
"Thank you." She gave the brightest smile she could muster, "I think it's a good trick too. You know people don't appreciate magic enough. It's all Demigod this, halfblood that, us magicians are cool too you know."
"You're certainly capable of causing me a great deal of trouble." Kronos tilted his head slightly. "You destroyed my Scythe."
"I did."
"With Chaos magic."
"Yeah. Yeah I did." Percy shrugged, "What can I say, I'm the only magician to actually be able to properly use Chaos magic."
"The girl told us you have a connection to Chaos-"
"Yeah…" Percy nodded, "Yeah. You could say that. She- she just said it was a connection?"
"Yes." Kronos was moving slowly- and Percy was following- they were circling one another, sizing one another up for now. "But I'm not a fool Percy Kane, Princess. It's more than just a connection. I can sense it in you. The power."
"Yeah." Percy nodded, "Yeah, yeah it is." No point in denying it. "It's definitely more than just a connection. When Apophis was killed I replaced him as the living embodiment of Isfet." She could see Luke pushing himself up slowly, watching them both with wide eyes. Thankfully it seemed that he knew better than to interrupt them. It would not go well if he tried.
"Impressive." Kronos' voice was thoughtful, "But you are not all powerful. Your power is bound by your mortal form."
"And so is yours." and oh, oh Kronos did not like that, his lips twitched into a snarl of fury.
"My mortality is a temporary setback Princess." His words were low and dangerous. "Soon enough I will return to my full strength. Do you believe your chaos will be enough to defeat me then?"
"Maybe, maybe not. Honestly I don't know what my limit is before I, y'know, die." Percy gave a dangerous little smirk, "But I think it should be enough to defeat you now." She focused, drawing on the power of Chaos, and red power crackled like electricity towards Kronos, wrapping around his feet before he could move away- which made him let out a cry of pain, desperately struggling against the power which was slowly curling up his legs. It must be agony but Percy didn't care. Kronos was too big of a threat, even now he was trying to slow time, but that would only help so much, only lessen the damage she was causing if he couldn't escape. Only draw out the torturous pain.
"Percy!" Percy did not twitch. She didn't, but she could admit that she was very tempted to twitch. What the hell was Luke doing, distracting her? But if it was something important- she let her eyes unlock from Kronos'- and wow but his eyes had been glowing with rage and maybe a little fear, it felt for a good moment like there were two glowing gold spots in her vision before they focused on Luke, who was pointing towards the sea, a horrified look on his face.
Percy followed his gaze and- her mouth dropped open in shock.
She could see the glint of Celestial bronze in the waves- a net. It was a fucking net, which had been thrown over the side of the Princess Andromeda. There were monsters hauling it towards the ship, a Pegasus with some sort of bear monster on it's back- the bear was wearing jeans.
It was funny how the weirdest things stood out the most when terror was flowing through her.
The bear monster was gripping a rope of bronze that appeared to be part of the neck, slowly helping drag it up out of the water even as the Pegasus struggled beneath the monsters weight.
"Well look at that." Kronos sounded amused despite the pain, there was a smugness in his tone. He must have an insane pain tolerance. Even Atlas had been showing the pain more and he was a full powered Titan, though maybe it was because he was slowing the damage. "It seems my army have caught a monster and a Sea Prince."
Because Percy could see into the net. Could see the Ophiotaurus, struggling in the net.
And she could see Triton, one arm wrapped around the monster, trying to shield it as he tugged uselessly at the net.
It must be enchanted or something because Percy could see that he was having no luck. He was trapped, he was trapped and Kronos' army were about to get him and the Ophiotaurus.
"No."
"What was that?" Kronos' voice was mocking, "What did you just say Princess? You look upset."
"I said no!" Percy swung around, thrusting her hand towards Kronos, "HA-WI!" And Kronos was flung backwards by the force of the spell. Clearly he hadn't been expecting it, though it did mean she had to release her grip on the Chaos magic.
And Percy didn't waste time to see where he landed. "TRITON! TRITON I'M COMING!"
If they got Triton he'd be hurt. Her brother who had helped her as much as he could would be hurt.
And if they got the Ophiotaurus… if one of Kronos' allies killed it and burned it's entrails then even if they took Kronos down it would mean nothing. His allies would have the power to take down the gods. And they'd do it without him.
So Percy ran, focusing as she did- and mid step she was transforming, turning into a Hawk- speeding through the air with steady flaps of her wings, and she could see Triton's fear with her bird eyesight, he was trying to shield the Ophiotaurus.
And then she was there and she made a beeline for the bear monster, who hadn't noticed them yet, but he certainly did when she raked her talons across his face, specifically targeting the monsters eyes.
It roared in pain, flailing at her, releasing the net- which half fell back into the water, though not fully, not enough for Percy's taste, there were still the monsters on the Princess Andromeda trying to haul it up.
And Percy went in for another sweep, clawing at the bear monsters face again- and it lurched backwards as it flailed, Percy diving under his arm and up again, and he was slipping off the Pegasi's back- and the Pegasi too his chance, bucking with an annoyed neighing.
"Hah sucker! Shows you who's boss!" The bear monster tumbled backwards, splashing into the water- not a natural environment for a bear.
And Percy transformed back, landing smoothly on the Pegasi's back. "Heya bud. Nice to meet you."
"Holy shit! You-"
"Poseidon kid through and through." Percy told him brightly, "Mind helping me out here… buddy? Dunno your name."
"Hey you get me away from those suckers and I'll help you take 'em out. And it's Blackjack!"
"You're the best." Percy grinned despite herself.
"Darn straight I am boss."
"Hmm…. Boss. I like that." Percy slipped a hand into her pocket- and yep, yep Riptide was in there. She pulled it out and uncapped it as they swung around, towards the Princess Andromeda, and holy fuck there were a lot of monsters there.
That was not good. But hey Percy could deal with that.
She guided Blackjack to fly in close, close enough that she was able to thrust out her arm, extending the sword as they swept past, Blackjack tilting so that she was at the right angle, and she sliced through the arms pulling the ropes that were attached to the net, making it drop back into the sea beneath them.
Then she focused.
She hadn't used the spell on this magnitude, but she could try. She had to try.
"Ha-di." And the force of the explosion sent her and Blackjack wheeling back. Percy flung herself low on his neck, clutching at Blackjack tightly as he flapped his wings to right himself.
She'd just blown a hole in the side of the ship- and the water had already started flooding in, the ship was lurching to the side as it started to fill, monsters yelling.
"You okay Blackjack?"
"I'm fine boss!"
"We need to get down to the surface." She could see the celestial bronze net slowly starting to sink beneath the water.
"Now!" She focused on her powers, pushing the net up from below- and then Triton and the Ophiotaurus surfaced, still trapped beneath the net.
"Percy!" Triton gasped her name as Percy leaned down, snatching the metal of the net and gripping it tightly, "Get us out of here!"
"Let me get you further in shore!" Away from the sinking boat.
She couldn't risk Triton and the Ophiotaurus being dragged down while they were trapped and powerless.
"Thank you little sister." Triton's voice was soft, his expression gentle, eyes shining with relief, "I was trying to get the Ophiotaurus away from the boat. He was trying to get to you I'm sure of it."
"Well Ophie does not have the best timing." Percy gave a wry smile, "But I'm here. And now we need to get to that beach. Urgently."
Because Luke and Kronos would be waiting.