The Big Baddie Does His Thing

I looked down helplessly at his mangled body as Luke coughed out blood, "Percy- "

"Luke," I gulped as silent tears rolled down my cheeks, "I'm so sorry…"

"Promise me to take care of Annie," another cough, blood splattered across my jeans but I didn't mind. He Luke gripped my arm for support as I crouched down, "Annabeth," he wheezed, "Did you love me?"

"I- you're like a brother to me, yes I loved you," her voiced trembled, wiping her bloodshot eyes. Percy felt Luke's grip slightly slacken, "You'll be a hero in the end." He heard Annabeth whisper and closed his eyes for the last time.

The next few weeks were a complete blur- oh yeah and I kissed Annabeth. Let's just say that was the best underwater kiss of all time. Asides from Rachel becoming the next Oracle and me being dumped in the lake with Annabeth, I felt like crap. My head throbbed constantly and not even sword fighting helped, but worse I kept hearing a voice ringing in my head.

I will get you Jackson, soon

Kronos' voice sounded ancient; it wrapped around my mind as if threatening to suffocate it. I already told Annabeth about it. She chalked it up to my battle reflexes still being messed up but I couldn't help feeling like that it was something more.

It was bonfire night; I could hear the joyous campers singing from afar as Grover's reed pipes played a light, charming tune. I was lying in the top bunk in Poseidon cabin when I heard a familiar knock on my door. Leaping off the bed and trying to fix my tangled hair I opened the door.

"Hey Annie"

"Hi Percy- you look horrible!"

"Well thanks" I muttered. Looking back on it now I did look pretty trash. My skin was pale and beaded with sweat and I wore a stained Camp Half Blood T-shirt. Let's just say I looked like shit.

"You've been thinking about something." Annabeth sighed as she looked over my cabin and began cleaning. ADHD medication strewn across the ground, my bed on the top bunk un-made, the minotaur horn I won what seemed like a million years ago, a glass of water and a book Annabeth gently forced me to read propped on my nightstand after I'd given up on it when the words started swimming of the page. "Hey…" she said cupping my face, "what's wrong? You can tell me."

"I-It's the dreams" I managed to get out, fiddling with the white streak of hair I'd acquired a couple years before. I was a complete loser, especially in front of Annabeth.

"About a certain titan of time?" She raised an eyebrow which made me laugh for the first time in weeks. "Get some rest seaweed brain," she said planting a kiss on my forehead.

The morning sun rose as a sense of impending doom settled on my shoulders again.

Jackson…

Kronos hissed I shivered as I got up and changed into a new Camp Half Blood shirt and combed my hair. 'Time to go see Annie' I thought.

The morning air hit me like a truck. The cold was refreshing and actually bearable with the Curse of Achilles. I strolled down counting the cabins Demeter, Ares (better stay away from there), and Athena. I took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

"Come in!" I heard an unfamiliar voice say.

"Alright." I headed into Cabin 6.

Athena's cabin looked very much like these kids would burn the whole world for a new book. The walls were lined with thousands of books and old scrolls, 6 school sized tables were squished side to side and all the beds were crammed to one side as if sleeping was only an option. "Oh- Hey Malcom."

"Percy! Hi here to see counsellor?"

"Yeah, where is she?"

"Just working on table 3."

"You guys number them?" I said, shaking my head, "borderline sociopaths"

"Hey Percy"

"Hey," I looked at her adoringly, "My mum baked us some cookies wanna come?"

"Sure," she grabbed her binder labelled "OLYMPUS CONSTRUCTION" and Daedalus' tablet, "let's go!"

I opened the door and the cold morning air flooded their cabin. Stepping outside the walk was filled with the ruckus of constructing the new cabins. Hecate's was nearly finished, which was a relief. It was a miracle nobody got turned into a mushroom in the process.

When I closed the door to Cabin 3 the smell of warm, blue cookies hung in the air. Plopping down on my stained wood floorboards the colour of seafoam. A salty breeze blew threw the windows as I opened the Tupperware of cookies my mum had sent me.

Let me kill you,

Give me your soul…

Perseus Jackson…

Percy…

"PERCY!" Annabeth's voice snapped me out of it.

"What happened?" I looked around disorientated.

"You were in some form of trance," Annabeth said, "Was it him again?" I nodded grimly.

"He still out there, I just wish I knew more…" On that happy note I gave Annabeth half the cookies.

"See you at Ancient Greek?" She said with a smile.

"Yeah," I replied, smiling back.

It was a fine summer day after we won capture the flag, the scent of strawberries hung in the air. I was walking with Annabeth along the beach, a light breeze brushed our faces.

Jackson…

It wasn't just a voice this time, a hologram version of Kronos materialised in front of us.

"Luke?" Annabeth stared. Kronos/Luke shimmered in front of us, almost life-like but something was off it was like he was a projection, like he was frayed at the edges.

"Perseus Jackson, come to die." Then a beam of light shot out of his body golden, almost blinding me.

Let me kill you,

Give me your soul…

"NO!" I yelled when I saw it was aimed at directly Annabeth. A surge of power took over my body, I was not going to lose her again. Sprinting toward her I grabbed her by the hip and pushed her with all my might.

Too late.

The beam of light it us both square on the back exploding into two rings of light, blasting us down. It felt like when you're playing dodgeball and that one kid who takes things way to seriously hits you in the stomach but 100 times worse. I closed my eyes and tried to not concentrate on the fact that I was probably dying, then all of a sudden,

SLAM!

We hit the ground hard the wind being knocked out of me for the second time.

"Oww!" Annabeth muttered.

"Ow," I agreed. I checked to see if everything was still intact. Arms? Check. Legs? Check. Torso? Check. "Where are we Annie?"

"Well, judging by the giant clock tower above us, we're in London." People passing by stared at us as we scrambled around looking for an alley-way. Eventually a secluded corner away from the main road served as a place of refuge. Ripping off our armour we devised a plan.

"We should first Iris Message Chiron-"

"Then maybe we could get a lift back to America" Annabeth finished. We decided to camp around for a while, catch our breath. I rummaged around in my pockets and found a few drachmas, a one-dollar note and Anaklusmos. Great, just great we're stuck in London with no money or belongings.

"Do you have anything?" I asked Annabeth as she also looked in her jean pockets

"Nothing."

We were just getting up to leave it started pouring rain.

"No umbrella," I muttered as the rain pounded down on us soaking my Camp Half Blood shirt. After literally being 'one with the water' we found a rundown playground with a plastic canopy leaving it the only dry spot for miles.

"Shelter!" Annabeth exclaimed, "thank the gods." We huddled under the play equipment as everyone seemed to stare at us. Looking back on it, I would've stared as well. Two teenage runaway who look like they've been rolling around in mud for the past three days, drenched from head to toe in water crouching under a play structure designed for children. Weird. It seemed an eternity before the rain stopped.

"Do you think we'll get any rainbows" I asked

"Considering our luck: no."

We sat in comfortable silence looking at the bustling streets of London when three hobbling figures seemed to emerge from the fog.

"Who are they?" I asked Annabeth. She squinted her eyes.

"Fates."

As the little gremlins of despair approached us, they we're whisper shouting to each other.

"Hera's going to be so mad!"

"No, the change in fate is too dramatic-

"What are we doing here? One moment Luke- I mean Kronos materialises in front of us and the next we're in London." I spoke it not like a question, but a statement, Annabeth looked at me like 'geez don't have to be so demanding'

"Perseus Jackson- "

"Don't call me that- "

"Annabeth Chase" They chanted. "We meet again"

Atropos, (the one on the right) interrupted their speech, "How will we get them back to present time? Hera gave us a deadline of 2 months!" A thousand questions popped up in my mind. What deadline? What do you mean present time? What about Hera? So, I did the rational thing and turned to Annabeth, but she just shook her head.

"So," I prompted, "Circling back to my first question?"

"You fought the Titan Lord of Time," They started, "What do you think happened?

Annabeth's eyes went wide like saucers.

"No- this can't be happening," Annabeth leaped out of our stupid little playground hovel and started running to the nearest newspaper stand, I sprinted after her.

"Hey! You need to pay for that!" The seller shouted as Annabeth flipped through the pages of The Daily Telegraph. First an advertisement for a firm called Grunnings 'Turn ordinary to extraordinary one drill at a time; Grunnings!', then a sighting of two teenage runaways falling out of the sky, must be us, she flipped until she saw a page with the date: July 1st 1994.

I saw her knee's buckle as she fell to the ground rushing to her side I caught her into a tight hug.

"It's going to be ok Annie," I whispered, even though I wasn't really sure myself. We broke apart and I wiped the tears off her cheeks. "Here's 1 doll- pound for the paper." I said handing it to the man.

"So, what are we going to do now?" Annabeth asked The Fates as they caught up.

"There is only one option: wait," they chanted.

"For 16 gods damn years?!" Annabeth yelled

"Well, you have a few options…"