Chapter 7:
This is Where I Died
Day 3:
Kronos couldn't do it. The Romans failed and even Gaia didn't manage to do it.
Ironically it was Olympus was the one to raze Camp.
I feel disgusted. All the battles we demigods fought, were they all for nothing?
I just don't understand.
Calypso and I looked everywhere but there was no trace of Rachel. We did find bodies, lots of them.
I planned on visiting the grove of Dodona Lester had told me about; maybe the trees know how to fix this, but I see smoke coming from where the grove is located. Calypso says she hears the trees screaming, I don't hear anything but I think we should avoid going near it.
We need to rethink this.
Day 8:
"Wait..." Percy said out loud, only to realize he was still alone.
A desperate sigh left his lungs. He, still, was in Ogygia without anyone to see him cry or smile. A sense of loneliness settled. Trying to distract himself he focused on the diary instead. Anything to ignore the pit in his stomach.
The entry for day 3 was short, way too short to describe the destruction of his home.
How was camp? Did Leo find anyone he recognized, what caused the smoke?
So many questions. Percy felt that the destruction of Camp Halfblood deserved to be a bit more than a footnote in Leo's journal. However, he couldn't do much about it.
He silently promised to visit camp as soon as he got of the island. He had to see it with his own eyes.
Another question was raised. Why did Leo suddenly jump from day 3 to 8?
Percy continued to read, as that was the only way to unravel this mystery.
Day 8:
We settled down in a refugee camp near Minnesota. Amazon warehouses across the United States have been transformed into refugee shelters/forts after what happened in Detroit. Apparently the Amazons planned for world domination before Olympus declared war. Still, it's good to know there are still capable groups out there putting up a fight.
I spoke to the demigod in charge, a daughter of Hecate, and I told her about our quest. She was skeptical but gave us a magical map that showed all Amazon outposts. She pointed out some areas to avoid but I soon realized that most of the land is a chaotic mess. Festus can fly us but the best we can do is move from shelter to shelter.
The Amazon also gave us some more info on what's happening in the world; I'll include it here below.
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-The Sea of Monsters has been relocated to Africa and covers most of the continent. I'm not even sure how the gods managed to do that, or what it even means.
All contact with the continent is lost.
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-Various different diseases have popped up. Some are old forgotten ones like the Black Death but some are more divine in nature.
I saw someone sneeze their brains out, not as funny as it sounds...
I burned her corpse to stop it from spreading. Poor kid.
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-The Burning Maze has been re-activated and is causing wildfires across California and neighbouring states.
I can't believe he would ever allow this to happen. Should have left him to the Emperors.
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-The entirety of Canada and upper Scandinavia are covered in an enormous snowstorm. No survivors have emerged from it.
Guess Khione got what she wanted in the end.
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-Dionysus was spotted in Rome before the city was destroyed by an unquantifiable amount of fireworks. This really feels like a punch in the guts. We fought the twins to prevent this from happening and now mister D decides to do it himself.
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-Gluten free products across the world suddenly contained gluten. I can't believe I am writing this. We have a freaking Shrimpzilla rampaging through Moscow.
The Olympians must be running out of ideas. I've got yet to hear about someone dying from this.
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On a less cheerful note,I managed to contact a Satyr I know. His name is Gleeson Hedge and we go way back. He wasn't doing well because, well it doesn't really matter.
He is in YellowStone park right now, helping the local dryads and nature spirits.
Although the Olympians seem to be intent on killing all mortals and demigods, they are willing to kill everything standing in their way as well.
My own father is trying to make the YellowStone super-volcano erupt. If he succeeds a large portion of America becomes a complete dead wasteland within a week, killing off all humans and nature spirits.
The dryads have been successful in repelling Olympus' efforts but Hedge doesn't know how long he can manage without extra help.
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Day 9:███ ████ ███ ███ ██████ ████ ████ ████ ███ ████ ███████ ████ ████ ███ █ ██ ████ ███ ███ dead ██ ████ ███ ███ ██████ ████ ████ ████ ███ ████ ███████ ████ ████ ███ █ ██ ████ ███ ███ ███ ████ ███ ███ ██████ ████ ████ ████ ███ ████ ███████ ████ ████ ███ █ ██ ████ ███ ███ ███ ████ ███ ███ ██████ ████ ████ ████ ███ ████ ███████ ████ ████ ███ █ ██ ████ ███ ██████ ████ ███ ███ ██████ ████ ████ ████ ███ ████ ███████ ████ ████ ███ █ ██ ████ ███ ███ ███ ████ ███ ███ ██████ ████ █
ㅤㅤㅤ
Percy stopped reading. His eyes glanced back at the part he just skimmed over.
All the text. It was crossed out, the words illegible. For some reason Leo, or someone else, had crossed out everything that had been written on the page. Some words were still recognizable but most of it was a gibberish of words.
What the heck?
Percy stared at the gravestone. Wondering if Leo himself did this. If he did, then why?
More curious than before he skimmed through the pages.
- ███ Olympians ████ ███ ███ ██████ ████ ████ ████ ███ ████ ███████ ████ ████ ███ █ ██ ████ ███ ███
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- ███ ████ ███ ███ ██████ ████ ████ ████ ███ ████ ███████ ████ ████ ███ █ ██ ████ ███ ███- ███ Prophechy ████ ███ ███ ██████ ████ ████ ████ ███ ████ ███████ ████ ████ ███ █ ██ ████ ███ ███ ███ ████ ███ ███ ██████ ████ ████ ████ ███ ████ ███████ ████ ████ ███ █ ██ ████ ███ ███ ███ ████ ███ ███ ██████ ████ ████ ████ ███ ████ ███████ ████ ████ ███ █ ██ ████ ███ ██████ False Hero████ ███ ███ ██████ ████ ████ ████ ███ ████ ███████ ████ ████ ███ █ ██ ████ ███ ███ ███ ████ ███ ███ ██████ ████ ████ ████ ███ ████ ███████ ████ ████ ███ █ ██ ████ ███ ███
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Day 2█:
Apollo ███ █████ ████ █████████ ███████ ████ ███ ███ ██████ ████ ████ ████ ███ ████ ███████ ████ ████ ███ █ ██ ████ ███ ███ ███ ████ ███ ███ ██████ ████ ████ ████ ███ ████ ███████ █████ ████ ███ █ ██ ████ ███ ███ ███ ████ ███ ███ ██████ ████ ████ ████ ███ ████ ███████ ██████ ████ ███ █ ██ ████ ███ ██████ ████ ████ ███ ███████ ████ ████ ████ ████ ██████ ████ ████ ███ █ ██ ████ ███ ███
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███ ███████ ██████ █████ ███ ███,
████████ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ██████ ████,
██████ ███ ████ ███ █on of Poseidon ████ ████ ███ ██████,
██ ████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ████ ███ truth ███████ ██ ████.
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I t████ ███ ███ ███ ████ ███ ███ ██████ ████ ████ ████ ███ ████ ███████ ██████ ████ ███ █ ██ ████ ███ ██████ ████ ████ ███ ███████ ████ ████ ████ ████ ██████ ████
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D██ ██:
-T█phon Awaken█d
Percy scratched his head. He has grown used to words just slithering across paper because of his Dyslexia but he thought he had a fairly decent grip on it.
No, this was definitely not just his mind playing tricks on him. His gut instinct told him that much.
Percy tried to see how much more of the book was like this but to his dismay he found that from that page on, several pages were ripped out of the book. Their existence is only marked by the ragged lines of the parts that remained.
He flipped back to the break between day 3 and 8, finding similar marks of vandalism.
It started to frustrate him. He wanted to know what happened in those missing days. Did Leo figure anything out?
He gazed up at the sky, as if expecting to find the answer in the stars.
The unapparent summer air had slowly started to fade away, making place for a cooler swift breeze to pick up the slack.
He looked down at the journal, which proved to be less useful than he had hoped. There was one page he hadn't turned. It was the final page of the book.
He wasn't sure why. Maybe he was afraid of what he'd find.
A funny feeling started to curb his stomach, driving him to flip the final page.
His eyes widened when he saw the text wasn't crossed out.
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I can't go on anymore. Festus' wings are acting up again and I fear this time I won't be able to fix anything.
Our quest has failed.
All the oracles have been destroyed, the answer to this problem is still the same mystery as the day this madness started. Calypso and I traveled across the country but we didn't achieve a single thing. I tried, we tried. We tried our goddamn best but I am at my end.
The twins are after us and I know we can't hide from them for very long. If you're reading this then I am sorry to disappoint you. There is nothing left.
This island will be our final safe haven, the twins will be upon us very soon so I might as well make the best of the little time I have left.
Somewhere in all of this something, or someone, is laughing at the irony of this.
I know it.
Regardless, this is where I died.
I'm sorry I couldn't fix this problem.
Captain Leo.
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Percy got up from his rock. His legs felt like jelly and his head buzzed. He thought he would cry but his tear ducts had gone dry.
Without even processing it he started to pick up the backpack with the stuff he had managed to collect from the pile. He slung it over his back and felt in his pocket, touching the fabric of Annabeth's Yankees cap. In the other pocket his hand brushed against the sharp form of a pen.
Percy turned to face the two gravestones. They formed a stark contrast with the dark blue sea behind them. Words he had to say were stuck in his throat.
What was appropriate to say? What could he even say in a situation like this?
He coughed before finally finding the words necessary.
"Leo, Calypso. I don't know what the hades is going on. But I promise I'll figure it out for you and make sure everything will be alright."
He tried to smile. The silhouette of the gravestones didn't seem to care. Past the metal dragon Percy could see a small raft shimmering in the beach. The same he had taken last time to leave this island.
Percy strode towards it, his heart feeling shockingly similar to last time he left this island.
He wondered how cruel the Fates could be.
This time he wouldn't just leave Calypso behind.
But Leo as well.
A/N Another chapter.
Not much to say honestly. Maybe just the fact that I am bussy and i am doing bussy stuff. Yeah, lets keep it at that.
Uhm, leave reviews? I dunno what people think of this fic.
Anyway, hopefully I will se you all later.
-CaptainMoonShine-