Chapter 9 I try to kill a god

Percy POV

After we collectively panicked for a few seconds about how we'd manage to finish the quest Annabeth's calm and collected brain kicked in and she started to develop a plan. Said plan was essentially, don't think too far ahead and just focus on getting to L.A and we'd take it from there. Annabeth wasn't particularly impressed when I told her that getting to L.A was easier said than done as we had about thirty bucks to our collective names, she just told me to shut up before she hailed a cab and got in.

"How's she planning on paying for this?" I quietly asked Grover as we followed Annabeth into the cab which smelt like cigarette smoke, he just shrugged. Thirty dollars wouldn't even get us out of the city.

"Los Angeles, please," Annabeth politely told the cabbie who raised an eyebrow at her in the rear view mirror, he chewed his toothpick for a second before speaking.

"That's three hundred mile," he told Annabeth -who probably already knew that- in a thick accent. "Gotta pay up front for that." I was ready to open the door and get back out when Annabeth asked,

"Do you take casino debit cards?"

"Sum'o 'em. Need swipe 'em first tho'," the cabbie answered only saying about half the syllables. Annabeth handed him her green lotus card. "Lotus? I never heard o' the place and I lived 'ere twenty years."

"Just try it please," Annabeth asked him. The driver did as she asked and swiped the card through his meter machine, the three of us waited with baited breath to see if the card would be accepted. We let out our breath as we saw the numbers start to climb, and climb, and climb. Soon the machine's red six digit segmented display was showing six nines before it changed to just read ERROR. The cabbie's toothpick fell out of his mouth and he turned to face us with wide eyes through the plastic screen.

"Err where in Los Angeles to ma'am?" Annabeth sat up straighter as she was addressed formally, I could tell she liked it. I hope she doesn't get too used to it. Annabeth paused for a second as we didn't actually know where in L.A we'd find Hades.

"Griffith observatory," Annabeth answered, either she had a plan I didn't know about or she just picked a random place in the city. "The faster we get there, the bigger your tip." I got the feeling she maybe shouldn't have told him that as the cab shot off faster than I thought was possible.

The desert began to fly past at a hundred miles an hour through the cab's scratched windows to the soundtrack of classic rock on the cab's tinny radio. I assumed that the cabbie wasn't worried about getting a ticket when a tip from such a wealthy passenger was on the line.

"Lotuses…time…lotus…forget…" Annabeth mumbled under her breath obviously trying to figure out what happened at the casino. "Lotus…wanted to stay…" Grover and I sat in silence as we knew from experience that if we tried to speak we'd instantly be shut down, we'd learnt the hard way that when the daughter of Athena is thinking you don't do anything to distract her.

"Got it!" She finally exclaimed, Gover and I waited for her to explain while the cabbie just jammed out in the front -which was good as no doubt the rest of this conversation wouldn't make any sense to the mortal. "That was the lair of the lotus eaters!"

"The who?"

"The lotus eaters," Annabeth repeated. "They lived on a small island which Odysseus visited during his travels. The people there would eat the lotuses which were said to make anyone who ate them forget everything including their homes and stay there forever in a state of bliss. There has been some historical contention as to whether or not it was actually lotuses they ate or if that was lost in translation."

"So they were a bunch of stoner hippie people that like the gods are now in America?" I asked, ignoring her last bit of trivia.

"Yeah, it's safe for you to assume anything from Greece is now here," she explained. "The casino must be their modern version of their island. Although I don't know how they dosed us with the lotus."

"The food," I said before explaining the warm drowsy feeling that my slurpee and pizza had given me.

"But I don't remember eating anything. Perhaps there was a secondary means of administration…" she trailed off in thought.

"How come Percy was able to break out of it?" Grover raised a good point, while I had initially been entranced by the casino I was never as into it as the others. For me it just seemed like the novelty of the place rather than some drug induced amnesiac bliss.

"I… I don't know," Annabeth sighed.

"Maybe it's got to do with my parentage?" I suggested.

"Possibly," Annabeth said, thinking, "But Thanatos isn't known for that. Maybe it has to do with your secret admirer."

"Okay, referring to her like that makes it sound like something totally different," I said knowing that she was talking about the strange woman who saved me at the arch.

"Well you did ditch us and spend the night with her," Grover added unhelpfully with a smirk.

"Oh shut up!" I couldn't help but smile slightly, it was good to have a bit of a joke as the quest had mostly just been stressful and dangerous, and was only going to get worse. "It could have been her but why would she protect me from some lotuses?"

"Well obviously she's interested in us or you specifically completing the quest." Annabeth said.

"True."

"Have you spoken with her since the arch?" Grover asked.

"Nah, the only time I slept was. Oh shit." While I hadn't spoken with the strange woman -I really need a better way to refer to her- since I was in her house I did have another dream that I'd meant to tell the others about.

"What?"

"I haven't spoken with the woman but I did have another dream," I began to explain the dream I'd had in the armored truck. The pit and the voice emanating from it as well as the other speaker I couldn't see, the details were fuzzy but the words from the cold disembodied voice stayed with me.

"You're sure they were talking about you and an exchange?" Annabeth asked me.

"Yeah, definite about the exchange, pretty sure about them talking about me, at least that's the way it sounded."

"Hmm." Annabeth didn't say anything else for a moment. "And the other voice, the servant, they definitely offered to have brought it directly?"

"For sure. Any idea who they were and what they were on about?"

"Well the master guy must be Hades, right?" Grover chipped in.

"It might be Hades," Annabeth started, "But it doesn't really sound like him, he's normally depicted in his throne room, this pit seems like something else," she finished darkly.

"Like what?" I could tell that she had an idea she wasn't sharing with us.

"Like… no nevermind." I could tell that she didn't mean it but before I could press her Grover spoke again.

"And what do you think they were on about? The bolt?" Annabeth shook her head slightly.

"If it is Hades then surely he already has it," She said. "Something isn't adding up."

The rest of the journey only took a couple hours as the cab hardly dipped below a hundred miles an hour until we had to slow as we hit traffic in L.A.

"Why are we going to an observatory?" I asked Annabeth, "It better not be another sightseeing trip that'll get us attacked, twice is enough for this quest," I said remembering the independence hall and St Louis arch, Annabeth had dragged us to both only for us to nearly die at both of them.

"I thought it'd give us a good vantage point of the city while we figure out where to find Hades," Annabeth explained. I figured that it would be better for us to go somewhere in the inner city as it would be more convenient to get to wherever the entrance to the underworld is rather than having a top down view of the city. My guess was that she was secretly hoping to go inside the observatory if she could despite her denying it.

The cab started climbing through the hills of Griffith park, past somewhere called the Greek theater which I really hoped wasn't a monster's lair as I wasn't in the mood to be attacked by the ghost of a playwright or something. The cab dropped us off outside the large observatory and Annabeth gave the driver a hefty tip courtesy of the lotus casino.

The observatory was rectangular and made of white stone with a dome on each end. In the middle was a third, larger dome that Annabeth said housed the planetarium whatever that was. We stood in front of a large pointed marble monument that had statues of men around the base and was tipped with what looked like an atom but was probably something astronomical. A few tourists milled about the grounds of the observatory taking pictures and admiring the view of L.A.

"How're we supposed to find an entrance to the underworld?" Grover voiced a question I had been thinking of asking.

"Percy, there should be a map of L.A in the bag," Annabeth told me so I started rummaging through the backpack.

After pulling out Grover's last tin cans, Annabeth's invisibility cap and a pair of my mismatched socks -So is it really a pair?- my hand brushed against something hard and cold. Huh? What's that? As far as I knew there was nothing that felt like that in the bag. Whatever it was wasn't in the main compartment of the backpack, I had to search for a small hidden zipper on the inside of the bag which opened a narrow side pocket that ran the length of the bag.

"Oh shit," I said looking into the side pocket to the confusion of my friends. "Guys, please tell me that's not what I think it is." Annabeth and Grover took turns looking in the bag before cursing in Greek.

"If what you think it is, is Zeus' master bolt," Grover started.

"Then yes, it is exactly what you're thinking," Annbeth finished. The master bolt was about two feet long and a few inches in diameter, it was made of similar looking celestial bronze as riptide. Overall it didn't really look like a divine weapon of mass destruction, it certainly didn't look like something that would cause a war between the gods but if I've learnt one thing being a demigod it was that looks can be deceiving (and never litter around a dryad).

"How the fuck did we end up with the master bolt?!" I exclaimed, it was a question but I knew the others must be just as confused as I am.

"No idea but it's good isn't it?" Grover asked. "It means that we don't have to try and get it off of Hades." It was no secret that he wasn't eager to go to the underworld and face the lord of the dead.

"Yes it's good that we don't go to the underworld but it leaves us with a bigger problem," Annabeth said.

"What?"

"There's a traitor among the Olympians."

Annabeth's statement would've made for a great cliffhanger if this was a movie or book but we're only 2k words in -wait what? I mean but this is real life and there's no such thing as cliffhangers in real life.

"Who?" Grover asked the daughter of Athena but I was one step ahead of the satyr.

"Who gave us the backpack?" I answered his question with my own, Grover's eyes went wide with realization.

"But why would Ares betray Olympus?"

"We can figure that out later," Annabeth said, "Now we need to get the bolt back to New York ASAP."

"How're we going to do that?" I asked only for the latter half of my sentence to be drowned out by what at first sounded like a rumble of thunder. The rumbling continued and grew louder, as it went on I realized that it wasn't thunder, it sounded more like a familiar obnoxious motorcycle that belonged to an even more obnoxious owner.

The Harley tore up the gently winding road to the observatory with the war god sitting proudly atop it. With a stamp of the footbrake the rear wheel locked up and slid out to the side as Ares essentially drifted the bike to a stop around fifteen feet in front of us. Ares stayed sat on his bike smirking at us from behind his sunglasses.

"Well well well," he said after killing the bike's engine. "You were supposed to die with the bolt in the underworld." I was pissed and it wasn't just thanks to Ares' presence.

"You! You stole the master bolt!" Ares grinned at me.

"Well I didn't steal it personally, gods can't just go around taking each other's symbols of power," he told us smugly. "You aren't the only hero who can run an errand."

"So who did? Clarisse?" Ares let out a laugh.

"That girl has many skills," he said. Really? I'm yet to see them. "But stealth and thievery are not some of them." I did have to agree with him there, his daughter was about as subtle as a freight train. "It doesn't matter who stole the bolt, the point is you're disrupting the war effort kid. You were supposed to die in the underworld supplying Hades with the bolt, Dad will be mad at him and old barnacle beard will have to choose a brother to side with. Soon we'll have a slugfest between the three biggest heavyweights in the division. That'll force the rest of the gods to choose a side and next thing you know, BOOM! We'll have a full scale war on our hands." He spoke with glee at the prospect of a full scale civil war among the gods.

"But they're your family!" Annabeth tried to appeal to Ares who just shrugged.

"Best kind of war, always the bloodiest. The cherry on top is that any gods who're killed will reform after a while pissed at whoever killed them and we'll get to repeat the whole process." Ares was a complete psycho which might not be surprising for the god of war but the joyful way he spoke of the gods -his family- killing each other was cold even for a war god.

"Why not keep the bolt for yourself?" I asked, if he was this desperate to start a war why give up the most powerful weapon? Ares stopped for a second with his head cocked slightly to the side.

"Yeah…why didn't I…that kind of firepower…" he mumbled to himself. He froze completely with his mouth half open and stayed like that for a few very uncomfortable seconds almost like he was listening to someone. Annabeth and I exchanged nervous looks. Ares seemed to return to normal before he spoke again. "I uh didn't want the hassle, easier for you to be caught with it."

"You're lying." I didn't need a polygraph to tell that he was full of shit. "This wasn't your plan."

"Of course it was!" I'd heard more convincing recordings of alien transmissions.

"You didn't order the theft did you?" I guessed. "Someone else got a hero to steal the bolt. I assume Zeus had a bunch of you looking for it and you found the thief. You didn't turn them in though, something or someone convinced you otherwise. You kept the bolt until you found someone to complete the delivery." I smiled internally at myself feeling like my deductions were worthy of a child of Athena. "The voice from the pit," I continued my theory, "Whoever that is, they're the one who's pulling the strings."

"I'm the god of war!" Ares bellowed, "I don't take orders from anybody! And I don't have dreams!" I glanced at Annabeth.

"I didn't mention dreams…" Ares' eyebrows raised and I assumed that his eyes widened behind his shades -which weren't nearly as cool as mine- as he looked shocked before trying to cover it with a smirk, although I could tell he was shaken.

"Whatever, that doesn't matter." Ares stepped off of the back of his motorcycle. "The problems we have here are that you're alive and the bolt isn't in the underworld, the first is easy to fix and I'll deal with the second after. It's not personal but I can't have you getting back to the rest of the family can I? Well, I said it's not personal but I won't lie and say I won't enjoy it."

He stamped his boot on the ground and a loud squealing sounded from near the observatory. A giant boar tore round the corner of the observatory before coming to a stop next to Ares. The boar was probably a little over twice the size of a regular boar meaning it stood at around six feet at the shoulder with tusks that were similar size to my forearm. It stood next to it's master, glaring at me with red eyes.

"Too scared to fight me yourself?" I couldn't help but taunt the god, I fished riptide out of my jeans and held the pen in my right hand. "Fight me yourself, don't hide behind your pet or is that your girlfriend?" Ares laughed but there seemed to be an uneasiness to it.

"Punk you kill a gorgon and a bronze dragon and all of a sudden think you're a match for me? You don't have what it takes."

"Buck buck buck bugawk." The chicken noises left my mouth before I had time to stop myself. I have a serious problem with shit talking. Ares' growled at me while I heard Annabeth sigh from beside me. I have a feeling that if I survive this she's going to lecture me about the way I talk to gods.

"Say goodbye punk," Ares growled before he made a click with his tongue which was the signal the boar needed as it began to charge me.

"Percy, run!" Annabeth yelled.

Instead of taking her advice I stepped forwards slightly and uncapped riptide leaving me holding the full size bronze sword. I sidestepped the boar and swung riptide horizontally, dragging the tip along the overgrown pig's side. The boar let out a squeal as it barreled past me, the cut hadn't been lethal but the boar was now leaking a serious amount of blood from the couple foot long gash in its side. Thankfully Annabeth and Grover had cleared the area as the momentum of the boar caused it to end up exactly where they had been standing. After managing to come to a halt the boar did a one-eighty and began to charge me again, as the boar neared me I got a strong feeling of deja vu back to my fight with the minotaur which gave me a plan as to how to kill it. I sidestepped the boar again and as I expected it continued to charge past me -directly into the monument in the middle of the lawn in front of the observatory. I took advantage of the situation and thrust riptide into the boar's ribcage, it let out one last pained squeal before falling to the floor. Unlike my previous enemies the boar's carcass remained indicating that it was an animal not a monster.

"I can see why boars are your sacred animal," I said to Ares who seemed surprised that I'd killed it as easily as I had. "You're both ugly and as thick as pig shit." Ares let out a growl and took off his studded leather jacket. "Are you going to fight me or are you going to hide behind another one of your girlfriends?"

"You really want to be smashed to a pulp don't you punk?" Ares threatened me as his face was turning purple with rage. He held his hand out to the side and a large two handed sword materialized, the blade was bronze and had a silver skull in the hilt with a ruby embedded in its mouth.

"If you win, you get the bolt. If I win we get it and you have to let us get to Olympus," I laid out the deal of the duel. Ares gave a slight nod, evidently confident he'd win.

"Percy, don't do this, he's a god," Annabeth warned me.

"He's a traitor," I told her. "Plus how're we supposed to get back to New York with him trying to kill us?"

"Ready to finally meet your dad, death boy?" It was my turn to nod now.

"Be careful," Annabeth told me wrapping me in a quick hug.

"Good luck bro," Grover said patting me on the shoulder.

"All done saying goodbye?" Ares asked as I turned to face him again. "I've been fighting for eternity kid, my strength is unlimited and I can't die. I've been worshiped since the days of old, Spartans would sacrifice their children to me. What do you have?"

"A smaller ego for one."

Ares began to approach me with his sword glinting in the sunlight. Once he was in range he cleaved his sword down towards my head but I wasn't there as I'd rolled forwards and swung riptide upwards. The strike that should've cut along Ares' back just bounced off of the god's sword as he had rapidly managed to turn.

"Not bad punk," he commented. "But it's not going to be enough."

He pressed forwards towards me with a barrage of strikes. I had to use all my concentration to not be sliced to shreds as I blocked and dodged, unable to find an opening for my own attacks, I had a feeling that the main thing keeping me alive was my ADHD. One of the issues I was facing -along with the war god's skill- was that his sword wasn't the same one handed greek style as riptide, it was closer to a medieval style sword which meant he had nearly a good couple feet more reach than I did. Get in close, I had a memory of someone telling me, When you've got the shorter reach get on the inside, The voice was male but wasn't Luke from my sword lessons at camp but I didn't have the time to figure out who had told me that.

I stepped inside trying to catch Ares with a thrust but Ares had been waiting for it. He grabbed my wrist before kicking me hard in the chest sending me flying ten to fifteen feet through the air. I came crashing to the ground on the lawn that surrounded the monument that I'd used to kill the boar and felt all the air leave my lungs when I hit the ground. I probably have some broken ribs, I thought as immense pain flared in my chest. I'd dropped riptide when I'd been kicked which meant I was left defenseless, kneeling on the grass and gasping for breath.

"Percy!" Annabeth yelled with concern from somewhere far away from where I was kneeling.

"Give up punk," Ares said slowly walking towards me. "I'm just toying with you."

I knew it was true, I'd need a miracle to beat him. I'd struggled to keep up with the god when I was armed and uninjured, everything in me wanted to keep fighting but realistically I knew I stood no chance now. You do have a chance, my favorite dream visitor reassuringly said in my head.

"How? I don't have riptide," I wheezed out under my breath, "I traded it for a few broken ribs instead."

"What was that punk? You begging for mercy?" Ares asked teasingly, I hadn't even realized that I'd spoken to the woman out loud. Lead him into the observatory, The woman told me. Riptide will return to you as always.

"I wasn't talking to you," I said, this time addressing the approaching god.

"Praying to your daddy then?"

"Nah," I said finally getting to my feet. "You aren't the only one being helped by a dream visitor."

"What?" Ares stopped for a second, confused.

"Come on," I said ignoring him and starting to walk towards the observatory taking a risk by turning my back on my enemy. "Let's go look at some stars." It wasn't far from the monument to the observatory and I should have been able to get there before Ares got to me but the god had other plans.

"You're trying to run away now?" He taunted me. "You got yourself into this fight, we're going to finish it, here and now." Ares clicked his fingers and a wall of red flames spread along the pathways around the lawn with the monument in the middle, trapping me in a square with Ares while Annabeth and Grover were stuck watching through the inferno.

Fuck, there goes your plan. I told the woman, now I had no way out of this. Language Percy! The woman scolded me. I'm about to be killed by a traitorous olympian and you're worried about me swearing?! This woman needed to get her priorities in line. My priorities are very much in line, thank you very much! Ok miss priorities, how about instead of listening to my thoughts you help me survive? See the shadow of the monument? Yeah. Get to it, I'll handle the rest.

Getting to the shadow was easier said than done as Ares stood between me and it. While the lowering sun had meant that the shadow had been long, reaching the edge of the lawn a couple of minutes ago. Now the light from the flames around us had shrunk it down to maybe five feet sprouting from the base of the monument.

"Ready to die punk?" Ares stood holding the large sword in his right hand, while a mortal man would've needed both hands on the sword; strength evidently wasn't an issue for the god. I began to jog towards Ares as fast as I could whilst not being able to breathe properly, aiming for his left side. "Not just ready, you're eager," Ares grinned. He raised his sword which he still held in one hand. With his sword in his right hand and me aiming for his left, chances are he'll go for a right to left slash, I ran through my plan in my head as I neared Ares. I wasn't as confident in my plan as I'd have liked but it was the best one I had, I needed to get to the shadow as I wouldn't stand a chance without the woman's help.

As I neared the smirking god I was relieved when he started slashing as I had expected. I ducked and rolled under the sword diving to the right of Ares. I felt the wind rush past me as the bronze blade whistled closely by. Ares cursed and spun on his heel as I ended up behind him. I managed to dive into the shadow before he could attack again. I hope to the gods this woman knows what she's doing, I could have sworn I heard a slightly annoyed huff. It was the second time I'd trusted my life to the woman, both times by diving into a shadow and like the time at the arch a cold chill ran through my entire body, like I'd just jumped into an ice bath and the next second I was standing on the outside of the flaming square with my back to the observatory. Your wish has been granted, the woman said with a hint of smugness, Now, get inside! Through the flames I could see Ares still standing by the monument evidently confused as to where I'd gone.

"Hey boar-brain!" I shouted causing him to turn and see me standing outside of his little arena. At first he looked surprised that I'd managed to escape but once he got over that he just looked pissed, like really pissed.

"How the Hades did you manage that!" he roared starting to run towards me. I didn't see him do anything but the flames between us disappeared as they were useless now.

"Come and find out!" I yelled back before entering the observatory.

The first room I entered in the observatory was a large room with a high ceiling. There were doorways on my left and right as well as directly in front of me. The ceiling was covered in a mural which I was surprised to see depicted Atlas holding the sky, Zeus judging by the lightning bolts as well as a depiction of Kronos, Zeus' titan father.

I looked around trying to find out why the woman wanted me to come in here, it was only now that I realized that the place was empty despite it not being closing time. I assume that Ares had something to do with it, at the very least I doubt mortals would hang around with the inferno that he caused outside. The door to the right of the room had a sign over it that read Ahmanson Hall of the Sky I wasn't sure if I read the first word right or if my dyslexia jumbled it up as it wasn't a word I'd heard before, Maybe it's a name? Something was drawing me to the door leading to the hall of the sky, Maybe that's why she wanted me to come here? I started walking towards the door just as Ares burst into the observatory.

"There you are punk! You're not going to get away that easily."

I ignored the god and continued into the hall of the sky. The hall was larger than the main entrance with marble pillars supporting the much plainer ceiling. Along the walls were boards and plaques; the left side seemed dedicated to the sun and seasons and the right was dedicated to the moon, its phases and cycle as well as eclipses. While I'm sure Annabeth would've been interested in the boards and the telescope at the end of the hall, the most interesting thing to me was how the room made me feel. I felt like I'd just chugged about six energy drinks. Every fiber of my being buzzed and the pain in my chest had numbed to a slight aching. Good, you'll do better in here. Evidently this room was why the woman wanted me to lead Ares inside as I felt like someone had just dosed me with speed or something as all of my senses went into overdrive.

I had no idea why the room seemed to supercharge me but I didn't have time to figure it out as Ares finally caught up with me and stormed into the hall of the sky.

"Dead end punk!" He pointed his sword at me.

A small smile found its way to my mouth, not at the sight of the god but because I felt the now familiar feeling of riptide sitting in my pocket. I wasted no time grabbing the pen and uncapping it. Being re-armed and whatever was going in this room had me feeling much better than I had been.

Ares charged towards me and re-initiated the fight with a dual handed downwards cleave, acting on instinct I held riptide with both hands and used it to block his strike. Somehow I managed to stop Ares' sword despite the obvious discrepancy in strength. Ares seemed surprised by this which gave me chance to push his sword to the side and backhand slash riptide up, cutting through the stomach of his muscle shirt. The god let out a roar as I quickly backed up to avoid him counterattacking. The cut wasn't particularly deep, certainly not deep enough to cause any serious damage but golden blood began to leak from it.

"You stupid fucking demigod!" Ares snarled at me, "I'm going to slit your throat and take your head as a trophy," he spat.

"Come on then," I taunted, it might not have been wise but hey, what did I have to lose? He was already trying to kill me. Whatever about this room that had supercharged me had also had the result of significantly boosting my confidence as my senses were boosted and I was more aware of everything going on around me.

Ares charged forwards again and our swords clashed against each other. We continued going back and forth but unlike our fight outside I found it significantly easier to keep up with the god and even managed to go on the offensive a few times. After fighting for what felt like ages I was now sporting a cut on my shoulder and Ares had a second cut on his torso above the larger first one.

Thanks to my heightened senses I was aware of Grover and Annabeth standing by the door watching the battle with horror while I was still able to fight off Ares. When Ares had managed to cut me Annabeth had buried her head in Grover's jacket.

"Why won't you just fucking die!?" Ares yelled as he tried to decapitate me. I ducked under his sword meaning that he took a chunk out of the pillar behind me causing stone dust to rain down on my back. As I ducked down I stabbed the tip of riptide into the top of Ares' boot. Unable to move his foot out of the way quick enough Ares found himself unable to move it at all as riptide stapled his foot to the floor.

The entire room shook as Ares bellowed again. A wave of force pushed me through the air for the second time this afternoon however unlike outside I kept a hold of riptide causing the sword to be ripped out as I flew backwards. I crashed into a pillar -thankfully more gently than I had done outside- and slid down to the floor.

Ares' face was a mix of emotions; pain, shock, rage and disbelief that he'd been wounded yet again. He limped towards me, cursing in Greek under his breath and leaving a trail of golden blood that connected him to the pool of his blood that had rapidly formed. Ares stopped moving almost like a robot that had been switched off as a presence filled the room. While my senses still felt unnaturally sharp everything seemed to slow down, my breathing, the screens of the observatory's displays and the flow of Ares' blood all seemed to slow. The presence that had entered the room was heavy and evil, it reminded me of my dreams where I stood next to the never ending pit. As quickly as it came the presence left, leaving Ares looking as stunned as I felt.

"You've made an enemy today brat," he spat, literally spitting on the floor to his side. "One day, one day I'll end your pathetic mortal life." The god's body began to glow, a golden aura surrounding him.

"Percy!" Annabeth yelled from across the hall. "Don't look!"

I did as she said and screwed my eyes shut as the light continued to grow brighter. He must be revealing his true form, I somehow knew, if I opened my eyes now I'd end up as a puddle of dust. The light died and I opened my eyes; Ares was gone, whatever the presence was had convinced him not to kill me. I let out a sigh and before I could take my next breath my vision was obscured by a mass of blonde hair as a certain daughter of Athena crashed into me.

AN: I hoped you enjoyed! Please let me know what you think.