Nothing is mine.

Here we go, the one you've been waiting for.

Than Facing Fearful Odds

The web of beaten scrap metal squatted upon the bridge like a lobster cage. Distant lightning flashed amidst the swirling dark clouds out to sea and the wind screamed through the streets, sweeping tattered pieces of poster and scraps of litter back though the broken windows of the skyscrapers.

'Typhon must be near,' Annabeth murmured as the thunder crashed out over the waves. 'The Gods still fight against him.'

Above and below the sea, we fight. His dad's words rolled in like the distant crash of the tide. I must face Oceanus, but the sea will always be with you, my son. Go and take your place beside the greatest heroes of them all.

Percy stared out toward the storm, a small smile creeping across his lips. Thanks, dad.

'They are massing,' Iphi said, pointing her bow down the bridge.

A vast sprawling horde of monsters gathered at the far side beyond the scorched, charred chassis of ruined cars waving crude clubs and blades. The lightning flashed off the bronze points and the thunder crashed, ringing in Percy's ears as he shifted Anaklusmos into a blade.

'Can you bring this bridge down, Percy?' Thalia asked. 'If you destroy this one, they'll be stuck on the far side.'

'They'll just find another way,' Annabeth replied. 'Better to fortify this one and hold it against them, otherwise who knows how many they'll make and how many points we'll have to defend.'

'Athena's daughter speaks the truth,' Iphi said. 'They are slow to innovate, but when driven to it, they possess cunning enough to be troublesome quarry.'

'Luke,' Annabeth whispered. 'Luke is coming.'

A familiar figure stepped from the clamouring, the slim dark shape of the sickle on its shoulder and cold dread trickled down Percy's spine, pooling into an icy puddle in the pit of his stomach.

Thalia growled. 'I'm going to spit him on the end of this spear and zap him so hard we can use him for Thanksgiving lights.'

'He is not for you to face now, Thalia,' Iphi murmured.

Thali's fist clenched around the haft of her spear and she ground her teeth.

Clarisse snorted. 'Don't get all stroppy, Tree-princess. You know it's not meant to be you.'

Destined foes. Stand or fall. Percy stared down at the word burning upon the drakonscale thyreos in bright warm orange flame and took a quiet deep breath. Only a little longer now, Hestia said.

Luke strode closer.

Golden motes trailed in his wake like sparks streaming from the midnight bonfires of Montauk beach, swirling across the bridge. The cars rusted as he passed; they crumbled into the wind, fading away into the city.

Percy stepped out of the phalanx to meet him halfway.

'Perseus.' A voice as smooth as molten gold poured from Luke's mouth; golden sparks whirled in his eyes like a thousand stars spinning in the heavens. 'Son of Poseidon. Slayer of Hyperion, the Light Beholden to the World. I am Kronos, King of Kings.'

Kronos. The little puddle of dread rose, creeping up toward Percy's heart like cold dark water rising up the walls of a well. Not Luke. Kronos.

'You don't even have a crown,' Percy said. 'Or any other kings to be king of.'

Kronos stared through Luke's eyes from within that swirling gilded brightness. 'A king earns a crown, Perseus. I carved mine from the flesh of my father and beneath its tines the world flourished as it had never done before. My son cut his from me and cast me down to raise this world of weeds and glitter.'

'I know,' Percy replied. 'Chiron told me while pretending to be a man in a wheelchair, but my step dad told me when I was much younger.'

'I was told my children would overcome me. All that I had built, remade by them.' Kronos's words flowed like honey from Luke's lips. 'Fearful of the ruin of my golden age, I sought to prevent my childrens' coming.'

'And you ended up eating a rock, so it could've gone better, really.'

'I ate my children. When Rhea brought them forth with love, I devoured them in fear.' Kronos held his sickle out in Luke's hand; pinpricks of golden light welled up beneath Luke's skin, bursting out as bright sparks and swirling away in the wind. 'When Zeus overthrew me, I had long destroyed all I had built. Now, I will undo my failure. All this gaudy squalor risen like pustules from the surface of the world, I will restore to health. This miserable mire of concrete and steel that mankind drowns itself in to the pursuit of avarice and greed and gluttony, I will drain. All the strife and fear and doubt and despair, I will erase. I will gift you all a simple life of innocent toil and worship, untroubled by the complex, cruel machinations of the Fates, free of the burden of ambition and knowledge. Would you deny the world its second chance, Perseus? Would you deny your kin the lives they yearn for? Have you not felt the weight the Fates force upon you all? Have you not seen your brothers and sisters water this thicket of weeds my children rule over with their own blood?'

'Free of knowledge? Free of Fate? If we don't know what we're choosing, how can we choose well? If there is no Fate, there is no choice… And we have no freedom at all.' Percy stole a deep breath and wiped the sweat from his palms, his heart hammering against his ribs. 'I don't think it can ever go back, the nature of the world has changed.'

'So be it.' Kronos clenched Luke's hand tight around the hilt of the sickle; little golden sparks bled through the skin of his arm, trickling down his arm and over the blade like ichor. 'I will honour your death, Perseus, Slayer of Hyperion, as the falling of a king among demigods and a noble child of my own house and blood.' The sickle swept up into a salute; lightning flashed upon the blade and the first heavy drops of rain smacking down onto the tarmac. 'But no less than death you will receive at my hand.'

Percy raised Anaklusmos, pressing his lips to the cool bronze. Be—

Kronos lunged, thrusting his slim dark blade forward in a blur. Percy flinched aside as it hissed past his hip; Kronos placed one hand on the back of the sickle and thrust it his neck, but Percy jumped back and shoved the thyreos into his chest, pushing Kronos away.

Be brave. His heart raced, pounding in his chest as the thunder crashed overhead and the rain poured down, drumming on the tarmac and the steel bridge supports. Be brave.

'Typhon nears Olympus,' Kronos said, Luke's blonde hair plastered flat to his head and his t-shirt drenched and clinging to his chest. 'My children and their brood battle hard, but the only blade that can defeat Typhon is here. In my hands.'

Percy mustered a grin. 'I don't suppose you'd lend me that sword for about half an hour. I promise I'll bring it back so we can finish this afterward.' He frowned. 'Actually, aren't you breaking some kind of rules fighting me?'

Kronos smiled through Luke's lips. 'You're not fighting me, Perseus. You're fighting Luke, your friend. I'm just… offering a helping hand to my champion.'

'Is he still alive?' Percy asked.

'Of course. His will is my will. My strength his strength.' The point of the sickle swept up, trailing a swathe of golden sparks. 'As much as he can draw on, that is. He is still mortal, after all.'

'What happens to him?'

'He chose this. He will fight. You will die. I will cast down the thrones of my children and then in triumph he will join you on the banks of the Styx, destined for Elysium.' Kronos flexed Luke's fingers on the hilt of the blade. 'Afterwards, I will hurl Typhon and all those who do not bow their heads before me into suffering.'

'Well, Luke might have chosen.' Percy raised Anaklusmos, drawing all the sea back into a tight ball within him. 'But I get to choose too.'

'You have chosen.' Pinpricks of golden light swelled beneath the skin of Luke's arm as Kronos stepped forward and slashed at Percy's waist with one hand. 'You chose death.'

The sickle hammered into Anaklusmos, smacking it back into Percy's stomach and hurling him back into the side of the bridge; white-hot pain flashed across his back and between his shoulder blades a fierce tingling prickled along his spine.

Stand. Stand up. Percy rolled onto his front and rose to his knees as the thunder tore through the sky overhead; gasping for breath, he clutched Anaklusmos's hilt tight and sucked in deep lungfuls of cold air. I promised.

Kronos turned away, his swirling golden eyes flicking up to the Empire State Building. The monsters streamed past Percy and crashed into the line of bronze shields beneath Clarisse's cloven crimson-crested helm. Harpies wrenched at the metal chain fencing welded to the thick ribs of scrap metal, screeching and screaming as silver arrows punched small holes through their flock.

Stand up. Percy dragged himself to his feet and the monsters swerved around him, piling into the heaving horde struggling against the phalanx. Kronos mustn't reach Olympus.

Annabeth's cage crumbled to rust as Kronos approached and the harpies flooded in, clawing and pecking at the faces of Clarisse and her brothers in the front line of the phalanx. A searing flash of white scattered golden dust into the fierce wind and sent monsters sprawling across the tarmac. A handful of harpies fled back over Kronos's head as he paused before the line of bronze hoplons. Percy sprinted back down the bridge, jumping over fallen monsters.

'Screw off, you damn vultures!' Thalia yelled as Annabeth yanked her to the back of the phalanx. 'Annie, get off!'

Kronos leapt over the phalanx in a flash of golden light, trailing a swathe of bright sparks like the wake of a comet, and landed amidst Iphi and her sisters. He slapped silver arrows away with the back of his hand and set off along the road.

Iphi drew the knife from her belt and stepped into his path.

'No!' Percy yelled, shoving his way past Clarisse and Thalia, cold waves of fear wrenching at his heart. 'Iphi no!'

Iphi lunged. Kronos caught her silver knife in his hand and hurled her through the glass window of the street, breaking into a run.

'Percy!' Clarisse stepped to his side, the lightning flashing on her bronze hoplon. 'We're with you.'

'Hold the bridge,' he said.

'But—'

The thunder crashed overhead.

'This bit is just for me.' Percy grabbed her shoulder and pointed at the phalanx. 'Not one step back, Clarisse. Not one.'

Clarisse clenched her jaw. 'Yes, strategos,' she whispered, turning back to the bridge. 'Honour and immortality.'

'Perce!' Thalia yelled. 'Wait for me!'

'Go back!' Percy called over his shoulder. 'Help Iphi and hold the bridge. I can fight Luke, if they all get through, they'll overwhelm us.'

'No!' Thalia shouted. 'I'm coming with you!'

He twisted around.

Thalia jogged past the last of her sisters, waving her spear, a furious glare on her face and water streaming out of her short dark hair.

'Go—'

Lightning crackled across the sky and struck the skyscraper above. Broken glass showered down. Thalia threw her shield up, grimacing as shards of glass shattered on the ground around her and bounced back, slicing thin red lines across her shins.

The skyscraper shuddered, chunks of concrete crashing down as the thunder pealed in the thick dark clouds swirling above the city.

'Thalia, go back!' Percy yelled, turning on his heel and breaking into a sprint, shielding his eyes from the rain with the thyreos.

It should be me. Zoë's last bright smile hung before his mind's eye as he ran, bathed in the silver splendour of Artemis's pride. No more Biancas. No more Calypsos. Just me. Right, Zoë?

A deafening crash rolled over him and the ground shook, a cloud of dust rushing past as he sprinted along the streets, zig-zagging toward the Empire State Building. Percy buried his nose and mouth in the crook of his elbow and ran, stumbling over the potholes and slipping on the slick, metal drains as he turned the corners toward the tallest shadow above the swirling dirt.

Kronos smashed Luke's foot through the doors of the Empire State, ripping them off their hinges and sending them bouncing away along the floor.

'Get to the elevator,' Annabeth snapped in his ear. 'If we break the elevators, he can't get to the top.'

Percy's blood ran cold. 'You're meant to be at the bridge,' he retorted, bounding up the steps. 'I said stay at the bridge.'

'Bite me, Fish-face,' she hissed, her footsteps crunched through the broken glass ahead of him into the atrium. 'You'll only do something stupid if I let you go by yourself.'

I'm going to have to do something you won't like anyway, Wise-girl. That's how it works.

Kronos stood before the right hand elevator, the key-card in one fist and the security guard sprawled at his feet. 'Perseus.' He raised the sickle from his shoulder as the elevator dinged and the doors rumbled open. 'Come. Your final choice is made. Fate awaits.'

But not regret. Choose well and there's nothing to fear. Percy smothered the waves of cold dread churning in the pit of his stomach beneath the breath-taking flash of pride in Artemis's molten silver eyes. Be brave.

Percy charged across the marble, drawing the sea back within himself; the wave swelled high, a towering wall of dark water, its foaming peak scraping the sky. He wrapped both hands around Anaklusmos and swung at Kronos's head.

Golden motes of light trailed the slim black sickle as it swept up.

Not this time. Percy threw the wave forward and let it break.

Anaklusmos hammered into Kronos's blade, sending Kronos staggering back into the elevator in a shower of bright sparks. Percy thrust Anaklusmos into his ribs, smashing him back into the elevator mirror; cracks snaked across the glass.

A long slash tore across the hip of Luke's faded camp t-shirt.

Annabeth.

Kronos thrust out his forearm, knocking Annabeth back into the lift buttons, and the doors rumbled shut.

Percy slashed at his chest, but Kronos caught the Anaklusmos in his hand and thrust at Percy's stomach; his sickle bounced off the thyreos and scored a deep scratch through the floor.

The lift jerked to a halt, sending them stumbling into the side of the elevator. Percy dropped Anaklusmos and grabbed the sickle by blade, heaving Kronos forward. They staggered back through the elevator doors, rolling across the floor.

Percy bounced to his feet, wrenching the sickle from Kronos's grip. 'Gotcha.'

Kronos jumped to his feet, wreathed in tiny shimmering sparks, and ripped the sickle from Percy's hand in a blur of golden light. 'Typhon is almost upon us.' He cocked his head and lashed out to his left, slicing a deep line through the wall. 'You always come from the same side.' A sad gleam hovered in the blue beneath the whirling golden lights in Luke's eye as he tracked Annabeth's footsteps across the corridor to Percy's side. 'Even now.'

Anaklusmos sprang back into Percy's hand and he closed his fist around the sea, pulling it all back deep within himself.

Kronos stepped back into the elevator and the doors slid shut.

'Gods damn it,' Annabeth swore, snatching off her invisibility cap and mashing the button on the other elevator with the pommel of her knife. 'Percy get over here!'

He trudged across the chips of plaster and paint. 'Do we have a plan?'

'A plan?' She took a long deep breath. 'Yes. We go up. You fight him. Try and keep him still. I'll put the cap back on and go for where I think his Achilles Heel is. Whatever nonsense you were saying about him having to abandon what anchors him doesn't matter. He's obviously already abandoned everything to do what he's doing.'

'Works for me,' Percy said. 'Can we get up without the card?'

'I have the card. I took it out of the other elevator.' Annabeth opened her left fist, revealing the slim white square of plastic. 'But apparently it didn't actually stop that elevator from working, so we can only chase him up.'

The numbers on the elevator flicked up, stopping at sixteen.

Floor sixteen.

'Shall reach sixteen despite great woe,' he murmured as the doors rumbled open.

'What?' Annabeth snapped. 'What is that from?'

'Just a prophecy, Bird-brain. Nothing to get all those feathers all ruffled over.'

She grabbed his arm and dragged him into the elevator, jabbing the button for the top floor. 'What prophecy?!'

'It's okay. I don't think you feature much. It's just about me and Luke, really.'

The elevator whirred and accelerated upward.

Annabeth's lip trembled. 'If we live through this, I'm going to stab you.'

Percy laughed. 'Aim for something below the sleeve, please, Wise-girl. The last thing I need is to lose another t-shirt. This one's not even mine.'

She swiped her hand across her face. 'I swear I will, Percy. And if you—' her voice shook '—if you dare do something stupid…'

Guilt swept through him; one soft small wave of it rippling across his heart like the faintest touch of the breeze upon a still woodland pool. 'Annabeth…'

The elevator rumbled to a stop.

Annabeth vanished beneath her cap and the doors slid open.

Kronos's burning eyes stared back over Luke's shoulder as he stood in the centre of the throne room; golden sparks bled from him like dying embers, streaming across the white marble.

'Father.' Hestia stepped from the flames of the hearth, her orange eyes blazing and the slim, smouldering stick in her clenched fist. 'This is not your place. Leave.'

'Hestia. Daughter.' The golden aura flared. 'My firstborn child. My eldest—'

'Lastborn,' Hestia said. 'First devoured—' her gaze turned to Percy '—your defeat is at hand once more, crooked kinslayer.'

'My ungrateful children…' Kronos's long sigh slipped through Luke's lips and he ran a thumb along the edge of the sickle. 'What grandeur you have claimed for your own. You have grown weak in your indulgences, showering yourselves in gaudy things as you toy with the creations left in your greedy clutches.'

Hestia raised her small, slim stick, the white-hot tip shivering with fierce heat. 'If we are so weak, father, face us as you are. Lay down your challenge.'

Kronos swivelled on his heel. 'Choice was not given to you, daughter. It is a mortal burden. It is Perseus's.'

Annabeth's soft footsteps faded away to Percy's left.

Hold him still. Wait for Annabeth to stab the right spot. Percy spun Anaklusmos in his hand and clawed every handful of the sea back into his grasp as he stepped forward, raising the thyreos on his left arm. Don't disappoint.

Kronos slashed at Percy's thyreos, hooking the curved blade of the sickle around the drakonscale and ripping it aside. Percy caught the thrust on Anaklusmos's edge a finger's length from his chest, forcing Kronos's arm up over his shoulder and slamming the tip of his xiphos into Luke's stomach.

'Not there.' Kronos twisted Luke's lips into a smile as he lunged.

Percy parried and stepped back, swatting the flat of the sickle away on the thyreos and slashing a long thin line through the thigh of Luke's jeans. Kronos leapt forward, bringing the sickle down at Percy's head with both hands; golden sparks trailed from the slim dark blade and his bare arms. Percy threw the sea into the blow; his power broke on the sickle like a wave upon the cliffs, sending him staggering back, his fingers stinging and his arms aching.

Kronos's blade hissed at his face.

He ducked, heart pounding, as it whispered over his head and thrust. Anaklusmos's tip bounced back off Luke's forearm and Kronos wrapped both hands around the sickle's hilt, showering golden sparks across the marble and cutting at Percy's chest in short, sharp strokes. Percy dragged the wave back from the depths and hurled it forth, checking each blow of the sickle on Anaklusmos's bronze edge, scraping the scattered wash of his power up and throwing it into each blow. His arms throbbed, the muscles screaming and stinging and aching each time he turned the sickle aside.

'Even the sea has its limit, Perseus.' Kronos's violent triumph shone between the countless glowing golden stars swirling in Luke's blue eyes. 'You took Hyperion's head. I will take—'

He stumbled to his right, clutching at his left armpit. 'Annie,' Luke's whisper slipped through his lips. 'Annie knows.'

Just one chance. Percy leapt forward, thrusting Anaklusmos at Kronos's chest.

Kronos caught the bronze blade in his hand and twisted Percy's arm about, slamming the tip of the sickle into his stomach; the wind burst from his lungs and he sagged to his knees, gasping for breath as a fierce tingling swept down his spine.

'So you did bathe in the Styx.' Kronos twisted Luke's face into a scowl. 'You and Luke are so alike. Yet he knew it was not his place to change the world but mine. And you, you who thinks he can deny Kronos, King of Kings, will die for your hubris.'

Percy staggered upright. 'Annabeth,' he wheezed. 'Where—'

'Annie,' Luke pleaded. 'Annie please—'

'Annabeth.' Kronos's voice poured from Luke's lips, smooth and bright and fierce. 'Daughter of Athena. It is unwise to fight one so beyond your strength.'

Don't try to get the last word in, Wise-girl. Percy sucked in a deep breath, narrowing his eyes and staring at the smooth marble around them and straining his ears. Just stab him and end this.

He stepped toward Kronos and took a gulp of air; between his shoulder blades, the touch of that phantom hand tingled and stung and burnt all the way to the bone.

I just have to keep his attention for a few moments. Percy clutched Anaklusmos tight in his hand and swallowed hard. Like Zoë with Ladon.

'Kronos,' he said. 'My mortal point is between my shoulder blades.'

Kronos's gaze snapped to Percy; the countless golden stars swirling in the blue of Luke's eyes burnt through Percy to the prickling skin above his spine and all the hairs rose on the nape of his neck. He raised the sickle, shifting his weight toward Percy.

Footsteps echoed through the throne room.

Kronos swivelled and thrust.

The slim dark blade slid through Annabeth's chest with a soft whisper as she wavered back into view and the cap slipped from her head.

She stared down at it with wide grey eyes. 'Luke—'

Kronos twisted the sickle and ripped it free. 'You always come from the same side, girl.'

Annabeth slid to her knees with a soft gasp, blood pouring through her fingers; it stained her golden curls crimson, soaking her t-shirt and gushing across the pale marble. 'Luke,' she whispered, clutching her knife in his fist. 'You… promised... you swore… to us…'

She crumpled onto her back, her wide grey eyes staring up through the ceiling.

'Now your gambit is done and your companion is slain; you stand alone against the foe, Perseus.' Red dripped from the curved tip of the sickle in Luke's hand onto the white marble. 'And you chose death.'

A little ripple of rage swept through Percy. 'She defended you,' he murmured. 'Even when you got more and more of us killed, she defended you. She said you were just trying to help us, even if you weren't doing it right—'

A faint sad gleam hung in the blue of Luke's eyes beneath Kronos's violent bright golden power.

'You don't get to be sad!' Percy hissed. 'You chose this! You. Chose. This!'

The little ripple of rage rose, breaking apart into a thousand heaving waves; they churned and tore at one another beneath his breast in a seething swirl of salt spray.

It was meant to just be me. A scream stuck in the back of Percy's throat, caught amidst raging waves like a leaf trapped in the eye of the hurricane. I told him how to kill me so it would be me.

He felt the storm scream too; the violent frenzy of clashing waves swirled together into a single swell as high as the sky; a vast towering wall of black water, steaming with the cold pale mist of the Styx, its foaming white crest curling over like fingers into a fist.

Percy tore Anaklusmos free from Kronos's grip and slashed, hurling every last drop of fury behind the bronze edge of his blade.

The sickle caught his strike halfway between them in a flash of gold.

Olympus trembled.

Kronos staggered back as chunks of the marble floor crumbled away beneath them; thick black storm clouds boiled below, flickering with lightning as the silhouettes of the Gods strove against Typhon's vast shadow.

Percy struck again, hammering Anaklusmos into the slim dark blade with the weight of the great wave over and over, battering Kronos to his knees before Zeus's throne. 'You deserve suffering, Luke,' he spat, forcing the sickle down into Kronos's throat beneath Anaklusmos's edge. 'You let it change you into this. You betrayed your friends. You killed them. You've earned what you endured.'

Kronos smiled through Luke's lips, the golden stars swirling in his eyes, spinning in dizzying bright blurs; the light bled from them, seeping through Luke's skin into a shroud of shivering gold. 'You speak of suffering.' He caught Anaklusmos in one hand and ripped the blade from Percy's fingers. 'When you have never truly tasted it yourself.'

The sickle flashed up.

Percy thrust the thyreos in the way, but the blow clove the shield into two, sending the severed pieces bouncing away across the floor beside Annabeth's body as he stumbled backward. Kronos's foot hammered into his gut and he sprawled across the marble, gasping for breath on his hands and knees.

Stand. Percy snatched the knife from Annabeth's cold fingers. Stand up.

Kronos hurled Anaklusmos down into the storm.

Zoë's blade…

Percy's heart sank after it, dwindling down into the darkness, sinking into the bottomless black as the speck of bronze vanished into the roiling clouds.

'You chose to be brave.' Kronos's words dripped from Luke's tongue like honey; violent golden triumph burnt amidst the sombre blue of Luke's eyes as he levelled the sickle at Percy's ribs. 'And now you will die bravely. But history is written by victors and none will remember your courage as anything more than the last desperate gasp of a foolish boy.'

Percy raised Annabeth's knife. 'You haven't killed me yet.'

'Annie…' Luke whispered.

The sickle's edge hammered into the knife, biting into the bronze. Percy groped for the sea, but it trickled through his fingers and melted away.

Kronos twisted his wrists and shoved Percy's arms aside, raising the sickle. 'Now I will kill—'

'Percy,' Luke murmured.

The slim dark blade jerked aside, bouncing back off the marble and Kronos's shins to teeter on the crumbling marble edge above the storm and the vast dark shadow at its heart.

Typhon. Percy dived toward the sickle, slamming his shoulder into Luke's and kicking the blade into the hearth. For Hestia.

A small hand curled around the hilt; Hestia's orange eyes hung among the flames, blazing with triumph.

Kronos snarled. 'Daughter. Give—'

'No,' Luke whispered.

Hestia cast the sickle down into the storm with a small soft smile.

Kronos's howl of rage tore from Luke's lips, dwindling to a low snarl as they curved into a sad smile.

'Percy. Annie's knife.' Luke held out his right arm and the golden sparks swirling in his eyes froze still. 'Give it to me.'

Percy weighed the blade in his hand. 'What will you do?'

Luke's gaze drifted to Annabeth's still figure. 'Die.' Bitter guilt bled through the sadness in his blue eyes. 'It's more than I deserve.'

'I don't trust you. What happens to Kronos?'

'I don't blame you, I always had my tricks.' Luke opened his palm. 'But not this time. When I die, there'll be nothing keeping Kronos's power from scattering back to Tartarus. It'll all be over.'

Behind him, Elpis burnt upon the cloven halves of the drakonscale thyreos in letters of bright orange flame.

It doesn't have to be me. Percy flipped the knife and caught it by the blade. I'm not the only one who can choose well.

'What we do in life,' he murmured, pressing the hilt into Luke's hand, 'we echo in eternity.'

'I dread to think,' Luke whispered, passing the blade into his left hand, his knuckles turning white about the hilt. 'Where Annie's gone, I can't follow… But it all sounded so good. Imagine… being free of Fate…' He thrust the knife under his right armpit with a sharp gasp.

'You can't be free from your own choices,' Percy said. 'There's choice. And consequence.'

'You were right… I see now.' Luke released the knife and sank to his knees; red poured down his side, soaking his torn faded camp t-shirt and ripped jeans. 'There's always… so much blood…' A sad smile curved his lips and he reached out one arm, slipping his fingers through Annabeth's and clutching her hand tight. 'I'm sorry… I broke my… promise, Annie. I'm… so…'

The light faded from Luke's blue eyes and he fell onto his face in the crimson pool.

Percy stood alone amidst the thrones as their blood crept across the marble toward his toes; it soaked through their t-shirts.

She followed me. And she died.

His heart drifted down into the dark, dragged beneath the endless flood of black, a speck of sand below all the crushing weight of the waves, ground to dust and scattered into the empty glint of Annabeth's grey eyes and pale face.

'I thought it was meant to be me,' he whispered. 'You said only a little longer.'

Exhaustion dragged from him like seaweed trailing from the keel of a drifting ship and his legs trembled and shook. Percy swayed, stumbled back and slumped down against the arm of the throne behind him, closing his eyes.

But it was never me, was it, Hestia?

A flash of light seared through his eyelids.

Percy forced them open.

Zeus stood at the foot of his throne before the other Gods, drenched in golden ichor, Kronos's sickle in one fist. 'Typhon is cut down and imprisoned once more,' he declared, his gaze sweeping across the throne room. 'Oceanus is driven back to the depths of the seas and our father's vessel lies fallen here upon Olympus, his spirit scattered once more.'

A great cheer rang through the hall.

Percy released a long sigh. Then it really is over, right dad?

Over and won, Percy. His dad's words washed over him like the cool rush of the tide. And still you stand tall above the aftermath of the storm.

Artemis stepped through celebrating Gods, her auburn hair tumbling over gleaming scales of silver moonlight. 'Perseus,' she murmured, crouching beside him with a soft smile. 'This belongs to you.'

Anaklusmos's bronze blade shone in her hand.

'She died,' Percy said, Zoë's bright last smile shone among his fogged, jagged thoughts. 'Annabeth...'

'She was brave.' Artemis lay Anaklusmos across his lap. 'Like you.'

'I thought it would be me,' he muttered. 'I thought it should be me.'

'You only get to make your own choices, Perseus,' she murmured. 'Annabeth was brave and now she walks through the ever-green sunlit fields of Elysium. Be proud of the part you played in her story.'

Percy stared at the red-stained blonde curls lying across the blood-slickened marble, a hot lump swelling in his throat. 'I hope all those ever-green sunlit fields were planted in nice parallel lines.' Hot tears blurred on his lashes. 'Or she's never going to shut up about it.'

The corner of Artemis's mouth twitched and she glanced at the blade in his lap. 'Zoë would be so very proud of you, Perseus.' Fierce pride shone in the molten silver of her eyes as her gaze flicked back up to his. 'I know she would, for none of my companions have ever made me prouder than you have. Not even those among the stars.'

The breath slipped from Percy's lips; his heart soared, lifted on the soft gleam in her gaze like a feather floating over sunlit seas. 'I'm glad I didn't disappoint,' he whispered, clutching Zoë's blade to his breast. 'I gave my word, I wouldn't fall.'

'You kept your promise to Zoë,' Artemis murmured, resting her hand on his arm. 'She would be touched to know she inspired you to bear the weight of the world.'

Between his shoulder blades, the tips of a thousand hot needles prickled across his tingling skin slipping deep into his spine like countless tiny searing spears.

Percy stared at Artemis's slim fingers. But it wasn't Zoë's hand that lifted the weight of the world from my shoulders. The soft touch branded upon his back burnt through him to the bone. And all the things Zoë showed me, she learnt from…

'Artemis.' The whisper slipped from his lips, left hanging in the air as his heart sank into the cold black waters like the shreds of mist drifting from the banks of the Styx.

'Perseus?' Soft pride shone in her molten silver eyes; it snatched the breath from him and lifted his heart up into the heavens like a leaf swirling above the storm. 'You should rest, Perseus. I will take you back to the camp in Manhattan.' The corner of her mouth twitched. 'Your pyjamas are still there… Now, close your eyes.'

Percy let them slide shut and the darkness swallowed him.

AN: Check out the linktree to find more of all my stuff, Discord for early acccess, or come support me to get access to all my rough drafts and read all my original stuff!

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