Prologue

A half-blood of the eldest gods

The sky roared with thunder, and jagged bolts of lightning split the dark storm clouds above as Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus, stood at the edge of a destiny she could not escape.

Here on Mount Olympus, in the heart of the gods' domain, she lay sprawled among toppled columns and shattered statues. Kronos's single, crushing blow had not only hurled her to the marble floor—it had rattled the very core of this immortal place.

Pain flared across Thalia's body as she landed. The cold stone beneath her drained the warmth from her limbs. The sky above unleashed its wrath with a tempest of lightning and thunder. Dark clouds churned, as if the sky itself was witnessing the final act of an aeon-old play.

Shall reach sixteen against all odds

The verse, filled with the weight of destiny, became her anchor as she lay overwhelmed. Each memory of her sixteenth year—every hard-won battle, every impossible triumph—rose to meet her, not as scattered moments but as pieces of a grand design. Her life had not been aimless; it was a path carved by fate, each step pushing her toward this moment. She was the living testament of prophecy, her very essence the embodiment of the line 'against all odds'.

Kronos, the ancient and merciless lord of time, approached with the steady pace of inevitability. His progress towards her was methodical and chilling. Thalia's body ached, with every bruise and ragged breath urging her to stay down, to accept the futility of resistance. It was not just the physical pain that pinned her; a deep, gnawing sense of defeat encroached upon her spirit. The intense need to rise, to challenge the titan once more, was held back by a deep sense of despair that whispered seductively of an end to striving, an end to the fear, an end to the relentless march of duty. An end to everything.

And see the world in endless sleep

As Thalia lay on the cold marble, the meaning of the prophecy sharpened in her mind. The "endless sleep" was no metaphor; it was death—total and absolute. A silence that would smother every living thing, a shroud over the vibrancy of the world.

The weight of this truth bore down on her, heavier than the skies above. This was more than one life, more than one battle. Every moment of courage, every fight against fate, had led here, to the edge of a void that threatened to engulf all creation in shadow.

Doubt crept in, thick and suffocating. Her belief that she could change this course flickered, dimmed by the enormity of what lay before her. Engulfed by the gravity of her situation, it felt as if she, along with the entire world, might soon succumb to that endless sleep, with no hero left to awaken it from its nightmare.

The hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap

The words of the prophecy struck Thalia like a knife, each one cutting deeper. She had been there, frozen in Kronos's grasp, time itself binding her while the cursed blade reached its mark. She had fought to break free, screaming inside, but the Titan's hold was absolute. She could only watch, helpless, as the moment unfolded.

The memory burned worse than her wounds. The ache of her body on the marble was nothing compared to the sting of knowing she had been powerless, trapped in time as the prophecy turned to reality. The scene played on a loop in her mind, each repetition twisting the blade further.

All this, while the ancient Titan Kronos, unmoved by the audacity of the young demigods before him, proceeded with his relentless march toward dominion. Percy had risen in a surge of desperate valor, shouting with anger while lunging towards the dark lord with the fury of a storm. But Kronos dismissed him with a flick of his hand, sending him crashing to the ground beside Thalia.

The marble beneath her seemed to tremble with every step the Titan took. And as the tainted air around him bent and twisted, it was as though reality itself was warping under the strain of his corruptive aura.

Kronos's presence filled the air with a suffocating weight. Thalia felt its cold grip pressing against her, a quiet whisper urging her to give in. Percy, laying on the cold marble beside her, met Thalia's eyes, In his eyes, she saw the same exhaustion and doubt that threatened to pull her under.

A single choice shall end his days

The prophecy's words echoed in Thalia's mind, a relentless rhythm that matched the storm above. Percy lay before her, his chest rising and falling with the steady beat of thunder. The sight stirred something deep within her—a pull as powerful and inescapable as the ocean he could control.

He wasn't just her friend. Percy had become her anchor, her constant, the one who made her feel grounded even in the chaos of their world. Somewhere along their journey, he had stopped being just a part of her life and had become a part of her very soul, a thread so deeply woven into her being that she couldn't imagine untangling it. The thought that the prophecy might mean him—that his life could end with a single choice—didn't just twist her heart; it shattered it. The idea of a world without Percy was unthinkable, a hollow void that left her breathless with fear.

Her fingers brushed the thin thread tied around her wrist, her bracelet, its fibers worn yet unyielding. She had worn it long enough for it to feel like a part of her, a quiet reminder of something she couldn't fully name but always felt. Now, in the storm's charged air, it seemed to thrum faintly, almost alive. A soft glow pulsed along the thread, so faint she wondered if it was a trick of the lightning. But as her heart pounded, she couldn't shake the feeling that the thread was tied to this moment, to this choice. Its presence now seemed to weigh heavily against her wrist, as though it carried a piece of her destiny she was just beginning to understand.

Olympus to preserve or raze.

The final line of the prophecy thundered in Thalia's mind, louder than the storm raging above. Olympus stood at the precipice, its future teetering between salvation and ruin. As Kronos raised his scythe, the world seemed to hold its breath, the weight of the moment pressing down on every corner of existence.

Would she rise to preserve the glory of Olympus? Or would she falter, and with her, watch the world be consumed by the endless sleep and be razed to the very foundations Each outcome loomed ahead, shrouded in uncertainty, hers alone to confront and define.

Thalia's pulse matched the storm's relentless rhythm as she braced herself for the next battle against Kronos. And as the sky above crackled with ominous energy, the next moment poised to tip the balance, the prophecy's final line echoed in her mind, its shadow falling over the single choice ready to tip the balance of fate.

The choice was near, the end—or a new beginning—was nigh, and the world watched, waiting for the harbinger of its destiny to act.

Hey all! Welcome to my story :) It's filled with a ton of action, heightened emotions, and cryptic prophecies that are all geared towards a dramatic and satisfying ending!

I take time to respond to all reviews when I update, and we have a pretty fun group of us going back and forth talking about the story. Come join the party and the adventure as we explore this splintered timeline of the Percy Jackson universe!