Percy POV
Winning. I was doing the one thing I have always done; nothing could touch me. I had my sister Jessica guarding my back, and in front of me were a dozen giants, each 20 feet tall. Tyson and my father were fighting Oceanus and a 35-foot-long sea serpent.
Suddenly, there was a sharp pain in my back where a soldier had come up, passing Jessica's field of vision, and landing a blow. I yelled out in pain as he plunged the knife deep within my ribcage.
Jessica rushed towards me while slashing the merman across his throat before catching me before I dropped to the ocean floor. As I fell, I saw my father turn towards the sound of my scream, and with pure rage in his eyes he turned back to Oceanus to kill him for what he did.
"HOW DARE YOU" my father yelled.
My last bit of consciousness was used with me saying I'm sorry Annabeth and seeing my father throw his trident into Oceanus' throat, propelling him back into the depths.
Everything turned black as my father rushed over to heal me.
Am I dead? I'm in utter darkness, with no sign of an end. I can hear voices but they're coming from every direction. The last thing I remember is my dad coming to save me with Jessica and Tyson in tow.
I tried moving but it felt like I was walking through cement, it felt like I was going up against Chronos again, only this time I didn't know who was slowing me down. Suddenly, a hand reached out, grabbed me by the throat, and pulled me towards the darkness.
My eyes shot open just in time for me to see Hades glaring down at me, with that mischievous grin on his face. "Hello nephew, how is the war going" he teased.
"What do you want Hades, I don't know if you noticed, but I must get back to my father so I can end this war. Unlike you, I have a family who wants to see me come back."
Hades rose from his throne to with a grin like he knew something was going horribly wrong. "What's wrong Percy, are you eager to go and fight a war that's causing the underworld to become even more populated."
"Is that what this is about, getting upset because people are dying. I don't know if you've ever been in a war, but people tend to die during the fighting. Plus, almost all of them are creatures and monsters, they can't come here because when they die, they turn into corral or something."
"I don't care Perseus, even if they don't come down here, the monsters do and it's annoying. Now, stop talking so I can tell you how to end this, so I'm not swamped with paperwork."
Hades explained that during the first Titan war, Oceanus didn't take part in it, and because of that, when Zeus took over as ruler, he didn't imprison Oceanus since he was a neutral party. But because Poseidon took the reins as ruler of the Sea, he basically said in an indirect way that Oceanus needed to leave or else.
Oceanus didn't argue or fight back since he saw what Poseidon could do with his full might, but he never gave up or surrendered. He stayed in the depths waiting for the right moment when Poseidon would be vulnerable, and unfortunately that was last year while the Summer Solstice was taking place.
"I tried to warn those fools, but did anyone listen to me. No, they don't, now look where they're at, fighting a war that could've been prevented" Hades complained.
For once I agreed with Hades. It was hard to believe that my father would ignore sound advice from Hades regarding battle. "Are you sure you told my dad; I find it odd that he wouldn't go and see for himself if there was a war coming."
"He might have arrived shortly after I warned the other gods about the war" Hades said.
"So let me get this straight, the one god that this would impact the most, wasn't there when you gave this speech, and you didn't bother to tell him even when he got there. Plus, my dad is trying to broker peace between him and Oceanus so just relax."
"Just go back before I send you here for real. I've kept you long enough to get the point across." With the wave of his hand, I was consumed by black smoke and vanished.
I shot out of bed as soon as my body disappeared from Hades. It was so abrupt that my sister Cora screamed out of both fear and excitement.
"Father!" She screamed. "He's awake, send everyone in!"
For a moment nothing happened, but that was short lived when Jessica and Eryn flew through the door to give me a tackle hug. "Jessica, Eryn, I appreciate the eagerness to see me, but I'm still in pain and you just jumped on me" I teased.
The look of fear struck their faces as they got off me. Only to see me laughing and joking that they couldn't hurt me. That got me a good couple punches in the ribs for scaring them.
"How could you do that to us Percy. You had no idea how scared we were when you wouldn't wake up" Eryn said with tears streaming down her face.
"Percy, we all thought you were dead. Father couldn't get a pulse from you and even threatened Hades to bring you back to us. You think Eryn crying was bad, you should've seen Tyson. He was crying waterfalls thinking his big brother had died" Jessica said.
"You're making it seem like I've been in a coma for months guys, I couldn't have been unconscious for very long."
"Perseus" my father said as he entered the room. "I don't know how to tell you this, but you have been in a coma."
I jumped up like I had just been hit by electricity. "Dad, how long have I been under" I said with panic in my voice.
My siblings all looked at our father before my brother James spoke up. Now I had only met James 2 months before the war, we've talked on occasion, so I have a good understanding of what his personality is like.
"Percy, I know this will be hard to believe, but you have been in a coma for the past 2 months."
I sat there in complete shock, how could I be so easily defeated, I've fought thousands of enemies, even Titans and Giants, and I defeated a lot of them. Heck, I even challenged Tartarus, and he was more powerful than all of them combined.
I wanted to go home, back to Annabeth, back to my simple life without war, but I know that's wishful thinking at this point. "Well, let's get back at it, the war won't fight itself."
"Alright, let's get going" my father said.
We rushed towards the battlefield, passing hundreds of soldiers being treated in the medical bay. I couldn't imagine how many were defeated while I was in an unnecessary coma. 'How could Hades do this to me while fighting a war? How selfish could he be that he had to keep me from fighting.'
My thought was short lived when a group of giants barreled towards me. Knowing what happened last time, I didn't wait for them to come to me, I went after them. As I charged them, Eryn and James tried covering my rear, but I was much faster than they were. It only took mere moments for the 3 of us to destroy the giants without any remorse.
How could I have been so easily defeated by a merman when I have survived battles against gods?
I quickly pushed that thought out of my mind as I slayed another giant. It felt like it was getting easier since I did have all my siblings by my side at this point.
Wave after wave of enemies surged forward, each looking for the right moment to kill a child of Poseidon. Then out of nowhere, there was a beam of pure white light that struck Tyson in his ribcage, propelling him across the courtyard, and into my father's palace.
I turned to face the new enemy only for my father to blast Oceanus' chariot apart with his own beam of energy. My siblings and I stood in front of our father as his royal guard while his troops engaged the enemy military.
"Perseus, James, Jessica. This is my fight, leave now. You will only get in the way" Poseidon said.
"Father, the purpose for us being here was to fight with you to end the war. You cannot just..." "Jessica, I told all of you to leave right now, if you stay you will die now leave! Do not make me say it again" Poseidon boomed.
To say we rushed out of there was an understatement, we moved with such haste that we didn't care who we encountered. Anything was better than seeing our father's wrath. We ran into out other siblings Triton, who is dads, and my stepmom Amphitrite son, and my other half-brother Kieran.
"Percy, what are we going to do now?" Kieran asked. "If dad kills Oceanus, then all of this was pointless."
"Ok guys, I have a plan, but it is extremely dangerous and kind of insane, but I have full faith that if we don't die, we can end this. Now, bring it in so we can get started."
"We don't have much time, so I'll only say it once." I turned towards Tyson and addressed him first. "Tyson, I need you to do whatever you can to push dad away from Oceanus. I don't care what you do, just get dad away from him, say that his wife Amphitrite is in danger, I know that will work."
Before Tyson went away, he made sure to break some of my ribs with his bearhug.
"The rest of us listen up. We are going to use the same strategy for dad against Oceanus."
"You don't seriously mean..." "Yes, Eryn I do. We are going to go into the enemy base, capture Oceanus' wife Tethys, bring her onto the battlefield, where we will use her to end this stupid war so we can finally go home. Are we all in agreement?"
"We are so going to die" Jessica said. "I wish I could've stayed in bed a little while longer, I mean who goes to war at 4 o'clock in the morning. But let's get this over with." James said sarcastically.
"Love your enthusiasm guys, let's go."
To say we went unnoticed was a huge error on my part. After half an hour of walking we were spotted, as we were surrounded by hundreds of soldiers, my only thought was having to succeed so I could get back to Annabeth.
I was fully prepared to fight them all, until I felt an earthquake open a tunnel that swallowed the enemy soldiers. I turned to Jessica knowing that she was the only one of us that could do that. "Come on Jess, I just got out of the hospital, let me slay at least 50 of them" I complained.
"Percy, do you not remember what you just said about having to rush to get Tethys so we can end this fight. Besides, you would do the same thing if you had my power, don't you dare deny it."
Knowing she was right I decided to press on since we did have a way to go to arrive at the enemy camp. "Percy, how will we know where to look for Tethys, it's not like she'll be just walking around all exposed" Eryn asked.
"You see Eryn, Tethys is basically the mother of all sea life. I don't think she would be in the head tent safe and protected. She might be in the infirmary taking care of the injured."
"Wait, so you expect us, to break into the enemy base with the hopes that Queen Tethys is in the most vulnerable place in the whole camp" James asked.
"Yeah, pretty much"
With the current fight finished in an instant, we continued our journey to the enemy base. To be honest, I didn't know where I was going, I was hoping the further down we went the quicker it would be to find the enemy.
Before my siblings could question whether or not I knew where I was going, I saw groups of soldiers, going from the battlefield, and rushing into a nearby crevice.
I motioned to my siblings to follow the soldiers, but before continuing into the camp, I had us all group up at the edge of the crevice.
"See guys I told you it wouldn't take that long to find this place" I said to them. "Oh, don't give us that nonsense, it took us over an hour to reach this point, and I bet you got lost a couple of times didn't you" Cora snapped back.
"Yes, I do admit towards the end I thought we were but look at the bright side we found it. Now, let's group up at that ridge and begin." To be completely honest, it did take a lot longer to get us all together mainly because Triton didn't want to listen to anything I said despite being his older brother. You would think to save our fathers life he would want to cooperate as much as possible.
"Ok everyone listen up, we have no idea how many enemies there are but since it is their main camp we must assume that they have just as many on the battlefield as they have in reserve, so putting that into consideration, this is the plan at hand. James and Kieran, you two are better infiltration than the rest of us so I want both of you to sneak into the base, and report back to the rest of us on the layout and the military power there. Make sure you are not seen or this plan will fail."
"Yeah sure, give us the easy task, sounds like fun" Kieran said sarcastically.
"Kieran, I know that this is going to be hard for you to see, but this is the most important part of the whole plan. I am relying on you too because I know that you two can get it done, you have my total trust and confidence right now and I know you won't mess up." James didn't say anything except nod in agreement.
"Ok Triton, no offense but you look more like me than my own brother. So, I would like to do to disguise and pretend that you are part of the enemy army, go into the medic tent tell us how defended it is."
"How do you suppose I do that without being injured" he said. "Because Jessica's going to injure you and make it seem like you need emergency care even though you don't."
Before he could say anything, Eryn gave him a look that said shut up or I will end you. "Eryn and Cora, you two will stay behind and provide whatever backup we will need to get away as fast as possible. As for Jessica and I, as soon as the report gets back to us, we will go in with the help of Triton, capture Queen Tethys, and pray to all the gods that we do not get killed while on our way back to the battlefield."
With the plan laid out, James and Kieran vanished without a sound to get to get the plan rolling. Jessica then proceeded to break Tritons left arm, and slash him across both legs and chest making sure that he was bleeding but not deep enough that it would cause permanent damage.
Triton made it painfully clear when he got to the enemy 10 minutes later that he was dying on the ground and couldn't handle the pain. I thought to myself, 'man he'd be a great actor if he wasn't a warrior.'
After about an hour, James and Karen came back with a full report and I was amazed that it didn't take them longer. "Ok so here's what we gathered in the amount of time that we were there. Most of the camp seems to be medical tents, so it was a lot harder to locate Queen Tethys, she wasn't inside the main medical tent, which was the most guarded, which is weird since she's the Queen and all, but instead she was on the outer side, which unfortunately was surrounded by a couple thousand soldiers waiting to be healed."
James more or less said the same thing, he said that he did see Triton heading towards the Queen's tent because apparently the task force, that was a part of that was sent to intercept us, was Oceanus' personal guard, and he said that all of us were slain and he was the sole survivor, even though he was sustaining serious injuries.
With the report finished, Jessica and I started our descent into the enemy camp, which did prove to be easier with the information that James and Kieran had provided.
To blend into the surroundings, Jessica and I had to mask our heat signatures so that the enemy centuries couldn't detect us. On our way to the Queen's tent, we did slay whatever enemies were isolated or in groups of two and three.
It did take us roughly an hour and a half to sneak into the tent and let me tell you to say that the Queen was beautiful is an understatement. I had seen a lot of goddesses in my day, but this queen was by far more beautiful than anyone of them, including Aphrodite. I almost forgot what the mission was until Jessica slapped me in my arm.
"Ok Percy, how do we sneak in and take the Queen" Jessica asked. "I'll tell you Jess, you are going to create a minor earthquake that will cause all the soldiers here to rush in a panic, and during the confusion we will kidnap the Queen, and run like hell back to the rendezvous point."
"Try not to trip this time Percy, I'd hate to tell the others about your lack of coordination" Jessica said while trying not to laugh. Before I could say anything, I felt the ground rumble beneath my feet and knowing what was coming, I braced myself for the destruction that was about to ensue.
Before I knew it thousands of soldiers were scrambling to get to safety, forgetting that their queen was their main priority. Funny how the most important person in the whole camp was left to fend for herself, I almost felt bad for her for a split second. Knowing that I wouldn't have much time until the enemy realized what was happening, I quickly eliminated the three guards defending the exit.
Without skipping a beat, Jessica and I proceeded to grab the queen who was screaming for her soldiers to come and save her. Who did come rushing over was Triton, complaining that the female healers insisted on stripping him to fully heal his wounds. "Oh, boohoo you poor baby, now shut up and run."
To say that it was an easy run is nothing but a lie because nothing is harder than carrying a queen while trying to evade a fully realized enemy army and avoid getting seared alive by the hydrothermal vents that enveloped the ocean floor.
"Jessica quick, open up another cavern so the enemy will fall into it." I said with a panicked voice. "You do realize that our enemy isn't running, they're swimming, which means even if I opened one, they could swim over it Percy."
"Will you two stop fighting" Eryn said angrily. "You do you realize that we have more pressing matters than you 2 arguing about stupid things. Now let's stay focused before something bad happens."
With that cheerful reminder in our minds, we continued our escape towards the battlefield, during which the queen was screaming and calling for help only to make the soldiers pursuing us even more desperate to get her back.
I don't know how we did it, but it took us less than 20 minutes to get back to the battlefield when it took us over an hour to find the enemy base. "Queen Amphitrite, I know we kidnapped you but trust me we are not going to hurt you. We just went to go home to the ones we love." She seemed to relax when she heard the desperation and sincerity in my words.
"Children of Poseidon, I was always informed by my husband's army that you were the most ruthless killing machines to have ever been spawned by Poseidon. I didn't expect you to have reasons not to be in the war."
"Well, the first part is correct only when our lives are at stake, which is all the time because of who our dad is, but that doesn't mean we don't have ones that we want to get back to" Jessica said.
"Look guys, I know we are all wanting to go back home, but right now our main objective is to reach Oceanus and our father before something happens" Kieran said. Knowing that he was right, we decided to talk about our future plans when we got back to our father. At least that's what the plan was.
Suddenly, there was a flash of light that caused us to look away for a brief moment. As we looked up, we could just see the murderous look on Oceanus' face as he glared down at us. "Now what do we have here" he said.
