All rights belong to Rick Riordan

Chapter 7

I Go Down with Another Ship

(Percy)

Thanks to my new natural sense over time, I woke up at exactly 7.30am. Swiftly carrying out my ablutions I got dressed in a fresh Camp Half-Blood t-shirt and cargo shorts. Even up here at altitude it was still frankly too hot to be wearing jeans in the Greek summer heat. Before grabbing my weapons and shield and heading to the mess hall to get some breakfast.

When I arrived, the others were already there and seemed to be in discussion with Nico and Annabeth about me, judging by the raised voices. As a result, I decided to hang back outside the doorway and find out what the others were thinking. Hedge was sitting on the furthest table with his neck in a brace, wisely deciding to keep his mouth out of this conversation.

"I don't care what you say Nico, Percy has changed now. He used to be cool to hang around with, now he swings mood so fast. I'm surprised he doesn't have whiplash." Frank said to the son of Hades.

"Percy has been through a lot and just needs time to get through this, I spoke to him last night he has a lot on his mind at the moment. Unlike Jason here who had several months to get over his amnesia, Percy has had less than two weeks to do the same. What with the escape from Tartarus to the battle today, he hasn't exactly has had time to himself lately." Nico defended.

"Well, we were all in the battle yesterday and you don't see us going nuts and trying to kill someone." Piper stated waving her arms around.

"No what you arrived at was a mopping up operation, we fought the battle. You helped us kill the survivors a few hundred weaker monsters left out of three thousand who were fleeing from us as we killed them to make sure YOU arrived safely. We had to fight past two titans and Kampé all which Percy killed. The curse of Achilles does have drawbacks you know, it makes us tired and get stressed faster and if there is one thing about Percy, he is definitely stressed." Annabeth said defending me.

"Well, we have all done quests and fought battles as well, besides I beat Krios but you don't see me having his issues" Jason argued and almost making me go in and hit the son of Jupiter but that would have made the problem worse.

"Yeah, but you had half the legion helping you at the time" Hazel muttered so he couldn't hear from the far end of the table from him but closest to me.

"Percy has fought the four most powerful Titans Atlas, Kronos and Iapetus, and beaten Hyperion twice. As well as that feat he soloed Polybotes, who was specifically made to kill his father. Oh, and not to mention he beat Ares and my father and his army. That is the literal gods of War and Death. You needed help to kill Enceladus and Hera drove away Porphyrion when he was newly resurrected and therefore weaker. You both together killed Otis and Ephialtes." Nico shouted back angrily at the son of Jupiter who was suddenly speechless at the verbal demolition of his accomplishments by the son of Hades. Jason looked ready to respond after a few seconds but when he went to open his mouth. Nico simply carried on.

"He has spent his spent the last four years worrying about one prophecy after another, including two great ones. I am not a psychologist, but I would say then he is doing remarkably well if all he had was a little stress." Nico concluded as Jason who had been forced to keep quiet and the others digested what he had said. Many of them had been a demigod for less than a year or so and were new to the whole experience. The only one present who had more experience was Annabeth who sat smiling at my younger cousin.

"So, I have been in the legion my whole life." Jason finally retorted pathetically to which I had enough and stomped in angrily.

"Yeah, your right and for how many of those years have your father and Hera been holding your hands, patting you on the back for all your good work. Whilst everyone else in the Legion had to struggle to even be noticed by their parents. Who were forced to stay away from them because of the ancient laws. Which your father places on everyone else, yet regularly breaks whenever he feels like. How would you like it, if as soon as you were told you were a demigod you were immediately threatened by Zeus. Just because he thinks you took his favourite toy; how would the great Jason have reacted to be offered godhood for saving the gods asses?" I snapped at him already knowing the answer.

"I would have taken it of course." He said puffing his chest out with pride.

"And that right there is your problem; you don't think anyone but yourself and your ego. What about Piper? Would you leave her because as you know gods can't stay with mortals? What about your friends who made it possible, would you just smile before leaving them, The temptation of power is too hard to resist for the children of Zeus. That is why Thalia joined the Hunters because she did not want the responsibility of the great prophecy. She knew her flaw and knew it threatened the world. That is why she is ten times the hero you are. I never wanted any of this, I thought after the last war was won and peace was made on Olympus, that I could sit back and enjoy the rest of my life. Instead… I get a three-week break before your patron kidnaps me and tries to erase my memory before hiding me for six months. You woke up the following day with some new friends who helped you. I got hunted half the length of a state by the two crazy gorgon sisters who would not stay dead. So why don't we add that to the list, I have killed all three Gorgons now. So, then son of Jupiter, do you want to swap places and then we can see how you feel after a while." I asked staring at him before he averted his eyes in defeat.

"I thought so, now let's get out of here and get this done so we can go home." I concluded before leaving without another word and heading to the main deck. Annabeth followed behind me and hugged me from behind as I silently leant against the portside rail. The cool air and her presence calming me down.

After a few minutes, the others joined us and came to apologize for their actions recently and for what they had said. Which I politely accepted and told them it was not a problem; I knew I had been cranky recently but under the circumstances anyone would be.

Finally, Jason came over to apologize and held out his hand and asked if I could forgive him and that I was right, he didn't think about other people's feelings and their past experiences. With difficulty he acknowledged that his heritage made it harder to see things from different perspectives. The proverbial Zeus/Jupiter legacy of 'my way or the highway' was hard to overcome. He had become accustomed to always being the one people came to when they needed something. Simply because in the Legion his heritage demanded it.

Perhaps there was some hope for him after all.

Leo made his way up from the control room to tell us to get ready because Festus's sensors had detected a large mass of monsters ahead of us about 5km from Mount Olympus and approaching fast. "I have good news and bad news." He rushed out panting.

"What's the good news?" Annabeth asked.

"Well, I have managed to jury-rig a winch together to lower your mum's statue through the bay doors." The younger boy said quickly between heavy breaths.

"And the bad news." I asked looking at a dark mass in the sky ahead.

"We are about to have hostiles inbound." He answered nervously. As if right on cue, the cloud ahead broke apart. What from a distance appeared to be a solid mass was actually a large flock of gryphon's and Stymphalian birds, almost as if aware that we knew they were there they began to close in quickly.

"Everyone battle stations! Leo get your ass below deck and take command of this ship. Jason start doing whatever you can to keep them off us, Frank turn into something that can fight and fly. Everyone else take a ballista and shoot down them gryphons, I'm going for the bow cannon, oh and someone get that goat up here so he can earn his keep." I commanded as we all rushed to our allocated posts without question, which surprised me but then again, we were in this together. I turned to see Jason and Frank jump over the side only for Jason to float alongside but with no sign of Frank after 30 seconds I began to get worried about the son of Mars and looked over the side expecting to see a falling Canadian/Chinese kid, instead I was greeted by the sudden up draught of an enormous western dragon's wings before he levelled out and flew towards the flock with a mighty roar. I will admit his ability to transform made me jealous just a little, but then I squashed the thought as I was not one to talk about powers, especially recently. Unfortunately none of my powers new or old were of any use several thousand feet in the air.

The cannon was similar to the ones found on a modern battle tank and was mounted under Festus head and normally recessed into the hull between Hedges and Leo's rooms at the front of the ship. Now some may have argued about my use of a cannon, but experience had taught me several things. One I was never good with a bow and last I checked a ballista was nothing but a giant bow on a frame and two if my field trip to Saratoga was any experience, I could hit something with a cannon pretty darn well. As to where the Hephaestus kids had sourced it I had no damned idea, then again Camp had acquired a few firearms in the past, so this was not beyond the realms of possibility.

The console next to the cannon was complex but thankfully everything had been translated into Greek, it seemed it ran on an auto loading principle you simply selected the ammo and fired, and it would do the hard work between shots of ejecting and loading. As I quickly checked the available ammo, I noticed I had a choice between Greek fire and Grape which I found strange until an explanation appeared describing the properties of the shells. Greek fire seemed to act as normal high explosive but was effective against monsters and while we were at sea, whilst grape was an area of effect submunition that created a cone of celestial bronze ball bearings that would shred anything in their path. I could hear the sound of bolts beginning to be fired from above and decided I had wasted enough time already before looking in the eyepiece alongside the barrel breach and took aim.

Through my range finder I noticed several things: the large figure of Frank flying here and there releasing jets of flames, instantly creating instant roast death bird and occasionally crushing a gryphon is his jaws or between his large fore claws. The other was the smaller of Jason just to the left of my cannon repeatedly summoning lightning that would strike one of the monsters before forking off and taking another dozen or so straight to hades. I noticed a large cluster of gryphons flying in close formation just off the front starboard side ready to attack the magical oars, the only things keeping us in the air.

As a result, I decided to try out this new toy and sighted on the centre monster at the head of the formation before loading a Greek fire shell and firing. The shell thundered out of the barrel and struck the monster in the face killing it instantly before the shell exploded and showered its wing mates with the green flame who seemed to panic when their feathers caught fire and they began to fall out of the air as they stopped flapping. Seeing this immediate threat dealt with, I began to search for new targets often to see a gryphon I was targeting struck by a ballista bolt and reduced to dust just before I fired. So, I decided to change priorities and ammunition and go for the birds.

Now even with a conical fire weapon with a widespread you still need to be able to fire in the right direction and the small agile birds seemed to have no trouble keeping out of my sights or would suddenly veer of when I was about to fire. I turned to see Jason bounce off the hull plates after taking a blow from a dying gryphon which had struck into him after he had stabbed it and I got an idea. Steadying himself against the cannon barrel for a second.

"Jason how are you doing?" I shouted into the wind.

"Fine but here are so many of these damn things and they attack from everywhere." He shouted back panting.

"If you can manipulate the air current and draw them together, me and the others may be able to hit them all at the same time." I suggested to the blond, he seemed to frown for a second before gaining an understanding of what I meant. Letting go of the cannon he ascended upwards before landing on the deck above me behind the figure head.

(Frank)

I had decided to become a dragon because of my mother's words all them years ago about my ancestor back in China and how he been the mightiest of dragons and conquered all the others. Although I had become a drakon a few times recently, I had never tried to become the mythical beast of legends. But I knew this was a do or die time for us all and we had to hold nothing back, I thought as I dropped over the side and fell through the air. At first nothing had happened, and I began to panic causing me to lose focus and my mind to keep changing between the eastern and western concepts of what a dragon should look like. I continued to descend before I heard my mum's voice in my mind calming me with four simple words.

"You can be anything." She had said and I gained sudden clarity of thought and I could feel my body transform and grow far larger until I was an enormous four-legged western dragon but with the colours of a Chinese dragon, resulting in my scales shining in the morning sun. However, I realized I had to pull up soon or risk hitting the ground. Instinctively I pumped my massive wings twice which stopped my fall and brought me level before I continued to flap and begin to take a sharp ascent towards the bow of the ship swiftly soaring past and if I seen clearly almost knocking Percy over with the force of my passing before I veered off towards the monster flock.

As I fought the enemy, I realized they were unable to hurt me, their razor-sharp claws and beaks were unable to pierce my hide and my weapons of tooth claw and flame were unstoppable to them, however the flock began to avoid me and while I could overpower them and outpace them, they had greater agility due to my large mass and could swiftly change directions while I had to take wide loops to turn around again.

Suddenly I began to feel an increase in the air currents drawing me in towards a central point. I began to resist and panic but looking around I could see the monsters were having severe issues as well. As they seemed to be getter closer and closer and flying in circles. This was before I noticed an enormous funnel of swirling air coming down from the sky and realized it was forming a tornado, which explained the monsters spinning in circles and the suction of the currents. I knew this had to be Jason manipulating the winds which meant he had a plan and I needed to get the hell out of there before I got trapped in the current. So, I flapped my great wings and began to back away as far as I could and watch as the tornado was struck by bolt from the Argo II creating a massive cyclone of raging green flames.

(Percy)

After Jason had landed, I could see a change in the cloud patterns above the centre of the flock as they began to swirl and could see the monsters flight paths begin to alter. Slowly they all seemed to be drawn in a great cyclonic nature that seemed to causing them to be sucked in further and lose control of their own direction. The cyclone began to condense into a tighter and tighter funnel and I remembered we had forgot about Frank but thankfully I saw him off in the distance rapidly getting away obviously understanding what was happening.

After a while, a tornado begins to form in the sky above Greece and the monsters were lost from sight in the great cyclone apart from the occasional glimpse here and there. However, I knew even with this abuse most would still survive. Just as I was analysing this someone on deck probably Annabeth had ordered a volley of Ballista bolts fired into the twister and the blazing bolts and swiftly creating a towering inferno of swirling green flames. I decided to help but mix it up and fire several shells of grape into the mix. The Celestial Bronze shards catching in the current and turning it into an enormous blender, shredding the entrapped monsters within. After a few more minutes the winds began to calm, and we could see that other than a falling mass of golden dust where before hundreds of monsters had existed.

After a few minutes more minutes of Jason and Frank mopping up any survivors. I turned to see Frank coming towards the ship and Leo announced we were about to descend towards the slopes of Olympus. Letting go of the gun I headed back upstairs.

We began to gather on the deck awaiting the demigod turned dragon. Just as he came alongside the Argo II. There was sign of movement on the ground far below before a bolt of lightning soared upwards from a distant figure. The bolt striking Frank across his left wing and flank causing him to veer to the right unfortunately we were in the way. As his great mass struck the ship the sound of metal wrenching could be heard as the oars were snapped from the hull and the ship lurched to one side forcing us all to grab the rail.

Fortunately for her I was able to grab Piper's arm before she tumbled over the edge. Holding on desperately to her and the railing long enough for Jason to relieve me and set her back on deck.

"I can't do anything about this. We're going down." Leo screamed running onto the deck.

I looked down to see Frank struggling to stay in the air before changing into a normal eagle and going into land.

"What about Frank?" Hazel screamed holding the mainmast tightly.

"He's fine but has had to land down below I think." I shouted to the girl to which she looked relieved.

"Leo is there anything we can do to fix it?" Annabeth asked hopingly.

"Other than pray to the gods then….no." He answered forcing a smile as we continued to drop.

"Well, is there any way of getting us of safely? Other than one at a time with Jason carrying us, what about Arion?" I asked the panicking 'captain'.

"Well, you know when I said I made a winch earlier. I may have used all the parachutes to prepare Athena's statue for lowering." Leo said avoiding everyone's eyes of disbelief as we looked at him in horror.

"I can't believe you would do something so stupid, as to use our only escape route just to make your job easier, are you insane?" I shouted across angrily, I could not believe someone would do something so stupid while we are still fighting.

'Well, we could still use them, but we will just have to hold on tight and strap Arion down." He answered fearfully.

"What do you mean hold tight and strap?" Piper asked

"Well, if we go down to the hold we can grab onto the statue and drop it before deploying the parachutes."

"Oh, I can see Arion loving this idea." Hazel stated with wide eyes.

"It doesn't matter, we're running out of time before we drop too far and then the parachutes won't work!" I said closing the matter before leading everyone below deck.

"What the fucking hell are you fucking idiots doing up there?" Arion demanded from me as we all filed into the room.

"Simple answer we're crashing.' I hurriedly replied to my pissed off horse-god half-brother.

"What the hell do you mean, fucking crashing?" Arion whinnied nervously his eyes widening.

"We have lost control and as a result are dropping like a stone. As a result, we need to get the hell out of here fast, unless you want to go down with the ship?" I swiftly explained.

"Fuck no, but next time I am staying on the ground. Pegasus can keep the fucking sky. This is bullshit!' Arion cursed but nevertheless relented out of self-preservation.

I quickly lead the horse from his stable and towards the statue where the others had gathered, and Leo was hurriedly checking the door controls whilst the others were busy securing themselves into makeshift harnesses.

Annabeth ran in behind me with a large pack on her back that I guessed contained her emergency supplies and Laptop. I couldn't believe she would go and get it at a time like this, but she was here now.

"Where is Nemea?"' I whispered to her while strapping Arion down against the statue's waist.

"She wasn't in my room when I went to look for her." She answered panicked.

"Well, we're out of time. She will have to jump off then and make her own way then.' I told her sombrely before beginning to fit a harness around her.

"Everything is ready to go." Leo said opening the bay doors below us, we could all see the rapidly approaching ground as he hurriedly strapped himself in.

I was beginning to strap myself down when I saw a flash across the room and noticed that Nemea was cowering behind a crate in the corner; I quickly unstrapped myself and ran towards the cowering cub.

Only to stumble as the deck shook from another heavy hit and the hull began to collapse around me. I continued to stumble towards the kitten whilst the others shouted asking what I was doing to which I ignored them and grabbed Nemea.

As I turned back around, the deck suddenly shifted again as if struck by something large again and I collapsed to the ground still cuddling the whimpering cub. Looked up to see the blow had forced the cradle holding the statue to become loosened from the deck. I watched in horror to see it collapse and begin to fall through the ship floor. My last sight before it fell, as the ship exploded around me was Annabeth's beautiful face.

"Percy!" I heard Annabeth cry before my world went up in flames.