Percy Jackson, Master Of The Elements

Chapter 25

**Annabeth**

If you enjoy watching tall mountains, calm lakes, blue oceans, dense forests and flower-filled meadows pass by in the distance, reaching out and touching the white fluffy clouds and your hair fluttering in the wind, you'll love being on the open deck of the Argo III. I was just enjoying the moment, doing nothing and my mind completely blank. I know, it's not like me at all. But sometimes it's just nice, living in the moment and doing absolutely nothing. Then, everything was ruined when the image of Percy flickered to life in front of me. Just like that, my moment of peace was gone.

"What do you want..." I answered his Iris message, extremely triggered.

Percy hesitated and I noticed his depressed look. I knew something very bad had happened.

"What happened Perce," I asked, changing my expression, showing concern.

"He's gone, Nico's gon-e," Percy whispered with traces of dismay.

"No, he can't just- Not him too. First Leo, now Nico. This can't be happening." I whimpered, shocked at what happened.

"He's not dead, he's just - out of our reach," Percy corrected.

"W-what do you mean?" I asked, confused.

Percy explained everything that had happened and said that Nico had selflessly sacrificed himself by going through the portal and closing it from the other side. The portal had closed in front of them, cutting off the only bridge between the worlds. Nico was out of our reach, just like that.

"No... we've lost one already-y, we ca-n't lost another, not like this..." I muttered shakily.

"It's ok, we'll find a way to-"

"NO! It's not ok! How many more will we sacrifice just to succeed? I can't go on knowing that we are just disposable pawns to the gods!" Piper let out exasperatedly.

"I get it Pipes," I said as I put my hand on her back reassuringly. "We'll make sure there no one else ever gets left behind, together," (Cough*, rip Jason, Cough*)

"We'll talk more about this later. For now, let's meet up at..." Percy tried saying as his image became distorted and flickered off.

"Percy? You there?"

Suddenly, I heard a massive thump behind me and a deep voice responded saying: "The son of Poseidon isn't there anymore. There's only me now."

I quickly spun around only to see a massive punch aiming for my face. I dropped flat on the ground to dodge the incoming attack.

"Hmpf, lucky dodge," The figure said. I looked up and saw that it was no other than the traitor himself, the cowardly God of War, Ares.

"What are you doing here traitor? And what do you want with us?" Piper asked whilst holding Katropis defensively.

"Oh nothing, I just overheard that you guys are trying to expose my true intentions. I'm just here to silence you for good." Ares replied with a devilish grin.

I looked around frantically for a possible escape route. We were stranded high in the sky on a flying ship, and below us was a 30,000 feet fall of certain death. The only way out here was to fight and hopefully make it out in one piece. We were up against an Olympian, a puny one but nonetheless, a god. The odds were stacked against us. As all hope was lost, I recalled one important detail. Leo had left us a powerful gift.  (It's finally time to unveil the surprise I talked about in Chapter 9 hehe.)

I glanced at Piper and gave her my best 'I have a plan' look. It took her a second but she got the message and nodded her head. Without looking back, I took off down into the lower deck of the ship.