Percy Jackson: Trouble In The Land Beyond The Gods

"The Future of The Free World."

Percy's POV

My sword brutally crashed against Jason's gladius, barely blocking the onslaught of blows meant for me. My breath was ragged as I defended myself, adrenaline and the will to survive roaring in my veins and coursing through my blood. My hands were sweaty, bruised and stained with red, causing my grip on Riptide to be of an average level – and barely so at that. It was obvious in my stance that I hadn't practised with a sword in a while, preferring my staff over it when I was roaming Alaska with Mrs. O'Leary, and I was suffering for it now.

Jason's attack's were relentless, a constant barrage of striking stabbing motions and strong slashes. He seemed to be faring better than I was, a few beads of sweat trickled down his face but he failed to notice it, undeniably focused entirely on me – which was probably a bad thing.

I ducked underneath his legs and sprinted for the two broken halves of Instinct, falling down next to them breathlessly and grabbing the icy weapon. I pushed the two snapped ends together and started to run, all the while keeping the two ends against each other as they started to re-attach and solidify. Ice, frost and snow swirled around the cracks like a cocoon of frozen power, reforming the staff faster than I could run.

My heart pounded savagely against my chest, beating like the drums of death as it lay before me. My eyes widened, my breath stopped. I fell to my knees, and Jason tripped over me with a stream of curses that could outdo Arion.

If I wasn't about to die, and if I was still the same person as I was over five years ago, I might've been tempted to laugh.

But the times had changed, and each of us with it – no one on this ship today could claim to be the same as they were half a decade ago (Thalia later argued with me she hadn't changed physically, though her arm muscles from years of practice with a bow would say otherwise, but back to the present). We had had to adapt to survive, and so we did.

I backed away from Jason, pulled back into the present as he stood up. He rolled his shoulders back and fixed his grip on his golden sword, his face a picture of barely controlled rage. He raised his chin and stared defiantly into my eyes – only, it wasn't his eyes that I saw.

The eyes that glared at mine were black. There were no irises or pupils, just a glinting midnight with no stars and no light, an empty void of evil that confirmed Maiscill's story and my suspicions. It wasn't Jason fighting us, it was something else – something controlled by the enemy, Nyx. A lump rose in my throat, it was like the Gaian War so many years ago, back at Topeka 52 in Kansas.

Jason came towards me but this time I had no regrets when our weapons clashed, fighting back with all the power I could. I knew at that point that I wasn't just fighting for myself; I was fighting for Jason, for the crew of the the Argo II, for the demigods and the monsters, and for the future of the free world.

A/N:
'Sup dudes? I hope you weren't expecting that plot twist, I sure wasn't! I've just been getting a few comments and PMs lately from people asking me to bring back 'nice Jason' – which is pretty hard when he's trying to kill everyone – and decided to use it to my advantage.

See you on the flip side,
Multi-Gamer10