The Unknown Allegiance

| Chapter 16 || Bloody, Bloody War |

On the way down, the music glitched slightly, turning the once-upbeat song of Don't Stop Believin' into something from right out of a horror film.

By the time he reached the ground floor, Percy all but lost his patience, nearly ripping the doors off of their hinges to get out.

The lobby was a mess. The guard was gone and there was a large hole in the side of the building next to the door. Outside, the streets were in ruins, torn up as if they'd gone through a mulcher. There were multiple fires swallowing a few cars along the road and the mortals were running rampant, pure terror in their eyes. Percy had no idea what they were seeing, but compared to the reality of the situation, he didn't know if wanted to know.

He ran out through the gap, as he didn't have time to use the door, and nearly stumbled into the crater just outside as Hephaestus crashed to the ground directly in front of him.

"Percy!" he heard Aikaterine's voice from above.

Twisting around as Hephaestus ran off, Percy's eyes met hers. She stood in a nearby building, leaning out of the large space, the glass windows had shattered, burning at the edges.

"Aikaterine! We have to stop this!" he yelled as she jumped down, landing on the street only to leave two more cracks in the already-ruined asphalt.

She stood to her full height, tears in her eyes. "We can't, Percy. We must stand by our charges, no matter what," she said.

An instant later, she was lunging at him, her sword raised high in the air, ready to strike. Percy only had a split second to raise his sword to block her surprise assault.

"What are you doing?" he demanded, his blade locked with hers.

She stood above him, pressing down on his sword with a look of pain in her eyes. She didn't want to fight him, but he could see that she knew she had to.

"Fight me!" she yelled back, tension taking over her whole body. Her jaw clenched as she sent another wave of power into her arms, pushing down against Percy's weapon even harder.

Briefly, Percy looked up to see that his father was battling Zeus in a similar way, both gods throwing wild punches as they'd both lost their temporary weapons in the battle. Zeus held down his father, fist raised to land a punch to his brother's jaw.

"Stop!" Percy screamed as he turned his attention back to Aikaterine. Around them, more of their guardian friends were gathered, watching the battle. Their two unspoken leaders, the strongest guardian and the guardian of their king.

Percy knew that they were waiting for one of them to fall so that they knew whose side to pick before returning to the fight. He had enough of it. They didn't want to fight. Especially not against his allies when they should be focusing on the real enemy.

Slicing his sword through the air, Percy sent Aikaterine's blade flying, holding the tip of his weapon under her throat. She eyes widened at how quickly he overpowered her. Her breathing stopped, for every time she heaved air into her lungs, her throat expanded, pressing into the cool metal of Percy's sword.

"I said stop," he said slowly, walking towards her slowly as she backed away. "This is no time for us to be fighting!" he called out so that the rest of the guardians could hear him. "Our charges may have gone to battle, but we are meant to protect them. Not only in battle, but from themselves. They are paranoid and they are scared, so we must bring them back from the edge, not encourage their insanity!"

The guardians all looked down, Aikaterine included. Percy took that chance to remove his sword from her throat, his hand falling to his side once again. He addressed them once more.

"First, we need to get all of the mortals to safety. Start in the center of the city and herd them to the outskirts. I'll keep things sane from here and send you the stranglers," he explained to the warriors around him.

Multiple nods met his gaze and everyone dispersed. Percy took that chance to jump up onto an overturned police car nearby.

"Hey!" he yelled.

There was no reaction from the mortals.

"Hey!" he yelled, louder this time, "Listen to me!"

A few of them stopped and turned to him, fear still the most prominent emotion in their eyes. He could visibly see their shaking as if the entire crowd was vibrating.

"Everyone listen up! We need you to get out of the city! There are a few people here that are going to protect you on the ways out. Follow them and they will keep you safe as you escape this war zone!"

He received a few nods and the mortals looked around to see that the guardians were at all edges of the crowd, waving their arms to gain their attention.

Suddenly, Ares crashed down from the sky, fire raining down around him.

"Go!" Percy cried, "Go, now!"

The mortals scattered, following the guardians on their way to safety. Percy jumped down to avoid Ares as the war god stood, pure rage flashing in his eyes. He drew his spear, charging at Percy.

"You!" he bellowed. "You must've taken my lucky spear! You're in cahoots with Artemis! I always knew that blasted moon goddess was jealous of my weapons!" He lunged, prepared to slice Percy in two.

Narrowly dodging the attack, the demigod countered the blow with his own weapon. He sent Ares's spear into the asphalt, breaking the tip off so that all Ares had was a glorified chopstick. The god screamed out his rage to the world but was suddenly whisked away by a harpoon, dragged out of sight.

After a few seconds, Percy stood at full height once more. The street was abandoned. He was alone.

***

Word Count: 1587

Average Words per Chapter: 1692

Word Total: 27, 078

Posted: Saturday, July 15th, 2017

~CSP2708~

*Dylan_Walts*