Percy Jackson One Shots and Short Stories

#70 - Lieutenant Chase (AU) (Part V)

A dark figure knelt down beside her — Grover, feeding her ambrosia with trembling hands. "You've cracked your head open," Grover muttered worriedly as she impatiently swallowed the godly food.

Instantly, Annabeth's head began to clear. "Grover," she struggled into a sitting position. "Listen to me — the knife, we have to give Luke— my dagger—"

Annabeth cut herself off with a gasp as Kronos froze Percy in his place, her friend moving sluggishly as Kronos panted, smiling manically.

Annabeth propped herself up against the throne. If her head would just stop spinning...

"It's too late, Percy Jackson," Kronos said triumphantly. "Behold."

He pointed to the hearth, and the coals glowed. A sheet of white smoke poured from the fire, forming images like an Iris-message. There was Nico and Percy's parents down on Fifth Avenue, fighting a hopeless battle, ringed in enemies.

In the background, Hades fought from his black chariot, summoning wave after wave of zombies out of the ground, but the forces of the Titan's army seemed just as endless. Meanwhile, Manhattan was being destroyed. Mortals, now fully awake, were running in terror. Cars swerved and crashed.

The scene shifted, and Annabeth saw something even more terrifying.

A column of storm was approaching the Hudson River, moving rapidly over the Jersey shore. Chariots circled it, locked in combat with the creature in the cloud.

The gods attacked. Lightning flashed. Arrows of gold and silver streaked into the cloud like rocket tracers and exploded. Slowly, the cloud ripped apart, and Annabeth saw Typhon clearly for the first time.

No myth could have prepared her for the shifting form of the monster. One moment, he was scaly and reptilian. The next, he had green blisters on his face and mottled skin.

"The Olympians are giving their final effort." Kronos laughed. "How pathetic."

Annabeth's spirits sunk. This was it. They were going to die here. Kronos would win and he would destroy the entire world as they knew it, razing it from the ground up.

Typhon stepped into the Hudson River and barely sank to midcalf.

Then, like a miracle, a conch horn sounded from the smoky picture. The call of the ocean. The call of Poseidon.

All around Typhon, the Hudson River erupted, churning with forty-foot waves. Out of the water burst a new chariot—this one pulled by massive hippocampi, who swam in air as easily as in water. The sea god, glowing with a blue aura of power, rode a defiant circle around the giant's legs. As Poseidon swung his trident, the river responded, making a funnel cloud around the monster.

"No!" Kronos bellowed after a moment of stunned silence. "NO!"

A fervent grin started to spread across Annabeth's face.

"NOW, MY BRETHREN!" Poseidon's voice was deafening. "STRIKE FOR OLYMPUS!"

Warriors burst out of the river, riding the waves on huge sharks and dragons and sea horses. It was a legion of Cyclopes, and leading them into battle was a familiar monster...