Percy's POV
A Coast Guard boat picked us up, but they were too busy to keep us for long, or to wonder how three kids in street clothes had gotten out into the middle of the bay. There was a disaster to mop up. Their radios were jammed with distress calls.
They dropped us off at the Santa Monica Pier, towels draped over our shoulders, and three spare water bottles.
As soon as my feet touched the sand, I couldn't stop shaking. I collapsed on to my knees, my water bottle spilling out beside me. I pounded the ground in anger, as tears began to trickle down my face. I had failed them, I couldn't save my mom, and because of that I got my friend killed.
He had thrown himself at danger so many times to save me. The Minotaur, Medusa, The Chimera, and now Hades himself. And what did I ever do for him? I'd eaten a burger before deciding to help him. I was no hero, I couldn't save anyone.
I felt Grover and Annabeth walk up from behind me. My two friends, the last two people on this earth that mattered to me, knelt down beside me. Each of them offering their own silent comfort, at least I still had them.
"We'll miss him, we all will. He was better than all of us." Annabeth spoke.
"But he'd want us to keep going and not waste the second chance he gave us. Your mother would say the same thing." Grover finished.
I nodded my head slightly. Wiping away the moisture from my face as I spoke. "Yeah, you're both right. We can't give up now, quitting isn't what their lives were worth. We just have to keep going."
They nodded assuringly, the three of us standing up together as we supported each other.
"Besides, we still have to get some pay back for what he did." I said.
"Wha-" Grover tried to cut in.
"It was a trick from the beginning." I added. "You get it right?"
"Unfortunately I do," Annabeth responded. "A strategy worthy of Athena." She dropped her eyes, "Yeah I get it."
"Well I don't!" Grover complained. "Would somebody-"
"The prophecy was right." I said. "'You shall go west and face the god who has turned.' But it wasn't Hades. Hades didn't want war among the Big Three. Someone else pulled off the theft. Someone stole Zeus's master bolt, and Hades's helm, and framed me because I'm Poseidon's kid. Poseidon will get blamed by both sides. And even if they don't think it's him, in their minds Y/n another powerful half-blood could've been working for anyone, further pushing the tension. And by sundown today there will be a three-way war. And I'll have caused it."
Grover shook his head mystified. "But who would be that sneaky? Who would want war that bad?"
I stopped in my tracks, looking down the beach, where in the distance the outline of a motorbike and a black clad figure was barely visible. "Gee, let me think."
Y/n's POV
I woke up face down on the ground, I raised my head groggily. Staring wide eyed at the sight before me. There were skeletons lying in piles of bone and dust, the Furies clinging to the walls as they tried to stand in pain, cracks and fissures lining the palace as wispy smokes of darkness seemed to radiate off of them. I stood up realizing I now clutched the same spear I had in my mind. The same vine handle, pink tinted tip, and rose covered surface. And a name seemed to spring forth as I gripped it in my palm. Clamor Terrae, Earth's Cry.
I nodded my head in appreciation as I turned to the side. And there Hades was, barely conscious as he gripped the sides of his throne. He pulled himself up, raising his gaze and locking on to me. A newfound anger rising up in him.
"You insolent child, what have you done?"
I urgently turned away, searching for a way out. When suddenly my mothers familiar comforting presence overtook me. No words were uttered, but none were needed, I simply understood. I turned back to the god. Who I guess if my dad's mom was actually Persephone, that would make him my grandfather in law. But then if Gaia was my mom, wouldn't he be my nephew? Nope not going to think about that, sticking with grandfather.
"Sorry grandfather, I would stay and help clean, but I've got some things I've got to take care of."
His face turned from anger to confusion. "What? Grandfather?"
"Tell grandmother, I wish her well."
I turned upwards, to the cavern roof above as I gripped the spear in my hands. Hades already shaking off my comments, as he ordered what remained of his army to fight back. "Stop him!"
But as the Furies turned to charge, and but a few skeletons attempted to rise, it was already too late. I plunged the spear into the ground, and the whole palace seemed to shake on its foundations. Cracks along the wall lengthening, as the whole cavern seemed to shake back and forth. And a flurry of vines erupted forth from the ground. Wrapping around me in a plant like sphere as I was pulled below. And though I had no real way of knowing, I knew I was traveling towards the surface.
Percy's POV
There he was, waiting for us, in his black leather duster and his sunglasses, an aluminum baseball bat propped on his shoulder. His motorcycle rumbled beside him, its headlights turning the sand red.
"Hey kid," Ares said, seemingly genuinely pleased to see me. "The idea was that you'd all die. But I guess that brat kid, managed to do something useful to get you three out."
I couldn't tell if it was his violent aura, or the fact that he had talked about Y/n like that. But I really wanted to punch him, more than that even.
"You tricked me," I said. "You stole the helm and the master bolt."
Ares grinned. "Well now, I didn't steal them personally. Gods taking each other's symbols of power-that's a big no-no. But you're not the only hero in the world who can run errands."
"Who did you use? Clarrisse? She was there at the winter solstice."
The idea seemed to amuse him. "Doesn't matter. The point is, kid your impeding the war effort. See you've got to die in the Underworld. Then Old Seaweed will be mad at Hades for killing you. Corpse Breath will have Zeus's master bolt, so Zeus'll be mad at him. And Hades is still looking for this . . ."
From his pocket he took out a ski cap-the kind bank robbers wear-and placed it between the handlebars of his bike. Immediately the cap transformed into an elaborate bronze war helmet.
"The helm of darkness," Grover gasped.
"Exactly," Ares said. "Now where was I? Oh yeah, Hades will be mad at both Zeus and Poseidon, because he doesn't know who took this. Pretty soon, we got a nice little three-way slugfest going."
"But they're family!" Annabeth protested.
Ares shrugged. "Best kind of war. Always the bloodiest. Nothing like watching your relatives fights I always say."
"You gave me the backpack in Denver," I said. The master bolt was in there the whole time."
"Yes and no," Ares said. "It's probably too complicated for your little mortal brain to follow, but the backpack is the master bolt's sheath, just morphed a bit. The bolt is connected to it, sort of like that sword you got kid. It always returns to your pocket right?"
I wasn't sure how Ares knew about that, but I guess a god of war had to make it his business to know about weapons.
"Anyway," Ares continued. "I tinkered with the magic a bit, so the bolt would only return to the sheath once you reached the Underworld. You got close to Hades. . . .Bingo, you got mail. If you died along the way-no loss. I still had the weapon."
"But why not just keep the master bolt for yourself?" I said. "Why send it to Hades?"
Ares got a twitch in his jaw. For a moment, it was almost as if he were listening to another voice, deep inside his head. "Why didn't I . . . . yeah . . . . with that kind of firepower . . . ."
He held the trance for one second . . . . two seconds . . . .
I exchanged nervous looks with Annabeth.
Ares's face cleared. "I didn't want the trouble. Better to have you caught redhanded holding the thing."
"You're lying," I said. "Sending the bolt to the Underworld wasn't your idea was it?"
"Of course it was!" Smoke drifted up from his sunglasses, as if they were about to catch fire.
"You didn't order the theft," I guessed. "Someone else sent a hero to steal the two items. Then when Zeus sent you to hunt him down, you caught the thief. But you didn't turn him over to Zeus. Something convinced you to let him go. You kept the items until another hero could come along and complete the delivery. That thing in the pit is ordering you around."
"I am the god of war! I take orders from no one! I don't have dreams!"
I hesitated. "Who said anything about dreams?"
Ares looked agitated but he tried to cover it with a smirk.
"Let's go back to the problem at hand, kid. You're alive I can't have you taking that bolt to Olympus. You just might get those hardheaded idiots to listen to you. So I've got to kill you. Nothing personal. At least you'll get to see your friend soon."
He snapped his fingers. The sand exploded at his feet and out charged a wild boar. The beast pawed the sand, glaring at me with beady eyes as it lowered its razor-sharp tusks and waited for the command to kill.
I stepped into the surf. "Fight me yourself, Ares."
He laughed, but I heard a little edge to his laughter . . . an uneasiness. "You've only got one talent, kid, running away. You ran away from the Chimera. You ran from the Underworld. You don't have what its takes."
"Scared?"
"In you adolescent dreams." But his sunglasses were starting to melt from the heat of his eyes. "No direct involvement. Sorry, kid. You're not at my level."
Annabeth said, "Percy, run!"
The giant boar charged, and the ground began to shake. Ares looked around in confusion, as he gripped his motorcycle for support. My friends holding on to one another as the entire beach seemed to convulse. And suddenly an explosion of rock and sand shot up from in front of me. And appearing in the air was Y/n. Gray jacket flying up amongst the displaced earth, with a vine like spear gripped in his hand. I could hardly believe my eyes.
He raised his weapon, tip pointed down, as he fell towards the ground and straight on to the bull. The spear entering its back as he landed. Y/n then pushed off of the boar, tearing out the spear as he landed beside it. The beast attempted to swipe at him with its tusks, but were instead caught by the handle of Y/n's spear. And suddenly a green like fire seemed to immolate in his eyes, and vines extended out from the weapon. Wrapping around the beast and throwing it further into the surf towards me. He then turned toward me too, and called out.
"Percy, finish it!"
I didn't hesitate as the boar was thrown into the water. I shouted, "Wave!"
Immediately, a wave surged up from nowhere and engulfed the boar, wrapping around it like a blanket. The beast squealed once in terror. Then it was gone, swallowed by the sea.
I then turned back towards Ares prepared to call out again, but Y/n was already ahead of me.
"Come one Ares, still afraid to fight?" he antagonized.
"Or are you going to hide behind another pet pig?" I finished.
Ares's face was purple with rage. "Watch it, punks. I could turn the lot of you into-"
"A cockroach," I said. Walking closer to the beach, until I stood beside Y/n. The two of us sharing an acknowledging nod as I continued. "Or a tapeworm. Yeah I'm sure. That'd save you from getting your godly hide whipped wouldn't it?"
Flames danced along the top of his glasses. "Oh, man, you are really asking to be smash into a grease spot."
"If we lose, you can turn us into whatever you like, and you can keep the bolt. But if we win, the helm and the bolt are ours and you have to leave." Y/n offered.
Ares sneered.
He swung the baseball bat off his shoulder "How would you like to get smashed: classic or modern?"
I raised my sword, and in turn Y/n raised his spear.
"That's cool," he said. "Classic it is." The baseball bat changed into a huge, two handed sword. The hilt was a large silver skull with a ruby in its mouth. "Better, start preparing to meet old Corpse Breath again."
He began walking towards us, his black leather duster trailing behind him, his sword glittering like fire in the sunrise. "I've been fighting for eternity punks. My strength is unlimited and I cannot die. What have you got?"
A smaller ego I thought, but I said nothing. I kept my feet in the surf, Y/n standing beside me as we backed into the surf. I thought back to what Annabeth had said at the Denver diner, so long ago: Ares has strength. That's all he has. Even strength has to bow to wisdom sometimes.
He cleaved downward at our heads, but we had already dodged out of the way.
My body thought for me. The water seemed to push me into the air and I catapulted over him. I looked back as I was launched up, only to see an eruption of dirt and vines emerge from the ground appearing over Y/n as he was sucked down and disappeared below the water.
I swung down at Ares but he was just as quick. He twisted, and the strike that should've caught him directly in the spine was deflected off the end of his sword hilt. He tried to come in for another strike, but the water and ground beneath seemed to shake, and from below the surf Y/n erupted from the ground. Swiping the sword to the side with his spear, quickly bringing his weapon back and thrusting at Ares's stomach. Which he managed to catch with his blade and deflect, but the force of the attack still sent him stumbling backwards. Pausing for a moment, as he wiped some sand from his chin.
"Not bad, not bad."
I turned towards Y/n, "Alright, just like Medusa and the Chimera. You go left, and I go right."
"Lets just hope it goes like the former and not the latter." he replied.
"We'll be fine, just use your earth bending."
He smirked lightly as he looked back at me.
"You got it water boy."
"Don't call me water boy, plant boy." I replied.
And he smiled.
"Touché my friend. Touché."
We both turned back towards Ares, our backs to the beach as he approached. The two of us raising our weapons as we dashed forward. I moved off to the right and Y/n to the left. Ares made a wide slash at the both of us. I hopped backwards to avoid the strike, and the war god then pressed me and threw me aside. Whipping back around to face Y/n, who he began pushing relentlessly. It was hard enough for him to defend himself let alone make an attack. He pushed out his spear handle to block another sword swipe. But Ares suddenly changed the angle of the attack as the blade instead of contacting the handle of the spear. Pressed against Y/n's hand gripping it. He nearly dropped his weapon, stumbling back in pain as blood ran down his hand. I got up from where I had been thrown and began running over. Ares slashed at Y/n again and he had no chance of deflecting the attack, as the sword slash him across the chest. And he collapsed into the water.
"No!" I heard Annabeth and Grover scream out as they saw him fall.
But Ares didn't miss a beat, turning back towards me as he raised his sword. Swiping at me as I was forced to jump back onto the beach. I tried to sidestep, to get back to the water, but Ares seemed to know what I wanted. He outmaneuvered me, pressing so hard I had to put all my concentration on not getting sliced into pieces. I kept backing away from the surf. I couldn't find any openings to attack. His sword had a reach several feet longer than Anaklusmos.
"Get in close," Luke had told me once, back in our sword class. "When you've got the shorter blade, get in close."
I stepped inside with a thrust, but Ares was waiting for that. He knocked my blade out of my hands and kicked me in the chest. I went airborne-twenty, maybe thirty feet. I would've broken my back if I hadn't crashed into the soft sand dune.
"Percy!" Annabeth yelled. "Cops!"
I was seeing double. My chest felt like it had just been hit with a battering ram, but I managed to get to my feet.
I couldn't look away from Ares for fear he'd slice me in half, but out of the corner of my eye I saw red lights flashing on the shoreline boulevard. Car doors were slamming.
"There, officer!" Somebody yelled. "See"
A gruff cop voice: "Looks like that kind on TV . . . what the heck . . . is that blood in the water?"
"That guy's armed," another cop said. "That kids down, call for backup!"
I rolled to one side as Ares's blade slashed the sand.
I ran for my sword, stopped it up, and launched a ship at Ares's face, only to find my blade deflected again.
Ares seemed to know exactly what I was going to do the moment before I did it.
I stepped back toward the surf, forcing him to follow.
"Admit it kid," Ares said. "You got no hope. I'm just toying with you.'
My senses were working overtime. I now understood what Annabeth had said about ADHD keeping you alive in battle. I was wide awake, nothing every little detail.
I could see where Ares was tensing I could tell which way he would strike. At the same time, I was aware of Annabeth and Grover, thirty feet to my left, Y/n bleeding out in the water. I saw a second cop car pulling up, siren wailing. Spectators, people who had been wandering the streets because of the earthquake were starting to gather. Among the crowd, I thought I saw a few who were walking with the strange, trotting gait of disguised satyrs. There were shimmering forms of spirits too as if the dead had risen from Hades to watch the battle. I heard the flap of leathery wings circling somewhere above.
More sirens.
I stepped farther into the water, but Ares was fast. The tip of his blade ripped my sleeve and grazed my forearm.
A police voice on a megaphone said, "Drop the guns! Set them on the ground. Now!"
I looked at Ares's weapon, and it seemed to be flickering; sometimes it looked like a shotgun, sometimes a two handed sword. I looked to my right, seeing Y/n's spear floating beside him, flickering between its normal form and a rifle. I didn't know what the humans were seeing in my hands, but I was pretty sure it wouldn't make them like me.
Ares turned to glare at our spectators, which gave me a moment to breathe. There were five police cars now, and a line of officers crouching behind them, pistols trained on us.
"This is a private matter!" Ares hallowed. "Be gone!"
He swept his hand, and a wall of red flame rolled across the patrol cars. The police barely had time to dive for cover before their vehicles exploded. The crowd behind them scattered screaming.
Ares roared with laughter. "Now little hero, Let's add you to the barbecue."
He slashed I deflected his blade. I got close enough to strike, tried to fake him out with a feint, but my blow was knocked aside. The waves were hitting me in the back now. Ares was up to his thighs wading in after me.
I felt the rhythm of the sea, the waves growing larger as the tide rolled in, and suddenly I had an idea. Little waves, I thought. And the water behind me seemed to recede. I was holding back the tide by force of will, but tension was building like carbonation behind a cork.
Ares came toward, grinning confidently. I lowered my blade, as if I were too exhausted to go on. What for it, I told the sea. The pressure now was almost lifting me off my feet. Ares raised his sword. And a spear came flying from behind him, piercing into his back. I looked past him in shock, to see Y/n standing there. One hand extended out the other clutching his bloody chest.
"Percy now!"
Vines erupted from the spear and wrapped around the war god. Constricting him, and bringing him to his knees amongst the waves. And I released the tide and jumped, rocketing straight over Ares on a wave.
A six-foot wall of water smashed him full in the face, leaving him cursing and sputtering with a mouth full of seaweed. I landed behind him with a splash and feinted toward his head, as I'd done before. He attempted to pull against the restraining vines, but only managed to free his sword arm. Bringing up the blade in time to put it in my path. But he was disoriented, restricted, and he didn't expect the trick. I changed direction, lunged to the side, and stabbed Riptide straight down into the water, sending the point through the god's heel.
The roar that followed made Hades's earthquake look like a minor event. The vines were torn to shreds. And the very sea was blasted back from Ares, leaving a wet circle of sand fifty feet wide.
Ichor, the golden blood of the gods, flowed from a gash in the war god's boot. The expression on his face was beyond hatred. It was pain, shock, complete disbelief that he'd been wounded.
He limped toward me, muttering Ancient Greek curses.
Something stopped him.
It was as if a cloud covered the sun, but worse. Light faded. Sound and color drained away. A cold heavy presence passed over the beach, slowing time, dropping the temperature to freezing and making me feel like life was hopeless, fighting was useless.
The darkness lifted.
Ares looked stunned.
Police cars were burning behind us. The crowd of spectators had fled. Annabeth and Grover stood on the beach, in shock, watching the water flood back around. Ares's feels, his glowing golden ichor dissipating in the tide.
Ares lowered his sword.
"You have made an enemy, godling, both of you." he told us. "You've sealed your fate. Every time you raise your weapons in battle every time you hope for success, you willl feel my curse. Beware, Perseus Jackson, Y/n L/n. Beware."
His body began to glow.
"Percy! Y/n!" Annabeth shouted. "Don't watch!"
I turned away as the god revealed his true immortal form. I somehow knew that if I looked, I would disintegrate into ashes.
The light died.
I looked back. Ares was gone. The tide rolled out to reveal Hades's bronze helm of darkness. I picked it up and walked toward my friends.
But before I got there, I heard the flapping of leathery wings. Three evil-looking grandmothers with lace hats and fiery whips drifted down from the sky and landed in front of me.
The middle Fury, the one who had been Mrs. Dodds, stepped forward. Her fangs were bared, but for once she didn't look threatening. She looked more disappointed, as if she'd been planning to have me for supper, but had decided I might give her indigestion.
"We saw the whole thing," she hissed. "So . . . it truly not you?"
I tossed her the helmet, which she caught in surprise.
"Return that to Lord Hades," I said. "Tell him the truth. Tell him to call off the war."
She hesitated, then ran a forked tongue over her green, leathery lips. "Live well, Percy Jackson. Become a pure hero. Because if you do not, if you ever come into my clutches again . . ."
She cackled savoring the idea. Then she and her sisters rose on their bats' wings, fluttered into the s mode-filled sky. and disappeared.
I rushed over to Y/n, who was struggling to stand. I quickly offered my support, wrapping his arm over my shoulder as I propped him up.
"Not bad water boy."
I smirked, "Couldn't have done it without you, plant boy."
Before we moved out of the surf, he reached down to the mass of ripped vines, that were left of his spear. Plucking a single rose from the mass as he straightened himself. Nodding lightly, as he placed it in his jacket pocket.
We joined Grover and Annabeth, who were staring at us in amazement.
"Percy . . . Y/n . . ." Grover said. "That was so incredibly . . ."
"Terrifying," said Annabeth.
"Cool!" Grover corrected.
"Yeah, if you can call getting stabbed cool." Y/n responded.
I propped him up again, as he removed his hand from his chest, the three of us suddenly seeing blood covering his palm. Then Annabeth seemed to light up, as something came to mind.
"Wait a second."
She searched in her pocket for a moment, before pulling out a cube of ambrosia.
"I've been saving it."
She handed it over to him, Y/n quickly placing it into his mouth as he chewed.
"What's it taste like?"
The first time I had eaten it, I had tasted my moms brownies. But apparently it was different for everyone, so I was curious to know what it was for Y/n.
"Pizza rolls. My dads actually."
I nodded, as I looked back down at his wound. The blood had seemed to subside, and the gash close completely a scar already forming over. And even that seemed to be slowly fading, he didn't even need my support any more.
He looked between us and in a moment we found ourselves hugging. Overjoyed that we had all managed to survive. That we had actually come out alive.
Annabeth was the first to speak up as we all pulled out of the hug. "How? How did you escape?"
Y/n gently gripped the rose he had gotten from the vines, smiling down at it as he replied. "Its a long story, but let's just say I had some help."
"You figured it out?" I responded, already guessing at what type of "help" he was referring to.
He nodded, Annabeth shooting a look back at him as she spoke. "You did!? Tell me!"
He chuckled softly. "Gaia, my moms Gaia. The voice inside my head was a manifestation of Chaos. And my dad was actually a half-blood son of Persephone."
Annabeth looked back in exasperation. "Well how in the twelve Olympians was I supposed to guess that!?"
She crossed her arms in annoyance, as she grumbled to herself. The rest of us snickering as we continued. Grover being the next to respond.
"Wait so doesn't that make you like seventy-five percent god?"
He thought about it for a moment before nodding.
"Wow that means you're a 3/4 blood." I added.
"God, I hate fractions." he replied.
We all laughed. It felt nice even now to share a moment like this. But eventually we had to return to the matter at hand.
"We have to get back to New York," I said. "By tonight."
"That's impossible," Annabeth said, "unless we-"
"Fly," I agreed.
Y/n looked back at me wide eyed. "Fly, like in an actual airplane, which you were told to never do. Or else get blown out of the sky by Zeus. Let alone while carrying a weapon that has more destructive capabilities then a nuclear bomb?"
"Yeah," I said. "Pretty much exactly like that. Come on."