Percy's timing really was horrible. Because he chose now to have a conversation with Blackjack as to why pegasi gallop as they fly. At least until Cressida smacked his head before she and him climbed onto Blackjack and Annabeth onto Porkpie.
It was well after midnight, but the lights on the bridge were blinding as they were able to make out individual fighters.
Apollo campers were retreating. They would hide behind cars and snipe at the approaching army, setting off explosive arrows and dropping caltrops in the road, building fiery barricades wherever they could, and dragging sleeping drivers out of their cars to get them out of harm's way.
But the enemy kept advancing. An entire phalanx of dracaenae marched in the lead, their shields locked together, spear tips bristling over the top. An occasional arrow would connect with their snaky trunks, or a neck, or a chink in their armour, and the unlucky snake woman would disintegrate, but most of the Apollo arrows glanced harmlessly off their shield wall. About a hundred more monsters marched behind them.
"There!" Annabeth called from her pegasus. Cressida had never seen the Minotaur before and she was definitely intimidated when she did. From the waist down, he wore standard Greek battle gear – a kilt-like apron of leather and metal flaps, bronze greaves covering his legs and tightly wrapped leather sandals. His top was all bull – hair and hide and muscle, leading to a head so large he should've toppled over just from the weight of his horns. A double-bladed axe was strapped to his back.
As soon as he saw them circling overhead, or probably sniffed him out, the monster reached for a white limousine. He couldn't possibly...
"Blackjack, dive!" Percy yelled as his grip on Cressida tightened as Blackjack dived while Porkpie swerved to the left. "Drop us behind the lines with the Apollo cabin," he told Blackjack. "Stay in earshot but get out of danger!"
Blackjack didn't look as if he was going to argue as the three of them disembarked and Michael Yew ran up to them.
He had a bandaged cut on his arm. His ferrety face was smeared with soot and his quiver was almost empty, but he was smiling like he was having a great time. "Glad you could join us," he said. "Where are the other reinforcements?"
"You're sort of looking at them," Cressida said.
"Then we're dead."
"Hey!" Cressida exclaimed, quite offended.
"You still have your flying chariot?" Annabeth asked.
"Nah," Michael said. "Left it at camp. I told Clarisse she could have it. Whatever, you know? Not worth fighting about anymore. But she said it was too late. We'd insulted her honour for the last time or some stupid thing."
"Least you tried," Percy said.
Michael shrugged. "Yeah, well, I called her some names when she said she still wouldn't fight. I doubt that helped. Here come the uglies!"
Michael shot a sonic arrow that made cars explode and monsters drop their weapons as they held their ears in pain, a few disintegrating.
"We have to fall back," Michael said. "I've got Kayla and Austin setting traps further down the bridge."
"No," Percy said. "Bring your campers forward to this position and wait for my signal. We're going to drive the enemy back to Brooklyn."
Michael laughed. "How do you plan to do that?"
Percy only drew his sword.
"Percy," Annabeth said, "let me come with you."
He shook his head. "Too dangerous. Besides, I need you to help Michael coordinate the defensive line. I'll distract the monsters. You group up here. Move the sleeping mortals out of the way. Then you can start picking off monsters while I keep them focused on me. If anybody can do all that, you can.'
Michael snorted. "Thanks a lot."
"Alright," she relented as she and Michael began talking and Percy turned to Cressida who was gripping her thyrsus with a sharpened end.
"It depends on my mood," she said, and Percy was confused. "Whether I feed you to the Minotaur or impale you now for asking me to stay behind."
He could only smile. "I'd expect nothing less."
"Good," she said as she threw her thyrsus from one hand to the other. "Then let's kill some monsters."
"Don't I get a kiss for luck? It's kind of a tradition, right?"
Her eyes glittered as a surprised expression stretched across her face and where Percy figured she'd punch him, she made his heart race as she came closer. Closer. Closer.
His eyes were closed, and he was waiting for her lips on his but instead, he felt fingers and his green eyes snapped open. "Live through this, and I'll kiss that Fish Face of yours as much as you want."
And Percy picked a great time to stop functioning as Cressida disappeared around the corner of the school bus.
She dragged the sharpened end of her thyrsus along the asphalt as she walked straight towards the army, more like she was on a runway rather than about to face a hundred monsters.
"Ladies and gentlemen, monsters of all ages," she bellowed, her voice carrying out across the bridge. "Welcome to the show! Staring yours truly," she said as she took a bow, the army still advancing. "I think we're going to have a tough crowd tonight," she remarked as her eyes lit up with flames and Percy's eyes bulged out of his skull. She really was his Crazy Girl. "It's a good thing our show is killer!"
And a tsunami of purple fire went racing for the monsters.
She didn't bother trying to manipulate the mind of the Minotaur, which was a centuries-old creature, but she definitely went for every other monster there as they began turning on each other.
If they weren't driven mad, they were killing each other as Cressida wobbled on her feet, downing a vial of Solace Solution before she raised her thyrsus into the air. "In the name of Dionysus!" she shouted before she charged, a few of the Apollo campers charging after her as Percy ran to keep the Minotaur busy.
It didn't take too long before Percy had dispatched the Minotaur by shoving its own axe through a chink in its breastplate.
And when he joined the fight, his Achilles Curse really helped cut down the army. There was about 25 left out of three hundred.
They drove them back towards the Brooklyn side of the bridge, the sky growing pale as the sun started to rise.
"Percy! Cress!" Annabeth yelled. "You've already routed them. Pull back! We're overextended!"
Cressida looked exhausted, her magic trick really draining her as they saw the crowd at the base of the bridge.
The retreating monsters were running straight towards their reinforcements. It was a small group, maybe thirty or forty demigods in battle armour, mounted on skeletal horses. One of them held a purple banner with a black scythe design. The lead horseman trotted forward. He took off his helm and Kronos stared at them, golden eyes but Luke's face.
Annabeth and the Apollo campers faltered.
"Now, we pull back," Percy said as he grabbed Cressida's hand and they ran. The Titan lord's men drew their swords and charged. The hooves of their skeletal horses thundered against the pavement.
Apollo archers shot a volley bringing down several of the enemy but they still kept riding.
"Retreat!" Percy called as he came to a halt. "I'll hold them!" and then he turned to Cressida. "Go!"
"No!"
They didn't have time to argue because within seconds, the riders were on them.
Michael and his archers tried to retreat, but Annabeth stayed right beside them, fighting with her knife and mirrored shield as they slowly backed up the bridge.
Kronos's cavalry swirled around them, slashing and yelling insults. The Titan himself advanced leisurely, like he had all the time in the world.
What slowed them down was that they were trying to wound, not kill as they faced other demigods.
Cressida was eventually able to rally what little strength she had left as she broke the line of demigods, sending them off to sleep which was an easy task, as she ran for the Titan Lord.
"Cress!" she heard Percy call from somewhere as they were forced to the middle of the bridge, but she had a shot and she was going for it. She was going for the shot that avenged her brother.
But she only had time to level her spear before she was frozen in time and Kronos smiled at her.
"We meet again, Miss Lynn," he drawled, voice deep and nothing like what she remembered Luke's voice sounding like when he'd hissed in her ear last summer. She strained against his magic, her body frozen from the neck down.
"Let me go! Fight me you coward!" she bellowed as her body began to panic.
"I have a much better idea," he grinned. "I'll give you a choice."
And he let her go.
She hesitated. She couldn't help it as she glanced at where her spear was still frozen in the air, poised for a perfect kill shot straight through his heart.
"What kind of choice?"
He spread his arms out. "You can take your shot. Go ahead. A single shot to try and hit the one spot that could end this war and avenge your poor brother."
She scowled at him, her gaze deathly at the mention of her brother.
It was too good. Too good to be true.
"Or?"
Her breathing was heavy, her heart finding it hard to beat with the anxiety that weighed it down.
"Or you can save the boy you care for."
Her eyes widened as she turned, searching desperately for Percy.
His back was turned. He would never see it coming as a demigod approached from behind him, knife raised. She couldn't make out the demigod, but he seemed familiar. As for the knife he held, Percy had the Curse of Achilles. It couldn't hurt him, right?
Still, there was no choice.
"Damn you, bastard," she spat at the Titan Lord.
Her lungs screamed, her muscles burned as Cressida ran as fast as she could, and she lost all capability for rational thought. The only thing she could think of was that she had to save him. Why ruin a good rhythm whether the knife hurt him or not?
The demigod didn't see her coming as she arrived just in time to cover Percy's back as the knife was brought down and she lifted her arm up to defend her face.
Poison.
That blade was poisoned because Cressida screamed in agony as the knife sliced through her flesh, the sensation much more painful than it should be.
She vaguely heard Percy shouting her name, or maybe it was Annabeth, but either way, she fell to the ground, writhing in anguish as she clutched her arm, uncaring about the shadow of the demigod that stood over her, her blood dripping from their knife.
Her vision became spotty as the edges blackened. She was going to pass out from the pain. Whether she was safe or not didn't matter. Whether she was alive or not didn't matter. All that mattered was that Percy was ok.
******************************************************************
Percy had turned the second that he heard Cressida scream and it was both him and Annabeth that cried out her name as they understood what had happened, that she'd taken the knife so that Percy didn't have to.
And if Percy saw red when Hades made her bleed, he had no idea what colour he saw when he locked eyes with the demigod that dared hurt his Grape Girl.
Ethan Nakamura, son of Nemesis.
Percy slammed him in the face with the hilt of his sword so hard that he dented his helm as Ethan crumpled to the ground.
"Get back!" he ordered, completely feral as he slashed the air in a wide arc, driving the rest of the demigods away from Cressida. "No one touches her!"
"Interesting," Kronos said. He studied the scene from atop his skeletal horse as if he could sense that Percy had come close to death.
"Bravely fought, Percy Jackson," he said. "But it's time to surrender – or the girl dies. Because unlike her, you won't get a choice."
"Don't," Cressida whispered, her black shirt even darker and sticky with blood and her eyes barely open. He had to get her out of here.
"BLACKJACK!" Percy screamed.
As fast as light, the pegasus swooped down and clamped his teeth on the straps of Cressida's armour. They soared away over the river before the enemy could even react.
Kronos snarled. "Someday soon, I am going to make pegasus soup. But in the meantime ..." He dismounted, his scythe glistening in the dawn light. "I'll settle for another dead demigod."
"Porkpie!" Percy called again and Annabeth's eyes widened.
"No! Percy, you can't! Percy!" and that was her last word before Porkpie picked up Annabeth by her armour straps and carried her to safety. And Percy was left by himself with a few Apollo campers to face Kronos.
Percy couldn't beat him but he could slow him down in a completely desperate move by using his powers to manipulate the water below and break the bridge in two.
Michael Yew didn't survive.
Nothing was left but his bow.
And Percy had yelled out in anger and frustration as the Titan Lord galloped back to Brooklyn, followed by his warriors.
But then his mother's phone in his pocket started to ring. It was Annabeth's number calling him but it wasn't Annabeth on the end of the line.
"Percy?" Silena Beauregard sounded like she'd been crying. "Plaza Hotel. You'd better come quickly and bring a healer from Apollo's cabin. It's ... it's Cressida."
And his heart stopped dead in his chest. And Percy had never moved faster in his life.