-ˏˋ°•*⁀➷
SHE rushed to Jason, clutching her weapon with her life.
"The mighty Jason Grace," he taunted. "Yes, we know about you, son of Jupiter. The one who led the assault on Mount Othrys. The one who single-handedly slew the Titan Krios and toppled the black throne."
"What are you talking about?" he asked. He realized his mistake when Enceladus breathed fire.
Encedalus looked at Rebecca. "I've heard of you! You who betrayed our mother!"
Rebecca glared. "I wouldn't want to have you as a brother."
Distracted, Jason moved too slowly. The blast missed him, but heat blistered his back. He slammed into the ground, his clothes smoldering. He was blinded from ash and smoke, choking as he tried to breathe.
Rebecca grabbed him by the collar and dragged him as the giant's spear cleaved the ground between his feet.
Jason managed to stand.
"Lightning," she whispered, while thinking of what to do. "Try to use lightning."
He seemed defeated, "I can't- I have no energy."
They dodged some fire hits from Encedalus. "Then we'll die trying."
Those words seemed familiar to Jason, what he said next was mechanical, "to die with glory."
But Enceladus managed to grab Jason and throw him full force against the ground, Rebecca widened her eyes and tried reaching him.
Slowly, Jason's semi-unconscious body began sinking. She tugged his hand but the earth was sucking him in. The giant was still boasting.
She placed a palm on the earth and another on Jason's heart.
He smiles with his eyes closed, Rebecca knew she had to get him out and fast.
She put all her energy into it, trying to access the soil. She imagined the roots going deep into the underworld, the roots that were tugging Jason down, she then envisioned the roots getting sick and dying.
She could fell the earth slowly letting go of Jason, she tugged his hand harder until his legs were almost entirely visible.
She pulled him up, both catching their breaths.
Then they looked down in the crater and saw where the other end of the hydraulic ax had gone. Enceladus was struggling to rise, an ax blade the size of a washing machine stuck in his breastplate.
They had to help their friends.
He looked at her, his face set, no more golden-retrieve Jason. "To die with glory."
She nodded and tugged him up. "To die with glory."
Amazingly, the giant managed to pull the ax blade free. He yelled in pain and the mountain trembled. Golden ichor soaked the front of his armor, but Enceladus stood.
Shakily, he bent down and retrieved his spear.
"Good try." The giant winced. "But I cannot be beaten."
As they watched, the giant's armor mended itself, and the ichor stopped flowing. Even the cuts on his dragon-scale legs, which Jason had worked so hard to make, were now just pale scars.
Leo ran up to them, saw the giant, and cursed. "What is it with this guy? Die, already!"
"My fate is preordained," Enceladus said. "Giants cannot be killed by gods or heroes."
"Only by both," Rebecca said.
The giant's smile faltered, and she saw in his eyes something like fear. "It's true, isn't it? Gods and demigods have to work together to kill you."
"You will not live long enough to try!" The giant started stumbling up the crater's slope, slipping on the glassy sides.
"Anyone have a god handy?" Leo asked.
Rebecca's heart filled with dread. He looked at the giant below them, struggling to get out of the pit, and he knew what had to happen.
"Leo," he said, "if you've got a rope in that tool belt, get it ready." He leaped at the giant with no weapon but his bare hands.
"Enceladus!" Piper yelled. "Look behind you!"
It was an obvious trick, but her voice was so compelling, even Rebecca bought it. The giant said, "What?" and turned like there was an enormous spider on his back.
Rebecca tackled his legs at just the right moment. The giant lost his balance. Enceladus slammed into the crater and slid to the bottom.
While she tried to rise, Jason appeared and put his arms around the giant's neck.
When Enceladus struggled to his feet, Jason was riding his shoulders.
"Get off!" Enceladus screamed. He tried to grab Jason's legs, but Jason scrabbled around, squirming and climbing over the giant's hair.
Rebecca poked him around in circles, creating thin lines in his thick skin.
Suddenly she could smell the metallic scent of a storm. Darkness swallowed the sun. The giant froze, sensing it too.
Jason yelled to his friends, "Hit the deck!" And every hair on his head stood straight up.
Crack!
Lightning surged through Jason's body, straight through Enceladus, and into the ground.
Rebecca's heart stopped for a second, as if she had been struck too.
The giant's back stiffened, and Jason was thrown clear.
When he regained his bearings, he was slipping down the side of the crater, and the crater was cracking open.
The lightning bolt had split the mountain itself. The earth rumbled and tore apart, and Enceladus's legs slid into the chasm. He clawed helplessly at the glassy sides of the pit, and just for a moment managed to hold on to the edge, his hands trembling.
He fixed Jason with a look of hatred. "You've won nothing, boy. My brothers are rising, and they are ten times as strong as I. We will destroy the gods at their roots! You will die, and Olympus will die with-"
The giant lost his grip and fell into the crevice.
Rebecca pouted, "pity, we didn't hear the rest of that."
The earth shook. Jason fell toward the rift.
"Grab hold!" Leo yelled.
Jason's feet were at the edge of the chasm when he grabbed the rope, and Rebecca, Leo and Piper pulled him up.
They stood together, exhausted and terrified, as the chasm closed like an angry mouth. The ground stopped pulling at their feet.
For now, Gaea was gone.
But Rebecca knew not for long.
The mountainside was on fire. Smoke billowed hundreds of feet into the air.
She spotted a helicopter-maybe firefighters or reporters-coming toward them.
All around them was carnage. The Earthborn had melted into piles of clay, leaving behind only their rock missiles and some nasty bits of loincloth, but Rebecca figured they would re-form soon enough.
Construction equipment lay in ruins. The ground was scarred and blackened.
Coach Hedge started to move. He sat up with a groan and rubbed his head.
He blinked and looked around him at the battle scene. "Did I do this?"
Before Jason could reply, Hedge picked up his club and got shakily to his feet. "Yeah, you wanted some hoof? I gave you some hoof, cupcakes! Who's the goat, huh?"
He did a little dance, kicking rocks and making what were probably rude satyr gestures at the piles of clay.
It was probably the exhaustion and the near death experience but Rebecca began to laugh.
The other three looked at her before they began laughing too.
Rebecca laid in the floor beside her friends, the four laughing.
"Yes, Coach, you did this."
Coach seemed excited and happy. "There ain't no one I can't beat."
Then a man stood up across the clearing. Tristan McLean staggered forward. His eyes were hollow, shell-shocked, like someone who'd just walked through a nuclear wasteland.
The four friends rushed up, Piper's face turned sombre.
"Piper?" he called. His voice cracked. "Pipes, what—what is-" He couldn't complete the thought. Piper ran over to him and hugged him tightly, but he almost didn't seem to know her.
He had too many memories, too much trauma his mind just couldn't handle. He was coming apart.
"We need to get him out of here," Rebecca said.
"Yeah, but how?" Leo said. "He's in no shape to walk."
Jason glanced up at the helicopter, which was now circling directly overhead. "Can you make us a bullhorn or something?" he asked Leo. "Piper has some talking to do."
____________________________
- finally the fight thing is over 😭
- i'm sorry but usually i skim over
some fights details and stuff in the
pjo books so feel free to do the same
- i don't know if i'm making
the chapters too short but i don't
want to make them too long
- also
- percabeth is goals
flo <3