Smithereens

Chapter 17

Here's just one last chapter/kinda sorta epilogue to include one more scene that I really wanted to add and to set up for the next book!

Once No Way Home comes out (SUPER PUMPED BY THE WAY DID YOU GUYS SEE TOBEY MCGUIRE AND ANDREW GARFIELD AND EMMA STONE IN THE SECOND TRAILER ASGGDGHFSD) I might add another chapter to wrap that part up but as of write now (see what i did there?)

ENJOY THE LAST CHAPTER!!!!!!!! *sadness*

I woke up to a bright light trying to trickle in through my eyelids. I opened them, wincing. "Lady Hestia?" I said weakly when I saw her. She was the light. This must be her true godly form. I was always told if I saw it I would burn up. "Am I... am I dead?"

Hestia shook her head. "No, you're not, dear."

"Why am I not burning up?" I looked behind her and saw most of the Olympians standing there. My father, Athena, Apollo and Artemis, Hades, Aphrodite, and Hermes. The ones that were angry with Zeus for killing the half-bloods. "And why am I not dead? Zeus struck me down."

Apollo cleared his throat.

"You are not dead yet.

There was a plot to save you.

You are now a god."

I stared at him. That haiku wasn't half bad. And it fit the requirements, too. "I'm a god?" I repeated. My breath quickened as I felt anger rising up in me. "You turned me into a god? No, no, no, no. I- I can't be a god. I need to die. Annabeth is waiting for me in Elysium. Please, please turn me back. I want to be mortal."

"Percy, I'm sorry," My dad said. "We can't. Only with the entire counsel's consent can we take away immortality. And then we would have to tell Zeus you're alive. And then he would kill you."

"Fine," I said. "Let him kill me. I want to live in the underworld. I don't have much left up here anyway."

"No," Hades said. "I have a list of everyone who is going to die in the forty-eight hours, and you're not on it. That means your plan to get yourself killed won't work."

I took a deep breath, weighing my options. I distinctly remembered a story of the gods bringing mortals back from the dead. Artemis bringing her friend to Aesculapius, Zeus striking Aesculapius down, and then raising him back from the dead and turning him into a god. "Did you guys bring me back to life?"

"No," Athena said. "We're not allowed to do that. Hades doesn't appreciate it, and neither do the Fates. We simply granted you immortality moments before Zeus tried to smite you, and Poseidon used the water vapor to transfer you here before Zeus noticed."

I nodded. "What am I the god of?"

"You mean what are your realms?" Artemis asked. I nodded again. "Loyalty, I believe. As well as poison, and swordsmanship. Your sacred animals are the Pegasus and the Hell hound."

I didn't like being the god of poison. That made me incredibly uncomfortable. I knew why they did that. I had the power to control it, and I had killed the goddess of poison, so the position was vacant.

"And you are my lieutenant," Poseidon told me. I bit the insides of my cheeks to hide a smile.

...

I stumbled through the town, still dressed like a Dutch convict, trying to hide my face so no one could see the deep cuts and bruises all over it. They would want to help, the nice, wonderful people that they are, and I really don't have time for that.

I tried to pick up the pace, searching for the large tulip field where Happy would meet me, all the while muttering "Happy, Happy, Happy."

Oh, yeah. I was going crazy.