DISCONTINUED

I: Oh Shit, I'm Still Alive

I woke up choking on my tears, in a room I didn't know. I was wearing some sports bra that I had on that wasn't completely destroyed by the blood and dirt. I reached for my chest, and realized how it didn't hurt. The same applied to my ripped leg muscle, my concussion, the cuts everywhere. They'd simply disappeared.

"Apollo did that."

I turned around and saw the familiar black haired dimwit sitting on an armchair, looking at me. Percy fucking Jackson.

Oh, well... this isn't a good look, is it? Uhm, lemme explain. So... I didn't sleep at Percy's house just because, alright? Alright, let's take a look at a couple of days ago, before I went comatose, hah.

The Battle of Manhattan.

***

The dry sound of my steps stained the stone steps of Mount Olympus. Below me, monsters and children roared in anguish and victory, but I knew the real battle happened above me.

As I came closer to the throne room, limping, I could hear the people talking. Kronos insistently told my brother to finish off Percy once and for all. For some godforsaken reason, it did not feel right in my conscience to stand by and watch that happen. Although I didn't really like Percy, and often felt nauseated by his hypocritical righteousness and bravery, something in me whispered that this was not justice.

But what could I do? I had already chosen. I would not betray my family for a kid I didn't know.

Kronos' angered scream interrupted my train of thoughts, and then I saw it. Kronos' scythe dripped with blood; my brother's blood.

Shards of his own sword, given to him by the goddess Nemesis, pierced his bronze armor, staining it with reddish tint. The silvery metal did not cave when his mouth opened with a gasp. He didn't scream, a determined look in his eyes as he faced the furious Titan. Both knew he had lost.

With a swing of his scythe, Kronos opened a fissure in the dry weeping stones of the floor, that crackled obediently. My brother was tossed back, and his eyes crossed mine one last time as he fell through the orifice.

My eyes went wide, and I was shocked enough to not move for seconds. The howl that came from me stretched my jaw, hurting my own ears, more than the Titans' commands ever had. The letters of his name flowed down my mouth like a broken river, such as the tears from my eyes. It shook the room, and they all looked at me, as if they'd forgotten to think of me. .

Perseus' eyes were filled with sorrow; he looked at me with pity and empathy. I did not care how he looked at me.

"Erica." Kronos called out. I glanced at him. His expression was almost mournful, as if he almost resented what he had done, but I knew he didn't. "There was no other way. He was a traitor."

I did not answer. The sound of semi-mortal blood, the same blood that ran through my veins and had run through the veins of my father and Nemesis, dripped to the ground, and was almost louder than the ring in my ears, and its murdered red outshone the aura from all the demigods in the room.

I was too angry to think, consumed by the burning sensation that his last gaze had ripped from my heart. Ethan was gone. My brother, my best friend, the only person I'd known since my birth... dead. All he'd done. Gone.

"You killed my brother." I growled, and without thinking I ran toward him, sword swinging. The jump was messy, uncalculated. My movements were sloppy with pain and slow with emotion.

I would've anticipated it, I did anticipate it, but I if only I cared. I did not care for the torn muscle in my calf that had not healed, I did not care for any of the injuries that impaired my fighting. I would die fighting for my brother.