𝐌𝐚𝐝𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐌𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐝𝐲; 𝖺𝗇𝗇𝖺𝖻𝖾𝗍𝗁 𝖼𝗁𝖺𝗌𝖾

The stand

The bridge to Olympus was dissolving. Literally.

They stepped out of the elevator, and immediately cracks appeared at their feet.

"Jump!" Grover said, which was easy for him since he's part mountain goat. For the others, not so much.

He sprang to the next slab of stone while theirs tilted sickeningly.

"Gods, I hate heights!" Thalia yelled as she, Percy and Ivy leaped. But Annabeth was in no shape for jumping. She stumbled and yelled, "Ivy!"

She caught her hand as the pavement fell, crumbling into dust. For a second Ivy's heart stopped, thinking she wouldn't be able to pull her up.

Annabeth's feet dangled in the open air as her hand started to slip until Ivy was holding her only by her fingers.

Fortunely, Percy, Grover and Thalia grabbed her legs, and she found extra strength. Annabeth was not going to fall.

She pulled her up and theny lay trembling on the pavement with their arms around each other.

"Thanks," The blonde breathed out.

"Of course" She gave a reassuring squeeze to her hand.

"Keep moving!" Grover tugged on her shoulder as Ivy groaned.

They untangled themselves and sprinted across the sky bridge as more stones disintegrated and fell into oblivion. They made it to the edge of the mountain.

"Well, that was close" Ivy said as she watched the final section collapse.

Annabeth looked back at the elevator, which was now completely out of reach, attached to nothing, hanging six hundred stories above Manhattan.

"We're marooned," She said. "On our own."

"Blah-ha-ha!" Grover said. "The connection between Olympus and America is dissolving. If it fails—"

"The gods won't move on to another country this time," Thalia said. "This will be the end of Olympus. The final end."

"Well, on that happy note," Ivy said as nobody moved. "We should really run now"

They finally unfroze and ran through the streets, where everthing was either burning or falling apart.

"Kronos's scythe," Percy said.

They followed the winding path toward the palace of the gods. She didn't remember the road being so long. Maybe Kronos was making time go slower, or maybe it was just dread slowing her down.

The whole mountaintop was in ruins—so many beautiful buildings and gardens gone.

Somewhere ahead of them, Kronos's voice roared: "Brick by brick! That was my promise. Tear it down BRICK BY BRICK!"

A white marble temple suddenly exploded. The dome shot up like the lid of a teapot and shattered into a billion pieces, raining rubble over the city.

"That was a shrine to Artemis," Thalia grumbled. "He'll pay for that."

They were running under the marble archway with the huge statues of Zeus and Hera when the entire mountain groaned, rocking sideways like a boat in a storm.

"Look out!" Grover yelped. The archway crumbled. Ivy looked up in time to see a twenty-ton scowling Hera topple over on them. Annabeth and her would've been flattened, but Thalia shoved them from behind and they landed just out of danger.

"Thalia!" Grover cried.

When the dust cleared and the mountain stopped rocking, they found her still alive, but her legs were pinned under the statue.