𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐰𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐲 𝐦𝐨𝐨𝐧𝐬, p.jackson

𝟏𝟕. the ten-day odyssey of terror

seventeen.
( the lightning thief. )
❛ the ten-day odyssey of terror. ❜

COLETTE SHIVERED UPON the coast guard boat as it transported them back to the shoreline. They didn't both to ask why or how they were there or where their parents where. Los Angeles had erupted into chaos and all their radio signals were jammed. The coastguard dropped her and her friends off at the Santa Monica Pier with towels around their shoulders and water bottles that said I'm a junior coast guard! and sped off to save more people. When they'd pulled them from the water, Colette was silently praying they wouldn't question Percy about his abnormal dryness after just being in the sea and it seemed he shared her concerns because as soon as he was pulled from the sea, he was soaking wet.

He was also barefoot given that he'd quickly forced Grover to wear his shoes.

After reaching dry land, they stumbled down the beach, watching the city burn against a radiant sunrise. Colette sighed in exhaustion as they stood upon the shore, her legs were aching and her stomach felt nauseous from being in the underworld.

"I don't believe it," Annabeth was pale, as though she were fighting off something she didn't want to accept. "We went all that way-"

"It was a trick," Percy glanced at her, a churn of something like bitterness in his throat. "A strategy worthy of Athena."

She glared at him. "Hey," she snapped in warning, giving him a look as not to challenge her.

Colette gave annabeth a sympathetic glance. "Come on, Annie. You get what he's saying." she leaned forward, rubbing her hand up and down annabeth's back comfortingly.

She dropped her eyes, her anger fading into an emotion that made her grit her teeth and blink away her sorrows. "Yeah. I get it."

"Well, I don't!" Grover complained. "Would somebody-"

"Percy ..." Annabeth interjected. "I'm sorry about your mother. I'm so sorry...." the expression Percy donned was one full of mourning and memory, a wound coated in salt that he couldn't bring himself to talk about.

Percy cleared his throat, avoiding the blonde's statement. "The prophecy was right," he sighed. "You shall go west and face the god who has turned.' But it wasn't Hades. Hades didn't want war among the Big Three. Someone else pulled off the theft. Someone stole Zeus's master bolt, and Hades's helm, and framed me because I'm Poseidon's kid. Poseidon will get blamed by both sides. By sundown today, there will be a three-way war. And I'll have caused it."

Grover shook his head, mystified. "But who would be that sneaky? Who would want war that bad?"

"Let's think," Colette was staring between them, her gaze locked onto something behind them. "What god goes hard for chaos and war? three guesses who." And from the look she saw on his face, Percy didn't even need to turn to know who she was talking about.

There he was, waiting for them, in his black leather duster and his sunglasses, an aluminum baseball bat propped on his shoulder. His motorcycle rumbled beside him, its headlight turning the sand a bloody crimson. As he had at the dinner, he emitted arrogance and bloodlust, a smirk tugging at the corners of his lips. He stood so disturbingly mocking, hid chest rumbling as though he was trying to hide his laughter.

"Hey, kid." Ares' voice was tainted with the resounding of bullets and the slice of knives. "You were supposed to die." He seemed genuinely pleased to see them, despite how he avidly expressed his impatience as he waited for their death. it was perplexing.