Blaze of Glory - a PJO fanfiction

17. Battle

Young God - Halsey

- Time skip brought to you by awwwww friendshippppp -

Othrys was amazing.

The ruins, though only the shattered remains of a once great palace, still held remnants of the power that had once resided there.

The General observed as Zoe, Percy, and Thalia approached the summit of the mountain. The place where the sky swirled down in a funnel of storm clouds, where Atlas had held the sky, and now, where Artemis held it.

The goddess had willingly taken the burden as soon as she had seen Annabeth struggling under the weight of the sky, according to Luke. Annabeth had come out of the ordeal with a few new streaks of grey in her blonde curls. Luke was standing beside me, holding a sword to her throat. She was bound with handcuffs behind her back, and gagged with cloth for our own sanity. Also with us was half a dozen dracaenae, bearing Kronos' sarcophagus, and Xavier, who had been dragged along to witness the triumph of a new golden age, along with his newly acquired shield.

"Ah, how touching," the General said in his booming voice.

"Luke," Thalia snarled. "Let her go."

Luke's smile was weak and pale. He looked even worse in D.C., but I assumed he must be stressed or something "That is the General's decision, Thalia. But it's good to see you again." Thalia spat at his feet.

The General chuckled. "So much for old friends. And you, Zoe. It's been a long time. How is my little traitor? I will enjoy killing you."

"Do not respond," Artemis groaned. "Do not challenge him." I sighed in exasperation.

"Can we gag her too?" I asked, gesturing to the goddess. "Love her, absolute girlboss, but she's being quite annoying right now."

"How dare you!" Zoe hissed. "After she showed you mercy in allowing you to retreat!" I glared at her, and she glared back.

"Wait," Percy said. "So you're Atlas?" he asked the general. I raised my eyebrows at him. How did he not figure this out sooner? Hasn't Zoe warned him about anything? Although knowing Percy, I wouldn't wanna talk to him either.

The General glanced at Percy. "So, even the stupidest of heroes can finally figure something out. Yes, I am Atlas, the general of the Titans and terror of the gods. Congratulations. I will kill you presently, as soon as I deal with this wretched girl."

"You're not going to hurt Zoe," Percy said, being oh-so-noble. It was getting very old. "I won't let you."

The General sneered. "You have no right to interfere, little hero. This is a family matter."

"A family matter?" the Son of Poseidon asked.

"Yes," Zoe said bleakly. "Atlas is my father."

"If you'll excuse me, General," I said. "I have better things to do than listen to this seaweed brain figure out the obvious. My daggers are in need of sharpening, I'll be close." The General nodded and shooed me away. I went a good 50 feet away, choosing a rock to sit on. I grabbed a whetstone from my pocket, pulling out and beginning to sharpen the dagger from my right sheath. The one I had dug into the side of the Hoover Dam.

I was so focused, that I didn't notice a battle had begun until I heard Atlas howl in anger. He has been trapped beneath the sky once more. I could've freed him, held the sky and let him out to defeat the rest of them, but I was insane, not suicidal.

I saw that Thalia had backed Luke to the edge of a cliff, Luke had a bloody slash across his chest and his pale face glistened with sweat as if he had a fever.

He lunged at Thalia and she slammed him with her shield. Luke's sword spun out of his hands and clattered to the rocks. Thalia put her spear point to his throat. For a moment, there was silence. I was running over to them, but I was suddenly tackled from behind, and one of my own daggers was held to my throat.

"Well?" Luke asked, fear in his voice. Thalia trembled with fury.

"Don't kill him!" Annabeth yelled, holding me down in the dirt. I wanted to struggle, but my knife was too close to my throat for that, and I didn't have a death wish.

"He's a traitor," Thalia said. "A traitor!"

"We'll bring Luke back," Annabeth pleaded. "To Olympus. He... he'll be useful." I scoffed at her feeble attempt of hiding that she still cared for him.

"Is that what you want, Thalia?" Luke sneered. "To go back to Olympus in triumph? To please your dad?" Thalia hesitated, and Luke went to grab her spear.

"No!" Annabeth shouted. But it was too late. Thalia kicked Luke away. He lost his balance, terror on his face, and then he fell off the cliff. Annabeth's shock lasted long enough for me to throw her off of me, grabbing my remaining dagger. She dropped the other one, rushing over to the cliff edge. I stayed kneeling in shock over the death of one of my best friends. I didn't follow them to the cliff's edge, I knew exactly what I would see there.

Ok Krys, think, what do you need to do first. If you do stuff, then you can avoid thinking about it. Now, where's Xavier? I looked around for the Son of Ares, who I had lost in the battle.

"Xavier!" I called, not getting a response. "Xavier!" I rounded a pillar to see Xavier sitting against it, covered in dirt and scratched, as we all were. He held up his shield, not knowing who I was. I batted it away. "What happened to you?" I asked. "Are you okay?" He nodded his head. "Thank gods," I said, grabbing his hand and pulling him up to standing. "Luke is- he's..." I was suddenly pulled into a hug.

"I know," he said. "Are you okay?" he asked, pulling away to look me over for any injuries. I nodded, and he gave me a look of 'I don't believe you'. "Physically and mentally," he clarified. I just sighed, turning away.

"Let's go," I told him. "The army is gonna be here soon." He put a hand on my shoulder before I could walk away.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" he asked. I took a deep breath.

"Nope," I said, popping the 'p'. "Campers to defeat, goddess to get rid of, I've got a full plate, let's go meet the army." He looked at me disappointedly, before picking up his shield and following me towards the clearing.

The army was right there, within shouting distance. Of course, the three demigods wouldn't stand a chance against that big of an army, but I pulled out my daggers anyway. I was going to kill Thalia, just like she'd killed Luke not even 5 minutes ago.

And I thought I would finally get to win something, before a WWI Sopwith Camel Plane came flying over the mountain, shooting at the lines of monsters. Now, normally, I wouldn't be worried. Normal bullets don't damage monsters. But, it appeared that whoever was flying that plane had somehow acquired celestial bronze bullets, because the lines of monsters vaporized into golden powder as fast as they could approach.

Suddenly, a silver chariot pulled by deer swooped out of the sky, and the demigods got into it. I started to run towards it, but Xavier grabbed me and pulled me behind a pillar, just as I heard the pinging of bullets hitting the other side.

"Percy!" I yelled after the chariot. "You fucker! You ruin everything!"

And we watched them fly off into the distance, the army gathered around the hill. We stepped out from behind the pillar, and I had to deflect an incoming spear with the spell I had learned from Circe what felt like ages ago.

"Stop it you idiots!" I shouted at them. "I'm your lieutenant!"

"And so am I," a voice said, coming over the crest of the hill.

"Luke..."

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A/N : Well, that's a cliffhanger. I hope you enjoyed the angst, the other angst, and the extra angst. See you in the next book :)

- Chaonix