✔ | [1] 𝒞𝒶𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓇𝓉𝒾𝒸 | ᴘᴇʀᴄʏ ᴊᴀᴄᴋꜱᴏɴ

𝓁𝓍. Casualties

Buckle in, kids, this chap is a journey

⋆༺𓆩⚔𓆪༻⋆

Oh, I love it, and I hate it at the same time

You and I drink the poison from the same vine

Oh, I love it, and I hate it at the same time

Hidin' all of our sins from the daylight

⋆༺𓆩⚔𓆪༻⋆

⚔ The bridge to Olympus was dissolving.

The group stepped out of the elevator onto the white marble walkway, and immediately, cracks appeared at their feet.

"Jump!" Grover said, which was easy for him since he's part mountain goat. He sprang to the next slab of stone while ours tilted sickeningly.

"Gods, I hate heights!" Thalia yelled as she, Helena, and Percy leapt across. But Annabeth was in no shape for jumping.

She stumbled and yelled.

Helena twisted and caught her hand as the pavement fell, crumbling into dust. Annabeth watched as her face twisted in agony, and she realised Helena had grabbed her with her injured arm.

For a second, Helena thought she was going to pull them both over. Annabeth's feet dangled in the open air, and she could feel a rock digging into her stomach wound. Annabeth's hand started to slip. Annabeth yelps as Helena lets her go for a split second, only to secure her grip around her wrist and pull. Percy and Thalia grabbed Helena's legs, and she found extra strength. She wasn't going to let Annabeth Chase fall.

She might have been the cause of whatever happened in the maze, but the girl had apologised the day of Charlie's funeral, and they had agreed on a truce, if only for Percy's sake.

She pulled her up, and they lay trembling on the pavement.

"Um, thanks," she muttered.

"Whatever," Helena grunted in mild discomfort. "I won't do it again."

"Keep moving!" Grover tugged on Annabeth's shoulder. They got up and sprinted across the sky bridge as more stones disintegrated and fell into oblivion. They made it to the edge of the mountain just as the final section collapsed.

Annabeth looked back at the elevator, which was now completely out of reach—a polished set of metal doors hanging in space, attached to nothing, six hundred stories above Manhattan.

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

"We know what marooned means, you bloody owl," Helena huffs.

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

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

"Fun," Percy said.

They ran through the streets. Mansions were burning. Statues had been hacked down. Trees in the parks were blasted to splinters. It looked like someone had attacked the city with a giant Weedwhacker.

"Kronos's scythe," Helena said. "The damage is identical."

The group followed the winding path towards the palace of the gods. Percy didn't remember the road being so long. Maybe Kronos was making time go slower, or maybe it was just dread slowing them down. The whole mountaintop was in ruins—so many beautiful buildings and gardens gone.