A Percy Jackson Anthology

The Last Stand

I stood at the top of Mount Olympus as the war waged on. It was us against the world, well almost. More like Earth Lady otherwise known as Gaea. Most of the demigods had already been slaughtered. We lost a great number of people, but still we stood at the peak of where it all began, ready to face our appending end.

"You foolish, demigods. You would try to defeat me and my sons!" boomed Gaea. "Do you even know what this will mean for you?! You could have served me and live yet you choose to rebel and die."

It was just the seven of us now. We were the only demigods left. Every death had been quite painful. I remember the day I looked in my cousins' eyes as they were slaughtered. Fallen in battle and murdered by a giant.

Neither went down without a fight. Thalia was the strongest and struck a path of fallen enemies. But it was all too much. I still can see the spear as it impaled her in the back as she collapsed to her knees as I held her in my arms.

And then Nico. Nico put up just as much of a fight as he summoned all of the skeleton armies with all of his might. But this left him very weak. He fought his way through the bloodshed, but he too was only to be met with an arrow to the knee and then a spear to his chest. It was hard to watch but I knew he finally joined his sister assuming she didn't try for rebirth.

So many died fighting in the war; Octavian, Drew, Lacey, Malcolm, The Stoll Brothers, Katie, the Hunters were wiped out along with the Amazons, Dakota, Grover, Reyna.... everyone wiped out one by one and sometimes in numbers.

Even Clarisse put up the strongest fight, too stubborn to die she literally wiped out a whole army with a spear impaled in her side. It was awesome to watch but it quickly came to an end as despite her stubbornness and skilled fighting, she was still no match for a giant as she was crushed beneath their feet and stabbed in the guts.

"You've brought too much death!" I cried. "It ends now!"

There were only seven of us. But the difference between us and the others is we were the ones prophesied to bring the end of this war. The Doors of Death had already been closed, we simply had to finish the job.

"Perseus Jackson. You will die by my hand I can promise you that," Gaea laughed. "Along with all of your other friends to the very last person."

The ground rumbled as dirt flew into the air. The ground seemed to rise and even break beneath our feet. "We will always keep fighting no matter what! There's a reason why we seven still live," I spat. "For Olympus! And for the fallen!"

I charged.

It was as if I had dipped into the River Styx once more as I wiped out one by one. Annabeth despite having a twisted ankle also fought beside me our backs to each other as we fought off each of Gaea's pawns. Jason and Piper and Hazel and Frank split into two different directions leaving Leo and Festus on point taking on Gaea herself. Sweat poured down my face as Leo used his fire powers to roast Gaea. But it wasn't enough. As we fought off all of the giants together, there still seemed to be more coming.

"Ahh!" I heard a scream behind me.

I turned to see Annabeth being dragged to the ground by a huge giant as he then lifted her off of the ground.

"Annabeth!" I cried in fear as I charged at the Giant holding her high toward the sky. I tried to look around for some sort of solution.

Annabeth's dagger laid at the feet of the giant as I ran and slid to reach it. With both Riptide in one hand and Annabeth's dagger in the other I stabbed the giant in both of his feet as the giant roared and let go of Annabeth but not before knocking me hard backwards.

Annabeth fell to the ground in pain but in a moment stood to her feet. That's my wise girl right there, always too stubborn to stop fighting. I felt my body growing weak from getting thrown back but just as Annabeth did, I kept fighting. We had to. We were the only ones left who could.

As we managed to defeat the giants slowly but surely Gaea's numbers shrank until it was just us and her, but unfortunately for us it wasn't an easy fight.

We were all weak from fighting the giants and so as Gaea continued to use the earth against us, we only grew weaker. We needed reinforcements. We needed someone to be able to help us as the whole world depended on this very moment. If we died, there would be no one left to save the world. Gaea would win.

Suddenly spikes of dirt launched from the ground. "Noo!" I yelled as Hazel, Frank, Jason, Piper, and Leo were all impaled by the spikes.

I fell to my knees in anguish I focused with all my might on the rage that I felt, on the power I felt, on the feelings and emotions inside me. I thought about all of the deaths that occurred during this war. I thought about the pain and suffering Gaea had put us through. And I thought about Tartarus.

With all the will I had, I screamed. I yelled. I channeled the rage I felt and I felt the Aegean sea below us as it burst out in a huge tsunami. A typhoon and the power of the sea felt so strong as I urged with every last breath of power at Gaea.

And with a final charge of rage and adrenaline with the sea and storms all crashing in. Surfing on the very tsunami I created, I drove Riptide through Gaea. And as I did, I collapsed, exhausted, weak, and powerless to do anymore.

Annabeth ran to my side for fear of the worst. I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe as all of my energy was gone. She held me in her arms as she cried. "Please, Percy. Stay with me."

"A-A-An...beth..." I tried but I couldn't.

And as I willed every power in my being to look down, I noticed I was bleeding a lot. I noticed Annabeth was also bleeding a lot despite trying to be strong. And just as I noticed, and she noticed as well, she collapsed beside me as our hands refused to let go.

"We did it, Seaweed Brain. We saved the day," Annabeth managed to gasp.

And as she finished, the world faded into black.