The lost hero rises

15. Retreat!

Annabeth's point of view

"Guys..?" Bianca asks looking at Percy with fear on her face. "What do we do?"

"Hold him off. We need to get through to him!" I say.

"Are you sure it will work?" Frank asks.

"It has to!" I say. "We have to.." I whisper softly.

We get ready.
Percy can be a one man army. And since he has no control over his actions who knows what he'll do.

Luke steps forwards to take the first blow.
He pulls out his sword and stands fast.

Percy has no emotion in his face.
His beautiful eyes look blank at his targets.
His lips are a straight line instead of a smile.
It hurts to see him like this.

I look up and see Nyx looking at us with glee.

Tartaurus and Erebos are fighting in the battle.
They are merciless. They take down our defenses.
We need to act fast.

Luke and Percy are battling.
Percy moved fast and disarmed Luke with a swift move. He kicked him and Luke fell on the grass.

I gasp.
He is going to kill Luke.

"PERCY!" I yell.
I need to do something. We need to get him to stop.

He looks up.
Sword still on Luke's chest.

"Percy.. please. Listen. You came to me. You asked about Sally. Nyx still has your mom. Remember. She wasn't in her apartment. Nyx is using you." I say. My eyes focussed on Percy.

"Percy.. you need to take back control." Leo says looking sad and pained to see Percy like this.

"You are Percy, commander of Chaos. Not a puppet of Nyx. To be used. You need to remember who you are." Selina says using charmspeak.

Percy looks at us.
He lowered his sword. He doesn't say anything.

"You are not just our commander, our teammate, our best friend, Percy you are family.." Luke says.

Percy looks at him and hold his gaze.
Then his face fills with rage and anger.
Percy's breathing started to fasten.

For a second I feared Percy would kill Luke.
That Percy would kill his best friend.

But Percy turned and he threw his sword in one swift and deadly movement. His sword flew with incredible speed at Nyx.

She didn't see it comming and dodged it at the last second. Her face looked confused and angry.

Percy looked at her.
"Percy?" I asked him but his eyes were filled with rage.

Percy's point of view:

It feels like I woke up from a nightmare.
A nightmare where I was hurting my friends.
One that no matter how hard I tried, couldn't wake up from. Nor was I capable to take control.

I watched everything happen right in front of me.
Heard every word and watched every single person look at me in fear.

Finally I woke up and gained control.

But instead of feeling relief and happiness, I felt complete rage and anger.

I threw my sword straight at her head.
She noticed me. She knows I am not under her control anymore.

"Percy?" Her voice echoes through my mind. But it makes me angry. Angry at Nyx, who wanted me to hurt her. Who wanted me to kill her.

I need to calm down before I do something stupid.
I close my eyes and take a deep breath.

When I open my eyes again I feel calmer and more myself.

I turn around and look into her grey eyes.

"Annabeth..." I whisper with a trembling voice.
Tears blurred my sight.

She gasped and ran into my arms.
"Percy! Gods I missed you. Are you okay? Are you hurt?" She asks me.

"I'm fine. I am so sorry.. I should have been stronger. I should have told you.." I say..

"Yes you should have. But you are back now. That's all that matters." She says.

I let her go and look at my friends.
"I am so sorry for hurting you, for attacking camp Jupiter. I... I don't know how to-" I get cut off by hugs.

"So glad you are back Percy." Selina says. "You have no idea how scary it was." She says hugging me.

"I am so sorry.." I say again.

"Man.. Am I glad you are back." Luke says hugging me again. "I don't know how you do it man.."

"Do what?" I ask confused.

"Lead an entire war. Carry all the responsibility and weight on your own." Luke explains.

"Because I don't. I always have you guys to help me." I tell him. "You did good Luke. I am proud of you."
He smiles and nods.

"Right now we have another problem.." Leo says.
"Look.." He points at Nyx, Tartaurus and Erebos.

"You are right.." Zoë says looking troubled. "We need to deal with them first. Then we can celebrate."

"Percy?" Luke asks.

I look at the three deities gathering and looking at me with angry faces.

"They planned to kill every demigod, then they wanted to burn everything to the ground. Then when the gods were overwhelmed with grief attack Olympus." I explain.

"Yay.. so, how do we stop it." Bianca says sarcastically.

"I have a plan to buy us some more time." I say.

"Do it." Luke says.

I nod and run into the center of the fight.
Dodging all the attacks.

"Army fall back! Retreat to the base now! Retreat immediately!" I order the monsters. 

I create a portal to somewhere in the middle of the ocean. 
The monsters rush into the portal without any hesitation. 
They have no idea that Nyx doesn't order me around anymore. So they listen. They retreat and leave the demigods be.

Nyx looks around confused. She doesn't know what is happening. Only when she sees me standing in the middle of the running monsters she let's out a horrible scream.

I smile and lift my middle finger.