What If (Perzoë)

The Beginning (And The End)

*Word count: 899

Five shall go west to the goddess in chains

One shall be lost in the land without rain

The bain of Olympus shows the trail

Campers and Hunters combined prevail

The titan's curse must one withstand

And one shall perish by a parents hand

. . .

Just as the army of monsters came over the hill, a Sopwith Camel swooped down out of the sky. "Get away from my daughter!" Dr. Chase called down, and his machine guns burst to life, peppering the ground with bullet holes and startling the whole group of monsters into scattering.

"Dad?" yelled Annabeth in disbelief.

"Run" he called back, his voice growing fainter as the biplane swooped bye.

We were all stunned, to say the least. We all stared for a second, admiring the crazy lunatic that was flying across the sky mowing down monsters left and right. The Sopwith Camel swooped down again. A few giants threw javelins, and one flew straight between the wings of the plane, but the machine guns blazed. I realized with amazement that somehow Dr. Chase must've gotten hold of celestial bronze to fashion and bullets. The first row of snake women wailed as the machine gun's volley blew them into sulfurous yellow powder.

A couple seconds later we could see the chariot that Artemis had called flying in the distance towards us. By now most of the monsters had snapped out of their shock and were making their way in our direction. Zoë was behind me shooting down the monsters that were quickly advancing before they could get to close, while me and Annabeth were up ahead stabbing the monsters that Zoë didn't hit with her volley of arrows. Through the battlefield, all you could hear was the rapid gunshots and the wailing of monsters dying that you eventually learn how to tune out.

I was in the middle of fighting a snake woman that was very persistent about not dying when the Artemis's chariot finally landed. The chariot was silver and drawn by what I swear was the most beautiful deer I've ever seen. I didn't have much time to admire it though before Artemis was yelling at us to get in.

I finished off the snake woman I was fighting and ran to get into the chariot. Behind me, the sound of gunshots still rang through the air and Annabeth was busy finishing off the monster that she was fighting.

With Artemis's help, I got Thalia on board. I was in the middle of helping Zoë on board, who was injured from her fight with Landon and her father when behind me we all heard more gunshots and then a terrible cry. That would have been normal, considering that we were in the middle of killing tons of monsters, but there was something different about this cry. Something human.

Instead of the cry being a shriek or a howl that often correlated to monsters getting brutally murdered, it was a terrible heart-clenching cry. A cry that I recognized.

When I turned around all I saw through all the chaos was a familiar figure falling to the ground and the biplane flying away. It was only then that I realized what the prophecy meant.

. . .

The sight before me was one I think I won't ever forget. Before me, a body that happened to belong to my best friend lied on the ground. Annabeth was clutching her stomach trying to stop the blood, her efforts in vain as it was soaking through her fingers, and the rest pooled on the ground around her. Her eyes were dazed and pain-filled and her golden hair was sprawled out around her head as a halo would.

By the time anyone could process what was going on I was already sprinting over to where she was, not thinking nor caring what the consequences were. The monster's numbers were already dwindling, but on my way over I slashed at any of them that got in my way. When I finally reach the area where Annabeth layed I threw myself to my knees in front of her and put my shaky hands on top of hers, trying in vain to stop the bleeding. The world around turned into nothing more than a blur and the only thing clear at that moment was the person bleeding out in front of me, as if I was in a trance.

It wasn't until a hand was placed on my shoulder that I finally snapped out of it.

"Let me help. We have to go, boy" Artemis said and she crouched down next to me. I watched as Artemis made quick work of wrapping the wound to slow down the flow of blood. "Help me carry her." the goddess commanded once she was done, standing up from her spot on the ground. Artemis and I then brought Annabeth over to where the chariot had landed and helped her and everyone else gets into it. And with that, we took off, for if we would have stayed any longer we would all be dying and not just her...

*Authors Note

Thank you for reading! I'm finally redoing this story as I promised a while ago so I hope you like it. Thank you for all your support throughout this entire thing and for putting up with my laziness. Anyways, I would appreciate it if you could subscribe, vote, and comment for I always enjoy hearing from you all. Bye :)

Sincerly, Me