Clockwork

42

"Children are blowing up and you decide to kill the 5-year-old?" Hestia questioned.

It had been four hours. Four hours and Percy's brain had begun processing properly. It wasn't hard to process Adrien's death—it was long overdue—but there were things that Percy put on the back burner. Maybe it was a habit he picked up after he died but similar to his reaction to the knowledge of Kai's murder or Kenneth's disappearance, Hephaestus' death was far from his mind. But the nagging sight of his empty throne was a painful reminder of something that Percy's brain had tried so hard to block from his thoughts. Hephaestus was dead. Maybe he was reforming but he was in Tartarus, probably in agonizing pain and there was nothing Percy could do about it. The destruction caused to his body had caused Apollo to estimate almost two thousand years at the least for Hephaestus to even begin to have enough power to bust his way out of the endless loop of regenerating and reforming, much less enough stability to maintain his godly powers and then find his way out of hell. Two thousand years wasn't much to the gods up here, but down there they didn't want to even spend two days.

"She was Adrien's endgame, wasn't she? Kill her and the danger is gone," Zeus said, sure of himself. Percy didn't think that was the case. The gods and demigods had started a meeting, of which after relaying the information he learned from his short acting career he mostly stayed out of.

"And what's to say she doesn't blow up when she dies?" Nico inquired.

"So we wait until she blows up? She's a ticking time bomb. Soon all of the children will be dead-"

"Then we have the demigods kill them all in Alaska," Ares suggested, interrupting Hermes. "We don't have enough information to act right now. We have to wait and see what Artemis' hunters find at that laboratory," Athena said.

Everyone begrudgingly agreed, and Poseidon introduced a new topic.

"And what is the fate of Annabeth Chase? It is past the appropriate time to dispose of her." The god of the sea was already clutching his trident, ready to turn her into seafoam and she wasn't even there. "Well, I agree with you there, brother. We must start removing traitors now in Olympus's weakened state, " Zeus said all too excitedly, his fingers in the position to snap Annabeth there so he and his brother can start talking about ways to snap her out of existence but Jason intervened.

"Actually, my lord, the rest of the seven and I had been talking about Annabeth's fate ourselves..." he started and Percy already knew how this was going to end.

They were gonna ask to give her mercy. Whether out of a sense of duty, an act of nobility, or Grace had picked up a sick sense of humor over the decade, he was going to ask the gods to pardon her for her crimes. Percy noticed that others had realized it too and looked panicked when they glanced at the Creation of Hephaestus, fearing his reaction as Jason said his next words. "...wish for her to live and serve out a punishment instead of death or banishment to Tartarus," the line Percy expected came after a long-winded speech. Banishment to Tartarus? Huh.

"And why would we ever do that?" Poseidon asked incredulously, looking at Zeus in disbelief. Strangely though, Jason pushed for it, choosing his words carefully. "My Lord Zeus, please show mercy to Annabeth Du Vel. Surely your leniency will show what a fair and good leader you are," Jason said, flattering the sky god the best he could. If this was just a noble act, it would've been left at Poseidon's question. Even Jason had paused to think about the question. He was doing this for a different reason, not to exempt Annabeth from her crimes. Percy stayed quiet, quizzically looking at the esteemed demigod, allowing him to sway Zeus with his words which would probably result in granting Annabeth mercy.

Mercy. That word held little meaning to Percy. What part of Kenneth's abandonment showed mercy? Anything could've happened to him, even if she deliberately sold him to her husband for his plans. Kenneth was twisted, Percy knew there was obviously something wrong, but he could have been dead. Or worse. Not including the fact that he had probably been an overgrown lab rat for the remaining of his childhood.