Chapter Text
PART 3: DEFECTOR
Chapter 25
Blood
He made the first move, striding across the battlefield with fire on his heels. Athena tore off her breastplate, gripping it outstretched in her hand. It turned into the famous shield Aegis just as Percy brought Riptide down on her. Their armaments collided, and the sound of his blade hitting her shield heralded a new age for Olympus.
Percy rebounded off the shield, landing about six feet back from her, his heels digging into the dirt. She held Aegis out towards him, the putrid face of Medusa staring back at him. His body still pumping with adrenaline, he stared at the shield, remembering how he looked the real Medusa in the eyes so long ago. “Are you going to attack or not?”
“Gladly,” she said with an authoritative voice, and she raced at him with her spear, jamming it in rapid succession at his chest. He parried each blow, the metal clanging together, but fell back a bit each time. As she battered him with the spear, his mind began to race. If he was going to survive without using much magic, he couldn’t win against her superior combat abilities. In the distance, his eyes caught a glimpse of the red button Alex had discussed that would change the climate of the battlefield. He recalled that it cycled from a flat plain to a naval arena. He smiled. He could certainly beat her on water.
He parried her spear thrust, wresting himself outside of her range, and then he began to maneuver himself towards the button. She slid in front of it, stance wide like a basketball player. “I’m not giving you the advantage that easily, Percy.”
“Of course not,” he muttered. “You’d never make anything easy for me.” He gritted his teeth and rushed towards her head on. Athena blinked in surprise, then leveled her spear with a look of determination.
Shing!
Percy’s body had slid past hers at the last second, yet a cascade of blood was pouring out the side of his body. Several onlookers gasped, and even Athena looked surprised. An entire chunk of skin had been torn out the side of his body, and he looked ready to keel over.
Athena moved towards him cautiously, eyeing him like a wounded animal. He winced, holding the blood to his side with his free hand. As she moved in for the kill, she leveled her spear, and–
Percy slammed into her stomach with the butt of his sword, knocking the wind from Athena’s body. She flew backwards, thrust against the ground, and he raced for the button, sliding towards it like a home run. He slapped the button with his hand, letting the blood drain from his side.
“How the Hell did you–
“Picked up some illusion magic from your textbook,” he said, flicking the blood off his hands. “Fake blood is quite the tool.”
She eyed him as the floodgates opened, pouring water into the arena on either side of him. “You’ve learned some new tricks, I see.”
He didn’t bother with a response, instead racing at her, trails of water streaming behind him. He whipped the water at her, the torrents crashing upon Aegis like great waves against ocean bluffs. Athena retreated to the back of the arena, hopping onto a small trireme that had emerged onto the field. Though Percy saw one on his side, he didn’t bother, opting instead to simply stalk her from the surf.
He began to batter the side of her trireme with waves, but Athena was able to avoid most of them, steering the vessel in the direction of the stage change button. He leapt from the water onto her boat, lobbing volleys of water at her until she entrenched herself beneath Aegis.
“I’ve got the advantage, Athena,” he said, leveling the water at her. “You should give up.”
She laughed. “You think just because the stage is wet, you can beat a goddess in battle? I’m made of stronger stuff, Perseus Jackson. And you forget where I first trained as a warrior.” She lunged forward with her spear, and Percy instinctively parried with Riptide. With his free hand, he shot a wall of water straight towards her, but she slammed through it, nearly jabbing her spear right into his chest. Her body pressed close against his, she leaned into his face, gritting her teeth. Up against her, he could see the lust for battle strewn across her face. “I’ve defeated hundreds of naiads and merpeople in my days on this earth; one demigod son of Poseidon is not going to be that hard!”
He shoved her off of him, ducking as she brought Aegis slamming down where his face would’ve been. Instead, his back took the brunt of the force, a painful endeavor, but one which allowed him to drive Riptide deep into the flesh of Athena’s ankle. She wailed, falling back a bit and gritting her teeth. “Gods you’re annoying!”
“Look who’s talking!” he shouted. “For all my time as a demigod, you’ve been in my way!”
“You weren’t innocent in that!” she shouted. “All of what you’ve done to get here was a corruption of our political process! You’ve manipulated the council more than any demigod I know!”
“To bring peace to Olympus!” he shouted. “And protect my friends!” He lashed out at her with an angry slash of his sword. Instead of dodging, she slammed her body into the blade. Percy’s eyes widened as a spray of ichor emerged from her body, splattering his face.
He looked up at Athena’s face, a dread look of determination upon her. His eyes followed the arc of her arm, and he realized then that she had moved the ship close enough to the red button, as she set her hand on it and pushed down. “Lesson one of fighting with a god,” she muttered. “We don’t get mortal wounds.” Against his hip he could feel her other hand, and a sharp blade she had pulled just gently brushing up against him. He feared she would bury it deep into his body; instead, she drew the hand back and punched Percy straight in the face, and he stumbled back, dropping Riptide from his hands. She gripped the hilt of Riptide and tugged at it with immense force, grunting as the blade ripped from her body with fresh ichor on it.
From the sides of the arena, a single rafter emerged, stretching all the way across the stadium. Athena leapt onto it just as Percy began to feel the water beneath the boat spiral into the center of the ring. He used some water to propel himself onto the rafter, watching as the water opened up and revealed the top spire of the Empire State Building hundreds of feet below. The wooden carcasses of the two triremes tumbled in the sky until they hit the side of a skyscraper, bursting into hundreds of tiny pieces.
“Shit,” he muttered, centering himself on the rafter. He began to feel dizzy at the sight of it. “That’s some fall.”
“I’m impressed!” shouted Athena, the wind from below muffling her voice a bit. “You’ve grown smarter, stronger, maybe even more daring than before. But it doesn’t change the fact that you’ve broken the law one too many times. I’m taking you down right now.”
“I don’t think so!” he shouted, but as he balanced carefully on the rafter and caught sight of the cars honking below, much of the bravado he had entered the fight with left him. He looked back up at Athena, turning to face the crowd, and then he caught sight of the wide, terrified eyes of Annabeth watching him. He gripped Riptide tighter, trying to look confident.
Athena charged at him with Aegis held aloft, yelling at the top of her lungs like an enraged butcher. She blew into him, knocking his feet backwards to the point where he almost fell off, and began to bludgeon him with her shield. Battered and bruised, his left foot slipped on the marble, and suddenly he found himself balancing on one leg. Athena kicked his steady leg, his body thrown up in the air. As he began to fall, he grabbed for the rafter with his right hand, but he missed it, and he felt himself falling backwards–
Something caught his hand – warm, calloused skin gripping his fingers and dragging his body to a halt. Athena had sheathed Aegis on her back, kneeling down to grab his right hand. She looked in his eyes with stern determination. “I can spare your life… if you swear on the Styx to tell the council everything you’ve been hiding.”
He gritted his teeth. “I’ll die either way–
“I’m giving you a chance, Perseus Jackson,” she said, hand squeezing his fingers even more tightly, almost as if she could will him into submission. “That’s more than I offer to most of my opponents. I suggest you make use of it.”
He gave her a fearsome smile. “No. Not in a million years. You really want to kill the child of prophecy a few months before his birthday? Fine! Be my guest!”
Athena frowned. “If you insist,” she muttered. And then he felt the pressure on his hand gently unwind, until there was nothing there, and he began to move downwards, his body falling mercy to the air for the first time.
Slowly, his figure passed below the rafters, down past the sight of spectators until it receded from view, engulfed by the clutch of city skyscrapers topped with snow. As he fell, Athena watched his descent with her lips pursed, their eyes locked in mutual frustration, until he had disappeared from view. She turned to face the crowd, her facial expression stern but enigmatic.
In the stands, Percy’s friends looked on with disbelief. Annabeth’s eyes began to well with tears. She gripped her brother by the shoulders, her fingernails scratching at his skin. “Alex… did she really just–
“I think so,” he said, stunned. “I’m sorry sis.”
“That… BITCH!” yelped Silena, balling her fists. “I can’t believe–
“Folks,” came the announcer’s loud but weary voice, “I believe that the goddess Athena has just won the match, as Percy Jackson has… fallen… out the ring.”
Athena held up both arms in victory, though she did not wear a smile. Some of the audience cheered, while a select few began to boo. Most of the demigods were silent. “Percy made a choice!” boomed Athena’s voice. “Many, many choices. I gave him a path forward, a path to work with Olympus, and he chose not to take it. He chose to die.”
OoOoOoOoO
Being a demigod is an odd way to live. The rush of the life can get your adrenaline pumping and show you things you never imagined you would see. Percy Jackson, for one, never thought he’d be hurtling towards the spire on the Empire State Building at terminal velocity. Yet he could feel the wind rushing past him, see the clouds pass at an even faster rate, catch sight of the pinpoint texture of the spire waiting for his torso. He tried coaxing water from the snow, but his fingers were trembling, and his body would not cooperate. The tip got closer and closer, and he closed his eyes, imagining the point of impact and–
The world stopped around him. He cautiously opened his eyes, catching sight of the pedestrians walking below the building, the cars honking at each other in cacophony. He wondered whether some god had taken pity on him, as he noted the spire below him. But then he tried to raise himself back up to the stadium, and his body moved on its own.
“I’m flying,” he muttered. “Holy shit.”
He moved around a bit, getting a sense for it, and then tested the speeds he could reach. After satisfying himself with how fast he could go, he looked back up at the bottom of the arena, a single gaping hole with a thin rafter running across it. Along the edge of the rafter, he could just make out a blip – the sign of someone’s foot. Balling his fists, he took aim.
OoOoOoOoO
“When individuals threaten the sanctity of our Pantheon, we stand up to them!” shouted Athena. “There is no demigod, no matter how important, who can commit such actions as to–
The spot where Athena had previously been standing erupted with bricks and shrapnel. They flew off and hit the sides of the stadium. Athena’s body, and the body of another, shot upwards in the sky with incredibly velocity. Percy stopped about fifty meters up and began to come down, but Athena, not suspecting the attack, was still flying farther and farther into the air.
“I… I DON’T BELIEVE IT, FOLKS!” screamed the announcer. “PERCY JACKSON… KNOWS HOW TO FLY!”
The crowd went wild. Percy, blushing a bit, smiled, waving to them gingerly. Athena slowly hovered down to him, looking thoroughly peeved, and settled herself on the still intact part of the rafter. “It looks like you’ve learned some new tricks while studying. Powerful tricks. It takes a lot of energy to fly.”
“I’ve picked up a bit,” said Percy, rubbing his nose. In the collision with the rafter, he had done a number on his face. He cast the snot onto the rafter behind him.
Athena’s grey eyes grew thin as she focused on the spot he had left behind. “What’s that?”
He snorted a bit, more snot on his nose. “Well, I don’t see any tissue boxes around the arena–
She blinked, her face caught in surprise. “You… you can’t be serious–
“What was I supposed to do?” he asked. “It’s not like manners matter in a fight–
“YOUR BLOOD IS THE COLOR OF PINK LEMONADE!”
He looked down at the spot, and for once found Athena’s descriptive abilities quite lacking. His blood was much closer to white now – and in fact had taken on a bit of the golden color which was characteristic of ichor. He looked back up at her, his response a little too quick. “Maybe you’ve lost too much blood,” he said. “It seems like you’re hallucinating.”
“You lied to me!” she shouted, chest heaving. The tone of her voice had grown accusatory, outstripping her previous frustration and replacing it with red hot rage “My son… this is something he taught you, isn’t it!”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about!” said Percy, sniffing the remainder of blood back up into his nose. “Your son didn’t tell me anything I didn’t tell you!”
Athena charged him, spear jabbing at him from all different directions. He saw an opening to her abdomen, so he brought Riptide in, slicing her stomach slightly. But as he did so, she thrust her spear away and grabbed the hilt of his sword, ripping it out of his hands until she took hold of it. Then, with him disarmed, she flung his body against the wall, creating a sizeable crater in the side of the arena, and flew towards him, pinning him there.
“I can see it now,” she said, studying his body. “It wasn’t a fluke that you survived the attack by Ares and flew up just now. You’ve grown immensely powerful.”
“I’ve been training!” he shouted in protest.
“Your blood is like ichor now,” she said. “But if you want to deny it still, I can prove to the whole audience that you’re a god.” Her eyes had a cold, inhuman stare about them; her voice had dropped to a threatening tone. “You can stop me when you feel ready for it.”
His voice quivered. “What’re you doing–
She brought her hand back and jabbed it into his torso with such force that it felt like his stomach had exploded. Based on the cracking sounds that he heard, that may not have been far from the truth. But more immediate than that was the extreme pain he felt welling inside his chest – so intense that his eyes began to glaze over, and–
It was the strangest feeling Percy had ever felt in his life. His body seemed snap to attention, reflexes taking over what his mind had previously controlled. Animal instincts that he didn’t know existed had kicked in, causing his body to convulse. His torso began to shake, and he felt the internal workings of it concoct themselves. Athena smiled. “Finally. Show them what–
His eyes flashed bright gold, and he thrust his hands out at her stomach, throwing her off with immense power he didn’t even realize he had. She was sent flying into the rafter, and before he knew what he was doing, he sent half the arena wall flying at her.
The right side of the ring exploded with the sounds of raw collisions, and for a time Athena couldn’t be heard beneath the rumbling. Then, a massive piece of marble was thrust forward, and she emerged, her mouth wide with rage. “Percy Jackson has made himself into a god!” she announced. “He has been experimenting with his blood–
She stopped mid-sentence as her body sparked with lightning, a bolt Percy had loosed straight at her heart. The blue arcs bounced around her body for a few seconds before she escaped, her breath heavy. She turned to defend herself, but Percy was already on her, and he thrust her body onto the rafter. She parried his fists, but he wrested Riptide from her and landed a cut deep in her thigh.
When she raised Aegis to defend herself, he ripped it from her arms and sent a blast of fire straight at her face. She wailed, struggling to free herself from under his grasp. When that failed, she pulled out a knife and began stabbing at his chest. He pulled water out from behind the walls and doused her with it, then sending a lightning bolt. She screamed, scuttling away from him finally, and he backed away, the adrenaline receding from his body for a moment. He pointed his sword at her face.
“Surrender,” he said, his voice commanding. “There’s no way you can win.”
“Hell no,” she said, wiping the ichor off her face. She leapt at him, tearing Riptide from his hands with incredible speed. He wrestled the spear from hers, tearing it in two, and knocked Riptide into the hole below them. With great gusto, Athena slugged him in the face, sending him stumbling backwards. Then, she moved for his torso, and he roared as his entire abdomen lit up with terrible pain. He grabbed Aegis from her back and began battering her with it. Athena tried to dodge, but he was too fast, and she fell down on the rafter beneath the shield’s weight. Her arms seemed to fail, falling down to her sides, and her eyelids fluttered until she lay limp on the rafter. Percy struggled to his full height, watching in disbelief as her body remained completely still.
An air of imposing silence had descended over the arena. Not a soul moved, not a voice rang out from the stands. Percy could not avert his eyes from the sight of the goddess passed out before him. He had faced Athena many times before as an imposing, authoritative presence, someone who could end his very life in a second. Now, he stared at her in wonder. Her face was still, eyes closed, and her stomach was every so faintly rising up and down, up and down, and he watched it move rhythmically in total silence, waiting for her to jump back up, yell at him, punch him, anything. Yet nothing came. The shrill whisper of the wind in his ear was all that he heard, and in its own way, it was deafening.
“Folks,” came the announcer’s voice, breaking the weight of the silence, “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but… Percy Jackson seems to have beaten a goddess in one-on-one combat!”
He wondered why those words sounded so eerily familiar. He glanced over to where the gods were sitting, all their mouths agape. All except Zeus, who slowly stood up and leveled his lightning bolt in Percy’s direction. “Perseus Jackson, you are under arrest for violating Olympian law by overpowering an Olympian deity.”
“Shit,” muttered Percy. He recalled all the warnings Kronos had given him about the gods turning on him, all the begging pleas of Ouranos and Annabeth to simply stand down. Now, he found himself in front of all the Olympians, ribs still broken, body in overwhelming pain, back bashed by Athena’s shield, and pondered how he was going to survive whatever Zeus had planned.
He was not quite a god yet. And indeed, whatever part of a demigod that remained within him kicked in in that moment. Four years of training reared its head as he embraced the oldest mantra he had ever received as a demigod. When shit hits the fan, you run.
And Percy ran fast.