Chapter 58: Annabeth
"How did all this happen?" Annabeth Chase asked with a slightly melancholic expression. Now a grown woman with more wisdom than before. Yes, definitely a lot more wisdom, to the point that she didn't even believe in all of her mother's words. And while Athena was her mother and the goddess of wisdom, what had happened a few years ago made her unable to fully trust people, especially the gods.
Fool, she had told herself many times throughout this time. Many times she had longed for the possibility of going back in time so she wouldn't make that foolish mistake of believing in Zeus. Not that she could do much, anyway. Even if she got Percy out, they would still be found, but now she preferred that than being in the situation they were all in.
Now she had not only witnessed the change Hestia had gone through, but also how the fates were doing everything they could to disrupt Zeus' movements. The three old women couldn't pull their strings as much as they wanted, but they did their best.
The inhabitants of the Demeter and Athena cabins had left Camp Half-Blood. It wasn't good for them to be at camp when most of the cabins were supporting their parents, and they in turn were supporting Zeus. In fact, it was thanks to Hermes that they were able to leave without too much trouble and in relative silence.
Hestia, Demeter, Athena, Hermes, and Aphrodite. They were outnumbered by the other side. The others even had the entire Roman camp. But, Annabeth wondered if the Romans could really bear the weight of what they did. They had been trained in Roman ways; more militaristic and therefore more obedient in certain ways. But even they must have realized what all this entailed, or at least some of them would.
"I don't quite get it either," Annabeth looked at her mother sitting at the table across from the couch where she was sitting. The two of them were in an apartment where they had met up with Hestia. For safety, they had surrounded the place with some sort of barrier so the monsters couldn't sense them. Same for the gods.
"Shouldn't you know better than anyone? I always look to you for plans," Annabeth said with a matter-of-fact tone, referring to Zeus.
"And for that very reason, I don't quite understand Zeus's reasons," Athena frowned tightly, "While he did have a desire to rule and have power, it had never gone so far as to even think about his family or the repercussions of decisions of this size."
"I don't think he simply feels threatened by Perseus. And while he might listen to Ares' words, I don't think he would simply stoop to sullying a young girl for the result they got," Annabeth felt something in her throat upon hearing her former boyfriend's name. But she continued to listen to her mother carefully, she needed more information for anything that might happen in the near future.
Annabeth pointed at her mother with her finger and said, "Remember, Ares was susceptible to Kronos' words."
"Do you think something similar may have happened this time?" Athena looked at her daughter carefully, weighing the idea of such a thing. And while that was possible with Ares, it would be more difficult with Zeus.
"The speed of their actions, the lack of plans and thoughts in each of their movements. They are acting too hastily. If they really wanted to rule at least a large part of the world, then the most logical thing would be to offer something to the countries, to the rest of humans."
"Crushing them is simply..."
"Illogical," Athena finished with a nod and a serious expression. Even before, in the years where they worshipped them, they didn't kill and crush every human they came across. Worship and the power of faith really was something that helped a God. Deciding to crush them and create fear wouldn't make them worship them, they would fear them and curse them every day of their existence.
Annabeth exhaled loudly through her nose as everything became more mysterious and annoying.
"What?...", just as she was about to speak once more, Athena stood up and looked around. She stood up and stood in front of her daughter while using her arm to move her a few steps back.
"What's wrong?"
Ignoring Annabeth, Athena looked ahead, right where she made a shadowed corner where there was a bookshelf right next to it. Opening her mouth and frowning, she said forcefully, "Who are you?! Show yourself!"
"I thought you wouldn't notice me," a woman's voice came from the shadows before her figure appeared. She had long, auburn hair tied into a ponytail. Her eyes were silver, but had a slight green tint to them. She wore white pants and green shoes with small, low heels. The top of her clothes was a green tunic that split near her waist to the sides and wide sleeves with leaf prints in a faint reddish color, like those of autumn trees.
"Artemis?" Athena asked in disbelief.
"It's been a while, Athena. Well, at least for me it has," Artemis nodded seriously.
"How?... You... had stopped being a Goddess."
Annabeth looked closely at Artemis. She looked different, no longer a goddess with the appearance of a teenager or a child, but a beautiful yet deadly woman. She was also different from her mother. Where her mother seemed to hide that divine feeling, but still held onto a bit of her appearance, Artemis hid nothing. The feeling of someone standing over her suffocated Annabeth a little, as did the slight aura that seemed to touch her skin and brush against it as if a razor was slowly passing by without cutting.
"I just heard something interesting," Artemis raised her eyebrows slightly and looked at Annabeth a little coldly.
"You'll tell me everything you've thought; your ideas, plans, even the craziest things that have gone through your heads regarding this upcoming war. Everything, absolutely everything."
"So...", Athena began slowly, gaining Athena's attention. "The goal you had..."
"Oh, Percy...", Artemis nodded interrupting. Annabeth nearly choked when she heard Percy's name come out of Artemis' mouth.
"He's fine. As for the help you were hoping for... it won't be like you imagined," Artemis smiled a little as she looked at her half-sister and said humorlessly, "He'll kill every god who's on Zeus' side. As for the other side, yours, it would be best if you all surrendered completely, that way you'll at least keep your lives."
"He plans to rule?"
"He plans to create order. Balance. It's better for mortals to do what they've been doing for years, rule themselves."
"Where is he?" Annabeth had had enough. She understood from her mother's words that Percy had come from hell. She also understood that, apparently, Percy was powerful enough to fight the gods. But she didn't want to know that, she wanted to know where he was. Annabeth knew she was proud, and that she wouldn't admit she was wrong on many occasions, but what had happened with Percy was a huge mistake, one she was happy to admit was wrong, that it wasn't the right thing to do.
A mistake... one she was willing to do anything to apologize for.
She knew she might not get forgiveness, but she wanted to tell him this: I'm sorry. Sorry for everything.
It was something she definitely needed to do.
Usually, people would seek forgiveness for a mistake in a selfish way. Just hearing the words 'I forgive you' was enough for them. But, on this occasion, she knew the chances were slim to none. Annabeth just wanted to acknowledge her mistakes, she wanted to look into Percy's eyes as he asked for forgiveness for what he had and hadn't done, even if his eyes only showed anger towards her.
"And what will you do when I tell you that?", Artemis narrowed her eyes as she looked at Annabeth closely.
"In fact, it doesn't matter if I tell you, you couldn't reach it even if you put your life on the line," Artemis snorted.
"Where?", she repeated the question, this time with much more conviction.
"Annabeth... ", Athena looked at her daughter with a bit of pity.
"No, I must know! I have to ask for forgiveness!", she shouted loudly. Artemis walked slowly as she examined the now adult woman. The years they had spent on Earth were much less compared to those on the Douluo planet and the realm of the gods that watched over the latter place. This was not only due to the great distance they were at from each other. It was also because they were different planes.
Artemis grabbed Annabeth's shoulder before Athena squeezed her half-sister's wrist tightly. Artemis didn't seem to care, she simply made use of her power and they disappeared from the apartment before they appeared in a somewhat dark place full of dead people.
"Hades?", Athena frowned at her question. But then she noticed that Annabeth was below them, just below a not-too-large hill.
"Percy is with Hades... you can go if you want"
Annabeth immediately started running.
"Why are you doing this?!", Athena exclaimed angrily. She knew that Percy wouldn't forgive her, and her daughter would end up suffering more. She knew that her daughter did wrong, but she was still her daughter and she didn't want her to suffer more.
"It took time, Athena. But I was able to get Percy to forgive me," Artemis said as she crossed her arms.
"So..."
"No. She definitely won't be forgiving. I had more logical excuses, but even with that, I knew... we knew that what I had done caused pain. The reason I'm allowing this is because I know how your daughter feels."
"Whether she suffers or not, that's up to her. I'm simply giving her the chance she's been wishing for."
"NOO!!!"
Suddenly, a loud, angry and sad scream was heard from Hades' palace. The location where they were was not too far away, in fact they could see the palace in front of them, so it wasn't hard to hear the scream.
"So... it's starting," Artemis let out a small sigh.
"What is starting?!"
"You will understand later…" Artemis turned around and then disappeared, leaving a confused and alarmed Athena. That scream was not from her daughter, it was from a man, but it was not Hades either.
Athena appeared next to her daughter before running down the path to the palace in a flash. When they entered and ran to Hades' throne room, the two women's eyes widened in disbelief.
"Oh?" Her voice was harsher, but they recognized her. Her appearance was a little different than they remembered, but there were details that gave it away.
Percy was standing in front of them, just a meter away from Hades' throne. Nico di Angelo was kneeling while holding his bleeding shoulder and missing right arm.
And in the iron grip of Percy's right hand, was Hades' neck. The God of the dead was being held by the neck as his eyes seemed to fade away. His face was pale and covered in ichor, as was a huge wound on his chest. One of his arms was missing and his feet were moving slowly on the ground, struggling to try and get out of Percy's grip.
"I didn't think they would appear here..." Percy's red eyes looked at the two women. That gaze was dull and emotionless, but it pierced through their bodies as if there was nothing they could hide.
"It doesn't matter..."
Crack!
With those words spoken, Percy tightened his grip, snapping Hades' neck. The struggling feet stopped dangling low as the hands that held tightly onto Percy's forearm released without any strength. The head of the God of the Dead fell to the side without any strength before hitting the ground hard when Percy let go.
"Now that you're here, you can stay... forever," Percy's killing intent filled the place as a cold air and a red aura collided with them.
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