Chapter Text
Percy was livid.
The walls around the temple began to shake slightly, the rocks bouncing up and down by his feet as his fist clenched and unclenched. He could feel the power swell beneath his skin, drawing up energy to every part of his body.
The bloodied, pale faces swam in his vision as sweat droplets from the others began to circle their way around him.
Small bloodied faces of children that were far too young to end up here.
“-ercy?” A whispered voice came from the edge of the doors, hiding behind the giant oak.
Whipping his head around his eyes bore into Hazel.
The girl shrank back, recoiling at the storm blazing in the gods' eyes. Her lips wobbled slightly and her hands shook from where she reached out to grab him.
Percy knew he was scaring her, and deep down he felt broken at the idea that he could be something they feared, however it was buried far enough under the rattling rage that he didn’t stop.
It took all his restraint to stay where he was, feet planted firmly into the floor, when he knew what lay just behind the wall.
“Jackson.” Annabeth said, hands twitching towards her knife as she also glared at the doors. “Calm down.”
It was a command, something that Percy should follow, should abide by. Annabeth was commanding him to do something, and he did what he was told.
But he didn’t want to.
Percy didn’t want to calm down, he didn’t want to be restrained by the girl anymore, whether consciously or not. His whole body vibrated with the power that ran through his veins, his head pounded with the prayers of people who were relying on that righteous anger to save them.
The command no longer applied to him.
“No.”
Heads whipped to stare, expressions furrowed as if Percy had just started speaking Hungarian.
“No?” Piper sneered, her voice shaking. “You can’t speak like that; you can’t ignore what others tell you to do. You are dangerous and you are going to hurt people like this, and what? You’re willing to hurt them because you are too prideful to listen to the person who can control your instincts.”
A surge of power flowed through him, aching to be released onto the girl in front of him, to rip and tear at her flesh for such insubordination. He wanted to hurt her. That was what scared him. He wanted to see her suffer for daring to speak to him like that, to make her understand just who she was talking to.
But he didn’t. He couldn’t. He wouldn’t.
He took a deep breath, picturing his lungs filling with seawater under a warm sun, and slowly exhaled.
He wouldn’t become the monster she thought he was.
Percy turned his gaze towards Annabeth, waiting for her response. For her next command that he wouldn’t follow. Waited for the daughter of Athena to agree with Piper, to tell him that he was dangerous.
The words never came.
There was a spark in those grey eyes like she was examining and burrowing through Percy’s skin into his brain. Her head tilted to the side, and her mouth quirked upwards just slightly.
“Fine.”
Something released inside of the boy; the snake poised to strike unravelling from its’ tight coil.
He turned and crouched by the door again, making eye contact with the small girl from the ruins in Pompeii.
It felt like the previous fight had just repeated itself again, the same grey eyes bore into his skull, urging the guy to spring out and destroy the monsters surrounding him. Almost egging him on, waiting expectantly for his action.
“We won’t be able to get them out unnoticed.” He murmured, eyes examining the rest of the room.
It was a larger square, broken statues positioned in a circle around the three altars. The consistent drip of water towards one side led to a small trickle of water running down the floor and pooling at the bottom. The walls were moss-filled, cracked and decaying and Percy felt that one small hit by a giant would send them crashing down.
“Well, weren’t we trying to fight Gaia anyway?” Frank asked, voice cracking with nerves. His expression shifting and flickering and Percy swore his ears weren’t usually that pointy. “Can’t we just... You know... Walk in?”
“Yeah, but she won’t want to make it easy for us, I guarantee she will have set traps if we try and catch her by surprise.” Hazel whispered.
Leo’s hand twitched at the mention of traps. “Yeah, but if I was waiting for someone to sneak up on me, I would only end up trapping the secret passageways.” He shrugged. “I wouldn’t expect them to announce themselves by walking through the front door.” His hand gestured to the doors that were still open.
“Yeah, but the kids change things.” Jason muttered, catching Percy’s gaze. “We can’t pick a fight with them there in case they get hurt. The last thing we want is for them to get trampled by a giant’s foot or something worse.”
Percy nodded. He could picture far too well a giant creature crushing a kid, leg treading on them when they took a step backwards. The sound of a clanging beat as both monster and girl goes down into the hot dirt.
“So, what do we do?” Frank asked.
“We open the front door.”
“What!”
A noise came from inside the room as all the demigods went very quiet, glares directed at Piper. There were footsteps drawing nearer, the sound of heavy breathing as if someone paused, then the doors crashed wide open.
“Well, we don’t even have to open them now.” Percy grumbled, hand clutching onto Riptide tightly.
There gazes moved upwards as a hoard of hungry hellhounds settled, teeth snaring, as the waited for the order to pounce. A giant stood next to the beasts, club raised and staring wildly at the children.
Behind him, Percy got a good glimpse of the creatures that surrounded the circle of children, all poised as if they knew that the group had been waiting outside.
“Ah the famous Percy Jackson and his sidekicks have finally made it!” The bronze giant yelled, muttering something to the monsters behind him. They began to swarm around the group ushering them further into the room. “So glad that you could join us.”
“Always a pleasure,” Percy murmured, gaze flitting between all the monsters in an attempt to gain his bearings.
A small whimper came from the stone on the far left, a pale boy lying there half unconscious. His hair was plastered to a clammy head, and Ruelle kept glancing over as if she was worried he would die any second.
The way it looked, Percy understood the fear.
It was as if he could feel the pain seeping into his veins from Alex, as the kid lay there barely breathing. His blood pulsed with every hitch breath; head pounded with each whimper.
“Ah, I see you have found our guests.” His voice held a coppery tone, as if the metal was scraping against each other in order to produce the trash coming from his mouth.
The god raised his head and glared directly into the giants' eyes, he wished he was Medusa at this point for as annoying as the lady was, at least the creature in front of him wouldn’t be ruining anyone's eardrums.
Riptide twitched in his hand, the urge to swarm forward and stab the giant growing stronger each second. However it was if the monsters could sense the tension, snarls and claws scraping as they shifted in time with each twitch of the sword.
The giant’s mouth fell slightly, eyeing the sword out of the corner of his metal face. “They waited so patiently for your appearance after all, it’s not kind of you to keep them waiting Jackson.”
“Keep them waiting for what exactly?” Percy spat, he could feel his control slowly failing with each second the giant breathed. He wanted to rip that metal off the face, make the monster feel as layer after layer was excoriated off of his body before finally slicing through his throat with Riptide and watching him turn into dus-
Blinking hard, Percy forced himself to focus, trying to see past the red haze clouding his vision.
Talos didn’t seem to notice, or maybe he just didn’t care.
“Come on now,” the giant sneered. “I know you can be stupid, Jackson, but surely even you can figure this out.”
“That’s rich coming from a tin can like you.” He snarled. “Following dirt face’s orders like some puppet whilst not having the ability to act on your own accord.”
It seemed he had struck a cord in Talos’s wiring.
“Gaia does not control me!” He roared, “I simply choose to follow her but if I wanted to, I could crush you so easily Jackson. No god would bother sparing even a thought for you, let alone offering up any assistance – yet you talk about puppets?” A mirthless laugh ground out of the tin can’s mouth. “The only puppet is you and your group of ‘friends’.”
“If you wanted to?” Percy smirked, leaning onto Riptide and glancing back at his fellow demigods. “Are you saying you like me enough to not crush me? Why I must say I’m flattered that you don’t wish to flatten me, but your attempt of wooing won’t work as I have a boyfriend.” Black strands fell into his green eyes, barely obscuring his vision but it was enough that he noticed slightly late a hand swiping out. Were he still a demigod it most likely would have swept him into the wall behind, smashing his skull against the rocks. Instead he sidestepped it, glancing up disapprovingly. “Well, that’s just rude. Didn’t your mother ever teach you to pick on kids your own size?”
Another hand smashed down where the god had been standing but Percy simply hopped backwards.
Talos roared with rage, “I will destroy you Jackson, and once I’m done tearing your body to pieces and watering your father’s temple with your blood, I will pay a visit to your mother and see how she fairs against me.” A big smile spread across the giant’s face, revealing the yellowed teeth underneath. “Maybe I won’t kill her immediately, just keep her as a little pet for a bit, chained to my feet next to your rotting corpse.”
Red.
The colour swallowed everything.
The temple blurred at the edges, stone and shadow bleeding together as something deep in Percy’s chest snapped. The ripple of power didn’t stop this time; it didn’t trickle out at the edges until he could slowly reign it back in. It surged, violent and uncontrollable, slamming outward like a tidal wave trapped in a too-small space.
The very walls of the temple groaned.
Cracks split through the marble, racing along the carvings of shells like lightning. Water that had been calmly dripping from the ceiling suddenly erupted, shooting upward in twisting columns that hovered midair, waiting for their next command.
Somewhere far away, in the deepest parts of his consciousness, Jason shouted, “Shut your eyes.”
There was fear in the voice, a fear that could only be gained from a past experience. He knew he should be concerned at that fear, knew he should pause and evaluate.
Percy didn’t. He couldn’t.
Talos laughed. The clanging of metal grating on the very fibres of Percy being at that second.
“You think a little tantrum-”
The words cut off.
Because Perseus looked up. His eyes focused for the first time since the red consumed his vision and for a second, the world broke.
It wasn’t just Percy standing there anymore.
The air around him warped, bending like heat over asphalt, except colder and deeper. His outline flickered, stretching into something larger, something older. It was something that physics couldn’t control, both there and not. A being that warped the very essence of space itself. Storm light bled from his skin, veins glowing like the cracks in the ocean floor. His sea-green eyes darkened until they looked almost bottomless, like staring into the deepest trench where light had never reached.
Any water morphed and vibrated, the molecules ready to respond to any command issued. Not in a gentle way, it wasn’t as if they were simply recognising his heritage. They obeyed. There was no question of obedience as the pure power radiating off of the man standing there forced the submission.
Every drop in the temple snapped toward him at once - ripping free from walls, ceilings, sweat on the forehead, cracks in the stone. It spiralled around him in violent currents, forming a churning vortex that hissed and roared like a storm trapped indoors.
The ground trembled harder.
He thought that there was the sound of crying, human crying as the pressure shifted and the air became thick and crushing. It didn’t concern him at that point as Talos took a step back.
Just one step. Just one small step in retreat, anxiously gazing back and forth as the temple walls continued to shake. But it was enough for Perseus.
“Well,” the giant muttered, voice lower now, cautious. “That’s new.”
Perseus tilted his head.
The movement was wrong - too slow, too calculating and deliberate, like the ocean deciding whether to drown a ship or let it pass. His gaze held none of the snarky teen that apologised to poodles and ate McDonald’s, there was an ancientness that reseeded far beyond his years.
“You talk too much,” Perseus said.
Except it wasn’t just his voice. It echoed and layered itself like waves crashing over each other in order to produce the maximum force on the sand below. There was a rumble beneath like something ancient was speaking through him, yet it was all Perseus at the same time.
The vortex exploded outward.
Water slammed into Talos like a battering ram, powerful enough to shatter stone but the giant braced, digging his feet into the ground with a roar. The impact cracked the floor beneath him, sending shards of marble flying.
Behind him the monsters weren’t so lucky.
A dracaenae shrieked as the force hurled it into a pillar, bones snapping on impact before disintegrating into a powdery dust. Another creature was swept off its feet, dragged across the flooded floor and smashed into the far wall.
But some didn’t die. Or at least not fully. They clung onto their miserable lives, battered and constantly attempting to reform parts as they hissed in pain.
Talos straightened slowly, shaking off chunks of stone.
His grin came back, wider this time. His teeth flashed and they looked different, almost sharper.
“There you are,” he said. “That’s what they were afraid of. I heard rumours but... Well monsters can be such gossips after all.”
Perseus didn’t answer. He couldn’t find the strength to make a sound come out of his mouth but the energy coursing through him wouldn’t remain still. A foot stepped forward and briefly Perseus registered it as his own before the temple responded.
Water surged with him, flooding the chamber, pooling at their feet before rising ankle-deep, then knee-deep, The carvings of Poseidon seemed to shift in the flickering light, as if watching.
Through the corner of his eyes, Perseus could see the demigods not shackled to slabs scramble back, hands pressed over their eyes and coughing into the air as if they struggled to breathe through the pressure compressing down.
He thought he heard one shout at him to stop but he paid no attention to it, instead allowing the power to keep building with his rage.
It hurt.
Gods, it hurt.
It felt like his veins were too small for the pressure running through them, his skin too tight and was stretching outward from the force, like something vast was trying to claw its way out of him. His thoughts fractured under the weight of it, slipping between anger and something colder, something endless.
Talos charged.
The giant moved faster than something that size should, weapon raised, aiming straight for Perseus’s center-
The water caught him mid-strike before Perseus could even register the attempted attack. It swarmed and shifted into a crushing grip that locked around Talos’s limbs, forcing him to a halt with a grinding, furious roar.
Perseus raised a hand and slowly the water tightened.
Talos snarled, muscles straining as cracks spread across his metal skin. “You think this changes anything?” he spat. “Gaia will get what she wants one way or another. This changes nothing Jackson, just means that when the gods fall – and they will – I will get to torment you for eternity.”
Perseus’s expression didn’t change.
However the temple reflected his inner turmoil at the disrespect of that statement as columns splintered. The ceiling groaned ominously and more cracks spiderwebbed outward, chunks of debris raining down into the rising water.
The monsters still standing began to circle, wary now, waiting for an opening yet keeping their gaze towards the floor and towards the dust of the weaker ones who evaporated from the pressure. They could feel the instability of what was emanating off of the god, the way the power wasn’t controlled – just unleashed and raw. Pure raw power in its truest form.
Percy took another step forward and staggered, kneels buckling slightly. Just slightly, but it was enough for the vortex to falter. The water slowed and the pressure shifted as everything became calmer, more precise and controlled.
Talos’s grin snapped back into place. “There it is,” he growled. “You can’t hold it. You are scared of it aren’t you.” The giant broke free from his liquid restraints. It wasn’t a clean escape in any way, the metal tore taking chunks from his body as the water clung on like a leach determined to suck the host dry, but he still forced himself forward. The lunge he took caused his arm to slam into Percy with enough force to send him skidding backwards through the slippery chamber.
The vortex collapsed, water crashing down all at once so that it slammed into the floor in a deafening tidal wave.
Percy hit the ground hard, the red in his vision flickering, dimming but not fully gone. Not yet at least.
The temple still quaked and shook slightly, not recovered from the transcendent force that it had been subjected to but still standing at the very least.
Talos also still stood, damaged but standing. A handful of monsters accompanied him in remaining alive, dragging themselves upright, hissing and snarling.
He turned and saw that the three children were still tied to the slabs, a box wavering now that the power had calmed but stood protecting them from the brunt of the force. Inside the box, Leo had his hand covering Alex and another boy’s, his own tightly screwed shut with Ruelle mimicking him.
Slowly as if sensing the shift, he opened them and stared into Percy for a second before slowly withdrawing his hand from their position on the boys.
Percy looked over at the others, and they all lay on the ground, bruised, shaken and potentially terrified but otherwise unharmed.
Percy pushed himself up slowly, water dripping from his hair, his hands still faintly glowing.
His chest rose and fell unevenly and the red flickered again.
Talos wiped ichor - dark and muddy compared to the bright gold of gods - from his mouth and laughed.
“Good attempt,” the giant said. “Now let’s see if you can do that again... maybe you’ll take out some of your friends this time.”
Percy felt the red slowly cloud his vision again, but he could still hear the shaky breathing. The slight whimper and hitched breath that came from a terrified child.
“What. Do. You. Want.” He spat, wiping the ichor that fell into his eye off, leaving a smudge across his face. He was careful to make sure that none fell to the ground.
“What do I want?” Talos murmured, looking around at the demigods who slowly got to their feet. “I want your blood, yours and two of your friends. If you care so much about those three,” He carelessly waved towards the three children tied up, “Then you won’t mind swapping spaces with them.”
There was a sound of protest, high pitched and annoyed, that came from Piper at the idea but Percy simply stared into Talos’s eyes, searching for a trick of some sort.
“Me and one other.” He said, not breaking eye contact. “Surely a gods blood is worth more than two demigods after all?”
There was silence.
After all, Percy knew that Talos wasn’t making the final decision. As much as the giant claimed not to be the puppet of Gaia, he wouldn’t dare make a deal without her approval.
A rumbling formed from the very core of the earth.
“If that is what you wish Jackson.”
Percy turned, slowly making eye contact with the others. They were all in various stages of disbelief that he would give in this easily, their mouth hung open and Jason’s forehead furrowed in confusion and disapproval.
All except Annabeth, who looked directly into his eyes. Her grey ones pierced through his brain, searching deeper until she seemed satisfied with the outcome, and a small shift of her head showed she understood.
“Annabeth?”
“Of course.”
They took a couple of steps towards the children, signalling for Leo to step away. The boy stared back and forth between the two, eyes fidgeting as if he had just injected caffeine into them. He slowly walked over to the boy Percy didn't know, brushing the hair off of his head before slowly putting his hands on the boys' wrists. He rubbed them slightly, as if in an attempt of comfort before stepping reluctantly back to where the others stood.
“Release them first so that we know you will keep your end of the deal.” Percy said, eyes darting to the thick metal that shackled the three to the stones.
Talos groaned but snapped his fingers at a creature who shuffled forward. “Release two of the vermin but keep one until we are sure that our friend’s won’t back out of the deal.”
The creature slowly moved towards Ruelle, scratching her skin as the shackles slowly loosened ant turned until they feel away. She jumped up, tears streaming down her face and knees wobbling but yes determined as she looked towards Percy. The creature then began to make his way towards the boy that Leo had comforted but a loud cough stopped it in its’ tracks.
“Release the other one.”
Talos glared at Percy, eyes narrowing in suspicion. “Why does it matter?”
If the giant was expecting Percy to wilt under the gaze, then it would have to wait a lot longer for Percy simply matched his glare. “Look at the boy, he looks about five seconds away from showing up for his visit with Cerberus. I would rather him not lie there any longer as I won’t feel inclined to follow my deal if the boy dies.”
The giant turned to take in the boy and Percy felt the glares of Ruelle getting stronger.
Her voice echoed slightly, raspy and breaking from disuse but still strong under the scrutiny of the room. “The other kid needs help too.” She argued, her disapproval evident in her voice. “Tie me back up if you must but he’s got a head injury.”
The creature moved, about to follow through with that suggestion but Percy slammed a jet of water into him, causing the thing to collapse quickly to the ground.
“No.”
“What gives you the right to decided!” Ruelle’s voice got angry. “Why don’t you care about him, are you just that awfu-”
“No.” Percy simply said, eyes remaining impassive. “Don’t listen to her, I’ve stated my terms. Release the ill one and then we can continue.”
Talos stared at him, ignoring the creature that had clambered its way back up and now waited dutifully for the instructions. The giant inspected every twitch of Percy’s face, every micro adjustment before he snapped his fingers towards Alex.
“Very well.”
“NO!” Ruelle cried, trying to race forward but Jason grabbed her. “What are you doing?! Why are you doing this you monster! Just let me die but leave the other one alone!” Her voice cracked as Leo grabbed the boy as he slumped onto the floor once his shackles were released.
Leo carefully picked him up, carrying him towards the middle of the group before handing him off into the arms of Frank. The elfish boy then turned and stared at Percy, eyes flickering between him and the remaining boy.
“Well a deal is a deal. Come forward and once the two of you are secured we will release the final one.” Talos said, fingers creaking as he beckoned the two of them forward.
Annabeth looked at him before taking her first couple of steps, as she got closer three dracaenae’s grabbed her, holding her steady as they waited for Percy to move.
Talos stood proudly, pointedly looking towards a point.
Percy nodded, and a clang echoed across the room as Riptide dropped to the floor. He then slowly began making his way across the cracks in the floor towards the giant.
“I hate you! I hate you; I hate you!” A voice cried out, the sound breaking through her sobs. “I can’t believe that I ever trusted you.”
Percy could feel something slowly crack in his veins, but he couldn’t let himself be swayed. He kept walking, refusing to make eye contact with the distraught child and simply trusting Jason to keep a tight grip on her.
Just as he was about to reach the area where he would be within grabbing, he raised his head slightly, lips quirking up in a smirk towards Annabeth.
He nodded.
All chaos broke loose as Annabeth rotated her shoulder and swung a hidden dagger at one of the dracaenae, stabbing it deeply in the chest but not even watching to see if it turned into dust as she moved onto the next one.
Percy vaulted forward, jumping over the swarming monsters and landing next to one of the stone slabs. With a quick glance towards the melted chain, he made eye contact with Leo who had just grabbed the last boy from where the boy had run towards the group.
Leaving the three children with Hazel and Jason, the rest of the group swarmed forward, weapons at the ready as they attacked the dwindling number of monsters.
Dust covered the ground with each slash and squelch that could be heard but Percy kept his gaze on the big lump of metal standing in the centre. Annabeth had finished with the three that held her and now stood side by side with Percy, any animosity between the two forgotten in this moment.
Talos roared, his fist smashing down onto the ground but the two jumped out of his way in time for it to hit nothing but the ground. The swings only got sloppier from there, born purely out of rage rather than skill as they smashed into walls and floor. As the two advanced further onto the giant, a hellhound crept up behind Annabeth, teeth snapping at her ankle and biting down hard.
She howled in pain as blood lazily dripped out of the wound and onto the floor, before turning and stabbing the creature in its ugly head. A surge of sympathy ran through Percy as he heard Mrs O’Leary’s whimpers of sadness when he couldn't play reflected in the dying creature. Yet he couldn’t stop for a second as five other monsters swarmed towards him forcing him to parry and fight on the defensive for a second.
It felt like an age before the roar Percy had been waiting for came from Talos, his head flinging back in anger as Annabeth’s knife buried deep into the joint of his knee. Just as he was about to reach down and grab Annabeth by the head, hand crushing her skull like playdough, she jumped backwards, making direct eye contact with Percy.
He smirked again and slowly let a roar of power funnel through him, a hurricane forming above his head. Lightning bolts crackled, the wind roared in time with his own dead heartbeat, and ice the size of boulders hurtled forwards towards the giant.
The collided with a gigantic crash knocking the giant back towards the wall before a stream of water pinned him there. Percy made eye contact with the monster one final time, waiting for the split second of realization before allowing the lightning to strike with all its force.
Metal shards scattered everywhere as the giant combusted, slicing the final few monsters in half and imbedded itself in the wall.
The demigods had taken cover in order to avoid the deadly shrapnel, but Percy simply stood there, shards bouncing harmlessly off of his skin for the most part. A couple buried deep into his chest and before long the only sound in the entire temple was the soft dripping of water.
As if in a trance Percy slowly pulled out a shard from his chest holding up to the light beaming in through a crack in the rough and watching it with some sort of sick satisfaction.
The adrenaline coursing through him prevented him from realizing his mistake until the sound of a thicker droplet fell through the air, the gold reflecting in the light before it hit the ground with a small splash.
The water stopped dripping, the others didn’t dare breathe.
Silence.
They all waited, waited for the temple to crack in two, for the bodies to combust, for the sky to split with flaming meteors, for anything.
Nothing happened.
Leo sighed. “Well, that was anticlimat-”
A low, bone-deep rumble rolled through the ground beneath them.
At first, it felt like another aftershock from the temple, just some of the loose stone settling, water shifting. But then it just kept going. Getting closer, less deep.. Like something vast was dragging itself awake far below the world.
Percy froze.
The water around his ankles stilled unnaturally, every drop going tense, like it was listening.
The earth seemed to take a deep inhale, holding the breath in its lungs before...
It woke.
Not here. Not in Greece exactly, yet the presence was still felt. But across the ocean, beyond the horizon, beyond anything they could see - something massive shifted, and the entire world felt it. Because it was the entire world.
The ground trembled again, sharper this time. Dust fell from the cracked ceiling. The water rippled in tight, frantic circles.
Hazel stilled, her breath picking up as she whispered, voice shaking, “What… what is that?”
Percy’s stomach dropped.
“Gaia,” he said hoarsely.
And even from thousands of miles away she felt far too close.