PJO: The Ties That Bind | Chapter 15: The Distance In Your Eyes
dffuigauoiga okay. This took waaaaay longer to write than I had anticipated, but in my defense I have not really had time to write for quite some time. And then I kept going back and tweaking things, because even though I knew how this chapter was going to end, getting there in a non-lame, non-rushed way seemed to be nearly impossible. I'm still not convinced it's not horrible and lame and dumb. D: But I swear I did my best! I hope it's satisfactory to all my readers.
Eee, I'm actually really excited to get to the next chapter. I hope I have some time to work on that this week. :O Otheriwse, well, that's what Christmas vacation is for, right? >>;
The Ties That Bind
Chapter 15: The Distance In Your Eyes
I remembered black skies, the lightning all around me
I remembered each flash as time began to blur
Like a startling sign that fate had finally found me
And your voice was all I heard, that I get what I deserve
- New Divide (Linkin Park)
Now, I’d like to think I’m not a coward. At least, not most of the time. But it’s one thing to face down a Cyclops or the Nemean Lion or even some guy named Luke that was only maybe nice to you a couple of times before he turned tail and started working for your worst enemy. It’s another thing entirely to even think about what it actually means to take a sword from the god Hades and kill one of the most important people in your life with it.
The Fates must have really had it in for me, because they seriously loved forcing me to make decisions like this. But Hades had a point - it had been one thing to promise my life for Nico’s. But to promise Nico’s life, when all I’d ever wanted to do was show him that he wasn’t someone people could just use and throw away?
I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t. I didn’t know what I was going to do instead, but there was just no way I could kill Nico. Not for Kronos, not for the world. It would be breaking my word to him, even if I’d never made him that promise out loud, and I just couldn’t do that. I would rather rot in hell. At least while I sat for eternity and thought about how I’d damned the world, I would know that I hadn’t turned on Nico to do it.
And I was about to tell Hades that, too, when something about what he’d said - something about the sword - suddenly flashed to the forefront of my mind: The wielder of this sword can raise the dead.
And that got me to thinking. He wanted me to use the sword to kill Nico, to send his soul and Kronos’ to the Underworld. And I didn’t want to do that. But what if I did do it - and then used the sword’s power to bring Nico right back? I mean, if Hades said that Nico’s powers were the only thing that made me strong enough to use this sword, then that had to mean I had some kind of control over what the sword did. And if I did, then it was a small step to get the sword to do what I wanted.
Technically, that would still be keeping my side of the bargain. Kronos would be dead. But Nico wouldn’t. It was pretty much the perfect solution, which was good because there weren’t any other options, not that I could see. And really, how could I turn it down, when the answer to everything was about to be handed over to me by the lord Hades himself?
And if it didn’t work, well... I would think about that if it happened. But it was going to work. I had to believe that just as much as Hades wanted me to believe what he was saying now. He believed Nico couldn’t be saved. But I had to believe otherwise.
I swallowed, feeling like I was standing at the edge of a bottomless canyon, about to jump off. “I’d rather do anything in the world if it meant I wouldn’t have to do what you’re asking,” I said truthfully. “You realize that, don’t you?”
This time, when Hades looked at me his eyes weren’t quite so hard. I mean, they were still pretty hard, don’t get me wrong. But some of the hatred in them had melted away. “But do you believe me when I say that you can’t?”
I nodded, even though I knew I didn’t. But he didn’t need to know that. “I do,” I lied. I held out my hand, and looked the god in his eyes. “I’ll do what you ask. I’ll use this sword to kill Nico - and Kronos.” I paused, but he was waiting for me to go on. “I swear this on the River Styx.” And I swear, I added silently, that I’ll bring him back to me right after.
The silence that hung between us was almost palpable, and ice-cold. Hades stood for a long moment, his dark eyes looking into mine like he would know if I was lying. And even though I had no intention of doing exactly what he’d asked, no part of what I’d just said was a lie. It just wasn’t the whole truth, either. I tried to concentrate on that as the god studied me in some kind of silent test.
Finally, he extended his arm again and held the sword out for me to take. This time he didn’t move his hand away and my fingers closed around the grip. The sword was so cold it burned the palm of my hand, like touching dry ice. And it was heavy. I had to swing my other arm up to grip the blade two-handed by the key-hilt so the point wouldn’t hit the dust as Hades let go of it. After all, I didn’t want to look weak - not when he was trusting me to do this. And especially not when I was going to pretty much spit in the face of what he thought couldn’t be done.
As I stood holding the sword, I swore I could feel my whole arm start to grow cold, like the warmth was running out through my hand and into the sword. I gasped, and Hades’ mouth quirked into something that almost resembled a wry smile. “The sword draws on the power of the person who holds it,” he said, by way of explanation. “It is a weapon meant for the gods. It was never meant to touch the hand of a mortal.”
I nodded, shifting the blade’s weight in my grip. It was definitely bigger and heavier than Riptide. “But I’ll be able to use it, right?” I looked up at Hades. “It’s not gonna backfire?”
“No,” he said, “it will do as I said. It will sever the souls in Nico’s body from the living world and send them to me.” He paused, his eyes flashing. “I cannot guarantee it won’t kill you in the process.”
Ah, so there was the catch. By now I couldn’t say that something like that surprised me overly much. Instead I said, “You don’t sound really broken up about that.”
The god didn’t shrug, but I got the impression that he had. “I must admit, I’m not.”
“Right,” I muttered, looking down at the pitch-black blade and feeling my stomach sink. I guessed nothing came without risks - that was a concept I was pretty used to, after all. Offering my life in the process wasn’t really something I wanted to do, but I had to admit that it was something I hadn’t thought about, either. Even if I was determined to get things to come out the way I wanted and get my happily ever after, whether the Fates wanted it that way or not.
But then I couldn’t help asking, “But what about Nico?” I looked back up at Hades, feeling like maybe I shouldn’t be asking this but unable to stop myself from doing it. “Part of you must want him to live.”
Hades’ mouth thinned into a line as he pressed his lips together. Nothing changed physically, but suddenly he somehow looked old. Tired. “I hold little regard for my brothers and sisters since they dismissed me to rule the realm of the dead,” he said slowly. “And I have little regard for the system that’s kept things that way for longer than you can imagine.” He paused, pinning me with a gaze and I found I couldn’t tear my eyes away. “I wanted more for my children than that, whether you choose to believe me or not.”
Then Hades turned away, looking out over the dull, grassy plains of the Underworld. “When Kronos made his offer to me, I was tempted. I will not tell you otherwise. He offered me a position in which I would not be forgotten and reviled, all with the help of my son. He would make Nico more powerful than even Zeus. But as you can see,” he said, turning back to me and waving his hand to the Underworld around us, “the new management is little better than the old. I am still trapped here. And Nico is trapped as well. The world above will fall deeper into chaos the longer my father reigns freely. If I must remain trapped, then I would rather it be in balance than in chaos. And I know you do not think so,” he said, “but I would rather have the last of my sons dead beside me than trapped forever in a world that I see now he had no wish to create.”
It was pretty much the most Hades had ever said to me. And honestly, there wasn’t much I could say in reply. As I stood there and looked at him - really looked - I realized just how lonely Hades was. He was the king of absolutely nothing worth having, and he knew it. Maybe that was why he’d tricked Persephone into staying with him for half the year - because even tricking someone into keeping you company was better than having no company at all.
Maybe it was why he didn’t like the whole concept of me and Nico so much - maybe we just reminded him of the things he couldn’t have. At least, I thought maybe that was it. And it only made me feel more strongly than ever that I couldn’t turn my back on Nico now. Not when he needed me the most.
The silence had stretched on, but Hades didn’t seem to want an answer out of me. He was the first to speak again. “I will send you back now,” the god said, straightening to his full height. “Kronos already knows you are gone, and he knows I have done it.” He looked out across the plains again, this time with something almost like concern. “I will soon have a battle of my own to fight.”
“Uh. Right,” I said, following his gaze. I didn’t see anything, but something in my gut told me that the dead were stirring nonetheless. I didn’t know if it was natural instincts or Nico’s powers that told me so, but it didn’t much matter at the moment. I just knew it was true. I supposed that Kronos wouldn’t really let Hades get away with betraying him - after all, he wasn’t the sort who kept disloyal subjects around. He simply got rid of the threat before it became a problem. It was how, I supposed, he’d been able to rise to power in only a few years.
It also meant that I wouldn’t be getting any more help from Hades, but that was okay with me. I hadn’t exactly been counting on it - in fact, the more freedom he gave me, the better the chances that I’d be able to bring Nico back as soon as I’d sent Kronos back to Tartarus where he belonged.
“You won’t have much in the way of surprise,” Hades warned, raising one hand. “I can only hope that your skills with a sword can make up for it.”
I could only hope that, too. And hope that my plan would work - but in order for that to happen, I had to hope that I’d be able to follow Hades’ plan first. And honestly, I didn’t know for sure what would happen when I got back to Olympus and faced Kronos again. Because he was still Nico, somewhere in there, and I couldn’t forget it. Would I actually be able to kill him, when I had to stare into Nico’s eyes to do it?
I guessed we’d both find out the answer to that soon enough.
“I’m ready,” I said, even thought I wasn’t. I hefted the sword back into a ready position and looked up at the god. “Can you put me somewhere close to him, at least?” I had a pretty good idea of where he’d be, but tracking Kronos down would only make this harder to do, tiring me out and making me second-guess myself even more. It felt kind of like the decision to kill myself had, when I’d made it months ago to save Nico’s life then. Once I’d decided, I’d just done it - I hadn’t stopped to think about it or examine my doubts. If I had, I didn’t know if I’d have gone through with it. And so I couldn’t stop now, either, or the whole thing would fall apart and it really would be my fault.
Hades nodded. “I will. The rest is up to you.” He locked eyes with me one more time, even as I sensed the shadows creeping up to swallow me whole. “You know what you have to do, Percy Jackson. There can be no room for doubt.”
And then the darkness obscured everything from view.
*
When the shadows let me go only seconds later, I was bathed in thin gray light much the same as the light from the Underworld. I looked around and saw that I was standing in the throne room on Olympus, which still lay in ruin. Nothing had really changed since the last time I’d seen it, except for the fact that the things that had been in the shadows before weren’t, anymore. Now I could see enormous black hellhounds prowling around the edges of the room, and the skeletons that had laid in piles on the floor the last time I’d seen them were now whole and standing at attention amidst the cracked and ruined thrones. The fire still burned halfheartedly in the central hearth, like it was trying to go out but couldn’t find the courage to die.
As I stumbled a bit and tried to keep the sword up in front of me, one of the hellhounds started to growl. It was big - bigger than Mrs. O’Leary even, and she had been the biggest hellhound I’d ever seen - and it started stalking towards me like a lion stalks its prey. I was about to take a step back when a voice boomed from the back of the throne room, “I’ll take care of this myself.”
The hellhound paused, its ears flicking back to lay flat against its head. Its teeth were still bared, but now it turned its beady eyes to the back of the room. My eyes darted into the shadows, where a figure began to emerge - a figure that I knew better than even my own: Nico.
No, I reminded myself, Kronos. I raised the sword in front of me, the black blade glinting in the dying firelight. I couldn’t tear my eyes away as Kronos approached. He waved one hand in the general direction of the hellhounds stalking the edges of the room. “Get going,” he said coldly, “and join the rest of the army in the Underworld.” Around us, the hellhounds slipped back into the shadows and disappeared. Kronos stopped on the other side of the chasm that split the marble floor in two. “Hades thought he could turn around and stab me in the back, did he? Well, he’ll soon find out what I do to traitors.” His eyes flashed golden as he leveled his gaze at me. “As will you. I don’t give second chances.”
His eyes fell on the sword in my hands and his face stretched into a horribly unnatural smile that sent a shiver down my spine. No, this definitely wasn’t Nico, and the more he acted wrong, the easier it was to detach myself from what I was about to do.
Because this was it. It all came down to this: no big fight for Olympus. No epic battle, no clash between Kronos’ army and the gods’. Just me and Nico and the abandoned throne room.
It wasn’t how I’d pictured the “final battle” at all (and I’d tried to picture it quite a lot, especially recently). In fact, it wasn’t how most of the battles I’d fought had gone, but I guessed in the end a battle was still a battle, no matter how large or small. And it was all up to me.
I could have said something witty, tried to distract him with some kind of smart remark while I prepared to strike. It was my usual more of operation, anyway; but somehow I knew that it wouldn’t work here. Hades had been right - I didn’t have the element of surprise. But that didn’t mean I was defenseless. I still had the element of unpredictability.
And so without a word I charged him, getting a running start a good few steps away from the chasm so I could cross it in one jump and swing the sword of Hades down in an arc as I reached the other side, aiming the blow right between Kronos’ neck and his shoulderblade. I tried not to look at his face - I tried to look instead at the black t-shirt Nico had been wearing, or the silver belt buckle, or anything other than the eyes that I knew would make me pull back at the last second. I couldn’t afford to lose this one. For Nico.
But the hit never landed. In fact, neither did I - I seemed to hit some kind of invisible barrier in mid-jump, freezing me over the chasm with the blade already on its downward swing. When I blinked - excruciatingly slowly - I saw that Kronos was now holding his scythe. It looked wrong in Nico’s hands.
Even unpredictability hadn’t been enough. Kronos had slowed time, rendering me totally powerless and completely vulnerable. The feeling of sick fear that shot through my stomach would have made me retch, if I hadn’t been unable to move at all. I watched he stepped smoothly to the side, moving totally clear of my incoming blow even as I hung, suspended in time above the floor.
He smiled a smile that made me sick to my stomach as he looked up at me, one pale hand holding the polished handle of the scythe almost carelessly. “Hades should have chosen someone else as his instrument of betrayal,” Kronos said, his voice grating over my ears and every word stinging like a physical blow. “And you should have thought more carefully about which side you were going to join.”
I wanted to shout back at him, to tell him that I would never join him, not willingly while he held Nico prisoner. But I couldn’t - I couldn’t draw breath more than a sliver of air at a time, and even though my mind was racing my body was still all but frozen in time and space. I didn’t know what Kronos was going to do to me, but whatever it was, it was almost worse to know that when he defeated me he would possess the key set in the hilt of the sword. It would give him the ultimate power over life and death, more than he could ever hope to have through Nico alone. And that was worse than giving up my life for something I believed in - that was handing over one of the most powerful weapons I had ever known right into the hands of the worst person who could possibly possess it. With it, he could raise any of his allies that the gods had ever defeated.
“Now,” he said slowly, looking at me as though thinking quite hard, “what should I do with you?”
I needed to come up with a plan, but it was kind of impossible while hanging suspended in the middle of the throne room. After all, I still couldn’t move. The only thing I could do was think and, let’s face it, that’s never exactly been one of my strong suits. I wished Annabeth were there - or anyone, really. But I was on my own and there was no way to call for help -
Wait. There was no way to call a person for help, no. But what about something else? I knew there were aqueducts running throughout Olympus - I’d seen them throughout the city before, when I’d walked from the elevator entrance to the throne room. And at least some of those aqueducts still had to have water, even if they were as broken as the throne room. They were still fed from a source somewhere. Maybe I could reach that source in real time, even if my body was caught in this slow-time bubble. I had no idea if it would work, but at this point anything was worth a try. Anything was worth not letting this weapon fall into Kronos’ hands - and what was more, anything was worth trying to get Nico back.
I tried to turn my mind completely to the task at hand. My eyesight blurred as I concentrated on the throne room and tried to call any water I could reach to come help me. Here! Come here! I willed as hard as I could, praying silently to my father and Nico’s (whether they could help me or not) that I still had the power to distract the Titan into letting me go long enough to kill him.
There was a pulling sensation in my gut and a rushing in my ears. My eyes tracked impossibly slowly to the front of the room where the broken doors stood open, guarded by a pair of empty-eyed skeletons. Even though the seconds weren’t exactly ticking by for me, I could feel the pulling just behind my belly button getting stronger. There was a wave building, rushing towards the throne room. There was no way to tell how much time was passing, but it couldn’t be much.
The feeling grew and grew, and I began to think that maybe I could win this after all, until outside the bubble Kronos had created around me I saw a twelve-foot wave of water come pouring in through the open doorway. It totally obliterated the skeleton guards as it roared over the threshold, smashing into the rubble and carrying it along for the ride. The wave came roaring towards Kronos, who turned his head to look at it and made a motion with one hand -
And the water slowed, diminishing at once to a stream that simply fed into the chasm below, trickling away, completely harmless.
Then his gaze snapped back up to me and made a squeezing motion with one hand, and time seemed to speed up in an instant so that I came crashing down on the other side of the marble floor, totally out of control as my body finished moving like I’d originally planned but there was no longer anything for me to land a blow on. The blade clanged off the floor, sending a tremor back up through my arms that turned my fingers numb and I think it was nothing more than sheer willpower that kept me from dropping Hades’ sword. I scrambled to my feet, trying to get my arms to respond to my brain and bring the sword up in a blocking position just as the blade of the scythe whistled down towards me, impossibly sharp and bright. I might have a blade that could separate a soul from its body, but so did Kronos. I knew about his scythe, and I knew that it was just as dangerous as the sword in my hands if it touched me.
There was the too-loud sound of unearthly metals meeting, and sparks flew from the place where the two blades touched. Kronos looked down at me with a cruel smile and said, “Had you forgotten, little demigod, that you gave Nico power over water as well?”
I could feel my heart sink even as I tried to concentrate on keeping the Titan from overpowering me as he put more weight on his blade. I managed to slide my sword away from the scythe and duck underneath the blade as it swung downward, bringing Hades’ sword around in an upward swing only to have it blocked again by Kronos’ scythe at the last second. Worst of all, he twisted his blade until I was looking up at him again, forced to stare into Nico’s face just on the other side of our struggling weapons.
I kept moving, twisting around in an attempt to land a blow, but he parried my every move. Kronos chose his vessels wisely, I had to give him that. Luke had been an expert swordsman, and even with Kronos in the driver’s seat the muscle memory had still been there. Nico might not have had time to get as good as Luke, but hadn’t been a slacker, either. Growing up in the blink of an eye had made him stronger than even me, and the Titan’s senses were more acute than a human’s could ever hope to be.
About twenty seconds into the fight, I knew I was going to lose. Don’t ask how, but it’s just something you learn when you learn swordfighting like I have. It’s not like it is in the movies at all - you only have to trade a few blows at most before you know whether you’re going to come out on top or not.
And I knew that this time I wasn’t. I was fighting with an unfamiliar weapon, bigger and much heavier than the one I was used to. I could feel the key almost humming in my hands, still burning coldly through the skin of my palms and sucking more heat from my body with every passing second. I was beginning to really believe what Hades had said about this sword killing me. It was like I could feel it draining my life away, and it wasn’t even going to do any good in the end.
But that wasn’t good enough for me, and it wasn’t good enough for Nico. I was running out of ideas, and it was clear that my swordsmanship was not going to be enough on its own. In a last-ditch effort to gain the upper hand, I reached back mentally towards the crevice where Kronos had drained the water from my earlier attempt to distract him. I could still feel it, pooling far below us. I called upon it again, flinging it upward and over me in an arc that crashed down onto the figure in front of me.
This time it worked - the wave of water hit Kronos square in the chest just as he went for a downward swing with his scythe, and he went skidding backwards a few feet before he flung out an arm to divert the flow of water. But his scythe was now in the wrong position to block as I closed the distance between us and brought the black sword up above my head to land the killing blow -
As I moved to strike I looked down and I saw his face. And for a second, in the shadow of the water as it crashed around us, I couldn’t tell if his eyes were gold or brown.
I only lost my resolve for a fraction of an instant, maybe less. But it was enough. My arms buckled in mid-swing, and the sword faltered in my hands. When Kronos brought his scythe up this time to block the blow, the force of the impact sent Hades’ sword flying out of my hands. It skidded across the marble floor and into the shadows behind what looked like the remains of a giant deep-sea fisherman’s chair.
I was thrown off balance, the world tipping crazily until I was lying stunned on the ground, the breath knocked out of me. I felt one steel-toed boot plant itself in the middle of my chest, and when I looked up Nico was looking down at me.
But it wasn’t Nico. It was Kronos. His eyes were gold, and his mouth was stretched into a satisfied grin as he leaned down, putting more weight on my chest until I thought he was going to break my ribs. He peered into my face, bringing his scythe around so that the flat of the blade just touched the skin of my neck.
I’d failed. All I could think, looking up at his face, was that maybe I never could have done it in the first place. Maybe killing Kronos while there was still some sliver of Nico left inside of him was a line I just couldn’t cross. I’d failed Hades, and I’d failed Nico too, but a tiny part of me thought that even if he was trapped forever, at least now Nico would still be alive.
Except so was I. And that was a little confusing. Sure, he was gloating, but Kronos wasn’t stupid. And he’d told me himself that he didn’t give second chances. So why hadn’t he killed me yet?
“What are you waiting for?” I asked, still trying to catch my breath even though I knew it didn’t really matter. I probably shouldn’t have tried to provoke him. But waiting to die was far worse than actually dying, and I actually had the experience to compare it with. Right now, staring up into Nico’s face with someone other than Nico looking out at me from behind it, I was starting to want to die. I’d failed Nico so completely that there was no way I could have lived with myself knowing I’d lost the chance to get him back. I thought back to all those times when I’d been so sick and tired of fighting that I’d just wanted to lie down and sleep forever. Maybe now I would get my wish. Hades certainly wouldn’t make an exception for me a second time. “Do it.”
But “Oh, no,” Kronos said, and he leaned down closer until our noses were almost touching. “Death would be such an easy way out. Believe me,” he said, smiling a smile that was really more of a leer, “I know. Do you think I couldn’t hear Luke screaming for an end to it all? Do you think I can’t hear Nico screaming, now?” He shook his head, bearing down on me and the scythe slid against my neck but never broke the skin. “Oh, no. You will not get death, little would-be hero. Instead, I will take it from you. And you will see what hell is really like.”
Eee, I'm actually really excited to get to the next chapter. I hope I have some time to work on that this week. :O Otheriwse, well, that's what Christmas vacation is for, right? >>;
The Ties That Bind
Chapter 15: The Distance In Your Eyes
I remembered black skies, the lightning all around me
I remembered each flash as time began to blur
Like a startling sign that fate had finally found me
And your voice was all I heard, that I get what I deserve
- New Divide (Linkin Park)
Now, I’d like to think I’m not a coward. At least, not most of the time. But it’s one thing to face down a Cyclops or the Nemean Lion or even some guy named Luke that was only maybe nice to you a couple of times before he turned tail and started working for your worst enemy. It’s another thing entirely to even think about what it actually means to take a sword from the god Hades and kill one of the most important people in your life with it.
The Fates must have really had it in for me, because they seriously loved forcing me to make decisions like this. But Hades had a point - it had been one thing to promise my life for Nico’s. But to promise Nico’s life, when all I’d ever wanted to do was show him that he wasn’t someone people could just use and throw away?
I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t. I didn’t know what I was going to do instead, but there was just no way I could kill Nico. Not for Kronos, not for the world. It would be breaking my word to him, even if I’d never made him that promise out loud, and I just couldn’t do that. I would rather rot in hell. At least while I sat for eternity and thought about how I’d damned the world, I would know that I hadn’t turned on Nico to do it.
And I was about to tell Hades that, too, when something about what he’d said - something about the sword - suddenly flashed to the forefront of my mind: The wielder of this sword can raise the dead.
And that got me to thinking. He wanted me to use the sword to kill Nico, to send his soul and Kronos’ to the Underworld. And I didn’t want to do that. But what if I did do it - and then used the sword’s power to bring Nico right back? I mean, if Hades said that Nico’s powers were the only thing that made me strong enough to use this sword, then that had to mean I had some kind of control over what the sword did. And if I did, then it was a small step to get the sword to do what I wanted.
Technically, that would still be keeping my side of the bargain. Kronos would be dead. But Nico wouldn’t. It was pretty much the perfect solution, which was good because there weren’t any other options, not that I could see. And really, how could I turn it down, when the answer to everything was about to be handed over to me by the lord Hades himself?
And if it didn’t work, well... I would think about that if it happened. But it was going to work. I had to believe that just as much as Hades wanted me to believe what he was saying now. He believed Nico couldn’t be saved. But I had to believe otherwise.
I swallowed, feeling like I was standing at the edge of a bottomless canyon, about to jump off. “I’d rather do anything in the world if it meant I wouldn’t have to do what you’re asking,” I said truthfully. “You realize that, don’t you?”
This time, when Hades looked at me his eyes weren’t quite so hard. I mean, they were still pretty hard, don’t get me wrong. But some of the hatred in them had melted away. “But do you believe me when I say that you can’t?”
I nodded, even though I knew I didn’t. But he didn’t need to know that. “I do,” I lied. I held out my hand, and looked the god in his eyes. “I’ll do what you ask. I’ll use this sword to kill Nico - and Kronos.” I paused, but he was waiting for me to go on. “I swear this on the River Styx.” And I swear, I added silently, that I’ll bring him back to me right after.
The silence that hung between us was almost palpable, and ice-cold. Hades stood for a long moment, his dark eyes looking into mine like he would know if I was lying. And even though I had no intention of doing exactly what he’d asked, no part of what I’d just said was a lie. It just wasn’t the whole truth, either. I tried to concentrate on that as the god studied me in some kind of silent test.
Finally, he extended his arm again and held the sword out for me to take. This time he didn’t move his hand away and my fingers closed around the grip. The sword was so cold it burned the palm of my hand, like touching dry ice. And it was heavy. I had to swing my other arm up to grip the blade two-handed by the key-hilt so the point wouldn’t hit the dust as Hades let go of it. After all, I didn’t want to look weak - not when he was trusting me to do this. And especially not when I was going to pretty much spit in the face of what he thought couldn’t be done.
As I stood holding the sword, I swore I could feel my whole arm start to grow cold, like the warmth was running out through my hand and into the sword. I gasped, and Hades’ mouth quirked into something that almost resembled a wry smile. “The sword draws on the power of the person who holds it,” he said, by way of explanation. “It is a weapon meant for the gods. It was never meant to touch the hand of a mortal.”
I nodded, shifting the blade’s weight in my grip. It was definitely bigger and heavier than Riptide. “But I’ll be able to use it, right?” I looked up at Hades. “It’s not gonna backfire?”
“No,” he said, “it will do as I said. It will sever the souls in Nico’s body from the living world and send them to me.” He paused, his eyes flashing. “I cannot guarantee it won’t kill you in the process.”
Ah, so there was the catch. By now I couldn’t say that something like that surprised me overly much. Instead I said, “You don’t sound really broken up about that.”
The god didn’t shrug, but I got the impression that he had. “I must admit, I’m not.”
“Right,” I muttered, looking down at the pitch-black blade and feeling my stomach sink. I guessed nothing came without risks - that was a concept I was pretty used to, after all. Offering my life in the process wasn’t really something I wanted to do, but I had to admit that it was something I hadn’t thought about, either. Even if I was determined to get things to come out the way I wanted and get my happily ever after, whether the Fates wanted it that way or not.
But then I couldn’t help asking, “But what about Nico?” I looked back up at Hades, feeling like maybe I shouldn’t be asking this but unable to stop myself from doing it. “Part of you must want him to live.”
Hades’ mouth thinned into a line as he pressed his lips together. Nothing changed physically, but suddenly he somehow looked old. Tired. “I hold little regard for my brothers and sisters since they dismissed me to rule the realm of the dead,” he said slowly. “And I have little regard for the system that’s kept things that way for longer than you can imagine.” He paused, pinning me with a gaze and I found I couldn’t tear my eyes away. “I wanted more for my children than that, whether you choose to believe me or not.”
Then Hades turned away, looking out over the dull, grassy plains of the Underworld. “When Kronos made his offer to me, I was tempted. I will not tell you otherwise. He offered me a position in which I would not be forgotten and reviled, all with the help of my son. He would make Nico more powerful than even Zeus. But as you can see,” he said, turning back to me and waving his hand to the Underworld around us, “the new management is little better than the old. I am still trapped here. And Nico is trapped as well. The world above will fall deeper into chaos the longer my father reigns freely. If I must remain trapped, then I would rather it be in balance than in chaos. And I know you do not think so,” he said, “but I would rather have the last of my sons dead beside me than trapped forever in a world that I see now he had no wish to create.”
It was pretty much the most Hades had ever said to me. And honestly, there wasn’t much I could say in reply. As I stood there and looked at him - really looked - I realized just how lonely Hades was. He was the king of absolutely nothing worth having, and he knew it. Maybe that was why he’d tricked Persephone into staying with him for half the year - because even tricking someone into keeping you company was better than having no company at all.
Maybe it was why he didn’t like the whole concept of me and Nico so much - maybe we just reminded him of the things he couldn’t have. At least, I thought maybe that was it. And it only made me feel more strongly than ever that I couldn’t turn my back on Nico now. Not when he needed me the most.
The silence had stretched on, but Hades didn’t seem to want an answer out of me. He was the first to speak again. “I will send you back now,” the god said, straightening to his full height. “Kronos already knows you are gone, and he knows I have done it.” He looked out across the plains again, this time with something almost like concern. “I will soon have a battle of my own to fight.”
“Uh. Right,” I said, following his gaze. I didn’t see anything, but something in my gut told me that the dead were stirring nonetheless. I didn’t know if it was natural instincts or Nico’s powers that told me so, but it didn’t much matter at the moment. I just knew it was true. I supposed that Kronos wouldn’t really let Hades get away with betraying him - after all, he wasn’t the sort who kept disloyal subjects around. He simply got rid of the threat before it became a problem. It was how, I supposed, he’d been able to rise to power in only a few years.
It also meant that I wouldn’t be getting any more help from Hades, but that was okay with me. I hadn’t exactly been counting on it - in fact, the more freedom he gave me, the better the chances that I’d be able to bring Nico back as soon as I’d sent Kronos back to Tartarus where he belonged.
“You won’t have much in the way of surprise,” Hades warned, raising one hand. “I can only hope that your skills with a sword can make up for it.”
I could only hope that, too. And hope that my plan would work - but in order for that to happen, I had to hope that I’d be able to follow Hades’ plan first. And honestly, I didn’t know for sure what would happen when I got back to Olympus and faced Kronos again. Because he was still Nico, somewhere in there, and I couldn’t forget it. Would I actually be able to kill him, when I had to stare into Nico’s eyes to do it?
I guessed we’d both find out the answer to that soon enough.
“I’m ready,” I said, even thought I wasn’t. I hefted the sword back into a ready position and looked up at the god. “Can you put me somewhere close to him, at least?” I had a pretty good idea of where he’d be, but tracking Kronos down would only make this harder to do, tiring me out and making me second-guess myself even more. It felt kind of like the decision to kill myself had, when I’d made it months ago to save Nico’s life then. Once I’d decided, I’d just done it - I hadn’t stopped to think about it or examine my doubts. If I had, I didn’t know if I’d have gone through with it. And so I couldn’t stop now, either, or the whole thing would fall apart and it really would be my fault.
Hades nodded. “I will. The rest is up to you.” He locked eyes with me one more time, even as I sensed the shadows creeping up to swallow me whole. “You know what you have to do, Percy Jackson. There can be no room for doubt.”
And then the darkness obscured everything from view.
*
When the shadows let me go only seconds later, I was bathed in thin gray light much the same as the light from the Underworld. I looked around and saw that I was standing in the throne room on Olympus, which still lay in ruin. Nothing had really changed since the last time I’d seen it, except for the fact that the things that had been in the shadows before weren’t, anymore. Now I could see enormous black hellhounds prowling around the edges of the room, and the skeletons that had laid in piles on the floor the last time I’d seen them were now whole and standing at attention amidst the cracked and ruined thrones. The fire still burned halfheartedly in the central hearth, like it was trying to go out but couldn’t find the courage to die.
As I stumbled a bit and tried to keep the sword up in front of me, one of the hellhounds started to growl. It was big - bigger than Mrs. O’Leary even, and she had been the biggest hellhound I’d ever seen - and it started stalking towards me like a lion stalks its prey. I was about to take a step back when a voice boomed from the back of the throne room, “I’ll take care of this myself.”
The hellhound paused, its ears flicking back to lay flat against its head. Its teeth were still bared, but now it turned its beady eyes to the back of the room. My eyes darted into the shadows, where a figure began to emerge - a figure that I knew better than even my own: Nico.
No, I reminded myself, Kronos. I raised the sword in front of me, the black blade glinting in the dying firelight. I couldn’t tear my eyes away as Kronos approached. He waved one hand in the general direction of the hellhounds stalking the edges of the room. “Get going,” he said coldly, “and join the rest of the army in the Underworld.” Around us, the hellhounds slipped back into the shadows and disappeared. Kronos stopped on the other side of the chasm that split the marble floor in two. “Hades thought he could turn around and stab me in the back, did he? Well, he’ll soon find out what I do to traitors.” His eyes flashed golden as he leveled his gaze at me. “As will you. I don’t give second chances.”
His eyes fell on the sword in my hands and his face stretched into a horribly unnatural smile that sent a shiver down my spine. No, this definitely wasn’t Nico, and the more he acted wrong, the easier it was to detach myself from what I was about to do.
Because this was it. It all came down to this: no big fight for Olympus. No epic battle, no clash between Kronos’ army and the gods’. Just me and Nico and the abandoned throne room.
It wasn’t how I’d pictured the “final battle” at all (and I’d tried to picture it quite a lot, especially recently). In fact, it wasn’t how most of the battles I’d fought had gone, but I guessed in the end a battle was still a battle, no matter how large or small. And it was all up to me.
I could have said something witty, tried to distract him with some kind of smart remark while I prepared to strike. It was my usual more of operation, anyway; but somehow I knew that it wouldn’t work here. Hades had been right - I didn’t have the element of surprise. But that didn’t mean I was defenseless. I still had the element of unpredictability.
And so without a word I charged him, getting a running start a good few steps away from the chasm so I could cross it in one jump and swing the sword of Hades down in an arc as I reached the other side, aiming the blow right between Kronos’ neck and his shoulderblade. I tried not to look at his face - I tried to look instead at the black t-shirt Nico had been wearing, or the silver belt buckle, or anything other than the eyes that I knew would make me pull back at the last second. I couldn’t afford to lose this one. For Nico.
But the hit never landed. In fact, neither did I - I seemed to hit some kind of invisible barrier in mid-jump, freezing me over the chasm with the blade already on its downward swing. When I blinked - excruciatingly slowly - I saw that Kronos was now holding his scythe. It looked wrong in Nico’s hands.
Even unpredictability hadn’t been enough. Kronos had slowed time, rendering me totally powerless and completely vulnerable. The feeling of sick fear that shot through my stomach would have made me retch, if I hadn’t been unable to move at all. I watched he stepped smoothly to the side, moving totally clear of my incoming blow even as I hung, suspended in time above the floor.
He smiled a smile that made me sick to my stomach as he looked up at me, one pale hand holding the polished handle of the scythe almost carelessly. “Hades should have chosen someone else as his instrument of betrayal,” Kronos said, his voice grating over my ears and every word stinging like a physical blow. “And you should have thought more carefully about which side you were going to join.”
I wanted to shout back at him, to tell him that I would never join him, not willingly while he held Nico prisoner. But I couldn’t - I couldn’t draw breath more than a sliver of air at a time, and even though my mind was racing my body was still all but frozen in time and space. I didn’t know what Kronos was going to do to me, but whatever it was, it was almost worse to know that when he defeated me he would possess the key set in the hilt of the sword. It would give him the ultimate power over life and death, more than he could ever hope to have through Nico alone. And that was worse than giving up my life for something I believed in - that was handing over one of the most powerful weapons I had ever known right into the hands of the worst person who could possibly possess it. With it, he could raise any of his allies that the gods had ever defeated.
“Now,” he said slowly, looking at me as though thinking quite hard, “what should I do with you?”
I needed to come up with a plan, but it was kind of impossible while hanging suspended in the middle of the throne room. After all, I still couldn’t move. The only thing I could do was think and, let’s face it, that’s never exactly been one of my strong suits. I wished Annabeth were there - or anyone, really. But I was on my own and there was no way to call for help -
Wait. There was no way to call a person for help, no. But what about something else? I knew there were aqueducts running throughout Olympus - I’d seen them throughout the city before, when I’d walked from the elevator entrance to the throne room. And at least some of those aqueducts still had to have water, even if they were as broken as the throne room. They were still fed from a source somewhere. Maybe I could reach that source in real time, even if my body was caught in this slow-time bubble. I had no idea if it would work, but at this point anything was worth a try. Anything was worth not letting this weapon fall into Kronos’ hands - and what was more, anything was worth trying to get Nico back.
I tried to turn my mind completely to the task at hand. My eyesight blurred as I concentrated on the throne room and tried to call any water I could reach to come help me. Here! Come here! I willed as hard as I could, praying silently to my father and Nico’s (whether they could help me or not) that I still had the power to distract the Titan into letting me go long enough to kill him.
There was a pulling sensation in my gut and a rushing in my ears. My eyes tracked impossibly slowly to the front of the room where the broken doors stood open, guarded by a pair of empty-eyed skeletons. Even though the seconds weren’t exactly ticking by for me, I could feel the pulling just behind my belly button getting stronger. There was a wave building, rushing towards the throne room. There was no way to tell how much time was passing, but it couldn’t be much.
The feeling grew and grew, and I began to think that maybe I could win this after all, until outside the bubble Kronos had created around me I saw a twelve-foot wave of water come pouring in through the open doorway. It totally obliterated the skeleton guards as it roared over the threshold, smashing into the rubble and carrying it along for the ride. The wave came roaring towards Kronos, who turned his head to look at it and made a motion with one hand -
And the water slowed, diminishing at once to a stream that simply fed into the chasm below, trickling away, completely harmless.
Then his gaze snapped back up to me and made a squeezing motion with one hand, and time seemed to speed up in an instant so that I came crashing down on the other side of the marble floor, totally out of control as my body finished moving like I’d originally planned but there was no longer anything for me to land a blow on. The blade clanged off the floor, sending a tremor back up through my arms that turned my fingers numb and I think it was nothing more than sheer willpower that kept me from dropping Hades’ sword. I scrambled to my feet, trying to get my arms to respond to my brain and bring the sword up in a blocking position just as the blade of the scythe whistled down towards me, impossibly sharp and bright. I might have a blade that could separate a soul from its body, but so did Kronos. I knew about his scythe, and I knew that it was just as dangerous as the sword in my hands if it touched me.
There was the too-loud sound of unearthly metals meeting, and sparks flew from the place where the two blades touched. Kronos looked down at me with a cruel smile and said, “Had you forgotten, little demigod, that you gave Nico power over water as well?”
I could feel my heart sink even as I tried to concentrate on keeping the Titan from overpowering me as he put more weight on his blade. I managed to slide my sword away from the scythe and duck underneath the blade as it swung downward, bringing Hades’ sword around in an upward swing only to have it blocked again by Kronos’ scythe at the last second. Worst of all, he twisted his blade until I was looking up at him again, forced to stare into Nico’s face just on the other side of our struggling weapons.
I kept moving, twisting around in an attempt to land a blow, but he parried my every move. Kronos chose his vessels wisely, I had to give him that. Luke had been an expert swordsman, and even with Kronos in the driver’s seat the muscle memory had still been there. Nico might not have had time to get as good as Luke, but hadn’t been a slacker, either. Growing up in the blink of an eye had made him stronger than even me, and the Titan’s senses were more acute than a human’s could ever hope to be.
About twenty seconds into the fight, I knew I was going to lose. Don’t ask how, but it’s just something you learn when you learn swordfighting like I have. It’s not like it is in the movies at all - you only have to trade a few blows at most before you know whether you’re going to come out on top or not.
And I knew that this time I wasn’t. I was fighting with an unfamiliar weapon, bigger and much heavier than the one I was used to. I could feel the key almost humming in my hands, still burning coldly through the skin of my palms and sucking more heat from my body with every passing second. I was beginning to really believe what Hades had said about this sword killing me. It was like I could feel it draining my life away, and it wasn’t even going to do any good in the end.
But that wasn’t good enough for me, and it wasn’t good enough for Nico. I was running out of ideas, and it was clear that my swordsmanship was not going to be enough on its own. In a last-ditch effort to gain the upper hand, I reached back mentally towards the crevice where Kronos had drained the water from my earlier attempt to distract him. I could still feel it, pooling far below us. I called upon it again, flinging it upward and over me in an arc that crashed down onto the figure in front of me.
This time it worked - the wave of water hit Kronos square in the chest just as he went for a downward swing with his scythe, and he went skidding backwards a few feet before he flung out an arm to divert the flow of water. But his scythe was now in the wrong position to block as I closed the distance between us and brought the black sword up above my head to land the killing blow -
As I moved to strike I looked down and I saw his face. And for a second, in the shadow of the water as it crashed around us, I couldn’t tell if his eyes were gold or brown.
I only lost my resolve for a fraction of an instant, maybe less. But it was enough. My arms buckled in mid-swing, and the sword faltered in my hands. When Kronos brought his scythe up this time to block the blow, the force of the impact sent Hades’ sword flying out of my hands. It skidded across the marble floor and into the shadows behind what looked like the remains of a giant deep-sea fisherman’s chair.
I was thrown off balance, the world tipping crazily until I was lying stunned on the ground, the breath knocked out of me. I felt one steel-toed boot plant itself in the middle of my chest, and when I looked up Nico was looking down at me.
But it wasn’t Nico. It was Kronos. His eyes were gold, and his mouth was stretched into a satisfied grin as he leaned down, putting more weight on my chest until I thought he was going to break my ribs. He peered into my face, bringing his scythe around so that the flat of the blade just touched the skin of my neck.
I’d failed. All I could think, looking up at his face, was that maybe I never could have done it in the first place. Maybe killing Kronos while there was still some sliver of Nico left inside of him was a line I just couldn’t cross. I’d failed Hades, and I’d failed Nico too, but a tiny part of me thought that even if he was trapped forever, at least now Nico would still be alive.
Except so was I. And that was a little confusing. Sure, he was gloating, but Kronos wasn’t stupid. And he’d told me himself that he didn’t give second chances. So why hadn’t he killed me yet?
“What are you waiting for?” I asked, still trying to catch my breath even though I knew it didn’t really matter. I probably shouldn’t have tried to provoke him. But waiting to die was far worse than actually dying, and I actually had the experience to compare it with. Right now, staring up into Nico’s face with someone other than Nico looking out at me from behind it, I was starting to want to die. I’d failed Nico so completely that there was no way I could have lived with myself knowing I’d lost the chance to get him back. I thought back to all those times when I’d been so sick and tired of fighting that I’d just wanted to lie down and sleep forever. Maybe now I would get my wish. Hades certainly wouldn’t make an exception for me a second time. “Do it.”
But “Oh, no,” Kronos said, and he leaned down closer until our noses were almost touching. “Death would be such an easy way out. Believe me,” he said, smiling a smile that was really more of a leer, “I know. Do you think I couldn’t hear Luke screaming for an end to it all? Do you think I can’t hear Nico screaming, now?” He shook his head, bearing down on me and the scythe slid against my neck but never broke the skin. “Oh, no. You will not get death, little would-be hero. Instead, I will take it from you. And you will see what hell is really like.”