✞

(Y/N) was immediately sent to the infirmary once we got back. She wasn't breathing, and it looked like she'd had some sort of seizure.

Percy glowered, cracking his knuckles one by one. It was like Hades had punched a massive hole in his chest. It was only his second quest, and he'd been forced to watch a friend almost die, and it settled like poison in his stomach.

Percy had tried to get information about her status from Chiron, but he was the master of avoiding bad questions. Which inadvertently made Percy feel even worse and answered his problems all the same.

What was even worse is that they refused to let him see her.

Annabeth along with a bunch of Apollo kids were working all hours of the day keeping her alive.

Every time Annabeth walked out of the infirmary she looked tired and had puffy eyes. He knew she'd been crying but he didn't press anything. Sometimes he'd hear her screaming at night, and the sound haunted him. Other times Will Solace would stumble out of the infirmary, his hands slick with blood.

It was strange that camp was acting so normal in complete and utter crisis.

Despite (Y/N)'s injuries, the camp seemed relatively normal.

Percy assumed it was because plenty of demigods came back from quests half-dead. He just wasn't used to it, and he didn't think he'd ever be.

Just thinking about it made something inside the son of Poseidon grimace and his heart lurch.

(Y/N) wasn't a demigod and she'd been attacked by Hades, the god of the Underworld. That was the problem and Percy through that surely that would raise some eyebrows.

He walked the camp forest the first day he got back, filled with too much turmoil to function. He had so many thoughts racing inside him. (Y/N) was the main problem; her status in the infirmary that everyone seemed to be avoiding, which made his heart thump wildly in his chest. The kiss they shared on the bus, and what that even meant anymore. And how weird she'd been acting in the Underworld.

Percy was more than impressed by (Y/N) and he couldn't help the small smile that spread across his face. For someone with little to no combat experience, she held her ground very well.

When Percy came back from his walk, he saw Annabeth from across the garden walking to her cabin. She had a gloomy look on her face, and her grey eyes were bloodshot.

Annabeth caught his stare, and her lips thinned into a weak smile as she shot him a small wave. She then walked into her cabin and slammed the door without a second thought.

Percy was confused and worried all the same for Annabeth, but pushing her for questions usually resulted in a screaming match, so he went back to his cabin and tried to sleep.

The next day Percy had to recount the quest in vivid detail to Chiron and Dionysus. Chiron was deeply disturbed by the events of the quest and they immediately started preparing for battle.

Apollo children on the volleyball courts were called. Ares kids in the battle arena were summoned. The Demeter and Dionysus kids were pulled from their harvest and strawberry field duties. The Hephaestus kids were distracted from their workshops and given strict orders to accelerate their pace on magic swords, axes, arrows, bows and armour.

Once the news was out about a skeleton army coming for Camp Half-Blood the normality that surrounded the demigods was turned to ruin.

The Demeter kids who were winding honeysuckle off their windows and polishing walls were running rapidly across the fields, announcing the news to dryads, nymphs and naiads.

Percy was just walking down the steps of the Big House when he got tackled into a hug by Grover.

Grover's skin was pale and he had bags under his eyes.

"Hey, Percy," he mumbled.

Percy greeted him with a weak smile.

"I'm sorry Perce, I just thought it'd be better if we didn't tell you about (Y/N),"

Grover had this annoying habit of reading the son of Poseidon like a book. Percy's cheeks flushed angrily and he tried to simmer down his uncoiling rage. He knew it was wrong to take out how he was feeling on any of his friends, but he couldn't help but resent Grover for his silence.

"Why?" Percy managed to get out and the Satyr looked nervous by his response, his hooves clopped slightly on the wooden floor and his hands ran across his chin and frayed the small hairs on his skin.

"Chiron thought it would distract you. You're our strongest fighter, we need you for this battle, " The answer made him even angrier, but it made sense.

If (Y/N) was in that bad of a condition, he doubted he would be even able to hold a sword.

But if they fought off Hades and his army, [an impossible feat] then would the God break his hex on (Y/N)?

Percy was filled with dread and hope. A strange combination.

"It's alright Grover. I understand..." Percy whispered, scared his voice would break.

The Satyr looked down at the floor and whimpered.

The group of Ares kids rushed past, screaming at other kids to get into formation. Apollos children scouted the perimeter, getting into armour, changing their boots and collecting quivers.

Athena's children joined Chiron in coming up with a battle strategy. It was mainly with the Ares and Hermes kids because they were the biggest of the cabins.

Silena Beauregard dropped the checkboard she was holding as someone walked past and whispered to her, then she darted in the other direction.

"Percy, about (Y/N)'s prophecy," Grover announced.

Percy's sea-green eyes snapped up and he stared.

He hadn't thought about it until now but what would happen with (Y/N)'s prophecy when she was on the brink of death?

"You shall travel the land to unravel the truth," Grover recalled.

What truth had (Y/N) uncovered? Percy was with her every step of the way and she didn't hint that she had found out anything.

"Going to the Underworld and finding out about Hades plan to take over the world?" Percy said, his voice barely a whisper.

"To the world of curses, you must find proof," Grover said the second line and Percy chewed his lip.

What proof? What did Hades say? What was Percy missing? He'd been on a quest before, and things by the end of it seemed to make a lot more sense. But it felt like they hadn't even gone on the quest yet, and there were so many holes in the story.

"With the essence of time whispering in your ear," Percy murmured.

"Would..." Grover paled. "When we were in the Underworld, and (Y/N) froze up,"

Something in Percy's brain clicked. "We were next to Tartarus..."

"You don't think..."

"Kronos has been talking to her, messing with her head?"

"That makes the most sense..." Grover muttered.

"What was the next line?"

"—Comrades will battle in arms on the foreboding bier," another voice spoke up.

Percy glanced up and saw that Annabeth was walking up towards the veranda. Her eyes were dull and throbbed in glacial colours.

"Her prophecy doesn't make any sense Annabeth," Grover whined, rubbing the fur on his arms.

"Well actually, for the most part, it does," Annabeth responded, tucking a damp ringlet of her hair behind her ear.

"Huh?"

She smiled weakly. "When we were fighting Hades, he talked about Hestia...saving? Or maybe, recusing (Y/N) when she was an infant. Hades said that he raised (Y/N), and how could that be true, and why wouldn't she remember it?"

The silence that followed her discourse was deafening.

"That was the truth she was seeking, and in turn became the proof of her existence as the chosen one,"

"It sounds like you've been thinking about it a lot, Annabeth," Percy quipped, his voice coming out a little more harsh than he had intended.

"Well, it's because I realised what the second last line meant," Annabeth mumbled, tugging on her orange tee-shirt."

"Life and death balance on a rift," Grover recalled, his face falling.

Life and death balancing. Was the prophecy saying that (Y/N) would...die?

Something in Percy's stomach dropped, and his eyes fell to the floor.

"And then there's, 'For your powers stay adrift,'" Annabeth added, her face scrunched up.

Apparently Annabeth could sense his discomfort, because she leant forward and put a hand on his shoulder.

Annabeth cleared her throat. "I honestly don't know what's going to happen with (Y/N)'s prophecy. Nothing like this has ever happened befo—"

A massive explosion cut the daughter of Athena off. Something huge hit the magical barrier, hard and fast. Grover stumbled on his feet and face-planted into the grass. Percy swayed sideways into Annabeth's shoulder and sent her stumbling on her feet.

They all looked up, sounding out the screams of their friends. A massive winged beast was slamming its entire body weight into the barrier and it shimmered under contact.

Annabeth paled.

"POSITIONS EVERYONE!" Clarisse roared as she raised her spear off Beckendorf's anvil and sneered at the sky.

The ground trembled again as another winged beast came to greet his friend. They looked like giant bats but they had massive wingspans, long fury arms and mangled claws.

Not even Annabeth could name what they were.

One of them snarled, sinking its teeth into the barrier, its mouth couldn't cup around the sphere and its tongue prodded the wall, teeth scraping uselessly agaisnt its magical properties.

"ASSEMBLE!" Chiron shouted as he took off from Dionysus' side.

Percy knew that the God of wine had no equity to intervene with this attack. But it would've been nice to have a God on their side.

Annabeth spotted a strange-looking creature approaching from the fields and her eyes narrowed.

Demeter kids were running around handing people juice boxes with the Dionysus kids. Aphrodite children were correcting peoples armour straps, dabbing wet towels on peoples heads and straightening sword stances.

Annabeth's eyes widened as she recognised the hobbling creature in the distance. When it made it to the magical barrier it clumsily smacked a mutilated fist against the wall and was forced back a couple of metres from the kinetic energy.

Its neck snapped back in confusion, but shrugged it off and ploughed into the wall again. Repeating the process.

Further on in the distance, Annabeth spotted hundreds emerging from the bushes. There were so many of them that her heart almost stopped.

They didn't have enough campers to deal with that much poisons gas.

"Cerviels..." Annabeth breathed out.

Percy stared at her, the skeleton-like soldiers in the distance walked like were in dire need of a walking stick or a wheelchair. Their skin was chalky white but translucent, its texture was the consistency of badly manufactured paper.

"Their mindless spoils of war. Once you pierce their skin, they billow out poisonous gas," Annabeth said.

"This is bad," Grover said. "That'd wipe out all the nymphs and naiads within a second."

"There's so many of them." Percy murmured, staring at the zombie-like creatures bumping into the magic barriers.

It would have been funny to watch mindless corpses get flung across the forest floor, if not for the ceaseless screeching noises from the bats above.

A horde of Hellhounds came bounding across the plains, their fangs sharp and bared, eyes gleaming for blood and fur rippling with every paw that dashed across the grass.

Another massive bat came barrelling into the shield and the ground shook so fiercely kids lost their balance and started fumbling on their feet. Sword clattered, screams echoed when the magical barrier shattered, glimmering like a fading star, disintegrating into the sky.

And then all Hades broke loose.

✞