Chapter 11 - The Battle of the Dead
published: Wednesday, 5 February 2019

Percy's eyes widened as he saw the first creature.

It was Luke. Luke Castellan.

The blonde hair, the scar, the same crooked smirk. It was unmistakeable him.

"How?" Percy whispered.

Annabeth had nearly dropped her dagger in shock, and she was frozen in place.

More gasps and shouts erupted from his friends as the other creatures started to growl and start forward.

Percy recognised some faces.

One was Sammy Valdez – Hazel's old sweetheart and Leo's greatgrand-father. But his eyes swirled with green and his mouth was twisted into an unnatural sneer.

Another was a familiar face Percy recognised from pictures in Piper's room – Tristan McLean, the famous actor and her father.

"You can fight, young demigods," Apate's voice reverberated deafeningly. "But can you fight them?"

Percy's gaze finally landed on the person in front of him. The dark skin and hair were all too familiar. It made him go ashen.

"Percy," Charles Beckendorf sneered. He drew two massive bronze swords. "Ready to die?"

The seven zombies charged at once, howling and screaming battle cries. They smashed into the demigods with full strength, into people who had never in their worst nightmares ever thought of having to fight them.

Percy raised Riptide instinctively, keeping Beckendorf from slicing him into ribbons. He parried another strike and dodged the other sword.

Percy stumbled backwards. "Beckendorf–"

"Surprised to see me?" Beckendorf snarled. "After you left me for dead on that godforsaken cruise ship?"

Percy swallowed. He felt sick to the stomach. "Beckendorf, this isn't you–"

He was cut off as Beckendorf whirled around and slammed the flat of his blade into Percy's side, knocking him to the ground.

Percy gasped for breath as he scrambled backwards, narrowly missing Beckendorf's next attack. 

Beckendorf's eyes were churning with bright, green mist.

Percy glanced to his right, where Annabeth was busy fighting Luke. He whirled around like a madman, slashing, ducking and rolling before striking her again.

Annabeth was struggling to keep up, her eyes filled with horror as she was forced to fight the one person she had considered a brother.

"I won't fight you, Luke!" she sobbed as she deflected another blow.

It spurred Percy on and gave him strength to press on. He's already dead, Percy reminded himself bitterly.

He slashed Riptide across in a wide arc, forcing Beckendorf to defend as Percy ran forward and slashed at his knees.

Beckendorf howled at the cuts on his shins as he almost keeled over in agony.

Percy made to slam the hilt of his sword against Beckendorf's head, but Beckendorf parried the strike and sliced his swords at Percy.

They nicked his side, making Percy wince as he clutched his abdomen. The blood was soaking into his shirt and the cuts were throbbing badly.

Percy forced himself to regain his stance as Beckendorf cane flying at him again. He pushed him back with Riptide and kicked him in the stomach.

As Beckendorf attempted to raise his swords to strike again, Percy caught a small infraction in his form.

It was his only chance and he took it, immediately running Riptide through Beckendorf's gut, and yanking it out with a sickening squelch.

Beckendorf gurgled as he staggered backwards from the strength of the strike. His eyes seemed to flicker back from the wound in his stomach and back to Percy. His swords clattered to the ground as Beckendorf collapsed, his back hitting the floor with a sickening thump.

"Percy?" Beckendorf choked. His voice no longer sounded hollow, just cracked. The green mist in his eyes dispelled, and it was just a dying Beckendorf gasping in pain as he stared blindly into the sky.

Percy dropped Riptide and fell to his knees next to his old friend. "Beckendorf," Percy whispered, the realisation of his actions starting to creep up on him.

"Silena..." Beckendorf trailed off as he stared again at his wound. He fumbled for Percy's hand. "Percy, I-I'm dying..." His trembling voice suddenly went silent.

Beckendorf's eyes went glassy and his hand went slack as his chest ceased heaving and remained motionless. Unmoving.

Percy fell back into a sitting position in shock, panting heavily from the fight.

Beckendorf was dead again. And this time, no one could tell him it wasn't his fault.

Percy grasped Riptide by the hilt and closed his eyes. A tear traced its way down his face.

But he'd passed the test.

Then why did he feel so much regret?

^^^^^

"Mamá!" Leo cried as he dodged the second attack.

It was Esperanza Valdez, a knife in hand and a cruel expression as she ruthlessly pummelled Leo with kicks and slashes.

"Stop!" Leo shouted.

He stumbled back, almost caught on the edge of the blade.

"Fight me, Leo," she rasped. "Surely I did not raise you to be weak?"

Leo pulled out a hammer from his tool belt and blocked her next strike. "I won't fight you," he said tearily. "I won't."

He remembered his mother wrapping him in a loving embrace, kissing him on the head when he fell down the stairs, and the loving glow that seemed to follow her everywhere she went.

He wouldn't fight her.

His mother halted her attacks and growled, "Maybe a greater motivation would help."

She stepped away from Leo and started sprinting in another direction – towards Jason who was trying to remain alive whilst remaining defensive against his dead mother.

Jason had changed his coin into a spatha and was rapidly parrying and blocking strikes from his mother.

Leo recognised her only from Piper's description. It was a strange sight to see a tall, beautiful woman with blue doe-eyes and fluffy blonde hair wielding a huge sword in hot pink high heels. There was something about her that reminded Leo of Thalia.

A bead of perspiration rolled down Jason's brow as he blasted his mother off her feet with a small gust of wind. Leo guessed that Jason was exhausted from continuously using his powers and the constant battling.

Unfortunately, the day was far from over. Leo's mother took a flying leap, knives flashing as she flew through the air towards Jason's unprotected back.

"Jason!" Leo yelled in warning as he raced towards his best friend as quickly as he could.

Jason spun around and his eyes widened in alarm, but he flipped his spatha into a sword and promptly pushed Leo's mother back.

Leo slapped Beryl Grace's sword away with his hammer and poked her in the side with the handle.

Esperanza slashed at Jason – her two knives made better offense than Jason's sword. Jason dodged left and right, pushing away some strikes.

Leo summoned a palm of fire and through a fireball at Beryl Grace, making her dress erupt into flames. She stopped attacking to beat out the flames in panic.

Leo's mother's knives caught Jason's wrist, drawing blood and making him drop his sword with a yell of pain. She swept the flat of her knives along his shins, flooring him completely.

"Jason!" Leo shouted, hurrying towards his friend's aid.

Jason winced and pulled up a hand to cover his face as Esperanza brought down her knives on his face.

The blades never met their mark.

Quick as lightning, Leo's fireball ricocheted through the air and slammed into his mother with an explosion of light.

She was blown backwards and onto the ground, leaving Jason slightly seared and breathing heavily from his near brush with death.

Leo raced to his mother's side.

She was lying on the ground, her skin scorched and blistering as her clothes burned.

"Mijo," she whispered, pulling out a broken sob from Leo. Her previously green eyes had faded into their usual warm brown.

"Mamá," Leo choked out. "No."

She was dying by fire all over again. And this time, he had been the one to kill her.

His mother slowly raised a trembling hand towards his face. Her fingers just brushed his cheek before her arm fell to the ground with a thud, her eyelids fluttering close until she was completely still.

Leo stood up with a grave expression, sliding his hammer back into his tool bag. He blinked the tears from his eyes.

Jason couldn't look at her body. "I'm sorry."

Leo shook his head. "I couldn't let her kill you."

Jason clutched his sword tighter. He glanced towards where his mother had finally extinguished the flames on her dress and was starting to regain her stance.

She clutched her sword and growled at him.

Jason swallowed. He raised his sword, and with a clap of thunder, a bolt of lightning struck his mother's form.

Leo turned away as her sudden scream was cut off. He turned back nervously. All that remained of Beryl Grace was a charred spot on the ground.

"Quick and painless," Jason choked, his shaking voice breaking on the last word. His hand was trembling as he flipped his sword back into a coin.

Leo stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Jason, pulling him into a hug. Jason's cries were muffled against Leo's shoulder as they stood on the battlefield.

^^^^^

Annabeth spun around to block Luke's strike, before dodging the next one and parrying the third. Her vision was blurry from tears.

"Family," Luke snarled. "I promised, Annie, didn't I?"

He brought Backbiter down on her, making Annabeth wince in the effort of having to block it.

"Well, everyone breaks promises," Luke growled. "The world is a disappointing place. And look at you now; you have to kill me if you want your friends to live."

"I won't fight you," Annabeth said through gritted teeth as she tried the disarming technique.

Luke pulled his sword back and snickered. "I invented that technique; you think you can use it on me?"

Annabeth caught his next slash on the hilt of her dagger and slammed it back towards him.

"You won't fight me," Luke mused. "Will you?"

Annabeth ignored him. They were stuck in a dangerous dance of blades as her dagger and his sword clashed and twirled in the air.

Luke started moving more quickly. He clearly hadn't even been trying. Annabeth started to struggle to keep up with his strikes. She couldn't keep fighting defensively or she would lose.

Annabeth glanced sideways. All her friends were preoccupied.

Piper had already bested her father and was fighting alongside Frank against his grandmother. Piper's eyes were burning with tears, and Frank couldn't even bring himself to strike his grandmother.

Hazel was desperately trying to reason with Sammy, while Leo and Jason were fighting their mothers. Percy had sunk to his knees beside a broken body – Annabeth hadn't seen the face.

"None of them can kill me," Luke told her. "Only you can."

Annabeth clenched her fist. "I won't."

Luke smirked. "I know. That's the beauty of Apate and Dolos." His blue eyes swirled with whirlpools of green mist. "You can't beat them."

Annabeth landed a kick on Luke's arm, making him wince.

"You're better than you used to be," Luke told her. "It's too bad you won't live to see the rest of your friends die."

She didn't reply.

"Oh, and Thalia," Luke added. "Well, we have something special for her. How much you will squirm as you see her being struck again and again, until her skin breaks and her blood runs along the–"

"Shut up!" Annabeth yelled, slicing her knife across Luke's side.

Blood pooled from the cut and stained his shirt, but Luke's maniacal grin never faltered.

"And Piper. She's very pretty," Luke said. "Your new best friend, maybe? Maybe we'll kill her in front of you. And Jason, of course. He couldn't miss that."

Annabeth saw in her mind all the times he'd hurt her. The time he had released a scorpion on Percy, when he had nearly killed Thalia, when he had tricked Annabeth into taking the sky.

Her anger only grew as memories flashed past her brain.

"And Percy?" Luke said at last. "Good old Percy. He's always been there, hasn't he? And I know you're trying to pretend otherwise, but you care about him the most."

Annabeth gritted her teeth. "Luke, stop."

Luke ignored her. "He was always your great love, and he always will be. You can't let go of him even though he's hurt you even more than I have."

"I said, stop!"

"He'll be the last one to go," Luke sneered. "But you'll be alive, even though you'll wish you were dead."

Annabeth cried out as she slammed her dagger into Luke's lower abdomen.

His eyes widened as he looked down at the knife sticking grotesquely out of his body.

"You would..." Luke gasped. "...kill...me?"

Annabeth stared into his eyes in horror as blood started to stain his shirt. She hadn't meant to stab him. "Luke, no..."

She didn't see his hand lift his sword again.

Annabeth let out a blood-curdling scream of agony as Backbiter slashed across her stomach.

Luke's broken form fell to the ground as Annabeth staggered back, gasping for breath.

Everything was starting to spin around her, and her mind was starting to whirl. Finally, her eyelids fluttered shut and her body crumpled onto the dead grass.

Percy's head had snapped up in fear when her scream had sounded, and now he watched in horror as her broken figure collapsed to the ground.

He scrambled to his feet and ran towards her, sliding down to his knees by her side. Her chest was heaving rapidly, and the cut on her stomach extended across her abdomen.

"Percy!"

He turned around to see Frank shouting for him. Frank's eyes were red-rimmed as he and Piper clutched onto each other for dear life. Piper was sobbing into his shoulder, barely even able to stumble forward. Leo was helping Jason across the field towards them, both of them shocked to their cores. Hazel merely stood by Sammy's body, tears streaming down her face as she stared down at her dead friend.

"We-we have to go!" Piper cried. She gestured to the door.

"Annabeth's hurt!" Percy shouted back. "It's bad, I don't think I can move her!"

Piper looked like she was about to collapse. "Bring her! We have to!"

She and Frank started hobbling towards the door, which Hazel had already opened.

"Wait!" Percy's voice echoed around the plain. "Apate! Dolos! Your promise to Annabeth!"

There was a terrifying silence before Apate said, "Darkness trumps the light, heroes near their blight." She cackled again. "Enjoy, young demigods."

Percy recited the line in his mind like a mantra as he slid his arms under Annabeth and lifted her up. She was light as a feather, which was slightly worrying.

The demigods stumbled out of the door and up the steps, barely making it to the top in their tangled mess of tears, fear and shell-shock.

Along the stairs, Hazel grabbed Frank's hand. "Everyone, link up. I'm getting us out of here."

Trembling hands found each other and shaking fingers laced together.

Hazel squeezed her eyes shut.

She tried to push out the reminders of Sammy's agonising cries and his look of betrayal as the light in his eyes had died for a second time.

He was her first love.

She stepped into the Frank's shadow and the seven demigods disappeared through her sheer determination, reappearing on the deck of the Argo II.