╔═══════════════╗

chapter forty-three
( the last olympian )
❝ where hope survives!❞

╚═══════════════╝

     Clarisse cradled Silena's head in her lap. I've never seen the daughter of Ares cry before, in all the time I've known her. I've seen her scared, I've seen her furious, but never have I seen her in such misery that she sobbed over the burnt and dying face of her best friend. "What were you thinking?" she whimpered.

    Silena tried to swallow; her lips were dried and cracked. "Wouldn't ... listen," she managed. "Cabin would ... only follow you."

    "So you stole my armour," Clarisse held her closer. "You waited until Chris and I went out on patrol, you stole my armour and pretended to be me," she glared at her siblings. "And none of you noticed?!"

    The Ares campers all looked to their feet. I heard a few sniffles amongst them. Silena shook her head, wincing. "Don't ... don't blame them," she whispered, and Clarisse turned back to her. "They wanted to ... to believe I was you."

    "You stupid Aphrodite girl!" Clarisse sobbed. "You charged a drakon? Why?!"

    "All my fault," a tear fell down the side of Silena's face. "The drakon, Charlie's death ... camp endangered━"

   "Stop it!" Clarisse cried. "That's not true."

    Silena opened her hand. In her palm was a silver bracelet with a scythe charm━the mark of Kronos.

    It was like a blast of chilling cold water hit my face, and my breath hitched. Sharing a glance with Percy and Annabeth, I knew they were thinking the same thing; feeling the same surprise, shock ... and realisation that it did make sense, deep down.

    "You were the spy," Percy breathed.

    Silena tried to nod. "Before━before I liked Charlie, Luke was nice to me. He was so━charming. Handsome. Later, I wanted to stop helping him, but he threatened to tell. He promised ... he promised I was saving lives. Fewer people would get hurt. He told me he wouldn't hurt━Charlie. He lied to me."

    Something rose in my chest. I don't really know what it was. It was more than anger and betrayal━I've felt that. This was something else. Something worse and more powerful. Far more. It made me grit my teeth and clench my hands into tight fists. Luke had manipulated her━he did this. I don't know why, considering I knew this all along, but seeing Silena die in front of me, hearing what Luke had done ... not Kronos; Luke ... there was no grief, no guilt on being taken-aback by his actions yet again, there was just fury━white-hot, boiling fury.

    Behind us, the battle raged. Clarisse scowled at her cabin mates. "Go, help the centaurs. Protect the doors. Go!"

    They scrambled off to join the fight, leaving only a few of us with Silena. She took a heavy, painful breath. "Forgive me."

    "You're not dying," Clarisse insisted.

    "Charlie ..." Silena's eyes were a million miles away, drifting along a stream we couldn't see. "See Charlie ..."

    And she didn't speak again.

    Clarisse broke; she held her best friend close and wept━wails of agony. Chris put a hand on her shoulder, but it did nothing to ease the pain. I knew that pain. There was no way to ease it, even years after. You just ... you just get used to it. It becomes normal.

    Finally, Annabeth closed Silena's eyes. "We have to fight," her voice was brittle. "She gave her life to help us. We have to honour her."

    Clarisse sniffled and wiped her nose. "She was a hero, understand? A hero."

    Percy nodded. "Come on, Clarisse."

    She picked up a sword from one of her fallen siblings. "Kronos is going to pay."

° ° °

    Clarisse was a force to be reckoned with. It didn't matter she had no armour, nor her spear━she may as well have single handedly driven the enemy away from the Empire State Building, riding her chariot straight into the Titans' army and crushed everything in her path. Her furious anger brought new hope amongst the troops, inspiring the panicked centaurs to start to rally. The Hunters scrounged arrows from the fallen and launched volleys into the enemy ranks. The Ares cabin followed their counsellor into battle with mighty roars, ready to avenge the death of Silena Beauregard. The monsters began to retreat towards Thirty-fifth Street.

    At the tail of Clarisse's chariot, slid along the carcass of the drakon━a message to all of her foes to say, you dare test me? I killed your prized weapon. As she rode, an aura of red fire surrounded her skin, flickering with the same menace and anger that lurked around her father.

    "The Blessing of Ares," Thalia breathed. "I've never seen it in person before..."

    For the moment, Clarisse was invincible━arrows and spears flew past her, changing course of direction like an invisible string yanked them away from her body. "I AM CLARISSE, DRAKON-SLAYER!" she yelled. "I will kill you all! Where is Kronos? BRING HIM OUT! IS HE A COWARD?!"

    "Clarisse!" yelled Percy. "Stop it. Withdraw!"

    "What's the matter, Titan Lord!" she cried. "BRING IT ON!"

    There was no answer from the enemy line. Instead, slowly, they began to fall back behind a dracaenae shield wall, while Clarisse drove in circles around Fifth Avenue, daring anyone to cross her path and meet the wrath of her grief. The fifty-metre-long drakon carcass scratching along the pavement behind her, like knives.

    Meanwhile, I gathered as many of my siblings as I could to tend the wounded, bringing them inside the lobby and getting them ready to head up to the set-up we had on Olympus. I realised I still hadn't told Percy about Cain, and I was itching to go up and check on him myself; see how he was going. I knew it wouldn't be good. I knew what state he would be in. I just hoped he was fighting it. He had to.

    As I pulled the sheet over a dead son of Demeter, muttering a quick, sombre prayer to my father and then to Hades for hope of Elysium for him, a hand rested on my shoulder.

    Percy knelt down next to him, and placed a hand on the sheet-covered forehead. Outside, I could still hear Clarisse raging to an army that had long retreated from sight. "You okay?" he asked me.

    I nodded, sighing and sitting back. "I don't think it's all fully hit me ... you know ... how much we've lost ... I feel like I haven't even had a moment alone to grieve for Michael ..." his name caught in my throat, and so I took a deep breath and swallowed it down. I sent a sad smile to Percy. "I actually showed him around Camp. He was as much of a nitwit back then as he was before ... well, you know..." my gaze fell to my fingers, "I wish I had been kinder to him ..."

    Percy pursed his lips. He stood up and held out a hand for me to take. He pulled me up with my good arm. "I'm sorry," he told me. "I should have been more careful on the bridge━"

    "It's not your fault," I told him. "Don't blame yourself for it, Perc..."

    He nodded grimly. "I ... uh ..." he hadn't let go of my hand. I don't think I wanted him to. "I heard about Cain, is ... is he going to be okay?"

    "He lost his arm," I murmured. "But he's going to live, thank the gods."

    "No," Percy shook his head. "Thank Annabeth."

    "Yeah," I let out a light scoff in my disbelief. "Thank Annabeth━all of those monsters she fought by herself to get him back here... she saved his life."

    "Where is she anyway?" he then asked. "Thalia wants us up on Olympus━to set up the final defence."

    It felt like we were losing, and I couldn't bear that thought. We can't lose. "I think she's this way..."

    We started towards the elevators, searching for Annabeth amongst the campers helping the wounded. Finding her bandaging a Hermes' campers leg, we went to grab her attention, but Connor and Travis Stoll stopped us.

    "Is it true?" asked Connor. "About Silena?"

    Percy and I shared a solemn glance. "She died a hero," said the son of Poseidon.

    Travis shifted uncomfortably. "Um, I also heard━"

    "That's it," Percy insisted, his voice turning sharp. "End of story."

   "Right," mumbled Travis. "Listen, we figure the Titans' army will have trouble getting up the elevator. They'll have to go up a few at a time. And the giants won't be able to fit at all."

    "That's our biggest advantage," Percy agreed. "Any way to disable the elevator?"

    "It's magic," Travis shook his head. "Usually you need a key card, but the doorman vanished. That means the defences are crumbling. Anyone can walk into the elevator now and head straight up."

    "Then we have to keep them away from the doors," I said, "bottle them up in the lobby."

    "We need reinforcements," Travis frowned. "They'll just keep coming. Eventually, they'll overwhelm us."

    "There are no reinforcements," Connor complained.

    Percy narrowed his eyes in thought. Glancing back outside, his gaze landed on Mrs O'Leary, who was breathing against the glass doors and smearing them with hellhound drool. "Maybe that's not true," he murmured. Turning back to me, he squeezed my hand. "Get Annabeth, I'll meet you guys back here."

    I watched him walk outside and place a hand on Mrs O'Leary's muzzle. Leaning in, he whispered something into her ear, and like that, she bounded off and disappeared into a column of shadows.

    I told Annabeth we were wanted up on the final defence line, and she pursed her lips, but stood up. She looked tired; but we all were, with blood and dust mixed in her tangled curls and bruises and cuts littering her cheeks and arms. Percy met up with us━the only one who had no scratch, no mark on him at all. We shared a nod, and started back to the elevator, until we spotted Grover kneeling over a fat wounded satyr.

    I recognised that fat old satyr anywhere.

    "Leneus!" Percy exclaimed, and we scrambled over.

    The cranky old satyr looked terrible. His lips were blue, his face was pale and his eyes kept glancing down at the broken spear in his belly; his goat legs were twisted at a painful angle. He tried to focus on us, but I don't think he could see us at all.

    "Grover?" he murmured.

    "I'm here, Leneius," Grover was blinking back tears, despite every horrible thing Leneus has said and done to him. I placed a hand on his shoulder; there will never be a person kinder than Grover.

    "Did━did we win?"

    "Um ... yes," Grover lied. "Thanks to you, Leneus. We drove the enemy away."

    "Told you," the old satyr mumbled. "True leader. True ..." his head fell to the side, and he lied still.

   Grover gulped. Placing his hand on Leneus's forhead, he whispered an ancient blessing to the Wild━the old satyr's body melted until all that was left was a single, tiny sapling in a pile of fresh soil.

   "A laurel," breathed Grover in a glum awe. "Oh, that lucky old goat." He gathered up the laurel in his hands, "I━I should plant him. In Olympus, in the gardens."

    "We're going that way," said Percy. "Come on."

    The four of us slipped into the elevator, and despite the war around us, easy-listening music played as the lift rose high up towards the skyline where Olympus stood over New York City.

    "Percy," muttered Annabeth, so quietly it was hard to hear her. It was the first time she had spoken since Silena's death. "You were right about Luke." She kept her eyes fixed on the elevator floors as they blinked into the magical numbers.

    Grover and Percy exchanged glances. Their gazes then landed on mine, and I pursed my lips. Taking her hand, I said, "Annie━"

    "You tried to tell me," her voice was shaky. "Luke is no good. I didn't believe you until━until I heard how he'd used Silena. Now I know. I hope you're happy."

    Percy's shoulders fell. "Annabeth," he murmured. "That doesn't make me happy."

    She just put her head against the elevator wall and wouldn't look at us. She pulled her hand away, and I knew she wanted to be alone. I stepped back next to Percy, so close our shoulders touched.

    Grover cradled his laurel sapling in his hands, looking between us all awkwardly. "Well ... sure good to be together again. Arguing. Almost dying. Abject terror. Oh, look! It's our floor."

° ° °

    Before stepping up the mighty stairs towards the vast Throne Room in the middle of Olympus, we took a left and shuffled through the grass that was yellow and parched instead of its normal lucious green. Percy wanted to see Cain━we all did. With everything that has just happened, I think we all needed hope that someone was going to make it out. Bloody and bruised, and forever changed ... but alive. 

    As soon as we stepped through the tent entrance, Hannah gasped and rushed over. She pulled me into a tight hug that felt like it was crushing my bones, but I held on, glad to feel a sense of peace and home. Pulling away, I frowned at the stretcher where Cain was still passed out. The bandage at the stump of his shoulder was no longer bleeding, but it still screamed in realisation of the scar it had left behind.

    Percy stepped forward to his friend. They had always had a rocky relationship, but recently after travelling through the Labyrinth together, they had gained a close bond that had surprised all of us. I saw the fall of his face, the pain━he blamed himself; like he always did.

    He knelt down next to the stretcher. Not looking back, Percy took a deep breath and said with a hoarse voice, "He'll be okay." It wasn't a question, it was a statement━something he wanted to manifest into truth. 

    Annabeth set her jaw. Grover held the laurel sapling closer to his chest. Hannah's hand squeezed my good shoulder as we all watched Percy clench his fists and stand back up again. "Come on," he told us, and led the way out of the tent and back towards the throne room.

    I met Hannah's gaze and whispered, "I'll be back," before following with the others. 

    We walked up towards the palace. That was where Kronos would head━as soon as he made it up the elevator to destroy the throne room, the centre of the gods' power in the Western World. The bronze doors creaked open, and our footsteps echoed on the marble floor. The hearth in the centre of the mighty throne room was down to a dull orange glow. Hestia sat beside it in the form on a little girl in brown, ragged robes, hunched and shivering. Her power was fading with it.

    The thrones stood above us, looming; but instead of mighty symbols of power, they felt more like abandoned shadows. Standing at the foot of Zeus's throne, looking up at the stars, was Rachel Elizabeth Dare. She was holding a Greek ceramic vase━Pandora's Box.

    I met Percy's gaze, alarmed. He turned to his friend, "Rachel?" he asked, taking a hesitant step forward. "Um, what are you doing with that?"

    She focused on him as if just wakin from a long slumber. "I found it. It's Pandora's jar, isn't it?"

    Her eyes were bright, and with a strangled gasp, I was hit with a memory. Stepping back next to Annabeth, I knew she saw the same thing. It was the same glassy look in her eyes that Luke's mother held. I may have been young, but I remember━and I'll continue to remember━that look. 

    Percy held out a hesitant hand. "Please put down the jar," he told her.

    "I can see Hope inside it," Rachel ignored him, running her fingers over the intricate designs in the ceramic. "So fragile."

    "Rachel."

    She was snapped back to reality. Holding out the jar, Percy took it with a trembling breath. He looked back at us, and I realised he wanted to be alone. For once, I felt no jealousy━I think after everything that has happened; all the death, all the pain and destruction, jealousy seemed so low, so petty, so small in the huge picture that surrounded us; the war.

    "Grover, Annabeth," I mumbled. "Let's scout around the palace. Maybe we can find some extra Greek fire, arrows, or Hephaestus traps."

    Annabeth nodded, getting the message, but Grover was still behind. He frowned, "But━"

   Annabeth elbowed him.

    "Right!" he yelped. "I love traps!"

    I sighed, and dragged him out of the throne room. 

    We didn't find much, but at this point, anything was usefull in the upcoming battle; and perhaps the final battle, no matter which way it turns. A final choice ends his days; Olympus to preserve, or raze ... for the first time in a while, I thought about the dream in which my father warned me: Percy is not the hero of the prophecy. I still didn't know what that meant, even now. But I wondered whether I will find out soon, as his final choice comes up ... the end of his days━I didn't want to think that this would be it, that I'll lose him. I've lost nearly everyone ... and I could lose him. After everything we've been through, Percy had become such a hold onto my life that maybe it was bad, maybe it will be our fatal flaw, but even if that was true, it didn't change how much he meant to me; how much I need him by my side. Not because of how we felt about each other, but because, underneath all of that, he was my best friend, just like Annabeth, just like Grover, and just like Cain━in fact, I couldn't live without any of them. 

    If this was it. If this was the final battle; the end ... I was glad that I at least had them by my side, even if one was decommissioned in the infirmary━he was with us, giving us strength and determination. We were a team. I had thought all hope was lost, but instead, hope survived━in ourselves, in our hearts, in the relationship of a team, of friendship.

    We returned to the throne room. Percy stood there, staring at us with a strange look upon his face and Pandora's Box still in his hold. I frowned, concerned. "Percy?" he blinked, meeting my gaze. "Should we━uh━leave again?"

    He snapped out of whatever trance he had been in, and I saw a flicker of an idea cross his face. He turned back to Rachel. "You're not going ot do anything stupid, are you? I mean ... you talked to Chiron, right?"

    Rachel managed a faint smile. "You're worried about me doing something stupid?"

    (Well...).

    "But I mean━will you be okay?"

    "I don't know," she admitted. "That kind of depends on whether you save the world, hero."

    Percy glanced back down at Pandora's Jar, and set his jaw. "Hestia," he said. "I give this to you as an offering."

    The goddess still shivering by the Hearth tilted her head. "I am the least of the gods. Why would you trust me with this?"

    "You're the last Olympian," he said. "And the most important."

    "And why is that Percy Jackson?"

    "Because Hope survives best at the Hearth," he said. "Guard it for me, and I won't be tempted to give up again."

    The goddess smiled, and her figure flickered brighter. For a moment, warmth rushed over me as she took the jar in her hands, and I felt a breath of peace and determination. "Well done, Percy Jackson," she said. "May the gods bless you."

    "We're about to find out," Percy looked at Annabeth, Grover and I. "Come on, guys."

    And he marched towards his father's throne.

    I shared confused glances with Annabeth and Grover, but we followed, walking across the marble and to the seat of Poseidon. It stood just to the right of Zeus's, not as grand, but still gleaming as if knowing Percy stood at it's feet. His son glared up at it with a tense stubborness.

    "Help me up," he told us.

    Annabeth blinked, "Are you crazy?"

    "Probably."

    "Uh, no, most definitely," I said. 

    "Percy," Grover shuffled his hooves nervously, "the gods really don't appreciate people sitting in their thrones. I mean━like━turn you into a pile of ashes don't appreciate it."

    "I need to get his attention," Percy said. "It's the only way."

    I played with my necklace, "Well ..." I pursed my lips, watching him with a churn of worry. Was this the decision? "This'll get his attention, all right."

    Linking our arms together, we boosted Percy up off the ground. He climbed onto his father's seat, and I felt a rumble echo across the throne room. We stepped back, and Percy gritted his teeth. The rumble grew louder, and he started to smoke. I gasped, and went to get him down, but Annabeth stopped me. "Look," she pointed, and the smoke coming off his clothes seemed to falter.

    Percy straightened up, hearing something we couldn't. "I'm sorry, Father," he then said. "I needed to get your attention." There was a pause in which his father replied. "I'm sorry," he said again. "Listen, things are rough up here." Percy explained their sitation at hand, and then told him the plan, and I tensed up when it included me. He briefly met my glance as if to say, I know, but you can do this. "Dad," he returned his focus back to his father, "Kronos sent an army against you on purpose. He wants to divide you from the other gods because he knows you with Claire's help could tip the scales. You can make sure the other gods realise they need Claire to win." He gritted his teeth in annoyance. "I'm at your hope. Olympus." 

    The floor shook, and Annabeth, Grover and I all stumbled. Holding onto each other, we managed to stay on our feet. It subsided, but the rumble had returned, and Percy was back to smoking. I don't think he even realised as he asked, "Is Tyson okay?" he frowned at his father's repsonse. "You let him fight?" another pause. "And Olympus might be saved. Dad━" the rumble grew. "I am praying! I'm talking to you, right?"

    It was strange to hear one side of this conversation, but it seemed to be finished. Percy jumped off the throne, frowning as we studied him nervously. "What?"

    "Are you okay?" Grover asked. "You turned pale ... and you started smoking."

    For some reason, Percy was offended by this, "Uh━I did not!" but the he looked at his arms, and saw the seam curling off his shirtsleeves and the singed hair on his arms.

    "If you had sat on there any longer," said Annabeth, "you would've spontaneously combusted. I hope the conversation was worth it?"

    Percy met my gaze, and we shared a silent moment of, this will work; you can do this. This was what you were destined to do. Then, he pursed his lips, "We'll find out soon. Claire━"

    He was cut off when the doors of the throne room swung open. Thalia marched in. Her bow was snapped in half and her quiver was empty. "You've got to get down there," she told us. "The enemy is advancing. And Kronos is leading them."

° ° °

    a/n: we're getting close to the end of this book, this first series. excuse me for a moment, i'm emotional. I started this series back in 2017 ... and now it's 2021. my writing, my ability, my plot and my characters have grown just as I have grown, and that's why this series has and will continue to hold a special place in my heart.