the great wave | percy jackson

𝑥𝑥𝑖𝑖𝑖 - asphodel

Later on, Ash would pretend not to remember what happened. She must have blacked out, had a moment, been possessed by an eidolon, something along those lines, and she was so very sorry. In reality Ash recalled every second of what happened after the fall in vivid detail, and had been completely in control of her faculties to boot. Truth be told, she'd just simply lost her mind.

At first she didn't notice. There were so many things going on at once and her brain had about fifteen different thought processes tracking each one. About 50% of that was going to hand-eye coordination too, making sure her knots were secure and grabbing the ends of ropes as they fell. Then there were so many cobwebs around, oh man, I mean she was no Athena kid but honestly this was egregious. Had to be a health hazard. She shuddered to think how many spiders might really be hiding in those musty white strands.

Her and Jason worked quickly and efficiently to follow Leo's directions, securing the lines then getting the Athena Parthenos tilted so they could start pushing it onto the ship. The bay doors opened and they had just managed to wedge the bulk of it in when everything simply went to shit. She'd been getting this bad, bad feeling, and there seemed to be a lot more yelling going on than there should be, so when they clambered out of the stables to help Frank the elephant push the pedestal Ash finally took a look over to see how Percy, Annabeth, and Hazel were doing.

She expected to see them already on their way up to the ship. She expected to see Percy leading the girls up first, Nico (who she'd previously deposited on deck) helping Hazel up while she in turn gave Annabeth a hand, and her boyfriend insisting on doing it himself because he was stubborn like that. But what she saw instead was her little siblings off the ship entirely, with Percy and Annabeth nowhere in sight.

Instantly Ash shot up high on her wings, because there was really only one other place they could go, and was met by the awful, soul-crushing sight of two of the dearest people in her life falling into literal hell. There were no words for this level of taken by surprise; while the realization crept up on those below slowly before attacking, for the heroes in the sky reality hit all at once like a runaway train. The scream that ripped from Ash's lips was earth-shaking. No really: powers spiraling out of control as every survival instinct in her body took over. Rock crumbled from the walls, mirroring her trajectory as she immediately plunged towards the chasm, she knew she never should have left them alone, but then something hard slammed into her from the side. A blur of purple sweater, muscular arms wrapping tightly around her, and Ash felt blasts of wind start to push and pull at her wings, disrupting her flight path.

"NO!" she shrieked, kicking and thrashing in Jason's hold. They wrestled high in the air, his environmental control clashing badly with her raw strength to send them hurtling in every direction. The two of them had practiced for aerial combat in the 6 months since their quest, Jason being the only other person at camp who could fly. But never against each other like this, locked in an all-out brawl. Usually their training consisted of running forms and midair tag. Now Jason was trying to get Ash into a full-body wrestler's hold while she ripped out at him with every single limb possible, throwing her elbows into his chest, biting and scratching at his arms.

The only thing on the girl's mind right now was throwing herself into that pit. She could feel its gravity pulling at their feet, but the power of the god of the sky was too much even for all the Underworld's desire. She needed to get to them, quick–didn't he understand the longer they waited the harder it would be to pull them back up?

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!?" Ash screamed in Jason's ear. "LET ME GO!"

The only form of response she got was a painful urgh, probably because she'd just kicked him in the nards. A powerful air current surged up from below, vaulting them all the way out of the cavern and into the sky above the parking lot. This elicited a lot of screaming from the mortals gathering around the surrounding block. Who knows what the crowd saw as the two traded blows, but immediately they started falling again. Jason grit his teeth and body-slammed Ash at an angle to force them onto the Argo II.