To Hold Up the Sky (Percico/Pernico)

Chapter 27: Wisdom Gives The Quest A New Light

Prophecy:

There will be six at the beginning and at the end.

One will be enemy and one will be friend.

A choice be made; heart or mind.

The lover's ears be deaf and eyes be blind.

Misleading will he try to thee.

For much is the Pit God's unease.

For an ancient god will pave.

 

A looming final path: destroy or save.

Chapter:

Everyone looked at the oracle in shock. The joyous atmosphere of Percy's miraculous recovery deflated like a balloon, bringing a moody atmosphere among the seven. The light in their eyes seemed to dim as they looked at each other. One thought echoed between them: which one of us is going to perish forever?

"We should get moving." Annabeth said, breaking the heavy silence. She grabbed her bag that she had set down and hoisted it over her shoulders. Not looking at anyone, she started to walk, her eyes colder than ever.

Cheeks slightly red from crying in front of everyone, Nico helped Percy to his feet and grabbed his stuff as well as Percy's. He turned to the skeletons. "You're dismissed."

With scary grins on their faces, the army collapsed into a pleasant mountain of bones.

When everyone had their stuff together, they hurried after Annabeth, who was a little ways away. Huffing a little, Katie asked, "What did you do that for?"

Annabeth looked at Katie with annoyance on her face, making the daughter of Demeter gulp. "We need to complete this quest as soon as possible." With a sigh, she added, "I'm tired of waiting."

"O-Ok." Katie answered, not knowing what to say to that. She walked beside the blonde in silence, feeling down. Why did she have to be so mean?

Meanwhile, Percy supported a weak Nico, who was drained from the amount of energy he used to summon such a large army of the undead. His black eyes were dimmed, supported by bold eye shadows from his exhaustion. Percy watched Nico with a worried expression on his face, for the son of Hades looked like he was going to collapse any second.

"Percy." Nico croaked, tiredly looking up at him.

"Yes Neeks?" Percy asked, noting that Nico wouldn't be able to hurt him for calling him that in his current state. Hehe.

"Thanks." The younger demigod said, too tired to say anything more. Feeling his eyes dropping closed, he collapsed.

"Nico!" Percy yelled, surprised by his sudden fainting spell. The son of Poseidon internally scolded himself. He should've known that Nico would do that.

"Percy...the bolt." Nico murmured sleepily.

"The what?" Percy looked at the younger demigod with a kelp head expression on his face, making Nico want to yell at him. But he was too tired to do anything, so he just looked at him expectantly, eyes fluttering as he tried to stay conscious.

"Oh yea! I remember now..." Percy went through Nico's backpack, digging out an old friend of his: Zeus's master lightning bolt. The cylinder sparked and hummed with energy, the symbol of power as majestic and powerful as ever. "I wonder what it was doing in that room in the lab-"

"Percy!" Annabeth ran over to him, not looking at the now-asleep Nico and looking at the bolt. Her stormy grey eyes widened when she saw the bolt up close. "Why do you have Zeus's lightning bolt?"

"Oh, about that..." Percy rubbed the back of his neck, feeling very uncomfortable. "Well...we found this room in the labyrinth that was right next to the place where Nico and I crashed. And when we checked it out later, we saw this lying on the ground..."

"WHAT?!" Annabeth shrieked, making Percy wince visibly. Nico slightly stirred in his sleep, making it hard for to older demigod to not drop him.

"What did I do?" Percy cried.

"You idiot!" Annabeth yelled. "What were you thinking, taking the bolt when it was clearly meant to stay there? The gods had their reasons!"

"Like what?" Percy asked, confusion etched onto his face.

"It's obvious." Annabeth snapped. "Zeus is no longer in power."

Percy stood there for a moment, the gears in his head slowly processing what she had said. But when it clicked, his mouth opened in complete and utter shock. "WHAT?!"

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Well duh seaweed brain! His domain is practically destroyed with the sky god crushing it and all. Did you really think he'd still be the head god if he has nothing to rule over?"

"But...But who's head god now?" Percy sputtered.

Annabeth's eyes darkened. "That's the problem Percy. We don't know. Right now, it's either Hades or Poseidon that will take the position."

"Poseidon or Hades? But wouldn't that be disastrous?" Percy asked with disbelief in his voice.

"It would.That would never be resolved." Annabeth agreed. "And that's why we need to get this sky lifted back up. Not to mention so that the humans trapped in underground places can be saved."

Percy stopped and turned to look at Annabeth, understanding dawning on his face. "You're worried about your dad, aren't you?"

Annabeth didn't answer for a moment. She looked down, her cold eyes downcast. "I am." She admitted. "People can  only go without anything for a week, a week and a half at the most. It's been five days."

Percy didn't know what to say. He hasn't gone a day without thinking about his mom and Paul. When he called his mom's cell back at camp, they hadn't picked up. And the cell was an invention of Leo's, which didn't need any sort of wire or anything. It would just pick up on any cell phone that one asks it to call and calls it. But it doesn't work for texting, only calling. He hoped with all his heart that Sally had just missed the call.

He didn't know if he could stand it again if she was gone.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hey everyone, sorry for taking forever. School and a sudden new interest in somethig combined = hard to update, so that's the reason.

Anyways, I want to give a heads up that this story is wrapping up soon. It won't be sped up, it that's just how its ending up to be. So be prepared for the final chapters soon!:D