The Blue Knight --Percy Jackson Batman Crossover--The Olympian Heroes Book Three

Chapter 43

I tried to explain, afterwards, what it felt like. I couldn't.
Every muscle in my body felt like it was on fire. My bones, I could've sworn were melting. I wanted to scream, except I didn't have the strength.
'fight back' Grover's voice hissed in my head.
I just had to hold it for a little longer. I tried focusing on my breathing. I thought of Bianca, who had given her life for us to get here. I could do this for her.
My vision turned fuzzy my knee slipped and I almost let the sky fall. I struggled under it and heard Annabeth scream some words of encouragement.
Artemis was backing up towards me.
'get ready' she spoke in my mind
I couldn't even think of a response.
I saw the trick coming. Atlas feinted with the tip of the javelin and Artemis dodged. But Atlas swept his javelin and knocked Artemis's legs off the ground. She fell and Atlas brought up his javelin for the kill.
"No!" Zoë screamed she kept between her father and Artemis, shooting an arrow straight into his head, where it lodged in his head like a unicorn.
Atlas roared and swept aside his daughter with the back of his hand, sending her flying into the back rocks.
I wanted to scream her name and run to her aid, but I couldn't. Not yet.
Atlas smiled and turned back to Artemis, she seemed to be hurt. She didn't get up.
"The first blood in a new war" Atlas gloated and he stabbed downward.
As quick as a blink Artemis grabbed the javelin shaft. It hit the earth next to her and she pulled backwards using the javelin like a lever. Kicking the Titan Lord and sending him flying over her. I knew what would happen and loosened my grip. As Atlas slammed into me I rolled away letting his weight propel me.
The weight of the sky fell onto Atlas's back almost smashing him flat until he got on his knees.
"Noooo!" He screamed "not again!"
I tried to stand but fell down again. My body felt like it was burning up.
Thalia pushed Luke to the edge of the cliff, I could see the tears in her eyes. He lunged at Thalia and he slammed him with her shield. Luke's sword flew out of his hand and clattered to the rocks.
"Well?" Luke asked gulping against the spear point at his throat.
Behind her Annabeth came running finally breaking free of her chains. "Don't kill him!"
"He's a traitor" Thalia said "a traitor!"
In my daze I realized Artemis had run over to Zoë.
"We'll bring him back" Annabeth said "to Olympus. He.... he'll be useful"
"Is that what you want?" Luke sneered "to go back to Olympus in triumph, to please your dad?"
Thalia hesitated and Luke made a desperate grab for the spear.
"No!" Annabeth yelled but it was too late. Without thinking Thalia kicked Luke away. He lost his balance terror on his face....and then he fell.
"Luke" Annabeth screamed
We rushed to the cliff edge below us. The army stopped and watched him fall. Despite how much I hated him I couldn't watch it. I wanted to believe he was still alive, but that wasn't possible. The fall was fifty feet at least and he wasn't moving.
Thalia was stiff and had tears streaming down her face. I pulled her back as a waves of javelins flew over the edge towards us. We ran for the rocks ignoring the curses and threats from Atlas.
"Artemis!" I shouted
The goddess looked up, her face as grief stricken as Thalia's.
"The wound is poisoned." Artemis said
"Atlas poisoned her?" I asked
"No" she said "not Atlas"
She showed us the wound on her side and I remembered Ladon had scraped her side.
"The stars" Zoë mumbled "I cannot see the stars"
"Nectar and ambrosia" I said "come on! We have to get some...."
No one moved. Even as the army drew closer. Just as the first monsters made it over the rise a Sopwith Camel swooped down out of the sky.
"Get away from my daughter!" Dr. Chase called after a burst of machine gun fire.
"Dad?!" Annabeth asked in disbelief
"Run!" He called as he swooped down again.
"Come" Artemis said coming out of her daze "we must get Zoë away from here"
She raised a hunting horn to her lips, and it's clear sound echoed down the valleys of Marin. Zoës eyes fluttered
"Hang in there" I said "it'll be alright"
"Beware Little Bird..." She mumbled "Beware of....."

 As we trudged back up Half-Blood Hill to the pine tree where the Golden Fleece glittered, I half
expected to see Thalia there, waiting for us. But she wasn't. She was long gone with Artemis and the rest
of the Hunters, off on their next adventure.
Thalia had joined the Hunters after Zoë passed. But she lived on in the stars as a constellation. Despite our meeting and our short friendship, I'd miss her.
 Chiron greeted us at the Big House with hot chocolate and toasted cheese sandwiches. Grover went off
with his satyr friends to spread the word about our strange encounter with the magic of Pan. Within an
hour, the satyrs were all running around agitated, asking where the nearest espresso bar was.
 Annabeth and I sat with Chiron and some of the other senior campers—Beckendorf, Silena Beauregard,
and the Stoll brothers. Even Clarisse from the Ares cabin was there, back from her secretive scouting
mission. I knew she must've had a difficult quest, because she didn't even try to pulverize me. She had a
new scar on her chin, and her dirty blond hair had been cut short and ragged, like someone had attacked
it with a pair of safety scissors.
 "I got news," she mumbled uneasily. "Bad news."
 "I'll fill you in later," Chiron said with forced cheerfulness. "The important thing is you have prevailed.
And you saved Annabeth!"
 Annabeth smiled at me gratefully, which made me look away.
 For some strange reason, I found myself thinking about Hoover Dam, and the odd mortal girl I'd run into
there, Rachel Elizabeth Dare. I didn't know why, but her annoying comments kept coming back to me.
Do you always kill people when they blow their nose? I was only alive because so many people had
helped me, even a random mortal girl like that. I'd never even explained to her who I was.
 "Luke is alive," I said. "Annabeth was right."
 Annabeth sat up. "How do you know?"
 I tried not to feel annoyed by her interest. I told her what my dad had said about the Princess
Andromeda  .
 "Well." Annabeth shifted uncomfortably in her chair. "If the final battle does come when Percy is sixteen, at least we have two more years to figure something out."
 I had a feeling that when she said "figure something out," she meant "get Luke to change his ways," which
annoyed me even more.
 Chiron's expression was gloomy. Sitting by the fire in his wheelchair, he looked really old. I mean… he
was really old, but he usually didn't look it.
 "Two years may seem like a long time," he said. "But it is the blink of an eye. I still hope you are not the
child of the prophecy, Percy. But if you are, then the second Titan war is almost upon us. Kronos's first
strike will be here."
 "How do you know?" I asked. "Why would he care about camp?"
 "Because the gods use heroes as their tools," Chiron said simply. "Destroy the tools, and the gods will be
crippled. Luke's forces will come here. Mortal, demigod, monstrous… We must be prepared. Clarisse's
news may give us a clue as to how they will attack, but—"
 There was a knock on the door, and Nico di Angelo came huffing into the parlor, his cheeks bright red
from the cold.
 He was smiling, but he looked around anxiously. "Hey! Where's… where's my sister?"
 Dead silence. I stared at Chiron. I couldn't believe nobody had told him yet. And then I realized why.
They'd been waiting for us to appear, to tell Nico in person.
 That was the last thing I wanted to do. But I owed it to Bianca.
 "Hey, Nico."I got up from my comfortable chair. "Let's take a walk, okay? We need to talk."
 
 He took the news in silence, which somehow made it worse. I kept talking, trying to explain how it had
happened, how Bianca had sacrificed herself to save the quest. But I felt like I was only making things
worse.
 "She wanted you to have this." I brought out the little god figurine Bianca had found in the junkyard.
Nico held it in his palm and stared at it.
 We were standing at the dining pavilion, just where we'd last spoken before I went on the quest. The
wind was bitter cold, even with the camp's magical weather protection. Snow fell lightly against the
marble steps. I figured outside the camp borders, there must be a blizzard happening.
 "You promised you would protect her," Nico said.
 He might as well have stabbed me with a rusty dagger.
 It would've hurt less than reminding me of my promise.
 "Nico," I said. "I tried. But Bianca gave herself up to save the rest of us. I told her not to. But she—"
 "You promised!"
 He glared at me, his eyes rimmed with red. He closed his small fist around the god statue.
 "I shouldn't have trusted you." His voice broke. "You lied to me. My nightmares were right!"
 "Wait. What nightmares?"
 He flung the god statue to the ground. It clattered across the icy marble. "I hate you!"
 "She might be alive," I said desperately. "I don't know for sure—"
 "She's dead." He closed his eyes. His whole body trembled with rage. "I should've known it earlier.
She's in the Fields of Asphodel, standing before the judges right now, being evaluated. I can feel it."
 "What do you mean, you can feel it?"
 Before he could answer, I heard a new sound behind me. A hissing, clattering noise I recognized all too
well.
 I drew my sword and Nico gasped. I whirled and found myself facing four skeleton warriors. They
grinned  fleshless grins and advanced with swords drawn. I wasn't sure how they'd made it inside the
camp, but it didn't matter. I'd never get help in time.
 "You're trying to kill me!" Nico screamed. "You brought these… these things?"
 "No! I mean, yes, they followed me, but no ! Nico, run.  They can't be destroyed."
 "I don't trust you!"
 The first skeleton charged. I knocked aside its blade, but the other three kept coming. I sliced one in
half, but immediately it began to knit back together. I knocked another's head off but it just kept fighting.
 "Run, Nico!" I yelled. "Get help!"
 "No!" He pressed his hands to his ears.
 I couldn't fight four at once, not if they wouldn't die. I slashed, whirled, blocked, jabbed, but they just
kept advancing. It was only a matter of seconds before the zombies overpowered me.
 "No!" Nico shouted louder. "Go away!"
 The ground rumbled beneath me. The skeletons froze. I rolled out of the way just as a crack opened at
the feet of the four warriors. The ground ripped apart like a snapping mouth. Flames erupted from the
fissure, and the earth swallowed the skeletons in one loud CRUNCH !
 Silence.
 In the place where the skeletons had stood, a twenty-foot-long scar wove across the marble floor of the
pavilion. Otherwise there was no sign of the warriors.
 Awestruck, I looked to Nico. "How did you—"
 "Go away!" he yelled. "I hate you! I wish you were dead!"
 The ground didn't swallow me up, but Nico ran down the steps, heading toward the woods. I started to
follow but slipped and fell to the icy steps. When I got up, I noticed what I'd slipped on.
 I picked up the god statue Bianca had retrieved from the junkyard for Nico. The only statue he didn't
have, she'd said. A last gift from his sister.
 I stared at it with dread, because now I understood why the face looked familiar. I'd seen it before.
 It was a statue of Hades, Lord of the Dead.
 
 Annabeth and Grover helped me search the woods for hours, but there was no sign of Nico di Angelo.
 "We have to tell Chiron," Annabeth said, out of breath.
 "No," I said.
 She and Grover both stared at me.
 "Um," Grover said nervously, "what do you mean… no?
 I was still trying to figure out why I'd said that, but the words spilled out of me. "We can't let anyone
know. I don't think anyone realizes that Nico is a—"
 "A son of Hades," Annabeth said. "Percy, do you have any idea how serious this is? Even Hades broke
the oath! This is horrible!"
 "I don't think so," I said. "I don't think Hades broke the oath."
 "What?"
 "He's their dad," I said, "but Bianca and Nico have been out of commission for a long time, since even before World War II."
 "The Lotus Casino!" Grover said, and he told Annabeth about the conversations we'd had with Bianca
on the quest. "She and Nico were stuck there for decades. They were born before the oath was made."
 I nodded.
 "But how did they get out?" Annabeth protested.
 "I don't know," I admitted. "Bianca said a lawyer came and got them and drove them to Westover Hall.
I don't know who that could've been, or why. Maybe it's part of this Great Stirring thing. I don't think
Nico understands who he is. But we can't go telling anyone. Not even Chiron. If the Olympians find
out—"
 "It might start them fighting among each other again," Annabeth said. "That's the last thing we need."
 Grover looked worried. "But you can't hide things from the gods. Not forever."
 "I don't need forever," I said. "Just two years. Until I'm sixteen."
 Annabeth paled. "But, Percy, this means the prophecy might not be about you. It might be about
Nico.We have to—"
 "No," I said. "I choose the prophecy. It will be about me."
 "Why are you saying that?" she cried. "You want to be responsible for the whole world?"
 It was the last thing I wanted, but I didn't say that. I knew I had to step up and claim it.
 "I can't let Nico be in any more danger," I said. "I owe that much to his sister. I… let them both down.
I'm not going to let that poor kid suffer any more."
 "The poor kid who hates you and wants to see you dead," Grover reminded me.
 "Maybe we can find him," I said. "We can convince him it's okay, hide him someplace safe."
 Annabeth shivered. "If Luke gets hold of him—"
 "Luke won't," I said. "I'll make sure he's got other things to worry about. Namely, me."
 
 I wasn't sure Chiron believed the story Annabeth and I told him. I think he could tell I was holding
something back about Nico's disappearance, but in the end, he accepted it. Unfortunately, Nico wasn't the first half-blood to disappear.
 "So young," Chiron sighed, his hands on the rail of the front porch. "Alas, I hope he was eaten by monsters. Much better than being recruited into the Titans' army."
 That idea made me really uneasy. I almost changed my mind about telling Chiron, but I didn't.
 "You really think the first attack will be here?" I asked.
 Chiron stared at the snow falling on the hills. I could see smoke from the dragon guardian at the pine
tree, the glitter of the distant Fleece.
 "It will not be until summer, at least," Chiron said. This winter will be hard… the hardest for many
centuries. It's best that you go home to the city, Percy; try to keep your mind on school. And rest. You
will need rest."
 I looked at Annabeth. "What about you?"
 "Well...I hoped...if you- er if Bruce would let me- ugh could I stay at the manor for a little bit?" She asked
I grinned "for sure!"
"But percy-"
 Whatever she was going to say was interrupted by Grover, who stumbled out of the Big House, tripping
over tin cans. His face was haggard and pale, like he'd seen a specter.
 "He spoke.'" Grover cried.
 "Calm down, my young satyr," Chiron said, frowning. "What is the matter?"
 "I… I was playing music in the parlor," he stammered, "and drinking coffee. Lots and lots of coffee! And
he spoke in my mind!"
 "Who?"Annabeth demanded.
 "Pan!" Grover wailed."The Lord of the Wild himself.  I heard him! I have to… I have to find a suitcase."
 "Whoa, whoa, whoa," I said. "What did he say?"
 Grover stared at me."Just three words.  He said, ' I await you...'"
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That was the last chapter in the book. The next one will be called The new Trinity. I'll probably have the first chapter out later today or tomorrow. I hope you liked the book! Please let me know what you think it means a lot.
If you have any suggestions let me know.
Hope to see you in my next book!