ELAPSE | PJO

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 24

{ future percy }

Percy ran as fast he could while still following the trail of deadly calm reptiles. He let the air whipping at his face take away with it the images of Silena and Beckendorf's oblivious, happy faces, along with the emotionless one of Annabeth. 

Having been so caught up in his thoughts, he didn't realize he'd reached the end of the trail until his feet splashed in water.

The Lake?

This was good. Water was his specialty. What a poor choice for a smack down on Moros's part.

The noises of fighting and clanging weapons were reduced to background noise, and the smell of smoke was faint. There were no flying snakes here, besides the strangely calm ones that made up the trail. 

And there wasn't a being in sight.

Percy furrowed his brow. "Uh. . .Moros?"

No response.

"Moros!"

What the Hades?

There was nothing here. Had the trail been a decoy? But Percy and Annabeth had looked everywhere else inhabitable, unless Moros was hanging in the woods. 

"Kronos!" he tried, the concern growing in his chest. "I'm here to fight you!"

It was after five minutes of this that Percy stuck Riptide into the ground and sighed. 

This was an absolute waste of time. Annabeth was hurting people, possibly hurt herself, his younger self was running around somewhere unprepared (though he couldn't remember a time when he'd been prepared ), and the Camp was in flames.

"Crap."

Percy grabbed Riptide's hilt and pulled her from the earth, his mind racing. What if Moros's plan had been to get him away from Camp the entire time? 

As he ran, he realized he was thinking too far into this. He wasn't that important. 

Then again, what else could be happening?

As the fires got closer and his worry grew for everyone, panic began to seize him. There was serious danger, and he was running a wild goose chase. But what could he do? By now, the infected campers outweighed the functional ones, and the snakes weren't on their side. It'd be like ten men against an army.

He spotted the few halfbloods from earlier, Silena, Malcolm, and Beckendorf, but Percy froze when he focused.

Silena and Beckendorf were engaged in one-on-one combat, and Malcolm was frantically dodging Annabeth's knife.

Percy cursed and raced toward them, yelling Annabeth's name. She was going to kill her own brother! He pushed his legs to move faster so he could intercept the blade, get through to Annabeth, anything.

Suddenly, Percy gasped and jolted up. His shaky hand moved to wipe the sweat from his brow and he blinked multiple times.

He looked around, breathing hard. He was. . .in his mother's living room?

"Percy? You okay?"

Annabeth. Annabeth.

"Annabeth?" Percy turned, meeting her perfectly normal grey eyes. Lively and concerned.

"Oh my gods, Annabeth." He pulled her into his arms, burying his head into her shoulder. 

Annabeth stroked his hair, relaxing in his embrace. "It's okay. I'm right here."

This was always the hardest part. Accepting that it was just a dream.

And in a different time, Percy Jackson awoke in a cold sweat.

a / n

oH MY GODS

don't kill me pls. the ending sucks, i know, but i executed my plan to the best of my ability.

did you expect that ? * insert evil laugh *

so, um, yeah. it was a dream. the rest you can use your imagination for. 

i can't believe elapse is at an end. it's been so prominent in my life for months, this is insane. i'll probably go back and take out some chapters and edit ( one of these days ) because at one point the plot went to tartarus lol.

thank you so, so much for reading, and voting, and commenting. i can't even express how much everything means to me. i never expect people to actually read my stuff when i publish it, and yet you guys have surprised me with 16k reads and 800 followers. cue the double take, please. XD

the next chapter is something i've been planning for a while, i'll have it out soon. it's not a epilogue or anything, just something special to this story. you'll have to see it to know ;p 

now i'm off to make banana bread and cry tears of happiness and sadness. i'm going to miss writing this. 

i love you guys <3

- grace