Chapter Text
Chapter 1: Jason
NOTE: ANYTHING IN ITALICS IS DIRECTLY FROM THE BLOOD OF OLYMPUS. THIS FIC STARTS DURING A SCENE FROM THE BOOK, SO IT ONLY MADE SENSE TO INCLUDE IT. I DO NOT TAKE CREDIT FOR ANY OF THE WORK IN ITALICS.
(Excerpt from Chapter 26 of The Blood of Olympus)
"I have heard so much about the great 'Percy Jackson! The giants are quite obsessed with capturing you. I must say, I don't see what the fuss is about."
“Thanks sis. But if you'e going to try to kill me, I gotta warn you, it's been tried before. I've faced a lot of goddesses recently: Nike, Ahklys, even Nyx herself. Compared to them, you're not scaring me. Also, you laugh like a dolphin."
Kim's delicate nostrils flared, Jason got his sword ready. "Oh I won't kill you." Kim said. "My part of the bargain was simply to get your attention. Someone else is here though, who very much wants to kill you."
Above them, at the edge of the broken roof, a dark shape appeared - a figure even taller than Kymopolea.
"The son of Neptune." Boomed a deep voice. The giant floated down. Clouds of dark, viscous fluid, poison perhaps, curled from his blue skin. His green breastplate was fashioned to resemble a cluster of open, hungry, mouths. In his hands were the weapons of Aretaeus: A trident and a weighted net. Jason had never met this particular giant, but he'd heard stories.
"Polybotes." He said. "The anti-Poseidon."
The giant shook his dreadlocks, a dozen serpents swam free. Each one lime green with a frilled crown around it's head. Basilisks.
"Indeed son of Rome." The giant said. "But if you'll excuse me, my immediate business is with Perseus Jackson. I tracked him all the way across Tartarus. Now, here in his father's ruins, I mean to crush him once and for all."
(Start of Chapter 27)
Jason hated Basilisks. The little scum-suckers loved to burrow under the temples in new Rome. Back when Jason was a centurion, his cohort always got the unpopular chore of clearing out their nests.
A basilisk didn't look like much, just an arm-lengthed serpent with yellow eyes and a white frill collar. But it moved fast, and could kill anything it touched. Jason had never faced more than two at a time. Now, a dozen were swimming around the giant's legs. The only good thing? - Underwater, basilisks wouldn't be able to breathe fire, but that didn't make them any less deadly.
Two of the serpents shot towards Percy, he sliced them in half. The other ten swirled around him, just out of blade’s reach. They writhed back and forth in a hypnotic pattern, looking for an opening. One bite, one touch, was all it would take.
"Hey!" Jason yelled. "How about some love over here." The snakes ignored him. So did the giant, who stood back and watched with a smug smile, apparently happy for his pets to do the killing "Kymopolea." Jason tried his best to pronounce her name right. "You have to stop this."
She regarded him with her glowing white eyes. "Why would I do that? The earth mother has promised me unrestricted power. Could you make me a better offer?"
A better offer. He sensed the possibility of an opening, room to negotiate. But what did he have that a storm goddess would want?
The basilisks closed in on Percy, he blasted them away with currents of water, but they just kept circling.
"Hey! Basilisks!" Jason yelled, still no reaction. He could charge in and help, but even together, he and Percy couldn't possibly fight off ten basilisks at once. He needed a better solution.
He glanced up. A thunderstorm raged above, but they were hundreds of feet down, he couldn't possibly summon lightning at the bottom of the sea, could he? Even if he could, water conducted electricity a little too well, he might fry Percy. But he couldn't think of a better option.
Kymopolea refused to help, Jason couldn’t use lighting, and charging in would only put them both in danger. His best option seemed to be electricity.
“Percy!” He called. “I’m going to have to attempt using lighting. Try and make an air bubble so I don’t electrocute you.”
Percy glared at the basilisks as if to say ‘I’m still watching you.’ Then his face screwed up in concentration and small air bubbles started forming on his skin. Eventually he was encased in oxygen, safe from electricity. It was now or never.
Jason let out a bellow of determination and pulled as much lightning as he could from the sky. The water lit up white, and for a moment Jason could see and hear nothing. His heart pounded in his ears as he awaited to see the result of his desperate decision.
When the light cleared, the scene before him was a disaster. Dead basilisks floated in the water, still twitching. Gross.
On a worse note, it appeared that the giant was relatively unaffected by the electricity because they were so far down, the shock was significantly weaker. Unfortunately, it seemed that while Percy was concentrating on his air bubble, Polybotes was able to use the blinding light to his advantage, sneaking up on Percy and capturing him with the net. On top of that, Polybotes was turning the water around Percy into poison, so the son of Posiden was turning a sickly shade of green. Not good.
There was nothing he could do now, no more lighting to summon. His air source was running out.
Before he could even come up with a plan to get Percy away from the giant, Kymopolea looked at him and said, “Quite impressive Jason Grace. That was an excellent sea storm, for that I will spare your life. But I really can’t have you interfering.”
Jason wanted to scream in anger as he was launched towards the surface of the water, away from Percy. When he reached the surface, his wind spirit abandoned him. There was no way he could go back down and look for Percy.
A feeling of dread settled in his gut as he climbed back aboard the Argo II. He heaved himself onto the deck in a daze, barely aware of Annabeth and Piper running towards him. A ringing flooded his ears, Percy was likely going to die and it was all his fault. He should’ve done better, and now it might be too late.