A Dark Cloud Over the Future Ch 8

Chapter 8: The Child of Athena's Final Stand
Kronos walked past his forces and stood right in front of Annabeth. She looked at look and realized at that moment that he was lost to her and went to stab his heart. The blade bounced harmlessly off his chest and a second later his scythe had been run through Annabeth’s stomach. She looked down at the blade and fell to the ground.

“Now, find them and kill them,” Kronos said and the forces raised into the woods.

As Nico directed demigods into the woods to the spot Chiron had told him, he fell to the ground and held his ears. Thalia noticed this and ran over to him, helping him back to his feet.

“Nico, what’s the matter?” Thalia asked shaking him a bit as he was thrashing around.

“Her soul is screaming!” he yelled as the last bunch of demigods ran past them along with several satyrs of the council and others that had tried to help in the fight. Thalia grabbed one of the passing demigods.

“Where is Annabeth?” she asked the stunned demigod. “Where is she!” she asked again, this time with tiny sparks in her eyes.

“She stayed behind to give us time,” he said weakly. “I don’t know what happened to her after that.”

Thalia looked back at Nico and knew exactly what must have happened. “Help me carry him,” she told the demigod and they both carried Nico through the woods until they came upon a huge rock cliff. Chiron was standing there with the campers that managed to escape.

“Is that everyone?” he asked looking around for someone.

“Yes,” Thalia said with a heavy heart. Chiron took one more look around and lowered his head having realized himself what had happened.

“I see,” was his only reply. “I had hoped we would never need to use this again; Beckendorf!” he called into the crowd and he presented himself after climbing through the crowd.

“What is it Chiron?” he asked wonder what Chiron was planning as the sound of hellhounds could be heard in the distance getting closer.

“Place your hand here,” he said pointing to a spot on the stone wall. Beckendorf looked unsure, but followed his instruction and placed his hand on the wall. When he took it away, a heated handprint remained on the wall and the cliff face opened up revealing a bunker. “Hurry, everyone inside!” Chiron called and they did as instructed. Once everyone was inside the wall closed up behind him and someone flipped a light switch.

“What is this place?” Thalia asked after lowing Nico onto a chair. He had stopped thrashing around but he held his ears as if there was some kind of ringing in them.

“Bunker 9,” he replied. “It was an old safe house we would use in times of danger or war. I didn’t not think we would need it but fate seems to have other plans. Only a child of Hephaestus can open it as this is a place sacred to him. We will hold out here until the Titan army moves on; get comfortable everyone, from now on this is Camp Half-Blood.”

Everyone looked around as a saddened look came over her faces. They didn’t have time to be sad however as the Apollo campers started healing the injured and the Hephaestus campers were tinkering around with the tools and designs. The Demeter campers and Pollux used the rock wall to grow plants and started passing around apples and grapes to the others. It continued on like this for a few days until Beckendorf found an underground tunnel that could be used to connect to the tunnels in their own cabin.

“We’ll go,” Travis said, pointing to himself and his brother Connor. “We are the best thieves there are. If there are any monsters still in camp, we’ll be in and out before they even know we’re there.”

Everyone agreed and the two climbed into the tunnel. Everyone waited for what seemed like eternity when the tunnel entrance opened up once again. Connor and Travis popped out of the tunnel and looked around as everyone was looking at them, hoping for maybe a speck of good news.

“How does it look?” Thalia asked, forcing her way to the front of the crowd.

“Not good,” Connor said. “The monsters have moved on, but the cabins, the Big House, Thalia’s tree, even the fire pit in the center of camp have all been burned to the ground.”

“However,” Travis added “We did manage to find some friends along the way.” He moved out of the way and Grover, Tyson, Daedalus, and Briares all exited the tunnel. It was a small fit for Briares, but he had shrunk himself down to the size of a cyclops and managed to fit into the tunnel.

“You!” Thalia shouted before walking up to Daedalus and punching him in the face. The hit most likely hurt her more than him but he rubbed his face pretending it hurt. “This is all your fault!”

“I know,” he said in a low voice. “However, I did manage to acquire this before Luke’s forces moved on.”

“He isn’t Luke anymore,” Thalia said before turning away. She looked back however when he pulled out Ariadne’s String from his pocket.

“We managed to get this during the confusion Grover caused,” he continued.

“Grover!” Leneus said from the group of satyrs in the corner. “Your time to find Pan ended several weeks ago. Your license will be removed and you will be exiled.”

“It doesn’t matter anymore!” Grover shouted back. “The great god Pan is dead.”

Grover began to explain all that had happened while he was in the labyrinth and how he met the god pan. Pan gave him the last remaining ounces of his power and Grover had used the power of panic to scare the monsters away from camp. It was at that moment that they managed to get the string back and the army retreated back to the Princess Andromeda that was docked right off shore. Beckendorf opened the huge stone door and the camp members flooded out into the woods. Campers walked back to the charred remains of their cabins while Thalia walked toward Zeus’ Fist. As she walked, she saw the bodies of the demigods killed in battle. She tripped over a small metal object and fell to the ground. She picked it up off the ground and discovered that the object was Annabeth’s knife. She then looked over to see Annabeth’s cold body on the ground. Thalia shifted over on the ground and held her and the knife close to her and cried for what must have been hours. That night the camp shrouds were burned for the fallen campers and even Dionysus who had made it back to camp shed a tear for the loss of his son. No one knew what to do next and without Percy or Annabeth, the campers felt they were without a leader and had no idea what to do next. Tyson and Briares had left earlier to help Poseidon in his forges and Nico was still recovering from the sounds of all the souls that were killed during the battle, but he could at least walk on his own now.

Chiron walked around the camp and watched as the campers collected anything they could find that could be useful. The camp may be destroyed but he was thankful that the campers were safe; at least most of them. The coming months would be the hardest any of them would have to face and with Nico’s rapid aging, the Great Prophecy could come true sooner than anyone anticipated.

Author's Note
So this is the end of the Battle of the Labyrinth section of the story. I'm going to re-read The Last Olympian this weekend so expect new chapters next week.

Darkcloud1111 ~Fastest Hero Alive  21:18, July 21, 2011 (UTC)