The Demigod King; Book 2

"Let's Play"

Percy

Will was not pleased.

"You want me to heal you so Ouranos will attack us?" He had demanded.

And yet, a few hours later, things were in place. Hazel had shadow-travelled them to the place Percy had requested they finish things, for better or for worse.

Metal crunched beneath his shoes like cracking bones as Percy walked upon the grave of his own making. Piles of metal and scraps as tall as buildings, in the middle of the desert. The place where it had all began.

Percy looked across the junkyard with a heart full of guilt. He could see the broken remains of Talos's left foot. He recalled that foot coming down, and a young girl scrambling up inside to save them all. And to never come out.

He had promised Nico he would keep her safe. He had broken his promise. And then, when Percy had asked Nico to led the seven to the Doors of Death, the son of Hades followed through.

Nico was a better person than Percy. He kept his promises.

A light hand touched his shoulder and them his arm. Percy knew it was Annabeth, providing some sort of comfort without intruding on this private moment with himself and his lingering guilt.

"You ready?" Will asked, his face solemn. The rest of the seven stood behind him, ready to get out of range as soon as Leo started the hologram.

Percy's jaw tightened and he nodded. They were walking on a very dangerous road with this plan. If it failed, they were absolutely screwed.

Will stepped forward and placed his hands on Percy's shoulders. His fingers were shaking. They had joint fear in that moment—if this plan went wrong, Nico would die.

He closed his eyes, face scrunched in concentration. A warm glow started buzzing from his wrists and flowed through his fingers to Percy. He felt the warmth trickling through his body, healing the stab wound in his chest and rejuvinating him after returning from death. He felt invincible in that moment, where Will was feeding him energy and healing. Like he could take down the Mintoaur with one hand tied behind his back.

Then Will let go and stepped back. The demigods hurried behind Leo's shield, a projection that made the space around them transparent, as if they weren't even there. Annabeth simply put on her invisibility cap for good measure.

Leo quickly threw a small metal object on the ground, blending in with the other scraps from the junkyard. Then he grabbed Percy and dragged him back behind the invisibility shield with the others.

The hologram flared to life. Percy and the seven stood shoulder to shoulder in battle stances. They looked so real, fully corporeal. Leo had somehow captured the exact angle of Annabeth's wrist when she held her dagger, the precise ratio of baby fat in Frank's face. It looked perfect. Flawless. Percy frowned. Did his butt really look like that?

Now, they waited.

During the first few seconds, Percy's heart was pounding so hard that he thought he was going to faint. Surely the force in which his body was pushing blood through his veins wasn't normal.

Terror and anxiety consumed them all as half a minute passed. Then a minute. One hundred and twenty seconds.

How would this even work? How would Ouranos automatically even know that Percy was healed? How would he know where they were? What if he didn't show up?

A third minute passed, and Percy wondered if his heart was going to fail from such an elevated cortisol production. He watched every part of the visible junkyard more intensely than he'd ever observed anything in his life. He looked so hard he started seeing spots.

Jason looked uncertain to his left. His eyebrows tilted downwards as he turned his face slightly towards Percy, still not entirely taking his gaze off the yard. "Do you think—"

Percy clamped a hand over Jason's mouth in panic as darkness swelled twenty yards away from the hologram. It was dusk already, but it seemed to be night for the shiver that went down Percy's spine when Nico—Ouranos—stepped from the darkness next to a metal pile.

The primordial looked around, assessing his surroundings. He stared at the piles of scraps, failed projects all cast down by Hephaestus. He looked, unfazed and uncaring, at the metal pieces around him.

"Well, Perseus?" Ouranos asked in Nico's voice, his gaze transfixed on the ground. "Have you come to submit to me? Or is this some foolish attempt to stop the inevitable?"

Hologram Percy narrowed his eyes and raised his sword. "This ends here," he said, the voice sounding slightly strange to Real Percy.

"Yes it will," Nico replied. He smiled, but there was no joy in it. Just a savage anticipation. Hunger.

The other hologram demigods shifted, adjusting their battle stances with determined expressions. It was incredibly accurate—the positions, reactions, movements—all so familiar.

Nico finally looked up. He was wearing Nico's dark ripped jeans, black skull tee, and aviator jacket with his sword strapped to his waist. He took a step forward, metal crunching under his boots as he approached the Hologram demigods with complete confidence.

He was buying it. This could actually work.

Nico stopped only a few feet away from the hologram demigods. "Let's cut the funny business, hm?" He said smoothly. Then he bent over and picked up a small item. He crushed the metal between his thumb and pointer finger and let the dust of the obliterated object float down to the sandy ground.

The hologram dropped.

"Did you really think that would work?" Nico asked, the edges of his mouth ticked up in amusement.

Percy's heart pounded so hard he knew Ouranos could hear it. Not that it mattered. They were done for now.

"I know where we are, foolish demigods. Did you think I would not notice a mortal craft among these creations by a god? Did you think I wouldn't distinguish between your mortal technology and ancient styles? And did you think I wouldn't use the memories of this host to notice that your hologram matched your exact positions when you fought my wife?"

Nico withdrew his stygian iron blade, the metal humming with a low vibration as it slid against the sheath. "You wanted to end this now, Perseus?" He asked, eyes darkening.

Nico pointed the sword directly at where the demigods were hiding. "Then let's play."