Song: Time by NF

I apologize in advance for this chapter. I expect flames.

Camp Pendleton, USMC base, California
20 June 2024
1300

War changes the world in drastic ways. The victors rewrite history in their favor, lives are lost, and powers shift. Prior to a few days ago, the only wars fought on American soil were the Revolutionary and Civil Wars which seem so long ago. Also Pearl Harbour.

Russia, China, North Korea, and various global extremist groups managed to get along for enough time to land a nuclear bomb in San Diego, California last year. Since then, the US has responded with nuclear power and hit both Russia and China. Our governments are currently at a stalemate similar to the Cold War era. All parties have decided that too many innocent lives have been lost.

When San Diego was bombed over one million Americans and visitors lost their lives. The entire area is decimated, and most of California has been evacuated to neighboring states. Many people have fled to Canada and Mexico in the hopes of Asylum. Meanwhile, between our bombings of Wuhan, China and St. Petersburg, Russia- we killed almost twelve million people. And I thought the Covid-19 pandemic back in 2020 was bad.

The mood is somber as Sarina and I walk through Camp Pendleton. We got transferred back after successfully freeing the entire work camp in North Korea and the other half of our team located and destroyed every nuclear warhead they could find.

Now, with all sides putting down the nuclear weapons and everyone seething over the massive loss of life, environment, and historical sites; the front line is the coast of California. We are preparing to load a ship with Navy men and women to join them. The Army is set up defending the land on the coast, the Air Force watches from the sky and space, and the Coast Guard is patrolling US waters constantly.

Line Break
California Coast
21 June 2024
0800

At roll call the next morning I am pleased to see Annabeth and Leo on deck with us. Annabeth is one of the Ensigns assigned to the ship, and I can only assume from the oil stained state of his uniform that Leo is a mechanic. We've lost track of the others now, but as far as I know everyone has managed to stay alive and relatively uninjured so far.

"Alright you lot, report to your squad leader to be given your specific duties for your time on this ship!" Annabeth sternly shouts at us, a smile straining against her stern demeanor when she notices Sarina and I.

We report to Petty Officer Morris, another very serious blonde in charge. "Alright, squadron eight. We serve as gunners. We will each take shifts manning the guns. Report back here at 1400 after you lot are settled and we'll show you the ropes and assign schedules. You are dismissed!" I have decided not to sass her, she is almost as intimidating as Annabeth.

Speaking of Annabeth, she is walking up to us now. "Thank the gods. I've been stuck on this ship with just Leo to talk to about our side of things for two months now!"

"Please tell me no one gave the man skittles." I laugh.

Sarina giggles and adds "Well Perce the ship is still in one piece so it seems like people have been warned."

"I really don't know how he got in with how hyper he is. He actually meant to join the Army instead and somehow managed to walk into the completely wrong building and signed up for the Navy as a mechanic." Annabeth states disgruntledly, as though she has heard the story a million times by now. Which, she probably has.

"I'm surprised he didn't try to do something with fire" I muse.

"Oh he did, but he kept wanting to make his explosive devices explode so he got transferred to a different job."

We all laugh at that. "It really is great to see you again, Annabeth. I've missed having you as one of my best friends." I say, while nonchalantly placing in arm around Sarina in case she thought I was considering getting back together with Annabeth or something.

"I've missed you too Seaweed Brain. Maybe we can use this time and some time after the war to go back to that." She smiles.

"I'd like that." I smile back. Sarina seems fine with the situation, and is even smiling at the two of us.

Our moment gets rudely interrupted by the entire ship shaking heavily and groaning. With my powers I can feel that we've been hit by some sort of missile. Sarina and Annabeth fall over, while I manage to stay on my feet.

"Well fuck!" Sarina recovers, scrambling to her feet as an alarm begins sounding.

"So much for learning the machine gun." I sulk, as the ship begins tilting. People are running around to their posts, some are in shock.

Then everyone and everything freezes.

Except for Annabeth, Sarina, and I. Suddenly Leo runs up from a staircase from below deck, and seems spooked by the fact that only he seemed to be not frozen. He almost looks relieved when he spots us, then goes as pale as a sheet when he glances further behind us.

"Gramps what is your deal with ships? They haven't worked out well in the past if my memory serves me accurately." I say as I turn to face the Titan King with a smirk built on false confidence.

He looks different, now that he no longer uses Luke's body as a host. Currently, he is a burly Russian twenty year old. Probably an ally in the war that decided to give their body to the cause- or didn't have a choice.

"You lost that day and barely left with your life, actually." He scoffed.

Leo, looking confused as the only member present who did not participate in the Titan War asks "Um, not to interrupt Mr. All Powerful Percy's grandfather... But who are you?"

Annabeth smacks him on the back of the head as a hard glint forms in Kronos's golden eyes. "Once I have decimated all the mortal and immortal world leaders everyone will know my name! And I'll be able to reform into my full essence."

"Lord Kronos, ALL world leaders? What about your allies?" Annabeth asks, attempting to diffuse the situation and distract the Titan long enough to formulate a plan.

"Ha! Those pesky mortals are just my tools. I told them we would all rule together, but once we defeat the US I'm going to watch them destroy each other with their hatred and pick up the pieces for my own rule. Humans are so easy to manipulate when offered glory and wealth." He gestures to his new body.

Sarina's eyes widen almost comically at this. "You've influenced all of the world leaders into fighting haven't you? This war started because you wanted to decimate humanity to rule it yourself!"

Images of slavery, death, and destruction flashed through my eyes and if I were Leo my body would have burst into flames.

Coincidentally enough, his did. "What will be left to rule after you've nuked the entire planet and killed everyone?!" He shouts.

"I only hope to wipe out a third of all lifeforms so that the planet heals itself properly. But if they all die it will just be easier to rebuild things without pesky mortals." At that point I suppose he decided he had had enough of talking. Suddenly, a scythe appears in his right hand, and he charges directly toward Leo.

Leo swiftly dodges the blow from the much larger man, drawing a hammer and throwing a ball of fire at him simultaneously.

I pull a pen from my pocket, and riptide appears in my hand as I run to engage him from behind. Kronos dodges the fireball, and flips around to block my sword with the curve of his scythe.

Sarina snaps her fingers and mumbles something, and a force field appears around us like a dome while her dagger appears from seemingly nowhere.

Meanwhile, I have lost sight of Annabeth. Her invisibility hat must be working again since the parthenos was retrieved from Rome.

A ball of fire manages to hit Kronos in his face, and I stab at his shoulder. My blade bounces right off, however.

"Fuck. Annabeth he took a swim again!" I shout to the void. The fire just seems to have annoyed him, but his shirt is partially burned off now.

Leo has stepped back from the battle as Kronos and I exchange blows. Meanwhile, I am feeling the water around us and considering how to use it best. I feel the hole in the ship. Since time is stopped for everyone else we haven't been sinking yet, but if he loses concentration we'll go down quickly.

As I slide out of the way of a swipe from a scythe, Sarina comes up behind him and attempts to trip him up by stabbing at his calves. He responds by swiftly kicking her out of the way, and she crashes into a table holding coffee. She screams as the hot liquid makes contact with her flesh before grunting and standing up angrily.

I dodge another blow from his scythe, and move to disarm him with a Roman style maneuver while I feel a tug on my gut as I discreetly raise a large ball of water, and am freezing it. Unfortunately, between my focus on the water and watching Sarina get scalded I receive a quick kick to the chest that almost knocks me overboard. I drop my hold on the ice, and grab onto the railing, hauling myself back up and waiting for Riptide to reappear in my pocket.

Suddenly a flying, flaming hammer hits Kronos directly in the nuts, which I wince at. Thankfully, it distracts him enough to be swept off his feet by an invisible Annabeth, as Leo and Sarina charge. I feel his hold on time falter momentarily before he grunts and freezes her, rolling to his knees and pouncing up with a grace I did not expect from the large man.

Sarina tackles him, but gets thrown off again. She lands gracefully, and we lock eyes momentarily, using them to communicate a plan. She pulls out a rope that glows bronze, most likely celestial from some kind of pocket dimension or something, and we each grab an end of it and run towards the Titan while I reform my ball of ice and launch it at his head.

A now visible Annabeth slides out of the way as we go tackle him, but suddenly it feels like we are moving through butter. I feel riptide return to me, but my blood runs cold as I watch Leo become the focus of Kronos again.

He is slowing time for all of us it seems, as Leo doesn't react in time to dodge the scythe as it swipes at his chest. In a valiant effort, he lights himself on fire and the scythe begins to melt as it pierces his chest cavity.

Everything is frozen for a moment, and I can't tell whether its Kronos's doing or the horror of the situation.

His fire slowly dies out, and Kronos pulls the scythe from Leo's chest. It is slightly disformed, but unfortunately appears to still work just fine.

We recover from our shock, and anger boiling through my blood, I break the spell over time and rush forward to continue my attempt at restraining him. My ball of ice that had stopped also breaks from the spell, and knocks him in the head. Sarina goes to the left of him as I go to the right.

Suddenly, as we tackle him his body begins glowing golden. Despite being on top of him, he rises with such speed and strength that I am flown on the top of the ship's roof. I crash directly into a large bell, and both it and my head ring ominously.

It takes a minute to recover, and I can no longer see Sarina. I see Leo's lifeless body on the ground and my anger rises again.

Meanwhile, Annabeth has engaged Kronos one on one. She puts up a very formidable fight, and lands multiple blows that simply bounce off. She attempts to trick him with a fake jab as I slowly rise to my feet in a daze. The bell continues to toll in the background.

Unfortunately,  Kronos spots the trick and blocks it before pushing his scythe directly through her stomach faster than my eyes could follow.

All feeling left my body. Pain, anger, hatred, everything. All I see is white, and Kronos.

I'm not sure how, but suddenly I moved from the top of the ship to five feet in front of Kronos.

I don't think, as some type of barrier in my mind rips open and I feel a rush of what can only be described as raw power. I lose the ability to hear for the moment as well.

Suddenly, I can see every water particle in his body. There is less of it in ichor, but it is still there. Without speaking or moving anything except my eyes, his blood begins to boil in his body. I superheat him in memory of Leo, and Annabeth can no longer fear this power. For her sake, I stop boiling his blood and instead use the liquid in his body to lift him into the sky. Next, I drop him directly onto a spike of ice I have formed and attempt to impale him. When that doesn't work, I surround his entire body with water. While he drowns I convert the water into small but deadly ice spikes, and stab him with them all at once.

One sinks in, on his lower back directly above the tailbone and he screams in agony before finally dying.

A gold essence floats from his body into mine, and now that he is mortal and time is moving again I pull my gun out of its holster and shoot the man in the head for good measure.

Other Navy members and Marines begin flooding the deck in preparation to fight or evacuate, and I feel Sarina put a hand on my shoulder now that my focus on Kronos is gone.

She shoots him in the chest, as well. "You can never be too sure" she shrugs, looking into my eyes with a look of sadness.

A mixture of Russians and Islamic extremists have begun boarding the boat. I was tired, but now that I absorbed Kronos's essence I feel like I just woke up from a ten hour nap.

I do not have time to dwell on the loss of Leo and Annabeth. Sarina recognizes that with a look, and we run to man the machine guns nearby.

I continue to hold the water out of the ship, and as I sit and aim at those attempting to board the vessel I decide to try out my new powers. I feel for the spot hit by the missile, and reverse time on it until it appears like the missile is lodged in the ship's hull, but not entirely piercing it.

The mortals would need an explanation if I fixed it completely, but now the ship shouldn't go down.

The machine gun is different than my usual sniper rifle, but I still shoot straight once I adjust to the amount of recoil after each shot. Sarina and I begin taking down the insurgents at a high speed with deadly accuracy after a couple of practice shots into the ocean.

The fight lasts for five more hours, and we managed to fight them off to the point of retreat. Their attack seemed very unorganized, most likely because I made their commander fade. Kronos was wearing the uniform of a Russian general.

Finally, with two rounds left, I see Morris. She's got blood smeared on her face, and is holding an automatic weapon.  She looks at us in shock. "Clarke? Jackson? You were the ones providing cover fire for us?!"

"Yes ma'am I say, spinning my seat around and slumping over slightly. My eyes wander over to the bodies of Leo and Annabeth, and I feel a tear roll down my cheek.

Morris looks over at them, and sighs. "They were great people. We lost many today. Thanks to you two we lost a lot less than we could have. You'll both be debriefed later to figure out what the hell happened here, especially since that is Colonel Kuznetsov over there."

"Yes ma'am."

"Our ship is heading to dock, maintenance says we won't sink but the unexploded missile in our hull needs to be addressed soon. We should make landfall in an hour, so you have thirty minutes to grab your shit and meet back on the deck... after you help me take those three to the medical ward of the ship."

We nod somberly, and as I trace a finger down Annabeth's face and close her eyes, I glance up in anger at the sky, and the bell that rung me earlier.

Time stands still, taking its tolls. I can almost hear the prophecy mocking me as I lift her body bridal style, and silent tears trail down my face.

Leo and Annabeth deserved a chapter twice the normal length. Fate sucks, doesn't it?

Stay safe and well, my badasses.

[Edited on 5/23/2020 for spelling errors since I wrote this at 3am while having a glass of wine. Oops]