Flowergirl, Percy Jackson

017. Balance

The bridge to Olympus is dissolving - something Lila didn't know was possible, considering it's marble. But, starting from the elevator, cracks are forming, the stone crumbling like the Age of Gods, the rot from the inside beginning to show. 

"Jump!" Grover instructs, which is a lot easier said than done, considering he's half goat. He jumps onto the next slab, while the one the rest of them on tilts backwards unsteadily. 

"Gods, I hate heights!" Thalia yells, squeezing her eyes shut as she jumps, pulling Percy and Lila with her. Annabeth, however, stumbles weakly, staying on the tilting block. 

Percy grabs her hand as the pavement falls - they both begin to dangle in the open air, as her weight pulls Percy down toward the void below. Lila's instincts kick in, and vines grow, dragging both of them back safely onto the block they're both on. 

"Thanks," Annabeth pants, nodding to them both. 

"Keep moving!" Grover my gives them no chance to catch their breaths, pulling Annabeth to her feet and across the sky bridge. Lila and Percy follow, Thalia at the back of the group, steadily avoiding looking down. Just as the final section begins to collapse, they manage to jump onto the last bit of ground. 

Annabeth looks back toward the elevator, hanging in space now, disconnected from the rest of Olympus. "We're marooned," she says. "On our own."

"Again?" Lila whines. 

"Blah-ha-ha!" Grover bleats. "The connection between Olympus and America is dissolving. If it fails—"

"The gods won't move on to another country this time," Thalia explains. "This will be the end of Olympus. The final end."

They begin to run through the streets. Houses are burning, marble walls crumbling down in flames. The park is mostly uprooted, trees blasted into nothing, or lying on their sides, roots flying in the air. Lila winces at the sight, horror filling her at all that life, now dead.

"Kronos's scythe," Percy imagines.

They follow the path towards the palace of the gods. It seems longer - like time is slowing down, though that could be Lila's imagination. Everything lies in ruins around them. The world has been building toward this for four years - but somehow Lila never really believed it could happen. 

Some minor gods and nature spirits are strewn across the road - armour in pieces, clothing lying torn, weapons split in half. 

Kronos's voice echoes out in the unnerving silence. "Brick by brick! That was my promise. Tear it down brick by brick."

A temple explodes, a golden dome shooting upwards before shattering, golden pieces littering the city. The rubble rains toward them - one piece cuts into Lila's arm, leaving a thin red scratch. 

"That was a shrine to Artemis," Thalia scowls. "He'll pay for that." Somehow, Lila doubts that. 

When they're beneath the main archway, decorated with gigantic statues of Zeus and Hera, watching over the world, suddenly the mountain groans, tilting sideways like it's on the edge of a precipice. 

"Look out!" Grover yelps, tugging Lila out of the way. The archway crumbles, as the Hera statues begins to tip over onto Annabeth, Percy and Thalia. Someone screams out, and then the statues has hit the ground with a huge thud, Percy and Annabeth on the other side. 

"Thalia!" Grover cries.

It takes a second for the dust to clear, but when it does, Thalia's figure is still alive and breathing, only trapped beneath the statue. They try to move it, but it's so heavy it barely shifts with all their efforts. When they try to pull her out, she cries out.