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And here's the battle between Percy and Medusa, please tell me your thoughts about the end result. I will do a time skip next chapter towards the Arch since there won't be much difference this time. I mean I have planned out a lot of stuff for this story, even events for the burning maze are planned out.
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We went inside the gas station with ease and ignored the statues outside that were an obvious sign something was wrong. Annabeth only glanced at them with caution in her eyes, if I remember correctly she was the only one who thought something was wrong last time, besides Grover.
In front of us stood Medusa, or in her disguise that only allowed us to see her well manicured hands, if I listened carefully I could even hear a soft hissing sound.
Annabeth looked suspicious at her while Luke only looked hungry.
She spoke with a sweet voice that reminded me of Charmspeak, "children, it is too late to be out all alone. Where are your parents?"
Annabeth opened her mouth but I interrupted her, I pulled Luke and Annabeth closer to me, Luke gave me a questioning frown while Annabeth looked furious.
"What are you doing?" She hissed but I ignored her.
'Nyx could you please hide this from the gods?' I asked, the sky outside darkened to solid black.
Now even the Primordials wouldn't be able to see what's going on. No, seriously, Nyx told me she did the same for Gaia and Kronos when they were plotting to kill Ouranos, which made her complicit to the first murder ever, but she shrugged it off and told me it was nothing.
'Are you ready Chaos?' I asked and she nodded excitedly.
'What's going on?' Hemera asked, confused, she wasn't there when I was planning our quest.
"Cut the Act Medusa!" I told her when me and my friends stood at a safe distance.
Luke scowled at me while Annabeth let out a gasp catching up with the information.
"Auntie M." she whispered.
"Wait this is Medusa?" Luke asked, confused.
"Well this certainly is a surprise." Medusa said and took off the black gown that covered her entirely.
Quickly I poured water out of the air and created a water wall between us, and froze it within a second. A solid wall of transparent ice separated us from one of the most dangerous monsters. We looked at Medusa in horror as we saw her real body and her eyes that almost burned through the ice.
Almost.
As I had hoped, the ice made us not look directly but indirectly at the monster.
Annabeth and Luke stepped back while I stepped forward closer to the icewall, trying not to be afraid while looking straight into her eyes.
True to be told Medusa must have been beautiful before she was turned into a monster.
"Son of Poseidon I presume?" She asked, glancing at me.
"Yes, My name is Percy Jackson." I answered without flinching.
"Percy what are you doing?" Luke whispered.
"Trust me," I told them, Luke nodded while Annabeth looked scepticaly me; she began to annoy me.
"Medusa, I'm here to offer you a deal" I told her, looking straight into her eyes. She hissed angrily, "You're not in a position to make a deal Demigod!"
"Yes I am, I can walk away with my friends unharmed, or kill you and decapitate you with the ice." I told her, she looked sceptical at the ice part so I summoned FrostSilver to show that I was capable of using ice as a weapon, then I melted it, I didn't need to use it anyway.
"What do you propose Demigod?" Medusa said the word Demigod like it was something nasty.
"We are looking for a place to sleep, and probably some money and food."
"And why should I do that for you?" She asked but she sounded more curious than angry.
"I can lift your curse and give you back your life" I told her casually.
'Shot Fired!' Nyx yelled but I ignored her.
"Impossible no Demigod can do that!" Her eyes were glowing furiously as she spoke those words.
"Percy what are you doing?" Annabeth asked angry as well, great now two women were angry at me.
I turned back to Medusa, "I'm doing what's right, Medusa was wronged many years ago by your mother and I'm going to fix that" I said without hesitation.
"You can't, it's impossible!" Medusa said with a sad tone.
"I swear on the Styx I can lift your curse, or at least make sure you can have a normal life." I said and everyone in the room, except the Primordials, gasped.
"Percy she is a monster!" Annabeth almost yelled but Luke stopped her, "No Percy is right, your mom was jealous and an innocent suffered because of that."
"She made out with Poseidon in my Mother's temple!" She fired back.
"Sure that's enough reason to curse someone for eternity." I said sarcastically.
"Why hasn't the Styx killed you yet?" Medusa asked, looking at me.
"She kills demigods!" Annabeth protested.
"Demigods who hunted her for her head to have a trophy? Sure that would make anyone bitter about their fate." I said and Medusa gave me a sympathetic look.
Annabeth went quiet but she was still angry but Luke only looked proud at me.
I faced Medusa again, "Medusa I need you to close your eyes, I'm not going to harm you."
She nodded and closed her eyes. I melted the ice away and stepped forward and put my hand on her forehead, even the snakes stopped moving.
'Chaos now,' I demanded and suddenly a word flew out my mouth I never said before. In ancient greek I said, "By the power of Chaos I release you from the curse".
Blue flames surrounded her body for a second but didn't hurt her, then the fire engulfed her entire body before fading away.
Annabeth and Luke gasped in awe as Medusa's appearance changed.
"Open your eyes Medusa." I said with a smile, glad I could help her.
In front of me a beautiful 20 year old woman with long blond hair opened her eyes. They were like mine, sea green. I could understand why Poseidon would fall for her.
She looked up at me and noticed I didn't turn into stone when she looked at me. I created a mirror from water and allowed her to take a look at herself.
Tears began to form into her eyes and she lunged forward embracing me. "Wow Chill!" I said, completely caught off guard by the crying woman.
"It's okay, it's all over." I comfort her.
I mentally prayed to Hestia to give her a new home before she engulfed into blue flames and disappeared.
'I gave her a new home far away from the gods, you did a good job Percy.' Hestia spoke to me in my head. I smiled, content with the good deed. Then, I turned around to see my friends who were opening and closing their mouths like fish gasping for air.
"So who wants to ask questions?" I said with a happy smile
"How?" was all Annabeth asked.
I raised my hands and summoned a small fireball, "Hestia made me her Champion."
Annabeth gave me a confused look while Luke looked like he got a slap in the face, probably because he hoped I hated the gods as well and would join his badguy group.
"Who's Hestia?" Annabeth asked without shame.
"You guys don't know Hestia? Dude she is the most important goddess in Olympus!" I exclaimed flabbergasted, well now I think about it I had an unfair advantage over them. I didn't even know who she was until the Battle of Manhattan.
Annabeth shook her head, "Never heard of her."
"She's the first born child of Kronos, she is the goddess of the Hearth and hope, and family as well. She was once a Olympian but she gave up her throne for Dionysus to avoid a family fight."
"Wow...that sounds so...selfless." Luke said with awe while I nodded. "Yes she is awesome."
'Not as awesome as I am.' Nyx commented.
'You begin to sound like Apollo mom.' Hemera said which silenced Nyx immediately.
"But where did you meet her?" Annabeth asked.
I shrugged, "The first day I was at camp, she is always disguised but if you can find her she is a nice person to chat with. She taught me everything and we observed all the known Monster locations in America before I went on a quest"
The perfect lie if you ask me.
"But why did you lift the curse? And how?" Annabeth asked, still not satisfied.
"Simple, being a champion of Hestia gave me some sweet powers, I can remind people of their home and give hope which I did to Medusa which lifted the curse." I lied without blinking.
'And I don't get any credit?' Chaos pouted.
'Thank you Chaos' I said jokingly.
"Wow you are powerful." Luke said.
I nodded, "Now I want you two to swear never reveal what happened to her" I told them.
"Why?" Luke asked.
"If Annabeth's mom hears this she might try to hunt down Medusa, also I don't want people to know about Hestia yet." I told them. "I want to tell them when the time is right."
"No Athena deserves to know this!" Annabeth protested but Luke shut her up. "Just do it, Percy knows what he's doing right?"
He looked at me with his trusting eyes.
I nodded.
"I swear on the Styx not to reveal what happened to her until you do it yourself." Luke said.
Annabeth followed but not with ease, "I swear on your terms."
"Now we better get looking for something to eat because it's getting dark" Luke told us as he went looking around.
I noticed something lying on the ground where Medusa stood before she teleported away. A green eye. I picked it up and observed it, I expected a spoil of war from releasing Medusa but I had no idea what this was.
'Oh...it's the eye of Medusa.' Hemera told me with an all knowing tone.
'The what?' I asked.
'Eye of Medusa, it turns people into stone if the owner makes someone look at it' she explained.
'Sweet, so it's like Medusa's head but now I command it?' I wondered.
'Pretty much.' Hemera nodded.
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p atreon : Moonhorse