Percy XII

I opened my eyes to the strangest place I'd ever seen. It was a beach with a plain behind me with a sea as far as I could see ahead of me. I raised my eyebrow as I felt the air temperature around me drop but I was still comfortable.

I watched the surface of the water ripple a fair way out but intensify, almost as if something was moving toward me as fast as I chased the fishermen earlier. I felt for my ring but, to my shock, it wasn't there.

I looked down slightly panicked but was even more confused by what I saw I was wearing, my Camp T-shirt, necklace, jeans, and beat-up Nikes, my usual outfit I wore at camp. I reached into my pocket and hoped beyond hope that the familiar shape would be there. It wasn't, but the weight at my hip, my boot, and from my watch were still there.

I sighed slightly as I felt Riptide's absence even more acutely than I have ever since I came to this world. 'I still have a piece of home but I never use it,' passes through my head, 'not like it could work anyway…'

That's the last thing I can think of as the water parts in front of me revealing an absolute bear of a man wearing, ironically, a bearskin over his shoulders, a beard, and the normal blue of the Water Tribes. The man locked eyes with me and smiled brightly.

"Percy! Good to see you! I'm Kuruk and I've been waiting for ages to talk to you," the man said as he clasped my hand in his, shaking it vigorously, "and you're already the Wolf of the South!? I wasn't the Wolf of the North until I passed thirty, and I held the record!" He boomed and I couldn't help but smile back at him.

"Really? That's great," I said with a grin plastered on my face, "but you didn't meet me just to chat did you?"

"Nah," he waved his hand casually, "your body is completely drained. Your little dip in the Spirit Grotto completely drained you and Lord La took his pound of flesh too."

"What the Hades do you mean by that?"

"He took your Achilles Curse, the Blessing of the Styx I think is what Raava called it?" he said, thoughtfully stroking his beard as he pulled the bear head off of his own, "anyway," he waved his hand, "your curse is gone so your little fire immunity trick is gone now, you'll have to deal with burns and cuts and broken bones like the rest of us now."

I felt my shoulders slump slightly, half in relief and half in resignation, "well, that's not a bad thing entirely. The curse was too draining, if it wasn't for the curse I doubt it would have taken me four days to wake up from my little stunt in healing Jeong Jeong."

"Oh yeah, you went way too overboard with that," he said with a small flinch, "and sorry about the Avatar State trigger, it only happens when most of us think it's absolutely necessary until you can dip into it yourself. You managed it with Aang and the Firebenders in the forest that one time but you drained yourself way too fast in the second. You're a bit of a special case when it comes to Firebending," he said with a slight grimace, "you'll have to learn lightning first."

I felt my spine stiffen at that, "learn lightning!? Dude, I don't know if you've noticed or not by I'm a son of Poseidon, not Zeus! I don't know if I can even learn how to bend lightning!"

"You've already bent air," he pointed out calmly, putting me off balance for a second, "Zeus has no authority here. Yes, he has influence and was the Canvas for the Zephrosi - or the Seven Winds the Airbenders worship," I felt my eyes widen to the size of baseballs at that, 'shit, they are fanatics!' and am promptly pulled back to reality by Kuruk saying, "but Zeus himself has no power here. You can fly, you can shoot lightning, or whatever you want without any fear from him," he said with a smile until it fell from his face as rage replaced it, "but you do have enemies, Avatar Perseus."

"Enemies how?" I asked carefully, looking at the rage and grief on the man's face that I knew intimately from the mirror.

"Koh, the Face Stealer," he growled, "he stole my Ummi's face to punish me," he slammed a fist into the sand, "I went to confront the Face Stealer, to kill him for what he did. I wanted to kill him," he whispered as the rage immediately turned to grief, "I wanted to save her but I was too late… He - he stole her face to punish me. If I killed him then her spirit would be lost, but you can save her!"

He looked at me pleadingly from his knees, I didn't even notice he fell to them.

"How can I save her?" I ask quietly, my mind flashing back to the Battle of Manhatten.

XXX

"They're on their way," I said. "You've lost."

"I haven't even started."

He advanced with blinding speed. Grover-brave, stupid satyr that he was-tried to protect me, but Kronos tossed him aside like a ragdoll.

I sidestepped and jabbed under Kronos's guard. It was a good trick. Unfortunately, Luke knew it. He countered the strike and disarmed me using one of the first moves he ever taught me.

The Last Olympian - Rick Riordian.

He countered with a backhanded slash to my sword, edge to flat. I could only watch as Riptide snapped in two in my hands.

"STOP!" Annabeth came from nowhere.

Kronos whirled to face her with slashed with Backbiter, but somehow Annabeth caught the strike on her dagger hilt. It was a move only the quickest and most skilled knife fighter could've managed. Don't ask me where she found the strength, but she stepped in closer for leverage, their blades crossed, and for a moment she stood face-to-face with the Titan lord, holding him at a standstill.

"Luke," she said, gritting her teeth, "I understand now. You have to trust me."

Kronos roared in outrage. "Like Castellan is dead! His body will burn away as I assume my true form!"

I tried to move, but my body was frozen again. How could Annabeth, battered and half-dead with exhaustion, have the strength to fight a Titan like Kronos?

XXX

"Family, Luke. You promised."

XXX

"Annabeth…" ...it wasn't the Titan's voice. It was Luke's.

XXX

"Percy, please…"

I could move again.

I surged forward and scooped up her knife. I knocked Backbiter out of Luke's hand…

XXX

He stepped toward Annabeth, but I put myself between him and her.

Anger rippled across his face. Kronos's voice growled: "Jackson…"

XXX

"He's changing," [Luke said,] "Help. He's… he's almost ready. He won't need my body anymore. Please-"

"NO!" Kronos bellowed.

XXX

The Titan looked for his sword but found it at his throat.

"Don't try it," I growled, "I don't know where your Achilles spot is but-"

He pushed me out of the way with such force I landed next to Annabeth and cracked my head on Athena's throne…

I had Backbiter in my hand but could only watch in horror as Annabeth's dagger arced into his hand. The only thing I could do was watch as Annabeth stood up to the Titan as my vision swam.

"Luke," she said, standing in front of him, "I know you're in there, fight him!"

"Annabeth," he said, "help me," he shivered and his body pulsed with gold light before he fell to his knees with a scream. He placed his hand on the marble floor and panted out "help me with my armor," as his body turned an even brighter shade of gold. I tried to stumble to my feet but could only struggle to gain my feet as Luke spoke.

"I'm not making it out of here, Wise Girl," he said somberly as his breastplate fell off his chest with a clang on the floor. He brought the knife up to his armpit and, with a look of determination, pushed the knife in. There was a flash of golden light that screamed in pain but it didn't do anything other than blind me. When my vision cleared, I looked up to see Annabeth crouched over Luke's prone form. I tried to stand again, but found myself on my knees as I listened to the Son of Hermes' final words.

"Did-did you ever wonder what we could have been?" he choked out weakly as Annabeth cradled his head in her lap.

I propped myself up on Backbiter, trying to make my way over to duo but failed miserably.

"You were my brother, Luke. Family," she said quietly. Even from my position, I could see his eyes harden and I knew with perfect clarity what was about to happen.

"Then I'm sorry," he said as he drove the knife into her chest, I roared in anger seeing my best friend collapse with her own dagger driven into her chest. I felt my body move and pulled her head into my lap as she grasped at the hilt feebly.

"Annabeth, hey, it's going to be okay. We're going to get you to Apollo," I said as she pulled the dagger from her chest.

"T-too la-late, Seaweed… Brain…" she gasped, her hand reaching for my face. I took it as tears rolled down my face and onto her. I could only watch in horror as the light left her storm grey eyes.

I felt my anger rise as I turned to the fallen son of Hermes, but he was dead too. "Burn in Tartarus, you bastard," I growled, watching the bastard's body turn to ash.

"It shall be done," I staggered in slight surprise before registering the voice as Hades'. I tried to stand with Annabeth's body in my arms. It was like holding up the sky again but I managed to stand and limp my way over to lay her at the foot of Athena's throne, immediately falling to my knees beside her.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked up to see Hestia with tears rolling down her own face as we stood vigil over the brave daughter of Athena and the ashes of the traitor.

"She would want you to have this," Hestia murmured as she placed something into my hand, I looked down at the familiar blood-stained celestial bronze dagger in my hand and simply shoved it through my belt. I picked up Backbiter and snarled at it slightly but watched as it shrunk down into a knife. I pulled my small hunting knife from its place at my ankle and pushed the cursed blade into the sheathe there.

I looked at Hestia who looked back at me knowingly, "you'll have to use that sword one day," she said, "perhaps that knife as well. Use them well, Perseus," she said as she took her seat by the hearth once again while I simply sat down with my back against dad's throne, my eyes squeezed tight as the tears came once again.

"Not if I don't have to," was the last thing I said until the gods arrived.

XXX

Flashback end…

XXX

'Looks like the time has come,' I thought as I looked at the man in front of me.

"You realize that if I do this, I may kill her anyway?" I asked seriously, kneeling in front of Kuruk once again. He hesitated for a beat before nodding slowly.

"Nothing is preferable to the torment she feels with the face stealer, save her… Please," he said quietly.

I nodded slowly, "where can I find him?"

"At the crest of the Valley of the Lost. Show no emotion when you speak to the Spirit, he will take your face if you show even a hint of any," he said seriously, "no metal can harm him, only your hands and your elements," his eyes met mine and I shook my head slowly, pulling the dagger from my belt, his eyes widening at the glowing bronze blade.

"Celestial Bronze," I said quietly, "a weapon used to slay immortals. Koh is immortal, this will do the job."

Kuruk clasped my shoulder for a beat before nodding, without a word the man slipped into the sea once again. I twirled the blade in my hand for a beat, stopping when I realized what I was doing.

"This is for you, Annabeth," I said quietly, walking from the water and into the forest.

"Percy," a voice said quietly from my left, I didn't even look over as the familiar form of Roku fell in beside me, "you must not do this. Koh and the mother of Faces keep the Balance of the Spirit World as much as Raava and Vaatu keep the balance on the mortal plane. If you do this then you will doom the Spirit world," he said grimly.

"He's Kronos, Roku," I said doggedly, "he's going down, and Vaatu hasn't been around for a long time apparently, so far the world has been fine. Only went down the shitter when Aang disappeared for a damn century."

"True, but tell me true, Avatar, would you let the world burn to satisfy your vengeance?"

I stop short and pull at my hair slightly, "my vengeance? No. But if this thing can come after one Avatar he doesn't like by going after his lover he can do it again! I won't let that happen Roku!" Roku looked startled but he nodded all the same.

"I understand," Roku said sagely with a frown still marring his face, "but Death is a part of the balance, Perseus."

"Death, yes. But a spirit that kills on his whims and wishes? That's not balance, that's chaos. The faster you see that then the faster we'll be able to bring real balance," I said, finally turning ti face him.

"Nothing I say will deter you from this path, will it?"

"No," I said simply, turning back to the path and away from the old man.

"You would pervert the path of the Avatar," Roku said quietly. I stopped and turned back to face him, anger coursing through me.

"Like Yangchen? Or maybe Kyoshi?" I spat, his eyes widened in what looked like shock.

"How-"

"How did I know?" I cut him off midsentence, "how did I know about the butcher and wasn't it you who told me about Yangchen? No, Roku. You were the first good Avatar in years gamóto! And the one after you never even had a chance to be an Avatar, did he!?"

"No, he didn't."

"Then give me a chance, Roku," I said quietly, "let me take out one cancer. You know damn well that this Koh is a disease, a danger. He needs to die."

"Even if it upsets the balance?"

"Balance can be restored, Koh can be killed, and we can live to fight another day," I said, turning up the road again, leaving Roku standing on the path as I walked alone.

XXX

"The valley of the Lost he said," I grumbled, "be easy to find, he said!"

"Indeed, little demigod," a smooth voice said from behind me, I whipped Annabeth's dagger out of it's sheath, "impressive reflexes, young man," the giant centipede said. I could only stare in horrified fascination at the thing in front of me. "It has been many years since I have faced a man whose face I couldn't steal… You interest me, Avatar. Why have you come here? Convinced by that fool Kuruk?" it chittered as I stared at it, my dagger slowly falling to my side.

"Kind of," I said, "you killed someone close to him."

"As Kronos killed one close to you, no… It was three, was it not?" The thing's entire face blinked and the baboon looking thing was replaced with a gorgeous woman with long, flowing hair. I raised my dagger once again.

"Leave them out of this," I hissed.

"Ah, my apologies, hero," he said with a small smirk crawling onto the woman's face, "but the point is this: you want revenge but it was stolen from you. That filth, Luke, died before you could kill him yourself, didn't he?"

"Yeah, he did," I growled back, "do you have a death wish, Face Stealer?"

"No, but it appears you do, little demigod," he said quietly.

"What the Hades does that mean!?" I roared.

"Patience and all will be revealed. If you still decide I should die after my tale is finished then strike me down," he said seriously, "our tale, the tale of this World and the World of the Benders, is a distorted mirror of your reality. When your Titans rose, so did the first spirits. I was the second, my mother the first with Raava and Vaatu. I watched as the Realm of the benders rose, the seas, the skies, the first fire, and the earth itself. I am old, Avatar, very, very old.

"The spirits of these skies, seas, and fires could not be overruled by your gods as they did not exist in this world and so the Spirits of Sky, Sea, Earth, and Fire were born. The Zephrosi, the Terasauti, Agni, Tui, and La, all rose to rule the untameable. But they were spirits and spirits cannot interact with that which is mortal, your ways are not our ways. Thus the immortals chose greater mortals and granted them with the ability to control their elements, to bend them to their will. These beings became the Lion-Turtles, demi-immortals with the ability to teach Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, and Aether.

"These Lion-Turtles were charged to defend their element and only give it to mortals in the direst of circumstances. Then the humans arrived from your world with a few other animals."

I could only listen in shock as the spirit went on.

"The first to come was a man named Remus, he was followed by another named Jason. Remus was alone for many, many years. He claimed he was struck down by his own brother but Lord Hades gave him a chance to scout this new world. A hundred years later, Remus disappeared and your gods came," I could feel the centipede's rage slowly rising now, "they killed my father, Jackson. This Zeus of yours did it himself. It is strange though, the timelines of our worlds do not align…"

I tried to process that but the Spirit kept going, "Zeus killed my father with a sword of Bronze and light, it was the strangest sight I had ever to behold. The battle raged for three days but ended with the Gods and Spirits who had joined with them claiming victory. Tui, La, and the Unagi of the seas were the only ones to join hands with the Gods - the Lion-Turtles had joined with them as well. Your Uncle killed my father, Perseus Jackson, but the laws your gods forced upon me forbid me from touching a descendant of the gods and only disciplining those who have wronged me and only if they show a hint of emotion. Those rules are not strict, Perseus, anyone who comes into my domain has wronged me - if they show emotion I am free to snatch their identity.

"You were right about me Jackson," the centipede hissed as it blinked again, the woman's face changing to a howling monkey, "but you were wrong, if you attack me then any protection you have from the laws of the gods are null and void. Meaning if you don't kill me then I will be free again!" it said.

"And if I decided to walk away here and now?" I asked quietly, feeling for any water around me but finding none.

"Then Ummi's fate would be your woman's own," it hissed.

I didn't say a word more, charging the thing as fast as I possibly could, praying to Tui and La to give me strength.

I leapt into the air but it barely got me a few inches above the blasted thing's face. Thankfully, I was able to take it by surprise and tried to drive the celestial bronze through a segment in the giant insect's shell. To my horror, the blade hit the shell and glanced off - leaving me on the back of a writhing, pissed off centi-spirit.

"Die, demigod!" it hissed as it turned to face me, the eight limbs on its head grabbing me by the shoulder and throwing me off its back. I hissed in pain, feeling the lacerations on my back even as I slid down the wall in the cavern. Thankfully, I had the presence of mind to roll to the left as the faces on the thing changed to a terrifying vortex of black and red, "look upon the face of Koh!"

'Curse of Achilles? Gone. This guy's ego? Kronos level. Wonderful," I thought as I charged once again, activating my shield and aiming the celestial bronze dagger at the hole in the Face Stealers, uh… face. The dagger hit square, much to my satisfaction, but that lasted all of two seconds.

I watched in horror as my last tie to Annabeth shattered like glass against the Face Stealer. I slammed my shield into its head, praying for more time.

I thought furiously of how I could kill it but my mind always came back to one place, "you thought you could actually kill me, Demigod? You thought a host for a minor spirit could destroy a Great Spirit!?" it laughed hysterically as I knelt down, "giving up, Avatar? Oh, your friends' faces will be a wonderful addition to my collection," it said greedily.

"Not quiet," I whispered, unsheathing the small dagger at my ankle.

"Another dagger, sea spawn?" It scoffed but I twisted the pommel once and watched as the sword I'd feared since I was twelve sprang to life in my hand. Backbiter, Kronos' symbol of power, the only blade that could stand against a god. The Face Stealer took a step back as he looked at the half Celestial Bronze, Half Steel blade in my hand, "what devilry is this?!" he hissed.

"Kronos' Scythe," I could tell that if the Stealer had eyes they would have widened as I charged the bastard down. The centipede tried to scramble away but I cut at a few of its legs, just enough to get a howl of pain from the Spirit. I jumped on its back once again, driving the three and half foot long spatha into the Face Stealer's back. The monster howled in agony as the cursed blade tried to absorb his essence. Miraculously, the Face Stealer bucked my off in front of him. I managed to land on my feet with the sword raised.

"Mercy, please mercy," the creature begged, I just snarled slightly and slashed Backbiter across the monster's swirling face. Shockingly, Koh disappeared in a cloud of ash and a flash of white light.

I covered my eyes almost immediately but removed my arm when the light faded. I pulled my arm away to come face to face with at least a hundred ghosts standing in front of me, a trio of familiar faces leading the way.

"I thank you, Avatar," Ummi said as she bowed slightly, her translucent hair flowing to the floor. I wasn't able to say a word as she and the other spirits faded from view one after the other. I stared slack-jawed at the sight as the hundred spirits faded from ghosts to a form that was more like a ball. Slowly, the ghastly balls started flowing together. With each spirit to join, the ball thickened more and more until there was a solid orb of light pulsing in front of me.

For a second everything stilled until the voice of the legion said, "the debt must be paid. You have freed us from our torment, your sword shall be cleansed from its."

Immediately, the ball of light shot forward like an arrow - slamming into Backbiter.

It felt like fire flared down the blade of the sword as the celestial bronze and silver polished steel wrapped around each other. The sword flared bright white as the feeling of dread disappeared from the blade entirely. As the light disappeared, a few things were immediately clear. The first, this wasn't Backbiter.

Where Backbiter was a four-foot longsword, this was a three and a half foot Jian. The once dual sided metal sword had changed from its original look to something that looked like it was wrapped in wire, the steel and bronze almost indiscernible. I looked down the blade at the hilt and pommel and noticed that the guard was the same metal as the blade and the pommel was as well, but the hilt had a white wood twisting around what looked like ebony. I raised the sword, twirling it experimentally and found it was nearly perfect in my hand.

"Incredible," I whispered as I found myself going back to the day where Miss Dodds attacked me, the day I first held Riptide. This felt just as natural in my hand as Riptide did. The blade was light and fast with the balance being a few inches above the crossguard. I twisted the pommel and watched with satisfaction as the blade shrunk down from it's Jian form to something a bit more believable. It wasn't quite a pen but seeing the sword shrink down into necklace and pendant was almost as satisfying.

"Well done, Perseus," a voice said from behind me, I turned around to see a woman in a green dress standing there in familiar makeup, "long did I desire that foul creature dead, but none of my attempts bore fruit," Avatar Kyoshi said as she walked toward me, "come, we have much to discuss."