Demiurge

[allen1996]

Camp sucked. Since I have been claimed, mostly everyone treated me like someone with a rare disease. The home I thought I had gained wasn't feeling like one anymore.

Nobody mentioned the hellhound, but I got the feeling they were all talking about it behind my back. The attack scared everybody. It sent two messages: one, that I was the son of the Sea God; and two, that monsters would stop at nothing to kill Percy. They could even invade a camp that had always been considered safe.

The only people that were still acting normal with me were Luke and Grover. All of this made me wish that none of those demigod's things was real. I wanted to wake up and realized that I had imagined all of this, that it was a crazy dream instead of me actually experiencing all those things.

I wanted to be on the beach at Montauk, relaxing and spending time with my mom. All of this was so unfair.

I wished I wasn't a demigod. I wished I was a normal if troubled boy that would only have to worry about school and his stepfather.

Talking about said stepfather, my mom and I wouldn't have to deal with Gabe if I hadn't been a demigod. My mom supported his abuse and horrible treatment of her because of me, because of my demigod scent.

Grover had told me that my mother had chosen to marry smelly Gabe because he smelled so horrible that his scent would mask any demigod's scent from monsters.

My mother was the kindest and strongest person in the world and she didn't deserve any of this. My mother had told me that my dad cared so why wasn't he there? Why didn't he help?

He was one of the big three, one of the most powerful among Gods and he did nothing. A big part of me understood and agreed with Luke. Gods didn't care when they should but another part of me, the childish one wanted to believe that there was a reason why my dad didn't help. I wanted to believe what my mother had told me, that I was wanted and not just the result of a lustful urge in a God.

All of those things angered me and made me feel helpless so I ignored them. I threw myself into the insane and exhausting sword lessons of Luke. I tried to understand all of his Greek lessons even with Annabeth's mean stares and my dyslexia making it almost impossible even in Greek to learn as much as I wanted.

I knew somebody at camp resented me because one night I came into his cabin and found a mortal newspaper dropped inside the doorway, a copy of the New York Daily News opened to the Metro page. The article took me almost an hour to read, because the angrier I got, the more the words floated around on the page.

BOY AND MOTHER STILL MISSING AFTER

FREAK CAR ACCIDENT

BY EILEEN SMYTHE

Sally Jackson and her son Percy are still missing one week after their mysterious disappearance. The

family's badly burned '78 Camaro was discovered last Saturday on a north Long Island road with the roof ripped off and the front axle broken. The car had flipped and skidded for several hundred feet before exploding.

Mother and son had gone for a weekend vacation to Montauk, but left hastily, under mysterious circumstances. Small traces of blood were found in the car and near the scene of the wreck, but there were no other signs of the missing Jacksons. Residents in the rural area reported seeing nothing

unusual around the time of the accident.

Ms Jackson's husband, Gabe Ugliano, claims that his stepson, Percy Jackson, is a troubled child who has been kicked out of numerous boarding schools and has expressed violent tendencies in the past.

Police would not say whether son Percy is a suspect in his mother's disappearance, but they have not ruled out foul play. Below are recent pictures of Sally Jackson and Percy. Police urge anyone with information to call the following toll-free crime-stoppers hotline.

The phone number was circled in black marker.

He wadded up the paper and threw it away, then flopped down in his bunk bed in the middle of my empty cabin.

"Lights out," I told myself miserably.

That night, I had my worst dream yet.

I was running along the beach in a storm. This time, there was a city behind me. Not New York.

The sprawl was different: buildings spread farther apart, palm trees and low hills in the distance. About a hundred yards down the surf, two men were fighting. They looked like TV wrestlers, muscular, with beards and long hair.

Both wore flowing Greek tunics, one trimmed in blue, the other in green. They grappled with each other, wrestled, kicked and head-butted, and every time they connected, lightning flashed, the sky grew darker, and the wind rose.

I had to stop them. I didn't know why. But the harder I ran, the more the wind blew me back, until I was running in place, my heels digging uselessly into the sand.

Over the roar of the storm, I could hear the blue-robed one yelling at the green-robed one, Give it back! Give it back! Like a kindergartner fighting over a toy.

The waves got bigger, crashing into the beach, spraying me with salt. I yelled, Stop it! Stop fighting! The ground shook. Laughter came from somewhere under the earth, and a voice so deep and evil

it turned my blood to ice.

Come down, little hero, the voice crooned. Come down! The sand split beneath me, opening up a crevice straight down to the centre of the earth. My feet

slipped and when I thought I would be swallowed by the darkness, I was saved by my arm by the guy with the green Greek tunic.

With a wave of his hand, the apocalyptic scene vanished, and the darkness under my feet trying to swallow me disappeared as if nothing had happened.

Before I was now a peaceful bitch as if anything that I had happened was just an illusion or a delusion of mine.

The green wrestler freed my arm and I fell on the now Sandy beach under me.

"Hi Percy, I wanted to talk to you" I almost didn't answer. I knew who this was before heaven talked. He had black hair, a neatly trimmed black beard, a deep tan, and sea-green eyes that were surrounded by sun crinkles that told one he was prone to smiling. He looked like me or it would be accurate to say instead that I looked like him. This was my dad.

"Yes sir" I answered him. He was my Father but could I really call him such? Would he see it as an insult if I did? Even I knew that Poseidon was known for his mercurial and switching mood. It seemed I did an error because his eyes changed, they were like a kaleidoscope of madness whispering to me, trying to drown me. They weren't the familiar green eyes that he did minutes ago shared with me.

It was worse than what I saw in the eyes of Mr D. It made me remember that what was before was me before all was one of the first and strongest Gods.

It only lasted a second even though it felt like an eternity and his eyes went back to their sea-green colour.

He sighed" I guess I deserve that". His voice felt sad. I had just met my father for the first time and I had already done something wrong.

He sat on the sand." would you like to sit with me, Percy? He asked me. I nodded dumbly and sat at his side.

There were so many things I wanted to say, that I wanted to ask. I wanted to scream at him, ask him why he wasn't there. I didn't ask any of those things so instead I asked him" What is happening lord Poseidon? Where are we?"

The Lord of the ocean wasn't looking at the sea anymore. He was looking at me as if he was dissecting me piece by piece. He finally answered" We are right now in the domain of Hypnos. What you were seeing before could be called a vision, an interpretation of the things filtered by your brain. Because I was one of the subjects of the vision and because of my abilities, I was able to hijack it to talk to you."

I knew that Gods and therefore demigods existed and that we were capable of doing things mortals weren't able to do but knowing and experiencing something are two different things. What he told me was straight out of what I would see watching the Xmen on Tv.

"What did you want to talk about Sir" I questioned him. I was curious about the reasons he did all of this. I wanted to know why he wanted to talk to me right now.

"You can call me Dad you know," he said while putting his hand on the back of his neck." it's also fine if you don't want to. You can call me anything you find comfortable" he continued.

I realized that he was trying even if it seemed awkward. All my life, I dreamt of the day when my father would come back. I had dreamed of the day when I could show mine to anyone else and proudly present him as my Dad.

"I'll call you dad," saying it felt so weird but at the same time felt so right.

I went back to my original question" What did you want to talk about".

"Honestly, a lot of things but before everything I wanted to tell you something important Percy" I began to pay attention.

He looked me in the eyes and said" I want you to know that I'm sorry for not being there. I want you to know that I've always loved you. " I could feel tears come forth unwillingly." I want

You do no matter what you do, I swear to you right now before the heavens and the earth and on the Styx" The noise of thunder made itself known even though it was a dream " that I'll always be proud of you". He finished

I tried to stop crying. I wasn't normally such a crybaby." how could you think that? I'm not smart or strong enough or anything. I am just a dumb kid trying to do better and failing at it. I wasn't strong enough to save Mom".

My dad did something unexpected. He hugged me. A part of me wondered if all of this wasn't just me dreaming. I feared that I would wake up and realise that none of that was real.

" You are more than everything I wish you could be Percy. You're neither weak nor Dumb. Somebody who's dumb wouldn't have been to trick the Minautor to break his own horn and end it with it. A weak kid wouldn't have been able to beat himself more than two children of the war god". He whispered while continuing to hold me in his arms.

"Even if you weren't strong enough, I would be there, strong for the both of us. I'm sorry I made cry" he continued while hugging me.

I forced myself to stop crying. I didn't want my dad to be upset because of my tears.

" Then, why weren't you there if I am everything you wished I could be?" I asked while looking into his eyes still in his arms. I wanted to know how could all of those things happened if he cared. I wanted to know why he let Mom and me suffer with Gabe. I wanted to know why he never helped Mom and me.

" I never wanted you to go through any of this Percy. I never wanted you to think that I didn't care and didn't love you." he began.

" the thing is that I tried to make sure all of this never happened. I wanted to raise you. I wanted to see your first steps, hear you say your first words and drown you with affection and all the best the world could offer" he said seeming lost in past memories.

" When I learned that your mother was pregnant, I was ecstatic. I asked us to come live with me under the sea where I would have built castles, wonders that she and you deserved. I would have made both of you gods. it is forbidden for members of the big three to have half-blooded children. We swore an oath." he said in disgust like a child being forced to eat its vegetables.

"But" he added" if I made you immortal, I wouldn't have technically broken my oath and what else than immortality could be the best gift given to"

I thought about being immortal, living inside a caste instead of an apartment shared with smelly Gabe. I thought about never having to worry about money for Mom and me. I thought about being a god and never having to worry about dying be it natural or by the hand of a monster. It sounded like a dream.

So" Why didn't you do it, Dad? I blurted out.

He sighed and answered," I didn't do it because of your mom." why would Mom say no I thought.

My thought must have been written all over my face because my dad answered what I was thinking." She said that she refused to depend on someone else. She didn't want somebody else to solve her problems. She didn't want to depend on anyone," he said bitterly as if repeating a past conversation.

" I couldn't live with the both of you on the surface without risking the safety of the both of you. It would have been known by the other gods whether I wanted it or not. You already experienced what it was to be suspected to be a child of mine" he told me while looking in the direction of the ocean.

I knew what he was talking about. I had been attacked by fury, by the Minnautor and blasted in a car by a lightning bolt.

" it would have been worse than everything you already experienced. Hades would have opened the gates of his realm and sent after your mother and you the most abominable and foul monsters. Zeus if not trying to erase you two personally would have sent other Gods or demigods to exact his will" he chuckled darkly

" I knew what I had to do even if I didn't want to. Being a parent means being ready to do anything even if those things hurt us so I did what I had to do for your safety. I left and almost nothing has ever hurt me that much"

I felt sorry and angry for my dad. I felt angry at Zeus, at Hades and at all the other gods. They were the reason behind everything wrong in my life. Their cruelty was as big as their apathy.

I wanted to make them pay.

I turned my face towards the blue ocean created by my dad. I had finally the answer to all the questions I've always wanted to be answered. It felt liberating as if a weight that had been always there had finally disappeared.

We Both stayed in a comfortable silence watching the waves in the distance take and lose form. I was still in the arms of my father and I should have probably not been acting like such a baby but it felt so comfortable.

He turned back to me" I am so sorry Percy. Even with everything I tried, I wasn't able to give you a good and comfortable life." I wanted to protest, to tell him that he had tried, that he was at least now there nothing came out.

" Even now, I can feel the webs of fate encroaching on you. I can in observing the eddies of fate glimpse coming to you loss, suffering and death". He sounded as if he was stopping himself from crying.

"My brother thinks that I have orchestrated the disappearance of his bolt. Gods can't steal directly the symbol of power of another god without respecting some conditions, conditions that didn't abide by which meant that I hadn't stolen it myself."

He said that Gods couldn't steal directly from other gods which meant that" Zeus thinks that you stole it indirectly".

He smiled and ruffled my hair" Smart boy". It made me feel happy and proud.

" the indirect way for a god to steal from another would be to use a mortal agent and with you being discovered living in New York where Olympus is also situated, my brother thinks that I used to steal his lightning bolt"

"That is completely crazy!" I screamed. " I didn't even know about gods and monsters before being attacked by a fury". All of this made me mad. I was blamed again for something I hadn't done and Mom paid the price for it.

"Zeus doesn't care," my dad said as angry as I felt. As if To prove this, no far from us, the ocean that was once calm was now churning, moving like a horrible beast trying to destroy everything around it. The sand of the beach was covered by it now and it was continuing to swallow all of the beach. The only spot untouched was the one where my dad and I were.

" He accused me of stealing it. He thinks that I am secretly having the Cyclopes build an arsenal of illegal copies, which might be used to topple him from his throne. He threatened war if his lighting bolt wasn't given back before the summer solstice" my dad continued.

"He doesn't want to hear reason and he hurt your mother and you. I won't let myself be walked on by my youngest brother. Many think he's our King because of his strength when in reality, he's such only by luck and deception. It is time to make him remember that" said my dad with anticipation as if something he was waiting forever to do was finally possible.

" Our sisters talked to him. He agreed to allow you to prove your innocence by giving him back his bolt. " my father said with disgust as if he had before him something smelling bad.

"But I did nothing". How was I supposed to give him his stupid bolt when I didn't know where it was?

" For the lord of the sky, everyone is deemed guilty until proven otherwise and he's the god of justice. What a joke". I couldn't agree more with my dad.

"There are two possibilities Percy" he said while turning his head to look me into my eyes." you can try to do the dangerous quest that will be given to you to find my brother's symbol of power or you could when you wake up come undersea in Atlantis with me where you would be safe. Know that whatever you choose, I'll still be proud and will still support you." he finished with a smile.

I could go to Atlantis. It would make everything so easy. I wouldn't have to worry about monsters coming after me and with my father with me protecting me in his own domain, I would be nearly untouchable.

I could do this, take the easy option but it's not something I think I would be able to live with. Mom had taught me that doing the right thing meant sometimes doing the hard thing.

Going under the sea wouldn't change the fact that I will still be seen as the lightning thief. I would be the reason why my dad goes to war and even though he was confident, I can't say with certainty that he'd win. He was risking everything because of me.

"I won't go to Atlantis with you Dad," I told him with conviction. My mind was now made up." I'll prove my innocence, I'll find his stupid bolt to stop the war.

"You don't have to Percy," he said sounding sad. I didn't want to make my dad sad but I couldn't back down.

"I know that Dad but I am sure of my decision" I answered him.

The scenery was beginning to be completely submerged in the ocean that was now at the level of my navel. It was little by little growing but I didn't fear. I knew now that my dad would do everything to make sure I wasn't harmed.

"You are really a strong boy," he said before kissing the crown of my head. " you'll soon wake up in the real world." the ocean was now at the level of my chin," remember Percy that the ocean is everywhere. You just have to call to it to make it answer and it will answer wherever you are. If any moment, you want to stop, call me and I'll come. I have many regrets and did many errors but you're not one of them"

He pulled back to look me in the eyes. The water was over my mouth and creeping toward my nose yet I wasn't scared.

"I love you, Percy," he told me before the ocean swallowed me and I woke u.

"I love you, Dad," I said back in my dark cabin.

My body told me it was morning, but it was dark outside, and thunder rolled across the hills. A storm was brewing. I hadn't dreamed that. I knew without a doubt that anything that happened wasn't the result of a sleepy mind. I met my dad.

"Dad" I called in the empty cabin. A sensation of being watched rolled over me. It felt as if I was in the centre of the Ocean and as if nothing could touch me. It stayed for a second and rescinded in the nothing it came from. That was the proof that I hadn't made things up.

I heard a clopping sound at the door, a hoof knocking on the threshold. "Come in?"

It was Grover. He trotted inside, looking worried.

"Mr. D wants to see you."

"Why?"

"He wants to kill... I mean, I'd better let him tell

you."

I should have felt nervous but I didn't. I remembered my father's words. I knew that my dad had my back and that he would do anything to make me safe. I got dressed and followed, sure that I was in huge trouble and it was probably concerning the stealing of the lightning bolt of Zeus.

For days, I'd been half expecting a summons to the Big House but now after the dream and the conversation I had with my dad, I knew when I woke up that it was a question of time, of when and not maybe or if.

Now that I was declared a son of

Poseidon, one of the Big Three gods who weren't supposed to have kids and was suspected as the lightning thief, I figured that it was a crime in the eyes of the gods except for my dad for me to be alive.

The other gods had probably been debating the best way to punish me for existing, and now Mr. D was ready to deliver their verdict. My dad told me that they wanted to give me a quest but in case it wasn't that and actually wanted to harm me, I would call for my dad. It felt not gonna lie good to have somebody you could always be counted on other than your mom.

Over Long Island Sound, the sky looked like ink soup coming to a boil. A hazy curtain of rain was coming in our direction. I asked Grover if we needed an umbrella.

"No," he said. "It never rains here unless we want it to."

I pointed at the storm. "What the heck is that, then?"

He glanced uneasily at the sky. "It'll pass around us. Bad weather always does."

I realized he was right. In the week I'd been here, it had never even been overcast. The few rainclouds I'd seen had skirted right around the edges of the valley.

But this storm ... this one was huge.

At the volleyball pit, the kids from Apollo's cabin were playing a morning game against the satyrs. Dionysus's twins were walking around in the strawberry fields, making the plants grow. Everybody was going about their normal business, but they looked tense. They kept their eyes on the storm.

Grover and I walked up to the front porch of the Big House. Dionysus sat at the pinochle table in his tiger-striped Hawaiian shirt with his Diet Coke, just as he had on my first day. Chiron sat across the table in his fake wheelchair. They were playing against invisible opponents–two sets of cards hovering in the air. How my life had become that I didn't bat an eye to that.

"Well, well," Mr. D said without looking up. "Our little celebrity."I waited.

"Come closer," Mr. D said. "And don't expect me to kowtow to you, mortal, just because old

Barnacle-Beard is your father." I don't think my dad would like to be called like this I wanted to say but I restrained myself. I didn't need more problems added to the list of the already existing ones.

A net of lightning flashed across the clouds. Thunder shook the windows of the house.

"Blah, blah, blah," Dionysus said.

Chiron feigned interest in his pinochle cards. Grover cowered by the railing, his hooves clopping back and forth.

"If I had my way," Dionysus said, "I would cause your molecules to erupt in flames. We'd sweep up the ashes and be done with a lot of trouble. But Chiron seems to feel this would be against my mission at this cursed camp: to keep you little brats safe from harm." thank you Mister Bruner I thought. He was my favourite prof for a reason.

"A spontaneous combustion is a form of harm, Mr. D," Chiron put in.

"Nonsense," Dionysus said. "Boy wouldn't feel a thing."I would feel a thing I thought. "Nevertheless, I've agreed to restrain myself I'm thinking of turning you into a dolphin instead, sending you back to your father."

"Mr. D-" Chiron warned.

"Oh, all right," Dionysus relented. "There's one more option. But it's deadly foolishness." I think I knew what he was alluding to. Dionysus rose, and the invisible players' cards dropped to the table. "I'm off to Olympus for the emergency meeting. If the boy is still here when I get back, I'll turn him into an Atlantic bottlenose. Do you understand? And Perseus Jackson, if you're at all smart, you'll see that's a much more sensible choice than what Chiron feels you must do."

Dionysus picked up a playing card, twisted it, and it became a plastic rectangle. A credit card? No. A security pass. He snapped his fingers. The air seemed to fold and bend around him. He became a hologram, then a wind, then he was gone, leaving only the smell of fresh-pressed grapes lingering behind. I had to admit that it was cool. I still didn't like him though.

Chiron smiled at me, but he looked tired and strained. "Sit, Percy, please. And Grover." We did. Chiron laid his cards on the table, a winning hand he hadn't gotten to use.

"Tell me, Percy," he said. "What did you make of the hellhound?"

Just hearing the name made me shudder.

Chiron probably wanted me to say, Heck, it was nothing. I eat hellhounds for breakfast. But I didn't feel like lying.

"It scared me," I said. "If you hadn't shot it, I'd be dead." "You'll meet worse, Percy. Far worse, before you're done." Yeah, that didn't sound ominous at all.

"Done ... with what?"

"Your quest, of course. Will you accept it?" and finally, the core of the matter appears.

I glanced at Grover, who was crossing his fingers. I played dumb. I wasn't supposed to know anything.

"Um, sir," I said, "you haven't told me what it is yet."

Chiron grimaced. "Well, that's the hard part, the details."

Thunder rumbled across the valley. The storm clouds had now reached the edge of the beach. As far as I could see, the sky and the sea were boiling together.

"Poseidon and Zeus, They're fighting over something valuable ... something that was stolen, aren't they?" I said trying to make my words seem uncertain.

Chiron and Grover exchanged looks.

Chiron sat forward in his wheelchair. "How did you know that?"

Here came Percy, the best lying kid in New York. I drew to make everything convincing of the times when I had eaten more cookies than I was allowed to by mom and yet was able to make it seem it was the fault of a rat.

Yeah, mom saw right through it but it was almost perfect. It was just because Mom was very perceptive about stuff and not for any other reason. They were good though.

"The weather since Christmas has been

weird, like the sea and the sky are fighting". I began "Then I talked to Annabeth, and she'd overheard something about a theft. And ... I've also been having these dreams." "I knew it," Grover said. Yeah, It worked. I wasn't joking when I said I was the best.

"Hush, satyr," Chiron ordered.

"But it is his quest!" Grover's eyes were bright with excitement. "It must be!"

"Only the Oracle can determine." Chiron stroked his bristly beard. "Nevertheless, Percy, you are correct. Your father and Zeus are having their worst quarrel in centuries. They are fighting over something valuable that was stolen. To be precise: a lightning bolt."

I laughed nervously. "A what?". I had to play the fool.

"Do not take this lightly," Chiron warned. "I'm not talking about some tinfoil-covered zigzag you'd see in a second-grade play. I'm talking about a two-foot-long cylinder of high-grade celestial bronze, capped on both ends with god-level explosives."

"Oh," I said.

"Zeus's master bolt," Chiron continued, getting worked up now. "The symbol of his power, from which all other lightning bolts are patterned. The first weapon made by the Cyclopes for the war against the Titans, the bolt that sheered the top off Mount Etna and hurled Kronos from his throne; the master bolt, which packs enough power to make mortal hydrogen bombs look like firecrackers."

"And it's missing?" They should hire better security in Olympus and stop blaming others for their pitfalls.

"Stolen," Chiron said.

"By who?"

"By whom," Chiron corrected. Once a teacher, always a teacher. "By you." I let my mouth fall open.

"At least"-Chiron held up a hand-"that's what Zeus thinks. During the winter solstice, at the last council of the gods, Zeus and Poseidon had an argument. The usual nonsense: 'Mother Rhea always liked you best,' Air disasters are more spectacular than sea disasters,' et cetera". That sounded childish and not at all how my dad sounded. It was probably mostly Zeus.

"Afterward, Zeus realized his master bolt was missing, taken from the throne room under his very nose. He immediately blamed Poseidon. Now, a god cannot usurp another god's symbol of power directly-that is forbidden by the most ancient of divine laws. But Zeus believes your father convinced a human hero to take it."

"But I didn't-"

"Patience and listen child," Chiron said. "Zeus has good reason to be suspicious. The forges of the Cyclopes are under the ocean, which gives Poseidon some influence over the makers of his brother's lightning". I didn't know this.

"Zeus believes Poseidon has taken the master bolt, and is now secretly having the Cyclopes build an arsenal of illegal copies, which might be used to topple Zeus from his throne".

My dad wouldn't lie to me, right? I thought about the love my dad showed towards me and crushed the doubt beginning to take form in my mind.

"The only thing Zeus wasn't sure about was which hero Poseidon used to steal the bolt. Now Poseidon has openly claimed you as his son. You were in New York over the winter holidays. You could easily have snuck into Olympus. Zeus believes he has found his thief."

"But I've never even been to Olympus! Zeus is crazy!" I wasn't trying to be more convincing or anything. I was this time saying something that I truly thought was true.

Chiron and Grover glanced nervously at the sky. The clouds didn't seem to be parting around us, as Grover had promised. They were rolling straight over our valley, sealing us in like a coffin lid.

"Er, Percy ...?" Grover said. "We don't use the c-word to describe the Lord of the Sky."

"Perhaps paranoid," Chiron suggested. "Then again, Poseidon has tried to unseat Zeus before. I believe that was question thirty-eight on your final exam..." He looked at me as if he actually expected me to remember question thirty-eight.

How could anyone accuse me of stealing a god's weapon? I couldn't even steal a slice of pizza from Gabe's poker party without getting busted. Chiron was waiting for an answer.

"Something about a golden net?" I guessed. "Poseidon and Hera and a few other gods ... they, like, trapped Zeus and wouldn't let him out until he promised to be a better ruler, right?" If Zeus had always been this way, I can understand how other gods and my dad would have had enough and tried to depose him.

"Correct," Chiron said. "And Zeus has never trusted Poseidon since. Of course, Poseidon denies stealing the master bolt. He took great offence at the accusation. The two have been arguing back and forth for months, threatening war. And now, you've come along-the proverbial last straw."

"But I'm just a kid!"

"Percy," Grover cut in, "if you were Zeus, and you already thought your brother was plotting to overthrow you, then your brother suddenly admitted he had broken the sacred oath he took after World War II, that he's fathered a new mortal hero who might be used as a weapon against you... Wouldn't that put a twist in your toga?"

"But I didn't do anything. Poseidon-my dad-he didn't really have this master bolt stolen, did he?" Zeus wouldn't have to worry about rebellion if he hadn't the habit of throwing lightning bolts at people that haven't been proven guilty I reasoned internally. Maybe Zeus should be cast down from his throne forever.

Chiron sighed. "Most thinking observers would agree that thievery is not Poseidon's style. But the Sea God is too proud to try convincing Zeus of that. Zeus demanded that Poseidon return the bolt by the summer solstice. That's June twenty-first, ten days from now. Poseidon wants an apology for being called a thief on the same date.

I hoped that diplomacy might prevail, that Hera or Demeter or Hestia would make the two brothers see sense. But your arrival has inflamed Zeus's temper". Yeah, another thing I did wrong just by existing I thought.

Chiron continued "Now neither god will back down. Unless someone intervenes, unless the master bolt is found and returned to Zeus before the solstice, there will be war. And do you know what a full-fledged war would look like, Percy?"

"Bad?" I guessed.

"Imagine the world in chaos. Nature at war with itself. Olympians forced to choose sides between Zeus and Poseidon. Destruction. Carnage. Millions dead. Western civilization turned into a battleground so big it will make the Trojan War look like a water-balloon fight."

"Bad," I repeated. It really sounded bad. Even though I would have loved nothing more than being with my dad, I wanted to prove for once to the world, to everyone that I wasn't what they thought I was. I was sick and tired of always being blamed when things go wrong.

"And you, Percy Jackson, would be the first to feel Zeus's wrath."It started to rain. Volleyball players stopped their game and stared in stunned silence at the sky.

I had brought this storm to Half-Blood Hill. Zeus was punishing the whole camp because of me. I was furious and couldn't hide it anymore.

"So I have to find the stupid bolt," I said. "And return it to Zeus."

"What better peace offering," Chiron said, "than to have the son of Poseidon return Zeus's property?"

"If my dad doesn't have it, where is the thing?"

"I believe I know." Chiron's expression was grim. "Part of a prophecy I had years ago ... well, some of the lines make sense to me, now. But before I can say more, you must officially take up the quest. You must seek the counsel of the Oracle." I was always told by my mom to always know what something entails before I agree. It sounded sketchy.

"Why can't you tell me where the bolt is beforehand?" I asked. Wouldn't that be easier?

"Because if I did, you would be too afraid to accept the challenge."

I swallowed. "Good reason." If the goal was to make me agree, he was going in a very weird way.

"You agree then?" I looked at Grover, who nodded encouragingly. Easy for him. I was the one Zeus wanted to kill.

"All right," I said. "It's better than being turned into a dolphin." "Then it's time you consulted the Oracle," Chiron said. "Go upstairs, Percy Jackson, to the attic.

When you come back down, assuming you're still sane, we will talk more." Four flights up, the stairs ended under a green trapdoor that was not ominous at all. Yeah, that was sarcastic if you could not tell.

I pulled the cord. The door swung down, and a wooden ladder clattered into place.

The warm air from above smelled like mildew and rotten wood and something else ... a smell I remembered from biology class. Reptiles. The smell of snakes.

I held my breath and climbed.

The attic was filled with Greek hero junk: armour stands covered in cobwebs; once-bright shields pitted with rust; old leather steamer trunks plastered with stickers saying ITHAKA, CIRCE'S ISLE, and LAND OF THE AMAZONS.

One long table was stacked with glass jars filled with pickled things-severed hairy claws, huge yellow eyes, and various other parts of monsters. A dusty mounted trophy on the wall looked like a giant snake's head but with horns and a full set of shark's teeth. The plaque read, HYDRA HEAD 1, WOODSTOCK, N.Y., 1969.

By the window, sitting on a wooden tripod stool, was the most gruesome memento of all: a mummy. Not the wrapped-in-cloth kind, but a human female body shrivelled to a husk. She wore a tie-dyed sundress, lots of beaded necklaces, and a headband over long black hair. The skin of her face was thin and leathery over her skull, and her eyes were glassy white slits as if the real eyes had been replaced by marbles; she'd been dead a long, long time. How was I supposed to receive a prophecy if the Oracle was a corpse?

Looking at her sent chills up my back. And that was before she sat up on her stool and opened her mouth like a demon from the evil dead. A green mist poured from the mummy's mouth, coiling over the floor in thick tendrils, hissing like twenty thousand snakes. I stumbled over myself trying to get to the trapdoor, but it slammed shut.

Inside my head, I heard a voice, slithering into one ear and coiling around my brain: I am the spirit of Delphi, speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python. Approach, seeker, and ask.

I wanted to say, No thanks, wrong door, just looking for the bathroom. But I forced myself to take a deep breath.

I didn't know how I knew but The mummy wasn't alive. She was some kind of gruesome receptacle for something else, the power that was now swirling around me in the green mist. But its presence didn't feel evil, like my demonic math teacher Mrs. Dodds or the Minotaur. It felt more like the Three Fates I'd seen knitting the yarn outside the highway fruit stand: ancient, powerful, and definitely not human. But not particularly interested in killing me, either.

I got up the courage to ask, "What is my destiny?"

The mist swirled more thickly, collecting right in front of me and around the table with the pickled monster-part jars. Suddenly there were four men sitting around the table, playing cards. Their faces became clearer. It was Smelly Gabe and his buddies.

My fists clenched, though I knew this poker party couldn't be real. It was an illusion, made out of most I repeated to myself. It wasn't real. Gabe turned toward me and spoke in the rasping voice of the Oracle: You shall go west, and face the god who has turned.

His buddy on the right looked up and said in the same voice: You shall find what was stolen, and see it safely returned.

The guy on the left threw in two poker chips, then said: You shall be betrayed by one who calls you a friend.

Finally, Eddie, our building super, delivered the worst line of all: And you shall fail to save what

matters most, in the end.

The figures began to dissolve. At first, I was too stunned to say anything, but as the mist retreated, coiling into a huge green serpent and slithering back into the mouth of the mummy, I cried, "Wait! What do you mean? What friend? What will I fail to save?" I didn't think that I had other friends except Grover. Does it mean that he would betray me?

Would it be someone else?

The tail of the mist snake disappeared into the mummy's mouth. She reclined back against the wall. Her mouth closed tight as if it hadn't been open in a hundred years. The attic was silent again, abandoned, nothing but a room full of mementoes.

I got the feeling that I could stand here until I had cobwebs, too, and I wouldn't learn anything else. My audience with the Oracle was over.

"Well?" Chiron asked me when I got out of the attic. I slumped into a chair at the pinochle table. "She said I would retrieve what was stolen."

Grover sat forward, chewing excitedly on the remains of a Diet Coke can. "That's great!"

"What did the Oracle say exactly?" Chiron pressed. "This is important."

My ears were still tingling from the reptilian voice. "She . .. she said I would go west and face a god who had turned. I would retrieve what was stolen and see it safely returned."

"I knew it," Grover said.

Chiron didn't look satisfied. "Anything else?"

I didn't want to tell him.

What friend would betray me? I didn't have that many. And the last line-I would fail to save what mattered most. What kind of Oracle would send me on a quest and tell me, Oh, by the way, you'll fail How could I confess that? Worse, how I could live with myself knowing that I will disappoint my dad?

"No," I said. "That's about it."

He studied my face. "Very well, Percy. But know this: the Oracle's words often have double meanings. Don't dwell on them too much. The truth is not always clear until events come to pass."

I got the feeling he knew I was holding back something bad, and he was trying to make me feel better.

"Okay," I said, anxious to change topics. "So where do I go? Who's this god in the West?"

"Ah, think, Percy," Chiron said. "If Zeus and Poseidon weaken each other in a war, who stands to gain?"

"Somebody else who wants to take over?" I guessed.

"Yes, quite. Someone who harbours a grudge, who has been unhappy with his lot since the world was divided aeons ago, whose kingdom would grow powerful with the deaths of millions. Someone who hates his brothers for forcing him into an oath to have no more children, an oath that both of them have now broken."

I thought about my dreams, the evil voice that had spoken from under the ground. "Hades."

Chiron nodded. "The Lord of the Dead is the only possibility."

A scrap of aluminium dribbled out of Grover's mouth. "Whoa, wait. Wh-what?"

"A Fury came after Percy," Chiron reminded him. "She watched the young man until she was sure of his identity, then tried to kill him. Furies obey only one lord: Hades."

"Yes, but-but Hades hates all heroes," Grover protested. "Especially if he has found out Percy is a son of Poseidon... ."

"A hellhound got into the forest," Chiron continued. "Those can only be summoned from the Fields of Punishment, and it had to be summoned by someone within the camp.

Hades must have a spy here. He must suspect Poseidon will try to use Percy to clear his name. Hades would very much like to kill this young half-blood before he can take on the quest."

"Great," I muttered. "As if it could not have been worse."

"But a quest to ..." Grover swallowed. "I mean, couldn't the master bolt be in some place like Maine? Maine's very nice this time of year."

"Hades sent a minion to steal the master bolt," Chiron insisted. "He hid it in the Underworld, knowing full well that Zeus would blame Poseidon. I don't pretend to understand the Lord of the Dead's motives perfectly, or why he chose this time to start a war, but one thing is certain. Percy must go to the Underworld, find the master bolt, and reveal the truth."

A strange fire burned in my stomach. The weirdest thing was: it wasn't fear. It was anticipation. The desire for revenge. Hades had tried to kill me three times so far, with the Fury, the Minotaur, and the hellhound. It was his fault my mother had disappeared in a flash of light. Now he was trying to frame me and my dad for a theft we hadn't committed.

I was ready to take him on. Besides, if my mother was in the Underworld ...

Whoa, boy, said the small part of my brain that was still sane. You're a kid. Hades is a god but you also have another god on your side a voice in my mind whispered.

Grover was trembling. He'd started eating pinochle cards like potato chips.

The poor guy needed to complete a quest with me so he could get his searcher's license, whatever that was, but how could I ask him to do this quest, especially when the Oracle said I was destined to fail? This was suicide.

"Look, if we know it's Hades," I told Chiron, "why can't we just tell the other gods? Zeus or Poseidon could go down to the Underworld and bust some heads."

"Suspecting and knowing are not the same," Chiron said. "Besides, even if the other gods suspect Hades-and I imagine Poseidon does-they couldn't retrieve the bolt themselves. Gods cannot cross each other's territories except by invitation. That is another ancient rule". I didn't know this. I was back to square one. If I wanted to face Hades, I would have to do it out of his domain where I could count on the help of my father.

Heroes, on the other hand, have certain privileges. They can go anywhere, and challenge anyone, as long as they're bold enough and strong enough to do it. No god can be held responsible for a hero's actions. Why do you think the gods always operate through humans?"

"You're saying I'm being used."

"I'm saying it's no accident Poseidon has claimed you now. It's a very risky gamble, but he's in a desperate situation. He needs you."

My dad needs me.

Maybe before, I would have felt resentful but I was given a choice. My dad needed my help yet gave me the choice to go on a quest or not. I only felt at that moment anticipation and anxiety. I wanted to succeed, find the master bolt and like some demigods in the past bring Mom from the underworld but on the other side, I was scared of failing. My failure meant war and devastation. I wasn't the only one at risk here.

I looked at Chiron. "You've known I was Poseidon's son all along, haven't you?"

"I had my suspicions. As I said ... I've spoken to the Oracle, too."

I got the feeling there was a lot he wasn't telling me about his prophecy, but I decided I couldn't worry about that right now. After all, I was holding back information too.

"So let me get this straight," I said. "I'm supposed to go to the Underworld and confront the Lord of the Dead."

"Check," Chiron said.

"Find the most powerful weapon in the universe."

"Check."

"And get it back to Olympus before the summer solstice, in ten days."

"That's about right."

I looked at Grover, who gulped down the ace of hearts. "Did I mention that Maine is very nice this time of year?" he asked weakly.

"You don't have to go," I told him. "I can't ask that of you.

"Oh ..." He shifted his hooves. "No ... it's just that satyrs and underground places ... well..." He took a deep breath, then stood, brushing the shredded cards and aluminium bits off his T-shirt.

"You saved my life, Percy. If ... if you're serious about wanting me along, I won't let you down."

I felt so relieved I wanted to cry, though I didn't think that would be very heroic. Grover was the only friend I'd ever had for longer than a few months. I wasn't sure what good a satyr could do against the forces of the dead, but I felt better knowing he'd be with me.

"All the way, G-man." I turned to Chiron. "So where do we go? The Oracle just said to go west." "The entrance to the Underworld is always in the west. It moves from age to age, just like Olympus. Right now, of course, it's in America." "Where?"

Chiron looked surprised. "I thought that would be obvious enough. The entrance to the Underworld is in Los Angeles."

"Oh," I said. "Naturally. So we just get on a plane-"

"No!" Grover shrieked. "Percy, what are you thinking? Have you ever been on a plane in your life?"

I shook my head, feeling embarrassed. My mom had never taken me anywhere by plane. She'd always said we didn't have the money. Besides, her parents had died in a plane crash.

"Percy, think," Chiron said. "You are the son of the Sea God. Your father's bitterest rival is Zeus, Lord of the Sky. Your mother knew better than to trust you in an airplane. You would be in Zeus's domain. You would never come down again alive."

Overhead, lightning crackled. Thunder boomed as if to confirm chron words.

"Okay," I said, determined not to look at the storm. "So, I'll travel overland."

"That's right," Chiron said. "Two companions may accompany you. Grover is one. The other has already volunteered, if you will accept her help."

"Gee," I said, feigning surprise. "Who else would be stupid enough to volunteer for a quest like this?

The air shimmered behind Chiron.

Annabeth became visible, stuffing her Yankees cap into her back pocket. I guess we found the idiot I thought.

"I've been waiting a long time for a quest, seaweed brain," she said. "Athena is no fan of

Poseidon, but if you're going to save the world, I'm the best person to keep you from messing up."

"If you do say so yourself," I said. "I suppose you have a plan, wise girl?"

Her cheeks coloured. "Do you want my help or not?"

The truth was, I did. I needed all the help I could get even if I didn't forget the way she set me up with the Ares cabin.

"A trio," I said. "That'll work."

"Excellent," Chiron said. "This afternoon, we can take you as far as the bus terminal in

Manhattan. After that, you are on your own."

Lightning flashed. Rain poured down on the meadows that were never supposed to have violent weather.

"No time to waste," Chiron said. "I think you should all get packing."

scene*

When I went back to my cabin, I found on my bed a collar of white pearls with a note saying for protection. It felt like my dad like the waves of the beach of Montauk. I wore it. It didn't take me long to pack. I decided to leave the Minotaur horn in my cabin, which left me only an extra change of clothes and a toothbrush to stuff in a backpack Grover had found for me.

The camp store loaned me one hundred dollars in mortal money and twenty golden drachmas. These coins were as big as Girl Scout cookies and had images of various Greek gods stamped on one side and the Empire State Building on the other.

The ancient mortal drachmas had been silver, Chiron told us, but Olympians never used less than pure gold.

Chiron said the coins might come in handy for non-mortal transactions-whatever that meant. He gave Annabeth and me each a canteen of nectar and a Ziploc bag full of ambrosia squares, to be used only in emergencies if we were seriously hurt.

It was god food, Chiron reminded us. It would cure us of almost any injury, but it was lethal to mortals. Too much of it would make a half-blood very, very feverish. An overdose would burn us up, literally.

Annabeth was bringing her magic Yankees cap, which she told me had been a twelfth-birthday present from her mom. She carried a book on famous classical architecture, written in Ancient Greek, to read when she got bored, and a long bronze knife, hidden in her shirt sleeve. I was sure the knife would get us busted the first time we went through a metal detector.

Grover wore his fake feet and his pants to pass as human. He wore a green rasta-style cap, because when it rained his curly hair flattened and you could just see the tips of his horns. His bright orange backpack was full of scrap metal and apples to snack on. In his pocket was a set of reed pipes his daddy goat had carved for him, even though he only knew two songs: Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 12 and Hilary Duff's "So Yesterday," both of which sounded pretty bad on reed pipes.

We waved goodbye to the other campers, took one last look at the strawberry fields, the ocean, and the Big House, and then hiked up Half-Blood Hill to the tall pine tree that used to be Thalia, daughter of Zeus.

Chiron was waiting for us in his wheelchair. Next to him stood the surfer dude I'd seen when I was recovering in the sick room.

According to Grover, the guy was the camp's head of security. He supposedly had eyes all over his body so he could never be surprised. Today, though, he was wearing a chauffeur's uniform, so I could only see extra peepers on his hands, face and neck.

"This is Argus," Chiron told me. "He will drive you into the city, and, er, well, keep an eye on things."

I heard footsteps behind us.

Luke came running up the hill, carrying a pair of basketball shoes.

"Hey!" he panted. "Glad I caught you."

Annabeth blushed, the way she always did when Luke was around.

"Just wanted to say good luck," Luke told me. "And I thought ... um, maybe you could use these." He handed me the sneakers, which looked pretty normal. They even smelled kind of normal.

Luke said, "Maia!"

White bird's wings sprouted out of the heels, startling me so much, I dropped them. The shoes flapped around on the ground until the wings folded up and disappeared. "Awesome!" Grover said.

Luke smiled. "Those served me well when I was on my quest. Gift from Dad. Of course, I don't use them much these days..." His expression turned sad.

I didn't know what to say. It was cool enough that Luke had come to say goodbye. I'd been afraid he might resent me for getting so much attention the last few days. But here he was giving me a magic gift... It made me blush almost as much as Annabeth.

"Hey, man," I said. "Thanks."

"Listen, Percy ..." Luke looked uncomfortable. "A lot of hopes are riding on you. So just ... kill some monsters for me, okay?"

We shook hands. Luke patted Grover's head between his horns, then gave a goodbye hug to Annabeth, who looked like she might pass out.

After Luke was gone, I told her, "You're hyperventilating."

"Am not."

"You let him capture the flag instead of you, didn't you?"

"Oh ... why do I want to go anywhere with you, Percy?"

She stomped down the other side of the hill, where a white SUV waited on the shoulder of the road. Argus followed, jingling his car keys.

I picked up the flying shoes and had a sudden bad feeling, the kind you get when passing close to a shadowy alley at night.

I looked at Chiron. "I won't be able to use these, will I?"

He shook his head. "Luke meant well, Percy. But taking to the air ... that would not be wise for you."

I nodded, disappointed, but then I got an idea. "Hey, Grover. You want a magic item?"

His eyes lit up. "Me?"

Pretty soon we'd laced the sneakers over his fake feet, and the world's first flying goat boy was ready for launch. First step for Grover and maybe in the future, satyrs will be the ones dominating the sky.

"Maia!" he shouted.

He got off the ground okay but then fell over sideways so his backpack dragged through the grass.

The winged shoes kept bucking up and down like tiny broncos.

"Practice," Chiron called after him. "You just need practice!"

"Aaaaa!" Grover went flying sideways down the hill like a possessed lawn mower, heading

toward the van. In a very long future, I thought before the satyrs would rule the sky.

Before I could follow, Chiron caught my arm. "I should have trained you better, Percy," he said.

"If only I had more time. Hercules, Jason-they all got more training."

"That's okay. You tried, something that most of my ex-teachers didn't do when it came to me" I told him

"What am I thinking?" Chiron cried. "I can't let you get away without this."

He pulled a pen from his coat pocket and handed it to me. It was an ordinary disposable ballpoint, black ink, and a removable cap. Probably cost thirty cents.

"Gee," I said. "Thanks." trying to sound not disappointed.

"Percy, that's a gift from your father. I've kept it for years, not knowing you were who I was waiting for. But the prophecy is clear to me now. You are the one."

I remembered the field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art when I'd vaporized Mrs. Dodds. Chiron had thrown me a pen that turned into a sword. Could this be ...?

I took off the cap, and the pen grew longer and heavier in my hand. In half a second, I held a

shimmering bronze sword with a double-edged blade, a leather-wrapped grip, and a flat hilt riveted with gold studs. It was the first weapon that actually felt balanced in my hand.

"The sword has a long and tragic history that we need not go into," Chiron told me. "Its name is Anaklusmos."

"'Riptide,'" I translated, surprised the Ancient Greek came so easily.

"Use it only for emergencies," Chiron said, "and only against monsters. No hero should harm mortals unless absolutely necessary, of course, but this sword wouldn't harm them in any case."

I looked at the wickedly sharp blade. "What do you mean it wouldn't harm mortals? How could it not?"

"The sword is celestial bronze. Forged by the Cyclopes, tempered in the heart of Mount Etna, cooled in the River Lethe. It's deadly to monsters, to any creature from the Underworld, provided they don't kill you first. But the blade will pass through mortals like an illusion. They simply are not important enough for the blade to kill. And I should warn you: as a demigod, you can be killed by either celestial or normal weapons. You are twice as vulnerable."

"Good to know."

"Now recap the pen," he told me.

I touched the pen cap to the sword tip and instantly Riptide shrank to a ballpoint pen again. I tucked it in my pocket, a little nervous, because I was famous for losing pens at school.

"You can't," Chiron said.

"Can't what?"

"Lose the pen," he said as if he had read my mind. "It is enchanted. It will always reappear in your pocket. Try it."

I was wary, but I threw the pen as far as I could down the hill and watched it disappear in the

grass.

"It may take a few moments," Chiron told me.

"Now check your pocket."

Sure enough, the pen was there.

"Okay, that's extremely cool," I admitted. "But what if a mortal sees me pulling out a sword?"

Chiron smiled. "Mist is a powerful thing, Percy."

"Mist?"

"Yes. Read The Iliad. It's full of references to the stuff. Whenever divine or monstrous elements mix with the mortal world, they generate Mist, which obscures the vision of humans. You will see things just as they are, being a half-blood, but humans will interpret things quite differently. Remarkable, really, the lengths to which humans will go to fit things into their version of reality."Does that mean that everything I thought I was hallucinating had always been real but I was the only one seeing through it like with Miss Ker? It would have been so much better if I knew about all of this before thinking I was going crazy.

I put Riptide back in my pocket. For the first time, the quest felt real. I was actually leaving Half-Blood Hill. I was heading west with no adult supervision, not even a cell phone. (Chiron said cell phones were traceable by monsters; if we used one, it would be worse than sending up a flare. I wondered how did monsters became tech-savvy. I imagined the minautor taking an informatics class. ) I had no weapon stronger than a sword to fight off monsters and reach the Land of the Dead.

"Chiron ..." I said. "When you say the gods are immortal... I mean, there was a time before them, right?"

"Four ages before them, actually. The Time of the Titans was the Fourth Age, sometimes called the Golden Age, which is definitely a misnomer. This, the time of Western civilization and the rule of Zeus, is the Fifth Age."

"So what was it like ... before the gods?" I asked.

Chiron pursed his lips. "Even I am not old enough to remember that, child, but I know it was a time of darkness and savagery for mortals. Kronos, the lord of the Titans, called his reign the Golden Age because men lived innocent and free of all knowledge. But that was mere propaganda.

The Titan king cared nothing for your kind except as appetizers or a source of cheap entertainment. It was only in the early reign of Lord Zeus, when Prometheus the good Titan brought fire to mankind, that your species began to progress, and even then Prometheus was branded a radical thinker. Zeus punished him severely, as you may recall". Another reason to dislike Zeus."

Of course, eventually, the gods warmed to humans, and Western civilization was born."

"But the gods can't die now, right? I mean, as long as Western civilization is alive, they're alive. So ... even if I failed, nothing could happen so bad it would mess up everything, right?"

Chiron gave me a melancholy smile. "No one knows how long the Age of the West will last, Percy. The gods are immortal, yes. But then, so were the Titans. They still exist, locked away in their various prisons, forced to endure endless pain and punishment, reduced in power, but still very much alive.

May the Fates forbid that the gods should ever suffer such a doom, or that we should ever return to the darkness and chaos of the past. All we can do, child, is follow our destiny."

"Our destiny ... assuming we know what that is."

"Relax," Chiron told me. "Keep a clear head. And remember, you may be about to prevent the biggest war in human history."

"Relax," I said. "I'm very relaxed."

When I got to the bottom of the hill, I looked back. Under the pine tree that used to be Thalia, daughter of Zeus, Chiron was now standing in full horse-man form, holding his bow high in salute. Just your typical summer camp send-off by your typical centaur.

scene*

Argus drove us out of the countryside and into western Long Island. It felt weird to be on a highway again, Annabeth and Grover sitting next to me as if we were normal carpoolers. After two weeks at Half-Blood Hill, the real world seemed like a fantasy. I found myself staring at every McDonald's, every kid in the back of his parent's car, every billboard and shopping mall.

"So far so good," I told Annabeth. "Ten miles and not a single monster."

She gave me an irritated look. "It's bad luck to talk that way, seaweed brain."

"Remind me again why do you hate me so much?"

"I don't hate you."

"Could've fooled me."

She folded her cap of invisibility. "Look ... we're just not supposed to get along, okay? Our

parents are rivals." "Why?"

She sighed. "How many reasons do you want? One time my mom caught Poseidon with his girlfriend in Athena's temple, which is hugely disrespectful. Another time, Athena and Poseidon competed to be the patron god for the city of Athens. Your dad created some stupid saltwater spring for his gift. My mom created the olive tree. The people saw that her gift was better, so they named the city after her."

"They must really like olives. Especially with the fact that they're the worst thing except pineapple on a pizza."

"Oh, forget it." She grumbled.

"Now, if she'd invented pizza-that I could understand."

"I said, forget it!"

In the front seat, Argus smiled. He didn't say anything, but one blue eye on the back of his neck winked at me.

Traffic slowed us down in Queens. By the time we got into Manhattan, it was sunset and starting to rain.

Argus dropped us at the Greyhound Station on the Upper East Side, not far from my mom and

Gabe's apartment. Taped to a mailbox was a soggy flyer with my picture on it: HAVE YOU SEEN THIS BOY?

I ripped it down before Annabeth and Grover could notice.

Argus unloaded our bags, made sure we got our bus tickets, and then drove away, the eye on the back of his hand opening to watch us as he pulled out of the parking lot.

I thought about how close I was to my old apartment. On a normal day, my mom would be home from the candy store by now. Smelly Gabe was probably up there right now, playing poker, not even missing her.

I grabbed my necklace. I knew what I had to do to make things better. I will find the stupid bolt, save Mom and everything will be alright. I stopped looking in the direction of the apartment where smelly Gabe probably was. I couldn't change my past but I could change my future.

I took a step forward followed by Grover and Annabeth in my back.

 

[allen1996]

She sat alone in her garden made of stones. Stones that were in the likeness of human beings with on the faces despair and anger drawn and sculpted forever.

There was no far from her the statue of a child that fell victim to her gaze, sadness and fear etched on her face showing despair confronted by a monster she could never defend herself against, never defeat.

A part of her ached. Maybe it was some long-forgotten maternal instinct or just mere empathy. It failed to take grip in her cold and withered heart and faded.

None of those things were her fault she thought. She was at her core a good and empathetic person. It was the reason why she was a priestess in the past. Thinking about it now She should not have been one. She should have found a way to refuse but she didn't and paid the price for it.

Her that was lusted after by gods and mortals alike, her that had hundreds fall on their sword in anguish after her refusing their advance. She had mortals singing to her beauty, she was said to be more beautiful than Aphrodite and Hera. She was worshipped for her beauty.

She chuckled. See How hard does the mighty fall she thought. She was now nothing more than an abominable creature stripped from her divinity. She could not rouse storms that could swallow cities if she had wanted. She could not play with the waves like she did in the past. She was now a trophy to be acquired. She was now a target, a hunt prize and it sickened her.

Her beheaded head was even now seen as a symbol of Athena and was forever sculpted on the shield of the war goddess. They called it Gorgoneion.

She was a creature of divine descent. Her grandparents were the sea and the earth themselves and not mere placeholders like the current governing Gods.

None of those facts changed her fate. She wished she could take a pike and put the beheaded still-living head of Athena on it to see if she would like it.

Oh, how she wished she could make Athena pay. She wished she could make her beg. She wished she could shatter her pride. She wished none of those things had happened. She wished her sisters, her brave sisters that took on her curse with her were still there. She wished her intrinsic divinity hadn't been removed from her.

She wished for many things that she knew she could never have. Lineage didn't always equal power. It sometimes did but it wasn't always the case. In this world, the only thing that mattered was power and she didn't have enough of it.

She didn't have people powerful enough that could care to protect her. She had begged her father but he had let her prayers be spirited into nothing. It's not that he could not do anything. The simple reason was just that he simply didn't care.

He had thousands of kids and she was never one of his favourites. If it had happened to Skolopondra or one of the Graeae, Athena wouldn't be seated on her bloodstained divine throne.

They called her a monster when the true horror was Athena. Athena was the one that turned her into this. Athena was the one who sent her bastard half-brother with divine weapons to slay her and have her body-less head used as a trophy and a weapon, all of that while she was pregnant. Athena was the true cause of the destruction mortals accused her to do.

Athena was a goddess of law yet was sending thousands to butcher and slaughter at her whims without feeling regret in her darkness-filled heart. She was the true monster. It never was herself.

One of the statues fixed her with hate as if to spit on her at the notion of Medusa being innocent and a victim of her circumstances. She crushed it into dust with a swipe of her arm.

She could see those same regards of derision, of hate all around her and it angered her. The statues that were unmoving seemed now alive " How dare you all judge me" she screamed at them. She was now with the help of her two harms a tornado of destruction directed at the stone statues.

"None of you know what is to bear such a curse"

They broke, caved under the force of her blows and turned into dust. A haze had taken possession of her mind and she couldn't muster the will to stop.

" None of you know what it is to fall from the highest cloud to this miserable existence, from a divine queen to a monster".

The haze lifted and her sight was welcome with fragments of stones that were people, mostly innocent people that she had hurt and killed.

" I am truly a monster" she admitted to the nothing surrounding her. No justification could change that fact. She had in a fit of rage sent their souls to the domain of the rich one when they didn't deserve it.She fell on her knees on the hard white marble and ignored the sensation of the broken debris of stone prickly under her legs.

She remembered a better time, one when she mattered. She remembered a time when she was the pearl of his eyes and was gifted the most lavish gifts. She remembered his beautiful sea-green eyes and the promises that had been held in them, the sharpness of his chin, his honeyed words that had felt like an intoxicating beverage.

She had felt as if the world was theirs. She remembered proclaiming her love to him and him doing the same. She remembers him having said that he'll " always be there for her" and that he'll "always protect her".

She remembered becoming pregnant with their children. She thought their love was real and a big part of her still wanted to believe that but it was becoming century after century harder to believe so.

She was just a fancy that had caught his eyes that he used to avoid boredom until he had found another woman that could stoke the lust in his heart or a way to irritate Athena.

She thought he would have protected her. He could have. He was an elder god, one of the strongest of their pantheon. Athena wouldn't have dared to curse her if he had threatened her, had said that Medusa was under his protection. He could have but didn't. He could have also broken the curse. He just left and never talked to her again.

She lost what made and defined her. She lost her beauty. She lost her love and lost her connection to the sea that was now unwelcoming and cold towards her. She lost her sisters that chose to share her burden with her without her even asking and that exhausted from their terrible burden chose to fade.

She laughed while watching her reflection on the white marble floor of her garden. The face watching her back had tusks like a wild boar's jutting from the mouth, the lips were curled in a permanent sneer. The eyes were bulged, making the face look vaguely amphibian. What came out of her mouth was a mad and broken laugh.

She could feel liquids coming from her eyes and falling on the ground. The snakes on her head had awakened from their slumber and were now hissing angrily at the air searching for an invisible threat.

"You promised to be there beloved" I whispered to the nothing. " Why are you not there"

She didn't expect any answer. She had begged for one for thousands of years and not once did he come yet a very deeply buried part of her still hoped that he would answer.

"I am finally there. Sorry for making you cry" a voice answered to me. She knew that she had been alone, that the only things present in her garden were the broken statues and her.

"I must have finally gone mad to delude myself to the point of making you appear before me Poseidon. It's so pathetic". The shadow looming over her moved and fell before her.

A hand touched her left cheek caressing the coarse and rugged snake-like skin. "Medusa, look at me," his hypnotic voice told her. She did and fell into the depth of his ocean eyes. He was really there a part of whispered.

It had begun raining a distant part of her noted. The raindrops fell and with their fall created a discordant note blocking the noise of the world all around her.

At that moment, they were the only ones to exist and she wished it could never end. She leaned towards his touch which reminded her of a glorious and happiness-filled past where everything was much simpler and fair. He didn't back down in disgust. He let her do so.

She finally spoke," What are you doing here". It has been more than a millennium since they saw each other since he left her while she begged for him to stay".

"I'm here to correct an error, something I should have done for a long time," he answered with gravity.

There was only one thing that could be here called an error and it was her existence. She was the error he wanted to correct she realised. She knew that without him having to explain it. She should have been scared, frightened of a possible solution brought by the kronide. There was one thing the elder gods surpassed their titans predecessor without any doubt and it was in cruelty. None of those emotions came to grip her heart.

She was tired and if it was a way to finally end her immemorial torment, she would take it even if it meant her doom. Life wasn't a fairytale where fairness and justice prevailed. It was instead a never-ending gap of cruelty and suffering, one that had worn her down.

"Do it," she told him. " just make it quick if you ever truly loved me.

A frown bloomed on his beautiful face. At least, she would go, watching one of the most beautiful things in her eyes.

He nodded and the smell of the ocean began to overrun her nose. It smelled like an afternoon at the beach with the waves in the background and the yellow sand under her feet.

The divinity that he had from deep inside him was brought to the surface, took shape from his heart, climbed on his shoulder like a snake and coiled like a black mamba before jumping toward her heart.

For a moment, nothing happened and she wondered what it was supposed to do. It would have been disappointing if it was just this with all the gravitas the god emanated. She had the answer to her question when her heart began to burn. It felt as if the fire of Hephaestus's forge had been poured on her heart. She had thought that she knew suffering but nothing could compare to what she was feeling right now.

She has trusted him again like a fool. Shame on her the mortal quote said for being tricked a second time. It wouldn't be wrong to say that She had jumped from a shark-filled ocean to being trapped between Charybdis and Scylla. I

She was screaming and struggling against the strong grip of the ocean god a still sane part of her realised. She tried to use her freezing gaze on Poseidon but it didn't work. She tried to bite him with the snakes living on her head but it proved ineffective against him. She tried to do everything possible to make the pain stop.

It finally stopped and she fell like a marionette with cut strings into the now open arms of the elder god. She felt different as if she had been removed from a too-tight shirt. Something that had been missing from her, a core part of her existence that was stripped unjustly from her had been given back. A black loc of luscious hair was dangling where a snake should have been present. She couldn't feel any more of the tusk deformities that Athena had cursed her with.

Did he really do what she thought he did? She mustered her strength and departed from his arms. He didn't try to stop her. She inspected her hands now looking human and less like the claws of an anteater. She watched herself in the marble and found in the reflection the face of a comely woman. She touched her face, now smooth and not rugged like snakeskin and began to cry. It was really her. It wasn't a dream sent by an oneroi to hurt and torment her at her waking.

Poseidon hugged her and she fell into his arms" Thank you, thank you, thank you" she whispered endlessly to him while crying. What she had dreamed of, prayed and begged for centuries had finally been granted.

He Didn't Say or do anything except reinforce his hug. They stayed like that in a scenery of broken statues and never-ending rain. She had stopped crying but didn't leave the arms of her ex-lover. She wondered what all of this meant for her.

She was not a monster anymore. Athena if she learned that would never let her exist peacefully. By being free from her curse, she would invite the ire of Athena on her head be it directly or indirectly through mortal heroes or supernatural mercenaries. She would have to make contingency plans.

Going against an olympian was never a wise thing. It would be more accurate to call it suicidal but she never wanted to let herself suffer again because of the whimsical and deadly mood of a stronger deity.

The Lord of the sea lifted the comfortable silence with his words" I wanted to apologize for not having been there, for not protecting you".

After thinking for a moment, she answered in a weak voice"I forgive you but I could never forget Poseidon. If you knew what it was to be treated like a monster. If you knew how it felt to be rejected by most of your family. If you knew how much I suffered, you would understand."

He sighed." I didn't apologize because I wanted your forgiveness. I apologized to you because it was the right thing to do," Poseidon answered.

She was made voiceless and shocked. She loved Poseidon but she had never been blind to the fact that he was not the most mature god. He had after all always been the type of God that became angry due to childish reasons or that acted before they thought.

"You had changed," she told him.

" We all changed whether it is positive or negative. Nothing is eternal and immutable faced by the oceans of time even us gods" he answered.

" Come with me under the sea where I'll be at my strongest, where no one would ever dare to hurt you" He continued.

She thought about going back to her home. She thought about never having to worry about being targeted by sadistic and cruel gods. She wanted to accept but there was something that life had taught her that was important. She had learned that nothing was ever free or coming with pure intentions. Why would Poseidon go against another Olympian just for her? What benefit could he gain from such action?

Even then, for how long would his protection stay? Would he discard her after using and breaking for a second time her heart? He already did it. Who says that he wouldn't again? She loved him and in the past, her love for him was greater than the one she had for herself but It wasn't the case anymore. Things had changed.

She had to think logically. Even though she wished from all her heart the contrary, she knew that he could only have done it either for a lustful reason, to provoke Athena or maybe the two reasons together. Thinking that he did it because of another reason would be foolish. Gods were rarely kind.


She knew what she had to do. She left the comfort of his arms and stood tall and spoke" The reason why you came is now perfectly clear ocean's lord. You didn't come here because of kindness or regret. You came because of lust. I knew that it was too perfect to be true. You finally show your true colours".

How could she have been this stupid" You thought that you could come like the shining knight, erase all my problems so I would open my legs for you, warm your bed. Isn't your queen or the mortals good enough? Did they become for now too boring for you" she spat angrily.

She didn't care about the fact that Poseidon could create worse torment than Athena. She was exhausted. She was tired to cower under stronger beings. She was tired of having her emotions being played with. If she suffered, she would do it proud her head high.

"It's not the case, I wanted to-..." Poseidon tried to protest but she cut him. Something that most would call foolish and dangerous.

"To do what Poseidon. I was so stupid to think you had changed, that you were better" she said quietly at the end "that you cared."

" you have to listen to me. I didn't do it for any other reasons than being ashamed and regretting not having done what I should have. I don't want you under the sea to be part of a harem or anything like that. Is it that hard to think that I care? " the lord of the sea questioned.

" It is in the nature of you and brethren my lord to hurt and lust after those weaker or lesser than you. Even with all of this, you know what's the funny thing"?

He now stood straight and taller than her and looked more like a beast than a creature in humanoid form. She didn't back down.

" I still love you" she continued" but I'll never let you use me like you did the first time".

The sky was now dark and angry. The ocean breeze that seemed soothing felt now threatening. The rain was falling violently on the ground making a sound resembling two hammers colliding. His eyes were now glowing a green acid. At that moment, he looked like the portrait of a Christian demon straight from hell.

The divine power that he had used to break her curse came back with vengeance to the surface and took the shape of a trident that he took in his left hand. The trident was pulsing like a human heart. To her mystical senses, the trident was akin to a beast trying to satiate its anger with the flesh and the existence of others.

The god gripped the trident and pointed towards her the three prongs at her. She didn't back down or try to flee. Even if she had wanted to, it would have been pointless. He could have reached her even at the edge of the world from the place where he stood. He twirled the trident switching the prongs to him and the staff-like part to her.

"Why are you doing?" she asked him confused.

"Showing you that I'm genuine".he answered. "It is something special," he said looking at the emerald trident with pride "in the sense that it erases divinity, making immortals mortals and I'm giving it to you" he finished.

It was a known fact that Greek deities couldn't die like mortals. You could behead them and they would walk it off. The only thing effective way to incapacitate a god, to make him as close to death as possible except by throwing him into the endless abyss that was chaos or removing their divinity like she and Poseidon and Appolo in the past were subjected to was to dismember them in many pieces and scatter those pieces in different places to make sure that the god didn't regenerate. It was how the Olympians won against their mad father, the titan lord of time and harvest Kronos.

But now, the paradigm had completely changed. Poseidon had found a way to bypass this immortality and make true the greatest fear of immortals, mortality.

She grabbed the end of the weapon. Poseidon let her remove the weapon from him. With such a weapon, a voice in her head told her, she had a chance to take revenge on Athena, to make her pay for the torture she was subjected to for thousands of years. The rational side of her reminded her that a god didn't need to be in close contact to hurt somebody and in case they were in close contact with an opponent, it wasn't sure that the said god wouldn't be able to dodge the attack with how differently they perceived the world from mortals. Hubris was always the beginning of the fall and she would not drink its alluring nectar.

"You are doing a very foolish thing Poseidon. I thought I had gone mad. Maybe I was mistaken about who the mad person was " Medusa said while pointing the green emerald trident at him.

Instead of backing down or even dissipating the trident, Poseidon did something so foolish she was left aghast. A feeling that was becoming common to her when dealing with the ocean god. He advanced toward the trident until it was at the level of his heart, the tip of the prong having pierced the chiton he wore making fall on the ground golden ichor slowly turning red.

"You asked me what I was doing earlier. Words are fickle and easy to make. They flow like the wind and disappear in a breeze. My words won't make you believe me but my actions can," he said while looking at her in her eyes

"I am one of the architects of your suffering. I was the one that promised to protect you and didn't. I had promised to love you and I didn't. I heard all those centuries your prayers to me, your sacrifices to my person and did nothing. I did nothing while you continued to declare your love to me in your prayers from ancient Greece till last week. If you kill me, you'll inherit my domains and would be strong enough to be able to take personally your revenge on Athena".

He was ready to sacrifice his immortal life to make sure that she trusted the veracity of his intentions, to make her accept his apology. He was ready to give up eternity for her. Could there be a better way to show love and care than being ready to give up everything?

Everything she had ever wanted was before her. She had love and power before her and longed for both. Love broke mentally and physically. It was a force that hurt and shredded the ego. Love was fragile. Love was the reason for her punishment. Power instead was reliable, and gave importance and protection. She knew what she wanted before all. The only thing left to do was to push forward the trident. She could see in his eyes no fear, no anger. Her grip on the trident hardened. She moved and leaned towards him. The trident pierced nothing.

She kissed him. He hesitated before kissing her back. She let the trident fall from her grip.

"I'll come with you," she said to him after stopping to kiss him. It had felt intoxicating in a good way and she wished to experience it again. On his face bloomed one of the most beautiful smiles. The decision she had taken was one that could only be called foolish. It would have been more rational to kill him and take his powers from herself. Only time would prove her right or wrong but for now, in the present, she'll love without limit and try to bask in the present.

"I won't make you regret your decision," he told her.

She smiled and kissed him again" Let's leave," she said. He hugged her and they disappeared far from her curse and despair-filled garden.

 

[allen1996]

They waited while it rained for a bus. The sky looked dark and ominous as if ready to fall on us. He wondered if Zeus or other gods were actually watching him the same way bored people liked to watch reality shows to laugh at the participant.



Grover was eating an apple for a moment and it seems that it wasn't the first one because of how fast he ate it and was sending me looks when he thought I wasn't watching.



Annabel as for her was reading a voluminous Greek book on one hand and playing with a quarter in her left hand. He could not tell what book it was because trying to read the title of it had made all the words begin to dance and gave him a killer headache.



He had tried to try to stay still until the time the bus came but he felt too full of restless energy to be able to do such. He concentrated on the pen to distract himself by throwing it away each time it came to his pocket.



The bus finally came. They stood in line to board the bus. Everything seemed fine if slow until Grover tensed and began sniffing the air like a dog. Fortunately, other would-be passengers did not seem to pay attention to what Grover was doing. It would have been a lil bit embarrassing to have all the attention focused on them especially when there were posters of him everywhere.



He grabbed Riptide in his pocket but didn't remove the blade now pen from it. "Are you smelling something Grover?" he asked. Satyrs had apparently a very acute smell that allowed them to detect demigods and monsters.



He began paying attention to the other passenger trying to find something that didn't look normal. He found nothing yet didn't relax.



"I don't know" he answered. "I smelled nothing. It was probably in my head". He still looked tense as if shadows would be jumping at us.



The grey eyes of Annabeth were scanning everything around as if trying to find a detail that could show if anything was wrong.



They were finally able to board the bus without any problem. They chose seats at the back of the bus to be able to see everything happening on the bus. Luke had called it being aware of your surroundings. Luke had taught him that a lack of awareness could mean death be it inside or outside a fight.



The last passenger that boarded the bus was a middle-aged woman with brown hair and a silver snake that fell on her shoulders. She had an aquiline nose and was dressed in a suit that he knew just by looking that hosted more than the annual salary of his mother. She wore on her foot hunting boot with the mark he supposed, Zamberlan written on them. She looked striking in an intimidating and mean way.



He focused on her face. She reminded him of somebody and he rarely made errors on the faces of people. When he realised who it was, he gasped.



Annabeth and Grover had turned their heads toward him. "I know who it is. It is Miss Dodd".



Grover had begun to panic and Annabeth look confused. He realised that Annabeth didn't know who Miss Dodd was.



Grover explained for him" It is a kindly one. She masqueraded as a teacher like Chiron at Yancy and attacked percy. If Mr Brunner hadn't helped by giving percy a weapon, he would be dead."



The panic began to appear in the eyes of Annabeth. Her left hand was holding her dagger and shaking. He couldn't judge her because he was as scared as her.



The last time, the only reason he was able to win was luck and surprise but now, Miss Dodd will be cautious and take him seriously. She was an immortal older than the current Gods. At camp, he had learned that they were born from the blood of Ouranos when he was castrated by his son Kronos with his scythe.



"She didn't stay dead long," percy said, trying to keep his voice from quivering. "I thought you said they could be dispelled for a lifetime," he told Annabeth.



"I said if you're lucky," Annabeth said. "You're obviously not."



The kindly one sat in the first row behind the driver. It meant that they wouldn't be able to escape the bus without walking before her except if they jumped through the windows while the bus was driving.



It's okay," Annabeth said, obviously thinking hard. "One of The kindly ones. One of The three most feared monsters from the Underworld. No problem. No problem. We'll just slip out the windows."





Grover tried to open the windows. They stayed unmoving. Well, they were screwed without any doubt"They don't open," Grover moaned.



"A back exit?" Annabeth suggested. There wasn't one. Even if there had been, it wouldn't have helped. By that time, we were on

Ninth Avenue, heading for the Lincoln Tunnel.



"She won't attack us with witnesses around," I said. "Right?"

"Mortals don't have good eyes," Annabeth reminded me. "Their brains can only process what they see through the Mist. They still believe that the moon landing was true and that other planets except Earth existed." Percy didn't try to ask for clarification. What came out of Annabeth's mouth wouldn't be foreign coming from conspiracy theorists that were seen as nutcases. It was ironic that they were probably more right about the truth of the world than world leaders or scientists.



"They'll see an old lady killing us, won't they?" percy asked her.



She thought about it for a moment. "Hard to say. But we can't count on mortals for help. Maybe there's an emergency exit in the roof ... ?"



We hit the Lincoln Tunnel, and the bus went dark except for the running lights down the aisle. It was eerily quiet without the sound of the rain.



Mrs Dodds got up and turned in their direction. She seemed to have known all they were all that time. Percy removed Riptide from his pocket and put one his finger on the ballpark of the pen and grabbed for comfort the collar his dad had gifted to him. He already one against her and this time he wasn't alone plus he was a demigod of Poseidon the ruler of the oceans, one of the big three. It meant something right?



From the left hand of Miss Dodds came something akin to a spark. It flickered like embers that were falling on the ground. It began to take the shape of a handle before expanding into a lash of flames. It brought by its existence a smell of sulfur and an insupportable smell of rotting flesh. To those wondering how could he know this smell, well Percy lived in New York so yeah.



Percy just by looking at it thought that being struck by it would if not kill hurt a lot. The mortals had begun cowering. Percy wondered what the mist showed them to make sure they were unable to be aware of the godly side of the world.



The fury with a movement on her hand launched an attack with her fire shape whip that was marked by an ear-deafening mini boom in a horizontal line. "Duck" Grover screamed. They dodged at the last moment by throwing themselves on the ground. Percy even if he hadn't been touched could feel a burning sensation as if he was too close to a burning fire.



Percy pressed the ballpark of riptide and where there was a pen was now a balanced Greek one-handed double-edged sword made of celestial bronze. They got back up and were greeted by screams, blood, beggings and death and were left scared and disgusted by the result of the monster attack.



Every mortal that I had been on the trajectory of the attack, so every mortal on the bus except the bus driver that was screaming before falling silent like a puppet by a wave of the hand of Miss Dodd had been affected by Miss Dodds's attack. The lucky ones had died instantaneously. The unlucky ones were the ones still alive, that have tried to dodge but were unable to do so completely because they either hadn't been on their guard like the demigods or were not fast enough. From the 56 seats, they were the only ones untouched.



Percy could see an old man before him screaming himself hoarse because of the bleeding stump were existed not a long time ago all of his right arm. He could see not far from the old man a crying toddler missing a part of their skull held by the beheaded body of their parents that had tried to protect them.



There were across the car dozen similar scenes happening. It looked like hell. Vomit tried to go up but he stopped it. Grover wasn't able to do the same and puked all the apples and enchiladas he had eaten. The one amongst them that seemed the least affected of them was Annabeth even if she had turned an unhealthy green colour.



"We have to find a way to escape," Annabeth said to them. The fury was coming in their direction slowly as a predator playing with their prey and in that case, they were the prey. The snake headband of the kindly one had become alive and filled along in the bus the songs of agonies and despair with hisses.



"Find a plan quickly wise girl or we are toasted" percy said to the daughter of the war goddess. The eyes of Annabeth were jumping in every direction on the bus trying to find details that will help her formulate a plan.



"I have found one" Annabeth said," even if I find it dangerous and prone to failure".



"It's the only plan we have. It's better than nothing " Grover said to her while cleaning the left traces of vomit with a sweep of his hand. Percy if they survive wasn't going to let Grover hug or touch him without cleaning his hand.



"So here's the plan" Annabeth began. " you Percy and I are going to distract her". Nah, he retire everything he said or thought about Annabeth. That was the dumbest plan he ever heard. Instead of calling it a plan of escape, maybe it would be better to call it a plan to turn Percy into a shish kebab. Grover must be thinking the same thing



She continued" I know it sounds crazy but we won't be able to escape the bus due to the fact that the only entrance is accessible only by confronting the kindly one. Grover, can you use one of your satyrs sounds to create an entrance in the back?



Grover grabbed his chin while thinking " I can but with us being on a road of asphalt concrete and being in movement and not being in the wild, it's going to take time".



Annabeth removed her dagger from its holster "We'll buy some time. Everything depends on you Grover. If you fail...". Percy didn't need her to finish her sentence to know what she meant.



He forced himself to stop shaking, to stand still. "Dad" he called in his mind. He felt the attention of his father on him." "At any time you can stop, ", the ghostly voice of his father whispered to him.



"I will continue," he thought to the voice of his father. He felt a kiss on the crown of his head and the presence of his father disappeared.



Grover had begun to play a melody on his flute his back turned to the fury. He was scared yet was trusting Annabeth and percy with his life. With a nod in the direction of Annabeth, they threw themselves at the monster.



A grin split the face of the fury" Finally, a little fight! It wouldn't have been enjoyable if you didn't." she sent the whip at us. Percy could see the world begin to slow, see everything around him as if he was for a moment omniscient.



He dodged the attack by jumping on the wall of the left, taking some steps on it and regaining the floor of the bus after the whip passed to the place where he was an instant before. He could see in the corner of his eyes that Annabeth has also dodged successfully by gliding on her knees.



Percy did something that he was taught to never do in a fight. He threw his sword at the fury. The sword flew in an arc towards the monster. She dodged by simply moving her head to the side. She lifted an eyebrow as if asking if it was all. Annabeth and he were now 7 meters away from the fury.



With a movement of her hand, the whip began to fly back toward its master. Percy was informed of the attack by the heat emanating from the weapon. They dodged by throwing themselves on the left and right of the bus.



Riptide was back in Percy's pocket. He put pressure on the ballpark to make the own retake a sword form. The whip had touched the ground at the centre of the bus and had obliterated it. Percy could see the road speeding under them.



Better not be touched by this percy thought. "I've let you come at me but the both of you are taking too much time" bats wings exploded in dark gore from the back of Miss Dodds.



With a flap of them, she was in his face. She used her free hand to swipe at his face with her claws. Percy dodged by throwing himself back. She missed him but grazed him leaving him with an uneven haircut.



By throwing himself backwards, he had fallen into the blood and body parts of a now-dead passenger. He suppressed the nausea and the panic. Now was surviving. Crying and addressing traumas would be after if they survived.



Annabeth hadn't stayed idle and had used a dagger to try to stab the now unprotected back of the monster. Miss Dodd stopped her attack by grabbing her hand and knocking her head against a window before throwing her in the range of seats just behind percy.



She had begun bleeding and seemed to be out of commission. Percy hoped that she would be alright. It was only him now facing the kindly one. He hoped that Grover er was almost finished or none of the questers will be able to survive.



The crack of a whip made percy move. Staying still meant death and percy will do everything to survive. The ocean is everywhere, he remembered his father's words. He called for it.



There was a sensation in the pit of his stomach like a tug. For a moment, nothing happened. Miss Dodds continued to come towards me with a murderous grin on her face as if she already had won. The fire whip was trailing behind her, screeching against the floor of the bus. Grover still didn't open a new way for us to escape.



Percy grabbed Riptide with my two hands. If he died, he would go fighting and not begging. "Sorry Dad" he whispered. The presence of his dad was back and felt playful as if he knew something that percy did not know.



They were now on the highway"It's the end for you son of Poseidon" the monster slurred. Percy prepared to dodge or counterattack when water exploded from the asphalt under them violently. It unbalanced the bus and sent all the passengers dead or alive in different directions.



Percy must have blacked out for a moment because he was on the bus a moment and a minute after was on one the shoulder of a running Grover with Annabeth on the other one.



He could see behind them the wreckage that was the bus they had taken. Other cars had stopped and their drivers were screaming because of the dead bodies that were still inside the car from which blood was pooling on the ground. The accident had also sent mangled corpses on the road. It was raining creating a mess of light-coloured blood everywhere.



Percy hoped that the accident if not knocking had hurt Miss Dodds. Alas, it was proven that he was hated by Tyche when not a second after that, the fury exploded from the roof of the car into the highway.



Miss Dodds looked unharmed if not pissed. She looked as if she wanted to hurt them very much. She sniffed the hair and turned towards them.



"Grover" percy called the satyr." she knows where we are. There is no point in running. She won't let us escape."



Grover still continued to run" I have to try. I can not let her hurt Annabeth or you. If you die, you go directly to the realm of your uncle, something they want and if it happens, they'll torture you for all eternity. I can not let that happen to my friend"



Percy felt warm. The prophecy had told me that I would be betrayed by a friend and for a moment, I had thought it to be Grover but I had refused to entertain such thought. He has been right. Grover wasn't perfect. He had a lot of defaults but there was one thing he wasn't and that was disloyal.



The rain percy remarked was making him feel better. His head was becoming cleared and clearer. A strength that he has never felt before was filling him. It was as if straight energy was being put into his veins. The collar his dad had given him felt warm.



With a Swift movement, percy left the shoulder on Grover to face the kindly one watching him. He didn't feel scared anymore. He felt as if he could move mountains as if nothing could stop him. The rain began to fall harder. Riptide in its xiphos form was now encased by a sheath of water.



He didn't know what the kindly one saw while she watched him but she was now watching him cautiously now more like another predator than a prey.



There was between the two of them a distance of 30 meters. With a tap of his heel, percy closed the distance cratering the ground behind him and appeared before the fury with Riptide ready to bisect her. His attack had been blocked by the reappearance of Miss Dodds's whip. She had used the handle of it to block.



He may not have her but she for the first time since the beginning took a step behind. The ground around them had exploded outwards laughing to the mortal's onlookers' broken fragments of asphalt. Percy didn't pay attention to the screams around him. He focused only on his adversary that was grinding her teeth.



He didn't let her take a breath. With a movement of his hip, percy put on the side the handle of the monster and round-kicked her in the face with a foot encased in water.



She was sent careening on the other side of the road. He put his sword on a shoulder and made a movement with his free hand a come here movement.



It enraged the fury that with a scream disappeared from the ground to just before him making a descending strike with her flame weapon having turned into a sword. Her sword strike was met by riptide. An explosion was born of their confrontation. Percy felt his bones rattle. He ignored it.



He stabbed forward trying to penetrate the skin of the monster but she dodged by spinning like a ballerina before trying to cut him on his side. Riptide was there to meet her strike.



The force of the strike sent him flying. Percy stops himself by doing a wheel in the air to fall on his feet. Miss Dodds was in his face swinging. He dodged on the left and rewarded her attack with a left hook.



She snarled and answered with a headbutt. Percy willed the rain to change and morph into something else and it took the shape of needles. It fell on the emplacement of the monster. She escaped by throwing herself in the back.



Percy followed her not leaving her time to think. Riptide flew true and nicked her in the face. From it, golden ichor, the blood of gods was pooling.



The monster touched her face as if shocked that it could have happened." how dare you" she screamed. Her scream shook the ground. It was as if an earthquake was happening." I tried to go easy, no more quarter" the fury said before flying to him.



He used riptide to block her attack and was sent as a result into two cars completely obliterating them before being stopped by the median strip that cracked. It hurts percy had to admit.



The pain began to disappear slowly. If it wasn't for the water, percy didn't think that he would have survived. People all around them were screaming and he could see in the air a helicopter new as if it couldn't be worse.



Percy didn't have more time to think before the fury launched herself at him. She didn't only have a fire sword. She had now orbited around her fire knives that she sent to him.



Percy dodged the first one by diving to the side. It went on and on through the median strip and turned everything closed from it ablaze. The asphalt on the other side of the road had begun burning.



She sent the remaining knives to him. Percy met them by strikes of riptide. He disregarded the unsupportable heat, the deafening explosion they made when they entered in contact with Riptide. He pushed forward.



Miss Dodds expected a strike on the right. He let her believe so and tricked her. At the moment she prepared herself to Parry on the right, Percy created with a thought a spear of water that exploded when entering in contact with her sending her flying.



Percy needed to finish the fight quickly. Even if the water, he didn't feel he could continue fighting at this rate. He had to be faster. He pushed, his foot broke, regenerated stronger and sent him towards his enemy.



She met his charge snarling. They continued to fight. Each of their attacks was cratering the ground around them, and creating deep gashes on the road. In their exchanges, there were more two blurs of colour, blue and dark red clashing against each other.



Each clash hurt percy but he continues to fight. His right broke so he used his left one the time the other one healed under the water effect and became stronger. He felt dizzy as if dreaming everything happening.



He made an error and paid it in blood. The sword of Miss Dodds met his flesh. It burned, burned so much that his mind almost went blank. He grabbed the fire sword in his shoulder holding the fury in place before trying to stab her with Riptide.



She dodged and took some distance. She talked" It's been a while since I had such an exhilarating hunt son of Posidon, no Perseus Jackson but it's just a question of time before you lose. Give up and embrace death. I'll advocate for you before my king".



She looked and sounded sincere and to be honest, percy felt exhausted like he never had in his life before. A big part of him wanted to accept. The answer to the proposition of the fury was to strengthen his grip and take an attack stance.



"Such a shame" the kindly one lamented before he attacked her. Their exchanges began again. Percy tried to use the rain around them to fight but each of their encounter animated around them every raindrop of water making and they were moving too fast for the water to help when percy wished for it.



He made error after error. He began to take wounds, a cut on his forearm, a punch in the guts, overextended strikes yet he didn't give up. He had to have faith in his chances or it would be like declaring defeat.



The kindly one broke their stalemate by crashing a fire sword shape into riptide sending him flying 50 meters away. Percy fell on his back that scratched against the road. He wondered where Grover and Annabeth were. He hoped that they were alright and felt sorry to be the reason their first quest would fail.



He stood with difficulty. He felt as if he was one giant walking bruise. The water was still healing him but he was taking damage more quickly than the healing of the water.



The road looked now like the scene of an apocalyptic movie with fire and screams everywhere. The raining sky had turned red because of the smoke and the fire and the embers resulting from Miss Dodds's attacks. It felt weirdly beautiful.



"Call for all of it" the voice of his father whispered in it. It was his last chance. The next minutes would either be the ones of his death or of his victory.



He called, no commanded the presence of every trace of moisture and water around him. The tug in the pit of his stomach hurt but he disregarded it. The kindly one walked toward him like a hunting lion on the brink of killing a wounded pray.



He continues to call for the water and he could sense gigantic amounts of it answering but they were taking too much time. At this rhythm, The fury would kill him before he could do anything.



The kindly one stopped walking. Something was tugging at her heels. It was a Liana. Another came to life bursting from the ground and coiled around the body of Alecto, a music accompanying its presence.



There was only one person that it could be. It was Grover. "Leave my friend alone you ugly-looking bat monster" Grover screamed. Percy knew that he was probably scared to death yet Grover has chosen to come back for him. Percy began to cry.



The monster enraged, burned the lianas and for a moment, Percy thought that he would have to be cursed again by seeing somebody he loved dying before him again.



The monster threw herself at Grover and was met by a thrown dagger in her left eye. The daughter of Athena even weakened had acted at the perfect moment to avoid a tragedy." Don't you forget me too Fury." she looked pale and blood had dyed her hair but except that, she looked alright if not exposed.



The monster screamed in anger and removed the dagger from her bleeding eyes. She looked murderous. Fortunately, what percy had tried to do since the beginning of the fight had succeeded.



High in the sky, the clouds had taken the shape of a giant trident. The shadow of it percy was sure probably engulfed all of Manhattan. He focused on it and twisted it.



The giant trident had become solid.

"Hey Miss Dodds" percy called to the kindly one. She turned towards him. "Look up". She did and began to panic.



She began to glow brightly." She's trying to take her true form" Annabeth screamed.



As if he would let her. "Dad" he prayed. "Watch me". The trident made of thousands of tons of water fell on the shining kindly one and the world screamed. White overcame his vision and percy finally slipped into the realm of Hypnos.

 

[allen1996]

Wrote that chapter listening to this:
View: https://youtu.be/QzWLK6oKeIo

---

Atlantis was a bursting hive of activity Triton thought. The impending war between the heavens and the sea had made every sea-affiliated or related supernatural being come back under the oceans.



Few of them liked Zeus and this war was a way for them to end the thirst for the blood of the Olympians that they felt.



Triton understood them. He understood their hatred, their anger, the way they wanted to lash out against the cruel sky god and his brethren even if it sounded suicidal.



Triton was born after the first titan war as the first child of Poseidon, the child of the titan king and the titan queen and of Amphitrite, the first and strongest child of Nereus, a primordial and of the Oceanid Doris.



It meant that he was born with the world at his fingertips. He lived in opulence that even some God kings in other pantheons didn't leave in. It meant that he was born with enormous power at his disposition.



Gifts and luxuries had been rained on him since his birth. He never had to want or need for anything. It sounded like a perfect life, right?



It wasn't one. He didn't need to be told by anyone to know that there wasn't any existing love between his parents or it would be more accurate to say that it was a one-sided love from his mother to his father. Poseidon married Amphitrite for what she represented.



She was powerful, graceful and divine and Poseidon wanted Amphitrite to be his. Poseidon has been given the oceans to rule after the Titanomachy when there was already in place a strong ruler, Oceanus.



The Titan had stayed neutral in the Titan war and still had sovereignty over the body of Pontus. Poseidon even though he was strong, even though, he was the child of his parents needed two things to seat his complete dominion over the seas.



Poseidon needed legitimacy and somebody as powerful if not stronger than him to support his claim. Even though the ocean sang to every action taken by him, Possidon wasn't born from it. For centuries, Poseidon tried to find a way to assume control over the oceans.



One of the allies he made in his conquest of the sea, The sea god Dolphin proposed to him the idea of marriage and more precisely, marrying the pearl of the sea, the only goddess that could by herself supersede the authority of all the others sea divinities combined except Pontus himself, to Amphitrite the beautiful even among Goddesses.



The mortal myths say that her mother ran to hide when his father proposed to her. It couldn't be more wrong. Poseidon was the one that had run. He had found out that the goddess he had wanted to woo was more akin to a terrible abomination than a goddess.



Amphrite had inherited everything wrong or right depending on who you ask of her forefathers. Poseidon's action had done something that he would regret forever.



Poseidon made Amphitrite pay attention, he made her notice. Triton still didn't know what Amphitrite had seen in Poseidon but the Nereid had fallen in love.



She hunted after the god in the oceans. When he fled from the ocean to escape her, she followed him to the surface. Her simple presence on the earth had created floods and tempests.



Hundreds of thousands of mortals died being claimed by the sea. No God tried to go against the path of the goddess. Poseidon had hidden himself in Olympus with his siblings.



They hid Poseidon as long as they could but the Olympians weren't only masters of the natural world and its concepts but also of the lords and protectors of the mortals that were begging them to free them from their torment.



The Kronides chained Poseidon with their powers and gave him to the sea goddess to do what she wanted. Amphitrite knew that his father feared her, and didn't love her but she had told herself that with time, love will necessarily bloom between the two of them.



She built the city of Atlantis for the two of them and made Oceanus abdicate his crown for Poseidon. She made every sea creature swear for fealty before him in fear of Annihilation or banishment from the seas.



She made Poseidon stronger and taught him the secrets of the sea. She taught him secrets and knowledge that would make even some Gods go mad. She connected herself to him at a metaphysical level making sure that he would never be able to fade as long as she existed.



She gave him children, strong and beautiful children even among Gods. None of those things made him love her. Poseidon was a god known for cheating on his wife, to have multiple children divine or mortal out of his marriage.



Triton had once asked angrily feeling slighted for his mother why couldn't he stay faithful? His father had answered him with haunted eyes by the fact that he feared his queen. He had been shocked and appaled by this answer and had for centuries been cold toward his father.



His father made him heir, maybe to try to repair a relationship with his now estranged and cold first child. Triton had seen it as an insult. What was the point of the existence of the title of an heir when they were Gods?



It meant nothing and changes nothing. Those days had been days where he lived more like a machine than a god. He stopped caring, he stopped trying, and he stopped loving. Knowing how to Pretend was his true inheritance.



It lasted like this for centuries until the birth of his miracle, his light, of his baby girl, of his unique child, of his daughter Pallas. She gave back through her existence warmth to his cold heart.



She gave him the desire to try, the desire to be better, to live and not exist for the first time in his immortal life. Through her presence, she reconciled his father and him.



Through her, they bonded again and tried to build a new, better relationship that they had. Because of her, his father tried to be a benevolent God. He began to be more merciful, less prone to anger. He even stopped cheating and tried to begin to build a relationship with Amphitrite.



Everything seemed perfect. He should have known that his happiness wouldn't last forever, that the fates, cruel as they are wouldn't let him have a happy ending.



It all began with the birth of Athena, daughter of Metis, goddess of wisdom and the first queen of Olympus. Zeus had acceded to his throne by toppling his father in the same way the titan king did so with the help of his siblings and his mother.



Zeus was scared of being dethroned the same way he did for his father so he went to the daughters of Ananke the unescapable, the fates. He asked them how could he conserve his throne and not be usurped like his predecessors before him. He asked them how to break the cycle.



They had laughed at Zeus' face. They had told him that nothing was eternal, that his reign will end the same way others' reign before him did. Zeus had been prophesied by them that a wise child will be born from Metis, a child stronger and wiser than Zeus that will be usurping him.



Zeus grew fearful. He made a plan to assure that such a future wouldn't happen when he should have known that the thread of fates spared no one. He invited Metis into the wild and did sweet love to her. He acted as the perfect husband.



Near the end of the day, he proposed a contest with her and Metis, the Oceanid was wise but unfortunately, more prideful than wise. Zeus told her that if she won, she could ask for any boon that she wanted. She accepted. To her credit though, she almost made it.



She was supposed to be a prey animal and him a predator. She had to reach Olympus before being caught by Zeus or she would lose. Metis almost won. She would have if Zeua hadn't made a deal with the dryads of the forest where they were.



She lost and Zeus swallowed her and the pregnant babe she had in her bully.

Zeus subsumed completely the Titaness and usurped the domains of wise council and prudence from her. Her last act had been to use her divine power to allow the survival of her daughter and clothed her daughter with arms and armour.



If she hadn't done this, Athena wouldn't have survived. When she was born from the skull of her father, the first action that was taken by him was to blast her with the lightning bolt.



She survived and fell from Olympus into the oceans, the original home of her mother where she would be raised by Triton and Amphritite alongside Pallas.



She grew wise and strong in the ocean with Pallas. They were more than sisters. It could even be said that they were soulmates.



One day, while they were sparing out of the protection and surveillance of their guardians, at the surface, on an Island, Zeus saw his chance and tried to kill Athena. He sent with all of his might an attack on the turned back of Athena.



It wouldn't have killed Athena because she was a Goddess but Athena was still young and weak and such an attack if it had struck her would have made her as close to death as a god can be. She would have suffered a somatic death if she had been struck. She would have been made undone which meant that she wouldn't be able to dethrone Zeus, something Zeus wanted.



Pallas saw the attack coming and didn't think. She dodged a sword jab from Athena to put herself before her unprotected back with her divine powers and her shield as a barrier.



She did save the war goddess at the cost of her life. Pallas didn't have enough divinity in her to be even considered a minor goddess. She was only immortal in the sense that she could have lived forever and that only the most strong and divine attacks could have ended her.





Triton remembers the rage that he had felt and was still feeling it to this day. The death of Pallas had broken and fragmented his family even worse than before her birth.



Triton had never thought that the most precious thing he had in the world would be removed from him so violently. Was there anything worse in the world than losing a child? Was there anything worse than burying them?



Triton after that had closed himself to the exterior world. What was the point of anything without his child? Athena apologized to him, and asked for his forgiveness, saying that it was all her fault after Pallas's burial.



He ignored her cries, he ignored her when she called him father the day after the funeral of Pallas. Athena went back to the surface world and found a way to cease the hostility that her genitor had toward her.



Centuries passed and his parents had other children. They didn't say it but he knew that they feared that he would try to fade. They thought that other siblings would make him feel better and would make him focus on something else than the death of his daughter. He didn't care about them. The only thing that made him not choose to fade was hatred, deep, ugly and powerful hatred.



He wanted Zeus to pay, to lose everything he ever hold dear. He waited centuries patiently and His wait was rewarded by an opportunity. The Archer twins, the goddess of the hearth, the goddess of earth, his father and Athena with other gods had betrayed Zeus and declared war on him.



It was the first and only Olympiomachy. The word shook, disasters hit endlessly the world. The sky screamed and the oceans roared. Nature raged and ichor fell on the mortal world like rain.



Countries were annihilated, maps redrawn, and ranges of mountains turned to dust. Triton had fought against the son of the second marriage of Zeus with his sister Hera. Even remembering today the screams that came out of the war god created a flicker of Warmth in his cold heart.



Athena was the one to put the final blow against her father. When it was time to give punishment to the defeated Gods, Athena advocated for mercy. She had watched him in the eyes as if to say sorry while advocating for it.



He raged against the decision. He had turned to his father sure that he would take his side. Poseidon didn't. The sky lord may have been a cruel and tyrannical god-king but it was his brother his lord father told him.



He knew when he retreated to the ocean that they had made an error. They didn't seem to understand that Zeus would never resign himself to a simple life.



What Zeus craved before all was power. For 1 millennium, the victorious gods reigned. They created wonders, and enforced peace and justice. They pushed for achievements never thought of before. They taught mortals how to write, how to build societies, and mechanical marvels that even to this day, they hadn't replicated.



None of that lasted forever. Zeus and his allies hadn't been idle. They had built their strength, built powerful weapons, they freed imprisoned titans to make them join their cause. They even added to their cause one of the most feared Mesopotamian goddesses, Ishtar to their army.



When they struck Olympus, Triton made sure that most sea creatures and gods wouldn't help the new regime. He stayed in the ocean watching. He watched and did nothing when past allies were tortured and dismembered.



The war between the new regime and the old one was a conflict destroying the planet itself.

None of that would have happened if they had listened to Triton. None of that would have happened if they had cared more for Pallas and not set her murderer free.



Athena seeing all the carnage created by the conflict abdicated her crown to her father. For that, her father didn't punish her but for the other gods like Appolo, Artemis and his father, they were punished harshly.



Zeus killed and raped before the eyes of his daughter all of her huntresses. For Hestia, he asked to abdicate her throne on Olympus and to carve out from herself part of her divinity. Apollo and his father were sentenced to the worst punishment possible for a god, mortal-hood.



They were to live as slaves of a king Zeus favoured until they died. It would have ended like this if his mother that had never left the oceans even during the Olympiomachy hadn't acted.



She went alone to Olympus, fearless and had threatened destruction on everything the Olympians held dear. She had by herself challenged all of them and told them that the death of her husband would equal the destruction of Olympus.



Zeus then changed the punishment given to his son and his brother. They had to build a wall for the king of Troy and after it would they be able to regain what was theirs.



His father has been changed by the defeat of the new regime. He began to hate Athena cause she was the reason in his mind that they hadn't won. If she hadn't cared about the mortals, they would have won but Athena had as one of her more defining names the protector of men.



Poseidon had told nothing to Triton but he didn't need to for Triton to know that he was angry at him. In Poseidon's mind, if Triton had let sea creatures or gods join or even himself had joined, the new regime would have not been vanquished.



Poseidon saw it as a betrayal when he was the first one to betray. Since then, the relationship between him and his father has been broken. They were too alike. No one of them would ever forget what they saw as a betrayal.



The only inheritance that they all had received from their forefathers was betrayal and hate. They were rotten at their core even if they pretended the contrary. It's how it was, is and will forever be.

 

[allen1996]

Wrote this chapter listening to that
View: https://youtu.be/v2hjr6gpQZk

---

He found his father on a Californian mortal Beach at the surface world. The Lord of the Oceans had switched from a mature god to the form of a young adult just entering their twenties. From his head until his head sprouted luscious curly hair.

The sky over them was dark and moody. The sea that could be seen from where they were were wild and raging showcasing the true feelings of their master Poseidon.

His father had noticed his presence but hadn't said anything. They stayed both of them in silence contemplating the world around them, a world built on suffering and cruelty.

"We made all of this" his father said finally breaking the silence his gaze lost in something that Triton couldn't see.

He continued" We created a world kinder, more beautiful than when we found it and yet in moments like those, I wonder if he shouldn't have been destroyed since the beginning".

The god finally turned his attention toward Triton. His eyes had changed Triton thought. Mortals had a quote saying that the eyes were the windows of the soul and that through them, you could discern somebody's true nature.

They were wrong on most things but not on that. Even when not in their divine, their true forms, the eyes of a divinity could show their true nature. It was the reason why even demigods were shown most of the time something that they could understand be it a colour or a pattern that they could understand or almost understand.

His father had inherited the eyes of his mother that also inherited hers from her mother, the earth itself. The Olympians may have inherited their cruelty and pettiness from their fathers but what made them dangerous was the fact that they were Rhea's children.

He had once asked his mother what did she fell in love with his father and she had answered by the fact that he had beautiful maddening eyes.

Watching his father in the eyes had always been difficult. It had always felt as if a nail was being forced into his brain. Not something debilitating but something unpleasant.

Now, looking at his eyes, it felt worse than before. He felt as if a jackhammer was hitting his skull again and again and again. More than that, he could hear whispers, their words unintelligible but oh so grating.

It reminded him of the past when a young Triton had looked his mother in her eyes and had even though he was a god lost consciousness for six days.

It felt like that but lesser. His father was changing, becoming something else which should have been normally impossible for a god except that this was what was happening.

Triton downed his sight from his father's eyes.
He could feel the elder god's gaze on him as if dissecting him, watching everything that made him to the atom.

The god sighed and turned his gaze away from Triton to watch the horizon." I'm sorry" the king of Atlantis said to his heir.

Triton stayed still like a statue. His father would have normally never done such a thing.
" For what?" Triton asked.

"For allowing the murderer of Pallas to go away when he should have paid for what he did" the sea god spoke.

Thoughts of confusion and hatred bloomed in Triton making him really feel since the end of the first olympiomachy a true emotion.

"Do you know that my father hadn't swallowed me at my birth? It's what the myths say when it's not the truth." Poseidon told his child changing the direction of the conversation.

"What are you talking about?" The conversation had taken a direction Triton didn't expect.

" My mother is before all a goddess of motherhood. It's in her nature to be a mother and mothers be it with humans, simple animals, monsters and even Gods protect their children". Poseidon grabbed a fistful of sand in the right hair and threw It in the air where it began to spin before beginning to take the shape of a woman.

Triton had never met her before but just by seeing her knew who it was. She was a beautiful woman Trifon had to admit. She had the royal and proud face shape of Hera, emanating from her even if it wasn't truly her kindness like Hestia. She also had given to the lord of the dead her eyebrows and to Zeus her hair. The eyes that she had were perfect replicas of those of his father.

His lord father continued" My mother loved us all but she was also the Goddess of the earth and nature and nature, the world itself had never been kind to differences".

"We were born something unfamiliar, new. We were born more than our predecessor's Titans. Kronos after dethroning his father had been prophesied by the daughters of Ananke to be a victim of the same fate" The god laughed "and here we were, newborn divinities already as strong as the most powerful titans".

"Our father saw in his eyes not his children but the cause of his doom and because of that hated us from the beginning. The wise titan king that was respected, and loved that had ushered a golden age had fallen into the grips of fear and paranoia".

The first figure that Triton knew of Rhea was joined by another with golden eyes.
"The Titans had been strong," his father said" but they were the weakest children of their mother Gaia with Ouranos, the sky. Their father saw them as disappointing things but didn't throw them in Tartarus because he at least wasn't also scared by their powers and strength like with the elder Cyclops or the Hecantoncheires".

Triton continued to listen attentively. After all, his father if not never rarely ever talked of the before of Olympus. What the god was telling him were things most Gods didn't know unless they were high enough in the hierarchy made by Olympus or they were part of those events.

"Gaia loved her children more than anything" the god narrated" She couldn't accept to be with somebody even if she was also their mother that could hurt her children so she left and would found comfort and her tears dried by the upper air itself. They would together make one child".

The sand figurine of Rhea had now exposed from her back tendrils of green light." this child will be called Rhea and her parents made sure that she inherited from each of them almost everything".

"Primordials are to gods what we are to mortals his father said while pointing to foolhardy humans with boards of wood trying to ride the waves produced by the wild ocean.

"How could the titan Triton even with a weapon gifted by their mother be able to reach and hurt The sky itself?" the sea lord asked him.

Mortals going against Gods even minor ones Triton thought always ended by one thing, by the demise or punishment of the mortal. The only way for a mortal to fight a divinity and even have a slight chance to win was either being of divine descent themselves and/or" having the help of a divine being" Triton whispered.

"Bingo," the god said. "The one that helped the Titans at the request of her mother was Rhea. Rhea was the only reason why the Titans hadn't had all their essences dispersed all over the world.

"My father," the Olympian continued "had never been the strongest or the wisest of his siblings. What made him stand off from his brethren was his cunning. He saw the power of my mother and knew that with it, no one would dare to go against him".

"It sounds a lot similar with..." the sea prince stopped his sentence. His father that had appeared calm all this time was gone. The mask had been broken and left bare before the world the hatred and madness of his father.

The god was now standing and tempestuous winds were blowing. The mortals that were riding the wave had lost control and fallen into the raging ocean trying to not drown. His hair behind was blowing in the wind like a demented beast. Triton had forgotten for a moment that the god he was talking to was one renowned for his changing and mercurial moods.

Triton took a step back. The God may have never directly hurt him even after the Olympiomachy but he looked as if he would this time.

Triton readied himself for a possible attack. Poseidon looked as if he wanted to tear him in many pieces but something stopped him. maybe it was his sanity regaining him or for another reason, the God calmed himself and sat back on the sand.

The God continued to talk as if nothing had happened." Kronos when Hestia was to be born knew that he had to trick Rhea into allowing him to end the menace that his children represented to him".

" He made her believe that the children coming from their union were deformed, cursed, suffering and tainted. what kind of mother the titan king told her she would be if she had allowed her children to live a life of immortal agony."

"My mother, " Poseidon said "had learnt to trust and love her husband. After all, he was kind, handsome, brave and he had told her that he loved them. She thought that he would never lie to her".

Pallas had been Triton light since her birth. Triton couldn't understand why others be they gods or mortals could hurt their own children, and not want to care for them.

Texts when talking of the mother of Gods always talked of kindness, of how she loved her children and was torn apart each time she had to give a child to her husband. They talked of her as an innocent, loving, tragic and powerless figure when if anything his father was saying was true, it was all the contrary. She hadn't been the victim. She had been an accomplice.

" So what changed," he asked his father," you told me that you hadn't been swallowed like your siblings before you."

His father pointed his eyes"What changed was that I was born with them".

The elder god continued" I was born with my mother's eyes, unlike my other siblings which meant that I wasn't malformed. I had also inherited from her. Eyes are the window of the soul and mine were just like hers. Admitting that I was deformed would mean that she was too".

The rhea in the sand now had a baby in her arms. She was dotting on him.

"My mother gave to trick my father Kronos a foal that she had infused with divinity. He saw nothing wrong with it". The god's eyes were clouded as if he was relieving the story while he was narrating it.

"Rhea gave me to be raised in secret by a spring nymph. Her name was Arne".

I"What happened to her" Triton questioned.

"She died" The thunder accompanied the words of his father.

"My mother even after all of this still loved my father. She thought that he also didn't know better. She asked him one year after my birth about the proof of his allegations against their children. They had the first dispute of their marriage. In it, Rhea slipped the fact that she hadn't given me to be swallowed. How do you think my father reacted Triton"?

"He got angry" the younger god guessed.

"He probably did" agreed his father "but he didn't show it. He apologized to my mother, and talked about freeing my siblings now that he knew the truth. He played the role of the perfect husband for three months".

"I feel a but coming". Triton said

"Indeed spoke the god. All of that was a ruse, a way to trick my mother and he succeeded. She brought him to the sanctuary where I was raised by Arne. He did nothing on the first and second visits when he was with my mother. The third time, he came alone and broke the promise he made to his mother. He tried to swallow me but Arne tried to act".

Triton didn't need to be told to know how it ended. Kronos was the titan and had as a weapon a scythe made by a primordial that could hurt others' primordial.

"Arne was killed by the scythe of the titan king and I was swallowed really this time by my father. My mother when she learnt what happened left Ortis pregnant with Zeus and you already know the rest of the story Triton" his father finished.

Triton had to admit that It was a captivating tale but "What are you telling me this father".

The older sea god sighed" Imagine eternal torture, a place where a second is as long as a thousand years, where every moment is painful torture because you are being submerged by the acids inside your father's stomach. Such things can make even immortals go mad. Maybe it's the reason for the behaviour of my siblings and me". We're probably all mad.

The eyes of the god had turned into shining emeralds. They were showing him visions of the past, visions of suffering, of happiness, of the future.

" And then came Zeus. He freed us from our torment. We bled all of us together. It was us against the world. When it was hard, we would talk about what we would do when we won. We talked about making sure that the world we will create will be a better one where parents protected their children. We promised to each other that we would always protect each other, that we would always be a family". At the end of his sentence, the voice of the god sounded broken as if he was restraining himself from crying.

Triton imagined the elder Olympians younger dreaming and talking about making a better future, a better world, to always being there for each other. The past them would have probably chosen to fade if they saw their futures selves

"You still didn't tell me the reason why was the point of you telling me all of this Father".

His father sighed" I loved Pallas me too triton. She was my granddaughter."

"Don't you dare tell me this Father" Triton spat with a voice filled with venom. "If you had loved her, you would have pushed for the punishment of Zeus".

"What did you want me to do Triton? Zeus was my brother. I loved him and deep inside even after all of this, I can not bring myself to stop loving him. I already lost my granddaughter at the hands of my own brother when we promised each other that we would be better. He did worse than our father. He swallowed his child and her mother. He succeeded halfway." the kronide sounded tired.

"And look how it bit you back father. Without Mother's intervention, you'd be dead. You're the only one still thinking of family, of the past. Except for Hestia, all of your siblings stopped caring about family. They only crave one thing, power but you already know that".

"Yeah, I know". The god sounded defeated.

"I wished things were different Triton but even with all my power, I can not solve the problems afflicting me".

Clouds Triton noticed had begun to drift away as if called. Triton focused on all of the drips of water in the USA. They were controlled by a divine presence, one that almost felt identical to his father except way weaker and not divine enough.

He turned toward his father. He smiled and radiated Pride.

"Is this the work of your half-blood?"

"That's the work of my boy" the older god answered proudly.

"It should be impossible at his age by a demigod of his caliber unless he's special. He's the child of the great prophecy, isn't he?

His father shrugged" maybe he is, maybe he's not".

The world shook as if a nuclear bomb had been detonated not too far away. " I watched you Percy and you made me proud," his father said to the empty air

The attention of his father went back to him and Steel entered in the voice of his father" "You'll have what you want Triton. In less than ten years, you'll have your vengeance".

His father even though it wasn't well known could see through the waves of time. He even had a name, Poseidon Epoptes, the watcher that was worshipped in the past because of his future sight. Apollo didn't have the monopoly on being able to see the future in their pantheon even if it was what a lot of people thought.

Triton had festered in his hatred for millenniums. He could wait for a mere decade. For once, since the death of his daughter, a true and happy smile bloomed on the face of Triton.

 

[allen1996]

https/youtu.be/VgjTx7RVJPI

---

He had been on his boat in the ocean when he had felt approaching his pirate boat another deity. It wasn't as if it was the first time a stronger or a prideful god had tried to battle him. They hated his existence because of his parentage, because, he was the child of one of the strongest and most hated gods of their pantheon and of a minor goddess turned monster. Just because of his parentage, he had been deformed, and imperfect when he was a god. There wasn't a worse humiliation than this. Pegasus, Hephaestus and he were the only ones that could be said that came wrong amongst gods. Well, it had been the case.
Arion had been born stuck as a winged horse, the first one and he had inherited the monstrous traits of their mother. Gods that couldn't break their own curses, gods that couldn't shapeshift. Could such beings really be called gods?
After all, if they had been proper gods and not steins in Poseidon's eyes, he would have cared for them.
He had in youth almost believed all the lies, all of the mockeries. What had made him finally sure of his nature was when he had tried in the past to use the golden sword that he had been born with to end his life and instead of the presence of scarlet blood and the appearance of his soul in the underworld found golden Ichor, the blood of the gods spewing like a fountain from his wrist.
He still remembered the scream pushed out of the throats of his aunts when they saw his state. They had after that became overprotective of him until they found him to be strong and mature enough to venture into the world. He would find later that they chose to fade the day after he had left.
Immortality was the highest thing that somebody could be blessed to be born with. That's what was thought. It was seen as a blessing when in reality, it was a curse masquerading as one. Living forever meant living forever with your mistakes and your guilt. Worse, they could be immortalised by mortals, and become a never-ending reminder of things wished and lost.
When he left the island of his family and ventured into the world, he had been full of innocence and curiosity. Even though he was raised by what a lot would call monsters, those monsters had taught him to be kind.
The thing is how can you be kind when it feels like the world is against you? How can you be kind when your existence is seen as an insult and a defilement of the natural order?
He was born with his brother from the union of Medusa and Poseidon in Athena temple and the war goddess was one to which cruelty came easily. She was after all the daughter of her father. She had sent heroes and monsters against Pegasus and chrysaor.
They said that Pegasus accepted to be the mount of Bellerophon. It was nothing more than a lie. True Consent doesn't equal mind-controlling magical artefact. Chrysaor had waited until Bellerophon was old and not under the attention of Athena and from the sky, he made him fall to his death freeing his brother. No myths recounted that fact. After all, it's not as if the most known ones weren't written by spawns of the war goddess.
He fought dangerous beasts, monsters, and gods saved cities and brought water to places where existed drought. He made exploits worthy of worship but none of that satisfied him, none of that made him content, made him happy.
What had made him happy had been her. She was still in his heart the most beautiful thing in the world, his Callirhoe. He had once thought himself alone at the sea and had removed his mask hiding the features he had inherited from his cursed mother. He had heard a gasp of shock coming from the sea itself.
The one that had seen him was a child of Oceanus. He had expected disgust to well up on her beautiful face. What had instead bloomed on her face had been fascination and innocent curiosity.
"Aren't you scared" he had asked her this day. "Aren't you disgusted?"
"No my lord", she had replied.
They didn't fall in love like in a fairytale where at first sight, the two protagonists proclaim their unadulterated love to each other.
It took time. Chrysaor had never known kindness from somebody coming from outside his family. He was also a child of Poseidon whether he wanted it or not, the one that had usurped the control of all of the oceans over the brother of Kronos that was her father.
Each week, they'd meet at a secret and precise spot and talk about everything they could think of. They had talked of their hopes, of their dreams, of how the stupidity and hatred of immortals and mortals created unneeded suffering. They debated on what made things right or wrong. "Power" had Chrysaor declared to her. Power was the reason the kronides were able to dethrone their father and shape the world as they saw fit.
Power had been the reason why Athena was able to curse others, transform them into monsters, send so-called heroes to slay them and still be called a just and kind goddess. Power had been the reason that defined all his life.
After answering, he had asked her what was for her the root of what made things as they were, that classified them as right and wrong. She had boldly said kindness. She had told him that if the first sky father had been kind, he wouldn't have been usurped from his throne by his children.
The same wouldn't have happened to the Titans if their king had chosen kindness over fear and hate. If the titan king had shown kindness to his progeny, his golden age would have maybe been still continuing to this day.
Here he had been with someone that repeated to him the words of his now-faded aunts. Kindness they had said. Maybe if the world had been kinder, chrysaor would have had a happy family.
He had asked her 5 years after their first meeting to be his wife and she accepted. He had almost gone mad because of the joy he felt. They married on the island of his childhood and lived for decades a blessed filled life.
Alas, it was in the nature of the world to crush hopes, dreams and happiness. Athena had learnt by a way that he didn't know that Callirhoe had married him, had made him the son of ex priestess that she had cursed and planned the death happy.
She went to her grandfather, the titan of the sea that didn't know, Oceanus and informed him of this. Oceanus's ire exploded when he learnt that one of his daughters married a monstrous child of Poseidon. The titan gave a choice to his daughter, being forever cut for the sea or breaking her marriage.
No one even him had expected her to do such folly, such defying act. No one expected her to rupture by herself her link to the sea. She had told Chrysaor that the sea may have been her home, an essential part of her being but it could never compare to him that was her everything.
The both of them left the ocean to live on an island where the inhabitants had been saved by Chrysaor and he was worshipped because of it by them. He made her his queen and in return, she bore him a child they named Geryon, she gave him what he had always longed for, a family of his own.
They ruled for centuries together. They built a kingdom named Erytheia that all of the other city-states wished they could be. They built a haven where no one had to fear being excluded, shunned or killed because of their differences. When they had been tired of the ruling, they gave the kingship to their child Geryon and retired to the secluded mountains of their kingdom to live just the two of them.
Chrysaor wished that it had never stopped. He wished that the fates, cruel daughters of Ananke had been kinder. Callirhoe had been an immortal linked to the oceans. She wasn't like him from the sea but not completely dependent on it. He had been born with a domain unique to himself. his control of bodies of water that He had been born with, that he inherited from his father hadn't been removed as it had been with his wife.
He had watched the one he loved the most in the world suffer because she had removed an essential part of her because of her love for him. He had done everything that could be done to stop her from fading.
He stole golden apples from Hera's garden that could make mortals become immortals. It only gave him more time. He went to his brother Khrysomallos mostly known today as the Golden Fleece to beg him to help with his healing powers before his mind was turned into the ram constellation by Zeus. He was so desperate that he had begged his father and when he didn't answer, begged Athena herself. Nothing worked.
The last resort that he had found was a ritual, more precisely a ritual that turned mortals into gods. To do such, gods would have to permanently give a part of their divine power, of themselves to ascend the chosen mortal. It's what had been done with Asclepius and Apollo.
In his case, he would give up his birthright, and his authority over the seas to his wife to replace what she had lost. She was more important than everything to him. Alas, his sweet Callirhoe discovered what he had planned and chose to end her existence before he could make Himself lower.
He had come back ready to save his wife to find instead an empty home. He had gone mad from grief. He had raged against the world. His emotions and despair created worldwide floods and led hundreds of thousands of mortals to the realm of Hades.
The one that had brought him from the madness had been his father, Poseidon himself. He had become such a threat that only an Olympian had a chance to stop his rampage. He had woken up in Atlantis where his fractured mind would be consolidated.
Poseidon had asked to stay underwater but how could he stay with the one that could have helped him but didn't, that could have made sure that Callirhoe would still be alive. On the first occasion he had, where he was healed enough, he left the home of his father.
He had sworn to himself to never put foot again on the earth as long as he didn't find a way to resurrect Callirhoe. It was probably foolish but a part of him hoped that sailing through the oceans, he could find a way to bring his wife back.
The oceans had at their surface and in their abyss secrets that could even make Gods like Nereus lose their minds. It meant that it probably existed a way to bring her back.
For millenniums, he sailed tirelessly. He fought against deep sea abominations, raided mundane and supernatural boats, and killed or beat everyone be they gods, mortals or monsters that tried to put themselves on his path.
While he had been sailing days ago, something happened. He had felt light, burning light on his face. It's as if his face had been melted. The pain had made his vision go white and made him grind his teeth against each other. It would have probably made other beings go mad or kill them because of shock. For him, it did none of those things. It may have been painful but how could such physical pain compare itself to what he felt since Callirhoe's disappearance? He had wondered if what was happening to him was another way found by Athena to torment him or if an enemy he had made in his quest had found a way to curse him.
When he had come back to his senses and had checked his face to see what could have been done to him, he had been shaken by the reflection of himself in the mirror. Where was once a monster was now an undeniably attractive person that looked like a beautiful female version of his father with softer features.
He had been called the same day later by his twin through the service of the rainbow goddess and had found instead of a winged horse a young attractive looking man with long black wavy hair, ocean blue eyes and wearing a long purple ribbon tied to the waist, white pants leaving his feets bare on the grass where he stood. From his back displayed proudly were wings of the colours of an eagle's - gold, white, brown and rust - which made him look like a divine creature straight from Christian mythology.
Both of them had gone through the same harrowing experience and came out of it changed. The curse that they had inherited at birth from their mother by Athena had been dispelled. What they had wished for since the beginning had been all of sudden given to them. The curse could have only been broken by its original caster, a powerful witch or a stronger god than the original caster. Thinking about Athena breaking the curse made them laugh hysterically.
The day the goddess would repair a prejudice caused by her pride would be the day the gods of the Greek pantheon would begin to act as a functional, caring and happy family, something that would never happen.
It left only two options that were either a powerful witch the Like of Pasiphaë or Circe that never did anything without expecting something in return or having a hidden motive behind the act. Plus, they hated men, so it was most likely not them. The only option left was a god but which one had been the question?
Doing such a thing even for an immortal stronger or equal to Athena would have been difficult. The curse only became stronger with time and they had been cursed for millenniums since the belly of their mother before they came to the world.
They had ended their communication with promises to talk to each other about what they had found one month later. The breaking of the curse had made him happy. It's just that he would have wanted her to be there, to show this joy with her. If he could have switched blessings and luck, he would have instead made sure that she would come back.
He left his mind and went back to the real world. The sea was churning before him. The divinity that was coming was strong and just by its presence changed the pattern of the body of water around Chrysaor.
Chrysaor grabbed the handle of his golden sword. Stronger god or not, he would not back down.
The other god came out of the sea rising from it. His green sea eyes made sure of revealing his identity. Chrysaor left the handle of his sword and let himself lower his guard. The god's presence has been different, had felt like an abyss full of horrors waiting to be unleashed at any moment. It had reminded him of when he had felt the presence of Varuna, a flicker of his attention when he had sailed on the Indian Ocean. His father was in his essence a wild god. He had under his portfolio not only the sea but also most of the primary domains of his siblings that he shared with them. What had made him unrecognisable was that he felt like none of those things.
His father was now feet planted in the sea, standing over it as if it was solid. "May I come on your ship?" his father said.
He stopped himself from automatically denying the request of the older God. Poseidon could be called many ignominious things that would probably pale to what he really was but one of the things that everyone could agree with is that Poseidon had and will never hurt directly his children.
"You can" he replied to the son of Rhea. The god turned into drops of water that flickered green dispersing themselves before reappearing on the boat on the side of Chrysaor before taking the shape of his father. The god could have just walked or breached the distance with a jump but instead had chosen to be theatrical.
He turned his uncursed face towards the god" "What do you want" he asked him.
"Maybe see the result of my work" the older god replied cheekily.
"You're the one that did that? You, Poseidon?" He asked shocked. Why did he act now when since Pegasus and Chrysaor's birth, since all of this time, he could have acted, done something?
" Is that really surprising? You're my child after all" the older gold told him looking at him in the eyes.
"Maybe it is Oh benevolent god because when I called for you in the past of the island where I was born, when my wife, Callirhoe was fading, you didn't answer any of them so sorry for seeing that you, my lord care!" Chrysaor screamed with mockery at the end of his sentence at the other god.
The god sighed and turned his head towards the sea." You're right" the god said. "I could have done something but I didn't and now I'm here before you expecting thanks and praise for something that should have been done".
Chrysaor listened dumbfounded. Poseidon was as if not more prideful than Athena herself and here he was admitting a wrong. He had expected the god to get angry, not to act like that.
"Why weren't you there for Pegasus and me? Why didn't you help Mother before Athena sent Perseus after her? All gods living outside Mother's island knew you knew. Did you ever have a modicum of love for her" Chrysaor questioned his father.
"I did and a big part of me still loves her Chrysaor but sometimes, love and care aren't enough. Oceanus hated me and his deep hatred still run hot for me. He learnt of your mother and me. He could not directly affect me but he could for your mothers. Do you remember who she was the priestess?"He asked.
"Yeah," Chrysaor" answered," of Athena".
"Oceanus is Athena's grandfather. Athena didn't know what was happening between your mother and me. She was also raised by Triton and my wife Amphitrite. She saw it as a personal slight."
Chrysaor had known the parentage of the war goddess but had never thought about how it could have factored in the tragic things that had happened to him and his maternal family.
Poseidon continued" She waited until I wasn't there. I was called in Atlantis by an attack on my territories by Oceanus forces. I easily rooted them out. I should have known that it was a distraction. While I wasn't there, Athena cursed your mother twisting her divinity to create the source of her torment. It affected your brother and you, my children, that were in her stomach."
"Then why didn't you come after," The son asked his father.
"Because of Amphitrite." He said.
"Amphitrite?".
"Yeah, Athena even it pains me to say it isn't dumb. She had made contingencies. She knew that sooner or later, I would know. She couldn't stop that but what she could stop was me helping your mother and she used Amphitrite".
"How does Amphitrite factor in this. You're stronger than her, she's just your queen. You're lying". Chrysaor said.
The older god turned towards him fixing him dead in the eyes" It's not the truth Chrysaor. Amphitrite inherited everything from her parents and grandparents, everything Chrysaor. She's exactly like it" Poseidon said while pointing at the sea.
Chrysaor didn't need him to explain more. He understood. Names had power, names gave attention and attention even for Gods could be dangerous.
"She told Amphitrite that more than having cheated, that I had fallen in love, that your mother worked towards the goal of me leaving Amphitrite. Your mother hadn't been the first one I truly loved. She had been the second. The first one that I loved that even adjectives like romantics wouldn't be enough was Scylla."
"Scylla, the giant sea abomination? You had a bad taste." Chrysaor answered shocked.
"She wasn't always like that. She had been fierce, more Beautiful than the stars and strong even amongst god. Unfortunately, she wasn't strong enough. Amphitrite would have sent her back to the nothing if I hadn't begged for her life. Amphitrite had instead turned her into the monster she is known today so when she learned about your mother, I had to prove to her that I didn't care. I left Medusa to her fate because know Chrysaor that it exists worse things than death in this cruel world" the older god told him."
"I thought that with your strength, nothing could stop you from doing what you wished" Chrysaor spoke.
"We're gods to mortals, supernova they could only envy the splendour and shine but there's always someone stronger. This world is one founded on Power".
It was ironic Chrysaor thought. He had hated his father, he had thought he hadn't cared when he did. Poseidon was like him. He had been someone that had lost what he had held dear because he wasn't powerful enough. He had lost two Callirhoe and was stuck for all eternity with the one that took them from him. They stayed in silence listening to the sound of the waves.
"You weren't the only one that I helped. I had been in New York two days ago and met your mother."
"You truly helped? What about Amphitrite?"
"I don't care anymore about the consequences. What I did was probably foolish but it was something I was proud of doing" Poseidon said." For once, I want to live without regrets.
" without regrets? Yeah, it sounds good" Chrysaor said wistfully.
"Did you hear about the stealing of my brother's glow sticks of doom? Poseidon asked Chrysaor.
"Yeah, through the winds and the waves.
Apparently, you're the one that did it through a new demigod you sired. Did you?"
"I didn't but I think that maybe I should have. At least this way, I'd be accused of something that I actually did" the kronide replied." "Zeus wants it back before the solstice or it'll be war."
"Are you scared, wary of this future clash? Do you think you could lose?"
"Lose?" The god laughed as if he heard the funniest joke. "I wouldn't lose. I would crush them Chrysaor and I'm in case of war, I want you on my side". The voice of the god had become wild. It reverberated as if echoing.
"Even though I hate your family as much as you do, I promise myself to never go back on land except it was with Callirhoe. " Chrysaor shook his head. "I can't".
"Then, what if I could give her back to you. I know how to bring immortals from the beyond". Chrysaor turned his head so fast towards his father that it would give whiplash to mortals if they had seen it.
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's do it now!" Chrysaor exclaimed.
"I would like to but I need all my names reunited in the same place and a place where I wouldn't be disturbed but with the war coming, I can't allow myself to not multitask but if you helped me, if you helped your brother Percy that is supposed to go on a quest soon for the lightning bolt to give it back to its master stopping the threat of a war, I'll bring her back."
Chrysaor began to think. He could see Callirhoe if he accepted the proposal of the god but how could he be sure that the God wasn't only using him while he needed him and that he will discard him after?
"Swear on the Styx Father and I'll help, swear and I will know that I can trust you," Chrysaor said to his father.
"Alright," the kronide said. " I Poseidon, lord of the oceans, of Atlantis, son of Kronos and Rhea swear before the heavens, the earth and the Styx that if Chrysaor helps me, I will bring back the naiad named Callirhoe." Lightning tore the sky. Tremors began to make themselves known as if an undersea volcano had erupted. More than that, Chrysaor could feel himself being watched as a prey before a predator stalking its prey.
"What was that," Chrysaor asked while holding his hand over his heart".
"That my son was the correct way to bind any Greek being to its promises. The Styx wait for mortals having broken their promises in the underworld to push retribution and punishment. Except for my brother and some of his cronies, few immortals live in the underworld but we all whether we want it or not descendants of the sky and the earth and blood got power Chrysaor."
"What do you want me to do father?
"Soon, your brother will go on a quest and be confronted by a servant of Hades. It will happen soon at the exit of the Lincoln Tunnel. " His father said his eyes peering into things Chrysaor couldn't.
"There's just a little problem, Father, I don't have any ideas of where it is. You forgot where I lived all this time".
The older god put his hands over his eyes "How could I have been so stupid?" The god of the oceans opened his palm. In it, a green ball of energy materialised before flying into chrysaor.
Chrysaor had not expected nothing to happen." What was This for?"
"Tell me Chrysaor", his father told him. "Where is New York?"
"New York is a state on the northeast side of the United States and is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to its south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont to its east; it shares a maritime border with Rhode Island and an international border with the Canadian provinces of Quebec to its north and Ontario to its northwest," Chrysaor said automatically without thinking before realising.
"I put all the maps of the United States in your mind. It would be impossible for you to not know now geographically where you are as long you are in the US. You're the first God gps." Poseidon said proudly.
" I won't even ask old man. I'll help on the little quest of your new child and after that, you'll bring back Callirhoe" Chrysaor said. "Deal?" He asked his father
"It's a Deal" his father answered with a nod of the head." You also got in the map in your mind all the locations of the things that I own or that I don't own that I think could help you. Goodbye Chrysaor, I count on you". A wave swept on the deck of the ship where they were. When the water receded, Poseidon was gone.

*SCENE*
https/youtu.be/-uFWrxD5jmg

He found the child at exactly the place that was indicated by his father. The demigod was painfully young even amongst mortals. He had watched the transportation used by his brother and his companions be destroyed by the use of his inherited abilities.
He could have intervened at any moment but he didn't. The only task given to him was making sure that the godlings succeeded in the retrieval of the symbol of the sky god. Nothing more or less. Chrysaor wanted to see what was special about the child born from a broken oath. He wanted to see what was so special about the child that his father would try to intervene in such a direct way: there is little indirect about assigning a god as a bodyguard.
Poseidon had never sent personally gods or sea creatures to look after his half-bloods on a quest. Before this child, Poseidon had never apologized to anyone. What made this child so different?
He could see a satyr fleeing from the wreck created by his brother with the younger son of Poseidon and another female godling on his shoulders.
Was that all? Was he completely normal? The demigods weren't the only ones unaffected by the destruction of the vehicle. Alecto, one of the kindly ones came out of it angry but untouched. She smelled the air and from there she found the running questers.
Chrysaor prepared himself to intervene. Before he could, he was stopped by his half-brother going toward the Kindly one. He unsheathed his sword but stayed still. What the demigod was doing was foolish, it was the arrogance that could only come from a divine being, it was hubris.
He watched his brother attack the fury. He watched his brother, a half-blood that didn't see more than 13 years hold his own against an immortal. He watched the destruction being brought each time the fury and the child clashed. Respect began to bloom inside his heart.
The child fought with the strength of despair, of somebody giving everything to survive. He watched the half-blood make her bleed. He watched frenzy grew more and more in the actions of the fury. He saw the satyr and the female demigod help his brother.
He saw Alecto have enough, being so incensed that the servant of Hades tried to reveal her divine form to end the demigod son of Poseidon.
Chrysaor tried to intervene but was he outpaced by his brother who brought down upon the Fury an attack so strong and violent that it could be thought to have come from a god itself.
Chrysaor acted. In a burst of speed, he appeared before his brother and grabbed him. With another step, he appeared before the other questers. He encased them in a shield of golden water. The shockwave and the impact from the attack destroyed everything. It destroyed the ground under their feet and sent them flying in the air.
They fell on the Earth hard. The attack had been as if Zeus himself had sent a lightning bolt. Even from where they were sent flying, Chrysaor could still feel the tremors caused by it. He checked mentally where they were and found that his little brother had sent them flying to a state called Virginia.
He stood. He may have protected the half-bloods but they had still fallen unconscious. Maybe, it happened because they were exhausted due to their confrontation with Alecto or maybe it was because of the shockwave created by his brother's attack.
They were in the state of Virginia that was a state completely owned by Chrysaor's father. It was in the delimitation of the United States given to his father. Checking the mental map bestowed by his father, he found that his father had created a place that Chrysaor judged protected enough.
The attack of his half-blood brother hadn't unfortunately crippled the Kindly one which meant that soon if that was not already the case, she would be coming after them.
His brother had also breached the domain of Zeus when he made the giant trident and the Sky God would see it as an insult which meant more dangers coming their way.
He focused on the emplacement of the protected place that was registered as the Hotel Poseidonum which he automatically mentally translated as the temple of Poseidon.
With a flex of his will, the unconscious questers and he disappeared only to reappear before the hotel. Before the giant doors of the hotel, there were guards clad in adamantine scales.
The only gesture they showed to express their surprise at his appearance was tightening their grips on their tridents. They took one look at him and each bent one of their knees, their faces turned towards the ground.
One of them raised his head to speak "It is an honor to welcome you, my Prince."
"You can raise," Chrysaor told them.
They didn't. "It would be a sin for us to do so my prince" said the one guard that seemed to speak for all the others.
His father had trained them well. It reminded him of better times when he was in his own right a god-king.
He pointed toward the unconscious questers." Those are the demigods sent on the quest to retrieve the bolt of the sky god".
"We heard about it" another guard said. "Our lord had his name besmirched by his brother who has also almost killed his latest half-blood," said the guard with venom in his voice. Chrysaor knew without a doubt that even if he knew he shouldn't the guard would not hesitate to go against Zeus. The guard saw his loyalty to Poseidon as superior to his life.
He continued" The god of the sky threatened war with the sea. He swore to destroy us for something our lord did not do. He swore to destroy everything our lord ever loved".
"Well, one of the questers behind me is my brother and by the orders of my father, I will have to protect him. He fought valiantly against an immortal and won. I want them to be taken care of as ifthey were gods. Understood?"
"Understood my prince" the guard answered. As if all this time they were being listened to, humanoid sea creatures came out of the doors of the hotel.
They took the quester with inhuman care and grace into their arms and went back to the hotel with them. Some came out with what seemed to be a palanquin. They came before him. He shook his head in a silent no and walked into the hotel.
The inside of the hotel could only be described as luxurious. The ground had been made with imperial gold intertwined with emeralds finely crafted in it. There were tapestries all around him depicting the sea god, his family and their achievements.
He could see Theseus and the Minotaur. He could see Arion and Pegasus. He could see Triton plunging his trident into a gigantic sea monster. He could see a young-looking goddess that seemed to be creating a storm. He saw himself, draped in gold sitting on a throne.
One of the servants directed him toward what they said would be his quarters for the time he will be staying. While they were walking, he began to pay spiritual attention to the place.
Just being in the hotel had already strengthened him. He could feel strength coursing through him. It was as if he was at the sea. He understood why the map his father had given him had called this place a temple. Attacking a sea creature here would be akin to trying to breach the walls of Troy without subterfuge, something that was impossible for most beings.
More than that, in case an intruder was able to enter this place, they would be unable to trace back their steps. This place after analyzing it was less a physical place and more of a distorted reality that could almost be called alive like the labyrinth. The only way to navigate this place would be to be from the sea and to know or understand the mechanism behind how this place worked.
They finally stopped at a door with the letter Epsilon engraved on it. They entered the room behind the door." There are invisible naiads everywhere my prince. Ask for anything and it will be given to you", the servant said with deference.
"Understood. Inform me immediately when one of the questers awakens. Except that, I expect to not be bothered".
"It is understood your grace." The servant answered. He bowed and left Chrysaor alone in the room.
The room was one that could only be called fit for a god. It was gorgeous to the point that it could be considered sinful but Chrysaor didn't care about any of that.
He let his back fall on the bed. It felt soothing and gave the impression to be enveloped by the sea. Chrysaor raised his hand toward the ceiling as if reaching to catch something" Soon, we'll be together again, Callirhoe . Just wait for me. I will do anything to make sure of it".
scene*
He was watching through a mechanical device surely created by Hephaestus a play that was centred around the plight of a young woman being in love with the half-brother of her husband that was also a criminal.
"Javier" the girl said." We can't. What if manolo finds out?"
"My brother would have to accept our true love Veronica" Javier answered. "Kiss me mi amor"
She kissed him. While they were kissing, a door was opened" Honey, I came out with a gift for yo-".
They jumped away from each other but it was too late. The bags in the hands of the husband of Veronica fell." How could you do this me Veronica? Worse, with my own brother!" Manolo screamed.
"Don't you dare scream at her!" Javier raised his voice and put himself between Veronica and Manolo.
Manolo took out a gun." You betrayed me. Veronica and you, my brother betrayed me. Even after all I did for the both of you. You were supposed to always protect me, Javier. Not be the one that stabs me in the back".
Javier put his hands before him as if wanting to calm his brother" Put down the gun brother before you do something that you will regret. We can talk about it". Veronica nodded behind him.
"I'm done talking," said Manolo with tears in his eyes. He pointed the gun at the two cheaters.
Unfortunately, it was at this moment that the hotel attendant chose to open his door and interrupt the play."At least one of them better be awake or I swear that I will personally turn you into fish soup".
They left his room and walked to what seemed to be a mix of a tavern and a thermopolium. At one of the tables was sitting his brother and his satyr companion.
The eyes of the two had widened by seeing Chrysaor coming. After all, it would be impossible to deny the fact that the young half-blood and he were related due to their appearances.
He sat before the two questers." Hi brother" he said.
"Hi", the other one answered softly.
"I saw what you did with The Fury. Congratulations and be proud. Even amongst gods, few could say to have faced a fury and more than surviving her, hurting her".
"I should be proud but I can't. I was terrified. Every moment felt as if I couldn't breathe. Every moment was one I could have died. If she had taken me seriously, I would have died at the beginning," the demigod said softly. The satyr at his side put a hand on his shoulder as if to soothe him.
Chrysaor remembered a weak and young god talking with his aunts. They had told him that they were proud of the young god. The young god had asked them why. He was weak, imperfect, and had tried to end himself. He was all the contrary to what a god was expected to be. They had smiled at him like one does with an ignorant child and they had answered by saying that he had tried to end himself for what he thought would be the best for the world. Even though it was misguided, the godly child had gone against his own instincts, against his own fear to do what he thought was the best thing. He had done it because he was kind and being kind meant being brave.
"Do you want to know something child? "He spoke to his brother. "Fear is even felt by gods. We, near-omnipotent beings can feel it as much as mortals do. We humans, monsters, and gods, can all be cowards. What makes someone great is looking into the abyss and when it tries to engulf you refusing it with all your strength. Any moment, especially for mortals, is one where they brush against Thanatos's grip. They can die at any moment. They know it but still carry on and that action is courage, something everyone should be proud of, so be proud. It doesn't matter that she wasn't taking you seriously. In the end, you were successful in surviving and that's the only thing that matters."
"You make it seem more grandiose than it is" the child answered.
"Maybe you are right but what is life without embellishments? What is life without pride?"
"An honest life" his younger brother answered.
"Honesty is determined by the strong. It is an immaterial construct prone to change" he said to the demigod
"If it's the case, then pride is too" was the reply given to him.
Chrysaor's face was resting on his hand" So is fear or shame. None of those things matters."
"Then what was the point of every you said," the kid said with frustration.
"Nothing matters" Chrysaor continued as of he hadn't heard his brother" So everything does. That's the paradox child and it's in this complexity that exists beauty."
"How old are you brother?" he asked.
"I am twelve years old. "
"I thought many things of you before meeting you. I thought that you would be an arrogant child that would make me want to strangle them but you're not. My name is Chrysaor The Golden dear brother and I was sent by father to make sure you succeed. What is your name?"
"I'm Percy Jackson".
"Glad to meet you Percy. I just wished that I would meet you in another circumstance. Children shouldn't have to bear the weight of the world".
"I'm not a child and I can. I have to! If I didn't do it, there's assuredly going to be war"
"When you're older, wiser, I hope that the both of us will still be on this earth. At this moment, we'll talk again of the same thing and we'll see if you think the same."
The gaze of the satyr had turned sad. "Be angry for him. Be sad because of his lost innocence but don't you dare pity him. You are his friend, right? He asked.
"Yeah," the satyr answered.
"Continue to be there for him like you've been all this time. Loyalty runs in our veins. As long as you are, know that he would even destroy the world for you". The two questers had begun to blush.
" My Prince," one of the servants said. The two children of Poseidon turned toward the sea creature.
The telekhines realized his error." My Prince Chrysaor. The companion of the youngest prince had awakened. How should we proceed? She's a daughter of the war goddess and their kind is always hostile."
"Is she truly a daughter of Athena?" He asked the questers.
They answered with a nod" Why are you asking?"Percy questioned.
He stood up from his seat and chuckled" Let's just say that children of Poseidon almost always go through tragedies because of the goddess."
He turned toward the telekhine." I'll be going retrieve her myself". The sea monster bowed and left the table.
"What did Annabeth's mom do to you?". His younger brother asked.
"Me? She had cursed my maternal family and sent someone to assassinate my mother by beheading her. Her beheaded head is even to this day one of the symbols of the goddess."
"Athena, beheading, Chrysaor" The satyr whispered. His eyes widened" You are the child of Medusa, brother of Pegasus".
"Bingo" Chrysaor turned his back now facing them. He began to walk toward where he knew was the daughter of Athena.
"Chrysaor" Percy screamed. He stopped his next step. "You called me brother. If you truly meant it, please don't hurt her".
"What you are asking me is cruel brother".
"I know this and I'm sorry but she's my friend. We're not our parents. Please" the demigod begged. "You told me that being kind meant being strong and just by talking with you, I know you to be full of it. Please, don't hurt her". The demigod seemed on the verge of crying.
All the other guests even though they tried to act as if they were not eavesdropping failed at it.
With a flex of his will, a hand made of water ruffled the demigod's hair." I won't hurt her. I promise you this brother."
He continued toward the chamber of the daughter of Athena." Thanks", he heard behind him.

 

[allen1996]

 

[allen1996]

 

[allen1996]

 

[allen1996]

Thanks again to Cam Katarn for helping me with the grammar. Hope you all like it. Wrote this listening to this:

https/youtu.be/swDam6Hrsm8

---

Chrysaor waited for the demigods to finish eating. They had eaten in a ravenous way as if they were starving. He should be so hard on them though. After all, they had faced an immortal that was older than chrysaor himself and his father and more than surviving were able to fight back. Alecto would not forget. She will be hellbent on making the demigods suffer in the living world and in the underworld if they died.
Well, it would only suck for his brother's companion because he would swear on his blade that their father had a plan in mind for assuring the well-being of his youngest demigod. With the child so strong and him, an immortal, being sent to protect him, it was clear that the Kronide cared.
He was shaken out of his thoughts by clicks of utensils entering in contact with plates. The questers had finished eating their meals.
"I've never eaten something so good before," the Satyr said.
The two demigods nodded in confirmation of what he had said." For once, I can not deny your words," the female demigod answered the satyr.
His brother turned his head away from his companions to face him." You told us that you would come with us Chrysaor. Do you have a plan?"
"I thin-" He didn't have time to answer. The daughter of Athena interrupted him." Chrysaor as the son of Medusa and Poseidon Chrysaor? Percy, we can not trust him".
"What do you say that Annabeth" Percy said to the blonde girl.
"His mom was rightfully turned into a monster by mom because she desecrated my mom's temple with Poseidon. He told me that he had orders not to attack me but it doesn't mean that he can't find a way to do so. Percy, think a little. He hates my mother, so hate me by extension and you are the child of his father with another woman than his mother. How do we know if anything he said was true? Do you truly think that he got your best interest at heart?"
The younger son of Poseidon seemed to be lost in his mind. He seemed conflicted before taking a resolute expression. Chrysaor scoffed. He knew already what his half-brother would say. He knew Chrysaor for no more than a day when he could be knowing the other demigod for years. He had even chosen her to be his companion on a great quest. It couldn't be helped. It didn't affect him yet his heart twisted.
He was surprised by the answer of his brother" You are right that he may be lying but I talked with him before you wake up. We didn't talk long but I was able to glean something from him. He is someone that cares. He was the first adult mortal or immortal that saw me as a kid and not a demigod that should be used as a tool. He is the one that told me that he wished that he met me in a circumstance other than this quest." The youngest child of Poseidon looked at the daughter of the war goddess in the face" It may be stupid but I trust Chrysaor, I trust my brother".
The daughter of Athena seemed to be too enraged to speak. She took a deep breath and with a cold voice said" When it will explode into our faces when we will fail this quest, before our doom, I'll look you in the eyes and will tell you I told you so".
"It won't happen" his brother answered. The daughter of Athena was right. The kid was too trusting. Such naivety was the cause of the fall of many heroes. Trusting in the unforgivable and cruel world led to their death most of the time. It was a weakness and yet it made Chrysaor feel good. It made him feel warm.
"We'll see" the female demigod replied.
The air was now thick with tension" Guys, let's not dispute between ourselves. We were able to survive the Fury because we stuck and worked together."
"For the record" Chrysaor finally spoke." I could have killed the three of you at any moment. I was the one to save you from the consequences of the destructive attack of my brother.
"Rightfully turned into a monster, you said daughter of Athena." The demigods and the satyr turned toward him. " Do you know what is like to have the fundamental part of yourself intruded upon? Do you know what it's like this part of yourself twisted against your own will? It is something that marks you forever. You feel dirty and violated. More than that, you are now seen as undesirable, as something shameful. Everyone that ever told you that they were your family left you alone to your sort. You are barred from your home. When you make a new one, people are sent after you to kill you because now you are no longer divine, you are now a monster. You're not beautiful anymore. You are now the monstrosity that everyone talks and laughs about. You defend yourself each day and night against people sent against you until you can't do so anymore and you are beheaded, your head used as both a trophy and a weapon. All of that happened to my mother because of one person and that person is your mother, daughter of Athena. How is that just? How is that wise? How is that fair? My mother wasn't perfect but no one deserved that, no one so never ever dare again talk before me of what is right!"
Chryaor didn't know what expression he had on his face but the daughter of Athena looked as if Tartarus himself was on the verge of erasing her existence.
"Am I clear?" he asked her.
"Yes," She whispered.
"Good". Chrysaor clapped his hands. "It is something done I think. Are you sure that you don't want to say something else?" He asked the blonde demigod in a mocking tone.
"Chrysaor, stop, please". Said his little brother in a sad tone. All the satisfaction that he had gained disappeared. How could just words affect him this way?
He sighed "All right".
"As I wanted to say before, I do not have a plan. I can not formulate one without every element you have. I suppose if it didn't change a lot, one of you went to the oracle. What did she say?" Chrysaor asked.
"She said that we shall go west, find the god that had turned and return what was stolen".
"West, you said," Chrysaor thought out loud.
"Who do you think it could be"
"We thought that it was the God of the deads. Chiron confirmed it and it was also him that Sent a Kindly one many times after Percy." The satyr said.
" Checking the map given to me, California could be considered the most west state from the United States if Hawaii and Alaska are not considered".
"Chiron had also told us that the entry to the underworld was in Los Angeles. It all matches" the daughter of Athena spoke.
"It doesn't seem like the way the King of the Underworld acts but it's been more than a millennium since I saw him so maybe, he changed. It is important to note that prophecies work the way we interpret them.
"What does it mean? Aren't prophecies static?" his younger brother asked him.
"The thing about Prophecies," he told him" is that our interpretation of them is what shapes them. Let's take for example the story of the titan king. The titan king was told that he would be dethroned by his children so when his wife gave birth, he tried to consume the essence of his children until they were nothing.
We all know how it ended."
"The prophecy was realized," Annabeth said. The first king lost his throne, was cut into many pieces and thrown into Tartarus. How could it have been different?" The distrust of the goddess had disappeared at the moment new knowledge was put before her.
"It could have happened that way" Chrysaor answered." The Titan king could have even with the prophecy chosen to raise his children with love. Maybe in that hypothetical world, he would be dethroned not through a bloody conflict but by him abdicating his crown to his children. He would still be whole, worshipped. He would have been forever known as a symbol of wisdom, as the great father. It's the same here. The thing is that Hades isn't the only one with a motive. After all, he hates everyone especially those he thought had stolen the symbol of the power of his brother and those resulting from a broken oath on a divine river of his domain."
"So who else do you think it could be?"
"I'm not sure but it could be a Hawaiian deity. They are amongst the rare native divinity to America that have survived if what I've heard isn't wrong" Chrysaor said while rubbing his jaw.
"Hawaiian gods?" the daughter of Athena screamed. "They exist? I thought that the Greek gods were the only real gods".
Chrysaor turned his gaze towards the other questers that looked as shocked as the blonde demigod." None of you knew". Chrysaor said with surprise. He could understand half-bloods beings ignorant of some things. Their lives were finite and could end at any moment. It's something they should be knowing because even though they didn't know about the greater world, the greater world knew of their nature and no one was more hated than the Greco-roman pantheon.
Gods or supernatural beings that had their culture destroyed, forgotten, that lost their friends, followers and families wouldn't care about the fact that the Olympic demigod they could meet was innocent. They would only see an offspring of the creator of their misfortune. They would without hesitation make the half-blood they meet suffer.
He was just supposed to assure the success of the quest but he realized that to do so, he would have to teach the demigods. Not everything he thought. Some things were better to never be learnt, known especially by mortals.
He moved himself to be more comfortable." Alright" he spoke," Time for a little lesson".
The demigods were watching him the way, predators did with their prey."To begin, you all have to understand that if a myth exists, it is probably based most of the time on true facts."
"You said that most myths are real. Does it mean that the Olympians aren't the supreme ruler of the world? Why didn't we know that? Before you even told us, we should have known. I'm sure that for example, Native American divinities wouldn't be happy with the occupation of the United States". The daughter of Athena questioned.
"The Olympians are many things child. They all are cruel, petty and monstrous but there is one thing they are not and that is weak. They are the Western civilization itself. Everything that happened because of it in this world. Every atrocity and wonders. Every slaughter, every genocide is their fault directly or indirectly. With their actions, they would have been eradicated if they were not strong enough. There is a tale that says that when Olympus began to plunder the African continent thousands of gods from different tribes that hated each other chose to forget their grievances to destroy their invaders. Gods that could with a movement of their arms, destroy mountains, tear the sky apart, and break the natural rules of the world were annihilated, erased as if they never existed. Only one god was the cause of their demise. Can you guess who?"
"An Olympian god strong enough to be able to slaughter thousands of gods. It must be one of the kronides" the daughter of Athena thought out loud." Was it the sky god? He's known as the strongest of the Olympian gods. You said sent by Olympus so it can't be a primordial god."
"It was not the king who did it. It was his eldest sister. The oldest child of the titan king it is said burnt everything. She burnt the attacks launched at her. She burnt the army of lesser supernatural beings united by the alliance of gods. She with one movement burnt the enemy gods' flesh, bone and essence. They didn't have enough time to scream. When she chose to extinguish her flames, there was nothing left. She burnt away their very existence. They would never be able to come back even if Khaos himself intervened."
"You are talking of Hestia," the Satyr said shell shocked." Hestia, the kindest god, Hestia the one god that is notoriously known as a pacifist who hates violence. You're joking right". The satyr looked at him in the eyes as if trying to find any deceit. He found none of it.
"It is not the only atrocities made by the Olympians. It's just a drop of water in an ocean of cruelties and horrors. What gods or supernatural beings that survive to this day were the ones smart or cowardly enough to not go against Olympus but you" he said pointing at each of the questers with his index finger" are not even half as strong as the Olympians except maybe you, little brother. "
The demigod looked conflicted and pained. It was easy for Chrysaor to see that his brother wanted to ask him a question and he had an idea of what it was.
"Chrysaor. You said that the Olympians were the root of an innumerable amount of atrocities but Dad, he was not really involved right?". The demigod sounded hopeful. The demigod wanted to still see his father as a near-perfect figure. He wanted to see him as someone that changed since ancient Greece. He wanted to believe that his father, the one that loved him was not one of the biggest monsters existing.
Chrysaor sighed. He answered with a soft voice as if trying to alleviate the coming blow." Brother, know that no ship crosses an ocean without our father accepting it. Do you know what helped, no build this country?"
"Slaves and their labour" the satyr answered instead of his brother. He sent the nature spirit a scathing look. At that moment, he deplored the fact that he hadn't inherited the turn-to-stone gaze of his mother.
He opened his mouth trying to save the situation. His father was not perfect and Chrysaor was still not sure of what was the reasons for the changes in his father but he was a parent too and knew that there was nothing more soul-crushing than having the love and admiration of your child turn into hatred."Listen to me, Percy, it was in the past. Percy!"
The child was breathing easily as if he had run a marathon." Calm down. Calm down Percy". He stood up from his place and went near the child" Focus on me, it's alright". He tried to put his hand on the shoulder of his brother to comfort him but had his hand swatted away.
The companions of the demigod were trying to calm him down at the same time as Chrysaor. "I just want to be left alone" the demigod screamed. With his cry, the hotel space itself twisted. The child wasn't there anymore. He had in his panic unconsciously connected to the temple masquerading as a hotel as if he was a godly offspring of Poseidon. Chrysaor focused on trying to find his brother. He found him on the roof.
"My Prince, should we send people searching for the young prince," a Telekhine asked him.
"No, I'll do it myself".
He prepared to teleport near his brother." Take us with you. We can help" the satyr said.
"You are his friend. You saw how he reacted when we crowded him. In trying to help, we didn't. Now, he is alone after an outburst when he said he wanted to be alone. Do you think that it would be a good idea for us three to go toward him? He asked the Satyr.
"No, it wouldn't," the satyr said looking at the ground." I know that it wouldn't be a good idea but I'm supposed to be his best friend, be there for him but I feel like I failed time and time again. He was attacked by a Kindly one and I did nothing. He lost his mother because of me. When he thought I was a crippled human, he did everything to protect me when most humans pitied me or attack me" The daughter of the war goddess hugged him.
"The thing about life is that things are never truly over. Never think that you failed as long as both of you are alive. You care about your friend. It's something that is authentic that I can see. When I come back with him, don't think about the things that happened that you can't change. Think about what you will be able to do for him. Be there for him. That's all you gotta do." Chrysaor said before reappearing on the roof of the hotel.
He found his brother sitting on the ground, his back resting against a wall watching the stars and grabbing tightly the collar of pearls around his neck.
They stayed both of them in silence for five minutes before his brother finally spoke "I wanted to be alone".
"I know" Chrysaor answered.
"I never told it to anyone except you but I talked to Dad", His brother began. "He was everything I hoped he would be. He seemed caring and told me he loved me. He had told me that there would be a quest for the retrieval of the lightning bolt and that I didn't have to go through it if I didn't want it. He wanted me to come to Atlantis with him. He didn't care that doing such would probably mean that he would still be seen as the reason for the disappearance of the bolt. It meant that he saw my being safe as more important to him than a conflict where he could lose everything."
"You fear that he lied to you," he said to his brother." You fear that he's just using you and will discard you after your usefulness runs out. You fear that everything you're doing is for nothing. You fear being abandoned."
"Yeah. What you told me was completely different from the dad I met but if after a millennium, he didn't change, how could he realistically change in just a few decades?"
"Our father is not a good person. I'm not a good person Percy. Most gods aren't." The demigod looked defeated. "But" he continued."There is one thing you can be sure of and that's his love for you. It has never happened before that a Greek god sent another divinity to protect their demigod for the entirety of a quest. He wouldn't have done that, and let you inherit so much from him, if he didn't care."
"Inherit?" the demigod asked.
"The strength of a demigod depends on the love, the care that their parents have for them. There were children of Poseidon unable to control the weather or liquids like you, brother. Even if he allowed those to do so, they would never be able to do the things you did. I can feel his power all over you and In you. It screams proudly and unashamed this is my child."
His brother turned toward him"I should be disgusted by him after what you told me but I still love him. Does it make me evil?"
"Maybe it makes you evil but guess what? In the end, the only person's opinion that matters is yours. Don't forget what he did but don't try to force yourself to stop loving him."
The child smiled at him"I see. Thanks, Chrysaor. It's just been a day but I'm glad I met you".
A little smile appeared on the corner on the mouth of Chrysaor" Me too, I'm glad to have met you, brother. He just hoped that in the future, none of them would regret their words.