a/n: hello! this is a replacement of the first chapter of my reading the books fic because the other one was too confusing! should have the first book chapter up later or tomorrow. please read and review.
disclaimer: anything you recognize isnt mine...
enjoy!
Percy POV
My life is one long drawn out mess. Even more than a regular demigods (if there was such a life). See I'm Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon the sea god, this means that I get the worst luck in the world. Take the past 7 days for example. I had turned into a meteorite after blowing up a volcano and probably releasing a deadly powerful Titan and crashed into ogyjia, home of calypso, the Titan general atlas' daughter. I had to stay there for a while until I recovered from being a meteorite and all that time I was falling for calypso. Then a god tells me I have to go back to the prophecy that will probably get me killed and leave calypso alone on her island without ever getting to see her again. Finally, when I arrive back home, I find out I was gone for 2 weeks, made everyone think I was dead, returning during my own funeral and then making the girl I was starting to fall in love with pissed because I crashed into ogyjia. Yeah I know, my life sucks. Now I only have one night to rest until I go back into the labyrinth and resume this quest that could save or condemn my home to an attack from monsters. My life really sucks. At the moment I was sitting at the camp fire listening to Apollo's cabin lead the traditional camp fire. I didn't know that this was going to be the last bit of normalcy I would get for a while. Suddenly a swirling green vortex blazed into life next to me and swallowed me before I could even think about reacting.
Annabeth POV:
Percy has been missing for six months now. I know where he is but I don't at the same time. I feel so close to him but so far at the same time. I just feel like breaking down and crying all the time, but it's not in my nature to do that. So I soldier on and try to ignore the loneliness in my heart. My friends have been great the past few months. Clarisse, Katie, Thalia (because of the whole Olympus being closed, the hunters were living at camp) and Piper being there to train with or talk to whenever I needed them. The Stoll brothers and Chris playing pranks on my rivals in camp to try and get me to laugh. Jason taking over as replacement camp leader in Percy's absence and Leo working crazily hard on the Argo II, trying to get it perfect before we sailed off to the Roman camp to pick up Percy and the other 2 heroes from the prophecy and then on to our quest in Rome. When I thought about Rome my hand drifted towards my pocket where that cursed silver drachma kept reappearing, kind of like a cursed riptide. I shook myself out of it. I had enough on my plate without having to worry about... her. Clarisse, Katie, Thalia, Piper, Chris, the Stolls, Jason, Leo and I were heading to New York to have Sunday lunch with Sally and Paul. Percy's parents had been gods sends since Percy had gone missing. Always letting us demigods crash in their home when we need a place to stay away from camp or for a talk about Percy. I smiled just thinking about them, they could always make me feel better. As I watched my friends goof around, I hadn't noticed the blue vortex swirling lazily towards us until it was too late. Just before it swallowed us I tried to yell a warning to my friends but I was too late. We were all swept up in a swirling blue flash.
Thalia POV:
The hunters and I were getting ready to hunt down some of the stray hyperboreans on Kronos' side. I missed my life with Annabeth, Grover, camp and of course my crazy cousin Percy, but life with the hunters was awesome! I know I only joined to avert the great prophecy away from myself and to give me time to get over Luke and see some of the world after being trapped in a tree for years... but the hunt is seriously cool. I mean, you get to shoot things with arrows, travel to amazing places, don't live with guys and their annoying habits, as well as learning some pretty kickass female history at the same time. Sounds good doesn't it? I missed my friends back at camp sometimes but I could always send Iris messages to keep in touch. Anyways, as I was thinking about my friends, Grover, Annabeth and Percy, a green vortex blazed into life next to me and I was sucked inside, trapped.
Nico POV:
I was still at the ranch, mulling over what Percy had done for me, I mean he knew I hated him but he still saved my life, stopped me from becoming one of Kronos' slaves, helped me see Bianca again and offered for me to crash their quest. Bianca was right, I wasn't really angry with Percy, I just felt so empty and alone when I found out that Bianca had left me even after she had promised not to and joined the hunt, I had to blame someone and Percy was the person who had promised to keep her safe. I would like to be friends with Percy but I think I've blown my chance now. Mind you, I'm a son of Hades, I'm not supposed to have friends. As I was thinking this a blazing green vortex sprang up behind me and pulled me away from the ranch.
Olympus POV:
Apollo was alone in the throne room, looking for his iPod around his throne, when a misty green light and the smell of reptiles filled the air. He slowly turned around to face his Oracle, slightly surprised that she had teleported to him after spending so much time as still as a comatose person, stuck in that old attic in the big house. He watched as green smoke billowed around her and her eyes glowed a bright, unnatural green colour.
"3 and 10 future godlings shall arrive on the morrow,
You will read the heroes stories to avert their sorrow,
More and more shall arrive so prepare yourselves for a surprise,
Or refuse and watch for yours and theirs untimely demise."
With that she disappeared into green smoke, leaving Apollo nervous about what he had just heard. Tomorrow was the winter solstice, when all of the Olympian gods as well as Hades were gathered in the throne room to report the happenings in their respective domains and bicker like the defunct family they were. He decided to wait until tomorrow morning, when the half bloods were going to arrive, to tell the others what would be happening.
Still Olympus POV:
All of the Gods were sitting in their thrones ready to start the winter solstice.
"Firstly, who has any important pressing matters?" Zeus asked, mentally preparing himself for a day full of arguments, bickering and drama.
"Yes I do actually" everyone turned to look at Apollo who looked uncharacteristically worried and serious, nothing like the bouncy, ridiculous man they all, secretly, thought fun and entertaining. Once he had everyone's attention, he began his explanation of the events of last night. When he got to the prophecy, he was asked to repeat it,
"3 and 10 future godlings shall arrive on the morrow,
You will read the heroes stories to avert their sorrow,
More and more shall arrive so prepare yourselves for a surprise,
Or refuse and watch for yours and theirs untimely demise."
"That's pretty easy for a prophecy." Athena mused looking worried.
"Yeah I know," Apollo replied, "but I just can't shake the feeling that this book reading and these heroes are special somehow, after all they brought my Oracle to me" he stated, still trying to figure out the heroes the prophecy could be talking about. They couldn't be the heroes concerning the great prophecy could they? As the gods mused, 2 vortexes of blue and green appeared suddenly in the throne room. As the gods reached for their weapons, 13 people dropped out of them, screaming from the long drop from ceiling to floor. The gods were so stunned they could hardly react as the screaming teenagers impacted into the floor. The loud reverberating crunches and ouches drew Apollo out of his astonishment as he ran over to make sure they were all okay. The demigods were all fine except for some bruises and feeling dazed and were soon up on their feet. The blonde girl from the bigger group asked "why did you summon us? I thought Olympus was closed?"
"WHAT!" All the gods and the younger demigods yelled in astonishment. The blonde girl looked confused but then a light of understanding appeared in her grey eyes.
"Hang on, you don't know us do you?"
"No, but we were told that 13 demigods would come here and we would have to read their stories" Artemis replied looking confused at the silver cricket on two of the girls heads, who looked exactly identical.
"Ok what was the last big event that has happened to you then?" The blonde girl asked, having not noticed the 3 younger demigods in the room.
"My daughter's final fight and death outside camp half blood." Zeus said, looking uncharacteristically sad and melancholy. "That was 2 weeks ago."
"And I just got back to CHB after recovering in ogyjia." The black haired boy explained making the older demigods and gods jump, they had forgotten there were 3 younger demigods. As the blonde girl caught sight of the boy, she gave a strangled sob and gave the boy a bone crushing hug, saying garbled sentences like "I missed you" "don't leave me again" etc. The boy just looked bewildered and said "do I know you?" The girl withdrew quickly, looked carefully at the boy and said "no wrong time, stupid, stupid." She walked deservedly back to the older demigods who looked at her sadly and the girls wrapped her in a hug. During the awkward silence a letter fell from the ceiling. The youngest looking child grabbed it, read it and then passed it onto the dark haired boy.
"Well, tell us what it says!" Athena exclaimed, looking thoughtful.
"Ok it says: Dear gods, goddesses and future heroes,
You have been brought here in different time periods to read books about both great prophecies in order to avoid many tragedies. We will bring in other demigods when the time comes. Also, 3 will be entirely Percy Jackson's point of view and 3 shall be varying points of view. Good luck gods and heroes, you will need it for the future. Signed the fates. PS: Sorry Perseus Jackson but this kind of gathering requires a sacrifice, therefore any pain you felt in these books will be felt by you." The gods looked shocked, 2 great prophecies? But the demigods were nervous and annoyed that people would hear their thoughts and that Percy would be feeling pain. Percy was especially scared of mt st Helens. That had nearly killed him. If not for calypso...
"Well the, introductions are in order it seems!" Apollo beamed at them showing off his blindingly white teeth. The younger group of demigods stepped up first.
A young boy aged at around eleven or twelve years of age stepped forwards first. He had olive coloured skin, middle length ebony hair and dark piercing eyes that could read into your soul. He was dressed in an aviators jacket, a plain black tee, raggedy black jeans and black converse. He had a vagrant look about him that screamed kid living on the streets. Also, his eyes though childlike looked as if the innocence that had shone there before had been brutally ripped away, to leave behind a lonely preteen. His voice was childish, not yet broken but some how lonely, as if he had accepted the fate of a social outcast. "My name is Nico di Angelo, son of Hades." There was uproar at these words, Zeus was yelling about how Nico should be dead and Demeter was shrieking that Hades was nothing but trouble and not good enough for her sweet daughter. When Zeus levelled his lightning bolt at Nico, the dark haired teen pushed Nico out of the way and drew a sword so fast it was just a blur of celestial bronze. He then proceeded to rush Zeus and with the hilt of his sword, knock the lightning bolt out of Zeus's hand and place his sword at Zeus's neck. There was a shocked silence as Zeus stared in disbelief at the dark haired boy and the blonde haired girl wore a proud look on her face.
"You were going to take an innocent life, the life of a child whom you have never known, all to get at your brother?" The boy questioned with a disappointed look on his face, Zeus looked ashamed and lowered his gaze. "From now on, you and the rest of the gods must swear on the river Styx that you will not harm any of the demigods here or the ones that will appear later." The boy carried on in a grave voice.
"We swear" Zeus promised and thunder rolled through the sky.
"Alright then, I'm Percy Jackson son of Poseidon" he looked around at the gods, daring them to try and attack him but although Zeus and Hades wore annoyed looks, nobody tried to touch him. He was a boy of fifteen years, with onyx black messy hair, sea green eyes that looked calm one minute and stormy the next. He was wearing an orange camp half blood tee, old jeans and black converse. He was handsome in a rebel looking way, and you could sense that he would do anything to protect his friends and family. After Percy, a pixieish looking girl with short choppy hair, electric blue eyes and a playful smirk stepped forwards. She was wearing the standard hunters outfit but with the lieutenants circlet braided into her hair. She also had a fish netted long sleeve black top which read: Green Day 09 in green spiky writing. "Hey I'm Thalia, daughter of Zeus and lieutenant of the Hunters of Artemis." At these words, Zeus's eyes filled with shock and he jumped and crushed the girl into a mammoth hug as Hera looked on disdainfully. Meanwhile, Artemis was worried about what would happen to her current lieutenant, Zoë Nightshade. She had been a faithful companion for over 2,000 years, the finest of Artemis' hunters. She didn't think Zoë would ever fall in love, so she must have died, as heart wrenching as it was, Artemis knew it was true. Hopefully the books would explain why her half sister was now her lieutenant.
After the first three dramatic revelations, the introductions were slightly smoother. The blonde girl was the first from the older group. She had long, wavy ash blonde hair which held a single streak of faded grey in it, with quicksilver, calculating eyes. She was wearing denim shorts with a bronze knife hooked into them, with an orange camp half blood tee and grubby white trainers. She was extremely pretty, but she held a look of sadness and weariness, as if she had lost someone really important and didn't know how to get them back. In a word, she looked heartbroken. "Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena and architect of Olympus." Athena gave her daughter a proud smile. After Annabeth, a girl who was the carbon copy of Thalia stepped up and said "hey I'm future Thalia, daughter of Zeus and lieutenant of the Hunters of Artemis still." Both Thalia's regarded each other and smirked. After future Thalia, two boys practically the same as each other stepped forwards "Connor" "and Travis" "Stoll, sons of Hermes" they said together, doing a mocking bow at the gods, Hermes smiled that two of his favourite children were here. Next a butch girl with stringy red hair grunted "Clarisse La Rue, daughter of Ares, Drakon slayer" Ares sat forwards at her name and yelled "woo! That's my girl!" Clarisse blushed. The boy next to her wrapped an arm around her waist and said "Chris Rodriguez, son of Hermes" Aphrodite almost squealed at the sight of the couple, while Ares glared at Hermes and growled "watch your son or I'll break both of your faces." Clarisse and Chris blushed. Next was a girl with thick brown hair and muddy jeans, "Katie Gardner, daughter of Demeter" at this, Demeter sat forwards and enquired as to whether Katie ate enough cereal, after Katie's reassurances and Hades groan, a good looking blonde boy with Thalia's ice blue eyes stepped up. He wore a blue shirt with a yellow lightning bolt on the front and jeans. He had an aura of power around him and he was obviously a leader. "Okay, I'm Jason Grace, son of Jupiter, praetor of the twelfth legion of new Rome." Hades muttered ancient Greek curses under his breath and younger Thalia looked like she might cry. Next, a beautiful Cherokee girl with kaleidoscope eyes that constantly changed from brown to blue to green, wearing a brown fleece ski jacket, camp half blood tee and jeans walked up "Piper McLean daughter of Aphrodite" she curtailed to the gods as Aphrodite beamed at her beautiful girl. "Don't forget beauty queen!" A hyperactive boy with dark brown eyes and a playful grin too everyone, causing laughter and Piper to hit him. He was clearly ADHD, and was constantly fiddling with a tool belt wrapped around his waist. He was wearing a white polo shirt with oil stains all over it with red suspenders, jeans and a pair of beat up trainers "yo, sup guys Leo Valdez here, son of Hephasteus" "you forgot the repair boy part!" Piper poked him and raised an eyebrow at her. Hephasteus looked at him and chuckled happily and Aphrodite looked disappointed that the jokes were familial, but soon brightened when she saw Jason holding Piper's hand.
"All right, now that's out of the way, can we please read?" Athena enquired, eager to learn about the future. Percy groaned, dreading what could be happening in his future. Younger Thalia rubbed his arm soothingly.
"What are the books called" Zeus asked
Just then a bright blue flash and the books appeared .ext to Percy who took them and said "the first book in the pile is the titans curse, the next is battle of the labyrinth and the other is the last Olympian." Then there was a green flash next to Jason who said "and these ones are the lost hero, son of Neptune and Mark of Athena."
"Okay, who wants to read?" Poseidon asked looking around
"I will, I want to get to know my partner" Jason replied, reaching out to accept the book from Percy junior.
"Okay, the first chapter..."