The man made sure he and Erebus were completely hidden by the darkness, but as a precaution, they had dressed in all black, blending in with the shadows to the best of their abilities without the primordial's powers. They had managed to sneak in past the Caldecott Tunnel without so much as a second glance by the two legionnaires on sentry duty.
He had mapped out everything down to the nanosecond, meaning that they couldn't afford any setbacks. If anything, the plan had just become a hundred times easier as the girl playing babysitter over Perseus had left him alone in the male Praetor's villa. Sure, the Praetor was there, but Hecate and Nyx had made sure to send the boy a deep sleep that would break when the moment the sun came up.
He glanced at his brother. "Everything's in place, brother. Shall we proceed?"
"You needn't be so formal," Erebus told him in a whisper, as the two phased through entire buildings, blatantly disregarding the architectural accomplishments of Camp Jupiter. Fountains here, aqueducts there, and a million other temples and marble statues of the gods – he had already seen this before, over four millennia ago.
"It's a habit. Ah, there we go! Praetor Zhang's private villa. Let us get going before anything goes awry."
"Have you signaled Nyx?"
"Yes, and the blackout should begin," - he paused for a moment, before all the torches and electrical lighting from New Rome shut off all at once - "now." He grinned at the sounds of people screaming in outrage as the power no longer flowed through the wires.
Erebus shadow traveled the both of them into the villa as he sprang into action, cutting through the Celestial bronze chains like they were butter with Mors. He quickly sheathed his sword. As he begun to lift Perseus over his shoulder, the son of Poseidon bit his shoulder, making him scowl in mild annoyance at the feeling of teeth digging into his flesh. Why exactly the fallen son of Poseidon was biting him was beyond him, but knowing that they had no time to waste, he shrugged the boy's mouth off of him and turned to face his brother.
"Do we need anything else, brother?" Erebus asked him.
"Grab some of that blasted medication he's on. The disownment predicament is no match for our powers. We'll be able to restore him in no time," he said, swinging Perseus' body over his shoulders in a fireman carry. "We need to hurry and get out of here, before Nyx's presence is realized, alerting the gods."
"Agreed." Erebus threw in a few bottles of medicine from a cabinet in the kitchen into a leather pouch he had hanging off his belt, before grabbing his hand, shadow traveling the two of them back to headquarters just as the lights flickered back on.
"Triton!" he called out, placing Perseus onto a bed they had prepared for him last night. Or at least, he thought a night has passed. Time was difficult here. "Triton! Where in Chaos's name are you?"
"Here my lord!" the sea prince cried, bowing to him on his two tails.
He sneered at the godling, hating the fact that he habitually remained as a merman. "You know how I feel about seeing you in fish form, Triton. Plus, your brother will surely recognize you with your two tails."
"My apologies." Triton's tails took on the form of human legs, though his skin was still a pale green color. At least shorts appeared on him, and he wasn't buck naked in front of a primordial. That sort of indiscretion would've led to a serious punishment being dealt. "You called?"
"Yes, watch Perseus for me until I can reverse his condition."
"My father's an idiot," Triton said, resigned. "It's almost like he is trying to kill Percy."
"You still call Poseidon 'father'?" he asked him.
"Force of habit, my lord."
"Well, break that habit, or we'll have to see how helpful you are with a single tail."
Triton blanched, promising that he would sever all ties with Poseidon further than he actually had. He stood there, smirking as a once proud god was groveling at his feet to keep his appendages attached. If only all the Olympians were this pliable to mold.
"I'll alert you if he changes," Triton offered.
"No. Only let me know if he's on the verge of death, again. We have time to fix him."
"Good. As much as I'm glad that he will survive, I kind of wanted to see Fat-Poseidon's reaction to seeing his favorite son die."
The primordial grinned sadistically, clapping Triton on the back for his idea. "That's ingenious!" he exclaimed. "We'll continue the plan, and you have your orders. Selene will be here shortly with the antidote."
"I understand. Thank you for liking my idea."
"No, thank you for having it. Enjoy your brotherly bonding time, Triton. We shall see each other again soon."
He paced around the throne room, his wife shooting him looks of concern from her throne, as he tried to think of the perfect plan to break the Olympian's resolve. They would need to fake Percy's death, that much he knew, but it needed to be believable enough to sound like it would've actually happened.
Their plan to attack on the winter solstice would need to be postponed, possibly until next year, but if that was the price they needed to pay, they'd wait. Perseus needed to be trained, transformed into a weapon and a general, able to lead entire armies, unafraid in the face of danger. It would take some time, but he was sure they would get there.
"Pontus, sweetie, you're going to wear a hole through the floor if you continue pacing like that," his wife, Thalassa, reminded him.
Pontus stopped pacing, turning to face his wife. "You're good at small details. Maybe you could help me with this."
She smiled at him mischievously, so unlike the sweet, kind smile she once possessed. Millennia of being forgotten and her children abandoning her, well, it had really soured her once sweetheart personality, leaving only bitterness and an unquenchable thirst for revenge.
"Of course, my dear. What's the situation?"
"How do we realistically fake a Hero of Olympus's death?" he pondered.
Thalassa told him everything, and her plan was so detailed that Pontus had needed to call the rest of his accomplices in (minus Selene and Triton) to help accommodate everything. Once everything was planned, Perses handed Pontus a list of everything they needed, and how much time they had to preform it (twenty-one hours, by the way).
"Thank you all for your participation," Pontus said jovially. "Do your part, and return to me once you have finished. Have fun!"
The mix of titans and gods and protogenoi's ran off, each of them laughing happily as they got to play a part in the grand scheme of things. Even the guards by the doors were breaking character to chuckle a little, and Pontus wouldn't punish them for agreeing with his plan. If anything, maybe one of those guards would make things more realistic.
"Vicky!" Pontus called for the sole daughter of Triton, who quickly ran from her position, bowing in his direction.
"My lord?"
He smiled sadistically down at the young demigoddess, only eleven years of age. "How do you feel about being my spy?"
Kinda short, I know, but the next chapter's much longer, I promise. Thanks for reading, Sparks!