Disclaimer: Unfortunately for me, I don't own Percy Jackson. I would like to ;), but it's better that I don't. Honestly.

Expectations

"Percy?"

The whisper in the darkness was enough to wake me up. At first, I rolled straight off the edge of the bed, reached for Riptide, and was trying to uncap it whilst falling off the bed as silently as possible. Harder than you might imagine, actually.

"Percy?" The voice I would know anywhere, anytime, and whatever the situation.

"Yes?" I replied as quietly as my stupor would allow – that would be something I would have to practise. "Annabeth? What time is it? And why did you wake me up?"

"Seaweed Brain, it's 3am. However, there is a reason. It's remarkably important. Come quickly!"

I struggled up off the floor, using the bed to help me. I pulled on a jumper over the t-shirt that I wore to sleep in, and changed into a pair of combats. Yanking my boots on, I hopped to the door. I paused, bent down to do up my shoelaces – always a good idea, and then straightened up.

"Where now, Wise Girl?" I quizzed.

"The beach," she replied quickly.

Annabeth grabbed my wrist and started dragging me towards the beach, taking a long route to avoid the regular harpy patrols, through a route which made it more unlikely that they would find our scent.

The sand was cold at this unearthly hour, and I was glad I had chosen to wear my combat boots, rather than my normal trainers or Converse. Cold sand in your shoes? No way. Wrapping my jumper closer around me, I wondered why here? This was nowhere near where the Hippocampi waited for me when they had problems that needed sorting out.

"Over here," Annabeth's voice called to me from my left. I followed, aware of the fact that Annabeth and I were alone. We walked until we came to the camp's magical boundaries, and I managed to walk into Annabeth because she stopped so suddenly.

"Annabeth, why are we here?" I asked, with absolutely no idea.

"Seaweed Brain, we're meeting someone here. As to who, you'll have to wait and see. They specifically asked that you didn't know until now."

"So, someone somewhere asked to meet us, didn't want me to know until it actually happened, and now we have to wait...Just wonderful."

We lapsed into silent thought, each staring out at the sea. I felt calmer than I should have been, given the situation. After some time, I'm not sure how long, I thought of something that I should have asked before.

"What time are they meeting us?" I broke the silence quite unwillingly, but I needed to know.

She glanced at her watch, and out beyond the boundaries, before answering.

"Some time within the next 5 minutes, schedule permitting, of course."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that they should be here very soon, but if they can't get away in time, they can contact me and tell me. But for now, we just have to wait."

"Oh."

My questions hadn't really been answered, but it was probably the best answer I would get out of her. We resumed sitting in silence watching the waves, but this time Annabeth was more distracted, and started fiddling with the sand near her, turning it into a rough idea of a building – not very effective in exceptionally dry sand. Expectation was making me nervous, I wondered who we could be meeting at this time, and at this place. I thought originally of Luke, but him meeting us alone? No way.

Well, not without a fight where we would each try to kill the other, ending in either an impasse or one of our deaths. Hopefully not the latter.

My next thought was Nico di Angelo. But why would he want to meet us? Particularly here. Besides, he would arrive at camp tomorrow morning. From the way Annabeth was looking out at the waves, I wondered idly about Tyson for a while, but he would be busy in the Cyclopes forges, preparing for the imminent war. Briares would be there, too. I wondered how he would be getting on, it was a while since we had seen him. Actually, now I thought about it, I hadn't seen him since the day after the Battle of the Labyrinth, when Tyson gave him directions to the forges, about 10 months ago. Thinking of Tyson made me remember one of the last times I'd seen him, at my birthday party. Well, in the flesh at any rate. We'd talked through Iris messages a bit – he kept me up to date with the wars against the old powers that ruled the sea.

Watching the sea, I noticed a movement in the waves, a long way out. I stood, trying to see better, but at three AM, with very little light, even with eyes that had adjusted to the dark, it was hard to tell. Annabeth stood up beside me.

"I think this is it. Or it may be the messenger. I can't tell."

And that was so much better than silence. Obviously.

I started pacing. Fortunately for my nerves, it wasn't too long before I would have been able to see what was causing the disturbance. Well, if it hadn't disappeared underneath the surface.

In the darkness by the edge of the sea, a figure walked out onto the sand. No, wait, two figures. One was taller than the other, slightly above two metres, I reckoned. The other was about the same size as a normal human man, about 1.8 metres. But my guesswork is usually wrong, so I wouldn't really trust them. The taller figure started loping like a large, 2-legged horse across the sand towards us.

By the time he was close enough that I could see the single eye in the middle of his forehead, he had enveloped my in a hug that I could swear was on the verge of breaking my ribs.

"Ow. Ribs," I said, coherently. Tyson was now apparently trying not to crush Annabeth now – why was he always extra-gentle with her, but didn't seem to mind cracking my ribs?

While Tyson was saying hello to Annabeth, and dragging her into the surf to see Rainbow, I was standing rather awkwardly by our other visitor. It was a totally unexpected visit, and now I could see why Annabeth had been told not to tell me. Standing in front of me, looking like some sort of cross between a fisherman and a surfer, was my father, Poseidon.

I was at a slight loss as to what I should do now. I cast around wildly in my head for something to do, but luckily, I was spared the problem when my father spoke first.

"Percy."

Just my name. Think quick. Anyway, what should you say to your dad, when they happen to be a hugely powerful, immortal Greek god?

"Uh, hi, dad," I managed to say.

It was at this point that Tyson and Annabeth – who was now wet to her knees – chose to join us, taking some of the pressure off me. Poseidon reached out and touched his forefinger to Annabeth's forehead. She was instantly dry. I wondered why he had done that, and I guessed from her expression that she was wondering too, because of Athena and Poseidon's rivalry. Almost like he had read our minds, he said simply, "We can't afford discord and fighting among ourselves at this time. Rivalries and grudges are being shut away until afterwards, if there is an afterwards, because, as the saying goes, 'United we stand, divided we fall'. Well, along those lines, anyway. But I wanted to meet with you for a reason. Annabeth and Tyson, you knew about the meeting, and you managed to arrange it, but none of you know why. However, we are in a time of great need, and this is the point more than ever, that heroes are necessary to carry the weight of human hope and to save the world. I cannot stay long, and it should not be widely known that I was here, but I need your help. You can go where I can not, and achieve that which I myself couldn't because of various restrictions. A word of warning, though. This quest that I would like you to undertake, if you choose to go, will be dangerous. It could be fatal. I do not wish for the deaths of any heroes, but if we stand any chance of winning this war, this is necessary. Do you choose to accept the quest?"

We stood in silent thought for a moment. Finally I spoke up."I'll go, Father." Tyson quickly added his agreement, but Annabeth remained silent for a moment longer. Finally she opened her mouth to say something, but it wasn't what I was expecting.

"Why me? You could have chosen someone else, someone who's Olympian parent you got along with better, so why me?"

Poseidon took his time answering, and each word seemed carefully chosen, but it sounded totally sincere, at least. "Because now, more than ever we need wisdom. And I cannot protect my son against everything. You may not be able to either, but you'll probably do a better job than I could, even if I went against the ancient laws and accompanied him. Just because I don't get along well with your mother doesn't mean I hold a grudge against you, or any of her other children, either. So, Annabeth, will you accompany Percy and Tyson?"

Annabeth drew a shaky breath. "Yes," she said decisively.

A/N Yay. First one up. Hopefully Ch.2 won't be too long, I've planned it and written most of it, but that's paper. This is the computer. Constructive criticism welcome, I want to improve it, because I think Poseidon is really OOC. Oh, and I need a beta, so if you're willing or know of someone that might, PM me. Or get them to. I don't mind.