Category: Percy Jackson & the Olympians

Rating: M

Couples: hints of Official Couples.

Warnings: AU, Blood (read: torture)

Chapter: 1

Copyright: Characters & places © By Rick Riordan, Plot & OC´s © by me

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Rachel grumbled under her breath, after a month already having grown tired of Clarion Ladies Academy. At least she had something to look forward to: Camp Half-Blood. As soon as it was summer she could go there again. Hopefully nothing strange happened until then. Ha, who was she kidding? Clarion's was so boring she would welcome the most strange thing ever simply because it would liven things up.

She sighed, before submitting to her fate. At least her sacrifice saved the world, which had to count for something, right? She sighed again, taking her tape-recorder from the drawer in which she kept her electronic stuff: cell-phone, tape-recorder, something Lord Apollo had called Olymp-phone and some other things. Apparently an Oracle really does sprout prophecies wildly and since she couldn't stay at Camp Half-Blood all year – like everyone, herself included, would have wanted – the god had given her this phone to ensure she could always contact someone since Iris-messages couldn't be send by mortals, Oracle or not. Why that meant Hera and such had to be in the contact-list too, she couldn't say.

She once more started to recite the text she had to learn by heart before next Monday, recording it so she could listen back to it afterwards.

The next thing she recalled was picking herself up from the floor. How had she ended up there? Almost immediately the answer hit her and she rushed for the recorder, rewinding the tape. Indeed, about halfway there was a short silence after which a different voice started to speak: the voice of the Oracle. Well crap, seems that that Olymp-phone had a good reason after all. She snatched it from the drawer, nearly emptying its' contents across the floor in her haste.

Speed-dial Apollo. He answered immediately.

"Rachel, what did you call for?" His voice was lyrical and she could almost see his blinding smile. He loved the fact he had a living Oracle again.

"I got a prophecy just now." There was silence on the other side of the line. She expected the slight shiver in her voice made him think.

"Important?" He asked.

"Fate-of-Olympus-important." She answered him, the silence now deafening.

"Do you have to be anywhere the next few hours?" A hint of urgency was in his voice now.

"No."

"Get ready to leave." He ordered, breaking the connection.

She quickly took a bag and threw both her phones in, as well as the recorder with the prophecy. About ten minutes later footsteps sounded in the hallway outside of her room and the door was thrown open. Apollo stood in front of her and she followed immediately, not asking any questions. He led her outside to a Maserati Spider she knew to be the sun-chariot.

"Close your eyes." He told her when they both were inside. Again she asked no questions as she could feel the heat radiate off of both him and the car. The spirit of the Oracle protected her, but she didn't want to try whether that included true-form-seeing.

"Do you have the prophecy written down?" The car surged forward as he spoke.

"I have it recorded." She kept her eyes firmly closed and patted the bag with one hand. "As long as mortal recorders work on Olympus that shouldn't be a problem."

"Hermes can deal with that. We're there." Both left the car, walking up the steps to the throne-room.

"Rachel." Percy greeted her. "We were here when Apollo sounded the alarm, what happened?"

'We' were in this context practically all the half-bloods.

"Peace, Seaweed-Brain, she'll tell us." Annabeth soothed, but she looked just as worried as Percy did.

Apollo grew to Olympian height and sat down on his throne. Most other gods were seated already too, but some thrones were still empty.

Rachel paled as she saw exactly which thrones were empty. "Where are they?"

"They're on their way. They were somewhere on Greenland." Zeus grumbled. "Now what was this about a 'Fate-of-Olympus-important' prophecy?"

Rachel shook herself and dug up the recorder from her bag. "I have it recorded here." She hesitated and then gave it to Apollo. He immediately passed it on to Hermes, who connected it to his caduceus-phone and pressed play.

For a bit there was her normal voice as Hermes searched for the right part and then there was a short silence. Followed by the voice of the Oracle:

"Two Siblings dance under the Moon

Not knowing it is too soon.

As the Warriors of Olympus fall

Children of the Eldest three answer the call.

Swift they must be,

Lest the daughter her siblings never see

As the Earth rises in anger

She brings the whole of Olympus to danger."

Silence, deafening silence. Then, terrifyingly slowly, every one turned to the two empty thrones. Ares and Athena were not in attendance. And they were the Warriors of Olympus, the gods of War itself.

"They went sparring." Artemis breathed, breaking the silence. "They went to dance in the way of warriors…"

Outside the Moon was full, shining with brilliant silver light.

"Hermes!" The voice boomed in the room, accentuated by the rumbling of thunder. The Messenger of the gods jumped up, bursting into bright light. The half-bloods turned away as Hermes raced to Greenland.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Hermes was hands-down the fastest god Olympus had to offer, but now he pushed himself to his limit to go even faster. In an abandoned corner of the huge island Ares had an arena, since Hera had forbidden him from fighting on Olympus.

He and Athena had gone there earlier today for a sparring-match, something they had been unable to do since Artemis had been abducted. He breathed a sigh of relief when the arena came into view, but immediately regretted it when noticing the dead-silence: no clamor, no talking, nothing…

He crested the rise hiding the arena from direct view and gasped. It was empty, but the ground was overturned, reminiscent of a freshly plowed field. Only the plow had also gone through the stone seats surrounding the field, scattering them in the immediate area.

"Ares? Athena?" He called, descending from the skies, but not yet touching down. "Are you here?"

His eyes scanned the ground, examining the wreckage. A glint of gold caught his attention. He closed his fingers around it and pulled. The golden helmet was squashed – it was the only fitting word – and looked like it could be pushed under a door. The problem was it was Ares' and the War-god would have not left his favorite helmet here, whether it looked like a mountain had been dropped on it or not.

A glint of celestial bronze to his left alerted him to a shield which had been folded. Celestial bronze shouldn't get folded, not like that. Still holding the helmet he picked up the shield, studying it. A ring of snakes etched into the metal revealed the owner: Athena.

What had happened here? The Earth rose in answer, opening up to swallow the god.