Hi, people-who-are-reading-this-fanfiction!

I just wanted you to know that this is a collaboration story with Neon Templar. Okay? Good. *Throws cookie pan at computer for no apparent reason*.

Without further ado, let's get on with the story. Hope you enjoy it!

Chapter One | We Get Shot Back in Time By a Porcelain Starfish

Percy

"...I'm positioning Palaemon and his sharks to the front line." A garbled voice came over my transmitter. I frowned. "They're needed near the coral reef. Hades is directing his assault there."

There came a frustrated sigh over the radio. "Yes, but there is a new wave of attackers coming from the east. I think that Zeus and Hades have made an alliance to finish us off."

My heart plummeted. "Can this wait? Hades is on the verge of breaking through our defenses near the reef. Calculate how long it will take for Zeus's troops to arrive to the eastern front."

There was a pause. The voice said, "About fifteen minutes, but they're traveling pretty fast."

I frowned at that statement. "Fine. Tell Palaemon to send a couple of his best tiger sharks to the eastern front. That should hold off Zeus's forces for a while."

"Sir," the voice nervously told me, "Zeus brought griffins."

My mouth dropped open. "What? But griffins can't go into water! Their wings would weigh them down from the extra weight of water, making them heavy and sluggish. How is this possible?"

"I don't know," Drake agitatedly said, "but the griffins are moving like torpedoes."

I groaned. I hated this civil war that was raging amongst the Big Three. It was pointless, idiotic, and took a great toll on the lives of many demigods, a lot of which were my friends.

"Send the tiger sharks over immediately!"

Drake's voice crackled as he cut the connection off. "Roger that."

I slumped down in my seat, pondering over the situation. I was thinking about how worried my mom would be, since I had just disappeared from camp (as with every single other person at Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter) without leaving a lowly note or anything like that.

I didn't know what was up with Zeus, Hades, and my dad these days. After Gaea and her Giants were vanquished, they began to grow extremely suspicious of each other. They were arguing about something that "would change the fate of the universe if it were in the wrong hands". And before you knew it, there was a civil war which led to me being in the palace with no contact to the outside world today.

I was still very busy feeling sorry for myself when the water next to me began shimmering. I sat bolt upright, my hand instinctively groping for Riptide, even though I knew that this wasn't any monster. Iris-message. Couldn't whoever-was-sending-me-this-message just buzz me on my com? This was a waste of time and drachmas. But I was soon to find out why they sent an IM instead of buzzing me.

"Percy?" Nico Di Angelo's voice came wafting over the Iris Message. "I'm in the Hades base near the mermaid graveyard. Can you come see me and Thals? We have something to tell you."

Another, more grumpy voice that wasn't in the screen of rainbow yelled, "Don't call me that!"

Nico ignored her. "So?"

My mouth was agape. "I...what? Dad would kill me!"

"Please!" Nico pleaded. "It's important. We think we know why our dads are so angry at each other."

I feverishly looked around the room, checking to see if there were any eavesdroppers. "Okay. I'll be there in five."

The IM disappeared as I got up and stared out of the window to see the fuzzy gray shape of the mermaid graveyard. What could Nico want? What if he and Thalia were leading me into a trap?

I shook my head. Nico's voice had sounded urgent enough. Now, there was just the matter of sneaking out through a dozen guards, my dad, and his whole army. Cake.

I walked out of the headquarters, wishing that I had something like Annabeth's invisibility cap. Of course, that was preposterous thinking because Athena had allied with Zeus (obviously) and if Annabeth was part of Zeus's assault on Poseidon (very likely), I doubted that she would stage a mutiny.

I looked around before bending the water in front of me so that it appeared that I wasn't there. This was a new power that I had gained when the war was happening, but sadly, it took quite a bit of my energy.

Using this method, I sneaked pass Poseidon (who didn't even glance at the current of water that suddenly flowed by his arm), his guards, and the whole army of Poseidon. I hoped that they wouldn't miss me.

I dispersed my "water invisibility" as soon as I was a couple of yards away from the army. My face was probably bright red from the strain of keeping the invisibility for so long.

Gazing at the bunches of stones packed together, I swam towards a black fortress. Oh, gods. I forgot about the skeleton guards.

They caught sight of me and clacked their bony teeth, but before either the skeletons or I could do anything, Nico hopped out of the doorway and pointed at both of them. Their glowing red eyes dimmed, and they crumpled to the ground. One of them started sucking his skeletal thumb.

"Nice," I complimented. "You don't get tired anymore, do you?"

Nico shrugged. "Practice. You better come in before my dad gets back. He's in an especially foul temper today."

I stepped in to the threshold uncertainly, taking a quick glance around before entering. It was sort of like the Hades cabin back at camp, with green torches blazing on the walls, skulls with bronze hooks dangling from the mouths to hang your coat on, and black bunks with black silk sheets and black pillows. All in all, it was very...dark.

"So..." I said. "What's this 'cause' that you wanted to tell me about? And since when did Thalia read books in English?"

Thalia glared at me.

"What?" I demanded. "I just didn't know that you didn't have dyslexia!"

"I do," Thalia told me glumly. "Do you have a problem with that?"

She went back to reading her book. I looked at Nico, who shrugged. "She's just doing some research."

I frowned. "All right, I didn't come here to be berated on whether I have a problem with dyslexia or not. Can you get to the point?"

Nico cleared his throat. "They're arguing over their...inert powers."

"You make it sound like they're chemicals in a geeky science lab," Thalia commented from her book without sparing a glance.

Nico made a cuckoo motion towards her. "Anyways," he continued, "Millenia ago, after the First Titan War ended, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades agreed to take some of their most powerful and divine powers and store them somewhere."

I blinked. "And this is relevant to the war because...?"

"Listen," Nico urgently said.

"I am listening!" I exasperatedly answered.

"Put together, those powers are enough to change the course of the universe, which is why they've been heavily protected in different time periods."

Thalia snapped her book shut and slammed into on the ground. "Nothing. There isn't anything relevant to the Items in here."

Nico frowned at the book. "I told you not to judge a book by its cover!"

"Well, how was I supposed to know that there was a completely different 'Items of Power' that belonged to guinea pigs?" Thalia retorted.

"Guys," I sharply said. "No cat fights."

They both glared at me, which I found rather unnerving. "Tell me more about these 'Items of Power.'"

Thalia took up the thread of the story. "A couple months ago, Hades sensed that his Item was being moved by something. He immediately blamed Zeus for taking it. Zeus, not the one to let offenses like these be let go, accused Poseidon of taking Hades' ultimate power. Poseidon denied that fact most strongly. Pretty soon, we're landed into the war that led up to this date."

There was a long period of awkward silence. Then, Nico said, "They were so agitated about this because if the three Items are combined, they could make the most powerful object in the universe."

Thalia shoved him. "I think that he figured that out already."

Nico scowled at her, rubbing his arm. "The point being, there's a new, malevolent force working to collect the Items of Power. If they succeed in gathering all the Items..."

My voice sounded hollow as I said, "They could overthrow Olympus once and for all. That sounds fun."

Thalia glared at Nico again. "Death Boy has this ridiculous notion that we should go back into different time periods where the Items were rumored to be spotted."

"Aw, come on, Thalia," Nico protested. "It's not that bad! It's—"

"I'll tell you what it is," Thalia snapped. "It's a suicidal mission."

I thought about it over the arguing Nico and Thalia. After quite some time, I straightened. "Guys...I think that we should go to collect these Items."

Nico smirked at Thalia, who folded her arms. "Ha! Percy agrees with me!"

"We've got to end this war once and for all," I told them. "The death toll is climbing higher and higher. At this rate, there won't be anymore demigods left."

My throat was dry as I muttered to myself, "Annabeth would be dead."

Thalia instantly perked up. "What about Annabeth?"

I frowned at her. "Athena made an alliance with Zeus, so shouldn't you have regular contact with her?"

Thalia shook her head. "She went missing a couple of days ago. Nobody knows where she went, so everybody presumed that she's—"

"She's not dead," Nico grumbled. "I can sense that much. Now, about the quest..."

Thalia interrupted again, this time with a good question: "If we're going to embark on the Quest of Stupidness, how are we going to travel back in time in the first place?"

Nico smiled broadly as he brought out a...starfish. And it wasn't even real!

I stared at the porcelain sea creature. "You're showing us a starfish."

"I think that it can be used to travel back in time," Nico brightly said. "Dad told me that it had special properties."

I was still uncertain. "Yes, but what if it doesn't transport us into the right time period?"

"That's not the case," Nico smiled. "Pinecone Face—"

Thalia raised a fist. Nico quickly amended, "I mean, Thalia has the information."

He glared at Thalia, who reluctantly took out a piece of paper with a couple of notes hastily scribbled onto it. "The Items have to be collected in order," she said. "The first place..."

She squinted at the writing and sighed. "I can't even read my own handwriting."

I snatched the paper from her hand. The text said something like this: Wul fodl Reori6t, Tle Chool Nvar. "Your handwriting is atrocious. Since when were there numbers in words?"

Nico held out his hand. "May I?"

I handed it to him while saying that he probably can't decipher the bunch of meaningless spaghetti. I was proven wrong a second later.

"Vial of Spirits," Nico announced, slipping the paper in his pocket. "The Civil War."

"Wonderful," I grumped. "Wasn't that the bloodiest conflict in mortal and demigod history?"

"Plenty of death!" Nico cheerfully said. He reverently held on to his starfish and began chanting. I shot a panicked glance at Thalia, who looked as white as I felt. Before I could make a run for it, Nico had finished his weird chant and the starfish flashed with dark energy. The last thing I remembered before passing out was landing on a bunch of knotted roots.