Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson or any related characters.

Parts of this chapter are taken directly from Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief.

As soon as Mr. Brunner was out of sight Theo turned to glare at me.

"Why didn't you give him his Pen back," Theo demanded of me.

I leered at his stupidity and replied; "They're obviously trying to hide something, and I'm not about to give up our biggest clue."

"Oh," was his ineloquent reply. "Can I see it?"

I snorted. "Absolutely not."

"But.." "I mean.." "Come on.. I'm clearly better at wielding it, after all I'm the one who vanquished the Monster" he said cockily.

I turned to him my eyes practically glowing; "You!"

"Ha! The only thing you would do is lose it!"

"Not true!" he protested.

"The pen is mine!" I snarled protectively, "You already lost yours!"

Theo looked at me with hurt eyes; "Fine!" he roared "I'll figure this out on my own!"

"You!" I laughed. "You won't be able to figure out anything.

And with that I spun on my heel and walked away from my idiot of a brother.

It was as if Ms. Dodds had never existed. Theo kept asking everyone about her and everyone acted as if she never existed. Theo finally gave up on getting the Pen from me.

I on the other hand; I found myself spending all my time either practicing with my sword in solitude; or in the Library. Doing what? studying Greek, I was baffled at how I could understand it. It seemed like it was the key to discovering my powers. I soon became so consumed by it; the rest of my grades slipped. While except for Mr. Brunner's class. I couldn't help but take his class more seriously, he had said it would be life or death for me and I found myself agreeing with him.

When I was called in for a meeting with the Principal; I called him a llithios. I think it meant idiot in Greek but it came almost as naturally as breathing. I was informed I would not be allowed to return to Yancy next year.

Where as I became more antisocial and used my time productively. Theo on the other hand became very uptight and even more prone to anger, he was constantly snapping at Grover's throat and picking fights with Nancy and her gang.

The next day were our finals, but I couldn't bring myself to care so much. I was moving on to much greater things. The only final I even bothered studying for, was Mr. Brunners. During my studying I came across a reference to servants of Hades known as Furries. Could this be what attacked us? The description was surprisingly apt.

I decided to ask Mr. Brunner about Furries, under the guise of studying. I knew this would be my last chance to find out the answers to my questions from Mr. Brunner. So with that in mind I set off towards his office.

I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.

I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said "... worried about Percy and Theo, sir."

I froze.

This was my chance to figure things out.

I inched closer.

"... alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too-"

So it was a Fury that attacked us, I knew it. Curious to find out more I pushed the door open ever so slightly and crept into the corner of the room.

"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."

"But they may not have time. The summer solstice dead-line- "

"Will have to be resolved without them, Grover. Let them enjoy their ignorance while they still can."

"Sir, Theo saw her... ."

"His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."

"Sir, I ... I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."

"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy and Theo alive until next fall, they're scent is powerful,"

"Chiron they're really strong.." "Like big three strong?." he said nervously as if those words were a criminal offense.

Surely he didn't mean Chiron trainer of heroes? The Satyr from Hercules?

"They are powerful, and like all Demigod's will go to camp." Chiron replied calmly

Demigods? Surely they didn;t mean.. Like Hercules? That would be crazy. Right? But then again a Fury is from Greek Mythology...

Could they really be Demigods?

And what does Big Three mean? Zeus, Poseidon and Hades?

One of them was his parent?

I remembered how the water grabbed Nancy and how I turned my desk into a puddle in 4th grade. Could I be the son of Poseidon?

Suddenly Chiron raised his head to look at the corner Percy was standing in.

"Someone is watching us!" He exclaimed to Grover.

"Thank you for the help, Sir" Grover bleated?

"Of course, anytime Mr. Underwood." Mr. Brunner said with a faint smile.

I wasn't sure how he couldn't see me, but I wasn't about to stick around and find out. I crept out of the room, and saw a Centaur? Exit behind me holding a rather large bow..

I sprinted back to the dorm room. I grabbed my brother's shoulder and dragged him away before Grover came back.

"What was that for?" he protested indignantly.

I relayed the conversation I overheard to him up unto the point they mentioned big three, I didn't want to share my outlandish theory until I knew it was right.

"Then what?" Theo asked.

"Nothing.. I didn't hear anything else," I told him.

"This is extremely important, Do Not Tell Anyone!" I ordered him.

That night I had the oddest dream. In my dream, I stood in a dark cavern before a gaping pit. Gray mist creatures churned all around me, whispering rags of smoke that I somehow knew were the spirits of the dead. They tugged at my clothes, trying to pull me back, but I felt compelled to walk forward to the very edge of the chasm.

The swirling black chasm was tantalizing, I wanted to reach out and touch it.

A deep gravelly voice boomed in the darkness A voice so terrifying it would make the gods themselves flee in terror.

"Help me." it roared. "Help me rise again and I will give you power beyond your wildest imagination.'

"We will rule"

"Just give yourself to me and we will be unstoppable."

I woke up in a cold sweat and after a long shower prepared for my day.

On the bus ride home with Theo and Grover Theo decided to be insubordinate.

Theo said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"

Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha-what do you mean?"

Theo told him about me eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.

I turned to glare at him " I told you not to tell," I hissed.

"Sorry," Theo said unapologetically.

Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"

"Oh ... not much. What's the summer solstice dead-line? Theo asked.

He winced. "Look, Percy ... I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers ..."

"Grover-" Theo said placatingly.

"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and ..."

I snorted. "Grover, you're an awful liar."

His ears turned pink.

From his shirt pocket, he fished out two grubby business cards. "Just take these, okay? In case you need me this summer."

The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:

Grover Underwood

Keeper

Half-Blood Hill

Long Island, New York

(800) 009-0009

"What's Half-" Theo asked.

"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um ... sum-mer address."

I laughed, 'This is the camp you were talking about?" "We're Demigods?"

"H-How did you know that?" Grover asked in astonishment.

Theo looked at me in puzzlement.

"I heard the entire conversation," I said with a roll of my eyes.

There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.

After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover, Theo and I filed outside with everybody else.

We were on a stretch of country road-no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.

The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of bloodred cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.

I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.

All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses. The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me. I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.

"Grover?" Theo said. "Hey, man-"

"Tell me they're not looking at either of you. They are, aren't they?" Grover trembled looking at us,

"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?" Theo asked

"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."

The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors-gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears, and made to cut a string. I heard Grover catch his breath.

"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."

"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there, I would rather not melt!"

"Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but me and Theo stayed back.

Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic. Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering what Giant being they were for.

At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.

The passengers cheered.

"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat.

"Everybody back on board!"

Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu. I wasn't the only one, Theo and Grover didn't look much better. Grover was shivering and his teeth were chattering.

"Grover?" Theo asked.

"Yeah?"

"What are you not telling me?" Theo asked.

He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Theo, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"

"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like ... Mrs. Dodds, are they?"

He grimaced, and I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds.

He said, "Just tell me what you saw."

"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn." He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost-older.

Grover said, "You saw her snip the cord."

"Yeah. So?" Theo asked.

I figured it out, Grover thought those were the Fates and someone was fated to die.

"You think those were the Fates?" I asked him.

"Don't say their names!" Grover hissed at me. "Names have power."

"What?" Theo asked.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Greek Mythology is real, and our dad is a God."

"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."

"What last time?" I glared at him.

"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."

"Grover," I said, trying to understand him. "What are you talking about?"

"You have to go to camp now, Come with me, we don't have time to waste." "Promise me we'll stick together." He pleaded.

"Alright," Theo agreed.