"So look at dreams reflection. No, no that's seven that can be the second line, plus so implies there was a line before. Hum," Apollo crossed his legs into an Indian style and leaned forward on his knee. "How about Listen to my warning."

"Six," Percy offered with coordinating claps.

"Ugh, I am so cool would be easier."

"With the ugh to cool that's five. One more syllable and you could have the first two lines if you included everything. Maybe a very and minus a so?"

Apollo rolled his eyes, "Thanks for that, Percy. Oh how about Under watchful- no no that's eight."

Percy was beginning to get annoyed with the god. He had been listening to different haiku's for hours it felt. They weren't getting any better either. At first Apollo could spew out whole, wrong but completed haiku's. Now it seemed the god couldn't even finished a thought. Maybe he was splitting between Roman and Greek? No, that wouldn't affect Apollo much; he was more or less the same in either form. Regardless Percy would n try to change the subject to that if he didn't have to listen to a rant just as warn out, "Can't fix perfection," Apollo would say. Percy suddenly understood Artemis better than anyone. He prayed the goddess would help him, though he wasn't eager to listen to her tell him all men are the same on top of the haiku's. No, Percy didn't want any more gods or goddesses. But what was he going to do? Disrespect one of the very few gods that didn't hate him to pieces?

"Look at the river

A broken boy once held dreams

Swirling past feet." Percy gave claps, one for each syllable. Five, seven, four. Apollo flinched where the last clap should have been. "I was closer that time at least."

"How about this one.

Once a god named Fred

Came to see a demigod

What truth should he know?" Percy offered.

Apollo counted the syllables on his fingers. He offered a smile, "Hum, you certainly are gaining points aren't you, Percy?"

"Just trying to help," Percy gave a tiresome smile; he hated playing games with the gods.

"Why not use Apollo?"

"Apollo takes up three syllables, Fred is only one."

Apollo flashed his sunshine smile again, "Very clever, though you're blowing my cover."

"Sorry, wouldn't want to alert anyone that the sun god is in Hades."

"No you wouldn't. My uncle would not be happy."

"Is Hades ever happy?"

"He can be less gloomy at times."

"So what are you doing in Hades? Isn't this an odd place for the sun god?"

Apollo nodded, "For the sun god it is indeed, but I'm not here as the sun god."

"You're here as the god of truth."

Apollo pointed at him, "Bulls eye."

"Funny," Percy snorted catching the pun.

"And truth exists everywhere does it not, Percy? Especially in regards of death, that is often when the truth comes out. When someone thinks they are dying, in danger they feel the need to let everything out. Go to the grave with weight of their shoulders and a pure heart."

"Is that the moral I am supposed to learn?"

"The moral?" Apollo asked. "Goodness, you act like it's a fable. It's truth, Percy. Does truth have a moral?"

"That rings a bell. You're quoting Hermes now?"

"It's a good line, one of his best actually."

"So is that the truth I am supposed to learn then? That I'm doomed to be a letdown because I only remember my loyalties when it's convenient to me?"

"Not exactly, although you're closer."

"That was oddly straightforward for a god, let alone you Apollo. What was is you said to me once when I asked for you to explain?"

"You might as well ask an artist to explain his art, or ask a poet to explain his poem. It defeats the purpose. The meaning is only clear through the search," Apollo recited.

"Exactly."

"Well we can't have that now can we? I want you to have a splendid search for meaning."

"What is this? Will I be visited by three gods of my faults?"

"I believe you are thinking of the Christmas Carol? The one with Scrooge and he is visited by three ghosts? This is something like that."

"There is going to be another one of you?!" Percy nearly collapsed at the thought of going through a trial of Apollo again, or Eros.

Apollo chuckled, "We will keep coming until you get this right."

"Hum, maybe I shouldn't have asked for you to pay more attention to demigods at the end of the last war. I meant your own children not me."

Apollo gave a gentle smile, "I knew what you meant."

"What a shock," Percy rolled his eyes unable to keep all his sass in. "I'd really like to know what you mean though," Percy struggled to keep his plea at a normal tone of conversation.

"Oh how about a series of haiku's for one meaning?" Apollo seemed giddy now, like one of his kids getting a new bow.

"Doesn't that- "he'd already started though, it didn't matter. Percy slouched again thinking it would be less painful to watch Nico's dreams and Percy's shortcomings glide by. But for once the god managed to grab Percy's attention.

"Perseus Jackson

A man once proclaimed hero

But now knows the truth

A guardian lost

Though all prophecies are done

But what has he won?

Immortality

To be as shameful as us

All actions to hate

All love to die out

This is your legacy, boy

Gee whiz you lucked out."

Percy stared at the god, unsure of what he had just heard. Had Apollo just managed a somewhat decent four haiku's that made scenes? He made clear stanzas, each lines meaning was understood, there wasn't something useless added in to fill syllables or lines, all the lines had the right number of syllables. Percy made a note to tell Will that his dad had made progress on his poetry. Maybe it was the countless books of rhymes and haiku formatting books that Cabin 7 had been sending. Austin nearly wrote step by step instructions for Apollo. Nico had once even offered to raise a dead poet to tutor Apollo till he was flawless at it.

"So whatcha think?" Apollo asked sounding like a boy more Kayla's age rather than one even Will's age, let alone a God as old as Greece itself.

Percy wanted to choose his words carefully, but what was the point in lying to the god of truth, "I think I like your prophecy's better than your haiku's."

Apollo offered a laugh, it felt like a burst of sunshine through trees. Percy thought about how lucky the god was to be the sun god a trait so attractive, to have a trait that made almost everything he did seem perfect. "Most demigods find my haiku's more painful than whatever their quest prophecies bring. At least that's what Will and Rachel continue to tell me."

"Will Solace is the only one of your children that bothers to tell you that your haiku's…um need some improvement?"

Apollo looked like he was staring into blackness beyond the realm of Hades, he looked like he was still looking for Lee Fletcher, "Will is the only one that talks to me often enough." Apollo continued his search for a few moments before he seemed to give up like any other god would, maybe he gave up though because he already knew the truth. "Hermes and my sister like to remind me just as often though."

For a second Percy wanted to give Apollo a bro hug as if he was Jason, Percy actually felt sorry for the god. He saw the other side of him, saw past the sweethearts and the shiny car. Percy offered a smile, "Sorry we aren't all as bright as you."

Apollo's smile came back a little, though it seemed halfhearted, "Very good one, Percy."

"I try."

Apollo stood up, "Perhaps you should try as hard on another subject."

"You're going to leave now aren't you?" Apollo flashed a smile and the light off his teeth seemed to swallow him up in light. Percy was always confused by Apollo's disappearances not sure what the light was; if it was just him being the god of sun and light or if it was him going back to his pure form on Olympus. Percy looked around trying to shake the blinding light; he was left with a river.

"Fantastic, more riddles." Percy groaned.

A conversation of the god came back to Percy and he could hear Michael Yew in his head, "He's weird like that. He'll just pop in to say hi and then you won't see him for ten years."

Percy shook his head wondering if it was a flashback or if being in Hades and all Michael had somehow found him now too. Percy thought of his last encounter with a heroes spirit, the time he had met Achilles on the banks of the same river, "I swear if Oedipus visits me that is the end of it," Percy rolled his eyes.

"I would hardly call myself Oedipus, I mean I stabbed myself but I kept my beautiful eyes. Actually the stab got my eyes back, being possessed by a Titian lord and all it does is change your eye color. Kind of odd don't you think?"

Percy turned hoping it wasn't the voice he thought it was that it was one of the minor gods playing tricks on him, that it was anything but a spirit.

"Hi, Percy," Luke smiled.

Percy had reached his limit of tolerance now. He didn't know what Luke he was dealing with, or if it even was Luke. Percy finally allowed his reflexes take over. They sprang rapidly, as if they had physically been held back during Percy's talk with Cupid. Percy pulled at the pen cap and Riptide grew to gleam in his arm, the celestial bronze shining nearly the same color as Luke's eyes had been years before. The adrenaline rushed, Will always called it a drug, a medicine if need be which was good because Percy was seriously sick of the games.