Terribly sorry it took so long to update, but school unfortunately takes priority :( (and I really wish it didn't). Anyway, hope you like it and don't forget to leave a review!
Chapter 2
Annabeth Chase hadn't batted an eye when Grover had contacted Camp, requesting assistance with a potential half-blood. It happened all the time. But her enthusiasm for a reprieve from guard duty had quickly turned to skepticism when the satyr informed her of his location.
What in the gods name was he doing at a high school? Half-bloods rarely made it past eight years of age without being attacked by the frightful monsters of Tartarus and unless the demigod in question possessed a latent talent for mist manipulation, - which she seriously doubted - he or she could quite possibly be a child of the Big Three.
Gods, she hoped she was wrong. Tension among the Olympians had reached unimaginable heights over the past two years or so, ever since her former friend, Luke Castellan, had stolen Zeus' lightning bolt from Mount Olympus itself. It was only thanks to her mother, Athena, that war had been avoided. A war that would have sent both mortal and immortal worlds tumbling into chaos.
The school was nothing special. Made up of four connecting buildings, Goode was your perfectly average metropolitan high school. Plenty of trophy cases littered the sickly yellow painted halls, she noted as her grey eyes expertly scanned her surroundings for anything out of the ordinary. Blue and yellow banners were strung up above each case with a simple "Go Sharks!" written in black marker. At first glance, Annabeth guessed the swim varsity team was the source of most, if not all of the trophies.
She paused in front of the glass case filled with framed photographs where one face stood out from the rest. A boy who looked to be around the same age as her, with messy black hair and sea-green eyes that reminded her of the azure depths of the Canoe Lake at Camp Half-Blood on a warm sunny day, smiled up at her from beneath the glass. For some inexplicable reason he looked remarkably familiar. She'd seen those eyes before.
Shaking her head in bemusement, Annabeth continued her inspection of the case. She spotted Grover in one of the photographs on the far left of the shelf, holding up his crutches towards the ceiling of the cafeteria. His expression was triumphant whereas his mouth was full of nachos with molten cheese dripping down his stubbly chin. Her lips twitched in amusement. Typical.
While the warning bell had rung a while ago, Annabeth was in no hurry to get to her first class. Mist manipulation was one of the many perks of being a half-blood and her quest was far more important than Spanish.
The blonde turned a corner and the next thing she knew, she was on the floor staring up at apologetic sea-green eyes.
"Umph!" Annabeth glared at the mortal, annoyed mostly at the fact that he still hadn't gotten up yet. "Well, are you going to get off of me or what?"
She didn't wait for a reply and unceremoniously shoved him off her. She refused his help after slipping to the floor again and stalked off in the opposite direction, ignoring the strange butterflies in her stomach. In her annoyance, Annabeth hadn't even recognized the boy she had been staring at for the past ten minutes.
Her first classes of the day passed with unsurprising ease and she was beginning to suspect that Grover had been overreacting. Of course, she should have known something was bound to go wrong.
The first sign of something amiss had come after lunch, when a hand had tapped Annabeth on the shoulder while she retrieved a Latin book from her locker.
A pair of electric blue eyes greeted her almost sheepishly as recognition dawned on the daughter of Athena.
"Thalia!" Annabeth wrapped the girl with short-spiky hair in a warm hug, drawing an amused chuckle from the dark-haired girl.
"It's good to see you, Annabeth," she said, when Annabeth finally released her.
She looks older, thought the blonde as she regarded her friend. Though forever immortalized as a teenager, Thalia's features had somehow sharpened, no longer reminding her of the lanky girl that had saved her from a monster attack in a dark alley when she was seven.
"What are you doing here?"
"Hunter business. It's getting worse, Annabeth." Annabeth frowned and ran a hand through her curls, rubbing her temple.
"How bad?"
"Bad enough for Artemis to send me and Phoebe to investigate the increasing monster activity in the area," replied Thalia, gesturing to a girl with dark brown hair that stood a few feet away from the two friends.
"Monsters? But I haven't-," she paused, catching sight of Grover and the boy that had fallen on her earlier. Perhaps we should have this discussion in a more private place. She mouthed a 'Later' to Thalia who was quick to catch on. The satyr shot them a look before following his friend into the adjacent classroom, limping as he crossed the doorway.
She was mildly surprised to see Chiron sitting behind the desk when she and Thalia finally entered the classroom, but was quick to hide it behind a mask of indifference when he reproached them for being tardy.
It was uncommon for the activities director at Camp to personally see to a potential half-blood, but she figured that with all the rumours surrounding the area and the involvement of the Hunters of Artemis even the centaur's curiosity was peaked. Still she dreaded the state her home would be in after being left in the perhaps not-so-capable hands of Mr.D.
While Annabeth's mind processed all the new information, her thoughts running a mile a minute - a perfectly normal occurrence for a child of Athena - Chiron (or did she have to address him as Mr. Brunner?) drawled on about the demise of Kronos.
The sound of something heavy falling to the dull white tiles of the floor awoke her from her musings. Without thinking Annabeth drew her knife from its hidden sheath. She must have startled the rest of the classroom in her haste, or rather those that still hadn't awoken from their boredom-induced sleep, for they looked at her in abject horror, staring at the object in her right hand. Annabeth's eyes became frantic as they searched for the source of the noise. Months of being on the run all those years ago had taught her a thing or two about staying on her toes. Also demigods and loud noises just didn't mix. She mostly had the Stoll brothers to thank for that.
Her gaze fell upon the fallen figure on the floor; some of her classmates hovered over the body of the boy she had seen earlier with Grover, but it was Chiron's expression that troubled her most. Absently stroking his beard, he motioned for Annabeth and Thalia to join him at the front of the classroom.
She hadn't noticed before, but the man/centaur she had come to see as more than a teacher and closer to a father, was confined to a wheelchair, his equine legs covered by a somewhat worn red tartan blanket.
She kneeled next to the boy's head, tugging the errant hair strand out of the way of his eyes, her celestial bronze knife clattering to the floor beside her. Annabeth recognized him from the pictures and silently wondered what it was about him that drew her to him.
Behind her she heard the shuffling of feet and the opening and closing of the classroom door. Most likely someone had gone to fetch the school's nurse.
Unbeknownst to her, Chiron studied the face of one of his favourite students. He was sure the boy was not mortal. The way Annabeth was drawn to his aura was proof enough of that. He would have to wait and consult the Oracle once he returned to Camp Half-Blood to be sure, but the similarities were unmistakable.
When the nurse had finally arrived, a robust woman with rosy cheeks and glasses far too small for her eyes, most students scattered to the halls to gossip with their friends. Annabeth, Thalia and Grover lingered in the doorway of the classroom, while Chiron discussed what happened with Mrs. Walters, sharing apprehensive looks with one another.
Thalia crossed her arms against her chest, frowning, probably wondering what in the gods name was going on. Annabeth had seen that thunderous expression before, when she'd gone on a 'field' trip with some of the older demigods at camp to Mount Olympus. It had belonged to Zeus, king of the gods and ruler of the Skies. To her left Grover was twitching nervously, something he tended to do when he was overly anxious.
Wordlessly Chiron strolled passed them and silently beckoned them to join him in a more private room. Nothing could have prepared Annabeth for what he had to say.
Closing the door behind her, Annabeth took a deep break, steeling herself for whatever explanation Chiron had for their presence at the school.
"I trust you are wondering why Grover called you here, Annabeth," he started. When she nodded, he continued, " tell me, have you ever heard the story of how Poseidon and his wife exiled themselves to the seas?"
The daughter of Athena shook her head, not remembering ever coming across that particular tale in all of her studies of Greek history. Thalia just looked on, her expression unreadable.
"I suspected as much. It isn't something the gods like to remember. The cause of this fraction between the Olympians, the recent appearance of monsters that were thought to be long forgotten in the dark depths of Tartarus, Luke's betrayal - are all unequivocally linked by one event in our history. It all started sixteen years ago..."
Endless midnight skies stretched above the immortal dwelling of the gods of Olympus where the moon cast its pale glow over the marble arches and buildings of the city. A plethora of golden torches lit the cobbled streets where the biggest festivities in nigh a thousand years were being held.
Gods, nymphs and satyrs alike danced and sang to a multitude of songs, from the classics of old to a rather cheerful rendition of 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'.
"Brother!" boomed Zeus, clapping the joyful Poseidon on the back, congratulating him once more on the birth of his newborn son, Perseus, heir to the sea god's extensive underwater kingdom. "I wonder if you have seen Hades. I wish to speak to him."
Poseidon shook his head and resumed gazing at his wife who leaned against a column towards the exit of the temple, cradling a bundle wrapped in a swaddle of green fabric. A few of the minor goddesses squealed in delight and cooed over the sleeping baby. Aphrodite had hardly left Amphitrite's side all day and had positively insisted on being named godmother to the child, much to the amusement of both Poseidon and Amphitrite. Ares had merely rolled his eyes at his girlfriend's antics, while Hephaestus scowled in a corner, wishing he was in the company of his machines.
Even the stoic Athena had cracked a smile when the boy had been presented before the council earlier in the day, where Zeus had declared a new age of peace and understanding between the gods.
The celebrations carried on well into the night and with dawn fast approaching the newly crowned parents had retired to their private quarters on Olympus, gently tucking in Percy before succumbing to slumber.
A loud noise awoke them from their sleep and jolted the pair from their reverie. With a speed known only to the gods, Poseidon had raced to the room next to their own and suppressed a sob when he caught sight of the overturned crib and smashed glass. Amphitrite was quick on his heels, covering her mouth as a startled cry escaped her lips and tears streamed down her cheeks.
Their boy. Their Perseus kidnapped..."
Chiron let his words sink in for a moment before continuing, "As you can well imagine, Poseidon was furious, demanding that his son be returned to him immediately, but no one came forward. He began to suspect that his own brothers had conspired against him and in the end he and his wife exiled themselves."
Annabeth thought about the painted mosaics that adorned one of the many elegantly decorated halls of Olympus, trying to recall an image of the estranged god. Sea-green eyes. That's where she'd seen them before!
"You think he's Perseus!" she exclaimed with a gasp. Why hadn't she seen it sooner?
Chiron wasn't even given a chance to reply before a scream that sent chills down Annabeth's spine, tore through the air. She moved on auto-pilot, hand tightly clutching her bronze dagger and headed for the general direction of the scream. She winced when another followed. I hope I'm not too late.
The door flung open with a quick turn of her hand and she threw her knife with deadly precision, hitting the monster right between the eyes before it could sink its poisonous fangs into Percy's neck.
Percy slunk to the floor, trying to stem the bleeding coming from a large and deep gash on his arm. Annabeth rushed to his side for the second time that day and held his head up to stop him from falling unconscious.
Thalia was second to arrive to the nurse's office followed by the slightly disadvantaged Chiron and Grover. Thalia reached into a side pocket of her blue backpack and retrieved a small golden square. Ambrosia.
She kneeled next to Annabeth and as gently as she could coaxed Percy's mouth open.
"Percy, you need to trust me. Eat this," she said. The boy's eyes were unfocused and his forehead beaded with sweat, but he obeyed the spiky-haired girl's command and ate the proffered biscuit. "Good. Now I need you to listen carefully: you're not going to remember any of this."
Percy
The torrential downpour continued on throughout the night, pelting rooftops and windows alike with a never-ending stream of water, the likes of which Manhattan hadn't seen in decades.
Percy Jackson thrashed and turned in his bed, fists clenching the navy sheets as nightmares ravaged his mind. He dreamt of the sweet, pudgy nurse Mrs. Walters, a woman in her late forties who never so much as raised her voice, turn into a horrific monster with claws as dark as night and eyes as white as the snow that would often fall over New York City.
He awoke with a gasp, clutching his erratic heart that pounded furiously in his chest. Sleepy sea-green eyes scanned his surroundings, searching for the monster that had clawed at his arm with deadly talons. He remembered the monster's foul breath as pearl white fangs had inched closer and closer to his jugular, and the mist that had wrapped around his feet, trapping him in a hazy fog.
Reassuring himself that he was indeed in his room, Percy ran a hand over his face. How did he get home? The last thing he remembered was leaving the nurse's office after being excused from Latin with a migraine.
His mouth tasted sweet, like he'd just eaten a plateful of his mom's blue cookies. She was quirky like that and he loved her for it.
He felt a flash of fear as lightning lit up his room and the following thunder shook the window of his bedroom, sending a tremor of panic through his entire being. Percy had never been afraid of thunder and lightning, so why was he so scared all of a sudden?
As he moved to roll up the sleeve of his green pajama shirt, he noticed the faint outline of claw marks.
I'd originally planned for this to be from Percy's POV, but Annabeth had other ideas. Oh well! I'll try update as soon as I can, but I really can't make any promises D:
PS I'm still looking for a beta if anyone's interested.