I would like to apologise to all my readers for how long it has taken for me to release another chapter of my story. I have been so busy recently that I have not had the time to work on my writing. I would Like to thank Catherine P for helping me with my work and for making continueing with my writing possible.

Chapter 3

Elysium

I sat beside the walls of Elysium for what seemed like an eternity. Annabeth sat beside me holding my hand while Skye stood up, fidgeting with her hands and shaking nervously. I tried to give her a reassuring smile but she was too jittery to notice. Annabeth turned to me and gave me her smile and looked me in the eyes. Her grey eyes seemed to almost see through me; like she knew exactly what I was thinking and knew exactly what to say to make me feel better.

"Don't worry Percy" she said in a whisper. I just nodded. After a short silence I decided to speak.

"So how do we get in? We cant wait here forever". Skye stopped fidgeting, her face looked pale. I let out a breath, a breath I hadn't even realised I had been holding in.

"Relax dear" I said. She raised her eyebrows.

"Relax? How am I supposed to relax father I haven't seen her in-"

"106 years and 237 days I know". She gave an amused laugh.

"You kept count? That's weird". She turned her head slightly and blew away a strand of hair that had fallen over her face. I remember back to my first life where I had forgotten even the simplest things in life, like being a father. I swore I would never do that again and made myself remember ever single detail about my family whether it was important or not.

"I never forget my family" I said in a low voice, more to myself than to her. I had hoped she wouldn't hear but I should have known better from a grand daughter of Athena. She didn't say anything but she smiled sympathetically and patted me on the shoulder. She sat down and lent back against the wall, closing her eyes. I turned back to Annabeth.

"Well?". I asked

"Well what?" she replied. Her eyes widened briefly as she remembered. "Oh yeah…well getting in isn't the hard part…its getting out. Don't worry it'll be fine I have you with me this time I'm pretty sure the three of us can handle ourselves." She got up and paced for a bit. I let myself relax for a few minutes. Skye opened her eyes again and sat up; her eyes how screaming with renewed determination. My wife smiled at me and stopped pacing.

"We ready?" she asked

"Ready as we'll ever be" Skye replied with a smile.

"Lets go" Annebeth smiled and fast as lightening she was off. I stared open mouthed as her feet ran vertically up the wall, her limbs moving so fast that she couldn't possibly fall. Skye ran up next a few seconds later, following her mother up the hill. I could hear the cracking of rock and stygian concrete as their feet hammered into the wall as they made their way up. I gulped. This wasn't exactly something I felt confident doing. I took a quick glance round and realised I was still near the Sea.

Okay, so it may be cheating but what the hell. I let my mind drift to the water and summoned it to wash around my feet. I lifted each of my feet up in turn and poured more water under my feet, allowing me to float. I let more and more force its way under, my own power being the only reason so much was able to pool there. The pressure was mounting. I looked up to the top of the wall where Annabeth and Skye were looking back down. It was a long way up but I could still make out Skye's blinding smile. I could hear Annabeths sniggers from the bottom of the slope.

"Whats the matter Percy!" she called with a taunting edge to her voice. I heard the faint laugh again.

"Afraid of heights?" Skye laughed loudly. The two of them gave me a wave and made to walk away from the edge of the wall. I gave myself a slight smirk before letting loose the power of the Sea in a short wave of my hand. The sudden loss of pressure forced the water to blast me skyward. I used my power to guide my accent. Being a son Zeus as well as a son of Poseidon gave me the ability to manipulate the air currents so I could practically glide through the air.

I had overshot the wall by a good ten or more metres but I simply let myself float to the floor, not that I needed to as I cant possibly hurt myself due to my current predicatment. I didn't even need to keep my eyes open. When I felt my feet touch the hard ground I opened my eyes and smiled. Skye's figure was in front of me. She rolled her eyes and walked back to her mother who was a few paces behind her.

"Show off" I heard her mutter. I took a few steps to the other side of the wall

The walls of Elysium stretched around the city like a medieval gate system. Where the climb was short from the other side, this side of the wall the drop was a mile or more down. Four gates, one on each side of the squarish formation of the city let new inhabitants in and allowed messengers to get in and out of the city to deliver their messages. The city grew by itself, the walls pushing out every time there was a new addition to the population. The place was so large that normal eyes would never be able to see all the way to the other side; in human terms the city was probably over 2000 miles long each side.

The only reason I could is because I'm not alive. Dead eyes can see everything. It would be a useful skill it it wasn't for the fact I was forever in a place where the biggest danger was ordering the wrong meal at the canteen. I gasped as I saw the huge expanse of houses that were scattered below me. There were houses from every era; Roman, medieval, Victorian, Georgian, Ancient Greek. There were many others I didn't quite know about but that didn't matter to me. I glanced over to Annabeth and saw her eyes sparkle. All this architecture must be sending her brain into overdrive. This was her element and it was gratifying to see that after all these years her love of architecture and construction had not diminished one bit.

I looked back to the city noticing that each house had about an acre of garden. The smell of flowers drifted with the breeze and I inhaled. Annabeth winked at me. We all knew exactly what to do next. Skye went first. She ran full stride and somersaulted down the wall. I stepped closer to the edge and watched her gracefully cut through the air as she arched to the ground.

"Now who's showing off" I muttered. Annabeth laughed and before I could react she playfully pushed me off the edge off the wall and I was falling. Now I should explain that being dead it doesn't matter what height I jump from I will still hit the floor completely unharmed with no bones broken, no pain caused not even a scratch. I had learnt this when I accidentally fell off a cliff edge in the Isle of the Blest when I was climbing (I was bored). So as I plummeted to the floor I was not afraid. It was exhilarating. I heard a familiar exhilarated laugh above me and Annabeth Appeared next to me and grabbed my hand.

God knows how she done that. It was Probable one of her daughter of Athena calculations of trajectory and speed or whatever. I could see the faint figure of Skye below me…and then she stopped; she had touched down. I noticed that the ground was getting closer and closer and I prepared me feet to meet the floor. I may not be able to be hurt but I still don't want to land looking like a total idiot. Annabeth would never let me hear the end of it…or my daughter for that matter. I could feel the wind whistling past me and I heard Annabeth whooping. Just seconds to go…1…2…3!

My feet hit the stony ground with a crack. I could hear the rock straining with the force that the two of us had hit the floor. Still we stood there hand in hand and then we looked around. Skye was sitting on a wooden stool next to a wooden house with a nail file.

"Nice of you to join me" she smirked before adding "Well that was fun". Then she turned to her mother.

"So…where we going now? I sure has hell don't know my way around here". I looked around. We were on a road adjacent to the main wall lined with a mixture of wooden and brick houses. Now we were at ground level the smell of roses and tulips were unmistakable.

"Well…I suppose we'll have to ask around wont we?" Annabeth replied.

"Right…shouldn't you know since you have been here before?" Annabeth scowled and waved her finger in the air making a tut tut gesture before answering.

"My dear daughter you should know these things...Elysium is an ever growing city. The layout changes itself every ten or so mortal years. Last time was hear was about fifty years ago so-"

"All right mum I get the picture! Jeez!". The two of us laughed while Annabeth blushed. Some things just never change. Annabeth took in a deep breath and tried to wipe the embarrassed grin off her face. She failed miserably and shook her head in defeat.

"I hate you..." she muttered. I put my arm around her waist and looked into her eyes.

"No you don't I whispered into her ear and then I kissed her softly on the neck.

"Whoa guys I don't want to see this" I heard Skye's voice call. She held her arms in front of her face and looked away struggling not to laugh.

"Gods know how I wasn't emotionally scarred as a child." she said while placing her arms on her hips. Her black hair fell over her eyes and she whipped her head back to move it. A light breeze blew gently making our cloths flutter.

"So where to Wise Girl?" I jibbed. She replied by elbowing me in the ribs and pointing towards the centre of the city.

"I don't know Seaweed Brain but I can say with some degree of certainty its that way somewhere". I rolled my eyes.

"Oh that's comforting" she held her hand to signal for me not to talk.

"What I mean is that this city is built out ever decade so that means that Ariana lives at least a few hundred miles farther in...what we need to look for, is a subway and when we get off we just hail a cab and-" Skye cut in and sniggered.

"A cab? Seriously...in Elysium. This is the land of the dead not New York". Annabeth glared at her daughter and she shrank back slightly.

"Yes a CAB. What? Don't you think somewhere as civilised as Elysium would have a form of public transport. This place is over 2000 miles long you think people just walk around?" She huffed in frustration. I forgot how irritated she got when people interrupted her. Annabeth seemed to realise she was making a scene and hung her head slightly.

"Sorry" she muttered. "Anyway as I was saying we'll take a cab and they will take us where we want to go" she turned around and gestured for us to follow her. I looked at my daughter and shrugged my shoulders. Both knew this was going to be a long day

I tapped my fingers lightly against the table. The silence in the room was excruciating. For 2 hours we had been sitting here waiting for news. Hephaestus slumped back into his chair in the corner. Aphrodite sat beside him, combing her hair in front of a mirror she was holding up with her free hand. Athena was quiet in the other corner of the room, grooming an owl that she had perched on a small table. Artemis sat next to me with a bored expression on her face. The room was dark and foreboding; a hollowed out part of a mountain where we could all hide. We were not used to existing like this...hiding. Gods shouldn't need to hide but alas we did.

The world was changing. Zeus had grown corrupt and greedy with power and now anyone who disobeyed him or even voiced an opinion against him was banished. Hephaestus was the first to go. Zeus wanted weapons and armour for a war against Poseidon but he said no. He said Poseidon had done nothing to provoke such an assault and that he was having no part in a war he saw no sense in. Zeus banished from the face of the earth and vowed that if he ever saw his face, he would kill him. When other spoke against his actions they too were cast from Olympus, except Athena, who, seeing her fathers growing corruption, chose to leave.

In the years that followed, Athena struck an unlikely Alliance with Poseidon and rallied the scattered gods into a cohesive unit. For over a hundred years a war has raged between those Allied with Zeus and those Allied with the Outlaw gods. I joined around 30 years ago. The gods had forgot to free me from my prison after Percy made them promise. Zeus probably didn't forget but ignored the order.

The other gods probably assumed Zeus had kept his word and forgot to check on me. I cant blame them, there was a lot to do after the second Titan war and things can easily be forgotten. Athena came to fetch me a few after a while. It seemed to be that they needed all the help they could get and were happy to recruit my services. They must be desperate.

If you have not guessed yet my name is Calypso, daughter of Atlas and Lieutenant of the Outcast Alliance. It took a while for me to gain the complete trust of the Gods but now they treat me completely as if I were one of their own. My main job is to interact with the mortals on the ground and try to gain any information that may be useful to the war. Being a daughter of Atlas and a minor goddess most half bloods don't recognise me so it makes it easier to go incognito when needed. It's dangerous but it cant be any worse than being stuck on house arrest for eternity.

Hephaestus made a huffing sound and sat up from his chair.

"How much longer will he be?" he complained. Sparks erupted from his beard and he held his head in his arms. Athena stopped grooming her owl and gracefully walked towards the Fire god, patting him on the shoulder as she walked past.

"Patience brother…he won't be long now. I can sense him". Athena then sat down on one of the wooden chairs surrounding the main table in the middle of the room. The wood was ornately decorated with seemingly Greek design carving patterns, obviously an antique that had been salvaged. She whistled quietly to nothing in particular and the owl flew from its perch, over the table and landed comfortably on her shoulder.

I heard the door creek and my head snapped towards the door. I could sense everyone else doing the same, anticipated the arrival of the lord of the sea. When we saw who it was our shoulders slumped slightly. Artemis slowly walked in. She looked at me sceptically and I stood up.

"Sorry Lady Artemis I didn't mean…err how your journey was?" I rushed out anxious not to offend the goddess of the hunt. She simply waved her hand dismissively.

"Relax Calypso I know what you meant…still no word from Poseidon I see. Not to worry. In answer to your question, I've been through Hades and back. I ran into 3 drakons on the way down here. I thought there was only one in creation but somehow Zeus has managed to form more. Killed quite a few of my best hunters…" she looked down sadly. I smiled sympathetically

"I'm sorry Artemis. I'm sure they will go to Elysium"

"Zeus will go to Tartarus for this!" she said through clenched teeth. Her face betrayed nothing; completely blank with suppressed emotion but I could see in her eyes that if Zeus was in the room right now he would have a hard job containing her. Artemis wanted blood. A stray tear formed in her eye and she turned away before any of the other gods could notice.

I did. It was a testament to how bad a time we were in when a God could be brought to tears. She strode to the empty chair next to Athena and sat down; though her tolerance of men had drastically improved (necessarily since half of the outcast alliance was made of gods), her trust was still not completely sated and she only sat with the goddesses when in council.

Another creek sounded from the door and this time a sigh of relief released from every immortals lips as Poseidon strode into the room. I took to my seat immediately in anticipation of the meetings opening. The God seemed to look weathered and tired. His eyes held no hint of joy they had done in previous years. He held his trident in his left hand but from his stance it seemed as if it was weighing him down. He did not look well.

He hadn't looked well for a while. None of us have been brilliant but he looked absolutely awful. Everyone in the room went silent as the sea lord strode into the room and leant against the wall. He seemed to notice the general mood of the room and put down his trident, leaning it against one of the walls and taking the seat at the head of the table.

"I'm fine" he said flatly to the table. Typical god I thought, Always playing things as if they are not serious. Poseidon did NOT look fine. I brushed a few strands of hair from in front of my face and looked him dead in the eye. He looked as if his soul had been crushed.

"If you don't mind me asking, what happened? Your never late for council especially one as important as this…you look like you have been through hell and back."

"Watch it Calypso" Athena's voice warned.

"No it's ok Athena. I think you all should know anyway…Oceanus." Poseidon said simply.

"Ah" I realised. The titan of the Ocean has resurfaced. As if things were not already totally fucked. Now we had to deal with yet another problem. This also meant that Poseidon was unlikely be available that often any more. Poseidon was a big loss.

"He struck my Palace when my half blood sons were visiting. They just came to see the new aquarium and…" he seemed to struggle to get the next words out. As if they were stuck in his throat. "two of them were killed…I managed to get my youngest to safety but I couldn't save the others. Then the monsters came and its been all out war for days. I could only just get away to come here I'm sorry I couldn't come sooner." The immortals in the room faces fell mine included.

"Im sorry for your loss" Athena said quietly. She had her head in her hands and she hit the table in frustration. Our eyes collectively widened in surprise. This was very UN-Athena like.

"My father will pay for this" Athena spat.

"Easy Athena" Poseidon said. He waved his hand and a tablet that appeared to be made of limestone appeared in front of him.

"Well" he smiled weakly. "Let's get this show on the road. Zeus has been increasing his attacks steadily over the past hundreds of years. More natural disasters, more monster attacks on half bloods...even mortals are getting a bit of it. Unexplained disappearances have increased 20 times in the past 50 years alone. Clearly he's making a big play here. Since Zeus took over camp half blood 74 years ago, as you all already know, he's been brainwashing his own army of half bloods. We have tried to protect as many as we can but there are far too many to really police all the time. Zeus's half bloods seem to be massing in New York. Athena can you make any sense of this?" he asked and Athena sat up straight in her chair to face Poseidon to reply.

"From what I have heard, and from what I can speculate from what I have seen, Zeus is making a move to attack the half bloods that are allied with us. With them out the way it would pretty much finish us off. We can't intervene due to our stupid ancient laws-"

"Screw the laws we're already doomed" I heard Hephaestus mumbled and Athena turned to glare at him.

"We don't know what will happen if we break the law brother…there are far worse things than death."

"Humph" Hephaestus looked like he wanted to protest but he just looked blankly back at the goddess of wisdom and pursed his lips, small sparks of embers jumping from his untidy beard. Poseidon looked on thoughtfully. From what I could gather things were currently hopeless. With no half bloods to carry the fight to Zeus on the ground, we had no way of influencing what appears to be a losing war. After what appeared to be an age of silence, Poseidon finally opened his mouth to speak. He turned to me.

"Lady Calypso, do you have anything to report? How are things on the ground?"
I thought for a minute. In truth nothing special had happened which probably in itself was news because the past few years things had been hectic with disaster after disaster and disaster…you get the idea. Even though overall disasters were increasing over the last year or so things were quietening down…almost like Zeus was waiting for something.

"Quiet..." I spoke softly. "The world below has largely been repairing the damage from previous years, new buildings, new governments etc. Largely that's the point, its previous years damage. The storms have quelled and there doesn't seem to be any large incidents occurring or likely to occur soon. It's almost like he's waiting for something…don't ask me what I'm not a strategist. All I can assume is that its not like Zeus to suddenly stop his destruction. I believe you are right Athena. Zeus wants to wipe us out completely now, take away our half blood protectors, and eliminate us."

"Don't wo-" held her palm up to silence me and I obliged. Her face had changed from frustrated thinking to almost a smile. She had an idea. The smile slowly grew wider. The twinkle in her eye told me all I needed to know. The idea was crazy and probably against all laws our forefathers had created for ourselves but that was ok. We needed crazy.

"Athena what are you thinking" Poseidon questioned. There was mock warning in his tone, the tone of a man that knew that now there was a lifeline, a dangerous lifeline that no matter how mad it was he, and every god in this room would try simply because they had to.

"Well…" she started hesitantly. She looked at everyone in the room in turn letting her piercing grey eyes rest on each person in turn; making sure everyone was mentally ready for whatever she was planning. "There is one person who always used to get the job done...well two actually…no matter how bad the situation was they were unstoppable. They undertook any challenge and came over every obstacle. Even I don't know how they achieved some of the things they did. I think you know who I'm talking about here Poseidon." He simply nodded. He pursed his lips. I could tell he was trying to decipher what Athena was trying to say but he couldn't, no-one could. This is the mind Athena

"Well as you know they chose rebirth after they died and eventually were granted sanctuary in the Isle of the Blessed after 3 Elysium worthy lives. Its been hundreds of years since we last saw them." Athena's eyes didn't seem to be looking at anyone at this point; her expression almost daydreaming as if even she knew what she was about to propose was almost ridiculous. "They will know what to do" she said in a level tone.

Poseidon cocked his head curiously, his weathered face confused. "What exactly do you mean? He questioned. "How can they help us...they are dead. We are gods if we cant fix our own mess how are spirits from the underworld going to be of any use. What advice can they give us that we don't already know?" His tone was starting to get irritable. "They have been out of the world of the living for over 500 years how are they going to know anything about what is happening to the world right now!" Athena stood up with an angry look on her face. Poseidon recoiled in reflex. Athena angry was a scary prospect for anyone, god or human.

Athena's expression made Poseidon unconsciously recoil and the corners of her mouth turned upwards in triumph as the sea lord shrank back. I smiled to myself slightly. Although Poseidon was the "official" leader of our Alliance, Athena was really the one in charge. It was always that way.

"I never said anything about asking for advice…we've existed for thousands of years as you said, there is nothing they can tell us we don't already know. I was thinking more on the lines of using them".

All at once the room went silent. Poseidon stared blankly forward, the expression on his face mirroring that of a man that had been hypnotised. Hephaestus suddenly started to look interested again, his bored demeanour shed almost instantaneously. I looked questioningly at Athena.

"What exactly are you proposing? Breaking them out of the underworld-"

"Impossible" Hephaestus interrupted.

"Why?" I asked. Nothing was impossible in my experience. Hades, who guessed Demigods, can slay Titans. It happened.

"Because Calypso, Hades can sense when another god is entering his domain. We can't just waltz in there and-".

"I know that brother I'm not stupid" Athena spat with venom. She glanced at the group round the table with ice in her eyes and then carried on talking. "Lady Calypso?".

"Yes?" I said wearily. I wasn't totally paying attention and was surprised to find that Athena was addressing me.

"You're a relatively minor god…a nymph in fact. Hades won't sense you like he would me or Poseidon. If you…travel into the…slightly restricted parts of the underworld you can explain the situation to our heroes. I'm sure it won't take too much persuasion to enlist their assistance. Remember do whatever you can to get them out. This cannot fail. Once in the Underworld it won't be as simple as it sounds getting to them so…watch your back". I nodded.

"It will be done Lady Athena. I look forward to meeting them again"

"Keep your eyes on the job" Athena grinned and gave me a wink. Very un-Athena like. Poseidon chuckled slightly and cleared his throat; laying his hands on the table. A smile formed on his features and his sea green eyes almost revitalised with hope.

"You know, this might actually work…if anyone can do something, they can."

Artemis broke the silence she had been holding for much of the conversation. Her face, still stricken with grief from her recent hunter losses simply nodded in agreement to her plan. I felt a pang of sympathy for her. She had lost so much. We all had.

"So are we all in agreement?". Every face around the table nodded. Athena, Artemis, Poseidon even Hephaestus!

I was the last person to nod. Athena kept her gaze on me while saying quietly but clearly in a level voice.

"Then do it. Bring back Perseus and Annabeth Jackson".

Haha I bet you loved that readers...want to know what happens next? keep reading and find out! :)