Later that night, long after the sun had set and the cleaning harpies had come by, I sat on the beach. The waves were calm, with the full moon cascading off the water. It was peaceful.

I'm not sure how long I sat alone, just staring at the waves, but I heard footsteps behind me. Her reflection appeared on the water, and she took a seat beside me, crossing her legs. "Hello, Annabeth." I said quietly.

"Lord Perseus, Nico came to talk to me earlier. I think we got off on the wrong foot." She sighed.

I turned to look at her. She was wearing an orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt with owl pajama bottoms. Her blond hair was up in a ponytail, but I could still see the worried expression upon her face. "I heard about your boyfriend." I said slowly.

Her face tightened. "Yeah. It's been really hard without him here. Luke was really something else. He really was the best demigod of his generation."

I nodded. "Like I said, I don't really pay attention to any of that, but I understand. I'm sorry for your loss."

She sighed. "I owe you an apology. I've just been so stressed lately with the upcoming war, and with everyone turning our backs on us—"

"Shh." I put my finger to my lips, and she stopped talking at once. It was a cool little power I had. I couldn't use it on gods, but I could use it on mortals. "I forgive you. Truce?" I put my hand out.

"Truce." She smiled weakly, shaking my hand.

"So, how did you meet Nico?" I asked her.

"Grover found him, and raised the alarm. I went to investigate, and found Nico and his sister, Bianca. We knew they were powerful, maybe Big Three material. But we weren't the only ones watching him. Eventually we were able to get them safely to Camp Half-Blood, and we began to train them. They both turned into wicked swordsmen. Then, one night by the campfire, I remember talking to Nico about who his parent was. He couldn't remember whether it was his mother or father—but that's a topic you'd have to talk to him about."

"Couldn't remember, hmm?" I shrugged. "Whatever. Continue."

"Then, clear as day, Hades claimed him and Bianca. Skulls right over their heads." She snickered. "Freaked poor little Nico out, he was only 10."

"So if Nico is several years younger than you, I assume, how old are you?"

"I'm nearly nineteen. I'm actually old for a demigod." She hugged her knees.

"Old? That's like, a blink of the eye to me." I shook my head.

"Well, most demigods only live until they're about 14 or 15. Then they die." Her voice cracked. "The monsters never stop."

I pondered this for a second. Having to live your life in fear of what might come after you—harsh. I didn't respond to her comment, there was nothing I could say to make her feel better. I had seen people be born, wither and die without blinking an eye. Entire cities born and crumble to dust. It was the bad part of immortality; time speeds up around you and there wasn't a thing I could do about it.

"How did you know I was out here anyway?" The question bothered me a lot more when I spoke it out loud. I didn't exactly write a note of where I was.

"I like sitting out here sometimes." She said softly. "I actually had no idea you were out here. I was actually coming out here to sit on my own."

"Daughter of Athena likes the ocean? Shocker." I chuckled lightly.

"Oh shut up." She laughed, a clear, smooth sound. "Not everything my mother does I have to agree with."

"Shocker." I laughed. "You'd tell her that yourself?"

"No. But it's a nice thought."

"My mother, Amphitrite, gets mad at me a lot. 'Get a good wife!' she tells me. 'Why are you not married yet?' then she gets Dad to try and set me up. Over the centuries, I just got fed up with it." I shook my head, a small smile on my face. "It's kind of hilarious."

"Oh." I couldn't read her expression.

I turned my gaze back out to the sea. I could imagine walking back out to the sea, swimming down to Dad's palace. It was a beautiful place—one of the reasons I never left for long. Plus, Dad had installed this sick new gaming room that was centuries ahead of its time. Me and him would spend days down there until Mom came looking for us, angrier than a shark before eating. But her being angry always made me laugh a lot harder because she would quite literally shoot steam out of her ears. Triton was no better, really. He's my brother, the other son of Poseidon. He gets to have all the fun as the army's general. He didn't approve of Dad's new gaming room. He thought that games were archaic and stupid. He preferred real war over any game. Which made him stupid. Wars are pointless.

I glanced over at Annabeth, surprised to see her sleeping softly on the ground. I supposed it was pretty late, and mortals had to sleep. I considered walking her to her cabin, but after the way she treated me this last day made me hesitate. She was blatantly rude to me for no reason other than I was a god, doomed to help her. But still, I hesitated. Something in me couldn't stay mad.

I sighed, getting to my feet. I scooped her up into my arms, teleporting to the front of her cabin. I didn't dare walk into the cabin; it would be disrespect to Athena. Instead, I set her in front of the door and took off my jacket, wrapping it around her arms. I glanced back at her before walking slowly to my own cabin.

The Poseidon cabin had been cleaned in my absence. The cleaning harpies had scrubbed the cabin top to bottom. The walls sparkled with the light of a thousand suns, even though it was the middle of the night. I could hear the sound of waves in the background, which calmed me a great bit.

With a quiet hiss, Poseidon appeared next to me overlooking the cabin. His black hair was longer, almost gray looking. His deep green eyes sparkled with mischief. "Been a long time since I showed up here." He commented.

"Dad?" I asked, squinting, not sure if my eyes were playing tricks on me.

"Hey, Pers. What's up?" He grinned slyly, as if we were meeting up for something casual like lunch.

"Uh, not much, really." I shrugged.

"Tell me what's going on there. Since you haven't invoked my wrath, I can't spy like I used to." He laughed, winking.

I rolled my eyes, and told him everything that had happened—with the exception of the beach. I wasn't ready to tell him about anything like that yet, because frankly, I wasn't sure what to think myself.

He nodded along to my story, stroking his beard in thought. "Seems like you're in a good place right now."

"But Dad, I thought Zeus said I was going to go on a quest." I sighed. "I even got a prophecy from the oracle."

"You are on a quest. You're in Camp Half-Blood. That is your quest."

"But it's so boring!" I whined. "I want to be out fighting monsters!"

He shook his head, laughing softly. "Oh Pers, you should know that life isn't about fighting all the time by now."

"How's things going at home?" I asked suddenly.

Poseidon's casual expression faltered. He sighed, "That's what I came to talk to you about. Oceanus has been freed, and even right now as I speak to you, my greater essence is fighting him. The entire sea has been exploded into a war. It's all I can do to stop the seas from destroying the coasts."

"What?" I gasped. It seemed as if the world had stopped. No damned sea creature was going to destroy my home! "I need to come home." I said at once.

"No, you can't. Zeus' orders." He shook his head.

"So why go through all this trouble to tell me something that I can't even help you with?" I asked.

"Because there is something you can do for me." He smiled lightly.

"What is that?" I asked.

"Defend Olympus; something is coming. Something big. I would definitely feel better if someone I trusted stayed behind to keep an eye on things."

"Bigger than Kronos?" I asked.

He shook his head. "I'm not sure, Perseus. Just be on guard, all right?"

I shrugged. "Whatever, Dad."

I sat on the floor alone in my cabin.

I didn't sleep at all that night. I kept thinking about Poseidon's castle laying in ruins. Finding the slain bodies of my entire family—I mean I know they're gods, and thus immortal, but gods can be injured enough to fade, it's rare but it does happen. It was a valid concern for me. I was upset with Poseidon for not letting me fight, but I was more annoyed with Zeus for prohibiting me. Poseidon's palace had never been attacked since I was alive, and the first time it is, I have to sit and watch? There had to be something I could do, whether directly or indirectly, but I couldn't think of anything. Dad's on his own.

I rubbed my face. The sunlight was streaming through the cabin now, shining directly into my eyes. Reluctantly, I got to my feet, walking over to the small dresser by the bed. There were only orange t-shirts and several different shades of blue jeans. Don't these people have any fashion sense? Is there some sort of stupid dress code?

I changed quickly, brushing my teeth just as fast. I walked outside as the harsh sunlight attacked me. I reached my hand out, a pair of sunglasses appearing in my hand. I put them on and sighed in relief; nothing hurt as bad now. It should really be a crime for the sunlight to be this bright.

I glanced at the other cabins. Each cabin was tailored specifically to the host god or goddess, such as barbed wire on Ares' cabin, and the Aphrodite cabin being painted bright pink and smelling strongly of perfume. I made a mental note to stay far from the Aphrodite cabin.

I kept walking, eventually coming over to the arena and the armory. I glanced lazily at two demigods sword fighting in the arena, and made my way to the armory. Never hurts to see what the gods army was staffed with. It was a moderate sized shed, with swords made of celestial bronze, ranging in size from mini to massive size. There were several shields on the right size, some already dented, and others in perfect condition. Compared to the size of Dad's armory, this was a toolshed. I shrugged. I had my own sword anyway, I didn't need to pick another out.

I turned around and headed out of the armory, crashing into Nico almost immediately. I held my ground firm, while he fell on the ground with a heavy thump. I looked down at him. His hair was disheveled as usual, clad in an orange t-shirt and black jeans. "Nico?" I extended my hand out to help him up. "What the hell are you running around for?"

He grasped my hand, pulling himself up, using his other hand to brush the dirt off his jeans. "Looking for you, of course. I went to your cabin, but Beckendorf had said he saw you coming this way, so here I am."

"What're you looking for me for?" I asked stupidly.

"Uh, well, there's really something you should see. Chiron asked for you specifically." He fidgeted nervously, spinning the ring on his finger.

I raised an eyebrow. "Dude, stop, now you're making me nervous. Whatever, let's go."

He led the way back to the big house. As soon as he opened the door, I heard something that sounded a lot like a news channel. We rounded the corner, Annabeth and Chiron turning to look at us. Nico took his seat beside Chiron. Chiron looked completely flabbergasted.

"Do you know anything about this, Perseus?" Chiron asked me.

I took off my sunglasses, sitting them on the table. There was a holographic TV in the middle of the table. It was playing the news, showing a huge hurricane off the shore of America, about 300 miles from New York.

Dad's palace.

My heart crept into my throat. I reached out to touch the screen, my hand sliding right through the projection. I sat in the nearest chair to steady myself. On what first glance appeared to be a hurricane, the more I looked, the more the Mist changed the image. In the middle of the ocean was Oceanus, the elder sea god. He had a solid form roughly forty feet tall, with long arms that rocked the sea back and forth. From his body were several twisters that shot water out at several different angles.

I spotted a small speck of light near the beast's head, in the shape of a twenty-foot tall trident. Dad.

I suddenly got very angry. This beast was attacking my home. But I couldn't do a damned thing about it. I scowled, crossing my arms over my chest. My control almost slipped—I so badly wanted to go and join the fight, but this would be nothing compared to what Zeus would bring upon me for disobeying him.

"Well?" Chiron cleared his throat. "What do you know?"

I looked over at him. He was sitting in a wheelchair—how he got his horse half in there I don't want to know—with a red quilt over a pair of fake legs. "That's Oceanus."

He sighed. "I figured as much, but do you know why he's attacking the middle of the ocean?"

"The middle-?" I hesitated, it dawning on me. Very few people—gods or otherwise—knew exactly where Poseidon's palace was. If everyone knew where it was it could be a very big safety concern for the inhabitants. Chiron could be trusted, though. The entire ocean looks the same; he'd never find it. "That's not the middle of the ocean. That's where Poseidon's palace is."

Chiron looked back over to the screen, his expression unreadable. "I'm assuming you didn't know about this, judging by your expression when you came in."

As if. Nobody needed to know that Dad visited me. Some things I could keep to myself. "No." I lied smoothly.

"I'm assuming you're leaving to help, right?" He asked.

"Can't." I grunted, almost against my will. "Zeus' rules."

If he looked surprised, he didn't show it. Instead, he just sighed again. "Looks like the war's starting."

I shrugged. "It was only a matter of time."

"But Nico doesn't turn sixteen until January." Annabeth interrupted. "Why now? It's only June."

"Looks like Nico was right after all, we're in for a six-month war." I yawned.

"I don't want there to be any war at all!" Nico hissed. "I just want peace for one damned minute!"

"Language, Mr. di Angelo." Chiron chided. "But war is inevitable, this has been rising for a long time now. Decades, centuries, this is happening for a reason."

Nico's voice was barely a whisper: "It's inevitable that everyone I know is going to die?"