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Guest: Thanks, here it is! I'll try to keep up! :)
Anonymous: That's reassuring and good to know. You'll know about Percy soon. I'm making the pace faster so we can get somewhere and the PJO portion shouldn't be that far in as chapters 50-60 go and will be definitely earlier. I like Percy's quirkiness, Tyson's cuteness, Annabeth's wittiness, and Nico's "Nico-ness"? Well, he's cute too. In fact, i love almost all of the characters. The exceptions include: Octavian, Hercules, and others, lol.
bob: Thank you :) I like describing things thoroughly, well, unless I'm sleepy or lazy XD
Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or HoO, but I do own the plot.
Disclaimer: For future reference, pretend water is 'like' air, especially with water deities or people. Ya, let's just go with that; it's complicated
PREVIOUSLY
The stars twinkled silently, almost like they were taunting Poseidon. But after a few. moments, those stars started vibrating, or maybe it was just his vision. Whatever it was floated towards each other. The glaring stellar light blinded him.
Poseidon shook away the flashing lights from his head, revealing glowing letters in front of him.
The ethereal letters spelt in front of him:
'Go to the Bahamas!'
Ψ Chapter 3: Delving Ψ
3'RD POV: Omniscient Perspective
August 1995 (General)
Radiant flashes were everywhere. The gleaming letters faded away and Poseidon was turned around by an unknown force to meet the large ball of yarn once more. The metallic rainbow shine of the ball of power made it difficult for the Sea God to stare, but he couldn't take his eyes of the magnificent sight. It was simply refreshing and awe-striking. Golden dots danced across his vision, slowly until they coalesced and completely covered his sight and...
Poseidon's eyes fluttered into existence as he took in his surroundings. He was lying beside one of the rough, rusty bookshelves of the library on a soft, fluffy, and comfortable mattress. The sophomore students, Judy and Mark, were no longer there, but there was another mermaid, wearing a...white doctor's coat?
Said mermaid's sapphire tail swayed in the water as she placed a warm towel on the Sea God's forehead and gave him a vial of glowing aquamarine liquid and a glass of water. The King of Atlantis quickly downed the healing elixir with a long gulp of refreshing water. He breathed in relief as he felt the warm, soothing sensation spreading from head to toe. The raging heartbeat pounding against his chest slowed and the soreness of his aching muscles was alleviated. The god sighed in utter comfort as he took a moment to savor the feeling, especially after an odd, uncalled for experience such as the powerful ball of yarn and glowing letters.
"My lord, you have finally awoken!" The doctor gasped. "Are you feeling any better?
Poseidon nodded, "Thank you. Yes, yes I have...?"
"Dr. Lily, sir," she responded curtly. "I'm glad you're feeling better, but you must rest. You were out for about three weeks and strangely we could not deliver you out of your position in the library."
"Hm?" The god's eyebrow raised in curiosity.
"It's true, my lord," another doctor came in by the threshold of the aisle of the shelves. He leaned by the side of them as he rummaged through is medical bag. "Hold on. Let me find something, sir.
Dr. Lily continued, "Whenever we attempted to touch you, brilliant, azure light flared from you in an aura-like manner."
"Hmm... So whoever did this also did..."
Poseidon's eyes widened, gears turning in his head.
"Thank you, doctors, for your assistance, but now, I'm afraid I have some business to attend to."
"But, my lord, you need to rest," Dr. Lily instructed.
"I'm sorry, but this notice is urgent and of the utmost importance."
"Very well, sir. Just take it easy on yourself," the assistant doctor, who was rummaging the bag earlier, came up. He handed the God a canteen of nectar and a pack of ambrosia. "Here you go, my lord."
"Thank you, and whatever happened to those two students, Judy and Mark?"
Dr. Lily turned her head to him, "Oh, they visit you everyday after school along with Lady Amphitrite and Lord Triton. In fact, they were the ones who seemed for medical help when you fainted. Since today is Thursday, I'm pretty sure they will visit you in about an hour."
Poseidon smiled warmly, "How thoughtful of them, although, I won't be here to see them. Be sure to give them my sincerest thanks, as I do to you, as well. Oh wait, here..."
The King of Atlantis clapped his hands and two seashell amulets appeared as they drifted down through the water and landed on the doctor's gentle hands. The jewels encrusted on them sparkled and gleamed under the dim waters.
"One for you and your assistant and one for Mark and Judy. They're not just amulets, too. If you need any assistance from me, simply throw it onto the ground. It should shatter and notify me immediately."
The assistant swam by his doctor's side. "There is no need for this, sir. It is our duty to serve you and we are more than eager to help you."
The Sea God grinned wider, "No, no, it's my token of appreciation to you. Anyways, close your eyes. I have to go.
The two doctored instantaneously shut their eyes as to not be incinerated into dust as the Lord of the Seas flashed away with the power of his divine form.
Poseidon arrived at the Throne Room as he watched a few merpeople leave through the front door and saw Amphitrite and Triton slump against their thrones in...exhaustion?
Well, whatever it was, Amphitrite quickly forgot it at the sight of him as she rapidly dashed towards him to crush her husband in a big hug. Triton froze for a second, but quickly followed in the family hug.
"Father, you're awake! We were just about to leave to check on you after we finished with the Citizen Requests Window. Di immortales, I don't know if I can take it any longer."
The Queen of Atlantis explained further, "We've been covering for you. Thank Chaos, you're better!"
Poseidon smiled warmly in gratitude, "Thank you. You have nothing to worry either, I'm not going anywhere."
Triton was relieved, even if the merpeople's request were still swarming in his head, from building more hospitals to strengthening the military. It was a chaotic three weeks without Poseidon and he was finally at ease. "That's good to kn—"
"Wait, I have to go somewhere!" The Sea God harked back or loud as Triton and Amphitrite groaned in annoyance and defeat.
He noticed and apologized, "Uh, sorry? It's important, though. I think it has to do with Percy's missing soul."
"Whatever it is, we're coming with you," his son and heir declared.
"I'm bringing Hades, too. Hestia probably wouldn't be able to as she is a fire goddess and where were going is no place for her. But wait, we can't just leave Atlantis unsupervised!"
"No worries," Amphitrite reassured. "I'm thankful that Rhode volunteered to help us since she already took care of all the problems in Rhode Island. She will join Delphin in filling in for us. By the way, how long will this take and where exactly are we going?"
The King of Atlantis replied truthfully, "I don't know, but it's definitely less than a week at most. This lead, i got it from a vision- a dream! I also don't know where exactly and who, but it's in the Bahamas."
"Hm... That's close by Atlantis, father. I say we call Uncle and go there as soon as possible to leave as soon as possible. We must read carefully as well for we do not know what this lead leads to exactly." Triton said as Poseidon actually widened his eyes.
He didn't consider whether the lead was safe or not. He didn't even have concrete evidence that it related to Perseus. It was just a gut instinct or maybe it was subliminal. Poseidon was just surprised that he this...desperate. Well, frankly Percy meant a lot to him and he thought this was his responsibility. He sighed heavily.
"Okay, then."
The Sea God conjured up a drachma and bent the water into thin mist to create a rainbow with the ample natural light that reached the depths of Atlantis through the windows.
"Oh, Iris, accept my offering and show me my brother, Hades, in the Underworld," he chanted as he tossed the coin into the rainbow.
A shimmering ring materialized in front of the Royal Family, revealing Hades stark naked in a hot tub.
Hades nearly drowned at the sight of the IM. He floundered in the water before regaining composure and swiftly conjuring a bathrobe on, even if he was still in the hot tub. Consequently, the bottom half of the dark grey bath robe got drenched making the God of the Dead look like a complete fool.
"Di immortales...Poseidon?" Hades stared.
"Yeah, I'm awake now...and I have a lead. In the time that I 'fainted', I had this dream. There was this gigantic ball of powerful yarn and glowing letters saying that I should go to the Bahamas!," he explained firmly. "So get your ass down here. Oh...and I, Poseidon, God of the Seas, King of Atlantis, Earthshaker, Stormbringer, allow Hades, God of the Underworld, King of the Dead, to enter my domain and bless him with the temporary abilities of seeing, talking, and hearing underwater."
A beam of pure white light shot out from the Sea God and went straight through the IM an hit the Death God, encasing him with a pale aura for a brief second.
Hades nodded, confirming the invitation, "Okay, then, wait...ball of yarn? I think I have an idea of where this is going. You should contact Hestia, though. She also has a lead. I'll get ready here. When I arrive, please give me an air bubble ."
"Sure," the King of Atlantis replied as he tossed another drachma and Hades' image vanished slowly. "Show me Hestia, at Olympus."
The Hearth Goddess' figure shimmered into existence as her face betrayed shock and relief.
"Poseidon! You're better! That's great. I can tell you this lead I'm following on Perseus' soul."
"Yes. Thank you, I'm better now. We also have a lead, but it involves going into my domain. I'm sure you wouldn't want to come, seeing as you are a fire deity."
Hestia shivered, "Yes, I would not like to go. In fact, I actually have to do more research on my lead. I'm close, but I'm missing something vital."
"Okay then, just IM if you need anything. We'll just be at the Bahamas."
"Sure, brother. Good luck on your lead!"
"Thank you."
With that, Hestia swiped her hand through the evanescent message and it faded away.
He turned to see that Hades already arrived in actual clothing. His son and wife worked together to give the God of the Underworld an air bubble to breathe in.
"One last time, brother. Are you sure you can handle anything that can happen, even if it's your domain?" Hades asked.
Poseidon put on a mock scandalized look, but was also dead serious at the same time, "What do you take me for? I'll do anything for Perseus!"
"Good, because I have a hunch that we're gonna deal with potent forces here. And I mean high and potent as in primordial deities."
"Yes, of course. This is a complicated situation," Triton pointed out.
"And even if it's complicated, that doesn't give Poseidon an excuse to not tell us what we're going to do!" Amphitrite chastised. "Yes, Bahamas, but what are we gonna do? Where exactly are we going? Even in a mortal map, there are many islands, many waters, many...caves."
Her husband smirked as Triton caught on after a moment's time of thinking. The three really did know their element. Hades, however, was left in the dust, not knowing anything about his brother's domain.
"Father, there's only one place I think that you're thinking of and whoever did this, who thought they thought about the well, is thinking of." Triton said a ludicrous, perplexing manner as to joke or maybe slightly tease the grumbling Death God, who, after Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom herself, didn't like not knowing about this.
The Sea God chuckled at his son's antics with his brother, "Fine, I'll tell it you straight. There's this underwater cave in the vicinity of the largest island of Bahamas, the island of Andros. It actually classified as a blue hole, meaning it's a very deep, dark cave that hides many secrets."
Hades rolled his eyes. That was definitely not telling it to you straight. In fact, it got a bit more cryptic in the sense that Poseidon looked like he was expecting Hades to know about this. "And what's so special about this blue hole cave speak of."
"It's named after Atlantis," Amphitrite spoke up.
The King of the Underworld's eyes widened slightly in understanding as he nodded his head as to say agree that it was the most likely location. The four deities silently stared at each other, all processing the information. With a firm nod from the Queen of the Seas being the signal, the four flashed to the entrance of the Atlantis Blue Hole.
Well...three of them. The Royal Family forgot that Hades didn't know where exactly to flash. Said god scowled at the empty throne room while waiting for one of them to come back for him. Not wasting any time, Poseidon quickly flashed in and out to get his brother to the entrance of the cave, which was on land, relatively and weirdly enough albeit to close to a local highway. He also dried him up because...well, they were in land, so why not?
Hades stared at the black abyss beneath him. He would have though The this so called underwater cave, or a blue hole, rather, would be actually underwater, but the entrance was actually on land. It looked just like a large pond, but he knew that it was much, much deeper than that. Blue holes were actually more of vertical caves that went straight down and spread out into different twists and turns when it reaches the bottom. It was kind of crazy to think that he would be exploring this kind of stuff. He frowned slightly as he continued staring. What was down there? Who was down there? He didn't know and once again, he hated not knowing. It was terrifying and unreassuring to be blind like this. Secrets were hidden below these very waters and he was right to be unnerved.
"So, you ready, brother?" Poseidon nudged him slightly his elbow, grinning teasingly.
"Why wouldn't I be?" Hades retorted, yet he wasn't that confident; in fact, it was a shaky reply.
"Well..."
The Lord of the Seas rapidly encased his brother with an air bubble and swiftly pushed him in.
Hades' endless chain of profanities people should definitely not repeat got lost in the murky water.
"Remember, be careful. We still don't know what's down there," Amphitrite warned as the other two nodded in understanding."
Poseidon, Triton, and Amphitrite dived in and followed the unfortunate Death God.
They eventually catches up to each other and continued their descent the bottom.
"Why did you have to push me?" Hades whined.
"Well, in the first place, the only reason. I didn't flash us to the bottom was because I wanted to push you into— uhh...because we needed to search every bit of the cave, from top to bottom," Poseidon smirked deviously and actually gave a reasonable excuse as Triton and Amphitrite laughed quietly at his shenanigans. "Anyways, let's do this quick, but still thorough."
His son and wife followed as the three quickly descended at breakneck speeds, while still carefully scouring the walls of the dark cave. Hades followed, but not after cursing something about little brothers and respect. They swam and swam, but still found nothing, until, in synchronization, the four deities halted suddenly at a strange, glowing, pinkish water.
"Ah, I forgot about this!" Amphitrite muttered. "Blue holes usually have toxic water created by microorganisms. They signal the division between the shallower part of the cave and the deeper part of the cave."
"Oh, yes!" Triton followed. "I vaguely remember this from years ago, in school. They say that the bottom half has no oxygen, so we have to atomically diffuse the air right from the water."
"The toxins shouldn't hurt us anyway and I can easily make air for us later. This is my domain after all," Poseidon reassured. "Just dive through and we'll continue looking for whatever is down here. Remember to look for anything suspicious."
They nodded and kicked through the venomous layer of water and arrived at the bottom half.
Their eyes widened to see nearly seventeen, different, narrow pathways branching out from the one gigantic cavern they were floating in.
"Di immortales, we've made it to the nadir, but this is going to take hours!" Hades cursed.
Before anyone could reply, they suddenly heard slow, eerie music from one of the pathways. It was sweet and melodious— like it was entrancing then to follow it. And follow it they did. The four swam though the rocky arch and further into the darkness. Their tails, and Hades' feet, brushed here and then onto the fragile walls, causing little debris to crumble down. They didn't notice, though, as they proceeded. The singing became louder and more sonorous, such that it was throbbing and echoing in their ears. They arrived at a dead end and...
Crash!
Their exit was blocked in the most cliché manner. The collective debris that crumbled caused multiple vibrations through the water until they hit the fragile cave ceiling, where there happened to be stalactites that were bound to fall...and they did.
The four turned to the collapsed exit. They didn't falter, though.
"Well, it's a dead end and we're stuck anyway. Let's just flash back to the center," Triton suggested as he took his divine form.
With a flash, he disappeared...and reappeared in the exact same spot.
"What?"
Triton tried again, but ended up in the same spot. He cursed again as he attempted once more. The other three deities tried as well, flashing, shadow travel, mist travel, but none worked. Hades experimentally punched the rock and cussed when it wouldn't even budge against his godly strength. Amphitrite took a smarter approach and sent a green blast of power hurdling towards the rock. It backfired. The ray bounced of here and there and continued to ricochet. They dodged frantically until the beam's power dwindled and faded away.
"Dang..." Amphitrite muttered."
Poseidon shook his head, "How are we going to..."
"Brother, look!" Hades shouted.
They all turned to face, instead of a plain dead end, an ancient stone door that definitely was not there before. Small, crystalline pebbles lined the threshold and the door itself was strong and solid sandstone with engravings.
All of their eyes widened when they saw that they were not just engravings, but text. Their mouths even dropped when they actually read the text. It was the great prophecy...
A half blood of the eldest gods
Shall reach fourteen against all odds
And drown amongst the endless
lights
To brace themselves for breathless fights
A glimpse into the distant past
Where moonlit winters never last
Shall show the secrets lost in time
And shed light to the furtive crime
Beyond where ocean meets the sky
The daughter of war's final cry
Of fiery fury set blaze
Olympus to preserve or raze
To redeem the lives or lose them all
A sacrifice to end the crawl
[A/N]
Hey peeps!
Early update :)
If you have the time to give me some constructive criticism, I'm more than happy to read them. This story needs a lot of feedback for it to grow. Can't do this without you :)
How was the prophecy? Is it too long? Too cryptic? Too early mentioned? Whatever it is please, please comment about it. Because this prophecy is important for the story! If I have to change it, I have to change it as early as possible. There will be a lot more prophecies in the future so I also need to know if it's good enough.
PLEASE REFER TO MY PROFILE/BIO FOR CHANGED SCHEDULE, CHAPTER COUNT AND LENGTH for this story! Ty!
Reviews inspire, motivate, and improve :D
QOTD: Who do you think Percy should be with. (Pairing)
Happy reading! ~OneMoonlessNight
