I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Fate Is For The Weak

I was to meet up with Brittany and Andrew on the top of Half-Blood Hill early the next morning. I had yet another dream of my father. I was early but Chiron was still waiting for me when I got there. His gaze fell to the horizon and beyond with his brow furrowed in thought, but when he heard me coming he slowly turned from his thoughts and looked to me.

"Good morning Jason, how did you sleep?" he asked.

"I've never slept well," I said. "I thought that would change once I arrived here but my father has plagued my dreams every night since arrival."

Chiron's expression grew concerned. "What does he say?" he said hurriedly.

Before I could answer however Brittany came up the hill and yelled to me. "Jason," she said running towards me, "I have our route plotted out." She then pulled out a world map and began an in depth explanation of how we would fly to Europe from the JFK airport and take a train to this place and so on.

While I tried to pay attention I was distracted by Chiron's stare. He still looked worried but he let us plan and prepare while we waited for Andrew. He leaned back and watched us with a slight smile playing at his lips. I got the feeling he was remembering previous quests though I couldn't be sure.

At last Andrew arrived in a run. He stopped in front of us panting and trying to explain how his alarm had not gone off because some of his siblings didn't approve of the quest. I didn't much care. I was anxious and nervous. The last time I had been out in the real world I was an inch from death and I feared the monsters were just out of sight waiting to finish what they had started.

Then Brittany spoke up. "Are we going or what 'cause I'm tired of waiting around."

I wasn't. Why not just stay here in the safety of camp instead of going on this absolutely ridiculous quest? Why couldn't the gods see that I wasn't my father and posed no threat at all? But no, I don't know and I'm only frustrated out of fear that I will either fail and die or fail and be shunned from the home I had just managed to find.

"I do believe it is time you set off," Chiron said, "but before you go there is one warning I would like to give to you Jason. Your father is a master of deception. He will do everything he can to win you and bring you to his side."

I grinned slightly. "You think I don't know that? I'm his son. How do you think I survived in such an unforgiving world, pure battle instinct? I'm not that lucky."

Chiron remained serious. "Just be wary." With that he trotted off back to camp.

We walked down the hill to the waiting van where Argus would drive us to the JFK airport. I wasn't sure if flying was such a great idea. From what I had heard Zeus wasn't a very forgiving guy, and with me being his brother he had a right to be suspicious. Unfortunately we had to cross the ocean at some point and flying was the fastest option. With Brittany along it was probably safer to get a boat but I was still afraid of Poseidon so we would fly.

We arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare. We did our best to stay focused on our mission but between the three of us the ADHD would not allow it. Instead we took the time to enjoy ourselves as much as possible for what could be the last time in a long time. I was still nervous though. I was anticipating an attack though I knew it was unlikely. When you live under constant threat for so long you tend to get paranoid. Brittany noticed.

"Jason!" she yelled when she caught me watching everyone around us instead of focusing on our card game.

"Huh."

"You need to relax. We board our plane in ten minutes then were set until Rome. There's nothing to worry about."

I sighed. "You're probably right but-"

"But nothing," she cut me off, "I command you to have fun."

I smiled at the irony of forcing someone to have fun, but I was also smiling at her. It was a new experience to not be alone in the world, and for some reason or another I trusted her. So I finally calmed down and had a little fun before it was time to board. I was still uneasy about flying but it was too late to turn back.

Our plane was big and getting to our seats was slow but we had no trouble finding them. Our seats were all next to each other in the center column and a row near the back. I took note of our emergency exits the closest of which was behind us at the back of the plane. We took our seats with me next to the right aisle, Brittany to my left, and Andrew to her left next to the left aisle facing the front of the plane.

I scanned the passengers for monsters but didn't notice any. Finally everyone was settled and I noted, though, was the empty seat across the aisle from me. The man in the window seat next to it must also have noticed because he set his carry-on items in the seat.

Once the plane finally took off did I relax a little. With our ADHD I noticed all of us had trouble sitting still. Once the seatbelt light went off Andrew went to the bathroom. It would be a long flight. I tried watching the in flight movie which turned out to be "The Lightning Thief". That was ended quickly. Not only did it not follow events at all in accordance to reality, it was a horrible movie overall. Bad acting, weak plotline, and characters that didn't fit their roles destroyed the movie within the first ten minutes. Grover was the only good part but he couldn't hold it together by himself.

I sighed finally giving up on the movie. I turned to see how the others were coping with the extreme boredom. Andrew, being the son of Hermes he is, was eyeing the belongings of others. Brittany, however, had ear buds in and was nodding her head to some rhythm the rest of us couldn't hear.

She noticed me watching and took one out and asked, "Want to listen?"

"Sure," I said.

She handed me one of her ear pieces and I carefully put it in not sure what to expect. I was greeted by a smooth melody that instantly entranced me. I floated through the sound wearing what was sure to be the stupidest expression a man could possibly make. Brittany laughed at my child like wonder.

"What is this?" I asked still in awe.

"This is The Dreaming Tree by Dave Mathew's Band," she said showing me the iPod.

"I love it," I said.

"I could tell." she replied.

And so we continued to listen to her music, much of which was fantastic, though occasionally we would come across a song that I didn't really like. What amazed me most was the wide variety of music. Jazz, funk, classical, rock, metal, hip-hop, rap, techno, dub step. It was all there on the tiny little gadget.

We listened for quite a while trying to sing along and dancing in our very confined space but eventually we just settled down and enjoyed the music. Brittany was leaning on me so she could be comfortable without pulling out our ear pieces. I looked down to ask her about a song but found her sleeping. I smiled thinking back to when we first met. I was happy that she trusted me enough to fall asleep on me. I then drifted off too.

My dreams were not filled by my father this time. Instead I was now being haunted by the images of death. Horrible monsters concealed by the dark would lash out at me. I jumped out of the way but I heard a scream as the attack continued passed me. It hit, instead, Andrew. I tried to run towards him but another attack came. I again dodged it but this time it hit Brittany. I cried out and woke up sweaty and panting while the plane shook violently.

I scanned my surroundings then my gaze fell to the empty seat across the aisle. It was no longer empty. A man now filled it. He was muscular and tall but old. He had a gray beard and hair, and he wore a purple suit with matching tie. He was looking straight ahead but he then turned to me.

"Hello Jason," he said without showing emotion.

"Sir," I replied with a nod in an attempt to remain respectful without waking up Brittany still resting on my shoulder.

I knew who this must be. He appeared out of nowhere on to a flying plane, and knew my name. This could only be Zeus, lord of the skies and king of the gods. The fact that he was here could not be a good thing for our quest. The turbulence was proof enough of that, but maybe it didn't have to b such a bad thing.

"Sir, forgive me for asking but, what are you doing here?"

He studied me a moment and said, "Well I've decided that your quest is going too smoothly and quite frankly I don't like having you children in my domain. So I've come to tell you to leave."

I wasn't totally shocked because I had been expecting something to go wrong from the beginning but he just told us to jump off a perfectly good airplane. "And what if we don't?" I asked hoping that there might actually be an alternative.

It was a fools hope though and Zeus said, "Then I'll destroy the plane." I found the way he said it to be annoying. It was as if he didn't even care that it would kill the rest of the passengers as well as us.

"How long do we have?" I asked.

"Let's just say you better hurry," he said just before he disappeared in to the wind.

I quickly turned to Brittany and shook her awake. "What?" she said rather grumpily.

"We have to go," I said going to Andrew.

"Are we there already?" she said slowly coming around.

"No but this is our stop," I said while Andrew also began to wake. "Come on," I said.

We walked in to a back cabin with emergency parachutes. The turbulence picked up and one of the flight attendants told everyone to return to their seats and fasten their seatbelts. I ignored that and fumbled around trying to grab parachutes for us.

"What exactly is going on?" asked Andrew now, apparently, fully aware of the situation.

"Zeus is going to crash the plane if we don't get off now," I replied. "Apparently our quest is going too smoothly."

"Your crazy, Zeus wouldn't do that," he said.

Zeus must've heard him because just afterward we were all forced to the ground by the planes extremely violent shaking. I just tossed him a parachute which he hastily put on. Once we all had on our chutes we prepared to jump. The cabin door was sealed behind us and all we had to do was open the door in front of us and jump. Brittany and Andrew braced themselves while I pushed the door open. The door swung out almost taking me with it and as the air rushed out of the cabin I decided it was now or never. I jumped.

After the shear panic of falling came the insane rush of adrenaline followed by thought. It took what felt like forever to realize I needed to pull the cord to release my parachute. When I did and the wind caught it I was jerked as my decent speed was drastically slowed. I sighed relief as I now could slow my racing heart.

I looked up to try and find my friends. I couldn't. Through the clouds I couldn't see anything. I began to get nervous again. Not only from the fact that I didn't know if my friends were okay but I was also worried about what the condensation from the cloud would do to our parachutes.

After moments of worry the clouds began to break up and we fell below them and I found Brittany and Andrew drifting down above me. I sighed again, and began to laugh away the remains of my adrenaline rush. That was a lot of excitement for only a few moments and I got tired again.

We hit the water harder than I expected but we survived. We removed our chutes and I swam over to them hoping Brittany would be able to help get us to shore safely. When I arrived, however, I knew she could not. Both her and Andrew looked very tired and in no condition to swim an unknown distance in an unknown direction through the ocean.

That's when I got angry. Had we already been defeated? Was it possible that we just jumped out of a plane so we could drown instead. No. I refused to let it happen.

"Brittany, do you know where we are?" I asked. There was only one thing that could save us now and we relied on Poseidon.

"Yeah and I can tell you we won't make it to shore," she said. "I could but I couldn't save either of you."

I ignored her pessimism because she was missing my point. "Can you locate the nearest boat?"

Both Andrew and Brittany's expressions rose. They hadn't thought of that. Brittany then said "It's not far and heading this way! That way." And we began swimming the direction she had pointed.

We would live. But it was only out of luck and the fact that we had Poseidon's favorite granddaughter with us. I wouldn't let that happen again I decide. I would make sure that we wouldn't be put in a situation where we could not decide our own fate.