This is probably my least favourite chapter in this story. Chapter 1 practically wrote itself and the major flow of the story was clear to me from the get-go but I ran into terrible writer's block with this chapter. I think it is about as good as I am going to get it, though, and I need to go ahead and post it before I tweak it to death. On another note, I know some of my readers may never forgive me for what I do to Poseidon but I never liked him looking like a beach bum in Bermuda shorts and Hawaiian shirt so I took some artistic license and make no apologies for doing so.

Chapter 4 – Poseidon's Realm

"Percy, what are you doing?"

I sat up, confused. I blinked. I looked around me. I was in a meadow. I recognized it; it was the meadow back at camp. The flowers were blooming all around me, I smelled strawberries from the fields below, and I saw dryads chasing each other in the woods. As I grew more alert I remembered. Phobos. Deimos. Annabeth. Oh, my gods…Annabeth.

"Percy," the voice again, "WHAT are you doing?"

The voice came from behind me. I turned around and saw my best friend, Grover. "Grover," I said, "What are you doing here? Oh, no…you're not dead, too, are you?"

Grover looked confused. "Dead? Ummm, Percy-"

"This can't be the underworld, though," I said. "I haven't been judged. I never had sentence passed on me."

"Percy! You're not dead."

"Oh, I'm dead, all right," I said. "I know I'm dead."

"No," Grover insisted, "You're not. If you were dead, our empathy link would have died with you." Of course, the empathy link. That was why Grover was here. "Percy, you're not dead but I know something's wrong. Two days ago I got a splitting headache and ever since then I haven't been able to sense you on the other end of our link. I was afraid you were dead but today you were suddenly there again."

"Grover, it's…" my voice broke and I tried to continue. "It's Annabeth. She's…Phobos and Deimos, they…they…" I broke down and started sobbing. "She's gone, Grover."

Grover started to tear up, too. He liked Annabeth almost as much as I did. "Percy, I'm so sorry. Juniper told me that you and Annabeth were engaged. I'm sorry. But, Percy, you can't give up right now. You have to do something." He tried to get me look at him. "Percy, you have to wake up."

I looked up at him, "What?"

"Wake up, Percy." Grover wasn't speaking with his voice anymore. It was…it sounded like… "Percy!" he was more insistent now, "Wake up!" It was Poseidon's voice! I looked at Grover in confusion as the meadow faded into blackness around us. Grover seemed to be getting further away from me even though he wasn't moving.

My eyes snapped open and Grover was gone. I was lying on my back in a bed and looking up into my Dad's face. He looked really concerned but I could tell he was happy that I was awake. "Oh, Percy," he grabbed me in a great big bear hug. I was in 'my' room in Poseidon's palace. Not that I got to come down to visit too often, but Poseidon insisted I should have a room to call my own when I was there.

"Hi, Dad," I said. "Dad, you're going to break my ribs."

"Sorry." He let go of me. "I'm just glad you're all right." I almost laughed but my heart hurt so much it felt like I could never laugh again. Then I noticed that my dad looked different than usual. Normally he wore Bermuda shorts and a Hawaiian shirt, like some tropical fisherman. Now he was wearing a worn blue overcoat with dark blue pants and a cream-coloured turtleneck. On top of it all he wore a slouch cap. He looked exactly like the salty old captains of the fishing boats my mom and I had seen in Maine once.

"You look, um, different."

"What do you think?" he asked. "Amphitrite thinks it makes me look more dignified."

"It's nice," I said. And I meant it. It did look more dignified. "Dad," I started to cry again, "Annabeth-"

"Shh, Percy, shhh." He hugged me again. "I know. Two days ago you fell to the ocean floor, unconscious and practically on my doorstep. This fell with you." Poseidon held out his hand and something glinted in his palm. I picked it up and realized that it was the ring which he had given my mother and I had given to Annabeth. Despair stabbed at my heart when I saw the ring. "I contacted Chiron and got the whole story. You should be glad your satyr friend made an empathy link with you. Without it, I doubt that you should ever have woken up."

"You're the reason Grover could contact me again aren't you?"

"It was touch and go for a while. I wasn't sure if you were going to make it but once your mind was stable enough I gave your link a little push. Contact with another conscious mind was all you needed."

I wasn't sure what to say. Part of me wished Poseidon had just let me die but I knew I couldn't tell my dad that. Even if he already knew it. "Thanks, Dad," I said.

"Percy, I wish I could stay but-"

"You're leaving!" I was almost shouting. Right now I was afraid to be alone. I was almost frantic that I shouldn't be alone. "No, no, I don't want you to go. I-"

"Percy, Athena is bringing Ares before Zeus to answer for what his sons did. I have to be there to…to…" now Poseidon was beginning to choke up. "I almost lost you, son. I can't just let that go." He smiled and patted my shoulder, "Don't worry, you won't be alone." He stood up and opened the door, my half-brother Tyson, a Cyclops, was waiting on the other side.

"Percy! So good to see you!"

Poseidon started to glow. "I'll be back when this is taken care of, Percy." Tyson and I looked away and Poseidon disappeared in a flash.

"Percy, you are crying." I couldn't talk to Tyson about Annabeth. He liked her too much and I had to think about something else.

"It's okay, big guy," I said. "It's good to see you."

Tyson started telling me about what he had been doing as one of Olympus' generals. He had been keeping pretty busy and had a lot to talk about so I did not have to say much. As Tyson talked I kept fiddling with the ring in my hands. Abruptly Tyson stopped in the middle of a sentence and looked over my shoulder. He got a big smile on his face and his eye lit up, "Rainbow!" Then he looked disappointed. "No. Not Rainbow."

I turned around and looked at the window. Oh, no, I thought, not now. There was a hippocampus swimming in through the window. Hippocampi were always asking favours from me whenever I was anywhere near the water. It was annoying under normal circumstances and I was not in the mood for it.

Lord, the hippocampus said in my head, we need your help, lord.

"Look, this is really NOT a good time."

But-

"NOT NOW."

But, lord, the girl will die without help.

"Girl!" I wheeled and ran to the window. "What girl? WHAT GIRL?" My heart was racing a mile a minute. The possibility that Annabeth was still alive wiped all tiredness from my body.

We found a girl deep underwater, lord. Too deep for her to return above. We hid her in a cave but she cannot leave.

"She's alive? Oh, thank the gods, she's alive?" I turned to Tyson. "I have to go, big guy. If Poseidon gets back before I do, just tell him I've gone to find Annabeth."

Tyson looked a little confused. "Annie Beth is lost?"

"Not for much longer," I said. "We'll be back." Without waiting for his answer I swung onto the hippocampus' back and we took off through the window. "Take me to her. As fast as you can!" We leapt away and sped out of Poseidon's palace. As we tore through the water I silently prayed to every god I knew, and that's quite a few, that Annabeth was all right. I even asked Ares. I figured he would want her alive because then Zeus and Poseidon would go easier on him.

My mount swam up and away from the great palace. I realized we were quickly ascending to a depth where Annabeth would be safe from the pressure. We found the girl deep underwater, lord, but she was not awake. The surface air was too far away—the girl was trying to breathe the water, she would have died before we got there. So Annabeth hadn't made it to the surface. We knew about some closer air, though, a cave. We took her there.

"How long ago was this? When did you find her?"

The hippocampus pondered this question for a while. I do not know, lord. We waited for the girl to wake up but she sleeps still. It was all I could do to keep my heart from bursting with the hope that they had found Annabeth soon enough to have saved her. It sounded like she had inhaled water, though. If she was not waking up, that was not a good sign. After about ten minutes we came to a large rock cliff that rose high above the ocean floor. The hippocampus swam straight toward the cliff wall and into a crevice that turned into a tunnel into the rock. We surfaced in a small cavern. I knew there were little pockets like this all over the ocean floor where air got trapped and humans could survive. But since they were airtight, it also meant that someone could only breathe for so long before they ran out of air. I jumped off of the hippocampus and started to look around but my mount called after me.

I must leave, lord. Can not stay here too long.

"Thank you." I said. "I can handle it from here. Thank you!" The hippocampus turned and dove under the surface. With a flip of its fish tail it was gone. It was way too dark in the cave even for me with my heat-sensitive demigod eyes. There just wasn't enough life in the cave for me to see anything. I pulled out my deadly ballpoint pen and uncapped it. Riptide grew to full size in my hands and I gripped the sword with determination. The celestial bronze gave off just enough of a faint glow that I could see a little. I started to look for Annabeth. There wasn't really any dry land but there were some nooks and crannies in the wall of the cave. I saw someone lying in one that was just big enough for a person. It looked eerily like the underground catacombs I saw on a TV special. I put that image out of my mind and swam over.

Lying in the alcove was Annabeth. My heart stopped for a moment until I realized her chest was rising and falling—she was breathing. Her hair was bedraggled, her face and clothes was smeared with ocean grime, and there was some dried blood around her ears but she was alive. I bent over and kissed her lips. Her eyes fluttered open and met mine. "Percy, you're here!" She tried to sit up and hit her head on the stone above her. "Ow." I helped her out of the alcove and into the water. I couldn't say anything. I was too happy to see her. My mouth kept moving and I was trying to find the words to say but nothing came out. "I knew it," she said, "You've spent too much time in the water and you've turned into a fish."

I laughed and held on to her as though she would be taken away from me again if I let go. I was crying again but I wasn't sad any more. "Percy, you're going to break my ribs."

I loosened my grip on her but I did not let go. "Sorry. Annabeth, what happened to you? The hippocampus said you had inhaled some water and weren't waking up. But," I looked at her, "You look fine. Annabeth, I thought you were dead. Oh my gods, it was the worst thing I've ever felt."

"I don't remember what happened, Percy. I remember we were in the air bubble. You were just getting ready to start our descent when you doubled over and started screaming. You let go of me and…and, well, I fell into the water." I couldn't look at her. I couldn't believe I had let her go. "It's all right, seaweed brain. It wasn't your fault. Besides, I'm okay now. When I fell into the water I cried out in surprise and wasted what little air I had. We were too far down for me to make it to the surface and I blacked out. I think I came around once or twice because I remember being in this cave with a hippocampus but passed out again. After that, all I remember is waking up and were you kissing me."

I held her hands and raised them out of the water. "I think you dropped something," I said. I pulled the ring that had fallen off out of my pocket and slid it back onto her finger.

From behind me I heard a voice that made me sick to my stomach. "Ugh, how sickeningly sweet. I guess we will just have to do better this time." We both jumped and turned around. Phobos and Deimos were standing on the surface of the water behind us. "And this time," Deimos said, "we had better finish you off."

"Percy, who are they?" asked Annabeth.

"They're the ones who made me lose control underwater." I glowered at them with murder in my eyes. "They're the ones who almost killed you." They reached out to touch our foreheads but this time I had Riptide ready. I put Annabeth behind me and swung my sword. Phobos was quick and dodged out of the way but Deimos was not so lucky. The extended index finger on his right hand was lopped off by my strike. Deimos cried out in pain and golden ichor dripped from his hand into the water. To my surprise, Phobos also cried out and clutched at his right hand even though it had no wound. I realized that as godly twins, they must have shared a bond even closer than regular, human twins.

"You think you can fight both of us at once?" growled Deimos. He had a point. I really couldn't hope to beat them and Annabeth didn't have a weapon. But maybe I didn't have to beat both of them. Since they shared pain, maybe I only had to beat one of them. I didn't have time to make any definite strategy because they were recovering quickly and coming at me again. I wasn't sure if the curse of Achilles would protect me against gods but I knew that whether I was protected or not, Annabeth wasn't. I raised Riptide to battle stance in front of me but the godly twins produced their own weapons and shields from out of the ether. I felt their aura trying to influence me with deadly fear and black panic but I quelled it with my concern for Annabeth. They lifted their swords to strike and I braced for the attack but it never came.

I felt a ripple in the water behind me. Phobos and Deimos each took a step back and I risked a glance over my shoulder and saw my dad standing behind me. Poseidon gently nudged me aside so he was standing in the middle with Annabeth and me on either side. Phobos and Deimos looked at each other nervously.

"Did I miss a memo?" growled Poseidon with menace in his voice. "Did Brother Zeus declare open season for demigods?" The twins were looking at each other; I figured they were trying to decide if there was any way they could try to fight Poseidon. "You are no ocean gods," said my father, "You have no right to be down here." Phobos and Deimos started to glow but Poseidon waved his hand and the glow disappeared. "Oh, no. You're not getting away this time. You're going straight to Olympus." He put one hand on my shoulder and the other on Annabeth's. The water began to roil around him until the whole cave looked like a bunch of white water rapids. Phobos and Deimos were just starting to plea for mercy when the water in the cave surged up and submerged us all.

With the water churning as bad as it was, I couldn't see a thing. When the water finally calmed, first I looked over at Annabeth. Apparently Poseidon was protecting her because she was breathing normally despite being underwater. Then I looked over where Phobos and Deimos had been. I thought they had disappeared but then I saw something move. Two little guppies were swimming about in the water. Poseidon roared with laughter. "Hah-hah-hah-hah! Not so dangerous now, are they?" The two guppies spotted the tunnel entrance into the cave and started swimming for it. Poseidon produced a small glass globe from his jacket. Its two halves were hinged and he closed it around the guppies and clicked a small latch into place. "That should do until we get them to Olympus." He looked around the cave. "Where's that hippocampus that brought you here? Left, I suppose, such flighty creatures. Well, I guess I'll just take you back myself."

Without my even realizing it, we were standing in the throne room of Poseidon's underwater palace. Something was different but at first I could not tell what it was. Then I realized, I was seeing, not sensing the room. I looked around and saw that Poseidon had some of the glowing pearls Annabeth had used in the gardens of Olympus set into the walls. Annabeth was looking around, amazed. This was the first time she had seen it, after all. "Wow," she breathed. Always the architect, she could not help wandering around the room taking in everything. I held her hand and walked with her as she went. I still found it difficult to let go of her.

Poseidon sat down on his coral throne and watched Annabeth admiring his throne room. It reminded me of the first time I had been invited to visit my dad's palace once he had rebuilt it. My dad allowed it to get pretty much wrecked during the Battle of Manhattan. Poseidon had personally come to see me and had wanted to show me all the interesting points of the place but a question had kept nagging at me. When we got to the throne room, I finally said, "Dad, I thought you said you were going make everything new and different. This looks just like your first palace did."

Poseidon harrumphed into his beard. "Nonsense. The floor in the throne room is entirely different. And the trim on the towers is turquoise instead of cobalt." I had had to try not to laugh. The immortals do not like change very much.

As Annabeth and I walked by a bank of windows, we ran into a pod of hippocampi swimming in and out through the great panes as though it was some sort of obstacle course, like those defensive driving courses with all the cones they made us go through in Driver's Ed. The hippocampi stopped and looked at us. "Oh," cried Annabeth, "these ones have such pretty green eyes."

A little startled I said, "Annabeth, all hippocampi have green eyes." I looked back at my father but he didn't say anything.

"No, they don't," she said indignantly.

"Yes, Annabeth, they do."

"No, seaweed brain, they don't." Poseidon looked amused but still said nothing. "The one that rescued me when I passed out underwater and took me to that cave had grey eyes."

"Grey eyes?" Annabeth nodded. "Grey eyes," I repeated. I stared at Annabeth and her stormy grey eyes stared back into mine. Stormy grey eyes like her mother had. "Grey eyes…you don't think…"

"You mean, Mom?" Annabeth said.

"Don't be silly, children," said Poseidon. "You know gods can't cross into each others' territories."

"Not really," I said. "They're forbidden to do it, but Phobos and Deimos did anyways."

"And look what it got them," replied my dad gesturing to the globe resting beside his throne. He looked to Annabeth, "Athena couldn't have helped you, my dear," but there was a twinkle in his eye. I had seen that twinkle before and I never knew exactly what it meant. Suddenly I wanted to ask just how he had known to come and find us in that cave but something made me think I shouldn't push the question. Speaking of questions, I remembered that there was a very important question I had come to ask my dad.

I took Annabeth with me before Poseidon's throne. "Dad, just how much did Chiron tell you?" Before he could answer, I had another thought. "Chiron!" I turned to Annabeth. "Annabeth, Chiron and Grover still think you're dead. Cabin 6 is probably making your funeral shroud as we speak."

Annabeth laughed. "Maybe I'd better get a hold of Chiron." She looked to my dad. "Are there any rainbows around here?" She frowned, clearly thinking. "CAN you make a rainbow underwater?"

"Only demigods need to contact Iris through rainbows," replied Poseidon. He held out his hand to one of the Hippocampi swimming around the throne room and it swam up to him. Poseidon patted its flank and must have been giving it mental instructions because it quickly turned around and swam out of the room. My father indicated a door at the far end of the hall. "Go out into the courtyard, my dear. Iris should be along shortly to carry a message for you." Annabeth went in the direction of the courtyard and I watched her leave. As she stepped out Poseidon said, "Be careful you do not go too far from the throne room. Only the public areas of the castle are lit with light that your eyes can see." Once she was out of the room Poseidon said, "You know, that girl can design a fine temple, son."

"I saw it. It's pretty amazing." I blushed and quietly added, "She's pretty amazing."

Poseidon studied me for a long while. I said nothing. "Chiron told me the whole story, including what Athena is requiring of you. Chiron was quite stern with me when he learned of the predicament in which our feud put you and your lovely bride-to-be. If he had been talking to anyone but one of the gods, I think he would have been downright furious." That surprised me, Chiron never got angry. Not really and truly furious, at any rate. I kept quiet. I figured my dad had already made up his mind and at this point there was little I could do to change it. Finally he chuckled, "You are certainly shaking up Olympus, son. It has been ages since any of us, much less one of the elder gods, made a public apology to another."

I looked up, a big smile on my face. "Then, uh, you agree to, um…"

"When Athena brought Ares before Zeus for judgment, I went to Olympus plead on Ares behalf."

The sudden change of subject startled me and I was SURE I hadn't heard right. "You argued on ARES' side?"

"The true instigators, I said, were Athena and I. Our stubbornness put our children in mortal danger. Yes, Percy, I made an apology to Athena in front of the full council of the gods. Even Zeus was surprised."

"So what happened to Ares?"

Poseidon harrumphed into his beard. "Ah, you know how it goes. He claimed no knowledge of what his children were doing, blah, blah, blah. Zeus allowed Ares to get off without punishment. Phobos and Deimos however, are another story." Poseidon glowered at the guppies beside his throne and they swam to the far side of the globe. "These two godlings took direct action against a mortal hero; that's against the ancient laws. These little guys are going to be made mortal for a long while. Ares isn't too happy about that so I would still steer clear of him if I were you."

"Made mortal!" I said in astonishment. "Zeus can do that?"

"Hah! My boy, you should've been around in the good, old days of Greece. Zeus made Apollo work as a mortal slave TWICE for being such an upstart. Things were more interesting back then. Maybe I could convince Zeus to leave them as fish…how would you like a nice aquarium in your room?"

"I have to tell Annabeth," I said, turning to go find her.

"Oh, I'm sure she knows. News like this doesn't take long to spread through the Olympian community. Iris has probably already told her. And Dionysus was there. He's probably already told Chiron." He must have been right because Annabeth burst back into the throne room, running straight for me. She threw her arms around my neck and we spun up towards the ceiling, floating in the deep sea.

"Percy, did you hear?" the look on my face must have said everything because she did not wait for an answer. We spun to a stop facing my father and slowly sank back to the floor. Annabeth bowed and said, "Thank you, Lord Poseidon."

Poseidon held up his hand to stop her. "Don't thank me. You two should never have been put in the middle of our feud." I slipped my arm around Annabeth and Poseidon smiled.