So… Chapter 4 already? Oh god… I truly hope I won't have been uploading the chapters too early… Since they're all quite small… Anyway, enjoy!

As the train stopped, Percy was thankful. He just spent like… 18 hours (?) in this train without interruptions that last more than eight minutes, and sitting this long on a seat wasn't great.

They were officially out of money. The surprise bag they got from Hestia, and the loot they gathered from the lair of Medusa were not enough. Once they were in a gas station, Annabeth used one drachma to contact Chiron via IM, and was surprised that Percy didn't hear of it.

Actually, Percy was using Shadow Messaging (If you spell it S.M., your worse secrets would have been revealed to everybody) to contact his family. This network from Erebus was free, secret, and if you could manipulate shadows, you didn't even need to be before the message while it was forming!

That was when he met the legendary Chiron. The teacher of too much generation of heroes to count. Percy was disappointed he was shocked by the fact he was a relative of Hestia. Hell, shouldn't he have heard some rumors about it?

When they entered the low-cost restaurant, Percy had to mist-manipulate the mist for the servers, and to summon some food out of nowhere. He was tired, so eating some burning food and drinking some burning water was fine by him. Others were looking weirdly at him, and he heard some mortal speak about alcohol, but he didn't care.

During that time, Annabeth and Grover were enjoying the best (vegetarian for Grover) hamburger they ever ate. It felt like eating at every place you call home at once, and yet they were at this place.

When Ares came in, they had to wake up Percy. The god of war was looking like a biker, with burning eyes with different colors than Percy's. You see, Percy's were warm looking eyes, when Ares' were… hot? No! Burning your very being with pure rage.

Once they got Percy to stop mumbling that he didn't want to wake up, mom, thank you, he watched the Olympian with… tiredness. He was still sleepy, and to Ares disappointment, he wasn't angry at all.

"So", began Percy, "How come an Olympian dare to leave his mountain to help mortals like us"

The voice was low, but nearly extinguished, like if Percy was mumbling in his sleep.

"I came here to make a deal", said Ares.

"What do you want from us?", asked Annabeth, worried.

"Well, I want you to bring back my shield from an aquapark."

Percy's eyes opened a bit more. He was hearing.

"you see, my girlfriend and I were dating in there, but we got interrupted, and…"

"Aphrodite should stay faithful to Hephaistos."

Ares looked at Percy, surprised.

"You know I have a ton of mortal girlfriend, right?", he asked, "it could be with anyone of them".

"No", said Percy, "I think that I'm developing another of Hestia's power. I can feel what you desire the most, where you want to be, and with who. That includes watching Olympus burn."

Thunder was heard.

On their way to the aquapark, Annabeth was willing to talk.

"How come you want to sleep so much?"

"Well, I'm away from home. Not the best thing to people like me."

"And that new power, does it only work on gods, or…"

"it works best on mortals, but it also works on demigods as well. I can see what you consider as home. The camp seems nice. I can also see what you love, or desire. What the name of that blond boy? Luke?"

Annabeth was blushing furiously, and that made both Percy and Grover laugh.

Percy then turned on Grover. His eyes were burning slightly, filled with melancholia.

"And you, my friend… It seems everywhere there is Nature is a home for you. And yes, the Maine looks beautiful."

Then Annabeth thought about something: "Well, what does the shadow want?"

Percy thought about it. What did the shadow want? What did he want, where is he going? His head started aching, as, unconsciously, he started manipulating shadows to make a fake body.

It made him less tired this time, and since he began, he had to end it.

Once the body was ended, he made it talk:

"Well, I just want to help you, right? Come on, son of Hestia, you got to know what I want, right?"

Percy looked at his friends, pain in his look. "I don't know"

"Truly disappointing", said everything around as the shadow went back to nothingness.

Percy was proud of his show. Even if a thought frightened him a bit. He didn't lie. He didn't know nor what the shadow, nor what he wanted.

He managed to keep going, with the support of his friends.

On Olympus, Ares and the other were a bit… shocked by the new ability of the son of Hestia. Well, Hephaistos was happy PJ, the mystery of the century supported him, but others (and that included Hestia) were just worrying how strong would this demigod become.

Poseidon, however, was starting to plan. If he could make the kid swear on the Styx he didn't steal the lightning, he could make peace with his brother, and find the culprit.

He was about to ask Athena about it, but remembered they should have been hating each other. So, he didn't move. He had it, he just needed the help of the kid.

Something in him was still against the idea. Something in him was against the fact that the boy would see who he truly was, how despaired he felt…

He would do it. But only if he was desperate. Only if not doing so meant the end of the world.

He owed to Atlantis, to Sally, and he was going to be strong. For his subjects. For her.

Hestia was looking at him, sorrow on her face. Well, so much for strength…

Once Percy was in aqualand, he had to plan. They found the shield, and it took them less than three minutes. That meant one thing. The boat was trapped.

Percy volunteered himself to go on the boat.

"You", he told Annabeth, "you are going to catch it. Grover is going to make me fly to leave the boat. Not too long, please, Grover. I like feeling ground under my foots."

Both campers nodded, so Percy went on the boat. He then shouted.

"3! 2! 1! Annabeth, catch!"

He throws her the shield, but missed. The shield ended harmlessly in a window, and he felt the boat moving.

Tiny spiders were coming from everywhere, and he soon noticed they were mechanicals. He noticed too the shout Annabeth made as she backed down from the pool with the shield.

He then felt himself flying. It was very tiring. He was used to making energy come from earth, so, once he lost his connection with it… He felt very nauseous.

Somehow, he had caught a piece of pink close, that was supposed to be smelling good, so that seemed him very… out of place.

As he landed, he felt energy coming back in every of his muscles again. It was good…

As he handed the loot to Grover, he began to look for toilets, and then… well… let's say he summoned predigested food without using his power!

It took them time to be ready again, as they all felt pretty sick of the experience (Satyrs have very good noses).

Then they headed back to the restaurant, and gave Ares his shield, and Aphrodite's shawl.

"Well then", said the god, "here you go!"

They looked at the truck that got suddenly opened. It was a truck that was used to transport construction materials.

"here is your ticket to Las Vegas! Don't forget to take your bags!"

None of them had the strength to fight back, so they came in, settled and looked into the bags.

"Something feels wrong", said Percy.

"Yes", said Grover, "asphalt".

"No, the bag… I feel energy coming from it…"

Then they heard a bump, and the motor started. They were gone.

It took them one hour to sleep.

Once again, the only one dreaming was Percy.

He was in an old block. A low-price block, like somewhere someone poor would leave. As the son of Hestia (adopted only officially, but… still!), he found it horrible. Everyone should be able to have a decent home.

He then heard someone cried.

It was a baby, looking young. He was decorated with blood. Gods, they were so much blood.

It took him time to notice how every pipe has been broken, how the water was flowing without following physics, how nothing made sense. Why was he dreaming about this baby?

The baby had the same hair color than him, but that was it. His eyes were glowing with a green light, green as the ocean.

Somehow, Percy knew what had just happened. That baby was either a son of Poseidon, or Oceanus. The former was more… likely.

He heard a voice, calling "PJ!". It looked like Annabeth.

So, he woke up. All his body was aching. And both his friends were looking at him with worry.

It was hot. I mean… not this kind of hot… but the weather was hot, as if the sun tried to burn his very being. To Percy, it was worse, as he felt energy radiating from the backpack too.

Annabeth asked him to explain his dream. For science: he was a son of Hestia, so maybe that gave him some powers over his dreams or something? When he did, Annabeth looked disappointed.

Her theory was that he took nightmares from demigods. And she feared effects when he would be in Camp.

So, when the truck stopped, they were in Las Vegas. It was night, and that immediately gave Percy a boost of energy. Now, they had to find a way to go to Los Angeles, and without money, it would be hard. They sat near of a fountain, because e the near water seemed to be refreshing enough to let them think about what to do now. Annabeth was mumbling about how terrible the quest went, and how bad it was planned.

Then an old man sat near them. He was wearing Hawaiian clothes, and smelt like sea. Both Grover and Percy immediately recognized him:

"lord Poseidon", began Percy, "what do you want?"

Poseidon looked at them, and Annabeth gasped. His eyes were empty of life, it felt like he was dead inside. So, when he answered, it looked like it was painful to him. None of the demigods (and satyr) had never seen a god that powerful that tired.

"I want to help the demigods that are helping me."

He then gave them three marbles, and a pass… to… something?

"When you're in Hades, break the three marbles to come back, and use the pass once near of some water to be instantly teleported near some sea you want.

Once the god left, Annabeth told them about the lake Mead, that shouldn't be far.

And of course, on a map of the United States, it was near. In reality, they had to walk nearly 30 km to get there. It took them the night and half of the day. Percy insisted on sleeping here. They were all tired, and teleporting was never something you should do sleepy. That's why he slept first.

As he asked, they woke him up at 11 pm, so he could let them rest. They spoke about a cyclop, but nothing too dangerous.

When they were asleep, he activated his shadows power. And he understood why they didn't had to fight anything too serious. They were circled by monsters, that just waited until night to be stronger.

Poor monsters, really. When she shadows turned them into dust, none of them understood what happened. None of them knew they were attacking a part of Nyx's family.

And thanks to all the Olympians watching, Percy had to meet with the shadow, once again. It was really less painful than the two first times, as both night and his sleeping friends helped him.

"Hey", said the shadow, "saved you once more".

Percy giggled. From his point of view, it was all a big joke.

"Well, thank you, but I can't really repay you, I don't even know who you are?"

"Are you sure?", said the shadows, before making his ''savior '' disappear.

Percy frowned. In the end of the discussion, he wasn't in control. He didn't make the shadows (nor the shadow) say that. But he still felt the connection, as if… As if his subconscious was speaking.

As if his very being was torn apart, one part in his body, one other part in the shadow.

Part of him felt relieved. He could still control when it appeared or disappeared.

In the under-under-world, Nyx finished explaining to Tartarus and his wife what was happening to Percy.

"So… his powers are currently tearing his soul apart?", asked Percy's worried mother.

"Yes, but that's not as bad as it sounds. What I think is that he will be able to be two places at once for good, but that shouldn't be able to kill him, thanks to Hestia's powers. But it will be painful".

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