Chapter 7: Tuesday
Percy's POV
Last night, mom mentioned that she got a call saying that she should remind Annabeth not to hit people when she had a problem. But the call was from Annabeth's dad, because he was listed as her primary emergency contact. Mom just asked us why Annabeth hit someone, and laughed when we told her. Today, we ate breakfast and headed to school. When we got there, we had the life scared out of us. There were giant posters everywhere that had things from Tartarus depicted on them. The drawing of an Arai that Rachel had drawn was one of the posters.
"What the Hades?" Rachel looked around at the posters.
Another one showed Bob, Small Bob, and Damasen at the Doors of Death. The five rivers were shown flowing into Tartarus' heart. Erebus was in a poster. Akhlys could be seen with her death mist. The four entrances were shown, the one in the Underworld, the sealed off one in the Labyrinth, the pit in Rome, and the Doors of Death. Hyperion reforming. An image of the monsters we killed (like Kelli). Us falling into Tartarus. Nyx and her children chasing us. And there were many more. But the one that really got to us was Tartarus fighting us. You couldn't clearly see that it was us, but I knew it was. Annabeth started crying, and I hugged her so I wouldn't collapse.
"Who?" Was all I could get out.
"I drew all these, but they're in a notebook that I leave at home. I had a few visions back when you guys were in Tartarus, but I didn't know these were you until Annabeth sent Reyna that message. I wouldn't do this." Rachel promised.
"I know you wouldn't. Who's seen these?" Annabeth was still crying.
"No one that I know of. And anyone who could have a chance wouldn't be the type to do this." Rachel insisted.
"What else is in the book?" I asked.
"Nothing. I stopped having visions of Tartarus when you guys reached the Doors of Death." Rachel said. "The only other thing written on the book is the label. Tartarus."
After looking harder, I noticed that Annabeth was more visible than me.
"Who would put up this vandalism?!" The principal exclaimed.
That's something everyone would like to know. Paul looked up at the posters, then over at us. But he knew we wouldn't put those up.
"Who put those up?" Paul walked over.
"I drew them, but I didn't do it." Rachel admitted.
"We don't know who put them up." I said.
"Are the drawings..." Paul started.
"Of us in Tartarus? Yes." Annabeth confirmed.
Suddenly, Kelli appeared. "Percy Jackson!"
No one in the school seemed to notice. In fact, they all seemed... frozen. Like when Kronos slowed down time. Except for a select few, like Paul, Rachel, Annabeth, and a few other students who must've been demigods.
"All demigods should leave now. I have a personal matter with Percy Jackson." Kelli hissed.
"I knew it was Percy." A student said.
"But it's dangerous to even mention demigods in public." Another stated.
All the demigods ran out of the building.
"Run Paul. I've killed her before, I can do it again." I waved him away.
Paul nodded and ran.
"You might need my help again." Rachel offered.
"Actually, I killed Kelli. You killed Tammi." Annabeth corrected.
Annabeth didn't have her celestial bronze knife anymore, but she did have a drakon bone sword. Annabeth lunged it straight at Kelli's heart. Kelli exploded into yellow dust, and something fell. Tammi was right behind her.
"Annabeth Chase! Kelli told me how you killed her before!" Tammi shrieked.
Annabeth no longer had the sword, because it was in front of Tammi. So I lunged at Tammi with Riptide. She grabbed the drakon bone sword and moved back, holding it in front of her defensively.
"Tammi, I'm the greatest sword fighter since Luke, and he was the best in 300 years. Is this really smart?" I held back laughter.
"And if you break my sword, I'll kill you slowly. I already lost my knife, and that sword was a gift." Annabeth looked tense.
Tammi dropped the sword and held her hands up. I picked it up and tossed it to Annabeth. Then I picked up what Kelli dropped. It looked like a tricked out pocket watch.
"What's so special about the pocket watch?" I held the point of Riptide to Tammi's neck.
"We stole it from the God of Time. Chronos." Tammi gulped.
"I thought Kronos was the Lord of Time?" I was confused.
"Not Kronos with a K, Chronos with a Ch." Tammi rolled her eyes.
"There is a God of Time named Chronos." Annabeth confirmed. "And my mom mentioned that he has pocket watches that can freeze time. You can even use it to travel through time."
"So... I could go back and tell us what we were supposed to do to end the Giant War, and keep us from going to Tartarus?" I questioned.
"What's the point? The Giant War is over, and you two became closer because of Tartarus. Besides, if you mess with time the wrong way, you could make something worse happen. And if the rumors about time travel are true, if you alter something, no one will notice that you altered it except for whoever alters it." Rachel pointed out.
"Rachel has a point. PTSD is worth ending the Giant War without us accidentally causing conflict. But Chronos and Kronos would know if we changed time, and they'd probably change it back." Annabeth agreed.
"Rachel helped us without a blue comb then." I smirked.
Rachel rolled her eyes, and Annabeth half smiled.
"How do we use it? We can't keep these people frozen." I looked at Tammi.
"Just press the button. Doing that alone freezes and unfreezes time. But if you reset the times on the clock, then pressed the button, you'd go back in time. The biggest clock is years, then it gets smaller until you reach seconds." Tammi explained.
Then she lunged at Annabeth. I stabbed Tammi before she could do anything. I pressed the button and everyone started moving again.
"You think my mom will call us in sick?" I asked.
"If it's necessary." Annabeth shrugged.
I used Annabeths "secret" cellphone to call my mom. She called us in sick at my request.
"Let's go see Chronos. Where can we find him?" I looked at Annabeth.
"I'm going to class, because my parents wouldn't call me in sick at my request." Rachel sighed.
"Finding him is pretty easy. But you'll need help from a God if you want to get to him. Or at least if you want to do it quickly." Annabeth suggested.
"Why? Where is he?" I was confused.
"The last anyone heard, he lives inside Big Ben. That giant clock in England." Annabeth answered.
"Oh. Maybe we can call on the God of Travel..." I started.
"We're NOT asking Hermes for help again. Especially since he'll send us on a favor quest that lasts all day before he'll do us a favor." Annabeth stated firmly.
"We might not have to face him directly though." I grinned evilly.
An hour later, Annabeth and I were in a giant box, being handled by Grover and Jason. We were suddenly plopped down.
"What's this?" We heard Hermes.
"Read the label." Jason sighed.
"Express mail to Chronos inside Big Ben in London, England." Hermes read. "But what's in it?"
"I think it's a grandfather clock from Zeus." Grover lied.
"Sounds important. I'll ship it right away." Hermes said.
We were being picked up again and walked before we were once again plopped down. It felt like we were being moved on a conveyor belt. Then there was a pop, and we dropped onto the ground. I used Riptide and sliced the box open. Then Annabeth and I breathed in fresh air.
"I like your style. But I would've just brought you here if you'd prayed to me." An old man smiled.
He had a long grey beard. He reminded me of Father Time, but Annabeth had mentioned that most people called Chronos Father Time because of Kronos' appearance, and how they were constantly mixed up.
"In case that's why you're staring, most people consider me Father Time, so that's how I appear." He laughed.
"Are you Chronos? God of Time?" Annabeth asked.
"Yes." He answered simply.
"Do you have any idea why Kelli and Tammi stole your pocket watch?" Annabeth questioned.
"I can't tell you exactly why, because I would give away too much of the future. But generally, I will admit that someone you know summoned them to kill at least one of you, but Tammi and Kelli wanted to kill both of you. The one who summoned them didn't want both of you dead, so that someone stopped protecting them and let you kill them. But that someone will try again. Tammi and Kelli figured that the watch would give them an advantage." Chronos offered some information.
"But you can't tell us anything else?" I sighed.
"I can tell you that you will catch the someone very soon." Chronos said.
"Soon on immortal terms, or soon on mortal terms?" I asked.
"On mortal terms. Trust me, you'll be fine. Just keep your guard up. Especially towards the weekend." Chronos warned.
"Thank you for the information." Annabeth said.
"Of course. I like demigods." He smiled.
I tried to give him the pocket watch back.
"Keep it. I know that you'll be trustworthy with it. Besides, I've got plenty more where that came from." He gestured to a door. "Let's call it my personal armory. And if you can come back, I'll teach you how to use time to your advantage without the watch."
"Okay." That sounded tempting to me.
Even Annabeth looked tempted. Chronos walked to the door and grabbed another watch.
"The power should be distributed equally." He handed it to Annabeth.
Mine was gold, but hers looked like silver.
"I figured you'd want a greyish color." He smiled.
"Can I have a blue one?" I begged.
"No." He chuckled. "Not unless you give that to another worthy owner, then I'll give you a blue replacement."
He snapped his fingers and we were suddenly sitting on my mom's couch.