Summary: It's nice not being the last demigod anymore. I'm back, better than ever, in my totally unbiased opinion, and ready to shake things up. [Time Travel. Eventual Percy and Artemis. Reasonably powerful Percy.]
Disclaimer: I don't own the Percy Jackson series or characters. Sadly, I personally have not yet discovered a method of time travel, so I can't go into the past and steal all of Rick Riordan's ideas before he even has them.
Chapter Eight: I speed things up a bit
"Well," Apollo said, turning to me. "You kids have fun. Don't do anything I wouldn't do!"
"I don't even want to imagine what you wouldn't do," I groaned.
"That gets me right here, Percy," Apollo said, placing a hand over his heart. "Everyone turn away, please!"
Luckily, none of the demigods were stupid enough to ignore his warning, and Apollo managed to flash away without any casualties.
We all stood in silence for a few seconds before Travis Stoll decided to break it.
"I'd give it an seven point five out of ten, Percy. The landing was nothing to sneeze at and the lightning bolt was awesome, but it hit after you'd already landed, so you only get half credit for it."
"I can understand where you're coming from," I said, nodding as if he'd said something profound. "However, you really should consider the dramatic background." I gestured to the dark sky, still flashing with lightning. "And the fact that I avoided a number of lightning bolts right before landing."
"Fine," he conceded. "I'll give you an eight."
"Thank you," I said. Then I turned to Chiron. "So, what's been going on? I've had a couple of demigod dreams but I kind of want to confirm it."
"All in good time, Percy," Chiron said. I wondered briefly if he'd already been fired. "But first, there's someone I think you should meet. He was absent last time, but this is Mr. D. He's the camp director."
Mr D. stepped forward, and my eyes were, as usual, drawn to his loud Hawaiian shirt.
"Ah, Perry Johansson, was it?" he asked me, giving me a quick once over before turning to raise an eyebrow at Chiron.
"That's right," I said. "And you must be Dido!"
"Er, Percy," Chiron said, staring at me like I'd sprouted a ninth head. Heh. Hydra jokes. "His name is-"
"I know," I said, cutting him off. "But if he can mix up my name, I can mix up his." I'd actually been looking forward to this moment for a while- over a year, so I could do just that.
"You're very lucky that my father frowns on me turning campers into dolphins," Mr D. said, taking a sip of his diet coke. "I'm fairly sure he'd be willing to make an exception in your case, however."
Knowing him, he might actually be willing to do that, in front of everyone. So I did the only thing I really could. "Dad? Help?"
The symbol of a giant glowing trident appeared in the air between us for a second before fading out of existence.
"Drat," Mr D. muttered. "It's looks like you'll be living another day, Peter."
"Oh, joy," I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes.
Mr. D didn't say anything in response, and so I left a few seconds later. A quick glance back showed that the rest of the campers were dispersing, now that their pre lunch entertainment was over. Annabeth and Tyson fell into step beside me as I led the way to the pavilion.
When we got to the pavilion for lunch, Tantalus wasn't there. So Chiron would be fired later in the day, then. Sure enough, about half an hour later, Mr. D left the pavilion, leaving his diet coke half full.
When he got back, he whispered something in Chiron's ear, and the centaur's shoulders slumped, before he left the dining pavilion as well.
Of course, no one had failed to notice the interaction, and everyone noticed when Mr. D remained standing. He glanced around at us all for a moment, before sighing loudly.
"Yes, I suppose I'd better tell you. Chiron will not be continuing as our activities director this summer. Yes, boohoo and all that. His replacement will be arriving later today. That's it; you can all go off and do . . . whatever it is you do."
The rest of the day, things were rather grim. Where before people had been tense, now they were tense and completely morose. I led Tyson around camp, answering his many questions and feeling a little thankful for his oblivious nature. It was a lot easier to ignore the overall mood when Tyson was acting like an excited little kid. Which, to be fair, he was.
I was tempted not to go to dinner, since I knew that Tantalus would be there, but I ultimately decided to anyways. It would be better to start the quest on a full stomach. That's right; you didn't think I was just going to sit around wasting time and waiting for Clarisse to get her quest, did you?
I slipped a note to Annabeth at dinner as I walked past the Athena table. I saw her unfold the piece of paper I'd written it on, and I watched as her eyes widened. I knew she'd have doubts; she always had doubts about my crazy plans. However, I'd answer them later.
I doubled back to lead Tyson unobtrusively through the pavilion. Sadly, we were noticed.
"And where do you think you're going?" Mr. D asked me, sounding as if he couldn't care less.
"Over to the Poseidon table," I said, turning to him. "Where I always eat. Unless you have something to say about it?"
"Oh, no," the madman- Tantalus- said. "You may go. But the monster stays up here until we decide what to do with him."
"Just try it, bastard," I growled.
"And you'll what?" he asked, leaning forward and leering at me.
"I'll send you back to Tartarus like the monster you are."
"Do I look like a monster to you?" he asked challengingly, gesturing to himself.
"Yes," I said, turning away. "Let's go, Tyson."
"Stop right there!" Tantalus said loudly, half standing from his seat and placing his palms down on the table.
"How about . . . no." I continued leading Tyson to my table. I was almost there when I heart his chair clatter back, and I sighed.
He reached out to grab my shoulder and I spun around, blade out in an instant and poised to pierce his throat.
"Like I said," I repeated. "Just try it, bastard."
"I'm afraid your celestial bronze won't work on me," Tantalus said calmly. "I'm fully human."
"Shall we test that?" I growled. Having him so close was . . . well, let's just say I was very tempted to actually slice through his throat in one smooth smoke. "I'd say that after millenia in Tartarus, you're something other than human. I'd have classified you as a monster the moment you tried to feed your children to the gods, Tantalus!"
I heard some campers gasp, which was the desired effect. If I could undermine Tantalus' authority early on, he might not be able to terrorize the camp as much as last time. Hopefully, people would stand up to him; then again, I could have just made them all scared enough of him to follow any order.
"Now, now," Mr. D said, waving a hand and looking like he wanted nothing more than to smite me right there. Without actually looking like he cared, still. He had an amazing amount of apathy for pretty much everything. "There will be no killing of our new activities director, Johansson. Tantalus, perhaps you could allow the beast to eat where he wishes to, for now? We can deal with him later." The way he said 'deal with him' made it obvious that he meant 'kill him.'
Hmm. Apparently, I'd made the situation worse for Tyson this time. Good thing I was already planning on leaving camp and taking him with me tonight. The rest of dinner passed in silence, with the occasional whisper. Pretty much everyone had their eyes on Tyson the whole time, and I made sure to frequently glare around at those staring a bit too long.
Finally, dinner was over. Tantalus looked like he was planning to come kill Tyson right there. So I kept my sword out and made sure he saw it as I had Tyson lead the way out of the pavilion.
Once Tyson and I were back in the Poseidon cabin, I explained my plans to him. He agreed; I didn't think he understood a lot other than that I was leaving and that he could come with me if he wanted to.
An hour later, I led Tyson to the beach where Annabeth was waiting.
"I got your note," she said as soon as I arrived. "'Leaving camp to search for Golden Fleece at six pm. Can't stop me.' Seriously, Percy?"
"Uh . . ." I chuckled sheepishly. "Well, I wasn't lying. You can either come with me and Tyson- no, we're not leaving him behind in a camp full of people who want to kill him- or you can try to tell on us before we can escape."
"Why do you need to escape?" Annabeth asked. "This is camp! This is the only place we're safe!"
"This?" I asked rhetorically, waving my hand back in the direction of camp. "This isn't Camp Half-Blood. It's Half-Blood military academy. Our new activities director is a spirit from the fields of punishment. Everything is so gloomy and depressing, because Thalia has been poisoned! It won't be camp again unless we manage to retrieve the Fleece!"
"But- but, Chiron!"
"He's gone, Annabeth," I reminded her.
"I know that, Seaweed Brain! But I swore to him that I would keep you safe."
"By any chance, did you swear on the styx?"
"Yes," she said firmly, as if she believed that it would stop me from leaving.
"Then you're literally oath-bound to come with me," I told her. "The only way to keep me safe would be to come with me."
"Or you could stay at camp!" she yelled, throwing her hands in the air.
"Not happening," I said firmly. "Do you want to let Thalia's tree die?"
A low blow, I know, but we needed to get moving before someone realized that we were missing.
"Fine," she said, shoulders slumping. "Let me just go get supplies."
"Already in the ship," I said.
"I need clothes, Percy," she reminded me. "Wait, the ship? You're stealing a ship?!"
"We are stealing a ship," I corrected her calmly.
"Ugh," she growled. "You total idiot- you Seaweed Brain!"
"Guilty."
"There's no stopping you?" she asked, checking one last time. Or at least I hoped it was one last time. We really needed to get moving. I shook my head.
"Oh, fine," she said, finally relenting. "Let me just go get some clothes to bring."
She turned away, before she was interrupted by a new voice.
"That won't be necessary."
I turned to face the new speaker. "Lord Hermes."
"None of that Lord stuff," Hermes said, shrugging with the shoulder of the arm that didn't have two backpacks hanging from it. "Any friend of Apollo's is a friend of mine. With a few exceptions of course, but you seem like a cool guy."
He offered me one of the backpacks. I glanced inside it before looking back up.
"Uh . . . It's empty."
"Oh yeah," Hermes said, pulling out his cell phone. "I think we're going to need original form for this."
His phone quickly expanded into a caduceus, and I stared at the snakes for a moment, waiting for an introduction.
He seemed to notice my staring and seemed to assume that it was shock. That worked just as well, since he introduced them either way. "These are George and Martha. Don't worry; they don't bite."
"Hello," I said obligingly.
"Hello," Martha said.
Of course, George was just how I remembered him. "Got any rats?" Hungry.
"Sorry, no rats," I said with a small smile. I turned back to Hermes. "So, your caduceus is cool and all, but unless you're planning to stick it in the backpack, I'm kinda lost."
"I'm afraid I rather like this caduceus," Hermes said faux apologetically. "But I do have- Martha, if you would?"
Martha's mouth opened wide. And then it opened even wider, not stopping until it was as wide as my arm. She belched out the Hercules thermos and I glanced at it.
"You know," I said idly. "Hercules used to be my favorite hero."
"What changed it?" Hermes asked.
"I found out that the guy's a huge dick." I shrugged.
"That's-" Hermes began, before pausing. "You know, I can't dispute that. He does tend to whine a lot. While we're on the topic, however, who is your favorite hero now?"
"Achilles," I said.
"You wouldn't be the first," Hermes mused. I glanced around to see Annabeth frowning thoughtfully and Tyson just watching curiously. I supposed neither of them felt worthy or able to join the conversation. I'd have to disabuse them of the notion at a later point. For now, the conversation would be more predictable, and more importantly, shorter, if they didn't join in.
"Not for anything he did while he was living," I said.
Hermes cocked his head. "What then?"
"He's in Elysium, you know," I said. "He doesn't have to leave it at all; he doesn't need to care about the living. And yet whenever someone presumes to take the curse of the Styx upon themselves, he's there to attempt to dissuade them. He lets them choose, of course, but only after he's told them the consequences. He could just do nothing, but instead he chooses to fight what he knows is a futile cause simply because he wants to help. He's pretty noble like that, and it's for that that he's my favorite hero. Not because he was a hero but because he's been trying to help people for millennia with absolutely no reward, and in a mostly futile but very noble effort."
"That's certainly an interesting view," Hermes said. "In fact, I'd love to ask how you know all of that, but we really do need to get this conversation back on track."
"Let me guess. The Wine Dude will notice us if we're outside of his jurisdiction for long, even though you're shielding us."
"Good guess," Hermes said. "Now, to actually move this along. Pick up the thermos please."
I did. "Hmm," I said. "I'd say a compass, but you probably wouldn't give me a thermos for that so . . . the four winds?"
"I've never thought of it like that," Hermes said, before inclining his head. "But you're correct; it's not just a compass. As you guessed- and can I just say that your guesses are scarily accurate? Anyways, as you guessed, yes, this thermos contains the four winds. Be careful to only open it a little bit when you need it. The winds are a bit like me- always restless. Should all four escape at once . . . ah, but I'm sure you'll be careful. And now my second gift. George?"
"She's touching me," George complained as Martha slithered around the pole.
"She's always touching you," Hermes said. "You're intertwined. And if you don't stop that, you'll get knotted again!"
They stopped, and I was pretty sure that they would be blushing if they could.
George unhinged his jaw and coughed up a little plastic bottle filled with vitamins.
"I'd argue that we don't need it, but with all the evil sorceresses running around, I think it's better to be safe than sorry."
Hermes gave me a strange look. "Right. Anyways, these are potent. Don't take one unless you really need it."
"Um, thanks." I knew the answer to my next question, but it needed to be said. "But quick question: why exactly are you helping me? I mean, I know I'm a friend of Apollo and all that, but still . . . I've heard about your vitamins, and from what I've heard, you don't just hand these out willy-nilly. So why?"
He closed his eyes, smiling somewhat sadly. "Perhaps because I hope that you can save many people on this quest, Percy. Not just your friend Grover."
"You mean Luke," I said, pausing to ponder my next words. I still didn't really know what to do about Luke. Last time, it had taken an old oath and Luke being almost incinerated for him to turn back.
"I can't promise anything," I said at last. "Well, except that I'll try if I run into him. He's my friend, and I suppose my family, when you really think about it. But I don't know if he'll be willing; I'm not saying I won't try. I'm just saying . . . well, don't get your hopes up? That seems cruel, I know, but I don't really know what else to say. Sorry."
"I understand," Hermes said, holding out the multivitamins. I took the bottle from his hands and he started talking again. "And I suppose all that I can really ask is for you to try. But know this; I will get my hopes up as many times as it takes. I'll never give up on Luke, no matter what he or anyone else says. He's my son- no supposing about it- and if there's one thing I've picked up over the eons, it's that you don't give up on family. No matter what."
"Duly noted," I said, giving what I hoped was a supportive smile. Whatever that meant anyways. I suppose I was really just smiling at him. Best case scenario- he took comfort from it. Worst case scenario- he thinks I'm some weirdo who gets off on other people's pain. Luckily, he looked like he appreciated it.
"I do really need to be going," Hermes said, before pausing. "Ah, I almost forgot. Here." He tossed the second backpack to Annabeth.
She glanced inside and paled just a little bit. "You packed my clothes?"
Hermes nodded. I wondered if he even realized that there was something more than a little strange about a man packing some girl or woman's clothing, especially when that person is someone he doesn't really know. Maybe things had been different in ancient Greece when everyone wore chitons or togas. But nowadays . . . I mean, when Aphrodite gifts girls- or even guys- clothes, that's more ok; still a little strange, but clothing probably is within her domain. With Hermes, it was just creepy. Not that any of us really wanted to tell him to his face. Heck, Tyson probably didn't understand what was wrong with it anyways.
"And since I don't think those backpacks are quite large enough to hold everything . . ." He conjured three duffle bags. I vaguely remembered having them last time but couldn't for the life of me remember when we had lost them. "I hope I packed well for you. I do have some experience with travel. Waterproof of course, just in case. I probably wouldn't have bothered if it was just you- water doesn't deter you- but your friends?"
"Thank you for the gifts, Hermes," I said somewhat stiffly, before I relaxed again. "I promise I'll do everything I can to bring Luke back."
"Yes," Hermes said, peering at me. "I do believe you will. I feel like I should warn you that I will only be shielding you from my brother for about ten more minutes. I suggest that you get moving. Goodbye, cousin, and dare I say it? May the gods go with you."
"Goodbye," Martha told me.
"Bring me back a rat." George, of course.
Hermes jogged down down the beach, shimmering out of sight once he was about twenty feet away.
"So," I said cheerfully, clasping my hands together as I turned back towards Annabeth and Tyson. "Let's get going!" Without waiting for a response from either of them, I lead the way over to the trireme to which I'd spent the early afternoon ferrying supplies.
"You were serious about a ship?" Annabeth asked rhetorically.
"Big boat," Tyson said, gazing at the ship with wide eyes.
"I'm always serious," I told Annabeth. She snorted.
Barely five minutes later, we were on the trireme, ready to set sail. Or, well, I was.
"How are you going to get it all ready in time?" Annabeth asked me, gesturing towards all of the folded sails and the rest of the mostly unprepared ship. I took it as a good sign that she was asking me how rather than simply telling me that it couldn't be done.
"Simple," I said, smirking. I snapped my fingers. "Mizzenmast!"
"What?" Annabeth asked, gaping around at the the ship as it readied itself. "How?"
"Son of Poseidon power," I said. "Pretty neat, huh?"
"I'll say," she agreed. "Somewhat situational, but very handy when applicable."
"Not like it's my only power," I reminded her.
"True," she conceded. "So are you going to use your powers to guide the boat then, Percy?"
"Mmm," I said, cocking my head to the side as I considered it. "Nah. Easy as it would be on the ocean, it'll be even easier if we just use the winds. And probably a bit faster."
I pulled the thermos out of the backpack where I'd placed it temporarily.
"Careful," Annabeth reminded me.
"I got it," I said. Nevertheless, I was very cautious as I gave the thermos cap a quarter turn. I'd already experienced the effects of all of the winds being released at once. It wasn't something I wanted to go through again, especially not at the very start of our unofficial quest.
Luckily, I didn't screw up, and we were on our way. I remembered what had happened last time and tensed up.
Surprisingly, Tyson was the one to notice it.
"Percy," he said slowly. "You . . . scared?"
"Nah," I said. "Don't worry about it, big guy. I'm just a bit nervous."
Annabeth and Tyson both stared at me, waiting for an explanation.
I sighed. "I was expecting a cruise ship full of monsters. It was also supposed to have Luke on it."
"You were expecting it?" Annabeth asked, narrowing her eyes. Oops. So she was finally putting things together. It was to be expected really. I'm not a great liar and Annabeth is scary smart.
"Percy . . ." she said slowly. "You're friends with Apollo and you have a penchant for knowing things you shouldn't."
"Yes?" I said nonchalantly. "Your point?"
"Do you have some kind of seer powers?" she asked bluntly.
I blinked. To be honest, I'd expected her to guess time travel. Mostly because my perception was a little skewed. I'll be the first to admit that I have a high opinion of her intelligence and I'd expected her to just put things together correctly and get the right answer. However, after thinking about it for a second, I realized that time travel really isn't a likely scenario at all. And she'd done admirably with the information that she had. Though that certainly didn't mean that I was going to give the game away.
"Maybe?" I said. If I could avoid outright lying, it would be a lot easier to mislead her. And I did have some kind of 'seer powers,' even if they only manifested during a fight. "I mean, I guess I have dreams of the future sometimes, but they're not always true." I did have dreams of the future, or more specifically, the future that I'd left behind. And many times, my nightmarish experiences distorted my dreams, creating even worse situations for me to dwell on, so technically, my 'dreams of the future' weren't always true.
"Probably because by seeing it, you're changing it already," Annabeth decided. "What can you think of that might have changed this specific vision?"
"Most likely the time that we left camp," I said.
"Does this have to do with why you didn't try to get a quest from the oracle and why you had that confrontation with the new director?"
"Yes," I said. "Without things changing, we would have stayed for a while longer- I don't remember exactly how long. And someone else would have gotten the quest because Tantalus is a dick. We would have snuck out of camp to go on this quest anyways. It would have just been a while later and after a couple other occurrences."
I noticed Tyson wandering away to explore out of the corner of my eye.
"And you believe that it's the difference in timing?" Annabeth asked.
"Yes."
She nodded. "That makes a lot of sense. If the ship was supposed to be here a week or so from now, then our departure date would definitely keep us from running into it. Of course, leaving early also gives us more time for our quest."
"Don't get cocky," I warned her. "Quests tend to go wrong when demigods get overconfident."
"How do you know-" Annabeth began, before cutting herself off. "Ah, your dreams?"
I inclined my head, and I saw her smirk slightly at getting her guess right. Or what she thought was right. When I'd inclined my head, I hadn't been telling her yes; I'd been telling her that she was free to believe her conclusion if she wanted to. Again, I wasn't lying- just misleading. There's a big difference, even if my signals could easily be misinterpreted- as intended.
"So," Annabeth said. "Do you at least know where we're going?"
"Of course." I smirked. "Sea of Monsters."
"And do you know where that is?" Annabeth asked, rolling her eyes.
"Thirty, thirty one, seventy five, twelve."
"That's . . . uh, very nice? Sorry, but I'm not going to help you with your math homework right now."
"But Annabeth," I said. "Coordinates."
"Yes," she deadpanned. "I know. And I'm not helping you with any graphing problems right now."
"Not for that," I said, finally figuring out her train of thought. "On a map. Map coordinates, Annabeth!"
"Oh," she said. She held her hand over her forehead. "I can't believe I thought you were actually asking me for math help! I'm so stupid!"
"Don't worry," I told her. "We all have brain farts sometimes, even you. Besides, it was kind of a fair assumption. I suck at math. Not unlikely that I'd ask someone to help me with it- but during the school year. Even I know better than to treat a quest lightly." More like especially me. Especially I? Is that grammatically correct? Whatever. I didn't really feel like asking Annabeth, even though I had no doubt she'd have the answer. Brain farts aside, she was pretty smart.
"How do you know the coordinates?" Annabeth asked. "I mean, I know you probably saw them in a dream but why would you get such a specific dream?"
"Ah," I said. "That, I can explain. See, we were supposed to take the Gray Sisters' taxi. And at some point their eye would almost literally drop into our laps. So I blackmailed them into telling me. But I decided to just not go through with it and use the information that I'd already been given when they got all snippy with Tyson." Still not lying!
"Good idea," Annabeth said. "I've heard stories about the Gray Sisters' taxi. We'd probably have all spent the whole time vomiting up our breakfasts." She shuddered at the thought.
"Mmmm." I groaned as I stood up from where I'd been sitting against the side of the boat. "I'm gonna go get something to eat for an early dinner."
"What did you bring anyways?" Annabeth asked. She got up as well, choosing to stand against the side of the boat instead.
"For food? Uh, I brought along a bunch of chips and a ton of oranges. And then also some cold pizza. It should last us a day or two at least, and after that, we can just eat fish if we need to. I would've brought along more but I'm not the most knowledgable about which foods won't go bad."
"Don't you feel bad about eating fish?" Annabeth asked me.
"Huh?" I said, before realizing that she meant because I was a son of Poseidon. "Not especially. I mean, they're not my first choice in food, but that's more preference. Thing is, while I would never eat a larger or smarter sea creature, the smaller ones that we can eat aren't even smart enough to talk. So I don't really see it as anything wrong."
I started to walk away before I turned back. "You coming, Annabeth?"
"No," she said, turning towards the sea. "I'm not really hungry right now. You can go ahead, Percy."
"Suit yourself." I shrugged. If she wanted time alone, she could have just said it, but whatever. With that, I left to get some food. I knew that we'd be tested in the days to come, but for now the only thing on my mind was pizza. I'm a growing boy again- I need my sustenance.
Okay, fine, that's an excuse. I just really want pizza. But pizza is an excuse in and of itself- I mean, come on. Pizza!
A/N: I'm so sorry that this chapter is out so late. I've been dealing with some stuff: namely school and a lot of headaches. Still, I probably could have finished this a week ago if I'd been focusing on it more. So it's a pretty weak excuse.
This chapter was pretty tricky for me. Mostly because I wanted to basically just fast forward through camp. The next chapter should come faster, seeing as I'm over the hurdle of kick starting the Sea of Monsters portion of the story.
I saw a review telling me that there should be more changes due to the time travel. To that, I'd like to just say that things are changing, but not instantly. There's going to be a major divergence at the end of the Sea of Monsters part of the story, and a slightly smaller one halfway through that aforementioned portion. Things will change more and more as time goes on.
I'm not completely happy with this chapter, but after so long, I just wanted to finally finish and post it. Some of it feels a bit awkward, but for the most part, I think it's of high enough quality that I can post it.
By the way, I know Percy says that Tantalus has spent a millenia or two in Tartarus. I know that's not true, he knows that's not true. He's embellishing a bit in order to make Tantalus look more 'monstrous.'
Again, I'm really sorry for the wait. You can lay the blame for that on my lack of work ethic. Which isn't an excuse. It's just a reason. I didn't get the chapter out because I have no work ethic, or very little of one. Feel free to hate me for it, although I hope you don't.
If you're enjoying the story, please favorite and/or follow, or review to tell me just that in a more noticeable manner. If you're not enjoying the story or if you find any specific errors, please review and tell me what I did/ what I'm doing wrong.
