Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or the Heroes of Olympus Series
Credits to MadManMaddox for beta-ing this chapter for me.
"I'd prefer not," Sofia said bluntly as she walked away, intent on scouting out the surrounding area.
"I get injured in the fight with the chimera, almost die, and she thinks she can just act like this?" Zoe thought angrily.
As she took a step forward, about to follow Sofia, she was stopped as Percy grabbed her arm. Her face turned into one of irritation as she glared at Percy.
"Let me go, Percy, I want to have some words with miss wisdom over there."
"Zoe, please…" Percy pleaded, "...you guys haven't even had a proper conversation and you already want to fight her? I don't think Sofia saw the first half of the fight, and everybody is probably just as exhausted as we are. She just needs some rest."
Zoe pulled her arm out of Percy's grasp, giving a long sigh as she did so. "Fine, fine. I'll talk to her in the morning."
"Zoe, right?" Hazel asked tentatively.
Zoe turned her head towards the voice, glad to see the others were more welcoming.
"Zoe Nightshade, daughter of Atlas and former hunter," Zoe declared in greeting, holding out her hand for Hazel to shake.
The mood brightened as Hazel smiled and took Zoe's hand in her own not at all perturbed by her lineage.
"Hazel Levesque, daughter of Pluto, and this here is-"
"Frank Zhang, son of Mars," Frank answered, politely bowing his head toward Zoe, who looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
Frank lifted his head and noticed her confusion. "I've never met any of Diana's hunters, but I've heard they aren't keen for physical contact with males. Strangers in particular."
"Thank you, Frank, I appreciate it," Zoe said giving Frank a small smile, pleased that somebody knew about her Lady and respected them for what they stood for.
"So, Frank, Hazel, and lastly Sofia."
"Yeah, that's right just... don't take what she says too personally," Hazel advised, sighing as she moved a lock of her curly hair out of her face.
"Sofia takes a while to get used to."
"Who are you exactly, Zoe?" Frank asked curiously. "And how do you know Percy?"
"She apparently knew me from my past, but she died and ended up getting resurrected after I escaped," Percy said reluctantly, not sure if Zoe was fine with him explaining.
Zoe nodded in response seeing that Frank and Hazel were quite shocked at this. "I was killed by my father Atlas, butI'm here now... We can talk about it more later."
Frank and Hazel exchanged looks but agreed, seeing that it was a touchy subject for her.
"Do we have enough tents for everybody?" Percy asked suddenly, directing his question toward Frank. "I lost mine."
"I think each of us still has our own, so we can do 2-2-1," Frank said, blushing at the memory of Hazel wanting to sleep in his tent previously.
"So I guess me and Frank will take his?" Percy questioned with a glance at the others.
"Sounds fine to me. I'll take the other with Zoe," Hazel replied, giving Zoe a small smile who gave her a look of thanks in return.
The four demigods began setting up their tents for the night, leaving a space open in the middle for the campfire that would provide them some warmth before they slept.
Sofia, who had returned a few minutes after the campfire was lit, gave everybody a sharp glance as she walked up to the campfire drawing everybody's attention.
"We'll discuss everything in the morning, make sure to wake up early," Sofia announced after a pause. "I'll take first watch, we'll rotate throughout the night."
"You sure this fire won't attract any monsters? We didn't really ask before you went to scout," Percy said, approaching her after she had finished eating.
She put a hand on her hip and turned to instinctively scan the edge of the dark forest.
"Echidna seemed to have this area all to herself. I couldn't sense any other monsters when I was scouting so it looked like they were afraid of her presence."
"We're also quite far from the city docks, so it'll be hard to go by boat again."
"Yeah, that's why we have Arion, Hazel's horse," Sofia replied.
"Ah, well I asked him earlier if he could carry four people and he didn't give me a very nice response. His use of the English language is colorful," Percy explained.
Sofia tilted her head at him. "You asked him?"
"It's one of my abilities, talking to horses. I didn't realize Arion would respond in English, so I was expecting more of a horse-head nod."
"A horse-head nod?" Sofia repeated incredulously.
"Hey, you know what I mean, jeez," Percy said indignantly. "How would you feel if an animal just spoke to you in English?"
"I guess I'd be pretty surprised?" Sofia said, raising an eyebrow.
Percy shrugged. "Anyway, he said he can only carry three people max and even that is a stretch, and there are five of us."
"I've taken that into account, I'll explain in the morning what we are going to do, don't stress too much about it," Sofia said.
"Alright I'll take your word for it," Percy said, raising his hand as they parted ways for the night.
Sofia sighed to herself as she entered her tent, making sure everything was in order, so she could easily slip into her sleeping bag once her shift was over. She exited her tent noticing that along with Percy, Hazel and Frank had gone to sleep as well leaving Zoe alone staring at the campfire.
"So much has happened since I was gone... I wonder what my Lady is doing right now," Zoe mused to herself.
"You seem unusually close to Percy," Sofia said breaking both the silence and Zoe's train of thought.
"So what?" Zoe snapped abrasively trying to scare off the daughter of Minerva.
"Just pointing out what I saw," Sofia said with a shrug, as she took a seat on a log across from Zoe. "Diana's hunters never visited the legion when I was there so I'm going off of what I've read. And they usually aren't that friendly with males, so I thought it was strange that you'd be on such good terms."
Zoe noted with some annoyance that Sofia wasn't even looking at her as she spoke.
"You're not wrong. Do you know what being a hunter entails?"
"Swearing off boys, right? That and following Artemis is all I know about that particular lifestyle. Immortality is one of the perks as well, but everybody knows that," Sofia asked.
"Your partially correct. The immortality isn't true immortality. It still allows us to fall in battle from a fatal injury, but besides that, it works like normal immortality," Zoe clarified.
As expected, Sofia's eyes flicked to Zoe's midnight black ones as she waited for the daughter of Atlas to continue speaking.
"I knew Percy before he lost his memories; it's why I'm so familiar with him. Out of everybody here, he was the only one I knew. So it's only natural I would be close to him," Zoe explained.
Sofia gasped. "You knew Percy lost his memories?"
"He never told me, but I came to that conclusion," Zoe said, giving Sofia a hard look. "After I was suddenly revived, the first person I met was Perseus and he didn't even recognize who I was."
"I see, he must not have known that you came back to life, or even who you are in the first place," Sofia responded while narrowing her eyes.
Zoe ran a hand through her hair, it almost sounded like Sofia cared. "Well that's the gist of it. It's far more complicated than that but it's probably something we can discuss with everybody in the morning."
"I didn't realize something so drastic like that had happened to you." She bit her lip. "I apologize for coming off so rude," Sofia said regretfully.
Zoe rolled her eyes. "That's an understatement. Do you have a grudge against children of titans or something?"
Sofia quickly shook her head. "That wasn't what I was thinking; I was just a little wary. Percy goes missing for a few days and not even the Gods knew where he was, and when we finally find him, he and some girl are fighting the chimera."
Zoe chuckled while Sofia smiled, relieved at the easing tension. "That does sound absurd... I can only imagine what you guys were thinking when you arrived."
"Yeah, I'm not really surprised that it was the chimera after all we went through," Sofia said, crossing her arms.
"Was that all you thought?" Zoe asked, leaning back to stretch, impressed by her determination.
Sofia pondered for a moment, cupping her cheek in her hand. "There was the…" Sofia paused, glancing down at the fire for a moment, before continuing, "...well first, did Percy tell you about the prophecy?"
"Yeah, Son of the seas do not fear the sky,
Through him you will gain an old ally,
War, Wisdom, and Wealth will face death,
A truth be revealed that one will confess.
That one, right?"
"Mm-hm, what I'm worried about is that last line. If you are really the 'old ally' it was talking about in the second line, then the last must refer to you."
"Ah, I see, were you originally thinking the last line could've alluded to me?" Zoe asked.
"Not really, it was just an assumption. You gave off a mysterious aura when I first saw you. The truth could have been that you fell from the sky or something equally bizarre."
Zoe snorted in amusement. "With all that has happened, that could definitely be a possibility now."
Sofia smiled at Zoe's amused response, glad the two of them were finally starting to get along.
"I really didn't like you at first, but I guess that was just me being judgmental. Must have been suspicious for me to come out of nowhere and expect you to trust me right away," Zoe admitted.
Sofia averted her eyes for a second. "Yeah tell me about it," she said in a low tone.
The two laughed at that, with Sofia watching as Zoe stood up and brushed herself off.
"Thanks for keeping me company," Zoe said with a grateful smile. "I'll see you in the morning." She then headed towards her and Hazel's shared tent.
Sofia nodded and bidded Zoe farewell with a wave as she left.
"Wait," Sofia called out suddenly as she stood up to follow after Zoe who turned around.
She held out her hand, Zoe's eyes lighting up in amusement, knowing full well what Sofia intended.
"Is this like a makeup introduction or something?"
"Just shake my hand before I regret doing this," Sofia said with a roll of her eyes.
The two girls shook hands, locking eyes with each other as they reintroduced themselves.
"Sofia, daughter of Minerva, centurion of the second cohort of Rome," she said firmly.
Zoe's mouth curled upwards. "Nice meeting you, daughter of Minerva."
Morning
6:00 AM
Percy yawned as he leaned back against the tree branch he was sitting on. Unfortunately, Frank, who had the second to last shift, woke him up at around 5:00 AM, which meant that Percy had the last shift until morning.
The good news was that Frank had said nothing of interest had occurred overnight when Hazel passed the shift over to him. The bad news, however, was that he had to wake up early for the morning shift.
The plan, that Sofia had explained the night before, was for everyone to be up by seven so that they had a good hour to eat breakfast, clean-up, and discuss past events to compile into one story. They would leave around eight, giving ample time to reach the legion, if Sofia's deduction was indeed correct.
After twenty minutes, Percy decided to do one more look around before everybody was up at seven. Nothing too unusual was off about the surrounding forest, no monsters or even animals left any signs of being nearby. With nothing of importance to be seen Percy returned to the campground. What greeted him as he re-entered camp almost made him burst out laughing.
Standing in front of him was Sofia, with messy bed-hair and a sleepy-eyed look on her face. The sight of it was a major contrast to the ever-so-serious leader figure he expected from her and had grown used to.
Sofia, who had just exited her tent, yawned loudly noticing Percy looking at her.
"Good morning," Percy greeted, raising his hand in a slight wave.
"Morning," she replied tiredly. Sofia looked at Percy in question as he struggled to contain his amusement, a mental image of a disheveled Sofia was too good to be true.
She narrowed her eyes at him in a mix of confusion and growing annoyance. "Something on my face?"
"No, you just have the messiest bedhead," Percy said, giving Sofia a shit-eating grin.
She gave him a look of indignation, but it only made Percy's grin widen further. Her glares were intimidating, but not when her hair was in a pseudo-perm.
"Are we really doing this right now? It's too early for this shit," Sofia said, giving an exasperated sigh.
"Sorry, sorry. It's just—"
"Yes, I know my hair does that okay?" Sofia said, cutting him off as she combed her fingers through it, trying to regain some control over the bird's nest on her head.
"I always get up early to train, but there isn't exactly a mirror in the forest to manage my appearance is there?" she said grumpily.
"Did something happen last night? Frank said there was nothing of interest during his shift, and it was much the same during mine," Percy questioned, putting a stop to his teasing before Sofia decided to do something drastic to stop him herself.
"I had a little chit-chat with our new member. It's nothing you have to concern yourself with," Sofia said, dismissing the matter entirely.
"So, are you and Zoe friends now or something?" Percy asked cheekily, undeterred by her dismissive tone.
Sofia raised her eyebrow at Percy. The look she was giving him said she was clearly unimpressed that he was yet again pressing his luck by trying to poke fun at her.
"Me, Frank, and Hazel didn't think you liked each other that much," he explained. "We thought any interaction between you two would lead to World War III."
She frowned at him, raising a skeptical eyebrow as she did so. "You actually thought we didn't like each other?"
"Hey, I was just being honest," Percy said quickly in a placating manner. "I even had money on who was going to win that battle."
"We weren't going to fight," Sofia said irritably, "You of all people should know that I wouldn't engage in such unnecessary conflicts in our current situation. It was just a misunderstanding really," Sofia finished with a frustrated sigh.
"So, you're saying you could take Zoe on?" Percy probed mischievously, with a waggle of his eyebrows.
Sofia put her hand on her hilt giving Percy an unamused stare. "We'll have a rematch of your cohort placement if you don't quit with the jokes, smartass."
"What's going on over here?" Hazel's voice rang out as she exited her tent with Zoe in tow.
"Nothing," Sofia declared dismissively, mentally thanking Hazel for diverting her from her growing urge to physically reprimand Percy. It'd be completely childish to do so after all.
"He was probably just trying to get a rise out of her," Zoe informed Hazel blankly. "Typical Percy, pulling jokes at 7 am," she added with a dramatic roll of her eyes as she crossed her arms giving him a disapproving stare.
"Hey—" he began, to defend himself, feeling affronted at the sudden attack on his character.
"Go take down your tents we leave in one hour, get it done quick," Sofia cut in before this comedy act could progress any further.
Percy nodded and was quickly shoved toward his tent by Zoe.
"Let's go, boy. It'll be faster if we both do yours first."
"Oh, so it's boy now?" he asked with a snort.
"You bet your ass it is."
The two continued talking until they were out of earshot of the two girls sitting at the campfire.
"Sofia is your back alright?" Hazel asked, pointing toward the back of her jacket that she was wearing, still sporting the slash from earlier.
"I think it's fine, I took some ambrosia last night again to make sure that it would heal properly," Sofia said moving a lock of hair that was hanging in her face, annoying her.
"Let me take a look at it right now," Hazel insisted as she walked over to Sofia and stood over her, with her arms crossed; leaving no room for debate.
Sofia nodded in response, walking briskly to Hazel's tent alongside her. She removed her hoodie and peeled her shirt off, not giving it a second thought since they were both girls.
She kneeled down on the floor of the tent, feeling the rough terrain against her knees. Clad in only her undershirt, the chilly morning air was keenly felt.
Hazel placed a hand on her shoulder, "Mind if lift your shirt for a moment?"
Sofia nodded and felt Hazel's hands raise it slightly, running her palm over the large medical tape that covered her injury.
"It seems fine. Probably just have to reapply the tape for now."
Hazel gently removed the tape, trying not to reopen the wound.
"How is it?" Sofia asked her, voice shaking a bit. Although Hazel had been the one to apply the tape onto her wound originally, she still wasn't used to being in such a vulnerable state.
"It's fine, the bleeding stopped, and I just needed to re-apply the tape. You should be fine after a couple days. How did you know the blade wasn't poisoned?" Hazel asked curiously, reapplying the medical tape.
"Most of the shades' blades were made of ice. So besides the fact that they were cold, I didn't feel any long-lasting pain after I was hit. I felt my blood stain my clothes, but that was all," Sofia replied, as she redressed.
"What about the leg? Does it still feel sluggish?" Hazel asked.
Sofia rolled up her jeans on her left leg, letting Hazel take a look at the slash she took on her leg as well.
"I can move properly now, the ambrosia really did the trick for my leg," Sofia said assuredly.
"Good to hear," Hazel replied sincerely, giving the leg a quick inspection as she worked to apply the tape to her leg as well. After seeing that everything was okay, Hazel straightened Sofia's jeans and gave her a thumb's up.
"Thank you, Hazel," Sofia said appreciatively as she and Hazel exited the tent.
Hazel smiled at her thankful tone. "Anything for my friends."
Sofia paused at her words, letting them sink in as she followed Hazel.
"My friends…"
Outside at the Campgrounds
After about thirty minutes of packing away tents and eating breakfast, the five demigods reconvened at the remains of their campfire. All that remained was to fill everybody in on the situation at hand.
"Percy summed up the beginning for me, but let's start from what you guys want to know," Zoe said, waving her arm in gesture toward Hazel, Frank, and Sofia.
Hazel and Frank nodded their heads in agreement, with Sofia crossing her arms as she stood up.
"For starters, what happened in your duel with Oceanus after you got us to shore? Neptune told us the next day that you had been captured, but I want to hear it from your perspective."
Percy nodded, not at all fazed that this was the first thing Sofia wished to know.
"Know thy enemy right?" Percy murmured, looking up at her.
"I'm surprised you know Sun Tzu's words. Maybe there's a chance for your memory after all." Sofia said in a deadpan tone, uncaring as Percy shot her a brief glare.
Percy sighed and continued, "He was strong, I underestimated his power completely," Percy said, intertwining his fingers, "I had a dream with my father before we left for the quest and he warned me not to fight a titan in his own domain. But I didn't listen. He doesn't have complete control over the seas because of my father, but he is still called Oceanus for a reason. I knew this all before we fought, but he's had centuries more experience than me. The only reason I'm alive was that my gladius had a few tricks and that the titans wanted to capture me." Percy said.
"What's so special about it?" Frank asked, intrigued.
Percy drew his sword. The morning sun bouncing off it, giving off a bright reflective shine. Even Zoe was surprised at what happened next. The son of Neptune held his gladius over the campfire and while the original color was gold, it turned an orange tint as the flames were seemingly absorbed into the sword.
"Whoa," Hazel said, summing up everybody's thoughts.
"Can you shoot the flames out?" Frank asked, his gaze fixed on the sword, "Like in video games?" Sofia snorted and rolled her eyes at that.
"Let's see, I haven't tried it yet," Percy said. He turned cocked back his sword and gave an upward slash, but nothing happened.
Percy examined the sword and saw that the orange tint was gone.
"So basically, your father blessed your sword in your dream? And it can suddenly absorb fire now?" Sofia deduced with a blank stare.
"I'm not sure if it's absorbing the fire, but my father did bless my sword in my dream. In the fight against Oceanus I was able to deflect his energy blasts, but besides that and the fire, I don't know anything else it can do. Neptune said I would have to figure it out on my own."
"Man, that's crazy, a sword that can deflect energy blasts from a titan and absorb fire? Next thing you know you can spin it and you'll be able to fly or something," Frank said, cracking a grin.
"And this is coming from the person that transformed into a bear in front of my eyes," Zoe cut in, crossing her arms and giving Frank an unamused look.
"Hey—"
"Actually, you said it can be anything right?" Hazel interrupted, turning to Frank who was sitting next to her.
Frank blushed as everybody turned their attention to him.
"I haven't tried anything too crazy, but my grandma said anything I've seen should be possible to do," he said, scratching the back of his head.
"I know Lady Lupa is able to transform into wolves, but I've never met a demigod with this kind of ability. Is it unique to your family or something?" Zoe asked curiously.
"Yeah, it's something like that. I don't know the specifics, but my grandma said while I am a son of Mars, I'm also a descendant of Neptune," Frank replied, giving Percy a glance.
"Wow, I never knew that brother," Percy said.
Frank and Hazel laughed, giving Percy a knowing look as he turned to Sofia who had finally sat down after her question.
"What about you guys? I didn't even know Thanatos was freed until we killed the chimera together."
"Well as we said, Neptune visited us that night telling us about how Terra captured you. He mentioned that none of the Gods could sense where you were, so you probably couldn't be tracked," Sofia explained with an idle wave of her hand.
"Our objective was the top of the Hubbard Glacier, that's where Neptune said Thanatos' presence was being felt. We weren't sure how we were going to get there until Neptune gave me my old horse," Hazel said, smiling softly as Arion whinnied in response.
"So that's how you got the horse," Percy murmured.
Hazel nodded in response. "He has great power, he can reach immense speeds and that's how we arrived at the glacier that day."
"Interesting, so what happened when you guys reached the top? Doesn't seem like Thanatos would just be there left unguarded." Zoe said.
"Yeah, he wasn't. There was an army of replica Roman legionaries along with an identical Legion. They seemed to be frozen because of the weather," Sofia explained.
"An exact replica of Rome on the glacier? That had to be some sort of trap," Percy said scrunching his eyebrows.
"Indeed, it was. We had thought about scouting and sneaking in before, but there really wasn't much we could do. We approached the Principia with caution, but all that was there was Thanatos chained at the base of the stairs." Sofia said.
"It ended up being a trap after all," Frank chimed in. "Shades wearing Roman armor surrounded us and we were forced to fight or die."
"Shades?" Zoe repeated in question.
"Yes, shades," Sofia said, turning her gray eyes to Zoe. "They didn't have legs, and what was worse they couldn't be killed either because Thanatos was still chained up."
"How did you free him then? The shades would have just kept coming, leaving you unable to free him, right?" Percy asked.
"That's right, but to make matters worse Alcyoneus was also there," Hazel said bitterly.
"Alcyoneus? You mean the bane of Pluto?" Zoe asked in shock.
"Yes, we were outnumbered and cornered, but we managed to pull through. Hazel ended up leading the giant away and with the help of Arion stalled him enough for me and Frank to free Thanatos," Sofia said.
"The only way Thanatos' chains could be cut was with the 'fire of life' as he dubbed it," Frank said, looking at the floor.
"Fire of life?" Percy repeated cupping his chin.
"It's basically this piece of wood that is connected to his life force," Hazel said, speaking in a much softer tone. "If the stick completely burns out he dies, and Frank has the ability to light it ablaze when he chooses. He had to do that to cut through Thanatos' chains."
Once Hazel finished, she approached Frank and gripped his arm tightly, causing him to flinch in response.
"Frank, let me see the stick."
Frank hesitated at first but didn't shrink away from Hazel's gaze. He reached into his pocket, withdrawing the stick which was little more than a stump now.
Hazel's eyes widened alongside everybody else's, realizing what that meant.
"It's not that big a deal, I'll be careful around fire from now on," Frank said, giving a reassuring smile to Hazel.
Hazel sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose for a moment. She then motioned for them to continue.
"So, you were able to hold off an entire camp of roman shades on your own?" Zoe asked, with admiration at Sofia's story.
"It wasn't an entire camp, but they had me surrounded with my back to Frank and Thanatos the whole time. They were much weaker because once they had been killed, they reformed without their weapons. I did, however, took a few injuries from them due to there being so many," Sofia said, lightly touching her arm.
"Is that why your leg is bandaged up?" Percy asked with a tilt of his head.
Sofia looked down and flexed her left leg out demonstrating that her healing was going well.
"This one wasn't from the shades, it was from a past praetor. Michael Varus was there; it seemed like he was being controlled by Alcyoneus," Sofia said.
"You fought a past praetor as well?" Percy asked, stunned. "How did you even survive? Weren't they all attacking at once?"
"They didn't," Sofia replied, shaking her head. "Even though he was a shade, he still had the aspects of a human. He wanted to fight me one-on-one because of his honor.
"He almost beat me. I was sluggish because I was wounded from the shades earlier, and I hesitated because he attempted to attack Frank," Sofia said, clenching her fist. "He got me on the leg and he was about to finish me off until Frank intervened. We were able to hold off Varus, and the rest of the shades now that Death was free. After, I stayed behind with Thanatos, while Frank transformed into an eagle and flew to assist Hazel.
"Wow, so you two managed to defeat Alcyoneus on your own? I thought he was immortal as long as he's in Alaska," Zoe asked, her brow furrowed in confusion.
"We didn't defeat him I think," Frank said, giving Hazel an unsure glance. "We managed to blind his eyes and I think Hazel incapacitated him by sinking him into the ground. After that, we made our escape."
"That sounds incredibly stupid for a giant. Why didn't he just attack you guys with his shades when they were together? Was there something he wanted?" Percy asked.
"It was very similar to your situation," Hazel said after a short pause. "He wanted me alive because of my ability to summon gems from the ground. I guess he thought I could be useful in that sense."
Percy nodded his head, remembering how Terra's plan was for him to hold the sky.
"Afterwards we weren't sure what we were supposed to do. We knew the legion was in danger because of Alcyoneus' big mouth telling us they knew where it was, but we weren't sure whether we should head there right away or spend time looking for you," Hazel said, turning to the others.
"Luckily, Sofia came up with a brilliant plan," Frank said his lips curling into a grin, making Sofia scoff at his words.
"I told you it was just something I remembered. And I was unsure about it at first, but it managed to work out in the end," Sofia said waving it off with a flick of her hand.
"Remember how when we were stealing the boat, you were talking with that hobo?" Sofia asked, turning to Percy.
"Wait you saw that?" Percy asked sheepishly, remembering the details of almost getting into a scuffle with a random hobo.
"Yes, I saw the whole thing," Sofia said impassively with a fixed stare. "It would be hilarious if things were not so dire. But what was that random hobo's name, Percy?"
"Uh…" Percy said thinking about it for a second. "I'm pretty sure he said his name was Nate, but why does that have anything to do with how you found me?"
"Well, I had a strange feeling about him as we were traveling to Alaska. It turns out when we approached him again after freeing Thanatos, that his full name was actually Nereus," Sofia said, tilting her head up and crossing her arms.
"Nereus, the old man of the sea?" Zoe asked, her eyes lighting up.
"The very same," Hazel confirmed.
"Wow, that's pretty clever," Zoe said glancing at Sofia.
"Like I said, it was a hunch and luckily I was right. We managed to get Percy's location out of Nereus and here we are now," Sofia finished, stretching her arms out in gesture.
"Wow, that's a crazy story, but don't you have to capture Nereus in order for him to answer a question?" Percy asked, feeling that Sofia left out a few details.
"Yes you have too, it wasn't that important so I left it out," Sofia answered with a shrug, making eye contact with Frank and Hazel, signaling them to not to correct her.
"No."
Sofia raised an eyebrow at that. "No?" she repeated.
"I think me and Zoe should be the judge of whether or not it was important or not," Percy said, frowning. "And you always do this kind of thing like on the boat, especially about your mother. You just want to push certain things off and not talk about it."
"Percy, I really don't think–" Hazel began, but was interrupted.
"So what?" Sofia said, her voice rising as she rose to her feet, "I'm the damn quest leader! What makes you think I need to tell you what happened?"
"Because we're part of the quest too!? We're going over everything that happened right? It defeats the purpose if you leave details out," Percy responded, looking up at her, refusing to back down.
Hazel placed a hand on Sofia's shoulder as she took a deep breath, calming down as everybody stayed silent, feeling the tension in the air.
"Fine," Sofia said, begrudgingly sitting back down.
Zoe watched the exchange in quiet observation. She was surprised by how close Hazel was to Sofia and how Percy was able to see through Sofia's small lie. She had seemed the type to have everything under control and things carefully calculated so Zoe was taken back about why she would leave things out of the story.
"The original plan was to ambush Nereus with me confronting him, Frank in the air as an eagle and Hazel hiding in my shadow. I thought it was a decent plan, but I underestimated him."
"In what way?" Zoe asked, intrigued, remembering the little escapade with Percy a long time ago. It was a miracle they even managed to capture the elusive God.
"He knew exactly what we were planning and there was nothing I could do about it. I thought that since Neptune controlled the seas he wouldn't be that strong, but I was proven wrong. Before we could even do anything, he already knew we were intent on capturing him. He had had us surrounded by waves on all sides threatening to kill us at the slightest provocations," Sofia reluctantly confessed. This surprised Percy and Zoe. They hadn't realized their lives had been in such danger at the time.
"Luckily, I was able to talk us out of it. He offered a riddle we had to answer otherwise we probably would've had to fight him for information."
"A riddle?" Zoe said, scrunching her eyes. "Must have been hard then since he knows things that even the Oracle doesn't know."
"It was hard because there were so many right answers, but clearly there was only one he would actually accept as the correct answer," Sofia growled, clenching her fist.
Percy knew what the answer was before Sofia even finished her story and he was sorry he forced her to talk about it.
"He knows too, doesn't he?" Percy asked hesitantly.
"Yes," Sofia said, locking eyes with Percy. "He knows about me and my mother as well."
"Whoa, wait a minute I'm lost," Zoe said, her lips curled into a frown.
Sofia sighed, turning her eyes to Zoe. "Me and my mother, Minerva… we don't have a good relationship. I don't like talking about it too much because it's… personal."
Zoe herself was about to say something about her own history between her and her father. What stopped her, however, was the look in Sofia's eyes, Zoe realized that telling her of her own tragedy would hardly help with the pain Sofia no doubt felt.
"What about you, Percy? From when you got captured to when we found you is a huge question mark as well," Hazel said, hastily changing the subject.
"After Terra captured me, the next thing I knew I was on Mount Othrys, completely bound, with a titan in front of me."
"Did you recognize him?" Hazel asked in disbelief, most people who see a titan up close don't usually live to tell the tale.
"Yeah, it was Prometheus, the titan of forethought. He was everything I thought a titan would be. Ruthless, intimidating, manipulative," Percy said, hitting his fist against the log he was sitting on.
"What happened? Did they…" Sofia paused taking a breath, "Torture you?"
Hazel gasped at that, but Percy shook his head quickly, instantly stamping out that possibility.
"No, luckily he didn't do any of that, but he did talk to me as I was tied up."
"Hmm, did he explain why they captured you instead of killing you?" Zoe asked, dipping her head forward in question.
"Yes, their plan was they wanted me to join their side, and failing that, it was my job to hold the sky while Atlas was freed," Percy explained, glancing at Zoe who grimaced at the thought of going against her father again.
"What nerve, to try and turn you against the Gods!" Hazel spat in outrage, her eyebrows crinkling as she frowned.
"What did he say? You said he was a master manipulator right?" Zoe questioned, her curious eyes flickering from Hazel's outburst to Percy, telling him to continue with the story.
Percy paused, staring at the ground for a moment he then scanned his eyes along the other four, before stopping on Zoe.
"The reason I asked you if I was Greek earlier was for this reason alone, Zoe. He told me I was Greek, and that I was born Poseidon's son and not Neptune's. The Gods have been lying to me this entire time," Percy said while chuckling darkly as expressions of immense shock came over the other's faces.
"What? Is this for real?" Frank shouted, standing up. His jaw dropped and eyes widening in horror.
"Oh, my gods…" Hazel gasped, cupping her mouth with her hands.
"I didn't believe it at first, but Zoe confirmed it," Percy said in a low tone. "Oceanus saying it, Prometheus saying it, Zoe confirming it, the memories, Minerva and Hera. It all makes sense to me now."
"I– I had a suspicion, but I didn't realize it until now," Sofia stammered. "You really are Greek, aren't you?"
Percy nodded, confirming any doubts in their minds.
"Prometheus also said that there is a Greek camp equivalent to our roman one and that I was the hero of the old great prophecy when I was there. He said I supposedly defeated Saturn in my time over there."
"What!?" Zoe cried, looking even more astonished than before.
"You defeated Saturn on your own? Why were we not informed of this…?" Sofia muttered to herself, loud enough that everyone heard her.
"I don't know," Percy said, sighing. "I don't remember any of it happening, the only person that would know is Zoe."
The original four demigods snapped their eyes onto her in unison.
Zoe flinched at the sudden attention she had on her and shook her head regretfully. "Unfortunately, I don't know anything either. I died long before any of those events happened, but I can confirm there is another camp and I think I remember the old Great Prophecy," Zoe revealed.
"A half-blood of the eldest gods
Shall reach sixteen against all odds
And see the world in endless sleep
The hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap
A single choice shall end his days
Olympus to preserve or raze
is what I remember."
"Well, it sounds like the prophecy was completed since Olympus is still standing today right?" Frank questioned.
"I've never heard this before…" Percy said, gritting his teeth.
"Well, it's definitely plausible that it was about you. Should we even trust what Prometheus said? He is a titan after all." Sofia interjected.
"I thought that as well. I asked Prometheus 'Why should I believe anything you say?' He responded with an explanation that there was no reason for him to lie because he believed there was no way I could possibly escape," Percy said.
"That makes sense, right?" Hazel asked, earning nods from everybody.
"We'll believe what the Titans said for now," Sofia said reluctantly, sighing in frustration. "There isn't any concrete evidence that proves he was lying or not; it's just accusations. How about you tell us how you escaped, Percy?"
"Yeah, it seems nigh impossible when you're up there, it's like their version of Mount Olympus," Frank said, grunting as he sat back down.
Percy nodded, taking a deep breath to try and control his emotions.
"Like I said, Prometheus is a master manipulator. I didn't realize it at the time, but he knew exactly what to say to get me riled up. When he revealed everything to me, I was so angry. I hated Minerva for what she did, I resented the Gods for keeping everything from me, but most of all I detested that he was the one that told me the truth, our enemy…"
"He led me to where Atlas was holding the sky when he was finished, and I was moments away from taking the mantle until someone intervened."
"Someone intervened?" Sofia repeated.
"Yes, the reason that I was able to escape was Ouranos, father of titans, protogenoi of the sky."
"A primordial helped you escape?" Hazel asked, dumbfounded.
"Yes, he distracted Prometheus which gave me chance to retaliate. He spoke into my mind via telepathy, much like the Gods do, and told me to hold him off for a few minutes. Next thing I know I'm in the sky with him and after that, I'm at the base of the mountain with Zoe."
"Whoa, you fought a titan?" Frank asked, his gaze fixed on Percy, "I know he said you defeated Saturn before, but did you really fight Prometheus one on one?"
"Yeah," Percy said, his eyes moving to Zoe.
"He was strong even though he wasn't a war titan, but I managed to hold him off. When I was in the sky Ouranos revealed to me that Terra can't be defeated by normal means, something about separating her from her domain is the only way."
"That makes sense," Zoe said with a nod, finally speaking. "She would reform just as easily since the entire Earth is her domain."
"Or she wouldn't even be able to be killed in the first place," Hazel said, grimacing.
"Percy, what was he like? I thought Ouranos' essence was scattered, and that he could never reform?" Frank asked.
"Yeah, I thought something similar. He said that it was his ethereal form and that he wasn't actually there, but he had enough power to save me and talk to me," Percy said.
Everybody was quiet for a few moments, waiting patiently in suspense to see if there was anything else somebody missed or any more questions to be had.
"The prophecy has been fulfilled then. All that's left is the last line," Sofia said suddenly.
"She's right. The sky indeed alluded to Ouranos and it looks like I was the ally," Zoe said stepping forward and pointing at herself.
"It looks like that's everything then," Percy said, standing up to stretch. "So, Sofia? How are we going to get to Rome?"
"Well…" Sofia replied, glancing at Frank. "Frank, how do you feel about dragons?"
Frank blinked twice looking back at her like she was crazy.
"What do you mean dragons?"
A/N
Ok sorry for the ridiculously long wait guys T.T. I literally said 1-2 weeks and it ended up being over four months…lol. On the bright side I have reached over 100 followers on Gladius so I would like to thank each and every reader! Yeah my imagination on what to do when I reached it kinda dwindled down and I ran out of ideas lol. However, I will now leave responses to reviews and PM's (guest ones) at the bottom of the chapter. I love it when authors do this, but I hate it when its at the beginning cause then I needa scroll (i mainly read fanfic on my phone) to the story if I don't care too much lmao. So I will put it at the bottom for those interested!
Lastly the rundown of why it took so long was I started writing this the first 2 weeks of Feb. right after I published. And then I took a huge hiatus off writing like a whole month. The month after that (March) I basically had writer's block the whole time after writing 1k words lol. But! In April and recently I finished the chapter, but I let it sit there for a couple weeks because I have gotten a beta reader (yay!). He's really good but he's in uni like me so I decided to take my time with this chapter and try and make it close to as perfect as possible (I hope it was decent lol). I have planned to revise the early chapters (especially chapter one). Their not bad, but I feel like my writing has gotten way better after a year…LOL its been a year :S.
I ain't quitting this story my fellow readers(if there are any left lol ). To those of you who read this thank you again for waiting patiently haha summer is coming soon so I'll make a promise of within a month like before June or early June.
LASTLY: I understand some characters may be OOC (*cough* Zoe *cough*), I decided to take some liberties but that's just how I'm gonna write them. I try to keep in character as much as possible but its fanfic so I'll add my own little nuisances.
Responses to Reviews
HaywireEagle: Yup your right she wouldn't call her that I'll make a note of it when I revise Ch1.
desdelor97: Thank you my man or woman :D
Death Fury: Thanks Death Fury! I think you've been reading since ch1 or something so I appreciate the support! XD
ChildOfHestia: Argh I see that, thank you for the heads up!
Lora: Thank you Lora! I was super pumped this day cause your review just made me smile the whole day haha.
NONAME2002: Thanks for the review I love the long ones so brownie points to you! :D. Personally, I've only read up to Son of Neptune, so for the ending/parts that are past canon in SoN I'm winging it writing my own plot/looking up mythology etc.
TheRealMasonMac: Yeah I feel, when I was first creating Sofia I was really obsessed with Daphne Greengrass from Harry Potter and she's the definition of an ice queen. So I see exactly what your coming from but no spoilers :P.
Funny Edits My Beta Suggested lmao:
"He was probably just trying to get a rise out of her," Zoe informed Hazel blankly. "Typical Percy, pulling jokes at 7 am," she added with a dramatic roll of her eyes as she crossed her arms giving him a disapproving stare akin to looking down at a particularly obnoxious child who needed to know their place.
"You bet your ass it is considering your performance this morning. Sofia was five seconds from grounding you, young man. Keep that up you're getting a spanking." -Zoe
Until Next Time