Chapter Eleven: Avalon Gaery

I laid on my back, wishing the pain would end.

I could feel how each of my limbs stuck out at odd angles. My ribs were all shattered. One of my ankles was twisted backwards. There were multiple gashes on me from the drop with the hydra biting and spitting at me. Even my neck was snapped in two places.

And yet, I was still alive.

I was still able to think. I could barely breath without immense pain and only one side came up, but I could still breath. My eyes weren't opening, so I couldn't see anything, but I could definitely still feel. I didn't have enough energy to even pick up my finger, much less open my eyes, but I really didn't want to either way. For one thing, I didn't want to see the golden Ichor surrounding me. For another, I didn't want to see my own mutilated body. And, as yet another, I knew that this was one medical case I wouldn't be able to look at and stay conscious for. Maybe my friends would find me and help me. Maybe some miracle from my father would come in the form of some new magic healing property I could have.

Almost as if in answer to my prayers, I heard footsteps running my way. I tried moving my hand as some signal to exactly where I was, but my arm wouldn't respond. Stopping me from causing myself anymore pain, a hand was put on my hand and another on my forehead. Almost immediately, I felt the bones in my arm and neck fixing themselves. Whoever it was began speaking in panicked Chinese. I forced my eyes to open.

When I managed to focus on the guy hovering over me, I saw blue eyes and blonde hair. The face was familiar. The face was my father's. He seemed a bit relived that I had opened my eyes. In fact he was so happy, he kissed my forehead. A weird tingle spread over my body, momentarily blocking out the pain everywhere I could feel.

When he straightened up again, he saw a flicker of a smile cross my face before I glanced at the rest of my body. It looked a lot worse than it felt, and my fear mounted. I made a gurgling sound in the back of my throat as I thought about what would happen next. Would I ever recover?

"Shh, shh," my dad said, stroking my hair comfortingly, "You'll be fine. Don't worry."

I swallowed roughly, a tremor running through my body.

"Don't stress yourself," Apollo said gently.

My vision blurred, but I fought the feeling. I wasn't going to die.

"The others..." I croaked, "they'll – they'll punish you for this... Won't they?"

To my surprise, he actually laughed. "You're lying here, with every bone in your body broken, and you're asking how I will survive on Olympus?"

I managed to smile, but I coughed, spitting up golden Ichor. When I finished, my eyes closed of their own accord. My father's laughing stopped immediately.

"Just hang in there. My sister'll be here soon." His voice sounded distant as I lost consciousness.

I dreamed that I was standing on a hill, looking down into a valley with a small town in it. There was a long river wrapping around part of the town, and a flat field hugged the hills opposite of me. A cluster of temples were laid out like constellations in the sky. It would've been a pretty sight, had there not been a massive, thirty foot giant and a whole entire army of monsters fighting what looked like Roman legionaries.

The giant had green, scaly, dragon legs and what seemed like snakes in his hair. The monsters ranged from Cyclopes to centaurs to other unspeakable things. Fires were blazing on the Roman-looking houses. Children and their parents were working frantically to douse the flames or were running away from the monsters. There was a bellow of rage. I caught one sentence, "I will crush you, son of Neptune!"

I sat bolt upright in the bed I was in, shaking as I grabbed the closest thing to my left hand. Whatever it was that I grabbed was warm and definitely an arm. Lights danced in front of my eyes, but I still looked around in alarm. Nightmares always had that effect on me. I remember a time when I woke up screaming – on Christmas.

"There – there was Polybotes, and Camp Jupiter, and – and-" I spewed out.

"Whoa, there," the person next me said, "You just had a major – and when I say major, I mean major – accident, involving a hydra, a cliff, and falling several thousand feet."

I released the girl's arm and put my head in my hands, barely taking in a word that she was saying. "It was so wrong," I whispered, "There was mass chaos, everywhere..."

She rubbed my back. "I know how dreams can be. Scary sometimes, right?"

I nodded my head.

"I heard it can be even worse for you, but who's Polybotes? And what's Camp Jupiter?"

I opened my mouth to answer, but the words stuck in my throat. I barely even knew the answer myself, and it seemed as if something was forcing me to not explain. Some old magic or something. I looked the girl in the face.

She wore punk styled clothes, which matched her spiky, jet-black hair. Her eyes were electric blue. On her head was a silver circlet, which clashed with the rest of her outfit. I blinked, swearing that if Johnny had a sister anywhere, she was right in front of me.

"Thalia Grace," I said, "Daughter of Ju- Zeus. Hunter and First Lieutenant of Artemis."

She seemed a bit surprised, but nodded. "How'd you know?"

"There's a few-"

I closed my eyes, breathing in sharply as an image came to me. It was the same thing that had happened at the Skybridge.

Three kids and a satyr were attempting to fight off several venti, also known as storm spirits. Leo Valdaz, son of Hephaestus, was thrown over to one of the sides of the canyon. Jason Grace, son of Jupiter, flipped his coin and destroyed two of the storm spirits. Piper McLean, daughter of Aphrodite, was tossed over the edge of the canyon while the satyr, Gleeson Hedge, retrieved Leo. Jason jumped over the edge and caught Piper right before she could die, using the wind currents around him to stop his fall.

My eyes snapped open. I had grabbed Thalia's arm again and I kept my hand there, even though she was trying to pry my fingers off of her.

"Avalon, let go of me," she ordered.

"Grace," I whimpered, "His name-"

The door opened and my father rushed into the room. Him being there calmed me down enough for Thalia to free herself from me. She stepped back as Apollo took her place.

"Shh," he said gently, "It's alright. Try not talking about it, you'll only make things worse."

I swallowed roughly. "It was so frightening-"

"Don't talk about it," he repeated, "You can't talk about it with others around."

I nodded. "Where am I?"

"You're on Olympus," Dad said.

"N-new York, Olympus?" I stammered.

He nodded. "Just try ignoring it."

I guess I looked several shades paler, because Thalia asked, "Are you alright?"

I smiled shakily. "Acrophobia."

She nodded. "That, I can understand."

"Annabeth said you would," I remembered, "But I guess you're wondering why I-"

"Avalon," Apollo chided, "No one else should know about that."

"Right," I mumbled, "Nothing about those kinds of things."

The door opened and a girl younger than me came in. She had auburn hair and silver eyes. Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt. She put a hand on her brother's shoulder.

"Brother, be careful," she said, "You know Zeus does not understand any of what is happening."

Apollo sighed and put his hands down. "Artemis, Thalia, please, for just a moment, leave my daughter and I alone."

"Brother-" Artemis began.

"I know, Artemis," he said, "I know."

Thalia seemed curious, though either because of Apollo not usually being in this kind of mood or because she was wondering what he wanted to tell me, I didn't know. The two of them left. I thought I saw Hermes and Athena arguing over something and the place smelled eerily of ozone.

"They're all mad at you," I said bluntly.

"They'll get over it," he promised, "But what did you see?"

"Er, aren't we supposed to not-" I began.

"It's different when you're talking to the God of Prophecy," he said, "What did you see?"

I was still hesitant. One word got to me that made the answer a clear no: Iapetus. When I didn't say anything, my father's expression became pained.

"You think it would be risky with Iapetus listening to every word you say?" he asked.

I nodded my head. "I might be able to write it down-" I began.

"No," Apollo said sternly, "Whatever you think is important enough to not say or else he will find out, do not write it on paper. If it gets into the wrong hands, who knows what will happen?"

I nodded. "Can I maybe ask a few questions without giving everything away?"

At that my father lightened up enough to give me a smile and ruffle my hair.

"If you think you can ask questions about the parts that aren't all too important," he said.

"Thalia has a brother," I said simply.

His smile lessened a bit, but my father nodded. "She still remembers him a bit. He had been... kidnapped, in a sense, and that's what set Thalia off on running away from home."

"And Johnny is both their half-brother?"

"Yes."

I looked over at the door. "The gods aren't happy, are they?"

My dad sighed. "Zeus doesn't understand that you're a special case, he doesn't see how you could be an immortal like us."

"Because only he can give that power to people."

"Yes."

"Have you tried explaining about Iapetus?"

"Yes."

"And Min- Athena isn't listening either?"

"No, she isn't, though rather for other reasons."

"Other reasons?"

"I cannot tell you about that, Avalon."

I stared at him for a moment. Then I started to get out of the bed, but my dad stopped me.

"Avalon, you have to rest. You can't be up and running around when you just recovered."

"If you haven't noticed already, I hate it when people are overprotective of me. Secondly, I can't just sit around waiting for Zeus and the others to either declare war on each other or on my father."

My dad smiled faintly. "Avalon, they aren't going to declare war on each other-"

"Then what is it? I know you wouldn't be acting this way if it wasn't drastic."

His smile faltered. "The others are worried about you being able to see the future," he admitted, "They think it is... risky to keep you around with your gift of prophecy."

I felt the color flood from my face. I knew exactly what he meant. He meant that they were already deciding which way was the best to kill me. They attempted to talk about the same thing with Percy's life as well, but he still lived. Bacchus – Dionysus rather – on several occasions, said that he wouldn't mind burning Percy from the inside out. What if they tried that on me? I was immortal. They probably wouldn't be able to kill me forever. However, they could send me to eternal punishment, like they did to the titans. The idea made we wince. Apollo sat back, looking at me as if he knew what I was thinking and wanted to get my mind off of the gruesome topic.

"I have to say, though," he said, "none of us have ever seen anything like your case before. Zeus made several heroes into a god, and they all share the same characteristics as you. But Zeus never even met you before, much less made you into a god-"

"I'm sure that it was Iapetus," I blurted out, "Titan of Mortality."

I saw his jaw clench. "Are you sure he took away your mortality?"

"That is sort of the one thing I never, ever wanted to happen. I don't want to live passed my mother or my friends. And Iapetus knew that, though for how long, I have no idea."

I tried to get out of the bed again. Apollo stopped me again.

"Even immortals have their times of weakness, Avalon," he warned, "Are you sure you can handle even walking?"

I nodded my head. Reluctantly, he let me stand up. I could tell that my father had helped personally with helping me recover based on how I barely felt lightheaded when my feet touched the ground. It was either that, or being immortal like the gods meant that I healed faster than a mortal body, as well as kept me alive when I decided to jump off a cliff to save my friends. I wiggled my toes, making sure I had complete control over my body.

I walked out of the room. The gods immediately stopped arguing, turning to look at Apollo and I. I saw Mercury (you might know him as Hermes), Minerva (a.k.a. Athena), Neptune (or Poseidon, take your pick), Diana (Artemis), and even Vulcan (Hephaestus). Artemis and Hermes were looking at me as if they weren't sure what should be done about me, but Athena, Poseidon, and Hephaestus – they looked like the verdict had already been made. Athena glared at Apollo.

"You are not allowed to interfere with demigods, Apollo," she said, "You have broken one of the Ancient Laws."

"For the last time," my father growled, and I had a feeling this was a topic he had tried explaining multiple times, "she isn't just a demigod. She is-"

"Only Zeus can give that power to a mortal," Athena said, "Zeus has never seen this half-blood."

"He has told you about Iapetus, hasn't he?" I asked.

They all turned their eyes to me.

"Your father has told us a very farfetched story about Iapetus possibly being able to steal your mortality from his prison in Tartarus," Poseidon said.

"And none of you believe him?" I continued.

"After the Titan War," Hephaestus told me, "it has become apparent that none of the titans would even dare show an appearance of them gaining power after what they attempted to do last year."

I nodded. "I can see your point," I admitted, "The damages of Typhon, Oceanus, Kronos, and the other titans was a lot."

I began walking down the hall, past the other gods and to the door. Each step made slight pain creep up my legs, but I continued anyways. When no one was following me, I turned and waved at the door.

"Perhaps this is a matter all the gods should be considering and not just you six," I said.

Athena scowled. "You should not be so arrogant, Avalon Gaery," she advised, "Some gods may be able to put up with you, but most will more than likely be tempted to burn you from the inside out."

"I know," I said, "I've been told that I was wanted dead plenty of times already."

She was about say another clever comment, but the door opened again. The guy who stepped into the room had grey hair and stormy blue eyes. He had a beard and his whole entire presence seemed to make the ozone smell a lot stronger than it had been. I stepped away from the King of the Gods.

"Jupiter," I said curtly, though I looked at him a bit apprehensively.

The Lord of the Skies only glared at me. He turned towards the other gods. "Come with me. There are a few..." Disdainfully, he looked at me. "problems we need to discuss."

I knew I was a bit of a troubled child, but hearing Zeus say that, after trying to kill my friends on the flight to Rome, of course... let's just say that I wasn't any friendlier with him than I was before. There was a bit of shouting and thunder on the way to the throne room.

I never knew that the gods were ten feet tall when sitting in their thrones, but it was true. Zeus sat in a platinum throne with lightning designs etched into it. Poseidon's throne looked like a deep-sea fishing chair made out of greyish green marble. There were rungs in the throne that held his trident, which buzzed with power. Athena sat in a silver throne with a crown of violets above it. Hephaestus sat in a huge, mechanical La-Z-Boy chair with silver and bronze gears whirring around. My father's chair was golden with magical inscriptions on it. Twenty one arrows made the rays of a sun disk that was above his throne. The backrest was in the shape of a lyre. There were a few other gods in the room as well, but it wasn't a full house. The gods Mars, Bacchus, Pluto, Arcus, and Somnia were also nearby, although some of them looked a bit bored. They greeted each other by their Greek names, though, so it went a bit more like this: Ares, Dionysus, Hades, Iris, and Morpheus. Even just this small amount of gods in one place made the hair on the back of my neck raise. I waited for one of them to say something.

"Oh, can we just kill her already?" Dionysus asked.

Apollo clenched his hands into fists. "No."

"She is a liability," Athena said, "Though the story you made was awfully creative, even for you, Apollo, it is highly unlikely-"

"Highly unlikely, yet still possible," Hermes said, "If the whole attack Kronos planned was only a plan A, and there was a plan B, it would be likely that some titans managed to keep there strength quite high."

"Iapetus still wouldn't have the power to make someone immortal," Hephaestus argued, "It wouldn't be possible."

"Unless a few gods were helping," I agreed.

Morpheus sat up straighter. "Is that an accusation?" he wondered.

"No, it's only a thought that came to mind," I said quickly, "But it is possible. Trust me, all that my father has said is true."

"And just how are we supposed to trust you?" Zeus thundered. And I mean that literally. I felt as if thunder was coursing through my veins. Still, that didn't make me think or react any slower.

I took out my knife and sliced my palm open.

At first, the gods thought I was trying to attack them or something. Zeus summoned his lightning bolt. Poseidon grasped his trident. Several of the gods stood up. By the time I put my knife away and held up my cut hand, Ichor was dripping down my wrist. They all stopped short. For a while, the whole throne room was still.

The first person to move was Hades, who stood up, shrinking down to my size, and walked over to me. Roughly, he seized my hand to get a better look at the golden blood running down my arm. My hands tingled with the energy from the Lord of the Dead, twitching every now and then. Releasing my hand, he closed his eyes. I rubbed the Ichor off of my palm and onto my jeans, my cut completely healed.

"When did this happen?" he demanded.

"A week or two ago," I told him, "I had a nose bleed, and I saw Ichor instead of regular blood. Moments later, I heard Iapetus speaking to me inside my head."

"Speaking to you inside your head?" Morpheus questioned, "Are you sure it wasn't just a dream?"

"She's crazy, Morpheus," Dionysus said, "but not that crazy."

"Did you tell anyone else?" Hades asked. He said it calmly enough, but I had a feeling he was really, really angry.

"Annabeth knew," I said.

Athena called us back to attention. "We are getting sidetracked, Lord Hades. Perhaps we will lower the charges on Apollo, but there is another matter to be discussed."

As Hades stalked back to his throne, I felt queasy. What were they thinking of doing?

Dionysus raised his hand. "I'm all for immortal punishment."

Ares grunted in what I thought was approval. Morpheus regarded me quizzically, his fingers trilling on his throne. Although all the gods had sat down, Poseidon still held his trident. Zeus looked as if he knew which way he wanted this to go: Brutal death, or the worst punishment possible.

Wait. The worst punishment possible. To me, living forever was immortal punishment, and it was the worst.

"Let me continue being an immortal," I said, "That is my least favorite punishment I can think of."

Hermes looked at me curiously. "You do not wish to be immortal?"

I shook my head frantically. "No, not at all. I'd rather live with my mother and my friends and go through the same things a regular person usually goes through."

Ares snorted. "Doesn't sound like a punishment to me."

"More monsters are drawn to me, more powerful monsters are drawn to me," I said, "If I'm allowed to live, anyone near me is in danger. Just knowing that will surely make me go mad."

"How would this ensure that you don't tell anyone about the future, though?" Athena said.

"My brother could watch over that easily enough," Artemis said.

"And if he fails to do so?"

"Look," I interrupted, looking at Poseidon, "I'd love to talk about this more, but there are people that I know that are in danger. One of them is Percy. I'm guessing none of you were able to see that happening either?"

Poseidon stood up angrily, his trident glowing. "Where is Percy?"

"That's exactly what I'm trying to find out," I said, looking at his three pronged spear apprehensively, "And, no offense, Father, but I don't think you should have the duty of keeping me in line. If anyone should, it should be Ju- Zeus. Anyone who is told something about the future by me may be smitten down by any way of his choosing."