Chapter 20

"Hey, uh, Zeus, what's happening?" I said.

When the gods wanted to see us, it was never a good thing. Athena glared at me, as if was my fault the Demigod Hunters had been made. Wait. Never mind, it was my fault. I was the one who was suppose to kill John as a little kid. "The Demigod Hunters are growing stronger everyday," Zeus said.

"I think that they should have been destroyed years ago," Hades grumbled.

"Yes. They should have," Zeus agreed.

"Which bring us to the reason why we called you here," my dad said.

"We want to send you three back in time," Zeus began. "You will kill John Martin as a child, so that he does not grow up and become what he has."

In my dream, Thalia, Nico, and I went back in time, Thalia and Nico killed John's parents. But none of us could kill John, who was just a kid at the time. If we went back, nothing would change. John would still become the world's first Demigod Hunter. "Well, Percy Jackson?" Zeus asked.

"I'm sorry, Zeus," I said. "But I can't let you send us back."

Zeus's face turned red as the sun. "Why not?" his voice boomed.

"It's just...I had this dream," I sighed. "I saw John's parents murdered. There were three people in masks; one girl, two boys. The girl and one of the boys killed his parents. The other boy looked for John. When they found him, he was scared and crying. None of them could bring themselves to kill a kid. So they fled the scene. I saw them take their masks off...the murderers were Thalia, Nico, and I."

Zeus just glared at me. "So this is your fault?" he said.

"No! I mean, not exactly. In the past, we did go back in time to kill John which didn't work out so well...does that make sense?" I asked.

"No," Zeus growled.

"Okay, so I can't really explain it. But if we go back in time, I promise you, I will not be able to kill a kid. I refuse," I told Zeus.

He looked like he was going to strike me down with a lightning bolt. "Percy, I don't think it's a good idea to argue with my dad," Thalia hissed.

"No," I snapped. "I'm sick of the gods pushing us around. Scaring us into doing what they want. I refuse to kill John Martin. He'll just become what he already is. Nothing will change if we go back in time."

My dad was about to say something, but I stopped him. "Don't. Please, just send me back to the hospital, with Annabeth," I told the gods.

Before I knew it Thalia, Nico and I were standing back in Annabeth's room. "We're back, sorry," I said to Annabeth.

"Huh? Back from where? You didn't go anywhere," Annabeth told us.

"Oh. Then never mind," I smiled.

Annabeth made a face. She never believed me. But I was too tired to explain everything to her. I pulled a chair next to Annabeth's bed; Thalia and Nico did the same. I thought about Josh and Tom. Okay, so Tom was probably a bad choice to bring back to camp, he had tried to kill me a number of times. Josh I was a little shocked that he wasn't a demigod. He totally acted like one. I would probably be hearing about his death at some point. The mist might of helped some. Then I remember what Josh had told us. There were bombs all around camp. "Thalia, Nico, we need to send an Iris Message," I said. "We need to warn camp about the bombs."

Thalia nodded and stood up. There was water everywhere anyway, so Thalia just flipped a coin into the water. "Oh, Iris, goddess of the rainbow, please accept my offering," Thalia said.

A picture started to form. "Chiron!" Thalia shouted.

"Eh? Thalia? Why did you send the others back?" Chiron asked.

I walked over next to Thalia. "Uh...That was my idea, but there's something else we need to talk about."

"Alright, what is it?" Chiron sounded a bit annoyed.

"We need you to evacuate camp," I told him.

"Evacuate camp? Why?" Chiron asked.

"Well, we found Josh and Tom," I said. "They're with the Demigod Hunters. Josh told us that...there are bombs all around camp."

"Bombs?" Chiron almost shouted.

There was an explosion in the background. Chiron ducked as a piece of a cabin flew over his head. We were too late. The picture was starting to fade. "Chiron!" I cried.

"Percy-" I heard Chiron's voice, but then the image faded.

Dammit! I slammed my fist down on the table next to me. "We were too late. The bombs have already started going off."

"Percy," Thalia said. "We can't help them now. We're on our own."

I knew she was right. We couldn't help them. Annabeth weakly touched my arm and I relaxed a little bit. I sat back down. "I'm going to use the bathroom real quick," Thalia told us and walked out of the room.

She didn't come back. Two hours passed. Nico was pacing the room. Annabeth had fallen asleep an hour ago. "Where do you think she is?" Nico asked.

"I don't know," I said. "Do you think we should go look for her?"

Nico nodded. "Yeah."

When we went out into the hallway, nurses were cleaning up the mess we had made. The mist must have replaced the image of Josh and I falling because none of the nurses even looked up. We continued down the hallway. I didn't see anything out of place. It looked normal-aside from all the water on the ground. When we came to the stairs there was blood on the wall. "I-Is that Thalia's blood?" I asked Nico.

"How should I know?" Nico muttered. "Thalia isn't dead, if that's what you're asking."

I bit my lip. Nico through the staircase door. More blood was on the ground. Then I looked farther down the steps. Thalia bow was laying on the ground-covered in blood. The Demigod Hunters' had taken her.

Author's note: Sorry, short chapter.