That had managed to wake Thalia up entirely. They were finally going to go face Atlas and from what Percy told them all, Luke would be there as well. She had a few select words for his traitorous ass. After making sure she had packed everything, she joined the others who were standing by the door. She had noticed that Percy was trying his hardest to not look in her direction. She figured he either was focused on the mission at hand or he knew about her feelings for him.
"All ready to go." Thalia told them.
With that, the group took the elevator down to the lobby so that they could check out. Though the mood was kind of awkward in the elevator, especially since Thalia and Percy were next to each other and the cheesy elevator music was playing in the background. There was the occasional throat clearing as well, which added to the apparent and intense awkwardness. Percy felt like that was the longest three minutes of his entire life. He was sure that everyone else, besides Thalia, felt the same way.
When the elevator finally stopped on the ground floor, the moment that the doors opened, Percy was the first one out for two reasons. The first reason was because he had to check them out since he paid for one of the suites. The second reason was to get away from Thalia. It seemed to him that she was trying to get closer and closer to him with each passing second and it was starting to slightly creep him out. It didn't help that Cyrus seemed to be enjoying this a lot more than he should have been.
A man walked up behind Percy wearing a blue business suit with white stripes on it. He also had a fedora and a trench coat on as well. The concierge looked up at the man with a warm smile.
"I'll be with you in just a moment sir." the concierge told the man. The man held up a hand and the woman's mouth snapped shut. Percy instantly became tense, along with Cyrus who already had his weapon out. Turning around, Percy got a good look at the older male and glared at him.
"Well, well, well. What has gotten the so-called King of the Gods out of his throne?" Percy spat at Zeus.
Lightning crackled in Zeus' eyes at Percy's blatant disrespect for the gods. If it wasn't for who his father was, then Percy would've been smitted the moment he first insulted them.
"I'm here to figure out why my daughter has betrayed me." Zeus told Percy coldly. All eyes shifted from Zeus to Thalia as if they were trying to figure out what the hell he was talking about. Even Thalia was surprised at the sentence her father had just spoken.
"I have no idea in Hades what you are talking about." Thalia told Zeus in a defiant tone. Zeus snapped his fingers and they all transported to the Throne Room in Mount Olympus. As if it wasn't bad enough that he showed up out of nowhere to talk to Thalia, but now he brought them to Mount Olympus for reasons unknown. After Zeus had brought the demigods to Mount Olympus, he had taken a seat on his throne.
"What I was talking about, dear daughter, was your feelings for Lord Jackson. Aphrodite informed me that you were falling in love with him. That, my dearest daughter, was the betrayal that I was talking about. Falling in love with the one who is to become the extinction of Mount Olympus and the Olympian Gods." Zeus explained to Thalia calmly. Percy looked at Zeus questioningly, because he could've sworn he had heard the sadness and disappointment in Zeus' voice.
Once again, all eyes were on Thalia. She had seemed rooted to the spot since her father had just basically called her out in front of her friends. She opened her mouth and closed it almost as quickly. She repeated this action for what seemed like hours since she wasn't expecting the truth to come out like this.
"Look Zeus, I already know how she feels about me. In fact, I've known since yesterday. To be honest, it kind of creeps me out since I only see her as a friend. She knows this already." Percy told Zeus.
Zeus angrily looked at Percy and once again his eyes crackled with lightning. The audacity of Percy for even lying to him in the sacred place that they were in. He kept himself composed though since Chaos' warning still rang through his mind every second of every day.
"Aphrodite says differently, Lord Jackson." Zeus stopped his speaking for a moment to take in Percy's reaction of shock and denial.
"You two are slowly falling in love with each other. You want to know the kicker? Aphrodite has absolutely nothing to do with it." Zeus told Percy with a chuckle in his tone. Zeus was immensely enjoying the look of shock on Percy's face and Cyrus began to have a look of equal shock on his face.
A cold wind flowed through the room that they were in and Zeus' look of enjoyment disappeared promptly. His eyes directed themselves to the dark space behind the demigods like a dowsing rod finding a fault line in the ground. The soft sound of steps coming towards them grew gradually louder and louder until Percy and Cyrus' father came into the light.
"It would seem Aphrodite is losing her touch. Sensible, since it has been millennia since she last did her job right. Percy isn't falling in love with Thalia. I can assure you of that….little king." Chaos told Zeus with coldness in his tone. His crimson irises darted from Cyrus to Percy then to Thalia before he disappeared in a black light filled with white dots. Percy instantly felt relief at his father's words but he still couldn't find his voice. Neither could the others. If anything, Thalia was in shock. She had just heard from her father that Aphrodite said they were falling for each other but then Chaos came and destroyed that statement effectively in a matter of seconds. Between the temporary happiness and the temporary mind-numbing, she couldn't feel the immense sadness coming up.
Before anyone could try to make sure Thalia was alright, they ended up in the same hotel they were in the middle of checking out of. The concierge was talking to two police officers, but they weren't believing anything that she was saying. The group took that time to run out of the hotel and toward the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. Or at least that was the plan. They stopped a few feet from outside the entrance to the hotel, before everybody looked over at Thalia who was still in shock.
Grover waved his hand in front of Thalia's face, but wasn't getting any reaction from her. The look in his eyes turned fearful as he suspected that Thalia stopped breathing since that whole thing with Chaos and Zeus.
"Uh….Thalia. Say something please?" Grover asked in a trembling voice. Percy walked in front of Thalia and snapped his fingers in front of her face. This seemed to bring her out of her shock. She looked directly at Percy and then she shoved past him as if she intended to walk to the Smithsonian by herself. Zoe smirked at the reaction Percy had gotten from Thalia and decided to use this as an opportunity to recruit Thalia into the Hunters of Artemis. Maybe this helped change her mind. Cyrus, Grover and Percy watched the two females of the group leave as they stood rooted to the spot.
"Did that just really happen? During our quest?" Cyrus asked after a few moments of the awkward silence. Percy nodded silently at his younger brother and slowly began walking towards the Smithsonian. Sure he was still shaken from the events that transpired, but that wasn't going to stop him from focusing when it was time to focus. Grover followed after Percy, not wanting to get left behind and Cyrus followed suit as soon as the rest of the shock left his system. He didn't trust himself in combat when his mind wasn't on the fight. That was how most demigods ended up dead.
Ten minutes later, the Camp Half-Blood group were all searching different areas of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. Percy, however, was sitting on the second floor in a dark corner where he would be able to spy on Luke's meeting with Atlas and Dr. Thorn. He could feel the rage building up as he waited to see Luke again. Honestly, he wanted to end Luke the very next time he saw him but he knew that he needed to wait until Kronos was using Luke's body so he could kill two birds with one stone. Or in his case, with one sword.
He was starting to get impatient waiting for his three enemies, until he saw Atlas appear with Dr. Thorn behind him. Luke came from out of one of the doors that led to a different building in the Smithsonian.
"Neither of you were followed right?" Luke asked both Thorn and Atlas. Atlas gave a toothy grin and Thorn politely nodded his head. Luke handed Atlas a piece of clothing that had Thalia's scent on it. Atlas snatched the piece of clothing from Luke and used a ritual with the Sybaris' Teeth to summon the Skeletal Warriors that relentlessly chased Percy and his friends. It was at that moment that Percy decided to intervene.
He created a portal behind him that was going to end up behind Atlas. After walking through the portal, Percy tapped Atlas' shoulder twice. The giant titan turned around to see Percy behind him and gave an angry growl. With his left hand, Percy snatched the cloth out of Atlas' hand and with his right hand, he socked the titan in his jaw. Atlas stumbled back in shock from being punched and that was when everything went into place. Luke ran away from the fight and Dr. Thorn snarled in anger.
"Now where is the Nemean Lion?" Percy thought to himself. He heard the growls in the distance and no doubt knew that the others heard it as well. If they didn't hear that, then he was going to be in a fight by himself. Not that he was the same as he was when he was Poseidon's son. He could easily take the Nemean Lion by himself. He'd just have to either use Charmspeak or stop time to do it. Whichever happened first he guessed.
Atlas put his fingers up to his mouth and gave out a loud whistle. A few seconds later, the Nemean Lion appeared in front of Percy and swiped at him with his paw. Percy stood still since he still had the Curse of Achilles. Percy was trying to keep a straight face when he imagined the reaction on Atlas and the Nemean Lion's faces when they saw he got away completely unharmed. Unfortunately, Percy forgot that he would still get flung across the room from the force of the lion's paw. Shock and pain filled his facial expression as he crashed into a nearby space shuttle exhibit.
"That hurt….a lot." Percy thought to himself. He got up and saw that the Nemean Lion was running towards him. Percy smirked and decided to play around with the ancient lion.
"STOP!" Percy yelled at the lion in a commanding voice. Atlas laughed at Percy's attempt to get the lion to stop. Or at least he was laughing until he saw that it actually worked.
"What in Tartarus?" Atlas said out loud. Percy walked towards the lion and opened its mouth with his left hand. The lion was confused as to why it was listening to Percy's command and even more confused when the demigod opened its mouth. With his right hand, Percy materialized lightning out of nothing and threw it into the waiting mouth of the Nemean Lion.
"NOOOO!" Atlas yelled in anger as the lion began to turn into dust. Its pelt stayed behind though and Percy took it as his spoils of war.
With a smirk, Percy turned towards Atlas petting the pelt that was now resting atop his right shoulder. The others in the Camp Half-Blood group decided to show up with their weapons drawn. However, things went downhill since Percy had forgotten about the Skeletal Warriors surrounding himself and Atlas.
"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?! ATTACK THE HALF-BLOODS!" Atlas bellowed to the skeletons.
This time it was Cyrus who took affirmative action. He created a portal behind him that led to the train station.
"PERCY LET'S GO!" Cyrus yelled to his older brother. Thalia, Zoe and Grover ran through the portal while Cyrus waited for his brother. Percy ran for the portal but he had to stop when one of the skeletal warriors appeared in front of him. He growled to himself as the warrior ripped a piece of Percy's shirt off of the young demigod.
"DAMN IT!" Percy thought to himself in irritation. He used his powers over the elements to make a gust of wind blow the warrior out of his way. Atlas attempted to grab Percy by the scruff of his neck, but the demigod was a little too fast for him. Percy made his way through the portal, knowing that Cyrus was going to be right behind him. However, he had to shield his eyes from the sun.
"That was too close." Cyrus told Percy. Percy nodded at his brother in agreement. They looked around for their friends at the train station that Cyrus had brought them to. They weren't anywhere within sight, which was strange since they had only gotten here a few seconds earlier than Percy and Cyrus did.
"Where in the hell did they go?" Cyrus asked Percy.
Percy simply shrugged since he didn't know where their friends disappeared to. At least he didn't until he heard Grover's bleating. They walked around the corner and saw Thalia, Grover and Zoe eating some food while waiting for the two Sons of Chaos. Cyrus stood rooted to the spot dumbfounded since they neglected to get him or Percy some food.
"I'll go get the train tickets. We have to get out of here now." Percy told the group with urgency in his tone. Both Grover and Thalia gave Percy a questioning look, to which he already knew why they did so.
"When Percy was coming towards the portal, one of the skeletal warriors that Atlas created snatched piece of his clothing. They can use Percy's scent, which they weren't able to do before, to track us. So….we have to run." Cyrus told them both.
By the time Cyrus was done with the explanation, Percy had went and gotten the tickets for train.
"Let's go. We have a long journey ahead of us." Percy told the group as he gave each group member a ticket. He looked over his shoulder to make sure that the skeletal warriors weren't right behind them before getting on the train they were taking.
"Long journey indeed." Percy thought to himself before settling into one of the train seats.