Jacob's POV

To say I was mad would've been an understatement. I'd been furious enough when Mom and Dad had given me the bad news.

"We'll just have to trust our troops can handle it," I said confidently to the other officers. Someone behind me cleared their throat, and I turned to see my Mom and Dad standing at the entrance to the command tent wearing sad smiles.

"Excuse me," I said as maturely as possible, and left the tent. As soon as the tent flap shut, I wrapped my parents in a tight hug. "Mom! Dad! Gods it's good to see you guys!"

They returned the hug, but it felt…reluctant. After a second I pulled away, looking at them quizzically. "Is something wrong?"

"Jacob, there's something we have to tell you. It's about Urunos," my mom said, sounding almost ashamed.

My brow furrowed as my worry grew. "What? What is it?" My mind flashed a worst case scenario. "Is it Alex's parents? Did something happen to them?" Gods, if something had happened to either of those two, Alex would be devastated. She had enough to deal with without adding on a parent trouble.

"No, Nico and Thalia are fine," Percy said. "It's…you know that Zeus is fighting Urunos, and that he's not doing very good?"

"Yeah, but aren't some of the gods going back out to help?" I asked. That was the news I'd gotten through Hermes express anyway.

"Well, yes, but Athena has another plan in case the gods can't stop Urunos," my Mom explained. They way they reluctantly talked about this, it reminded me about the day I'd gotten the "birds and bees" from Dad.

"Which is?" I asked. I was already dreading the answer, and I didn't know what it was. Why though? It was a plan to stop Urunos. Why were my parents so against it?

"If the gods can't beat him, we can always ask help from the one who did," my Mom elaborated. For some people it wouldn't have been enough information to figure it out. Back when I'd first found out I was a demigod—and after the whole business of rescuing my parents from the Pit—I'd learned as much about Greek mythology as I possibly could. It was information that could save my life.

The only one ever in Greek mythology to beat Urunos was his son, the Titan King, Lord of Time, the gods, Athena, wanted to ask help from him? The last time he'd gotten free from Tartarus, Olympus had been destroyed, the Mist had been destroyed, mortals had been enslaved and demigods had been hunted to near extinction.

Athena wanted that?

"That's crazy," I said. "We'd be better off fighting on our own. Going to him… that's just not happening."

My parents were silent, and I felt rocks in the pit of my stomach. I put two and two together. Their behavior, the plan… No, no, no…no!

"You didn't," I said, stepping back now as if my parents had some horrible disease. "Tell me you didn't. Tell me this is just a bad joke."

"Jacob…" my dad tried to explain.

"No!" I snapped. "Don't 'Jacob' me! How could you let them do this? This is Kronos! Kronos! After everything he's done to you, you let the gods talk you into asking him for help? Really?"

"Jacob, you don't understand—" my mother tried.

"No, I don't understand!" I said.

"We don't like it anymore than you do," Dad said.

"No, that's not true," I retorted. "Because if you didn't, you wouldn't have brought him back."

I stormed off. I couldn't even look at them. I couldn't believe what they'd done. I left needing to talk to someone about this. I thought about going to Rae, but stopped myself. I didn't want her to see me like this, angry and unstable and so incredibly powerless. Rae I could tell, needed to think I was always strong and always in control. But I needed someone who knew that was a lie. I needed to find Alex.

Then, I'd found her, Kronos' words eating away at her control. I completely forgot about my own problems, because now I had hers to deal with. For whatever reason, I drew my sword against the Titan King himself. My Dad, the greatest half-blood to ever live, had needed the full power of the Olympians to defeat him. I had the some Athena and some Poseidon. What made me think I had a chance, I don't know. But I do know I was going to make sure that if he got to Alex, it would be because he got through me first.

Somehow, I got through to the real Alex and got Kronos to leave. That was when my heart started pounding and my head kicked in. Stupid! You could've gotten killed! You could've gotten her killed. Stupid!

"What do you mean?" Alex asked.

"My parents…" I said. I actually laughed, like this whole thing was some sick joke Dionysus had planned out just to see if I would go screw loose. "My parents…the greatest half-blood of all time and the ultimate story of redemption who made names for themselves by freeing the world from Kronos' rule…they let a scared council of gods convince them it was a good idea to free Kronos, and ask him for help."

I laughed again, because if I took this seriously I wasn't going to have a breakdown. Or maybe that's what this was, a complete breakdown. All my life my parents had been my heroes. They done so much good in the world, were so well known and held so many grand titles. My Mom was the Architect of Olympus for gods' sake!

And now? It was like I couldn't even spit in their direction. Trying dealing with that. My heroes, my idols…had just made the stupidest mistake ever. Of all time.

"Can you believe it?" I chuckled. "Next thing, they'll be trying to sic Typhon on Urunos. Bet that'll work huh?"

I started to laugh more, when a sudden slap hit me across the face and my head jerked to the side. My senses came back to me as pain shocked me back into sanity.

"I needed that," I thanked Alex.

"I could tell," she said. "Not taking it so well?"

I sighed. "They were my heroes."

I sat down in the sand of the beach, feeling defeated. "My inspiration…and now look what they've done. When I was little, I used to think "I want to be just like daddy" or "Some day I'm going to be as smart as my mommy". I sure can pick good role models, can't I?"

Alex frowned, sitting down next to me. "Don't be too hard on them," she advised.

"Why shouldn't I?" I asked, staring out at the waves.

"They're just scared, and fear can make people do crazy things," Alex said. "Sometimes, when you're scared, you do things you wouldn't normally do."

I finally met her gaze. Her eyes shone with concern, something usually rare. But we were at war with an unstoppable god.

"I guess…" I submitted. "Fear is a powerful motivator…"

She scooted closer to me. Just barely, just an inch. But it was still closer, and she'd done it intentionally. "Sometimes, you'll do anything to get your courage back…"

"You lean on people in ways you haven't before…" I agreed.

She tilted her head very slightly. Our hands brushed against each other, but instead off pulling away, they intertwined. And then, we were kissing. A part of me felt so ashamed. I had a girlfriend, Alex and I had always been just friends, it was so wrong. But…cheesy and over used though it may be…it felt so right. Sparks literally flew.

Well…it was shorter than chapters of late. But IT HAPPENED! I'm as excited as you are. I didn't PLAN for that to happen this chapter but once I start typing, the keyboard gets a mind of its own. And BOOM ultimate Jalex moment. Well, not quite ultimate (saving that one for Colors of War) but still very "aw…." Inducing.

Anyway, R &R.