I don't own any characters in the Percy Jackson universe which is rightfully owned by Rick Riodan. However, the Greek gods and/or other mythological figures are used in my own imagination and well you can't claim copyright on history.

Chapter 24

PERCY

We appear in the store. The mist must have done its work as nobody bats an eye about the fact that we just appeared. Rachel spots us and her eyes go wide as she sees us appear. We walk over to her table and take a seat.

"What the fuck was that?"

"I can't teleport through shadows. Among other things."

We tell her the plan and she stares at me like I had 3 noses.

"So basically, you're telling me I should risk my life against these monsters and demigods. Who, mind you, might kill me. And I could possibly end up by the end of this. Doesn't it occur to you that what you just asked me is ridiculous and what most people would do is call the police and send you to a mental institute?"

She reaches her pocket for something and suddenly pulls out her phone. We jump up, getting ready to flee the scene. Annabeth shoots me a death glare.

"Oh, calm down. I'm just turning off my phone so people can't look for me. Too bad I'm not most people. I'm in."

"You're in? I mean, of course, you're in." I stutter.

"Of course I'm in. My summer was sooooo boring. This is probably the most amusing thing anybody asked me to do all summer. Look, these people don't even care. THESE TWO ARE CHILDREN OF ANCIENT GREEK GODS!"

"Uh, if you could please not..."

"No, it's totally fine, look. Nobody even cares."

Sure enough, nobody cares. There are a lot of weird people in New York City. They probably assumed she was another nut job.

"Excuse me, if you could please lower your voice. Otherwise, you will be kicked out of the store."

"See look, they don't even care about what I said. Only about the volume of my voice." Rachel continues in a lower tone of voice.

I glanced at Annabeth, who was covering her face in shame.

"Uh, okay so we're looking for a sign that looks like this."

Water collects to my hand making a Δ symbol.

"Delta." She says.

"Yeah, you know greek?"

"A little. I'm an aspiring artist and Greeks had some nice carvings and engravings."

She stops and thinks for a second.

"Is the symbol pale blue?"

"Yeah, have you seen it before?"

"Yep. In a hotel my dad owns."

She gives me the address and we teleport behind the hotel. We walk in and the doorman greets us.

"Welcome. Oh, Miss Dare. Do you require any assistance?"

"No, leave us alone. My friends and I are going to stay for a while."

"Okay, enjoy your stay. Would you like me to call your father and inform him of your… friends."

"No, I would not like you to call my father to inform him of anything." She says with a voice filled with venom.

She takes us to the laundry room and in the back, sure enough, there's a door marked with a pale blue Δ.

"I always just assumed it was rusted shut."

"That's because it needs the touch of a half-blood." Annabeth suddenly says.

That was the first time she even said anything since arriving in Starbucks. Rachel glances at her. We step into the dark tunnel and the door closes.

"Uh, hi. I'm Rachel Elizabeth Dare." Rachel says trying to make conversation.

"Yes, I know. I'm Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena."

"Cool. Are you Percy's girlfriend?"

"No. No, she's not." I quickly answered.

I looked at Annabeth and she seemed hurt. She meets my eye and quickly looks away.

"That's a shame. Alright, so this way?"

"How do you know that?" Annabeth asks, reluctant.

"The left corridor radiates a strong sense of death. The right has a less feeling of death."

Annabeth seems unsure but follows. We walk on and it seems like hours.

"It seems clearer now. There's a faint glow to the right direction of the maze." Rachel says.

I concentrate really hard and sure enough, the floor glows for a second before the mist tricks my brain once again. We continued to walk and we came across a tunnel with vines covering the walls.

"Rachel, stop." I turn to Annabeth. "Nico and Grover first."

Annabeth nods and we start walking.

"Uh, guys that's not the right way," Rachel says with a shaky voice.

"It's fine. We have to go this way and save our friends."

Rachel reluctantly agrees to follow. We walk straight up for quite a while. Suddenly I saw a baseball cap with the saying 'I ❤️ nature' printed on it.

"This is Grovers," I say looking at Annabeth.

"We should run." She replies.

The 3 of us run as fast as we can. Eventually, we can see off in the distance. I wanted to see more. It was dark and dangerous. Suddenly a gut-wrenching pain fills my head and I collapse.

"Percy! Are you okay?" Annabeth screams.

"Not really. Give me some water."

Rachel hands me a bottle of water from my bag. I took a sip and opened my eyes.

"Whoa. What's with your eyes? They're glowing purple."

I look around. Everything was so clear and the area seemed brighter. I could easily see everything.

"Is it just me or did things get brighter."

"Definitely just you," Annabeth responds.

"Probably something Hades mentioned when he blessed me. He told me to figure it out. I guess this was one of the things. Come to think of it, none of the gods really explained what their blessings do. I wonder how many abilities I actually have but the gods that gave them to me were too lazy to further explain. Well, let's go. Grab my hand."

Both of them take my hand as I lead now. We follow straight and eventually meet in a split hallway.

"Rachel?"

"On it."

She glances at the floor with the light of my sword.

"The light is fading this way." She says pointing right.

We walk on and eventually see silhouettes of people. We race forward and find Nico holding a passed out Grover.

"What happened?"

"I don't know, a huge monster came and knocked Grover out. We got lost a few times as well. What's with your eyes?"

"Seems like your dad's blessing went farther than just minerals and death. I can see now."

"Whoa so can I."

We hear a roar and suddenly a cyclops come running at us. It swings at us narrowly hitting us.

"STOP!" I yell.

For some reason, everyone stops beside me.

"Uh, why are you guys stopping?"

"You told us to stop. Percy, your eyes are now purple and pink."

"Pink? Oh shit. Aphrodite. Still doesn't explain why you stopped."

"Aphrodite blessed you too? Then it's probably charmspeak."

The cyclops grunts trying to move. I stabbed it and it turned to dust.

"What's charmspeak?"

"For now, focus on the pink and tell us to move."

I close my eyes and remember the pink dust Aphrodite blew at me.

"You can move now."

Rachel falls to the floor and I help her up.

"You get weirder and weirder every time." She says.

"Basically." I couldn't argue with that logic. "So what's charmspeak?"

"It's a rather strong power. Even the Aphrodite kids rarely ever have it. The only one that I know is Drew Tanaka. It basically compels people to do as the speaker pleases."

"Wow, that's handy."

Grover starts to stir.

"We need to get to Pan!"

We all stare at him and he gets rather embarrassed.

"When did you guys get here? And who's that?"

"We got here when you were knocked out. And that's Rachel Dare. Our maze guide. But, you're right to let's go find Pan."

We follow the trail and we come to a wooden door. We push it open to see the most beautiful nature scene ever. The air was so crisp and fresh and various animals ran around.

"Grover, I knew you'd find me."

End of chapter 24. As always thanks for reading. Leave a review to see if we should add Annabeth as a potential love interest. Till next time!