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 imagination and well you can't claim copyright on history.

The next few chapters are from the perspective of Percy. Also, note the last few chapters have been over the course of a year.

Chapter 36

I woke up for a bit to see someone looking down at me in worry.

"Charles?"

"No, brother it's me." The voice responds.

It takes me a second for my head to wrap around who was speaking to me.

"Tyson, go look for Charlie he should be somewhere here. You remember him." I managed before I passed out again.

I was aware of the fact that I was dragged through the currents somewhere but I had passed out again. When I woke up I was within elaborate coral walls which I assumed was my father's palace.

"CHARLES!" I screamed.

Almost immediately a merman swam into the room and checked up on me.

"Don't worry, your friend is safe." He told me.

"Thank you, doctor."

He chuckles at my remark.

"I am no doctor, I just saw too many battles and too many injuries, brother."

That took me by surprise but now that I thought about it no merman had two tails instead of one.

"Triton." I finally had remembered.

"Glad to know your brain works fine. Besides, I didn't save your friend. Believe it or not, you did. You selflessly provided him with a cushion of water and then covered him in a layer of compressed water, protecting him from the blast impact and any potential injuries. Worst he sustained is some micro-fractures that we managed to fix. I'll let him know that you're up and fine." Triton tells me and leaves.

I don't know how relieved I was to hear that Charles was fine and safe. The door barges open and Charles swims in and gives me a bear hug.

"Percy, you're fine. That's so good to know. I thought you were a goner man, you have no idea how badly you were injured."

"Did you see yourself when you got captured? Wasn't the pretty face that Silena would've appreciated."

"At least I wouldn't have been on the road to death."

"Already been there. To be honest, it wasn't that bad."

Charles just raises an eyebrow but drops the conversation when Triton swims back into the room.

"Lord Poseidon would like both of you to join him in the throne room."

We glanced at each other and swam behind Triton. When we entered the throne room I saw a mess. Various sea creatures were injured or attending the injured and the entire courtyard was littered with debris and craters were everywhere. This was my dad's pride and possibly one of the most beautiful palaces I've ever seen before. It definitely wasn't a snap of a finger to get the building all shaped out of coral. He actually made it cultured and as natural as possible and it hurt me to see it n this state.

"Dad, what happened? There's so much damage done and you look old." I said through my heartbreak.

I looked over to Charles and he looked around in a trance as well. He was the son of Hephestus and honestly, this palace was worthy to be called his work. He knew and appreciated hard work and architecture like this.

"Welcome, Charles Beckendorf. I know this isn't the best first impression we should have but it wasn't safe for you to be drifting around with Oceanus protecting the ship from any attacks I send its way." My dad greets Charles and ignores me.

"Let me stay and fight. I know I can help you here." I pressed on.

"No, the very fact that you and your friend here means that you have another battle away from here. The ship is not destroyed enough to stop it. Besides, I have everything under control here."

As if to prove his point he lifts his trident and a beam of energy hits the large eel swimming in through the hole in the roof and it explodes into a school of fish. I hear a roar and see Briares swim by attacking any sea monsters near him. A loud horn vibrates the water and my father leaves his throne.

"I'm sorry but my enemy approaches so I must leave." He then turns to Charles, "Make sure he doesn't do anything rash. I'm glad you're both safe."

He swims away and Charles grabs me before I could even try to follow. We swam to the shore and Artemis was gone. We hop into the car and drive in silence to my mom's house. I returned the keys and teleported to camp.

"CHARLIE!" Silena runs over and hugs her boyfriend.

Annabeth slowly approaches me, inspecting all the holes in my clothing.

"Caught up in the blast?"

"Something like that. It was interesting."

"Successful?"

"We did major damage but not enough for them to stop their advance."

She walks close to me and kisses me.

"Can you guys get a room? Or at least away from here? You're making me feel self-conscious." Travis Stoll shouts us.

We laughed and teleported away for now. Charles and I had managed to buy a little bit of time so I decided we had a couple of days to cool off for now. She kisses me feverishly at a spot I managed to keep a secret. It was a small tree house we managed to disguise on the outside but once you stepped in it was the size of a master bedroom. She threw me onto the bed and jumped on next to me.

"Thank the gods you're safe."

"I love you, Miss Chase."

"Mrs." She corrects.

"Aren't you getting ahead of yourself," I said as I laughed.

"Ugh, stop ruining the moment."

I laughed and snuggled in next to her and fell asleep. Annabeth wakes me telling me it was about times for practice. We teleported back to campgrounds and made our way over to the swords arena. Being the best fighters in camp we were expected to help out in sword training whereas Chiron was in charge of ranged. Annabeth was scary good with a knife but was recently trained to use a spear and she was getting better and better by the day. Today's group consisted of mostly people we knew. Charles, Silena (I could swear I broke them apart but I think Annabeth had something to do with that), Drew, Travis, Connor (I could've sworn Chrion and I split them up too), Clarrise and the list went on for quite a bit. Each was trained in their own specific weapon to match their personalities.

"Alright, everybody brought their weapons?"

Most of them answer back but a couple of them called out their weapons that have been at their side just a couple of minutes ago were gone. This happened nearly every day so I didn't even look up as I address the people that stole their weapons.

"Connor and Travis if you could please return their equipment."

They got up mumbling going around the entire arena and getting the weapons that they stole.

"Alright, everybody, grab a partner and get to practicing. If you would like to train against us be my guest."

As expected nobody stepped up and the training session went pretty well. Clarrise thought it was a good idea to go against the twins, which she won but she damaged them pretty badly. I don't think 'practice match' is in her dictionary. After, dinner I fell asleep and got into a dream. I was standing next to Nico so I was guessing he somehow managed to sync my inner Hades as well as his together.

"You heard about the ship being blown up?" The titan with the rams horn helmet said.

"Yes, and it was a stupid, useless attempt at trying to hinder our plans. They don't even know what we have in store for them, Krios." A shiny dude on fire replies.

"That's true I'd love to see the shock on their faces when you show up, Hyperion," Krios said.

"You idiot, that's not what I'm talking about."

Nico listens and turns right to me.

"Like it or not, you're going to give me a clear answer tomorrow. Don't worry, I'll be coming to you." Nico then falls into a shadow.

"Who was that!? Who's there?"

And just like that, the image fades and I wake up.

End of chapter 36. Sorry, I would've updated sooner but got caught up on Minecraft. Don't be mad and thanks for reading!