A/N (I recommend reading this): I'm going to MAKE THIS CLEAR. Just like I mention on my bio page about every other fanfiction I done: I DON'T OWN THE PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIAN SERIES or AND THE KANE CHRONICLES OR IT'S CHARACTERS as the rights goes to Rick Riordan. Also I suggest you guys start paying attention to the Author notes and my warnings that I left on EVERY chapter of EVERY story.

Sorry if this chapter is too much like the book.

This is a The Tales of version of the Percy Jackson and Kane Chronicles crossover and takes place after 'The Tales of the Heroes of Olympus part of the series. So if you haven't read them yet read before reading this story as stuff that happened in them will be mentioned:

The Tales of the Son of Poseidon: the Early Adventures
The Tales of the Son of Poseidon: The Lightning Thief
The Tales of the Son of Poseidon: The Sea of Monsters
The Tales of the Son of Poseidon: The Titan's Curse
The Tales of the Son of Poseidon: The Magical Labyrinth
The Tales of the Son of Poseidon: the Stolen Chariot
The Tales of the Son of Poseidon: the Sword of Hades
The Tales of the Son of Poseidon: the Bronze Dragon
The Tales of the Son of Poseidon: The Last Olympian
The Tales of the Son of Poseidon: the Staff of Hermes
The Tales of the Heroes of Olympus: The Lost Hero
The Tales of the Heroes of Olympus: The Quest for Buford
The Tales of the Heroes of Olympus: The Son of Neptune
The Tales of the Heroes of Olympus: The Mark of Athena
The Tales of the Heroes of Olympus: The House of Hades
The Tales of the Heroes of Olympus: The Blood of Olympus
The Tales of Magicians and Demigods: The Son of Sobek
The Tales of Magicians and Demigods: The Staff of Serapis
The Tales of Magicians and Demigods: The Crown of Ptolemy

Also if you haven't got the chance feel free to read:

The Tales of Classical Mythology

A crossover with The Tales of series with my dictionary on Greek/Roman Mythology where The Tales of Percy Jackson tells his version of stories behind famous names in Greek and Roman Mythology.

And if you are a fan of Stephen King:

The Tales of the Heroes of the Stand

Which is basically a crossover of The Tales of series with one of Stephen King's best novels The Stand.

Lastly, any one who wants to do a Demigods and Olympian reads story using 'The Tales of the Son of Poseidon' is allowed as long as you inform me about it.

Always Sing Like Your Life Depends on It

The most annoying thing about the Mist I have to say is that once mortal demigods are aware of it, they are not as affected by its magic.

I realized that's how Myrmekes gunk work on Myrmekes. They ignore you if you walk in their den covered in the stuff, but once they realized you are not just some carcass or rotten meat, their demeanor change.

That is what are situation is when the Myrmekes arrived in the chamber. They were aware Alabaster, and I were not something that belonged in their nest, and they are not happy.

Instead of lifting my bow and taking out an arrow, ready to fight, I sing.

I had no ukulele, nor I needed a muse for my inspiration. I found myself remembering Daphne's face in the trees. I remembered Hyacinthus turning away, his death wound glistening on his scalp. My voice filled with anguish. I sang of heartbreak.

The tunnels amplified my voice, carrying it through the chamber and nest, making the entire hill my musical instrument.

The ants curled its legs and touched its forehead to the floor, its antennae quivering from the vibration of my voice.

Had I been a god, the song would have been stronger, but this was enough. I was impressed by how much sorrow a human voice could convey. So, I put more emotion into my song. For the first time in four thousand years, I sang of my own faults.

I poured out my guilt about Daphne's death. My boastfulness, envy, and desire had caused her destruction. When she ran from me, I should have let her go. Instead, I chased her relentlessly. I wanted her, and I intended to have her. Because of that, I had left Daphne no choice. To escape me, she sacrifices her life and turned into a tree, leaving my heart scarred forever… But it was my fault. I apologized in song. I begged Daphne's forgiveness.

I sang of Hyacinthus, the most handsome of men. The West Wind Zephyros had also loved him, but I refused to share even a moment of Hyacinthus's time. In my jealousy, I threatened Zephyros. I dared him, dared him to interfere.

I sang the day Hyacinthus and I played discus in the fields, and how the West Wind blew my disc off course—right into the side of Hyacinthus's head.

To keep Hyacinthus in the sunlight where he belonged, I created hyacinth flowers from his blood. I held Zephyros accountable, but my own petty greed had caused Hyacinthus's death. I poured out my sorrow. I took all the blame.

I sang of my failures, my eternal heartbreak and loneliness. I was the worst of the gods, the most guilt-ridden and unfocused. I could not commit myself to one lover. I could not even choose what to be the god of. I kept shifting from one skill to another—distracted and dissatisfied.

My golden life was a sham. My coolness was pretense. My heart was a lump of petrified wood.

More myrmekes had come to the sound of my voice, but each one collapsed and trembled with grief. I lifted my bow and notch an arrow and put each myrmekes that arrived out of its misery.

As I sang Alabaster must have threw some of Meg's seeds into her goo. Both were in tears as I finished my song and slayed the last Myrmekes that entered.

"It been so long… I hated Olympians for thinking of themselves high and mighty." Alabaster cried. "I forgot why… all I ever wanted to hear was the Olympians to admit to their faults, that they're not as great as they think they are."

I realized what Alabaster was talking about. His hatred toward the Olympians was over the fact he too was jealous of how the Olympians were treated compare to his mom, and how our kids were treated compare to him. That is the real reason he needed to stay at camp. Not just because he was destined to help save the Grove of Dodona, but to realize where the hate came from—that all he wanted was to hear us Olympians admit to our own faults.

Meg sobbed. "That song—oh, gods… Apollo, if I'd known—"

"It's all right, Meg," I said. "I should be apologizing to you. I got you into this mess."

Meg shook her head. "You don't understand. I—"

Just then the hairs on the nape of my neck came to attention, reminding me we are not done yet.

Ants that have not arrived in the cavern must have recovered their senses and started clambering into the chamber, snapping their mandibles. I raised another arrow, with a desperate idea. Instead of shooting the ants down, I thought of bringing the hill down. I done it before with just one arrow. In 464 BCE, I caused an earthquake that wiped out most of Sparta by hitting a fault line at the right angle. I shot the arrow at the roof of the cavern, just above the ants' heads.

The arrow embedded itself in the packed earth with a dull thunk. The ants took another step forward, acid dripping from their mouths. I feel like an idiot for thinking that would work.

I tugged my Brazilian-flag handkerchief from my neck and waved it like a maniac, trying to channel my inner Paolo.

"BACK, FOUL ANTS!" I yelled. "BRASIL!"

The ants wavered—perhaps because of the bright colors, or my voice, or my sudden insane confidence. While they hesitated, cracks spread across the roof from my arrow's impact site, and then thousands of tons of earth collapsed on top of the myrmekes.

When the dust cleared, half the room was gone, along with the ants.

I looked at my handkerchief. "I'll be Styxed. It does have magic power. I can never tell Paolo about this or he'll be insufferable."

"Apollo!" Meg yelled.

I turned. Another myrmekes was crawling over a pile of carcasses—from the second exit I had failed to notice behind the disgusting food stores.

"My rings!" Meg shouted.

I yanked them from my neck and tossed them through the air. As soon as Meg caught them, two golden scimitars flashed in her hands. Alabaster drew out his own imperial gold sold.

The myrmekes barely had time to think Uh-oh, before the two of them charged. They sliced off Ants armored head, causing their body to collapse in steaming heap.

An enraged shriek echoed through the chamber, shaking the compromised ceiling, and raining clods of dirt on our heads. The tone of the scream reminded me of Hera whenever she stormed through the hallways of Olympus, yelling at me for leaving the godly toilet seat up.

"That's the queen ant," I guessed as I turned to Alabaster. "Please tell me we have another exit plan."

Alabaster took out his map and mumbled curses. "You blocked our best exit. That's the only other exit."

"Fantastic," Meg said.

"Oh, it gets worse," Alabaster said. "This map ends with that tunnel. Which means its uncharted territory."

In other words, it was considered too dangerous for demigods to go through to mapped out. Great. Just what I need to hear.

…

We found the queen ant.

Hooray.

All corridors must have led to the queen. They radiate from her chamber like spikes on a morning star. Her Majesty was three times the size of her largest soldiers—a towering mass of black chitin and barbed appendages, with diaphanous oval wings folded against her back. Her eyes were glassy swimming pools of onyx. The sight of it made me regret ever inventing gel capsule medication.

Her swollen abdomen might slow her down in a fight, but she was so large, she could intercept us before we reached the nearest exit. Those mandibles would snap us in half like dried twigs.

"How do you guys feel about sword fighting against this lady?" I asked.

Meg looked appalled. "She's a mother giving birth."

"Yes… and she is an insect, which you hate. And her children were ripening you up for dinner."

Meg frowned. "Still… I don't feel right about it."

"If we kill her, the myrmekes might move to a different nest." Alabaster said.

"That a terrible thing?" I asked.

"No. There's enough supplies here to last a long time," Alabaster said. "But once we ran out of myrmekes goo, we won't be able to make any more gunk. We would have to search a new nest and map it out."

In other words, the camp would have to start over by scratch just to build up supplies for Myrmekes gunk again, and I been here long enough to know doing the first time did not come without casualties.

The queen hissed—a dry spraying noise. I imagined she would have already hosed us down with acid if we were not worried about the long-term effects of corrosive on her larvae. Queen ants cannot be too careful these days.

"You have another idea then?" I asked. "Preferably one that does not involve dying?"

"We still need to find the entrance into the Grove of Dodona," Alabaster said.

Meg pointed to a tunnel directly behind the queen's clutch of eggs. "We need to go that way. It leads to the grove."

"How can you be sure?" I asked.

Meg tilted her head. "Trees. It is like… I can hear them growing."

"It must be a child of Demeter thing," Alabaster said. "She is the goddess of agriculture. Persephone sure didn't get her powers over plants from Zeus."

True. Zeus may have power to create storms, but he was no gardener or farmer, it made me wonder where Dionysus gets his powers over vine plants since he was born demigod. Plus, I remember the Muses once told me they could hear the ink drying on new pages of poetry.

"Sing," Meg told me. "Sing like you did before."

"My oath." I spoke.

"You already broke your oath with the Styx." Alabaster said as if reading my mind. "Nothing you can do will stop Styx from punishing you later. So, make effective use of your broken oath now."

I cannot argue against that logic. Plus, her Majesty snapped at us—a warning shot, telling us to back off. A few feet closer and my head would have rolled in the dirt.

I burst into song—or rather, I did the best I could. I did not want to admit it, but my voice was raspy just from keeping the bugs at bay earlier. It was more of a rap with the rhythm boom chicka chicka.

The queen arched her back. I do not think she had expected to be rapped to today.

I gave Meg and Alabaster a look that clearly meant Help me out!

Meg shook her head. Give the girl two swords and she was a maniac. Ask her to lay down a simple beat and she suddenly got stage fright.

Alabaster sighed and copied my beat as I began to burst out some footwork the Nine Muses and I had been working on just before the war with Gaea. I launched into "Dance" by Nas, which I have to say was one of the most moving odes to mothers that I ever inspired an artist to write. I improvise parts about angels to mother and women to insects, channeling my love for my own dear mother Leto. When I sang that I could only wish to marry a woman (or insect) so fine someday, my heartbreak was real. I would never have such a partner. It was not my destiny.

The queen antennae quivered. Her head seesawed back and forth. Eggs kept extruding from her abdomen, which made it difficult for me to concentrate, but I persevered.

When I was done, I dropped to one knee and held up my arms in tribute, waiting for the queen's verdict. Either she would kill me, or she would not. I was spent. I had poured everything into that song and could not rap another line.

Next to me, Meg stood very still, gripping her swords.

Her Majesty shuddered. She threw back her head and wailed—a sound more brokenhearted than angry.

She leaned down and gently nudged my chest, pushing me in the direction of the tunnel we needed.

"Thank you," I croaked. "I—I'm sorry about the ants I killed."

The queen purred and clicked, extruding a few more eggs as if to say, do not worry, I can make more.

I stroked the queen's ant's forehead. "With permission, I have children myself. Will you allow them safe passage use and use of your goo without killing your children? We can supply our own carcasses and rotted meat, but we need your goo to make something that protect us from other monsters."

The queen's purred once more which I took as a yes. "May I call you Mama?"

Her mouth frothed in a pleased sort of way.

"Apollo," Meg urged, "let us go before she changes her mind."

I doubt Mama would do that. I got the feeling she accepted my fealty and adopted us into her brood, along with any children I have. But Meg was right; we need to hurry. Mama watched as we edged around her clutch of eggs.

"You did good, Apollo," Alabaster told me. "Now we have safe passage into the hill for supplies."

I nodded. Now at least Will and Nico can enter here with others and get supplies. I am sure as son of Hades; Nico can help navigate these tunnels if needed. As we plunged into the tunnel and saw the glow of daylight above us.