"And you, Percy, are my favorite son."

-Poseidon

CHAPTER THREE

Father and Son

VI

Percy IV

Percy felt horrible that morning. Horrible didn't even cut it. It was utter torture to just even get out of bed.

He felt as if someone had slammed his head with a sledgehammer, each vein in his brain screaming together in agony. The headache throbbed with each one of his movements, adamant on crippling him.

He remembered having a dream, or rather, a nightmare. He had forgotten most of the details of the dream by now, though. He remembered that it was pretty vivid, and something had horrified him, something about… a clock and fear.

Had a clock monster invaded his mind or something?

He squinted his eyes as he tried to remember, but his mind came up blank, other than the numbers seven and two .

The numbers, Percy, what do they mean? He asked himself as he kept thinking, scratching an imaginary beard. But his mind just kept coming out blank.

As with every morning, he ate his usual cereal. The more he tried to remember the dream, the stronger the wailing of his blood veins at his brain became, so he dropped it. He finished his meal, and as much as he would have loved to just get into bed and wait for the horrors of the headache to pass, he had to get ready for his Olympus visit, as saying actually, dad, I can't come because I feel like a school bus was dropped on my head and smashed it to pieces wasn't really a good idea.

He headed to his wardrobe first, taking out a nice blue shirt and jeans. He prepared his bag, putting in two bottles of water and some golden drachmas just in case. He stripped off his pajamas and wore his clothes. He thought about Olympus, wondering how the visit would go. Who would he meet there? Would Zeus just blast him, Poseidon be damned?

Someone knocked at his door just after he had finished dressing up. He tried to comb his hair, although trying to control his hair was like trying to control Triton's temper when he saw mortals dumping trash into the ocean.

He headed to the door and opened it. "Yes?" He said to the merman soldier that stood in front of him.

"Lord Poseidon has requested you to come to the throne room once you are ready to depart to Olympus."

"Okay, thank you," Percy said. He went and grabbed his bag first, then left the room and headed to the throne room. The soldier didn't come with him. Instead, he returned to his post in front of the entrance to the palace.

He reached to the room in no time and pushed the doors open.

"Father," Percy greeted Poseidon. He was reading some coral-tablets ( Poseidon preferred those over paper,) on his throne.

"Ah," He put them aside and rose from his throne. "Percy, about time. Let's not be late." Poseidon snapped his fingers and turned back to his informal state that he had teased Amphitrite with.

He came up to Percy and grabbed his hand. "This might make you feel a bit dizzy, so don't try to start walking when we arrive. Stand still for a moment, and you will feel fine." Percy nodded, and Poseidon looked up to the roof of the room as if aiming where he wanted to go. Then, he closed his eyes. Percy's eyes closed involuntarily as well, and he heard his ears pop. For a moment, his skin began to feel as if ants were crawling all around him, and as if he was swimming inside a large pool filled with jelly.

When he opened his eyes, he found himself along with his father in a temple. The brilliant yellow sun that appeared between the columns made him cringe as he raised a hand to try to block the light from burning his eyes.

"Welcome to Olympus, son," Poseidon said, taking a step forward. "This is my temple, the Temple of Poseidon, present on Olympus. Ah, Percy, I told you to not move—" Poseidon grabbed Percy before he fell over. He straightened him, holding Percy's shoulders, to take a good look at him.

"Feeling better now?" he asked.

"Yes, father. The sun made me feel dizzy."

"Ah, right. Forgot about that. You haven't seen it in a while and all. Anyways, like I said, this is my temple. Do you like it?"

Percy looked around. The temple seemed ancient. There were depictions of Poseidon and Triton hunting and killing sea monsters, while some walls had depictions of Poseidon and Amphitrite, while others had depictions of Mer-Heroes.

"Looks nice," Percy commented. Poseidon seemed to glance sadly at a portrait of a merman.

"Ah, Winston… If only he didn't let that darned Cetus sneak up to his ship…" Poseidon sighed and turned back to Percy as the duo left the temple.

"There is something you should know, Percy." Poseidon stopped at the final marble step. "There is an issue that I discussed with Triton yesterday. Since last summer, sea monsters have been gathering up at the Bering Strait near Alaska, presumably as it is a safe haven for them."

"Why?" Percy asked.

"It is the land beyond the Gods, Percy. Our influence is greatly diminished there, and practically we cannot take any physical form in there."

"But why would they hide? Isn't terrorizing ships their MO?"

"That, I do not know. As much as this calm is nice, this is unusual behavior by them. They are also hiding below sheets of ice at Greenland and even the Arctic. It seems as if something has ordered them to stop attacking merchant ships or underwater cities."

Percy didn't know what to say. "Well… I can understand them going to Alaska. But is Greenland also beyond your control?"

"No. Which is why you should go to Camp Half-Blood, since Triton will be launching offensives with some Mer-Divisions at Greenland this summer, once the ice is cleared out. You would be quite bored without him, even if you are not so fond of him." As much as Percy hated to admit it, his father was right. For years Triton was really the only person he had bonded with at Atlantis, and without him, there wasn't much to do other than collect some shiny crystals and seashells, which wasn't really an entertaining task.

As much as Percy wanted to spend his time with his mother, he guessed he would have to take his father's request as higher priority this time. Poseidon's eyes became a bit lighter, sensing Percy's thoughts.

"About your mother, Percy, I know you would prefer to spend all summer with her. Now, before you go and meet the campers, I sent a messenger to your mother that you would be with her. A vacation to Montauk for all of May. Although Chiron did insist on sending some satyr along with you, as I'm sure Hades isn't planning on letting you hang out there without trouble. Like I said, he'll inform you."

"Oh, thanks, Dad." Percy smiled, relieved that he wouldn't have to pick between spending some time with his mother or fulfilling his father's request.

"Well now. I sense that Chiron and his campers are close. Go to the gate," he pointed to a narrow entrance that had some statues post the gate. "Do greet them and talk with Chiron. I must go now, as the Solstice is about to begin."

"Okay," Percy said simply, and the son and father departed. Poseidon disappeared in a flash of light, leaving behind the scent of salty seawater.

VII

Percy V

Percy approached the gates that had swung open, and the campers had walked in, looking at the statues. He waited for them to finish looking at the statues while he decided to take a look at who these campers were.

In front of him was a half-white-stallion and half-human man, just like the mermen expect where would have been a fishtail, there was the body of a horse. Next to this man, was a pretty girl with curly blond hair like a princess' and the grayest eyes he had ever seen. She was wearing an orange t-shirt that read " CAMP HALF-BLOOD " with a picture of a Pegasus beneath it. She wore blue shorts that seemed to have faded from constant washing. All the people behind her wore the same t-shirt.

"Ah," the centaur in front of him said once taking notice of his presence, "You must be Percy Jackson. Your father informed me about you. I'm Chiron, Activities Director at Camp Half-Blood."

The girl next to Chiron frowned. "His father informed you about him? But…"

"Yes, I know, my dear." Chiron turned to the girl. "He is the son of Poseidon, and was with him at Atlantis for all this time."

The girl glanced at Percy, scanning him as if trying to see if he was a threat, if so, which way to quickly take him down, if not, why in Hades' name was he even here. There was dislike present in her eyes as if she wished she hadn't asked that question. Or, more correctly, she wished that was not the answer. He did not know what problem she had with him, but it was obvious that him being a son of Poseidon was a big no-no for her.

The group came closer to Percy, and Chiron and Percy shook hands.

"This young lady here is Annabeth Chase," he introduced her, "head counselor of Cabin Six."

"Cabin Six?" Percy asked, shooting up an eyebrow. He raised his hand to shake hands with her, but she crossed her arms.

" Athena's cabin." the girl, Annabeth, answered, the dislike on her voice growing stronger.

"Oh," Percy said uneasily, not sure what to say more. Athena… well, clearly this girl and him were not going to get along well.

A man stepped up from behind her. He had sandy blond hair and deep blue eyes. A horrible scar ran through his left eye, Percy wondered what must have hit him to cause that, but unlike Annabeth, he had a smile on his face, happy to meet Percy.

"I'm Luke Castellan, son of Hermes. Cabin Eleven," he introduced himself, and they also shook hands. He seemed to be a couple of years older than him, but not much.

"Percy Jackson," Percy replied.

"Atlantis, huh? How is it down there?" Luke asked as they began to hike upwards, leaving the gates behind them.

"Well, it's… decent, definitely a lot different than Olympus. Down there we have merpeople, half-fish half-human. Cities are completely underwater, hydrothermal vents that open up to the surface keep us warm, contact with the outer world is mostly forbidden for its citizens. Atlantis isn't the only underwater city, you know. There's actually a lot of smaller cities around it, all over the Atlantic Ocean."

"Sounds very interesting," Chiron said.

"Why the secrecy?" Annabeth asked, her eyebrows raised in interest, her head slightly tilted. Percy felt a bit weird explaining Atlantis to a daughter of Athena , but he kept talking.

"It's an ancient law," Percy explained, "Underwater civilization is so incompatible with land-based civilization, it was decided long ago they would be kept segregated forever, not allowed to ever meet each other. It's why Atlantis or the other underwater cities can't be found unless you have permission. Not even the other Gods can visit it since it's my father's domain. They all need permission, well, er, except Hermes. I've seen him come a few times to deliver mail to father."

Percy saw Luke frown at the name of Hermes, which made him frown. Didn't he like his father?

"It is quite interesting indeed," Chiron said as they finally reached the main base of Olympus. "I'm sure you can tell us more later, Percy. I promised the campers some free time to roam around as they wished. However," he turned to his campers, "Take only around half an hour to look around. The rest of our time, we will be visiting the landmarks and then visit the Throne Room once the Solstice meeting is over."

A/N

Ah Percy, not going to get along with Annabeth? of course… :)

Speaking of which, let's talk about that.

Percy and Annabeth is in my opinion, one of the best relationships ever that I have ever read.

It is a slow burn, with perfect dynamics, and their development is just perfect. From grumpy friends to close friends, to nearly falling apart due to Rachel and then falling for each other hard. In my opinion adding too much fluff into their relationship does ruin it, at least for me, unless you're going full AU in which case you are really free to do whatever you want to do, anyway.

As for the duo in our story, well... Let's see the next chapter.