Chapter 5 (2,738 words)

It was the day after Capture the Flag that Perry woke up. I was heading out of my cabin after my daily workout to go hang out at the beach with Rob and the others when I saw Perry and Annabeth loitering about near the outdoor bathroom. Annabeth wore her usual jeans and camp t-shirt ensemble, hat in her back pocket. Her arms were crossed and she leaned on one leg more than the other, a picture of sass. Perry was wearing the jeans and hoodie combo he came into camp with. He stood with a bit of a hunch in his shoulders, green eyes heavy with loss and confusion; a state he would be sure to overcome quickly —given his status as a demigod— but one I wanted to help with anyway.

"Yo," I called out to Annabeth, waving a greeting. Annabeth waved back while Perry just stared as I got closer, a bewildered look on his face. "So Perry the Platypus is awake, I see," I said, grinning as I looked at Perry. "Get it? Cause he's—" Annabeth's hand quickly slapped over my mouth.

"We don't know for sure yet," she hissed at me. "So don't just go around assuming— Gah!" She quickly removed her hand from my face and waved it around. "Eww, Gwyn! That's disgusting!" She said, wiping her saliva-covered hand on my shirt in retaliation.

"Yeah, it was, don't you ever wash your hands?" I said, spitting to the side.

"Angel? Also sorry, what'd you call me?" Perry asked, a bemused expression on his face.

I straightened up and put on a wide smile. "Oh yeah! You're Perry now; Perseus was getting too long to think."
"Um, my name's actually Percy, Percy Jackson."
"Oh! Where are my manners!" I said, turning to Annabeth expectantly.

"What," she asked, arms crossed.

"You're supposed to introduce us," I stage-whispered. She rolled her eyes.

"Percy, this is Gwyndolin; Gwyn, that's Percy Jackson."
I stuck my hand out to shake. "Just call me Gwyn, Percy!" I said as he took it. "Also," I pulled him close. "Unfortunately for you, darling, I'm straight as an arrow, so I can't be your angel," I said, sighing dramatically. "That spot is reserved for my future goth/punk girlfriend that knows how to handle herself, and if she ever did call me angel she would ask me to put sad wings around her and protect her from this world of sin, so we could rise again."

"…What?"

"What?!"

"Hmm, that's not meant for you guys, disregard," I said, waving it away.

"No, I mean, goth/punk? She's—"

"Straight? You mean you aren't a—"

Both of their voices overlapped, but were interrupted by Clarisse coming in clutch with a loud, "Hey, check out the newbie!"

Annabeth snarled in frustration at being interrupted and turned to Clarisse.

"Clarisse, why don't you go polish your spear or something?" I giggled a little at Annabeth's accidental euphemism.
"Sure thing missy," Clarisse replied, looming over Annabeth, two of her sisters from Ares' cabin behind her. "Then I'll run you through with it!"
I coughed loudly, trying to stifle my laughing. "Gods damn it 'roo girl, phrasing!"

Clarisse groan in exasperation (and a little embarrassment) while Percy and Annabeth just looked at me confusedly.

"You know what I meant!" She snapped. "Who's the runt, twerp?"

"So you here with the 'Welcoming Committee?'" I asked. Clarisse just grinned ferally. I shrugged and introduced them, while Annabeth just groaned.

"Clarisse, that's Percy; Percy that's Clarisse and her sisters, daughters of Ares."
"Wait, 'Welcoming Committee?' Wait, Ares? Wait—" Percy didn't get to finish as Clarisse picked him up under her arm one-handed and wrestled him toward the toilets.

"Have fun! Don't blame me if you get a little wet, 'roo girl," I called as Annabeth and I followed the Ares kids to the toilets. Annabeth just nursed her temples like she was dealing with a headache as we stood at the entrance to the bathroom.

"Why didn't you stop her? She listens to you... Sometimes."
I shrugged. "Why didn't you?" She just sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. I thought back to her silencing me, and came to a realisation.

"Oooh, you knew Clarisse would come 'welcome' Percy, didn't you?" I asked, a shit-eating grin on my face. "Naughty girl," she shivered a little as I growled playfully. "That's why you were loitering around here for so long, and so close to the toilets too! You knew she wouldn't resist trying to give him a swirly, and you wanted to 'test' your hypothesis, no? How long have you known?"
"I've had a theory since you described what he did to the Minotaur," she replied.

I scoffed. "C'mon Annie girl, it was obvious who he's the son of."
"We can't just assume who his dad is until he's claimed! Especially not if his dad is him!" She said, scowling.

"Yeah, yeah, if we falsely say that he's the child of the wrong god I might get smote, especially since it's one of the Big Three. But honestly…" I trailed off as I caught something on Annabeth's face. Something like tired fear, like she'd seen too much, like she'd hidden something for too long…

"But that's not what you mean," I muttered to myself. Annabeth's face froze in panic.

'Chiron had that look when I told him Percy is Poseidon's son, a look of weary fear. Why hasn't there been a child of the Big Three for so long? Poseidon and Zeus are notoriously promiscuous and rapey. A child of the Big Three would be great for us! Make camp stronger. So why so worried? Something happened a long time ago that makes the possibility of a child of the Big Three scary. Taboo? A curse? No, the gods can't be cursed by a lesser being, and the top gods are the top dogs. But why would Annabeth be scared? She's just a demigod, the gods won't go out of their way to strike her down... Too much. It's something that affects us all then, because Chiron only really seems to fear for us, and he was scared too. So it's something that affects demigods as a whole, something big. Something related to the existence of a child of the Big Three specifically; they didn't freak out about me even though I'm freakishly powerful for a demigod of a minor god. Is the existence of a Big Three kid a sign of something then? Maybe—'

My train of thought was derailed, blown up by the sounds of shouting and water splashing. The train-tracks were destroyed in the explosion, all the passengers died except the driver dude. He managed to crawl out from the wreckage of my train of thought and write something in the sand before taking his final breath, and passing on with a smile of grim satisfaction. My head snapped up to see Clarisse and her sisters blasted out the bathroom door by the mother of all toilet malfunctions. I swiftly moved out of the way and let Clarisse tumble into the grass and hard-packed ground, groaning and soaking wet. Annabeth and I turned to see Percy standing in the middle of a restroom-turned-swamp, 'Like an onion,' I thought, giggling at my reference. None of the water pooled at the floor touched him, and he was as dry as he was when he went in.

"What?" He asked as we stared at him.

Annabeth turned to me.

"You know, we would have won a lot more at Capture the Flag if this is just a little of what you're capable of."

"Probably, though I'm not at that level of sheer amount and power I can use," I replied, shrugging. I looked behind me at Clarisse, then back at a still bewildered Percy, then at Annabeth, realisation on my face.

"You know, your plan would really only work with someone as hot-headed as Clarisse."
Annabeth scoffed. "Please, the only reason we've lost the last two games is because Ares' cabin's side has a higher quantity of quality soldiers. Their only strategy is 'hit it until it dies'. We needed a juggernaut, and it looks like we've got one now," she said, giving Percy an appraising look.

I groaned as I realised something. "Ugh, I'm gonna have to train him when he gets claimed, aren't I?"

Annabeth just smirked and turned to Percy. "Come on, I'll show you Hermes' cabin and hand you off to Luke."

"Um, are we just going to ignore what happened?" Percy asked.

"Of course not, I've already got the perfect place for you in my strategy for Capture the Flag next week!"

"Well," I said, interrupting whatever Percy was going to say as I yawned and stretched a bit. I'd spent most of the morning after breakfast meditating, and my workout after lunch was pretty heavy. "I'm gonna go down to the beach. I imagine most of Hermes' cabin will come by later as well, so maybe I'll see you guys later." I shrugged. "Or maybe I won't, but you look like you need some relaxation today, so after you get settled in with Luke come join us," I told Percy. "You look like the kind of guy who'd feel most at home in the ocean," I finished with a grin as Annabeth smacked my arm.

I quickly waved them goodbye and took my time going down to the beach. Rob and the rest of the gym bros (a smattering of the more physically inclined campers, i.e. a bunch of Ares' and Hermes' kids, a couple Hephaestus guys with one Athena kid who was really into anatomy and physiology) were already there, tanning and flexing and swimming and wrestling in the sand. Or just relaxing, you know, it's not like we're always doing something, even ADHD has its limits. I took a seat in the sand next to Rob, who'd collapsed in a sweating, sandy heap after getting challenged by an Ares bro to a wrestling match.

'It's nice, just relaxing and staring out into the sea,' I thought, drinking in the smell of salt, the ocean breeze a cool, flowing silk on my face. Clarisse joined us not long after, in a pair of trunks and a large shirt. I'd always thought it somewhat strange she used a shirt when swimming, but oh well, to each their own.

"Why didn't you tell me about that stupid runt?" She growled.

I shrugged. "I did, sorta. But you wouldn't'a listened anyway, so why bother?"

"What's… This… About a… Runt?" Rob panted at out side.

"Oh yeah, you know about the 'Welcoming Committee?'" Clarisse shot me a warning glare, but I just smirked and plowed on. Rob nodded.

"Well, you remember that guy I picked up outside of camp a few days ago? I don't remember if I told you, that whole day is still a blur. Well, anyway, so I found this guy at the camp borders after he killed the Minotaur, and today he woke up! So Annabeth was showing him around camp, Clarisse got the committee together to give him a swirly, and they got totally creamed!" I said with a huge grin on my face.

"Huh. Neat," Rob replied dully as he dropped his head back into the sand and started snoring.

I started laughing as Clarisse grumbled, "Gods damn it Gwyn if I wasn't so tired I'd punt you into the ocean." I just chuckled and patted her on the back, to which she swatted my hand away.

That night I had a dream. No, not one of those dreams, the other kind! I was floating down a milky white river. It was dark all around, and I could just barely see stalagmites to the far sides, and gigantic mountains of stalactites hanging far above me.

'I'm in the underworld,' I thought. But I knew I was dreaming, I could feel it. A kind of gentle apathy that comes with some dreams, like I knew nothing could really happen to me here. I didn't worry, and just let myself flow down the River Lethe. Eventually, I began to see the flickering light of a fire source nearby.

'The Phlegethon,' I thought, and realised where I was going.

You see, there are five rivers of the Underworld: The Acheron, the river of woe and said to be another entrance to the underworld, the Cocytus, the frozen river of lamentation, the Styx, the river of oath and where the crossing of the dead occurred, and the Phlegethon, the river of fire that crossed through the Fields of Punishment and the Lethe, the river of forgetfulness, which had its banks near Hades' palace.

Now, the Lethe and the Phlegethon ran parallel to each other for most of their length across Hades, at the furthest reaches of the underworld not in Tartarus, and joined near the Styx entrance and in Tartarus. And since I was going downriver, there was only one place I could be going: to the centre of Tartarus. Of course, that is if I was going to where they fed into each other. I looked up, and sure enough I was drifting to the banks of the Lethe. Getting out, I noticed I was in a sliver of land between the two rivers, and they didn't meet within viewing distance even further downriver, meaning I wasn't in Tartarus. Besides, it was still only cosy-dark, not suffocating-kill-you-by-presence-with-sickly-green-light dark.

"Probably in some forgotten corner of the Underworld," I murmured to myself. I looked around, trying to find what Lethe and my father clearly wanted me to find, which didn't take long. There was a small cabin a little ways away, illuminated by the flickering flow of the river of fire. I began walking over, the Phlegethon to my left and the Lethe to my right. It was an interesting contrast.

One, the Phlegethon, seemed to crackle and wave more than burble and flow; just below the surface of the flickering flames, blues and reds and greens and oranges and purples, a surface of some liquid of indistinct colour, with a consistency between lava and water, like molten blood. It didn't rage, nor did it run. It just was, and it felt strange to think that this liquid could cause me so much pain every day, could harm divinity itself. The other, a light milky water, still definitely water, just with the complexion of milk. Or, not milk really, because it wasn't really a milk-white colour; more like a pale, flowing star, that glowed with an inner light. Peaceful, sleepy, it murmured and licked at the edges of its banks, inoffensive. Looking at it felt like coming home to a mother's arms. Eventually, I reached the cabin. I could hear a faint clanging form deep within, like someone banging a hammer to metal.

'Like at the Hephaestus kids' forges,' I realised as I stepped into the house. It was a lot smaller on the outside than on the inside, though that didn't really register until later, because in no time and space at all, I was at the door to a room. Orange fire light flickered from beneath the door, and the clanging was louder than before, rhythmic and clear. I slowly turned the handle and carefully eased the door open, so as not to disturb whoever was working within. Inside was the perfect picture of a blacksmith's forge: tools lined the walls, neatly organised, a wooden table pushed against a wall.

At the far end, a sliding glass door that I didn't remember seeing from the outside, currently open to let the room ventilate. A furnace set into another wall, with one of those large accordion-like air-blowers next to it. In the centre of the room was a man hammering on an anvil, just a step away from the furnace and the quenching station. He paused for a second, examined whatever he was forging with his tongs, and kept hammering away. To his side, wreathed in a dark cloak, watching as the man worked, was my father. He turned to me, and for only a second was I able to see his eyes, burning read coals of swirling flames, before I was mercilessly yanked away.

In my room I jerked up, my father's voice echoing in my ears: "I await your visit."

AN: Oh, hello again. Good to see you, I hope you are doing well this week. Here's another chapter, I hope you like it!

So, I'll be real with you guys: I have no idea how to write the existing characters, so they will probably be OOC. As I've said before, I haven't read PJO in a long time. I will try to show Annabeth's intelligence a bit more while writing this though; I always felt that we were always told how smart she is rather than shown, but I think that is more to do with the original work being in Percy's POV.

Also, like, let me tell you guys something: I can literally write this amount of words in 4 hours, tops. This one took 3. Why don't I do that? I have no clue, probably laziness/depression. I certainly have time to write at least three chapters a week. Anyways, I'm trying to get out of my funk more consistently (though it's hard when your thyroid goes "nah, I'm just gonna be lazy, good luck with that!" and then gives you a solid decade of depression and stuff, which synergises strangely well with ADHD. No, I don't take meds, I'm too paranoid). So basically I've made myself a schedule I will try to keep every day, because this is fun. If I do manage to follow my schedule consistently, I may be able to increase my uploads to twice a week. We'll see, you'll find out soon (Wednesday or Thursday).

Also, I kind of want to go back and fix? my prologue. I don't know, this is very low-effort. Also also, I may start posting this somewhere else as well, to get some extra feedback. Who knows, schedules schedules.

Finally, can anyone guess the musical reference I made here? If you do, I'll give you... my excitement, I guess? Oh well.

Anyway, I hope you all have a good week. Any feedback is appreciated. Until next time.