Chapter Six: The Quest

Percy was feeling uneasy... ever since he had found out that everything he was seeing was real he was feeling an uncontrollable urge to find the Lady in red. It felt like nothing else mattered more than finding her.

He could not explain why he was feeling this way but something about her just called to him... it wasn't her beauty, yes she was almost certainly the most beautiful woman on the entire planet but that wasn't the reason for what he was feeling, it some something deeper... something older...

"Hey Percy, are you ready to leave now?" his mother asked.

"Um yeah," he said.

"What were you thinking about? your imaginary girlfriend?" she teased.

Percy flushed in embarrassment, "Mom! please this is serious!"

Sally laughed at his son's predicament and ruffled his hair, "come on now, you must leave for the camp, I am sure they would be in an uproar after the son the sea god disappeared."

"Do I really have to? why can't we leave all this madness here and go to someplace like I don't know... Iceland?" he asked.

"Going to Iceland won't change who your father is Percy... it pains me to send you to danger like this, I want to be a selfish mother and take my baby away from all this madness... but I can't, you have a destiny my son, it is your destiny to become a great hero, and I can't stand in its way..." she said.

Percy stopped her by pulling her into a tight hug, "I'll miss you, mom, I'd try to come home as often as I can... and I'd try my best to be careful, bye mom and thank you... for everything." he said.

His mother broke down into tears as she saw her son walk away heading towards an unknown destiny, she could only hope the fates would be kind to him.

Meanwhile In Olympus

The Hall of the Gods is the place where the gods have their summer and winter solstice meetings. High above, the blue ceiling can be seen glittering with constellations. The Thrones of the gods stand in a U around the hearth From Zeus and Poseidon's thrones the goddesses sit on the left side of the hearth and the other gods sit on the right side, today though, they were convened here for a different reason.

Zeus had called this meeting and accused his brother, Poseidon of stealing his master bolt with the help of his half-blood son Percrus Jackson.

Poseidon stood up from his throne and hall shook with his rage, "You dare you to accuse me of theft brother?! has your paranoia blinded you so much that you forsake the bonds of our family and point your finger at your own brother?!"

There was a blinding flash followed by a clap of deafening thunder, "Don't lie to me Posdiodon, you have always wanted my throne for yourself! but today you have crossed the line."

"Zeus!" Poseidon roared and all the windows of the godly palace were smashed by the shockwave, "You may be the king of gods but do not forget that I am your elder brother! I will not stand for this disrespect!"

"Brothers please calm down, this is not the way a family behaves." Lady Hestia said from the hearth.

"Stay out of this Hestia!" Zeus thundered.

"You have gone too far brother, don't you dare address our sister in this manner" Poseidon raged as the hall shook more violently.

Zeus backed down a bit at the display of power, "You are right... I apologize for the way I addressed you, Lady Hestia..."

Zeus looked hard at his brother, "I want you son to be brought before the council, we will judge his innocence here." he ordered.

"Perseus will NOT be brought before the council, he is a twelve-year-old boy, who until yesterday, was oblivious to the existence of Divinity, I will not have him brought before the council where you treat my son like a criminal." Poseidon declared.

"That... WAS AN ORDER from the king of GODS!" Zeus thundered.

"And I am NOT LISTENING!" Poseidon roared, "Perseus will not be brought before the council, If you have a problem with that... brother... then you can consider yourself at WAR WITH ATLANTIS!" rest of the gods cowered in fear as Olympus roared with his fury and the hall shook so violently that parts of the ceiling started falling off.

"BROTHERS!" Hestia roared, she was no longer in her nine-year-old form, standing in her place was a fifteen feet tall woman who looked very angry at her younger siblings, "YOU WILL NOT BEHAVE LIKE CHILDREN!" The oldest Olympian shouted, and her siblings winced in fear. "A quest will be issued to the demigods today, they WILL recover Zeus' master bolt and return it to him, I have full faith in their abilities, just as I have faith in my brother's integrity, if Posdiodon says that he did not steal the bolt then I choose to believe him... there will be no war, we will reconvene here on the summer solstice until then, Zeus and Poseidon, you will stay away from each other!" she ordered.

"Yes, sister" Zeus gritted his teeth.

"As you wish sister" Posdiodon accepted with a slight bow.

An hour later... Camp Half-Blood.

It's safe to say that Percy didn't get the warmest welcome when he returned to the camp, he was forced to listen to a 15 minutes lecture on the 'dangers and irresponsibility of running away from camp without informing anyone by Chiron, after Chiron was done chewing him it was Annabeth's turn to make him realize how foolish and dangerous his actions had been, this went on for a good thirty minutes before Percy could finally rest and process everything... or so he thought... the shock of his life came when Chiron summoned him to the big house yet again and dropped a new bomb on him.

"Zeus thinks you stole his master bolt for your father..." Chiron explained.

"He thinks WHAT!? this is absurd I wasn't even aware of this stupid divine world until yesterday and he is accusing ME of stealing his symbol of power!?" Percy shouted with anger.

"Clam down Percy, your anger isn't going to change the situation..." Chiron said.

"How can you expect me to calm down Chiron, the King of the Gods is accusing me, a simple demigod who was oblivious of the divine world, of stealing his master bolt, I resent this... he is a god, isn't he supposed to be all-seeing or something?! how can he think I stole his bolt?" Percy seethed in anger.

"His Bolt was stolen a few days ago, Zeus was paranoid that it was Poseidon's doing so that he could dethrone him, when your father claimed you, a demigod whose existence was hidden until today, Zeus accused him of stealing the master bolt before the Olympian council... needless to say Lord Poseidon was... not thrilled... but when Zeus ordered for you to be dragged to Olympus and face the council... that was the last straw and Lord Poseidon declared war on Olympus, things almost got out of hand but Lady Hestia's intervention was able to prevent the worst from happening..." Chiron explained.

Percy was shocked... to think the gods almost went to war because of him... this was crazy, "So what now?" he asked.

"Lady Hestia ordered a quest to be issued, to find the master bolt... I want you, if possible, to lead this quest, after your recent demonstrations of power I feel like you would be a very capable contender for this quest... also if you return the bolt, it might reduce Zeus's animosity towards your father... you will have until the summer solstice to return the bolt and gods forbid if you fail then the consequences may be disastrous for the entire world..."

Percy sighed, "I will do it, I don't want my father to go on a war against his family for my sake. I will return the bolt, just tell me what I need to do."

"You need to consult the oracle, she will tell you what you have to do, Grover! please show Percy to the oracle," he said ordering a boy.

As they exited the room, Percy walked behind the weird goat-legged boy silently.

"Hey man, I heard everything Chiron said... and... man I hope you are ok... that was a lot to take in." the goat boy said.

Percy chuckled, "you bet it was."

"Nice to meet you man, I am Grover." he introduced himself.

"Likewise, I am Percy." he said shaking Grover's hand, "So do you have any idea about this quest business?" he asked.

"Yeah yeah, basically you hear what the oracle has to say and start the quest, everything she says will make sense later," he explained.

"Hmm... so ever been on a quest Grover?" he asked.

"Erm... a few years ago I was given a task and I messed up... since then people don't take me to quests anymore... I think it's good that they don't take me, I would probably only mess everything up again," he said dejectedly.

"Hey... don't be so disheartened, everyone makes mistakes what matters is how hard you try to make sure it doesn't happen again, running away is not the solution."

"You are right Percy but it doesn't matter, no one is going to take me on a quest anyways... well here we are, go inside and you would find the oracle," he said motioning towards a door.

Percy pulled the door and entered the dusty attic,

it was filled with Greek hero junk: armor stands covered in cobwebs,once-bright shields pitted with rust, old leather steamer trunks plastered with stickers saying ITHAKA, CIRCE'S ISLE, and LAND OF THE AMAZONS. etc...

By the window, sitting on a wooden tripod stool, was a mummy. Not the wrapped-in-cloth kind, but a human female body shriveled to a husk. Looking at her sent chills up Percy's back. And that was before she sat up on her stool and opened her mouth. A green mist poured from the mummy's mouth, coiling over the floor in thick tendrils, hissing around Percy's brain.

"I am the spirit of Delphi, speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python. Approach, seeker, and ask." he heard in his mind.

Percy gathered his courage and asked, "How do I recover the master bolt?"

The hissing increased and he heard, "You shall go west, and face the god who has turned.

You shall find what was stolen, and see it safely returned.

And you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end."

'Well, that was ominous...' Percy thought to himself.

He exited the attack, looking very shaken, he found Chiron, Annabeth, Grover, and Mr. D waiting for him downstairs.

"So what did the oracle say?" Chiron asked.

Percy sighed, "You shall go west, and face the god who has turned.

You shall find what was stolen, and see it safely returned.

And you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end." he recited back.

"Doesn't sound too encouraging does it?" he joked.

"No, it doesn't..." Chiron replied.

"So who are you taking then Perry?" Mr. D asked.

"Taking?" he asked confused.

"You get to take two more people with you for the quest Percy." Annabeth clarified.

"Oh... well, what about you Annabeth? are you interested in coming," he asked.

Annabeth looked like Christmas had come early and gave him a million-watt smile, "Of course I would, I have been waiting to go on a quest ever since I came to the camp." she said.

"And the other person?" Mr. D asked impatiently.

"Umm... I think I'll take Grover if he's up to it."

Grover looked shocked at this and was looking at him with a lot of gratitude, "Er umm... sure I would go if you want to take me." he said.

"Cool, there we go," Percy said.

"Eh... you sure you want to take the Satyr kid? he doesn't have the best track record." Mr. D grunted.

"Yep, I think he'll do just fine," Percy said.

"Your loss" Mr. D shrugged.

"So the quest is decided then, you will leave tomorrow. No go and rest, you are going to need it." Chiron said and dismissed them.

A/N: Yes, I removed one line from the prophecy intentionally, sorry about that.

Thank You!