Chapter 15: We stage an uprising in the prison of eternal fun

POV: Percy

My nightmare started out as something that I had the vague memory of dreaming of before. And I don't mean the part about being forced to take a standardized test while wearing a straitjacket, because that one I had dreamed million times before. Rather the fact that at the next desk sat Thalia with her unruly black, punk-style hair, dark eyeliner, and electrical blue eyes, and freckles across her nose which I only dreamed of once.

But of the little I could remember of this particular dream, I was sure it was different than the last time.

Because while myself and the children around us going out to recess were around age twelve or thirteen, Thalia didn't. She looked like her almost sixteen-year-old self, the way she had during the Battle of Manhattan, with the silver circlet on her head indicating her status as the lieutenant of the hunt. The only thing wrong was that she was wearing a straitjacket instead of the hunters' attire she had worn back then.

Another disparity: I wasn't wearing a straitjacket at all.

"Come on, you two. You're not stupid, are you? Pick up your pencils," the teacher kept saying, which was kind of weird considering nothing was preventing me from doing just that.

Thalia rolled her eyes at that, her face showing annoyed acceptance more than anything else. She gave me a humorous look that said something like, "Can you believe this guy?"

Out loud she said, "Well, Seaweed Brain? I didn't take your place so you can twiddle your thumbs here."

I flinched. I could clearly remember the moment she was speaking of. The moment during the fight in the throne room where she had pushed me out of the way. Where she had ended up getting killed by Kronos' scythe instead of me.

"One of us has to get out of here, and I'm still kind of restrained here, you know?" Thalia went on, then pointed with her chin at me. "And what's that supposed to be?"

Confused I looked down at myself but couldn't see anything out of place. I looked exactly how I remembered to have looked back then. Yet Thalia's smirk was a telltale sign that she was making fun of me. That there was something wrong with the way I looked for some reason.

She shook her head, not taking off her mocking smile.

"What are you hesitating for? Why hold yourself back like this?" she asked. "Have you already forgotten what I told you? I believed in you and the decisions you took. As did everyone else. We all trusted that you and Annabeth would lead us on the right path. Do you honestly think such a minor thing as traveling to the past would change that?"

I couldn't help but laugh. I would love to see Kronos' face upon hearing somebody call his ultimate plan a minor thing.

"That you're leading means we follow, Seaweed Brain," she said, her voice sounding as if she was considering me an idiot for not understanding what had to be a simple concept in her opinion.

"Stop looking at what's behind you, and instead concentrate on the path ahead. Don't underestimate us and trust us to have your back," she said. "Like we trust you to pave a path for us no matter what challenge lies ahead."

I closed my eyes.

We had resisted till the bitter end against Kronos, had fought hard to gain this chance to travel back in time to save our friends, our family. We had tried to fit into our twelve-year-old selves again but found we couldn't. It shouldn't be surprising, our experiences were just too different. But when we found all the people we knew didn't share these experiences anymore, we had acted as if we were on our own, as if they were already dead.

As if our friends were nothing more than strangers now.

They might not have the same memories as we had, but they were still the same people they had always been, and with time would grow into their old selves again. And while we had understood this and started to help them fasten the progress of them becoming these people again, we had also subconsciously decided we couldn't trust them until that time. Keeping the knowledge of us traveling in time a secret was necessary, but we had hesitated to disclose any information at all. We had tried to replicate our past relationships while also pushing the others away because we hadn't the same relationships at the moment.

We had it messed up. We had understood that things wouldn't be the same, so we would need to adapt to the changes, but had refused to accept the same would need to happen with our relationships. Instead, we should accept we need to forge new relationships and have trust in our friends that they would still have our backs no matter what changed. Because as strong as we were, we couldn't do this on our own.

I wouldn't admit it to her face, but Thalia was right. Until now I hadn't even realized how unfitting and restraining my old clothes had felt, but now I could tell that I had outgrown them. I realized that no matter how I looked, no matter how much I tried to act it, I wasn't a helpless twelve-year-old newbie anymore, but a battle-hardened sixteen-year-old veteran.

I could feel something shift around me.

Somehow, I knew exactly how I looked right now: I was wearing Greek armor; it was dented, scratched, scorched, dirty, and covered in dried blood, yet it was a perfect fit. An armor that showed it had seen battle, that showed the one wearing it had survived difficult adversaries. The grey streak I had gained from carrying the sky was there now, as were all the scars I had gathered. In a way, I now looked more like a sixteen-year-old shrunk to the height of a twelve-year-old.

I concentrated back on what was around me.

The teacher was telling me to use the pencil to answer the test. Thalia was telling me to leave her behind to confront our enemies. The thing is though if there was one thing I learned the last few years, I'm not good at doing what I'm told.

I reached my decision and stood up, picking up the test in front of me. Instead of taking the pencil, I took Riptide out of my pocket.

"You're not allowed to leave until you have answered the test so sit back down again," the teacher said while striding over to me. "And neither are you allowed bring your own writing utensils, Perseus Jackson."

I uncapped the blade, a three-foot-long sword of glowing celestial bronze in my hand. I smiled at the teacher, let go of the test, and slashed with my trusted blade. Both the test and teacher were split in half, disappearing in golden dust.

My eyes fell on Thalia who had one of her brows raised at my action, her smirk still in place.

"Only Annabeth is allowed to call me that, Pinecone Face," I told her with a lopsided grin.

I slashed again, and her straitjacket fell down with a thud, revealing, hunters' attire of a silvery parka and camouflage pants underneath it. Her smirk disappeared, being replaced by a look of surprise.

"And how am I supposed to lead if I am on my own?" I asked and then added with a hard voice, "I will never abandon my family."

She blinked once. Then she snorted, but accepted my offered hand and started to smile.

When I pulled her up from her chair, she started changing. Her body begun to shrink, black eyeliner appearing around her eyes. Her camouflage pants turned into black leather, her silvery parka to a ripped-up army jacket, and a finishing touch of chain jewelry. She once more looked the way I remembered her. From the time after she was freed from her pine.

"If you say so, Kelp Head," she answered.

The classroom started to fall apart now. Part of the floor broke away behind Thalia, revealing a staircase leading underground. The ceiling vanished completely, light shining on me and I could see wings of a mix of gold and white feathers, starting to grow from the back of my armor.

Thalia's scowled upon spotting the staircase but turned her back to me and started approaching it.

"Looks like we have more than one appointment to keep," I could hear her joke, but there was no longer any humor in her voice.

"I hope you don't take too much time and we hopefully see each other sooner than later again," she added, "but right now there is a certain someone I'm going to give a piece of my mind."

And with a last wave of her hand, she disappeared underground, and no sooner than she had left, started the wings to carry me upwards.

Build up in speed I could see an Ancient Greek city on the decapitated peak of a mountain rise from the top of the storm clouds within moments.

I was approaching Olympus…

At top speed…

Flying in the air…

Just great.

I was sure I would be fried any moment by a lightning bolt, but there seemed to be an aura deflecting any that came close to me. The wings carried me unhindered directly at the side of the mountain without slowing. I closed my eyes before I crashed into it, but nothing happened.

When I opened my eyes again, I was standing in the middle of the throne room. Sitting on his throne in front of me was Zeus. Like the weather outside suggested he was clearly in a stormy mood. He was propping his scowling head on one hand, with the other drumming on his armrest. He was leaning forward and one of his legs was twitching.

I would have thought he had summoned me to kill me off, wasn't it for the shouting match caused by Nike and Ares that filled the room. I tried to move (being in the same room as angry gods is never a good idea), but my body failed to listen to my commands. I realized I had no real physical body but was part of the flames of the hearth, yet I was still able to hear and see everything around me. Not that I got much from the shouting match they were having, except maybe a headache.

Zeus seemed to feel similar because he finally lost his temper.

"Enough!" his anger-filled voice cut them off midsentence. "I do not care for your quarrel. I've got more important problems to take care of."

While Ares smirked contently upon hearing this, Nike looked everything but happy.

"More important problems? But Lord, the presence-"

A single look of Zeus was enough to suppress any further protest of her. Her eyes hardened, but she vanished after a sharp bow, followed closely by Ares, leaving Zeus to brood on his own.

The sound of the door opening broke the silence, revealing another member of my list of "least favorite immortals".

"I told you it would be in everybody's best interest to simply destroy it, didn't I?" the queen goddess said in an innocent-sounding voice. "Now you can't even find your dirty little secret, dear. And after how much trouble I went through to get rid of the other one. I even risked making my dear son hate me."

Destroy it? What was she talking about? This couldn't have anything to do with what happened just now, because Nike clearly had tried to warn about Kronos. So, was this about Zeus' "bigger problem"? But Hera got rid of one, so more than one problem that are connected to each other?

Zeus' scowl deepened.

"Your dear son hates you since the day he was born," he spat out. "And do not dare to question my reasons, sister. Might I remind you we already had this conversation before, and you agreed that giving you that one as a gift was enough to appease you? Do not think I am unaware that it was you who tipped of our brother. And now look what it has brought us. This is your doing."

Hera just gave a triumphant smile. One that even all her divine beauty could not distract from how cruel it made her look.

But more importantly, what kind of problem goes away if you give it to your wife?

"Maybe it finally teaches you the lesson not to cross me, husband," she sneered.

Oh, joy. There was really nothing I liked better than having to listen to those two bicker over their failed marriage. If they would just divorce everybody would be happier. Us demigods in particular, but especially his children.

"You better make sure this problem of yours is eliminated soon or I will be forced to do it myself… Again. I wouldn't want to meet that woman again," were the last words I heard before everything turned dark.

PJ & AC

I woke with Grover shaking my shoulder.

I was acting on autopilot, hardly noticing what was happening around me. Like with all my dreams I got the feeling it was important somehow. So after freeing the animals again and saying goodbye to my new friend the zebra, we were wandering through Las Vegas, and before I realized we were already approaching the Lotus Hotel and Casino again.

"What are we doing here? Why have you lead us here?" Grover asked.

He was looking suspiciously at Annabeth. After my dream last night, I felt guilty about how we had treated Grover till now. We were practically manipulating him to follow us in danger without him knowing what was going on.

I made a decision.

I gave Annabeth a short look and then answered him, "We can't really explain this – not now at least – and yes, that place is a trap, but we really have to go in there."

He didn't look particular keen on going into another trap again.

"I guess that has to do with the strange way you two act ever since you met?" he asked.

We nodded.

"Ok. You're my friends," he said, "and I trust you, but please explain what in the gods name is going on when we return to Camp."

Grover's trust in us didn't help make me feel any less guilty.

"These are the Lotus Eaters. Always stay close together," Annabeth told us. "Don't touch anything or you risk not leaving again. "

She was looking pointedly at Allapsar who was trying to look innocent.

"Right," Grover said, "No touching. Get in and out as fast as possible. Easy enough. What are we looking for exactly?"

We were now almost in front of the entrance. I could already see through the open chrome doors, could smell the lotus blossoms and the magic within it trying to take a hold over me. I shook off the feeling.

"Two demigods. A boy and a girl. Italian looking. Aged ten and twelve," I whispered.

Before anyone could answer, the smiling doorman was already greeting us, "Hey, kids. You look tired. You want to come in and sit down?"

The guy sounded sympathetic which kind of annoyed me. How come the only helpful people, the only times' something nice is happening, it's always a trap? Why can't there be old ladies whose evilest thought is to overfeed you with cookies for a change? Right, because this is the mythological world and everybody hates the gods, but can't do anything against them except let it out on us.

In the end, we still had to agree, and entered and took our keys and casino cards from the bellhop.

If you knew what to look for, it was easy enough to see the hints that something was not right. There wasn't a single adult in sight, only other kids. How many were trapped in here in total? It was hard to tell, as there were multiple floors with games and we didn't know how many were staying in their rooms. If only there was a way to save them as well…

We could only hope that we could find Nico and Bianca somewhere downstairs because searching for them in the rooms would pose a problem.

We started to explore the first floor, making sure to stay close together, reminding each other then and again what our mission was. The most difficult to keep in check was unsurprisingly Allapsar. You can't just enter a children's dreamland with an ADHD demigod and expect them to stay put. Telling her there would appear spiders if she were to sit down was enough to snap her out of it though.

We walked past hundreds of different video games, a climbing wall, and even over the bungee-jumping bridge, slowly climbing the floors upwards. We encountered far over a hundred kids scattered over the casino, but there was no sign off the ones we were searching for. Had this detour been in vain after all?

I was close to suggesting giving up lest we spend too much time in here when a Lotus bellhop – another than the one downstairs – hurried up to us. I tensed, gripping Riptide tightly in my pocket.

"Can't find any games you like, kids?" he asked, sounding downcast as if that would be the most terrible thing he could imagine. "Don't worry, we just added an entirely new floor full of games for platinum-card members."

He held out the cards and I relaxed. They had just been worried we would leave and were trying to keep us here, but didn't seem to intend to attack us. Just when I wanted to decline somebody reached for the cards. Surprisingly it hadn't been Allapsar but Annabeth.

"Sure," she said. "We would love to."

Hearing this the bellhop looked like we had just made his day, as if nothing would make him as happy as us finding a fun game to play.

"Great!" he said. "If you need anything at all, feel free to ask."

For a moment I wondered why she would have done that when it hit me. Of course, Hades would put them inside the place they would be least likely to be able to leave on their own.

"They are most likely there," Annabeth confirmed my suspicion after the bellhop had left. "But we have to be extremely careful in there."

Grover looked pained but resigned to his fate. We really should find a way to repay him after all he went through because of us. Telling him about the future and where he would find Pan would surely make him enthusiastic. At least until he learned of Pan's fate.

We made our way over to the elevator, inserting our new cards that made a new button appear, and went upwards to where we hopefully would find what we were looking for.

When the elevator opened the smell of lotus blossom assaulted us. It was so much stronger than it had been downstairs. It wasn't surprising that this was their trump card to prevent people from leaving.

I wanted- no I needed to play these games. I knew that this was a trap, that if I were to start playing, I would never leave again. Yet the magic was almost more than I could handle.

We didn't have any of Hermes multivitamins and neither was there a sea I could dive into. If only we had something that could block out the smell completely, but-

No, wait.

I had an idea. It was a little crazy, and not something a normal person could survive, but I wasn't particularly normal now, was I?

I concentrated my power, summoning water from within me and let it fill my lungs and cover my mouth and nose. It was a strange feeling, but I could still breathe normally. It was like I was wearing one of those masks doctors would wear during operations, only mine was made completely out of water. It wasn't a particular fashionable statement, but it prevented me from smelling anything around me, and my power helped to negate any effect the magic had on me.

But the damage was already done. When I concentrated on my surroundings again, I could see Annabeth and Grover cowering next to me, still inside the elevator, both fighting against the magics effect. I wasn't surprised that Annabeth was able to fight it off to some point at least, but Grover was doing even better than her. Then I remembered that his love for Pan and the need to find him were strong enough to even choose to travel to the Underworld. A little bit of magic was nothing compared. But the real problem was that there was no sign of Allapsar.

Grover was standing up again, but Annabeth was still struggling. We couldn't simply turn around, now that Allapsar was missing, but Annabeth was in no condition to go on.

The two of us made eye contact. I gave a few signs with my hands and she nodded, so I left the elevator together with Grover, after pressing the button, sending Annabeth down again.

So far so good. That left only to find the – now three – missing children…

This had been a downright stupid idea.

Grover and I started exploring again. I would have loved it if we could have followed his nose, but the lotus smell was overpowering anything else, so we had no choice but to do it the hard way.

At first, the games didn't seem any different than downstairs and I figured this place really was just to give resistant kids a higher dose of magic mushrooms or rather magic lotus, but after going a little deeper the games started to change. I could see a VR arena game where you were a gladiator and had to fight different waves of animals, other gladiators, or even mythical monsters. There was a strategic game where you had to pick a nation and try to take world domination, and far more.

On their own, they wouldn't seem suspicious, but having so many similar games so close together? And the kids playing them were looking different as well. A lot of them were wearing a purple shirt with a golden laurel and the letters SPQR on it. I even could have sworn that I saw the same letters and a symbol tattooed on at least some of their arms. Now I might not be an expert in history like Annabeth, but even I knew that this had to do with Rome. It was like their motto or something. This was a little bit much to be a coincidence.

If Medusa had been trapping demigods on their way to Camp Half-blood, maybe the Lotus Eater had done the same for the Roman camp? Could these all be Roman demigods? It seemed likely.

Any other day I might have tried talking to them, but we were already on a mission and I really didn't want to risk anything having the master bolt and Helm of Darkness in our backpacks.

"-the wine dude. I've got both the figurine and a holofoil card, too," a childish-sounding voice said somewhere to my right.

It sounded both familiar and unfamiliar at once. Familiar because I of course knew the person the voice belonged to, but unfamiliar because I hadn't heard that voice sounding so happy in a long time – ever since his sister died that is. I tapped Grover and we followed it to its source and soon we lay our eyes on the people we were looking for.

In an open space in a corner of the room sat Nico on the ground with a bunch of his mythomagic cards scattered in front of him. Next to him was sitting Allapsar, to whom he seemed to be animatedly explaining the game. On a chair watching them sat Bianca, wearing her floppy green cap on her head, as well as a fond smile on her lips.

Seeing her like this I almost couldn't believe that she would take the first option she had to leave her brother. Because remembering what she did after her death and seeing her now clearly showed how much she loved him. I could believe that had she lived longer maybe she would have come to regret her rushed decision. She had said she wanted to find herself, to have a life outside of being a big sister all time around. Not immediately meeting the hunters but instead joining camp might even change her decision should they meet again.

"And even though he's only got like five hundred attack points and everybody here thinks he's the lamest god card, I totally think his powers are sweet!" Nico exclaimed.

I hadn't known he had already played this game in here, but after seeing the other games on this floor, I wasn't surprised that he had learned it here.

I couldn't speak like I was and seeing me like this would probably confuse them, so I removed the water from my mouth, leaving it deeper in my nose so it still protected me but couldn't be seen any longer.

"The coolest abilities has still Hestia though," I said, making our presence known and have all of them look up at me. "While she has neither attack nor defense power, she has some really cool abilities."

"Really?" Nico asked confused. "But I don't have her card. Is she from a new expansion pack?"

His behavior might have been getting on my nerves the first time we met, but this time Annabeth wasn't missing – at least not in a way that would worry me – and I would prefer it over the hateful and lost way he had been acting after that.

"But of course," I answered. "As the guardian of the Hearth she can't be attacked, and if she is the only god card on your side, she gives all other of your cards a defensive boost."

Nico looked thoughtful at that, but what I noticed more than that was that Bianca was looking at us weirdly.

"But what you really want, is to play her with Elpis the spirit of Hope," I went on, "because then she gains a one-time-use ability that resets the game to starting conditions and gives you another chance to win."

"Woah, that is cool!"

I gave them a smile.

"Hi, I'm Percy and that is Grover," I finally introduced us. "And you seem to already have met Allapsar."

"That's my new friend Nico, and his big sister Bianca," Allapsar answered happily. "He has been teaching me his favorite game."

"Do you know where I can get that new expansion pack?" Nico asked immediately afterward.

I almost laughed at his one-track mind, but Bianca was still looking weirdly at us, so I ignored Nico for now and looked at her.

"Something wrong?"

Her eyes widened.

"No, sorry," she apologized. "It's just that… Do we know each other?"

Now it was my turn to be surprised. She couldn't remember something, could she?

"I don't think so," I answered carefully, ignoring the suspicious look Grover gave me when he caught me lying.

"Strange, you look familiar," she said, furrowing her brows. "as if I met you two - and two other girls maybe - before? But I can't put my mind on when that would have been."

Did she remember when Grover, Annabeth, Thalia, and I rescued them from their school? But how was that possible?

"Right, we can talk about this later," Grover said giving me a pointed look, telling me he would expect it in the explanation Annabeth and I owed him. "But how about we leave now instead."

He was right of course, but it also reminded me that I conveniently never thought about how exactly I would get them to leave with us. Instead, I had been hoping Annabeth would think of something, but she wasn't her now.

"Ahem yes," I tried. "Now that may sound stupid, but you have to leave with us. Like right now."

Bianca gave me a confused and searching look. Yeah, not even I would be stupid enough to follow if somebody said that to me.

Surprisingly enough Bianca accepted though.

"Really?" I asked dumbfounded.

She nodded, "I don't understand it myself, but I get the feeling that I can trust you somehow. Let's go, Nico," she said shaking his shoulder when he didn't react.

The other two had gone back to their cards after they lost interest in our conversation, but now Nico looked up again looking unwilling. As did Allapsar.

"What?"

"I said we have to go."

"But we are playing right now. Can't we go later?"

The magic clearly still worked on him and Allapsar, so why didn't it on Bianca right now?

"Didn't you want that new expansion," Grover tried. "We can ask downstairs, I'm sure they have it."

Within moments Nico had packed up all his cards and figurines in a small bag.

"Let's go," he exclaimed, dancing around like he needed to use the restroom. "This will be great!"

At that moment the lights suddenly went out and angry shouting started around us. It took me only a moment to realize that something – or rather someone – had interrupted the power supply.

It was of course something we had talked about before. Almost all games here needed electricity, and the lotus scent the magic worked based on was supplied by the air conditioning, so cutting the power would also disrupt the magic. But Annabeth said that basically all casinos in Vegas have backup generators to bypass a power out, as not to lose money, and she wasn't sure on how much magic this casino worked. So we had only taken this as a backup plan.

By the looks of it, Annabeth had decided to use it anyway. Most likely because she doubted we could pull them away after how strong even we had felt the magic on the platinum floor. She couldn't know how strangely easy it had actually been.

I gave a quick scan of our surroundings. While the other children had been broken free of their games, the scent and latent magic in the air was most likely still too strong for them to actually leave. But it would be difficult to navigate to the exit through them, and it would be a good opportunity to try to get everyone else out as well, now that they were already halfway there.

My eyes fell on the sprinkler system, an idea forming in my head.

I concentrated, following the water pipes, and then activated not only those on this floor but everywhere in the building.

Within moments everything was trenched. Well, everything but our backpacks that is. I made sure to make those water-repellant because I was sure Nico would actually kill me if he found out I ruined his cards.

Grover realized immediately what I was after.

"Fire!" he screamed. "To the stairs!"

The shock of suddenly being in the dark, doused by water and having it wash away the scent seemed to be enough to break the spell on the rest of the children. Panic broke out as everyone was rushing to get out. I grimaced, hoping we hadn't caused anyone to get trampled.

"Come on," I said and we followed after them.

By the time we reached downstairs, it wasn't only our floor that was trying to get out of the doors. I couldn't see Annabeth, but I could hear her voice spurring on the other children from somewhere.

The bellhops were trying to calm everyone down and get them to stay, but the terrified children didn't seem that intend to listen to them. It was like a bunch of wardens trying to stop prisoners from breaking out but failing terribly at it. Grover and I joined in on making sure nobody would decide to stay. Last time I had been a delinquent on the run, so why not now one who started an uprising to escape prison.

Before long we had been swapped outside. The first thing I noticed, was that the weather outside wasn't a storm, which would mean we were either longer or more likely shorter inside the casino. The next thing I did was search for Annabeth who I found a little to the side running to a police car that had stopped just now.

When we caught up with her, the officer had the telltale sign of being manipulated by mist.

"-gas, so nobody should go inside without mask," I could hear her finish.

Making sure she had seen us, we passed her into a side street after a quick check of the date: June eighteenth.

This time we had only spent three days in the Lotus Casino.

This meant we had three days left until the summer solstice. Two more days than last time to complete our quest.

Next time: An eagle, an owl, and ... a flying goat boy?