KillWilson: Again, I was absent for a very long time. I'm sorry guys. I was dealing with life changes like a new job and college and pandemic problems. I'm not sure when this story will end, but I usually have an ending somewhere between fifteen and twenty chapters, so we'll just see where it ends. And I guess we'll just see how it ends (MHUA-HA-HA-HA)

(clears throat)- Anyways, new chapter. I think I'm gonna stop with the whole sending clips of the next chapters because I always end up sending the best scenes that would be better served as a surprise and I never know when I am gonna update again. But please, leave a review and tell me what you think. Constructive criticism is always welcome here.

P.S. who else is secretly obsessed with a Percy Jackson & the Olympians Disney+ show produced by the main man himself, Rick Riordan.

Disclaimer: All characters and worldbuilding belongs to Mr. Rick Riordan, Disney Hyperion and Riordan Press. I only own the story itself.

Chapter 11: The Trick

…

Percy's POV

I found myself floating in ethereal darkness. What happened? The last thing I remembered was Lamia attacking us in my parents unusually empty apartment, the fire, lightning striking from the roof that may or may not have been caused by my recently brought back from the dead friend Jason, and a stranger's voice yelling "MIIIIIINE!"

What happened? Where was I? Was Annabeth alright? As these questions were burning through my mind, I felt myself being jarred back to reality.

.

.

.

I found myself in the hallway of a familiar cruise ship. I was back on the Princess Andromeda.

"What the hell?" I muttered, looking around.

Suddenly, I saw me (well, I mean, younger me) coming from the stairwell. A young boy in oversized armor with an Imperial Golden sword ran past me and was about to attack Past Me. I realized that neither of them could actually see me.

I recognized the situation. I had spared the boy.

The kid yelled "For Kronos!" I watched Past Me grab the kids' hand and slam it against the wall. The sword clattered down the stairs. Past Me said, "If you want to live, get off this ship now. Tell the other demigods." As Past Me ran away, the kid pulled off his helmet. I guess I had misjudged his age, because I recognized his face.

It was Alabaster Torrington. The kid I had spared that day was Alabaster freaking Torrington.

.

Suddenly, I was on the main deck.

"You're late, Percy." A familiar voice said. "We've been expecting you for days. Come, bow before me." I turned to see Past Me facing Luke/Kronos.

"Yeah, that'll happen." Past Me muttered under his breath defiantly as he pulled Riptide, striding up the stairs to confront the Titan.

The imagine changed again. Was I dreaming, or was someone controlling my memories like they had a remote and it was on fast-forward? Seriously, I was getting really tired of this recent time travel gimmick I had been dealing with since Alabaster brought back Coatlicue.

I found myself in one of the many rooms aboard the Princess Andromeda. Past Alabaster was talking to a group of kids, all of whom looked younger than him. There were six or seven of them, and they were all crowded on the two twin beds in the room, except for Past Alabaster who was standing up and a girl who was sitting close to him on a stool.

"Yes, he said that if we want to live, we needed to get off of this ship." Past Alabaster was saying fervently. The kid looked like he was having a panic attack.

"Did he happen to mention what was going to happen to this ship that was going to kill us all?" One of the girls sitting closest to Past Alabaster asked.

"No, Kim, but I think he was telling the truth." Past Alabaster said to the girl. "Something is about to happen."

"Like what?" Kim asked, flicking her blonde ponytail behind her back.

Before Past Alabaster could come up with something, an explosion sounded beneath us.

"No." I whispered to myself in fear, realizing what was about to happen.

Past Alabaster obviously had had the same realization as I did as he shouted something in Latin and reached for Kim's hand. As a protective force field appeared around Alabaster, green Greek Fire burned through the room from the explosion that Past Me and Beckendorf had set off, burning through Kim and the others but leaving Alabaster unscathed. "Noooooo!" Alabaster shouted as he was thrown from the ship and his siblings and friends were burned alive.

…

I found myself on an empty dock. I saw a flicker of green light in the distance, and I realized I was at New York Harbor. That flicker of light had been the cruise ship exploding, leaving Alabaster and Kronos/Luke, as well as Ethan Nakamura, as the only survivors.

What had Beckendorf and I done? Poor Alabaster. For a split second, I actually couldn't blame him for hating me for so long.

"I'm so sorry, Percy." I turned to find my mom, standing behind me.

"Mom!" I shouted, running up and hugging her. After everything that had happened, I was so happy to see her, even more than I usually was. She laughed, but she seemed to be hiding a deep sadness. As I let go, I caught a familiar whiff of her scent. She smelled like candy, just like she used to when she worked at the candy shop, before she married Paul.

"Percy, what happened to Alabaster wasn't your fault." My mom said, grabbing my hand as I pulled away. She looked me in the eyes. "What you did, you were forced to do by the Olympians. You and Beckendorf both. The gods wanted you to fight their war, just as Kronos wanted Alabaster and Ethan Nakamura and Luke to fight his. They were using you."

"Mom, what- what are you saying?" I asked, wiping tears off my face. "What happened? Why weren't you guys home when we got there? And what's going on?"

Sally laughed. "One question at a time, dear. And it seems as if we're in your mind, seeing your memories. Sometimes the mind can clear up any confusion that may be clouding your decisions."

"What do you mean?" I asked, stepping away from my mother. "What happened to you?" Something was definitely different about her.

Mom smiled sadly, and the image of her flickered like a TV channel with poor connection.

"Mom?" I asked, fear rising in my throat.

"Sweetheart, I'm dead." Mom said sadly, as I realized I could see through her.

…

"What?" I asked, shell-shocked. Tears were streaming down my face. I didn't care. My mom just told me she was dead, which meant that what I was talking to was her ghost. "But Paul? And Estelle?"

"They're gone, too, baby." Mom said, a tear streaming down her face.

I turned my head away from her, sobbing. I ran my hands through my hair.

"How?" I managed to gasp out, not having the courage to look at her.

"It'll be hard for you to believe it, Percy." My mom said as I felt her hand on my shoulder. With a shudder of pain, I realized her hand was ice cold. "I'll have to show you."

…

We were on a road by the sea. I think we were in New Jersey. My mom's car, a black Mazda, was coming down the road at about 35 miles an hour. I saw Paul sitting in the driver's seat, my mom sitting passenger, and my baby half-sister Estelle was in her car seat in the back.

"What?" I asked aloud. I turned and saw my mother, or her ghost anways, sitting next to me.

"We were heading home…" Mom murmured under her breath.

Suddenly, the sky started to light up and pouring rain came out of nowhere. A lightning bolt came from the sky, striking my parents car. It swerved off the road, half off it dipping into the sea.

"NOOO!" I screamed, trying to run towards it, but Mom's ghost held my arm.

"There's nothing you can, baby." My mom said, crying. "This has already happened. This is one of my memories."

Suddenly, I saw that the ocean seemed to be pulling the car in deeper. I looked up in the sky and for a split second I thought I saw a bearded man in a pinstriped suit holding a familiar weapon.

My blood went cold with rage. Zeus. Zeus killed my mother, stepfather and baby sister with his master lightning bolt.

"Father, please." I murmured to myself, knowing he couldn't hear me and knowing this had already happened, yet I was hoping against everything that maybe my father had at least saved Estelle and Paul since I knew he hadn't saved my mom.

Against all of the odds, I saw my father striding up the surf. His trident was in hand, glowing with green light, and he was dressed for war in shining silver armor. He looked down coldly at my mom's car, before pointing his trident at it.

"What?! No!" I yelled again desperately as the shattered remains of the car started moving further underwater too fast for it to be natural. Poseidon was hiding what Zeus had done.

"Why?!" I demanded, looking at my mom, tears streaming down my face and my blood burning with rage. "Why would they attack you?!"

"I don't know, baby." Mom said sadly, looking at me, crying. "I was hoping you could answer that for me."

"I- I don't-"

.

.

.

Suddenly, we were in the Underworld at the banks of the Styx. We were outside of the walls of Erebus. I heard Cerberus barking and the howls of pain from the Fields of Punishment.

I collapsed to the ground, too much in shock to keep standing up. My mom's ghost crouched behind my head, running her hands through my hair like she used to do when I was little.

Zeus and my father had had my family killed. But why? I tried to remember everything that had happened in the last couple of months. Anything that would explain why they had done such a horrible thing. Then my heart stopped. I remembered Apollo coming to ask me for help in his Trials, me telling him no because I was trying to live a normal life with Annabeth and my family. And with shocking clarity, I realized exactly why they had done this.

"I had stopped participating in major quests." I whispered, tears streaming down my face. "Because after the Giant War, I wanted to spend more time with you guys. Juno once called me a distraction. But what if she and the other gods considered you guys a distraction after Apollo told them about me telling him no? They wanted me to participate again."

"I'm so sorry, Percy." My mom said as I felt her pull her hand away. I leapt up as I saw her backing up. "I can't stay for much longer. I only came here to tell you what happened and help you to stop him."

I was so confused, so heartbroken, and so, so angry.

"Stop who?!" I demanded. My mom pointed behind me, and I saw modern day Alabaster Torrington approaching the River Styx. His body and clothes were badly burnt, and one of his eyes was gone, leaving a bloody hole where it was supposed to be.

I watched as Alabaster leapt into the River Styx.

"What's he doing?!" I cried out.

"He thinks you've been captured by Coatlicue." My mother explained. How did she know about Coatlicue? "He's trying to save you, but he thinks he needs to be indestructible. So, he is trying to do what you once did: take on the Mark of Achilles. But he never got his mother's blessing, so…"

"He'll die down there!" I exclaimed, fear in my stomach. I couldn't let anything happen to him, not after seeing what he went through onboard the Andromeda.

"Unless you save him." My mom said. I turned to her, and realized she wasn't see through any more. "You're actually here, in person this time. You already have my blessing, and you can do now what you could not before. You can save Alabaster Torrington."

I didn't give it a second thought. I jumped into the River Styx after Alabaster.

As I submerged, I remembered to focus on something to anchor me to the mortal world. Last time, my focus had gone to Annabeth. This time, I focused on the ghost of my mom, and the knowledge that the Olympian gods whose sorry butts I had saved so many times had executed my family so that I would go back to saving them instead, even after I had already retired. Tears burned my eyes as I realized my own father had killed my mom.

An intense pain began to build up on the sole of my left foot. I spied Alabaster thrashing in the currents beneath me. I grabbed his vest, and pulled the shaking boy up to shore, my skin feeling strong. I was invincible once more.

My mom ran up to me, hugging me.

"Percy, you did it!" She exclaimed, tears of joy in her eyes.

Suddenly, Alabaster began to disappear. Poseidon appeared a few feet away from us in his usual Bermuda shirt and cargo shorts. He didn't have his trident.

"Get away from my son." Poseidon growled.

I pulled out Riptide, pointing it at my father.

"You stay away from her!" I screamed, crying, my sword shaking as anger flowed through my body. The water of the Styx started going up and down in waves, responding to my distress.

"Percy, step away from him." Poseidon said warningly. "That isn't your mother."

"No, this is her ghost because you had her killed!" I shouted in outrage, not really listening to him. Anything he had to say to me was lies and tricks to try and get me to serve him again.

"I will send you back where you came from if you do not step away from my son." Poseidon glowered at the ghost of my mom, as she started to hide behind me.

"Percy, don't let him hurt me." Mom said, crying. "Please. I just want to see Paul and Estelle again."

"You will, Mom." I promised her.

"Not if he destroys my essence." Mom cried. "Please, Percy, you have to let me in."

"Let you in? What does that mean?" I asked, confused but not daring to take my eyes off of my approaching father. Poseidon looked enraged.

"It's too much to explain, Percy, but you have to trust me." Mom said pleadingly. "Don't you trust me?"

I hesitated before making up my mind. "I do, Mom. I'll let you in, whatever that means."

My mom sighed. "Thank you, Percy." I turned to smile back at her but gaped in shock. Her eyes were completely white. Irises, pupils, all of it.

"Mom, what?-" I started when she put her hand on my head and vanished into thin air. I gasped and fell to the ground, intense pain racking my body.

"Percy!" Poseidon shouted, running towards me. "Just hold on, maybe I can force him out."

I was in too much pain to really focus, but I swore Poseidon just said "him". Who was him?

I blacked out, and the last thing I remembered hearing was Poseidon's frustrated screams.

…

Annabeth's POV

I woke up with a burning taste in my mouth. The apartment was still burning, and rain was falling from the hole in the roof created by the lightning bolt.

I groaned, stumbling to my feet. The fire alarms were killing my ears. I saw Nico and Alabaster were still lying on the ground, unconscious. Jason was starting to get to his feet. Of course, the son of Jupiter wouldn't be too fazed at being struck by lightning.

Then I realized something was very wrong. Percy was standing at the window, his hands behind his back, staring at the city intently.

"Percy?" I asked as Jason stood behind me. Maybe Percy was dazed or something by the lightning?

Percy turned around and smiled at us, letting his arms fall to his side. But something was wrong with him. His eyes were completely white, as if his irises and pupils were bleached of all color. His smile was so not Percy-ish, but more of a cruel, calculating smile.

Suddenly, Jason yanked me back in alarm as he picked up Nico's sword.

"That's not Percy!" Jason said, pointing the blade towards Percy.

"What? What are you-" I started before Percy, or Not Percy, began to cackle like a madman.

"You should listen to your friend, girl." Percy said in a voice that definitely wasn't Percy's. "I am not Perseus Jackson."

"So, who are you?" Jason demanded. I was too stunned to speak.

Not Percy smiled. "Ouranos, Lord of the Sky and King of the Heavens. Son of Coatlicue. Now, drop that toy and bow before me, or I will destroy all of you where you stand."

…

…

…To Be Continued?