Hestia was sat by the hearth in the throne room on Olympus, tending the fire, while also using the flames to watch over the demigods who were not at one of the camps yet. She switched the attention of her flames away from the homes of young demigods and to Camp Half-Blood, a smile appearing on her face as she watched the campers running around, laughing and teasing each other, friendly taunts surrounding that night's game of Capture the Flag floating through the air. She continued watching that image for a while before beginning to shift the attention to Camp Jupiter. She was interrupted however, by a bright flash of light that engulfed the throne room – which was empty for the first time since the Master Bolt had gone missing almost 6 months ago – accompanied by a loud boom that startled her out of the shift; shifting to watch the Roman camp caused her to start shifting to Vesta as well, a shift that the shock stopped, causing her to startle back to Hestia, her original (and preferred) form.
She turned around and away from the flames of her hearth to try and work out what was going on and where the light and sound had come from. She wasn't sure what she was expecting, but it was not for the whole Olympian council, plus Hades, to have appeared in their thrones, looking disgruntled; her brothers especially looked angry at being summoned for an unknown reason – Hades most likely because he was always ignored and now was summoned against his will, while Poseidon and Zeus because they were busy preparing for the threat of war that was hanging between them, and had spent the last six months avoiding each other as much as possible unless it was to yell at each other.
"Who called council?" Zeus boomed, standing from his throne. "And who invited Hades?" None of the other gods said anything, all of them wearing similar shocked or confused expressions as they realised Zeus was not the one to call them; if they suddenly appeared in the throne room like that, it was normally because Zeus had called an emergency council.
"It's not like I want to be here Zeus. I have better things to do," Hades grumbled, crossing his arms, and leaning back in his throne. Zeus opened his mouth, most likely to retort, but was interrupted when another flash of blinding light and resounding boom occurred.
This time when the light disappeared, Zeus was sitting on his throne again and they found a group of campers, plus Chiron, in the middle of the throne room, near the hearth, all seeming confused and disorientated. Hestia could hear the confused murmurs from the demigods as they looked around, before they abruptly stopped and became silent, clearly noticing the gods and where they actually were.
"My Lord, if I may, why are we here? Why did you summon us?" Chiron asked, stepping forward and bowing slightly.
"We did not summon you. Some other force is at work," Zeus said, clearly disgruntled at the fact that he didn't know what was going on. For a third time, a light flashed through the room, a boom echoing through the large space.
When the light disappeared again, they found a young woman, in gold armour with a purple cape hanging off her shoulders, who seemed only semi-conscious in the middle of the throne room, an injured and dying Pegasus by her side, and Hestia saw two sets of books sitting calmly by her hearth. The campers were all muttering together, and Hestia let her flames rise slightly higher, emitting a warm, calming aura toward the children. The gods were looking between each other, trying to work out what was going on, while Apollo shrunk down to human size and moved to the new arrival to help heal her; if they were here for some unknown reason, he may as well use his God of Healing abilities to help.
Then their attention was pulled to a corner of the throne room, on the opposite side of the room to the doors and behind the thrones, as the sound of battles started to ring through the silent room, a commanding yell somehow emerging above the chaos.
"Cuneum formate! Advance with pila!"
The gods all looked at each other, a few of them flickering slightly, all of thinking the same thing. Why were the Romans here?
The campers were all watching the battle that was happening far away from them, many of them in fear. There were so many monsters – cyclopes, empousai, ogres, hellhounds, gryphons, what looked like wild centaurs, and other monsters they didn't recognise, some made out of mud and earth, while others seemed like a combination of dogs and seals and humans. One section of the battle was engulfed in a mix of white and black mist and smoke, although it seemed to be dispersing. There were zombies in armour, more and more rising as the battle continued. And in the battle, there only seemed to be a handful of demigods, six at the most.
A boy somehow taking to the air every now and then and calling down a lightning bolt. A girl fighting with a knife and what looked like a cornucopia whilst yelling at the monsters. A boy with a spear – or was that a sceptre – calling up the undead with a pitch-black sword in his other hand. A boy leading the army of zombies, calling orders in what seemed like Latin, with a sword and red aura surrounding him. Then two more emerging from the mist and smoke; a boy with his hands on fire, and a girl held a sword and seemed to be commanding the white mist, as it seemed to curl around her as she moved.
Their attention was pulled away from the fight – and somehow no one in the fight had realised they had changed location and appeared on Olympus – when the throne room began to rumble.
"It's not me," Poseidon said when the gods turned to him, the normal instigator of earthquakes on Olympus. "The source is near the wall where the battle is."
"It's not me either," Hades added, being the secondary suspect when it came to unnatural earthquake – Poseidon was first suspect as the Earthshaker, while his command over the things under the earth made him the secondary suspect. He was staring at the battle intently, trying to locate what he knew the source of the rumbling was.
"It's coming from deep under the surface," he added. He was very concerned about what he could tell the source was; he could tell that the rumbling was from something coming from the pit, from the Doors of Death rising up to Olympus, but he couldn't work out why they would be coming to Olympus.
"Then what is it?" Ares grumbled, turning to the battle again, watching the boy surrounded in red – he knew that was his blessing, could feel his power in the aura, but he hadn't bestowed that on any of his children in decades, and would definitely remember giving the blessing to one of his or Mars' sons. None of the gods had a chance to answer though, as the yelling from the battle grew louder, and they were able to make out words.
"More incoming."
"Brace for reinforcements."
"They can't get out unless the button is pushed, and Clytius isn't here to push the button anymore."
The gods startled at the name, many of them desperately hoping they had heard wrong. If Clytius had been there during their battle, that meant he was awake. And if one giant was awake, then it was extremely likely that the rest were awake as well, and that did not bode well for anyone.
The gods and campers heard a faint ding as the rumbling stopped, and Hades stiffened, feeling the souls that had just arrived with the doors; why in Chaos' name were there two human – demigod – souls in the Doors of Death? More shouts, more desperate this time, came from the group by the battle that was winding down, most of the monsters dead and turned to dust.
"Open the Doors. Open the Doors now."
"It's them. Someone open the Doors."
Almost all of the monsters were gone now, allowing the gods to see what was going on better, and many of them stiffened as they saw the Doors. Someone started to protest, to tell the demigods – who still somehow hadn't noticed them – not to open the Doors.
None of them got the chance, the boy who had been using fire throwing a screwdriver towards the button, none of the demigods being close enough to press it otherwise. Many gods started to rise, expecting monsters, or worse, to appear from the Doors, which they all recognised as the Doors of Death, but stopped as they saw mist leave the opening Doors before two demigods, a boy and a girl, stumbled out.
The room was silent. The gods and campers were in shock, the area that had been a battle field silent as the last monster was slain. The silence allowed everyone to clearly hear the slurred words from the demigods who had emerged from the Doors.
"Hey guys." The two demigods then promptly collapsed.
"Piper, do you have the ambrosia and nectar?" the boy who had been flying asked. Aphrodite sat up, suddenly studying the girl who had responded intently, recognising the name of one of her daughters, although her daughter named Piper was meant to be ten. The gods watched in silence as the demigods tended to the two unconscious ones as well as their own injuries from the battle, while the campers simply stared at them, trying to imagine themselves in that scenario.
Finally, the demigods started to actually take notice of their surroundings.
"Come on guys, we have to leave. The roof is unstable from where we broke through. It could collapse at any time."
"Frank's right. I could tell the walls were unstable, and we went very deep underground going through the different layers of father's temple."
"Umm, guys, I don't think we have to worry about the roof or the walls," the one who had been called Piper said, who had turned around and was staring at the gods and campers.
"What are you talking about Pipes?"
"Turn around. I don't think we're in Greece anymore." That startled the gods and the campers; Greece was part of the Ancient Lands, and it was too dangerous for demigods to go to because of how many monsters were there. And it was illegal for Romans to travel to the Ancient Lands, and the Gods had recognised the Latin commands of a Roman legion.
"Why are we on Olympus? I thought Olympus was closed," one of the boys, the one who had used fire, said. That confused the gods even more; why would they close Olympus? The last time Olympus had been closed was centuries ago, when they were recovering from the full transition from Greece to Rome, from Greek gods to Roman gods; it had been a very painful transition and left them incapacitated for weeks, only a small sliver of their power leaving Olympus to manage their domains and responsibilities.
"This is wrong," the boy with the sceptre said, looking around the room, eyes wide.
"Yeah. We were in Greece and now we're on Olympus, which is meant to be closed because they don't want to help us with a problem Gods and demigods are needed to fix."
"No Leo, that's not what I mean. I mean this isn't what Olympus should look like."
"What do you mean that this isn't what Olympus is meant to look like? This is what Olympus has always looked like," Athena said, interrupting the conversation. The boy who had spoken bowed slightly before responding; Hades was staring at the boy in shock, trying to work out why his son was out of the Casino and with those other demigods.
"I don't know what's going on Lady Athena, but I do know that in the time we're from, Olympus has gotten a new architect to redesign the city. While I haven't seen the throne room since the new architect was hired, I do know it was the first thing to be redone."
"Wait, time we're from?" the other, still conscious, girl asked.
"This isn't our time, Hazel. Look," the boy said, pointing over towards the campers. The demigods turned to the campers, their mouths opening in shock.
"Is that Annabeth? And Percy?" the girl called Piper asked. The boy nodded.
"Does anyone know what's going on?" Hermes asked. "I've got a bunch of packages I need to deliver if nothing important is happening."
"No clue. Someone must have had a reason to summon us all here," Apollo said, leaving the young woman, who was now fully conscious and healed, and moving towards the other demigods to offer his help.
"The fates summoned us here. They want to stop mistakes that happened in the future from happening," Zeus said, looking up from a note that had appeared in his hand.
"How?" Athena asked.
"By reading books about a hero's quests. And these demigods are from the future, towards the very end of the books."
"Where are the books then?" Hera asked, sounding resigned; she obviously didn't want to read about a half-blood's life, but the fates had said they had to, and no one defied the Moirai, not when they controlled the fate of everyone – divine, amortal, or immortal.
"I think they mean these books," Hestia said, gesturing towards the ten books, in two stacks, that had appeared near her hearth in the third flash of light. Zeus sighed but nodded.
"Very well then. Demigods, introduce yourselves with your name and parentage. Demigods of our time first." One by one, the campers stepped forward and introduced themselves as instructed, bowing first to Zeus and then their parent.
"Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena."
"Luke Castellan, son of Hermes."
"Katie Gardner, daughter of Demeter."
"Travis Stoll, son of Hermes."
"Conner Stoll, son of Hermes."
"Selina Beauregard, daughter of Aphrodite."
"Clarisse La Rue, daughter of Ares."
"Lee Fletcher, son of Apollo."
"Michael Yew, son of Apollo."
"Will Solace, son of Apollo."
"Castor, son of Dionysus."
"Pollux, son of Dionysus."
"Malcom Pace, son of Athena."
"Charles Beckendorf, son of Hephaestus."
"Jake Mason, son of Hephaestus."
"Chris Rodriguez, undetermined." Hermes looked up from his phone, where he was still sorting through his emails and messages for work, a startled expression on his face. He snapped his fingers, an image of a caduceus appearing above Chris' head.
"I didn't claim you, Chris? I must have missed your entry to camp, my job keeps me extremely busy, and I sometimes miss an entrance."
"Percy Jackson, undetermined." Percy glanced over towards the future demigods, wondering if they knew who his godly parent was since they seemed to know him. Hestia noticed that Poseidon seemed to be watching the child, who she could tell was clearly his son – they looked almost identical, and anyone with eyes could put it together if they spent more than a second thinking about it; her brother was probably trying to decide whether to claim him or not, especially with the whole disaster surrounding the stolen lightning bolt – even if everyone could tell that it was his son, claiming would solidify that and put the young boy in danger.
Everyone then turned their attention to the future demigods, who had moved to sit with the other woman who had arrived, apart from the two who were unconscious, although they seemed to be stirring slightly.
"Um, Piper McLean, daughter of Aphrodite," the girl with the cornucopia, who had already been referred to as Piper, said, inclining her head slightly and not bothering to move from her place on the floor, one hand gripping the hand of the one who had been flying.
"Leo Valdez, son of Hephaestus." The boy who had been wielding fire spoke up next, looking up from his hands that were fiddling with something in his lap to nod to the gods before looking down again. His parentage wasn't a surprise considering his ability with flames, although it was a shock that Hephaestus had granted one of his children with fire-wielding; his children only got the ability over fire if the world really needed it or something big was going to happen, which was why demigods often saw it as a bad omen.
The boy holding hands with Piper, the boy who had been flying and had the ability over lightning – so was clearly her brother's son – went to introduce himself next but was cut off when the boy with the sceptre elbowed him. "Ja… ow!"
"We're going last superman, unless you want to start a shouting match now," one of the boys, the one who had answered Athena's question, hissed. The boy who was interrupted seemed confused, but nodded either way, even though he didn't understand why.
"Reyna, daughter of Bellona," the woman who had appeared with the injured Pegasus said, sitting up straighter. The name of the Roman goddess shocked the gods, even as Zeus, Hera, and Ares flickered slightly, being the patrons and most important three gods of Rome; yes, they had realised there were Romans there because of the Latin commands used by Roman legions, but this was a Roman who was sitting almost comfortably with a group of Greeks, this was a group that had Greeks and used Roman legion commands.
"You're Roman?"
"What are Romans doing with Greeks?"
"You know of the Greeks?"
"Greeks know of the Romans?"
The campers of the present were looking between the gods and the future demigods in confusion, trying to work out what was going on. There were Roman demigods? How? The gods were Greek. They had been Roman for a time, but they were Greek again. And how could they not know of other demigods in America.
"Yeah, the future is kind of a mess, my Lords and Ladies. Frank Zhang, son of Mars, legacy of Poseidon," the boy who had been commanding the army and had been surrounded in a red aura said as the gods quietened down – and the three had settled back on their Greek forms – and turned to the future demigods to answer their questions. His introduction caused Ares and Mars to flicker between each other slightly before settling on Ares again.
"Those two can introduce themselves when they wake up. Also, before the four of us introduce ourselves, can I just ask that you not start screaming at each other or smite us. Thank you. Jason, you probably have the least chance of dying and you'll reduce our chances if you go first," the boy with the sceptre said, looking towards the boy who had tried to introduce himself before but was cut off.
"Alright… Jason Grace, son of Jupiter."
The room was instantly plunged into chaos as the gods started yelling. Poseidon and Hades were especially vocal about their displeasure directed at him breaking the oath for a second time. Hera just seemed resigned, even though she did shoot the son of Jupiter a small smile; she liked her counterpart's champion in the present time period; he brought a lot of honour to both Juno and Jupiter's names, despite him being a product of her husband's affair. Zeus, after settling back on Zeus rather than flickering back and forth between Zeus and Jupiter, pounded his fist on the arm of his throne, sending a crack of thunder through the room and getting the gods to calm down.
"Yes, I had another child. But the oath didn't apply to our Roman counterparts, it was a Greek prophecy, a Greek problem, and a Greek oath," Zeus said.
"Despite that brother, it was an oath that was your idea, and yet you were the one to break it. Twice. Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto were bound by the oath as well, just not to the same extent," Hades said with a sigh. "And you were the one who wanted to kill my children because of the prophecy after you made us swear the oath."
"I just want to know why Hera isn't madder at more evidence of your cheating. Normally she would be the first to start yelling," Poseidon said; he really couldn't talk about breaking the oath, considering his son – two versions of his son – were in the room at the moment.
"I already knew about Jason. I found out two years after he did it, because not only did he have another affair, but he also did it in an incredibly stupid way. I had to intervene to fix his mess. Jason is Juno's champion at Camp Jupiter," Hera said.
"Your last name is Grace? Are you related to Thalia?" Athena's daughter, Annabeth, pipped up before the next person could introduce themself. Jason nodded.
"Yeah, she's my older sister. She thought I died when I was younger, when she was nine and I was two, I think, so she probably didn't talk about me," Jason said.
"And that was the stupid thing. Jupiter had a child with the same woman Zeus had a child with," Hera said.
"How do you know if you were so young? I doubt anyone can remember anything from when they were two," one of Hermes' sons, Luke, asked.
"She told me-"
"Anyway, Hazel can introduce herself next," the boy with the sceptre said, speaking over Jupiter's son. Jason sent the boy another confused look, while Annabeth and Luke muttered to each other, confused.
"Hazel Levesque, daughter of Pluto."
There was more yelling at that, while Hades just sat in silence, staring at the young girl, who couldn't be older than thirteen, flickering back and forth between Hades and Pluto.
"But you died." Hestia only heard what Hades whispered once he settled on Hades because she was so close to him, his temporary throne sitting next to the hearth, near where she often sat, and on the opposite side to the campers of the present. Hestia slowly caused her flames to rise higher and higher until the council noticed them and quietened down.
"How are you here?" Hades asked, and many in the room were shocked at the expression on his face – it was a guarded mix of confusion, grief, and longing.
"It's complicated father. Frank kind of explained it when he said the future is a mess," she said. The only, conscious, boy who hadn't introduced himself stood up, leaving the sceptre on the ground, and stepped forward, arms crossed.
"Alright, enough screaming. Nico Di Angelo, son of Hades. And I would like to point out that my father is the only one who didn't break the oath. Hazel and I were both born before the oath – how we're alive right now is none of your business." The gods stared at him, shocked at his brashness when talking to the Olympians. In the silence, they all clearly heard the words that the boy, Hades' son Nico, muttered under his breath.
"Damn, Percy's rubbing off on me."
"Wait, Hades was the only one who didn't break the oath? What about Poseidon?" Aphrodite asked.
"From what I've been told, my father and Lord Zeus already suspected Lord Poseidon's son for a crime he didn't commit, even though it hasn't been confirmed that he is actually my cousin yet in this timeline," Nico said.
"A crime he didn't commit?" Zeus asked. "Are you saying that I am wrong about who I am accusing?"
"With all due respect, yes," Nico said. There was a groan from where the two demigods were, and everyone looked over to see them slowly pushing themselves into a sitting position, preventing Zeus from continuing his interrogation of Nico.
"Where are we?" the girl asked quietly, although they could all hear her through the otherwise silent hall, one hand absently reaching out to the boy near her. He took her hand almost instantly, the other cradling his head.
"This is not the Argo II," the boy agreed wearily and just as quietly.
"Hey Annabeth, Percy," Piper said, standing and moving over to them, the others following them.
"It's good to see you guys," Hazel said.
"I'm so sorry, I could have done something," Jason said.
"Not your fault," the boy said, his voice coming out raspy at the louder volume he used, like he hadn't had water in a long time.
"But… we could have…" Frank started.
"Not your fault," the boy repeated, before coughing harshly.
"It had to happen, the prophecy spoke of it," the girl agreed, her voice coming out croaky and hoarse.
"Here," Piper said, passing them each a bottle of water from her cornucopia. They both opened their bottles, sipping at the water before the boy poured half of it over his head.
"Where are we. This isn't the Argo," the girl repeated, shaking her head at the boy as she took another sip of her water before passing him her bottle. "Only to drink, Seaweed Brain."
"You probably won't like it," Nico warned, being the only one of the group who really knew just how much both Percy and Annabeth had done for Olympus and the gods before getting pulled into the Second Giant War, and even he didn't know everything, since he was sure they had left things out of their stories.
"Where are we Death Breath?" the boy asked, passing the bottle back to the girl.
"We're on Olympus. And we're in the past. I recommend not looking towards the hearth."
"Why?" the boy asked.
"There are campers from our past there."
"When are we?" the girl asked.
"June 9th, 2006," Hermes said automatically without looking up from his phone, which was constantly vibrating.
"Wasn't that the day I got claimed?" the boy asked, his free hand moving to rub his eyes.
"Well, you of the past-present isn't claimed yet," Leo said, gesturing over to the group of campers.
"So that means these gods are still on the verge of a three-way war," the girl groaned, her hand holding the bottle dropping to the ground as she let her head fall backwards slightly, looking up at the roof. The Olympians exchanged confused looks, murmuring amongst them beginning and quickly growing louder. A three-way war? They knew it would be a two-way war, between Zeus and Poseidon, but why would it be three-ways.
"So just get grandad dearest out of jerk relative's head and get said jerk relative to give both uncles their items back and save baby-me from the first of many traumatising experiences," the boy murmured, and Hestia was only able to hear what he had said because she was trying to listen to them, rather than trying to work out what the girl had meant. Hestia startled at that; had he just implied that her father was in one of the council's head, and that one of the Olympians had Zeus' bolt. And he had said uncles, as in plural, so Hades had to be missing something as well.
"Brother are any of your items missing or stolen?" she asked quietly, leaning over to her brother.
"My helm was stolen on the Winter Solstice. I didn't say anything because none of them would care and you were too busy trying to prevent those two going to war," Hades replied wearily.
"Enough," Zeus yelled, a crack of thunder sounding as he hit his fist on the arm of his throne. "The two future demigods who haven't introduced themselves, please introduce yourselves with your name and parentage, and then we shall explain what the fates have told us."
"Annabeth Chase," the girl said. "My mother is unimportant as she decided to tell me I was not her daughter before sending me on a solo suicide quest." The present campers looked between the present Annabeth and the Annabeth from the future in shock, while Athena stared at the girl, no woman; while Athena couldn't work out why she would say that to her daughter, she knew there was only one quest that a child of hers would go on solo that would be referred to as a suicide quest, and wanted to know if her daughter had succeeded in finding and returning her statue.
"I'm not going to get blasted, am I? And they're not going to start yelling, right?" the boy asked.
"You should be fine. We introduced ourselves without much problem. A bit of yelling, but not much," Jason said. "Although I don't actually know what the problem is or what oath they mean."
"They made an oath on the Styx to not have any more children," Annabeth explained.
"And you're Roman and Nico's from the 40's," the boy said. "Alright, Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon. And I'm sure both my uncles already knew about me, since Hades sent two monsters after me already and Zeus tried to kill me with a lightning bolt aimed at our car as we headed to camp trying to outrun Hades' second monster."
In the shocked silence that followed Percy's impertinent words, Poseidon snapped his fingers and a glowing green trident appeared over the younger Percy's head, claiming him as Poseidon's son.
"You said you'd explain what's going on," Percy prompted, uncaring about the looks he got from the gods, campers, and future demigods alike – only Annabeth and Nico didn't seem surprised by it; even though the others had seen him mouth off to various deities during their quest, they hadn't really expected that it was something he always did, even to gods of the past who didn't know him at all.
"The fates summoned us all here to read books about a hero's quests to stop mistakes from happening in the future," Dionysus drawled from where he was lazing in his throne. "The fates gave father a letter explaining it. How old are you, Perry?"
"Thank you, Mr D. I am 16 and should be turning 17 in about a month if I don't die before that," the future Percy said. Dionysus waved his hand lazily before summoning a wine magazine and opening it, blocking the rest of the hall from his sight.
"I really wish you wouldn't talk about your death so casually, Seaweed Brain," the future Annabeth said.
"I'm just telling it like it is."
"He's not wrong Annabeth. You know what we're fighting against and what will happen if we fail," Piper added.
"Doesn't mean I have to like him being so casual about it."
"The Great Prophecy was completed then?" Athena asked, interrupting their banter.
"Yes. It was completed almost a year ago in our time. Olympus still stands strong," the future Annabeth said. "Can you read the whole note out please, Lord Zeus."
Zeus grumbled at being told what to do by a demigod but did what she asked when Hestia's flames started to rise again.
"Gods, Goddesses, campers, and demigods of the future. You have all been called here to read books about the coming years from one hero's point of view, following his many quests through the years. Once the first line of the first book has been read, time will pause in all aspects of the world outside of immediate Olympus – that is the throne room and the temples of those in the throne room. This will prevent too many duties to be missed during this task and allow the appropriate amount of time to be spent reading and discussing the books.
"These books and the task of reading them is with the intent of preventing the future that the world is currently on the course to reach, where too many mistakes were made and too many lives were lost too early. Once the books are started, the timeline will split into two branches, one branch leading to the time the future demigods come from, and the other leading to whatever future you make with this new information. Every word of every book must be read, and the books must be read in order – they are enchanted to only be able to be read in order.
"The future demigods have the option of staying or returning to their time, but the choice must be made before the reading begins. If they choose to go back now, they shall be returned to where they would be at the end of the battle, and that is when they will return to if they stay to read all the books. They were brought here to help demonstrate the impacts of what has happened, to show you the consequences of your actions and where it leads. It is their past they are reading about, including the pain that the books will cause them to relive, however, so they do not have to go through it again, if they do not wish to. The rest of you do have to do this; you shall not be allowed to leave Olympus until the last line of the last book is read. The Moirai."
"Should we do this? It doesn't seem like it could make things worse," Hazel said hesitantly.
"But if things change, you may not have the chance to come back in this timeline," Nico said.
"But many others won't join me down there."
"We have a quest to complete though. We have a war to stop, a deadline to meet," Jason said.
"But we will go back to the same place in time either way," Piper said. "This could give us more time to debrief and relax before going into a deadly battle that could cause the end of earth."
"Maybe we should wait and see who's story they follow before making the choice," Reyna suggested.
"What are the books called?" Annabeth asked.
"There are two series. The first series is called Percy Jackson and the Olympians: top to bottom they are labelled the Lightning Thief, the Sea of Monsters, the Titan's Curse, the Battle of the Labyrinth, the Last Olympian," Hestia said, watching Poseidon pale slightly as the titles were read out, clearly about the quests his son went on. She turned to the second pile of books.
"The second series is called Heroes of Olympus: top to bottom they are labelled the Lost Hero, Son of Neptune, the Mark of Athena, House of Hades, Blood of Olympus." The future demigods reacted especially harshly to the titles of the second and third book, flinching and making noises of protest, including a low growl and a hiss.
"Of course, it's about me," Percy groaned. "It's always me."
"You're a hero Seaweed Brain, and without you we would all be dead," Annabeth said.
"You're just as much of a hero as me Wise Girl. And everyone else who fought. And especially those who sacrificed themselves or died fighting," Percy replied.
"Are those all the quests you've been on Percy?" Frank asked.
"The first four are major quests, and the fifth is the major battle of the last war. I'd guess the sixth is about Piper, Leo, and Jason, the seventh is Hazel, Percy, and you, the eight is probably about the time between picking us up and the fall, the ninth probably about after the fall to the battle we just fought, which would make the tenth the finale of this war," Annabeth said, since Percy was still hiding his head in his hands and didn't seem like he was going to answer Frank. "We both went on smaller missions and quests and side jobs that weren't as important as well."
"So are we going to stay and read them?" Leo asked. "I want to hear about everything Aqua Man's done."
"I wouldn't be opposed to hearing about the Greek side of the war," Reyna said.
"I want to hear what happened that made Percy, well, Percy," Frank said.
"It would be cool to hear about Camp Half Blood before we arrived," Piper said. "They mentioned new things that you got put in place, a promise that you made them swear to keep."
"I … don't really want to. I was there for parts of the last two in the first series, and I don't want to hear about the third," Nico said; he really didn't want to hear about when they found him and Bianca, and he didn't think he could handle hearing about Bianca's death, especially since he was sure Percy had seen it.
"I don't care either way," Jason said, and Hazel nodded.
"I don't think I could. There were too many deaths, too many things that happened that I don't want to relive," Annabeth said. "Too many betrayals and heartbreaks and monsters and injuries and battles."
"I don't want too either. It's bad enough that we have a war to finish not even a year after the last one finished. I don't think I could handle hearing it all again. I don't think I could cope with reliving and revisiting four years of trauma in a matter of days, especially since I know I compartmentalised and repressed some things I didn't have time to process and never thought of again," Percy said. "And I know how stuff like this works. There will be a catch, even if we don't see it at first. There is always a catch. There's no such thing as a free lunch."
"No, Percy's right. Especially since it will be from his point of view. It's not fair on him, or Annabeth, or Nico to have to relive it all, especially after what they've just been through," Jason said.
"Agreed," Reyna said.
"So we're going back to our time?" Leo asked, looking up from the small machine – was that an explosive – that had had been building.
"Yeah."
"Seems like it."
"May as well get the war over with."
"So how do we do this?" Piper asked. Percy shrugged before tilting his head to face the ceiling.
"We're done with this schist. We have a war to finish and want to get it over and done with so we can finally have some peace in our lives," he yelled at the ceiling. A note fluttered down in front of him, and he grabbed it before passing it to Frank as soon as he realised it was written in English; seriously, if they were going to send a note to a dyslexic demigod, they could at least write it in a way he could read.
"We have about one minute before we get sent back to our time if there is anything you want to do or say to the campers of this time," Frank said.
"I need to tell baby-me something," Percy said, glancing over at the campers. His eyes narrowed as he saw Luke standing amongst them, even as his heart throbbed as he saw those he had seen die, and those whose funerals he had been at.
"And the love lost to worse than death is here too," he added as he moved to his younger self, knowing Annabeth would know what he meant. Annabeth stood up and followed him over to the campers. Percy knelt down next to his younger self, whispering his message in young Percy's ear.
"Mum's alright, she's not dead, Hades will give her back soon. Dad loves both of us, even if he's not very good at showing it. He tries his best, so don't get too mad at him." Young Percy nodded and Percy of the future stood back up, taking a few steps back before watching Annabeth walk straight up to Luke and punch him. Hard. Right in the face.
"Ow! Annabeth! What was that for?" Luke exclaimed, one hand rising to his nose, which had started bleeding.
"That's for everything you've done and are planning on doing," Annabeth said. There wasn't any time for anyone to question that, because as soon as Annabeth took a step back, there was a flash of light throughout the hall and a loud boom.
When the light cleared, the visitors from the future had gone, back to where they were meant to be, leaving the gods and campers on Olympus with ten books to read, Luke's nose still bleeding from the punch that his little sister had given him. And he had a feeling that if they read these books, he would find out exactly what his master would get him to do in the future that would get his little sister so mad at him.