Piper made sure not to be seen as she sneaked into the forest. "Hey." She jumped, slightly. Nico melted from the shadows, joining her as they walked. "How long do you have?"
"Probably about two hours." Piper walked over to Zeus' fist. Thalia, Rachel and Grover were waiting for them. "It's really just us?"
"Everybody's convinced that Percy's guilty," Rachel said.
"Will believes me," Nico said. "He just didn't want to get involved in case he needs to."
Piper sighed. "Jason's convinced that Percy killed her. I think everybody else is pretty much certain that he's guilty. Even Hazel, Frank and Leo."
"M'Lady agrees with me, but only privately," Thalia said. "She doesn't want to risk my father's wrath. Or Athena's." They all shuddered at that. Annabeth had been, by far, Athena's favourite child. She was looking everywhere for Percy. Apparently she'd sunk a ship because she saw that a person with the first name Jackson was on it. Not even a last name! Thalia bit her lip. "She says that even Poseidon believes that Percy is some evil… thing."
"Jesus…" Piper crossed her arms. "Nico? Any luck?"
"No," he traced a pattern into Zeus' Fist. "None of the gods have even thought to ask my dad about it. Her soul isn't in the Underworld. Wherever it is —if it's not inside of her— isn't in any place we can see."
"What if she had gotten mixed in with another Religion?" Grover suggested. "Percy told me that her cousin went to some place… it began with a B… or was it a Z?"
"Is it Valhalla?" Piper guessed
"Yes! How'd you know?"
"My dad worked on Thor," she said. "Any luck on the Nature front, then?"
"Nothing. The only news I hear about Percy is gossip about him turning evil." Piper sighed.
"I haven't seen anything either," Rachel said. "Whatever's going to happen, I haven't gotten any indication of it."
"Fuck," Piper said.
"Fuck," Rachel agreed.
Piper made sure to eavesdrop whenever Jason was talking about Percy. She worried that maybe he'd been found. She, Grover, Nico, Rachel and Thalia were always on the alert for Percy's voice, but there wasn't much to hear except for when Jason was asking for updates to his whereabouts or Artemis told Thalia about something Zeus or Athena had said.
"Any news?" Jason asked. Piper hid behind a wardrobe, peering around to look at Hazel.
"None," she sighed. Hazel turned away from Jason, staring off into the distance. "He's probably dead."
"Did you feel something?" Jason asked.
"No. But Nico's been distant lately and I know that he's more in depth with the soul side of his powers than I am." 'Maybe he's distant because you're all hunting Percy down?' "We're going to Alaska again. It's the land where gods can't reach. It's bigger than Texas, so there must be hundreds of places where he could be hiding."
"I see," Jason nodded. Piper loved her boyfriend, but he'd become so… cold towards Percy. Piper had never been close to him but it was obvious that Percy was innocent. Well, not obvious, but Piper could tell that Percy and Annabeth loved each other. She doubted Percy could bring himself to even hurt his girlfriend. 'But Annabeth's dead. Maybe Percy is, too. Makes sense, I guess.' "Clarisse is already there with Chris. You should head south, she'd already been searching north Alaska."
"Understood." And Hazel… Piper didn't know why she hated Percy so much, now. But she understood it. She did. It'd taken Thalia and Grover telling her more about Percy and Annabeth for her to finally realise things didn't make much sense. "And if we find him?"
"He shouldn't be too hard to take down. He only has one arm, after all." Oh, right. The arm. That was the only other reason that she doubted things. Even the others couldn't understand that. Sure, there might've been another person there who killed Annabeth and attacked Percy, but if so, where was Percy now? Maybe he'd been kidnapped.
"Right. I'll update you on anything we find."
"Do that," Jason said, ending the call. Piper stepped back behind the wardrobe as Jason stalked past her. 'They haven't found him. That's a good thing… right?'
If there was one thing to look forward to, it was sitting around the campfire after dinner.
"What's up?" Piper sat beside Rachel. She was tossing a small tennis ball between her hands. "By the way, you have paint here." Piper gestured to her cheek.
"Nothing much," Rachel said, licking her thumb and scrubbing the paint off. "Thanks, I was painting for a charity. Any news?"
That was a codeword for 'has he been found?' "No," Piper said. "They're searching the land where gods can't reach."
"Where gods can't—" Rachel dropped the tennis ball. Her eyes suddenly shifted and green smoke filled the arena. Silence immediately took over. Piper caught Jason's eye. He was frowning before he realised what was going on. Chiron stared at Rachel warily.
"The missing daughter shall be found,
The Vanquisher of Kronos bound.
Olympus falls to a new threat,
The King of Gods takes his final breath.
Only the Sea's Son can stop this fate,
If judgement does not say checkmate."
Rachel slumped backwards. Piper barely caught her. Silence prevailed.
One name was on the mind of the older campers. Perseus Jackson.
"What does it mean?" Katie asked.
Piper folded her arms, exchanging glances with Rachel. Somebody needed to say something. "It's a prophecy," Jason said. "We can't make sense of it."
"I'm afraid that it's fairly obvious," Chiron sighed.
Nico nodded. "'Vanquisher of Kronos'? 'Sea's Son'? I can think of only one."
"No." Jason shook his head. "This could apply to the future. It's not talking about our generation." About Percy.
Rachel laughed sardonically. "That's what he said about the prophecy of Seven."
"Doesn't matter. What about this 'new threat'?"
"Could be anyone," Piper said. "I want to know who the missing daughter is?" They all looked at each other. "Nobody? Fine. What judgement?"
"Zeus might pick the fate of this son of the sea," Malcolm guessed. "Checkmate. Probably death."
Chiron stood. "I will bring this prophecy to the attention of the Olympians, if Dionysus hasn't already."
When Chiron left, they began to randomly throw out theories. They all knew they were wrong, each theory being more far fetched than its predecessor. Nobody ever said Percy's name.
(A/N Okay, another chapter, done! You can see the time skip and a prophecy! Woo~ I hope you guys enjoyed it! Until next time!)
