Percy glared down at the new chapter title for a long time before he managed to slowly exhale and say it. Things were just starting to feel normal again, he loved his memories of camp and his first impression of Annabeth was messy yet worth it, but the miserable feeling of almost being killed and the lingering idea his time here wasn't going to last much longer left him feeling restless and each new word even harder to concentrate on than normal. He was missing something, repeatedly.
His stomach grumbled, he had to use the bathroom, and frankly this beanbag was starting to make his butt go numb. He looked from the book around the room to these others who got dragged into his mess and then to the blank walls and domed roof, telling himself to get over it and get on with it. Whatever lingering feelings he had about any of this weren't going to help the situation.
"Am I allowed to say called it for three being an important number?" Jason grinned.
"No," Percy said without looking up.
"You clearly needed a whole cabin for all of that," Magnus said, boggling a bit at the idea of all that free space to himself. He slept outside in parks just for the faux feeling of that.
"It's not all it's cracked up to be," Thalia hadn't missed the sarcasm, but she shared a commiserating look with Percy all the same while Nico hid a grimace well. He'd barely spent a whole month tops in his cabin since it had been built, the empty dark spaces felt like black holes where bunks should be.
"Big Three itis," Nico muttered, "affects some more severely than others of course."
"Doesn't mean we should stop trying to find a way to help," Will whispered back without looking over. Nico pressed his lips together to stop himself from calling Will an idiot.
Will guiltily raised his hand, which only made Percy laugh he'd admitted to it. Nico scoffed and reached over for him to put his hand down, actually calling him an idiot that time.
Thalia ground her teeth together in frustration as she wondered if this had been part of Luke's plan. Even though the attack had failed, perhaps he would have anticipated this very thing, to try and make Percy feel isolated, and more reliant on him.
She went preternaturally still, as if focusing on a target when her theory was all but confirmed, and yet it still left something to be desired. If Luke had wanted to kill him, he'd had ample more opportunity. If he was trying to train and befriend him, here was his golden chance. Seemed either way to look at it left Percy in the crux, and she was feeling guiltier all the time for not sharing any of these thoughts with Percy-
Who had stopped reading and was watching her in concern once more. She forced a smile into place and lied, "don't worry about it."
"Uhhu," he rolled his eyes and turned back, but she'd fooled no one. Hearth was drawing symbols on his palm and concentrating on her and Percy, Magnus and Alex exchanged a very unimpressed look, and Jason purposefully caught her eye and raised an inquisitive brow. She could hardly yell at Will and Nico for making this harder on their friend when she couldn't hold a decent poker face at this rate. To many memories, of Luke training her, of Luke trusting her...
Percy sighed, feeling so turned around at this rate, maybe the memory he'd woken up with was an illusion too, maybe Annabeth had never fallen in love with him and that was just a lingering dream. She clearly hated the very idea of his existence right now!
"A conviction you apparently held up well before all this, don't know why you stopped now," Alex said.
"Wasn't striving to get kicked out of camp," Percy replied. He wasn't sure how strict their rules were, but he got a feeling if he went around punching someone from a new cabin every day, Chiron would do more than take away his dessert privileges.
Will felt sick at just the idea of Percy having no one to comfort him for that at the time, as Thalia did now by tapping the book and whispering something that made his scowl dim just the slightest bit. Will didn't think even Clarisse would do something so underhanded like that, she was too minotaur-like and would have likely charged Percy head on by now if she'd planned to attack him in this way. No, this may have even been Luke again, an extra ploy to make him angry, make him want to get back out there.
'This guy is nuts,' Magnus decided, exchanging a look with his friend was all that was needed to convey this. 'Trying to get in between a fight with two gods!'
'Their children aren't the only ones they struggle to communicate with,' Hearth signed, his expression a little to sympathetic to the idea he was conveying. 'Perhaps their children stepping in will help bridge that gap.'
Magnus did not at all follow that, and he'd known all of those signs just fine.
'The Big Three in one spot?' Jason wondered, but something of that didn't feel right. It wasn't just his past he was missing, it was chunks of this story too. He glanced around the ocean, at Posidion's domain, and couldn't imagine why the earthshaker had decided to give his son this history in as confusing a way as possible. Even Zeus's own ability to strike the ground with such force it could split the earth could have some meaning in that dream. No one god seemed to be the answer to everything.
"Deja vu anyone?" Magnus muttered. However that hellhound had gotten into camp, maybe the Minotaur was already back and figuring it out.
"You'll probably get that a lot with Grover," Alex brushed off, but nobody looked very reassured until it was confirmed.
"Monologing is never better," Percy said with a straight face.
"At least you're not strapped to a table with a laser pointed at you, yet," Magnus shrugged.
"I like to think you'd be told that more directly," Magnus didn't sound very confident.
"More like Zeus would just strike him down where he stood," Will answered with eerie confidence, and they weren't sure they wanted to know if that was a true story.
"We finally get an answer to that weird eating outside thing," Magnus mock raised his hands in relief.
"Over a week later for Percy, just seems rude," Jason rolled his eyes. Couldn't they at least put a sign up in front of the pavilion?
"Doesn't that make him your half-cousin or something," Alex would swear she'd heard the wine god dude was born from Zeus's hip or something strange like that. "Aren't you two equals at the very minimum?"
"Don't ever let him hear you say that," Thalia cautioned.
"We don't put much stock into godly heritage past our parents, saves our sanity," Will agreed.
'Big Three kids are really unpopular, huh?' Hearth asked.
'What gave you that impression,' Magnus shivered.
"Minor detail to him I'm sure," Jason muttered.
"That's, kinder?" Will tried his very hardest to make that sound like a good thing.
"I'd personally take the molecule combustion," Jason huffed.
"No wonder he was in such a good mood," Will nodded as if this made sense now.
"That was his good mood?" Alex demanded.
"He didn't do it, did he?" Will shrugged.
A chill ran through the room, a quiet worry shared by all history could be about to repeat itself. Something of mild importance had been taken from the gods...again. Their kids exchanged an uneasy look and stared at the orange book for a few more moments before plowing on.
"Felt a little, rude," Alex scowled. He had a name!
When she scowled, her mismatched eyes had his full attention. Magnus sat up straight in his seat.
"How do you steal something like that?" Jason looked like someone had just stolen his shoes while they were still on.
"Couldn't tell you, wouldn't recommend it," Will said with an uneasy smile. Being the child of the god of thieves probably didn't hurt.
"Who would be crazy enough to be a lightning thief?" Magnus asked with a nervous laugh.
'Look who's asking the real questions now,' Hearth approved.
"Ugh," Alex made a face.
"There's such a thing as too well," Thalia agreed, she'd never been to school, so even if Chiron was her favorite teacher by default, it also made him her least favorite at times like this.
"Talk about your jumping to conclusions," Magnus arched a disbelieving brow. "You've known you were Poisidon's kid for days! No wonder kids of these three get so much trouble, their uncles are the worst!"
"You don't have to tell us that," Percy agreed.
"How have these guys not all killed each other yet?" Alex asked in concern.
"That's honestly a good question most days," Will sighed.
"You'd think an immortal being would have a beacon on his super mega weapon," Magnus protested.
"Or at least the knowledge enough to know who came in and out of his palace, like somebody who's never been, let alone knew of its existence at the time," Alex agreed.
"Immortal doesn't mean all-knowing," Jason sounded a tad defensive to his own ears and shut his mouth uneasily, but Percy kept going relentlessly anyways. The defense from a virtual group of strangers was oddly touching, but he was far more concerned with who did do it, and what was coming for him because of this.
"I'll call him whatever I please if he's going to accuse me of stealing," Percy stated.
"Supported," Alex promised.
"Out of what?" Will asked in horror.
"Sixty," Percy sighed.
"Let's be grateful he doesn't force the camp to take those tests annually," Nico sympathized. Even if he did have confidence he'd pass it, the stress could make him flunk on principle.
"I hope you phrased it exactly like that on your test," Thalia chuckled.
"Well when you put it like that," Will gave a nervous chuckle.
"You all thought I did it too," Percy realized just being a child of the Big Three itself may not have been the only reason he'd been suddenly ostracized, it was Posideon himself.
Will tugged at the collar of his shirt as he admitted, "some rumors here and there, nothing we were ever going to outright accuse you of. The timing was awfully convenient." It had been Travis to share the idea with him, but it hadn't occurred to him until after Percy had come back who the Stoll brothers may have gotten the rumor started from.
"Bad?" Magnus offered.
Percy laughed and kept reading without looking up.
"Glad to know we're on the same page," Magnus smiled while Hearth rolled his eyes and called his friend a dork for that pun.
"Deadly water ballons then, always an unneeded escalation," Alex nodded at the tragedy of it all.
"Yes Percy," Thalia mock applauded.
"And we were winning too," Will muttered.
Nobody had needed to be told that, the message was loud and clear as he flipped violently along the pages and read everything with a coldness to his voice that seemed unnatural to his general aura. Nobody liked to be manipulated, and Percy had been dealing with nothing but such tactics since his mom died. He was at his limit and ready to do something about it, and the gods themselves should be worried.
"Welcome to Camp-Half Blood, where being furious at Zeus and getting half a prophecy at a time is more frequent than the weather," Nico gave a casual flick of his wrist.
"To be fair, he'd probably be in the vicinity of you when that happened and killed too," Will shrugged.
"Mutual death is not a fair point," Percy protested.
"Is it though?" Alex challenged. Maybe she was biased though, since she could.
"I might have reconsidered for a shark," Percy snarked.
"That's a- why would we have to assume-"
Hearth patted Magnus on the shoulder, he would have hoped to save his friend from ever having to know or hear about some all knowing being. He just hoped the Oracle was more sane than the talking head.
Will grimaced with distaste, all children of Apollo had an inherent dislike from serpents after what dad went through. As far as he knew, none of his siblings had ever led a quest to have a face to face with the Oracle, but he'd heard rumors about the ugly thing before Rachel took over.
"You call that stuff junk!" Alex demanded. If she didn't want to go out and get a Hydra head of her own she'd be stealing that one!
"I'd call anything coated in dust and stored in an attic junk," Percy shrugged.
"Gah," Magnus made a very grotesque face they had that on display, he didn't care what it was a Greek remnant of! He'd seen one to many bodies on the street, most not close enough to decomposing before somebody reported the smell, and that had been traumatizing enough!
"You have no idea," Nico agreed quietly. His dad cursing her wasn't an act he was proud of, but after what had happened to his mom, he wasn't so sure he could hate his dad for those rash actions either. Still, hearing in detail what she'd become was a good reminder of why the camp had such distaste for him and his father, a constant reminder of what they brought sitting up in the attic, where as Percy and Thalia had triumphed in with their monster kills.
"I repeat that ack," Alex nodded. Talking mummies were not on her to-see list.
'Makes you think Mr. D outlawing quests was almost a kindness,' Hearth signed, how was this on par with the head?! Did prophecies ever come in a good form?
"There's the bright side," Will said slowly as if he was still deciding if that were true himself.
"I withhold judgment," Jason disagreed. Getting prophecies from mummies was definitely the weirdest part of this camp he'd heard by far.
"If he's your destiny then I'd demand a refund," Alex snapped.
"It's more of a, manifestation. Don't ask me, it's different for everyone," Thalia said quietly, remembering Zoe's as she tugged on her jacket. She'd never liked her long enough to ask such a personal question if she'd seen anything, let alone had one ordained to herself, but Annabeths' stories at least made her confident of this.
With each line Percy spoke, he felt that tingling at the base of his skull, a place where vague impression solidified into memory.
You shall go west, and face the god who has turned.
Jason closed his eyes for a moment in concentration. West? Was there a god of the west, or was it even being literal? How far do you travel west before you're traveling east? He felt a significance all the same, if were he released now he'd go traveling west... He opened them again and realized he could do this all day and it would lead him no closer to an answer, an instinctive feeling that told him it would do no good to try deciphering a prophecy.
You shall find what was stolen, and see it safely returned.
"Well that part's, encouraging, at least," Magnus muttered.
You shall be betrayed by one who calls you a friend.
And you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end.
"Well now we know those idiots had no tangible meaning," Alex conceded, "otherwise Gabe would have delivered the worst line."
"Always looking out for my best bets," Percy grinned at her.
'And suddenly I'm grateful the Norns don't make a more common appearance to us,' Hearth frowned, though he'd fingerspelled Norns and Magnus wasn't certain what he meant, he still decided he agreed on principle right now.
"Does that make the can diet as well?" Magnus grinned weakly.
"With the way Mr. D pulls those things out of thin air, possibly," Will shrugged.
"Next time warn him to bring a notepad!" Alex scoffed.
"It really, really wasn't necessary," Percy disagreed, he knew he hadn't done justice at all to how creepy that voice had been. He could still recite it from memory.
Percy's lungs tightened as if feeling their loss of oxygen for the first time. The truth of that line impacted him like a blow from the ocean itself. There weren't exactly a wide range of possibilities now for him to even consider!
"It does seem a bit contradictory," Will agreed, rather grateful Percy yet seemed to know about Apollo's status as the god of prophecy, or he might have turned up at their cabin looking for answers none of them could give. "These things never make sense until after the fact."
The very line Thalia had told to him in comfort mocked him back now. He'd failed to save his mother, she'd been warning him of this fact, and that he had to let her go now. Yet Will seemed as optimistic as ever he'd get through this just fine and Thalia was watching him, studying him to make sure he wasn't going to freak out. Nico wasn't looking at him, but he'd seen the looks the guy tried to keep hidden, the empathy radiating off of him with his own loss. These were his friends, even if he couldn't remember how or why. Even these other strange four kids who'd been nothing but oddly compliant to being kidnapped and trapped down here to hear his story. He would get through this without balling like a baby every line because of that ominous sentence, he could at least do that much.
"I guess she needs something to do hanging around in the attic all day, coming up with poetry has to appeal to someone," Nico grumbled.
"I'm guessing it didn't work," Jason obviously worked out.
"Point for Jason," Percy nodded.
Nico exhaled slowly through his nose to stop fissures in the floor from erupting with his frustration. The only possibility huh? His dad was the only being who fit that bill! Even Chiron in his infinite wisdom hadn't considered any other choices?!
"Could any of us really have seen Kronos coming?" Will whispered softly, watching in concern as Nico's complexion switched rapidly from infuriated to dreaded, calm acceptance without a real change in expression. Nico was obviously far to used to taking these digs on his parentage in stride, and he wondered for the thousandth time who in camp had made him feel so ostracized?
"No," Nico calmly agreed, "you couldn't." It was why he'd been traveling the Underworld alone all summer, searching for news of what Gaia was stirring before he shared a hint of his thoughts over them. It was outlandish, ridiculous, and nobody would believe a child of Hades until he had absolute proof.
Nico watched the others to see who would be hateful and suspicious of him being down here now, as if a child of Hades couldn't exist without some ulterior motive to their parent.
None did, didn't even look twice at him.
It only then occurred to him as he played back his time here so far, Thalia nor Will had called him out as being a son of Hades. Thalia's own heritage had been given away already, but nobody had even demanded his own yet, or Will's for that matter. What a strange thing, he hadn't been somewhere without everyone knowing who he was since before he'd lost Bianca.
"I'm just waiting for a, but wait, there's more at this point," Magnus sighed.
"You won't be disappointed," Thalia assured.
"So is Flordia, but I don't think we'll find the gods we want down there either," Percy sighed.
Magnus watched Percy with dread as he read that. He lived that feeling coursing through him right now, but he'd accepted his mother's death and moved on. Here was this guy, who'd just had his memories refreshed of losing his own, and now being handed a ready-made excuse to go down after her. Failed to save what matters most... was it the bolt or his mother? Had World War Three begun up there and Posideon was trying to hide away his child? Then what the heck were the rest of them doing here, and it all happened so much later?
"Those last two weren't proven to be him," Will muttered, of all things, defensively! As if for Hades...or even him?! Nico had no idea what he could mean by it, but it was true, that's what that flash of warmth was.
"Hahaha, heh," Jason couldn't help the uneasy laugh while watching this guy as if waiting for him to drop dead any second before them. Take on a God, this guy deserved the title of crazy as much as Zeus!
"Nice to know some part of that exists," Thalia sighed, "though I'd bet anything that voice sounded like Annabeth."
Percy denied answering that.
'If he'd wound up down here with us, he probably would have started eating the book every time a monster popped up,' Hearth grinned.
'You seem way to excited to see that,' Magnus frowned at him.
"I've got a wild feeling, it wouldn't do any good," Alex said deadpan.
"Manipulation," Alex muttered with such assuredness, Magnus glanced at her in concern what personal dealings she'd had with them exactly.
All eight of them were frowning at the notion. None of them could answer with complete confidence what they would have done in that situation except for Alex who would have told Loki where she could shove it.
Thalia personally didn't think Zeus would ever think twice about her again, yet she might be the obvious choice if ever he needed a job done again to ask for her help. Being under the service of Artemis made her status as a demigod no longer quite black and white, that gray area could either keep him on her radar forever, or keep her out of situations like this for good. Whether she'd even want to help him...
Hearthstone only wished his parents remembered he existed long enough to ask for his help with anything...then the numbers flashed across his mind and he decided he would be grateful if they just kept on pretending he was dead, or vanished, or whatever they'd told the Alfiehm community.
Will liked to think he'd drop everything and help his dad, Apollo had certainly never done anything to deter him of the notion, but nor had his dad exactly reached out and given him much a reason to, no more than any other half-blood. The swan that had guided him to camp had been the only sign his father knew he'd existed and needed help, silence ever since.
Nico vividly recalled the only time Hades had ever asked him to do anything was to stay out of fights like this, ignore the gods and their problems, and he'd defied his father. It had seemed to do some good...for a while, now everyone seemed to loath his presence even more than before, even his own dad hadn't reached a hand out since then, not even to acknowledge he'd been spending more time in the fields of Asphodel than anywhere else, if he even knew or cared.
Jason would have prayed for some kind of sign from his parent if he thought it would do any good, to reveal themselves and ask for something would be a blessing at this rate.
Magnus couldn't imagine what his dad would even ever ask of him that would be worth his time. He'd left him to the streets, let his mom die, whoever he was, wasn't worth his time as far as he was concerned.
Percy couldn't exactly be doing that in here if he wanted to, it occurred to him for the first time he could even be reading this silently to himself and tell them all to mind their own business...but he looked around again with a soft smile. He didn't want to.
"Look at you still getting 100's in his class!" Thalia praised.
"He must be one hell of a teacher for me to be pulling that off," Percy rolled his eyes.
"Aw, is the poor guy going to get his heart broken along the way?" Magnus chuckled.
"That's actually symbolic of asexual, in a deck of cards," Alex corrected.
Magnus looked at her in fascination. "That's a little redundant."
Alex grinned back at his curious tone and looked ready to launch off into a whole spew for him, but Percy cut in, "-and not the point right now guys!" Maybe it would be faster to do this alone though, just less fun.
"He did, yes," Will agreed.
"Can't imagine why he'd keep bringing that up though when a trip to the Underworld is on the table," Jason snipped.
'You'd be surprised,' Alex kept to herself, but she'd been in a few group therapy sessions where the one who cried was the hero, the rest of them didn't feel comfortable enough to manage letting themselves relax like that yet.
"Convenient at least," Will tried to still sound optimistic.
"Not if it's in Hawaii," Nico grinned just for the idea.
Magnus made a 'ba dum tss,' noise like he was rocking out a drum set, amusing Will and covering well Jason's hiss of pain, he even went cross-eyed for a moment as the state flashed in his mind like a neon sign. Not there...but certainly California...
"Yeah, do you know how expensive plane tickets are," Alex agreed. "Obviously not, just casually mentioning going around buying those things."
"Oh," Alex blinked, clearly she'd been missing something else.
"I think that's true of most people who go down in a plane, but I take his meaning," Magnus looked a little green at the idea he could anger some god by going somewhere he'd have no idea was off limits to him!
"Luke or Annabeth, I'd assume," Jason ticked off, "Clarisse strikes me more as letting the world burn before helping you."
"You get half credit for picking two options," Thalia said with a strained smile that had nothing to do with Jason's second guess.
"Is it really an offered quest if you can't refuse it?" Magnus rolled his eyes. "Sounds to me more like you were force fed a quest."
"Is it really a choice when the alternative is doing nothing?" Percy said quietly. He may not remember all the details, but he was sure of one thing. Whatever he'd been thrown in the middle of, he had to stop it.