Chapter 12
Ares POV
I took a deep breath and pushed open the door to the throne room. Percy and his friends and already come and gone, so unless they had a colossal memory gap, the council already knew what I'd done. Right now the best I could hope for is simply being removed from the council and having one of my godly children replace me on the council. My demigod children would be forced out of their cabin as it would no longer be mine and the Hermes cabin would be stuffed with even more kids.
I walked to the center of the room and looked Zeus in the eye "you have been accused of receiving my Master bolt from the lightning thief and attempting to start a war" he said "do you deny this". "No Sir" I said flatly, right now it was best if I just took the blame as is, my mind was too muddled from whatever had been controlling me anyway.
Zeus nodded "Normally such an action would result in you being removed from the council but in this case we've decided to make an exception" he said. I couldn't believe it this was just too good to be true "Why?". "My son stuck his neck out for and Hades had the evidence to back up that you weren't in control of yourself." Uncle Poseidon said "Now take a seat we have more important things to talk about".
I nodded and took my seat "Based on the information Hades gave us I believe the one behind this is my father Kronos" Zeus said. "How could it be him he's still in Tartarus" Hermes said "even with his power he shouldn't be much more than a disembodied voice showing up in a random mortals dream". "I think I have an answer." Athena said "If Kronos were able to convince a demigod to make a connection to him he could increase his influence". "What kind of connection" Hermes asked "like an oath".
Athena shook her head "an oath would be part of it but Kronos would need something physical with a strong magical or sentimental bond to him". "Could we track this connection" Uncle asked. "Track it no but we could test people for it. That course of action will be very slow going though" Athena said. Zeus nodded "Next I'd like to talk about Perseus, I'd like to know how he was able to perceive Ares' godly aura. That's supposed to be outside demigods field of vision". "If he had enough power he could potentially resonate with our power" Apollo said. "Say what?" I asked.
"He's referring to our domains, theoretically if a demigod had enough power they could begin to resonate with their parents domain allowing them to see that power radiating off us gods." Athena said turning to Apollo "That is genius by the way I have to admit I'm impressed". Zeus on the other hand glared at Poseidon accusingly. "What?" Poseidon asked "I don't have any control of how strong my children are. Their starting power is in direct proportion to how much their mother loved me when they were born and the rest is up to them". "Fine meeting over you're all dismissed" Zeus said. "Wait" Poseidon said "we haven't heard Hera's decision yet". "One day" Hera said before flashing out.
The next morning I waited till Percy was alone and flashed to camp "Holy!" Percy shouted jumping back. "I seriously think you guys are trying to scare me to death" Percy said. "Well my father wouldn't mind but that's not why I'm here" I said. "Then why are you here" Percy asked. "To settle a debt" I said "you stuck your neck out for me and I want to even the score". "I don't want anything" Percy said awkwardly. "Come on kid everyone wants something" I said. "forgive me for all those insults I said to you during our fight" He said after a moment. "Deal" I said shaking his hand "You insulted me during our dual". "In my defense I was trying to help you break free from whoever was controlling" He said, I nodded in understanding then flashed out.
Percy POV
'could my life get any weirder' I thought. "Percy, Chiron wants to see us" Annabeth called. "On my way" I replied. Five minutes later both Annabeth and I were sitting across from Dyonisis and Chiron playing a game called pinochle "So what did you want to see us about" I asked. "Well I thought you might like to know that because of what you said Ares has been pardoned." Chiron said "Also you both have been given a day, Annabeth your mother will be here tomorrow at 6:00 am to pick you up, Percy your father decided that he would be waiting till your birthday since it's only a month and a half away".
"First hurray for Ares, you know that's great, but what do you mean we've been given a day". "It's a day with our parents." Annabeth said excitedly "Every Time a demigod completes a quest we're give some time with our parents as a sort of reward outside of their preset time with us. How much time depends on the difficulty of the quest". "So we have to risk our lives just to spend time with our parents?" I asked, the three of them nodded. "Then how do you handle it as director of camp?" I asked Dyonisis. "I'm not allowed to deal with my kids directly" he said.
Later that day I was sitting out by the river on the edge of the forest just pondering everything that's happened "rough day" Luke asked taking a seat next to me. "Kinda" I said "I just don't understand some of the rules the gods have, especially in regards to us". "I know right just makes you want to take them down a peg right?" He said. "No not really, I can't believe the gods would chose stay away from their kids. There has to be another reason as to way the laws exist".
"That's your probably Percy you're just too good natured" Luke said as he dumped a scorpion on my arm "I had hoped you'd come with me but I don't think you'll agree with what I'm going to do". "What are you doing man" I asked not taking my eyes off the scorpion which had crawled onto my arm. "I'm going to bring Olympus down, I've already struck a deal with Kronos now all I need is a child of the big three to help me" Luke said, the scorpion stung me and my vision went red with pain.
