Chapter 30

Artemis POV

I scanned the demigods expressions at being summoned so early in the morning. Most had spent at least part of the night at their parents palace as Hera had been rather generous (for her typical decisions) in giving the demigods 3 days with their parents for facing down a titan. Tomas and Grover had slept at Hestia's home as she welcomed everyone and Zoe stayed at my place but she seemed really troubled.

"I'd like to thank you for meeting here so early." Zeus said. "In three day's time Olympus will be holding a party and all of you except the daughter of Atlas will be the guests of honor."

"Um why is Zoe and Percy being left out lord Zeus?" Thalia asked, I smiled at my newest hunter for choosing to join the hunt. Admittedly I was skeptical at first when she asked to join thinking she might just be doing so to gain the power my blessing granted. Then she explained her reasons for joining and I just couldn't contain my surprise as she was the first child of Zeus since the original Perseus to overcome her lust for power, or at least be able to turn it down.

"That is because Percy wasn't supposed to be on the quest and many believed he didn't deserve a reward, however for his bravery Apollo has offered to be his personal physician till he has healed. As for 'Zoe' she will be receiving a different gift for her hundreds of years of service to Olympus." Zeus said

Taking that as my cue I stepped forward "Zoe Olympus has decided to return the immortality that your father took from you." I said. Zoe seemed to freeze in shock for a moment then she bowed thanking Zeus profusely for the gift.

I offered her a golden apple of immortality from my father's tree, not quite sure how he got it, Zoe took it and looked...guilty almost. "If you don't want it you can always give it back." Father said blandly. That seemed to wake Zoe up a bit and she quickly ate it. "You're dismissed." Zeus said flashing out.

The two boys and Annabeth left heading to see Percy at my brothers palace "Are you feeling okay Zoe?" I asked once the three of us were alone.

Zoe took a deep breath and turned around "Yes it's just….I've been thinking a lot lately about the confrontation between thee and thy brother and I've realized it is my fault."

"What! What's going on between me and Apollo has nothing to do with you." I said.

"No it does, at least in part. When I joined the hunt I really needed a sister and thee became my sister in just about every way. What I didn't see was that because we had such similar circumstances, both twins and cast out by most of our family members, thy started confiding in me more than Apollo. Neither of us meant to do it but I replaced him and as long as I'm in the hunt I don't think Apollo will believe thy truly wants to make amends." She said sadly.

"What are you saying?" I asked.

"I'm saying I leaving the hunt at least for a little while. And I was holding off on telling thee till after the celebration but now I just feel guilty because now it seems like I used thee to get immortality." She said.

Crossing the distance I embraced her "Don't even think that I've know you wouldn't do something like that. If you want to leave I won't stop you but just know you'll always have a place in the hunt."

Zoe nodded and pulled away. Taking off her tiara that marked her as my lieutenant she turned to Thalia "Thalia I've seen the strength of a potential leader in you and with me leaving I believe you are the best choice to replace me." She said handing her the tiara and walking away. Percy's lizard nuzzled my cheek comfortingly from where it laid on my shoulders.


Annabeth POV

"Hey Percy." I said looking at my friend that I often considered my brother, he hadn't woken up yet and the nurse said he probably wouldn't wake up for a couple days "So we're all being treated to this big party in a couple days guess you gonna miss all that delicious food." I teased. Percy could very much be a foodie when he wants to be.

Grover placed some wild flowers in a vase saying their aroma was thought to help people heal. Tomas waved a candybar under Percy's nose "What are you doing?" I asked.

"My father once said some chinese cultures believed fresh salmon could wake the dead so I thought I'd try something similar." He said. We stayed for a few more minutes then left heading to camp. I was set to meet my mother tomorrow for the rest of our time together so we were planning on going back to camp. I was worried about Tomas his mother still wouldn't claim him but he didn't seem to upset.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Triton standing in an alley, he waved me over. "Hey guys I just remembered I've got something I need to do. I'll catch up to you later." I said.

"Okay see ya." Grover said, Tomas gave me a questioning look but shrugged and waved.

Waving back I ran off towards the alley "Are you ready?" Triton asked.

"Yes." I said.

With a wave of his hand I suddenly found myself under the ocean in an air bubble. "Sorry if you don't like the location but it would be best that no one else heard us." Triton said. Next to him was Percy's mother simply floating there in the ocean.

"What are you doing here and how are you breathing?" I asked.

"I'm a goddess Annabeth." Sally said with a sad smile. "The reason Percy's blood is gold is because he was born a god but Poseidon's younger brother would have never approved of a relationship between me and Poseidon so we had to take extreme measures to insure his survival lets the 'lord of the sky' kill him. We had Hestia make him mortal and made a deal with the fates to keep his identity a secret in exchange for him possibly being the child of the prophecy."

I took a quick second to digest the information and I think I handled the news fairly well. "Ok I understand most of it now but would Ze-" I clamped a hand over my mother remembering that saying his name could allow him to hear us "I mean why would my grandfather care who Poseidon is dating."

"Annabeth before I answer that I'm going to asked if you really want to know. Because if I do ancient law will prevent you from ever seeing Percy's mother again." Triton said.

"What why would that be a consequence?" I shouted "I see what your doing, you just don't want to answer well I'm calling your bluff yes I do want to know."

Triton and Sally shared a sad look then she said "Annabeth he would disapproved because I'm A-" Poseidon flashed in and clamped a hand over her mother.

Sally looked furious at being interrupted "Look I'm sorry for stopping things but I just need to talk to Sally for five minutes then we can get back to it if what I'm thinking is wrong." Sally nodded and the two of them swam out a good ways. Presumably so we couldn't hear them. I watched them intently as they had what seemed like a very heated discussion. Sally suddenly shouted "You're a genius!" and pulled him in a very passionate kiss and flashed out.

Poseidon swam back over "Ok before we get back to the main discussion I have something I'd like to ask you." He said. "Would you do me the honor of becoming my daughter? If you wish I can even replace my blood with that of Frederick chase."

Admittedly that one really through me for a loop. My first reaction was to turn him down but then I really thought about it. At the winter solstice the gods talked about the quest quite a bit including Percy's visit to my father and his response. Then I thought about the legends on how Poseidon treats his children and what he did for Percy. "Do it." I said "I want nothing to do with him any more."

Poseidon or should I say dad chanted in greek so fast I couldn't keep up with him, then I felt this warm sensation passing through my body. I looked down half wondering if I'd suddenly had flippers or something. Well I didn't have fins but my skin was as tan as Percy's now.

Seeing the look on my face my new father summon an ice mirror, my hair was now completely black which I knew was going to take some time to get used to but my eyes were still gray like my mother's and I was very thankful for that. The last thing I noticed was that my air bubble was gone and I panicked till I realized I could still breath. "What the Hades? How can I still breath?" I asked.

"You're my daughter in blood now." Poseidon said "Breathing underwater is just one of the perks."

"Are there any other perks?" I asked.

"Well you'll also be able to talk to horses like Percy but that'll be the end of it. If I had adopted you sooner then maybe you might have gotten more but that is it." Poseidon said, and my mind was spinning.

"Now about Percy's mom, Sally Jackson is Athena." Triton said.

That sentence brought me back to reality "No way that is not true." I challenged.

"I swear on Styx Percy is both mine and Athena's and your now full blooded brother." Father said.

"But how?" I asked.

"Well after world war two we got to talking and a few glasses of wine later we realized there was something there and now we're engaged." He said sheepishly.

"So what mom was right there the whole time." I said more to myself than anyone else "And now that I know who she is I can never see her again." I felt like crying the one person that I loved like a parent and actually was my mother was now beyond my reach forever.

"Well not exactly." father said grinning. "You see in the past you were able to see her because you didn't know who she really was so the spell she devised never went off. Now however with Percy being both a god and a mortal and your full blooded brother the spell is going to have a lot of trouble reading this correctly. This would cause a delay of say one hour before the alarm sounded unless Percy was with you. But we could get rid of that to if Sally Jackson chose to adopt you."

"I'm surprised I'm saying this but you you please simplify it?" I asked.

"If you let the woman known as Sally jackson aka your mother adopt you in mortal terms you'd be able to see and talk to her when ever you want." Poseidon said.

I nodded and asked "And how come the spell won't ruin it?"

"Um think of it like this you're the spell and because of all these odd twist and turns caused by Percy, the way he was raised, and me adopting you instead of a single signal it's coming through like a thousand screaming voices. You might catch bits and pieces but you really don't know what's being said. Then add on top of that Athena adopting you as Sally Jackson and it becomes near impossible for the spell to read you at all." He said. "But there a few little things that you need to know. First until Sally Jackson adopts you you can't call her mom and second you can never refer to Sally as Athena or Athena as Sally. Break either of these two rules and the paper thin barrier making this possible disappeared and you can never see her again."

"Oh." I said finally catching on.

"Now stay here till she comes to get you alright." He said, I didn't even trust myself to speak so I just nodded.

Father flashed away but before he did he gave me a hug and I know this sounds cliche but it was perfect, it had that comforting warmth and strength that I hear my siblings say about their fathers. "You made his day you know." Triton said after he left.

"Huh." was my oh so intelligent response, hey let's see you get this kind of information dumped on you and still function just fine.

"Father's never had a daughter before, not even an adopted one so I'd imagine he's really looking forward to it." Triton said.

"Really but what about all those sea Nymphs in the legends?" I asked.

"Those were cases of the ex-girlfriend claiming to have had a child by Poseidon to become queen when in fact the child was by another sea god." He said "At Least all the girls were."

I nodded thinking how easy it was to talk with Triton when another thought came to my head "How is Percy able to keep quiet about all this he's usually a horrible lair?" I asked

"Simple." Triton said "As far as he knows Sally Jackson is just your run of the mill clear sighted mortal."

"Oh I guess that makes sense the truth would seem way too improbable." I said. "I'm still having trouble getting over the fact that those to love each other."

"Ya but once you know you feel like an idiot for not seeing it." Triton said and I gave him a confused look. "Okay so it all started back with the contest for who would be the patron of Athens. Dad left that day planning to have the horse be his gift and when he gets there he meets Athena a rising star in the world of the gods. Father realizes that at this point if he becomes the patron of Athens she might never reach her full potential. He decides he really doesn't need any more power and chooses to summon a saltwater spring instead throwing the match and the rest you know."

"Next he makes Athens a strong sea faring nation because he's developing feelings for her and wants to spend more time with her which leads to the creation of the chariot. Then in the move to Rome Athena's status as a war goddess gets taken away and he becomes one of the most feared gods. I'm sorry but that just screams over protective crush right there." He reasoned.

"But what about the whole thing with Medusa in mom's temple?" I inquired "It doesn't exactly fit."

"Okay that is just the ending to a really funny story." Triton said. "The night before was Dionysus celebration for receiving his domains from the Fates and as wine was new none of us knew what would happen if we drank a lot of it.

In truth I don't even remember half the night, one moment I'm laughing and making a pledge that I won't go into with Apollo the next I'm waking up in the same gods palace completely naked, hold a watermelon and the worst hangover of my life. Apollo stumbled out of his room in a grass skirt and Ares was found sleeping in the arms of one of his father's statues.

Now as for Father Medusa slipped a love potion into his drink. The potion was just supposed to make him fall for her for the next twelve hours. The love potion plus wine however made him think she was Athena so he didn't resist when she lead him to Athena's temple because that considered to be ok kinda like going home with your date now a days is.

Afterwards there was this huge fight and it was agreed that Poseidon had not intentionally disgraced Athena so he got off easy with a warning and well Medusa became a monster." He explained.

Right as he finished 'Sally' flashed in hold a stack of papers "I already finished the paperwork all you have to do is sign on the dotted line and the adoption will be official." She said. Lets just say I couldn't sign it fast enough.

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