A/N: I don't own the rights to any of the Percy Jackson series or it's characters. That right goes to Rick Riordan. I also don't own the rights to Animorph including it's title.

I am, however, the person who posted 'The Tales of...' series.

This is not a crossover of the Percy Jackson series with the book/tv series Animorph, despite what you might think from the title. I just thought it be a proper name for the ability to turn into animals since that's why the tv/book series 'Animorph' was called that in the first place.

If you haven't read this yet, read:

Animorph Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
Animorph Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters

Hades Secret Is Revealed

Before I left Olympus, I decided to make a few calls. It wasn't easy, but I finally found a quiet fountain in a corner garden and sent an Iris-message to Tyson, under the sea. I told him about our adventures, and Bessie-he wanted to hear every detail about the cute baby cow serpent-and I assured him that Annabeth was safe. Finally I got around to explaining the shield he made me last summer have saved me from the manticore attack before the quest.

"Yay!" Tyson said. "That means it was good! It saved your life!"

"It sure did, big guy. And Beckendorf repaired it in time for the quest," I said. "Sadly with everything going on during it, I haven't used it."

"That's okay. It still save your life!" Tyson said. "And when I come to visit next summer I'll make it stronger so you can use it against stronger monsters."

The idea picked me up instantly. I guess I hadn't realized how much I missed having Tyson around.

"Seriously?" I asked. "They'll let you take time off?"

"Yes! I have made two thousand seven hundred and forty-one magic swords," Tyson said proudly, showing me his newest blade. "The boss says 'good work'! He will let me take the whole summer off. I will visit camp!"

We talked for a while about war preparations and our dad's fight with the old sea gods, and all the cool things we could do next summer, even pass around a few ideas how we can help homeless cyclopes so they won't become mean, but then Tyson's boss started yelling at him and he had to get back to work.

I dug out my last golden drachma and made one more Iris-message.

"Sally Jackson," I said. "Upper East Side Manhattan."

The mist shimmered and there was my mom at our kitchen table, laughing and holding hands with her friend Mr. Blowfish.

I felt so embarrassed. I was about to wave my hand through the mist and cut the connection, but before I could, my mom saw me.

Her eyes got wide. She let go of Mr. Blowfish's hand real quick. "Oh, Paul! YOu know what? I left my writing journal in the living room. Would you mind getting it for me?"

"Sure, Sally. No problem."

He left the room and my leaned toward the Iris-message. "Percy! Are you all right?"

"I'm, uh, fine. How's that writing seminar going?"

She pursed her lips. "It's fine. But that's not important. Tell me what's happened?"

I filled her in as quickly as I could. She sighed with relief that Annabeth was safe.

"I knew you could do it!" she said.

"Yeah, and I got a streak to prove it," I pointed to the gray streak. "I got to say, I'm curious to see how my animal forms will look like with it."

"I'm sure it won't be that much different than before," my mom said. "I'm proud of you."

"Thanks, mom. I better let you get back to your boyfriend," I said.

My mom blushed realizing I figured it out. "Percy-"

"It's okay, mom. As long as you're happy, I'm happy," I said. "He does make you happy, right?"

My mom took a minute to think. "Yes. I really am, Percy. Being around him makes me happy."

"Then it's cool. Seriously." And I meant it. Considering the quest I'd just had, maybe I should be worried for my mom. I'd seen how mean people could be to each other, like Hercules was to Zoë Nightshade, like Luke was to Thalia. I'd met Aphrodite, Goddess of Love, in person, and her powers had scared me worse than Ares. But seeing my mother laughing and smiling, after all the years she'd suffered with my nasty ex-step-father Gabe Ugliano, I couldn't help feeling happy for her.

"You promise not to call him Mr. Blowfish?" she asked.

I shrugged. "Well, maybe not to his face, anyway. At least until I get to know him better myself."

"Sally?" Mr. Blofis called from our living room. "You need the green binder or the red one?"

"I better go," she told me. "See you for Christmas?"

"Are you putting blue candy in my stocking?"

She smiled. "If you're not too old for that."

"I'm never too old for candy."

"I'll see you then."

She waved her hand across the mist. Her image disappeared, and I thought to myself that Thalia had been right, so many days ago at Westover Hall: my mom really was pretty cool.

Compare to Mount Olympus, Manhattan was quiet. Friday before Christmas, but it was early in the morning, and hardly anyone was on Fifth Avenue. Argus, the many eyed security chief, picked up Annabeth Grover and me at the Empire State Building and ferried us back to camp through a light snowstorm. The Long Island Expressway was almost deserted.

As we trudged back up Half-Blood Hill to the pine tree where the Golden Fleece glittered, I half expected to see Thalia there, waiting for us. But she wasn't. She was long gone with Artemis and the rest of the Hunters, off on their next adventure.

Chiron greeted us at the Big House with hot chocolate and toasted cheese sandwiches. Grover went off with his satyr friends to spread the word about our strange encounter with the magic of Pan. Within an hour, the satyrs were all running around agitated, asking where the nearest espresso bar was.

Annabeth and I sat with Chiron and some of the other senior campers-Beckendorf, Silena Beauregard, and the Stoll brothers. Even Clarisse from the Ares cabin was there, back from her secret scouting mission. I knew she must've had a difficult quest, because she didn't even try to pulverize me. She had a new scar on her chin, and her dirty blond hair had been cut short and ragged, like someone had attacked it with a pair of safety scissors.

"I got news," she mumbled uneasily. "Bad news."

"I'll fill you in later," Chiron said with forced cheerfulness. "The important thing is you have prevailed. And you saved Annabeth!"

Annabeth smiled at me gratefully, which made me look away.

"Luke is alive," I said. "Annabeth was right."

Annabeth sat up. "How do you know?"

I tried not to feel annoyed by her interest. I told her what my dad had said about the Princess Andromeda.

"Well." Annabeth shifted uncomfortably in her chair. "If the final battle does come when Percy is sixteen, at least we have two more years to figure something out.

I had a feeling that when she said "figure something out," she meant "get Luke to change his ways," which annoyed me even more.

Chiron's expression was gloomy. Sitting by the fire in his wheelchair, he looked really old. I mean... he was really old, but he usually didn't look it.

"Two years may seem like a long time," he said. "But it is the blink of an eye. I still hope you are not the child of prophecy, Percy. But if you are, then the second Titan war is almost upon us. Kronos' first strike will be here."

"Luke said that himself," I said. "Why would he attack the camp?"

"Because the gods use heroes as their tools" Chiron said simply. "Destroy the tools, and the gods will be crippled. Luke's forces will come here. Mortal, demigod, monstrous... We must be prepared. Clarisse' news may give us a clue as to ow they will attack, but-"

There was a knock on the door, and Nico di Angelo came huffing into the parlor, his cheeks bright red from the cold.

He was smiling, but he looked around anxiously. "Hey! Where's... where's my sister?"

Dead silence. I stared at Chiron. I couldn't believe nobody told him yet. And then I realized why. They'd been waiting for us to appear, to tell Nico in person.

I still have no idea how to tell Nico, much less what to tell him. We still don't know what really happen to Bianca after the furies took her. Thalia said she would look for clues, but I doubt she found anything yet.

"Hey, Nico." I got up from my comfortable chair. "Let's take a walk, okay. We need to talk."

He took the news in silence, which somehow made it worse. I kept talking, trying to explain we're not sure what happened to Bianca, just that she was kidnapped by monsters and that Thalia promised me she won't stop looking for Bianca. But I felt like I was only making things worse.

"She wanted you to have this." I brought out the little god figurine Bianca had found in the junkyard. Nico held it in his palm and and stared at it.

We were standing at the dining pavilion, just where we last spoken before I went on the quest. The wind was bitter cold, even with the camp's magical weather protection. Snow fell lightly against the marble steps. I figured outside the camp borders, there must be a blizzard happening.

"You promised you would protect her?"Nico said.

He might as well have stabbed me with a rusty dagger.

It would've hurt less than reminding me of my promise.

"Nico," I said. "I tried. There was three of them. We just got out of fighting a huge robot when they attack-"

"You promised!"

He glared at me, his eyes rimmed with red. He closed his small fist around the god statue.

"I shouldn't have trusted you." His voice broke. You lied to me. My nightmares were right."

"Wait. What nightmares?"

He flung the god statue to the ground. It clattered across the icy marble. "I hate you!"

"Whoa, hey she could be alive," I said desperately. "I said she was kidnapped. Not killed. I even know who the monsters are. They're-"

Before I could finish, I heard a new sound behind me. A hissing, clattering noise I recognized all too well.

I drew my sword and Nico gasped. I whirled and found myself facing four skeleton warriors. They grinned fleshless grins and advanced with swords drawn. How the heck did they track us here? How are they inside the camp?

"Nico, run!" I responded

"I don't trust you! You're trying to kill me!" Nico screamed. "You brought these... these things?"

The first skeleton charged. I knocked aside its blade, but the other three kept coming. I sliced one in half, but immediately it began to knit back together. I knocked another head off but it just kept fighting.

"Run, Nico!" I yelled. "Get help!"

"No!" He pressed his hands to his ears. "Go away!"

The ground rumbled beneath me. The skeletons froze. I rolled out of the way just as the crack opened at the feet of the four warriors. The ground ripped apart like a snapping mouth. Flames erupted from the fissure, and the earth swallowed the skeletons in one loud CRUNCH!

Silence.

In the place where the skeletons had stood, a twenty-foot-long scar wove across the marble floor of the pavilion. Otherwise there was no sign of the warriors.

Awestruck, I looked to Nico. "How did you-"

"Go away!" he yelled. "I hate you! I wish you were dead!"

The ground didn't swallowed me up, but Nico ran down the steps, heading toward the woods. I started to follow but slipped and fell to the icy steps. When I got up, I noticed what I'd slipped on.

I picked up the god statue Bianca had retrieved from the junkyard for Nico. The only statue he didn't have, she'd said. A gift from his sister.

I stared at it with dread, because now I understood why the face looked familiar. I'd seen it before.

It was a statue of Hades, Lord of the Dead. And I realized the reason why he wasn't at the winter solstice-why the furies-his servants kidnapped Bianca.

Annabeth and Grover helped me search the woods for hours, but there was no sign of Nico di Angelo. Even with prayers to Artemis and me tracking as a bloodhound, we couldn't find him. It was as if he completely disappeared from earth-at least above ground.

"We have to tell Chiron," Annabeth said, out of breath.

"No," I said.

She and Grover both stared at me.

"Um," Grover said nervously, "what do you mean... no?"

I was trying to figure that out myself, but the words spilled out of me. "We can't let anyone know. I don't think anyone realizes that Nico and Bianca are-"

"Children of Hades," Annabeth said. "Percy, do you have any idea how serious this is? Even Hades broke the oath! This is horrible!"

"Hades didn't break his oath!" I said. "Remember Grover, Bianca said so herself, she and Nico were in the Lotus Casino since WWII. Hades must have send them there! They were born before the oath was made."

"Even if you're right, how did they get out?" Annabeth protested.

"I don't know," I admitted. "Bianca said a lawyer came and got them and drove them to Westover Hall. I don't know who that cou;dve been, or why. Maybe it's part of the Great Stirring ting. I don't think Nico understands who he is, and because of those warriors now he doesn't know his sister is still alive. We can't go tell anyone. Not even Chiron. If the Olympians find out-"

"It might start them fighting among each other again," Annabeth said. "That's the last thing we need."

Grover looked worried. "But you can't hide things from the gods. Not forever."

"I don't need forever," I said. "JUst two years. Until I'm sixteen."

Annabeth paled. "But, Percy, this means the prophecy might not be about you. It might be about Bianca or NIco. We have to-"

"No," I said. "Bianca might still be immortal due to her oath to Artemis. If so she cannot age, so like Thalia she can't be part of the prophecy. As for Nico, I choose the prophecy. It will be about me, not him."

"Why are you saying that?" she cried. "YOu want to be responsible for the whole world?"

Finally Athena's warning about my fatal flaw made sense. I was choosing loyalty over the world.

"It's better me than Nico," I summed up. "The gods won't give Nico a chance because of the history of Hades' children. We need to find him and convince him Bianca is alive so he would come back or go into hiding."

Annabeth shivered. "If Luke gets hold of him-"

"Luke won't," I said. "I'll make sure he got other things to worry about. Namely me."

I wasn't sure Chiron believed the story Annabeth and I told him. I think he could tell I was holding something bac about Nico's disappearance, but in the end, he accepted it. Unfortunately, Nico wasn't the first half-blood to disappear.

"So young," Chiron sighed, his hands on the rail of the front porch. "Alas, I hop he was eaten by monsters. Much better than being recruited into the Titan army."

That idea made me really uneasy. I almost changed my mind about telling Chiron, but I didn't.

"You really think the first attack will be here?" I asked.

Chiron stared at the snow falling on the hills. "I could see smoke from the dragon guardian at the pine tree, the glitter of the distant Fleece.

"It will not be until summer, at least," Chiron said. "This winter will be hard... the hardest for many centuries. It's best that you go home to the city, Percy; try to keep your mind on school. And rest. You will need rest."

I looked at Annabeth. "What about yo?"

Her cheeks flushed. "I'm going to try San Francisco after all. Maybe i can keep an eye on Mount Tam, make sure the Titans don't try anything else."

"You'll send an Iris message if anything goes wrong?

She nodded. "I think Chiron's right. It won't be until the summer. Even with ambrosia and nectar it will take time for him to regain strength from that fall."

I didn't like the idea of waiting. Then again, next August I would be turning fifteen. So close to sixteen I didn't want to think about it.

"All right," I said. "Just take care of yourself. And no crazy stunts in the Sopwith Camel."

She smiled tentatively. "Deal. And, Percy-"

Whatever she was going to say was interrupted by Grovre, who stumbled out of the Big House, tripping over tin cans. His face was haggard and pale, like he'd seen a specter.

"He spoke!" Grover cried.

"Calm down, my young satyr," Chiron said, frowning. "What is the matter?"

"I... I was playing music in the parlor," he stammered, "and drink coffee. Lots of coffee! And he spoke in my mind!"

"Who?" Annabeth demanded.

"Pan!" Grover wailed. "The Lord of the WIld himself. I heard him! I have to... I have to find a suitcase."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," I said. "What did he say?"

Grover stared at me. "Just three words. He said, 'I await you.'"

A/N: I hope you guys enjoy. Next story is Animorph Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Battle of the Labyrinth'