"Well, look who's back." Jason grinned, sitting on a chair, watching as Jake and Beckendorf tried to sort out the mess of wires, with the Hermes kids looking on in amusement, while Malcolm was flipping through an instruction manual.
"Where's Leo?" Percy asked, and the son of Jupiter snorted, "Apparently, Fire Boy wasn't joking about needing the bathroom."
Percy snickered, as Jake sighed, "Hermes connected everything right... but these wires are just atrocious to look at."
"Well..." Chris looked up, "Perce, you want to go shower first? We've got three boys rooms, and two girls ones. I think the girls are kind of sorting out their sleeping arrangements. And if Leo's still stuck in the toilet... I guess it's better to keep things moving along."
"Sure. But what about the others?" Percy asked, "Maybe they'd want to bathe first."
"Don't worry about it too much." Beckendorf glanced up at Percy, "You always did worry about the weirdest things."
Percy frowned, the memory of the Princess Andromeda blowing up flashing through his mind, "It's not... weird..."
Beckendorf's gaze softened as he peered up at Percy. He had a pretty good idea what the Son of the Sea God was thinking about, "You know, you really should stop blaming yourself for my death."
Jake winced slightly at the mention of the loss of his half-brother, and Percy looked at the floor, "It was my fault. I was rash. I picked a fight with him."
"They knew we were coming. No matter what we would have done, they would have found us. You tried to fight him to buy more time for me." Beckendorf reasoned, standing up from the consoles and leaving Jake with the mess of wires.
"Maybe instead of rushing ahead and leaving you alone, I should have stayed to provide some back-up." Percy groaned, and Jason intervenes, "Look, Perce, I don't know the details of whatever you're talking about... but I figure it was during the war with Saturn. Thalia didn't tell me much... and after our quest, no one wanted to talk about it."
"Kronos." Malcolm corrected off-handedly, trying to keep his tone steady, "And you would be correct. Sorry if we left you out... but we had another war on our hands, and we were still looking for Percy. We didn't need to get more depressed."
"I'm just trying to say... it's not your fault." Jason tried to comfort Percy, "It's a war. Casualties happen. But we aren't the aggressors. Saturn, Kronos, whatever you want to call him... he's the one that started this war. He was the one that caused all our pain and suffering. Whatever happened... it wasn't your fault. Go take a shower and cool off, bro. It's been a hard day for you, learning that we'd be reading all your thoughts out. Go on."
Jason must have been channeling his inner Praetor, or Piper's charmspeak was rubbing off on him, but whatever the case, Percy obliged. He let Jason push him towards one of the guest rooms, and the black haired boy walked over one of the closets. Percy paused, and thought about the orange shirt and pants that he liked to wear to sleep when he was younger, more naive, when all he had to worry about was rescuing Thalia's tree from poison; no prophecies about him ending the world when he turned sixteen.
He pulled the closet open, and found a Camp Half-Blood t-shirt and sweatpants folded neatly inside, just in his size, as well as a clean pair of plain blue boxers (Aphrodite must have a weird sense of humor, or maybe it was Apollo's way of harmless revenge for leaving a scratch on his lyre, though he was fairly certain that Apollo hadn't been watching if he had been surprised by the scratch). Percy gathers up his new set of clothes, and stalked towards the bathroom.
Jason watched him from the doorway, before closing the door. He turned back to Beckendorf, "Would he be okay?"
"He'll be fine. Hopefully. He always puts too much pressure on himself." Beckendorf sighed, "Just... uh... don't tell him how you died. Or... you know, where."
"Oh man." Jason groaned, "He'd totally flip out. I think Piper knew that she shouldn't tell him that..."
"Tell him what?" Piper's voice rang out, and she, as well as some of the other girls, filled out of their guest rooms, and Annabeth asked, "And where is he? Still talking to Lady Hestia?
"He's taking a shower now." Jason grimaced, and turned to Piper, "And... you know... what happened to me."
Piper instantly got the message, and nodded, "Yeah. I just told them the bare details. He'd totally blame himself for not being there or something."
Jason could tell that Calypso was a little uncomfortable, standing right next to Annabeth, as the Daughter of Athena turned to Hazel, "Oh, yeah, you were looking for Percy, right?"
"Yeah." Hazel winced, "Not an emergency; we were just wondering if we should start re-routing the water pipes. Just wanted to ask his opinion, since he's helped us fix some pipes before, and the water expert."
"Well, that would makes it easier for everyone to access, easier to clean stuff, and if Percy's going to be staying in New Rome for university, having access to water everywhere might be helpful if you get attacked again." Reyna nodded.
"That's not too bad an idea." Annabeth admitted, "I'm sure the Athena cabin can help out, if you guys do decide to go ahead with that."
"It's nothing major. We'd just be opening up extra water lines that branch off from our major pipes." Hazel added, "We're not going to demolish and rebuild stuff if we don't have to."
Jake reattached all the wires, and booted the television up, "We're good to go!"
"Awesome!" Connor and Travis cheered, holding a stack of video games in their hands. Jason was tempted to ask where they got them from, but he figured that they probably just found them wherever Apollo had stashed them.
He watched as the demigods started to argue over what game to play, and he was tempted to let out an amused snort, before he felt a tap on his arm. He focused, and noticed that Piper was standing next to him, grabbing onto his arm, "Can we... talk?"
"Sure." Jason nodded, and they exited the guest room.
Piper shifted on her feet nervously, and Jason asked, "Is this... about me dying... or the break-up."
"Both, actually." Piper admitted, "I just... maybe if we hadn't gone our separate ways..."
"Pipes... it doesn't matter that much." Jason sighed, "The prophecy stated that someone was going to die. If it wasn't me... maybe it would be someone else."
There was silence, and Jason asked, "Can you at least... explain why you broke up with me? I... don't think you wouldn't have done that with no reason... not after everything we went through..."
"I..." Piper stammered, and Jason gave her some time to gather her thoughts. It took a few minutes, but Piper started, "I... I don't know. Hera gave me all these Mist memories of us together... and then I found out that Aphrodite was my mom. Then we went on a quest together, so I didn't really have time to think about it... and then we had to go to Rome to pick up Percy, Hazel and Frank..."
She took a deep breath, "I... never really got to think about everything until we defeated Gaea... I was seriously hoping that we could have lived together, gotten a nice ending, but I couldn't help but wonder... what would have happened if Her and my mom didn't just... push us together. I just... wanted to figure out if even without the gods' emotional manipulation... would we have still been together? Or were we just together because everyone expected us to, and we subconsciously gave into that pressure?"
Jason nodded, as his gaze fell to the floor, "That's understandable... you know... after we broke up... I've also been thinking about that."
Piper gave Jason a small, sad smile, "I just wanted some space to think. I didn't mean for us to break up like that..."
"It's alright." Jason smiled, "I... originally thought you hated me or something."
"I guess... I didn't get that across clearly... did I?" Piper laughed, tears spilling out of her eyes, "I never hated you, Jason."
"I know that." Jason grinned, and held his hand out, "Still friends?"
"Definitely still friends." Piper nodded, "One of the best friends ever."
They shook their hands, before they turned back and went back to the guest room. They must have been talking much longer than they thought, because Percy was sipping on some blue coke, a towel around his neck, as Annabeth berated him for drinking soda at night.
Some of the other demigods seemed to have also finished showering, while Hermes was playing some racing game against his three kids.
Apollo, in his Lester form, was sitting to the side, sharing a couch with Michael, Will and Nico, tapping on a phone that had two earthworms wriggling about, and Piper could swear she could hear George and Martha arguing.
"Alright, and that's how you deal with the tracking numbers."
"Can we have a rat now?"
"Hush, George. We're supposed to help Lord Apollo learn how to send letters and packages. He's trying to help Hermes too."
Piper didn't know how Apollo and Hermes had gotten into the guest room, seeing as they had been talking right outside, but she supposed they were gods and could have just teleported in.
"It seems like we missed some things." Jason stated, amused, and Apollo whined, "Hermes keeps getting messages every other second! How am I supposed to send out tracking numbers and package delivery arrival dates if his caduceus keeps vibrating with messages!?"
"Tell me about it!" Hermes groaned, swerving as Connor nearly rammed into his car, "And Father is always like, "Do this!" and "Do that!" and I just have a backlog of stuff piling up that I can't do since I need to listen to you guys read books!"
"Sorry about that, Hermes." Percy winced, looking slightly calmer than before his shower, and Hermes turned to the demigod, "Don't worry about it. All of us are kind of stuck here. Might as well make the best of it."
"Ha!" Travis grinned, sending Hermes' car flying off the track. Hermes turned his attention back to the game, cursing in Ancient Greek, as he tried to regain control of his vehicle.
"I suppose we should sleep, then." Malcolm sighed, before turning to Annabeth and Percy, "How are you two going to be?"
"We'll be fine." Percy winced, "I'm hoping that being on Olympus would... you know... maybe Morpheus would leave us alone. Or whoever is the God or Goddess of nightmares."
"That would be Epiales." Annabeth stated, watching as Hermes came in dead last for losing concentration half-way through the game.
"Er... so, what happened with the other gods?" Percy asked, sipping more coke, and Hermes laughed, hopping up from his seat and retrieving his caduceus from Apollo, "The second Aunt Hestia left, everyone just started yelling at him."
"Yeah. Everyone was so mad! Uncle P, Amphi, Triton, Athena and Dionysus were mad that Zeus tried to kill you guys, while the rest of us were kinda upset that he was hindering you guys despite going on a quest to get the bolt back." Apollo grinned.
"He sent all of us to find his bolt. And then tried to kill you guys for doing the same." Hermes snorted, "You guys should have seen the expression on Father's face when Hera started shouting at him. Even Uncle Hades was mad!"
"Sounds fun." Percy let out a laugh.
"Dude, that's my dad you're talking about." Jason shot back.
"So?" Percy smirked, and Jason glared back at him.
"He deserves it." Thalia stated resolutely, "He can't just run around, killing kids for no good reason. Especially if said kids are trying to help him by going into his brother's domain to get the bolt back."
"Shouldn't you support our dad?" Jason turned to Thalia, who merely frowned, "The Roman in you is talking again, Jase. I'd support him if whatever he's doing is reasonable. You get me?"
Jason sighed, "Yeah. I get it."
As they argued, Hermes had swapped positions with Apollo, and had morphed his caduceus back from mobile phone form, letting George and Martha grow to full size. Chris, Connor and Travis were currently chatting with the snakes, while Hermes grinned, watching everyone get along, while Will was trying to teach Nico how to use the controller.
Apollo and Michael were having a practice run, and Percy was doing his best to not look in his direction.
Annabeth looked between Percy and Michael, before sighing, carefully taking the cup away from Percy, "That's enough Cherry Coke for you. Go to bed."
"But Annabeth -" Percy whined, but Annabeth kissed him, "Go on. Maybe we'd finally be able to get some proper sleep."
Percy didn't bother arguing with Annabeth, and he stalked off to one of the rooms. He brushed his teeth, and sat down on the bed closest to the window, and stared up at the sky. There weren't any clouds blocking his view, and Percy focused on the Huntress constellation, a constant reminder of his rashness for fighting Atlas, and leaving Zoe with the brunt of the irreparable damage.
It had been fated for her to die, and Zoe herself knew that. And still... like all the other times, Percy couldn't help but wonder if there was something he could have done.
"Bob says hello." Percy murmured, "And Damasen too."
Zoe was Atlas' daughter, which made Bob... or Iapetus, her grandfather. Had Bob known about her, when he asked to say hello to the stars for him? Or did he just miss the mortal realm, after regaining the memories that Percy had taken away?
How could he have done that to Bob? Taking away his identity, and then plopping him down as Hades' janitor, not even visiting... and when he finally got his memories back, poor Bob was stuck in the depths of Tartarus, alongside Damasen, fighting against an entity they couldn't win against, just to save Percy and Annabeth's hide.
Even after everything, Bob had called Percy a friend. But Percy hadn't done anything to maintain the relationship. They were only friends in name. Nico was the one who visited Bob, and acted like a true friend.
Percy was nothing but a fraud.
He flopped down onto the bed, and closed his eyes, trying to ignore the screaming voices in his head.
As usual, he didn't last long before he shook himself out of a nightmare, not wanting to wake anyone else up. He supposed that was the only good thing about normal, mortal nightmares; demigods dreams were magical, and it was almost impossible to wake up from them on his own.
He sat up, rubbing his eyes in the moonlight, before realizing that several others were in the room with him, sound asleep. He could make out Grover's furry hindquarters that weren't being covered by his blanket, but he couldn't figure out the others.
Regardless, he stood up, and made his way to the bathroom, and splashed some water on his face, before he stared at his own reflection, trying to calm his racing heart, and distract himself from the nightmare.
But looking into the reflection of the mirror, lit by the moonlight trickling in through the window, all he could see was poison splattered all over the ground, fumes in the air, and himself attempting to suffocate and drown Akhlys.
Not just attempting to; he was succeeding.
Because Annabeth wasn't there with him. She wasn't there to stop him. No one was there to stop him.
He was towering over the Protogenos of Misery, slowly choking her on her own tears. He remembered how good he felt choking her, how he felt being the one in complete control of the situation, like the murderer he was.
He didn't know how long he stayed there, staring at his own reflection as visions floated around in his head, until the lights flickered on, nearly blinding him.
"Ack!" He heard Frank yelp, and he turned around, glancing at the Son of Mars.
"Holy Hera." Frank whispered, "I so didn't see you there. Sorry, Percy."
"It's alright." Percy sighed, glad to have some sort of distraction from his thoughts and memories, "What time is it?"
"Not sure. But from what I've figured, sun's going to rise soon." Frank groaned, and Percy snickered, "Which means Apollo is probably going to bust in, screaming and yelling with poetry to wake us up."
"Yeah, and-" Frank paused, "Wait... how did you know about that? You weren't around when Will told us about his father."
"He woke me up like that before."
Frank blinked, "Seriously?"
"Yes." Percy deadpanned, "I was writing something about the Gods, and I was tired. So I went to sleep after writing about Hephaestus. I was planning to start with Artemis first, cause she's older, but stupid Apollo just woke up me up at the crack of dawn by teleporting into my room and yelling some haiku about waking up in the morning to write about him."
"Wow." Frank nodded, "Sounds fun... wait, a book?"
"Yeah. Apparently, my mom somehow got into contact with a publisher who knew Paul, and they were interested in all the godly stuff. You know, as a kids book. So I got somehow involved in it when Paul invited me to talk to that guy, since I was the "expert" on Greek Mythology." Percy winced, "And since I'm off at camp during the summer, Paul said it could be a nice bonding activity for us. And, you know, dyslexia. Someone has to check my spelling."
Percy suddenly facepalmed, "Man! I should have wrote that book after our second war! I have so much crap to write about Gaea now!"
"Was it published?" Frank grinned excitedly, "Because if it is, I so need to read it!"
"No! I didn't want to because I didn't want the gods to kill me or something... but somehow I ended up doing it." Percy yelped, "Don't read it!"
"It'll be fun." Frank smirked, and Percy pouted, "Please don't."
"Ah, fine." The Son of Mars was about to say something, but a loud voice rang out, "RISE AND SHINE! COME ON, KIDDOS! WAKEY WAKEY!"
"Three, two, one -"
Frank wasn't sure what Percy was counting down for, but he got his answer immediately in the form of a haiku, "TIME TO READ MORE BOOKS! AND FOR SOME SUMPTUOUS BREAKFAST! I AM SO AWESOME!"
"That's so bad." Frank winced, "Don't tell him I said that, please."
"Don't worry. Everyone thinks that way." Percy grinned, hearing Travis and Connor complain about something, "I need to brush my teeth, then you can have the bathroom."
"We can brush together." Frank sighed, "Everyone's going to need to bathroom when Apollo's done."
Percy snickered, snagging his toothbrush. He gave his teeth a quick brush, and quickly exited the guest room; he didn't need to hear more to Apollo's poetry than was necessary. He made his way to the dining room, only to find Will, Michael and Nico already there.
"So, I see that Dad has struck." Will stated, drinking some orange juice with his pancakes.
"Yep." Percy nodded, and Nico looked up at Percy in surprise, "You're never up this early."
"Apollo's poetry is a good motivator to get up. That, and the screaming."
Will and Michael laughed, and Percy tried to ignore the pain in his chest at seeing Michael as he grabbed a magic plate and goblet for himself. He settled down next to Nico, but he didn't have much of an appetite, seeing as he was sitting directly opposite to Michael.
Murderer. He could swear he could hear the voices of the Acheron hissing at him, Yes, just like you!
Percy shoved a blue pancake into his mouth harshly.
It didn't take long for the other demigods to slowly trickle in, each of them upset that they've been woken up by screaming and yelling and bad haikus, but eventually, the mood lifted as everyone had breakfast, and once the rest of the gods had warped in to join them, Zeus ordered them back to the throne room to continue reading.
Percy instantly curled up with Annabeth on their bean bag. He didn't want to lose control of his powers ever again.
No, that wasn't right. It wasn't just his powers he had come to fear.
It was losing control of himself. Suffocating a goddess is not being in control.
They were safe, here on Olympus, out of Tartarus. He shouldn't be so worried.
Demeter picked up the book that had conveniently left on her throne, "So, who's next?"
"I can read." Katie raised her hand, and Demeter passed the book down to her daughter with a kind smile on her face.
Katie flipped the book open.
We Visit the Garden Gnome Emporium
"Garden gnomes." Leo snickered, "So scary."
"I'll throw you in there and see how scary it is." Percy snorted. As much as Percy hated being there, he had gotten a pretty handy murder weapon there, so Percy was actually glad for the visit.
He could have done without the magical food and drugging, but Percy would take whatever he could get.
In a way, it's nice to know there are Greek gods out there,
"Thank you!" Hermes and Apollo grinned.
because you have somebody to blame when things go wrong.
"Excuse me?!" Zeus growled, but the gods all glared pointedly at him.
And Hades. But more so Zeus because Hades was apparently looking for something, and had sent his demon grandmothers who had been holding back. Meanwhile, Zeus could have blown up the three kids along with the bus.
For instance, when you're walking away from a bus that's just been attacked by monster hags and blown up by lightning, and it's raining on top of everything else,
"Really." Demeter muttered, "It's a wonder they managed to get the bolt back in time."
most people might think that's just really bad luck; when you're a half-blood,
"That, and Percy has the worst luck ever." Annabeth sighed.
you understand that some divine force really is trying to mess up your day.
"Even when they're trying to help you." Poseidon grumbled.
So there we were, Annabeth and Grover and I, walking through the woods along the New Jersey riverbank, the glow of New York City making the night sky yellow behind us,
"Urg!" Artemis wrinkled her nose, "All the air pollution!"
Zeus grunted in agreement under his breath, and Grover sighed.
and the smell of the Hudson reeking in our noses.
"Even more eww." Poseidon grumbled, and Percy wondered outload, "I wonder how he's doing now."
"What?" Piper asked, and Percy explained, "The River Spirit of the Hudson. I'm just wondering if the pollution is better now."
"Why would it get better?" Grover asked.
"He wanted to electrocute me with jumper cables."
"WHAT!?"
"Then I gave him half a sand dollar"
Everyone looked at Percy weirdly, who just asked, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." Annabeth sighed.
Grover was shivering and braying, his big goat eyes turned slit-pupiled and full of terror. "Three Kindly Ones. All three at once."
Dionysus, Poseidon and Athena glared at Hades, but Percy cleared his throat, "Not his fault!"
Poseidon just sighed, knowing why Hades had been chasing Percy, and was the first to slump back into his throne. Athena and Dionysus followed soon after, after getting glared at by Demeter for interrupting her daughter's reading.
I was pretty much in shock myself. The explosion of bus windows still rang in my ears. But Annabeth kept pulling us along, saying: "Come on! The farther away we get, the better."
Apollo nodded, "Yes. Even if the Fury is still alive, her screeching could cause other monsters to come out."
Annabeth stated tiredly, "You do realize that we succeeded, right?"
"Yeah, we know." Hermes sighed, "It's hard not to worry, knowing all the crap you go through."
"All our money was back there," I reminded her. "Our food and clothes. Everything."
Everyone glared at Zeus again.
"Yeah, Dad." Thalia scoffed, "Like their quest isn't hard enough, trying to get something of yours back while the scent of a Big Three child attracts even more monsters."
Zeus winced. He knew that his relationship with his Greek demigod child wasn't as good as Poseidon's or Hades', since he had to set an example and couldn't talk to Thalia as much as he'd like... but still... having her scold him... it didn't feel good.
"Well, maybe if you hadn't decided to jump into the fight—"
"You're blaming him for saving you?" Piper asked, confused. That didn't sound like the Annabeth she knew.
"What did you want me to do? Let you get killed?"
"If Percy had run off... would they have been okay? Seeing as they didn't have whatever Lord Hades wanted... and the kid they were tracking had also disappeared..." Silena asked.
Hades shook his head, "I was looking for something important. The Furies would have killed the girl and the satyr; then, they would start hunting my nephew down again."
"You didn't need to protect me, Percy. I would've been fine."
"You guys were totally not fine." Leo stated.
"I know." Annabeth groaned, "I was frustrated with everything, and took it all out on Percy. I'm sorry."
"It's okay." Percy gave her a weak grin, and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
"Sliced like sandwich bread," Grover put in, "but fine."
"More like buttery bread." Percy muttered under his breath, trying to hold in his tears. Gods, he missed Bob and Damasen so much. He didn't mind smelling like buttery bread to the friendly Titan and Giant.
"Shut up, goat boy," said Annabeth.
Grover brayed mournfully. "Tin cans… a perfectly good bag of tin cans."
Everyone stared at Grover."
"What?! Tin cans count as food for satyrs." Grover defended him, "It was a food problem too!"
We sloshed across mushy ground, through nasty twisted trees that smelled like sour laundry.
Artemis and her hunters all felt ill, while Hermes and Dionysus sighed. With nature in that kind of state... no wonder Pan had decided to fade; otherwise, it would just be a painful existence for him.
After a few minutes, Annabeth fell into line next to me. "Look, I…" Her voice faltered. "I appreciate your coming back for us, okay? That was really brave."
"Definitely brave." Grover bleated at the memory of the Furies, "Very brave."
"And reckless." Athena stated. On one hand, she hated him for being a sea spawn... but he had saved her daughter...
"We're a team, right?"
"Always." Annabeth resolutely stated.
Percy wrapped his arms around her, as the Daughter of Athena leaned back to give him a kiss.
"You kids are so cute!" Aphrodite shrieked, as Poseidon hastily called out, "Leave my son's love life alone! And Annabeth's!"
She was silent for a few more steps. "It's just that if you died… aside from the fact that it would really suck for you,
"Yes." Percy agreed, though internally, he didn't exactly disagree, "Dying would really suck for me. Definitely."
Annabeth winced, "That was mean of me."
"We were twelve. It's alright." Percy waved her off.
it would mean the quest was over. This may be my only chance to see the real world."
"That's... kind of sad." Thalia frowned, "You practically told him that you didn't care if he died, and you wanted to go sightseeing."
"It came out super wrong." Annabeth groaned, "I didn't mean it like that. They were two separate matters I accidentally jumbled into one."
"I... suppose you could say that..." Beckendorf sighed, "She's been stuck in camp for five years. And she's a child of Athena. Obviously, she would be curious as to what was beyond the camp boundaries."
The thunderstorm had finally let up. The city glow faded behind us, leaving us in almost total darkness. I couldn't see anything of Annabeth except a glint of her blond hair.
"You haven't left Camp Half-Blood since you were seven?" I asked her.
Chiron frowned sadly, "I'm not surprised that she was desperate for a quest. No child likes to get cooped up for long."
"No… only short field trips. My dad—"
"The history professor."
"Yeah. It didn't work out for me living at home.
Athena leaned forward. She thought she had cleared everything up with Fredrick, but it seems like it was only until Percy came into the picture, did Annabeth make up with her father.
I mean, Camp Half-Blood is my home." She was rushing her words out now, as if she were afraid somebody might try to stop her. "At camp you train and train. And that's all cool and everything, but the real world is where the monsters are. That's where you learn whether you're any good or not."
"So... that's what you meant? Like... that other conversation with Percy about the Minotaur..." Reyna asked, and Annabeth nodded.
"It didn't help that at the time, a lot of children only got claimed by their parents if they did something worthwhile." Chris added bitterly, "A lot of them wanted some form of recognition from their parents. Even kids who've already been claimed. Most of the time, going on a quest and coming back means that they'd either be claimed, or they'd be able to talk with their godly parents for a minute or two."
The gods all looked at the ground, even those who were timely with claiming their kids, feeling immensely guilty that their children had decided that they had to risk their lives just for some recognition.
If I didn't know better, I could've sworn I heard doubt in her voice.
"Of course." Annabeth winced, "No demigod wants to plunge into the unknown... especially without any supplies."
"And it's not just about being good. It's about living safely." Chiron stating.
"That's not living." Percy corrected bitterly, "That's surviving."
"You're pretty good with that knife," I said.
"You think so?"
"Of course she's good with it." Thalia grinned, "She practically grew up with it!"
Then her face fell. Luke was the one that had given her that knife... and he had died by that knife. And according to Annabeth... the knife had been lost when they fell into Tartarus, meaning that Annabeth had lost something that reminded her of Luke, before Kronos had twisted him.
"Anybody who can piggyback-ride a Fury is okay by me."
"Yeah!" Malcolm grinned, "That sounds awesome!"
"Not for my Furies." Hades scoffed.
I couldn't really see, but I thought she might've smiled.
"I'm not sure if she was smiling or not, but you definitely helped to cheer her up." Grover grinned, and Annabeth admitted, "I was smiling, Seaweed Brain."
Percy smiled at her, and Aphrodite cooed.
"You know," she said, "maybe I should tell you… Something funny back on the bus…"
Whatever she wanted to say was interrupted by a shrill toot-toot-toot, like the sound of an owl being tortured.
Athena looked scandalized, "My sacred animal!?"
Meanwhile, everyone else was snickering at Athena's expression.
"Hey, my reed pipes still work!" Grover cried.
"It wasn't that bad!" Grover whined, "Percy!"
"We were in a forest, and your pipes make "Who who" sounds!" Percy defended himself, "Obviously I'd think it was an owl!"
"Not a tortured one!"
"Stop talking about harming my sacred animal!" Athena groaned.
"If I could just remember a 'find path' song, we could get out of these woods!"
"You're more likely going to end up running into a tree if you didn't get the song right, Gabriel." Dionysus huffed.
He puffed out a few notes, but the tune still sounded suspiciously like Hilary Duff.
Instead of finding a path, I immediately slammed into a tree and got a nice-size knot on my head.
Everyone laughed at how accurate Dionysus' statement was.
"Did Grover actually end up growing a tree in Percy's path or something?" Leo asked in amazement.
"Of course not." Grover yelled, as Hermes explained, "He probably just directed Percy on a path that happened to have a tree in it."
"I'm fairly sure a path isn't supposed to have a tree in the middle of it. Even magical paths." Jake grinned, as Grover turned red, "I wasn't that good at nature magic, okay?"
Add to the list of superpowers I did not have: infrared vision.
"We should totally make infrared goggles or something!" Leo grinned, "You'd never know when you need to avoid walking into trees on a quest or something!"
Everyone laughed, and Beckendorf grinned, "I'm sure your cabin would love that. But keep it out of the hands of the Hermes kids. They'd cause complete chaos with it."
"Hey!" The three Hermes children yelled, but Beckendorf smiled at them.
After tripping and cursing and generally feeling miserable for another mile or so, I started to see light up ahead: the colors of a neon sign.
"That's good." Rachel nodded, "Maybe you guys can take some shelter from the rain or something."
Annabeth, Grover and Percy winced. It definitely hadn't been good.
I could smell food. Fried, greasy, excellent food.
"Fried, greasy food isn't excellent." Demeter scoffed, "It's not healthy. You should look for some cereal."
"Honestly, any food is good on a quest where they just lost their supplies, regardless of whether it's healthy or not." Ares stated.
Everyone stared at him.
"Resource management!" Ares groaned, "I don't think about maiming people 24/7!"
Cue more stares.
"Okay, maybe I spent twenty three hours a day thinking about wars!" Ares admitted, "But still!"
I realized I hadn't eaten anything unhealthy since I'd arrived at Half-Blood Hill, where we lived on grapes, bread, cheese, and extra-lean-cut nymph-prepared barbecue. This boy needed a double cheeseburger.
"Honestly, that sounds great." Thalia stated, and Nico nodded, "Double cheeseburgers are awesome. Especially from McDonald's."
"No, McHale's is much better."
"As if! McHale's is just a rip-off!"
"So what if it's a rip-off? McHale's tastes much better than McDonald's, and it's healthier!"
"Enough." Reyna stated in her Praetor voice, and the duo immediately shut up.
Frank grinned, "You're awesome, Reyna."
We kept walking until I saw a deserted two-lane road through the trees. On the other side was a closed-down gas station, a tattered billboard for a 1990s movie, and one open business, which was the source of the neon light and the good smell.
"Err... I thought the gas station would be the one that was open." Hazel frowned, "Aren't they like... considered essential services or something? Especially since they also have convenience stores?"
"Yeah. If even the gas station is closed... why is that other shop open? It doesn't sounds like they'd get a lot of business in that area if the one place that might attract cars and potential customers is closed." Malcolm nodded.
Annabeth winced. That should have been the first clue to her that they were walking right into a monster's lair.
Percy pat her back, "It's not your fault. You went to camp when you were seven. There was no way you'd know anything about gas stations and businesses and stuff... though Gorgons were always weird with customer service."
It wasn't a fast-food restaurant like I'd hoped. It was one of those weird roadside curio shops that sell lawn flamingos and wooden Indians and cement grizzly bears and stuff like that.
"My grandma would love that place." Frank said sadly, and Percy winced, "Yeah. She'd love it, alright."
The main building was a long, low warehouse, surrounded by acres of statuary.
"Statuary?" Athena asked uneasily. She was very familiar with one particular monster that could create statuary almost instantly; she had cursed her to be like that, after all.
The neon sign above the gate was impossible for me to read, because if there's anything worse for my dyslexia than regular English, it's red cursive neon English.
"Agreed!" Connor groaned, "We can read neon signs rather decently in the daytime. But at night? When you're hungry and tired?! Impossible!"
"And cursive!" Travis nodded, and all the demigods turned to Dionysus.
"What?" Dionysus asked, taking a sip of his wine, "I already said that I'd change the cursive font on the cards!"
To me, it looked like: ATNYU MES GDERAN GOMEN MEPROUIM.
"Uh... what?" Demeter asked , "Is it your dyslexia? Because I assumed the books were enchanted so English isn't hard to read..."
"I'm very sure it's not my dyslexia, mother." Katie held the book up to her mother, "Everything else is right except for this."
Demeter took a look at the book, and frowned. Percy raised his hand, "If the book is from my point of view, then maybe it's my dyslexia. The previous paragraph did say that the neon lights were terrible for me."
"Makes sense." Katie nodded, and continued reading.
"What the heck does that say?" I asked
"I don't know," Annabeth said.
She loved reading so much, I'd forgotten she was dyslexic, too.
"Don't worry. We always forget the Athena kids are dyslexic." Will laughed.
"Well, most of the time we read Greek books, not English ones." Malcolm groaned, "Do you have any idea how hard it is to find Greek books in mortal bookstores? All we've got are older books, or ones that we painstakingly translate."
Grover translated: "Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium."
"Ah, yes. The super threatening garden gnomes." Leo laughed, and Calypso sighed, "I think we already established that this isn't any regular shop that sells garden ornaments."
Flanking the entrance, as advertised, were two cement garden gnomes, ugly bearded little runts, smiling and waving, as if they were about to get their picture taken.
Percy winced, and whispered to Annabeth, "You think she managed to trick two little gnomes, like she almost did to us?"
"Maybe." Annabeth whispered back, "But garden gnomes are rather popular herself. Maybe she carved those herself. Or took them from another shop."
I crossed the street, following the smell of the hamburgers.
"Hey…" Grover warned.
"So it's definitely a trap, if the satyr is trying to stop you." Athena stated.
"Of course it is. Percy has the worst luck ever." Chris sighed, "Which monster is it this time?"
The quest trio remained quiet.
"The lights are on inside," Annabeth said. "Maybe it's open."
"Snack bar," I said wistfully.
"Snack bar," she agreed.
"A dam snack bar!" Thalia grinned, and the tension in the room dissolved as Percy, Grover and Thalia burst into laughter.
"Are you two crazy?" Grover said. "This place is weird."
We ignored him.
Percy winced, "Sorry, G-man."
"I don't blame you." Grover shook his head, "You guys were twelve, and on your first quest. People make mistakes like that."
The front lot was a forest of statues: cement animals, cement children, even a cement satyr playing the pipes, which gave Grover the creeps.
"How could you tell that it creeped me out, but not that it was a trap!?" Grover bleated out.
Caylpso frowned; she felt like she had a pretty good idea of what was going on. "Magic... it seems like it. Satyrs are definitely harder to deceive with magic compared to demigods."
"Bla-ha-ha!" he bleated. "Looks like my Uncle Ferdinand!"
Grover sighed at the memory of his dead uncle, as Dionysus shook his head, "Another satyr that would never return."
We stopped at the warehouse door.
"Don't knock," Grover pleaded. "I smell monsters."
"Your nose is clogged up from the Furies," Annabeth told him. "All I smell is burgers. Aren't you hungry?"
"Definitely magic." Thalia nodded, "Percy is one thing, but Annabeth definitely knows better than to ignore Grover when he talks about monsters. The smell of food must be enchanted to hold Annabeth that spell so tightly."
"Meat!" he said scornfully. "I'm a vegetarian."
"You eat cheese enchiladas and aluminum cans," I reminded him.
"Those are vegetables.
"Okay, I can see how cheese enchiladas might be vegetarian... even though it's dairy." Piper frowned, "But I'm very sure that aluminum cans aren't vegetables."
"They aren't meat products." Grover argued, "So vegetarian."
Come on. Let's leave. These statues are… looking at me."
Then the door creaked open, and standing in front of us was a tall Middle Eastern woman—at least, I assumed she was Middle Eastern, because she wore a long black gown that covered everything but her hands, and her head was completely veiled.
"Err... how is she supposed to see with a veil? It's like... evening or something, right? And maybe still drizzling or something?" Clarisse asked, "Or at least, there are still clouds in the sky, making it darker."
"She's probably a monster." Chris agreed.
Her eyes glinted behind a curtain of black gauze, but that was about all I could make out. Her coffee-colored hands looked old, but well-manicured and elegant, so I imagined she was a grandmother who had once been a beautiful lady.
Poseidon and Athena shared a look. Medusa had been a beautiful lady, but because she had gotten involved with Poseidon to spite Athena, she had turned into a monster.
A monster that was now casting a spell on their children.
But somehow... they weren't too worried about it. Maybe it was because they had physical proof that Medusa had been killed, and the fact that the children were sitting right there.
Poseidon let out a small snicker at the memory of the rage on Zeus' face when a package had arrived in the middle of their throne room, courtesy of Hermes Overnight Express. Even Athena found it funny when she remembered Zeus yelling at Poseidon at his son's disrespect, and then yelling at Hermes when the boy was the one who had been using the god's service.
Her accent sounded vaguely Middle Eastern, too. She said, "Children, it is too late to be out all alone. Where are your parents?"
"They're…um…" Annabeth started to say.
"We're orphans," I said.
"Okay... not the worst lie out there." Hermes thought out loud, "It's vague enough... and perhaps the bus ride with the Furies and the rain would make your clothes ragged enough that the lie would make sense."
"Orphans?" the woman said. The word sounded alien in her mouth. "But, my dears! Surely not!"
"Yeah, she could probably tell that you guys are half-bloods. And you can't be orphans if we're alive." Apollo sighed.
"We got separated from our caravan," I said. "Our circus caravan. The ringmaster told us to meet him at the gas station if we got lost, but he may have forgotten, or maybe he meant a different gas station.
"Don't expand on the lie! Especially if she isn't asking for more information!" Hermes groaned, "You're just making it harder for yourself to remember all the details of your lie! You're just as bad as lying as Grover!"
Anyway, we're lost. Is that food I smell?"
"Well, that's one way to get her attention off your lies." Juniper laughed, and Pollux grinned in amusement, "That's just like Percy. Always straight to the point."
"Smooth topic change." Connor grinned, and Travis shook his head, "Anything is better than continuing that lie. Like... why would a circus caravan be anywhere near an abandoned town where the gas station isn't even open?"
"Oh, my dears," the woman said. "You must come in, poor children. I am Aunty Em. Go straight through to the back of the warehouse, please. There is a dining area."
We thanked her and went inside.
Annabeth muttered to me, "Circus caravan?"
"Always have a strategy, right?"
"That isn't a strategy." Malcolm deadpanned, "That's a very bad lie."
"Your head is full of kelp."
"Hey! That's my nickname for him!" Thalia yelped.
The warehouse was filled with more statues—people in all different poses, wearing all different outfits and with different expressions on their faces. I was thinking you'd have to have a pretty huge garden to fit even one of these statues, because they were all life-size.
Hades shot Persephone a glance, but his queen merely shrugged. She wanted some statues to decorate her garden, and Medusa might be a monster, but it wasn't like the gods could strike her down or something; Zeus would never allow it.
But mostly, I was thinking about food.
"Boys." The Hunters shook their heads, but Percy threw another pillows at Thalia, "Hey! You like burgers too! You eat as much as me!"
"Where are you even getting all these pillows?" Thalia caught the cushion, and Hestia let out a small laugh before she turned her attention back to the hearth.
Go ahead, call me an idiot for walking into a strange lady's shop like that just because I was hungry, but I do impulsive stuff sometimes.
"You are an idiot for walking into a strange lady's shop like that just because you were hungry." Apollo grinned.
Artemis summoned a pillow and threw at her brother, hitting him square in the face.
"Hey! He asked me to do it!" Apollo whined.
Plus, you've never smelled Aunty Em's burgers. The aroma was like laughing gas in the dentist's chair—it made everything else go away.
Hazel winced, "Well... I'm sure that's one way to put it..."
"That is one of the weirdest descriptions I've heard from this book. And given that this book is full of weird descriptions..." Frank muttered.
I barely noticed Grover's nervous whimpers, or the way the statues' eyes seemed to follow me, or the fact that Aunty Em had locked the door behind us.
"She locked the door?!" Grover yelped, and Connor turned to Percy, "How did you notice that, but didn't think that it was a trap or something!? Shouldn't that have like... set off all the red flags?"
"Magic?" Percy offered weakly, and Calypso nodded, "Most likely. Something to muddle your brains, so while you may still be as observant as ever, you won't be able to process whatever you're seeing properly."
All I cared about was finding the dining area. And sure enough, there it was at the back of the warehouse, a fast-food counter with a grill, a soda fountain, a pretzel heater, and a nacho cheese dispenser. Everything you could want, plus a few steel picnic tables out front.
"Okay, that is definitely magic." Calypso stated, "For sure. She's using your thoughts to manipulate you guys."
"Wait, she can read minds?!" Percy screeched.
"Not exactly." Calypso explained, "You were hungry, so it's easy to just get a sense of what you want to eat through magic."
"Please, sit down," Aunty Em said.
"Awesome," I said.
"Not awesome!" Leo yelled. He wasn't the best at Greek Mythology, and he wasn't sure who this stupid lady was, but it definitely reminded him of Queen Dirt Face, talking to them in such a nice, convincing tone, trying to make them do something that was definitely wrong.
"Um," Grover said reluctantly, "we don't have any money, ma'am."
"Good! At least the goat has some sense!" Dionysus sighed.
"You care for them, D!" Apollo grinned.
"No I don't." Dionysus huffed, "But if they die, I'd have to be the one explaining to Poseidon why his kid is dead."
Before I could jab him in the ribs, Aunty Em said, "No, no, children. No money. This is a special case, yes? It is my treat, for such nice orphans."
"Thank you, ma'am," Annabeth said.
"At least you're being polite about it." Hestia nodded approvingly.
Aunty Em stiffened, as if Annabeth had done something wrong, but then the old woman relaxed just as quickly, so I figured it must've been my imagination.
"Definitely not your imagination." Athena shook her head, "She'll hate my children with a passion."
"You really are observant." Annabeth sighed, "She was talking to me, and I didn't even notice it."
"Quite all right, Annabeth," she said. "You have such beautiful gray eyes, child."
"Uh... correct me if I'm wrong..." Zoe asked, "But she didn't introduce herself?"
"No, she didn't." Grover agreed.
Only later did I wonder how she knew Annabeth's name, even though we had never introduced ourselves.
"Even if she could tell that Annabeth was Owl Head's child... how could she have known her name?" Poseidon asked.
"Don't call me Owl Head." Athena scowled.
"You think Gaea was whispering to her as well? Like... she did with her?" Leo asked, but only Jason and Piper knew what he was talking about.
"I don't think so... but it is a possibility." Jason shrugged, "Especially if she knew that Annabeth was one of the Seven."
"What?" Annabeth asked, confused, but Piper turned to her, "Spoilers."
Our hostess disappeared behind the snack counter and started cooking. Before we knew it, she'd brought us plastic trays heaped with double cheeseburgers, vanilla shakes, and XXL servings of French fries.
"Urg." Thalia groaned, "There's no way you guys could turn that down. Especially with all your supplies wrecked. You didn't have any other choice unless you wanted to starve."
"Yeah. You guys need all the energy you could get." Malcolm nodded, "Especially if you need to find a way all the way to Los Angeles without that bus."
I was halfway through my burger before I remembered to breathe.
Annabeth slurped her shake.
"Okay, now you're nice and full. Now snap out of it and get out of there." Rachel cheered.
"Yes, they're nice and full of enchanted food that is most likely dulling their senses." Reyna sighed. Rachel just glared at her, and held out her blue hairbrush. She didn't look very threatening, but Annabeth, Nico and Percy knew just how good she was with that specific article.
Grover picked at the fries, and eyed the tray's waxed paper liner as if he might go for that, but he still looked too nervous to eat.
"I don't think she'd enchant the paper too, right?" Silena asked.
Dionysus shrugged, "I don't know. Monsters tend to ignore satyrs."
"What's that hissing noise?" he asked.
I listened, but didn't hear anything. Annabeth shook her head.
"SNAKES!" Grover bleated out nervously, as Juniper tried to calm him down.
"Hissing?" Aunty Em asked. "Perhaps you hear the deep-fryer oil. You have keen ears, Grover."
"I take vitamins. For my ears."
"That's one of the weirdest lies I've heard." Hermes laughed, "But sure, alright!"
"That's admirable," she said. "But please, relax."
Aunty Em ate nothing. She hadn't taken off her headdress, even to cook, and now she sat forward and interlaced her fingers and watched us eat. It was a little unsettling, having someone stare at me when I couldn't see her face,
"That is very, very creepy." Piper shuddered, "I'd hate that!"
"Tell me about it." Percy grumbled. After the magic had worn off and he had been able to process everything clearly, it had hit him just how creepy that scene had been.
but I was feeling satisfied after the burger, and a little sleepy, and I figured the least I could do was try to make small talk with our hostess.
"So, you sell gnomes," I said, trying to sound interested.
"Definitely not." Grover shook his head, "You sounded... well... tired. Very tired and sleepy. Like just talking to her was putting you to sleep."
"I'm fairly sure that's the enchanted food." Percy grumbled, "But I wouldn't be interested in garden gnomes anyways."
"Oh, yes," Aunty Em said. "And animals. And people. Anything for the garden. Custom orders. Statuary is very popular, you know."
Percy wrinkled his nose, "I used to dislike statues. Now I hate them."
The Seven, as well as Reyna and Nico, had a feeling he wasn't just talking about the statues made by the weird lady by the road side. He was talking about the Athena Parthenos, and the stupid death quest that Athena, or Minerva, they wasn't too sure which aspect she had taken on, but what kind of mother sends their children on a death quest where none of them ever returned!?
"A lot of business on this road?"
"Not so much, no. Since the highway was built… most cars, they do not go this way now. I must cherish every customer I get."
"I'm very sure she does exactly just that." Athena hissed.
My neck tingled, as if somebody else was looking at me. I turned, but it was just a statue of a young girl holding an Easter basket.
"I thought they were just statues... do the eyes move?" Leo asked uneasily.
The detail was incredible, much better than you see in most garden statues. But something was wrong with her face. It looked as if she were startled, or even terrified.
"Wait... there's only one famous myth about a lady that turns people to stone..." Beckendorf and Silena shared a look, "Medusa!?"
"You guys fought Medusa!?" Connor asked, "At the age of twelve?!"
Zeus' face immediately turned black, and Hermes and Apollo immediately burst into laughter.
"Why are you laughing?! You got scolded too!" Artemis growled at Hermes, but the God of Messengers just snickered, "It was worth it, though! Best laugh of the year!"
"Okay, what did you guys do now?!" Frank demanded, but the trio just looked away, "Spoilers."
"This "spoiler" thing is getting old, real fast." Thalia grumbled.
"Ah," Aunty Em said sadly. "You notice some of my creations do not turn out well. They are marred. They do not sell. The face is the hardest to get right. Always the face."
"Maybe they're all terrified of a snake-haired lady?" Will offered unhelpfully, "No one wants a statue with a scared face on it."
Hades and Persephone shared a look.
"You make these statues yourself ?" I asked.
"Oh, yes. Once upon a time, I had two sisters to help me in the business, but they have passed on, and Aunty Em is alone.
"Uh... I'm fairly sure they didn't." Hazel stated.
"Medusa's sisters?" Annabeth frowned.
"Yep. They chased me for days and just wouldn't die!" Percy grimaced, "One of them kept offering me Crispy Cheese 'n' Wieners, and the other kept trying to kill me. Then they tagged Hazel with a 50% off sticker. And then tried to kill Frank."
Everyone stared at Percy weirdly.
"You lost me at the Crispy Cheese 'n' Wieners." Nico deadpanned.
"I swear! She chased me across California, and offered me those stupid things every single time! I don't know where she keeps getting them because I kept killing her!" Percy whined.
I have only my statues. This is why I make them, you see. They are my company." The sadness in her voice sounded so deep and so real that I couldn't help feeling sorry for her.
"Percy's too kind. Even taking magic in to the picture." Michael shook his head.
Annabeth had stopped eating. She sat forward and said, "Two sisters?"
"It's a terrible story," Aunty Em said. "Not one for children, really. You see, Annabeth, a bad woman was jealous of me,
"Jealous!?" Athena seethed, "You were in my sacred temple! With my priestess! Doing stuff! You disrespected me in my place of worship!"
long ago, when I was young. I had a… a boyfriend, you know,
Everyone stared at Poseidon.
and this bad woman was determined to break us apart. She caused a terrible accident.
"You really should stop turning people into monsters that come to bite us in the butt." Percy stated.
Athena glared at Percy, but Annabeth stepped into protect her boyfriend, "He's right. That's exactly what you did with Arachne!"
Athena and Malcolm shuddered at the mention of the first spider, but Annabeth didn't seem too affected.
"And now every single Athena kids gets harassed by spiders!" Annabeth finished, "You couldn't have left her alone, or killed her or something."
Travis frowned, "But the last time you were in camp, there was that stupid spider that hitched along on a new camper's backpack, right?"
"Yeah." Connor nodded, "The entire Athena cabin freaked when they saw it at the dining pavillion. But Annabeth just glared at the spider angrily like it was the cause of all her problems and promptly killed it with her sword."
"She nearly chopped the table in half." Malcolm shivered at the memory, already turning as pale as Nico, "Can we stop talking about this topic, please?"
My sisters stayed by me. They shared my bad fortune as long as they could, but eventually they passed on. They faded away.
"And then somehow came back." Frank muttered.
I alone have survived, but at a price. Such a price."
I wasn't sure what she meant, but I felt bad for her. My eyelids kept getting heavier, my full stomach making me sleepy.
"Stupid magic." Silena cursed in Ancient Greek.
Poor old lady. Who would want to hurt somebody so nice?
"Anyone would. Because she isn't as nice as you think she is." Thalia grumbled.
"Percy?" Annabeth was shaking me to get my attention. "Maybe we should go. I mean, the ringmaster will be waiting."
"Good. Annabeth has woken up. Now skedaddle." Apollo urged them.
She sounded tense. I wasn't sure why. Grover was eating the waxed paper off the tray now, but if Aunty Em found that strange, she didn't say anything.
Grover shook his head, "She was way more focused on you two. But the wax paper was delicious. Not enchanted at all."
"Such beautiful gray eyes," Aunty Em told Annabeth again. "My, yes, it has been a long time since I've seen gray eyes like those."
She reached out as if to stroke Annabeth's cheek,
Athena scowled, "Don't you dare touch my daughter, you hag!"
but Annabeth stood up abruptly.
"We really should go."
"Get out of there." Triton stated.
"Yes!" Grover swallowed his waxed paper and stood up. "The ringmaster is waiting! Right!"
"That's still a bad lie." Hermes sighed.
I didn't want to leave.
"PERCY!" Everyone yelled, but the Son of Poseidon weakly defended himself, "Magic?"
"Magic, and your soft heart." Connor sighed.
I felt full and content. Aunty Em was so nice. I wanted to stay with her a while.
"Please, dears," Aunty Em pleaded. "I so rarely get to be with children. Before you go, won't you at least sit for a pose?"
"Reject her offer." Travis said worriedly, "Seriously. Continue that bad lie, or make up something new. Just get out of there."
"This was six years ago." Percy groaned.
"A pose?" Annabeth asked warily.
"A photograph. I will use it to model a new statue set. Children are so popular, you see. Everyone loves children."
Persephone frowned, "Yes. We like children when they aren't statues. Which is clearly what you want to turn them into."
Annabeth shifted her weight from foot to foot. "I don't think we can, ma'am. Come on, Percy—"
"Yes, listen to Annabeth." Poseidon groaned. For once, he prayed that his son wasn't so stubborn and would just listen to the child of Athena.
"Sure we can," I said.
"Percy!" Thalia threw a pillow at Percy, but the boy swatted it out of the way, "Look, I was still new to this whole "nice old ladies are monsters who actually want to kill me" thing, okay!?"
"That's... a fair point." Rachel sighed, "In his opinion, Annabeth was being so bossy and rude to an old lady who'd just fed them for free."
Katie snickered.
I was irritated with Annabeth for being so bossy, so rude to an old lady who'd just fed us for free.
"AH!" Rachel yelled, "I've got Percititis!"
"There's no such thing!" Percy used the pillow Thalia had just thrown at him, and aimed it in Rachel's direction.
"It's just a photo, Annabeth. What's the harm?"
"The harm is turning into a statue, apparently." Zoe sighed.
"Yes, Annabeth," the woman purred. "No harm."
"It wouldn't hurt." Malcolm corrected, "But there will be harm done to them."
I could tell Annabeth didn't like it, but she allowed Aunty Em to lead us back out the front door, into the garden of statues.
"Well... in a way, that's a good thing. You have more space, and once you guys snap out of it, you'd be able to get away." Demeter nodded, "But you should have had cereal instead of greasy food. That's why you were stuck in this mess."
"They were stuck in this mess because of magic, and they needed food, and there was no other choice because someone blew up their supplies." Thalia grumbled, as Annabeth agreed with Demeter, "That was the only reason why I didn't protest more."
Aunty Em directed us to a park bench next to the stone satyr. "Now," she said, "I'll just position you correctly. The young girl in the middle, I think, and the two young gentlemen on either side."
"Not much light for a photo," I remarked.
"Come on, Perce! Snap out of it!" Connor yelled, "Use your common sense!"
"You know Percy has no common sense, idiot!" Travis shot back. Hermes broke them up before they started a mini sibling argument.
"Oh, enough," Aunty Em said. "Enough for us to see each other, yes?"
"Where's your camera?" Grover asked.
"No cameras needed." Apollo sighed, "Which is bad. Because you'd be stuck in a permanent position, and there's no way to change poses if it comes out badly."
"Not helping!" Poseidon groaned.
Aunty Em stepped back, as if to admire the shot. "Now, the face is the most difficult. Can you smile for me please, everyone? A large smile?"
Grover glanced at the cement satyr next to him, and mumbled, "That sure does look like Uncle Ferdinand."
"So your uncle ended up in Medusa's lair?" Rachel asked Grover, and the satyr sighed, "Yeah. No turning into flowers or trees for him..."
"You know, maybe we could go retrieve his statue." Clarisse suggested, "Since Medusa's dead. Get his statue and give him a proper burial or something."
"Yeah. That would be great." Grover nodded, and Chiron took a notebook out of his pocket to make a note of it.
"Grover," Aunty Em chastised, "look this way, dear."
She still had no camera in her hands.
"Percy—" Annabeth said.
Some instinct warned me to listen to Annabeth,
"Listen to her. Girls are usually right." Zoe stated, and the males all pointed glared at the dead Hunter.
"What? Percy's confused, and the satyr is not helping much."
"Grover's just figuring out where his uncle disappeared off too." Percy countered, and Zoe sighed, "Fair point, I suppose."
The male Greek demigods just stared at them. Zoe had admitted that Percy was correct?! They knew that Zoe had somehow developed a soft spot for Percy, but it was still hard to wrap their heads around it.
but I was fighting the sleepy feeling, the comfortable lull that came from the food and the old lady's voice.
"She's probably channeling even more magic to try and keep them contained." Reyna muttered.
"I will just be a moment," Aunty Em said. "You know, I can't see you very well in this cursed veil.…"
"Don't let her take the veil off!" Hermes yelled.
"Percy, something's wrong," Annabeth insisted.
"Wrong?" Aunty Em said, reaching up to undo the wrap around her head.
"Look away from her!" Travis stated, and Katie groaned, "Shut up, Travis! I can't read if you keep interrupting like that!"
"But all the others interrupted too!"
"Yeah, but we already know it's Medusa!"
"Ah! Young love..." Aphrodite swooned, and Travis and Katie instantly turned red.
"I DON'T LIKE YOU LIKE THAT!" They both yelled at each other, which elicited laughter from everyone else. Katie hastily hide her blush by burying her face in the book and reading.
"Not at all, dear. I have such noble company tonight. What could be wrong?"
"That is Uncle Ferdinand!" Grover gasped.
"Look away from her!" Annabeth shouted.
"Good advice." Connor added weakly.
"How come she gets to say it but I can't!?" Travis complained.
"Because Annabeth was actually there, warning the others, and Katie's reading it off the book?" Chris replied.
She whipped her Yankees cap onto her head and vanished. Her invisible hands pushed Grover and me both off the bench.
"Thank the gods for Annabeth." Grover bleated.
I was on the ground, looking at Aunt Em's sandaled feet.
I could hear Grover scrambling off in one direction, Annabeth in another. But I was too dazed to move.
"Snap out of it, Kelp Head." Thalia cheered, "Come on!"
Then I heard a strange, rasping sound above me. My eyes rose to Aunty Em's hands, which had turned gnarled and warty, with sharp bronze talons for fingernails.
Aphrodite cringed, "Medusa needs a serious manicure!"
"I think a giving a monster a manicure is the least of our problems." Piper groaned, and Silena nodded. Their priority was staying alive, not making monsters pretty.
I almost looked higher, but somewhere off to my left Annabeth screamed, "No! Don't!"
"Thanks, Wise Girl." Percy grinned, "I don't want to be a statue."
"Anytime, Seaweed Brain." Annabeth snickered, "I don't want you to be a statue either. But a guinea pig? I'll take that."
"No." Percy pouted, "No statues and no guinea pigs."
"Frank can turn into a guinea pig." Reyna grinned, knowing exactly what the duo were talking about.
"First the Stolls want me to turn into rats, and now guinea pigs?" Frank complained, "Stop asking me to turn into rodents."
"You made a very cute weasel, though." Hazel grinned at her boyfriend, and Frank turned red.
More rasping—the sound of tiny snakes, right above me, from… from about where Aunty Em's head would be.
"Run!" Grover bleated. I heard him racing across the gravel, yelling, "Maia!" to kick-start his flying sneakers.
"Aww yeah! We've finally got some action up in this book!" Ares cheered.
Hermes grinned, happy that this shoes were able to help against a monster, and the quest trio sighed. As helpful as the shoes were... they had almost killed Grover... but they wouldn't have made it to the Underworld if they hadn't killed Medusa...
I couldn't move. I stared at Aunty Em's gnarled claws, and tried to fight the groggy trance the old woman had put me in.
"Urg." Amphitrite wrinkled her nose, "Medusa must really like Perseus if he's still so out of it."
"Such a pity to destroy a handsome young face," she told me soothingly. "Stay with me, Percy. All you have to do is look up."
Percy's face twisted with disgust; Medusa was reminding him of how Polybotes kept saying that he wanted to keep him as a pet. As much as he hated the gorgon, at least Medusa wasn't threatening to torture him everyday until the day he died.
I fought the urge to obey. Instead I looked to one side and saw one of those glass spheres people put in gardens—a gazing ball.
"Hey, you had that idea before I told you about it!" Annabeth lit up, and Percy grinned, "I can be smart too!"
"You're street-smart." Thalia corrected, "Annabeth is book-smart."
I could see Aunty Em's dark reflection in the orange glass; her headdress was gone, revealing her face as a shimmering pale circle. Her hair was moving, writhing like serpents.
Aunty Em.
Aunty "M".
How could I have been so stupid?
"At least he got it eventually." Malcolm sighed in relief, "And you weren't really stupid. You still under a spell, and was still trying to figure everything out because no one was giving you any straight answers."
Think, I told myself. How did Medusa die in the myth?
But I couldn't think.
"The original Perseus beheaded her while she was asleep." Zeus growled at Percy, still upset at the neatly packaged Gorgon's head they had received.
Something told me that in the myth Medusa had been asleep when she was attacked by my namesake, Perseus.
Percy glared back at Zeus, since the book revealed that he did know the basics of the myth, and everyone snickered at the God of the Sky's indignant expression.
She wasn't anywhere near asleep now. If she wanted, she could take those talons right now and rake open my face.
"I think I like Percy's face not raked open." Leo stated, "Everyone in favor?"
"Obviously!" Calypso sighed, "Who likes having their face raked open?"
"I don't know, maybe a rake?" Leo suggested, and everyone groaned.
"The Gray-Eyed One did this to me, Percy," Medusa said, and she didn't sound anything like a monster. Her voice invited me to look up, to sympathize with a poor old grandmother.
"If only Lady Athena had also warped her vocal cords along with her appearance." Percy sighed.
"Or maybe didn't change her into something that could come back to life." Apollo suggested.
"Annabeth's mother, the cursed Athena, turned me from a beautiful woman into this."
"Don't listen to her!" Annabeth's voice shouted, somewhere in the statuary. "Run, Percy!"
"Yes." Triton nodded, "Get out of there."
Amphitrite sighed, "You know he didn't do that, right?"
"He didn't?" Triton asked, and Amphitrite pulled her son closer to whisper something to him, and a wide grin broke out onto Triton's face.
"Silence!" Medusa snarled. Then her voice modulated back to a comforting purr.
"Seriously?! A comforting purr? That's how you'd describe it?" Piper asked, slightly disgusted, and Grover stood up for Percy, "I don't blame him. She was being super nice towards Percy."
"You see why I must destroy the girl, Percy. She is my enemy's daughter.
Athena growled, and Poseidon rolled his eyes, "You're such a hypocrite. That's the exact same reason you hate Percy."
I shall crush her statue to dust. But you, dear Percy, you need not suffer."
"Medusa likes you!" Aphrodite cooed, "How cute!"
"I'm not sure whether to be disgusted or flattered." Percy muttered sarcastically, "Yay me."
Artemis wrinkled her nose, "She sounds like a complete pedophile. Percy's twelve."
Everyone had a horrified look on their faces, and even Percy cringed at that statement.
"No," I muttered. I tried to make my legs move.
"Do you really want to help the gods?" Medusa asked. "Do you understand what awaits you on this foolish quest, Percy?
"No, not really." Grover stated resolutely, "But that isn't enough to stop Percy from doing the right thing."
"Thanks for you confidence in me, G-man." Percy replied weakly, knowing fully well that down in Tartarus... he had done far from the right thing.
What will happen if you reach the Underworld? Do not be a pawn of the Olympians, my dear.
Percy sighed, "Better a pawn of the Olympians than a pawn of the Titans or Gaea, I suppose."
The gods all winced at that statement, and Percy corrected, "Well... more accurate, the pawn of Lady Hera."
"What!?" Hera hissed, but Percy frowned at her, "Well, you just wiped my memory and dumped me at the Wolf House! And then you grabbed Jason, wiped his memory, and dumped him... somewhere? Grand Canyon, if I remember correctly."
Jason, Piper and Leo nodded, as Percy continued, "I know I've done stuff for other gods, but at least they didn't pick me up and literally move me around like a chess piece."
Jason shuddered, "Now that you say it like that..."
You would be better off as a statue. Less pain. Less pain."
"How would he be better off as a statue!?" Pollux asked, "He'd be dead... I think? Do you die when you become a statue, or do you just live inside the statue like a ghost or something?"
"They'd die." Hades confirmed.
"Percy!" Behind me, I heard a buzzing sound, like a ninety-kilogram hummingbird in a nosedive. Grover yelled, "Duck!"
"Go Grover, The Possessed Lawnmower!" Leo cheered, and everyone burst into laughter.
I turned, and there he was in the night sky, flying in from twelve o'clock with his winged shoes fluttering -
"Go, my horses! My tiny broncos!" Connor yelled, and Travis cheered, "Lead us to victory, our tiny, trusty steeds!"
Cue more laughter from the demigods, and Hermes and Apollo.
Grover, holding a tree branch the size of a baseball bat. His eyes were shut tight, his head twitched from side to side. He was navigating by ears and nose alone.
"Go Grover!" Everyone cheered.
"Duck!" he yelled again. "I'll get her!"
That finally jolted me into action. Knowing Grover, I was sure he'd miss Medusa and nail me.
"Way to have faith in me, Perce!" Grover complained, but Percy groaned, "Medusa was right next to me and you can't see! Obviously there's a good chance of you hitting me if I'm literally right next to her, and you've never fought without seeing!"
I dove to one side.
Thwack!
At first I figured it was the sound of Grover hitting a tree.
"The Thwack sound of someone hitting a tree on flying shoes is very different from "clobbering a snake monster" Thwack!" Leo sighed, and Percy nodded, "Yeah, I get that now."
"Anyone knows what they're talking about?" Rachel blinked, confused, as Thalia shrugged, "Boys."
Then Medusa roared with rage.
"You miserable satyr," she snarled. "I'll add you to my collection!"
"Nah! Grover's still with us now!" Percy grinned, "He's not going to be part of your statue collection any time soon!"
"That was for Uncle Ferdinand!" Grover yelled back.
I scrambled away and hid in the statuary while Grover swooped down for another pass.
"Give her a nice big whack on the head!" Ares cheered, "Go! Kill her!"
Ker-whack!
"Arrgh!" Medusa yelled, her snake-hair hissing and spitting.
"Homerun!" Hermes cheered, "Nice hit!"
Right next to me, Annabeth's voice said, "Percy!"
I jumped so high my feet nearly cleared a garden gnome. "Jeez! Don't do that!"
Everyone laughed at how easily Percy had been spooked.
"It's not funny!" Percy groaned, "Annabeth nearly gave me a heart attack!"
"RIP Percy Jackson, dying at the age of twelve by a heart attack from his girlfriend!" Chris laughed, but Percy threw another pillow at the son of Hermes, "Stop it!"
Annabeth took off her Yankees cap and became visible. "You have to cut her head off."
"What? Are you crazy? Let's get out of here."
"You know, those are both really good ideas." Thalia sighed, "Getting away quickly, or killing her to ensure that you'd be able to escape..."
"Medusa is a menace. She's evil. I'd kill her myself, but…" Annabeth swallowed, as if she were about to make a difficult admission. "But you've got the better weapon.
"Definitely. With her snake hair and talons, you'd want a longer weapon." Athena nodded, proud that her daughter had been able to admit that despite her pride making her want to be the one to take Medusa out.
Besides, I'd never get close to her. She'd slice me to bits because of my mother.
"Er, and that too." Athena added.
You—you've got a chance."
"What? I can't—"
"He totally did." Poseidon grinned, and a wave of jealously rippled throughout the demigods. Had Poseidon been watching his son on his quest?
"Look, do you want her turning more innocent people into statues?"
She pointed to a pair of statue lovers, a man and a woman with their arms around each other, turned to stone by the monster.
"Oh. Fatal flaw. You've got him hooked now." Thalia stated, and Annabeth turned to Percy, "Sorry... I didn't mean to guilt trip you or anything..."
"It's fine." Percy grinned, "It was the right thing to do. And we benefitted from it greatly."
Annabeth grabbed a green gazing ball from a nearby pedestal. "A polished shield would be better." She studied the sphere critically. "The convexity will cause some distortion. The reflection's size should be off by a factor of—"
"I'm fairly sure that's not English." Hermes deadpanned.
"It's physics, idiot." Athena hissed.
"Would you speak English?"
"I am!"
"That's debatable." Yelled all the non-Athena and non-Hephaestus demigods.
"She's just saying that the image in the sphere won't be anywhere near as accurate as if you used a proper mirror." Beckendorf explained, and Leo added, "You'd just be able to get a general idea of where Medusa is."
Everyone blinked at them.
"Hey, when we build things, we need to know stuff like that!" Jake protested, "We understand stuff like that! You remember that shield that Beckendorf made for Annabeth."
"Oh, yeah! That was useful." Percy nodded.
She tossed me the glass ball. "Just look at her in the glass. Never look at her directly."
"The glass ball, combined with the hissing from her hair should be more than enough to help guide you." Apollo nodded, "Go for it, Perce!"
"Hey, guys!" Grover yelled somewhere above us. "I think she's unconscious!"
"Fat chance! It would be way too easy if she were unconscious." Connor yelled, "Percy has bad luck!"
"Roooaaarrr!"
"Maybe not," Grover corrected.
"Called it!" Connor and Travis high-fived.
He went in for another pass with the tree branch.
"Hurry," Annabeth told me. "Grover's got a great nose, but he'll eventually crash."
"Yeah." Grover winced, "Medusa's a legendary monster. It'll take way more than a branch to kill her."
"You did your best, distracting her while the other two made a plan." Juniper kissed her boyfriend.
I took out my pen and uncapped it. The bronze blade of Riptide elongated in my hand.
I followed the hissing and spitting sounds of Medusa's hair.
"Go Percy!" Hermes and Apollo cheered, while giggling like idiots.
I kept my eyes locked on the gazing ball so I would only glimpse Medusa's reflection, not the real thing. Then, in the green tinted glass, I saw her.
Grover was coming in for another turn at bat, but this time he flew a little too low.
Grover groaned; he knew what was coming, and it had been a painful experience.
Medusa grabbed the stick and pulled him off course. He tumbled through the air and crashed into the arms of a stone grizzly bear with a painful "Ummphh!"
"Were you alright?" Jake asked in concern, and Grover nodded, "Yeah. I was fine. No injuries. Just a little dizzy from headbutting the bear."
Medusa was about to lunge at him when I yelled, "Hey!"
"Thanks!" Grover grinned, and Percy laughed, "I'm not just going to let her kill my best friend!"
I advanced on her, which wasn't easy, holding a sword and a glass ball. If she charged, I'd have a hard time defending myself.
"Note to self. Next time we go on a quest, bring a mirror." Annabeth sighed.
Leo pulled a mirror out of his magical toolbelt, while Piper pulled one out of her pocket.
"Well, you'd never know when you'd need to use Morse Code to contact someone." Piper shrugged.
Jason raised an eyebrow. He vaguely remember something about Morse Code when he had been stabbed by Michael Varus... but he was fairly sure he was more concerned about the hole in his gut and some marriage bed that had been sacred to Juno... or something like that.
But she let me approach— ten metres, five metres.
"Okay, is she stupid?!" Clarisse asked, while Aphrodite screeched, "SHE LOVES YOU!"
"LIKE I SAID, SHE'S A PEDOPHILE!" Artemis yelled back, "HE'S TWELVE! A MINOR! SHE'S LIKE, A MILLENIA OLD!"
I could see the reflection of her face now. Surely it wasn't really that ugly. The green swirls of the gazing ball must be distorting it, making it look worse.
"Was she that ugly?" Nico asked curiously.
"No idea." Annabeth admitted, "We couldn't see past the veil, and once she took it off, our eyes were shut. We never saw her face."
"I can confirm that it was ugly." Hermes shuddered, "I was watching the original Perseus as he saved Andromeda. Medsua isn't a pretty sight."
"You wouldn't harm an old woman, Percy," she crooned. "I know you wouldn't."
"Sadly, if she were any old woman... he wouldn't." Reyna sighed, "Percy's way too nice."
"Yeah. Even if it's an old hippie bag lady." Percy grinned, as the Romans, minus Jason, glanced at Juno, trying to stifle their laughter.
I hesitated, fascinated by the face I saw reflected in the glass—the eyes that seemed to burn straight through the green tint, making my arms go weak.
"GO! CHOP HER HEAD OFF! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR, PUNK?!" Ares yelled, and Dionysus sighed, growing some grape vines to tie Ares down and cover his mouth, muffling his cries, "Oh, quiet already. Just be patient."
The demigods all frowned in confusion. Ares and Dionysus seemed so sure that Percy had chopped Medusa's head off... but that wasn't right? Surely Dionysus had been stuck in camp, and Ares, like the others, had been off looking for Zeus' master bolt.
From the cement grizzly, Grover moaned, "Percy, don't listen to her!"
Medusa cackled. "Too late."
She lunged at me with her talons.
The demigods could hear Ares screaming in Ancient Greek as he struggled to break his bonds, alternating between cheering for violence and cursing Dionysus for tying him down.
Poseidon decided to help the wine god out by dousing Ares with more water.
I slashed up with my sword, heard a sickening shlock!, then a hiss like wind rushing out of a cavern—the sound of a monster disintegrating.
Everyone except Zeus cheered at Percy's victory.
Something fell to the ground next to my foot. It took all my willpower not to look.
"Her petrification powers still work when she's dead! I know!" Percy groaned, seeing everyone eyeing him.
I could feel warm ooze soaking into my sock, little dying snake heads tugging at my shoelaces.
"That's disgusting!" Piper grimaced, and Silena nodded, cringing at the description.
"Oh, yuck," Grover said. His eyes were still tightly closed, but I guess he could hear the thing gurgling and steaming. "Mega-yuck."
"Mega-yuck indeed." Percy scowled at the memory, as everyone else looked sick and equally disgusted.
Annabeth came up next to me, her eyes fixed on the sky. She was holding Medusa's black veil. She said, "Don't move."
Very, very carefully, without looking down, she knelt and draped the monster's head in black cloth, then picked it up. It was still dripping green juice.
"You've sure got guts to do that." Percy shuddered.
"I didn't know it was dripping." Annabeth shook her head, "If I had know, I would have gotten one of you to do it."
"Thanks, Annabeth." Grover and Percy both deadpanned.
"Are you okay?" she asked me, her voice trembling.
"Yeah," I decided, though I felt like throwing up my double cheeseburger.
"I don't blame you for that." Thalia groaned, "That description is just... ewwww."
"Why didn't… why didn't the head evaporate?"
"Once you sever it, it becomes a spoil of war," she said. "Same as your minotaur horn. But don't unwrap the head. It can still petrify you."
"I still wonder how that works." Annabeth muttered, "Like... is the magic only limited to her eyes?"
"If we gorged out her eyeballs, would they still be able to petrify stuff?" Percy asked, and everyone looked at him weirdly.
"It's a hypothetical question!" Percy protested, "As disgusting as it is, I'm curious too!"
Grover moaned as he climbed down from the grizzly statue. He had a big welt on his forehead. His green rasta cap hung from one of his little goat horns, and his fake feet had been knocked off his hooves.
"Is that what you meant by a loose fit?" Hermes asked, but neither Percy, Annabeth nor Grover wanted to tell him the truth.
The magic sneakers were flying aimlessly around his head.
The demigods all snickered at the mental image.
"The Red Baron," I said. "Good job, man."
"That was a really good job." Apollo grinned, "Medusa's no easy monster to beat."
"Perhaps he should be The Green Baron." Will suggested, "He's got a green rasta cap."
He managed a bashful grin. "That really was not fun, though. Well, the hitting-her-with-a-stick part, that was fun. But crashing into a concrete bear? Not fun."
Everyone roared with laughter at that comment.
He snatched his shoes out of the air. I recapped my sword. Together, the three of us stumbled back to the warehouse.
"Take a break." Apollo suggested, "And rest up. You guys still have to find a way to Los Angeles without a bus. Maybe Medusa has some supplies you can use."
We found some old plastic grocery bags behind the snack counter and double-wrapped Medusa's head. We plopped it on the table where we'd eaten dinner and sat around it, too exhausted to speak.
"That is one interesting dinner ornament." Connor off-handedly commented, and Clarisse rolled her eyes, "Who in Hades wants to eat when that damn head is sitting in the middle of the table!?"
"Stop using the name of my realm as a curse." Hades growled.
"But the other one is off limits." Travis argued.
"Okay, how about Tartar Sauce?" Will suggested, "You know... it's close enough... but it's funny."
"Dude... we so need to try that next time." Travis grinned, and Katie shook her head in exasperation.
Finally I said, "So we have Athena to thank for this monster?"
"Kind of yes, I suppose." Hermes sighed.
Annabeth flashed me an irritated look. "Your dad, actually. Don't you remember? Medusa was Poseidon's girlfriend. They decided to meet in my mother's temple.
"That's a very stupid thing to do." Aphrodite huffed at the sea god.
Poseidon rolled his eyes, and sighed. He knew he had gotten with Medusa just to annoy Athena, but he genuinely felt bad that Medusa had tried to keep his son as a statue while trying to kill Athena's daughter.
That's why Athena turned her into a monster. Medusa and her two sisters who had helped her get into the temple, they became the three gorgons.
Malcolm frowned, "So... like... did it spread like some kind of contagious virus or something? Because I don't think her sisters were cursed... but they ended up turning into Gorgons too."
"Something like that." Athena grumbled, "I was really angry, and used too much power. The magic used in the curse probably overflowed off Medusa, and since her sisters were the only ones that really hung out with her, they ended up absorbing the magic and taking on the curse for themselves."
"Thank the gods that they didn't also get Medusa's freaky statue powers. Otherwise I'd be a very nice, dead statue somewhere in California right about now." Percy grumbled, "Provided they didn't decide to destroy me after I became a statue."
"Stop being so pessimistic!" Rachel lobbed a pillow at him.
That's why Medusa wanted to slice me up, but she wanted to preserve you as a nice statue. She's still sweet on your dad. You probably reminded her of him."
"That's just gross." Percy winced, being once against reminded of Polybotes and all the poison he had inhaled, "Can I please stop running into monsters who want to keep me as a pet? I'm really getting tired of it."
"WHO DARES!?" Poseidon growled, but Percy genuinely looked so sick that the Sea God didn't push the matter further. Instead, he conjured up a glass of water for Percy.
My face was burning. "Oh, so now it's my fault we met Medusa."
"No, it's Zeus' and Hades' fault. They'd still be on the bus if Hades hadn't sent his Furies, and if Zeus' hadn't stuck the bus with lightning." Demeter sighed, "You two should eat more cereal."
Annabeth straightened. In a bad imitation of my voice, she said: "'It's just a photo, Annabeth. What's the harm?'"
"You were both under some kind of spell from the food! Stop being stupid!" Thalia yelled.
"Forget it," I said. "You're impossible."
"You're insufferable."
"You're—"
"Everyone, this is just an example of how Percy and Annabeth flirt with each other; by arguing and getting fed up with each other." Travis said in a deadpan voice, before he, along with his brother, dissolved into laughter.
"Hey!" Grover interrupted. "You two are giving me a migraine, and satyrs don't even get migraines.
Everyone laughed at that statement.
"Wait... do satyrs really not get migraines?" Will asked, curiously, and Grover nodded, "Yeah... we biologically cannot get migraines."
"Lucky." Jake sighed.
What are we going to do with the head?"
"That is a very good question. As useful as it is, I don't think you'd want to lug a severed head all the way to Los Angeles. You already have the police and maybe child protection services after you." Michael stated.
I stared at the thing. One little snake was hanging out of a hole in the plastic.
Aphrodite gagged at the reminder of how hideous Medusa had become. She never wanted to meet Medusa ever in her life, but alas, she had seen the severed head by accident. She had spent the rest of the day throwing up after that.
The words printed on the side of the bag said: WE APPRECIATE YOUR BUSINESS!
I was angry, not just with Annabeth or her mom,
"Really?" Athena grumbled.
but with all the gods for this whole quest, for getting us blown off the road and in two major fights the very first day out from camp.
"Maybe not all the gods." Percy winced, "Maybe just Lord Zeus, and Uncle Hades... but I kind of forgive Uncle Hades because he kind of helped me."
Hades snorted in amusement, while Zeus glowered at Percy.
"Brother, he got your bolt back, and your "reward" was not killing him on the spot." Poseidon reminded Zeus, and the God of the Sky grumbled in his seat.
At this rate, we'd never make it to L.A. alive, much less before the summer solstice.
"Stop being so pessimistic!" Clarisse groaned, "Seriously, Prissy! Your thoughts are so depressing for a kid!"
What had Medusa said?
Do not be a pawn of the Olympians, my dear. You would be better off as a statue.
Chris winced, memories of how Luke convincing him to join Kronos swirling around in his head. He had always been talking about being used by the gods, and how the gods were no better than the Titans.
Somewhere along the line, Chris had started to believe him... and he was immensely guilty that he had ever joined Kronos, even after two years.
I got up. "I'll be back."
"Uh oh! Percy's mad!" Nico stated.
"But seriously! You guys are stuck in a monster's lair. I'd be pretty mad too." Jason admitted, "Especially if the god you were trying to help was one of the gods that stranded you."
"Not the point, Jase." Thalia shook her head, "When Kelp Head's mad, he's even more reckless than usual. What stupid thing did you do this time?!"
Annabeth groaned, "I still can't believe you did that. Even now!"
All the gods shared a look, before Ares, Apollo and Hermes burst out into uncontrollable laughter. Artemis and Athena looked amused, while Hera and Zeus just glared at Percy.
"Percy," Annabeth called after me. "What are you—"
I searched the back of the warehouse until I found Medusa's office. Her account book showed her six most recent sales, all shipments to the Underworld to decorate Hades and Persephone's garden.
All the gods shot Hades odd looks, but Persephone just rolled her eyes, "I can decorate my garden anyway I like. Leave my husband out of this."
"I really have to question your tastes." Artemis muttered, "Really? Petrified mortals?"
"They fit the aesthetic." Persephone insisted.
According to one freight bill, the Underworld's billing address was DOA Recording Studios, West Hollywood, California. I folded up the bill and stuffed it in my pocket.
"Good move. At least, you guys have a proper destination to aim towards." Hermes nodded, trying desperately to hide his snickering.
In the cash register I found twenty dollars, a few golden drachmas, and some packing slips for Hermes Overnight Express, each with a little leather bag attached for coins.
"Take the money. Money is always useful, no matter how little it is." Chris nodded.
I rummaged around the rest of the office until I found the right-size box.
"Er... why are you looking for the right-size box?" Dakota asked uneasily.
The demigods expressions shifted to that of horror when they realized that there was really only one thing that the trio had just obtained that Percy might want to stuff in a box. Desperately, they prayed that Percy was only looking for a box to contain Medusa's head so it would be easier to carry it around...
But knowing Percy, that was definitely not what he was planning.
Some of the gods and goddesses snickered under their breaths as they heard a random assortment of prayers from the demigods sitting right in front of them.
I went back to the picnic table, packed up Medusa's head, and filled out a delivery slip:
"PERCY!" The demigods all shrieked, "Who are you trying to mail the head to?!"
They had definitely not gotten any deliveries while the trio had been out on a quest, though mailing a spoil of war back would definitely be a good idea if they weren't planning on lugging it around.
The Gods
Mount Olympus
600th Floor,
Empire State Building
New York, NY
With best wishes,
PERCY JACKSON
The room became deathly silent as the demigods all stared at Percy, unsure of how to react at the blatant show of disrespect. Even Katie wasn't sure of what she had just read, and looked at the book again.
Zeus glowered at Percy, but before he could do anything, Hermes and Apollo could not longer control themselves, and they practically tumbled to the ground, laughing so hard that they were clutching their sides.
Ares and Dionysus were also cracking up, and even Hephaestus looked amused at the mention of the "gift", while Aphrodite gagged.
"That was just AWESOME!" Apollo grinned giddily, "You should have seen Father's face when we received the package!"
Amphitrite, Athena and Artemis snickered, and Hermes added, "Father was so pissed! I don't think I've ever seen him that angry in my entire life!"
Hades let out an amused chortle at the antics of his nephew, and turned to Poseidon, "Your son is rather amusing."
Poseidon just smiled proudly, while Triton just clapped Percy on the back, "Not bad, half-brother."
"I know you do stupid things when you're mad..." Thalia shook her head, "BUT THAT WAS JUST PLAIN STUPID! Are you trying to get killed, Kelp Head!?"
The Romans just gaped at Percy. They knew how reckless the boy was, and sending a severed head of a monster to all the gods was something that they seriously hadn't expected.
"I like the "best wishes" part. Really adds to your personality." Apollo wiped his tears, before he locked eyes with Hermes, and they both dissolved into uncontrollable laughter.
"Why would you even think that it was a good idea, Prissy?!" Clarisse demanded, "Really?! How are you not dead yet!?"
"His dad! Duh!" Travis butted in, "But seriously?! How do you dare to do such a thing!? Don't you even think about things before you do them?!"
"Idiot! You can't just do something like that!" Zoe yelled at him, and Reyna nodded, still speechless.
Zeus continued to glare at Percy with anger in his eyes, and Poseidon groaned, "Seriously, brother! He was twelve! The boy lost his mother, and he's new to our world! And then two gods came and disrupted their quest, one being you, who they were doing the quest for! Of course my son would get upset and do something like that. The sea-"
"The sea doesn't like to be restrained." Zeus rolled his eyes, "You keep saying that over and over again. It's getting old."
"I'm not wrong." Poseidon grinned, before his tone turned seriously, "You're not allowed to hurt my son. This was six years ago."
Zeus just growled, but Hades glared at him, "If you try to attack the boy, I will intervene as well. I'd rather you leave him alone."
"You too?!" Zeus thundered, but Hades didn't so much as flinch, "He did me a favor that I didn't even ask for. I suppose I could help him out a little."
None of the other demigods were noticing the spat between the Big Three, being busy yelling at Percy for how reckless he had been.
Hestia increased the power of her flames, and sent waves of calm and peacefulness rolling through everyone. Eventually, they all calmed down, even Hermes and Apollo, who had been rolling on the floor and were giggling like toddlers on a sugar high.
"That's enough excitement for one chapter." She smiled, still clearly amused by Percy's antics, "Let's continue, shall we?"
"They're not going to like that," Grover warned. "They'll think you're impertinent."
"That's an understatement." Hera grumbled.
I poured some golden drachmas in the pouch. As soon as I closed it, there was a sound like a cash register. The package floated off the table and disappeared with a pop!
"I am impertinent," I said.
"He admits it!" Apollo grinned, and he dissolved into another round of giggles alongside Hermes.
"Boys." Artemis shook her head at her brother and his best friend, though she was secretly glad that Apollo seemed fine and himself, especially after being forced to fight Python as a mortal.
I looked at Annabeth, daring her to criticize.
She didn't.
"Even if I could, he already sent it off. Nothing we could do to get it back." Annabeth sighed.
She seemed resigned to the fact that I had a major talent for ticking off the gods.
"That's a major understatement." Zeus grunted.
"Come on," she muttered. "We need a new plan."
"Done." Katie breathed heavily, "You are seriously going to give me a heart attack on day, Percy."
"Sorry?" Percy asked, confused, as Hera huffed, "Who's reading next?"
"You read, then, since you're so impatient." Demeter snorted.
Hera glared at her older sister, before teleporting the book out of Katie's hands and into her own. She flipped the book open, and frowned, peering at the page in confusion, "What?!"
She blinked, before she just gave up trying to figure out what was going on, and started reading.
A/N Small edits to a previous chapter to fix a plot hole.
Also, sorry for the late update. Got distracted by the Olympics.
