Hey guys, I hope you all enjoyed the last chapter- and please please guys I thrive off of reviews and I seem to be getting less these days, I love hearing what you all think of my stories. I Feel like people are enjoying them less now than they were.
In any case I hope you enjoy this chapter- we find out what happened now, and also, I gotta say I'm finding TLH harder to write because I'm not so used to writing Leo, Jason and Piper- but I gotta say it's fun exploring how things shift- after all in the Lost Hero it was Jason's quest and even with his amnesia he was the only one who had any clue what he was doing so he had to act more confident than he felt- in my version- well, they have Leo. Also- a Leo who is already very in love with someone, which means no ridiculous crush on certain Ice Princesses which means fun for me.

Luke's last thought before he'd leapt had been a prayer, and it wasn't to Hermes like his normal prayers were- his father couldn't help him where he was.

But he could remember once, when he was an eight year old little boy who'd woken up to get a glass of water and met a god.

He remembered how he'd told that god that he'd protect his daughter- and Luke had forced down a wave of guilt, at that. And he could also remember that god making him a promise. It wasn't a sacred oath- Luke knew it wasn't binding, but he could remember Poseidon telling him 'If you ever need my aid just call upon me and if I can help you I shall'.

It had been a very long time ago. Almost fifteen years, Poseidon might have forgotten that promise, he might not be willing to keep it- after all Luke had just abandoned Percy to deal with hoards of monsters and Kronos on her own- but he hadn't had much of a choice, he had to get Beckendorf away. And- Percy had wiped out well over a hundred monsters in a matter of minutes single handedly, and- and she'd taken a blow from Kronos' scythe.

Honestly he was kind of fuzzy and confused about that, Luke was pretty sure what he'd thought he'd seen couldn't possibly have actually happened but he had to believe in her.

So as he'd fell he'd closed his eyes and sent up one last desperate prayer as he clutched Beckendorf close.

Lord Poseidon, please save us, please don't let us die when we hit the water, please don't let us drown.

And then he'd been hitting the water, and it had taken all of Luke's strength to cling to Beckendorf and not let the son of Hephaestus slip from his grip- but when they hit the water it didn't hurt, instead the water seemed softer than he'd expected as they plunged beneath the surface, and Luke's eyes had stung as he'd reached blindly, managing to grab Beckendorf's left arm, locating the watch and pressing the button on the side.

If he could cry underwater he was sure he would be- it felt like murder, like he was condemning his baby sister to death- but he was doing exactly what she'd told him to do.

He needed to have faith in her.

And then he'd let the blackness swallow him, still clinging to the unconscious son of Hephaestus like a lifeline.

He wasn't conscious when the explosion happened, he wasn't conscious when they were sent surging deeper into the water by the force of the explosion- though thankfully neither of them were close enough to get caught in the bulk of the blast.

When he did come around it was a slow painful thing and Luke groaned lowly, opening his eyes slowly.

He felt weird, lighter than usual- and when he did open his eyes everything had a strange quality- and his eyes widened in shock when he saw that they were in what looked like an infirmary- there were a lot of beds, many of them filled up with injured- mer-folk. He let out a gasp- and he was shocked to find that he could gasp. He was underwater, he had to be, but he wasn't dead, he wasn't struggling to breathe. He felt just fine, how did he feel fine? It made no sense, he was still so confused.

He looked around quickly, and he spotted the bed to his left- Beckendorf was sat up in it, he looked ashen, and- Luke felt like he'd been punched in the gut- where the other demigods right arm had been was a stump, wrapped in what looked like bandages made out of thick strips of seaweed woven together.

Beckendorf must have felt his gaze because he turned his head to look at Luke, giving a strained smile. "The wound was infected with venom. It was either chop it off or let it kill me apparently." his voice was pained, "I've had as much nectar and ambrosia as I can, it doesn't hurt so much any more." it was clear that he was putting on a brave face, to say the least.

"Fuck." Luke breathed the word, closing his eyes, "What- what happened?"

"You tell me. I woke up maybe ten, fifteen minutes ago." Beckendorft admitted, "I know we're in Atlantis but I don't have a clue how we got here- or where Percy is-" and Luke winced, his face draining of color at those words.

"Oh gods." he held his head in his hands, "Oh gods, I left her there. I left her there with that bastard- what if she didn't get out. Do we even know if the plan worked- did we blow it up?"

"I have no clue. The medics are rushed off their feet-" Beckendorf paused, "Fins I guess. I haven't exactly stopped to ask them anything."

"Right." Luke grimaced, shifting to move off the bed before letting out a pained groan- in the shock of waking and seeing his friend so badly wounded he hadn't really paid any mind to his own aches and pains- he felt like he'd been tossed around like a beach ball.

One of the medics noticed the noise and swum towards him quickly. "Mr Jackson." her voice was somewhat flustered as she pulled out some squares of ambrosia. "Some ambrosia for you. You must rest, Lord Poseidon ordered us to ensure that you two were cared for during your stay here?"

"Lord Poseidon-" Luke's eyes widened, "He heard my prayer." he breathed the words, "He kept his promise. That's how we're alive, how we're breathing down here. He must have blessed us or something."

"Promise? What promise?" Beckendorf raised an eyebrow, a curious look on his face.

"When I was younger- when Sephie was a baby Lord Poseidon visited, I told him I'd protect her, and he told me that if I ever needed him, if there was any way he could help he would."

"You called in the favor." Beckendorf realised, "And Lord Poseidon came through."

"I never should have doubted it." Luke breathed out, grabbing a square of ambrosia and nibbling on it before he paused, "Did- uh, I hate to ask but did... was anyone else brought in-"

"If you're talking about Princess Persephone, Prince Triton brought her in personally, he left as soon as Lord Poseidon got your prayer with a small group of warriors to see if they could rescue you."

"They found her?" Luke's voice was painfully relieved- he felt the urge to cry as he ran his fingers through his hair, "Is she alright? Where is she, can I see her?"

"Yes, she's just fine from what I've heard, she was unconscious but there wasn't so much as a mark on her- the worst of it seems to have been pure exhaustion. She was taken to her own personal rooms by Prince Triton, and I believe one of the Cyclops's has been assigned to watch over her until she wakes up. And you can see her once she's woken. I believe her father will wish to speak to her first but once they're done I imagine she'll be brought here to see you both and then you will likely have to leave- Atlantis is at war, as are you on the surface."

"Right." Luke swallowed hard, "I guess- I guess we have to wait." he was pretty sure they could trust the medics word- she clearly worked for Poseidon and Luke knew that the god doted on his daughter so he doubted she'd have any reason to lie to them.

Beckendorf caught his eye, giving a weak but genuine smile, "It didn't go as plan. But hey, look at it this way. We've all gotten out of it alive, right?" as he said that he slipped his hand into his pocket, pulling out a familiar photo- which seemed completely undamaged by the water all around them. "We get to go home." his eyes flicked to his arm,
"For a little while there I honestly didn't think we'd get out of it- and I guess... at least we're alive. I might have lost an arm but we're alive. That's better than it could have been."

Luke winced, looking at the stump where his friends arm had been. It was a huge loss, even for the average person, but Beckendorf was a blacksmith, he worked with his hands, it was what he did. For him to have lost his arm- his dominant arm as well- it was huge.

But still, if the son of Hephaestus could look on the bright side then so could he. "I doubt you'll be armless for long anyway- tell Leo that you've lost an arm and what do you want to bet he'll be rustling you up a better one right away-"

"The challenge is going to be stopping him from adding in special features." Beckendorf laughed, "He's been watching too many movies with your sister, he's going to try and build me an Iron Man arm I can just see it-"

"I wish I could dispute that but I know Leo. What do you want to bet he puts at least some sort of extra weapons built into it. You're going to have to be careful he'll forget he's put some in-"

"I'll be wiping my ass and suddenly a knife will sprout from my fingers." Beckendorf said quickly, a grin on his lips

And somehow, for the two exhausted, shocked and somewhat traumatized demigods, that was the funniest thing in the world- and neither of them could have stopped laughing even if they had tried to.

...

And while Percy slept she dreamed.

She dreamed that she was back on Mount Orthys, the main pavilion was open to the night, ringed with black Greek columns and statues of the Titans. Torchlight glowed against the black marble floor. In the centre of the room, an armored giant struggled under the weight of a swirling funnel cloud—Atlas, holding up the sky.

Two other giant men stood nearby over a bronze brazier, studying images in the flames.

"Quite an explosion," one said. He wore black armor studded with silver dots like a starry night. His face was covered in a war helm with a ram's horn curling on either side.

"It doesn't matter," the other said. This Titan was dressed in gold robes, with golden eyes like Kronos. His entire body glowed. He reminded me of Apollo, God of the Sun, except the Titan's light was harsher, and his expression crueler. "The gods have answered the challenge. Soon they will be destroyed."

The images in the fire were hard to make out: storms, buildings crumbling, mortals screaming in terror.

"I will go east to marshal our forces," the golden Titan said. "Krios, you shall remain and guard Mount Othrys."

The ram horn dude grunted. "I always get the stupid jobs. Lord of the South. Lord of Constellations. Now I get to babysit Atlas while you have all the fun."

Under the whirlwind of clouds, Atlas bellowed in agony, "Let me out, curse you! I am your greatest warrior. Take my burden so I may fight!"

"Quiet!" the golden Titan roared. "You had your chance, Atlas. You failed. Kronos likes you just where you are. As for you, Krios, do your duty."

"And if you need more warriors?" Krios asked. "Our treacherous nephew in the tuxedo will not do you much good in a fight."

The golden Titan laughed. "Don't worry about him. Besides, the gods can barely handle our first little challenge. They have no idea how many others we have in store. Mark my words, in a few days' time, Olympus will be in ruins, and we will meet here again to celebrate the dawn of the Sixth Age!"

The golden Titan erupted into flames and disappeared.

"Oh, sure," Krios grumbled. "He gets to erupt into flames. I get to wear these stupid ram's horns."

And then the dream faded into blackness, and Percy woke.