Prologue

1000 B.C.

Percy

Percy gave a terse smile to Artemis, worry filling him as he ran through all the possibilities for the random summon of all the Greek deities, minor gods included. The longstanding bravado of Zeus had become a larger issue as he began to direct it towards the Guardians. Percy's guess was that the "emergency meeting," as Zeus called it, was going to be another case of the Olympian king stroking his own ego. Though, he was clued early on the degree of importance of the meeting when he noticed Hades lurking off to the side. He rarely came to solstices, let alone spontaneous summons by Zeus.

"Gods and Goddesses! I have gathered you all here today to address a problem of great importance to us Olympians." He paused in a poor attempt to create tension.

"From the bottom of my heart, it pains me, truly, that this matter has become one that I must address. However-"

"Will you spit it out already, you damned buffoon?" Poseidon cut him off.

Tossing a glare at his brother, Zeus continued. "If you would let me finish, I could. As I was saying, the problem we will vote on today regards the fate of the Guardians."

That statement was concerningly vague. The swarm of spectators below bore faces of confusion. All of the aforementioned Guardians were staring at Zeus as if he was off his rocker, and truth to be told, they weren't that far off.

Poseidon snorted. "What, exactly, are we voting for?"

"It has come to my attention that although they did assist us in dealing with the pesky Titans to claim the throne, their influence has cast a bad light onto our pantheon. In order to mend the relationship between ourselves and the minor gods, who were never given this privilege of having Guardians, as well as neighboring pantheons, I reckon that we should do away with them as a whole."

Percy had to grimace at his ham-fisted pledge. Zeus' jealousy of not having his own Guardian was leading him to bring the rest of the council onto his level—and it was working. Anyone who didn't have an ego as big as the Roman Empire knew that he didn't give a shit about the minor gods, and that fact wasn't about to change.

"Our Guardians are the only reason we were able to restrain Typhon and bring down Mount Othrys, father. Banishing them would be like willingly casting yourself into the Tartarus," Hermes tried to reason. Unfortunately, it became clear that there were very few who agreed with him, as the majority of the council substantially aligned with Zeus' views.

"Oh, please. Let's be realistic here. Having to worry about them only weakened our ability to focus on the battles."

Poseidon forced his way back into the debate. "Don't start acting better than us because you don't have a Guardian, brother. You claimed the throne without Hades or my consent, and I vividly remember our Guardians saving your sorry ass a few times."

The rising tension gave way to snippets of uncertain muttering from within the crowd. There had always been conflict between the childlike leaders, but during this time of unease, their pesky bickering did little to alleviate the fears of their people. Ah, men and their power complexes, Artemis mused in an attempt to calm herself down. Artemis threw a glance down at Percy, who smiled back with apprehension.

Artemis knew that Percy had noticed her pale knuckles gripping the now fracturing armrests of her throne. Even after she looked away, she could feel his gaze carefully trained upon her face, but her expression was unreadable, and disappointment at her distant attitude took over his features.

Zeus' face colored at Poseidon's valid points of argument, but in a rush to get to the voting phase, he chose to surrender his petty quarrel and rose to address the crowd. "All in favor of keeping our Guardians?" Poseidon, Artemis, Hephaestus, Demeter, Hades and Hermes raised their hands.

At seeing Artemis' hand raised in favor of his continued stay, Percy's heart gave a little hiccup, and he turned his face from the prying eyes of the congregation.

"Then, all in favor of disbanding them?" Zeus continued with a growing smirk. Ares, Dionysus, Athena, Hera, Apollo, Aphrodite and Zeus himself raised their hands.

"Well, to my utter dismay, it seems that we have come to a consensus. Though, banishment to Tartarus seems unnecessarily cruel. I will allow you all to reside in the lands beyond the gods as a merciful king," he smiled.

As the blow of Zeus' judgement settled, the truth finally began to register in the faces of the abandoned Guardians. For the first time in a long while, Artemis felt her heart ache with something other than annoyance and indifference. She watched the Guardians gather in the center, stricken with fear for what was to come. A wail which originated from Hestia's Guardian, Xena, sent goosebumps up her arms and she shivered despite the warmth from the midday sun.

d-.-b

The chariot was completely silent. Apollo, who had so graciously volunteered to drive/fly the Guardians to the uncharted lands of present day Alaska despite him also graciously voting to banish them, kept making attempts at small talk.

"So, Percy. How are you doing? Any hobbies you've picked up? Lucky ladies in your life?"

Percy turned a dead stare to him. "None that I know of, since I've just been uprooted from my home since creation." His cold response was to be expected, but prior to the meeting they had happened to be somewhat of good friends, leaving Apollo a bit surprised.

"My bad," Apollo muttered apologetically, somehow not discerning the full scale of his actions.

Apple bottom jeans, boots with the fur (with the fur)

"You guys like this little something that I made? I call it a radio. Athena's not the only one with brains in her noggin." Grinning, the sun god turned back and was met with looks similar to that which Percy had just given him.

Apollo attempted to revamp the conversation once again, but the glare that Percy gave him warned Apollo that the sun god was moments away from a blade at his neck. He faced the road, and kept it that way until they arrived at their destination.

The chariot began to descend on an open clearing, sun shining through yet devoid of life and eerily quiet. One by one, the Guardians filed out, varying levels of dejection on their faces as they slowly realized that the Olympians had unabashedly abandoned them. Percy stood, grounded to the land, where he felt as much a mortal as ever. Despite there not being a cloud in sight to block out the sun, he couldn't seem to get any warmth from the light on his skin.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Apollo holding back Adonia, his Guardian, who happened to be the last one on the chariot. Apollo seemed to be pleading with her, most likely to gain forgiveness for how he had wronged her just an hour earlier. Her face was blank, and although she and Percy were the twin Guardians as well as best friends, he didn't have so much as a guess at what was going on in her thoughts. Even through Apollo's hushed tone, Percy was able to hear as Apollo's voice raised in intensity and caught the word "grateful". Adonia, who had been ignoring his existence up until that point, snapped her head to give a piercing glare and slapped him across the face. Without ever exchanging a word with Apollo, she pushed past his outstretched arm and stomped off the ride.

Adonia trudged ahead of Percy, her golden bangs casting a shadow onto brown eyes welled up with tears. Percy made to catch up with her. "Hey, what happened back there?"

Her voice was strained. "Not right now, Percy. Please." And so Percy stood there, a departing sun god to his left and an unresponsive twin Guardian to his right.

Apollo, cheek stinging from Adonia's farewell gift, bid them no parting words and left. He couldn't stand the sight of their all around unhappy and solemn profiles, knowing that he was a direct contributor to them. He had no choice but to vote in favor of Zeus' suggestion, or his father would have had his head. At least, he tried to trick himself into believing that.

Yes, I am aware that the hit song Low by Flo Rida featuring T-Pain did not exist in 1000 B.C., nor were radios invented at the time. I don't care.