Neither a very surprising nor very long chapter, but it is important it stands on its own, and I'll have more for you tomorrow as always. Enjoy!

Chapter 11- Guilty Until Proven Innocent

I woke up with Athena's spear at my throat.

I'd been dreaming that I was drowning, so I didn't mind waking up. That said, you definitely don't ever want to wake up with a spear at your throat. Especially not when it's Athena's spear. Especially not once you look into Athena's eyes and see nothing but hatred and suspicion.

"Move, prodótēs, and not a word from your deceitful tongue" she hissed. My heart dropped. For one second, I closed my eyes, praying this was just another nightmare. But Athena was still there when I woke up. Guess praying doesn't do you much good when it's the gods who want to kill you.

I glanced over at my classmates. They were all still asleep. Annabeth seemed to squirm, though. Could she sense her mom was about to kill me? If she could, she didn't awake. I glanced over at Luke's cot and found it empty. Great, the only other person awake and he had to pick then to go to the bathroom. I was dead for sure.

In my head, I yelled at Athena. I demanded she tell me what this was about. Shouted that Zeus would punish her for disobeying him. But aloud, I said nothing. One look at her and I knew she wanted to run me through. I wasn't about to give her any reason to do so. Instead, I jammed my hands in my pocket, and let Athena march me to my death.

Riptide brushed against my fingers. For a second, I considered drawing her, fighting my way off Olympus. But I knew it would never work, and that would definitely fall into the category of 'reasons for Athena to skewer me'.

At night, Olympus was a different place. I don't think gods sleep, but the streets were deserted. Maybe it was just the storm brewing. The moment I stepped outside I was almost knocked over by a raging gust of wind. The standards above different temples flapped and tore against the storm. It wasn't raining, yet, but I could feel the heaviness in the air. There was a thunderstorm brewing. Zeus was angry.

Besides for Athena, all the gods sat upon their thrones, twenty feet tall, and glowing at me. Hades and his folding chair had disappeared, but that wasn't surprising. The solstice had ended at midnight; he was no more welcome there than I was now.

I didn't know what to do. My heart pounded. My hands grew sweaty and started to shake. Every instinct told me to draw Riptide and fight, or at least run away. But I couldn't do either. Athena led me to the center of the throne room, then left to take her seat, but just because the spear was no longer against my back, that didn't mean I was safe. No, now I had twelve gods poised to murder me, not just one.

Zeus stood. He wasn't laughing anymore. I could see upon his face the same burning anger I'd felt outside in the storm. I was twenty-feet away, standing small and terrified in the center of the throne room, but Zeus glowered at me, "Name your master, return it to me now, and I will give you a clean death. Resist me and I will make you long for the Fields of Punishment."

Have you ever been so confused you just can't bring yourself to be properly scared? Well, at that moment, I was. Don't get me wrong, it's impossible not to be terrified when Zeus himself is threatening you, but for a moment, I forgot my fear. It became secondary. I was just confused. "What am I supposed to be returning?"

Not the right answer. Zeus howled in anger reached to the side of his throne. I closed my eyes, expecting to be zapped into oblivion, but the blast of lightning never came. When I opened my eyes, I saw Zeus clenching his fist where his master bolt should have been. My heart dropped. His master bolt. The symbol of his power. That was what was missing… and he thought I'd taken it.

My whole life people had been accusing me of things that weren't my fault. I don't know why I'd expected the gods to be any better. But they weren't, and I got angry. Punish me for sneaking onto Olympus. Don't punish me for things I'd never done in my life! "I'm not a thief! I didn't take your lightning bolt!"

"Only the thief would know what was stolen," the big god in a leather jacket, Ares if I had to guess, remarked from his throne.

I clenched my fists, "I have eyes! I'm not an idiot, and I'm not a thief. You have to believe me!"

The goddess who sat next to Zeus leaned forward. She was pretty, with an expression that reminded me a great deal of my mother. And she almost sounded fair when she asked, "You used deception to enter Olympus. Why should we possibly believe you?"

I was pretty sure that was Hera, but I didn't know why she'd be treating me fairly. Everyone knew Hera hated demigods… or maybe that was just when they were children of Zeus. I couldn't remember. Annabeth would have known, but she was asleep, oblivious to the danger I faced.

I wished I had a good response for the goddess, but I didn't. Instead I just repeated, "Because I didn't do it! I swear I've never stolen anything! What would I even do with Zeus's lightning bolt? I'd die if I tried to use it."

"Indeed a petty mortal such as yourself would turn to ashes the moment you tried, but another god would not. You stole if for your father. Name him, boy, before I get angry. Who sired you?"

'Before I get angry', like Zeus wasn't already angry. Well you know what, I was angry too. Especially when I looked over at Poseidon and saw absolutely no emotion on his face. If he really was my dad, why didn't he defend me? And if he wasn't my dad, then who was?

Shouting at the King of the Gods, bad idea. I did it anyways. "I don't know! He doesn't care about me, and I don't care about him! I've never even met him! Why would I steal for him? How would I steal for him when he won't even show his face?"

I was seething, bitter and angry. Zeus was furious that I'd dare yell at him, but I noticed a few of the gods looked almost impressed at my boldness. But only as impressed as you'd be if your dog stole the steak right off your plate.

Zeus just dismissed me, "You may have thought he would claim you once you had the bolt. Or perhaps he came to you in a dream. There are ways."

"Dreams? Unless my father is some giant turtle with the voice of a fiery pit…" I paused, unsure where those words came from. I'd forgotten those dreams, but suddenly they came back to me. I remembered standing on the edge of a pit. I remembered Luke talking to that turtle. And the voices… they'd been the same. But then, was it the turtle in the pit? That just didn't seem right.

I didn't get much time to think about it. At that moment, all the gods seemed to fizzle and burn. Something about what I'd said had scared them, Zeus especially. He seemed to double in size, but I could see sheer terror upon his face. Suddenly he spoke fast in Ancient Greek. I was doing fairly well in that class, but I only caught a few words of what he was saying: Pit. Father. Stirring. Traitor. Kill him.

That last one caught my attention. Anger and impulsiveness mixed inside me, and I exploded. "Hey! If you're going to kill me I at least deserve to know why!"

You know, I was kind of grateful Zeus didn't have his lightning bolt. If he'd had it, I would have been dead a dozen times over. Then again, if he'd had his lightning bolt I wouldn't have been in trouble in the first place.

Surprisingly, Athena was the one to answer. She climbed down from her throne, and moved towards me. Her eyes did not seem to waver an inch from my face as she stalked around me. Finally she finished her loop, and turned back to Zeus, "He is either an idiot, or an impressive liar, but we should listen to what he has to say. If Kronos is stirring…"

"Do not say that name in my halls!" Zeus shouted, and then, even Athena looked frightened. "He admits to working with our enemy! I shall kill him and find the bolt myself."

None of the gods objected to that. They began talking over each other, bickering about whether or not Kronos was returning and what they should do if he did. But every one of them seemed to agree I should die. Only Poseidon remained silent.

Somehow, maybe because I was an idiot, I wasn't cowed into silence at this renewed threat of death. Instead I shouted over the noise, "Hey! I'm not working with anyone! If that voice was Kronos… well he wants to kill you all. And he told me I would help him but…"

"Percy, stop talking."

The whole hall went silent as Poseidon spoke. My heart leapt from my chest and then crashed to the floor. I didn't know what to think, what to feel. But then Poseidon climbed down from his throne and came over to me. He seemed to shrink in size as he did until he was right in front of me, the size of a normal man. For the first time, I got a clear look at him. And I knew. I'd always known, but when I looked him right in the eyes, I remembered my dreams, I remembered seeing him as a baby. I knew those eyes, not just because they were my own, but because they were the eyes of my father. My father, Poseidon.

"What is this?" Zeus asked, narrowing his eyes. "Surely you do not believe the boy's lies."

Poseidon- my father Poseidon- stepped between me and Zeus. Then, without any hesitation, he said, "I do believe Perseus, yes. Our father is gone. He holds no power any longer. You yourself have said he can never return, so you cannot possibly accuse Percy of conspiring with him. Sometimes a dream is just a dream, and our father speaking as a giant turtle seems like just a dream to me."

The other gods looked between each other. Some of them seemed convinced by the logic in Poseidon's words. After all, Kronos was the worst titan of them all. If he was to come back, why would he do so as a turtle? Why would he come to me, a scrawny 12-year-old who hadn't even been claimed?

Zeus looked conflicted. I could tell he wanted Poseidon to be right. He more than any of them didn't want Kronos coming back. At the same time, Zeus and Poseidon were bitter rivals. Zeus wanted to disagree with Poseidon on principle.

Finally he must have decided that he hated his father more than his brother, because he let all talk of Kronos cease. Instead he returned to, "Then perhaps he stole the bolt for his father, but he is the thief."

I was about to shout for the billionth time that I wasn't a thief, but my dad spoke up first. Unlike me, his voice was calm, collected, but it wasn't true calm. It was a controlled rage, like the sea holding back until all of a sudden it caused a tsunami, "Perseus's father did not ask him to steal your master bolt."

"How could you possibly know that?" Zeus snapped.

I closed my eyes. A part of me felt grateful. In the end, my dad had stepped in to keep Zeus from killing me. But in doing so he'd probably gotten me killed anyways. I remembered what Luke told me about Thalia, the daughter of Zeus. The gods punished her for her dad's sin. No doubt they would do the same to me. They'd made it abundantly clear that they didn't give two-craps about fairness.

But then my dad reached out, placing a hand on my shoulder. Shivers went down my spine. It occurred to me that this was probably the first time in my life my father had ever touched me. It suddenly made him a lot more real. And in a strange way, it made me feel safe, even though I knew I wasn't.

"I know because I gave no such order, and Perseus is my son. This is why you shall not lay a hand upon him without proof of his guilt. He is my son, and he is innocent."

I was terrified to look and see the other gods expressions, but I didn't want to just look like an idiot staring at the floor. Therefore I raised my gaze and met Zeus's eyes. If he'd been angry at me for stealing his lightning bolt, that was nothing compared to how furious he was now. I suddenly felt very hot, and wondered if Zeus could incinerate me with just his gaze. He probably could. But Poseidon was his brother, the god of the whole sea, and quite possibly the only god equal in power to him. If I was in danger because of my dad, he protected me as well.

Zeus didn't say anything, not immediately, but it was clear that he and Poseidon would be having words. But apparently I was not to stick around and hear them. My father turned towards me, face blank. Was he angry at me for having put him in this situation? Was he scared. I just couldn't tell. Not even when he spoke, "Do you have your pearls, Perseus?"

My pearls. I'd completely forgotten about them, but when I reached into my pocket, I discovered they were there. Much like Riptide, they always seemed to be there when I needed them. So, I nodded.

"Good. The blue shall always bring you home. Just smash it upon the ground. I will inform your friends where you have gone, but if you care for your mother's safety, you will return to Chiron's school immediately. Of my brothers, Zeus is the calm, rational one. Until Zeus's bolt is found, there will be no peace."

"I didn't steal anything," I muttered once more.

For the first time, I saw a hint of emotion upon my father's face. He almost seemed to smile, "I believe you, Perseus. I have staked my own fate upon it. Someone has set us both us, but until clearer heads prevail, you must not do anything else to draw suspicion to yourself. Do you understand?"

Yeah, I understood. He was telling me to shut up and keep out of sight. Not exactly how I wanted my first conversation with my father to go. But I supposed this was better than him just letting Zeus kill me on the spot, "Yes, Father."

"Good, now go." He told me. I reached in my pocket and found the blue pearl from that summer. I didn't use it immediately though. I hesitated one second, staying just long enough to see my father revert to full-size and stare down all the gods.

"Let there not be war among us. When we find the true lightning thief, they shall face punishment. Only a demigod could have taken the master bolt, but my son is not a thief. That only means one of yours is, so be hesitant in throwing accusations lest the truth prove your own guilt."