Chapter 20- I Have A Lot Of Make Up Work

We made it back to school without being attacked by a single monster, which proved that, momentarily at least, the gods were pleased. When we got there, Chiron took one look at us and sent us to our houses for a shower and a nap. Considering I didn't know what day it was, and I certainly didn't have any of my homework done, I considered it a welcome respite from school.

(Turns out it was a Sunday, January 29th, so I didn't have classes anyways, but it was the thought which counts.)

By dinnertime I was squeaky clean, if a little groggy, and prepared to join the masses. I was glad I did. To celebrate our successful quest, we held a special feast and then went outside to burn our funeral shrouds. I noticed quite distinctly that there was no sign of the shroud for Luke, but tried not to let it sour my mood. Annabeth's siblings had made a beautiful shroud of silver, complete with an owl emblazoned upon it. Since I didn't have any siblings, Celia had decided that we 'children of the sea' had to stick together and attempted to make me a shroud out of seaweed with some of the Hermes kids. It was disastrous and if I'd actually had to be buried in it I would have felt stupid, but it was fun to burn.

Throughout the party, there was a tendril of tension and grief which wove through the whole school, especially Hermes House. No one spoke about it. I don't think a single person dared say Luke's name. But everyone knew what he'd done, and now everyone was trying to decide what they would have done in his place.

Still, I didn't let it spoil my fun. I had the feeling there would be plenty of days to come where I had to worry about Luke. I was still bound by my oath upon the River Styx, and I would have helped him regardless. No, I wasn't about to forget Luke, but for one night I put him from my mind and just celebrated. I was alive! I'd stopped World War III! Yippee!

As I suspected, the pearl had brought Bianca and Nico to school safely. They seemed to be settling in fairly well. Nico was too young to actually go to AA, but like Annabeth living there since she was seven, no one really questioned it. He'd already begun teaching a bunch of kids how to play 'Mythomagic', and seemed generally content with asking a million questions. At least no one had slapped him yet.

Bianca was rooming with Celia, and the two of them were both reserved enough to get along. Mostly Bianca stuck with her brother, but I think she did it for her own sake as much as for his. Maybe it was easier for her to pretend she was just watching out for her brother, but it gave her a good excuse to stick to the shadows.

The shadows- I knew Bianca and I needed to have a conversation about her father, and soon. Chiron was already asking me questions I didn't want to answer about the di Angelo siblings. But I decided to give Bianca the chance to celebrate as well. I couldn't bring myself to discuss Hades or prophecies when Bianca and Nico were just learning how to do the Cotton-Eyed Joe. (Though why Apollo House had decided that was the most important song for them to learn, I can't tell you.)

It was only right before bed that I finally pulled Bianca aside. She seemed to have been expecting it, and sent Nico on ahead with the other Hermes kids. Then the two of us wandered down by the beach where we'd have some privacy.

I didn't really know how to break the news to her, so I decided to start simple, "How are you and Nico liking it here?"

"It's nice," she told me, though the expression on her face was rather sullen. I realized why when she kicked off her boots and dumped a pile of sand out. I guess being the Son of Poseidon kept sand out of my shoes too. Good to know.

Now that Bianca was barefoot, we continued walking along the beach. For a moment, I studied her. It made me blush to think about, but Aphrodite had sent me to the Lotus Casino on a quest for 'tragic love'. Did that mean Bianca and I were supposed to be a couple? She was pretty, I guess, but there was a certain heaviness to her that I wasn't sure about. I liked her well enough, but I couldn't see myself liking her. It was almost easier to picture myself with Annabeth than Bianca. But maybe I just apprehensive about liking the daughter of Hades.

Honestly, I'd never realized that when people said 'love drives you crazy' they meant 'love goddesses make you overthink everything'. Or maybe they didn't and that was just a 'me' problem. It was probably just a 'me' problem. I decided to just do my best to forget I'd ever met Aphrodite. If I was destined to love Bianca, or anyone for that matter, hopefully it would come naturally.

"Bianca, I know who your dad is."

I hadn't meant to just blurt it out, but since I didn't have any better way of saying them, I guess it worked out. The words stopped Bianca in her tracks. She frowned, "You do?"

"It's…" I took a deep breath. I'd fought monsters and stared down gods. I could do this! "Your dad is Hades. I don't know the details, but I know that."

I guess Bianca must have already more-or-less come to that conclusion, because she didn't seem shocked. She just nodded and started walking once more. "I guess the portal to the Underworld gave it away."

I mean, yeah. She wasn't wrong. Unfortunately, it wasn't that simple "Bianca, it's entirely up to you what you want to do, but there is something you need to know. Hades isn't supposed to have kids. He, Zeus, and my dad, Poseidon, they all agreed not to have anymore demigod children after World War II. If the gods knew you and Nico existed, they'd be really upset."

Bianca gave me a look like 'but you exist, don't you'? But what she said was, "But Nico and I were born before the war, so that doesn't apply to us, does it?"

"The oath itself, no, but there was a reason they made the oath. Apparently there is this prophecy that says the next child of the Big Three gods who turns sixteen will have the power either to save Olympus or destroy it. I don't know the details, and I doubt Chiron would tell me, but I know Zeus is terrified of this prophecy coming true. He almost killed me over it. If he knew about you and Nico, he'd be furious. Especially because we don't know exactly how old you are."

"Because then we don't know who's older, you or me." Bianca finished. She stared up at the sky, but there was no moon. Besides for light coming from the school, it was as dark as her father's domain.

I gave her a moment to process this news. Honestly it was a lot for me as well, but she deserved the truth. She seemed to take it well. Or she at least didn't appear as frightened by it as I felt. "Thank you, Percy. I think I understand now. It's best if no one knows where Nico and I came from, and that includes Nico."

What? "You're not going to tell him?"

Bianca bit her lip, but shook her head. "No. He's so young, Percy. So innocent. Knowing wouldn't do him any good. Let's let him be happy. We're both twelve, so at least we know the prophecy doesn't apply to him. Let's leave it at that. When he's ready, I'll tell him, but I need you to promise me that you will let me decide when he's ready."

I didn't like it. I knew what it was like to sit around Hermes House waiting for someone to claim you. Four months of that had nearly turned me against my father. Was it really a good idea to let Nico go through that?

At the same time, I remembered how happy Nico had looked. Sure he was clueless and a little annoying, but he was happy. If he knew his father was Lord of the Dead, would that change? I'd learned firsthand how easily the other kids here could turn upon you. I didn't care who their dad was. Annabeth didn't care. Could the same be said of everyone? Hades wasn't allowed on Olympus for a reason. Were his kids really just going to be able to live in peace, even here at AA?

Besides, Bianca was his sister, Nico's only mortal family. If anyone knew what was best for him, it was her. I'd just have to trust her judgement. (Though I certainly wasn't about to make another oath on the River Styx.) So I told Bianca, "Okay, I'll let you tell him. But if things change and he needs to know, you can't wait. Once he's ready to handle it, Nico deserves the truth."

Returning to Poseidon House, I crashed on my cot. I ended up oversleeping and had to rush to class the next morning. There, Annabeth and I were greeted with a week worth of makeup work. You'd think that saving the world would give us enough brownie points to get out of it, but nuh-huh. We had to read the "Odyssey" for Greek, "The Hatchet" for English, teach ourselves how to divide fractions, and do a half-dozen other things for our other classes.

In a way, it was a good thing. The first few weeks back I was so swamped with work that I hardly had time for breathing, so I never noticed Luke wasn't there to spar with. Annabeth and I spent all our time together trying to pool our brainpower (or well, I took some of her brainpower), so I wasn't ever lonely. And at nights I was so tired I barely dreamed.

In short, I was too busy to notice the gaping hole Luke had left both at the school, and within my life. By the time things had calmed down enough for me to really miss him, it was February break, and I was going home. I'd hardly spoken to my mom. We'd sent a couple letters back and forth just reassuring each other that we were alright, but I didn't really know what was happening outside of school. I stood at the bottom of half-blood hill, knee bouncing, waiting for her to pull up. Just the fact that she was driving out here to pick me up struck me as strange, though I remembered my dad's comment about Gabe's changing fortunes.

When I finally spotted my mom, the first thing I noticed was that Gabe had gotten a new car. That made sense considering we'd destroyed his last one in Pennsylvania, but I'd already forgotten all about that. It made me smile, then frown. Annabeth, Luke and I had had a pretty good time in that car counting cows.

Second thing I noticed, Gabe's new car didn't smell like Gabe. As I climbed in and let my mom kiss me, I decided it smelled almost nice, new and sweet, like my mom.

As for my mom, she looked well for someone who'd spent over a month frozen in the Underworld. "Not much," she told me when I asked what she remembered of that time. "I remember being grabbed, but then I woke up at home and discovered a month was gone."

I wondered if that was entirely true. I loved my mom, but sometimes she tried to protect me from too much. If she did remember Hades, she probably wouldn't admit it. But in the end, I didn't press. If she had nightmares about the Underworld, then at least I wasn't alone.

"Gabe must have been surprised when you just showed up like that," I remarked. He certainly hadn't responded well when I used the pearl to appear in my room.

"Oh no, Gabe wasn't there," my mom answered, a smile tugging at the corner of her lips. "But enough of me. I want to know how you've been."

I told her the story of our trip, or a much abridged version, at least. I left out the moments when I almost died; my mom didn't need that stress. It was impossible though to cut out Luke completely, especially since my mom knew we were already friends. So I told her everything. When I described how angry I'd been at Dad, she looked a little sad, but she didn't interrupt me. I was grateful for that. It was much easier just to keep going. When I finally reached the end, and told her about my conversation with Dad on Olympus, her eyes were wet with tears. But I could see her smile as well.

"Percy," she told me. "I hope you know that your father is not the only one who is proud of you. You are an incredibly brave and selfless young man, and I could not ever wish for a better son."

I'll admit it- her words made me blush. I knew she was my mom and she loved me no matter what and therefore she had to say things like that, but it still felt good. Besides, if there was one thing I was learning from my classmates it was that not every parent did love their child like they should. Luke's mom was crazy. Annabeth's dad didn't want her. Bianca and Nico's couldn't even remember their mom, but she was probably dead after sixty-six years. I was lucky to have my mom. I'd always known that, but I was just starting to understand it.

Didn't mean I would blush any less at her praise, or not try to hide from her kisses. She was still majorly embarrassing, but I loved her too.

I suddenly realized that we'd taken a wrong turn coming off the highway. Were we not going home? My mom must have noticed my confusion, but she didn't say anything. Instead we drove in silence, listening to the radio, until we came upon an apartment building I didn't know.

"Mom? Where are we?" I asked, but she ignored me, parking the car and hopping out. I decided to just go with it, grabbed my bag, and followed her.

The building was nice. Nothing fancy, of course, but nicer than we were lived. I tried to remember if maybe this was where one of my mom's friends lived, but I couldn't think of it. But still, why would we be here instead of at our apartment? Had Gabe kicked her out?

I clenched my fists. If Gabe had kicked my mom out on the streets… I'd kill him. Chiron always said we should never hurt mortals, but I was pretty sure Gabe had crossed the threshold into monster years ago. Or maybe I could just scare him witless. It might be funny to watch Gabe pee his pants.

We climbed up five flights of stairs, which might have been difficult if I wasn't so in shape, and then my mom led me to an apartment. My heart jumped when I saw a sea-shell encrusted plaque with the name "Jackson" written by the door. My mom was definitely living here, but why? No, not just why, how? It wasn't the Ritz-Carlton, but we couldn't afford two apartments, especially not one this nice. And on top of the new car?

The apartment wasn't anything special. There was a decent sized living room and kitchen, then a hallway leading to the bedrooms. It was pretty though. My mom couldn't have been living here for more than a few weeks, but she'd already managed to turn it into a home. There was a shelf covered in pictures of us, or well, mostly me in awkward stages of development. On the wall behind the couch, there was a large photograph of the sun setting along the coast. There was a definite theme to the decorations, and I noticed a tub of blue paint upon a mat. I knew instantly that this was my home, my mom and mine and no one else's. It made me smile, even though I was massively confused.

"Where's Gabe?"

"Riker's Island," my mother answered, unable to hide her smirk. I didn't even understand and I grinned at the words. "Apparently, while investigating our murder, the police discovered a number of financial irregularities in Gabe's managing of the Mega Mart. They arrested him just hours before I came home."

It didn't surprise me in the least. I'd always thought it was a little funny how Gabe never seemed to actually work and yet made enough money to waste on booze and poker. Still, my mom was married to him, so didn't that mean she'd have to pay back any money he stole? "But how did you afford this?"

"Really, it's not that much more a month than the old one, but it felt good to leave. Besides, apparently Butler County Pennsylvania owes us damages for destroying Gabe's car and injuring us in a gas explosion."

I bit my lip. I suppose what Butler County didn't know couldn't hurt them. Not if it meant my mom could get away from Gabe. Besides, I'd saved Butler County from invasion by hellhound AND World War III. Just because they didn't know it didn't mean I shouldn't get my reward.

"Don't get too excited. We won't be taking any trips to Disneyworld, but I have put down a deposit on my first semester at NYU. And a rather wonderful young divorce lawyer named Ms. Dike has agreed to represent me pro-bono."

There was a smirk on my mom's face as she mentioned this lawyer, but I didn't quite get it. I didn't really care though. My mom was free of Gabe and going back to school. It was everything I'd ever wanted for her, and for once, I initiated the hug.

The next week was absolutely wonderful.

Sure, when I went to the movies on Wednesday I may have gotten in a slight altercation with a woman named enchiladas and her pet monster, but the police didn't even have to pass it off as a gas explosion, so it obviously wasn't that bad. I didn't even tell my mom about it, because she looked so happy flitting about our new home, and really, for me, it wasn't a big deal.

I'd always more-or-less avoided the area around the Empire State Building to avoid tourists, but that break I'd made a special effort not to annoy Zeus. Still, the Empire State building was hard to miss even among the high-rises of Manhattan. More than once I'd find myself glancing up, trying to catch a glimpse of the godly realm. No matter how hard I looked though, I couldn't see it. I took that as a good sign. I didn't need the gods interfering anymore in my life.

On Saturday, the day before I was due to return to school, I was just walking home when I realized that the mailman who'd been following me the last block was Hermes.

Upon realizing this, I didn't know exactly what to do. Should I stop and say hello? If he wasn't looking for me, that would be embarrassing. It might even be disastrous. Maybe he regretted not voting to kill me. I'd failed Luke after all, so he had every right to be angry. And if he was angry and didn't know I was there, it was probably not a good idea to say 'hi'.

Then again, it seemed pretty unlikely that Hermes would be following me and not know I was there. Sure, he was the messenger of the gods, but that didn't mean he actually had to deliver the world's mail personally. The mailman thing had to be a disguise.

But why bother? So far as I could tell, Zeus had only forbidden the gods from interacting with their own children. Aphrodite and Hermes had both dropped in on my quest no questions asked. Were the rules different during a quest? Or was Hermes just in trouble because of Luke and trying to keep his head down?

I didn't know, but I finally decided that I would go insane waiting for Hermes to make the first more. I stopped walking, ducking into an alleyway. A moment later, Hermes rounded the corner. He looked nervous, but not necessarily angry. I decided that was a good thing.

"Sign here," Hermes told me, pulling out a stylus and pen. I didn't have a clue what I was signing for, I might easily have signed away my life, but I did as he asked. Then I jumped; as soon as I signed, the pen and stylus both turned into snakes.

"Don't grip so tight!" one of the snakes chastised. (In case you're curious, that sentence just sums up what it means to be a half-blood.)

"Hush you, he didn't know," the other snake hissed. "Don't mind George, dear."

"Both of you hush," Hermes told the snakes. They immediately transformed into a phone, which Hermes proceeded to set to vibrate. "Don't mind them. Here's your letter. Just don't open it until I leave."

I was about to ask why. Then I recognized the handwriting on the front and my heart dropped- Luke.

I looked up at Hermes, expecting some explanation. If he was carrying messages from Luke then he had to have seen him. Was he okay? Was Hermes going to turn him over to Zeus?

Hermes looked back at me expectant, like he was hoping I had the answers. But how could I? This was the first I'd heard of Luke since our fight. There was a part of me that was glad about that, I wanted to kill Luke, but I'd been worried he was dead as well.

The intensity of Hermes's gaze made me nervous, so I had to say something, "Look, Lord Hermes. I'm really sorry about Luke. You asked me to help him, and I failed. But there was nothing I could do. I tried to tell him you cared, but he wouldn't listen. He hates you, and he's scared. There was no way I could get him to listen. I'm sorry."

Hermes looked down at the letter in my hand, and said, "You make it sound like you're done trying. Like you failed, end of story. If you truly care about my son, then you'd know your work is only beginning. Besides from the way I understand it, you've made an oath on the River Styx. If you give up now, you're cursed."

I was pretty sure I was already cursed. I'd been born out of a broken oath, after all. But Hermes was right; I couldn't give up on Luke yet. Still, I'd only sworn to do everything in my power to save him from his fate. I wasn't sure it was within my power to turn Luke from his chosen path. That didn't mean I wouldn't try. I'm a sucker for punishment. But I didn't want Hermes getting his hopes up. I wasn't sure Luke could still be saved.

"But I don't know how to get through to him," I admitted. I glanced down at the letter in my hand, wondering what it would say. I also had no desire what-so-ever to read it. "And you know what, I'm mad at him. I almost died because he trusts Kronos, and he lied to me. Our whole quest was just one giant trick. He was playing us!"

"You think I'm not mad at him?" Hermes seemed to glow slightly at the words, as if his anger made it difficult to hide his true form. I hoped he wouldn't lose it and accidentally vaporize me.

"I'm furious at Luke. If I get my hands on him, I'll do something I'll later regret. Luke's selfish, prideful and wrong- but he's still my son. I still love him. If you want to yell at him, be my guest, but you have to get him back first. As for how, I can't help you. I've never known how to get through to Luke. But he's got it in his head that he's doing this for you. If anyone can make him listen, it is you."

Scary thing is- I knew Hermes was right. That didn't make me feel much better though. I didn't want Luke's fate in my hands. My hands tended to fidget and shake. Still, even as I gulped, I told Hermes, "I'm going to try. I just don't know if I'll succeed."

It wasn't much, but Hermes seemed content with my answer. He nodded, "None of us ever do, but if we give up on family, we don't deserve to. Now, I'd best be off. Messages to deliver. Travelers to protect. I'm sure our paths will cross again, perhaps sooner than we expect. Until then, Son of Poseidon."

Hermes disappeared, and I was left with Luke's letter. It took me a moment to get up the courage to open it, but finally I did. Inside, Luke had written in Greek, probably because he knew it was easier for me to read, but even then it took me a few minutes to understand the short message.

Percy,

I'm not going to tell you where I am. I'm not stupid, but I want you and Annabeth to know I'm fine. I've got some backers, actually, and am living in style. You'll see soon enough. I'm sorry for what happened in the Underworld. I shouldn't have pushed you so far. I knew you weren't ready. But when you are, you'll know how to find me. This is a lot bigger than even I knew, Percy, and it's happening. Olympus shall be razed, with or without you. If you're not on the right side of things when it is, I'm not sure I'll be able to protect you. And I don't mean from Kronos. The gods are going to turn on you. I hope you find me before they do.

-Luke