Hey! Can I start off by saying you guys are amazing there has been nearly 40 reviews on this story, and then 45 favourites! I was just writing this because I enjoy it and had an idea I never, ever in a million years expected many people to read it. Let alone like it! So thank you, thank you, thank you. I love you all you make my day and inspire me to keep writing the story and maybe one day write my own book. You keep my dreams alive. Thank you.
Anyway now I have done being super happy I thought I should let you know that the story is now just a continuous tale that will follow on from where the last part ended unless I say it has skipped. It is also in the present day and not a flash back, except small paragraphs in the future – but I'll tell you then. So thank you as always for reading you all make my day. Just the reviews and disclaimer and then we may begin.
DISCLAIMER: I (unfortunately) do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Heroes of Olympus all rights go to Rick Riordan.
NeatherStar – I am so glad you found my story it seems like you were having a hard time finding something to read, and trust me I know how annoying that is. Thank you for your kind word I am so happy that you like the story and I wanted you to know that your comment made my day too.
Aqua Jackson – You had me worried there for a moment, I thought you were going to tell me off for being mean to Percy but then you flipped it! You seem a lot like me as even though its mean I always much prefer the stories where something awful happens to the characters (you can probably tell).
Bookadict5 – Thank you! I really do love the comments I get; they always make me smile. I'm currently thinking the hard back of the bane chronicles may be enough to knock some sense into me if I don't update for that long again. But don't worry it's not this time the update is here!
Puberbeer – I think I know what you mean, it can be a love hate relationship with the sad stories. But never fear after this chapter I think we are going to be on the rise emotions wise, it is getting happier (a bit) (I think). :)
Darkness Death and Riches – Your welcome! I'm glad I updated too I can't believe I didn't do it before, I had honestly forgot how happy the comments from you guys makes me. So don't worry despite me having awful scheduling I won't stop writing till this is finished. Thank you for your kind words about my story, I love all of you as much as you seem to love this story.
Emma Chase-Hunter of Artemis – Thank you so much! And don't worry I will not stop writing till this is done.
Nico's POV:
"Percy!" I screamed. But it was too late, they were gone. I slid to a stop at the wall, my hands braced against it. It was my only support, I couldn't cope anymore. We'd found him, he was right here. Right in front of me. And now he was gone. Taken by Kronos again to be tortured, all because I wasn't quick enough. Without even realising I brought my fist back and slammed it into the marble with a cry of rage. A crack echoed through the room as pain blossomed in my hand. But I didn't care, it helped me focus. Helped me to cut through the rage and start figuring out how to get him back. Because I would get Percy back. Even if he wouldn't be mine, I didn't care anymore, I would not let him be tortured by Kronos. I'd already let him down enough.
The image of his face flashed in my mind, he looked awful. Like he had been completely destroyed and someone had put fragments of him back. The rest were lost, waiting for someone to find them - to fix him properly. I would do that, I was determined. It should've been Annabeth, I knew that, but after seeing the way he had looked at her I knew Percy would not let her anywhere near him. Not at least until someone helped him, maybe never. I had to be the one, I was the only one that seemed to care about what had happened. Yes. Everyone was sad, but in their seats. They were happy to sit still and mourn for him while the titan hurt Percy in front of them, without even trying to help. But not me, no. I would keep fighting to get him back. Even if I had to face off with the full army and then Kronos alone, I would do it. For Percy.
Finally managing to calm my mind I turned back to the gods and demigods. They were all staring at me. It was as if they were surprised? "What?!" I yelled as I stormed back to my seat. "Well," Jason managed to say after a few moments of silence "it's just, well, no one expected you to act that defensive or upset." He stuttered. The son of Zeus looked straight at me with his electric blue eyes sending me a look, a look that said even he didn't expect that and he knew I liked Percy. I had been planning to tell the others that I liked guys but, after Percy was taken, I couldn't bring myself to do it. It just felt wrong the others knowing and not him. And it wasn't as if I liked anyone else. Well I did have a crush on a son of Apollo for a little bit, but he was mortal it would never have worked. Besides seeing Percy again, it was like he had never left. My feelings were still there just so deep I hadn't felt them in decades. "He's one of my oldest friends I wasn't just going to sit there while he was abused in front of me! Unlike all of you." It wasn't a lie, but it wasn't the full truth either.
"How dare you!" Poseidon yelled at me. "How dare you act like you care more than me! That is my son!" For the first time he got out of his throne and stood, glowering at me. But it made no difference I was enraged and the sea god throwing a hissy fit was not going to change my mood. (A/N naughty word ahead) "Then maybe you should've got off your godly arse and done something about it! Then he might still be here!" I shouted back, taking a step towards him. The god stumbled as if I had hit him and sank back into his chair. Everyone else sat in stunned silence, though I could tell my dad was ready to protect me from his brother's wrath. "Y-you're right. I should have done something. Helped him." Poseidon sobbed into his hands. "I'm the worst father ever. We didn't find him before and he was being tortured, I should've known. And then he was here. I still did nothing and now he is gone again. Chaos help me." The god wailed, falling into despair.
The room went silent; I took this as my queue to sit back down. Silently I moved back towards my father's throne and took my seat at the foot of it. A click echoed throughout the room as I leaned back and a plate of ambrosia appeared on my knee. Glancing towards the hearth I nodded in thanks to my Aunt Hestia who was looking at me in concern. It was clear she was worried about my hand. I barely felt it, I was too worried but it was probably a good idea to mend it so I ate the ambrosia anyway. Flavour exploded in my mouth and I smiled at the good memories it brought. However, it wasn't what I had been expecting. Usually the godly food tasted like a McDonald's meal, but this time it tasted like pancakes. Blue pancakes. Percy's blue pancakes. It took me back to the days between the wars, when we would all be together – happy. Percy would make us all pancakes and then we would head off down to the beach or into the woods, to just hang out and be normal teens for once. Back before the prophecy of 7 had begun and it was me, Percy, Annabeth, Grover, the Stolls, Clarisse and Chris. It seemed so simple back then, we had won. Everything was fine. Well, not everything but it was better.
"Uncle peace." Came the calm voice of Athena, breaking me out of my memories. "We may have lost him today but we all could've done something, not just you. We all share the blame for this." As she spoke Athena's traditional robes melted into armour and tough fighting gear. I looked around the room and saw that all the gods were in war gear, even Aphrodite was in her pink armour, ready to discuss our next move. I sat as the discussion began. Obviously I was determined to find Percy and I couldn't do it alone – not really. I would need their help. "Now" Zeus began, finally reclaiming everyone's attention as he stood to address us all. "it is not uncommon knowledge that I do not get along with my brothers' children. Especially not Jackson, but I think we can all agree that he is a great hero and deserves his freedom." For once I totally agreed with the king of the gods there was only one issue. "But his oath, he said Kronos had strict rules. We will have to get around them. And to do that we have to know what they are." I said, we all sat for a moment. Except Zeus who paced the length of the room as he thought. Each of us was thinking trying to figure something out, until a quiet voice spoke.
"Maybe not, he said it was an oath on the Styx. Right?" It was Annabeth. Despite the fact her love hated her she was still trying to help him, wanting to make it right. "Well, if we could talk to Lady Styx – bargain with her. Maybe, just maybe, we could get her to release P-Percy." She concluded, stumbling slightly on his name. I thought about it. Lady Styx was a goddess in the underworld so of course I knew of her, and she would be able to help. It was a brilliant plan. But there was one issue. She was certainly not a reasonable goddess. There was no guaranteeing that she would help us at all, and if she did the price was sure to be high. I would pay it without a second thought, but would the gods? "I know the Lady Styx." A voice spoke from behind me. I turned to see my dad, his face grim. "She is a difficult goddess, we will have to go and visit her. Not summon her for this to have any chance of working. But know that it still might not, she is the spirit of hate and if she doesn't want to there is nothing that will change her mind and we cannot force her to help. Lady Styx will drive a hard bargain but I think I can work with her, she did help in the first titan war after all."
I could tell from Hades' face he was not sure if Styx would help us or not but, despite what people thought, my father actually did like Percy. Well, like may be a strong word, he didn't dislike him. Percy had gained my father's respect during the wars, especially with his sacrifice and now learning he had been tortured even the god of the underworld would find it difficult to hold something against him. He would try. It may not work, but Hades would try his hardest to help my cousin. Now that they had decided to talk to Styx the others started to plan who would go and what we may need to do to get Lady Styx to agree. I will admit I wasn't really listening. In my head I was going through the confrontation with Kronos and Percy thinking about what had happened. Seeing if we had missed anything that needed to be dealt with, other than the fact we would have to rescue Percy. But I knew we would deal with that next.
Then it hit me, I thought back to something I thought earlier. 'Our lost hero. He is finally found again.' "Athena" I called, interrupting the conversation causing them all to look at me. "If I may, what was that prophecy issued after the giant war?" She thought for a moment before answering "The lost hero found again, but only one can break his chain, digging through the wreckage and ruin, all while war is brewing, his worst fear he must brave, for the world he has to save." Oh my gods, no. Not him. Athena seemed to be catching on to what I was thinking. "You don't think? Again?" She asked. Poseidon slammed his trident down. "What you two?!" he yelled, still distraught at losing his son. Again. "The lost hero. Percy." I breathed.
I couldn't believe it; the fates must really hate him. Percy has never had a break since he was 12. First the war with Kronos for five years, then 2 months off. Before his memory was wiped and he was thrown into the giant war. Then he missed the end of that because he was trapped in hell and caught by Kronos, his worst enemy for Zeus's sake, then he was tortured for 100 years. And finally when we find him, he gets taken again and we have to get him back to get him to lead ANOTHER war, against his biggest fear no less. And the mortals think they have it rough. Pfft, try being Percy. In fact, no don't - if anyone else did all that they'd die.
The room was in chaos, and not the creation deity type. The chaos of 'oh my gods, WHY?' why could Percy never catch a break. It's like he was a magnet for trouble. I wanted to save him, but what if he just thought we were doing it because we needed him. In his current state of mind that would be the most obvious reason we would want him, he thought we hated him. Now we have to convince the Lady Styx to help, save Percy and THEN convince him that we still care for him and get him to lead yet another war. Against his biggest fear for Zeus's sake! The odds were already stacked against us, but now they were piling up. The task ahead was heading into the grounds of impossible. But this was life or death we had to succeed, not only for Percy's sake but for the sake of the entire world. If we didn't get Percy back, and quickly, we were all as good as dead. The titans would have the prophesised hero, and we would have no chance. When the campers learned that they would have to fight against the legendary hero Perseus Achilles Jackson, half of them would be too scared to fight. And some may defect to the titans for just a chance to live.
We had to get him back.
While all this happened in my head, Zeus managed to calm the room back down. Finally, he spoke in a commanding voice "It is clear that we need to act, and quickly. We all need to work together to get Perseus back as quick as possible. Any ideas?" I could immediately see that he was taking this seriously, never had I believed Zeus would ask for another's help. But right then he was looking around at us all, desperation in his eyes. "We need two groups," I said calmly, getting off my chair to address the room. "A group to go and talk to Lady Styx, led by my father. And another group to search out the titan's base and wait for the others to free Percy from his oath before they go in to rescue him. The rest need to stay back and prepare the campers for war." I looked around the room, meeting the eye of every person – both god and demigod. Each one of them looked scared, scared for the black future if we failed. They all nodded back at me, agreeing with the plan and I could see the slightest bit of hope returning to them. Having said my part, I quickly moved back to sit in my seat. Next Ares spoke up "I say we don't tell the camps that Jackson is with the titans, it will make them lose hope of winning. We need our armies to be confident. We only tell them if we are sure we cannot get him back." For once I agreed with the god of war, I had been thinking the same. He was a living legend if the campers found out it would be a catastrophe.
"I for one agree with my brother." Athena chirped as a murmur of ascent rippled through the room. "And the team who go to rescue Perseus should be his friends, he is more likely to trust them. But I am afraid to say, my dear," her tone softened as she put a hand on Annabeth's shoulder "that you should go with the other group. It is clear that the child of the sea has some misconceptions about what happened and no longer trusts you. Your involvement may jeopardise the mission." I looked at Annabeth, it was clear from her shining eyes that the words had hurt her. But the daughter of wisdom knew it was true and, swallowing the pain, nodded her head - not trusting herself to speak. I felt sorry for her, before Percy was taken they had been in love. True soul mates people had said, but now, he couldn't bear to look at her. The titan king had obviously turned his memories of Annabeth to break him. Without a doubt I knew the thought of her would've held him strong for years, Kronos had to break that trust and love to break Percy. He had accomplished both and could now control him, but it was a punishment for if he escaped too. For it would hurt both of them, a form of revenge for what they did to the titan.
"So," Zeus stated, turning our attention back to him in the centre of the room "Going to rescue Jackson will be Jason, Piper, Hazel, Frank, Leo and Nico." The king looked at each of us as he said our names and we nodded in ascent. I looked around at my friends they all shared the same look of determination to find our friend. It didn't matter that some of them had only known him for a short while, the crew of the Argo II had been family and all of them wanted him back. There was suddenly an angry shout from the other end of the room, I whipped my head around to look. Thalia. "Father I have to go too!" She shouted "I have known Percy for far longer than some of them have. He's like my brother!" Zeus looked a bit concerned at sending her with us, it was clear that Thalia cared very deeply about Percy and could be very emotional on the mission. It was obvious from the gods face he didn't want her to get hurt being rash, as they had got quite close over the past 100 years.
"I'm sorry Thalia you have to stay with the hunt -" Zeus was cut off by Artemis. "Thalia can go with them the hunt will cope for a while without her." The goddess said with an angry glint in her eye. "Besides," she continued "my huntress' emotions will not affect her as you are worried about. She can fight perfectly well enough for this mission; they will need her." Zeus stumbled for a moment trying to find another excuse for Thalia not to go. But in the end he couldn't think of anything and conceded. Everyone was silent for a beat before Athena spoke, "We should send one more person, in case they have to split up so it is even." Everybody agreed with her but there was an issue. Annabeth was the only one of the immortal demigods left and she definitely couldn't go. "Well," Leo started in an uncertain voice. I realised for the first time that he, and several others, had never seen Kronos before today and even though they had been in a war. They'd never been in a war council, they had just been thrown straight in to it, this was all new to them. "I could ask Calypso to come with us, she is a good fighter. She never actually met Percy though." He sounded sad at the end, he had rescued Calypso after Percy fell into Tartarus so he never got to introduce them. It was clear he wanted her to have met all of his friends, especially the one he obviously idolised.
"Actually," Poseidon said "she is a good person to send. They have met, Percy crash landed on her island once when he was 14. I seem to remember they got along quite well." At the news Leo turned bright red and his nose spontaneously set on fire. The son of Hephaestus desperately patted out the fire on his nose, but the damage was already done. It was clear to everyone in the room he regretted mentioning Calypso now he knew she and Percy once 'liked' each other. Even though he hadn't said it, it was clear from Poseidon's voice the two had liked each other romantically. Or, at least, she liked Percy. Plus, it was common knowledge that the raft from her island only came for people she loved and he had left, so Calypso obviously loved him at one point. 'That would be enough for Leo to want them to be kept apart' I thought.
"Ok, so that is now sorted." Zeus concluded, finally going back to his throne. "What about the other group? Hades will obviously lead due to it being in the underworld and his connections to Lady Styx, but who else will go?" I looked around the room trying to think of people who would be able to go. But I wasn't sure, I didn't think any of them really knew Styx. I knew that I would be a good person to go as I knew Lady Styx as well, but there was no way I was leaving Percy. I had to find him. "I would like to go." A small voice declared. It was Annabeth. The daughter of Athena had slid off her chair and was making her way towards my father's throne, and me. As she walked she dragged her feet slightly on the floor and her back was hunched, which was very unlike Annabeth. The events of the day and seeing Percy again was clearly taking its toll on her. As she came closer and kneeled before Hades I could also see faint tear streaks on her face, that still glistened. She had only just managed to compose herself. She was a wreck.
"I need to do something to help Percy. Please, my lord. I cannot go and get him, at least let me help you free him from that monsters control. I need to help him." Annabeth begged. It was awful seeing her like this, I almost wanted to look away from her. Her pain was supposed to be private, not such a clear display. But I couldn't. "Of course you can." Came the loud but soft answer from my father. "I have a feeling we may need your wisdom for this, it will be difficult. But are you sure you can handle it, she may say no?" He asked her. Annabeth rose her chin slightly, forcefully reminding me why Percy had loved her – she was a fighter. "I'm sure. Percy needs me, I won't let him down again." With that final statement she turned again and marched back to her seat.
"That's all we need brother; a big group would not be a good idea for a meeting with Styx." My father finalised. "Ok then," the king of the gods replied. "tomorrow both groups will set off. Demigods a pack will be sent to you at some point during the night with a few supplies and a map with the location of Kronos's base when we find it. You have all been on many quests before you know what you'll need. Be prepared for the titan army, but this is first and foremost a stealth mission if they know you are there you will get captured or die. If the alarm is raised forget Jackson. Get out of there." I wanted to argue with him but I knew he was right if we stayed we would all get caught and Percy would not escape anyway. His best hope would be for us to leave and try again later. "Go back and finalise your plans on your own, you know the drill. This is war, good luck." With that he flashed out and the gods began to disperse. I simply slipped into the shadow of my chair and travelled back to the war room at camp, everyone knew where to meet.
As I sat waiting for the others to arrive I thought about Zeus's last words, 'this is war, good luck'. He was right. We were at war once again, and we would need all the luck we could get.
Well, we are off. Off to rescue one Perseus Jackson. From now on the story will be moving faster as we have laid out the foundations and background so we can get one with the main plot and… the war. How are you feeling about the new developments? I would love it if anyone could send me any ideas for the next few chapters of how to save Percy because I like involving other people's ideas (they are usually better than mine). Once again thank you for reading if you are enjoying the story – which I promise is getting less depressing (I think) – please follow or favourite to get the latest updates. And above all if you have anything to say about the story so far, I love to read your reviews and hear your feedback it makes my day so please do review and keep it coming! For now though, see ya.