Percy marched out of the Big House. He knew that they were going to talk about him once he was gone, but he just couldn't bring himself to care.
He couldn't focus.
Every time he blinked or closed his eyes the images from his nightmares were there, threatening to pull him back under.
Making his way onto the path, his feet instinctively turned towards the beach.
The rhythmic waves on the shore and salty wind would help him clear his head.
When he reached the beach he let the hood of his cloak fall back so that he could feel the sea spray on his face.
A cool wind blew off the water, and the waves seemed a little bit more unruly than usual. He didn't know whether that was his father's doing or his, but he liked it.
He'd always loved the unruliness of the ocean. How it never wanted to be tamed. How it seemed and acted like it was a living thing all to itself.
He took a deep breath of the salty air and immediately felt himself relax slightly.
Lady Chaos' voice echoed in his mind.
"Breathe deeply, open your mind and extend your aura. Grasp each element one by one until they are all under your control".
Opening his eyes, he looked around and saw nobody else around.
Satisfied, he took off his cloak and set it beside his shoes on the beach. Of course whatever he was wearing stayed dry no matter what he did, but he didn't need the extra bulk while he was concentrating.
Before they had left Chaos' Palace. She had been training them on controlling their powers. Of course Xavier picked it up right away, the master of suppressing feelings. But Percy had a little bit more trouble.
His powers had always seemed to react with his mood and emotions. And with the new abundance of powers that Chaos had bestowed upon him as a gift, he knew they were just as dangerous as they were helpful.
He sat down on the beach, sitting cross-legged in the slightly wet sand.
As the waves rolled up the shore, they seemed to part around him, leaving him to focus on training his mind.
Attempting to remain immobile and impassive, he willed the waves to get bigger, larger, more violent.
They responded, growing larger before they crested and finally crashed down on the shore.
He allowed the spray to wet his face, enjoying the reenergised feeling that he got when the water touched his skin.
Next he focused on his connection to the Earth, concentrating on a specific area off to his left until it cracked under an invisible pressure, making the entire area around it rumble and shake.
He maintained both the large waves of the sea and the shaking of the earth and tried to extend himself to grab control over his third power.
An icy wind swept through and covered the shoreline with frost. Dark clouds began to gather overhead and the wind began to blow in faster and more insistent gusts.
This was the farthest that he'd ever been able to stretch himself before. Controlling his powers had always been a challenge, so he had begun to mentally train himself.
He had been doing this with Chaos for a few months when he was still in the palace, but he'd never had access to so much of his natural element before. The power that surged through his veins was both exhilarating and terrifying at the same time.
He was about to keep going, push himself even farther, but he was disrupted by the sound of voices coming from behind him on the beach.
"What do you think he's doing?".
"I don't know. Yoga?"
"Yoga?".
"That's the only thing that I can think of. Who just sits in the middle of a storm like that?".
He recognised the voices of the twin brothers Travis and Connor Stoll from the Hermes Cabin.
He tried to block them out, to focus back in on his powers, but the wind kept carrying their voices over the water and towards him.
Getting frustrated, he willed the waves on the water to crash against the shore more violently than before, trying to drown out the sound of their voices, but they just talked louder over the noise.
"We should go get him, the meeting will be starting soon".
He felt his powers began to slip from his grasp, and the earth began to rumble again, sand from the beach falling through the cracks that were forming.
He struggled for control, grasping desperately for the reins that always seemed to appear in his mind.
The clouds gathering overhead seemed to get darker, and lightening flashed.
Percy had created his own mini storm. As the twins watched, the effect that Percy was having on the ocean and the earth seemed to abruptly stop about 200 meters away from where he was now standing.
"What in the Hades is happening right now?", Travis asked.
"Percy! Come on! We have to go to the meeting!".
Connor Stoll's voice seemed to cut through all the wind and the noise and straight through him.
His concentration broke, and the mini storm that he was controlling exploded outwards.
In one massive wave all the tension that Percy had been controlling within the water was released, and it curled and slammed into the shore with a loud crash, spraying water everywhere and soaking the twins who were standing on the beach.
The earth gave one last horrible tremor before it seemed to snap back into place.
Even the storm clouds that had gathered in the air seemed to begin to dissipate. The venti flew around, angry that they hadn't been released before chasing after the clouds. The temperature seemed to rise back up to normal, and the frost along the shoreline was taken out to sea by waves that had returned to normal size.
Percy was slumped on the ground, more than a little bit exhausted after exerting that much energy.
Once he was ready, he stood up and walked over to his stuff, which had stayed dry throughout everything and put his cloak and shoes back on.
Through the noise, he had been able to tell that Connor and Travis had come to pick him up for the meeting.
Looking around the beach, though. He didn't see them anywhere.
Maybe they'd already left?
Percy didn't know, and some part of him was angry with them for disturbing him right when he was about to gain control.
Opening his wings, he took off flying towards the Big House.
When Percy arrived most of the head cabin leaders were already there. He looked around and saw a few familiar faces among them. Katie Gardner from the Demeter cabin, Will Solace from the Apollo cabin, Clarisse from the Ares cabin, and of course all of his friends who were each the head counsellor for their respective cabins. Excluding Leo, who had decided to share the role of head counsellor along with Nyssa.
When he walked into the room he put his hood down and silently walked over to lean against the wall across the room from Xavier.
Xavier looked over, and looked like he wanted to say something, but Chiron spoke first.
"Hello, campers. I think you all know what this meeting is about. Last night, we received a prophecy, and after much deliberation, I have come to the conclusion that the prophecy speaks of the quest that Percy and Xavier warned us about".
Percy was about to stand up to speak when the door opened, interrupting him.
Everybody turned to look as two soaking wet sons of Hermes walked through the doors.
Travis had frost and ice blasted across half of his face and coating his hair, making it stand straight up as if he'd been electrocuted.
Connor had dirt and mud covering the entire lower half of his body, almost as if he'd been stuck in the dirt and forced to crawl his way out.
Around the room everybody held back snickers.
"What in the Hades happened to you two?", Annabeth asked.
"Why don't you ask your boyfriend", Connor replied as the two made their way over to their seats.
Annabeth turned to look at Percy while others around the table just laughed.
"I had it under control. They made me lose my concentration", Percy shrugged and tried to keep his face impassive, but even he was barely holding back a smirk at the ridiculous appearance of the two.
Travis snorted. "Under control? You were just sitting on the beach with your eyes closed while everything around you went to hell".
At his words Xavier looked up from his spot in the corner of the room.
"Percy, you were actually training?", he pushed off of the wall and grinned at him.
"He didn't look like he was training much to me", Travis grumbled, trying to straighten out his hair.
"Trust me, it's hard work. The forces of natural disasters don't like to be controlled".
"Forces of natural disasters?", Katie Gardner spoke up. She was trying to help Travis get the ice out of his hair, but he kept moving his head out of her reach.
"Yeah, you know… my father's domain. Have you guys ever actually listened to his titles? Storm bringer, earth shaker…", Percy grinned, "I'm the son of the god of mass destruction, baby".
His grin held no amusement, only a dark sort of enjoyment. It worried and actually kind of scared Annabeth. She hadn't seen a look like that in his eyes since they faced Akhlys in Tartarus three years ago.
Xavier turned to Percy, "So how did it go?".
"It was going really well actually. I had all three elements under my control, I was going to try and take it farther, but these two idiots interrupted me".
Xavier grinned at him. "And you didn't kill them? I'm proud of you, Perce", he slapped him on the shoulder but Travis interrupted again.
"Kill us?", he paled a bit.
"Percy's powers aren't as tightly controlled as mine are, they're more tied to his emotions. If he was training and you annoyed him by interrupting him, the fact that he was able to reel in his powers and not hurt you shows real progress".
"Remember the last time I tried to train in Chaos's palace, Xavier?".
Percy was smirking, and when he brought it up Xavier scowled.
"Hey! That is not funny! I almost got sucked into the void because of that big hole you blasted in the side of the palace. The void!"
Percy cracked up, and even the others around the table looked amused.
"Can we please get back to the matter at hand", Chiron interrupted, though even he had cracked a smile.
"Of course. Sorry Chiron", Percy shook his head and the grin faded from his face.
"The primordial of the pit, Tartarus, has risen".
There was an undignified squeak from Leo, and the others just stared at him dumbly.
"Has risen? As in, is already awake and ready to attack?", Jason asked.
Percy nodded. "He is much more ruthless than his wife, Gaea was. And he's out for revenge. We do not have much time before he and his army march on Olympus. If they do… If we allow them to attack then we stand no chance".
"We can still fight. We can't just give up before we've even tried. We defeated Gaea and we can defeat her husband too", Jason said.
There were a few cries of agreement around the room.
"No. It is impossible to defeat Tartarus in the way that we defeated Gaea. So we must make a different approach".
The campers settled down again and looked at Percy intently as he explained the plan.
"Every primordial has a main source of power. If we destroy it, then Tartarus will be too weak to ever attempt to rise or materialise outside of the pit ever again".
"Well what are we waiting here for? Let's go destroy it and get this over with".
"That's the plan. But there is just one problem. Tartarus' main source of power is located within the pit itself, in an area known as the Unruled. Nobody knows what's down there, the creatures that live there don't even follow the commands of Tartarus himself".
The room was silent, and Percy looked around, making sure to meet everybody's eyes.
"This quest is extremely dangerous. From the prophecy, we are at least able to make out the fact that we need to send nine half-bloods. That is what this meeting is about. We need to decide which campers will be going on the quest".
Percy leaned back against the wall, and watched as the head counsellors looked at each other.
"That's easy! The crew of the Argo II should go".
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. I don't see you volunteering, Clarisse. Why should I have to go again? I literally just came back from the dead!".
"No, Leo, she's right", everybody turned to look at Annabeth, surprised. "We were the ones who defeated Gaea. If it had been any other group we wouldn't have been able to do that. We've had success with defeating Primordials before, we're the best group for the job".
The others around the table nodded their heads and Leo groaned.
"I just rescued the love of my life from a cursed island, though!".
Percy stepped forward again. "If you want, Leo. We can replace you with somebody else and you could stay behind with your girlfriend".
"Replace me! Leo Valdez cannot be replaced!".
Percy grinned, "Alright then, looks like we have our crew!".
"Hold on a minute. That's only six. The prophecy says nine".
"You forgot to count Frank and Hazel over in Camp Jupiter", Piper said.
"But that's still only eight campers!", several counsellors around the room sat forward in their chairs anxiously.
"No, it's nine. Xavier is coming as well". Percy pushed off the wall and began to make his way towards the door.
"Xavier can't come, though. He's not a half-blood", Clarisse said.
Percy stopped walking. He turned around and his eyes flashed darkly as he glared at Clarisse. "Xavier is a half-blood. He is half titan, half mortal".
Xavier stepped forward for himself off of the wall. "I am going on this quest. Lady Chaos has demanded it. We are the guardians of the Earth, if both of us do not go on the quest, then it is doomed to fail".
"Well somebody thinks they're all that", Connor muttered to his brother.
Xavier's normally calm, easy-going demeanour faltered for a moment as he glared at the two brothers.
"I try to hold back when I'm around you guys. But insult me again and I won't hesitate to reduce you to a smoking pile of ash".
His usually swirling golden/brown eyes flashed and turned gold as they seemed to burn with restrained power.
Connor scrambled back under his gaze. "He's just as crazy as his dad!".
Percy just had time to mutter, "Oh no", before the temperature in the room shot up.
"Do not talk about my father to me!".
Xavier's body caught alight, and all the campers on that side of the table scrambled up and away.
Percy stepped forward calmly. Coating his body in an aura of cold and ice so that the heat wouldn't affect him, "Xave, calm down".
"Do you not think that I know how crazy my father is? Do you not think that I have experienced exactly how crazy he is?!".
As he spoke his eyes were sad and hollow, and the carpet at his feet began to smoke and catch on fire.
"Xavier!", the sharp tone of Percy's voice made his eyes snap up and meet his.
"I know! I understand. Just calm down".
Percy pulled him in for a hug, knowing that the physical contact was the only thing that would be able to calm him down.
Their two auras met and competed, making the area between them glow purple.
Xavier glowed white hot once more before his temperature dropped and his eyes returned to their usual brown.
"Are you okay now?".
He nodded, and Percy sighed in relief before he turned around.
"Xavier has been excluded here since he arrived, just because his father was a titan.", he spoke quietly, but his voice radiated anger and the others were silent.
He seemed to direct his words mostly at the two Stool brothers and Clarisse.
"This will not continue. Clear?".
The brothers seemed to want to look at anything but him, but Clarisse was just glaring at him.
"You think you're all that since you got back! You were never like this before! Where did the old Percy go?", she asked.
"He died in Tartarus two years ago".
Percy eyes held unbelievable sadness, but they hardened as his gaze swept over the group.
"So the group going on the quest will be Annabeth, Jason, Piper, Nico, Leo, Hazel, Frank, Xavier, and me".
Percy looked over at Chiron. "Is this okay with you, Chiron?".
He nodded his head.
"Good. Xavier, come on, let's go. I know a place where you can calm down without damaging anything".
With that, the two walked out the door and left.
The room was silent for a moment before they all sat back down at the ping pong table.
"Now onto other matters. What are we going to do about Percy Jackson?".