Chapter 4

Son of the 3 eldest (also read the AN)

AN: Regarding the update to chapter 1 (If you havent read the updated version, DO IT NOW!), I made up that sword. It's not real. As for updates, it's summer. Sue me for not uploading when I could be doing something else. Also Grover is dead. The sword is not part of Greek Mythology, I just had to spice this FF up.

Everyone had heard the rumors. A son of the 3 big gods made it into camp. He killed the minotaur with nothing but the minotaurs own horn. Annabeth was watching over him. I had told Silena the prophecy and that he would help us. His name was Percy Jackson. He woke up, and Annabeth as the blunt 12 year old she was told him he drools in his one had me cracking up. He was put in my cabin, as usual. Annabeth and Percy Jackson opened the door. He had dark brown hair that was kind of messy in the sunlight and was average height for his age and was built with a skater complexion

"Hey, so your Percy Jackson?" I asked.

"Yep that's me." Percy said. I swear Annabeth was blushing.

"Here is the cabin you stay in until your claimed." Annabeth said.

"Annabeth, I'll get him settled he'll meet you outside when he's done." I finished it quickly to spare Annabeth. I shut the door and asked Percy "You killed the minotaur without a weapon?"

He replied "He killed my mom, he deserved worse than a quick death."

"You like your mom?" I asked again this was very odd, but so was killing a minotaur with his own horn.

"Yeah she used to bake me my favorite food and go out of her way to make it blue, my favorite color." OK so his mom was not bad.

"Sorry we don't have any bunks, but this place is always crammed," I said, "Hermes cabin houses all the unclaimed people. One of the many stupid rules." It came out harsher than I meant it to be.

"Ok so you ready to head off?" I asked

"Yeah, see you soon," he answered. He wasn't a bad kid. He had many decisions to make, but I'm sure he is the one of the Great the weeks passed I learned many things about Percy and we became close friends. He didn't like many rules here either. Well, no one liked them all, but some people don't mind them. I was there when he got claimed, he turned aqua and had a trident above his head. I was the first to kneel. He looked bewildered. He looked up and saw the trident.

"My dad is Poseidon isn't it," he said.

"Yes it is" Chiron answered. Then everyone went back to their business as usual. One kid near whispered to her friend "That's how the toilet ate Clarisse." I heard the rumors for a while, but didn't believe it. Now I understand why he could do it. I walked up to him after the encounter.

"Well, looks like you will be busy for a few days. Also almost everyone is supposed to hate you because a lot gods hate Poseidon, sooo don't make them more mad." I told him.

"Great your making my explosion a lot better" he muttered.

"Better grab your horn before you head to the Poseidon cabin." He walked off. He shouldn't have to die for the gods. He shouldn't die at all.

I heard Kronos speak "Today Percy gets his quest. Are the items hidden well?" he said in a deep melodious voice

"Yes, Ares has a dumb mind, but he is no idiot at hiding things," I said firmly "He is a god of war and he thinks this war won't dethrone him."

"Good, make sure Percy helps us or his killed." Well, that was quite dark. Hopefully we won't need to kill him. I woke up from my talk with Kronos. Soon, it will happen. Soon Percy will have to make his decision. I woke up and headed outside. I saw Percy talking to Chiron as they walked into the big house. He was getting his prophecy right now. Tonight at the campfire he will chose 2 companions to take with him. I let the day pass, it felt like it went faster than it should have. Not that I mind because I could see who he is choosing.

"Everyone! I have an important announcement!" Chiron had to yell over the noise.

"Percy Jackson has received a quest from the oracle. He must go to find Zeus's thunderbolt." Chiron finished. Percy and Chiron whispered for a minute

"Annabeth Chase and Luke Castellan will accompany me on my quest." Percy Jackson said trying to sound official, but failed miserably. I heard several laughs from the Ares cabin, not surprising.

"Is this your kind of a joke, because it's not funny!" yelled Clarisse. She must be mad because she didn't get to go.

"No Clarisse this is not a joke," Chiron said "Percy Jackson is leading a quest. I don't care that he has been here for only a month." Clarisse shot spears through her eyes at me. I had been here about 2 years longer than her, so she wouldn't dare voice her thoughts to me, or anyone else. I walked over to Percy

"Well you got your hands full." I said. He just nodded. He was more business than I realized.

"Look we need a plan tomorrow, I don't know where we are going, what we are doing, how we are doing it, or why you took me and Annabeth." That made him look up. He looked a little uneasy being questioned by a senior member.

"I took you for your experience and Annabeth because she is smarter than you or me. I'm really just a fighter and I will make decision that aren't life threatening or have to be quick." He answered very annoyed, but still looked uneasy.

"We have to go tomorrow, we are headed to Hollywood because we have a trip to Hades' castle and the entrance is in Hollywood." I was impressed by his knowledge. He didn't realize that Hades' didn't have the thunderbolt.

"Okay see ya 'round then." I said and walked off pondering what tomorrow would bring us. I had a sleepless night plagued with nightmares. The most real one, blood covering my right hand and my sword from Halcyon in the left. I was a right handed person so I always woke up thinking the blood was the main part. Maybe it was, but what about the sword. I never used it. I hid it away long ago, where only I could get it. I turned around in the dream to see Thalia's tree and Grover's body next to it. Dark wounds covered him. He didn't bleed, or drip sand. The wounds dragged a dark air into the sword.

"This is your fault." A voice said. "Next time, dreams won't be your only issue." Those words sent chills down my spine. What could be possibly be worse than my past torturing me. I woke up the next day and felt my bed soaked with sweat. After getting ready for the trip I walked over to Chiron.

"Apparently I'm the first one." I said to him. It startled him from his thoughts.

"Yes Luke, it worries me that Percy and Annabeth are taking their time. Percy seemed like he got things done as quickly as he could." Chiron finished as soon as Percy walked up. Ironic right? He had a bag slung around his shoulder. I had one too with my shoes, some snacks and drinks, and my sword, Ternepu (or turn you into a turnip) all in my shoulder. The blade surprised me with it's weight being almost nothing. I haven't held it in so long, ever since we arrived here, 5 years ago. Percy, Annabeth, and I all said goodbye to everyone there and walked out the front gate because we don't have a car for this mission even though you usually get one.

"Percy you are quest leader, where are we heading first." I asked

"We head straight for LA, but we need some sort of transportation that isn't air," Percy replied, "I got boat tickets, but I can't get there. If we use them it will be down in north California or Oregon. May as well just drive there.

"It's a 2 day drive, do we have a time limit, anyone mad at us. Anything that could possibly kill us." I asked.

"Well, Zeus has to have it by midnight of the 21 of July. Nothing else that I know of."

"We have a month! Dude, you are so lucky. Also, we are finding Zeus's thunderbolt! That has never happened in history." I said instantly regretting saying that. If Percy was smart he might realize that gods can't change history, only mortals can. Such as a demigod. Percy didn't notice, but Annabeth did.

"So, it had to be a mortal or demigod. Luke who was on the field trip that day."

"Me, you. Percy wasn't. We had the Dionysius twins, and that is all I remember. There was most the camp, so around 60 or 70 ADHD kids. Almost everyone could be a suspect if they were the ones, but I think there must have been an external force." I said. This made Annabeth go deep into thought. Percy tried to make it look like he wasn't listening, but it was obvious that he was. We walked to the nearest city, about a mile away in complete silence thinking who could have done it except for me. I was occupied with the nightmares I have been having. Was it Kronos who was sending these dreams, or a god. I decided to think it was a god, and fueled my anger. We arrived and rented a car.

"How long before some monster eats us all." Percy asked in a very serious tone. It was like dark humor without Percy meaning to be funny at all.

"My guess, 2 hours." I said.

"The chance that it will be 2 hours is very low. I say at least 12 hours." Annabeth said "But you know I'm usually wrong." She finished in an angered tone. Guess what, in about 3 hours we were attacked.

"Annabeth! Why did you jinx us!" Percy and I yelled at the same time.

"Luke you jinxed us by saying 2 hours!" she yelled back. It turned out it was just a large dog. Maybe Annabeth wouldn't jinx us.

"Well, at least we are safe." Percy said. Why don't the newbies ever listen.

"Nice now we are jinxed." I said "every time someone says that we either die, get wounded and have to abandon the mission, or delay ourselves." I hope by saying that I didn't just jinx that we are safe.

"Let me un-jinx us. We are about to die because I poodle is on our doorstep." Percy said "Happy now?" I was not happy at all because I have an unhealthy fear of poodles. We drove for another hour, and just then, I realized none of us have a driving license. Even though I was 19 now, I never bothered to get one.

"If we see a cop car act very unsuspicious because I don't have a driving license." I told them

"Why can't anything ever be easy." Percy moaned. We drove all the way to Colorado before I fell asleep on the wheel and drove us into a ditch. I woke up, vision blurred. I was about to drive over the rocky mountains before I crashed. We were stranded on an uninhabited mountain. I reached out and opened the door I fell right out of the car. It was destroyed. The left side was just destroyed. Annabeth, who was sitting on that side was bleeding from a gash on the side of her head and was unconscious. Percy was fully awake, but looked like he had broken his left leg. Apparently I got lucky.

"Where is the ambrosia." I asked. Percy tried to grabbed a bag on the floor between him and Annabeth. He stretched over the console before recoiling and groaning.

"I see it," I said so he wouldn't injure himself even more. I took out 3 bars of ambrosia. I broke one into thirds and gave everyone a piece. I woke Annabeth up by shaking her gently. She woke up and ate it and Percy got up and walked right after eating it. Annabeth looked a little better, but she still couldn't walk, and her words weren't very clear. It was more like muttering in her sleep. The one thing I got after 10 minutes was "I think it's working" or "My like was breaking" and that doesn't make sense.

"You can do this Annabeth." I said trying to comfort her. Then, I heared Percy grunt. I ran out the door to see a dracanae trying to eat him. It's snake like tail was circling Percy.

"Give back the thunderbolt!" It screamed. I was sluggish, but I ran and slashed it with the sword from camp half blood. It turned it's attention to me, not even bothered by it's missing tail. It charged me with it's claws, and I was sluggish. I rolled in time, but it guessed I would and clawed my back." I gritted my teeth and turned around swinging and hit her shoulder. It cut deep, as monster sand fell out of the wound. She attacked screaming, so I parried, but her claws cut my sword in half. I looked down and saw half of a foam sword. Who did this. I ran toward the car and opened my bag Percy was trying to hold off. He didn't have much training, but I would not fight him if I had to.

"Percy I'm coming!" I yelled as I grabbed Ternepu. It turned blindingly light, and grew heavier in my hand. I turned it toward the Dracaenae as she looked away.

"Turn it off! Pleasssse! I will leave and not come back!" It screamed. I walked closer and lifted the sword. It suddenly started to devour light and it turned pure black. I slashed downward and sliced the monster. The sword turned to looking steel, but I knew better than that.

"What is that sword?" Percy asked.

"I'm not sure, a demigod gave it to me the same year I got to camp. He called it Ternepu, but it needs a better name than that because, when I hear it I think turnips." I said "I mean, who likes turnips." That was the first time I ever heard Percy laugh. The mood was quickly killed because Annabeth had walked out onto the street

"Luke, that sword isn't just special. It was Hercules sword, one of the two he ever used to kill a monster." That put me on edge. I was wielding the greatest heroes sword, or one of them.

"It never was like that, it must have had something happen to it, but that is it." Annabeth said in her weak voice. I looked down and saw a sword, and that was all. No visions, no black and white, just a steel sword. I couldn't believe it was Hercules' sword.

"Is it a coincidence that I have his other sword?" Percy asked.

"Well, this is actually very dangerous." Annabeth said quietly "To have some the most powerful weapons this close to eachother." I also thought about Percy being here. 3 Demigods, 2 powerful swords, one demigod who is the son of the big 3. We are a monster magnet.

"We need to get moving before we have more monsters." The car was destroyed how were we supposed to get moving to California. We tried to walk, but made almost no progress across the mountain. We all decided we had to walk, but it wasn't fast enough. We encountered several odd monsters and creatures, most ran away, the others were killed. We once tried to steal a car, but without luck. On the second day we found a river.

"Percy can you call any sea creatures?" I asked. Hoping we could ride a sea horse to the end of the river.

"Never tried," Percy looked uneasy. He stuck his hand in the water and said "Uhh, sea creatures, can we get a ride, to the end of the stream. Also, if ou help us please avoid monsters." I doubted it would work with him like that, but I saw three horse heads pop out of the water. Not seahorse heads, like actual horse heads.

"Uhh Percy are you sure you called sea creatures, or sea monsters." I said quietly. We waited as we saw the horse heads had a hippo rear.

"Hippocampus! These are the real sea horses!" Annabeth exclaimed "half horse half hippo, these things move very fast and smoothly!"

"Glad we have an encyclopedia here." Percy mumbled, probably mad he didn't know what these creatures were, when he was the sea god's son. They all made odd sounds.

"They want us to get on." Percy said

"Are you okay? Those things did not say anything." I said

"They just said you are a non-believer." Okay, these hippo things want me on them. Nope.

"I'll fly thank you." talking about my winged shoes. Annabeth knew about them, but Percy didn't.

"You can fly!" Percy said "Come on, you're not even part of the big three and you can fly, when I can't swim very well. That is so unfair." As Percy said that water splashed him in the face.

"Fine, fine. I'll get on." he said, as he stepped on. I put on my winged shoes. I rose a little above the river. I paced myself with the hippocampi, which wasn't easy. It was pushing my shoes a little faster than I ever used them for. They didn't spontaneously combust, or just turn off. We made it to a city. The hippocampi went so fast they past it then turned around.

"I know I said to the end of the stream, but you can drop us off here." percy coaxed the horse hippo mixes.

"Are we renting a car again!" I yelled at them.

"I don't know! Probably, why are they cursed!" Annabeth yelled. In my opinion, yes.

"No, we aren't. We are going to get train tickets." Why didn't any of us think of that before.

"Annabeth where are we?" I asked her. She replied "We are past the rockies, so probably Utah. I'm not exactly sure though."` We walked over to a train station. It looked like what you saw in the movies. A roof, with a ticket booth, several stalls to enter the train with, and rusted, metal walls. Not exactly an ideal spot for the fastest trains on Earth. We are fine though right?

"Next train is in an hour, tickets are 70$ per person." it was a tired, old lady. Why were tickets so expensive? Percy payed and she greedily took the 210 dollars.

"Jackson, your an idiot," Annabeth said then turned toward the lady. "Does the train go west or east." she asked the lady.

"One east one west, one north and south isn't an option." she said now more eagerly.

"How far does the west one go to?" I asked this time.

"All the way to LA." she said. "Here are your tickets there are several stops along the way." We took them without a word and waited there, talking out our plan. When the train came, we expected a rusted one that was not fast at all. We got a modern train, that looked like a fast train, I hope it is because if it is the fancy 50 mile perhour train, I'm goin' with a car.

"3 tickets please." said a guy just on the train. We handed him our three tickets and got on.

"Welcome V. to the flying donut. I am your virtual assistant. The Flying Donut is one of the fastest trains on Earth. Please, have a seat wherever you like. You are our first passengers today." said a voice that sounded an awful lot like siri. We took a seat in a circle seat area in a different car. There were also 4 beds, all empty. I looked out the window to see rural landscapes and urban cities blur together. This train was fast.

"Virtual assistant, how fast does this train go?" Annabeth asked

"About 575 miles per hour if the driver is cautious. This train could go about 750 miles per hour if the driver pushed it a little. It probably won't break down even at that speed." the train siri said. They could afford a train like this, but not a little better of a voice? Annabeth and the assistant were having a nerd out. Me and Percy got some food for the road.

"Doesn't it feel like when you are falling in here? The feeling anyway, not the sense of impending doom." Percy asked me. He was right. It was even more odd since there was no wind to go with that feel. Or the movement you would feel in a car.

"Also is this train owned by some millionare donut shop, or does a billionare really like donuts?" I asked him.

"I'm not sure, but this place gives me the creeps." he shivered as he said that. Perfect timing. My hair started rising.

"Do you feel that?" I asked Percy "Doesn't your hair rise when there is going to be lightning?" He looked up his eyes huge then at the roof. We both dropped to the floor, Annabeth was too late, lightning struck the car and shook it, did not destroy it somehow. Annabeth still flopped to the floor. The lights went out, the virtual assistant went silent, everyones hair (on there head) was in afro mode, and we all now had a sense of impending doom. Just like Percy described falling. We all got up and looked for a power source.

"Is the train moving!?" Annabeth had to yell over the relentless pounding of the rain outside. Percy and I both ran to the window. Of course it wasn't. Quests are never easy. Why can't we just have a single quest that is easy.

"It's stopped!" Everyone yelled at the same time. Annabeth was also at a window. We ran our way to the front. The guy who took our tickets was slumped over in his booth. Annabeth ran over to him.

"There is no time! We need to move!" I yelled at her. The blood was pulsing through my ears this time as my hairs rose again, Percy was outside heading into the other car. We all dropped, but lightning struck percy as the chain connecting our cars was destroyed. We started rolling downhill, and Percy layed still, just inside the other car.

"Percy!" I yelled. He still didn't move. I put on my winged shoes and grabbed Annabeth. I pulled her out of the train and headed toward Percy. Just then, lightning struck the front car of the train. It came alive and went full speed ahead. Annabeth looked stunned. Her legs gave out and she fell. Her knees hit the mud. She twisted around so her back would hit the mud. That meant she wasn't going to break down.

"Annabeth, we need to get moving." I whispered to her. I didn't want to move earlier.

"Something tried to kill us. Something is here trying to kill us and it has Zeus's weapon." she muttered.

"Annabeth, we have to get to Hades, now. If Percy lived he will head back to camp, please Annabeth, we need to finish what Percy started." I was done with this. I slapped her in the face.

"Lets go. Now." I said growling. She got up and we stumbled to a farm. Cows and Horses were there, nothing else. There was a chicken coop though. We made it to the front door and knocked.

"Whadda ya kids doin' 'round here at this time of night." I didn't even realize the moon was high up.

"Sir, we were riding a train, it was struck by lightning, everyone was unconscious or dead. My sister and I were the only people who got off." I said, hoping we looked as bad as bad as we could.

"Y-y-yes t-thats what h-happened." Annabeth stuttered through her freezing lips.

"Okay kiddos, I'll let you get cleaned up, and spend 2 days here. After that, I can't let ya'll stay." I just noticed his very, very western accent. Annabeth had remembered her bag, so she had a long times worth of clothes. I didn't remember my bag and had to use some of the farmers. Luckily, I was a bit tall for my age and this guy was pretty skinny, so his clothes fit. We slept until 8 the next morning. We woke up and snuck out the back window so the farmer wouldn't notice us. We kept walking for a couple miles before we were both exhausted. I could see a big city on the horizon. Annabeth and I had to stop before we could get there.

"Are we still headed west?" I asked.

"About, because Earth is slightly tilted the sun is rising northeast. It's not much, and we walked away from the sun so about southwest. It is so little it will probably make no difference to the US." And that was why Annabeth was on this trip. After the break we walked into the city before sunset. We rented a car and just crashed in it. We are going to have so many fines by the end of this quest. I fell asleep instantly. I had nightmares. I saw a flash of white as I watched a select few demigods murdered. Struck by lightning just like Percy was. Each falling, this time though, they slowly turned into half monster sand and half ash. I tried to scream for this to stop as suddenly the dream ended. I was in a sort of half consciousness. I was awake and could move thankfully, but I could see the real world, and the dream world. The dream world was just a simple field full of one flower

"Annabeth!" I yelled out in both dream and real worlds. She woke up from the car and came running into view in the dream world. She looked right at me in both worlds and my head started to hurt.

"You are icing!" "You are smoking!" real and dream Annabeth said at the same time. Smoking? What did she mean. The other one seemed convinced I was a popsicle.

"Ok I'm gonna call you A1, and you A2" I said hoping to clear the confusion. Again they spoke in the same time.

"You mean her?" and "You mean me?" they said. I got confused. Which said what. I closed my eyes and only saw dream Annabeth.

"Luke? Can you hear me?" and "Percy? Can you listen to me?" I opened my eyes and one gasped they other snorted. Like a pig. Maybe it was a pig. But, Percy. It said Percy. Maybe he did live his… traumatic experience. If he is dead though? Who is the hero

"Annabeth! I can see two of you! When you talk it talks, it's creepy!" I yelled at real Annabeth. She stopped all her movements. She grabbed a piece of paper and started writing, but dream Annabeth started counting. "1! 2! 3! 4! 5! 6!" My head hurt so much, my vision grew hazy.

"Stop. Please stop." I barely got the words out before I had a really bad ache and I lost all of my thoughts. Them, the pain passed without warning. Real Annabeth looked directly into my eyes.

"I will stay." she said firmly. The dream one didn't speak at the same time, but didn't give good news.

"You don't control me really, I was just messin' with you." It morphed into a man, middle age, bad posture almost laying down honestly, grey hair, and plain black PJs.

"Get out of my head monster. I will slay you!" I yelled. I got funny looks from people outside the car.

"How do you plan on doing that, stabbing yourself, as for that monster part…" He disappeared. Couldn't even finish his sentence.

"Can I have my real vision back now?" I asked Mr, Dream monster. Annabeth started to look worried, all I saw in my "second vision" was darkness. Who knows maybe it isn't darkness, but just a black wall

"Percy, your iris showed what you saw, but now they are black." Annabeth said in a very shaky voice.

"Consider me color blind!" I said Annabeth didn't react. "Not a good joke, nope okay."

"That was a joke? Now your mental health is in question." she answered. When I looked outside I got a nice shaded view from the sun.

"Annabeth, what was that thing in my head." I asked. She sat there and pondered for several minutes that turned into an hour. I decided to grab a burger while I was waiting. I was chewing on it when she came in. I was eating my B-A-L-D. Variation of the BLT. It is Bacon, Avocado, Lettuce, and last, but not least, doritos. (Don't judge my dorito love, and Avocado is common now) Annabeth ordered a Salad.

"What monster was that, because I don't remember it at all." I said again with my mouth full. She gave me a questioning glance. I chewed then said it again. She looked a little scared, and I have never seen Annabeth this scared besides the day when we first met in the Alley.

"It wasn't a monster, it was a-a..." she couldn't finish the sentence, but we both knew what trouble we were in. It was a god.