Author's Notes:
First of all, thanks for the follows, favorites, and reviews! Sorry to disappoint but I'll be updating slower since school has started for me. Good news is that besides reading some light novels and playing video games (I'm really enjoying Xcom 2), I'll be writing. I have great plans for this story and assuming that I don't abandon it like I did with my previous fics, this will go all the way up to the defeat of Gaia. Not much to say about this chapter since I'm still setting up for future events though actions will be coming starting from next chapters. This chapter is really building some fundamental relationships with the campers including Annabeth and Clarisse. Not gonna lie, I actually like Clarisse, so for those who's wondering if Percy and Clarisse will keep going at it, my short answer will be a no, so rest assure. The other thing I briefly went over is Percy's power and I'm referring to Chronos here. I'll go more in depth as the story progresses, meaning I will be supplying more information on the power I touched upon in this chapter along with additional powers that he will be discovering. Lastly, I hope you enjoy the little twist in the end :) Alright, thank you for reading. Let me know how you think by dropping down a review!
*Story Starts*
After Chiron's announcement regarding to the son of Hermes, there were mixed reactions from the head counselors of each cabin. Out of everyone present, it was Annabeth's expressions which exhibited the most change: ranging from disbelief to distraught until it finally settled on some sort of stoic calm. Her narrowed eyes and furrowed brows with a hand right under her chin indicated that she was trying hard to reason and analyze the situation on hand. Travis and Connor Stoll looked extremely shocked by the news and were gaping at Chiron with their mouths hanging loose. Luke was their older brother, who had always looked after them since their arrival at the camp, thus, the very thought of him leaving was unexpected. The rest also had stupefied looks on their faces. Even if they were never as close to him as Annabeth and the Hermes' cabin, Luke was one of the veteran campers who had been around since the very beginning and was rather admired by many.
Clarisse looked a bit sad at the thought of losing a marvelous sparring partner. After Luke, the daughter of Ares was probably the second best fighter in the camp, and I would definitely volunteer if she ever looked for a replacement. Judging from the grudge she has against me right now, the chance of becoming her new sparring partner was very likely as this would provide her an excuse to beat me up. Or at least try to.
However, that was not my main focus. Making sure that no one noticed me, I eyed the head counselor of Aphrodite cabin that was sitting across me carefully. During the last Titan war, Silena Beauregard served as a spy for Luke, leaking lots of our classified information to the Titan army, which ultimately resulted in her boyfriend's death during a secret mission to blow up Princess Andromeda. Eventually overwhelmed by guilt, she tried to make amends by convincing Clarisse to join the battle, who refused to do so since her pride was wounded by the Apollo cabin. Like how Patroclus lead the army into the battle since Achilles refused to fight, Silena lead the Ares cabin in Clarisse's armor and fought against the Lydian Drakon that was destined to only be killed by a child of Ares. By sacrificing herself and finally making Clarisse to participate in the future fights due to grief, Silena was regarded as a hero afterwards and went straight to Elysium after dying to the Drakon poison. However, no matter what the future Selena would eventually d to redeem herself, the current her was still undeniably a spy and as much, it would be wise to remain cautious.
Silena had her head low, looking down at her lap, making it difficult for me to read her expression. Occasionally, she would lift her arm up to wipe away some tears, but her posture still remained the same. For now, I would take her actions as a sign of confliction and that Luke had already confronted her before fleeing from the camp. Nonetheless, this was only my assumption, though the experiences that I had accumulated taught me that being extra careful was never a bad thing, especially when my actions could potentially affect the outcomes of everyone present in this room.
"So do any of you have any ideas?" Chiron asked with a saddened face. "Like who was the last person that he talked to?"
At this question, the brothers from Hermes cabin turned and looked at me before responding to Chiron. "Well," Travis began. "The last time I saw him, he was helping Percy -," at the mention of my name, he glanced at me once again and continued. "Moving his stuff to cabin three." Now, every pair of eyes were focused on me, even Dionysus was interested enough to put his magazine down, and I had to admit, being in the spotlight only made me feel anxious.
"So Percy," Chiron looked at me and prompted. "Is there anything you can tell us?" I paused a bit, trying to figure out the best way to answer his question. Everyone looked at me with anticipation, hoping for some good news or at least some useful clues to explain the motives behind his actions. Honestly, I didn't expect Luke to leave the camp. Maybe it was also naive of me to actually believe that he would trust me after I swore to never reveal his true identity. Now that I think about it, if I were in his shoes, I would have done the same, plus, it would be tough to act normally around someone who seemed to know every little detail of your plans.
"Well," I began slowly, looking at everyone carefully. "After saying goodbye to me, I thought he returned back to his own cabin." I decided to feign ignorance and come up with a believable lie, thereby shifting all the attention off of me. At my response, everyone looked at me with disappointment. "However," I spoke up again, this time looking at the wine god. "Mr. D, if a demigod were to leave the camp, wouldn't you be able to sense it?"
Looking irritated, he responded. "Yes Peter Johnson," Dionysus said as a matter of fact. "Of course I sensed him leaving the camp border, but when I tried to reach him, his presence just disappeared." All the other campers looked confused, and I had my brows furrowed in deep thinking, while a centaur regarded me with great interest.
"So you're saying he just disappeared?" I asked again for confirmation.
"Yes," Dionysus responded with annoyance. "Are you trying to challenge what I said, demigod? Are you trying to say that I'm wrong?" His eyes flared up with purple flame, startling everyone else in the room. Unimpressed, I stared directly back into his eyes, making him regard me with a new found interest. "It seems that our new recruit here isn't scared of death. Or are you so stupid to the point where you think I won't turn you into grape vines?"
"No, I wasn't trying to sound so disrespectful," I simply stated, which may have soothed the god's temper. "I was only curious as to how he managed to slip away like this." In reality, I was only confirming my suspicion. The only possible explanation for him to escape Dinosyus' grasp was Kronos, who no doubt aided him during his escape. I cursed at myself for acting so rashly by confronting him this early on. Now that he was gone, I was placed in a very disadvantageous spot without knowing if my actions had altered any of the downstream events. Even in my second life, Luke was still a wild card, full of uncertainty, but I knew he was the key to achieve my end goal.
Apparently satisfied by my answer and attitude, Dionysus grunted and signaled us to carry on. This time, it was Annabeth who spoke up, looking at me questioningly. "Are you sure he only said goodbye to you?" she asked accusingly. This entire time, she stayed silent but that didn't mean she wasn't absorbing any of the information that was thrown out there. "I don't think saying goodbye will lead to him disappearing. So, I'm going to ask you this," Annabeth snapped at me, balling her fists. "What did he really tell you?"
"I thought I already said it, but I'll say it again," I began with a calm voice. I understood where her anger and frustration were coming from since she always had a soft spot for Luke. "He said goodbye to me, then we parted. Instead of accusing me, you should ask the Hermes cabin."
"And did he?" Annabeth asked, this time addressing the two new head counselors of cabin eleven.
"No, he didn't." They both shook their heads sadly at the question, making Annabeth to look at me again with a raised brow. Since I swore it on the Styx, I wasn't planning to break my oath and uncover the fact that Luke had been working for Kronos. Besides, even if I could somehow survive the punishment from Styx after I break my oath, the truth about Kronos raising from Tartarus again would only cause an uproar for everyone, thereby creating more unpredictabilities.
"So what do you have to say for yourself?" Annabeth snapped at me again, giving me a strong desire of gagging her, since the way she was analyzing things would only create more troubles for me and the future.
"I don't think it's logical for you to assume that I was the last person he saw," I countered her. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw a certain daughter of Aphrodite shifted slightly at my words. I was almost certain that Luke had made contact with Silena before he fled, and her slight change of demeanor only reinforced my suspicion.
Looking at me with frustration and annoyance, Annabeth pointed her finger at me. "Jackson," she growled. "Don't give me that kind of response. I swear on the River Styx that if I ever -"
Whatever threat she was going to make was interrupted by Chiron, while the other demigods present were staring at us nervously. Dionysus, of course, had summoned a bowl of popcorn and watched the situation unfold with amusement.
"Annabeth, that's enough," Chiron chided the daughter of Athena. She looked as if she was going to protest, but a stern look from the centaur effectively quiet her down. "And Percy, I will believe your words. I trust that you were being honest when you said you had no idea where Luke went." I nodded appreciatively, at the same time, I felt guilty for betraying Chiron's trust. I mentally slapped my face, reminding myself that I was doing this for the greater good, so getting caught up in my own guilt because of dishonestly was something that I shouldn't do. "We'll discuss more about the missing son of Hermes next week," Chiron addressed all of us, and we all nodded in unison. "Mr.D will be reporting this to the Olympian council shortly. Alright, if there's nothing else, meeting adjourned. Go meet up with your cabin mates and carry on with your daily activities."
*Scene Break
"Hello?" I waved my hand, trying to get the spaced out daughter of Athena's attention. "Earth to Annabeth. You there?" At my sudden motion, she snapped out from her trance and looked at me with annoyance.
"What do you want?" Annabeth snapped at me. Geez, I wonder why Annabeth was so easily irritated this time around. Or has she always been like this? Either way, I definitely prefer when she was my girlfriend, at least she was a lot nicer and didn't growl at me every five minutes.
"Oh, you know," I began sarcastically. "Maybe you should focus more on what we're suppose to do instead of spacing out every minute." Since yesterday, Chiron had ask Annabeth to give me lessons on ancient Greek, who reluctantly accepted the job. However, once we began our first session, she quickly realized that I seemed to understand the language already and that there wasn't much for her to teach me. As a result, for the majority of the time, she would be muttering something about Luke and the summer solstice, which lead us to the conversation that we were having right now.
"Oh right, sorry," Annabeth apologized. "So what was I saying again?"
"You were muttering about some deadline and quests," I reminded her and she immediately pounded her left hand with a fist. Her grey eyes were once again making calculations, and I thought I saw multiple light bulbs lit up on top of her head. "Also, can I ask you a question?" She hummed and response so I took it as yes.
"Why does it seem like you hate me so much?" I asked and continued. "I mean in the beginning, it was my fault for teasing you. I never got the chance to apologize, so I'll do it right now. But is there something else between the two of us?"
"Not really," she said, but paused a bit. "I just think that you're hard to read and I don't like it."
"What do you mean by that?" I asked.
"It feels like you have a lot of secrets," she stated and I cocked my head to the side.
"I do?" I asked again for confirmation.
"I mean how is it that you're so proficient at greek already?" she asked, but before I could even answer, she began listing every suspicious actions from me. "How are you able to control water so well when you didn't even know who your godly parent was? The way you shielded me from the hellhound showed that you're not a novice at these kind of stuff. And lastly," she took a deep breath after firing all those questions to me at once. "Why is it that Luke disappeared right after you showed up at the camp?"
I forgot how persistent Annabeth can be when it came down to knowledge. To any of Athena's children, knowledge was power, and Annabeth would do anything to dig up anything she didn't know. I gave out a defeated sigh and answered her questions.
"For your first question," I began while trying to come up with a vague but convincing answer to satisfy her. "During our first session, I remember that you told me our brain is hardwired to learn ancient greek, so I guess that's why it was intuitive for me."
"But not everyone can pick it up as fast as you did," she argued with me.
"You just said not everyone," I pointed out. "This means that there are still some exceptions, and I may be one of them."
She rolled her eyes and said, "Yeah right. If you're a son of Athena, then maybe I'll believe you."
"What are you trying to say," I responded with a challenging tone. "I believe you're generalizing this whole only Athena spawns can be smart. What about Odysseus? I don't recall him being a son of Athena yet he was incredibly bright, overcoming problems using his wisdom."
"Fine," she mumbled, couldn't come up with a better counter argument. "Then what about my other questions?"
"Well, I always knew I had some affinity with water," I admitted with a smirk, recalling back to the time when I pushed Nancy Bobofit, with water during a field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Arts. "Grover would tell you what happened to the bully from Yancy Academy. At first I didn't know what happened, but after blasting Clarisse with toilet water on accident, I had my doubts that I might be a son of Poseidon." At my explanation, she nodded and didn't question anything more, apparently satisfied this time, so I kept going. "And I think it was just a coincidence that Luke left right after I came. He's a nice person, why will I make him leave?"
She studied me for a bit and finally spoke up. "I'm sorry," she apologized and I was momentarily confused. "I was acting too rash during the meeting. If Chiron believes you, then I'll believe you. Just that …" she trailed off, looking at the horizon. The Demeter cabin wa planting new flowers with the help of satyrs, who would use their woodland magic to accelerate the growth. The smell of daisies and the laughters from the nymphs and dryads off in a distance hit me with a wave of nostalgia. It was just like this. Everything was peaceful and right until Kronos decided to destroy my home.
"Just that what?" I prompted her to go on after a brief pause.
"Nothing," she shook her head and said. "It's none of your business."
"Alright. Sorry that I asked," I shrugged, remembering that she used to say that before we became close. I guess it was her way of protecting herself from getting hurt, so I would have to be patient first and try to earn her trust. Annabeth was a useful ally and someone who I would want to watch my back. Additionally, my instinct told me that she would play an important role in the future, just like last time. "Anyway," I spoke up and asked, changing the topic. "Why were you mumbling about quests and deadlines?"
"Oh that," she said with a slightly embarrassing voice. "I have a habit of talking to myself. Forget about it." I nodded in understanding and the room fell back into silent. If she didn't want to talk about it, then there was no point in me trying to probe it out of her. My guess was that eventually she would give in since her thirst for knowledge would no doubt overcome her, and what she said next was all within my prediction.
"Wait," she suddenly spoke up, eyeing me with great interest all of a sudden. "You said you know something about the summer solstice."
Gazing back at her with a smirk, I confirmed her doubts with a hint of mockery in my tone. "I thought someone said 'forget about it'?"
"You know what, pretend I didn't ask," she grounded out with annoyance and crossed her arms indignantly.
"Alright, alright. I apologize for that. I was only joking." At my apology and attempt to defuse the situation, she merely glanced at me sideways, contemplating whether or not she should forgive me. Maybe it was because of the strong desire for information, she huffed again, but this time spoke in a calmer manner.
"I'll forgive you, if you tell me everything you know," she laid out her conditions, and I could only respond with a wry smile.
"Well," I began as she looked at me with anticipation. The previous annoyance shown in her stormy grey eyes were now replaced with fierce concentration. "Before I say anything, I want you to tell me what you know so far. That way, we can save some time by not having me repeat information that you already know." That was one of my reasons. By all means, I wasn't tricking her with I told her I would tell her everything I know, however, instead of laying out all the cards in front of her, I planned on leading her to the conclusion without revealing too much.
"The only thing I know is that something important seemed to be stolen and it has to be return before the summer solstice," Annabeth managed to get out while pulling on her hair in frustration. To any child of Athena, knowledge was essential, and the fact of not knowing would literally drive them into insanity. "Also, ever since last winter, the weather has been acting weird. It was as if -"
Before she could finish, I interrupted and finished the sentence for her. "The gods are agitated or angry perhaps." Instead of getting mad at me for cutting her off, she nodded in agreement and looked at me expectantly afterwards.
"What if I tell you that the stolen object is Zeus' master bolt?" I supplied for her and immediately astonishment was written all over her face. The look on her face was priceless, so I decided to drop another bombshell. "It was stolen last winter after the winter solstice meeting." I had carefully thought out my words beforehand. If I said the object was stolen after the field trip to Mt. Olympus, it would be too suspicious since she never mentioned such event. Even though I could always use Chiron as a shield, making excuses such as "he told me about it" if she were to question my source, I felt like it would not be convincing enough for her. After reasoning through all that, I opted to word things in the most ambiguous way to save myself some troubles. By stating that the bolt was stolen after the yearly winter meeting, there could be at least two meanings. The first one could be eliminated since she would never believe that a camper would have the guts to steal from a god. It was a reasonable thinking, so I didn't blame her for making this kind of assumption, especially since the second scenario may seemed a lot more compelling.
I could almost see her body directing all the glucose to her brain as she tried to solve the query that had been annoying her for the past weeks. After only few seconds of silence, she began slowly. "You can't possibly mean that he stole it right?" Her answer was within my prediction, and I couldn't help but give her an approving smile. Despite the fact that she never clarified the pronoun in her sentence, I knew who she was referring to. To bystanders, she may be referring to a certain son of Hermes, since he was the only male camper on that trip, but the highly held respect and childish love that she had for Luke would never make her think that he would commit such thievery. As a result, she must be talking about Hades. Winter Solstice was the only time that the Lord of the Dead was welcomed onto Mt. Olympus.
Since the start, Hades had been labeled as an outcast. No one dared to mention it in front of the all mighty Lord of the Dead, but in reality, that was the consensus. For, all year long he would stay in the Underworld, overseeing his domain while his brothers would be in the mortal world, bathing in warm sunshine. The fact that the general population feared death didn't help out with his reputation either, as a result, horror and Hades often came hand in hand. This was only one of the many reasons that Hades held a grudge against the rest of his family members.
Then World War II broke out, which only served as a catalyst to further aggravate their already rocky relationship. Axis Powers and Allies were the two opposing sides written in all history textbooks, but what they failed to mention was that the former one consisted mostly of children of Hades while the latter had both children of Zeus and Poseidon. Due to ancient laws, gods were not suppose to mingle with mortal affairs, yet the stance of their children made it quite clear: We don't like you Hades, so we will unite and defeat you. Of course, the war ended in 1945 when Germany surrendered, but that wasn't the end. A pact was made among the Big Three when they realized that their children carried too much potential power that could bring upon major disruptions. Subsequently, they swore on the Styx to never sire anymore children, but in reality, they only did it because of Hades. In the face of two versus one, the children of Hades wielded potent powers to almost tip the entire war in their favor. If not for United State's intervention, history books might all be written in German today. In other words, the method Zeus came up with was by no means irrational, but the ulterior motive was to restrict Hades' power. As the defeated side, he could do nothing but accept their terms unconditionally.
"By he, do you mean The Rich One?" Over the course of my life, I had come to a realization that names carried immense amount of power behind it.
"Yes," she confirmed and began muttering to herself again, "...Yes… That actually makes a lot of sense." I frowned a bit at her comment. I never pointed my fingers at Hades if I recalled correctly. All I did was stating the origin of the stolen object and the time it was stolen, which she probably suspected already. I was a bit taken aback by her ability to draw connections at such remarkable speed while at the same time baffled at how she managed to jump to the wrong conclusion. Tracing her logic carefully, it did make a lot of sense, but unseen factors could always sway logic away from actual truth. For now, I planned on letting her immerse in the thought of Hades as the villain. Inwardly, I couldn't help but let out a sarcastic chuckle, feeling somewhat sympathetic to the Lord of the Dead.
"So what are you planning now?" I asked, breaking her from the trance she was in. Clearly, this was a violation to our agreement, but in my defense, she was the one who jumped the gun and never asked for my confirmation, though I never really intended on bringing Kronos into this conversation. None of them were ready to hear the real truth, besides, we were suppose to head to the Underworld anyway, so I didn't see how this could pose as a problem.
"I think a quest will have to be issued at this point," Annabeth slowly spoke out her thought. "And you will be the one leading it."
"I think so too," I concurred with her assessment on this situation. The purpose was to return the missing Master bolt to appease Zeus' wrath, so what could be better than having a son of Poseidon do so? Not only would I prevent a catastrophic war from raising, but also clear my father's name.
Looking at me weirdly, Annabeth suddenly spoke up with a completely different attitude. "Is it ok if I ask you a favor?" she asked timidly, almost too quiet to hear.
"What is it?" I inquired her while slightly tilting my head to the side. I was rather perplexed by the sudden change in tone and mannerism, but it was pointless for me to make random guesses.
"If, by chance, Chiron granted you the quest, you will be asked to choose two other companions to go along with you," she continued to speak in an almost inaudible voice. "So if you don't mind, can you pick me?" For the last part, she rushed through it quickly with embarrassment. So that was her request. The first time, Annabeth volunteered for the spot, and later confessed to me that after all the trainings she had done since seven, she really wanted to venture out into the real world to test her strength. The camp was suppose to train demigods, provide them useful skills in order to survive from the monsters' malice, so what Annabeth really wanted was to simply validate if her hard work had paid off. Of course, her fatal flaw might lead her on this competitive way of thinking, in which she had no excuse to not be perfect, but it wouldn't be Annabeth if she wasn't like this.
I gave her an understanding look and respond to her, "I don't see a problem with that, but -" Here, I paused a bit to gather my thoughts whereas she patiently waited for me. "But in order for us to cooperate, I think we both need to change our attitude." I couldn't believe I was doing this again and had to restrain myself from sighing out loud. "I know I've been annoying you through little things, but is there something else that's bothering you? Specifically, something that triggers your hostility towards me?"
I could tell she was about to snap at me again and deny my speculation, but she seemed to remember what I said about cooperation and chose to gaze into the horizon. After a brief moment of silence, she gave me the same reason as last time. "It's mainly because you're a son of Poseidon, and my mother is Athena," she reasoned but still refused to look at me. "You know, it kind of makes us rivals. We should never get along." Even though this was the second time I heard this, I was still greatly baffled by the logic behind her antagonism.
"That is not true at all," I simply stated and she looked up with a confused expression. I ignored it and continued to explain. "I understand the rivalry between our parents, but their war is not necessary ours. We have our freedom as to who we choose to befriend. A pity grudge over millennia shouldn't influence your judgement. As a daughter of Athena, you know full well that your reason was flawed and irrational. Besides, Poseidon and Athena did in fact cooperate once when constructing the chariot." The rivalry emanated from the contest that was held by the first king of Athens, Cecrops, who was seeking for a patron deity for the city. Poseidon struck the ground and formed a salt water spring, likewise, Athena did the same and planted an olive branch, creating an olive tree. Unfortunately for the sea god, the water was too salinated for the population, whereas the wisdom goddess' gift symbolized peace and prosperity. We all knew what happened next, and the rest was history. However, the grudge he held against Cecrops didn't stop him from cooperating with Athena. Somewhere down the line, Athena fabricated the body of the chariot, and Poseidon created horses to make them move.
"You're right," she admitted after I pointed out her one dimensional way of thinking. This was quite ironic since most of the time, I would be the one to listen or admit any wrongdoings. It was in fact a strange and a sight to behold, but I wasn't going to take advantage of that. All I wanted was a compromise, like a cease fire agreement, and I had managed to convince her to do so, for now. I wasn't sure how much she actually agreed, in spite of that, I would also honor my end of the deal by stopping anymore snarky comments.
"Since we've reached a consensus, I'll let you know if something happens."
*Scene Break
Once Annabeth and I finished our little strategy session, I decided to train my endurance and techniques for the remaining of the day. Soon enough when Dionysus returned from the Olympian council meeting, a quest would be issued, so I had to make sure that I was close to my peak performance. Under my current condition, taking on Medusa would already be a difficult task, let alone facing Echidna and her fire breathing chihuahua. Annabeth and Grover were still too inexperienced with actual combats as of now, so I would also have to divert my attention in order to protect them from harm. Then there was Ares-the god who had turned and, at the same time, the first god I had defeated. In order to retrieve the Helm of Darkness along with the Master Bolt, an inevitable fight against the God of War will break out.
As I slashed through the straw-dummies, memories of Luke kept on flooding my mind, only making me tear apart the dummies with a newfound frustration. That the son of Hermes wanted revolution due to his resentment towards the Olympians, resulting in him to side with Kronos, who promised him a new golden age which was revealed to be a complete lie in the end. Well, it depends on the perspective. Using the resentment that had been building up since the death of Thalia, Kronos used that as an advantage and turned Luke into his pawn. Once he realized that Kronos cared nothing for the demigods and only wanted the complete destruction of the Age of Gods, he opted to sacrifice himself in order to protect his friends and also fulfill his promise with Annabeth. Due to the fact that Luke was blinded by his indignation, he failed to see the potential catastrophe of his actions.
Firstly, I would have to gain his trust. Someone as cunning and deceptive as Luke knew better than trust someone he just met, let alone a demigod who was trying to foil his plans, so to accomplish such feat, the only way was to make a drastic change in the Olympians' attitude, such as claiming their demigod children, clearing up the always crowded Hermes' cabin. Hopefully by proving my words through actions, Luke would finally understand that there was always an alternative way and not just revenge. But the question now was: How can I make the gods grant my wish.
In my previous life, the wish was only granted because I used my gift of godhood in exchange of equality and respect. This time around, I have nothing to convince the gods unless I somehow managed to earned the likings of more than half of the council at which point they would be able to proceed with any judgements using the majority. One thing I learned from experience was that gods were prideful entities, so I would have to think this through before getting blasted by Zeus' thunderbolt. Luckily, I still got some time to devise an Athena-worthy plan.
I tore away from my thoughts and concentrated back on my training. I continued to slash away wildly, and at the same time was thankful that the magic in the camp was able to replenish the straw-dummies by itself. Instead of focusing on my own technique, I decided to change things up this time around. After suffering a humiliating defeat against Chrysaor in the Mediterranean Sea, who disarmed me in a blink of an eye, I had learned an important lesson after pondering for days on the Argo II. The sheer speed and strength he possessed made me realize that techniques were nothing but a flourish way of wielding a sword. It may look impressive, but unless this was a circus show, brute force and speed would always come out on top. I knew abundant of techniques, acquired through hard work and experiences, but when facing Chrysaor, I wasn't able to display any of them. I couldn't tell the son of Medusa, "Wait a second, let me do this sword technique and stab you in the torso!" In a battle, whoever could control the pace of the fight would often end up being victorious, and the act of mercy would only result in harm for yourself and allies.
There was a reason that most demigods had trouble fighting against divine entities with the exception of Heracles, who was born with immense strength. Though pompous and prideful, it wasn't an overstatement that he was truly the most powerful demigod alive. The greatest hero alive? That was up for debate. Zoe would always be the hero that I admire the most in my lifetime. However, a person's characteristics and personalities had no correlation with their prowess during a fight. Heracles had no defining technique, heck, he seldomly used a weapon and relied only on his bare hands. Having said that, the proud son of Zeus compensated with incredible strength, brute forcing through any opponent he had faced, proving himself as a valuable asset for the gods in the first Giant war.
Another reason why I wanted to abandon my old style was because every technique had its own flaw, an opening for the opponent to exploit. Scratch that, all attacks consisted of their own weaknesses, however, it was the matter if the opposition could take advantage of it, and the best way to achieve this was to be faster, forcing the enemy on the defensive. Thus, there were only three things that I wanted to accomplish behind all my trainings: agility, strength, and endurance.
Faster. I had to be faster. The past few days, I had been torturing my muscles, ignoring all the protests and complaints they were throwing at me and continued on working my way back or even surpass my previous condition. After slashing at another straw - dummy, I paused at my tracks when I realized that another party had emerged into the arena.
"Clarisse," I sighed mentally when I noticed the daughter of Ares and her goons decided to show up. "What do you want?"
"Oh nothing," she shrugged nonchalantly and turned to address her siblings with an almost too innocent tone. "Since you seem to be so good with that sword, we're here for some advice." Instantly, all of them gave out a sickening grin, and I knew exactly what was coming next.
"If you want revenge, then come some other time," I told her flatly and turned my back towards them. "I don't have time for you right now." After dismissing them completely, I returned to my routine. Right before I could sever another dummy's head, the skin behind my back tingled, and instinctively I whirled around to block a strike that was aimed directly at my torso before leaping backwards to gain some distance in order to assess the situation on hand.
"Has no one told you to never show your back to your enemies, Jackson?" Unsurprisingly, the one who attacked me was Clarisse. She probably didn't mean to deliver a fatal blow, but if I had failed to react in time, who knew how long I would be incapacitated in the infirmary. The rest, however, remained still, watching the events unfold with great amusement.
I narrowed my eyes and regarded her with disapprovement. "Tsk, tsk," I shamed her while shaking my head. "Has your father ever told you that it's dishonor to attack from behind?"
"Oops," she shrugged at me. "I guess I forgot about that." Roars of laughter erupted among her siblings, but once Clarisse raised her hand, they immediately quieted down.
"So what is it that you want?" I asked, pointing the tip of the sword to the ground while leaning on it in a relaxed manner. "Perhaps you want me to whip your ass again?"
Through her gritted teeth, Clarisse said, "That was only a fluke. Don't get too cocky now, Jackson." I raised my eyebrows when she easily dismissed her past two defeats as a matter of unlucky. "I'm willing to bet that you will lose if we fight one on one without any trickeries," she declared proudly, puffing up her chest, and gave her spear an experimental swing.
"So you're saying that you lost because I somehow won through trickery?" I repeated back to her, just to make sure that I didn't miss anything.
"Yes," she crossed her arms indignantly. Behind, her siblings all nodded furiously, some also voiced out their agreements, saying things like, "Yeah, how can a scrawny boy like you defeat us?"
"Mm," I hummed at their words and shrugged. "Alright that's fine with me. I don't really care." It was pointless for me to argue with them as it would only cut into my valuable training session. That being said, after I dismissed them so easily for the second time, they were obviously not pleased at all.
"Jackson," Clarisse pointed at me and snarled. "You're a coward, you know. No wonder your dad didn't claim you right away." As immature as they were, another round of laughters went off at the toxic remark. Honestly, I could care less about what they think. End of the day, these kind of bickering would not stop Luke and Kronos from executing their plans.
"That's fine by me," I responded back with a calm voice. "As long as you stop bothering me."
"So you're just going to wound our pride and then run away like a coward when we confront you now?" she pushed forward and I frowned at her comment. Since when did I hurt their pride? They had always been the one trying to bully me from the get go, however, since I was able to overpower them every time, they were now claiming that their pride had been shattered by me. Seriously, what was up with demigods and their pride? Thalia and Jason both had the same problem when it came down to defending themselves even when they were clearly in the wrong. Not to mention, Clarisse withdrew from the battle of the Manhattan due to the Apollo cabin, leading to the fall of Silena, which could've been prevented if she wasn't so stubborn and was willing to temporarily set aside their disagreements. Annabeth also had similar problems, or else she would've avoid the Sirens when we were in the Sea of Monsters.
That being said, I also had ego issues, but to a lesser degree, which had been put in check ever since the journey to Greece to stop Gaia from raising. I thought that with Luke's death, I was now the best swordsman, able to slay anyone that came in my path. Victories against multiple entities such as Ares, Hyperion, Kronos, Polybotes, and many others may have slowly turn me into one of the men that Artemis despised: prideful and egotistical. It was until my journey into Tartarus and the duel against Chrysaor made me realize that I was nothing to begin with. The sheer malice that the Primordial God of the pit emitted scared me indefinitely, reminding me that all my accomplishment was only achieved through sheer luck and assistance from allies and that those were nothing to boast about. Chrysaor only reinforced that idea by disarming me in less than a second and that was when I understood that there would always be someone better than you out there. Pride and ego? That could only lead to overconfidence and get yourself killed on the battlefield. Luckily for me, I was able to recognize that problem and was glad that I never really needed to trade my life away for such an important lesson, well, almost did I guess.
Looking around briefly, more and more campers had gathered outside of the arena to spectate the ongoing commotion, and without any effort, I located Annabeth in the crowd, looking as if she was going to break down and panic. Our conversation earlier had settled most things down between the two of us and that we agreed to cooperate until the missing item was found and returned to Olympus. I was surprised that Chiron wasn't in the audience since he would act as the peacekeep most of the time. Dionysus was still on Olympus, but even if he was present, I doubt he would give a damn about some child of Ares trying to take revenge on a son of Poseidon. He would probably show up with a can of diet coke and say something along the lines of, "If you want to kill each other, do it quickly. Heck, how about you guys just start slaughtering each other so I won't have to stay here anymore!" before retiring back to the Big House to read some more wine magazines or play some card games.
"Alright," I began, turning to address the other party present in the arena. "We'll have a duel then." Some of the campers gave out an exciting cheer, while Annabeth remained looking concerned. "But I have two conditions," I continued on, ignoring the mirth that was rolling off from the onlookers. In all seriousness, I hated to fight for entertainment and this wasn't the first time it had happened to me. The first time, it was in the labyrinth where I was kidnapped by Luke and was forced to entertain Antaeus, ultimately killing the arena master by luring him off the ground. The other time was in the Colosseum where Nike forced Leo, Frank, Hazel, and I to battle to the death, which thanks to Hazel's control over mist, we managed to subdue the goddess without successfully dismantling each other.
Everyone looked at me expectantly, even Clarisse, who nodded me to go on. "First," I started listing out my terms. "After this, you leave me alone." I paused a bit to see her reaction and once I got an acknowledgement from her, I went on. "Two, the loser owes the winner an undeniable request."
"I disagree with your second condition," she crossed her arms and said. "What if it's something that's not honorable."
"Don't worry, I swear on the Styx that it will not be immoral and will not, in any way, hurt your pride or damage your reputation," I reassured her. "Meaning, I won't tell you and your siblings to commit any crime or do something that will humiliate you. But I may or may not ask you to be my servants until I choose to dismiss you," I added smugly in the end, earning myself a glare from her.
"You're speaking as if the result of the battle has been determined," she said in annoyance, pointing the tip of her electric spear at me.
"Let's find out then," I picked up my sword and gestured her to come forward. The sound of cheering only got louder from here, but I couldn't hear any of them. I was in a trance with my eyes closed, focus solely on my body and mind, mentally preparing myself what was to come. I wondered what people were thinking. Perhaps they were excited to see a son of Poseidon getting beat up? Or perhaps they were hoping that I could come out on top so that the bullies would finally taste defeat and realize that they had met their match. Either way, the important thing right now was to defeat Clarisse while those meaningless assumptions could wait until the match was over.
With a defiant roar, the daughter of Ares charged with her electric spear cracking dangerously with power, and I opened my eyes in response. Clarisse was a skilled fighter, but she wasn't fast enough, most importantly, the way she charged at me left her sides completely exposed to me. Maybe it was because of the experiences that I had accumulated throughout the years, maybe it was because I had been training my agility and speed, Clarisse's attack seemed to be quite lackluster to me. Bending my legs slightly to acquire the maximum amount of force, I as well, launched myself towards her, aiming to close the distance first. The advantage of a spear was its long range, but its supremacy in that aspect was also its shortcoming. As long as I get up close to her, victory was pretty much as good as mine since my choice of weapon was a lot more flexible than that of hers.
If I were intending to humiliate her, I would toy around by smacking her with the flat of my blade until I was satisfied and let her frustration overcome her then eventually deliver a final blow. Thankfully for her, I wasn't the type to play around when it came down to swordplay and would always hold certain respect for my opponents. No, I would rather defeat her or even annihilate her. There was no point in holding back and that was also what Clarisse wanted in the beginning: a straight up all out fight. The first time I caught her off guard by exploding the toilets. The second time I had used my own affinity with water to overpower her during the capture the flag. Admittedly, these were not the most glorifying fights in Clarisse's book, but one thing she had to learn was that the mean of achieving victory was insignificant and that result was the only thing that mattered. People classify certain methods as good and the others as evil, but in reality, there was no honor and nobility on a battlefield. Such delusional ideal was the causing factor that lead to the death of many young heroes all for the sake of reputation and pride.
After closing in the distance and got too close to her comfort, I aimed my sword at her wrist. Under normal circumstances, my next course of action would be severing my opponent's wrist, forcing them to drop their weapon, however, there was no need to do that right now. Though such merciful behavior contradicted my own ideal, my end goal was to recruit as much help as possible for the future, and literally disarming someone would only achieve the opposite effect. Instead, I twisted my sword and smacked her wrist with the flat of my blade, but to my surprise she held onto her weapon firmly though the feeling of pain was evidently showed with her clenched jaw.
Even though I fully expected her to drop her spear, I did give myself some alternative options. Another important lesson was to have back ups plans and always think steps ahead of your opponents, which also tied in with the idea of respecting your foes. No matter how confident you were, no matter how lucky you think you were, at some point in time, Murphy's Law was bound to happen, and interestingly enough, it always shows its ugly face at the most desperate time. Additionally, demigods were known to have extremely bad luck that anything that could go wrong, would go wrong, so to quote Annabeth, "You always need a backup plan for your backup plan and so on."
Upon realizing that my initial plan had failed, instead, I twisted my blade once again and made contact with the shaft of her spear. Didn't matter what element her spear has, as long as I refrain myself from touching the tip, it would cause no affect on me whatsoever. The purpose behind my attack was simple. By making contact with the shaft, I could slide my sword along and conveniently slice her digits off, achieving the same result of disarming her but through a more unpleasant way. Looking at me with widened eyes after realizing my intention, Clarisse tried to push forward with her spear, but once she realized that the close proximity between us was restricting her from launching a counter attack, she made the wise choice and dropped her spear while leaping backwards to gain some distance.
The fight wasn't over yet by all means, but the crowd was already going crazy. Loud whistling and cheers were going around. At this point, none of them cared who the victor was, all they wanted now was a satisfactory fight and they were enjoying it for sure. Though throughout all the chaotic commotions caused by the campers, Clarisse and I maintained our focus on each other. Wordlessly, she unsheathed a dagger from her thigh pocket and charged again.
Clarisse had exceeded my expectations in combat, and I was seriously considering to ask her to be my new spar partner. Her decisiveness in threat assessment was something that I admired greatly. The fact that she was able to react accordingly to my assault and made the right call for tactical retreat while at the same time remained composed afterwards was a valuable trait for a fighter. As disappointing as it was, my speed still faltered, not meeting my expectations.
The usage of dagger was completely different from wielding a spear in a sense that the former one relied on close quarter fights. Knowing Clarisse who favored her spear more than any other choice of weapon, I was a bit astound when she pulled out the two daggers, but through logical deduction, I was positive that she no longer possessed the same threat. Dagger and sword attacks were basically the same, with the exception that thrusting was allowed. Besides that, the most important aspect that a dagger wielder carried was speed, in which the goal was to get in and out as quickly as possible with techniques such as feiting and grappling involved. Without a doubt, Clarisse understood and could execute all these techniques required for close quarter brawls, but what she was lacking heavily was experience and speed. Annabeth was one of the only fighters that was able to wield a dagger with extreme precision and expertise. Without the speed to back her attacks, Clarisse's movements became extremely easy to anticipate. The awkwardness was evident based on the ways she maneuvered herself. She feinted a strike at my left shoulder, attempting to confuse me, but when I noticed that she was eyeing at my torso instead, I didn't even bother to parry and decided to launch the same attack by aiming at her torso.
That was where the inexperience came in. She had the foundation and understood the basics with daggers, but her expression betrayed her, allowing me to react preemptively. Even though daggers and swords had similar style when it came down to technique, the latter one had the advantage of being longer. In other words, despite the fact that Clarisse initiated her attack first, the extra thirty inches that I had guaranteed that I would poke a hole in her stomach before her. Nonetheless, dagger also had its own strength, so if the opponent was more a lot more experienced and skilled at executing, then it wouldn't be this easy.
After realizing her shortcoming and that my strike would land before hers, she swiftly changed her target and went for my thigh. In response, I mimicked her, forcing her to alter her aim once again. No matter how she approached me, no matter what she did, it the flow of the battle was now in my total control. Deciding to spare her from any humiliation, I stepped into her guard and twisted the flat of my blade against hers, performing the disarming technique that Luke had taught me. The whole arena was silence except for the sound of mental dropping on the ground. Clarisse looked at me with disbelief and the majority of the campers shared the same expression. I didn't blame them. To them, Clarisse was the strongest fighter after Luke, but somehow, me, a demigod that only came to the camp not too long ago, managed to defeat her in less than two minutes. After getting over the initial shock, few people from Hermes cabin rushed in and carried me on their shoulders while congratulating me. I gave out an involuntary yelp at their sudden gesture and also noticed that Annabeth no longer had the same worried expression on her face. I wondered what she was worried about. Was it because of my safety or was it because that I would not be able to go on a quest if I get punished by Dionysus. Either way, that wasn't important to me since those useless assumptions was not practical and had nothing to do with my end goal.
The victory was mine, but it was disappointing nonetheless. All the positive comments and compliments were pushed to the side as I was solely focusing on my own performance, contemplating at my own failures that lead to a dragged out fight that should've ended in less than thirty seconds. I wasn't fast enough, and the dismaying part was that I had underestimated Clarisse's ability to react in a fight. As a battle veteran, these kind of miscalculations and disrespectful attitude that I displayed was extremely concerning. Truly, it was a disaster on my end that I must avoid in the future.
Slowly, Clarisse picked up her dagger and made her way towards me. I tapped on Travis and Connor's shoulders, which they instantly got the message of putting me back down. The loud chattering was once again silenced where the crowd looked at the two of us with anticipation. The hostile aura that she previously displayed was nowhere to be sensed, but I was still in the dark as to what she was planning to do.
"So Jackson," she sheathed her dagger and began expectantly. "I admit that it was my lost, so I'll honor our deal." Another trait that I admired greatly about the daughter of war. She was a bully, but a bully with dignity and honor. I mean, it didn't change the fact that she enjoyed picking on the weaker ones, and luckily for me, I was able to fend for myself, but that immature act could always be fixed.
Giving her a small smile, I responded, "It was a good exercise and as for the deal…" Here I paused a bit to gather my thoughts. What could I possibly want Clarisse to do that wouldn't shatter her pride and reputation. "Hmm I can't think of one right now, but I'll tell you once I figure it out."
She gave me the most unexpected response by nodding her head before eyeing at something next to my feet quickly. Tracing her gaze, I realized that she was looking at her electric spear and I made an "Ah" sound and picked it up from the ground.
"Right," I said as I handed the weapon back to her. "I believe you're looking for this?"
"Yes, but not anymore," she confirmed my guess but decided to turn down my offering, which I gave her a questioning look. "You won the fight, so naturally this is your spoil of war." Ah, so that was her reason for giving up a gift from her dad.
"Take it," I insisted by shoving the weapon in her hand. "What am I going to do with it? It's not like I know how to wield it better than you." The last statement was not an exaggeration. Just like how Annabeth was a top notch dagger user, Clarisse was also in a league of her own when it came down to spear play. "Besides, what is your dad going to say when he realized that you gave away his gift to some sea spawn." Apparently, the thought of withstanding her father's wrath was enough to convince her, but the effect seemed to be a bit too much, seeing as how she immediately paled.
"R-Right," she managed to stammer out with sweat droplets forming on her forehead. "Alright, we will be leaving now then," she turned to address her siblings that accompanied her earlier. I watched as the small gang made their way out of the arena. When Clarisse was right at the edge, she spoke up, "You know Jackson, you're quite interesting."
*Scene Break
"Goodnight guys," Annabeth said before she parted.
"I'll see you guys tomorrow. Goodnight!" I waved as I entered cabin three. I was now more free than I had been in the Hermes cabin. I was neither compelled to sleep on the floor nor required to follow any sort of lights-out time. Today was quite eventful and productive judging on the fact that I had successfully built up necessary connections with the campers. Though Annabeth didn't seem to be entirely convinced, at the very least, we agreed to cooperate for the quest. I knew from experience that eventually Annabeth and I would gravitate towards each other and set aside our parents' rivalry. As for Clarisse, despite the fact that I defeated her in the public, my honorable display in the end had earned some of her respect. These two would definitely play a big role later on; Annabeth for the brains and Clarisse for the muscle.
Once I plopped down onto my bed, I noticed something strange glittering on my desk. Out of curiosity, I reached out my arm and got hold of an object what seemed to look like an old fashioned mechanical stopwatch. Different from the usual stopwatches I had seen, this one appeared to have three hands instead of two, and I could only guess that they were for hour, minute, and second. I frowned at the unusualness of the display, but failed to come up with an assuring reasoning behind. Maybe the older generations preferred to have the hand denoting each significant increment?
However, this wasn't the only strange thing that I found. Modern day stopwatches had their hour and minute hand overlapped at the zero mark until a button was pressed, which acted as the mediator to regulate stop and go. Like the norm, the stopwatch in hand also had all three arms pointed directly at the zero mark, but instead of having one button, there were three on the side.
Three buttons and three hands…
Deciding to put my hypothesis into test, I pressed on the first button. Nothing happened. Similar results were obtained for the other two, so I was now left in deep confusion.
"Alright then," I muttered to myself. "How are you supposed to work?" The thought of asking Annabeth or any of the Hephaestus kids for help did cross my mind, but it could be quite embarrassing on my end, seeing as how I failed to understand the mechanism behind a simple stopwatch. Plus, Annabeth would most definitely bombard me with questions afterwards, inquiring me about the origin of the item, which was a query that I won't be able to answer. As a result, the aspiration of not wanting to bring unnecessary troubles upon myself fueled into my stubbornness of wanting to figure out the puzzle on my own.
Hmm.. if I couldn't press it, what about twisting it? Pinching my fingers on the elongated button that should designate the minute hand, I twisted briefly to the right and weirdly, one of the hand moved to number five while the other two remained at the zero mark. Interesting… With my basic understanding, I thought stopwatch was meant to measure the time elapsed. The fact that I could move the hour, minute, and second hands around freely kind of defeated the purpose for measuring time.
Still, I knew from the beginning that this was not an ordinary gadget. So just what was the purpose of this unique mechanic and why was it on my desk? My ADHD mind allowed me to toy around with it for another few minutes, determined to figure out the truth, until someone interrupted me with a knock on the door.
"Who is it?" I raised my voice and asked the mysterious figure outside.
"It's me," a familiar voice that could only belong to Annabeth responded. "I have something that I needed to talk about."
"Give me a second," I told her as I grabbed the stopwatch and shoved it into the drawer next to my table. Just what could the daughter of Athena want at this time of the night? Deciding that the best course of action was to hear her out instead of taking blind guesses, I hurried over to the door and greeted her.
"Hey, what can I do for you?" I asked. "It must be important for you to come all of a sudden."
"Oh, it's nothing really," she responded sheepishly while fidgeting her fingers. "It won't take much of your time. Sorry to bother you." I nodded and beckoned her to continue. "Well, it's something about the quest, and I felt like something didn't add up."
Whatever she said never registered in my brain. The moment she started explaining her concerns, I felt an abnormal amount of weight in my shorts. Alarmed, I immediately patted my left pocket and noticed that the stopwatch that I had stashed in my drawer not too long ago had magically relocated.
"What the..?" I was so astonished that I temporarily forgot that Annabeth was present until she snapped her fingers at me with annoyance.
"Hey, are you even listening?" she grounded out, but noticed that I was holding something in my hand. "What is that?"
Uh oh. She wasn't suppose to see that. I had no idea why the stopwatch teleported from the drawer, but that wasn't my biggest concern right now. Right now, my objective was to come up with a believable lie to cover up this unexpected incident. Plan A was to deny everything at all cost and feign ignorance.
"Hmm?" I hummed while placing both my hands behind myself. "What is what?"
"Don't play dumb," she accused. "I saw you were holding something in your hand. It was circular. I saw it!"
"Are you ok?" I asked her. "I think you're tired. You should return to your cabin."
"Not until you tell me what you're trying to hide," she demanded and advanced towards me. Clearly, plan A had failed miserably, so now onto plan B: run.
When she was only few inches away from me, I feigned to the right, off balancing her central gravity, and immediately shifted to the left. Using this elementary maneuver, I managed to get past the persistent daughter of Athena and went straight for the door. What she did next had exceeded my expectation.
The second I set foot on the pavement, I tripped and fell face first to the ground. I cursed myself for being so careless, but once I realized the reason behind my unbalance, I was so baffled that I didn't know if I should be laughing or crying. Apparently, Annabeth gathered all her strength and leaped forward, attempting to use her body as a cannon ball to stop my escape. Originally, she was probably aiming for my torso, but since my speed had surpassed her expectation, she fell short and got my legs instead. If she had aimed a bit further, we would both be tumbling out of the cabin door, creating an embarrassing scene.
"Let me go before someone sees us," sighing inwardly, I demanded her to release me.
"Not until you tell me what you are hiding," the stubborn daughter of Athena responded.
"How about no?"
"Then sorry!" With that being said, she tried to get ahold of my hand, attempting to pry it out from me. There were few close calls, since unfortunately for me, female body tend to mature faster than that of male's, granting her some unfair advantage by having a longer reach. Eventually, by sheer luck, she accomplished the mission by applying pressure on my abdomen with her knees and used both hands to ferret out the stopwatch in my hand.
"Ha, I got it," she smirked triumphantly at me but frowned once she realized the object in her hand. "It's only a stopwatch, why are you hiding it from me?"
Yeah, only a stopwatch…
I didn't dare to voice that out, but chose to remain silent. Ignoring the fact that I had no wish to answer her inquiry, she continued to scrutinize the object like any child of Athena would.
"Why are there three knobs on it?" she asked, equally perplexed by the uncanny feature that it possessed. "And why are there three needles? Oh and why is one of them pointing at five, while the others remained at zero?" The speed that she fired all those questions only served as an impetus for the now forming migraine. This was the scenario that I didn't want to happen, yet it was slowly unfolding in front of me. Before she allowed me to respond, she tried pressing the one the knobs and this was when all the bizarreness arose.
It was as if reality itself was being altered, the scenery before me began to warp, and for a moment, I thought I was imagining things. A wave of nausea washed over me, serving as a reminder that no, this was in fact real. Everything around me was moving in an untraceable speed, worsening the nauseous feeling that I already had, and then it suddenly came to a halt.
"What the heck was that?" I muttered to myself.
"What the heck is what?" A voice that belonged to Annabeth spoke up next to me, and I staggered backwards in surprise, only to find myself bumping into another individual.
"Woah Percy, careful there." This time, it was Travis who spoke up from behind. Seriously, just what was happening? Forcing myself to calm down, I swiftly analyzed my surroundings, and to my surprise, the scenery presented before me happened exactly twenty five minutes ago.
I was standing right outside of cabin three, surrounded with some of my friends. Next to me was Annabeth with the Stoll brothers trailing behind. In a distance, I saw Will Solace walking towards the Apollo cabin, flanked by Lee Fletcher and Michael Yew. All my friends looked at me with confusion, except for Annabeth, who felt offended upon hearing my remark.
"I was trying to be nice by saying goodnight," she voiced out her irritation. "So did you have to give out such a rude comment?" Even though the comment I made was for myself, the misunderstanding that arose was well expected due to the poor timing that it got out of my mouth. Explaining my behavior would be extremely difficult, since I couldn't fathom what happened either.
"Sorry," I apologized while attempting to gather my thoughts. "I just thought of something. I didn't mean to be rude." Annabeth's expression seemed to soften a bit, but I paid no additional attention since my mind was focusing on something else. I placed my hand into the left pocket and felt a circular object that could only be the stopwatch. Since taking it out right now would create unnecessary questions being asked, I quickly said my goodbyes and entered my cabin.
What I found strange was that the minute hand was stuck at five rather than returning back to the zero mark. When I tried twisting the minute knob, I could only rotate it in one direction, in other words, the number could only increase and not decrease. However, once it returned back to zero, I couldn't go any further, making it so that a range from five back to zero was set. Setting that aside for now, the phenomenon that occurred not too long ago, if I was not mistaken, seemed like time travel to me. The fact that past events were replayed and that I was able to experience it yet again was a clear-cut proof. If this was all true, then this meant that Annabeth should be here any second now.
As if right on cue, a knock sound was produced on the other side of the door. Immediately, I got up and opened the door and greeted Annabeth.
"Hey," I said. "You got something you want to talk about?"
"How did you know?" she asked as she made her way through the door.
"Can't think of any other reason for you to visit me," I supplied. Seemingly satisfied with my answer, she nodded and spoke up.
"There's something that I've been meaning to ask you," she looked at me skeptically. Like last time, I could feel that the stopwatch had returned back into my pocket, but I chose to ignore it, decided to hear her out. "How is it that you know the stolen item was Zeus' Master Bolt?"
"Simple," I told her and she raised her brows at my comment. "Because Chiron told me." While in this timeline, Chiron never mentioned the origin of the stolen item, he did in the past, so I wasn't lying when I claimed that my source was from our camp's activity director.
"I see," Annabeth nodded in comprehension. I knew it was a convincing answer since she would never question the wise centaur. "Thanks for letting me know."
"Is that all?" I asked for confirmation and she nodded back wordlessly. That ended our conversation, and thankfully this time around, we didn't have to tumble out of my door.
Upon her departure, I fished out the stopwatch and decided to do some experimenting. Twisting the knob that was for the minute hand, I advanced it forward by five ticks to the number six. If my hypothesis was correct, the moment I press the button, I would be sent back five minutes in time.
This time, the nauseous feeling that I previously felt wasn't so bad. The phenomenon of reality warping occurred again, and once everything settled down, a familiar knock was heard yet again, and I knew exactly who was on the other side.
*Scene Break
The return of Mr. D next day from Olympus signified that my presence in the Big House should be required very soon. Two major things were discussed during the council meeting. First, as usual, the king of gods began his usual rant, speculating and assuming that a certain sea god had stolen his symbol of power. And as usual, Poseidon never bothered to explain due to his pride being trampled on, which lead to the end of the discussion. Afterwards, Zeus directed his anger once again at Poseidon, accusing him of breaking his oath of not siring anymore children, which then somehow lead him to an illogical conclusion of me as an accomplice. Objectively speaking, this irrational thinking didn't stem out of nowhere. In the past, Poseidon, along with Hera and Athena devised a plan to overthrow the current king of gods. However the ploy was deemed unsuccessful when the ocean goddess, Thetis, called upon Briares to untie Zeus from the divine chains while the three were arguing who should be the new ruler. While the instigator of this planned treason was actually Hera, not Poseidon, a seed of doubt and was already firmly planted in Zeus' head ever since.
The betrayal of the queen of gods wasn't without a solid motivation. Initially, Zeus courted Hera, but after many unsuccessful attempted, he resolved to trickery by shapeshifting into cuckoo that Hera took pity in. Once the sympathetic goddess took in the bird, Zeus reformed back to his original form, took advantage of Hera's surprise and raped her. Due to shame, she was forced to marry Zeus, though ironic since as the Goddess of Marriage, their relationship was full of disagreements and turbulents.
My assumptions seemed to be correct as I saw Grover made his way towards me. The whole reason that Poseidon claimed me was out of desperation, hoping that I would be able to retrieve the stolen item. Now that I thought about it, this whole situation was quite laughable, I must say. The great sea god rather asked for a mere demigod for help rather than reason things out with Zeus. Normally, as the son, I should be feeling extremely proud for doing a favor for my immortal parent, however, this was a distinct act of using me as a pawn. This all boiled down to the idea of pride where the gods refused to back down from one another. Despite knowing all the selfishness behind Poseidon's choice, I would still carry out the quest only to get a step closer to my end goal.
"Hey Percy," Grover waved at me and called out once he realized that I noticed his presence. I paused at my track and waited for him to trot over. The expression on his face though looked normal, as his friend for years, I was able to see through the facade he was putting on. Perhaps Dionysus had given Grover one last chance, an ultimatum where if the quest members were to return in one piece and also the stolen object, then his job as a protect would be deem as successful in which he would be granted a searcher's license.
"Hey man, what's up?" Even though I knew the reason he came for me, I decided to feign my ignorance. In this case, asking him "what's up?" didn't seem to be the most optimal thing to say since underneath that masked face was definitely full of dread. Since he was putting in a lot of effort of concealing it, I chose not to point that out, besides, I wasn't too sure what would happen if I did. Grover had always been an emotional person who could rant and sob over trivial things. Despite that, as his best friend, I had always sat there and listened to him, but there was something more important as of now.
"Oh nothing too important, but Mr. D and Chiron wants to see you at the Big House," he told me, and I gave him a nod of understanding. Afterwards, both of us walked in complete silence with me anticipating how the conversation would go with Chiron and him fidgeting with his fingers, too anxious to speak.
"There's Peter Johnson, as late as ever," Mr. D said in a bored tone but was quickly changed to an excited one when addressing Chiron, who was sitting across the table on the porch of the Big House. "Ha! You lost this one Chiron!"
The centaur only smiled amusingly at the wine god's remark, but I was left in a confused state. I never recalled Mr. D arranged an appointment with me, so the phrase "as late as ever" didn't seem applicable in this situation. Though this momentarily befuddlement vanished as Chiron greeted me.
"Ah, there you are Percy. How are you doing?" he asked warmly before turning his gaze back to the wine god in front of him. "And unfortunately for you, I'm the winner here." Currently, the two of them were playing Texas hold'em where Dionysus had a four of a kind while Chiron had a royal flush. No wonder he sounded so confident in the beginning. The chance of getting four of a kind was rare enough and could only be beaten by a straight flush or royal flush, yet Chiron, with incredible luck and against all odds, managed to get the least likely hand to triumph over Mr. D. I shook my head slightly at that, wishing that I, too, also had such luck in life.
"How the - " was as far as Dionysus got before he slumped down in his chair miserably and grumbled something like "As the God of Games, I can't even beat a centaur who trains hero for a living" under his breath. To others, this comment may agitated them greatly, but Chiron only smiled pleasantly.
"Percy, come sit down with us," Chiron waved his hand at me. "You too, Grover." He added in the end and the two of us sat across from each other. Mr. D had recovered from his defeat and was now regarding me with interest.
"You know Chiron," he began while scratching his chin in contemplation. "I still say we should just kill him." I merely raised my eyebrows at his comment, not affected by his empty threat. The consequence of killing me would only anger Poseidon, and I was sure that Mr. D would not want one of the Big Three as an enemy for the rest of his immortal life. Besides, Chiron would definitely stop him from doing so, which he did.
"With all due respect my lord, I don't think that's a good idea," Chiron frowned and pointed out. "I don't think Lord Poseidon would be pleased."
"Fine," he gave out a sigh but the depressed looked didn't stay for long as he came up with another brilliant idea. "What if I turn him into a marine animal. That way he will be in his father's domain, and most importantly, he will be still be alive!" He then focus his attention on me, giving me a thoughtful look. After a few seconds, he clapped his hands and spoke up again. "I think he might make a good dolphin, what do you say Chiron?"
"Once again my lord, I don't think that's appropriate for our young hero here," Chiron dismissed Mr. D's proposal without giving in another thought.
"Agh." This time, Dionysus grunted in frustration and asked, "What are you going to do with him then?"
"I say we should talk to him first," Chiron looked at me briefly and continued. "Afterall, he does have a say in this."
After Dionysus finally decided not to perish me or turn me into some random sea creature, every pair of eyes were now glued onto me. A tingling feeling as if someone was watching us from the dark went down my spine, but I chose to disregard it and instead focus on the matter in hand.
"What do you want to talk about?" I asked even though I knew what was to come.
"To begin, it's regarding to the stolen Master Bolt," Chiron stated seriously, and I urged him to go on by nodding my head. "As we discussed few days ago, Zeus demands Poseidon to return his bolt by summer solstice, which is only a week from now."
"Since the best peace offering is to have a son of Poseidon return the stolen object to the Lord of the Sky, you want me to take on a quest?" I supplied for him, earning myself few shocking looks. The fact that I unraveled the final objective for this conversation with one sentence gave out almost the same reaction as if Grover suddenly declared that he no longer wanted to chew on aluminium cans. Their reactions were well within my prediction. Dionysus perked up from his wine magazine looking at me with new found interest, Grover temporarily forgot about his anxiety and looked at me with disbelief, and Chiron gave me a surprised look for a second but said expression morphed into a approving smile.
"Hm," Mr. D began. "Even though I don't like demigods, this boy seems to be quite intelligent. Very well, I will not decompose you anymore."
"I thought we had mutual agreement on not to kill me," I spoke out dryly.
"Never mind, as rude as ever. You should be thanking me, Johnson," he chided me and shook his head in disappointment.
Chiron gave out a small cough and once again the conversation returned back on track. "Anyway," the old centaur started. "Yes Percy, that is the plan. So the question is will you take on the quest?"
Without any hint of hesitation, I replied back with confident. "Yes, I will gladly accept the quest." Despite my brave display, trepidation was clearly reflected from his ancient eyes. Chiron had been alive since the age of god with the duty of training new generations of heroes. Throughout the past millennia, famous heroes that he had instructed, such as Achilles, Ajax, and the original Perseus, had ascended into the realm of Hades, yet he still lived on. The pain and grief he had to deal with when forced to accept the truth that one of his students had fallen was unequivocally painful. Perhaps at one point he learned to deal with the grief. Perhaps at one point he began to feel numb. Nonetheless, this was his duty, given by Zeus himself, that he had to fulfill. In the end, people would only remember the legacy that the heroes themselves created, not the wise and caring mentor that shaped them into the legend that people adored. Somehow, I was able to understand a small fraction of his pain and hurt. I, too, was forced to watch my friends and allies die in front of me for my sake.
"It's not like he has any other choice," Dionysus supplied nonchalantly. "But judging from where he might end up, I might as well send him there right now." At this moment, a booming sound came from the sky and Dionysus rolled his eyes at that. "Yea, yea, yeah, whatever."
"In the past, there were at least three heroes that made out of the Underworld alive," I pointed out and once again, everyone present gaped at me.
"What the, are you an oracle or something?" Dionysus looked at me incredulously. At my comment, Grover let out a nervous bleep, but remained silent afterwards.
"What made you think that you'll be going there?" Chiron asked while remained calm, but his eyes were boring intensely into mine, attempting to decipher anything I said. With my trained eyes, I definitely saw some rippling in the air, but decided not to do anything just yet.
"Well, this is the only logical conclusion that I came up with," I answered his query and decided to elaborate more on my reasonings. "To begin, furies were sent after me, and they only listen to one entity, so that was the first giveaway. Objectively speaking, if a fight were to brew out between the Olympians, then our friend down there will be the major beneficiary." By using the term "friend down there", they probably assumed that I was referring to the Lord of the Dead, though, I was actually referring to Kronos. If a civil war were to break out between the gods, with Kronos slowly gaining power, he would be able to strike in the midst when all the gods were tired out. I could care less about the stolen object. My goal was to keep the casualties down by stopping or delaying Kronos as much as possible, so returning Zeus his symbol of power was merely a byproduct.
"That makes perfect sense," Chiron muttered to himself. "Your assumptions may be correct, but I'm not the one to tell. Go on ahead to consult the Oracle, only then we can get some concrete clues."
"Before that," I stated suddenly, earning myself some questioning looks. I didn't care how weird I would look if my suspicion was incorrect. "Annabeth, if you don't mind, do you want to give us your input on this matter?"
Grover perked up at the mention of the daughter of Athena, but to his dismay, he failed to locate the currently invisible blonde. Dionysus gave out a knowing smirk, no doubt detected the hidden eavesdropper with his godly power. Out of thin air, Annabeth materialized but failed to cover up her astonishment, staring at me with wide eyes.
"Sorry for not announcing my presence," Annabeth apologized immediately at Chiron and Mr. D, but they dismissed her easily.
"So what do you have anything you want to add, Annabeth?" Chiron prompted her.
"I also came to the same conclusion as Percy," she responded to Chiron while glancing at me for a moment. Truthfully, this was the same reasoning that I provided to her during our greek study session. Since I was already proficient at said subject and no longer required any of her teachings, a role swapped occurred where I became the one explaining. "However, I do agree with Chiron about consulting the Oracle." This time, she was addressing me and I gave her a knowing nod. It didn't matter that I knew all the events that would be unfolding, I still needed to follow the protocol of seeking the Oracle before I leave for any quest.
As a result, Chiron told me the whereabout of the Oracle, and I entered the Big House and made my way up to the top floor. I tugged on the cord in front of me gently and in response, a trap door opened up and out came a wooden ladder. The smell of dust and rotten wood wafted out from the small opening, and instinctively, I held my breathe as I ascended into the tiny room. A wave of deja vu washed over me when I reminisce the times I had been up here. This was the same scenery that greeted me on my very first quest, except this time, I was no longer naive, no longer clueless on what I was heading into.
It was as I remembered, plenty of miscellaneous things were stocked up here, though the best description would be that of orderly chaos. On one side, armors and weapons that had been used by former demigods of the camp were covered with cobwebs but stashed neatly together. The other side was filled with artifacts that had been collected on the past quests. Under what seemed to be a dragon claw, a noticeable small tag read, Claw of Ladon, retrieved by Luke Castellan. This was the last straw for Luke. The quest that Hermes gave him was exact same as that of Hercules: pick an apple from the Garden of Hesperides. The fact that it lacked originality angered Luke, and to make the matter worse, he received a scar under his eye that only served as a source of pity from the campers. With the dimmed light that was coming from the window, I was able to examine some other intriguing artifacts that were present. On the table to my right, there was a broken bow with a sticker reading, Belongs to Zoe Nightshade, lieutenant of the Hunter of Artemis. That certainly got my interest as I began to reminisce about the past. It was only on her last breath that she managed to befriend me and accept me. Her regrets of trusting Hercules and the bitterness of giving him Anaklusmos were finally resolved once he realized that everything had come to a full circle and that I was the one who was suppose to wield of her beloved sword. Shaking my head lightly, I chided myself for getting distracted by my memories. The matter of saving Zoe this time could be save for later, and I would do anything to make sure that happen, but for now, it wasn't the most practical thing to ponder over.
I turned my attention to the mummy that was sitting in the corner. Even now, the sight of the shriveled female body with glassy white slits as eyes still managed to send chills down my spine. No matter how many times I had looked at the Oracle of Delphi, the creepy aura that it gave out remained constant. I was so glad that Rachel eventually took this job away from the mummy in front of me. Even though they both sprout out green mist when giving out a prophecy, at the very least, Rachel was a living human being.
"Hey, so uh, I need a prophecy for my quest," I began awkwardly. Speaking to a mummy was never my strength.
For a second, nothing happened, and I thought I had done something wrong. That assumption was washed away when green mist began swirling around my feet. I embraced its power as the mist began to thicken to the point where I had to place my hands directly in front of my eyes in order for me to see them. Next thing I knew, a raspy but ancient voice spoke in my mind.
You will see all return.
You shall free those you yearn.
You shall face he who hath hidden,
And you shall realize the forbidden.
Afterwards, the mist disappeared and the attic returned back to normal. The power previously emitted from the Oracle was nowhere to be found. My attendance was over, yet I was so stunned that I found myself frozen in place. This was not suppose to happen. This was not the same prophecy from last time. All the confidence I had earlier completely vanished, and the look on that mummy seemed to be that of mocking, as if saying, "Ha, surprise! You thought this was easy? Nope!" In the end, the preparations and the planning I had done may have been useless. Ever since my rebirth into this world, my actions had somehow altered the course of Fate and destiny itself. Prophecies weren't meant to be changed by a mere demigod's actions, unless this was what the Three Fates meant when they announced that they no longer held control over my destiny. Just what am I supposed to do now?
