"I am sending an angel before you

to protect you on your journey and lead you safely

to the place I have prepared for you."

-Exodus (23:20)

-Ω-

Perseus shifted uncomfortably in his seat, pulling at the very stiff and uncomfortable fabric of the suit he donned. Sadly, the garment, which was blindingly white, was an unspoken requirement for all formal occasions, and this certainly was a formal occasion. His chair had been specially carved for him, with his name in angelic symbols running the length of it. Marks that showed his status, his occupation, his angelic type, and even his wing color were all present as well. His chair as well as others were set up next to a large, semicircular table that was big enough to seat at least one hundred angels, and at the moment the room was full of chatter that warbled and condensed into one mass of ever-present noise. Nobody failed to notice the five large seats that were placed at the center of the semicircle, all of them raised on a dais, however they did their best to try and ignore that. The one at the center, flanked by two other large chairs on each side, was the by far the largest, and it was engraved with Michael's name in Enochian. The Archangel and his four brothers, nevertheless, were still MIA. Percy found himself longing for Michael, and the loss of his presence was like a hand that struck Percy whenever his eyes lay upon the throne.

Nobody dared to sit in one of the Archangel's seats, for fear that the all-powerful seraphs were simply on a long and unexpected vacation and would arrive and zap them with lightning. The Metatron, who was now covering for all five of the higher-ups, had simply taken the next closest seat to the middle. He looked quite dashing in his white suit, identical to Perseus', though he didn't seem to like it very much, either, for he kept pulling on and eying his golden lapels as if they were a federal offense. The suits, though, were the least of the angels' problems, for this was the meeting that would address the issues, their causes (which everyone already knew but were forced to state out of procedure), and how to solve them.

Malakai, the leader of the Cherubim, and his fiery phoenix, Fawkes (who would eventually become the inspiration for the one in Harry Potter), were also present. Cherubim weren't your average angels; they had the head of a lion, the torso of a man, and the legs and hooves of a cow, not to mention that they were as tall as buildings and had four wings apiece. Malakai was by far the largest of them, and his amber eyes rakes over the assembled angels, filled with an intelligence that was only rivaled by that of the Archangels and perhaps God Himself. Fawkes let out a shriek, flames dancing across her feathers as she spread her magnificent wings. Perseus was unnerved quite a bit by the phoenix; unlike the heroic wizard's friend who had healing tears, this Fawkes was willing to rip your throat out with her sharp beak, only forgiving and affectionate to her master, and she was so old that Heaven had lost count of how many times she'd regenerated from her own ashes.

The Principa in which they were conversing, a rather monotheism-ized version of a Roman Principa, was so utterly gigantic that it would cause even the Empire State Building make a mad dash for its money at the sight of it. Sleek marble columns supported the towering roof, which was so high overhead that clouds could've formed in the space between it and the floor. There was a dome in the center of the ceiling that, much like Jason and the other "honored guests'" ceilings had, was made of stained glass. It changed the scenes it was depicting every now and then, and every time it shifted a sound like tinkling chimes echoing throughout the room. Jesus Christ hung from the cross, the candles on the menorah burned on even with so little oil, and Muhammed addressed a crowd of people in billowing robes, their eyes wide as they listened.

Perseus had nothing to occupy himself with, now that he'd watched the stained glass dome change pictures until it began repeating its cyclic pattern, and his friends were nowhere to be found, not that they'd be sitting next to him in the first place. Despite this, hover, it was nice to know that people who were actually sincere and friendly were nearby, or at least they were hopefully going to be nearby soon. On one side was a very gruff-looking angel of power with a spattering of scars whose wings burned red-black, General Ares of the First Garrison, and the other Olympian-named angels were seated there as well, including Percy's own father, who governed the Sixth Garrison, but Percy couldn't catch his eye since he was having an intense discussion with Hephaestus, who led the Eighth Garrison. Ares didn't seem like one for conversation, since he glared even harder when his gaze met Percy's, so the black-winged angel left him well alone. One his other side, a very edgy messenger angel fiddled with her brown locks of hair, her golden eyes darting nervously around the very crowded room, and it took him only a few moments to register that she was Hazel, the one who'd covered for him when he'd fallen.

"Hello," he greeted, desperately seeking some sort of entertainment. Perhaps striking up friendly conversation with her would relieve some of the very degrading boredom. Hazel jumped at his words, and for a moment she looked around as if he were referring to someone else.

When she realized that there wasn't, indeed, anyone else that he could be referring to, she uttered a squeaky, "Hi." There was a long, drawn-out period of awkward silence for a while, and at the moment Perseus was seriously regretting his decision.

"So…I hate these meetings, ya know? Make us seem prim, like we have sticks up our asses," the black-winged angel remarked, and thankfully that seemed to ease the tension, for Hazel chuckled a bit.

"Yeah, I hate how everyone thinks we're warriors. Well, we are warriors and can be really nasty if we wanted to, but Gabriel personally told me that he'd told the Virgin Mary, 'Yo girl, you're prego with the Lord and Savior!'" she replied, which was immediately followed with more awkward silence at the mention of the Archangel's name.

Perseus rushed to fill in the gap, "So are you here with anyone?"

"No, my boyfriend Frank isn't part of this group. I'm only here because I…" her voice trailed off, and she pursed her lips, brows furrowing. Perseus could sense the discontent rolling off of her in waves, and did his best to try and mend the discussion.

"I never really got to thank you for covering me, with the work or being a messenger and all," for a moment the angel swore he saw Hazel's expression darken even more, but the moment passed just as quickly as it'd come, "But I hear you were amazing." The girl had noticeably thrown walls up at the mention of the position as Michael's messenger, and she muttered a thank-you before turning away, her small brown hawk wings twitching angrily. So much for friendly conversation. He quickly brought up his kerchief and wiped away at his bloody tears, praying that none dripped onto his white suit and made a mess of it.

-Ω-

The room went silent as they walked in, all eyes turning to the seven humans and three fallen angels that had entered their midst. All of them were stunning in their own unique way, and though no envy was voiced, it was certainly felt. Jason led the group, his fingers laced with his wife's as he regarded the semicircular table that seated an uncountable number of angels, all of whom were silent as they watched their approach. He had to admit that the vertigo he was experiencing was insane. Imagine that the floors of the Empire State building had all been removed so that the skyscraper was basically just one big room, and imagine that you were inside of that room and looking up. That was just how big this room was, and it was decorated like a mix between a mosque, a temple, and a cathedral. Where the gigantic stained glass window wasn't occupying the ceiling, the gabled roof above looked a lot like the interior of the Lincoln Cathedral in the UK, with a similar color palette as well. A pattern of interlocking Stars of David decorated the columns that supported the whole place, and the familiar star and crescent symbols of Islam culture decorated the marble floor in beautiful spiraling lines of black, a big contrast against the stark white.

He had to admit, he was gawking, and by the looks of his other human companions, they were as well. Even Piper, Calypso, and Nico seemed taken aback by the sheer beauty of the place. He and the other human guys were dressed in unpleasant and discomforting tunics and toga-like things, which were painfully unlike the tailored white suits that the male angels were decked in. Jason wasn't complaining, though; those suits looked way more uncomfortable than his current outfit, and he considered just how much more discomforting it would be if he had wings. Not to mention that the temperature within the room was slowly beginning to rise, and the male angels looked like they were sweating bullets. Nico tugged at the collar of his old suit from before he'd been fallen, which he'd explained had been delivered to his and Will's room, and his shoulder-length hair was plastered to his forehead with perspiration, though his blond-haired boyfriend was clearly trying especially hard to not chuckle at his distress. The female angels, on the other hand, were dressed in less restricting clothing. Though they were still suits, at least they could take the overcoat off without having it seem unprofessional. Most had already discarded theirs, and Piper and Calypso were already seeming a bit discomforted.

Jason turned to his wife and couldn't help but get over how incredibly beautiful she looked. Her usually choppy hair was curled and fell around her shoulders in waves of beautiful chestnut, and her skin was smooth and clean of all blemishes, with even a bit of makeup touching her features. However that was nothing compared to her old angelic outfit that had been given to her by reluctant guards. Even though she looked like Heaven's real estate agent, with the heels, pencil skirt, overcoat, and button-down shirt, (all of which were white) she still was the most incredible thing he'd ever laid eyes on. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Leo mooning over his fallen angel girlfriend, and Will was practically frothing at the mouth as he observed his boyfriend's muscles shift beneath the fabric of, what the blond considered, his incredibly sexy suit. With the severely intense bedroom eyes Will was giving to Nico Jason was ninety-nine point nine percent sure the black-haired immortal was going to get laid, and since he'd overcome his fear of being too out of practice, Jason was practically itching to sleep with Piper. What? He was a guy and had basic needs and urges like any other one. Who cares if he technically was eighty-seven years old? He decided to stop thinking about it before his mind began to wander off into fantasy land.

The angels were staring at them from a giant semicircular table. There had to be at least one hundred angels in all, and he could see Annabeth anxiously scanning the crowd for a familiar face. He decided to join her in her search, but eventually gave up due to the sheer amount of winged celestial beings that were present. He didn't think that Perseus could make himself known, either; it would be most unprofessional. Out of all of their group, Dakota and Gwen seemed the least surprised at the beauty of the place, not to mention the beauty of the angels in front of them. Seriously, Jason picked out at least forty absolutely perfect tens, a good portion of them being guys. Heck, he wasn't even the gay one in the group and he still found himself drooling at bulging muscles and chiseled jawlines.

"Holy crap, is that a phoenix?" Leo cried in delight, always being a lover of anything fire. Heck, one could even consider him a pyromaniac if they weren't acquainted with him. With the excellent hearing that the bird must've had, it puffed out its chest and let out a mighty cry, sending Leo into an even more frenzied fangirling. "What's that lumberjack-looking guy's name? Hephaestus like the fire god? Cool! And that must be the Metatron. Is he really the scribe of the man upstairs? That's awesome. I can't even…And look that guy has the head of a lion, holy hell I'm in Heaven…wait a minute…" Jason chuckled at his close friend's enthusiasm, and looking around at both his friends and the angels' faces, he wasn't the only one that was amused.

"Nico, so that lion…man…angel…calf thing is called a Cherubim?" Reyna asked, though Jason could see that, besides Annabeth, she was the only one without a partner. Even though Calypso hadn't been a part of the original group, she was still a fallen angel and could come in handy to the mission to find the Archangels, however Alex had been undeniably human. Heck, he probably hadn't even been aware of the supernatural during his long, happy life with his wife. He reached out and gave his friend's shoulder a reassuring squeeze, and in return he received a playful scowl, though her eyes were thankful.

"Yes, but that's technically the plural term. The singular version is cherub, but nobody uses it anymore because human culture has associated that word with those chubby babies. Now it's just Cherubim, just like how fish is plural and singular," the fallen death angel replied, and Reyna's eyes widened in surprise. She slowed her pace to be on Nico's other side, with Will taking every word greedily, to engage in more conversation.

"Whoa," Piper breathed, her voice only barely above a faint whisper. So faint, in fact, that the blond-haired boy nearly missed it. "I've never been in here before." Jason was surprised, and he gave her a sidelong glance as he made the trek towards the much smaller table that was set up for them.

"Really?" he asked.

"Yeah," the fallen healing angel replied, her eyes as wide as saucers as she struggled to take everything in, "These angels have been closely acquainted with one or more of the Archangels. This is like the executive board. Me being a bit of a troublemaker, I was never able to work my way up."

"Oh," was all Jason could say in reply, for they'd just taken their seats. He felt like he was under a magnifying glass as one hundred sets of eyes watched him. The Metatron rose, hushing the slight murmurs that'd been present ever since the humans and fallen angels had arrived, and the whole hall went deadly silent.

"We have arrived here to issue a quest of immense proportions to our heroes," he announced, his rich, booming voice echoing throughout the chamber. His gaze raked over everyone, and Jason could only barely suppress a shiver as he saw just how much power and intelligence glittered within them. "Perseus, if you will." The head angel sat down and nervously a black-haired head rose above the rest. He heard Annabeth inhale sharply, though he really couldn't blame her; Perseus looked absolutely gorgeous. Heck, Jason had even let go of his ego to admit that he would never look as handsome as Perseus did then.

His hair was tousled, reminding Jason of that angel from Supernatural; it was so ruffled that it actually seemed intentional. Chiseled features like that of a Greek statue were turned towards them as he regarded his friends with a calm, measured stare, and his green eyes glittered. In the light they'd lost their sea green color, instead assuming a vibrant shade that was more akin to the color of emeralds, and his skin was tan and smooth, not even the slightest blemish in sight. There was, however, a drop of blood on his collar, and it made the human slightly concerned. That fact was smothered by Jason's dark jealousy, but then again Perseus was an angel in the literal sense. His angelic demeanor was only boosted as he boasted a white outfit, with his large black wings adding incredible contrast to the starkness. Was it just Jason's imagination or did he see a ring of light around Perseus' head? Heck, all of the angels had faint halos, and Jason felt dumb for not noticing them before.

"We have gathered here to discuss a matter of incredible importance," the messenger angel boomed, sounding sure. Confident. "This matter is due to the disappearance of our five Archangels; Raphael, Gabriel, Azrael, Uriel, and most of all, Michael," a pause as tension crackled through the air like lightning, or that could've just been the angels of nature in the room, who literally had tiny thunderclouds swirling over their heads like cartoons. "There are many, many problems going on in Heaven, and representatives from each group of angels will come forward to state them. I'll go first. I am, was, Archangel Michael's messenger, however Archangel Gabriel's absence renders me and other messengers unable to be granted safe passage from Heaven to Heaven." He saw the confused looks on the humans' faces and explained, "Gabriel's magical aura was what allowed messenger angels to have a free pass to all of the Heavens; most angels who go to different Heavens have to pass through security checkpoints and whatnot, but Gabriel's magic made sure that we got a special pass so we wouldn't be late when delivering messages. Now, we have to go through the old fashioned way, and it takes incredible amounts of time." Perseus sat, and now that he'd shown his face it was easier to find him among the many other ones. In his stead a scarecrow-like, pale angel of death rose to state his problems.

He looked strikingly like Nico, and Jason was thrown for a loop at Nico's shocked murmur of, "Dad?" The fallen angel's father, however, didn't acknowledge his son's existence, and Jason found that Percy's father was there, too, though he kept casting withering glares in Jason's direction. It figures; the blond had been the one to chop off Percy's wings and get them into this whole mess in the first place.

"Without Archangel Azrael," Hades announced, "death is crumbling around us. He could handle swathes of souls that have outlived their time on Earth, but now that he's missing it leaves us death angels struggling to keep up with the massive amount of humans that are expiring. Heck, this Jason Grace kid was supposed to die two weeks before Perseus came to fetch him!" The human seemed to have forgotten how to breathe. In sudden revelation he recalled the dream he'd had just a few days before Perseus's arrival, and how the Archangel had burst into light before he could take Jason to Heaven with him. He clutched Piper's hand tightly until he was pretty sure that her circulation was cut off, his knuckles turning white, along with the rest of his expression. His friends as well as a few angels cast him pitying and rather concerned glances, and Jason only paled further, though he didn't say a word. The Metatron saw the discomfort amongst the angels and humans and quickly motioned for the other angels to get moving.

The fire angels needed Uriel to help deal with casting angels out of Heaven.

The healing angels were running out of supplies from Raphael, who was the only one who could create certain but necessary ingredients.

Angels of nature needed Michael's help to regulate the climate; the thunderstorms in the second Heaven got so out of hand that lightning struck John the Baptist.

A guardian whose human charge had just died explained how they needed Archangel Gabriel to assign others to new human charges, and to help care for the souls in the Guph.

Basically, Heaven was crap.

"We have a source, however," the Metatron;s voice rose above the frantic babble of panicked angels. "A demon has agreed to help us for a sum of money, and he goes by the name of Octavian."

"Octavian?!" all of the former Golden Swords gasped, leaping out of their seats. When they were in the angel hunting business he'd mysteriously disappeared without a trace, and at the time they'd thought he'd confronted an Archangel. That theory, however, was a weak one since they'd learned from Percy how much the Archangels kept to Heaven.

"You know what happened to him?" she cried. "He'd disappeared!"

"Yes, and his soul was viciously ripped out of his body by another group of demons and thrust into Hell, where he was corrupted and eventually emerged as the same species as those who put him there," the Metatron replied as if it were no biggie. "But the question is, are you up for the challenge?" Jason became impossibly paler, the death angel's words still ringing in his ears, but he steeled himself. With one long look exchanged between the ten friends, they turned back to the angelic court.

"We'll do it."

-Ω-

(A/N) MORE UPDATES YAY

Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson AT ALL and this is just a fanfiction that uses the names for your entertainment.