A/N: So, it has been a really long time since my last update. Sorry about that, it's just that I was busy with a whole lot of other stuff and not to mention that I hit a bit of writer's block with regards to this fanfic.

Lachesis felt a bit of dread climb into here heart. The boy had escaped, and it was clear that the prophecy was unravelling. The worst part was the drowsiness that was clouding up here head. It had a been a very long time since she had been so active, and now she wanted nothing more than to sleep just like Clothos and Atropos were. Initially her mind rebelled against such an idea, after all, there was someone who needed to be captured.

But slowly yet surely this all gave way and she though to herself that a few minutes wouldn't hurt too much. As she crept into the room where her sisters were, however, she noticed that the other two were awake. Of course, she had known that Atropos had awoken, because while trying to capture Crius she had been the one who told her to capture him alive for some reason. A reason that she had never made clear.

Atropos looked about the same as Clothos, both of them could have been majestic but they mainly looked like old grannies who had just woken up from their naps. Atropos yawned, then stopped it mid-way to say,

"Where is he?" Clothos reached for the threads above them and silenced a string, a hapless hero, and feasted on the fruit that dribbled down from it. Atropos paid no attention to her.

"He... escaped," Lachesis said. There was a slight tremor in her voice, despite it all, she was still slightly terrified of Atropos. Atropos was the cruelest of the them, and had also been the one who had led the assault on their master long ago at the dawn of time.

Atropos looked disgusted. "Oh well. I wanted his sword, and if he doesn't unlock its full potential it will be difficult to remove it from him. We should let him live until then. However, keep the boy on his toes. The more he fights, the more of his sword he'll use. Then we kill him and pry it from his hands."

"But, there is the First Prophecy," Lachesis said. "What if he finds out the true power of the sword and somehow through some event defeats us-"

Atropos's eyes flared. Defeat was not something that she would agree to, after all, she was the most powerful entity in the universe. Who would dare attack them? "We will take him when he is just ready," Atropos said. She then did something that was like a hybrid between a yawn and a snarl. She then got up. "I will send some monsters after him for now." Then, her eyes became cold. "But you, however, have failed me too may times. You should have told me when the Circuit reacted in the first place."

Atropos then shifted. Her entire face seemed to melt, and her body expanded, and the only thing that remained constant was the cruelty in those two eyes.

Crius wasn't too happy with the way things were turning out. For one, he had somehow managed to get wrapped up with yet another god, and now he was supposed to go on some sort of quest?

Crius glanced towards the ruin that was the Argos. Suddenly, his eyes seemed to tear up and he had to look away, and when he looked back he was staring at something else entirely. For one, the ship had somehow moved twenty feet and was close to the water. Secondly, the entire thing had been redone. The wood had all been replace and the moss washed away, and now the thing was absolutely pristine. Except of course there was the fact that it didn't look entirely like it had before, there were small gemstones embedded all over the place so that it looked kind of like a Barbie ship for some reason.

"Are you just going to go along with this?" Crius asked Jason. The guy also had seemed to change, as if he'd taken a shower and actually brushed his teeth. He was dressed in some sort of weird mixture of what looked like a toga and armor.

"If only I had still had Anaklusmos," Jason muttered under his breath.

"Hello!" Crius shouted. This guy was really getting to him. He had agreed to the whole thing without even asking Crius and still wasn't giving any useful information.

"What?" Jason asked.

"Why'd you agree to do this whole thing?" Crius asked. Jones, meanwhile, was checking out the ship. It seemed that Crius was the only one who had a problem with this.

"Isn't it obvious?" Jason said. "I've spent millennia staring at the sea hoping that one day, just once, I could go ahead and get back what was mine. I remember when I used to be a favorite of the gods, when I travelled across the land and was hailed as a hero. You've seen what I was reduced to though, haven't you? This is my last and perhaps my only chance at glory, even though it seems my ship has been turned a bit too girly for my taste."

Crius still wasn't sure about the whole thing. For one, how could he trust Jason? Hercules had tried to execute him the moment the gods had offered him respite from wherever he had been trapped, and wasn't Jason basically doing all of this for his own glory? What if Zeus suddenly gave him an offer he couldn't refuse?

Just then, Crius felt a tug near where his sword was. He felt an irresistible desire to look towards the left, and watched as a flock of ravens (was flock even the right collective noun? Oh well, that didn't matter). Somehow, the way they flew formed letters in his head which said: GO WITH HIM.

A message from Hades, Crius realized. He then sighed, he guessed he was going to go see this hermit dude or whatever who live in the Rockies. Then again, where were they and just how far were the Rockies?

"How are we going to travel?" Crius asked. Crius gazed out towards the sea, and somehow he realized that if the went out through a sea route Poseidon would sink them, regardless of how they had been helped before. But then again, traveling using the Argos through air would be just as dangerous.

Crius then felt another sort of tugging sensation in his stomach. It was coming from his sword again, and this time as he looked towards the sea the waves seemed to melt and for an instant said: TAKE TO THE AIR.

Was Poseidon really helping him? Crius wondered. Or maybe he just didn't want to destroy Crius, but would have to if Crius wandered into his domain. But then again, maybe Poseidon had joined forces with Zeus and wanted to lead Crius into a trap.

"We go by air of course," Jason said like it should have been obvious.

"Won't that anger-" Crius almost said before he cut himself off. Jason didn't know about the whole deal and what had been going on. Crius figured it wouldn't be right to tell him about it yet.

All through their voyage, Crius kept glancing around them nervously. He expected a lightning bolt to come at any time and cleave the ship in two, sending them spiraling towards their deaths. But nothing happened. The sky remained clear and sunny for the most part. It was then that Crius realized why going by air was the better option. For all he knew, Hades and Zeus were still talking, fighting really, and that would have taken Zeus's attention away from the ship for now. Not to mention that Jason was the one piloting the ship, and for all that Crius knew, trying to detect him wouldn't be easy. If they were lucky, Zeus wouldn't notice. Lucky... Fortuna, was she somehow shielding them from Zeus's gaze?

The trip was a bit better after Crius relaxed a bit and he just mainly stood around with Jones yammering about various things about ships which Crius really didn't understand but somehow just listening to him made him happy. Jason on the other hand, was trying to destroy whatever monsters came aboard the ship. Though none of them were demigods except Jones and he really didn't count since he was dead, the Argos gave off enough energy to draw monsters anyway.

Of course they never came in huge hoards or stuff like that. There was a rogue pegasus which came on board and stomped all over Crius's enchiladas which he had made from stuff he had found in the fridge, some storm spirits, but nothing much more than that.

"We're getting close to our destination," Jason said, which Crius found odd since Fortuna had never really told them exactly where they were supposed to go.

The ship started descending pretty fast, and for a moment Crius was sure that they were going to crash into the side of the mountain, but Jason was better at steering than they had expected. They landed near a small ridge, and as Crius got off he realized that this couldn't be some normal place. Maybe that was how Jason knew that this was were they had to land.

For one, it didn't feel chilly at all despite how high up they were from the ground. The mountain air felt fresh, and there was lush greenery all around, definitely not something normally seen in the Rockies. Not to mention that the place just felt special somehow, and there were a lot of plants that Crius was sure didn't belong in the Northern Hemisphere.

Suddenly though, he felt a chill creep down his spine. He could tell that Jason was feeling it too. Jones was just running around, so maybe dead spirits didn't feel it.

Sure, Zeus may have been too occupied to notice, but Crius was sure that the other Olympians weren't. Maybe Demeter had come back for revenge, or Ares, or maybe this was just one of those random monster hordes that appeared on quests sometimes.

"Guard the ship," Crius told Jason. "I'm the one who has to go see the hermit. Wait for me."

Jason was probably going to protest, mainly about taking orders from Crius, but Crius was already gone. He just somehow knew where he was supposed to go.

After a period of running, he came upon a clearing and a small pond. Near the pond, sitting on a small stone slab was person meditating. He looked like those ancient masters in those Chinese kung-fu movies. He was wearing a simple dark tunic, and he looked neither young nor old, but the most amazing thing was how peaceful he looked. It was as if all the worries of the world had somehow been washed away from him. Crius almost felt envious, would he ever be able to experience peace like that?

"Welcome Crius," the man said. He opened his eyes and Crius saw that the irises were clear, this man was blind.

"How do you know my name?" Crius asked. It seemed like an insignificant question, but he just had to ask it.

"I have seen you many times," the man said. "Though my eyesight is gone, I still see much with my mind's eye. You will now ask my name, but I have many, though most simply call me the Blind Sage of Ishtar. There may be many questions on your mind about me, but quell them for now. You do not have time for them."

"What is all of this about?" Crius asked. His head had been full of too many things to ask something more specific than that.

"You ask a question which has a long answer," the Blind Sage said. "I will, however, start at the beginning for your questions. Perhaps I cannot tell you all that you want to know, but for now, it will have to suffice."