Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Percy Jackson series, books, or characters.
A/N: Finally I am able to update. I am sorry for not doing it sooner but I was kind of busy with school work and stuff and since I have a part time job now it is harder to find time to write but I am starting to write again and I am hoping to get a few more updates in for my stories before the new year.
Enjoy the chapter
-Peter (PerseusJFAN1016)
POV: Percy
"Percy! Please wake up!" Nico shook me and I grabbed his arm to stop him from breaking my neck.
"What is it Nico? How come it is always you or Luke causing trouble?" I grumbled
"Percy!" Both Nico and Luke exclaimed and I rose my hands in surrender
"So what is so important that you needed to wake me up?" I asked glancing around, doing a quick sweep of the area.
"Clarisse is gone..." Nico trailed off as my eyes narrowed.
"No... no, no, NO!" I nearly shouted
"I am sorry Percy but neither Luke or myself know why she is gone. We both though she was outside training but she wouldn't answer any of our shouts for her. I think maybe they have her." Nico whispered
"No, come on guys that is almost impossible." I reasoned but I was fighting a losing battle. I knew better than this even if we did have time to search for her the quest had to come first. Now I knew what sacrifice meant. Losing quest memebers was to be expected I just didn't have the heart to think that I would happen on my very first one. I knew what I had to do. Leaving Clarisse would be hard but I had to for the better of the world. If not then we might as well all just give up now. "Guys, you might nto lke this but we are going. I am sorry but we don't have time to waste. Already we only have a short amount of time." Luke nodded slowly whiel Nico just left to get his bags. I looed down upon the floor in shame. I hoped Clarisse could forgive me. I promised myself that then and there if I every come out of the quest alive then I would go looking for her. I then realised that my pets were missing... both Zeus and Hades.
"So where are we headed now?" I nearly jumped out of my skin, I was drawn out of my inner musing by Luke's voice.
"I suppose we would continue in Alaska and try to find Poseidon. Maybe then he can help us later on in the quest for the Bolt and Helm." I stiffly responded
"Okay, then I guess we should be heading on our way now..." Nico appeared before me, after jumping out of a shadow.
"Sure" I said as I repacked the tent and stuffed it into my bag. I checked the car and after a quick inspection I found that the car was warm and the tank was empty. "Did any of you use the car?" I inquired glaring at both of them as they shook their heads in denial. Strange indeed. "Ahh ha!" I exclaimed as I found a pair of some kind of footprints I hoped. But of course the world hates me and the tacks lead to a tree and I spotted the squirrel that must have left the prints. "Damn" I muttered
"What the hell?!" Luke yelled suddenly and I glanced up, to find Nico in the grip of a gryphon.
"Percy!" He yelled
"Damn it!" I swore and jumped up and ripped open Riptide. I slashed at the gryphon who jumped out fo the way. "Shit" I swore as the gryphon started to fly away with Nico. I quickly shadow travelled and landed on top of the gryphon holding Nico and with my bare hands I strangled the thing. We were dropping at a dangerous pace, spiraling towards the ground. I grabbed Nico and made a dive for the nearby stream and luckily we landed perfectly right in the middle, the water cusioning our fall. I quickly commanded the air in the water to gather around us and in an air bubble, Nico and I floated to the surface.
"Thank the gods you two are alright." Luke seemed generally concerned actually. I mean he should have known better me being the son of Hades... and Poseidon (shudder).
"Lighten up Lukie, it is not like anything could actually happen." I teased "Besides I don't think the gods would let me die just yet, I have a feeling that daddy would bring me back if I did." Luke rolled his eyes at this statement and I dashed out of the water and shot water into his open mouth.
"Damn, I hate you sometimes Percy." He sputtered trying to rid his mouth of the water. Just for fun I did it again but this time adding fish to the combination and quickly snapped a picture.
"Hahahahahaha!" Nico was on the ground clutching his sides from laughing, at Luke's expression of outrage.
But in the event of us laughing I didn't realise someone had snuck up on us in the shadows. I started to turn around when I felt a large cold hand grip my shoulder, but I was suddenly frozen from moving anything but my face.
"Very good, Perseus, I see you have gotten stronger from the last time I saw you." My heart filled with dread there was only one person, immortal, or living being, with that voice.
"Grandfather, nice to see you to." I spat in his general direction.
"Why Perseus is that anyway to great a beloved family member? I mean I only tried to kill you once." he replied, his hand was now off my shoulder and he was again in the shadows. "Anyways aside from visiting you now for the fun of it... I wanted to talk with you about Clarisse." No! Please tell me she didn't do what I was thinking she did. "I am afraid so grandson. Clarisse indeed join the titans and it was her who stole the lightning bolt and the helm of darkness from the foolish gods."
"You liar! Clarisse would never do that!" I wanted so much to have proof that she was innocent but I was coming up empty.
"They are all the same. Always in denial at first but then they will come around. Perseus get used to it, she doesn't care and she never will care. In the end the only reason she got close to you was because she wanted a chance to end your life but after I commanded her not to she slipped away to rejoin my forces." Suddenly a flash of golden light erupted which was followed by a sea green one. "You can have them back and the bolt and the helm are now safely stored in your backpack." The voice of Kronos trialed off and Poseidon appeared in the sea green light. Two seconds later both Hades and Zeus appeared right next to the gods of the seas.
It was obvious that Poseidon was not in the best of health but I had seen worse. I was suspicious though why on earth would Kronos return the weapons to the gods? Why give back Poseidon, if they could torture him further?
This should be happening. Everything was going great up until five-ten minutes ago. Up until Clarisse left us and joined the dark side as she had done a long time ago apparently. I refused to believe this though. I knew I was in denial. All of the facts were straight and made sense, no wonder she never became close to many people before. But I couldn't blame her. I suppose I could understand where she came from. The gods hardly even recognized their kids. But the truth of Clarisse's betrayal was a hard shot to my heart. I needed some way to deal with this but I was helpless. I needed support but right now I didn't know who to trust. I knew my dad was trustworthy but I didn't know how to tell him without making Clarisse seem like the bad guy, even though in this case she was.
"Percy?" A soft voice questioned
"Yes?"
"What are we going to do now?"
" I don't know. I think we should help Poseidon. Then we can continue on the quest for the missing items." And on cue the missing items materialized in front of me. I snatched it and put it quickly in my bag. But I couldn't help the feeling of shame. I wasn't able to finish the quest properly. It didn't feel right. It was easy but I didn't feel satisfied.
Poseidon started to groan and I rushed over. I didn't really care about him but he would be a huge asset to beating the titans. I stared down at the god who didn't even bother to IM me when I was a child to set up dates to meet. He after all promised but he never remembered I suppose and eventually I gave up on the thought of bonding with my birth father and just accepted Hades as my new and offical daddy.
"Percy... please I didn't mean to throw you off. I wanted to spend time but my wife, she forbad me to meet with you and it hurt my heart to see you so hurt but I couldn't disobey her. I love her Percy, she is everything to me." Poseidon apologized but a flash of hate flashed through my eyes.
" I don't give a damn Poseidon. You're the god of the seas. If you wanted to meet with me then you could but your chose not to and that is what angers me. Just accept the fact that your brother, Hades, replaced you and you will never be my father." I spat out. It was hurtful but the truth. Anyways being a son of Hades my fatal flaw was holding grudges. I was no longer the loyal child I had once been. Life in the underworld changed that for me. The loyal child was now replaced with a cold hearted killer to enemies and strangers. But under the cold hearted killer I was a lonely soul that was desperate for company. To friends and family I was kind and sweet, although I did pull many funny jokes if I may say so myself.
"Percy, please I am really sorry. I now know that I mae a mistake and I truly regreat doing that to you." He was literally begging on the ground now.
"Poseidon save your breathe. I am not going to forgive you. Don't even bother, I couldn't careless about you right now. Now shut up so then I can heal you and we can bring back the stolen items and you are gone from my life a while." I snapped irritated. Poseidon's mouth snapped shut and I smirked and quickly healed him. " I don't know how to get out of here. Can you flash us out?" I asked. Poseidon concentrated for a moment and glowed in sea green light but he reappeared looking rather annoyed.
"I am sorry but it appears I can't." Great I though to myself. Just what I needed, being stick with the very god I despised, in Alaska, where we couldn't just flash out. Wait a minute. "Nico can you grab Poseidon and try to shadow travel out of here, when I say?"
"Um, sure but I don't see how this is going to work"
"Just do what I say." I grabbed Luke's arm and then grabbed Poseidon's. "Now" I gritted my teeth. I could feel the familiar tug of my gut but the shadows did not gather around me like usual. "Damn." Well it was worth a try.
"I suppose we could just try and get a jet to get out of here." Luke offered and I nodded
"Where are we going to get a jet?" I snapped and my gazed fell upon Zeus and Hades. That was it! The powers of Alaska shouldn't affect the powers of Hades and Zeus. "Poseidon and Nico please get on Hades." I ordered and pulled Luke towards Zeus. Zeus's claws where digging into the soil, his' excitement getting the better of him. "Calm" I pleded. I really didn' t want to be thrown off if he decided to do a few loop de loops. He automaticly started to calm down and he spread his leg out in invitation to climb on. I took a running start and softly landed slightly towards the front of his back. Luke shook his head in disapointment and he took the easier and softer way to climb up the eagle.
"Percy, since Hades is your father, do you think that Zeus would allow you to fly in the air without trying to destroy you?" Luke started to drawl on and on but I wasn't listening right now. All I could think about was getting back in the air and away from Poseidon and the problems of the world. "Percy?"
"Sorry, I was kind of out of it. If you know what I mean." I took a look at Nico and Poseidon. It was obvious they where both at the epitone of uncomfortable but sooner or later they would be seperated.
"Percy, what do we do now?" Poseidon askd werrily from Hades' back. Geez I thought that I had been very straight forward with this.
"If you where listening then you would know that you and Nico are going to shadow travel back to Olympus via Hades and Luke and I are going to be flying. With my power over the winds I am going to help Zeus fly quickly and we should arrive quickly, although you might take a little longer because it takes longer for Hades to shadow travel you because you aren't part of the shadows."I explained and with that Hades jumped into the shadows and Zeus took off into the sky.
I was totally at peace with myself. The wind in my hair, the feeling of peace and calm. This was one of the places in which I felt toally at home and comfortable. I completly forgot about the dangers of the mission, of Kronos, and of all my fear. I let out all of my fears and completly felt the peace and refused to let anything bother me. But of course this had to end withing a few mintues and I arrived at Olympus shortly after. I waited outside of the throne room. The quest wouldn't be complete until I returned with Poseidon and the weapons. Unfortunatly, Poseidon was with Nico but I didn't really want him to come with me in the air with Zeus. Anyways I am pretty sure that the real Zeus would blast Poseidon out of the air for even trying to fly.
"Percy!" Nico appeared on Hades and he jumped off and ran forward to force me into a tight knit hug. "Oh my gods that was the worst three or four mintues of my life." He exclaimed and Poseidon shot him a glare. I opened the doors to Olympus and the entire Olympian counsel was there. Even Camp Half-Blood.
"Percy, I am so glad that you found the weapons. Why the long face my boy?" Chiron galloped up to me.
"Chiron, there was something off about this quest. It was too quick and easy for me to finish, Kronos literally gave me the weapons to give to the gods. Something is not right and after the meeting I am going to figure this out." I blurted out as he leaned down so I could talk in his ear. He nodded to show that he understood and I walked towards the gods gathered in the middle. I knelt at Zeus' feet and presented him with the lightning bolt.
"Usually I would blast a son of Poseidon or Hades out of the sky but I will make an exception to the rule for you." He grunted and I took that as a compliment.
" Daddy!" I ran over and Hades opened his arms just in time to catch me.
"Percy! My darling boy. Do you have my helm?" He asked. I knew he didn't mean to sound desperate but he had never went so long without the helm.
"Or course daddy, the helm was one of the only reason I went on the quest after all." I cried into his shoulder. I had missed him terribly. "But I need to talk with you about something really important later" I whispered.
"So boy. I need to you tell me of what you found on the quest." Zeus commanded and I jumped out of my father's arms. I went to bow infront of the gods again and rose to my full height.
"On the quest I found Kronos..." I began. And then it happened.