Percy:

A-not-so fine reunion with my father in his Palace and more answers

Once again, I had to visit my father's palace in the sea under bad circumstances but it looked good for once. My brother Tyson was out with a patrol so he was not able to come see that I was here yet but I could wait. This matter was much more pressing and had to be dealt with first before I could have any charming family reunions. Amphitrite welcomed us into the Palace once we arrived and even made it dry for my friends to walk around.

"Hello Percy, may I be introduced to your friends?" Amphitrite asked. "Sure, this is my friend Annabeth, daughter of Athena. This is Thalia, daughter of Zeus and lieutenant of the Hunters of Artemis and this is Gabriel, lieutenant of the Hera cabin but truly a son of you-know-who," I answered. She knew who I was talking about by the look I probably wore, which whispered the name Kronos to her.

"Ah, the son of Kronos and we meet at last! I do not understand why but I have always absent whenever you have been in my palace," Amphitrite stated, startled that the son of Kronos was here. "Maybe Poseidon willed it that way, you should ask him next time you two are alone," Gabriel replied. "Percy, allow me to show you to your father and your friends can wait in the lobby while you discuss business with him," Amphitrite requested.

Besides Gabriel, everyone looked like they needed my assurance that everything was probably going to be all right. "Don't try and assure me that you'll be all right, I already know it without even needing oracular vision," Gabriel replied to me. They gathered in the lobby where a feast was being prepared for them as they sat down to enjoy it. Let me tell you, my friend Grover would have been all over this food if he had seen it and so would I if I could stay for it.

Everything was blue, the way I liked it, even the candy that came with it at the end. Blue ham, blue cheese (and I don't mean that stuff that looks like it has a lot of mold in it), blue everything like I had said before. Soon, I arrived at my father's throne room after traveling through some winding hallways and arriving at a door that looked like it took ten Cyclopes to open. After I went inside, I said hello to my dad and asked him what he needed us to do for him.

"Oceanus, the Titan of the oceans and seas, has aroused his wife Tethys and colleague Nereus to his side in another attempt to take the throne of the oceans once again. I need you and your friends to find where he is staying and either try to settle this score and get his rebellion silenced or you silence him entirely," my dad explained.

"But why silence him when we can negotiate a treaty with him?" I asked. "Because then I would show weakness by relinquishing some of my realm back to its old ruler. I am either going to destroy him or I am going to give him back his realm and I am not about to do the latter," my dad answered. To me, that didn't clear things up much better but I guess sin the long run, I was better off not knowing the full story.

"Oh Percy, if you're worried about fighting Oceanus or having to kill him then turn him over to your friend Gabriel for execution. He's killed Titans before with little to no effort whatsoever," my dad blurted out suddenly. I already knew about Gabriel's quest for revenge thanks to Annabeth but that was something I had never heard before. Maybe it had to do with the dream I had last night with me being another man and having to leave a woman behind.

"That's right Percy, ask him why he is still in the service of the Special Five in spite of the fact that they promised him a chance at revenge, five years ago," my dad said. I thanked him for the suggestion and assured him that either way, Oceanus would be dealt with before too long. "I hope so boy, I sure to hope so," my dad said.

I returned to my friends after that, briefed them on the mission, then created a bubble of air so that we could all travel to Oceanus' rebuilt palace. Along the way, I ran into conflict about whether I should or shouldn't ask Gabriel why he was still in service to the gods. Then I decided to wait until we were alone to ask him and hopefully find out why he was still in service. Unfortunately, my opportunity came a little too soon because we arrived at Oceanus' Palace in a few minutes and then it was time to split up.

Our plan was to encircle Oceanus from all directions with Thalia and Annabeth going one way while Gabriel and I took another. It was here that I decided to ask why he was still in the service, apparently against his will from what my father said. "So Gabe, can you tell me why you still serve the gods if you wish only to leave and kill Prometheus on your own terms?" I asked. He looked at me like he was as likely to run me through his swords as to tell me then calmed down and decided it was better getting it off his chest.

"It began almost a year ago when I found this suit of armor that I presently wear on my body," he started. "I found it in the ruins of Troy as part of a mission to take the remaining riches of Troy from the ruin that the Greeks had left behind after the war. By this time, anything of value was likely to have been buried under sand for at least three thousand years but I found the armor in the remains of the Trojan Palace. Using the powers of a jewel I had at that time, I summoned a battalion of Trojan soldiers to cover my exit when my father Kronos had sent two thousand undead soldiers to stop me.

"After I escaped, I discovered the armor's defense capacities and was so blown away that I decided to use it to make the world a better place for mankind to live in. For four months, I fought against crime with the armor unnoticed and unvisited by my present mistress, Hera. After that, I tried to live out a normal life and forget about my grudge against Prometheus. I figured that it was time to let go of that childish hatred and carve out a new existence for myself in spite of having no family.

"I was one of those citizens in Turkey who married young and had a wonderful wife. She was two months pregnant when Hera returned for me and demanded that I return to service. If I did, my crime of bailing out of my service would be forgiven and my wife would go unharmed. However, if I did not return to service then she would see to it that my crime pursued me even after death and she would make me killed my wife as well as the little one inside her. I would normally have not submitted to Hera since she was my half-sister and I did not deserve this but because I love my wife too much, I agreed to go back into service under her wing.

"Believe it or not Percy but I'm actually overdue for the end of my service. I made up the four months of my absence first then served the final eight months of my expected servitude to Hera. But she has refused to let me go, even when she and four other gods swore that I would serve them for five years (one for each year) in return for a chance at revenge against Prometheus," he explained. "Have Hestia, Helios, Eos, or Selene spoken out against her?" I asked.

"They've tried but at present, the four of them can do nothing directly against her. So they're trying to consult Zeus and have him tell her to release me since she always answers to him in the end," Gabriel answered. "I hope it all works out to help you later on and if you need anything from me, Thalia, or Annabeth, please do not hesitate to ask," I said. "I need something of you right now: duck your head right now because Oceanus is launching a cannonball against us," Gabriel replied.

I obeyed and he did the same as me, seeing a cannonball (sure enough) whistle over us. "Talk about a trap that you don't see until it's too late," I said rhetorically. "There's a good reason Annabeth calls you Seaweed Brain, isn't that true?" Gabriel teased. I nodded in agreement and soon we arrived to the throne room of Oceanus' underwater palace.

Annabeth and Thalia had already reached the front of the throne and were trying to distract Oceanus from our presence. But just when we were about to attack, his wife Tethys saw us alerted her husband to our presence. Nereus cowered away from me since I had defeated him before and tried to take on Annabeth. Meanwhile, Tethys tried to take me on and Gabriel moved in behind Oceanus while Thalia attacked him head on.

And just when we thought we had victory, Oceanus, Tethys, and Nereus joined hands. At first, I thought they were gonna sing a song but then Tethys and Nereus began to glow with a light I had never seen before. After that, they fell to the ground and were obviously dead from how they were positioned as well as the fact that they turned to water. I knew because that's what my father told me when I asked him about what happens to sea gods when they died but Oceanus looked thrilled.

"Great, he's combined the power of himself, Tethys, and Nereus all in one body. As if fighting the three of them individually wasn't bad enough," Gabriel stated. "Yes son of Kronos, I have done just that and now I will destroy all four of you!" Oceanus shouted. "If I were you Annabeth, I'd take Percy and try to flank him at both sides," Gabe whispered.

She nodded and called me to go to the right of Oceanus while she took the left. Thalia would sneak behind and Gabe would take him directly this time and boy was it a strategy. For a long time it worked, especially with Gabe pounding the Titan's head in with the powers of a god up there in power with my dad or even my uncle Zeus. Thalia took him down from the rear, stabbing from behind his knees.

Annabeth and I struck at his side just beneath the underarm whenever we could. It seemed to bring him down quickly but then he called in his army that had originally been sent to attack my dad's palace. Soon, we were surrounded by thousands of undead soldiers then Gabe took a flare that Amphitrite had given him and ignited it, sending it into the oceans above the palace. "What did you do that for?" I asked.

"If we can trust Amphitrite to her word, it should send your brother Tyson and his army of Cyclops from anywhere in the ocean to help us. Might I add that they will also be coming at a high velocity and arrive here in a few minutes if she keeps true to her word?" Gabe answered. I nodded and thought that that was not a bad idea to consider since it was probably the only one we could consider to keep ourselves alive.

Oceanus lied where he had fallen, wounded and coughing up ichor. "Gabriel Johnson, yours are definitely the powers of Kronos but I cannot let you live. My army is here to ensure that you never escape but I wish to finish you off myself," the Titan said. "You can't fight with the leg wound Thalia gave you, you know that right?" Gabe asked.

"Mighty is the power of Prometheus though nothing like your father's power. Master, command the oceans to give me one last surge of power to finish them!" Oceanus shouted. At first, nothing happened then Prometheus responded by appearing in person although he did not look too happy about it. "Master, aid me now as I once aided you in your flight to the Olympians," Oceanus begged.

"However thankful I may be for that you have failed me and you know the punishment for failure, don't you?" Prometheus asked. Oceanus looked frightened and rightfully so as Prometheus produced a fireball in his hand and threw it at his fellow Titan's head. In an instant, a massive chunk of Oceanus' head was gone and he died almost instantly. All that remained of the Titan of the seas was just a massive pool of water by the time that his death was complete and official.

"As for all these soldiers, I think I'll see if they can take the glory in striking all four of you down. Especially you son of Kronos since it seems you won't be taking up the chance to take your father's place and be better than him anytime soon," Prometheus said. "I would sooner die than be your figurehead and indirectly continue your hold of the Titans until it was time for me to be disposed of," Gabe hissed. "So be it, soldiers of Orthys, destroy them!" Prometheus ordered.

Before leaving, he added that it was such a pity Gabe would not be joining the Titans since he would have spared me, Annabeth, and Thalia if he did. "They could become your slaves and you could have your way with the girls with nary a worry or care. Wouldn't that be a nice change from being walked all over by the gods of Olympus?" Prometheus mocked before leaving at last. "Imagine the day when Prometheus fights his own battles, wouldn't that be a sight?" Gabe asked the empty air.

"Well, while you are furious at the fact that Prometheus is a coward and I agree, I don't think that it's going to get us out of this. Unless your words could magically destroy these undead soldiers, draconae, and demons," Annabeth said. "Form in a tight circle, we can defend each other that way," Thalia ordered. "Yeah but how would we get out of it, might I ask?" I asked.

"Does the phrase 'Element of Surprise' comes to mind, Seaweed Brain?" Thalia answered. I held Riptide close as Thalia put up her shield Aegis in front of herself and Gabe pointed his swords in opposite directions. Annabeth extended her knife with the blade in front like I extended Riptide to face the enemy. Nonetheless, the hordes of the Titans were getting bolder since their sheer number kept us from escaping.

"What now geniuses?" Thalia asked. "Working on it," Annabeth answered. "Already have an answer and we'll have to act on the count of three, we're gonna be running fast," Gabe said. We all turned in his direction, which was closer to the door out of the throne room and waited for him to count to three.

When he did count to three, he sent out a pulse of telekinesis that cleared a path far enough for us to reach the door. We ran as soon as he did that and headed for the door faster than we had ever run before. Unfortunately, we were stopped from completing our exit by the fact that these soldiers were quick to recover their grasp on us before we escaped. "Talk about a failed attempt to escape in the fashion of a James Bond film," Annabeth said.

"Percy, where the hell is your brother when we need him? Is he on his coffee break or something?" Gabe asked. I shrugged but then, I felt the ground beneath us shake.