Chapter 6: You Aren't Alone

Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians, that honour goes with Rick Riordan. Neither do I own any of the characters mentioned.

Delos Island 3 Days After the Minotaur Attack and Jason's Return: Percy's POV

My name is Percy Jackson. I am 16 years old. I live in, or used to live in downtown Manhattan and attended Goode high school up until three days ago. I lived with my mom, Sally, and my step dad Paul.

This is a routine I started to do the morning after we landed on the island. I now tell myself what I know is real and everyday I add more and more sentences onto the list. That was the day after we landed on Delos, now I have a load more information to add and it's only two days later.

My name is Percy Jackson. I am 16 years old. I live in, or used to live in downtown Manhattan and attended Goode high school up until three days ago. I lived with my mom, Sally, and my step dad Paul. A bunch of moms old "friends" stayed over night 4 days ago and in the morning my apartment was attacked. A minotaur, the one from Greek mythology had attacked my living room and destroyed it. It along with a dozen other monsters were destroyed by the new visitors that had stayed over night. Mom's "friends" were some of the gods of Olympus, the ones straight from Greek legends and lore, the ones that weren't supposed to be real. Now I was staying with Paul (Poseidon), Heather (Hera), Andy (Apollo), Arielle (Artemis), Henry (Hephaestus). We were on Delos, an island off of Greece that was secret and sacred to the twins Apollo and Artemis. No one other than them and their most trusted priests had known about this place and considering all the priests died thousands of years ago, no one ever will.

So far that is all they have told me, I think it's in fear that anymore will overload my brain and cause me to faint again. They still haven't told me why they were in my apartment or why they fled to a secret island when just a dozen monsters attacked them, they were the gods of Olympus for crying out loud. Today they said they would make things more clear to me and explain why my apartment was destroyed and why I was taken away from home to here.

"Percy, are you awake yet?"

I can hear mom calling but a part of me just wants to just lay here all day and ignore any type of mythological events that might happen today. But I know she would see through any attempt I'd try to stay in bed so I rolled over. "Yeah, I'm awake.".

"Paul wants to see you Percy, he said it's time that you found out what happened and why it happened. Once he's done explaining you can ask questions and then you and I have the day to ourselves, they promised no interruptions. We can go to the beach, swim around or travel. Artemis and Apollo promise that there is nothing on this island that can hurt us, it's safe."

Mom had refused to call the Olympians by their real names but sticks with the names they gave her when they first arrived at the apartment. I rolled out of bed and when with mom to the amphitheater where they had decided to host all of their meetings. The 5 gods and goddesses were talking amongst themselves and only noticed our appearance when my mom cleared her throat behind them. At that everyone but Paul, Poseidon sorry, took a seat and we were told to take one as well. As we did Poseidon spoke up:

"Percy, what I am about to tell you may not register at first. All I ask is that if you have any questions, please wait until I am finished to ask me. A week before the minotaur attacked your apartment, we had arrived and asked your mother if we could stay there until we found other arrangements. I believe Sally had told you this already but she could not tell you why as you didn't know who we were. She was correct in saying that our home was destroyed, Mount Olympus is no more at the moment. Do you remember a lightening show a little more than a week ago Percy?". I did remember flashes of light a while ago which seemed odd because there was no rain so I nodded my head. "That was Zeus' master bolt, the one from the legends doing battle. Our father, as in Zeus', mine and Hades' father Kronos has risen from Tartarus and regrouped his brothers and his old allies. He has control over all the monsters that are not loyal to us, which is the vast majority of them and has gained the most powerful force in the world, Typhon. His forces had attacked Mount Olympus that day and our two other groups that we had, they had captured or destroyed all three. Mount Olympus was turned into rubble and the other two camps were captured and we do not know their state at the moment. The titans are after all sources of Olympian power, they destroyed our throne room and captured our demigod camps, we fear that they are after the underworld next. Once that happens Kronos will be able to convince Tartarus to join his side and all monsters will be unable to die. They will simply reform at the same spot they were turned to ash. Hades is currently in command of the underworld and as long as he holds the passages he will be able to keep that command. We need to be able to act before Kronos takes control of it, that is our main goal. I apologize for bringing you into this war Percy but we did not know where else to go. We will bring you home as soon as we know it's safe."

I waited a few seconds for him to say something else but apparently he as finished, I think he's waiting for any questions. "You mentioned two camps of demigods, what do you mean?"

"Demigods are children who are half mortal, half Olympian – "

"I know what demigods are, it's when a god or goddess falls for a mortal and they have children. I have only heard of one camp though and you mentioned two. What and where are they?"

"Ah, I understand now. Which camp are you familiar with?"

"The one the centaur Chiron had taught at, at least that's what the myths say."

"That is the Greek demigod camp and yes, Chiron had taught demigods for millennia there. It is, or rather was called camp Half-blood and if any Greek demigods were born, they usually found their way there eventually. It was located on Long Island, protected by enchantments to repel any monsters and humans. The titans broke through the barrier and captured the camp, we know they did not kill everyone because we still receive a prayer or two but it is still a devastating blow. Those were our children."

"What about this other camp? You make it seem like there are Greek demigods, then others?"

"The Olympians have two different personalities, most do not know this but we have our Greek form which we are appearing to you as but we also have a Roman form that was created when the Roman empire adapted the Greek belief into their own. Any children that we have when we are in our Roman form are brought to New Rome, a city that is close to Mount Orthys, formally known as Mount Tamalpais near San Francisco. The two camps are not aware of each other because every time they meet they battle; it is in their blood to fight each other to the death. The wars are not small either, the largest one you might know well. It was the American civil war and many people lost their lives. So the two camps are a distance from each other and do not know that the other exists. That should answer your question."

"I'm telling you Poseidon, now is the time to reunite the two camps. In order to beat Kronos, we need the help of all the demigods available and have them fight together.". This made me jump as I haven't heard Hera speak through the past three days, she has stayed rather quiet.

"Hera, I know how you feel but the two camps have never been at peace. Once they see each other they will remember the old stories and be at each others throats in an instant. Also, all the demigods from camp Jupiter were taken captive, even if I agreed to this we wouldn't have representatives from both camps."

"Actually...I might know of a few Romans that weren't in camp."

"Hera, what did you do? You know we aren't allowed to help out our children no matter who or what is at risk. That has always been a law."

"Poseidon, I did what I had to. I talked to Lupa and told her to take a demigod on a quest, I did not tell her why but just said that it had to be done. She had made a good choice also, she had taken one of the praetors, Jason Grace. He had taken two others with him, Frank Zhang and Jessica young. Percy, are you familiar with our Roman versions?"

This was the first time she had spoken to me directly and it took me aback a little. I was a little familiar but could use a reminder. "I do know a few, like Jupiter is Zeus, Neptune is Poseidon and you are Juno. The others are a little bit fuzzy."

"I won't go over all of them but rather the three who are parents to those three. Jason Grace is a son of Zeus, as you know Jupiter. Frank Zhang is a son of Ares, Roman form Mars. And Jessica Young is a daughter or Artemis, also called Diana. These three all have strong parents and are all good fighters, upon coming back to New Rome they should be able to recognize what has happened and retreat. It is up to us to find them."

I had realized that the last part she was talking to the other Olympians instead of me, trying to bring them round to her side. Obviously Artemis had sided with her considering her daughter Jessica was one of the three.

"I agree with Hera, we should try and find these three Romans and introduce them to that group of Greek demigods that we know about."

At this I had to ask a question even if I was interrupting them, "Wait wait wait, there is a group of Greek demigods not captured? I thought you said that camp Half-blood had been overrun?"

Poseidon answered me, "It has but some demigods were out of camp at the time of the attack. They had saw what happened and retreated, they set up a base at the Empire State Building. They had actually rescued some others from the camp that were held hostage so we know that they at least have some skilled fighters. We do not know if there are any other demigods out there though. Greek demigods anyway as we now know there is the trio of Roman's out there somewhere."

"So we just need to go out and get the demigods and bring them back here, that's all. It doesn't seem that hard to do, I mean you brought us halfway around the world in a blink of a eye. Why couldn't you do it again?"

"That is a good assumption Percy and we have considered it but this brings us to the minotaur. We have been trying to figure out how they knew where to find us and I think we finally have an answer. For so long we gods have been up against lesser beings. Immortals that are less powerful than us but these titans, they are the brethren of our father. They have power equal, maybe even greater than ours so our thought is that they had sensed our presence in Manhattan and then focussed their powers there to find our exact location. If we travelled to the Empire State Building right now, then we would be taken captive. The titans will definitely have a brother in Manhattan looking for us all the time. If we go in, then he will know we are there and go to us before we can get everyone out. Not only would we be taken but the demigods will also be taken. If we go their base is compromised and we would like it to remain as safe as possible at the moment."

"So if you can't go in, what are you going to do? You have to reunite the camps somehow."

"We still have to figure that out, is there any more questions Percy?" The question was not so much as a question but to know that there was not much else to tell me and honestly, there wasn't much else that I was wondering about. "I think that's all, thank you for telling me though." With that I got up and left, hinting to my mom to follow.

2 Hours Later

My mom and I spent the last few hours just swimming in the ocean, enjoying the nice warm air. Well I was swimming anyway, she was more just laying down on a towel taking in the sun that never ceased to be covered by clouds. Must be some enchant on the island, not that I'm and expert on gods sacred islands but it seemed reasonable enough to me. Then we had both seen Heather, Hera sorry come over. Her and my mom are having some words but I was too far away to hear so I came a little bit closer, still trying to make it look like I was out for a leisure swim. As I did some lengths going back and forth I hear a few stray sentences like "he might be the strongest demigod of the generation", "change the world for the better" and "key to save the camps". With what I heard, they must have been talking about one person the entire time, that is if they didn't switch topics when I was out of earshot which is possible. But if it is possible that if all that they were talking about was one person than that demigod must have some power and responsibility. It sounded as if Hera had been believing in him to reunite the camps all by himself, that isn't a light weight for him to be carrying around if people are relying on him to save the world.

When I finally decide that I've had enough time in the water I get out and start to dry myself off, I see the other Olympians coming over to us. They must have finally decided what they are going to do about the camps and how to bring the survivors together. As they came over I notice that they kept glancing in my direction which is kind of creeping me out, we all know each other well enough now for them to keep looking at me as if I'm going to do something random and surprising. Poseidon spoke up first.

"I suppose that Hera has already told you to what we have decided on?"

"She has told me what you think of him but that's all, he hasn't heard anything yet though" my mom responded. Now this part I know is about me, maybe I'm going to learn who this guy was that Hera had mentioned to mom. At this Poseidon turned to me and began to speak.

"Percy, we have talked for many hours on what to do about these camps and as we can't go ourselves to Manhattan, we do have the power to send someone there instead to tell them that they aren't alone and all that has happened. We have decided to send the only demigod we have with us and Percy, you have to succeed. The entire world is depending on you doing this. Listen carefully, the group at the-"

"Poseidon, I think you have it all wrong, I'm no demigod. I'm a kid from Manhattan whose mom just happened to have some friends that were gods. I'm no demigod." I couldn't be, I'd know if I were one. Plus, can't monsters smell them or something, I think they told me that a few days ago about demigods. Since I was still alive I think that's proof enough that I'm not a demigod.

"I'm sorry Percy but you are mistaken, you are a demigod and you know it. Have you not noticed that you have a fairly good understanding of Greek mythology? That's because it's part of your past and it's hardwired into your brain. Or why you are so good in gym? So agile when you need to be that is and strong at other times. That's because your body is made to fight sword to sword combat just as the ancients did it in the old days. You are a demigod Percy Jackson, and a fairly strong one if I am not wrong."

"But the smell, wouldn't I have been killed a while ago if I was one?"

"That would be thanks to Sally. You think she married Gabe because of his good looks or charm? No she married him because of how much he smelled to be frank. His scent masked yours so no monster had ever even hinted that you were alive. She did that to protect you." All the Olympians were staring at me, their faces straight and wondering what excuse I was going to come up with but I couldn't think of any. I look at mom and her face is in her hands and I have to ask her something, "Mom is all this true?". I am hoping she says no and all this is a misunderstanding but I know what she's going to say.

"I'm so sorry Percy, I should have told you sooner." She sounded like she was on the brink of crying but instead of trying to say that it was alright I run. I run halfway across the island until I can't see any of them anymore. There was no way this could be true, this meant that my dad was a Olympian god, and he had never showed up once in my life. I don't know how I feel, am I excited, am I angry? I can't tell, it's all mixed in together and right now I can't think and my mind is on overload right now. At this moment, I begin to faint for the second time in 3 days.

The Next Day

This was getting embarrassing; I have never fainted in my life but that's twice now. God, I have got to stop doing that. If I'm mistaken though, I am pretty sure that the Olympian gods, the most powerful forces in the universe are now relying on me to save the world by talking to these demigods in New York. I can't even go half a week without fainting much less go and help out a group of demigods with world saving quests. This isn't my world; all I want to be doing right now is be back in my apartment wasting the summer playing any new video games that come out. Then again, apparently this is my world. I am a demigod as they had kindly pointed out, my mom had hooked up with a god from ancient Greece and I was born. That means I have a father who's a god, I wonder who it is. Wait, no, they aren't my dad, a dad take care of his family, he looks after them and makes sure that thy have the best living that they can give them. They don't knock up your mom then run for the hills, whoever my father is, he's only that in name. He can't ignore me for 16 years and then just come back when he needs us. That isn't how this works.

"Perseus, are you feeling okay now?". I kind of jumped a little at whoever called me considering no one ever called me my full name. I slowly look over and see that Poseidon is approaching me, almost cautiously as if not to startle me. "I know that this was a lot to take in, learning that you are a demigod and that we need your help. You probably have a lot of mixed feelings, surprise in finding this out, joy in finally knowing, yet mainly anger for not knowing all these years. Just know Percy, that we Olympians can only interact very few times in our children's lives and only when it is a dire need to. We are not allowed to go see them whenever we want, it has always been this way and we are severely punished if we do so. We do not know who your father is yet I apologize on his behalf Percy. I ask you not to blame him when you find him, know that it isn't his fault."

So what was I supposed to do? Let him in my life and act like he was there for the last 16 years? No, I won't do that and did Poseidon really think I would? "Why should I? He wasn't there for me for all these years and now why should I let him come back? It wasn't my decision that he abandoned us, it was his. "Why should I? Even if he couldn't have seen me he could have sent aa sign that he was watching. Anything would have been better than nothing.". I meant it, even if my dad had sent me a dream randomly one night at least I knew he was there but nothing was attempted in 16 years so screw him, he can stay as a blank face to me, Olympian god or not he's still not my dad.

"I understand your anger Percy, I also understand why your father chose not to follow you too closely, when we look over our children they tend to get killed sooner than when they are able to defend themselves so some of us are starting to turn a blind eye to some of our children. It's to protect them, not to hurt them.". The look on his face is telling me that he's telling the truth. His expression looks like he wants to cry but knows he can't, at least not in front of me. I know I shouldn't ask this question but I have to.

"Have you turned a blind eye to any of your kids?". I never got an answer, he looked at me sadly then turned around and walked away, after 10 strides he turned around and tossed something to me. It was a pen…what did I need a pen for?

"The reason why I came here was to check on you and to give you this, they'll explain how to use it when you are about to leave.". With that he turned his back and he was gone, teleported to somewhere. So I'm going to have a bunch of gods teach me what exactly? I already know I suck at cursive writing so I can save them the pain of trying to teach me that if that's it.

When I got up I realized that I had no idea where I was. Wherever they put me when I had fainted is somewhere that I've never been to before which was weird. Mom and I had pretty much toured everywhere since it was a fairly small place. Then I clued in on the darkness, not pitch black but I was definitely in some type of room that was underground and last time I checked there were no tunnels here. Wait, there was a cave entrance at the bottom of the amphitheater, mom and I hadn't been down there because we figured that it was somewhere special to Apollo and Artemis. There's only one door out but that room looks darker than this one, then again I either try that or I wait here for someone to pick me up like a little kid needing his parent from kindergarten.

Okay, this is not what I thought the room was going to be. It was dark because I was looking at a pillar that was just a few feet in front of the room blocking the entrance from most of the light being provided from the candles and lights above. (It was a weird mixture of modern and ancient lighting, didn't look all that nice to be honest). This was definitely a temple though; I've personally never seen one but it was the stereotypical layout of one. If you picture what you think a temple is, this is it. It has pillars surrounding the perimeter of the inside, the walls were made of huge stone bricks with large murals made depicting what I'm guessing the twin gods lives. In the back of the room in the middle were two gigantic marble statues of Apollo and Artemis. It was kind of scary how much they resembled the gods themselves, the only difference was that Apollo wore a one armed toga and Artemis wore a dress in modern times they dress a little more like we're used to. Overall the temple was a little overwhelming and I really just want to get out of there ASAP. How do I get out though is the question? Looking around there are a number of entrances that are like the one I just left, which is the one out? I go towards the one that's directly opposite the two statues, it makes sense for that one to lead out. The room was so vast that when I walked towards the exit, I could hear my footsteps echo off the walls and it was relief to leave the main sanctuary. And bingo, this was definitely the entrance, I can see a light through the door and the seats of the amphitheater just outside. As I walk outside I can't help but squint due to the change in brightness. Eventually the light became tolerable and as everything became clearer I noticed that everyone who had came to Delos island was here, minus Poseidon. The first thing I noticed was that mom's cheeks had traces of tears, she was crying and I know why. They decided to send me to New York right now. I don't know how but something Poseidon had said told me that this was going to happen and I was ready. Not in the way as I'm ready to meet a bunch of demigods who have had their camp sacked, lost their friends to monsters and forced to group together on the Empire State Building but rather I was ready to say goodbye to mom. Somehow I had realized that this was going to happen while I was unconscious and instead of fighting it I just accepted it. "We're doing this now I'm assuming?".

Apollo spoke up first, "We decided that sooner would be better than later. The longer we wait the more you won't want to go and the less likely we will reach the demigods before they are destroyed."

"So what exactly do I do when I reach the others?"

This time his sister answered "Just tell them that we are still free but do not tell them where we are, the less people that know the better in this case. Help them in whatever way you can and let them know that we will come as soon as we are strong enough."

"And if I'm attacked by monsters while I'm getting there?"

Apollo answered again, "Well let's say you can either run fast or hope that they have a few patrols out looking for other roaming demigods. Unless you know you can fight them off with something you find on the street." His tone sounded slightly like he was joking but I knew he was right, if I'm spotted my best bet is to run and if not, I'd be supper for one lucky monster. I had that pen Poseidon gave me and it sounded like he gave it to me as a weapon yet I somehow know that asking everyone here isn't what he meant when they would help. I think I'll leave that secret quiet to them.

Now Hermes stepped ahead of the others, "I will be teleporting you in since I'm the god of transportation, I will put you as close as possibly but you will still have a few blocks to go on foot. Any last questions?"

"Um yeah, just one. Is there anything you can-"and I was gone. That jerk didn't even give me another minute to finish my question. And am I in a dumpster? That a$$.

Looking around I knew exactly where I was, about 3 blocks from the Empire State building, about a 10-minute walk, maybe 15 since it's busy. This shouldn't be a problem. Dang it, I said it. In my life if there was one lesson I learnt it was never to jinx anything and I just did. Within half a block I saw two hell hounds and what I'm pretty sure were 3 dracaenae. And I must have smelt like a 5-star steak dinner because I caught their attention almost immediately. The hell hounds turned first and when they spotted me they turned and started coming towards me. At that the dracaenae turned and it looked like they smelt me also because they turned and started towards me as well. If there was a cue to run that was it but there's a problem. They are across the street but a little ahead of me so if I were to run straight, the way I need to get the others I have to run past right where they would be getting once they cross the street. I start sprinting surprising a few innocent shoppers and hoping to outrun these monsters. Never have I ever been more thankful for New York traffic, it slowed down the monsters for a few seconds at the very least letting me get ahead of them and a head start of a few meters. Now the dracaenae I can out run but those hell hounds are definitely faster, there is no doubt about it. Thank god the light was going my way when I hit the first intersection or else the hounds would have caught up to me.

I don't know how but I felt someone jump into my side from the alley way to my left and I went sprawling on the ground. As I look up I notice that a few people are above me all with what seems to be…are those bows? Yup, those are definitely bows and they are pointing to where I just was. I look down the street and see the hell hounds about 7 meters away there are the hell hounds. Nope, there were the hell hounds, the kids holding the bows above me just evaporated those monsters into dust. The hell hounds must have been blocking the sight of the other monsters because only now did they stop and see my saviours. The next moment, another volley of arrows had vaporized them as well.

The guy who pushed me to the ground was no guy at all actually, she got up and offered me her hand. I took it and she introduced herself, "I'm Clarisse and these are a few of my friends, who the hell are you?".

"My name is Percy Jackson and I just want to say thank you for saving my life, are you guys from Camp Half blood?"

"We are and the way you were followed you're also a demigod. Come with us a we'll keep you safe." So I followed these few demigods who were not far from my age and they brought me to the bottom of the Empire State Building. When we entered there was only one person in the lobby which was strange since this was a usually a busy building. She had blonde hair and she seemed relieved when we walked in. She came over to us and when she saw me her expression changed. "WHY THE HELL WERE YOU BRINGING THOSE MONSTERS HERE, ARE YOU TRYING TO GET US ALL KILLED!?"

"Well hello to you to. My name is Percy Jackson since you asked so nicely. Those monsters had started chasing me a few blocks away thank you very much and I was coming here because I have a message."

"And what would that message be exactly?"

"Well the Olympian gods say hello, and they also ask that you don't kill me."

Sorry it has been a few days since I've uploaded but this is just a little hobby I do in my spare time. The stories hopefully won't be too spread out; a few days should be the maximum between chapters. Let me know how you like it so far! Thank you for reading!

-Alternatewriter