Flashback to the Past: The Lightning Thief

by ClearMortality

Percy, Thalia and Nico are sent back to the past by the Fates and Rhea to read a book. The past gods read with them... Will the books change the way of the gods or will humanity cease to exist all because of unchangeable mistakes?

13. Capture a Flag and Embarrassing Moments

A/N: Wohoo! An update ^_^ like always, it's time to thank the people who have been my inspiration (well part of my inspiration).

For our dear reviewers I got you your own (virtual) personalized laptops complete with wi-fi 24/7 installed in it and the best part, you can separate the screen from the keyboard and it becomes a touch-screen: dawn54321, Eris Potter-Charmed Child, SerenePanic, IkutoisSmexy,zeynel, Anniriel, Lady Cougar-Trombone, dawdler, EmmaRayJackson, anonymous,Bright Moon, and life is struggle.

Our alerters and favoriters on the other hand, get an Ipad but I couldn't afford the virtual wi-fi but at least you get a virtual Ipad: Jimanji, Bombidill95, Sunburn of Darkness, Eclairhanson, IdontwriteIread226, Funnyboy35, crawler82, AlexJD2, r0si3e, topyeah19, Mai96, ramenblitz, Dominatus, Thrill-Pair-All-The-Way, MidnightSun0110, Nucima, deanchristopher, Wisegirl1000, Thermelia, PhoenixFlame17, Melanie Malfoy, Demigod-Madrigal-Slytherin, vampirekillerbunny, ComicNerd38, and go-ats12345.

Thanks for everything guys! ^_^

To ANONYMOUS: So sorry but I'm sticking to the original characters and will not be making any new generation. Even my own OCs only get mentioned.

To BRIGHT MOON: That's a GREAT suggestion! Thanks a lot. ^_^ As for the updating I'm not sure about it since school is starting in two weeks and I have to prepare both physically and mentally for the stress that'll surely come. I swear on the Styx though that I'll update as soon as I possibly can.

---

Recap:

"So… lunch anyone?"

---

The second that Percy mentioned lunch, the room seemed to spin, making everyone dizzy and feeling like they were going to puke. When the spinning stopped, they found themselves in the kitchen where they all were that morning.

"What the heck?"

"How did we get here?"

"Hey Percy, your pocket is glowing." Nico pointed out. "Huh?" Percy checked his pocket and it was indeed glowing. He took out the scroll that was given to him from Rhea opened it slowly so as not to rip the paper.

Hi everyone. It's me again. If you've noticed that you're not in the throne room anymore, it's because we teleported every one of you to the kitchen to save time. When you finish eating you're going to have to walk back to the throne room thought since using the teleportation method would cause every single one of you to simply puke out what you ate. Plus it's good exercise. Happy eating! ^_^

Rhea

P.S. Apollo from this time wants to tell Percy that the blue food coloring is in the cupboard beside the sink so there's no need to tear the kitchen apart looking for it.

Percy rolled the scroll and put it back in his pocket and went to get his blue food coloring. He found out, however, that it was way out of his reach, which was saying something since he was about 5'9 now and that was a pretty tall height for a 16-year-old. [1] The hero frowned and sighed. He could only think of one thing that was least embarrassing but still very embarrassing. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Hera, Hestia and Demeter preparing the food while the rest set the table up.

Percy smiled thinking about how they were all acting like one big normal family. Then he remembered his dilemma. He sighed and trudged over to his dad who was talking with Artemis. With every step he took, Percy felt even more embarrassed. He contemplated just getting a chair and stepping on it. He didn't have time to do it though since Poseidon and Artemis noticed him. Then again, he was only four steps away.

"Percy, my boy, did you find the blue food coloring?" He asked happily. Artemis nodded at Percy in acknowledgement. Percy began fidgeting with his fingers.

"Well… sort of." Poseidon and Artemis shared a look. "Did we run out of blue food coloring?"

"No. I restocked after the last prank Hermes did involving food coloring." Artemis said. Poseidon frowned, "What's the problem then?" Percy began playing with the hem of his shirt.

"Well, I found the food coloring but…"

"But?" Poseidon and Artemis urged. Percy blushed and looked at his dad. "Promise you won't make fun of me?" Percy asked childishly. The two gods shared a look before smiled. "We promise."

"Well… I can't reach it and …" Poseidon began grinning. "You want me to get for you right?"

The blush on Percy's face deepened. Poseidon chuckled lightly. "Wait here then." The god left with a grin on his face. The blush on Percy's face lightened but returned when Artemis looked him over.

"I have to say this because if I don't I might regret it." She said. Percy looked over at her curiously. He saw the goddess sigh and smile.

"That was very cute, Perseus." Then she walked away smiling and laughing lightly. Percy just shook his head.

"It's true though, Seaweed Brain. It was very cute." A familiar voice said behind him. "Shut up Wise Girl. It wasn't cute. It is embarrassing."

"What's embarrassing?" Poseidon said suddenly appearing beside Percy.

"Gah! When did you get back, dad?" Poseidon smiled and tilted his head. "Hm? Oh a couple of seconds ago. I got the blue food coloring too. Here you go son." Poseidon handed over the bag containing the food coloring to Percy who took it gratefully. "Thanks a bunch dad." Percy said, giving his dad a hug before walking behind the counter to start his blue experimenting. Annabeth followed him saying that she'd watch over his "experimenting".

That was when Aphrodite came over to the god and watched the two teenagers try to add food coloring to the lunch.

"You're happy aren't you, Poseidon?" Aphrodite asked. The god of the seas nodded his head, a wistful smile on his face. "I wish he was always with me… or rather, I wish that I had never left him and his mom. If I had stayed, we could have had moments like we did just a couple of minutes ago." Aphrodite sighed. "Ancient laws are hard to bend. It's hard finding a loophole in them unlike the laws the mortals have now."

The god sighed.

"Be happy however. At least you get to see your child and spend time with him." The goddess said, flashing Poseidon a smile. "Enjoy every moment of it."

Poseidon smiled and nodded. Then Hestia and Demeter came out from behind the counter holding big plates of food.

"Alright, everyone sit down and we'll get started." Hera said, coming from behind the counter too, holding a tray which had glasses on it filled with nectar for the gods and water for the demigods. Plates were filled and glasses were passed around.

Everyone except Percy was seated at the table. Annabeth rolled her eyes.

"Seaweed Brain, hurry up! Everyone's waiting for you." She called.

"Coming coming." A second later, the son of Poseidon came out from behind the counter, holding a plate full of pasta. The only difference between that one and regular pasta was that Percy's was blue. Everyone (except the futures and Poseidon) stared at the plate even after Percy had sat down.

"What? You've never seen blue pasta?" He asked sarcastically. In unison, all the people in the past (except Poseidon) shook their head. Hermes noticed that Poseidon didn't shake his head.

"You've seen blue pasta before Uncle P?" Poseidon looked offended but Percy knew he was just kidding.

"I can't believe you've never seen blue pasta! It's one of the best especially when it has cheese! Speaking of which, son, does that have cheese?"

Percy blinked then looked at his food. "I think so." Poseidon stared at it before giving Percy his version of the puppy-dog pout. The son of the sea god sighed and pushed his plate to his dad who was, by the way, across from him. The god grinned like there was no tomorrow. Percy looked sadly at his pasta.

Hestia rolled her eyes but smiled. She went behind the counter and filled a plate with the same pasta Percy took. Then she added the blue food coloring. As she went to her seat, she placed the plate in front of Percy who immediately brightened.

"Let's begin shall we?" Hera asked. Everyone began eating while others began chatting. After a complete thirty minutes, everyone finished and started cleaning up.

"You know…" Thalia said, heaving a heavy pile of plates to the counter. "You guys could have just snapped your fingers to make all this disappear."

Demeter smiled. "We can't always use our powers, dear." Thalia huffed. When the dishes were done and the rest of the things placed back to their original places, everyone walked back to the throne room.

Travis sighed and picked up the book which was on his seat.

"Guess it's my turn to read then." He said, flipping to the correct page.

"We Capture a Flag,"

Ares and Clarisse grinned at that. "Finally a fight scene!" Poseidon paled slightly but one look at his son and he calmed down.

It's ok. He's right there, perfectly safe.

The next few days I settled into a routine that felt almost normal, if you don't count the fact that I was getting lessons from satyrs, nymphs, and a centaur.

"That is normal." Everyone said.

"Not to a new camper it's not." Percy replied.

Each morning I took Ancient Greek from Annabeth, and we talked about the gods and goddesses in the present tense, which was kind of weird.

"Is not." The gods said, rather offended. Percy smiled sheepishly.

"Err… sorry?"

I discovered Annabeth was right about my dyslexia:

Both Annabeths smirked.

"When is she ever wrong?"Travis grumbled. Connor gave his brother an 'are-you-serious' look. "Dude, its Annabeth. She's always right." He said. Percy and Nico nodded in agreement.

"Well said, Connor. Very well said." Both Annabeths smirked while Travis began reading again.

Ancient Greek wasn't that hard for me to read. At least, no harder than English.

"So it was still hard for you?" Thalia asked innocently. Percy shot her a glare. Annabeth started chuckling.

"I remember how annoying it was trying to teach you." Annabeth joked. Percy pouted at her. "I wasn't that hopeless." He said. Annabeth smirked again.

"I never said you were hopeless." She said slyly. Percy's face lost all emotion as he realized what he just said.

"Touché, Chase. Touché."

After a couple of mornings, I could stumble through a few lines of Homer without too much headache.

The rest of the day, I'd rotate through outdoor activities, looking for something I was good at. Chiron tried to teach me archery,

Thalia and Nico bit their lower lips to stop the laughter from escaping their lips. Percy glared at them. The two had to cover their mouths and were shaking badly, a clear sign that they were laughing. Mini-Annabeth looked at them. "I'm guessing it doesn't end well?" she asked. Percy glanced at her and avoided eye contact.

Poseidon meanwhile, groaned loudly, much to his brothers' amusement.

"Is something wrong, brother?" Hades provoked; a smirk on his lips. Many of the deities were smiling or in Hermes' and Apollo's case, trying not to laugh and epically failing at it. Poseidon gave Hades a dark look.

"Don't mess with me, Hades. You know as well as I do that my children and I were not meant to use the bow and arrows. No amount of power can change that."

"On the contrary, not all of your children are bad at archery. [2]Theseus and Orion were exceptionally good archers. Orion especially, rivaling Artemis herself in terms of skills." Athena argued. Percy's expression turned sour.

That's not fair… they're my brothers aren't they yet they were able to use a bow. Totally unfair!

Poseidon sighed knowing he couldn't argue with facts like that. Then he suddenly got a thought. "With that said Athena, then how come most of my children are unable to wield a bow when Theseus and Orion were able to master it?"[3] The goddess kept a calm face and looked at Apollo who was finding his shoes very interesting. When he looked up and met Athena's eyes, he could only shrug.

Athena looked back at the god of the seas.

"Millennia ago, for whatever reason it was, you may have angered Apollo at one point and he cursed you or rather, your children to be incapable of wielding a bow. As for Theseus and Orion, they were, if I believe correctly, special cases since the Fates protected them from the curse." [4] Poseidon frowned at the goddess' reasoning.

Then one thought struck him.

"You know, in some twisted way, you contradicted yourself and agreed with me."[5] He pointed out. Everyone had confused expressions on. Athena realized that what her rival said was true and turned red in anger and embarrassment. Lucky for her, the only people who seemed to understand were Hestia, older Annabeth and Artemis. Poseidon shrugged and motioned for Travis to read.

but we found out pretty quick I wasn't any good with a bow and arrow.

Percy sighed sadly. Others however still had smiles or grins.

He didn't complain, even when he had to desnag a stray arrow out of his tail.

The demigods plus a couple of gods flinched.

"Ok… no offense or anything Percy, but you might not or rather, should not be let near a bow and arrows. You'd be most likely to hit an ally." Apollo said warily. The futures agreed but when Percy shot Annabeth and Nico a look, they became conflicted, remembering the incident at the Triple G Ranch.

Foot racing? No good either.

All the demigods except Thalia and the Stolls grumbled.

"Oh come on, it's not so bad." Connor said cheerfully.

"Speak for yourself." Will said. "You and Travis were only able to beat the instructors because your dad's the god of travelling therefore, he is also the god of speed."[6]

Hermes blinked and tilted his head to the side. "I am? Really?" The gods gave him weird looks.

"You mean you never knew you were the god of speed?" Zeus said exasperatedly. Hermes shook his head.

The wood-nymph instructors left me in the dust. They told me not to worry about it. They'd had centuries of practice running away from lovesick gods.

Most of the males (or at least the married ones) got dark looks from the females.

But still, it was a little humiliating to be slower than a tree.

The demigods who had never beaten the wood-nymphs got sour looks on their faces.

"When you say it so bluntly…" Katie started.

"…it's really embarrassing." Silena finished. The rest just nodded.

And wrestling?

Clarisse scoffed. "Ha! I'd like to see him try."

Forget it. Every time I got on the mat, Clarisse would pulverize me.

The daughter of Ares smirked at Percy who again, shrugged it off like it was nothing.

"There's more where that came from, punk," she'd mumble in my ear.

"You go, girl!" Ares cheered. Clarisse gave him a what-the-heck? look.

The only thing I really excelled at was canoeing, and that wasn't the kind of heroic skill people expected to see from the kid who had beaten the Minotaur.

Annabeth moaned in frustration. "I still remember the meetings we held about you. It was so annoying how we never got close to figuring out who your dad was."

Percy shrugged not really caring since it was in the past.

I knew the senior campers and counselors were watching me,

Percy smiled and leaned close to Annabeth's ear. "Stalkers." He saw her hand twitch slightly and internally grinned.

"Shut up." Annabeth whispered harshly. Percy let out a breath and knew he was right.

trying to decide who my dad was, but they weren't having an easy time of it. I wasn't as strong as the Ares kids,

"HA! He wishes." Ares said.

or as good at archery as the Apollo kids.

Apollo sighed and smiled apologetically. "Sorry Perce. As much as I wish you were my kid, I guess I prefer having you as a cousin."

Percy grinned knowing Apollo had complimented him in a confusing manner. "Thanks, Apollo."

I didn't have Hephaestus's skill with metalwork

"Not many do." Hephaestus replied silently but then he sent a small smile towards Beckendorf which was returned.

or—gods forbid— Dionysus's way with vine plants.

Dionysus scoffed. "There's no way that I'd have a child like you." Dionysus said, sipping his coke diet glumly. Oh, how he missed his wine.

Luke told me I might be a child of Hermes,

The god smiled. "Like what Apollo said. I wish you were but it's better to have you as a cousin. Besides, it's one less person I need to give "the talk" to." Hermes shivered while Percy coughed awkwardly and blushed. Nico smirked at his cousin.

"I remember that, Percy. It was very funny." Nico said mysteriously. Percy turned a nice shade of pink. "Shut up."

"What was funny?" Poseidon asked. Apparently, the two cousins weren't as quiet as they thought. Percy put his head in his hands and groaned while Nico grinned.

"You see, after his 16th birthday, Percy asked me if I could shadow travel him to his mom's apartment. Being the loving cousin that I am, I agreed. So we shadow travelled there. When Mrs. Jack-"

"Sally." Annabeth interrupted. Nico rolled his eyes.

"Right. When Sally saw us, she pulled Percy to the living and brought Paul there. I blended into the shadows when after I pretended to shadow travel back to camp."

Percy glared at Nico through one eye but did nothing.

"So after the usual, welcome home, happy birthday, blah blah blah, et cetera et cetera came the good, funny, for me, and embarrassing part for Percy." Said boy groaned again and decided to hide his face in Annabeth's blonde curls.

"So first, there was an awkward silence between the three of them. Then Paul left to get some water, leaving Percy alone with his mom. Sally sighed and said she and Percy needed to "talk". Emphasis on talk.Then Sally said, 'Percy, it's not that I don't trust you but I think it's time. You remember when you asked how babies were born and I only shrugged?' oh yeah, Percy shrugged there! Anyways, carrying on. Then Paul appeared with a glass of water and gave it to Percy."

"Then Paul sat down and took Sally's hand. Then Sally said it was time to answer that question. If I remember correctly she said, 'You see, when a man and a woman really love each other, like really really love each other, they- MMHHP!".

Everyone who was listening intently to the side story being narrated by the son of Hades got surprised when Percy clapped his hand onto Nico's mouth while the son of Hades tried to remove said hand from his face.

"OK! To cut the long story short, it was my mom who gave me "the talk". Not Paul, not my dad, not any other male in the planet but my mom! There, I said it. I hope you're happy. Now can we please go back to the book now?" Percy all but yelled. His face was the same color as a tomato.

"Aww, but I wanted to hear more." Travis complained but shut up when Percy gave the demigod his I'll-kill-you stare.

"Reading on." Travis said stiffly. He read the last line to give a short recap on what was happening.

a kind of jack-of-all-trades, master of none.

Hermes looked at the ground sadly at that while Travis and Connor frowned at what Luke had said about their dad and in extension, themselves.

"You know, Luke's wrong there." Katie said, noticing the sad looks on the two brothers' faces. They looked up at her curiously and she could only sigh.

"I hate to admit it and I can't believe I'm saying this but you two are really good at pranking others." Katie said. Then she made a face as if what she said left a bitter taste in her mouth. It probably did. Connor and Travis started smiling which turned to grins until they high-fived each other.

"However…" she continued, stopping the joy which the Stolls were feeling momentarily. "You're also annoyingly good at evading my fist after your pranks are pulled." Katie said in annoyance. In unison, Connor and Travis made a peace sign at the daughter of Demeter and grinned. Katie smiled internally seeing as the sons of Hermes weren't being gloomy. Hermes himself had a smile on his face.

But I got the feeling he was just trying to make me feel better. He really didn't know what to make of me either.

Annabeth sighed. "No one did. I think Chiron had a good guess, though."

Despite all that, I liked camp.

All the demigods smiled again.

"It's hard NOT to like it." Silena said, thinking about her siblings and the pegasi which she adored.

I got used to the morning fog over the beach, the smell of hot strawberry fields in the afternoon, even the weird noises of monsters in the woods at night.

Nico shivered. "I can never get used to that." He said. The futures raised eyebrows at him.

"Dude, you're the son of Hades, the ghost king and all those long titles which we don't need to know right now. You used to summon, you still do by the way, ghost and spirits and you have an entire army of skeletons to fight for you. You got all that and you can't get used to weird noises? There must be something wrong with you, Nico." Percy said. Thalia smirked.

"There is something wrong with him Percy. From a cheerful and overly-hyper kid, he became what he is now, dark, gloomy and emo-like with all that black he's wearing. Don't you ever get hot wearing all that black?"

"You're one to talk, Thalia." Annabeth argued. "You wore all-black. You still do even though you're with the Hunters."

I would eat dinner with cabin eleven, scrape part of my meal into the fire, and try to feel some connection to my real dad. Nothing came. Just that warm feeling I'd always had, like the memory of his smile.

I tried not to think too much about my mom, but I kept wondering: if gods and monsters were real, if all this magical stuff was possible, surely there was some way to save her, to bring her back...

Most of the gods understood his way of thinking and gave dark looks at Hades and sad, bitter ones at Percy.

"It's impossible. One cannot bring a mortal back to the land of the living at the mere age of twelve and with not much experience in the world." Persephone said sadly. She glanced at Percy who had a small, nearly unnoticeable twinkle in his eyes.

I started to understand Luke's bitterness and how he seemed to resent his father, Hermes.

Hermes and a couple of gods flinched at that.

"Does the fact that some of you don't get claimed really cause hatred?" Hermes asked desperately. The past demigods and the future demigods avoided eye contact.

It was one of the reasons why we had a war. Percy thought.

So okay, maybe gods had important things to do.

Zeus narrowed his eyes at Percy. He didn't like the tone used in the book. He knew it all too well.

But couldn't they call once in a while, or thunder, or something? Dionysus could make Diet Coke appear out of thin air. Why couldn't my dad, whoever he was, make a phone appear?

Poseidon sighed then shifted his gaze and glared at his younger brother. "Believe me, Percy, I would have talked to you had someone not make a law forbidding it." Zeus glared back but knew it was a lost cause.

Thursday afternoon, three days after I'd arrived at Camp Half-Blood, I had my first sword-fighting lesson.

Connor and Travis suddenly got that mischievous twinkle in their eyes as they smirked at the son of Poseidon. Percy only raised an eyebrow at them.

Everybody from cabin eleven gathered in the big circular arena, where Luke would be our instructor.

This time, Hermes joined in on the smirking. Will and mini-Annabeth looked at Percy sympathetically.

"Good luck to you."

Thalia rolled her eyes secretly. "He doesn't need luck. All he needs is a bit of water and Luke's reign as the best swordsman would go in the drain."

The huntress looked over and saw that the older Annabeth's expression and knew that the daughter of Athena was thinking the same thing.

We started with basic stabbing and slashing, using some straw-stuffed dummies in Greek armor. I guess I did okay. At least, I understood what I was supposed to do and my reflexes were good.

Thalia, Nico and Annabeth snorted quietly.

"You were always modest, Percy." Annabeth said.

"Too modest, actually." Thalia added.

"Way too modest, in my opinion." Nico argued. Percy blushed at what he knew were comments from his closest friends.

The problem was, I couldn't find a blade that felt right in my hands.

All those who were good at sword fighting or learned its ways frowned. Nico's eyebrows were scrunched together in thought.

"Don't you have rip-" He stopped abruptly when he saw Annabeth and Percy shaking their heads vigorously. Poseidon on the other hand, raised an eyebrow at the son of Hades, obviously not seeing the two futures shake their heads. [7]

"Rip?" Poseidon asked. Nico had no choice but to continue his sentence.

"I was just thinking that Percy wouldn't be able to rip monsters to pieces without a proper sword." All the gods nodded in agreement while the son of Hades sighed.

"Nice save there, Nico."

"Thanks. Sorry about that Perce. Slip off the tongue."

Either they were too heavy, or too light, or too long.

"Or you're just being too picky." Ares said. Athena sighed.

"Ares, surely you must know what it means to get the perfect balance in a weapon don't you?"

Ares twitched refusing to answer the wisdom goddess' question. In reality, he knew but didn't think about before since he just used whatever it was that he had.

Luke tried his best to fix me up, but he agreed that none of the practice blades seemed to work for me.

"That's because only one sword can work perfectly for me." Percy murmured. Hestia looked at him and smiled.

We moved on to dueling in pairs. Luke announced he would be my partner, since this was my first time.

Connor and Travis grinned again. "Percy, you're cool and all but good luck beating the best swordsman in the last three hundred years." They said. Percy just rolled his eyes and turned away but flashed a smirk to his cousins and girlfriend.

"Good luck," one of the campers told me. "Luke's the best swordsman in the last three hundred years."

"Hm… if I remember correctly, that was you Travis." Percy said. The son of Hermes grinned. "Looks like I don't change much then."

Katie groaned. "So that means, even in the future, you'll still be as annoying and hard-headed, both literally and figuratively, as you are."

Travis smirked at the daughter of Demeter before high-fiving with his brother

"Maybe he'll go easy on me," I said.

All the past campers snorted in unison.

The camper snorted.

"… odd" Beckendorf pointed out. Travis nodded a few times before continuing.

Luke showed me thrusts and parries and shield blocks the hard way. With every swipe, I got a little more battered and bruised.

Poseidon seemed to get a bit uncomfortable there while Percy subconsciously rubbed his arm remembering one of the strong hits it took.

"Keep your guard up, Percy," he'd say, then whap me in the ribs with the flat of his blade. "No, not that far up!" Whap! "Lunge!" Whap! "Now, back!" Whap!

Many flinched each time Travis said whap.

"This book even has sound effects!" Connor said jokingly. Most of the gods rolled their eyes.

By the time he called a break, I was soaked in sweat. Everybody swarmed the drinks cooler. Luke poured ice water on his head, which looked like such a good idea, I did the same.

Poseidon grinned as did Percy and the rest of the futures. This got them tons of raised eyebrows. Percy winked and pretended to zipped his lips.

Instantly, I felt better. Strength surged back into my arms. The sword didn't feel so awkward.

"No way!"

"The water gives him strength."

"That's so cool!"

"Hey, how come it seems like Poseidon's kids have more powers than ours?" Hades asked Zeus. The king of the gods shrugged but eyed his second older brother cautiously.

"Okay, everybody circle up!" Luke ordered. "If Percy doesn't mind, I want to give you a little demo."

Great, I thought. Let's all watch Percy get pounded.

All the past demigods grinned at Percy; some in guilt but others in anticipation.

"This is gonna be good." Nico said, a smirk on his face.

The Hermes guys gathered around. They were suppressing smiles.

Everyone looked at Connor and Travis who were both trying and failing to suppress their grins.

"We're sorry but we can't help it!"

"Watching someone get beaten by Luke is always funny!" Percy looked to the side and smirked evilly.

"Then it seems like you'll be getting one hell of a surprise."

I figured they'd been in my shoes before and couldn't wait to see how Luke used me for a punching bag.

All the past demigods nodded at being in Percy's shoes before but only Travis and Connor nodded at seeing Percy get beaten.

He told everybody he was going to demonstrate a disarming technique: how to twist the enemy's blade with the flat of your own sword so that he had no choice but to drop his weapon.

"That's a difficult technique." Ares commented. "It takes most people years to master it."

"How long did it take you to master it?" Artemis asked. Ares smirked. "Only 2 weeks." Clarisse grinned since she mastered it within 2 months of course that took rigorous non-stop training.

Annabeth and Percy smirked, knowing what happened and exactly how long it took for Percy to do it.

"This is difficult," he stressed. "I've had it used against me. No laughing at Percy, now. Most swordsmen have to work years to master this technique."

Percy couldn't help but lean closer to Annabeth. "Looks like I didn't need years to master that technique."

"Watch your ego, Seaweed Brain." Annabeth warned but a smile was tugging on the corner of her lips. Percy leaned on the backrest of the sofa and crossed his arms.

"You know it's true."

He demonstrated the move on me in slow motion. Sure enough, the sword clattered out of my hand.

"Now in real time," he said, after I'd retrieved my weapon. "We keep sparring until one of us pulls it off. Ready, Percy?"

"As ready as I'll ever be." Percy said cheerfully. Poseidon cheered mentally while others (AKA Athena, Hermes, Zeus, Hades, Artemis and Apollo) were looking at Percy suspiciously or in confusion.

I nodded, and Luke came after me. Somehow, I kept him from getting a shot at the hilt of my sword. My senses opened up. I saw his attacks coming.

Athena's eyebrows shot upward a mere centimeter. "He SAW the attacks coming? So he predicted how the son of Hermes was going to attack? If so, then I'm very impressed."

I countered. I stepped forward and tried a thrust of my own. Luke deflected it easily, but I saw a change in his face.

Those who were once cheering for Luke (AKA the past demigods and Hermes) weren't so confident that the son of Hermes would win anymore.

His eyes narrowed, and he started to press me with more force.

"You can do it Luke." Hermes muttered under his breath.

The sword grew heavy in my hand. The balance wasn't right.

Everyone (except Percy and Annabeth) took a sharp intake of breath, being drawn into the climax of the fight.

I knew it was only a matter of seconds before Luke took me down, so I figured, What the heck?

I tried the disarming maneuver.

Both Ares and Clarisse snorted. "Not gonna happen punk." Athena sighed. "Weren't you listening when the son of Hermes said it took most people years to even do the technique correctly? One does not simply try it out and expect the move to work on their first attempt." Percy rolled his eyes for the hundredth time that week. Travis read the next lines and his eyes widened. He knew he had to read so he forced himself out of his trance and read since there would be time to be amazed.

My blade hit the base of Luke's and I twisted, putting my whole weight into a downward thrust.

Ares and Athena rolled their eyes.

"Fool…"

Clang.

All the gods and past demigods blinked.

"Clang?" They asked in unison.

"Clang." Confirmed Percy and Annabeth. Hermes, Connor and Travis were gaping, their mouths opening and closing making them look like fish.

"Looks like I didn't need years or weeks. Just a bit of water and boom! You have an Instant learner or as I like to call it IL." Percy said, grinning in the end where as Annabeth, Nico and Thalia sighed.

"Now if only that would happen with your plans, lessons and school grade." Annabeth said, shaking her head. Thalia pretended to wince.

"Ouch. Harsh, Annie, but very true." Percy pouted.

"Well, I think that just took his ego down three notches, don't you think so?" Nico joked. Everyone smiled at that.

Luke's sword rattled against the tip of my blade was an inch from his undefended chest.

Hermes, Ares, Clarisse and the Stolls grumbled. "It's gotta be beginner's luck."

The other campers were silent.

I lowered my sword. "Um, sorry."

"Sorry? Why the heck would you say sorry?" Beckendorf asked incredulously. Percy scratched the back of his neck nervously. "Well, what did you expect me to do? I mean, I just disarmed the best swordsman in the last three hundred years and I thought that the campers would be angry. That's what always happened in school anyways."

Everyone was stunned to say the least.

For a moment, Luke was too stunned to speak.

Just like how most of the occupants in the room were.

"Sorry?" His scarred face broke into a grin. "By the gods, Percy, why are you sorry? Show me that again!"

The campers, this time, made choking sounds which was caused by their disbelief not only at Percy's amazing feat at disarming Luke but also at the fact that Luke himself wanted to get disarmed again! Life as a demigod sure was crazy.

I didn't want to. The short burst of manic energy had completely abandoned me. But Luke insisted.

"Well, looks like the water only lasted for a couple of minutes." Katie said. "You're gonna get pounded on now." She added sadly.

This time, there was no contest. The moment our swords connected, Luke hit my hilt and sent my weapon skidding across the floor.

Percy smiled. "I remember how everyone was back then. They didn't know whether to be happy, astonished, angry, sad or whatever."

After a long pause, somebody in the audience said, "Beginner's luck?"

"Nope!" Poseidon said happily. Zeus and Hades rolled their eyes while Hestia, Demeter and even Hera smiled at him.

Luke wiped the sweat off his brow. He appraised at me with an entirely new interest. "Maybe," he said. "But I wonder what Percy could do with a balanced sword..."

The futures shivered.

"When he has a balanced sword…" Thalia began.

"Percy turns into someone you do not want to have as an enemy in battle." Nico finished, shivering again remembering when Percy's sword tip was pointed directly at his throat. To top it all off, the son of Poseidon was giving Nico the "Death Glare" which is a much cooler and shorter name for Percy's deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare/glare.

The gods still had raised eyebrows which caused Annabeth to sigh.

"In short, if given the right sword, Percy can become nearly unbeatable in a battle field."

Friday afternoon, I was sitting with Grover at the lake, resting from a near-death experience on the climbing wall.

"Near-death experience? Oh, don't exaggerate, the wall is not that dangerous," Annabeth rolled her eyes.

"I don't think it's dangerous at all," Mini-Annabeth agreed.

"Speak for yourself," Will said. "Too many people come into the infirmary because of that wall. It's either they're skin's slightly burnt, eyebrows singed or because of broken bones due to slipping from a certain height."

The gods frowned hearing the casualties gained from the climbing wall which at the time didn't cause too many casualties; only a couple of missing eyebrows and burned shirts or pants.

Grover had scampered to the top like a mountain goat, but the lava had almost gotten me. My shirt had smoking holes in it. The hairs had been singed off my forearms.

"Stupid wall." Grumbled Percy, Nico, Will and surprisingly Beckendorf. He got looks from everyone because of that.

"What? Just because my dad's the god of fire doesn't automatically make every child of his fire resistant you know." Silena patted his arm in comfort.

We sat on the pier, watching the naiads do underwater basket-weaving, until I got up the nerve to ask Grover how his conversation had gone with Mr. D.

"I have a feeling it didn't end well." Mini-Annabeth said sadly. Poor Grover… I wonder how he's doing now…

Meanwhile at camp half-blood…

"Hey Grover, could you move those books to Annabeth's bunk?" The current cabin 6 councellor, Oliver asked to the tired satyr.

"Alright, alright. Annabeth's bunk right?" 23-year-old Grover asked. "It's the one beside the second window right, Oliver?"

"Yup." Came the reply from the current son of Athena. Grover sighed and brought the heavy stack of books over to Annabeth's bunk. Afterwards, he sighed again and wiped off the sweat on his forehead and stretched.

"This is what I get for volunteering to help the Athena cabin decorate their cabin for Christmas. I have to carry books, scrolls and maps. Well… I've learned my lesson. Next time, I'm helping the Demeter cabin. They don't really need others to help all that much."

Back at Olympus…

His face turned a sickly shade of yellow.

"Fine," he said. "Just great."

Hermes smirked. "Liar." He sang. "It would have been believable if he didn't ah- turn into a shade of yellow. Why yellow anyways?"

Everyone else just shrugged since they wanted to continue on with the reading.

"So your career's still on track?"

He glanced at me nervously. "Chiron t-told you I want a searcher's license?"

"Well... no." I had no idea what a searcher's license was, but it didn't seem like the right time to ask.

"Huh, so you were being tactful? The Percy I know just blurts out whatever the first thing comes into his mind." Thalia said astonished. Percy stuck his tongue out at her.

"Just because I'm impulsive doesn't mean I can't be tactful."

"He just said you had big plans, you know ... and that you needed credit for completing a keeper's assignment. So did you get it?"

Grover looked down at the naiads. "Mr. D suspended judgment.

The god of wine suddenly got pelted with daisies, wheat and silver arrows.

"Be nice to the poor satyr." Demeter scolded.

He said I hadn't failed or succeeded with you yet, so our fates were still tied together.

"It still is I believe correctly." Annabeth said, taking a small glance at Percy who was nodding.

If you got a quest and I went along to protect you, and we both came back alive, then maybe he'd consider the job complete."

My spirits lifted. "Well, that's not so bad, right?"

The demigods sighed. "I guess I really was that oblivious back then huh?" Percy asked in defeat.

"Yeah. You still are like that sometimes Kelp Head. There's a reason why we have all these nicknames about you and your brain or your intelligence." Thalia stated.

"Blaa-ha-ha!He might as well have transferred me to stable-cleaning duty.

"Well, he has a lot of faith in you." Nico said sarcastically.

"It wasn't really his fault. Getting a quest back then was nearly as impossible as Dionysus getting all our names correct." Percy defended.

The chances of you getting a quest... and even if you did, why would you want me along?"

Thalia shook her head in sadness. "Such low self-esteem. I'm amazed he got along with so many people with that much self-value."

Mini-Annabeth sighed, thinking about her friend who was probably helping out in the final decorations for camp since Christmas was nearly coming.

Christmas…

Mini-Annabeth suddenly raised her hand, surprising all those seated near her. "I have a very important question to ask." She said. Zeus motioned for her to go on.

"Well, I was wondering if we'll be spending Christmas here on Olympus or back at camp." All the demigods in the past looked at the gods.

"It's nearly Christmas?" Percy asked obliviously. Annabeth and Thalia face palmed. "Percy, it was the winter solstice when we arrived here.[8] Christmas is days away. 2 to be exact." Annabeth reminded Percy.

"Oh…"

"Of course I'd want you along!"

Grover stared glumly into the water. "Basket-weaving ... Must be nice to have a useful skill."

"It's kind of boring actually." Demeter said, scrunching her face up in remembrance of when she tried to weave a basket.

I tried to reassure him that he had lots of talents, but that just made him look more miserable.

"Seriously, how low can one's self-esteem get?" Mini-Annabeth asked angrily. The corner of Thalia's lips twitched upward.

"Well, my tiny-version friend, there's the normal self-esteem level. The high, medium and low self-esteem. Now, we add the demigod level of self-esteem. There's the highest, which is the Nico level, next comes the Percy level and finally, the Grover level. Our satyr friend in the book is currently at the Nico level or as mortals call it, depression… or was that the Percy level? Oh you get the point."

Everyone except Nico and Percy laughed and/or smiled.

We talked about canoeing and swordplay for a while, then debated the pros and cons of the different gods. Finally, I asked him about the four empty cabins.

"Number eight, the silver one, belongs to Artemis," he said.

Said goddess and Thalia grinned again.

"She vowed to be a maiden forever. So of course, no kids. The cabin is, you know, honorary. If she didn't have one, she'd be mad."

"But the other gods don't have cabins either." Mini-Annabeth said. All the deities in the room shifted in their seats while the futures glared at the floor, not wanting to be incinerated by any of the all-powerful gods in the room.

"Yeah, okay. But the other three, the ones at the end. Are those the Big Three?"

"No." All the gods chorused. Hades glared at the King of gods.

"I am the eldest of the Big Three yet I have no throne." He muttered under his breath.

Grover tensed. We were getting close to a touchy subject. "No. One of them, number two, is Hera's," he said. "That's another honorary thing. She's the goddess of marriage, so of course she wouldn't go around having affairs with mortals.

Hera gave her husband a small glare but let it go. This of course, caused many eyebrows to rise. The Queen of the gods only sighed and looked at the floor guiltily but immediately masked it behind her usual stony face.

"Alright. Let's continue reading shall we?" Everyone returned their attention to Travis. Zeus and Hestia gave their sister a small smile before turning their attention to the son of Hermes as well. The goddess of marriage sighed mentally.

"Now is not the time… perhaps in the near future, I'll be able to forgive my husband completely but for now I'll have to remain as I am. Bitter and cold-hearted to demigods…" [9]

That's her husband's job. When we say the Big Three, we mean the three powerful brothers, the sons of Kronos."

"Zeus, Poseidon, Hades."

The three brothers sat up straighter and had proud looks on their faces at the mention of their names. Hera, Demeter and Persephone rolled their eyes while Hestia only smiled in amusement.

"Right. You know. After the great battle with the Titans, they took over the world from their dad and drew lots to decide who got what."

"Why did you draw lots?" Nico asked. Te future demigods sighed.

"Nico, it so that the-" Nico cut Annabeth off. "I know that Annabeth. They drew lots to decide who gets which domain. What I want to know is why they drew lots. They could have settled it with something less bothersome like flipping a coin or rock-paper-scissors! Instead they have to waste paper."

Half of the occupants in the room sighed while the other half face-palmed.

"Moving on." Travis said before continuing.

"Zeus got the sky," I remembered. "Poseidon the sea, Hades the Underworld."

"Uh-huh."

"But Hades doesn't have a cabin here."

Hades sent a dark look at Zeus while Poseidon only sighed unhappily.

"The boy is right. I don't have a cabin." Hades said, his hatred towards his brothers returning temporarily. Zeus sighed.

"We will discuss it once the reading is done for today." Hades narrowed his eyes but Zeus silenced him with a glare.

"Actually, there's no need to discuss it later on." Percy said suddenly. Hades' eyebrows shot upward.

"Oh? And why would that be, half-blood?" Percy surprised the Lord of the Underworld when he grinned.

"You see, in the future, you actually do talk about it. It's in the books so there's no need to go through it again." Percy shared a grin with Nico afterwards.

"No. He doesn't have a throne on Olympus, either. He sort of does his own thing down in the Underworld. If he did have a cabin here ..." Grover shuddered. "Well, it wouldn't be pleasant. Let's leave it at that."

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?"Nico and Hades asked angrily. Then the two blinked and looked at each other. Nico blushed and smiled awkwardly at his father who nodded, equally uncomfortable. Hestia smiled at the two and poked the coals in her hearth again.

"Like father, like son. Both are somewhat anti-social."

"But Zeus and Poseidon—they both had, like, a bazillion kids in the myths.

Annabeth stared at Percy passively. "Bazillion is not a word Seaweed Brain." She deadpanned.

"It was only for emphasis."

Why are their cabins empty?"

"Because of the pact." Zeus and Poseidon said simply.

"Yeah. A pact that only I seem to have kept." Hades said, eyeing Percy and Nico warily. Zeus' eye twitched. "If I recall, your own son is here and he's only 12! How does that not break our pact?" The king of the gods demanded.

"Well, I was in the lotus casino for about 70 years so technically, my being here isn't against the rules." Nico pointed out. Zeus grumbled since he couldn't argue with the fact that Nico's presence didn't go against the pact since it technically did not include him.

Grover shifted his hooves uncomfortably.

"About sixty years ago, after World War II, the Big Three agreed they wouldn't sire any more heroes.

"Look at how well they kept that promise." Artemis said, eyeing the children of the Big Three.

"You have to give Zeus some credit though. He lasted quite a long time without going after mortal women. 41 years without having a child!" Demeter said in awe. Hestia smiled.

"But Poseidon deserves credit too. He didn't sire a hero for nearly 50 years." She said.

"In my opinion, Uncle Hades should be the one given the most credit. He hasn't sired a hero yet! It's been 60 years and not a single half-blood other than Nico and even he isn't affected by the pact." Aphrodite argued. Hades frowned at the statement then sent his son a telepathic message.

Where's Bianca?

The simple question made Nico flinch but not too visibly. He looked at his father and shook his head, mouthing the word 'later'.

Their children were just too powerful.

Nico, Thalia and Percy smirked while the others rolled their eyes.

"Thanks a lot, Grover. You just unintentionally inflated their egos." Annabeth said causing the smirk on the children of the Big Three's faces to disappear and be replaced by pouts.

They were affecting the course of human events too much, causing too much carnage. World War II, you know, that was basically a fight between the sons of Zeus and Poseidon on one side, and the sons of Hades on the other.

"That's just sad. Cousins fighting with each other." Katie said frowning. She couldn't imagine a reason as to why demigods would fight with one another.

The winning side, Zeus and Poseidon, made Hades swear an oath with them: no more affairs with mortal women. They all swore on the River Styx."

Hera glared at her husband who avoided eye contact. Then Nico had to ask one very awkward question.

"What if you had an affair but not with a woman?" Every single one of the gods froze at the question, none of them breathing. They were all giving Nico disturbed looks. He returned it with a confused look.

"What? Did I do something wrong?" Everyone shook their head silently at the son of Hades who frowned. "I just asked a question."

Percy forced a smile. "Nico, you asked a very disturbing question." Then a corner of Percy's mouth lifted upwards making Percy do a half smile.

"I am curious though…" He trailed of giving the gods or specifically the Big Three a look that said well? Are you going to answer or what?

The three sons of Rhea had disgusted looks on their faces.

"That's gross. Just… wrong." Poseidon managed to say.

"Very wrong." Added Zeus and Hades. Travis chuckled nervously before continuing.

Thunder boomed.

I said, "That's the most serious oath you can make."

All the demigods rolled their eyes at the son of Poseidon. "No duh!"

Grover nodded.

"And the brothers kept their word—no kids?"

Immediately snorts filled the room.

"Yeah right."

"If they kept their word, you wouldn't be here."

"Had they kept their word, the world would have been so much more quiet and boring." Annabeth whispered to Percy who grinned at her.

Grover's face darkened. "Seventeen years ago, Zeus fell off the wagon.

The King of the gods sent his wife an apologetic look but she refused to meet his eyes. So the god settled for looking glumly at the floor, not noticing Thalia's hurt expression since he seemed to regret having a child.

There was this TV starlet with a big fluffy eighties hairdo—he just couldn't help himself. When their child was born, a little girl named Thalia... well, the River Styx is serious about promises. Zeus himself got off easy because he's immortal, but he brought a terrible fate on his daughter."

Thalia glared at the Zeus head-on. "Yeah. Thanks a lot, dad. I had a nice childhood because of you and your broken promises." She said, sarcasm and venom dripping in her voice. Zeus flinched internally but on the inside he was close to losing it.

"But that isn't fair.' It wasn't the little girl's fault."

Thalia twitched and sent Percy a look.

"Do I look small to you? I am not a 'little girl', Kelp Head." Percy rolled his eyes at his cousin who stuck her tongue out. Nico who was in between the two sighed.

"Ok, cut it out. If you're going to fight, warn me so that I'll move seats."

Grover hesitated. "Percy, children of the Big Three have powers greater than other half-bloods.

"True," Percy, Thalia, and Nico all agreed with a smile. Annabeth rolled her eyes.

They have a strong aura, a scent that attracts monsters. When Hades found out about the girl, he wasn't too happy about Zeus breaking his oath.

"No. No I wasn't." Hades said casually causing Zeus to glare.

Hades let the worst monsters out of Tartarus to torment Thalia. A satyr was assigned to be her keeper when she was twelve, but there was nothing he could do.

Zeus' eye twitched. "Nothing he could do…" the god repeated darkly. Curse the satyr. It's all his fault.

Thalia noticed the dark look on her father's face and bravely sent an electric shock at the god who didn't get harmed. The demigods and most of the gods sent her an are-you-crazy look. Thalia ignored them and glared at her father harshly.

"Let it go dad. I've said this once before and I'll say it again. It wasn't Grover's fault that what happened happened. It was my decision to stay on top of the hill and fight. Understand? No more cursing my friend or else."

Many were amazed that Thalia stood up to her father. Nico patted her in the back, earning himself a short glare which turned into a smile.

He tried to escort her here with a couple of other half-bloods she'd befriended. They almost made it. They got all the way to the top of that hill."

He pointed across the valley, to the pine tree where I'd fought the Minotaur. "All three Kindly Ones were after them, along with a horde of hellhounds. They were about to be overrun when Thalia told her satyr to take the other two half-bloods to safety while she held off the monsters. She was wounded and tired, and she didn't want to live like a hunted animal.

Thalia kept a determined face on. "Darn right, I didn't." The demigods smiled at her but when no one was looking, she clenched her fists remembering the fear and sadness she felt at the time.

The satyr didn't want to leave her, but he couldn't change her mind, and he had to protect the others. So Thalia made her final stand alone, at the top of that hill.

Nico decided to risk it and slung one arm across Thalia's shoulder. She looked at him and surprise before smiling gratefully. Zeus and Artemis on the other hand, eyed the son of Hades warily.

As she died,Zeus took pity on her. He turned her into that pine tree. Her spirit still helps protect the borders of the valley. That's why the hill is called Half-Blood Hill."

"So that's the full story." Silena said. Mini-Annabeth wiped off some tears in her eyes, remembering what had happened and how helpless she was back then. Silena smiled at the demigoddess sadly and gave her a sisterly hug which was returned gratefully.

I stared at the pine in the distance.

The story made me feel hollow, and guilty too. A girl my age had sacrificed herself to save her friends. She had faced a whole army of monsters. Next to that, my victory over the Minotaur didn't seem like much.

Thalia smirked. "I always knew you looked up to me." Percy snorted. "Yeah right." The sad atmosphere disappeared as soon as the two cousins started laughing.

Thalia smiled. "I have to admit though. I think you did better than I did. You beat the Minotaur without having your own weapon or any training, not counting the one with the Fury. I must grudgingly admit that I am impressed." After saying this, Thalia got a sour look on her face.

"Ugh. I can't believe I said that!"

I wondered, if I'd acted differently, could I have saved my mother?

"Even if you acted differently young hero, you could not have changed destiny." Hestia said sadly. Poseidon looked at the floor in sadness, remembering Sally's smile, her laugh as well as her brilliant cookies.

"Grover," I said, "Have heroes really gone on quests to the Underworld?"

Poseidon groaned and looked at his son pleadingly. "Please tell me you're not going to the Underworld."

"Ok. I'm not going to the underworld." Poseidon smiled. "Now tell me the truth." Percy smiled sheepishly.

"I went to the Underworld." Poseidon sighed and let out a long groan. He summoned some water and drank it.

"Sometimes," he said. "Orpheus. Hercules. Houdini."

"You." Annabeth teased. Nico started grinning.

"And me! I go there all the time and I don't even need a quest." Nico said happily.

"Nico have I told you you're weird."

"Why yes, Percy. You have."

"Ok. I'm just reminding you."

"And have they ever returned somebody from the dead?"

Poseidon sighed. "I can't change your mind?" He asked one last time.

"It already happened for me, dad. So, no. You can't change my mind." Percy said confidently.

"No. Never. Orpheus came close... . Percy, you're not seriously thinking—"

"No," I lied.

"Liar~" Hermes and his sons sang, giving Percy smirks.

You're quite a remarkable young man Percy. First you eavesdrop, then you ditch your best friend at the right moment and now you lie. I have taught you well." Hermes said. Percy looked at the god blankly.

"The only thing you've taught me is that one can never give up on family not matter how messy it is. Oh and you've also taught me that immortal families are eternally messy. What else? Oh yeah there's also-"

"We get it Seaweed Brain. Lord Hermes was able to teach you some useful things. Now hush up and let Travis read." Annabeth said giving her boyfriend her 'death look'.

"I was just wondering. So ... a satyr is always assigned to guard a demigod?"

Hermes faked wiping a tear. "Now you've even begun using your subject-changing skills."

Grover studied me warily. I hadn't persuaded him that I'd really dropped the Underworld idea. "Not always. We go undercover to a lot of schools. We try to sniff out the half-bloods who have the makings of great heroes.

"Satyrs sound like dogs from what Grover said." Connor mused. Both Annabeths had to hide their smiles behind their hands.

If we find one with a very strong aura, like a child of the Big Three, we alert Chiron. He tries to keep an eye on them, since they could cause really huge problems."

"And you found me. Chiron said you thought I might be something special."

"Oh great. Another ego inflating sentence."

"I do not have a big ego!"

"Whatever fits your boat Percy."

Grover looked as if I'd just led him into a trap. "I didn't... Oh, listen, don't think like that. If you were—you know—you'd never ever be allowed a quest, and I'd never get my license.

"Wow. That's quite a lot of faith there." Apollo joked. The sarcasm was obvious in his voice.

You're probably a child of Hermes. Or maybe even one of the minor gods, like Nemesis, the god of revenge. Don't worry, okay?"

"Isn't Nemesis a goddess?" Questioned Artemis

"Yes. Why?"

"Just checking." Was her reply.

I got the idea he was reassuring himself more than night after dinner, there was a lot more excitement than usual.

"Huh? Why? What did I miss?" Poseidon asked. Ares cackled and rubbed his hands together.

"Finally, some action!" Poseidon still looked confused. Athena couldn't help but roll her eyes.

"It's capture-the-flag, Fish Face."

"Oh."

At last, it was time for capture the flag.

Everyone cheered but none more so than the demigods and Ares.

When the plates were cleared away, the conch horn sounded and we all stood at our tables.

Campers yelled and cheered as Annabeth and two of her siblings ran into the pavilion carrying a silk banner.

The daughters of Athena grinned.

It was about ten feet long, glistening gray, with a painting of a barn owl above an olive tree.

From the opposite side of the pavilion, Clarisse and her buddies ran in with another banner, of identical size, but gaudy red, painted with a bloody spear and a boar's head.

Clarisse smirked at mini-Annabeth.

"You're going down, Chase."

"Not this time, La Rue. Not this time."

"We'll see."

I turned to Luke and yelled over the noise, "Those are the flags?"

"No, those are the puppies that'll fetch you food when you get hungry." Thalia said sarcastically. Connor didn't catch the sarcasm in the Hunter's voice.

"Wait, we have food-fetching puppies? Why do I not know of this?" He demanded. Silena, Katie, mini-Annabeth and Beckendorf face-palmed while Will shook his head at the younger Stoll brother.

"Yeah."

"Ares and Athena always lead the teams?"

"We often do." Annabeth said, recalling the previous capture-the-flag games she's played in.

"Not always," he said. "But often."

"So, if another cabin captures one, what do you do— repaint the flag?"

"No. It just turns into the color of the cabin with the godly parent's symbol in the middle." Mini-Annabeth said.

"We know, Annabeth." All the demigods said. "I'm just clarifying it for some people." She said indignantly.

"How does it change color though?" Beckendorf asked curiously. All the past demigods turned to mini-Annabeth who turned to older Annabeth who shrugged and looked at the gods who, as one, looked at Athena. The wisdom goddess rolled her eyes and only said one word.

"Hecate."

He grinned. "You'll see. First we have to get one."

"Whose side are we on?"

"Mine, obviously." Annabeth said.

He gave me a sly look, as if he knew something I didn't.

"Almost everyone knows something you don't, Perce," Nico joked. Percy smiled before shoving Nico to the floor.

"Umph! What the hell Percy?" The son of Hades asked, getting up and rubbing his head or more accurately, his jaw. "That hurt you know!"

"It was meant to hurt, Nico."

"I hate you." Nico said, narrowing his eyes at the son of Poseidon.

"Love you too, cousin."

The scar on his face made him look almost evil in the torchlight.

Percy's fingers twitched.

"We've made a temporary alliance with Athena. Tonight, we get the flag from Ares. And you are going to help."

Percy glared slightly at Annabeth who was smiling innocently.

"I did not appreciate that plan of yours, Wise Girl."

"Hey, it worked out in the end anyway so don't complain."

The teams were announced. Athena had made an alliance with Apollo and Hermes, the two biggest cabins.

Hermes and Apollo high-fived and grinned while Will groaned when the Stolls sent him a smirk.

Apparently, privileges had been traded—shower times, chore schedules, the best slots for activities—in order to win support.

Hermes licked his lips at the mention of what could qualify as bribery.

Ares had allied themselves with everybody else: Dionysus, Demeter, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus. From what I'd seen, Dionysus's kids were actually good athletes, but there were only two of them.

All the demigods smiled at the mention of the twins.

"Castor and Pollux." Percy said sadly and guiltily. His tone wasn't noticed by many.

Demeter's kids had the edge with nature skills and outdoor stuff but they weren't very aggressive.

"I beg to differ." Travis said, rubbing one of his arms. "Katie seems pretty aggressive to me." Mini-Annabeth looked at him weirdly.

"She only gets aggressive when it comes to you and your pranks. Other than that, Katie's as nice as a butterfly."

Aphrodite's sons and daughters I wasn't too worried about.

Silena raised an eyebrow at Percy who just shrugged.

"Wait for it."

They mostly sat out every activity and checked their reflections in the lake and did their hair and gossiped.

Silena sighed. Her siblings didn't participate in many activities.

"As much as I would love to deny that, it's a really accurate description of what my cabin does most of the time." She said sadly. Beckendorf patted her shoulder awkwardly but it was enough for Silena's mood to brighten considerably.

Hephaestus's kids weren't pretty, and there were only four of them, but they were big and burly from working in the metal shop all day. They might be a problem.

"Might?" Hephaestus asked amusedly.

"In my opinion, your kids are pretty hard to fight Lord Hephaestus." Percy said, remembering the one time when he had to fight against Harley[10[ in hand-to-hand combat.

That, of course, left Ares' cabin: a dozen of the biggest, ugliest, meanest kids on Long Island, or anywhere else on the planet.

"Hey!" Clarisse said indignantly. Percy smiled apologetically at the glaring daughter of Ares.

"Err… sorry?"

"You had better be, punk." Clarisse said.

Chiron hammered his hoof on the marble.

"Heroes!" he announced. "You know the rules.

Older Annabeth grinned and mouthed the next line at the same time as Travis' reading. She had heard it so often that she had memorized it.

The creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed. The banner must be prominently displayed, and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bound or gagged. No killing or maiming is allowed.

Percy frowned childishly at hearing that but let it go since it was in the past.

I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. Arm yourselves!"

He spread his hands, and the tables were suddenly covered with equipment: helmets, bronze swords, spears, oxhide shields coated in metal.

"Woah! Chiron can do some magic!" Travis said, his eyes widening. Everyone just ignored him.

"You guys are no fun." Katie whacked his head.

"Just read."

"Yes ma'am!"

"Whoa," I said. "We're really supposed to use these?"

Luke looked at me as if I were crazy.

"He was right on that one. You are crazy." Thalia teased.

"Unless you want to get skewered by your friends in cabin five. Here—Chiron thought these would fit. You'll be on border patrol."

Ares raised an eyebrow. "Your first capture-the-flag and you're on border patrol? Talk about boring. Looks like it's gonna be another boring chapter since you're going to miss the fighting."

Percy snorted internally. "If only…"

My shield was the size of an NBA backboard, with a big caduceus in the middle. It weighed about a million pounds. I could have snowboarded on it fine, but I hoped nobody seriously expected me to run fast. My helmet, like all the helmets on Athena's side, had a blue horsehair plume on top. Ares and their allies had red plumes.

Annabeth yelled, "Blue team, forward!"

Athena smiled at her daughters, happy that she was already leading at the mere age of 12.

We cheered and shook our swords and followed her down the path to the south woods. The red team yelled taunts at us as they headed off toward the north.

I managed to catch up with Annabeth without tripping over my equipment. "Hey."

She kept marching.

"Oh rejection again. How much more can you take, Percy?" Aphrodite joked but there was a hint of seriousness in her voice.

"So what's the plan?" I asked. "Got any magic items you can loan me?"

The futures snorted.

Her hand drifted toward her pocket, as if she were afraid I'd stolen something.

"That Seaweed Head couldn't steal anything from you, Annabeth." Thalia said.

"Just watch Clarisse's spear," she said. "You don't want that thing touching you.

"Why not?" Connor asked confused. "The spears that Clarisse use don't hurt much unless it's the tip that hits you. Even that could be treated with Ambrosia and Nectar." Percy didn't answer but glared at Ares instead.

"Problem, punk?" Percy just narrowed his eyes further, agitating the god since he wanted so desperately to punch the demigod but Poseidon was in the room.

Otherwise, don't worry. We'll take the banner from Ares. Has Luke given you your job?"

"Border patrol, whatever that means."

"What else would it mean? The name itself is self-explanatory." Athena said incredulously. Then she remembered that this was his first capture the flag game.

"Border patrol simply means that you'll either be the one to protect the flag or the one protecting our side of the forest" Thalia said. "Even I know that Kelp Head." Percy rolled his eyes. "I know, Thals."

"It's easy. Stand by the creek, keep the reds away. Leave the rest to me. Athena always has a plan."

"That's like your catchphrase." Nico pointed out. "Athena always has a plan."

"That's because it's true." Both Annabeth said.

"Oh yeah?" Poseidon challenged. "Do you have a plan for when flying geese carry cheese-eating monkeys on their backs and poop all over New York? Do you have a plan for when Apollo get drunk and shoots people from his chariot? Well, do you?"

Athena looked at him blankly. "I don't need plans for foolish things like that."

Poseidon smirked slightly. "So you don't have a plan for something like that." The wisdom goddess twitched. "It is an occurrence that would never happen as no one is stupid enough to try and monkeys cannot balance themselves on the backs of flying geese. They would merely fall to the ground and waste their lives or get injured. Now, let us get the chapter over with."

Athena shot Travis a look and he was sensible enough to continue reading.

She pushed ahead, leaving me in the dust.

Nico smirked and opened his mouth but never got the chance to speak since Percy glared at him.

"One more word about my love life, di Angelo and I bring out the duct tape." Nico thoroughly paled while the gods and past demigods wondered why Nico was afraid of duct tape.

"Okay," I mumbled. "Glad you wanted me on your team."

It was a warm, sticky night. The woods were dark, with fireflies popping in and out of view. Annabeth stationed me next to a little creek that gurgled over some rocks,

Poseidon sighed. His son was near water so if he got injured he just had to step into the creek and he'd be fine.

then she and the rest of the team scattered into the trees.

"Don't you think it was a bit of a risk to keep only one demigod on border patrol? He's still an inexperienced demigod. One wrong move and you'll have lost the game." Artemis pointed out. Mini-Annabeth and her older version shared a look.

"You used strategy 22 didn't you?" The younger demigod asked. Older Annabeth nodded secretively.

"Strategy 22?" Percy asked the question most people were thinking about. "Strategy 22: Distract and attack. It worked pretty well if I do say so myself." Annabeth said smirking at Percy who was grumbling and rubbing his arm absent-mindedly.

Standing there alone, with my big blue-feathered helmet and my huge shield, I felt like an idiot.

"You looked like an idiot." Thalia said. Percy raised an eyebrow at his lightning-wielding cousin.

"How would you know? You weren't there." Thalia smirked at her water-wielding cousin. "Simple. Annabeth told me."

Percy turned and gave Annabeth a hurt look. The daughter of Athena only shrugged. "No offense but you have to admit, you did look like an idiot. You were especially skinny back then too which only added to the idiocy." Percy pouted.

"Wow. I feel the love." He said monotonously.

The bronze sword, like all the swords I'd tried so far, seemed balanced wrong. The leather grip pulled on my hand like a bowling ball.

Poseidon frowned. What about Riptide? It should have been given to him the minute he step foot into camp… oh what am I saying? Chiron must be waiting for the right time.

There was no way anybody would actually attack me, would they?

The futures snorted in unison (even Percy). The son of Poseidon shook his head, realizing how stupid his thoughts did sound now that he knew full well about the life and hardships of a half-blood.

I mean, Olympus had to have liability issues, right?

Apollo looked up. "Didn't we have liability issues a few decades ago?"

"Yeah. One demigod was always unlucky because he offended Tyche. We gave him a… err, what did we call it again? Ah yes, a liability pass which he could use until Tyche forgives him for his offense." Hermes told Apollo, frowning. "The kid brought me a lot of trouble. Nearly every day I had to go to him. I actually had to make a new schedule!

Apollo patted Hermes' shoulder apologetically. "I feel you, bro. Almost half of my medical supplies went to that demigod. Anyways, what was his name and who was his god parent? I don't wanna keep calling him demigod." All the gods rolled their eyes at the sun god.

"If I remember correctly, his name was Jacob Norric. He was a son of… Notus was it? Yes, son of Notus." Athena said. Many more of the gods looked like they wanted to complain but Poseidon cleared his throat.

"Can we please move on? I would like to know if my son gets out unharmed in his first capture the flag game." The sea god said agitatedly. Percy sighed and frowned.

"You make me sound so weak and helpless, dad. Thanks a bunch." Percy said glumly. Poseidon blinked and freaked out internally.

"N-no that's not it! I was just worried about what might happen! That's all, I promise. Please believe me, Percy."

Percy sighed and smiled at his dad. The smile turned into a full-out grin. That's when everyone knew the son of Poseidon was only joking around.

"You know, this reading thing is really testing my acting skills. If I don't ace theatre at Goode then I'm going to sue the principal as well as the United States Department of Education. "[11]

Everyone rolled their eyes at Percy who was still mumbling.

Far away, the conch horn blew. I heard whoops and yells in the woods, the clanking of metal, kids fighting. A blue-plumed ally from Apollo raced past me like a deer, leaped through the creek, and disappeared into enemy territory.

Apollo perked up. "Is it a boy or a girl?"

"Err… boy."

"Was it Gregory? Or Silo? Justas perhaps?" Apollo questioned enthusiastically. The gods smiled at the sun god. They all knew that when it came to their kids, Apollo always knew who was who and what they had all done and everything else. To the gods, it was as if Apollo had raised all his kids but they knew it was impossible. Meanwhile, all Percy could do was keep up with the questions. Once Apollo had stated 14 names of his male children Percy finally put his foot down.

"Apollo, you're great at remembering your kids and all but this was years ago in my time. I didn't even know a quarter of camp back then!" Percy said. "At least you know your kids." He whispered to himself.

"Right. Sorry about that. I just wanna know. Oh yeah! Speaking of my kids, Hermes, can I borrow your… whatever you use for checking deliveries?" Apollo asked. Hermes' eyebrows shot straight into his curly.

"Bro, not that I don't trust you or anything but why do you need my Ipad?" Hermes asked uncertainly.

"You have an Ipad already?" Nico asked incredulously. "No way! They don't come out till three years later in this time."

Hermes nodded, not breaking eye contact with Apollo who was now using his puppy dog pout. "Tell me why you need my Ipad first." Apollo's face fell and he looked at his favorite brother pleadingly. "I can't. Come on Hermes. I promise it's not to do a prank or to mess with the deliveries. I'm just going to ship a few gifts for some of my mortal friends. PLEASE?" Apollo had one more trick up his sleeve should Hermes refuse. The god of messengers sighed and reluctantly handed Apollo his most precious (and convenient) Ipad.

"DANKE!" Apollo yelled, hugging his brother to bits then proceeding to furiously tap the screen. Hermes had to blink a couple at times since Apollo's tapping was so fast.

"Bro, loosen up on the tapping. You're gonna break it." Apollo glanced at Hermes and did as he requested. Meanwhile the demigods were either watching the sun god (like what most of the gods were doing) or thinking about why he needed it so bad. The people who were thinking about why he needed the gadget couldn't think of anything. Only Athena seemed to know but she kept her mouth shut. The wisdom goddess however had a soft smile directed towards her half-brother.

A few minutes later, Apollo finished his job. "Finished! Danke again, bro." Hermes sighed and took back his Ipad. "Yeah yeah."

"Hey what's danke? Is it some sort of food or dunking like in basketball or what?" Travis asked.

"Danke means 'thank you' in German. Apollo was watching this tv show and learned the word there. I'm surprised he actually learned something." Artemis clarified for the demigods while Apollo pouted at the last statement. Travis grinned and thanked Artemis before continuing the story.

Great, I thought. I'll miss all the fun, as usual.

Percy snorted quietly. "I wish."

Then I heard a sound that sent a chill up my spine, a low canine growl, somewhere close by.

Annabeth looked at Percy with wide eyes. He only responded with an emotionless face and a small nod. Poseidon on the other hand, paled at the thought of a monster attacking his son.

Everyone else was engrossed in the story.

I raised my shield instinctively; I had the feeling something was stalking me.

Percy's jaw clenched remembering what had attacked him and who summoned the monster.

Then the growling stopped. I felt the presence retreating.

Poseidon sighed in relief. Percy sighed too but for a different reason.

"Don't be relieved yet dad. There's more to come."

On the other side of the creek, the underbrush exploded. Five Ares warriors came yelling and screaming out of the dark.

Poseidon paled again and made choking noises. Ares was grinning maniacally. Clarisse was smirking triumphantly at Percy and mini-Annabeth was looking a bit worriedly at the son of Poseidon. The rest was just wondering why 5 people came so suddenly and how Percy was able to beat them all with barely any training.

"Cream the punk!" Clarisse screamed.

Poseidon looked ready to pass out due to stress and worrying about Percy too much. Then, as if on cue, Ares and Clarisse chuckled evilly.

"This is revenge, punk." The past demigods other than mini-Annabeth and Clarisse flinched a bit while Percy only sighed and remembered the sword wound he got.

The first out of many injuries…

Her ugly pig eyes glared through the slits of her helmet.

Clarisse growled at the Savior of Olympus who avoided eye contact.

She brandished a five-foot-long spear, its barbed metal tip flickering with red light.

The demigoddess' eyebrows scrunched together at the description of her spear. "My spear doesn't flicker with red light…"

"Wait for it."

Her siblings had only the standard-issue bronze swords—not that that made me feel any better.

Poseidon groaned and began hitting his head on the armrest of his throne. How he did it though, no one knew. Zeus and Hades were snickering at their brother while Hera, Demeter and Hestia smiled sadly at the god of the sea. Hestia made a soft pillow appear on the god's armrest so that when Poseidon decided to hit his forehead against the armrest, his face would be met with a nice, soft and comfy pillow.

Poseidon, however, didn't notice the pillow and continued hitting his head on the arm rest of his throne, only slightly wondering why it got softer. The demigods had to bit their lips to prevent giggles and chuckles from surfacing.

They charged across the stream. There was no help in sight. I could run.

"Stay and fight, coward!" Ares and Clarisse yelled. Immediately, the god of war got hit by wheat, daisies, peacock feathers and some fire.

"OW!" He yelled when the fire and the pointy peacock feathers made contact with him. Hera frowned at her son. "Be quiet and let the demigod read Ares."

Or I could defend myself against half the Ares cabin.

Mini-Annabeth bit her lip uncertainly. Sure it was all according to plan but half of the Ares cabin to distract was a bit too much for a single person.

I managed to sidestep the first kid's swing, but these guys were not as stupid the Minotaur.

They surrounded me, and Clarisse thrust at me with her spear. My shield deflected the point, but I felt a painful tingling all over my body.

Poseidon stopped banging his head and sat up straight, looking at Percy with wide, worry-filled eyes.

My hair stood on end. My shield arm went numb, and the air burned.

The sea god was contemplating on whether to ask his son if he was alright or wait until the book says he's fine. Hestia saw the conflicted expression in her brothers and smiled at him.

It'll be alright, brother. Perseus is safe and is even in the same room as you!

Poseidon blinked and looked at his son who was looking at the god in worry. Poseidon managed to smile. Percy smiled back and turned his attention to the book. Poseidon then gave Hestia a small smile.

Thank you sister.

Electricity. Her stupid spear was electric.

"I GET AN ELECTRIC SPEAR!" Clarisse looked like she was about to start dancing for joy before she remembered that she was a daughter of Ares and children of Ares do NOT dance for joy… not in public at least.

I fell back.

Another Ares guy slammed me in the chest with the butt of his sword and I hit the dirt.

Most of the people winced again but none more so than Poseidon who had lost any color that was still in his face and was now thinking about hugging his son or banging his head on his throne again.

They could've kicked me into jelly, but they were too busy laughing.

"That will prove to be your most fatal mistake." Athena told Clarisse who was frowning at the actions of her future self and her brothers. The flag was right there! Ares too seemed irritated at what his children were doing.

Win the game and cream the punk at the same time. Don't stand there and laugh! Ares thought, glaring at the book and then redirecting his glare at Clarisse who flinched visibly. Hera and Artemis noticed the daughter of Ares flinch and gave the war god a glare of their own.

"Give him a haircut," Clarisse said. "Grab his hair."

Percy decided to act childishly again. He put both his hands on top of his head (like the way 5 year olds do when they don't want anyone to touch or cut their hair) then narrowed his eyes at Clarisse who was looking at him in amusement along with everyone else (except Poseidon).

"No touching my hair unless you're either my mom, my dad, Paul, Annabeth, Chiron… err who else… Yeah, that's all." Nico had a sudden gleam in his eyes and pinched a few strands of Percy's hair.

"Touch." He said childishly. Then Percy turned to him and glared, bringing out a roll of duct tape from his pants.

"Where'd you get that?" Thalia mused. Nico meanwhile, paled further and leaned away.

"N-now Percy." He started. Said boy unrolled the duct tape threateningly. Top off the evil duct tape unraveling and the glare on Percy's face, Nico's resolve crumbled.

"I'm SORRY!" He leapt up and hid behind Hades' throne. Hades looked behind his throne and found his son trying to hide but epically failing. Lucky for Nico, Hades only smiled and ignored the small whimpering that came from the demigod behind his throne… at least, he tried to. The god would alternate between glancing behind his throne as best as he could without anyone noticingand glaring at the son of Poseidon who put the duct tape away and way getting a small scolding from Annabeth.

Nico peeked from behind Hades' throne to see if Percy still had the duct tape out. Then he looked up and saw his father looking at him with an amused expression.

"Is it safe to come out now?" The demigod asked uncertainly. Everyone nodded and Nico uncertainly walked back to his seat, eyeing Percy warily.

"I won't bring out the duct tape. I promise." Percy said, rolling his eyes at the same time then grinning afterwards. The grin seemed enough for Nico and he plopped himself down into the empty seat beside Percy.

"Why do you keep a roll of duct tape with you?" Beckendorf asked. Percy looked at him.

"For fun." He said, as if explaining everything. "It's also to make sure Nico doesn't go out of line when he gets hyper." Annabeth whispered to herself.

I managed to get to my feet. I raised my sword, but Clarisse slammed it aside with her spear as sparks flew. Now both my arms felt numb.

The capture the flag game slipped out of Poseidon's mind after the duct tape fiasco but now he remembered that his son (in the book at least) was getting skewered by the Ares cabin… or half of it at least.

"Oh, wow," Clarisse said. "I'm scared of this guy. Really scared."

"You should be." Nico, Thalia and Annabeth chorused. Percy gave them a confused look. "Huh? Why should she be scared? I mean, I get the fact that she respects me because of the things that happened but scared?"

The three only glanced at him with expressions that practically said 'Really Percy? Really?'

"The flag is that way," I told her.

Percy was instantly hit on the head by an irritated Annabeth.

"The flag may be in plain sight but don't just give away the location, you seaweed brain!" Percy had the decency to look guilty and apologized to a fuming Annabeth who was muttering to herself about plan 34, whatever that was.

I wanted to sound angry, but I was afraid it didn't come out that way.

"Yeah," one of her siblings said. "But see, we don't care about the flag. We care about a guy who made our cabin look stupid."

Athena looked passively at Ares and then at Clarisse. "You could have won if even a single one of you had decided to take the flag and leave the other four to deal with him."

Clarisse looked at floor and frowned.

"You do that without my help," I told them.

A lot of people face palmed at that.

It probably wasn't the smartest thing to say.

"No it wasn't." Poseidon said weakly, shooting his son a desperate look. Percy only smiled uncertainly and apologetically at his father.

Two of them came at me. I backed up toward the creek, tried to raise my shield, but Clarisse was too fast. Her spear stuck me straight in the ribs.

The god of the seas, upon hearing the last line couldn't take it anymore. He snapped his finger and immediately, Percy found himself seated on his dad's lap being crushed by a very tight hug. It took the demigods a couple of seconds to understand what happened. Poseidon shut his eyes tightly and kept on hugging his son out of worry.

"You'll be ok. You'll be ok." The god chanted.

"He won't be if you don't loosed up on that hug Uncle P." Apollo commented, noticing that Percy was turning blue and was making choking noises. Poseidon opened his eyes and loosened his grip. Immediately, Percy released what little air he had in his lungs. Then the son of Poseidon proceeded to take in deep breaths. Then he seems to realized exactly where he was and began blushing furiously.

The boys were snickering at the Savior of Olympus while the females were either smiling or in Aphrodite's, Silena's and Hera's case, cooing. Percy squirmed.

"Dad, uh, not that I don't appreciate you worrying or anything but can I go back to my chair now?" Percy asked. Poseidon blinked.

"Maybe later, son. Perhaps when the chapter ends?" Poseidon said, a smile forming on his lips as Percy whined childishly on his lap.

"Dad, c'mon. I'm already 16 and this is embarrassing."

"What's embarrassing?"

"The fact that I'm sitting on your lap like I'm 5 years old." Percy pouted. Everyone was snickering or trying not to. Poseidon only looked at his son and gave the Savior of Olympus a puppy dog pout. Percy tried to look away but was having a lot of trouble. All the females (except Clarisse) had a hard time looking away from the pouting god.

After a few more moments and Percy sighed and crossed his arms.

"Fine. I'll stay until the end of the chapter." He relented. Poseidon grinned while Nico and Thalia were videotaping it for blackmail reference.

"Uh, can I read now?" Travis asked hesitantly. Everyone nodded.

If I hadn't been wearing an armored breastplate, I would've been shish-kebabbed. As it was, the electric point just about shocked my teeth out of my mouth.

Poseidon winced along with most of the females.

One of her cabinmates slashed his sword across my arm, leaving a good-size cut.

Percy sighed, feeling the grip Poseidon had on him tightened.

"Dad, I'm fine. See?" He made appoint by stretching out his arms for Poseidon to see. "No scratches. No need to choke the air out of me again with your hugs." Percy joked. Poseidon managed a small eye roll and a smile.

Seeing my own blood made me dizzy—warm and cold at the same time.

Ares was about to comment when Percy sent him a glare and the god of war immediately backed down. He wouldn't admit it out loud but the demigod's glare was intimidating.

"No maiming," I managed to say.

"Oops," the guy said. "Guess I lost my dessert privilege."

Poseidon's eye twitched. "That's his punishment? Chiron's too soft if it is." Percy sighed then groaned but eventually gave up.

He pushed me into the creek and I landed with a splash.

In unison, Poseidon and Percy got the maniacal gleam that was once on Clarisse's and Ares' eyes.

"This will be good." Hermes muttered to Apollo who was grinning.

They all laughed. I figured as soon as they were through being amused, I would die.

"That's too dramatic Percy. You'd just get seriously maimed." Thalia called to the demigod on Poseidon's lap.

Percy made a face, glanced at his dad and stuck his tongue out at his cousin.

But then something happened.

Poseidon and Percy gave dark smirks to Clarisse and Ares who shivered.

The water seemed to wake up my senses, as if I'd just had a bag of my mom's double-espresso jelly beans.

Percy and Annabeth licked their lips, remembering the times when Sally had offered them the jelly beans.

Clarisse and her cabinmates came into the creek to get me, but I stood to meet them. I knew what to do. I swung the flat of my sword against the first guy's head and knocked his helmet clean off.

Percy grinned triumphantly while Clarisse and Ares suddenly got quiet. Everyone was just waiting and was too engrossed in the story.

I hit him so hard I could see his eyes vibrating as he crumpled into the water.

Apollo let out a low whistle since he couldn't come up with a word. He glanced at Percy who was looking very smug.

Ugly Number Two and Ugly Number Three came at me.

"Ugly No. 2 and 3… nice names Percy." Hermes said with an eye roll.

I slammed one in the face with my shield and used my sword to shear off the other guy's horsehair plume.

Those are great battle skills. Ares grudgingly thought.

The wonders of what water can do for him. Annabeth thought.

Both of them backed up quick. Ugly Number Four didn't look really anxious to attack, but Clarisse kept coming, the point of her spear crackling with energy.

"As much as that would be unwise, I have to commend you for your bravery and focus." Athena told the daughter of Ares grudgingly. Clarisse was very stunned to have been complimented by the wisdom goddess. It was a feat that was very much near to being impossible.

As soon as she thrust, I caught the shaft between the edge of my shield and my sword, and I snapped it like a twig.

Clarisse's eye twitched and her breathing turned deeper as she glared at the son of Poseidon. Her breathing turned into growling.

"How dare you!" She screamed. "That was most likely the only gift from my father! You stupid idiot!" Will and Beckendorf had to hold the demigoddess down so that she doesn't get harmed. Apollo frowned and snapped his fingers. Immediately Clarisse lay on the floor unconscious. Ares jumped up and grabbed the sun god by his throat.

"What the hell did you do to her, punk?" He asked or rather, demanded. Apollo choked a bit but was saved when Hermes and Hephaestus restrained Ares.

"D-don't worry. I only made her fall asleep. She should wake up in ten minutes and in that time, we should read. I don't want to have unnecessary injuries while we're all here." Apollo said seriously.

Ares glared at the sun god one more time and ripped himself from the two gods who were restraining him. The war god gave Travis a look. "Read."

Travis nodded while Hermes and Hephaestus sat back on their thrones. All the gods (minus Ares) were amazed that the war god actually cared for his kid.

"Ah!" she screamed. "You idiot! You corpse-breath worm!"

"Nope. That's not Percy. Corpse-breath worm would be Nico." Thalia said, trying to break the tension. She was successful when Nico protested loudly.

She probably would've said worse, but I smacked her between the eyes with my sword-butt and sent her stumbling backward out of the creek.

All the gods minus Ares gave low whistles. "Nice moves." Hermes said.

"Thanks!" Percy grinned.

Then I heard yelling, elated screams, and I saw Luke racing toward the boundary line with the red team's banner lifted high.

"Wohoo! Go Luke!" All the past demigods cheered.

He was flanked by a couple of Hermes guys covering his retreat, and a few Apollos behind them, fighting off the Hephaestus kids. The Ares folks got up, and Clarisse muttered a dazed curse.

"A trick!" she shouted. "It was a trick."

Both Annabeths looked smug while Athena looked proud.

They staggered after Luke, but it was too late.

Everyone except Ares, Dionysus, Hades, Hera, Zeus and surprisingly Percy cheered. Poseidon noticed his son's silence.

"Why aren't you cheering? You won the game. You're first capture the flag game might I add." Poseidon said. Percy just sighed and looked at the floor blankly.

"You'll see." Poseidon frowned, immediately getting a bad feeling about the next part of the story.

Everybody converged on the creek as Luke ran across into friendly territory. Our side exploded into cheers. The red banner shimmered and turned to silver. The boar and spear were replaced with a huge caduceus, the symbol of cabin eleven.

No one was grinning more than Hermes and his kids. They were happy that the banner changed into their cabin's color and symbol instead of Athena's. It was a good change for once.

Everybody on the blue team picked up Luke and started carrying him around on their shoulders. Chiron cantered out from the woods and blew the conch horn.

The game was over. We'd won.

"Yes. Yes you did." Nico said happily, not knowing what was going to come next. Percy and Annabeth shared a small look before returning their attention to Travis who was grinning while he read.

I was about to join the celebration when Annabeth's voice, right next to me in the creek, said, "Not bad, hero."

I looked, but she wasn't there.

Annabeth smiled, remembering her hat and its usefulness. Mini-Annabeth started bouncing in her seat.

"I get an invisibility hat? That's so awesome! When do I get it? Did you give it to me, mother?" Mini-Annabeth asked enthusiastically. Most of the people in the room chuckled at the demigoddess' enthusiasm.

"It'll be revealed in the book I think. If not, I'll tell you." Annabeth said. Mini-Annabeth pouted but nodded her head in understanding.

"Where the heck did you learn to fight like that?" she asked. The air shimmered, and she materialized, holding a Yankees baseball cap as if she'd just taken it off her head.

I felt myself getting angry.

"Uh-oh." Thalia and Nico joked.

I wasn't even fazed by the fact that she'd just been invisible.

"How can you not be fazed by someone who was invisible?" Katie asked at the same time that Demeter did. Mother and daughter looked at each other and smiled. Percy on the other hand shrugged.

"You set me up," I said. "You put me here because you knew Clarisse would come after me, while you sent Luke around the flank. You had it all figured out."

Annabeth smirked at Percy who was glaring at her.

Annabeth shrugged. "I told you. Athena always, always has a plan."

"A plan to get me pulverized."

"A plan none the less."

"I hate you." Percy mumbled, knowing he couldn't win against Annabeth. He daughter of Athena smiled. "Love you too Seaweed Brain."

The people in the room gasped while Aphrodite squealed.

"I knew it! I knew it!" Annabeth seemed to have realized what she said and had a moment of panic. Luckily she recomposed herself.

"You all do know I was being sarcastic right?" At hearing this, Athena and mini-Annabeth gave a sigh of relief while everyone else (other than Percy, Nico and Thalia) went back to the book although Aphrodite looked disheartened.

"I came as fast as I could. I was about to jump in, but ..." She shrugged. "You didn't need help."

Then she noticed my wounded arm. "How did you do that?"

Annabeth got weird looks from the gods, the past demigods and even the futures (other than Percy of course).

"He got it from a sword, how else?" Connor said. Annabeth rolled her eyes along with Percy and motioned for Travis to read. The son of Hermes just shrugged and did as he was motioned to.

"Sword cut," I said. "What do you think?"

"No. It was a sword cut. Look at it."

This got many raised eyebrows.

The blood was gone. Where the huge cut had been, there was a long white scratch, and even that was fading. As I watched, it turned into a small scar, and disappeared.

Everyone who didn't know about this had their jaws dropping to the ground.

"He can heal in water? That's so cool!" Connor and Travis said. Everyone nodded in agreement. 'Cool' seemed to be the right word for now.

"I—I don't get it," I said.

"Of course you don't." Annabeth said casually, ignoring the pout that Percy sent her way.

Annabeth was thinking hard.

All the demigods snorted.

"When is she never?" Silena teased. Mini-Annabeth blushed and pouted while older Annabeth just shrugged. "Too true."

I could almost see the gears turning. She looked down at my feet, then at Clarisse's broken spear, and said, "Step out of the water, Percy."

"And so you figured it out." Percy said casually, also ignoring the look Annabeth gave him. When he did make eye contact with her, he smirked.

Two can play at this game, Wise Girl.

Annabeth narrowed her eyes at the challenge in Percy's eyes.

You're on, Seaweed Brain.

At seeing the acceptance in Annabeth's eyes, Percy didn't feel that confident anymore.

"What—"

"Just do it."

I came out of the creek and immediately felt bone tired. My arms started to go numb again. My adrenaline rush left me. I almost fell over, but Annabeth steadied me.

"Aww. She's your … princess in shining armor?" Nico said/asked. "That sounds really bad. Don't mind what I said then."

"Oh, Styx," she cursed. "This is not good. I didn't want ... I assumed it would be Zeus... ."

Zeus raised an eyebrow at the demigoddess.

"No offense Lord Zeus but you were the one most likely to break the oath since you had already sired Thalia."

Zeus sighed and backed down. Mainly because Annabeth was right but also because Athena was glaring at her father.

Before I could ask what she meant, I heard that canine growl again, but much closer than before. A howl ripped through the forest.

Poseidon's eyes widened and he paled again. Then he started to give Percy another bone crushing hug.

"Dad! Not again." Percy said warningly. The god of the seas managed a small sheepish smile and was able to control himself and not hug his son to death.

The campers' cheering died instantly. Chiron shouted something in Ancient Greek, which I would realize, only later, I had understood perfectly: "Stand ready! My bow!"

Annabeth drew her sword.

There on the rocks just above us was a black hound the size of a rhino, with lava-red eyes and fangs like daggers.

Hades paled even more. Only one thought rang out through the room.

Hellhound.

Poseidon's eyes flared and he would have gone over and hit his older brother had Percy not been sitting on his lap.

"You're lucky I don't rip you into pieces Hades. My son had better be ok or else-" The god never finished his threat because he was interrupted by the Savior of Olympus.

"Dad!" Percy whined. "How many times do I have to tell you I'm ok?" Poseidon pouted.

"B-but Percy." Percy gave his dad a look. At the back of his mind, he noted how their roles were pretty much reversed and it was Percy who was acting like the father.

"No buts. This happened 5 years ago in my time and there's no need for any unnecessary violence." Poseidon sighed.

"Alright." Demeter leaned over the armrest on her throne and whispered into Hera's ear. "Don't you think it's amusing how their roles are reversed? Brother's acting like the kid while his son is giving him a scolding."

The two goddesses shared a look before muffling their giggles with their hands.

It was looking straight at me.

Poseidon groaned and shut his eyes tightly.

Nobody moved except Annabeth, who yelled, "Percy, run!"

She tried to step in front of me, but the hound was too fast.

"If only I was faster…" Annabeth said sadly.

"Don't worry about it Wise Girl. Everything turned out to be alright."

"Yeah yeah."

It leaped over her—an enormous shadow with teeth—and just as it hit me, as I stumbled backward and felt its razor-sharp claws ripping through my armor, there was a cascade of thwacking sounds, like forty pieces of paper being ripped one after the other. From the hounds neck sprouted a cluster of arrows. The monster fell dead at my feet.

Poseidon sighed and buried his head on Percy's shoulder. Percy felt uncomfortable and awkwardly patted his dad's leg.

"Oh thank Chaos for Chiron and his archery." Apollo cleared his throat and raised an eyebrow.

"Oh yeah. And for Apollo's kids too." Will smiled at the sea god. "You're very welcome, I guess."

By some miracle, I was still alive. I didn't want to look underneath the ruins of my shredded armor.

Poseidon flinched at this.

My chest felt warm and wet, and I knew I was badly cut.

"Cut?" Annabeth asked incredulously. "Percy, it was more than a cut. Your chest looked like it had been ripped open by three slashed and-" Annabeth abruptly stopped upon hearing the sea god's whimper. Percy looked to Hestia pleadingly. Hestia smiled in understanding and rose from her hearth. Then she walked over to Poseidon's throne and hugged the god as best as she could.

"Don't worry brother. It's all in the past. No need for any drama unless you want to take the title of god of theatre from Zeus."

Immediately Poseidon stopped whimpering and tried to glare at his older sister. "I am not dramatic like Mr. Drama over there." Poseidon said motioning to Zeus.

"Hey!"

The small tension in the room disappeared as everyone laughed at the king of the gods.

Another second, and the monster would've turned me into a hundred pounds of delicatessen meat.

Poseidon groaned again, causing Hestia to frown and pat his arm affectionately. The god of the seas shot his favorite sister a small smile of thanks which was returned with another smile and a nod. After a few moments, Hestia returned to her hearth and poked the coals to make it warmer.

Chiron trotted up next to us, a bow in his hand, his face grim.

"Di immortales!"Annabeth said. "That's a hellhound from the Fields of Punishment. They don't ... they're not supposed to ..."

Everyone except Ares and Dionysus grimaced at the reminder.

"How did a hellhound go unnoticed?" Will asked curiously.

"The game was held at night. Night is when monsters of the shadows are at their strongest. The hellhound was able to blend into the shadows perfectly and apparently, it waited for the right moment to attack." Annabeth answered.

"Someone summoned it," Chiron said. "Someone inside the camp."

All the past demigods shared a look of confusion while the futures looked at the hearth sadly.

Luke came over, the banner in his hand forgotten, his moment of glory gone.

Clarisse yelled, "It's all Percy's fault! Percy summoned it!"

Almost everyone gave the unconscious daughter of Ares a weird look.

"She can't be serious, can she? I mean, what kind of demented demigod would summon a hellhound only for the monster to attack him?" Persephone asked.

Besides Athena, Annabeth and Percy, everyone else shrugged not knowing the answer either.

"Be quiet, child," Chiron told her.

Ares growled angrily but let it go.

We watched the body of the hellhound melt into shadow, soaking into the ground until it disappeared.

Percy managed to slip out of his dad's hug and stretched. "Wow dad. You're constant bear-hugs really hurt the lungs." He said, poking his ribs for emphasis. Poseidon's lips turned down in guilt.

"Sorry son." Percy just shrugged and gave his dad a peace sign and the famous Jackson grin.

"No worries dad. If you don't mind though, I think I'd like to sit next to my friends." Poseidon nodded his head and pretended to shoo Percy away.

Percy walked the small distance and soon found himself seated beside his girlfriend again.

"Welcome back, Seaweed Brain."

"Glad to be back, Wise Girl." Travis waited till it was alright to read.

"You're wounded," Annabeth told me. "Quick, Percy, get in the water."

"I'm okay."

All the goddesses, demigods, and a couple of the male gods frowned.

"You are obviously not ok." Apollo said seriously. The demigod had grown on him and Apollo didn't want any harm to befall his cousin but being the god of prophecy, he knew that his cousin had to go through a lot more injuries. Some of which are far worse than a simple hellhound slash.

"No, you're not," she said. "Chiron, watch this."

I was too tired to argue.

"No, you just listen to me." Annabeth said proudly.

"Whatever helps you Wise Girl."

I stepped back into the creek, the whole camp gathering around me.

"Wow. Talk about the beginnings of drama." Thalia whispered.

Instantly, I felt better. I could feel the cuts on my chest closing up. Some of the campers gasped.

"Look, I—I don't know why," I said, trying to apologize. "I'm sorry..."

"Again, you apologize too much." Thalia and Annabeth said.

Percy just rolled his eyes.

But they weren't watching my wounds heal. They were staring at something above my head.

Poseidon's eyes widened. "Can it be?"

"Percy," Annabeth said, pointing. "Um ..."

"For once, Annabeth is speechless!" Thalia said in astonishment. The two daughters of Athena rolled their eyes and ignored her.

By the time I looked up, the sign was already fading, but I could still make out the hologram of green light, spinning and gleaming. A three-tipped spear: a trident.

Poseidon was practically dancing on his throne, chanting "oh yeah, he's claimed. Go me. Too much drama. I don't care. But oh well. He's claimed." Everyone had to press their hands to their mouths to stop the laughter. The god of the seas was unknowingly making a fool of himself. Travis had to pinch himself just to be able to read the next line.

"Your father," Annabeth murmured. "This is really not good."

"Excuse me?" Poseidon asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I meant no disrespect Lord Poseidon." Annabeth replied quickly, her eyes widening slightly. Then she saw Poseidon smiling at her and Annabeth knew the god of the seas was just messing with her just like what Percy does to her sometimes.

"It is determined," Chiron announced.

"Finally." Poseidon muttered. Now everyone knows that he is my son… well since he's from the future of course they know he's my son. Argh, I'm arguing with myself in some twisted way.

All around me, campers started kneeling, even the Ares cabin, though they didn't look happy about it.

Thalia and Nico blinked. "Wait, they kneeled?" the two asked incredulously.

"Yup." Travis confirmed, popping the 'p' at the end.

"That's not fair!" the two whined. "We didn't even get officially claimed at camp."

"But everyone already knew who your godly parents were." Annabeth said. "There wasn't a need for claiming anymore."

The hunter and the ghost king both pouted and huffed indignantly.

"Still…"

"My father?" I asked, completely bewildered.

"Nooo." Hades said sarcastically. "He means my pet rabbit, Snowy."

The deities in the room snickered while Percy gave the god of the underworld a blank look. Then he got the mischievous look in his eyes.

"You know, Lord Hades. Back in my time, you had a pet raccoon named Rex." Percy said, lying like a professional. Only Hermes, the Stolls, Apollo, Poseidon and the futures were able to tell that it was a lie. Hades paled at the thought of having a pet raccoon. Persephone took her husband's hand and rubbed circles on it soothingly and sympathetically.

"It's not so bad. Raccoons are pretty cute." She tried to reason with him but Hades didn't hear her since he was imagining what kind of life he was living if he owned a pet raccoon in the future. The god saw a peppy and pink future in his imagination and involuntarily shivered.

Percy smirked. Hermes winked at him inconspicuously. It was the god's own way of telling Percy what a good lie it was. Travis smirked at Percy in approval and read what was thankfully, the last line of the chapter.

"Poseidon," said Chiron. "Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God."

"You actually sound powerful there." Thalia joked. Percy pouted.

"I thought we established long ago that I am powerful." Thalia smirked. "You thought. Are you sure it happened?" She asked slyly. Percy's resolve didn't waver though.

"I am 100 percent sure." The hero said. Then he waited for Travis to continue reading. When the demigod didn't, he looked at the older Stoll who was stretching his arms behind his head, the book on his lap, closed. Travis continued stretching even when he saw Percy and Thalia starring.

"That's the end of the chapter." He said simply, stretching his back and hearing the satisfying 'pop'. "Who wants to read next?"

"I'm next." Connor said sadly. Travis gave him the book then patted his shoulder.

"I know how you feel brother… reading… ugh." Travis fake-shivered. Connor smiled slightly, browsed through the first pages until he found the right one.

"Chapter 9 right?" He asked Travis who nodded. Connor sighed and began reading.

"I am Offered a Quest."

---

A/N: and there we go. Chapter 13. Time for the explanations/questions:

[1] Is that Percy's height because I can't remember if it was mentioned in the book. If it is, please tell me so that I can change it.

[2] Have I used this in any of the previous chapters before? I remember typing something like it.

[3] Did Theseus master the bow or am I mistaken and it's only Orion?

[4] I just made that up. I'm not sure if Apollo really did curse Poseidon.

[5] If you didn't understand what Poseidon said, here's the explanation. You see Athena said that not all of his children were bad at archery. However, she contradicted this when she said that Apollo cursed Poseidon's children to be bad at archery and only the Fates can change it. If I actually think about it, the second statement sort of contradicts yet at the same time, agrees with the first statement. ARGH! Now I'm confused .

[6] This one I'm not sure about either. I'm pretty sure I made it up but it could also be true.

[7] Holy cow this is a lot of explanations already. O_O Anyway, Percy and Annabeth shook their heads because they thought about keeping Riptide a secret (as much of a secret as it can be since Percy used Riptide in one of the previous chapters).

[8] OMG! I forgot all about Christmas in this story! I'll make a Christmas special as a bonus chapter in the end instead. Too lazy to disrupt the story so we'll pretend that Christmas came and went. Sorry about that but I PROMISE that I'll make a Christmas Special at the end.

[9] I really feel bad for Hera when I was typing this. Originally, I planned a long confession from the goddess but I'll do that around… the third book maybe?

[10] If you guys have read the Lost Hero, which you most likely have, there really was a child of Hephaestus named Harley.

[11] There is a department of education in the US right? I'm from Asia so I wouldn't know.

Review if you want to. ~Demi