The three demigods travelled in silence while Percy kept shooting Bianca and Zoe worried looks, he didn't like the thought of Bianca's death at all. He twiddled his thumbs and groaned, what would happen if Phoebe or Thalia were to die? He knew if Zoe died that...he actually wasn't sure what he'd do, scream, cry, blow up everything? He couldn't even imagine her dying, she was to strong, to stubborn, to brave, to...Zoe. He ran a hand through his hair as he tried to think out solutions to saving everyone, maybe he could die and everyone else could live? He wasn't afraid of death since Pluto was his father, death wouldn't be bad if his friends all survived. If Bianca died he knew he would be devastated, she was his sister and he swore to protect her. Bianca had easily won his heart in the few weeks he had known her, she was the perfect little sister. Thinking of his friends dying made him feel sick to his stomach. Thalia was driving and she pulled over to a gas station,
"Anyone have any money?" She asked and Percy lightly tapped his foot on the ground. A one hundred dollar bill appeared and he handed it to Thalia,
"Don't be afraid to buy snacks, lots of them." She looked at him in surprise and he began to explain,
"My dad is the god of riches Thals." Bianca smiled widely and Thalia went to fill up the tank and buy food,
"You have got to teach me how to do that!" He chuckled and flung an arm around her shoulder,
"Sure thing B." She raised an eyebrow at him,
"Did you just call me B?"
"Ya, it's a lot shorter then Bianca. Your names kind of a mouth full." Bianca looked at him teasingly,
"What ever you say P." Phoebe started laughing while Zoe smirked at Percy. Percy's eyes narrowed,
"Fine Bianca." She grinned and patted his head like he was a dog,
"Good boy Percy." He had a look of seriousness on his face as he glared at Bianca,
"Woof." Everyone started laughing and Phoebe started poking fun at him,
"No wonder you can talk to wolves Perce, does Alpha know you two are related?" Percy sulked playfully while Zoe laughed,
"I knew there was something with you, I just couldn't believe you acted like such a dog around everyone." This caused more laughter between the three and Percy started to poke fun at Phoebe,
"Laugh it all up now Phob, but wait till Apollo hears about your crush on him." Phoebe looked mortified and disgusted,
"I do not have a crush on your stupid brother."
Zoe jumped in, "We all know you have a thing for golden boy. I mean, I hear you talk about him in your sleep." This caused another round of laughter to go on between Percy and Zoe while Phoebe looked murderous,
"How can my best friend and my little brother be SOOO annoying!" She growled as they all started joking around. They had forgotten Bianca was there and they were relieved that they could start acting like a family again. Bianca was so confused, she had begun to wonder if this was all a prank. She had never seen Phoebe and Zoe act anything but hostile and cold towards Percy and here they are joking around like they've known each other for years.
"So Phoebe, is Apollo like Jacob Black? Is he your personal sun?" Percy asked as he quoted one of the twilight movies that he had been dragged to see with Apollo since his son was in it, the Carslie guy. He had been forced to watch all the movies and he found out that Phoebe had somehow read the books. Zoe began laughing again along with Percy and they high fived, Phoebe was turning red with anger,
"I DON'T LIKE HIM!" She shrieked and Bianca decided this would be a good time to cut in,
"What the Zeus is going on!" The three froze and Zoe face palmed. Percy pointed at Phoebe,
"She did it!" He sure didn't want to be blamed by Phoebe's screw up. Zoe gave Phoebe a glare and she shrugged and laughed nervously.
"Since you messed up you can explain everything to Bianca." Zoe said and Phoebe groaned,
"Fine! When Percy was five he ran away from an orphanage. He ran into us and Vesta appeared to claim Percy. To keep Percy away from Zeus she asked Artemis to let Percy come into the hunt, Artemis accepted and I became Percy's big sister. He then met Apollo and Pluto, Pluto adopted Percy, Artemis and Apollo became his siblings. He was blessed by said three gods and he became more powerful, his birth father is Neptune but he never came to see Percy. Percy then started training with everyone in the hunt and all the gods from earlier, Artemis's blessing allowed him to speak to wolves like Alpha. Yada Yada Yada, blah blah blah. And now were acting like we hate him so Zeus doesn't find out about him being aided by the hunt or Apollo."
Bianca looked permenatly shocked, "Wait...why...why...didn't you guys tell Thalia?" She stammered and Percy shook his head. It actually explained a lot, why Percy's hand steamed when he was angry, why only Nico would be alone at camp. The thought made her sad she was about to say something but Percy beat her to it,
"She's Zeus's kid, I trust her but I'm gonna give it some more time just to be safe." Bianca nodded and was about ask another question when the van door was suddenly ripped off, five golden skeleton warriors stood there with swords raised. Percy started to panic and he lunged out of the vehicle to tackle one of the warriors, he was buying his friends some much needed time to prepare. The warrior fell and Percy quickly rolled to his feet while unsheathing his knives. His friend clambered out of the car with weapons raised,
"Percy, how do we kill it?" Phoebe asked and Percy began to wrack his brain for answers as the warriors advanced.
"Give me two seconds." He ducked under a blade and attempted to stab the warrior but his blade bounced off. How do you destroy gold? He wondered as he kicked the skeleton away from him. The warrior stumbled back and Percy swept its legs out from under it, the skeleton fell and Percy examined how the fight was going. Zoe and Phoebe were battling three of the warriors and were having trouble keeping up, Bianca was struggling to hold her own and Percy realized what could destroy gold, or melt it at least. He had to use fire. If he was hot enough then maybe he could melt them, he set his body on fire. He grabbed the golden warrior and to his relief it started melting, gold slowly dripped to the ground and Percy knew he had to speed up the process. He started to think angry thoughts, Neptune calling him a thing, Artemis being held hostage by Atlas, the thought of Bianca dying, the thought of Thalia or Phoebe dying, Zoe dying. He let out a scream of outrage and the flames roared loudly and the fire grew, the warrior melted into a liquid gold pile. He grinned and turned to his friends,
"Gold can be melted! Send these bone heads to me!" Zoe rolled her eyes at his sorry attempt at a joke. Bianca's eyes widened to see Percy on fire and Phoebe cracked a smile, even in times of distress Percy always seemed to make the best of every situation. Zoe grabbed the warrior by his neck and shoved it in Percy's direction, as it was falling she tripped it and the warrior fell. Percy grabbed its face in his hands and squeezed until it melted. Bianca and Phoebe lured their skeletons to Percy who melted them as well, the energy was draining from him because he had never used his fire powers to that extent. Once there were only liquid puddles left Percy dropped to his knees in exhaustion, sweat beaded down his forehead and he took deep breaths trying to regain his composure. Zoe helped him up while Phoebe gave her sweaty brother a light hug,
"We did it again Perce, hunters rule!" Percy chuckled and stretched his now tight muscles. Thalia suddenly walked out of the gas station with bags of food in her hands, it covered her face as she walked to he van,
"You guys wouldn't believe the line in that place! It was ridiculous! And then this lady tried to cut in front of me!" She couldn't see the damage that had taken place since the food was covering her eyes. She walked to the back of the van and slid on some liquid gold but quickly regained her balance,
"Gross, was that bird poop?" Everyone just stared at her in surprise of her obliviousness. She opened the back and started putting the bags in the van,
"Are you guys gonna help or just sit and watch me, I went through a lot of work to get this stuff and beat up that fat chick who tried to cut me in line." Percy started laughing along with Bianca while Zoe and Phoebe stared at the daughter of Zeus in disbelief.
"Ya ya laugh it up, but she was askin for it! I punched her so hard that her fat rippled. She looked like jello and ironically fell face first into a guys donuts, stupid pig." Percy had tears streaming down his face as he clutched his now aching stomach. Bianca was bent over and roared with laughter. Zoe face palmed and Phoebe pinched the bridge of her nose in annoyance.
"Fine, don't help. But don't expect me to share my skittles." She turned around to see battered demigods on the ground surrounded by piles of gold liquid. Percy and Bianca were laughing while Phoebe and Zoe looked frustrated. She stared wide eyed at everyone and then examined her shoes that had sticky gold goop on them, she was surprised to see the goop sizzling and melting away the sole of her shoe.
"Aw man! I liked these!" She groaned and tried to wipe it off on the concrete. Percy looked at her as though she was crazy,
"Wait a second, you see us on the ground surrounded by gold crap and your upset about your shoes?" Thalia looked up from her shoe cleaning and shrugged,
"Fine, what happened?" Phoebe rolled her eyes and explained about the golden warriors being vulnerable to fire. She was about to continue when Thalia cut in,
"And where exactly did you get fire?" They all shifted around nervously until Percy spoke up,
"I had a lighter with me and...lets just get on the road. I'm tired and I'll explain later." Without looking at his cousin he climbed into the van. He knew he had delayed the truth from coming out to his cousin but he also knew his little secret wouldn't stay a secret for much longer. He sat by Zoe who looked sleepy, Thalia saw this and watched them in confusion from her rear view mirror. They continued to drive and Zoe tiredly rested her head on Percy's shoulder, he smiled softly at her and could feel his eyebrows droop. He had completely forgotten about Thalia and rested his head on Zoe's head before falling asleep. Thalia's mouth fell open and Phoebe looked to see what had her so shocked, she saw Percy and Zoe close to each other sleeping and smiled at them. Bianca smirked at her brother, she wouldn't forget this touching moment.
Percy was dreaming, he was in a dark mansion and there was a giant mess on the checkered board marble floor. Crusty stuff covered the marble flooring and giant black curtains sandwiched the front door. There was a large stair case that led to a dark hallway. He heard a click and the door flew open, two demigods entered the house and he immediately recognized them as Luke and Thalia.
"That is so cool." Thalia murmured and marched in. He watched them walk around and then the door swung closed. The two panicked and ran back to the door, Luke tried to open the door and frowned,
"Some kind of magic, we're trapped." Thalia ran to the drapes and tried to part them but they grabbed her and looked as though they were trying to swallow her.
"Luke!" She screamed, Percy tried to help but was frozen in place. Luke ran to the curtains and hit them with a golf club. Despite the situation Percy chuckled at his weapon. The drapes shuttered and reverted back to fabric long enough for Luke to pull Thalia out. Her spear fell to the floor. He dragged her away from the drapes as they lashed out and tried to grab them. They were out of reach and the drapes tried a few more attempts to get a hold of them before they turned back into inanimate objects. Thalia was shaking and looked at the curtains in fear, her hands were sizzling and Luke started pouring nectar on them. Percy looked at her sadly, he had never seen his tough, punk cousin look so vulnerable. She had always stuck it out and snapped at anyone or anything that irritated her. But he had to remember that she was about twelve at this time, he could tell and noticed that her short, cropped hair had grown out in the future.
"Your going to be fine, just rest." She shakily stood up,
"We-we can't...If all the windows are liked that, and the door is locked-"
"We'll find another way out." Luke promised and Percy smiled at his old friend for taking such good care of Thalia. He looked around and froze, Percy saw red eyes peeking out of both dark hallways. Clack, clack, clack. Percy watched the two met an old man being mimicked by a monster,
"Who are you?" Luke growled and the man replied,
"My name is Halcyon Green, son of Apollo." Percy's eyes widened and he looked at the old son of his brother intrigued. He was surprised that the monster leucrota spoke for him. He told them of how it lured in its pray and he told them his special powers of seeing the future. He told them of how his father warned him to keep quiet about the future, he explained that he saw a young girl die in her future. He saved her life by telling her the future. He then spoke of his curse,
"My father cursed me. He forced me to wear these clothes, the skin of Python, who once guarded the Oracle of Delphi, as a reminder that I was not an oracle. He took away my voice and locked me in this mansion, my boyhood home. Then the gods set the leucrotae to guard me. Normally, lecucrotae only mimic human speech, but these are linked to my thoughts. They speak for me. They keep me alive as bait, to lure other demigods. It was Apollo's way of reminding me, forever, that my voice would only lead others to their doom." Percy felt sick and his mouth felt dry, how could the big brother he had always looked up to do this? The one who taught him how to shoot arrows, the one who would always let him drive the son chariot, the one who dragged him to cheesy movies like twilight, the one who played with him, the one who made him laugh and defended him no matter what. His brother in reality was that cruel? His knees wobbled and buckled, Apollo, his big brother would do something so evil to a man who wanted nothing more then to do good? Then he watched Hal read Luke's future and say he saw something about betrayal, this angered Thalia,
"Enough! You lure demigods here, then take away their hope with your horrible predictions? No wonder the others gave up-just like you gave up. You're pathetic!" Hal's eyes flashed with anger, he stood up and it looked like might lunge at Thalia as she glared at him defiantly,
"Go ahead, take a swing old man, you have fire left?" Percy chuckled, even as a twelve year Thalia was still one of the bravest demigods he's ever met.
"Stop it!" Luke ordered with a firm voice, despite his tone Percy still knew he was spooked about the prophecy of his betrayal. He continued watching Hal, Thalia, and Luke create Greek fire and Hal sacrifice himself to save the demigods. He couldn't shake Hal's last words from his head, his last battle cry,
"For Apollo!" The house exploded and Percy felt numb, his blood ran cold when he realized that Hal was dead. Tears blurred his vision as he looked at the remainder of the haunted mansion, the remainder of Halcyon Green, he died a heroes death. Percy felt nothing but hatred for his brother, he had done this. He had left an innocent man to lure in demigods and hurt them, he had left an innocent man to be eaten alive by guilt, he had left an innocent man to help the creatures that haunted demigods the most, monsters. Yet this brave demigod had died cheering for the very god that cursed him.
"Percy, wake up." A voice whispered, he turned around to see Zoe standing there.
"What the Jupiter!" He yelled in surprise and she approached him with a soft smile.
"Wake up Percy." She put her hands on his shoulders and leaned in. His heart beat rapidly and he felt his face turn red. She gave him a soft kiss to the lips and he jolted awake, once he opened his eyes he saw a hand flying at him. It smacked his cheek and he yelped at the stinging sensation, he rubbed his cheek and looked up to see a annoyed Zoe. He decided he liked dream Zoe better because she had kissed him instead of slapped him. He stood up clutching his cheek and wished that he could actually kiss Zoe, but this was no dream Zoe. This was the Zoe that would slap his sorry butt half way across the country if he kissed her on the lips. He thought of his dream and looked at Thalia to see her eyeing them curiously. Tears formed in his eyes at the thought of Hal, at the thought of what his brother had done to his own son.
"Hal Green, I had a dream of you, Luke, and Hal." He whispered and Thalia's eyes filled with sorrow and regret. Before he could say anymore Bianca looked at him,
"We're at the junkyard of the Gods." He paled and looked at his friends nervously, one shall be lost in a land without rain.
And comments? Shout out to Anaklusmos14 for reviewing my story! You are a legend my friend and I'm glad you like my story so much. In case you guys haven't heard of this guy, which you'd be crazy not to have, he is the best perzoe writer ever! No exaggerations, he is fantastic. I'm glad you guys like my story so much. Comment even though you don't have to! Oh and the Hal green story came from The Demigod Diaries by Rick Riordan.