XXV

Frank

(A/N: Hi, everyone! Two chapters in 4 hours. Not bad! I would love for you to write reviews, so that I can improve my writing. Finally, this is one of the longest chapters that I've written. So, enjoy!)

After seeing Percy get turned to stone, that was too much for him. He had to walk away from the others.

Percy was in a nice pose, Frank had to say, with his hand up in the air and the other one down, kind of like he was dancing to "Staying Alive". But he was gone.

Forever.

Piper was crying and trying to charmspeak Percy back to life (apparently she had done it before). It had nearly been half an hour since Percy had turned into stone, and Piper wasn't stopping yet. Jason was trying to comfort her, but she wasn't giving up.

"Piper, it's okay. You did all that you could do." Jason was saying. "It's okay." Piper just ignored him. "Percy!" she was starting to become hysterical. "PERCY, WAKE UP!" she yelled for the millionth time.

Suddenly, everyone gasped. "What?" Frank asked. He ran back to the Percy statue, and he saw the impossible happen.

The stone was slowly seeping off Percy's body.

His eyes were still white, but he groaned as the stone slowly came off him. Once the stone went past his chest, his eyes rolled down, and the black came back to them. He started to move his arms, then legs. Frank touched his skin- it was freezing cold.

"What- what happened?" Percy asked, quite disoriented.

Annabeth tackled Percy with a bear hug. "We thought- we thought you were gone!"

"S'okay," Percy muttered, a tiny bewildered look on his face. He broke out of the stone crust, his legs perfectly fine. "I think what happens when Medusa turns people to stone is that she keeps them alive forever, but on the outside, they look like stone. That's what happens when you get turned to stone."

They were amazed. "Thanks, Piper." Percy said. "But we're on a slightly tight time schedule. We should keep on moving."

Rachel nodded. "Yes, we do." She said. They walked over to a door on the other side of the giant dome, still trembling. Rachel opened it, and they walked through it.

They were back in the maze. Carter tapped the walls, as if he'd seen something on them (they were bare). Percy walked along with him, and they were discussing something softly so Frank couldn't hear. Jason, Leo and Piper huddled together, grasping each other for warmth. Annabeth, Hazel and Rachel were taking among themselves. Frank was alone, so he decided to listen in on Percy and Carter. He fell behind as well, and he caught a couple of phrases, such as "…unstable…portal…Duat…" coming from both of them, before they noticed him and shut up. "Hey, Frank." Percy said, looking a little on edge.

Frank was a little bewildered by Percy's reaction. What had he and Carter been discussing?

"So, Frank." Carter asked. He seemed a little flustered. "What can we help you with?"

"I kinda have nobody to talk with, so I was thinking maybe you could?" Frank asked, wanting to see how Percy would react. "Sure, man." Percy replied, although his expression was a little pained.

"So, what were you talking about back there?" Frank asked as casually as he could. "I heard a few snippets, but not much."

"Not much." Percy said defensively. Frank could feel his mental walls going up. "Just about the Labyrinth." Carter shot Percy a look, but he ignored it.

They walked for the rest of their journey in silence. Occasionally Carter would point at a point along the tunnel, and Percy would nod, as if he understood what Carter was pointing at.

Suddenly, Rachel stopped. "Here." She stopped in front of wooden door. "This is the next stop."

When she opened the door, Frank was expecting a giant, dark prison cell, maybe. Or a giant, bloody arena. Or something of that caliber.

He wasn't expecting to turn up at Clear Skies Vacation Resort. As soon as he stepped out of the doorway, the first thing he noticed was that all of the houses had orange, tiled roofs. When he looked back, he saw a locked, abandoned house.

His friends were gaping at the sight as well. A friendly guy walked right past them, and looking at their outfit, he grinned and waved his hand. "καλωσορίζω στην Πύλο!" he said.

Percy was looking at the guy weirdly. "Erm, thanks?" he waved his hand back.

"Hey Percy, what did he say?" Jason asked.

Percy looked at Frank, probably waiting for his reaction. "That guy just said, 'Welcome to Pylos.'"

Frank stumbled. "What?"

"Welcome to Pylos, guys." Annabeth said. "So, Rachel, why do we need to go here?"

Rachel looked at Frank. "Him." Her eyes seemed to bore into his mind. It was very unsettling, so Frank looked away.

"Wait." Jason said, holding up his hands in a "time out" symbol. "What is this all about?"

"Frank's ancestor." Percy said. "He said he was awaiting Frank in Pylos."

"So we find an old ghost." Jason sighed. "Lovely.

I wasn't hard to find a possible place. Annabeth got a map and found where the ruins of the old castle was- on the west of the town. They found it sure enough. When they got there, Piper asked, "Well, what do we do now?"

"We climb." Frank said. They made sure nobody was watching, and one by one, they climbed over the crumbled wall and into the castle.

After searching for a bit, they found the throne room- or at least, Hazel thought it would be the throne room. And in it, a floating white spirit was waiting for them, standing up formally.

"Welcome." He said in a formal voice. "I am Periclymenus. Sit." He bowed to Rachel, which was kind of strange.

Frank looked at his friends, who were standing behind them. "Hey, guys, maybe you should-"

Periclymenus cut him off. "No. They may stay. I have information for all of you." So they stayed. Frank felt quite awkward with everyone around him while talking to his great-great-great-times-a-million grandfather, but he wanted to know what Periclymenus had to say, so he just tried not to dwell too much on it. They all sat down.

Jason raised his hand. "Mr. Periclymenus," he started.

Periclymenus cut him off. "Periclymenus is fine."

Jason suddenly seemed quite awkward. "Just was wondering, 'Periclymenus 'is kind of confusing to say. Can we just call you Perry?"

'Perry' laughed. "No problems. Anyways, I have warnings for all of you, and for your group as a whole. So let us start with that. Your group is far from complete. One person is still missing. Carter may be a powerful 'weapon',"-he made finger quotes-"but there is still one missing. And Carter knows who. Don't ask him," he said when they all leaned over to him. "Let him figure it out himself. Next up, Percy. You will have a huge sacrifice to make in the future. It will be hard. But you must be brave, and I trust that you will make a good decision."

Percy's hand suddenly went to Annabeth's.

"Annabeth." Perry said. "You will have to endure through some tough times. You must brave. You are one of the most important people in this war, and I hope you will be able to cope with them. Brace yourself. The worst is yet to come."

Then he turned to Jason and Piper. "Jason." He began. "You will have tough choices, some of the toughest out of everyone here. But be brave. Be strong. You will know when the moment comes, and please, remember me when the decision will inevitably have to come. Piper," he turned his head to her. "Do not dwell too much on your feelings. Move on. Better things can always happen, and I hope that by remembering my advice to you, they will. And don't ask me what this is all about- you'll know when it comes. Leo," he continued, staring at him. "You made a promise."

Immediately, Leo straightened up, his eyes slightly wide. Frank's mind, however, was disbelieving. Leo. Made. A. Promise.

Anyways, Perry carried on. "Remember your duty in this war. You may not believe in a way out of this, but there will be. Another friend of mine will be giving you some advice soon. She-"

Leo cut him off. "Not here, please?" he asked. Perry just laughed.

"Fine, fine. Next up, Hazel."

Hazel straightened up. "Yes?"

"You feel that you are not that strong. Yet you are- you have barely scratched the surface. You will need to aid Frank in the future- to the point of your life. Train. Give up, and the world will fall."

Frank felt everybody's gaze on him, wondering what Perry was going to say about him.

"Frank." Periclymenus turned around to face him. He could feel the heat of his gaze scorching his face.

"You now know the true extent of our powers." He said. "We do not just have the power to transform into animals, but also inanimate objects. But it extends to even further things."

Frank couldn't think of anything that wasn't animate or inanimate.

"Remember this… you will have to make sacrifices. Everyone here will have to. But yours… not only is it bigger than any of theirs it is also more important than any of theirs. One wrong move, and the world will plunge into darkness."

He stood up again. "Well, that was an extremely short meeting!" he said, and Frank somehow felt that the meeting was over. As they left and his shell-shocked friends decided to start deciphering what he had been talking about, Frank reached into the pocket of his jeans and felt a piece of folded paper that hadn't been there before. He pulled it out. It read, "To Frank, from Periclymenus."

It had only two words on it. They were large, bold and in cursive:

Brace Yourself.

(A/N: And, yes, this is a direct reference to Percy Jackson. Thanks a lot for reading! Just to answer some reviews...

Guest: nice chapter ! loving it ! btw you should keep a schedule of updates so like once tuesday an once friday or something btw bring some more people from the kanes! no pressure
So, Guest, for the first question, thanks for the advice! I don't have a schedule, but I will try to update daily, so thanks. Second, adding more people from the Kanes? Sure, just not too many people. Since this is a Blood of Olympus fanfiction, I don't want to have a huge spotlight on the Egyptians. Maybe one or two more?

Cherries: I don't like how you make Carter seem. . . .unimpressive. I mean I like the rest of the plot of the story. it's just they don't know how much he's been through and how much he's done.
Well, maybe I AM going to make him more impressive. *winks* Besides, they really don't know what he's been through, so yeah. Percy has got to keep the two cultures apart, because who knows what could happen? You saw what happened. We got three short stories instead of a full novel. (Just a joke)

Everyone: UPDATE!
Sure. No problem. And thank you so much for telling me to do so! I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have if you guys didn't keep screaming it in my ears. And that is why today happened.