FI'd like to start off with a sincere and heartfelt thank you. Your reviews, messages, and overall support couldn't be more appreciated, and I have no idea how to ever repay the favor.
EDIT: Due to haters hating, this now does not contain anything other than chapter titles from the book. - means there used to be a line from the book, and now it doesn't. It can't get more legal than this.
Anyway, here's the new chapter. Enjoy!
Percy silently sat closer to his girlfriend, trying to find some comfort in just being near her. They had just arrived from Tartarus and fought Gaea. God, he hated her, and he was glad he helped in destroying her – though not directly. Sure, his blood had first made it worse, and they had lost a great and best friend, Leo Valdez, in the downfall of the Earth Goddess, but not being a child of the prophecy was as a medicine to his shattered soul. But his joy couldn't possibly cover the pain of his fallen friends, which was why they had counseled the gods to ask them this big favor. They had offered him immortality again – just after he applied to college with Annabeth, really, great timing – and turned it down this time for this favor. But living through all his pain again? This was going to be Tartarus all over again. Maybe even literary.
"I accidentally vaporize my pre-Algebra teacher." Read Athena, and snorted. "How do you possibly 'accidentally' vaporize someone?"
Percy laughed. "I guess it's explained in the book."
Athena continued.
"Who does?" Nico muttered, silenced by a smack in the head by Thalia.
"Don't interrupt, Death Breath."
"NO" Everybody stared at Thalia. "Kelp Head is giving advice!"
"You just ignored your own rule."
"Huh?" She said to Nico, but anyone ignored her.
Nico winced. Thalia surprised Annabeth and Percy by putting her arm around him, as if he was her little brother. Even the gods stared at them, and glared at the parents of the two. Hades huffed, and ignored Zeus' glance at him.
Annabeth smiled at her boyfriend. "That's actually great advice."
Percy smiled back. "I have my moments now and then."
Nico started to open his mouth, but closed it fast before Thalia would smack his head again.
"No way," muttered Zeus. "I thought it was Mary-Ann Smith."
The demigods started laughing. Did Zeus seriously make a joke? That one was new.
'YEAH!" yelled all the kids, and Percy started laughing.
Annabeth, though, didn't laugh. She scowled at the other kids. "You would be called so either if you had been standing in his shoes."
Poseidon and Athena glanced at their kids.
Jason smirked. "See? Even Percy agrees with us."
"Miserable?" Annie suddenly said, startling the whole room. She was hugging the young P.J., who wasn't trembling as much as before. "He won't say anything," she explained when everybody stared at her, "but is he like me? Living on the streets, with the monsters? I that why he's miserable?"
Percy winced. All eyes turned on him. Hopefully nobody would find out why he choose the word 'miserable' to describe his life before he knew about the gods, but he guessed his bad luck wouldn't expire today. They'd find out. And even if they didn't from the books, little P.J. brought enough flashbacks as it was to trigger something inside him to lose control.
Athena's voice was hesitant when she started reading again, after a long time of silence and staring at Percy.
"Heaven," Said Annabeth.
"Elysium," corrected Athena, and everybody rolled their eyes.
Athena and Annabeth huffed annoyed, while the whole room started laughing.
"That's Chiron, isn't it?" Annabeth said, and Percy nodded at her.
"Bad things happen to you, everywhere, everywhen, everywho, Seaweed Brain," Thalia said. Little P.J. shivered even more, but only Annie noticed, who growled, feeling a sense of responsibility for the boy growing.
Percy just sighed as the older demigods laughed. "True that."
Poseidon paled a little bit.
Hermes, Connor and Travis started cheering. The gloom of sadness and fear had evaporated because of the sarcastic and cheery way of writing, and the cheers of the God of the Thieves and his sons definitely improved the mood. Even Poseidon smiled a bit.
"I like this kid," Apollo said, and Percy smiled at him.
"Bla-ha-ha!" Bleated old and young Grover at the same time, making everyone laugh. The two satyrs stared at each other, before the older Grover took the word. "Percy, very nice."
Percy laughed. "I'm sorry, G-man. You're my best friend, you know that right?"
P.J. looked up at the words 'best friend', for the first time in a long times not on the verge of crying.
Athena stopped reading to scowl at the satyr. "Way to blow your cover, young one. You are not a very wise satyr."
Three demigods, naming Percy, Thalia and Nico interrupted her. "HE COLLECTED US!" They yelled. Nico continued after a deafening silence. "All kids of the big three. Safe and sound. Find a satyr who beats that."
The goddess of wisdom quickly continued, ignoring the smug look on both the satyr's faces.
"What?" exclaimed Frank and Hazel at the same time. They glanced at each other.
Poseidon muttered it too. "What?"
"Oh," a few people muttered, and Percy snickered.
Very loyal, thought Athena.
Artemis spoke her thoughts. "Very loyal, young one."
Ares mumbled something incoherent, like, 'punk, just punch her,'
"Percy," groaned all the demigods in unison, causing Percy to shrug. Anger was written all on his face, and Annabeth just realized he would be feeling everything the book-Percy would. Right now, he was angry at Nancy Bobofit, ready to punch her for annoying his best friend. She wrapped her arms around him, and he just sighed in her hair, relaxing a bit. "thanks," he muttered in her ear, and Annabeth smiled.
"Longer, kid," Hestia said, alongside a couple of other gods.
"Really?" Asked Thalia, with fake shock. "You were actually listening? Who are you and what have you done with my cousin?"
She was soaked for a second time that day, but this time it was Percy's fault. He started laughing at her face, and many people joined him.
"That'll get you for calling me stupid!"
Little P.J. winced at that name, but he sat almost as right on the couch as Annabeth beside him, as if he was trying to look strong for her sake. Athena eyed him with suspicion, and her glare was caught by Poseidon. Before the Sea God could say anything, she hastily continued reading.
Alecto, Hades thought, and paled a bit thinking of what the reactions were going to be when Poseidon found out.
"No, that's Nico," Thalia said, and she was smacked by said Devil Spawn.
"Grover," groaned most demigods and gods in unison, and both Grover's winced.
"Sorry?" He said in a small voice.
"She was thinking about you," whispered Grover to Percy. He turned red of embarrassment, Annabeth turned red of anger, and the rest of the demigods started laughing.
"What?" Percy sputtered, he couldn't believe it. "Nancy? She can't have fancied me! She hated me!"
Grover shrugged. "Girls are often that weird." He glanced at Annabeth, only causing the rest of the demigods to laugh harder.
Luckily for them, the gods didn't notice anything.
Everyone stared at Percy when he turned red. Dionysus raised a brow, and wanted to ask why the boy was blushing, when Percy yelled; "I FEEL EVERYTHING I DO IN THE BOOK OKAY? Ignore me now please."
Athena hid a smile.
"You did?" Asked Jason astonished. "Ow!" He yelled, as his girlfriend had just elbowed him in the stomach for that stupid comment.
Everyone shuddered, though for a different reason. The gods because of the memories of living inside that stomach, the demigods because of their first war.
"GOD?!" Zeus yelled on the top of his lungs, causing little P.J. to start crying.
Everybody fell silent. Even Dionysus glared in shock. Nobody had ever seen Percy cry. Yeah, okay, P.J. was his seven year old self, but Percy always seemed so cool and brave and incapable of crying. Then something even more bizarre happened; Percy stood up, walked over to his younger self, and picked the guy up. The two Percy's were beside their eye and hair colour nothing like each other. The older one was tall and muscled and confident, the younger one was anything but.
Percy seated himself between the other little kids and Grover, hugging his younger self to stop P.J. from crying, whispering in the boy's ear. Nobody heard what he was saying, but it obviously calmed P.J. down a bit. Percy motioned to Athena to continue, and after a few moments of astonished staring at the son of Barnacle Beard, she did.
Poseidon snickered. He was staring at his son – his sons – with weariness, but he sounded upbeat. "Either Father was stupid, or you looked like a rock."
Zeus huffed.
"Short, and straight to the point." Nico said, snickering. "Nice."
"Busted!" Thalia said.
"Oh, no," Nico said, full of theatrical shock. "You think like a goat."
Everyone laughed, even Annie. Some emotion – different than anger – had returned to her face, probably after realizing that the other kids were from the future, including her, and Thalia. That was good, she figured, so she was able to relax a bit again. And the future version of P.J. seemed nice and brave, so even he would turn out okay.
All Greek demigods laughed. "Only Chiron."
"That's because all guys are," Said Thalia, and Artemis smiled at her proudly.
"Not all guys," Apollo tried to buy over his sister with a dazzling smile, but she just whacked him in the head.
"Even then? In sixth grade?" Said P.J.
The silence was deafening. The boy hadn't spoken since he arrived there, and his voice was different than they expected. The tone made Aphrodite's heart melt even more, and even Athena's cold façade to the boy wavered. He sounded like the cutest thing in the world, his voice full of wonder and joy and sadness at the same time.
"What now, P.J.?" Older Percy asked, grinning at his younger self.
P.J. suddenly noticed all the eyes on him, and hit in Percy's shirt again. Percy shrugged at the rest, but his eyes betrayed that he knew why P.J. asked it.
"You, know, punk," Are began slowly. "For a dimwitted kid, you certainly have some people-knowledge."
Percy's face was full of shock. Was Ares giving him a compliment?
Annabeth's mouth fell open, and nobody even laughed at her for doing so, because all demigods were doing the same thing. Even Poseidon, Athena, and some other gods stared at the God of War with astonishment.
He just shrugged at their confusion. "What?"
Aphrodite just shook her head, with a big smile plastered on her face.
"Yet another genius answer by Perseus," Jason snickered, screeching as a big wave hit him. It had come from both his sides, and Percy and Poseidon locked glares. They smiled at each other, knowing they both hit him.
Annabeth muffled a laugh under her hand palm.
"Harsh," Piper said.
Percy suddenly stood up, replaced P.J. on the couch, and stared pacing. When Athena didn't continue, he sighed, and shot his hands upward in frustration. "Seriously? How many times do I have to spell this out for you? Book emotions – my emotions!"
Athena wanted to slam herself in the face for not being smart enough to catch on. Poseidon laughed at his son's parade, and probably at the making fun-of Athena part. Book-Percy was frustrated and angry, so Percy was frustrated and angry.
"Probably has," said Hestia.
Percy finally sat down on the couch, this time again beside Annabeth. Athena raised a brow in suspicion, but ignored it for a little while. They just seemed to be very good friends.
"Dad," whined Jason and Thalia at the same time. "Why are you angry this time?"
Zeus snickered, and pointed at his brother, Poseidon. "He's fighting too."
Hera rolled her eyes. "You two are always fighting. Even I would've bet on that."
Hermes leaned towards her, with a hint of fire in his eyes. "Care to take that bet?"
She just ignored him, causing Hermes to mutter something in the line of 'prissy' making everybody laugh, but Hera, because she hadn't heard him.
"She one of yours?" Apollo asked Hermes, who shook his head quickly.
"Seaweed Brain," Annabeth exclaimed, hugging her boyfriend tightly. This time, their parents did notice, but one look of Poseidon and Athena stayed in her spot. "Did you really think like that?" Did you really think so low of yourself? She actually wanted to ask, as did the rest of the group, but they didn't, for both the Percy's sake.
Percy grinned at her, but it looked fake. Grover, who sucked at lying, and Hermes, god of lying, everyone noticed the lie plastered on his face. "Nah. Just read on."
Athena read on, both to help Percy – not that she was going to admit that to anyone – from the attention, and distract herself from the fact that her own daughter was obviously dating the son of that evil beautiful annoying – wait. Did she just think 'beautiful'?
"Understatement of the year." Jason said, jokingly, preparing himself for a wave. When it didn't happen, he stared at Percy, who had a thinking face on. Normally Percy joked back when someone called him names, but ignoring insults? That was unusual.
Everybody started laughing. Even Percy and P.J. joined in.
Annabeth frowned. Percy normally could eat galleons worth of food.
Connor and Travis awakened from their silence. "Whoa." Connor whistled. "That even breaks our record."
Hera smiled proudly at Percy, for he seemed to understand the importance of love for your mother, but looked startled when he gave her an angry snarl back. The boy seemed to hate her guts.
The six demigods, who were part of the Seven, glared at each other with melancholy, thinking about Leo's invention of the flying table. They missed that cheery annoying son of a –
Percy mumbled something incoherent, and his whole couch began to shake, as if a mini earthquake was happening right below his feed. Poseidon's eyes widened.
"Percy," he said slowly, "Can you control earthquakes too?"
That distracted Percy from his anger, and the shaking stopped. He looked up at his father, and smiled sheepishly. "Sort of. Hurricanes and such too."
Jason and Thalia snickered – a little jealous that even Percy could control things of the earth, like Nico could sometimes – while Zeus stood up, lightning bolt immediately in his hand.
"What?! This kid is way too powerful! He cannot live with those dangerous powers! He is a threat to us!" Without further ado, he raised his bolt, and shot one dazzling shot of lightning towards Percy.
Annabeth screamed, alongside the other demigods, but Percy just raised his arms as if he were bored by this, as if Zeus threatened to attack him on a daily basis. His controlled wave of water guided the shock of electricity to aim at the roof, missing Percy.
"ZEUS!" Yelled a lot of gods, but no one yelled harder and more angry than Poseidon. The latter tackled his brother, slamming the Lord of the Sky's head against the floor, holding him down with all his power. The earth around them began to shake. "If you every try that again," Poseidon's voice was dripping with venom, "I will throw you into Tartarus myself."
Nobody could deny the truth in his words.
Percy's smile couldn't get any brighter, and even P.J. looked like he won the lottery, since his own dad – oh, come on, even the little kid could figure that out – after only just meeting him, defended him with his life.
Jason glared at the two Percy's, a bit jealous of the protectiveness of Poseidon. His dad wasn't like that. At least, he thought.
When Zeus muttered something like an apology, Poseidon huffed, but let him go. He shrunk to human size, and went to sit with Grover and the little kids on the couch. P.J.'s eyes widened – as did Athena, but later she'd deny her surprise – when his father pulled him on his lap.
"Continue, Athena," he said towards the goddess, ignoring the scowls she sent him.
Hermes and Dionysus obviously had trouble remembering where they were in the story because of the little fight, so Athena quickly recited the last paragraph before continuing again.
Aphrodite cringed. "Yikes."
Percy gritted his teeth, clenching his fist to control the sudden wave of anger. Annabeth held him close, trying to distract him a bit so another incident would be prevented. He didn't relax completely, but it – meaning the earthquake and death-threat thing – didn't happen again.
Connor whistled, and P.J. looked up to his older self. "I can do that?" He said, making all the female gods squeak from his adorableness. Annabeth humphed at all the attention P.J. got – he was her boyfriend, after all – but couldn't resist a smile herself.
Poseidon grinned at his son. "Yeah. You'll be very powerful, Perseus."
P.J. smiled brightly at that.
Nico shuddered. "That 'now, honey', is starting to scare me."
Thalia sighed. "For once I agree with Death Boy."
"Never guess your punishment," Hermes said, shaking his head.
"Rule number 76!" Added Connor, who got elbowed by his brother.
"78, you idiot!"
Hermes rolled his eyes. "77 actually."
"Anytime, Perce." Grover said, smiling slowly. Percy smiled back, ignoring the fear that was dripping in his stomach from the memories of that interaction with Mrs. Dodds.
When all the demigods suddenly shuddered, Athena stopped reading, and sighed. "Okay, what is it now?"
Nico, Jason and Thalia exchanged glances. Annabeth just smiled smugly at the gods, as if she was proud of something. Percy hid a smile behind Annabeth's hair, as he tried to hide in her neck at the reactions of the people.
"You," Nico began slowly, "do not want to be on the receiving end of that look. Even Ha- uh, my dad, ran away when Percy – "
Thalia smacked him, but this time not for mocking Percy. "No spoilers, remember!"
The gods, meanwhile, were staring at Hades – and Percy – in awe. How could one look from one simple demigod make the God of the Dead run away? That must be some impressive glance…
"Monster," whispered Poseidon, hugging his child harder. P.J. obviously liked the fact that his father was holding him, in spite of the dangers his future self was facing, and closed his eyes, content.
P.J. started snoring silently – even drooling – which made Annie smile. "He drools when he sleeps," she pointed out – even though it was obvious – everyone started laughing. But nobody laughed harder than Percy and Annabeth, recalling their first encounter.
"Wise Girl," Percy just laughed, and shook his head, staring at his girl, love written all over his features.
"YES! I sense bloodshed!" Exclaimed Ares, waking Dionysus up from the nap he was taking. Everybody laughed at the disorientated face the God of the Wine was making, breaking the tension of the book.
Percy started shifting in his seat, obviously nervous. The fact that he grew nervous agitated the rest of the group. Everyone – everyone – well, okay, except for P.J., who was sleeping, leaned forward.
Thalia slowly started clapping. Percy scowled at her, and said, "What?"
She just smiled at him. "You did the safe thing. It was probably the last time you ever did."
Athena made a soft whimper, suddenly realizing what was happening. The Lightning Thief. It was obvious Zeus was mad – in the book – because his bolt was stolen. And judging by the behavior of this certain Mrs. Dodds character, they thought Percy stole it. She began to worry for the boy, even though he was just sea spawn, and she was supposed to hate him.
Artemis raised a brow. "What is she talking about? Confess about what?"
Nobody answered. Partly because most of them didn't know, and partly because the people who did know, didn't want to spoil the book, afraid of what the reactions would be.
Hermes clapped his hands and laughed, ignoring the tension in the room. "I love this kid!"
Annabeth and Athena groaned at the same time.
Percy shivered, just as Poseidon growled with anger. "A fury, Hades?" He hissed, trying to keep his voice down for the sake of the bruised and peaceful P.J. in his arms. "You sent a fury to my little boy?"
Percy huffed. "Dad, I was like, twelve. Not little."
Annie nodded, making everybody glare at her. Annabeth – okay, the younger one – agreed with Percy? Even before she fancied him? That was weird. "Yeah. I'm seven, and I'm old enough to fight monsters."
Looks of pity were exchanged throughout the room. Were they, the gods, really so horrible that seven year old kids thought fighting monsters was daily life, wasn't a big deal? That wasn't supposed to be their life. All the demigods just stared at each other, shrugging.
Poseidon tried not to pay any attention to the guilt wrenching in his gut as he stared at his little kid. Now, when he was sleeping, and the frightened look had disappeared from his face, he truly looked like an angel. He was going to pay Hades back for all the hurt he was going to cause this boy.
Without even realizing, Percy grabbed Riptide from pocket and started fidgeting with it. Annabeth slowly backed away from her boyfriend, causing the rest of the demigods to chuckle.
Poseidon raised a brow. "Is that Riptide?"
Percy smiled sheepishly, and uncapped the pen. Riptide grew to its normal length, radiating strength and power. All the gods stared at the sword, shivering slightly. Artemis knew the sword best of them all – she knew the story Zoë once told her, and she didn't trust the bearer of such a sword one bit.
"Wimp," muttered Ares, just as Percy's hands really began to shake.
Athena stopped reading, and stared at the Son of the Sea God. He was staring at her, with mixed emotions on his face. The most obvious was terror – after waves of feeling the book's emotions – but another one was curiosity. "Perseus," Athena said slowly, "Swinging one's sword does not come naturally at such a young age."
Jason knitted his brows. It was a bit unnatural for someone who just started.
Percy glared at the others, a bit uncomfortable with all the attention. "Uh, I dunno… instincts?"
This time it wasn't Athena who stared at the boy in wonder, it was Hades and Zeus as well. "The boy's a natural," Hades said, "defeating a fury as a first monster. That's…"
"Impressive." Annabeth finished for him, a proud smile plastered on her face.
"The mist," pointed Hazel out, causing sarcastic applause from the rest of the demigods. She turned scarlet as her boyfriend laughed as well at her discomfort.
Some murmured Greek curses were heard from the couch of Percy and Annabeth along the words of "stupid magic curse can stick his nose up my – "
"Who?" Poseidon asked, at the same time both Percy's winced. Apparently P.J. had woken up sometime during the fight, and fidgeted in the arms of the Sea God. P.J. looked sad again, all the fears and frightfulness returned to his face.
The demigods exchanged looks. What could've possibly happened to Percy in the past that made him so scared of the world? Percy was like – the bravest guy they knew.
The gods, who hadn't noticed the exchanged looks and everything, sniggered. "Like father like son," Hermes said.
"Poor boy," Athena whispered, but since it was quiet, everybody heard her. Percy started to laugh, shocked, and nudged his girlfriend.
"Gods, Annabeth, she does care for me!"
Athena huffed, trying to regain some control. "Don't humor me, young one. I merely observed that I imagine it's hard to live with such confusion. You must have been thinking you were going crazy."
Percy blinked, and smiled a bit. "Yeah. Sort of."
Athena hastily went on reading before any other Olympian would accuse her of caring for the spawn of the Sea God – not noticing the smile Poseidon was giving her.
Athena looked up from the book, and took a deep breath. "Okay. That's chapter 1. Who wants to read next?"
Apollo slowly raised his hand. "I will." After being handed the book, which he opened quite dramatically, causing half the Throne Room to roll his eyes, and the other half to snigger at his dumbness. Apollo just smiled, as if he was the funniest god on the earth, and said, "Chapter 2: Three Old Ladies Knit The Socks of Death."
Hope you all liked it! Your thoughts on it are appreciated, review!
I'll update a chapter every day; not all in one day. Legalizing them is a long and boring work, sorry.
My answers to those of you who reviewed anonymously:
FireSkyLeaf: Hi! Thank you. As you can see, I used your technique, hope you liked it. :)
Pjoandhoo: I'm glad you used to love it, and I'm really glad you found it again! Thank you so much! I sincerely hope I'm able to keep you interested. Love, x
Athena818: Here you go honey
Guest: first off, love you love you love you too! Your review was so sweet, thank you! :D And don't ever give up hope, let this be an example! Love xo