Hi guys, sorry this is way overdue. And I just wanted to point out that I changed my username. I forgot to mention that last chapter, but it is now FanFicManic. It was supposed to be FanFicManiac but I guess I didn't check it before. I might change that later but for now I'm FanFicManic. Okay, here is chapter 12.
Athena turns to Poseidon, "somehow I come to the conclusion that this is somehow your doing."
Poseidon's mouth drops. "My doing? Wha-how can you even say that. You were leaning on the door, you fell out. All I did was pull you back in!"
Artemis nods, "you've got to admit it Athena, no matter how much of a...male Poseidon is, he didn't do anything. "
Athena points at Poseidon. "It's just something about him that makes me think-" but Athena stops abruptly. The doors of the elevator open again and a mortal walks in. Good thing it wasn't the person they fell on before. That would be really awkward. The three gods shuffle to the back of the elevator and Athena huffs.
"What time is it?" She asks through clenched teeth.
Poseidon shrugs, Artemis was about to answer but since he didn't have a watch she could only tell by the sun.
"It's 4:45," the woman says looking away from her watch.
"Rush hour..." Athena mutters.
"What?" Artemis asks.
"Rush hour...when work ends and everyone's on their way home."
"So..."
"So we're gonna be in this elevator for a long time," Athena finishes the conversation like that.
The woman in a pantsuit, walks up to the elevator and clicks the emergency stop button.
Poseidon looks at the woman. "Why'd you stop the elevator?" He asks.
The woman smirks as she begins to peel away at her skin. She grows eight hairy legs and multiple eyes. She had turned into a spider.
Athena yelps and pulls out her dagger. "Arachne, what do you want?" She sneers.
The spiders legs skitter and her eyes narrow. "I've come back Athena," she hisses. "And I want revenge."
Athena's eyes narrow in return, "I gave you life. I can just as easily take it away. Leave now and maybe I'll spare it."
Arachne sneers in recognition. Those were the same words she said to her before she turned into...that. An eight-legged arachnid. She was a girl, now she was something that several girls feared.
On the inside, Athena was trembling with fear, but she couldn't show weakness. She created the spider, why should she be afraid of it? Okay, spiders freaked her out a lot more then she was letting on. Everyone of those despicable little creatures were her worst nightmare.
"I didn't ask you to stop me. I didn't want you to stop me!" Arachne yells.
Athena holds her knife out intimidatingly. "I didn't ask you if you wanted it. I couldn't watch you die like that. I turned you into a spider to save you."
Arachne's eyes soften for a second as if she was considering this, but then she sneers at Athena. "I didn't need saving!" Arachne snaps, jumping at Athena.
Athena slashes her knife through the middle of Arachne's head down to the tip of her abdomen. She disappears, leaving a thin layer of yellow dust on the elevator floor.
Artemis stands by Athena and says, "Arachne just showed us how manipulative a monster can be." Athena shrugs. "It was only one monster. But we shouldn't be in this elevator, we'll attract more."
Poseidon nods and clicks the lobby button and the elevator begins to go down. But Athena was right. They would be in that elevator for awhile.
The elevator continually stopped at floors and more and more mortals filed in. It would go up sometimes and then head back down. And to make it worse, the elevators were pretty big. Well, at least bigger than the average elevator you'd find in an average hotel. So there was tons of room. That meant tons of mortals.
"Just great..." Poseidon sighs. Then lightbulb! "Let's just flash out," he whispers.
"What?! No?!" Artemis whisper-yells.
"And why not?"
Athena rolls her eyes. "This elevator is packed with mortals and they're all staring at us. I mean, look at what we're wearing! They'll definitely notice if we're gone. Face it Poseidon, you're wrong. It's an unwise thing to do infront of twenty mortals." And as for their outfits, they were each wearing traditional Greek tunics.
Poseidon shrugs, "that's what the mist is for." And with that, he's gone. Athena glances at Artemis, nods then they both are gone.
Athena flashes into the lobby, frightening the guy behind the counter. He fumbles with his coffee before spilling it on his lap. "Sorry," Athena says. "Didn't mean to frighten you." She walks towards the area with the couches and sees Poseidon and Artemis there. "See, home free," Poseidon says.
"What about Zeus?" Athena asks.
Poseidon frowns and Artemis curses. "Uh..."
"We lie. Simple as that," Poseidon says, like that plan was foolproof. "Everybody, get your stories straight."
Artemis throws away the idea like its a mortal asking her on a date. "No! We just pretend it never happened. I'll tell him we couldn't track the hunters (which is technically the truth), and if he asks what took so long, we ran into a monster. That's the truth."
Poseidon shakes his head, "Artemis, I know you're against lying and well, men, but sometimes telling the truth could get you in a web of lies more than lying can."
"How so?"
"If its the truth with a sprinkle of lies, that's not too terrible. It's still telling the truth. But sometimes after telling the truth, you'll have to add a lie to avoid trouble. That's what I mean."
Artemis clenches and unclenches her fists, "that's so stupid-"
"That it makes sense," Athena mutters.
Artemis sighs and mutters, "lets just go."
They all flash into the throne room to find everybody still there.
"Find your hunters?" Zeus questions, as the trio sits down in their respectable thrones.
"No," Artemis answers.
"Oh, that's interesting. Because they're at Camp right now," Zeus says.
"That's nice," Artemis answers casually.
"Uh-huh," Zeus stands up. "Everybody may leave now EXCEPT for the following people. Poseidon, Athena and Artemis, you know why."
Mostly everybody leaves, except for Hephaestus who narrows his eyebrows in suspicion. He gives Athena a look and she nods before he flashes away. Athena turns back to see Zeus staring at her.
"What was that?" Zeus demands.
"Oh, you see, we ran into Arachne-"
"No, not that. You know the what that I'm talking about. That what," Zeus says pointing a finger at Hephaestus's throne.
"Oh, okay," Athena says, as if she was startled. "Heph and I are gonna talk later and I was just confirming it."
Zeus opens his mouth and closes it a few times that it reminded Poseidon of a dehydrated fish.
"Zeus," Poseidon sighs, "I've left something very special to me unattended at my palace, well attended if you consider Triton someone able to do so, and this talk is quite useless and I must go back and make sure it's still in one piece."
Zeus sighed and faced the truth. He was getting nowhere. His own daughters were sharing secrets with his older brother. Being Zeus, he should know all the secrets, not have people keep them from him. He lets the three of them go because he knew they weren't going to spill. And it...what do the mortals say? Oh yeah, and it sucks.
Poseidon, Athena and Artemis are about to go there separate ways when Artemis postpones it by pulling Poseidon aside and tells Athena to stand there and watch. Artemis gets up on her tippy-toes and whispers in Poseidon's ear. Poseidon's face morphs continuously and Athena knew exactly what they were talking about. Poseidon nods and grins as Artemis whispers in his ear. Then his jaw drops as he stares at Athena. Then he bursts out laughing...then he frowns. Artemis had gotten to that part. But then he smiles and walks up to Athena.
"Blackmail," he whispers.
Athena is about to yell loudly at both of them, maybe even toss out some threats, when they both disappear.
Poseidon rushes back to the sea and immediately locates Triton. He was taking the demigods throughout his kingdom. That's good...right?
Poseidon summons Triton and he quickly appears.
"I'm going to take them back to camp," Poseidon tells him quickly.
Triton looked almost...sad. He nods and quietly swims away, changing back into his merman form as he leaves. Poseidon frowns. He'd talk to him later.
He goes into the bubble for a second and all the children yelp.
"Sorry," Poseidon mutters as he shifts all of his weight on the opposite side of the children. He tucked his knees to his chest but there was plenty of room. "I'm just going to take you back to camp, try and figure out what happened and leave."
Percy's looks up until his eyes lock with his dads. Green on green. Poseidon quickly tears the gaze apart. He couldn't look at Percy like that. It was heart wrenching. He stares at his feet.
"Dad?" A voice says. Poseidon slowly looks up and locks eyes with Percy again. "Why can't we stay?"
Poseidon feels like he's swallowing a marble. Why can't they stay? The possibilities are endless.
Poseidon swallows the imaginary marble and takes a breath. "Because Athena couldn't find Annabeth," Poseidon starts slowly. "Because Bianca and Nico are children of Hades in my realm. Because your mother will be worried."
Percy's face is dripping with emotion. "She's gone," he whispers to himself. "And she's not coming back."
Bianca stares at Percy. "She's not gone," she reassures.
"Yes, she is," Percy insists. "Smelly Gabe took her away and-"
"Percy!" Bianca yells. "She's not gone, she's not."
Percy's eyes narrow. "How would you know?"
Annabeth smirks, "Hades. Hades is their father. The underworld ruler. They probably know when someone is gone or not."
"Exactly!" Bianca beams. "You can feel it too, right Nico?"
Nico opens his mouth to say something but closes it. Then finally he says, "I think so. Maybe."
But there was still one unanswered question wavering in Percy's head. Actually, there were several, but only one regarding the conversation they were having. Percy looks up at his dad, "how'd you know?"
Poseidon stares out of the bubble at Triton laughing with another guy. "Because I care, Percy. That's why."
Poseidon takes them back quickly to Camp Half-Blood and walks with them to the big house to talk with Chiron. On the patio surrounding the large wooden house, Dionysus was sitting at a small wooden table with a book underneath a wobbly leg. Chiron was in wheelchair form, holding up his deck of cards. Beside them stood a young girl, probably twelve, with frizzy black hair and light blue eyes. Or no, her eyes were now brown. They continuously shimmered and changed-like Aphrodite's Poseidon realized.
Poseidon walks up to Dionysus who was wearing a purple leopard print T-shirt and blue pants. Chiron smiles at Poseidon.
"Lord Poseidon, how can we help you?" He asks as he studied his cards.
The girl huffs. "Now you're telling me that this guy is real?" She turns to a satyr standing beside her that Poseidon hasn't had noticed before. He was wearing jeans, a red T-shirt and a black baseball cap. He sighs.
"Maddie, I know this is all new to you but maybe you just need some time to let this all sink in."
She overlooks Poseidon. "So...Poseidon-"
"Lord Poseidon," the satyr squeaks.
Maddie sighs. "Lord Poseidon, if you're a god, prove it," she says crossing her arms.
Poseidon shrugs and simply nods at the girl. The girl snorts, "what did that prove?"
A few seconds later you could see water coming from thin air, rushing towards her as it incased her in a whirlpool. She yelps as she rises into the sky. The water goes down and the girl lands on her butt.
"Chiron, I need to talk to you. Preferably alone with Dionysus. You know, the talk we had when Zeus was having a hissy fit," Poseidon says, ignoring the death looks the soaking wet girl was giving him.
Chiron nods and tells another camper to take Maddie and the satyr elsewhere.
Poseidon, Chiron and Dionysus gather in a room and talk in hushed tones.
Percy, Annabeth, Nico and Bianca sneak off over to the camp. One of the Apollo kids arrows whizzes past Percy's head as they pass archery. Percy motions for the others to follow, as he runs off behind the Aphrodite cabin. Annabeth shrugs and she follows with Bianca and Nico.
Percy jumps behind the cabins until he gets to Hera's then he stops. He slowly slides against the side of the cabin and is about to open the front door and jump in when Annabeth grabs his arm.
"What're you doing?!" She whisper-yells.
"Having an adventure," he replies jumping into the cabin. Annabeth looks back at Bianca and Nico.
Nico is already jumping inside the cabin.
"Nico!" Bianca whispers following him inside.
Annabeth looks around. Nobody was looking at them. So she walks in the cabin and closes the door quietly behind her.
Percy was lounging on the bed while Bianca and Nico were looking at the pure white walls.
"What is this stuff?" Bianca asks as she feels the walls.
"Paint?" Annabeth asks but them she touches the wall too.
"Or not," she says rubbing her hands against the wall.
"It's marble," a voice says.
They jump at the voice and turn around. Annabeth looks at the wall then back at the person. "Um, thanks?"
Okay, so who was that? Find out next chapter. And yes, Percy's mom is still around. Anybody got an idea of where she is or who showed up in Hera's cabin?