Warning: Certain ancient Greek names matches words use of foul language but no foul language was intentionally used. Also if you haven't read them yet read 'The Tales of the Son of Poseidon & the Early Adventures' 'The Tales of the Son of Poseidon & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief' 'The Tales of the Son of Poseidon & the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters' 'The Tales of the Son of Poseidon & the Olympians: The Titan's Curse' and 'The Tales of the Son of Poseidon & the Olympians: The Magical Labyrinth' as well as the one shots 'The Tales of the Son of Poseidon & the Stolen Chariot' The Tales of the Son of Poseidon & the Sword of Hades', and The Tales of the Son of Poseidon & the Bronze Dragon' before reading this story as stuff that happened in them will be mentioned. Lastly, any one who wants to do a Demigods and Olympian reads story using 'The Tales of the Son of Poseidon' is allowed as long as you inform me about it.

I Tried to Take the Blame for Annabeth

I love New York. You can pop out of the Underworld in central park, head down Fifth Avenue with a hellhound and Titan following you, and nobody would think twice. Of course, the Mist helped. I used it to make Bob look like a fifteen-foot float to the mortals and Mrs. O'Leary a truck.

I took the risk of using my mom's cell phone to call Annabeth for the second time. I'd called her once from the tunnel but only reached her voice mail. I'd gotten surprisingly good reception, seeing I was at the Mythological center of the world and all, but I didn't want to see what my mom's roaming charges were going to be.

This time, Annabeth picked up.

"Hey," I said. "You get my message?"

"Percy, where have you been? Your message said almost nothing! We've been worried sick!"

"I'll fill you in later," I said, though how I was going to do that I had no idea. "Where are you?"

"We're on our way. Almost to Queens—Midtown Tunnel."

"Thalia and the Hunters?"

"They're on their way."

"Did you bring me some armor?"

"Yeah! But, Percy, what are you planning? We've left the camp virtually undefended, and there's no way the gods—"

"Trust me," I said, "I'll see you there. And I'll be bringing an extra reinforcement."

I hung up. My hands were trembling with anticipation of what I was about to do. I doubt the Styx will save me from my fate, but at least when it comes down to it, it will at least help me last until I fight Kronos.

I asked Annabeth about the armor because, to rephrase what I said earlier if I lose my shield then all it would take is one false move and I'm dead and I planned to at least survive until I face off with Kronos for the last time.

It was late afternoon when the taxi dropped me at the Empire State Building. Mrs. O'Leary and Bob bounded up and down Fifth Avenue. Bob was the first to make it, but only because Mrs. O'Leary kept licking every car and hotdog stand she could find.

"That was fun! When can I try that again?" Bob asked.

"Not now," I responded, "Right now, I need to guard the entrance without blocking it."

Bob nodded and stood guard at the building. I whistle for her to heal as three white vans pulled up to the curb. They said Delphi Strawberry Service, which was the cover name for Camp Half-Blood. I'd never seen all three vans in the same place at once, though I knew they shuttled our fresh produce into the city.

The first van was driven by Argus, our many-eyed security chief. The other two were driven by harpies, who are basically demonic human/chicken hybrids with bad attitudes. We used the harpies mostly for cleaning the camp, but they did pretty well in midtown traffic too.

The doors slid open. A bunch of campers climbed out, some of them looking a little green from the long drive. I was glad so many had come: Pollux, Castor, Silenna Beauregard, Beckendorf, the Stoll Brothers, Michael Yew, Katie Gardner, and Annabeth along with most of their siblings. Chiron came out of the van last. His horse-half was compacted into his magical wheelchair, so he used the handicap lift. The Ares cabin wasn't here, but neither was Chris, so I guess he was trying to calm Clarisse down to help us out. Besides, it was hard to be angry when I had a fifteen-foot-tall Titan on our side.

I did a head count: Fourty-two campers in all.

Not many to fight a war, but it was still the largest group of half-bloods I'd ever seen gathered I one place outside camp. Everyone looked scared, mostly because Bob was there.

"Percy, what is he doing here?" Annabeth asked snapping me from my daze when I saw her. She was dressed in black camouflage with Hal's knife strapped to her arm and her laptop bag slung over her shoulder—ready for stabbing or surfing the Internet, whichever came first. For some reason when I saw her, I thought about my strange vision that pulled me out of the river of Styx.

"He's here to help," I said, "His memory is still wiped from the River of Lethe."

"Percy, you know who he was, right?" Annabeth asked.

"That's why he's standing guard at the Empire State building from ground level," I explained. "He's going to be our ground support, right Bob?"

"Right!" Bob responded. "I'm happy to help my new friends."

I turned to the rest of the group. "See, guys! Bob means no harm. Thanks for coming, everyone. Chiron, after you."

My old mentor shook his head as he lend me my armor. "I came to wish you luck, my boy. But I make it a point never to visit Olympus unless I am summoned."

"But you're our leader."

He smiled. "I am your trainer, your teacher. That is not the same as being your leader. I will go gather what allies I can. It may not be too late to convince my brother centaurs to help. Also, Thalia and the rest of the Hunters will be here in a few hours. They were on their way to New York when we re-contact them. Meanwhile, you call the campers here, Percy. You are the leader."

I wanted to protest, but everybody was looking at me expectantly, even Annabeth.

I took a deep breath. "Okay, like I told Annabeth on the phone, something bad is going to happen tonight. Some kind of trap. We may have a Titan on our side but we need more divine help. That's why we've got to get an audience with Zeus and convinced him to defend the city. Remember, we can't take no for an answer."

I asked Argus to stay here for a bit and Bob to watch Mrs. O'Leary. Then I strapped on my chest plate. When the Celestial bronze touched my vulnerable spot, I felt a shot of electricity hitting every nerve in my body. I tried to hide it while feeling was glad as the armor protected.

Chiron shook my hand. "You'll do well, Percy. Just remember your strengths and beware of your weaknesses."

It sounded eerily close to what Achilles had told me. I remembered that Chiron had taught Achilles. I nodded and tried to give him a confident smile.

"Let's go," I told the campers.

A security guard was sitting behind the desk in the lobby, reading a big black book with a flower covered. He glanced up when we all filled in with our weapons and armor clanking. "School group? We're about to close up."

"No," I said. "Six-hundredth floor."

He checked us out. His eyes were pale blue and his head was completely bald. I couldn't tell if he was human or not, but he saw our weapons. Not a surprise. The security around here are normally humans who could see through the Mist."

"There is no six-hundredth floor, kid." He said it like it was a required line he didn't believe. "Move along."

I leaned across the desk. "Forty demigods attract an awful lot of monsters. You really want us hanging out in your lobby?"

He thought about that. Then he hit a buzzard and the security gate a swung open. "Make it quick."

I tossed him a golden drachma and we marched through.

We decided it would take two trips to get everybody up in the elevator. I went with the first group as the elevator music played that old disco song, "Stayin' Alive." A terrifying image flashed through my mind of Apollo in bell-bottom pants and a slinky silk shirt.

I was glad when the elevator doors finally dinged open. In front of us, a path of floating stones led through the clouds up to Mount Olympus, hovering six thousand feet over Manhattan.

I'd seen Olympus several times, but it still took my breath away. The mansion glittered gold and white against the side of the mountain. Gardens bloomed on a hundredth terraces. Scented smoke rose from braziers that lined with winding streets. And right at the top of the snow-capped crest rose the main palace of the gods. It looked majestic as ever, but something was wrong. Then I realized the mountain was silent—no music, no voices, no laughter.

Annabeth studied me. "You look… different," she decided. "Where exactly did you go?"

The elevator doors opened again, and the second group of half-bloods joined us.

"Tell you later," I said. "Come on."

We made our way across the sky bridge into the streets of Olympus. The shops were closed. The parks were empty. A couple of Muses sat on the bench strumming flaming lyres, but their hearts didn't seem to be into it. A lone Cyclops swept the street with an uprooted oak tree. A minor god spotted us from a balcony and ducked inside, closing his shutters.

We passed under a big marble archway with the statues of Zeus and Hera on either side. Annabeth made a face at the queen of the gods.

"Hate her," she muttered.

"How bad were her curses?" I asked. Last year, Annabeth had gotten on Hera's bad side, but Annabeth hadn't really talked about it since.

"Just little stuff so far," she said. "Her sacred animal is the cow, right?"

"Right."

"So she sends cows after me."

I tried not to smile. "Cows? In San Francisco?"

"Oh, yeah. Usually I don't see them, but the cows leave me little presents all over the place—in our backyard, on the sidewalk, in the school hallways. I have to be careful where I step."

Too me it didn't sound much like a curse. Then again I'm not exactly the one to talk.

Ares cursed me to where I couldn't use my sword in battle in hopes to winning up until the battle against Atlas. After that it seemed the curse was no longer effective because I was able to use Riptide without any problems during the whole war. Although that might be because Hera claimed she helped Annabeth and me during our quest in the Labyrinth. She wasn't clear how exactly she helped.

"Look!" Pollux cried, pointing toward the horizon. "What is that?"

We all froze. Blue lights were streaking across the evening sky toward Olympus like tiny comets. They seemed to be coming from all over the city, heading straight toward the mountain. As they got close, they fizzled out. We watch them for several minutes and they didn't seem to do any damage, but still it was strange.

"Like infrared scopes," Michael Yew muttered. "We're being targeted."

"Let's get to the palace," I said.

No one was guarding the hall of gods but I knew the place wasn't totally vacant. The gold-and-silver doors stood wide open. Our footsteps echoed as we walked into the throne room.

Of course, "room" doesn't really cover it. The place was the size of Madison Square Garden. High above, the blue ceiling glittered with constellations. Twelve giant empty thrones stood in a U around the hearth. In one corner, a house-size globe of water hovered in the air, and inside wham my old friend the Ophiotaurus, half-cow, half-serpent.

"Moooo!" she said happily, turning in a circle.

Despite all the serious stuff going on, I had to smile.

Two years ago we'd spent a lot of time trying to save the Ophiotaurus from the Titans, and I'd gotten kind of fond of him and named him Tauro. He seemed to like me too and enjoy his new name.

"Hey, Tauro," I said. "They treating you okay?"

"Mooo," Tauro agreed.

We walked toward the thrones, and a woman's voice said, "Hello again, Percy Jackson. You and you friends are welcome."

Hestia stood by the hearth, poking the flames with a stick. She wore the same kind of simple brown dress as she had done before, but she was a grown woman now.

I bowed in respect. "Lady Hestia."

My friends followed my example.

Hestia regarded me with her red glowing eyes. "I see you went through with your plan. You bear the curse of Achilles.

The other campers started muttering among themselves: What did she say? What about Achilles.

"You must be careful," Hestia said. "You gained much on your journey, but you have yet to fully understand your past with Luke."

I frowned. "What are you talking about?"

"Think of what you know about him, and see how you can truly help him before you face him," Hestia responded.

"Um, Lady Hestia, I'm grateful for the advice, but we've come on urgent business. We need to see—"

"We know what you need," a man's voice said. I shuddered, because it was the voice of someone I feared of confronting since Kronos' took possession of Luke's body.

A god shimmered into existence next to Hestia. He looked about twenty-five, with curly salt-and-pepper hair and elfish features. He wore a military pilot's flight suit, with tiny bird's wings fluttering on his helmet and his black leather boots. In the crook of his arm was a long staff entwined with two living serpents.

"I will leave you now," Hestia said. She bowed to the aviator and disappeared into smoke. I understood why she was so anxious to go. If it wasn't for the fact I'm here on a mission, I would go to, because Hermes, the God of Messengers, did not look happy.

"Hell, Percy." His brow furrowed with annoyance. He probably could tell I had took a swim in the Styx too. Either way, I was fighting the urge to back down because if I did, I would look weak in front of my friends, and with the Titan's coming and everyone already worried and scared, that's the last thing I should do.

I bowed respectfully. "Lord Hermes. George, Martha, it's good to see you two again."

Thank you, Percy, Martha responded.

Did you bring us a rat? George argued.

George, stop it, Martha said. He's busy!

Too busy for rats? George said. That's sad.

I decided it was better not to get into it with George. "Lord Hermes, I have a message for Zeus."

Hermes' eyes were steely cold. "I am his messenger. May I take a message?"

Behind me, the other demigods shifted restlessly. This wasn't going as planned.

"You guys," I said. "Why don't you do a sweep the city? Check the defenses. See who's left in Olympus, and keep an eye out for Thalia and the rest of the Hunters. Meet Annabeth and me back here in thirty minutes."

"Are you sure?" Silena asked.

"That's a good idea," Annabeth said. "Connor and Travis, you two lead."

The Stolls seemed to like that—getting handed an important responsibility right in front of their dad. They usually never led anything except toilet paper raids. "We're on it!" Travis said. They herded the others out of the throne room, leaving Annabeth and me with Hermes.

"My lord," Annabeth said. "Kronos is going to attack New York. You must suspect that. My mother must have foreseen it."

"Your mother," Hermes grumbled. He scratched his back with his caduceus, and George and Martha muttered Ow, ow, ow. "Don't get me started on your mother, young lady. She's the reason I'm here at all. Zeus didn't want any of us to leave the front line. But your mother kept pestering him nonstop, 'It's a trap, it's a diversion, blah, blah, blah'. She wanted to come back herself, but Zeus was not going to let his number one strategist leave his side while we're battling Typhon. And so naturally he sent me to talk to you."

"But it is a trap!" Annabeth insisted. "Is Zeus blind?"

Thunder rolled the sky.

"I'd watch the comments, girl," Hermes warned. Zeus is not blind or deaf."

Ignorant as Hades though, I thought.

"He has not left Olympus completely undefended," Hermes said as I was about to speak up, "And no, Percy, I don't just mean Hestia."

"But there are these blue lights—"

"Yes, yes. I saw them. Some mischief by that insufferable goddess of magic, Hecate, I wager, but you may have noticed they aren't doing any damage Olympus has strong magical wards. Besides, Aeolus, the King of the Winds, has sent his most powerful minions to guard the citadel. No one save the gods can approach Olympus from the air. They would be knocked out of the sky. If Kronos wants Olympus, he'll have to march through the entire city with his army and take the elevators! Can you see him doing this?"

I wanted to argue against this, but I see no way to win, but I still wanted to say something.

"Lord Hermes, about the Titan guarding the doors," I said. "I would appreciate if he's left a secret from Zeus until he's proven himself in the battlefield."

I explained to Hermes about Bob's situation. When I was done, Hermes expression didn't seem to have change for the worse, or for the better.

"That's a risky move you have done bringing Iapetus with you, Percy Jackson. The power of the River of Lethe has a tendency to be tricky on those that aren't dead," Hermes said.

I frowned. "You mean Bob's memories could still return?"

"Not completely, more like brief flashes," Hermes said, "But I' sure you already knew since you're good pals with Hades' kids."

I frowned even more. "What does Bianca and Nico have to do with the power of the River of Lethe?"

Hermes didn't reply, but instead said, "I'll keep your Titan pal a secret, but if you know what's best, Percy Jackson, I would keep him as far from his brother as possible. He might be proven a powerful ally while we fight Typhon, but if he finds out who he really is, then you better hope his loyalty is still with you."

In the corner, Tauro mooed sadly.

"Please, Hermes," Annabeth said. "You said your mother wanted to come. Did she give you any messages for us?"

Hermes started muttering about his job as messengers of the gods before giving the message, "Your mother said to warn you that you are on your own—although with Bob with you, I guess that's not completely true. Anyways, you must hold Manhattan without the help of the gods. She also said you should try plan twenty-three. She said you know what that meant."

Annabeth's face paled. Obviously she knew what it meant, and she didn't like it.

"Last thing," Hermes looked at me. "She said to tell Percy: 'Remember the rivers.' And, um something about staying away from her daughter."

I'm not sure whose face was redder: Annabeth's or mine.

"Thank you, Hermes," Annabeth said. "And I… I wanted to say… I'm sorry about Luke."

The god's expression hardened like he'd turned to marble. "You should've left that subject alone."

Annabeth stepped back nervously. "Sorry?"

"SORRY doesn't cut it!"

George and Martha curled around the caduceus, which shimmered and change into something that looked suspiciously like a high voltage cattle prod.

"You should've saved him when you had the chance," Hermes growled at Annabeth, "You had the chance and failed!"

I didn't know what he meant, but I knew Annabeth was in trouble, so I stepped between them.

"Get out of the way Jackson!" Hermes said.

"NO!" I responded. "I had as much blame for what happened to Luke. So if you wanted to punish Annabeth, then you have to punish me too!"

I had almost forgotten that I was 99% invulnerable and that my only vulnerable spot was protected by celestial bronze chest plate, but I didn't care.

Hermes lowered the cattle prod, and it turned back to a staff.

"You're right Percy Jackson, you do have as much blame," Hermes said, "But because you bare the curse of Achilles, I must spare you. You are in the hands of the Fates now. I will leave you now. I have a war to fight.

He began to shine. I turned away and made sure Annabeth did the same, because she was still frozen in shock as Hermes gone supernova before he was gone.

Annabeth sat at the floor at her mother's throne and cried.

"Annabeth," I said. "What happened to Luke isn't your fault."

Annabeth wiped her eyes. She stared at the hearth like it was her own funeral pyre.

"Percy, what did Hermes and Hestia meant by you bearing the curse of Achilles. Did you… did you bathe in the River of Styx?"

I guess this was a topic I couldn't dodge anymore. At least not with Annabeth. She knew just as much about the Greek stories as I did.

So, I told her about my field trip with Nico: from how we went to visit May Castellan again, to me defeating Hades and his army. Only parts I left out was me freezing up when May's gone crazier than usual and the vision of Annabeth pulling me out of the river.

Annabeth shook her head in disbelief. "Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?"

"I didn't have much of a choice," I said. "Annabeth, the curse is the reason Luke didn't die when Kronos possessed him."

"You mean… he went to the Styx as well," Annabeth said.

I nodded.

"So then, why did you request your chest plate?" Annabeth asked.

"To protect my Achilles Heel," I said, "My vulnerable spot."

"Where?" Annabeth demanded.

I lifted up one of my arms and pointed in the area of my armpit where the armor covers it. It didn't seemed like a good idea, but if I couldn't trust Annabeth, who can I trust.

"Your armpit?" Annabeth asked in disgust. Like I said before, the armpit is not exactly the most dignified places.

"I figured with my shield and armor, it would be protected until my final battle with Kronos," I responded. "And it's not any of my blind spots so surprise attacks involving anything with a weapon would be difficult."

"Clever," Annabeth admitted. "Anyways, my mom mentioned—"

"Plan Twenty-Three."

She rummages in her pack and pulled out Daedalus' laptop. The blue Delta symbol glowed on the top when she booted it up. She opens a few files and started to read.

"Here it is," she said. "Gods, we have a lot of work to do."

"One of Daedalus' inventions?"

"A lot of inventions… dangerous ones. If my mother want me to use this plan, she must think things are very bad." She looked at me. "What about her message to you: 'Remember the rivers'? What does that mean?"

"Probably River Spirits," I said. "Hudson and East River most likely."

Just then the Stoll brothers ran in to the throne room.

"You need to see this," Connor said. "Now."

The blue lights in the sky stopped, so at first I didn't understand what the problem was.

The other campers had gathered in a small park at the edge of the mountain. They were clustered at the guardrail, looking down at Manhattan. The railing was lined with those tourist binoculars, where you could deposit one golden drachma and see the city. Campers were using every single one.

I looked down at the city. I could see almost everything from here. It seemed normal, but there was one thing wrong that I realized immediately.

"I don't… hear anything," Annabeth said.

She was right, and it wasn't just Manhattan. The whole city was silent.

"This is bad," I said. "Manhattan is never quiet much less the whole city of New York!"

I shoved Michael Yew away from the binoculars and took a look.

In the streets below, traffic had stopped. Pedestrians were lying on the sidewalks, or curled up in doorways. There was no sign of violence, no wrecks, nothing like that. It was as if all the people in New York had simply decided t stop whatever they were doing and pass out.

"Are they dead?" Silena asked in astonishment.

"I don't think so," Beckendorf said.

Ice coated my stomach. A line from the prophecy rang in my ears: And see the world in endless sleep. I remembered Grover's story about meeting the god Morpheus in Central Park. You're lucky I'm saving my energy for the main event.

"Beckendorf is right," I said, "Morpheus has put the entire Island of Manhattan to sleep. The invasion started."

"Not everyone in Manhattan," someone said.

I tuned and draw my sword to see a girl with dark silky hair with dark eyes, olive skin wearing silver and black clothes along with a silver bow and a quiver of arrows. It was Bianca di Angelo, daughter of Hades and Nico's sister.

"But you're right, the invasion has started," Bianca said, "Come on. Thalia and the rest of the hunters are waiting for us."

A/N: Just to be clear, when Percy thought, Ignorant as Hades though, He was comparing Zeus's ignorance to Hades and not cussing.