Disclaimer: I only own the plot and my OCs. Anything you recognize as not mine belongs to Rick Riordan, Greco-Roman mythology, and/or their otherwise respective owners.

Author's Notes: Hi, everyone! Exciting news, in case you didn't already see – this fic is now officially over 200k according to AO3! I'm very happy about it. We've come a far way. Thank y'all for sticking with me this long! :)

As always, I hope you enjoy. Until next chapter,

~TGWSI/Selene Borealis


~The Finding Home Saga~

~Finding Home~

~Chapter 57: An Old Dead Friend Comes To Visit~


I didn't tell anybody about my dream the next morning. I wanted to – I wanted to tell Katie about everything that was going on and pick her brain on what she really thought about it all, but I knew that I couldn't. Because I had promised Luke that our relationship would be a secret, and as much as I was angry at him for what had happened to Silena, I wasn't going to break that promise. Besides, while I knew that Katie wouldn't tell anybody else that I was back together with him, that she would protect the secret with her life, I didn't want that for her, which is exactly what copping up to it would do. So, I kept my mouth shut.

Besides, I had better things to worry about. When I was walking away from the pavilion after breakfast, headed off towards my first activity of the day, a hand suddenly grabbed my arm out from one of the evergreen bushes along the path, pulling me back behind it. "Hey – !" I protested with a gasp. But I needn't have worried – it was only Bianca.

"Hey, Percy," she said.

"Bianca, wha – ?" I began to say. I had just seen her walking with the other kids from Cabin Eleven. But, I also knew that shadowtraveling, as she and Nico called it, was one of their powers as children of Hades. That explained how she could've been going in a completely different direction only to appear somewhere else in the blink of an eye. "What do you want?" Obviously, by her shadowtraveling to meet up with me in secret and the expression on her face, she had something that she wanted to talk to me about.

"Did you have a demigod dream last night?" she asked me.

I was taken off-guard by this, because I had. But, I wasn't about to let her know that. I feigned obliviousness. "What?"

"Did you – ?" She looked around wildly, before she rolled her eyes. "You know what, never mind. I couldn't sleep last night after...well, everything, so I used my powers to sneak out of Cabin Eleven, and – "

Even though I knew she had to be telling me something important, I cut her off there. "You weren't afraid of the harpies?"

"Were you when you snuck out on your quest with Silena and Clarisse last summer?" she retorted, quirking an eyebrow. When I remained silent, she pressed on, "Anyways, I was walking around sometime after three and Zoë Nightshade left Cabin Eight and went to the Big House and demanded to talk with Chiron. She was really panicked. She wasn't aware that I was following her and I hid in the shadows with my powers and watched the whole thing. She got real upset when Argus wouldn't let her in. It was kind of a dangerous scene."

I tried to imagine that. Argus was the head of security for camp, but he rarely showed himself unless something serious was going on. I wouldn't want to place bets on a fight between him and Zoë Nightshade.

"What did she say?" I asked.

Bianca grimaced. "Well, she starts talking really old-fashioned when she gets upset, which made it kind of hard even for me to understand. But it was something about Artemis being in trouble and needing the Hunters."

"Whoa, wait," I said. "How could Artemis be in trouble? She's a goddess!"

"I...well, after a lot of bickering between her and Argus, Chiron came out in his pajamas and his horse tail in curlers and – "

Somehow, that was even stranger than the prospect of Artemis being in trouble. "He wears curlers in his tail?"

Bianca stared at me exasperatedly. "Percy."

"Sorry," I apologized for interrupting her so many times when she hadn't even gotten to the good part yet. "Go on."

"Well, Zoë said she needed permission to leave camp immediately. Chiron refused. He reminded Zoë that the Hunters were supposed to stay here until they received orders from Artemis. And she said...she said, 'How are we to get orders from milady if she is lost?'"

"What do you mean 'lost?' Like she needs directions?"

Slowly, Bianca shook her head. "No. I think she meant gone. Taken. Kidnapped."

"'Kidnapped?'" Okay, now that was even harder to picture than her being lost or Chiron having the curlers in his tail. "How would you kidnap a goddess? Is that even possible?"

"It happened to another one of your half-sisters, my stepmother, Persephone," she reminded me.

"But she's like, the goddess of flowers."

"Springtime."

"Whatever. Same difference." I was half-expecting the evergreen bush that we were standing next to to suddenly lean over in a way that wasn't otherwise possible and smack me in the face. But it didn't do that – if Persephone was listening, she must've understood that I hadn't meant any offense by that. My brain was just going faster than a mile per minute, maybe even a mile per second, trying to figure out what Bianca was telling me. "Artemis is an Olympian. Who could kidnap her? And why?"

"I don't know," Bianca said. "Kronos? Somebody working for Kronos?"

...Somebody like Luke? I thought darkly, traitorously. I knew that he didn't have that kind of power, and that (hopefully) the other people working under Kronos didn't, either. But after last night's dreams, I wasn't feeling particularly considerate, even towards my boyfriend.

Something must've shown in my expression. I didn't know what it was, nor did I know if I wanted to know, but Bianca's eyes softened. "I just thought you should know, since Artemis' disappearance might be related to Silena's," she said. Then she shifted her weight on her feet uncomfortably. Her eyes casted down. "And...I meant to say this yesterday, but I also wanted to say that I'm sorry for not really doing anything with Dr. Thorn. Maybe if I had – "

"Hey," I said, cutting her off. "It's alright."

"I froze," she whispered. "I didn't know what to do. I mean, we're demigods, and the situation was entirely different, but for some reason it reminded me of the Symplegades and your leg getting crushed and – "

"It's fine," I repeated. "You don't need to explain your trauma to me." I nudged her on the shoulder gently, causing her to look up. "But maybe you should be getting back to the Cabin Eleven group? If the Stolls realize you're missing, they'll probably start looking for you."

She smiled weakly. "Yeah. Thanks, Percy. And really – good luck on finding Silena. When you do, tell her I'm sorry."

"I will," I promised.

The daughter of Hades then disappeared into the shadows.


The rest of my day followed in the same way my dinner and the rest of the night before had: pretty darn miserable.

I tried to keep myself busy, but I was worried about Silena, and the urge to strangle the Hunters of Artemis one eternal maiden at a time was slowly developing within me. I went to javelin-throwing class, but the Ares camper in charge chewed me out after I got distracted and threw the javelin at the target before he could get out of the way. I apologized for the hole in his pants, but he still sent me packing, much to the humor of the one Hunter supervising the class – I figured, based on her looks, that she was another child of Ares, which tracked for why she was here and not with her other Hunters.

I went to the pegasus stables next, but Butch, the son of Iris, was getting into an argument with another of the Hunters over the care of the pegasi. Not wanting to get involved and potentially make things worse by pissing off the Hunter even more, I made a hasty escape before either of them noticed that I was there.

After that, I sat in the empty chariot stands – which we'd never had much use for during the time I'd been attending camp, something-something about the races being too dangerous due to our "naturally competitive natures" – and sulked. Down at the archery fields, Chiron was conducting archery practice. I knew that he would be the best person to talk to. Maybe he could give me some advice, but something held me back. I had a feeling that Chiron would try to protect me, like he always did. He might not tell me everything he knew. Hell, probably the only reason why Silena, Clarisse, and I had been able to go off on our quest last summer was because he hadn't been around.

I looked the other direction. At the top of Half-Blood Hill, Mr. D and Argus were feeding the baby dragon that guarded the Golden Fleece.

Suddenly, it occurred to me: no one would be in the Big House right now. Just like last summer, there was someone else...something else I could ask for guidance.

My blood was humming in my ears as I ran into the house and took the stairs, the feeling of déjà vu rising up within me. Two times now, I had done this. Sometimes, I still had nightmares about it. I opened the trap door and stepped into the attic.

The room was dark and dusty and cluttered with junk, as always. I ignored the shields with monster bites in them, the swords bent in the shapes of daemon heads, and the pieces of taxidermy like the stuffed harpy and the orange python in favor for the tripod stool over by the window, where the shriveled mummy of an old lady in a tie-dyed hippy dress was sitting. The Oracle.

I made myself walk over to her. I waited for the green mist to blow from the mummy's mouth, like it had before, but nothing happened.

"Hi," I said. "Uh, what's up?"

I winced at how stupid that sounded. Not much could be "up" when you're dead and stuck in the attic. But I knew that the spirit of the Oracle was in there somewhere. I could feel a cold presence in the room, like a coiled sleeping snake.

"I have a question," I said a little louder. "I need to know about Silena. How can I save her?"

No answer. The sun slanted through the dirty attic window, lighting the dust moles dancing in the air.

I waited longer.

Then I got angry. I was being stonewalled by a corpse – and now that I was thinking about it, this wasn't the first time that that had happened. Back when I'd tried talking to the Oracle last summer, she hadn't said anything to me. Not until Silena and Clarisse had come up into the attic. But neither of them were here right now, because I was trying to save Silena and Clarisse was missing. Maybe, I could bring Katie and Bianca up here to see if she would say something this time like then – but, no. I wouldn't do that to them. I wanted to get Silena back no matter what, but for some reason I had the feeling I couldn't involve either my best friend or the daughter of Hades in this. It wasn't their destiny.

"Alright," I said. "Fine. I'll figure it out myself."

Without another word, I turned and stomped my way over to the exit.


After dinner that night, I was seriously ready to beat the Hunters at capture the flag. It was going to be a small game: there were only twelve Hunters, and just a little more of campers.

Zoë Nightshade looked pretty upset. She kept glancing resentfully at Chiron, like she couldn't believe that he was making her do this. The other Hunters didn't look too happy, either. Unlike last night, they weren't laughing or joking around. They were just huddled together in the pavilion, whispering nervously to each other as they strapped on their armor. Some of them even looked like they'd been crying. I guess Zoë had told them about her nightmare.

On our team, we had Beckendorf and his half-siblings Jake Mason and Nyssa Barrera, the Stoll brothers and the new kid in Cabin Eleven along with Bianca and Butch, Lee Fletcher (his archery days were over due to him losing his eye last summer, but he was still wickedly good with his dagger and at chasing down people) and another older Apollo kid, the four Ares kids, Katie, Thalia, and me.

I hadn't talked to Thalia all day when she approached me. I had no idea what her opinion on us being co-captains was, up until she opened her mouth. "I'll take the offense," she volunteered. "You take defense."

...You know, for being my cousin and whatnot, she was really good at getting under my skin. I'd blame it on us being children of two of the Big Three, except I got along with Bianca and Nico really well. "Oh. Don't you think with your shield and all, you might be better defense?"

Thalia already had Aegis on her arm, and even our own teammates were giving her a wide berth, trying not to cower before the bronze head of Medusa.

"Well, I was thinking it would make better offense," Thalia said. "Besides, you've had more practice at defense."

I wasn't sure if she was teasing me. Remember, I'd had plenty of bad experiences with defense on capture the flag, what with Annabeth having put me out as bait and having almost gotten killed by that hellhound. Granted, I hadn't had much luck with offense either due to the Stymphalian birds, but in my opinion, I was better at offense.

But, I wasn't looking for a fight with her tonight. So, I lied. "Yeah, no problem."

"Cool," she said, then went off elsewhere, leaving me behind.

Not long after, Chiron's hoof thundered on the pavilion floor.

"Heroes!" he called. "You know the rules. The creek is the boundary line. Blue team – Camp Half-Blood – shall take the west woods. Hunters of Artemis – red team – shall take the east woods..."

He continued on with the rest of his little speech. When it was over, Thalia raised her spear and shouted, "Blue team! Follow me!"

The rest of our team cheered and followed. I had to run to catch up, having been trying to finagle with an armor strap that just wouldn't stick, and tripped over somebody else's shield, so I didn't look much like a co-captain. More like an idiot.

We set our flag at the top of Zeus' fist. It's this cluster of boulders in the middle of the west woods that, if you look at it in just the correct way, looks like a huge fist sticking out of the ground. If you look at it from any other side, though, it looks like a pile of enormous deer droppings, but Chiron wouldn't let us change the name to Poop Pile, especially after it had been named for Zeus, who didn't exactly a good sense of humor. Many generations of demigods had tried and been unsuccessful. I had tried after meeting Zeus for the first time and been unsuccessful.

Anyways, it was a good place to set up the flag. The top boulder was twenty feet tall and really hard to climb, so the flag was clearly visible, like the rules said it needed to be, and it didn't matter that the guards weren't allowed to stand within ten yards of it.

Bianca went on guard duty with Beckendorf and the Stoll brothers. I figured she probably wanted to be out of the way of Thalia, who had sent her a murderous glare while we'd all been putting on our armor. That was probably a good thing. I seriously didn't know what the daughter of Zeus' problem with her was.

"We'll send out a decoy to the left," Thalia told the team. "Lee, you lead that."

The son of Apollo nodded. "Got it."

"Take Jason – " that was the other son of Apollo, now I remembered his name " – and Iskander." That was the new kid in the Hermes cabin I'd previously mentioned. Unclaimed as of yet, though it would eventually be revealed that he was a son of Enyo like Jeremiah Vigila, who had joined the side of the Titans. "They're good runners. Make a wide arc around the Hunters, attract as many as you can. I'll take the main raiding party around to the right and catch them by surprise."

Everyone agreed with her. Her plan sounded good, and Thalia said it with such confidence you couldn't help but believe it would work.

Thalia looked at me. "Anything to add, Percy?"

"Um, yeah. Keep sharp on the defense. We've got four guards, two scouts, and two ambushers." That was Nyssa and Jake. She was wickedly good at setting traps, and he was all too willing to help her. "That's not much for a big forest. I'll be roving. Yell if you need help."

"And don't leave your post!" Thalia said.

"Unless you see a golden opportunity," I added.

Thalia scowled. "Just don't leave your post."

"Right, unless – "

"Percy!" She touched my arm and shocked me. I mean, everybody can give static shocks in the winter, but when Thalia does, it hurts. Her father is the god of lightning, after all. She's been known to fry off people's eyebrows.

"Sorry," Thalia said, though she didn't really sound sorry at all. "Now, is everybody clear?"

Everybody nodded. We broke into our smaller groups. The horn sounded, and the game began.

Lee's group disappeared into the woods on the left. Thalia's group gave it a few seconds, then darted off towards the right.

I waited for something to happen. I climbed Zeus' Fist and had a good view over the forest. I remembered how the Hunters had stormed out of the woods when they'd fought the manticore, and I was prepared for something like that – one huge charge that could overwhelm us. But nothing happened.

I caught a glimpse of Lee, Jason, and Iskander. They ran through a clearing, followed by five of the Hunters, leading them deep into the woods and away from Thalia. The plan seemed to be working. Then I spotted another clump of Hunters, smaller by only one or two, heading to the right, bows ready. They must've spotted Thalia.

"What's happening?" Bianca asked from below me.

My mind was racing. Thalia would never get through, but the Hunters were divided. With that many on either flank, their center had to be wide open. If I moved fast enough...

I looked at Beckendorf. "Can you guys hold the fort?"

He snorted. "Of course."

"I'm going in."

The Stoll brothers cheered as I raced towards the boundary line.

I was running at top speed and I felt great. I leaped over the creek into enemy territory. I could see their silver flag up ahead, only one guard, who wasn't even looking in my direction. I heard fighting to my left and right, somewhere in the woods. I had it made.

The guard turned at the last minute. She was the youngest Hunter out of them all, physically speaking, the ten-year-old. Her dark brown eyes, almost like a deer's, went wide as I slammed into her and she went sprawling in the snow.

"Sorry!" I yelled. I ripped down the silver flag from the tree and took off.

I was ten yards away before the Hunter managed to yell for help. I thought I was home free.

ZIP! A silvery cord raced across my ankles and fastened to the tree next to me. A trip wire, fired from a bow. Before I could even think about stopping, I went down hard, sprawling in the snow just like the Hunter had.

"Percy!" Thalia yelled, off to my left. "What are you doing?"

Before she reached me, an arrow exploded at her feet, and a cloud of yellow smoke billowed around the team. They started coughing and gagging. I could smell the gas from across the woods – the horrible smell of sulfur.

"No fair!" Thalia gasped. "Fart arrows are unsportsmanlike!"

I got up and started running again. Only a few more yards to the creek and I had the game. More arrows whizzed past my ears. A Hunter came out of nowhere and slashed at me with her knife, but I parried and kept running.

I heard yelling coming from our side of the creek. Beckendorf and Connor Stoll were running towards me. At first I thought they were coming to welcome me back, but then I saw that they were chasing someone – Zoë Nightshade, racing towards me like a cheetah, dodging campers with no trouble. And she had our flag in her hands.

"No!" I yelled, and poured on the speed.

I was two feet from the water when Zoë somehow avoided a spontaneously-appearing Bianca – who looked roughened up from the brief glimpse that I saw of her – from the shadows and bolted across to her own side, slamming into me for good measure. The Hunters cheered as both sides converged on the creek. Chiron appeared out of the woods, looking grim. He had Travis Stoll on his back, and it looked like the elder brother had taken some nasty whacks to the head.

"The Hunters win!" Chiron announced without pleasure. Then he muttered, "For the fifty-sixth time in a row."

"Perseus Jackson!" Thalia yelled, storming towards me. She smelled like rotten eggs, and she was so mad that blue sparks flickered on her armor. Everybody cringed and backed up because of Aegis. It took all my willpower not to cower.

"What in the name of the gods were you thinking?" she bellowed.

I balled my fists. I'd had enough bad stuff happen to me for one day, and I'd just about had enough of her attitude. I didn't need this. "I got the flag, Thalia!" I shook it in her face. "I saw a chance and I took it!"

"I WAS AT THEIR BASE!" Thalia yelled. "But the flag was gone. If you hadn't butted in, we would've won!"

"You had too many on you!"

"Oh, so it's my fault?"

"I didn't say that!"

"Argh!" Thalia pushed me, and a shock went through my body that blew me backwards ten feet into the water. Some of the campers gasped. A couple of the Hunters stifled laughs.

"Sorry!" Thalia said, turning pale. "I didn't mean to – "

Anger roared in my ears. A wave erupted from the creek, blasting into Thalia's face and dousing her from head to toe.

I stood up. "Yeah," I growled. "I didn't mean to, either."

Thalia was breathing heavily.

"Enough!" Chiron ordered.

But Thalia held out her spear. "You want some, Seaweed Brain?"

The only other person to have ever called me that name was Annabeth, and she'd agreed not to anymore when I'd finally told her this past summer how it bothered me. The fact that Thalia knew that, since Annabeth had most likely told her, and she was using it now...

"What is your problem, Pinecone Face?" I spat at her. I was so angry, I didn't even raise Riptide. I didn't want to fight her with my sword. I wanted to fight her with my bare hands. "You're a bitch to me, to Bianca, and pretty much to everyone else ever since you – oof!"

Before I was able to finish, Thalia shouted wordlessly, and a blast of lightning came down from the sky, hit her spear like a lightning rod, and slammed into my chest.

I sat down hard. There was a burning smell; I had a feeling it was my clothes.

When I got up, I dropped Riptide to the ground, wiping at whatever was trailing down from my nose. Looking down, I saw that it was blood. She'd made me have a nosebleed. Not nearly as bad as the impact of the lightning underneath my chest plate, both times, because I could feel burns there, but –

I flicked the red liquid off my hand.

Suddenly, I felt calm. Eerily calm. Like the calm before the storm.

"You want to fight with powers that bad?" I asked quietly. "Fine."

The low pitch of my voice made everyone go silent, even the Hunters.

I pulled at that tug behind my navel. The entire creek behind me began to rise. It swirled up, hundreds of gallons of water in a massive icy funnel cloud. The earth began to tremble beneath my feet. Not nearly as pronounced as it had been that time with Callie, but that was the thing: I was using my powers to make the earth move, but I wasn't using them that hard.

"Percy!" Chiron pleaded.

It wasn't him that made me stop at the last second. I saw something in the woods, which made me lose my steadily returning anger and my concentration all at once. The water splashed into the creek bed. Thalia, her face now paler than it had been before, was so surprised that she turned to see what I was looking at.

Someone...something was approaching. It was shrouded in a green murky mist, but as it got closer, the campers and Hunters alike gasped.

"This is impossible," Chiron said. I'd never heard him sound so nervous. "It...she has never left the attic. Never."

And yet, the withered mummy that held the Oracle shuffled forward until she stood in the center of the group. Mist curled around our feet, turning the snow a sickly shade of green.

None of us dared move. Then her voice hissed inside my head. Apparently everyone could hear it, because several people clutched their hands over their ears. "I am the spirit of Delphi," the voice said, "speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python."

The Oracle regarded me with cold, dead eyes. Then she unmistakably turned towards Zoë Nightshade. "Approach, seeker, and ask."

Zoë visibly swallowed. "What must I do to help milady?"

The Oracle's mouth opened, and green mist poured out. I saw the vague image of a mountain, and a girl standing at the barren peak. It was Artemis, but she was wrapped in chains, fettered to rocks. She was kneeling, her hands raised as if to fend off an attacker, and it looked like she was in pain. The Oracle spoke:

"Five shall go west to the goddess in chains,

One shall be lost in the land without rain.

The bane of Olympus shows the trail,

Campers and Hunters combined prevail.

The Titan's curse must one withstand,

And one shall perish by a parent's hand."

Then, as we were watching, the mist swirled and retreated like a great green serpent into the mummy's mouth. The Oracle sat down on a rock and became as still as she'd been in the attic, as if she might sit by this creek for a hundred years.


Word Count: 4,488

Next Chapter Title: I'm Given Conflicting Pieces of Advice