Chapter 20: I Gain a New Enemy for Christmas

"Not another one?" Poseidon groaned.

"You need to stop collecting those." Apollo told him.

"This one wasn't too bad." Percy grinned a little. Nico groaned. He figured the new 'enemy' would be him.

Before I left Olympus, I decided to make a few calls. It wasn't easy, but I finally found a quiet fountain in a corner garden and sent an Iris-message to my brother, Tyson, under the sea.

Tyson grinned toothily. He always loved it when Percy called.

I told him about our adventures, and Bessie—he wanted to hear every detail about the cute baby cow serpent—and I assured him that Annabeth was safe. Finally I got around to explaining how the shield he'd made me last summer had been damaged in the manticore attack. "Yay!" Tyson said. "That means it was good! It saved your life!" "It sure did, big guy," I said. "But now it's ruined." "Not ruined!" Tyson promised. "I will visit and fix it next summer." The idea picked me up instantly. I guess I hadn't realized how much I missed having Tyson around.

"I missed you too, brother." Tyson told Percy with a wide grin.

"You'll have to come and stay at Camp again when the war is over." Percy said. Tyson nodded.

"Seriously?" I asked. "They'll let you take time off?" "Yes! I have made two thousand seven hundred and forty-one magic swords,"

"Good work, Tyson." Poseidon smiled at his son. Percy was worried Tyson's face might actually split in two with how widely he was beaming at the praise.

"Thank you, daddy." Tyson replied, almost vibrating in his seat.

Tyson said proudly, showing me the newest blade. "The boss says 'good work'! He will let me take the whole summer off. I will visit camp!"

"It was a good job you did." Annabeth said. Tyson nodded happily. He was glad he had been able to free Briares.

We talked for a while about war preparations and our dad's fight with the old sea gods, and all the cool things we could do together next summer, but then Tyson's boss started yelling at him and he had to get back to work. I dug out my last golden drachma and made one more Iris-message. "Sally Jackson," I said. "Upper East Side, Manhattan."

"At least you didn't wait a couple of days this time." Annabeth sighed. Percy grinned at her.

The mist shimmered, and there was my mom at our kitchen table, laughing and holding hands with her friend Mr. Blowfish.

Everybody chuckled.

"Do you call him that to his face?" Rachel asked in amusement.

"No, now I call him Paul." Percy shrugged.

I felt so embarrassed, I was about to wave my hand through the mist and cut the connection, but before I could, my mom saw me. Her eyes got wide. She let go of Mr. Blowfish's hand real quick. "Oh, Paul! You know what? I left my writing journal in the living room. Would you mind getting it for me?" "Sure, Sally. No problem." He left the room, and instantly my mom leaned toward the Iris-message. "Percy! Are you all right?" "I'm, uh, fine. How's that writing seminar going?" She pursed her lips. "It's fine. But that's not important. Tell me what's happened!"

"That's a long story and the dude is only going to find a journal." Chris said.

"I gave the cliff notes version." Percy grinned.

"Well, Percy is the one who could sum up a ten-year war in one sentence so he is pretty good at the whole cliff notes thing." Annabeth said in amusement. Percy just shrugged.

I filled her in as quickly as I could. She sighed with relief when she heard that Annabeth was safe. "I knew you could do it!" she said. "I'm so proud." "Yeah, well, I'd better let you get back to your homework." "Percy, I… Paul and I—" "Mom, are you happy?"

Poseidon smiled at his son.

The question seemed to take her by surprise. She thought for a moment. "Yes. I really am, Percy. Being around him makes me happy." "Then it's cool. Seriously. Don't worry about me."

"You're a good guy, Percy Jackson." Rachel told him with a smile. Pretty much everyone in the room nodded. Ares just glowered and Dionysus' nod was so slight that only Dakota noticed.

"I…" Percy began.

"Shut up, seawe...Jackson. Just accept the compliment." Annabeth told him. Percy laughed.

The funny thing was, I meant it. Considering the quest I'd just had, maybe I should have been worried for my mom. I'd seen just how mean people could be to each other, like Hercules was to Zoe Nightshade, like Luke was to Thalia. I'd met Aphrodite, Goddess of Love, in person, and her powers had scared me worse than Ares.

Aphrodite giggled while Ares glowered even more.

But seeing my mother laughing and smiling, after all the years she'd suffered with my nasty ex-stepfather, Gabe Ugliano, I couldn't help feeling happy for her. "You promise not to call him Mr. Blowfish?" she asked.

A few people laughed.

"I wouldn't do it to his face." Percy smirked.

I shrugged. "Well, maybe not to his face, anyway." "Sally?" Mr. Blofis called from our living room. "You need the green binder or the red one?" "I'd better go," she told me. "See you for Christmas?" "Are you putting blue candy in my stocking?" She smiled. "If you're not too old for that."

"You're never too old for candy!" Connor and Travis exclaimed.

"Agreed." Leo, Percy and Rachel nodded at the same time.

"I'm never too old for candy." "I'll see you then." She waved her hand across the mist. Her image disappeared, and I thought to myself that Thalia had been right, so many days ago at Westover Hall: my mom really was pretty cool.

"Yeah." Thalia agreed.

Compared to Mount Olympus, Manhattan was quiet. Friday before Christmas, but it was early in the morning, and hardly anyone was on Fifth Avenue. Argus, the many-eyed security chief, picked up Annabeth, Grover, and me at the Empire State Building and ferried us back to camp through a light snowstorm. The Long Island Expressway was almost deserted. As we trudged back up Half-Blood Hill to the pine tree where the Golden Fleece glittered, I half expected to see Thalia there, waiting for us. But she wasn't. She was long gone with Artemis and the rest of the Hunters, off on their next adventure.

"Sorry, guys." Thalia apologized.

"It's ok. We understood." Annabeth assured her.

Chiron greeted us at the Big House with hot chocolate and toasted cheese sandwiches. Grover went off with his satyr friends to spread the word about our strange encounter with the magic of Pan. Within an hour, the satyrs were all running around agitated, asking where the nearest espresso bar was. Annabeth and I sat with Chiron and some of the other senior campers—Beckendorf, Silena Beauregard, and the Stoll brothers. Even Clarisse from the Ares cabin was there, back from her secretive scouting mission.

Chris tensed up a little. He was not looking forward to reading about the Labyrinth at all. Clarisse looked at him in concern but he shook his head.

I knew she must've had a difficult quest, because she didn't even try to pulverize me. She had a new scar on her chin, and her dirty blond hair had been cut short and ragged, like someone had attacked it with a pair of safety scissors.

Clarisse glared at him.

"Hey! That's what it looked like." Percy put his hands up.

"I got news," she mumbled uneasily. "Bad news." "I'll fill you in later," Chiron said with forced cheerfulness. "The important thing is you have prevailed. And you saved Annabeth!" Annabeth smiled at me gratefully, which made me look away. For some strange reason, I found myself thinking about Hoover Dam, and the odd mortal girl I'd run into there, Rachel Elizabeth Dare.

Rachel grinned happily while Annabeth scowled.

"Well, you'll be in the next book I guess." Percy told Rachel. She nodded, smile going even wider.

I didn't know why, but her annoying comments kept coming back to me. Do you always kill people when they blow their nose?

"I didn't actually kill you." Percy pointed out.

"Details, details." Rachel laughed.

I was only alive because so many people had helped me, even a random mortal girl like that. I'd never even explained to her who I was.

"You made it up to me later." Rachel told him.

"Luke is alive," I said. "Annabeth was right." Annabeth sat up. "How do you know?" I tried not to feel annoyed by her interest. I told her what my dad had said about the Princess Andromeda. "Well." Annabeth shifted uncomfortably in her chair. "If the final battle does come when Percy is sixteen, at least we have two more years to figure something out."

"Year. Now we have like a week." Percy sighed.

"These books will tell us how to win." Annabeth reminded him.

I had a feeling that when she said "figure something out," she meant "get Luke to change his ways," which annoyed me even more.

Annabeth went red. It never ceased to surprise her how much Percy noticed but didn't say.

Chiron's expression was gloomy. Sitting by the fire in his wheelchair, he looked really old. I mean… he was really old,

"Thank you for that." Chiron told Percy but the twinkle in his eye gave away that he wasn't mad.

"It's true." Percy reminded him. "Plus, I didn't say it out loud."

but he usually didn't look it. "Two years may seem like a long time," he said. "But it is the blink of an eye. I still hope you are not the child of the prophecy, Percy. But if you are, then the second Titan war is almost upon us. Kronos's first strike will be here."

All of the Greek campers looked down. He had struck their Camp and they had lost many good demigods. Brothers and sisters. All of the Gods eyed them warily. They felt certain they were not going to like what was to come. Knowing they would end up victorious was one thing. Reading, in detail, about the price that victory had cost, was something else entirely.

"How do you know?" I asked. "Why would he care about camp?" "Because the gods use heroes as their tools," Chiron said simply.

All of the Gods grimaced at that. It might be true but to hear it put so bluntly made them uncomfortable. Especially as they had gotten to know some of their children.

"Destroy the tools, and the gods will be crippled. Luke's forces will come here. Mortal, demigod, monstrous… We must be prepared. Clarisse's news may give us a clue as to how they will attack, but—" There was a knock on the door, and Nico di Angelo came huffing into the parlor, his cheeks bright red from the cold.

Nico sighed while Percy looked at the floor. He had hated this conversation, and the results.

He was smiling, but he looked around anxiously. "Hey! Where's… where's my sister?" Dead silence. I stared at Chiron. I couldn't believe nobody had told him yet. And then I realized why. They'd been waiting for us to appear, to tell Nico in person.

"Thanks for that." Percy grumbled.

"I am sorry, Percy." Chiron frowned. It had been wrong to make Percy tell Nico about his sister. Chiron himself should have been the one to do it.

That was the last thing I wanted to do. But I owed it to Bianca. "Hey, Nico." I got up from my comfortable chair. "Let's take a walk, okay? We need to talk." He took the news in silence, which somehow made it worse. I kept talking, trying to explain how it had happened, how Bianca had sacrificed herself to save the quest. But I felt like I was only making things worse.

"You kind of were." Nico admitted. "But honestly, silence would have been just as bad." Percy nodded.

"She wanted you to have this." I brought out the little god figurine Bianca had found in the junkyard. Nico held it in his palm and stared at it. We were standing at the dining pavilion, just where we'd last spoken before I went on the quest. The wind was bitter cold, even with the camp's magical weather protection. Snow fell lightly against the marble steps. I figured outside the camp borders, there must be a blizzard happening. "You promised you would protect her," Nico said.

"He promised he would try." Reyna corrected.

"I know that now." Nico snapped. He just wanted to get through this quickly. He wasn't looking forward to the next book either.

He might as well have stabbed me with a rusty dagger.

"Sorry." Nico muttered.

"You were right." Percy told him quietly.

It would've hurt less than reminding me of my promise. "Nico," I said. "I tried. But Bianca gave herself up to save the rest of us. I told her not to. But she—" "You promised!" He glared at me, his eyes rimmed with red. He closed his small fist around the god statue. "I shouldn't have trusted you." His voice broke. "You lied to me. My nightmares were right!"

"Nightmares?" Hades looked at his son in alarm. Had Kronos been trying to recruit Nico?

"Yeah. Don't worry. Everything is sorted now." Nico told his dad. He did not want to explain now. Hades did not look reassured but by a squeeze from Persephone, he consented to speak to Nico about it later.

"Wait. What nightmares?" He flung the god statue to the ground. It clattered across the icy marble. "I hate you!" "She might be alive," I said desperately. "I don't know for sure—"

False hope is probably the worst thing you could give him right then." Poseidon told his son gently. "You knew Bianca was dead, deep down." Percy nodded. He looked apologetically at Nico who waved this away. He had known anyway.

"She's dead." He closed his eyes. His whole body trembled with rage. "I should've known it earlier. She's in the Fields of Asphodel, standing before the judges right now, being evaluated. I can feel it." "What do you mean, you can feel it?" Before he could answer, I heard a new sound behind me. A hissing, clattering noise I recognized all too well.

"How did they get into Camp?" Reyna asked, eyes wide.

"Don't know." Percy shrugged. All of the Gods looked at each other. They would need to find out if other monsters could do the same thing. Then Percy wondered if they had used the Labyrinth. It would make sense. They could have used his scent to navigate the place.

I drew my sword and Nico gasped. I whirled and found myself facing four skeleton warriors. They grinned fleshless grins and advanced with swords drawn. I wasn't sure how they'd made it inside the camp, but it didn't matter. I'd never get help in time. "You're trying to kill me!" Nico screamed. "You brought these… these things?"

"Why would Percy do that?" Will asked.

"I wasn't thinking right." Nico grumbled. Will squeezed his shoulders supportively.

"No! I mean, yes, they followed me, but no! Nico, run. They can't be destroyed." "I don't trust you!" The first skeleton charged. I knocked aside its blade, but the other three kept coming. I sliced one in half, but immediately it began to knit back together. I knocked another's head off but it just kept fighting. "Run, Nico!" I yelled. "Get help!" "No!" He pressed his hands to his ears.

"Listen to your cousin." Hades muttered.

I couldn't fight four at once, not if they wouldn't die. I slashed, whirled, blocked, jabbed, but they just kept advancing. It was only a matter of seconds before the zombies overpowered me.

Poseidon tightened his grip on Percy.

"No!" Nico shouted louder. "Go away!" The ground rumbled beneath me. The skeletons froze. I rolled out of the way just as a crack opened at the feet of the four warriors. The ground ripped apart like a snapping mouth. Flames erupted from the fissure, and the earth swallowed the skeletons in one loud CRUNCH!

"What the heck?" Dakota asked in awe. Everyone turned to look at Nico with newfound awe and a little bit of wariness. That was a lot of power. Nico himself had put his face in Will's shoulder to avoid all the stares. He wasn't proud of how he had behaved then or the next summer.

"How did you do that?" Will wondered curiously.

"Nico is pretty powerful." Percy grinned proudly.

"That's some serious power." Jason agreed, watching the son of Hades. He certainly didn't look like much, he was way scrawnier than Percy even with being younger, but it seemed he was pretty powerful.

"That is really cool and really terrifying." Leo stated. A few people nodded in agreement with that statement.

The Gods exchanged looks. It was bad enough that Percy was as powerful as he was. They did not need another super powerful child of the Big Three. Nico had shown a lot of control over his powers with almost no training. Many of them were convinced that this was not a good sign while Hades simply fumed. He guessed the direction of his family's thoughts and it annoyed him.

Silence. In the place where the skeletons had stood, a twenty-foot-long scar wove across the marble floor of the pavilion. Otherwise there was no sign of the warriors. Awestruck, I looked to Nico. "How did you—" "Go away!" he yelled. "I hate you! I wish you were dead!"

"Sorry, Percy." Nico stated quickly. "I don't hate you and I'm really, really glad you're not dead."

"Is that because then you'd be the prophecy child?" Percy grinned.

"Yeah." Nico nodded. "But I don't want you dead regardless."

"I know." Percy smiled at him.

"Weren't you tired after using that much power?" Will asked, a little worried.

"Yeah but it didn't hit me 'till later." Nico told him. "I got out of Camp and then crashed somewhere."

The ground didn't swallow me up, but Nico ran down the steps, heading toward the woods.

"How did you get out of the Camp?" Clarisse asked Nico.

"Err...I used the entrance." He muttered. She nodded, grimacing a little.

"How did you know it was there?"

"My dreams." He explained. The Gods all looked very confused by this conversation but nobody enlightened them. They would find out soon enough.

I started to follow but slipped and fell to the icy steps. When I got up, I noticed what I'd slipped on. I picked up the god statue Bianca had retrieved from the junkyard for Nico. The only statue he didn't have, she'd said. A last gift from his sister.

"I still have it, if you want it." Percy told Nico.

"Really?"

"Yeah. I wasn't sure if you'd want it back."

"I think I do." Nico nodded at last. While Bianca had died for the stupid thing, it was her last gift to him. He should keep it.

I stared at it with dread, because now I understood why the face looked familiar. I'd seen it before. It was a statue of Hades, Lord of the Dead.

"So the statue just happened to be of their dad?" Artemis asked slowly.

"Yep. It was the only one I didn't have." Nico shrugged. A few of the Gods frowned.

Annabeth and Grover helped me search the woods for hours, but there was no sign of Nico di Angelo. "We have to tell Chiron," Annabeth said, out of breath. "No," I said. She and Grover both stared at me. "Um," Grover said nervously, "what do you mean… no?"

"Yes...what do you mean, no?" Chiron asked.

"I didn't want it to spread that Nico was a son of Hades." Percy said. "I wasn't sure if you would tell Mr. D who would tell all the other Gods."

I was still trying to figure out why I'd said that, but the words spilled out of me. "We can't let anyone know. I don't think anyone realizes that Nico is a—" "A son of Hades," Annabeth said. "Percy, do you have any idea how serious this is? Even Hades broke the oath! This is horrible!" "I don't think so," I said. "I don't think Hades broke the oath."

Hades nodded, shooting glares at his brothers.

"What?" "He's their dad," I said, "but Bianca and Nico have been out of commission for a long time, since even before World War II." "The Lotus Casino!" Grover said, and he told Annabeth about the conversations we'd had with Bianca on the quest. "She and Nico were stuck there for decades. They were born before the oath was made." I nodded. "But how did they get out?" Annabeth protested. "I don't know," I admitted. "Bianca said a lawyer came and got them and drove them to Westover Hall. I don't know who that could've been, or why. Maybe it's part of this Great Stirring thing. I don't think Nico understands who he is. But we can't go telling anyone. Not even Chiron. If the Olympians find out—" "It might start them fighting among each other again," Annabeth said. "That's the last thing we need."

"There is that too." Percy said.

"You can't hide that sort of thing forever." Reyna told him.

"I was aiming for hiding it for two years." Percy shrugged. "Until I could fulfil the prophecy."

Grover looked worried. "But you can't hide things from the gods. Not forever." "I don't need forever," I said. "Just two years. Until I'm sixteen." Annabeth paled. "But, Percy, this means the prophecy might not be about you. It might be about Nico.

"He's younger than Percy, though." Will pointed out.

"Yeah but if anything happened to Percy then Nico would be next in line." Annabeth reminded him.

We have to—" "No," I said. "I choose the prophecy. It will be about me."

Poseidon sighed. He admired his son for taking the prophecy on but he still wished it could be someone else.

"Why are you saying that?" she cried. "You want to be responsible for the whole world?"

"No. I don't want to." Percy said. "But someone has to be."

It was the last thing I wanted, but I didn't say that. I knew I had to step up and claim it. "I can't let Nico be in any more danger,"

"Thank you." Nico said sincerely.

"You're welcome." Percy smiled at him.

"Yes. Thank you." Hades said to his nephew. While he did want his son to save the world and prove that his children were good, losing Bianca changed his perspective. He didn't want to lose another child to a prophecy. He felt bad for Poseidon, Percy didn't deserve to die either, but he was selfish.

I said. "I owe that much to his sister. I… let them both down. I'm not going to let that poor kid suffer any more."

"You didn't…" Poseidon began.

"I know that now." Percy said. "But I still felt responsible for Nico." Nico looked down in shame. He had been nothing but horrible to Percy and here he was, still trying to keep Nico safe. All he had wanted to do was help. Nico wished he had known this earlier, that they had read the books earlier.

"The poor kid who hates you and wants to see you dead," Grover reminded me. "Maybe we can find him," I said. "We can convince him it's okay, hide him someplace safe." Annabeth shivered. "If Luke gets hold of him—" "Luke won't," I said. "I'll make sure he's got other things to worry about. Namely, me."

"That's a very dangerous strategy." Apollo told Percy, voice rising a little with concern.

"Yeah but he was going to be going after me anyway. If I could keep that attention then maybe Nico would remain undiscovered."

I wasn't sure Chiron believed the story Annabeth and I told him.

"I didn't." Chiron confirmed. He looked at them both sternly. While he did understand their reasoning, he was disappointed that they didn't trust him enough to tell him anyway.

I think he could tell I was holding something back about Nico's disappearance, but in the end, he accepted it. Unfortunately, Nico wasn't the first half-blood to disappear. "So young," Chiron sighed, his hands on the rail of the front porch. "Alas, I hope he was eaten by monsters.

"What?" Hades glared at the Centaur.

"I only meant that that would be a better fate than being recruited by Kronos." Chiron tried to placate the angry God. Chris grimaced. He wondered if they had thought about him like that. Hoping he was dead rather than a traitor. He decided he didn't want to know.

Much better than being recruited into the Titans' army." That idea made me really uneasy. I almost changed my mind about telling Chiron, but I didn't. "You really think the first attack will be here?" I asked. Chiron stared at the snow falling on the hills. I could see smoke from the dragon guardian at the pine tree, the glitter of the distant Fleece. "It will not be until summer, at least," Chiron said. This winter will be hard… the hardest for many centuries. It's best that you go home to the city, Percy, try to keep your mind on school.

"Well that didn't happen." Percy muttered.

And rest. You will need rest." I looked at Annabeth. "What about you?" Her cheeks flushed. "I'm going to try San Francisco after all.

Athena smiled at her daughter. She was pleased that Annabeth was going to give her father another chance.

Maybe I can keep an eye on Mount Tam, make sure the Titans don't try anything else." "You'll send an Iris-message if anything goes wrong?" She nodded. "But I think Chiron's right. It won't be until the summer. Luke will need time to regain his strength." I didn't like the idea of waiting. Then again, next August I would be turning fifteen. So close to sixteen I didn't want to think about it. "All right," I said. "Just take care of yourself. And no crazy stunts in the Sopwith Camel."

A few people laughed.

"I don't think Annabeth is the one we need to worry about." Connor chuckled.

"Yeah, stopping her dad is another story though." Will grinned. Annabeth pulled a face. She didn't want to think about the amount of times she and Ella had had to talk her dad out of his more crazy ideas.

She smiled tentatively. "Deal. And, Percy—" Whatever she was going to say was interrupted by Grover, who stumbled out of the Big House, tripping over tin cans. His face was haggard and pale, like he'd seen a specter.

"Sorry guys." Grover grimaced.

"That's cool. Your news was pretty important." Percy assured his friend. Grover nodded.

"He spoke.'" Grover cried. "Calm down, my young satyr," Chiron said, frowning. "What is the matter?" "I… I was playing music in the parlor," he stammered, "and drinking coffee. Lots and lots of coffee! And he spoke in my mind!" "Who?" Annabeth demanded. "Pan!" Grover wailed. "The Lord of the Wild himself.

"He actually spoke to you?" Hermes asked eagerly.

"Yes." Grover nodded. Hermes noticed the Satyr didn't seem very excited about it which made Hermes uneasy. However he just assumed that they hadn't managed to find his son yet. Pan was obviously very well hidden to have not been found after all this time.

Grover did not want to be the one who told Hermes that Pan had faded but he knew he would find out sooner or later.

I heard him! I have to… I have to find a suitcase." "Whoa, whoa, whoa," I said. "What did he say?" Grover stared at me. "Just three words. He said, 'I await you...'"

Hermes nodded to himself. Grover was obviously Pan's chosen Satyr. The one who would finally find him after all this time.

"The chapter is done." Hestia said. "And so is this book."

"Let us take a five-minute break before starting the next one." Chiron suggested. Everyone nodded their agreement and went to stretch their legs.

A/N: Hey guys. This is the end of book 3 and book 4 might be on hiatus for a while because I want to write more chapters for my PJO and Avengers crossover story. I have finished the second chapter of the story but I'm still checking for mistakes. So book 4 will be on hiatus for a while. I hope you all enjoy this chapter and book! Original story belong to Lorixjake on AO3 and all credits go to Lorixjake.