Chapter 3 Triton Tries To Kill Me (Not Really)

Poseidon idly tapped his fingers on the edge of the throne, "For the last time, tell Callisto he can't plant his kelp in the forge! Tell him to go somewhere outside the city boundaries." He sighed. Being a ruler was starting to get on his nerves. Stupid Callisto was never going to give him a break.

"Yes, Your Majesty," The merman asking about Callisto, Jel was his name, Poseidon believed, swam out of the room with a nod.

Amphitrite sat on the throne by Poseidon's side and reached her arm out and grabbed his, "He's just trying to help."

"I know," Poseidon said, "People are just annoying."

As Jel left, a certain green-skinned merman burst through the doors, "Father!"

Poseidon sat up, "Triton? What brings you here?" He leaned forward, as did his wife, curious of what he was about to say. Triton didn't often show up without important news.

"I just got word from the surface," He said, "And father, you won't believe it," Triton clasped his hands together, "So, you know Zeus's son, Apollo, yes?"

"How could I not know that dimwit," Poseidon muttered, then waved his hand, "But continue."

Triton raised an eyebrow at that but went on, "Well, we have word that he lost a rather important artifact in the Bermuda Triangle. We believe it to be somewhere near the heart, on the island of Wadelisle."

"And this being…?"

"His magical lyre." Triton said.

Poseidon stroked his beard and smiled. With an object like that he could finally overtake Zeus, "We must retrieve it at once."

"But how?" Amphirite asked.

She had a point. Poseidon sighed. If it was on an island, then they'd have to send someone who could walk on land. That excluded nearly everyone who wasn't a god. But then if they sent a god, even a minor one like Triton, it would raise too much attention and get the entire wrath of Olympus sent on them.

Poseidon paused. Then grinned, "I think I have an idea."

Amphitrite knew immediately what he was thinking and inhaled sharply, "You think he's ready for a mission that important?"

"Relax. He's my son, after all," Poseidon said.

"That's what I'm worried about," Amphitrite muttered.

"And besides, he's been dying to get out of the kingdom. You know he doesn't exactly fit in here."

"I'm aware. I'm just worried that something this major isn't exactly the best thing for him."

Poseidon leaned toward Amphitrite, taking her hands in his and looking her in the eyes, "Amphitrite, I know he's capable. I can't explain it, but he's meant for great things. He's one of the most powerful demigods to have ever existed. If anyone can accomplish this, it will be him. He will be held as a hero for his deeds. Certainly it will change how the others view him."

Amphitrite said nothing.

"Trust me," Poseidon said desperately.

Eventually Amphitrite sighed, "Alright. You always did value him above your other kids."

Triton cleared his throat at that. Poseidon had nearly forgotten he was still there.

"Triton?" Poseidon turned away from his wife and swam towards Triton.

Triton looked up at him, the jealousy on his face far from subtle, "Yes father?"

"Go find Percy. I need to talk with him."

Triton looked down, but after a minute responded with a half-hearted, "Yes, father," and promptly left the throne room.

ooooooooo

Triton despised Percy.

For centuries, he had been Poseidon's favorite child. Then stupid Percy-Halfblood-Jackson just had to go and show up. How had Poseidon even fallen in love with a mortal of all things? She must have been some woman because honestly…

Triton really didn't want to go get Percy for his father. If it were up to him, he would've let that little piece of pond scum stay on the surface, left out to Zeus's wrath. He didn't belong down here anyway. He talked about he surface all the time- how he missed it, how he wished he could go between worlds, stuff like that.

Triton had tried to explain him that that wasn't how it worked, but the stupid demigod had hoped anyway.

Granted, he'd only been twelve at the time. By human standards he had barely left grade school at that point. But even now, Poseidon treated him like the golden goose. It was different than when he'd been a kid, but he always got the best weapons and other things as gifts. Poseidon actually seemed to talk to him like a father to a son, unlike Triton and the others who he treated as if they'd just randomly spawned into existence.

Unfortunately, he couldn't disobey his father. Last time he had…well…

Let's just say he'll never actually try to get rid of Percy again. In Triton's defense, Percy should have known that stonefish were poisonous. But whatever.

He continued on toward the sparring grounds, grumbling the entire way.

oooooooooooo

Percy had always been an outcast.

He'd never exactly fit in. Even when he'd lived on land he'd been different. His ADHD and dyslexia made it hard for him to learn and concentrate in school. His dad had never been around. His mom…he absolutely loved her and everything she did, but she had barely made enough money to scrape by. Smelly Gabe hadn't helped either.

Of course, there was also the whole thing with the ocean. As far back as Percy could remember, he'd been drawn to water, especially the sea. The salty breeze and the waves crashing on the beach were one of the best feelings he could imagine. Anything to do with the ocean, the beach, or anything related to the sea, really, he was mesmerized by. He could distinctly remember watching way too many reruns of H2O as a kid and pretending to freak out everytime he got splashed with water. But his mom had always been…strange with it all. She'd never let him go the beach with anyone (that hadn't been a big deal, he never really had many friends anyway) or even be on the swim team at any of his schools. Anything that would involve him being completely submerged in water he was warned to avoid. That part was what weirded him out. Why was she so against it? She'd always used the excuse that pools and large bodies of water were unsanitary or something, but Percy had never bought it.

Looking back, he knew she was just trying to protect him. He swung his trident towards the sparring dummy again, whacking it upside the head. Practicing his moves always helped him think. He paused for a moment and glanced down toward his blue tail. That was the real reason his mom had been so protective of him on land.

Because, it turned out, he was secretly half fish. Well, half-siren, actually, but he supposed the details didn't really matter.

It had happened the summer before sixth grade. His mom had finally taken him out to Montauk to an old cabin on the shoreline. She'd still made him promise to not go in the water, and he did, but then there had been a weird thing shimmering below the surface and he'd went in to pick it up and the urge to jump in all the way had been too strong but then once he'd gone completely under-

Yeah. He'd screamed pretty loud the first time his legs disappeared.

He tried to hide it from his mom, but she came looking for him and had found him a ways out from the beach. She realized what had happened and finally explained everything to him: how his dad was actually Poseidon, god of the sea; his connection with water; how Poseidon was at war with all the other gods of Olympus and that was why she'd been so scared for anyone to know what he truly was; stuff like that. And, of course, that he would turn into a merman everytime he went underwater.

You know, just your typical middle school conversations.

He stabbed at the dummy again. Of course, that had been the easy part. After his mom had explained all that , it hadn't taken too long before Triton had shown up and said that Percy needed to leave the surface for good. He'd said that now that Percy knew who he was, the Olympians knew too, and they weren't too happy with a "spawn of the sea god", as he put it, walking around on land.

That night he'd said goodbye to his mom, and hadn't been above the water since. Eight years ago.

He'd gotten used to living in Atlantis, eventually. There'd been a few culture shocks initially, and adjusting to always being underwater was odd, but it felt natural. For the first while just the idea of being a literal merman had been enough to keep him entertained. It felt like something out of a TV show come to life.

But gods, he missed his mom. They both knew this was for the greater good, but it hurt. He missed her smile coming home from work at the candy store. He missed blue cookies. The only thing he didn't miss was Gabe. And of course, since Gabe was only in the picture to hide Percy's "demigod smell", Mom had long since gotten rid of him. Sure, he was allowed to Iris-message her from time to time, but it just wasn't the same.

Life on land hadn't been fantastic, but it had its advantages. He missed the warm sun on his face, the cool breeze running through his hair, the feel of grass on his toes, actually having toes, for that matter-

And it didn't help that he didn't really fit in in Atlantis. Sure, he looked like most of the other sirens around. But everyone knew that he was only half. His other half belonged above the surface, and that meant he was different. Being different was bad. The fact that he was completely tone-deaf didn't do him any favors either. Honestly, who had heard of a siren who couldn't sing?

"Whatcha doing, Percy?" A shrill, annoying voice called behind him.

Percy sighed, not this again.

"Minding my own business," he said, as he continued fighting with the dummy, ignoring the ginger mermaid who had just swam up near him, "Unlike someone I know."

Coral gasped, "Can I not say hello?"

Percy grit his teeth and turned around, "Coral, I wouldn't care except for the fact that the last four times you've done this, you've asked me out. The answer is no, and that's final."

Coral looked upset, but Percy really didn't care and returned to his sparring practice. He assumed she left shortly after that. He had nothing against Coral, but he knew she, like the rest of the mermaids, only did that because he was hot, or so they would say. He knew the gossip people spread about him in private. None of them actually wanted a relationship with someone who was partially human. Most of those girls merely wanted to, as people on land would call it, Netflix and Chill for a night, then leave. Percy barely knew how that sort of thing worked on land when he'd left, and unfortunately he'd had to relearn how it all worked with siren autonomy. Horny mermaids were the last thing he needed right now.

The dummy flipped over as Percy slashed at it again, this time a little too hard. On top of the gossip and everyone falling head over fins for him, Poseidon held Percy higher than most of his other kids. Maybe it was because Sally Jackson had been one of the few women, and only human, in recent centuries at least, he'd ever actually loved, and as such, Poseidon felt Percy was special. As the only demigod kid of the sea god, maybe that was why he was put on a pedestal. That on its own wasn't bad. After all, Percy had learned that most of the gods didn't really care about their halfblood kids. His dad, on the other hand, truly loved Percy. As someone who had only grown up with an abusive stepdad and absent father, that had been a nice change of events.

Until he realized that all his siblings were jealous of him. Most loathed him because Poseidon didn't really care about them, only Percy. Tyson was probably the only one who didn't hate him, but…

As much as he liked Tyson, the big guy didn't really do him any favors in gaining popularity.

Percy heard someone new swimming up behind him and turned around, trident lowering to his side.

Speaking of jealousy, He thought as Triton came up to him.

Of all of his siblings throughout Atlantis, and there were alot- how his dad had managed to have so many kids over the years he didn't even want to know- Triton was probably the worst. He wanted the spotlight of his father's affection, the way it had been before Percy had existed, and now that Percy had taken the spot, Triton was less than thrilled about his half-brother.

"Triton!" Percy said, "What are you doing here?"

Triton glared at him. Percy frowned. He was pretty sure he hadn't done anything wrong, not recently anyway. Why would he be mad?

"Dad wants you," He spat, "Throne room. Immediately."

"You look like you swam into a swarm of sea urchins." Percy asked, "I swear whatever happened wasn't my fault. Not this time, anyway."

Triton rolled his eyes, "Just go."

"Oh-kay! Geez, man I'm just trying to lighten the mood." Percy set the trident down with the other practice weapons and swam off toward the palace, Triton giving him a death stare until he disappeared out of sight.

Percy swam hesitantly to the throne room of the palace. It wasn't that he was scared, per se, but for his dad to call him in the middle of the day unexpectedly like this was far from normal. He wondered what this was about.

He entered the throne room to a joyful dad and uninterested stepmother. Poseidon smiled as he entered, "Percy, my boy! How lovely to see you."

Percy nodded to him, "Thanks, dad," He nodded to Amphitrite, "Amphitrite, apathetic as always."

She said nothing for a moment, then got up from her throne, "I should be leaving. I have important matters to attend to, none of which concern this."

"Leaving so soon?" Poseidon asked, voice tinged with disappointment, "Ah well. Good luck with your duties."

They kissed briefly, then Amphirite swam out of the room. Percy treaded water in front of Poseidon awkwardly, waiting for his dad to finish.

"Well," Poseidon clasped his hands together and sat back down, "I suppose I should tell you why you're here,"

"That would certainly be helpful," Percy said, "I was doing some sparring practice and Triton interrupted me, so this better be important. By the way, can you make sure Triton doesn't murder me in my sleep? He sure looked like he wanted to earlier."

Poseidon dismissed it with a wave of his hand, "Yes, yes, I'm sure that can be arranged. However, we have much more…important matters to discuss."

"Like…?"

"Apollo has lost a rather powerful magical lyre somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle. We think it to be on Wadelisle." Poseidon announced.

"And you want me to…?"

"We are giving you the task of retrieving it." Poseidon said, "We need someone capable of going on land, but also someone unknown. None of us gods would be able to set a foot on land, even if it is in The Bermuda Triangle, without alerting Zeus and the other Olympians."

Percy shrugged, "Fair point. But why do you want it so badly?"

Poseidon grinned, "Because with this lyre I will finally be able to overpower my brother, and Atlantis will go down in history as the greatest empire of all time."

Percy didn't know how to feel about that, "And what would happen to the surface?"

Poseidon dismissed the question with a wave of his hand, "Oh, it will probably be flooded. The coastal regions, at least. The rest of it, god and mortal, will bow to the ocean."

Percy raised an eyebrow, "And my mom?"

"Hmm?" Poseidon paused, "Oh, yes. Don't worry. She'll be perfectly safe. I can bring her to Atlantis where she'll be happy for the rest of her life."

Then why didn't you do that before? Percy thought, Why did you separate us in the first place? But he held his tongue. As chill as Poseidon was, he was also a semi omnipotent being. Percy really didn't feel like being turned into a clownfish again. He shuddered as he remembered the last time he'd pushed his father too far. Maybe taking on the persona of "Persassy" wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

"So…" Percy began, "What do I have to do?"

"We need you to lay low," Poseidon said, "You will go to Equira, it's not too far from here, and find Pietro, demigod son of Petro, the god of missing objects."

"That sounds made up," Percy muttered, "And what's he got to do with it?"

Poseidon's eyes glazed over, "From what I can see, there's a group of demigods sailing toward it. My guess is they were sent by Apollo to retrieve the lyre. Pietro is a master treasure hunter, and I would reckon they're going to Equira to ask for his help."

Percy folded his arms, "So what do you want me to do?"

Poseidon eyes darkened, "Dispose of him. Take his place. Take the other demigods to Wadelisle. When you get there, retrieve the lyre and report back to me."

Percy blinked, unsure of what to say. On one hand, his brain pumped with enthusiasm. He got to go back to the surface, and on a quest, no less. But…

It was dangerous. He would have to kill a man to do it. Not to mention betraying a crew of demigods.

"Percy," Poseidon said encouragingly, "You will be made a hero for this. Mark my word when I say you will never be an outcast again. Of course, you can stay here, live life as you have been." Poseidon got up, "Or, you can achieve greatness."

Percy looked down. He didn't care too much about fame or fortune, but to not be an outcast? To not be looked at with disgust?

"Remember where your true loyalties lie, my boy," Poseidon said.

He had a point. Percy knew in that moment his lines of morality were blurring, but he didn't care. His father, his king, wanted him to do something. That was all that mattered right now.

He nodded, "I'll do it, dad."

Posiedon clapped his hands together, "Excellent! We'll have the Hippocampi take you as far as Wadelisle, but from there you'll be on your own," He moved toward Percy, putting a hand on his shoulder, "You'll have to be careful. Both around water and with your powers in general. Use them too much and you'll draw Zeus's attention."

"Not exactly something you want," Percy said.

Poseidon laughed, "No." Then he continued in a more serious tone, "Good luck, my son."

Percy nodded, "I won't let you down."

"I know you won't."