Summary:
Ok, this takes place after Heroes of Olympus, and after Chalice of the Gods, but before the Trials of Apollo on the Pjo side, On the DC side, this is before Gotham War. Still, after Robin Vol 3, Shadow War, and Lazarus Planet. Damian and Connor met at the Lazarus Tournament, I also will not have Jon aged up to 18, he will be 13 here, so not 11 and not 18, I just wanted him to be closer to Damian's age. Also, Leo is back, I don't care, I just wanted him here I will make up an excuse. Also, Clarisse is here too, and not at college. It is late October after the Blood of Olympus.
Hope you enjoy it!
Ages:
PJO:
Clarisse La Rue: 18
Chris Rodriguez: 18
Percy Jackson: 17
Travis Stoll: 17
Connor Stoll: 16
Reyna Avila Ramirez Arellano: 16
Frank Zhang: 16
Jason Grace: 16
Piper McLean: 16
Leo Valdez: 16
Thalia Grace: 15 (and 364 days)
Will Solace: 15
Nico di Angelo: 14
Hazel Levesque: 13
Harley: 8
Summary:
Hera appears at camp, telling the demigods that the Big Three are missing, and Thalia, Percy, and Nico are selected to go on the quest to find them.
October 24
Percy
The day was going great until everyone's least favorite goddess appeared and sent us on a deadly quest. Well, maybe not everyone's least favorite, but she is definitely up there. But we should start from the beginning.
Technically, Percy still had school, but there was some crazy fight or something that happened in the cafeteria (that has nothing to do with him), and the school needs to fix the damage (again, not his fault). So he has a week or two off from Alternative High School. It will suck later when he has to make up all of the work, but he was trying to enjoy the peace while it lasted. Annabeth still had school at SODNYC, the design school she was attending this year, but since Percy did not have anything better to do, he spent his time between helping his Mom and Paul prepare for the baby, and training at Camp Half-Blood.
The timing seemed so perfect, because some of the Hunters of Artemis were coming to Camp today and staying at camp for a few days, that included Thalia, so the Big Three kids could all hang out since Nico was now staying at the camp. So they were all there, well, except for Jason and Hazel, since they were at Camp Jupiter.
Hazel still lives at Camp Jupiter, she is still a centurion, but she tries to visit sometimes, same with Frank, The Seven had not really hung out since the end of the war.
Jason and Piper were visiting to set up the shrines for Phobos and Deimos, who were technically Piper's half-brothers. Confusing, right? Then again, Heracles (Hercules, whatever) was also kind of Percy's cousin if you thought about it. But Heracles was a jerk.
Anyways, Percy was helping to fix the Amphitheater, since some kids *cough* Hermes Cabin *cough* decided to pull a prank there that ended with a large explosion.
There was still school since it was only October, so there were not that many kids at camp, so just Percy, Nico (who did not have school, since he was from the 1940's and could not attend since he was technical like 80 years old and supposedly dead), Will (who normally stayed all year and wanted to be with Nico), Leo (Who just came back from the dead, and was spending his time either here or with Calypso), a few children of Hermes, Hephestus, Apollo, Aphrodite, and Ares who decided to stay at camp year 'round, and Chiron. Also, Mr. D was back. Yay.
The rest of the kids were either at NRU, the college at Camp Jupiter for demigods, or at high school, or middle school for the few kids who were still pre-teens.
As they were working, Percy glanced at Nico and Will, Nico's black hair, pale skin, and dark eyes in contrast to Will's bright blond hair, olive skin, and blue eyes, they seemed to be getting close. They were hanging out more often, and talking (which was a surprise, considering that it was Nico), and Percy would not soon forget about Nico coming out, (How could he? He nearly had a heart attack, how was he not Nico's type?) but he was happy for Nico. For both of them, especially after all they have been through.
Then he looked at Leo, who he wanted to punch again after his whole "blowing up and not telling anyone that he had a plan to come back to life" thing. His curly black hair was a mess, his brown eyes seemed unfocused, like he was not paying attention, he probably wasn't. He was sitting on an old log, working on some sort of small gadget in his hands, or he might have just been fidgeting. He was probably fidgeting.
Percy was going to say something to Leo, probably to get him to help them out, when a voice said "Are you just going to sit there, Vadez?" Oh, yeah, Clarisse was here too.
Clarisse was moving a long bench into the Ampetherter, it was perched on her shoulder as she carried it, with her short pale brown hair and her dark eyes fixed on the son of Hephestus, while she was carrying some big and heavy that could be used as a weapon, she really did look like the daughter of war.
Their relationship had improved since Clarisse had tried to give Percy a swirly and he had embarrassed her by spraying her with the toilet water (Which was very ironic, if you asked him), but their friendship was still rocky at best, which was kind of a big achievement considering the fact that she was a child of Ares.
"Ok, ok," Leo relented, he was still clearly scared of the daughter of war, she had that effect on people. "I'll help." He stuffed the gadget in his magical toolbelt, sat up, and started kicking some sticks and small rocks away from the clearing.
Clarisse huffed, but it was better than nothing. Besides, it was not like there was much to do, they were almost done and the Hunters were like, 5 minutes away.
As if the universe read his thoughts, the conch shell blew, signaling the arrival of the Hunters. "Speak or the devil," Percy muttered, "or think of the devil."
Will shouted, "Race you there!" Before Percy could intervene (or do the exact same thing), and sprinted off, leaving everyone else in the dust, who knew an Apollo kid could run that fast? Clarisse was right after him, not missing a second, and yelled curses at Will that would make Hazel faint. Then, before Nico and Leo could get a head start, Percy ran after the others.
"Hey!" Leo shouted behind him, "Not fair!" Percy just laughed, It was good to be home.
Look, he was fast, but he was also the son of the sea god, he was not necessarily the best at running, so it was not very surprising he only ended up in third, Clarisse ended up in first, passing Will, leaving him in second, no surprise there. At least he was better than Nico, who tripped on a rock and nearly fell flat on his face (couldn't he control the ground or something?), and Leo, who was basically jogging his way past the strawberry fields, not putting in any effort despite his earlier complaint. They all eventually got to the top of Half-Blood Hill, some significantly faster than others, and got there just in time to see the Hunters enter camp.
If you were mortal, then it might look like the girls were on a hike, but that was only because they could not see the armor and weapons. Unless the mortal was clear-sighted, then they would probably freak out since they would see a dozen girls in full armor with bows and arrows.
Chiron was there, and the Stoll brothers were already at the top of Half-Blood Hill, as well as a few other Hermes kids. Which was not good, they probably had a prank ready, and just wanted to watch. Luckily, Thalia realized this. She was smart like that.
"Wait," She ordered the Hunters. "What did you guys do?" She pointedly asked the Stolls, and they groaned, knowing they could not fool her. Guess they still had a few brain cells left in their heads.
"You aren't any fun," Connor complained, before grabbing at what seemed to be thin air, but was actually an invisible barrier, and moving it out of the way. The Hermes Cabin must have gotten a Hephestus kid to make it. It might have been funny to watch the Hunters run into it, keyword might.
Thalia just sighed. Guess she was used to this stuff by now, Percy sure was. The Hermes Cabin was like that one goofy friend who always celebrated April Fools, except with them it was like every day was April Fools, especially on April 1st. You'd think they'd get tired of it, but they always found new and unique ways to prank people. Or just used old and imaginative ways to annoy people.
It was a relief that the Hunters entered camp without any more pranks, guess the Stolls were glad to see Thalia and the other Hunters. Thalia's dark choppy hair had not changed since they last saw each other, her bright blue eyes looked the same as her brothers. Jason's. God's Percy missed his bro.
"Percy!" Thalia called once she reached the top of the hill, clearly excited. She ran up and hugged him. She was significantly shorter than him, being only 5'7, compared to his 6'0, he was 5 inches taller than her, and he would never let her forget that.
"Good to see you, Thals." Percy said.
"It's good to see you too," she repeated. "Where's Annabeth?"
"She's still at school," Percy answered, "She said she could stop by tomorrow afternoon. After that, her school has a field trip to some monument or something."
Thalia let go of the hug and turned to Nico, her next victim. "Hey, Neeks," she said in a cheery voice.
"Don't call me that," Nico murmured, clearly not meaning it. Thalia extended her arm to ruffle Nico's hair, when he did not pull away, she continued to mess it up.
"It's good to see you both," Thalia stated.
It did not take long for the others to gather, there were only about a dozen kids at camp, which was now doubled because of the Hunters' presence, most of the girls looked young, but Percy was sure some of them were older than this country.
"You." Thalia said to Leo, "do you have any idea how much Jason had been searching for you? We thought you were dead!"
Leo just shrugged, "had to happen," he said it so innocently it was almost suspicious. Ok, it was totally suspicious. Before Thalia could attack him, Will intervened. Leo was lucky that he was still considered Jason's friend or Thalia probably would have put up more of a fight.
"Let's get everyone set up before we start any fights." Will said, clearly amused by their antics, but not willing to let them fight and probably destroy camp.
Once they got the Hunters situated in the Artemis Cabin, the Big Three kids all met in the Hades Cabin. Yeah, the Hades Cabin is a weird choice, but there was no way they were going to the Zeus Cabin, no way anyone could have a meaningful conversation there, or just any conversation in general. Not with the Hippy Zeus status in the middle of the Cabin. The Poseidon Cabin was where Percy lived when he was at camp, it was a second home. Nico spent most of his time in the Apollo Cabin or doing camp activities, he only slept in the Hades Cabin, plus the place had no style. Coffin beds? Who even thought of that?
The Big Three kids rarely got to hang out when they were not saving the world, the closest they got was for the brief time on the Argo II with Nico, Hazel, Jason, and Percy, right before Nico, Reyna, and Coach Hedge left with the Athena Parthenos, after he and Annabeth came back, but Thalia was not there, she was with the Hunters, apparently on the island of San Juan with the Amazons. Plus they did not really get to hang out, fate of the world on their shoulders and all that.
It had been awhile, and they all wanted to hang out, get to know each other better, Thalia and Hazel had not even met yet, and Percy wanted that to change, but they could never find the right time for all of them to meet up. Luckily, this worked out, so he could talk to Nico and Thalia, at the very least.
It was awkward for a few minutes as they sat in the silence of the Hades Cabin, no one knowing how to start the conversation, before Thalia said "So…our dad's all suck." Perfect conversation starter.
Percy snorted, and Nico had the faintest trace of a smile on his lips. "Tell me about it," Percy said, "I have to get three recommendation letters from the gods to attend at New Rome University, and Poseidon won't write one because he said 'it would be biased' but like, how am I supposed to get two more recommendation letters when most of the gods hate me?"
"Don't get me started," Thalia said, rolling her eyes, "Zeus has not even talked to me in forever."
"Umm…my dad…" Nico started, "Uh, Persephone turned me into a dandelion?"
"We know," Thalia said, "we were there."
"And Persephone is not your dad," Percy pointed out, "she is your stepmom though. Does that count?"
Thalia shrugged, "I guess."
"And you got turned into corn once, right?" Percy asked, "Frank told me about that once."
"He-wait what?" Was Nico's response.
They all laughed.
"Oh!" Nico exclaimed, "my dad said he wished I had died instead of Bianca."
Silence.
"Ok, let's agree, Nico wins." Percy said.
"Yeah." Thalia agreed.
They talked for a while, about their lives, about their parents. Nico talked the least, but he still talked, which was a win for everyone.
A few hours later, the conch shell blew, and everyone met in the center of the Cabins, where Chiron was standing with some of the Hunters of Artemis.
"It is time for a game of Capture The Flag!" Chiron announced once everyone gathered in the clearing, "in order to honor the tradition, we will have a game of Hunters versus Campers!"
Most people cheered, some mumbled and complained under their breath, the last fifty-six times they had done this, the Hunters won. Hopefully it would be different this time, he and Annabeth had a plan, and even though she was not here, she had made Percy memorize it. The plan was simple, but brilliant, and even though Annabeth was not here, the plan should still work.
Percy was a firm believer that if Annabeth had been there when they faced off against the Hunters a few years ago, and had not been kidnapped, they would have won. She was the smartest and most powerful demigod ever, and anyone who disagrees is stupid, and Annabeth will destroy them.
We all got ready for the game, armor, helmets, weapons, the normal stuff. Then we began to plan. We all headed to the Athena Cabin, no one was there, but it was basically tradition for Percy and Annabeth to meet up here to make plans, and we needed a place where the Hunters could not spy on us.
They all made their way to the planning table, it had a map of the forest they could use to plan and prepare for the game. "I have a plan." That was probably a good way to start, but from the glances the other campers were giving each other, they probably did not trust Percy's plan making skills. "It's Annabeth's plan." They seemed more eager at that. Clarisse nodded.
Percy handed the flag to Stoll's. "Hide that anywhere on the left side of the creek from this point," he pointed to a spot on the map of the woods. "Just make sure it's somewhat out of sight. We need to make a line here," he pointed to to a place on the map, a horizontal line perpendicular to the creek (huh, guess geometry was good for something) then he looked at Clarisse, "you and Chris need to get their flag, go the long way around," he made a line with a marker that went across the left side of the map, the opposite of the line they were guarding.
"What will you be doing?" Nico asked.
"I'm the distraction." Percy said, "I can use the water from the creek, attack them. That will thin their forces, the others will assume that the flag is on the right side, and go that way." Again, it was simple, but without Annabeth, it was the best plan they had.
"This might work," Chris said.
"This has to work," Clarisse seemed to think that if she said it like that, it would happen, "we can't let them win this for the 60th time."
"57th." Nico corrected.
"Let's get to work. Travis, Connor, go hide that flag, maybe rig up some traps around it, nothing too obvious." The Stolls seemed to take this as a challenge, they nodded and ran off, "everyone else, get to your posts, we have some work to do."
When the game started, it was pandemonium. As predicted, the Hunters came to the creek, Percy attacked, the Hunters split up, two teams, 6 and 5, Thalia was not with them, so she was either guarding the flag, or she was hiding somewhere, looking for our flag.
Percy used the water to keep the Hunters at bay, the water took a more tentacle form, swatting away arrows and tripping the Hunters. The other 5 hunters were attacking the other Campers, no one was losing or gaining ground, they just had to keep this up long enough for Chris and Clarisse to find the flag. No problem.
The fight continued for a while, as the demigods skirmished with the Hunters, Percy fought them with water, at one point Connor ran out of the forest and joined the fight, but Travis was nowhere is sight. It was probably about 10 minutes before Chris came running in with the speed of Hermes shouting "OUT OF THE WAY!" It was the perfect stealth technique. Chris made it to our side of the forest with no problem. We won.
Some Hunters made it out of the forest, they must have gotten away from the fighting, but they went to the right side of the forest, where there were 0 flags.
Chiron walked into the middle of the forest, probably to stop any more fights that might start, and announced "Camp Half-Blood wins!" With that, all the demigods smiled, Thalia and Clarisse came out of the forest, they were a little worse for wear, but not too injured.
They continued to celebrate and rub it in the Hunters' faces, but everyone soon calmed down, Will and all the injured went to the infirmary.
Eventually, it was time for dinner, and they heard Chiron blow the conch shell, and the remaining campers made their way to the Mess Hall.
It was quiet during dinner, Percy had to sit alone at the Poseidon table, Thalia sat with the Hunters, Nico got to use his new doctor's note to sit at the Apollo table with Will, and everyone else sat with their cabins. Despite the increase in residence, the camp was now quiet, a few people talked, but it was mostly in hushed whispers.
Percy had a plate of his moms blue tortilla chips with cheese that was dyed blue (It was magic, don't ask questions) and a Blue Cherry Coke. It was delicious, thanks for asking.
Percy made eye contact with Leo at the Hephestus table, he sat next to Harley, who was picking at his food, nervous. Leo was tapping his finger on the table, at first Percy just thought Leo just needed to move his hands, he was a child of Hephestus, after all, but after a few seconds he realized there was a pattern, he was tapping Morse Code.
Annabeth knew Morse Code, and she taught it to Percy, that was the only reason he knew what Leo was saying, or rather, tapping.
"S-O-M-E-T-H-I-N-G - I-S - W-R-O-N-G"
He was tapping it on repeat, and looking at the other campers, perhaps hoping to get more people to notice, but everyone was looking away, he realized too late that they were looking at the fire, the fire that was burning bright white.
The campfire changed colors based on the camp's mood, everyone knew that, but this was different. This was like something had taken over the fire. Before Chiron could say anything, before anyone could do anything, the fire blew up, and out came the goddess of ruining Percy's life.
Hera looked the same. Long black hair, white dress, peacock feather cape. How she was able to appear through the fire, Percy had no idea. The hearth was Hestia's domain, Hephestus was the God of fire, even Ares had some control over it, but not Hera. Hera had no control over it. But here she was, probably here to send him on a stupid quest.
"Perseus Jackson," Hera said, called it, she was here for him. "Nico di Angelo, Thalia Grace." Oh, no she did not. Mess with Percy? Fine, he can handle it. But mess with his friends, his family? That was a mistake.
"What do you want?" Percy hissed. He was tired of this, of the Gods. Hera had taken away months of his life, she had no right to be here, to ask anything of him. He was done doing Hera's bidding. He was tired of the Gods ruining his life. And worst of all she was bringing Thalia and Nico into it.
Then, Hera said "Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades are missing."
What?
How could the Big Three just disappear? They were the most powerful of the Gods, they could not just go missing without-
"Wait," Percy said, "You mean someone has them?" He could think of no other way, the only way to trap a God was to capture their essence, and find some way to keep it from getting out. Sure, Gaea did it with Hera last year, but that was just one Goddess. Who could capture three? Let alone the Big Three, the most powerful Gods on Olympus?
Hera nodded. "They went missing earlier this morning."
"Then why are we only hearing this now?" Chiron asked, which was a good question. If one of the Big Three went missing, they should have heard about it by now, but with all three of them missing, how had they not have heard about this yet?
"Communications have gone down." Hera said "Iris Messaging no longer works, and not one of the messengers we sent have come back."
This was bad. How would he contact Annabeth tonight if he could not IM? What if she needed help and she could not contact anyone? He pushed his worry down and stood up, walking closer to the fire. He had to trust that Annabeth could defend herself, he knew that, but it was hard to believe that when he had no way of knowing if she was in trouble.
"Then why didn't you come and tell us yourselves earlier?" Percy asked.
"We could not enter camp." Hera stated simply. "The only connection we have found so far is the hearth, so I asked Hestia if we could use it."
"And she let you?" Thalia asked, Hera ignored her.
"Why did you come?" Leo asked, "Couldn't someone else come? Like Hermes? Hermes would have made sense. Or Hestia, this is her domain."
Hera ignored him too. "We need a quest."
"Of course we do," Nico mumbled, his head was in his hands, no one else seemed to hear him, or if they did, they ignored it..
"You must contact the Oracle," Hera said, honestly, they were all experts at this by now. She was explaining it to them like we were toddlers. Like, yeah, she was like, 4,000 years old and they were all much younger than her, but technically the youngest one here is Nico and he is from the 1940's.
"Once you receive a prophecy," she continued, "send a messenger to Olympus."
Chiron sighed, "We will send word to Rachel." After that Hera disappeared, engulfed by the white hot flames. Yay!
Nico cursed, which he rarely did since he was from a more civilized time. He got up from the table and stormed off, Will chasing after him.
"Percy, Thalia, meet me at the Big House," Chiron said, "In fact, call a counselors meeting, and would someone get Nico and Will? If what Hera said is true, we will need them."
Chris went after Will and Nico, the rest of us went to the Big house. Percy for the Poseidon Cabin, Thalia for the Zeus Cabin and as lieutenant of the Hunters of Artemis, Drew for the Aphrodite Cabin (She was the temporary counselor while Piper was at Camp Jupiter) Leo for the Hephaestus Cabin, Clarisse for the Ares Cabin, Connor and Travis for the Hermes Cabin, and all the other cabins were empty. They all went to the Big House, hopefully Chris could convince Nico and Will to come.
They all made it, everyone was quiet, sending silent glances towards Percy and Thalia. Then, like a switch had been flipped, the Stolls collapsed on a beanbag, Clarisse and Drew both sat on the edge of the pool table, Leo beelined towards the pinball machine, leaving Percy and Thalia standing in the middle of the room, a few seconds later, Chiron appeared.
Once they were all settled in the camp counselors meeting room, and Nico and Will came back with Chris, Nico looked like the wet grumpy cat he was. Thalia started the meeting "First, we will need someone to get Rachel."
Chris, who was still in the room, said "I can do it."
Clarisse immediately started to protest "No." She stated simply.
"I can do it," Chris said again.
"Then I'm going with you." Clarisse said, "you are not leaving this camp alone."
"Fine." Chris ended the argument quickly, seeing that he could not win the fight, a wise decision.
"Clarisse," Chiron said, "If Zeus, Poseidon and Hades are gone, there might be an uptake in monster attacks, we will need you here."
"The Big Three have been missing all day and there was not a single attempted attack on camp" Clarisse said, clearly losing her temper, Chris set a hand on her shoulder, trying to calm her down, it seemed to work, she relaxed a bit, and continued "besides, that is why I have to go, if there are more monsters, than it's not safe to leave camp alone. I'm going."
"Plus," Will added, "we have a magical barrier protecting camp."
"Fine," Chiron relented, "but we still need to prepare defenses, just in case."
"We can do that!" Connor shouted out, a bit too eager, if you asked Percy.
Travis seemed to agree with his brother, "yeah, we can set up traps, and the Hephaestus Cabin can handle making more weapons! And they can make the traps!" Then, almost absent mindedly, asked, "how much Greek Fire do we have?"
"Of course," Leo muttered, but did not protest further. Percy did not blame him, there were only a few Hephaestus kids still at camp, they would need all hands on deck.
"And about the quest," Chiron said, Percy would have liked it if they kept ignoring that subject for a bit longer, but he must have asked too much. "Hera seems to think you three," he gestured to Percy, Thalia, and Nico, "are to be on the quest."
"Well," Nico said, speaking up, "They are our parents."
"Thanks for the reminder," Drew mumbled.
"If you guys are going on the quest, I'm going too," Will said, "You could use a healer."
"No," Thalia objected, "You're the only Apollo kid here, camp will need you in case of an attack."
Will looked like he wanted to protest, but Thalia made a good point.
"We will be fine, Will," Nico said, resting a hand on his shoulder. Aww, they were adorable.
"Well, then," Chiron said, "I believe that is all." And with that the meeting was over.
As they all began to leave, Chiron called out "Percy, stay." Great, guess he would be stuck here for a bit longer.
Once everyone else left the room, Chiron stepped closer to Percy, was it a step? He was part horse, so what was it called? Nevermind.
"Are you ok?" Chiron asked, well, that surprised Percy, normally the only people to ever ask that was his family, Grover, and Annabeth. Then again, Chiron was kind of family.
"Umm," was all he was able to say, well, he was never the best at big words anyways, that was more Annabeth's job. "I…don't know. If this leads into another war-" He stopped himself. He could not think like that. He would not allow that to happen.
"I understand." Chiron said, "Just- if you do go on the quest, be careful. Be safe."
That was impossible to promise, "I'll try," Percy said, giving Chiron a small smile, "but it's a quest, so…"
"I know," Chiron said, resting a hand on Percy's shoulder, "But, just try, that is all I ask for. Keep the others safe, try to come back home."
With a nod, Percy left the room. Then the situation really hit him, if he were to go on the quest, he would probably have to go against the thing that was able to capture three of the world's most powerful gods without anyone noticing, who was able to jam communications between the gods and demigods. That was kind of a lot, and they did not even know who that person was, or if it was actually a person. He wished Annabeth was here, she might have known what to do, or at least she would know the first step.
When he got back to the dining pavilion, there were only a few people left, most must have gone back to their cabins, it was getting dark. Chris and Clarisse were gone, supposedly to get Rachel, or maybe they were still preparing to leave camp.
"What did Chiron want to talk about?" Will asked, he was sitting on the Apollo table, his leg was bouncing up and down off the bench apprehensively. Was that really what they wanted to ask?
"Nothing," Percy said, "Well, not much, he just wished for us to be safe on the quest."
Nico snorted, "it's a quest," he stated, "there is no such thing as 'safe' on a quest."
"I know," Percy said.
"Does Chiron know, cause I thought that was kind of a given," Drew said in a snarky tone.
"Shut up," both Percy and Nico said at the same time, and Percy ruffled Nico's hair, messing it up further. Will chuckled, Leo full on laughed.
"Seriously, though, we should go to bed, it's getting late." Will said, with that, Nico and Will went off in the same direction, why were they going in the same direction? Percy did not know, the Hades and Apollo Cabins were definitely not in the same vicinity, Apollo's being Cabin 7 and Hades' being Cabin 13, there were two cabins between them because of the weird placement of all the Cabins. Then he realized they were not even heading to their Cabins, they were heading toward the beach. He decided to ignore that, considering he and Annabeth used to do that sometimes. Ok, they did it quite a few times. And they still did it to this day.
Drew and Leo headed back to their respective Cabin's, giving each other one last glare, and that left Percy and Thalia alone in the empty dining pavilion. Instead of dealing with an awkward social situation, Percy decided to go to his own Cabin.
"Night," he said, going off towards the Cabins.
"Wait," Thalia said. Great, more talking, he really just wanted to go to bed. He was tired, it was a long day. "If they really are gone, even temporarily, a lot of gods have grudges against you." He wanted to snark, make a sarcastic comment, say something funny, so he did.
"Really? Wow, thanks for the reminder."
Thalia continued, ignoring him, "and with Poseidon gone…" she did not have to finish, he knew what she meant. Without his dad, this would be the perfect time to take revenge on him, he's guessing the only reason no one has not done it yet is the supposed barrier that has kept everyone, even the gods, out of camp. "Be safe," she said. There it was again, be safe, Percy had accepted long ago that being a demigod meant that would never happen, he just nodded and went to his Cabin.
Normally, this would be the perfect time for a nightmare, the Big Three were gone, everyone was in danger, Chris and Clarisse were away from the protection of camp, there was still a chance of Annabrth being in danger, or any other demigod being in danger. But for some reason, there were no visions, no flashbacks, no warnings from anyone in his dreams, it seemed peaceful, just a black void. Until his dream shifted to show Tartarus.
At least he thought it was Tartarus, it looked like it, but he did not recognize this specific place, so it was not a flashback.
He looked around, it was only then that he realized he was not alone. It was a kid, around Nico's age, he had spiky black hair, and dark tan skin. He was facing the other direction, it looked like he was searching for something, or someone. Suddenly, he looked behind him, looking straight at Percy. Emerald eyes met sea-green.
The kid was wearing a black shirt that said 'In my defense I was left unsupervised.' It was one of those shirts someone close to you got as a joke, where you acted like you hated it but secretly loved it. Reyna got Nico a shirt of the same sentiment that said 'With great power comes great need to take a nap, Wake me up later.' It seemed to be an inside joke between them, so Percy had not asked.
"Who are you?" They both asked at the same time. The kid said it in an accusing voice, as if this was Percy's fault. Percy just phrased it as a general question. Normally, when he dreamed, no one noticed him spying, unless it was a powerful being, like a God, or a Titan. This kid noticed him, he did not look like a monster, or a god, or even a demigod, he looked like a kid, a weird kid, sure, but a mortal kid. Percy had never shared a dream with anyone before, his dreams often gave him information, or it was used as a warning. This was different.
"I asked first," Percy said.
"Tt," The kid tutted, "we both asked at the same time."
"Then maybe we should answer at the same time," Percy suggested.
"That is stupid, you go first," The kid replied.
"No, you go first," Percy continued, he was probably wasting his time with this joke, it was no longer funny, but he would not quit.
"This is childish," the child said, "I shall go first. I am Robin."
Percy blinked. "Like, Batman and Robin, Robin, or…"
"Yes, like 'Batman and Robin' Robin. But it should be Robin and Batman," Robin said, "I'm the one who does all the work."
"Right…" Percy said, "Well, I'm Percy."
"Last name?" Robin asked, well, more demanded.
"Jackson, Percy Jackson," he said, "or Perseus Jackson, if you want to get technical." Why was he telling the kid this? I couldn't hurt, this was a dream, and if someone connected their dreams, they would probably do it again, there was no way this was a one time thing. Perhaps they would meet in the waking world, and this interaction would lead to an advantage. Maybe the kid somehow had information on why the Big Three were missing. This had to be happening for a reason.
Suddenly, laughter erupted all around them, like in a surround sound movie theater, the noise was coming from all directions. It was a classic maniacal laugh, but it was a deep voice, an unhuman voice, definitely not any kind of human. Not a god, not a Titan, not even a Giant or primordial, this was something different, something he did not know.
Percy looked the kid dead in the eyes, (maybe not the best phrasing since they were probably in Tartarus, but whatever) he was a shade paler, as if all the blood had left his head, attempting to hide from the laughter.
"No," he heard Robin whisper, "not him, please, not him."
"Little bird," the voice said, "did you really think you could hide from me."
And with that, the dream faded. Perfect timing.
When Percy woke up, he heard sounds of explosions and fighting, which might sound kinda bad to a normal person, but here, it just meant that the Stolls were doing something they weren't supposed to do, and Leo was probably helping.
With a groan, he got out of bed and got ready for the day, getting on a camp shirt and a pair of jeans. He looked at the clock, 8:36, it was too early for this. After mentally preparing himself, Percy stepped out of the Poseidon Cabin, and into a war zone.
It looked like the Stolls set fire to the Ares, Aphrodite, and Apollo Cabins. Was that what the Greek Fire was for? It looked like everyone was relatively okay. Leo and Harley were sitting on the Hephaestus Cabin roof, laughing like maniacs. They definitely had some part in this. The Stolls were being chased by 6 angry campers, including Nico and Will, but they were still laughing as they ran towards the Big House, probably looking for protection that was well beyond their grasp.
Percy just sighed, a normal day at camp Half-Blood.
The conch shell blew, and Chiron walked (trodden? It has been 5 years, why can't he figure this out? Is it too late to ask Annabeth?) out of the Big House and towards the Cabins, causing everyone to stop laughing and running. The Hunters sauntered out of the Artemis Cabin. Some, Including Thalia, decided that it was too early for this chaos, a sentiment the Stolls obviously did not share, and walked away, probably to get breakfast as any sane person would do. So naturally, Percy stayed to watch.
"Connor, Travis." Chiron said, putting all of his disappointment and tiredness into his voice, which the Stolls seemed unaffected by.
"Hey Chiron!" Connor said, as if he did not just set three Cabins on fire.
"Why does Connor's name get said first?" Travis asked, "I'm the oldest!" he was clearly trying to distract Chiron, it did not work. Chiron gave him an unimpressed look, then ignored him, and turned to Will, who's hair was slightly singed, and looked like his clothes had been thrown on haphazardly.
"What happened?" Chiron asked in his tired dad voiceTM.
Will cleared his throat, "Well, I woke up, because I smelled the fire, and the Stolls were laughing, and the other cabins were on fire, so…" Will was clearly not awake enough for this, so give him a break, and possibly some coffee.
It was then that Chiron spotted Leo and Harley sitting on the roof of the Hephaestus Cabin. How had they gotten there anyway? They were trying to hide, but there was not much cover on the roof.
"Anything to add?" Chiron asked Leo, and all the other Campers turned to face them.
"Umm, we were just up here!" Harley said, panicking.
"Not doing anything diabolical," Leo added helpfully, he was still laughing, just trying to hide it unsuccessfully. They were perfect siblings. That made Percy think of his mom, who was pregnant. He really wanted to be a good big brother.
Chiron just raised an eyebrow at their antics, clearly used to it, and said "I suggest a volleyball match," he was clearly trying to distract everyone from the destruction. Unfortunately, the Stolls were willing to take control of this.
"Yeah!" Connor shouted.
"Camp Half-Blood versus the Hunters of Atremis!" Travis added.
Chiron did not fight the idea, so the game was on.
Oh, this would be awesome. Last time the Hunters had dominated us at Capture the Flag, but us Campers played volleyball twice a week, which was probably more than the Hunters ever did. It would be a tough match, but Sherman Yang and Will were actually pretty good at the game, and by good, Percy of course meant that if you put them on a team against the entire camp, they had a good chance of beating everyone. Not because the other campers were bad, they were just that good. The Stolls were trying to distract everyone from their destruction by distracting them, forcing their attention somewhere else, and boy was it working.
The campers seemingly forgot about the fires, the impending quest, the still missing Zues, Posiedon and Hades, and the fact that Clarisse and Chris were off retrieving Rachel Elizabeth Dare. They forgot about all that, and started to prepare for the most intense volleyball game ever in the history of Camp Half-Blood. Well, hopefully it was intense, it was getting boring just waiting for the imminent doom, so hopefully this would help.
Although Percy never really learned the rules, he could still play, he just bumped or spiked the ball over the net and did not keep track of the score. Who needs the rules anyway? He did try to pay attention when Chiron explained the rules when they first played, and when Annabeth explained them later, but he could never pay attention. He did not even try listening during school. Besides, Chiron was keeping score, so it would be fine.
The Hunters started with the ball, because we had to give them some advantage. Thalia served the ball, it went over the net, and Sherman spiked the ball down into the sand on the Hunters side. One girl with blond hair that Percy did not recognize, tried to bump the ball back up, but ended up with a face full of sand.
Thalia grumbled, but they handed the ball for Will to serve, the ball bounced up and over the net, one girl jumped up and hit the ball to Thalia, who spiked it over the net, but it was intercepted by Drew, who hit it towards, oh, yeah, Percy, he was more paying attention to the ball then what he was supposed to do, but he managed to bump it over the Sherman, who handled it from there. Two verses Zero. Maybe? How does the scoring work? Was it weird like in Tennis? Whatever. We were winning.
Percy decided to focus more on the game, the Hunters got some points, but for the most part, Team Camp Half-Blood was winning. Eventually, the game ended. Bummer. But apparently Chris, Clarisse, and Rachel had arrived and were in the infirmary to be treated for some small wounds they got on their little field trip.
Chiron called out the score of the game, "Hunters of Artemis: 5 points, Camp Half-Blood: 11 Points."
There were cheers all around, at least from the Campers, the Hunters were grumbling and complaining about their loss. Everyone soon calmed down enough to go to the Big House. Well, maybe 'soon' is not the right word, it took awhile because the Stoll's were causing more chaos, as if they were not already in trouble, but we eventually made it.
Percy, Will, Nico, Thalia, and Chiron all entered the infirmary, where the two demigods were on stretchers, there seemed to be no big injuries, but Will hurried to take care of them. Rachel was fine, and immediately came over to talk.
"I heard what happened." Rachel said, "Hera came to camp? Who knew she even cared enough?"
Before anyone could even laugh, Rachel went rigid, green smoak came out of her mouth as the Oracle spoke.
"Flame, Thunder, Death, and Water shall travel west to meet with Sky and Stone,
They will greet a long lost ally, the unexpected shall be friend or foe,
The deamons daughter is the key, to find the souls thy wish to keep,
In order to succeed, they must save the soul he hungers to reap."
…yay…
You got to love the power of prophecy. As Rachel spoke, Chiron wrote the verses down in a notebook. Where he got the notebook? No clue, but it was certainly useful because there was no way anyone here with ADHD could remember all the words the Oracle just hijacked Rachel's body to say.
After Chiron was done writing down the fun death prophecy, he said "to the meeting room!" then pointed at Will, who was seemingly done with taking care of Clarisse and Chris (How did he do that so fast?), and said "assemble the senior counselors, we must discuss this."
Skip the montage of everyone getting to the meeting room, it took too long, and the Stolls, who were already on a short leash, caused more chaos. Again, it took way too long, but we eventually all made it.
Chiron read the prophecy aloud, queue the chaos.
Everyone was shouting, Leo was complaining about being in the prophecy again, the Stolls were complaining about not being in the prophecy, and so on.
"Quiet!" Thalia shouted, the fact that everyone listened to her was a true feat of strength, even Chiron had trouble with that sometimes. "Let's start with the first line, 'Flame, Thunder, Death, and Water shall travel west to meet with Sky and Stone,' we know that 'Flame' is Leo, 'Thunder' is me, 'Death' is Nico, and 'Water' is Percy." Wait, why was he last? "So 'Sky' must be Jason and 'Stone' is Hazel."
"And the 'shall travel west ' part must mean to go to Camp Jupiter." Nico added.
"So, the second line," Drew said, "what does it mean by 'long lost ally,' do we know anyone else on the West Coast?" That was actually a good question.
"If we are talking about that, then what does 'the unexpected shall be friend or foe' mean?" Connor asked.
"It's best not to think about a prophecy too much," Clarisse said, "it will just confuse you."
"Go with the flow," Percy said, which was a nice way of saying 'just do whatever and hope it works out in the end.'
"Exactly," Clarisse said.
"But we should still talk about it." Will said, "at least get some idea."
"True," Leo said, "I want to know what 'the soul he hungers to reap' means. Who is ''the soul' because I do not want it to be me." Percy was kind of wondering that too.
"Yeah," Drew said, "and who is 'the deamons daughter' does anyone know a demon's daughter?"
"Deamon," Chiron corrected. "The Greek version of a demon."
"Whatever," Drew said.
"Let's talk about the elephant in the room." Nico said, who even taught him that phrase? Did they use that phrase in the 1940's? "The prophecy said 'souls thy wish to keep' and 'soul he wishes to reap' so is it one person or multiple?"
"The Big Three," Clarisse said, "assuming that is what the prophecy is talking about, maybe whoever 'he' is, only needs one?"
"We don't know." Thalia said, great job giving everyone a confidence booster. "We will only know when the time comes, until then, we do know this, Me, Leo, Nico, and Percy are the ones to go on the quest, along with Jason and Hazel once we get to California, that is more than three."
She let that sink in, you know, for dramatic affect, then left the room. End of meeting, apparently.
Percy sighed, "I should probably talk to my mom and Annabeth first."
"Oh, yeah," Leo said, "I should probably tell Cal about this."
Warning: It will be a long time before I post again.