Chapter Eight

We Have A (Not) Pleasant (Not) Family Reunion

Light flooded the room. I blinked rapidly, adjusting my irises to the blinding illumination. (And yeah, maybe it did take me half an hour to figure out that sentence). I groaned. I slipped my feet over the edge of the bed. Fuzzy carpet met my toes. The room was completely white. Was I in a mental institution? I made sure I wasn't wearing a straight jacket. I sighed with relief. I stood, immediately dropping to my knees. My back was not feeling it. The door slid open. Sadie strut in.

"Woah, Percy. We saw you wake up on the camera. You don't really need to be moving right now."

She knelt beside me, placing a hand near the small of my back. Her touch sent tingles down my spine. Years ago, I bathed in the River Styx and gained invincibility (it was pretty cool). The small of my back was my version of an Achille's Heel. It was my weak spot. It still bothered me to be touched, even though it wouldn't do anything. Sadie lifted me to my feet and lay me face down on the bed. She walked out the door but returned again carrying an object with her.

"This is a back brace," she explained. "Carter said it'll let you walk, maybe even run, without pain, but you should definitely try to avoid very strenuous activities."

I nodded, licking my dry lips. She lifted my shirt, applying the machine to my body. I tensed out of habit.

"Did you find my ambrosia?" I asked. She nodded.

"We gave you some already. Grendel just screwed you up bad. It's going to take a few days, even with magic, for you to heal. Perhaps longer."

"Just what I needed."

She finished working on me, letting my shirt drop.

"Alright. Stand."

I obeyed. My muscles felt strained, tired. Thankfully, though, there was no pain

"Gods."

Sadie smiled sympathetically. "I can't imagine what it feels like. I'm sure you've had worse, though, right?" She gave a small laugh, eyeing me. She meant it as a joke, but it was completely true. Annabeth and I had once been inflicted by the curses of every monster we had ever killed. And then some. And those curses were really bad. I didn't respond, simply staring straight ahead. Sadie's smile vanished. She cleared her throat.

"Anyway, Carter wants to talk some more. He says its urgent." Her face clouded over. She was pissed. "He's been distant for a while now. He won't tell me anything he's thinking. We're family, he's supposed to tell me everything. And yeah, he's got Zia to talk to, but I don't think he's shared anything with her either. He's scared. I don't know what he's been seeing."

That made me feel guilty. Annabeth was my wife. I was supposed to be sharing everything with her. Yet, I was keeping my fears and my visions to myself. I tried to reason it out in my head. I'd kept things from her things in the past. And vice versa. I chewed the inside of my cheek, contemplating what I should do. Sadie turned to me.

"Please tell me everything, okay? Even if he asks you not to. I need to know."

I told her I would. She studied me for a moment before deciding I wasn't lying. Promptly, she led me to Carter. He was hunched over a desk. A book lay open next to a paper that he was scribbling notes on furiously. He muttered to himself as he worked.

"Yo, bro, Percy's up."

Carter finished his sentence and looked up grimly.

"Thanks. Can you, uh, let us talk?"

He jerked his head at the door.

"Fine. Love you, too, bro."

She left us, leaving behind a chilly atmosphere. Carter twitched.

"I've seen it, Percy."

I waited for him to explain himself. He continued his notes.

"It?"

"The future, Percy." He said as if it were obvious. I squinted, trying to follow his notes.

"So, uh, is that a new language that I don't know, or is that just gibberish?" I asked. The paper was filled with dots, circles, lines, and other doodles. They weren't hieroglyphs, I knew that much. This wasn't right. A wind rushed in, causing me to shiver.

"The future, Percy. I had a vision."

"And what happened?"

Carter's voice was beginning to sound empty, as if he weren't really there. He flicked his hand dismissively to the right.

"You, Percy? You weren't even there. How could you be? The fiery tree is there. Oh, that damned tree. Gets them every time. I tried to warn them through the Oracle. Doesn't work. Makes her mad. Mad, mad, mad, mad world."

It sounded more like he was someone else, lamenting their own failure.

"Carter!" I gripped his shoulder. He glanced at me, surprised.

"Percy! I saw it."

"Let me guess, the future?"

His eyes widened.

"Yes, how did you know?" he gasped. "Did your ba see it too? So, you know what's coming? The fire, Percy, you've seen the fire?"

I was creeped out. I had seen a mentally insane person before. Her name was May Castellan, mother of. . . Luke. Styx, this had something to do with my vision for sure. Luke's evil grin filled my mind. I flinched.

"My-my ba? Carter, you need to snap out of this, whatever this is. I've seen something. What fire?"

His eyes glowed green.

"The fire, Percy, the fire! Son of Ran, dead will be, when travelers descend upon the fiery tree."

His body flailed about, knocking his desk over. I backed up. I gripped Riptide, just in case things went south.

"N-no. It can't be me. I'm a son of Poseidon, not Ran!"

I had already come to terms with my imminent death, but I had been hoping I would find out that I didn't have to. Carter's form laughed, but it wasn't Carter. In his place stood a falcon-headed man. I remembered seeing him before. His name was. . .Whores? No, Horus.

"Poseidon, Ran, Neptune, Hapi, they'll all be the same. Only one can survive, Perseus."

"What does that mean? Why does everything have to be so damn loose-ended!" I cried. Literally everything my life was cryptic and open to interpretation. Sometimes, I just really wanted something concrete.

"The gods, child. All of them. Speak to your precious Annabeth. She already has an idea what's going to happen. As for me, I don't have to worry about the upcoming war. I'm merely a tutelary deity. There's no one for me to fight for control from. Except for Carter here. Ah, his strength returns. We'll meet again, but perhaps not on good terms."

His form dissipated, leaving Carter in his chair, blinking. He regained his composure.

"Percy? When did you get here?"

I eyed him cautiously.

"Hey, man. Is that you in there?"

He gulped. His voice returned

"I should've told Sadie," he sighed. "I've been having problems, Percy. Ra, Horus, and some of the other gods have been inside my head, giving me visions. I think sometimes they take over. It's not like hosting them, though. I-I blackout, wake up later, and I feel like someone's been in my head. It's the future. I saw you dying, man. I don't know the details. It's a different death each time I see it, but you and your family are killed by fire. It's a fire related incident each time. And-and I see Sadie dying-"

His voice cracked. He hung his head. I don't think I ever related to anybody more than I did in this moment. I decided I had to tell Annabeth my vision as soon as I got the chance.

"How do you look into someone's eyes and tell them that you know they're about to die? Percy, this-this Prophecy is unlike anything this world has seen before. This is going to change our world as we see it."

Gods, as if I hadn't heard something like that before. I sighed. Carter noticed my expression.

"This isn't just a saying this time. This is real."

His tone indicated he was speaking the truth.

"I haven't been myself. I tried to get a message through your Oracle. Part of a spell I'd been practicing, but it messed with my head, Percy. That's why all theses voices are in here, talking to me. It's why Rachel is all messed up right now, too. It's my fault. I'm sorry."

This hit me hard. I didn't know whether to be angry, upset, sad. It was a mix of emotions.

"Why didn't you come and find us? Why try to just send a message through Rachel?"

Carter was frantic. Not in the mad way like before, but desperate.

"No! Grendel is too dangerous. You saw what he did to you. We can't let him find me and Sadie. I hate to do this to you, but you've got to finish this quest. I'll be keeping tabs on you. Sadie and I have to be a shock. It's the only upper hand we have against a creature like this. And we're going to need the help of the gods. That's going to be hard"

"I can get my dad to help." I volunteered. Carter shook his head.

"No, you don't understand. The gods will be fighting. And not what you're thinking. Poseidon won't be fighting his brother, he'll be fighting Ran, then Hapi. Maybe all three gods battling each other for Supremacy over their domain. There might be even more gods. After today, I'm not sure what deities exist. I mean, what if they all exist? What about God, with a capital G? This affects theology greatly. Is God not all powerful? So, why can he not just stop all this? But, I suppose the Christian God is all about free will. He won't intervene until his second coming, I guess. And what about the Chinese gods?"

He groaned, clutching his head.

"What are you saying, Carter?" Even before I asked, I had a pretty good idea what he meant.

"All the gods, Percy. All of them. They've been cooped up within the confines of Western Civilization with each other for too long. I believe some of the gods, such as Athena, or Thoth- they knew about the other gods existence. But others don't. But they're beginning to. Your dad's wondering why sometimes there's a storm that he didn't conjure up. Maybe that's Ran. Or Apollo is driving his Sun Chariot and suddenly, the sun rises too fast. That's Ra, trying to maintain his dominion. They used to live in harmony, but its getting to them. The Universe is trying to pull them apart. There's coming a point, where there can only be one god for each element. I know you have this quest, but I'm not sure what it can accomplish. There are bigger forces than us at play. It's suicide really."

That was comforting. I wondered if my dad was stronger than Ran. I didn't know much about the Egyptian gods. Then, it struck me. If Ran won, would that make me the Son of Ran? Would Poseidon be erased from history? How the Hades does this work? Gods, that Prophecy was all I could think about.

"So, you're saying we should give up?"

"That would be worse than continuing. You yourself have said we can't try to change Fate."

His brown eyes were full of worry. It didn't make me feel much better. I wanted to get back to Annabeth, Sophia. I never realized I would miss them this much.

"Alright. We continue, I die, and we somehow save the gods? Typical. How does Grendel fit into this?"

"I don't know if we do save them, to be honest. And that's the problem. Grendel is after power. Imagine if he could absorb the power of all the gods?"

I imagined it.

"Oh. Oh, gods. He would be unstoppable! He could rule the world by himself, not a single force strong enough to stop him."

Carter bobbed his head.

"Bingo. It's bad. It's not just an old enemy trying to fight back. It's so much worse."

Suddenly, the door burst open.

"Carter, Percy, we've got a problem. Grendel's trying to get to Olympus!"

Sadie was panting, out of breath. I cursed.

"How do you know?"

She gave me a bewildered glance. "You said Olympus was in the Empire State Building, right?"

"More or less."

"Well, Grendel's attacking the Empire State Building. Mortals are calling it a terrorist attack, as per usual."

I groaned as we both followed after her. Magnus and Alex lit up when they saw me.

"Percy! Thank Vanir!" Magnus exclaimed. "I was worried I was gonna have to give Annabeth bad news already."

I gave him an awkward side hug.

"Yeah, well, not today. I'm hard to get rid of. Pleasantries later, though. We've got a monster to stop. Or at least try to again."

"Yeah, we know, we were watching the shield."

Alex nodded at her wrist. I watched as Grendel scaled the building, tearing chunks out. No doubt everybody else saw someone throwing bombs or something.

"Carter, Sadie, can you get us there quick?"

"I can send you through the Duat." Sadie replied. "But you'll have to close your eyes, and don't move. One wrong step, and we won't be able to get you back. I'll push you through, and Carter's Ba can be your guide. Remember, though, let yourself be pushed. No movement."

"That sounds dangerous."

"It is. We haven't really tried it on anybody yet. It's pretty much just theory."

"Nice, I love being a guinea pig."

Actually, that was a lie. I had been an actual guinea pig before. It wasn't fun at all.

"Close your eyes," Carter commanded. "Hold hands."

I reached for Alex's had. I gripped it firmly.

"Okay, keep them closed until given the good to go."

I heard a faint sound, like a fridge door being opened. The air felt the same way. My teeth chattered. The stench of death filled my nostrils- a smell I was all too familiar with. We moved forward, like we were on a hoverboard. Minutes ticked by in silence until the frigid air grew warm.

"Open."

People screamed. Grendel ripped out another window, tossing it away.

"Give me the entrance to Olympus! I know it is here!" he bellowed, pounding his hairy fist into the wall.

Carter grabbed my shoulder.

"Percy, remember, your back was broken yesterday. That brace is helping, but too much movement and it could be fractured forever."

I nodded.

"I guess it won't matter soon, anyway."

Carter gave me a wry smile and disappeared. I turned around to my crew.

"Alright, guys. We're going to try something different. He already knows our fighting styles, so we're all going to have to do something we'd never do."

"What's that?" Magnus asked.

"Follow my lead," I responded, feeling like a badass. I mean, hey, that's a pretty awesome line. I trudged towards our evil.

"Hey! Bigfoot!"

Grendel sniffed, locking onto us.

"Returning players?" Grendel mocked. He leaped from the building, crashing down in front of us. "Pray, tell, little ones. What new strategy do you have now?"

"We surrender"

Grendel coughed in his throat.

"Surrender?" Alex cried. "The Hel, Perseus?"

Grendel grinned.

"I accept, on the one condition that you bring me to Olympus."

His meaty fist wrapped around my body.

"You only have everything to lose, Perseus." He growled.

"Two conditions," I choked out. "I take you to Olympus, and you let my friends return to Camp."

"Of course. It won't be long until I destroy that, too. Let them enjoy their miserable life for a while longer."

Alex glared at me as if I were a traitor. Magnus was miffed.

I have a plan, I mouthed. I did. It wasn't a great one, but it was the only one I had. It was too crazy. Grendel jumped again. He entered the front of the Empire State Building.

"Well, Perseus?"

"Ask for the keycard. We're going on an elevator ride."

I said a silent prayer to my dad, telling everyone to leave the throne room. I hoped he got the message.

I really hope she'll understand, I thought, before the elevator doors dinged open.