Argus took them to the bus station for the Greyhound. Percy was unimpressed as he thought Lord Hephaestus would have built emergency bus exits. It was a terse bus ride since that argument, and at camp, half-blood Percy was still reeling from his anger at Annabeth, not to imagine his frustration at the daughter of Athena. He couldn't quite understand how someone could make him feel the way he was feeling now. He looked at the daughter of Athena. She was still coming down, but Grover helped her calm down.
Percy would deny the pang in his heart; he never had friends his age and would not know how to engage with kids his age. Most people he hangs out with are eternal maidens centuries or decades older than himself.
"We have to realise he might not know how to communicate with those his age or how to be around his age." Grover stage whispered to Annabeth, which meant Percy could hear the whole thing. He wanted to roll his eyes at the Satyr; why did he have to say it? Percy had admitted to it, albeit to himself. That counts, right? Percy doesn't think so, nor would anyone else, but he'd still like to think admitting it to himself was better than denying it altogether.
Three old ladies were the last to board the bus, and Percy could tell there was something about the old grannies. What were they? Could they be? No, they could not be there, and there's no way that Lord Hades knows they're coming. Even though Percy knows it was not Lord Hades who stole the lightning bolt, it doesn't mean he could send all three onto them. The question was, why was he sending all three? If Percy could not figure it out, one would have been fine.
What would he gain through this? If he's innocent, as Percy thinks he is, then what is the deal with sending all three of the kindly ones? "Where is it?" They finally asked the trio what they were looking for.
"I'm sorry, I do not know what you're asking about." Percy said to them with confusion plainly on his face. He knew better than to lie to who was in front of him and the other two, not that Percy knew the other two knew this. "Besides, I know Lord Hades is innocent of the theft of the Lightning Bolt." the son of Artemis admits to the Furies, who regard him and ignores the other two.
"Then you don't know anything." One told the trio. What didn't they know? When the bus stopped without anything done to it, all three ladies left them alone, which confused the Hades out of Annabeth Chase. What didn't they know unless something else besides Lord Zues' lightning bolt was stolen?
"Lord Hades must have had something stolen as well." Percy told the duo that they didn't believe him. Why would someone steal from that god? The son of the Moon must be out of his mind with this one that was saying a lot, considering what they were and what world they were a part of.
"Why would he be stolen from? It doesn't make sense." Annabeth Chase told him, and Percy looked at her. Wasn't she the daughter of the goddess of wisdom? That didn't happen since she was the daughter of his mother's twin, and he was the god of knowledge. But surely she could see what was in front of her, right?
Or was it just him who could see the pieces? But then he would prove to them that he was right, and maybe they wouldn't be so bad. And they could be friends if they could. Percy didn't know how to befriend other mortal demigods, only immortal maidens. Why was this so hard? He was so alone, and although it was partly his fault, and it wasn't his fault, he had to go to Camp Halfblood.
"To make a war between the gods? Between two of the big three? Something that has been simmering for two or three centuries?" Percy told them that even though he knew that Lord Zeus and Lord Hades hated each other, there was something beneath the hate. Then again, most Greek gods always wanted to go to war with each other.
"No, I do not think that's it. I know what I'm talking about." Annabeth tried to explain to the other demigod that both children of two of the three maiden goddesses were at an impasse and didn't know how to settle it. Both looked at Grover to help them resolve this. Weren't Satyr's meant to be a mediator or something?
"If a goddess like myself raised you, sure, you would, but I know a bit more about the gods than you do." Percy told her and tried to be as he could. Percy could see that the girl had a fragile ego and would break, and she would either go catatonic or on a warpath. That would do well on this quest but they needed to move like right now Percy could feel something coming or something is about to happen.
"what do you mean? I know more than an average demigod." Annabeth screeched out and Percy just gave a look of she was an idiot, sure she may have been at camp for a few years. But what this girl has to realise is that Percy had grown up around monsters and the gods for longer than her. He still remembers when the hunt helped her and her compatriots out but he didn't talk to them.
"I am going to say this once more. I was raised by a goddess I've spent my entire childhood killing monsters and watching your girls older and younger than you join the hunt. I still remember you, Grover, that boy and the daughter of Zeus, when you were on the run going to Camp Half-Blood you may not remember me I remember the both of you." Percy told them, he hoped they remembered that day and they did but they did not realize that Percy had been there too.
