Chapter 10 The prophecy comes to pass

Percy POV

"Annabeth, please let go of me," I said to the demigod who was still hanging off of me. "My shoulder hurts." The weight of her pulling on my wounded shoulder was pretty sore.

"Shit, sorry," Annabeth said, letting go, stepping back and looking at me. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, a bit sore but I'll live."

"I can't believe that you fought Ares," she said, "I can't put into words how stupid and reckless that was!"

"Hey, I lived." I shrugged my shoulders which caused me to grimace as the pain in my left shoulder worsened.

"By some miracle, I thought you were as good as dead outside," she told me and I had to agree, without my mysterious friend(?) Ares would've killed me on the lawn. "How did you escape? We couldn't really see but it almost looked like shadow travel." I was about to ask what shadow travel was when I realized that like the name suggested it was probably using a shadow to travel (duh) which was exactly what I'd -or more accurately the woman- had done.

"I'll explain everything in a minute, do we have any ambrosia or nectar left?" I said starting to walk over to Grover who was standing with the backpack.

"Err, I think we still have a tiny bit," Grover said opening up the bag and searching through it. After pulling out around half the contents he found the silver nectar flask he held it to his ear and gave it a shake. "Yeah there's still some in here." He tossed the flask to me which I caught and uncapped before downing the remaining godly drink.

"Ahh," I sighed, savoring the taste of warm cookies as the pain in my shoulder and chest lessened.

"So what happened?" Annabeth asked me as I sat down on a marble bench in front of an exhibit explaining all eight phases of the lunar cycle. "How did you get out of the flames? And why did you bring him in here?"

"The woman," I said, probably both explaining everything and causing more questions, Annabeth waited for me to elaborate. "She spoke to me after Ares kicked me, told me to lead him in here. Once he summoned the fire she said to get to the shadow of the monument and 'she'd handle the rest'."

"So she used the monument to shadow travel you," Annabeth said. "Why did she tell you to bring Ares here?"

"At first I thought it was just to buy me time until riptide reappeared," I told her.

"At first?"

"Yeah, there's something weird about this room. As soon as I got in here I felt stronger." Annabeth looked surprised.

"Stronger how?"

"The pain in my chest from Ares' kick wasn't as bad," I explained. "And I feel super, I dunno I guess hyperactive? Like all my senses are more powerful or something."

"Strange, I don't feel anything," Annabeth said. "Grover, how about you?"

"No," The satyr shook his head. "I feel the same as always."

"Hmm," Annabeth didn't say anything else about it. "I don't think I've heard of someone remotely shadow traveling someone else," She said, changing the subject. "This woman probably has a strong connection to darkness to be able to do that."

"Have you got any idea who she is?"

"Other than Percy's guardian angel," Grover added.

"Not really," Annabeth replied. "From everything you've told us about her, the description of her and her home, her ability to shadow travel you and the fact she's obviously very powerful the only goddess I can think of that might match her would be Nyx although I highly doubt it. The biggest problem with that theory would be why would one of the most powerful beings in existence who no one has heard of or seen in millennia be interested in you, a demigod? Yes technically you'd be her grandson as she's Thanatos' mom but that means nothing in Greek mythology and I imagine especially to a primordial."

"I'm glad you think I mean so much to my grandma," I wiped a fake tear from my eye. "You said you thought she was my patron," I said, going back to being serious.

"Yeah, it would explain her interest in you as well as your power over shadows," Annabeth said. "Which again makes me think she isn't Nyx as why would she need a demigod hero, after Chaos the creator of the universe Nyx is probably the most powerful being alive, definitely in the top three."

"As interesting as figuring out whoever Percy's superpowered fan is, we should probably start planning how we're going to get the bolt back to New York," Grover said. I agreed, getting the bolt back to Olympus is a much more pressing issue than whoever the woman is.

"Annabeth, you got a plan?" The daughter of Athena smiled and nodded. It's great having someone to figure out all the issues for you. "So, what is it?" Annabeth fished the green lotus debit card out of her back pocket.

"It worked for the cab so it should work to buy us some plane tickets back home."

Another cab ride courtesy of the lotus casino and the three of us were standing in LAX airport. Grover and I were standing waiting while Annabeth spoke to the woman behind a counter getting us tickets. Soon Annabeth walked over to us, smiling and holding three tickets.

"The card worked then?"

"Yup, we should be at JFK airport by nine tonight," she replied, handing Grover and I our tickets.

"First class?" Grover asked, surprised.

"Well the card doesn't seem to have a limit so I figured we could do with a little pampering that isn't part of a magic monster run hotel," she told us. I was happy with her ticket choice, if we were going to fly the length of the country why not do it in comfort? After all, like she said we weren't footing the bill.

"What are we going to do about getting the bolt through security?" I asked as I figured the TSA agents might have something to say about the strange metal cylinder.

"I'd say we leave it in the bag and hope that the mist gets it through," Annabeth said.

"And if that doesn't work and they ask us what it is? We can't exactly explain it's one of the most powerful weapons in existence," I countered quietly, trying to not let anyone else in the airport lounge hear me talking about bringing a super powerful weapon on our flight.

"It's a magical weapon so the mist should cover it up, at the very least it should help the mortals believe whatever we say explaining it," Annabeth assured me.

Sure enough the bolt didn't raise any alarms in the bag and neither did riptide as a pen. Soon we were sitting in the roomy first class seats and waiting for take off. Each of us had our own little compartment with a leather recliner, a small side table and a screen in front of us. Annabeth's and my seats were next to each other while Grover was sitting in the aisle behind us, our seats rotated so we could still have conversations.

The flight flew by (pun intended) and soon we were coming into land as we neared the familiar New York skyline. Thankfully the journey had been uneventful, all that really happened was Annabeth asking me more about the woman and how the hall at the observatory made me feel, that and Grover snoring loudly. Even after barraging me with questions Annabeth still seemed at a loss trying to explain what was going on with me and my 'secret admirer'.

When I wasn't being interrogated I had thought about what she had said about the woman mostly fitting the description of Nyx. Annabeth had basically abandoned her initial theory in favor of others that she deemed more likely. Her favorite one was that the woman was some other deity of night, darkness or shadows even going so far as to speculate that she was a titan -the race before the gods- like Asteria titan of stars and night or even the thought faded Selene the titan of the moon before Artemis took up the role. Annabeth even theorized that the woman might not even look like that and that wasn't really her home instead that the woman I'd seen had been a disguise worn by a different god/goddess. She said that it might explain why the woman had been so cagey in giving me information about herself. Personally I felt like this theory was pretty far fetched, which Annabeth mostly agreed with but thought it was more probable than me being a person of interest to the literal personification of night.

I hadn't told Annabeth this but for some reason some part of me liked her first theory of the woman being Nyx. I couldn't really explain why I liked this theory which was the main reason I hadn't told the others, something about it just felt right.

After getting off of the airplane we got into another cab. I'm starting to like having an unlimited debit card. The cabbie gave us a slightly weird look when we asked to go to the empire state building, I don't really blame him as three unaccompanied young teenagers going to the empire state building at nearly ten pm is a little strange but then again what's normal in New York? As soon as Annabeth swiped the lotus card the cabbie didn't seem to care about our destination. After getting stuck in the constant New York traffic we pulled up at the building that houses Olympus. I still couldn't really understand how the home of the gods was apparently floating above one of the city's biggest tourist attractions but I guess I was going to find out first hand.

"Six hundredth floor please," Annabeth asked the bored security guard who was scrolling away on his phone.

"We don't have that many floors, kid," he said after quickly glancing up before resuming scrolling.

"We need an audience with Zeus," I told him. The guard looked up again, raising an eyebrow.

"Sorry?"

"You heard me."

I was starting to think that Annabeth was wrong and that the entrance to Olympus wasn't here and that this guy was a regular mortal when he said, "No appointment, no entrance, kiddo. Lord Zeus doesn't just see anyone who walks in here wanting a chat."

"I have a feeling he'll want to make an exception for this," I said, sliding Ares' backpack off my shoulder and opening it so the guard could see inside. The guard didn't seem to realize what he was looking at initially before his face paled and his jaw dropped slightly.

"That isn't…"

"Yeah it is," I confirmed. "We've been through a lot to get this and from what I hear Zeus is more than a little keen to get it back so if you could do whatever it is you need to do to get us to Olympus I think that'd be best for everybody."

"Alright, alright," he said starting to fumble around his desk before finding a key card. "Here, put it in the security slot and make sure no one else is in the elevator." I don't think that's going to be an issue, I thought, glancing around the empty lobby.

"See that wasn't that hard," I said taking the key and swinging the backpack over my shoulder again, "Thanks."

We got into the elevator and put the key card in once the door had closed. After the card had disappeared a new red button appeared on the console that said 600. Grover pressed it and the elevator rumbled as we set off to the city of the gods. None of us said anything, unsure what to say or expect from the conclusion of our quest. Out of everything that's happened over the past week this seemed to be the scariest part, at least for me as there was no guarantee that Zeus wouldn't still blast me to pieces once he had his bolt back. The lack of conversation meant that the three of us had to listen to Kenny Loggins' sing Danger Zone which was somewhere I definitely felt like I was going.

"I went to the danger zone!" Grover couldn't help himself and sing along only to receive an elbow in the side courtesy of Annabeth.

After what felt like an hour we came to a stop with a ding! The doors slid open to reveal a sight which shouldn't have been possible. Floating atop the largest city on the east coast was the decapitated top of a mountain (three guesses which one). The tip of the mountain poked out from the clouds and clinging to its side were dozens and dozens of white marble buildings. I could see everything from mansions to smaller homes to market stalls. There were luscious green gardens with olive trees and brightly blooming flowers. I could see an amphitheater, coliseum, and more temples than I could count. Like camp, all of the buildings were Greek in architecture with columns and bronze braziers burning brightly. This was a real ancient Greek city in all its glory, no crumbling ruins in sight. Athens must've looked like this thousands of years ago but I figured even at its peak the capital city would've paled in comparison to what I was looking at now. We stepped out of the elevator onto a narrow stone walkway floating in the air. Over the edge we could see Manhattan, we were probably at the height of an airplane maybe slightly higher.

"Wow," Annabeth said, looking ahead at the city of the gods. Grover and I just nodded, what she had said had summed up our feelings perfectly. The city was magical, literally and figuratively. We walked along the floating marble pathway towards Olympus.

As we walked through the city Annabeth kept wanting to stop to admire the architecture and other aspects of the city but I hurried her along, I didn't think Zeus would want any more delays in the return of his bolt. Although I wasn't letting Annabeth stop I couldn't help but also marvel at the sights on offer. Satyrs, nymphs and teenagers that I assumed were minor gods flooded the city. Vendors from the various stalls tried to sell us everything from ambrosia on a stick to swords and replica golden fleeces.

We climbed the main road which led to the largest palace on the mountain which was saying something as some of the mansions we passed on the way would've cost tens of millions in mortal money. The buildings seemed to get bigger and more elaborate the further up the mountain. Some of the palaces didn't quite seem to fit in with the rest of the city as well, one was so brightly golden it hurt my eyes, another was covered in plants and one of the ones closest to the main palace was made of sea stone and coral. They reminded me of the cabins at camp only ten times bigger and fancier, I assumed these were the palaces of the Olympians themselves.

Steps led to a large central courtyard and beyond that was the throneroom of the gods. It wasn't really a throne room as I'd never been in a room this large. It was the size of a small stadium with huge columns that propped up the domed ceiling which was moving with constellations. I noticed that one of the constellations was the Crux or southern cross which shouldn't be visible this far north. How do I know that?

I brought my attention away from the ceiling and back down to the twelve thrones arranged in the same way as the cabins at camp. The thrones were all massive, designed for beings much larger than humans. Each of them was different to reflect their owner and their domains. Only one of the thrones was occupied, the one at the head of the inverted U shape.

Sat on a throne of pure platinum was a man in a dark blue pinstripe suit. He had a well trimmed beard which was black and gray matching his slicked back hair. His face was proud with rainy gray eyes. As we approached the god the air began to crackle and smell faintly of ozone. I didn't need Annabeth to tell me who this was.

"Lord Zeus," I addressed the king of the gods bowing my head. While I wasn't exactly fond of the god from the things I'd heard about him I thought it best to show him some respect.

"Boy," Zeus said from his throne. "Have you come to renounce your father and Hades or will I have to blast you to dust?" So he still thinks I stole his firecracker for Thanatos and Hades, moron, I thought getting a bit pissed off with the god.

"No my lord," I said forcing myself to be polite. "I've come to return your bolt."

"So you admit to stealing it then." Gods, how thick can he be?

I told Zeus everything. From the words of the prophecy to meeting Ares at the diner and the quest he gave us before explaining what happened at the observatory. I tried to recount everything that Ares had said to me about how and why he got the bolt. I took the bolt out of the backpack and laid it in front of Zeus. He opened his hand and the bolt flew up into it. As he closed his fist around it the caps on the end of the cylinder sparked with electricity until he held what looked like a more classic lightning bolt. Now in total it was about fifteen feet of arcing electricity which I could hear humming. Zeus hadn't said a word since I'd started my story and I was beginning to worry.

Eventually Zeus spoke, "I sense you are telling the truth." I let out a sigh of relief. "For Ares to do such a thing… I shall be having words with him."

"Lord?" I asked.

"Yes?"

"I don't think Ares was acting alone," I told him. "Someone else was the one pulling the strings."

"You suggest someone would be able to use an Olympian as a puppet?" The tone of his voice told me to choose my next words carefully.

I cautiously explained the dreams I'd had of the endless pit and the evil voice emanating from it. I told Zeus about Ares slipping up when he mentioned dreams as well as the presence at the observatory that stopped Ares from killing me.

"I think he was being used to start a war," I finished explaining.

"That pit was the entrance to Tartarus isn't it lord Zeus," Annabeth chimed in.

"Something old, powerful and evil is stirring down there," I told Zeus. He seemed worried at what we were telling him but quickly hid it behind his stern facade.

"You will speak of this no more," he commanded us, shutting down our theory. "I must go and purify this thunderbolt to remove any trace of human taint. I believe you are innocent, boy, you have done me a service not many heroes would be able to achieve." Zeus rose from his throne. "I still don't trust you but I shall spare your life; however, don't let me find you here on my return." Thunder rumbled around the throne room and Zeus disappeared in a flash of lightning.

"Did you see his face when we told him about the pit?" Annabeth asked quietly as we walked back through the streets of Olympus.

"Yeah, he seemed worried."

"Something's definitely going on," she said.

"Guys he told us not to talk about it," Grover told us. The satyr had been silent since before the throne room, I think Zeus and maybe even Olympus in general made him nervous.

"Yeah, that's one of the reasons I think somethings up," Annabeth told him.

"At the very least if we're going to figure this out we should probably wait til we're out of here," I said.

The rest of our time in Olympus we had normal conversations about the city. We didn't spend too long as we weren't sure if when Zeus said if we're still 'here' he meant the throne room or Olympus as a whole but we weren't too keen to find out.

We arrived back at camp to cheers and congratulations when the other campers saw us. Apparently we were the first heroes to return alive for a couple years so it was a big deal. Camp tradition was for us to wear laurel wreaths at a feast dedicated to us before leading a parade to the bonfire where we burnt the burial shrouds that get made in case the questers don't return.

The Athena cabin had made Annabeth a beautiful gray shroud made of silk with owls embroidered on it. The Hermes cabin had made mine, it was made of black cloth with a roughly painted silver scythe on it. It felt good to burn the shroud, it symbolized that the quest was over and I'd managed to survive. After the burning the Apollo campers led us in songs as we all stuffed our faces with smores.

It was great being back at camp surrounded by all the people I'd come to know in my brief time here prior to the quest. While Annabeth and Grover were my best friends -even more so now- it'd been kinda lonely just being the three of us, now we were back with our extended family through the gods. I was relaxing with Annabeth, some of her siblings, Grover and some of his nature spirit friends who were admiring the searcher's license he'd been granted by the satyr council. Apparently they'd called his performance 'horns above what could be expected of a satyr'. The only people not enjoying the celebration of our return were the Ares campers who were glaring at me, I guess they don't like me beating up their dad.

I moved back into the Hermes cabin which was the only thing about being back at camp that I wasn't thrilled about. I don't know why but it just didn't feel right being there.

It was the day after our return and at the end of the week the summer campers would be leaving. I wandered into the area hoping to do some sword practice without having my life at stake. I had been expecting it to be empty so I was surprised to see Luke standing in a pile of straw as he cut apart the training dummies with surgical precision. I stood in the entrance not wanting to intrude on Luke's training. I watched as he methodically hacked the remaining straw dummies to pieces, sweat had soaked through his shirt turning it a darker shade of orange. From his expression you'd have thought he was actually fighting for his life. Eventually he saw me and stopped.

"Percy," he said lowering his sword. It was a different one than the one he used teaching me before my quest, instead of pure celestial bronze one edge of the blade was shining silver, like it was mortal steel.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt."

"No worries, I was just doing some last minute practice," he wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"Those dummies won't bother anyone anymore," I said looking around at the piles of straw.

Luke just shrugged, "We build new ones each summer." What will the year-round campers train with then?

I looked more closely at Luke's sword. The weld between the two metals looked fairly crude but strong at the same time. It was longer than your average Greek sword. He noticed me looking at it.

"Like my new toy? It's called Backbiter," he said before sliding it into its sheath. "It's one of a kind, half celestial bronze, half mortal steel. Works on divines and mortals." Why would you need it to work on mortals? I thought. "Listen, I was going to come find you. Fancy finding something to fight in the woods? I want to see if you picked up any tricks on your quest."

I hesitated momentarily before agreeing, "Sure, why not?"

Luke swung his gym bag over his shoulder and led the way out of the arena. We patrolled around the forest looking for something to fight but the woods seemed empty today. Luke sat down on a rock near the creek and dug out a six pack of cokes from his bag.

"Here," he passed one to me before cracking open one of his own. We sat by the creek listening to the water run past sipping our cokes. "Honestly, how'd you find your quest?"

"Being attacked around every corner, never sure what the next step is and never knowing if you're going to make it back?" I said before pausing. "Honestly, it was the best fun I can remember." While that wasn't saying much with the strange things going on with my memory it was true nonetheless. "How was your's?"

"Yeah same," Luke said although he didn't look happy. In fact he looked weary and angry, the scar running down his face seeming deeper than usual in the patchy forest lighting. "I've been at camp year round since I was fourteen. Training, training and training, never given the chance to be a normal teenager. I got thrown one quest and when I got back it was like 'Cool, fun's over now enjoy your life'." He stood up and drop kicked his coke can sending it into the stream. "Fuck laurels, I'm not going to be a dusty trophy locked in the attic and forgotten about."

I wasn't entirely sure what to make of the son of Hermes' words or actions. "You make it sound like you're leaving."

Luke looked over his shoulder and gave me a smile that sent shivers down my spine. "Oh, I'm leaving all right." He dug something out of his gym bag, it looked like a glass jar. "Bringing you out here is my little way of saying bye."

With precision Luke gently threw the jar onto a rock at my feet, shattering it and allowing what it contained to crawl out. Now crawling towards me was a glistening black scorpion around the size of my hand. Instinctively I started to reach for the pen in my pocket but Luke stopped me.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," he told me, "Pit scorpions can jump nearly fifteen feet, sting through leather, are easily provoked and to top it off will kill in under a minute."

"Luke what…" I started before it hit me and the oracle's words played in my mind, You will be betrayed by the one you call friend. I had assumed that it had been referring to Ares who could've been considered friendly when he first appeared at the diner, or at least you'd assume an Olympian would be a friend. Luke leant lazily against a tree and watched as the scorpion crawled onto my shoe.

"I saw a whole lot out there in the world, Percy," he told me. "Didn't you feel it? The growing darkness, the monsters getting stronger and most of all how useless everything to do with the gods is? Being the Olympian's pawns. They should've been overthrown centuries ago, the only reason they're still about is thanks to half-bloods like us."

I couldn't believe anything that was going on. "Luke, they're our parents."

Luke laughed, "That means nothing, as little as we matter to them, Hades your father isn't even an Olympian which is why you got thrown in the Hermes cabin with everyone else. The only way to purge them is to burn it all and start over with something better."

"You're crazy, even more than Ares." At least Ares hadn't wanted the era of the gods to end.

"Ares is a fucking moron." I won't argue with that. "He never realized who he was truly serving. I'd explain it all to you but that would take a while, certainly longer than you've got left," he said as the scorpion crawled along my leg. "My master stopped Ares from killing you but after thinking about his decision he came to realize that there's too much unknown about you and too much risk hence all this."

I racked my brain, trying to find a way out of this while also trying to figure out who Luke served. If I kept him talking then hopefully I'd find a way to survive. Luke wants the age of gods to end -so his master won't be a god. Whoever he serves must be incredibly powerful to influence Ares and Annabeth thinks the voice came from Tartarus. Gods and other immortals never truly die. I tried to put everything together, the first thing that came to mind was Kronos. The titan king made the most sense to me plus something about it just felt right.

"Kronos is really that worried about little old me?" I bluffed confidence in my assumption of Luke's leader. The air seemed to grow colder after my words.

"You should be careful with names Percy," Luke warned me. "And no, he's not worried about you, certainly not anymore. Lord Kronos simply believes that you're too unpredictable. You came to camp able to beat most campers in a duel, within a couple weeks were able to survive fighting Ares. You know more about the Greek world than you should as a newbie. Lord Kronos feels like you have more potential power than you should have as a son of a minor god and that there's more to you than meets the eye, this is insurance."

"You're being used Luke," I told him, momentarily taking my eyes off of the slowly approaching scorpion to look him directly in the eyes. "He's brainwashing you." Luke's eye twitches, he didn't seem to appreciate what I was saying.

"You're wrong, he's shown me that my talents are being wasted, how little the gods care for mortals and how I can make a difference and make the gods pay," he told me. "Do you know what my quest was, Percy? Hermes wanted me to steal a golden apple from the garden of the Hesperides. After training for years that was the best he could think of."

"That's not exactly easy," I told him. "Hercules did it."

"Exactly, what's the point in doing something that's already been done. There's no glory in that," he said bitterly. "All the gods know how to do is repeat themselves. When I started to dream of Kronos he suggested doing something that no demi-god had done before, to steal something powerful and worthwhile which no one had the balls to try before."

"Until Ares caught you." Luke's smile wavered.

"I'll admit I got overconfident. Kronos told me how to persuade the meat-head with the prospect of a war between the big three, it was as easy as convincing Mr D wine counts as your five a day. The reign of the gods is ending, Percy. The great prophecy is coming to pass." I didn't know what prophecy he was on about but I didn't have chance to ask as Luke picked up his gym bag and slung it over his shoulder. "My lord waits for me Percy, enjoy your remaining seconds." He walked off through the creek into the trees on the other side away from camp, soon he was out of sight.

Now Luke was gone, my attention was solely on the scorpion sitting on my thigh. I hadn't managed to come up with a way out. I figured Luke was right and I only had a matter of seconds before the scorpion struck and a matter of minutes before I passed into the underworld. I survive the entire quest, Mormo, Medusa, the lotus casino, fighting Ares and I die to a fucking arachnid… that's so lame.

I was debating taking my chances at killing it with riptide when I had a better idea, at least one that's less likely to get me killed if it works. My plan all revolved around if I could pull a similar trick to when I fought the robotic dragon -the only problem was executing my plan, I hadn't spent much time practicing my shadow manipulation.

I'm not an expert on scorpion body language by a long shot but even I could tell things were bad when it began to length its tail in preparation to strike. My instincts kicked in and I focused on the shadow of the tree next to me and how much I wanted the scorpion off my leg. Next thing I knew sure enough the large black scorpion was gone from my thigh. I let out a sigh of relief seeing that it was pinned up against the tree. All its legs were squirming, looking for any purchase to scurry along, its pincers snapped harmlessly at the shadows restricting it and the tail was repeatedly passing through the shadow binds that wrapped around its body.

I stood up feeling a lot calmer now the scorpion was restrained. I uncapped riptide and effortlessly skewered the scorpion. I was a little surprised when it crumbled into the fine golden dust of a monster but then realized that if it were a normal animal I probably would have heard of a scorpion that could jump fifteen feet and kill in under a minute. I need to talk to Chiron, ASAP.

As quickly as I could I made my way back through the forest before basically sprinting through camp, which got me a few strange looks. I made my way up the hill to the big house. It felt like a lifetime ago that I woke up on the porch after fighting the minotaur, completely unaware of the Greek world. Now here I was, a boy who'd fought a god while trying to return the king of the god's symbol on my way to chat to another god and a centaur. My life has certainly gotten interesting, I thought as I arrived at the porch. Chiron and Mr D were sitting like usual, playing pinochle in the shade with iced drinks by their sides. Chiron looked surprised seeing me rush up to them whilst Mr D looked as indifferent as usual.

"Percy, what's wrong?" Chiron asked me from his wheelchair, obviously able to read my expression. I told both of them everything that had happened from meeting Luke in the area and his new sword to everything he said about Kronos and the gods. Chiron looked worried and I even caught Mr D looking disturbed for a second before he went back to his normal uncaring expression. Eventually I got to the part of me killing the scorpion, Chiron looked surprised even though he had heard of what happened with the bronze dragon.

"That is worrying," Chiron said, he'd been quiet for the duration of my story. "Very worrying indeed. It needs to be reported to Olympus immediately."

"I'll inform father now," Mr D said, taking it uncharacteristically seriously before flashing off.

"Luke is out there right now," I told Chiron, wanting to go out after him, Chiron shook his head.

"No, Percy. The gods-"

"Zeus won't even talk about it, he forbade me and Annabeth from even talking about whatever was in the pit," I countered.

"Before it was speculation, now we have to hope Zeus will take this threat seriously." I didn't like it, I had a feeling Zeus would try to keep this hidden but I didn't know him as well as Chiron does.

"What's this 'great prophecy' Luke was on about?" I asked moving the conversation on as I could tell Chiron was putting his foot -or hoof- down on the matter. The centaur glanced up nervously.

"Percy, it isn't my place,"

"What's the big deal about it?"

"Now is not the time." Chiron told me sternly. "I have a feeling you have a great future ahead of you so you might need to know one day, but for now try to put it out of your mind." Yeah, like that's going to be possible. "I should also be off to Olympus," Chiron told me, ending our conversation despite all the questions I still had.

Annabeth had taken the news about Luke badly once I told her. She'd idolized the son of Hermes since before they got to camp so I understood it was hard for her. Once I'd sworn that I was telling the truth she told me she needed some time to think and I hadn't seen her since. I was a little worried about her but I figured that she just needed some time.

Now it was nearly time for lights out. The atmosphere in the Hermes cabin was awful, everybody was hurt by Luke's betrayal. Luke hadn't just been the counselor of the cabin, he had been its heart. He might not have fond opinions of the gods -to put it lightly- but Luke had always been popular with the other demigods. I was lying on my mattress on the floor, waiting for everybody to fall asleep before I could go for a nighttime stroll. I needed to think about everything that had happened today and in my previous time at camp I had found sneaking out at night a good way to clear my thoughts. Come to the woods tonight, I heard the familiar voice say in my mind I believe they call it Zeus' fist.

I had been eager to escape the cabin before but now it was nearly intolerable. I hadn't forgotten that the woman had promised to answer my questions once my quest was over. Each line of the prophecy had been fulfilled but one. We'd been west and faced Ares, we'd got the bolt and returned it, been betrayed by a friend but I still didn't know 'who I really am in the end'. After feeling like I'd grown several years older waiting, eventually everyone in the cabin was silent and unmoving. I got up from my mattress and crept out of the cabin.

I rushed through the empty campgrounds. I'd learnt that there were only three harpies so I found them easy enough to avoid. After passing the cabins and amphitheater I entered into the forest for the second time today. Zeus' fist was easy to find but I was disheartened to see that the woman wasn't there.

I walked all around the giant mound of boulders quietly calling out, "Hello?...Are you here?...Anyone?" After confirming that I was indeed alone I sat down on one of the lower boulders.

Come into the shadow between the boulders. I shot back up upon hearing the woman's voice. Sure enough there was a gap between the boulders so without hesitation I walked into the shadow. At this point I felt like I completely trusted the woman at the very least I needed answers, answers that I knew she could provide.

After walking into the shadow I felt the same ice cold chill through my whole body that came with what Annabeth had called shadow travel. I continued walking into the same living room that I'd spoken with the woman in twice previously. It looked the same as before, everything black and silver.

The only thing different in the room was the woman. She was dressed in a long flowing black dress that seemed to suck in the non existent light like I was looking into a black hole. The dress contrasted with the woman's pale skin behind the woman were two giant black shadows. No, they're not shadows… they're wings. The woman was smiling as she watched me walk out of a shadow.

"It's so good to see you again Percy," she said happily. She sounded excited at seeing me which I took as a good sign, It's always good your super powered guardian angel is happy to see you. Her next actions surprised me so much I didn't know what to do or say. The woman had stood from her couch and wrapped me in a hug. I was fairly tall for my age but she was much taller than me, even without her heels.

"Err, you too," I said when the woman released me, I had no idea how to respond to a goddess hugging me. The woman laughed.

"Oh I suppose you weren't expecting that were you, I got a little ahead of myself," she said, taking a step back and giving me a little space.

"You have wings," I couldn't help but state.

"Yes, my most 'true' forms do," the woman told me before giving her shoulders a slight shrug and the large wings disappeared. "But most of the time it's easier to get rid of them."

"So are you finally going to answer my questions?" I asked. "The quest's over."

"Yes, as promised all will make sense now." I racked my brain trying to figure out what I wanted to ask first. What's going on with my memory? Who are you? Who is Hem? Why are you interested in me? I had a million questions but before I could decide on what to start with the woman waved her hand over my eyes and everything went black.

I didn't feel like I'd been out for long and woke up lying on one of the couches. I turned my head and saw the woman watching me, smiling from her fainting couch. Ten minutes ago I wouldn't have known what a fainting couch was but now I knew it was the woman's preferred seat.

"Hi Mom."

AN: End of chapter 10! We're past the 50K words mark and at the end of the lightning thief. Thank you for the support so far!

As always please please please let me know what you thought good or bad.

Until next time!