Disclaimer: I only own the plot and my OCs. Anything you recognize as not mine belongs to Rick Riordan, Greco-Roman mythology, and/or their otherwise respective owners.

Author's Notes: Hey, y'all! Back with another chapter. This one was a lot of fun – I was not planning on the character that is introduced here to come in so soon, but my mind suggested it and I couldn't resist with the idea. The character is very...well, I'll just let you read and find out. :P

Anyways, hope you enjoy. Until next week,

~TGWSI/Selene Borealis

~The Finding Home Saga~

~Finding Home~

~Chapter 34: The Oracle Loses Her Mind~

I wound up waiting an extra day to leave camp.

Camp morale was a little shaken after the events of capture the flag. Lee spent the night in the infirmary; when he showed up the next morning in the dining pavilion with an eyepatch over his left eye socket, and the other demigods were subdued by not talking much and picking at their food, I knew I'd made the right choice. Everybody was sad about the game being ruined, they didn't need me disappearing the same night on top of it.

Besides, the extra hours gave me more time to pack. I loaned Callie out to Cabin Eleven for a few of the activities for the day, telling her I wanted her to have a chance to see what camp was like without me or our small cabin as bias. "Uh huh, sure," she said, sounding skeptical. "Whatever, Percy."

While she was busy with them, I raided the camp store while the dryad on shift as cashier was dozing, snoring quietly in her chair. Using the stealth skills I had learned during my time in Cabin Eleven last summer, I grabbed a bag and an extra change of clothes, some drachmas and ambrosia squares of the least amount of concentration that was possible. Basically, nothing that anybody would immediately notice was gone. I figured the dryads would forgive me for my theft, once I came back with the fleece and made Thalia and the rest of the camp right again.

And if I didn't come back, well...the dryads would be the least of my problems.

That night, after I could tell from Callie's breathing patterns she had fallen asleep, I got out of bed. Pulling on my clothes and slipping on my shoes, I grabbed the bag from where I had hidden it underneath my bunk. Then, smiling softly at my half-sister, I put the note I had written her on my pillows and slipped out of our cabin. "I'll be back," I told her.

I didn't promise it on the River Styx.

Sneaking into the Big House without alerting the harpies was the easy part; the hard part came within getting to the attic. I crept up each flight of stairs, paying special attention to the door to Chiron's room, where it seemed Dolops was staying judging by the soft music of a lyre coming gently through the cracks, and the one to Mr. D's. Honestly, I'm not sure what he did in there all the time. The gods didn't have to sleep, so unless he was doing it for fun that was out of the question, and he was forbidden from alcohol. I hoped he wasn't having orgies in there with some of the nymphs.

Urgh. Just the thought alone of him having sex was enough to make me gag.

At the top of the stairs, I stared up at the green trapdoor which served as entryway to the attic. As quietly as possible, I pulled its cord, catching the wooden ladder at the last second to prevent it from making a booming sound. This time, there wasn't as much dust, for which I was thankful. But, as I discovered as I climbed up into the room, there were a lot of things that were the same.

The room still smelled like reptiles, for one. The various artifacts within it hadn't changed positions at all, for two. And the mummy that had once been a vibrant woman was resting on top of her tripod, for three, unmoving. If you didn't know better like I did, you wouldn't know she was the Oracle of Delphi, the Pythia.

Nervously, I approached her. I was confident in my resolve, but the last time I had interacted with the Pythia had been terrifying. She'd spoken directly inside my mind, taken on the appearances of my friends and Luke, and delivered me a prophecy about not being able to save him that had ultimately come true. I really rather wouldn't have that experience again.

Could I have a good prophecy, if there was such a thing? One which came with no strings attached?

Accept your fate, I told myself. I was going to save the camp and Katie, whatever it took.

I inhaled.

Exhaled.

"Pythia," I began. "What is my destiny?"

I waited one second, then two, then three.

Nothing.

I frowned.

The last time I had asked the Oracle for a prophecy, she had given it to me without any problems. There had been no performance issues involved. Why wasn't she giving me one now?

"O' Oracle," I tried again. "Please, o' Oracle, give me a prophecy."

The mummy didn't move.

Despite my best efforts, doubt began to creep within me. Maybe...maybe there was nothing that I could do to save the camp. Maybe this was a lost cause. Thalia was destined to die a second time, the camp was destined to be unable to become safe again, and eventually it would be more dangerous for us to come here than not. All of the friends I had made at camp besides Silena and Katie (...and Ethan, Alabaster, and Chris), I would never see again. I would never see Katie again.

But...no, that was not going to happen. I had to have hope. And if not, I had to save Katie. She wasn't going to become the wife of Polyphemus and be stuck in the Sea of Monsters forever, not on my watch.

I opened my mouth to speak again.

Before I could, I heard something from behind me. Shocked, I spun around as dread pooled into my stomach, thinking I had been caught by Mr. D.

But instead of him, it was Silena who popped out from the trapdoor. "Percy!" she hissed, pulling herself up into the attic. "Percy, what are you doing?"

As if things couldn't have gotten any worse, behind her was Clarisse. "Told you he would be here," the daughter of Ares gruffed, following after my best friend.

Oh, fuck, I thought.

This couldn't be happening! They weren't supposed to be here! I was supposed to be consulting the Oracle so I could sneak out from camp and go on this quest alone!

"'What am I doing?' What are you doing?" I spluttered, like an idiot.

Clarisse snorted. "I heard you ask Annabeth for that 'favor' yesterday. You're trying to go find the Golden Fleece."

...Looks like I'd been caught. Time to own up.

"What?" I asked, drawing out the word and silently cringing at myself. "No, I'm not."

Silena scowled, placing a hand on her hip. "Percy, if you're going to lie, at least try harder at it."

My shoulders slumped. "Okay, fine, I'm going to go find the Golden Fleece," I admitted. "But, I'm going on my own. You guys can't come with me!"

Clarisse crossed her arms. "And why not?"

Now, I'm not completely stupid. I knew Silena and Clarisse were fully capable of coming on a quest with me; Silena and Katie had come with me on my quest last summer, after all, and Clarisse was a daughter of Ares. My hatred of their dad aside, she and her half-siblings were made of tough stuff. I also knew that if I tried acting like they weren't, saying some stupid excuse about how they were girls, Clarisse would pummel me in the face and Silena would never forgive me – not to mention, my own mom would kill me. It wouldn't matter that I didn't believe it myself.

But this was my responsibility, and mine alone.

"Somebody has to make up for Luke's mistakes," I said. "Somebody has to make things right, and find him and the others, and save Katie. Mila – Demeter showed me her in a dream the other night. I know where she is, and she's in trouble. I have to save her."

Silena's expression softened. "You don't have to make up for Luke, Percy," she said, walking over to me and pulling me into a light hug. "What he did was his own choice."

I allowed the hug for all of two seconds, then pulled away from her. "Yeah, I do," I insisted. "It's my fault."

Clarisse huffed. "But who says you've got to do it alone?"

"I do."

"Well, that's stupid. You're gonna die out there by yourself, Prissy."

I gritted my teeth, but ignored the jab. "Do you know how dangerous the Sea of Monsters is?"

"Yeah. Do you?" Clarisse jutted out her chin. "'Cause as far as I'm hearing, you don't. You would never decide to go there alone if you did. And what about where it's located? Do you know that?"

"I..." I faltered.

I didn't. I'd been trusting that it was somewhere near Florida since that was where Katie had gone and other memorable Ancient Greek sites like Mount Olympus had changed locations with the change of civilizations, but I wasn't completely sure. And even then, there was still a lot of room for error with just going to "Florida."

Silena clapped her hands. "Well then, it's decided. We're going with you."

"Silena, wait – " I began to protest.

SLAM!

From behind Clarisse, the green trapdoor had fallen shut. I blinked. "Clarisse, did you do that?"

The daughter of Ares shook her head. "Uh, no."

The dread pooled back into my stomach.

I turned around. The mummy's mouth had opened, and from it green mist was swirling out. Silena made a sound akin to a muffled shriek, slapping her hand against her mouth, while Clarisse cursed.

"Clarisse!" I half-shouted, half-whispered, mindful of the fact we technically weren't supposed to be here. "Clarisse, open the trapdoor! You and Silena, get out of here!"

Too late.

The voice in my head returned. "I am the spirit of Delphi," it said, twisting and coiling. "Speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python. Approach, seekers, and ask."

For a moment, none of us said anything.

"Μὰ θεούς, she's in my head!" Silena breathed.

"How is that possible?" Clarisse grunted.

"I told you guys," I groaned. Great. Now, it seemed, they were going to have to come with me on the quest, because the Oracle of Delphi had said "seekers." Not "seeker," not the singular like I had been hoping for, but the plural. Gods.

I stepped forwards. "O' Oracle, what is our fate?"

From the mist, an image formed. At first, I thought it was going to be of Luke and my other friends who had betrayed the gods like before, but no. Instead, in the image were four of our fellow campers: Katie, wearing the wedding dress and sitting at her loom in the cave; Lee, with his new eyepatch, his quiver strapped across his back; Annabeth, holding her Yankees' baseball cap in her hands; and Bianca di Angelo, a celestial bronze dagger in hers. Like before, all of their eyes were misty green and not their natural colors, their expressions blank.

I didn't have any time to think about why Bianca and Annabeth were in the image – Lee made some sense, at least – because Katie began to speak. "You shall sail together to the sea of doom," she said, weaving the threads on the loom without looking at them.

Lee grabbed an arrow out of his quiver. "And despair for your life, within stone entombed."

Annabeth smiled predatorily, showing off her teeth. It was kind of weird to see the Pythia making her do that, but it wasn't as out of place as she probably hoped. "But you shall find what you seek and make it your own."

Bianca was last. She looked at us through her eyelashes, standing tall and proud. "And fail without each other, yet depart alone."

Then, just like that, it was over. As before, their figures dissolved into the mist, which swirled back into the mummy. She closed her mouth and resumed her previous position on her stool, as if she had never moved in the first place.

"What does that mean?" Clarisse complained.

Knowing that we wouldn't get any answers, I grabbed Silena by the arm, to which she let out a squawk, and did the same with Clarisse. "Come on, guys, you got your wish," I said. "You wanted to come with me on my quest? Great. Now it's our quest."

When we got out of the Big House, still mercifully undetected, my anger reached its boiling point. "Are you happy now, Silly?" I asked her, continuing to tug her and Clarisse by the arm. "You got what you wanted."

"Where are you going?" she threw back, which I guess wasn't an unfair question to ask. We were walking down the path, sure, but I was ignoring the portion of it that led to the cabins, marching towards my destination that was the Sound.

"Getting ready to go," I replied.

Silena stopped in her place, causing her and Clarisse to rip out of my hold. "Wait, what? We're leaving already?" she complained. "But I haven't even had time to pack!"

"We consulted the Oracle. It's time to go," I reminded her. "If you wanted time to pack, you should've waited until after I already did that."

Yes, I knew my logic was stupid. Pythia hadn't responded to me until after Silena and Clarisse had come up into the attic, but whatever.

My best friend waved her arms. "But if we'd waited, you would've already left!"

"Exactly," I wanted to say. But I wasn't really in a desire to lose my manhood, so I didn't, pivoting on my foot. "Come on, we don't want the harpies to catch us. We need to get going, now."

I ignored the rest of their complaints as they trailed after me, not really in the mood to deal with them. When we reached the beach, I shucked off my shoes at the edge of the water, and waded into it. It lapped at my feet, calm and cool. The waves curled gently in the night, illuminated by the moon and stars without a cloud in sight. The effect of the Sound was calming; I tilted my head upwards, briefly closing my eyes.

Demeter, milady, I prayed. I don't know if you were watching, but I've received a quest to retrieve Katie and the Golden Fleece. My friends and I are going to need help getting to the Sea of Monsters. Can you give me it?

I felt a flood of warmth, an assent.

"What are you trying to do, Prissy?" Clarisse pestered. "Trying to get your daddy to give us a ride?"

Opening my eyes, I glared at her. "No, not exactly. Why, do you have any better ideas?"

She didn't answer me. Typical.

Not having done this before, I had no idea how long it would take for Demeter to answer my request. The three of us waited at the shore awkwardly for about thirty or so seconds, long enough that without any of us talking I could hear the harpies screeching in the distance. It didn't sound like they had realized we were out of bed yet.

Finally, there was a gust of wind, smelling of salt and something...else that I didn't think was usually associated with Demeter. Some sort of crocus, perhaps?

"Hello, sugar!"

I almost choked on my own spit.

Standing in the water right next to me was a girl, about college-aged. Even though I had prayed to Demeter, she definitelywasn't her. She had long, loosely-curled black hair which was done up in a braided bun with gold leaves as a sort of crown, and eyes like sea glass. She was wearing an ancient-styled dress that was light blue, almost the color of the mist above the water in the mornings. Her feet were bare, but gold wrapping was around her ankles and calves, like two weird, snake-like anklets.

The girl smiled at me. "Percy, dear, it's so nice to finally meet you!" she purred, leaning forwards to kiss my cheek. I jolted back in surprise, wiping at the spot with my hand. She laughed. "Mother's sorry she couldn't make it. She's a little busy right now, you know? Comes with being a goddess and all."

My eyebrows furrowed. "And who are you?"

She made a 'tsk'ing noise, twirling around a finger. "Oh, please, I would've thought you'd know! There's only so many immortal half-siblings you have, after all, and I'm not one of the ones from Amphitrite. Oh, and I'm certainly not Arty or Phone." She giggled, winking at me, and did an elegant, if over-the-top, curtsy. "I'm Despoina, Percy, dear. Goddess of fertility and ritual mysteries from Arcadia and the like. And tonight, I'm your fairy godmother...err, half-sister."

Vaguely, I remembered the story of Despoina and Arion, as taught to me by Annabeth. I'd never really known how to picture her before. I certainly wasn't expecting her to act like this. "You're Despoina?"

"The one and only," she singsonged. She turned to look at Silena and Clarisse. "Oh, and you must be his friends! Silena Beauregard you are, aren't you? The daughter of Aphrodite. And, hmm...you're obviously not Katie. Remind me of your name again?"

"Clarisse la Rue," she stated blandly.

Despoina beamed. "Oh, yes, the daughter of Ares! Oh, you're both so pretty!"

Clarisse made a face, like she'd rather die than be called pretty again.

Silena smiled shakily. "It's nice to meet you, Lady Despoina."

Despoina rolled her eyes. "Oh, please, call me Despoina. I'm so tired of the Lady and Potnia titles. Do you know how many times I was called them during the Classical Ages? Let me tell you, it got boring! All people ever wanted from me was to connect with Mom or Phone, or fertility blessings. I never got to have any fun, not like Dionysus..." She trailed off. "I'm sorry, I talk too much. Habit of mine, really. Now, what did you want again, Percy, dear?"

"A ship," I repeated. "We need to go to the Sea of Monsters."

She clapped a hand to her forehead. "Right, right, silly me! Sorry, I've just been so excited to meet you! Mother never chooses a champion and to choose you, with your romance with that son of Hermes..." She hummed, ignoring how I coughed and Clarisse's eyes widened drastically. "Anyways, let me just – " She snapped her fingers.

About forty feet away from her, a sailboat glimmered into existence. I thought it was pretty cool, if not exactly what we needed, but Despoina's nose wrinkled. "That's not what I meant! Darn it, you'd think I was only centuries old, not three millennia," she complained. She snapped her fingers again. "There, how's that?"

Like something out of a cartoon, the sailboat lengthened and gained bulk while losing its sails. Soon enough, it was a small yacht. My mouth might or might not have dropped open. "Wow."

Despoina cackled delightedly. "I know! I'm good, aren't I? Bedrooms with clothes, a kitchen with food, good steering, some wind spirits as a crew...you ain't never had an immortal half-sister like me, huh?"

"Did you just reference Aladdin?" Silena asked faintly.

"I did," Despoina told her smugly. "Anyways, I should really be going now. Mother told me I was only supposed to give you some transportation – which, I should add, will only take you up to a certain point, you'll know it when you see it! After that, you're on your own. But, ooh, that reminds me!" She clasped her hands together. "I was going to give you a gift of my own, Percy, dear! A little something, you know?"

"Wha – mmph!"

Despoina was on me in a second. She wrapped her arms around my neck, planting a kiss right on my lips – which, ew!She was my half-sister! And I was gay! I tried to resist, but despite her apparent smaller stature, she was a goddess and much stronger than me. She tasted like salt, which was unusual; I'd never really noticed a distinctive taste to Luke's lips or...yeah, before, that couldn't be explained.

As something in my brain began to tingle, she broke it off. "Sorry about the kiss, sugar, that's just the way my powers work," she explained. "Anyways, I think you should get going. I hear those harpies that guard this camp, don't you?"

Instinctively, I looked over back at camp, as did Silena and Clarisse. Sure enough, five harpies were fluttering over the top of the sand dunes – plump little hags with pinched faces and talons and feathery wings too small for their bodies. They reminded me of miniature cafeteria ladies who'd been crossbred with dodo birds. They weren't very fast, thank gods, but they were vicious if they caught up to you.

"There!" one of them screeched. "Bad children out of cabins! Snack time for lucky harpies!"

I looked over to my side and saw that, although the yacht she created was still there, Despoina was gone. "Did that really just happen?" I asked no one in particular.

Silena took over the reins, since Clarisse was staring at me as if I'd grown a second head. "Yes," she said. "Now, come on! We have to get on that yacht!"

Word Count: 3,550

Next Chapter Title: Are Two Times Really A Coincidence?