Percy Jackson and the Four Horsemen

Chapter 9: For Blackstone

PREVIOUSLY ON THE FOUR HORSEMEN:

Though it would have hurt a lot more if he was the one who got skewered. Khione's broken body, already dissolving into ethereal golden dust, lay on the cold marble floor with him. It was at that point Percy noticed that he was not alone. As his vision faded to black, he heard Poseidon yell, "FIND APOLLO! NOW!"

Mac was really lucky that he had taken that charm back from Cabin 3. Without it, he was ashamed to admit, Khione would have killed him. That would not go well with his track record.

He clutched the golden apple charm close to his chest, having already used some of it to recover. There was still quite a lot for quick reversals but he had to stay careful. He needed to have enough when he had all Four.

And thanks to Perseus Jackson, he had no idea if Plan A would work. And Plan B would be… painful, to say the least. Even for him. Attacking and capturing three gods was no easy task, even if they were half the fighters Khione was.

Now, he needed to recover. And wait. He hated waiting. But it gave him time to plan. And he did need to plan. He didn't need someone like Percy Jackson on his ass from the beginning. Luckily, he had a few things to keep Percy distracted. A man can't leave his house if it's on fire.

And he didn't need the Oracle to tell him that Camp Half-Blood would go through some more tough times.

Percy was used to waking up to a bright light. The unusual part was the fact that the bright light came from Apollo's pearly white teeth.

"Ugh."

"See, Uncle? I told you he's fine."

"He has a knife stuck in him."

"It's only the tip. We got the rest out. Though I'm not really sure how we couldn't pull the entire thing out. We even got Heracles here and he couldn't do it either!"

"I know, Apollo. I was there."

Percy's eyes adjusted to the light and he saw his father and Apollo, who seemed to be glowing with excitement.

"Is Apollo going to explode?"

Both the gods turned back to look at him.

"No, I'm not."

"No, he's not."

"Jinx."

Poseidon sighed.

"Father… sorry, I couldn't bring back Khione alive."

"It's ok, my son. You did well. The few glimpses of this demigod that we have seen is concerning. Zeus will probably hold a meeting. Perhaps, we can be of some assistance this time."

"Assistance would be great. Probably with a side of smiting."

Poseidon smiled dryly.

"Go back to your camp, Percy. I think they need you."

"What do you mean?"

"You'll see."

With that, Poseidon disappeared, leaving a trail of sea mist.

"Dramatic fathers, amirite, cuz."

Percy sighed.

"Yeah."

"Percy, before I go. There's this one small thing I need to tell you."

"Surely it's something good."

"Uh, usually I'd say yes, but seeing that you turned down our humble offer for you to join our ranks… you are now officially more god than man."

"The fuck does that mean? Don't tell me you guys made me a god. I swear, I will beat Zeu-"

"Chill, cuz. I don't know how, but while you were there, facing that demigod, something burned away a bit more of your DNA and was filled by godly essence. It's like what ambrosia and nectar do, but they're temporary. You're still around 47% human, but as a son of Poseidon, that's pretty powerful."

"Wait, you guys have been testing my blood?"

"You're the Champion of Olympus. Of course, we are. Above 80% god for any mortal causes them to internally combust and we need to make sure you don't."

"Yeah, but my blood…"

"Not only your blood, but Asclepius has samples of sweat and hair, too, I think. You see, we're trying to figure out a way to juice our demigods to the maximum permanently. Now that your body must've consumed all that nectar and ambrosia and Hestia's blessing, your percentages should have returned to normal. But they didn't. Which is odd, but great for us!"

Apollo smiled another flashy grin.

"Your father didn't let me dissect you and figure out what changed because you're a mortal and blah, blah, blah."

Percy smiled politely, now pretty lost.

"Also, the point of the dagger stuck in you should probably dissolve in a year or two. Your skin is already healing over it, which is something I've never seen a mortal body do."

"A year?"

"That's the one with 4 days, right? Or is it weeks? I don't know. Either way, out of sight, out of mind. One last thing."

Apollo's face turned dark.

"Your enemy is a demigod, just like you. Unfortunately, that means however hard your father tries, the council cannot help. It's like Luke Castellan all over again. You're on your own, Percy Jackson."

Apollo flashed away, leaving Percy sitting on an empty bed in Camp Half-Blood's infirmary (somehow).

Percy was in a pretty bad mood when Annabeth found him. He had just tried to enter his cabin, when it dematerialized all around him, leaving puffs of white Mist, and appeared again a few metres away. After three or four such vain attempts, Percy slammed through what he thought was another apparition only to be met face-first with the trunk of a tree. No doubt, the pranksters would have continued if not for Annabeth.

Once the two Hecate campers were aptly dealt with (as per Annabeth; Percy actually wanted to introduce them to his father the hard way), Percy recounted his adventure (or beat-down, whatever).

"So he had a metal arm."

"A Stygian Iron one, by the looks of it. It was wicked."

"Which means his parent is an Underworld deity. Interesting."

"He had purple eyes, too. Like bright purple."

"Wow. Unique. Kinda like yours."

"Uh… thanks? Also, I met my dad."

Godly parent-child meetings were a sensitive subject among the demigods. Percy really had tried his best to get the gods to interact with their children more, making them swear on the River Styx. And it had changed, for a bit. The gods were slowly beginning to go back to being the high and mighty Olympians they always were. Even for Annabeth and Percy, their respective parents were also interacting less with them.

"How was it?"

"Well, for one, he left pretty early. But before that, he gave his usual goodbye."

She smirked.

"What warning did he give you this time?"

"He said that my camp needs me."

As if on cue, a loud whoosh sounded from somewhere near the cabins. Both Percy and Annabeth looked over to Cabin 7 where one of the Apollo kids had set up some sort of ultra-tanning station with the help of Leo on the roof. Unfortunately, the roof was now about a hundred feet from where it should have been, and there was a very loud scream as the roof didn't seem to stop.

The two demigods sprinted down to the rest of Cabin 7, which had a new convertible feature. A small crowd had gathered there, mostly comprised of a group of Apollo kids, and a few other random ones. While Annabeth went to look for Chiron, Percy tried to look for the prankster. Fortunately, he didn't have to look far. A new camper, a girl of maybe 14 years old was muttering under her breath while clasping some sort of charm. As he walked towards her, her eyes darted towards him and away, looking for some exit. The crowd of demigods swarmed around the two of them. The demigod tried to push her way out of the crowd in vain, forcing her to face her punishment.

"Fix it."

"Why should I? He's the son of an Olympian, just like you."

She said it with so much disgust, even more than what Percy had heard from the likes of his maths teacher and Kronos.

"I don't know what's gotten into you, magic girl. He's a demigod, just like you."

"He supports you, and you killed my sister."

Percy internally sighed. Of course, a few demigods wouldn't believe him. And denying these accusations never helped with someone dealing in grief, no matter how irrational and stupid they were being.

"Look. You're hurting someone that didn't do anything. Do you really think Lou would want to do this?"

"Don't say her name. You're the reason for this, Percy Jackson. You majors need to learn a lesson."

As she said that, her hand left the charm, and even Percy could hear the scream getting louder. Percy quickly reached out to the nearest sources of water he could find. Luckily, he knew one. The familiar feeling of his father's domain washed over him as he called the water to form a barrier underneath the falling demigod. The kid's screams were quickly silenced as he was submerged in the murky lake water. Percy slowly let the water run back to the lake as the wet demigod (and roof) were safe and back where they were supposed to be.

He turned back to confront the Hecate kid again only to find nothing. He looked around in vain but the girl had made a quick exit.

A few moments later, Chiron had galloped to Cabin 7, Annabeth in tow. He gave a quick nod to Percy, and rounded up the kids to shoo them away.

"This isn't the first prank that's gotten out of hand, Percy. While you were knocked out, the Ares cabin had most of their things thrown into the lake. The naiads and I spent hours finding wet underpants."

Chiron galloped up to them again.

"This is not a very good sign, my heroes. We have already gotten reports from the acting Hecate counsellor that some Hecate demigods have disappeared, leaving barely any trace of magic."

The usually-optimistic centaur's face was grim.

"The last time we had missing campers, they ended up reviving Kronos."

That dampened the conversation.

Percy replied, "So we keep the campers together. No more division."

Annabeth sighed, "It might be a futile effort, Percy. These demigods seem to be having unusual flares of anger and hate."

"Annabeth is right. These 'pranksters' mean to cause harm. I fear there is some magical intrusion taking place."

"The pillar in Bunker Nine. Did we ever get through it?"

"We haven't had a chance to. You were the last people there."

"What about the Four? Nothing there either?"

Annabeth sighed. "Yep. I don't think this will be the last of our problems either."

"What do you mean?"

"I- I don't know. Just a feeling…"

Now that Annabeth mentioned it, Percy understood what she was talking about. It was like being at the crest of a large wave, knowing that your ship was about to come crashing down. And his ship was Camp Half-Blood.

Mac was surprised to see his setup hadn't been touched. His wards seemed to have kept the demigods away. They wouldn't have any idea about Solid Mist and its weaknesses, it was too far ahead of them. For now, his hideout was safe. He pressed the wrist of his arm, which created an Iris-message. "Show me Alabaster Torrington."

On the mist formed an image of an older teen with brown hair and green eyes, who was surrounded by a bunch of other teenagers in some building in Manhattan.

"What do you want now, Mac?"

"How many demigods?"

"A lot. With your help and the remainder of the Titans Corporation money, we can make a good amount of space for any other runaways too."

"Good. Keep them trained. We will take revenge for Lou Ellen."

"I'm surprised we never met, even though we were on the same side during the invasion of New York."

Mac grumbled. The son of Hecate was always very nosy, especially with his 'siblings'.

"Kronos had other plans if the first failed. There are still some Titans. Unfortunately, he did not expect to be dead upon failure. I will keep sending recruits to you. For Blackstone."

Alabaster replied. "For Blackstone."

Mac cut the call and turned back to his monitors. The first of the Four was in his reach.

A/N:- Hello, hello. Filler chapter. But Arc 2 has begun and if there are any theories on the so-called Four then please review and let me know. With the heavy emphasis on Hecate, perhaps you could figure out the first. Hint: All Four's domains start with 'D'. Goodbye.

-Scythe7137