A Legend is born

"Mr. D," Dr. Annabeth said, "We had to! These children were in danger!"

"It is normal for demigod children to be in danger," Athena said impassively. "You should not have come here."

"Mom," Dr. Annabeth said, pleading. "Please, just listen to us…"

Athena removed her helmet. Was it a sign of peace? She inclined her head towards Dr. Annabeth and pulled her hair back. In the light from the Washington Monument, I could see her ears incased in white stuff. "None of us can hear you," she said. "You can't use your new trickery."

I looked down the row of Gods. They all looked to Athena. None of them could read lips. They were all relying on her call. Even Zeus, who looked strange in a chariot the same size as everyone else's.

"No, that's not what I meant!" Dr. Annabeth straightened up. "You can read my lips, right? Mom, we didn't mean any harm. We didn't come to manipulate anyone. We'll return to the bottom of the sea peacefully. We mean no harm!"

"Athena, your excellency!" Piper said, running forward. "If you will, look at me! You know I gained the same gifts as your daughter. It's not on me now. It's been reversed! If Percy and Annabeth's gifts could be reversed-"

It was odd, but Piper's skin seemed to almost give off a sheen. Not quite, but almost. Was it because her mom is Aphrodite?

"They will never be allowed to return," Athena said, cooly. "They cause too much disruption."

"Says who?" I asked.

Piper, Dr. Annabeth, and Percy all gestured for me to shut up. They had forgotten Athena couldn't hear. When she saw their gestures, she looked over at me. "Did you say something, Walker?" she asked.

"I asked who decided they cause too much disruption," I said. "Was it Zeus?"

Athena paused. "Yes, it was my fathe-"

"He's not King of the Gods now," I interrupted her. "Did you vote on it?"

Athena narrowed her eyes. "I'm reminded of why I didn't want you around my daughter," she said.

With her eyes boring into me, I felt small. Weak. But I knew I wasn't either of those things. Just because you feel something doesn't make it true. And often, you feel a certain way and have to tell yourself that your brain is tricking you. You are stronger than you think. You never know exactly how strong until you need to be.

I stood my ground. "I am not the Percy Jackson you know," I told Athena. "I barely know your daughter. Either of them. But I have seen the Gods and I know you hate the Legends because you're afraid of being influenced by them. Have you ever thought that the demigods feel the same way about you?"

Athena scoffed and rolled her eyes. "You are every bit as impertinent as the other you."

"Are either of us wrong?"

Athena glared. I glanced at Percy and Dr. Annabeth and Annabeth. Annabeth was battered and dirty. She was staring at me like I was absolutely crazy. I didn't get it. I didn't understand the world as she saw it.

Dr. Annabeth and Percy were holding hands. Squeezing for dear life. I had known they were glowing down at the bottom of the trench. But here, against the darkness, they seemed to bend reality. I thought about them, their mannerisms, and about Piper. And I thought about the Gods. And then I started to get a hunch.

I pointed at Dr. Annabeth and Percy and looked up at Athena. "I have a theory on these Legends," I said. "We want to listen to them. You want to listen to them. Just like special normal people celebrities and presidents. They have no special powers except what they've worked on themselves. We don't want to listen to you. We do because you're powerful, but we don't want to."

"What's he saying?" Poseidon said behind me. Athena looked around at her fellow Gods. Aphrodite procured two scarves from her chariot and dismounted. She gestured Piper over, sending distasteful looks towards Percy and Dr. Annabeth, and handed them to her. With a scowl, Piper returned to Percy and Dr. Annabeth and tied a scarf around their mouth each. Percy's was cinched so tightly around his head that he ended up opening his mouth and biting down on the scarf.

Athena removed her earplugs. Once she did, so did the other Gods. She snapped her fingers at me. "Tell us what you said again," she demanded. "And then keep going."

Behind me, Poseidon drew closer in the water. I tightened my grip on my sword. "The difference between Legends and Gods?" I began. "We want to follow Legends. We have to follow Gods. We follow you because you're powerful. But civilization believes in Legends because they're good. They work on themselves and improve. They change and become better. They inspire - not influence - us to be better."

I spread my hands towards all of them. "You lot are exactly the same people you were two-thousand years ago, except you've distanced yourself more and more from humanity! Legends remember what they went through. The reason Legends are so compelling isn't because of any special power, but because they're good people. My theory is that the difference between the Gods and these new Legends isn't the charmspeak or the glowing thing. The difference is that Legends don't lose their humanity when they achieve great things. Despite all that you've put them through, Percy and Dr. Annabeth are still fantastic people."

The thundering overhead had stammered to a stop. Camp Half-Blood stood, glancing back and forth and waiting for instructions. None of the Gods looked particularly impressed with me. What else was new? I'd been letting down adult figures my whole life. I licked my lips. "Piper stopped being a Legend when she made the decision to steal from the Gods because she was angry at you." At this, everyone murmured and cast accusatory glances towards Piper, who stared at me, open-mouthed. "Grover can't become a Legend because he's too angry at the Gods!" I continued. "Dr. Annabeth said that becoming a God was like a cheat on a video game that prevents you from winning. The point of life is to keep your humanity and progress and become a better, kinder person. Gods don't do that. Grover's not a God, but he spends every day of his life in a state of festering hatred towards you. He fights monsters out of anger and revenge. He has become what he hates. It's holding him back!"

A raindrop splattered against my face. I wondered if it was Percy starting a storm, me, or my Dad behind me. But I was working up to my big finish. My knuckles were numb against the sword I was clenching.

"If you could devote your lives to making better choices, then you might be able to become Legends as well. Someone people follow because they want to. Not because they have to. The Legends don't just get their power from their experiences - it's the morality they keep despite it!"

Ares picked up a spear in his chariot. He was probably thinking about where exactly he wanted to run me through with it. Athena was thinking very hard. Zeus sulked in his chariot. I had a feeling that if it were up to him, Ares would run me through.

It was my father who spoke first. "Percy," he said softly behind me. Then, he nodded to the other Percy. "Both of you. I know that Annabeth and Percy are good people. We all know it. But they are too powerful. They can make us feel things we weren't feeling before. They can make us choose things we wouldn't have chosen."

"No, they can't," I said. "I mean… sort of. Legends can't intentionally manipulate you. It completely undermines their powers. Percy and Annabeth would never intentionally send you to do something bad!"

"Percy and Annabeth asked my brother to step down as king," Poseidon said firmly.

"And has that been better for you all?" I turned around. "Isn't voting for things so much better?"

Hermes chuckled. Athena hummed. Aphrodite smiled and looked up and down the row. Ares fumed and Zeus glared daggers at me.

"They also convinced Hera to step down," Athena said. "But… she seems so much happier these days. She may not be Queen of the Gods, but she had tea with Sally Jackson a month ago and described herself as much more comfortable protecting marriages now that she knows when one needs to end."

I tried to not be surprised that the former Queen of Olympus was having tea with my mother. You'd think enough weird things had happened by now. I shouldn't even think twice about it. I wondered if my mom had served blue pasta.

Zeus was turning an angry puce color. But each of the other Gods were thinking. "Morality, you say…" "I think I heard of it once…" "Didn't Socrates…"

"We agreed to banish them," Zeus boomed from his chariot. "If we let them roam free, then they'll change everyone's mind according to their whim. They could convince Apollo to drive the sun backwards. They could demand unreasonable oaths on the River Styx. They could demand people be made Gods!"

"They wouldn't!" I disagreed. I didn't even care that he was a God. I stood up straight and said, "Percy and Dr. Annabeth believe that dying is a good thing! They look forward to it!"

"Then I say we let them experience it now!" Zeus shouted. Lightning flashed across the sky and my skin felt a buzz up and down it. The air felt sticky. The fear grew thick in me, but I refused to move. "Let Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase experience death now so we don't have to deal with them. This time, both sets!"

Zeus raised a jagged piece of metal over his shoulder. It glinted and radiated power. It was shaped like a lightning bolt. I didn't need to be an Annabeth-level genius to know what was coming.

I heard the clipping and clopping of hooves and then Grover put himself in between me and the lightning bolt. "Over my dead body!" he shouted. His voice was whipped into the wind and the shout carried away. He spread his arms out and took a defensive stance. "No one is hurting these kids under my watch!"

The air took on another buzzing feeling. This one like the beating of wings. I felt air currents moving in little circles around me. The clouds overhead parted a little and light from a hidden moon beamed down. Grover took a deep breath, and his skin became luminescent. Warmth rippled through the area. The dew evaporated right off the grass. My clothes dried. So did everyone's around me.

When it was over, Grover was still in front of me, still in a defensive position. But now, he was glowing similarly to Percy and Annabeth. He looked down at Zeus in his chariot and said, "You're afraid Percy and Annabeth will manipulate you. But if you manipulate them, you're no better. Like I was no better when I tricked them. We need to find a better path forward."

Zeus dropped the lightning bolt. He snatched the sides of the chariot and slowly got to his knees. Each of the other Gods were doing the same. I watched Ares, Athena, Poseidon… then my vison tilted. I myself had gotten on my knees and inclined my head without realizing it.

Grover had just become a Legend. He had done it by refusing to let Zeus blast me to ashes. He had reclaimed his morality.

4/19's chapter will be called "My mom calls in a favor."