Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The next morning everyone woke up and made their way into the dining hall. Hermes and his children were the first ones to arrive, giggling to themselves. Athena and Annabeth game in next, both sporting grey hair. 

“Hermes!” Athena yelled.

“Yes, Athena?” The God asked innocently.

“What did you do?” 

“Nothing.” He answered honestly. Travis had been in charge of that particular duo. 

“Well then what did your spawn do?”

“Hey.” The Stolls protested.

“Reverse it.” Annabeth demanded.

“We can’t. It lasts for twelve hours.” Chris grinned. Just then Ares and Clarisse walked in with blood red hair.

“HERMES!” Ares shouted.

“Wasn’t me.” He smirked. Chris grinned. He had drawn the short straw as nobody really wanted to get caught dying the War God’s hair. Or Clarisse’s for that matter. Slowly, the rest of the group arrived. Percy, Thalia and Poseidon had green hair that matched the two sea people’s eyes while Zeus and Hera had blue hair. Nico and Hades were now white haired and both of them looked incredibly unhappy about this fact. Those who had slept in the guest rooms, including Chiron were all sporting rainbow coloured hair while Frank seemed quite upset with but the others found it rather amusing. Dionysus and Dakota were now purple haired while Aphrodite and her kids had hot pink hair. Piper was very upset, she headed straight towards the Hermes kids who all dived behind their father.

“Reverse this!” She screamed.

“We can’t. It won’t wear off for twelve hours.” Travis explained.

“I’m going to kill you!”

“Calm down, Pipes.” Jason moved forwards to take her hand. She looked at him, anger fading into surprise when she saw his rainbow coloured hair. Then Apollo and Will arrived, sporting silver hair. Chris had figured that gold hair really wouldn’t do much to the two blondes. Demeter had escaped the prank, as had Artemis and Hestia. Hephaestus and his kids had red hair but a brighter shade than Ares and Clarisse. Leo seemed quite pleased with his hair. Beckendorf was less impressed but after seeing the various other colours in the room he felt better. Once everyone had finished eating they moved to the throne room. They sat in the same seating arrangements as the day before, although Thalia moved back to sit with Percy rather than Annabeth. The Stolls sat on either side of their father while Chris sat at his feet. 

“Who will read?” Chiron asked.

“I haven’t read yet.” Frank spoke up. Chiron smiled and handed him the book with the number two on the spine.

“My best friend shops for a wedding dress.”

“What? This is definitely starting as strangely as the last one.” Leo commented. Grover let out a quiet groan as he figured out what this was about. Percy shot him a smirk.

“Is Grover getting married?” Reyna asked in bemusement.

“No.” The Satyr yelled in embarrassment.

My nightmare started like this.

“Oh great. Percy’s nightmares are never good.” Poseidon groaned.

I was standing...for his life.

“Running for your life and you stop to shop for a wedding dress?” Thalia asked in amusement.

“Don’t you?” Grover asked sarcastically.

Yeah, I said...Grover is a satyr. 

“We know?” Nico frowned.

“Maybe the book recaps in case you didn’t read the first one?” Leo suggested.

“Why would you not read the first one?” Athena asked in horror.

“Especially given that these books were sent back for us to read. We would obviously read them all.” Annabeth frowned. Everyone just shrugged.

From the waist...I don’t recommend), 

Grover glared at Percy while everyone else sniggered.

you’d never...since last July, 

“You didn’t check in for almost a year?” Jason asked.

“I didn’t have much chance.” Grover said.

when he set...something.

“Descriptive.” Percy snorted at his own thoughts.

A bone-rattling...wedding dresses.

“I’m not sure a shop with no other exits is a good hiding place.” Beckendorf frowned.

“Yeah. I found that out.” Grover sighed.

The monster’s shadow...rotten meat 

Percy, Annabeth, Grover and Clarisse all grimaced. They could all recall that smell very well.

and that weird...shadow passed on.

“I’d say good but it wouldn’t be a nightmare if it was that easy.” Nico frowned.

“It’ll be coming back.” Beckendorf agreed.

Silence except...bellowed: “MIIIIINE!”

“That’s pretty creepy.” Percy noted.

“Try actually living it.” Clarisse muttered. Everyone who didn’t know what happened gave her strange looks.

I sat bolt...humanlike shape. 

Percy glanced over at Annabeth who had gone a little red. 

But then there...anyone out there.

Percy smirked over at Nico.

“Unless you shadow travel.”

“You sneaked into Percy’s room through his window?” Hades raised an eyebrow at his son. Nico blushed.

“I needed to speak with him and I didn’t want to be seen.” Nico tried to explain.

“How did that work out for ya?” Percy asked with a chuckle.

“That was your fault.” Nico reminded him. Apollo and Will both watched the exchange with very similar frowns.

“Come on, dear,”...made it.’”

“Almost being the operative word.” Percy muttered to himself.

“Coming,”...for so long….

“Why would you need it now?” Poseidon asked. 

“I was still unsure about the shadow at the window.” Percy said.

Besides, my mom...her china cabinet.

Everybody laughed again.

“Why were you swinging a javelin inside anyway?” Chiron raised an eyebrow.

“Practise?” Percy offered.

“Swords are one things but javelins aren’t quite another.” Chiron told him.

I put Anaklusmos...Grover meant?

“Well, I’m guessing that he wanted to warn you something is coming. Whatever was chasing him.” Reyna said.

“Maybe.” Gwen frowned.

I made a three-fingered...exploding homework. 

“Exploding homework?” Poseidon smirked at his son.

“Yep.” Percy nodded. “Although that may not have been supernatural.”

“What did you do?” Leo asked eagerly.

“Science project gone wrong.” Percy admitted.

Tomorrow, I’d...mess that up.

“Well you just jinxed it.” Thalia sighed.

As usual...miracles like that.

“I love how your mom thinks blue food is as much of a miracle as you going a whole year without being expelled.” Annabeth laughed.

“She really should know better than to celebrate even a day before the year is over.” Grover added.

I ate at the...all right?”

“Yeah, Percy not eating is a big indicator something isn’t right.” Thalia nodded.

“Yeah … fine.”...bothering me. 

“Not eating and saying he’s fine. You don’t need to be a mind reader to know something is up.” Apollo scoffed lightly.

“It is fairly obvious.” Annabeth agreed.

She dried her...from camp… .” 

“Yeah. Maybe.” Percy muttered. He recalled not being told about a couple of things going wrong at camp.

Her shoulders...for camp tonight.”

“Why would Percy not go to camp?” Reyna frowned.

“Because there was stuff going on.” Chiron sighed.

“Well then surely you would want Percy there?” Jason said.

She twisted her...have to postpone.”

“But Camp is the only...one of the only safe places.” Poseidon said, correcting himself with a glance at the Romans.

“Postpone? Mom...so suddenly.”

“So camp is in so much danger that Chiron thinks Percy shouldn’t go and yet his mom won’t explain.” Thalia raised an eyebrow.

“He has school.” Annabeth pointed out.

“Yes, I’m sure he’ll be completely focused on school.” Will scoffed.

My mind was...will be waiting.”

Percy smiled slightly while Annabeth cringed, recalling her initial reaction to meeting Tyson.

“But—”...underground alone.

“Tyson? Afraid of the underground?” Rachel raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah. He was afraid of a lot of things to begin with.” Percy said with another fond smile.

I gathered up...as I can.”

“That’s still not very comforting.” Connor muttered.

“Yeah, well, Camp wasn’t in a good state that year, was it?” Travis muttered to his brother.

Reluctantly, I told...afternoon talk.

“That sounds about right.” Poseidon sighed.

In fact...long time.

“It wasn’t that long.” Percy frowned. “Just a regular summer.”

As I stepped...to no one.

Everyone frowned and then turned to Annabeth.

“What?” She asked.

“You’re the only one who knows Percy that can turn invisible.” Nico pointed out.

Then it rippled and vanished.

“Chapter’s over.” Frank announced. “That was really short.” 

“Lucky you.” Clarisse muttered.

“I’ll read next.” Jason offered. Frank handed over the book.

Chapter Text

“I can’t say that cannibals sound like good playmates.” Leo said.

“I don’t recommend it.” Percy replied.

“There goes a normal school day.” Jason laughed.

“We already knew there was no chance of that.” Thalia smirked at her brother.

My day started...T-shirts to work.

“That sounds like an awesome school.” Connor said eagerly.

“Wish we could have gone there.” Travis agreed.

That’s all cool...would happen. 

“What?” Athena looked horrified.

“That is the best exam ever.” Leo whistled. “I am so jealous.”

“I can’t believe any teacher thought that would be a good idea.” Silena shook her head in astonishment.

What happened...pebble fights, 

“Pebble fights? Is that just throwing stones at each other?” Reyna asked.

“Pretty much.” Percy shrugged.

“How did nobody get seriously injured?” 

“Luck mostly.”

and a full-tackle...like he was. 

Clarisse’s lip curled.

He had eyes...family’s money. 

Aphrodite cringed.

One of his...CHILDREN sign.

“So enjoys pretending to be tough and is actually very stupid. Not a great combination.” Leo noted. He hated bullies but he especially hated having to try and survive by using his awesome sense of humour.

Anyway, Sloan...my friend Tyson.

Everyone who knew Tyson burst out laughing.

“I hope it hurt.” Annabeth said.

“The wedgie?” Reyna asked. She thought it was out of character for Annabeth to wish a wedgie to be successful.

“No. What Tyson did to him when he tried.” She snickered.

Tyson was...Abominable Snowman, 

“He’s bigger now.” Percy grinned.

but he cried...his own reflection. 

“He’s getting better about that too.” Annabeth smiled.

“Yeah. He’s pretty brave nowadays.” Grover agreed. 

His face was...his crooked teeth. 

The Gods exchanged looks. That seemed like the mist was hiding Tyson’s face but surely if he was a monster then Percy and his friends wouldn’t speak so fondly of him. 

His voice was...72nd Street.

Percy sighed. At least Tyson was away from there now. He was under the sea in the forges, doing what he was meant to do.

Meriwether Prep had...about themselves. 

“That sounds terrible. He’s a person not a project.” Beckendorf frowned. The son of Hephaestus got on quite well with Tyson as they bonded over making things.

“That’s Meriwether.” Percy scowled.

Unfortunately, most...on him. 

There were a few angry mutterings from the Greek demigods.

I was pretty...only friend.

“Well, I didn’t want to be friends with the bullies anyway.” Percy scoffed.

“I don’t blame you.” Leo nodded.

My mom had...I don’t know.

“How could he not exist?” Chris frowned.

“The mist.” Travis muttered quietly. Chris then nodded.

Anyway, Matt Sloan...tire swing.

Everyone burst out laughing, although those who didn’t know his true nature were also shocked and a little confused.

“You freak!”...cardboard box!”

“Clearly Tyson didn’t hit him hard enough.” Beckendorf scowled.

Tyson started...bent the bar, 

“Ok? What kind of person bends bars when they sit down?” Reyna asked.

“Monster.” Dakota said.

“The Greeks all seem to know and like him. I don’t see him being a monster.” Gwen pointed out.

and buried...for that freak.”

“If you’re the type of friend he could have then why would he want them?” Thalia scoffed.

“I don’t.” Percy said.

I balled my...them before.

“Matt Sloan has cannibal friends?” Piper asked.

“I doubt he knows if they are.” Jason said.

“Just wait till...perfectly. 

“What? He thinks that is a success?” Apollo frowned.

“Apparently so.” Hermes said, trying for a grin. The prank with his sons had put him in a better mood but now that they were reading again it felt like a permanent reminder of his future son.

We all passed...violent people. 

“So they passed your course by having fights but they shouldn’t be violent?” Leo asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Talk about mixed messages.” Chris snorted.

“I wish it was always that easy to pass an exam.” Connor sighed. Many demigods nodded in agreement.

Matt Sloan nodded...gritting my teeth. 

“Why were you gritting your teeth?” Nico frowned.

“Just angry with Sloan.” Percy said but Nico wasn’t entirely convinced.

“Matt Sloan is...him about it.

“He hadn’t.” Percy put in.

“That’s terrible.” Silena said.

“Don’t worry...would be fine?

“You can’t know for sure but it’s probably better to lie a little than tell him he’s screwed.” Thalia said.

“Yeah.” Percy sighed. He wasn’t sure that was true.

Our next exam...something explode, 

“I seriously need to go to this school.” Travis said.

“I’m so jealous.” Leo agreed. “You have the easiest exams ever.” 

“But that’s terribly dangerous.” Annabeth pointed out.

“I don’t think they seem to care.” Thalia shrugged.

Tyson was...the trash can.

“Not quite a proper explosion but not bad.” Leo nodded.

“You mixed unknown chemicals and possibly created a toxic cloud.” Annabeth looked at Percy sternly.

“Hey, Tyson did it, not me.” He shrugged.

After Mrs. Tesla...natural chemists. 

“What?” Athena gasped in exasperation. “They knocked the chemicals over. That doesn’t make them natural chemists, it makes them naturally clumsy.” 

We were...Grover was in danger.

“There was still time.” Grover smiled.

“Yeah, I just feel bad that I knew you were in danger and yet we still went to Camp and took forever to do anything about it.” Percy frowned.

In social studies...Washington, D.C. 

“You have a photo of Annabeth in your notebook?” Silena asked with a knowing smile. 

“Awwww.” Aphrodite squealed. Percy went bright red.

“I wanted to remind myself that Camp was real and hadn’t been just a dream.” He explained. Nico noted that Annabeth looked a little disappointed with that explanation. He felt a light stab of jealousy that Percy kept a photo of her but it wasn’t as strong as usual. During this reading, and the Big Three kid bonding times, he was finding the mystery of Percy being stripped away. He wasn’t the all powerful, invincible hero that Nico had first thought he was. And while that was ok, it was quite nice knowing he was human like the rest of them, it also made Nico realise that his crush was on who he thought Percy was and not who he actually was.

She was wearing...my imagination.

“That would be one hell of a dream.” Clarisse scoffed.

“Given my usual dreams, it really wasn’t that out of the question.” Percy pointed out. She shrugged and nodded in agreement.

I wished...annoying sometimes.

There was a lot of muffled snickering.

“You don’t need to admit it to me. I know.” Annabeth said smugly. Percy rolled his eyes.

I was about...felt hot.

“Git.” Thalia scowled.

Sloan handed...spit wads. 

“Ooh Tyson did not hit that kid hard enough.” Thalia said angrily.

They were new...names like that.

“Really? A bad sense of humour is what you thought of instead of monsters?” Poseidon asked his son.

“I hadn’t seen any monsters all summer.” Percy shrugged. “I had sort of relaxed a little too much.”

“These guys are...Sloan in the face.

“Don’t hold back. Just punch him.” Clarisse encouraged.

“I wish I had.” Percy sighed.

“You’re such a...for monsters.

Chiron nodded and smiled at Percy.

Still, part of...calling my name.

“First the bedroom window, then this. Percy’s got an invisible stalker.” Chris sniggered.

“I wonder who it could be?” Grover smirked as everyone looked over at Annabeth who had gone red.

Before I had...to kill me.

“This should be fun.” Clarisse grinned.

“Not the word I would have used.” Rachel muttered thinking of the chapter title.

The gym uniform...hippie children.

There was an outbreak of sniggering.

I changed as...“Yeah, sure, man.”

Percy sighed. He really hadn’t been a good friend to Tyson at first. Or a good brother. A few people gave him confused looks as he had spoken so highly of Tyson but seemed aggravated by him in the book.

Tyson ducked...ask him about.

“Well that’s a personal question.” Rachel said.

“Yeah.” Percy nodded.

Anyway, I’d...doors off lockers.

“Always a good way of getting rid of stress.” Leo said with a laugh.

“Yeah, it’s not a good day unless I’ve ripped at least a few locker doors off.” Connor nodded.

When we got...that I’d observed.

There was more laughter.

Matt Sloan said...and his gang. 

“Clearly even teams then.” Grover scoffed.

“Yeah, I had Tyson.” Percy grinned a little.

“And they have cannibals apparently.” Thalia pointed out.

Normally I would’ve...“Smell funny.”

“He can smell monsters?” Reyna asked. “Interesting.”

The visitors were...like targets.

“Somehow I don’t think that’s going to work.” Clarisse rolled her eyes.

“Unless they are monsters who will only be after Percy.” Rachel pointed out.

“The rest of the mortal kids will probably attack them though.” Chris shrugged.

“Tyson,” I said...throw that hard.

“You still haven’t worked out they are monsters?” Thalia raised an eyebrow.

“Er…” Percy tried for a winning smile but judging by her scoff he failed miserably.

Tyson yelled, “Percy...kill somebody!”

“I think that might be the point.” Ares grinned. 

The visitor named...and enemies.

“Oh good. He’s clocked on.” Grover smirked at his friend.

“Er, from my experience gym clothes don’t tend to have pockets. Percy probably doesn’t have his sword on him.” Rachel pointed out.

“Well there’s that Percy luck.” Thalia sighed.

What had Tyson...Valentine hearts.

“Monsters tattooed with valentine hearts?” Beckendorf snorted.

Matt Sloan dropped...wouldn’t budge.

“Oh wonderful.” Grover groaned.

“Let them go!”...We want lunch!”

“Yes, I always wanted to be someone’s lunch.” Percy muttered.

“Well, if you still feel that way then I’m sure there are plenty of monsters who would take you up on that offer.” Annabeth smirked.

“I think I’ll pass.” Percy grimaced.

He waved his...like usual.

“The rest of the mortal kids saw them as monsters.” Rachel pointed out.

“Well, they saw them as more dangerous than just regular kids from Detroit. I don’t think they saw actual monsters.” Beckendorf said.

“Plus the coach clearly isn’t paying any real attention.” Nico added.

Maybe the other...smoking shreds.

“Well done Tyson.” Rachel breathed.

“Run!” I told...we eat you!”

“I think it’s quite difficult to leave if you’ve been eaten.” Connor pointed out.

“Just a bit.” Travis agreed.

He launched...completely defenseless.

“Wonderful.” Poseidon groaned.

“I hate gym even more than before.” Percy said.

Another fireball...threw their balls.

“Woah. The kid cries at anything but he is willing to jump in front of those things for Percy.” Reyna said, looking over at the son of the Sea God.

“Tyson!” I screamed...against their chests.

The Greek demigods all cheered.

“Go Tyson!” The Stolls yelled. The Romans all exchanged looks, trying to work out what Tyson was. Clearly he was no mortal but they couldn’t see Percy being friends with a monster.

The giants...after a fight.

“Yeah. That is very helpful.” Beckendorf nodded.

“Makes life much easier.” Clarisse agreed.

“My brothers!”...huge KA-BOOM!

“Please tell me he noticed that?” Apollo raised an eyebrow.

“It’s probably safer if he doesn’t. The monsters are ignoring him for now.” Hermes muttered.

“But how does he not notice explosions going on all around him?” Ares asked in astonishment. The other Gods all shrugged. Mortals were weird.

Kids were running...come help us.

“I don’t think they are going to be able to help much.” Rachel sighed.

“Victory will...way too seriously, 

Sniggers could be heard throughout the room.

but before I...a crazy idea.

“Oh dear.” Chris winced.

“No, the crazy ideas are the best ones.” Thalia said. “It’s the carefully made plans you need to worry about.”

“Oh shut up.” Percy stuck his tongue out.

I ran toward...locker room door.

“Nice thinking.” Nico grinned.

Now, I figured...a huge WHOOOOOOOM!

All of the females wrinkled their noses.

“Cool.” Connor grinned.

“Gross.” Thalia corrected.

The wall blew...over the gym.

“Oh great, now you need to find your sword in that mess.” Poseidon sighed.

I turned just...in the face. 

“Nice.” Clarisse grinned happily.

“Tyson has taken out almost all of them by himself.” Frank said in awe.

The giant crumpled...of cinder blocks.

“Wow.” Dakota said.

“He should be dead.” Reyna noted.

“Well!” Joe Bob...but I charged.

“Percy.” Poseidon groaned.

“Why would you charge right at a monster who is about to kill you?” Apollo asked.

“I needed my sword.” Percy shrugged.

The giant laughed...of a blade.

“The cavalry has arrived then.” Thalia grinned.

“I wonder if that’s Percy’s stalker.” Grover smirked.

“I was not stalking him.” Annabeth scowled.

The ball dropped...pretty upset.

The room laughed once more.

“That’s some pretty good timing there.” Piper smiled at Annabeth.

Standing in the...miles by ghosts.

“That’s not good.” Reyna frowned.

“I was alright.” Annabeth smiled slightly.

Matt Sloan...off my friend.”

“Yes!” The room cheered.

“Nice one, bird brain.” Clarisse smirked.

“Really Clarisse?” Annabeth raised an eyebrow. The other girl just grinned.

The gym was in...bedroom window?”

Aphrodite wolf whistled while Apollo scowled at the confirmation. Percy and Annabeth were both red.

“There’s no time...quite understand. 

Thalia sighed as Annabeth looked regretful.

“You’d better...of police officers.

“Thanks for that.” Percy told Annabeth dryly.

“Hey, the cap doesn’t cover more than one.” She grinned.

“Percy Jackson?”...building on fire. 

“What? It was his stupid friends.” Rachel scowled.

“That’s Matt Sloan for you.” Percy shrugged.

Coach Nunley will...of the building.

“You won’t be going back there then?” Rachel laughed.

“No. Definitely not.” Percy grinned.

“That’s the end of the chapter.” Jason said.

“I haven’t read yet.” Silena noted. Jason passed her the book.

Chapter Text

“That sounds like something to avoid.” Leo said, looking slightly ill. He didn’t like cars at the best of times but that sounded terrible.

“Definitely.” Percy nodded.

“Why would you hail a taxi of eternal torment?” Piper asked.

“We didn’t have many options.” Annabeth shrugged.

Annabeth was...pointing at Tyson.

“That’s kinda rude.” Beckendorf frowned.

“Yeah.” Annabeth winced. “Tyson and I had a few issues to begin with. We’ve sorted them out now.” 

Now, under...to see her. 

Annabeth raised an eyebrow.

“It had been a bad day already and then you were treating my friend like he was the scum on the bottom of your shoe.” Percy reminded her.

“Yes, because you were so good to Tyson later.” She glared at him. Percy cringed.

We’d made our...wanted to admit.

Aphrodite smiled at Percy knowingly.

But I’d just...was the problem.

“That is a good point. You’d think you’d be slightly grateful that he saved Percy’s life.” Beckendorf frowned.

“Give her a break. Annabeth didn’t have the best experiences with...people like Tyson.” Thalia told him.

“He’s my friend,”...“He can talk?”

“Ok, that’s pretty rude.” Thalia told her friend.

“Yeah.” Annabeth sighed.

“I talk,” Tyson...being so rude. 

“I can.” Leo muttered to himself but Annabeth heard and frowned over at him.

I examined...with him around.”

“That is a good point. They must have been rather desperate.” Clarisse considered.

“The place probably seemed like a feast to them.” Silena said.

Tyson seemed...New York before.”

“Another good point.” Apollo nodded.

“Yes, monsters haven’t been behaving entirely normally with Kronos around.” Percy told him.

“Laistry—I can’t...“Canadians,” she decided. 

“Hey!” Frank complained. 

“Sorry.” Annabeth said, looking at him in surprise. She hadn’t known he was Canadian.

“Now come on...trouble at camp.”

Chiron’s expression turned dark and Thalia grimaced. She didn’t remember much of being a tree but she did recall feeling quite ill.

“My mom was...the Sea God?”

“I hope you teach him that not all Canadians are monsters.” Frank grumbled, feeling offended.

Annabeth and...to the point.

A few people chuckled.

“He’s definitely a monster of some kind.” Reyna muttered to herself. These Greeks are definitely strange, hanging around with monsters. Even if Tyson does seem nice enough.

“Uh, well, Annabeth...“But then …”

Poseidon’s eyes widened. Tyson must be one of his children. Then he smiled. Tyson would be a good person to protect Percy from all the trouble he seemed to get into. Although it sounded like Tyson hadn’t had the best life and he seemed to be scared of everything.

A siren wailed...looking for us.

“Yeah. He just saved Percy’s life, you can’t just leave him.” Jason said.

“We didn’t leave him.” Annabeth assured him.

“We can’t just...the hospital, 

Poseidon had to resist the urge to glare at the daughter of Athena. Although given what he suspected Tyson was, he couldn’t blame her too much for being wary. 

but I followed...like claw marks.

Athena looked at her daughter in concern.

“It wasn’t anything too bad. Looked worse than it was.” She assured her mother.

“What are you...won’t take that.”

“Not normal ones, no.” Connor smirked.

“There are taxis for demigods?” Reyna asked. The Greeks all nodded.

“Not particularly fun ones but they get you where you need to go.” Chris said.

”Stêthi,” she shouted...Chariot of Damnation!

“So the title wasn’t an exaggeration then?” Piper asked warily.

“Not at all.” Percy said.

That didn’t exactly...her plan was.

“I don’t think that would make anyone excited.” Hazel said quietly.

She threw her...through it. 

“That’s not what you want from your taxi.” Connor pointed out.

“It’s solid really, it just looked like that.” Annabeth told him.

There were words...Kids Day?

“You haven’t worked out that he’s not a normal kid yet?” Travis looked at Percy.

“The mist was still affecting him.” Chiron said.

“Extra pay,” Annabeth...sackcloth dress.

“They don’t sound like people you’d want driving.” Reyna frowned.

“They aren’t.” Beckendorf laughed.

“It has the name it does for a reason.” Silena smiled at the Romans.

The one driving...of a seat belt. 

“Ok? That’s creepy.” Piper grimaced.

I decided I wasn’t that desperate … yet.

“I don’t blame you.” Connor said.

“I can’t say I’d be in a hurry to use that either.” Chris agreed.

“You would be after a few minutes in the cab.” Beckendorf assured them both.

The cab sped...her the eye?

“The one driving doesn’t have an eye?!” Jason asked in astonishment.

“No. It’s driven by the Gray sisters. They have one eye and one tooth between the three of them.” 

I didn’t have...the next block.

“I feel sick just listening to this.” Leo complained.

“Wasp!” the third...on Broome Street.

“Yep. I definitely do not want to ever ride that.” Leo said, going slightly green.

“What are you talking about, boy? That’s the best way to drive.” Ares grinned widely.

“That sounds so cool!” Connor grinned widely.

“We need to get a ride sometime.” Travis agreed with his brother.

“Let’s not.” Chris said.

“Excuse me,”...feeling so good.”

“I don’t blame Tyson.” Thalia nodded.

“Me either.” Percy stated. “I was so glad I don’t get carsick.”

“Oh, man,” I said...way to camp.”

“Speed isn’t always the best way.” Apollo said in what he thought was a wise tone.

“Nonsense.” Ares scoffed.

“Then why didn’t...should be obvious. 

Percy sighed. He really hated that tone.

“They only serve...“Jason! You remember him?”

“I really hope they mean the other Jason.” Jason said.

“They did.” Annabeth laughed.

“Don’t remind me!”...you old hag!”

“I think the rule should be whoever is driving gets the eye.” Chris said.

“That would make more sense but they wouldn’t be them if they didn’t spend the entire time arguing.” Beckendorf grinned.

“Excuses! Turn!...Tyson and the door. 

Percy grimaced. That wasn’t very comfortable.

She punched the...anything it saw.

Everybody looked at least vaguely disgusted by the description.

Finally Anger...going to die!”

“You’ll be alright if you land in the water.” Frank pointed out. 

“True.” Percy shrugged.

“Don’t worry,”...exactly reassured. 

“Honestly, I’d struggle to believe you there, Annie.” Thalia told her friend. 

We were skimming...even ask yet!”

“The location they seek?” Reyna frowned. “They know where Camp is.”

“I’m guessing that maybe they are talking about wherever Grover is.” Dakota said.

“What?” I said...Anger agreed.

“Well you shouldn’t have mentioned it then.” Apollo rolled his eyes.

“Years to find... into my lap.

“Oh yuck.” Piper grimaced.

“That’s gross.” Silena agreed with her sister.

I jumped so...Get it!”

“Yeah. Do not step on it.” Hermes laughed.

“I’m not picking...“Are you crazy? 

“Well, unless you want him to puke in the taxi.” Leo said.

“Better the backpack than the taxi floor.” Percy agreed. Tyson being sick was not something you wanted to be anywhere near.

Get the eye!”...location I seek?”

“Bribery! Nice!” Hermes said approvingly.

“Maybe he could choose a slightly better time.” Poseidon pointed out. “Like when he’s not in a taxi with the person driving unable to see.”

“Ah, yeah.” Hermes grinned sheepishly.

“No time!”...a million pieces.”

“Like someone else I know.” Percy grinned over at Thalia.

“I was not that bad.” She stuck her tongue out at him

“True but you had both eyes with which to drive.” He reminded her. She went a little red.

“First they have...Almost to camp!”

“Those sound like coordinates.” Poseidon frowned. He thought for a second and then his eyes widened. He did not want his son going there. And yet, somehow, he knew he would.

We were off...not to argue. 

“Good choice.” Nico said weakly.

I threw the...“Better now.”

Percy and Annabeth both grimaced.

“Better than him throwing up.” Thalia pointed out.

“Marginally.” Percy agreed.

“All right,” I...under attack.

“What?” All the Gods asked in unison.

“Well that was quite short. Chapter’s over.” Silena said.

“I’ll read.” Gwen offered with a smile. Silena handed the book over.

Chapter Text

“Well, he’s already played with those bronze balls the monsters at Meriwether were using and his hands weren’t burnt.” Nico said. “It can’t be much worse.” 

Mythologically speaking...it’s bulls.

“Fair enough given your last experience with one.” Thalia nodded.

“I’d have thought you’d have hated the three ladies more.” Nico raised an eyebrow.

“It is a tossup.” Percy shrugged.

Last summer...fire, too.

“Oh good.” Piper said sarcastically.

As soon as...have been possible. 

Zeus turned to his daughter in concern while all the Greek camper’s faces darkened in anger.

The camp’s magic...doing it anyway.

“What’s wrong?” Zeus asked Thalia.

“You’ll find out. I was fine in the end.” She gestured to herself.

One of the...to me!” 

“Border patrol?” Jason asked.

“Since the tree wasn’t keeping monsters out, we needed to patrol the borders.” Clarisse explained.

A girl’s voice...to help her.”

“I was fine.” Clarisse snarled. Ares nodded at his daughter’s words. Of course she would not need the help of that upstart brat.

Normally, rushing...hated my guts.

“He doesn’t fight your battles so why do you fight his?” Gwen asked Clarisse curiously.

“Family pride.” She replied grimly. Clarisse didn’t want to admit that despite the fact her dad said he didn’t interfere with his kid’s battles, he would be very angry if they didn’t take his side in any disputes he was having. And it was not worth making her father angry.

Still, she was...fiery Mohawk.

There were a few nervous snickers.

Clarisse’s own...bull’s shoulder.

“You broke another spear?” Ares looked at his daughter. “What kind of fighter are you?” Clarisse went a little red.

“Sorry father.” She replied in a meeker tone than any of the demigods had ever heard her use. Thalia and Percy exchanged looks.

I uncapped...any more chances.”

“If those things earlier didn’t kill him, I think he’ll be alright.” Beckendorf smiled.

“Percy is just being overprotective again.” Clarisse rolled her eyes. “Not to mention blind.”

“No!” Annabeth said...but he can’t—”

“Lucky?” Reyna asked in amusement.

“Yeah, yeah.” Percy sighed.

“Percy, do you...Hephaestus himself. 

“Of course.” Nico said bitterly. More rogue creations the God didn’t bother taking care of properly. Percy reached over to squeeze the younger boy’s shoulder.

We can’t fight...Tyson get fried.”

“I know, I know.” Percy said before Thalia could say anything.

“Percy—”...confusing the monster. 

“Very nice.” Athena smiled at her daughter.

The other bull...she was brave. 

Clarisse raised an eyebrow at Percy.

“Well, I wasn’t going to say it to your face.” He grinned.

She was a big...“Look out!”

“If she hasn’t seen you then you’ll just make her lose concentration.” Reyna pointed out.

“Yeah but the bull would have hit her anyway.” Percy said.

“A good warrior would never lose concentration.” Ares scoffed.

I shouldn’t have...phalanx broke. 

The War God scowled.

Clarisse went...freight-trained past. 

“Thanks.” She muttered grudgingly. Percy just shrugged knowing she wouldn’t appreciate any verbal response. 

I gave it a...“Percy, curse you!”

“Let you go? He just saved your life.” Thalia raised an eyebrow.

“She gets like that when you save her.” Percy smirked.

I dropped her...and kept coming. 

“So the magic is still working a little.” Silena stated.

“Not enough.” Reyna pointed out.

“No. Not enough.” Chiron said gravely.

Bull Number Two...practice I was.

Poseidon winced.

“Maybe going home for so long isn’t the best idea.” Nico frowned.

“I made up the practise pretty quickly.” Percy shrugged.

I lunged but...maybe broken.

“Wonderful.” Poseidon groaned.

Bull Number One...“Can’t—get—through!”

“Why can the bulls get through but he can’t?” Gwen asked.

“He probably wasn’t strong enough.” Silena answered.

“I, Annabeth Chase...completely unharmed. 

Leo raised an eyebrow. Maybe he could speak to this Tyson guy about his own powers.

Not even his...“BAD COW!”

Everybody laughed at this.

“Tyson’s war cry is always great.” Percy grinned.

His fists...like aluminum foil.

Hephaestus sighed. 

“Woah. That is one heck of a punch.” Chris said, having missed the fight.

The bull’s face...in odd places.

“Go Tyson.” Thalia smiled.

Annabeth ran...singed off.

There was some more laughter

“No worse than being on the climbing wall.” Percy shrugged.

“The other bull?”...under control!”

“Yes. Completely under control.” Nico scoffed.

“I did.” Clarisse protested.

“No. You didn’t. Without Tyson you would have been toast.” Beckendorf stated.

I was too...saving me again!”

“You sure about that?” Percy smirked. She glared at him angrily. The last thing she needed was to be talking about how many times Percy had saved her in front of her father.

“Clarisse,” Annabeth said...under her command.

“Of course I do.” Clarisse scowled.

“We know.” Silena soothed her friend. 

“I’ll be back,”...Disobeyed you.”

“Bless him.” Piper said. 

“My fault,” Annabeth said...his crooked teeth. 

“Really? That’s the excuse you came up with?” Poseidon looked at his son incredulously. Percy went red and shrugged.

“Maybe.”

I forced myself...on either side.

“You’re friends with a Cyclops?” Dakota’s eyebrows shot up.

“Yes.” Percy said firmly. “Tyson is great.” 

“Well, he did save your life several times. Plus he seems particularly attached to you.” Gwen smiled.

“Tyson,” I stammered...mistakes, Percy.

Poseidon wanted to glare at her but couldn’t quite deny her words. Still, he didn’t like seeing any of his children suffer.

Children of...in particular, usually … 

“Oh that’s right.” Piper said. “Doesn’t that technically make him...your half brother?” She asked Percy.

“Yeah.” He agreed. “But I also have a golden rug as a half brother so you know...Tyson’s certainly not the weirdest person I’m related to.” 

“A golden rug?” Jason asked in confusion. 

“Yeah. The ram whose fleece was turned into the golden fleece was a son of Poseidon.” Annabeth told him.

and they don’t...obviously likes you. 

“Maybe Poseidon sent him to watch over Percy.” Reyna suggested. “In the first book it mentioned Percy seeing a Cyclops when he was younger.”

We should take...what Tyson was?

“Because for someone so perceptive you can be an idiot.” Nico laughed.

“Percy probably didn’t want to acknowledge that Tyson was a monster. He let the mist affect him without realising because he wanted a normal time at home.” Silena said.

But I didn’t have...normal recycling bins.

“Probably not.” Thalia laughed.

Clarisse came back...what’s happened.”

“Tantalus?” Apollo asked in confusion. “What on Olympus is he doing at Camp?”

“Nothing good.” Percy scowled.

“Tantalus?” I asked...Clarisse said impatiently.

“But Chiron is the activities director.” Hermes frowned.

“It wasn’t a good summer.” Chiron sighed sadly. 

“Chiron is the...“Argus got fired. 

“What?” Hera asked, looking angry. “Why would you fire Argus?” She asked Dionysus.

“I don’t know. I haven’t done it yet.” Dionysus shrugged.

You two have...strong and healthy.

“Oh good. A pointless recap.” Thalia rolled her eyes.

But now, its...oozing green sap.

“Who did this?” Zeus asked furiously.

“What’s wrong?” Jason questioned anxiously.

“You’ll find out. But I’m fine.” Thalia assured them both. “It actually worked out pretty well.”

A sliver of ice...poisoned it.

“That doesn’t explain why Chiron and Argus are gone.” Gwen frowned. “Chapter’s over.” She added.

“I’ll take it.” Dakota offered. She gave him the book with a smile.

Chapter Text

"You broke the oath again?!" Zeus roared at his brother.

"Or it means the Cyclops." Hades rolled his eyes. Zeus glared at him for the tone but said nothing further.

Ever come...find anything? 

“I hate that.” Rachel said.

“It’s very annoying.” Annabeth agreed.

“Like, I know mom means well but I can never find anything.” Percy nodded.

And even if...lemon furniture polish?

“It’s more unnerving now I know about monsters.” Percy admitted.

“You think monsters would be looking through your room and cleaning it? We need some of those monsters.” Connor said. The Hermes cabin was notoriously messy with so many people crammed into it.

That’s kind...Half-Blood again.

“Yeah, that’s a pretty good way of describing it.” Annabeth said thoughtfully. She had never thought about it that way but it was appropriate.

On the surface...different Olympian god.

The Greeks all smiled at the description of their Camp.

“It does sound lovely.” Reyna smiled. But so small she added in her mind. She still couldn’t believe how much smaller the Greek camp sounded.

But there was...like ugly scars.

Now the Greeks all grimaced, as did the Gods. This was supposed to be the only safe place for their children and now it didn’t seem safe at all.

“It seems we need some stronger magic to protect the camp.” Poseidon stated.

“Especially if Thalia is going to be somehow revived from being a tree.” Apollo added.

“I’m sure we can think of something.” Hephaestus said. Nico cringed. He would certainly not feel safe with more of his work guarding the camp.

Somebody had...of a couple.

“You’ve actually been to military school?” Thalia asked. Percy shuffled uncomfortably.

“Yeah. Gabe’s idea. He thought it might teach me some discipline and to follow the rules better.” A few people scowled angrily or grumbled under their breath.

“Well, we can safely say they failed.” Thalia forced a grin onto her face as she teased her cousin.

None of that...“What’s that!”

“He reminds me of Nico.” Will laughed.

“Hey!”

“You were also adorably excited by everything.” The son of the Sun God smirked. Nico went red.

“Shut up.” He complained.

“The cabins for...of sea stone.

Percy and Poseidon both smiled fondly.

“You live with...too unpredictable. 

“You most of all.” Connor said. 

“I’m not that unpredictable.” Percy frowned unhappily.

“Yeah, give him food and he’s a happy camper.” Annabeth snickered.

When we got...she was twelve. 

“Hey! You make it sound like it was my fault.” Thalia said, turning to glare at him.

“Sorry. Bad phrasing.” Percy grinned sheepishly. She rolled her eyes but let it go.

Me … well, I...plankton, maybe. 

“You had nightmares about that?” Poseidon asked his son in concern.

“More the dying part.” Percy admitted. “Although I can’t say I much fancy being turned into a pile of kelp.”

“It is not my place to keep you in the realm of the living.” Poseidon said sadly. “I would not wish you to die and would heal you if I could but otherwise...I would not turn you into anything.” Percy was a little surprised by the admission but quite grateful. Hades nodded approvingly.

“Thanks dad. I’d prefer it that way.” If he had to die then he would rather be in Elysium than be a tree. No offense to Grover or other Satyrs. Poseidon gave his son a strained smile. It was not a topic he wished to dwell on.

Or a floating patch of kelp.

Thalia couldn’t help giving a small chuckle.

When we...Chiron is a centaur. 

“I wonder why this is in the book?” Athena frowned. “Obviously we know this.”

“No idea.” Hermes shrugged.

“The bigger question is why is Chiron packing his bags?” Apollo pointed out. The Greeks said nothing while the other Gods all shrugged, looking concerned.

From the waist...in total rapture.

Chiron sighed as the room erupted into muffled sniggers.

Chiron turned...father to her.

The Centaur smiled fondly over at Annabeth.

Chiron ruffled...take the blame.

“What?” Poseidon frowned.

“Chiron is the last person who would do anything to hurt camp.” Hermes raised an eyebrow.

“If anyone should take the blame, surely it should be Mr D. He has made it clear he hates the kids.” Chris pointed out. Dionysus looked offended at this while all the Gods turned to him.

“Dionysus wouldn’t dare.” Zeus rumbled.

“Neither would Chiron but he’s still taking the blame.” Annabeth pointed out angrily.

Lord Zeus was...daughter, poisoned! 

“Oh yeah, it couldn’t be the enemy now could it?” Percy asked sarcastically. “But we’re ignoring Kronos so someone at Camp had to be blamed.” Zeus glared at him but Percy glared right back.

Mr. D had to...I growled. 

“Exactly.” Percy agreed with himself.

“Surely as the director for the whole camp, it is Dionysus who should be held responsible for the failure to protect Thalia’s tree.” Hades questioned.  Zeus glared at his brother but didn’t respond.

Just the thought...trust me now, 

“How could you not trust Chiron?” Will asked the Gods angrily. “He has done nothing but train and protect your children for millennia.” 

“They didn’t trust him because his father is also Kronos.” Annabeth spoke up furiously.

“As he is yours.” Percy reminded Zeus. “And Uncle Hades’ father. Not to mention Hades has attacked Thalia before. There are so many people who would do such a thing and Chiron does not even make the list.”

“Enough, children.” Chiron said sternly, though his eyes held no small amount of pride.

“It’s wrong. Father forbade any mention of Kronos and yet he’s willing to let Mr D punish you for something you’d never do, simply for being his son.” Thalia said.

“There is nothing that can be done now.” The Centaur told her calmly. Still, he could not deny how much their defence of him and outrage on his behalf warmed his heart.

under the circumstances.”...closer. “Pony?”

There were a few laughs and a couple of smiles as the Greeks were torn between wanting to laugh at Tyson’s childish innocence and still being angry on Chiron’s behalf.

Chiron sniffed...pits of Tartarus.”

“And you don’t think somebody would notice if Chiron were to procure this poison. He almost never leaves camp, except when he went to teach Percy.” Connor said coolly.

“Then we know... that traitor.”

Annabeth, Thalia, Hermes and the God’s children all went pale. Hermes was suddenly fearful that he would now be forced to take the blame for his son’s future actions. Especially something as serious as poisoning Zeus’ beloved daughter. 

Annabeth and Thalia both still struggled to deal with the fact that Luke would do something so terrible to someone he had once vowed to never harm. Even if he thought she would be brought back there was no guarantee it would work.

“Perhaps,” Chiron...cannot cure it. 

“Apollo is the God of medicine. Why isn’t he trying to cure the tree?” Clarisse asked.

“I deal in human or godly medicine. Not nature magic.” Apollo pointed out.

“Oh yes, because Chiron frequently heals trees.” Silena frowned. “Maybe the Satyrs should be held accountable for not being able to cure the tree.” Grover sent her a wide-eyed look of horror. Wincing she sent an apologetic look in return. She hadn’t meant to blame him but all of the campers loved and respected Chiron. It angered them that he took the blame and then that Mr D had had the audacity to bring Tantalus to their camp.

The tree has...act rashly. 

“It’s as though you’ve never met Percy before.” Rachel laughed. Chiron’s lips twitched.

“I wanted him to be safe.”

“I don’t think camp classifies as safe anymore anyway.” Grover pointed out.

I told your...do not leave.”

“If monsters are attacking more frequently all over the country then it is safer to be at camp where there are many demigods.” Clarisse said.

“Why?” I asked...hasty action! 

“Hasty action could be bad but time isn’t on your side.” Athena pointed out.

This could...wanted him around. 

The room burst into laughter as most of the tension dissolved. 

“I don’t think Kronos is coming back because he thinks people want him around.” Nico said with a chuckle.

But no. Because...save her friends?

Thalia sighed again. Even with Kronos twisting his mind, Luke didn’t have to do that. There were other ways to put the camp in danger but he had chosen to poison her tree. He had done that. He had spat on her memory, on their friendship.

Annabeth was trying...“Just checking.”

There were a few more sniggers.

“Chiron …” Annabeth...you from camp—”

The other Greek campers went very pale. They hadn’t even thought of that. In unison they all turned to glare, first at Dionysus and then at Zeus. 

“No.” Travis whispered. He could not imagine a camp without Chiron permanently. The idea that Chiron was no longer needed was ridiculous.

“It wasn’t even his fault.” Connor scowled.

“Can you imagine…” Silena said gravely though her voice trailed off, unable to voice the terrible thought.

“I’m quite fine, children.” Chiron reminded them all gently.

“You will always be needed.” Annabeth choked out.

“Always.” The other campers agreed. The Centaur went a little red but smiled fondly at all of his charges.

The Gods looked around at each other while Zeus and Hera were uneasy. On one hand it was pleasing to see the respect that Chiron had from the children but on the other hand, their loyalty to him was minorly worrying. If Chiron were ever to turn against them, how many of the children would follow him?

“Swear you...I shall return. 

“Well, now you’ve said that I’m sure Percy and Annabeth will be very determined to make that happen.” Reyna smiled slightly.

“They did.” Chiron nodded.

“They had some help.” Clarisse grumbled.

“Indeed they did.” Chiron smiled.

Until then...safety to Mr. D

The Greeks all snorted.

“Awesome. Trust our safety to someone who probably could care less if we all died.” Beckendorf muttered.

and the new activities director. 

“And he was even worse.” Percy snarled.

“Worse?” Poseidon asked warily. Given his son’s opinion of Dionysus, it was hard to imagine him thinking someone else was worse. The Greeks all nodded.

We must hope...as I fear.”

“The monsters or Mr D and Tantalus?” Will asked sarcastically.

“I meant Kronos’ forces.” Chiron clarified.

“Still, the statement applied to both.” Silena said grimly. The Gods were now all very concerned.

“Who is this...forgotten you!”

“I’m unforgettable.” Percy smirked.

“Definitely.” Hades nodded.

With that...maybe for good.

Chiron smiled once more and Percy grinned back.

Tyson started...believe it.

“Marks for trying.” Annabeth told him.

“And I lose them all for failing.” Percy said glumly.

“Tyson cheered up a little.” She reminded him and he shrugged.

The sun was...lead the line.

Athena smiled proudly at her daughter who sat up a little straighter.

Next came Clarisse...YOU MOO, GIRL! 

“Who did that!” Clarisse demanded angrily. The Hermes kids all looked at each other and sniggered.

“Jake I think.” Connor said. “Not sure though, it was a while ago Clarisse.” She glared at him while Ares frowned at his daughter.

But nobody...about it.

Clarisse looked even angrier about that. Ares considered this. If her cabin mates would not have her back maybe she was not the right person to be leading his children. If she could not control her own brothers and sisters, how could she be a good army commander?

After the Ares...African American kid. 

Hephaestus smiled at his son and Leo looked over at his half brother. So far he seemed like a really decent guy and he could see why his cabin mates liked him.

He had hands...him Charlie 

“Not yet, anyway.” Travis said slyly, glancing over at Silena. Beckendorf went slightly red as Silena grinned widely.

or Chuck...make anything. 

“He can.” Silena praised her boyfriend. Beckendorf went even redder.

“Not anything .” 

“Yes. You are fantastic.” She told him sternly.

Give him a...painfully of Grover.

Grover grinned over at Percy.

I’d always had...back to camp. 

It never ceased to surprise the Romans, hearing how useful Fauns could be. Reyna and Dakota began very quietly discussing some plans.

That’s how I’d...Connor Stoll. 

Hermes smiled proudly and ruffled both of his children’s hair.

“I’m sure my cabin is in good hands.” Hermes said. Their chests puffed out with pride.

“The best.” Chris agreed. Having been in the cabin under both Luke and the Stolls, he could tell they were good co-leaders. The Stolls looked at their brother in surprise and grinned gratefully.

They weren’t twins...was older. 

“That’s me.” Travis said. “But Connor is the louder one so people usually think he’s older.”

They were...down your shirt. 

“That’s a great idea.” Connor grinned.

“No it’s not.” Annabeth told him firmly.

“Indeed it is not.” Chiron agreed. The Stolls nodded but exchanged smirks that had all the other campers worried.

I’d always...get the joke.

“We got it. We had just heard it a lot.” Travis rolled his eyes.

As soon as...Apollo table murmured.

Apollo frowned.

I glared in...Whatever.”

Poseidon glared at his nephew.

He was wearing...the casinos. 

Many of the Greek campers sniggered loudly, too angry with Mr D to even attempt to muffle the laughter.

“How dare…”

“Hey, these are my private thoughts. It’s not like I said it to your face.” Percy reminded the God with an eye roll.

Behind him...off-limits wood nymph.

Zeus glared at his son while Hera glared at Zeus.

Next to him...the same time.

“You thought he was a suitable replacement around children?” Demeter shrieked. “The man who was punished for trying to serve us his own son?”

“He did serve you his own son.” Ares sniggered. Demeter glared furiously at him.

“I agree with Demeter. Dionysus, you have clearly lost your mind and are completely unsuitable to be looking after children.” Poseidon glared at his nephew. “It is an insult to have him of all people looking after our children...your children. Why on Olympus would you think someone who had been sent to Punishment by us would be a suitable person to have at Camp?” Dionysus didn’t answer.

“I must agree with Poseidon.” Zeus said heavily. It was one thing for his son to not particularly care about the children but to allow his daughter’s tree to be poisoned...that could not go unpunished. Annoyingly the brats were correct and as the director, Dionysus was the one who should take the blame.

“Father…” Dionysus pleaded. He didn’t particularly care about being removed from camp, besides that had been made clear during the last book. His bigger concern was what punishment would be in store for him now. His father had been threatening to turn him mortal. 

“We will discuss this later.” Zeus said firmly. 

“This boy,”...me at length.

Poseidon and Percy both glared at Dionysus. The Wine God sunk down into the couch he was sitting on. This was going to be a long book if it continued in this vein. He had no idea what his future self was thinking doing something so risky.

“I am Tantalus,”...any more trouble.”

The Greek campers all glared at the book.

“Good luck with that.” Reyna smiled. “I don’t think Percy is capable of not at least finding trouble even if he does not cause it.”

“Trouble?” I...I understand.”

“Percy stopped a war last summer you…” Thalia stopped herself with a quick glance at her father.

“I always did wonder why he seemed to hate Percy so much.” Beckendorf frowned. “He singled him out from the first second.”

“Maybe he was working for Kronos. He certainly would have no love of the Gods.” Silena shrugged.

“Or Dionysus just told him that Percy was a troublemaker.” Nico suggested darkly.

“Dionysus.” Poseidon said threateningly.

“I don’t know. I haven’t done this yet.” The Wine God threw his hands up in exasperation.

I was too...it will work.”

“Oh, I get it. You just wanted to see someone else as miserable as you.” Apollo looked at his half brother and rolled his eyes.

Tantalus grabbed...of the brazier.

The demigods all chuckled darkly.

“Blast!” Tantalus...fade eventually.”

“No. It won’t. And you know that.” Hades raised an eyebrow.

“Indeed I do.” Dionysus smirked. At least someone else would suffer with him.

“Eventually,” muttered...mildly impressed.

“Impressed?” Hermes asked in astonishment.

“Hey, it had to be awful to earn him that kind of punishment.” Percy said.

“That’s probably the worst torture Percy can think of. Permanently looking at food and being unable to eat it.” Annabeth laughed.

“What was it?”...already … sir.”

“Indeed.” Reyna frowned. This did not sound promising.

“He must have noticed.” Chris said.

“He did. He just didn’t care.” Connor scowled.

“Oh, go sit...overgrown brat. 

Dionysus scowled and made to open his mouth.

“Shut it, nephew. That’s exactly what you are currently acting like.” Poseidon stated. 

“He clearly gets his dramatics from his father.” Hades noted. Zeus glared while the two brothers high fived each other.

I said, “Come on...do with it.”

“Tyson is not an ‘it’.” Beckendorf snapped. It was bad enough the way Annabeth had been treating him but at least she had a reason. 

“Him,” I snapped…this whole place.”

“I’m quite sure they would both actually have liked that.” Frank said with a slight frown. 

“Indeed.” Aphrodite said angrily. Dionysus shrunk even further under yet more glares. He was desperately wishing this chapter would be over very soon.

“Yes,” Tantalus...Dionysus snickered.

“OK! I get it. Future me is terrible.” Dionysus said this a little sarcastically. “But I haven’t done it yet so please stop glaring at me.”

“Not until you actually seem sorry, nephew.” Poseidon’s glare actually increased. The Wine God subsided and sank back down to sulk.

“Leave us,”...sleep tonight.”

“You’re a good friend.” Piper smiled at Percy. He grimaced. 

Tyson nodded...wasn’t hungry. 

A few people gave Percy understanding looks. The whole day had been one heck of a shock for him and his impressive appetite.

I’d been...anything about it.

“For your own safety.” Chiron sighed.

“Camp really wasn’t any safer, especially as Tantalus had it out for me from the beginning.” Percy shrugged.

I didn’t feel...silently. Please.

“I already did.” Poseidon smiled.

“Yeah, I just didn’t know it yet.” Percy smiled at his father while his insides squirmed with guilt.

The smoke...was really listening.

“I’m always listening.” Poseidon stated. “Or at least, I’m certain my future self is.”

“You were.” Percy assured his father.

I went...am told.” 

There were a few sniggers at this.

As he spoke...enough to eat.”

The Gods all glared at Dionysus once more for allowing this.

“Hey, I may be the director but father sure hasn’t done anything about my appointment.” The Wine God pointed out. 

“Maybe he didn’t notice.” Apollo snorted softly. Zeus turned to glare at his son but Apollo glared right back.

Dionysus clapped...the chariot races!”

Ares grinned wildly while Chiron shook his head.

“Weren’t those band because people died?” Chris asked tentatively.

“Yes.” The Centaur said tightly. 

“Which was what he was hoping for I’m sure.” Beckendorf scowled. Hades narrowed his eyes. It seems he would be having some words with Tantalus once he got back to the Underworld.

Murmuring broke...technical problems.”

“Technical problems?” Demeter asked angrily. 

“Three deaths...which they win?”

“And with such a reward he has now made what was an already dangerous sport, super competitive.” Hermes frowned.

An explosion...ready our chariots—”

Ares and Chiron both nodded proudly at the girl and she puffed up with pride.

“He won’t care.” Chris guessed.

“Ah, the hero...bronze bulls!”

“No she did not.” Poseidon scowled. Without his sons they would have been killed.

“I know, Lord Poseidon.” Clarisse said, all pride gone. “Tantalus made me his favourite and I couldn’t do any wrong in his eyes.” The Gods all gave her a slightly disgusted look. Anyone who was a favourite of Tantalus was not welcome in their eyes.

“Hey! She didn’t ask to be made his favourite.” Percy pointed out.

“Yeah, she might have been insufferable about it, but she didn’t ask for it.” Travis spoke up. Clarisse shot him an odd look that seemed to be part annoyance and part gratitude.

Clarisse blinked...ourselves, yes?”

“No. They are there to survive.” Artemis stated.

“But the tree—”...kill Tantalus.

“Don’t we all.” Thalia said through gritted teeth.

“Yes.” The Greek campers all chorused.

“Now, of course,”...small brain capacity. 

“You have no brain capacity.” Beckendorf grunted angrily.

Under normal...the tablecloth. 

The Stolls looked slightly ashamed.

“Don’t worry. I knew why you didn’t want Tyson in your cabin.” Percy smiled at them. They grinned back at him in relief.

I couldn’t blame...Cyclops.

Hermes winced at the idea of his kids being so cramped.

“Come now,”...should be kenneled?”

Beckendorf and Poseidon scowled furiously. 

“Brother.” Poseidon said through gritted teeth. Hades nodded sharply. He already had plans.

Suddenly everybody...as his son.

“You actually claimed a Cyclops?” Aphrodite blinked in surprise. 

“I suspect I made sure Tyson and Percy met and so I would want them to stay together.” Poseidon shrugged.

There was a...roared with laughter. 

Poseidon ground his teeth together in frustration. This was going to be a very long book. He actually was wanting Percy to sneak off. At least, despite how unpleasant it was, hearing about his son in danger, he knew Percy survived. Listening to this scum talk to his children like this, without Dionysus stepping in, was grating on his nerves which were already wearing very thin with his nephew.

“Well! I think...my other friends.

Clarisse, Silena and the Stolls all went red.

“Sorry Perc.” The Stolls said together. They went even redder seeing a disappointed look being shot in their direction by their father.

“Sorry, Percy.” Silena gave him an apologetic smile. 

“It’s fine guys.” Percy said stiffly. Thalia glared at the four culprits.

Tyson didn’t...his head. 

There were a few snickers but the atmosphere was too tense so they didn’t last long.

He was too...a half-brother.

Poseidon’s brow creased a little. It didn’t sound like Percy was very happy. In fact his son appeared to be shrinking in his seat.

“The chapter is over.” Dakota announced. 

“I think Dionysus should read the next chapter.” Poseidon stated firmly. The Wine God opened his mouth to argue but saw the expression on his uncle’s face and simply took the book from his son.

“I feel we should take a quick break to stretch our legs after the next chapter.” Chiron announced. Everybody nodded their agreement and Dionysus started reading in a long suffering tone.

Chapter Text

There was a round of laughter at this title.

“Ah Percy. You know how to break the tension, even without meaning to.” Nico laughed. The Campers who had been there all glared at Dionysus.

The next...won the lottery.

“Awww.” Gwen smiled. He might be a Cyclops but he sounded like an adorable little kid.

“Aw, Tyson,”...I said it.

“What?” Nico frowned. “You love Tyson.”

“Yeah.” Percy sighed. “But Camp was hard enough that summer without getting mocked and shunned by people for having a Cyclops brother.” He explained. “Plus, Tyson was kind of exhausting before he grew up a little.” Poseidon frowned. “I’m not proud of it.” Percy added.

My father...the result.

Poseidon shuffled in his seat in embarrassment.

I mean, I’d...the next bunk.

“Tyson is far from the worst family on your dad’s side.” Thalia smirked.

“Don’t I know it.” Percy grimaced, thinking of Antaeus, who he had fought in the Labyrinth, and Polyphemus. Those were just the ones off the top of his head.

And then there...for a brother.

Poseidon glared at the other campers who looked a little ashamed. Tyson had helped save their camp at least twice.

“He’s not...or something.”

“Percy.” Poseidon frowned.

“I know. It was mean of me but I was thirteen and it was still kind of a shock to me too. I love Tyson, we just got off to a rocky start.”

Nobody bought it...now a joke.

Poseidon raised an eyebrow but Percy just cringed. The other campers all exchanged looks.

Annabeth tried...with the races. 

Chiron nodded. “If only that had lasted.” He said.

“Honestly, it was for the best if Percy didn’t stay given how horrible Tantalus was too him.” Annabeth pointed out.

After all...that track.

Clarisse scoffed. The other campers all glared at her and she frowned.

One morning...sorry, eyes.”

Aphrodite frowned at Silena. 

“It wasn’t me.” Silena protested. “But I didn’t stop them.” She added guiltily. “Sorry Percy.”

As they walked...monster, either!”

“Technically he is both.” Jason said.

“Yes. I know.” Percy said shortly.

Annabeth raised...deceitful, treacherous—”

“Excuse me?” Poseidon asked.

“Until I met Tyson, I’d only ever had bad experiences with Cyclopes.” Annabeth explained.

“Tyson could never be deceitful.” Beckendorf said.

“He is not!...“He saved my life.”

“You’re not exactly being nice to him either.” Piper pointed out.

“I was saying it to other campers because I was frustrated. Which does make me a bit two faced but I wasn’t mean directly to Tyson.” Percy sighed. “I still cared about him as my friend.”

Annabeth threw down...“Maybe I should.”

A few of the campers groaned playfully.

“So it was your fault Annabeth.” Beckendorf muttered.

“Yeah, you gave them the idea to work together.” Will complained. Percy smirked.

“Fine!”...on a pegasus. 

Percy and Silena grinned at each other while the Romans looked very jealous.

She explained...neutral territory.

“Pretty much.” Poseidon nodded. Zeus grunted in annoyance but couldn’t argue.

I could...too, 

Everybody snickered.

“Chicken ponies.” Leo smirked. “Tyson is hilarious. It must be a son of Poseidon thing to have the most hilarious descriptions.”

but the pegasi...made Tyson cry.

“Poor Tyson.” Silena frowned.

The only...Hephaestus cabin. 

Leo smiled at his half-brother and Hephaestus nodded to his son proudly.

“Tyson’s a good guy.” Beckendorf shrugged. “And as he had been claimed by a God he deserved the respect of one of us.”

“Thank you.” Poseidon said happily.

The blacksmith...in no time.

“You did great. That shield he made me was awesome.” Percy grinned.

After lunch...me to Luke.

The campers all winced. 

I thrashed the Apollo guys easily. 

Will sighed and Apollo frowned.

“Sword fighting just isn’t really our thing.” Will admitted.

“I know. Just as you’d thrash me at archery if I bothered anymore.” Percy smiled.

I should’ve...and her siblings, 

“You don’t need to get along to practise with them.” Ares commented.

“We would have happily pulverised him if he’d asked.” Clarisse shrugged.

and after...to see her.

Annabeth frowned slightly.

I went to...Chiron teaching. 

“Why did you even bother?” Hermes asked with a small smile.

“I figured Tantalus or Mr D would have been quite happy to punish me if I skipped lessons.” Percy shrugged.

In arts and...our free times.

The Gods glared at Dionysus before nodding in approval. The Romans were also impressed.

“You shouldn’t have to protect your camp in secret.” Reyna frowned.

“True but better than not defending it at all.” Connor pointed out.

I sat at the...tree’s roots. 

Zeus scowled and Thalia grimaced.

The longer...number-one servant.

Hermes and his kids all winced.

I opened the...part of it.

“I don’t want to be part of your idea of a golden age.” Percy muttered angrily.

“Thank goodness for that.” Nico muttered. They all knew that if Percy had joined Kronos they wouldn’t stand a chance.

At night...likes sheep.

“‘It’s here’?” Jason frowned. “Didn’t Chiron mention that something could help?”

“He did. You think Grover accidentally found the one thing they need to save camp?” Piper asked. “That’s pretty convenient.”

“Convenient is not the word I would use.” Grover stated.

I thought...I was crazy.

Annabeth grimaced knowing that was very true. She hadn’t believed Percy when he told her about Grover despite knowing he wouldn’t lie about his best friend being in danger.

The night...on the front. 

Poseidon smiled proudly.

After all that...I’m not mad.”

“You’re a terrible liar.” Thalia snorted.

“Well, I wasn’t mad at him.” Percy shrugged.

He lay down...to be mad.”

“Awww.” Silena cooed. 

“Poor Tyson.” Beckendorf frowned.

I didn’t know...understand why.”

“Or I knew you both needed each other.” Poseidon said gently.

“We did. It just took me awhile to realise that.” Percy admitted.

I heard a...was snoring.

Everybody chuckled.

I sighed...wedding dress.

There were a few snickers around the room and Grover buried his face in his hands.

It didn’t fit...“Can you hear me?”

“He can see you in your dream?” Gwen asked in surprise.

“Yeah. Grover created a link with me that allowed that to happen.” Percy told her.

My dream-self...few more days!”

“A monster actually wants to marry you?” Reyna raised an eyebrow. Grover shuffled uncomfortably in his seat.

“Pretty much.” He admitted.

“Bah! Hasn’t...but hurry! 

“It bought that?” Travis asked with a laugh.

“Maths wasn’t his strongest area.” Grover smirked. 

“Thank goodness.” Annabeth said.

I want to...and turned left.”

“Oh well, it should be easy to find you.” Chris said.

“What?...great god Pan!

Dionysus and Hermes both glared at the book. Whatever this was, was stopping Satyr’s finding their friend and son.

The satyrs come...by Polyphemus!”

Poseidon sighed sadly while the other two Gods turned their glare onto him.

“Poly-who?”...goat-scented perfume. 

Goat scented perfume?” Leo asked through his laughter.

“Cyclopes eat Satyrs. If he knew what I was he would be dead.” Grover snapped, his face going a little red out of embarrassment.

Thank goodness...to marry me!”

Everyone except Grover burst out laughing. Percy hadn’t dared last time because Grover had been in danger but knowing he survived meant he could now see the funny side.

Under different...with fear.

That dampened most of the laughter but there were a few chuckles throughout the room.

“I’ll come rescue...of course!”

“Of course.” Leo said sarcastically.

“It is where he lived in the stories.” Annabeth shrugged.

“The sea of what?”...I’ll die too.”

“What?” Poseidon shouted. “You connected your life to my son when your life was in such danger?”

“It was the only way for me to get a message to him.” Grover said quietly.

“It was a great risk.” The Sea God growled angrily.

“Dad. It’s ok. Clearly, I didn’t die and it’s proven very useful.” Percy said. The God looked at his son and subsided a little.

“Oh, well, perhaps...Don’t let me die!”

“Good job you took that taxi.” Thalia noted.

The dream faded...submarine radar.

The Greek campers who had been there all winced.

The racetrack...for a week! 

“I’m surprised he didn’t outright say people would be rewarded for killing others.” Connor muttered.

“I’m more surprised Mr D didn’t show just to watch all the injuries that were likely to take place.” Travis shrugged. 

Now ready...loaded Maserati.

Beckendorf smirked while Leo whistled.

The Ares chariot...of other nasty toys.

Ares nodded approvingly while Clarisse looked smug.

“Obviously my children will win.” The God boasted.

“Na. They can’t compete with some good old fashioned trickery.” Hermes stated confidently. 

“I have full confidence in Percy and Tyson.” Poseidon put in.

“I believe Athena’s daughter will triumph.” Artemis stated and Athena nodded proudly.

“Of course.” She agreed. The campers all exchanged looks but nobody corrected their parents.

Apollo’s chariot...opposing drivers.

“I’d prefer the regular arrows.” Chris muttered.

“I know.” Will smirked.

Hermes’s chariot...they’d schemed up.

The Stolls smirked and Hermes ruffled their hair.

“I can imagine.” Chris laughed.

“We had some pretty fun ideas.” Connor nodded.

That left two...again, suspicious.

“You don’t believe him?” Thalia asked in astonishment.

“I thought he wanted to distract me from the race.” Annabeth said.

“By pretending his friend is in danger? Percy would never.” Nico rolled his eyes.

“I know.” Annabeth sighed.

“You’re trying...save the camp.”

“I mean, she’s got a point about that being suspicious.” Silena nodded.

“But Percy would never make that up.” Rachel stated.

“And I’m guessing he doesn’t even know what it is that could save camp.” Thalia pointed out.

“What do you...were dreaming.”

“Oh thanks.” Grover muttered sarcastically. “Glad you have faith in my abilities.”

“And why would Percy even know what an empathy link is? He wouldn’t just dream about something like that.” Will added.

“The Oracle,”...the Oracle.”

“You’d need permission from Dionysus.” Poseidon glared at the Wine God.

Annabeth frowned...than regular birds.

“Them?” Apollo scowled.

“That’s a lot to have made it to camp.” Hermes pointed out.

“The boundary is obviously getting worse.” Artemis said in concern.

Tyson was having...Not trusted!

“I can’t even imagine Tyson eating a horse.” Beckendorf frowned.

“He wouldn’t.” Percy agreed.

I’ll give you...the apples?

“Nice.” Hermes smiled.

“Horses and Pegasi are easily bribable.” Percy grinned.

Finally they...than skateboarding.

“Boys.” Rachel muttered.

“It is great fun.” Annabeth grinned.

“The best.” Clarisse agreed.

I took the reins...concentrate on driving.”

“You’re planning a clean game?” Hermes raised an eyebrow.

“Against Hermes’ kids not to mention Ares’ lot and Hephaestus’.” Apollo looked at him in surprise.

“I didn’t need to give Tantalus any excuses to pick on me.” Percy shrugged. “Not that it mattered.” He added bitterly.

“We will win.’”...and name-calling?

The Greek campers shot him apologetic looks.

As the chariots...look concerned, 

“That concerns me more.” Reyna murmured to Gwen who nodded.

but he did...maybe by mistake, 

“Oi!” Apollo complained.

“Definitely no mistake.” Hermes smirked. “Good lads.”

“Sorry dad.” Will sighed.

“No worries. Just do better next time.” The God clapped his son on the shoulder.

maybe not...horses in the dust.

“Ha!” Apollo cheered. “If they take you out, take them with you. Nice work.” Will grinned.

“Really boys?” Hermes groaned good naturedly. The Stolls looked sheepish.

Two chariots...toward our wheels.

“Yeah. I’m sure you were sorry.” Percy laughed. Beckendorf shrugged but his smirk indicated he wasn’t.

They would’ve...pulled ahead.

Hephaestus grunted his disapproval while Poseidon grinned.

“Nice work...just pigeons.

“I wish.” Percy sighed.

“Please tell me you have your weapon with you?” Poseidon asked.

“Of course.” Percy nodded.

I tried to...Beckendorf was mobbed. 

Hephaestus grimaced.

His fighter tried...the distraction. 

“They are undead.” Hades pointed out.

“That’s my girl.” Ares nodded.

The pigeons pecked...drive them away!”

“Loud music?” Thalia suggested.

“Tyson,” I said...the general chaos.

“Nope. Couldn’t hear a thing.” Will confirmed.

“Still, it was the obvious thing to do.” Connor said.

“Unless you’re Clarisse.” Travis scowled.

I held my reins...safe to shoot.

“I have faith in you guys.” Apollo told Will.

“Too many!”...Chiron’s collection!”

“Excuse me?” The Centaur looked mildly offended.

“Your music was the closest.” Percy grinned innocently.

I understood...problem was.

“Really? You didn’t even notice?” Reyna looked at Clarisse with disapproval. She shrugged but made no response.

When she saw...I could find, 

Chiron raised an eyebrow.

Annabeth snatched...Not to worry.’”

“What?” The Gods all looked horrified except Dionysus who was growing more concerned.

“Why are you guys surprised?” Thalia asked.

“He already expressed that he doesn’t care if camp is attacked.” Chris pointed out.

We pulled up...moaning in Italian.

“Young people have no taste.” Chiron sighed.

The demon...arrows at once. 

Apollo smiled.

Within minutes...clothes pooped on.

“Oh. How awful.” Aphrodite wrinkled her nose. Piper rolled her eyes.

“If that’s the worst they got they can be happy.” She snorted. Aphrodite looked horrified that her daughter did not consider ruined hair and bird poop on clothes a disaster.

“Bravo!”...stunned-looking Clarisse.

“Told you my daughter would win.” Ares said proudly.

“Only because everyone else was actually defending their camp.” Hephaestus scoffed. 

Then he turned...disrupted this race.”

“The monsters disrupted the race you…” Poseidon scowled furiously.

“Chapter’s done.” Dionysus said quietly.

“And you ! Where were you when all of this was going on?” Apollo asked.

“In bed.” Silena stated in annoyance. 

“Not that he would have been any help if he’d be awake.” Connor scoffed.

“I think we should take a break.” Chiron said quickly.

“Agreed.” Poseidon stated. “I need a word with my nephew.” The room then dispersed.

“Hey, you up for some archery training?” Apollo asked Percy. Percy looked into the earnest face of the God and bit back a groan.

“Yeah ok.” The blinding grin he received made his answer worth it.

Chapter Text

Poseidon grabbed Dionysus and left the room. Several other Gods followed, some wanting to have a few words as well and the others just wanting to watch. Chiron herded the children out of the room and towards the dining hall. Apollo then took Percy towards the archery range.

Percy picked up the bow and got into the same stance he had been shown the day before. Apollo made a few minor adjustments. His hands were really hot and Percy could feel his skin burning and tingling everywhere that Apollo touched him. It was quite distracting.

“There. Now, take aim.” The God said. Percy did so. Apollo made a couple more minor adjustments and then Percy let the arrow fly. It did hit the edge of the target. “See, you’re already much better.”

“Only when you pretty much do the aiming for me.” Percy muttered.

“Still, you haven’t shot me once.” Apollo grinned cheerfully.

“It is tempting.” Percy smirked. “I might but if I actually tried I’d probably miss.” 

“You wouldn’t. I’m too amazing.”

“You wish.”

“I am.”

“Not.” Apollo dived towards him and they began wrestling with the God trying to make him admit that he was amazing. However he was used to having Godly strength whereas now they were pretty evenly matched. Eventually Apollo got him in a headlock.

“Now, admit I am amazing.”

“Alright. You are amazing.” Percy said. Apollo beamed and let him up. “Amazingly stupid to believe I meant that.” With that, he ran off towards the dining hall.

“Hey!” Apollo yelled and began chasing after him. They thundered into the dining hall, making everyone look up at them.

“What’s going on?” WIll asked, glancing between his father and Percy from his seat next to Nico.

“Percy won’t admit that I’m amazing.” Apollo whined. 

“I don’t blame him. You’re not.” Hades said easily. Apollo pouted and flopped down on the free side of his son.

“You think I’m great, right?”

“Of course dad.” Will told him, trying to keep the sarcasm out of his voice. It was quite weird to see his dad, who was a few thousand years old, acting like a five year old. Apollo grinned and threw an arm around Will’s shoulders.

“Come on, let’s get back and continue reading.” Chiron suggested. Percy grabbed some food to take with him as he hadn’t gotten to eat anything. They made their way back to the throne room where the rest of the Gods were already waiting. Dionysus looked sullen while the others looked angry. 

“I will read.” Demeter said, grabbing the book.

I Accept Gifts From A Stranger

“Er, Percy, that didn ‘t end too well last time.” Poseidon frowned.

“These gifts were good.” Percy assured his dad. “And it wasn’t a complete stranger.”

“You’d never met them before.” Annabeth pointed out.

“I still knew who it was. Eventually.” Percy grinned.

The way Tantalus...chariot driving.

“What?” Jason raised an eyebrow.

“What the heck did Dionysus say to make him hate Percy so much?” Piper asked.

“Maybe it’s that Percy saved Olympus last summer. Given how much he seems to want the Camp’s destruction he probably also is mad that Percy saved Olympus.” Jason guessed.

“I still don’t get how the Gods let him stay at Camp.” Leo frowned. 

“Because they probably don’t care enough to even realise what’s going on.” Chris said. All the Gods grimaced.

This was...his mood. 

“There’s the Percy we all know and love.” Thalia laughed.

He sentenced...Clarisse’s chariot victory

Ares grinned proudly. Clarisse also looked a little proud but somewhat annoyed. There had been whispers for ages about how winning was more important to her than protecting camp. No one had dared say it too loudly because they didn’t want to upset Tantalus’ favourite and it was that particular title that upset her the most.

a full-course...to believe me.

“Only starting to believe him?” Nico frowned.

“It just seemed so unlikely.” Annabeth pointed out.

“All the more reason to believe him. Percy wouldn’t make that up.” Connor said.

“I know that now.” She nodded.

“If he’s really...“Messy?”

Everybody burst out into surprised laughter.

“He’s not wrong.” Hermes snickered.

She sighed...clay skeletons.”

“That is a good movie.” Piper nodded.

Annabeth rolled...important to her.”

More laughter.

“He’s got a point.” Silena said.

“The point is...Thalia’s tree.”

Zeus brightened a bit at this news like he had forgotten his daughter was in the same room.

Annabeth nodded...the same time. 

“Well that sounds like a trap.” Reyna noted.

“Yeah. Trap is written all over that.” Dakota agreed.

“They don’t have a choice.” Jason said firmly. They needed to cure his sister.

It’s perfect!”...in the lava.

A few people smiled at this.

“Percy,” she...the Cyclopes. 

Poseidon grimaced. He did not want to hear about his children fighting each other.

And there’s...power shifts.”

“So, Bermuda triangle?” Piper guessed.

“Yep.” Travis nodded.

“Like Mount...“The Bermuda Triangle?”

Piper grinned proudly.

“Exactly”...can it be?”

All of the demigods groaned.

“Did you really just ask that?” Thalia asked him.

“You really should know better.” Rachel said.

“Yeah.” Percy sighed. It was a stupid question.

Annabeth knit...camp will hear.

“Good plan.” Apollo smiled.

They’ll pressure...the sing-along. 

The God clapped Will on the shoulder, grinning proudly.

They tried to...than this. 

“Well maybe you shouldn’t have fired him then.” Connor snapped.

Then he gave...into the flames.

“Marshmallow suicide.” Leo sniggered.

“If only he’d jumped after it.” Beckendorf muttered darkly.

Tantalus turned...coming from her.

“Of course it did.” Annabeth smirked.

“You tend to ramble when you’re nervous.” Grover told Percy.

“The Fleece...need saving.”

The Romans and the Gods stared at the book in astonishment. They couldn’t believe he was still acting like everything was completely fine.

“How did he expect anyone to buy that?” Reyna frowned.

“My guess is that he just didn’t care.” Gwen muttered.

Everybody stared...in social studies.”

Poseidon grinned proudly.

“You paid attention in school?” Nico asked with a grin.

“No, I think he just knew and made up the school part so it sounded more convincing.” Grover said. Percy grinned but didn’t respond.

Even Annabeth...Tantalus insisted.

“Really? He still won’t allow a quest?” Chris raised an eyebrow.

“He did eventually.” Annabeth sighed.

“Fine!” Tantalus...would stop me.

“Somehow I doubt he’s going to let you go.” Jason said.

“Yeah, he knows that’s what you want. He’ll pick his favourite.” Piper nodded. Percy grimaced.

“I will allow...chariot races 

“She wasn’t resourceful. Everybody else stopped to protect the camp and she had a clear run.” Dakota pointed out, easily guessing who Tantalus was talking about.

and courageous...the quest!”

Ares nodded proudly.

“Wait!” I shouted...came to me.”

“You already had a quest.” Ares told him.

“I didn’t care about the opportunity for a quest. I wanted to save my friend.” Percy glared at him.

“Sit down!”...another said.

“Or it’s his friend in trouble, plus Percy and Annabeth were the ones who figured everything out and convinced Tantalus to give a quest.” Thalia glared at Clarisse.

“Exactly. Percy did his bit.” Clarisse glared right back. “Someone else should have had a chance.”

Clarisse glared...throwing marshmallows. 

“Food fight!” Grover grinned.

“A dam food fight.” Percy smirked. Grover and Thalia both burst out laughing.

I thought it...I’d ever faced.

“And he’s supposed to be looking after our children.” Aphrodite’s brow furrowed.

“This will not be happening in the future.” Poseidon stated firmly, glaring at Dionysus.

“Once upon...about himself.

“He usually does.” Hephaestus grunted.

“This king,” he...in the stew?”

Demeter grimaced.

No one dared...rebellious children. 

“Zeus! This is where non interference gets us.” Poseidon scowled at his brother.

“This is where letting Dionysus choose a new activities director gets us.” Apollo corrected.

“And he would not have been allowed to get away with such a choice if we were watching properly.” Demeter added angrily.

“Camp is supposed to be the only safe place for our children. Now, not only is the magic failing, there is someone inside the camp who actively wants to take out his revenge on our children.” Aphrodite said. Zeus said nothing.

And so …pet. “Sir—”

“Who would?” Leo asked.

“Go!” he snarled...me again.

“Good.” Poseidon nodded.

“Good,” Tantalus said...come to that. 

“Well, would you look at that. I’m still at Camp.” Percy said to Grover quietly.

“Somehow.” Grover replied with a grin.

The harpies will...he asked.

“Of course he will. He’s Percy and his friend is in danger.” Thalia scoffed.

“I almost didn’t.” Percy admitted.

“I don’t know,”...delicate little pieces.

“That is weird but it’s part of being a Cyclopes.” Beckendorf shrugged.

“What are you...likes you. Really.”

“Clearly.” Nico said sarcastically.

“I do like Tyson now.” Annabeth said.

He had tears...the same ability.

“No.” Grover said. “It’s a Satyr thing.”

Tyson folded...been born.”

Poseidon sighed sadly. “He doesn’t still think that, does he?” He asked Percy nervously.

“No.” Percy smiled. “He’s had loads of fun in the forges.”

“Don’t talk...cared for him? 

Poseidon winced. His monstrous children usually were quite happy to make their own way in the world. Evidently Tyson was quite different in that respect. He would have to make sure he did better in the future.

What kind...was a monster?

Poseidon explained his previous thoughts to Percy.

“Still, Tyson said he prayed to you and you were clearly watching out enough to send him to meet me.” Percy frowned. 

“I know. I have no good explanation for my future actions.” The God said.

“Tyson … camp...already asleep.

There were a few snickers.

“I really do envy his ability to fall asleep at the drop of a hat.” Will said.

I lay back...wake up?

“I’m sorry Percy.” Grover looked horrified that he had worried Percy so much he didn’t want to sleep.

The full moon...from Tantalus.

“Thanks for the faith.” Clarisse snorted.

“Need I remind you of your prophecy?” Percy raised an eyebrow. She glared at him angrily but didn’t argue.

I got out...nearest convenience store.

Chiron looked over at the Hermes kids who all pulled identical innocent faces. The Centaur snorted in amusement while the God high fived his children.

Sneaking out...the ocean. 

Poseidon smiled.

I always felt...hyperactive brain.

“What?” Rachel looked at him in confusion.

“I’m weird.” Percy shrugged.

I tried to...spewed soda.

There was a round of laughter.

Standing right...sly smile. 

Everyone turned to look at Hermes. The God raised an eyebrow in surprise but inwardly he was quite pleased.

“Why would you be visiting a demigod?” Zeus asked angrily.

“Don’t know. I haven’t done it yet.” Hermes shrugged. Then he spotted the looks on his kid’s faces. Connor and Travis exchanged looks. They hadn’t heard this bit. Their dad had come to camp and didn’t even bother to stop in and say hi. Instead he visited Percy.

He looked kind...figure out why.

“Yes. I know now.” Percy said before anyone could speak.

My first thought...to slip in. 

“That is actually a good point. If monsters could get in, could mortals?” Thalia frowned.

“I’m not sure but probably.” Chiron answered.

But in the...to be afraid.

“Percy.” Chiron raised an eyebrow while Hermes smiled at the demigod.

“He looked familiar and it was a good job I didn’t run away.” Percy grinned sheepishly.

“He could have been a monster.” Poseidon said. Hermes huffed.

“You think he would confuse me with a monster?” 

“Seems like quite a reasonable mistake.” Apollo smirked.

I said, “Uh, sure.”...his pocket.

Hermes sighed.

“Not only are you visiting a demigod, you’re wasting time sitting around.” Zeus grew even angrier.

The jogger sighed...I gotta go.”

“Always so helpful, brother.” Dionysus smirked.

“He should have had a tracking number.” Hermes shrugged. “Happens all the time.”

He hung up...George and Martha.”

“Hello, George and Martha.” A hissing voice could suddenly be heard.

“I see George doesn’t change much.” Percy grinned.

“Oh good, he still does that in the future.” Hermes said sarcastically.

“Hi, George. Hi Martha.” Percy said.

“Does the nice boy bring rats?” George asked.

“No. Sorry. I’ll try and find some for later.” Percy promised.

“Never any rats.” George hissed sadly.

“Shut up about rats.” Martha said.

“But rats are nice.” George replied.

“I think that’s enough from you two.” Hermes said. They both shut up.

Hello...my head.

A few people chuckled.

Don’t be sarcastic...“Uh, I like Hercules.”

Artemis scoffed. Of course the boy would like that one. Percy and Thalia both grimaced.

“Why?”...feel better.”

“There is that.” Percy nodded. “But the Huntress is my favourite now.” Thalia, Grover and Annabeth all nodded solemnly.

“There is no such constellation.” Artemis stated.

“Not yet.” Percy said quietly in a sad tone.

The jogger chuckled...“No.”

Artemis raised a delicate eyebrow. Even in this, the boy was different from others.

“You’re an...leave a message.”

“Hermes!” Demeter yelled angrily.

“I was busy. It must be important for me to be visiting Percy.” Hermes rolled his eyes.

She’s not going...you, exactly?”

“You hadn’t guessed yet?” Thalia looked amused.

“I had a lot on my mind.” Percy shrugged.

“Haven’t you...“Hermes.”

Hermes winced.

“Not how I’m usually introduced.”

“Sorry.” Percy said. “I just realised why I recognised your face.”

The god pursed...Does too!

Hermes rolled his eyes while the demigods all laughed.

“Behave, you two,”...mere baby, really.”

“Oh here he goes.” Now Apollo rolled his eyes. Hermes smirked at his brother.

Here we go...I asked.

“He should have been.” Apollo grumbled.

“You know you can’t blast me to pieces.” Hermes grinned.

“Hmm … no...being angry.”

“I did not forget .” 

“Yeah you did.”

“Well now you’ve reminded me.”

“Please read.” Ares begged Demeter.

“So what’s...have a moral?”

“Maybe he meant was there actually a point to that story.” Hades drawled.

“Of course there was a point.” Hermes huffed.

“Um …”...like that moral.”

“Probably not.” Annabeth laughed.

Rats are delicious...punishment. How’s that?”

“You’re persuading my son to go off and risk his life again without permission? When Chiron told him explicitly to stay in camp?” Poseidon glared.

“He was going to go anyway.” Hermes protested.

“Possibly not.”

“Dad, it was a good job I did go.” Percy said.

“You’re saying...The first season.”

“Good show.” Ares nodded.

“Hercules Busts Heads?”...George added.

There were a few snickers.

I’ll get you...I said.

“Nice.” Hermes said, raising his eyebrows. “I didn’t think of that.”

“I’m guessing it does something else then.” Thalia asked. Hermes nodded.

Hermes looked...be careful. 

“Yes. Percy’s the epitome of careful.” Nico sniggered.

And now my...chewable vitamins.

Percy shuddered while Annabeth tried to stifle a laugh.

“You ok?” Thalia asked in surprise.

“Bad memories.” Percy grimaced.

“From vitamins?”

“Kind of. I’m sure you’ll read all about it.”

“You’re kidding,”...they hydras? 

“You can’t tell the difference between a Fury and a Hydra?” Hades asked his nephew.

“They aren’t very clear shapes.” Hermes shrugged.

At any rate...yourself again.”

Percy grimaced again. Reyna’s eyes suddenly went wide. Given the timing and where they were going she knew exactly what those vitamins could do. She glared at the book. Those vitamins had been the reason her home had been destroyed. While she didn’t regret going to Camp Jupiter it had been a horrifying experience.

He tossed me...friend Grover.”

A few of the Gods sent Hermes sympathetic looks while Zeus looked angry.

I stared at...you especially.”

The God blinked slowly. Even having read Luke’s speech in the last book, it hurt to hear it put so bluntly. Chris edged away from his father a little, feeling hurt. His father broke the rules to convince Percy to go and try to save Luke but probably didn’t even realise that he had defected too. He didn’t send anyone to try and change his mind, only Luke’s. 

The Stolls noticed and exchanged looks. Connor slung an arm around his dad’s shoulders while Travis moved to do the same with Chris.

Hermes gazed...make it. 

Chris bit back a retort and Travis tightened his grip on his brother.

It doesn’t matter...not the rats. 

Everybody laughed.

But that’s...some day.” 

“I understand what you mean but you can’t save someone who doesn’t want to be saved.” Percy said softly.

Hermes got up...Martha said.

“Only sixty?” Hermes asked sarcastically.

“You’ve been sitting down for not even five minutes?” Connor frowned.

“Yep. Busy, busy.” Hermes sighed.

And one...farther away.

“Why are they looking for you?” Nico asked.

“Hermes made it seem like I called them.” Percy said.

“I hope I...the dark water.

Percy and Annabeth both grimaced.

“Wait,” I said...to eat you. 

“That is a good reason to hurry.” Beckendorf nodded.

“Yeah. I’d get a move on.” Leo agreed.

Now, good night...impossible decision.

“It’s not that impossible.” Nico said.

“Yeah. I’d have thought you’d jump at the chance to go.” Rachel frowned.

“I did really want to go but…” Percy trailed off and shrugged.

“Chapter’s done.” Demeter announced.

“I suppose I haven’t read yet.” Hades said in a long suffering voice. She tossed the book at him and he caught it deftly.

Chapter Text

All of the Greek campers grimaced.

I was staring...holding. “What—”

“That’s definitely an interesting collection of items to have in the middle of the night.” Beckendorf grinned.

“You’d have thought that if he was yelling loudly enough for you two to hear, someone else would have heard too.” Leo frowned.

“Hermes made it so just us two would hear anything.” Annabeth rolled her eyes. 

“Oh.” Leo nodded.

“Just listen,”...come back to.”

“She’s got a point.” Thalia nodded.

“This is a novelty. Annabeth is convincing Percy to do something reckless.” Nico laughed.

“Yeah, but you...with you! 

“You’re the one encouraging him to go.” Grover grinned. “But I’m glad you guys came.”

Tyson can stay behind and tell them—”

“You can’t leave Tyson behind. That Tantalus dude would probably let the campers kill him for practise.” Reyna stated. Poseidon scowled at the thought.

“I wouldn’t leave Tyson at camp on his own.” Percy assured her.

“I want to go,”...You know that’s impossible.”

“Actually, having Tyson with you would surely be quite the advantage.” Jason said.

“We couldn’t have done it without him.” Annabeth admitted.

I wondered...telling me.

“Isn’t there always.” Percy muttered.

She and Tyson...some space.

“Percy…” Poseidon began.

“I thought you said you wouldn’t leave him?” Rachel frowned.

“I did. It was just a part of me. I would never leave Tyson at camp with Tantalus there. I was just being stupid.”

“Not stupid. I get needing some space and you made the right choice in the end. Although it would have been mean if you actually said that to Tyson.” Thalia said.

Plus, I didn’t...us all killed.

“There is that but he did alright against the monsters at your school and those bulls.” Gwen pointed out.

On the other...Polyphemus’s island!

“Tyson’s too loyal to Percy to turn on him.” Thalia shrugged.

“I’d only known him for a couple of days plus I didn’t trust Cyclopes.” Annabeth reminded her.

“Fair enough.” Thalia nodded. “I can’t blame you for that. I doubt I’d be any better in your place.”

Polyphemus is...time to argue.

“It was a bit of both.” Annabeth smirked at him.

“All right,” she...“How’s it going?”

Everybody laughed.

“You’re supposed to be being quick.” Connor said.

“Figured I should probably be polite to one of the only Gods who liked me. Go through the pleasantries and all that.” Percy shrugged.

“Percy!” Annabeth...“Fish ponies!”

“Fish ponies?” Nico asked with a laugh.

“Hippocampi.” Percy said.

“Fish ponies?” Poseidon winced. He definitely needed to teach Tyson the correct name for things.

He was right...“They’re beautiful.”

“They are.” Percy nodded, smiling at Annabeth.

The nearest one...dodo birds. 

Everyone burst out laughing again.

They weren’t...they caught you.

All the Greek campers nodded.

“Tyson!” I said...carrying a Cyclops.

“Of course I knew. I wouldn’t be surprised if I was keeping a close eye on you after your last quest.” Poseidon said. Percy wasn’t sure if that made him feel better or worse.

“Giddyup!” I said...on at all.

Percy smiled happily. He loved riding Hippocampi. If he survived this war he would have to do that more often.

“I was grateful for that part.” Annabeth said. “They were really easy to ride.”

As we got...PRINCESS ANDROMEDA 

“Interesting transport.” Reyna noted. That was definitely not the ship she recalled them turning up at Circe’s island in. She saw all the Greeks grimace.

“Not my favourite ship.” Percy said.

Attached to...had no idea.

A few people snickered.

“He’s got a point.” Connor said. 

“Seems like a weird choice.” Travis agreed. “Just because it’s called the Andromeda doesn’t mean you have to have that decoration.”

I remembered...or something. 

Everybody except the Gods burst out laughing. 

“I love being inside your head.” Beckendorf said through his chuckles.

Anyway, my namesake...Perseus’s luck.

“That definitely did not work.” Percy said firmly.

“It still might. You might get that happy ending.” Apollo smiled. 

“Besides, you do have real good luck at the best places.” Annabeth pointed out.

“Yeah but that usually just gets me out of the mess my bad luck got me into in the first place.” Percy shrugged.

Judging by...of the hull.

“Handy.” Leo said.

“You first,”...of the ship.

“Seems like you had good reason to be worried. You’re not even on the ship and he might give you away.” Dakota stated.

“Better there when we could still escape easily enough.” Percy said sharply.

“Tyson, shhh!”...miss you, Rainbow!”

Poseidon smiled softly.

The hippocampus...Ancient Greek.

“Yes, I’m sure it was the cursing that made the difference.” Nico laughed while Athena glared at her daughter.

“It’s well known that cursing helps solve mechanical problems.” Beckendorf grinned.

“Definitely.” Leo nodded.

I figured we’d...I murmured.

“You’d think that would be a good thing but it just makes me more worried.” Piper said.

“Yeah. It sounds a little creepy.” Jason agreed.

“No,” Tyson said...clears it up.”

“Maybe it’s not precise but it means there are definitely monsters on board and you need to be careful.” Beckendorf said.

“You sent them to a ship of monsters?” Poseidon and Athena glared at Hermes. 

“I haven’t done anything yet but options were probably limited.” He pointed out. 

We came outside...sign of life.

“Wicked.” Connor forced a grin. “Plenty of empty stores to get extra supplies from.”

And yet...to sleep.”

“A ghost ship with monsters on? I don’t think anywhere counts a safe.” Clarisse rolled her eyes.

“We had to get some sleep somewhere.” Percy shrugged.

“Sleep,”...as weird. 

“So you’re going to stay in there?” Nico asked wide-eyed.

“It was too big a ship to search every single room for an empty one that was locked.” Annabeth pointed out.

There was...of everything

“Of course I did.” The God said.

extra clothes...a lot better.

“Oh that’s good. I forgot you wouldn’t have it with you.” Thalia said.

“It was nice of you to pack Tyson’s kit as well.” Percy smiled gratefully at Hermes. He grinned back.

“I’ll be next...is enchanted?”

“Could be.” Silena mused.

She frowned...they drifted past.

“That’s creepy. I’m not sure I’d be able to sleep there.” Piper shuddered a little.

“Honestly I was too tired not to.” Percy said. 

Finally my weariness...darkness below.

“Oh not again.” Poseidon groaned.

“Yeah.” Percy sighed. “It happens way too often.”

If it isn’t...for the gods. 

“If he failed he’d probably be dead so it wouldn’t make much difference.” Nico said.

“They wouldn’t have killed Percy.” Annabeth said tightly. “They needed him to fulfil the prophecy.”

How exactly...the boulder.

Grover sighed while a few people sniggered. They felt bad for Grover but it wasn’t everyday a Satyr got called ‘honeypie’ but a Cyclops.

Grover yelped...back together.

“Good plan but risky. You really don’t want to get caught doing that.” Silena said.

“Tell me about it.” Grover muttered.

The room...EXPO 2001. 

“World sheep expo? Is that even a thing?” Jason asked.

“I guess so. He’s got the shirt for it and he doesn’t strike me as the type to make his own shirts with print on.” Piper replied. 

“True.” Jason nodded.

He must’ve...pretty darn close.

Poseidon frowned a little.

“What are you...just for you.”

“You are so brave.” Silena said to Grover. 

“It helped he was pretty stupid.” The Satyr gave a small smile.

“Not quite stupid enough.” Annabeth muttered.

“Mmmm!”...five, right?”

“Totally.” Leo laughed.

“Certainly...please, please!”

“On our way.” Percy grinned.

I woke to...the Promenade!”

“Did that just say disemboweling practise?” Ares asked, finally taking some interest.

“Yes.” Hades said, frowning down at the book.

“That doesn’t sound like a mortal practise.” Demeter said.

“It isn’t.” Rachel stated.

I sat up...much attention. 

“Well, I guess that on a ship this big they wouldn’t know everyone.” Rachel said. “They might not realise you’re stowaways.”

But there was something wrong.

“Isn’t there always.” Percy sighed.

As the family...They wandered off.

“Ok. Yeah, that sounds like they are enchanted.” Silena stated.

“An entire ship is enchanted?” Piper whistled.

“Seems like it. If they didn’t enchant everyone then the others would freak out.” Jason pointed out. Piper nodded.

“Good morning,”...a hellhound

A few people grimaced, remembering the last time Percy met a hellhound but to their surprise, Percy was smiling softly.

a black mastiff...of the ordinary.

“Well, between whatever enchantment they are under and the mist, I’d be more surprised if they did notice.” Thalia said.

“True.” Silena agreed.

“Not hungry anymore,”...girls’ restroom?”

Everybody laughed, grateful for something amusing to focus on. 

“It’s really a good job this is from Percy’s point of view. At least his humour keeps it from being too tense all the time.” Nico said with a grin. They all nodded their agreement.

“I mean the ship, Percy! We have to get off the ship.”

“And go where? You’re in the middle of the ocean probably.” Apollo asked.

“I was hoping Percy could pray to his father again and get us some transport away.” Annabeth explained.

“Smells bad,”...forget his voice.

Everyone glared at the book except Poseidon, who was glaring at Hermes, and Hermes himself who was staring at the floor. Poseidon was not happy that Hermes had deliberately sent his son onto a monster infested ship.

“I’m not pushing...to Mount Olympus.”

“Except he has a whole ship full of monsters at his beck and call.” Clarisse pointed out.

“By all means find out his plan but then you’d better leave.” Will agreed. “Even if you did capture him, you don’t have the time to take him to Olympus. You need to get Grover and the Fleece.”

“Chapter is done.” Hades announced, sounding relieved.

“I will read, brother.” Hestia said with a soft smile. He gave her the book quickly.

Chapter Text

Hermes grimaced. He guessed that meant the meeting with his son didn’t end well. 

“You clearly haven’t been to very many.” Poseidon told his son dryly.

Annabeth volunteered...or nobody went.

Athena nodded. While she might not like the sea spawn, she was glad that he would not leave Annabeth.

“Good idea. On a ship that big, if you split up you might not be able to find each other again when something goes wrong.” Thalia said.

“What do you mean ‘when’” Percy asked indignantly.

“It’s you. Something was going to go wrong.” She pointed out. He shrugged. She wasn’t wrong.

“Nobody!” Tyson voted. “Please?”

“To be honest, I’d be with Tyson.” Leo muttered.

But in...gather our stuff. 

“Good idea.” Athena nodded approvingly.

“Not that it mattered too much.” Percy muttered to himself. 

We figured...worry about it.

“A couple of bags won’t make much difference to a Cyclops.” Hermes shrugged.

Tyson could...I could carry a backpack.

“Exactly.” Hermes added to his previous point.

“I’d still rather not just make him the pack mule.” Percy frowned.

We sneaked...into a supply closet.

“Better than a girls toilet?” Thalia asked with a snicker.

“Much better.” Percy nodded earnestly.

“It was much more cramped.” Annabeth said.

“Still better.” Percy said.

I heard a...one of them said. 

“They have an Aethiopian drakon in the cargo hold?” Ares asked with mild interest. 

“It would seem so.” Aphrodite rolled her eyes at her lover.

The other laughed...Chris Rodriguez!” 

Hestia’s voice trailed off as everyone who didn’t already know about Chris’ betrayal turned to look at the son of Hermes who was trying valiantly to sink into the couch. Hermes looked towards his son, feeling as if the ice that had been buried in his gut at the thought of Luke’s betrayal was now being twisted violently. Was he such a bad parent? That was now two of his sons who had defected and one of them was pretty much the leader of the enemy. 

“The Fates DARE send a TRAITOR into our midst!” Zeus thundered dangerously, standing up and glaring at Chris. Travis squeezed Chris’ shoulders before standing up and moving in front of him. He crossed his arms over his chest and glared at the King of the Gods. Connor joined him. Everyone was taken aback, they had never seen the Stolls look so serious or so angry.

“Chris is on our side.” Travis stated firmly. “He made a mistake.”

“MISTAKE?” Zeus roared.

“Yeah. He thought that seeing as his dad couldn’t even be bothered to claim him, even after spending years at camp, that maybe the other side would actually care about him.” Clarisse now moved to join the Stolls. 

“Chris. I…” Hermes began.

“You would turn against the Gods just because you weren’t claimed?” Hera scoffed.

“Years of frustration, anger and irritation at being ignored by your parent, thinking you’ve been forgotten or that your parent just doesn’t care builds up into hatred. Then Kronos comes in and manipulates them, gives them a way to focus their anger on you regardless of the consequences.” Connor glared at the Queen of the Gods. “Plenty did. Because not being claimed is a sign to us that our parents either don’t care about us or forget we even exist.” 

“That’s not the case.” Apollo protested.

“Isn’t it?” Percy asked. “If you don’t forget about them, and you do care, then why don’t you claim your kids?” He glared around at all of them. “Of course, the kindest answer is that you are immortal so our little mortal lives are so fleeting you often forget about us. Even then, why should kids want to fight for their parents who forget they even exist?”

“It got even worse after that summer. I like Tyson, I do, but how were the undetermined kids supposed to feel that a monster got claimed after a few hours but they haven’t been claimed for years.” Travis said. He and Connor had already been struggling  with it being their first summer as Cabin leaders after Luke’s betrayal, as well as trying to deal with his betrayal themselves that it didn’t help that they had to try and reassure the undetermined campers that the Gods didn’t care more about monsters than they did their own children.

“Yeah, that was a reason for quite a few more demigods leaving.” Chris nodded. “Or rather, it was the final straw for a lot of them, not the sole reason.” He’d heard plenty of demigods complaining that the Gods cared more about a monster than them. Poseidon frowned. He had only wanted to protect Tyson. 

“You should not turn your back on family.” Hera sniffed.

“That’s rich, coming from you, mother. You threw me off of Olympus because I wasn’t perfect looking.” Hephaestus grunted.

“Technically the Titans are family too.” Percy pointed out grimly. “Back to the point. Yes, Chris felt abandoned by his dad and decided to follow his brother in supporting Kronos. Luke was very well liked by the Hermes cabin and honestly, I’m surprised that more of the undetermined kids didn’t leave when he did. However, Chris realised his mistake and is back on our side.”

“How can we trust him?” Ares asked. “Could be a spy.”

“Kronos already had enough of those.” Annabeth said. Silena grimaced.

“Do you really think the Fates would have sent him here if he wasn’t trustworthy?” Travis asked as Clarisse glared around the room at everyone. 

“This is the second of your children to support father.” Zeus turned his glare on Hermes. There was a hint of accusation in his voice. Hermes spluttered but was interrupted before he could protest.

“That is no more Hermes’ fault than any of the Gods. Almost every God had at least one demigod child who turned to Kronos’ side.” Percy said bitterly. The Gods then began exchanging glances, each of them wondering how many, if any, of their children defected due to feeling abandoned.

“That is enough. I am going to continue reading now.” Hestia spoke quietly but firmly. Clarisse dragged Chris over to sit with her while the Stolls sat back down on either side of their dad. Zeus reluctantly sat back down as his sister began reading once more.

Annabeth took off...never claimed him. 

Hermes looked over at his son, an apology written all over his face. Chris wasn’t looking at him.

Now that I...twin serpent tails instead of legs.

“Dracaenae.” Silena frowned.

“You guys should really leave.” Jason said. “There are too many monsters if you get caught.”

“We couldn’t leave without finding out what Luke was up to.” Percy said grimly.

“Scythian Dracaenae,”...cheered and howled.

The Gods all frowned at the description. They wanted to know if it was one of their children but at the same time they didn’t want to hear about the betrayal.

“Who was that?” Clarisse asked Chris in a whisper.

“Jake Dunson. Son of Hecate.” Chris replied quietly. “He was never at Camp.” She nodded.

Annabeth stepped...way to turn.”

Thalia and Annabeth both shivered. Tyson or not, they would never get used to Cyclopes changing voices like that.

“Cyclopes can change their voices?” Piper asked.

“Yep. They can sound like anyone they’ve heard.” Thalia said stiffly.

“Do you think Luke means Clarisse or you guys?” Reyna asked.

“Probably Clarisse but he might have guessed we would sneak out.” Percy said with a frown. “He would have known how close Annabeth was to Chiron and given that Luke made it personal with me last summer there was a good chance we would be involved.”

Before I could...is gone for good?”

“No.” All of the Greek campers spat angrily. They were still furious that Chiron had been blamed for the whole thing.

Tyson laughed...skeletons in his closet. 

“Skeletons?” Thalia scowled furiously. “Just because his dad is evil. It’s not like the big three share the same dad as Chiron.”

“Enough, Thalia.” Chiron said gently.

“It’s not right. Especially as Mr D got him in as a replacement.” She said firmly. He smiled slightly at her but did not reply.

The poisoning of...looked puzzled. “Just listening.”

“He is so young that he is doing it instinctively.” Poseidon realised. “Tyson won’t realise what he is doing.”

“I agree with Annabeth, it does sound creepy.” Piper said.

“Useful though.” Percy shrugged.

“Keep going,” I said...gruff voice. “Right outside.”

“Ah, I think they know you’re there.” Reyna stated.

“Run!” Frank yelled.

“Funnily enough, we did think of that.” Percy said, rolling his eyes.

“I’m guessing you still got caught.” Jason said.

“Ye of little faith.” Percy scoffed.

“Well given the chapter title, it’s pretty likely that you met Luke at some point.” Hazel pointed out. Percy pouted.

Too late, I realized…beef sandwiches on a silver platter.

“Mmmm. Pizza.” Leo groaned. “I’m hungry.” 

“We’ve only just had a snack break.” Jason said in disbelief.

“I’m with Leo.” Percy said.

“We will stop for lunch after the next chapter.” Chiron said. “You can last that long.” Both boys pouted but knew there was no use arguing.

The horrible part...room feel cold.

“Father.” Hades breathed. Poseidon, Athena and Hermes all sat up straighter. Poseidon put his arm around Percy’s shoulders and squeezed to reassure himself that his son was there and not anywhere near Kronos.

“Well,” Luke said...than Cabin Eleven, huh?”

“No.” Travis snarled.

“I’d take Cabin Elven anyday.” Chris said firmly. Clarisse squeezed his hand gently. Hermes smiled over at his son. His smile faded when he noticed that Chris was still avoiding looking at him. He made a mental note to speak to his son during the break.

He’d changed since...evil male model, 

“Evil male model?” Will asked with a laugh.

“Were you checking Luke out?” Jason asked Percy with a grin. Percy went bright red. He had never told anyone about his very brief, mini crush on the son of Hermes. Nor did he intend to. Apollo and Nico both perked up at this question and Percy’s reaction. Will watched a hopeful expression flash across Nico’s face and felt both happy and annoyed. It was good to him that Nico seemed to like guys but naturally he had a crush on Percy Jackson. How was Will supposed to compete with him? 

“N..no.” Percy stuttered. “It was just an observation.” He added more firmly.

showing off what...to Harvard this year.

“Fashionable college-age villian?” Leo snickered. Everybody started chuckling.

“I love reading about what’s in your brain.” Grover said to Percy.

He still had...mortals and monsters.

“I’ve been thinking about that sword and I think it must be a form of, or at least a manifestation of, grandfather’s scythe.” Athena said in disgust. 

“What makes you say that?” Poseidon asked although he suspected his niece was correct.

“Think about what the boy did with it at the end of the last book. He disappeared in a ripple of darkness. Not to mention he seems to be Kronos’ chosen demigod to carry out his bidding while he has no body.” Athena said. Hermes grimaced at this bit. 

“I believe you are correct.” Hades nodded grimly. He and his brothers exchanged glances, wondering how the boy had found the Scythe.

“Sit,” he told us...of the room.

“What?” Zeus asked with a frown.

“How did he do that?” Artemis asked sharply. “Telekinesis isn’t a power of Hermes’ children.”

“Father must have given the boy some extra abilities.” Poseidon said with a grim expression.

“Surely he must need all his energy to heal.” Demeter pointed out. 

“Giving the boy some abilities wouldn’t take much power. Especially if the boy has a manifestation of his scythe as well.” Hades said. Hermes swallowed around a lump that had formed in his throat. Was it even possible to save his son at this point? He shook his head. It had to be. In this time Luke hadn’t even been born yet. He would just have to do a better job of looking out for his son.

None of us sat...heard of them.”

“Yes. It seems Ares should not have intervened in their punishments.” Hermes raised an eyebrow at his half brother.

“I’ll dismember them myself this time.” Ares snarled.

I said nothing...Wasn’t the bear twins who scared me.

“Giant bears with spears pointed at you aren’t scary?” Leo asked.

“Not as scary as Luke or that sarcophagus.” Percy said.

I’d imagined...hands from shaking.

Percy grimaced and looked down. For the millionth time he cursed these stupid books. The other campers did not need to hear about him being scared to face Luke. He was supposed to be a hero.

“Well he did almost kill you last summer. I’d be more concerned if you weren’t at least a little worried about facing him.” Poseidon told his son.

“I’m supposed to be a hero. I’m supposed to be brave.” Percy muttered quietly.

“Bravery isn’t the absence of fear. It is the ability to work through your fear and do what needs to be done. You overcome your fear and don’t let it control you.” The Sea God told his son.

“You don’t know...Artemis for help.

Aphrodite and Artemis glared at each other.

“Artemis should not have interfered and allowed her to join the hunt.” Aphrodite scowled at the maiden goddess.

“It was kind of cruel of you to force someone to fall in love.” Gwen said to her mother. “Love might be your domain but surely that means you should know better than anyone it is not right to force love on people.” Aphrodite looked taken aback. Then she opened her mouth to instruct her daughter but Hestia kept reading.

Artemis let her...girl in disgust.

“It wasn’t the girl’s fault.” Percy scowled.

“She broke her vow.” Artemis stated clearly.

“Because a Goddess magically cursed her. She didn’t do it willingly.” Nico argued. He still hated the Hunters of Artemis for taking his sister away from him. The demigods all had looks of anger or disgust on their faces.

Typical of the gods...in the middle. 

“As usual.” Percy muttered angrily.

“The audacity of that boy.” Artemis sneered.

“He’s got a point. You Gods can’t hurt each other so you attack each other through mortals...or us.” Percy stated evenly, though his fists were clenched in anger. “Yet another reason demigods joined Kronos’ side.” The Gods all looked angry at that statement but Hestia started reading before an argument could break out.

The girl’s twin sons...normal behavior.

“Oookay? If he thinks that’s normal he needs some new company.” Dakota said.

He made himself...How’s your mom? How’s school?”

“He’s making small talk?” Piper looked confused.

“Probably trying to delay them. They don’t have long before the poison will kill Thalia’s tree.” Jason said with an edge in his voice.

“You poisoned...So what?”

“What do you mean ‘so what’? You scum!” Jason yelled angrily. “You were supposed to be her friend!” Thunder rumbled overhead and small flashes of lightning were surrounding Jason as his fury spilled over. Piper scooted away from him to avoid being electrocuted.

“He doesn’t even care that he could have killed me.” Thalia said, her voice coming out barely above a whisper.

“Luke was an idiot.” Percy told her. Then they both heard the thunder and Thalia looked up. She spotted the storm building around Jason and hurried to her brother’s side. 

“Jay. I’m ok. I’m right here.”

“But he..! You could have..!” Jason was so angry on his sister’s behalf that he couldn’t even form sentences. Because of that traitor he could have lost his sister before he even had the chance to know her. And he was supposed to be her friend and yet he didn’t care that he had poisoned her. Jason couldn’t wrap his head around the idea. Thalia grabbed him and pulled him into a hug. After a few moments Jason could feel something wet dripping into his hair and he realised that Thalia was crying. He might have only known her for a couple of days but he knew that his sister did not cry easily. Slowly the lightning stopped. The two stayed hugging for a few moments longer. “I’m sorry he was an idiot.” Jason said.

“Me too.” Thalia murmured. She kept her face buried in her brother’s short hair. She did not need anyone seeing that she had cried. Still, it burned so badly to hear Luke speak so callously. Even if he had known what would happen with the fleece, there was no guarantee that the fleece would get there in time. She sank down onto the couch with Jason. Piper switched places with Annabeth so she could sit on Thalia’s other side.

“How could you?”...be on my side.”

“Clearly.” Percy scoffed.

“I’d never side with Kronos.” Thalia spat.

“My daughter knows better than that.” Zeus said proudly.

“We know, Thals.” Annabeth told her friend. 

“I’m going to kill him.” Thalia muttered feeling both hurt and angry.

“Liar!”...a world without them, Annabeth? 

“I can but I don’t want to.” Annabeth said. “The Gods may be very far from perfect but they are still better than the Titans.” The Gods all looked affronted at the first part of her statement.

What good is...intelligence, Annabeth.”

Athena narrowed her eyes. From having studied her daughter over the course of the reading, the Wisdom Goddess suspected that her daughter’s fatal flaw was pride. Common in her children. It seemed this Luke boy knew that as well, or at least suspected. He was trying to manipulate Annabeth with her fatal flaw and Athena did not appreciate that.

Hermes hid his face in his hands. It was becoming more clear that his son was getting closer to being lost to him. He desperately hoped that this was simply Kronos’ influence over his son, not how his son truly felt.

“Because you have none of your own!”

“Nice.” Leo laughed.

His eyes narrowed...hunted to extinction. 

“I’d rather be hunted to extinction than join you.” Beckendorf scowled furiously. The demigods all nodded their agreement. Silena glanced over at her boyfriend anxiously. How was he going to react if they found out she was helping Kronos. She only wanted to keep Charlie safe and Luke had promised not to hurt him if she helped him out. However she was becoming less and less sure that Charlie would understand that. She would just have to hope that Percy never found out so it wouldn’t be in these books. 

The Stolls exchanged looks and grimaced. It still stung to know that their own brother would hunt them down and kill them. If he could poison his old best friend without remorse, would it even bother him to kill them? That was a scary thought. Even though they knew it was likely Luke would die if they won the war, it would still upset them that their brother died. Would Luke feel the same way the other way around? 

You really want...You of all people—”

“I consider betraying our parents and poisoning me far worse than travelling with a good Cyclops.” Thalia growled lowly.

“Stop it!” she shouted...all about that. 

“Well yeah, quite a few new recruits were complaining about it.” Chris said quietly.

And about...who keep me posted.”

“He has spies at camp?” Apollo asked cautiously. Silena inwardly cringed. Although she hadn’t agreed to help Kronos until recently the guilt was still eating away at her.

“He’s had spies in camp since then?” Clarisse glared. All the Greeks looked around at each other cautiously.

“Yeah. Adam from the Ares cabin was a spy. So was Eileen from Demeter’s cabin.” Chris said. “Adam died last summer and Eileen left to join the main force right before I went into the Lab...that place.” He cut himself off with a wince. 

“WHAT?” Ares and Demeter yelled. They both reeled back like they had been punched in the face while Zeus glared furiously at both of them. Hestia gave her sister a sympathetic look and then continued reading.

“Spies, you mean.”...cares for this monster?”

Poseidon glared at the book. “I care for all of my children.” He said through gritted teeth.

Tyson clenched his...using you, Percy. 

“Which is different from how Kronos is using you, how exactly?” Thalia asked angrily.

“Because he is stupid enough to believe that Kronos isn’t using him.” Travis scoffed. 

Do you have any...you the prophecy?”

Chiron sighed.

“Why does Luke know about the prophecy?” Beckendorf asked.

“I guess Kronos knows it and so told him.” Chiron said.

“I do so love it when the enemy has knowledge that I don’t when it pertains to me.” Percy grumbled.

“It would just distract you if you knew.” Annabeth said. “You would keep trying to change it and the more you try to escape a prophecy, the more you end up making it come true.” 

I wanted to get...like the sound of that.

“Me either.” Poseidon said. He already knew the prophecy of course and it was troubling him greatly that his son was likely to be the one who fulfilled it. It made the most sense as these books were from his point of view. Plus the note at the beginning basically gave it away. It didn’t make him feel any better.

“I know what...my enemies are.”

The demigods all nodded while the Gods eyed Percy warily. So far he didn’t seem to consider the Gods enemies, except possibly Ares, and they hoped that would not change.

“Then you’re a fool.”...the deck shook.

“Those guys are strong.” Beckendorf said in surprise. It was not easy to overpower a Cyclops.

“Together, yes. Not to mention Tyson is still very young. Were he an adult they wouldn’t have a chance. Still, even at his age he could beat one of them, just not both.” Poseidon explained.

“Too bad...for your strength. 

“And Luke has just told you that important information. Unless he had just made a very careless mistake, he is planning something.” Athena frowned.

Maybe I should let...father sent us.”

Hermes perked up hopefully.

His face turned the color of pepperoni. 

And he sank back down again. That was not the reaction he had been hoping for. Connor squeezed his dad’s arm gently.

“Don’t— even— mention...the gold sarcophagus.

Zeus glared at Hermes for his son’s traitorous words while Hermes just felt like crying.

“Percy, do you know what he meant by that?” He asked. He wanted to know if he had actually abandoned his son at some point.

“No idea.” Percy shrugged. “Sorry, Lord Hermes.” Annabeth and Thalia exchanged looks.

The box creeped...small piece appears—”

“I always wondered how that works. Why does people pledging to him help Kronos to reform?” Percy asked.

“Zeus destroyed our father by slicing him to pieces with his scythe. The scythe’s power is to reap souls so to fix him you need the opposite of that. He needs souls to pledge to him.” Hades explained.

“Plus it has the added effect of making us weaker. You demigods are part God but also your prayers and offerings are a great source of Olympus’ power. Take that away and we are made weaker.” Athena added with a worried frown. “I hope you informed us.”

“I did. As soon as Percy told me about the quest.” Chiron said.

“Not that it made any difference. Zeus still refused to believe Kronos was rising again.” Percy muttered angrily. The Gods looked at their King in disbelief.

“That’s disgusting!”...whatever you want. 

“Wrong thing to bribe Percy with.” Connor said.

“And he is supposed to be a son of Hermes. He’s rubbish at bribery.” Travis agreed with his brother. 

“What do you mean?” Artemis asked. Surely offering power and glory to a boy was quite effective.

“Percy doesn’t care about power at all.” Annabeth said. “He can’t stand being the centre of attention either.” Artemis was confused. Truly this boy was different to others.

Annabeth, you can...of the next age!”

Annabeth sighed. That was everything she had ever dreamed off. She wished it could be true but Kronos would never allow that. As soon as he won, he’d kill all demigods or keep them for entertainment.

“Go to Tartarus,” she said.

The Greeks all nodded in agreement. 

Luke sighed...them how it’s done.”

“Glad that didn’t happen.” Percy grimaced.

Oreius grinned stupidly...something were troubling him. 

“What? Luke said himself that Tyson wasn’t a match for them together . Surely he knows Tyson could take one of them on their own.” Jason frowned.

“He probably does. Maybe he wants them to get away for some reason.” Reyna said.

“And given that troubled look, I doubt it’s his idea to let them go.” Athena stated. “Kronos must want them to get the fleece to bring Thalia back. It gives him another opportunity to persuade a child of the big three to join his side.” 

“Agrius, stay here...But maybe separately …

“Definitely letting them go.” Ares said confidently. “First he let the necessary information slip and then only sent one twin.” 

“Yeah, we gathered that.” Athena rolled her eyes.

We exited the...zombie tourist family.

“Nice.” Beckendorf grinned.

“Go Tyson!” Leo cheered. 

“Ah!” the kids yelled in unison. “We are not having a blast in the pool!”

A few people snickered despite feeling bad for the mortals.

One of the security...Sirens wailed.

“Wonderful.” Thalia groaned.

“You’re in the middle of the ocean.” Nico pointed out.

“Home turf.” Percy grinned.

“For you and Tyson. Not for Annabeth.” Grover said.

“Lifeboat!” I yelled...puddle of piña colada. 

Everyone burst out laughing at the image.

Laistrygonian archers...with a fire extinguisher.

“Definitely a good thing you took him with you.” Beckendorf said.

“Yeah. He saved our butts a lot.” Percy nodded.

“Get in!” I yelled...out of the air. 

“You slashed arrows out of the air?” Will asked, looking impressed.

“He once slashed Hunters arrows out of the air.” Thalia said with a smile. Percy went a little red as Artemis and Apollo both looked at him in astonishment. The other demigods looked at him with awe. They remembered the capture the flag game against the hunters and they couldn’t even see the arrows flying at them, let alone slash them out of the air.

“That is very impressive.” Apollo told him with a grin. “You clearly have some damn good reflexes to do that.” Percy went even redder and asked Hestia to keep reading.

Any second we...with the release pulley.

“Hurry up.” Poseidon muttered.

I jumped in beside...toward the ocean.

“Well that actually went pretty well for you guys.” Silena said.

“Yeah. Percy should be able to control the boat easily.” Poseidon smiled. Athena scowled. Her daughter would have to rely a lot on the sea spawn given that the rest of their journey was over water. She did not like that.

“That is the end of the chapter.” Hestia announced. 

“I haven’t read yet.” Rachel said. The Goddess passed her the book with a smile.

“One more chapter and then lunch.” Chiron reminded everyone. The boys all groaned about being reminded about food. The Centaur smiled and rolled his eyes.

Chapter Text

“Dead confederates?” Nico asked.

“Yep.” Percy nodded.

“Why would you meet any dead on your quest? You didn’t come to my domain again did you?” Hades asked with a groan.

“No uncle. You’ll find out pretty soon.” Percy grinned.

“Thermos!” I screamed as we hurtled toward the water.

“Ooh. Not necessarily the best idea.” Hermes winced. “I might have waited at least until you landed on the water before doing that.”

“What?” Annabeth must’ve thought I’d lost my mind. 

“To be fair, I think most people would have thought you’d lost your mind if you scream ‘thermos’ at them while falling through the sky.” Grover told Percy in amusement.

“Actually I thought he lost it a while back.” Annabeth grinned. Percy stuck his tongue out at her.

She was holding...it or the boat.

“That’s impressive.” Connor whistled. 

“Good thing he’s strong.” Leo nodded.

“I meant that Tyson understood something before Annabeth.” Connor said. 

“Yeah that is impressive.” Travis agreed. “And weird.”

Arrows and javelins...the right thing. “Hang on!”

“Ok, maybe I should have mentioned how to use it in a little more detail.” Hermes said with a sheepish grin.

“Percy would probably have ignored your instructions.” Thalia laughed. 

“When Percy plans or tries to prepare it all goes horribly wrong anyway.” Annabeth pointed out with a chuckle. “His best plans are the ones made up on the spot.”

“By best, you mean ones that really should kill us but somehow have a way of working out?” Grover asked.

“Yep.” Annabeth nodded. Percy mock glared at both of them and they laughed.

“I am hanging on!”...a quarter turn.

“That’s a bit much.” Hermes noted.

“Yeah. We found that out.” Percy grinned sheepishly.

Instantly, a white...was glad to be free. 

“It probably was.” Apollo nodded.

“The wind does not like to be trapped.” Artemis stated.

As we hit the...then it was gone.

“Woah! That was definitely quicker than rowing.” Leo whistled.

“I would hope so.” Hermes said. “You controlled it pretty well. Maybe a quarter turn was fine although you now have less for future use.”

“It worked out ok.” Percy smiled.

As we raced...know who else to trust.

“A good idea but that will be difficult to pull off.” Beckendorf frowned.

“Chiron or the Gods need to know what you found out.” Reyna pointed out.

“Yeah. The problem is that at that speed the wind will disrupt the rainbow and distort the connection. Not to mention the amount of noise it will make.” Poseidon explained. “Chiron will most likely be unable to hear them properly, even with his enhanced hearing.”

The wind from...at a dance club.

“Chiron? At a dance club?” The Stolls burst out laughing.

“He was with the Party Ponies.” Annabeth told them.

“Those guys are awesome.” Connor said. 

“Their parties aren’t completely atrocious.” Dionysus said, which, coming from him, was very high praise indeed.

“I was not partying.” Chiron sniffed disapprovingly.

We told him about...much he heard.

“Not much.” The Centaur admitted.

“Percy,” Chiron yelled...out of sight. 

“That sounds like something awesome is happening.” Travis said.

“It was not awesome.” Chiron grumbled.

“What were you trying to warn us about?” Percy asked Chiron.

“Circe.”

“Ah. Wish we’d heard that.” Percy sighed. He was not looking forward to that coming up.

“Annabeth, you shouldn’t have let Percy leave camp! 

“She encouraged me.” Percy pointed out.

“Yes. I know that now.” Chiron said with a disapproving look at Annabeth. “However, it turned out to be a good thing. You needed to go.”

But if you do...Chiron was gone.

“Alright, so there are some disadvantages but they sound amazing.” Dakota said.

“We’ll show you sometime.” Connor said.

“No.” Chiron said firmly. He did not need the Stolls dragging Romans into the chaos that was the Party Ponies. Especially a son of Dionysus/Bacchus.

An hour later we...by three kids.

“Really? I thought that was pretty common.” Rachel said sarcastically.

“That’s Virginia Beach!”...nautical miles,” I said.

“That ship must be super quick.” Leo whistled.

“It is.” Beckendorf nodded. He had done a lot of recon around that ship recently. 

She stared at me...did I know that?”

“That’s really useful.” Leo said. 

“Yeah. How come I can’t do that on land?” Thalia asked.

“Because your dad’s element is the sky.” Percy pointed out. He didn’t mention that there was no way Thalia would be flying any time soon.

“I can’t do that in the sky. At least, I don’t think I can.” Jason frowned.

“Do you not know anything about your powers?” Athena asked Percy in exasperation.

“Funnily enough, no. It’s not like I had any siblings to teach me what powers I have or how to use them. I had to find out by accident or in an emergency.”

“Because of your...too many questions.”

“Ooh, I wonder what they would blame Percy for this time.” Leo said.

“Mortal authorities do make life so much more awkward.” Frank sighed.

“Keep going into...we can hide.”

“That’s still there?” Thalia asked with a smile.

“Yep.” Annabeth smiled in return.

“But wouldn’t Luke know?” 

“He wouldn’t be able to catch up that quickly no matter how fast his ship.”

“Fair enough. Just don’t stay too long.” 

“We didn’t.” Annabeth sighed. They could have done with a little longer to rest.

“What are you two on about?” Jason asked.

“You’ll see.” Annabeth said.

I didn’t ask what...Annabeth was directing me.

“That’s one heck of a crash.” Grover looked worriedly at his friend.

“Going from saltwater to freshwater shouldn’t have affected you that badly.” Poseidon frowned.

“Well I was already pretty tired. We didn’t get much sleep and I’d been using the wind for an hour while controlling the boat.” Percy said slowly. “But I didn’t have such an issue going from salt to freshwater any other time.” Poseidon’s frown deepened.

“Maybe you just weren’t used to it and the tiredness amplified the effect.” He suggested. That was all he could think of. Except that the usual rules didn’t seem to apply to his son. 

“There,” she said...I didn’t like it.

“City boy.” Thalia teased.

“Damn right.” Percy said.

“How did you survive on quests if you hate anything that isn’t New York?” Rachel asked in a teasing voice.

“I can adapt.” Percy said, putting on a haughty voice.

“Keep telling yourself that.” Grover laughed.

“Come on,”...draw attention.”

Everyone nodded.

After burying the...a camouflaged shelter.

“I can’t believe that’s still intact.” Thalia smiled.

“It was fine.” Annabeth said.

“What is it?” Piper asked.

“A hideout with supplies for demigods. Annabeth, Luke and I made them while we were travelling.” Thalia said, biting out Luke’s name like it was the worst curse she could think of.

“That’s so cool.” Silena said.

“I think we should make some official ones once we have some time. That way when things go horribly wrong on a quest there will be a place people can go.” Will suggested. He was already thinking of all the medical supplies a demigod hideout would need.

“It would also be useful for Protectors.” Grover put in. Thalia nodded. Suddenly all of the demigods were discussing the sorts of things these hideouts would need and various protections they could put over them. Even the Romans chipped in, thinking these hideouts would be a good idea for them too.

“We can put together a plan when we get back to Camp.” Chiron said, stopping all the talking.

The inside was...looked pretty waterproof. 

“They were for short periods. If it rained more than a couple of days it got very wet.” Annabeth said.

“Not that we often stayed anywhere that long but we found out once. Couldn’t use that hideout again.” 

“It wasn’t pretty.” Thalia grimaced. “Although the hideouts were made of various different materials depending on where we were and what we had available.” 

Stacked in the...and a box of ambrosia. 

“All good. Not that you need some currently but it’s always good to have some ambrosia around.” Will nodded. Then he wondered where the three demigods on the run had managed to get enough ambrosia to leave a box of the stuff in a hideout, possibly several hideouts.

The place smelled...You made this place?”

“It is impressive for three demigods who had been on the run with very few supplies.” Leo said admiringly.

“Well, they did have an architect, a son of Hermes and a Thalia.” Percy pointed out. “Annabeth could design decent shelter, Luke could steal supplies they needed and Thalia could just hover.”

“Hey!” Thalia protested. “I had to help Annabeth with the building. Being ordered around by some little seven year old who is acting like I’m an idiot because I don’t know how to build a waterproof shelter.” A few people started snickering but quickly stopped when she glared at them.

“I really don’t know how you didn’t drown in your sleep or something with your shelter designs.” Annabeth said with a smirk.

“Thalia and I,”...I don’t know. Uncomfortable?

“I don’t think that’s it.” Aphrodite said, a little too gleefully for Percy’s taste. Percy was glaring at the floor.

No. That’s...was jealous.

“That sounds more like it.” The Love Goddess grinned happily. She knew she would love messing with their love lives.

“Seriously? You actually knew you were jealous and yet you two still aren’t together?” Thalia whispered to Percy who had gone very red. Annabeth was smiling to herself while Apollo and Nico were both scowling at the floor. Rachel was trying not to glare at Annabeth but judging by the looks Piper was throwing her, she wasn’t being very successful.

“Yeah, I had a crush on Annabeth but she’s so caught up on Luke that I just don’t know.” Percy whispered back. “She gives me all kinds of mixed signals.” He didn’t add that he was also confused because this book was reminding him of his previous crush on Luke as well. He had only recently realised that his original hero worship feelings towards Luke had actually been something more. That had been one horribly embarrassing conversation with his mom he never, ever , wanted to repeat. But she had helped him realise that his feelings towards Annabeth, which he continued to deny but his mother seemed to know anyway, were actually very similar to his old feelings towards Luke.

He thought about how Annabeth had reacted to Rachel and the fact that he had gone to Calypso’s island. He hadn’t thought anything of it other than Annabeth being Annabeth but maybe that was supposed to mean she liked him? Was she jealous? But she kept defending Luke and still seemed to like him? Girls were complicated, Percy thought. Thalia gave him a look that he interpreted to mean they would be talking about this later. He groaned and rolled his eyes.

“So…” I said...convenience store or something?”

“You can tell she doesn’t want to talk about it so you’re going to bring it up anyway.” Rachel rolled her eyes.

“Percy’s like that.” Thalia said. She wouldn’t admit that the talks with Percy really helped her. He did not need to know that.

“You think he is going to find a convenience store in the middle of nowhere?” Jason asked.

“No. I just didn’t want Tyson around for the conversation. He made Annabeth uncomfortable still and it wasn’t going to be a comfortable conversation anyway.” Percy shrugged.

“Wow. So you do notice stuff like that.” Grover teased.

“Not completely oblivious then.” Rachel laughed.

“Convenience store?”...started calling, “Here, donuts!”

Everybody burst out laughing.

“Only Tyson.” Beckendorf grinned. 

“You should be trying to find something good for you, like cereal. Not donuts.” Demeter scoffed, looking slightly disgusted.

Once he was gone...too easily,” I said.

“At least you noticed that.” Athena nodded. Maybe there was some hope for the sea spawn yet.

I hoped I’d...the bait? Or Grover?”

“The fleece.” Apollo said. “Given the timing of the dream Percy had about Grover getting caught in the wedding dress shop, Thalia’s tree was poisoned well before Grover was captured. Luke may not even know Grover is there.” 

“Also there was no guarantee that Percy would be the one on the quest. Grover would be good bait if Percy was definitely going.” Will said.

“Hey!” Grover protested at the implication he wouldn’t be good bait for anyone else.

“I don’t mean we wouldn’t want to save you, of course we would, but without Percy’s dreams we would have no idea where you were meaning it’s not very good bait. Plus as Percy’s best friend he would be that much more incentivised to find you than other campers.”

“Not to mention the spies at camp might well have known that Chiron told Percy not to go to camp.” Silena added, trying not to stutter over the word ’spy’.

She studied the...steal it from us. 

“That sounds like a plan father would come up with.” Hades sighed. The other kids of Kronos all nodded their agreement. 

I just can’t believe he would poison the tree.”

“Me either.” Thalia whispered sadly. It meant that any remnant of her friend was now gone. He was truly Kronos’ puppet. Zeus grumbled angrily under his breath with Jason scowled at the floor. 

“What did he...don’t sound sure.”

“What?” Thalia looked at her friend, a little hurt. “You thought there was a chance I’d join Kronos?” 

“No. Percy was imagining things.” Annabeth said firmly. “I trusted you.” Thalia nodded, looking happier.

Annabeth glared at me...holding a knife.

“Yeah. She’s scary.” Leo said while a few other people snickered.

“Percy, you know...would’ve strangled each other.”

“Kinda both.” Percy laughed.

“Pretty much.” Thalia agreed. “Best friends who frequently would like to strangle each other.” They exchanged air high fives. 

“Just like your fathers.” Demeter sighed.

“We are not best friends.” Poseidon scoffed.

“Definitely not.” Zeus agreed. Both Gods folded their arms and looked away from each other while the other Gods all rolled their eyes at their childish antics.

“Let’s go with ‘best friends.”...arrows in the corner. “No.”

A few Gods let out sighs of relief.

“But his fatal flaw is personal loyalty. He’s too loyal to turn against Olympus.” Silena said.

“But loyalty can be broken and if it is broken or betrayed then it’s almost impossible to get that loyalty back. If the Olympians did something to upset Percy enough then that loyalty could switch.” Annabeth said. Now some of the Gods looked worried again.

“Okay, then...knife blade into the dirt.

“Never.” Thalia nodded. More sighs of relief while Zeus muttered about how his daughter obviously would never.

I wanted to ask her...she wouldn’t tell me. 

“Why does Annabeth even know about it? If it’s about the children of the big three then it has nothing to do with her.” Athena frowned.

“She doesn’t know the entire prophecy. But given how long she’s been at camp it was inevitable she would hear something.” Chirons sighed.

Chiron had made it...real reason Thalia died.”

“It’s not like that was the sole reason I died.” Thalia sighed. “There were a lot of things that went wrong.”

I waited, not sure...up a pastry box.

“What?” Demeter asked. “He actually found a shop nearby?” 

“Yep.” 

“I wanna know why Annabeth hates Cyclopes.” Leo complained.

“I tell Percy about it later.” Annabeth assured him with an eye roll.

Annabeth stared at him...“Fifty feet,” Tyson said. 

More laughter.

“That has to be a trap of some kind.” Connor said suspiciously. 

“You don’t say.” Travis replied sarcastically.

“A trap that gives out donuts?” Gwen asked. The Stolls both nodded vigorously

“Monster Donut shop—just over the hill!”

“Well that says it all.” Reyna stated.

“Monster Donut Shop are a chain of stores that are connected to monsters’ life force.” Chris explained.

“It’s not exactly subtle.” Dakota said. “Sort of says it all in the name.” 

“Monsters often aren’t subtle.” Thalia shrugged.

“How do you know that?” Gwen asked Chris.

“It’s a pretty common story told around the Hermes cabin. Apparently some of our siblings in the fifties worked out how to do it.” Connor explained.

“Why would they do that?” Reyna asked.

“It was an experiment gone wrong.” Travis defended with a sheepish grin.

“I’m definitely checking over any experiments the Mercury kids come up with.” Reyna muttered to herself.

“This is bad,”...It looked brand new, 

“That’s because it was.” Travis said.

“I know that now.” Percy sighed.

with brightly lit...Annabeth whispered. “It’s wrong.”

“But donuts.” Leo said longingly.

“Not worth the monsters that come with them.” Percy assured him. Leo sighed. If even Percy was saying that then it must be true. Leo had seen that guy eat and heard many stories about his infamous appetite.

“What?” I asked...middle of the woods?”

“A donut shop that appears on request.” Leo groaned. 

I thought about it...of sinister forces.

“They are now.” Percy sighed sadly.

“Yep, very terrifying sinister forces, including the Titan Kronos, Kindly Ones and donut shops.” Leo said in an announcer voice. Everybody started laughing because of how ridiculous it sounded even if it was a bit true.

“I wonder what other chains are actually monster nests.” Jason frowned.

“Walmart has to be. Those things are everywhere.” Piper said only half joking. Those who knew what Walmart was starting chuckling. 

“McDonalds.” Will suggested.

“That’s not a monster chain.” Nico said.

“How do you know?” Will asked. Nico blushed a little. 

“I just do.”

“It could be a...thought about it.”

“I don’t think anyone except Annabeth thinks about it.” Chris chuckled. Annabeth glared at him.

“Well it would probably be a good idea to know what shops are monster nests, you know, to avoid them and stay alive.” Beckendorf said.

“Percy, some of...She froze.

“I’m guessing Annabeth found the monster.” Apollo said. Ares perked up, hoping for some action. This book was even more dull than the last one so far. 

“What?” I demanded...DONUT KID!

“A hydra?” Poseidon groaned. His son really had the worst luck. He needed to speak to Tyche. Maybe his son had offended her somehow without knowing. 

“Have you fought every monster out there?” Reyna asked, sounded a little impressed.

“I’m not sure. Definitely a lot.” Percy shrugged.

“You don’t have any fire nearby which is going to make things difficult.” Ares mused, looking excited. That made it an even better challenge. And if the punk got himself a little roasted, then so much the better.

“Why does it have a bib on?” Piper asked. 

“No idea. It must have something to do with the fact that it’s only just formed and because it’s linked to the Monster Donut shop.” Annabeth said.

“Annabeth doesn’t know something!” Connor yelled.

“The world is ending!” Travis added.

“Oh shut up.” Annabeth glared at both of them as a few people tried to diguise their laughing as coughs.

I took out my...pass us by. 

“It’ll smell you soon enough.” Hermes pointed out. 

“It probably already followed Tyson’s scent and that will lead it to yours.” Grover said.

“Plus this is Percy. It’ll find him somehow.” Thalia put in. Percy sighed. She wasn’t wrong.

But if I uncapped...It was following our scent.

“Great, it’s caught the scent and destroyed your supplies.” Poseidon groaned again.

“Of course. Can’t be easy when I’m around.” Percy said to his father. 

My heart pounded...us and hissed.

“Wonderful. Your son had better not get my daughter killed.” Athena hissed at Poseidon.

“Your daughter is sitting right there, clearly not dead.” The Sea God rolled his eyes.

“Scatter!” Annabeth yelled...two of its heads.

“Nice going.” Apollo nodded.

“It can’t have been easy to knock a Cyclops out of the way.” Nico said.

“It wasn’t.” Percy admitted.

“If only crushing a couple of heads would kill it.” Annabeth sighed.

The Hydra stumbled...fallen tree. 

“It’s not the tree’s fault you spat acid and destroyed it.” Grover huffed. People gave him some weird looks.

All seven heads...It worked.

“Wonderful. Now you have it’s attention. It can kill you instead.” Dionysus drawled.

“At least I was able to dodge it. Tyson was just standing there frozen.” Percy pointed out. Poseidon wasn’t sure whether to be proud or just worried.

The sight of celestial...I swung my sword.

“That’s an even worse idea.” Athena sneered. “Don’t you know anything?”

“Hey, it was instinctive.” Percy shrugged.

“You need to find some fire somewhere. Note to self, always have a Leo when fighting a Hydra.” Piper said.

“No thanks. I don’t want to be fighting any hydras.” Leo shook his head firmly. 

“We managed.” Annabeth smiled.

“No. You didn’t.” Clarisse glared. “You were toast.”

“No!” Annabeth yelled...Monster Donut shop somewhere!”

“Seriously?” Thalia asked her friend.

“That should not be your biggest concern right now.” Athena told her daughter.

“I’m blaming that on being around Percy for too long. My brain just jumped to the most random thing it could think of.” Annabeth said. Percy stuck his tongue out at her. 

“I always knew Percy was catching.” Thalia laughed.

“Well, you were sitting next to me for most of the reading so far, who do you think is next?” Percy asked with an evil chuckle. Thalia pretended to look horrified.

“Oh no.” Jason moved away from her.

“Sorry, sis but I don’t want to be infected. It’d be as bad as Leo rubbing off on me.”

“Hey!” Leo complained. Rachel started reading again before they could keep the argument going.

I dodged a spray...worried about that? 

“To be fair, you’ve thought of weirder stuff when you’ve been about to die.” Nico pointed out.

“True.” Percy grinned. “I just had been hoping Annabeth had been working on a plan to get us out of the mess we were in.” 

How do we kill it?”...The Hydra followed.

“Drown it?” Will suggested. “The heads would still need to breathe.”

“It would probably have killed us trying that.” Percy said.

Annabeth moved in...at the arcade. 

There was a lot of chuckling around the room.

“Go Tyson.” Beckendorf smiled.

“That’s hilarious.” Connor laughed.

“And awesome.” Leo added.

“Still, that’s only a temporary solution.” Poseidon said in concern. Every time one son got a breather the other was putting himself in danger.

But even Tyson couldn’t fend off the Hydra forever.

“Exactly.” The Sea God nodded.

We kept inching...thing would kill us.

“There’s that good old Percy optimism.” Thalia said sarcastically.

“It wasn’t really an optimistic situation.” Percy pointed out. 

Then I heard a...thirty-two-pounder!”

“I’m guessing Clarisse found you then?” Reyna asked.

“Yep. Just in time to save their hides.” Clarisse stated.

“I think we repayed that favour.” Annabeth said.

“Whatever, Princess.” 

I didn’t dare look...enemies on two fronts.

Ares nodded. There should have been. HIs daughter should have just left the brat to fend for himself.

“Clarisse might not like you but she would attack other campers.” Chiron said.

“Well given my last experiences with Clarisse, forgive me for not quite believing that back then.” Percy said.

“Capture the flag is very different to real life.” The Centaur frowned.

“She made it seem pretty real.” Percy shrugged.

A gravelly male...“Fire at will, Captain!”

“He just said they were too close!” Will looked at Clarisse in surprise. He might not get along with the annoying girl but he still couldn’t believe she would risk two other campers like that. Chiron was sending her disappointed looks while Ares nodded his approval.

“Good girl.” He said.

“Do not encourage her to hurt my daughter!” Athena snapped angrily.

“Or my son.” Poseidon added.

“They should have known to get out of the way.” Clarisse said dismissively. “The captain knew what he was doing.”

Annabeth understood...guts tend to do.

“That’s disgusting.” Rachel said.

“Be grateful you weren’t covered in it.” Annabeth grimaced.

“I am.” Rachel said.

“At least they vaporize.” Piper said, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

“Yeah. That is one good thing.” Will nodded.

“Gross!” screamed Annabeth...guarding Hades’s palace.

“Well we found the dead confederates but why does Clarisse have a ship full of dead people?” Jason asked.

“Gift from dad.” Clarisse explained.

“Why does Ares have a ship full of dead people?” Leo asked. Clarisse rolled her eyes.

“In every war the dead soldiers from the losing side go to Ares, including their weapons and vehicles. He can then call on them whenever he wants.” Ares studied his daughter. Clearly he had faith in her if he had already given her a spear, that the damn brat had broken, and now a ship for her quest. He hoped that now his daughter was in the story there would be some decent action.

The ship was an...Come aboard.”

“Well, you’ve already done the rescuing part.” Reyna pointed out. Clarisse shrugged.

“Chapter is over.” Rachel announced.

“Lunch time.” Chiron said. The demigods all cheered and raced out of the room, except Chris who was caught by Hermes.

“Can we talk?” The God asked. Chris grimaced.

“Yeah ok.” Hermes led his son out of the throne room and towards his own quarters.

Chapter Text

Once they were in his living room area, Hermes gestured for Chris to sit down. He was more nervous than he could remember being in a long time. There was a long, awkward pause.

“Chris...I…” Hermes trailed off not sure what to say. A minute later he tried again to form words properly. “I’m sorry. For everything. Not claiming you, making you feel forgotten or unimportant. Being busy is no excuse, I know that.” Chris studied his father. He seemed sincere, not giving him false platitudes because he thought that was what Chris wanted to hear.

“I won’t say I understand, because I don’t.” He began and Hermes’ face fell. “But you did claim me in the end and I was an idiot to ever believe that Kronos was any better than you.” Chris swallowed, hard. 

“I will try to do better in the future. I want to do better but it’s hard to change your nature after so long.” Hermes looked down. Chris frowned.

“It might be difficult to begin with but if you really want to make the changes then I think you can.” Hermes nodded. “It just...it hurt that you sent Percy to try and rescue Luke but probably didn’t even know I was missing.” The God looked down in shame. His other kids probably also felt awful that he was seemingly more interested in Luke than them even when he was a traitor. But, it was the fact that his son was a traitor. He needed to understand why and try to remedy the situation. It hurt him to realise that, judging by these books, it was too little too late. He did not want it to become that way with Chris.

“I’m sorry. Spending time with you guys here has made me realise what we’ve been missing. I guess, as an immortal, it hurts to get close to your children when you know they will die, usually after a short and brutal life. After a millennia of watching your children die you either have to keep some distance or the pain becomes too much.” He tried to explain. Chris nodded. He hadn’t thought about that before. “Still, I should have claimed you at the very least. There is no excuse for that.”

“Thanks dad. I hadn’t considered the immortal side before. Still, you don’t need to hang out with us all the time, just say hi every once in a while or yeah, claim us.” Hermes nodded. There was a few seconds of silence but it wasn’t as awkward as before. Suddenly all of the resentment Chris had been feeling, the anger, the constant fear he had lived with while on Kronos’ side, and all of his huge amounts of his pain just bubbled up inside him. It mixed with the relief and joy that he felt after the conversation and swirled into a maelstrom that spilled out of him. He stood and rushed at his father. Hermes was confused but held his arms out thinking his son needed some comfort. Instead, Chris began pummelling his chest angrily while also sobbing his heart out. Hermes just let him, taking the blows, which were quite painful now he was mortal, and letting him get the emotions out. Eventually Chris began to tire and slumped against his father’s chest.

“I’m sorry. So, so, sorry for betraying you.” Chris choked out through his continuous sobs.

“Shhhh.” Hermes said in what he hoped was a soothing voice. It had been such a long time since he was actually able to comfort his children that he was quite out of practise. “It’s ok. Everyone makes mistakes and yours was somewhat justified. But you realised you were wrong and came back. I can’t ask for more than that.” Chris’ sobs became even noisier and Hermes could feel the tears coming even faster. He began to panic, thinking he had said something wrong.

“Thanks, dad.” Chris finally whispered once he got himself mostly under control again. Hermes let out a sigh of relief. Eventually the demigod fell asleep having cried himself to exhaustion. Hermes stood and carried his son into the room he had been staying in. He placed him in the bed and pulled the covers over him. Then he sat himself down in a nearby chair and watched his son sleep. He would not leave until he woke back up. Without thinking, he reached a hand out and smooth back some hair that had fallen over Chris’s forehead. The boy let out a hum that, to Hermes, sounded happy enough so he continued to run his hands through Chris’ hair.

************************************************

In the dining room, Will made his way over to where Nico was sitting, picking at his plate. He took a seat next to him, ignoring the boy’s look of surprise.

“Why are you all the way over here?” 

“It’s quieter. I’m not used to being around so many people for so long.” Nico explained. His expression was closed off and probably meant Will should go but he was determined to show the son of Hades that he couldn’t scare everyone away from him forever.

“Well, if you stay at camp then you’ll get used to it.” 

“I don’t want to stay at camp.” 

“Why not?” 

“They won’t want me there. I’ll just be taking up more space in the Hermes cabin because my dad doesn’t even have a cabin there.” Nico’s voice became quite bitter towards the end of his sentence.

“Yeah. That sucks.” Will frowned. “Maybe we could speak to the Gods and convince them to make you a cabin.”

“Good luck with that.” Nico scoffed.

“It can’t hurt to try. We could speak to my dad first, maybe Hermes and Poseidon. Get them on our side before we go to Zeus.” Will suggested. “My dad and Hermes get on with Hades alright. Poseidon might be an issue but I’m sure we can convince Percy to talk to his dad for us. If we get Poseidon on our side then he can probably persuade Mr D to support us, given how angry Poseidon has been at him recently.” He dropped in Percy’s name to watch Nico’s reaction. The younger boy scowled briefly before sighing and closing his eyes like he was in pain.

“I don’t want to ask Percy.”

“Why not?” 

“I...it’s complicated but it’ll probably come up in the books.” Nico groaned as he said this as if he was only just realising this fact. “Basically I wrongly blamed him for Bianca’s death and then acted like a complete jerk even when he tried to help me out. I don’t know how he can stand to talk to me let alone possibly…” He suddenly stopped talking and clammed up. Will frowned. Yeah. Nico one hundred percent had a crush on Percy.

“I bet Percy doesn’t hold a grudge.” Will said fairly. He didn’t usually. “Besides, you’ve been getting along with him great during the readings.” 

“Yeah but that’s just different.” Nico said wistfully. “I’m sure it’ll be different once I’m in it anyway. He’s always on edge around me, he tries to hide it but I can tell. Besides, once we read about when they find me, he’ll be reminded how annoying I am and what a jerk I was to him.”

“You were cute, not annoying.” Will corrected, recalling the hyperactive kid from a couple of years ago. Nico glared. He was not cute! “Besides, you might be surprise as to how Percy feels about it. From what I can tell in his thoughts, he seems to like taking the blame for everything that goes wrong. Maybe he blames himself for Bianca dying and that’s why he’s on edge around you. He probably feels bad for letting you down. That seems like a Percy thing to do.” Nico’s expression turned thoughtful.

“Yeah, Maybe.” He sounded hopeful and Will sighed inwardly. “Thanks, Will.” He smiled slightly and then reached over tentatively before squeezing Will’s arm. It was so gentle that had Will not been looking at the hand squeezing him, he would not have noticed a thing but it was progress. As far as he could tell, it was pretty rare for Nico to initiate contact with another human being. Will beamed widely at him.

**************************************

Percy sat down next to Annabeth and piled his plate as high as it would go.

“What?” He asked through a mouthful of pizza, grinning when Annabeth rolled her eyes.

“Seriously. Where do you put all that food?” She asked.

“I’m a growing boy.” He said with a shrug. “Besides, Thalia eats the same amount I do.”

“I wonder the same thing about her.” 

“What’s that about me?” Thalia asked, sitting down opposite the two of them.

“I was wondering how on Olympus you and Percy can eat so much.” Annabeth said. Thalia shrugged. “I’m an immortal hunter. Works up an appetite. Dunno what his excuse is.”

“How are you doing...with your thoughts being read out and stuff?” Annabeth asked Percy after a few minutes of them all eating.

“It sucks.” Percy said fervently. “I hate it. But, if it saves some lives and gives us the advantage against Kronos then it’s worth it. The worst bit is that it’s not just my private thoughts. Some of the conversations I have with you are pretty private too. And some of the stuff I talk to Thalia about on our next quest.”

“Oh crap. I forgot about that.” Thalia groaned. “I’m gonna kill you Jackson. I’ll never live it down.” 

“Oh please, everybody is too scared of you to laugh at you.” Percy scoffed. “But remember that while we read the next few chapters because one of them is going to be horrendously embarrassing for me.” 

“Yeah.” Annabeth smirked. “You made a cute…” Percy threw a hand over her mouth.

“Shut up.” He scowled.

“I’ll find out anyway.” Thalia pointed out. Percy sighed. He supposed if she got her laughter out of the way now maybe it wouldn’t be as bad when they read it. He gave her the cliff notes version and she burst out laughing. Thankfully she kept it short and regained control of herself pretty quickly. Percy scowled.

“Don’t worry, cousin. I won’t let the rest of them laugh too much. Picking on you is mine and Annabeth’s job.” 

“Feel free to give that job up.” Percy grumbled.

“Na.” Annabeth laughed. “It’s too much fun.”

“For you.”

“Obviously.” He gave her a shove with his shoulder and she nudged him back. Just then Apollo came and sat down on Percy’s other side. 

“How’s it going?” The Sun God asked. 

“Alright.” Percy said, giving the God a weird look. Why wasn’t he bothering Will?

“Because he’s over there speaking with Hades’ kid.” He said, answering the unasked question. “They looked quite cosy so I figured I’d give them some privacy.” Apollo smirked. Percy looked over and sure enough, Nico was actually reaching over to squeeze Will’s arm. Percy had never seen Nico willingly touch someone other than Bianca. One the other hand, maybe it was just him Nico hated. “Hermes is off with Chris so I thought I would come and bother you guys.”

“Aren’t we lucky.” Thalia said dryly.

“Yes.” Apollo replied and Percy could tell the God was actually being serious. He suppressed a snort at the size of his ego.

“Didn’t I already tell you that you aren’t awesome?” Percy asked with a grin.

“I still owe you for that.” Apollo said and something in his voice made Percy a little nervous. Apollo had millenia of practise in getting revenge. Thankfully he was mortal for the time being so no godly pranks would be played. He could cope with anything else. “I’ll change your mind eventually.”

“Never.” Percy vowed dramatically. “You will forever be the unawesome God Apollo.”

“I should smite you for such an insult.” Apollo said but Percy could tell he was teasing. He smirked.

“If you did that then who would put up with your dismal attempts to teach them archery?” Percy asked.

“My attempts are not dismal. You’ve actually hit the target.” Percy then noticed Thalia was looking between the two of them with an expression he couldn’t quite make out but definitely didn’t like. Suddenly her expression turned thoughtful and she spoke up.

“Yeah, let’s face it if Apollo has managed to get you to hit a target then he can’t be that bad of a teacher.”

“You’re welcome to take lessons.” Percy said.

“I’m a hunter of Artemis. I don’t need shooting lessons.” She said haughtily with a teasing grin. 

“Alright driving lessons then.” Her grin disappeared.

“Shut up. We do not speak of that ever again.” She glared.

“It’ll probably come up in the book.” Percy smirked.

“Crap.” She groaned. Apollo and Annabeth both looked confused but the other two did not elaborate. 

“Time to get back to the reading.” Another voice sounded behind them. Glancing over his shoulder, Percy saw his dad standing there. They all stood up, Percy shovelling one last slice of pizza into his mouth, and headed back towards the throne room. Thalia continued to sit between Jason and Annabeth so Grover sat next to Percy with Poseidon on the other side. Rachel was next to Grover with Nico and Hades completing their couch.

“I think that everybody has read, or at least those who will, so I shall read again.” Chiron announced. He picked up the book and thumbed to the correct page.

Clarisse Blows up Everything.

“Of course she does.” Chris said fondly. He was once again sitting next to Hermes with Clarisse on his other side now. Connor sat next to his dad with Travis on his other side, sitting beside Will and then Apollo. 

“That’s my girl.” Ares nodded approvingly. Clarisse puffed out her chest proudly at her dad’s praise. “Finally, some proper action.” He added.

“What do you call the hydra?” Aphrodite asked.

“A warm up.” He shrugged.

“You are in so...explode any minute. 

“Not quite yet.” Percy muttered to himself.

We’d seen the pilothouse...fire celestial bronze cannon balls.

“That’s impressive.” Reyna whistled appreciatively.

“They are awesome.” Clarisse grinned happily.

Everywhere we...too thrilled about.

“That was nice of you to do it anyway, even with your history with Cyclopes.” Beckendorf smiled at Annabeth.

“I admit Tyson was already growing on me.” She said. 

“It’s hard not to adore Tyson.” Rachel said. Poseidon smiled, glad that his son was accepted.

Finally, we were...hunger overruled my fear.

“Of course it did.” Grover chuckled. “It always does.”

“Er, who almost blew his cover for enchiladas?” Percy asked, raising an eyebrow. Grover went red.

“Yes..well...those were enchiladas. They are worth it.” He replied finally.

“Tantalus expelled...told us smugly. 

“Good thing he won’t be around for long then.” Connor muttered. A few of the Greeks threw Clarisse some dirty looks for siding with Tantalus. Even Clarisse grimaced.

“Mr. D said if any...with his SUV.”

“That would be far too much work for Mr D.” Percy scoffed. Dionysus glared at him.

“Mr D has a SUV?” Travis asked in surprise.

“Yes but he doesn’t keep it at camp so don’t get any ideas.” Chiron told him. Travis and Connor both groaned in disapproval.

“As you’re alive, I assume he didn’t do that in the end?” Jason asked.

“No. We helped save camp and got Chiron reinstated so Chiron made sure we weren’t punished.” Annabeth explained.

“I wouldn’t have let him turn you into any animals anyway.” Chiron stated. “Nor would Poseidon or Athena.”

“Did they give...with sea power? 

“Well no, it just surprised me that Ares gave you a ship at all. We had to find our own transport for our quest.” Percy shrugged.

“Normally you are supposed to find your own transport but for sea voyages normally you get some form of help.” Chiron said.

The spirits on the...Won’t you, Captain?”

“You’re enjoying this way too much, you know that right?” Will pointed out.

“Of course I am. Nothing like leading your own army.” Clarisse said.

“I lead a cabin and that’s enough for me.”

“A cabin of musicians and medics. Hardly an army.” She scoffed.

“For one thing we’re damn good at archery. Most of your army wouldn’t even get near us without being shot down.” Will glared. He was sick of Clarisse thinking she was superior simply because she could fight well. Percy could beat her in a fight and he didn’t constantly make everyone else feel inferior. Not deliberately anyway. It was kind of hard not to feel inferior to Percy sometimes when he used his powers so casually. “Besides I never said they were an army, just that leading a cabin was enough for me. I don’t particularly care for ordering people around just because I can.” 

Clarisse opened her mouth to retort but Chiron started reading, cutting off her reply. She scowled at the Centaur.

The captain stood...I like that.”

“Good attitude.” Ares grinned maniacally.

“You would.” Annabeth rolled her eyes at Clarisse.

“What’s that supposed to mean, Princess?” 

“Just that destroying everything isn’t alway the answer.” 

“Of course it is.”

“Even strength has to bow to wisdom sometimes.” Percy quoted with a smug smile. Clarisse and Ares both glared at him furiously.

“Shut up, Prissy.” Clarisse growled.

Tyson gulped...out of the water.”

“Of course you will.” Ares said confidently.

“How ridiculous.” Artemis rolled her eyes. “For one thing that ship moves much faster than a regular ship so you would likely have quite a lot of trouble hitting it.”

“Not to mention that the ship contains the remains of the Titan Lord. He will obviously have taken precautions against such attacks.” Athena added, giving Ares a look that quite clearly said she thought he was being utterly stupid.

“Sometimes you just have to keep shooting until things blow up.” Ares shrugged easily.

“Only if you do not have the brains to think of an easier solution.” Athena scoffed. “Not everything is solved that way.”

“I swear we literally just heard this argument with Clarisse and Percy.” Travis muttered to Connor. Chiron kept reading over the still arguing Gods.

“You don’t understand,”...steal my chance.”

“Definitely not.” Ares scowled. That upstart sea brat would not take his daughter’s glory.

“That is your pride talking.” Athena told the girl. Clarisse scowled but nodded.

“They don’t care about the glory. They want to save camp. Plus, the entire thing was their idea the only reason you even got the quest is because you were Tantalus’ favourite little pet.” Will sneered. He was sick of her attitude. This quest should have been to save the camp and therefore all of their lives but Clarisse only cared about herself. As usual. Clarisse’s face turned purple with rage. Mostly because she couldn’t deny Will’s words. Had it not been for Tantalus, Annabeth would likely have led the quest, as Percy had led the one the year before. 

Chris held her back, stopping her from lunging at the son of Apollo.

“Enough.” Chiron said sharply. “Will, regardless of the circumstances, the quest was given to Clarisse. She has every right to lead it as she sees fit and she was well aware of how important it was to save the camp. However, Clarisse, a good leader knows when to accept help and when not to let pride get in the way.” He fixed both of them with a glare until they each nodded. Then he began reading again.

“Where are your...To protect the camp.”

“Your siblings didn’t want to help?” Ares asked in confusion. Not only was this quest a chance for glory for his cabin, they should also know better than to let their leader go off alone. He thought back to when her cabin didn’t tell her that she had a stupid note on her back. Clearly she didn’t have much control over her cabin mates. Clarisse glared at the floor. Her stupid cabin mates hadn’t wanted to go on a quest that was sponsored by Tantalus. They were pleased to get the glory for their cabin but didn’t want to actually go on the quest in case they were seen as sucking up to Tantalus as well. She heard what everyone whispered behind her back but to maintain her reputation she didn’t react like she wanted to. Instead she put up with it, including the lack of respect given to her, and got on with her job, no fuss.

“You mean even...need them! Or you!”

“Yeah. You kinda did.” Percy said. Clarisse glared at him. She did not need to be seen as a failure in front of her dad. Not when he was finally proud of her. He seemed to get the message and gave her a nod. For the first time, she was glad he had been there to help her with her brothers and the chariot. It felt good to have someone else know just how much her father scared her. Not that she would ever admit it. Ever . 

“You always need comrades watching your back.” Ares told her.

“I had the confederates.” Clarisse pointed out. “But yeah, I did need their help too.”

“It all worked out. Eventually.” Annabeth said.

“Clarisse,” I said...you up to fail.”

“That sounds about right.” Demeter snorted scornfully. 

“He wants camp destroyed, what better way than to send you with no help?” Beckendorf pointed out gently. Clarisse frowned. It did make sense but Tantalus couldn’t have known about her prophecy. Could he?

“No! I don’t care...ears turned pink. 

“Something about failing is my guess.” Apollo said.

“All you need...with enemy spies.”

“Enemy spies? You’re the one working for Tantalus. If anyone is likely to be a spy it’s you.” Will scoffed. Clarisse snarled at him, while Chris hugged her tightly. Will smirked to himself, glad to work out a bit of his frustration at her. She was constantly belittling him and the Apollo Cabin so it was nice to get revenge. Then he caught sight of Chiron’s expression and straightened his face into a neutral look.

“You’re really enjoying being in charge, aren’t you?” Reyna asked with a smile.

“Why wouldn’t I? You’re in charge of that Roman camp by the sounds of it. That’s like being in charge of an army.”

“I am. And I agree, it can be good fun. But it’s better with someone to share the burden with.” Reyna said gently. She had struggled a lot with Jason gone. Especially with Octavian around.

The dream came as soon as I fell asleep.

“Oh good.” Poseidon sighed. His son’s dreams were unlikely to improve his mood.

Grover was sitting...Cyclops bellowed, “Aha!”

“Busted.” Leo and Percy said in sing-song voices that were far too cheerful for Grover’s liking.

“Ut oh. Grover’s been caught in the act.” Thalia cringed, speaking at the same time as the other two.

“As long as he doesn’t realise you’re a Faun...I mean Satyr.” Gwen said.

Grover yelped...high heels on his hooves. 

“You wore high heels? Pfffft.” Connor and Travis both burst out laughing and the rest of the room weren’t far behind.

“I couldn’t exactly show him my hooves.” Grover replied, blushing furiously. “Besides, I needed to look taller. I’m not exactly Cyclops height.”

“I doubt you were anything close to Cyclops height even in high heels.” Piper said, stifling another round of laughter.

His veil kept...to come off.

A lot of people were biting their lips or pretending to cough, trying not to laugh out of respect for Grover. He was already an unhealthy shade of red.

The Cyclops pulled...and action figures. 

“That Cyclops is a bit obsessed with sheep.” Leo whistled.

“You have no idea.” Grover and Clarisse replied.

“Where did he get a recliner in Cyclops size and a tv?” Jason asked.

“Do monsters have stores?” Leo asked.

“Why would you ask that?” Piper looked at her friend weirdly.

“Usually they steal stuff but I suppose there might be a monster store of all the stuff they have stolen.” Beckendorf said thoughtfully.

The floor was...looking for Pan.

Grover flinched. Hermes and Dionysus both scowled while Poseidon was frowning. He did not like the fact that so many Satyrs had died because of his son. As a general rule, he quite liked Satyrs and he had liked Pan before he disappeared. Not to mention that Pan’s domain crossed over with his a little so the loss of Pan had affected the oceans too.

Polyphemus set Grover...copper and silver coins.

“That sounds amazing.” Reyna said.

“The magic of the golden fleece.” Grover sighed wistfully.

“So what would happen if you take the fleece?” Gwen asked.

“The island would slowly return to its natural state. It used to be really nice but over the years Polyphemus ruined it.” Silena explained.

And at the center...would be for a satyr.

“Yeah.” Grover said dreamily.

Grover whimpered...Satyrs good eating! And now—”

Poseidon sighed deeply. Some of his children really were monstrous. He knew it was in their nature but still…

“Did you kill him?” Dionysus asked through gritted teeth. He may not treat Satyrs the best but he still cared for them. They were his last connection to his best friend.

“No.” Percy said. “But we took the fleece so no other Satyrs will get lured there to their death.”

“Hardly a good enough punishment.” He grumbled.

Polyphemus scooped...Not to worry. 

“At least he didn’t realise you were doing it deliberately.” Piper said slowly. She couldn’t believe the Cyclops was that stupid.

That thread will solve problem. Finish wedding train by tomorrow!”

“How did you reach Grover in one day?” Hazel asked.

“Or was Grover married when you found him?” Hermes asked with a chuckle.

“No, we reached him in time but it was very difficult.” Percy said.

“I can’t believe we actually did it in a day. It felt like so much longer.” Annabeth said. She thought about how much they still had to do before reaching Grover. It was hard to believe they managed it all in one day.

“Isn’t that… thoughtful of you!”...for my benefit. 

“Is that an empathy link thing?” Gwen asked. 

“Yeah. It’s pretty useful.” Grover said.

“And potentially deadly.” Poseidon muttered quietly. 

“What would...“Pets?”

“He has pets? He doesn’t seem the type.” Leo asked.

“Yeah. You’ll see.” Annabeth said.

“I would guess sheep given his obsession but sheep wouldn’t stop people attacking.” Dakota frowned.

Grover looked...get through me!”

“There is that part.” Jason acknowledged.

He pounded his fist...is that girl?”

“What’s gone wrong now?” Jason groaned.

“Where’s the action?” Ares asked in frustration.

“Coming up. We’re at the entrance to the Sea of Monsters.” Percy said. Poseidon paled whereas Ares looked excited.

Then his ghostly face...the CSS Birmingham.

“You know, you always seem to know exactly when you won’t be spending another night in a place.” Will frowned. “It’s kind of creepy given that you’re not prophetic.” Apollo studied Percy.

“Yeah. There is always a line about how you didn’t think you’d be seeing the place again for a while or something like that.” The God said, thinking back. “Impressive.” 

“I’m sure it’s just me being pessimistic.” Percy shrugged.

“That’s a good point.” Frank nodded.

I was on my...down into the boiler deck.

“You did what?” Clarisse yelled angrily. This was a private moment. A deeply private moment that nobody else was supposed to have seen. So of course stupid Jackson would have found out. 

“Sorry.” Percy winced. He had forgotten about this.

“I’m going to murder you, Jackson! How much did you hear?”

“A fair bit.” He admitted. She looked murderous. Now everybody was going to find out she was scared of her own father. Her dad, who had just started acting like he was proud of her, was going to be horrified. Plus she didn’t need the rest of camp finding out. 

“You had no right! You just had to eavesdrop. Couldn’t help yourself huh?” She raged.

“What’s going on?” Chris asked, looking between the two of them.

“Thanks to Jackson, you’re about to find out.” Clarisse snarled. She did not want to listen to this, or the comments others were sure to make but her pride would not let her leave. She would suck it up and move on, like she always did. Chris wrapped an arm around her and hugged her tightly.

Clarisse was standing...Ares, the god of war.

“Feeling’s mutual, Punk.” Ares glared.

“Why are you appearing on yet another quest?” Zeus looked angrily at his son. “You’re not supposed to be interfering.”

“It’s not like he was helping.” Percy growled.

“I don’t want excuses...sons take this quest.”

“ARES!” Aphrodite yelled angrily, right in his ear. 

“She was being polite and respectful, that is not pathetic.” Hera told her son sternly. 

“Tell me, brother , what is wrong with your daughter completing the quest?” Artemis glared at Ares. He gulped nervously.

“N...nothing wrong.” He said. 

“Your sons didn’t even want to go on this quest to back up their cabin leader.” Silena said. “Plus she’s the best fighter of your children, including your sons.” She spat the words ‘sons’. Ares glared but didn’t say anything given the amount of glares he was receiving.

“I’ll succeed!”...WHAT IT SAID!” 

“That’s stupid of you. You can’t avoid what the Oracle says.” Apollo rolled his eyes. “It sounds like Clarisse won’t succeed without some kind of help. That’s not her fault that is just how it is.”

“Your dislike of Percy is blinding you.” Athena said. Ares snarled. He still didn’t care. The brat had humiliated him, he would not allow him to take his daughter’s glory. 

Ares bellowed with...Clarisse flinched.

Now every single person was staring at Ares in anger, even Chiron. He knew more of Clarisse’s struggles at camp than anyone and hearing how her father treated her explained quite a bit to him. Clarisse was staring at the floor, trying desperately to sink into the couch and disappear. All of the Gods were staring at him. While they knew Ares was vicious and bloodthirsty, they didn’t realise he would go so far as to threaten his own child.

“You would threaten your own child?” Hera stared at her son in disappointment. Then she sniffed in disdain. “I suppose it’s not really a surprise. What else do we expect from a God of War?”

“Do not excuse him!” Silena yelled. “Being a God of War has absolutely nothing to do with threatening to hit your children.” Her mother nodded, looking at Ares as if seeing him in a whole new light.

“And you wonder why your children turn against you!” Chris yelled furiously. The Gods just kept giving them more reasons to hate them. “How dare you belittle her and threaten her!”

“You’re a jerk.” Percy said, glaring at Ares. He might not like Clarisse but he knew what it was like to live in fear and nobody deserves that. He stood up and moved over to where Clarisse was huddled against Chris, looking like she wanted nothing more than to sink through the floor. It was so unlike her to hide from anything that it made him even angrier. Every other Greek demigod stood up and they all stood in front of Clarisse and Chris, standing between her and Ares.

“Clarisse, has your dad ever actually hit you?” Chirs asked quietly, though his voice shook slightly from suppressed anger.  

“No. He just liked to threaten quite a lot.” Clarisse mumbled.

“I would never actually hit my daughter.” Ares said with a frown. He might be a strict father but he didn’t hit his children. All the demigods’ glares intensified. They were furious. Wasn’t it bad enough that Ares was as much of an absent father as most other Gods but if he did show up it was just to threaten Clarisse. Did he not realise how much pressure there was on demigod kids to please their parents? They would do anything to please their parents, even if it meant becoming the camp bully because her father was a bully. 

“That doesn’t mean you can threaten her either.” Will said furiously. He was doing a lot of recalculating about his opinion of Clarisse. While it still angered him how she talked about and treated his Cabin, he guessed that Ares’ own attitude was clearly a large contributing factor. Plus, while there was pressure on every demigod child to please their parents, clearly Clarisse was under much more pressure than anyone else.

“Guys. Leave it.” Clarisse’s voice came from behind them. “I can handle it.”

“Your dad is…” Chris began.

“I know.” She said quietly. “And I appreciate it but I can handle myself.” They frowned but nodded. It was her choice and now she knew they would all be there for her. Chris kissed her forehead as everyone else returned to their seats.

Frank was gaping at his father in awed disgust. He had been horrified when he found out that Mars was his father and this was just making it worse. How did he get stuck with the worst Olympian to be his father? Never had he more wished for Apollo to have claimed him. The other Romans were also looking at the God in surprise. They had already noticed that the Greek versions of the Gods were very different from their Roman counterparts but this...this was beyond anything they had expected. They could not wrap their heads around the idea that Mars would threaten to strike a child, let alone his own child. Even when he had threatened to turn Percy into an animal on their last quest, it had still been provoked by his disrespect. It was also different from actually hitting his own daughter. They had never understood how the Greeks could be so disrespectful to the Gods but now some of their anger was starting to make sense. 

Chiron began reading again but anger laced his every word. Ares sunk down on his couch, which was now empty as everyone, including Aphrodite, refused to sit anywhere near him. She was now sitting with Hephaestus who looked quite surprised but pleased with this turn of events.

“Do we understand...ready the cannons.

This change of topic was a rather good thing as if the conversation had gone on any longer Ares might have been pulverised.

I crept back from...dream about Grover.

“Bothers me more now.” Percy muttered. 

Clarisse came...splotches in the distance.

Poseidon shifted uncomfortably. He knew which entrance to the Sea of Monsters they were heading for and he had a sneaking suspicion that it wasn’t going to end well. Charybdis and Scylla were both too big to be destroyed easily. Judging by the chapter title the daughter of Ares was going to attempt to just outright attack them which wouldn’t work. He could only hope his son came up with one of his plans that almost gave him a heart attack but usually worked anyway.

My nautical senses...meant for deep water.”

“Who wants to bet she won’t listen?” Beckendorf muttered. He might feel pretty bad for Clarisse but that didn’t mean he had to like her prideful attitude.

I wasn’t sure...the Sea of Monsters. 

“That’s not the only way.” Poseidon said. “There are always the Symplegades. If the ship is faster than a regular mortal ship it might make it.”

“Too risky.” Clarisse shrugged.

“Riskier than what happened?” Percy muttered. Clarisse glared at him.

Straight between...not want to meet.

“Really? You didn’t know about Charybdis and Scylla?” Nico asked.

“Vaguely. Chiron mentioned them at some point but I didn’t remember.” Percy said easily.

“Do you ever bother with your studies?” Athena sneered. Any hope she had for the sea spawn was being quickly dashed. 

“It’s easier for me to learn as I go along.” Percy shrugged.

“What do you mean...on the other hand…”

“You can’t blow them up either.” Poseidon rolled his eyes. “Charybdis is too powerful, one ship will not do enough damage to do anything other than annoy her. As for Scylla, well she’s too high up to really be able to hit her, even with cannons.”

“Wish I knew that earlier.” Clarisse muttered to herself.

“It wouldn’t have mattered if you did know. You would still have thought that blowing stuff up was the best way to go.” Annabeth frowned.

“You are crazy,”...course for Charybdis!”

“Definitely the wrong choice.” Athena said. “Given that most of your crew is undead and Percy can control the ship, you’d be better off getting below deck, leaving the soldiers for bait and sailing close to the cliffs by Scylla. 

The trio looked at each other. That sounded like a much better plan than Clarisse’s one. Although, pretty much any other plan would have been better.

“Aye, m’lady.”...blow her to Tartarus!”

The Wisdom Goddess shook her head in disapproval. Ares was nodding his head at his daughter’s reasoning but didn’t want to speak up and get attention directed back to him. 

“At least tell me that Percy controlled the sea for smooth passage?” Beckendorf asked.

“I couldn’t control the sea very well there.” Percy frowned.

“Charybdis would be more powerful than Percy and have complete control over her area, second only to me.” Poseidon explained.

She said it...wanted to believe her.

“Being excited by the prospect does not make it true or even possible.” Athena scoffed. This demigod was clearly too much like her father in her pride. She thought that strength would win every fight and Athena hoped it would not be her downfall.

The engine...in the wind.

“Don’t tell me the ship blows up too?” Thalia groaned.

“Not yet.” Percy sighed, recalling when he thought Tyson was dead.

As we got closer...toilet being flushed. 

“Oh, ew. Now I’m picturing a giant toilet as the entrance to the Sea of Monsters.” Piper wrinkled her nose.

“I love Percy’s brain.” Leo laughed. He had spent his few days at camp hearing stories about how great this Percy guy was and had come to think of him as almost a legend. Now, having spent a few days reading his thoughts, he could appreciate that he was just a guy. A really funny guy. He actually thought a lot like Leo and that made him happy. At least someone understood his sense of humour.

Every time Charybdis inhaled...by ten-foot waves.

“Urgh.” Hazel said, looking a little green. “I’m not even on the boat and I’m feeling sea sick.” Frank tentatively put an arm around her and rubbed her back. Nico frowned and glared at the son of Ares/Mars. He noticed that they were quite close but now he wondered if they were together.

I tried to time the...awfully good to me.

“Wow.” Annabeth said, raising her eyebrows. “You actually managed to time the whirlpool?” 

“Yeah. What were you doing?” Percy asked.

“Trying not to throw up to be honest. I never realised I got seasick but that was not fun.” 

“I would have already been throwing up. Or passed out.” Hazel said.

“I would have been striking her with lightning.” Thalia said.

“That might have been useful.” Clarisse said. 

“No. Charybdis absolutely hates children of Zeus because he cursed her. She would then have completely focused on utterly destroying you.” Poseidon told her.

“Wasn’t she already focused on that?” Percy asked

“No. She is mostly just stopping you from getting into the Sea of Monsters. While she will attack, she doesn’t particularly care. With a child of Zeus on board, she would actively want you all in pieces.” Poseidon explained. Thalia grimaced.

Undead sailors...thermos full of wind?”

“Definitely not a good idea.” Poseidon spoke up once more. “More wind would make matters much worse.”

“Although that might have been able to help you get past the smashing cliffs at the other entrance.” Apollo mused.

“I didn’t know Percy had it.” Clarisse said.

“And even if you did, you wouldn’t have accepted help from us.” Percy pointed out.

I nodded...I said miserably.

“That must have been horrible.” Thalia said sympathetically. She couldn’t imagine having her powers not work for her.

“It was.” Percy nodded. He had felt like such a failure. I was supposed to be his home turf and he was completely useless.

“We need a backup plan,”...a mighty roaaar! 

Despite the situation a few people chuckled at Percy’s brain.

The ship lurched forward...in the whirlpool.

Poseidon cringed. That was not good. Athena leaned forward a little, desperately wanting to know how her daughter got out of this mess.

“Full reverse!”...starboard cannons!”

“That won’t work. You are in Charybdis’ whirlpool and it will be too strong for you to reverse.” Hermes said.

“You’ll likely just blow up the ship trying given what the Cyclops said.” Hephaestus grunted. Clarisse sighed. 

Dead Confederates...get in range!”

“That won’t help. You can’t destroy her with your fire power.” Apollo reiterated.

“I know that now.” Clarisse said through gritted teeth.

“We’re going in too fast,”...“It’s too dangerous!”

“Yes, it’s too dangerous.” Poseidon said tightly. 

“Tyson is immune to fire but not to the damage that would be done if the engine blows up while he is down there.” Beckendorf explained to Leo who was slightly confused.

He patted my hand...stuck between them.

“She needs one big makeover.” Aphrodite wrinkled her nose in disgust. “In fact, I’m not sure even I can help her.”

“That’s disgusting.” Jason said.

“Why do you have to be so descriptive?” Silena asked.

“Sorry. I notice weird stuff.” Percy grinned.

Charybdis was an...“Again!” Clarisse ordered. 

“It’s clearly not working!” Will pointed out. 

The gunners reloaded...away from the mouth.

“Thank the Gods you took Tyson with you on this quest.” Beckendorf said.

“Yeah.” Chris breathed out. He knew Clarisse and the others survived but it didn’t stop him being worried.

“Tyson did it!” Annabeth...have to move away.”

“Listen to Percy.” Apollo said seriously.

I gripped the rail...on a carnival game.

“Oh.” Hazel closed her eyes, trying to will back the sickness.

“Don’t tell me you guys sunk?” Connor asked.

“Not quite.” Percy said grimly.

We were thrown...of the strait.

“I didn’t realise you were using your powers.” Annabeth frowned.

“To be honest there was so much going on, I wasn’t sure you would be able to concentrate and use your powers.” Clarisse shrugged.

“We would have definitely capsized had I not used them.” Percy replied shortly. 

Another smoldering...how much longer.”

“Tyson is good.” Leo whistled.

“Yeah. He’s amazing.” Beckendorf nodded.

The captain said...Clarisse yelled.

“Yes!” Yelled everyone else, except Ares.

“We have no...leather boots.

“Oh fantastic. You barely made it away from Charybdis and ended up next to Scylla.” Hermes groaned.

“They are still on the mortal side of the sea. They need to get past one of them somehow.” Artemis pointed out.

“Scylla!” a sailor...way too slow.

“Wow.” Travis said. “If Percy was too slow, the guy who can slash Hunter’s arrows out of the air, I don’t even want to know how fast you would need to be to hit Scylla.” 

“Impossibly fast.” Poseidon nodded.

“Everyone get...is in flames.”

“So, not only are you trapped between Scylla and Charybdis, you’re in the middle of the ocean on a burning ship.” Chris summed up,

“How are you three alive?” Hermes asked.

“Honestly, we aren’t sure.” Percy shrugged.

“Lifeboats!” Annabeth said...thermos. “I’ll get Tyson.”

“Bad idea.” Athena warned. 

“Scylla can only pick up one person at a time. She targets those on their own so you would have a better chance if you stay in a group.” Hermes said.

“Well...that’s good to know for future reference.” Percy said with an innocent grin.

“Oh no. You are going nowhere near the Sea of Monsters again.” Poseidon told his son firmly.

“You can’t!” she said. “The heat will kill you!”

“Na. It can’t be any worse than…” Percy trailed off. No need to bring that up quite yet.

“Any worse than what?” Poseidon asked his son.

“You’ll find out.” Percy told his dad.

I didn’t listen...from my face.

“You were attacked by Scylla?” Thalia yelled.

“Yep. But clearly, I was not eaten.” Percy tried to reassure her.

“How in Hades did you get away?” Grover asked. This part had not been mentioned in the later retelling. Hades grumbled about people using his name as a curse.

“If you would stop interrupting and let Chiron read, you’d find out.” Percy grinned. They both glared at him.

Scylla had somehow...beady yellow eye. 

“Nice.” Jason grinned.

“You actually stabbed Scylla in the eye?” Nico said in astonishment.

“Yep.” Percy nodded.

“Awesome.” Connor grinned.

She grunted...exploded below me.

“WHAT?” Poseidon and Athena shouted together. Even Ares looked concerned.

“Were you ok?” He asked quietly. Clarisse avoided his gaze but nodded.

“Nothing permanent.” She said.

KAROOM!...across the ocean.

“Good thinking.” Athena told her daughter.

“Well that explains how you actually managed to live.” Poseidon said weakly.

“Please tell me you guys actually managed to cross in to the Sea of Monsters after all of that?” Thalia asked.

“Yeah. We all made it across thanks to Annabeth.” Percy nodded.

“What about Tyson?” Rachel asked, though she knew he survived she could not imagine how given where he was when the ship exploded.

“He made it but we didn’t find him for quite a while.” Percy smiled. Poseidon let out a sigh of relief.

I couldn’t see anything...were able to drown.

‘Again’ Poseidon thought in horror. That’s now both books so far in which his son wished he was able to drown. Thalia was immediately moving across to Percy and pulling him into a huge hug while also slapping him over the head.

“Percy?” Poseidon said.

“Let’s just read.” Percy said quickly. 

“I think it’s my turn.” Beckendorf spoke up, while eyeing Percy with worry. Chiron gave him the book, feeling miserable. How had he missed Percy’s state of mind? He had not noticed the abuse at the hands of his stepfather and he also had missed the fact that he wanted to die. He felt like a terrible mentor. 

“No, this is the second…” Poseidon began.

“Honestly dad, it was a reaction to thinking Tyson was dead. I was fine.” Percy tried to sound reassuring. Nobody argued with him but several people were making mental notes to speak with him at some point. Poseidon gave him a look that made Percy well aware they would be discussing this once more during the next break. He sighed. Thankfully Beckendorf began reading.

Chapter Text

Percy groaned and threw his head back against the couch. He was not looking forward to reliving this. He wasn’t sure if it was possible to die from embarrassment but he got the feeling he would be finding out very shortly. Poseidon looked at his son in concern. Clearly something not good was going to happen. He hoped it wasn’t life threatening. He needed a break from the constant stress.

Reyna bit her lip. She wondered if she was going to be mentioned in this chapter. As far as she recalled, she had only spoken with Annabeth and, as it was from Percy’s point of view, she might not make an appearance. Part of her wanted to know exactly what had gone so wrong on that particular day but she was also not looking forward to reliving some of the most terrifying days of her life. She did remember Circe saying something about vitamins and Annabeth being immune to magic but that got forgotten in the chaos of having a bunch of bloodthirsty pirates appear without any warning.

“You went to a resort?” Leo asked.

“Yeah.” Percy grimaced.

“More importantly, why is there a resort in the Sea of Monsters?” Piper asked. “Surely it’s a trap.” 

“Yeah.” Annabeth admitted. “But it wasn’t completely by choice. We had lost our ship and Clarisse and Tyson were still missing.”

I woke up in a...“Percy, I’m really sorry.”

Percy and Poseidon both looked down. Even though they knew Tyson was alive, it was still horrible to hear about.

We were silent...he could’ve lived.

“He’s stronger than I expected.” Poseidon noted. “Especially for one so young.”

“Tyson is the best.” Percy smiled softly.

He’d given his...two of us were related.

Percy frowned. He still felt bad about that.

Waves lapped...bag full of ambrosia, 

“That’s good. At least you still have a way to heal yourselves.” Will nodded.

a couple of sailors’...where I lost it.

“Oh good. At least you still have those.” Hermes said. Percy grimaced.

“Thank the Gods.” Annabeth said. “It was extremely good we had those.” She did not like to think how bad it would have been if those had been lost. Percy would still be a guinea pig and the quest would have failed. Thalia would still be a tree and camp would be overrun with monsters. Honestly, given how much of their stuff had been eaten by a Hydra or blown up, she wouldn’t have been surprised to learn that Hermes was keeping an eye on them and had made sure they managed to keep hold of the vitamins one way or another.

We sailed for hours...feel any less lost.

“Yes, that terrain is controlled by monsters, and while your powers will still work, it won’t feel quite right. Even Triton dislikes going there.” Poseidon told his son. “I can’t say I’m fond of going either.” Percy nodded. That made him feel a bit better.

No matter which...marry Grover earlier.

“Grover’s pretty good at talking his way out of stuff.” Thalia smiled.

“Yeah, just because he can’t unravel it, doesn’t mean he has to make it quickly.” Connor said. “But also, Grover is pretty bad at lying. So he needs to be able to just avoid the truth.”

“If it takes too long, Polyphemus might just marry him without it.” Beckendorf pointed out.

“They got there in time.” Grover said, wanting to move the topic along.

“Yeah,” I said bitterly...me to resent her.

“I was angry at myself too.” Percy said. “I hadn’t been great to Tyson either.” 

“Well, we both got to be nicer to Tyson.” Annabeth smiled. He nodded happily.

I looked down...to him about his dad.

Hermes grimaced. He hoped that Percy would find out exactly what had gone wrong so he knew how to fix it in the future.

“Annabeth, what’s...wisdom goddess!”

“Knowledge and wisdom are not quite the same thing. Knowledge is not always good for you.” Athena stated. “Sometimes it can be a distraction.” 

“A prophecy cannot be changed but if you knew about it a couple of years early then you would spend that whole time trying to find a way around it.” Apollo added. Percy nodded.

“I know! But every...dangerous weapon.”

“Precisely why we should kill the boy.” Athena stated.

“We already said no to that idea.” Hades spoke up. Poseidon shot his brother a grateful look.

“Besides the note said Percy saved Olympus. He didn’t destroy it.” He pointed out calmly, though there was a steel in his voice that all the Gods took note of. 

“Plus, you can’t avoid a prophecy forever.” Apollo pointed out. “It would come true eventually.” 

“Why?”...or destroys it.”

“Seriously, why does Annabeth know so much about the prophecy?” Rachel asked.

“She would have a part to play.” Chiron said. Athena frowned at the Centaur. It sounded as if he had told her daughter the prophecy, if not in full then at least the basics of it. She was unsure whether this was a good thing.

I let that sink in...will be in serious trouble.”

Zeus glared. He still did not like that fate of Olympus rested on this boy’s shoulders. He was a mere demigod and yet he supposedly had the power to destroy the age of the Gods. Beside him, his wife shifted with a look of disdain on her face. He sighed. He felt the same way. It was wrong. They were Gods, they should not need to rely on one mortal to save them.

“But if it’s me...long time for a half-blood. 

“Yeah, three years is practically a lifetime.” Beckendorf nodded. Some of the Gods exchanged looks. Three years? That was nothing. How could it be a lifetime to their children? 

When Chiron first...Until you came along.”

“That must be a terrible burden.” Reyna looked at Percy sympathetically. She could not imagine knowing that in a couple of years she would have to make a choice that could save the world or destroy it. Percy nodded. It terrified him.