Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The children stayed that way for a while. 

Hestia watched them with soft eyes. These people cared so much about each other. She could tell that not all of them were well acquainted with each other yet (such as the Romans) or just not as close. But she did sense that they all seemed to have some kind of bond with the son of Poseidon. Some stronger than others, but still there nonetheless.

They were a family. 

The other gods could see it too based on the surprised looks on their faces. They—especially the Big Three—were used to their children being solo players. Typically didn’t get along with others. Cared more for themselves and no one else. 

It was astonishing to see this display in front of them. They were a team. A group of very different individuals that formed a solid team. 

Eventually, they started pulling away—barely a single dry eye left—until the only ones left were the center trio still hugging each other. The teens all sat close to each other, not wanting to leave anyone alone for the time being.

Grover pulled away after a while as well but didn’t leave the couple’s side. 

Annabeth stayed in her place on top of Percy while Percy himself was still leaning on the bean bag, running his hand across Annabeth’s back. He looked much better than earlier, tired but recovered. 

“Wise Girl,” Percy mumbled. “I’m just gonna go and get some fresh air.” 

Annabeth looked so comfortable and Percy didn’t want to destroy that, but he really just needed to clear his head, go on a walk maybe. 

“Want me to come with?” Annabeth asked. Percy gave her a small smile but shook his head. “It’s okay, just give me a few minutes to clear my head, get my mood back up, alright?”

“Okay,” Annabeth relented, getting off of him. “I’ll be here if you need anything.”

Percy gave her a small peck. “I’ll be back.”

Annabeth nodded and watched as Percy disappeared behind one of the magic doors. She sighed. 

“Is he okay?” Piper asked Annabeth, scooting closer to her as she watched Percy leave. 

“He says he is.” Annabeth frowned. “But I don’t know. He doesn’t want to show it but…he needs time and definitely support.” Annabeth knew Percy more than she thinks she knew herself. “It’s just that he’s usually the one giving help, not receiving. I don’t think he even knows how to receive help if I’m being honest.”

Jason watched Percy go from where he sat. He wanted to go and follow the demigod but knew that was not the right approach. He couldn’t just walk up to the older and say ‘Yo, Perce, remember that time you choked on poison and didn’t do anything about it even though you said you could?’

Yeah no. 

Instead, he told himself to be patient. Now was obviously not the time. Percy was obviously not ready to talk about it. 

If he’ll ever be ready. Jason’s mind said.

Shut up. He told it back. 

The other demigods were also glancing at the door worriedly but were getting themselves back into a happier mood, taking this short break to use the bathroom or steal snacks from the kitchen.

By the time Percy came back about half an hour later, the others were chatting with each other animatedly, just like any other normal day. He sighed in relief. He felt guilty for being such a Debbie downer in the last projection. It made him feel at least a bit better that everyone was back up and kicking. 

Percy wasn’t clueless. He knew that his friends wanted to talk to him about whatever happened in the past two episodes but he couldn’t deal with that right now. Fortunately, everyone else seemed to get that. For now at least.

But also he was going to try and avoid that talk for as long as possible. 

He had ended up opening the door to an Olympic-sized pool and swam his worries away for the time being. It didn’t take long, just one or two laps was enough. He really just needed to get all the negative energy out and get ready for the next episode.

Though if he was right, the next one would just give him even more negative energy. Literally. 

Damn you, Ares.  

Hopefully, he could control himself. If not, well…he’ll cross that bridge when he gets there.

Percy let himself smile—to convince everyone and himself that he was fine—and went to sit back down beside Annabeth.  

Immediately after he sat down, she leaned on him, both of their backs against a bean bag. “Better?” Annabeth asked Percy. 

“Very much,” Percy nodded. “Swimming does wonders.”

Annabeth smiled. She saw the genuine spark in Percy’s eyes when he mentioned swimming. “I’m glad.”

“I guess that means we are ready to go?” Hestia asked the couple gently. 

Percy and Annabeth both nodded, extremely comfortable in their places already. 

That was the problem. 

“Uh, guys?” Leo began, an awkward smile plastered onto his face. “One of you have to actually start it, remember?”

They both groaned. 

Leo yelped, hiding behind Piper. “It’s not my fault! Stop glaring! You’re both scary!”

Everyone laughed. 

The atmosphere was now thankfully back to normal—whatever normal meant. 

Sally sank into Paul’s side, relieved to see her son smiling. 

Jason and Frank shared a mischievous look before walking over to Percy. 

“What?” Percy asked the two that were now towering over him and Annabeth. Jason and Frank smiled evilly at him before picking Percy up—Jason by the legs and Frank by the arms.

“Wai—guys! What the hell?” Percy protested. The others were dying of laughter. Even Annabeth.

The two demigods dropped Percy in front of the box. The son of Poseidon started cussing the two out, at one point pausing to give Hestia a sheepish smile. 

“For gods’ sake just start it, Percy!” Piper yelled at him, laughing. 

“Okay! Okay!” Percy relented. “Geez.” He pressed the number 15. Once the familiar blue glow appeared, Percy turned back to Jason and Frank with his arms outstretched. 

“Okay now carry me back,” Percy smirked at them. “You started it! Now finish it.” He said when the two started to complain, complete with grabby hands. 

“Fine,” Jason dragged the word out before grinning. He grabbed Percy and flew back to where they picked him up a while ago. Jason did it so fast that Percy barely even had time to process. 

Everyone laughed even harder as Percy spluttered in shock, back in his place next to Annabeth. “Fuck you, Grace!”

Paul, who was laughing along with the demigods just a few moments ago, was now staring at Jason in shock. 

Jason made a show of bowing dramatically and high-fiving Frank while the rest of the demigods played along and clapped. The gods watched them in either amusement or confusion. 

Jason smiled widely. At least that was something he could do. Annoy Percy. In the right way of course. 

Later. He told himself. They could talk later. 

They calmed themselves down as the next projection finally started. 

The projection started with the train arriving at the destination, the trio exiting the train. 

The next afternoon…was obvious. 

“Great, you guys are hungry again.”

“As long as they don’t go back to any gnome emporium.”

‘Let’s try…river spirit.’ Annabeth said. Percy looked confused. ‘We…phones, right?’

“Just another thing people forgot to tell me about,” Percy said, gaze landing on Chiron. 

The centaur smiled at him sheepishly. 

Annabeth rolled her eyes. ‘I’m not…phones.’ She said as they walked downtown for a long while, Annabeth leading the way. 

“Why is Denver so dry?” Percy huffed, gulping down on his water bottle. 

They finally stopped at an empty car wash. They went straight for the stall farthest from the street, the three of them alert and looking around. 

We were…up to no good. 

“Don’t forget the fact that you’re literally a known fugitive at this point.” Rachel said. “Cops would care less about the car wash and more about the whole St. Louis incident.”

“Thanks for pointing that out again,” Percy gave Rachel a look. 

Rachel snorted and made a heart with her hands to which Percy rolled his eyes at with a small smile. 

Grover and Annabeth got to work immediately. Percy went to Grover over at the spray guns. ‘What…doing?’

A few demigods laughed at how lost Percy looked on the screen. 

“Aww, Percy,” Katie cooed. “It’s okay, you got there eventually.”

“I don’t think so,” Percy replied. “I still don’t know what happens half the time. I just learned not to question it.”

Poseidon let out an exasperated sigh. 

‘It’s seventy-five…Annabeth?’ Grover ignored Percy, checking his pockets for change. Annabeth shook her head. ‘Don’t…wiped me out.’

Paul and Sally still had trouble processing the fact that these were twelve-year-olds with no fresh clothes, food, or money on a deadly quest cross-country and no adult supervision. 

So much for having godly parents. 

Luckily, Percy had a quarter in his pocket and passed it to Grover. He looked down at his palm. Two nickels and one drachma left. 

“That means you have none for food,” Pollux said, scrunching his nose. 

“And you guys had so much money in the beginning, too,” Piper sighed. 

‘Excellent…tired of pumping.’ Grover took the coin from Percy who looked extremely confused. ‘What…about?’

“What exactly is happening here?” Paul whispered to Sally, confused. Sally just shrugged, though she definitely had an idea of what was happening. It was easier to just watch it than explain. 

‘I-M’ing.’ Grover said as he set the spray gun to fine mist. 

“Oh,” Paul said. He never really saw how IMs worked. He pretty much only saw it when it was already made, especially since it would always come from Percy or Annabeth—a goddess wouldn’t exactly answer to a mortal, so he didn’t need to know how to make one. 

‘Instant Messaging?’

Percy scowled as everyone laughed at his cluelessness. “Yeah, yeah, laugh it up.”

Annabeth pinched his cheek. “Cute.”

‘Iris-messaging…for half-bloods.’ Annabeth explained. Percy stared at them. ‘You summon…spray gun?’

“This guy,” Hermes snorted. “Oh, Iris is going to get a kick out of that.”

“I’m sure she wouldn’t mind,” Percy shrugged, sharing a knowing look with Hazel and Frank. 

Annabeth raised an eyebrow at him but he just gave her a secretive smile back. 

‘Unless…easier way to make a rainbow.’  

“You know you guys probably could have asked Percy to help with that, right?” Thalia said, amused. “I mean—water…mist…y’know. Plus it’s free.”

“Sadly, no one told me what the hell an IM was,” Percy sighed dramatically. “Oh and I still had no idea what my powers could do yet.”

“You know,” Annabeth started. “Prisms should probably be part of the quest packs for easier IM access. Maybe a flashlight too, in case there’s no light. Water is already part of the pack so no need to think about that…”

“That would be helpful,” Chiron nodded. “I’ll have to keep that in mind.”

“As long as you don’t leave your backpack on an exploding bus, it should help.” Nico snorted. 

“Di Angelo, you little—” Annabeth playfully narrowed her eyes at Nico. 

“I’m not wrong!” The son of Hades raised his hands up, a sly grin making its way onto his face. 

“…yeah, you’re right. Damn it.”

“Oh my gods? Annabeth Chase admitting someone else was right?”

“Oh, shut up Thals.”

Percy laughed, giving Nico and Thalia a thumbs-up from behind Annabeth. 

Messing with Annabeth was so fun. Not just anyone could pull it off so, of course, the three cousins were always up for the challenge. 

Thick mist came out of the nozzle that Grover was holding, and soon enough there was a rainbow in front of the trio. ‘Drachma, please.’ Annabeth said, holding her hand out. 

“You are so lucky I had one.”

“Oh, hush.”

Percy handed Annabeth the coin and watched as she made the offering. She threw it into the rainbow and requested for Half-Blood Hill. 

Chiron tilted his head at the projection. He didn’t recall receiving this message. 

Percy watched as the Big House porch appeared in the mist, looking over the strawberry fields and the Long Island Sound. ‘Luke!’ Looking out at the meadow was Luke holding his sword. He whipped around with wide eyes. ‘Percy!’

Hermes perked up at the sight of his son. 

“Of course,” Thalia muttered bitterly. 

Paul shook his head in wonder. “It’s so cool.”

‘Is that Annabeth…guys okay?’ Luke asked with a wide grin on his face. Immediately, Annabeth tried to fix herself up and look more presentable. ‘We’re…Chiron- I mean-’ She stammered. 

Annabeth groaned and hid her face into Percy’s shoulder. “I hate this.”

Percy smiled down at her, chuckling slightly. He rested his hand on her knee. 

‘He’s down at…Grover all right?’ Luke frowned. Grover showed himself, asking what kind of issues when a car pulled up next to them with its stereo on blast. 

Numerous people yelped and covered their ears at the sudden loud noise. 

“What the-” Frank winced. “Why is that so loud?”

‘Chiron had to- what’s that noise?’ Luke yelled. Annabeth used this as an excuse to leave. ‘I’ll take…come on!’ She yelled back, pulling Grover along with her. He tried to protest but ended up giving Percy the spray gun and following Annabeth. Grover muttered something about girls being harder to understand than the Oracle as he walked away. 

Rachel crossed her arms and looked at Grover. She would have said something like “I take double offense to that!” but that would probably count as a spoiler. 

The satyr gave her a nervous smile. “Sorry,” He mouthed. 

Rachel’s stern facade broke as she laughed at Grover’s panicked face. She gave him a thumbs up. She just loved messing with people. 

‘Chiron had…leaked out about the Zeus-Poseidon standoff.’ 

Chiron nodded, remembering the chaos that had erupted from the leak. So that’s when this message came. 

“Gods,” Katie groaned. “That was a nightmare.” The other senior counselors nodded in agreement. They could still remember the random fights that would break out suddenly. Those that were already counselors at the time even had to help Chiron break some fights up.

‘We’re…scumbag who summoned the hellhound.’

Those that knew about Luke made amused noises.

“Yeah. The scumbag.” Thalia snorted, rolling her eyes.

‘Now…Aphrodite, Ares, and Apollo are backing Poseidon, more or less. Athena is backing Zeus.’ Luke explained.

Zeus narrowed his eyes at the named gods that were backing Poseidon. “Your children–”

“Hey now, don’t blame the children.” Poseidon cut him off, though he felt a bit smug at the number of people that were backing him up compared to Zeus.

“Yeah, well if something like this ever happens again, we’re all backing two people and two people only.” Clarisse butt in. Ares raised an eyebrow at her daughter. 

“Who?” The war god asked. The other gods also looked interested.

Clarisse kept her arms crossed, not saying anything. She would never say it out loud herself. It was Will that answered.

“Them.” Will pointed at Percy and Annabeth. The other senior campers murmured their agreements.

The rest of the Seven, though haven’t worked with the two for that long, understood why. Annabeth had taken their leader position almost naturally, and no one questioned it. Percy kept them together–a leader in another way. They could only imagine what it was like for the campers that had been with them for four years now. 

Percy looked like a deer caught in headlights, eyes wide and face red. He hid his face behind the blanket that Annabeth was holding, away from the looks he was receiving from the gods.

Sally, Poseidon, and Paul felt pride swell in their chests. Poseidon didn’t care that the demigods quite literally just implied that they didn’t care whose side the gods were on.

Athena narrowed her eyes slightly. That would pose a huge problem for the gods if the demigods—their warriors—decided not to back them up. She trusted her daughter, but she had to keep an eye out for the son of Poseidon. 

I shuddered…dad’s side for anything.

Clarisse glared at Percy. “Got a problem with that?” 

Percy peeked out from behind the blanket. “Back then? Uh, yeah.” He said with no hesitation.

Clarisse scoffed while Percy grinned at her. The other campers watched them, amused. They just accepted that they’d probably never fully understand those two’s friendship.

Suddenly, Annabeth could be heard arguing with some guy from the other stall, the music lowering in volume.  

Grover shook his head. “I really just watched as twelve-year-old Annabeth fought some random dude.”

Annabeth smiled at him innocently. 

‘So what’s your status?...missed you.’ Luke asked. Percy told him everything–including his dreams. He talked for so long that the beeper started to go off on the spray machine. 

“You know,” Chiron said. “He never told me about this.”

Percy winced at how much he talked about with Luke. Annabeth kept her head rested on his shoulder while her hand was placed on top of his.

“You really trusted him,” Thalia whispered sadly. “I didn’t know.”

Percy gave her a pained smile. “Yeah.”

‘I wish…and we saw him.’ Luke said.

Hades raised an eyebrow at the projection of Luke. The son of Hermes seemed really hellbent on accusing him.

‘But Chiron…items directly.’ Percy said. Luke looked troubled. ‘That’s true…You’d have to be invisible.’ There was silence at what Luke said.

The room fell into a similar state of silence.

Thalia’s eye twitched while Annabeth just looked hurt. Percy wrapped an arm around her, pulling her closer.

“Is he trying to say–” Travis cut himself off, speechless.

“You never told me he said that.” Annabeth told Percy softly. Percy pressed his lips to her head. “I didn’t know how to. Besides, you would’ve gotten mad at me.” He chuckled, trying to make her feel better.

Annabeth smiled slightly. “I guess that’s true.”

‘Oh, hey…little sister to me.’ Luke corrected.

Percy wondered if Luke knew about the prophecy—if he knew about the betraying line. It was possible that Luke said these to him to make Percy think that Annabeth was the friend that would betray him. 

Stop overthinking it. Percy scoffed at his own thoughts. 

The music suddenly stopped. A scream was heard, followed by slamming doors. The car from the next stall drove away.

“What did you do?” Connor asked Annabeth, eyes wide with mischief and curiosity. 

Annabeth and Grover shared a look before both shrugging. “That’s for us to know, and you to not.” Grover grinned.

“That- wait- that’s not how the saying goes!” Connor protested.

“Yeah well if we told you out of all people then camp would never be safe.” Annabeth raised an eyebrow at the Stolls who smiled innocently.

“Touché.”

“You never told me, either!” Percy realized, looking at the two. 

Annabeth directed her look to Percy. “Same reason.” She deadpanned.

Grover snorted at Percy’s astonished expression as the others just flat-out laughed.

‘You’d better…done you some good.’ … ‘Really? They fit and everything?’ Luke grinned widely while Percy tried not to show his guilt for not actually using the shoes.

“Eager for Percy to wear it, now are we?” Grover muttered.

“And he was so happy about it.” Annabeth scowled. She just wanted to go in there and protect little Percy from the horrors of the world. 

Percy’s hold around her tightened. They were both dreading the time that would come up. It was one of the parts of the quest that people didn’t just know about either.

Oh, they’re all going to riot. Annabeth thought.

The water from the machine shut off, causing the mist to evaporate. ‘Well…turned into a pine tree if he just-’ The image faded along with the mist. Percy stared at empty air.

“Excuse me?!” Thalia exploded. Sparks flew off of her. Luckily, Jason was still beside her to make sure no one got hit. “First Annabeth, and now Grover. How dare–”

Grover looked at the screen, hurt. Annabeth’s eyes hardened, her hurt from earlier replaced with anger. Percy used his other arm to pull Grover beside him. 

Chiron grimaced. Luke’s betrayal hurt him just as much.

Zeus watched the satyr with narrowed eyes. The one assigned to her daughter when he turned her into a tree. 

Piper let out a small gasp. No wonder the name Luke Castellan was so familiar. During the time they were in camp, waiting for the Argo II to be completed, all people ever talked about was Percy which in turn included the name Luke as well.

She didn’t know the details but from the way the others were acting now, and how they usually said his name with hesitation back at camp…he must be the one who betrayed Percy. It made sense!

It seemed to click for both Leo and Jason as well from the way the three of them exchanged looks and collectively glanced at a now cussing Thalia. 

Annabeth and Grover reappeared, laughing together, but stopped when they saw Percy's expression. ‘What…Luke say?’ Annabeth frowned. Percy looked at them, shifting uncomfortably. ‘Not much…find some dinner.’

“Not much my a–” Thalia was cut off by Jason’s hand covering her mouth.

Annabeth sighed while Grover bleated, Percy rubbing their shoulders from in between them. He ignored his own hunger and discomfort, knowing that it’ll disappear once they got to eat in the projection.

The scene changed to the trio sitting at a diner booth, surrounded by families happily eating their meals. A waitress came over to their table. ‘Well?’

‘We…order dinner.’ Percy said. The waitress looked at them skeptically. ‘You…pay for it?’ She asked. Grover looked like he was about to cry while Annabeth looked like she was about to pass out. Percy wasn’t looking any better.

Sally’s heart hurt seeing the kids look miserable out of hunger. It made her want to cook up a whole feast right then and there. 

Percy let his head fall backward on the bean bag. He felt a bit lightheaded from hunger.

“Need food?” Annabeth asked him quietly. Percy shook his head. “It’ll pass.”

“I hope you have a good excuse prepared,” Hazel said worriedly. “You guys really need the food.”

“Didn’t need one,” Grover sighed, pointing at the screen. 

Percy was about to speak up when the building shook from a loud rumble. A huge motorcycle had pulled up to the curb. The diner fell silent, watching the motorcycle–red headlights, painted flames, and shotguns.

Paul paled. “Is that skin?” He asked, eyes glued to the motorcycle seat. 

Sally looked slightly green at what Paul was asking. “How about we don’t ask?”

“Agreed.”

Clarisse scowled while Frank’s eyebrows shot up.

Hephaestus rolled his eyes at the dramatic entrance of the bike. 

The rider dismounted. 

The guy…I felt like I’d seen his face somewhere before.

“Ares?” Hera demanded. “What are you doing there?”

Ares ignored her. Instead, he sat up straight. He accepted the description given to him, grin on his face smug. “Finally. Something interesting.”

“Are you interfering?” Zeus glared at his son. 

Ares rolled his eyes. “This hasn’t happened yet, old man. I do not know why I’m there, nor do I care.”

The biker walked inside the diner. Everyone else inside rose, as if they were hypnotized. The guy waved his hand and everything went back to normal, the mortals sitting back down. The waitress asked them for payment again as if nothing happened. 

Paul’s jaw was dropped as he looked at the war god discreetly. He whipped his head away as soon as Ares looked their way. 

Paul breathed out a sigh of relief when the god turned his attention back to the screen. He and Sally shared the same look—a mix of fear and relief. 

Poseidon seemed to sense this and extended his own presence over the two, to give them comfort instead of the fear and anger that Ares usually exuded. 

Ares slid into their booth, squishing Annabeth to the window. ‘It’s on me.’

Athena scowled at the war god. 

Percy breathed in slowly. He was beginning to feel Ares’ presence. Percy withdrew his arms from Grover’s and Annabeth’s shoulders and dropped his head in his hands. 

The two friends exchanged alarmed looks on either side of him. 

Ares looked at the gaping waitress. ‘Are you still here?’ He pointed at her. She stiffened, turned around like she was forced, and marched back to the kitchen. 

“Ares!” Hera scolded, exasperated. 

The god turned his gaze on Percy. 

Bad feelings started…think he was?

Percy started cursing under his breath as the negative emotions filled him. He kept his head in his hands to avoid looking at the actual Ares sitting right there. 

Jason opened his mouth to ask if he was okay, but Annabeth caught his gaze and made a ‘cut it out’ gesture with her hand. 

“Leave him be for now, alright? Especially you four.” Annabeth pointed at Thalia, Jason, Nico—Percy’s natural rivals due to parentage—and Clarisse for obvious reasons. “Ares targeted Percy especially, pretty much ignoring Grover and me.”

Annabeth wasn't sure if Hazel counted since Percy adored the younger demigod and didn’t really have any bad blood with her. 

Jason winced and nodded in understanding. The other demigods also understood. Ares could invoke anger within anyone.

Ares grinned at Percy. ‘So your old Seaweed’s kid, huh?’

Poseidon gave Ares a sharp look which was ignored.

I should’ve…rip this guy’s head off. 

‘What’s it to you?’ Percy asked back, tone sharp.

“Oh yeah?” Ares challenged. “As if you can even lay a finger on me.”

For the demigods that knew of Percy’s history with Ares, the situation would have been funny. The problem was they could all practically feel the anger rolling off of Percy and couldn’t bring themselves to so much as smile. 

Percy looked up and glared, eyes dark and swirling with anger. 

Those around him shied away and avoided his gaze, some even flinched at the look on Percy's face. 

“Try me,” Percy shot back. Annabeth’s head whipped around to face her boyfriend, eyes wide with warning. Sally drew in a sharp breath while Paul let out a small squeak. 

Ares grinned evilly. Oh yeah . He thought as he looked at the angry demigod. This will be fun. 

‘Percy, this is-’ Annabeth tried to warn but was cut off by the god. ‘I don’t mind…who I am, little cousin?’

Some of the demigods got hit with the reminder that Ares was literally just Percy’s cousin. Funny, yet weird. For Frank especially. (Clarisse could care less)

“That’s right, cousin,” Ares smirked. “I’m the boss here.” 

Poseidon glared at Ares, opening his mouth to tell him off, but Percy beat him to it much to his chagrin. 

“How about you wipe that smug look off of your face?” Percy gritted his teeth. “I’m sorry. I don’t usually follow those that have too much arrogance yet can’t even—”

“Percy!” Annabeth hissed, grabbing his arm and covering his mouth. 

Frank stared at Percy, gobsmacked. He thought the incident with Mars was bad enough but this? This was an insane amount worse. 

Sally had a hand to her chest, trying to calm her breathing. Paul was getting paler by the second. 

The other demigods were also getting increasingly nervous but Ares just kept smirking. He was enjoying this. 

Aphrodite held Ares’ arm. “Stop riling him up on purpose! The poor boy’s already feeling your presence from the projection!”

Percy had resorted to plain glaring at the god while still being held in place by Annabeth. 

‘You’re Clarisse’s dad…war.’

“What a title.” Hermes snickered quietly along with Apollo. 

Clarisse raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything. He wasn’t wrong. Besides, she wasn’t stupid—she wouldn’t purposefully direct Jackson’s anger to herself while he was under her father’s influence. 

Ares held his grin, taking his sunglasses off and revealing fire for eyes. ‘That’s right…Clarisse’s spear.’ 

‘She…asking for it.’ Percy held his gaze. 

Clarisse scowled. Obviously, this was where Prissy’s rotten history with her father started but watching it was just annoying to her, especially if she had to be brought into it. 

Annabeth had already hesitantly removed her hand from Percy’s mouth but kept her hand resting on his arm. 

‘Probably…proposition for you.’ 

“What are you—” Hera started but Ares cut her off. 

“As if I know!”

The waitress from earlier came back with their food. Ares brought out golden drachmas to which the waitress looked nervous. ‘But these aren’t…’

Paul’s eyes widened when he saw the pile of food and the drachmas. They didn’t even specifically order anything! Gods were terrifying. 

Sally was just thankful the kids got food. 

‘Problem sweetheart?’ Ares casually brought out his knife and picked his nails with it. The waitress gulped and walked away with the coins. 

As a fellow mortal, that made Paul even more nervous. 

Artemis scowled at the war god. 

“Of course,” Hephaestus shook his head exasperatedly at his brother’s antics.

“Ares,” Aphrodite scolded. “What did we say about threatening mortals?”

Ares just rolled his eyes, muttering under his breath. 

‘You can’t…threaten people with a knife.’ Percy told the god. 

“And you can’t tell me what to do,” Ares raised an eyebrow, still having fun grating on the boy’s nerves. 

“And just because you're a god, doesn’t mean you can just go ordering people around like that.” Percy retorted with no hesitation. 

“It’s because I’m a god that I can get away with anything.” Ares kept going, ignoring the other gods’ warning glares, especially Aphrodite’s and Poseidon’s. 

Percy’s glare intensified and he opened his mouth to shoot another reply when suddenly, something big tackled him to the ground and sat on top of him. 

Everyone was stunned into silence at what they were now looking at. 

“Frank?” Will asked, jaw-dropped, staring at the grizzly bear that now sat on top of a grumbling Percy. 

The other campers had similar expressions—first time seeing Frank’s shapeshifting ability. 

Paul had to rub his eyes and make sure that he was seeing things correctly while Sally didn’t know if she needed to worry about her son literally being crushed by a giant bear or be relieved that the bear—which was apparently Frank —stopped Percy from arguing with the god of war. 

Frank put up a hand (paw?) and waved in a motion that said, ‘sup?

Ares adjusted his sunglasses, as he looked at his son, slightly impressed. This son of his was not as aggressive or gruff as most of his others, so seeing this was interesting. 

The rest of the Seven was torn between staring in silence and laughing. 

‘Are you kidding?…do me a favor.’ Ares laughed. 

Percy struggled under bear-Frank’s weight. “There you gods are and your favors . You all can just shove—”

He got cut off by a loud bear huff, making Percy’s insults go unheard. 

The other teens honestly did not know what to make of this situation. First of all, Percy just having to be controlled by a bear because his anger was through the roof at the moment was actually pretty funny. 

But it was because Percy was angry that they didn’t know if they could laugh without getting glared at to death. 

Percy was having the hardest time controlling himself and he hated it. Now that he was stuck stomach-down to the floor, his anger was coming out in the form of words and not punching war gods in the face. 

Maybe that was for the better. He’d have to thank Frank after he calmed down. 

‘What…for a god?’ Percy asked. Ares scoffed at him. ‘Something a god doesn’t have time to…I want you to fetch it for me.’

“Ares,” Zeus furrowed his eyebrows. “You are distracting them from retrieving my bolt.”

“That’s not my problem.”

Zeus inhaled deeply. “Son—”

“Oh so now you want us to focus on your bolt,” Percy turned his glare on Zeus. “Finally came to your senses and decided not to send any more monsters after us?”

Zeus gaped at him comically, mouth opening to probably yell at his nephew, but someone else spoke first. 

“Perseus,” Hestia said calmly. “Try to control yourself, please.” She told the struggling demigod before turning to face Ares. “And you, Ares. Stop projecting your aura onto him. You should know better than to use someone’s anger for entertainment.” Hestia finished sternly. 

If she could help it, there would be no fighting on her watch. 

Percy bit his lip. He was trying. 

Ares on the other hand glared but didn’t say anything back. Hestia was one of the gods that you just didn’t fight. Even he knew that. 

‘Why don’t…get it yourself?’ Percy scowled. Ares’ fire eyes glowed brighter. ‘Why don’t I turn…daddy can protect you.’

Ares looked smug. Exactly. He thought to his future self. 

Poseidon had to stop himself from pouncing at the war god, resorting to lowly growling instead. “Nephew.”

Percy looked murderous . A noise came from the bathrooms, sounding suspiciously like the plumbing. 

Annabeth took in a sharp breath. “Percy,” She urged with her teeth clenched. “Calm down, please.”

“I’m trying.” Percy growled back, frustrated at everything—mostly himself. 

He and Annabeth were thinking the same thing. Why was it affecting him so badly? He was able to control himself back when he was twelve. Why not now when he was older?

Though Annabeth thought she already knew the answer. 

I wanted to punch…give him the satisfaction. 

Ares narrowed his eyes at the demigod. So close.

‘We’re not…a quest.’ Percy narrowed his eyes at the god. Suddenly, images of smoke, blood, and corpses flashed through the screen. Things that Ares was making Percy see. It was a threat. 

Percy took long, shaky breaths, still trying to calm himself down. The images that flashed through his mind were no longer just images of a random battlefield. 

He lived through war. These images were now less random and more familiar. Compared to his innocent, twelve-year-old self, Percy now had experience. 

Was this what was making Ares’ influence worse?

‘I know all about your quest…Apollo, Athena, Artemis, and me, naturally.’

The named gods sat up straighter at the mention of their names. 

Zeus nodded. Those four were his best trackers. 

Thalia scrunched her nose. “What is this, the A-team?” She whispered. 

Nico snorted quietly beside her. They both decided to move away from Percy’s line of sight while he was being crushed by the bear. They knew that they could easily rile Percy up and while that would usually be fun, Percy was truly angry at the moment. No fun and games here. 

Ares continued. ‘If I couldn’t…told him my suspicions about old Corpse Breath.’

“You’re the one who framed me?” Hades glared at Ares who just shrugged. 

“Who says I framed you? It could just be me voicing out my suspicions—which are usually correct by the way.”

Hades narrowed his eyes. “We’ve already pretty much established that it is not me.”

Ares’ eyebrow raised in irritation. “And I’m supposed to know what exactly is happening because…?”

Hades huffed. He had a point there. This hasn’t happened yet. 

‘You told…bolt?’ Percy looked surprised. Ares smirked. ‘Sure. Framing…me to thank for your little quest.’

“So you did frame me.” Hades growled. 

Even Zeus looked sharply at Ares. “Do you know something we don’t?” 

“This is the future, you grandpas! Surprise, surprise! I. Don’t. Know.” Ares shot back, frustrated. 

Hephaestus pinched his nose bridge in frustration. Some of the other gods shared similar looks, sneaking glares at Ares. 

Sally shivered at the tense air. Paul pulled her closer, equally shaken. 

‘Thanks,’ Percy grumbled. Annabeth and Grover were watching him nervously, staying silent at the two’s exchange. 

Percy gritted his teeth. He would like this to be over as soon as possible, thank you very much. 

‘Hey…ride west for you and your friends.’ Ares shrugged. 

“The Ancient—”

“No one cares!”

“Percy!”

‘We’re…our own.’ Percy replied. Ares looked at him knowingly. ‘Yeah, right…about your mom.’ He smirked. That got Percy’s attention. ‘My mom?’

Aphrodite slapped her boyfriend’s arm. 

“Now that’s just foul,” Leo scowled. Piper nodded in agreement, extremely annoyed at Ares. 

Sally subtly narrowed her eyes at Ares. God or not, Sally was still a protective mother. 

‘That got…Tunnel of Love ride.’

Grover smirked at Annabeth who groaned internally. Oh, how she wished there was a skip button. 

Hephaestus narrowed his eyes at the screen, listening attentively. 

‘What interrupted…scare you off?’ Percy asked. Ares gave him a threatening look. 

There was something…nervous. 

“I don’t get nervous, you punk.”

“Could have fooled me.” 

‘You’re lucky…Don’t disappoint me.’ And just like that, Ares was gone. Grover and Annabeth stared at Percy in horror. 

“Well,” Pollux clasped his hands together. “At least a god bought you cheeseburgers.”

Percy inhaled deeply and then groaned, slamming his forehead to the floor. “That was the worst.”

The demigods watched him nervously. 

“Yo, Perce,” Travis prodded nervously. “You good now?”

“Peachy.” Percy grumbled, voice muffled, but it wasn’t angry anymore. They all sighed in relief. 

Slowly, the bear got off of Percy’s back, shifting back into a human. 

Paul and Sally watched, flabbergasted at the transformation. Woah. 

“Frank, you are so cool, man,” Pollux gave him a thumbs up, eyes wide. The other demigods nodded in agreement, looking at him in amazement. 

Frank blushed. It was an on-the-spot decision, really. He cared for Percy too much and couldn’t let a god smite him for anger that he could barely control. 

So he turned into a bear and tackled him. Foolproof.

Oh and yes, he made extra sure that he didn’t accidentally break his friend’s bones or anything. 

Percy kept his head pressed to the floor, arms under them for support and to cover his face. 

‘Not good…This is not good.’ Grover said, extremely nervous. 

Now that he was gone…clouded your ability to think. 

“Ares only amplifies the passionate emotions,” Athena mused, looking at Percy who was still splayed on the floor. “The emotion—in your case anger—stems from you.”

Annabeth placed her hand on Percy’s back, rubbing it up and down. 

Sally sighed, heart hurting for her son yet again. 

“Just a question,” Hazel raised her hand hesitantly. Percy’s display of anger was honestly not surprising, but that didn’t make it any less scary. “He could control it back then so why did it seem so much more intense just now?”

“He has much more anger now compared to back then,” Aphrodite answered softly, emotions being one of her specialties. “It didn’t help that someone amplified it even more in addition to the curse.” She gave Ares a pointed look at the word someone. 

Annabeth finally convinced Percy to sit back against the bean bag in between her and Grover. At Aphrodite’s words, Percy bowed his head, embarrassed. “Sorry.”

“Hey,” Annabeth nudged him. “Unless that apology is for almost giving me and your parents a heart attack, you don’t really have anything to be sorry for.”

Connor whistled, impressed. “Damn, Perce. I forgot how scary you could be when mad.”

Percy flinched slightly. “So don’t mess with me,” He tried to play it off, plastering a smirk on his face. 

Annabeth sighed, squeezing his hand. She knew that Percy was apprehensive when it got to his anger.

Grover sensed Percy’s emotions too and tried cheering his best friend up. “Hey, you survived! It could have gone worse!” 

Percy snorted. “Yeah, it really could have.”

“Thanks for not starting a war with Thalia, by the way,” Grover joked. 

“Oh please,” Thalia waved her hand. “I’d rather he fight me if he was actually angry at me and not because some petty god purposely pushed his buttons.”

Percy’s eyebrow quirked up, smirk becoming just a bit more genuine at Thalia’s statement. 

Annabeth should have been relieved when Percy smiled but instead, she gave Thalia an exasperated look. 

She really called the god of war petty right in front of him. Gods help them. 

The demigods snickered amongst themselves, ignoring the gods’ incredulous looks.

Surprisingly, Poseidon joined in. “Son, you truly are a son of the sea.” He grinned proudly. “Though I guess I should say sorry. Looks like my temper may have passed down.”

“Honestly,” Hades rolled his eyes. “I could have sworn you were your father just now. He was exactly the same a few hundred years ago. We are lucky he has mellowed down. Kind of.”

Percy flushed. He didn’t know what to say to that. He guessed he was just relieved that his father wasn’t angry at him for almost getting in a fight with a couple of gods on the spot. 

Although they will be watching some of his actual fights with gods soon so…

He was also slightly shy at the comparison Hades made. Did he really resemble his father that much?

‘It’s probably…Forget Ares. Let’s just go.’

“You sure you want to do that, punk?” Ares cracked his knuckles. 

Demeter huffed, annoyed. “Oh, would you just quit it?” She threw a pillow at Ares. 

Ares grunted as the pillow hit him in the face. He glared at Demeter who just sat back on her bean bag, satisfied. 

‘We can’t…turning you into a rodent.’ Annabeth warned Percy. 

Percy sniffed, crossing his arms. “Turns out, it wasn’t Ares that ended up doing that to me.” He grumbled quietly, talking to Annabeth. 

Annabeth snorted. 

Percy looked down at his plate. ‘Why…need us?’

“Because he’s a god,” Nico suggested. 

Annabeth resisted the urge to facepalm. There goes Nico. 

And he still wondered why Annabeth included him with Thalia and Percy every time they talked about the biggest suspects when antagonizing gods. Annabeth shook her head. 

But she wouldn’t have it any other way. 

‘Maybe…bow to wisdom sometimes.’

Ares made a disgusted face. He’s heard enough of that from Athena. Now her daughter too? Ugh. 

Meanwhile, Athena nodded at her daughter’s words, proud. “Precisely.” She said. 

‘But this…run away like that?’ Percy wondered. 

“I do not get scared!” Ares protested. 

Hephaestus raised an eyebrow. He’s pretty sure he had an idea what this was all about.

Grover and Annabeth exchanged nervous glances. ‘I’m afraid we’ll have to find out.’ Annabeth said. 

“So y’all went to a water park in the middle of a quest?” Will asked, amused. 

“Not like we had a choice,” Annabeth grumbled. She was not looking forward to this. 

Grover grinned and wiggled his eyebrows at Percy and Annabeth, laughing when Percy shoved him. 

The scene fast-forwarded to the trio in front of the old water park. They stood in front of the locked gate that had barbed wire on top. As the sun set, the place looked sad and creepy with dry waterslides and pipes along with old tickets and posters fluttering around on the ground.

‘If Ares brings…hate to see what she looks like.’ Percy said, staring at the gate in front of them. 

Apollo, Hermes, and Artemis had to stifle their laughter, covering their mouths with their hands or faking a cough.

Piper choked on her water. The rest of the teens held expressions that were torn between horror and laughter. 

Aphrodite tilted her head while Ares glared at Percy.

Percy cursed in his head as he made eye contact with the goddess of love. “Uh, I- ahem…” He stuttered. “I didn’t know. Sorry, Lady Aphrodite.”

“Hold on. You’re not done. How about you say sorry, after.” Annabeth’s eyes sparkled with amusement. Percy cursed mentally once again as Aphrodite raised a perfect eyebrow curiously at him.

‘Percy…respectful.’ … ‘Who is she? Echidna?’

Thalia did a spit take, wetting both Jason and Nico. 

Nico yelled out in indignation, glaring at Thalia who was wiping her mouth and apologizing though she obviously didn’t mean it. Jason just sat in shock–both out of disbelief from Percy’s question and out of disgust because his sister spat all over him.

Jason used his wind powers to help dry himself and Nico off. This would take some time. 

“Oh my gods.” Katie squeaked out, covering her mouth.

The other demigods’ expressions leaned more towards horror now, just because of the fact that the goddess involved was currently in the room with them. 

Percy felt the blood drain out of his face. “Sorry! I really did not know anything!”

“You punk—” Ares started, pushing his invisible sleeves up. Before he could do anything, someone stopped him. 

Aphrodite.

Much to everyone’s surprise, she wasn’t gold with anger. Instead, her eyes sparkled with amusement and interest as she looked at the son of Poseidon.

“Hmm,” One side of her mouth lifted up. “I see no problem since you did not know any better. Though I do hope you will no longer confuse me for Echidna. I’m sure you can see how much better I look.” Aphrodite winked at a gaping Percy.

Relieved that her boyfriend was not going to get destroyed by a certain goddess of love, Annabeth smirked and pushed Percy’s mouth close. “Close call.”

Percy shook himself out of his disbelief and nodded at Aphrodite. “Of course. I definitely know a lot more now.” He laughed nervously.

Poseidon rubbed his face. Good grief.

‘No, Aphrodite. Goddess of love.’ Grover sighed.

Grover jabbed Percy’s side before the demigod could say anything. “You. Shut up.”

“I didn’t say anything!” Percy laughed.

“Juniper already teases me about it enough as it is, I don’t need you joining in.”

“She’s not here.”

“Just shut it.”

Annabeth snorted in amusement as the two best friends bickered with each other. 

‘I thought…Hephaestus.’ Percy said, confused. Grover raised an eyebrow at him. What’s your point?’

Hera’s eye twitched in irritation. This was a disgrace to her domain!

Hephaestus rolled his eyes. He could practically hear his mother complain. Whatever. He didn’t care. At least, he says he doesn’t. Ignore the fact that he sets traps for his wife and her boyfriend any chance he gets. 

Piper, Leo, and Frank exchanged weirded-out looks. They just had to be reminded of their parents’ love lives.

‘Oh…get in?’ Percy quickly changed the subject. Grover grinned, activating his winged shoes and flying over the fence. He (unintentionally) flipped in the air and roughly landed on the other side of the gate. ‘You guys coming?’ Grover dusted off his jeans nonchalantly.

“Nice one Grover!”

“Ten out of ten!”

The teens erupted into applause and cheers at Grover’s display. Even Dionysus looked amused at the satyr’s antics.

Grover bowed. “Thank you! Thank you!” 

Percy and Annabeth had to climb up themselves, holding the barbed wire up for each other to pass through.

Laughter erupted this time at the couple’s predicament.

“Get on Grover’s level, you guys!” Rachel laughed. Both Percy and Annabeth stuck their tongues out at Grover, making everyone laugh harder. 

The trio walked through the park, passing by attractions with random names. The whole place was silent. No sign of monsters. 

The demigods read the names of each ride as they appeared, making fun of them.

“Ankle Biter Island?”

“What ride is Head Over Wedgie supposed to be anyway?”

“Where’s My Swimsuit? What is this, hidden objects?”

“Honey! Where is my swimsuit?”

The adults watched amused as the children laughed at and joked about everything they saw.

Aphrodite gave Ares a look. “That’s where our date was?”

They stopped in front of a left-open souvenir shop. It was still filled with merchandise, including clothes. ‘Clothes. Fresh Clothes.’ Annabeth breathed. Percy looked at her warily. ‘Yeah, but you can’t just-’ Percy got cut off by Annabeth rushing forward. ‘Watch me.’

Annabeth cleared an entire row of stuff and disappeared into a changing room.

“I didn’t know you had it in you, Chase!” Travis grinned, his brother nodding beside him in agreement. 

The others laughed at Percy’s shocked face on-screen.

“Hey,” Annabeth smirked. “I’m a runaway. If anyone’s the goody two shoes here, it’s Percy.”

Percy gasped in mock offense. “My case record says otherwise!”

“Let’s face it,” Thalia interrupted. “Percy tries his damn hardest to follow mortal rules but breaks every demigod rule there is in existence while Annabeth is the opposite.”

“Match made in heaven!” Piper sing-songed.

These statements caused another round of laughter between the teens. Chiron shook his head in fond exasperation.

After everyone calmed down, Percy smirked. “Okay, but can we all agree that the true and number one goody two shoes here is Mr. Jason Grace?” He joked.

Jason’s jaw dropped. “Excuse me? Unprovoked?”

Laughter once again. The gods just had to wait patiently for them to calm down.

Annabeth reappeared after a while, wearing everything Waterland including a backpack filled to the brim with more stuff.

“Love the fashion,” Leo snickered.

“Waterland brand ambassadors.” Connor grinned. 

‘What the heck.’ Grover shrugged as he and Percy followed Annabeth’s lead. Soon enough, all of them wore the theme park’s clothes. 

“You guys can film a commercial,” Rachel said, making a rectangle with her fingers as if she were seeing how they would look on TV.

The three shared a look. Does a live broadcast to Olympus count?

They continued their search for the Tunnel of Love. ‘So…thing going?’ Percy asked to distract himself from the eerie atmosphere. Annabeth gave him a look. ‘That’s…three-thousand-year-old gossip.’ … ‘Well…you know?’

Hephaestus sighed, tired of this particular story. “I’ll have you know that it was mother dear that threw me off Olympus,” He corrected. “Not Zeus.”

Hera huffed, not saying anything. 

‘She likes bikers.’

“That’s all you have to say?” Piper asked, amused. “Out of all of that? She likes bikers?”

Percy glanced at Ares and Aphrodite before looking at Piper. “I mean, was I wrong?” He whispered. 

Piper snorted. “I guess not.”

‘Whatever.’ … ‘Hephaestus knows?’

Hephaestus grunted. 

“It’s not like those two tried to hide it,” Dionysus rolled his eyes. 

‘Oh, sure…places like that.’ Annabeth stopped and pointed at an empty pool in front of them. 

“Not like they make it hard for me to find them,” Hephaestus grumbled under his breath. 

The empty, bowl-shaped pool was surrounded by Cupid statues. On the other side was the ‘Thrill Ride O’ Love.’

Nico made a sour face at the sight of the Cupid statues. 

‘Guys, look.’ Grover pointed to the bottom of the pool where a boat sat. On one of the seats laid Ares’ bronze shield. 

“It’s just…there,” Hazel said. “Did it really have to be you guys? In the middle of your own quest?”

“It looks easy, Haze,” Percy shook his head. “But trust me, there’s a reason this is one of the episodes.” He sighed. 

‘This…get it?’ Percy said. Annabeth walked to one of the statues. ‘There’s…Eta. I wonder…’ The projection zoomed in on the bad of the statue where Annabeth ran her fingers along the Greek letter. 

“Too slow,” Annabeth groaned at her past self. “I should have gotten it already!”

“Eta?” Leo asked. “Wait…dad?”

“Wait, does that mean…” Paul thought hard, recalling Leo’s parentage. “This is one of his traps?”

Hephaestus didn’t even bother denying it. He nodded gruffly. 

“You sent the children to one of Hephaestus’ traps?” Poseidon demanded. “Ares, are you serious?”

“Nothing’s happened yet.” Ares scowled. “Chill out.”

Poseidon glared at Ares.

‘Grover…monsters?’ … ‘Nothing like…or really nothing?’

“Sorry, Grover.”

“Hey. We said no more apologies.”

“Sor—nevermind.”

‘I told…underground.’ Grover said, a bit hurt. Percy took a deep breath. ‘Okay, I’m sorry…down there.’

“Of course, you are,” Poseidon muttered. “Is it right to assume something will happen?”

“It’s me.” Percy just shrugged. “That should be the default.”

Sally pinched the bridge of her nose. “Great.”

‘I’ll go with you.’ Grover said hesitantly. 

I got the feeling…make up for what had happened in St. Louis.

“What are you, a satyr?” Leo snorted. 

“No, I’m psychic.” Percy replied. 

“Wait, really?”

“What? No! Of course not!”

“Could have fooled me.”

‘No…in case something goes wrong.’ Percy told Grover. 

Annabeth studied Percy. “Are you sure you're not psychic?” 

“Wha—” Percy looked at her incredulously. “You too?” He asked as Leo yelled out an ‘Aha! Annabeth agrees!’ in the background. 

Annabeth narrowed his eyes at him. “Your instincts are just too crazy good.”

“Yeah, man,” Grover agreed. “Good thing you told me to stay up there.”

The others listened carefully. What the hell were they getting into now?

Oh right. They’ve established that this was one of Hephaestus’ traps. Fun. 

Grover puffed out his chest. ‘Sure…go wrong?’

“Everything.”

‘I…just a feeling.’

“See?” Annabeth crossed her arms. “This whole watching thing is making me realize how accurate your instincts are. Like what the heck?”

“Demigod instincts?”

“Nah, dude,” Grover shook his head. “More than that for sure.”

“Or I could just have good gut feelings.” 

“Hmm…”

The gods watched them, interested. This son of Poseidon was very interesting. 

‘Annabeth, come with me-’ Percy started to say, but was cut off by a red Annabeth. ‘Are you kidding?’

‘What…now?’ Percy demanded. Annabeth glared. ‘Me, go with you…somebody saw me?’

By this point, the teens were roaring in laughter. 

Percy and Annabeth were both extremely red. When Grover pointed this out, Percy used the ‘it’s the curse’ excuse, but all Annabeth could do was glare and throw a pillow at Grover. 

Grover didn’t care. He just laughed along with the others. 

‘Who’s going to…I’ll do it myself.’ Percy grumbled, equally as red as Annabeth. 

Leave…everything complicated. 

Annabeth followed Percy anyway, muttering about boys always messing things up. 

The laughter didn’t stop. If anything, it only got louder. Even Sally and Paul were laughing!

“You guys are hilarious!” Thalia wiped a tear away from laughing too hard. “Adorable!”

“Oh, twelve-year-olds!” Pollux laughed. “Love it!”

Percy had given up and was staring at the ceiling like he was questioning his entire existence—which he was. 

Annabeth on the other hand, had a pillow pressed up to her face, muffling her groans. 

That didn’t help. It just made everyone laugh more when Grover pointed them out again.  

It took some time, but everyone eventually sobered up, calm enough to place their attention back on the screen. 

The two demigods reached the boat. Next to the shield, a scarf was now visible. Percy looked around and up at the mirrors around the rim of the pool. 

I tried to imagine…look at their favorite people: themselves. 

Some demigods made disgusted faces while the gods rolled their eyes. That was pretty accurate. 

Artemis even went as far as doing a short fake gag—barely noticeable—to which Hermes snorted at and made Apollo choke on his spit. 

Aphrodite took it all in stride, not giving a shit. Ares on the other hand had not stopped glaring daggers into Percy’s head. 

Percy’s eye twitched. He could feel Ares beginning to project onto him again. Thank gods it wasn’t mixed with the curse this time, so he was able to control himself. 

Percy looked back down at the boat and picked up the pink scarf. He smiled and brought the scarf up close to his cheek before Annabeth ripped it out of his hand. ‘Oh, no…love magic.’ She stuffed it in her pocket. 

“Oh my gods, isn’t that the one in the attic now?” Will snickered. 

“That was a close one, Perce.” Jason grinned at Percy. 

‘What?’ Percy looked startled. Annabeth sighed. ‘Just get…let’s get out of here.’

“Good idea.”

Percy went to grab the shield but froze as soon as he touched it. He pulled his hand back and looked at it to see a sort of metal wire. Almost invisible. 

The moment I touched…A trip wire.

‘Wait.’ Annabeth said. Percy didn’t move. ‘Too late.’

The laughter from earlier was now completely gone, replaced by groans. 

Hephaestus blinked, seemingly sorry for the two demigods. His traps were made for gods. Not mortals. 

‘There’s…This is a trap.’

“A bit too late for that now isn’t it?” Nico winced. 

Annabeth tensed, remembering what sprung out from this trap. She leaned back into the bean bag behind her and pressed herself against Percy’s side. 

Percy, knowing what was coming, automatically wrapped his arm around Annabeth, pulling her even closer. 

Noise erupted from everywhere, the sound of gears turning. 

Some people yelped in surprise from the sudden noise. Seriously, you’d think they’d be used to it by now. 

Nope. 

‘Guys!’ Grover yelled from above. The Cupid statues were moving, readying their bows. Before anyone could react, they shot across the pool rim, cables attached to each arrow. Soon enough, a net was weaving itself on top of them. 

A grin made its way onto Ares’ face. Poseidon glared at him and groaned. Great. The trap was activated.

“Is that the net?” Piper pointed at the forming net.

“Yeah, we can all see that.” 

“No! I mean- the net.” Piper clarified. “The one that can hold gods.”

Leo observed the net on-screen. “For sure.” He nodded. “It’s what we used with that screaming goddess.”

‘We…get out.’ … ‘Duh!’

“Yeah, Percy. Duh!”

Percy grabbed the shield. The two ran, but it wasn’t easy going up the slope of the pool. Grover was yelling from on top. ‘Come on!’ He tried to make an opening with the net, but it only wrapped around his hands instead.

Leo winced. Yeah, no, that won’t work.

The others held their breaths. Something else was going to happen, they just knew it. There was no way a trap of Hephaestus would only be a net.

The Cupid statues’ heads opened one by one, revealing video cameras. Spotlights flashed onto them from all around as a loudspeaker voice boomed. ‘Live to Olympus…fifty-eight…’

“Wait- I was kidding about the TV commercial thing!” Rachel sputtered in disbelief. “No way you guys actually got broadcasted to Olympus?”

Percy and Annabeth just groaned in unison.

The other demigods were speechless. The thought of it was funny, but they had not seen the rest of the trap yet. It could be life-threatening for all they knew! The trap was made for gods!

‘Hephaestus!...absolute fools!’ Annabeth screamed in frustration.

“This was not for you,” Hephaestus sighed. “I’m going to have to put some kind of precautionary measure to make sure no more demigods get trapped.” He started mumbling to himself.

Leo from time to time would glance at his father, watching how he worked. Maybe he could ask for general advice? Work together in the forge using one of the doors?

The two were near the top, almost out, when the mirrors opened and out poured metallic things. Annabeth screamed out of fear this time. The metallic objects were now clearer. Metal spiders. ‘Spiders! Sp-sp-aaaah!’

The metallic spiders came from everywhere. A few people jumped, startled as little projection spiders crawled around them. Sally accidentally elbowed Paul in the gut out of surprise.

Annabeth was pale, doing everything in her power not to break down screaming. Instead, she let out a small squeak of terror and practically jumped on top of Percy.

Her encounter with Arachne didn’t help with it at all. If anything, it just made it slightly worse. Add in the fact that there were millions of the metal things…

Percy reacted immediately, holding Annabeth firmly as he pushed them off of the ground and onto the empty bean bag they were leaning on, grunting from the effort. Annabeth curled into his side, face pressed into his shoulder and making sure none of her body parts were touching the floor.

The metal spiders scuttling across the walls and floor just looked way too real. If she looked at them for even a second, she would feel it crawling across her skin. Just the thought of it made her curl up tighter into Percy’s side, extremely tense yet shaking all the same.

While they might have not known about Annabeth’s incident with Arachne, everyone knew of the children of Athena and their fear of spiders. As worried as they were, they didn’t bring any attention to her, instead keeping their eyes on the screen. And maybe jumping here and there because of the spiders.

Athena joined Poseidon in on the glaring-at-Ares party. She was miffed at Hephaestus for using spiders but ultimately, Ares was the reason they were caught up in the fire god’s trap.

Annabeth fell backward, the spiders running towards her. Before she could get overwhelmed, Percy pulled her up and dragged her back to the boat. They were surrounded.

I told myself…And we weren’t gods.

“Yes,” Hephaestus nodded. “Programmed for gods.” He said, talking about the spiders.

“Not helping,” Athena gritted her teeth, furious at the situation.

They got inside the boat. Percy was yelling at Annabeth to help him get the spiders away from the boat. Annabeth was frozen in place, screaming every now and then.

Annabeth tightened her hold on Percy. “Sorry,” She whispered, voice shaky.

Percy shook his head, though Annabeth couldn’t see it. While he held Annabeth, he was also trying hard not to tense up so much which of course, was not possible due to the curse.

The loudspeaker reached thirty seconds.The spiders started to produce metal threads to tie them down. Percy hacked at them, but there were too many. He kicked more away from Annabeth, one spider able to take a chunk off of his shoe.

Paul blanched at what the spider did. “They can do that?”

Everyone watched intently. How do they get out of this?

Leo was especially attentive, hands actually still. This was one of Hephaestus’ works, of course he’d be attentive! How exactly did two demigods escape Hephaestus’ trap? 

But then again this was Percy Freaking Jackson he was looking at here.

Grover was flying above them, still trying to pull on the net. It wasn’t working.

“Okay, but good thing you weren’t in the pool,” Katie told Grover. “Then you wouldn’t have had outside support.”

“See? Psychic, I’m telling you.”

“Drop it, Valdez.”

“Never, Jackson.”

Think…water come from?

Realization dawned on the demigods’ faces. Water! Of course!

“Yo! Good thinking, Perce!”

Poseidon brightened up a bit. Of course. The place was literally called Waterland.

Leo nodded. Water and machines weren’t the greatest mix. That could work!

The projection followed Percy’s line of sight. Pipes could be seen behind the mirrors. The screen then panned up to a glass-windowed booth. ‘Grover!...switch!’ Percy yelled. ‘Do it!’

“Do you guys have time for that?”

“Better than nothing!”

Percy glanced at the screaming Annabeth and his expression turned determined. 

I had to get us out of here.

“You got this, guys!”

In the midst of all the yells of encouragement from their friends, Percy’s hold on Annabeth tightened, determination washing over him.

“Oh gods, Grover’s going to break that booth.”

“I did not!”

Grover was slamming away at all the buttons. As the countdown reached four, Grover looked up helplessly. None of them worked.

“Nothing?”

The demigods were tense in anticipation. Most of them gripping pillows, blankets, or even each other, as they listened to the countdown. That was definitely the source of the pressure.

Percy looked back down. Suddenly, he closed his eyes and concentrated.

“Oh my gods, is this Percy powers time?” The demigods looked at Percy eagerly. 

Percy sighed and nodded his head exasperatedly. “Percy powers time.”

“Yes!”

Poseidon watched the exchange in amusement.

Waves…ocean all the way to Denver.

“Now, hold on,” Poseidon’s eyes widened. “That might be a bit too much.”

Percy started to feel the tug in his gut. “I didn’t know how to use my powers properly yet. I just knew I needed to get water somehow.”

‘Two, one, zero!’ Water exploded from the pipes.

At the same time, water exploded out of all the water bottles in the room.

Jason spluttered. He was unlucky and was holding his open water bottle in front of him when it happened. And he had just dried himself from Thalia’s spit take too!

Everyone yelled out in surprise. Percy’s eyes widened. “Sorry! Oh my gods.” He yelped. He controlled it well enough during the toilet incident with Clarisse, but the tug in his gut was much too strong this time around. 

Was this seriously part of the curse too? Back then, Percy was inexperienced and needed to think of moving a whole ocean to activate his powers. He guessed that was what was making it hard to control now in real-life.

With Percy being affected by the curse, Poseidon took it upon himself to dry those that had been hit with water from the bottles.

The water rushed into the pool, sweeping spiders away. Percy pulled Annabeth into the seat and fastened her seatbelt right as the wave smashed into them from above.

Both Percy and Annabeth yelped out in alarm, sitting up abruptly. Percy was soaking wet, in turn wetting Annabeth as well.

“Stupid curse!” Percy yelled. He then looked down at Annabeth and winced. “Sorry, Wise Girl.”

Annabeth shook her head, pushing herself back against Percy’s side. She was already wet anyway, might as well just keep cuddling Percy. She calmed herself down as the spiders washed away.

“How did you not capsize?” Paul stared at the scene, already astonished by the power burst a few moments ago. “That was an insanely strong wave!”

“That would be Percy’s doing,” Poseidon told Paul quietly, a proud smile on his face. “No matter whether he knows it or not.”

Paul’s eyes widened. Percy’s doing?

The water was filled with short-circuiting spiders. The water pressure was so strong that multiple spiders were smashed against the pool walls. The boat spun along with the whirlpool.

Recovered from the water attack just now, the teens watched the display in wonder. Percy’s powers never ceased to amaze them. 

“The water’s so strong,” Hazel muttered as she watched the spiders get demolished with wide eyes. Twelve-year-old Percy did that!

As the lights glared down at them with the cameras rolling live to Olympus, Percy kept his concentration on the boat.

I willed it…seemed to respond…million pieces.

“Not your imagination,” Poseidon confirmed. “The boat has now become like an extension of yourself.”

“You can control boats too?” Will asked. “Am I the only one that did not know this?”

Some of them shook their heads. Percy shrugged. This time, it was the Seven that knew about it. 

“Oh, you haven’t seen everything just yet,” Frank grinned. “It’s honestly insane.” While Percy controlled the Argo II sometimes, Frank and Hazel witnessed it first on the Pax to Alaska. The thing was literally falling apart yet Percy kept it going with sheer willpower.

Annabeth on the other hand was thinking about the Queen Anne’s Revenge. Gods, that would be coming up sooner or later wouldn’t it?

Jason leaned over to Thalia. “Think we can control planes?” 

Thalia made a face. “You can try but leave me out of it.”

The water level rose, dangerously closer to the net, when the boat turned and rocketed through the dark tunnel entrance, following the water flow. The two demigods held each other tightly, screaming as the boat twisted and turned through pictures of Romeo and Juliet.

Percy’s eyes were shut tight. While Annabeth was still tucked into his side, it was like they switched roles, with Percy clinging slightly onto Annabeth as he felt the thrill of the ride. 

Percy could’ve sworn he felt a scream building up in his throat but he pushed it down. Don’t you dare. He told himself.

The boat zoomed out of the tunnel, straight for the exit.

“Oh Styx!” Piper cursed. “The gates!”

In front of them, the exit gates were chained closed, two broken boats against the barricade.

Everyone in the room was tensing again. If they didn’t know any better, they would have thought they would actually crash with how immersive the projection was. 

“I don’t like this!” Leo announced loudly, feeling slightly queasy from the speed of the boat and its sudden turns. Hazel nodded in agreement, looking slightly sick.

‘Unfasten your seatbelt!’ Percy yelled at Annabeth.

“Wait what?!”

The room was filled with confused exclamations, at the same time, Annabeth on-screen asked if Percy was crazy.

Percy was serious. ‘Unless…have to jump for it.’ He strapped the shield to his arm. 

Sally gulped. She didn’t like this, but she also knew that it was the only way. Her hand squeezed Paul’s arm tightly. Paul didn’t mind, too focused on the projection in front of them.

My idea…land in the pool.

Athena nodded, eyes intense as she watched the scene.

“For your sake, I hope this works!”

“Thals, we’re literally right here.”

“Shhh…”

Annabeth understood and gripped Percy’s hand. Percy nodded. ‘On my mark.’ … ‘Fine. On your mark!’

“Still bickering in the face of danger! Iconic!” Pollux laughed. 

“Percy with a crazy idea plus Annabeth fine-tuning it.” Thalia laughed. “Perfect recipe!”

“It’ll work for sure,” Nico nodded in agreement.

They got closer and closer to the gate. Annabeth waited.

A lot of the ones watching were now watching from behind pillows or peeking through their fingers. They were going to crash!

‘Now!’ Annabeth yelled. There was a loud ‘crack!’

“Oh my gods!"

“Did they do it?”

“They did it! They’re in the air!”

Athena’s eyes widened. “Too much.” But it went unheard because of the cheers from the children.

Annabeth was right…maximum lift.

Some demigods laughed at that. As expected of Percy and Annabeth.

Unfortunately…than we needed.

“Damn it!”

“What?”

“Seriously? Oh crap, the pool!”

The two flew across the air as their boat smashed into the barricade. They sailed straight over the pool and were headed straight for solid ground.

Everyone yelled out in alarm, seemingly forgetting that Percy and Annabeth were sitting right there.

Speaking of Percy and Annabeth, Percy was practically clinging onto Annabeth at this point, feeling the wind rush against his face as they fell on-screen.

Suddenly, something grabbed them from behind, Percy by the shirt and Annabeth by the arm. ‘Ouch!’ Annabeth yelled. The scene zoomed out to reveal…

“Grover!” All the teens in the room collectively yelled out in joy.

“Thanks for that by the way, goat boy.” Annabeth smiled at Grover while rubbing Percy’s arm.

“Teamwork!” Grover smiled back with two thumbs up.

Grover tried to pull up, but all the momentum was with Percy and Annabeth. ‘You’re…going down!’ Grover yelled. He did what he could to slow their fall, but they ended up smashing into a photo-board. Grover’s head went into the photo-board hole while the two demigods tumbled to the ground.

Everyone laughed at Grover, all while still cheering.

“Noo-Noo the Whale!” Travis cackled. Grover blushed, but he still had a wide smile on his face.

Percy winced as he tumbled to the ground on-screen. Soon enough, he was finally able to relax, pulling away from Annabeth as he sat back in the bean bag. “Ouch.” He let out a long and tired sigh as he tried to get his breathing back to normal. “I am so sick of this.”

Annabeth went and leaned back as well. “Too bad. We just started.” She chuckled as Percy let out another groan. They were still both wet.

Poseidon exhaled. Okay, that wasn’t so bad. Compared to what happened before at least. Then, he tensed up again and glared at Ares. “If you ever pull something like that in our time...” He growled, leaving the threat hanging.

The demigods caught their breaths and went to help Grover out of the board. They both thanked him for saving them.

Percy ruffled Grover’s hair. Grover bleated, swatting his wet hand away. “You’ll get my fur wet!” He complained, but a wide grin stretched across his face. Percy laughed and surrendered. “Okay, okay.”

“Your chaotic teamwork strikes again!” Piper cheered.

Sally held a hand to her chest, slightly breathless. “I felt like I just rode a rollercoaster.” 

Paul looked equally flustered. “Note to self: If you see a Waterland, walk away immediately.”

Percy looked back at the ride, the camera panning over to show it. The boat was in pieces and the water was subsiding. Over at the entrance, the Cupid statues were still filming, spotlights still on them. 

‘Show’s over! Thank you! Good night!’ Percy yelled. That did it. The lights shut off and the Cupids went back to normal.

Rachel started clapping to which everyone else followed after. “Join showbiz!” Rachel called out to Percy, hands cupped around her mouth.

“No thanks,” Percy flipped his hair dramatically and smirked. “I’m already famous.” 

Laughter erupted once again. Connor gave Percy a wolf-whistle.

The park was dark and quiet again minus the noise of trickling water. 

I wondered…been any good.

“Are you kidding?” Apollo grinned. “The ratings were probably through the roof! Olympus is just boring!”

“Glad I could be of service,” Percy smiled sarcastically but Apollo was too excited to even acknowledge it.

I hated being…stuff to me.

Percy huffed, telltale signs of anger starting to show again as the projection continued.

Percy adjusted the shield on his arm. ‘We need to have a little talk with Ares.’ He turned and walked towards the exit of the park, the other two following close behind.

The last thing shown before the projection faded was Percy’s expression, eyes stormy with anger.

Leo shuddered slightly. “You were twelve. Why was that so unnerving.”

Ares raised an eyebrow at Percy. “What are you gonna do? Fight me?” He smirked.

Some demigods stifled their laughter, hiding it behind coughs while Percy glared at Ares. His glare then turned into a smirk making Ares’ own smirk falter.

“Why don’t you just wait and see, yeah?” Percy said. 

“Whatever,” Ares scoffed. “You probably just ran off after giving the shield back.”

Percy rolled his eyes but stayed quiet. He’d get his satisfaction soon. Instead, he dried Annabeth and himself off—relieved that he stayed dry too—before getting up to start the next episode.

There was a moment of silence while they all waited for the next projection to play.

Suddenly, Nico made a face, a disgusted sound coming out of his mouth.

“What?” Thalia asked him.

Nico’s face soured even more as he answered back.

“Cupid or Eros, whatever, is the son of Ares and Aphrodite, right? The Cupid statues were programmed to film Ares and Aphrodite…?”

“...Nico, what the hell?”