-Y/N L/N met Percy Jackson and everything is now ruined.
Chapter 22: Then It Ended
As soon as we came, Annabeth ang Grover tackled me. We were the first heroes to return alive to Half-Blood Hill since Luke, so of course everybody treated us as if we’d won some reality-TV contest. According to camp tradition, we wore laurel wreaths to a big feast prepared in our honor, then led a procession down to the bonfire, where we got to burn the burial shrouds our cabins had made for us in our absence.
Annabeth’s shroud was so beautiful—gray silk with embroidered owls— Percy told her it seemed a shame not to bury her in it. She punched him and told him to shut up.
Percy being the son of Poseidon, he didn’t have any cabin mates, so the Ares cabin had volunteered to make his shroud. They’d taken an old bedsheet and painted smiley faces with X'ed-out eyes around the border, and the word LOSER painted really big in the middle.
As I was still unclaimed, Hermes cabin had made me one. (Just… IDK go crazy with your shroud IG)
It was fun to burn.
As Apollo’s cabin led the sing-along and passed out s'mores, Percy and I was surrounded by my Hermes cabinmates, Annabeth’s friends from Athena, and Grover’s satyr buddies, who were admiring the brand-new searcher’s license he’d received from the Council of Cloven Elders. The council had called Grover’s performance on the quest “Brave to the point of indigestion. Horns-and-whiskers above anything we have seen in the past.”
The only ones not in a party mood were Clarisse and her cabinmates, whose poisonous looks told me they’d never forgive us for disgracing their dad.
That was okay with me.
Even Dionysus’s welcome-home speech wasn’t enough to dampen my spirits. “Yes, yes, so the little brats didn’t get themselves killed and now they’ll have an even bigger head. Well, huzzah for that. In other announcements, there will be no canoe races this Saturday….”
Going back to the cabin I finally had time to talk to Luke. Who just expressed his relief of me being fine, and how he was scared when Annabeth told everyone about me. No wonder everyone was so shocked seeing me come back with Percy.
On the Fourth of July, the whole camp gathered at the beach for a fireworks display by cabin nine. Being Hephaestus’s kids, they weren’t going to settle for a few lame red-white-and-blue explosions. They’d anchored a barge offshore and loaded it with rockets the size of Patriot missiles. According to Annabeth, who’d seen the show before, the blasts would be sequenced so tightly they’d look like frames of animation across the sky. The finale was supposed to be a couple of hundred-foot-tall Spartan warriors who would crackle to life above the ocean, fight a battle, then explode into a million colors.
As Annabeth, Percy and I were spreading a picnic blanket, Grover showed up to tell us good-bye. He was dressed in his usual jeans and T-shirt and sneakers, but in the last few weeks he’d started to look older, almost high-school age. His goatee had gotten thicker. He’d put on weight. His horns had grown at least an inch, so he now had to wear his rasta cap all the time to pass as human.
“I’m off,” he said. “I just came to say … well, you know.”
I tried to feel happy for him. After all, it wasn’t every day a satyr got permission to go look for the great god Pan. But it was hard saying good-bye. I’d only known Grover a year, yet he was my oldest friend.
Annabeth and I gave him a hug. She told him to keep his fake feet on.
I asked him where he was going to search first.
“Kind of a secret,” he said, looking embarrassed. “I wish you could come with me, guys, but humans and Pan …”
“We understand,” Annabeth said. “You got enough tin cans for the trip?”
“Yeah.”
“And you remembered your reed pipes?”
“Jeez, Annabeth,” he grumbled. “You’re like an old mama goat.”
But he didn’t really sound annoyed.
He gripped his walking stick and slung a backpack over his shoulder. He looked like any hitchhiker you might see on an American highway.
“Well,” he said, “wish me luck.”
He gave Annabeth and I another hug. He clapped Percy on the shoulder, then headed back through the dunes.
Fireworks exploded to life overhead: Hercules killing the Nemean lion, Artemis chasing the boar, George Washington (who, by the way, was a son of Athena) crossing the Delaware.
“Hey, Grover,” Percy called.
He turned at the edge of the woods.
“Wherever you’re going—I hope they make good enchiladas.”
Grover grinned, and then he was gone, the trees closing around him.
“We’ll see him again,” Annabeth said.
July passed.
I spent my daysplanning out strategies with Luke for capture-the-flag and making alliances with the other cabins to keep the banner out of Ares’s hands. I got to the top of the climbing wall for the first time without getting scorched by lava.
From time to time, Percy and I would walk past the Big House, he’d glance up at the attic windows, and think about the Oracle.
I tried to convince him that its prophecy had come to completion.
“You shall go west, and face the god who has turned.”
“Been there, done that—even though the traitor god had turned out to be Ares rather than Hades.”
“You shall find what was stolen, and see it safe returned.”
“Check. One master bolt delivered. One helm of darkness back on Hades.”
“You shall be betrayed by one who calls you a friend.” Percy recited.
“Ares had pretended to be our friend, then betrayed us. That must be what the Oracle meant…. Or maybe Nereid?”
“And you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end.” He sighed. “I had failed to save my mom and lost you…”
“So why are you still uneasy?”
The last night of the summer session came all too quickly.
The campers had one last meal together. We burned part of our dinner for the gods. At the bonfire, the senior counselors awarded the end-of-summer beads.
Percy and I got our own leather necklace, and when I saw the bead for my first summer. The design was pitch black, with a sea-green trident shimmering in the center.
“This is so beautiful…” I smiled to Percy.
“The choice was unanimous,” Luke announced. “This bead commemorates the first Son of the Sea God at this camp, and the quest he undertook into the darkest part of the Underworld to stop a war!”
The entire camp got to their feet and cheered. Even Ares’s cabin felt obliged to stand. Athena’s cabin steered Annabeth to the front so she could share in the applause.
I’m not sure I’d ever felt as happy or sad as I did at that moment. I’d finally found a family, people who cared about me and thought I’d done something right. And in the morning, most of them would be leaving for the year.
* * *
The next morning, Luke called me. He gave me a paper, telling me to fill it out, and asked me to meet him as soon as I could.
I knew Dionysus must’ve filled it out, because he stubbornly insisted on getting my name wrong:
Dear (WRONG NAME) ,
If you intend to stay at Camp Half-Blood year-round, you must inform the Big House by noon today. If you do not announce your intentions, we will assume you have vacated your cabin or died a horrible death. Cleaning harpies will begin work at sundown. They will be authorized to eat any unregistered campers. All personal articles left behind will be incinerated in the lava pit.
Have a nice day!
Mr. D (Dionysus)
Camp Director, Olympian Council #12
That’s another thing about ADHD. Deadlines just aren’t real to me until I’m staring one in the face. Summer was over, and I still don’t know what to do. I had no where to go to. The only option I had was Percy’s or maybe Hades was not joking about inviting me back to the Underworld.
Sighing I decided to just meet Luke before filling it for second opinions.
The campgrounds were mostly deserted, shimmering in the August heat. All the campers were in their cabins packing up, or running around with brooms and mops, getting ready for final inspection. Argus was helping some of the Aphrodite kids haul their Gucci suitcases and makeup kits over the hill, where the camp’s shuttle bus would be waiting to take them to the airport.
I was walking around looking for Luke. I jumped when I felt someone tap me from behind. I instinctively unsheathed my knife and turned only to see Luke with his hands raised.
“Whoa! Calm down just me.” He laughed.
“Kinda weird seeing someone laugh at a knife pointed at them.” I smirked sheathing my knife.
“I only laugh since its you.” He smiled and ruffled my hair. “Are you done with everything?”
“Not really. I don’t know whether to leave or not yet. That’s why I came. Help me?” I asked him.
He turned to me and to the forest. “How about you hear me out about something… important and private… then decide?” He gestured towards the forest.
“Not planning on killing me are you?” I squinted at him.
He gasped. “Not you. Never. I would never hurt you.”
I let him lead me to a shrouded area of the forest.
“How serious is this thing that you can’t let anyone see? I am blindly trusting you here Luke.” I laughed nervously. But when he didn’t reply I felt something was off. “Luke, okay this isn’t cool. How deep into the forest do we have to go?”
“Y/N remember when you said… You want to be the person I trust…? How you promised to help me?”
“Luke?” He took my hand and pulled me sharply. I winced at how hard he pulled me. “That hurts! Let me go!”
He snapped back and let go of my wrist. “I-I’m sorry… Y/N…”
As much as I knew I had to leave, I couldn’t I was worried about him. I reluctantly placed a hand on his shoulder. “What’s happening?”
“I did it…” I said and sat on the ground. “I swear I didn’t mean to get you hurt. But, I confess to everything. I stole bolt and helm, I summoned the hound, I gave Percy the cursed shoes… And just now, I tried to kill Percy Jackson.” He looked at me with empty eyes.
I shot up and looked at him in emotions I couldn’t put in words. “W-Wh—” I wanted to leave and check on Percy. But once again, seeing him right now… I need to stay with him. “Why are you telling me this…?”
“Join me… please?” his voice was weak. He sounded vulnerable. “Let’s serve my Lord together…”
“L-Luke… no. I-I can’t do that!” I took his shoulder, “Y-You should stay with me instead. How about that, huh? L-Let’s explain to Chiron and the others… come on please. I could help you!”
Nothing was working.
“Come with me…” He muttered.
“Luke, I won’t join you. You have to change your mind. You can’t do this.”
“I can’t change my mind.”
“I can help you with that? How about you go with me huh? I could spend all my time doing this and that. Please, just change your mind.”
He didn’t reply for a while until he whispered, “Promise me.”
“Promise you what?”
“You’ll stay with me.”
“What? Luke I wo–”
“You won’t join… Just…don’t stay here for the year… and stay with me.”
“I-If I stay with you… what would that mean?”
“Yo-You… might change my mind.”
“I’ll go.” I replied with no hesitation. “I’ll leave camp for the year. And I’ll find my parent to prove to you that Gods and Goddess aren’t all bad. We’ll find my parent together.”
“I do my lord’s bidding–”
“You can still do it. If you want to. But whatever happens… stays only between us. I’ll stay with you until I change your mind. And I’ll bring you back to camp.”
“I would never do anything to ruin your trust in me.” He knelt down. It was kinda awkward but hey… “I need you.”
Worry not hero. We shall stay.
“Please…”
We’ll meet again. Wait for us, we shall join you soon. Now leave.
I had no idea what happened since when I came to Luke was gone and there was no sign of him anywhere. How were we going to st—
We will meet him once we leave. Now go as our hero needs us.
I suddenly remembered Percy’s state that Luke had told me about. So I ran. I ran to the Big House
***
Percy finally opened his eyes.
He was propped up in bed in the sickroom of the Big House, his right hand bandaged like a club. Argus stood guard in the corner. Annabeth and I sat next to Percy, I was holding his nectar glass and she was dabbing a washcloth on his forehead.
“Here we are again,” Percy said.
“You idiot,” Annabeth said, “You were green and turning gray when we found you. If it weren’t for Chiron’s healing…”
“Now, now,” Chiron’s voice said. “Percy’s constitution deserves some of the credit.”
He was sitting near the foot of the bed in human form. His lower half was magically compacted into the wheelchair, his upper half dressed in a coat and tie. He smiled, but his face looked weary and pale, the way it did when he’d been up all night grading Latin papers.
“How are you feeling?” he asked.
“Like my insides have been frozen, then microwaved.”
“Apt, considering that was pit scorpion venom. Now you must tell me, if you can, exactly what happened.”
Between sips of nectar, he told them the story.
I bit my lip trying to keep what happened between Luke and I private. It was a risky move that would not be approved by anyone after all.
The room was quiet for a long time.
“I can’t believe that Luke…” Annabeth’s voice faltered. Her expression turned angry and sad. “Yes. Yes, I can believe it. May the gods curse him…. He was never the same after his quest.”
Percy was looking at me as if checking what was my reaction to his story.
“This must be reported to Olympus,” Chiron murmured. “I will go at once.”
“Luke is out there right now,” Percy said. “I have to go after him.”
Chiron shook his head. “No, Percy. The gods—”
“Won’t even talk about Kronos,” Percy snapped. “Zeus declared the matter closed!”
“Percy, I know this is hard. But you must not rush out for vengeance. You aren’t ready.”
“Chiron… your prophecy from the Oracle… it was about Kronos, wasn’t it? Was I in it? Y/N? And Annabeth?”
Chiron glanced nervously at the ceiling. “Percy, it isn’t my place—”
“You’ve been ordered not to talk to me about it, haven’t you?”
His eyes were sympathetic, but sad. “You will be a great hero, child. I will do my best to prepare you. But if I’m right about the path ahead of you…”
Thunder boomed overhead, rattling the windows.
“All right!” Chiron shouted. “Fine!”
He sighed in frustration. “The gods have their reasons, Percy. Knowing too much of your future is never a good thing.”
“We can’t just sit back and do nothing,” He said.
“We will not sit back,” Chiron promised. “But you must be careful. Kronos wants you to come unraveled. He wants your life disrupted, your thoughts clouded with fear and anger. Do not give him what he wants. Train patiently. Your time will come.”
“Assuming I live that long.”
Chiron put his hand on Percy’s ankle. “You’ll have to trust me, Percy. You will live. But first you must decide your path for the coming year. I cannot tell you the right choice….” I got the feeling that he had a very definite opinion, and it was taking all his willpower not to advise me. “But you must decide whether to stay at Camp Half-Blood year-round, or return to the mortal world for seventh grade and be a summer camper. Think on that. When I get back from Olympus, you must tell me your decision.”
“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” Chiron promised. “Argus will watch over you.”
He glanced at Annabeth. “Oh, and, my dear… whenever you’re ready, they’re here.”
“Who’s here?” Percy asked.
Nobody answered.
Chiron rolled himself out of the room. I heard the wheels of his chair clunk carefully down the front steps, two at a time.
Annabeth studied the floor.
“What’s wrong?” Percy asked her.
“Nothing. I … just took your advice about something. You … um … need anything?”
“Yeah. Help me up. I want to go outside.”
“Percy, that isn’t a good idea.”
Percy slid his legs out of bed. Annabeth and I caught him before he could crumple to the floor.
I said, “I told you …”
“I’m fine,” He insisted.
He managed a step forward. Then another, still leaning heavily on me. Argus followed us outside, but he kept his distance.
By the time we reached the porch, his face was beaded with sweat. But we had managed to make it all the way to the railing.
It was dusk. The camp looked completely deserted. The cabins were dark and the volleyball pit silent. No canoes cut the surface of the lake. Beyond the woods and the strawberry fields, the Long Island Sound glittered in the last light of the sun.
“What are you going to do?” Annabeth asked us.
“I don’t know.” Percy replied. “I got the feeling Chiron wanted me to stay year-round, to put in more individual training time, but I’m not sure that’s what I want. I also don’t want to leave you both with Clarisse only.”
Annabeth pursed her lips, then said quietly, “I’m going home for the year, Percy.”
He stared at her. “You mean, to your dad’s?”
She pointed toward the crest of Half-Blood Hill. Next to Thalia’s pine tree, at the very edge of the camp’s magical boundaries, a family stood silhouetted—two little children, a woman, and a tall man with blond hair. They seemed to be waiting. The man was holding a backpack that looked like the one Annabeth had gotten from Waterland in Denver.
“I wrote him a letter when we got back,” Annabeth said. “Just like you suggested. I told him… I was sorry. I’d come home for the school year if he still wanted me. He wrote back immediately. We decided… we’d give it another try.”
“That took guts.”
She pursed her lips. “You won’t try anything stupid during the school year, will you? At least … not without sending me an Iris-message? Both of you?”
Percy managed a smile. “I won’t go looking for trouble. I usually don’t have to.”
“You already know my plans.”
“When I get back next summer,” she said, “we’ll hunt down Luke. We’ll ask for a quest, but if we don’t get approval, we’ll sneak off and do it anyway. Agreed?”
“Sounds like a plan worthy of Athena.”
She held out her hand. Percy shook it. She gave me a hug.
“Take care, Seaweed Brain,” Annabeth told Percy. “Keep your eyes open.”
“You too, Wise Girl.”
Then turned to me, “Good luck on your own quest Droopy.”
“Of course Peabody.”
We watched her walk up the hill and join her family. She gave her father an awkward hug and looked back at the valley one last time. She touched Thalia’s pine tree, then allowed herself to be lead over the crest and into the mortal world.
“I made my decision.” Percy said. “What’s yours?”
“I’ll be leaving camp… I’m going to look for my parent…”
He looked at me in shock. “I’ll be back next summer,” I promised him. “I’ll survive until then.”
“Alone?”
I smiled at him.
“Don’t you want to stay with us? Mom said—”
“I want to find my parent. I need to. I’ll be fine Percy.”
I helped Percy to his cabin so he could pack and went to mine. To my surprise I see a middle-aged man with an athletic figure slim and fit with salt-and-pepper hair, and a very familiar sly grin. He had bags at his foot.
“Delivery for Y/N L/N.”
“Uhm…”
“Hermes.” He said.
I froze and looked at him with wide eyes.
“Personally packed. As a thank you for what you’re about to do.” He smiled softly and handed me the bags.
“H-Huh…?”
“For helping Luke.”
“I…”
Don’t forget her mail!
Ooh! And tell her to bring us snacks next time we meet since it’ll be often now!
No it wouldn’t be often! She’ll be with Luke!
“Both of you keep quiet.” Pulling out a mail he handed it to me. “Luke… prayed to me telling me about your plan. He asked me to help you. I don’t know what or why he did it. But I know he’ll change thanks to you. So do guide him.”
“Sorry you lost me at the talking air…” I blinked.
Hermes laughed and showed a caduceus. “It’s just George and Martha.”
“Hi?”
Hello!
Hi
“I just wanted to let you know. No god or goddess could see you. No matter how hard they tried. So your secrets.. are really secrets. Good luck on your travel.”
Next time we meet you should have snacks.
Then he vanished.
Staring at the letter on my hand, I was stunned seeing it was from… my mom and dad.
Sweetie,
You’ve made quite a friend here.
-Mom and Dad.
I immediately knew where to look. I hurriedly took my bags not bothering to check the contents. I ran to Percy’s cabin and helped him out so we could leave.
Percy got a cab and looked at me worriedly.
“I’ll write you. Stay safe Arthur Curry.” I ruffled his hair and watched him go.
I didn’t know where to go so I just went to the first secluded area I saw.
“You have more stuffs than when you arrived.” I heard someone behind me.
“You prayed to your dad. I hope he knows how to pack.” I sighed turning to him. Turning around I barely made out Luke from the few days I last saw him. “You okay?”
“Do you know where to look first?”
Call upon our hound.
I whistled, I don’t know why. But when I did, D/N came out of the blue. Luke looked at me and my dear dog, who was probably bigger than the hound he’d summon back then. “How do feel about L.A?” I said riding on D/N and making space behind me for Luke.
END OF BOOK ONE!!! THANK YOU FOR READING YLATHB I HOPE YOU ENJOY!! I’LL PUBLISH BOOK 2 WHEN I’M DONE OR EVEN AT LEAST HAVE WRITTEN 5 CHAPTERS OF THE BOOK 2 ;))
-Y/N L/N met Percy Jackson and everything is now ruined.
Chapter 21: Trust And Mercy
It had been a few minutes since Hades and Mrs. Jackson had been talking in another room. I was playing with D/N, looking at his new collar that read
CERBERUS, IF FOUND RETURN TO HADES IN THE UNDERWORLD
At the back read, hellhound. Below that was words written in Greek.
Read it.
“Megethynsi.” The ground quaked. D/N was whimpering as he grew larger.
“What are you doing?!” Barged in Mrs. Rudolph, she gaped at D/N who was still growing. “Sympiezo!”
In an instant D/N shrunk to his usual size making me look at him in surprise.
“She did something stupid didn’t she?” I heard Hades groan behind me.
“My lord.” Mrs. Rudolph bowed. Behind her came Mrs. Dodds and the other Fury.
“Give me my helm and you are free for the day, after you deliver the two.”
Mrs. Dodds knelt down holding the helm to Hades. “Thank you.”
I was shocked. I was expecting him to be a stuck up but he thanked them. It made me smile.
“Are you done talking?”
“Megaera, could you fetch Y/N a probable weapon.”
“I already have a knife.” I showed him. “I mean, if the weapon you’re talking about is like their whips that can like burn and stuffs… that’s a different story.”
Hades nodded to Mrs. Rudolph and turned to me. “I’ll have that arranged. And you are aware of D/N now right?”
“Is he really a hellhound now??” I asked. “Or is he… an honorary one?”
“He is. So unless you invite him, he can’t join your camp. He can enlarge the size of Cerberus and shrink to his usual size if you say the words on his collar.”
“This is so cool. Am I keeping him???” I asked.
He shrugged. Then behind me took something, a whip the fury had gotten. “If you fulfill your promise on Cerberus, you can learn how to use this through Tisiphone.”
A grin appeared on my face while I took the whip. “Are you saying… You want me back here?”
“I guarantee an easier travel. As long as you don’t bring any of your friends. I’d like to see D/N more often.”
“Any? Not one?”
“Take Jackson to her home, Alecto.” Hades said. “I’ll bring D/N when Y/N is done at the Olympus.”
“What about me? Can’t I bring D/N with me?”
“Tisiphone will bring you to Empire State. No, you can’t bring D/N. And do take note that you being alive after this would cause a stir up there.”
I nodded. Walking up to Mrs. Jackson she gave me a hug. “Please tell Percy to come back alive.”
“I will.”
She went to Alecto and Megaera. And in an instant they vanished.
“So… could this be disguised or something? Like how Percy’s sword is a pen…”
“Do you want a purse?” Mrs. Rudolph asked.
“Once you disguise it as something, it’ll be that permanently until you ask me to change it.”
“Huh… I’ll think of something. I don’t want a purse. I’ll look old.”
Mrs. Rudolph smile and took a hold of me.
I waved at Hades who had D/N on his lap. He gave me a nod in acknowledgement.
Next thing I knew was I was at the lobby of the Empire State Building, with my whip and knife on each side of my hip.
It didn’t take long before Percy came in. He looked like a homeless kid, with tattered clothes and scraped-up face. He looked very tired and lost.
He went up to the guard at the front desk and said, “Six hundredth floor.”
He was reading a huge book with a picture of a wizard on the front. The guard took a while to look up. “No such floor, kiddo.”
“I need an audience with Zeus.”
He gave him a vacant smile. “Sorry?”
“You heard me.”
“No appointment, no audience, kiddo. Lord Zeus doesn’t see anyone unannounced.”
“Oh, I think he’ll make an exception.” He slipped off his backpack and unzipped the top.
The guard looked inside. Then his face went pale. “That isn’t…”
“Yes, it is,” Percy promised. “You want me take it out and—”
“No! No!” He scrambled out of his seat, fumbled around his desk for a key card, then handed it to me. “Insert this in the security slot. Make sure nobody else is in the elevator with you.”
He did as he was told. Before the elevator closed I ran in. As soon as I stepped in the elevator doors closed. Percy looked at me shocked. He couldn’t move, so I took the card from him and slipped it in. The card disappeared and a new button appeared on the console, a red one that said 600. I pressed it .
Muzak played. “Raindrops keep falling on my head….”
Percy was still stunned.
“Something up Arthur Curry?”
A sad smile came to his face and pulled me in a hug. “You… are…. so stupid.”
“Not a great way to greet me.” I frowned.
“However you managed to get out… I’m glad.”
“I’m bros with Hades now.” I smiled.
Finally, ding. The doors slid open. Before we stepped out Percy took my hand. Together we stepped out.
“Whatever that means… I’m glad you’re fine and he didn’t kill you.”
We were standing on a narrow stone walkway in the middle of the air. Below us was Manhattan, from the height of an airplane. In front of us, white marble steps wound up the spine of a cloud, into the sky. My eyes followed the stairway to its end, where my brain just could not accept what I saw.
From the top of the clouds rose the decapitated peak of a mountain, its summit covered with snow. Clinging to the mountainside were dozens of multileveled palaces—a city of mansions—all with white-columned porticos, gilded terraces, and bronze braziers glowing with a thousand fires. Roads wound crazily up to the peak, where the largest palace gleamed against the snow. Precariously perched gardens bloomed with olive trees and rosebushes. I could make out an open-air market filled with colorful tents, a stone amphitheater built on one side of the mountain, a hippodrome and a coliseum on the other. It was an Ancient Greek city, except it wasn’t in ruins. It was new, and clean, and colorful, the way Athens must’ve looked twenty-five hundred years ago.
“This place can’t be here,” Percy said.
The tip of a mountain hanging over New York City like a billion-ton asteroid? How could something like that be anchored above the Empire State Building, in plain sight of millions of people, and not get noticed?
“But here it was. And here we are.”
Our trip through Olympus was a daze. We passed some giggling wood nymphs who threw olives at us from their garden. Hawkers in the market offered to sell me ambrosia-on-a-stick, and a new shield, and a genuine glitter-weave replica of the Golden Fleece, as seen on Hephaestus-TV The nine muses were tuning their instruments for a concert in the park while a small crowd gathered—satyrs and naiads and a bunch of good-looking teenagers who might’ve been minor gods and goddesses. Nobody seemed worried about an impending civil war. In fact, everybody seemed in a festive mood. Several of them turned to watch us pass, and whispered to themselves.
We climbed the main road, toward the big palace at the peak.
“Do you think I could survive talking to them like I did to Hades?” I asked Percy.
“I recommend you don’t.”
“I hate your dad.”
He tightened his grip on my hand and gave me a smile. “I hate him too.”
It was a reverse copy of the palace in the Underworld.
There, everything had been black and bronze. Here, everything glittered white and silver.
I realized Hades must’ve built his palace to resemble this one. He wasn’t welcomed in Olympus except on the winter solstice, so he’d built his own Olympus underground. I felt a little sorry for the guy. To be banished from this place seemed really unfair. It would make anybody bitter. I am so going to come back to Underworld now. He deserves the world.
Steps led up to a central courtyard. Past that, the throne loom.
Room really isn’t the right word. The place made Grand Central Station look like a broom closet. Massive columns rose to a domed ceiling, which was gilded with moving constellations.
Twelve thrones, built for beings the size of Hades, were arranged in an inverted U, just like the cabins at Camp Half-Blood. An enormous fire crackled in the central hearth pit. The thrones were empty except for two at the end: the head throne on the right, and the one to its immediate left. I didn’t have to be told who the two gods were that were sitting there, waiting for us to approach. Letting go of Percy, he came toward them, his legs trembling.
The gods were in giant human form, as Hades had been, when we fist met. Percy could barely look at them. Zeus, the Lord of the Gods, wore a dark blue pinstriped suit. He sat on a simple throne of solid platinum. He had a well-trimmed beard, marbled gray and black like a storm cloud. His face was proud and handsome and grim, his eyes rainy gray.
The god sitting next to him was his brother, without a doubt, but he was dressed very differently. He reminded me of a beachcomber from Key West. He wore leather sandals, khaki Bermuda shorts, and a Tommy Bahama shirt with coconuts and parrots all over it. His skin was deeply tanned, his hands scarred like an old-time fisherman’s. His hair was black, like Percy’s. His face had that same brooding look Percy has. But his eyes, sea green like Percy’s, were surrounded by sun-crinkles that told me he smiled a lot, too. Which was stupid to think knowing he tried to kill every moment he got.
His throne was a deep-sea fisherman’s chair. It was the simple swiveling kind, with a black leather seat and a built-in holster for a fishing pole. Instead of a pole, the holster held a bronze trident, flickering with green light around the tips.
The gods weren’t moving or speaking, but there was tension in the air, as if they’d just finished an argument.
They were all looking at me who stood leaning against a pillar with my arms crossed. I couldn’t be bothered paying respects. They tried to kill me and took my parents. How about no thanks?
Percy approached the fisherman’s throne and knelt at his feet. “Father.” He dared not look up. I could feel the energy emanating from the two gods. If he said the wrong thing, I had no doubt they could blast us into dust. Not that it mattered. I know I am not dying today.
Hades had made me fearless. Bless him.
To my left, Zeus spoke. “Should you not address the master of this house first, boy?”
Percy kept my head down, and waited.
“Peace, brother,” Poseidon finally said. “The boy defers to his father. This is only right.”
“You still claim him then?” Zeus asked, menacingly. “You claim this child whom you sired against our sacred oath?”
“I have admitted my wrongdoing,” Poseidon said. “Now I would hear him speak.”
Wrongdoing.
Was that all Percy was? A wrongdoing? The result of a god’s mistake?
“Excuse you, he isn’t a wrongdoing at all.” I scoffed.
Percy looked at me with his eyes wide when I got the two god’s attention.
Poseidon’s soft demeanor was replaced with a cold one. I both gave them a stare off. “Hey guys.” I waved.
“You are—”
“Blah blah blah. I don’t really care. I don’t understand rude and uptight. So I don’t understand you. Just listen to what Percy has to say. So we could leave.”
“What makes you think I wouldn’t kill him now?”
“Do it. I’ll take your bolt and I’d like to see you try and kill me.” I said in a firm voice staring straight at his eyes. I could feel the sparks going off. “Now, just finish what he came for. And you give me what I’m here for.”
“I have spared him once already,” Zeus grumbled. “Daring to fly through my domain… pah! I should have blasted him out of the sky for his impudence. And now you dare to come to me like that?!”
“And risk destroying your own master bolt?” I smirked. “Go ahead Mr. VIP.”
Poseidon said calmly. “Let us just hear him out, brother.”
Zeus grumbled some more. “I shall listen,” he decided. “Then I shall make up my mind whether or not to cast this boy down from Olympus.”
“Perseus,” Poseidon said. “Look at me.”
He did. There was no clear sign of love or approval.
“Address Lord Zeus, boy,” Poseidon told him. “Tell him your story.”
So he told Zeus everything, just as it had happened. I took out the metal cylinder, which began sparking in the Sky God’s presence, and laid it at his feet.
There was a long silence, broken only by the crackle of the hearth fire.
Zeus opened his palm. The lightning bolt flew into it. As he closed his fist, the metallic points flared with electricity, until he was holding what looked more like the classic thunderbolt, a twenty-foot javelin of arcing, hissing energy that made the hairs on my scalp rise.
“I sense the boy tells the truth,” Zeus muttered. “But that Ares would do such a thing… it is most unlike him.”
“He is proud and impulsive,” Poseidon said. “It runs in the family.”
“Lord?” Percy asked.
They both said, “Yes?”
“Ares didn’t act alone. Someone else—something else— came up with the idea.”
He described his dreams and whatever happened at the beach.
“In the dreams,” He said, “the voice told me to bring the bolt to the Underworld. Ares hinted that he’d been having dreams, too. I think he was being used, just as I was, to start a war.”
“You are accusing Hades, after all?” Zeus asked.
“No,” I said. “Stop accusing him will you!” I glared.
“Lord Zeus,” Percy took his attention. “I’ve been in the presence of Hades. This feeling on the beach was different. It was the same thing I felt when I got close to that pit. That was the entrance to Tartarus, wasn’t it? Something powerful and evil is stirring down there… something even older than the gods.”
Poseidon and Zeus looked at each other. They had a quick, intense discussion in Ancient Greek. I only caught one word. Father.
Poseidon made some kind of suggestion, but Zeus cut him off. Poseidon tried to argue. Zeus held up his hand angrily. “We will speak of this no more,” Zeus said. “I must go personally to purify this thunderbolt in the waters of Lemnos, to remove the human taint from its metal.”
He rose and looked at me. His expression softened just a fraction of a degree. “You have done me a service, boy. Few heroes could have accomplished as much.”
“I had help, sir,” Hw said. “Grover Underwood, Y/N L/N and Annabeth Chase—”
“To show you my thanks, I shall spare your life. I do not trust you, Perseus Jackson. I do not like what your arrival means for the future of Olympus. But for the sake of peace in the family, I shall let you live.”
“Um… thank you, sir.”
“Do not presume to fly again. Do not let me find you here when I return. Otherwise you shall taste this bolt. And it shall be your last sensation.”
“Hold up bigwig!” I said finally stepping in. In a blink of an eye lightning struck on my left side. I didn’t even flinched and continued to stare right at his eyes.
“You are a foolish child. What do you want?”
“You know what I want.”
“You mean this?” He flicked his hand and an image of my parents chained up was shown. I caught my breath and I tried running towards it only for it to vanish.
“Give me back my parents.” I said laced with venom. “Give them back.”
“When they tell me who your parent is.”
“Give them back!!” I screamed. I felt a light tremor on the place which made the two gods look at each other. “You may be immortal but Gods still get hurt, Ares was a great example. I will do all I could to do that.”
“Y/N calm down…” Percy tried to touch me but I pulled away as soon as he touched me.
“Give them back.”
Zeus looked at me in the eye and snapped, the hologram thing of them showed again.. “They won’t stay long. I’ll give you time to say farewell.”
“Farewell? I am not leaving without them.”
“I’ll give you 10 minutes. They’ll vanish when time is up.”
Thunder shook the palace. With a blinding flash of lightning, Zeus was gone.
Poseidon and Percy looked at me and left the room. As soon as I was alone, my parents appeared.
“Huh..?” A weak voice of my mom called.
It brought me to tears. I could see their clothes ripped and bloodied. Black spots were everywhere.
“Are you okay?” I whimpered coming over to them. “A-Are you…”
“How long are we going to be out?” My dad looked at me.
“I-I’ll get you out.” I pulled their chains over and over trying to snap it. But my hands and arms were trembling. “M-Mom… D-Dad…”
“Baby… stop…” Mom pulled my hand away.
“N-No… I-I have to get you out! I-I only have 9 more minutes.”
“Sweetie… tell me about your adventure…” My dad smiled.
“W-What” I looked at them.
“Was it fun? Your adventure?”
My voice was stuck. I couldn’t form any words. I started crying. “Y-Yeah… It was. It was scary and fun!” I yelled louder than I was supposed to.
They both smiled. “Can you tell us about it?”
“Y-Yeah…” They opened their arms inviting me in. Diving to their arms, careful not to hurt them, they hugged me. I told them parts of what I’d done whilst they were gone. Told them about Percy, Grover, Annabeth, Luke, Mrs. Jackson and even Hades.
At the last two minutes we spent it in silence and in each other’s arms.
You said I could save them…
There is only one way.
What? I’ll do anything to save them!
You are friends… with the dead.
I looked at my parents, they looked at me with warm smile.
“We love you.” Dad smiled taking my hand bringing it closer to him.
I hadn’t realized I was holding Sting. My eyes widened, I dropped the knife.
“W-What…”
“Baby… Please.” Mom… was sad. It was the first time she showed me she’s sad since I saw her. “Could you help mom and dad?”
“I-I…” More tears came to me. No way. I could never.
Save them. Trust the God. He swore to help us. Save them. Show them mercy.
I can’t… I won’t.
Then leave them to suffer.
Help me save them.
One. Way.
“Y/N L/N. Our dear daughter.” My mom and dad called. “Please… save us.”
Can you do it?
Are you sure?
Please… I can’t… I don’t want to save them. Please save them.
Is it because you don’t trust on Hades?
“You said he’s your friend.” Dad smiled, bringing the tip of the knife to his chest. “Trust him.”
“I love you…” I cried.
“We’ll tell you everything. When we meet again.”
Mercy.
I was alone in the throne room, on the ground with the pool of my parent’s blood beneath me. I was emotionless. I couldn’t react in anyway. All I did was pick up my knife and stare at it.
Thunder echoed so loud that Poseidon and Percy was alarmed and came back.
The three of them looked at me in shock. I stood up emptily. I turned to Percy.
Without hesitation, he ran to me and pulled me in his arms.
“What have you done?!” Zeus bellowed.
Let us leave. You had enough for the day.
I just gave them an empty look and walked pulled Percy out of the room.
As we walked back through the city of the gods, conversations stopped. The muses paused their concert. People and satyrs and naiads all turned toward me, some had their faces filled with respect and gratitude, some were inching away seeing me covered in blood and as I passed, they knelt.
* * *
Fifteen minutes later, still in a trance, I was back on the streets of Manhattan.
We caught a taxi, which wasn’t easy as I was covered in blood, to Percy’s mom’s apartment, rang the doorbell, and there Mrs. Jackson and D/N came.
“Percy! Oh, thank goodness. Oh, my baby.”
She ran to Percy and pulled him in a hug. We stood in the hallway as she cried and ran her hands through Percy’s hair. I squatted on the ground pulling D/N sobbing on his neck.
“Y/N sweetie?” Mrs. Jackson looked at me worriedly. “What happened.”
I couldn’t talk. I didn’t feel like talking. I was tired. I wanted to get this over with.
Percy explained what happened to me.
She pulled me in a hug ignoring the blood that was getting to her.
“Don’t worry. They’re in a better place.”
Percy told his own story. Nothing Mrs. Jackson doesn’t already know. He was just getting to the fight with Ares when a man’s voice interrupted from the living room. “Hey, Sally! That meat loaf done yet or what?”
She closed her eyes. “He isn’t going to be happy to see you, Percy. The store got half a million phone calls today from Los Angeles … something about free appliances.”
“Oh, yeah. About that…”
She managed a weak smile. “Just don’t make him angrier, all right? Come on.”
Mrs. Jackson gave me a change shirt so I wasn’t bloody.
Gabe and three of his friends were playing poker at the table.
When Gabe saw us, his cigar dropped out of his mouth. His face got redder than lava. “You got nerve coming here, you little punk. I thought the police—”
“He’s not a fugitive after all, so is his friend,” my mom interjected. “Isn’t that wonderful, Gabe?”
Gabe looked back and forth between us. He didn’t seem to think my homecoming was so wonderful.
“Bad enough I had to give back your life insurance money, Sally,” he growled. “Get me the phone. I’ll call the cops.”
“Gabe, no!”
He raised his eyebrows. “Did you just say ‘no’? You think I’m gonna put up with this punk again? I can still press charges against him for ruining my Camaro.”
“But—”
He raised his hand, and my mother flinched.
A balloon of anger started expanding in my chest. Percy came toward Gabe, instinctively taking his pen out of his pocket.
He just laughed. “What, punk? You gonna write on me? You touch me, and you are going to jail forever, you understand?”
“Hey, Gabe,” his friend Eddie interrupted. “He’s just a kid.”
Gabe looked at him resentfully and mimicked in a falsetto voice: “Just a kid.”
His other friends laughed like idiots.
“I’ll be nice to you, punk.” Gabe showed me his tobacco-stained teeth. “I’ll give you five minutes to get your stuff and clear out. The girl can stay. After that, I call the police.” He smirked eyeing me.
“Gabe!” my mother pleaded.
“He ran away,” Gabe told her. “Let him stay gone. I need to get something at least!”
Mrs. Jackson took Percy’s arm. “Please, Percy. Come on. We’ll go to your room.”
Percy let her pull him away, with him dragging me along.
“Gabe is just upset, honey,” she told Percy. “I’ll talk to him later. I’m sure it will work out.”
“Mom, it’ll never work out. Not as long as Gabe’s here. She told Y/N to stay here!” He hissed pulling me closer.
She wrung her hands nervously. “I can … I’ll take you to work with me for the rest of the summer. In the fall, maybe there’s another boarding school you could be wit—”
“Mom.”
She lowered her eyes. “I’m trying, Percy. I just… I need some time.”
A package appeared on the bed. At least, I could’ve sworn it hadn’t been there a moment before. I took Percy’s attention and pointed at it.
It was a battered cardboard box about the right size to fit a basketball. The address on the mailing slip was in my own handwriting:
The Gods
Mount Olympus
600th Floor,
Empire State Building
New York, NY
With best wishes,
PERCY JACKSON <3 Y/N L/N
Over the top in black marker, in a man’s clear, bold print, was the address of our apartment, and the words: RETURN TO SENDER.
Percy looked at his mother. “Mom, do you want Gabe gone?
"Percy, it isn’t that simple. I—”
“Mom, just tell me. That jerk has been hitting you. Do you want him gone or not?”
She hesitated, then nodded almost imperceptibly. “Yes, Percy. I do. And I’m trying to get up my courage to tell him. But you can’t do this for me. You can’t solve my problems.”
I looked at the box.
“I can do it,” Percy said. “One look inside this box, and he’ll never bother you again.”
She glanced at the package, and seemed to understand immediately. “No, Percy,” she said, stepping away. “You can’t.”
“Poseidon called you a queen,” He told her. “He said he hadn’t met a woman like you in a thousand years.”
Her cheeks flushed. “Percy—”
“You deserve better than this, Mom. You should go to college, get your degree. You can write your novel, meet a nice guy maybe, live in a nice house. You don’t need to protect me anymore by staying with Gabe. Let me get rid of him.”
She wiped a tear off her cheek. “You sound so much like your father,” she said. “He offered to stop the tide for me once. He offered to build me a palace at the bottom of the sea. He thought he could solve all my problems with a wave of his hand.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
Her multicolored eyes seemed to search inside me. “I think you know, Percy. I think you’re enough like me to understand. If my life is going to mean anything, I have to live it myself. I can’t let a god take care of me … or my son. I have to … find the courage on my own. Your quest has reminded me of that.”
We listened to the sound of poker chips and swearing, ESPN from the living room television.
“I’ll leave the box,” Percy said. “If he threatens you …”
She looked pale, but she nodded. “Where will you go, Percy?”
“Half-Blood Hill.”
“For the summer … or forever?”
“I guess that depends.”
Mrs. Jackson and I locked eyes, I turned to Percy.
“Y/N… you’re welcome to stay with us. Always.”
She kissed my forehead then Percy’s. “You’ll be a hero, Percy. You’ll be the greatest of all.”
I walked with Percy and his mother to the front door.
“Leaving so soon, punk?” Gabe called after us. “Good riddance.”
“Hey, Sally,” he yelled. “What about that meat loaf, huh?”
“The meat loaf is coming right up, dear,” she told Gabe. “Meat loaf surprise.”
She looked at us, and winked.
The last thing I saw as the door swung closed was Mrs. Jackson staring at Gabe, as if she were contemplating how he would look as a garden statue.
-Y/N L/N met Percy Jackson and everything was now ruined.
CHAPTER 20: Front Row Seat
Hades was nice. Really nice. I had no idea why they kicked him off Olympus. I think he deserves the world. It was adorable since the three.. four I should correct, of us sat on the floor.
During my short time here, he had reassured me that Me and Mrs. Jackson will not die. He was nice enough to take care of D/N as well. He had even given him Cerberus’s old collar. I think he’s attached, he couldn’t really keep Cerberus here after all.
“Why was Mrs. Rudolph set on me since I was a kid?” I finally asked.
“When you were born… I knew… something was off with you.”
“You’re the god of the dead not life.” I retorted meaner than I thought.
“I couldn’t see your life expectancy. I could see you living forever.” He stated. “I can sense when one is about to die and when they will. But looking at you I couldn’t see anything.”
“Woah, I wonder if I’m never going to die. Does it have anything to do with my parent?”
“No.” Mrs. Jackson interjected. “That has nothing to do with who your parent is. Since all gods and goddesses has more than one child and none of them are like you. Lord Hades, could we please check on Percy?” She looked at Hades hopeful.
“It’s kinda cool how you two are kinda getting along.”
“I had sent furies to watch over him… More to jump him but that isn’t the point.” He cleared his throat. “And the reason why I let her walk is she has information on you.”
“Wait she knows? About what? Can you tell me what you know?”
“During the incident in Montauk, your parents and I had a talk. You should get answers from them instead.”
“What made you think the big guy would let them go?” I said bitterly.
“I wasn’t expecting them to be this low.”
“I blame Percy’s dad… No offence.”
“He deserves to be called a jerk.” Mrs. Jackson huffed. “He betrayed you.”
Hades got up and D/N followed him, not long after something was projected in front of us.
It was Percy, Annabeth and Grover against Ares.
“Ares gave the bag to us.” I told Hades, “He probably has your helm too. Honestly he’s my second hated god.”
“Second to Poseidon I’ll take it.” Hades said settling on his throne again. With a flick of his hand two chair appeared. “You wish to watch don’t you?”
“Thank you my lord.” Mrs. Jackson was relieved.
“Your son better prove his innocence.”
Percy turned back to Ares. “Are you going to fight me now?” he asked. “Or are you going to hide behind another pet?”
“Why is he challenging him???” Mrs. Jackson was obviously worried.
“He’s a fool.”
Ares’s face was purple with rage. “Watch it, kid. I could turn you into—”
“A cockroach,” Percy retorted. “Or a tapeworm. Yeah, I’m sure. That’d save you from getting your godly hide whipped, wouldn’t it?”
“I like how we get front row seat on this one.” I laughed.
Flames danced along the top of Ares glasses. “Oh, man, you are really asking to be smashed into a grease spot.”
“If I lose, turn me into anything you want. Take the bolt. If I win, the helm and the bolt are mine and you have to go away.”
Ares sneered.
He swung the baseball bat off his shoulder. “How would you like to get smashed: classic or modern?”
Percy showed him his sword.
“That’s cool, dead boy,” he said. “Classic it is.” The baseball bat changed into a huge, two-handed sword. The hilt was a large silver skull with a ruby in its mouth.
“Percy,” Annabeth said. “Don’t do this. He’s a god.”
“He’s a coward,” He told her.
She swallowed. “…Percy.”
She took off her necklace, with her five years’ worth of camp beads and the ring from her father, and gave it to Percy.
“Reconciliation,” she said. “Athena and Poseidon together.”
He gave a smile. “Thanks.”
“And take this,” Grover said. He handed him a flattened tin can that he’d probably been saving in his pocket for a thousand miles. “The satyrs stand behind you.”
“Grover… I don’t know what to say.”
He patted him on the shoulder. Percy stuffed the tin can in my back pocket.
“Y/N…” Annabeth started. Pulling out from her back was Aphrodite’s scarf. Percy looked at it and gripped onto in.
“We’ll get her back.” he squeaked and took the scarf from her to stuff it in his pocket as well.
“You all done saying good-bye?” Ares came toward me, his black leather duster trailing behind him, his sword glinting like fire in the sunrise. “I’ve been fighting for eternity, kid. My strength is unlimited and I cannot die. What have you got?”
“Hades, can’t you like… do something? I really–”
“No. It’s his fight. I will not intervene.”
“But Percy isn’t the wrong!!”
“That doesn’t matter.”
The water pushed Percy into the air and he catapulted over Ares, slashing as he came down. But Ares was just as quick. He twisted, and the strike that should’ve caught him directly in the spine was deflected off the end of his sword hilt.
He grinned. “Not bad, not bad.”
He slashed again and Percy was forced to jump onto dry land. He tried to sidestep, to get back to the water, but Ares outmaneuvered him, pressing so hard Percy had to put all his concentration on blocking his attacks.
Mrs. Jackson took my hand.
“He’s strong. He’ll win this.”
“Percy!” Annabeth yelled. “Cops!”
“Please, at least save him from the cops!!” I said.
“The mist is powerful child. But if you wish, I could clear his name. Both of yours.”
“Yes please…”
I saw red lights flashing on the shoreline boulevard. Car doors were slamming.
“There, officer!” somebody yelled. “See?”
A gruff cop voice: “Looks like that one kid on TV… what the heck…”
“That guy’s armed,” another cop said. “Call for backup.”
Percy rolled to one side as Ares’s blade slashed the sand.
Percy ran for his sword, scooped it up, and launched a swipe at Ares’s face, only to find his blade deflected again.
Ares seemed to know exactly what he was going to do the moment before he did it.
Percy stepped back toward the surf, forcing him to follow.
“Admit it, kid,” Ares said. “You got no hope. I’m just toying with you.”
I saw a second cop car pulling up, siren wailing. Spectators, people who had been wandering the streets because of the earthquake, were starting to gather. Among the crowd, I thought I saw a few who were walking with the strange, trotting gait of disguised satyrs. There were shimmering forms of spirits, too, as if the dead had risen from Hades to watch the battle.
“You sent more that the furies.” I frowned at Hades.
“The three had survived all three furies. I obviously needed more than one.”
“Rude.”
More sirens.
Percy stepped farther into the water, but Ares was fast. The tip of his blade ripped his sleeve and grazed Percy’s forearm.
A police voice on a megaphone said, “Drop the guns.’ Set them on the ground. Now!”
Ares turned to glare at our spectators. There were five police cars now, and a line of officers crouching behind them, pistols trained on them.
“This is a private matter!” Ares bellowed. “Be gone.’”
He swept his hand, and a wall of red flame rolled across the patrol cars. The police barely had time to dive for cover before their vehicles exploded. The crowd behind them scattered, screaming.
Ares roared with laughter. “Now, little hero. Let’s add you to the barbecue.”
“Stop the fire. Don’t let the civilians get hurt!” I told him.
“Don’t worry. No one was hurt.” Hades said waving me off.
Ares slashed. Percy deflected his blade. He got close enough to strike, but his blow was knocked aside. The waves were hitting Percy in the back now. Ares was up to his thighs, wading in after Percy.
Ares came toward, grinning confidently. Percy lowered his blade, as if he were too exhausted to go on. Ares raised his sword.
A whimper came from Mrs. Jackson as she buried her face on her palm.
Percy jumped, rocketing straight over Ares was a wave which he rode.
A six-foot wall of water smashed him full in the face, leaving him cursing and sputtering with a mouth full of seaweed. Percy landed behind him with a splash and feinted toward his head, as he’d done before. Ares turned in time to raise his sword, but this time he was disoriented, he didn’t anticipate the trick. Percy changed direction, lunged to the side, and stabbed Riptide straight down into the water, sending the point through the god’s heel.
The roar that followed made Hades’s earthquake look like a minor event. The very sea was blasted back from Ares, leaving a wet circle of sand fifty feet wide.
Ichor, the golden blood of the gods, flowed from a gash in the war god’s boot. The expression on his face was beyond hatred. It was pain, shock, complete disbelief that he’d been wounded.
He limped toward Percy, muttering ancient Greek curses.
Something stopped him.
It was as if a cloud covered the sun, but worse. Light faded. Sound and color drained away. A cold, heavy presence passed over the beach, slowing time, dropping the temperature to freezing, and making me feel like life was hopeless, fighting was useless. I had no idea how I felt all that despite my location.
The darkness lifted.
Ares looked stunned.
Police cars were burning behind them. The crowd of spectators had fled. Annabeth and Grover stood on the beach, in shock, watching the water flood back around Ares’s feet, his glowing golden ichor dissipating in the tide.
Ares lowered his sword.
“You have made an enemy, godling,” he told me. “You have sealed your fate. Every time you raise your blade in battle, every time you hope for success, you will feel my curse. Beware, Perseus Jackson. Beware.”
His body began to glow.
“‘Percy!” Annabeth shouted. “Don’t watch!”
Hades stood up and turned to me.
“He’s innocence is proven. You two are free.”
I looked back. Ares was gone. The tide rolled out to reveal Hades’s bronze helm of darkness. Percy picked it up and walked toward the others.
“As promised, you two shall be returned.”
“I want to go to Percy.” I said.
“You can meet him at the tower. Sally Jackson and I will have a talk then we can send you back.”
“A-Are you keeping D/N?” I asked.
He looked at me then D/N. “We’ll find that out when we had sent you home.”
when requesting, please try to keep the amount of prompts requested under or equal to five. thank you and happy requesting! + anyone and everyone is free to use these prompts for their own writing <3 + all pronouns are set as ‘they’ but are subject to change per requests !
first post with colored dividers in a while, i feel like i’m returning to my roots lol
⇢ chiron probably made it a rule to not put you two on the same team for capture the flag (which is perfectly understandable, y’all are the definition of chaotic when you’re together)
⇢ he thinks you’re the absolute coolest person in the world. no one could compare to you.
⇢ so so oblivious, you’ll have to ask him out and say “i like you” for him to truly understand. just doing one won’t work, i promise you
⇢ he pretends to be confident and smooth but as soon as you come around he just sort of falls apart. he’ll be doing that awkward/shy chuckle whenever you talk to him.
⇢ you make him stutter!! baby’s so cute wtfff!! he just gets so nervous around you
⇢ but he’ll be 100% pretending he’s fine. i have a mental image of him stuttering and pushing his hair back at the same time, while leaning on his sword (like in the divider). OH MY GOD HES SO CUTEEE
⇢ taylor swift stan. he would go along with your proposal of splitting up so you can both experience “true” heartbreak when listening to her re-recordings of RED.
notes: thank you to the loveliest @chasingpj for the nickname babe
leo
it had been a long day for leo. he had spent the entire day in bunker 9, trying to figure out why his machine was not working. while he normally liked working on his projects, he wanted nothing more than to go back to his cabin to take a nap with you. he missed your voice and your touch as it had been a while since the two of you spent some time alone together. deciding that he would finish his project later, he left the bunk and headed straight to his cabin, only to find you in his bed. you were asleep and wearing one of his clean shirts, cuddled up under his blanket.
“oh, bonita,” he sighed softly, “i’m sorry i was away for so long.”
climbing into the bed, he tried not to wake you. you looked so cute and comfortable, making him smile softly.
“goodnight, mi amor. dream of me?”
percy
“hey babe, have you seen my…”
percy stopped as he saw you. the two of you had been watching a movie in his cabin as he suddenly remembered he hadn’t seen his blue sweater for a while, so he started searching for it, leaving you in his bed. you were so comfortable and warm, you fell asleep without a sound. when percy turned back around and found you asleep in his bed. letting out a soft sigh, he walked towards his bed, deciding that you sleeping in his bed and wearing his clothes was his favorite view from now on. he pressed a kiss to your forehead and tucked you in a little tighter.
pulls and plays with your belt/ waistband when you kiss. he will do this in the most unsuspecting moments, and you’re still not used to it even after countless times. you’d be mindlessly walking somewhere, and he’d pull you by your waistband to kiss you. im actually blushing bye. he’d play around with it too, dragging his fingers around it and tugging it lightly. he laughs out loud. and im talking about both throaty, deep rumble, echoing laugh and also ugly cackling. but you know what? he still looks freakin fine doing either. it just catches you off guard sometimes because the way he throws his head back, or the way he clutches at a surface when he’s wheezing, the veins popping.. wears sweatpants LOW low around the house.. and top that off with his chb necklace dangling around, do i even need to elaborate? speaking of skin, the way his shirt rides up when he stretches, you’re peeking at his toned abdomen like sir?
ʚ JASON GRACE ɞ
rolling up his sleeves. this man just has to have some BEEFY arms. like everyone who does hand to hand combat or specializes in weaponry probably does and you’d never miss the chance to ogle at them. it could be if he had to have his arms involved in doing something and he doesn’t want to have his clothes dirty. you know how someone would come from behind and explain something you don’t understand? he does that. on purpose? or absent-mindedly? we will never know. if you’re looking over battle plans or documents and stuck on a certain thing he’d lean onto you from behind, his face so close to yours that if you turn your head you’d be inches away from kissing face planting on him. just speaking beside your ears giving you shivers.
Requested?: Yes by the lovely anon ! Hi! Could I request something with percy jackson where the reader is an high achiever and has an anxiety disorder? I’m struggling quite a lot with that rn so maybe that will help somehow. Thanks
Warnings: some comforting fluff!
Specific Pronouns Used: none were used, completely gender neutral.
A/N: angel, I hope you do enjoy this and thank you for requesting ! I already have written for a reader with anxiety, so i only wrote about high achiever anxiety! also you’re not alone with anxiety because mine has been insane as of lately.
i strongly believe that percy relates to the anxiety when it comes to taking tests, as he probably had to grow up getting good grades or facing the wrath of gabe.
so he probably will do what his mother had done for him, which would be to sit you down and talk to you about what specifically is making you anxious about the test and see if there is anything he can do to try to make the anxiety fade a bit away.
if that does not work, he will offer words of encouragement and tell you that you are going to get the grade that you desire and not the one that you think your anxiety is telling you that you will receive.
definitely the type of person to take the test from your hands, before you have a chance to read it and see what grade you get, as he believes that you will take it easier when he is the one that relays it back to you — and most of the time, he is right as you take it a little less anxiously as you trust him to be easy on you when telling you the grade that you received.
will hold your hand or hold you in his arms, depending on what you prefer, as he relays back what your grade is and definitely tries to calm you down if you happen to burst into tears whether it’s a good or bad grade.
Platonic!Nico Di Angelo X Persphonse-Daughter!Reader, Percy Jackson X Persphonse-Daughter!Reader|Imagine
Requested?: Yes by the lovely @itsmenaty!Hi :) I can make a request where percy’s girlfriend is the daughter of persephone and when she meets nico they immediately become best friends and percy gets jealous
Warnings: just tons of wholesome fluff and a small bit of possessive/jealous percy!
Specific Pronouns Used:She/Her.
A/N: angel, I hope you do enjoy this and thank you for requesting ! it’s a bit on the short side and they aren’t exactly bestfriends but i love it, also for some reason love it wouldn’t let me tag you :’(
Y/N smiled as she stared around at the flowers that found home near the blades of grass, while she walked to the table that she normally sat at during lunchtime. Her (e/c) irises peered around as she noticed that her boyfriend, Percy, had not been sitting at the table waiting on her and she soon noticed that her godly step-sibling happened to be sitting at the table with a glum expression.
Concern flooded through her veins and she practically rushed over to Nico and she was quick to question the reason for the glum expression, causing the dark haired boy to laugh at her. She soon realised that it was the expression that he typically wore and that he was just fine sitting at her table.
“Finally decided to visit family?” Y/N had questioned as she took a sip of her beverage. “Yeah, I just figured I could finally come around.” Nico had replied, glancing at his step-sibling and then back at the flowers upon the ground in the distance..
“Here for you.” Y/N had smiled softly as she reached down to the small patch of dirt underneath her feet and pulled up an azure aster, before gently handing it to the dark haired boy.
“Since we`re family and since you seem to not want to tear my head off. Bit of a difference from your dad, he didn’t seem to like my decision to stay here at camp when my mom wasn’t in the underworld.” She shrugged after she explained why she had given the flower to Nico, before she then began to quietly eat her choice of food, while Nico spun the flower around in between his pointer finger and thumb with a curious look in his brown eyes.
Unbeknownst to the godly-daughter of Persephone, her boyfriend had walked over to the area where everyone was sitting at their respective tables and had seen her smiling over at Nico. Of course, like everyone at the camp, he had been aware of the fact that the both of them were family through Hades marriage to Persephone, he felt a sense of possessiveness flow through him.
He did not like the fact that the pair of them had been sitting next to each other, let alone the fact that his girlfriend had given the demigod a flower.
Percy had been quick to rush over towards the two, sitting across from his girlfriend while sending a scowl towards Nico who happens to be sitting next to Y/N. “Hi sea petal.” Y/N had exclaimed with a soft grin upon her lips as she saw her boyfriend sitting in front of her.
“Hi.” Percy had spoken in an annoyed tone, causing Y/N to look at her boyfriend with a worried expression. “Did Clarisse try anything with you? Because I can always wrap her up in the vines again.” His girlfriend had offered with a curious yet protective tone.
“No.” Nico had answered for Percy, glancing up at the demigod who happened to be dating his step-sibling. His brown eyes narrowed as he looked at the blue that peered back, before he had sighed and stood up from his spot.
“Thank you.” Nico had spoken towards Y/N as he spun the flower in between his pointer finger and thumb once more, before he had taken off from the area.
Y/N soon realised what had happened and quickly slapped Percy`s hand gently yet hard enough to gain his attention from staring after Nico. “I love you but you are annoying, okay? You do remember we are family and families can hang out together… especially since you have me most of the time.” She confessed before grabbing the same hand that she had slapped a few moments ago, to bring up to her lips to place a gentle kiss upon it, which had caused Percy to smile lovingly at his girlfriend.
Requested?: Yes by the lovely anon ! can i request a leo valdez x child of nike, male/gn reader who’s domineering/harsh but has a soft spot for leo? or leo valdez x male child of nike headcanons
Warnings: just tons of wholesome fluff here!
Specific Pronouns Used: none were used, completely gender neutral.
A/N: angel, I hope you do enjoy this and thank you for requesting ! some similar vibes to beck and jade from victorious in my opinion :’)
you tend to come off as overly harsh and cruel to everyone around you, but the rare few that actually know you, happen to know that isn’t exactly the case.
sure you happen to call people out for things, whether or not they did something wrong or somethin good, but your trusted few know that you come off as harsh because you care about people.
many at camp believe that you don’t like being touched except for when fighting, as that’s the type of contact that they believe that you like; except you are more of an affectionate person when it comes to your trusted few, and there is only one trusted person whom you will show affection publicly.
leo valdez is the only one that you will allow to publicly wrap his arm around you and while you may roll your eyes along with having an annoyed expression upon your face, yet you would definitely curse anybody who would even dare to try and pull him away from you since you were annoyed.
you more than likely happen to bless him with the ability to be able to be more victorious when it comes to any battles that he ends up in, as you don’t like seeing him hurt or losing in battle.
someone even dares to say something rude or disrespectful to leo? You`ll be there ready to take them down a few pegs.
eventually overtime word spreads that you care for the demigod and you tend to get referred to as his guard dog, only because you happen to be overprotective towards him.
leo can do absolutely no wrong in your eyes and if anyone ever said he did, they would have a very totally not threatening conversation with you.
perhaps with your protectiveness, you unknowingly become possessive over leo and don’t like whenever anyone else tends to hang around him as you are terrified that someday his so-called friends may turn on him and possibly hurt him, though I would just chalk most of that up to your protective nature.
overall, leo both loves you for having a soft spot for him but also hates it as he hears how everyone at camp talks about you and he doesn’t like what they happen to say.
Percy Jackson X Lucifer’s Daughter!Reader|Headcanons
Requested?: Yes by the lovely anon ! Could you write Percy Jackson x daughter of Lucifer!Reader (I know is a bit of a stretch, but I just imagine everyone being afraid of her and saying she’s the antichrist and then you have Percy simping for her like “oh I’m definitely marrying her” sort of like a goth bi gf and golden retriever boyfriend dynamic) maybe her powers could look a bit like Raven’s from Titans.
Warnings: just tons of wholesome fluff here!
Specific Pronouns Used: none were used, but it’s intended for a female reader.
A/N: angel, I hope you do enjoy this and thank you for requesting ! i love this idea though i did not dig too deep inside of it, just a small bit about the relationship!
i feel like you already were aware of percy’s feelings towards you, along with your own feelings towards him, yet you were not going to act upon them as you did not want to tarnish his reputation.
percy could care less about his reputation about being in a relationship with someone that those at camp would refer to as the antichrist; once he realized himself that he had feelings for you, he had awkwardly stumbled his way into asking you out and you said yes after seeing him all flustered.
probably due to the fact that your reputation for being your father’s daughter and percy having a more ‘good boy’ reputation, the both of you had decided to keep your relationship secret and nobody really found out for a while because you made him keep quiet since he didn’t want to keep quiet about his love for you.
overtime percy realized that he happened to like the fact that y’all’s relationship was private and just between the both of you, as it made it more exciting to sneak away and find moments where others won’t find you.
it all gets revealed when you happen to use your powers to take down one of the bigger bullies at camp and everyone was shocked by you willingly using your powers to that extent, and here is percy screaming at the top of his lungs how he’s going to marry you someday.
y’all have a very precious relationship that ends up confusing the entire camp as they never imagined that the pair of you could even be together more than acquaintances.
Requested?: Yes by the lovely anon ! Hi! Could I request platonic Percy Jackson and Leo Valdez (separately or together) comforting their best friend reader, cuz they’re feeling down? Could the reader mb be male or gn? Thank you in advance!
Warnings: just tons of wholesome fluff here!
Specific Pronouns Used: none were used, completely gender neutral.
A/N: angel, I hope you do enjoy this and thank you for requesting ! I already have done comfort headcanons for Leo with a gn!reader, so I linked it as well. I loved writing these for Percy though :’)
percy will definitely convince you to move somewhere near the water, as he knows from when he lived with his mom and hearing others conversations from his old school along with his own personal opinion, that water has a lot of calming effects.
he will sit down next to you, near the water, just watching the water flow as he awaits for you to speak if you choose to do so. if not, he will start awkwardly rambling about some good things that had happened during the day to distract your mind.
definitely will, without asking, just start making the water float up and form into different shapes of things or animals that you may like; as he wants to be able to see a smile.
he won’t touch you at all, if you don’t want him to, as he knows that being touched while being comforted happens to be suffocating at times.
honestly he’s very awkward when it comes to comforting but it’s very endearing because at least he stays by you and tries his hardest to comfort you.
he’s making a fool of himself with stuttering words and him adjusting his spot upon where the both of you were sitting, only for him to fall into the water with a big splash which in the end made you laugh which is what he needed from you.
