Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

When they get back to the Big House, Percy notices that there’s a man he’s never seen before standing in front of it. 

(If he wasn’t so tired, he would have noticed the strange family resemblance. Meaning it’s someone from his Dad's side.

But he’s barely staying awake as it is. Nearly dying is exhausting, as it turned out.

“Lord Triton.” Even as drained as Percy is. He doesn’t miss the weariness in Chiron’s greeting.

“Chiron.” The now identified God said in return. Eyes focusing in on Percy with something that he’s honestly too tired to identify at this point.

“I would ask for what do we owe the pleasure. But I have a feeling I already know.”

He hears Triton start to speak. “Yes. Seeing as father is…” though the rest he doesn’t catch entirely. Even so, he wants to know exactly what the God was saying.

This was the first time he had heard his godly parent referenced in any form.

He’s half dead as it is. Having long since given up on trying to sit straight up on Chiron, rather opting instead to rest his head against Chiron’s back before he finally let himself succumb fully to the call of unconsciousness.

Triton looks between his now passed-out half-brother and then back at Chiron with an eyebrow raised in a silent question. Are you sure you can handle this?

Since while the centaurs' skills were well known. Just so was his father's protective fury. 

Even if it increased the chance of incurring Zeus' own wrath, it might just be best to bring him to Atlantis to take care of whatever had happened, since that much wasn’t as clear. Since that would decrease the chance of their father drowning the camp in response to whatever had happened.

(They, of course, would have just asked. But his father had taken off before either he or his mother could get so much of a word in. So they were still in the dark, which had led Triton to come here. Since Triton had come here, he could only think of two things that could have caused this reaction.

And the other one had been ongoing for so long that he is sure his father would have said something before leaving.)

But it was clear enough that something had happened in camp. A camp that was meant to be a place of protection for his brother. Something had injured him enough that even with his water-healing abilities, he still looked like he had been through the wringer.

And if Chiron somehow manages to mess it up even further…Well, it wouldn’t be pretty, that was for certain.

Chiron, instead of choosing to answer the question directly, motioned him to follow into the Big House. “Come along; I can fill you in on what I know while I tend to Percy.”

Triton’s quiet for a moment as Chiron works on stitching his brother’s sword wound. (He briefly debated healing it, but held back.) Having just told him what he knew about the earlier events. “Father said he had an urgent matter to attend to on Olympus but didn’t elaborate. However, it wasn’t difficult to put the bare minimum together.”

After all, this wasn't the first attack that had been targeted at Percy within the past few weeks. However, this was just the first one involving other children. None of whom he noticed, he had seen since arriving, and probably would not see during his stay.

Of course, it’s not a mystery why Chiron is putting off talking to them. Letting those six be around his brother was asking for trouble.

(Especially since one of those children was one of Athena’s. This was already starting to dredge up bad memories for him, and it would do the same for the rest of the family.)

Of course, Triton wouldn’t go after them; he wasn’t foolish enough to act in such a manner without his father’s orders. But Chiron didn’t know that. So he didn't blame him for the lack of action. Not yet anyway.

“You better hope Athena’s child didn’t realize who his father was.”

“We kept any suspicions about his parentage from the other campers.” Chiron tried to placate.

Yes, well, keeping information from someone. Does not mean they cannot figure it out themselves. And Triton did not miss the fact that his brother looked a lot like their father. “Just because you kept it away from them doesn’t necessarily mean they did not put it together on their own.”

And considering the strong family resemblance…There was a chance that she might not have realized, but he could not shake the thought that she at least suspected.

Though he has a feeling, he will never know for certain. If she did know prior to the claiming, and Chiron finds out she knew, he would advise her to say otherwise, since it would only increase their father's wrath with the family history.

Chiron would realize that it would be foolish to confirm.

Triton’s honestly not sure why he stays after Chiron finishes patching his brother up. 

After all, it isn’t exactly in his nature to hang around his mortal half-siblings, let alone to the extent that some might argue he was watching over them. Maybe it was out of some irrational fear that his brother would be acted against for a second time? After all this mess was primarily caused by a child of Athena. And no matter how long it had been since he lost Pallas, it still hurt.

It would be cowardice to target the boy while he was recovering, but that wouldn’t be exactly new. After all, the night's events were an act of cowardice on the children of Ares’ part.

(He isn’t sure what excuse the children had given initially for their choices. Chiron had mentioned something involving a bathroom incident and his brother dumping them with toilet water.

In his opinion, given his brother's lack of experience, this move most certainly would have been done in self-defense, and if that were the case, they were already off to a bad start.

And that was before they even began factoring in other things, such as that his brother was unpracticed and untrained, which only made the five-on-one that had occurred more ridiculous. No matter what his brother had done to upset the rest of the campers, even if it hadn’t been in self-defense, there was no reason for what they did.

This was uncalled for.)

He wasn’t even sure if he had the right number of words to describe his feelings about the Athena spawns part in this.

Her involvement was digging up old feelings that he didn’t want to recall, an old pain he had kept buried deep. All because Athena, in some form, had gone after a child of the sea again. It had taken centuries before he could be in the same room as the goddess after he lost Pallas, and he still avoided her to this day.

This will only cause more of a divide.

Though how much was going to depend on how the other gods responded to this situation.

Percy’s not sure how long he’s been out for, when he jolts awake from a nightmare of the capture the flag event. Flashes of it are still running through his mind as he tries to get his breathing under control.

(Too much electricity, too much blood, not enough rain. No Chiron. No Luke. No mercy, it just kept going-)

He is too caught up in the nightmare at first to notice the fact that someone is carding a hand through his hair. With some quiet reassurances of him being safe.  “Easy Perseus-”

“Percy.” He corrects on reflex, without really thinking about who he might be correcting.

(That can be a problem for an actually awake Percy.)

He thinks he hears someone else make an amused noise, though the first voice quickly hushes them before they seem to turn their attention back onto him.  “Easy, Percy, you are safe from them. They won’t be allowed to cause any more harm.”

Part of Percy wants to protest that statement. After all, he was told that about the camp, and look what happened. But something about the soft yet surprisingly firm tone they were speaking in makes him actually want to believe it.

So maybe that’s why, when he drifts off this time, letting the gentle combing motion of the hand in his hair soothe him back to sleep, the nightmares stay away at least for now.

Amphitrite lets out a soft sigh as the boy drifts back off into sleep, aided by a bit of her own magic.

After enough time had passed and it had become apparent that neither Poseidon nor Triton would be returning any time soon, she had joined Triton at the camp.  Since she couldn’t exactly seek out her husband on Mt Olympus at the moment, she had sought out the latter, hoping to find out what exactly had happened.

“Do you think he’ll remember correcting you on the name thing?” Triton asked.

“Hard to tell. Most likely not if I had to guess.” Honestly, it hadn’t bothered her much; he was a child. The nickname was bound to bring more comfort; it was a little request that could easily be fulfilled. And considering what he had just been through, it was a simple thing she could do for him.

Gods didn’t need to sleep, technically at least, but it was recommended that they at least engage in it occasionally. So they very rarely had to deal with things like nightmares. But she could at least imagine what must have been running through the boy's mind when he had awoken.

“Certainly one way to introduce yourself,” Triton said again with a noise of amusement again. Maybe in another universe, he would have had a different reaction, but in this one, he knew his brother could have died. In this universe, all he found was some mild annoyance at the abruptness. And even that didn’t last long, considering he was reasonably sure Percy wasn’t aware of who he was speaking to. 

“He most likely didn’t realize who we were,” Amphitrite noted, unknowingly agreeing with him. “More than likely, he thought it was another camper. Or possibly Chiron.”

Though she wasn’t sure about the latter, he would be the only adult on the grounds who could provide comfort. Of course, he was away at the moment, but it wasn't like Percy would have a way of knowing that. So the point still stood.

“I should return to Atlantis. It's ill-advised for all of us to be gone for so long. Are you going to stay?”

Triton tilted his head in thought for a moment before saying. “I think that is what Father would want.”

Amphitrite hummed in agreement. While neither of them had been able to speak to Poseidon about what happened, it wasn’t difficult to draw the same conclusion. 

“I’ll be back before he wakes. But for now, I am staying here.”

The “just in case” wasn’t spoken aloud but was well heard nonetheless. While they were reasonably sure no one would pull a second stunt after the previous night or go anywhere near the boy for a long time, it was still best to keep watch to some degree until things began to settle.

When Percy awakens in the morning, he is alone, which he isn’t surprised by. He hadn’t expected the visit from anyone on his dad's side at all, let alone a half-sibling. A half-sibling who, now that he could think clearly enough, was Triton. He definitely hadn’t expected a second visitor after waking up in the middle of the night, one that he doesn’t really remember.

(It’s barely a memory as it is, of a soft voice cutting through the remnants of the nightmare, telling him everything would be okay. It was so unexpected that it made it stick out at all.) 

The only person who had ever cared about him when he had been sick or hurt was his Mom, and well, she obviously wasn’t going to be visiting. Plus considering the previous track record with his Dads side of the family and paying attention to him, the sudden flip caught him off guard.

When he finally sits up, something catches his eye on the table next to the infirmary bed, and he picks it up. It’s a small conch shell attached to some kind of thick material obviously meant to be a necklace. A note sitting next to it, explaining that if he was ever in danger, all he needed to do was to touch it and someone would come.

It must have been from one of his late-night visitors, which only increases his curiosity about who they were. Slipping the cord over his neck, he decides to go downstairs, maybe Chiron can answer his questions?

He needed to talk to him anyway to understand what was going to happen now that he was claimed. No one had really explained that part before now.

Chiron smiles as he comes outside. “Percy, it's good to see you awake, my boy. How are you feeling?”

“Better.” And it’s the truth: He still felt a bit lightheaded, but at least now he didn’t feel like a walking corpse like the night before. He guesses he'll probably be back to normal by tomorrow.

“Good, good. And I see you received the gift Lady Amphitrite left last night.”

Percy nearly drops the cord he had started fiddling with in surprise at that, again recognizing the name from the lessons with his Mom. That had been his stepmother in the infirmary last night?

He thought his half-brother's visit was the weirdest part of last night. Apparently not. His mind is whirling with a half dozen questions, but settles for the one he had been thinking about since he saw the note. “Does it really work that way?”

“The summoning?” Percy nodded. “Mostly. There are a few restrictions, some places where it might not work as intended, but for the most part it should.”

Percy frowned, looking at the conch shell for a second in confusion. “There wasn’t any mention of that.”

Now it was Chiron’s turn to frown. “Well, I suppose there might not be as many as one would expect. Admittedly, most of the limits are in places you wouldn’t venture into, but I’ll see if I can follow up on it later.”

“So can I use it at camp? Because the note said if something like what happened yesterday happened again, I should use it.”

He didn’t need to think hard after all to realize just why he had been given the shell. It was to prevent last night’s events from ever happening again.

(Though if it had restrictions, Percy’s not entirely sure how much that will actually help. It’s not like he can ask his godly family to just show up realistically.  He’s not going to be foolish enough to think that just because they had come last night, it didn’t mean they were going to be more prominent in his life all of a sudden.

They just wanted to make sure he was okay.

That was all.)

“Ah yes,” Chiron said with a nod. “I was mainly speaking if you needed it somewhere outside of camp boundaries.”

That made sense, even though Percy wasn’t entirely sure when he would be leaving camp again, especially after yesterday's incident. “So what happens now?” Percy asked, followed up immediately by. “Am I still going to get lessons from Annabeth on Ancient Greek?”

Maybe that wasn't the most pressing thing to be asking about. But considering that's how his morning starts. And he really didn't want to deal with her after she had set him up to be nearly killed. Well...pardon him for wanting to ask him about that. Since he wasn’t sure if he could pay attention to her lessons now, not for a long time. If ever if he was being honest with himself

Being in close quarters with her was going to be uncomfortable.

Chiron sighed. “No. I need to find you a new instructor, but it will not be Annabeth. So your lessons will be on pause for the time being. Since she will not be teaching you. Both Annabeth and Clarisse have been stripped of their leadership titles in their cabins, along with other punishments that I am orchestrating. Annabeth, at the very least, will  have a much harder time trying to do something like that again, on you or anyone else.”

There is no shortage of relief at that. Though the mention of punishment brings up a question Percy has had since one of Clarisse's brothers made that comment last night. “Is the punishment for maiming really just losing desert privileges?”

Chiron frowned at that. “Who mentioned that?”

“One of the Ares kids.”

“Of course, they saw it that way,” Chiron said with a sigh. “To answer your question, technically, no, that is punishment for when someone accidentally injures another camper, but what they did was far from accidental.”

Oh.

That actually made some sense.

"I will be having a discussion with the camp to make sure there is no one else who has that misconception going forward," Chiron said with a tired look on his face. “I do want to apologize, my boy, I thought I had taught Annabeth better than that.”

“It’s alright, what happened was not your fault.” It's not like he had put Annabeth up to the idea after all. Sure, he was mad at a few people. But one of them wasn't Chiron. He was mad at Annabeth, Clarisse, and the other kids in the Ares cabin, but no one else. At least unless he found out Chiron was somehow weirdly involved in this. But he couldn't think of someway his teacher could be. He looked to regretful over the whole situation to be anything else.

“Though maybe you should have stricter rules on the whole maiming thing?” Or at least better communication on what that meant?

“As I said, rest assured, I will certainly be talking with the entire camp about it in the coming days.”

“That’s all I want.” No one else deserved to feel how scared he had felt the night before. And while it was too late to stop it for him, maybe this would prevent some other incident down the road. However, that also might mean addressing another thing since Chiron seemed to be actually listening to his suggestions. “Also, maybe talk to the Ares kids about what the appropriate response to self-defense is. I only blew the toilets up in their faces because they tried to shove me in one in the first place. They can’t always expect that to go their way.”

Chiron’s frown deepened at that. “Yes, I will be having a long discussion about that with the entire Ares cabin. That was an inappropriate response, and even if it weren't self-defense, it still would’ve been improper.”

“Thanks.”

“There is no thanks needed. This shouldn’t have occurred to begin with, and I’m only seeing that punishment is properly followed through.”

“Because of my Dad?”

“Partly,” Chiron admitted with some clear reluctance. “But because of the level of that stunt, I would still have been evaluating things regardless.”

Well, considering his Dad’s reputation, he guessed that made sense.

“So what now?”

“We get you settled into your new cabin. Come along. Luke should have moved your things over during the night, but it's best to check nonetheless.”

It's only after Percy’s long begun settling into his new cabin that he realizes the person he had corrected on reflex was his stepmom.

By the time after lunch, Percy can’t ignore it. It’s rather apparent that most of the camp is avoiding him due to the aftermath of last night. Whether it's because of who his Dad is, or because of the incident during the game. Or both.

Most of the camp is avoiding him. And he is not entirely sure why.

The Athena and Ares cabin he gets. After all, they were involved in the mess last night. The other cabins catch him off guard, though.

(Especially Hermes. He had just spent a better part of the week in that cabin. And everyone from there that isn’t Chris or Luke has so far been avoiding him this morning.)

And that wasn’t the most confusing thing he was trying to process.

He isn’t sure if either of the sea deities who had come last night had been on his Dad's orders or if they had come of their own accord. Either way, his Dad had gone from not caring about him at all to suddenly having family members check on him. And that’s ignoring the fact that Triton didn’t usually like demigods, and he definitely didn’t like the demigods of their Dad.

(He remembers enough about the stories to know that much.) 

This makes it seem like his Dad's idea in the first place. Even if it was his Dad's idea, it was still nice to know that he cared enough to have someone, anyone, check on him. Since he didn’t think he even cared that much, if he was being honest, he got what the myths said he did. But what he had been taught from his own experience was vastly different from the stories.

Maybe Grover can help explain that?

Thankfully, Grover apparently isn’t included in the group, avoiding him since, during lunch, he decides to plop down across the table from him with his own lunch.

“I heard about what happened last night, and I’m sorry Annabeth did that.” Is what Grover opens up with.

Percy just shrugs. He understands that the two are friends, but it's not like Grover can control her. “I’m not mad. You didn’t have any way of knowing she would pull that stunt.”

He still remembered the look Luke and Chiron had given her when she had started bragging about using him as bait. Even Luke, who had called her his sister, had been caught off guard by the events. He's not sure how close Annabeth and Grover are to be honest, but if Luke was that caught off guard by what happened. Then he couldn’t expect his best friend to know what would happen.

Grover's shoulders dip a bit at that. “But I feel like I should have. I’ve known Annabeth for years and know how much she can get caught up in a game. I should’ve seen this coming.”

Percy raises an eyebrow at that. “Dude, Chiron didn’t see it coming. Luke was appalled by what she did. If they couldn’t see it coming either, what luck did you have?”

“I guess that’s true.” Grover reluctantly agreed after a second. “I still can’t believe that after everything, she would think to invoke your Dad's wrath like that.”

“I mean, we don’t know for sure if he's angry.”

As quickly as Percy says it, he realizes how ridiculous it sounds. Despite not really believing it, Percy knows the myths of his Dad's protective fury. 

Grover gives him a look before saying. “That was his storm on the campgrounds last night, Perce.”

Oh.

Again, he knows what the stories say. But it was really hard to reconcile the idea of him acting like that after 12 years of not being around.

“It was risky, too. With everything going on with his brother, he probably would have gotten more on his case for interfering like that. But I guess he decided risking his brother's wrath was worth it, which I'm glad.”

All that did was confuse Percy. “So he could get in trouble for actually helping family? That seems dumb.”

Grover gives a nervous glance at the sky at that comment. But there isn’t a rumble of thunder at that.  Not that would make Percy change his mind. He stood by what he said. That just not acting seemed to be asking for trouble. “I’m not entirely sure why those laws are in place to begin with, Perce, it’s just how it's always been from what everyone says.”

Percy frowned, poking at his lunch somewhat. “Just because something has been the same way for a long time, doesn’t necessarily mean it's the right or the best thing to do.”

Was this a mortal vs immortal thing that he just didn’t understand after only being in this world for a week? Or was this one of those things adults liked to pretend would make more sense when he was older, even though Percy was pretty sure it still wouldn’t make sense by then.

It wasn’t like he wasn’t already on a couple of gods' bad sides. He’d be willing to bet that what had happened with Annabeth and the others hadn’t exactly put him on Athena and Ares' good side.

It’s late into the evening before Poseidon finally returns to Atlantis from Olympus. He had made a small stop at the Camp along the way, wanting to be absolutely sure his youngest was all right, even if he was fast asleep.

He trusted Chiron to an extent, but he didn’t trust most of the camp at the moment after the previous night's events. And he knew he would know if his son was dying again.  But seeing his son sleeping peacefully on the bunk bed in his cabin provided some reassurance.

Zeus could get annoyed with him later. (Even if it would be irrational with the results of the day before.) He was allowed to be even more protective than usual, even by his standards, after feeling his child nearly die.

“How did it go, Poseidon?” Amphitrite asks almost immediately once they are back in the private royal family quarters. Where no one could overhear the conversation.

There is another question unasked within it. Do they need to increase their preparations for war?

After all, she knew even if the child had survived the encounter. Depending on how Athena and Ares responded to the situation, that might not be enough to sedate her husband's anger. Plus, the argument about the missing bolt with Zeus was still unresolved at last check. 

If something had happened with Perseus, something that might actually spark a war instead of all the posturing they had been doing up until this point.

Then they needed to know what had happened.

“Well, the good news is that Zeus and I have come to a truce on the thiefdom for the moment. It took swearing on the Styx, of course, but he finally had to admit my lack of involvement.”

That had been unpleasant. This is something Poseidon had avoided doing this entire time because he hadn’t wanted it to possibly backfire on them somehow in multiple reasons. But with his son's life in the balance and a desire for retribution, and concerned that Zeus would let it slide if he still believed that he wasn't the thief, he had taken the oath. 

At least his brother had finally used some critical thinking and had sent out his children again to look for the missing item, now that he had sworn on the Styx that he had nothing to do with the theft.

(It shouldn’t have taken coming to this point for his brother to finally look at anyone else a second time. But what was done was done.)

Even if it had been in response to the fact that Poseidon had taken the oath, to stop his brother from redirecting the argument away from what had happened with his grandchildren. And on to the perceived offense he had received.

“How much do you know about what happened at Camp Half Blood last night?”

“We know some things,” Amphitrite admitted after glancing at their son. “Triton went to check in after you disappeared from Atlantis last night. Figuring he was most likely somehow connected to all of it. Chiron was able to give us some details, but he wasn’t aware of everything that had gone on.”

Poseidon gave a grateful but surprised look at Triton. “Thank you for checking on him.” If he had been thinking clearly at the time he had left for Atlantis, he would have made the request himself. But he had been too caught up in his own fury to consider that.

“Of course. But may I ask what is going to happen, Father?”

Poseidon explained what the council meeting had been like, just as his mind drifted to the previous night's events for a moment.

It had been a quiet evening in Atlantis when Poseidon had first become aware that something was wrong.

At first, he felt some of his son's fleeting fear, but he wasn’t entirely sure what to make of it. He knew his son was at camp, and he knew he should be safe. But after the events of the past few days and his lack of trust in Zeus, he decided to keep an eye on his son in case something was going wrong.

And the feeling of fear tripling almost immediately got his full attention, though it took him a moment to assess the situation fully. Since no one had called him by name, and since no one knew he was the father of Perseus, it had taken him a moment to get an aspect of himself at camp to see what was going on.

And the horror and anger had quickly followed it.

He isn’t entirely sure how the circumstances came to be. He isn’t sure what brought the situation of having his son lying on the ground in the forest being beaten up by several other campers. Why was he alone? If this were the capture the flag game, then where was his backup?

He may not have needed to pay attention to the war games the camp children had in a long time, but he remembered enough from the last time to know this wasn’t how it was supposed to be.

Certainly, no one was foolish enough to leave a child, one who had barely any training at that, alone to possibly incur the wrath of the five Ares children. Especially one that seemed to be wielding an electric spear.

And yet , the more he watches, the more he begins brewing a storm, both to tell the Ares children to back off and to provide some safety and help to his youngest. It  seems like his child had, in fact, been left alone to fight off Ares’ children.

Whose foolish idea was it to leave his son alone when clearly they held a vendetta? That someone must have known his son would be acted against.

(After all, if Poseidon could tell this was in response to something without any of them saying what it was yet, then someone who did know what had happened certainly should have been able to put it all together.

At the very least, the team captain should have had someone keeping an eye on him. Someone stationed near by to make sure his son was okay. And yet no one was around to intervene except for him, all the way in Atlantis. All he can do is bring power to the storm as his son continues to be beaten up by the other campers. All he can do is hope to Khaos that this will be more than enough to stall and give him enough time to get help until the other children lose interest. Or help arrives for his young, untrained son that, for some Khaos forsaken reason, had been left to the mercy of the children of war.)

Poseidon snarls when this is all confirmed, when his son tries to tell them where the flag is hidden, only to be told they don’t care about it. Apparently, this is all because he had made their cabin look stupid. In self-defense for something, they started, according to Perseus.

Self-defense for what? He doesn’t know. He honestly doesn’t care. This is an inexcusable response even if it hadn’t been in self defense.

Oh, this was looking worse and worse for the Ares children. He and Ares will have words and so much more when he is sure his child is safe and being taken care of by a healer.  

When the Ares girl nearly runs him through with her spear (Thank Khaos below for the armor), he’s almost reached his breaking point. He very nearly teleports to camp right then and there to snatch his son away to Atlantis, consequences be damned. Feelings that only deepen as he sees an Ares boy drag a cut across the arm of his son and watches as his son's eyes seem to blur as he gasps out something about not maiming.

(It's probably a good thing that Poseidon is too incensed and focused on throwing power into the storm he has created, to register just what the punishment was. Because that would have definitely been his final straw.)

He’s just about to teleport into camp, damn the consequences, when finally some of the other campers appear, carrying the flag and drawing the Ares children, who hadn’t spooked from the storm, away.

Though his attention on the fleeing campers is quickly redirected back to Percy as he sees him struggle to sit up and put pressure on the cut.

(That almost sent him to camp yet again if for no other reason than to tell the boy to stay down. As it is, he’s too focused on getting as much rain onto his son to heal him, to give him time until Chiron would arrive, to focus on anything else.)

Of course, only when his son is standing, albeit rather shaky, and the rain has washed away the most concerning of his injuries, does someone show up at his son's side. Poseidon snarls at the Athena spawns confession, he can feel his son’s anger also being fueled by this revelation.

How dare she?

This shouldn’t have surprised him, coming from a child of Athena, considering their history among other things. But he would have thought maybe her children had a bit more sense than she did, but clearly not if they were pulling stunts like this.

She had left his son to die over a capture the flag game, nearly, and she didn’t seem to be able to see what the problem was at all. It was high time she understood just what kind of mistake she had made, since apparently she was dead set on defending her choices.

He moves to claim Perseus as the last of the rain fades. He hears the Athena child swear, finally seeming to understand the predicament she had brought upon herself. As the trident starts to fade, Poseidon finally withdraws his attention from the camp and to what must be done next, trusting Chiron to be able to get his youngest child in working order. 

If not, then the camp would be gone by morning. Consequences be damned.

Poseidon had been to Olympus many times in the past few months  as part of the ongoing arguments with Zeus about the missing master bolt situation. However, up until now, his brother had always called his meetings. This time,  Poseidon was the one doing the calling and the talking.

“There was no honor in this retribution, Ares. Simply cowardice.” Poseidon snarls, nowhere near willing to entertain what little defense the war god was trying to mount for his children. However, even that would have been pushing it in the sea god's mind.  It’s a mark of how right he is that Ares doesn’t even try arguing much on his children's behalf. “It was five on one. In response to him defending himself. They need to be taught that if they are going to pick a fight, they can’t expect any resistance.”

Just because some of the victims who came before had rolled over and taken it didn’t mean all of them would. And the last thing they needed was a repeat of the incident.

Ares, for once, wisely keeps his mouth shut rather than trying to argue with him further.

“I’ll speak with them after this is over with.” He relented with a grunt that told Poseidon he didn’t want to. But he would.

“I’ll also be having words with all of my children after tonight, rest assured, Poseidon.”

“Words aren’t enough, Athena,” Poseidon said, turning his attention to the other god fully embroiled in all of this.

 Arguably, the one who had let all this happen. Lessons weren’t enough to stop these events from happening. Otherwise, this wouldn’t have occurred at all. They would have learned from the loss of his granddaughter if words were powerful enough.

Athena held up her hand in an attempt at a placating gesture, even as it did not affect his mood. “I am aware of that, Poseidon. There will be more to this.”

Truly, the only reason at this point was that he was entertaining the vague assurances. Was the fact that his son hadn’t died. If he had? Well… They all knew what would have come of that, especially since he was barely one wrong word away from threatening just that.

“What are you expecting from this anyway, brother? Retribution for your thief.”

This wasn’t the first time Zeus had called his son the thief, even after months of arguing about it. But something about this particular instance made Poseidon snap and do the thing he arguably should have done in the beginning. He had just been too proud to.

Poseidon snarls. “I swear on the river Styx that neither I nor my son had anything to do with the theft of your master bolt.”

There was a boom of thunder that always accompanies spoken oaths, but nothing else. Because, like he had been telling them for months, he had nothing to do with the theft.

Zeus makes a face as he realizes that his brother had been telling the truth all along, “So what do I do then, brother?”

“I don’t know. Should we send out your children again? I honestly do not care. I have other matters more important now than your stolen object of power.” Particularly dealing with his son.

Zeus gave a tired sigh before finally asking. “Fine. What do you want out of this?”

“I want my son protected. I want to make certain nothing like this could ever happen again.”

“The camp is supposed to protect demigods-”

“Excuse me for not being willing to believe that after the events of the past few hours. At this point, I am not just concerned about monster attacks, brother.”

Zeus let out a resigned sigh at that before asking. “If we assign someone to the camp, you trust. Will you let the other children involved live as long as they are punished otherwise?”

“Yes.”

That is exactly what he wanted since it would protect not only Perseus but also any other children of the sea who might come to the camp. Truth be told, he did not trust Athena spawn retaliation against any sea-related children at this point. But he didn’t think his brother would give it to him.

“Then it shall be done.”

Truth be told, even now, Poseidon was still surprised by how his brother had given in to his demands, though he supposes it makes sense. Zeus probably felt some kind of need to protect the camp since his daughter had given her life to make a final stand defending some of its inhabitants. And one of those inhabitants had been Athena’s child.

“So what now? Do you have someone in mind to be at the camp to keep an eye on things?” 

“I would prefer it if you would, to be honest.” Poseidon told Triton. “There are other options, of course.” He admitted. “And if you can’t put your normal feelings for demigods aside, I will seek them out.” 

After all, the last thing he needed was a protector who resented his son.

“I’ll take it.”

Percy was surprised when he opened his cabin door the next morning after a knock and saw Chiron with Triton standing beside him. He hadn’t expected to see his half-brother again after the other day.

Well, except for maybe if he needed to use that conch shell that had been left for him.

“Um, hi?”

Was Triton taking him to Atlantis or something? He couldn't really think of a reason why he would be going there, though it would probably be cool to see Atlantis.

“Percy, I don't know if you recall from the other night, but this is Lord Triton. He has been ordered to stay with you for the duration of the summer to make sure the events of the other night are not repeated.”

Huh. 

Well, that was unexpected.

After Chiron leaves the two of them, Triton decides to take Percy somewhere more private to talk and explain how things will work and set some realistic expectations. They barely get that far away from the cabins before Triton catches his brother visibly stalling while staring in the direction of the woods they had just been about to go into.

“Is something wrong, Perseus?”

“Percy.”

“Apologies. I’ll try my best to stick to the nickname.”

“Thanks,” Percy mutters, staring at the forest for a moment before hesitating for a second. “Could we maybe talk somewhere else?”

Triton blinked in confusion for a moment, not sure of the problem, glancing back to the forest before finally realizing what it must be. The game had probably been in there, hadn’t it? His brother probably had some trauma from that night, realistically speaking. That might be a problem to look at later.

Or maybe it was more because they were practically strangers, and of course, a child wouldn’t trust him after the night before's events.

Either way, it didn’t mean it was necessarily a problem overall, just one at the moment.

Hopefully.

They did have other options at their disposal—options that he should have thought of first, in hindsight. There was a natural bay here, and they could talk in privacy there. And being in their father’s domain would most likely give some additional comfort to his brother. Really, he should have just started with the water to begin with.

Chapter Text

Triton paused at the edge of the water. Watching Percy for a second who seemed to be rather content to just stay there and didn’t seem to be inclined to follow him in. Why? He wasn't so sure. Could children of Poseidon even get hydrophobia? Something to wonder about at another time he supposed. Hopefully at least. “What’s the hold up?”

“I’m not sure if going underwater will work either.”

Triton tilted his head in confusion. “Why not?”

“Well I mean, I know you have a mer form from the myths, but I’m still human. When I’ve been in the water before I don’t remember being able to hold my breath that long.”

Ah, the mist was probably in effect then. If he had to guess, his brother didn’t realize his abilities when it came to being a child of their father’s. It really could trick those who were not adept at reading it into believing the wildest things. Truly. 

Apparently that includes fooling his brother into not realizing the full scale of his abilities.

Though he had to suppose the mist had probably been guided to make him think that way, since you couldn’t explain that ability without telling his brother who he actually was in all its glory. So his mother had probably kept what abilities he had inherited a secret as much as possible.

Okay, probably best to assume his brother knew none of his powers at this point and work from there. 

“As a child of Poseidon you can breathe and survive, arguably even thrive if you so chose to, under water. I thought that since you didn’t want to go into the forest, this was the next best place for a conversation.”

Well outside the cabin of course. Which maybe in hindsight they should have stuck there. But that hadn't occurred to him until now.

“Oh.” Triton could almost see the gears turning in his brother’s head as he pieced together other things he had written off as a quirk but were actually a result of him being a child of their father.

“You’re surprisingly relaxed about this.” Triton noted after a moment.

(There have definitely been a few of his siblings over the years, who upon discovering the full range of their abilities, had been a bit overwhelmed.)

Percy just shrugged. “Look, the last few days have been a lot, I’m still trying to process all of it. I don’t have the mental capacity to be wowed right now.” Give him a day or two to process everything, then he probably would. But the past week had been a lot, even before the incident had happened.

He had lost his mother right before finding out the entire Greek pantheon actually existed, and to top it all off, one of them was his Dad. It was a lot even before the game.  Though it certainly hadn’t helped.

“Fair.”

Triton had known from the beginning of taking the assignment that he would need to tell his brother about what had happened to his daughter a millenia ago. It wasn’t what he wished to do. He wasn’t particularly fond of telling the story of Pallas and the tragedy that followed. 

(He would rather think of the happier times that had preceded it.)

But it was too integral to their response for him to just ignore it.

You could not properly explain any reaction their family might have to Athena and her children without knowing that myth first. And while there was a chance his brother already knew the myth, Triton wasn’t going to get his hopes up.

“How much do you know about the myths around our family and Athena in particular?”

“I know a couple of them, though I’m not entirely sure why it's relevant in explaining to me why you’re here. I mean I know Annabeth messed up and that’s her parent.”

“We will get to that, but I am asking this because it's important to know what you know, or rather what you don’t know, for this conversation. Our family’s history with Athena is very much intertwined in what’s going on.”

After all, Percy would most likely not grasp the full consequences of the choices that were made without knowing just what had gone down with Athena before.

“Um well, Mom tried to keep me up with most of the myths in some form, especially with ones related to Dad, but there’s probably at least a couple that slipped through the cracks, including ones with her. Why?”

“Does the name Pallas sound familiar at all?”

“No,” Percy admitted after a moment of thought. “To be honest the most I remember right now about you guys and Athena is the Athens contest. Which I guess is something separate because I don’t recognize the name?”

“No, this is a separate myth entirely.” Triton confirmed. Athens certainly hadn’t helped relations between the gods admittedly, but it hadn’t been the origin point of the feud. “This is not a happy story. But as I said, I do believe it's one that you need to know, since it's relevant to what has happened after the game.”

And beyond it.

After all, knowing Athena this could somehow become a safety issue down the line, and that wasn’t even considering what the child might do next time. Athena’s children tended to have the same fatal flaw as their mother, and this tended to lead them in not realizing where mistakes were made and needed to be corrected.

And while he may not know if this would apply to the girl involved in this incident, it was best to start out assuming the worst in terms of how this might impact Percy. And then of course, he would correct the child depending on what behavior he eventually saw.

But first, a tragic story time, an explanation on why their family tended to react poorly when Athena got involved.

Percy was quiet for a moment after Triton finished. “I wonder why it was never in any of the myths that Mom went over with me.”

“It’s one that has unfortunately been lost to the common populace over time. Finding something that covered it would have been difficult, especially if she wasn’t aware the myth existed to begin with. The earliest you would have most likely heard of it was here at camp.”

Though even that he isn’t sure of.

“At least I finally kinda understand Dad’s reaction, and your guys’. I can’t imagine what this must have been like for you and Lady Amphirite.”

“It definitely wasn’t pleasant.” It hadn’t been as bad as everything with Pallas, for multiple reasons, but that didn’t mean it had been a pleasant day when finding out what his brother had been through. “Father’s always been protective of his children. So regardless there would have been a problem over the night's events, but because it involved a child of Athena...”

“It made it worse?”

“Correct.”

“Could I ask one thing?”

“You may.”

“Why did you decide to help anyway? I vaguely remember hearing before that you aren’t that fond of demigods. Is it just because of what happened with Athena?”

“That is true, most of the time I do not tend to get along with them, especially my mortal half siblings.”

“So again, why help?”

“I don’t want to see what happened to my daughter happen again.”

“Okay I get that. But again why you? No offense but why didn’t Dad just send someone else?”

Triton raised an eyebrow at that. “I was father’s first choice for this role, if you must know.”

That caused Percy to flush. “Sorry, it’s just with the things I’ve heard...”

“You wouldn’t think I would jump at this opportunity?” Percy nodded. “Truth be told, under normal circumstances I wouldn’t.” No use lying about it. “And I’m trying not to let my past experiences on that front influence me as much, but I felt the need to follow father’s request.”

Though that could end up proving easier said than done, centuries and millennia of old habits tended to be hard to break.

Even when necessary.

Percy opens his mouth, seeming ready to make another comment. But quickly shuts it again in thought.

“After losing Pallas I’ve been reluctant to get to know mortals, even on a basic level.”

Triton had his own fair share of partners over the years, none mortal, but he had refused to have another child.

He refused to have the possibility of going through the pain again. Even in the rare circumstances in the past where he hadn’t just avoided his half siblings.

He had never let himself get close.

This was a risk. He knew that. He knew what the Great Prophecy said.

Potentially getting close (Or at least, closer than he normally would have allowed) to his mortal half brother might end up being a mistake. Since he would lose him eventually.

But he didn’t want the threats of the future to stop him from protecting his brother from the threats of the present.

“So why change now?”

“To be honest, I’m not sure myself.” Triton admitted, to speak honestly was probably the best choice. “Part of me says it's because I fear what Athena and her children could do and I don’t want that to happen to anyone ever again, but there is more to it than just that.”

Loneliness? After all, it was hard to get close to people when you are a royal. Boredom over the same schedule? Honestly, Triton wasn’t entirely sure why he hadn’t just let father pick someone else for guarding his brother and just checked on him occasionally. Because that could have been an option.

“But my decision wasn't made with malicious intentions, I can assure you of that much.”

Best not to give Percy the wrong impression, the last thing he needed was his brother fearing him.

Percy seemed to accept the answer as they lapsed into a small silence again. “Can I ask you to do something?”

“It depends on what you are asking.” Triton didn’t think the request would be outlandish based on the conversation so far.

But it was still best to cover all bases.

Though part of him is curious as to what he could do that his brother cannot.

“Could you tell Lady Amphitrite “thank you” next time you talk to her? She really did help after that nightmare.”

Triton blinked. Well, that was a pleasant surprise.

“Of course. Mother will be happy to know she was able to help.”

Over the next couple of days. Percy got used to the new routine, sword training with Luke, trying to find things to do that didn’t send a chunk of the camp scattering away from him even if Triton wasn’t around.

(Triton had been a near constant presence since arriving, but occasionally he had to go away for other things, he was never gone for very long though and usually Percy was with Luke when he was gone.)

It was lunch on day three since Triton’s arrival when his routine had a bit of a change up, one of the Athena kids came up to his table during lunch, clearly wanting to talk. Without even turning, Percy could see the look Triton had to be giving the other kid. He had been giving it to a lot of campers the last couple of days who he seemed to think might be a problem. Though he imagined the look was ten times worse with it being one of the Athena campers.

The boy, rather than being scared off by it, gave a resigned sigh. “I just want to talk.”

That didn’t lessen the look from the god.

“Triton, it’ll be fine.”

It wasn’t like the other kid could do something in the pavilion anyway, even if Triton wasn’t there. Triton gives him a long look at that before finally speaking to the Athena boy. “Pull anything and you will regret it.”

That earned him a deadpan look. “Trust me, I’m aware. We all are.”

“Your sister seems to lack that self awareness.”

“Also very aware of that. Actually, Annabeth is the reason I came over to talk to you.”

“If you think I’m going to apologize for getting mad at her-”

“No, no.” The boy quickly interrupted, holding his hands up in a placating gesture. “You’re right to be angry about what happened. She’s been kind of out of control for a while and Chiron should have stepped in before now.”

“And you did nothing to stop it before now?” Triton asked.

The boy gave the god a pointed look at that. “It’s a bit hard to do something when the person in question is the cabin leader who is convinced she isn’t doing anything wrong and one of the director’s favorites.”

“...fair I suppose.” Triton agreed reluctantly.

“I came over because quite a few in the cabin, including myself, wanted to apologize for what happened. Annabeth didn’t fill us in on what she was planning but we still feel guilty over letting it get to that point.”

“Thanks.” 

He knew Luke had been blindsided by the whole thing, he had mentioned it before when training with him, but Percy hadn’t known just how many people Annabeth informed about her plan.

How many people had knowingly left him to deal with Clarisse and her siblings alone.

Knowing that her siblings actually hadn’t known the plan was a considerable relief.

“You’re not mad at us?” Malcolm asks, as Percy finally remembers his name when they met briefly before everything had gone up in flames.

“About what?”

“We weren’t sure if you were mad at us because you’ve been avoiding us.”

“It goes both ways.” Percy counters. After all, a chunk of camp had been avoiding him even before Triton had shown up.

Malcolm at least had the decency to look guilty at that. “True.”

“But to answer your question, no, I’m not mad at your cabin as a whole. I’m mad at her, yes. Mad at Clarisse and her siblings, also yes, but mad at the rest of your cabin? Not right now at least.”

Especially after now he knew that none of them had been in on Annabeth’s actual plan.

That didn’t mean he was getting closer to them though, if Triton would even allow it, getting closer to them would bring him near Annabeth and he really wasn’t ready to be near her yet.

But he wasn’t angry with them, his family was a whole other matter.

“That was a far more pleasant conversation than I was expecting,” Triton admitted as Malcolm finally walked away. There was concern in the fact the boy had confirmed the theory that someone had been enabling the girl to the point it escalated to this level.

Chiron would need to be talked to about this, if not by himself, maybe by his father. His own favoritism had contributed to the situation, and it needed to be addressed.

But other than that, the conversation could have gone much worse.

“You didn’t think he was coming over to apologize?” Percy asked curiously.

“To be quite frank, no. Athena's children usually inherit their mother's fatal flaw, which is hubris, so to put aside their pride to apologize, while welcome, is unexpected.”

Even if it wasn’t the child who had caused the incident, sending a representative so to speak, to talk to them, was not insignificant. Since it meant they were trying to separate themselves from her behavior in the cabin. Either the girl was going to need to start shaping up, or there would be even more consequences that she was not going to like.

“They must be angry with Annabeth,” Percy muttered.

“It definitely seems that way. Even if she is a former leader now, her actions still reflect on the entire cabin. So them taking some offense to what she did makes sense. However as I said hubris is a common flaw for that family. So I just wasn’t sure if they would apologize.”

After all, their mother had never really fully apologized for what had happened with Pallas. But he supposes the children aren’t entirely their mother or their sister. So them doing something they wouldn't do was entirely possible.

Even if the relationship would always make their family a bit weary.

After Percy goes to bed, Triton Iris messages his mother, Intent on filling her in on how the first couple of days had gone. He had been planning to do so for a while, but the first couple of days had been rather plain and nothing to note other than just observing Percy and the other campers, so he had waited. With the Athena boy coming by, he now had something to report.

As it turned out, she also had some updates on the Olympian mess, which was the missing master bolt. “Zeus still hasn’t been able to locate the master bolt?”

“No, the search ended up coming back empty handed, as it did last time. At least now he isn’t accusing your father of taking the bolt.”

“Honestly, I am surprised that it took Father this long to consider an Oath on the Styx.”

It seemed like the logical choice in hindsight, a quick guaranteed way to show he wasn’t the thief that Zeus couldn’t protest.

Amphitrite sighed “I think your father was concerned that taking the oath could somehow have deeper consequences down the road, while it would have saved us all a large headache from the beginning, I do understand his reasoning. Among other things it would have confirmed your brothers existence before he would have been ready to do so.”

"That is true."

Plus it was an oath that would involve a mortal. And while they could withstand a broken oath, mortals could not.

(There was also the matter of godly pride, that Poseidon didn’t want to swear an oath because he was too proud to do so. After all, being accused of being a thief was a rather low blow. There had only been one incident of Poseidon actually threatening to overthrow his brother, but of course, Zeus treated it like it was a fairly common occurrence when the theft had gone down.)

In the end, it hadn’t been a matter of relinquishing his pride, but his concern about the safety of his only mortal child at the moment.

And a refusal to let Zeus hold the fact that he was the supposed thief over his head any longer.

“Do you think he might start accusing Hades now that he can’t accuse father?”

Amphitrites lips pursed into a frown. “I do not know. I would not be surprised if he does but for all of our sakes I hope he doesn’t. Things are still tense because of the false accusations, we do not need it to escalate by adding him into the mix.”

That was definitely true.

“In unrelated news. One of the Athena children apologized for the girl’s actions,” Triton said when it became clear they were done talking about the missing master bolt. "Not the girl in question of course. One of her brothers. But it it's something at least."

“That’s unexpected still.” Amphitrite noted. “I am surprised you let them close enough to do that.”

“It was during meal time, so he couldn’t do much of anything, I was making sure of it.”

If it absolutely came down to it, he had been more than ready to grab Percy and hightail it out of there if more danger was present.

“And Percy didn’t seem to mind talking to him?”

“Not from what I could tell. Quite a few members of camp are steering clear of him since father’s claiming, but from what it seems, the only campers he’s making an active effort to avoid are the Athena girl and pretty much the entire Ares cabin.”

From what Triton could tell not all of Ares' children were involved knew, but his brother was spooked enough to avoid them altogether. Well, it made things a bit easier for him at least. If he was avoiding some campers, Triton didn’t have to worry about further action.

(And considering they had been involved in the incident, he wouldn't put it past them to pull something else, even after the lecture from Ares.)

“That makes sense.”

Triton lets the lull in conversation lead to another topic change. “Percy wanted me to pass on his thanks for dealing with the nightmare after the capture the flag game.”

Amphitrite softened a bit at that. “It wasn’t a problem. Has he had any more since then?”

“A couple of small ones, nothing like the one from the first night, from what I can tell.”

Humans were sometimes hard for him to read, and his brother was no different, even if he was a child of the sea. Combine that with his not being the best at it to begin with, and well, Triton couldn’t say with confidence that his brother was dealing with them fine. But they looked better compared to that first night, at least.

"Well hopefully they continue to be that way. But if they aren't than there are always things to look into to help him."

He’d not been off the call to his mother very long when Percy started having a nightmare. He half-thought about asking her to come over; she was still better at handling this kind of thing. (Father was an option of course, but considering Percy hadn’t even met the God yet he’s not entirely sure how his brother will react to him.) However, he decides to disregard that thought, he could handle a mortal’s reaction to a nightmare.

Right?

He can just barely make out Percy mumbling something about help, the rest is lost to him. Triton wonders for a moment who he is asking for help from. Another camper, possibly the Athena girl who had seen the whole thing, maybe father?

In the end it really doesn’t matter, he supposes.

This had gone on long enough. It didn’t matter if this wasn’t the right way to wake a mortal from a nightmare; he wasn’t going to sit by and watch his brother deal with the abject terror all over again. He was here to protect him. And if that extended to from his own nightmares then so be it.

However, before he can actually step in and try to wake his brother, his eyes shoot open. His breathing catches in his throat and Triton is worried because that can’t be safe.

When he reaches out to try and give some assurance, Percy flinches away from the touch, not realizing it was him.

Though a second later his eyes focus. “Tri?” It comes out more as a croak than proper word.

“Easy brother, you're safe now. It was just a dream.”

A second later he stiffens in surprise when Percy just about launches himself forward in an attempt at a hug as his breathing gives away to quiet sobs.

(Percy’s arms are too small to wrap all the way around his torso, reminding Triton of just how young his brother is. Too young to already be dealing with the things he had.)

Eventually he reaches up and tries to mimic the motion his mother had used the other night, he isn’t sure if he’s succeeding but Percy seems to be relaxing slightly into the touch. He might not be the best at projecting the right kind of emotions at times, let alone around people he barely knew. But well he was trying at least.

And it did seem to be working if the sobs slowly quieting down were any indication.

He watched for a moment longer. Not moving, letting his brother calm down some before Percy eventually pulls away from him. “Nightmare?”

Though he had already guessed, it was more a way of trying to get his brother to talk, to see if he was alright. That nightmare had not looked pleasant.

Percy nods, giving a small sniff. “The game.”

That made sense, though this was the most intense nightmare he had seen since the first night. Part of him wondered if talking to the Athena boy had caused some of it accidentally.

“I will admit, mother is better at being the one to talk to about this, but if you want to-”

Percy shook his head rather quickly at that, cutting him off. “No, no I’m good, thanks, but I’m good.”

“I didn’t have this problem after the Minotaur.” Percy mumbled more to himself than Triton after a moment of quiet.

Triton tilted his head slightly. “None at all?”

That seemed unlikely to him, but then again he wasn’t a mortal.

“Well not exactly,” Percy admitted with clear reluctance, “I had nightmares about it, but it wasn’t about my own possible death.”

Ah.

Right.

His brother had lost his mother in that attack hadn’t he? Or at least he thinks he remembers his father mentioning it before. “Maybe it deals with how you handled both? Did you ever have time to stop and think about it?”

From what father had described, the attack on Percy during the game had been going on for a while before the Ares children had left, so Percy would have arguably had more time to realize the horror of what was happening.  Whereas with the Minotaur…well he isn’t sure what had happened there. All he knew was that the fight had happened.

But he had a feeling that the aftermath of each attack were dissimilar, the fights and thus the time to process what was happening to him were probably handled very differently.

“Maybe.” Percy agreed after a moment before asking “Do Gods dream?”

“Yes. Though it's less frequent than humans since, among other things, we do not need as much sleep.”

“Do you guys get nightmares then?”

“Yes.”

Sometimes, the undersea wars of the past he had been involved in come back to haunt him. You don’t get out of that without some kind of trauma apparently, even when you are a god. And of course Pallas. Sometimes he dreamed of that dreadful day. Of not being able to stop the fight. Of having to watch his daughter die and being unable to do anything about it.

Thankfully, they had become less frequent over the years, but they did still happen on occasion.

“It’s one thing us immortals share with you mortals, they are just about as unpleasant for us as I imagine they are for you.”

Well, minus the damage that sometimes occurs when a god has a nightmare, but he didn’t need to mention that.

“After I lost Pallas, I used to dream of that day. Of not being able to do anything. They’ve slowed over the millennia, but they do still happen on occasion.”

“I’m sorry for making you think about that.” Percy said after a second.

Triton shakes his head. “It was my place to share.”

Chapter Text

Percy slips down to the stables the next morning, hoping to clear his head a bit before the rest of camp wakes up. Something about being around the pegasi was calming in the chaos of the rest of the camp. Also, it was one of the only times Triton didn’t follow him around; apparently, he trusted nothing to go wrong in the stables.

(Percy wasn’t sure entirely why, maybe it was the whole thing with their Dad being Father of Horses?)

He’s not sure how long he’s been in there working on grooming the pegasi when a new voice pipes up. “Oh, I didn’t know anyone else would be in here.”

Percy looks up and sees that a black haired girl with blue eyes has entered the stables. “It’s fine. I don’t mind the company if you don’t mind me being around, and I’m sure the pegasi would love an extra set of hands to help groom them.”

The conglomerate replies, ‘Yes, please,’ backing him up, even if she couldn’t understand them.

“Silena Beauregard.”

“Percy Jackson. Though I’m guessing you already knew that.” After all, it seemed like most of camp, even the campers he hadn’t met yet, knew of him in some form.

“Yeah, hard to miss since you’ve definitely been the talk of the camp the last few days.”

“Trust me I know.” Just because most of the campers were avoiding him didn’t mean he missed the looks and quiet comments. Though no one had really tried to approach him beyond necessity. Well, no one other than Malcolm, but that had been a quick visit, not a hang out.

The only one who went near him was Grover, who, he would admit, didn’t look the most comfortable sitting near Triton, but that hadn’t stopped him from joining him for meals. Which he was grateful for. While having Triton there was giving him some peace he wouldn’t deny it. It also was definitely having an effect on the other campers.

So this conversation with Silena was really the first one that started approaching normal since the game. And they were still talking around his family. But he doesn’t have the mental space to try and explain what had happened versus whatever the camp might be saying had happened.

“So, are you ready for another round of capture the flag tonight? It’s definitely going to be different with half of the Ares cabin having to sit it out.”

“I’m honestly not sure if I’m going to participate tonight,” Percy admitted after a second. He hadn’t gone asking to ally yet because, to be quite honest, he wasn’t ready to go play that game again. Not after last week. Not after nearly dying.

He can't see Silena but he can somehow see her frown regardless. “I don’t know if Chiron will let you, it’s supposed to be with every cabin.”

Percy just shrugs. “I am one person and I am really not ready to be back in there yet. If Chiron is that mad about it, then he can take my desert privileges. I honestly don’t care.”

He really wasn’t ready to play that game again. Maybe in a few weeks. But not now.

“Is what happened really weighing on you that much?”

"Yeah." Percy said out loud, mentally adding, 'more than you know.’

Percy is more than a bit surprised when, at lunch that day, the Dionysus twins decide to join him at his table.

Triton looks at them curiously, but unlike Malcolm, he isn’t outright hostile to the twins, which Percy takes as a win. He had never really seen the twins that much around camp, and even though they technically had their own table since their Dad was an Olympian, they still usually sat at the head table next to him.

Not that Percy blamed them. If he could have regular meal times with his Dad, he would probably sit there as well.

“You won’t get in trouble sitting here?” There already seemed to be a lot of resentment, and he didn’t want to breed more of it.

“Nah. Dad’s probably not going to complain if we sit anywhere else, though we might get questioned later.” The twin on the right said. 

Percy had no clue which one was which; he knew their names but hadn’t been around them long enough to identify one from the other.

The twin on the left spoke next, “Chiron might, though, since we’re supposed to stick to our own tables, but he probably won’t do anything.”

Ah, well that explained why the Hermes table had been so overcrowded.

“I’m sorry but I don’t know who is who.”

“Don’t worry about it. You haven’t been around long enough to know better.” The one on the right said. “I’m Castor. He’s Pollux.”

Percy tried to note a couple of small differences between the two, hoping that would make it a little easier to separate them.

“With the camp kind of avoiding you, because of the game and well-” Castors eyes flicked to Triton. “Anyways, we thought you might enjoy some company.”

“Yeah, that's definitely appreciated.” Triton wasn’t the biggest conversationalist, and even then half the time Percy wasn’t entirely sure how to talk to the God. And having left the Hermes cabin the way he had…

He had definitely been feeling a bit lonelier recently. Talking with Silena had helped this morning. And he had Luke of course. But that was one person and it wasn't much in the whole scheme of things.

“Yeah, we know what having a godly relative around can be like,” Pollux said, wrapping up his brother's thoughts more concisely.

“You’ve been avoiding me like everyone else.” Percy points out. Not entirely angry yet, just confused. If they got what this kind of loneliness was like, then why had they been participating in it.

“Yeah, guilty as charged,” Castor admitted with a wince. “Your brother can be kind of intimidating.”

Okay, that was fair.  Triton seemed to make some kind of effort to not scare him, but he definitely didn’t hold any reservations about doing that to the other campers.

(Which he got, Triton was here to protect him, and he did! But his presence didn’t really help in the “friendship” part of camp.)

And since no one had been trying to be friendly since the claiming, he probably hadn’t been given a reason to tone it down a notch.

“We want to try and fix that, though. We’ve both been feeling a bit guilty about the whole thing. We know more than the average person about this,” Pollux said.

“But if you want us to go back to our regular table we totally get it.” Castor added.

“No.” Percy rather quickly said.  He might not be happy about being avoided, but if people, other than his brother and Grover, were finally going to spend time with him then he could overlook it. “Please stay.”

Any company was honestly appreciated at this point.

“I didn’t ask for any of this.” Percy grumbles the next day at sword training with Luke.

Chiron had indeed come by the cabin to try and rope him into a game of capture the flag, it hadn’t worked.

(Percy’s fairly sure if Triton hadn’t been backing him up, he would have been dragged in regardless, but Triton made it pretty clear to Chiron that if he got dragged into something he didn’t want to do, and something happened again. Then their father’s wrath wouldn’t be as…brief, as it had been last time.

That had been what caused Chiron to back off.)

“Yeah great I got claimed by Dad. I would rather still be unclaimed if it meant what happened in the forest never happened to begin with.”

Honestly, part of him wished that he had another godly parent at the moment, then maybe the bathroom incident wouldn’t have occurred and maybe he wouldn’t have nearly died.

It wasn’t very fun being singled out like this.

He would take not being claimed over nearly dying.

But it didn’t seem like anyone else in camp understood that.

“I get it. And you’re right to be unhappy about this. But you gotta understand a lot of kids go unclaimed for a long time, if ever, by their parents.”

“That’s not my fault.”

“I know, but just try to see it from their perspective.”

Percy grumbled slightly at that. It kinda was hard too when no one seemed to be remembering what had led up to his claiming at all. He would have rather been claimed in a random canoe race than after nearly dying in a Capture the Flag game gone wrong. If his Dad was going to claim him at all.

“Though I have to admit this might be adding to the situation.” Luke started watching Triton off in the distance with a frown. “I think this is the first time I’ve heard of something like this happening.”

“Really?”

“At the very least I haven’t heard of any other Gods being assigned here like this. Of course Mr. D is here but that is directly related to his punishment.”

“And Triton is here to protect me.”

“I guess your Dad could have assigned him here as some sort of punishment. Though historically from what I know that wouldn’t be a good matchup.”

“Yeah and Triton already said he took the position willingly.” The reaction to Triton is understandable. That was more blatant favoritism than probably any of the other campers regularly saw. That he could understand.

He just didn’t understand why people seemed to think he should be grateful that he was claimed over nearly dying.

As it turned out it would take a conversation with Travis and Connor. To clear the air on what had happened and why everyone was reacting a certain way. Turns out there were a lot of misconceptions going around.

He had ended up being paired with the Stolls on some activity that he was honestly only half paying attention to. When the conversation of the claiming had come up. And again it seemed like everyone wanted him to treat it like he should be grateful for it.

Which just no.

He could appreciate being claimed. But he wasn’t going to appreciate getting enough attention to be claimed because of what had happened.

“Yeah great, I got claimed, but maybe next time actually remember what led to me being claimed in the first place. I could have died.”

He had nearly died in the forest in the one place that was supposed to be safe for him. Because of a vindictive cabin and a girl who didn’t know when a plan was a bad one.

Travis stares at him for a second, mouth slightly open. All of the attitude that had been there a moment ago seemingly vanished with that sentence. But it's Connor who finally gets a word in first. “Wait, you almost died?”

“Um, yes?”

He thought that had been fairly common knowledge, but now that he was watching the two, he was starting to question that. It would explain the camp's reaction in hindsight, he realized. If they didn’t know he had nearly died then they didn’t know just why there had been this level of reaction.

So to them it probably looked like Poseidon was being an overprotective parent for no real reason, other than maybe living up to the myths. Not a response to an event.

“You didn’t know that, did you?”

Both shook their heads no. 

Travis finally speaks. “We knew there was some kind of incident in the forest. Luke had said you were spending the night in the infirmary, but he didn’t mention the severity.”

“And you aren’t exactly the first kid to spend a night in the infirmary after a capture the flag game, so I think we just assumed it was some kind of injury that needed monitoring, not you know-”

“Me nearly dying?”

A nod at that.

Connor frowned in thought. “I mean in hindsight it does explain the severity of the punishment to the Ares campers and Annabeth. Chiron’s never been that strict before.”

“Especially with Annabeth.” Percy said remembering what Malcolm had told him.

“Yep.”

“What actually happened?” Travis asked. “If you don’t mind talking about it.”

Percy was half the mind to say no since he really did mind. But something told him that this needed to clear the air rather quickly. Otherwise he might get some even more resentful campers on his back. Or maybe the story would grow even more out of control if he didn’t say what had happened.

So, with some reluctance, he launched into a recap of what had happened.

“Well, Ares coming by the other day to lecture his cabin suddenly makes a lot more sense now.” Travis said, finally breaking the silence after Percy finished.

“Yeah, Triton said that both he and Athena had to come by to talk to their kids about what happened as an appeasement gesture to Dad.” He wasn’t entirely sure how much it had worked, but the glares from the Ares cabin at least had become slightly less intense after.

Annabeth hadn’t changed a bit since Athena had been by. So it didn’t seem like that lecture had worked. But as long as she steered clear of him and she was properly punished for her own involvement, then he could be relatively okay with that.

“It also explains why your brother is here. I think most of the camp just assumes your Dad is being overprotective.”

“Yeah I’m catching that vibe as well. Which admittedly Dad can be overprotective from what I know. So I get why people made that mistake. But at the same time-”

"You did nearly die."

"Yeah that."

“Sorry about ya know-” Travis began but broke off, not knowing where to start.

Percy sighed. He couldn’t bring himself to stay too mad, especially knowing now this had all been caused by some miscommunication.

“It’s fine.”

“It’s really not.” Connor said, more to himself than to Percy. “I wonder why Luke never tried to correct the narrative.”

“I honestly don’t know.”

“Speaking of the narrative, um if we hear other people talking about what they think happened do you want us to correct that?”

“Yes please.”

Explaining it once was exhausting enough, he didn’t want to repeat it to every single camper. If he could use the camp's normal rumor mill to his advantage, then he would.

If this had been about anything else he probably wouldn’t have bothered with wanting to correct the misconception, but he just couldn’t deal with the mental exhaustion of people’s opinions because they didn’t know the full story.

Apparently the Stolls worked fast. By mid afternoon it seemed like at least half the camp was aware of what actually happened versus what they had thought had happened almost a week ago. Which of course, has everyone talking.

For the first time since the game, it brings him into direct conflict with Annabeth.

Who was not pleased with how she had been painted in the story.

(Never mind that he had barely mentioned her at all, and it was her plan that had started all of this. Apparently she was still bad at taking responsibility for what had happened.)

Triton hadn’t said anything for the duration of the argument, but he can feel the gods presence just behind him, more than ready to act if something happens. And a quiet assurance that he wasn’t alone in the argument with the girl.

“I nearly died, Annabeth.”

Percy is pretty sure their argument is drawing a crowd, it certainly hadn’t been quiet enough to be missed and they weren’t anywhere nearly private enough to go unnoticed. (Not that he was ready to go anywhere private to begin with with her.) He can’t bring himself to care.

“You’re overexaggerating.”

Percy doesn’t even know what to say then, he knows what he felt. The terror of being too weak to fight back. Of seeing blood pool around the ground. Too much blood. The absolute horror- Percy bolts back to reality as he feels Triton give his shoulder a gentle squeeze. It's enough to ground him out of the spiral he had been descending into.

“Thanks.” He finally says after a moment. 

“It's not a problem.” Triton says quietly. “I know this is your place to talk about this and your argument, but would you mind me saying something?”

Percy thinks for a second before shaking his head. He doesn’t know what Triton knows of that night. Only that he knows something since he had stayed with him in the infirmary for a while. Maybe he can tell Annabeth what Percy can’t bring himself too.

However, before he can say anything though Annabeth opens her mouth again and says. “Besides, the only reason your father claimed you was because he was mad at me for the plans.”

It’s suddenly quiet enough that you could almost hear a pin drop. Percy gave a noticeable flinch at that.

He was just scared that some part of her might be right, that Poseidon had only acknowledged him because he needed to and only had sent Triton out of some sort of obligation.

(It’s a dumb part of him. He knows that his dad cares. That if he really didn’t then he would have left him to die rather than intervening. But he can’t stop the worry nonetheless.)

Triton flat out snarled at her. He was already in a foul mood from the rest of the conversation, that comment just made it 10 times worse, his brother’s flinch didn’t make matters any better.

(When had he gotten attached enough that he was angry at seeing him get sad over the girl’s comment?

At least giving his brother a reminder of the present had made some sense, his brother was starting to spiral over seemingly being forced to remember the details of what had happened. Triton had seen that kind of shock before and would wish it on no one, let alone his half brother.

That had made some sense, even if he knew he could have gotten his brother out of that state with other methods. And yet he had gone with a hand on his shoulder.

Questions for another time he supposes)

“I’m going back to cabin 3.” Percy finally says, turning heel and heading back to the cabin at what could best be described as a brisk walk.

Triton isn’t sure whether to go after him or to give the girl a piece of his mind.

“I’ve got it.” A boy came up beside him. Triton vaguely remembered Chiron mentioning him as the leader of the Hermes cabin and the one who had been training Percy. Though he hadn’t committed to remembering any names yet beyond ones he absolutely needed to know, so the boy's name was escaping him at the moment.  “Are you sure about that?”

He was more than ready to give the girl an earful about that comment, had been since the first incident had occurred.

On one hand, this was the first time he really had a chance to lecture her on it. On the other hand, his brother probably needed him more than he needed to lecture the girl.

“She needs to hear what I’m about to say. And considering her mother apparently didn’t get through to her, you will have even less of a chance in doing so.” Okay, that was admittedly very true. “You’re better off going to talk to Percy, he looked pretty hurt over the comment.”

Yes, he had. Triton was mildly surprised by the level of the reaction. Percy hadn’t really shown any issues before about how their father viewed him. This was the first hint of it. Though maybe he was just better at hiding things than Triton had realized.

Either way, something told him it was not just their father who was behind the concern, but something else entirely that Percy hadn’t mentioned.

“Annabeth, that was a low blow.” Luke said, turning to his long time friend, his sister, with a frown as soon as the other two were out of earshot. “You know how sensitive that topic is to everyone at camp.”

After all, claiming was usually seen, in some ways, as showing that the Gods actually wanted them there. Only the Athena kids could enjoy full confidence in knowing their godly parent had ever wanted them.  But most of them usually had the intelligence not to throw that back into other campers faces.

Until now.

“You being angry at them over their reaction to your plans is not a reason to toss a rather sensitive subject into everyone's face.” After all, it wasn’t just Percy who would be impacted by the words. Luke had seen more than a few other people in the surrounding crowd that had been trying not to show how affected they were by her comment. 

Luke absolutely did not want to say anything that could be construed as him supporting the gods. But making Annabeth realize what her plan and her resulting anger in their reaction to said plan had done, wasn’t about the gods.

It wasn’t about whether the other gods really wanted them and why they only acted to claim their kids under certain circumstances, it wasn’t about whether or not Annabeth had instigated Percy’s claiming. It was about the other demigods at camp. The ones he knew that wouldn’t take lightly to this kind of comment.

Annabeth had managed to alienate herself from even more campers, even those who hadn’t been there would certainly talk about the comment.

“But it was my plan that made him angry enough-”

“Regardless of if that’s true or not.”  Luke begrudgingly admits to himself that with how protective the myths make Poseidon out to be, he probably would have claimed Percy at some point. After all, his and his lords' plans had never been contingent on breeding more resentment between Percy and his father, his lord had always thought that was too risky to try with a sea child. “That’s still not the kind of thing you should be going around saying.”

“I don’t get-”

Chiron chooses that moment to insert himself into the conversation. “Annabeth, you basically told about half the camp that the only possibly surefire way to maybe get claimed by your godly parent, other than seeking out glory, is for them to notice you nearly dying. Please tell me you understand why that’s a problem.”

And even that wasn’t a guarantee, Luke noted.

Chiron had a point though, you don’t go around telling people that the only way to be acknowledged was either through glory or near death. Especially demigods. That was a sure fire recipe for disaster.

Luke let out a tired sigh. “You’re starting to burn bridges over this, ones that you’ll probably end up regretting, maybe remember that next time before you get into another argument.”

Triton sighed, standing outside Cabin 3, contemplating his options. His attempts at consoling his brother that whatever was going through his mind wasn’t reality had fallen flat.

And he somewhat understood why. He wasn’t their father. This was something Percy needed to hear from him  Hopefully he’s free at the moment.

“Father, do you think you can spare a moment at the camp? Nothing life threatening but Percy should speak to you.”

A second passes before Poseidon appears in the cabin. “What happened?”

“The Athena girl that caused this mess made a rather ill-advised comment about how you only claimed Percy as your son because of her plans.”

“And now he thinks I only claimed him because I was angry at her.” Poseidon finished, realizing what Triton was talking about “The Athena girl?”

“Being dealt with.”

Poseidon gave a long sigh. “Her plans are not why I claimed him.”

Admittedly he had been angry in the moment, he had wanted the Athena girl to understand just what she had done, just who she had crossed. But even without that mess of a plan he would have still claimed Percy. It would just have been under different circumstances.

“I know that, you know that. But I think she kicked some kind of unpleasant nest of feelings with the comment.”

Besides, it wasn’t like Percy had ever had a chance to hear otherwise from their father. Which definitely couldn’t be helping with his reaction.

“He won’t listen to my comments. I think you're the only one that can get through to him on this.”

“Still don’t wanna talk about it, Triton.” Percy mumbled into the pillow, not bothering to look up.

There was a small chuckle before someone speaks “I am not Triton.”

Percy looks up in surprise at the new arrival. He looked like a slightly older version of the human form Triton had chosen during his stay. Which was finally what tipped him off on his apparent identity. Because if he looked like Triton who was obviously his half brother. Then that only left one conclusion for who else would be in the cabin at the moment.

“Dad?”

That got him an actual small smile out of the god. “Hello Percy. Triton called me. Said one of the other campers had upset you during an argument and that I should talk to you.”

Technically, he shouldn’t be there right now. This wasn’t part of the agreement, but he considered it much needed damage control. If Zeus threw an absolutely hissy fit about this he could just argue that this was fallout from the capture the flag game. 

Percy looked away uncertainly with a mumbled. “It’s not that big of a deal.”

Poseidon sunk down onto the bed across from him. “I would beg to differ going by your reaction.”

Percy hesitated. Part of him didn’t want to say anything, in case Poseidon just confirmed his fears in the process, but at the same time part of him needed to know for sure. “Annabeth and I got into an argument about what happened during the game, it didn’t go well. A lot of things got thrown around but then Annabeth made a comment that basically amounted to you only claiming me because you were mad at her plans, not because you wanted to acknowledge me as your son.”

Percy knew personally why it had hit like it had. He tried to ignore Gabe’s barbs and how much they had affected him, but you can only hear so many things over so many years before they eventually get to you. And Annabeth’s comment had managed to dig up quite a few feelings from dealing with Gabe, who had always made it very clear how much he would rather not have Percy around.

And while Triton being here meant something, it still brought up old fears he kept trying to bury.

Poseidon took a deep breath to calm himself before he accidentally caused another hurricane in his anger, but it was hard to completely dispel the rage and he suspected a tropical storm at the very least was forming somewhere. That child had no right to be making those kinds of claims.

He would definitely be having words with Athena about speaking to her children again after this.

Even if he wasn’t entirely sure how much it would help, since it hadn’t worked the first time apparently, she at least might listen to her mother more than she would listen to him.

But for now he focuses his attention on his son.

“Percy, I will always claim you as my son, regardless of what others might tell you, you were wanted and not just by your mother. I just wish you didn’t have to deal with a hero’s fate.”

Percy flushed at that. “I haven’t even done anything remotely close to being a hero.”

“The Minotaur?”

“That was one time.”

“Regardless, being a child of the gods tends to saddle one with a hero’s fate. Whether the child views it that way or not.”

There’s a slight pause before Percy asks in a small voice. “You really did want me?”

“I’ll swear it on the River Styx if it makes you feel any better.”

“Um, I don't really understand the significance?”

Percy got that it was a big deal, he could pick up that much. But he couldn’t fully grasp it, since no one had ever actually explained what ‘swearing on the River Styx’ was. He kind of remembered talking about it with Grover a while back. But it had been long enough and so much had happened that he apparently had forgotten the significance.

“It’s a binding oath that means if I were lying about this I would be facing dire consequences. It’s how I finally got your uncle off my case about stealing the lightning bolt.”

“And you would really take one?”

“If you so wish.”

“I think I’m okay without it.” Something about just knowing his dad would take it if asked was enough. The words Annabeth had said still stung, but they hurt a bit less knowing this wasn’t like with Gabe. That he wasn’t around just because he was wanted for something other than being a kid.

“Hey um-” Percy starts to ask, his thoughts going back to not knowing what he was going to do at the end of summer.

He couldn’t go back to Gabe. And unless he could get to the underworld he probably wouldn’t be able to rescue his Mom. Which left him with no options that he was aware of. And he almost wanted to ask his Dad about coming to stay with him, to see if he really meant it. But that just made him worry again about the answer.

“What is it?”

“It’s nothing.” 

“Perseus.”

“I guess I’m just wondering what I’m going to do at the end of summer. Mom’s…gone, and I don’t really want to go back to my stepfather.”

He would rather be homeless, he would be better off living on the streets then he ever would with Gabe.

“Why not?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

Technically the ‘guy secret’ with Gabe was only supposed to extend to not telling Mom, but after years of issues with authority figures he had a hard time trusting adults taking him seriously with what his stepfather was like, he couldn’t bring himself to talk about it.

“Perseus.”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

There’s a bit of silence before Poseidon finally lets out a sigh, seeming to accept that he wouldn’t get an answer. “Well, the camp does have a year around option you could use. I could see about maybe bringing you to Atlantis but I will have to see if there is a way to circumnavigate certain laws.” 

Then again they were probably breaking ancient laws by having Triton here, so maybe it really didn’t matter as much in practice as it did on paper. Well, as long as they didn’t do so in such a public manner that Zeus became aware of it, with his brother's recent moods he had no doubt it would quickly become a problem.

“You would actually do that?”

“Of course.”

After years of being ignored, Percy honestly had thought he wouldn’t get a visit from his dad, even after Triton had shown up. Maybe especially because Triton had shown up, so the cabin visit was unexpected.

It didn’t undo things, it didn’t undo the planted seeds of self doubt at times, it didn’t undo the things he had to put up with Gabe around. It didn’t undo all the comments teachers had made.

But it did loosen the knot that was those feelings, knowing that he was wanted.

“This goes beyond Annabeth doesn’t it?” Triton asked after Poseidon had returned to Atlantis.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Percy-”

“I really don’t want to talk about it.” Percy snapped, more than a bit tired from being pressured about that for the fourth time in under an hour, before taking a calming breath. “Look, I know you’re just curious and don’t mean anything by it but this isn’t something I want to explain. Not yet anyway.”

Not ever really.

He didn’t want anyone to know about what living with Gabe had been like.  And that included his, rather newly acquired, immortal family. Even if said family might be well meaning. He just couldn’t talk about the horrors that had been living with that man for so many years.

Triton heaved a sigh before speaking “Alright, I am probably not the best person for this conversation as it is.”

“Thanks.” Percy mumbled “And thanks for getting Dad. I don’t think I realized how much I needed that.”

“Of course.”

Percy had been expecting a mood shift by dinnertime, if for no other reason than the argument with Annabeth spreading like wildfire. But he was a bit surprised that a lot of the hostility seemed to be directed mostly at a certain member of the Athena cabin.

“Look word got around that you nearly died during the capture the flag game in part due to Annabeth’s actions, and some aren’t taking it well.” Castor explained. Castor and Pollux had become a regular fixture at the Poseidon table after that first day, and other than the occasional glance that was sometimes sent their way, no one had really said anything.

He was starting to get to know the twins better, like how while they both could grow fruit, things kind of diverged from there. Castor apparently had inherited their fathers domain of madness.

And Polux…well, he wasn’t going to underestimate him or the Demeter kids anytime soon. Not after seeing how quickly he could make a weapon out of vegetation.

(Of course Castor could grow plants, but the stuff Pollux could do outdid the basics. 

Basically any Dionysus kid could grow something, especially fruits. But not every Dionysus kid could use the plants to their full advantage like Pollux did.)

Their powers weren’t the only difference. Castor, probably from inheriting his dads madness domain, tended to be a bit more empathetic than his brother.

(Not to say Pollux was mean, but Castor definitely picked up on certain things sooner.)

While Pollux seemed to be able to read fights a lot better, something that Percy could definitely relate to.

Ah right, between the argument with Annabeth and him telling his story to Connor and Travis, the truth about the incident had probably spread like wildfire. Though he was curious why Annabeth was taking so much of the heat for this.

Maybe because of their argument?

“I mean, the Ares cabin was also involved.”

And as far as he could tell the behavior around them hadn’t really changed.

“Yeah but here’s the thing, this isn’t the first time she’s pulled a dangerous stunt.” Pollux explained.

Castor continued what his brother had started. “She’s pulled stuff before, mind you, under the guise of ‘Athena’s great plan’ but nowhere near this level.”

“Add that with the poorly chosen comment about how you were only claimed because of her and not because of your Dad wanting you, she essentially kicked the proverbial hornet’s nest of a lot of kids at camp.”

“Multiple times.”

“Like we’re lucky, dad might get cranky at times, but like we said we know he cares. And it's not a worry for us as much.”

“It is for a lot of campers. Especially ones that well-”

“Didn’t have a loving mortal parent.”

Well that was relatable.  His mom had loved him, but he was still fairly sure dealing with Gabe was what had resulted in his own reaction.  It was, somewhat, where his self consciousness surrounding Poseidon came from after all.

“Percy.” Castor’s voice breaks him out of his train of thought. “Was it really as bad as they said it was?”

“I’m not entirely sure what they’re saying.” He knew what he had told Travis and Connor, but stories could easily get morphed through word of mouth. So at this point it probably wasn’t entirely accurate to what he had told them. But as long as it was accurate enough to get the point across he didn’t care.

Castor hesitated before he spoke “They’re saying you were cut up badly enough that you nearly bled out.”

Percy gave a small shudder at that, that was entirely accurate. Or had felt like that anyway. Rather than giving a verbal answer, Percy rolls up the sleeve of his shirt to show the twins the still stitched up cut, before dropping the fabric back down after a moment.

“Well Hades below.”

“No wonder your Dad was pissed.” Pollux muttered. “Even with the stories, I didn’t really understand the scale of his anger until now.”

"Kind of surprised camp was standing after that." Castor admitted with a cringe.

Percy was only half paying attention to them, the other half of his mind is trying to think of anything else, he knows people are curious. But every time the game is brought up he feels like he’s experiencing it again in some form.

Triton’s voice cuts into his attempt to not think about what happened “Are you fine with me maybe doing the talking?”

Percy nods after a second, he wasn’t sure what Triton could add to this entire conversation, but if he thought it was useful then he didn’t mind him talking. It wasn’t like Percy exactly felt like talking right now.

“Father felt the bond he shares with Percy starting to fade.” Triton says, keeping his voice low, “Admittedly, that wasn’t what got his attention, the fear coming through was strong enough to do that.”

That made sense considering the timing of the storm. But he definitely hadn’t known the former. He opens his eyes, looking at Triton. “You didn’t mention this before.”

“Because there was concern that knowing might freak you out, as you mortals like to say.” Okay, that was fair.

“I mean I knew something was wrong.” Percy gave a shrug as a shudder went through him at even the vaguest recall of that night “There was so much blood Tri, too much blood and my wounds they just wouldn’t stop bleeding.”

There was a reason why his nightmares had been a mix of a blood, storms, and electricity coursing through him so strong he couldn’t take it, his body sometimes gave out in them, he was painfully aware of what had happened. And somehow, it terrified him in a way the minotaur had failed to do.

If it hadn’t been for the storm he would be dead. He had suspected it before now, but the information Triton had just shared all but confirmed it.

“I know.” Triton replied, voice softer than usual.

“I’m sorry.” Castor’s voice made him turn his attention back to the twins. “We shouldn’t have asked.”

“It’s fine.”

It wasn’t fine, not entirely. He’s pretty sure he’s going to have another nightmare tonight, but they hadn’t meant anything by it and he didn’t want his new friends to worry about something that was more or less in the past.

Percy honestly hadn’t meant to stumble across the exchange between Clarisse and Annabeth, but when he got out of the showers he overheard the pair of voices going back and forth. And the only way back to cabin 3 would take him right by the two people he didn’t want to be alone with right now.

He was stuck listening in to their conversation.

Clarisse gave a snort at something Annabeth had said that he’d missed “Oh no we know we messed up. We’ve already gotten several lectures on that, including from our own father.”

Huh. He had thought Clarisse would take just as long to come around as Annabeth.

Apparently not, if her response was to go by.

“So you’ve just gotten over the whole incident?”

That gets a laugh from Clarisse. “Oh no don’t get me wrong I’m still not happy about the toilet water, even if I realize that was stupid on our part, we had just gotten lucky no one before Percy retaliated.”

That had been something he always wondered about, the kids here had all these different powers, how hadn’t someone fought back before he got here?

“But like I said, I know when my cabin messes up and well, that whole thing was us messing up. We probably got lucky in hindsight considering how his Dad is.”

“We don’t even know if he actually cares.” Annabeth’s tone of voice is clearly exasperated.

Percy shut his eyes, starting up an internal mantra of ‘his dad does care’ and ‘he is wanted’, just because the claiming had been in response to the game doesn’t mean his dad wouldn’t have claimed him for another reason. It had been something he started after the argument with Annabeth and subsequent talk with his Dad. The comments still hurt, but the mantra when repeated enough times tends to help.

He’s so caught up in it he almost misses Clarisse’s response. “Well one, I doubt it with the myths, which you should know even better than I do, and two, considering some of the campers saw him pop in after that argument you had with Percy, I’m pretty sure we can confidently say he does care. And that’s not even starting on the punishment thing.” There’s a small pause and he wonders if they’re finally done talking before Clarisse says. “Just be glad you still have your hat. My spear’s been confiscated until Chiron feels I can be responsible with it again.”

Huh he hadn’t known that. That actually made him feel a bit safer. Even if it sounded temporary. Though now he is wondering if Annabeth was allowed to keep the hat because of Chiron’s favoritism.

“I just don’t get why the whole camp had to know.”

“To be honest I don’t think he intended for everyone to know. But the Stolls can’t keep their mouths shut to save their lives and once he decided to correct them it was over.” Clarisse pointed out before adding “And you definitely didn’t help your own situation with that comment, Annabeth.”

“It’s true.”

He can almost see the eye roll from Clarisse. “We don’t actually know that and besides, like Luke said you shouldn’t go saying that kind of thing. You risk upsetting more than Percy and his family.”

All of a sudden the two fall silent completely as someone else walks past, the person stops for a second and he can hear both Clarisse and Annabeth take off for their cabins.

And soon he found out why as he caught sight of Triton “Percy.”

“Hey Tri.”

“I came looking for you because you hadn’t returned. I’m assuming it is due to the two children I passed.”

Percy nodded. “Couldn’t get back without going by them.”

“And you didn’t want to risk getting drawn in.”

Percy shook his head at that. “There was no way I could pass without being dragged into a conversation. Annabeth still doesn’t seem to get it, you should have heard some of the things she said to Clarisse.”

“Considering the argument you two had rather publicly. I am fairly sure I can imagine some of the comments.”

“Did you know Clarisse had her spear confiscated?”

“No but I am glad to hear it. I’m assuming that was what caused the damage.”

“Yes and no, some of it was from the spear, the electricity, but the cut came from a sword.”

Triton came to a full stop while they walked, in a low tone absolutely brimming with anger, he spoke “I’m sorry, her spear had what now?”

“Electricity.” Percy repeated with a touch of hesitancy. He hadn’t realized Triton didn’t know about the spears full power. And while Triton isn’t angry at him it still freaks him out.

“That’s what I thought you said.” He could see the God draw in a deep breath and then start back towards the cabin at a quicker pace than before “That’s where the burns you had came from wasn’t it?”

“Yeah. Look, Triton, it's fine.”

“It is very much not fine.”

“I just want to forget this all happened.”

“I know but father needs to know.”

“I don’t see why.”

“Percy what would have happened-”

“Please don’t finish that sentence. I know what could have happened. I have nightmares about what could have happened, Triton. Of being-” Percy cuts himself off before he can go too far down that rabbit hole and he starts seeing what has been in his dreams. He’s already going to have nightmares, he doesn’t want to give them more fuel.

Triton watches him for a moment. And there’s a small pause before Triton finally speaks again. “I apologize I didn’t quite realize the full extent of your nightmares.”

“It’s fine, it's not like I told you.”

“Percy.” Triton says, he waits until Percy’s looking at him again “I won’t push this, but I do think father needs to know about it. You don’t need to be in the room when we have the conversation.”

“Fine.” He had a feeling that even if he said no Triton, would find a different way to tell their Dad anyway.  “Just find some place where I can’t hear it please? I don’t need your conversation adding fuel to my nightmares.”

Triton softens a bit at that. “Of course.”

Percy’s a bit surprised by how subdued the Friday night game is that week, at least in comparison to the previous one. When Castor tells him the Capture the Flag game won’t be happening this week, the mood suddenly makes a lot more sense.

(Well, at least it means he won’t have to find another excuse to get out of the game. Last night had been one of the worst nightmares yet, having woken up more than once to a worried looking Triton. He doesn’t have the energy for half the activities he normally does, let alone Capture the Flag.)

“A lot of kids weren’t entirely willing to participate with one of the cabins for one reason or another.” Pollux answered when he had questioned why this was the case.

“Chiron wasn’t entirely happy about it. He made a comment about camp tradition, to which Dad countered with reaping what you sowed.” Castor added.

“In other words, enabling Annabeth caused this whole situation and thus the problem with the game?”

“Yep.” Pollux confirmed.

“Plus the comment about only getting claimed pissed a lot of campers off.”

“Including the cabin that she and her cabin usually align with, Hermes.”

“Because so many of them are unclaimed?”

“Yep.”

“Though it's not just the unclaimed kids. Like we said before, with how rarely most demigods see their godly parent, being reminded that they might only claim us because of someone else and not because they want to acknowledge us well…”

“It brings some nasty feelings to light.”

That, Percy could understand.

He, of course, now had the assurances from his Dad that he was a wanted demigod, that it hadn’t been just his mother that had truly wanted him.

But he still remembered the stir of emotions Annabeth’s comment had caused in him.

(Or for whom that fear was more than a bit justified.)

He could only imagine what it felt like for other campers who couldn’t be given that same assurance.

“Also Chiron’s maybe not entirely happy because it's kind of a reminder of how much he messed up with Annabeth.” Pollux admitted.

“She’s not the first camper he’s treated like his child,” Castor explained. “There’s been a few over the years, she just might be the one we’ve seen him favor the most for some reason, and the one that this backfired the most with.”

“It’s enough that it's the first time we can remember Dad being genuinely unhappy with Chiron over something.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I think it’s because he knows just how badly this could have gone if your Dad couldn’t have been talked into a reasonable punishment, and it's at least partly Chiron’s fault things happened.”

That actually made some sense.

“I mean, I would have tried talking to Dad about whatever it was he wass planning.”

Though admittedly, he wasn’t entirely sure how much sway he would have over a God at that point, since he had only seen him as a baby.

But it wasn’t like he wanted everyone else to suffer just because of six other people's mistakes.

“Yeah but with your Dad’s track record, that doesn’t have a guaranteed success rate of convincing him.”

“True.”

The dream with the weird voice was back again. He had a dream about the voice before coming to camp, and a couple while staying in the Hermes cabin. But after the capture the flag game he didn’t have any. He had just figured the nightmares had driven them away.

Apparently not.

All it had been was a reprieve.

(He isn’t entirely sure he would call having nightmares a reprieve to anything, but it had definitely been a change up.)

The last time he had had a dream with the voice, it had kept beckoning him to come down somewhere, saying they could give him what he wanted.

Where ‘down here’ and ‘what he wanted’ was, he wasn't entirely sure. It wasn’t like the voice had ever clarified either thing, seeming to assume he would just know. Which honestly just made him annoyed. He hated when people just assumed he would know what they were talking about.

But this time the voice didn’t seem to be talking to him, but to someone else entirely. About the missing master bolt and how to retrieve it. Right, the master bolt. The thing his Dad had sworn they had not stolen. The thing that was behind half of this mess.

Guess they still hadn’t been able to find it if the thief was talking about the bolt like it was in their possession.

“I had hoped that the situation between campers would cause Chiron to send him away until things calmed down. Unfortunately, instead we now have a god constantly looking over the boy’s shoulder and at this point more are rallying behind him rather than against him.”

“So we are at a standstill then.” The first voice says with a hmm. “Maybe we should consider moving up the plans for next summer.”

“My lord I would rather not while I remain there.”

“You would dare to not take action that could help me?”

“No, of course not my lord. I just think that there’s a different way. You said before that we need demigods, and as of right now we are not prepared to be taking them in. Scaring them out of camp seems like it might cause more problems.”

That caused the other presence some pause.

“I suppose that is true.” They said, almost begrudgingly, giving into the thief’s point “What do you suggest we do instead?”

“I’m not sure. Maybe we could move forward with the original plans we had when Capture the Flag resumes? It would mean waiting another week though.”

Percy isn’t sure what the original plan was, but he is pretty sure he won’t like whatever it is.

“That might be our only option.” The first voice admitted. “If I am to obtain the bolt anytime soon at least.”

Percy goes looking for Triton as soon as he wakes up. Because he knows this is too important to waste time on. Normally he would write it down. Since dreams tended to fade fast and he needed to write it down before it did. But if he can talk to Triton first he won't even need to write it down.

“Triton?”

“Hm.” Triton looked up from paperwork he was doing “Something the matter? Another nightmare”

“No, I'm fine.” Well, as fine as you can be after finding out there was a thief and a traitor that had tried to frame you in the same camp. “I do have a question though, you said before that demigod dreams sometimes show us stuff that’s happening as it’s happening right?”

“...Correct.” Triton said with a frown. “Why, what did you see?”

“A conversation with the actual lightning thief.”

Chapter Text

The morning after the dream was a mess. It had been the middle of the night when he had seen the thief. So Triton had sent him back to bed. But then Triton had gotten him up fairly early and brought him down to the Big House, saying he needed to speak to Chiron as soon as possible.

And now here they were, one storytime later, trying to figure out what to do about both the fact the thief was planning to make a move. Seemingly so, Percy would go on a quest for some reason, and that the thief was in camp to begin with.

Chiron already wanted to send him on a quest. Triton though wasn’t having it. Whether it was because of the danger with the quest, or partly in response to recent discoveries of the other night when he had been visited by Apollo, he wasn’t entirely sure yet. 

“He said the thief is somewhere here in the camp. There is no real reason to send him on a quest let alone there.”

Percy appreciates it. And honestly, he could have done without traversing around and maybe running into more monsters, but there was one slight issue. “He didn’t say the master bolt was here.”

“And unfortunately, as much as I understand your concerns, Lord Triton. With your brother being the only one receiving dreams about the stolen objects of power, he is the only one that has a chance of finding them.”

There was that too. Percy really didn’t want to go on the quest, he would rather spend more time at camp.

But ignoring the fact that he seemed to be the only one receiving dreams about the thief, something had been bothering him about the minotaur fight for a while, and it tied into the one reason he would truly consider going on the quest.

His Mom. 

“Triton, can we talk for a second? Alone?”

He probably had a better chance of knowing what had happened with the minotaur, right?

“Shit.” Is the first word out of Triton’s mouth after he finishes explaining what had happened that night during the fight.

His suspicions that his Mom wasn’t dead, just taken by someone, were growing. “I’m not wrong, am I? There’s something weird going on.”

Percy had been suspecting this pretty much since he arrived at camp, ever since he found out the underworld was an actual thing. But up until now he had never bothered to ask, partly because he was always afraid that the answer would be no and what little hope he had of getting his Mom back would vanish. But now that there was a quest on the horizon…

Triton lets out an audible groan. “No, and I hate that. But what you described just now sounds like Metamorphosis, and considering who you were fighting and what happened right before that…”

“Uncle H probably has her, doesn’t he?”

“Probably. Though I don’t quite understand why he would be interested in bringing you in for the bolt of all things, if it was his helm I could maybe understand.”

Percy just shrugs, “I don’t know, why did he sends Mrs. Dodds after me?”

Triton tilts his head in confusion at that. “Mrs. Dodds?”

“Oh um I think Grover mentioned she was a kindly one?” it was silent for a moment, “...Dad didn’t mention that, did he?”

Triton let out a noticeable sigh, “No he did not. When did you even run into one of them?”

“She was stationed at my school for some reason, it was after Christmas this year. She didn’t do anything until I pushed another student into the fountain with water back in May.”

Triton pursed his lips in confusion. “That is unusual…”

“The fury or the timing?”

“Both. It’s odd that uncle would take enough of an interest in you to send a fury if this was about the bolt. If it was his helm that would be another matter but he tends to stay out of arguments between father and uncle. It’s also unusual that she didn’t do anything until you proved your bloodline, let alone being there that long…”

Something else was going on here, though he wasn’t entirely sure what.

“Do you think something else might be going on?”

“Possibly.” Triton agreed after a moment. “I need to talk to father about this. He might have a better idea as to why his brother has taken these actions.”

“I figured as much but what are we going to do now? Chiron’s right with me being the only one having the dreams. I have the best chance of locating the bolt, even if Uncle H wasn’t holding Mom hostage.”

Triton sighs. “There was really no other indicator as to where the thief was or where they might have left the stolen item?”

“No. I promise there wasn’t any.”

He honestly could have gone without doing a quest at all, he got that other kids wanted to do them, he kind of understood why.

But he could do without one.

Unfortunately, the dreams meant he wasn’t getting his wish. 

“And if whoever the thief is was desperate enough to send something to attack the camp, then ignoring the dreams wouldn’t be a good idea, even if I should be able to dispense of anything the thief sends our way.”

“What if it’s another God?”

“That would present a problem.” Triton admitted. “However, I doubt that is the case. I feel that if we knew it was another god who had stolen them, we would have seen some kind of indication by now.”

Plus, most wouldn’t be so foolish to cross their father at the moment. Considering their father had definitely been more protective since the incident.

And even if the thief was foolish, he doubted most gods would try to intentionally cross their father’s path. Though unintentionally crossing their father, that might be another matter altogether.

“That’s true.”

“Also, a lot of ancient laws can be broken to a degree, even if they technically shouldn’t, but the one behind the fact that Gods cannot steal each other's symbols of power is not a matter of simply wishing to be able to do it and thus ignoring the ancient law.”

If it was then there would be a lot more incidents of stolen objects than there have been, especially with Hermes.

“It’s got some kind of magic behind it?”

“Correct.”

“So definitely not a god then.”

“We could try identifying the thief, though that might take time to explore. It will probably take longer than we have before they launch a planned attack.”

They did need to find the thief regardless of what choice was made. But how much of a time crunch they were on was going to change based around whether or not his brother was questing.

“So basically even if we wait around I’m probably going to have to leave eventually?”

“Most likely. Though father could just take you to Atlantis if removing you from the camp would ensure your safety.”

Though how well that would work long term was another issue…

“But then what happens to the bolt?”

“They will most likely continue to be lost.”

“That doesn’t sound good.”

“It isn’t. Even if it's the weapon of a god who most won’t oppose, let alone use against us, the thief being in an unknown location with that amount of power is dangerous.”

After all, the master bolt at full power if Zeus ever went there, would wipe out even some of the biggest cities around in the modern era.

The bolt needed to be found and not just because Zeus would be an outright menace until it was located.

“Besides I need Mom back.”

“Percy, we will find a solution for that.” Triton said, seeming to pick up what else was on his mind.

Which, yes, having to go somewhere at summer’s end was a concern admittedly. 

But not the only one.

He really just wanted his Mom back.

“I know you will.” Or at least he thought they would genuinely try. “But I really do miss my Mom. If she’s still alive, this is probably the only way to get her back.”

“I hate that what you’re saying makes sense.” Triton said with another sigh, “Well, at least uncle can’t use this as grounds to accuse you of being the thief since the oath that was made.”

“Uncle Z or Uncle H?”

“Both if the latter is involved in this at all somehow.”

Admittedly, again, it would be unusual for Hades to be acting in such a fashion. Unusually foolish for him at the very least. But then again, history was littered with individuals both mortal and immortal, who had made the poor choice of deciding to cross either their father or their uncles and payed the price for it. 

Just because someone should be aware enough to not go around stealing objects of power, didn’t mean they would think it through.

“I want to have us talk with father before we do anything else.”

Maybe he would have some ideas on what to expect, or if the quest was really that necessary.

Either way, it was a talk that was needed. If his brother was going on the quest they needed to have all of the information they could get.

Poseidon hadn’t been aware of the fury incident either, which wasn’t really that surprising considering Triton hadn’t known either.

Though it did make him wonder just how many people had known about it.

Or the run in with the fates after.

(Which he still hadn’t told anyone about, Grover had been really shaken up about that encounter, he wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to know how Gods would react to the visit, let alone his family who were already on edge.

At some point he probably would have to tell them about it.

Just not right now.)

Still he was surprised someone hadn’t told them, or that his Dad hadn’t found out. But then again, he isn’t sure how they would have found out since he hadn’t even told his Mom about the fury. Not until the minotaur had shown up, so she hadn’t had any real chance to tell them about that.

“I still don’t understand why he had that fury watch you for months if he suspected you of being the thief.”

That was the thing that was tripping him up the most about this whole situation, not Hades sending the fury to begin with, though he wasn’t happy about that, but the timing.

“Maybe he was looking for proof before actually acting?” Percy suggested, which would be nice, most people tended to accuse first, ask questions later, and he guessed in some ways his uncle had still done that, but at least he hadn’t tried anything until he’d known Percy was a demigod.

So that had to count for something.

“That’s definitely possible.”

Hades did tend to be less rash when it came to making decisions at times, but that didn’t explain why his brother had been looking for the bolt in the first place. Maybe things had changed, but as far as Poseidon was aware Hades was about as interested in the throne of Olympus as he was.

Which was to say not at all.

So for him to go looking for their brother's symbol of power was unusual to say the least.

There was something here he was missing.

He supposes he could just call up Hades and ask, but considering how things were with the rest of the family, Poseidon wasn’t even sure if asking would give him a straight answer.

“Something wrong?” Poseidon asked seeming to notice the look on his sons face. Whose thoughts had wandered from the issue of the quest to wondering about the camp again.

“No. It’s just something I’m wondering about.”

It didn’t really matter at the moment. After all, it wasn’t like he was going to be fighting back to the boundary line anytime soon.

But maybe something to ask about once this was all over.

“About the quest?”

“No, this is more dealing with how I got to camp in the first place. Something Chiron said about that night has been bothering me.”

Maybe it was just a result of their world being the way it was, maybe he had to just accept that no matter how messed up it seemed, Chiron was in the right for having the first test of a demigod to be making it to camp.

But at the same time he would like to know for sure.

“Percy you’re going to have to give me a bit more to work with here. I’m not entirely sure what Chiron might have done that night that has you concerned.”

“You don’t know what happened?”

After the entire incident with Capture the Flag, he had gotten the impression that his Dad was keeping a fairly close eye on him, but it sounded like he was wrong.

“No. I can only observe you so much, Percy. I try to for your safety and I knew you were able to get to camp. I wasn’t entirely sure how you had succeeded.”

In some ways they had gotten lucky with the game, that it had fallen right at a time where he could give Percy his full attention and deal with the aftermath, because if he hadn’t…

“So what happened?”

“Um…”

Percy knew that Chiron was already not his immortal family member’s favorite person at the moment, due to the history of laxed handling of previous incidents before he had nearly died, arguably culminating in the events of a couple of weeks ago.

And this definitely wasn’t going to help.

But then again he had been the one to bring this whole thing up anyway so…

“Whether or not Chiron ends up in trouble is not something you need to concern yourself with. He is a fully grown immortal centaur. He can deal with the repercussions of his own actions or inactions.”

“So you know how the night I arrived I fought the minotaur right?”

“Correct.”

“So after I finished beating him, I kind of had to drag me and Grover down the hill to the Big House before I received any kind of help. I don’t know when they knew I got there, the last thing I remember is passing out looking up at him and Annabeth.”

He still wasn’t entirely sure how he had managed to get down the hill, he had been hurt enough to be out for two days apparently, had trouble moving Grover even before the fight and he remembers his adrenaline had been crashing.

All he can think of is that a combination of sheer stubbornness and willpower was what got him to the Big House.

Honestly he should have passed out just past the boundary line.

Triton and his Dad exchanged a glance at that before the former asked, “Did he not hear you?”

“Maybe? But after I woke up he also made a comment about reaching camp being ‘the first test’ for demigods, which confuses me, and I’ve been wondering why that’s even a thing, like even if I passed…”

“You were in rough shape and no one came to you.” Triton finished with a frown.

“Yeah exactly that.”

His Dad pinched his nose at that muttering something that he couldn’t hear, but he was fairly sure they were some sort of Ancient Greek curses.

“Dad-”

“You’re not in trouble. Chiron is, and possibly Dionysus depending on his role in this.”

He was hoping this was more or less out of the gods hands,  he had to at least have an inkling of how disastrous this could be considering he had his own demigod children in the camp.

“The others can’t be aware of this.” Triton noted with a frown.

“No they most likely are not.” Poseidon agreed.

Admittedly how much some would care was bound to vary widely, but he was fairly confident in saying he wouldn’t be the only god upset with Chiron’s decisions.

“I am honestly surprised this hasn’t come up before.”

“As am I, some of the campers who come are young, Athena’s girl wasn’t the first one to end up at camp because of problems at home and she won’t be the last.”

“What exactly happened anyway? I know you said you passed out seeing them but before that?”

Percy just shrugged, “I don’t remember that well. I remember going down the hill with difficulty, but whether it added to the existing injuries I have no clue.”

It probably had if he was being honest.

But it wasn’t like he could remember that particular part of that night.

“I’ll add this to things I need to discuss with Chiron and Dionysus. For the meantime, focus on what you can control.”

It had been eventually decided that they didn’t have much of a choice on whether they wanted Percy to go on the quest. He was needed for the quest to even have a remote chance of succeeding.

So with an ominous line about still being sane after seeing the Oracle, something apparently Chiron meant if the look he got from Triton was any indicator, Percy went to get the prophecy he apparently needed to even begin a quest.

Most of the prophecy the oracle gave was straight forward, at least on paper.

Go west and face a god who has turned, find the stolen bolt and return it. 

It was the second half of the prophecy that was a bit more concerning.

If the line about being betrayed by a friend wasn’t setting off alarm bells already. The line about watching some other hero descending somewhere most certainly was, adding in the line about facing a god who had turned, it seemed like the quest was setting up to be one big dangerous mess.

(Well, even more of a mess than having to possibly go to the Underworld.)

At least it looked like the quest would resolve the issue of the lightning bolt, but at the same time it might cause even more problems, which Percy wasn’t fully sure how to feel about.

And that wasn’t even starting on the problem of trying to find two people to go on a quest with him. He still remembered how much of the camp had been freaked out by Triton’s presence when he had first been put here.

He didn't even truly know what kind of god he was going to be facing, all he had were suspicions…

He had to admit, it made him a bit nervous about trying to pick a quest mate.

After all, he couldn't really blame a lot of campers if they hesitated to come on the quest knowing he would most likely be fighting a god.

(Admittedly there was nothing clarifying whether all three of them would be fighting a god or just him, so it might be something that only he had to concern himself with.)

“And you shall bear witness to a hero’s choice to descend.” Triton was still mulling over the prophecy's final line. “If it wasn’t for the fact that line said you’ll bear witness, I would think it was referring to your choice to possibly go to the Underworld.”

Which made sense, visiting the Underworld did involve literally descending.

Though he supposed it could reference one of the people Percy would take on the quest, however he didn't think that was the case.

Descending meant something else here.

“But it can’t be right?”

“It’s not likely not.”

“Do you think it's about the thief somehow?”

“It’s definitely possible.”

One could argue turning on the gods was a form of descending in some way. 

“Do you think that the line about being betrayed by a friend is related?” 

He didn’t want to think about someone else betraying him, He hadn’t even been close to Annabeth when the incident had occurred and it still had hurt.

“Possibly. However, Chiron is right with what he told you earlier in regards to prophecies, they aren’t as clear cut as they seem to be on the surface. There’s more than likely some other meaning we aren’t seeing.”

“I mean what could it mean if it doesn’t mean literally descending?”

“It could mean a number of things, descent into madness being one of them, descent from a position they are in is another. Unfortunately the descending is unclear as to whether it's a physical or metaphorical action at the moment, and then there’s the whole thing about facing the god in the west.”

“Chiron seemed to think that Uncle H is the god in the prophecy.”

Had been dead set on it actually, to a maybe concerning degree.

“Yes I noticed that.”

“You don’t think it's Uncle H?”

“I don’t think it’s as likely as Chiron wants it to be. Considering the other alternatives I can understand his reluctance to entertain anyone else being the one the prophecy is referring to, but with our uncle's recent actions…”

If he had truly wanted him to descend to him then he most likely wouldn’t have sent the fury in the first placed, admittedly kidnapping his brother’s mother was a point in favor of it being something to do with him, however something still felt slightly off in a way Triton couldn’t put his finger on yet.

“It doesn’t make a lot of sense?”

“No, though a lot of actions from deities have made little sense recently, but this makes even less sense.”

“Also when you think about it we're in New York, anything west of here could be considered territory for facing a god, just because Uncle H is in California doesn’t mean that’s where I’ll encounter the god.”

“True. For now you need to pick who else you are taking on the quest, we can brainstorm who the god in the west is later before you leave.”

They should at least have a day to try and narrow it down further, he didn't want to miss something that could impact his brother’s and questmates safety.

“You’re not going to try and come?”

“Sometimes I hate the ancient laws.” Triton muttered. “No, our uncle might be acting more lenient than usual recently, but I doubt he would allow it, not without me becoming fully mortal anyway.”

Besides, Triton wasn’t entirely sure how long the leniency would last.

It felt like the entire incident and resulting oath had been some sort of long awaited wake up call, though why now and what it would result in was very much less clear.

“That’s a thing that can happen?”

“Yes, though usually it's reserved as a type of punishment, Apollo has had to deal with it more often than most gods. We can get around most ancient laws with some creativity but I would be shocked if our uncle, even after recent events, would allow me to come along.”

Not unless he turned fully mortal, which Triton, even as much as he was quietly growing attached to his brother, did not want. He still had some lines in the sand he was reluctant to cross even with all of the recent changes.

“I’m sure you’ll find someone willing to accompany you on your quest regardless of the prophecy.”

At the very least the Dionysus twins seemed to be becoming fast friends with his brother, perhaps one or both of them would be a good fit to make up his questmates.

However the choice was ultimately up to his brother.

Picking a third quest party member was proving a bit more difficult than Percy had expected, and he had already been expecting it to not be the easiest task.

He had already picked one.

Grover wasn’t even a question.

Grover hadn’t asked to be put on the quest, but he had mentioned the entire searcher license thing before in camp.

That left one slot open.

Which was a bit of an issue since he was debating which one to take of Castor and Pollux.

He had debated taking another quest member that wasn’t one of the twins, they weren’t the only people he thought he could trust after all.

(Even if the nervousness of being betrayed by a friend made him apprehensive about taking anyone along that could be considered as such, there was also the fact that the prophecy said he would return the stolen items.

Which made him think maybe whatever was going to happen might occur later?

Which truthfully might be a whole other concern if it happened at camp, but at least he probably didn’t have to consider it when picking quest mates.)

But almost all of them had the same problem, just in a different format.

Luke, while skilled, had referred to Annabeth as his sister before, and while he didn’t seem to hold it against him over what happened, or seemed to know what Annabeth’s plan going in was going to be, it still gave him pause for some reason.

So Luke was out.

Chris was out for somewhat similar reasons. He had seemed fine during his stay in Cabin 11 and had enough skill as it was, even if Luke was the more talented of the two.

But he also seemed to hang around Luke a lot, Which made Percy worry he would encounter the same issues with him that he had with Luke.

Travis and Connor might be helpful in tracking down the items, since Hermes was the god of thieves, they might have some ideas that he couldn’t think of.

But he wasn’t entirely sure how they would fare in a fight.

Silena could fight., and he had seen her do it well before, but something told him that her on a quest might not mesh as well.

Which left him trying to decide between Castor and Pollux.

(He had tried to nag Chiron about letting him take more than three people with him, he would much prefer to take both twins over just one, Chiron wouldn’t even consider it.)

Castor’s ability should work on monsters, and he had other fighting skills besides that to fall back on.

While Pollux might be better normally in a fight, as of right now they appeared to be heading to the underworld, and who knew what they would encounter there. who knew how plant magic would work down there, if it could even work down there.

So it had to be Castor he finally realized.

Triton tended to not like seeing the Athena girl in general, even less so when she was in the middle of an argument with someone.

Combine that with the fact he was already on edge about sending his brother on a quest, necessary or not, seeing as he was the only one who had any kind of information on the stolen bolt. 

And hearing her complaining about some kind of quest was just making him even less happy than normal.

After all, the last really public argument between Annabeth and another camper had been with his brother when she had tried to argue that their father had only claimed because of her own plan.

This one was at least quieter in nature in comparison, but he didn’t think he was going to like whatever the argument was about either.

Campers couldn’t give out quests to each other right? Or at least he didn’t think so? So why was she arguing with the Luke boy over one?

“I’m guessing it has something to do with me being given the quest.” Percy said after a minute of watching the two to Triton pondering what the argument was about this time.

“What makes you say that?”

“Chiron had promised her that someday someone would come that he has to issue a quest to, and then she would be able to leave on it, or at least that’s what Luke told me back when I first got here anyway.”

Triton frowned at that. “That seems like an irresponsible promise.”

Though considering the favoritism he had both seen and heard from Chiron, he can’t say he’s surprised that such a promise was made, despite the fact that no one could have foreseen what quest it would be let alone all of the other details.

Percy shrugged at that. “I’m just telling you what Luke told me.”

“I understand though now I’m wondering, would you have taken her on the quest even if the incident hadn’t occurred?”

Percy purses his lips at that. “I honestly don’t know, she was okay I guess before that happened but I don’t know if I would have called us friends, but then again I only got to know Castor and Pollux and the others really after the whole thing blew over…”

“Meaning you wouldn’t have many other options to take on a quest with you.”

“Yeah.”

“Though even if the incident hadn't happened, taking a child of Athena on a quest with you would still have been ill advised, since who knows how Athena would react to it.”

“Because of what happened with Pallas right?”

“Correct.”

“But would I even have known about what happened with Pallas if you hadn’t told me?”

“No, most likely not.” Triton admitted with some reluctance.

After all, their family very rarely talked about his daughter, and none of them would have been inclined to approach Percy if the incident hadn’t happened at all since approaching his brother could cause issues with Zeus.

He frowns ovearhearing some comment about ‘Athena always had a plan’. Which usually, yes. “Sometimes plans aren’t that well put in practice.”

As seen by the whole incident occurring in the first place.

Well at least she hadn’t been dumb enough to try and approach him directly after she had found out he was the one on the quest.

That would have been a whole new level of dumb.

Triton was frowning in thought listening for a bit longer, Percy noted. “Something wrong?”

“Possibly. I need to have a discussion with Chiron first to confirm a suspicion, but if I’m right you need not worry, the blame will be solely on Chiron in this situation.”

“Okay but can I ask about what?”

“I worry he may have told the Athena girl something she should not have been told.”

It was clear at this point that Chiron had favorites, and he had favored the Athena girl heavily. Triton had heard enough stories being around his brother to know that.

But if he had told the girl what he suspected… Since there were only so many ways one could think they were guaranteed a quest, and his brother being at the center of a Great Prophecy did put him at a higher risk of being assigned a quest.

But she shouldn’t know that.

None of the demigods were supposed to know that.

And if Chiron had gone ahead and told her then that was a whole other level of foolish. 

And they may need to consider discussing other matters with his brother sooner than they may have wanted, especially if she knew the prophecy and he didn’t.

He didn’t trust her to not use the information against him in some way.

“Go talk to the twins, I’ll deal with Chiron.”

“You want me on the quest?” Castor’s surprise is seen both in his tone and on his face when Percy had first asked him to come on the quest.

“Yeah, is that a problem?” Percy asked, trying to ignore the unpleasant feelings that the question brought up.

It would be fine.

Castor was his friend. 

Even if he turned the quest offer down, it wasn’t because they weren’t actually friends, right?

“No, I'm complimented by it, It’s just well-”

“I don’t think either of us would have been people’s first pick for a quest mate.” Pollux finished what his brother was getting at.

Percy shrugged at that. “I mean you're my friends. I don’t see why I shouldn’t consider you even if other people might underestimate you two.”

“You gotta remember with Dad being here people get weird about coming up to us sometimes and have some…assumptions.”

Yeah he knew, they had been weird about Triton as well, but at least with Triton he could kind of understand. He was there to protect him after everything that had happened.

Pollux and Castor were an entirely different situation though.

“Especially when we’re talking about new arrivals who aren’t as used to things.”

“Anyways you’ll need to ask Dad…if you take me out of camp without talking to him it won’t go well.”

He hadn’t even considered that might be an issue if he was being honest“Do you think he’ll be a problem?”

“As long as you can give him a good reason I don’t think so, though now I’m wondering why you picked me over Pollux.”

“It’s at least partly because Triton and I think we might end up going down to the underworld.”

“Because of the “facing the God who had turned in the west” line?” Pollux asked and Percy nodded.

Rather than trying to hide it, which just felt irresponsible, Percy had decided that it was probably better for them to know what the prophecy he had been given said in case they would be tagging along for the quest. 

Grover already knew because he had been there when they had been talking about the prophecy, but beyond the ones who had been in the room no one else had known until he told the twins.

“That could mean just about anything, most of everything in the US is west of Long Island.” Castor pointed out.

“True, but I also encountered a fury before, and there was something weird about my encounter with the minotaur, which makes me think even if everything is west of here-”

“You specifically are supposed to go to the underworld. Even if he might not be the culprit.”

“Yep.”

“So how does this go back to picking me over Pollux?”

Percy shrugged. “I mean it’s the underworld, It’s full of dead things. No offense Pollux but do you think you’ll be able to use your magic there as effectively?”

“Probably not.” Pollux agreed with a cringe.

“And most people have a mind of some sort, including monsters.” 

“Also you’re used to more traditional weapons than I am, which I guess is the other thing you’re keeping in mind, Perce?” Pollux added.

Percy nodded.

“And if he’s right about my powers not working as well in the underworld, then regardless, you're going to be the better equipped of us in a fight down there if you get into one.”

“True. Though what if I say no?”

Percy tries to ignore the feeling in his gut as it resurged at the question. Castor was asking a hypothetical that didn’t mean he was going to actually say no. “Are you thinking about it?”

Castor shook his head. “No. I’m just curious why you chose me, I guess. Like I said I don’t think I would have been a lot of people’s first pick for a questing partner.”

“Most would have gone to Ares or Athena before us.” Pollux agreed.

“Which aren’t options for obvious reasons.”

“Yeah I’m not entirely sure who else I would take, maybe ask Chiron I guess for advice?” Though considering the look Triton had been giving the centaur he’s not entirely sure how good of an idea that was. “A lot of people I could take on the quest will have a problem for one reason or another.”

“Look I’m good with joining you on the quest. However, like I said, you’re going to have the one to tell Dad about it, he keeps an eye on who can leave camp and you’re not going to be able to bring me without at least talking to him first about it. If not flat out convincing him depending on his mood..”

Yeah he was nervous about that he wasn’t going to deny. He wasn’t sure what Dionysus was like with his kids when compared to the rest of the campers.

Well at least Triton should be able to protect him from the other god if something went wrong, right?

Sometimes Triton hated being right about something.

He had been sincerely hoping when his brother mentioned a promised quest to the Athena girl, and there was something unavoidable about it, that it hadn’t somehow been in reference to his brother would inevitably have to go on quests due to being the center of the Great Prophecy.

He had been hoping it was some random comment from Chiron done as an appeasement gesture.

Not apparently telling her the entirety of the Great Prophecy. Well he said he had paraphrased it but considering what he had said.

He might have just as well told her it word for word. 

Zeus had forbidden most discussion involving the Great Prophecy, and while Triton might not always agree with his uncle, such as not entirely agreeing with the decision to have such a harsh lockdown on the information, this time he had to side with him.

After all the wrong information in the wrong hands concerning that prophecy could be dangerous, and he didn’t trust the Athena child at all let alone enough to have that kind of information.

“Annabeth can be very persuasive at times.”

It was a poor excuse if he ever heard one.

Persuasive or not this was not the kind of thing you should be telling demigods, especially not young demigods.

Who knew what kind of reactions could result from it, knowing that you would have that task at a young age, knowing someone you may know would have that kind of task, would be extremely difficult to deal with when you were talking about demigods who were in constant peril.

And besides all that it was Chiron’s responsibility to be the adult in the situation and tell her that no, she couldn’t know about the Great Prophecy just because was being pushy.

It was his responsibility to not cave because she was his favorite.

And who knew when Chiron had specifically spilled the prophecy, or how many other people the Athena girl might have told as a result, because he doubted she was the only one who knew.

“Do any other campers know of the Great Prophecy?”

“No, or if they have found out about it, it was not through me.”

Well that was something he supposed, though it wasn’t nearly as reassuring as Triton would like it to be. If this had been another camper he still wouldn’t have liked it, but he wouldn’t have been as concerned.

With the Athena girl however…

It might not be as closely guarded of a secret as it once had been unfortunately.

Talking to Mr. D wasn’t any easier the second time than it had been the first day at camp.

He was already used to feeling uneasy around the god, years of living around Gabe made him reluctant to be around anyone who was heavily into alcohol, no matter what the reason was.

But this was a side he wasn’t really used to dealing with, Gabe had never wanted to be a parent to anyone, he had never had to deal with him having some weird protective side.

So this was uncharted territory with the god for him.

“Oh for the love of-Sit down. I am not going to smite you over considering bringing one of the twins on the quest.”

“Sorry sir.”

Guess his nervousness was more apparent than he had realized.

(He still didn’t entirely like calling Mr. D sir, but he was his friend’s Dad, for this once he was letting those feelings slide.)

“Though I must ask, why Castor?”

“I mean I would have preferred to take both.” He admitted when he had told him he was planning to take Castor on the quest.

Mr. D tilted his head slightly at that, seeming to examine him for a second before asking, “Then why did you choose to only take one?”

“Because I want to help Grover with his search, he’s been my longest and oldest friend, and while there is concern for the prophecy’s lines, if I can’t trust him then I don’t think I can trust anyone.”

“Makes sense I suppose, and his tracking skills might come in handy with finding the thief.”

That too.

“And I would have liked to take along Grover and both Castor and Pollux, but Chiron was rather insistent on me only taking three, something about it being more than three could invite trouble?”

“For once I am with the old centaur.” Mr. D  said after a moment, “There is power in 3s and inviting six could invite more trouble due to demigods' tendencies to attract monsters, even if I would prefer my children to be with each other for a quest if you are taking them. So tell me then, why specifically Castor?”

“Well I don’t know how much Castor’s abilities will work on ghosts but he tends to rely more on traditional weapons than Pollux does, and I’m worried Pollux’s magic won’t work at all if we end up in the underworld, which kind of eliminates him, even if Castor’s abilities don’t work in the underworld…”

“He will still be the better of the two equipped to fight.” Mr. D finished considering him for a moment, “You’ve put a considerable amount of thought into this.”

Percy just shrugged. “I wanted to make sure I was picking the right person. Castor and Pollux weren’t the only ones I considered but Castor was the only one that I felt like could fit.”

He still wasn’t sure why he had that gut feeling when it came to Luke.

Maybe it dealt with how he had called Annabeth his sister before everything had happened?

“Why not someone else?”

“Huh?”

“Entertain me for a moment. Explain why not for the remaining campers you would consider taking.”

“Oh um well, Silena can fight but as much as I like her I’m not sure if she’s really suited for a quest. Luke I’m afraid might show some issues about the capture the flag game that hasn’t come up yet.” Percy continues mentally ticking off anyone he could have brought along. 

“Chris I’m not entirely sure what his skills are and I also have some of the same concerns as I do with Luke since they’re friends. Travis and Connor might be useful for tracking down something that was stolen considering Hermes is their Dad, but I’m not so sure about the fighting from them either. The rest of the camp beyond Castor and Pollux I don’t know well enough to consider taking, and I would rather not trust someone I barely know on a quest if I can afford it.”

Just because he was getting along better with the rest of the camp now that what had happened in the forest was actually out in the open, doesn’t mean he had anyone else that he would consider friends.

And of the known remaining campers that he knew could put up a fight he was less likely to take considering because they were mostly Ares kids.

It was curious, it was the first time he had seen the god approaching anything close to caring about a demigod since arriving. Though he guessed since Castor and Pollux were his kids it made sense.

“I want someone I can trust on the quest, and if I can’t trust them as my friends then what luck do I have with the rest of the camp?”

Maybe Luke? But he had concerns even now about bringing him along on a quest.

Mr. D. eyes him with a look he can’t entirely read, “You truly consider them your friends?”

“Yes sir. I know I’ve only known them for two weeks but I trust them almost as much as I trust Grover.”

Percy wonders if in another timeline they would have become friends at all, part of what had started their friendship was a mutual understanding of what having a godly relative at camp was like.

And if the incident had gone any differently he would probably have been at camp on his own since no godly relative meant no reason to be approached by them.

Which just made him sad, it was hard to imagine not having them around now.

“Is it really that hard to believe I would want a friend on a quest?”

Mr. D. eyed him for a moment, seeming to be considering something before answering, “I’ve been around for millennia, Johnson. I’ve seen both the good and bad sides of heroes multiple times, had to deal with the fallout of their bad sides before, seen what some have done to those they call friends. So excuse me for being a bit reluctant to let one of my children on the quest.”

“I don’t want to be a hero though, I want to be a normal kid.”

Well as normal as you could be when you had godly relatives.

Mr. D muttered under his breath. “Yeah well you're probably not going to get that.”

Percy frowned wondering just what exactly he meant by that.

“Regardless of your intentions, I know how dangerous a quest can be. I was a demigod once myself if you may recall, I know the trials of being one more than most of my fellow Olympians.”

That made sense, and definitely explained some of the hesitancy on the god’s part that he was trying to hide.

Though that was making him wonder even more about the attitude the god usually displayed around demigods. With the exceptions of his own kids apparently.

“I mean with the prophecy you could almost argue I have more of a reason to not want to bring a friend along, who knows when the betrayal it mentioned will occur.”

Though the prophecy also did say they would return what was stolen, so maybe he shouldn’t be worried about the betrayal on the quest.

“Fair, though anyone who tried to betray you at this point would be a fool.”

Percy blinked at the comment, not entirely sure if it was supposed to be a compliment or he was making a reference to his family again.

It could be either of them.

“Just keep an eye on him please, there’s a reason I haven’t had a lot of demigods in recent decades.”

“Of course, you’re not going to try and make me swear for their safety or something?”

Mr. D actually snorted at that, “No, I know better than that when it comes to a quest. I expect you to keep an eye on him and protect him as he would you, but beyond that and your father and the rest of your immortal family would have my head if I tried to make you swear on his safety. And honestly reasonably so.”

That made sense though now he had a whole new question.

“Why would the others have your head?” Percy asked, tilting his head in confusion.

Triton he sorta got because he was his protector, and Amphitrite had been nice, even more so recently as he was seeing her more often as she was trying to help them figure out the whole living situation.

But he still wasn’t sure how close he would say they actually are.

Like his Dad he could understand going after Mr. D if something happened, from what he knows that makes a lot of sense, but he couldn’t fully understand why the rest of them would be angry at Mr. D over this.

At least not on the same level as his Dad apparently.

He was a demigod, his life was in danger constantly, why would one more dangerous thing make that much of a difference?

Mr. D seems to eye him for a moment before finally speaing, “Ask him about your necklace before you leave. It might help you understand what I’m saying better.”

Percy blinked a bit in confusion, what did the conch shell have anything to do with this?

Percy was in the middle of packing for the quest, trying to figure out what he could take, what he needed to take, what would fit in the backpack.

Well mostly, there was one slight issue.

Luke had gifted him a pair of winged shoes, said it had helped in his quest and had been a gift from Hermes, and the gesture was appreciated but at the same time…

“I can’t use these can I?” Percy asked Triton as he returned from talking with Chiron.

Percy had thought about telling Luke the shoes were better off being kept with him, but he hadn’t been able to quite bring himself to turn down a gift from one of his few friends, so here he was with a shoebox and winged shoes that he wasn’t entirely sure what to do with. 

He knew they would be receiving a ride from Argus first thing in the morning to the Manhattan bus station where they would be taking a bus west, at least part of the way.

Since the easiest option of just flying to California was very much a no go, which made Percy think the shoes were also a no go. 

(Something Percy had been told by Triton prior to the quest being issued anyway, but he had definitely reemphasized once they found out just how far they would be going to try and find the bolt.

At least they weren’t on a deadline he supposed.)

“No,” Triton confirmed.

Then again some demigods may only realize just how much their uncle was against them being in the air in any regard, and only think it was a plane issue.

Which would be the most logical thought he had to admit.

Unfortunately their uncle was not often that logical.

“Us and the air…outside of certain circumstances is a poor air. And I would try to stay out of it in any some form including those: The only method of flight that is by air that would possibly be safe for you would be using pegasi. I wouldn’t take a chance on anything else, just because our uncle has been a little less trigger happy since father’s oath doesn’t mean I would roll my chances with anything else in the air.”

Pegasi were the exception to the rule, and as far as Triton was aware, they were the only exception. No one wanted to test to find out what Zeus would take, that had the likelihood of ending poorly.

“Makes sense.”

“You can still give it to either of your friends however, they might find a use for it even if you cannot.”

“Good to know. This honestly seems like something Grover would enjoy.”

And if he didn’t then maybe Castor.

Either way there still were options for someone to use it on the quest, even if he couldn’t use them.

“Speaking of items for the quest, father wanted me to make sure you had these.”

Opening the bag Percy was surprised to see a set of four pearls in it before looking up at Triton questionably.

He was figuring whatever these were, they weren't purely for jewelry or decoration.

“Transportation out of the underworld, Hades most likely will not let you leave the underworld very easily, it’s best to have some sort of plan in case he causes problems. Keep them safe, getting more of them is extremely difficult.”

Technically the conch should work in the underworld to bring him to them, but none of them were completely sure if it would, so the pearls were essential to Percy and his fellow questers getting out if things went wrong with their uncle.

“Thank you.”

He hadn’t even thought about how getting out of the underworld would work, he had been too wrapped up in just trying to get there and pretty much everything else with the quest.

Having one less thing to worry about once it did finally hit was nice.

Speaking of which there was another thing he was wondering about not directly related to the quest itself, “Are you going to stay here while I’m on the quest?”

“Not unless Dionysus requests it for some reason. I still have my godly duties to attend to, and this time on the quest would be best spent away from camp.”

Additionally he apparently needed to inform father about the fact Chiron had told the Athena girl about the Great Prophecy since it could have an impact on how they handled the topic with his brother.

Idealistically he doesn’t want to worry about the idea of her using the knowledge in some form against his brother, but he definitely doesn’t trust her enough to think she won’t do that.

Especially with some of her recent behavior.

They might have to end up telling him about the Great Prophecy sooner than any of them would have wanted, and definitely sooner than members of the council wanted.

All because Chiron couldn’t be resist being persuaded by one of his favorites.

And part of Triton worried he might start resenting the centaur if this kept going on.

Triton caught the guilty look flashing across Percy’s face sighs. “Percy, we've talked about this before, it was my choice to take the position.”

They definitely needed to apparently discuss his brother's self worth issues after the quest. This wasn’t the first time it had popped up, but the more Triton was seeing it, the more concerned he was getting. 

This could not be healthy.

“Will you be coming back after the quest?”

“That is the plan.”

And he saw no reason to change it, especially if they weren’t able to identify the thief by then, it only would add to reasons to keep an eye on his brother.

He just was using the time to attend to things that were more difficult to address while he was spending the majority of the time at the camp.

“Another thing, the conch shell.”

“What about it?”

“It should still work on the quest. That being said, if you use it in the underworld I'm not sure if any of us will be able to respond to a summon.”

“Chiron mentioned that it might not work everywhere after you left it for me so I can’t say I’m surprised.”

“Yes. It is unfortunate, but if you are deep within another’s domain there’s only so much protection we can afford.”

That actually made sense Pervy realized.

“Mr. D basically implied that there was something more to this than just the summoning charm when I was explaining to him why I picked Castor over Pollux.”

Triton made a slightly annoyed noise at that which made Percy ask, “Am I in trouble?”

“No. Admittedly we should have had this conversation before now, it just never seemed like a good time.”

“So there is more to it then?”

“Yes, but you really don’t need to concern yourself with that at the moment. It’s honestly more important that other people see it then it is for you to understand what it is at the moment. That being said, I'm sure your satyr friend could most likely explain it to you if you ask, though a more detailed explanation will have to wait until after the quest.”

Huh.

Well that just made him even more curious about what was going on.

“Also there should be the pen in there. It’s a sheathed sword. It belonged to our family for a long time after its second owner decided to dispose of it for the lack of a better word.”

Percy frowned at that. “What do you mean dispose?”

It sounded like Triton wanted to say something else.

“It’s probably best I tell you its story at some point, in case you, as unlikely as it would be, do run into its original owner.”

“Why wouldn’t I run into them?”

“She tends to have a rather large dislike of male heroes, when you have been around as long as we have you tend to at times be weary of heroes, but her dislike of them is more than most for good justification.”

Dislike sounded like it was again a more mild version of what Triton wanted to say. But he still got the idea. 

“There is a lot more to this sword. However, going into its history before you leave on a quest is not the best time.”

“Something else to talk about when I get back then?”

“Of course.”

“I do wish we knew more about what I was getting into.”

Well aside from the trip to the Underworld.

“It is unfortunate that there hasn’t been any more headway made in that area. You might have a better idea once you're on the road and in the quest. However by then-”

“I probably won’t be able to contact you?”

“Probably not. Gods are supposed to stay out of quests for a multitude of reasons, unless the prophecy specifically dictates our involvement.” Which this one hadn’t. Well outside of the God in the West comment. Which wasn’t anyone in the immediate family at the very least. “That doesn’t stop interference entirely however.  Through with how our uncle has been keeping an eye on our family recently,”

“You’ll have a harder time getting away without an excuse for contact?”

“Correct unfortunately. There are some exceptions however so do feel free to contact father if something happens. And we can try to find a way around that.”

Chapter Text

The following morning Triton saw Percy off on the quest without much fanfare before turning back to the campgrounds for a stop by the Big House.

He had one thing to deal with before he went back to Atlantis while the quest was ongoing, which was dealing with a certain family member and why he hadn’t at least tried to reign Chiron in some.

Technically he could have left this alone. After all, telling the girl about the prophecy was now in the past. At this point there wasn’t that much they could really do about it except maybe be aware she could try to weaponize that information.

However he was worried something was going to happen that would cause more trouble if he waited.

Chiron’s blatant favoritism was only part of the issue that had been bothering him for the past couple of weeks.There was also the lack of action from Dionysus that had raised some internal questions.

The Chiron conversation was more providing an opportunity to discuss the topic without feeling like he was dropping the topic without reason.

Dionysus made a sour face at the subject of the Athena girl being told the prophecy. “I told him it was a bad idea. That if father found out he had told anyone even the bare minimum of details it would land him and the demigod in serious trouble, but he chose to do it anyway. He’s a full grown immortal centaur Triton, there's only so much I can do.”

That was fair enough.

“Do you know if he told anyone other than the Athena girl?”

“As far as I know he only told Annabelle. Now whether she told anyone else like Leon or whoever else she might consider a friend I don’t know, but as far as I’m aware she is the only one that was told.”

Well that was something he supposed, even if there was no real way to verify it, or somehow make sure the whole camp didn’t know with the way he had seen its rumor mill work. 

“Well that’s some good news I suppose. Though I do wonder now especially why you never tried to stop Chiron and his favoritism before something more drastic happened.”

Dionysus might say he did not care for demigods, but he had seen the way he treated his twins, at least with his children he cared. Though how well that extended to other campers was another matter altogether.

But he had to realize the consequences of not acting towards Chiron was going to not only endanger the campers he didn’t care for, but the ones he did care for as well.

“For one the camp has more respect towards Chiron in general,so him getting anything done is easier and when we’re on opposite ends of an agreement on a topic-”

“It gets difficult to do anything.”

“To say the least.”

“Alright that is fair I suppose. What is the other reason?”

“For another I spend my energy on other things rather than trying to argue with Chiron about how he runs the camp. As long as it doesn’t result in anything too dangerous it’s fine.”

“I mean what happened with my brother-”

“Was an oversight. I had heard some of the complaints from other campers about her behavior, even from my own twins, but I hadn’t thought that Chiron playing favorites would snowball into that. With how long he has been a trainer for, I thought he would know how to prevent these kinds of situations.”

Yeah okay, that was fair.

“Besides, Chiron's position in the camp is only part of the problem. I have other things I need to attend to that are taking up more of my time because of good old Dad’s most recent punishment.”

Triton frowned, not understanding the other god. “What do you mean by that?”

“Well have you ever been cut off from your domains? Even a slight bit?”

“No.”

“Right, forget you’ve managed to avoid the whole getting turned mortal as punishment thing.” Dionysus muttered into the Coke can, before taking a swig from it and continuing. “Look, just know that getting cut off from your domains, especially your main one, can mess with you.”

“I mean I could have gathered that on my own.”

“Yeah but here’s the thing. To ‘give me motivation’ dear old dad tied some of my abilities into the camp’s borders. Which, in his mind, is fine on a surface level since it makes sure I do something about the camp rather than just sit around, however I am not fully in contact with my domains which impacts everything .”

Oh.

Oh.

That was definitely a huge problem. How had this not come up before?

“Why would he do that? He has to know that could potentially endanger the camp right? You did try to tell him that, right?”

Logic would say if you cut off a god from their main domain they would be less able to protect because of the loss of power, putting them in charge of a camp and tying those together, was incredibly irresponsible. How had this not come up before?

“Tried to. He didn’t seem to understand or if he did he wasn’t willing to accept that it might cause more problems.”

Triton is completely taken aback by all of this. He knew that his Uncle could make illogical decisions, it had been the source of a headache for all of them for months before their father had sworn the oath, but this was a whole other level.

What if something happened to the magical barrier? What effect could it have on the camp and others if Dionysus and the camp’s magic were that intertwined?

“Would Atlantean wine work?” Triton asks as an idea starts to formulate in his head. He’s fairly sure he can get father on board with this if he just asks.

Dionysus gives him a look at that frowning slightly before asking. “What do you mean?”

“If I were able to get Atlantean wine for you to help with how much you're cut off from your domains, would that help with the issue of your powers being tied to camp?”

“I mean it should, but are you seriously willing to essentially go behind my fathers back for this? I am not completely dry, you know. My kids do get me stuff when I need it because otherwise we would have a much bigger problem.”

Well that was good to know at least.

“If your father has that much of an issue with it, if he finds out, he can take it up with mine. Considering you just told me it’s tied to the security of my brother, I think he will have a hard time with it.”

Dionysus stared at him for a moment with something Triton couldn’t quite place, before finally saying. “Atlantean wine should work just fine.”

Good.

That was at least one problem solved.

“You know I never thought I would see the day that you cared for a demigod. Let alone to the extent of apparently being willing to sneak me wine.”

“That makes two of us.”

He definitely wouldn’t have guessed any of this when Percy’s existence had first been revealed, that much was for certain.

Being back in Manhattan for the first time since arriving at camp felt odd Percy had to admit. 

It wasn’t the first time he had been in the city with no way of going by the apartment. There had been field trips like the Met that had meant just that, but this time felt different. Mainly because it was different from the other times.

Maybe because he knew that no matter what happened at the end of this he wouldn’t be going back there, not to Gabe. Maybe his mother if she came back but they still hadn’t sorted that whole situation out.

But not to Gabe.

Actually no, he didn’t want to think what Gabe was doing to the apartment with both of them gone. He didn’t really need to concern himself with it.

There wasn’t much he would ever want to get back from that apartment, it had never really felt like anything beyond a place to live in. Mom had always made him feel more like they were home regardless of where they were than being in that place ever had been.

He ran his fingers over the conch shell, trying to ignore the slight tingling sensation that he was growing more accustomed to popping up at random since the incident. 

His immortal side of the family had promised he wouldn’t be returning to Gabe anyway, even if he couldn’t get his Mom back. So what did it matter?

Truth be told he was still worried. He wanted to believe them when they said he wouldn’t be returning, he really did, but at the same time…

It didn’t seem like there was any way out of this.

No matter what he did it was going to be a problem.

But for now at least he was going to just operate under the assumption he probably would never see Gabe again.

And his life would be all the better for it.

Castor was looking at him with some concern, guess he picked up some of the feelings that thinking about Gabe inevitably brought on. “Everything alright Percy?”

“It’s nothing.”

Maybe having two friends who could read emotions to a certain extent on the quest hadn’t been the best decision in hindsight, but he still was happy with his choices regardless.

Castor kept frowning at him though. “If you’re sure-”

“I’m sure. It’s fine really, just thinking about something in the past that isn’t exactly pleasant.”

Hopefully that would be enough to get his friends to back down. It wasn’t entirely wrong, everything with Gabe was supposed to be in the past now.

With any luck anyway.

“He told another child about the Great Prophecy.” Triton nodded. “Why?”

Triton was back in Atlantis for the time being and was addressing the most recently troubling development out of camp. The fact the Great Prophecy might be known by more people than they had thought.

Naturally his father was unhappy. Of anyone out there to find out about the Great Prophecy the Athena girl was probably the bottom of the list of people they wanted to know about it.

“To quote him ‘she was very persuasive’.”

Amphitrite frowned. “That is not the best excuse for doing so.”

“No.” Poseidon agreed massaging his temples to try and fight off the inevitable headache that was starting. “Do we know if he told her the exact lines or paraphrased it?”

“He says he paraphrased it but he has a soft spot for the girl going by what I’ve been told and seen, even after everything that has happened. So I wouldn’t be surprised if she knows the prophecy’s phrasing word for word.”

Chiron might have been smart enough to not do anything that would cause the situation to worsen, like lighten the punishment towards the Athena girl, but Triton had still noticed small subtle signs of favoritism.

Which had been backed up by what he remembered Castor and Pollux saying to his brother. Along with the conversation with the other Athena child when he had apologized to Percy.

The favoritism extending to a level of giving information that should have been kept from her would not surprise him at all. After all, he had barely needed any pushing to tell her about it.

“Do you think she might hold this over his head somehow?”

“She held the fact that she believed you only claimed him because of her over his head. She would definitely do the same with this if she thinks it will benefit her in some way.”

Poseidon sighed, he might not agree with his brother’s entire reasoning for not discussing the Great Prophecy, most of which amounted to ‘if they never talked about it maybe it would go away or maybe they would end up with the best case scenario somehow’ which seemed like a fool’s errand, but it wasn’t like Zeus had been listening to him up until recently. 

Besides, he still wasn’t sure if this listening thing was because one of the children involved in the incident was a child of one of his own favorite children, or if he was finally seeing a turning point with his brother.

It was far too early to tell at this point.

However there was also a degree of concern about what this information could do in the wrong hands, like the enemy knowing the truth behind why there weren’t as many Big 3 children around anymore. And that was a concern he could agree with even if he felt certain people should know about it, particularly if they would possibly have a role in said prophecy.

But his reasoning behind being reluctant to tell Percy hasn’t been entirely about that. It was more about the reaping of the soul line and the implications there. 

Having to worry about whether someone should know if they are destined to die was not something that immortals ever had to deal with. 

And it was one of the most guaranteed acts in the prophecy.

(Well maybe outside of possibly viewing the razing part of the prophecy as that, but even then that wasn’t a guarantee. 

Whereas with his son…

There really was only one way to interpret a line that talked about reaping a hero’s soul.)

As it was he now had to debate whether Chiron’s actions were now going to force his hand to tell Percy about the prophecy before someone else did, and he did not want him to find out about it from anyone else.

Someone should be with him to help deal with that kind of news.

But at the same time he didn’t want to saddle his son with the prophecy, with the reality of the stark future that it foretold for him no matter what his choice was.

It was moments like this he wished he had Sally to talk to. She would know much better than him on how to approach this. 

There was a possibility she lived, they all knew it, but it wasn’t a guarantee.

At least not until Percy had a chance to confront Hades.

Though he has a feeling he already knows the answer to the query even without her here. He was going to have to tell Percy long before he ever intended for him to know about it. Zeus probably would never let him hear the end of it.

But he would not allow Percy to learn of this with potentially no one around to help him cope with this kind of news.

That was the last thing he needed.

“Don’t put the bag down.”

Castor frowned, turning back to him. “Why?”

“I don’t know, I've just got a feeling that if we put them away we’ll regret it.”

It was weird, he couldn’t figure out why. It didn’t even make sense for him to be on edge. He was used to taking buses long distances, it had been how he often went home during breaks when he was at boarding school.

But this time… something felt different and he couldn’t put his finger on what.

Maybe it was because he had spent a year at Yancy where he had learned that if you didn’t keep an eye on your things something might get stolen, and the only people he could trust not to do that were Chiron and Grover.

Or maybe it was just some sort of weird intuition. 

But he just couldn't bring himself to put his bag up even if it was a more comfortable choice.

Castor frowned at him for a second before glancing over at Grover with a questioning look. “We’re on a bus, do you really think something could get on board to attack us here?”

“I don’t know, maybe?”

It wasn’t like he had a whole lot of experience with this kind of thing.

“Percy’s right we should probably just keep them on us. If we lost all our supplies we’ll be kind of screwed.” Grover admitted.

“And even if we don’t get attacked by a monster that might not be our only concern.”

They were on a bus full of strangers, who knew what could happen.

“There were quite a few thieves at the school we went to together.” Percy explained. “Made me a lot more aware of my belongings when Grover and I were away from our dorms. And I’m not saying anyone here will steal our things necessarily but if there was someone who for some reason did-”

“We would have problems.”

“Alright I get it. I’ll keep my hands on my bag.”

As it turned out his feeling that they should keep a hold on their items was the right call, not because someone tried to steal them, but because a monster did show up on the bus, somehow. 

Percy wasn’t sure how he had missed Mrs. Dodds when they had boarded, and he knew Grover would apologize about this for weeks to come, even if it wasn’t entirely on him for not seeing the fury.

But here he was, having a staredown with a fury for the second time in his life who kept demanding to know where ‘it’ was.

Percy blinked in surprise not having expected this at all. “Wait hold on, you think I stole something?”

They had just said it, considering their suspicions about there being something else going on here… The furies saying ‘where is it’ took on a different context beyond maybe calling him an it.

(Never mind the fact he wasn’t the thief had already been proven weeks ago now. That didn’t seem to be stopping her for some reason.)

“Of course, you have been accused of stealing the bolt after all.”

Huh.

Apparently while most of Olympus knew he wasn’t the thief, apparently no one had informed the furies, or Hades it seemed.

“But I didn’t? I didn’t even know the bolt existed, let alone went missing, until a few weeks ago.” Something he would have thought the fury would know considering she had been camped out at his school. “Dad even swore an oath on the Styx and all that to corroborate it.”

That only caused Mrs. Dodds to stare at him with more suspicion somehow. “And you expect us to believe there was an oath that our lord wasn’t present for?”

Okay that was fair. 

There really was only one option he could think of to fix this, well aside from fighting the furies again, he didn’t think there was any way to convince someone he wasn’t the thief, not with the track record so far with the Gods.

And it had taken Dad taking a similar oath before Zeus would believe him, so in order for Hades to believe him he would probably have to do the same, right?

There was the issue that no one had really explained how Styx oaths worked, but it couldn’t be that difficult right? 

It seemed fairly straight forward to him.

“I swear on the Styx that I have not stolen any god's object of power.”

There was a crash of thunder when he finished it, but beyond that it was quiet with the three furies staring at him. 

Mrs. Dodds stares at him for a moment longer, as if expecting something to happen. When it doesn’t there's a strange (at least to him) sound of audible disappointment. “You weren’t lying.”

Percy just barely managed to resist rolling his eyes at that. “No. I do tell the truth more than people seem to think.”

Not that Mrs Dodds had ever been one to think he was telling the truth to begin with, even when she had been just his math teacher at school. It had almost always taken Grover backing him up in some form to be believed.

And now she was probably only believing he wasn’t the thief because of the oath he had just taken.

“What do we do now?” The fury on the right asked, or rather hissed at Mrs. Dodds.

“I don’t know, give me a moment.”

Percy had to wonder what this looked like to the rest of the passengers. Triton had explained the mist thing before, but he doubted the fact it entirely covered up them having a conversation in weird positions in the back of a moving bus.

“Why are you so interested in the bolt anyway? Triton made it sound like Uncle wouldn’t normally be this invested in his brother’s object of power.”

Maybe he had been wrong but you would think after millennia gods would have a good idea of what to expect from one another.

The fury on the left was looking at him in barely disguised confusion. “How do you know Lord Triton?”

Wow, they were really out of the loop then.

“Long story, not really relevant to the topic at hand but he got assigned to camp after a whole mess occurred outside of the stolen objects.”

He was definitely not telling the furies what had happened, that much was for certain. He was pretty sure that would be used against him somehow, especially when he was fairly certain it wasn’t going to help their whole situation.

Or help him figure out why furies were after the master bolt for some reason. Triton had been so adamant that it didn’t seem like something their Uncle would do.

Maybe he had been wrong?

“I mean he didn’t say not to tell him.” The fury on the right said, seeming to be sensing whatever Mrs. Dodds had been thinking.

Maybe she did, he had no real idea how monsters worked.

“But we also assumed he already knew it was missing because up until now that’s what everyone else did.”

Yeah why was it that everyone tried to pin it on him? Surely someone would have realized that maybe someone who had actually been at the solstice was behind this?

“Wait-is Hades’ helm missing?” Castor asked, interrupting the bickering between the furies and apparently figuring out what Percy had been missing.

That caused all three of them to shut up rather quickly, that was a yes then.

Well that explained quite a bit, it had never been about the bolt but rather the helm. Hades had just been using his brother’s missing item probably as a means of searching for it without drawing attention. Which was surprisingly relatable on a simpler scale if he thought about it.

And well, technically he had been sent on the quest to retrieve the master bolt, not retrieve Hades’ missing helm. That being said…

“Look I’m going west anyways. The prophecy for the quest basically implies that in order to get what was stolen I have to face the god who has turned.”

Which, if this whole conversation was to go by, definitely wasn’t Hades. Though that raised the question of who it was in reference to and how he was going to get his Mom back, it seemed like he was no longer supposed to be going to the underworld.

(Or maybe he was but it wasn’t to confront his uncle? This was all proving to be very confusing.)

He wasn’t sure if the helm was also being referred to as an item that was safely returned, or maybe it was referring to both items. 

But it had to be worth a shot right? What was one more item to look out for at this point?

“And you think that’s our lord.”

“I mean Triton was pretty adamant it wasn’t, so I wasn’t really thinking so to begin with, but now I’m definitely not. I just don’t exactly have a lot of other options for what god it could be referring to.”

“Though, for that matter, why would you even be willing to look for the helm to begin with?”

“I mean he has my Mom so I do have a vested interest in finding it.”

Sue him he wants his Mom back.

Mrs. Dodds continues looking straight at him for a moment, seeming to be contemplating her next action. “We will hold you to your Perseus Jackson otherwise-”

She leaves the threat hanging but he already has some ideas of what she’s thinking.

“Wouldn’t expect any less.”

Hades can’t say he’s surprised when Alecto and her sisters return sans helm, even if he's annoyed. Realistically it wasn’t going to be that easy to get it back.

But he had really been hoping that the third time would be the charm as the mortals liked to say. He had been hoping that retrieving the helm would be easier for the three of them instead of just one of them.

However apparently luck really wasn’t on his side on this, hadn’t been for months.

“There’s been a rather unexpected development to the entire situation.” Alecto said a moment after reporting that they had failed to retrieve the helm.

He’s not entirely sure what could count as even more unexpected after what had happened the past few months, but he motions for them to explain.

Unexpected certainly was the word for the recent developments Hades had to admit. He definitely wouldn’t have expected his nephew to know how to swear on the Styx so quickly.

Let alone actually follow through with it.

“And he actually swore he wasn’t behind the thefts instead of just stating it?” He feels like it needs to be repeated to make sure he hadn’t somehow hadn’t heard Alecto wrong.

“Actually swore on the styx.” Alecto grunted, looking annoyingly impressed. She apparently had not thought the demigod would know how to actually swear an oath or go through with it. “And considering he didn’t disintegrate on the spot,”

“He was telling the truth.”

Great.

So they were back to square one on the helm, he didn’t have the faintest idea on where to start looking for the thief again.

And to make things worse now his nephew was aware of the missing helm thanks to the poorly worded conversation between the furies on the bus.

Who knew how long it would be before other gods found out.

“For whatever it's worth he did say he would look for it, he said that since you have his mother he has a vested interest in finding it.”

Well that wasn’t originally why he had taken the mortal but that definitely still worked. There was still the issue that they now no longer knew who the actual thief was, but if his nephew could find them and the helm then they could perform the exchange without issue.

Of course he had to find the helm first, which could be as simple as finding the missing master bolt, he wouldn’t be surprised if whoever stole the bolt also used the helm to steal it.

It was why he had thought his nephew was behind all of this afterall.

“What do you want us to do for now, sire?”

“Go back to your other duties. I’ll summon you when I figure out how to best act on this.”

He needed another opinion on what was needed.

Persephone might be able to help, but he wasn’t entirely sure if the regular contact to discuss the situation might cause Demeter to give them problems again, and he was not about to tell Demeter about the missing helm.

And most of the council he wasn’t going to ask for help with this. 

That only left him with one option.

Poseidon.

Whom his every instinct was saying not to contact about this. Even knowing that his brother was most likely going to find out about the helm anyway sometime soon from his nephew.

Admitting you had lost your object of power in the wrong circles could be disastrous after all.

But he was out of options and the only one who he could trust to not have been involved in the theft of the helm was his brother (if the helm hadn't been stolen by Perseus then the order must not have come from him) and his nephew.

(And Zeus possibly, but considering how reluctant he was to talk to Poseidon about this he definitely wouldn't be telling Zeus that he wasn’t the only one stolen from.

Although he may reluctantly trust Poseidon to not use this against him.

He did not trust Zeus to do the same.)

Which meant a trip to Atlantis since Iris messaging wasn’t really an option here. 

Iris might know to keep most things confidential, but he needed as few people roped into this as possible. Going to Atlantis was the only real course of action.

He just would have to hope Poseidon had the time to talk.

Poseidon is, naturally, surprised to see him in the throne room. Thankfully there aren’t many mers around, the last thing they need is even more gossip. “Hades this is a surprise.”

“Poseidon we need to talk.”

Poseidon is massaging his forehead after he finishes explaining what had happened. “He literally found out about our world three weeks ago. Why does everyone just keep assuming he stole the objects of power?”

They had moved out of the throne room into a private room where Hades had, with great reluctance, finally admitted to the theft of the helm.

And well when put that way it did sound obvious that it wouldn’t be his nephew Hades had to admit, but in his defense he had known of the existence of his nephew well before the helm had been stolen.

He had not known the boy’s knowledge or lack thereof.

Neither had Alecto.

(Though maybe she should have considering he had put her in that school for five months.)

“I can’t speak for our brother, but for me it was a lack of options. Most other Gods wouldn’t be foolish enough to command a demigod to steal an object of power that belongs to us. So it seemed logical that whoever stole my helm would be under the protection of someone with a lot of power.”

Which raised the question again of who had given such a command.

“The only one that seemed like they could deal with the repercussions were you or our brother. With our brother was also making accusations, admittedly of a different nature, ut accusations nonetheless-”

“It fell onto me and my child.” Poseidon concluded with a sigh. “Alright I understand the thought process even if I do not like it. However, you never mentioned this before, why bring it up now?”

“Your son swore on the Styx that he wasn’t the thief for either items of power.”

Ah.

Maybe they should have gone over Styx oaths in further detail prior to Percy leaving on the quest. But he hadn’t thought it would be something he needed to concern himself with yet.

That had definitely been an oversight. It hadn’t occurred to him that Percy might use it during the quest, though it probably should have.

“That would do it.” Poseidon said. “So who do you think is behind the theft if not my son then?”

“I am not sure, I came to you hoping you might have more information. Unless our brother has another child running around that I am unaware of I am out of ideas.”

And even then that didn’t fully add up considering the fact Zeus’ bolt was also missing.

“No, as far as I’m aware he only had one child since the oath, who is now currently a pine tree and thus incapable of taking items.”

As paranoid as Zeus was about noticing or causing conflicts at times, he felt that it was more than likely he wouldn’t steal anyone else’s items of power.

So that eliminated him from contention.

Poseidon frowned as a thought occurred to him, one that he was surprised none of them had entertained before. “It could be a child of Hermes, thieves do fall under his domains.”

“I mean yes but would he be moronic enough to not only order one of his children to steal an object of power but two? From two Kronides no less?”

“He did steal Apollo’s sacred cattle when he was a baby.”

He hated to say there was a precedent when that very argument had been used against him since the Winter Solstice, but there was a previous case with Hermes taking sacred items.

“Yes but those were returned fairly quickly. Not missing for six months with no one knowing who the thief is.”

True.

This level of idiocy was honestly something he would expect more from Ares, but he didn’t think even he was dumb enough to pull this kind of stunt. No matter how power hungry and war mongering the god could get.

Admittedly there was one other solution besides Hermes he could think of, but he didn’t like the implications there at all. “I do not like to think this because it suggests several concerning things, but what if it's father who is backing the thief?”

Father certainly wouldn’t fear them enough to not act in such a manner, that much was for sure.

Hades raises a skeptical eyebrow. “Father is supposed to be in a million pieces at the bottom of Tartarus, Poseidon.”

“I know Hades, I am well aware. However, who else do we know that could match that description of having enough power to protect someone brazen enough to steal from us? Let alone keep them hidden for six months.”

Hades frowned before releasing a sigh. “I hate that what you are saying makes sense.”

“That is the case for both of us.”

“There is another thing. The prophecy Percy received for the quest, the final line referred to a hero’s choice to descend, which could mean any number of things, but if this is somehow related to father-”

“Then it could be taken literally.”

And with the way prophecies worked, it had just as much of a chance of literally meaning someone was going to descend rather than some metaphorical sense.

“We need more information.”

Eventually Hades returned to his realm without much more progress on what this could mean, or who could be behind it.

(As it was, the thief having father’s backing still seemed like the most likely. But it wasn’t something either of them really wanted to say with full confidence, the implications alone…)

Regardless, until they could find out who the thief was they couldn’t do anything. If it really was father then he had to be acting through someone. 

They were going to have to wait for the thief to come to them, as frustrating as that was going to prove to be for Hades they didn’t have much of choice.

Hades hadn’t said the furies had done anything to his son, but he would rather ask his son just to be certain. 

(Though whether he would admit to it was another matter. They were already starting to see a pattern of Percy hiding things so they wouldn’t be worried.

But he had to at least try asking.

Maybe he could have Triton subtly check on him next time they were stopped to confirm it?)

For now he could at least try checking. 

Percy.

There’s a small pause before Percy replies back. Dad?

Are you alright? Hades came by to talk to me and told me he had sent the furies after you. He said you were unharmed but-

I’m fine Dad.

You promise?

I promise. We spent more time yelling slash talking rather than actually fighting them. They shut up kind of quickly after I made the oath.

Yes, making a Styx oath would do that. Poseidon wasn’t entirely sure if he should be grateful they may have stopped going after him because of that or worried about the fact the Oath was made in the first place.

Ah yes the oath, that reminds me- what exactly did you tell them?

Why? 

Styx oaths can be… tricky, and sometimes dangerous if not worded correctly. Thus the reason for my concern when I found out you had taken one through Hades.

My exact words were ‘I swear on the Styx that I have not stolen any god's object of power.’

Well that was probably the best way to word it within the situation. Poseidon said after a moment. But please, be careful on the use of oaths in the future. I’m surprised one of your friends didn’t try to stop you.

They didn’t really know I was going to do that.

Ah well that explained it Poseidon supposed.

Dad, I'll be fine. I’ve got Grover and Castor with me. Nothing else happened on the bus after they left. We’re okay, we’ve got our bags, we’ll make it-

Percy please don’t tempt the fates by trying to say you’ll make it to Los Angeles.

Just because he wanted to believe that would be the case, that this would be an uneventful cross country trip. This was still a quest, things would happen, and he didn't just mean the Furies showing up.

Sorry.

I’m not mad, just please be careful. Even if everything seems fine now it could change quickly.

Will do.

“Why was Hades visiting?” Amphitrite’s voice brings him away from the now wrapped conversation. 

“There’s been a development on the whole missing items situation that he decided to come discuss with me.”

She frowned at that. “What kind of development?”

Well it wasn’t like Hades hadn’t said he couldn’t tell Amphitrite. Just because there was a silent consensus to not tell Zeus at the moment didn’t mean it extended to his wife.

“Apparently when the bolt was stolen so was Hades’ helm. Best guess we can figure is the thief used it to take the bolt.”

That just caused her frown to deepen. “Why are we just finding out about this now?”

“Because Hades thought I also ordered Percy to steal the helm.”

Amphitrite expression turned exasperated. “He’s usually the more rational of your brothers.”

“He is. Admittedly he did have a reason that amounted to beyond just paranoia.”

“Which is?”

“He believed that only a thief that had support from a powerful entity would dare to try to steal such powerful items, and considering the missing items belonged to him and my other brother…”

“It fell onto Percy since he is your son.” Amphitrite concluded. “That… actually makes sense, though how did he find out otherwise? I know you swore the oath in front of Zeus but Hades wasn’t at that meeting was he?”

“No, ot was Percy this time. Apparently he decided to make his own oath to get the furies off his back.”

Which he still wasn’t happy about, even if he had worded the oath in the best way possible.

At least Styx oaths weren’t like prophecies with their double meanings, usually. In this case the oath should be read as what was said, that Percy had not stolen any objects of power at the time he took it.

Thank Khaos below for that.

“That was unwise.”

“I already talked to Percy about it. He knows better now, and he says that he and his friends are safe. They're still on the bus that is supposed to take them to Los Angeles.”

The necklace probably had helped in some regard, Triton reasoned, though now his brother was definitely going to be asking about its significance. Hopefully he was right and the satyr could do an adequate job in explaining things or else he might be getting messages from his brother.

“So what now?”

“Current plan is that hopefully they’ll encounter the actual thief along the way. If they believe that they are going to the Underworld to confront Hades, changing plans seems like a poor choice.”

Otherwise they were going to be completely out of options.

Things had been quiet at least since the furies' appearance, giving Percy time to think on something else that had happened during the encounter. “I don’t even fully understand why she reacted that way to seeing my necklace.”

He had noticed it, even if it was only a brief moment, Mrs. Dodds gave a noticeable pause when she saw what was around his neck. 

She hadn’t said anything at the time, but it had been the opening that had led to him finally asking why everyone just seemed to assume that he was the one behind things being stolen.

And by the time he remembered the reaction that had kick started that whole conversation the furries were long gone so he couldn’t just go ask them.

He guessed it could be a safety thing. After all, it was supposed to summon one of his family members if he pressed down on it, he can’t imagine being on the receiving end of an angry sea deity would be fun.

But this felt like it was more than that.

And Triton had mentioned there was more going on with it but said it hadn’t been important to cover at the time. Though with Mrs. Dodds reaction to it, Percy was very much questioning if they should have covered it.

But Triton wasn’t there to bug about this, so he turned to the other person Triton said could mostly explain it, Grover.

Grover frowned at the question about the necklace. “Did Triton not explain the meaning of it?”

“No, he said it was something that probably would be easier to explain when we weren’t on a time crunch for a quest.”

“That makes sense, you'll probably have a lot of questions to ask.”

Well that just made him even more curious.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I admit all I have is an educated guess.” Grover admitted.

“Well it's more than what I have.”

“Are you sure you want to hear this from me though? This probably would be easier to explain from them.”

“ Grover”

“I’m just saying.”

“And I would like to know before someone else has a weird reaction and it doesn’t go as well as the first time.”

“Okay that’s fair.” Grover agreed. “So Amphitrite rarely has demigods of her own, I think it’s been a couple of centuries since the last one, but her claiming symbol when she does have them is the crab claws that are sitting on either side of the conch cell on your necklace.”

Percy blinked looking down at the necklace again, and sure enough, there they were.

“I didn’t even notice them.” Percy said with a frown fiddling with one of the claws for a moment. They were fairly small, pretty much dwarfed by the conch shell charm so it made sense that he had missed them entirely.

“On top of that, though no one’s ever actually seen it since he’s never had a demigod to claim, the conch shell is considered Triton’s symbol.”

Percy stared at Grover for a second as the implications of what he said hit like a truck load of bricks.

Oh.

Oh.

Well he kind of understood why Triton had put off the conversation he guessed, he had so many different questions, they would probably be talking about this for a while.

“So you’re saying I’m running around with not one but two claiming symbols on me?”

Along with the fact it was widely known his father had claimed him?

“Pretty much.” Grover agreed. “Basically it’s a reaffirmation of what's already been said and a statement to anyone who might not know like the furies that it’s not just your Dad whose protection you're under.”

“That’s not something they normally do, right?”

Castor’s the one to answer him this time. “Nope. Most immortal families' relationships with demigod family members are strained at best, forget about adding their own claiming to the mix.”

“Did Ariadne…” Percy began, not entirely sure if this was a question he could ask. There was still so much about the Greek world he didn’t understand, let alone what questions he could or couldn’t ask.

“Claim me or Pollux? No, but we also never needed her to. Don’t get me wrong, she was nice when we met her before, and probably would claim us if it was needed. But we’ve never had a reason for her to do so.”

That makes sense.

“I don’t get it though. Amphitrite left this for me right after the incident, at that point I only had one conversation with them that I was half asleep for. Why would they claim me that early?”

They had barely known him.

They had just gotten slightly protective of him because of what had happened, and he understood why after the conversation with Triton, but they were closer to strangers than someone he would expect to claim him as part of the family.

Dad, he got.

And maybe if he had been given the necklace later he would have understood, but right after the first meeting was throwing him for a loop.

There was no real reason to give him something that fully claimed him as part of the family, not then and in some ways Percy wasn’t even sure now. Triton was his protector but even after all their conversations he wasn’t sure how much the god actually viewed him as family.

“Who knows? Gods make all sorts of decisions at times that don’t make sense to us, maybe they did it to make sure you were protected, and not just from someone like Annabeth.”

“Maybe.” Percy agreed fidgeting with the crab claw again. “I’m just surprised it didn’t come up before I guess.”

“They probably didn’t tell you because they were worried what the other campers' reactions might be to you, essentially, being claimed by three gods.”

“I wouldn’t have bragged about it.” He protested.

He saw how bad the situation was in the Hermes cabin, he had lived there after all, mentioning that you'd not only been claimed by your own parent but the rest of your immortal step family would only breed resentment.

He wasn’t dumb.

The only reason he had been wearing the necklace out in the open was because no one had ever explained to him what it was, and now that he knew he wasn’t entirely sure what to do.

“I know that and you know that but they didn’t know that, but they’d barely met you then.”

Yeah that was fair.

Though this got him thinking, there were a lot of unclaimed kids, he had seen it for himself, and he couldn’t exactly do anything about it, that was a God problem. He couldn't fix that on his own, not now at least, but maybe he could do something else.

After all, he couldn’t be the only kid at camp with someone in their parentage that was related to the sea right?

Just the only one that had Poseidon as his father.

“Castor, I have a question for you about camp.”

“Sure, what’s on your mind?”

“Is there anything really stopping another cabin from taking in other demigods that aren’t related to that god besides Hermes?”

“Well, no.” Castor said after a moment, a frown on his face. “But most gods are pretty picky about that kind of thing so no one’s really tried to put other campers in cabins that don’t belong to either Hermes or their godly parent. Why?”

“Just something I’m thinking about.”

Castor raised an eyebrow, probably already catching onto his thought process. “You’re planning something.”

“Yeah.” No reason to deny it. “But I need to ask Dad first before I do anything else.”

Chapter Text

It happened when they were stopped at some gas station in New Jersey. 

Now, Percy knew bolts out of the blue were a thing, he vaguely remembered hearing about them from science class one time though he didn’t have a clue how they worked, but considering recent weeks he wasn’t going to assume that the bus getting struck by lightning was some kind of freak accident.

They had gotten lucky that they were outside of it for a quick stretching of the legs and not in it or else Percy’s fairly sure the quest would be the least of their problems.

(As it was, they still had problems with the quest. They now had no form of transportation and no idea where to find a new one.)

“Never thought I would be glad for Yancy Academy, let alone Yancy teaching me anything.”

Outside of meeting Chiron and Grover, he could appreciate that and some of the scenery around the campus, but everything else from Nancy Bobofit to his other former teachers he would rather forget.

“How would we contact them anyway? Would Iris Messaging even work underwater?” Grover asked, frowning slightly.

Percy was about to pray but was now sidetracked with the question. “What’s Iris Messaging?”

“Did Chiron not tell you about Iris Messaging?” Castor asked, a frown of his own pulling at his lips.

Percy let out an annoyed sigh remembering that disaster of a tour, if it could really be called that. “Chiron didn’t explain a lot of things to me if we’re being honest. Annabeth was the one who had to explain what a half blood was, he also didn't tell me what he meant by ‘stocking the woods’.”

Castor frowned. “Did you ask him?”

“Yeah I tried asking, he just ignored the question.” For some reason he still couldn’t fathom, what was the point of not answering that question?

“Weird.”

“And dangerous.” Grover added on.

“You’re telling me.”

“And kind of negligent when you think about it. What if you had gone in there before someone explained what he meant?”

“I really don’t want to think about that if we’re being honest.”

“Though if he wasn’t saying anything that the orientation video-”

Percy cringed at the reminder of the video that Chiron had deemed as not helpful enough, even as part of him felt that it could have helped just as much as Chiron did. He loved the centaur truly, but the tour had been abysmal. “He didn’t show me the orientation video.”

Castor if anything looked even more “Why not?”

“Said that it was insufficient.” Percy said with a shrug.

“But he didn’t answer some of your questions.” Castor countered, his frown deepening.

“Yep, you're telling me something I already know.”

“I don’t get the logic there.”

“That makes two of us.”

“But back to the topic of contacting my Dad. Triton explained how the whole praying thing works and how I can contact him or anyone else if need be. Though now that I’m thinking about it, I’m not sure if telling him about this would accomplish anything.”

It had appealed to him at first, but the longer the conversation had dragged on the more Percy had found himself second guessing the idea.

“Why? I know some of the campers view asking gods for help a bit weird but I wouldn’t think that you would have that problem after everything.”

“You’re right that’s not the problem, I’m more worried about what might happen if I tell Dad what happened. I’m trying to prevent a war, not start one, and I don’t think telling my Dad about the bus incident would accomplish that.”

And since none of his immortal family paid attention to mortal news, he should be able to get away with it, at least he hoped so.

“Plus I mean, who knows if it actually was him.” Grover suggested, though he sounded doubtful about it.

Castor gave the satyr a ‘really’ look. “Grover, who else is likely to try and strike us down with a bolt on a clear sunny day?”

“I don’t know the actual thief? Like if he has it he could use it, maybe.” Grover cringed slightly. “Or maybe not. Weapons of power being handled by anything other than a god doesn’t usually go well.”

“So either it was Zeus, or it was the thief possibly working with a God, or maybe just the thief, which means the items might have been handed over to a god. In other words, not good.”

“Not good at all.”

“Definitely not good.” Percy agreed. “But it’s not like we can do anything right now. Let’s just work out what to do next and try to figure out how we’re going to get to Los Angeles.” He doubted getting on another bus was going to be an option.

They can worry about the implications from what happened later, they had more important things to worry about.

They ended up getting lost.

Percy’s not entirely sure how they had managed to get lost, let alone in the one forest in New Jersey that he didn’t even know existed before today, but somehow they had managed it.

He had been to New Jersey, once. It was a while ago for a school that Mom had tried to enroll him in when he was younger, they had refused to take him because of his record.

He didn’t know anything about navigating New Jersey to say the least, let alone a random forest in the state.

And Castor… well he wasn’t sure how often Castor had been in New Jersey but he seemed as lost as he was, so he was going to guess not often.

So they were relying on Grover’s skills to try and make their way to somewhere they could get transportation again, whether it be a bus or train station. They couldn’t keep going on foot, they would never make it to LA if they did.

What they hadn’t counted on was running into some store in the middle of the satyr path whose sign might as well be written in another language for all he could tell with his dyslexia. 

“Aunty M’s Statue Emporium,” Grover translated, then frowned. “Why would a business be set up on a Satyr Path?”

“I don’t think it's a normal business.” Castor said, staring back at the lifesize statues outside of the emporium.  “Monster dens like to mimic business to attract possible victims.”

“And it being on a satyr path and thus part of our world makes it even more likely.” Grover added with a wince. “We are normally the only ones that use it, others can as well if they can trace it.”

“And considering the name of the business and what’s out front, there’s one likely answer to this whole thing.”

Percy blinked thinking for a moment sounding out the name Grover had read, there was only one thing he could think of. “Medusa. What do we do?”

“I mean we could just turn around and find another way to a town that doesn’t involve the path, but even if we walk away she might follow us.”

“Because she can probably smell me?” Percy asked. Remembering something Grover had once mentioned to him during Camp, that powerful demigods had stronger scents so they could be picked up by monsters more easily.

And considering he was a kid of Poseidon, they probably wouldn’t be able to avoid Medusa.

“And going into the woods would arguably be a bigger problem then maybe having to confront her in her own den” At least in the business they would be able to see where Medusa was, out in the woods however… that was a whole other more dangerous ballgame. 

“Besides, we still need to try and find some directions to an actual town.”

“We could keep following the Satyr Path?” Grover countered, though he seemed to realize how weak of an argument that was.

“And how likely is it that we’ll eventually end up in civilization?” Percy asked. Grover’s cringe pretty much confirmed his suspicions that it was unlikely. “You said it yourself, satyrs use it to traverse the wild, which wouldn’t be a problem if we really didn’t need to get back to town for transportation.”

While they weren’t on an extreme time crunch, there was no set date to be back to Olympus, something told Percy the longer it took them to find the items the worst things might become.

If this were different circumstances, he might have been excited to try out his best friend’s way of traveling, but it wasn’t.

“I just don’t want to really deal with her.”

“Neither do I but it's not like we have a lot of options here.” Literally the only other one was to maybe contact his Dad but that would mean explaining why he wasn’t on the bus and he was trying to avoid that as much as possible, even if it meant other drawbacks. “Besides, we really just need to get in, get directions, and get out.”

He almost said it should be easy before catching himself. Not a good idea to jinx it, especially considering how nothing involving a demigod was easy if the last few weeks had taught him anything.

Well… they weren’t fighting? Or not yet at least, Percy isn’t counting on this lasting. It’s Medusa, this isn’t going to be a repeat of the situation of the furies, he can’t expect that to happen every time.

Though that hadn’t stopped him from continuing to fidget with the cap on Riptide, not enough to take it out but enough that he knew it was there, acting as a grounding presence.

Percy wasn’t entirely sure what to make of this whole conversation if he was being honest. He knew this was what his Mom had probably meant when she liked to tell him that not all monsters are actually monsters and not all heroes are truly heroes, but rather what they become is a result of their own decisions and the environment around them. 

However this was the first time he had encountered it in actuality, the encounter with the Minotaur and the furies definitely didn’t tie into Mom’s old philosophy. And he was pretty sure she hadn’t been thinking of them anyway when she had given that lecture.

However Medusa was definitely a different case from what he could tell so far.

He knew Medusa had once been viewed as a punishment by Athena for what his Dad had done and had blamed both of them, but he remembered hearing that view starting to shift in recent years from mortals on the whole thing, and with the shift it seemed she had changed her opinion too.

Which was interesting because he didn’t think he had ever heard about monsters doing that, at least not in myths. Who knew about what happened in reality, he knew so little at this point.

So now she just blamed his Dad for what had happened, which he did kind of get why, even if it caused even more of a conflict here, because of what had happened with Annabeth and thus by extension, Athena.

His main issue was with Annabeth of course, due to what had happened, his family’s main issue was with Athena though it definitely extended to Annabeth, and definitely some of the other Athena kids if Triton’s occasional looks were any indication.

But he wasn’t so sure if she would see the reasoning there.

Which could be a problem, considering how much he looked like his Dad, and having no one from the Athena side to really buffer the whole situation. It wasn’t exactly like he could just go grab someone who wasn’t Annabeth from Cabin 6.

Just because one God, or Gods in this case, might like you didn’t mean that the rest of them were certain to. He had spent enough time on Zeus’ bad side to completely understand that concept.

Though whether Medusa understood that concept in full he wasn’t entirely sure.

And admittedly he probably would have had a similar reaction if all of a sudden some random kid came accusing his Dad of something egregious while saying the person you hated had protected them.

Maybe.

He wasn’t too entirely sure about that.

“Perce?”

“I’m fine,” he said, shaking off the daze he hadn’t even realized he had fallen into. When had he stopped talking to Medusa? Last thing he could clearly remember was trying to get her to see reason, and trying to ignore his own feelings on the matter long enough for them to get out of there, after that it was blank.

Which was never a good sign.

“What happened?”

“You don’t remember?”

“Not really. I remember talking with her about the whole Athena and Dad thing, and then everything after I can’t recall.”

“Wow she was really laying the magic on thick then.”

“I didn’t even know she could do that.” If he had, maybe he would have been more on guard to begin with.

“A lot of monsters can. It's usually how they ensnare their mortal victims, for the ones that go after them anyway.”

“And I fell for it.” Percy said with a cringe, not a great way to build a reputation, that much was for sure.

“I mean you’re still learning about our world, things are bound to happen. Just glad this didn’t go any worse than it could have.”.

Part of Percy wasn’t so sure everyone else would feel that way, considering how much he was told about the campers wanting glory and seeing that first hand with some of them. 

But they had bigger concerns than how the camp may or may not view this entire encounter.

“Are you two okay?” As guilt started flooding Percy. He had just sat there like a sitting duck unable to do anything because of some stupid magic. 

“We’re fine. Grover took off on the flying shoes to try and get a better vantage point I think, and I managed to get out of the way before she tried anything.” Castor assured him. “I managed to trap her when I realized things were going south. But I don’t know how long my abilities will work against monsters so you might want to come up from behind. I’m more worried about whether you’re okay?”

“She didn’t petrify me.”

Castor gave him an exasperated look. “That’s not what I was asking, you definitely took the brunt of her magic there. That can be messy at the best of times.”

“I’ll be fine Cas. Let's just figure out what to do and get out of here.”

The less time they had to spend here the better, and they couldn’t just leave Medusa either. They had gotten lucky, or as lucky as one could get in this situation, the next person probably wouldn’t. While it might only put her temporarily out of commission before she regenerated it was still something right?

“Do you want me to take care of it? Or do you think you can?”

Percy shook his head hoping to sorta clear off some of the last mental haze, it sorta worked, he didn’t feel normal but he also didn’t feel like he was going to forget where he was anytime soon, before moving to unsheath Riptide. “I can handle it Cas. I’m not some wallflower.”

Percy doesn’t try to stop and think as he swings the sword down decapitating Medusa, but it's hard not to or feel like this time was different. Maybe it was because the last two times he had actively been fighting so he hadn’t actually had time to think, just take a swing at the monster.

This time there had been time, even if reluctantly, to do so.

Well, at least they were down one problem, one to go he realized as he tipped the head over so it was laying face down.

He was for once wishing that they had something that turned things invisible on them, like the hat he had seen Annabeth use. Not that it would have been enough to make him bring her along.

They were just going to have to figure out another way to deal with this.

“You okay Percy?” Grover asked landing next to him. 

“Yeah fine or as much as I can be.” Percy added when Cas gave him a pointed look. “Let's figure out what to do, I would rather not spend the night here too.”

“No disagreement there.”

“The problem is well,” Percy motions at the head again. “ That. We can’t exactly take it with us for so many reasons.” One being he didn’t want to lug it across the country, another being the risk of someone finding out about it and who knows what would happen then. 

(Just because the Mist should theoretically keep a mortal from seeing a severed head doesn’t mean Percy actually had enough trust that it would do so, knowing his luck it wouldn’t. 

It just wasn’t worth the risk)

That being said he did know someone who might know how to handle the head, possibly. Though it meant his immortal family was going to find out about this. Percy had a feeling they were not going to let him hear the end of this, especially if they found out the full details somehow.

This was the kind of stuff he was pretty sure Triton had been warning him to look out for before he had left for the quest and he still had managed to walk straight into it.

Dad.

Yes Perseus?

So we have a bit of an issue?

What kind? Do I need to send Triton or is this something else entirely?

No, you don’t need to send anyone. Before you freak I promise we’re fine.

There was no way he was going to tell his Dad about the whole fiasco with the spell. Or the lead up to it. He was pretty sure if he did his Dad would send Triton to collect them. Regardless of whether they were supposed to be on a quest for one of the universes’ most powerful objects.

Percy-

I promise.

Percy could almost hear the sigh from his Dad over the bond. What exactly happened?

So we may have run into Medusa?

There’s a pause before he hears a response from his Dad. Are you three okay?

We’re fine like I already said, a bit shaken up, but fine. None of us managed to get petrified and she won’t be a problem for a while hopefully.

Good, you killed her I’m assuming?

Yeah which brings us to my actual problem, I might have cut off her head to defeat her.

Ah. That would leave you with a nasty spoil of war, and you are in the middle of a quest that will take you across the country.

You see my problem.

Triton won’t be happy about this but I could send him to pick it up once you leave.

I mean sure but there’s a whole bunch of Hermes packing slips laying around.

There’s another pause before he can hear his Dad speak, probably more to himself. Well that is interesting…

Percy isn’t entirely sure what he means by that, but decides he doesn’t need to ask. So what should I do with it?

Send it to Atlantis using his service and we’ll figure it out from there. It might take a minute to arrive but it will be out of the hands of anyone who might become endangered by it.

“Perce?” Grover’s voice cuts through before he can think of anything to respond with and he blinks, realizing that he is on the receiving end of two worried looks from his friends.

Right, he hadn’t exactly told them he was contacting Dad. It probably just looked like to them that he was spacing out, which after this afternoon wasn’t that great. Whoops. “I’m fine, I was just talking with Dad.”

Percy went scrounging around for a box that should fit the head in, he finally found what he was looking for and moved to put it on the table, only to have it nearly fall out of his hands as one of the numb spells started. He does manage to catch the box and at first he thinks he managed to avoid being seen. 

Only to see both of his friends looking at him in concern. Well crap, there went that hope out the window.

He had really hoped that they had missed his slip up, even knowing they most likely hadn't, it hadn’t exactly been subtle, going by the looks he was receiving that was a definite no on them missing it.

It wasn't the first time he had dropped something, that had happened more than a few times since the Incident had occurred, but it was the first time it had happened around anyone who didn’t know.

(Well except for maybe Luke, he still wasn’t sure how much the boy had figured out and Percy wasn’t sure if he would tell if Luke didn’t figure it out on his own. This wasn’t the kind of thing he wanted to advertise, even with friends.)

He supposed it was just a matter of time before something like this happened, part of him knows that he should have told them as soon as they left on the quest, but he hadn’t. He had been hoping he could somehow keep the episodes to a minimum to keep his friends from finding out about it despite knowing it was a fool's errand.

No such luck.

“Percy?”

“I’m fine.” Percy says bending over to try and pick up the box again, attempting to ignore the weird sensation of trying to pick something up when you can’t really feel it.

He was more annoyed than anything. He knew eventually something would happen and more people would find out about his problems, but he had really been hoping to do this on his own time.

Not have them randomly find out when he was trying and failing to handle a box, of all that could've happened this had to be the most mundane. Maybe that's what made it even more frustrating, even if he was also glad it wasn’t during a fight.

“You sure? Most people don’t just randomly drop boxes for no reason.” Castor pointed out still eying him.

Percy decided to ignore the question for the moment, if he was going to have to explain this he certainly wasn’t going to do it while they were in the lair of the monster. He just wanted a moment to collect himself before dealing with whatever would come of it. “Just help me get it back on the table please.”

He hadn’t even considered the fact that his writing hand was numb, he probably wouldn’t be able to hold a pen either.

This really was going to be a nuisance, especially as it seemed to be blossoming into a headache, one he wasn’t sure should be blamed on the nerve damage, being under Medusa’s spell, or some combination of the two.

(Probably the latter)

“Percy.”

“I’m fine.” He repeated again rather tersely.

Castor crossed his arms and gave him a raised eyebrow. “You don’t seem fine.”

“Look I promise this isn’t a big deal.” Percy said just about dropping the box onto the table before handing a pen to Castor. “Just help me put the address on.” He wasn’t going to even try writing while his dominant hand felt numb, he’s pretty sure it would just come off illegible. “I can tell you two about it later. I really don’t want to stay here any longer than we need to.”

Castor looked down at the pen and back to him with a raised eyebrow, to which Percy gave a quiet sigh. “ Please. ”

“Alright, alright. But you’re definitely explaining this when we get out of here.”

Yeah he figured as much, Percy rattled off the address his Dad had instructed him to send the box to.

Castor raised an eyebrow pausing for a second at being told who to address the box too. “Are we sure this is a good idea? I mean I know you're on good terms with your Dad but still, this is Medusa’s head we’re talking about here.”

“I mean it was his idea.”

That earned him a surprised look from both of his friends, though Grover is the one who asks. “Really?”

“Yeah, I told him about having this thing and not knowing what to do with it. We can’t exactly bring it along and I don’t want to leave it laying here for someone else to find.”

That would arguably be as bad as leaving her alive.

“Man most Gods would flip if you tried this on them.”

“Well thankfully Percy's Dad isn’t most Gods.”

“If that isn’t the truth.” Percy agrees. Happy, not for the first time, that in spite of all of the other concerns with his Dad being Poseidon the god was his father at the end of the day.

“Good thing too, I’m not sure what we would have done otherwise if he hadn’t volunteered to take it. It's not like we can carry this when we’re traveling across the country. That would have raised too many questions.”

“Ship it off to the Council?”

“Percy!”

“What, it was just an idea?”

He had thought about it before he had contacted his Dad about what to do. After the incident in New Jersey he was feeling particularly ‘spicy’ since that had, arguably, been what had landed them here.

He was still tempted to send it to Zeus if he was being honest.

But he also knew his Dad and Uncle had just barely stopped arguing, so maybe not the smartest idea. He was pretty sure his dad couldn’t just swear his way out of the consequences of sending the head.

“Though with the way things seem to be right now, I didn’t think that would be a good idea.” He finally answered.

“You also want to show off a bit to your Dad don’t you?” Grover asked.

Percy flushed, it was the truth technically but he didn’t want to exactly admit it. “No way.”

“Dude, don't worry about it. Almost every demigod wants to show off to their parents for one reason or another.” Castor pointed out.

“Even you and Pollux?”

“I mean, at the end of the day we’re only mortal.”

“Fair.”

“Never knew train tickets were this expensive.”

“We did,” Percy and Grover said together. 

Percy shrugged at the questioning look from Castor. “I can’t fly because of my uncle so we've always gone by train or bus whenever we want to go anywhere, and usually what we can afford is the bus.”

Gabe’s stranglehold on money and only allowing the Camaro occasionally out of his sight had meant that trips had been rare, and money to spend on things that might have been classified as ‘more extravagant’ was nonexistent.

They were also getting a private room because the last thing they needed was some unknowing mortal showing up and getting caught up in demigod stuff somehow.

“Oh yeah the lord of the sky probably doesn’t take his brothers kids going up there too well does he?” Castor asked while making a face.

“Nope, he’s rather well known for not liking that.” Grover said with a cringe. “No one’s tried it in the modern era for obvious reasons, but even in the days of older transport it didn’t go well.”

“And I have to take whatever transport Percy's takes, it was hard to not notice how high-priced things were.” Grover added on.

The tickets were definitely on the expensive side to say the least, even by what he had to assume was most people’s standards.

“Where did you even get that card from?”

“Triton gave it to me before I left on the quest. Apparently one of my half sisters has access to mortal money, more than she knows what to do with, so she was happy to give me some to help cover the cost of the quest.”

Thank the Gods too, who knows what they would have had to do without her.

“Some people might say us taking help from the gods is cheating.”

Percy resisted the urge to roll his eyes, already having a few guesses on who ‘some people’ would have been. “Yeah, well, I’m not some people. Plus if we want to argue semantics then technically my necklace already helped us and that was also from the Gods.”

“Okay yeah that’s also true.”

“Besides, it's not like we have any other options. You already said we’re low on money that camp gave us because we spent it on tickets for the bus that got blown up. We have to get to Los Angeles somehow.“ Even if they didn’t know where the thief was, that was still their best lead. “This means we should be able to get there.”

He almost said ‘relatively easy’ before stopping himself, realizing that would almost definitely jinx them in some form and he wasn’t going to be responsible for that.

They had eventually found a quiet spot in the corner of the train station to settle down and wait. It would be a few hours until the train arrived, the topic of the incident at the Emporium came up with Grover being the one to finally broach the subject. “So what exactly was that incident in the emporium?” 

Percy internally winced, he had been hoping they would just forget about it, but no such luck. It did make sense Grover was the one asking, since the satyr had known him the longest. Of course he would know when something wasn’t exactly normal for him.

Percy hesitates for a moment, not wanting to answer the question even if he knows he should, wondering if there is any way he can get around this or if they’ll accept some other half truth. Despite every ounce of him wanting to go with something else, he can’t, it’s not fair to them.

Castor frowned at the pause. “Perce I get hesitating to talk about whatever it is, but if we don’t know what’s going on we can’t fully help you with the quest.”

Okay, as much as Percy disliked conceding to it, that was a fair point.

Percy braced himself for whatever reaction he was going to get before speaking, there was really no way to put this nicely. “So Clarisse’s spear might have left some permanent damage?”

He doesn’t look up to see their reactions, continuing to draw circles with one of his hands in the dirt, trying to distract himself for a moment, too worried about what he might see, though he could hear the sharp intakes from both of them.

“Oh.” Grover said after a second.

“Gotta admit that wasn’t what I was expecting.” Castor said with a frown.

Percy frowned at Castor trying to figure out what that meant and failing himself. “What were you expecting?”

Castor shrugged uncertainly at the question. “I don’t know to be honest, maybe something to do with the Minotaur? Just not that.” Percy must have had some sort of look on his face since he quickly rushed to add. “Don’t get me wrong I believe you, It’s just surprising.”

“So is this something just a problem with your arms or…?” Grover trailed off, not entirely sure how to ask how much it affected.

“Mostly.” Percy said. “Apollo warned it might also impact some other areas, mainly my head, but my arms are what I have to worry about primarily and they're really the only thing I noticed so far, for better or worse.”

In the case of sword fighting and almost dropping a box full of Medusa’s head, worse.

So far nothing too serious had happened with swords, but it was probably only a matter of time before something did. Heck it almost had, even if he didn’t want to think about it.

(Part of him wonders if he should be saying as much as he had. He trusts his friends of course, but at the same time this isn’t information he wants getting around. 

And while he’s pretty sure they’ll keep quiet on it, he can’t help some of his nervousness.)

“Who knows about this?” Castor asks softly after a moment.

“Just a few people, only the Gods actually. I haven’t told anyone and I don’t think Dad’s family has told anyone, and now you two know.”

“How did they take it?”

“Dad was angry all over again. I didn’t see Amphitrite’s and Triton’s initial reaction to the news.”

Well he hadn’t seen his Dad’s face either if they were being technical, but he had heard the very heated discussion between Apollo and him. It wasn’t difficult to imagine what his reaction was.

“That actually explains a few things.” Grover said with a wince. “I thought it was just something with Zeus again.”

Percy frowned, not entirely sure what Grover was referencing. He wondered what news about the outside world he seemed to have missed while they were holed up at camp. It wasn’t like they had any newspapers, though there must be some way to stay aware.

It was apparently just another thing no one had told him how to do yet, which was continuing to happen at an annoying rate. He needed to figure out how to fix this whole ‘finding things out far too late’ when they got back from the quest.

“Anyway so far they’ve taken it okay, or at least around me they are, nothing seems to have changed with our relationship at least, which is really all I care about.”

Or not in the way he had feared so far. Apollo had been right, it looked like they would be more protective over what had happened then less. But he still was scared at times that they were going to change their minds and he would be left scrambling trying to figure out what to do.

Yes they were supposed to get his Mom back, but what if that didn’t work?

“When did you find this out?” Percy hears a bit of hurt in Grover’s tone that he’s probably trying to hide and fights the urge to wince.

“About a week ago, I knew something wasn’t right but didn’t want to say anything because I kept thinking it was just a one off thing. It wasn’t until Dad had Apollo check me over that we knew something was actually wrong. I wasn’t trying intentionally to keep it from you, I just haven’t been ready to tell anyone else yet.”

It felt like some part of him was broken, and he didn’t want people to say what he was thinking, even if it was true. He was nowhere near ready to begin sorting that out right now.

If ever.

Actually probably never if he was being honest, but it wasn’t like he had an actual say in this kind of thing.

And while he had known Grover for close to a year now, while he felt like he could trust him with almost anything and everything, sometimes the little voice in the back of his head that sounded far too much like Gabe made him doubt all of it.

That’s not mentioning the fact he didn’t even know how Castor would react, he had barely known him for two weeks. And while they had become fast friends, Percy couldn’t help but worry that it would all come crumbling down because of one thing or another.

“I’m surprised more people don’t know to be honest.”

Percy just shrugged at the comment from Castor. “If more people do know it’s not because of me, I didn’t say anything because I wasn’t ready yet. Apollo had just dropped the bombshell on me not too long ago.”

He had barely known about this for a week when he had taken on the quest, he was still processing everything.

“Okay yeah that's understandable.” Castor noted with a cringe. “Though I’m surprised Apollo was the one to tell you about it. He doesn’t normally come by camp that often.”

“Dad roped him into it.” Percy answered as an explanation. “Something about wanting to make sure they knew for certain and well, considering Apollo’s the god of healing…”

“You can’t get more certain than him.”

“Yep.”

“But man talk about bad luck. I don’t remember hearing about something like this, but then again Clarisse has never really targeted a camper like that before.”

“Or no one else left another camper to deal with her and her siblings alone.” Percy pointed out. 

Just another reminder of how messed up the whole thing was. He wondered how different things would have been if Annabeth hadn’t left him alone.

But then again, maybe someone else would have gotten equally as hurt, and they wouldn’t have had the healing powers he had. So what had been deadly for him would have been completely fatal for them. 

And he doesn’t want that.

“That’s also true.” Castor agreed.

“Look, I am sorry for not saying something sooner. Everything’s been a lot to process the past few weeks. I’m having a hard time with some of this myself, let alone telling other people about it.”

There was a reason Percy hadn’t told his Dad’s family. It had been Apollo who had found out about it, and then it came out because there was no way to hide it anymore.

He didn’t like to make people worry about these kinds of things.

Though he should have realized his friends needed to know this, it wasn’t just his safety on the line during the quest. But it was a little too late at this point to regret not telling them.

All he could do was apologize and hope they accept it.

Otherwise he wasn’t sure what he was going to do.

Grover finally sighs. “Just try not to hide something like that from us again. I’m still supposed to be your protector, Perce. I can’t do that if you aren’t telling me something, okay?”

Percy has a feeling that he wants to say more, they probably both do. But it's already been a long day and he isn’t going to complain about their lack of questions. “Will do.”

The train turned out to be running late. So what had meant to be a temporary seating area for them until they could get in their cabin had become their sleeping area for the night.

Percy’s not sure how late it is when he’s startled out of a nightmare, disorientated and forgetting where he is for a moment until his eyes adjust to the lighting of the room they’re in. 

Right, not at camp anymore. Which means he didn’t have to worry about those two, but it also meant Triton wasn’t around to help after a bad dream.

(When had he become so reliant on his brother to chase the nightmares away? It couldn’t be entirely healthy could it?)

“Percy?” Castor’s voice brought him back to reality, seeming to have taken over for Grover’s earlier shift at some point. While it seemed unlikely that a monster attack would happen in a train station, it wasn’t entirely impossible, especially with their luck so far. “Everything okay?”

“Fine, just a nightmare about the stupid incident.” Percy said, drawing his knees closer to him, trying to shut out the images going through his head from the lingering nightmare.

There’s a small pause before Castor says anything and Percy doesn’t miss the guilt in his tone. “Sorry, didn’t mean to cause you nightmares by talking about it.” 

Percy waves off the concern. “No it’s fine.”

He’s at least partly sure that some of this is from the encounter with Medusa and how spectacularly bad that had gone. 

“Honestly talking to Medusa was more of a problem than our conversation.”

One of those had caused his panic to start rising again (before the spell had taken full effect anyway), and it wasn’t telling his friends about the rather permanent consequences of the incident he was now living with.

“Still…”

“Besides, I should have told you two from the beginning.” It was a liability. Even if his family had assured him that they would work through this, that everything would be fine, that it wasn’t the end of the world to deal with, he still knew the reality . He should have told them before he left. “I probably would have had them anyway.”

(Also Mr. D’s reaction might have made him a bit nervous. Scratch that, he was absolutely nervous about his reaction whenever he did eventually find out.)

Castor shifted a bit closer to him before asking. “Can I ask why you didn’t? I know you said you weren’t ready for others to know yet but I don’t think that’s all. No judgment I promise, I’m just curious.”

Percy found himself fiddling with Riptide for a second, trying to figure out how to best phrase it. “I don’t think I was ready to acknowledge it yet. So much of my life has changed so drastically in the past month Cas, and this was another change, a big one too. Plus I didn’t take the initial news all that well.”

“I don’t think many people would have.”

Percy hummed in agreement, shifting the blanket again. “I know it's not the most world shattering thing to find out but… acknowledging it made it feel more real than I was ready to deal with.”

“That makes sense.”

“Do you and Pollux ever have these kinds of nightmares about things that happened before?” Percy asked, wanting to change the subject though he quickly rushed to add. “You don’t have to talk about it if you want to of course.”

“It’s fine. But to answer your question, not really. Dad’s fairly protective of us as you’ve already seen. And while we didn’t know for a long time who our Dad was, we probably had one of the easier arrivals at camp because of him.”

“That makes sense.”

“But we still worry, you know? We’re still demigods. And while we can defend ourselves pretty well as you’ve seen, things still happen. Things still have happened, even with Dad there.”

As evidenced by how the two of them had ended up becoming friends in the first place.

“I know if I lost Pollux I would be devastated, and the same goes for if he lost me. It's hard to imagine one of us being around without the other. We both worry about what could happen if one of us ran into a monster and well-”

Castor didn’t finish his sentence, but Percy got where he was going with it anyway.

“Is it hard being away from him now?” Percy asked, wondering if maybe he should have tried to bring someone else on the quest.

But then again, he still didn’t know who the someone else would be.

“No, there's a difference between being separated from each other like this and one of us being well, dead.”

“Yeah that makes sense.” Percy agreed, thinking back to the times he had just been separated from his mother, usually to go to some boarding school, and how different it felt from the current moment, before giving an absent yawn.

It was fairly early morning when Percy heard from his Dad again. He was keeping an eye on the arrival boards, looking for any signs of the train they were supposed to be on to finally arrive.

Percy?

Percy blinks, surprised to have his Dad calling him first for once. Hey, what’s going on? Did something happen?

No. Well not currently no. Percy, Amphitrite and I have been trying to figure out how you ended up encountering Medusa? You were supposed to be on a bus to Los Angeles.

Percy cringed. He hadn’t considered shipping the head off to Dad would clue him to the bus incident.

Percy-

I’m fine. We’re fine.

Percy can almost hear the sigh from his father. What happened?

So someone may have blown up the bus we were on?

Percy!

I promise we’re fine. We weren’t on the bus when it happened. It had stopped at a gas station for a short break before it was supposed to go on, we were all off the bus when it happened.

Do you still have your supplies? Or do I need to send Triton to meet you at one of my temples?

No, we had our bags with us. Grover and I kinda learned the hard way to have them on us after Yancy.

I would ask what that means but that is the least of my concerns at the moment. Why didn’t you say something sooner?

Cause I didn’t want to start the fighting all over again.

Percy-

In my defense you two really messed with both my sleep and the weather.

There was a slight pause before Poseidon replied. What do you mean by your sleep?

I might have dreamt a few times about you and Zeus fighting over the stolen bolt? I mean it wasn’t you you, like animal versions of you but looking back-

You were seeing one of our arguments. He could almost hear the sigh from his Dad. I can’t guarantee anything about the weather but I will try to withhold talking to my brother until we know more details on what’s going on.

Thanks.

Though Percy, whether or not we start arguing again is not something that is your responsibility.

I mean it's kind of hard not to view it that way considering what the quest is about. Percy countered.

Just let us handle this. And please if something like this happens again tell someone. Even if we can’t do much of anything I would still rather know.

“Husband?” Amphitrite’s voice brings Poseidon back to the present. “What did Percy say?”

“Turns out they were no longer on the bus because someone exploded the vehicle.”

Amphitrite drew a sharp breath. “The children-”

“Are fine according to Percy. Though I may send Triton to covertly check on them and confirm that was true.”

He wanted to believe Percy would say something if he was injured, he was certain he would say something if one of his friends were, but considering what they had found out through Apollo Poseidon didn’t have complete faith in it.

“Good. Do you think your brother was behind this?”

Poseidon sighed. “I honestly don’t know. I would like to think he would be smart enough to not let his paranoia get the better of him and make him go after the one person who has a lead on the whereabouts of his weapon. But I can’t say I trust him enough to restrain himself. That being said, while it's his weapon that’s missing, my younger brother is not the only one who can conjure lightning.”

Father was their progenitor after all, he could create lightning bolts if he wanted to. But if he was able to that suggested a concerning degree of strength than what they had first suspected.

“You are thinking it's your father again?” Poseidon had told Amphitrite the discussion he and Hades had and the rather concerning lack of options for whoever might be after the weapon.

“Possibly though I hope not since that raises multiple concerns.”

Like a second war with the Titans that could last four years due to the fact his youngest was only twelve.

If it wasn’t Zeus, (and he still wasn’t certain it wasn’t his brother) then the other option that wasn’t their father was whoever actually had the master bolt. 

Which was concerning. He was fairly sure a demigod wouldn’t be able to use it without burning up, which suggested it might have been handed over to another God.

Possibly the same one from Percy’s prophecy about descending.

More than probable really. There were pretty much no other options other than the person referenced in the prophecy.

Answers to the question they had been pondering for the last few days ended up coming that night in a way that Poseidon would deem one of the worst to confirm his suspicion.

It wasn’t a god who would confirm the most likely culprit, but Percy, who was dragged to the edge of the cliff that led into what he later realized was Tartarus.

The voice in his dreams, the same one that had been talking with the thief that had tried to frame him, was taunting him with a visage of his Mom. Saying that if he would just join him then he could bring her back.

And Percy wanted his Mom back, desperately so. But his gut was telling him before they even started factoring in the location that this was a bad idea. After all, anyone that framed him as the thief in order to get him to comply and join his side couldn’t be good news, right?

Besides, could he even have his Mom? That seemed like a thing rather distinct to Hades. But then again considering who his father was maybe it wasn’t that much of a stretch?

Percy doesn’t have a chance to respond however, not that he really wants to, before he’s being pushed behind away from the edge of the pit by a figure. Surprise quickly formed at the figure's appearance as he can hear a range of Ancient Greek being spoken, though he can only catch one or two words. 

It's finally quiet for a moment before Percy finally speaks. “Uncle H?”

His uncle’s appearance was very much welcome. Percy had been trying to ignore the warnings from the dead because he really didn’t want to go into a panic at the edge of the chasm. But he knew even before that, the chasm wasn’t good news.

Hades didn’t respond immediately, still staring at the pit even as the things he had been hearing seemed to have long stopped, before giving a tired sigh and turning back towards Percy. “I would inquire if you are alright but I do believe that is a redundant question.”

Percy just nodded, not really wanting to say anything, worried that if he did they would return. Though he’s sure if they did Hades would scare them off a second time.

“Come along nephew. It is best we don’t linger here anymore than we need to.”

Now that was something Percy could agree with.

They’re back in some part of the house, mansion, whatever word was most appropriate, Percy couldn’t really decide at the moment, before he says anything.

“Thank you.” He isn’t sure what would have happened if his uncle hadn’t shown up and he doesn’t want to think about it. He still didn’t like that he had taken his Mom, but he knew that he had definitely saved him from something bad.

“You are welcome, nephew. While I may not usually get along with my brother’s children, I would not wish an encounter with father on anyone.”

“So that was him, that well, you know?” Percy said, not entirely sure how to phrase the question, knowing how awkward it would sound now that he was finally understanding the whole ‘You shouldn’t drop names randomly’ thing.

Mr. D had certainly implied it, but without a reason Percy hadn’t understood at first.

Triton had been the one to finally explain why you really shouldn’t go around saying names unless you wanted to deal with the repercussions since neither Mr. D nor Chiron had done so, or at least not in a way he had really grasped.

Now that he knew how it worked, and after what had literally just happened, the last thing he wanted was Kronos giving him more attention.

It might not end as well next time.

“Unfortunately yes.”

Percy tilted his head, noting the almost resigned look on his uncle's face and the lack of surprise earlier at the voice, only seeming to have been caught off guard by Percy being here at all. “You don’t seem surprised?”

“Your father and I are already having discussions about this possibility. We were worried he was behind the thefts to begin with, this just about confirms it though. Though how you got here is another matter.”

“I honestly don’t know what happened. I just remember falling asleep on the train and then boom, I’m there at the pit with him talking to me.”

He really did want to know how he kept doing that. Maybe then he could figure out how to stop doing it. He knew Triton had said that he couldn’t fully control demigod dreams, but he would rather not end up back there again if he can help it.

“Astral projecting. Well, that’s going to be a problem.”

“Sorry?”

Hades just waved off the concern however. “Your ability is only half of the problem here. The other is well-”

Hades broke off there but Percy got the idea anyway. The problem was that he had been drawn towards that pit in the first place.

“I’ll need to tell your father about this, this is something that needs to be looked into before something more serious happens and one of us isn’t around to intervene.”

“You think he’ll try again?”

“Father can be… persistent, at the best of times. I doubt a few millennia has changed that. I would like to say that he will not try that again, however I am fairly sure it will happen. And while training won’t prevent it entirely-”

“It’ll make things safer?”

“Correct.”

“Um Uncle H. Can I ask you something?” Hades made a ‘go on’ gesture. “When I first arrived there he showed me Mom saying that he could bring her back? And I don’t know about that but now I’m worried about Mom? Is she-”

He didn’t think Kronos had been telling the truth. He didn't think he actually had his Mom and could return her. But Percy couldn’t help but worry now that the idea had been implemented into his head.

There was always the possibility that he was completely wrong. 

“She is safe in my care for the moment. Father wouldn’t be able to get to her without me becoming aware of it.”

There was no reason to trust the god's words, but there also was no reason to think he was lying either. And even being held captive by Hades was a better option than being held captive by Kronos.

He knew that much at least.

“I still don’t get why you took her in the first place.”

Hades sighed before answering the indirect question. “It was a scheme to tempt you here. I had admittedly thought you the thief as well originally until you pulled that stunt with Alecto. Though my reasoning was different then my youngest brother’s.”

Percy grumbled, more to himself than to his uncle. “I don’t like getting blamed for something I didn’t do.”

“I believe that’s not uncommon for you, nephew.”

“Yeah but I probably have to deal with it more than the average person. Being a demigod used to cause all sorts of things to happen around me, and when they couldn’t explain away what had happened they would blame me regardless of what else was going on.”

Like the daycare incident. He still wasn’t sure how they had managed to twist the blame onto him when he had been attacked and consequently strangled a snake, but they had managed it.

“That is a sentiment I can unfortunately understand.”

Percy blinked, both surprised and a bit confused at the statement before remembering some of the myths he had read, and the fact Hades was only allowed on Olympus one day a year.

Yeah actually, his uncle would be the one that understood the most.

“You should return to the waking world. Or else my brother may just come down here and retrieve you himself.”

Percy frowned at his uncle in confusion. “How would that even work?” It wasn’t like he was physically in the Underworld, or at least not entirely? Hades had said something about astral projecting earlier but he honestly didn’t know what that meant.

Percy woke up and, much to his surprise once he has a moment for some of the haziness of sleep to fade, there was another person in the train car that he definitely hadn’t been expecting.

“Dad?”

He could just barely make out the shapes of Cas and Grover behind him. It’s too dark to see their expressions, but he can’t imagine they’re much happier than the one he can just make out on Dads.

Though whether that’s from the interrupted sleep or something else he isn’t entirely sure.

“Easy Percy, you're safe. He will not get to you here.”

Percy’s not sure if the reassurance is meant for him or his Dad, maybe it's for the both of them, he can’t really bring himself to care enough about which one it might be. He instead opted to lean his head against his Dads shoulder.

“How did you know something happened?” 

The only god that had been in his dream that he was aware of had been Hades. Of course he wasn’t the only immortal there but as far as he had known his Dad hadn’t been there to see what had happened.

And yet he seemed to know of the matter already.

“Hades informed me of what happened almost immediately after he took you to his house. Though I had picked up on your distress before then.”

Oh, that made sense.

“Sorry.”

His Dad probably had other things he needed to be doing. Godly things and the like. And here he was in a small room on a train checking up on him, all because his Grandpa just couldn’t stay away apparently.

Percy felt more than saw Poseidon shake his head. “Do not worry about it. When it comes to father I will always be cautious after he appears. You’re sure you’re alright?”

“I am now. Uncle H let me calm down some before he returned me to the waking world.” Otherwise who knew how he would have woken up. “Won’t you get in trouble for being here?”

His Dad hummed in thought at that before answering. “It could be argued that what Hades did was a bigger violation to the non interference clause than my presence, even if I am grateful for his help. Besides, I was not going to standby without knowing you were alright after encountering father.”

Yeah, he was trying not to think too hard about what had happened. Especially since it hadn’t been the first time he’d heard the voice. 

“That’s not the first time he’s appeared in a dream you know.” Percy pointed out. Feeling Poseidon stiffen at the reminder but continued to ignore it for the moment, remembering that whole conversation with the thief. “It's the first time I’ve actually seen the pit though.”

Poseidon scowled at that. “Yes, I haven’t forgotten the dream that ended up sending you on this quest in the first place. How often have you been dreaming of it?”

Percy shrugged at the question, not entirely sure. They had been happening off and on for months now. They had only been increasing in detail and strength since he arrived at camp.

“Percy-”

“I promise I really don’t know. I didn’t think to record anything of this before because  I didn’t understand what was going on until recently. Sorry for not having that much foresight.” Percy can’t help some of the annoyance that seeps into his tone. How was he supposed to know the significance of the dreams if he didn’t know the Greek world existed in the first place?

Poseidon took a breath before releasing a deep sigh. “No you wouldn’t have known, my apologies. It’s just distressing to think about.”

Percy wrinkled his nose. “Isn’t the whole thing distressing?” At least that’s how he thought his dad felt about it, considering the myths around his dad and grandfather.

The idea of him being back… that couldn’t be pleasant at all for his Dad to be realizing.

“You’re right, it is disturbing, but this information has brought up some new concerns I hadn’t considered.”

“Because I almost fell into that pit?”

Neither his Dad or his Uncle had said what the pit was, but if it had shaken them this much it obviously wasn’t anything good. And while part of him did want to know where he had nearly fallen, he was mostly content with not knowing. 

“Somewhat. Though that is part of it, the degree and length of it… well it’s not a shock but it's still concerning.”

“Uncle H mentioned that I needed training to deal with this kind of thing.”

“You will, my brother is right about that. However, right now is not the time to address that.”

“So what do I do if it happens again?”

Technically he still had the conch shell charm, but he had a feeling that it wouldn’t work during whatever he had done earlier that somehow ended up with him in the Underworld since he wasn’t physically there.

“Call for one of us if Hades doesn’t come first. Which he very well might. Hades might not be happy with us in his realm but he will be far more upset if he had to deal with the ramifications of if something were to happen to you when astral projecting.”

“Okay.” Percy’s not entirely sure how much that would help if the pit or his Grandpa was that determined on getting him, but he would try. It was better than nothing.

He doesn’t want to think about it.

“I need to return to Atlantis. My presence could cause problems if I stay too long.” Poseidon said, finally drawing back from Percy. “But if this happens again please inform one of us. It is far too important to be kept a secret.”

There were times Poseidon liked to be right about something and others he didn’t. Let it be known that finding out his suspicion on who was backing the thief was correct fell in the latter of the two.

“Po?” Amphitrite looked at him, concern evident in her features when he returned to Atlantis after checking on Percy. “What has happened?”

“We need to start making preparations for a possible war.”

As much as he would like to think this might be a one off, that if they took care of the bolt his father would disappear into Tartarus without any more trouble, e knew that wouldn’t be the case. There was no way this was just going to go away if he was gaining enough strength to have followers.

Not when they were talking about his Father.

Amphitrite went rimrod straight, realizing the seriousness of the situation even without the full details. “Poseidon, what is going on?”

“Father is attempting to make contact with Percy, trying to bribe him into giving him the bolt. Which means-”

“That he is strong enough to be a threat if he truly can work the master bolt.”

“Correct.”

“You are sure it's him, Poseidon? I do not want to believe this, but if it is him then the sheer implications…”

“I know, I don’t like it either.”

There were few beings in the universe he would wish to never encounter again. One of which was his father. The fact that he was gaining strength, let alone to the extent they might have to fight him.

This was not something he wanted to consider, but there was little doubt in his mind.

He wasn’t going to waste precious time on useless wishes. The sooner they started to prepare for what would come with his father’s return, the better.

“I’ll tell Triton to summon the council.”

“Thank you.”

Chapter Text

“So we’ve got a problem.” Grover said, returning to the train cabin. It was early afternoon the day after the dream in the Underworld and Grover had just gone on a food run. Apparently they could only barely make it a full day on the train without trouble finding them. “There’s something that smells like a monster on board.”

“You’re sure?” Percy asked frowning. It wasn't that he didn't believe Grover but...what were the odds of that happening?

(But then again with their odds on this quest it really shouldn't surprise him should it?)

“Fairly. I didn’t get close enough to be able to tell what it was. But it definitely wasn’t human.”

“Crap.” Percy muttered. “What do we do? Should we go after it?”

Grover quickly shook his head at that though. “No. If you go out there then you’ll just attract her attention. Which is the worst idea when we're stuck on a train in the middle of nowhere.”

“And waiting around is the better idea?” Castor asked. Apparently thinking what he was. That being sitting in a train car was not very appealing.

“I mean no. But who knows what it is. If we get stuck in a fight in the middle of nowhere. We’re not going to exactly have somewhere to go. Our safest bet is to ditch the train entirely in the next major city that might have a temple if it doesn’t find us first.”

“Maybe they will get bored before then?” Percy asked, knowing that the answer was unlikely. He might be new to this but he was pretty sure that wasn’t a thing monsters do.

Grover winced and Percy had the feeling he was thinking of something specifically when he said. “That’s unlikely.”

“Especially with two demigods on board.” Castor agreed. “One being a child of the Big 3. Even if they weren’t sent by someone else. They still will be interested in staying because of us alone.”

“Great.” Percy said with an annoyed sigh. Not for the first time slightly annoyed with who his Dad was. Don’t get him wrong, he loved his Dad and his family. But at times like these it was hard to deal with.  “So what are we going to do then?” Percy finally asks. “We can’t just stay on here forever.”

“No, but like I said our best bet is to ditch in a major city that probably will have a temple we can take refuge in.”

“Which is…?”

“St Louis.”

“Isn’t that another day or two though?” Percy asked. He hadn’t honestly paid that much attention to when the train was stopping in cities. Other than how long it was supposed to take them to get to Los Angeles. Which he was definitely now regretting. “Are we sure that getting off sooner be a better idea?”

“No.” Castor said deciding to side with Grover apparently. “Besides the temple thing it will be too easy for whatever it is to follow us if we get off there. If we want to disappear into a crowd without whatever it is spotting us. That’s going to be our best bet.”

“I just don’t like waiting around that long.” Percy said with a frown. 

Grovre nodded. “Neither do I. But Castor’s right it is better to get away somewhere safer. Then have them track us through a town and cause who knows what amounts of problems.”

This was about to be a very long next day.

With not much in the way of entertainment. (The last thing they needed was electronics and their monster beacon capabilities. When they were already being stalked by at least one of them.) Conversations had ended up turning to just about anything but mainly before camp.

Or before camp for anyone that wasn’t Percy. Since he certainly wasn’t going to tell them about Gabe. He might love his two friends but he was nowhere near ready for them to know about that. Probably would never be.

So he let his friends take the helm for the most part. Outside of the occasional comments about his Mom.

Percy knew a bit about Grover already. Admittedly he had been told the version that didn’t include the Greek mythos when they had first met. But not much about it was that different other than the obvious.

Castor though…he honestly didn’t know a lot about him or his brother's history. He knew more about what they could do than that. Like the most he could consider knowing is knowing their father was Dionysus. He knew they had been coming for at least a couple of years.  But that was more thanks to the bead necklace than anything he had been told directly. And that was the extent of the knowledge he realized.

So it had to be fairly recent going by the beads. Or recent in comparison with Annabeth and a few of the other campers he remembered seeing with their necklaces.

Then again Annabeth said she had been at camp longer than most of the kids. And she had come with Luke. Who he vaguely remembered saying he had been at camp for five years. So he guessed it wasn’t that much of a surprise that Cas had only been there for a couple of years.

“Dad tried to keep us away from camp for as long as possible.”

Percy blinked in surprise. He would have thought Mr. D. probably would have used the chance to have his sons near. By bringing them to camp sooner. So to hear otherwise was a surprise. “Why?”

Castor shrugged. “I am not entirely sure I just assumed that it had to do with the whole if you know you attract monsters. But maybe there was something more there. We never asked. Anyways, things happened like they always do with demigods. And we ended up there about two years after the events on the hill.”

So about three years ago then if he knew his timing correctly. Though the mentioning of the incident on the hill brought up something he had been wondering about for a while. “How did protecting the camp work before that happened?”

It seemed like a lot of the protection relied on the tree. But surely they wouldn’t have left it completely unprotected. Or else there wouldn’t be a camp right? But he also hadn’t seen any other protections around?

“There were protections in place before. But they were different from the tree.” Grover answered. "We used to have this old bronze dragon but it kind of went wild a while back. So no one's used it in a long time."

That made sense. Having a place full of people attracting monsters seemed to be set up for disaster. If there wasn’t some sort of failsafe.

“Why do you ask?”

“Curiosity I guess.” Percy admitted with a shrug. 

Since Grover was the only one of the three that could go out to get anything. Without possibly attracting the attention of whomever it was on the train with them. So he was the one in charge of grabbing food and checking the news. Which was how Percy ended up finding out his stepfather had been in the newspaper at all.

(Honestly he was almost surprised that he was even alive if he was being honest. Considering the reaction he had seen from his Dad’s side. He had half expected him to already be dead. He guessed with everything going on they just hadn't gotten to him yet.)

“What’s this Camaro he keeps going on about." Castor asked frowning. "With the way it keeps getting mentioned you would think it was another person entirely.”

Percy snorted at that. “Yeah you would think that. But no it’s just his old car. That got blown up when we were running from the minotaur.”

Gabe’s rants about the Camaro were the least surprising. Considering he had threatened him if he somehow damaged the car. Despite the fact that he was never supposed to have been driving it. It didn’t matter to Gabe. If Percy was somehow involved and his Mom wasn’t around. He was going to find some way to hold him responsible for the whole mess.

“And he’s talking about that while he thinks you and your Mom are missing.”

Percy made a face at that. “Yeah Gabe is a piece of work. Can’t say I’m surprised he’s saying that kind of thing.”

And that was all he was going to say on that whole subject. He might trust Grover. And his trust of Castor had been building even more over the quest so far. But this wasn’t something he was ready for either of them to know. He hadn’t even wanted his immortal family to know. They only knew because of Apollo at the end of the day.

While he still wasn’t sure what his Dad and his immortal family side were planning. If somehow he failed to get his Mom back. He did know regardless that he wouldn’t ever go near Gabe again. He would rather deal with the tension and fear of being stuck with Clarisse and Annabeth. Then go back to that apartment.

“That doesn’t surprise me.” Castor continued when Percy made an inquiring noise. Wondering how his friend had clocked Gabe’s usual behavior when they had never met. “I mean I remember your brother and my Dad arguing something about a newspaper article. So I’m guessing this isn’t the first story they’ve run with him in it.”

Huh.

Well that was news to him.

“Triton didn’t say anything to me.” Percy said, frowning.

“Maybe he didn’t want to stress you out? A lot was happening all at once, Perce.” Grover pointed out.

“True.”

Though finding out Gabe had been defaming him probably would have annoyed him more than anything. He already had a rep and this was just going to make it worse. The gesture was appreciated at least.

“My Mom’s one of the nicest people I know. I never understood why she decided to marry a jerk like him.”

It had been a question he had kept asking himself over and over again. Growing up and even now knowing Greek mythology. This somehow happened to be one of the biggest mysteries for him at least. Actually it was an even bigger mystery now actually knowing his fathers side of the family.

If they were like that then how had her mother ended up with Gabe? He was so far beneath her and yet she still put up with him…why?

“I mean I might have an idea though I’m not sure if you’ll like it.” Grover reluctantly admitted.

Percy frowned at him. “What do you mean?”

“It’s just if I tell you you might understand. But it’s not exactly a positive realization or understanding.”

“The more you dance around it, Grover, the more I just want to know it.”

“Well see the thing is some humans are so smelly they can mask others scents.”

Oh.

Well crap.

How do you even begin to deal with that kind of realization? That you and your Mom had to deal with someone like Gabe because she was trying to protect him.

“Percy?” He opens his eyes again, seeing Grovers concerned look. 

“I’m fine.”

“I’m sorry I did tell you you were probably not going to like it-”

“Yeah and I still let you tell me. I’m not mad Grover. I just…am feeling a lot of things right now.”

Going by the look Grover gives him. His friend definitely doesn’t believe him. But thankfully doesn’t push the topic more in the moment. Leaving Percy to mull over his thoughts for now. It made sense. His Mom was always doing stuff for him despite the difficulties at times. Of course if she thought it would protect him she would marry Gabe.

Percy? Percy blinks in surprise when he hears his Dads voice in his head. He doesn’t remember reaching out to talk to him.

Dad? Is something wrong?

I should be the one asking you that question. You are giving off quiet a bit of distress at the moment. Enough that it is coming through the bond.

Percy flushed at that slightly. Wondering if this would be a recurring problem with strong emotions. Sorry didn’t mean to.

It’s fine but I am concerned what is troubling you.

Percy hesitated more then a bit concerned explaining might get Grover in trouble with his immortal family. But he didn’t think he could get out of this. They were always pretty good at clocking when he was actually flat out lying and not lying by omission. Grover told me how smelly Gabe used to mask my scent.

Ah.

Percy didn’t need to see his Dad to know he definitely wasn’t happy about this. Please don’t be mad at him. I asked him to tell me why he thought Mom had married him. He didn’t just dump it on me.

There’s a pause before his Dad finally says back. Fine. Though I would have preferred you had never found that out.

Yeah some part of him wishes he could go back to before he knew this. Take away the guilt now settling into him from that information. But he had asked Grover so it was entirely his own fault in this situation.

I have half a mind to send Triton out to check on you.

That was slightly out of the blue. And all Percy can think is that he probably doesn’t believe the feelings are just from Grover’s comment.

Dad, please don’t, I promise I am fine.

He does like his Dad looking out for him of course. But he really doesn’t want to add a large God to their already cramped cabin. And whatever attention that might bring from the monster that was on the train.

Really?

Really. I promise the last monster I saw was Medusa.

That wasn’t a lie either. The last monster he had seen was Medusa. Because he hadn’t been able to see whatever had set Grover off. But Dad didn’t need to know that detail.

Besides won’t sending Triton after me just cause more problems with Uncle Z?

I cannot emphasize enough right now how little I care about my brother’s thoughts on my choices in regards to you. Considering he is a large chunk of the reason you are on this quest to begin with. If he had just-

Dad. Percy cut in sensing his Dad was about to go on a full on rant about Zeus.

Right apologies. Your uncle just gets on my nerves at times. And not in a pleasant way.

Percy isn’t sure there is even a pleasant way for him to do that. But doesn’t try arguing that.

Either way please keep us updated on your progress. Let us know if anything happens. I might be able to send Triton to meet you in a town on the route if need be. Assuming you have to get off.

Yeah that’s a matter of if not when on the later. We’re having to change trains in Denver to get to Los Angeles.

Apparently the route through St Louis didn’t go all the way to the west coast. And well there was still the issue of the monster that Grover had smelled...But Percy was hopeful that they could maybe mask this as a small delay and just get a later train if they played their cards right.

The temple was still in the cards. But he really wanted to use it as a last resort.

That’s still several days away though isn’t it.

Dad we’ll be fine I promise. If something does happen we’ll just get off at the next stop before it becomes an actual problem. I promise.

Of course things do end up going to crap when they try to get off the train in St. Louis. They had managed to evade the monster up until the last moment. And of course just when they think they’re in the clear. Is of course when it shows up.

Later on even after they’ve figured out several things. The how and why of most of what had gone down on the quest. Why Echidna had come after him was never made entirely clear.

Of course there was what she had claimed, that Zeus had sent her after him as a means of testing him. But, of course, his uncle denied the allegation when asked. Saying that it made no sense to target a demigod tasked with retrieving the master bolt. Which…he wasn’t entirely wrong Percy had to admit.

But they also had the bus blown up by lightning. Which wasn’t exactly in his favor either. Though that might have been Ares they find out later.

Percy rubbed the side of his chest where the stinger had hit him. They had managed to get away from the chimera for the moment. Though who knew how long that would last. They were still on a train in the middle of nowhere. And while St. Louis was fast approaching. It would be a while before they got to safety. 

At least right now the spot just felt numb. Though who knew how long that would last.

Anyway who was behind Echidna and the chimera was honestly the least of his concerns. Fighting on the train, or trying to at least. Was not exactly easy. And it had resulted in him taking a hit from the scorpion end of the beast Echidna had brought along.

“Percy?” Castor asked looking at him as Grover’s eyes had narrowed on the action. 

“I’m fine it just feels weird.”

“Painful?”

“No, the opposite actually. Numb.”

Which was probably a signal of another issue admittedly. But he didn’t have time to worry about that when he was stuck on a train with a monster prowling about looking for them.

“Like your arms do on occasion?”

“Sorta. This I can still feel pain around it. My arms on the other hand…”

“You can’t really feel anything?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s probably not good.” Castor muttered more to himself than to the other two it seemed.

“No.” Percy agreed. 

“We should probably keep an eye on it. Scorpion stingers can be nasty things. Especially if its something native to our side of the world. And who knows what she loaded in a Chimera.”

Percy hummed slightly in agreement at that. But he honestly didn’t have the mental energy to try and think on the implications there. There were more important things to deal with. “Where can we go from here? We’re kind of stuck until St Louis.”

They could worry about whatever was in that stupid stinger. After they were far, far away from Echidna and her little monster. Since of course Echidna finally had been able to get the upper hand when they still weren’t in a place with a city.

“We’re going to have to hope she doesn’t find us before St. Louis otherwise I don’t know what we’re going to do. Fighting on here didn’t go well the first time. And I’m pretty sure the train cops are after us.”

“Yeah that wouldn’t surprise me.”

“We could try changing train cars every so often until we get there. That might be enough to throw her off where we actually are.”

“Not like we have many other options.” Other than relying on luck. “So what are we going to do once we get to St. Louis?”

“Like I said before, a temple is probably are best bet. They are sacred areas that no monster can enter not. At least not without express permission of the god it is for. So if we find one that’s on your Dads good side then we will be safe.”

“And do you know of any in St. Louis?”

Grover winced at the question. “Only one and that one’s not really an option.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s Athena’s.”

“Oh yeah that’s not a good idea.” Percy agreed with a wince. While his beef had always been with Annabeth in particular he didn’t entirely trust her mother to not pull something in retribution. Add in the whole family history there. And it was really not a good idea to try that temple.

“How do you even know about that one anyway?”

Percy was kind of surprised his friend knew about the temple. With the way he had talked about Pan and the searchers license on the train. He thought he would be more familiar with places that would be associated with the wild god.

Not knowing a random location for Athena’s temples.

But then again maybe this was the whole protector thing again? Maybe he had to know where temples were in case they needed to go to one?

“Annabeth talks about it a lot. It's at the cross section of two of her favorite things, her Mom and Architecture so it comes up a lot.”

Oh that made sense actually.

“How are we going to find a temple anyway? I don’t remember really hearing much about Ancient Greek architecture in modern day except for like one or two places.”

“That’s because temples now adays have adapted to the times. And don’t look like that anymore. For example the Athenian temple I mentioned is the St. Louis Arch.”

Well that both expanded and narrowed down possible options for safety it felt like.

“I could ask Dad about one of his temples?” They would definitely be safe there at the very least. “I don’t know if he has one in every city but it has to be worth a shot right?”

“It’s certainly better than our only known option at least. And maybe if he doesn’t have one maybe he knows another temple that would be safe for us to take refuge in.”

Dad

Is something wrong Percy?  

I’m alright though we may have just had a nasty run in with some monsters on a train.

You what?

We’re fine.

You can’t expect me to honestly believe that Perseus.

Percy debated for a moment the merit of just lying since it would be the easier thing to deal with. But if the thing with the stinger ended up being a problem. Probably Dad was going to be more mad if he said it was fine. Okay so maybe I have some scratches and might have some bruises in the morning. But nothing seriously bad.

Except for maybe the stinger. But he wasn’t going to mention that until they knew for sure that was going to be a problem.

Has the monster been taken care of?

No. Fighting it on a train isn’t exactly something you can do Dad. Its too tight quarters. We’re just going to have to keep changing places and hope she doesn’t get to us before St. Louis.

Fair point. Though I don’t entirely like that plan.

We don’t exactly have any other options. Train corridors aren’t a massive space. And fighting in some of the more open cars will cause different problems.

Alright I suppose there isn’t much that can be done then. What is the plan after you get off the train however? I’m assuming you’ll be getting off as soon as you can?

Yeah, we are planning to get off at the next stop. And either find somewhere safe to stay until they lose interest. Or take out whatever that monster is.

You don’t know its identity?

I mean Echidna might have called it something. But I honestly was too busy trying to deal with it to pay that much attention to her. Grover and Castor might know something though?

There was a slight pause before he hears back from his Dad again. I’m sorry who might have called it something?

Echidna?

You ran into the mother of monsters?

Yeah.

There was a slight pause from Poseidon’s end. And he only can imagine what he must be saying at the moment. After a moment he finally comes back. Where are you currently?

The train is about an hour out from St. Louis. We were hoping that you might know somewhere we can hole up for a bit?

I do and it works almost perfectly considering where you are coming in. The local aquarium acts as one of my temples. It’s not that far from where you are. Go there, explain to the local temple runners why you need to come in they should be able to assist, and stay there until she loses interest in chasing you.

Thanks.

Are you sure you do not need extra assistance? I can send Triton to you if you are at the temple.

Percy knows his Dad can't see him but he still shakes his head out of habit. No I should be fine. I’ll update you once there is something more to talk about.

Please do so.

“So?”

“The aquarium next to the station is one of Dad’s temples. He said that we can take shelter there until it's safe to continue on.”

“I don’t remember the one we saw the first time having a snake head anywhere.” Percy grumbled as they paused in a random alleyway in St. Louis. They had finally made it to St. Louis only to run into even more trouble with Echidna of course.

“I mean it doesn’t really matter if there is more than one of them tracking us.” Castor countered.

“It kind of is though.”

“When did you get bit?” Grover asked him as he stood back up again.

“At some point when we were crossing the train tracks trying to lose her entirely only to end up in another fight. I didn’t realize it was to close to me until it had already taken a bite out of my leg. Because I was too busy trying to deal with the fire breathing lion to keep track of its other body parts.” Which of course had turned out to be a mistake.

“It doesn’t look good.”

“I don’t feel great either.” Percy muttered more to himself than his friends. Having two separate poisons in your system apparently really messed with you. And with it only being a matter of time before the adrenaline wore off. This was only going to get worse if they didn’t find a fix and soon.

Dad had said the temple was an aquarium that was just up the road. And so they should have tanks he could probably take a dip in and take care of this. But he’s not entirely sure how well asking that of whoever was in charge of the temple would actually go.

Grover and Castor exchanged a glance before Grover said. “Perce I think you need to call your Dad or someone. This might need more than just a trip to the temple.”

Percy sighed but nodded reaching up for the conch shell charm on the necklace. Normally he would have probably tried arguing against it but at this point he didn’t have the energy. The adrenaline was fully fading and between the bite and poison everything was hitting full force at once. He pressed down down on the indent Triton had shown him before he had left on the quest. He wasn’t looking forward to the lecture that was probably coming for not telling them sooner about this.

He probably should have told his Dad dearing the first conversation what had happened in full detail. But with the quest keeping going sideways. He had been reluctant to admit this was yet another thing that had gotten messed up.

Hopefully this wasn’t a one time use only thing. Because he was going to feel rather silly if he used it now. And then the solution was at the temple anyway. Meaning he should have saved it for something else.

Triton seemed to appear out of nowhere in a blink of an eye. Which considering he was a god probably was accurate and was a good thing too since he was barely able to stay conscious at this point.

Since at this point he decided that since Triton was here he could fix this. He didn’t need to worry about what was happening next.

So maybe that was why he just let unconsciousness finally take him at this point.

Triton had barely a moment to fully take the scene in before Percy decided to pass out onto him. Silently swearing under his breath going with his second instinct after seeing that the only visible injury was a bite mark to the leg that looked suspiciously like a snake.

There were two possible options here with the heat radiating off his brothers forehead. One being Percy had gotten sick at an inconvenient time. But considering his brother had been asking about temples according to their father. Combined with the fang marks. It was safe to assume which one was the case here. “Poison?”

He got two nods at that though its Castor that gives him more information. “He got stung by a scorpion and then when were trying to get off the train we ran into Echidna again with her monster. And he got bitten by a snake.”

“Chimera?”

It was the only thing he could think of that could inflict this level of damage. Though having two types of poisonous creatures was unheard of. Which implied that they had run into not one but two of them. He’s not sure which is worst honestly. Encountering a chimera with both a snake head and a scorpion tail. Or encountering two separate chimeras. Echidna must have been particularly bored that day to do such a thing. Since that was overkill even by her standards either way. 

“Yeah, Echidna brought two of them.” Grover confirmed.

“Of course she did.” Triton muttered more in complaint to himself than the two children. “How long has it been since the encounters?”

“The scorpion was about an hour ago I think?" Castor said with a frown. "And we just got away from the other one before we had Percy call you.”

Well at least that last part said Percy hadn’t been out too long. Though…, “You could have said something sooner.”

Even if Percy hadn’t told their father about it. One of the other two could have prayed and raised the alarm.

Castor frowned at that. “I mean we were stuck on a train. I don’t think you could have done much other than maybe add to the problem. We had to hide away because we couldn’t fight the thing.”

Triton bites back a comment that they might not have had an hour to wait depending on the scorpion. If this had been another scorpion they had encountered. Than there was a non zero chance his brother would be dead before he could have raised the alarm of needing any help. As it was he was guessing this was probably more mortal run of the mill venom. Which still wasn’t great. But at least it wasn’t something like a pit scorpion. He doesn’t even want to think about what could have happened if it had been that.

“We were kind of in the middle of nowhere. We weren’t certain even if you could get to us how much you would be able to help.” Castor defended.

Triton knows they have a point even if he does not want to admit it. As it was charm or not this could still be troublesome in Zeus' eyes. Even if it was making sure he got his bolt back. So he chooses to just ignore the comment for the moment. “Come on lets get you three to the temple.”

Technically this was bending even more the rules of quest interference to take them there himself. And if Zeus found out about it they would definitely be in trouble. But again this whole thing had gotten started because his object of power had been stolen. So in Triton’s opinion he didn’t have much room to actually complain.

Besides he wanted to make sure Percy was actually alright. And that meant actually going to the temple. So might as well cut some of the process out.

“Grab my elbows.”

Maybe teleporting them to the outside of the temple was overkill. When it was less than a mile down the street from the train station. But the sooner he got his brother treated the better. And if teleporting sped up that process so be it.

Triton’s barely walked into the temple. When he spots a possible problem talking with another of the workers.

It takes him a moment to register the other deity. At first being busy willing the mist to give an impression of just about anything. That wasn’t the actual situation. Though to be honest he couldn’t be bothered to figure out what the mortals might see.

It was the least important thing at the moment.

Most mortals wouldn’t have given the man a second glance. He looked normal enough. It was only through having been involved with multiple conversations between him and his father that Triton even recognized him.

Thaumas.

The Titan of the Wonders of the Seas.

Of course he had known this was a possibility. The titan rotated through the temples so running into him at any one of his father’s temples was always a possibility. He had just been really hoping they wouldn’t run into Thaumas. And he could deal with what other water deities that helped run the aquarium.

Not the Titan of the Wonders of the Seas.

He has half a mind to decide to screw the consequences. And just flat out take his brother to Atlantis if he is being honest.

The other two must have picked up on the fact that the man wasn’t a mortal from him. Since Castor asked. “Whose that?”

“Thaumas.”

“One of the sea titans?” Grover barely keeps his voice above a loud hiss. Followed almost immediately by the question. “You guys employ him?”

Triton sighed. “He’s never caused us problems before. The agreement to have him work with the temples was mutually beneficiary for him and father.” And hopefully current ongoings wouldn’t change this.

(None of them had discussed the possibility that other Gods under his father's employment might change sides if Kronos was returning. But it definitely needed to be considered in Triton's opinion. And while the Titan had always been peaceful in his encounters with him. With one brother already ill from the poison he was going to be prone to high alert more then normal.)

So if he did cause problems. Then he was just going to grab the children and take them to Atlantis. Forget the non interference laws that he would definitely be breaking in the process. In Triton's opinion if Zeus had that much of an issue than he would need to remember the only one who had a hope of finding the thief was his brother. And a dead Percy wouldn’t be able to find it.

“Lord Triton. This is unexpected I must say.” Dark blue eyes drifted down to his brother who was still out cold before asking. “What is wrong with him?”

“Chimera poison.”

“Ah. You need somewhere to put him in water I assume?”

“Correct. I would have taken him to the river but with its state-”

“There is a real concern that it won’t help him heal as well.” Thaumas concluded what he was saying.

“That.” Triton said in agreement trying and probably failing to keep his nervousness off his face.

Thaumas hadn’t proven to be a problem for the family so far. There was a reason why his father had entrusted the Titan with keeping up the temples in a certain regard. It was mutually beneficial to both of them. But again he was still a Titan. And that made Triton understandably a bit nervous.

Thaumas gave a long sigh. “Lord Triton if I really had an issue with your family and was putting on an act. I would have simply stopped you both at the door.” Okay so that was a valid point he had to admit. “As it is. I do enjoy my job and would like to keep it. And hold no ill will against demigods let alone your fathers.”

“Apologies.” Though Triton wasn’t feeling that apologetic if he was being honest. He had certain appearances to maintain.

“You’re protective of him. I know how you’re family gets I’m not faulting you entirely for that. Just maybe next time who the actual enemy here is. Now come along I know just the place you can put him for the time being.”

“You are better with children then I would have expected.” Triton said as the Titan came back over. 

Thaumas had lead them to a backstage tank. Where Triton had been able to put the two of them in together. And while Percy had yet to regain consciousness. He wasn’t looking as pale as he had when Triton had received the call. So he would take that as meaning it must be working. Though why he wasn’t awake yet was a bit concerning.

Thaumas had been keeping Castor and Grover entertained with some tales of other aquariums. While Triton had been tending to his brother. 

“It comes with the territory. So many come to the temples for education that interacting with them is inevitable. It wasn’t easy in the beginning. But as time went on and I fell into a routine with the aquariums. I became rather comfortable in the role. You do something for over a century and you get rather good at it I like to think.” That made sense. “How is he doing?”

“Still out cold but he’s looking better at least.” Triton said turning his attention back to Percy before asking. “Do you know of any healers around here that we could have check him and the other children?”

While his brother had been the one poisoned. The other two probably should be checked to make sure they didn’t have anything more than a few bruises and scratches. An adult demigod would have struggled with one chimera. Full grown or not. Let alone two of them. Escaping from them probably had saved their lives.

“No but one of the other temple workers around here should. Give me a moment.”

“Please do.”

Thankfully one of the locals did know a healer they could call. And they arrived in short order.

“The water cleared the poison already.” Well that was a relief to here. “He just appears to be exhausted at the moment. Although he also has some left over spell residue from a few days ago.”

Castor winced at that. “That’s probably from our run in with Medusa. She was really laying on the charm magic thick with him.”

“Is it something we need to be concerned with?” Triton asked.

“No its barely noticeable as it is. And the next bit of it should fade within a day or two if it doesn’t fade the next time he gets a decent nights sleep.”

Well that was a relief.

“The fact that he seems to be exhausted and the spell residue is even still there. Suggests though that he hasn’t been getting the best sleep in the past few days though.” She said shooting the other children a questioning look.

“Yeah he’s been having some nightmares since we left on the quest. Its not constant but…” Castor trailed off there but Triton got the idea.

It was enough to be causing some kind of problem at the very least.

“It obviously is having some kind of impact.”

“Yep.”

“I could put him under a spell to make him sleep until he’s recovered however…”

“That will only be a temporary fix.”

“Correct. And considering he is still on a quest I am not sure how much it will entirely aid him.”

That unfortunately made some sense. Well at least he could hopefully get a good nights sleep and be able to avoid certain trips to the underworld. With them being in the temple and all that.

Percy can tell he is in the water somewhere when he finally regains consciousness. Spotting his older brother almost immediately since he was the only one in what looked like a tank with him. “Tri?” He barely remembers the god appearing before he had fully lost the battle with unconsciousness. 

Triton gives an audible sigh of relief. “Good, you’re awake finally.”

“Just how long have I been out?” Percy asked with a frown. The way Triton was talking he had been out for probably a few hours. Which seemed like a bit much when he had water healing powers.

“A couple of hours. A healer we summoned to have you looked at said you were exhausted. And said it was best to let you sleep until whenever you woke up on your own.”

“Oh.” That made sense he guessed but at the same time. “What would you have done if I didn’t wake up soon?”

Like he hadn’t exactly told anyone but between the nightmares. And all of the excitement of what had happened on the quest so far. He could very well have stayed asleep longer.

“Then father would have handled Zeus’ impatience. Since he may or may not have contributed to the situation.”

Ah one of his friends had probably told Triton about what Echidna had said then.

“I mean she could have been lying.” It was the mother of monsters after all. Telling a lie probably would benefit her far more then telling him the truth. Even if it had come off as a humble brag to him. 

“True though since its the quest for his master bolt. He should see reason on not trying to rush the one person who has any information on it at this point.”

Their father had said since swearing the Styx Oath Zeus had seemed a bit more reasonable recently. Even making a slightly unusual request to one of their father’s request. But maybe they had been getting lucky. Or Zeus decided to test his and their luck. And had indeed sent her.

The only people that would know one way or another would be Zeus and Echidna. And only one of them they could actually really question at all.

“True.”

“By the way the healer mentioned you're exhaustion. You’re still having nightmares about Grandfather?”

Percy just shrugged at the question picking up on what else Triton was also asking at the same time. “Kind of. It’s just the same stuff that I told Dad about though.”

Plus the nightmares around the incident hadn’t fully gone away ever. They just were less frequent now. Sometimes on a good night he would see a normal night with neither of them. But those seemed to be a rarity recently.

“I wish I could help with that.”

“It’s fine Tri you’ve done more than enough.”

Really his Dad's familly were involved more than he could have ever imagined a few months ago and he loved it. He wished they could fix the nightmare situation really. But he would live with it.

Eventually Percy was out of the tank It had ended up with the decision that the group would spend the night at the temple. Before catching the next train west in the morning. Rather than spend another night in the train station. 

Which gave him a chance to ask Thaumas, who Triton had introduced him to, some questions about the place. Though admittedly a lot of the curiosity was less to do with it being a temple. And more to do with the fact it was an aquarium. 

Though there was some curiosity with just being around a Titan. The only one he had any exposure to so far. Was his grandfather (if you could even call that dream exposure) and the less he thought about that whole experience the better in his opinion.

“I thought the Titans were locked in Tartarus after the end of the war you guys had with them?” Percy asked shooting Triton a questioning look.

Those Thaumas is the one to answer the question. “Most of those that opposed the gods are yes. But not all of us were involved in the Titanmochy. Or at least not on the side of the Titans. I was busy enough dealing with other things related to the war to be an active player in the battles.”

Percy mused over that trying to figure out what he was entirely say. While Triton felt himself reminded of just how lucky Oceanus had stayed out of the war. It had already been messy dealing with the ones that simply lived on land. If the old King had gotten involved…well to say it would have been bad was an understatement.

“Due to that I’ve always had a fairly good relationship with your father’s family. And when aquariums first started becoming a thing back in the 1850s. And Poseidon was looking into possibly making them his temples. I approached him with some ideas. And in the eventual conversation we came up with a plan that could help the both of us.”

“How long do you spend at aquariums then?”

“It depends really. Some facilities such as Monterey Bay require more of my attention and time then others. But I do check on all of them. How long I am at each tends to vary.”

“Boring rather. You can only do something for so many years before it becomes repetitive. The most excitement I tended to get was the occasional mer recognizing who I was and my former positions.”

Right sometimes he forgot but Triton knew the old sea Titan had held the throne after Pontus and before Oceanus had taken it. He was old even by Titan standards. To the point no one was entirely sure when he had come into existence.

Only that he had always been insistent that he was a Titan not a Primordial. Though the truth was no one was entirely sure for certain and no one ever felt like arguing with him about it.

Besides he wasn’t even the only ancient being that tended to cause that confusion. Thetis also caused the same confusion.

Even as the only two officially classified primordials in the Sea were Pontus and Thalassa. Though neither had been seen for so long that no one truly knew if they were still around or had faded back into Khaos.

“The agreement with your father was a rather welcome one.”

“And you’re good with us spending the night?”

Maybe it was because he was used to adults giving him problems. And most of the New York aquariums remembered his whole incident with the shark tank that had been on accident.  So being here was a different experience. 

(Though maybe he should check if visiting would cause less problems now that his Dad had claimed him once this was all over.)

“I have no issue. You’re not the first to seek refuge in a temple and will not be the last. Besides I’m fairly certain your father would be rather perturbed if I did make you leave with no trains to Denver until the morning.”

“Okay yeah that’s a fair point.”

Eventually 20 questions with Thaumas had concluded. Leaving the children to their own devices and to wind down on their own. Castor and Grover had drifted off fairly quickly. Leaving Percy just to talk with Triton. Who once Percy was fast asleep. Would make his return to Atlantis. But for now there was no real reason to rush off yet.

For now though, it could wait a little longer to get to his things.

“Grover explained the significance of the other charms by the way.”

“He did, did he?”

“Yeah I asked about it after our encounter with the furies on the bus. One of the three kept looking at it for some reason though I think they all noticed it.”

“Good it did its secondary purpose as well then.”

Honestly while they had faith the charms would act as a warning to any foolish immortals. They hadn’t been sure how well it would work in actual practice. And admittedly there was still concern that with another immortal it might not act as a deterrent.

But if it stopped and made at least one reconsider than it was at least a somewhat success.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Why did you give it to me when you did? I hadn’t even really met you only Amphitrite. It wasn’t like we had time to really make impressions.”

It was true.

They hadn’t known Percy that well to normally be at this step. The one to claim a child that was neither their own. Normally that was something that only happened after a god took a particular demigod under their wing for an extended period of time.

To do it when they had was basically unheard of.

“It was more of a precautionary step at that time. While we did not think anyone in the camp would be foolish enough to try something else after your claiming. We were all a bit on edge. So the extra security it brought seemed like a good idea.”

“That makes sense.” Percy said before frowning. “Though I thought you said the kids at camp wouldn’t understand the significance?”

“They most likely won’t.” Triton agreed. “But there was some hope that by giving you those. That it was father acknowledging your existence even more. And to go after you again would at the very least raise his ire even worse.”

“That makes sense. Though now I’m wondering if I had it sooner if it would have stoped the incident.”

“Possibly.” Triton mused. “Though with how stubborn the Athena girl appears to be. I’m not entirely sure if it would have made a difference there. It might have made a difference with the Ares children I suppose.”

Though it was unlikely Percy would have gotten it sooner anyway. They had only begun to interact with the demigod because of what had happened that night.

Unless it had been a favor requested of father. They would have most likely continued to keep their distance until the fates inevitably forced some kind of meeting with him. 

And while he doesn’t regret how things have progressed here. It definitely wasn’t the path he had anticipated any of their lives going down when his father had first confirmed the existence of his half brother.

“That’s true I guess.”

“You should try to get some sleep. Echidna should be gone by the time you leave for the train again in the morning. But who knows what awaits you in the west.”

“Do you think she will really be gone?”

“I’m fairly certain. She only tracks for a long time if she can keep track of where someone is. Me moving you three into the aquarium should prevent her ability to track you down.”

Besides if she was using his brother as a means of testing her broods strength. Than she had already gotten what she wanted arguably.

“And if you need to you can use the charm again to have me walk you back over to the station?”

“Won’t they be considered overkill?”

“Possibly. But if they stop to consider the other possibility and why you three are on the quest in the first place. They will be smart and not actually say anything to that effect.”

“Yeah, good point. Are you going to tell Dad about what Echidna said?”

“Sleep well.”

Hopefully the safety of father’s temple could help chase the nightmares away for once. Since they still had a long road ahead of them before the quest reached its conclusion.

Triton returned to Atlantis shortly thereafter. While he hadn’t minded keeping his brother company for the time. He had duties to attend to still. And parents to inform on the recent developments in the quest.

“He’s okay now.”

Poseidon narrowed his eyes at that word choice. “But he wasn’t earlier?”

“No, apparently he ran into Echidna and two of her brood on the train.”

Poseidon uttered an ancient greek curse at that before repeating the question. “You are sure he’s fine now?”

“We had a healer check him. Once the poison cleared his system he was fine.”

“Of course he was poisoned.” Poseidon’s not even sure if he is surprised by this point. Considering this seemed to be happening on a regular interval it felt like.

He is of half a mind to put some kind of spell on Percy so they find out about these things. Before it evolves to a dangerous point because he isn’t telling them about it.

But that probably wouldn’t be the best idea for multiple reasons.

This was going to have to be a work in progress sort of thing unfortunately. Starting with trying to get Percy to just flat out tell them when something like this was occurring. Instead of opting to hide it.

“I assume you put him into one of the water areas then to help with the recovery?” 

“Correct. Thaumas met us at the temple entrance and was able to direct us to a more private area of the temple. Where he was able to recover.”

Good thing he had met them there too. Because Triton would probably have just dumped him in the first tank that had been convenient for use. Regardless of whatever trouble it might cause.

“That’s good. And Percy is now…?”

“Staying the night at the temple. They plan to catch the next train in the morning. The healer Thaumas had summoned to check him said he would be fine but was exhausted. So it was thought it was best to let him and the other sleep in the safety of the temple.”

“Good.” Though the comment about Percy’s exhaustion was concerning.

Just how many disturbing dreams was he having if this was a problem?

(It showed how distracted he was by other events. That it would be another few hours before he realized Triton had told him they had run into Thaumas. Since he hadn’t caused any problems Poseidon hadn’t particularly registered that piece of information at the time.)

“Though we do have another issue. I did manage to find out from Percy who Echidna said she had been given her orders from at least.”

“And that would be?”

“Zeus.”

The most troubling of this entire revelation that Echidna was claiming who sent her. Had to be the fact that Poseidon wasn’t sure whether to believe her or not.

On the one hand they were talking about Echidna. Who in no capacity had tended to get along with the Gods. Only agreeing to do their bidding when it suited her the most. So her lying about who had sent her would track. And would be the preferred option. Since f his brother was becoming this level of paranoid… Then he arguably was not only endangering his child. But the pantheon as well. 

A few weeks ago he wouldn’t have even paused in saying his brother was actually behind this. But now after everything. After getting evidence that there father was indeed returning. But the alternatives to it not being Zeus…were not great either.

Father was already on his and Hades radar. And while he couldn’t have given the orders to Echidna. Someone acting in his steed very well could.

And the last option was the unnamed thief who had the bolt. Maybe being able to bribe Echidna into action. Which still would possibly be acting through their father if he was the one backing him.

So that was only a marginal improvement over the other two.

He wasn’t entirely sure what to think. This seemed like something they needed to confront Zeus directly about. But that in itself was complicated due to recent events.

However his opinion wasn’t the only one that mattered at the moment. Hades and his own issues needed to be kept in minds. Which meant in order to talk Zeus he would first have to call Hades. Knowing he was not going to like this. But they couldn’t keep quiet at this point. Too much was at risk either way.

They needed to know who was actually at fault here. And in order to do so they were going to have to tell him about the signs of father’s return.

“Poseidon? To what do I owe the call. Has something happened with your son again?” Something must have been showing on his face at that since Hades’ eyes narrowed at that not a moment later. “Something has happened hasn’t it?”

“Yes, though probably not what you are expected. He encountered Echidna and two of her brood earlier.”

“That is troubling.”

“What’s even more troubling is who she claimed sent her.”

“Who?”

“Our other brother.”

Poseidon watched Hades for a moment go through several expressions. Seeming to come to probably the same conclusions as he did. “This is not good.”

“No,” He agreed, “Which is why I think we need to discuss again the possibility of telling our brother about what else has been going on.”