I'm Alexander Chase, one of the 50 demigods who survived the war. It was a long, bloody war, between the sky and the sea. the Lightning Bolt was finally returned last year, after which the war ceased. This war lasted 3 years, and I'm 16 now. I'm on a mission: Find Persia Jackson before August 18th. I have thirteen days to get her back to camp.

I don't know what the huge deal about her is. All I know is that she showed up to camp one day, I showed her around and took care of her, and then she left. Her weapon is a pen that turns into a sword, the only one of its kind. A pen-sword, that is. There are multiple swords and battle items that turn into other things, just not pens. It's kind of copyrighted, being a hair clip, a pen, whatever it has already been. That's my knowledge of Persia Jackson, and I'm expected to find her. Heck, it's been four years; I don't even remember what she looks like!

   I notice firelight seeping through the trees, and I cautiously head over. Instead of seeing a human, I see a huge black dog. She's bigger than a tank! Immediately, I suspect something. The dog's eyes snap open, and my fears are confirmed. A hellhound lays in front of me, her dark, fire-like red eyes proving me right. A low growl fills the area, and the hellhound slowly advances towards me.
   I take out my dagger, and prepare throw it. A blur flashes in front of me with unnatural speed and reflexes. Even after training at a Camp Half-Blood for nine years, I can't move that fast! My wrist is caught in a vice grip, and my eyes meet with my attacker's. I go to attack back, but I find I can't move.
  Literally. My limbs won't respond to me, and I can't even blink or talk.
   I take in my captor's appearance as best I can, without the ability to move my eyes. I see a soft, yet sharp jawline, piercing sea-green eyes, long, messy jet-black hair, and a slight tan. She has a scar on her neck and a bruise is evident on her right cheek. "Who are you?" She growls.
   I realize I can talk now, but still can't move otherwise. "Why should I tell you?" I retort sharply. To my surprise, she just sighs and shakes her head. "Look, I'm currently controlling 72 percent of your body. I could kill you with a thought. Literally. I can stop your heart like that." She snaps her fingers to emphasize her point. I swallow nervously.
  To my surprise, everything but my arms and legs can move now. I breathe heavily, twisting around to see if there is anything around me. After a while, she lets me go. "If I ever see you near here again, I won't be so nice next time. And I don't need your name, I've already memorized your face. And stolen your ID card, keys, dagger, and wallet." I pat my pockets, and, sure enough, all mentioned items are gone. I hadn't even seen her move!

I lunge, trying to get them back, but just fall over. She had frozen me again. Somehow. She lets me up, and holds out her hand. I glare, and slap it away. A loud smack followed the slap, and it seemed to fill the forest. Then, it is over taken by a loud growl. I grab my extra dagger, which, thankfully, I can get to and she didn't steal. Wait- this is my actual- HEY! All my stuff is back! What the- when did she- Okay, never mind. Giant hellhound!
     I run towards the dog, yelling, my dagger outstretched. Just before I reach it, the girl jumps in front of my dagger. It slashes across the top of her right shoulder, down her torso, and ending at her left hip. She growls unhappily at the injury, before settling into a defensive position. "Get the hell away from my dog!" She yells in my face, and, to my surprise, no blood even dripping from her cut. I swallow nervously, before seeing her weapon.

   It's a pen. How laughable is that? "What, are you gonna draw on me, or somethin'?" I ask, laughing, completely forgetting about the hellhound and her powers. She smiles, a dangerous glint in her eyes. "Yes, actually. Let me just uncap my pen," she replies cheerfully, and I let her, amused.
  A bronze blade springs forth, replacing the pen in her hands. She taps the flat end of the blade with the cap, and I see the cap attach to the blade, then melting and molding itself to fit. Her happy smile slowly curls into a wicked one.

Then it dawns on me. This girl is Persia Jackson. "Persia?" I blurt out. Her smile falls immediately, to be replaced by a look of surprise. "Uh," she pauses, looking like she's thinking about what to do, "who? I'm- uh- Jackson- n-no, Janah! Y-yeah... And you better leave, like, uh, right now. I'm the daughter of the sea god and you don't want to see me angrier than I already am." I run my tongue over my teeth while I think, slowly backing away. What do I do? I ask myself, my eyes still trained on Jackson- oops, Janah.
  Wait. Persia Jackson. Jackson was what she said first. She's totally Persia. Idiot, at least come up with a better name! "Hey, Kelp Head!" I hear a voice call out.
  Percy's head whips around. "Pinecone Face!" She yells ecstatically, taking the cap off his sword's blade somehow and tapping her sword's tip; the sword turns back into a pen. My head turns towards the voice, and, to my surprise, I see Thal.
  Persia's hand reaches out and grabs her larger-than-a-tank dog's leg, and holds it, for some unknown reason. Ignoring her strange behavior, I find myself barely able to call out his name. "Thal?" His head whipped around, eyes widening. "A-A-A-Alex," he swallows nervously, panicked eyes darting around. "Why is he here, Persia?" He hisses to the girl. Haha! I knew it!
   "Thals, who is this? He tried to kill my dog! Twice!" She shouted at him. Thal put his hands up in surrender, before pointing at me, "Alexander Chase, son of Athena." Persia's eyes widen, and a small dusting of pink spreads across her face. "W-what? Him?" She stutters (rather adorably, actually.) Ah! Why did I think that?
    "I'm supposed to bring you back to Camp." "No," she replies stubbornly. "Why?" I whine unhappily, wanting to get home as soon as possible. "I can't. I already did my job, I brought the stupid lightning bolt back." The sky rumbles. "Shut up, Zeus!" She yells, and the sky unexpectedly goes silent. I stare in awe before snapping out of it. "And? Your quest obviously isn't done, Chiron needs you."
   Now, the light pink that was covering her face has darkened into a deep red. "I don't care what he thinks! What he needs! You all left me alone, besides Thal and Mrs. O'Leary, for almost four years. Not a word to me, a word about me. And now suddenly, you need me?" Her voice was high-pitched, eyes wild. She continued on hysterically, "I went through ~Beep~ING Tartarus, got you guys the stupid Golden Fleece, killed ~Beep~ING Kronos, and what do I get?" She asks but continues. I'm too much in shock to answer. "I get nothing. All I get is a hellhound, granted she's amazing, Thals, who I revived, and to hang out with Dad every now on then. Not even my mother, has asked to find me, to see me? I'm hurt, I'm mad, I am ~Beep~ing tired of all this Schist going on right now that I've had to do alone. For four years." She was panting heavily now, a huge wall of water rising from behind her. She continues, "You want to know the full prophecy?" She hisses, the water wall twisting and forming into a rearing Pegasus. "It said, and these are the exact words, they have haunted me for years. It said," she cleared her throat,
   "You shall go west, and face the god who has turned. You shall find what was stolen, and see it safely returned. You shall be betrayed by one who calls you a friend, and you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end."
   The water pegasus suddenly falls. and splashes everywhere. Persia is still dry, but her shoulders are slumped. "My one wish, Alexander, Thals? My one wish?" She swallows, tears slowly dripping onto the damp ground below her. "My one wish was to not be alone on all my quests, all my life. And after three, four years, I finally see a familiar-ish face. Gods, all I wanted was another friend." She was crying now, and she turned and buried her face into the hellhound's fur, finally letting go of the dog's leg.
   I see sobs overtake her body, but I don't  know what to do. "Persia?" I end up calling out softly. Her head snaps up, tears gone. "What?" She growls harshly, and I could tell she was still livid. "Look, I," I pause, moistening my lips, "I, I don't know why you were abandoned. And I was wondering how the fleece got there." I swallow, 'great job, Alex!' I think to myself sarcastically.
Her expression softens slightly. "Look, I don't know why you should care. I don't know who the hell Chiron thinks he is, ordering me back to camp. You were the only person besides Chiron and Grover I knew and who wasn't a jerk to me. You and Grover were the only people I regret never talking to again. And Grover never tried to find me! Not for four years!" She screams before I can continue. "Persia," I start, my voice trembling, "G-Gr- He, did look for you. But he was, he was,"
I couldn't continue, too choked up. Persia's face was horrified, saddened, then clouded. Then, ticked off. She closes her eyes, and I can see her mouthing numbers. She's counting to ten, isn't she!
She makes it to six, before her eyes snap open. "That's it, I'm going to LA," she declares. "What?" I ask, confused. "I'm paying my dear uncle a little visit. You coming?" She hisses, but her tone lightens when he asks me if I am coming with her or not. "Uh, sure?" I answer, confused. She grins. "Thals?" Thal nods. "Great! Let's go." She grabs Thal and I's hands, and I can see parts of her body evaporate, with mist coming off her. "Uhh-" I start, but I don't get to finish because I'm whisked away.

We land in an alleyway. "What the Hades just happened?" I scream at her. She has the grace to be embarrassed, before saying, "Sorry, I forgot to warn you. I can... travel. It's similar to shadow travel, but I don't really know what to call it." She looks away, embarrassed, and I ask her, "How did you learn to do that?" Thal looks at me, amused.
Persia looks up, embarrassment forgotten. (Dammit, she's really cute when she's embarrassed- NO ALEXANDER. NO. BAD.) "I picked it up from Mrs. O'Leary." I blink slowly. "Who?" "My dog, of course!"
I shake my head in disbelief. "Okay, no one can just 'pick up' shadow travel. Or.. whatever travel you were doing." Persia shrugs, her expression saying, 'I don't give a *Beep* and why the hell should I care?'
     I give up, sighing. "Fine. But, what are we doing in LA?" I end up asking her confused. "And can I call you something besides Persia? It's a bit of a mouthful to use." She rolls her eyes adorably- NO! Bad! She rolls her eyes, annoyed, before nodding. Adora- NO. "Uh, are you okay? You look like you're about to kill someone." I open my mouth to reply, but no sound comes out. Thal looks over at my face, and bursts into laughter. I scowl at him, annoyed. Persia sighs, shaking her head. "Alright, Wise Guy, you can call me Perce. And you can only call me that if I can call you Alex." She replies after a moment. I nod to the last part of her request, then I think about what she told me. "Purse?" I ask, eyebrows raised. Thal starts laughing even harder. Then a second later, "Wise Guy?" Persia shrugs, sticking her tongue out at me. "No, Perce! P - E - R - C - E! Perce!"
   I look over at Thal, just to see him rolling around on the ground, laughing. "What's so funny?" I snap at him. He looks up, wiping a tear from his eye. "The reason she's so snappy and sad and impulsive today is because- because- she- she-" he stops, laughing to hard to continue. "She's what exactly?" I growl, my dagger in hand.
   I look over at Persia, and see her bright red face. "Thal, how did you- how did you find out about that?" She screeches, And I think she almost deafened me. Thal stops laughing slightly. "I've known you for three years, I've figured out when it's your time of month."
   My face burns, and I can tell Persia is blushing too. "Oh," I answer dumbly. She shakes her head rapidly, and stops blushing. Dammit, she's even cuter when she does tha- NO. STOP. BAD ALEXANDER. "Alex? You have that 'I am going to kill someone' face again." Persia says, laughing. "Alright, Thal, let's go find our uncle!" A soft beep comes from Thal's direction, and the previous mishap was discarded.
  "Oh, sorry. Lady Artemis needs me back at camp. We're hunting a manticore." My eyebrows furrow. "But she only has female huntresses." He grins, and says, "Not anymore! I didn't feel like fulfilling a prophecy, and I'm pretty useful, so... I became a hunter! I'm sworn off guys and girls." He rolls his eyes, "Not like I'd be interested!"
   Persia just sighs, and taps Thal's bracelet. "Well, go see your 'Lady,'" she remarks, wiggling her eyebrows. "Sia!" Thal shouts, a horrified expression on his face. "Sia?" I ask.
   Persia refuses to answer, and just stalks out of the alleyway that I maybe, kinda, forgot we were standing in.

After a few minutes, I finally find her. Thal left, that son of Mrs. O'Leary. Leaving me alone! How dare he! I shake off my thoughts of harm to Thal's well being, just to notice Persia walk into an abandoned-looking building. "Perce?" I call nervously, walking in.
I jump, my hand flying to my mouth when a hand touches my shoulder. I look back, extremely slowly, mind you, and I stifled a cry of happiness.
Persia's beautiful sea-green eyes glistened in determination, meeting my steely gray ones. I steel myself, not wanting to go farther in, but knowing I'm doing it anyways. I sigh, and grab her hand.
Persia flushes, her face now an adorable light shade of pink. "W-w-what are you doing?" She stammers, and I smile faintly. I then realize she's gripping my hand back, just as scared. I intertwine our fingers, and drop my hand to my side. We walk like that until we get to the throne room.
That, my friends, was way too easy. "Uncle Hades! Nice to see you again!" Persia exclaims. I look at her, then back at the throne, then Hades is there. I jump back in alarm, stifling a scream. Persia just laughs, sadly no longer holding my hand.
Hades looks at us, amused. "Well? Sia, why are you here?" I look over at Persia. "That again?" I ask. She doesn't reply, too busy glaring at Hades.
   Wait.
She's glaring at Hades.
   He shakes his head in exasperation, groaning. "Fine, Persia. Relax. Why are you here?" Hades asks Persia.
    She looks up, then back down, before staring him in the eyes. "I want Grover back."

Silence.

Only the sounds of our breathing and the haunting song of rattling bones, and Persia's tapping foot are audible. Hades doesn't
even looked completely astonished. Just a mixture of curiosity and a drop of surprise. I scan Persia and, to my surprise, she was still staring the god in the eyes, and wasn't even shaking. At all. Her chin was up, long black hair falling in a messy curtain down her back, hands on her hips, foot tapping. She's waiting for an answer.

Tap tap. Tap tap. Tap tap.

Hades sighs, and breaks his gaze. He glances at Persephone's empty throne longingly, before looking back at us. He sighs again, before answering blandly, "Elysium. Third turn on the right." I glance up, and can't help but blurt out, "But isn't Grover a plant?" I immediately cover my mouth, embarrassed, but Persia starts laughing. "Alex," I pout at that, but I let her use it, so oh well. Anyways, "Yes, Grover is a plant right now. But since Hades is the god of death, and Grover was my best friend and went looking for me, Hades lets him come to Elysium sometimes. Right?" She growls the last part, staring hard at Hades.
Hades laughs nervously, wait- nervously? How scary is this girl?! Stupid ADHD, making me distracted. Anyways, "Uh, no?" He replies hesitantly. Persia's eyes flare, and Hades puts his hands up in a sign of surrender. "Sia, chill! It's okay, he let me live, as long as I stayed in the Underworld! I just had to work for him."
My head whips around towards a familiar voice I hadn't heard in two years. When I glance over, Persia is crying, shoulders shaking. "G-man!" She yells, running forwards. Grover put his arms out for a hug, and Persia crashes into him, hugging him and crying. I suddenly feel a rush of a strange emotion. A combination of anger, envy and a tinge of sadness. Wait- am I feeling jealous? Of Grover because he was getting a hug from Persia?
"Wise Guy, come over here and hug him!" Persia demands, smiling. I toss her a small smile and head over. I hug Grover... And Persia, who forces us into a group hug. I feel warmth flood my face, and I realize I'm  blushing. Sia, however, doesn't notice, and instead asks me if I'm okay. I go even redder, and just step away. "Uh- Y-Yeah. I, uh, just need some fresh air! Yeah... Uhm, y-you guys d-don't mind if I leave, r-right?" I stutter, embarrassed.
    Sia laughs, and I stick my tongue out at her. "Oh, shut it Sia." She grins, "Fine, Alex." We end up having a staring contest, my blush long gone. I win.
  Hades interrupts us, and asks if we're done here. Sia nods, grabbing Grover's arm (dang it, I'm jealous again), and I follow her out of the underworld.

    When we get back to the surface, tired and hungry, Grover grabs my arm and pulls me away. "We have to get her to camp, it's 3 days before her birthday!" I sigh, nodding. "Alright. I'll try and convince her." Grover smiles, "Thanks, Alexander." I smile back, and walk over to Sia. I tap her arm, and she whips around with Riptide in her hand. "Woah, chill! Sia, it's me!" "Alex! You scar- I mean, you surprised me!"
    I pout, giving her big puppy dog eyes and ask her, "Can't you come back to camp? I'm going to miss you if you don't." Her shoulders sag, and I notice a small rose made of water in her hands. "Woah, you made that?" She blushes, looking down at the rose. She nods shyly, then grabs my hand. She leads me over to Grover, and touches his shoulder. Sia closes her eyes, and we start dissolving again.

   When I reopen my eyes, we're standing in front of Thalia's tree. "I still don't know how you do that!" I exclaim, frowning. Sia shrugs, before looking at the hill nervously. "Um, what day is it?" She asks, eyes darting around. "Please don't tell me it's the fifteenth of August!" I glance at Grover, and he shrugs. "It's August fifteenth."
      Sia's eyes dart around. "I can't be here. No way. Not today! How many demigods are here, Alex?" Her tone is sharp, nervous, scared. She's trembling. I walk up to her and gently hug her from behind. "Shh. It's okay. There's still fifty demigods we know of!" I realize I said the wrong thing almost immediately. Sia starts to cry. "Oh gods, this is my fault! If only I wasn't so stupid! I can't do anything right! Now over half the demigods are dead!" I immediately try to say something, but I noticed everything is frozen. As in, can't move, ice lightly covering the surface. I realize, eyes wide, that she dropped the temperature of all the surface water she could reach, and made everyone immobile.

   Sia releases her grip on the water almost immediately. "I'm sorry, I just- I just-" she can't finish, tears streaming down her face. I take her by the hand and lead her to the Big House, where Chiron is waiting. I hear the whispers of the campers, Grover behind Sia and I as we walk.
  "Is that Grover?" "Who's the hot chick?" I glare at the person who said that, possessively pulling Sia closer to me. She looks up, eyebrow raised, and I just smile in response. She smiles shakily in return.
   "Wait, is that Alexander with her?" "Grover! Isn't he dead?" Grover bleated at that last one indignantly, offended.
   "Yeah, Alexander, ge-" The person freezes mid word, and I notice Sia smirking. "Persia!" I scold, and she looks up at me, pouting. "Oh, shut it, Wise Guy." She responds playfully, but I notice the camper gasping and shaking.
  "Persia?" "Wait, Persia Jackson?" "Isn't she dead too?" Sia snaps her fingers for dramatic effect, and the whole line freezes. I guess she got over the, 'fifty demigods left' thing. When I look down again, I notice that she's still shaking. Guess she hasn't gotten over it after all.
   "Seaweed Brain! Let them go!" "Nah. I like this relative silence. Don't you, Wise Guy? Only you, Grover, and I aren't frozen." I stop walking. Sia notices, and turns around. "Alex?" She asks, concerned. "You froze Chiron and Mr, D?" I ask, eyes wide. She nods, shrugging. "Yeah, why?"

  Grover and I stare long and hard at her.  "You froze two immortals." Sia started looking uncomfortable, but nodded. I immediately stopped asking questions, just raced over to the Big House.

~~~~

Well, that's part one. If I continued, this one shot would be about 7k words long! Just for this chapter! I don't really like ridiculously long chapters myself, so I'll write a part two. Hope you guys enjoyed!

Next up: "Oh I just can't wait to be Chief!" A HTTYD one-shot.

Sincerely,
Sapphire_Starfire