I wake up the next morning at exactly seven in the morning. Yes, I know for a fact that it was seven. One of the more mundane uses of my time powers is that I always know exactly what time it is. I can also use this like an alarm clock.

So anyway, I roll out of bed and get ready for my quest. I packed my bag last night, so it has everything I could need. Mortal cash, drachmas, you name it. I quickly shower and get changed. Of course, I decide to wear mostly black. Black shoes. Black socks. Black running pants. A deep purple shirt. After all of that, I strap my secondary knife to my back and toss my hoodie over it, leaving the front unzipped. Hmm, I'll have to come up with a name to call that. Shadow Cloak? Cloak of Illusions? Whatever, I'll figure that out later. Finally, I strap DeathTouch, in watch form, to my wrist, twisting it around so that the face of the watch is on the inside of my forearm. Don't ask why I wear it like that. It just feels right.

Seven thirty. I have half an hour to get to the bottom of Half-Blood Hill. I grab my slingbag and open the door to my room. Standing right in front of me is little Silena.

I kneel down in front of her, "Hey Silena, what are you doing up here?"

"I came to say good-bye." She says.

I smile at her, hopefully it doesn't look like my usual maniac smile. She doesn't freak out or anything, so I guess it's good.

"Come on." I say, "Good-bye makes it sound like I'm not coming back. Let's try this one: see you later."

"See you later?" She asks.

"Exactly, because I'll be back soon, ok."

"Ok. See you later!" She says, considerably happier.

I rub the top of her head and continue outside. Seven thirty-five. I'm stopped again on the porch of the Big House. Natalie is leaning on one of the posts, arms folded.

"When were you planning on telling me you were assigned a quest?" She asks, her voice dangerously calm.

I raise my hands in defense, "I know the generaal rule: when assigned a quest, the demigod may bring along any two others as companions. This is not a general quest."

"What do you mean not a general quest?" She demands.

I look left and right, "I'll tell you, but you have to swear on the RIver Styx not to tell anyone."

"Why?" She whines.

I look at her.

She sighs, "Fine, I swear on the RIver Styx not to reveal any information about the quest to anyone."

I take a deep breath, "I have to travel back in time and save the seven of the second Great Prophesy."

She looks at me, "Seriously?"

"No joke. I swear on the RIver Styx." Thunder rumbles.

She waits a second, then shakes her head, "Wow dude, time travel. That's pretty cool. So now you're like the Doctor."

"Doctor Who?" I ask, confused.

She smirks, "Exactly."

I shake my head, "Whatever. As to why you can't come, apparently only children of Kronos can actually survive time travel."

"Oh." Nat looks a little disappointed.

Seven fifty.

"Styx! Listen Nat, I'be gotta go. I'll catch up with you after the quest." I throw over my shoulder as I run off.

"Make sure to bring me back a souvenir!" She yells back at me.

Damn good thing I'm a fast runner. I reach the top of the hill with five minutes to spare. I take a deep breath and walk down the hill.

"Hey man!" Leaning against Thalia's Pine is Luke Jackson.

He pushes off of the tree and walks over to me. Without a word, he thrusts his hand out. I meet it and we shake hands.

"I'd hate to have to find a new sparring partner." Is all he says.

I merely nod and continue down the hill. At the bottom are three figures. Percy, Annabeth, and my father. Kronos is looking down at a pocketwatch.

"Three minutes to spare." He says, "You cut it close."

"You said eight o'clock." I counter, "Not seven fifty-seven."

"True."

I turn to the Jacksons and snap to attention, then bow, "I'll make sure that no harm comes to you two, well, no harm that shouldn't happen."

Percy winced, "Yeah, I'd rather you didn't try to stop all of the harm."

Annabeth nods in agreement.

I turn, "Alright father, let's do this."

"FIrst I need to pick an appropriate time to send you at." He says, "I cannot choose where in the world you will appear, only when. You will appear in this exact spot, so there can be no one in the area."

The glow in his eyes fades slightly, "Alright, I think I found an acceptable instance in time."

"So how exactly does this time travel work?" I ask nervously.

"Well, It's pretty simple." He says, "Think of the time continuum as an incomplete story. The book is being written as we speak. You can go back and edit what has already been written, but the future cannot be touched."

"Don't care about the future." I mutter, "What happens and will it hurt?"

"You were always a very scientific child." Kronos shakes his head, "Unfortunately, there is no scientific way to explain what exactly happens. I'm picking you up, and putting you in the past. [A/N: That was what I came up with after about a half-hour of thinking on how to explain time travel.] As for if it will hurt... Thiink of it like this, the pencil tip broke, and has to be sharpened before making any changes to the past."

"Sounds painful." I mutter, "Let's get this over with."

My father nods and summons his scythe from out of no where, "I always preferred this form over Backbiter."

He closes his eyes, then opens them. When he does, a wave of energy washes over the area. I stagger back a step, as does Annabeth, but Percy just stands there with a grimace on his face. My father's eyes were now glowing even more intensively than before. He raises his scythe into the air and slams the bottom of the shaft onto the ground.

"Good luck, son." Is the last thing I hear before an intense pain overwhelms me.

It's really bad. I'd broken my femur bone in a sparing match before (long story, I'm in too much pain to tell it.) But this was at least fifty timesd worse. It felt like my entire body was being crushed together into a one inch square cube. My brain felt like it was being freez-dried, then microwaved all in the span of a millisecond. My fingers and toes felt like they were being boiled, and I'm pretty sure I lost my eyebrows during this trip.

Albert Einstein once said that an hour on a bench with a pretty girl feels like a minute, but an minute with your hand on a hot stove feels like an hour, and that is exactly what I feel like right now. I subconsciously knew that the trip was instantaneous, but it hurt so much that the event felt like longer. I'm suddenly standing...right in the exact same spot. The only difference is that the houses look newer than I remember, and the Jacksons and my father aren't there anymore.

My legs suddenly forget how to work and I fall over, "Ow. I moan." I'm never doing that again."

After a minute, I stand up and shake off the pain. I have to get going. What did Kronos say? I need to go to the North Pier and ask to speak to the captain of the Golden Age. He'll then ask me a question, and I have to respond with 'The hourglass' son, looking for respite.' What is this? Some kind of cheesy spy movie?

Doesn't matter.

I dig a drachma out of my slingbag and toss it onto the road in front of me.

The coin sinks into the asphalt as I yell out in Greek, "Appear, chariot of damnation!"

The road in front of me starts to boil, becoming almost liquid-like. Then, a smokey-gray taxi cab rises up from the road, as if formed by the asphalt itself. I get in the back.

"One to the North Pier." I say sharply. Hey, I know how to deal with New York cabbies.

One of the three, yes three, old hags in the front turns towards me. I notice that she has only one eye. Out of no where, she hisses and turns to her compatriots.

"That's a titan half-breed. We cannot service him!"

"Shut up Wasp, he paid us." The one behind the wheel says to her...coworker?

""Please Tempest." The one named Wasp spits out, " I though we'd hit an all time low a few years ago with that Cyclops, but now the son of a Titan? Unacceptable."

"Would I be acceptable for three times the normal cost?" I ask, waving two extra drachmas in the air.

"Ooh, give them here boy!" The remaining of the three ladies speaks up.

The same time as Annabeth was showing me how to summon the chariot of eternal damnation, she also explained the myth to me. These three are the Grey Sisters: three immortal hags who have been granted the power of foresight. There is one catch though. They have a total of one eye and one tooth to share between the three of them.

I toss the two extra coins up front, and the taxi roars down the road as if it's being chased. The voice of Ganymeade, wine-bearer of Zeus, shows up on the taxi radio. Once again, I thank martial arts for teaching me self-control. Between Ganymeade and the Three Gray sisters, my rope was at the end of the line and I would've exploded if I wasn't trying so hard not to puke.

Seriously, it's like they've never driven a car before, and they're blatantly ignoring the rules of the road. Wasp mentioned that they knew 'the location I seek.' This caused her to be attacked on both sides by her sisters.

"That's cool." I told them, "I know the location I seek as well."

They looked at me, well, Wasp looked at me, the other two turned they're eyeless sockets in my direction.

"The location I seek is the North Pier." I said simply, "And I'd like to get there concious and in one piece."

Sure, knowing what Annabeth told me about these three, they were probably holding information about something later in my quest. I found it easier to focus on the problem directly in front of me. Thinking too far ahead often led to problems. I'm not saying strategy is bad, I'm just saying that being too rigid is a bad thing.

After about a half-hour in the chariot of damnation, we arrive at the North Pier.

"Now get out of our taxi, titan half-breed!" Tempest hisses.

"Gladly." I mutter as I get out of the taxi.

They race off, leaving me on the pier with nothing more than my slingbag and a couple of weapons. I take a deep breath and walk over to the steward standing at a stand. He looks at me coolly.

"May I speak to the captain of the Golden Age?" I ask.

"And who are you?" He replies with a completely straight face.

"The hourglass' son," I continue with the code my father told me to use, "looking for respite."

His eyes widen slightly at the last line, and then he bows, "Of course M'Lord, follow me."

I frown. M'Lord? Why would he call me that? I follow the weird steward. He brings me past a chain with a sign that I thinks says 'employees only.' In the back of the area is a giant boat port, bigger than any I've ever seen. I mean, it looks like it could hold a battleship. The steward continues on into the giant boat port, and I follow him.

Once inside, my jaw falls. There is actually a battleship inside the boat port. But it looks weird. It looks exactly like I would expect a battleship to look, but my time powers detect something off about it, like it's not supposed to be in this time.

The steward steps up to the side of the ship and calls up, "There has been a request to speak with you, Captain Binda."

"Alright Tony, bring em up." A female voice floats down from above. I detect a distinct Australian accent.

Tony nods as a walkway extends out of the side of the battleship and drops down in front of me. Tony begins to walk up and I follow.

The battleship seems relatively normal, to some extent. The weapons on the deck, at least the ones I can see, on the other hand, are not normal. They're old yet new at the same time, it's hard to explain. Before I could examine them anymore, the steward turns to me.

"Follow me, M'Lord." He says simply.

"Yeah, sure dude, whatever you say." I reply and continue to follow him.

We walk up to the bridge. On a normal battleship, I would probably expect at least six people up there, but there is only one: A person sitting sideways in the captain's chair. I can't make out any details, seeing as the chair is in the way.

"Captain Binda, here is the person." Tony bows.

"Thank you Tony, you are dismissed." The Captain, I guess, says.

Tony rises from his bow and leaves. Once he does, the Captain stands up from the chair and walks around it so to be able to see me.

"Well, 'ello there mate." She, yes she, says, "And who are you?"

I look the girl up and down. She looks maybe a year younger than me, and a good three inches shorter than my five foot nine. She has wavy brown hair that seems to ripple like water and deep ocean-blue eyes. She's balanced on her feet and her hands are relaxed, but ready. She knows how to fight, that much I can tell. Then I notice her vambraces, and the miniature tridents coming out of the top of them. Those don't look like weapons I want to be on the recieving end of.

"I'm Azrael Horatius." I say, "I'm the son of Kronos."

She looks me up and down, probably doing what I'd done a few seconds ago. Then, she salutes me. I return it uncertainly.

"Nice to meet you, Azrael." She replies, "I'm Captain Binda Ellcott, daughter of Oceanus, and this is my ship, The Golden Age."

A/N: Hello again. Sorry for the delayed update, but I've got four stories running and it sometimes gets difficult to manage, but I try. What do you think so far?
Stay awesome
Leonidas_son_of_Nike