Percy Jackson

When two of the most unbearable gods of Olympus said they'd be dropping us off, it was wrong for any of us to assume they'd leave us somewhere helpful.

Like, you know, somewhere with public transportation or even somewhere where we could hijack a car.

But no, they dropped us off in the middle of a literal ghost town. The only thing in sight was a junkyard, and since it was after sundown, we decided to set up camp for the night because none of us wanted to go dumpster diving in the dark.

As I'd been laying down, appreciating the quiet, I was looking up at the sky. It was a clear night, so you could actually see the stars.

"Percy," Thalia said.

"Hm?" I hummed, well aware that the whole group could hear us.

I'm not sure she was aware of that.

"Did you seriously ask Grover if Aphrodite was his mom?"

I might've punched them for asking me that, feeling the blood rush to my face as I heard Grover chuckle to the other side of me.

"Oh, fuck you, Grace," I said, rolling my eyes. "We get it, I embarrassed myself and will never live it down. We don't need to talk about it."

"I have a boyfriend that does that already, thank you very much."

Grover opened his mouth, and immediately closed it. Bianca covered her mouth with both hands, looking absolutely scandalized.

"I was going to say that I thought it was very sweet," my boyfriend added on after a moment of silence to mourn the innocence that Thalia I'm sure never actually had. He grabbed my hand, giving it a squeeze. "but you are never living it down, sweets."

I tried to ignore the look Bianca gave Grover and I when she followed the movement of Grover's hand.

She was born in the 1920s, I tried to remind myself. She doesn't know any better.

"The stars look nice." I decided to change the subject, laying down as I pointed up to the sky. "There's Orion's Belt."

"I don't know if I've ever seen that one before." Bianca commented. "The sky is so clear out here, though- it's kind of beautiful."

"This is nothing." Zoë said as she looked up to the sky. "you used to be able to see so many stars in the sky... Whole constellations that are no longer visible, even on nights like tonight."

"It makes me sad," Grover sympathized with Zoë's observation. "to think that even out here's, where humans hardly touch the Earth, the pollution is still this bad..."

His voice drifted.

"It would make Pan angry. And sad. Really, really sad."

"You'll find him." I told my boyfriend, hoping it would be true. "Have you sensed anything, since we left New York?"

He nodded.

"I have a theory that I need to test out when we get back to New York." The satyr explained. "Depending on how that goes, I might have a lead. But until then, we should figure out who's taking first shift because it looks lost most of us are ready to crash."

Nodding in agreement, Zoë and Grover offered to take first watch. I fell asleep to my boyfriend messing with my hair and talking to the lieutenant about all of the stars no longer visible in the sky.

After last night's pause from being tormented while I sleep, I probably shouldn't have been surprised when I had a nightmare vision.

Luke was still holding the weight of the sky, seemingly exhausted as a new figure stood in front of him. It was a man with a slight hunch to his back and black hair. With his back to me, that's about all I could tell. He stood close to Luke, leaning down towards the older demigod as Annabeth remained chained at the edge of my vision, as well as Artemis.

I couldn't help but notice that the chains that held the two girls down were different, though. While Annabeth's resembled some sort of either bronze or iron- it was hard to tell in the night if the chains were rusted or just supposed to be that color, Artemis' chains had a faint glow to them. Without a doubt, they were golden, and they provided the faintest light source.

"Getting tired, Luke Castellan?" The man who I could only suppose was Atlas or somebody who worked closely with Atlas seemed to tease the son of Hermes, who wouldn't look up. "You know if you would like to take a break, I'm sure Athena's daughter could-"

"No." Luke said through gritted teeth. "I don't care... Care what... Or how long I have to be here. You won't touch her, or anyone... Else..."

The Titan chuckled, sending a chill down my back.

"Oh, Luke, I'll be fascinated to see what will happen is you survive this little trial." Atlas insisted, turning slightly towards where I was in the vision, motioning directly at me. "now that we have the sarcophagus- and what a stunning sarcophagus it is, it's only a matter of time. I'm sure that if you waved at it, he would say hello in return."

He paused.

"Oh, wait," but it was a cruel set up for a bad joke. "That's right, you can't wave because you're holding up the sky. My bad."

Sauntering over to where my view of the mountain seemed to come from, Atlas placed his hand on something that was right outside of my vision. He leaned to his right, looking at Luke, then at whatever it was he was leaning against, then back to Luke.

"What do you think, Uncle?" The Titan asked, which threw me for a loop. "Think he'll be ready? His father is only Hermes, after all."

As if I'd disclose that information out loud in front of a goddess. The Titan Lords voice rang in my ears for the first time in over a year- harsh and cold. I would much prefer you as my host, Perseus Jackson, but Luke Castellan is awfully stubborn. Has he even mentioned the idea to you?

"Nothing? Fine." Atlas responded, standing up straight once more to approach the goddess Kronos' mentioned. "You have no idea the things that are about to happen. Even now your hunters, as devoted and as idiotic as they are, rush to come rescue their lady in waiting."

"When I get out of these chains, Atlas, you-"

"Woah, woah, woah," he cut her off. "The jar, please."

Snapping his fingers, Atlas summoned s young boy who held a jar that seemed to hold some sort of liquid that reminded me of molten lava. He was young, around Nico's age, maybe a little older. He had shorter black hair and-

"Ethan?" Annabeth recognized him before I did, trying to move towards the young runaway but ultimately being unable to get near him because of the chains. "Ethan, what are you... Have you been here the whole time? How long...? Whatever happened, it's okay, others will be here soon and somebody can get you back to camp, okay?"

Ethan glanced at her, then at Luke before looking back to the daughter of Athena.

"And what makes you think I'd want to go back to camp?"

Why would you take Annabeth? I mentally questioned either titan, knowing only one might be able to hear my thoughts. When she's the one that will foil your plans and rat you out to Olympus? Why not take somebody like Thalia or I?

Because, Kronos said in my mind. My nephew is a fool.

"Why wouldn't you... Ethan, it's the safest place on earth for people like us, why wouldn't you go back? You were kidnapped, it-"

"I wasn't kidnapped."

There was a beat of silence as Atlas carefully ladled some of the liquid burning gold out of the jar.

"Just to remind you who's in charge here," he said with a stick smile on his face, pouring the contents over the shackles of Artemis' chains.

With the steaming gold seeming to soak into the chains as some of it ran down her hands and arms, the goddess screamed- a deafening and terrifying sound.

Is that ichor?

Does ichor even glow? I know it's golden, but I haven't seen it often enough to know if it glows.

But even so, why would Atlas have that on hand? It makes no sense.

Waking up because of the scream, I sat up and looked around, not able to see much since it was obviously night, but able to see enough to tell that Grover and Zoë were still on shift so I hadn't slept long.

Probably sensing that I woke up as I was still getting my bearings, Grover turned his head suddenly to look over at me.

"Percy?" My boyfriend whispered. "You okay?"

Looking around, I settled my sights on Grover and Zoë, who were both sitting not too far away from the rest of us.

"Hm? Oh, uh, yeah, just..." I motioned to my head. "The usual. I have a question, though."

Neither of them said anything, allowing me to speak.

"So you're immortal, Zoë." I recalled. "Do you bleed ichor or blood?"

"Me?" Zoë asked, I nodded. "I bleed ichor, but not all the hunters do. If they bled blood before joining, they still do, and if they bled ichor, they still do. Why?"

"If... Okay, interesting." I responded slowly, trying to think of why Zoë would've been born with ichor blood rather than the mortal variant. "Sorry, that gave me another question, but I'll save that for later. Random follow up question: does ichor glow?"

She gave me a weird look, which I guess I deserved, but I prefaced it by saying it was random.

"No, Percy, it does not glow." She answered for me very simply. "it's ichor, not lava. Why? Have you never seen it before?"

I shook my head.

"No, I have," I clarified what I meant by the action, getting up to move closer to the duo, sitting next to my boyfriend, who wrapped an arm around me. "but it's been a while and when it happened, I wasn't focused on the ichor- moreso on the injury I'd just caused. But I had another dream or nightmare of vision or whatever you want to call it and like..."

My voice drifted.

"One line of the prophecy is starting to make sense." I began, which had their attention naturally. I exhaled. "yeah- I'm pretty sure I know who's sending me the visions, but again, we can talk about that later. I ask because in the vision, Atlas currently has Artemis chained up and he has this jar full of glowing golden liquid and I couldn't think of what else it would be besides literal lava or ichor, but he put some on her chains to like, make her compliant, basically? I didn't see anything after, that was the end of the vision, but it hurt her a lot. She screamed and it seemed to soak into the metal rather than just make it hot which... Seemed weird."

Zoë thought to herself for a moment, looking down at the ground.

"Did he do or say anything before he did it?"

I nodded my head.

"He said just to remind you who's in charge here before pouring it."

Zoë's expression dropped.

"Just- oh." She said, which felt really bad. "Oh. Wow, okay, I didn't know he... Wow."

"I'm sorry," Grover interjected. "Maybe I missed something, but what is it? Do you know what the golden stuff is?"

Zoë nodded, looking at me.

"We're there any other Titans in the vision?"

"A sarcophagus that I couldn't see but he mentioned, but none that were living. Why?"

She swallowed.

"Just... Curious." She insisted. "I think that glowing stuff may have been another titan- one who m- who Atlas and other Titans weren't very happy with after the war."

There was a beat of silence as Grover and I didn't even have to share a look, communicating with the empathy link.

Did you hear that too? I asked.

The correction? Yeah.

It's weird, right?

Very.

"I'm sorry," I responded, sitting forward. "What were you going to say instead of Atlas?"

"Whatever do you mean by that?"

I closed my eyes as to not roll them.

"What... I think that glowing stuff may have been another titan, one who m-" I repeated back. "who's m?"

As Zoë struggled for an answer, I tried to think about what she's already told me about herself- if she'd already have some sort of connection to Atlas.

Like, she's super old so I wouldn't doubt that they've seen each other. If she was alive millennia ago... She helped a hero with a quest.

But which hero? A lot of women helped lots of heroes in the old stories.

Suddenly, a bit of my first vision popped into my mind: Luke told Annabeth he knew where she was because of his first quest, which was when he was supposed to retrieve the golden apple from a tree.

But who did that originally? It wasn't Perseus and it wasn't Odysseus.

Regardless of who did it, though, she was able to help this person get an apple, and if her and her biological sisters lived where the Tree was, which is now at the base of Mount Othyrs....

"Oh."

That's why she asked me about the great prophecy, I realized.

"What?" Grover and Zoë asked- Zoë out of fear, Grover out of confusion.

I looked up at Artemis' lieutenant, making eye contact, wondering if Phoebe or any of the other hunters back at camp knew.

If they asked her not to go.

"Your father is Atlas."

If they're back at camp now, discussing who will take her place if she doesn't make it back.

There was a moment of silence as Zoë refused to break eye contact, pondering her response.

"You don't know that. I haven't told you anything about my parentage."

"No," I agreed. "But you told me that you helped a hero out on a quest- the hero that had my sword before I did. The person you gave the sword to, which helped them complete the quest against your sisters and family's wishes. The hero- Heracles, gave you no credit, so you joined the hunt."

"How would you know-"

"Luke was given the same quest as him," I filled the daughter of Atlas in. "To retrieve a golden apple- it's where he got his scar from."

"So?"

"So when he went to help Annabeth he said that he knew where she was because he'd been there before, on his quest." I went on. "To find the golden apple."

She chuckled.

"That's still a big stretch, Jackson."

"Then why did you ask me about how I coped with the great prophecy and with my own mortality?"

She didn't respond.

"You also said you bleed ichor," I added on. "meaning that you either have two godly parents or you'd be the child of something like a titan."

The huntress looked over at the three sleeping members of our party, mostly focusing on Phoebe.

"So what?" Zoë Nightshade conceded to my deduction. "you don't trust me now? Whatever it is my father's doing, I have no part of it. We haven't spoken in... Decades, probably, and we haven't had a conversation in centuries. My priority is Artemis, that is where my loyalties lie."

"Wh..." I stopped, realizing that my tone might've sounded harder than I meant it to. "no, Zoë, I... I still trust you. I wasn't trying to accuse you of sabotaging the quest, I was trying to make sense of the prophecy that says that somebody is going to die by a parents hand. And marching straight to your father seems like a tactic even more suicidal than me joining this quest without permission."

"It would've been nice to know." Grover piped in. "not that it's a guarantee that it'll be between you and him, but... It does make the line seem a lot less random."

Zoë Nightshade pursed her lips.

"Whether you were familiar with my lineage or not, it will not change what happens when we arrive at Mount Othyrs." Artemis' Lieutenant pointed out, which was true, but didn't change the moral of it. "Besides, trying to figure out a prophecy before it unravels is like trying to guess lottery numbers. It's a foolish endeavor. I'm assuming that's the like you think you figured out then? One shall perish by a parents hand?"

"Hm?" I hummed in response, forgetting about that with this development. "oh, no, I figured out a different one before I figured out who your dad was. But before that- what did you think the glowing stuff was that Atlas had?"

She sighed.

"It is not a guarantee, simply a hypothesis," the demititan (is that a term?) prefaced. "But it could be the essence of Helios- Titan of the sun. He was initially on good terms with the gods, but eventually Apollo took over his job and... Well, I'm sure he was quite frustrated by that. Similar to Kronos, we haven't heard from him in centuries. If he's in Tartarus but not powerful enough to exist physically, Atlas could have extracted some of his essence to use. He... Wouldn't be the first person to try. Some Roman Emperor tried the same thing- Caligula. He was... Weird. He wasn't able to pull it off, but he was also mortal. You said there was a sarcophagus, right?"

I let out a slow breath.

"It... Was definitely not for Helios, but there was one, yes."

Tilting her head, Zoë gave me a questionable look.

"Then who do you suppose it was?"

I looked down.

"The bane of Olympus." I answered, quoting the prophecy. "My grandfather, your great uncle."

"My what?"

"Kronos." I said more clearly. "I know because I heard him speak and he called Atlas his nephew. He's definitely not physical, but he's sentient. I think he might the one sending me visions."

"Why you?"

I shrugged.

"The great prophecy maybe?" I said, which wasn't a lie. "I'm not 100% sure."

Zoë Nightshade sighed, rolling her eyes.

"I guess it's useless to try and figure out on our own- they call him the Crooked One for a reason, so I doubt his reasoning is straightforward." But as she said it, an idea came to her. "Or maybe it's because you're the bane of Olympus."

I smiled.

"I try my hardest."

"It's a miracle Ares didn't zap you in the limo." My boyfriend agreed, "I suppose he didn't want to zap his future step son in law."

I elbowed him. Zoë smirked.

"It's because he would've lost," I half joked, catching Zoë look stressed at the claim. "Don't worry, I speak from experience, not pure ego."

"That's what somebody speaking from pure ego would say."

"That's quite homophobic of you to say that."

"This has nothing to do with your sexual and romantic preferences, do not make such preposterous claims about my prejudices."

I sighed, tiredness hitting me once more.

"It... Was a joke." I clarified. "I'm going to go back bed. If I see your dad again, I'll tell him you say hi."

She rolled her eyes.

"Keep up the quips and your chances of waking up will significantly decrease."

I smiled, walking back to where I'd fallen asleep, dragging my boyfriend with me because it was Thalia's turn to be on watch.

"It's okay," I promised the huntress, laying down as Grover woke Thalia up and walked over to join me. "that's not the threat you think it is."

Cuddling with Grover, I fell asleep to him running his fingers through my hair once again- it was really long right now. I was meaning to get it cut like a month and a half ago, but then I was severely depressed and kept forgetting to make an appointment.

And then, you know, I was sent to the mental health facility for like three weeks. So now my hair is longer than Thalia's, I'm pretty sure.

After overworking my brain for what was a post nightmare adrenaline rush, my body gave me one victory that night: I slept through the rest of the night without any visions, dreams, or nightmares.