Percy is lying in bed thinking, in a few hours he will be sixteen. He will be able to get his driver's license, not that he needs to drive, it is New York City after all. It's hard to imagine that in just two more years he will be eighteen and an adult. He pulls out his phone to scroll through Instagram to pass the time. He's about to text his friend, Grover, when he hears banging on the front door. He jumps out of bed and hurries to the front hall. His mom and stepfather, Gabe, follow him quickly.

His mom looks through the peephole, "shoot," she says. She turns away from the peephole, "Gabe, Sweetheart, go back to bed. I'll take care of this."

"Whatever," Gabe says. "Just be quiet, I have things to do tomorrow."

They watch as Gabe walks back down the hall. "Who is it?" Percy asks.

Sally takes a deep breath, "it's your father."

"My father?" Percy asks, surprised. "You told me he was dead."

"I lied," Sally says. "He's a Greek God and I'm guessing he wants something."

"A Greek God!" Percy yells and Sally tells him to be quiet. "What do you mean a Greek God?"

"I mean Poseidon, Greek God of the sea." Sally opens the door. "What do you want?"

"Hi," the man in a flower shirt and jean shorts says. "We have a bit of a problem."

"Yeah," Sally says as he walks into the apartment. "Just come right in. It's not like it's the middle of the night or anything."

"I told you we have a problem."

"What is it?"

"As you might know when demigods get sent on a quest they get told something called a prophecy, it's like a riddle that tells them what to look for and where to go and all of that. A long time ago there was one told about mine or one of my brother's kids. When he or she turns sixteen they will decide if the Gods will live or die. Tomorrow is Percy's sixteenth birthday."

"Wait a minute!" Percy says. "You can't just leave for fifteen years and then show up two hours before I turn sixteen, tell me that you're a Greek God, and ask me if I want you to live or die! That's so unfair! How does this even work? What do I even do?"

Poseidon looks at Percy, "my father eat me when I was a baby. My brother, Zeus, saved me. He killed our father. We took over ruling the world. The prophecy was read. About four years ago my father started to raise again, someone is helping him. You may have noticed over the last few years really weird things happening to you, creepy people trying to be friends with you. The weather being weird, things like that. That's my father, your grandfather, trying to get you to join him. Now, we have to get you to mount Olympus before he gets here and tries to get you to join him and kill all of us."

"Why should I help you?" Percy asks. "How do I know you and your brothers and the others are not huge jerks."

"They are," Sally says.

Poseidon glares at her, "you just have to trust me."

Percy looks at Sally. "What happens if I say no? What happens if I don't go with you? What happens if I just go back to bed?"

"My father takes over the world. You, everyone you love and everyone who fights against him will be killed."

Percy looks at his mom again, "do I have to fight? Like, kill people?"

"Not people, monsters."

"Monsters? Like from the books, like the Minotaur?"

"Careful!" Poseidon yells. "Names have power, if you say their names they can see and hear you, but yes like him."

"So, I just have to fight a bunch of monsters until I get to my grandfather, and then what? Tell him to stop? Kill him?"

"With a cursed blade yes."

"A cursed what?"

"Blade, knife, sword, dagger, anything like that."

"Yeah," Percy says sarcastically. "Let me go get my knife really quick and we can leave." He rolls his eyes.

"Yeah," his dad says. "Here," he throws something at Percy, who catches it easily.

"This is a pen." His dad nods. "You want me to fight my grandfather with a pen! How is that going to work? I give him ink poisoning? Maybe poke tiny holes in him until he bleeds to death. Or write him threatening letters."

"Percy!" His mother says.

"What?" Percy asks. "It's a pen!"

"Take the cap off," Poseidon tells him. He does as he's told and the next thing he knows he's holding a sword.

"Wow!"

"Pretty cool right? Her name is Riptide and the best part is you can't lose her."

"What do you mean?"

"Throw it and wait."

Percy throws the pen/sword across the room. A few seconds later he feels something in his pocket, he pulls the pen out, "that's pretty cool!"

"Yeah. So? You ready to go?"

"Where exactly are we going?"

"I'll start by taking you to Mount Olympus. Then, I'll take you to Camp Half-Blood, it's the only safe place for demigods in the world. You need to meet the guy in charge, Chiron. He will give you some basic training and armor. You will also meet the others you will be fighting with. Then, by tomorrow night you will be fighting."

"And how far away from here is all of that?"

"Mount Olympus is on the top of the Empire State Building and Camp Half-Blood is on Long Island."

"Okay," he looks back at his mom. "I guess I better go save the world."

Sally smiles sadly, "okay, go save the world, but be careful, okay? Come back to me right away. Don't do anything stupid. I love you so much."

"I will Mom, I love you so much."

He follows his dad out of the apartment. Outside the building, there are two horses. "Are those Pegasus?"

"Yep, I made them remember?"

"Not really," Percy admits. "I didn't really pay attention in school."

"Of course you didn't," Poseidon says. "Well, I did. Their names are Blackjack and Guido. You take Blackjack."

"Yay!" Percy hears someone say. "I get the Prince!"

"Who said that?" Percy asks.

"That was just Blackjack. You can hear and talk to horses and fish, now that I've claimed you as my son."

Percy gets to spend the next few minutes talking to the horses as they fly to Mount Olympus. Poseidon leads him inside and to a big room full of thrones. As soon as they walk inside several very large people appear in the room.

"Hello," Poseidon greets. "This is my son, Percy. He's here to save us all. I just wanted you all to meet him before I send him to train at camp for a day before he saves us."

That's when the yelling starts, most of it seems to be coming from the man and woman in the middle of the half-circle.

"Okay!" Poseidon yells. "You can all yell at me and fight in a few minutes, but first let me bring him to camp. I already told Chiron we were coming." Before anyone else can respond a bright light surrounds Percy and the next thing he knows he's standing on a porch.

The door next to him swings open, "please come in." Percy looks over to see a man in a wheelchair.

"Hello, Percy, Poseidon. Please come in, I'll explain everything."

Percy and Poseidon follow the man who must be Chiron into the house and to the living room. Percy looks at the leopard head on the wall.

"Mr. D was in charge of decorations," Chiron says as if that explains everything.

"Let me read you the prophecy and then we'll talk about what each line means, okay?"

Percy nods, "yeah, sure."

"A half-blood of the eldest gods
Shall reach sixteen against all odds
And see the world in endless sleep
The hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap
A single choice shall end his days
Olympus to preserve or raze

So, a half-blood is you, half-human half God. The oldest Gods are your father, Zeus, and Hades. You are turning sixteen in a few minutes, and being the son of one of the eldest gods that is very impressive. The see the world in an endless sleep part we aren't completely sure what that means, but our grandfather does control time, so he will probably do something. You have to use a cursed blade and decide if Olympus will fall or be saved. Got it?"

Percy nods, "I mean I guess, but what is a cursed blade? My sword?"

"That's another thing we aren't sure about. I won't worry about it though, those little things have a way of working out on their own."

"Okay?" Percy says, but he sounds unsure. "Is there anything else I should know?"

Chiron sighs, "there was this camper we had a few years ago who might have something to do with all this. His name is -"

The door flies open before Chiron can tell Percy anything.

"You've got to be kidding me!" The blonde girl in the doorway says. She looks Percy up and down before turning to Chiron, "tell me you're joking! There is no way this is the kid who is supposed to save us! He looks like he's never lifted a weight in his life! Or even been in a fight!"

"Hey!" Percy says. "I've been in fights before!"

"Okay," the pretty blonde girl says. "But did you win them?"

"Annabeth!" Chiron says. "That's enough. I told you to stay in your cabin until I came to get you."

"I know!" Annabeth says. "I was going to, but I wanted to see the kid who is supposed to save us! I have been waiting for almost ten years for this and it's him!" She waves her arms in Percy's direction.

"Hey!" Percy yells. "You think I like this? A random man was pounding on my door saying he's my father and he's a Greek God and that I have to save him and a bunch of other people I've never met before! I don't know what's going on or what I'm supposed to do! So, don't come in here and yell at me like this was my choice! I had nothing to do with any of this! I don't want to be here! You seem smart you figure this out!"

"You don't think I've been trying to?" The girl yells back. "I found out about the prophecy when I was ten. I've been fighting since I was seven, hoping that someday I get to help fight and save all my friends. If I could do this myself I would!"

"Annabeth! Percy!" Chiron yells. "that's enough from both of you. Nobody can do this on their own. Now, Annabeth you can either sit down and help me explain how we think Luke is involved or you can go back to your cabin or train until I need you to help us."

Annabeth just stands in front of the door for a few seconds before she sits on the couch. "Fine," she says. "I'll stay."

Chiron nods, "okay, as I was saying there is a boy who used to be a camper here, Luke. A few years ago, about four, he left. He didn't tell anyone he was leaving, he just went in the middle of the night. Later, we found out that he joined the other side and is fighting with our grandfather."

"How do you know that?" Percy asks.

"Once we found out that his army had demigods we sent in spies. So, we know that he is involved, but we don't know how far involved he is."

"Okay," Percy says. "That's really great, but I was told that I wouldn't have to fight or kill people."

Chiron, his dad, and Annabeth all look at each other. "Percy," his dad says. "This is all very complicated."

"Then make it not complicated!" Percy suggests, "because so far a bunch of people have told me that I have to kill other people and monsters, but why should I trust any of you? You're clearly not telling me the whole story. Do you really think that I'm going to want to fight in a whole war with no training just because a bunch of people who have been lying to me since we met asked me to? In what world would that work on anyone? Maybe, I should go join my grandpa, at least he let me know that he was alive before today!"

"Percy, I know this is all very confusing -" Poseidon starts.

"Wait!" Annabeth cuts him off. "Who said your grandpa let you know he was alive before today? What does that mean? Have you talked to him? Are you working for him?"

"Working for -" Percy cuts himself off. "Of course, I'm not working for him. I had a dream about him, or at least I think it was him, a few weeks ago." Everyone around him exchanges a look. "What?" Percy asks. "Why are you all looking at me like that?"

"Tell us everything about the dream," Poseidon commands.

"I don't remember much. It started in my living room. I watched myself, sitting on the couch. Then, there was this deep voice that said something like, 'Percy, it's me, your grandfather. You have to help me.' Dream me asked how I could help. He told me that I had to go outside. So, I watched myself walk onto the streets, but the streets were different than they are supposed to look. They were all destroyed and they were people lying all over the place, but they didn't look dead, maybe asleep. There was gold dust all over the place too. The voice brought me into an elevator. The elevator brought me to this room that was completely destroyed. There was a guy lying on the ground. He was hurt, there was blood everywhere. She was there too," Percy points at Annabeth. "She was holding something, but I couldn't tell what it was, and standing over the guy. The voice told me that I had to stop her from hurting the boy. I tried to stop her, but no one would listen to me. Then, I woke up."

"Do you think it was a demigod dream?" Poseidon asks.

"A what?"

"A demigod dream is when a demigod has a dream that shows them something that is going to happen to them." Chiron explains, "Based on the fact that your grandpa talked to you it makes me think it was some kind of demigod dream, but not the normal one. Now, tell me, the guy you saw, what did he look like?"

"I don't know," Percy says. "He looked like he was in his early 20s, he was blonde, blue eyes, and he had a scar across one side of his face."

"Luke," Annabeth says. "That has to be Luke, but I would never hurt him. Why would he dream that I was going to hurt Luke?" Annabeth stands up and starts pacing around the room.

"I don't know Dear," Chiron tells her. "You know that demigod dreams aren't always straightforward. We will figure it out, but until we do, why don't you take Percy down to the training area and help him get ready."

Annabeth takes a deep breath, "fine." She turns to Percy, "let's go." Percy follows her down the hill and to some sort of training area. There are a few kids standing around wearing armor and holding weapons. They all look over when Annabeth and Percy walk in. 

"Is that him?" A boy with light brown hair asks. 

Annabeth nods, "unfortunately." 

Before Percy can defend himself a tall girl scary looking girl looks him up and down, "this has to be some sort of joke. There's no way he's going to save everyone."

"He had a dream about Luke and his grandfather, so, no, I don't think it's a joke."

"Well, then," the girl says. "We better start his training."

"Yeah, I'll start him on swords. Clarisse, can you do spears? Connor, can you get Will to help with bows?" The girl, Clarisse, nods. The boy, Connor, also nods and runs off. 

...

A few hours later Percy has been trained on multiple weapons and forms of hand-to-hand. He's also been given some basic medical training to help in the field. However, he is the best with his sword, Riptide. He doesn't know much about fighting, but from what he can tell he's not bad. He went against Annabeth and was able to knock her dagger out of her hand a few times. As far as hand-to-hand went he also wasn't half bad. He was able to land a few solid punches.

"Annabeth!" Percy turns when he hears a familiar voice behind him.

"Grover?" Percy asks, shocked. "What are you doing here? Are you a demigod too?"

"Oh, Percy, hey," Grover says, nervously. "I didn't think you would be over here. No, I'm not a demigod. I'm a satyr. Half man half goat. I was sent to keep you safe when we found out that you might be a demigod. I was supposed to bring you here when I was able to confirm that you were a demigod, but that was really hard because no monsters were actually attacking you. I tried to bring up the idea of greek Gods with you a few times, but you weren't really interested in listening."

"So, what are you saying?" Percy asks, hurt clear across his face. "We weren't really friends? You were just hanging out with me because it's your job."

"No!" Grover says, just as upset. "The reason I started talking to you was because of that, but after a while, we really did become friends."

"Whatever," Percy says. "We can talk about it later, right now I have to focus on winning a war that I didn't know about until three hours ago."

Annabeth looks back and forth between the two for a few seconds before she turns back to Grover, "what's going on?"

"There are monsters at the border and Chiron wants both of you at The Big House," Grover says, not looking away from Percy. Percy and Annabeth follow Grover back up the hill and into the living room of The Big House. 

"How did training go?" Poseidon asks. 

"It went surprisingly well, Percy is a natural with a sword and he didn't suck at hand-to-hand. He was okay with a bow as well," Annabeth replies. "Grover said something about monsters at the border. Is it time to go yet?"

"No," Chiron says. "We still have time. They are not trying to get in, they are just standing there and watching. I just wanted to see how training was going and see if you two needed anything."

"I think we're good," Annabeth tells him. "I think that we just need to keep training."

"I think we need to fill me in on what is going on here because I just found out that my best friend was only my friend to get me to come here and fight this war."

Chiron sighs, "that's not actually what happened, but you're right, we need to fill you in. Grover is a satyr, he can smell demigods, like monsters. Since you are a child of the big three you have a very strong smell. Grover was sent to your school to become your friend and bring you here, so you would be safe. However, after being with you for two months no monsters had attacked. There was a monster at your school, Mrs. Dodds. We thought for sure she would attack, but after a few months, she didn't, in fact, she left. That's when we realized that the monsters weren't going to attack you because they wanted you on their side. We thought about bringing you here to get your training, but when we started talking about it more monsters started standing at the border. We decided it was safer for everyone if we just left you out there. We couldn't tell you about who you are, because that would have been dangerous as well because as soon as you knew about everything your grandfather would try to get you. You knew that you would be the safest if you continued to live your normal life."

"Okay," Percy says slowly. "That kind of makes sense, I guess, but what has happened with the war so far? There's no way that in the last four years, nothing has happened."

"You're right. Luke didn't just leave out of nowhere as we told you. He was caught trying to steal Zeus's lightning bolt. He was going to be punished, but the night before he got out and he wasn't heard from for a few months. About a year later he tried to poison the tree that protects the camp. We were able to save it and in doing so we brought back Zeus's daughter."

"Wait!" Percy says. "If Zeus has a daughter what am I doing here, she can be fighting this war. She has definitely known that she's a demigod for a lot longer than I have."

"She's only fifteen."

"Okay, so wait a few months, get her some training and I'll go back to my life and we can all pretend that this never happened."

"She doesn't age," Annabeth says, annoyed.

"What? Why not? Can you make me not age, then I wouldn't have to do this."

"It's too late, it's passed midnight, and you're officially sixteen, happy birthday Son," Poseidon tells him.

"Thalia is a hunter of Artemis. Artemis has a group of female hunters who don't age and can only be killed in battle. Thalia joined the night before her sixteenth birthday. It has to be you, Percy, The Fates picked you."

"Well, get them to unpick me. I shouldn't have to do this."

"Percy, please just listen. We don't have time for this," Chiron begs. "As I was saying after we were able to bring back Thalia we found out that Luke had our grandfather's coffin and was starting to bring him back. We were able to slow him down. That was last year and we haven't heard from him since. I think that's everything that's happened. Do you have any other questions?"

"Um, no, I don't think so," Percy says. "How do we know when it's time to start fighting though?"

"There are two options, one is that the monsters outside decide to attack, the other is that we decide that we are ready and we go out there and attack them."

"Got it. So, are we going to be ready soon or are they going to get in before we are?"

"I think we're ready," Annabeth says.

...

Two hours later Percy and Annabeth are standing side by side in what remains of the throne room on Mt. Omplyus. Luke is laying on the floor in front of them. It's just like the dream Percy had. Luke is looking at the dagger in Annabeth's hand. He nods at her, "give it to me."

"There has to be another way, please Luke," Annabeth begs.

Luke shakes his head, "there's not. You know that. Give it to me." As Annabeth hands him the dagger Percy turns away, he doesn't look back until he hears the dagger hit the ground. 

"Annabeth," he says. Annabeth's shoulders are shaking as Percy leads her out of the throne room. She sits on the ground as the elevator brings them to the ground floor. 

"Four years," she says quietly. "Four years I've been trying to get him out of there. I think a part of me always knew that the only way out would be if he died, but I was still hoping that there would be another way."

Percy nods, "I don't really understand this whole thing, but it seems like you did the right thing."

Annabeth nods, wipes her eyes, and stands up, "thanks, Percy. You don't have to, but you are always welcome in Camp Half-Blood if you want to come and hang out sometime."

Percy smiles, "well, being a demigod isn't going to go away, so maybe you could train me some more."

Annabeth smiles, "I would like that."

A/N Thanks for reading! I hope you liked it!! I've been working on this one for a few weeks and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I thought about turning this into a whole book, but I wasn't sure if anyone would actually want to read it, so let me know if you would. I do have more ideas if I end up making it a whole book, so I might do it anyway, lol. 

Have a good day/night,

Alex