Previously:
"No." Percy turned to see Nico fall to his knees just as the image faded for the last time.

He shot up in his bed, breathing hard. "What the Hades?" He sat there for another minute, gathering his thoughts. "Annabeth." He tossed the covers aside and booked it out of his cabin, texting her on the phone Leo had made for them all months ago as he went.
———
"Don't give up hope, Percy, please." Lynn pleaded. "You have to trust me. We can do this."

"No, Lynn—"

"Nymph! You're needed in the med bay! The prisoner can wait. Those fighting for Pontus are more important!"

"Just hold on, Percy." Lynn said as she gathered her supplies and left.

"Well, Styx." Percy muttered into the black dark of his cell.

"Hello?" Percy peeked his head into the cave in the middle of the forest. This one was different from Bunker 9. It wasn't hidden, and it wasn't filled with scrap parts and unfinished projects. A curtain of heavy fabric covered the entrance, making the cave itself rather dark. Torches lined the walls of the cave, and rugs covered the floor. Arcade machines gathered dust in a corner and canvases covered in paint littered the space around the cave on easels. "Rachel? Are you up?"

"Heya, Percy, what are you doing up so early?"

"Could say the same to you." Annabeth glanced pointedly at the paints the redhead was mixing together in her cow pajamas.

"Annabeth!" Rachel dropped her paints and moved to give her a hug. "Haven't seen you yet this summer, when did you get here?"

"Yesterday afternoon."

"You mean the other day? It's morning already." Percy said.

Annabeth rolled her eyes, but ignored him. "We have a question for you."

Rachel narrowed her eyes. "A question-question, or a...question?"

Annabeth and Percy shared a look.

Percy shrugged, then turned to the Oracle. "Oh, Oracle of Delphi, what did my dream mean?"

Immediately, Rachel went slack. Green mist poured out of her body as she started floating.

"Ocean's chosen and Wisdom's daughter, separate paths to lead. The secret of their quest held by gods of old. A long forgotten Father of the Sea shows his face. Guidance in sleep is gone and water life give loyalty. A secret sacrifice to share; one to capture and one to secret hold. Son and Fathers of the seas set the world to waste. Only one to restore the sea."

"Dam." Percy said, just as Rachel practically fell to the earth.  All at once, Percy's dream made more sense. Though he had new questions. He rushed to catch her and keep her on her feet. "Did you get it?"

"Yyyyeeeeesssss." Annabeth said as she finished writing the last line on the McDonald's receipt she had in her pocket with Percy's pen, Riptide.

"Got what? I thought you had a question?" Rachel muttered, blinking away her trance.

Percy, having stepped away, froze. He looked from her to Annabeth, confused.

Annabeth's eye caught one word repeated in the prophecy she had copied down. Secret...secret... "Uhhh, yeah, do you want to come with us to McDonalds? Our treat. I feel like we hardly see each other anymore."

"Again? But—" Percy was elbowed hard in the ribs. "I mean, yeah! I totally would not mind going there again, two days in a row."

Rachel eyed them with a smile. "At three in the morning?"

"The best time to experience McDonalds." Percy persisted, now committed.

Rachel laughed. "Alright, let me get dressed. I'll meet you at the Hill."

Annabeth grinned. "Great!" She pulled Percy out of the cave behind her.

The fact that Rachel didn't realize she'd given a prophecy had troubled him that entire day. He knew Annabeth had figured part of the reasoning behind why Rachel didn't recognize the cues that normally occurred after she gave a prophecy. He just couldn't ask because they ended up spending the whole day with her.

First it was McDonald's. Then they had to hide from an empousae. Then they stopped by Sally's to say hello to her, Paul, and Estelle. The three of them ended up staying for lunch and dinner, and at that point, Sally refused to let them go back to camp in the dark. So they stayed the night.

With an apartment as small as that one, no matter where they had a 'private' conversation, they would likely be heard by at least one person. So they had to wait until morning when they could excuse themselves for a 'breakfast date.'

"Annabeth, what are we going to do?" Percy asked once they were out of the building. "That entire thing talked about secrets!"

"Yes, Percy, but it also says the secret is held by the Olympian Council."

"Really?" Percy asked.

"Not in those exact words, but that's how I'm choosing to see this." Annabeth said. "I reread it in the bathroom this morning. It says 'gods of old'. Who else could it be?"

"Good point." Percy acknowledged. "So that's where we're going?"

"Yes." Annabeth said, getting them moving again. "We'll hopefully be back in time to go back to camp with Rachel for lunch."

The key to the 600th floor was a piece of cake. The person at the desk knows not to bar them from Olympus by now. Getting the Olympians in the throne room was another matter.

Who knew no one would be in there at all?

"Should I sit on Dad's throne again?" Percy asked warily. He didn't particularly want to.

"That won't be necessary."

The voice suddenly appearing made them jump nearly a foot in the air.

"Dad!"

"Percy." Poseidon slowly walked from around the corner to sit in his seat. "What are you doing here?"

"We need to talk with the Council." Percy said through his rapidly beating heart. The sudden appearance of his father scared the socks off him. "There's been a prophecy."

Poseidon, who'd no doubt begun a lecture in his mind of how Percy needed to not be bothering the Council, froze. He closed his eyes in either exasperation or reaching out to the Council; Percy didn't know. But a second later, a series of pops and footfalls filled the room.

"What is this, brother?" Zeus demanded upon seeing Percy and Annabeth in the center of the room. "We cannot be all gathering for every whim of your son. Explain."

"We have news of a prophecy, Lord Zeus." Annabeth spoke up before Percy could open his mouth.

"Ridiculous. I would know if one had been made." Apollo said from his lounging position on his throne.

"That indeed would be true—" An old, echoey voice filled the throne room.

"—If we had not stopped the word of it reaching you through your Oracle when it was made." Another, younger, echoey voice continued.

"As it is, the knowledge of the prophecy is currently only known to those in this room." Another voice echoed. This time accompanied by the appearance of three ladies: one very old, one very young, and one in the middle.

"The Fates." Annabeth breathed. "You are why Rachel didn't realize I was writing down a prophecy yesterday."

"Yes." The youngest one said, her voice no longer echoing. "And we realize you and Perseus have done much for Olympus already."

"I freaking knew it." Percy muttered. Who else would the prophecy be about?

"Which is why we offer a deal." The middle aged one said. "You serve Olympus one more time—"

"—And we will write a fate for you that has no interaction with the mythological world without you first approaching it knowingly." The old lady finished. "We will ensure you live. We will ensure you win. Accept this quest—this last quest—and we will ensure you have the life you dream of."

Percy and Annabeth only needed to share one glance. "What do we need to do?" Annabeth asked.

"Become Olympus' Guardians." The old lady answered.

"In doing so, you will gain strength and powers that will enable you to accomplish your tasks." The middle aged one said. "You will need all the help you can get, for you face Pontus, primordial of the sea."

"Wait! Doesn't this break rules about messing with fate or some such?" Apollo asked. He had his hands up and was looking back and forth between Zeus and the Fates in confusion.

"Rules that we made?" The youngest smirked. "We are allowed to break them as we see fit."

"There will come a time when the entire prophecy may be made known to everyone." The oldest said.

"But it will not be for a while yet. Pontus does not make his first move for another year. We will let you know when. Other than this, we leave the details to your plans up to you. And we will ensure it carries out according to plan."

Percy whistled in amazement. "That's some promise, old lady. Are you sure you can keep it?"

Thunder clapped and silence filled the room. The Fates had disappeared.

"Okay then." Percy said. "Let's get started on a planning schedule. We need to be back at my mom's soon and I'm hungry."

Zeus groaned. "He's going to be insufferable."

—- —- —-

Percy blinked the sleep out of his eyes. He'd been in this new cell for...three days? It was hard to keep track, but he managed. Their plan was—of course— going according to...plan. He was waiting on Annabeth's cue to break out. He just hoped it would be before Lynn found a way out. That would be awkward if he refused to go with her.

He took a deep breath of the cleaner water. It was doing wonders for his healing—which was now at full strength, now that he stopped holding it back. Since he'd become one of the only Guardians of Olympus (the other being Annabeth) in the history of the world, his healing factor in the water became ridiculous.

They'd received the prophecy and accepted the quest several months before Pontus began stirring. With that amount of time to plan and train with their new powers (which, for the most part was just an enhancement of their original ones plus a few more) they became very confident in their plan.

Percy only had one moment of freaking out and that was because the demigods at camp had been idiots.

Soon it will all be over though. Soon he and Annabeth could rest.