<>------<> Percy <>------<>

‘My Lords and Ladies.’

The five of us bowed respectively before the gods. When we straightened, I glanced down the line at my companions; Thalia and Jason, the children of Zeus/Jupiter and Nico and Hazel, the children of Hades/Pluto.

And then there was me.

My name is Percy Jackson, and I’m the son of Poseidon, god of the Sea. I saved the gods of Olympus twice; once in the second Titan war and once in the second Giant war. We demigods face plenty of wars. Unfortunately.

And it was because of that fact that I was shocked when the gods made their announcement.

I glanced briefly around at the twelve Olympians plus Hestia and Hades who had been made respective council members after the Giant war. But that war had ended months ago. Why had we been summoned now?

‘Demigods,’ Zeus said. ‘You have helped us with our, ahem, problems in past. You have aided as when we were in need and you are all very powerful indeed.’

The five of us smiled and bowed again.

‘Which is why,’ Zeus continued heavily. ‘We cannot allow your existence to continue.’

The king of the gods summoned his master bolt which crackled and snapped, bursting with electricity.

The smile fell from my face and my stomach dropped. My friends and I took a step back.

‘Whoa, whoa,’ Hazel cried, raising her hands defensively. ‘You’re going to kill us? After all we’ve done for you?’

‘You are too powerful,’ Hades growled as he summoned his staff. ‘Together, you have power to overthrow the gods. You must be eliminated.’

Hazel stifled a sob and turned to Nico who hugged her and glared at the gods.

‘So you’d kill us to keep your thrones,’ he screamed over his sister’s shoulder. ‘You’re no better than the Titans or Gaia.’

‘Hold your tongue, son of Hades,’ Poseidon shouted. His trident suddenly formed in his hand. ‘We are securing the safety of Olympus.’

‘By killing your own children?’ I yelled despairingly.

Poseidon turned towards me, a fire in his eyes that I’d never seen before. His expression wavered for a moment before becoming hard as stone once more.

‘Yes,’ Poseidon said calmly. ‘It is for the good of our home.’

‘After all we’ve done for you,’ Thalia snapped. ‘You would simply kill us for being powerful?’

‘That’s not fair!’ Jason shouted, his voice trembling.

‘We cannot allow our children to become more powerful than us,’ Zeus thundered.

‘Uncles, please.’

Surprisingly, it was Athena who stood up for us. She rose from her throne, eyeing us with distrust but sympathy.

‘These heroes are loyal to Olympus,’ she said. ‘We have no reason to believe that they would ever turn against us.’

‘Stay out of this, Athena,’ Zeus turned his glare on her. ‘This does not concern you or the others.’

‘But it does concern us,’ Hermes interrupted, rising from his throne. ‘They are our children’s friends and the heroes of their generation.’

‘They have never done anything against Olympus,’ Apollo proclaimed. He and his twin sister Artemis stood.

Aphrodite looked appalled as she, also rose. ‘This is murder. It cannot be tolerated.’

‘If they were destroyed,’ Dionysus slurred, standing. ‘Who would I have to make miserable?’

‘They’ve all done a bang up job defending us,’ Hephaestus grumbled. He limped forward to stand in a line with the others.

 ‘They have helped us,’ Ares admitted reluctantly. He joined his brethren.

‘They have ensured our survival,’ Demeter and Persephone rose. ‘They do not deserve to be murdered for their efforts.’

‘We must not kill them,’ Hestia said firmly, rising from her place beside the hearth.

I had to smile, even if Dionysus’ comment made me shudder. The other gods were standing up for us. Maybe we could get out of this alive.

I should’ve known better.

Zeus’ eyes flared. Arcs of lightning sparked from his master bolt, striking every one of the opposing gods down. They fell silently until it was just us and our parents. And they were armed with their weapons of power. The five of us had only our swords, spears, daggers or bows.

For a while, there was only silence. Until Zeus called an angry battle cry and charged us.

‘Percy!’ Jason called in desperation.

I got the message. Turning to the gods, I took a deep breath, readied all my power and stomped my foot down hard.

Instantly, the throne room shook as a massive earthquake raged Olympus. Our parents, caught off guard by the unexpected display of power, staggered around trying to regain balance.

‘Run!’ I yelled to my friends.

Strangely, the earthquake didn’t seem to affect the five of us as we raced down roads to get to the elevator. It felt like the doorway out of here became farther away with ever step.

Halfway there, Hades, Poseidon and Zeus caught up to us and drew their weapons. But Thalia screamed, raised her sword, and blasted the three gods with spears of lightning.

Nico intoned, ‘Spirits help me!’

The ground at the feet of the gods cracked suddenly, and skeletal hands shot out, grasping our parents’ ankles and pulling them to the ground. They struggled, but the skeletons’ grips were too strong.

‘We will find you!’ my father roared after us. ‘And we will destroy you.’

Let me tell you, nothing decreases you confidence more than your father and uncles hunting you and your friends, calling for your bloody murder.

We reached the elevator and hurtled in, the door closing after us. I slammed my hand on the button and the elevator began to descend.

Hazel was crying. I couldn’t blame her, I wasn’t much better. Nico had his eyes closed and had his head rested against the side of the elevator. Thalia and Jason embraced each other tightly, silent tears rolling down their cheeks and onto the others shoulder.

The elevator music playing Linkin Park’s Breaking the Habit did nothing to improve the situation. On the contrary, it only made me feel worse. The lyrics seemed appropriate.

I wanted to collapse. To break down and convince myself that that did not just happen – our parents did not just sentence us to death. I didn’t know why it was always me that had to fight the battles. Sometimes, I just wanted to scream until my throat was bloody and raw.

But I couldn’t do any of that. I had to stay strong, for the others. What just happened was real, and we needed to be prepared for when the gods came after us. We needed the help of the campers.

We exited the Empire State building and I hailed a cab to drive us to our home, – at least our closest home – Camp Half-Blood.

There was quiet the whole way. No one seemed in the mood to speak. Once in a while, Hazel would let out a small sob. But mostly, there was silence.

As soon as the cab’s tires screeched to a halt, the five of us leapt out, paid the cabbie and bolted up the hill towards Thalia’s old pine tree.

But when we reached the crest of the hill, there was a surprise waiting for us.

Dozens upon dozens of campers were spread across the hill in full battle armour, blocking our entrance. All of them had hardened, angry expressions and tight grips on their weapons.

My girlfriend, Annabeth, stood at the head of the group. Her bronze dagger glistened in her hand, her eyes as cold and grey as steel.

One of the praetors of Camp Jupiter, Reyna, was positioned next to Annabeth. Her purple cape rested on her back in the still, late afternoon air. She looked at us with eyes so dark I could almost imagine them as the night sky.

The rest of the seven from the Great Prophecy – Piper, Frank and Leo – stood behind the two leaders. Their knuckles were white on their weapons. Occasionally, Leo’s hair would burst into angry red flames before they sputtered out.

‘How dare you return here?’ Annabeth spat. ‘After what you did, how dare you?’

I stepped forward, ‘After what we-Annabeth, what are you talking about?’

‘You know very well what she’s talking about,’ Reyna said viciously.

‘No seriously,’ Jason cut in. ‘We don’t.’

Reyna turned and shot him a fierce glare, ‘We know what you did. Do not play games, son of Jupiter.’

Jason flinched. I felt really bad for him; being called a son of Jupiter when Jupiter had just tried to kill him.

Thalia stepped up and drew her little brother back with an arm around his shoulders.

‘What do you think we did?’ she said carefully, lightning flashing in her eyes.

Annabeth’s eyes flashed like thunderstorms in return, ‘You betrayed us. You betrayed all of us. You turned on Olympus and struck down the gods.’

I was too stunned to speak. Struck down the gods? More like they tried to strike down us!

‘We would never turn on Olympus, Annabeth,’ Nico’s voice shook. ‘You should know that. After all we did to save it, why would we tear it down?’

‘How can you protest your innocence, son of Hades,’ Reyna said icily, ‘when there were witnesses that saw you?’

I blinked, ‘Saw us do what?’

Annabeth glared at me, ‘Did you not cause an earthquake that disoriented the gods?’

I took a step back, ‘Well, I-‘

‘And did you, Thalia,’ she continued, ‘not strike the gods with lightning?’

Thalia was speechless.

Annabeth was on a roll, ‘And did you, Nico, not cause skeletons to erupt from the ground, holding the gods in place so you could make your escape?'

Nico stared at the ground, ‘Who told you this?’

‘The gods themselves,’ Reyna said. ‘Zeus, Poseidon and Hades were here not ten minutes ago. They came to report that they had offered you rewards for your hard work, and you betrayed Olympus by trying to overtake them.’

Jason raised his hands in a "calm down" gesture, ‘Hold up a sec. We didn’t do that. The gods tried to kill us because we were becoming too powerful.’

Annabeth shook her head and huffed in disgust, ‘The gods predicted that that would be your cover story. You don’t fool us; you don’t fool anyone!’

Behind the two leaders, the campers shifted restlessly. Frank, Leo and Piper stepped forward in line with Annabeth and Reyna.

‘But we’re not trying to fool anyone,’ Hazel insisted. ‘We’re just want your help so the gods don’t murder us.’

‘Lies!’ Piper growled.

She raised her dagger, the celestial bronze glistening. Frank’s skin rippled like he was about to change form. Leo’s hands smoked as if they were itching to burst into flames and rain down some decent sized fireballs.

The campers all followed the gods, who had just told them that we were betrayers. They weren’t going to listen to us when they were told by the gods themselves.

The other four seemed to reach the same conclusion. I saw the hard glint in Annabeth’s eyes that I’d come to recognise over the years, and I knew what was going to happen a second before it did.

Annabeth thrust out her dagger and yelled, ‘For Olympus!’

As my friends drew their weapons, the campers repeated the angry battle cry and charged forwards to meet us.

But I was ready.

Just as I had on Olympus, I stomped my foot down and felt the power beneath my feet. Tears cascaded down my face in a mixture of sadness and fury. The ground below responded to my anger and began to tremble; causing a tremor that shook the very foundations of Half-Blood Hill.

But I knew the distraction wouldn’t last for long.

‘Run!’ I screamed for the second time that day.

We ran; first from our parents, then from our friends. What had the world come to? Were we the only sane people left on the planet?

As we raced down the highway, we had no destination in mind. Only away.

‘Where are we going?’ Thalia shouted.

‘I’ve got a place we can hide,’ I suddenly had an idea. ‘Nico; shadow travel?’

He nodded grimly and we stopped running.

‘Hold hands, everyone. Hazel, you'll need to help me,’ Nico commanded.

We obeyed, standing in a circle. Behind us, the roar of the angry campers was getting louder and closer.

‘Nico,’ Jason said in a small voice. ‘Now would be a good time.’

‘I’m trying!’

His forehead was scrunched up and beads of sweat popped up on his brow. He opened his eyes and focused on me.

‘I need you to concentrate on where we’re going,’ he said.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. The campers sounded so close.

‘Percy!’ Thalia screeched.

My eyes flashed open and I saw the mob of demigods, Annabeth and Reyna leading the charge. They pointed their weapons towards us and yelled, ‘Take them!’

They all rushed forward, but before they reached us, the world shifted and changed to black.

Shadow travel.

I closed my eyes again and held my breath as the world turned cold and wind rushed around me. I tightened my grip on Jason and Hazel’s hands.

Then my feet slammed into the ground and the whooshing sensation came to a standstill. I looked around and felt a familiar rush of security. Inside the door that was in front of us, we would be safe.

‘Uh,’ Jason muttered in confusion. ‘Where are we?’

He looked to Hazel, who shrugged. True enough, they’ve never been here, but Thalia and Nico had.

‘Really, Percy?’ Thalia punched my arm. ‘This is one of the first places they’ll look!’

‘I have to tell her what’s happened,’ I said sadly. ‘Besides, we can pick up supplies here.'

‘Could someone tell us where “here” is?’ Hazel interrupted.

‘This is my mom’s apartment,’ I smiled. ‘We should be safe here for a little while.’

As I groped in my pockets for my key, Nico grumbled, ‘Should be.’

I inserted the key in the lock and turned, expecting to see my mom and stepdad making dinner or sitting on the couch together.

What I didn’t expect was what I saw.

While my friends pulled out their weapons and tried to help, I just stood limply. My pen, Riptide, dropped from my fingers and I watched in awful horror as my stepfather lay unmoving on the ground, and my mother choked out my name one last time before the hellhound closed its fangs around her neck.

 ~*~

How did you like my first chapter? Was it good? Please tell me. This first chapter is dedicated to Think_inspiration for the awesome cover. You must bask in it's awesomeness! Next dedication goes to a commenter.
~MissMythoMagic