#as opposed to percy and annabeth and thalia

[demigods-posts]

no, i'm fine. i swear. it's just that nico's fatal flaw is holding grudges because bianca was the only constant in his life and when she died, holding onto that grief like a lifeline was the only thing keeping him going. but i'm fine.

[somewhereincairparavel]

I like how Jason's reputation amongst the gods kind of cements his character as a dutiful leader. I know most ppl don't like the fact that he's all goody goody, but it really fits his arc well, and i like reading about it. it's one of the things about Jason that Rick didn't fumble. He was consistent with his character being dutiful and noble till the very end and makes it a point to show that through others perception.

Zeus- Okay he's a horrible dad, but he did initially respect his son (before jason opposed him in front of the gods, that kinda warped his ego) even going as far as to saying that he was proud to have him as a son and stuff. Which was a pretty ooc thing for Zeus to do especially to his sons. Too bad it only lasted for a few seconds before he went back to being bitchy.

Hera- Jason changed her perception of demigods, we know Hera hated all demigods bc half of them are sired by her husband, she wanted to use jason as a pawn to Gaia's defeat. But all those times she treated jason as her champion, she ended up actually caring about him and considered him a son. She mourned and cried about Jason MONTHS after he died, even going as far as to yell at her husband for not caring or grieving about the child that HE sired.

Apollo- self explanatory, Jason stood up for Apollo from the very beginning, and ended up dying for his sake, even when didn't have to do that. Jason made Apollo understand to have empathy for humans ("Remember what it's like to be human") and made Apollo stop being so full of himself with his selfless sacrifice. So apollo is the Olympian who has the most amount of respect for Jason. And made sure that Jason's sacrifice would not be in vain.

Artemis- if you go to the official Riordan wiki fanpage for Artemis, it's mentioned that Percy and Jason were two of the only male demigods that she had immense respect for. She mentally thanked Jason for standing up to Zeus for Apollo. Of course, being Thalia's brother could also give jason browny points aswell lol.

Athena- She seemed to respect Jason's wisdom in blood of Olympus, when he told his dad that it was unwise to punish apollo for Gaia's waking. Well know Athena respects anyone who has shown wisdom. She shot Jason a very approving look. So it's nice that Athena, who is very critical and picky, observed that Jason is a well thought out and insightful individual.

Aphrodite- kind of self explanatory too, she called jason a lovely boy in piper's dream, even alluding that jason needed absolutely no physical improvement in his looks aswell. I know this has nothing to do with Jason's dutifulness but Aphrodite can sense a person's heart and nature, and she immediately thought jason was perfect for her daughter even before they started dating. We know how picky Aphrodite is when it comes to who people date lol

Bacchus/Dionysus- We know that Bacchus had somewhat remembered Jason (calling him John green and all lol) because jason had done services for him (something about a leopard, iforgot lol). And annabeth pointed out that it was a good thing that jason and Bacchus were on fairly good terms. So there's that.

[hermesmyplatonicbeloved]

It not Percy and annabeth that push Grover away the fandom push Grover away too in order to hype of Jason nico Percy a trio that never existed in fact Thalia was utterly dismissed by the fandom in favor for Jason it nice now that people are reminded that he is Percy best friend and his closest companion

Hi Anon!!

I'm not a part of the Jason-fav parts of the fandom, but from what I understand/see, his fans are a minority? Like there's some Jason & Percy and Jason/Percy content but like, not nearly as much as other characters.

Using Ao3, there are:

506 Jason & Percy fics

696 Grover & Percy fics

98 Jason & Nico & Percy fics

113 Thalia & Nico & Percy fics

14,176 Jason Grace fics

5,640 Thalia Grace fics

There's clearly less content for relationships with Jason as opposed to the same relationships with Grover and Thalia. There is more fics with Jason than Thalia but I think that can be chalked up to the fact that Thalia is a main character in 1 book while Jason is a main character in 4 books - plus 5,600 fics is a pretty big number. I wouldn't say she was dismissed.

That being said. I do see where you're coming from.

I don't think it's the fandom that pushed Grover and Thalia away, it's Rick Riordan. Grover and Thalia barely got any screen time in HoO, meanwhile Jason was an important character in 4 books. I don't know why Rick chose to erase Grover from HoO. He's should've been up front and center, right next to Percy. Rick literally ended the first series with Percy explicitly confirming that Grover is his best friend - not Annabeth, not Rachel, not Nico or anyone else - Grover.

This was interesting to think about. Thanks for the ask!!

[p-taryn-dactyl]

I just found your page and love your writing! I was wondering if I could request a fic. The idea I had was a Thalia (PJO) x GN!reader fic where the reader has bad anxiety and has ignored it the whole day. At the end of the day they end up having a massive panic attack at the end of the day and Thalia walks in on it. If your not comfortable writing this I completely understand.

Never stop writing, your work is incredible!

a/n: hi, omg thank you so much!! i love this request so much and i am so excited to write for Thalia!! thank you for your kind words - they mean a lot to me!! i hope this is enjoyable! word count: 1k warning(s): mentions of anxiety, feeling of failure, panic attack, rushed?, dumb title and weird gif

shine bright

The tightness in your chest followed you around all day, never letting you go and hindering your breath. Everyone around you paraded their strength, their courage as they suited up for what was to be a practice battle the next day. Percy practiced his swordsmanship against Jason while Annabeth poured over maps of Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter, her brain analyzing every possible field of battle as one had not been chosen yet. After the two great wars, everyone decided they needed to be ready for if another great threat arose from the corners of myths yet to be told. However, you barely made it through the first two. Nights were torture then, your mind repeating the things you saw, telling you everything you did wrong, everything you could’ve done. The dreaded darkness of your mind had returned after the practice battle had been announced, taunting you that you would be the reason your team would fail. 

Some reasonable part of your brain spoke out, telling you that you had the literal saviors of Olympus at your side, doing most of the heavy work. Your place in the plan Annabeth had laid out for you was to cause confusion to the opposing team, as you had the ability of creating illusions. A simple part in a great plan, yet you couldn’t help but overthink every aspect of what could go wrong. What if you led them straight to Percy? What if your illusion gave out and doing so ruined the plan? What if you forgot who you were supposed to be confusing, as many of your friends were on the opposing team? Your mind spiraled as you walked through camp, your eyes hazy as you glanced over your friends. Annabeth was still looking at maps, leaning over a table with them sprawled out, her braids piled up on her head in a bun, keeping her hair from her neck due to the heat. Percy and Jason were taking a break, the son of Zeus grumbling as Percy doused himself with his water bottle, smirking at what his friend deemed as ‘cheating’. The Hunters of Artemis were also partaking in this dual camp competition, adding onto the layers of stress and anxiety already piling in your head. Thalia, Jason’s older sister who could send butterflies fluttering in your stomach with just a simple glance, couldn’t see you fail. Some part of you wished she could’ve chosen the team opposing yours but of course she had to jokingly carry on the Roman/Greek sibling rivalry. If she was competing against you, at least your failure would be her success. 

As you walked through the Camp, stumbling as you tried to get to Cabin 14 - your breath was coming in short and your eyesight blurring. You couldn’t have an attack in front of everyone, the voices in your head couldn’t be proven right. Thankfully, when you walked through the door, you noticed the absence of your siblings. You couldn’t even make it to your bed as you slid down the wall, tapping your fingers together in an attempt to calm yourself down. 

“Come on, Y/N, it’s a game of glorified capture the flag, you don’t need to get this worked up over it.” 

As you berated yourself under your breath, you didn’t hear the door open behind you.

—--

Thalia was worried. You had looked off all day, your normally sparkling personality dimmed as you practically acted like a zombie. She watched as you walked through camp, your eyes gliding over everyone. Eventually, she stood up in worry as your steps became uneven on your way to your cabin. She locked eyes with Annabeth, who left the table when she saw Thalia’s concerned look. The daughter of Athena followed Thalia’s gaze to watch as you went into the cabin. 

“Are they okay?” Annabeth asked, her brow furrowing, growing concern for her longtime friend. Thalia just shook her head in confusion, turning to walk in your direction. 

“I don’t know, to be honest. But they’ve been acting worryingly all day. I’m gonna go talk to them, tell Jason he can take my place training with Percy.” 

“Oh come on!” She heard Jason’s complaint at the idea of not taking a break and smirked as she walked. When she pushed open the door, she heard your whispered voice criticizing yourself quietly. Slowly, she came to kneel in front of you, taking in your slightly shaky form. 

“Y/N?” 

Your head shot up, eyes widening at the voice. Seeing Thalia kneeling in front of you with worry in her bright eyes was your breaking point. Tears welled up in your eyes, streaming down your face in an embarrassing amount. Thalia was quick to move next to you, arms wrapping around you hesitantly. You collapse into the comfort and let your tears be a vessel for your panic. After a few minutes of Thalia rubbing your back in circles, you leaned back a bit. 

“I’m sorry, I’m being stupid-” Before you could finish your sentence, Thalia interrupted you. 

“Nope, you’re not invalidating yourself right now, Y/N. I’ve been worried all day, what’s going on?” 

You blinked at her words, surprised someone noticed you. Thalia wanted to laugh at the look on your face but given the current situation she held back. You finally gathered your thoughts, forcing out your words. 

“It’s just- the upcoming battle, game, whatever. I don’t think I can do it.”

Thalia did a small double take, which you interpreted incorrectly. 

“Yeah, I told you it’s dumb.”

Thalia pursed her lips and pulled you closer to her, shaking her head. 

“That is not what I meant. If you don’t want to do the game, that is absolutely fine. No one is expecting you to force yourself into something uncomfortable. But before you make a final decision, will you tell me what’s going on?” 

You licked your dry lips and swallowed, steadying yourself. 

“It’s just, this is bringing back memories. Memories I would rather forget. Also, what if I mess up the plan? Annabeth is scary when she’s mad, Thalia, I can’t have her mad at me. I can’t have anyone mad, or disappointed, with me.”

Thalia just looked at you, her eyes softening. 

“Hey,” her voice soft as she got you to look at her, “That’s not dumb at all. Actually, I think you’re being so strong right now.” 

You scoffed, gesturing to yourself. 

“Yep, the epitome of strength right here. Cower in fear, world.” 

Thalia wasn’t amused by your sarcasm, continuing her speech. 

“You’re being strong because you’re feeling your emotions. I think we’re all having flashbacks and memories of the past but instead of allowing ourselves to process them, we’re ignoring it. You aren’t alone in this Y/N, don’t shut yourself away in your mind to fend off the voices alone, you have so many people who care about you. I care about you, let me help.”

Your eyes widened at her confession, leaving you speechless. You nodded in agreement, feeling a bit of the tension in your chest being relieved. Thalia stood up, holding a hand out for you. As you took it, she didn’t let go once you were standing. 

“Now, let’s go take a break from planning and training - then once your mind feels clearer, we’ll decide what will happen with the practice battle.”

Smiling, you walked out of the Cabin with Thalia, the world around you feeling less dim, the air around you shining once more.

a/n: im sorry if this wasn't great lol - i haven't written for Thalia yet and im rusty in my skills rn. but thank you for reading and i can't wait to write more for this fandom!!

[stormfirebeauty]

Thinking about how Percy and Leo are both The Hero of pjo and HoO. There are obviously many other notable heroes in both series but Leo and Percy both reach kind of legendary status by the end of their stories, and pull off some truly insane feats.

They have a lot of similarities as characters- chaotic childhoods, with Percy moving schools as much as Leo moved homes. Both extremely close to their mothers. Both explicitly mentioned in the prophecy (listen a lot of the 7 you COULD argue it’s about someone else. Like “storm” could’ve been about Percy or Thalia debatably right? Nico joins the quest for a whole book and does some pretty important shit. But only Leo is Fire just like Percy was the only Big 3 kid reaching 16 as everything came to a head in pjo).

What’s interesting is Percy pretty consistently tries to keep some separation from his human life and his god life. Obviously his human life is affected but he actually spends a lot more time in the human world, and as the books continue his human life actually improves quite a bit. So he steps away from more intensive training at camp, literally only goes on quests bc he’s personally invested (saving his mom, saving Grover, saving Annabeth, protecting camp half blood from invasion). He DOES NOT want to be the prophecy kid.

Compare that to Leo. He doesn’t get to camp until he’s older, but his human life was really just a big dumpster fire that kept getting worse. He fully leaves it behind at THE START OF THE SERIES mostly because…. There’s nothing left of it. Moms dead, family turned him away, he then turned away from every home he was placed in, was deemed so much of an issue the gov shipped him to delinquent school in the middle of nowhere. His human life wasnt just affected by his godly heritage, it was ran and ruined by it. So while Percy is pretty motivated to protect the people he cares about and protect the mortal world (because that’s at LEAST half of his world. He is truly half god half human) Leo FULLY leans into his role as a demigod. Like, immediately. Day two at camp he leaves for a quest. As soon as he’s back he’s building a ship for the quest of the millennia. I haven’t read all of ToA but I know he just takes off another quest. And part of the is because this is is life. There’s nothing else to to back to in the human world. I also think, he’s somewhat motivated by revenge in HoO. Because he does mourn his human life. He mourns his mother, he’s angry his family rejected him, he’s hurt that the only way he can make “friends” is by wearing the mask of a goof ball. All of that is mentioned less and less as the series goes on though. As opposed to Percy who manages an increasing balance. You could almost forget that Leo is half human too.

[aroaceleovaldez]

i think there is a fundamental misunderstanding people make when approaching Jason’s character, but to explain it I must first go on a tangent -

One of the things that’s really interesting with the demigod characters is that, while they are independent personality-wise of their divine ancestors, and their personality is never fully reflective of their divine ancestors, demigods still always have personality traits that are strongly related to an aspect of their divine ancestor(s). For a lot of demigod character this is even the same trait that presents itself in different ways, particularly in CHB. Demeter kids tend to be rooted - usually presenting as them being stubborn and resistant to change or opposing opinions. Apollo kids tend to be self-focused. Hades kids tend to be driven by their relationships/bonds to others. Percy and Tyson are the only Poseidon kids, but Percy’s seems to be that outwardly he appears to be an unpredictable wildcard, when this is not necessarily true. The sea is not wholly unpredictable - if you learn it, you will learn the patterns that drive it, and that it is subject to many outside influences (the moon, the sun, winds, etc). It just looks unpredictable to those who do not bother to learn (which, btw, is a GREAT metaphor for ADHD imo).

Jason and Thalia represent two specific spheres for Zeus/Jupiter (and in Jason’s case, Hera/Juno as well). Thalia is Zeus as King of the gods. She is a natural leader. She works well in leadership positions and tends to lead logically. This is why she’s the lead Huntress of Artemis.

Jason does not represent Jove and Juno as King and Queen of the gods. Jason represents Juno and Jove as mother and father of the gods. This is why he tends to fall naturally into leadership positions in groups but simultaneously struggles in them in some scenarios but not others. He dislikes leading an army and being seen as perfect and above others because he is not acting from the perspective of a king, he is acting from the perspective of a member of a family unit. He is not the leader of an army, he is a wolf in a pack. He leads emotionally. He’s protective of his group. Yes, he is a bit of a dad-friend! But at the same time he is adverse to putting himself above the group! Yes, he falls into leadership positions, but only to a certain degree. He works best in a group he’s familiar with. He works better in smaller groups.

To Thalia those specifics don’t matter, because she’s not working from a more personal perspective like Jason does. Thalia could lead groups Jason is normally put in charge of, but Jason would not be able to lead Thalia’s groups. But also Thalia is not devoid of Zeus-as-a-father-god traits either! That was basically her entire dynamic with Annabeth (and Luke)! And Jason isn’t wholly devoid of Jupiter-and-Juno-as-rulers-of-the-gods either, he is capable of tapping into that- and he does so! But he is always primarily Jove-and-Juno-as-parents-of-the-gods first and foremost.

And that’s a really interesting character trait to play with! It’s so cool picking apart characters and seeing how they embody traits and aspects of their divine ancestors! And you can lean into that in so many things! If you’re writing meta/character analysis, if you’re writing a specific character for a fic or something, if you’re making a demigod OC - heck, I use this sort of analysis of what traits are common for demigods of specific divine ancestors for assigning cabins/etc to characters (and people, if I am requested to do so).

[chichariann]

Art dump of moments from the books that I loveeee

1. EVERY CAPTURE THE FLAG SCENE. THERE NEEDS TO BE MORE CAPTURE THE FLAG SCENES. THERE SHOULD'VE BEEN MORE CAPTURE THE FLAG IN THE BOOKS 😭 😭

The first capture the flag scene was ICONIC. Even in the movies it was ICONIC (despite not liking everything else HAHA) It lets the campers show off their powers.

In the first capture the flag, Percy was claimed. Percy and Clarisse fight was iconic. Hermes Cabin won. The hellhound attack was cool. IT WAS GREAT SET UP

2nd was with the huntresses. Percy and Thalia rivalry. Raging hormones. The huntresses being so cool I wanted to be one of them. PERCY AND THALIA FIGHT!!!!

AND THEN WE NEVER GET ONE EVER AGAIN... (i think)

Capture the flag is always just fun and iconic and I wish we had more of them. I wanna see the Hecate cabin use magic to win. I wanna see an Apollo Cabin vs Artemis Cabin capture the flag. I wanna see besties on opposing sides. WILL VS NICO. PERCY VS ANNABETH. And we know the latter of those 2 are winning. Imagine the poseidon, hades, zeus, apollo hecate, tyche, hypnos, iris kids just being OP with their magic stuff. I WANNA SEE CHILDREN MAIMING EACH OTHER BEFORE THEY ACTUALLY DIE LATER IN THE BOOKS HAHAHAHAHAHA

[phoenix--flying]

Okay now I’m curious 👀 what’s that royal au u keep mentioning 👀

EHEHE SO

This started as a Percy, Annabeth, Al and Ethan AU so I'll get into that

Annabeth is the Crown Princess (Heir) of Athens, she has one brother and that's Malcom! Athens is a large kingdom, the queen, Athena, is the daughter of the Olympian king Zeus. He gave his daughter a portion of his own kingdom to call her own.

Alabaster is the Crown Prince of Epirus, he had two siblings, his late older brother Edward and his younger sister Lou. Eprius is a rather small kingdom, most of it's resources come from it's neighboring kingdom, Elysium, as the queen, Hecate, is friends with the king, Hades.

Annabeth and Alabaster met during a council meeting their parents attended, being around the same age and both rather antsy they were brought to a separate room when it proved they weren't going to provide much to the meeting.

Being the heirs to their respective kingdoms, they're of course expected to marry, and they opted to choose each other rather then someone they don't know.

Being royals, they're typically at risk for some sort of attack, Alabaster is the oldest now for a reason of course. Because of this, both of them have personal guards, Annabeths is Ethan, the son of the captain of the royal guard, Nemesis. Alabasters is Percy, the son of two castle workers in Eprius, Sally, a baker and Paul, a tutor. (both of which previously lived in atlantis but left because they were lovers of the king)

Before they were able to actually get married, a war broke out. Hecate and Athena took opposing sides and so the engagement was broken.

Now for the sake of me not mentally hurting myself I've changed a lot of relationships 💀 So, Zeus, Hades and Poseidon are brothers and its just the three of them. Hera, Hestia and Demeter are sisters and again, just the three of them.

Zeus and Hera are married the only child they have together is Ares. Zeus also has Apollo and Artemis, Athena, Thalia and Jason as results of affairs. They rule Olympus, with Thalia as their heir.

As I mentioned before, Athena was given a portion of Olympus to rule while Hecate rules Epirus, a kingdom hidden in the mountains.

Hades is married to Persephone, they have Zagreus and Melionë together, while also having Bianca and Nico with Maria, a partner of theirs, and Hazel with Marie, another partner of theirs. The rule Elysium with Bianca as their heir.

Poseidon is married to Amphitrite, they have Triton, Rhode and Kymopoleia together. They rule Atlantis with Triton as their heir.

Ares is married to Aphrodite, they both have children prior to their marriage; Ares has Clarisse, Sherman, Frank and Ellis while Aphrodite has Silena, Drew, Mitchell, Piper and Valentina. The two of them rule Cyprus with Clarisse and Silena as their heirs.

Apollo was married to Saige, they had Lee together, but she passed when he was a few months old. Apollo had Michael, Will, Kayla and Austin after her passing. Though, he never took another queen. He rules Delphi with Lee as his heir. Artemis resides in his kingdom as a princess, preferring that to ruling her own. She leaves the kingdom often, going on hunts and aiding girls who had been abandoned or ran away from their homes. She has her own with in the Delphic castle that houses herself and her hunters.

Hermes, much like Aphrodite, is not related to any of them, he and his wife, Peitho. He has Luke, Chris, Travis, Connor and Cecil. With Peitho, he rules Maia, a kingdom he created himself and named after his mother, with Luke as their heir.

There are a few marriage arrangements among kingdoms, being Luke and Thalia, Lee and Silena and Clarisse and Chris.

me when i have lee get stabbed in his bedroom at nine, get kidnapped from his bedroom at thirteen and poisoned during his wedding at eighteen

[pjohoo-reclists]

Roman Percy Jackson Fic Recs

The Smart Match by greenconverses

T | 900 words | Complete

Percy Jackson/Annabeth Chase, Annabeth Chase/Jason Grace

Romance, Love Triangle, Alternate Universe

Jason's supposed to be the one for her. So why is Annabeth drawn to the dark haired son of Neptune instead? AU for Heroes of Olympus.

like slow motion by greenconverses

T | 2.1k | Complete

Percy Jackson/Annabeth Chase

Roman!Percy, Fluff, Alternate Universe - Future

“I heard it’s your birthday next week.”

Life of a Praetor by MidnightSonder

G | 2.4k | Ongoing as of 11/9/20

Eventual Percy Jackson/Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano

Praetor Percy, Camp Jupiter, Slice of Life

A more detailed look at Percy's time as Praetor. (Drabble series based off my story "Permanent Swap") Part 2 of Life of a Praetor

Percy Jackson, Son of Neptune by SixUnderOneXSix

T | 2.7k | Complete

Percy Jackson/Annabeth Chase

Roman!Percy, AUs, Random & Short

Roman! Percy with a twist. Percy Jackson, Son of the Sea. He came to Camp Half-Blood, and things seemed off. Latin was more natural, then there was the annoying habit of calling The Olympians by their Roman names, and of course the whole not hating Annabeth and the other Athena kids as much as they seemed to hate him. So when his Mom tells him who his father really is things get crazier, and make more sense. Part of my Percy Jackson AU Shorts, and Percy Jackson and his Confusing Parentage Part 1 of Percy Jackson Short AUs  Part 1 of Percy Jackson & His Confusing Parentage

Permanent Swap by MidnightSonder

G | 3.8k | Complete

Percy Jackson/Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano

Praetor Percy, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Son of Neptune Re-write

Hera knew she was meddling with fate, but she had no choice. However, she had no idea how permanent her actions would be. Percy Jackson was not supposed to arrive at Camp Jupiter until June, yet somehow, he arrived six months early. He was supposed to have partial memories connecting him to Camp Half-Blood, yet he remembered nothing. Hera supposed she should have known better than to try to make an unequal exchange. The fates simply evened the scales. Part 1 of Life of a Praetor

Even with just a name by 60sec400 

G | 8.6k | Complete

Percy Jackson & Poseidon, Percy Jackson/Annabeth Chase, Percy Jackson & Neptune

Dark Percy Jackson, Poseidon is a Good Parent, Powerful Percy Jackson

Small snippets in a world where Percy chose the ocean. Neptune finds his son. Perseus Jackson has a quest for the glory of Rome and the glory of Neptune. Only, well, he's met another god. And that god wants him to find Annabeth Chase, the one name he's had in his head since he's woken up other than his own.aka. disconnected scenes that could exist in a son of neptune au Part 1 of Son of Neptune AU

A Romans Reprisal by JoeFromLegal

T | 14k | Complete

Percy Jackson/Thalia Grace

Roman Percy Jackson, Titans, Friendship

Neptune, he doesn't have the best image in New Rome. When Percy sees this, already being exposed to the cruelty of Rome, decides to take the matter into his own hands and get his father his honor back. But when New Rome, a city implemented by the gods, refuses to respect Neptune, who does Percy go to? Those that oppose them of course.

Nos Avete, Arma Deorum by insomniouscat (orphan_account)

M | 19k+ | Ongoing as of 2/6/21

Percy Jackson & Jason Grace, Jason Grace & Lupa, Percy Jackson & Lupa

Camp Jupiter Centric, Camp Half Blood Campers, Politics are hard

"Jackson, this is Grace," Lupa, taking initiative and perhaps pity on both of them, stepped in, tail twitching in a way that ordered Jason to move forward towards the other demigod. Jason obliged and stepped over creaking wooden planks to get a better look at the black haired male, instinctively scanning for signs of discomfort and tension in case he got attacked, just like how he was trained. "Yo," The black haired demigod said, ducking his head and shifting carefully in his seat, "I'm Percy Jackson."

Hard to Compete by ReaLangston

Not Rated | 19k | Complete

Percy Jackson/Annabeth Chase

Amnesia, New Rome, Post Gaea & The Second Giant War

What if Hera had gone to extreme measures to wipe Percy's memory? What if he hadn't remembered Annabeth or his past after all? Once the Second Giant War is over Annabeth does her best to cope knowing that the love of her life has no idea who she is. She is leading Camp Half Blood, living with the Jacksons when her college classes are in session, doing her best to move her life forward. Will her carefully stacked house of card fall?

here comes the sun by seaweedbraens

G | 24k | Complete

Percy Jackson/Annabeth Chase

Soulmate AU, Camp Swap AU, Roman Percy

there are nearly eight billion people on the planet, and annabeth's soulmate just has to end up being the roman son of neptune who gets on her nerves in every way imaginable.

Antithesis by LooneyPeach

T | 27k | Complete

Percy Jackson/Annabeth Chase

Camp swap, Romance, Angst

Antithesis (n): a person or thing that is the direct opposite of someone or something else. Or, Annabeth meets Percy Jackson and they're 100% opposite. [Roman!Percy AR]

Vas Bellicosum by CombatTombat

M | 70k | Complete

Percy Jackson/Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano

Roman!Percy, Percy semi-raised by Lupa, AU

War is coming to New Rome. When a Son of Neptune, Percy Jackson, arrives at the camp, no one knows what to expect, least of all Jason Grace, his newly found cousin. Determined to survive the coming bloodshed, the legion adapts to this new and dangerous duo. With a dark future on the horizon, only the Fates know what is coming. Part 1 of Imperator

would it really kill you (if we kissed) by greenconverses

E | 81k | Ongoing as of 21/8/23

Percy Jackson/Annabeth Chase, Past Annabeth Chase/Luke Castellan

Dark!Percy, Canon-Typical Violence, Gratuitous Smut

It wasn't like Annabeth hadn't been warned about him. In New Rome, there was just one unofficial rule to surviving and thriving for demigods and mortals alike. Avoid the son of Neptune. At all costs.

Hell Incarnate by BookDragonsUnite

E | 94k+ | Ongoing as of 26/11/22

Percy Jackson/Jason Grace, Annabeth Chase/Piper McLean, Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano/Leo Valdez

Dark Percy Jackson, Lupa Raised Percy for Seven Years, Fluff

What if the roles were reversed? What if Jason was Greek instead of Roman? And Percy? What would have happened if he was Roman and fought on Mount Tamalpais during the Titan War? "There's a reason Perseus means Destroyer, Annabeth. In every war, driven by some instinct, the Big Three have each had one of their children participate. But there was one war, the Peloponnesian War, where Zeus and Hades had no children. So, it fell on the only living son of Poseidon to lead. "There is a reason that three children of the trio were supposed to shoulder the burden of leadership together. It balances the scales; plays off the strengths of each. During the war, only Poseidon had given into his instinct and sired a son. The imbalance of power, the weight of that responsibility, forced him to become something else. Lysander, the son of Poseidon, expunged his mortal qualities in order to win the war and nearly became a god without the consent of the Olympians. "The Greeks had Jason, Thalia, and Nico. We Romans had only Percy."

Filii Deorum by CombatTombat

M | 145k | Complete

Percy Jackson/Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano, Jason Grace/Piper McLean, Hazel Levesque/Frank Zhang

Roman Percy Jackson, Preyna, Everyone is badass

Camp Jupiter is in chaos. Jason Grace, Son of Jupiter, former Centurion of the Fifth Cohort, and Praetor, is missing, kidnapped out of his own home. Searching harder than anyone else is his cousin, Percy Jackson, Son of Neptune. But with war approaching, it soon becomes clear that Jason was taken for reasons that not even Percy can understand, and he has to choose between finding his cousin and saving his home. Part 2 of Imperator.

[thesecondplace]

okay okay so. i just finished the first two episodes of pjo. loved it. it's great go watch it fr

BUT

as someone who has read every book in this series at least 3 times. i have some really really nitpicky bones to pick and just some other generalized ramblings

Grover selling out Percy and Percy still being mad at him for it... like i get that i do Percy was technically annoyed with Grover in the books too but it was under very different circumstances and It didn't really stick around as much so we didn't have any of Grover trying to like win back Percy's favour or whatever and instead his guilt was about the fact that he failed as a protecter because of what happened to Sally.

Speaking of Sally her portrayal was great i loved it she was almost perfect. Almost only because of the interaction with Gabe where the playing field felt a lot more like leveled. Like of course Sally isn't a helpless victim to Gabe but she very much was not able to oppose him this outwardly in the books and had to perform smaller acts of rebellion against him.This I feel was really important actually as it means that we agree with Percy when he wants to save his mom and we too feel a little bit of doubt on whether Percy did the right thing by leaving dealing with Gabe completely in Sally's hands.

I also like don't know how i feel about so much of the exposition happening before Percy even gets to camp I get why but the scene where Annabeth explains what's going on to Percy in the books is just a really good one and I'm sad we didn't get to see it adapted

I feel similarly about the fight with Dodds I wish it was longer but I understand that there have to be major cuts in adaptations like this

One cut that i think literally only I care about is Percy seeing the Fate's in book one. Like i know that it's just a red hearing and the payoff for it is like a couple of lines in book five but it really adds to the feeling of just how entwined Percy and Luke are.

Speaking of Luke while i loved literally everything they did with him I don't think I like that he tells Percy about Thalia. I feel like it was an important part of understanding Grover and Annabeth and while that understanding can still happen with them giving more details instead of introducing the concept to him i still feel like it hit better when he heard it straight from Grover

Also this is so unrelated to everything I've said but who is that Hermes guy that's with Luke and Percy like why is he there where are the Stolls i miss them

edit: just realised that was chris and i feel like i knew that in the back of my head but my point STILL STANDS I WANT TO SEE THE BROTHERS the fact that they take over camp after Luke is important!! and just in general i wish we got to see more of the campers who become relevant in later books earlier on in the show because Selina for as important as she is is only really in book 5 sadly

[cabin10diaries]

color assigning (main) pjo characters with tumblr text color options

percy: CONTRARY TO USUAL BLUE IT'S SEA GREEN (with a slight more green than blue). like yeah his favorite color is blue HOWEVER he himself is a sea green like his eyes (little brother nico parallels his green)

annabeth: orange. this girl was raised in orange. she breaths orange. she is orange.

grover: this man is the king of green green nature. how would be not be green

thalia: you know those purple lightning streaks in storms? that's them. they are the purple bolts in a storm.

bianca: the hunters are green and green and purple works well together while also being contrasting enough to see the differences.

nico: disney villian green!!!!!! see, he and percy are both green because of how similar they are however they are opposite sides of green because of how different they are

zoë: purple. i dont really have any reasons except her name sounds purple??

tyson: blue like his dad, blue like his brother's favorite color, blue like the sea, blue like blue

luke: orange like annabeth, though a bit more yellow/gold. it shows his greek parentage (bc greek = orange in books), but also his differentiation from them

jason: dark dull blue. he usually uses winds opposed to thalia's purple lightning, so it's. yeah

leo: orange like the ends of flames. orange like festus' shine when he gets cleaned, yk

piper: pink!!!! not bc shes a child of aphrodite, but because of her eventual embrace of her femininity

hazel: ruby red like... a ruby. gems and shit. red roses red rubies red rhazel

frank: also red!! though a much, like, calmer red if that makes sense?

reyna: purple-blue, but more purple.

rachel: RED red RED cherry RED

ella: red because red?? idk she just feels red

octavian: piss yellow but tumblr mobile doesnt have yellow so it is orange here

coach hedge: RED like AGGRESSION because he's AGGRESSIVE

lester: green because he is now more human

apollo: orange bc greek olympian + sun

meg: mainly green bc of demeter kid. but also red and yellow bc her traffic lights outfit

lavinia: PINK do i need an explanation

don: blue bc of the tears i cried when he died

[sicklyvictorianartist]

Clarisse

11/01/24

PJ and the sea of monsters REALLY tries to make you sympathise with Clarisse at the start of the book. I didn´t understand why until she was chosen for the quest.

The first we see of her is how she's struggling with the Bulls, but fighting them anyway. She's the underdog (and Percy LOVES an underdog lol) and shes being brave. She's leading her cabin, she cares for her injured siblings, it seems like shes leading the border patrol as well.

Shes the one to oppose an authority because she's responsible and would rather choose working more than risking the camp (obviously, but the other campers sort of shut her down).

She's getting mocked with that note on her back and nobody's really saying anything. She doesnt have anyone truly on her side.

Once Tantalus started hinting he'd pick her for the new quest, it all made sense.

Its a little on the nose, but at the same time its well executed. It feels like shes grown during the year cause she didnt get a break from the monsters. Camp was her home too and unlike Percy and Annabeth she was there when safety was completely shattered.

Im sure camp's gonna be fine, even if its changed. Maybe Thalia has to sacrifice herself once more, or theres some play on the sacrifice theme; maybe everything goes back to normal.

[beuatifulbuttercup]

Godly Parent Swap AU: The Di Angelos

Plot bunnies are fun, lack of motivation is not. Also this wasn't beta read so proceed with caution.

(also heads up I low-key don't remember much about HoO and TBOTL. The HoO is literally so bad I remember nada from that)

Maria Di Angelo had two lovers in her short but impactful life, Hypnos and Hecate. Hypnos took the form of a rich business man from northern Italy. They had a brief fling when Maria was rebelling from her parents resulting in Bianca. Later on Hecate became a much more long standing lover. She was incredibly intrigued by Maria as she was clear sighted. Nico was created sorta like how Athena's kids are created but out of magic. Nico isn't old enough to remember his moms' relationship. Bianca is, Hecate treated Bianca like her own daughter. Hypnos gave Hecate a ring with poppy petals in it to give to Bianca. Hecate was on thin ice with Zeus. She had sided with Hades, twice now she had joined Zeus' opposing side. The oracle at the time visited Hecate at Maria's place. Zeus didn't like that for a couple reasons.

1.) Jealousy, Zeus had many lovers at that point but he couldn't be happily in love (lets be quite frank he wasn't possibly capable of that either way)

2.) Hecate had been neglecting her duties as the goddess/titaness of the mist to be with Maria, Bianca, and Nico.

3.) She's a loose cannon in Zeus mind. He needs to show her where she belongs.

Hecate was going to allow Maria and her children to live at Hecate's palace in the underworld. She said that there maybe she could protect her(Maria's but they were practically Hecate's as well) family. Maria denied. Zeus attempted to strike the Di Angelo's with lighting. Hecate was quick and put a barrier around Nico and Bianca but Maria was killed. Hecate was distraught and went to Hypnos and they both quickly discussed a plan. As they were both chthonic deities they devised a plan to bring them to the underworld.

The oracle at the time visited Hecate. She explained that the Di Angelo siblings, especially Nico, were going to be crucial in future events. She advised against it saying that fate was powerful and not to be tempted. Hecate, in an act of pure rage, desperation, and heartbreak, cursed the oracle. This curse is slightly different than the original one in cannon. Hecate has always been one of the scapegoats of the gods. As long as the chthonic gods were treated like, for the lack of a better term, shit the oracle would never move on.

So like in cannon Bianca and Nico are dropped off in the Lotus Casino for the next 80 years. In this time Bianca is practically raising the hyper Nico. Bianca would sing him to sleep every night and always managed to calm him down when he had nightmares.Hecate would often use her magic to watch after Nico and Bianca. Nico had a brief obsession with magicians, he could have sworn he made the mythomagic card on his nightstand move. Bianca and Nico get pulled out of the Lotus Casino and go to their cannon military school. They meet Grover who becomes friends with them.

They meet Annabeth, Silena, Beckendorf, Percy, and the huntresses the same day they get attacked by the manticore. Nico is treating this like the best thing to ever happen to him and Bianca is constantly pulling Nico back so he doesn't get injured. Percy shields them from the manticore and Nico looks star struck. Bianca can't lie and say she's not impressed. Annabeth gets tackled off the cliff and Zoe insinuates that it's because she's a daughter of Aphrodite. Percy get's pissed and almost throws one of his knives at her. Beckendorf explains to the two what is going on. After being offered, Bianca becomes a huntress of Artemis so she can experience freedom in her life. Apollo takes them to camp.

During the capture the flag game Bianca gets reprimanded from Zoe for checking on Nico to make sure his helmet is on right and runs off to join the huntresses. Percy and Thalia roll their eyes at Zoe. Nico sticks with Percy until he tells Nico to go with Austin, son of Demeter, and Jake, son of Aphrodite and stay at the far border. Nico witnesses Silena and Chris get into an ugly fight. It starts with Chris accidentally zapping Silena with a good chunk of lighting. Then Silena douses him with water. Chris shouts at her saying if she was as good as she thinks she is Annabeth would till be here. Percy looks down and fiddles with his knife before looking at the three boys. Percy pats Jake on the back and ruffles his hair. Nico doesn't know why but he felt a feeling of almost jealousy.

Bianca watches as the oracle and Zoe walk towards each other. Bianca makes eye contact with the corpse and sees a flash of white and hears a scream for a brief second. She's brought out of that by the prophecy that the oracle gives out. She leaves with Thalia and Zoe as the other two huntresses that were supposed to go with them were pranks by the Stolls with a poison ivy shirt. Zoe reasoned that two of the lines of the prophecy were already completed. Phone was lost in a land without rain and Dahlia perished at a parent's hand. She argued with Thalia that perish didn't mean die in the prophecy, it meant ruin. Dahlia was a daughter of Demeter and she couldn't continue the quest due to poison ivy, a plant. The two other girls didn't really believe but they continued anyway.

Nico was there with Beckendorf while Percy and Silena went to sneak out. He had them promise they would bring Bianca back safety. The three older campers all had a silent conversation with their eyes. Silena crouched down to Nico's level and put her hand on Nico's shoulder, she promised that they would try. They said goodbye to Silena and Percy before Beckendorf picks Nico up and takes him back to the Hermes cabin.

During their quest Percy gets a dream from Nemesis, his mother. She is trying to convince him to join her and Kronos. The entire time she prevents Percy from waking up. Then Percy hears a sweet voice almost singing to him. He starts envisioning the people he loves the most, Sally, Grover, Silena, Beckendorf, Annabeth. He's able to stand up to his mom and wake up to Bianca singing to him with her hand on his head glowing. Bianca's eyes were closed but they shot open as Percy woke up and she gasped. Bianca and Percy were the only ones up besides Zoe who was on guard duty but wasn't next to them. Bianca and Percy have time to talk with each other. Bianca admits to having insomnia ,which was why she saw Percy having his dream, and never really being able to sleep since she entered the Lotus Casino. Most of the time when she did fall asleep she'd get these dreams of her mother screaming as she saw a bright white light and heard a loud boom. Percy snorts and says that those sound more like nightmares. Bianca shrugs and explains that nightmares are still dreams so she tries not to let them control her. Percy admits that he often gets nightmares that he will join Kronos and have to fight against his friends. He says that if everyone else thinks he's evil they won't care to listen that he's not. Bianca shrugs and says she doesn't know how anyone can see him as evil if he's willing to die for Annabeth. It's a sweet moment, and one of Bianca's lasts.

Meanwhile, at camp, Nico was getting along great with the Hermes kids. He mostly stayed with Grover but when he wasn't with him he was with his cabin mates. His cabin counselor, Micheal, was an amazing prankster. Micheal quickly explained that the only cabin off limits was the Dionysus cabin. When Nico asked why Micheal simply responded with "it's basically kinda like nepotism." Nico's first encounter with the Dionysus kids was withl Will Solace. He was climbing the rock wall with Nico and was partnered with Cecil. Will was sipping on a Diet Coke while holding onto Cecil's rope and Cecil climbed. Kayla, daughter of Hermes, gave Nico the thumbs up and he began to climb. Nico's hand got burned and he fell down the wall. Before hitting the ground he landed on a vine. Will had created many vines that swirled up-wards to catch Nico before he hit the floor. Nico was able to thank him, barely.

Just like in cannon, Bianca dies to get Nico his mythomagic statue. It was the only one he didn't have. Percy begged her not to go and Silena even tried using her water in her water bottle to grab her but it didn't work. Bianca Di Angelo was dead. For the first time in what felt like ever, Nico couldn't sleep that night.

When Percy, Thalia Annabeth, and Silena get back to camp they tell the cabin counselors what happened. Nico asks where his sister is and Silena takes him outside. Grover, Annabeth, Percy, and Beckendorf spied on their conversation. Nico cries and does the usual cannon stuff. However instead of disappearing with a crack something somehow more dramatic happens. His eyes start slowly glowing green and his hands had purple swirls around them. As he cries the glowing gets brighter and brighter until Silena has to turn away. When the glowing stops she turns back and Nico is gone. The patch of grass he was on was now dead. Beckendorf reasons that he is a son of Hecate since her kids tend to be the only ones who glow colors other than yellow. Percy crosses his arms, Bianca was a daughter of Hypnos though, he was sure of it. Silena asks if they should tell Chiron. Percy shakes his head, if he's missing and a child of a chthonic goddess everyone will think he joined Kronos. He doesn't want to put Nico through that.

The next time we see Nico is in the labyrinth. Silena, Beckendorf, Chris, and Clarisse are on the quest. Rachel also tags along. Nico has his Stygian iron sword since he's still the son of the chthonic deity. Silena was the one who promised to keep Bianca safe in his mind. The Minos stuff happens and Nico has gotten a few dreams from Hecate. She was mostly apologetic for everything that happened in Nico's life. Hecate wants Nico to join Kronos like she did but she understands that he might not want to. She stares stories of when Bianca and Nico were younger in Italy. Nico didn't know how to react after finding his godly parent was Hecate. She was goddess and Maria was a mortal woman. His internalized homophobia was one big jumble of confusion. When Nico brings Bianca back she admits she's going to get reincarnated and to not blame Silena or Percy for her death as she chose to make that decision.

Nico teleports to Silena's house for her birthday. Her dad asks who Nico is and Silena explains he's a friend from camp, he doesn't ask anymore questions. Nico tells Silena of a way that she could even the playing field against Luke/Kronos. She could bathe in the River Styx and become mostly invulnerable. He explains that this is what Luke did and that Hecate mentioned it in one of her dream hijackings. Silena asks what would the steps be in doing this and Nico explains she needs her mother's blessing. Silena looks at him before asking if he saw who her parents were. Poseidon and a mortal man. Nico tenses up before blushing and apologizing. She shakes this off and asks if Chris and Percy should do it. Chris because he's a son of Zeus and Percy because he's by far the best fighter at camp. Nico accepts this.

Battle time! Nico shows up with eyes glowing and magic chanting. He turns hellhounds into ants in not time flat. He puts a magical shield over the Apollo kids' healing area so they can heal without being attacked. Their arrows still go threw these shields so Clarisse instructs them her siblings to heal and shoot. Nico also raises the dead as Hecate is the goddess of necromancy. He disappears and reappears in the middle of battle thanks to the mist.

After getting their mother's blessing Chris and Percy both try to bathe in the River Styx. Percy goes first and they(being Percy and Chris) quickly think that Nico betrayed them and was going to hand them over to Hades. Percy get's a little carried away and Chris has to physically stop him from hurting Nico. Nico explains that he didn't know and that it must've been a trick from Hecate or something.

Nico is still the tide turner in the Battle of Manhattan again. He manages to convince Hecate to switch sides and bring Hades to the main battle. Nico keeps fighting and saves so many people no one can doubt his allegiance to the camp. They win and as Silena makes the gods respect ALL the minors gods and their children the curse is broken. Silena thanks Nico for all his help and gives him a hug. Nico helps design the Hecate cabin.

Nico gets kidnapped by Hera and plopped into Camp Jupiter. There he sees Percy who he doesn't recognize. Percy drops his smirk for a millisecond but Nico catches it. Nico thinks he recognizes Percy but can't quite place it. He also notices that Percy now had a prosthetic arm and leg. He finds out that Piper, daughter of Hades, disappeared. He joins the fifth cohort with Gwen, Dakota, Hazel(unclaimed), Percy, and Leo(Bellona). Jason, the praetor, is impressed with Nico's sword fighting skills but says they're too barbaric for his liking. Nico gets claimed by Trivia and all the romans are shocked as Trivia is a virgin goddess. Percy nearly threatens to kill Octavian after he said that Nico must be a monster. After their war games Vulcan shows up. Nico doesn't know why but he gets a sense of dread seeing him. He claims Hazel and sends Nico, Leo and Hazel on their quest to Alaska.

Aaaaand that's all the I got for this little plot bunny. Partly because as I said before I don't remember much of the HoO and partly because of lack of motivation. Ima quickly sum everything up in a neat little paragraph.

After the Argo 2 arrives with Piper, Reyna, Frank, and Thalia Nico gets mad at Frank for bombing New Rome. Nico is the most vocal next to Thalia to save Percy from the jar. Nico watches as Leo and Piper fall into Tartarus. When he gets back to camp he goes to the infirmary to check on Silena and Beckendorf who were injured. He runs into Will who asks Nico to sign his cast. They haven't spoken since they were like ten.

That's the stuff I have down on the Di Angelo family. I'm going to make more mood boards of them. (The Bianca one I made is probably up there as one of my favs.) Pls if you wanna learn more about any other character pls, pls, pls don't be afraid to ask! My asks are always open.

[halothenthehorns]

Chapter 16: WE STEAL SOME SLIGHTLY USED WINGS

"Like chicken wings?" Magnus asked in concern when he read the new title. He couldn't be that judgy though, he'd gotten hungry enough to eat plenty of...used food.

"What an odd souvenir for this quest," Jason murmured. He couldn't imagine how the object to get a kid killed would come in handy.

"I always hated the use of the phrase new and improved. If it's new then it can't be improved on already. If it's improved then it can't be that new! This, might actually qualify as both though..." Nico finished with a mutter to himself.

Somewhere in the back of all of their minds, they had to know what this was really referring to. It was to much of a coincidence Percy had dreamed of the very wings Daedalus had invented that had failed his boy.

"This way!" Rachel yelled.

"Why should we follow you?" Annabeth demanded. "You led us straight into that death trap!"

"As opposed to the other two death trap options you had?" Will said blankly.

"Percy almost died again not twenty-four hours after he came back to life," Thalia sighed defensively. "Cut her some slack."

"It was the way you needed to go," Rachel said. "And so is this. Come on!"

Annabeth didn't look happy about it, but she ran along with the rest of us.

Rachel seemed to know exactly where she was going. She whipped around corners and didn't even hesitate at crossroads. Once she said, "Duck!" and we all crouched as a huge axe swung over our heads. Then we kept going as if nothing had happened.

"Therapy, every one of us," Magnus sighed, as even he hadn't blinked this time. Talk about being desensitized to horrors.

I lost track of how many turns we made. We didn't stop to rest until we came to a room the size of a gymnasium with old marble columns holding up the roof. I stood at the doorway, listening for sounds of pursuit, but I heard nothing. Apparently we'd lost Luke and his minions in the maze.

"Look at this place actually coming in handy," Percy grumbled.

Then I realized something else: Mrs. O'Leary was gone. I didn't know when she'd disappeared. I didn't know of she'd gotten lost or been overrun by monsters or what. My heart turned to lead. She'd saved our lives, and I hadn't even waited to make sure she was following us.

"She can shadow travel," Nico said quickly, watching Percy's face crumble like that had to be worse than giving him the slightest bit of hope she was okay. "It's how she got there so fast. I'm sure she just teleported away to wherever she wanted to when she was done using those monsters as chew toys."

"Yeah?" Percy asked with that bit of hope. He didn't care the headache he got for hearing this, he smiled all the same for the certainty it gave him he would see her again.

Ethan collapsed on the floor. "You people are crazy."

"As opposed to the none crazy plan that would have gotten him out alive," Alex sniffed.

He pulled off his helmet. His face gleamed with sweat.

"Ugh, I forgot he was running with you in armor," Magnus grimaced. "That's some extra level training."

"Have to do it at Camp too," Percy shrugged, it hadn't crossed his mind to be impressed since he'd deduced Ethan had training.

Annabeth gasped. "I remember you! You were one of the undetermined kids in the Hermes cabin, years ago."

Will frowned that he still didn't remember an Ethan Nakamora, but he wasn't perfect. Maybe the guy had come and gone before he'd gotten there, maybe he'd been to young to yet realize the disappearances and patterns to it.

He still felt guilty no matter what he told himself.

He glared at her. "Yeah, and you're Annabeth. I remember."

"What—what happened to your eye?"

Ethan looked away, and I got the feeling that was one subject he would not discuss.

"You guys are strangers on a first-name basis," Jason lightly defended. "None of us are gung-ho to share that kind of thing."

"Yeah," Percy still agreed with a troubled frown. It wasn't the eye, but there was something about him Percy instinctively mistrusted now like he hadn't back then. He hadn't been at Camp so he obviously couldn't be the traitor, but still, the idea bothered him a lot where he'd been and what he'd been up to since Annabeth had last seen him.

"You must be the half-blood from my dream," I said. "The one Luke's people cornered. It wasn't Nico after all."

"Congratulations on not getting caught Nico," Magnus said heartily.

"It's a life goal I'm currently not living up to," he smirked.

"Who's Nico?"

"Never mind," Annabeth said quickly. "Why were you trying to join up with the wrong side?"

Ethan sneered. "There's no right side.

"The side that doesn't casually kill kids sure doesn't seem like a wrong side," Will said hotly for his Camp. Nobody was going to sit around arguing the point, but Will also knew there had been a lot of unrest about the gods too, even from Percy and him.

They were the better side because of the half-bloods running it, not what the gods represented they could be.

The gods never cared about us. Why shouldn't I—"

"Sign up with an army that makes you fight to the death for entertainment?" Annabeth said. "Gee, I wonder."

"That Athena smarts really does come in handy," Alex chuckled.

Ethan struggled to his feet. "I'm not going to argue with you. Thanks for the help, but I'm out of here."

"We're going after Daedalus," I said. "Come with us. Once we get through, you'd be welcome back at camp."

Thalia really did admire that about Percy so much. He didn't think twice about the fact he'd found Ethan trying to join Luke, or refusing to talk about his life before he wound up lost in the labyrinth. That instinct to help, to welcome him back at Camp was the only thought that crossed his mind.

Will had to stop himself from giving Nico a superior look for much the same thoughts as he watched out of the corner of his eye his friend studying Percy with very obvious shock.

"You really are crazy if you think Daedalus will help you."

"He has to," Annabeth said. "We'll make him listen."

"Has Annabeth ever tied somebody up before and tried to get information out of them?" Percy asked Thalia in mild concern she seemed so convinced this was going to be true.

"Not that I'm aware of," Thalia scratched her nose without concern. "Don't underestimate her adaptability though."

"Right," Percy sighed...an uneasy feeling in him as he wondered how far they were going to go to save their camp.

Ethan snorted. "Yeah, well. Good luck with that."

I grabbed his arm. "You're just going to head off alone into the maze? That's suicide."

He looked at me with barely controlled anger. His eye patch was frayed around the edges and the black cloth was faded, like he'd been wearing it a long, long time. "You shouldn't have spared me, Jackson. Mercy has no place in this war."

Then he ran off into the darkness, back the way we'd come.

A part of Percy felt sorry for that guy. He knew that kind of anger, that blind acceptance that there was nothing you could do to fix a situation because it was out of your hands. Ethan deserved better, but he had to accept there was another way.

The larger part of him had wanted to throw a rock at the ingrate and instead had made himself turn away.

Annabeth, Rachel, and I were so exhausted we made camp right there in the huge room. I found some scrap wood and we started a fire. Shadows danced off the columns rising around us like trees.

"Something was wrong with Luke," Annabeth muttered, poking at the fire with her knife. "Did you notice the way he was acting?"

"Like the usual trigger happy, talks to himself, needs crabs in his shorts nutjob?" Alex scoffed.

Thalia bit her lip, her stomach in knots. She knew that's how the others all saw him...but she could never make herself see him that way first.

"He looked pretty pleased to me," I said. "Like he'd spent a nice day torturing heroes."

"It's what all the best clubs and camps are up to," Nico sneered. "You have to pay top dollar for those shows!"

"I hope he got a lovely spray-on tan as a bonus," Thalia tried to say with her usual sarcasm, but it just didn't sound right to her own ears.

"That's not true! There was something wrong with him. He looked...nervous. He told his monsters to spare me. He wanted to tell me something."

"Sparing one out of three does not make you one-third less of a monster," Magnus said with a pit in his own stomach. He didn't think he'd ever hate anybody for sparing his cousin, but man did Luke find a way to make even that feel horrible.

"Probably, 'Hi, Annabeth! Sit here with me and watch while I tear your friends apart. It'll be fun!'"

"I hope Annabeth would have turned him down if he didn't offer popcorn," Alex sniffed.

Thalia was debating with herself if she should release one of those fart arrows to shut them up, and only stopped herself because she knew it wouldn't do any good.

"You're impossible," Annabeth grumbled. She sheathed her dagger and looked at Rachel. "So which way now, Sacagawea?"

"Is that racist now?" Jason asked blankly.

"Everything's racist now," Alex rolled his eyes. "Considering we're trying to keep track of ancient Greek mythology and none of us have finished high school, I don't think we're qualified to decide that." His dark brown skin spoke of experience for itself, so nobody pestered that further.

Instead Magnus all to happily lobbed at Percy, "what is with you always trying to interrogate her while she's holding that knife? Are you actively trying to get stabbed?"

Thalia didn't hear Percy's sarcastic answer. She'd noticed that too, and it brought back the feelings of pride and joy all to easily to the surface of the first time Luke had given her that knife, how Percy seemed to instinctively and yet accidentally keep bringing that up.

Rachel didn't respond right away. She'd become quieter since the arena.

Now, whenever Annabeth made a sarcastic comment, Rachel hardly bothered to answer. She'd burned the tip of a stick in the fire and was using it to draw ash figures on the floor, images of the monsters we'd seen. With a few strokes, she caught the likeness of a dracaena perfectly.

"Girl's going to make a killing on the market," Alex said with pride for those skills.

"If she even sells them," Percy grinned, "she strikes me as the type of giving it all away."

"We'll follow the path," she said. "The brightness on the floor."

"The brightness that led us straight into a trap?" Annabeth asked.

"How many times is she going to harp on that?" Nico asked, exhaustion already in his voice. "It's not her fault what the maze does."

"Lay off her, Annabeth," I said. "She's doing the best she can."

Annabeth stood. "The fire's getting low. I'll go look for some more scraps while you guys talk strategy." And she marched off into the shadows.

Percy was rubbing his temples. How could one girl be the cause of like, seventy percent of his headaches?!

Rachel drew another figure with her stick—an ashy Antaeus dangling from his chains.

"Annabeth's usually not like this," I told her. "I don't know what her problem is."

Rachel raised her eyebrows. "Are you sure you don't know?"

"What do you mean?"

"Boys," she muttered. "Totally blind."

"Hey, don't you get on my case, too! Look, I'm sorry I got you involved in this."

"Dudett, I want to introduce you to a new world called jealousy," Alex told him with a mild touch of sympathy.

"What's Annabeth got to be jealous of?" Percy frowned. "Does she want to be mortal that bad?"

Alex faced palmed and Thalia patted Percy's shoulder with a stage whisper to the others, "he's hopeless."

"What?" Percy protested.

Magnus had the book. He was very tempted to just stop and enlighten Percy what those two girls were actually jealous of.

But frankly, that just wasn't a conversation he wanted to hear, let alone be a part of.

"No, you were right," she said. "I can see the path. I can't explain it, but it's really clear." She pointed toward the other end of the room, into the darkness. "The workshop is that way. The heart of the maze. We're very close now. I don't know why the path led through that arena. I—I'm sorry about that. I thought you were going to die."

Percy instantly wanted to comfort her. To make her laugh. The freckles on her face had all been scrunched up, there was a troubled look in her green eyes that he recognized. She still had huge streaks of gold in her red hair. Her blue hairbrush had been sticking out of her pocket with a few of Tammi's wild, tangled black hairs caught in it he'd swear were trying to whisper into the fire.

Why was every moment he'd shared with Rachel two parts awkward and one part terrifying?

She sounded like she was close to crying.

"Hey, I'm usually about to die," I promised. "Don't feel bad."

Thalia smacked him, again, with another eye roll to boot. "Maybe if you'd stop almost dying we wouldn't feel bad!"

"I can't control that," Percy pouted, really wishing she'd been along on this quest right now. He bet she would have gotten through to Annabeth there was nothing to be jealous about.

She studied my face. "So you do this every summer? Fight monsters? Save the world? Don't you ever get to do just, you know, normal stuff?"

There was a long-standing pause as somebody tried to pull up something 'normal' Percy had done without something causing trouble...and all seven of them were coming up blank.

Percy instantly brushed it off as a non-issue though. If he'd ever had a normal life, he'd probably be dead by now. His boring lazy days at the skate park and walking around New York were usually what led to him being off his game by the time he came back to camp the next summer. He'd get Annabeth or some other camp killed if he let himself have a day off like that.

I'd never really thought about it like that. The last time I'd had something like a normal life had been...well, never.

"Ah the one thing every half-blood has in common," Will nodded.

Nico frowned. His memories had shown a normal life...but he couldn't remember any details to know for sure if there had been monster attacks in their youth or any strange happenings before he'd gone into that hotel. It was odd, actually kind of hoping there had been some abnormality to his life so he wouldn't be left out of that stupid general statement.

"Half-bloods get used to it, I guess. Or maybe not used to it, but..." I shifted uncomfortably.

Something about the careless, almost numb way Percy described his horror of a life really struck Jason. The near deaths, the battles, the concept of his camp, none of it had felt out of place to him. It bothered him a lot that it didn't bother him more.

"What about you? What do you do normally?"

Rachel shrugged. "I paint. I read a lot."

Okay, I thought. So far we are scoring a zero on the similarities chart.

"Oh come on Perce," Alex pleaded for some kind of right-brain activity. "Your mom had to encourage some of that!"

"I bet I could do a really awesome blood splatter and frame it," Percy offered.

"I accept that," Alex looked more than pleased while Magnus swallowed the question of whose blood it would be.

"What about your family?"

I could sense her mental shields going up, like this was not a safe subject.

Percy wasn't that surprised, after the way she'd responded to Annabeth asking earlier, and Ethan had just run off into the maze rather than considering discussing such a thing. Sensitive topic, Percy was well aware. He just wanted to be a friendly ear. Just because it didn't get better didn't mean you had to live with it in silence.

"Oh...they're just, you know, family."

"You said they wouldn't notice if you were gone."

She set down her drawing stick. "Wow, I'm really tired. I may sleep for a while, okay?"

"Oh, sure. Sorry if..."

But Rachel was already curling up, using her backpack as a pillow. She closed her eyes and lay very still, but I got the feeling she wasn't really asleep.

"Are you sure Percy," Thalia gave him a disparaging look of pity. "Are you completely confident about that? I'm worried your lack of being able to take a hint caught onto the fact she instantly fell asleep!"

"Nico told me to never let anyone say that about me," Percy actually looked a little wounded, and Thalia sighed, instantly feeling bad. This idiot had no idea what he was doing, but at least he was a well-meaning idiot.

A few minutes later, Annabeth came back. She tossed some more sticks on the fire.

Percy huffed and decided he was grateful she didn't try to throw him in the fire.

She looked at Rachel, then at me.

"I'll take first watch," she said. "You should sleep, too."

"You don't have to act like that."

"Like what?"

"Like...never mind." I lay down, feeling miserable. I was so tired I fell asleep as soon as my eyes closed.

"See, Rachel might not have been faking it," Percy waved at the book.

Thalia looked like she was watching a limping puppy try to beg for treats when the bag was all out.

In my dreams I heard laughter.

The way Magnus's face brightened for a moment was sad. He really seemed to think for a split second Percy was going to have a nice dream, maybe something silly about his favorite character rescuing him and telling a good joke.

Cold, harsh laughter, like knives being sharpened.

"Nobody would laugh during that noise, why would you even know that?" Magnus huffed, looking particularly put out when he did know better.

"Maybe it was just a chef who enjoys his job to much," Alex offered. "Laughing it up with his buddies about what sea creature they're going to eat."

"Right," Magnus chuckled just for Alex even trying.

I was standing at the edge of a pit in the depths of Tartarus.

"I thought he was in a coffin now?" Jason frowned. "I liked the idea of that better, easier to throw into an active volcano."

"Without a body, he still exists wherever he wants," Thalia oh so cheerfully explained. Just like Gods, their consciousness able to be in multiple places at once.

Below me the darkness seethed like inky soup.

"So close to your own destruction, little hero," the voice of Kronos chided. "And still you are blind."

The voice was different than it had been before. It seemed almost physical now, as if it were speaking from a real body instead of...whatever he'd been in his chopped-up condition.

"And here most people always try to say what makes a person is their heart," Nico shook his head. "Percy has identified it as the larynx."

"I'm just mixing it up, I refuse to use a boring metaphor," Percy shrugged.

"I have much to thank you for," Kronos said. "You have assured my rise."

Percy looked about as impressed as if some school bully had taunted him. "Does that also mean I assure his downfall? Is that how that works?"

"You really want to Yin and Yang Kronos Percy?" Will sighed. "Are you getting this tattooed somewhere?"

"I might," he smirked, while Magnus read on swiftly before that escalated into actual dare territory.

The shadows in the cavern became deeper and heavier. I tried to back away from the edge of the pit, but it was like swimming through oil.

"So you can't swim through anything," Jason nodded seriously like he was taking notes.

"I knew that," Percy frowned, "I wasn't going to the desert and trying to swim through sand! Just because you put swimming in it doesn't make me immune."

'I don't think he's using that word right,' Magnus frowned as he signed to Alex.

'Let it go,' he sighed back.

Time slowed down. My breathing almost stopped.

"A favor," Kronos said. "The Titan lord always pays his debts. Perhaps a glimpse of the friends you abandoned..."

"I don't want to know, I do not want to know," Magnus wished he could cover his ears and just pretend he couldn't hear what this slimy pit considered a reward, but he had the dang book in his hand and the voice in his head really never did shut up.

The darkness rippled around me, and I was in a different cave.

"Hurry!" Tyson said. He came barreling into the room. Grover stumbled along behind him.

Percy never knew relief could hurt this much. The slam of emotions hearing them being alive and yet running for their life would have given him gray hair if he didn't have that already.

There was a rumbling in the corridor they'd come from, and the head of an enormous snake burst into the cave.

Will's arm dropped off the back of the couch, his whole body tried to shrivel up into the corner arm as his feet leaped off the floor to knock into Nico's legs. He was far to lanky to be scrunching up that much, but it wasn't stopping him from trying. The yelp was more shock than distress, but his mind still couldn't help but instantly imagine a mammoth-sized snake trying to force its way through the door.

"Sorry Will, would have warned you if I could," Thalia offered. "Nobody's ever mentioned this part to me."

"Oh, him you'd share every detail with," Percy pitched his voice into the highest mocking. "Me, I can blow up a volcano with no warning."

"Exactly," Thalia rolled her eyes, "the worst he'll do is make a bad pun, not cause another eruption in the room!" Meanwhile Nico was patting Will's shoe that was dug into his hip.

"Well at least I know one part that's not going to make it into the next play," Magnus said with apology clear in his tone he didn't know how to gloss over that.

"Stop encouraging him!" Percy groaned.

I mean, this thing was so big its body barely fit through the tunnel. Its scales were coppery. Its head was diamond-shaped like a rattler, and its yellow eyes glowed with hatred. When it opened its mouth, its fangs were as tall as Tyson.

Will felt like red flashes of light should be shooting across his eyes, a warning sign unneeded as he shivered harder than ever.

"It's okay Will," Nico said in a quiet voice that none-the-less sounded strong and confident. "His defense sucks. You could knock him out with one basic Apollo Follower card."

Will couldn't believe he found himself laughing right now, but he was as his eyes darted from Nico holding firmly to his shoe to help keep it supported in place and the door that obviously did not have a snake coming through it.

It lashed at Grover, but Grover scampered out of the way.

"Having the bottom half a goat does seem to come in handy more than the top half," Jason nodded.

The snake got a mouthful of dirt. Tyson picked up a boulder and threw it at the monster, smacking it between the eyes, but the snake just recoiled and hissed.

"It's going to eat you!" Grover yelled at Tyson.

"How do you know?"

"It just told me! Run!"

"Why don't these animals ever say anything secretly helpful to Grover," Alex pouted, "like oh no, I hope you don't accidentally hit me in my weak spot located right behind my left nostril!"

"You would think they'd slip up a little more hissing taunts, since most demigods they try to eat don't get to hear them," Magnus agreed. "They might want to stop and chat more."

"Not this time," Will pleaded, he had unclenched himself enough he just looked like a very big dog in a very small space wanting the thunder to end.

Tyson darted to one side, but the snake used its head like a club and knocked him off his feet.

"No!" Grover yelled. But before Tyson could regain his balance, the snake wrapped around him and started to squeeze.

"Ooh, this is my worst nightmare," Will whimpered, his arms crossing and uncrossing to try and not feel as restricted as possible and literally fighting himself over it.

"It's my worst nightmare, get your own," Percy wasn't looking much better, the intensity on his face warring between battle and concern. The worst part was, he wasn't going to wake up this time. He was trapped not knowing if they were okay.

Tyson strained, pushing with all his immense strength, but the snake squeezed tighter. Grover frantically hit the snake with his reed pipes, but he might as well have been banging on a stone wall.

The whole room shook as the snake flexed its muscles, shuddering to overcome Tyson's strength.

Grover began to play with pipes, and stalactites rained down from the ceiling. The whole cave seemed about to collapse...

I woke with Annabeth shaking my shoulder.

His shoulder jerked and rotated like a muscle he had no control over. Annabeth wasn't here to wake him up from this one, and he missed her like a physical ache on that side of him.

Will felt bad for sighing in relief while Percy was twitching like he was having a fit, but he couldn't help it. In his heart, that snake was crushed in the collapse while Tyson and Grover made it out without a scratch.

Nico's hand flew away the moment Will's foot unwedged itself to slowly lower back to the ground, but the two couldn't help but grin at each other for a moment as Will whispered, "turns out you did get on my lap."

"Sitting on your shoe is nowhere close," Nico tried his hardest not to blush as he managed a halfhearted scowl.

"I'll try harder next time," Will promised, relaxing back to normal and trying to stretch out again like nothing had happened. His feet still stayed suspiciously hovering over the ground for a few paragraphs though.

"Percy, wake up!"

"Tyson—Tyson's in trouble!" I said. "We have to help him!"

"First things first," she said. "Earthquake!"

"Those gosh dang priorities," Jason groaned.

Percy's heart was pounding so hard in his chest his hand crumpled up his orange shirt over it on reflex. Was he causing this because of his nightmares? Was he that unstable?

"Easy Perce," Thalia placed her hand on his still trembling shoulder. She was familiar, and a friend, and he was all the more mad at himself he couldn't just relax and believe her like he wanted to. The constant stress of being away from the rest of his friends and family for so long was really getting to him.

Sure enough, the room was rumbling. "Rachel!" I yelled.

Her eyes opened instantly. She grabbed her pack, and the three of us ran.

"I knew she was faking that sleeping!" Percy said with that same old smile. It was troubled, and not as genuine as it could have been, but it was still Percy's.

We were almost to the far tunnel when a column next to us groaned and buckled. We kept going as a hundred tons of marble crashed down behind us.

We made it to the corridor and turned just in time to see the other columns toppling. A cloud of white dust billowed over us, and we kept running.

"You know what?" Annabeth said. "I like this way after all."

"All it took was a little encouragement," Will said brightly.

"What would be a lot of encouragement in this case?" Nico muttered.

It wasn't long before we saw light up ahead—like regular electric lighting.

"There," Rachel said.

We followed her into a stainless steel hallway, like I imagined they'd have on a space station or something. Fluorescent lights glowed from the ceiling. The floor was a metal grate.

I was so used to being in the darkness that I had to squint. Annabeth and Rachel both looked pale in the harsh illumination.

"This way," Rachel said, beginning to run. "We're close!"

"This is so wrong!" Annabeth said. "The workshop should be in the oldest section of the maze. This can't—"

She faltered, because we'd arrived at a set of metal double doors.

Inscribed in the steel, at eye level, was a large blue Greek .

"We're here," Rachel announced. "Daedalus's workshop."

"Actually, that, kind of makes sense," Jason admitted with a curious smile and his head tipped to the side. "Daedalus is an inventor, he'd be upgrading his place as time went on, not leaving it in rocks and mud."

"She's still missing the obvious of trying to be logical about this place from the beginning," Nico rolled his eyes. He wasn't as nervous as he was last time about knowing he was going to show up in this room. He'd finally gotten rid of Minos like everybody else figured out from the start and hadn't tried to murder anyone, so at least he didn't have to worry about being the source of trouble for once.

Annabeth pressed the symbol on the doors and they hissed open.

"So much for ancient architecture," I said.

Annabeth scowled.

Alex sniffed and dramatically dabbed at his eye. "This is better than any romantic subplot I've read in my life. You two are meant to be!"

Percy was surprised he hadn't finished with a dramatic wail as Percy flipped him off.

Together we walked inside.

The first thing that struck me was the daylight—blazing sun coming through giant windows.

Which made plenty of sense. Daedalus had lived to much of his life trapped beneath the sun with no means of escape. Here, in his own corner of hell, he'd make sure to have the widest view, and an easy way out.

Not the kind of thing you expect in the heart of a dungeon. The workshop was like an artist's studio, with thirty-foot ceilings and industrial lighting, polished stone floors, and workbenches along with windows. A spiral staircase led up to a second-story loft. Half a dozen easels displayed hand-drawn diagrams for buildings and machines that looked like Leonardo da Vinci sketches. Several laptop computers were scattered around on the tables. Glass jars of green oil—Greek fire—lined one shelf. There were inventions, too—weird metal machines I couldn't make sense of. One was a bronze chair with a bunch of electrical wires attached to it, like some kind of torture device. In another corner stood a giant metal egg about the size of a man. There was a grandfather clock that appeared to be made entirely of glass, so you could see all the gears turning. And hanging on the wall were several sets of bronze and silver wings.

Thalia didn't know how to describe the word she felt for that. She'd lived in a tent mounted with trophies, but these were something more. Like a memory of his mistakes.

A memorial, she finally realized.

"Di immortals," Annabeth muttered. She ran to the nearest easel and looked at the sketch. "He's a genius. Look at the curves on this building!"

"Thing's that never cross a man's mind," Thalia snorted in delight, clearing away her melancholy mood a bit.

"I resent that," Alex sniffed.

"I bet Daedalus never looked at his curves from behind in a mirror," Thalia insisted relentlessly.

"And we are ending this conversation!" Percy pleaded, which Magnus needed no further encouragement on.

"And an artist," Rachel said in amazement. "These wings are amazing!"

The wings looked more advanced than the ones I'd seen in my dreams. The feathers were more tightly interwoven. Instead of wax seals, selfadhesive strips ran down the sides.

Will appreciated nobody had the heart to make a quip about that. That Daedalus had spent lifetimes agonizing over the perfect design of what could have saved his son's life long after it didn't matter to the one it was meant for, just in case it might be used to save someone else someday.

I kept my hand on Riptide. Apparently Daedalus was not at home, but the workshop looked like it had been recently used. The laptops were running their screen savers. A half-eaten blueberry muffin and a coffee cup sat on a workbench.

"You really would make a great detective someday if you'd ever stop getting in trouble with the law," Jason grinned.

"So, never," Percy agreed.

I walked to the window. The view outside was amazing. I recognized the Rocky Mountains in the distance.

"How do you recognize a mountain?" Will looked at him strangely.

"Cross the continental U. S. enough times buddy, you start picking up that stuff," Percy sighed.

We were high up in the foothills, at least five hundred feet, and down below a valley spread out, filled with a tumbled collection of red mesas and boulders and spires of stone. It looked like some huge kid had been building a toy city with skyscraper-size blocks, and then decided to knock it over.

"Annabeth," Magnus stage whispered.

"No, no, say it loud and proud as she would," Percy chuckled.

"Annabeth!" Alex happily shouted right in Magnus's ear.

"Where are we?" I wondered.

"Colorado Springs," A voice said behind us. "The Garden of the Gods."

Standing on the spiral staircase above us, with his weapon drawn, was our missing sword master Quintus.

"Dam," Alex scowled. Percy got the feeling he wasn't referring to wanting a snack bar. "Luke is right behind you isn't he?"

Thalia knew it all got sorted out soon, and even if it didn't hurt Percy she'd still rather wait. Alex had really wanted to like Quintus, and she didn't have the heart to correct earlier than necessary he'd never even been Quintus, the cool guy with a dog.

"You," Annabeth said. "What have you done with Daedalus?"

Quintus smiled faintly. "Trust me, my dear. You don't want to meet him."

Nico fought hard not to snort with laughter. Did this guy think he was the Hulk or something?

"Look, Mr. Traitor," she growled,

"Annabeth, with the sick burns," Will snickered. "Next she'll call him a stinky head."

"She saves her important insults for me," Percy reminded.

"I didn't fight a dragon woman and a three-bodied man and a psychotic Sphinx to see you.

"Who would be worthy after that kind of trip?" Magnus said fairly. "I feel like even the person she's been fighting to see isn't worth all that."

"The ending never lives up to the journey," Alex nodded sagely.

Now where is DAEDALUS?"

Quintus came down the stairs, holding his sword at his side. He was dressed in jeans and boots and his counselor's T-shirt from Camp HalfBlood, which seemed like an insult now that we knew he was a spy.

"You'd think he'd know he lost his element of surprise," Percy scowled, twitching fingers trying their best not to draw his sword. "No need to keep up appearances!"

"He was probably doing it just to piss you off," Jason frowned, it had clearly been working.

I didn't know if I could beat him in a sword fight. He was pretty good. But I figured I would have to try.

"How to sum up Percy in three sentences," Thalia said warmly, giving him a light punch on the arm.

Percy blushed in surprise, momentarily breaking his anger and rubbing at his arm as he shrugged and muttered it's what anybody would do.

"You think I'm an agent of Kronos," he said. "That I work for Luke."

"Well, duh," said Annabeth.

"Has anybody told Mr. D. that the kids do still say that?" Jason asked randomly.

"Updating him on everything we said during our quest is my top priority," Percy promised with all the mocking in the world.

"You're an intelligent girl," he said. "But you're wrong. I work only for myself."

"Luke mentioned you," I said. "Geryon knew about you, too. You've been to his ranch."

"Of course," he said. "I've been almost everywhere. Even here."

"Yeah, yeah, we get it, he could write the next Odyssey," Thalia rolled her eyes, not particularly impressed with him.

He walked past me like I was no threat at all and stood by the window.

Percy's scowl kicked up another notch, so much so the others started checking the floor already.

"The view changes from day to day," he mused. "It's always some place high up. Yesterday it was from a skyscraper overlooking Manhattan. The day before that, there was a beautiful view of Lake Michigan. But it keeps coming back to the Garden of the Gods. I think the Labyrinth likes it here. A fitting name, I suppose."

Magnus was starting to wonder if he'd been slowly inhaling the ocean water without noticing. He felt so sick and his stomach gave a tsunami of a roll at everybody reminding him this place was alive!

"You've been here before," I said.

"Oh, yes."

"That's an illusion out there?" I asked. "A projection or something?"

"No," Rachel murmured. "It's real. We're really in Colorado."

"Has she been to Colorado and knows this exact view?" Alex frowned.

"I'm still waiting for the nightmare fuel of the maze just whispering in her ear," Magnus groaned.

Quintus regarded her. "You have clear vision, don't you? You remind me of another mortal girl I once knew. Another princess who came to grief."

"Enough games," I said. "What have you done with Daedalus?"

Quintus stared at me. "My boy, you need lessons from your friend on seeing clearly. I am Daedalus."

"Ooooohhhh," Jason said with a blank face. "Yeah, I didn't see that coming." The tiniest twitch of his face almost flickered into a hysterical laugh but he tried to keep it straight.

"I'd be worried if you did," Magnus looked in physical pain. "What? How? What? Why? What? When? What-"

"I really didn't think he managed that project," Alex's double-toned eyes danced with fascination. "Magic and machines really can do anything."

"But he's not an inventor," Percy frowned. "He's just good with a sword."

"Is that all you're good at Percy?" Thalia shook her head. "Just a sword?"

Percy wasn't going to argue the point, but he still looked pretty unconvinced. 

Alex still had to smack Magnus to get him to concentrate on the book again rather than the suddenly very real possibility of an AI take over that was being hinted at.

There were a lot of answers I might've given, from "I knew that" to "LIAR!" to "Yeah right, and I'm Zeus."

"You definitely should have gone with the first one Percy," Jason chuckled. "Nobody would have believed you, but you still should have tried to sell it to Annabeth and Rachel."

The only thing I could think to say was, "But you're not an inventor! You're a swordsman!"

"I am both," Quintus said. "And an architect. And a scholar. I also play basketball pretty well for a guy who didn't start until he was two thousand years old. A real artist must be good at many things."

"Fair," Alex drew out the word with all his breath as he forced himself to agree with the cool artist/ swordsman/ dog owner/ traitor.

"That's true," Rachel said. "Like I can paint with my feet as well as my hands."

"I will never forgive Oceanus for making this girl vanish before I could see that," Alex sighed.

"You see?" Quintus said. "A girl of many talents."

"Flattery gets you everywhere," Nico chuckled with his own amusement. He'd always wondered why Percy had tried to stay behind and help Daeadlus after he'd betrayed the Camp. Percy's loyalty to him should have been broken, and yet Percy had resisted leaving until the last moment, possibly because of just this one moment where the old swords master still took time to talk to them like this.

"But you don't even look like Daedalus," I protested. "I saw him in a dream, and..." Suddenly a horrible thought dawned on me.

"Yes," Quintus said. "You've finally guessed the truth."

"You're an automaton. You made yourself a new body."

"Can Rachel see that?" Magnus asked. "Does he even have a skeletal system in there?"

"She didn't say anything to me," Percy sounded a touch awed himself by the idea. "I bet she could have made a wicked cool painting about it though."

"Percy," Annabeth said uneasily, "that's not possible. That—that can't be an automaton."

"The amount of things she keeps saying isn't possible like her mom isn't an immortal goddess who sprang out of her dad's head," Nico said in exasperation.

"We all take things at our own pace," Will shrugged, deciding against bringing up the fact some people were more comfortable with certain topics than others so as not to put Nico on the spot.

Quintus chuckled. "Do you know what Quintus means, my dear?"

"The fifth, in Latin. But—"

"This is my fifth body." The swordsman held out his forearm. He pressed his elbow and part of his wrist popped open—a rectangular hatch in his skin.

"That's terrifying!" Alex said in the most jazzed voice.

Jason started poking at his elbow in worry he could be an android and not even know it.

Underneath, bronze gears whirred. Wires glowed.

"That's amazing!" Rachel said.

"That's weird," I said.

"Does anything impress you Percy?" Thalia scoffed. She really wished she'd seen that in person.

"Recognizing Tony Hawk," Percy sniffed and took an imaginary sip of wine. Thalia smacked 'it' out of his hands and Magnus quickly kept reading before that turned into a whole slap fight.

"You found a way to transfer your animus into a machine?" Annabeth said. "That's...not natural."

"See, she gets it!" Percy wished for the gazillionth time she was here so she could high five him and call him a seaweed brain for understanding her point or something.

"Oh, I assure you, my dear, it's still me. I'm still very much Daedalus. Our mother, Athena, makes sure I never forget that." He tugged back the collar of his shirt. At the base of his neck was the mark I'd seen before—the dark shape of a bird grafted to his skin.

"A murderer's brand," Annabeth said.

"What's the marketing like for that brand?" Alex smirked. "Murder two kids get this free? Did Athena make that up on the spot especially for him?"

"Really not funny Alex," Will said in complete disapproval.

"Sorry, kind of," Alex shrugged. He was struggling not to think of Quintus as a two-faced traitor right now.

"For your nephew, Perdix," I guessed. "The boy you pushed off the tower."

Quintus's face darkened. "I did not push him. I simply—"

"Made him lose his balance," I said. "Let him die."

"Don't you give him any slack Percy," Thalia nodded approvingly.

"Could cut him a little slack," but Will's was mostly a mutter out of the corner of his lip to nobody. He was sure Daedalus regretted many, many things he did and didn't do over the course of that many lifetimes.

Quintus gazed out the windows at the purple mountains.

"Who said they were purple? What?" Magnus knew he was not caught on the right detail there, but that was a weird description. His brain was probably still broken on anything else really.

"It's not literal Magnus, just light refraction and junk," Percy shrugged, "trust me, they looked it though."

"I regret what I did, Percy. I was angry and bitter. But I cannot take it back, and Athena never lets me forget. As Perdix died, she turned him into a small bird—a partridge.

"Why do the gods keep turning kids into things instead of, you know, saving them," Percy asked the girl who had once been turned into a tree.

"Not stepping on Hades's toes?" She shrugged, "makes for a better life story? They want credit for inventing the most shit? Why would I know that Percy?"

"At least I got the all mighty and wise Thalia to admit she didn't know something," Percy shrugged that was answer enough.

She branded the bird's shape on my neck as a reminder. No matter what body I take, the brand appears on my skin."

I looked into his eyes, and I realized he was the same man I'd seen in my dreams. His face might be totally different, but the same soul was in there— the same intelligence and all the sadness.

Percy vividly recalled the first time he'd met him was defending his dog, the innocent good girl, and wearily shaking his hand. The first time he'd dreamed about him had been right after his first tumble into this maze.

Which was the true man to be believed? The imprisoned old guy who had grown bitter enough to murder after losing everything, or the guy who had let Annabeth get away with a whole conversation over breakfast? How long did you have to be alive before one turned into the other, if that was even possible?

And how the heck did he go to the bathroom in between each new body?

"You really are Daedalus," I decided. "But why did you come to the camp? Why spy on us?"

"To see if your camp was worth saving. Luke had given me one story. I preferred to come to my own conclusions."

"I really hate that I find that a noble and valid answer," Jason frowned.

"Yeah, yeah, open-minded, blah, blah, he should have asked us first and believed us!" Percy still scowled this guy had come in disguise and unsure if their camp was worth saving the moment he'd arrived.

"So you have talked to Luke."

"Oh, yes. Several times. He is quite persuasive."

"I haven't heard a hint of that," Magnus huffed, "he's mostly just been a pest."

Percy's heart sunk though as he couldn't fully agree. The way he was going about it was wrong...but that arena to Poseidon his dad had never put a stop to...Calypso...there were to many things in the gods name that would never sit right with him...

"But now you've seen the camp!" Annabeth persisted. "So you know we need your help. You can't let Luke through the maze!"

Daedalus set his sword on the workbench. "The maze is no longer mine to control, Annabeth. I created it, yes. In fact, it is tied to my life force. But I have allowed it to live and grow on its own. That is the price I paid for privacy."

"I want to go home now," Magnus decided he'd officially hit his limit of overwhelmed. He didn't care 'home' was a sleeping bag in the park and no secure source of food.

There was a sentient maze tied to some guy's life force who may or may not doom the home of his cousin. This was his limit.

"That took much longer than me," Percy gave him a sympathetic nod. "Good to know your limits," he then happily mocked Jason, who gave him a casual grin.

"If we knew how to kick you guys out without it being a major concern we would," Thalia sighed. Agitating a Titan into doing it didn't seem like a bet even they were willing to play though.

"Privacy from what?"

"The gods," he said. "And death. I have been alive for two millennia, my dear, hiding from death."

"Man, I can't even blame him after everything he's been through," Alex couldn't help but sympathize. The number one reason he wasn't stressing about getting up top was the privacy away from Loki.

"But how can you hide from Hades?" I asked. "I mean...Hades has the Furies."

"And that's just one of many," Nico said with an ominous smirk. The kind that made his face flicker in shadows and send a thrill of fear up all of their spines. Nico wouldn't be killing Daedalus for his soul or anything like that, but he still wasn't fond of the guy who had cheated death and gave his dad a bad name.

"They do not know everything," he said. "Or see everything. You have encountered them, Percy. You know this is true. A clever man can hide quite a long time, and I have buried myself very deep. Only my greatest enemy has kept after me, and even him I have thwarted."

"I think thwarted is to strong a word," Jason sniffed. "He's been relentlessly after you and still scheming away."

"I can see why Daedalus likes tag so much, he really doesn't want to be It," Percy frowned.

"You mean Minos," I said.

Daedalus nodded. "He hunts for me relentlessly. Now that he is a judge of the dead, he would like nothing better than for me to come before him so he can punish me for my crimes. After the daughters of Cocalus killed him, Minos's ghost began torturing me in my dreams. He promised that he would hunt me down. I did the only thing I could. I retreated from the world completely. I descended into my Labyrinth. I decided this would be my ultimate accomplishment: I would cheat death."

"And you did," Annabeth marveled, "for two thousand years." She sounded kind of impressed, despite the horrible things Daedalus had done.

Percy debated for a moment before deciding he wouldn't take his fist bump back, but he would have been sure she'd see his 'you need better roll models' look this time she'd missed while ogling him.

Just then a loud bark echoed from the corridor. I heard the ba-BUMP, baBUMP, ba-BUMP of huge paws, and Mrs. O'Leary bounded into the workshop. She licked my face once, then almost knocked Daedalus over with an enthusiastic leap.

"That's got to be one of the best feelings in the world," Alex's smile looked different when he talked about Mrs. O'Leary, a kinder expression than his usual slightly mocking grin. "When your pet shows up from out of nowhere and you didn't call them. They just wanted to be where you are."

Magnus couldn't help but smile right along with him, a feeling he suddenly knew he'd never take for granted again.

"There is my old friend!" Daedalus said, scratching Mrs. O'Leary behind the ears. "My only companion all these long lonely years."

"You let her save me," I said. "That whistle actually worked."

Daedalus nodded. "Of course it did, Percy. You have a good heart. And I knew Mrs. O'Leary liked you. I wanted to help you. Perhaps I—I felt guilty, as well."

"Guilty about what?"

"That your quest would be in vain."

"He decided you guys were a lost cause that fast huh?" Magnus looked a little offended on the Camp's part...and also like he kind of understood where Daedalus was coming from.

"What?" Annabeth said. "But you can still help us. You have to! Give us Ariadne's string so Luke can't get it."

"And hopefully burn it," Will shivered.

Jason's eyes brightened with understanding though, and dread. Where had Kampê been in that arena? Off to fetch her honorable position?

"Yes...the string. I told Luke that the eyes of a clear-sighted mortal are the best guide, but he did not trust me. He was so focused on the idea of a magic item.

"Does it have other properties, or was he just refusing to believe a mortal could be of help?" Magnus frowned.

"Wasn't there for that conversation," Percy huffed.

And the string works. It's not as accurate as your mortal friend here, perhaps. But good enough. Good enough."

"Where is it?" Annabeth said.

"With Luke," Daedalus said sadly. "I'm sorry, my dear. But you are several hours too late."

Sizzling anger washed over Percy as he realized why Luke had looked so happy in that arena. They'd been to late.

He wondered if Daedalus had stalled for time. If he'd looked at the door to his workshop hoping they'd show up and have an excuse not to be a traitor.

He also wondered where Luke had kept that string. Had it been his shoelace the whole time?

With a chill I realized why Luke had been in such a good mood in the arena. He'd already gotten the string from Daedalus. His only obstacle had been the arena master, and I'd taken care of that for him by killing Antaeus.

"Well the obvious solution here is, stop being so good at killing monsters Percy," Thalia smacked his shoulder.

"I'll get right on that," Percy sighed.

"Kronos promised me freedom," Quintus said. "Once Hades is overthrown, he will set me over the Underworld. I will reclaim my son Icarus. I will make things right with poor young Perdix. I will see Minos's soul cast into Tartarus, where it cannot bother me again. And I will no longer have to run from death."

Damn if that wasn't a persuasive argument though, Will sighed. How was it Luke had probably only read Daedalus' stories while dreaming of nothing but Kronos's schemes and still managed to say the exact right thing to get him what he wanted?

To much practice is what it was.

"That's your brilliant idea?" Annabeth yelled. "You're going to let Luke destroy your camp, kill hundreds of demigods, and then attack Olympus? You're going to bring down the entire world so you can get what you want?"

"Hades would be pisssssed," Jason said with confidence. "We already know he doesn't want that at all, and then someone usurping his throne! Oh, this guy's in for a bad day when he hits the Underworld."

Nico wasn't sure if Jason meant Luke or Daedalus, but either way he was going to be surprised at the outcome.

"Your cause is doomed, my dear. I saw that as soon as I began to work at your camp.

The fact that he never referred to it as our Camp, as his Camp bothered Percy. Like he'd never given the place a chance, or refused to let himself be attached to anything. He remembered first waking up there, how insane it had all felt, how alien everything seemed...and yet he'd already considered the place home before he even realized it. A feeling that all Half-bloods should share no matter how old they get.

There is no way you can hold back the might of Kronos."

"That's not true!" she cried.

"I am doing what I must, my dear. The offer was too sweet to refuse. I'm sorry."

"So what I'm hearing is we need to violently cut out his sweet tooth," Alex sneered.

"If you think that'll help," Magnus sighed in a long-time resigned voice for somebody who had only known him a few days.

Annabeth pushed over an easel. Architectural drawing scattered across the floor.

Nico felt that in his core. He wondered if Tyson had wanted to shove something over too after he'd rescued Briares.

"I used to respect you. You were my hero! You—you built amazing things. You solved problems. Now...I don't know what you are. Children of Athena are supposed to be wise, not just clever. Maybe you are just a machine. You should have died two thousand years ago."

Instead of getting mad, Daedalus hung his head. "You should go warn your camp. Now that Luke has the string—"

Suddenly Mrs. O'Leary pricked up her ears.

"Someone's coming!" Rachel warned.

"Rachel's hearing is as good as a hell hounds confirmed," Alex said with one of those diabolical smiles that meant nobody knew what he was going to do with that information.

"Or worse, the maze warned her," Magnus shivered like he half expected her to become possessed by the place staring at its secrets to long.

The doors of the workshop burst open, and Nico was pushed inside, his hands in chains.

Magnus's voice stuttered in surprise while Nico fought hard not to scowl at all of them. He didn't owe anyone an explanation for being weak and getting caught! That Minos had led him right into a trap and he'd been to stupid to realize it...

To Nico's shock however, no one did any such thing. Will in fact leaned forward in his seat. Not much, but enough his arm was dangling close to the collar of Nico's jacket and sending chills up his neck.

Then Kelli and two Laistrygonians marched in behind him, followed by the ghost of Minos. He looked almost solid now—a pale bearded king with cold eyes and tendrils of Mist coiling off his robes.

"All the easier to stab," was all Thalia seemed to hear.

"Is this like one of those if you wish hard enough your dream comes true?" Percy mock whispered out of the side of his mouth.

He fixed his gaze on Daedalus. "There you are, my old friend."

Daedalus's jaw clenched. He looked at Kelli. "What is the meaning of this?"

"It's called a double cross," Alex said with almost pity. "It's what happens when you make deals with monsters and traitors."

"Luke sends his compliments," Kelli said. "He thought you might like to see your old employer Minos."

"And here Daedalus was just complimenting Luke on his good persuasion skills," Jason said snidely. "See, this doesn't sound very persuasive. You'd think a smart guy like Luke would know the greatest inventor would be more helpful to have on your side than a grumpy old ghost."

Nico cleared his throat but uneasily offered, "I assume Minos tried to drive Luke insane when he first ventured into the maze and Luke struck this deal with him all the way back then. He would have already been under Kronos's favor and had the weight to hold up a deal like this."

Jason still felt like the obvious answer should be to double cross the ghost then, not Daedalus, but he noticed Thalia swallowed bile at this so casually being talked about, so was grateful Magnus didn't stick around for any details.

"This was not part of our agreement," Daedalus said.

"No indeed," Kelli said. "But we already have what we want from you, and we have other agreements to honor. Minos required something else from us, in order to turn over this fine young demigod." She ran a finger under Nico's chin.

Percy gave an exaggerated shudder as he tried to give Nico a sympathetic smile about how intoxicating and awful that must have been, before he did a double take and asked, "hey, were you-"

Then he shut his mouth just as fast with a guilty look at him and Thalia. Right, wait for him to volunteer if he'd been attracted to the pretty demon.

Nico was touched beyond words at the level of self-restraint Percy had just shown in regards to him. Not enough to answer a truth that really should have been an early indication he had not looked back on fondly about himself.

He had not found the empousa appealing in the slightest. He had not fallen for her charms, and wanted to be as far away from her as possible. All he'd felt were Percy's green eyes asking if he was okay. Nico had wanted to be beside him, wanted to prove himself worthy. Her horse and roses smell had been pungent and entirely unappealing to him like a girl with way to much perfume on he'd wanted to cough and retreat from.

"He'll be quite useful. And all Minos asked in return was your head, old man."

Daedalus paled. "Treachery."

"Get used to it," Kelli said.

"That doesn't sound like a very school spirit kind of attitude," Will said in as snooty a voice as possible. "I thought we were all in this together at Goode!"

"To many cartwheels must have dislodged her brain out of her ear," Alex scoffed.

"Nico," I said. "Are you okay?"

He nodded morosely. "I—I'm sorry, Percy. Minos told me you were in danger. He convinced me to go back into the maze."

"I am really, really glad you guys are okay," Will's voice shook with nerves like he wasn't saying this with full knowledge they were all right in front of him and this had happened years ago.

Nico still wasn't quite used to hearing that, but he found himself smiling at Will this time, at least acknowledging he'd heard it with still no idea what to say. Will's smile felt like an answer anyways, just like usual now.

"You were trying to help us?"

"I was tricked," he said. "He tricked all of us."

I glared at Kelli. "Where's Luke? Why isn't he here?"

"Vengeance will be swift," Alex savored.

"Good to hear you defending the kid's honor back then," Jason agreed with a forlorn smile.

Nico was a miserable huddle of black jacket, and it wasn't a stretch to figure out what was causing this jumble of painful emotions. His only friend for months had just betrayed him, he'd given up the idea of getting his sister back, and the outcome of everything he was going through was Percy realizing he was to weak to take care of himself.

The she-demon smiled like we were sharing a private joke. "Luke is...busy. He is preparing for the assault.

Thalia's eyes felt strained all at once. Like she wanted to sleep, but she knew the moment she got up from her comfortable spot the feeling would vanish. A breath shook past her lips, and the moment was gone.

She knew it was coming back soon.

But don't worry. We have more friends on the way. And in the meantime, I think I'll have a wonderful snack!" Her hands changed into claws. Her hair burst into flame and her legs turned to their true form—one donkey leg, one bronze.

"Percy," Rachel whispered, "the wings. Do you think—"

"Get them," I said. "I'll try to buy you some time."

And with that, all Hades broke loose.

"You were right Jason," Nico managed a chuckle. "Hades would have been pissed at his kingdom being broken loose. Percy is way to liberal with his choice of words."

"I think of Hades as a naturally pissed and yet helpful guy who would be happy to see his kingdom break lose to get one guy back," Percy insisted.

"Then you need to study more," Nico rolled his eyes. 

"Hard pass when I'll live it eventually," Percy scoffed.

Annabeth and I charged at Kelli.

The giants came right at Daedalus, but Mrs. O'Leary leaped to his defense.

Nico got pushed to the ground and struggled with his chains while the spirit of Minos wailed, "Kill the inventor! Kill him!"

Nico sighed, if that wasn't the story of his life right there. Pushed aside and associated with nothing but death, nobody's concern.

Rachel grabbed the wings off the wall. Nobody paid her any attention.

Nico gave himself a good mental shake though as he heard that. Rachel was off doing her own thing that certainly saved all their lives. The lowly mortal none of the monsters had thought to pursue key to their escape. He had made himself be seen.

Kelli slashed at Annabeth. I tried to get to her, but the demon was quick and deadly. She turned over tables, smashed inventions, and wouldn't let us get close. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Mrs. O'Leary chomp her fangs into a giant's arm. He wailed in pain and flung her around, trying to shake her.

Daedalus grabbed for his sword, but the second giant smashed the workbench with his fist, and the sword went flying. A clay jar of Greek fire broke on the floor and began to burn, green flames spreading quickly.

The chaos, crashing and smashing of a fight, speckled blood, and heavy thick smoke lingering in the nose just didn't have the same echo in here like it did in Percy's mind. Magnus's voice was shaky, he was waiting for somebody to get really hurt, like Annabeth. The silence of the room was a defining kind of noise all its own as everyone except Percy held their breath to see how to get out of this.

Even Nico. He couldn't seem to get the idea out of his head this next display of his powers was going to send someone into a screaming fit about having him around.

"To me!" Minos cried. "Spirits of the dead!" He raised his ghostly hands and the air began to hum.

"No!" Nico cried. He was on his feet now. He'd somehow managed to remove his shackles.

Nico watched his hands carefully, suspiciously, to make sure they didn't start phasing in and out of existence without his permission. His first instance of shadow traveling, of being able to turn to pure liquid darkness. His anger at Minos had been absolute. A true testament to what would ultimately happen to an entity he did have a grudge against.

Something he was afraid of letting happen to anybody if he wasn't careful with himself.

"You do not control me, young fool," Minos sneered. "All this time, I have been controlling you! A soul for a soul, yes. But it is not your sister who will return from the dead. It is I, as soon as I slay the inventor!"

Spirits began to appear around Minos—shimmering forms that slowly multiplied, solidifying into Cretan soldiers.

"I am the son of Hades," Nico insisted. "Be gone!"

Minos laughed. "You have no power over me. I am the lord of spirits! The ghost king!"

"No." Nico drew his sword. "I am."

"Oh, snap," Alex said with pure delight. "Ghost fight?"

"Ghost fight," Nico agreed with a weary, yet proud smile. A victory he wouldn't exactly say he was proud of...and yet it was the first time he'd truly claimed his identity and knew he had to stop hiding who he used to be and accept who he was.

He stabbed his black blade into the floor, and it cleaved through the stone like butter.

"Damn Nico, you ever stuck that thing in a microwave to see what would happen?" Percy asked in a tone of one who might have some experience with that.

"Not many microwaves down in the Labyrinth to test that Percy," Nico frowned and clutched his sword tight in case he was getting ideas.

"Never!" Minos's form rippled. "I will not—"

The ground rumbled. The windows cracked and shattered to pieces, letting in a blast of fresh air. A fissure opened in the stone floor of the workshop, and Minos and all his spirits were sucked into the void with a horrible wail.

Nico's breath looked a little ragged coming out of his chest. His dark eyes glittered as he watched the book and those in the room carefully, darting to Will too, but last.

Will really wanted to kiss him right now but thought that might be inappropriate and seriously debated if he cared for several moments before Thalia said casually, "thanks for that by the way. I know this ingrate never said that."

"If I thanked every person who saved my life, my mom's wrist would cramp from all the letters," Percy sighed.

"You'd make your mom write the letters?" Jason looked at him with the kind of moral disdain he'd seen all his life in teachers.

"You're right," Percy conceded, "I'd type them and not bother to see what got spell-checked correctly."

The bad news: the fight was still going on all around us, and I let myself get distracted.

Nico actually blushed. Percy looked awkwardly away from that flush of coloring and decided he didn't want to ask.

Alex made a whooping noise of laughter to add to it all anyways, "how have you never died in a fight? Every life or death instance you've been in you notice the randomest things."

"Very talented friends and some mild talent with a sword," Percy shrugged.

Kelli pounced on me so fast I had no time to defend myself.

My sword skittered away and I hit my head hard on a worktable as I fell. My eyesight went fuzzy. I couldn't raise my arms.

Which made Alex's joke not so funny when it almost came true a second later, but Percy only seemed mildly concerned as he scratched at his neck and glanced hopefully at Nico again like he expected that sword to pierce right through her next.

Nico didn't particularly want to admit he'd fallen to his knee, his head dizzy from such a blast of his powers and hadn't even noticed he was about to die.

Kelli laughed. "You will taste wonderful!"

"I still think he'd be to salty," Magnus wrinkled his nose in disgust. "I can't imagine the seasoning you'd have to add to balance straight."

"A recipe book I pray never hits the shelves," Percy agreed.

She bared her fangs. Then suddenly her body went rigid. Her red eyes widened. She gasped, "No...school...spirit..."

And Annabeth took her knife out of the empousa's back.

"Atta girl," Jason looked so pleased and disappointed all at once he couldn't be patting her on the back. "That was perfect synchrony, using you as bait, that spectacular timing."

"Hands off Jason," Percy laughed along, remembering spitting out monster dust that had a bit of a kick to it and seeing an angel in resplendent golden hair above him with the most intense gray eyes as the point of her knife followed every mote to the floor to make sure the deed was done.

With an awful screech, Kelli dissolved into yellow vapor.

Annabeth helped me up.

Will shook his head at what an odd sentence that was to include. It was just implied that's what had happened next, like glossing over every time they stopped to swat a bug away or sneeze and brush dust off their face. A silly detail that everybody knew had happened and there really was no reason to point it out.

I still felt dizzy, but we had no time to lose. Mrs. O'Leary and Daedalus were still locked in combat with the giants, and I could hear shouting in the tunnel. More monsters were coming toward the workshop.

"We have to help Daedalus!" I said.

Thalia pressed her lips tight together upon hearing that. It was one of those moments she would have been at odds with Percy, trying to push him out the window with or without the wings for suggesting they save the traitor to their camp. It was very black and white to her.

And yet.

She often wondered if Luke had tried reaching to Percy for help, what Percy would have done. Luke had tried appealing to her and Annabeth, but there was to much history, to much resentment to get anywhere.

They'd only been friends for less than a week...but Percy might have helped Luke better than she ever could.

"No time," Rachel said. "Too many coming!"

She'd already fitted herself with wings and was working on Nico, who looked pale and sweaty from his struggle with Minos. The wings grafted instantly to his back and arms.

Nico had never been aware of the prejudice Zeus might have to children of Poseidon being in the air enough to be worried if that applied to him too. He swallowed gratefully nobody had stopped to point that out right then.

"Now you!" she told me.

In seconds, Nico, Annabeth, Rachel, and I had fitted ourselves with coppery wings.

The resemblance to Nico and Icarus had been uncanny at the moment, and Percy shivered now as he felt them graft into place minus the hot glue gun. The sound of swords clanging, the feeling of doom still licking up every inch of his skin as he surveyed that room one last time. The architecture designs curling up into black nothingness, Rachel's face a ghastly pale.

That room had been full of death, and as eager as Percy was to escape, everything about it made him want to stay and save what was going to be lost.

Already I could feel myself being lifted by the wind coming through the window. Greek fire was burning the tables and furniture, spreading up the circular stairs.

"Daedalus!" I yelled. "Come on!"

He was cut in a hundred places—but he was bleeding golden oil instead of blood. He'd found his sword and was using part of a smashed table as a shield against the giants. "I won't leave Mrs. O'Leary!" he said. "Go!"

"Oh gods," Alex touched his chest in shock at how much that meant to hear. He'd really wanted to like Quintus just for his dog, and he'd proven to be a very mixed man of honor and tragedy.

"The only depressing cliche I think my life has ever dodged," Percy smiled, his eyes still troubled even as he made a joke. "I don't think the dog dies." He winced, but it was a hopeful stabbing pain to his brain that he was right.

There was no time to argue. Even if we stayed, I wasn't sure we could help.

"None of us know how to fly!" Nico protested.

"Great time to find out," I said. And together, the four of us jumped out the window into open sky.

"Yeah, I don't recommend that Percy," Magnus looked up. The amount of times someone in this room had told him that could have filled a whole page.

"I do! Learning to fly on the way down builds character!" Alex said confidently as he snatched the book away.

"This guy would climb a mountain during an earthquake," Percy frowned in concern his mortality never seemed to be a major concern around here.

Oh, right, he was alive. There was no tension of that anywhere except his own head.

[oh-three]

PJO S1E2:

"You drool when you sleep" being the first thing Annabeth says to him is so fucking funny.

knows who Dionysus is the moment she lays eyes on him, even from a distance

Percy is so gullible 🤣

Dionysus and Chiron banter is the best.

Oooh, curly-haired Luke. Sucks that he's evil.

Ooh, nymphs.

Grover describing a human getting crushed like "an old banana." 😂

"The truth can be very dangerous if it isn't handled carefully." Truer words have never been spoken. People deserve to be told the truth, but never at the wrong time.

The Voice is definitely Kronos trying to manipulate him.

Luke's two actors have portrayed him so similarly it's amazing.

WE GET CLARISSE. I forgot how much I hated her at first.

"...Should I try again?" "No!" 🤣

Okay, the food offerings were one of my favorite things about the books. They really didn't skip out on anything with this show, I love it. They better do more seasons of the other books.

Percy praying to his mom >>>>>>>>>

The heartbreak of Percy talking about "real friends" and meaning Luke, and knowing what Luke's going to do-- He is just so precious and doesn't deserve any of what happens to him.

Hah, take that! You just tried to toilet-dunk the wrong kid, Clarisse.

Also. Rip bathroom.

"I can explain." "No, you can't." Heh. Their dynamic is great already.

Watching Luke tell Percy about Thalia and forbidden kids, whilst none of them know that Percy is a forbidden kid.

Percy and Annabeth actually being on the same team this time around as opposed to the movies.

Omg, the use of magical items in CTF includes Annabeth's hat. Hah, didn't think of that. But she's obviously gonna spy on him with it and then steal red's flag.

"...first few hours" ????????? How long do their CTF games last???

Annabeth seriously put him straight in Clarisse's territory. Seriously?

Oooh, Percy broke Clarisse's spear. She should've known better than to go after him.

REVEAL TIME, REVEAL TIME, REVEAL TIME!

Meet Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon. The reveal is really cool no matter what form- be it book, movie, or the show. (I will admit to actually having enjoyed the movies. But I do understand why they gave up on them and created the show.)

"I am Sally Jackson's son!" 😭

Ayyy, gotta love Grover disobeying orders for his best friend's greater good. Remember what I said earlier about telling the truth at the right time?

OOH, MEDUSA COMING UP NEXT EPISODE.

[aroaceleovaldez]

list of ways Percy could theoretically get letters of recommendation easily that don’t require an entire 3-book series:

I am going to presume Percy cannot get one from Poseidon, because that’s his dad. However, he could theoretically go ask literally anyone else from Poseidon’s realm.

If Grover counts as having inherited the title Lord of the Wild from Pan, Grover could write Percy a letter.

Similarly, Percy himself also inherited the spirit of Pan, alongside everyone in that questing group besides Nico. Percy could maybe even write himself a letter, theoretically.

If the letter does not have to be a Greco-Roman god, Percy was once possessed by Nekhbet. He could theoretically contact her again for a letter.

Or, if he can’t contact Nekhbet by himself, he could ask Carter and Sadie - who he explicitly canonically has the phone numbers of. That is, if he doesn’t just pop down over to the Brooklyn house himself to chat with Bastet, Bes, or Anubis (or ask any of the Magicians & co to talk to any of the other Egyptian gods).

Speaking of, he could also theoretically ask Annabeth if her cousin could put in a good word for him with some of the Norse pantheon, since Magnus sees at least a couple of gods on a daily to weekly basis.

There’s also always Mr. D.

And Hestia.

Percy could maybe even get Thalia to put in a good word for him with Artemis, or have Nico ask Hades (or any of the chthonic gods, really).

Hermes already owed Percy a favor that one time, plus they’re generally on good terms often. I would not be surprised if they just go back and forth on who owes the other what.

Percy also is on decent terms with Iris and knows where she usually hangs out. I would bet instead of a quest he could make a deal with her for a letter of recommendation in exchange for him trying to go pescatarian for a couple months.

Similarly, Percy has done personal quests for Apollo before (Singer of Apollo) but unfortunately the timeline set-up (Chalice of the Gods happens post-HoO/pre-TOA) means Percy can’t ask him.

I’m going to presume at Camp Jupiter, you cannot ask Lupa or the lares for letters of recommendation, despite the lares being house gods. Lupa cannot give letters of recommendation because she does not have opposable thumbs and also does not speak. She is just a divine wolf. If she can give letters of recommendation, they’re probably one of the ones almost everybody gets and they just kind of have to hope she won’t shred their letter (or them).

Terminus could give a letter. Like Mr. D, he’s just kind of always around.

Also, New Rome has many minor deities who live there from time to time. That’s probably one of the other most common routes Romans try to get their letters.