Percy Jackson, The Missing Hero.

36. The Prophecy.

Rachel stood in the doorway, a smile unsteady on her face. She'd clearly overheard the revelation and was trying to present an unflappable visage as she lingered there, nervously tugging at her ginger curls with one hand and twirling a paintbrush in the fingers of her other one.

"Rachel." Percy greeted before he could stop himself.

Rachel's eyes widened and she opened her mouth. Percy panicked, fully convinced that she was about to yell at him and suddenly he was glad that it was only a paintbrush in her hand, not a certain blue hairbrush that he was certain would be making contact with his face if it was to hand. Instead, her hands went slack, the paintbrush dropping to the floor and the other dropping to her side. Her eyes glowed green, smoke billowing from her open mouth.

A soul returned to revive a love taken,

Within the Maze's depths of darkness, the lover's voice will reawaken.

Sunlight bright will break the haze,

Deal struck in Moirai's cave,

On familiar shores will fall the blaze.

Question lies with Hades' son who to save.

In the hands of the four rests Olympus' Fate.

Rachel gasped as she returned to herself, staggering slightly. Leo was the closest to her, darting up and guiding her to sit in his vacated seat before taking himself off to sit on Jason's knee, ignoring Jason's grumbling due to the fact he'd had to let go of Piper's hand in order to stop Leo from falling straight to the floor.

"Are you alright?" Percy asked, trying to commit the prophecy she had just given to memory. Certain lines were standing out to him more than others and he sincerely hoped that the rest of the people in the room would be able to build an accurate retelling between them.

Luke stood, fetching a notebook from one of the bookshelves that lined one of the walls. Once he'd acquired a pen, he sat down again and thankfully started to scribble down what they had just heard, Thalia and Annabeth leaning in to point out mistakes and whisper corrections.

"That's never not going to be a pain in the ass." Rachel groaned, rubbing at her head. "Always gives me the heebie jeebies, even when I know it's coming."

"Sorry." Percy felt compelled to apologise, wincing as the word left his mouth.

"It's chill, just don't ask me to give you another one." Rachel waved a hand. "Give me a few hours at least for the 'mystic energies' to recharge. Unfortunately I don't work like an arcade fortune teller, you can't just stick another coin in me for a new one."

"Don't worry, we only need the one." Percy assured her, unable to stop the small smile that was crawling onto his face. He'd missed Rachel.

"So you're 'Blue', huh?" Rachel arched a brow at him. She was staring at him, an unimpressed look on her face.

"That would be me." Percy nodded, knowing that Rachel had known who he was from the moment she had walked into the room. The raised brow she was sporting seemed to be asking 'seriously' as she eyed the mask and cloak that he was wearing. It wasn't the first time he'd felt stupid wearing the get-up - and it certainly wouldn't be the last - but he was well aware that Rachel would roast him for eternity the minute she was able to.

"Cool beans." She acknowledged. "So what did I say?"

Luke frisbeed the notebook down the table on cue, the Prophecy that Rachel had just issued neatly written out in Luke's familiar handwriting. It seemed he'd ripped out the page with his first attempt after having to cross out and replace words at the instruction of Annabeth and Thalia. Rachel picked it up to study it, eyes narrowing as she read and re-read certain lines.