Lost & Found

Ch. 1

Ch. 1

Twelve immortal beings sat in a vast and lavish throne room high in the sky above New York City. The year was 2016 and the past five years had been anything but peaceful for the gods of Olympus and their children.

Five years earlier, the Titan Lord Kronos, father of the eldest Olympians, had managed to rise from Tartarus along with a handful of other Titans and wage a war against the gods in an attempt to overthrow them and take control of the world once again. The war had cut especially deep into the world of demigods. Brothers and sisters were forced to choose sides, often ending up on opposite sides of the battlefield. The war had claimed hundreds of demigod lives and cut emotional scars so deeply in others that they never truly recovered.

The second Titan War had been a lesson to the Olympians, one they were forced to never forget as they watched their own children, driven by anger and hatred born of their neglect, take up arms side by side with monster and Titan alike in an effort to destroy them.

In the end the gods had been saved. Not by their power or strength or by the might of the demigod children forced to fight to defend them but from one simple act; a singular act of sacrifice and forgiveness by a child who had lost so much in his short yet difficult life.

Luke Castellan had plunged a dagger into his own body in an act of bravery and sacrifice never before seen by the gods of Olympus as he destroyed the Titan Kronos and scattered his essence so far it would be millennia before he would be able to think about rising again.

It hadn't been Luke alone that made the decision. Two other heroes, Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase, were by his side fulfilling the greatest prophecy seen in the era of the gods and proving in the end that no matter how dark things had gotten there was always a way back; a way to rectify mistakes and earn redemption when it thought impossible.

While Percy and Annabeth were hailed as the saviors of Olympus, they never forgot who it was that made the true sacrifice that saved them all. Their family and friends, the gods and the campers all seemed to forget about Luke and were eager to give the credit to the two young demigods.

Annabeth was named the new architect of Olympus, given free rein to design whatever her heart desired within the city of the gods.

Percy was offered a gift that hadn't been offered since the days of Heracles; the chance to become a god... immortal, undying, to live forever as his father's lieutenant.

Being the consummate hero, he denied the offer in the hope that his reward could be used more productively; a chance for demigods to be recognized by their parents so that never again would siblings have to look across the battlefield and see their brothers and sisters taking up arms against them after the feeling of neglect drove them into the arms of the enemy.

Percy Jackson was not a simple person. He was actually quite smart. Perhaps not in the book sense but one would be foolish to call him unintelligent. Many thought he was exactly that after turning down the chance to be a god but they failed to see things in the long term. Being immortal sounded like the greatest thing in the world but without the people he loved, was it really something he was interested in?

His answer was a bold no.

Despite the young age of sixteen, he knew life was only as good as the people you shared it with. His family and friends, they were mortal and if he wanted to enjoy his life with them, then that was what he needed to be as well.

Perhaps if he had known what was to come, he might have chosen differently.

Instead of a peaceful life, he and Annabeth were again thrown into a war where the very survival of the gods and the mortal world lay on their shoulders.