AN: Hey guys...it's been awhile. Firstly, I'm so sorry for not updating this story in like a year. Honestly it's been so long that I can barely remember what I've written. However, I'm in university now, but I want to try and write some more chapters. I'm a first year, so I should have time, it is just about me making the effort to keep writing. Thanks so much for all the support on this story and for keeping with me during this time of me being a lazy asshole and not writing. Back to the story, I will do my best to finish the Titan War, and we'll see if I write the Giant War. Also, please let me know if you want to see anything or if you have any critiques. Hope y'all enjoy this chapter!
Recap:
"There's no one better for him than you," she said softly, barely reaching Perseus' ears over the soft whistling of the wind by the water.
Perseus' eyes widened, before a small smile grew on his face: not one of playfulness, but a genuine smile that contained more emotions within it that Zoë had never seen on Perseus before. As they looked into each others eyes, Zoë felt her own eyes widening, before Perseus closed his eyes and looked down at the sand, causing a lump to form in Zoë's throat, and a feeling of sadness to wash over her.
"I should go," he said, letting go of her hand that Zoë didn't even realize he had and standing up.
"Where are you going?" Zoë asked gently.
Perseus' expression went from happy to serious in an instant. "To secure the camp," he responded, before heading back in the direction of the Big House.
Present:
Perseus headed back to the big house and saw Chiron stretching his legs on the porch.
"Where's the old man?" Perseus asked, causing Chiron's mouth to twitch.
"Dionysus? He's away," Chiron said with amusement, before his expression turned serious. "How are you feeling about the Labyrinth?"
Perseus' expression steeled as he turned to face the camp cabins. "I don't know. Also I know is that Max has a tough few years in front of him."
Chiron hummed his acknowledgement. "Yes, young Maximus does have a lot on his plate."
Perseus turned to face Chiron, his expression stoic. "And I will be there for him every step of the way, whether it be with training or his emotions."
Chiron gave Perseus a small smile. "I expected as much Perseus. You share much with your brother."
Perseus looked at Chiron with a confused expression. "Maximus? I mean yes we share a father, but he is young and inexperienced."
Chiron smiled. "I mean Achilles. Yes, he was brash, but you were both strong and would do anything for each other. And I see you feel the same towards young Maximus."
Perseus looked towards the setting sun with a small smile. "You may be right old man," he said with a hint of a smile.
Chiron chuckled, before turning away and heading back into the Big House, leaving Perseus to mull in his own thoughts.
Perseus sat on the Big House porch reminiscing of the time he spent with his brother, the spars the had, the battles they fought, the wine they drank. As a tear went down his face, he didn't notice a little son of Hades approach him.
"Hi Percy," Nico said softly.
Perseus turned to see Nico standing there, and gestured for him to take a seat.
"What can I do for you, Nico?" Perseus asked in a similar tone.
"How do you get over it?" Nico asked shyly.
Perseus looked at him with a confused expression.
"Losing a sibling?" Nico asked, gesturing at the tear sliding down Perseus' face
Perseus looked at Nico and took a deep breath. "I don't think I truly have," Perseus started. "It's like losing a limb, a part of you. Achilles was my rock, and losing him was the worst experience of my life thus far. I even tried to kill an Olympian because of it," Perseus said with a chuckle, causing Nico's eyes to widen.
"I'll have to tell you about that later. Anyways, it is hard. However, you will always have the memories you made with them, and while you are a special case, Bianca will always be in here," Perseus said, touching Nico's chest where his heart is.
Perseus sighed. "Besides, you can always Iris Message her when you get the chance. I know the Hunters are paranoid about boys, but you are like 10 years old."
"I'm eleven," Nico huffed indignantly.
Perseus chuckled. "Oh no, little Nico is 11 now, help me," he said, a smile breaking out onto both demigod's faces.
After a few moments, Perseus looked at Nico. "How did you even get here?" He asked.
Nico looked at the ground. "Dad shadow travelled me here."
Perseus smiled. "Come, I'll bring you back to the underworld," he said, standing up and holding out his arm. Nico grabbed it as Perseus pulled the shadows towards him and felt the cooling sensation of shadow travelling.
When he took a step forwards, he found himself in the front of Hades' palace. Perseus smiled as Nico headed towards the doors and turned to give him a wave, which he responded with a small wave of his own.
The young son of Hades never failed to make him smile with his energy, which is ironic because of his father. After mulling his thoughts for a few minutes, Perseus vapor travelled back to camp due to his tiredness and walked towards the big house before stopping for a moment. He then turned on his heel and headed towards the Poseidon cabin. He entered and saw Max sleeping soundly on his bed.
Perseus gave the sleeping demigod a small smile and kissed him on the forehead before lying down on a cot and closing his eyes.
LINE BREAK
Perseus awoke to Max still sleeping, so he went out towards the Big House, where he saw Chiron around the ping pong table. "Come Perseus, help me move this to the arena," Chiron started.
Perseus looked at Chiron questioningly. "War council?" He asked. Chiron nodded. Perseus sighed before folding the ping pong table and rolling it towards the arena. Once he got there and set up the table, he walked towards the sword rack. He briefly touched each handle of each sword before picking out a xiphos that he felt was kind of balanced in his hand, and twirled it a few times before gripping it with his right hand.
He got into a stance, and after a few seconds, he sprang forward with a powerful overhead strike. He was a blur of strikes and stabs, and even mixed in a few elbows and kicks in. He was so lost in his work that he wasn't paying attention to his surroundings.
"Perseus!" Chiron said sharply.
Perseus stopped mid swing to see Chiron, Quintus, and the cabin leaders with their eyes popping out of their sockets.
"Come," Chiron said, gesturing to the table, to which the cabin leaders all took their seats, while Chiron and Quintus stood by the weapon racks. Perseus sighed and stood to the side.
"Luke must have known about the Labyrinth entrance," Annabeth said. "He knew everything about camp."
Juniper cleared her throat. "That's what I was trying to tell you last night. The cave entrance has been there a long time. Luke used to use it."
Perseus whipped his head around. He was surprised to see the nymph there, but he quickly wrote it off due to the satyr she was sitting next to, which caused him to smile. He liked Grover, and felt for the young satyr. The pursuit for Pan was a tough mission, and the Council of Cloven Elders was not taking Grover's failures lightly.
Perseus refocused to hear Annabeth mention going into the Labyrinth, causing his eyes to widen. What are they thinking? Perseus thought to himself.
As he listened to the conversation, he smirked when he heard Annabeth and Max arguing about the Labyrinth. If it weren't about such a dangerous topic, one could think of the two as a married couple.
Suddenly, someone cleared their throat, and everyone turned to look at the culprit, a certain daughter of Ares.
"First thing is, we need a quest," Clarisse said. "And it's obvious who should lead it. Annabeth."
There were hums of agreement across the table, but Annabeth looked uncomfortable. "Thank you Clarisse, but you've done much more surrounding the Labyrinth than me. You should lead."
Clarisse quickly shook her head and her face turned sheet white. "No. I'm not going back there."
A son of Hermes who Perseus recognized as Travis Stoll chuckled. "You scared Clarisse? Chicken?"
Clarisse stormed to her feet, and stomped towards Travis, and before anything could happen, Perseus put his sword in between the two demigods. He gave both of them a glare before dropping his sword arm.
"You don't understand anything, punk," Clarisse growled. "I'm never going in there again. Never!"
With that, the demigoddess stormed out fo the arena as the rest of the cabin leaders watched in silence.
Chiron sighed. "Thank you Perseus," he started. "The poor girl has had a rough year. Now, we all agree that Annabeth should lead the quest?"
Everyone nodded besides Quintus, who just crossed his arms, causing Perseus to glare at the swordsman.
Chiron sighed. "Very well. You know what time it is my dear," he said, looking at Annabeth. "Time to see the Oracle."
LINE BREAK
Perseus was surprised to not see Zoë at the meeting, so he went off to find her. However, he needed to pick up his new sword. He walked over to the Hephaestus cabin and rapped on the door. A camper opened the door, and her eyes widened when she saw the ancient demigod. She quickly shut the door, and Perseus chuckled when he heard shuffling in the cabin.
A few moments later, Beckendorf opened the door, a sword in a plain sheath. "Here is is," Beckendorf said with pride. "Just as you described, but made of Celestial Bronze. Once you told me it was a replica of Achilles' sword, I could not wait to get to work."
Perseus took the blade and gave it a few experimental swings. It was balanced, and it felt good, but it would never feel as good as Anaklusmos.
"Thank you Beckendorf," Perseus said sincerely. "It's brilliant."
Beckendorf smiled. "No, thank you Perseus. It was a pleasure to remake a blade of one of Greece's finest warriors." With that, the son of Hephaestus went back into his cabin, and Perseus smiled at his new blade.
Before seeing Zoë, he went to put his new sword back in the Poseidon cabin. Max was still waiting for Annabeth in the Big House, and Perseus was sure that Max would inform him of the prophecy right away, so he went to look for Zoë.
He wanted to check the archery range first, but something was telling him that Zoë was still in her cabin.
When he approached Artemis' cabin, he observed it. If he was honest, it looked like someone had thrown up silver all over it, and decorated it with Artemis' sacred animals and symbols.
Perseus sighed, before knocking on the door.
"Yes?" A voice from inside called.
"It's Perseus," Perseus replied. He heard shuffling inside the cabin before a tired-looking Zoë opened the door.
She was dressed in a simple plain silver t-shirt and pants, and her hair was still a little bit messy from waking up, and Perseus thought she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
Zoë cleared her throat, taking Perseus out of his stupor, but he swore that he could see a little bit of red on her cheeks. "Why are you here?" She asked impatiently.
Perseus looked at her in her onyx-colored eyes. "I was worried. You didn't show up to the war council."
Zoë frowned. "I'm not really a camper. I'm just here because the Gods want to keep an eye on me."
Perseus sighed. "Zoë, you aren't a prisoner. Besides, if you weren't here, you wouldn't see me every day. That's something you wouldn't want, right?" He asked teasingly.
"N-" Zoë started.
"Doesn't matter," Perseus said with a slight smirk. "Annabeth is getting her prophecy about the Labyrinth, and my brother will be there because, he'll probably go and he has a crush on her that is obvious to literally everyone in camp."
Zoë groaned. "Fine, let me go change."
Perseus grabbed her arm softly. For a moment, they stared into each others eyes, enamored. After a few seconds, Zoë broke eye contact and slunk back into her cabin.
Perseus sighed. Everything was so complicated. There was no way she could love him, but he knew he'd never love anyone else as much as he loved Zoë.
After a few minutes, Zoë came out and together the two walked to the Big House.
As the two approached, they heard Chiron say "What did the prophecy say? Focus on the wording."
Annabeth shivered, before speaking: "You shall delve in the darkness of the endless maze...the traitor and the lost one raise...you shall rise or fall by the ghost king's hand...the Child of Athena's final stand"
Perseus stood there in silence along with the rest of the camp.
"Hey, Annabeth is not Athena's only child, we shouldn't jump to conclusions," Silena said, trying to placate the campers.
Perseus stared at Quintus, who was looking at the floor. Had the inventor accepted his fate? Perseus would have to keep an eye on him.
"Who is the ghost king?" One camper asked.
Perseus looked at Maximus, and shook his head. They knew who it was. Nico was currently in the underworld, so how would he play a role into this.
"Are there any more lines?" Chiron asked Annabeth.
Annabeth hesitated. Perseus narrowed his eyes. Annabeth was a daughter of Athena, and one of her smarter ones based on what he's seen and heard about her. She would never hesitate about something like this...unless...Skáta, Perseus swore. Luke.
"I don't really remember," Annabeth said. "Something about Destroy with a heroes final breath."
"And?" Chiron prompted.
"Look, it doesn't matter, I have to go in," Annabeth said decisively, causing Perseus to snort softly. He knew the last two lines were definitely about Luke.
He paused his thoughts when he saw Annabeth turn to Max. "I need help, you in?"
Maximus didn't even hesitate, "Of course," he said confidently, causing Perseus to smile at his brother.
Annabeth prattled on. "I'll need Tyson and Grover too. The wild god is waiting Grover, and I'll need Tyson for navigation and mechanical stuff."
Chiron looked at her nervously as both Grover and Tyson voiced their approval. "Remember, three is a sacred number for quests. Last winter a group of 5 went to free Artemis, Perseus had to break fate to save everyone. Three is a good number, three fates, three sons of Kronos, three furies..." he trailed off.
Annabeth shook her head. "I need them," she said simply.
Chiron shook his head sadly and looked over at Quintus, who had a stoic expression on his face. Chiron sighed. "Alright. Let us adjourn. The members of the quest must prepare themselves. We will send you into the Labyrinth at dawn tomorrow."
AN: Hey guys, hope you enjoyed this chapter. Firstly, I just wanted to address something. I'm not sure what comes first, the Trojan War or Daedalus and Theseus and the Labyrinth, but from what I've seen online, the Trojan War happened before Theseus defeated the Minotaur, so I'm just going to have Perseus be alive during that time. I think he will have just been a drifter and not be involved in any major Greek myths until he sees Athena during the fall of Greece. Like he will have been following the Hunt a little, and just living a life of seclusion. What do you all think about that? Secondly, I can't really think of a prophecy, so I'm basically using the same one but with a little bit of a change in the plot.
Also, this chapter might be terrible because I wrote it on like 5 hours of sleep because it was my last night of spring break, and I got woken up by drunk people at least 3 times. Anyways, thanks so much for sticking with me, and take care and review!