°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･ ENDGAME} act i. . .
. . .the way you betrayed me
CHAPTER SIX °❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･
— 'wild eyes on the road '
°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･Rayn °❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･
Ares got us a free ride, in the back of a train filled with animals.
Grover was trying to direct the light over to Annabeth who was holding glass to try I-M camp.
"Does that help?" Grover asked.
"I guess so," she was still fidgeting with the glass trying to make it work.
"Can you see where we are?"
Grover stuck his head out the small window.
"Almost there." Finally, I cant take one more second crammed up in here with literal animals.
Percy was finally waking up infront of me.
"Morning sleeping beauty." I muttered, how was he able to sleep on this quest? The fate of the world is literally in our hands.
Ignoring my remark he got up beside Annabeth. I think she almost has it.
"There. I've got a signal." She yelped. I flicked the drachma into the air, hopefully it actually works.
"Okay, this will never stop being weird." Percy uttered out sleepily.
"If you want the gods' attention, you have to pay for it." He still didn't seem happy with my comments at him today.
"Oh, Iris, Goddess of the Rainbow, please accept my offering." Annabeth chanted with her eyes closed. The rainbow on the wall turned rose coloured. "Okay, show me Camp Half-Blood. Chiron's office."
"Luke?" Questioned Percy. He had a completely different tone to me.
"Luke!" I gasped. Excited to see him for the first time in forever.
"Wait, guys? Are you okay!?" Luke's voice echoed.
"Yeah, w-we're fine." Why was Annabeth stuttering? "Where's Chiron?"
"Chiron's holding camp together with both hands." Luke paused for a moment. "Everyone thinks we're going to war, so the cabins are taking sides."
We all looked at each other. How did camp know about the war that might happen?
"Please tell me you're calling with good news." Luke practically was begging us.
"We know who stole the bolt." I claimed. That seemed to shock Luke.
"How do you know?" He questioned me. Weird.
"We ran into Ares, and Grover got him talking and realised Ares knew who the thief was but was covering for them." Annabeth spewed her words out quickly. "So, who would Ares cover for other than—"
"His favourite daughter." Luke interjected. "Clarisse is the lightning thief."
"Chiron's gotta arrest her, find out what she knows. There's more to this than just the bolt, something bigger." Percy was explaining his theory to Luke, so I zoned out. Eventually Percy stopped blabbering on about what we all know.
"So Ares huh, what was that like." Luke looked over at my direction, knowing what happened when I met Ares before.
"Well..." Percy got distracted looking at Luke and me after the mention of Ares. "Compared to the Chimera on Monday and Medusa on Sunday, could've been a lot worse."
"Medusa was Saturday." Was he really that clueless?
"I thought Sunday."
"No monsters on Sunday. Monday, you died in the river." Remembering that feeling of not knowing if he was alive or not, Luke spoke again which snapped me out of whatever 'trance' I was in.
"Guys, what is this?" He questioned us.
"What?" We both asked in sync.
"When did you turn into an old married couple?" I wasn't sure how to respond to that but thankfully Percy spoke up.
"Not to change the subject, but I'm gonna. We need your advice on something." What did we need advice on? I thought we covered everything we had to ask him. "We're headed to Las Vegas to find your dad—"
Annabeth shoved the glass into her pocket.
"Are you serious." I quizzed Percy.
"What was that about?" He demanded.
"You cant ask Luke about his dad." Annabeth was rather calm to him.
"Well, now I certainly can't." Rolling my eyes at him he got a defensive look on his face.
"He will try to talk us out of it if we tell him we're going to see Hermes," she explained, annoyed now. "We don't need that right now."
"They don't get along?" He seemed shocked, what did he think? All of our parents didn't want to see us.
"At all." Annabeth sighed heavily.
"Okay, got some updates." Grover walked over. The three of us stood up in sync to hear the news. "The men driving this truck are not nice people. Traffickers."
"We can do our best to help all these animals escape," I couldn't let these animals stay here with these men, I'm sure Grover and the others will agree.
"But not if it means we're jeopardising the quest." Annabeth added. Was she serious? Helping some animals wouldn't do any harm.
"Oh, no, no, no. They've already got a plan to get themselves out." Thank the Gods Grover speaks to animals. "And us to. They are only missing one piece of the puzzle...thumbs."
"Once the cages are open they have a plan from there?" Why was Annabeth questioning letting these animals free so much?
"Yeah, I mean these guys, they're like artists."
°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･
The animals weren't really prepared. Las Vegas now had zoo animals running around the streets.
"This seems dangerous." Percy whispered to Grover, not so quietly.
"Oh. They'll be totally fine, I gave them a Satyr's blessing. So they'll be able to reach the wilderness safely." Grover shrugged. I think Annabeth was right, this would probably jeopardise our quest.
"I meant for the people." Grover paused for a moment, realising that the people were probably in more danger than the animals.
"Oh them, well I'm sure they'll..... yeah, I don't know. But the animals are all set."
"Okay, come on, before the cops show up." I listened as the cop car sirens grew louder and louder. Annabeth was right, we have to go.
"So, how do we know which hotel is the Lotus?" I turned around to see a massive hotel with a lotus on top of it.
"I'm guessing the one with the giant lotus blossom on it." Looking at Percy he had a moment of realisation wash over him.
"You were like two seconds ahead of me. Seriously." He sounded defensive, all I could do was laugh. "Sometimes, it might be okay to just let the easy ones go. Can we agree to just try it, maybe?"
°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･Percy °❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･
The Lotus was amazing. There was rollercoasters, games, anything you could dream of being there.
"I know we're supposed to be saving the world, but would it be unprofessional if we just hung out here for a bit?" After saying that I got a few death stares from the team.
"We find Hermes. We get him to hook us up with a ride to Los Angelos and a plant to get into the Underworld, we are out is here ten seconds later." Annabeth explained the plan to everyone...again.
"I was kidding." Having to clarify that I was not stupid and knew we have to get out of here as quick as possible.
"Wait, hang on." Grover put his arm out in front of me to stop me from walking.
"What?" It was like everyone said that at the same time.
"We have to be careful, this place isn't going to be as amazing as it seems. I mean a God hangs out here." Grover said, he was right I guess.
"What do you think, flower power?" Looking over at Rayn, she looked shocked at my new nickname for her. It was only fair for her calling me, seaweed brain.
"Just be careful in there." She took her eyes off of me and looked across the group.
°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･
"This place is a lot bigger on the inside," Grover gasped. "He could be anywhere!"
"Let's split up." Rayn suggested. "We'll cover more ground that way."
The others nodded in response.
"I thought we didn't do that anymore." Nobody responded.
"Also, you guys have seen him before, but I haven't." Explaining to them that I would just be walking around clueless, probably getting lost.
"So I'm not going to be much help alone."
"Grover you check over there, Annabeth you take over there, I'll take Percy with me this way." Rayn proposed to everyone. "One way or the other, we meet back in the lobby in 20 minutes."
"What do I say to him if I find him first?" Grover questioned.
"Nothing. Meet me here and you'll take me to him." What did Rayn want to say to Hermes that Grover couldn't?
I didn't get much say because she grabbed my wrist and pulled me along with her to the area we had to check.
We'd been looking around in silence for who knows how long.
"Look," I was trying to break this awkward silence. "If I tell you something do you promise to not make fun of me?"
"Dude."
"Right. Okay." For some reason it was hard to confess about what I saw in my dream. "So, I've been having these dreams. For a while, they were weird."
"Everyone has weird dreams." She brushed me off. Ignoring her, I continued.
"Then, they got scary." I looked up at her to see her looking up at me.
"This guy started showing up and talking to me," I continued with my dream story, "but not like in a regular dream. It's more like he knows we're in a dream."
I noticed Rayn was still listening intently so I kept going.
"Today was different, like somehow I was in his dream. Like I was eavesdropping on him talking to. . ."
"Talking to who?" She questioned me.
"To the person who stole the master bolt for him." I clarified.
"You're eavesdropping on Hades conspiring with Clarisse through your dreams?"
"The part I don't get, though, is that they were talking about what comes next." I was still baffled about my dream.
"Like getting Zeus and Poseidon to fight was only the beginning, and they're planning something bigger on top of it." I had to know what she thought about it. "So, do you think it's real? Because if it's real, something the gods don't even know about, I mean. . . What are we supposed to do about that?"
"I don't know." She sighed deeply looking down at the floor for a moment.
"You don't know?"
"There are things I don't know." Rayn responded back defensively.
"Yeah, but if you don't know, what chance do I have?"
°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･Rayn °❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･
We finally spotted Hermes gathered around by some others, what's weird was that they all had completely different outfits on. One dressed like he was from history another from farther back in history, you get what I mean? They were dressed old.
"Hey, demigods! Welcome!" The god called out to us. Percy and I just looked at each other, unsure what to do.
"We were sent to find you." I decided to speak up.
"Well, you found me. Come join us." He gestured us over to the table. Neither of us moved an inch though. "You kids know how to play craps?"
"Look, we don't really have a lot of time. We need your help to—"
"I know what you need my help for. You want my help to sneak into the Underworld."
"Wow. You're a really good guesser." Percy told him.
"I exist beyond space and time, kid. Why do you think they put me in charge of delivering the mail?" Hermes asked Percy, almost like he didn't want an answer. "Look, you're not the first demigods to ask and, trust me, you won't be the first demigods to walk away disappointed."
"We're friends of Luke's." I told the god, maybe he would change his tone now.
"Yeah." Hermes looked at us then down, "okay." He dragged us towards a quiet room.
I wasn't sure if I wanted to know what this room was used for. . .
°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･
"Time and space are easy kids. Parenting is. . . Something else entirely." He sighed, sitting down on the couch. "Have a seat."
Hesitantly we both sat down across from the god.
"I remember you." Hermes was looking in my direction now. "You were there. Last time I saw Luke."
"Yes. I saw you argue. I heard what he said about what happened to his mom was your fault." I paused not sure if I should be saying this to a god. Oh well. "That it was all your fault. That he hated you."
Looking around, they were both staring at me to continue.
"Help us retrieve Zeus's master bolt from Hades, and he'll see that you care." The god looked at both of us.
"There is a way into the Underworld. A secret way. I've helped others find it before, you know what happens every time?"
"What?" Percy questioned. Was he that oblivious.
"You don't want my help, trust me." Hermes spun the whiskey in his glass around the edges before taking a sip.
"No, we actually kind of do." Percy told him.
He told us about Luke and his mom. About how visiting them was the wrong choice for everyone.
"I know you know about that." The god reached out and tapped me on my wrist, reminding me of my first quest.
"Are you going to help us or not." I snapped, irritated now.
"I don't get involved anymore, it's not worth it, sorry." He sat back sipping his whiskey.
"Well, we don't have time to waste." I stood up away from the table, walking away.
°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･Percy °❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･
Rayn had left me with the god across from me.
"She's right to be angry. It's not fair."
"Thanks a lot. That's super helpful." I was about to walk away as well until his words stopped me.
"It was your father who warned me to stay away. Said it was awful watching you struggle and feel powerless to stop it." He looked me deep in my eyes.
"But that sometimes, that's what parenting is. . ."
"I was supposed to see him," I could feel tears forming in my eyes, I can't let myself cry in front of a god. I won't. "He said he'd meet me in Santa Monica. Why would he say that if he thinks it'll make things worse?"
"It is. . . very hard for a god to feel powerless. I guess we're all just doing the best we can." Hermes sighed. "If it makes you feel better it won't be much use now anyway."
"What's that supposed to mean." I glared back at the god. He looked at his watch.
°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･
I ran as fast as possible to the front doors, it was dark out.
"We have a huge problem." I said to Rayn who was staring outside as well.
"I know it seems like we've only been here for like 20 minutes, but it's already Thursday."
"Hermes let us sit at the table, knowing time was running out." She turned towards me. "I feel better about stealing his keys now."
"Yeah, wait what?" She held up a pair of old keys.
"Annabeth loaned me her hat on the train, picked his pocket." She sounded proud of herself.
"You picked Hermes pocket?"
"I'm multi-talented. Now we need to find his car."
"Hermes told me, the reason we can't feel time passing is because of the lotus fruit. It's pumped into the air."
It felt like I had forgotten something, like an important something.
"We came here with someone. . ." Not being able to remember, I stared blankly at Rayn. She was staring off at a. . . Satyr?
"Grover and Annabeth!" I yelped. The satyr saw us staring and ran. She sped off after him so I followed.
The man leaped across the tables, then jumped down to the floor. He wasn't able to walk much more since i had tackled him to the floor.
"Where is Grover!" I shook the satyr forcing him to answer.
°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･
Rayn went to find Annabeth while I went to get Grover. I didn't think we should split up incase we forgot each other but she insisted.
I walked over to some VR area to see Grover punching the air.
"Grover?" He didn't seem to hear me so I pulled the monitor off of his head.
"Hey! I was almost done with that level!"
"Yeah, I hate it when people do that to me. But we have to go, like right now!"
He looked at me puzzled. "You don't know who I am, do you?"
"No, nice to meet you!" Grover reached out his hand to shake mine.
"Alright well, we're on a really cool quest right now that is time limited so let's go!"
°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･Rayn °❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･
I saw Percy and Grover at the front office. Running towards them pulling Annabeth behind me.
"Run!" I screeched at them, looking back at the casino staff chasing us that realised we weren't in their trance anymore. Percy looked behind us and ran out the door.
"What happened!?" He questioned while we ran towards the parking lot.
"Well, they wanted me to play games with them, I said no and they freaked out and tried to force me to play, so I. . ." I wasn't sure if I should tell Percy what I did or not.
"She hit them with a pool stick." Annabeth finished my sentence.
"Rayn! So much for being discreet." He sighed.
We started searching for a car Hermes would drive.
"Here it is." I walked over to a yellow taxi.
"Are you sure Hermes drives. . .that?" Percy asked, rather sassy if I do say so myself.
"Yeah, it's definitely his." I picked up an envelope showing the group, it was addressed to the 'dumb kids'.
"Right." He stared at the envelope while I opened it.
"It's a way into the underworld." I passed the note over to Percy for him to scan it.
"Great, but who is driving?" Annabeth asked.
°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･
Whoever decided that Percy should drive was an idiot, oh right, Percy decided! He drove the car forward smacking into the pillar.
"Right, now how do I go back?" He reversed back into a steam pipe.
After what felt like forever, he finally made it infront of the exit.
"Now just go straight." He looked beside him at me nodding his head.
"Yeah, easy peasy," at first he was doing great, then not so much.
I looked over at him smiling, then he met my eyes and smiled back. Maybe he shouldn't have taken his eyes off of the road since the car went into the wall, scraping across it. Sparks went everywhere. Percy turned the other way and onto the road.
I looked outside the window to see a truck heading right towards us.
"Rayn!" Percy called out.
°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･Percy °❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･
I closed my eyes, not wanting to see her get hit by the truck, but when the hit never came I opened my eyes to see we were on the beach.
"What the. . ." Rayn questioned, I think we were all wondering how we teleported.
"Wait, I know yous. . ." Grover muttered, "Percy you're my best friend," he looked over at the girls and realised what had happened.
"Welcome back buddy," I smiled at Grover, he remembered our bromance.
I heard the door on the passenger side open, Rayn had gotten out of the car. Everyone else followed outside. Then I realised what I had to do, go see my father.
"I have to go meet him. . ." Some reason the sea called to me, like it was inviting me to come over.
"Percy what are you doing?" Annabeth yelled, her voice sounded like it was miles away.
I tried to hold my breath underwater as I approached the seaweed. It was no use, I gasped for air but I could. . . breathe?
I was about to go into the green noodle mess but a familiar voice spoke, the lady from the river.
"I'm sorry, he waited for as long as he could," her soft voice soothed me. Until I realised my dad wasn't here, I'd missed him. "He's preparing for war, you can return to camp half-blood. You'll be safe there."
"No. My quest isn't over."
"It's passed summer solstice." Her voice never lowered or went higher. Just stayed the same, soft spoken pitch.
"I will finish this quest, it is my quest." I think I came off as rude but she never got angry, but she did think for a moment.
"Very well, but you will need these." The lady pulled out 5 pearls. "When you must leave the Underworld, these will bring you back."
"Why is there 5?" I questioned her confused.
"Save the world, then save your mother." She smiled softly.
"Thank you." After taking the pearls, she smiled at me.
"I must go now, goodbye Perseus Jackson." She disappeared into the seaweed forest.
"Wait!" Something made me want to follow her but I looked up at the surface seeing my friends waiting, we had to keep moving to finish this quest.
°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･
After making it onto the beach, I thought Rayn was coming over to punch me.
"Where did you go!" She yelled at me.
"To meet my dad but he wasn't there," she looked at me sadly.
"I'm so sorry Percy."
"Don't be, I got us a way out of the underworld." I held out the pearls towards them. "Free ride to get out."
"Are we really going to the underworld?" Grover questioned.
"Yup." All 3 of us answered.
•I'm so so so sorry this took ages and it's not rlly that long I have exams sadly so I cant update that often but I will try to get the chapters out ASAP.
•also love the bromance <3
•DOUBLE ALSO, so sorry if this seems rushed