CHAPTER NINE - I INVITE MYSELF ON A DEATH MISSION

I was expecting Percy to start talking to me again after the hellhound incident, but I was wrong. He still avoided me every time I came within fifty feet.

I didn't fully understand why he was choosing to ignore me. He became alien at camp. No one talked to him, but when he passed by, campers started whispering, about the hellhound, and the fact that he, technically, shouldn't exist.

He moved into the Poseidon cabin. He was miserable about it, it was written all over his face. When he went through the daily activities, he just went to the area that no one was at. Nobody would practice with him, so his sword fighting lessons became one-on-one with Luke. I didn't like that.

Every night, I would think until my brain hurt, trying to figure out why I disliked Luke so much. All I could come up with, was that he was bad news. I couldn't talk to anyone about it, either. The first time I asked Will if he thought something was off with Luke, he looked at me like I was insane. "Luke is one of the most knowledgeable campers here, including the Athena cabin. Everyone loves him," he had said. I kept my thoughts to myself, after that.

*

A few nights after capture the flag, I had a nightmare.

I was running on a beach. A storm was raging, the sky and sea boiling together. I saw a city in the distance behind me, and I was shocked when I recognized it. It was Los Angeles, the very city I grew up in.

In my dream, I heard someone yell my name. Avalon, what are you doing here? I wheeled around and saw Percy.

I tried to speak, but my voice failed me once again. All I could do was gape at him, my mouth opening and closing like a fish.

It didn't look like Percy was too concerned with my answer, anyways. In fact, he wasn't even focused on me. I turned around to see what he was staring at.

A ways down the surf, two men were grappling. They wore Greek tunics, one trimmed in blue, and the other in green. Every time they connected, the storm grew worse. Lightning cracked against the sky. There was no rain, but the air was cold, and the wind ripped at my clothes, trying to push me back.

Percy ran past me, trying to get to the fighting men. I yelled at him to wait, but he ignored me. The harder he tried to run, the faster the wind blew. He yelled, Stop it! Stop fighting!

The ground rumbled. It felt like an earthquake, but I knew instinctively that it wasn't caused from the fault-line shifting. Laughter rose from the depths of the earth, making Percy freeze in place. Then the laughter was replaced with a voice. A voice that I knew, that plagued my dreams before.

Come down, little heroes, the voice said. Come down!

The sand split into two, opening a crevice the size of a city block. Percy was the first to fall through, with me not far behind.

I sat up quickly, only to bump my head against someone else's. The person above me yelped in pain.

"I was just coming to wake you up. You looked like you were having a bad dream," they said. I recognized the voice as Lee's. I wiped the sleep from my eyes and looked up at him, smiling weakly.

"It was nothing," I lied. My eyes wandered around the cabin. It was empty, except for the two of us. "Where is everyone?"

Lee gestured to the door. "Early morning volleyball game against the satyrs. Naomi asked me to come get you. They need an extra player."

I nodded, and moved to get ready for the day. As I was putting on my shoes, I heard voices outside of the cabin.

"Do we need an umbrella?" Percy's voice made me shiver, because it reminded me of my dream.

"No," someone replied. Grover. "It never rains here unless we want it to."

"What the heck is that, then?"

Grover must've replied, but they were already out of hearing range. I stumbled out of my cabin. A huge storm cloud was coming our way. The sky was black, and Long Island Sound was gray, waves crashing against the beach. Rain was falling hard over the ocean.

I muttered a curse under my breath. How could I have forgotten today? I overslept, and now I needed to high-tail it to the Big House if I was to catch the conversation.

I turned to Lee. "Sorry," I said. "You're going to have to find someone else for the game. I need to go with Percy and Grover."

"Wouldn't they have stopped to get you if you needed to go with them?" Lee asked.

"They don't know that I need to be there."

Lee made to ask another question, but stopped at the last minute. "This has to do with what you know, doesn't it?"

I nodded. Lee sighed, and wiped a hand over his face. "Okay, but I'm pretty sure Naomi is going to hold you to make-up game."

"If I survive long enough to make it back to camp," I muttered under my breath. If Lee heard me, he made no move to show it. I turned away from him and ran to the Big House.

By the time I got there, Mr. D was rising from the pinochle table on the front porch. "I'm off to Olympus for the emergency meeting," he said. "If the boy is still here when I get back, I'll turn him into an Atlantic bottlenose. Do you understand? And Perseus Jackson, if you're at all smart, you'll see that's a much more sensible choice than what Chiron feels you must do."

He picked up a pinochle playing card, and it changed into a security pass. He snapped his fingers, and the air bent around him. He disappeared, leaving the scent of freshly-pressed grapes in his wake.

Chiron smiled in Percy's direction, whose back was towards me. I realized that he hasn't seen me yet. Before he could get the chance, I ducked behind a pillar.

"Sit, Percy, please. And Grover," Chiron said. I was sure that he knew I was there, he just didn't want to acknowledge me yet. He must have been waiting for an opportune moment to bring me into the conversation.

"Tell me, Percy," he continued. "What did you make of the hellhound?"

I heard Percy take a deep breath. "It scared me," he said. "If...if Avalon hadn't shot it, I'd be dead." His voice changed when he said my name. It turned to poison in his mouth. My heart sank.

"Do not judge Avalon so harshly, Percy," Chiron chided. "She almost died protecting your mother. And doing so with hardly knowing you...that was brave, even for a demigod."

"Wait, what do you mean 'hardly knowing you?'" Percy demanded. I risked a glance from behind the pillar. Grover and Chiron looked guilty, like Percy had just caught them in a trap.

Chiron shifted his weight in his magical wheelchair. "Percy, how long have you known Avalon?"

"What kind of question is that? I've known her as long as you and Grover have known her. Since the beginning of the school year, at Yancy." Percy was making wild hand gestures as he spoke.

Chiron nodded. "And how long have you known Percy, Avalon?" He said. Percy looked at him in confusion. He still hadn't seen me, even though I wasn't hiding anymore.

This was as good a time as any to insert myself into the conversation, I guessed. I walked up to the table. "Since the Metropolitan field trip," I said. Percy looked at me in disbelief, and I winced in apology.

"What are you talking about?" He asked.

I looked at Chiron, desperately. "Percy, we've discussed the Mist, yes?" he asked. Percy shook his head no. "Well, it is a very powerful force. It can distort memories as well as appearances. The first time Avalon met you, it was on the bus on the way to the museum. You just thought that you had known her for the entire year."

Percy held his hands to his head, trying to process the information. "I wanted to tell you, Percy," I said. "I really did. But I had sworn to Chiron that I wouldn't say anything until we had both reached camp safely. And by that time, everything was going so fast that I didn't get the chance to pull you aside and explain everything. And, well, you weren't talking to me. Grover doesn't know anything either. But you need to hear me out before anything else happens."

I explained as best I could to Percy and Grover, the same as I did with Chiron on that day, so long ago. I found it easier to speak this time. Probably because after a few months, I understood what information I could and could not divulge.

When I had finished, Grover had started eating pinochle cards. Percy look stunned. Not that I blamed him, my explanation was pretty wild.

"So, let me get this straight," Percy said. "You're actually a twenty-year-old mortal who read my story in a book, and you got sucked through the book and suddenly became a twelve-year-old half-blood?"

"Yeah, that sounds about right," I replied.

"That's how you knew that my mom was going to die?" He demanded. "Because you'd read it?"

"At least fifty times."

"Then why didn't you stop it?"

"I tried, remember? I'm not in the books, so I have no fixed destiny. I'm able to bend small portions of the plot just by being here. But your mother's stand at Half-Blood Hill was a fixed point in the books. If she hadn't made that choice, then you wouldn't have defeated the Minotaur. You wouldn't have found that strength, which was derived from your anger."

I took a deep breath, pausing my little speech. "But being there, watching the battle, I was faced with my own choice. I either let nature run its course, or I try to fight and save your mom. And that's what I did. But the plot of the story couldn't be changed. I know that now. If I try to interfere, all that happens is I get hurt, and the story doesn't change." I said. My words were rushed, but Percy heard everything.

I couldn't read his expression. He finally said, "And the hellhound?"

"In the book," I said carefully, waiting for my tongue to tie up. It didn't, so I figured I was safe. "Chiron and the other archers are the ones to kill it. But it happens a few seconds too late. You're mauled, and the cuts are deep. Of course, your father's blood saves you, just as it did on Friday. But I figured, that if I could get one well-placed arrow in the monster's mouth, I could keep you from more pain than necessary, that you would have gotten had I not been there," I concluded. I couldn't meet his eyes.

"You knew I was going to be claimed then," Percy said.

I nodded.

"And you know about the newspaper?"

I nodded again. "I know everything you're going to say, if it's not directed towards me, before you say it. I know every thought, every feeling. It's creepy, I know, but I could be valuable towards your goal."

"My goal?" Percy asked.

Chiron spoke up, getting the conversation back on track. "Your quest, of course. Will you accept it?"

Percy glanced at Grover, who was crossing his fingers in hope.

"Um, sir," Percy said. "You haven't told me what it is yet."

Chiron made a face. "Well, that's the hard part, the details."

Thunder broke up our conversation. I watched as my siblings carried on their volleyball game with the satyrs. They didn't have a care in the world. They didn't know what was about to happen. How blissful their ignorance must have been.

"Poseidon and Zeus," Percy said, causing the three of us to look at him. "They're fighting over something valuable...something that was stolen, aren't they?"

Chiron and Grover exchanged looks with me. "Hey, I didn't tell him a thing. He figured it out on his own."

Chiron leaned towards Percy. "How did you know that?" He asked.

Percy flushed under our teacher's gaze. Nevertheless, he answered. "The weather since Christmas has been weird, like the sea and the sky are fighting. Then I talked to Annabeth, and she'd overheard something about a theft. And...I've been having these dreams."

"I knew it," Grover said.

"Hush, satyr," Chiron scolded.

"But it is his quest! It must be!" Grover turned towards me. "It's his quest, right Avalon?"

"I...I shouldn't say." In truth, I wanted to say that it was. But my voice betrayed me once again.

"Only the Oracle can determine." Chiron said. He stroked his beard, deep in thought. "Nevertheless, Percy, you are correct. Your father and Zeus are having their worst quarrel in centuries. They are fighting over something valuable that was stolen."

Chiron looked to me, an obvious invitation to continue his thoughts.

I looked at Percy. "They're fighting over Zeus's lightning bolt."

Percy let out a nervous laugh. "His what?"

"Do not take this lightly," Chiron warned. "We're not talking about some tinfoil-covered zigzag you'd see in a second-grade play. We're talking about a two-foot-long cylinder of high-grade celestial bronze, capped on both ends with god-level explosives."

Percy shrunk down in his seat. "Oh."

"Zeus's master bolt," Chiron continued, his words getting louder and more rushed. "The symbol of his power, from which all other lightning bolts are patterned. The first weapon ever made by the Cyclopes for a war against the Titans, the bolt that sheered the top off Mount Etna and hurled Kronos from his throne; which packs enough power to make mortal hydrogen bombs look like firecrackers."

Percy looked as white as a sheet. "And it's missing?" He asked.

"Stolen," Chiron said.

"By who?"

"You, Percy," I said. "By you."

Percy's mouth fell open. His eyes were wide.

Chiron looked at me, his eyes narrowed, obviously thinking that I could have handled that better. Like he hadn't been planning on saying the exact same thing?

"At least that's what Zeus thinks," Chiron said. "During the winter solstice, at the last council of the gods, Zeus and Poseidon had an argument. The usual nonsense: 'Mother Rhea always liked you best,' 'Air disasters are more spectacular than sea disasters,' et cetera. Afterward, Zeus realized his master bolt was missing, taken from the throne room under his very nose. He immediately blamed Poseidon. Now, a god cannot usurp another god's symbol of power directly - that is forbidden by the most ancient of divine laws. But Zeus believes your father convinced a human hero to take it."

"But I didn't-"

"Patience and listen, child," Chiron said. "Zeus has good reason to be suspicious. The forges of the Cyclopes are under the ocean, which gives Poseidon some influence over the makers of his brother's lightning. Zeus believes Poseidon has taken the master bolt, and is now secretly having the Cyclopes build an arsenal of illegal copies, which might be used to topple Zeus from his throne. The only thing Zeus wasn't sure about was which hero Poseidon used to steal the bolt. Now Poseidon has openly claimed you as his son. You were in New York over the winter holidays. You could have easily snuck into Olympus. Zeus believes he has found his thief."

"But I've never even been to Olympus!" Percy protested. "Zeus is crazy!"

We all glanced at the sky. The black clouds were beginning to roll over the valley.

"Er, Percy...?" Grover said, his voice timid. "We don't use the c-word to describe the Lord of the Sky."

"Paranoid, maybe," I said. "But Poseidon has tried to unseat Zeus before. Remember? It was on our final exam. Poseidon, with the help of Hera and a few other gods, trapped Zeus under a golden net and wouldn't let him loose until he agreed to be a better leader, a better ruler." I looked to Chiron. "That's right, isn't it?"

Chiron nodded. "And Zeus has never trusted Poseidon since. Of course, Poseidon denies stealing the master bolt. He took great offense at the accusation. The two have been arguing back and forth for months, threatening war. And now, you've come along - the proverbial last straw."

Percy looked utterly bewildered. "But I'm just a kid!"

"Percy," Grover said, "if you were Zeus, and you already thought your brother was plotting to overthrow you, then your brother suddenly admitted he had broken the sacred oath he took after World War II, that he's fathered a new mortal hero who might be used as a weapon against you..."

I spoke up. "Wouldn't that put a twist in your toga? It was bad enough that both Poseidon and Zeus are too stubborn to see reason. And now, Poseidon has played his final card. Zeus is outraged."

"But I didn't do anything," Percy said. "Poseidon - my dad - he didn't really have this master bolt stolen, did he?"

Chiron sighed, and rubbed a hand down his face. His face looked weary. "Most thinking observers would agree that thievery is not Poseidon's style. But the Sea God is too proud to try convincing Zeus of that, as Avalon said. Zeus has demanded that Poseidon return the bolt by the summer solstice. That's June twenty-first, ten days from now. Poseidon wants an apology for being called a thief by the same date. I hoped that diplomacy might prevail, that Hera or Demeter or Hestia would make the two brothers see sense. But your arrival has inflamed Zeus's temper. Now neither god will back down. Unless someone intervenes, unless the master bolt is found and returned to Zeus before the solstice, there will be war. And do you know what a full-fledged war would look like, Percy?"

"Bad?"

I leaned forward, putting my elbows on the table. "The world itself would be torn apart. Olympians forced to choose sides between Zeus and Poseidon. Earth would become a battleground. This would be the war that would end western civilization, a battle so big it will make the Trojan War seem as small as a water-balloon fight."

"Bad," Percy repeated.

"And you, Percy Jackson," Chiron said, "would be the first to feel Zeus's wrath."

The clouds above us broke, and rain poured down onto the camp. I watched as my cabin-mates stopped their game of volleyball. They stared up at the sky. They looked stunned.

Percy grumbled to himself. "So I have to find the stupid bolt," he said, fury etched into his words. "And return it to Zeus."

Chiron nodded. "What better peace offering, than to have the son of Poseidon return Zeus's property?"

"If Poseidon doesn't have it, where is the thing?"

"Only Avalon knows for sure," Chiron started. Percy and Grover looked at me, expectant, but Chiron was already speaking. "Except she is forbidden to say. Though, I have an idea of where it could be hidden. Part of a prophecy I had years ago...well, some of the lines make sense to me, now. But before I can say more, you must officially take up the quest. You must seek the counsel of the Oracle."

"Why can't you tell me where the bolt is beforehand?" Percy asked.

"Because if I did, you would be too afraid to accept the challenge."

Percy audibly swallowed. The color still hadn't fully returned to his cheeks. "Good reason."

"You agree then?"

Percy looked over to Grover, who was nodding excitedly. Then he glanced at me, but I had made my face as unreadable as possible. I couldn't give anything away, not this early in the game.

Finally, Percy spoke. "All right," he said. "It's better than being turned into a dolphin."

I snorted, but quickly turned it into a cough, after seeing Chiron glare at me. He addressed Percy. "Then it's time you consulted the Oracle. Go upstairs, Percy Jackson, to the attic. When you come back down, assuming you're still sane, we will talk more."

*

Waiting was a nightmare.

Annabeth showed up after a few minutes Percy left. "Has he gotten the prophecy, yet?" She asked.

"We're still waiting," Grover replied.

Annabeth looked at me. "You look nervous," she decided. "Don't you know what happens?"