December 18th
Yesterday, Thalia had been whipped away by Nico in the middle of a battle, to hit a tree with lightning. Now, Thalia was picked from her bed on the forest floor and placed. . . somewhere. Her eyes were still closed but she felt the ground beneath her was harder than the soft, snowy, ground.
"Mom!" a voice that sounded like Annabeth complained.
"You thought you could evade me," a snotty voice Thalia was going to guess was Athena came in.
The daughter of Zeus sat up and found herself greeted with two things se hated. Morning sunlight and an annoying goddess.
"Bro, where am I?" Thalia asked to the two smartasses in front of her.
"Non of your concern," Athena said offhandedly.
"What do you need so badly you need to kidnap two kids?" Annabeth asked exasperatedly.
"You don't want to save your friend?" Athena asked.
"He betrayed us," Annabeth said, "the dead judged him and we shouldn't change that."
"Luke?" Thalia suddenly realized who they were talking about. "What's happened to Luke?"
"Thal," Annabeth turned to her. "We can't interfere with the dead-"
"Your friend is sitting in the Fields of Punishment," Athena said mischievously.
"What?" Thalia was confused. Luke sacrificed himself. He saved her and Annabeth multiple times.
"Thalia," Annabeth walked to her distraught friend. "We shouldn't mess with the dead."
"But," Thalia pleaded. "He was good!"
"I can help him," Athena offered. "If you do what I ask."
"Yes," Thalia agreed.
"No!" Annabeth cried.
"Perfect," Athena smiled cruelly. "Get Poseidon to kneel in front of my Parthenos and I will save your friend."
With that, the goddess flashed up to Olympus.
"Why!" Annabeth cried, looking up to the sky with her arms open. "I just want to have a normal month!"
"We have to find Poseidon," Thalia said, mostly to herself.
"This is exactly why she wanted you!" Annabeth said turning to Thalia with an accusatory finger. "She knew you would fall for her stupid 'I'll save Luke' trick. And she knew that I'd never let you do anything alone."
"We can't just let him suffer!"
"He helped Kronos."
"And then sacrificed himself!"
"Okay, fine!" Annabeth gave in, throwing her hands in the air. "How are we going to get one of my mother's nemesis's to kneel before her statue?"
Thalia thought about it. "We could trick him into thinking he's winning something."
"Yeah," Annabeth agreed. "Someone he hates."
"Someone who Poseidon hates more than Athena."
"Someone he would do anything to win against."
"Someone he wouldn't be suspicious of taking a bet."
They looked at each other. "Zeus."
The two girls had really no idea on how to contact the god of the Sea, sop they walked to the beach and had Thalia swim out into the water.
"Poseidy!" Thalia called into the air.
"I don't think he's going to hear you," Annabeth pointed out.
Thalia thought for a moment. She ducked her head under the water and called into the blue abyss, "Poseidy!"
"That's not going to work!" Annabeth told her from the shore.
"Yes it dam will!" Thalia argued. "Oy! Salty Skin! Shower Dude! Slimy Snail!"
A giant wave burst from the water, sending Thalia flying into Annabeth.
"How dare you!" The mighty voice of Poseidon spoke. "Did your father teach you that?"
The Sea god rode from the water and marched up to the two girls who were sprawled on top of each other.
"No," Thalia called, detangling herself from Annabeth. "But he did have a message he wanted me to tell you."
Poseidon looked curiously at Thalia and she tried her best to look like she had something important to say.
"He wanted both of us to tell you that he has a bet," Annabeth said as she stood from the sandy ground.
Thalia let out a small breath of relief and gave her friend a grateful look.
"He says," Annabeth continued. "That if you kneel before the Athena Parthenos, he will. . ."
Annabeth trailed off. Seems like it was Thalia's turn to come up with something.
"He'll. . . cut Athena in the leg!" Thalia said.
Annabeth looked like she wanted to face palm. Poseidon on the other hand seemed intrigued by the made up bet.
"Alright," the god agreed, much to Thalia's relief. "Let us go to Athena's statue."
"Wait," Annabeth stopped him.
The god looked at her, annoyed he had to wait to complete the bet.
"You can't march through camp as a god," Annabeth explained.
"Fine," Poseidon groaned. With a small flash of light, Poseidon was gone and. . . wait. . .
"Did you become Percy?" Thalia asked.
The god had shrunken into a tan body with jet black hair and sea green eyes.
The god ignore the question and walked on ahead. Thalia and Annabeth looked at each other, shrugged, and followed the god through camp.
They walked past the climbing wall and canoe lake and as they passed arts and crafts, they ran into trouble.
"Hey, Wise Girl," Percy called from a few feet away.
Thalia and Annabeth shot each other worried glances.
"Hi Percy!" Annabeth said as Percy came closer.
The son of Poseidon had a smile on his face until he came close enough to see who else was there.
"I was just going to have a sword battle with. . . hey," Percy said to the god in-between the girls. "You're me!"
"No I'm not," Poseidon-Percy said.
"That's exactly what me would say!" Percy cried, pointing a finger at the god.
"Would you do this?" the disguised god asked. He jumped backwards and ran off to a table where he jumped onto it, two feet first.
"Yes!" Percy accused and he ran after him and did the same thing.
"What about this?" Poseidon-in-disguise asked.
The two ran around the area, daring each other to do things and breaking multiple things in the mean time.
"Alright, that's enough," Annabeth called. She walked over to where the two boys were messing around with pottery and grabbed one of them, dragging them away towards Half-Blood Hill.
"Why don't you go to the training arena, Percy," Annabeth suggested. "Do whatever you were just doing."
Percy looked confused but he shrugged and started walking off towards the training arena.
"Okay, let's go."
The three walked in silence to Half-Blood Hill where the statue of Athena stood.
"Okay, kneel," Thalia said.
"Why?" the Percy-god asked.
"For the bet!" Thalia cried.
"What bet?"
"The bet with-"
Thalia and Annabeth stared at the boy in front of them, at each other, and then towards the training arena.
"Shit!" Annabeth said at the same time Thalia cried, "fuck!"
The two girls raced off across the snowy ground, leaving a confused real Percy behind.
A few minutes later, Thalia and Annabeth walked into the arena and heard the sound of cheers and swords clashing. They looked around and found that Poseidon (looking like Percy) was fighting Nico and there were many campers cheering and watching around them.
Nico and the god of the Sea danced around each other. Nico had a few cuts on his arm and one on his leg and he looked tired but Poseidon seemed almost unaffected. The only sign of struggle form the god was how focused he was.
"Hey!" Annabeth called. "Posei- Percy!"
Poseidon didn't get the message.
Thalia, realizing there was no other way, jumped into the arena and got in-between the god and demigod.
"Pause!" she said.
Poseidon and Nico looked annoyed at the interruption but lowered their weapons.
"Come with us Po- Percy," Annabeth said as she appeared in the arena behind the god.
"But I have to finish-"
"Remember the bet," Thalia bribed.
Poseidon thought about it. "Fine."
He turned to Nico and nodded to him, "till we meet again son of Hades."
Nico looked a little put off but Thalia couldn't say anything with all the people around so, her and Annabeth got Poseidon off out of the arena and convinced him to run to the statue.
When they arrived, Poseidon bent on one knee for a second before jumping up and pumping a fist in the air.
"I can't wait to see Athena's nasty cut!"
With that lovely thought, the Sea god disappeared.
"That. . ." Annabeth said, out of breath. "Was. . . awful."
"Well done," came a voice form behind the two demigods. They turned to see the goddess Athena behind them.
"Help Luke," Thalia demanded.
"I will try," the goddess said, closing her eyes.
"Wait-" Thalia said, confused.
"Oh," Athena said with a shrug, "turns out I can't do anything."
Thalia was bubbling with anger. In a burst of anger, she ran at the goddess and pulled out a dagger. She sliced a mark on the goddess' ankle and she let out a cry of fury.
"How dare you!" the goddess screamed.
"I had to fulfil the bet for Poseidon," Thalia said quietly. "I for one, keep my word."
Athena scowled.
"Just go, mom," Annabeth said in a deadly calm tone. "We gave you what you want. If you aren't going to keep your promise, go."
Athena sniffed at the disrespect but she must have realized she would get chopped to pieces if she stayed, so she flashed away.
"You were right," Thalia whispered. Annabeth didn't say anything.
Thalia heard steps behind her and felt Annabeth's arms hug her from behind. She didn't know how to feel. For years she had imagined Luke in the Field of Asphodel, walking around aimlessly, but not in pain. Now she knew he was suffering. Why did he get such a punishment? He just wanted the gods to pay attention to their kids.
"Who keeps trying to-"
An annoyed voice sounded form behind the two girls. They turned their heads to see Lord Hades tiredly looking around.
"Ugh," the god sighed. "Someone was trying to mess with the dead."
"That was Athena," Annabeth told the god.
Hades rolled his eyes, "that makes sense."
He looked at the two girls. He seemed to read what was going on and his gaze seemed to lighten.
"I have an idea," the god told them and the two demigods faced him to listen. "I'll put him in the Fields of Asphodel, and give you both a gift. In return, you'll tell Nico good job on his fight against my brother."
Thalia and Annabeth looked at each other. They had done that a lot that day.
"Okay, great!" Hades snapped his fingers and suddenly the two girls were transported to a dark forest.
"Where-" Thalia was about to ask.
Hades pointed to a figure and Thalia gasped as she saw it was Luke. He was wandering around calmly. No longer in pain.
"Thank you," Thalia said.
Hades didn't respond. Instead, he snapped his fingers and Annabeth and her were transported back to the hill.
"Here you go," the god of the Dead as he waved his hand and two boxes fell from the sky into the demigod's hands.
Thalia opened his box and saw a weird watering tool.
"That is for your friends tree," Hades said with a wink.
"Thank you so much," Annabeth said to the god.
He nodded and then he melted into shadows.