DAISY || P. Jackson x Fem O/C

1.10 | 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐲 𝐁𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐀 𝐆𝐨𝐝 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐃𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐬 𝐓𝐨 𝐃𝐨 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐇𝐞 𝐖𝐚𝐬 𝐓𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐓𝐨 𝐃𝐨

 ~⚡~{[CHAPTER TEN]}~⚡~

[Percy Battles A God And Decides To Do The One Thing He Was Told Not To Do]

A COAST GUARD boat picked them up, but they were too busy to keep them for long, or to wonder how four kids in street clothes had got out into the middle of the bay, or why one of them kept coughing up blood and looked an inch from death. There was a disaster to mop up. Their radios were jammed with distress calls. They dropped them off at the Santa Monica pier with towels around their shoulders and water bottles that said I'M A JUNIOR COAST GUARD! and sped off to save more people.

Their clothes were sopping wet, even Percy's. When the Coast Guard boat had appeared, he'd silently prayed they wouldn't pick him out of the water and find him perfectly dry, which might've raised some eyebrows. So he'd willed myself to get soaked. Sure enough, his usual waterproof magic had abandoned him. He was also barefoot, because he'd given his shoes to Grover. Better the Coast Guard wonder why one of them was barefoot than wonder why one of them had hooves. After reaching dry land, they stumbled down the beach, watching the city burn against a beautiful sunrise. He felt as if he'd just come back from the dead – which he had. His backpack was heavy with Zeus's master bolt. His heart was even heavier from seeing his mother.

"I don't believe it," Annabeth said. "We went all that way –"

"It was a trick," he said. "A strategy worthy of Athena."

"Hey," she warned.

"You get it, don't you?" She dropped her eyes, her anger fading.

"Yeah. I get it."

"Well, I don't!" Grover complained. "Would somebody –"

"Percy..." Annabeth said. "I'm sorry about your mother. I'm so sorry...." Percy pretended not to hear her. If he talked about his mother, he was going to start crying like Daisy.

"The prophecy was right," he said. "'You shall go west and face the god who has turned.' But it wasn't Hades. Hades didn't want war between the Big Three. Someone else pulled off the theft. Someone stole Zeus's master bolt, and Hades's helmet, and framed me because I'm Poseidon's kid. Poseidon will get blamed by both sides. By sundown today, there will be a three-way war. And I'll have caused it." Grover shook his head, mystified.

"But who would be that sneaky? Who would want war that bad?" Percy stopped in his tracks, looking down the beach.

"Gee, let me think." There he was, waiting for them, in his black leather duster and his sunglasses, an aluminum baseball bat propped on his shoulder. His motorcycle rumbled beside him, its headlight turning the sand red.

"Hey, kid," Ares said, seeming genuinely pleased to see him. "You were supposed to die - then again, I suppose I almost did the trick with that one..." his voice sounded like he was mulling over his choices as he nodded at Daisy.

"You tricked me," Percy said. "You stole the helmet and the master bolt." Ares grinned.

"Well, now, I didn't steal them personally. Gods taking each other's symbols of power – that's a big nono. But you're not the only hero in the world who can run errands."

"Who did you use? Clarisse? She was there at the winter solstice." The idea seemed to amuse him.

"Doesn't matter. The point is, kid, you're impeding the war effort. See, you've got to die in the Underworld. Then Old Seaweed will be mad at Hades for killing you. Corpse Breath will have Zeus's master bolt, so Zeus'll be mad at him. And Hades is still looking for this..."