Melancholy Kaleidescope | PJO

Ch. 17: Percy Challenges the God of War to a Fight

Jinora gasped as she sprang through the surface of Santa Monica bay, along with Annabeth and Grover. She began to panic when Percy didn't appear for five seconds, then ten, then twenty. Then she let out a startled noise when he suddenly exploded through the surface directly beside her.

Percy's delayed arrival accidentally knocked a surfer dude off his board with an indignant, "Dude!"

Percy grabbed Grover and hauled him over to a life buoy, then he grabbed Annabeth, then Jinora. A curious great white shark was circling them, about eleven feet long.

"Beat it," he demanded, and the shark raced away.

The surfer screamed something about bad mushrooms and paddled away from them as fast as he could.

Jinora wasn't sure how she knew, but it was early morning on June 21, the day of the summer solstice.

Los Angeles smoked in the distance, neighborhoods all over the city burning. There had been an earthquake, all right, and it was Hades' fault. He was probably sending an army of the dead after them at that very moment. At that moment, however, the Underworld was not their biggest problem.

They needed to get to shore. They needed to get back to New York, Percy needed to get Zeus' bold back to Olympus. On top of that, Percy was dead set on having a serious conversation with the god who had tricked them.

A Coast Guard boat picked them up, but they were too busy to keep them for long. Their radios were jammed with distress calls coming in due to the earthquake. They were dropped off at the Santa Monica Pier with towels around their shoulders and water bottles that said "I'm A Junior Coast Guard!" The boat then sped off to help others who really needed it.

They were all soaked to the bone, even Percy. He'd apparently willed himself to be soaked so that, anticipating being picked up by somebody, he wouldn't be pulled out of the water and be desert dry. He had also given Grover his shoes so that his hooves were hidden, leaving him barefoot.

After reaching dry land, they stumbled down the beach and watched the city burn against the beautiful sunrise. Jinora felt like she had just returned from the dead.

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

"It was a trick," Percy declared, though they'd all already figured that much out. He also didn't want to keep thinking about the fact that he'd gone all that way just to leave his mother in the very place he went to rescue her from. "A strategy worthy of Athena."

"Hey," Annabeth protested and warned.

"You get it, don't you?"

Annabeth's eyes dropped, 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...."

"The prophecy was right," I said. "'You shall go west and face the god who has turned.' But it wasn't Hades. Hades didn't want war among the Big Three. Someone else pulled off the theft. Someone stole Zeus's master bolt, and Hades's helm, 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?"

Jinora shook her head in disbelief that she didn't realize sooner. She froze when she looked down the beach and nudged Percy, who followed her gaze.

"Who would want that, I wonder," Jinora asked rhetorically.

There, walking up the beach, he was, waiting for them in his black leather duster and his sunglasses with his aluminum baseball bat propped on his shoulder. The headlights on his motorcycle turned the sand red.