Son of Chaos: A Story from the world of Percy Jackson

An Even Bigger Problem

Percy, Annabeth and Grover appeared in the bright light back at the barrier archway of Camp Half-Blood. When the light faded, they quickly looked around to see if they were in the right place. Brushing themselves off and pulling themselves together, they started running back to the training field. Given the urgency of the situation, their running quickly turned to sprinting. They sprinted down the trail, zooming past the grand lodge, past the cabins and the dining deck, past the archery field and the satyr fields, and finally running up the large trail leading to the battle training field. They hurried through the trees and sprinted down into the field.
"Chiron!", shouted Percy,"Chiron!!" Chiron, who was in the middle of training two of the half bloods from Ares cabin, quickly turned around to see the three rushing down the field in a state of panic and a look of sheer worry on their faces. His eyes went wide as his face grew with concern. "Percy? Annabeth, Grover? What's happened??" The three quickly came up to him and halted with a near tumble. "Chiron...", said Percy trying to catch his breath,"i-it's worse...it's s-so much worse than we thought!" He was bent over with his hands on his knees trying to steady himself, while Annabeth and Grover were taking their time to catch their breath. Chiron went to Percy, putting his left hand on Percy's back and his right hand Percy's left shoulder. "What are you talking about? What happened?" "Erin...", said Percy,"he...h-he was sent to the Ambrosia garden in the underworld by Eris through a message on a piece of the golden apple....". Chiron's eyes went wide." Wait, Erin has the golden apple??" "No", said Percy,"just a piece of it. The apple was split into four pieces. Three of them were taken by my dad and his brothers while Eris was able to sneak the fourth piece away. She sent it to Erin in that box he got on mail day." "Oh gods", said Chiron,"but what were you saying about the Ambrosia garden in Hades?" "Eris found out about a plan Zeus came up with to go against her and Nyx. He created a Rose Quarts Ambrosia that was supposed to negate the effects of the golden apple. Eris sent Erin to the Ambrosia garden to plant a tree to grow more of the golden apple. When we got there everything seemed fine at first. Nothing was out of the ordinary. But then Grover realized the whole garden was an illusion. Erin revealed the place to be what it actually was. He destroyed the garden and plunged it into chaos. He planted the tree and grew the apples. He took the ones he'd picked and disappeared somewhere." Percy looked up and saw a look of fear in Chiron's eyes. "Chiron...the magic Erin put in the tree is starting to spread into the underworld. In a matter of days, the whole realm is gonna be plunged into chaos. They're gonna throw off the balance between the realms." Chiron looked up with a sudden sadness growing in his eyes. "Oh Erin, what have you done?"
"Chiron", said Grover,"I don't understand how Erin could have this much power. He's only a demigod. How is he able to do any of this?" Chiron looked at him, then to Annabeth, then down at Percy. "I said I would never show anyone this because I thought it wasn't for me to share, but now that the situation has become more severe, I think it may be best I show you three. You three might be the only ones who could understand, given everything you've faced."
He helped Percy up to his feet and began walking the three of them to the grand lodge. They walked down the trail and up to the front steps of the lodge. They walked in through the stain glass doors, through the hallway to the left, up the stairs at the end, which went up only on flight, and down the narrow hallway with only one door at the end. Chiron put his hand on the doorknob and slowly turned it. He slowly opened the door and ushered the three of them in. He himself then walked in and closed the door behind them. They walked forward into the dark room and stopped in front of a chair with a corpse like figure sitting on it. Annabeth's eyes went wide. "Is that...Delphi?" "Well", said Chiron,"she calls herself the spirit of Delphi, the speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo. But essentially, yes." "I'm not gonna lie", said Grover,"I thought she'd look more...ancient, possibly wearing something more Greek-God-like, not a crutchedy old lady in a wrinkled up dress." "Hey", said Chiron,"show some respect", he said as he lightly knocked the back of Grover's head. "Ow! Jeez I'm sorry!" Chiron looked to the body of Delphi in the chair. "Reveal to us the prophecy of Eris's heir."
Suddenly, the body of Delphi began to creek and crack as the body began to slowly sit up in the chair, the eyes slowly opening. "Oh...my gods", said Annabeth. Delphi simply sat in the chair, doing nothing. Then, her mouth began to slowly open. A green mist began to pour out, and all at once, the green mist turned to a thick green smoke that burst out and swirled around. It slowly formed a figure in front of them, and as the smoke stopped swirling, it revealed a figure. It was a woman of average height, with a sleeveless long black, v neck dress on, dark hair of medium length with bangs, black heel shoes, a necklace with a pendant depicting the triple goddess, and a starry shimmer in her eyes. The figure in question looked to be Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft and fertility. "Hecate?", said Grover,"what does Hecate have to do with Erin and Eris?" "Hush!", said Chiron. The smoke figure of Hecate began to speak: