Percy Jackson- Shots

The Next Generation

LUKE

I stared at my dad. "Dad, what's going on?" I asked.

"Just... Just come with us," he said, the sad look not leaving his face.

He and Leo left the room.

I looked at Annika. She shrugged.

"We should probably go," Karina said, standing up. "It seems important."

So the four of us stood, and walked out of the room. We walked upstairs, and saw all of our parents in the kitchen. They all looked as sad as my dad and Leo.

"What happened?" Spencer asked. "Is everything okay?"

All the parents were silent, until Jason- Karina's dad- spoke. "Gaea is rising again."

My mouth fell open. This had to be a joke. There was no way. I remember Dad telling me stories about how he defeated the earth goddess Gaea when he was just a teenager.

"Wait a minute," Spencer said, breaking the silence. "Didn't you guys kill Gaea, like, a hundred years ago?"

"Okay, Spencer, we're not that old," Hazel said to her son. "But yes, we did defeat her."

"So why is she rising again?"

"We don't know," my mom said.

"But..." Leo said, "She's taken Sebastian."

Annika, Karina, Spencer and I all gasped.

Sebastian was an extremely close friend of ours. He was a demigod- just like us; a son of Hades.

"Why?" Annika asked.

"We don't know," her mother, Calypso said in a soft voice. "But he's missing. And Chiron says that he was taken by her."

No one talked. I remember Dad told me what happened when his friend Nico got captured by Gaea. He was trapped in a jar, left to die. What if the same thing was happening to Sebastian right now?

"What does this have to do with us?" Karina asked.

"You four," Piper said, her voice cracking, "Have been chosen to go on a quest to defeat her."

My eyes widened. "You mean... We have to go and like, hunt down Gaea? Just like you did?"

The eight parents nodded.

"We're not going to lie to you," Dad said. "This is going to be extremely difficult. Monsters are going to be everywhere. And just because we survived, doesn't mean that all of you are going to."

"Jee, thanks dad."

"I'm not trying to put you down, Luke. I'm being honest. I don't want you to think that this quest is going to be easy. It's not."

Annika slipped her hand into mine. I kind of wished that she hadn't, in front of all the parents. But nobody seemed to notice.

"What if we don't want to do it?" Karina asked.

"You don't have a choice," Piper told her. "You four need to do this."

"We should leave them so they can talk about this," Frank suggested.

The parents slowly started to leave the room.

"You leave in two days," Mom said just before she left.

The four of us stood in silence. We didn't talk; we didn't move.

Then Karina started crying. Spencer pulled her into his arms, and took her over to a corner where he started talking to her in a low voice. I looked at Annika. She looked down, then took her hand away from mine.

"Out of all the demigods on earth," she mumbled. "It had to be us."

Annika looked like she was about to follow Karina and start crying as well.

"It's going to be fine," I said. "We're all powerful demigods. We can beat that stupid goddess' butt no problem."

Annika cracked the tiniest of smiles. "I hope so. I couldn't handle losing any of you guys. Or Sebastian."

I nodded. Karina and Spencer came back over. Karina wasn't crying anymore, but she was still sniffling.

"So, what are we going to do?" Spencer asked.

"We have to go on this quest," I said. "If we don't... Sebastian will be killed. And the world will be destroyed."

"I guess we don't have that much of a choice."

"I guess not."

Karina sniffed and wiped her eyes.

"Do we go tell them that we're going on the quest now?" Annika asked.

"Lets go," I said, and we left the kitchen. Our parents were in the living room. All, except Annika's parents- Leo and Calypso. Every pair of eyes turned to look on us.

"We'll go on the quest," I announced.

Our parents' eyes saddened. I could tell what they were thinking- even though we needed to, they didn't want us to go.

"Alright," Mom said. "Like I said, you leave in two days. You should pack now. We'll tell you about the quest tomorrow. Right now, you need to rest up."

Annika looked around the room. "Um... Where are my parents?"

"They just needed to talk," Hazel informed her. "It's fine."

Annika nodded and looked down.

"Go," Jason said. "It's late and you need as much rest as you can get for this quest."

We left the room.

"Are you guys nervous?" I asked.

"Are you kidding?" Karina said, looking at me. "I'm terrified."

Spencer wrapped his arm around his girlfriend. "It's going to be fine. We're all going to be fine."

I turned, about to say something to Annika, when I noticed that she wasn't by my side anymore. In fact, she wasn't in the hallway at all.

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To clarify:

Luke = Percy and Annabeth's kid

Annika = Leo and Calypso's kid

Karina = Piper and Jason's kid

Spencer = Hazel and Frank's kid

Sebastian = their demigod friend (Son of Hades)