Gaia's heir

Chapter 10

once aspen had returned to the surface he was about to lead the group back to the bus station and wondering if he should drop the mortals off at camp before heading to Olympus or if he should save time and bring them with him, his thoughts were cut off as a car horn honked and he looked up only to notice Apollo and the red Maserati that was his sun chariot.

"hey baby cousin, I came to give you guys a lift to Olympus. things are still pretty tense but they've calmed down a lot and father wants you guys up there pronto to get to the bottom of this" Apollo said being as serious as aspen had ever seen him.

quickly pialling into the sun chariot with the mortals squished into the back while aspen rode up front with Apollo the vehicle was soon crusing thru the air invisible to the mortal eye, checking the speed they were going aspen was sure Athena had let slip something that had made Apollo nervous as the god of the sun was going faster than he normally would. they made it to mount Olympus within the hour of them taking off from los angeles.

as they hurried thru the marble halls of Olympus aspen made sure to keep an eye on the mortals following them so the teens wouldn't get lost, he couldn't help the small smile that came to his face at the looks of awe they had as they took in the sights of Olympus. 

with the quick pace set by Apollo the group made it to the council chambers with in minutes, looking around the room aspen noted that the gods had decided to stay in their more human forms rather than putting on the theatrics of assuming their godly height so their thrones had shrunken to accommodate them. around the room most of the gods were sitting in their throne looking anxious and nervous as they tried not to stare to much at the still tied up Ares who was knelt on the floor with Athena standing guard.

the moment he noticed their arrival Zeus sat up straight in his throne looking releived thou there were still traces of the anxious brooding that had been clouding his face when they arrived.

"aspen thank you for finding my bolt and acting so quickly" Zeus said with clear relief in his voice as aspen approached the rest of his family and took a place beside Apollo's throne standing between him and where Athena was standing with Ares. turning to look back at the three mortals who were clearly out of their depth and not sure what they should be doing or why they were even here.

"I wished to thank you three as well, you were brave enough to set out on quest alone and thou aspen was there to speed up the process you stayed by his side and sought to help where you could. to you Percy Jackson I owe an apology, I allowed my temper and paranoia to fuel my actions and accused you of something you could not possibly have done" seeming to have said his peace Zeus sat back down in his throne while Poseidon and Athena walked over to have a private discussion with their children.

by the end Percy still looked upset about his father never trying to contact him before now he also seemed to understand that it would have drawn monsters to his mother and could have led to both of them dying as his mother couldn't see the monsters and he wouldn't have been old enough to defend himself. Annabeth looked as happy as aspen had ever seen her by the time Athena was finished talking with her, no doubt being acknowledged by her godly parent was a big thing for someone who had grown up knowing they were real.

with their good byes said the three were escorted out by a nymph and would be sent back to camp half blood to inform chiron of the good news that the war wasn't going to happen, with no more distractions the gods turned to look at Ares or rather the being that was clinging to him.

"where's luke?" aspen asked first to break the silence as he looked between Athena and Hephaestus, the two sighed as they looked at each other for a moment before Athena answered.

"he managed to slip away, who ever was listening in no doubt knew once we caught Ares that you had to have sensed this presence somewhere before and shortly before we arrived pulled out every camper that they had gotten their claws into, almost half the camp is empty" Athena reviled with sorrow in her voice, there must have been a number of her children missing from the camp and it was never an easy thing to know your children were being used against you but unable to do anything about it.