"Are you certain?" Poseidon's question stopped him before he could reveal himself.
"Dad." Percy sighed. "Eight out of the twelve gods present know who I am, nine out of thirteen if we also count Hermes."
"I always have to be counted." Hermes entered with a masked Luke following him.
"You should not be out of bed!" Apollo squawked. "Hermes, you should have made him stay!"
"There wasn't a doctor around to give me orders." Luke shrugged nonchalantly.
"Can you begrudge me for not wanting him to leave my sight?" Hermes raised an eyebrow.
"Not at all," Poseidon responded faintly, and Percy realised his dad's eyes hadn't left him once.
Percy pulled his mask off and gave Poseidon a warm smile. "Hey, dad?"
He ignored the mutters from the rest of the council as their guesses or questions were answered and headed straight for his dad.
"Son." Poseidon stood and seemed to guess what he wanted immediately, shrinking down so he could wrap Percy in a warm hold.
"Jackson?" Ares yelped, followed by a sound of pain.
"What have you done now?" Apollo sighed.
"Kid shouldn't have scared me when I was holding a dagger!" Ares protested as he dropped said dagger, clutching the fingers of his left hand with his right, golden ichor quickly dripping from between them.
"And how many times have I told you, do not clean your nails with a dagger?" Apollo strode towards him, growing until he was god-sized again so he could fuss over Ares' bleeding limb.
"How else am I supposed to intimidate punk demigod upstarts when they come callin' on us?" Ares huffed.
"Maybe try smiling at them," Poseidon suggested. "It'd definitely intimidate a Great White."
"If you weren't so damn happy over getting that kid back, I'd fight you right now," Ares threatened.
"Not when you're already bleeding, you idiot." Apollo scolded.
"Who are you calling an idiot, sunshine?" Ares growled.
"I'm brighter than you." Apollo gave him a sunny smile, grip on Ares' injured fingers tightening into a painful squeeze for a moment as he bandaged them. "Can we not fight, please?"
"Fine." Ares relented, wincing as Apollo released him.
"Can we please return to the matter at hand?" Athena asked with a disdainful stare at Ares.
"I'm, err, going to go out on a limb and say that it would be a good idea to talk about what happened this morning." Hermes grinned.
"I can't quite put my finger on what happened, I need someone to make it clearer to me." Artemis nodded, hiding a smile behind her hand.
"You've hit the nail on the head there." Hades nodded.
"Funny." Ares growled. "Jackson, talk."
After some shuffling and rearranging, Percy, Nico, Luke and Apollo were sat on a hastily conjured couch in front of human-sized gods on human-sized thrones.
"So, Kronos." Percy tackled the elephant in the room. Percy could feel Luke flinch against him, his friend using him for both comfort and support.
"It appears he has risen, though we thought he would never do so again," Zeus stated gravely.
YOU ARE READING
Percy Jackson, The Missing Hero.
FanfictionPercy had never asked to be a demigod. It was a fact that he had maintained ever since he'd made the discovery that he was a demigod all of those years ago. He'd been pursued for years by Prophecy after Prophecy, each one greater than the last. Now...
