Confused by Time (Percy Jackson fanfic) (currently being rewritten)

Chapter 22 - Missed

"We've got to go after them!" Thalia exclaimed. "How hard can it be?"

"You weren't even here!" Clarisse shouted angrily.

"I was with my Lady," Thalia growled as thunder rumbled overhead, "and if I was here I wouldn't have just stood by and let the Titans take Percy!"

"You'd be dead then," Nico retorted. "Kronos toyed with Percy, Thalia. We wouldn't have been able to do anything, and the other Titans would have stopped us if we'd tried."

"Why can't we just go after them?" Thalia demanded.

"Because they could be anywhere by now," Athena said, pressing her fingers to her forehead. "Anywhere in the entire world. It's been over an hour."

"Surely we can track them," Thalia said, her voice tense. "Just give the word, Lady Artemis, and we'll be on our way," she said, looking pointedly at the goddess of the Hunt.

"No," Zeus said firmly. "Perseus will have to fend for himself for a while. We can't risk sending out a group yet, even if it is the Hunters. We have no idea where the Titans have gone. We've alerted Camp Jupiter and they're already sending a small scout group up to Mt. Othrys, but they have specific orders to not engage any Titans or monsters up there."

"I don't think you're realising something, Zeus," Poseidon rumbled. "Remember Nico told us Percy would have broken long ago without Tartarus' influence? Well now Tartarus is dead, and Percy's mind is unprotected. What do you think that means?"

Zeus looked slightly sheepish for a split second before he shook his head. "I don't like it," he admitted, "but we can't go after him. It's too dangerous."

"It'll be worse if we wait!" Thalia exclaimed. "They'll be stronger then!"

"And so will we," Zeus retorted. "I'm sorry, Thalia, but we can't risk it. Perseus will have to last until we're able to get to him."

"That's impossible," Annabeth said carefully, finally speaking up. "Trust me. From the... condition Percy was in when we got him from there the first time he's not going to be able to do it."

"We have to trust that he will," Athena said with a note of finality in her voice.

"What now then?" Leo asked as he pressed a cloth covered in nectar to the side of his head where Hyperion had knocked him out. "Percy's gone, and he was the one training all of us to be able to fight the Titans."

"Lot of good it did him," Clarisse muttered sadly.

"You'll have to train yourselves," Poseidon said. "I doubt we'll be able to do Percy's job."

"The class he was teaching though," Piper said quietly, "who'll take over that."

"Annabeth?" Thalia asked. "You're the wise girl, aren't you?"

Annabeth winced at Percy's nickname for her. "I don't really know the Titans as they are now. I only know what they were in ancient times from the Greek texts."

"That'll have to do," Zeus nodded. "We'll have to make do without Perseus. I'm sure we can do it."

Annabeth shook her head slightly. "It's not just that, Lord Zeus. The campers all loved Percy because of what he's done in the past – because of the legends. Now that he's gone – the famed bane of Kronos and the Titans defeated by Kronos – they're all going to be terrified."

"Lord Zeus," Iris' voice suddenly said, echoing around the rec room. "You have an Iris Message from Hazel Levesque."

Zeus immediately straightened up and nodded. "Accepted."

The air shimmered as an Iris Message formed in front of him, and Hazel appeared. "Lord Zeus," she immediately started, "we've reached to peak of Othrys, but nothing's here. Even Atlas is where he's supposed to be," she said.

"Are you sure?" Annabeth frowned.

Hazel nodded. "I get the feeling that they've been here, and not long ago, but the rubble from Othrys is still on the ground, so Kronos' presence hasn't started changing anything yet, which can only mean either he's not very strong at all, or he doesn't want us to think he's that strong and is attempting to make us complacent."

"Is there any sign of Percy?" Poseidon pressed, his eyes hopeful.

Hazel frowned and shook her head. "Absolutely nothing."

"Kronos was likely shielding his presence," Frank spoke up. "He probably doesn't want us to be able to glean any information off of Percy's emotions."

"So it's safe to say that the Titans aren't at Othrys?" Apollo asked.

Hazel nodded slightly. "I sense a lot of Mist in the area, but that's just because of Othrys. Nothing else."

Zeus nodded. "Very well, Hazel. Return to Camp Jupiter and we will discuss our next movements."

Hazel nodded, bowing slightly before swiping her hand through the Iris-Message. "We should go back down to Camp Jupiter," she said as she frowned at the rubble on the floor. "I've got a bad feeling about this place."

Frank nodded in agreement. "It feels dark," he mused as he turned and followed Hazel down the path, the rest of the roman demigods following them.

All of them missed the way the area shimmered with a white mist as they left, and Atlas disappeared from his position holding the Sky, in his place time seemed at a standstill , preventing the Sky from dropping and crushing the mountaintop. Then as soon as the last roman demigod stepped out of sight a completely reformed fortress made of black marble appeared, with an amused Titan King leaning on the great black doors as he watched the demigods go.