The Son of Time

Chapter 19

Percy's point of view

The next day we had another meeting, but let's just say I wasn't exactly pleased with the news that I received. After we were all there, well all of us except Piper anyway. Apollo spoke he said "A quest has been sent from Camp half-blood to find Persephone and Piper." 

"What was the prophecy for this quest?" questioned Athena.

 Apollo took a breath and for some reason glanced in my direction which worried me, then he recited, 
"Three shall go west where the goddesses lay; to ensure success they will need aid. Son of victory and son of time will find an unexpected ally."

The room was silent as everyone considered the prophecy that Apollo had just recited. 

"Son of time?" Hephaestus said confused.

"Father couldn't have..." Demeter said trailing off at the end.  

Athena was silent still thinking. But I broke the silence by laughing because the very idea of Kronos hanging out with a mortal woman was ridiculous. The other gods, well except for the ones that already knew about Luke were looking at me weirdly. I think that was when Athena connected the dots.
She said, "Perseus do you..."

I said, "Yes Athena it only makes sense that the prophecy is referring to my son Luke Charles Smith. He got to camp half-blood a few days ago. In the recent battle with my help, he defeated Polybotes." 

Now all eyes were on me. Most of the other gods didn't really care about the fact that I had a demigod son, although I thought I could see a mixture of amusement and smugness on Zeus's face as if he had suspected that I wouldn't be able to resist falling for a mortal woman. Meanwhile it looked like Hephaestus had guessed that I had named Luke after Beckendorf.
I was feeling several emotions at once first of all worry because  quests are the one time that I can't help demigods, secondly slight anger that Luke has to go through this, the next time I see the fates I will probably give them a nice slap upside the head, first they mess with my life now they are messing with Luke's.

Thirdly I felt kind of guilty if I had just controlled myself better. Anyway you get the idea. We were going over the prophecy line by line the first one was clear enough, wherever the goddesses were they were in the west possibly California. The second part was more concerning, it said that they will need help to be successful but we can't help them due to the damn ancient laws. The last part sort of made sense it sounded like Luke and the son of Nike that went with him would get help from someone you wouldn't expect. We won't really understand what the prophecy says until it has happened.
When Zeus ended the meeting everyone left except for me and Hephaestus.  We both stood and he hobbled toward me. I wasn't quite sure what to say so I waited for him to speak.  He finally said, "You named your son after Charles?"

 I nodded, I could tell that even though he has Leo who he is quite proud of, as well as numerous other kids at camp the loss of Beckendorf still stung. I could understand how he felt since I had recently lost Christina, who may not have been my daughter by blood, but I had cared about her like she was and treated her as such. 

In response to Hephaestus's statement I said, "Yes Beckendorf was a good friend, he sacrificed himself so our mission would succeed, if he hadn't we probably wouldn't have won the war. To be honest I have blamed myself for his death for years thinking that if I had just done something differently he might still be here." 

Hephaestus seemed to have a grateful look on his face, and even though I knew he wasn't the most socialable guy around he said in a sad tone, "His death was not your fault, there was nothing you could have done to change his fate."  I simply nodded understanding, and we both left.
After I finished talking to Hephaestus  I headed back to my palace. As you might expect I was worried about Luke. I went on my first quest when I was his age and I nearly got killed multiple times, at the time there were two gods that wanted me either dead or captured because they thought I had stolen from them, but Luke would have Tartarus's minions to deal with, and those could be anything from monsters to demigods, to titans.

I decided that Amber deserved to know what was going on, the last time I saw her I never told her that we were dealing with another war, but she deserves to know what's going on even if I don't tell her quite everything. Besides, seeing her would probably cheer me up a bit, and although I doubt it she may have an answer for me. I just needed to get my mind off Luke's current situation and the war in general. In the end I decided to go see her. I went to her apartment and knocked on the door.

Amber's point of view

I still don't know what to tell Percy, I love him a lot and I fear that if I refuse him I won't find anyone else because I will continue to love him. He has eternity but I don't if I refuse he has eternity to get over me but I don't want to die still missing him. There is also Luke to consider. he would have to stay at the camp I think we would still be able to see him reasonably often since Percy said that he isn't as restricted by the ancient laws as the other gods are also he would die while we won't. Ugh I just don't know. Suddenly there was a knock on the door. I suspected that it must be Percy since once again no-one called up to tell me I had a visitor.

I went to the door and sure enough, there he was, as handsome as ever but there was something different about him his smile didn't quite reach his eyes. I asked, "what's wrong?"

 he sighed and said, "Amber there were some things that I didn't tell you the last time I was here."

 he told me that a new war had started, that the camp's borders had fallen and that only a few days prior there had been a battle that Luke had to participate in. He explained that Luke had left on a quest to rescue two goddesses who had been captured.

He didn't tell me who exactly was rising or what they were up against but I didn't push him. I wanted to cheer him up but I wasn't sure how. After a moment's thought, I said, "Percy,"

 he turned his head toward me and looked at me. I continued and I said, "My answer is yes I don't want to be without you any longer. these past years being without you have been some of the hardest of my life, I know this won't be easy but I'll do whatever I have to, to make this work." 

While he was still absorbing what I had said  I leaned forward and kissed him, he kissed back he wrapped his arms around me and held me close, it felt so good to be in his strong arms again. I'd missed that feeling so much, over the years I'd hung on to the hope that Percy would eventually come back to me, but I'd also doubted that it would actually happen. Now that he had I was a lot happier.

After a while we separated and he said that he would ask the council about our marriage once the war is over. He also said that he was considering asking Zeus and the council about removing some of the ancient laws that prevent gods from seeing and helping their children. He also said that his father Poseidon had blessed Luke but they hadn't yet told Luke that he didn't actually have the full blessing since Percy said that a god's full blessing gives someone partial immortality.

Percy said that he expected that Poseidon was waiting to give him the rest until he was a little older since twelve is a little early to stop aging. After we talked a bit longer and then Percy left. I am still a bit nervous about all this but I don't think I would ever be happy again without him.

Luke's point of view

The next morning I told Scooter and Hudson about my dream and where the goddesses were being held, Hudson said: "So they are keeping them on Alcatraz?" 

I nodded and said, "Yes in the dream I saw the golden gate bridge and mount Tamalpais, and the inside of the prison looked like it hadn't held prisoners in years."

We continued to talk trying to come up with a plan when we suddenly noticed a small army of monsters lead by two demigods one of them was the blonde that my dad had fought and defeated in the battle at camp. The other was a guy. He had dark red hair and dark green eyes the two demigods and the monsters, there were about fifty of them charged at us. Hudson ended up fighting the blonde while Scooter fought the guy and I went for the monsters.