Across The Ages (On Hold)

VII

"It cannot be thee..." Zoë whispered. Both men glanced over at her. Riptide grunted in annoyance and turned to walk away. The man in gold however, took off his helmet and grinned.

Before everyone stood a man about six foot three, blonde hair and light green eyes. "It very much is. It has been a while, Ms. Nightshade. I do hope my brother here hasn't mistreated you."

A low growl came from Riptide's direction and he dissolved into mist. Everyone stared wide eyed at the point where he had disappeared from. The man glared at the spot, unsure of what to do.

"Do not be mad at thee. I...upset thee and made a mistake."

The blonde haired man looked at her. "Then if I were you, I'd go make it up to him. He fought tooth and nail to get out of the pit to come and find you. The information he picked up down there is by far our best chance at surviving this stupid war that the gods refuse to acknowledge. He is our greatest weapon on the battlefield, greater than even me. We need him, you, Ms. Nightshade, need him. And he will deal with your mistress when the time comes. I doubt you noticed, but your oath was dissolved the moment he saw you in Maine. Go talk to him."

The campers all stared at them before the blonde man turned on them and shouted, "Skat you little gossiping devils. You better prepare yourselves, because two Kings are about to come out of hiding." Then he walked out of the arena.

-/-

"Father...I need your help. I–I'm not sure what to do anymore?!" Perseus shouted into the surf, feet being caressed by the waves.

"There is not much you can do but follow your heart my son," came a man with a black beard and hair and sea green eyes. Apart from the facial hair, the two men looked identical and would be hard to tell apart at just a glance.

"That's easier said than done. I'm about to piss off an Olympian and most of the Council with my actions. She's mine, and I won't let some insufferable daddy's girl take what I had claim to before her. Not to mention the whole preparation for a war the Council refuses to believe is on our doorstep."

The older man, Poseidon, sighed. "No matter what you choose to do, you know I will always stand with you. You are my son, and you have done much for the Council and demigods. If letting the fall on their rear ends is what it takes for them to realize that, then I will push them over while you trip them," he chuckled.

Perseus smiled. His father never failed to help in his most desperate hours. Even back when the Persians were marching across Greece unchecked, and Perseus should have died more times than he could count, somehow, miraculously, he would come out alive and victorious. His father even tried to save him from his two millennia long punishment in Tartarus.

All for killing several of the Council's children. They had not wanted to even hear the evidence he had of their traitorous intents. But his father stuck with him to the very end, nearly starting a war with Zeus until Perseus refused to let that happen. He took his punishment on the grounds that another deity other than Zeus take account for his imprisonment. That is how he met his adoptive mothers. The five nymphs of the Underworld. The rivers that flowed through Tartarus. They were his sole company other than the constant monsters that roamed the abyss.

Without a doubt, his father was his biggest supporter, and he, his father's. After his banishment, Poseidon swore to never return to Olympus until the two millennia had passed, except for the summer and winter solstices' on grounds that he could argue for his son's release at them.

Perseus shook his head. These thoughts would get him no where and his father, while still the best one of the Olympians, was still a god, and therefore unable to do as much as he wanted to for any of his children.