Chapter 4: The Restricted Section

Disclaimer: I Don't Own the Percy Jackson Series or Any of the Characters. All Rights go to Rick Riordian for creating this Extraordinary Adventure!

Author's Note:

* Hello and welcome to Chapter Four!

* Sorry for the lack of an update in the last two weeks! Classes have started for me again and I've been pretty busy, but don't worry, I'm sticking to my promise! I'm going to keep updating and working on this, even if it takes a while. So, you all don't have a thing to worry about!

* Anyway, with all that said, let's get right into the chapter!

Percy

Camp Half-Blood

The sun was just beginning to set now, so I had to hurry. If I was being honest, I couldn't afford to be seen. That would just slow me down. I have to avoid contact with anyone. I let out a sigh as I put on Annabeth's old Yankees cap. The next thing I knew, I was entirely invisible, so I began to jog towards the Library.

Once I reached the door of the Library, it immediately opened and I narrowly avoiding running into another camper. I sidestepped out of the way and once the camper was gone, I slipped into the Library as the door shut. I looked ahead to the reception desk, to see a counselor sitting at the desk, with his feet up, reading a book. He hadn't even looked up.

Good, I slipped in undetected. Now, I just need the key to the Restricted Section.

I looked beyond the desk, where on the wall right behind the counselor's chair, there were a row of prongs.

And of course, the key I need is on one of those prongs. Right behind the counselor that's watching the reception area.

I silently made my way forward, as he continued reading from his book. Eventually, I reached the prongs that were just to the left of him. I slowly reached out and eventually grabbed the key I needed, all the while, he never looked up. I then gingerly pulled the key off of the prong and once again, he didn't notice. In my victory, I felt cocky.

"You shouldn't be so oblivious to your surroundings." I whispered in a near silent tone.

He still didn't move, look up or do anything. But of course, my cockiness would be a mistake. As I turned to move down the hall, my hand nailed a stack of papers that sat on the desk, sending them flying. The counselor finally looked up from his book. He eventually put his feet down and got up, I had to move out of the way as he moved over to where I had been standing. After he looked around a bit, he did something that surprised me.

"No running in the halls!" he yelled as he walked back to sit down at the desk.

He then put his feet up and began to read once more, as if nothing had happened. I couldn't help but feel the urge to laugh, but I couldn't afford to draw any attention to myself. So, I quietly walked past the reception desk and down the hall to the small Library. Like I said before, it offered real world literature of fiction and non-fiction works and material on the Gods of Olympus.

The Library had two floors, however, I only needed access to one of them. The Restricted Section was on the first floor, behind a locked gate. A gate that I just so happened to have the key to. I walked up to said gate and just stood there for a second, looking at the metal gate. Once I got over my awe, I put the key into the keyhole and unlocked it, then slowly pushed it open, trying to be as silent as I could.

I walked through the gate and into the small, confined Restricted Section. There were three shelves in the room. Two short shelves against the shorter walls and one big one on the widest wall. Just to touch on how confined this room is, it could probably fit six people max in here before it was considered crowded. I walked up to the shelf and began to look through the books on the shelf. As I looked, I saw a book that stood out to me. It was a book on World War II. I was confused.

Why was there a book on World War II in here? I mean, I knew that there were half-bloods that took part in the war, but is this book really that much of a threat, to be kept here?

Annabeth is a history buff. She might like books like this. I'll try and talk to Chiron about being a little more open with the Restricted Section once all this blows over. I continued looking through the shelf of books until I saw one that stood out. It was dark red or maroon, and its spine was bigger than any of the rest of the books.

This has to be it.

I pulled the book out and off of the shelf and held it in my hands for a few seconds. It turned invisible the second I touched it, so I had to take off the Yankees cap and put it on the shelf. The book now reappeared, and I was able to look at it. The front cover of the book was a faded maroon color, so it must have been old. The title was also "A More Than Brief History of Ancient Greece, It's Gods and Goddesses, Titans and Monsters".

"Gods, that's a mouthful of a title." I muttered to myself. "But this is definitely the book I need to look through."

I grabbed the Yankees cap from the shelf and put it back on. I then walked out of the Restricted Section and placed the book under my arm, as I reached for the key to the gate that I had put in my pocket. Once I had pulled it out, I slowly pulled the gate shut and locked it again. Unfortunately, as I locked it, the book fell from under my arm and hit the floor with a thud.

I quickly slipped the key back into my pocket and bent down to pick up the book, causing it to turn invisible once again. A few seconds after that, I heard the counselor from the reception desk get up from his chair.

"What was that noise?" he called out.

When nobody answered, I heard him begin to walk down the hall. It was at that point that I quickly and quietly moved to the wall that the hallway connected with, that way I'd have no chance of him bumping into me. Once he walked into the area, he looked around the room.

"Who's back here?" he called.

When no one answered, he shook his head and let out a sigh.

"Maybe I should call it a night. I'm clearly hearing things."

I took no time in rushing down the hall once he had moved again.

"Oh, great. Now I'm hearing manic echoing footsteps!"

I grabbed the key from my pocket once more and slipped it back onto one of the prongs on my way out.

A Few Minutes Later

Cabin Three

As soon as I rushed through the door, taking off the Yankees cap, Annabeth looked up with surprise.

"Percy? What is it?" she asked.

I ignored her as I moved over to my trunk, setting the book from the Restricted Section on my bed as I opened it.

"Wait, what is that?"

"It's a book, called "A More Than Brief History of Ancient Greece, It's Gods and Goddesses, Titans and Monsters". I snuck into the Library's Restricted Section to find it."

Annabeth was silent behind me. I turned around to see her staring at me wide-eyed.

"What?" I finally asked.

"You were never that reckless when we were kids, Percy!" she replied.

I rolled my eyes with a chuckle as I turned away from her once again.

"A lot can happen in five years, Annie."

"I told you not to call me that."

"I can do whatever I want."

I took my shoes off and sat down on my bed to begin reading from the book. As I opened the book and began scanning the table of contents for a section of Gaea, I felt an urge of some kind tugging at my mind. I finally looked up at Annabeth, who had gone back to reading from her book.

"Hey."

She looked up at me.

"Yes?"

"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry."

She shut her book, now having a look of curiosity on her face.

"Sorry about what?"

"I'm sorry about what I said to you earlier today. About you should abandon another one of your friends for five years. That was uncalled for and I'm sorry."

She smirked.

"So, you admit that you were wrong then? About refusing to help us?"

I shook my head with surprise.

"No, I just meant that I was sorry about what I had said about you. I meant everything I said about the mission."

"You're not even going to help out an old friend?"

"Why should I? For all I know, you'll just run off again once we're finished."

She heaved a sigh.

"There you go again, Percy."

"There I go again? What do you mean?"

"There you are again, acting as though I'm going to leave again."

"You disappeared for five years. What's stopping you from disappearing for another five years?"

"Can you stop with that? If I have to leave, then I have to leave, that's what these couple days were for. To catch up with you. I don't want to leave, but if I have to, then that's that."

"Why can't you just stay here? You're still a Hunter, but you stick around Camp to help with anything that comes up. You'd make a good instructor or something."

"A good instructor?"

I sighed.

"Look, I don't know! You know a lot, okay? You can teach archery or history, or something! Just don't leave again!"

She shook her head.

"It doesn't work that way, Percy. The Hunters always need me. I'm one of Lady Artemis's lieutenants, not some scout."

"You can't stay here and still be one of her lieutenants?"

She just shook her head again. I scoffed.

"Whatever you say." I replied as I looked down at the book again.

"Sorry if you don't like what you hear, it's just the way it is."

I didn't say anything as I scanned the table of contents once more.

"Percy?"

"This conversation is over, Annie. I'm trying to read up on this."

I had called her Annie again to try to make her angry. She'd already upset me, so I think it was fair.

"Reading up on what?" she asked a few seconds later.

"Gaea." I replied without looking up at her.

"What's got you so interested in the mission? I thought you didn't want to do it?"

"It's not about the mission. I'm just interested in her backstory. I want to know what all the hub bub about her is."

After a few seconds, she chuckled.

"You did not seriously just say "hub bub"."

I ignored her as I finally found the section I was looking for. I flipped through the pages of the book until I came to the section on Gaea.

"Why don't you just ask me your questions about Gaea instead of reading a book about her?"

"Because I don't know if I can trust what you say anymore."

She went silent after that, finally allowing me to concentrate on the pages in front of me. I started at the very beginning, the first passage in the section about Gaea.

"Gaea is the Greek primordial Goddess of the Earth; she was the first to have sprung from the void of Chaos."

Mr. D mentioned that today, I thought, before going back to reading.

"Gaea was alone at first and after she wished for company, the sky (or Ouranos) was born. By this time, she gave birth to the domains and mountains (Ourae). Two more Protogenoi were born from Chaos: Pontus (the sea), and Tartarus (the Pit)."

Tartarus? As in, the Tartarus, I thought. like in the Underworld?

"Both of them had feelings for Gaea, but she would ultimately choose Ouranos to be her husband. Eventually, she and Ouranos would have three sets of children together, the Titans, the Elder Cyclopes, and the Hekatonkhieres."

"Hekatonkhieres?" I asked. "Those are the Hundred-Handed-Ones, right?"

"Well, that's their original name, but yes."

"Gaea loved all her children, however, Ouranos became distant from their family and would grow to resent their children, particularly the two younger races, as they were hideously ugly. Despite Gaea's protests, Ouranos seized the Elder Cyclopes and the Hekatonkhieres, chained them up and cast them to the depths of Tartarus. Angry at her husband's actions, Gaea called forth her remaining (and favorite) children, the Titans, and presented to them her newly forged scythe."

I think Mr. D told us about this, I thought.

"You shouldn't be reading that book." Annabeth spoke up once again.

I looked up at her.

"It was in the Restricted Section for a reason, Percy."

"And it has information that I need. So, I needed this book."

"You can't just let me give you the information you need myself?"

"Nope."

"Come on, Percy. I might know what you want out of that book, so just ask me!"

"Yeah, I know that you might. But here's the thing, Annie. I'm not sure if I can trust what you say anymore."

I looked back down at the book and got back to reading.

"She requested one of them to step forward and take the scythe to kill Ouranos and free their brothers from the Underworld. All of the Titans were indecisive at the prospect of killing their father even though they all hated him, but the youngest and most power-hungry – Kronos – agreed to the deed."

I definitely remember Mr. D mentioning this, I thought.

"He accepted the scythe from Gaea and convinced her to lure Ouranos down to Earth into attending a romantic dinner, so that he and his brothers, with the exception of Oceanus, could ambush him. When Ouranos arrived to meet with Gaea, Krios, Koios, Hyperion, and Iapetus all sprang from their hiding places and ambushed their father."

"While his brothers held Ouranos down, Kronos used the scythe to castrate Ouranos and followed up by cutting his body into pieces, flinging Ouranos' severed genitals into the ocean. However, Ouranos cursed Kronos and said that he would one day suffer the fate of being overthrown by his children, just as how Kronos had done to him."

I... I think I'm starting to get why Gaea shouldn't be allowed to awaken. I don't know why I thought that she could be good, just because she wasn't a Titan. She's evil and manipulative. She can get anyone to do anything she says.

"Her children laughed, but this fate would eventually come true. Gaea would then proclaim Kronos as lord of the universe and after the Elder Cyclopes and the Hekatonkhieres were released, she sank into a deep slumber for a millennia."

After that, I skimmed the text for something else that stood out to me. I saw a section that detailed her affair with Pontos, which resulted in the birth of Nereus, Thaumas, Phorcys, Keto, and Eurybia, but I didn't give it much thought. I also skipped over the section that detailed how she saved Zeus from being eaten by his father when he was a baby. Finally, I found another section that stood out.

"Upon reawakening and discovering that the Olympians banished her Titan children to the Pit, Gaea consorted with Tartarus and gave birth to a new set of children: the Gigantes, each one born to oppose a specific God. When it came to the First Giant War, the Olympians received help from Heracles and Dionysus, sons of Zeus and the Giants were defeated."

"Gaea's final act of defiance against the Gods was in the form of Typhon, her monstrous son whom she goaded into attacking Olympus. He rose to the upper world and unleashed a path of destruction on his way to Mount Olympus. The Gods rode into battle to face the storm giant, but his ferocious appearance scared them into fleeing all the way to Egypt."

Fleeing all the way to Egypt? I don't think I've ever heard about this!

"Only Zeus remained behind, and after a long battle, he managed to defeat Typhon by imprisoning under Mount Etna. Following the defeat of yet another child of hers, Gaea admitted defeat and went back to sleep."

After that, I continued skimming the text, about ready to stop reading. No, I was ready to stop reading. I had heard enough. I shut the book with force, which made Annabeth jump a bit on the bed across from me.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

I got up and put the book on the floor, next to my chest at the foot of my bed.

"I now know what I must do." I whispered.

"What? Percy, can you speak up? I can hardly hear you."

I moved back to the bed as I looked up at her.

"It's time to go to sleep. I'm calling lights out."

I shut off of the lamp on my nightstand and got into bed.

"Okay. Well, good night then." She replied.

"Yeah." I replied as I laid down.

The Next Morning

The Big House

To be honest, I completely skipped talking with Annabeth this morning. After grabbing the book and slipping it into my backpack, I headed for The Big House to see Mr. D. He opened his office at eight thirty every morning and right now, I was standing outside the closed double doors to his office. I knocked on the door again.

"Mr. D come on! It's eight thirty-one!" I exclaimed. "I need to talk with you, it's urgent!"

Eventually, after a few more seconds, Mr. D finally opened the doors.

"Why is it that my office has only been open for a minute and I already have an annoying little visitor?!"

I huffed with anger as he said that.

"Good morning to you, too, Mr. D." I said, noting his apparel. "You look great, by the way."

Mr. D looked down at the leopard print robe that he was wearing, black sweatpants and slippers. He then looked back up at me.

"Do you have a problem with the way I'm dressed, Perry?"

There he goes again with calling me "Perry"!

"No. Although, it doesn't exactly scream "God of wine" to me, if you don't mind me saying."

"Doesn't exactly scream "God of wine" to me"," he muttered. "Very good. Well, out with it. What is so important that you must come up here so early to get in my way?"

I stood there for second or two, before I spoke.

"I'll do it."

Author's Note:

* And that's it for the chapter! What do you all think? You may think that this chapter was a bit of a boring read and I don't blame you, as it was somewhat boring to write.

* I just want to apologize for this chapter taking so much longer than the last two. I was falling behind with this and class, along with an expired MS Word subscription didn't help with that. But, the chapter's here now and to me, that's all that matters.

* So, with that being said, I'm think I'm done here. I'm going to go though, so have a fantastic day and bye!

Review Responses

ryani (Chapter 3): Damn ill be honest im liking how he is treating annabeth and i cant wait til she finds out how he was/is in love with her when she left him for the hunters. Can't wait for the next chapter

Thanks, Ryan. I also can't wait for when she finds out, even though I'm the one writing the story and I already know how it'll happen. I'm glad you were looking forward to this chapter. Thanks for the review, as always.

SentinalSlice (Chapter 3): I like that Percy is being cold to her. She left him at an age where it would affect him mentally.

Thanks, Sentinal. More people are liking how Percy is acting than I had initially thought. Thanks for the review, as always.

SheSaysInParentheses (Chapter 3): Why did you spoil the next chapter at the end lol?

Thanks. Well, it was kind of obvious, wasn't it? Where else will the story go if Percy doesn't accept the mission? Thanks for the review, as always.

jodanfritz10 (Chapter 3): I like how you make this feel real. Most people would have them all fine and dandy even after 5 years of separation. percy would of course have some issues with annabeth after that amount of time. It helps build the story and doesn't make it feel rushed.

Thanks, Jodan. Well, Annabeth left Percy in a bit of a bad situation. It's obviously affected him. And yeah, I'm not rushing this. There will be a relationship between the two of them, at some point. And it's not going to be soon. It'll take a while. Thanks for the review, as always.

Next Chapter: Mr. D informs Annabeth and Percy of their mission. During down time, Percy and Annabeth try to patch up their rocky friendship.