Prologue

(Percy's POV)

As I climbed the hill which acted as part of the boundary line to Camp Half-Blood, I couldn't help but feel a wash of relief wash over me, but it was soon taken over by a tidal wave of anxiety.

*Flashback*

"Duck!" Thalia shouted at me, as the Cyclops swung his war hammer where my skull would have been. I rolled to the side, and my eye caught the man dressed in black sitting in the corner of the room, as I dodged another hammer swing

Hang on! My brain told me as I turn back to the corner where I had seen the mysterious man, but all that was there was a pile of skulls.

"PERCY!" Thalia shouted and I reacted by jumping to the side, with Riptide flashing through the Cyclops' now open defence.

"Finally!" Nico cried as the Cyclops turned into golden dust before us, and with its disintegration, and clang as the Chalice of the Gods it had stolen fell to the floor. We, and by we, I mean myself, Thalia and Nico had been tracking the damn thing for around three months now, and all of us were starting to get impatient. Only the Gods would let us have a two week break after defeating the giants before we got sent on another quest. The Chalice of the Gods, a cup capable of turning a Demi-god or mortal into a god rolled among the gold dust of its thief before Thalia bent down and picked it up.

"What was with you looking the other way?" She asked as she shoved it into her backpack. All I could offer her was a shrug; it must have been a trick of the light I told myself. Words weren't needed between us, not anymore. We all knew what we were going to do now. Go home.

In the three months me and my cousins had been hunting the Chalice, we'd become a lot closer than ever before, and now we were bonded as closely as sibling, willing to protect each other until our final breath. Me and Nico had found out that just after the war, Thlai had quit the Hunters due to her wanting to be able to spend more time with her friends and also she wanted to be able to grow old with us. Nico had also confided in us that he was thinking of taking up Hades' on a offer to become Prince of the Underworld, essentially making him a god. I wish I had something to confess to them, but as they told me, I'm an open book, although I did tell them about Ogygia, which both of them took in their stride, even Thalia who was closer than ever with Annabeth.

Although there was a slight downfall with our new bonding. Monsters now were an extremely common occurrence, and to be honest, I'm getting tired of waking up with some sort of disgusting creature trying to kill me, and I'm pretty sure that Thalia and Nico feel the same way. We climbed up the ladder of the sewer where the Cyclops had been hiding, and then I turned and helped Nico out, and then went to relocking the grate.

"Should we drop it off a Olympus?" Nico asked looking around, trying to find his bearings. Thalia opened his mouth to reply when suddenly there was a swoosh in the air, and Hermes appeared in front of us.

"Got it then?" He said with a flash of a grin. I saw his Caduceus, but noticed that George and Martha were not present on it. I opened my mouth to say something when Hermes saw what I was looking at and responded.

"They're on vacation, I thought I'd let them have the day off." He explained and then turned to Thalia.

"I'll carry the Chalice to Olympus for you all, you need to get back to Camp-Half Blood." Hermes said, as Thalia pulled out the Chalice, and handed it to the god. Hermes smiled, but I saw that there a little flicker on the corner of his mouth as he turned to me.

"Urmm Perce, I do have a message for you. From Annabeth." This got my attention, I hadn't been able to talk to Annabeth for around a week, due to our Drachmas being low, but she hadn't contacted me either which worried me slightly.

"Yeah?" I asked, prompting Hermes on. Hermes gave a little sigh and then said.

"It's only short, she just says that when you get back, you both need to talk."

"Oh." Was my intelligent reply. Hermes gave a shrug and then disappeared as quickly as he had come.

"Don't worry Kelp Head, it'll be fine." Thalia said, as she threw their last Drachma onto the road.

"Come forth Chariot of Damnation!" Nico shouted. Both myself and Thalis turned to him with an eyebrow raised.

"Too dramatic he said as the Grey Sister's Taxi rushed into sight.

*End Flashback*

So there we stood at the top of Half-Blood Hill, staring down at Camp-Half Blood. It had changed a lot since we were last here, a lot of the younger Roman Campers had come to stay, while some of the older of our campers had done the same to New Rome, it was an effective system. But it did mean that a lot of new cabins had to be built for the influx of new gods and their children. I grinned at Thalia and Nico, who grinned back, the same wide smile of their faces. I may be worried about Annabeth, but for the moment, I'm relishing in the fact that I'm home. I knew we had to report to Chiron before we could meet up with our friends, so I started running down the hill towards the Big House, with Nico and Thalia just behind me.

It took us less than a minute to get to the Big House, and we all stopped at the porch, panting with exertion from the short steep run down the hill. I climbed up the steps and then entered the main room, where I could see Chiron reading the newspaper and Mr. D simply pulling the tabs off the many cans of Diet- Coke next to him.

Chiron looked over the newspaper, and a smile appeared on his face at the sight of us three.

"Percy, Thalia, Nico, welcome back, I assume the quest was successful?"

"Yep!" "Uh-huh" "Of course" Were our three different replies, which brought a grin to our faces, and I saw I saw a slight quiver on Mr. D's lips as well.

Chiron smiled good heartedly, but then his face turned serious.

"You three better sit down, there are something you should know."

And there's the re-write, keep reading folks.

Peace Out

Maximus Artilius