Hey guys, new Percy Jackson fic.

This story is my second one that focuses on Alabaster Torrington, the Son of Magic. I love that story and I hate that he's underutilized by the fanfiction community, because he's such an awesome character to play with. Honestly, he has so much pain and loneliness that any story becomes ten times more awesome with him in it just because of the character depth and dynamics that his character offers.

Just a fair heads-up, this story has nothing to do with my other story, the Master of Magic. Sorry not sorry? Also, this story is heavily inspired by the original Percy Jackson series, as I tried to write it in the same style, including writing the story in first person POV, from Percy Jackson's perspective.

Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy :) Please review, because I love reviews, good and bad.

Summary: After Alabaster, the son of Hecate, goes missing, the goddess asks Percy and Annabeth to go find him. But what they find may change their world forever. Sequel to Son of Magic by Haley Riordan.

Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson or its characters, Rick Riordan does. I just own the storyline and any OC's that may pop up.

The Quest

…

Quests are such an inconvenience, as my girlfriend Annabeth would say.

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Percy Jackson. I'm the guy that's saved the world three or four times. Fought off the Titan Lord Kronos in my hometown of New York? That was me. Worked in a team of seven Half-Bloods to stop the Earth Goddess Gaea and her giants from destroying the planet? Also me. Stopped an ancient Egyptian magician from turning himself into a god and reshaping the world into his image? That was a weird one but yes, I was involved.

Point is, Annabeth and I have saved the world. A lot. And after doing all of that, and after helping Annabeth's cousin Magnus, AND losing our friend Jason in the war with the triumvirate a few weeks ago, we had decided to try and retire and live normal lives. Of course, that wasn't gonna happen. Of course some magic goddess just HAD to swing by and ask us for a favor. And I say favor in the nicest way possible, since generally gods don't ask.

But that's not the only place where things went wrong. That's when we earned a new title: the people that helped to end the world.

I'm getting ahead of myself. I need to take a deep breath and start over. Tell you this story right.

Let's track this from the beginning.

…

So, Annabeth and I had limited time left in New York. Thanks to Hera, I'd missed a huge chunk of high school, and I had spent all my time up until last month getting caught up. Now it was June, and in September we planned to move to the West Coast and enroll in New Rome University, a college for demigods and their children. It was in New Rome, a city that was the most beautiful city in the world (in my opinion). New Rome was also under the protection of Camp Jupiter, lead by our friends Frank and Reyna. It was the safest place in the world for her and me to start our lives together.

So, she and I wanted to make as much of a good time as we could with the little bit we had left in Manhattan. We planned on going back to Camp Half-Blood, our home, for one last summer in a week or two, but we wanted to spend a little bit more of our free time in the city first. We had decided to go see a movie and go out to dinner afterwards.

I wanted to go see the new Godzilla movie, but Annabeth wanted to go see some biofilm on Elton John, so we ended up deciding to see the Elton John flick.

Our day started off pretty normal. My mom and my little half-sister Estelle was at a book signing, my stepdad Paul Blofis was at some week-long retreat for his job, so Annabeth met me at my house and we took my stepdad's Prius to the theater. We were going to be just a little early to the 3 o'clock showing.

On the way there, Annabeth argued with my taste in music. Apparently, I listened to too much Zeppelin and not nearly enough music that mortals our age actually listened to. After I reminded her that we weren't exactly like regular mortals our age and that we had already compromised on the movie by choosing to go see the one she wanted to watch, she settled for listening to the Mothership album.

Once we got to the theater and bought our tickets, we started weaving our way to the concessions stand.

As we were standing in line, I saw a green light coming from the bathrooms out of my peripheral vision.

"Did you see that?" I asked Annabeth. She had been looking at the menu.

"See what?" She asked, looking around. The green light was gone.

"I don't know." I admitted, my face turning red. "I must've been seeing things."

Annabeth looked at my quizzically. "Normal people just see things. When has that ever been normal for us?"

"Fair point." I conceded. "Should we check it out?"

"Where was it coming from?" Annabeth asked.

"The bathrooms."

Annabeth sighed, pocketing the cash she had been holding for concessions. "Might as well." She said.

As we worked our way to the bathrooms, we saw the green light again. It was emanating from the women's room. None of the mortals seemed to notice.

"Gotta love the Mist." I commented.

"It's definitely coming from the women's room." Annabeth said. "Let's go see what it is."

"But I can't go in there." I protested as Annabeth put her hand on the door. She turned to me, eyebrows raised.

"And why is that, Seaweed Brain?" She teased.

"Because it's the women's room." I answered back.

"And there's something weird going on in there." Annabeth said. "Aren't heroes supposed to go anywhere they need to, no matter how embarrassing?"

My face was probably a deep shade of crimson. Whatever. It felt weird, but guess I didn't have a choice.

"Ladies first?" I joked, gesturing for Annabeth to open the door. She humphed and flipped around, opening the door.

As I followed her inside, I put my hand in my pocket and clutched my pen that would turn into my magic sword Riptide.

…

As the door closed and disappeared behind us, we found ourselves in a derelict church, with all of the seats covered in dust and unoccupied. On the platform in the front, a glowing green pillar of light was suspended in the air. It must've been the source of light we had seen earlier. In front of it was a woman on her knees, head tilted forward, as if in prayer.

"I don't think this is the ladies room." I said to break the silence.

Annabeth whacked my arm, and then started walking towards the woman. I uncapped Riptide and followed her.

As we got closer, I felt power emanating from the woman. Annabeth looked at me, and mouthed a god?

"Why don't you simply ask?" The woman said aloud. I stepped in front of Annabeth with Riptide in front of us as the woman stood and turned, her eyes a brilliant shade of green, glowing with godly power.

"You can go ahead and put that away, Perseus Jackson." The woman said. "If I wanted to hurt you, son of Poseidon, I would have already."

"And who are you?" Annabeth asked.

The woman smiled. "I am Hecate, the goddess of magic."

I looked at Annabeth, and she nodded. As I put away Riptide, I looked at Hecate. "Our friend Hazel told us about you. You helped her learn the magic to save us from the giants in Tartarus."

Hecate nodded. "Aye." She said. "Hazel is by far one of my favorite students. Is she doing well?"

"She's good." Annabeth said uncomfortably, thinking about her reaction to Jason's death.

"Just good?" Hecate asked.

"Not important." I said. "Why were you waiting for us in the ladies room?"

Hecate sighed, and pointed at one of the church pews. We took her meaning and sat down with her.

"What is this place?" Annabeth asked out of curiosity.

"My house." Hecate answered with pride. "Count yourselves special. You are one of the few mortals that have ever been inside."

"Why are we here?" I asked.

"Because I need your help." Hecate responded, wringing her hands.

"Look, I don't know if you've heard, but we're retired." I said. "I'm sure there are other demigods who can help-"

"No, there aren't." Hecate interrupted. "This is a problem with one of my sons, who was banished by the Olympians from Camp Half-Blood. There's no one who can help but you."

"Why was he banished?" Annabeth asked.

"Because he fought in Kronos' army, at Luke Castellan's side." Hecate answered.

"But there was a general amnesty for those demigods." I reminded her. "He was forgiven."

"Aye, but my son, Alabaster, led the rest of his siblings into battle." Hecate explained. "When Typhon fell, just as you were fighting Kronos, the Olympians slaughtered much of Kronos' army, including my children. Alabaster never forgave them for that, and turned down their amnesty."

I shook my head, and looked at Annabeth, at a loss on what to do. She looked back at me, and we looked at Hecate, whose head was in her hands. She seemed extremely worried.

I looked again at Annabeth and mouthed I think we should do it.

Are you sure? She mouthed back.

Positive. I answered before asking Hecate, "What's the problem?"

Hecate looked at me, and said, "A few days ago, Alabaster was here, in Manhattan, with his companion Dr. Claymore. They were looking into a place they had discovered in their research, some kind of altar. Alabaster didn't really give me all of the details but said that he suspected the entrance to be somewhere beneath Central Park, near or at Orpheus's Cave."

"What were they researching?" Annabeth asked.

"The Primordials." Hecate answered.

"The Primordials?" I asked curiously.

"Yes." Hecate answered. "This world is old, and there were people here before gods and men, before giants and Titans."

My blood ran cold. "Like Gaea?" I asked cautiously.

"Yes." Hecate said. "In every pantheon there are primordials whose origins are suspected and fantasized but not really known. Alabaster and Dr. Claymore were studying their origins."

"So what went wrong?" Annabeth asked.

"I am not certain." Hecate said, her eyebrows furrowing in concern. "Alabaster usually communicates with me in dreams, but I haven't heard from him since the night he decided to go look for the altar. And since the Olympians banished him, I am forbidden from seeking him out in person, and he is forbidden from Manhattan. If I went looking for him and revealed his location the Olympians, they will kill him. That's why I needed your help."

"What do you need from us?" I asked wearily.

"I need the two of you to find him, and make sure he is alright." Hecate said.

"That's it?" I asked incredulously.

"What else would I need?" Hecate asked, confused.

"Well, usually when the gods ask for our help, it's because they either lost something or had it stolen from them." Annabeth explained. "It's usually not this straightforward and simple."

"So, you'll do it?" Hecate asked hopefully.

I looked at Annabeth, and she nodded. I groaned in my head. So much for retirement.

"Sure." I answered. "Where do you think we should start?"

Hecate sighed in relief, and said, "Well, I know he went looking in Central Park."

I looked at Annabeth, and said, "Well, ma'am, I don't know if you've ever been in Central Park, but it's a pretty big place. We need a landmark or something to zero in on, or a starting point."

Hecate tilted her head, as if in thought. "Well, he said he thought the entrance to the altar was near Orpheus's Cave, so you could start there. Maybe ask some of the nature spirits."

"Welp, that's better than nothing." I conceded. "We should probably get started." I said as me and Annabeth stood.

"How will we let you know when we've found him?" Annabeth asked. Leave it to Wise Girl to remember to ask the important questions.

"He will tell me in a dream." Hecate answered, standing and facing the both of us. "I am going to send you both back now." She placed her hands on our heads, and as the room started to disappear around us, she added, "By the way, Mr. Jackson, be careful around Alabaster. He hates you with a passion."

"What?!" I demanded as Hecate and her 'house' vanished, and we found ourselves back in the front seat of the Prius.

"That was…weird." Annabeth said.

"Why would her son hate me is, I think, the important question." I answered, putting my hands in my hoodie and pulling out our tickets.

"I'm sure she was just exaggerating." Annabeth dismissed it. She paused for a few minutes, and then noticed me staring down.

"Percy, what's wrong?" Annabeth asked, concerned.

I looked at her and held up the tickets.

"I just wish she had asked us find her son before I bought these." I complained.

…

…

…To Be Continued?