Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or other affiliated works

Persi POV

Well we are in Richmond. Unfortunately, our next train won't be here for a few more hours. We stood in the station for a while pondering on what we should do. Thalia looked like she'd rather be anywhere, but here. I wondered if it was something about this place or something that I had done. Annabeth looked on with sympathy. She recommended we got some training in and then we could sleep on the train. Honestly, I didn't really care, and Thalia probably didn't too. Clarisse wanted to see some sites since we were here in Richmond.

Let me tell you, for someone who was born in the north and never though that they won't travel to Richmond let alone anywhere in the south. I didn't think that there was anything here to see. Sure, the city was in better condition and not as crowded as good ol' New York city, which I unfortunately had my ear tortured when Annabeth mentioned that it used to be called New Amsterdam when the settlement was first discovered by those dam Dutch and used as a dam trading operations center to trade dam beaver pelts and goods from the dam Native Americans. Ah fun times.

Clarisse had wanted to see the confederate statues erected around the city. Apparently, she had a fascination with the civil war after hearing some interesting stories from the confederate soldiers she had command of during the whole Polyphemus and the golden fleece episode, but I'm not going to complain because we managed to save Grover from what I believe would have been an awful marriage and (resurrect?) get Thalia out of her tree.

Apparently, there has been an uproar in the mortal world over confederate statues for some reason, so she eventually won her argument with Annabeth over seeing them. I was amazed honestly because someone managed to defeat Annabeth in something, not she's really been talking to me lately, but that also might have been because of her know it all ness that she has and wanting to learn information before its gone. Honestly, I thought it sounded boring.

Let me tell you there is a lot of statues of Robert E. Lee in Richmond. Several of which depict him on horseback. Annabeth informed me that he was a great American general who served the confederacy during the American Civil war. Clarisse elaborated that President Lincoln at the time offered him the position of being general of the union army, but he chose the confederacy because of his loyalty to the state of Virginia when it chose to succ…. Suc.. left the Union. Most of the statues were located on guess what monument avenue. Thalia had great reluctance when we came here. She kept staring at a statue that had a hand pointed across the street. A couple of tears fell from her eyes.

I was baffled. On one hand I wanted to go over to her and offer some comfort. That gave me a warm feeling. On the other hand, I was curious on what was getting to her. I finally noticed that she feared turning around. Like there was something behind her that she did not want to face. Then I took a notice of the statue. I followed where it was pointing across the street. At first I noticed a simple run down manor, but as I looked closer I saw a veil of mist obscuring its view. It took me a few minutes to clear it away. When I did in the place of the former manor stood ruin and scorch marks.

I couldn't stop a gasp from escaping my lips. This caused Annabeth and Clarisse to turn around with me.

"what happen here," Clarisse asked.

"look at those markings," Annabeth said scrunching her eyes, "that's not the pattern of a normal fire. It almost looks like…" She stopped and looked over at Thalia with concern on her face. "this is where it happened didn't it." Thalia gave a faint nod, but refused to turn around. I had never seen this side of Thalia before. She is usually so confident and chill about everything. I've only seen this type of reaction from her before was when it was about Luke.

Oh.

OH.

"I'm usually not the one to offer advice, but you should probably talk about this," Clarisse said while taking in the site of destruction.

"That sounds like a plan," a familiar voice said, "and I know the perfect place. Foods on me." We all, except Thalia, turned around upon the intrusion and saw Apollo, God of the Sun, Archery, prophecy, poetry and so forth.

"Lord Apollo,' Annabeth said as we quickly kneeled before him.

"Of course, it's you," Thalia said coolly.

"I'm not going to take offence to that because I'm such a cool dude," Apollo said in an air of nonchalance. He quickly signaled for us to get up and follow him down the street. "Besides, I heard the great Percy Jackson got turned into a girl by my sister and I just had to see this for myself." With that he stopped and swept his eyes over from top to bottom. His eyes lingered on my chest for a moment. My cheeks burned after a moment when I realized that I had breasts and he was staring at them. My muscles felt like they were frozen as he checked me out.

"Not bad if I do say so myself," Apollo said, "how does it feel perce? Did you just want to get with me? Was that the reason why you asked for the change because I could have told you that I swing bo.."

"That's enough lord Apollo," Annabeth interjected, "your Embarrassing Percy. Besides heee she joined the hunt and you know what that entails."

"Hmmp, very well," Apollo sighed, "Follow me though." He led us down the down street and turned into a McDonalds. It was never my favorite fast food chain, but I can't complain its cheap. It always reminds me of Nico summoning the dead using happy meals. "its not the fanciest place, but I figured we needed a lighter atmosphere. After he got us our food we all sat in a booth in the corner. I was extremely uncomfortable because Apollo chose to sit next to me on one side and everyone else on the other.

No offence to Apollo, but when he tried to flirt with me earlier I felt sick at the thought.

"Now where were we," Apollo said while munching on his big mac, "ah yes Hal."

"His name was Halcyon Green and you sentenced him to a worse fate then he deserved," Thalia intervened.

"Wait what's going on," I asked coming out of my stupor. My McNuggets lay forgotten on my tray.

"Well," Thalia started not sure where to start.

"Before Luke, Thalia and I came to camp we journeyed across the U.S. This was before they found me actually. But part of their journey came through this city," Annabeth stated.

"When we made it to Richmond. we ran into Amaltheia. "

"Wait who?

"Amaltheia is an immortal goat that took care of Dad when Rhea shuffled him away from the Kronos when Zeus was born," Apollo interjected.

"I Assumed it was a sign from my dad so we followed it. The goat lead Luke and I to that statue in monument avenue and the goat signaled us to check out the house across the street,' Thalia said as she continued the story.

"Actually, I was the one who sent Amaltheia to you all," Apollo said. Seeing Thalia and Annabeth start to question he continued. "I had actually sent the sign to Luke, but I knew you would recognize it better. The goat was so you can both be nourished enough for your inevitable journey to camp half-blood. Thalia looked lost like that was not what she expected to hear.

"Wait you sent her," Thalia asked, "but why?"

"yes, my intent was for the two of you to find Hal, but it was also to learn how prideful we can be, but to also see that we have a reason for everything that we do. I was trying to show my brother's son that. The fate of his mother was tragic, but as you figured out it was because of her own hubris. You and Percy wouldn't fail to learn from that lesson either." This caught my attention as I looked at him. He must have noticed my shift in gaze because he winked at me.

"Us gods do make mistakes now and then, but most things we do are for a reason. The reason why I mentioned you two was because of how Zeus and Poseidon let alone the other gods and goddesses have treated you since you both were born of a broken oath. I believe Zeus and Poseidon each decidedly took a gamble and consciously broke their oath. Sure they did love your mothers, but they both knew that the great prophecy had to play out and hoped that you would play the role. Each of us gods have each acted in a way to guide you along the path, but we shown you parts of our dark sides. The issue is that we, gods, view the world in a different sense that you mortals. Your lives are fleeting. So we generally look at a bigger picture of the world without taking into consideration of the lives insignificant to ours. You'll soon discover this Thalia and Percy.

"But Luke didn't learn your lesson," Thalia interjected heatedly, "If anything it drove his anger for you gods further and solidified his resolve to rebel against you. It showed him how cruel you all are."

"such are the schemes of mice and men," Apollo said sagely.

"you stole that from a book," Annabeth said

"The point is that Gods and mortals are different and have different views of the world. You wish Percy for us to recognize our children helped ground us back into the human world," Apollo said turning towards me. "Oh and how do you know that the mortals didn't steal it from us Annabeth my dear niece? Now look at the time you guys have a train to catch."

Apollo pushed us out of our seats and to the door.

"never forget if you need help just ask. Just let me warn you. You'll never know who will answer." With that he pushed us through the door. My vision went cloudy and I felt light headed. Once it cleared, I noticed Apollo was gone, but what I noticed the most was that we were back in the train station.

'Last call for roundtrip train to Savannah Georgia Last Call.'

"I think that is our train," Clarisse said woozy.

"Yeah I think," I muttered. Without thought I made my way onto that train. We managed to find four seats together.

"Hey Thalia," Clarisse said.

Yeah," she answered.

"What exactly happened to this Hal guy? That whole meeting with Apollo was really confusing?

"He was a son of Apollo born with the gift of foresight. He was cursed by Apollo when he intervened with fate and save a girl's life. He was confined to his home and forced to live amongst monsters till he died. I never seen Luke so angry." It started fading out as I started out the window as the train rushed out of the city.

AN: Well that's it. I don't think it is my best work, but I felt like I should update something. Feel free to leave your comments, suggestions and critiques. BRMCscout45 signing out_*beep*