Son of the Moon

38

-Percy-

"Olympus damn it this place smells." He grumbled as he pushed up the hatch to enter the Attic were the Oracle was contained, Nico, Bianca, and Amanda following after him. They could hear the entire camp echoing with the sound of demigods setting up defenses, organizing patrols, and practicing to stay in top form for the upcoming invasion.

"What do you expect?" Nico responded with a snort "It's a freaking Mummy. Pop may have removed whatever curse he placed on her to allow her spirit to rest…once he remembered about it but Apollo still hasn't found a new Oracle yet."

"Well let's just get this over with." He sighed as he stepped towards the withered husk of the last Oracle.

"Approach speaker, and ask." The husk commanded, its jaw moving out of sync with the words as green mist poured out from every orifice of the corpse.

"How may I traverse the labyrinth?" he asked, hoping the prophecy wouldn't screw him over.

The mist began to swirl before turning into shades of Zoe, Castor, Katie, his birth mother, his mom, and a woman who looked like she could have been the original living form of the Oracle's current host given the dress and jewelry. Each one of the shades stepped forward to deliver a line from the prophecy. The foretelling given the mist began to pour back into the corpse before its jaw closed with a snap.

Turning to Nico and Amanda he said, "Go get Chiron and the other Cabin Leaders. We need to plan out what to do next and get our supplies together."

"On it." Nico replied, sliding down the attic ladder, Amanda doing the same a moment later.

"Come on," he said, lacing his fingers with his girlfriend's "let's head down to the war room so we can get ready for the quest. We'll probably leave at first light and we'll need all the rest we can get to tackle the labyrinth."

"As I highly doubt it's as 'friendly' as yours." Bianca said with a nod causing him to smirk slightly. His Alaskan labyrinth still existed and due to living there for several months with all of the demigod scent in the world it still drew monsters like a moth to a flame so his kill count continued to rise every day.

Heading down to the ground floor and taking his seat at the head of the ping pong table, a spot his fellow cabin leaders had insisted was for him to use, Bianca sitting at his direct right. Over the course of a few minutes the various cabin leaders trickled in along with Chiron and Dionysus, all of them taking their spots as Nico and Amanda took places at his left. "Alright Percy," Chiron said seriously once everyone was at the table "what did the prophecy tell you?"

Nodding he answered, "It said:

Four shall delve in the darkness of the endless maze,

The dead, the traitor, and the lost one raise.

You shall rise or fall by the ghost king's hand,

The Child of Athena's final stand.

Destroy with a hero's final breath,

And see one lost to worse than death"

As he finished repeating the prophecy silence filled the room, broken only by the yells and hammer falls of the surrounding camp. "Well what the hell does that mean?" the new head of the Demeter cabin, Marcus, asked with a frown.

"Well the first part is obvious," Lou Ellen, the camp's only daughter of Hecate, answered "Percy is going to bring three people on the quest, Nico and Bianca will probably be two and I'd guess that Amanda will be the third as the rest of his septem are needed here."

"As long as they're up to it that's who I plan to bring." He said, nodding in agreement as nobody voiced any argument, knowing that it wouldn't work.

"The dead, the traitor, and the lost one raise." Bianca mused next to him "I'd say that some form of dead, likely involving myself or Nico, are going to play an important part. There will be a traitor…probably one we know that will try to stop us. As for the lost one…I honestly can't think of anything.

"There are dozens of immortals lost to time." Chiron said with a frown, "The Prophecy could be speaking of any of them."

"Joy." He sighed, wishing the Oracle could give some specifics.

"What about the whole 'Ghost King' thing?" Silena asked as they moved on to the next line "Is that Nico or Hades or…?"

"Dad's the king of the Underworld," Nico said thoughtfully "not specifically the 'ghost king' but I wouldn't rule it out completely. I don't know if I could be considered the Ghost King. But there is one person who uses that title and I really hope it isn't them."

"Why's that?" Dionysus asked, the god of wine's eyes a constant bloodshot red since the defection and death of both sons.

"Minos." Bianca answered with a dark scowl, "He abandoned the underworld council in exchange for power. He tried to convince me and Nico to help him overthrow our father and take control of the Underworld. We refused and he turned to the Titans for the hope of power. I just really hope that it isn't him the Prophecy refers to."

After a few moments of awkward silence Will asked "What about the Child of Athena's final stand? What's that line about?"

"A child of Athena will die during this quest." He said "I just hope it's a traitor instead of Malcolm or one of the ones still loyal to Olympus." As grim as it sounded everyone knew it was the best outcome and nodded, albeit reluctantly in the case of Malcolm.

"Destroy with a Hero's final breath." Nico said, staring intently at a swirl on the table "I'd say that it's speaking of either the Labyrinth…or the camp. By Olympus I pray it's the labyrinth." Nobody said anything to Nico's prayer, nobody knew what to say at it.

"And the last line…" Marcus said confused "What could be worse than death?"

Hearing the son of Demeter's naïve question he felt his eyes become dull, visions of his sister and friends being killed in front of him. Remembering the sights of the tortures of the underworld. Hearing the screams of the damned. He looked Marcus dead in the eye as the son of Demeter shuddered at the intensity of his look, "Many things are worse than Death Marcus." He said softly but his world still thundered throughout the room "I pray you never witness them…I pray you never experience their torture." Around the room, he could see four pairs of eyes showing the same pain that screamed from his own.

Nico. The pain of seeing his friends die to save him and losing one's mother early on.

Bianca. The same pain of seeing friends and family lost that her brother had but also thinking she had to walk away from someone she loved.

Dionysus. The pain of losing both sons within the same day, one to death and one to treason.

Chiron. The pain of seeing thousands of pupils, the ancient centaur's honorary children, die in increasingly painful and bloody ways.

Yes, there were many things worse than death. It was something almost every demigod learned at some point in their life. "We have our quest, or prophecy, and our heroes." Chiron spoke up solemnly "They shall set out at first light through the Labyrinth. They shall spend the rest of the day gathering supplies and making sure that the defenses for camp are well maintained.

Nodding he rose up, "Beckendorf." He ordered "I want you to come with me, leave Nyssa in charge of building the defenses. I want to make sure we have all the supplies we'll need for our mission."

"Right. I've had my cabin working as much as they could to build extra materials since…since the last quest. I've got them in a requisition shed." The son of Hephaestus and leader of Cabin Nine said with a serious nod. "How much gear are you thinking?"

"We are at war Beck." He said seriously as, unknown to him, his tattoos and eyes began to glow while his hair billowed back in an unfelt wind "We had better act like it. I want enough gear to take on an army and I damn well plan to win."