The Phoenix

Previously...

Just as everyone was about to leave, completely exhausted from their hard work and training, Chaos called after them.

"Tomorrow, all of you must come to the briefing room. I think it's about time you did your first mission."

***

[The Argo II stayed floating in mid-air as a group of demigods climbed down. They were: Piper, Leo, Jason and... Annabeth!

The sea of hastily assembled demigods parted for Annabeth and the others as she walked through the forum. Some looked tense, some nervous. Some were bandaged from their recent battle with the giants, but no one was armed. No one attacked.

Soon Annabeth arrived in front of Reyna, Praetor of the Twelfth Legion.

As these happened, Percy – who was standing with Hazel and Frank – walked towards them.

Then suddenly, Annabeth's eyes which were scouting for him suddenly found him and her pupils constricted.

Percy smiled at her – that sarcastic, troublemaker smile that had annoyed her for years but eventually had become endearing. Her grey eyes were as gorgeous as he remembered. Her blonde hair was tied up in a ponytail; she looked even better than when he last saw her six months ago before Hera decided to kidnap him in her demigod exchange program.

They both looked at each other, eyes locked, ignoring everything that was happening around.

Just as Reyna started greeting Jason back to Camp Jupiter, Annabeth couldn't hold out any longer. She didn't mean to, but she surged forward. Percy rushed forward at the same time. The crowd tensed. Some Romans even reached for their sword before remembering that they were in New Rome and were all unarmed.

Percy threw his arms around her. They kissed, and for a moment nothing else mattered. An asteroid could have hit the planet and wiped out all life, and Percy wouldn't have cared.

Percy smelled of ocean air. His lips were salty.

Wise Girl, he thought giddily.

Percy pulled away and studied her face. "Gods, I never thought—"

But then suddenly Annabeth grabbed his wrist and flipped him over her shoulder. He slammed into the stone pavement.

"If you ever leave me again," she said, her eyes stinging, "I swear to all the gods—"]*

"I am sorry, I am sorry, consider me warned." Percy woke up yelling from that Judo-flip.

But as soon as he realized it was a dream, he merely smiled. A drop of tear slowly slid down his face.

Percy, by now, was used to having dreams about Annabeth. Even after all these time passed, he still dreamed of Annabeth every few days. And every time this happened, Percy would simply smile. Even though, he knew it wasn't real, it was the only time he felt close to Annabeth; he just wished that these dreams would last an eternity. At least that way, he would be always with Annabeth.

As Percy was reminiscing, he suddenly heard a knock on his door.

"Percy!!" It was Luke. "Wake up! Did you forget about our first mission briefing?"

"Oh Gaia," Percy completely forgot about that.

"Hurry up, or you will be late."

"I will be right there!" Percy called out and ran to his toilet. After he freshened up and had quick change of outfits, he ran to the briefing room.

"Sorry guys." Percy said sheepishly. "Won't happen again."

Thalia burst out laughing.

"Yeah right, isn't that what you say every time we have to get up early for something?" mocked Nico.

Luke and Calypso were smiling as well. Zoë was just glaring at Percy, who was making a fool out of himself.

"Come in!" Just at that moment, Chaos' voice ordered from inside the so called 'briefing room'.

Everyone entered the room and bowed to Chaos.

"Ha ha, rookies, you ready for your first mission?" Chaos loved to tease everyone from the day they entered planet Celestia and his habits hasn't changed since Percy and the other arrived here.

"Lord Chaos, stop teasing us and tell us about our mission already," urged Thalia.

"Okay, okay... Your mission is quite simply really; it's a missing cat case. All you have to do is find the missing cat in Planet Black Fiend and return it to Planet Blue Leopard."

Everyone that was expecting a challenging mission just sighed. Of course, Chaos would do something like this, especially since the planets they were going to visit were both Third-Tier Planets.

Planets were separated into three sections excluding the planets in Celestia's galaxy, such as Earth. A Tier 1 country was in charge of 20 Tier 2 countries, who were each in charge of 10 Tier 3 countries each. This system was based completely on their power.

Even though most of the universe was under Chaos' control, many crimes were ignored by him. Crimes by Second-Tier and Third-Tier countries were confronted by the higher-tier countries that were in charge of them. It is usually only when First-Tier Countries enter conflict that Chaos gets involved.

So it was reasonable that everyone felt let down when the mission was on Third-Tier countries. It seemed that Chaos specifically picked those countries for them to complete their mission.

"As I was saying," said Chaos. "A deity from Planet Black Fiend stole a sacred animal (a cat-like Leopard) from a high ranked deity of Planet Blue Leopard. And now both planets will go to war with each other if their animal is not returned to them. What I want you to do is: got to Planet Black Fiend, find the Leopard thingy, and return it before a war breaks out. You have- at most- 10 days' worth of time. Understood?"

Chaos' main army of six immediately nodded. Even though, the mission didn't quite meet the expectation of Percy and his friends, it was, nonetheless, a mission which they have been yearning for a longtime.

After giving them more details on the mission, Chaos announced, "you will be departing this afternoon."

***

A while later, after most of them had packed up and was waiting, ready to enter the portal to be teleported to planet Black Fiend.

"Zoë!!" Percy called out, asking her to step aside for a minute.

"Yeah, Percy?" Zoë wondered what Percy had to tell her.

By this point, Zoë's English didn't sound like it was from the 1400s; her English was more like that in the 21st century.

"I wanted to give you something." Percy told her and slowly took out a pen. He then uncapped it and it turned into his sword, Riptide, a.k.a. 'Anaklusmos'. Percy then recapped the pen, but rather than shrinking into a pen like it usually does, it actually turned into a hair clip.

Zoë's eyes instantly widened. Anaklusmos now looks exactly like it did before she gave it to Hercules.

"This sword saved my life multiple times now, but I suppose it's about time I return it to its rightful owner."

Tears threatened to fall down Zoë's cheeks and it did. The sword was very dear to her. It meant a lot to her. She gave it to Hercules because she thought he was the one meant for, but then not only did he not bother with her, he didn't even give her any credit for helping him trick her father and complete a quest. It was because of him that she used to hold a grudge against male heroes; she even joined the Hunters of Artemis to get away from men like Hercules.

And that was not all. Her view of 'some' male heroes had only changed because of Percy. She would never forget how he was willing to take over the weight of the sky for Artemis. She was really glad that she was working with someone like Percy. And now, he was returning that sword back to her. She was lost for words and all she could do was hug Percy and cry on his shoulder as she thought about all of these. She even completely forgot that it was her first time actually hugging a male.

Percy was equally shocked when she hugged him but he quickly tapped her back and started consoling her.

Soon, it was time for their departure.

"You guys ready?" Chaos asked as a portal started to form behind him.

Everyone walked towards the portal and as they were entering it, Chaos called out from behind. "Guys, don't forget to bring me some souvenir, okay? Okay?!?"

After they disappeared into the portal, Chaos just remembered something that he forgot to tell them, or perhaps didn't want to tell them as a joke. 'When they step out of the portal, it wouldn't exactly be on flat land. Instead it was going to be just inside the planet.'

"Hehehe..." Chaos grinned at his evil prank.

'I wonder what their reaction would be.' Chaos thought.

***

It was not Percy's (and the others') first time travelling through a portal. Before they managed to learn their teleportation abilities, they often used it to get around planet Celestia. However, unlike those planet-travelling portals, this inter-planet-travelling portal felt somewhat different.

Percy was not sure why he had a feeling of unease but it was constantly there on the back of his mind. Although, by now Percy and everyone should know that these type of feelings that the demigods get are not like the feeling of mortals; especially now that he is an extremely strong immortal.

Thalia was the first to step out of the portal. The land she thought she would step on wasn't there for some reason. She just fell straight down from who knew how high up.

Even though she overcame her fear of heights long ago, the thought of dropping from this height up caused her to feel a deep sense of dread.

"Argh..!!!!" She screamed and immediately went unconscious.

Luke who came in after her, immediately regained his senses and saw the trick Chaos played on them.

"Hugh..." He sighed. He quickly moved towards Thalia before teleporting down towards the planet.

Calypso and Nico came in after them. Once they realized what was happening, they too teleported to the planet rather than falling to their deaths.

Behind those two came in Percy. Once he realized that the bad feeling he had was because of this, he immediately turned back and faced towards the portal and yelled, "LORD CHAOS!!!! JUST WAIT TILL I RETURN. I WILL DEFINITELY GET YOU BACK!"

But then Zoë came out of the portal. She, like the others, was instantly pulled towards the planet because of its gravitational force. Percy knew that her teleportation ability took a bit of time to activate. Even though she had enough time to activate it herself, by the time she is finished activating it, she would definitely have dropped down the majority of the distance between the portal and the planet.

Therefore, without a second thought, he immediately moved towards Zoë before teleporting using his Vapour travel to get to where the others were waiting in the planet.

***

"Alright," said Percy. "How far away is this guy from our current location?"

"2 kilometers." Luke replied.

"Well then, let's get this over with quickly"

Everyone else nodded.

They used their movement ability which was already very fast; perhaps almost as fast as some of their teleportation at close range.

"What was he called again?" Thalia asked.

"Does it matter?" Nico said. "I mean... We take him down either way right?"

"Let's hope it won't come to that." Luke said. "Unless of course, he doesn't want to hand over the animal quietly and accept his punishment."

"Haemlin," Calypso interrupted, "that's his name."

"Haemlin... We are coming for you," Percy revealed a smile that would send creeps down any of the gods back on Earth, even Hades.

As they got to the gate, they were met by a squad of guards at gate duty.

"Inform your master that he has visitors." Percy announced.

"And who shall I say you are?" One of the guards responded.

"Oh I always wanted to say this," grinned Percy, along with Nico and Thalia. "Tell him the 'guardians of the galaxy' are at his gate and that we came with an offer regarding the sacred animal he stole from planet Blue Leopard.

The guard looked at them as if they were some sort of clowns but went to report to his master anyway.

A few seconds later, the guard returned and took them to the deity's throne room.

The master of the palace didn't look impressed as the six of them walked in. Rather, he had a frown on his face.

"Who are you?" he questioned.

Percy couldn't be asked to repeat it a second time. So he got straight to the point.

"Give us the leopard thingy, and as punishment for stealing it, promise to be the slave of the person you stole it from for 100 years and we will be on our way."

"HA HA HA!" The deity started laughing. Even my father the King of Gods in this world wouldn't dare to be this arrogant in front of me. "Guards, capture them and feed them to my new pet."

The god in front of Percy and the others were by no means weak. In fact he was as powerful as some of the Big Three in planet Earth.

Percy sighed. "Well, we were hoping that it wouldn't come to this but now it seems..."

As he said that, he was reaching for the new sword chaos had given him.

"Di immortales," Percy cursed in ancient greek. He had completely forgot that his new weapon didn't appear in his pocket like Riptide used to.

But, at that moment, Zoë stopped everyone.

"Allow me," she said and took out her bow.

There were about 12 guards charging at us – 2 per person. She took three arrows and shot them towards the closest three at the same time. As they fell over another the replaced them. Zoë ignored them and shot 2 arrows at the guards from the other direction.

Now there were only 7 guards left. She put her bow away and took her hair clip out of her hair which then turned into her sword, Riptide.

She charged at three from the left and with 3 simple slices, there were three less guards left. The same thing happened with the other four and before you knew it her sword's tip was under the chin of the god Haemlin.

"We will ask you one more time." Percy said. "Do you accept our offer or nah?"

By this point the guy was off his chair and on the floor begging Zoë for mercy.

"Yes.. Yes, I do," He sobbed.

"Pathetic," Thalia muttered and Calypso seemed to agree.

"Well, where is it?" Luke asked. "The leopard."

Haemlin signaled to the only remaining guard to bring the sacred animal and the latter did just that.

"Wow... it really is a blue leopard." Percy muttered.

"Well, duh!" Thalia snorted.

"It's very convenient for a planet to be named after its sacred animal." Calypso said.

Percy shook his head as if they misunderstood. "It's BLUE."

"Oh..." said Nico and broke into a smile. He seemed to be the first one to understand what Percy meant, immediately followed by Thalia.

Luke, Calypso and Zoë still seemed confused.

"What is it?" Calypso asked.

"Remember the thing about everything that Percy's mum makes him used to be blue as well? It's basically that, but I will explain properly later."

The thing about everything being 'blue' was a running joke between Percy and his mum. She made everything blue for Percy because that was his favourite colour.

The god, Haemlin, seemed very confused as he kept looking back and forth between Percy and the others.

"Um...," Haemlin said, "Any possible way to shorten my sentence?"

"You know what," Percy said, "because I am feeling nice, I will make it so that it is 99 years and 364 days. That's 1 less day isn't it?"

"B-but it's a leap year on the hundredth year." Haemlin was almost crying again.

"Oh," Percy said as if he had just realized. "Then you shouldn't have gone stealing at a time when your sentence would end in a leap year. Now, let's take and that animal to planet Blue Leop-"

Percy stopped mid-sentence as he saw a bird locked up in a cage. It was beautiful beyond explanation but it was suffering under this god's supervision.

Blood started rushing through Percy's vein, but he wasn't stupid enough to mess up his first mission by killing the guy.

"Your sentence..." Percy said through his gritted teeth. " I will change it for you."

Haemlin who didn't see what Percy was looking at said , "Thank you, my lord. I will remember this kind n-"

"-2 thousand years," Percy interrupted.

"B-but..." Haemlin started sobbing once again.

"Luke, Thalia, you two can take him to planet Blue Leopard and meet us back at camp- I mean- Celestia." After completing his missions he usually returned to Camp Half-Blood. But that was until a year ago but even after this time Percy felt like he still missed that place. He missed Annabeth.

'Thanks for saving me, lord,' a voice sounded in his ear. He immediately thought of Blackjack. But then he realized it was the bird he just saved. The only difference was it was no longer a little bird like it was when it was still in the caged. It was a massive ice phoenix with 12 ft wingspan.

"Woah... how can I understand you?" Percy asked.

'Well, I am not just any bird, lord,' the bird said , 'I am an Ice Phoenix, you know!'

That's when it clicked in Percy's head. A Phoenix; they were thought to be almost extinct but in front of him was not just any phoenix, but an Ice Phoenix which is a both land and sea creature. No wonder he could understand it.

"So...you have a name?" Percy asked the female Ice Phoenix.

'Um.. it's Eterna Revi. I guess you could call me Eterna or something'