Chapter 9

Jason POV

I was about to open the door to the throne room when I heard an eerily familiar voice on the inside say "As strong as I am he took me out like I was yesterday's trash.".

"Maybe we should wait till after their meeting done." I said to Piper and the others who nodded in agreement. After a few minutes the gods meeting ended and everyone left.

Most just flashed out but I did note a very beaten and bruised Hercules being carried out by Apollo and Ares "Oh good you're here." Hera said shrinking down to normal size as she walked towards us.

"Um ya good to be here." I said "But two questions first why are we here and second what happened to Hercules.".

"Well I called you here to do this." Hera said touching Percy's forehead which then glowed briefly "That will help your memories to come back in a more chronological order, now as for Hercules had a…little run in with the man you've been tracking." Hera said with a hint of amusement in her eyes "Apparently I'm not the only one who hates him.".

"What did he do this time?" I asked.

Hera shrugged in amusement "All we know is that he did or at least tried to do something to his aunt." Hera said.

"While it did provide me with some joy that Hercules finally got punished for what he's done it raise some concerns. Who ever this person is he could easily could match an Olympian in power. Looking back on it it was outright foolish of us to send you kids after him at all." Hera said summoning several chairs and plopping down in one tiredly.

"Zeus is scared whether he'll admit it or not and is pushing to have him taken down.".

"But he can't, he saved our lives!" Piper Exclaimed. "Yes he's strong but that doesn't mean he should be killed!"

"I agree he hasn't made a move against us as an enemy so I see no reason to kill him. Plus if an assassination attempt were to fail that would only ensure he became an enemy. The only one my husband will even listen to is Hestia. Right now she is the only thing that's stopping him from 'giving the order' as you would say. Me and Hestia are the only ones holding the council together at this point, it's complete anarchy really. We just don't understand how someone this powerful could have been around this long completely unnoticed till now. What's even more troubling is he passed through Poseidon's domain undetected." Hera said which shocked me because I thought gods could sense that kind of stuff 'this is going to be a crazy year' I thought.

Silver POV (the next day)

'Uh what a day' I thought rubbing my shoulder as I meandered down the road. My first day in Greece and I already ran into Pegasus, literally. I was running at like 60 miles per hour when I slammed into something big and white. Both of us were sent sprawling several yards away. I dislocated my shoulder but managed to pop it back in place thanks to some stuff my uncle Apollo taught me.

As soon as I could move I went to check Pegasus who was still laying on his side. He had a broken wing but that did nothing to stop his mouth from working as he was cursing at me to no end. I helped him stand up then use some nature magic to heal his wing. He cussed at me a few more times and told me to watch where I was going before he flew off. I was so mad at myself because I forgot to ask for a feather, as I looked down in shame I found at least a dozen so I gathered them up and moved on.

I was so tired from healing Pegasus that I didn't even want to attempt using my hunters aura as I decided to call it so I settled for just walking. I was up in the hills, one of the few parts of Greece that still was wild. Back in the olden days this part of the land would have been under the rule of the Spartans. Being here just made me feel at home because for the most part it had remained unchanged. Sure the were some differences, the tree line was farther back, the river now only went halfway down the valley before disappearing underground. The only reason I even knew I had been here before was because I could see that stone statue of my uncle Apollo but even that had been worn down a great deal. He was missing both arms and had moved several hundred feet.

As I turn a corner I heard someone say "Oh for peat sake where is it?!". I saw a blond haired boy staring at a map by the side of the road.

"Need some help?" I asked as I walked over to him.

The boy looked up "Do you know the area?" he asked, he was a skinny kid with blue eyes and a sword strapped to his belt that his traveling cloak failed to completely hide.

"I sure hope so I grew up around here." I said but I left out the part out about being almost 3000 years old. "So what are you looking for anyway?" I asked.

"There's supposed to be some ruins around here but I can't find them and it doesn't help that this map is as old as Pluto." he said.

'So he's a Roman' I thought to myself "Mind if I see the map" I asked.

"Sure" he said handing it to me "by the way what's your name".

"I'm Silver what about you" I said.

"Daniel" he said.

"Well Daniel you might be able to find your way around better if the map wasn't upside down." I said handing it back to him "The place you're looking for should be about a two day's journey that way." I said pointing north which just so happened to be the same way I was heading. After about an hour or so I decided to break the silence "So why are you looking for these ruins?" I asked.

Daniel eyed me warily before saying "I was hoping they could give me some answers." he said. "How about you, what are you doing out in the middle of nowhere".

"I'm looking for certain rare animals." I said.

"Like what?" he asked, I was about to answer when some guy who had a rats head stepped out in front of us, and I'm not joking about the rat head thing he literally had the body of a man with a rat head instead.

"Well, well, well looks like I just found us some lunch boys" he chuckled to himself while a small group of Cyclops' and Telekhine surrounded us. 'guess it's just one one of those days' I thought to myself as I drew my swords the first Telekhine came at me with a mace which I side stepped before decapitating him. I killed the others with similar ease before turning to see Daniel struggling with his one opponent, he managed to kill it but if I hadn't been here he would have died.

"You're a demigod" Daniel said in between breaths.

"Kinda." I said, even though most people would say I was a demigod I wasn't so sure anymore. My reflexes were faster, my senses were higher, and my body was stronger. Inherited abilities aside I had gone far outside of the normal human range not to mention my blood which I had been monitoring ever since I first noticed the color change back on mount Tam, as of yesterday I no longer have red blood it's all silver now.

"We better get moving." I said "There's a small cave over there where we could make camp.".

"Why should I go anywhere with you?" He asked still trying to catch his breath.

"Look at yourself." I said "You fought one guy and you're already out of breath, if I were to leave you here odds are you'd be dead by morning.". At that Daniel couldn't really argue, so he followed me to the cave.

We ate dinner then sat in relative silence then I stood up "What is it?" Daniel asked.

"Get up and draw your sword." I said.

He did as I said but asked "Why?"

"You need practice." I said "Now show what you got.". We spent 20 minutes fixing his stance then we got to actual sparring. Most of the time was spent with me giving him pointers but if you ask me he really needed a crash course in swordsmanship and a lot more practice.

"So why do you need to find these ruins so bad, I mean I thought Romans had laws against coming to the ancient lands." I said.

"We used to but it was removed earlier this year, I wouldn't have come out here anyway but as I said I need answers." He said.

"To what?" I asked.

"I used to be the the apprentice augur of Rome under Octavian, a centurion of the first cohort, but now I've been removed from my position and all but kicked out of the legion. I'm just not sure what to do. I mean when I joined I had big plans of becoming Praetor and helping people but somewhere along the line I lost track of that." He said "Now I'm hated and Rome is being led by probably the worst possible person and it's all my fault. If I hadn't helped Octavian start most of those rumors Mike never could have used them to force the others out.".

"Okay I get that you made some mistakes but what does some ruins have to do with this?" I asked.

"Well in Rome we have a legend about when my people were just a simple tribe trying to find a place to settle, they got attack and this little ten year old boy seemingly dropped out of the sky and saved them. They asked why and he said ''Why should that matter, it is the duty of those with power to defend those who can't defend themselves. My parents would never let someone get hurt when if it was in their power to stop it and neither will I. That's what my parents taught me and that's a belief I'm willing give my life for.''

I spent years studying the story with little success. But I did learn a few things that aren't in the normal story like that the tribe gave him a little charm necklace that was a simple string holding a circle of metal with an eagle on the front and a map to a shrine they made to him 100 years later as a thank you when they couldn't find him." he said.

That little quote gave me pause because that sounded kinda familiar and I subconsciously pulled out my good luck charm as I called it, once again admiring the eagle etched into it. "According to the map they built the shrine next to the Apollo statue where the whole thing actually happened. I saw the statue right when I entered the valley so I walked straight over to it and ignored the map but apparently it's been moved." he said. I couldn't help but laugh at the situation I was in, mainly because I never expected this to happen.

"Here let me show you something." I said standing up.

Outside the cave there was still a little was a little light left "You see where the statue is now?" I asked, he nodded. "That was moved there by Alexander the Great when he tried and failed to conquer Sparta as an attempt to take away some of their power. The Romans did a similar thing to the Athena Parthenos in Athens, this didn't have the same effect though. Before then the statue was situated a good ways north where this shrine of yours is. However that's not the original location of the statute either." I said remembering the brief description in the history books I read.

"The statue was moved there by the Spartans about 60 years after your tribe was saved because at the time the Oracle of Delphi resided in Sparta and they thought it might bring them a better life by having it close." I said.

"So where was it at the time when the tribe was attacked?" Daniel asked having sat down on a large flat rock.

I gave a slight chuckle and said "Well you're sitting on the same pedestal it once sat on.". Daniel jumped of the rock in quite a hurry when I said that.

"How do you know that?" He asked.

"Because I was there." I replied Showing off my necklace "I was the small boy who defended your people.".