Chapter 21: I Settle My Tab

It's funny how humans wrap their mind around things like dreams and wishes, then fit them into their version of reality. I remember Chiron saying this to me when I came to camp. As usual, I didn't like his wisdom until much later. Anyways, according to the L.A news, the explosion at the Santa Monica beach had been caused when a crazy kidnapper fired a shotgun at a police car, I think that crazy kidnapper was Ares. He accidentally hit a gas main that had ruptured during the earthquake. This one person's point of view, "This crazy kidnapper was the same man who had abducted me and two other people in New York and brought us across country on a ten day journey of terror." Then suddenly, I saw this article about me, and it said, "Poor little Percy Jackson wasn't a worldwide criminal after all. He had caused a commotion on that Greyhound bus in New Jersey trying to get away from his captor. Then it talks about what I had been through over the past days, like when I was in Denver and when I fought Ares in Los Angeles. The reporters fed us this whole story. We acted like we weren't the people, we just nodded and acted tearful and exhausted which wasn't that hard to do. We also played as victimized kids for the cameras. I said, "All I want, is to see my loving stepfather again. Every time I saw him on TV, calling me a delinquent punk, I knew that we would be okay, somehow. After I did this, the police and reporters were so moved that they passed a hat around and they raised enough money for three tickets on the next plane to New York.

I knew there was no choice but to fly. I hoped Zeus would cut me some slack, but it was still hard to force myself on board the flight. The takeoff was a nightmare. Every spot of turbulence was scarier than a Greek monster popping out and attacking us. I never took my hands off the armrests until we touched sown safely at La Guardia. When we got off, the local press was waiting for us outside security but we managed to evade them, thanks to Annabeth. Then we split up at the taxi stand. I told Annabeth and Grover to go back to Half-Blood hill and let Chiron know what had happened. They protested, they didn't want to go after all that we had been through over the past days. But I told them that I wanted to finish the last part of the quest by myself. Then I hopped on to a taxi headed to Manhattan. Thirty minutes later, I walked into the lobby of the Empire State Building. I don't know, but it looked like everybody thought I was a homeless kid asking for help, because of my tattered clothes and my scraped up face. Oh yeah, I forgot that I also hadn't slept for a day. Anyways, I went up to the guard at the front desk and said, "Six hundredth floor please." The guard was holding a book that looked like it was about wizardry. He took a long time to look up at me, then he said, "No such floor, kiddo." The guard wouldn't let me in until I showed him my back pack and took out the master bolt. Then his face turned pale. I think he knew what it was, so he gave me a key card and told me what to do with it. I did as he told me. As soon as the elevator doors closed, I slipped the card into the slot. The card, then, disappeared and a new button appeared on the console, a red button that said 600. I pressed the button and waited and waited. Finally, the doors slid open. I stepped out and almost had a heart attack. I was standing on a narrow stone walkway in the middle of the air almost the height of an airplane would fly. When I looked down it was Manhattan. It was so SCARY. In front of me were white marble steps wound up the spine of the cloud, and the stairway led into the clouds. From the top of the clouds rose a peak of a mountain, it's summit was covered with snow. On the mountainside, there were mansions everywhere. Roads wound crazily up to the peak, where the largest palace was. This place can't be here, I told myself. The tip of a mountain hanging over New York City like a billion ton asteroid. But here I was. My trip through Olympus was a daze. I passed through a lot of weird things, like wood nymphs throwing olives at me, several of them just turned to watch me pass by. I climbed the main road, toward the big palace at the peak. It was a reverse copy of the Underworld. Everything had been black and bronze in the Underworld, here, every thing glittered white and silver. I guess Hades must have built his own palace to resemble this one, here. He wasn't welcomed into Olympus except on the Winter solstice. When I went up the steps that led to the central courtyard, past that was the throne room.

When I went to the throne room, there were twelve thrones, except for two that was missing. They were at the end, the head throne on the right and the other one immediate left. I already knew who the two gods were that were sitting there, waiting for me to approach. I came to them with my legs trembling. The Gods were in giant human form, as Hades has been. Zeus was wearing a dark blue pinstriped suit. He sat on a simple throne of solid platinum. The god sitting next to him was his brother, without a doubt, but he was dressed differently. He wore leather sandals, khaki Bermuda shorts and a Tommy Bahama shirt with coconuts and parrots all over it. His throne was a deep sea fisherman chair. It was the simple swiveling kind, with a black leather seat and a built in hole for a fishing rod. Instead of a pole, it was a bronze trident. The God's weren't moving or talking to each other, but they seemed to have finished an argument. I approached the fisherman's throne and knelt, saying, "Father." My heart was racing. The Gods finally talked, Zeus said, "Should you not address the master of this house first." I kept my head down and said nothing. Then Poseidon said that he wanted to hear me talk, and he also called me a wrongdoing, which kind of hurt my feelings. But, then Poseidon told me to look up at him, but he didn't say anything. I got the feeling Poseidon really didn't want to know what to think of me. Finally he spoke, "Address Lord Zeus, tell him your story," So I told Zeus everything that had happened and then I took out the metal cylinder. I laid the master bolt on his feet, then Zeus held out his hand and the master bolt went right at his palm. I told him that Ares was the one that stole it, by using someone to steal the master bolt. I guess Zeus was now happy and all the fighting came to an end. The good thing was that, Zeus let me live. I talked to my father for a while, until I had to go, He told me to always remember that I was the son of the Sea God, and that I should never forget that. Fifteen minutes later, I was back on the streets of Manhattan. I caught a taxi to my mom's apartment, rang the doorbell, and there she was, my beautiful mother. She was so happy to see me! She hugged me so tight, I was relieved to see her again. We talked for a while, until Gabe interrupted from the living room. My mom told me that Gabe is not happy about me. Then my mother took me to the living room, and Gabe was not happy at all. He thought I was in jail. Gabe actually hit my mother for the first time. I was full of rage, I wanted to uncap riptide and just slice him in half. But I forgot, the sword only works for half-bloods. My mom went with me to my room and on my bed, it was a package. I ripped it open and it was the address going to Mount Olympus. Suddenly, I understood what Poseidon had said at Olympus. A package. A decision. I asked my mother if she wanted Gabe out of the house. She said, "Yes, I do, Percy, but I can't." I told her I could solve it for her. I took a last look around my bedroom, and headed for the front door. I told my mother that I was going back to Half-blood hill. I was not happy, because I won't see my mother for a long time again, but I'm happy she's back. Finally, everything is over!!!