Embrace the Shadows

Ch 7

-Percy-

"Will you stop glaring at me?" he snapped at Annabeth as they sat in the back of a Greyhound bus on the way to St. Louis. She had been glaring at him nonstop ever since he had recruited Medusa and she had kissed him back at the Garden Gnome Emporium, Paris had been shooting him jealous looks, and Grover had been sleeping.

"No!" she tried to yell and whisper at the same time "You just released someone from their eternal punishment that was rightfully placed upon them by my mother!".

"That is a lie actually," he said shrugging "the story that Athena spread around isn't the true one. My parents know the truth, would you like to?".

"What?!" she demanded "Are you calling my mother a liar?".

"Yes," he said simply "the legend says that she cursed Medusa for willingly sleeping with Poseidon in her temple and since she couldn't do anything to Poseidon she punished Medusa.".

"And that's the correct story." Annabeth inserted, "While she couldn't punish Poseidon Medusa deserved what she had gotten.

"She used to date my Dad?" Paris asked shocked.

"Yes she did Paris Hilton," he said smirking "and you're wrong Owl Shit.".

"What did you just call me?" Annabeth demanded angrily.

He shrugged and threw her a smirk "Well you said to stop calling you Annabitch. Anyway the real story is that Poseidon saw Medusa and wanted to have sex with her. So he began trying to win her affections by gifts and praise. Eventually she agreed to allow him to court her and he gave her a beautiful necklace made in the undersea forges, more beautiful than any other piece of jewelry on earth. Athena saw the necklace and wanted it desperately, she was jealous that a mortal woman had a beautiful jewel that she didn't have. So she waited until Medusa was on the beach one day and admiring the jewel while polishing it and Athena struck. She turned Medusa into the gorgon and, in her fear, Medusa dropped the Jewel and ran, or swam as the case may be, away when the nearby fish and birds turned to stone at her look." (AN: That actually is a version of the myth that I came across once).

"Y-you're lying!" Annabeth stammered "My mother wouldn't do that!".

"Then ask her to tell you that on the River Styx." he said glaring at her "Anyway Medusa put herself in self-imposed exile, hoping that her lover Poseidon would rescue her, would free her from her curse, but he had already moved on and forgotten her as she was pregnant at the time when she was gorgonized.".

After that Annabeth and Paris remained silent, trying to absorb the information he had just told them while he got to finally relax and enjoy some peace and quiet.

-Olympus-

-General P.O.V-

The members of the Olympian council sat in stunned silence before turning as one to Athena who was looking both angry and humiliated as she clenched a beautiful necklace that she liked to wear. "Is this true Athena?" Zeus asked.

Looking down Athena didn't answer but her silence spoke volumes to the council. Before anyone could say anything else however there was a flash of black light around Athena and the necklace vanished leaving a note. "What does the note say?" Hermes asked confused.

Athena read it before redlining with rage "It says that Chaos took the necklace to remake it so that his brat Perseus could give it to Medusa. He stole my necklace!".

"Technically he was reclaiming stolen property." Apollo said shrugging "You did steal it first.". This sparked a new argument among the members of the council with those who supported Athena, merely because they didn't like Percy, against those who were loyal to the demi-primordial.