The Truth Behind The Myths

Gods, There's Two of Them

"Lady Lupa?" Bucky asked incredulously. The others looked at each other as well, surprised.

"I have been keeping track of Adrius since he left with that sea-smelling boy. Now I cannot find him. Where is he?"

"Lady Lupa, would this son of yours be a lycanthrope?" Reyna asked slowly.

"Of course. Why?"

"Well... Percy saved a wolf from being attacked by the cohort not too long ago. Black wolf, gold eyes."

"That would be Adrius. He might have been going by Onyx."

Reyna nodded, frowning.

"And you don't know where he is?"

"No. He was on the beach, then he wasn't anywhere I could find him."

Annabeth got out of bed immediately. Steve moved towards her, but she glared at him. "If you don't help me down to the beach I will go myself after I clock you in the jaw."

Bucky covered his mouth to muffle a laugh. "Come on, Annabeth, you know Steve was 90 pounds of asthmatic rage even before the serum-"

"Hey! I wasn't gonna make you lie down, I was actually going to offer to help you."

She eyed him suspiciously. Steve held his hand out to her.

Annabeth huffed and took it. He chuckled and let her lean on him as they started out of the room.

The group went down to the beach, Annabeth and Steve leading.

"Gods almighty...." Bucky whispered.

There were two massive circles on the ground, where the sand had been blown out violently from a center spot. They overlapped each other, as if whatever had created them had stood close together, but from one end of the one to the other side of the other was almost two hundred feet. They stood at the edge of one and looked around.

"Black pearls." Lupa growled. "And I can smell the she-snake."

"Medusa?" Annabeth asked. The wolf goddess nodded.

"What are those circles?" Reyna asked.

"Aftermath." Lupa stepped down into one of them, following the slope down to the center. "This was the sea-smelling boy's." She moved over to the other.

"This one. This is my boy's. My Adrius."

She looked around again, then looked up at the others. "Black pearls can only mean one thing. The enemy we deal with resides in the pit itself."

Annabeth, who had been looking at the structure of the two craters, whipped around to stare at Lupa. "Percy's in Tartarus?"

"It would seem so." Lupa nodded. "Along with Adrius. At least they have each other."

"Right." The daughter of Athena rolled her eyes and turned to Steve. "Take me back to the infirmary so I can change."

"Why are you changing?" Steve asked dubiously.

"Because I'm going to Olympus to confront a monumentally stupid goddess who started this whole issue."

Bucky rolled his eyes as she marched off, Steve following quickly. "And suddenly I'm babysitting two impulsive and angry blonds who want to fight everything and can bench press a car. Fantastic."

He nodded to Lupa, Nico, and Reyna and followed his friends.

Nico was frowning, staring at the craters. Reyna bowed to Lupa.

"My apologies for what has happened, my lady. If I had known what was happening I would have done everything in my power to stop it."

"You're a smart woman, Praetor. I have not held you accountable for what happened here."

Reyna nodded and sighed. "If you'll excuse me, my lady, I should go check on some things... are you coming, Nico?"

He didn't answer. She raised an eyebrow and waited for a few moments.

"Nico."

"I need to speak with my father," He finally said. "I'll go straight to his palace from here."

Reyna nodded and started off in the direction of the border.

Nico turned to Lupa. "Lady Athena visited us earlier. She told us that the threat against us is something ancient and deadly. Do you have any ideas who it might be?"

Lupa frowned, looking around her. "Not many have access to black pearls, nor the power to enchant them properly. Whatever this creature is, it is stronger than any god that sits on Olympus.... this could be a Titan, it could be some other being of myth. I cannot say for sure."

Nico sighed and offered her a bow. "Thank you anyway, Lady Lupa."

He folded into his shadow and disappeared.

Lupa stayed on the beach. Something was nagging at her, and she wanted to figure out what.

She took another deep breath of salt air. There was the son of Poseidon's lingering scent, along with Adrius and the group that had just left. The musty smell of snake hung in the air as well.

Too much, Lupa realized, to be just Medusa. She breathed deeply.

This creature was too far back in the universe's memory. It had no Latin form.

"Ophion."