Percy Jackson and the Art of Gacha

Well, long story short. Medusa at her words after she watch how the second burger turned into a statue of one.

That appeared to have been enough prove for her as we then began talking, you know, like civilized people.

We agreed to meet up after this quest, at the end of summer vacation, then I opened my backpack. Because inside was something I had prepared for her.

I gave them to her and she stared at me questioningly.

"Thank you for those but what should I do with them. I mean their use is obvious considering they are a sunhat and a pair of glasses but I don't need glasses and if you couldn't tell, they aren't really great gifts."

"These two are things i have made with you in mind. They are much like my own pair of glasses and headphones." at which I lightly flicked a against said glasses, making them appear for a second before they were gone in the next.

"These two are enchanted the same way as mine are. They can both be invisible an intangible to the touch of others if you want. They can't be taken of by anyone but yourself and will hide away any nonhuman features you have without actually disrupting them or getting in their way. Another feature is that they are capable of suppressing your curse by using the energy of said curse to strengthen itself. Making them near indestructible the longer you wear them."

"Why would you give those to me? Besides I have been able to deal with the curse even without them."

"Because here is where it gets interesting. Since you have been known to have snake hair, no one will recognize you as Medusa if you just walk around with them. They also suppress your scent as a monster and here is a nice benefit as well. The longer you wear them, the more manageable the curse will get even to a point where you can turn it off and on by merely wanting to. Once that level is reached, the control you have will remain, regardless how strong the curse gets afterwards.

You can also change their design to your own liking by thinking about it. So, what do you say?"

Medusa didn't say much at first, but eventually she gave me a silent thank you, barely a whisper with how silent it was.

And then she went straight back to the strong woman that I knew she was, talking about ways for her to repay me, which I first wanted to deny, since the curse she suffered under was kind of my father's fault and so on and so forth. But eventually I asked her if she was willing to let Annabeth and me rest here for a while as long as our weapons remain inside of a small bowl near the door.

I didn't really need to ask her for the address of DOA Sudios, since I had been there before. Admittedly, not physically, but who cares.

After about two hours, which I spend talking with Medusa about this and that, Annabeth and Grover finally woke up from their nap.

Their faces were still covered in the different sauces and lettuce that once were part of their burgers.

Annabeth was visibly better than she had been before we had entered and her concussion seemed to have healed.

Grover was about as well as you could expect from someone that had just realized that he had been drugged inside of what was obviously a monsters den.

Both of them immediately searched for any monsters around but ultimately just saw me, talking with a woman with alabaster skin, blue eyes and red, full lips. They didn't even spare her long black hair a second glance before they searched for their weapons. As they had more than likely realized that the woman must be the monster since there was no golden dust around.

"Percy! Get away from her, she's a monster! Grover! Where are my weapons!"

Well, this will be a bit harder to explains so why not lie a little bit.

"Annabeth! This is my Grandmother from my mother's side! Don't you dare call her a monster! By the way, I hid your weapons because I knew you would stab first before asking questions."

That shut her up real quick. Anyone, even Annabeth should know that the Greek mythology had a lot of weired and complicated family trees so she knew that there might actually be some truth in what I just said.

"What does she want. We don't have a lot of time so we have to leave right now." came her respond a lot later than I had expected.

Hmm, she was more accepting of the situation than expected. Suspicious.

Then Grover spoke up.

"Percy, how can you be sure we can trust her. She just drugged us."

"Incorrect. She drugged you. Not me."

"So what? Still the same. We can't trust her." (Annabeth)

"Annabeth, during the time the two of you had been asleep, which was about two hours, the both of us have been talking for some time. We now know the entrance to the Underworld, we have three train tickets for the Amtrack train and enough food to last us for two weeks. None of which is drugged."

"And what did she get out of this? What did you do?"

"Well, I have found some distant family when I had thought to be the last of my line. What else could I possibly need?" said Medusa, still hiding her hate for Athena from Annabeth.

"I think we should just leave right now before things escalate. Thanks for the food Aunty and have a great summer!"

I said, getting up from my seat using my crutches and making my way towards the door. Medusa followed us and let us take our weapons before standing at the porch, waving after us and yelling:" And do find that thief as soon as possible. I can't wait to finally meet my daughter."

Well, we had to come up with an excuse as to why she was so friendly to me. Not that it was actually that far of since I was still related to her in some capacity and since the curse could possibly come from my father's side, it had to mean that my mother was somehow related to Medusa, even if just distantly.

After we had finally left the house behind, I expected Annabeth to attempt to figure out if my story was actually true by essentially punching holes in it until I had to give up the lie. But that didn't happen. She just gave me a few weary side eyes and the continued to walk forward. In silence.

The walk was a long one, as it would take us the better half of the day to make our way to the station, which Grover used to practice his reed pipes and try to get me and Annabeth to work together.

Eventually I gave into his requests, as we began to play a little game of two truths and a lie.

As soon as the game had been announced, I could feel several divinities focus on us, more than likely listening in. Grover began.

"1. I have never like brocoli. 2. I once had a run in with a manticore. 3. I am incredibly good at playing the violin."

Annabeth and I thought for a bit before we began figuring it out. I began by eliminating Nr. 1 since I knew it to be the truth as I have never seen him willingly eat it.

Then Annabeth wondered aloud whether it could be Nr. 2, since she knew that Grover had been out as a seeker for only two times and hadn't met one on the first nor was it know to have happend on the second. Which left only Nr. 3 to be the lie. And we were right. I mean, I was mostly humoring her, since I had seen Grover play the instrument before and knew why he was forever banned from the music classroom in Yancy.

"My turn..." Annabeth said. "... Nr. 1. I have never met my mother. Nr. 2: I know who the thief is. Nr. 3: I slipped up once during practice and accidentally cut of a dummies legs."

Grover and I looked at each other, considering what both of us knew about her already and then agreed on number three, since that would have made rounds in the camps rumor mill.

" Eeh, wrong. I lied about not meeting my mother. Actually we spoke a few times already, though mostly in my dreams."

Well, that wasn't alarming at all.

"So who's the thief Anna?" Grover asked.

"If we know who it is, maybe we can cut down on our quest time and be back long before summer solstice." I reasoned. Not that I expected it to work on her. But something about her expression caught my eye. There had been a hint of doubt in her eyes before it had vanished as quick as it had appeared.

She smiled and said that it was just a hunch and that she would tell us as soon as she had concrete evidence. Now, finally it was my turn. Time to be a bit disturbing.

"Nr 1: I have met a fury before. Nr. 2: The monster we just met wasn't actually related to me but I pretended to be. Nr. 3: I almost died without Grover knowing while we still were at Yancy."

Once I had stated all three options, Grover took a long second just to stare at me, probably really questioning everything he knew about me.

Annabeth was taking her sweet time as well before finally, both stuck their heads together to figure it out.

The first option was brought up by Annabeth, as she didn't actually believe I met one already and survived but she was proven wrong when Grover told her that he knew that to be the truth since he had been there.

The second option was brought up by Grover since he knew me better than Annabeth and was supposed to know if I was lying or telling the truth. They came to a decision really quick after that since neither could tell if Nr. 3 was the truth or lie. So they decided to guess, going for the obvious lie, since I was clearly unharmed and Grover had never seen me injured during his time at Yancy.

"Wrong. Nr. 1 and Nr. 3 are the truth. And yes, I am actually related to her. We confirmed it some time ago."

"But Percy! How come you didn't tell me you almost died! This is something friends are supposed to tell each other!"

So I responded carefully with: "Grover, you denied the existence of Mrs. Dodds for almost the entire rest of the year. I thought you were as much of a mortal as everyone else."

We continued a few more steps further before Grover began again.

"So you forgot to tell me that you almost died during school. What else did you forget to mention, besides already knowing of you being a demigod before I joined Yancy. And don't tell me that was it because I know you've been hiding some more things from me." well, he was pretty pissed right now and I couldn't really blame him since I would react the same way, if not worse.

" Grover, and you too, Annabeth, I know your listening in. No don't bother pretending that you didn't, I saw that. There are some things I can't tell you, not that I don't want to but because I can't. But I can tell you one thing. Grover, do you remember talking me and mom talking about being able to control my scent?"

" Yes I do, but what does that have anything to do with this?"

" So do you still remember the monster that tried to break into Chirons room at Yancy?"

" Yeah, that was some scary stuff. I'm just happy that it didn't come for you, man. I don't think we would have survived."

Instead of answering or continuing to talk I just gave Grover a long, meaningful look.

" And do you still remember my love for pranks, Grover?" I asked when the silence got to loud.

" Don't tell me that was you. You scared the helll out of us, man. What made you react that way."

"Are you serious right now? Did you already forget the entire thing that went down? How chiron decided that he would keep me unaware of the danger I was in just so I could continue to be a child only for a few more months? That's the reason I did that. To prove to you guys that it was a risky and stupid idea. There was nothing either of you could have done to protect me if a monster had attacked me outside of class. And considering how deep you usually sleep, Grover, you wouldn't have woken up unless I threw something at you. And do please remember that Chiron tried to take back the sword, while knowing that a monster could appear at any second to kill me. There is no logical way to explain how much of a bad idea that was."

Silence followed.

Grover had tears in his eyes, after finally realizing how bad the situation at Yancy could have been if we had even one slightly bad day. None the less I did let Grover spiral further into self doubt, since I knew that the entire thing wasn't his idea and that he had actually been against it.

"... Which is why I didn't prank you as much as I did Chiron. Did you know that I made his coffee regularly change its taste to hey? That was a fun time." I tried to distract him from further thoughts on the Yancy thing but that didn't stop Annabeth from asking the 1 million dollar question.

" How did you almost die, without Grover knowing?"

" Oh that? I snuck out at night, killing the few monsters that attempted to break into the school while everyone slept. One of them happend to be an Emposa I believe. It got me good but I managed to heal up before anyone noticed it."

"They're called Empousa and it's not a surprise since they use their allure to lure males into their death." Annabeth corrected me.

I had almost missed how little she had actually said this entire time but the more I thought about it, the more it appeared to me as if she was fishing for information. But what kind of information?