Chapter 9:
"And so the Batman ran away into the night. Gordon's kid walked up to his dad and asked, 'why is he running daddy?' and Gordon replied 'because we have to chase him.' 'But he didn't do anything wrong.' came the innocent reply. And so Gordon told his son why, 'because he is the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it need right now. So we'll hunt him, because he can take it. Because he is not a hero, he's a silent guardian, a watchful protector. A dark knight.' And thus the legend of Batman was born."

As Percy finished his story around the campfire silence fell. Everyone was looking at him in wonder.

"That was freaking amazing!" cried out Gerald as he jumped into the sky.

"Indeed Percy that was an excellent story," said Brain, "the future certainly has great minds."

Percy smiled, he had told them the plot of Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight movie, and they loved it.

"But I don't get it why did he have to become the bad guy in the end?" asked Kim.

"It's a little ahead of your time little one," said a smiling Hector, "but I'm sure Opal will tell you all about it."

Opal shot Hector a dark look as Kim then started pestering her to explain, Hector in return simply smiled. 'Was there something going on between Hector and Opal?' thought Percy, 'nah couldn't be.'

Needless to say even though Percy received a clear mind from Athena he was still stupidly dense when it came to love. Sigh, why does he have be so stupid?

"Alright everyone time for bed," said Andrew as he got up along with Cora who was forcing Kim of her sister so that they could all go to bed. Andrew looked at Percy, "remember to wake up early tomorrow Percy we are going to see the edge of the circle tomorrow."

"I will Andrew, good night," said Percy. And with that everyone went their separate ways. Percy to his hut, Kila and Mila to their hut. And Gerald went to bed as well, and Hector joined him after a few moments, two guess what he and Opal were doing in the shadows unseen.

After an hour Percy walked out of his hut with the bow and arrows he made when with Artemis. He went to the practice ground where he trained the pack, that is the werewolves, and started practicing Archery.

As Percy shot into a tree he thought of all the things he lost in this journey. His mom, his dad. Who knew whether he was even going to be able to get back to his own time? He missed everyone at camp. Grover, Nico, Annabeth and even a little bit of Luke. that is the Luke that was his friend. Nowadays the more and more he thought about it, the less he began to hate Luke and more he started to pity him.

He even wondered whether Artemis was even going to love him. It had been so long for her, but for him it had been only a few days. And even when Artemis met a younger him she didn't seem to recognize him, maybe she forgot?

Percy couldn't handle it if she had forgotten him. They would be the worst case scenario. After Percy emptied his quiver of arrows and approached the tree and gathered them all up again. When he was about to start shooting again, he felt something.

His head started to threaten to split open. He could almost hear a voice calling out to him. Telling him to…. do something. Then he could hear the words, "light the way to the future."
It was Apollos words, but Percy did not activate it. Why was it getting activated? Did Apollos soul inside do it? Then why?

Percy's eyes glowed yellow and so he did the one thing he knew to do in a situation like this. He closed his eyes and started meditating. This time because his mind was so much clearer he appeared in his mind much faster. The moment he looked down he saw an arrow of light coming right towards him.

Percy closed his eyes and put his eyes up before him, but the feeling of the arrow never came. When Percy opened his eyes again, he was at the beach. Only there were no waves and the sand was dry. The sky was dark and the only thing that shined was the full moon the hung in the sky. He was sitting by a campfire on a log, and opposite to him was… Apollo? He wore a red jacket and jeans.

"Hello Percy," said Apollo as he flashed Percy his signature bright smile.

"Lord Apollo-" began Percy but before he could bow Apollo interrupted him.

"Oh shut up and sit down Percy," said Apollo smiling all the while. Percy returned the smile and sat back down.

Several moment passed Percy looked into the fire as Apollo tended it. "So are you… you know going to fight?"

Apollo looked up, his normal features gone and a very serious look foreign to his face spread, "a god can freely give you their power Percy, it's just that some choose to make you fight for it, to prove yourself to wield it."

Percy nodded, and then after a moment of uncomfortable silence, "Apollo, about Artemis and I-"

"-yes that was why I called you hear Percy, you see you were supposed to fight Hephaestus now, but I cut in. I want to talk to you Percy and I'm sure you can guess why."

Percy nodded, "you have seen what I have seen, you have felt what I have felt for Artemis."

"I do not question that Percy, all I want to know from you is one thing. Why?"

"Why what?"

"What Artemis? You are handsome, kind and most importantly honest. Why choose someone as difficult as Artemis?"

Percy replied without a seconds thought, "why not Artemis?"

"What do you mean?"

"I love Artemis Apollo and you know that. And i don't know whether she loves me in the future but I do. And tell me who more than her deserves to be loved? She took on a domain that was not hers to save my life. She took on something that was completely against her nature, why because she loved me. But that was then, I don't know what she think of me know, but it does not matter. I love her, and she loves me."

Apollo looked at Percy with narrowed eyes. And after the longest minute in Percy's life he smiled, "okay Percy I believe you. But good luck getting Artemis to like you. I am the memory from the future and last I remembered she never once mentioned someone like you. Of Course she could be lying but you never know."

"Sigh geese thanks Apollo you sure know how to give a pep talk."

Apollo laugh and soon Percy joined in. After a moment Apollo looked to the sky, at the moon, "Percy do you know where we are?" Percy shook his head, "we are on my mothers island. It's strange to have the sun gods mind be night time, but that is who I am Percy. I love my sister more than anything, and you you hurt here I will make you disappear like Geralock."

"Who's Geralock?"

"Exactly."

"Look Apollo I swear I will love Artemis. And if she doesn't want to be with me any more I will deal with it, but I'll never stop loving her."

Apollo nodded,"you won't and I'll make sure you won't. Here is what I leave you Percy, the ability to detect lies, to see 10 seconds into the future, but be warned there is a price for this. And finally the ability to heal yourself and others. And with these I leave you a curse as well," at this Percy gulped, "you will now, whenever you screw up, hear my voice guide to you and tell you what to do. If you ever need help you can always ask and I will be there."

Percy bowed on one knee to Apollo, "this curse I will gladly accept."

Apollo nodded and started dissapearing, "go forth Percy, and remember never break our deal, and forever 'light the way to the future'!"

Percy blinked and found himself on the forest ground. Percy jumped to his feet and started coughing. Out of him came grey dust witch turned into a bead with was blue and had a golden sun on it. After stringing Apollos bead on his necklace Percy headed back to camp.

---

The next day Percy woke up early and went out to do some training. There he saw Mila practicing as well.

"Good morning Mila," said Percy.

"Good morning Percy," replied Mila, "want to spare?"

Percy smiled and uncapped Riptide, the two got into positions and then the swords flew. Mila was the best student Percy had, she took to learning the sword better than himself did at first. But as the battle was going on Percy noticed something, she seemed to be slowing down.
"Why are you slowing down Mila? Getting tired on me?" Percy smirked. And Mila got enraged she started swinging her sword every direction but she again started slowing down. And then suddenly Percy so an after image. It was almost as if he could see… Apollos gift! Percy smiled and started toying with her.

Mila was frustrated, it was almost like he knew what she was going to do before she did. After a few more minutes she dropped her sword, her hand was so tired she would not lift it any more, she then collapsed onto the floor.

"Pe-Percy.. how can you m-move s-so fast?" she panted out. Percy simply smiled as he looked down on her. But then Mila saw something, "Percy! You're eyes are bleeding!"

True enough when Percy touched his eyes there was blood there. Percy dropped Riptide and suddenly his entire body felt like it was in shock, Percy then heard a voice, 'that is the price for your powers Percy. The longer you see into the future the more pain your body will feel when you stop. Beware,' and with that Apollo's voice faded away.

After assuring Mila that he was fine the two went back to camp and had breakfast and Percy and Andrew went to see the edge of the circle of the druids.

Walkin through the forest Andrew and Percy were discussing about Percy's latest experiments.

"So the flowers you used say that we are in a place with low vitamins?" asked Andrew.

"Yes so that means somewhere north, probably somewhere cold," answered Percy.
"I see and you are sure about this?"

"Yes Andrew I am."

"I see. I see. Now Percy can I ask your opinion of something?"

"Go ahead Andrew"

"You know that Hector and Opal have been seeing each other, and though they think they have everyone fooled we all know what's going on, so-"

"-wait Opal and Hector? They are seeing each other?"

Andrew stopped and started at Percy, "didn't you have some sort of a blessing from Athena? How could you not see that?"

"I don't know maybe I missed it?" Percy shrugged.

"Well it seems they fooled somebody," Andrew then began walking again, "now as I was saying, Hector and my daughter like each other, but I do not know what to do in this case. I love my daughter and trust her to make the right decisions, but then I am reminded of all the times she made the wrong choices. I want to trust Hector, but at the same time I am worried due to his more lupin nature he might hurt Opal. I just do not know what to do Percy."

Percy stayed silent for a moment, "Andrew you fears are perfectly rational. Most fathers when hearing the fact that their daughters are dating a werewolf would go out to kill the beast. But you are willing to give Hector a chance, that is a sign of a great man. Relax I am sure in the end everything will be fi-" at that point Percy saw that the forest had disappeared. That right now all that was in front of him was a large plain of grass.

"Welcome Percy to the edge of our prison, this is the edge of the circle of druids," said Andrew forgetting what he was about to say.

Percy looked on, the sight familiar to him, he tried to take a step forward, but when he did he walked into an invisible wall.

"And that is our problem," said Andrew, "you see Percy the potion we made will transport us outside, all we need to know is where this place is. If we know the location, we know where to target the potion."

Percy looked around, at in the corner of his eye he could see something. It two large stones and ontop of them lying down horizontally was another stone just like them. They formed an archway of sorts. They looked familiar to Percy. 'But no way, it can't be.'

Percy then began to run along the invisible barrier until he reached the stone arch. And then he ran again.

"Percy wait for me!" cried Andrew as he struggled to catch up to Percy.
Percy ran, faster and faster until he saw another arch made out of stone. This confirmed it, he knew where they were.

"Percy' what's wrong?" asked Andrew when he finally caught up.

"Andrew do you know what this is?" Percy asked pointing to the stone arch.

"This is the guardian of the circle Percy, they are the thing looking us in here."

"True, they must also create a sort of pocket dimension where this prison exist! You see Andrew in the future this place is quite famous but it's not so big. People always wondered what these stones were, some guessed they were a sort of calendar, some thought a magical structure. They were wrong, well except for the guy who thought they were magic, he was kind of right. Anyway these things, they create a pocket dimension where we exist, like a prison!"

"Percy are you saying you know where we are?!"

"Andrew, in the future this stone archway had a name, they are and the stones of stonehenge. Andrew, we are imprisoned inside stonehenge!"

Notes

For the full story check out my profile at fan fic-https://www.fanfiction.net/u/5380086/I-mjusttryingtofindmyway