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"A shame to kill you now," Kronos drawled, making his way after striking Percy down, "before the final plan unfolds. I would love to see the terror in your eyes when you realize how I will destroy Olympus."  "You'll never get this boat to Manhattan." Percy snarled, his arm throbbing from the slash Kronos dealt. "And why would that be?" Kronos's golden eyes glittered. His face – Luke's face – seemed like a mask, unnatural and lit from behind by some evil power. "Perhaps you are counting on your friend with the explosives?"  He looked down at the pool and called, "Nakamura!"  The demigod that stabbed Percy in the back and aided in receiving Kronos walked into view and Percy’s skin crawled. "Success, my lord," Ethan replied. "We found him just as we were told."  He clapped his hands, and two giants lumbered forward, dragging Charles Beckendorf between them. Percy’s eyes widened and his usually frantic thoughts went silent. Beckendorf had a swollen eye and cuts all over his face and arms. His armor was gone and his shirt was nearly torn off.  Percy unfroze, throat raw as he screamed. "No!"  Beckendorf looked up and caught Percy’s eyes. He glanced at his hand like he was trying to gesture at something. Percy’s eyebrows furrowed, confused as his own eyes darted around. Then he stilled.  His watch . They hadn't taken it yet, Percy realized. They hadn’t taken the detonator away from Beckendorf. Was it possible the explosives were armed? Surely the monsters would've dismantled them right away.  "We found him amidships," one of the giants grumbled, "trying to sneak to the engine room. Can we eat him now?"  "Soon." Kronos scowled at Ethan. "Are you sure he didn't set the explosives?"  "He was going toward the engine room, my lord."  "How do you know that?"  "Uh…" Ethan shifted uncomfortably. "He was heading in that direction. And he told us. His bag is still full of explosives."  It all clicked into place and Percy could only hope nothing showed on his face. The Greek fire jars had been placed in the engine room. Beckendorf had tricked them by pretending to head to the engine room when he left. There was a chance that the plan of blowing up this ship could still happen! Kronos hesitated.   Buy the story, Percy begged, struggling to stay standing from the striking pain in his arm. "Open his bag," Kronos ordered.  One of the giants ripped the explosives satchel from Beckendorf's shoulders. He peered inside, grunted, and turned it upside down. Panicked monsters surged backward. If the bag really had been full of Greek fire jars, the entire ship would have gone up like in smoke, but what spilled out was about a dozen cans of peaches. Percy could hear Kronos breathing, trying to control his boiling anger.  "Did you, perhaps," he said deceptively calm, "capture this demigod near the galley?"  Ethan turned pale. "Um–"  "And did you, perhaps, send someone to actually check the engine room ?" Kronos roared Ethan scrambled back in terror, then turned on his heels and ran.   Shit, Percy cursed. Now there were only minutes before the bombs were disarmed. He looked into Beckendorf’s eyes again and asked a silent question, hoping he would understand: How long?  Beckendorf cupped his fingers and thumb, making a circle. Zero. There was no delay on the timer at all. If he managed to press the detonator button, the ship would blow at once. Neither of them would be able to get far enough away before using it. The monsters would kill them or disarm the bombs or, with their luck, both. Kronos turned toward Percy slowly, face stretching with a crooked smile. " You'll have to excuse my incompetent help, Percy Jackson. But it doesn't matter. We have you now. We've known you were coming for weeks."  He held out his hand and dangled a little silver bracelet with a scythe charm– the Titan lord's symbol.  Percy’s thoughts were slurring because his arm wound sapping away at his consciousness and soul. "Communication device… spy at camp."  Kronos chuckled. "You can't count on friends. They will always let you down. Luke learned that lesson the hard way. Now drop your sword and surrender to me, or your friend dies."  Percy swallowed. One of the giants had his hand around Beckendorf’s neck and there was no way that he would be able to get him to safety, especially not with the wound in his arm. They would both die. Beckendorf mouthed one word: Go.  Percy shook his head, barely able to do even that. There was no way he could just leave him.  The second giant was still rummaging through the peach cans, which meant Beckendorf's left arm was free. He raised it slowly– toward the watch on his right wrist.  Percy wanted to scream, desperate to keep them both alive. But then down by the swimming pool, one of the dracaenae hissed, "What isss he doing? What isss that on hisss wrissst?"  Beckendorf closed his eyes tight and brought his hand up to his watch.  Everything went dark, then silent, then all white.   Foolish child, a voice spat in the blinding brightness of the void Percy found himself in. It is not your time, another voice chimed.  Percy could only float in stasis, stuck between the pain and the numbness. He could only pray that the prophecy was already technically fulfilled and the burden of the child of the prophecy wouldn’t be Nico. He couldn’t fail him again.  If you had the chance to go back and prevent it, would you? A third voice inquired.   What? Percy thought, that being the only real thing he was capable of doing in this void. But the voices didn’t respond again. And the all-consuming nothingness melted away into a long-ago-but-never-forgotten scene.  A shower of gold dust shimmered around him, the haunting image of two red glowing eyes still burned in his retinas. Mrs. Dodds. What kind of sick joke was this? Percy thought as he clutched Riptide’s pen form. Why was he here? Was this some sort of life-flashing-before-your-eyes thing? But then where had he been before, in the brightness? Percy didn’t know what to do, so he did what he knew he had done before. He went outside into the rain. - Something was wrong with Percy, Grover despaired. Something happened in that museum room a month ago. Something more than that Kindly One who went in and never came back out. Something that changed Percy to the core. Something that Grover was out of time to figure out. Grover kept a steady eye on his best friend as he listened to his old, barely-hanging-on, Walkman. Percy’s eyes were closed, his head against the window, his leg bouncing up and down and up and down. He had been like that since the Greyhound left Yancy. He looked tired. Worn out. Heavier than he should be at only twelve. Heavier than he was only a month ago. Percy opened his eyes, dark and piercing, and studied Grover. “Hm?”  “Are you alright, Perce?” Grover asked hesitantly, for what felt like the hundredth time this month.  A smile tugged at Percy’s lips wryly. “Yeah. I mean I have you here to protect me, why wouldn’t I be?” “Uh-wh-what do you mean?” Grover’s eyebrows dove to his hairline. Alarm bells going off in his mind at the phrase ‘protect me’. Percy only smiled, and a shrill metal screech saved him from answering. The Greyhound limped over and the driver shooed everyone out onto the side of the road as the smell of rotten eggs filled the air.  Grover was stretched thin, looking all around in search of any possible monsters waiting to ambush. There was nothing around, they were literally in the middle of nowhere. Still, there was something that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. He focused on Percy again and followed his best friend’s gaze to an innocent-looking fruit stand.  A fruit stand run by three leathery old ladies knitting. A fruit stand with the ladies all looking directly at Percy. The three Fates. Focusing directly on Percy. Grover felt the blood rush out of his face and grabbed onto Percy’s bicep. “Tell me they’re not looking at you. Oh goody, they are , aren’t they?!” Percy didn’t respond. He didn’t even react to Grover grabbing his arm. Percy had finally lost his smile, seemingly lost in his own mind as the Fates continued to knit. The only reaction he gave to what was happening in front of him was a sharp intake of breath when the one in the middle, Atropos, reached and pulled out a pair of shears.   Oh, no. Somehow Grover felt himself get even paler. This was not good. Not good at all. “C’mon,” He tugged Percy along behind him. “We are getting back on the bus.” Percy didn’t try to fight him, too stuck in his thoughts to resist as Grover positioned him back in their seat. Even now that Grover wasn’t looking at the fruit stand, he could make out the distinct snip of the shears. Not again, not another friend gone. He wouldn’t let this happen again if he could help it.  Percy shuddered, coming back to himself. “I hate old ladies,” he mumbled, pulling his knees up to his chest. “What did you see?” Grover demanded. “Three old ladies,” Percy’s voice was muffled. “They were knitting. The one in the middle cut the string and now I feel like shit.” Grover closed his eyes, feeling the sweat roll down his forehead. “They never make it past sixth grade.” He whispered like a death sentence. Maybe it was.  The rest of the drive to the bus terminal was spent with Percy’s head against Grover’s shoulder in a poor imitation of comfort. - Percy had to get home. He knew he should have let Grover at least escort him home to ease his furry friend’s nerves, but he just couldn’t picture going home with another person when he knew his mom would be there. They had a lot they had to talk about. He had slipped a note with the Montauk cabin’s address into Grover’s carry-on anyway. Percy had already made the decision on that long bus ride to share what happened with his mom. She deserved to know why he had changed so rapidly in such a short period of time. And well… he knew he could never hide anything from her. She was smart and resourceful and was always willing to back him up. And who knew, maybe he could save her from going to the Underworld this time around. Percy sighed, head in his hands as the cab he called was driving him home. It was terrifyingly difficult to be twelve. Those three voices – the Fates he had deduced upon seeing their wrinkly forms knit their plan for the universe – had sent his memories back, but still preserved his mental age as twelve. They literally overloaded him with too much information for such a small mind and gods, did he have a headache. Percy leaned back and fiddled with the straps of his luggage bags, trying to sort out his game plan for the next few weeks. He would have to make it to camp. And keep his mom safe if he could but ultimately he knew she would be safe regardless. Check. He would need to play dumb about his parentage. Not too hard, Annabeth always told him- Okay, even the thought of her hurt right now. Focus on that later. Make sure he went on the quest for the master bolt. Stop himself from decking Luke upon meeting him. That one would probably be the hardest. Make sure everything goes (more or less) the same as before. No major changes that would make everything else harder to predict. That would suck. “Ugh,” Percy groaned, dropping the straps of his bag and handing the cabby his fare as the vehicle rolled to a stop in front of his apartment complex. He was not ready to interact with Gabe again. But then again, he would never be able to. Percy reluctantly trudged up the stairs, dragging his feet along every step, desperate not to be in that apartment alone with Gabe and his friends. If he thought not punching Luke was going to be hard, not killing Gabe would be the ultimate test of his willpower. It definitely didn’t help that he had the emotional control of a pre-teen. When the door loomed in front of him and there was no excuse to not go into the complex Percy summoned all the patience he could fit in his current too-short body and unlocked the door. You would think the smell would be something that would always stick with you. Percy did too. But as he opened the door he almost threw up. Yeah, he spluttered internally, nose blindness is definitely a thing.  The room smelled like rotten fast food, strong beer, and shitty hygiene that had a baby dunked in the smelliest cheese imaginable. It had eroded in Percy’s mind in the last four years without living in it but now it was brought right back to the forefront of his mind.   Gods, Percy gagged, dragging himself into the apartment and shutting the door. Maybe I will be too weak from the smell to deal with Gabe.  “Grab me a beer, kid! A cold one from the fridge!” Percy shuddered, suppressing the instinctual anger that rose whenever he heard that voice. He slinked further into the room, the rotten stink engulfing him. He grabbed Gabe’s beer and made his way to the living room, nose scrunching at the strong cigar smoke smell, and placed the beer on the poker table set up in the middle of the room and turned to go. “Uhuh, nice try,” Gabe sneered. “Cash.” Percy clenched his fists and gritted his teeth but stuck his hand in his pocket and practically threw his change at Gabe. Gabe just cackled, not even looking at him and Percy could hear the cards shuffling as he raced to his room. After shutting and locking the door, Percy finally let out a breath and catapulted himself over the trash littering his floor, and landed on the bed, grabbing his old blue blanket to wrap around himself. Home sweet home .  These stupid stomach butterflies are going to gut me, Percy groaned, hunching further into his blanket. He wanted his mom.  “Percy?” A knock came from the door, and for a moment all was right with the world. His mom was here and he was going to be okay. Percy crept off the bed, still holding the blanket, to unlock the door, and then there she was. Sally Jackson, as beautiful and kind as when he last saw her. Percy didn’t care that he had an extra four years shoved into his brain, his mom was here and he hugged her without remorse. If this eventually turned out to be a big joke or hallucination, he was going to tell his mother he loved her before it was over. “Percy?” His mom asked again, her voice muffled due to his head being pressed against her torso. “Sweetheart, what’s wrong?” She asked softly, bringing her arms around him and stroking his messy hair. Percy choked back a sob, hugging her tighter. She didn’t ask again, she just pulled him to the bed and held him just as tightly. After a few minutes of crying, Percy pulled back, wiping his eyes pitifully. He needed to tell her. He couldn’t wait anymore. “Mom… I’m not exactly the Percy who left at Christmas.” Percy wrung his hands but kept eye contact with his mom. “I- Somethings happened and- Well, it would probably be easier to start with just telling you that I know. I know about Dad.” His mom’s eyes went wide and watered. “What?” She whispered. Percy took a deep breath. “I know about half-bloods and monsters and camp. I know because for me this has already happened.” The conversation went better than Percy expected. Granted, as much as he loved his mom, he wasn’t one hundred percent sure she would even believe him. But she sat there and listened and guided him back on the right track when he got off topic. His mom listened so when he was done speaking the lump in the back of his throat had shrunk from a boulder to a pebble. He looked at her hopefully, desperate for her to believe him. She looked at him for a few moments, analyzing him fully before taking a deep breath, opening her arms, and pulling him into an embrace. “Oh, Percy,” She whispered, simply holding him. “You’re so grown .” “You believe me?” Percy asked weakly. His mother laughed wetly. “Of course, sweetheart. You are still my son.”  That sent Percy into a whole new crying fit which was quickly soothed by his loving mom.  “I’ll tell you what,” She smiled, wiping his tear-stained cheeks. “We head to Montauk tonight and we head to camp tomorrow morning. Sound okay?” She looked heartbroken, as if she was sending him to die.  Percy’s own chest felt like it was being stabbed. He smiled painfully anyway. “Yeah. I love you, Mom.” He had not been entirely honest with her. He had left out the part of going to camp, claiming Grover had taken him after stopping by home to tell his mother. Sue him, Percy wanted to spend more time around his mom. If he had it his way, she wouldn’t even be taken to the Underworld.  Percy gathered his things back from where they had ended up upon his messy entrance. He made sure to ignore all the one-sided arguing between his mom and Gabe, not being able to take it emotionally. In an hour, everything was packed up and in Gabe’s ‘78 Camaro with him still fighting about handing over the keys. “Not a scratch, brain boy ,” Gabe snarled, dropping the keys in Percy’s hands. “Not one little scratch.” Percy had to resist speaking by gritting his teeth and just taking the keys. Like before, he did the three-fingered ward against evil and took great joy in watching the door slam closed on Gabe. He then climbed into the car and they were off. - That night, at the house in Montauk Percy was revisited by the dreams that he only vaguely remembered. A stormy beach. A pair of fighting animals, an eagle and a horse, if Percy remembered correctly. The horrible grumbling and voice booming from underneath the ground. The world was about the same when he woke up. He could hear the heavy raindrops battering on the walls and roof of the cabin and he could hear the heavy footsteps making their way up the porch. Quickly, Percy rolled off of the couch and met his mom’s eyes as she opened her door in a panic. “It’s Grover.” He confirmed. She nodded and went to open the door as Percy grabbed their bags. He heard the door open and hooves clanking down the hall.  “Percy!” His best friend shouted, hugging him tightly. “You scared me! I thought I lost you! C’mon, we have to go!” Despite himself, Percy smiled at his friend as they rushed into the car.  “What’s chasing us, Grover?” His mom asked, glancing back at them in the rearview mirror.  Grover just shuddered, looking back at the window, trying to see through the rain. “Something big and bad, Percy. We just need to get to camp.” “Camp?” Percy remembered to ask. He could see his mother looking at him questioningly.  “That summer camp I told you about,” His mom replied. “We have to get you there to safety.” “Yeah, safety,” Grover snorted. “Safety from the Lord of the Dead and a few of his loyal minions!” “Grover,” His mother warned and Grover deflated.  “Sorry, Mrs. Jackson.” As if on cue, his mom swerved towards the PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES sign that marked the way to Camp Half-Blood. She pressed the gas pedal to the floor and Percy could hear her cursing under her breath. They were thrown around to the right as his mom swerved around a dark figure in the middle of the road. Percy felt his heart skip a beat. No, leaving early was supposed to stop this! He felt his skin go clammy. The Minotaur. “Ah, Styx,” Grover spat, leaning forward. “Is there any possible way we can go any fa–” The lightning that Percy was dreading interrupted him, hitting the car with preciseness. Not enough to kill, but enough to hurt and more importantly stop them. If Percy was able to strangle a god for their bad timing he would have done so to Zeus right then and there. Now his plan of making it to camp sooner to avoid all of this was shot and he was right back where he started, knowing what was going to happen and not able to change any of it.  “Percy!” His mother cried from the front seat.  “I’m okay,” Percy coughed, already unbuckling his seatbelt and moving to undo Grover’s. “We need to get out of here, that thing won’t wait patiently. We need to get to camp.” The lightning crackled around them and Percy could feel the hair on his arms standing up.  “Percy…” His mother’s voice caught in a panic. “I know,” He replied through gritted teeth. “We need to go now!” “Percy, I can’t get out. You need to take Grover and run.” “No!” Percy cried, scrambling out the passenger side door trying to support Grover. “You are coming with me! I’ll let you into camp! I can’t carry Grover by myself. Please, mom!” As before she climbed out of the car and they started climbing Half-Blood Hill with a barely conscious Grover between them. Percy specifically refused to look behind them, too focused on getting up the slick, steep hill. He heard his mother try to get his attention desperately, but he could barely hear her over the rush of frustration and exhaustion in his head. He barely processed even the sickening crunch of the Minotaur destroying Gabe’s Camaro. “Percy,” His mother stopped, managing to finally catch her son’s attention. “When he comes this way, you are who he’s after. Wait until the last minute then jump to the side. He isn’t that agile. Understand?” “Yeah,” Percy grunted, shuffling Grover over to her. “Be careful, don’t let him get anywhere near you. Please .” “Oh, Percy,” His mother smiled through her fear, even now. “I love you.” It all happened so fast. The Minotaur charged at him, like before and he dodged, like before. It changed course and headed to his mom again and Percy had to watch, helpless as she disappeared. The beast then focused on the unconscious Grover. It was like a bad memory on repeat, only this time Percy had something he didn’t have before. The rage and control over his father’s element.  “Hey!” He called, pulling off his red raincoat and waving it like a flag. “Come and get me, ugly!” The monster’s nostrils flared and Percy solidified his resolve. It was now or never.  As the beast charged, Percy jumped up, using the water surrounding them to aid him in staying alert. Once again, he landed on the thing’s neck and pulled on a horn, hard. When he fell backward, he manipulated the water into putting more force behind the makeshift weapon and plunged it into the side of the Minotaur. And just like that, the nightmare was over and reality sank in. Percy felt numb as he trudged over to collect Grover. The rain had stopped so he knew the water on his cheeks were tears but he felt no control over himself. His mother was gone. Percy knew she wasn’t dead but she was gone and it was his fault. He mechanically made his way down the hill and he could hear someone calling for their mom. He knew it was him but it was all happening so far away. Like before he made it all the way to the porch of the Big House, and like before he curled up and passed out with the tears still warm on his face. He didn’t remember if Annabeth or Chiron was there, all he cared about was going to sleep and waking up to find that none of this actually happened. - Percy was scaring him. Grover sat beside him, watching his best friend lie in his lawn chair on the porch of the Big House. He had woken up a few times but hadn’t said a word or even really focused. It was like he wasn’t truly awake, he never responded. He just laid there. Grover’s memories of that night were blurry. He knew that Percy was almost unreasonably calm the entire night. He had found it weird that Percy slipped an address in Montauk into his bag, but by the time he had realized it and gotten there, Percy just loaded his bags into the car and didn’t ask any questions. Even upon seeing the Minotaur, Percy hadn’t really been fazed. In fact, he almost seemed… angry.  Percy groaned, rolling over and opening his eyes blearily. “Grover…?” He rasped. “C-Careful!” Grover fretted, handing his friend a glass of nectar. Percy quickly downed it and his face morphed into a melancholy expression. He asked what happened and Grover just settled the shoe box containing the Minotaur horn into his lap. He watched Percy’s face shutter close. Percy closed his eyes, leaned his head back, and cursed. “It wasn’t a dream,” Percy whispered. “Fuck.” “I’m so, so, so sorry,” Grover sniffled, shuffling on his hooves. “I-I failed at protecting you and your mom and I’m just a failure at a satyr.” Percy just stared straight ahead, not saying a word, but as he did in the car Percy seemed more frustrated than upset. “It’s not your fault.” He said, still not looking at Grover. “You did your best at protecting me and- You did your best. Stop beating yourself up.” Percy turned and gave Grover a weak, but genuine smile. “You are a great friend.” Grover was stunned. How did he… How did Percy know what he was thinking? He shook his head, taking the empty glass from Percy’s lap. “How are you feeling? Physically, I mean.” Percy moved his neck from side to side, cracking it, and sat up a bit more. “I could use some water, but I think I am good to go.”
“Alright, come on,” Grover said as he helped Percy up out of the lawn chair. “Chiron and Mr. D are waiting.” He watched his friend carefully, monitoring his reactions at his first look at camp. Percy looked reasonably amazed, albeit still in shock about his mom. Grover’s eyes scanned over the campers, smiling and waving when he was acknowledged but otherwise moving forward, shepherding Percy around the porch. When Mr. D, Chiron, and Annabeth came into sight, Percy stopped dead in his tracks. He squinted at Mr. D, letting his intense gaze drift over Chiron and he closed his eyes before he could reach Annabeth. Grover nudged his friend’s shoulder, concern filling his chest. “Are you sure you’re alright, Perce?” Percy just shrugged, eyes blinking open. “I got a bit dizzy. I’m fine now.” Grover didn’t believe him, but he let it slide. “That’s Mr. D,” He whispered. “He’s the camp director, don’t be rash. Beside him is Annabeth, she’s been here longer than just about anyone. And of course, you already know Chiron…” “Mr. Brunner,” Percy smiled faintly.  “It’s Chiron, Percy,” The centaur chided gently. “Come, now. We have four to play.” Percy made his way over to the open seat between Mr. D and Chiron. Grover watched on anxiously, knowing Percy’s reputation with authority figures. But Percy just stuck out a hand to Mr. D insistently and stared at him with an interesting glint that Grover had never seen before. “Nice to meet you, Lord Dionysus,” He said matter-of-factly. “I always loved the grape-flavored fruit snacks.”  Ah, shit. Grover groaned, hands flying up to his face as he watched Annabeth visibly startle. Only Chiron looked unfazed. Mr. D himself looked rather amused as he smirked over at Chiron. “Oh, I like this one.” He bared his teeth to Percy in a sharp smile. “Flattery will get you everywhere.” “Annabeth,” Chiron called to the girl still reeling from disbelief. “Go make sure Cabin Eleven is set up for our newest camper here.” She nodded, stopping a second to stare at Percy, who looked like he was in some sort of physical pain when she acknowledged his existence. “You drool in your sleep,” Annabeth said simply before running off, her curly ponytail flying behind her. “Percy,” Chiron said sincerely. “It is great to see you breathing. It has been quite a while since I went to personally oversee a half-blood. I am glad it all worked out.” “With all due respect, sir,” Percy clenched his jaw. “My mother is dead. I wouldn’t exactly call this ‘worked out’. And besides, what even is a half-blood?” “You figured out I was a god,” Mr. D remarked snidely as he swirled around his half-empty can of Diet Coke, card game forgotten. “You seem to not be a complete moron. Figure it out.” “...Children of the gods?” Percy replied slowly after a moment of thought. “Give the boy a prize!” Mr. D sneered, leaving Grover feeling uneasy. “Can you two make like a tree and leave . Grover and I have to have a conversation about his piss-poor performance this time around. Shoo, shoo.” So that uneasy feeling with Grover wasn’t unjustified, good to know. “Alright, Mr. D, sir. I’m ready for any decision you are to make.” “Lord Dionysus, can I vouch for Grover?” All three of them looked at the tiny twelve-year-old with stormy, intense eyes. Percy didn’t even flinch. He went on. “Grover did his best to protect me throughout the entire school year. The only reason he wasn’t able to escort me across the boundary was because your father struck our car down with lightning. He is a good protector and an even greater friend. Please keep that in mind.” Grover met his friend’s eyes, his own watering. Percy smiled assuredly. Gods, Grover loved his friend. - Percy thinks that went well. He didn’t immediately get on Mr. D’s bad side and even managed to stand up for Grover in the process. He was conveniently blocking out the thought of Annabeth and tried not to think about how soon he would have to interact with both her and Luke. 
Just like before, most of the campers that he passed stopped and whispered and pointed. Percy ignored them though, mind other places. Gods, walking through camp felt like a stab to the gut. They hadn’t finished rebuilding from the Battle of the Labyrinth the summer before, and seeing everything whole again was throwing him for a loop. Everything and everyone was so familiar and so young it was disorienting. If he looked hard enough at the campers he saw familiar faces. Some who died. Some who fought beside him. Some who turned tail and left with Luke. The nausea in Percy’s gut seemed to not only be because of the grief he was experiencing again.

Which didn’t quite make sense, he knew his mother wasn’t dead, but still he-

Percy sighed, moving his thoughts along if only to stop him from slipping into a panic attack. He was tuning out Chiron, still looking around, desperate to not fall back into old memories when a camper with curly blonde hair caught his attention. It wasn't Annabeth, both the blonde's hair and skin were fairer than hers. It was unruly and framed his face like Percy's often did when he couldn't afford to get a haircut and his mom was busy. The boy looked up and smiled, the first welcoming greeting he had gotten today. That's when Percy recognized him.
 It was one of the Brennan twins, Castor or Pollux. He remembered because Castor was one of the first people Percy lost to the war. Percy hadn’t even known their names until after one was dead. He hesitantly raised his hand back and the returning smile was even more blinding than before, his purple eyes creasing warmly. The twin waved to someone out of sight and hurried over to Chiron, hands stained pink.  “Chiron! Is this the new camper? The one you were gone so long for?” The child of Dionysus panted as he tried to regain his breath. “Ah, Mr. Brennan. Yes, this is Percy Jackson,” Chiron responded dutifully, voice fond. The boy almost looked shy as he looked up at the centaur. “I can show him around camp, sir. I’m sure it would be easier if someone closer to his age showed him some things. Would that be alright?” Chiron looked taken aback. “Well, I suppose it wouldn’t be an issue as long as you aren’t using it to skimp out of your time in the fields.” The blonde snorted, waving a dismissive hand in the general way of the strawberry fields. “Pollux is more than capable of containing the other campers for less than an hour.” He then turned to Percy, his smile shifting more mischievous than shy. “Hi, I’m Castor. You are well met, Sir Jackson.” That last phrase itched at something in Percy’s brain. “Was that… a reference to Shakespeare?” Castor looked delighted. “Yes! Finally, someone gets it! It’s from The Taming of the Shrew.” Percy grinned back at him, feeling his worry slip away. “It’s what that movie 10 Things I Hate About You is based on, right? My friend likes that movie.” That was a little white lie. Rachel technically wasn’t his friend yet, but Percy vividly remembered all the movies she had wrangled him to watch on her couch as she drew henna across his skin. That had been one of them that she was extremely passionate about. “Oh, I think we will be good friends, Percy Jackson,” Castor laughed, linking Percy’s arm with his own, and started to pull Percy away from Chiron. The centaur only chuckled and called to the pair walking away. “Do take care of him, Mr. Brennan. I’ll see you at dinner, Percy!” - “-and that’s why Demeter kids aren’t around the climbing wall when Ares kids are climbing it. The lava burns weren’t worth it for those knuckleheads in the end.” Castor giggled as the pair finally came up to the cabins. They had taken the long route, going over places both Chiron and Annabeth hadn’t explicitly shown him the first time. Castor Brennan liked to laugh, Percy learned, and he had a very nice one. “Anyways, do you have any questions before we go over the cabins?” Percy thought for a moment, bringing an absent-minded hand up to his lips and pinched the bottom one as he did when deep in thought. Potential questions rushed around his head as he stared at Castor’s back and the one that came out was unfiltered. “Why did you come to show me around?” Castor slowed, turning so sea green eyes met vibrant purple. He studied him for a beat, then replied in a soft voice that grated on Percy’s nerves. “You looked overwhelmed. I know what that feels like.” Percy felt an irrational anger building in his chest. “So you wanted to earn some brownie points? Try to have me owe you one?” He spat. “What? No!” Castor looked bewildered. “I just wanted to make you feel more comfortable. I remember my first day at Camp and I wished someone would have done this for me. I was only trying to help.” Just as quickly as it came, the anger disappeared. Gods, Percy was not looking forward to reliving puberty. He relented, sitting against a tree at the edge of the forest. After a moment Castor sat beside him. “Look, I don’t know what you are going through,” The other demigod began. “I can only sympathize and try to help. Is there anything I can do to help you feel better?” Percy pulled his knees to his chest, head tipping back against the tree. “I don’t know. Everything is just so much and so fast.” He buried his face in his knees. “I want my mom.” He could feel Castor’s eyes on him but it wasn’t as heavy as he thought it would be. “I miss people too, Percy,” Castor replied gently, a hand placed on the other demigod’s knee. “They are safe where they are now. We will see them again.” To Percy’s utter embarrassment, tears welled up in his eyes as he lifted his head to look at Castor’s face. “Why do you even care so much about someone who you haven’t even known for an hour? Isn’t that kinda weird?” The blonde laughed lightly, squeezing Percy’s knee. “I like helping people. And, well, it helps that you seem… familiar.” Percy gave into his urge to smile but restrained himself from leaning any farther into the other boy’s orbit, tucking that last bit of the sentence in his mind to deal with later. “Thanks, Castor. I owe you one.” “Oh, hush! You owe me nothing. Now let’s go to the cabins before Annabeth thinks you got killed.” “She already thinks I’m useless, there’s not much lower that bar can get.” “Hm, you would be surprised,” Castor cackled, brushing off his pants as he stood up and offered Percy a hand. “C’mon, we don’t want to be late for an audience with Miss Princess. We are time’s subjects, and time bids be gone!” Percy chuckled wetly and took the hand, letting himself be pulled up and running to follow Castor’s long strides. The other boy chattered away, pointing out various cabins and residents on their way up the hill to the cabins. Annabeth was leaning against the Hermes cabin with her nose stuck in that stupid architecture book that Percy knew she already had memorized. He felt like she just punched him in the gut with the critical look she scanned over him. He missed a step and would have fallen if Castor hadn’t grabbed his arm to support him. Turmoil was the best word Percy could think to describe what was going on in his head. He had so much around him and she just looked so young. She was so young. She was not his Annabeth and she would never be. This Annabeth hadn’t accompanied him on quests, hadn’t boo-ed shitty reality TV shows with him, hadn’t baked his mom’s blue cookie recipe in his small apartment’s kitchen. It hurt. It really, really hurt. “-ercy? Can you hear me?” He vaguely heard a voice but that was enough of an anchor for him to latch onto. Percy nodded, already feeling his legs cramping from the fetal position he must have unconsciously fallen into. “Good, good. Can I touch you?” “Yeah,” Percy rasped, voice hoarse. He felt a pressure on the back of his neck and let himself loosen and breathe. “That's it,” The voice hummed. “Just like that, Percy. Deep breaths.” When he finally waded through the murky waters of his tangled emotions and came up for air, Percy saw Castor with his hand laying across his neck, a morbidly curious Annabeth, and most surprisingly a concerned Clarisse. Percy couldn’t keep his hysterical laughter in his head and it spilled out of his lips like sand. “Glad that you are back with us, Percy,” Castor murmured from his place crouched beside him. “How about we go to the lake and cool off a bit? That work for you?” Like before, Castor helped Percy to his feet and started to lead them away. “Make sure his stuff is fine, Annabeth! We will see you at dinner!” He called over his shoulder “Brennan!” Clarisse shouted back. “Make sure the newbie doesn’t drown!” Percy wanted to laugh at the thought of him drowning but there was no one to get the joke. Castor shot a thumbs up in response and half-carried-half-led Percy to the lake. The sun was still fairly high in the sky, just about to reach the halfway point of its descent so it was in just the right area to blind the pair of demigods as they stumbled to the shore of the lake. There were a few campers canoeing but they just waved and went on with their activity. Percy groaned as he slumped down on the dock, dipping his now shoeless feet in the water. As always, the water helped ground him, ironically enough, and it was enough to let some exhaustion creep in. Castor didn’t say anything, only sitting next to Percy with his legs crossed. For that, Percy was thankful. There was no pressure to answer any questions or provide any answers. It was weird that Castor seemed so comfortable and set him at ease so quickly. He eyed him out of the corner of his vision and decided it must be because he hadn’t really known Castor before. Castor Brennan had died and Percy hadn’t known him. He was basically a stranger, just like he would have been if Percy had met him when he was first this age.  Percy let out a slow breath. If this was how he reacted to seeing Annabeth, he didn’t want to imagine how it was going to be seeing Luke again, let alone living with him.  There was a nudge on Percy’s shoulder. “You waiting for your toes to wrinkle like raisins?” Castor asked mirthfully. Percy barked out a laugh, surprising himself. “Nah, I just really like the water. It helps calm me down.” “Understandable,” Castor replied, leaning back on the heel of his palms. “Would you like to talk about what happened?” “No, not really,” Percy muttered, shrinking into himself a little, expecting to be berated or laughed at. But there was none of that. Castor simply nodded and closed his eyes. “Y’know, on my first day at Camp I threw my brother Pollux into a big barrel of strawberries,” He offhandedly mentioned. “What?”  “We hadn't gotten officially claimed, but everyone was so sure about who our dad was because of the eyes,” Castor tapped right below his eye before continuing. “And we had grown up hearing superhero stories of the heroes being healed by things they controlled. Pollux had a black eye – too superficial to waste ambrosia or nectar on – so I pushed him into one of the barrels of strawberries waiting to be delivered outside the Big House. He wasn’t healed but he did make them grow like crazy. Ah, well, good wine needs no bush and all that.” Castor grinned toothily. “We never really got claimed. Everyone just assumed then and there.” “I’m sorry,” Percy said softly, remembering the pain others had expressed when they hadn’t been claimed even if it was obvious. Remembering the full Hermes cabin with unclaimed Hermes kids littering the floor. Remembering- “Hey, don’t get lost in your own head again!” Castor sighed. “I was trying to lighten the mood. It’s not something Pollux or I am ashamed of. Sure, it would have been nice for him to claim us, but that doesn’t make us any less his sons. We are the only ones in his cabin, after all. I’m not sure we would be able to live with any more siblings. We already have enough at home.” “Home?” Percy perked up, not really remembering this from before. “Do you not stay at Camp all year long?” “Pollux and I live down in South Carolina,” Castor explained. “Our mom used to be one of the bigger actresses down in Charleston. Cassie Brennan? Anyway, since we’re unlikely to attract any monsters we can’t handle, we tend to alternate summers and winter breaks. Dad gets us this summer, Mom gets us next summer. Dad got us last winter, Mom gets us next winter. Are you seeing the pattern?” “I didn’t realize you could do that,” Percy began, unsure if his opinion would be unwelcome. Castor just snorted. “I guess we are a pair of lucky demigods. We technically have both parents in our lives, however much one of them tries not to care.” Percy wasn’t sure what to say to that, so he just stayed silent. In the distance, the conch shell sounded to indicate dinner was ready to be served and he stood, this time holding out a hand for Castor.  “I’ll tell you what,” Percy said. “If you let me talk about my mom, you can tell me all about your favorite plays. Deal?” “Deal!” Castor laughed, taking the hand offered to him. - Percy Jackson rubbed her the wrong way. Annabeth was used to being the one who asked the questions and knew the answers, and not being able to make sense of something wasn’t a feeling she dealt with often. She didn’t like it. From the way he refused to look at her, to when he did look at her like she was dying right in front of him; it didn’t make sense! She had never met him before in her life, why did he seem to see right through her? “Ugh,” Annabeth groaned, head hitting the edge of the table in frustration. “You alright, Annie?” Francesca, one of her older siblings asked teasingly. Annabeth’s head snapped up and she sent them her nastiest glare. They only chuckled. “You know your glare doesn’t scare me, I have the same one!”  “Don’t call me Annie,” She growled. “Then tell me what’s up with you,” Francesca said. Annabeth stared at the end of the Hermes table, where Percy Jackson was half-falling off his bench, sipping some kind of blue soft drink. “I don’t think I like him. He doesn’t make sense.” “Aww, Annie is getting to that certain age, is she? Not all boys are icky, you know?” Annabeth glared at her sibling but they just laughed harder. Sometimes, Annabeth missed being an only child. - The rest of that night played along close enough to how Percy remembered it. He avoided Luke like the plague, and despite living in such a cramped space, he was successful. Clarisse wasn’t actively antagonistic toward him, instead, she acted like he didn’t exist which he supposed was an improvement. Seeing Annabeth was getting easier and easier. Now seeing her only sent him into a mental breakdown occasionally . Small victories. When allowed, Castor stuck by his side like glue. Because there were only two Dionysus kids, They managed to split time on the fields and when Castor wasn’t picking fruit he was laughing with Percy. He learned Castor was one of the best equestrians in camp, yet another surprising fact Percy didn’t know before. He learned Castor hated having eyes on him, yet loved theatre. He learned Castor loved putting peanut butter on his smores and hated green peppers with a passion. Yeah, he spent a lot of his time with Castor. Percy’s lucky streak of avoiding a certain Luke Castellan ran out three days later when it was time for sword-fighting lessons. Luke didn’t look at him when Percy could see him, but he could feel the heaviness of the blonde’s gaze when Percy was focused on his footwork. Like before, no blade felt right, but to avoid confrontation Percy didn’t mention it. When everyone separated into dueling partners, Luke swooped in and took his chance. “Percy, right? Want to be partners?” Luke asked, smiling friendly enough if Percy didn’t already know how his face scrunched up when in rage. He didn’t know what to say, simply nodding and following Luke to the corner. “You are pretty good at this,” Luke laughed as he easily dodged one of Percy’s purposefully clumsy swings.  “Thanks,” He replied through gritted teeth, shoving the instinctive panic down. His saving grace was that the sword Luke was using wasn’t Backbiter. The lack of steel mixed with Celestial Bronze kept Percy anchored in the present. He managed to swim under the radar with intentionally mediocre skills and this time Luke picked one of the older campers to do the demonstration with. And everything was fine. That Friday afternoon, like before, Percy sat on the pier with Grover after a long and hard hour at the climbing rock. This time, he didn’t ask about Grover’s searcher’s license and instead asked about Thalia’s pine tree. Grover spun the story again, still leaving out his part in it, and Percy closed his eyes as he was reminded of Thalia’s fate.  It hurt more after knowing Thalia. In the back of his head, Percy knew that she was going to be fine next summer. He knew she was going to grow and heal and have fun. But just the thought of Thalia dying feet away from safety, not even knowing that her friends were going to be alright hit a chord in him. It felt too much like his last stand on The Princess Andromeda with Beckendorf.  Grover hurriedly rushed him back to the Hermes cabin, claiming he looked sick and needed to lay down before capture the flag. - Percy was fine for capture the flag. He knew it, but it didn’t stop Castor and Annabeth from looking at him funny. They had probably heard from Grover his earlier “sickness”. Castor kept shooting him worried looks and it was only because Percy knew Annabeth that he could tell she was concerned under her prickliness.  Unlike before, the Dionysus cabin joined Athena’s alliance so Castor helped get Percy into the proper armor and led him to the creek for border patrol. “Normally, Clarisse leads the attacks,” Castor was saying fast and quiet, “but with how she has stayed away from you I don’t think it should be a proble-” “Not so fast, crazy!” A rogue Ares kid, leading two others shouted as they charged towards the pair of demigods. “There’s nowhere to hide!” Out of habit, Percy stepped back into the creek, readying his blade, and waited for them to attack. He could practically feel Castor’s surprise but the other boy quickly fell into a fighting stance and the beatdown began. Percy knew that he should be holding back to avoid suspicion. He knew that at twelve he wasn’t as good with a blade and he should be trying to match that, but he was just so pent up. He was so pent-up and so frustrated. He wasn’t twelve! He was almost sixteen and even though he felt and thought like twelve-year-old him, he wasn’t twelve! He was having a hard enough time not subconsciously using water to help him fight, he couldn’t withhold both without accidentally slipping. So he took down one of the Ares kids by himself, leaving the other two for Castor to deal with. Just like before, excited yelling announced Luke’s arrival back to Athena territory, and just like before the stupid Ares kids who came after the newbie cursed and ranted. “Not too bad, hero,” Annabeth whispered in Percy’s ear, scaring him senseless.  “Annabeth?” He heard Castor ask, bewildered. “If you were there why didn’t you help!” “Where the hell did you learn to fight like that?” Annabeth ignored Castor, solely focused on him. Percy only shrugged. “Fancy boarding schools have fencing lessons for the rich kids. I had to fit in somehow.” She looked like she was going to rip his head off until he finally made sense before a loud howl filled the air. Glowing red eyes and bone-white fangs glinted in the dark. 
Ah, shit. The fucking hellhound.
 “Percy! Run!” Castor shouted, readying his sword. It was too late and Percy was tackled by the stupid overgrown mutt. He could almost imagine Mrs. O’Leary was trying to play but he knew that he was stretching it. Arrows littered the monster’s neck, killing it, and gold dust sprinkled on Percy like snow. He felt the deep cuts in his chest ooze blood sluggishly. “That-that’s a hellhound from the Fields of Punishment! How did it-?” Annabeth exclaimed. “Someone summoned it,” Chiron replied gravely. “Someone inside of camp.” “Percy,” Castor grabbed his attention, voice unexpectedly tight. “Step back into the water.”  He figured it out, Percy thought grimly, memories of the last time he was claimed now vibrant. Well, hanging with Castor was fun while it lasted. He obeyed and stepped back into the water, sighing in relief as the lacerations closed quickly. He closed his eyes, hearing the scared mumbling of the other campers, and knew the trident glowed above his head. “Oh, this is really not good,” Annabeth mumbled, voice blank. “It is determined,” Chiron declared and Percy flinched as he heard everyone kneel. “Poseidon. Earthshaker. Stormbringer. Father of Horses. Hail Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God.” The words felt like a death sentence and a promise all at once.
“If you had the chance to go back and prevent it, would you?” Clotho, the Fate responsible for spinning the thread, had asked. Percy wished he could have just died on that boat both six months ago and four years from now.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Castor helped Percy move into cabin three the next morning. There wasn’t much to move, but Percy figured Castor didn’t want to be rude and drop him in front of everyone, so he just let him.  “Thanks for helping,” Percy mumbled, not wanting to look at Castor when he left. “You really didn’t have to. I know things are different now, you don’t have to worry about humoring the new kid anymore. I’m not worth the trouble. I-” “What the hell are you going on about, Perce?” Caster interrupted him, purple eyes narrowed and piercing. “Well- I-” Percy stammered, turning to look at the other demigod. “I’m not supposed to exist. My dad broke an oath and now I’m a danger to everyone? You do realize that, right-?” “Shut up.” “Excuse me?” “Shut. Up.” Castor said, clenching his fists, eyes glinting angrily. “You are still the same dorky kid who drinks blue Coke. You are still the same sarcastic little nerd who told my dad you liked grape fruit snacks. You aren’t a dangerous person, Percy. And honestly, it’s kinda insulting that you think I would just ghost you like that! I’m your friend.” 
What?
 “What?”  Castor sighed, anger draining from his body. “I’m not leaving you, silly. Your dad isn’t the make or break of our friendship.” When Percy found his voice again, it was small. “You mean that?” Castor nodded, holding a hand out for Percy to grab if he wanted. Percy did. He latched onto it like a lifeline at sea.   Gods, where was Castor the first time around? Percy laughed bitterly internally. Camp would have been a lot less stressful his first week.   “Guess what?” Percy said when his breathing felt normal again. At Castor’s encouraging hum he went on, shit-eating grin on his face. “The water did heal me. And there wasn’t even any barrels.” It took him a second, but when he got the reference from earlier Castor groaned and snatched his hand away from Percy.  “You’re such an ass,” Castor scolded him, growing his own smile as he shoved the other demigod in the shoulder. That started a shoving fight between the two, that only ended when they both were laughing too hard to do any real damage.  Castor left a few hours after they made up. He had left a detailed description of the Dionysus cabin schedule behind, trying subtly to influence Percy’s own. As if that boy could do anything subtly. Percy sighed, writing out his schedule to submit to Chiron and headed to the stables. It was a bit of a hike, but Percy arrived soon enough. The stables had the Aphrodite kids at the moment, and that fact almost had Percy turning tail and walking back to his cabin. He could see the older campers exchanging glances and low words. He could feel himself shrinking into his skin. No. No, he wasn’t going to let nasty rumors stop him from enjoying his day. He liked horses, he had his own cabin schedule, he was allowed to be here, and they weren’t going to ruin it for him. Percy made his way to the far corner, where there was no one clustered. The horse was a shire horse, tall and dark brown. Her mane and tail were matted, and she looked like she hadn’t been cared for in a while. She stuck her head up when Percy approached and stepped on a stool.  Just because you are my lord’s son, does not mean you are the boss of me, the shire horse sniffed. My name is Eleutheria, and I expect the same respect you give other campers.  “Yes, ma’am,” Percy replied, bowing his head to her instead. “Would it be alright if I brushed your mane?” Eleutheria just snorted, which Percy took as permission and started on his task. He could hear the other campers whispering behind his back.  Don’t listen to them, Perseus, the horse scoffed. They are just jealous that someone managed to earn the right to care for me. Fools.  “Uhm, excuse me!” A voice squeaked from somewhere under him. Percy looked down to see short and small Silena Beauregard. Her skin was lighter than Percy remembered, not as smooth and her hair seemed more bushy than refined. She also had an uncertainty in her expression which caught him a little off guard. The Silena he knew would never be caught dead looking anything but her best. But then again, this was Silena at thirteen, not eighteen. Percy cocked his head, not verbalizing his confusion but letting it show on his face. Silena continued. “How did you manage to touch her? Eleutheria put the last two campers who tried to care for her in the infirmary.” Percy shot a look at the horse who huffed. They started it.  He sighed. “I’m guessing you saw who my dad was. He created horses, remember? Technically, me and this lovely lady here are siblings.” Silena looked shocked and then her eyes lit up with curiosity and wonder. “You can talk to horses then! That’s so cool! Oh my goodness, can you tell Eleutheria that I think she looks absolutely stunning!” Percy chuckled as he felt the shire horse go stiff in surprise. “She understands you perfectly fine. I’ll let you in on a little secret, she really likes to be asked permission before anyone touches her.” Silena squealed; eyes still stuck on Eleutheria in wonder. Percy just smiled crookedly and walked Silena through how to properly care for the animal. - It was the next night, after campfire but before curfew, Castor was hanging out in the Poseidon cabin with Percy, just chatting when Percy found the familiar taunting article from before. 
BOY AND MOTHER STILL MISSING AFTER FREAK CAR ACCIDENT 
BY EILEEN SMYTHE 
Sally Jackson and son Percy are still missing one week after their mysterious disappearance. The family’s badly burned ’78 Camaro was discovered last Saturday on a north Long Island Road with the roof ripped off and the front axle broken. The car had flipped and skidded for several hundred feet before exploding.

Mother and son had gone for a weekend vacation to Montauk, but left hastily, under mysterious circumstances. Small traces of blood were found in the car and near the scene of the wreck, but there were no other signs of the missing Jacksons. Residents in the rural area reported seeing nothing unusual around the time of the accident.

Ms. Jackson’s husband, Gabe Ugliano, claims that his stepson, Percy Jackson, is a troubled child who has been kicked out of numerous boarding schools and has expressed violent tendencies in the past.

Police would not say whether son Percy is a suspect in his mother’s disappearance, but they have not ruled out foul play. Below are recent pictures of Sally Jackson and Percy. Police urge anyone with information to call the following toll-free crime stoppers hotline. 
 The phone number was circled in black marker. Percy felt like someone took a hot spoon and scooped out his insides. He was better than this. This shouldn’t be affecting him; he already knew Gabe was a piece of shit and he knew his mom was alright. Why was he so fucking upset? “Perce,” Castor placed a hand on his shoulder. “Want to commit some arson by the lake? Curfew isn't for another hour and a half.” So that’s what they did. They trekked to the lake, wary of other campers, treating it like a spy mission. As they sat on the shore, Castor produced a lighter that Percy took happily. They watched the paper burn. “My stepdad is a real piece of work,” Percy said, hugging his knees to his chest. “He drinks and gambles and smacks me around. And worst, he smells . Like, rotten food went to the gym and had twenty of the stinkiest beers. That’s why mom married him, to keep my half-blood smell hidden.” Percy sighed, looking up at the stars. “Now that doesn’t matter though. I’m still here.” The ‘and she’s not’ was left unsaid. “I lied a little when I told you about my mom,” Castor murmured, staring out over the water. “She’s in rehab. Pollux and I are staying with my aunt for now, but she gets out in August.” His voice was unnervingly blank. He glanced at Percy, purple eyes dark and shiny. “I was never hit but she isn’t always lucid when she’s high. She confuses us. Pollux and I, I mean. Home’s hard, but nothing’s forever. Remember that.” “Yeah,” Percy replied, leaning over on Castor’s shoulder. “Thanks Cas.” “Anytime.” - A knock woke Percy from his horrible nightmare filled with fighting Gods and Titans dragging him down to Tartarus. “Come in?” He said groggily. Grover came in, wringing his hands and looking anxious. “Mr. D needs to speak to you. He- I’ll just let him tell you.” Percy nodded, quickly throwing actual clothes on and soon they were out the door. There was a storm brewing outside, clouds tossing and turning on the outskirts of camp. Everyone was eyeing it cautiously, but Percy just kept walking. The storm was because of him, of his supposed theft. He felt the eyes of campers' dart from him to the sky. Percy kept walking. Chiron and Mr. D were playing cards on the deck of the Big House, a game that Mr. D was obviously losing. He glared up at Percy as he climbed the stairs. “You are making quite a mess up on Olympus, Mr. Water Boy.” Percy ducked his head, swallowing his immediate instinct to mouth off and get angry. Mr. D continued. “I should just turn you into a dolphin and send you back to your father the easy way,” Dionysus snarled. “Now, I am running late for a very important meeting, but I swear to all the wine in the world, if you are still here when I get back you are growing a dorsal fin.” Then he snapped his fingers and was gone. “Now Percy, Grover. Please sit,” Chiron said, strained and stretched thin. “Tell me, what did you make of the hellhound from last night’s game?” “I should be dead,” Percy replied easily enough. “If you hadn’t shot it, I would be.” “You will be through much worse soon. Better learn to get used to it. Quests aren’t for the faint of heart.” “A quest?” The demigod questioned, deja vu strong. “For what?” “The details are a bit hard to explain,” Chiron winced as the shuddering thunder made its way throughout the valley. “Mr. D’s father and my father are fighting, aren’t they?” Percy said, staring out at the storm above the sea. “Something is missing, and they think I took it?” Chiron looked at him with surprise. “Why, yes. How did you know?” “I-uhm,” Percy stammered. “I’ve been having dreams. A lot of dreams.” He heard Grover whisper something under his breath about how he called it. “Zeus’s master bolt was stolen at the winter solstice,” Chiron confirmed grimly. “By you, supposedly. To help your father in overthrowing him. If you really paid attention during class, you should be able to remember several examples.” Percy blinked. “I’ve never even been to Olympus! I didn’t know where it even was until three days ago!” The thunder was louder, and the storm was just about to pass through the camp’s border. “By the summer solstice, June twenty-first, Zeus orders the return of his bolt or war will break out,” Chiron started. “Poseidon demands an apology for the accusations of theft by the same day. Our only option is to return the master bolt by the deadline, or you will feel the wrath of Zeus, Percy Jackson.” The rain started pouring. The cold water was somehow less of a shock than the knowing looks from the camper's playing volleyball and picking strawberries. Everyone knew exactly why it was raining and no one was happy about it. Chiron ushered Percy away from the edge of the porch and into the foyer of the house, before continuing. “And what is a better peace offering than the son of the supposed mastermind returning the missing object?”  “If my dad doesn’t have it, who does?” Percy questioned; arms crossed as he dripped water pathetically onto a rug.  “I am afraid you will have to visit the oracle before I can share anymore,” The centaur said apologetically. Percy just sighed, shaking his head like a dog to try and get some of the water from dripping onto his already cold neck. “Well, where is she?” Grover and Chiron, in perfect unison, just pointed up. - The stupid cheerily white cord hung tauntingly, swaying like a light breeze was fluttering through the air. Gods, Percy really didn’t want to go up to the attic. The mustiness of old and memories permeated Percy’s senses. He hated that attic. Percy yanked the cord, ready to get it over with. The grisly trophy table was just as nasty and unkept as always, one aspect of this time around that would never change. Now, though, Percy read some of the descriptions and found he understood what it was saying. In the past, he had just assumed everything was just worthless junk with no real purpose, but now he saw they were spoils from various quests or monsters. Knowing what it was didn’t change that it was creepy, and Percy could feel the hair on his arms stand. They both knew he was just trying to delay the inevitable. The Oracle sat pleasantly in the corner right by the window. Still as dead and unsettling as before. Boy, oh boy. The awareness came into the husk like a marionette puppet and its voice echoed in Percy’s ears. I am the spirit of Delphi, speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python. Approach, seeker, and ask.  “What is my destiny?” The smoke that spewed out and took form no longer showed Gabe and his poker buddies. This, Percy was expecting. However, what he was not expecting was the future figures of Luke, Annabeth, Beckendorf, and Castor, all four on death’s door. Luke was gutted, laying at the feet of Annabeth’s crouched body. She seemed to be holding the sky again, but this time it was too much, body contouring in ways that shouldn’t be possible. Beckendorf looked the worst, bits of flesh seared to show only bone and missing a good chunk of his normally muscular body. Castor was the strangest, older than now, a body Percy never saw after the Battle of the Labyrinth. His left arm was barely attached at the elbow and his head was bleeding profusely.  Beckendorf’s half a head snapped to Percy and started chanting in the Oracle’s grating voice: You shall go west, and face the god who has turned.  Annabeth gathered up the strength to look up next: You shall find what was stolen, and see it safely returned.   Luke rolled on his side, groaning: You shall be betrayed by one who calls you a friend.   Castor smiled, all bloody teeth and dead eyes: And you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end. The mist receded, until only the mummy remained. She then grinned at him, something that shouldn’t be possible, and rasped out a few words.  “ You cannot change a thing, Perseus Jackson.”  - Percy dragged himself down the stairs with a white-knuckle grip on the banister. He pushed off the last step and practically collapsed into a seat in the den. Grover was worried, crunching at an empty, abandoned Diet Coke can. This was the first time he had personally seen the aftermath of an interaction with the Oracle. He had heard horror stories from Annabeth though, and this seemed extreme even for the Oracle. Then again, everything with Percy involved seemed to be extreme nowadays.  “Well?” Chiron prompted. “She said I would find what was stolen and return it.” “Okay,” Chiron nodded, looking thoughtful. “What exactly did the Oracle say? The wording is very important.” “ You shall go west, and face the god who has turned. You shall find what was stolen, and see it safely returned.” Percy recited dutifully, leg bouncing up and down and up and down. “That’s all. Where am I going now, please and thank you.” “Alright, if you are so sure,” The old centaur sighed. “Just keep in mind not to dwell too hard on it. Things often aren’t clear until they occur. Now, answer this. Who would benefit the most from a war between Zeus and Poseidon?” Percy stopped moving completely, eyes going sharp and stormy. Grover shivered, feeling an immense presence hover for a moment before it was gone, and Percy was moving again. “Do you want the idea I actually think, or the one that is historically backed?” Percy asked wryly. “I think it’s Ares, but based on past experiences I think it goes back to Kronos.” There was silence, both Grover and Chiron too stunned to respond for a solid thirty seconds. Well, almost silence. Grover could hear choking and the air behind Chiron shimmered to reveal Annabeth. “Is this a joke to you?!” She hissed, eyes flashing with anger. “Clearly, it’s Hades, you moron! His domain would grow as would his power! He is the most obvious answer.” Percy just grinned at her like he wasn’t afraid of a knife to the throat. “Sure, wise girl. But I get to say I told you so if I’m right.” Annabeth sneered at him, using her two-inch height advantage to stare down at the other demigod haughtily. “Sit down and listen, you might learn something for once, smart ass.” “That is enough, Annabeth,” Chiron snapped. “What have I told you about using your gift to sneak around?” “Not to invade others’ privacy,” Annabeth muttered petulantly, skulking into a seat herself. Chiron just sighed, turning his attention back to Percy. “While Annabeth was rather callous in her words, she is correct that Hades is the most apt suspect. The entrance to his domain is out west in Los Angeles. It would be best to head there as soon as possible.” Percy ducked his head and glanced over at Grover, apprehensive. “I can’t ask you to come with me, Grover. It’s your choice. I understand if you choose not to come.” Grover felt a wave of appreciation for his friend, warm and fuzzy in his chest. “How can you expect me to keep you safe if I’m not there with you?” He asked, the surge of good feelings temporarily overpowering the growing dread that had been steadily creeping in since Percy made his way up to the attic.  Percy looked relieved and smiled brightly. “We can protect each other, then.” His head swiveled to look at Annabeth. “What about you? You willing to risk your life to see the outside world?” “Well, someone has to keep both of you alive,” Annabeth sniffed, face condescending but eyes hesitant. “As a child of Athena, plans are my specialty. I’m the best person to keep you from messing up.” “Very well then,” Chiron clapped. “It is decided! This afternoon, we can take you as far as the bus terminal in Manhattan. After that, you are on your own. You three should get to packing.” Lighting flashed ominously, directly followed by the booming roll of thunder. Grover felt his skin crawl and not for the first time wondered just what he signed up for when becoming Percy Jackson’s friend. - “You definitely put the drachmas and ambrosia in the front pocket of your bag, didn’t you?” Castor fretted, flitting from bunk to bunk in the cabin three to make sure Percy had enough of his necessities for an entire month. Percy laughed, tension leaving his body as he watched Castor embrace his inner mother hen-ness. “I’ll be fine, Cas. I have Annabeth and Grover coming with me. They won’t let me do anything too stupid.” Castor narrowed his eyes, attention drawn back to Percy’s smirking face. “You are going to cause me gray hairs, young man!” He scolded dramatically. “I am thirteen years old! I should not be getting gray hairs at thirteen!” “Aw, old man Brennan! Do you need some help crossing the street?” Percy mocked, Castor stuck his tongue out at him and the two continued to double and triple check Percy’s bag. There wasn’t much in it; an extra two pairs of clothes, the aforementioned drachmas and ambrosia, and other basic hygiene products. Percy wasn’t really worried about leaving anything behind, he was more interested in watching the son of Dionysus. In the past – or future, Percy supposed – Percy had a total of four people who would treat him with such concern and fussing. His mom, Grover, Rachel and to an extent Annabeth. The first three hadn’t cared about being as embarrassing as possible, as long as they were assured, he would be alright. Annabeth had taken extreme delight in embarrassing him when he didn’t want her to, then jumping back like a cat who was touched unexpectedly. His wise girl was always so prickly. He missed her-  But now he had Castor, who hadn’t even hinted at anything he could want in return for being his friend. Which was just really weird to Percy. All the relationships he built, until Rachel had been very transactional. Grover had a duty to keep him safe from Greek entities while Percy kept him safe from mortal bullies. Annabeth needed a quest, and he had just so happened to have an extra spot. Thalia needed someone to shove being the prophecy child onto and Percy needed someone to understand his “not supposed to exist” crisis. Castor… just genuinely wanted to be his friend.  But what was so different this time around as opposed to before? “Jackson! We have to go!” He heard Annabeth, this younger Annabeth, shout from outside of his cabin. She couldn’t even be bothered to come onto his porch and knock. Percy sighed. He really did not like being back with twelve-year-old Annabeth. “Chill, Chase! He’s coming!” Castor yelled back, looking worriedly at Percy, wrapping him in a tight hug. “You better get home safe, Percy.” He whispered into the son of Poseidon’s ear. He pulled back and squeezed Percy’s biceps. “Remember, a victory is twice itself when the achiever brings home full numbers. Come home, hero.” - Luke didn’t give him the shoes. Luke gave Grover the shoes with a pointed suggestion to pass them along to Percy. Percy declined Grover’s insistence and told him to keep the shoes. It wasn’t like he could just tell Grover and Annabeth not to trust Luke, they had known the son of Hermes for much longer and trusted him completely. They (Annabeth) would just laugh and ask if he was okay (Grover). Chiron did gift him Riptide again. So that was a nice perk.  They had made it into Argus’s SUV without trouble, no one starting a fight, although Annabeth stared at him very intensely when she thought he wasn’t looking. “Why are you looking at me like that?!” Percy finally snapped when they made it on the Greyhound. He had been trying to cut her some slack. She didn’t know him, and she didn’t trust him, both which she was making very obvious, but she didn’t have to be rude about it. He knew she was just trying to overcompensate for her own insecurities, but it was driving him nuts being a target like this. Like he expected, Annabeth reared back, and stared down at him. “I don’t know what you mean.” “You are looking at me like I’m planning to stab you and stomp on your puppy, Annabeth,” Percy snarked, ignoring Grover’s half-hearted attempts to placate them. “I don’t like you,” Annabeth stated factually. “I don’t know you and I don’t trust you. I am only here to prove myself to my mother, you just happened to be the way to do that.” “You don’t have to like me or know me or even trust me,” Percy argued. “You just have to tolerate me and not act like I am going to snap and hurt everyone here.” “But I don’t know what you are capable of! You could easily do all of that and more and then where would we be?!” “If you had just stopped provoking me, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation!” Percy exclaimed, frustrated beyond belief. He stuffed his irritation and frustration down, taking a deep breath, knowing he would not win in a battle of stubbornness against Annabeth Chase. “Just. Listen to me.” “Fine,” Annabeth scrunched her nose, arms crossed. “Talk.” “I don’t want to cause trouble.” “You are doing such a good job at that so far.” “I don’t want to cause trouble,” Percy continued. “But I don’t want to be the reason the world goes to war either. Dying is an option I can’t consider but no one really seems to want me to live either. Can we just work together to get the master bolt and get back to camp? Please? You can go back to hating me when we aren’t all we have.” Annabeth studied him very carefully, glancing over at Grover’s hopefully face. She sighed, the first sign of acceptance. She stuck her hand out to Percy from the other side of Grover and glared at him until he took it. “Truce. Until you do something stupid and suspicious that we can’t ignore. Then this gets brought up again.” Percy took the handshake, ignoring the word choice of “until” rather than “unless”. “Guys,” Grover uttered insistently. “Look what just got on the bus.” Percy’s head snapped up, internally groaning at the sight of the math teachers from Hell. “Shit, I just killed her like, a month ago! Why is she here?” “All three Kindly Ones,” Annabeth cursed under her breath. “Can we get out through the windows?” Grover shook his head. “They don’t open.” “A back exit?” She suggested. “There’s not one,” Percy grumbled, clutching his bag extra tight. He was glad he remembered not to put it above their heads.  “We have to get out of here,” Annabeth schemed. “The Mist can only hide so much from mortals.” “I need to visit the restroom.” “So do I.”“Me as well.” The Furies slowly stalked their prey and headed to the back of the bus. “We are out of time. Here! Take this!” Annabeth exclaimed, passing him her NYC hat. “You have to get out of here, they won’t hesitate to kill you!” Percy hesitated, weighing his options before saying screw it and taking the hat. His half-baked plan to not get them killed would be easier if he was invisible anyway. They were almost out of the tunnel by the time he had crept to the front. The sound of a commotion in the back took the driver’s attention and Percy grabbed the steering wheel, yanking it hard to the right. The Furies, not yet released their whips or even fully transformed, were expelled out the window, shattering glass over the other passengers. Percy pulled the emergency brake, hopping out of the bus and pulling off the hat. “Alecto! Megaera! Tisiphone! We need to have a chat!” He shouted, before sprinting off into the woods. He could hear the screams of his friends and the tortured angry wails of the monsters as he braced himself with Riptide. “Where is it?! I swear we will tear you to shreds if you don’t hand it over!” Alecto hissed, wings beating restlessly. “The helm is in transport to your master,” Percy declared. “The thief is the same thief who stole Lord Zeus’s bolt, and I will personally return it to Lord Hades by the summer solstice. But before I can swear that, I need something in return from him.” “Bold of you to be making demands, half-blood.” Tisiphone sneered, but the three stayed back. “Make your demands.” “I am going to trade my mom for his helm,” Percy retorted. “I swear on the River Styx I will return the helm directly to Hades if he returns my mother, Sally Jackson, to me.” The distinct thunder rolled as if on cue, and Percy could hear his friends shouting trying to find him. “Tell your master that,” he said. “Ask him to not send anymore monsters after me if he doesn’t want the delay in shipping.” “You reek of arrogance, Perseus Jackson,” Megaera purred, eye’s flashing dangerously. “If the River Styx doesn’t get to you first, we will reap your soul personally for Thanatos if you fail. It will be our pleasure.” “Get the helm!” Alecto said shrilly, before all three of them melted into the shadows of the evening and Percy was standing alone. - Percy was standing alone in a small clearing, clutching his bag when Annabeth and Grover stumbled upon him. Annabeth wanted to scream at him for how stupid and reckless he was. For how he could have died, and then they would have to turn back to camp and tell everyone how the great hero had failed not even two states away.  She would have had to tell Castor Brennan about another friend who died.  
She didn’t want to admit that she would have lost him too-
 Percy took Grover’s scolding and Annabeth’s glare with much more finesse than she expected. Or maybe he was in shock. That second one seemed most likely. “What were you thinking, Percy!?” Grover shouted, skittering up to his friend and inspecting him to make sure he wasn’t injured. “Do you know how worried we were! You can’t just do that!” “Yeah, Seaweed Brain. You just agreed not to do something idiotic and suspicious.” Annabeth glowered.  Percy started to shake. And not the small, lacking food shakes some campers tended to get when they skipped meals, big shakes of someone hyperventilating. Percy was having another panic attack. Damnit , Annabeth cursed. Why did he always have panic attacks around her?   “Perce,” Grover said insistently. “You are in New Jersey. You are twelve. Your mom is-” “Sally Jackson,” Percy croaked. “Mom is Sally Jackson, dad is Poseidon. My best friends are Grover and-” He cut himself off quickly, coughing. “Castor…” He finished in a harsher tone of voice. “My best friends are Grover and Castor.” He repeated firmly. “Do you know what triggered it, Perce?” Grover asked, softer than before. Percy shrugged, tiredly. “A lot has happened in the last few days. Maybe it just caught up to me.” “You can’t have that happening all the time if you want to stay alive,” Annabeth snarked. “Well, I am so sorry I do not have complete control over all my emotions,” Percy snapped, voice shaky. “It-It doesn’t matter. Let’s just go.” “Go where, genius?” Annabeth shouted. “Our ride just blew up! Grover and I don’t even have our bags!” “Let’s just walk,” Grover sighed. “We aren’t going to get anywhere just sitting around.” They started walking after that. The woods seemed to be working against them. Tree knots popped up out of nowhere, roots tripped all three of them, and they were growing more tired and more frustrated. Percy, in particular, was so exhausted he was practically falling over, leaning heavily on every tree he could touch. As much as his slow pace annoyed Annabeth, she had enough empathy to feel bad about being angry. He was only a kid, just like her. Even if he was destined to be some great hero according to Chiron. The trio stumbled upon an old, two-lane road with a glaringly bright roadside attraction lit all up with neon lights. “What…what does that say?” Annabeth squinted, straining to make out the words in the jumble of cursive. “Aunty Em’s Garden Gnome Emporium,” Grover recited, nose twitching. “I’m not sure about this, guys…” But the smell of cheeseburgers had already wormed into Annabeth’s brain, and she was on a mission. “The lights are on,” She stated, walking across the street. “Maybe they are still open?” “Let’s not,” Percy murmured, still unsteady on his feet. His eyes were much clearer than they had been before. “Annabeth, we just need to keep going-” “We aren’t going to make it much further, Percy!” She rolled her eyes. “It’s just a little mom-and-pop shop. It will be fine! C’mon!” Annabeth was going in whether her companions were or not, she needed to get in there. They crept through the front lot which was littered with statues with various expressions and poses. An independent sculptor perhaps? “There are monsters,” Grover warned, his hoofs shuffling. “I can smell them.” “Your nose is stopped up,” Annabeth snorted. “I’m going to knock and get some food. Are you two coming or not?” The boys exchanged a glance, then sighed and followed her to the door. Before they even made it to the threshold, the door suddenly opened, revealing a tall lady, completely covered head to toe. She had a veil covering her face, so the only skin Annabeth could see was the warm tan of her hands. “Children, it is too late to be out all alone. Where are your parents?” The woman said, voice accented and subdued.  “We got left behind on a summer camp field trip,” Percy responded before Annabeth could open her mouth. “Is it alright if we use your phone? We’ve been walking for a while.” “Oh, you poor dears,” She chided, stepping back and waving them in. “Of course, of course. Come on in.” Annabeth felt a sharpness in her chest, glaring at the son of Poseidon. She was the one that was supposed to have things under control! “What are you doing? Why did you tell her that?” She hissed softly. Percy shot her his own stormy glare. “Would you rather I lied? You were the one who wanted to come here!” “If you dearies are hungry, there is a dining area to the back of the warehouse,” The lady hummed. “My name is Auntie Em. Are there any requests for food?” “Cheeseburgers, please,” Annabeth replied, mouth watering just thinking about it. “Why are you letting her go along with this?” Grover whispered intensely to Percy, obviously thinking she couldn’t hear him. Percy snorted. “Have you tried to convince her not to do something? I prefer breathing, thanks.” Annabeth glared daggers at both of them, making her way through the statues littering the warehouse, in search of the delicious smelling food. After settling the trio on one side of the counter, Auntie Em graciously handed out plates of food, though only Annabeth touched it. Grover looked to nervous, and Percy looked to nauseous. “Thank you, ma’am,” Annabeth said in between bites. Auntie Em looked taken aback, before laying a warm hand atop Annabeth’s head and patting it awkwardly. “Quite all right, Annabeth,” she said, tone stilted. “You have such beautiful gray eyes, child.” “Alright,” Percy groaned from Annabeth’s right, taking Riptide from his pocket. “I’m done with this.” Auntie Em’s head was off her shoulders before Annabeth could even think to stop him, hitting the ground with a rather disgusting slunch.  “What the hell, Jackson!?” Annabeth exclaimed, turning on him in an instant.  “Finally!” Grover gasped, taking his first full breath since before they entered the building. “Please tell me that wasn’t who I thought it was. Her hissing was driving me insane!” “Hissing?” Annabeth whirled around to Grover, narrowing her eyes. “What hissing?” “Look around you, Annabeth!” Percy sighed, slumping down on his barstool, heavily leaning on the counter. “This place is filled with statues, there was hissing and she was wearing a veil. Put the pieces together already!” “Auntie Em,” Annabeth whispered. “ Auntie ‘M’!”  “See why I cut her head off?” “How could you tell?” She ignored him, pushing for more answers.  “Guys, maybe we should do something about the head before we get into another fight,” Grover suggested, already tired of them. “I don’t want to accidentally get turned to stone.” - All things considered; the whole Medusa situation went along better than Percy figured it would. Annabeth didn’t kill him, Grover didn’t give him the specialty disappointment gaze, Medusa didn’t petrify any of them. Victories to be celebrated. Of course, that’s not to say Annabeth let him off easy. The only reason she didn’t put her dagger to his throat and demand answers was because Grover talked her down. She still looked at him so harshly it was a wonder he hadn’t burst into flames yet. Like before, they double bagged the head in some grocery bags and came back together for the put off conversation. Percy positioned himself on the counter, box beside him with the familiar words already written on it.  
The Gods

Mount Olympus

600th Floor,

Empire State Building New York, NY

With best wishes,

PERCY JACKSON
 Grover was looking over his shoulder in horror. “This is not a good idea, Percy.” Annabeth looked up from counting drachmas on the floor. “What is the idiot doing now? Planning on killing another monster without telling us?” “I didn’t purposefully hide it,” Percy argued. “She would have killed us if she thought we suspected her. What was I supposed to do? Let her turn us to stone?!” “You are supposed to leave the thinking to me! Why else would you even bring me along!” Annabeth snarled. “Wait…” Percy blinked, anger receding. “...Do you think your plans are the only reason you are here?” “I repeat. Why. Else.” Annabeth said through gritted teeth.  “Okay, let’s get something straight. I actually enjoy your company when you aren’t provoking me, Annabeth. You seem pretty cool, and it was a mutual good thing that you joined us on the quest. I don’t expect anything from you. You aren’t going to be replaced.” “Then why do you refuse to look at me for long,” She spat back. “You go from being weirdly comfortable to not even acknowledging me!” Percy swallowed, eyes down on the box. “You remind me of someone who used to be very important to me. But you aren’t her, and I’m still trying to come to terms with that.” Annabeth looked like she sucked on a lemon from all the emotional talk but let it drop with a conflicted stare. Whatever, that was preferable to the aggressive paranoia she displayed before. “Hey,” Percy nudged Grover. “Grab the head for me? We have a package to send off.” - Dreaming and waking kind of blurred to Percy that night they spent in the woods. He knew he and Grover had a conversation about nature, Pan, and Annabeth’s particular brand of prickliness. He remembered relinquishing the night watch to Grover. But he also remembered things that he knew weren't supposed to happen yet, or things that didn’t happen at all this time. He dreamed of Medusa turning both Grover and Annabeth to stone in front of him, before whispering about pawns and Gods and fools and turning her gaze upon him. He dreamed of Titans dragging him down pits and worlds burning. He dreamed of death and destruction and woke with the smoke still in his lungs and a scream poised between his lips. He woke to Annabeth nudging him with her feet and Gladiola the pink poodle gazing at him judgmentally. Ugh, why was even the freaking dog looking at him like that?  “Zombie’s awake,” Annabeth remarked, tossing him a few granola bars stolen from Auntie Em’s. “We have a new friend, be nice.” “Hi, pink poodle,” Percy grumbled, rubbing his eyes and tearing open the packaging.  “This is our ticket west,” Grover explained, running a careful hand down Gladiola’s back. “There is a reward out for his return, and he is offering to have us turn him in.” “Then we would use the money to buy new tickets to L.A.,” Annabeth continued, mouth half-full of her own makeshift breakfast. “Work for you, brainiac?” Percy just shrugged. “No more buses.” Annabeth let a grin grow on her face. “Amtrak leaves at noon, we better get moving.” The process of returning the dog went well. Percy let Annabeth handle it and between her and Grover they were settled on the Amtrak ten minutes before departure. Two entire days went by, from doing nothing on the train to those bland games of three-way rock paper scissors that Percy always lost. Annabeth was slowly warming up to him and Grover looked less like he was about to lose his mind every time Percy opened his mouth. Percy considered that a win. The ugly newspaper was still floating around. Annabeth made sure to recite it to him in a mocking voice, making him laugh and they talked about his mom. It was nice. But of course, he couldn’t have nice things. They got on the conversation route of Annabeth’s dad and the reasons she had for running away. Percy took what she told him with a grain of salt. She wasn’t lying, Annabeth wouldn’t lie about this. But she also was too close to the situation to properly evaluate the situation. Having met Frederick Chase, he obviously cared for his daughter. Even Annabeth’s stepmom wasn’t as evil as the twelve-year-old described. They had changed, and they were trying to make an effort, but this Annabeth didn’t know that yet. This Annabeth’s safe people consisted of a satyr, a tree, a traitor and a centaur. And of course, because Annabeth was twelve and still prideful to the point of blindness, her temper flared up and she ignored him for the next two hours. That all changed when the layover in St. Louis was announced, and Annabeth went on a tangent that honestly was kinda cute. Her eyes lit up in something other than anger and she couldn’t stop moving her hands. “Food…” Grover grumbled as he slowly woke up. “Nah,” Annabeth replied, a bright smile on her face. “Sightseeing. Let’s go, goat boy!” The idea of going up into that death trap metal tube was even less appealing to Percy this time around than it was the first time. Maybe… “Hey, Annabeth,” He called as they stood getting ready to board the tiny elevator up the Arch. “How about I stay at the bottom? Keep watch, y’know. Heights and I don’t really mix.” Annabeth seemed to deflate a bit, but she quickly straightened. “Good idea, I guess. Are you going to be alright by yourself down here?” “I should be alright,” Percy grinned. “Be safe up there. Learn something for me.” Annabeth rolled her eyes and ushered Grover into the elevator with her. “Ah, a pity,” A voice sighed from behind Percy, scaring him half out of his wits. “I was hoping to have a suitably dramatic encounter! It isn’t often Zeus rarely allows me to test a hero with one of my brood. For I am the Mother of Monsters, the terrible Echidna!” 
Fuck. Why was she down here?
 Percy smiled nervously. “As glad I am to be your victim, Mrs. Anteater, ma’am, can we take it outside? You’d have more room for your son to skewer me.” “Hmm,” Echidna thought it over. “I suppose that is an acceptable arrangement.” She bared her nasty yellow teeth and poked her claws into his back. “Let’s get this over with, Percy Jackson. I’ll rather enjoy killing you.” “Take a number,” Percy muttered under his breath. “You aren’t the only one.” “Don’t get smart with me, boy,” The monster sneered as she walked Percy out of the building.  She steered him with razor sharp claws between his shoulder blades almost to the exit when Percy dove to the side, throwing himself behind a large display of a horse-drawn carriage.  “Insolent boy!” Echidna growled and Percy could hear the snapping and cracking of bones and muscle as her dog shifted to the Chimera’s form. “You will pay for your misgivings!”  Yeah, I’ll pay with my life. Percy mused as he started the deadliest game of hide-and-seek. He ducked from exhibit to exhibit, dodging both fire and fangs. He managed to keep away until he tried to dash to the exit and the fangs caught his ankle. Goddamn, not again!   “Now, hero,” Echidna cackled as she cornered him against the fire exit. “Time to die. No gods can save you now!” “Yeah, that’s what you think,” Percy spat. “Bottoms up, bitch” And he smashed the fire extinguisher open, and all hell went loose.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Monsters don’t like fire extinguisher foam. Echidna was screaming about it getting into her mouth and eyes and the Chimera stopped moving, like it was pesticide or something. It had been exactly what Percy had been hoping for. An opening. He slashed at what he could reach and got the hell out of dodge.
 
He wasn’t ashamed to admit it, Percy sprinted out the door. He was out like a shot, hobbling to the river across the street until he was enveloped by the nasty, dirty water. He hated pollution. It made the water heavier in his lungs.

Wow, that was the weirdest thing to think about…

.  Percy took a deep breath, and he could feel the energy returning to his limbs along with the poison making its way out of his system. Good, he should be fine to get out of the water, maybe he could even catch Annabeth and Grover on their way back down the Arch.
 
As he turned to go again, brown hair caught his eye and Percy’s breath caught in his throat. That wasn’t his mother. He

knew

that it wasn’t his mother. Hope still felt crushed in his chest anyway and it made it harder to take in breaths.

Go to the beach in Santa Monica. I cannot stay for long, brave one, the pollution is horrible,

said the Nereid who looked oh-so-heartachingly familiar.

You must go to Santa Monica! And, Percy, do not trust the gifts.…

“Fuck,” Percy muttered. He had almost forgotten what was going to happen next. God, he hated Ares.
 
Percy crept from the river, eyes peeled for anyone who looked vaguely familiar. Like before, news vans were swarming the shore around the Arch. Instead of covering the boy jumping off the monument, they were discussing the immense property damage to the gift shop. Well, that was the lesser of two evils.
 
“Percy! Is that you?” Grover shouted, causing the demigod’s head to snap over to him. Grover and Annabeth were at the far end of the river, about ten feet away from where Percy was currently floating. He waded over to them, ignoring their incredulous stares. 
 
“We need to get back to the Amtrak,” He said. “I just got a summoning from one of my father’s people. I need to go to Santa Monica beach.”
 
“Oh shit,” Annabeth gasped. “I thought your dad was ignoring your existence. Isn’t that what you said on the train?”
 
Percy grinned sardonically. “I guess I can be of use to him.”
 
Annabeth laughed but Grover looked uncomfortable at his easy disdain. They hurried to the train after that.
 
-
 
The trip to Denver was as exciting as Grover expected it to be. Meaning not at all. 
 
The trio had gotten stares anywhere between pitiful and disgusted, which frankly, all three of them were sick of. They were all perfectly happy to get off that train and make their way to a do-it-yourself car wash to contact camp.
 
“Do either of you have change?” Annabeth asked, searching her own pockets. Percy snorted and passed her an entire sandwich bag bulging with the godly coins. Annabeth rolled her eyes, batting that away. “

Mortal

change?” She clarified.
 
Grover fished out a stray dollar from his jacket pocket and passed it over.
 
“What are we doing?” Percy cocked his head to the side, studying Grover’s movements. “Showering?”
 
“No, you idiot,” Annabeth scoffed. “I-M’ing.”
 
“Instant messaging.”
 
“

Iris

messaging.”
 
“Geez,” Percy said dryly. “It’s almost like I found out I was a half-blood last week.

Oh, wait.

”
 
“Will you two cut it out!” Grover scolded.
 
“Whatever. Drachma?” Annabeth said, holding a hand out for Percy to pass her an ancient coin. He did and she quickly flipped into the now shimmering rainbow the water created. “O goddess, accept our offering. Half-Blood Hill.”
 
The colors shifted ever so slightly to show the seemingly technicolor scene of the Big House porch. There was a haziness in the distance, near the valley, only broken up by a tall, blonde figure leaning against the railing.
 
“Luke!” Grover smiled, relieved to see a familiar face. Out of the corner of his eye, Grover saw Percy pull his own face, looking mocking and angry. He elected to ignore him.
 
Luke turned and smiled brightly at the trio. “Guys! You are okay! Thank the gods, we were really getting worried back here.”
 
“Luke!” Annabeth flushed, self-consciously running her hands over her unwashed hair. “W-what a surprise! What’s going on at camp?”
 
“Ah, camp.” Luke’s smile faded, and a jaded look crossed his eyes. “It’s not that fun and games back here. The cabins have all split on supporting Poseidon or Zeus and-”
 
Just then, a large Lincoln Continental pulled into the stall beside them, blasting “The Real Slim Shady” with so much bass, that Grover could barely think. Percy seemed to take this as an opening, smiling sharply and yanking Annabeth to deal with the guy. Grover smiled at him thankfully, and turned back to Luke.
 
“Gods, that music is so loud!” Luke shouted. “Chiron has been breaking up fights for days, everyone’s tension is crazy high! It’s literally the Trojan War reincarnated, Grover, it’s insane. Now, update me on your progress, Chiron’s gonna be sorry he missed you!”
 
Grover told him everything, from their encounter on the Greyhound to the most recent experience in St. Louis. Luke listened, face carefully blank, eyes hard and unmoving. The water had shut off as Grover was finishing and he cursed his lack of change to keep it running.
 
“That’s a lot of coincidences for one quest, even with a kid of the Big Three along for the ride,” Luke said solemnly. “Grover, we all know that it was Hades who stole that bolt. Those monsters are just trying to throw you off the trail! It happened at the winter solstice, I was on the trip! You had to have been invisible to steal anything unnoticed.”

Did he just imply-

Grover froze, staring at Luke alarmed. The demigod seemed to realize what he said and backpedaled hard, eyes wide and head shaking.
 
“I-I didn’t mean Annabeth,” He declared, hands in front of him like Grover could smack him through the rapidly disappearing mist. “You

know

I didn’t mean it like that! Just- be careful. Don’t take any unnecessary risks. Don’t let Percy make you feel-”
 
And he was gone.
 
Percy flounced back to their stall, followed by a laughing Annabeth. The person driving the Lincoln sped out of the lot, tires screeching. Annabeth saw the look on Grover’s face, and she got serious.
 
“What happened, Grover?” She questioned, speed walking towards him and eyes darting to study his expression. “What did Luke say?”
 
Grover smiled weakly. “Nothing much. He just brought up last time, that’s all.” The lie was heavy, but Annabeth’s worry was overtaken by empathy and she hugged him tight. Over her shoulder, Grover saw Percy, looking at where the Iris Message had been with a troubled look on his face. His eyes were stormy and after a moment he met Grover’s own sadly.
 
-
 
Denver was boring, Annabeth decided as soon as they entered the state. Boring was safe, so she wasn’t going to complain that much. This opinion didn’t change even as they stared down the God of War in a dingy little diner watching their waitress scurry to the kitchen in fear.
 
“You can’t just do that,” Percy scoffed, watching the light reflect off of Ares’s knife-turned-nail cleaner. “This will have consequences among mortals. Your father won’t be happy.”
 
Ares smirked, amusement dancing in the fire of his eyes. “Permits are available, you little punk. Besides, I won’t be here too long, I need a favor.”
 
“What kind of favor?” Percy asked, eyes narrowed.
 
“Percy,” Annabeth hissed under her breath, elbowing the demigod in the ribs. “This is a

god!

”
 
Percy shrugged, hair falling over his eyes. “He can still bleed.”
 
“Ohoho,” Ares snarled, calling upon a shadow of his true presence. “Is that a threat, Perseus Jackson?” Percy kept his head high, even as Annabeth and Grover cowered away. 
 
“Not a threat, just a fact.”
 
Ares dropped his aura, laughter bubbling out of his chest like an active volcano. “Oh, kid. My daughter was right, you are a riot!” His chortles died down to a few chuckles and he pulled his sunglasses down to focus his gaze on Percy. Annabeth couldn’t see what exactly was being shown, but Percy stopped moving completely. She wasn’t even sure he was breathing. 
 
“My girlfriend has taken a liking to you,” Ares murmured. “Go get her scarf and my shield, young half-blood, and the worst won’t come to pass. Your choice, punk, choose wisely.”
 
If Annabeth wasn’t already sure Percy Jackson was fucking insane, she sure was sold after that particular encounter.
 
“I still can’t believe you talked that way to

a god

!” She hissed as the trio made their way into the abandoned waterpark Ares had sent them too. “He could literally vaporize you!”
 
“Gods are just immortals with superiority complexes, Annabeth,” Percy grunted as he climbed over the fence. 
 
“Uh, Perce,” Grover bleated from inside the park. “Let’s

not

trash talk the gods when they are already debating our deaths, thanks.”
 
“You two just don’t know how to have a good time yet,” Annabeth heard Percy mumble. “Don’t worry, I will fix that with time. Heh,

time

.”
 
She really didn’t understand that boy.
 
The park was trashy and abandoned and for some reason, all the little shops were unlocked. Clean clothes were something Annabeth quickly took advantage of, her quest mates following suit. When all three of them felt human enough (well as close as they could get) they set off to look for Ares’s shield. 
 
“Do we even know what we are looking for?” Percy complained as he stumbled out of the rotting haunted house attraction. “It just seems like we are urban exploring.”
 
“Urban exploring, more like trespassing,” Grover muttered, shying away from a suspicious stain left on the concrete. “We need to find it quick, Ares might get bored of waiting and call the mortal cops on us if we take too long.”
 
“Wouldn’t be my first time getting arrested.”
 
“You are twelve!”
 
“Never too young to start a life of petty crime, G-man.”
 
“We are looking for Ares’s shield,” Annabeth replied through gritted teeth as she scanned the nearby rides. Her eyes landed on one, glaring and obvious, and she just groaned dramatically. 
 
“Tunnel of Love?” Grover snickered as he followed her gaze. She shot him a nasty glare and he just laughed harder. Annabeth’s eyes moved to Percy and she stopped for a second. 
 
One thing she had gathered about Percy throughout this quest was that when you weren’t talking to him it was like he wasn’t fully there. His eyes would glaze over as if he was watching a movie play out in his head. He would startle when he looked at her like he was expecting to see someone else in her place. At certain points, Percy would have that angry look in his eye for no apparent reason. Annabeth knew that he wasn’t out to do anything malicious. She still didn’t trust him completely, but she trusted him enough to know he wouldn’t let her die if he could help it. She might have even been on the way to tolerating him.
 
“Percy,” She pressed, drawing his attention back to her. “Let’s go get that shield.”
 
It was shockingly easy to find the stolen items once they determined which attraction held them. Laying innocently in one of the open boats at the entrance to the Tunnel of Love was both the shield and a sparkly pink scarf oozing with love magic. Annabeth scrunched up her nose at the thought. She hated the idea of someone influencing her feelings, no thank you.
 
“Wait a minute.”
 
Percy was holding Grover and Annabeth’s biceps, stopping them from moving any closer to the boat. “Guys, there’s something carved into that statue by the entrance. Like, a rune or something.”
 
Grover pulled away, going to examine the rune on the Cupid statue. “Eta,” He hummed. “H.” The satyr quickly flicked through a range of emotions before landing on terror. “Annabeth, you don’t think-”
 
“Ares set us up,” Annabeth said, the realization hitting her all at once. “This was a trap for him and Aphrodite and he set us up-! Percy! Don’t you dare touch that shield!”
 
But Percy had already snuck over to the boat, quickly grabbing the items and darting away as the ride was set into jerky motion. The lights came alive just as unnaturally but Percy was already a good five feet away from it. Annabeth saw the Cupid statues blinking with a red light, like a camera. Percy smiled humorlessly, lips stretching in a mockery of victory. “Show’s over! Your items will be returned within the hour! Tune in next week for the next daring demigod escape! Good night, folks, have a wretched evening.”
 
-
 
Ares met them in the parking lot of the diner, body spasming with laughter.
 
“Here is your shield, God of War,” Percy handed over the disk, sarcasm dripping. “Not a scratch.”
 
“Oh, boy,” Ares cackled, taking the shield none too gently. “You sure like your laughs don’t you? You are lucky there are ones who support you on Olympus,

boy

.”
 
Percy took the posturing for what it was and shoved the love scarf over to the god. “Return this to Lady Aphrodite, she deserves nice things, y’know.”
 
Ares’s laughter died out and he looked at him with a vague intensity. “That’s damn right she does. Your ride is just across the street. Don’t be late. Ta.”
 
All that was left where the god once was, was a blue book bag filled to the brim with various currency, clothes, and Double Stuf Oreos. Percy passed the bag to Annabeth and took off into the van he knew was labeled “Kindness International” to cool his head.
 
He heard Annabeth and Grover behind him but ignored them as he climbed into the back and settled on a bag of turnips.
 
This was going to be a long ride.
 
-
 
The three of them ended up in front of the Lotus Hotel and Casino again. As soon as the doorman tried to wave them in, Percy pulled his friends away and tucked them into an alleyway. His mind was racing, his heart on its way to catching up. He knew he couldn’t let them get separated but there was something he needed to do.
 
“What the hell are you doing, Jackson?” Annabeth questioned, yanking away. 
 
“I need the two of you to stay here,” He replied. “Do not follow me into that Hotel. I’ll be back out as soon as I can.”
 
“What was that about trusting each other again?! Are you serious?” Annabeth yelled.
 
“As a heart attack!” Percy shouted back, desperation creeping into his face and tone. “Please, Annabeth, Grover. Just stay here.”
 
Grover must have seen something in his eyes and nodded solemnly. “Be safe, Percy. Come back.”
 
Annabeth backed off, crossing her arms around herself. “Don’t do anything stupid.” She grumbled.
 
Percy nodded, smiling as brightly as he could, and turned to go back to the entrance of the hotel, ducking into the air conditioning and bringing out a coin he had put in his pocket.
 
Percy knew he wasn’t unfailable. The hypnosis of the Lotus was strong and if he didn’t find a way to ground himself, he was going to get swept away and never leave which would

not

be ideal. Ergo, the coin. Modern money had the ridges on the edges and the sharpness was what Percy was counting on. If he could keep a tight enough grip on the coin, the discomfort should be enough to keep him from falling too far into the trap.
 
“Ah, a returning guest,” The bellhop smiled, feigning his agreeable nature. “Welcome back, we rarely get returning tenets.”
 
The lobby was as dazzling and obnoxious as before, only this time Percy saw it for the trap it was instead of a tired twelve-year-old’s paradise. He shook off the groggy air filling up his mind. He had a job to do. He had a job to do. He had a-
 
-
 
“He should be back by now!” Annabeth growled, pacing up and down the alley. “It has literally been a day! We need to go find him!”
 
“Annabeth, we can’t,” Grover sighed, leaning against the wall. “We promised. Percy can take care of himself, he’s probably fine.”
 
Annabeth whirled on him, eyes smoldering and hair frizzy around her face. “He is an idiot, that's what he is! A Lotus Hotel? He doesn’t stand a chance, he’s too new!”
 
“Annabeth!” Grover snapped, pushing off the wall to grab her shoulders. “Calm down! Percy isn’t stupid! He’s-”
 
“Right behind you.”
 
“Percy?” 
 
“Percy!”
 
Percy was quickly tackled to the ground, both Grover and Annabeth knocking into him with a vengeance. “You idiotic son of a gun!” Annabeth cried, tucking her head in the crook of his neck. “Stop doing that!” Percy froze, as if not knowing what exactly to do, before slowly drawing his arms around the two of them in a tight hug.
 
“I’m glad you came back, Perce,” Grover whispered, squeezing his best friend firmly.
 
“So these are those friends of yours?” A voice from behind the dramatic scene of repressed pre-teen emotions.
 
Annabeth swiftly freed herself of the hug and was pointing her knife at a… pair of kids?
 
Standing at the mouth of the alley were a boy and a girl, around Annabeth's age. They had a deep, deep complexion that complimented their rich black curls. The boy was short, up to Percy’s shoulders, probably, with bland brown clothing. The only thing really bright about him was a large smile that lightened his entire energy. The girl however was both taller and older, wearing a scratchy-looking skirt down to her mid-calfs and a sweater that looked more appropriate for January than June. Pinned to her head as a green beret. 
 
“Ah, this is who I needed to stop and grab before we make our way into the Underworld,” Percy explained sheepishly. “Annabeth, Grover, meet Bianca and Nico di Angelo.”
 
-
 
Bianca honestly did not know what to think of what her life had become in the past five hours. She went from being perfectly content in a hotel with her little brother, waiting for their dad to sitting on a beach at sundown waiting for their liberator to emerge from the depths of the Pacific Ocean. She sighed, tucking her knees to her chest and holding her little brother close to her side. “Is he always like this?” She murmured.
 
The blonde girl, Annabeth, looked at her with sympathy and a bit of fond exasperation. “Yeah, it’s kind of like being friends with a cryptid, he always seems to know more than he’s letting on.”
 The boy with… goat legs, Grover, snorted, leaning back on the heel of his palm. “Cas and I have a bet about if he’s a natural prophet or not.” 
“Oh, you have to count me in on that,” Annabeth laughed, throwing her head back. “Who’s for what?”
 
“Cas believes he is just really, really lucky,” Grover replied easily. “But he obviously has some gift for prophecy, especially after this quest.”
 
“Oh my goodness,” Nico gasped, grinning up at the older two kids. “Could it be some sort of gift from Apollo?!”
 
Annabeth and Grover exchanged a look, as if seriously considering it, before giggling. 
 
“Percy can’t shoot an arrow to save his life,” Annabeth said.
 
“Or play most instruments. We had a music class at Yancy and the only thing he could play was percussion, although granted that could be in part of his ADHD.”
 
“Can one of you please explain what we are even doing here on a beach at four in the morning?!” Bianca begged. “Are you a part of a cult? That would explain so much.”
 
“No we are not a part of a cult,” Grover said with a disgusted expression on his face at the word ‘cult’. “We are a part of a Greek community in Long Island, New York.”
 
“That boy, Percy, said he knew who our father is,” Bianca said. “Then he went into the ocean where he has stayed for

almost an hour.”

“We don’t fully claim him,” Annabeth explained. “He just…

joined

us like a week ago.”
 
Bianca looked at the pair incredulously. “Do you two even hear yourselves? There is definitely a cult somewhere in the mix.”
 
The sound of crashing waves and the sight of Percy finally making his way out of the ocean, looking fully rested and well interrupted the conversation. To Nico’s utter amazement and Bianca’s fear of hallucinating, when he emerged from the water he was fully dry, holding three pearls and talking about gifts and prices and recording studios.
 
Then all of a sudden they were on their way to the Underworld. Bianca really hoped that it wasn't some sort of freaky speakeasy. Her brother was only eleven for goodness sake!
 
-
 
“-There you have it, America.” Barbara Walters smiled like a shark on the television. “A man torn apart. An adolescent boy with serious issues. Let me show you, again, the last known photo of this troubled young fugitive, taken a week ago in Denver.” 
 
Percy watched the screen with clenched fists and teeth. He wanted to punch something. The screen flicked to a grainy photo of the three questors with Ares outside of the Colorado diner.
 
“Who are the other children in this photo?” Barbara Walters continued dramatically. “Who is the man with them? Is Percy Jackson a delinquent, a terrorist, or perhaps the brainwashed victim of a frightening new cult? When we come back, we chat with a leading child psychologist. Stay tuned, America.”
 
Bianca eyed him with barely withheld suspicion as she held Nico tightly to herself. Annabeth sighed and ushered them in front of her as Grover dragged Percy away. They managed to avoid the whole “Crusty” encounter by Percy’s subtle nudging and soon they were in front of DOA Recording Studios.
 
“No solicitors, no loitering, no living…” Bianca read aloud. “What is this place?”
 
“Entrance to the Underworld,” Annabeth replied, readying her drachmas. 
 
“You mean it wasn’t a speakeasy?” Bianca asked, shocked. 
 
Grover snorted. “Who uses the phrase ‘speakeasy’ anymore? No, we were being serious.”
 
Percy chuckled, clutching the pearls in his pocket. “C’mon, we have to get going.”
 
The lobby was the same timeless aesthetic filled with people upon people. Percy could hear his companions muttering and chattering in response to the atmosphere, but he continued straight to the security guard’s desk.
 
There Charon, the Ferryman of the Dead stood, looking bored.
 
“Yes?” He drawled, voice slow and smooth. 
 
Percy looked up at him, an intense look in his eye. “We want passage into the Underworld. Lord Hades is expecting us.”
 
Charon looked stumped for a moment before chuckling. “Very funny joke, half-blood. You have to wait your turn with the rest of them.”
 
“Look at your list,” Percy insisted. “Perseus Jackson. I brought a few friends, two that Hades will love to meet. I can even pay in drachmas.”
 
Charon, still looking skeptical, flicked through the notes and then stopped in his tracks. “Huh. Well, I’ll be damned.” He looked up and Percy could see that he had won. “Get on the boat, I was almost full anyway.”
 
Percy smiled, victorious. He looked back over his shoulder and motioned to Grover to follow him.
 
The elevator-turned-boat still made Percy seasick, a fact that was ironic even now. Maybe it was just an Underworld thing.
 
“Why are we even here?” Bianca whispered, still not fully comprehending the situation.
 
Percy looked over his shoulder, smiling at her a bit nostalgically. “You are here to meet your dad.”

Annabeth sucked in a breath, looking at him sharply. “Percy, you don’t mean…”
 
He nodded.
 
“How did you know?” Grover questioned. 
 
Percy shrugged. “I had a dream.” Annabeth and Grover exchanged a look. “What?” Percy asked, confused. They just shook their heads.
 
The death was overwhelming, the small band of demigods and Grover clasped each other's hands to try and stay afloat. The small warmth of each other’s grasp was a small comfort on the tiny boat. A howl cut through the dead silence of the voyage, sending shivers down the living’s spines.
 
“Ah, Old Three Face is hungry,” Charon sneered, his teeth glinting and his eye sockets empty. “Better hope he is feeling generous, godlings.”
 
Ah, condescension, Percy mused. His lifelong enemy. Well, that and his trauma. 
 
Annabeth squeezed his hand, drawing his attention to her pale face. They all got off the boat in silence, hands still joined, trying not to pay attention to the mocking laughter from aboard the boat.
 
-
 
Everything was happening so fast and so vividly, that Nico found himself left behind. He loved Bianca, he really did but she kept shoving him behind her and away from all the cool things happening with the other almost-teenagers!
 
Nico liked Annabeth and Grover, they listened to him and didn’t try to tell him he was “too young to understand”. They seemed funny, and he could see the way his sister was reluctantly warming up to them. 
 
Percy on the other hand… Bianca did not like Percy Jackson. Percy was too weird and knew a little too much for her comfort. Nico could understand that, but she didn’t need to make that decision for him! Percy only wanted to help.
 
Nico wondered who Percy had lost to make him look at him and his sister the way he did.
 
“Are you

sure

we are going in the right direction?” Percy asked from between Nico and Annabeth, squeezing both of their hands.
 
Annabeth, who was playing line leader, rolled her eyes in response. “Myths describe the Underworld pretty consistently, Percy. I think I can navigate to-”
 
Another howl resounded, causing the living to stop dead in their tracks. There was a shift of mist ahead, then a panting, and when Nico opened his eyes again a dog was standing in front of them. Not just any dog, a huge black and brown dog with

three heads!

“So cool,” Nico muttered under his breath, practically vibrating with barely concealed excitement.
 
“Uh, Grover?” Bianca whispered shakily. “Is that what I think it is?”

“An overgrown pooch with three times the slobber?” Grover responded, voice equally as shaky. “Or y’know,

just the lap dog of the Land of the Dead!

”
 
“Grover, you need to calm down,” Annabeth hissed, searching her pockets for something, anything to distract the growling canine. “Percy, please tell me you have something in your psychic arsenal to deal with Cerberus!”
 
“Wah-psychic?!” Percy spluttered indignantly. “Where on Earth did you get that idea?”
 
“The dog, Percy!”
 
“Oh, yeah I don’t know.”
 
“Percy!” 
 
“Uh, guys?” Grover moaned. “He says he is getting hungry!”
 
Percy cursed and then Nico found himself at the front of the line. He stared at the dog with wide eyes, not moving. He could hear Biana yelling from behind him, but the blood rushing in his ears quieted that into background noise.
 
Nico smiled weakly. “Hey doggie, do you like apple slices?”
 
Cerberus indeed liked apple slices. Vehemently.
 
Nico could feel the older almost-teens looking at him with amazement and felt pride swell inside his chest. He was helpful! Maybe this will prove to Bianca he wasn’t a little kid anymore!
 
“Huh,” Percy said, shocked after the group had made it past the guard dog. “I wasn’t sure that would work.”

“What do

you MEAN YOU WEREN’T SURE THAT WOULD WORK!?”

“Hey, hey, watch the hair! Bianca!”
 
-
 
Percy knew he had forgotten something.
 
“Grover! You have to hold on to something and get those shoes off! Now!” He shouted, rushing after his best friend.
 
“Easy for you to say!” Grover shouted back. “Your footwear hasn’t betrayed you!”
 
“Grover!” Annabeth screamed. “You need to get them off! You are being dragged into-”

“I know!”
 
A conveniently placed rock was once again Grover’s saving grace. One shoe abandoned ship thanks to the loose fit around the hooves and the second quickly followed suit. Down into the pit they went, leaving Grover scrambling for breath. The three questers dropped onto the uncomfortable gravel and tried to catch their breath. Percy started to giggle hysterically.
 
“I can’t believe we are still alive!” He hiccuped, reaching out to place a hand on both of his friends, ensuring they were also present. They slipped into hysterics with him and that is how they were found by Bianca and Nico a few moments later.
 
“What in the world just happened?!” Bianca asked, clearly frazzled and concerned. Her suspicious nature had fled after the almost fatal event.
 
“Is Grover okay?” Nico questioned, poking his head out from behind his sister. “His shoes weren’t happy with going down there without him.”
 
They all stared at Nico for a moment.
 
“What? There is a voice coming from that hole in the ground, he was very unhappy.”
 
“Let’s get out of here,” Annabeth breathed, pulling herself to her feet. “We have a bolt to retrieve.”
 
-
 
“You are brave to come here, Son of Poseidon,” Hades said, power oozing from his form seated upon his throne. “After what you have done to me, very brave indeed. Or perhaps you are simply very foolish.”
 
“Lord and Uncle,” Percy kneeled, mind spinning with the similarities and the differences and a sick sense of deja vu. “I have come to talk about my deal.”
 
“Deal?” He heard Annabeth whisper behind him but he ignored her.
 
“Speak,” Hades sniffed. “Maybe you will redeem yourself from your trickery.”
 
“I know who stole the Master Bolt, and they also stole your Helm of Darkness,” Percy claimed, keeping his head bowed. “I currently don’t have your Helm in my possession but-”
 
“Are you going to go back on your word, half-blood?” Hades sneered, leaning forward menacingly. 
 
“I have a way to gain it by morning,” Percy continued, lifting his head and meeting the god’s eyes. “But only if you let me go to retrieve it.”
 
Hades scowled, sitting back on his throne. “And why should I? You came into my domain and are demanding my patience for a robbery you yourself committed.”
 
“I stole nothing,” The demigod rebuffed, keeping steadfast. “I am here to return what was stolen. I have already returned something to you.”
 
“And what have you returned, you arrogant child,” Hades leered. “Something inconsequential like my honor? I am not my brothers.”
 
“Your children, Lord Uncle. I have returned your children.”
 
Hades paled even more if that was even possible. “I have no living children. I have not broken the oath.”
 
“No,” Percy said, rising to his feet. “Instead you hid your children in a place where time was stuck. Bianca and Nico di Angelo are here, safe and sound, and little threat of being the prophecy children with me and Thalia in line.”
 
“Thalia Grace is a tree,” Hades’s eyes narrowed. “She would have been the prophecy child. How are you even aware of the prophecy? Chiron keeps his charges unaware of the workings of the Fates unless it is unavoidable.”
 
Shit, Percy had forgotten that Thalia was out of commission. He was technically the prophecy child. A prophecy he wasn’t supposed to know existed.
 
“I have heard whispers in my dreams and in the reflections of water,” He bluffed, purposefully ignoring any and all protests from his fellow campers. That’s right, he listened while Rachel went off on her tangents about his ‘potential Poseidon powers’.“I will do everything in my power to stop the title from falling to either of your children. They will not suffer those hardships.”
 
“Hmm,” Thankfully, Hades seemed to buy it. “Go get my Helm, nephew. But I am keeping my children and your mother for insurance. Do not dare disrespect me again, I will not be so indulgent.”
 
“Thank you, Lord and Uncle,” Percy bowed his head again. “I will return soon.”
 
-
 
“How in the goddamn hell did you do that?!” Annabeth snarled as soon as Percy got into her vicinity. “That is a god! One of the Big Three nonetheless! Are you out of your mind-!”
 
“We are actually in Hell, Annabeth, don’t be rude,” Percy smiled, as if he had never done anything wrong in his life. It infuriated her. Annabeth was about to lose it when Grover stepped in.
 
“What kind of deal did you make, Percy?” The satyr asked solemnly, as if knew Percy was on borrowed time.
 
“It doesn’t matter,” Percy denied, shaking his head. “We need to get the Helm.”

“Who has the Helm?” Grover pushed, not letting this go.
 
Percy hesitated for a moment before answering. “Ares. C’mon.” 
 
“Woah, woah, woah,” Annabeth blanked. “That

god of war?

The one you

offended!?”

Percy snorted. “You would know if I offended him, he was just tickled.”
 
“That does not make me feel better!” Annabeth exclaimed. “Please, please tell me you aren’t going to do something stupid again. I don’t think I can handle another one of your stunts.”
 
“Hey!” Percy had the gall to look offended. “My plans aren’t stupid! They work, do they not?”
 
Both Grover and Annabeth gave him the Look. Percy sighed, handed his friends the pearls gifted by the nereid and they made their way to the surface. 
 
God bless the Coast Guard, they didn’t ask many questions and they were quick to drop the demigods off at the Santa Monica Pier. Percy suspected that the Mist was at play there.
 
“I still can’t believe Ares would turn against the gods,” Grover muttered as they sat on the pier.
 
“I still can’t believe Hades broke the oath,” Annabeth grunted, leaning back on the heel of her palm.
 
“I still can’t believe you two thought I was psychic!” Percy said, obviously still reeling from that particular accusation. 
 
“Are you being serious?” Grover asked, humor evident in his tone. “You hear yourself talk, right? Mr. ‘I hear whispers in my dreams’? How can we not think you’re psychic?” 
 
“Uh,” Percy blinked, obviously not thinking much about what he had previously… ahem,

stretched the truth

about. “Huh, how about that?”
 
“‘You shall go west and face the god who has turned,’” Annabeth hummed. “I suppose Ares could fit that bill.”
 
“‘You shall find what is stolen and see it returned,’ could refer to both the Bolt and the Helm,” Grover responded. 
 
“You punks were supposed to die.”
 
The three demigods turned around slowly and saw a flaming angry god of war with an aluminum baseball bat glinting over his shoulder.

Ah, hell,

Percy swore.

Here we go again.

The fight was much the same. The constant switching from Greek to modern with an overwhelming amount of sirens and Ancient Greek curses. Percy breathed in, breathed out, and stabbed deep into Ares’s ankle. 
 
Golden ichor dripped onto the sand as Percy panted, gripping his sword tightly. He had done it. He had drawn blood from Ares yet again. Percy was expecting many things in response. He was expecting a violent counter, a snarl, and a killing blow. Instead, Ares just laughed. It wasn’t a nice laugh. It was a boisterous, nasty sound that grated on Percy’s ears. 
 
“You fight well, kid,” Ares rasped. “You are lucky there are some who wish for you to still live. Beware, Perseus Jackson, this will not be our last meeting.”
 
Just a flash and he was gone, leaving only the Helm of Darkness in his place. 
 
“Well, that was easy,” Percy gasped, still short of breath. He heard the flapping of leathery wings behind him along with Grover and Annabeth’s intense whisper yelling. “Yeah, yeah, hello Mrs. Dodds. We meet again. Are you here to escort me down to the Underworld again?”
 
Alecto sneered. “Come along, half-blood, you have an oath to keep.”
 
Percy would not recommend the Fury Express to anyone who cared about their sanity. It was cold yet scorching, and you got all the terrible smells of hell smacking you right in your face. Zero out of ten, would not go again. But it got him to Hades, so he guessed it had its perks.
 
He approached the throne of Hades, kneeling in front of it once again, and lifted up the Helm to its master. “The Helm, Lord, and Uncle.”
 
Percy could feel Hades’s heavy gaze and kept his head down until he heard a sigh. “Rise, Perseus Jackson. We have much to discuss.”
 
A chill went down Percy’s spine. “What?”
 
“Did you really think I would let your half-truth about my children slide?” Hades grinned sharply. “Rise, and we shall talk.”
 
So Percy rose.
 
“You knew about my children,” Hades began, picking at his nails. “You knew who they were and more importantly,

where

they were.”
 
Percy kept silent and simply nodded, head spinning with a way to get out of this.
 
“Why did you take them out? How did you know what was to happen?” Hades questioned. “And don’t spill your lies about seeing through reflections.”
 
Damn. Well, maybe…
 
“I am very far from home,” Percy started slowly. “Where I come from, Bianca di Angelo is dead and Nico di Angelo is trying to convince me to do something that will either kill me or help us win the war. We haven’t decided yet.”
 
Hades blinked, not expecting that answer. Percy took that as permission to proceed.
 
“I closed my eyes in the summer of 2009 and woke up in the early spring of 2005. I don’t want any more death on my conscience, even accidental.” Percy concluded, now looking Hades right in the eye, ready to be accused of lying once again.
 
But the gods were full of surprises today, and Hades simply nodded. “That does make sense with what I have heard from others who have almost passed. What are you planning on doing about that war, Son of Poseidon?”
 
“Huh? Wow,” Percy laughed a bit desperately. “I didn’t expect anyone to actually believe me. Uh, I’m trying to kill Kronos and make sure demigods don’t die like flies I guess.”
 
“So you have no plans to join forces with Kronos?”
 
Percy only laughed some more, maybe a touch of hysteria leaking into his voice. “No! I mean, the gods could certainly be better, they consistently treat their kids like they are only pawns and most don’t seem to really care about helping their kids but there is no way that Kronos is a better option!”
 
“Hmm,” Hades leaned back on his throne. “You have given me much to think about, young half-blood. Shoo, your friends are anxiously awaiting your arrival.”
 
“My mother first,” Percy said, clenching his fists. “We swore-”

“Relax, Jackson,” Hades waved a hand. “She has been in your apartment since I saw the Helm in your hands. Leave now, I shall call upon you if I need you.”
 
-
 
Grover was going to kill his best friend. Then bring him back and murder him again. There was no way Grover was ready to be friends with Percy Jackson but he wouldn’t have it any other way. Both he and Annabeth tackled him upon the demigod’s ungraceful plop into the sand from some sort of shadow under the pier. 
 
“Bye!? Goddamn, I didn’t think I was even rude this time,” Percy shouted at the ground, dusting himself off after peeling his friends off of him.
 
“You didn’t die,” Annabeth said, in an angry tone of voice that would be easy to misconstrue if you didn’t know her.
 
“No, I didn’t,” Percy agreed a crooked smile in place. “Now how about we make our way to New York? We have three days to get back so we better get started now. Plane or train? I’ve been given plenty of funds by our dear friend downstairs so let’s get this show on the road!”
 
Grover looked at him incredulously. “You are absolutely insane, Perce! What just happened?!”
 
“I made a deal that I would personally return the Helm in exchange for my mother,” Percy chirped. “It has been fulfilled and now we need to return the Bolt before old Lightning Man decides to commit a hate crime.” He turned to the sky and shouted his next words. “I am a minority! This whole quest has been a hate crime!” Rolling thunder was the response.
 
“Okay, first off, you are not a minority,” Annabeth sighed. “Second off, we got money from the “Bring Percy Jackson Home” fund and we can afford a plane ticket. He won’t knock us out of the air with the Bolt in our possession. I don’t know about you two, but I don’t want to sit in a car or train for two days straight.”
 
Percy nodded. “Five hour flight it is, let’s go! And I am a minority, I’m bi. Keep up Annabeth.”
 
“Let’s just get on the plane,” Grover interrupted. “We need to get on that plane, and fast.”
 
-
 
The gods didn’t know what to do with the enigma that was Perseus Jackson, son of Poseidon. The demigod was most contradictory. On one hand, the tiny speck was a pest, one who irritated and outsmarted two of the twelve Olympians. On the other hand, there had been whispers of a deal struck between Hades and the half-blood, something that didn’t endear most of the gods to him.
 
As the little ant kneeled, small and defiant in front of his donor rather than the king of the gods, Zeus sneered down at him. “Shall you continue your little show of arrogance, or will you respect the master of the house properly?”
 
“He is only deferring to his father, it is only natural,” Poseidon, for once the peacemaker, soothed. 
 
“You claim him?” Zeus hissed. “After everything, you still claim him?”
 
Demeter rolled her eyes at her family member’s dramatics. She hated these meetings. The only real interesting thing these days was that half-blood currently stood by their feet. He had treated this quest so strangely and that was something that flagged some attention. Demeter looked up and met eyes with the ever-present Hestia, her sister sighed. A price of only having the eldest gods at this meeting was that there was no one with more power than the other. Sure, Zeus was king, but he was still an arrogant ass who needed to listen to his sisters more.
 
As Perseus Jackson finished weaving his tale of woes and hardships, he brought up his own overwhelming worry.
 
“It was not Hades speaking to Ares and calling out in my dreams,” The demigod said simply. “It was the Titan Kronos and he is searching to bring war.”
 
Demeter perked up. Maybe this family meeting will be filled with some sort of entertainment after all.
 
“Nonesene!” Zeus declared.
 
Or not.
 
“He doesn’t lie, brother,” Poseidon replied grimly. “There have been whispers-”
 
“And whispers are all they are,” Zeus snapped, reaching a hand out and summoning his Master Bolt. “I will not tolerate such slander and lies.”
 
“War is coming,” Perseus Jackson repeated. “It will not be stopped by denying it.”
 
“You are lucky you retrieved my bolt,” Zeus sneered. “I will not be so considerate a second time. Leave and do not speak of such nonsense again.” And with that he was gone, a faint smell of ozone all that remained.
 
Hestia sighed again. She hated family meetings.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Percy slammed the taxi door behind him and ran up the stairs four at a time. His mother was up there. His mother was up there, hopefully safe and fine even after escaping from the freaking

Underworld

!
 
He got to his front door, digging through his pockets with a frantic air trying to find his house key that he knew he always kept on him.

Shit, where was his key? Where-

The door opened and there stood his mother, a shocked expression on her face that quickly melted to relief. “Percy! Oh, baby, thank goodness!” She half-sobbed, crushing the demigod to her chest. Percy breathed in the comforting smell of peppermint and licorice and relaxed into her. She was

okay.

She was here and despite her tight grip, Percy felt like he was breathing for the first time since June began. 
 
“Oh honey,” Sally whispered into Percy’s hair as she clutched him tightly. “Tell me everything.”
 
Like before, the whole story seemed to just spill out and this time Percy didn’t leave anything out. He recited how the quest differed from before while being up front about his own meddling. His mom nodded and even asked questions when she was confused, Percy wasn’t known for being the most coherent storyteller, and these responses were enough for him to feel more confident in himself. When Percy asked cautiously if there had been any deliveries recently, his mom balked before smiling slyly. 
 
“Oh, don’t worry,” She hummed. “Gabe signed for the package and decided he wanted to leave us. I told you he was sick of my recent sculpting classes, didn’t I?”
 
Percy grinned, relief filling his chest and he laughed. Oh, how he had missed his mom. 
 
What Percy had not missed was the anxiety-filled ride to camp. With nothing there to distract him, his thoughts drifted back to the safe-haven. Logically, Percy understood that he was going home. A place that sheltered him and helped prepare him for the world of gods and monsters. However, it was just as much a prison that stunted children and never moved forward. The constant stagnancy that hadn’t changed until there was no choice. Half-bloods coming and going, no real guarantee they would be back the next year. Sure, camp taught the proactive ones how to fight, and eagerly gave them the tools to do so. Weapons and life-risking activities to campers as young as four. What kind of place did that? 
 
And don’t even get Percy started on Chiron.
 
Chiron, the de facto father figure of the year to all the kids whose parents lost custody or died. The all knowing teacher that would smile and tell you how to grow even stronger and better. The one who stayed and taught you how to survive. But that was it wasn’t it? To learn how to survive was not to learn how to live. Percy loved Chiron, he really did. Chiron would always be the one of the first and only adults to believe in him. But that didn’t stop the half-blood from recognizing his flaws. At least Mr. D. didn’t try to pass off his apathy as anything else. 
 
He loved Camp Half-Blood, but that didn’t mean he had to agree with how it was run. He loved his friends, and he didn’t want to see anymore death on the property if he could help it.
 
Percy tuned back into his surroundings as he registered the familiar strawberry fields and found it within himself to grin. He supposed looking on the bright side would do no harm for now. If nothing else, he was going to see his friends again.
 
-
 
The god of prophecy was having difficulty making sense of the whispers beyond the veil. Apollo was well versed in half-truths and cryptic wording, that was all within the day's work of being a deity. But never had the fate of one measly little half-blood troubled him so.
 
“You don’t understand, sis,” He sighed, running a hand through his blonde streaked hair. “Normally I can sense- I don’t know how to explain it- vibes? I can sense vague impressions of a demigod’s future. Even ones that are destined to be short. But it makes no sense that I can’t see

anything

about good ol’ Sea Daddy’s kid!”
 
“Never call our uncle that ridiculous name again,” Artemis shuddered from the other side of the Iris Message. “Could it be some sort of shield placed over his existence? To make him untraceable?”
 
“Artemis,” Apollo smiled wryly. “Nothing is untraceable to the Fates.”
 
“I don’t know what you want me to do, brother,” His twin responded, not unsympathetically. “If not even you can see this boy’s path, I am unsure of how good fixating on it will do.”
 
Apollo snorted. “Well, Dad is not going to like that answer.”
 
“When Father can bring his own head out of his ass he will learn to accept it.”
 
“Thanks, Artemis,” The god chuckled. “for that beautiful image. Ten out of ten, would not recommend. Have fun hunting, tell the girls I said hello, Dio and I have to have a chat.”
 
“Bye, Apollo,” Artemis wasn’t smiling but her eyes were warmer than normal. “Don’t do anything stupid.”
 
“No promises,” Apollo grinned until the connection was cut out and he slumped in frustration.
 
“Stupid is my middle name,” He muttered. “As everyone seems to take every chance to tell me.”
 
Apollo sighed and popped his existence over to where he knew his half-brother resided. 
 
“What do you want.” Dionysus didn’t even look up as he poured a can of Diet Coke into a wine glass.
 
“Don’t be like that, Dio,” Apollo plastered on a smile. “I just came to ask a favor.”
 
“The last favor I did for you ended with Ariadne kicking me out for a month,” The god of wine gritted out. “What. As you can see I am very bus-”
 
“Percy Jackson.”
 
The irritation went away almost immediately. 
 
“Percy Jackson,” Dionysus repeated, putting the wine glass down.  “Barnacle Brain’s son. What of him.”
 
“Keep an eye out,” Apollo replied, smile only slightly more plastic than before. “His fate is clouded from even my sight. Be careful, brother, he may be our doom.”
 
-
 
Percy didn’t think he would ever miss seeing Clarisse’s face. The daughter of Ares had met him and his mother at Thalia’s pine and apparently was in charge of escorting him to the amphitheater. It was weird to see Clarisse not hating his guts. Last time, she and him had eventually come to an agreement not to antagonize each other too harshly, if only to be a united front when the war with Kronos washed upon their doorstep. This Clarisse hadn’t even dunked his head in the toilet. It was weird. Percy didn’t know how to feel.
 
She didn’t say anything to him until they were passing the Art and Craft’s cabin.
 
“I’m glad you didn’t die, newbie,” The daughter of Ares gritted out. “If you want to learn how to not kill someone with that sword of yours, I have a free hour at two every Thursday.”
 
Percy was too stunned to respond as Clarisse marched past him into the amphitheater. He quickly followed her.
 
“PERCY!”
 
And he was quickly tackled to the ground by a blonde blur, and his arms were full of one Castor Brennan. Percy laughed.
 
“I came, I saw, I overcame.” Percy grinned crookedly, bathing in the son of Dionysus’s beaming smile.
 
Castor laughed as well, still holding the other half-blood to him tightly. “Henry IV! You scoundrel!”
 
“You better have made my burial shroud worth burning, Cas,” Percy muttered, squeezing his friend tightly. “I missed you.”
 
Castor’s laugh got breathy and he buried his face in Percy’s neck. “I’m so glad you are home safe, hero.” 
 
“Oh my god, Percy! You didn’t get fried!” Grover said gleefully as he made his way over to the demigod pile that was Castor and Percy. “How was your mom?”
 
Percy’s grin only grew as he maneuvered Castor off of his torso and sat up. “She’s great. She took these recent classes in

sculpting

and Gabe decided he was done with her. A shame, her sculpture of him was a work of art.”
 
Grover paled as he caught onto what his friend was implying. “Did- did the package get returned to sender? Are you sure your mom was okay!?” Percy’s responding cackle did nothing to help the satyr’s nerves.
 
Castor looked between the pair bemused. “You two are going to have to fill all of us in on how the quest went.”
 
“Aye, aye, matey!”
 
“We get it, you're a son of the sea god. You can stop it with the pirate jokes.”
 
“Well you just are no fun, G-man.”
 
-
 
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU CUT OFF MEDUSA’S HEAD!?”
 
-
 
Percy slowly made his way to his cabin. He was so, so tired. He hadn’t been by himself in a safe space for longer than ten minutes for ten days, he thought he deserved a bit of alone time. At least, he did before the panic attack.
 
This was real.

This was real

.
 
Percy knew he was twelve again. He knew he was fifteen when he died on that stupid cruise ship and that he had been twelve since then. But he hadn’t ever gotten the chance to actually

know

that. Ever since he woke up, it had been stresser after stresser. Mrs Dodds, the Minotaur, the quest. God, the

quest.

Percy started giggling hysterically, already folding in on himself as he tried to sort everything whirling around his mind.
 
So many things had been changed on that stupid cross-country extravaganza. He had gotten the di Angelos out of the goddamn Casino over a year early. He made a fucking

deal

with

Hades

. Percy didn’t know whether he was secretly a genius or if he was just destined to die young regardless.
 
There was a knock at his door that paused his panicking. “Percy? Are you in there?” It was Castor.
 
Maybe… maybe that was what Percy needed to help him right now. Someone who he had no connection to before. At least he wouldn’t be remembering two different people every time he looked at his friend.
 
“C-come in,” Percy called from his pitiful ball on the floor. The door opened and there was Castor, purple eyes warm and wrapped in a deep red velvet blanket. He looked tired too.
 
“Hey, can I come sleep in here with you tonight?” Castor whispered, looking like one small breeze would knock him off his feet. “You won’t even know I’m here.”
 
Percy chuckled, sitting up and wiping his tear streaked cheeks. “I don’t think I could ever forget you being here with me, Cas. C’mere.”
 
Castor smiled as he settled beside Percy, wrapping both of them in his blanket, but it wasn’t his normal bright smile. A sadder, watery one like he could break down into tears at any moment. Percy wondered what could have caused his friend to look like this.
 
“I had this friend, her name was Phoebe. Daughter of Apollo,,” Castor started softly, voice barely carrying. “She was on the second to last quest two years ago. They went to Virginia to get some sort of tree branch and she never came back. Annabeth had to tell me when she got back from her father’s.” He paused, and drew in a shuddered breath before continuing. “She’s the reason I love Shakespeare so much.”
 
The son of Poseidon hugged the other boy tighter and Castor dropped his head down on Percy’s shoulder. “I didn’t want you to be gone too.” He whispered, voice shaking. 
 
Percy let out a strangled noise and hugged his friend tighter. “While we are doing this whole, sharing things in the dark bit, I have something to admit. Something I didn’t say to anyone else,” He murmured. “I made a deal with Hades.”
 
Castor sat up and looked at Percy with blank eyes. Percy scrambled to explain. “I brought some kids out of that Lotus Casino we mentioned. A ten year old brother and an eleven year old sister, they were children of Hades. I swore that I would do everything I can to stop them from being the prophecy children.”
 
Castor laughed breathlessly. “That’s crazy. How did he not kill you? How did he even believe you?!”
 
“…” Percy hesitated, unsure if he should fully explain the batshit insane reason of time travel and realized he might be taking too long to answer. “I-I can’t tell you yet. I will! I promise I will! But just-not yet. I need some time.”
 
“Take all the time you need,” Castor sighed and closed his eyes again, leaning back into Percy. “I’m not going anywhere.”

Yeah, I hope not,

Percy thought, laying his head against the other half-blood.

I don’t know what I’d do without you now.

-
 
The next morning Percy took a stop at the stables and was pleasantly surprised to see Silena Beauregard grooming a smug looking Eleutheria.
 
“Huh,” He breathed as he slid open the door, scaring the daughter of Aphrodite. 
 
“Oh goodness,” Silena said, eyes wide. “You are still alive!”
 
Percy snorted. “Thanks for the vote of confidence, Silena.”
 
“Oh!” Silena blushed, looking down at the ground. “Uh, sorry.”

You made her stop brushing me,

Eleutheria’s nostrils flared.

Tell her to continue.

“Uh, Eleutheria over there wants to be brushed some more,” The son of Poseidon said awkwardly. Silena fumbled over herself to hand him the brush but he just looked at her weirdly. “By you,” He continued slowly. Silena just blushed again.
 
“Are you alright,” Percy asked, leaning away from the girl to get a better look at her. “You aren’t having a heat stroke or anything, right? Your face keeps getting all red.”
 
Silena squeaked and ran out the barn leaving a dumbfounded Percy and an annoyed horse in her wake.

Look what you did!

Eleutheria rolled her eyes.

You got rid of my personal groomer!

-
 
“Huh,” Clarisse stared at the puny newbie standing in front of her. He was scrawny and pale and looked like a strong wind would knock him right off his feet. Somehow this little punk had beat her father in a whole-ass sword fight in California. “I didn’t think you were going to show.”
 
Jackson lifted his head and stared at her. “Yeah, well. Here I am.”
 
Clarisse blinked. “Does wise girl or nature boy know you are here?”
 
“Castor does,” Jackson admitted, relaxing only slightly. “So someone will know if you kill me and dispose of my body.”
 
She snorted and Jackson grinned sharply in victory. “Alright, punk,” Clarisse replied. “Let’s get started.”
 
She almost felt bad for the kid. He was short, probably not more than five two, and she was pretty sure she could wrap her hand around his wrist and have her fingers touch. Nonetheless, Jackson held his sword steady. It sent a flare of amusement through Clarisse’s chest. His sword was like half of his size. It was kinda like watching a dog with a tree branch.
 
Clarisse had decided on playing nice, not going too hard on the newbie, assessing where his level was, blah blah

blah

. Or at least that was the plan until Percy Jackson disarmed her and held his blade under her chin grinning sharply. She grinned back at him, teeth bared.
 
“Oh, you are going to be a fun challenge.”
 
-
 
The Fourth of July couldn’t come fast enough for Percy. It was always one of his favorite parts of his summers. The beach was always full and the fireworks late in the night was almost better than the special multi-color bonfire. Almost.
 
Grover shuffled his hooves in the sand, looking anxious and maybe a bit hungry, but his shoulders were back and his eyes were determined. Annabeth was hugging him tightly, eyes misting but looking proud. Percy took his hug next and he made sure it lasted.
 
“Where are you going first?” Annabeth sniffled.
 
“Uh, secrets and all,” Grover replied. “Humans and Pan do not mix so well, otherwise I would love for you two to join me.”
 
“Keep yourself safe out there,” Percy chided, reaching up and ruffling his best friend’s hair. 
 
Grover shuffled his hooves again, looking even more miserable at the prospect of leaving, but he adjusted his grip on the walking stick and turned to leave. 
 
“Grover!” Percy called after him, parroting words he knew he said before. “Wherever you are going- I hope they have good enchiladas!”
 
Grover beamed and then he was gone.
 
Annabeth sat down with a sigh, wrapping her arms around her legs. “He’ll be back. They always are.” She laid her head on her knees. “They always are.”
 
-
 
The last day of summer came all quickly for Castor Brennan. He hated the end of summer, the ending of new beginnings and the death to summer freedom for him and his twin brother. Now it was his second to last day at camp, and Castor had decided well ahead of time he would be spending it with his new best friend, Percy Jackson.
 
Percy was someone very different from anyone Castor had met before, and not just because his threads were a tangled mess. His sea green eyes seemed as deep and mysterious as the sea itself, always staring off into some distance and looking sad or angry. Percy was such an angry kid. Or he looked like one from a first impression. The anger was an easy emotion to hide behind, as was his biting sarcasm and tendency to distance himself. It was partially due to Castor’s experience with…

difficult

behavior patterns that he was able to sort out what was a coping mechanism and what was genuine. 
 
Castor cracked his Mountain Dew can he bought off of Travis Stoll and watched Percy dip his toes in the water out of the corner of his eye. The other demigod looked resigned, leaning back with his eyes closed. Castor kicked a little water towards him. Percy cracked open an eye and smiled a brittle smile. Castor’s heart sank.

He knows something is going to happen today. Just like me.

“Y’know, you are one of my very best friends,” Percy murmured. “I just wanted to make sure you know that.”  
 
Castor frowned, ignoring his sudden goosebumps, placing his soda down. “I know, Percy. You are my best friend, too. Is something wrong?” Percy stayed quiet, splashing his feet in the water.
 
“Percy?”
 
“I don’t want this to end.”
 
Castor blinked. “What?”
 
“

Ohmygod

, I don’t want this to end,” Percy replied with gritted teeth, abruptly yanking his legs up out of the water. “You are leaving in two days and then I won’t see you again until

next winter

and at this point I don’t even know if I-”
 
“If you will be there.”
 
“Yeah,” He sighed, some tension leaking out of his frame. “I don’t know how I am supposed to do this without you next year.”
 
Castor hummed, reaching a hand over to rest of Percy’s clenched fist. “That sounds rather codependent, Jackson.”
 
“Yeah, yeah,” The other half-blood grumbled but didn’t swat Castor away. “Stop psychoanalyzing me, Brennan, or I swear-!”
 
“Hey, Percy. You got a minute?”
 
There was dead silence as both Castor and Percy turned slowly to see a smiling son of Hermes holding a six pack of Cokes. Castor saw every last inch of Percy tense up, all good humor gone in an instant. But then Percy forcefully relaxed, the fake smile back on his face.
 
“Yeah, I’ll be there in a minute! Lemme find my shoes!” His voice was steady, but only just.
 
Castor grabbed his friend’s shoulders, thoughts whirling. “Don’t trust the person who has broken faith once. Don’t go, Perce.”
 
Percy’s faux smile was sharp and scared, his eyes betraying his shock at Castor’s accusation. “I’m not even going to ask how you know right now, but you better come find me if I am not back in ten minutes. You always seem to be able to find me, anyway.”
 
Castor nodded, trying not to cry at the wild fear in his best friend’s eyes, much like Phoebe had in those last days before the quest. Percy’s threads weren’t nearly as messed up as hers had been. Hell, they weren’t as knotted as his own had been once upon a time two years in the future. This time, he might be able to

do something

.
 
“Don’t die, hero,” Castor whispered, kissing Percy’s forehead. “I’m going to go find Annabeth.”
 
-
 
“You are insane, Cas.”
 
“Doesn’t matter, we need to keep moving.”
 
Annabeth laughed unbelievingly. “If he is with Luke, he’s

fine

. You’re just being melodramatic.”
 
Castor spun and pointed a finger at her chest, taking Annabeth by surprise. “If you are so sure, then you are going to help me find him and prove me wrong, Chase.”
 
Annabeth Chase was not friends with Castor Brennan. Just because she had known him since she was seven does not mean they had ever clicked. But she did trust him. The worry in his eyes alone was enough to cause alarm even if his insistence that Luke was a danger to Percy was insane. So Annabeth sighed and followed the son of Dionysus further into the forest.
 
It didn’t take long to find Percy. Percy with skin green and turning gray, half submerged in the creek with nymphs and naiads fretting around him.
 
Annabeth froze, not believing her own eyes.

How could-? Luke couldn’t have-!

“Percy!” Castor yelled, rushing to his side, immediately turning to one of the nymphs and barking out an order to get Chiron.
 
Annabeth heard her own blood rushing in her ears as she saw a decapitated pit scorpion lying not three feet away from her dying best friend.
 
This was real. Luke did this.
 
Annabeth didn’t process a lot of things in the following hour.
 
-
 
Rachel wasn’t exactly sure when the dreams began. (She might have been four, she might have been six. She was definitely nine.) Rachel was thirteen when she woke up from a nightmare about death and scars and scorpions and that was when she remembered.

You cannot change a thing, Perseus Jackson.

“No,” She whispered, wrapping her blanket around her shoulders tightly, eyes gleaming. “But I can.”
 
-
 
Percy wanted to go back to sleep the moment he returned to consciousness.

Ow, ow, ow! Shit, everything hurt!

“You better be awake now, Percy Jackson, or I swear I will sic Clarisse on you.”
 
Percy opened his eyes to see Castor’s relieved face staring down at him. The son of Posiedon smiled wryly at his friend. “I’m not dead!”
 
Castor snorted at the weak response. “Not for lack of trying. You are so lucky we found you as quickly as we did. I don’t know how you didn’t die last ti-”
 
“Percy!” Annabeth flung open the door and rushed to his side, shifting the entire bed to the left a few inches. “You are not allowed to keep doing this shit! You are going to give me gray hairs!”
 
Percy, the one who knew the future snickered at the inside joke only he got.
 
“She’s correct, Percy. If this was what every day of your quest was like, I do hope you come back to us next summer, if only for your safety.” Chiron said as he rolled through the doorway. “How are you feeling?”
 
The half-blood smacked his lips. “Like my insides have been in a deep freezer then a microwave.”
 
“Seems appropriate considering what you just experienced. Little to no one typically survives a pit scorpion.”
 
“Whoopdeedoo,” Percy muttered, wincing as he shifted in his place. “Luke was right, you people are a joy around near-death experiences.”
 
At the mention of Luke, Chiron’s face molded into a harder expression. Still caring, but more angry/disappointed father rather than a worried den mother. Percy snickered. Maybe the mystical pain meds were messing with his head a little bit. He told his story, plain and simple. He didn’t have as much of the messy emotions as he did last time this happened, he had come to terms with this betrayal awhile ago. And this time, Luke didn’t have a real connection with him. No, instead Percy monitored the other’s reactions. 
 
Chiron looked sad. Like, deeply sad. But also like he knew this was coming. That felt off to Percy; if Chiron knew Luke was teetering on the edge of treason against the gods, why didn’t he do anything to stop him?
 
Annabeth was easy to read. Or well, she would have been if there hadn’t been so much emotion on her face. She was upset, she was angry, but most of all she was grieving. It hurt Percy to look at her, so he didn’t.
 
Castor… Castor just looked resigned. He knew this was going to happen. He had mentioned the ‘last time’ just like Percy did. And he knew that Percy knew about it. And all that wrapped up in a bow was something he was not going to touch until he was alone with Castor and not potentially dying due to a poisonous scorpion.
 
After he was done telling his tale, it didn’t take long for the infirmary to clear out. Like before, Annabeth went home, hugging him tightly and threatening harm if he didn’t keep in touch. Chiron supported his own decision to not stay the year, clapping his shoulder and wheeling out of the door. And just like that, only Castor remained. It was quiet between them for a long time.
 
“So, come here often?” Percy quipped, rolling his head on the pillow to see his friend’s face. 
 
“Where? The infirmary?” Castor replied, pulling his legs up to sit all bunched up on the uncomfortable seat by his bedside. “No, but I have a feeling I’ll be here a lot more being friends with you.”
 
Percy grinned. “I was talking about this timeline, but the infirmary works too.”
 
“Oh.”
 
“Yeah.”
 
“I’m assuming you want answers?”
 
“You’re damn right I do.”
 
Castor sighed, running a hand through his hair as he slumped in his seat. “What do you know about Orphic myths?” At Percy’s blank face he continued. “Okay, so Dionysus is considered a second incarnation of a different god. A son of Zeus and Persephone. Long story short, he was an Underworld god that was killed and his heart became Dionysus.”
 
“Ooookay?” Percy blinked. “What does that have to do with this?”
 
“I’m the son of a former Underworld god,” Castor replied slowly. “The god of rebirth.”
 
“I’m still sort of lost.”
 
“When I died the first time, I was reborn with my memories mostly intact. That was four times ago,” Castor explained, watching Percy carefully. “And your threads from the Fates are so fucked up. You probably died too early, heroes tend to do that.”
 
Percy’s head spun. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, what?! How the hell-?”
 
“I’m the son of Dionysus, Perce, I’ll be fine.”
 
“So what you are saying is, because of your dad’s secret past life, you get reborn everytime you die?”
 
“Pretty much, yeah.”
 
“Is that why you decided to become my friend? To influence the timeline?” Percy asked, chest tight and very angry.
 
Castor tilted his head to the side. “It wasn’t the only reason. This is the first time I went to you. You were sad and I wanted to help.”
 
There was a beat of silence before Percy started laughing.
 
“Okay, okay,

sure,

” He spat out between breathless laughs. “My life has no end to the craziness, why wouldn’t this be true. Fine, tell me something that hasn’t happened yet. Something that you shouldn’t know.”
 
Castor looked a little angry too, but he took a deep breath and replied without any heat. “My memories don’t work like that, Percy. I said

mostly intact

, now there is so much that anything before this time is a jumbled mess like from when I was a baby. I don’t remember anything in detail, until it’s about to happen.”
 
“Just, tell me something, anything,” Percy begged.
 
“...Thalia’s tree gets poisoned next summer, doesn’t it?”
 
Percy started to cry. “Come here and give me a hug, you stupid idiot.”
 
-
 
Hades hated heroes on principle. They were loud, flashy and had a deep sense of self-importance. Heracles was a prime example of this. As was Odysseus. Hades did not like heroes.
 
But his son had been asking about that stupid half-blood who had recovered Bianca and him from the Hotel with little ulterior motive. Thus Hades’s dilemma. Percy Jackson was shaping up to be an exception to that unspoken rule.
 
“He was just so cool, Dad! He let me help with things and actually listened to me!” Nico was babbling, shuffling the mortal card game he was so fond of. “Do you know when we are going to see him again?”
 
Hades blinked, dumbfounded by his son’s…

crush

. “No, but I suspect it will be soon. Say, can you go fetch your sister? I have some questions for her.” Nico nodded and was off like a shot.
 
Hades sighed and leaned back in his seat. He had forgotten what it was like having kids around the house. He loved them, he really did, but there was much more chatter than he was used to. The last time he had a child here she- It didn’t matter.
 
“You wanted to see me, Father?” Bianca said as she walked into the room, Nico poking his head out from behind her.
 
“That I did,” The god nodded. “Nico, I’m sure Cerberus would love a walk. When your sister and I are done talking, maybe you could teach me your card game?”
 
His son lit up like a certain nephew of his and beamed at him before racing outside.
 
“What do you wish to talk about?” Bianca asked slowly.
 
Hades cleared his throat and straightened his back. “I wanted to know your opinion of Percy Jackson.”
 
His daughter straightened as well. “What about him, sir?”
 
“Your brother seems…

infatuated

to say the least. Tell me what you observed of him. Please.”
 
Bianca’s eyebrows furrowed in thought. “Well, he just seemed like a good person. Not the nicest, or even the most mentally present, but good. He thought of Nico as a person not a child which was new. His friends seemed a bit tired of his antics from time to time but nothing serious. Oh! They talked about him being psychic a lot! I think it was supposed to be a joke but he didn’t find it very funny.”
 
“Mmmh,” Hades grumbled, sighing.

Maybe this Percy Jackson wasn’t a hero, only a boy. Maybe he could be useful after all.

-
 
“-and now Mom’s found this new school to send me to,” Percy was rambling, sprawled across his bed, tossing a rubber ball up onto the ceiling. “I went last time but I really want to try and get Tyson off the streets as soon as possible, you hear me?”
 
“Uhuh,” Castor hummed, not looking up from his crossword puzzle. “What’s a five letter word for something on wheels?”
 
“I don’t know, dude, bike? Car-? Ah, shit!” Percy cursed as the ball missed his hand and landed on his cheek. “How’s South Carolina treating you?”
 
Castor glanced up, the mist from the Iris Message making his eyes murkier than normal. He was twirling a curl with his index finger and spinning his green pen around his fingers with his other hand. “Pollux is fine, mainly keeping to himself for some reason. Mom’s out, but our Aunt’s still here with us just in case.” The half-blood took a moment to place his crossword puzzle off his lap and curled his knees to his chest, looking at Percy fully now. “I miss hanging out with you.”
 
Percy snorted. “Cas, it’s been like a week.”
 
“I

know

,” Castor groaned, “It’s been horrible. I’m sure Pollux is absolutely sick of me. But better a witty fool than a foolish wit and all that.” Percy stared blankly. Castor snickered. 
 
“Percy! We need to go! Open house is tonight!” He heard his mother call from the hallway. 
 
“Coming, mom!” He shouted back, then turned to look sheepishly at his best friend.
 
Castor rolled his eyes. “We can finish talking later, silly. Go to your school thing.” He slashed through the mist and as it faded Percy heard him exclaim; “Wagon! That's the word!” before he was gone.
 
“Ugh,” Percy grumbled as he looked at his reflection in the mirror. “Time to do seventh grade.

Again.

”
 
Merriwether College Prep wasn’t a bad school. It really wasn’t. Just deeply annoying. Seventh grade was annoying enough the first time around, but having to do it when you were about to enter tenth grade was just,

ugh

. Percy was trying to not bash his head against the passenger side window when they pulled up to Merriwether Prep and his mother dragged him out of the car. The school was as dreary and clean looking as it was before, but Percy only had a few moments to stare before he was tackled to the ground.

Why does everyone seem to want to tackle me?

He wondered as he rolled so as to not hurt himself. He sat up, and blinked, vision red for some reason.

Wait…

“Hey, cryptid,” A thirteen year old Rachel Elizabeth Dare grinned down at him, hair surrounding her face like a halo. “Miss me?”
 
-
 
When Percy finished crying (gosh, teenage boys do not have any hold of their emotions!) she just laughed and led him around the school (not that she even needed to, he had already gone there once). Rachel was so happy, she was finally feeling content, a bubbling joy in her chest. (Percy hadn’t let go of her hand since she tackled him.)
 
“How are you even here?” The demigod croaked, eyes still puffy and voice raw.
 
Rachel shrugged. “After you died I became the Oracle. I’m pretty sure that has something to do with it. I haven’t really questioned it.” Percy closed his eyes and leaned on her shoulder (they were still at the age where she was taller than him, score!). She wrapped an arm around his waist and chuckled when he melted like a cat in the sun.
 
“Why am I friends with so many people who break through logic?” He grumbled, not pulling away.
 
“What do you mean, Perce?”
 
“Well, you aren’t the only one to come back from

then

.”
 
Rachel furrowed her brow. “What do you mean?”
 
“So, Mr. D has these kids at camp,” Percy explained, a dopey smile appearing. “A pair of twins, Pollux and Castor. Apparently there's some myths of Orpheus that say Dionysus was some god of rebirth before he was technically Dionysus, so Castor thinks that’s why he remembers his previous lifes. It’s weird man, I was barely processing it when he was explaining it to me, don’t ask for more details.”
 
“You like him,” Rachel’s eyes widened and her expression turned smug. “You like him!”
 
“What?” Percy scowled. “No! Shut up! We are

twelve

!”
 
“Mhm,” Rachel hummed, ideas running through her head. “You

like

him~!”
 
“Shut up!”
 
“You shut up!”
 
“You are

impossible!”

-
 
Tyson was very thankful for Merriwether Prep. They had taken him in when he was left alone. Tyson was very excited to be away from all those very bad men with their booming voices and their thundering footsteps. As the young boy stepped foot in the school for his first day, he was overwhelmed with the amount of

people.

There were so many kids, so many voices, so many colors-! It was almost too much!
 
Tyson felt a hand on his arm and almost jumped out of his skin. He turned and saw a small boy with dark hair grinning lopsidedly at him.
 
“Hi,” The boy said. “I’m Percy. What’s your name?”
 
-
 
“Are you telling me you adopted a baby cyclops?” Castor shrieked, looking like he was about to jump through the IM unless Percy said “psych!”.
 
“I didn’t adopt him!” Percy retorted. “I just… brought him home.”
 
 Castor stared at his best friend incredulously. “You adopted a baby cyclops. Oh my goodness, what has the world come too?”
 
“I couldn’t just leave him there! He was homeless and scared and- he’s my brother Cas!”
 
“Alright, I’ll rescind judgment until I meet him. What else did you want to tell me?”
 
Percy grinned, bright and sharp. “I have this friend, and I think you will love to meet her.”
 
-
 
He was right of course. Rachel and Castor got along like a house on fire with extra gasoline. Quickly, they had set up their own weekly IM session where they bitched about something stupid he had done or said. Last time Percy talked to Castor, he could have sworn there were more paintings on his walls than earlier. Rachel had a new fondness of the purple and green color combination. It was nice.

And so much different from the last time he had introduced Rachel to his friends-

Meeting Tyson was much the same. Rachel used her dad’s money to fly Castor up to New York for New Year's Eve (something Castor assured them they didn’t have to do but his aunt and brother were totally okay with). For a few moments they all just stood there staring at each other awkwardly, then Rachel made a joke about how Percy was still the shortest and Castor started laughing and well, Percy was really, really weak for his friends.
 
Tyson had been pacing in the tiny living room of the Jackson’s apartment, clutching a small legion of party supplies that he presented hopefully to Castor when he walked in the door. Castor melted almost instantly when greeted with that warm, anxious eye and the blinding smile of Percy’s half-brother. The four friends found themselves cheering on the New Year with sprinklers of Percy’s fire escape and blue cupcakes to smash each other’s faces into.
 
It was so

nice.

Of course, all good things must come to an end. The next day Castor flew home, Rachel was coerced into doing a charity banquet with her family, Tyson needed some space so Percy’s mom took him out and Percy was left alone. This was of course when Annabeth IMed him.
 
“Seaweed Brain!” She beamed at him from her own spotty connection. “Happy New Year!”
 
“Hey, Annabeth,” Percy smiled back just as warmly. “How’s it going?”
 
She went on about how her father’s place was and about how much different it seemed and about how much she missed him. Percy smiled, familiar with this banter and replied with just the right mix of sarcasm and genuine affection. They talked on and on until Annabeth’s little brothers came up talking about how her cousin is here for breakfast and she needed to get off the phone with her boyfriend. Annabeth glanced up at Percy, cheeks hot and stuttered out a goodbye that Percy just grinned at. It was good. He had missed this.
 
The rest of the school year passed by just as quickly. Peppered through it were the regular calls from Castor, the occasional calls from Annabeth and not a word from Grover, although Percy tried not to worry too much about that last one. Grover was searching for Pan, and he had known there wouldn’t be much contact between them while that was going on. Still, it was a bit disconcerting when months went by without a word. God, how did Percy get through this first time around?
 
And then the dreams started up, and he got his answer. The blurry frames of Grover running, scared. The desperate swell of emotion that hit the demigod like a truck each time he woke up.

The fucking empathy link!

Percy was glad he wasn’t having as many nightmares as he was a year ago. Those would have been harder to explain. Of course that didn’t mean he

wasn’t

having nightmares. He still could barely think about cruise ships or mason jars or hell, even Beckendorf without immediately going back to that awful ship, waiting to die. But Percy did what he did best, he pushed it down and ignored it, focusing instead on something more productive, like making Tyson happy, and baking cookies with his mom, and laughing with Castor and Rachel.
 
But it was June. And his time away from camp was coming to an end.
 
-
 
“You promise you will call me when you get to camp!” Rachel fussed, fixing his hair around and messing it up in equal measure. “Your first time blowing up a school, aren’t you so proud!”
 
Percy smiled at her weakly. “Yay.” He knew she was only joking around because he looked so sick. The son of Poseidon had barely gotten any sleep last night, not with flashes of rain and wedding dresses accompanied by the overwhelming sense of terror in his dreams.
 
Rachel sighed, dropping the forced humor around her to hug her best friend tightly. “Please try to be safe, Percy. Don’t die, hero.”
 
A part of Percy found this ironic. Being told the same words by two of his best friends, once in a time of great danger and the other on his way to gym class. It didn’t matter either way, he had to go and beat up some Candaians. 
 
The school still blew up. Annabeth still showed up and kicked ass. Tyson and Percy still skedaddled away from the people at school and in a sick mixed deja vu, Rachel was there watching sadly.
 
“Where’d you find it!?” Annabeth demanded, arms crossed and face tight.

Oh god, not this again

, Percy groaned. “

His

name is Tyson. He’s been living with me for the last few months.”
 
Annabeth’s eyes went wide as her gaze darted between the two boys. “You do know tha-”
 
“Yes! I know that he is a cyclops,” Percy stressed. “My mom can see through the mist, y’know? Plus Castor already vouched for him.”
 
Whatever softness left on Annabeth’s face froze at the mention of Castor. “I see, so if Brennan says so that means it’s alright!”
 
“That’s not what I- Nevermind, let’s just get out of here,” Percy sighed, already tired of Annabeth’s teenage girl prickliness.
 
“Where are we going?” Tyson asked, seemingly fascinated with Annabeth’s frizzy curls.
 
“To camp,” Annabeth reluctantly responded before glaring at Percy. “Haven’t you been having the dreams?”
 
“The dreams about Grover, sure.”
 
“What?” Annabeth spluttered, concern leaking on her face. “What do you mean Grover? No, I’m talking about the dreams about camp.”
 
Percy blinked before he registered what she meant. “Oh, nevermind. You’ll find out soon enough.”
 
“That is not as reassuring as you think it is,” Annabeth said, wrapping her arms across herself, still glancing at Tyson like he might attack her. “Let’s just get to camp. C’mon, hero.”
 
For some reason, when Annabeth called him that, Percy felt his skin crawl. God, he was just ready to go home.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Thalia was dying. Her tree was yellow and drooping and dying. Percy felt disconnected from the storm and rage boiling in his gut. He sat helpless in front of the tree, legs tucked against his chest. His cousin was dying. It was worse after knowing Thalia. He could picture her glare, her laugh, her smirk when she beat him in a spar. He knew her and he knew she was going to be alright, but she was dying and there was nothing he could do to help her. “Hey, brat.” Percy turned to see Clarisse staring at him with her lip curled in an ugly expression. “You didn’t die, congratulations.” “Thanks, Clarisse,” He mumbled, voice small and emotionless. “What are you doing over here, anyway?” Her loud, grating voice was a comforting constant to Percy and he unclenched his fists automatically.  “It’s not fair,” He started, throat tightening in anger. “She’s just a kid. She’s already died once, it’s not. Fair. ” Clarisse snorted, dropping to sit beside him. “The god’s don’t exactly do fair, runt.” She was quiet for a few seconds before she sighed. “Sometimes I can understand where Luke is coming from.” Percy looked at her tiredly and thought of Thalia and Annabeth’s stories of the boy before the scar. “Yeah. I can too.” - The entire camp was abuzz with gossip and bets. Favors were changing hands like chips in poker. A cyclops had been brought into camp by the camp’s new golden boy, Percy Jackson. No one wanted to approach him, for fear of angering the gods or the monster he brought into their safe haven. The Aphrodite cabin had already placed a bet on if Jackson was likely to die this summer or not. It was split pretty evenly across the campers. Everything came to a head at dinner later that night. “Ah, if it’s not the big celebrity at camp!” The newest inhabitant of Camp Half-Blood sneered, orange prisoner outfit causing hushed whispers of confusion to break out among the cabins.  Jackson looked confused and a little taken aback but he met the newcomer’s gaze nonetheless. “Who are you?” Dionysus chortled, spilling a few drops of his Diet Coke onto his already garish leopard print shirt. “Oh, that’s rich -” The man in orange flushed, watery blue eyes narrowed in anger as he spluttered a response. “No respect! Kids these days have no respect!” “Oh, that’s Poseidon’s kid,” Dionysus sneered into his soda can. “He’s a real riot.” “Oh, yes, I remember,” The prisoner smiled tightly. “I am Tantalus, your new camp director. You would do well to watch your steps, Jackson.” As the new director was swept away by a particularly tickled Mr. D, Jackson was left staring in utter confusion. A wave of sighs swam around the tables as drachmas and curses were passed from camper to camper. Groans and laughter were traded when the announcement of the chariot races was issued. It was a quickly established fact that no one at camp liked this new replacement director. Of course, attention was stolen from the preening man to the holographic trident hanging above the newest guest via Percy Jackson. The freak now had a cyclops brother. At least the Hermes cabin was polite enough to only start gossiping once the pair left. - “I-I’m a monster…?” Tyson blubbered the very next morning after breakfast, head in his hands.  “No.” Percy soothed, placing a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “Those assholes don’t know what the hell they are talking about.” “B-but-” “No ‘buts’,” Percy said, placing more pressure on Tyson’s shoulder. “You’re my brother and an awesome one at that!” “P-P-P- Percy! ” Percy was tackled in a hug; one he was expecting. Tyson cried into his shoulder, shaking Percy’s entire body. It was weird. Last time around, Tyson had been a lot more… oblivious to the gossip and bullying around camp. Or at least, he hid it well enough from Percy. Now though, Tyson seemed more observant. Maybe Percy was only now seeing it due to his thirteen and three extra years of wisdom. There was a knock on the Poseidon cabin’s door. Tyson drew back, wiping furiously at his eye and Percy stood to open it. “Hello? Percy?” The one and only Charles Beckendorf stood in the doorway, his smile wide and warm. Percy felt like he was dying. His skin crawled so badly he might throw up. His heart rate spiked and his vision swam. There was not enough air in his lungs. Oh god, he felt like he was drowning . “-ercy? Percy!” “Brother!” 
Percy couldn’t breathe.
 “Jackson! Snap out of it!” A raspy voice shouted and there was a burn of something and all of a sudden Percy was aware again. Clarisse stood in front of him, electric spear out and set at a low setting, eyes and hair wild. Beckendorf wasn’t in the cabin anymore, at least not where Percy could see him and instead Tyson was fretting in the corner by the beds. Percy almost felt bad, if not for the growing numbness in his chest that was keeping him from drifting off again.  “What the hell was that, punk?” Clarisse snarled, tossing her spear behind her and kneeling down in Percy’s face. The familiarity was refreshing. “I… I’m not sure,” Percy replied, his throat like sandpaper. “Tyson, could you grab me some water?” Tyson nodded furiously and went out to fetch a drink, leaving Clarisse and Percy alone in the silent cabin. “Anything you want to say, loser?”  Percy rolled his head over to see Clarisse’s eyes still wild and set upon him like a hunter on prey. He sighed and thumped his head back onto the floor. “Beckendorf looks just like someone from my old school.” He started, the lie burning his everything as he threw an arm up over his eyes for good measure. “The kid was a good friend. He got hit by a semi truck right in front of me and died.” “...You really need to stop getting sadder every time I talk to you,” Clarisse exhaled, slumping on the ground beside him. “You really need to get some therapy.” Percy choking on an ugly cackle. “‘ Olympus Counseling, where we actually talk it out with our kids’.” Clarisse snorted and soon they both were laughing hard and loud. That was what Tyson and Annabeth came upon when entering Cabin Three. “Percy!” Annabeth cried, quickly coming to his side. “What happened?!” Clarisse parroted the lie Percy pulled out of his ass as he sipped at the water Tyson had brought. The little guy had brought four different things of water and Percy couldn’t say he didn’t appreciate it. Annabeth was watching him closely. Well, technically all three of the demigods were keeping a close eye on him but Annabeth’s were most striking for some reason. There was too much emotion behind them to only be worried about his little meltdown. Percy must’ve done something wrong in the fourteen hours since he’d seen her, as always. Gods, he had not missed being thirteen years old. After he felt grounded enough to stand, he shooed the two girls out, one laughing and shoving him back and one protesting quietly with wide, inquisitive eyes. Tyson went with them willingly at Clarisse’s offer to show him the stables and so Percy was left alone with his thoughts.  He drew in a breath as he fished a drachma out of his pocket. “O goddess, accept my offering. Show me Rachel Elizabeth Dare.” Rachel materialized in the late morning light, paintbrush held between her teeth and fingers stained with various shades of brown. Her eyes were narrowed, and she clearly didn’t know she was on an IM.  Percy cleared his throat, and she jumped a foot in the air. “Oh my god! Percy!” Rachel spluttered, picking up her dropped paintbrush and brandishing it at him like a weapon. “We’ve talked about this! Ha-hang on… what’s wrong?” “I saw him,” Percy muttered, burying his face in his hands. “B-Be-B- Charlie .” “Oh, honey .” “I know .” “What did you do?” “I had a panic attack,” Percy said, dragging his hands down. “Somehow got Clarisse involved and Annabeth is mad at me again.” Rachel took in a deep breath, placing her paintbrush when her knuckles went white holding onto it. “Annabeth can suck it up, Perce. She’s her own person and you aren’t responsible for her moods. How did Clarisse react?” “She told me I needed therapy.” “Woah,” Rachel grinned a little. “Pot calling the kettle black.” Percy laughed, already feeling much lighter than he had before calling. “I miss you guys already.” “Yeah, yeah.” Rachel replied. “We miss you too.” - The rest of the day was pretty normal, Percy supposed. Annabeth was avoiding him, but what else was new. Clarisse somehow got along really well with Tyson, who was having a blast at the stables. Campers whispered about him, they never stopped, but with Percy’s newfound confidence returned, (thanks Rachel) he could easily block them out. Everything seemed to be going uphill. Until his dream that night. Choppy seas made Percy even more nauseous than he was already feeling. The all-too-familiar overly glamorous cruise ship sent a sinking dread through Percy’s entire body.  
The goddamn Princess Andromeda.
 Luke wasn’t anywhere in sight, thank fuck, but that didn’t stop Percy’s skin from trying to flee his entire body. He drew his attention away from the deck and his heart skipped a beat at the terrible island in the horizon. Polyphemus.  - The very next night, Percy’s dream was simultaneously better and worse. Grover was in his wedding dress in the dank cave in the Sea of Monsters, ‘weaving’ on his loom.  “Oh, thank the Gods,” Grover sighed in relief. “You can hear me can’t you, Percy?” Percy nodded; throat too tight to speak.  “Listen to me, you have to help me-” “DEARIE? ARE YOU FINISHED YET?” “ OhGods- Not quite! Only a few more days!” “YOU MEAN IT HASN’T BEEN TWO WEEKS YET?” “N-No! Only five! We still have eleven more to go!” Grover shuddered, hunching his shoulders. Percy focused on how his best friend looked, not listening to the growling voice babbling in the background. Grover was skinnier than the last time he had seen him. His skin was darker, his curls matted, and all Percy wanted was to give him a hug. As ridiculous as the wedding dress Grover was wearing was, Percy was glad to see his best friend moving and breathing. “C’mon, Percy, don’t tune out now! You have to save me! I’m on an island in the Sea!” “The… Sea?” Percy repeated, playing dumb. “The Sea of Monsters, Perce. If you don’t get to me in like a week, that Cyclops will eat me!” Grover wailed. “You need to save me!” “HONEYPIE! DINNER!” “Shit!” Grover hissed, stuffing the fabric in his loom behind him, out of sight. “Percy, I swear to everything you better help me! Literally begging you here! I’ll contact you through another empathy link soon!” The connection went out like shitty cable TV in a thunderstorm and Percy was left alone in the static until he woke up. - The chariot race was somehow even more obnoxious now that Percy wasn’t competing. The vehicles themselves were gaudy and rarely practical, especially with the amount of Apollo kids participating, and overall, it hurt to look like. The leftover creeping dread from Percy’s dream made the weird pigeons he noticed when eating breakfast that morning even more ominous. Now, if Percy remembered this day correctly, Clarisse won the race and… “-And now to punish the troublemakers who disrupted the race.” Tantalus smiled blandly at Annabeth and her sibling Francesca who were still holding Chiron’s boombox after scaring off the flesh-eating birds. Oh. Now Percy remembers why he didn’t agree to participate in the chariot race. Annabeth and Francesca got sentenced to scrubbing dishes while Clarisse was hailed a hero, a title that she obviously was uncomfortable with. Percy was so happy he stayed out of this mess this time around. During dinner that night, the same insistence for a quest was almost deafening. Especially when Annabeth brought up the Golden Fleece.  Percy wanted to go back to bed. “Fine!” Tantalus snarled, eyes wild and hands shaky. “You stupid brats want me to assign a quest! I will! Our champion and leader for the quest must be brave and bold and ask our dear Oracle for a prophecy to retrieve the Golden Fleece! Our champion and leader will choose two fearless companions to join this endeavor! Our champion and leader… Clarisse!” Clarisse stood up, back straight and chin up. “I-I accept this quest!” The camp cheered. Percy’s head felt like knives were being shoved in his eye sockets. “And for my companions I choose Silena Beauregard and Percy Jackson!” 
Shit.
 - Castor was bored. There was utterly nothing to do in his little old town of South Carolina and he had read his last new book on the shelf. Caster hated the summers spent with his mom sometimes. “Hey, Cas?” Pollux poked his head into Castor’s room where the boy in question was screaming into a pillow. “Wow, hey, no need for that.”Castor lifted his head up and glared at his brother. “What?” “Stop being an ass. You have a phone call.” “Yeah, yeah, get the hell out of my room.” Castor dragged himself out of his bed as he headed towards the home phone in the kitchen, reluctantly pulling his (Percy’s) jacket with him, tying it around his waist. “This better be important, or I am going to actually kill someone.” “Castor?” “ Percy? ” “So. I got a quest.” Percy laughed humorlessly. “Aren’t you proud of me?” Castor inhaled through his nostrils, hopping up to sit on the counter. “Tell me everything .” Percy did indeed spill his guts. Poor thing sounded so tired. A bit of Castor’s chest ached knowing he couldn’t just hug his friend and fix this issue. This past school year had been so nice, being able to talk freely and without the overwhelming weight of an upcoming war on the horizon. They had been able to be just kids. They were still kids. “-then Clarisse said my name! Silena and I are to be her companions on this stupid quest!” Percy ranted and Castor could picture his scrunched-up nose and squinted eyes. “You are going, right?” Castor replied, switching the phone to his other hand. “You are the only one who knows where the Golden Fleece and Grover are.” Percy sighed. “ Of course I am going. That’s another reason I’m calling. If I fall into another goddamn panic attack Imma tell Clarisse and Silena to IM you immediately. My shoulder still tingles from where she shocked me last time.”  “Percy, please don’t do anything too crazy,” Castor said, leaning his head back against the kitchen tiles. “We need you to come home, hero.” “I’ll be there at the end, Cas. Promise.” - When Tyson woke Percy up the next morning to leave for the quest, Tyson’s eye was sad and muddy. Annabeth must have run away last night. He was hoping to have discouraged her by not sharing any information. That was clearly not the case. Percy pondered on this as he hiked to the beach. He was supposed to meet his quest mates there and was a little bit disappointed to see both of them already waiting for him.  Clarisse had her hair pulled back with a bandana, leaning against a large rock by the shore. Silena was sitting on top of the rock, her own hair pulled back in pigtails with little bows, cleaning her nails with a dagger. “Tch, you're late punk,” Clarisse sneered, adjusting her bookbag. “I couldn’t sleep last night.” Percy said in lieu of an apology. Silena smiled at him, eyes casting over his face obviously concerned. Percy made sure not to look her in the eye, instead asking Clarisse what the game plan was. “The plan?” Clarisse repeated, the tips of her ears going red. “Well-” 
Crrrrrrrrrrk!
 Percy jumped, Silena screamed, Clarisse scrambled for her spear. Rising up from the water was a sunken ship. “Uh, Percy?” Silena squeaked, holding her dagger out at the offending vessel. “D-Did you do that?” “It’s a war ship…” Clarisse whispered, lowering her weapon. “I think- I think it was my dad. ” “Let’s go!” Silena exclaimed, tucking her dagger back in its sheath. The three of them clambered aboard the ship when Percy instinctively waved a hand, sending the mechanics of the ship racing to start up. He continued walking as he heard the boilers roar then froze.  Shit. He wasn’t supposed to know about this yet.  Percy turned slowly to see Clarisse looking at him with an eyebrow raised, Silena still looking around in awe. He shrugged sheepishly with a plastic smile and made his way below deck.  - It didn’t feel like a long time had passed when there was a knock on Percy’s door. Silena stood there with a determined glint in her eye. “Silena?” Percy questioned, opening his door further. “What’s up?” Silena only smiled and held out her hand. “C’mon. Clarisse and I want to talk.” “Uh. Okay.” Clarisse was waiting on deck, supervising all the dead soldiers mulling about the ship. She uncrossed her arms when she and Percy came into her sight and whistled. “Keep just away from the shore that we are discrete but not so much that we can’t see! We can’t be drifting off into the open ocean yet!” Clarisse turned, facing the pair as they walked up to her. “Well, well, well, hello Miss Beauty Rest! Ready to start working?” Percy just stared deadpan at her. “What.” “Alright, so the plan is to head down to Florida,” Silena clapped her hands, emotions bubbling up in her chest. “Ares visited Clari in a dream-” “Clari?” “-mentioning the entrance of the Sea is past Florida so that’s where we are heading!” Clarisse grunted. “The entrance we are going in is guarded by Charybdis and her sister Scylla. Does water boy over there have any thoughts he’d like to share?” Percy snickered at the nickname and crossed his arms. “I can’t promise any control over the water, but I can at least focus on the boat functions. Since, y’know, I can do that now.” Silena nodded. “Great! Do either of you have any idea where the Golden Fleece could be?” “Thirty degrees, thirty-one minutes north, seventy-five degrees, twelve minutes west.” Both girls turned to stare at Percy, whose ears and cheeks were flushed red. “I’m really good with boats,” He muttered, kicking his foot. Clarisse and Silena exchanged a look. Okay then.  “Captain! Set a course for-” “Thirty degrees, thirty-one minutes north, seventy-five degrees, twelve minutes west.” “-Yes, thank you!” Clarisse’s attention gravitated back at shore. “...What…? Do you two see that too?” Silena’s head whipped around to see a strange thrashing on the shore. “What the hell…?” “Oh no.” Percy inhaled sharply. “Hydra.” “ What? ” The girls chorused.  Percy pointed, eyes wide. “It’s a Hydra .” “Holy shit, he’s right! ” Silena blinked. Hydra. Okay. “We need to go help whoever’s fighting it.”“We should stay out of it,” Clarisse counted, rolling her eyes. “We have our own problems.” “How proud would you dad be if you brought back a Hydra head, Clarisse?” Percy asked.  “The hell did you just say, punk?” Clarisse growled. “Defeating a Hydra would look really good,” Percy continued stubbornly. “Let’s go help them. Worst case we leave, best case they owe you.” Oh my gods. Silena was watching her best friend get manipulated by a thirteen year old in real time. This was the best thing she’s seen all day. The two went back and forth a bit more before Clarisse gave in, giving Percy the stink eye as they ordered the ship to head towards the shore. As the Hydra came closer and closer into view, Silena’s heart stopped at the familiar blonde curls. Clarisse fired the cannon before squinting down. “Loser,” Clarisse sneered. “Hmm. I suppose I have to rescue you. Come aboard, Wise Girl.” - Annabeth didn’t need any help. She was going to save the camp and save her best friend. If Percy was going to be stupid and side with monsters and bullies, then Annabeth didn’t need him. She can fix this, and save Thalia, and- and-! She was going to be the hero. At least that was what she thought up until the warship blew up Hydra guts into her face. “Gross!” She cried, wiping the goo out of her face. She could hear another cannon and turned her head to see Clarisse staring down at her. Rage boiled in her gut as she got led aboard the daughter of war’s ship. And standing there on the deck beside Silena Beauregard was Percy Fucking Jackson. Of course. Annabeth’s fists clenched. “Tantalus expelled you from camp,” Clarisse said smugly, an ugly smile on her face. “Said you were ‘never to come back’. Ha!” “Shut up!” Annabeth exclaimed, feeling her nails digging into her palms. “Was I just supposed to stay at camp and watch Thalia die!” Percy flinched. “And YOU!” Annabeth spun around at him. “You were just going to hang around with your monster brother and not do a thing!? You didn’t even help at the chariot race!” “Don’t call Tyson that.” Annabeth was stunned. It wasn’t Percy who said that. It was Silena . Silena inhaled shakily. “Tyson has been nothing but kind, Annabeth. And it isn’t fair to expect Percy to always be the hero!” “Luke was right,” Annabeth muttered, crossing her arms. “You are just a leech.” Silena froze. “...What did you just say?” Annabeth stubbornly held her nose in the air. “You’re just a leech! You find friends who are better than you and stick by them!” “Woah, Wise Girl, you better stop. Talking.” Clarisse snarled. “You can’t talk to my friends that way.” “Since when do you listen to Luke anyways,” Silena shot back as she put her hands on her hips. “He betrayed camp, tried to kill Percy and poisoned Thalia!” “But-!” “Enough, Annabeth.” Percy wasn’t looking at her, his eyes stuck on the deck. His entire frame was tense like he was about to be struck by lightning. “You have been nothing but petty and jealous since you picked me up from school this week. I haven’t even done anything to you but you just keep insulting my friends. I’m done with that.” He looked up, striking green, meeting striking gray. “I’m done with you. If you don’t change your attitude we cannot be friends.” Percy turned and he left, going below deck and leaving Annabeth behind with her heart in her stomach. - Well. That could have gone better. Percy thought as he slunk down with his back pressed tightly against the door. His heart was beating almost out of his chest and Percy pressed the heel of his palm to it. Gods, he wished he hadn’t needed to do that. Sure, Annabeth was being a pain in the ass, but she was still Annabeth .  A lot like before, there was a hesitant knock at Percy’s door. He groaned and opened it, expecting an argumentative blonde but instead getting a frowning daughter of Aphrodite. “Percy?” Silena whispered. “Can we- Can we talk?” He wordlessly stepped aside to let her in. “I’m sorry for what Annabeth said.” Silena said. Percy shrugged. “Nothing you could do about it. I’m sorry for what she said about you, too.” “Thank you, Percy,” Silena smiled, a little sad and watery. “I-” 
WOOSH!
 “Oh, fuck!” Percy cursed, sitting up after being thrown about the cabin. “This is why I hate the ocean!” “Are you alright?” Silena asked, eyes wide and hands shaking. “What even was that?”“The entrance to the Sea of Monsters, I guess,” Percy groaned, rubbing his head. “Ow.” “We should get above deck.” “Agreed.” Good plan. Except for the fact that the ship started to explode before they even got to the deck. “Well, now we need a lifeboat!” Percy shouted, ducking and running away from the burning dead soldiers.  “Agreed!” Of course, that was as far as Percy got before being knocked out by the boilers exploding. Because what else makes sense? - Silena was not quite sure what to make of Percy Jackson. She watched him breathe as he laid unconscious aboard the lifeboat. When the boiler exploded, Silena dragged him across deck to the lifeboat and set them out to sea. She didn’t know where Clarisse or Annabeth was. She couldn’t think about it. They might be dead. With a brief glimmer of hope, Silena remembered the lack of the second lifeboat, but that train of thought was quickly derailed by Percy groaning. “Oh god,” Percy moaned, forehead scrunched up. “Not again. Why?” “Percy,” Silena shook his shoulder. “ Percy . Wake up.” His eyes twitched open and he immediately squinted. “W-Where are we?” “Somewhere at sea,” Silena sniffed, wiping at her nose. “What should we do?” “Thirty degrees, thirty-one minutes north, seventy-five degrees, twelve minutes west,” Percy recited, voice shaky but face steady. “We need to keep going.” It amazed Silena how strong this thirteen year old was. Here she was practically falling apart and he was there, focused and collected. “How do you do this?” Silena whispered as Percy was looking off into the distance. “You’re so calm.” “I’m really not,” Percy responded wryly. “But if I freak out it’s not going to help anyone. I didn’t even want to go on this quest.” “Oh.” Silena and Percy drifted in silence for a while after that. - Arriving at the place you finished dreaming about was really disorienting and Percy really wanted to stop doing it. Polyphemus’s island was nasty and beautiful and awful. The sheep were grazing and up around a tree the legendary Golden Fleece glinted in the sunlight.  He and Silena trekked over the steep rocks, working their way closer and closer to the Cyclops's cave until they could hear a familiar piercing voice. “-CK YOU!” “I think that’s Clarisse…” Silena muttered, leaning forward. “LET ME GO AND FIGHT ME YOU UNWASHED MORON-!” “Well, that’s definitely her.” “What are we going to do?” Silena asked, long hair whipping around in the wind. “I have a plan,” Percy said, despite having no such plan. “What are you two doing here?” A voice from behind them replied quietly. “Wha-! Annabeth? ” Silena hissed, clutching a hand to her chest. Annabeth whipped off her hat and stared blankly at the pair of them for a second before jumping at Percy with a hug. “I thought you were dead,” She whispered. Percy hugged her back but let go quickly.  “I’m still not happy with you,” He responded. “But I’m very happy you aren’t dead.” Silena sighed. “Fine, lovebirds, what are we going to do about Clarisse?” “And Grover,” Annabeth chimed in. “Grover is in there too. In a wedding dress? It is really weird.” Percy turned to look at Silena, a thought nagging in his brain. “Have you tried just asking?” - Oh, this was a terrible idea. The worst idea, even. But still Silena walked up to the mouth of the cave and cleared her throat. The ugly Cyclops - Polyphemus? - snapped his head and stared down at her dumbfounded with his milky eye. “Another half-blood?” He rasped. Silena smiled shakily. “ Go fetch the Fleece.”  The monster’s movements went stiff and jerky, but he obeyed. “Yes!” Percy chorused, rushing down to the cave and was over to Grover in a shot. Grover seemed woozy, and not all there. Clarisse was obviously angry but there wasn’t much she could do about that with the homemade gag stuck in her mouth.  When Polyphemus lumbered back to the cave, all that was in it was a smiling Silena and soon after with her prize retrieved, even that was gone.  - “That was fucking awesome!” Clarisse grinned sharply when they had all piled into the two lifeboats. “How did you think to do that?” “I-I didn’t,” Silena coughed, touching her throat. “Per-cy did.” The runt just smiled. “I remembered stories of the sirens.” “Okay, so we have the Fleece. Now we just need to get back to camp?” Miss Wishy-Washy said, glancing over at the sleeping Grover who was currently covered with said Fleece. “I can urge the currents to get us to Miami faster.” Percy volunteered, already flicking his wrists to command the water. Clarisse started, confused. “Why didn’t you do that before?” Percy shrugged. “Too big. These ships are tiny.” The ride back to the States was annoyingly long and uncomfortable but they made it work, chattering and bickering, all feeling the lack of food or sleep. “Ugh,” Grover moaned, hooves kicking automatically. “Wha- Huh-?” “G-man!” Percy cried, grinning ear to ear. “You’re awake?” “Percy?” Grover said, rubbing his head. “Huh!? A-Am I still dreaming?”“Boy Wonder over here got you out of that cave.” Clarisse nodded at Percy. “You and your little blankie are on their way to camp.” “Don’t call the Golden Fleece a blankie ,” Annabeth scolded, picking her thirtieth fight that voyage. Everyone groaned. 
BRPP!
 The lifeboats ran aground. Everyone cheered. “Oh, thank the gods,” Silena exclaimed in relief. “I’m not sure how much more of that I could take.” “Agreed,” Percy responded as he laid down face first in the sand of Miami Beach. Grover hefted the Fleece off the boat with him. “Now how are we getting this back to camp? It needs to be as fast as possible, right? Otherwise, you wouldn’t have needed it.” “Clarisse,” Percy said from the sand. “Clarisse needs to fly ahead.” “What?” She shouted. “What do you mean me ?” “Your prophecy…?” The little punk replied like she was slow, sitting up in the sand.“I never told you my prophecy, asshole,” Clarisse grumbled, arms crossed. “You didn’t?” “He’s not beating the psychic allegations,” Grover stage-whispered from behind the arguing pair. “Hang on, what was your prophecy, Clarisse?” Silena intervened. " You shall sail the iron ship with warriors of bone. You shall find what you seek and make it your own. But despair for your life entombed within stone. And fail without friends, to fly home alone.” Clarisse recited. “Aha!” Percy looked triumphantly. “‘Fly home alone’! You need to get to the airport!” “Well, how are we even going to get the money,” Clarisse crossed her arms. “It’s not like four teenagers have some sort of secret stash on them.” “Oh- Uh.” Annabeth stuttered, reaching in her pocket. “About that.” “Annabeth, this is like three hundred dollars,” Grover replied in horror. “Where did you…?” Annabeth flushed. “I got really good at pickpocketing on the streets.” “Problem solved,” Percy smiled. “Get to the airport.” “Fine, fine.” Clarisse grumbled, waving a cab down and then she was gone. “Hey there, cuz. Welcome back to the States.” - Silena was growing to hate Luke Castellan.  As the four half-bloods were backed up away from the sea, his pale blonde hair shined right in her face and she couldn’t even see what she saw in him last summer. He looked old. And not the old that was attractive. Still he wasn’t doing anything beyond fuming over the loss of the Fleece. It was all fine until Percy opened his mouth. “You’ve been toying with us all along! You wanted us to bring you the Fleece and save you the trouble of getting it.” Luke scowled, his scar warping into something even uglier. “Of course, you idiot! And you’ve messed everything up!” “You tricked all of us!” Percy yelled as he drew his sword. “Even DIONYSUS at CAMP HALF-BLOOD !” Luke just sneered. “This is no time for heroics, Percy. Drop that stupid little sword, or I’ll have you killed sooner rather than later.” “So who poisoned Thalia’s tree, Luke?” Percy jeered.  “I did, of course,” Luke rolled his eyes. “I used elder python venom, straight from the depths of Tartarus.” “To clarify, Chiron had nothing to do with it?” “Pfft! We both know he would never do that. The old fool wouldn’t have the guts.” “You call it guts? Betraying your friends? Endangering the whole camp?” Silena spoke up Luke raised his sword. “You don’t understand half of it. I was going to let you all take the Fleece… once I was done with it.” “You were going to heal Kronos,” Annabeth said quietly “Yes! The Fleece’s magic would’ve sped his mending process by tenfold. But you haven’t stopped us. You’ve only slowed us down a little.” “And so you poisoned the tree, you betrayed Thalia, you set us up – all to help Kronos destroy the gods.” Luke gritted his teeth. “I thought Annabeth would have told you all this, why do you keep asking me?” Percy smiled innocently. “Because I want everybody in the audience to hear you.” “What audience?” Then his eyes narrowed. He looked behind him and quickly gasped and stumbled back. Above the beach, shimmering in the rainbow mist, was an Iris-message vision of Dionysus, Tantalus and the whole camp in the dining pavilion. They sat in stunned silence, watching the scene laid out in front of them. “Well,” said Dionysus hummed. “Some unplanned dinner entertainment.” “Mr D, you heard him,” Percy said. “You all heard Luke. The poisoning of the tree wasn’t Chiron’s fault.” Mr D smirked. “I suppose not, you sly child.” “Couldn’t the Iris-message be a trick,” Tantalus suggested, but his attention was mostly stuck on the food that was moving slowly away from his grasp. “Oh, no. Not possible.” Mr D said, looking with distaste at Tantalus. “A shame. It appears I shall have to reinstate Chiron as activities director.” Tantalus grabbed the cheeseburger. It didn’t bolt away from him. “I got it!” he cackled.  “We are no longer in need of your services, Tantalus,” Mr D announced, hiding a grin in his wine glass of Diet Coke. Tantalus stopped laughing immediately. “What? But-” “You are dismissed.” “Hey, Lord Dionysus!” Percy called. “Can you give us a lift? We seem to be in a bit of a situation!” “Hmm,” Dionysus pondered, before shrugging. “Why not. The hard work is already over and Chiron would be so very upset if all of his little ducklings- I mean demigods weren’t in a row.” Silena let herself smile at Luke’s twisted expression as the god snapped and the four of them were warped back to camp. - Percy sighed as he flounced on his bed, tired and ready to fall the hell asleep. 
Knock, knock.
 Fuck, man. He just wanted some sleep.  Percy got up and opened the door to see Charles Beckendorf there, wringing his hands. His face lit up when he saw the son of Poseidon. “Percy! Hey, I wanted to talk to you.” Percy was too tired for this. “Beckendorf?” “Hey,” He replied awkwardly. “I just wanted to apologize. I didn’t mean to do anything to you, y’know before you left on the quest. I’m sorry.” “You didn’t do anything, Beckendorf,” Percy said, rubbing his aching eyes. “You just… remind me of something sad.” “Oh. So no hard feelings?” Percy exhaled shakily. “No hard feelings. Now let me sleep, please.” The other boy smiled, shooting him a double thumbs up and skedaddled out. 
Finally, some peace.
 Percy laid down and almost instantly fell asleep. And oooh, boy what a mistake that was.  He was awoken later that night when the rain and thunder reached its peak. The borders were once again protected thanks to the Fleece, but the noise was still all around. Percy had the strangest urge to go outside. And so he did. It wasn’t raining, the water spilling down an invisible dome at the center of camp. This much nasty rain would flood the fields and that would not be good. It was nice not to slip on mud as he walked though. Percy trudged through the empty seats at the amphitheater and up Half-Blood Hill. It was dark but he could still see fairly well.  Which was why he was able to see the figure laying at the base of Thalia's Tree with almost perfect quality. “There she is,” He whispered as he came and sat next to his cousin. “Welcome back, Thalia.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“Well, your pupils dilate fine,” The cabin head of Apollo, Cleo, noted. “For spending five years as a tree, that Fleece certainly did its job.”
 
Thalia Grace snorted. “Yeah, it certainly did something right.”
 
Cleo frowned, lowering her notepad. “Thalia, we talked about your negativity.”
 
“Yeah, yeah,” Thalia rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”
 
“Do you want to talk about it?”
 
“About what?” Thalia lashed out, snarling. “My best friend being five years older than she should be? Or my other best friend trying to kill me in some pathetic rebellion against his father? Maybe even that stupid kid that everyone tried to replace me with! Tell me again, please, exactly what I should be positive about!”
 
Cleo sighed. “Thalia-”
 
“Thalia!” Grover called, sticking his head in the doorway. “Annabeth needs you!”
 
“Grover, you and Annabeth both know that you can’t steal my patients while I’m in a session with them!” Cleo snapped, spinning around in her roller chair. “Get out.”
 
“It’s fine,” Thalia shrugged. “You were finished anyways. Let’s go, Grover.”
 
“Tha- We weren’t done yet!” Cleo shouted as the pair walked out. “Thalia!”
 
“Are you sure you’re okay to leave?” Grover asked anxiously. “Cleo seems sort of upset.”

Thalia waved a hand. “She’ll live. What’s going on with Annie?”
 
“Well, she’s crying and won’t come out of the bathroom,” Grover replied slowly. “She just yelled at me when I asked what’s wrong…”

“Lead the way,” Thalia grinned, shoving all of her anger to the back of her mind. “I’m sure I know just what to do to help.”
 
-
 
Thalia didn’t like how some of the people at camp looked at her. It was almost with hatred? But not quite. Jealousy, maybe? She didn’t know what it was all she knew was that she did not like it. Another thing she was not a fan of was-
 
“Did you hear about what Percy said?”
 
“You will never be as good at sword fighting as Jackson if you don’t practice!”
 
“Percy helped Clara find her doll! Isn’t that so sweet?”
 
Percy. Fucking. Jackson.
 
Don’t get her wrong, Thalia didn’t hate the kid or anything. He really was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Everyone at camp had projected the image of her onto him and

that

pissed her off. When someone mentioned one of their names, the other quickly followed. They were pressed up on pedestals and Thalia was sick and tired of having to climb the damn thing.
 
It was during Annabeth’s birthday party that Thalia had finally had enough. She doesn’t even really remember what happened. Only that some camper had asked Annabeth a question about Percy, and it was like a fuse was lit inside her. Thalia yelled and set off some literal sparks and stormed out, leaving thunder rumbling in her wake. She didn’t even know where she was heading, just that she needed out.
 
She ended up in the woods, some rock formation that she vaguely remembered was named after her father, where she curled up and started to cry.
 
Everything was just all so much, her heart cried. Not even a full month ago, Thalia was a fucking

tree

! How was she supposed to live up to that stupid image people had of her! She was a kid in a fucked up world and she was just so tired at pretending the world didn’t leave her behind.
 
“Here’s a mint, Thalia,” Percy Jackson murmured as he sat beside her quivering form.
 
She glared up at him. “What are

you

doing here?”
 
He laughed dryly. “I’m psychic.”
 
“Don’t fuck around with me, Jackson,” Thalia sneered, shivering.
 
“Sorry, sorry.” There was a moment of silence. “We are not the same.”
 
“What?”
 
“We are not the same,” Percy repeated. “Everyone expects us to be, but we aren’t.”
 
Thalia looked at him, confused. “What the hell does that mean?”

“I am not trying to be you,” Percy said slowly, rain dripping down his cheeks. “And your friends are not trying to replace you with me. You and I are not interchangeable.”
 
“What would you even know about that?” Thalia laughed bitterly. “You’re the new and shiny toy! Of course you don’t see anything wrong with it?”

“You were the one who just came back from the dead,” Percy shot back. “A lot of my friends were yours first, and they have been avoiding me to hang out with you. And I can’t even be mad about it! You literally came back from the dead!”
 
“You’re weird.”
 
“And you’ve got a little bit of tree sap on your forehead.”
 
“You’re crazy.”
 
“Just take the damn mint, Grace.”
 
Thalia took the mint.
 
-
 
Percy was practically vibrating off of his bench at the dining pavilion. Today was August third, the day Castor was coming back to camp! With Tyson going off to learn how to do forge work under the sea, Thalia waking up and all of their mutual friends flocking to her, Percy had gotten pretty lonely. There was only so many times he could spar with Clarisse or hang with Silena before they ran out of things to do. So yeah, Percy was

pretty excited

to see one of his best friends in person again.
 
“Peek-a-boo!” A voice whispered in Percy’s ear as hands came up to cover his eyes. “How dost thou, hero?”
 
Grinning ear to ear, Percy turned and tackled the one behind him in a hug. “Cas!”
 
“My ribs! My ribs, Perce!” Castor cried, laughing on the floor. Percy started laughing too.
 
“Yo, Percy,” Thalia called from the table over. “Who’s smiley?”
 
Castor popped up, strolling over with his hand extended to greet the daughter of Zeus. “Hey! Castor Brennan, son of Dionysus. You?”
 
“Uh, hi?” Thalia blanked, shaking Castor’s hand. “Thalia. Grace. Daughter of Zeus.”
 
“Cool. Percy, your cousin is cooler than you! She said hi!”
 
Percy snorted, shaking his head and sitting back down at his table. “Sit your ass down, Brennan and tell me all about South Carolina.”
 
Dinner was nice. Even if he could feel all the shocked eyes from the new campers who hadn’t seen anyone treat Percy so casually before. Castor was back and camp and now the only piece missing was Rachel.
 
It was kind of weird. Before, in the time before he knew Castor, all Percy longed for was the summers. At camp he had friends. It wasn’t that Annabeth or Grover avoided him during the school year, they were all just busy. But now, Percy was most excited for the school year. Spending time with Rachel and Castor outside of all the stressful expectations was freeing. Percy wouldn’t have it any other way.
 
“Hey.” Castor bumped Percy’s shoulder with his own. “Do you wanna go make s’mores with me?”
 
“Duh,” Percy smiled. “Race you.”
 
-
 
“Perseus Jackson. So glad for you to join me. Have a pomegranate.”
 
Percy stared in shock at the god of the Underworld sitting across from him at a little diner booth in his dream. “What. Lord and Uncle… what is this?”
 
Hades rolled his eyes and poured something from the teapot into his own cup. “I’m attempting courtesy, nephew, no need to look so moronic. Have a pomegranate.”
 
“Is there a particular reason why we are having a fucked up little tea party?”
 
Hades’s responding smile was all teeth. “I’m getting to that. Have. A. Pomegranate.”
 
“Uh,” Percy responded intelligently. “I’ve read a myth where those are used to trap someone in the Underworld. Thanks, but I’ll pass.”
 
Hades sighed. “My beautiful wife. Yes, she did eat pomegranate seeds, but those were Underworld fruits. These are ones she grew on the surface, perfectly fine. But oh well, your loss. Now, about why I summoned you here today-”
 
A horrible thought occurred to Percy. “Wait, did something happen to Bianca or Nico?”
 
“No!” Hades scoffed. “Although it is because of them. They have been talking about…

hanging out

with you.”
 
“Hold on,

what

-?!”
 
“That’s what I said!” Hades groaned, tossing back his cup of mysterious liquid. “They’ve also been begging me to let them go to school. Kids! Wanting to go to school! I knew letting them have cable down here was a bad thing!”
 
“You have cable in the Underworld?”
 
“I’m a god, Perseus.”
 
“Fair enough.”
 
“You are going to lunch with my children tomorrow. Any other needless questions?” Hades asked, tone bored.
 
“Uh… no?”
 
-
 
“I know I risk sounding like a two-thousands romcom, but you are coming to my birthday dinner tonight, right?” Percy asked as he triple checked his room for anything he might have left out of his suitcase. 
 
“Ah, yes, the timeless movie,

Bethany, I Made Biscuits!”

Castor replied, sarcasm dripping in his tone as he lounged across one of the bunks. 
 
Percy snorted, jumping back and flouncing on his own bunk. Then he sighed and held his knees to his chest. “I’m so ready to go home, Cas.”
 
“I know, Perce, but blue cake, blue birthday,” Castor hummed, sitting up. “To me, fair friend, you can never be old!”
 
Despite himself, Percy cracked a smile. 
 
“Now, c’mon!” Castor smiled toothily. “Your mom should be here any minute.”
 
Percy’s mom was in fact there, speaking with Argus at the boundary. Her hair was down and curled around her face which lit up when she saw the boys making their way up the hill. Percy basked in his mom’s beautifulness and warmth and ran to tackle her in a hug.
 
“Oof,” She laughed as she hit the ground. “You’re getting a bit too big for this, sweetheart. Oh, I missed you too! Happy Birthday, Percy.”
 
“I love you, Mom,” Percy whispered into her hair.
 
She laughed again. “Love you too, baby. Let’s get on home.”
 
-
 
“Okay, everyone this has to be perfect!” Rachel exclaimed as she lit the last candle on the blue birthday cupcake. “Cas just texted me, they just got to the apartment! As a reminder, do

not

shout ‘surprise’, Percy will actually have a heart attack. Got it?”
 
“Can we still shout, ‘happy birthday’?” Nico asked, hand in the air.
 
“Uhm- wait until he already knows you’re there. Any more questi- Quick! The door!”
 
“-and then Silena chased the Apollo kids away with her eyelash curler and honestly that was the funniest- Wait, why do I smell candles?”

“Happy Birthday, Percy.” Bianca smiled, holding up a hand in a wave. “We have cake!”
 
Percy blinked, dumbfounded as he took in the scene. Rachel was sitting on the counter, cupcakes all around her. Bianca and Nico were sitting on the floor by the kitchen island. Sally and Castor were standing behind Percy with a big smile on their faces. 
 
Rachel could see Percy shutting down a little bit before something in his eyes locked and a smile grew on his face. “Aww, guys. You shouldn’t’ve.”
 
Nico was practically vibrating in excitement as he zoomed over to Percy and gave him a big hug. “Happy Birthday! I got you a gift, wanna see?!”
 
Percy untensed a little, looking down at where Nico was beaming up at him. “Uh…sure. What you got, Neeks?”
 
“Yuck,” Nico shuddered, letting go of the son of Poseidon. “Don’t call me

Neeks

.”
 
Sally smiled. “Now, now, let’s let Percy have a cupcake before gifts, Nico. We wouldn’t want those candles to go out.”
 
“Aww, you’re right,” Nico pouted. “Sorry, Mrs. Sally!”
 
“And a one, and a two,” Rachel hummed as she held out the blue cupcake with a badly drawn smiley face made with white icing. “Tada! Blue cake!”
 
Percy took the cupcake, staring at the two candles with amazement. “You… You planned this?”
 
“Duh!” Rachel rolled her eyes fondly. “You think Castor or Bianca know how to bake-?”
 
“Hey!”
 
“You’re not wrong, Rach.”

“Besides,” Rachel continued, slinking an arm around Percy’s shoulders. (She was still taller than him, score!) “What else are best friends for?”
 
Percy started crying.
 
“Oh, honey!” Sally cried, settling on Percy’s other side. “What’s the matter?”

“I-I don’t kn-ow!” Percy hiccupped, face in his hand not holding the cupcake. “It’s j-justt- I’m n-not used to people c-caring this mu-much!”
 
Rachel and Castor exchanged a look from above Percy’s head. “Shh, Perce.” Rachel soothed. “It’s alright. We’re here now and we have cake and hugs.”
 
Percy cried harder. 
 
“What about the girl and boy with pretty curls?” Nico asked innocently. “They seemed like they cared a lot. Where are they?”
 
Percy looked up, tears staining his flushed cheeks, blowing out the candles as he exhaled. “Well-”

Knock, knock, knock.

Sally hummed, turning to look out the peephole before gasping and pulling the door open.
 
It was Grover. Grover was standing at the door, shuffling his hooves as he held out a wrapped present about the size of a shoebox in front of himself. “Hey, Perce. Happy birthday…?”
 
Percy was in shock. Rachel quickly reached out and grabbed the cupcake before it could fall. “Grover…? You’re- You’re

here

?”
 
Grover smiled sheepishly. “Yeah, man. Of course! It’s your birthday!”
 
“It’s nice to see you again, Grover,” Sally smiled warmly, ushering the satyr in and closing the door behind him. “You’re right on time.”
 
The party was a resounding success if Rachel had any say in it. Percy had eventually stopped crying, and everyone was sure to look away when Grover hugged him. The blue cupcakes were even better than they looked (which to be fair Rachel didn’t have much experience baking) and even the gifts part was going well. Nico and Bianca’s joint gift was a large box of fidget toys, Grover’s was a wonderful jar of blue M&M’s, Castor’s was Avril Lavigne concert tickets, and Rachel and Sally’s…
 
“So, your mom and I were talking,” Rachel started, when Grover and Castor were busy debating the di Angelo siblings on the couch. “And we think we figured out the solution for your next school.”
 
Percy snorted, sipping at his sparkling blue water. “What is it?”
 
“I’m being homeschooled this year and I want you to join me.”
 
“Huh?”
 
“Think about it, sweetheart,” Sally leaned forward at the kitchen table. “You’ll get to go at your own pace, you’ll be with Rachel, and you won’t be fussed at for your ADHD.”
 
“No, I understand that. I just-” Percy turned to face his best friend, confusion painting his face. “I don’t understand why you would want me to do it with you.”
 
Rachel’s heart splinted a little bit. “Oh, Perce,” she said softly. “I love you. You saved me. That’s why. I don’t need any other reason.”
 
Percy started crying again. Rachel handed him another cupcake.
 
-
 
“No, Percy,” Rachel pinched the bridge of her nose as she sighed. “We both know that is not how ‘wind’ is spelled, stop fucking with me.”
 
Percy snickered, leaning his head back to stick his tongue out at his friend. They all were spread out amongst Rachel’s living room. Castor was sprawled on a loveseat, Rachel on the couch, and Percy on the floor by her feet. “But there could be an ‘H’ in it. You never know.”
 
“Shut your damn mouth! Tell him, Castor!”
 
The son of Dionysus glanced up from his homework before smiling back down to his notes. “Rach, stop lying to the dyslexic kid.”
 
“I am not!” Rachel screeched, throwing a throw pillow beside her at Castor. He swiftly dodged it and wrote something down.
 
“I’m bored.” Percy groaned, flopping onto the floor.
 
“Hi, bored. I’m dad.” Rachel and Castor spoke in unison.
 
“It’s not even October yet, stop with the creepy things.”
 
“You’re just jealous, Percy.”
 
“Of what!?” Percy squawked.
 
Castor smirked as he curled up his knees to his chest. “That you’re not the only psychic one.”
 
“Give it a rest!” Percy grumbled. “I am

not

psychic!”
 
“Yeah,” Rachel grinned. “And I’m not an Oracle.”
 
“You two are just mean.”
 
“But you love us~!”
 
Castor started laughing, and Rachel followed him, and Percy followed her and soon they were all gasping for breath. During their laughing fit, Castor had joined Percy on the floor, leaving Rachel looking down at them. Her hair was spread above them like a curtain and Percy couldn’t keep relaxing. He was here. He was safe. 
 
“I have a question,” Rachel said quietly, flipping her hair over one shoulder as she leaned back up. “You two don’t have to answer it.”
 
“Okay…” Castor replied.
 
“What was happening when you died last time?”
 
Percy immediately tensed up. He could feel Castor beside him forcing himself to stay calm. He tried to take a deep breath in, but the air was getting stuck on the way to his lungs. 
 
“The ship,” Percy rasped. “I remember The Princess Andromeda exploding and me sinking beneath the waves. It’s funny. I think I drowned.”
 
It was a moment before Castor could respond. “...It’s hard to remember. Luke’s ambush through the Labyrinth. I know my arm was almost completely gone but that wasn’t what killed me. Maybe a head wound? It’s all kind of fuzzy.”
 
It was another few moments before Rachel slid onto the floor beside her boys and held her knees close to her chest. “After Percy died, it was chaos.” She started. “No one was even sure what happened, at least that’s what Annabeth said when she came to tell me the news. Just. You never came back, and everyone assumed the prophecy would fall onto Nico. Then I became the Oracle, and it-” Rachel choked up, tears welling up in her eyes.
 
Percy scooted against her side, wrapping an arm around her waist in a hug. He saw Castor do the same on her other side and they just held her as she cried.
 
“It didn’t end well,” Rachel sniffed as she collected herself. “Can we leave it at that for now? I don’t think I can go into it yet.”
 
“Of course,” Castor replied. “We are always here for you, Rach.” 
 
“Yeah,” Percy whispered. “Yeah.”
 
-
 
“What’s your Halloween costume going to be!?” Nico exclaimed the moment Percy slid into the McDonalds booth. 
 
“Wow, you’re real enthusiastic about that, buddy.” Percy blinked, taken aback.
 
Binaca groaned. “Nico. Volume.”
 
“It’s okay,” Percy yawned. “Just a bit early. My Halloween costume? I haven’t thought about that yet.”
 
“I’m going to be Fred and Cerberus is going to be Scooby-Doo!” Nico beamed. “I keep telling Bianca she should be Velma-”
 
“Nico, I’m too old for dressing up,” Bianca said, rubbing her temples. “I don’t have time for that!”
 
Nico dropped back in the booth, pouting. “You

never

have time for me anymore, Bia.” He grumbled. Oh gods,

no

. Not a pouting twelve year old.
 
“What if I dress up with you, Nico?” Percy blurted out. “Rachel can be Daphne, and I can be Shaggy?”
 
“You will!?” Nico’s eyes sparkled as he sat up in his seat. “Oh my goodness! Thank you, thank you, thank you!”
 
Bianca met Percy’s gaze and sent him a thankful look before tugging at her brother’s sleeve. “C’mon, Neeks. Father wants us to bring him back some sort of Happy Meal.” 
 
“Wait, Bianca,” Percy exclaimed as the siblings moved out of the booth seat. “There are some really nice thrift stores around here. When Halloween gets closer, would you like to look through them for costume pieces with me?”
 
The daughter of Hades looked at him for a moment before the corners of her lips quirked up and she nodded. “Sure, Percy. I’d love to.”
 
“Cool, cool.” Percy could feel the tips of his ears grow hot from embarrassment. “Just let me know whenever.”
 
“I’ll do that- Hey! Nico! Stop touching all those buttons-!”
 
-
 
Something was crushing all the air out of his lungs, all of the bones in his body, all of the thoughts out of his head. Those were the things Grover noticed upon becoming aware again. 
 
Well, this was not something he had on his bingo card this year.
 
“Hello?” The satyr called out from his consciousness. “Is anyone there?”
 
An immense pressure was all around him, growing larger and larger, and then all of a sudden there was nothing.
 
“

Fuck… Not again…

” A voice echoed throughout the space. A familiar voice.
 
“Percy?” Grover’s head snapped up urgently. “Percy, is that you?!”
 
“Shit… Yeah! Yeah, it’s me.”
 
“What the hell is going on?” Grover shouted, wading about trying to find the source of his best friend’s voice.
 
Percy didn’t say anything for a minute. “Don’t worry about it, man. Just wake up. I’ll be alright.”
 
“I’m not just going to leave you here, dude,” Grover scoffed. “No way. Let me help you!”
 
“Oh, G-man,” Percy said softly. “I wish it was that easy. Wake up, buddy. You can ask me about it when we are awake.”
 
Frustratingly enough, Percy was right. Grover was already experiencing the hazy feeling of being close to waking. 
 
“You better let me know when we wake up! I’m holding you to that, Percy!” Grover shouted and then he was gone.
 
Percy sighed. “If you would ask, I would answer,” He whispered as he shifted the weight of the sky onto his back. “But you never seem to remember…”
 
-
 
“The superior breakfast food is waffles, not pancakes, you heathen!” Bianca exclaimed, tossing a particularly garish shirt in Percy’s direction. The two had honored their plans from earlier that year and were in one of the dirt-cheap thrift shops around Percy’s apartment.
 
Percy caught it, snickering wildly. “See that’s where you’re wrong. Pancakes are easier to cut so they must be better.”
 
“Hmph,” Bianca crossed her arms across her chest lightheartedly. “I guess so. But your taste still sucks- Ooh! How about this shirt?”
 
“Eh, I feel like if I wear that your father might send me to the Underworld. Personally.”
 
The shirt in question was a black printed T-shirt with a skeleton cat playing with a ball of yarn. Underneath it was printed ‘Schrodinger's Cat. Wanted Dead or Alive.’
 
“Yeah,” Bianca stifled a laugh and tossed the shirt back into the bin in front of them. “Hey, Percy? Are you sure you’re alright spending Halloween with Nico and I?”
 
Percy blinked. “Is that a problem? If it is I don’t want to like get in the way-”
 
“No! No you aren’t getting in the way,” Bianca rushed, turning to face the son of Poseidon. “But you don’t owe us anything. You could just stop trying.”
 
“Why would I do that?” Percy asked, eyes scrunched up. “I like hanging out with you guys. I like to think we are friends. Or well, cousins.”
 
“Oh. Oh!” The daughter of Hades flushed, burying her face in her hands. “I’ve…never actually had a friend before. Wow. This is…”
 
Percy snorted and tossed an orange sweater at her. “Here. Perfect for Velma next month.”
 
Bianca clumsily caught the sweater and held it to her chest tightly. She smiled at Percy; the most genuine expression he had seen her make. “Thanks, Percy.”
 
“Uhuh. Now let’s find a crappy green shirt for yours truly.”
 
“If you say so, psychic boy.”
 
“

Anyways

. How’s school treating you?”
 
“Ugh,” Bianca wrinkled her nose as they moved to the next bin over. “It’s weird. Nico seems to like it though.”
 
“I asked how

you

liked it though.”
 
Bianca sighed a little bit. “The girls in my class are sorta mean. They make fun of me for not having a boyfriend or any sort of crush on anyone.” 
 
Percy squinted. “You guys are literally in eighth grade. What does that matter?”
 
“Exactly!” She said, slamming her hands down on the edges of the thrift store bin. “We aren’t even in high school! Why does everything have to be about dating and shit!”
 
“Woah. You just cursed.”
 
“My dad can’t wash my mouth with soap up here. I'll be fine for now.”
 
-
 
“Hey, Percy,” Annabeth gripped the landline to her ear tightly. “Happy Thanksgiving. I know we haven’t talked in a while... I’m sorry. I’m sorry I was such an asshole. I miss you.”
 
“I was the bad guy, I know that now,” The girl continued, taking a steadying breath in. “I was being petty and jealous and judgmental, I know. I was scared, I guess. You got close with all these other people, and I was scared that I lost my friend. I shouldn't’ve acted the way I did, and I am sorry. If there is anything I can do to fix what I’ve done, please. Let me know. I miss you, Percy. Call me back.”
 
Annabeth slammed the phone back on its receiver. Her cheeks were wet and warm.
 
Huh. She was crying.
 
“Annabeth,” Her father said from the doorway. “Your brothers need the phone. Want to come help me with dinner?”
 
Annabeth sniffed. “Yeah, I’ll be right there, Dad. Thanks.”
 
She looked once more at the landline before rushing out of the room like a whirlwind and never looking back.
 
-
 
Thalia doesn’t understand how Chiron managed to convince her and Annabeth to take the side-quest of picking up a baby half-blood. The eight hour drive, turned ten by traffic was not fucking worth it.

“I understand that this is your winter break, but I must deeply urge you to take this quest. Grover is going to meet you there.”

Oh yeah. Grover.
 
“Annie,” Thalia said, elbowing the sleeping blonde. “We’re in Maine, get your ass up.”
 
“Another five minutes…” Annabeth grumbled, grabbing Thalia’s arm and cuddling it close to her chest.
 
“Annie~!” Thalia tugged on her arm. “C’mon!”
 
“Ugh. Fine.” Annabeth reluctantly opened her eyes, squinting due to the overwhelming snow all around her.
 
The daughter of Zeus chuckled. “Let’s go, Grover’s waiting for us.” 
 
The two hopped out of the car and with a nod to Argus, it peeled away with a cloud of smoke and the squeal of tires. Thalia glared up at the dark castle-like architecture of Westover Hall. It looked cold and dark. Why anyone would send their kids here, Thalia couldn’t understand. But then again, she hadn’t officially been in school since she was eleven. Annabeth shivered, wrapping her arms around her shoulder and Thalia sighed. She broke free of her thoughts and ushered her best friend into the creepy castle of doom. The entrance hall was huge and in Thalia’s opinion resembled a museum more than a school. Lining the walls were all kinds of old weaponry and battle flags for days. All of it was sending chills down Thalia’s spine. She rubbed her bracelet in an attempt to comfort herself.
 
“C’mon,” Annabeth muttered, shaking the last of her grogginess out of her system. “We need to find Grover.”
 
The pair of demigods hadn’t gone very far before two figures materialized out of the shadows to greet them. “Hmm,” The woman declared. “Just what in the world are you two doing?”
 
Thalia and Annabeth exchanged a panicked glance but before they could even say anything the man scoffed. “Hah! Unregistered visitors are not allowed at the dance! You shall be

eee-escorted

off of school property!”
 
Thalia scrunched up her nose at the atrociously thick French accent. The way the man’s blue and brown eyes were staring at her only intensified the chills running down her spine. She stepped forward and snapped, loud and clear, feeling the Mist rustle around them.
 
“Oh, but we’re not visitors, sir,” Thalia said. “We go to school here. You remember. I’m Thalia. And this is Annabeth. We’re in the eighth grade.” 
 
The male teacher narrowed his two-colored eyes. He looked at his colleague. “Mrs. Gottschalk, do you know these students?”
 
“Oh?” The woman blinked, as if she was just awoken from a deep trance. "I… yes. I believe I do, sir… Annabeth. Thalia. What are you doing away from the gymnasium?” 
 
It was at that moment Grover decided to run in from who knows where. “Guys! You made it! You- uh.” He stopped short when he saw the teachers. “Haha, Mrs. Gottschalk. Dr Thorn! I, hm.” 
 
“What is it, Mr. Underwood?” The man sneered. Just hearing the malice dripping from the tone was enough to figure out his thoughts of the satyr. “What do you mean

‘they made it’

? These students live here.”
 
Grover swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing. “Yes, sir. Of course, Dr Thorn. I just meant I’m so glad they made- uh, the punch for the dance! The punch is great. And they made it!” 
 
So called Dr. Thorn glared at the group of literal children, while his coworker Mrs. Gottschalk just sighed dreamily. “Yes, the punch is excellent. Now run along, all of you. You are not to leave the gymnasium again!” 
 
“Yes, ma’am.”

“Won’t happen again!”
 
“Of course.”
 
The group of teenagers chorused as Grover shuffled them towards the echoing music from down the hall. Once they were out of earshot of the pairs of teachers, the tension in Grover’s body melted away. “Oh, thank the gods,” He laughed breathlessly. “I hate those monsters so much.”
 
“Are you alright?” Annabeth asked, fretting over him like a mother hen. “You look like you lost weight?”
 
“I’m fi- Annabeth. I’m alright!” Grover protested as the daughter of Athena picked at his curls. “It’s just really cold up here. I found two.”
 
“Two half-bloods?” Thalia replied, crossing her arms. “Here?”
 
Grover nodded. “A sister and a brother. Thirteen and eleven. Rather strong too. The last time I smelled something this strong was…”
 
“...Percy.” Annabeth finished for him, her face doing a weird twitchy thing.
 
“...Yeah.”
 
“Any monsters?” Thalia asked to break the awkward silence. 
 
“Oh, yeah. That vice-principal Dr. Thorn. Not sure what he is yet, but it’s definitely him.” Grover sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “C’mon, I’ll walk you to the gym. I don’t like leaving them unattended for too long.”
 
The trio walked swiftly down the hall and to a door that had music so loud it pulsed through the hall. Thalia took a deep breath and pulled open the door.
 
“Oh, you gotta be fucking kidd-!”
 
-
 
Castor loved his friends. He really did. But why in the hell did they have to embarrass him in public.
 
“Guys, guys, please stop,” He begged, body racking in laughter.
 
“Aww, Cas,” Rachel smirked. “You don’t like the macarena?”
 
“No!” Castor hiccupped. “No, I don’t!”
 
“I don’t know, I think he might be fibbing~!” Percy said, smiling in that crooked mischievous way that had the hair on Castor’s neck stand up. He sent a pleading glance at Bianca, who was sitting on the bleachers in front of them.
 
“Oh. Oh, no. Leave me out of

that

!” Bianca laughed as she half-heartedly organized one of Nico’s stupid card games while the boy himself got some punch.
 
Castor sniffed. “I see. You all hate me. Be as wise as thou are cruel.”
 
That got a laugh out of Percy, and he tossed an arm over Castor’s shoulder. “Brennan, you are fine. Loosen up a bit, won’t y-”
 
“Jackson?”
 
Ironically, Percy’s entire body stiffened like a cat. He turned behind him sharp enough that Castor was worried about him hurting himself. 
 
“Percy!” A familiar voice bleated and rushed to hug him. Seeing Grover must have flipped some sort of switch in his best friend, as he relaxed slightly.
 
“Hey, G-man,” Percy said softly, patting Grover's back. “How’s it going?”
 
Grover sniffed and hugged him harder. “Cold. Glad you’re safe. I’ve been having weird-bad feelings recently.”
 
Castor looked over at Rachel. Her face was abnormally stoic, and her fists were clenched so tightly they were white. He put a hand over one of them and she dropped the fist. Red crescents could be seen on her palm. He sighed, looked back up to his other best friend and saw him unnaturally still in a staring contest with Annabeth Chase. 
 
Well. Shit.
 
-
 
Bianca did not like people who made her friends uncomfortable. Staring at Percy’s uncomfortable form standing opposite of that blonde girl she first met him with- (Anna? Annabelle? - she felt goosebumps on her arms. Rachel backed up to the bleachers beside Bianca and muttered. “I’m going to go find Nico. Or else I’m gonna punch someone.” Bianca nodded and closed up her brother’s card tin.
 
“A mortal. Really, Jackson?” The blonde girl said shakily.
 
Percy shook his head. “What? Me and Rachel-”
 
“Rachel and I.” Castor interrupted.
 
“-are just friends.”
 
“All of that aside,” Grover said, looking between his friends confused. “What are we going to do about-”
 
“Frankly, Annabeth. I don’t see what Percy’s friendships have to do with you.” Castor snapped, crossing his arms over his chest.
 
The girl, Annabeth, had the audacity to look hurt. “Percy’s my friend, Brennan.”
 
“Then why did you only call him once since he left camp?” Castor started. “That’s not even counting the amount of time you actually spent with him all summer-”
 
“Cas. Drop it.” Percy said through gritted teeth.
 
“No, Perce! I won’t!” The son of Dionysus exclaimed, turning to face his best friend. “You miss her but all she does is treat you like garbage! Don’t make excuses for her!”
 
“I’m no-”
 
“You missed me?” Annabeth’s voice cracked. “I… I thought…”
 
Percy sighed. “I do miss you. You are my friend. You’re just so- so

insecure

about being friends with me. You expect me to start every conversation and only be friends with you. I miss you, Annabeth, but like I said last summer, there has to be some change.”
 
No one spoke. Annabeth sniffled. Castor moved to sit by Bianca. Percy rubbed his hand on the back of his neck.
 
“Hey, Grover,” The punk girl behind Annabeth spoke up. “If that’s the girl, where’s the boy?”
 
“What?”
 
“If she-” the girl pointed at Bianca, “is the sister. Where is her brother?”
 
“Nico went to get us all drinks.” Bianca stated, head held high, expression not letting any of her dislike show. “Rachel just left to go get him.”
 
“Wait… I don’t see her hair…” Castor muttered, eyes darting around the gym.
 
“

Fuck.

” Percy whispered, hands holding his face. “Dr. Thorn. We need to get going, like, yesterday.”
 
-
 
Rachel found Nico close to the exit doors, trying to balance five cups of Hawaiian punch. She chuckled, tension leaving her body upon seeing the kid. “Do you want some help?”
 
“Huh?” Nico responded; confusion evident until he processed who was in front of him. “Rachel! Yes!”
 
Rachel swept over and plucked three of the cups from the son of Hades. “There you go, squirt. Let’s head back.”
 
“Ahem.”
 
Rachel’s brow furrowed as she turned around, seeing the same clean-shaven teacher with heterochromia that Percy had been making demon eyes at the entire dance. Then the image overlaid with that of a furry ghoul whipping around a tail full of porcupine-like quill.

Goddamnit.

Rachel smiled politely at the monster. “Yes? What do you need?”
 
“What are you doing with this child?” The beast snarled.
 
“Dr. Thorn, this is my friend,” Nico spoke up, his usual smile dimmed. “Is there something wrong?”
 
“Something came up with you and your sister’s…

transcripts

. We needed the two of you to…

go over

some things.”

Golly gee, could this guy act any more obvious?

“How about I walk him?” Rachel suggested, tone like sugar.
 
“Oh, no-”
 
“It’s really no problem,” Rachel pressured.
 
“I- I want her there!” Nico exclaimed.
 
The monster, Dr. Thorn, scowled. “Very well then. Let us go.”
 
Rachel nodded.

I swear to all the gods, if Percy and Castor don’t show up to help us, I am going to jump off a cliff somewhere

.
 
-
 
A million little things were going through Annabeth’s brain as she ran alongside Thalia and Percy.
 
“You want to explain this again, Kelp Head?” Thalia demanded.
 
“Bianca and Nico are my friends. Rachel can see through the mist. Dr. Thorn is a monster. How can I make myself any clearer?” Percy huffed.
 
“Maybe, I don’t know, start by saying where you know them from?!” Thalia snarked.
 
“Percy saved them from the Lotus Casino two summers ago.” Annabeth responded. “Their dad-”
 
“Is still unknown.” Percy cut her off. “The mortal was their mother. Anything else?”
 
“Why is such a strong monster chasing them?” Thalia questioned. “Where is it taking them?”
 
“Here! Through the woods!” Grover shouted. “I can smell them!”
 
The woods were snowy and dark. Annabeth got her New York Yankees cap out and placed it on her head. She took a deep breath in and then started running faster. As the woods spit her out by a seaside cliff, Annabeth searched frantically for the bright red of the mortal girl’s hair. There! Right by the edge. Annabeth rolled her shoulders back and ran straight into the mortal and the younger demigod, plowing them down.
 
“What-!”
 
“Hey! Asshole!” Thalia yelled, advancing with Aegis, her shield. “Eat shit!”
 
“Nico! Rachel! Stay down!” Percy shouted, running out behind Thalia.
 
The noise of Grover’s reed pipes rose and fell, growing thick roots out of the ground that wrapped all around the manticore's torso, pulling him down.
 
All of a sudden, the piercing sound of a hunting horn echoed throughout the woods.
 
“No…” Dr. Thorn gasped. “It cannot be-!” He thrashed around, breaking the roots and landing on all his legs, hissing.
 
Dozens of shiny silver arrows shot from the woods and into the ground surrounding where manticore was held down. The monster growled but it was quickly cut off by an arrow striking true in his shoulder.
 
Annabeth’s expression spasmed.

The Hunters of Artemis.

Several young girls rushed out of the woods, armed with arrows and fierce expressions. “Permission to kill, my lady?” An older girl with dark hair and a silver circlet asked.
 
A younger girl, with full auburn curls nodded. “Permission granted, Zoë.”
 
“If I cannot have them alive, I will have them dead!” Dr. Thorn snarled, lashing out at where Percy, Annabeth, Rachel, and Nico were huddled.
 
“

Shit.

” Annabeth muttered, lunging and shoving Percy aside. Apparently, Rachel had similar thoughts as she pushed Nico aside as well. This was not enough and the two rapidly got swiped off the cliff by a falling manticore.
 
-
 
“NO!” Percy screamed, running to the edge of the cliff and looking down.
 
“Fuck.” Castor whispered under his breath, closing his eyes.
 
“Nico!” Bianca called, scooping up her younger brother and cradling him to her chest.
 
Grover simply looked over the cliff with mourning eyes.
 
“Zoë Nightshade.” Thalia’s voice was uneven with rage. “Amazing timing, per usual.”
 
The hunter, Zoë, scanned their group. “Five half-bloods and a satyr, my lady.”
 
The girl beside her hummed sadly, looking out to the horizon. “Some of Chiron’s little ones.”
 
“What are you doing? We need to go save them!” Castor called, looking around at his friends’ distraught expressions. “We need to help!”
 
“There is no helping your friends, young demigod.” The auburn-haired girl said.
 
“Who on Earth? Why should we listen to you? We need to go now, before it’s too late!”
 
“You dare-”
 
“Zoë.” The unnamed girl replied sharply before softening her tone. “He does not know. There is no disrespect within his words.” She turned to say something to Castor, but a voice behind him spoke before her.
 
“Lady Artemis,” Percy’s voice was flat, but not disrespectful. “It is nice to see you.”