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Percy and Kronos were standing face to face, on the Princess Andromeda, glaring at each other. Percy held his sword close to him, while Kronos was visibly unarmed. Or at least it looked like he was unarmed. Then Percy started yelling at Kronos.
"Hey, I know being evil is, like, kind of your thing and all, but could you just, like, not for a few days? I'm exhausted, I haven't slept in, like, three days because I've been caught up in all your annoyingly evil schemes. I have three school assignments due soon, and you are definitely not helping me. Do you think you could just give me a break for once?" Percy finished ranting, and caught his breath. The monsters surrounding them shifted around, and started whispering to each other confusedly.
Kronos just stared at him for a few seconds, then threw back his head and laughed. It looked really weird on Luke's face. "I had forgotten how amusing you mortals can be. Maybe I'll keep you as a pet once this war is over."
Percy frowned. "Dude, I just asked you to give me a fucking break. I don't need your stupid wars right now. Couldn't you just.. stop for a few days? Or even a few hours. Yeah, even just a few hours would really help a lot. I have stuff to do."
Kronos blinked. Then he shifted his feet from where he was standing on the dock of the Princess Andromeda, and crossed his arms over his chest. "You do realise that I'm trying to take over Olympus here? I don't really feel like stopping, or giving my enemies a break. Especially when the one asking, is the one foretold to possibly destroy me. This just makes it easier for me. I don't really care about your little problems."
"Pretty pretty please..." Percy pouted, making puppy eyes. Kronos would never admit it, but he was kind of tempted to stop making the kid's life hard.
"Hmmm..." Kronos cocked his head to the side. "You know, I would have let you do your stuff, if you had joined my side. Maybe you should reconsider..."
Percy just made more puppy eyes. Really really tempting puppy eyes.
Kronos smirked, his golden eyes flashing. "You know, you look super adorable when you do that. But it’s not going to work on me.”
Percy ignored the last part and, with a mischievous glint in his eyes, asked, “Aww, you think I look adorable? Well, thank you so much. Sadly you're just not my type. Sorry.”
Kronos flushed slightly. Wow, who knew you could make the Titan Lord blush? “I didn’t… I mean that’s not what I meant, you insolent child!”
Percy raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure about that? Considering how much you try to go after me, someone would think you have an obsession.”
Kronos sighed, mentally counting to ten in his head. Stupid, impertinent, cheeky children! Then Kronos just decided to use the demigod’s own tactic against him. So he made his own puppy eyes at Percy.
“Please please join my side? Then you can have all the rest you want, and you’ll be able to do whatever you want, without distubance…”
Percy’s eyes widened and his face turned slightly pink. He looked slightly dazed. “Uhhh…”
Kronos snorted. “Come on kid, what exactly have the gods done for you? They send you on hopeless quests, try to get you killed, they send you to Calypso’s island, and then after you do all that nice stuff for them, they vote on whether to kill you or not. ”
To be fair, Percy was kinda tempted. The other times Kronos had tried to convince him to join, Percy never really paid attention. He had just wanted to prove himself to his father. And then when he did that, Poseidon never paid that much attention to him.
Kronos sensed the boy's indecision, and fought the urge to smile triumphantly. He had thought winning the war might be at least a little bit hard. But apparently the Olympians were so incompetent, that even their supposed savior wasn’t impressed with them.
“Why would I join you if you’ll kill me anyways?” Percy gripped his sword tighter. Okay, so maybe it wouldn’t be that easy, Kronos thought.
Kronos sighed. “I won't kill you if you join me, Perseus.” When he still looked unconvinced, Kronos spoke again. “Ok, look at it from my point of view. So I get a prophecy from my dear old father, telling me that my kids would overthrow me, right before I killed him for abusing my mother. At first, I decided to ignore that warning, and raised my firstborn, Hestia, as my own. Then when my wife Rhea told me she was pregnant with my son, Hades, Hestia started rebelling against me. I was reminded of the prophecy, so I decided to do something about it. That’s not so wrong is it?”
“You ate them,” Percy’s voice rang out sarcastically. “How the hell do you even eat a grown child?”
Kronos rolled his eyes. “It’s actually quite easy, all you need to do is-”
Percy interrupted him, gagging. “Okay, I do not need to hear how to eat children. I definitely don’t plan on doing that.” With the last few words, he glared at Kronos pointedly.
A few of the monsters surrounding them, growled angrily. Kronos raised a hand, silencing them.
“Okay, just think about what I said for a minute, then answer me. Take all the time you want.” Well that was kinda stupid. Percy might escape.
Percy went silent, and thought about it. Kronos was right. The gods did try to kill him, and send him, and other demigods on pointless quests, which sometimes got them killed. But still, he couldn’t just betray them! They were his family! He was loyal to his family!
But Kronos, and the other Titans are also family, a little voice in the back of his head whispered. And even though your fatal flaw is loyalty, the person you’re loyal to can change. You’ll still be super loyal, just to someone different. And you’re loyal to the other demigods, right? You’ll help them better this way. The gods won’t kill them, or use them needlessly.
Percy hesitated for a second, then said, “Alright I’ll fucking join you. As long as you promise not to kill me. And you promise not to do what the gods did to the other demigods.”
Kronos grinned. Apparently it was that easy. “I’ll need you to swear your loyalty to me too.”
Percy nodded, and said, “I, Perseus Jackson, swear on the River Styx, that my loyalty will be to Kronos and his cause, as long as he swears to my terms, upholds them, and doesn’t try to kill me.”
Kronos grinned even more. This would be a great advantage. Oh, the Olympians would finally get what they deserved.
He opened his mouth, and said, “I, Kronos, Lord of Time, swear to Perseus Jackson’s terms, and promise to uphold them, for as long as he is loyal to me.”
There was a stunned silence from the monsters around them. Percy looked a little shocked at what he had just done. “So… what now?” He asked.
“Now, my dear little demigod, now we win the war.”