Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The Fates had decided, enough was enough, the gods were far too uninformed of their children's lives. The traumas they had faced, the deaths, the betrayals, everything, all because they were demigods. 

If the ignorance continued any longer, the demigods would take matters into their own hands, finishing the horrors that Luke once wished Olympus would face. Rebellions, revolutions, the fall of Olympus will reign if the Fates do not step in. 

Percy Jackson sat in his cabin, the day going by slowly. It was an average day at camp, the sound of volleyballs being tossed around on the beach, swords clanking together, the breeze drifting throughout the sanctuary the demigods called home.  

Just as he was about to fling his legs over him bunk and find something around camp to do, 3 loud bangs were heard before a yell. “Percy!” Ah, Annabeth. Percy grinned to himself, clambering quickly to the door to be faced with his girlfriend. 

“Why hello there, wise girl,” Percy greeted, studying Annabeth’s mildly irritated look. His grin faded slowly. 

Annabeth pressed her lips together, forming a thin line. “We need you at the Big House,” she said, hushing him out of the doorway. 

They started towards the Big House, Percy turning to her with a raised eyebrow whilst keeping up with Annabeth’s speed walking. “What’s going on? Is everyone okay? Are you okay?” Percy asked, pressing further, he tried to keep out any hint of worry from seeping through his voice. 

Annabeth gave him the same tight-lipped look as before. “Apollo,” she said, before picking up the pace in her steps. 

Percy laughed, mildly hysterical, if he got sent on another quest, he was going to flip out. Annabeth didn’t reply, swinging open the door of the Big House. 

They were greeted with Will and Nico, which was a little bit odd, Nico was meant to be out of camp for a bit and wherever Nico went, Will followed. Clarisse, Thalia and Grover were also there, sitting quietly. 

That almost would have made Percy nervous, what bit of information made Clarisse La Rue and Thalia Grace go silent. 

Percy smiled at Nico and Will, waving at Thalia, and sticking his tongue out at Clarisse who flipped him off without another thought. 

As they stepped inside, they saw Apollo spin around, flashing his blinding teeth at them. “Percy, Annabeth!” Apollo grinned, though there was a lack of his usual enthusiasm behind it. 

“Hey, Apollo,” Percy said suspiciously, narrowing his eyes at the god. “What’s brought you here to Camp Half-Blood?” He asked. 

Chiron cut in quickly. “The Fates have summoned you to Olympus,” Chiron said. 

Now that got Percy interest, things always got interesting with the Fates involved, if he didn’t focus on the deaths that had occurred because of the Fates intervention. 

“The gods, along with selected demigods have been called to Olympus,” Chiron added, motioning for everyone to stand. 

Clarisse stood up alongside everyone else. “If this is a prophecy, we shouldn’t bother, Percy will steal it anyways,” Clarisse rolled her eyes. Whilst both Percy and Clarisse had moved on from the Sea of Monsters incident, Clarisse loved bringing it up. 

“Jealousy looks terrible on you, Clarisse,” Percy waggled a finger. 

Chiron cut in once more, clearing his throat before speaking, “Children.” 

Both Percy and Clarisse turned to face Apollo, copying the others. “Right, well, we’ll take my sun chariot,” Apollo said, turning to leave. 

Percy, Thalia and Nico all glanced at each other. Each of them thinking about the time where Apollo had allowed Thalia to drive the bus full of hunters and demigods back to Camp Half-Blood. 

They all laughed, Apollo joining in as he realised what they were laughing about. The others cast them confused glances, shrugging at each other. 

“Pass that chariot drivers test yet, Thalia?” Nico had asked, a hint of a smirk on his face. 

“Piss off, death-breath,” Thalia muttered, though she couldn’t help trying to hide a grin of her own. 

As the four straightened up, they all made their way to the sun chariot (I’m so sorry, I don’t know if that’s what Apollo’s vehicle is called in English). 

As they made their way up to Olympus, everybody was quiet, the occasional muttering to each other, but that was it. 

Nico, Will, Thalia, Percy, Annabeth and Clarisse all walked into the throne room, Apollo pushing the doors open. Piper, Jason, Hazel, Frank and Leo all stood in a group, they had all arrived before them. 

After everyone had their attention turned to the entrance, the gods with calculating looks on their faces and in their smaller forms, their demigods grinning at them from where they stood speaking in hushed murmurs. 

Before anyone could get a word out, a stack of journals fell into the dead centre of the throne room with a thud that echoed loudly. Everyone snapped their heads towards the sound, some even drawing weapons. 

The weapons in their hands disappeared, some people turned, looking around for the culprit. Before anyone could get a word out, Percy’s face contorted into a mortified look. 

“My journals?” Percy’s voice sounded equally as mortified as his face looked. 

Zeus spoke, “you must be joking, we are going to be reading journals?” From the tone of his voice, he might as well have said, ‘I seriously have to sit here and listen to this brat's mumbo jumbo journals?’, Percy kept that thought to himself. 

The Fates appeared, a puff of smoke erupting around them. A stunned silence enveloped the room. “You have already been made aware as to why you will be reading these,” one of the Fates said. 

“Do you defy the Fates?” they all asked simultaneously. 

Some glances were cast over at Zeus who frowned before muttering a ‘no’. Every single person within their world knew that if there was one thing you should never ever go against, it was the Fates. 

As quickly as the Fates had arrived in a puff of smoke, they disappeared into another cloud of smoke. 

After a little while of silent tension, the demigods and gods muttering amongst themselves, couches and other seating arrangements were created and the demigods sat down. 

Percy, Annabeth and Grover all sat on a couch near Poseidon's throne where Amphitrite and Triton sat as well, Athena casting them a glare. Others sat around the room, though they didn’t separate from each other much, sticking in clusters. 

“So, does anyone want to fill us in?” Percy finally broke the elongated silence. Heads turned to face him, some nodding in agreement. 

Piper spoke up, “The Fates have said that the gods needed to learn about the dangers and traumas that come with being their children, said stuff about ignorance...” Her voice grew smaller as she ended the sentence, she seriously didn’t want the gods thinking she was calling them ignorant. 

Leo said, “I mean hey, it doesn’t sound all bad!” He tried for a cheery tone, adding, “it’s just a few of Percy’s weirdly long journals we have to read, right?” 

“I am absolutely not thrilled with others going through my journals, especially with some people in the room,” Percy said. Percy hadn’t mentioned or even looked at Zeus, but it was clear enough who he was talking about. 

“You think I wish to be in here reading about how ‘difficult’ your life is, boy?” Zeus scoffed, looking at the demigod. 

Thalia frowned, this was exactly why the Fates had decided that this was what needed to happen. Her father had no reason to be speaking so awfully to her cousin, especially when he was one of the main causes of Percy’s suffering. 

“Brother, might I remind you as to what the Fates said?” Poseidon said, turning away from his whispering with Amphitrite. “’No violence nor destruction will be tolerated.’” He quoted the Fates before adding, “Let’s not begin any childish nonsense.” 

Zeus nodded, albeit reluctantly, sitting back in his throne. 

“Can we hurry this up, I don’t want to be here any longer than necessary,” Dionysus rolled his eyes, half slumping in his throne. 

Everyone in the room pointedly ignored him. 

“Right...” Annabeth began, “does anyone want to read first?” She asked, looking around. 

Apollo’s hand stuck straight in the air with a renewed enthusiasm. “I will!” his cheery voice seemed to get rid of much of the tension.

“‘I Accidently Vaporise My Pre-Algebra Teachers?’” Apollo looked up from the journal only to see Percy holding back from cracking up in laughter, Grover looked close to it as well. 

Jason turned to stare at Percy, “How in the world do you ‘accidently’ vaporise you pre-algebra teacher...?” For a guy so tough, Jason looked like a worried mother right now. 

“Spoilers!” Percy said, holding up a finger to his lips. 

“The Fates never said anything against spoilers,” Hazel said matter-of-factly. 

“Well, I have, and I say no spoilers,” Percy grinned, turning to Apollo to begin reading. Multiple people shook their heads, suppressing their own grins. 

Poseidon watched his son with a soft smile; he was so glad that Percy had a community of people who cared for him. Contrary to belief by some (the people who never bothered to see the whole picture), Poseidon cared incredibly deeply for his son, but he couldn’t constantly be watching over his son whether he wanted to or not. 

Triton noticed his father's expression, following his line of sight to where he saw that Poseidon had been looking at Percy. This made him rather irritated, his expression turning sour. 

Triton had been sitting silently next to his mother, trying to zone into his own little bubble, he had no interest in learning about his half-brother, Percy served as only a reminder of his father's disloyalty towards Amphitrite.  

“Just read the book,” Ares said, flicking his hand in a dismissive and impatient motion. “The teacher is obviously a monster judging by the title.”  

Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood. 

Artemis shrugged. “Shame you are a boy, if you were a girl, I would offer you the chance to be a hunter of mine, leaving that silly life behind in favour for a much better one,” Artemis said, looking expectantly at the girls in the room except for Thalia who was already her lieutenant. 

Some of the girls looked away, avoiding Artemis’s eyes, others blatantly ignored her. 

“Artemis, darling, you can’t just use every chance you get to try and recruit more hunters,” Aphrodite chided. 

If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now... Believe whatever lie... Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways. 

Some of the godly parents looked at their children with concerned expressions, of course they knew that being a demigod came with its challenges, it was common sense, but that seemed... extreme. 

“Such a way with words, Prissy,” Clarisse snickered. 

Percy shrugged, feigning nonchalance. “Better than anything you’d ever write,” he said, smirking to himself. 

Apollo continued reading before they could continue the bickering they were both known for indulging in with one another. 

Don't say I didn't warn you. 

"Thank for the warning, man, loads of help." Leo said playfully. 

A few snickered at the comment, giggling with each other. 

I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for trouble kids in upstate New York. Am I a troubled kid? Yeah. You could say that. 

"You were never a troubled kid, Percy." Annabeth said sympathetically, rubbing Percy's arm. 

Percy stared at her for a moment before she cracked. “Okay, so you were, but you weren’t an awful person, being troubled comes with being a demigod, everyone can relate,” she said, gesturing around the room. 

Every single demigod in the room nodded, there was no denying that to people who didn’t know about their world, they were considered troubled. 

Athena looked at her child and the sea spawn, as much as she didn’t exactly hate Percy, she still would never like their relationship. Athena would much rather her child have a relationship with someone of higher standard, in her humble opinion. 

...when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan - twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

"Eugh, that sounds so boring," Leo dramatically shuddered. 

I know - it sounds like torture. 

Percy and Leo grinned at each other whilst Athena looked insulted. "So incredibly unintelligent," she muttered. If Percy had heard her, he hadn’t said anything. 

Mr Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorised wheel-chair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. 

"That was... weirdly descriptive," Nico said, looking at Percy who shrugged. 

"No one ever credits me on my smartness." Percy sniffed dramatically, pouting. 

As much as people loved to dumb Percy down, he was incredibly intelligent, more so when faced with danger, but that still counted. 

I had an accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway... the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. 

Everyone stared at Percy, minus Dionysus and Ares, both of which didn't care. "How do you even have luck that bad?" Hazel said in disbelief. 

“I’m not even joking when I say a fish told me to push the lever,” Percy said, comically serious. “And who in their right mind puts a loaded cannon in front of a group of children without saying ‘oh, that’s a fully loaded war cannon, don’t touch it’ and expect nothing to happen?!” Percy threw his hands up in exasperation. 

Piper nodded, looking not even slightly perturbed. “You know what? That's fair," she concluded simply. 

...Nancy Bobofit, the freckly red-headed kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend, Grover, in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich. 

"Sounds like a bitch to me," Thalia scoffed. 

Percy nodded, saying, "she was." 

Hephaestus looked at Hermes, grinning. “You sure, the kleptomaniac girl isn’t one of yours?” Hephaestus said teasingly, waggling his eyebrows, clearly trying to raise some sort of reaction out of Hermes. 

Hermes shook his head, if the kid was his, they would’ve never been caught, let alone being known for being a kleptomaniac by mortals. 

Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all of that, he was crippled... He walked funny, like every step hurt him... You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day... 

“I suppose that’s one way to describe Grover,” Will said, examining Grover over. “I really hope that funny walk was just your goat legs and not a real issue,” Will added, though the question seemed worrisome. 

Grover nodded, saying, “Just the hooves.” 

"That description was flat out mean," Nico’s words seemed like they were meant to come out with a more humorous tone, but the words only had tiny little undertones of playfulness. 

Percy and Grover looked at each other, Grover with a bemused expression, Percy with a sheepish one. “In my defence, I had no idea Grover was a satyr and was just giving an accurate description. 

The demigods laughed with each other. Frankly, Percy was so incredibly glad that the earlier tension had dissipated and that the journal so far was fairly light-hearted. 

'I'm going to kill her,' I mumbled. 

"Well, that escalated quickly," Jason said. 

Poseidon looked at Percy, eyebrows furrowed slightly. “Is she dead?” Poseidon asked. Percy wasn’t sure if his dad was asking if she was dead so that he could kill the girl himself or he didn’t want Percy killing anybody. 

“I don’t know,” Percy answered plainly. Poseidon nodded as if that cleared away all his worries. 

Grover tried to calm me down. 'It's okay. I like peanut butter.' He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch. 

Annabeth nudged Grover. “You can’t just let people be nasty to you, Grover,” she said, a sympathetic tone to her voice. 

"Yeah, but I really didn't feel like watching Percy punch a girl because of a bit of sandwich in my hair." Grover sighed as if it had actually happened before. 

Artemis paused, suddenly speaking up, “I don’t ever condone hurting a woman, let alone a young girl, but I would never stop anyone from doing so to a girl like Nancy Bobofit.” 

Percy grinned toothily at her. Out of all the 12 Olympians, Artemis was easily pretty high on his ranking of them, he respected the goddess and in return the goddess respected him, a rare thing that gods did. 

I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into. 

“On a scale from one to ten, how large of a mess, exactly?” Poseidon said, looking at his son who just smiled at him innocently. 

"Spoilers," he placed a finger of his lips. 

Clarisse spoke up this time, "you should've punched her."  

Percy nodded in agreement. 

...every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs Dodds, would give me the evil eye. 

Nico looked at Percy who grinned back mischievously, "she still doesn't like that you call her Mrs Dodds." 

Everyone looked between the two in confusion, "Is that...?" Hades looked at Nico questioningly who nodded in confirmation. Hades frowned, looking mildly irritated. 

I told Grover I didn't think Mrs Dodds was human. He looked at me real serious and said, 'You're absolutely right.' 

Thalia laughed slightly, "you are seriously bad at keeping secrets."  

Grover just sighed, honestly, the fact he was bad at lying was the least of his worries at the time, and in the end, he had been correct, Mrs Dodds was most certainly not human at all. 

"Looking back on it, I was confused for all of 5 seconds and then moved on," Percy shrugged. 

Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, 'Will you shut up?' It came out louder than I meant it to. 

"Real smart aren't you, Jackson?" Thalia's words dripped with a teasing sarcasm. 

Percy poked his tongue out in a childish and playful manner. "Smarter than you'll ever be, pinecone face," Percy said, looking proud of his retort. 

Hestia turned to Zeus and Poseidon, "They remind me of you two, just... less violent in a way." 

Poseidon and Zeus both made a look of annoyance, opening their mouths to begin squabbling.  

"You should've seen them in the early days of knowing each other, Percy and Thalia weren't exactly 'buddies'," Nico looked at Hestia who obviously hadn't intended for anyone but Zeus and Poseidon to hear her statement by the way she seemed a bit sheepish. 

Hestia recovered quickly, "Well, at least they seem close now," she smiled gently before turning to the two godly brothers, "can't say the same for these two..." Hestia's voice became stern, glaring at the both of them who both scoffed with a huff, slumping back in their thrones in sync. 

Nico didn't reply, just turned back to Apollo to keep reading though realised shortly after that Percy and Thalia still sat there bickering back and forth in the background. 

"Percy, Thalia, do you two mind continuing this during our break?" Will smiled brightly, though there was a mild threat of ‘if you don’t stop bickering, I’m going to lose it’  

The two who nodded, Percy giving Will a double thumbs up, turning back to Apollo, although not before they each gave each other the 'this will continue later' look. 

'Mr Jackson,' he said, 'did you have a comment?' 

My face was totally red. I said, 'No, sir.' 

Mr Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. 'Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?' I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognised it. 'That's Kronos eating his kids, right?' 

Multiple of the gods and goddesses groaned, all of them looked disgusted, even the ones who hadn’t even been through it. 

Demeter sighed heavily, her disgust turning into annoyance, "what is it with mortals and this story? It's so gross." 

"Mortals have always been so oddly fascinated with it, it's slightly disturbing just how much they enjoy the story now," Zeus still held the same disgusted expression, his eyebrows furrowed. 

Hades turned to Zeus with a bored expression, "You weren't even eaten, brother." 

"I still had to watch you all be regurgitated," a frown etched its way onto his face. 

Percy rolled his eyes, muttering an 'always so dramatic', he had said it purposefully loud enough so others around to hear him. 

Jason held back a laugh, as did Annabeth, Grover just looked tired, like he was sick of Percy taunting the gods at any given chance, which he was rather tired of admittedly, some of the nearby gods pointedly ignored him, though Percy noticed Hestia's slight grin before a glance sent his way. 

Zeus, however, was not so fond of Percy's antics, looking like he was about to smite Percy right then and there. It was clear that the Fates rule about no violence ran through his mind as he grunted, shifting in his throne.  

'And he did this because...' 

...'Kronos was the king god, and -' 

"God?" Zeus narrowed his eyes at Percy who just shrugged, a bit sheepishly, it was certainly not his brightest moment. 

'God?' Mr Brunner asked. 

'Titan,' I corrected myself. 'And... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters -'... '- and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans,' I continued, 'and the gods won.' 

"You truly have a gift of summing up one of the largest wars in history," Jason teased, grinning. 

Percy's returning grin was mischievous, "it's a talent." 

Athena turned to Percy with a look of irritation, "What you hold is ignorance, not a talent," she narrowed her eyes. 

Percy's expression suddenly became quite defensive, "Aren't you the part people who were told that because of their ignorance, reading these is the only way to make sure nothing bad happens in the future?" He scowled.  

The room became so silent you could hear a pin drop, obviously many of the people in this room hadn't experienced Percy's sass at such a high level being directed at the gods first hand before as some faces turned to shock and a slight amount of horror. 

"Let's continue reading, shall we?" Hestia's cheery voice was a failing effort at getting rid of the tension that lay over the room like a weighted blanket. 

Zeus spoke up before Apollo could even look back at the books to begin reading again, "You dare sit here and give the gods disrespect?" 

Percy opened his mouth to respond but Hades cut in before he could do so, truthfully, Percy was a bit glad he had done so, his next words weren't exactly kind. "Let's not begin anything that doesn't need to begin, hm, brother?" Hades sat with his back straight in his throne. 

Zeus scoffed, "And we were called ignorant." He waved a hand dismissively at Apollo to continue reading. 

Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, 'Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job-applications, "Please explain why Kronos ate his kids".' 

'And why, Mr Jackson,' Brunner said, 'to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?' 

"Busted," Leo said in a sing-song voice. 

'Busted,' Grover muttered. 

Grover and Leo smiled widely at each other 

I thought about his question and shrugged. 'I don't know, sir.' 

"Of course you don't," Athena rolled her eyes, though it didn’t hold the usual amount of heat her words usually had. 

'I see.' Mr Brunner looked disappointed. 'Well, half credit, Mr Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his five other children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs Dodds, would you lead us back outside?' 

"I'm not sure it's exactly 'happy' but anyway," Ares voice was thick with boredom. 

The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses. 

Artemis shook her head in disapproval. "Of course, the boys were, what more could you expect,” she said. 

There were a few eyerolls at Artemis's words, but no one replied. 

Grover and I were about to follow when Mr Brunner said, 'Mr Jackson,' I knew that was coming. 

I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned towards Mr Brunner. 'Sir?' 

Mr Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go - intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything. 

Frank turned to Percy, "Nico is right, you are weirdly accurate with your descriptions." 

"Quite intelligent too," Athena said, heads whipped around to face her. 

Hermes was the first to speak out of all the stunned people in the room, "didn't you insult him like... 2 minutes ago?" 

"I can and will admit when someone is smart, that doesn't mean I like them though," Athena pointedly looked at Percy. 

"I'll take the compliment," Percy grinned, turning back to Apollo. 

'You must learn the answer to my question.' Mr Brunner told me. 

'About the Titans?' 

'About real life. And how your studies apply to it.' 

'Oh.' 

"I mean, you find out the answer pretty quickly at least," Hazel chimed in. 

'What you learn from me,' he said, 'is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.' I wanted to get angry; this guy pushed me so hard... But Mr Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder, and I had never made above a C- in my life. No - he didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better. I mumbled something about trying harder... He told me to go outside and eat my lunch. 

Annabeth nudged Percy lightly, chuckling more so to herself than at Percy. "You know he wasn't trying to make your life miserable, right?" She spoke. 

Percy nodded, "Yeah I know that now, I was just dramatic." 

Athena watched the two of them, she doesn’t think she’ll ever understand how Perseus thinks he’s even moderately good enough for her daughter. Annabeth was surely smart enough to know that she could do better than a child of Poseidon. A child of the man Athena has a rivalry with. 

Athena muttered something incoherent to herself before turning back to Apollo. 

Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city... We'd had massive snowstorms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in. Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. 

"Boys," Artemis muttered. 

Not a single person paid Artemis any mind. 

Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's bag, and, of course, Mrs Dodds wasn't seeing a thing. 

Heads turned to Hermes, looking at him almost expectantly. 

“Seriously, not every thief is a child of mine,” Hermes frowned, crossing his arms over his chest. 

"Hey, you can’t blame us for assuming.” 

'Can I have your apple?' I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it. 

"You, of all people, didn't have an appetite? I didn't think that was even possible." Leo laughed along with a few others.  

Thalia threw Percy a concerned glance, she knew that whilst the others – save for Annabeth and possibly Grover because of his empathy link – wouldn't catch it, the way Percy’s lips pressed together ever so slightly was a telltale sign that it was something bigger. 

Percy pointedly didn’t look at her, sensing Thalia’s eyes burning into his skull from where she sat with Jason. Percy quickly gestured for Apollo to continue, aware that Thalia would have no problems calling it out in front of everyone. 

I wanted to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me. 

I few looks of sympathy were thrown Percy’s way by the demigods, none said anything, they all knew Percy wasn’t one for ‘pity words’. 

...dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap. 'Oops.' She grinned at me with her crooked teeth.  

“I know you shouldn’t wish death on someone...” Piper began, “but she either needs that or a good punch in the face, either one.” 

Nods of agreement could be seen from people around the room. 

Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos. 

Aphrodite squealed, "that's disgusting!" 

Piper turned to Percy with a grossed-out expression. "You seriously need to stop with these weirdly detailed descriptions, saying that last part was so unnecessary..." Piper said before visibly shuddering at the thought. 

"Well, my description was accurate!" Percy said in mock defence. 

I tried to stay cool. The school counsellor had told me a million time, 'Count to ten, get control of your temper.' But I was so mad my mind went black. A wave roared in my ears. 

Poseidon smiled whilst Triton's eyebrows rose slightly, Amphitrite looked at Percy with an expression that held silent pride. 

Percy felt weirdly touched by Amphitrite’s prideful look. The first time he’d met her she’d given him a bit of an iffy look, and this look was so gleeful, like she was looking at an actual son of hers. 

Of course, Amphitrite will never be Percy’s mother, Sally was irreplaceable, nobody will ever compare to Sally Jackson. But even so, it felt good in a sense to know that Amphitrite had accepted him. 

I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, 'Percy pushed me!' 

"She deserved that," Thalia said and gave Percy a thumbs up. 

The demigods and a couple of the gods looked superised by this show of power, especially at such a young age. Well, this was Percy they were talking about, was it really that surprising? 

Poseidon looked at Percy approvingly. “You had quite a lot of power from such a you 

Poseidon looked at Percy approvingly, "You had quite a lot of power at such a young age, it's rather astonishing." He said. Triton scowled at Percy who ignored him, they had never really gotten along an Percy was sure they weren't going to start today. 

Zeus on the other hand looked rather unimpressed. 

Mrs Dodds materialised next to us. 

"We can all agree that she's the monster, yes?" Frank asked. Everybody agreed. 

Some of the kids were whispering: 'Did you see -' '- the water -' '- like it grabbed her -' I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again. 

"You should be more careful about using your abilities near mortal, Peter," Dionysus said as though he didn't actually care and was just saying that for the sake of saying it. 

Percy didn't bother looking at the god, "Yeah sure, I'll be sure to tell that to my 12-year-old self next time I see him." Percy said sarcastically, though his face was deadpanned. 

As soon as Mrs Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. 

"She probably had been," Nico said. 

Percy nodded, "Oh yeah, she one hundred percent had been." 

A few confused glances were cast over at Nico and Percy, no one decided to ask though. 

'Now honey -' 

'I know,' I grumbled. 'A month of erasing textbooks.' That wasn't the right thing to say. 

"Why would you guess your punishment?!" Hermes facepalmed, shaking his head. 

"I never claimed to be the smartest cookie in the jar," Percy said. 

'Come with me,' Mrs Dodds said. 

'Wait!' Grover yelped. 'It was me. I pushed her.' 

"Y'know, I never really thanked you for that," Percy nudged Grover with a thankful smile. 

Grover shrugged, "It didn't work anyway," 

"You still tried though," Annabeth offered. 

'I don't think so, Mr Underwood,' she said. 

'But -' 

'You - will - stay - here.' Grover looked at me desperately. Nancy Bobofit smirked. I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare. 

"I'm so glad you've never given me that look," Hazel said, multiple of the demigods nodded in agreement. 

"I'm not even that scary, I'm not sure a look could do much," Percy said dead-seriously. The demigods all collectively looked at him, searching his face and tone of voice for any hints that he was joking. 

Once they realised that Percy was in fact not joking, they all either let out a heavy sigh or looked dumbfounded. It was like seeing the ‘unreliable narrator’ trope in real life (not that many of them read). 

Leo piped up, "It still shocks me that you don't understand just how scary you are, man." Leo was just saying the words everyone else didn’t care enough to say. 

Percy looked around, watching people nod their heads in agreement with Leo’s words, Percy simply shrugged and turned back to the front. 

I then turned to face Mrs Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on. How'd she get there so fast? I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counsellor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things. 

"I seriously don't think that counsellor knew anything about ADHD, she loved to blame everything on it," Percy said, he slumped back into the pillows behind him. "It got almost insulting." 

A couple of the demigods laughed, though, pretty much every single one of them could relate in some kind of way. 

I glanced back at Grover... I looked back up. Mrs Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall. 

"Chiron just let you follow her? Surely, he knew she was a monster," Poseidon's eyebrows furrowed deeply. 

"He had it under control,” Percy said. 

I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section. Except for us, the gallery was empty. Mrs Dodds stood with her arms crossed... She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling. 

"Oh gods..." Frank put his head in his hands. 

Percy grinned, laughing lightly. "I seriously thought there was a dog in the museum before I realised it was coming from her,” he said. Most of the others most certainly did not find this funny whatsoever. 

Poseidon kept a troubled look on his face. "Which monster is she?" He asked, leaning forward slightly. 

"Spoilers!" Percy sang; Poseidon didn't look impressed. 

'You've been giving us problems, honey,' she said. 

I did the safe thing. I said, 'Yes, ma'am.' 

"I don't think I've ever seen you do 'the safe thing', like, ever," Thalia said, multiple people agreed. 

She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. 'Did you really think you would get away with it?' The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil. 

I said, 'I'll - I'll try harder ma'am.' Thunder shook the building. 

"Here you go, being all dramatic!" Poseidon exclaimed, visibly annoyed with his brother. 

Zeus scoffed, "be glad I didn't strike him through the building.” 

Poseidon looked just about ready to summon his trident and declare war. Amphitrite held his arm, shaking her head. The two of them seemed to have a silent conversation, Poseidon turned to face Apollo, pointedly choosing to ignore Zeus. 

Many of the people gathered in the throne room were visibly tense, Poseidon was known for being awfully ill-tempered, as was Zeus, and no one wanted to see what would happen if anger got the best of the two of them. 

'We are not fools, Percy Jackson,' Mrs Dodds said. 'It was only a matter of time before we found out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain.' 

"What the hell is that monster on about?" Thalia looked at Percy before turning back with an irritated look, "Right... Spoilers." She poorly mocked Percy’s voice, making it high-pitched and annoying. 

Percy glared at her with no real heat. “If you’re going to mock my voice, at least do a good impression!” Percy seemed to be overly offended by Thalia’s mocking, almost comically so. 

Thalia mocked his voice once more, parroting his words. 

Pretty much everyone in the room was acting like it was a tennis match, their heads turning back and forth between the son of Poseidon and the daughter of Zeus as they squabbled back and forth. 

After a minute or so, they both crossed their arms over their chest, turning away from one another and huffing in a childish manner, all the while doing so in perfect sync, it looked cartoonish in a way. 

Some people in the room (mostly demigods) snickered, turning back to Apollo who looked utterly invested in watching Thalia and Percy. 

“Ah, right,” Apollo straightened up, “reading.” 

I didn't know what she was talking about. All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room. Or maybe they'd realised I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book. 

Annabeth sighed in exasperation, "You seriously used the internet for your assignment? I thought you were better than that," Annabeth's words held no real hurt behind them and instead had a joking tone to them. 

"I was not about to read an entire book just to get a guaranteed failing grade," Percy laughed, but it had a bit of a sad connotation to it, no matter how hard most demigods tried, they were guaranteed failure in the mortal world and almost guaranteed a painful death in the mythological world. "And besides, I have my wonderful girlfriend to help me with them now," he grinned widely. 

Athena narrowed her eyes sharply at the term ‘girlfriend’ but didn’t say anything which was honestly a win in Percy’s books. 

'Your time is up,' she hissed. Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her finger stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons. 

The room went deathly silent.  

Poseidon turned to Hades, the calmest expression on his face, though, the anger could almost be felt radiating off him likes waves crashing into you. "My dear brother, would you mind explaining to me just why there was fury after my son?!" Poseidon's voice rose as the words came out. 

"I don't even remember doing so," Hades said, calm as ever. "Besides, Percy is alive and well, the fury did not hurt Perseus." 

Poseidon seethed with anger, sitting back down in his throne harshly, he wasn't even sure when he had risen from it. "You are lucky my son is alive, brother," Poseidon said. 

Then things got even stranger. 

"I'm starting to see a pattern of strange things happening to you, it's slightly concerning in a way," Jason said. 

"It was only really strange because I had no idea monsters even existed at the time," Percy shrugged. 

“Fair.” 

 Mr Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand. 'What ho, Percy!' he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air. Mrs Dodds lunged at me. 

The rooms air grew tense immediately everyone silent in anticipation. 

With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword... Mrs Dodds spun towards me with a murderous look in her eyes. My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword. 

"For someone who people praise as one of the strongest demigods ever, you seem pretty weak," Triton said.  

Poseidon sighed, clearly tired of his two sons rather odd rivalry (more so a one-sided rivalry) that they seemed to have with each other. 

Percy wasn't sure if it was meant in a smug way or he meant it in a genuinely crude, either way, Percy didn't really care. "I was twelve and had never had a monster try to slice me to bits before, so excuse me if I wasn’t good at it at first," Percy rolled his eyes, as did Triton. 

She snarled, 'Die, honey!' 

"What is it with her and this 'honey' thing? It's kind of weird..." Hazel said. 

Nico nodded in his agreement. "Yeah, I'm not sure calling someone 'honey' whilst trying to actively kill them is really all that cool,” he said. 

And she flew straight at me. Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only think that came naturally: I swung the sword. 

"That's what came naturally to you at age twelve? Seriously?" Annabeth said, "Swinging a sword at your teacher-turned-monster was what came naturally?" 

It seems multiple people had the same question as head swivelled to face him, "I mean... yeah?" 

The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean though her body as if she were made of water. Hisss!   

Apollo looked up. "You killed her in one hit?" He said in disbelief. 

Percy nodded with a grin. 

Zeus raised his eyebrows, clearly trying to hide his impressed expression but was betrayed by the almost hidden look at approval that he couldn’t seem to shake off. 

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on," Leo continued, "The first monster you ever killed was a fury?" 

"Yeah, but it wasn't really that hard, it took one swing, and she was gone, the hardest thing was trying not to drop the sword while shaking," Percy laughed, as if that wasn’t a seriously crazy sentence. 

Multiple people continued to stare at Percy in shock, I mean, they knew Percy was extremely powerful and all that, but, killing a fury in one hit with no training at all at twelve years of age? Now that's next level. 

I was alone. There was a ballpoint pen in my hand. Mr Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me. My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something. 

"That's your first thought after killing a fury? That you had magic mushrooms in your lunch?" Ares said before quickly switching up, “I don’t blame you.” 

Percy was holding back laughter at the memory of how absurd the entire day was for him, scratch that, that entire week. 

I went back outside... Grover was sitting by the fountain; a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she was me, she said, 'I hope Mrs Kerr whipped your butt.' 

"Who?" Leo and Thalia said at the same time. 

I said, 'Who?' 

Leo, Percy and Thalia laughed loudly. 

'Our teacher. Duh!' I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about. She just rolled her eyes and turned away. I asked Grover where Mrs Dodds was. He said, 'Who?' 

"I actually thought I was going insane," Percy muttered, Grover looked at him sympathetically, a sorry look on his face. 

But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me. 

"I need lying lessons or something," Grover sighed looking sorry for himself. 

Thalia laughed, "You totally do, Grover." 

'Not funny man,' I told him, 'This is serious.'  

Thunder boomed overhead. I saw Mr Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved. I went over to him. He looked up, a little distracted. 'Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensils in the future, Mr Jackson.' I handed it over. I hadn't even realised I was still holding it. 

'Sir,' I said, 'where's Mrs Dodds?' 

He stared at me blankly. 'Who?' 

'The other chaperone. Mrs Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher.' 

He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. 'Percy, there is no Mrs Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?' 

Clarisse cackled. "Even Chiron was gaslighting you!" She said, clearly taking delight in this. 

"You laugh now but I was on the verge of going insane," Percy grumbled, looking at Clarisse who continued cackling loudly and even more so from Percy’s reply. 

Apollo waited for Clarisse to calm down slightly before speaking, "That's the end of the chapter. Who want to read next?" 

"I will," Athena said. A few confused looks were sent her way – why was Athena suddenly interested in her rival's son’s life – but she simply ignored them, taking the book from Apollo who handed it to her before sitting back down on his own throne. 

Chapter Text

Athena flipped open the book, her eyebrows suddenly knit together as her eyes scanned the top of the page. "Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death?" Athena asked. 

Those words suddenly got everyone's attention, minus Grover who quickly understood the chapters contents and just sighed heavily. "Did you put every tiny little detail in these journals or something, Percy?" Grover asked. 

"Well, I feel like the fact I saw the fates at 12 years old was fairly significant." Multiple eyebrows shot up at that statement, "so yeah, I did put this into my journal." 

Poseidon spoke up, looking concerned, befuddled, "What do you mean you saw the Fates?" 

"You're alive, are you not?" Hera for once, spoke. 

Percy looked rather uninterested, giving a shrug of his shoulders. "The string wasn't for me,” he answered. 

Athena cleared her throat, grabbing everyone's attention. "Instead of babbling uselessness, why don't we read instead,” she spoke, opening the journal straight to the correct page. 

"Yeah, read my journals," Percy grumbled. 

Athena ignored the words. 

I was used to the occasional weird experience... 

"Aren't we all," Frank shook his head. By his tone, you would have thought he was joking, but his expression lacked any sign of humour. 

The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs Kerr - a perky blonde woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip - had been out pre-algebra teacher since Christmas. Every so often I would spring a Mrs Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho. 

Leo piped up, "I honestly would've gone insane."  

Piper nodded alongside him in agreement, if not going insane, she would’ve run away beforehand. 

But Grover couldn't fool me. When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying. 

"Nice one, Grover," Annabeth said, though there was no malicious intent behind her words. 

Grover simply sighed, which he would be doing a lot of during this chapter, he could already feel it. "I never claimed to be an amazing liar, you know," he said, shaking his head. 

"Get the Stoll’s to give you lessons," Percy grinned, nudging Grover lightly. 

Grover shook his head firmly, “Let’s not.” 

Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum. 

“No shit, Sherlock,” Thalia said with copious amounts of sarcasm in her voice. 

Percy rolled his eyes. “You got turned into a tree, let’s not start,” he said. Did Thalia being turned into a tree actually have anything to do with it? No. But bringing it up was still funny. 

Thalia would’ve tackled Percy had they not been reading, she’ll get him later. 

The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small glances that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year. 

Hestia didn’t say anything, but she gave the two brothers disappointed looks. In all honesty, being looked at with such disapproval by a goddess in an 8-year-olds body was kind of demeaning. 

Both Zeus and Poseidon didn’t bother saying anything. 

"I could name someone more dramatic," Percy said, pointedly side-eyeing Clarisse before pointing an accusatory finger at her. 

Clarisse waved him off, though multiple people caught the way she gave him the finger oh-so-subtly. 

A few snickers sounded around the room, mostly from the demigods. 

"Let's continue," Athena said quickly. 

I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from D's to F's. I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class. 

Athena looked up angrily, "Look at this, harming your own son's education over some silly fit!" 

Percy looked over at Athena, why the hell was she defending him? It seemed Hades had the same question as he said, "You hardly even care for Perseus, why must you get so wound up over such a silly little thing?" 

"I do not care for the boy, I care for education, even... his, I suppose," Athena glanced over at Percy who seemed okay with the words. Annabeth wore a smile, she was glad her mother wasn't totally against Percy, even if she didn't say it directly, Athena had far too much pride for that. 

...I called him an old sot. I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good. 

Dionysus snorted loudly, everyone turned to him. "What? The kids got humour," he said, giving them all ‘and what?’ looks. 

"Right..." Artemis muttered, her expression much like most the people in the room who looked mildly confused and slightly amused by this. 

The headmaster sent my mum a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy. 

"The school for troubled kids gets mad when a kid is troubled?" Piper rolled her eyes, looking irritated. 

Leo nodded harshly beside her. If there were two demigods that knew where mega troubled kids go, it’s them. Wilderness school, the school parents send their kids when they can’t be bothered to find another solution. 

Those who were aware of what the two meant gave them sympathetic looks. 

I wanted to be with my mum in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties. 

"Paul doesn't sound like a nice man," Poseidon glanced at Percy, lips pulled into a thin line. 

"Because it's not about Paul, it's about Gabe," Percy said, his voice carried a defensive tone, and if people noticed it, nobody said anything. Everyone was aware that Percy cared deeply for Paul whether he would say it out loud or not. 

I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange. 

"I'm going to pretend you didn't write that last part and say thank you," Grover said very seriously. 

Percy laughed a bit. "I'm fairly certain I was right to say you were a little strange, because as it turned out, you are half goat," he said. 

As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for. 

Athena paused at that for a moment, she didn’t say anything, unlike Apollo. 

“Why would you only study for Latin? Don’t you have other classes?” Apollo questioned. You know, sometimes the demigods forget that Apollo is the god of knowledge and did in fact care deeply for the education of others. 

Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards... And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it. 

"Your Latin isn't bad at all, actually," Frank said matter-of-factly. 

Jason grimaced at the statement, "I'm not sure how willing I am to agree with that statement..." 

"My Latin is nowhere near as good as my Anicent Greek, and besides, my brain isn't wired for it, so I have an excuse," Percy said and grinned at Frank who smiled back, a bit sheepishly. 

I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor. I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said, '... worried about Percy, sir.' 

Grover facepalmed, "We should've been way more careful, looking back on it," he said. Grover had known that Percy had overheard, but this made it kind of worse hearing it from Percy’s point of view. 

Percy shrugged. “You couldn’t have known I was there; you didn’t have reason to feel the need to be sneaky.” he said, coming to Grover’s defence. 

I froze. I'm not usually an eavesdropper, - 

"That's the biggest lie I think I've ever heard," Clarisse snorted. 

Percy retorted quickly. "It's not eavesdropping if your fat mouth is the one talking so loud," his tone was full of snark, though with a playful undertone. 

"If I could, I whoop your ass right now, Prissy," Clarisse threatened. 

"Now you're the one lying," Percy turned back around to Athena, looking like he wasn't going to say anything else, that was before, "we all know you could never beat me in a fight." 

Clarisse started to get up, Ares looked particularly excited at this, maybe a bit too excited. 

"Let's not anger the Fates, they have spoken and said no violence will be tolerated," Hestia said with a pleasant smile on her face. 

Ares face dropped at the news that no one would be fighting, Clarisse wore a similar expression whilst sharing a look with Percy that communicated a 'this will be continued'. 

'... alone this summer,' Grover was saying. 'I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too -' 

'We would only make matters worse by rushing him' Mr Brunner said. 'We need the boy to mature more.' 

Percy's eyebrows knit together as if deep in thought. 

Annabeth said, "For the first time, I actually think Chiron's idea isn’t as good." 

Percy spoke directly after Annabeth, as if he hadn't even paid attention to her words. "Maybe if I had gone earlier, my mum never would have been taken by Hades," he said, looking troubled. 

Multiple people turned to look at Percy at lightning speed. "Your mum was taken by Hades?" Hazel asked, she honestly didn't believe it, but then again, this was Percy they were talking about, he seriously had some of the worst luck and the best luck, it really differed depending on what’s going on. 

Poseidon stared at Hades, though not quite in anger, more in question. Before Percy could answer Hazel, Poseidon cut him off. "Why did you take Sally?" He raised an eyebrow. 

"If it weren't for me, Sally would be dead," Hades didn't look perturbed in the slightest, actually, he looked completely bored, as if this was the most useless thing he'd had to do in his entire lifetime. 

Poseidon nodded, seemingly content with this. 

'But he may not have time. The summer solstice headline -' 

'Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can.' 

'Sir, he saw her ...' 

'His imagination,' Mr Brunner insisted. 'The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that.' 

"Imagine overhearing people talking about a plan to gaslight you," Leo said, holding back a fit of laughter. 

A few rolled their eyes, others also held back laughter, some just completely ignored him. 

'Sir, I ... I can't fail in my duties again.' Grover's voice was choked with emotion. 'You know what that would mean.' 

'You haven't failed, Grover,' Mr Brunner said kindly. 'I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next autumn -' The mythology book dropped out of my hang and hit the floor with a thud. 

"Seriously?" Dionysus raised a judgemental eyebrow, "that's how you get caught?" 

"Well, sorry this is real life and not some movie for you to watch, it's reading my journal," Percy frowned. "My journal that's being read out loud to everyone." 

Annabeth glanced at Percy who just sat there, rather akin to an angry child. 

Mr Brunner went silent. My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall. A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow. 

"You are very observant," Artemis looked at Percy, as if studying him closely. 

Percy smiled back at her brightly. Percy was far smarter than anyone was willing to ever give him credit for, though, it seemed those smarts only came out in times of desperation. 

A few seconds later I heard a slow clop-clop-clop, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door... Mr Brunner spoke. 'Nothing,' he murmured... 'Go back to the dorm,' Mr Brunner told him. 'You've got a long day of exams tomorrow.' 

'Don't remind me.' 

"I still find it funny that you had to do exams at 24 years old," Percy grinned, looking at the satyr. Grover stared at him, not amused in the slightest, he didn't say anything, just continued to stare until Percy frowned. "Jeez, you're nearly thirty and already acting like an old man," Percy said as Grover turned back to Athena who was skimming over the page. 

I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm. Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night. 'Hey,' he said, bleary-eyed. 'You going to be ready for this test?' I didn't answer. 'You look awful.' He frowned. 'Is everything okay?' 

'Just ... tired.' I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and started getting ready for bed... But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger. 

"This entire journal would have been way smaller had someone just told me what was going on," Percy sighed, crossing him arms over his chest. 

“Probably.” 

“Yeah.” 

“Unfortuantly.” 

"Well, at least you get to look back on it and laugh?" Leo said, though he didn't sound entirely sure in his words. Percy looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Okay, so maybe not..." 

Mr Brunner called me back inside. For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem. 'Percy,' he said. 'Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's... for the best.' His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. 

Thalia looked at Percy, he was always more emotionally charged then others, no matter how much he hid it from view from anyone and everyone. Words and actions cut him deeper than he’ll ever admit. Unfortunately, Thalia knew because she was the exact same way. 

Percy held a stoic expression, like he didn't want the ground to open up and swallow him whole, shielding him from the slight glances that were being sent his way every time something even mildly bad was read aloud. This was totally an invasion of privacy, no matter how much he might agree The Fates were right about the gods and their inability to comprehend just how much their demigod children go through. 

I mumbled, 'Okay, sir' 

'I mean...' Mr Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. 'This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time.' My eyes stung. Here was my favourite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out. 

Many of the demigods threw Percy sympathetic looks, some seemingly more surprised that something that they would never think would affect Percy had actually done so. 

Poseidon frowned deeply, frown lines prominent. He said, "are you sure Chiron should be a director at Camp Half Blood? He doesn't exactly seem to have a way with words, that's for certain." 

Percy was about to speak just before Dionysus cut through, "Chiron has grown much better at knowing what to say, the kids just don't let him give pep talks." Dionysus snicked slightly more so to himself. 

"Never thought I see a day where Mr. D backs someone up," Percy nudged Annabeth and Grover, they all giggled amongst their little trio. 

'Right,' I said, trembling. 

'No, no,' Mr Brunner said. 'Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say... you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be -' 

'Thanks,' I blurted. 'Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me.'  

'Percy -' 

But I was already gone. 

Not a single person in the entire throne room said a single word, not many people even glanced in Percy's direction, though most held some sort of look. A wince, a frown, a sympathetic look, the whole works. 

Percy hated it. 

This was the only time Percy actually wanted someone to say something, maybe so he could contradict whatever they say, lighten the mood and make everyone stop giving him pity looks. 

...The other guys were joking around... they were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents... I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies. 

"Wow, really nice, Perce," Thalia muttered, though her tone held no mirth, pure amusement glimmering in her eyes. 

"Again, nobody was telling me anything at the time and I was quite literally a nobody," Percy glanced at Zeus, much like many of the others, trying to gauge his reaction. 

Much to many of their disappointment, the King of the gods didn't look annoyed or irritated in the slightest, he just looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here, reading his least favourite demigod of the centuries journal. Understandable, really. 

The only person I dreaded saying goodbye to was Grover but, as it turns out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city. 

Percy smiled brightly at Grover who held a pleasant smile on his face. 

Grover and Percy’s relationship was something that some people would sell their soul to acquire. The bond, the shared lives, everything. Only a hand full of people would ever understand the deepness of their bond. 

During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous or fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen. 

Athena looked up from the book, a sharp and calculating look on her face, "You are much more perceptive than you let on." The statement was accusatory as much as it was an observation. 

Percy shrugged saying, “I like to surprise people with just how brilliant my mind is." He cracked a grin. 

Athena looks back down at the pages, though it was almost as if you could see the thoughts in her head bustling about quickly, like a freeway with cars going 120 kilometres an hour. 

...just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen. I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted on of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn. 

"Oh gods, here we go," Piper sighed, clearly having guessed who these odd-ball ladies were, much like almost everyone else in the room. 

Frank spoke up, concern evident all over his face, "So... how are you alive?" He spoke like the question stung him. 

"Spoilers!" Percy said in a sing-song voice, smiling gleefully. 

I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose twitching. 'Grover?' I said. 'Hey, man -' 

'Tell me they're not looking at you. They are. Aren't they?' 

'Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?' 

"Really funny, Percy." Jason sighed, "Grover already seems like he was going to pass out from sheer terror." 

"If you saw some crazy ancient ladies knitting socks for Bigfoot, you would make a joke out of it to, don't deny it!" Percy poked an accusatory finger out at the blonde-haired boy. 

'Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all.' 

The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors - gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I head Grover catch his breath. 

It was like the air was sucked out of the room in one swift movement, hushed murmurs spread around the room, mostly amounts the demigods. 

'We're getting on the bus,' he told me. 'Come on.' 

'What?' I said. 'It's a thousand degrees in there.' 

'Come on!' He prised open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back. 

"Oh for the love of -' Clarisse cut her words off before starting up again, "I truly hope to see a day where you make a smart decision, Prissy." 

Percy stuck his tongue out in a childish manner, "Just say you're jealous of my beauty, my smartness, my amazing-ness, my brilliance." He flung his pretend hair behind him, making a fit of short lived giggled erupt. 

The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic. Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for - Sasquatch or Godzilla. 

"Sasquatch would be more realistic," Hazel said, as if the words weren't odd, her expression was bland. 

"Right..." Nico checked her over, a faux look of concern on his face. 

The bud shuddered, and the engine roared back to life. 'Everybody back on board!' Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu. 

"That's it, he's going to die!" Thalia raised her voice, sarcasm coating every syllable. 

"Well, my dear cousin, seeing as though I sit here, unharmed, I'd say that I didn't die back when I was twelve." Percy grinned at her cheekily. 

Will glared at Percy from the corner of his eye. "Unharmed he says..." He muttered to himself mockingly. 

Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering. 'Grover?' 

'Yeah?' 

'What are you not telling me?' 

He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. 'Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?' 

'You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like... Mrs Dodds, are they?' 

'Well, hate to break that one to you, Perce," Annabeth gripped his arm, her expression coated with faux sadness. 

Percy and Annabeth giggled between themselves though quickly dialled them down as Athena just started reading over their quiet laughter. 

His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs Dodds. He said, 'Just tell me what you saw.' 

'The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn.' He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost - older. 

Athena glanced back up, her eyes narrowed at Percy, like she could see his every single intention, his every thought, his every motive. She finally nodded to herself, as if ticking something off in her books. 

Percy wanted to say something, question her on what the hell just happened, what spell was she about to cast later on? Seriously, Annabeth’s mum was a bit too calculative, although Percy knows where Annabeth gets it from. 

He said, 'You saw her snip the cord.' 

'Yeah. So?' But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal. 

"Glad to know you see the errors in your words," Ares rolled his eyes, slouching back into his throne. 

Percy paid the god no mind, though copied him in the way he slouched back into the couch, a mocking connotation to the action. A few near silent snickers ran through the room. 

'This is not happening,' Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. 'I don't want this to be like the last time.' 

Those who knew what Grover was going on about winced looking between each other.  

Only Grover, Annabeth and Thalia looked pained, having gone through it in real time. The memories shuffling and bustling around their minds. Just more reminders of all the pain that has gone on for years and years. 

'What last time?'  

'Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth.' 

'Grover,' I said, because he was really starting to scare me. 'What are you talking about?' 

'Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me.' 

"Ten bucks says he ditches Grover," Clarisse called, putting her hand up as if they were sitting in a classroom. 

Percy glared at her, crossing his arms. "No one except that bet," he said begrudgingly. 

Clarisse cackled loudly, as if it was the best thing she'd heard all year, her suspicions confirmed. She clasped her hands together with a glint in her eyes, a little bit too giddy about being correct in Percy’s most humble opinion. 

This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could. 'Is this like a superstition or something?' I asked. 

No answer 

'Grover - that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?' 

He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin. 

"You know what, you're not that far off, I was seriously thinking you weren't going to live." Grover sighed, his shoulders drooping. 

“The thing is,” Grover began, “you aren’t far off.” 

Percy pet him on the back although he couldn’t keep the stupid grin from his face as he continued to comfort the satyr, maybe slapping him a bit too hard on the back. 

“I thought you weren’t going to see tomorrow,” Grover added and now shook his head. 

Athena snapped the book shut, getting up and looking around, "Anyone wish to read next?" 

Poseidon stood up, taking the book from Athena's hands. 

"I shall," he said. 

Chapter Text

Poseidon flicked open the pages looking at the title and looking straight back up at Percy. His face was contorted with half concern and some disgust chucked in on the side. 

“Grover unexpectedly loses his trousers ...?” Poseidon said aloud, as if the words were embarrassing to say. 

Grover plumed a bright red, slightly widened eyes. The demigods burst out laughing beside him, some of the gods looking like they would join in on the laughing any moment. 

“Well, he does actually loose his trousers, so –” Percy started before he gave in to temptation and began giggling alongside his friends – minus Grover who looked mortified. 

Poseidon nodded but made it a point to examine Grover for a moment. 

Confession time: I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal.  

“I never want to feel how I did when I realised you had run off,” Grover said defeatedly. 

Percy had an impish grin plastered on his face as he pet the satyr on the back in what should have been a comforting manner. "It's alright man, at least now I'm not running off without telling someone,” Percy said. 

The room fell silent for a moment, demigods staring at Percy like he'd just said the most outrageous thing known to mankind.  

"You're joking, right?" Thalia said, cutting through the increasingly awkward silence. 

"No ...?" Percy said, the word dragged out, questioning his own words now. Percy looked around confusedly at the others in the room. 

The room was silent for a moment longer, all eyes on him.  

"Okay. So maybe I'm still not great at telling people before I run off," he huffed, turning his eyes away from others, refusing to meet their eyes. 

"You know what," Will said, "let's just continue reading." 

I know, I know. It was rude. But Grover was freaking me out, looking at me like I was a dead man, muttering, 'Why does this always happen?' and, 'Why does it always have to be sixth grade?' 

"In all honesty, I would've run away too," Frank said, "that's scary man." 

"I was freaking out, okay?" Grover muttered in response. 

As soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, then made a beeline for the restroom. Instead of waiting, I got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown. 'East One Hundred and Fourth and First Avenue,' I told the driver. 

Percy quickly caught the mischievous glimmer shimmering through Leo's eyes. "I don't live there anymore, Leo, don't go thinking you can break into my mother's home,” he said sternly, looking like he was about to pull out a finger and wag it in Leo’s face. 

Leo shrugged, putting on his best innocent look. "I have zero clue what you're talking about, Aquaman." 

"You need to stop calling me, Aquaman," Percy said, though, the words weren't at all serious, holding amusement and maybe a tinge of fondness. 

Poseidon on the other hand, did not at all appreciate this nickname. "Aquaman,” he said like the words left an awful taste in his mouth, “haven't heard that one before." Poseidon rolled his eyes in the exact same manner that Percy always did. 

A word about my mother, before you meet her. 

"Sally!" A corral of voices clammed together. 

Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world, which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck. Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five, and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. After he died, she was left with no money, no family and no diploma. The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad. 

"Sally ..." The voices repeated, though this time, the tone was heavy with sympathy for the women. 

See, they weren't married. 

"I'd hope not," Triton scowled, gaining a look from Amphitrite. The look wasn't one of anger, more so a look that spoke volumes, words that had been said before, so many times repeated that they could be conveyed with a simple look, a look that said, 'the fault is on nobody, do not pinpoint it'. 

She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was secret. Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back. Lost at sea, my mum told me. Not dead. Lost at sea. 

"That's creative, and actually not a total lie," Hestia said, looking impressed. 

Percy smiled softly, one of those smiles reserved for few. "My mother is a woman of many talents, lying is hardly one of them, I'm not sure she could bring herself to lie anymore past that." Percy didn’t say how Sally had only been a good liar when the life of his own had been on the line. 

She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. She never complained or got man. Not even once. But I knew I wasn't an easy kid. 

"So much self-deprecation, it's almost reminding me of myself," Nico said, the bags under his eyes looking just as slouched and sunken as he. 

Percy shrugged, "I wasn't lying though, I was never easy to handle." As much as Percy made light of it now, the words did make him feel a bit off, he just couldn’t pinpoint that emotion that ate away at him every time he was called ‘troubled’ or ‘hard to handle’. 

Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano - 

Annabeth grit her teeth together, she had heard very few words come out of Percy's mouth about this abomination of a man, but even just from those, she had serious beef with this man, the fact he was dead didn't stop her hatred. 

She glanced at Percy who held an emotionless face. She squeezed his arm a bit, letting him know she was here. Percy turned, flashing his teeth at her in a dazzling smile. But Annabeth could see beyond that. She could see the way the smile didn't quite lift as high as a real one would, the way he tapped his fingers restlessly on his thighs. Even after so long, Gabe was still known to him as the abuser, the man who had hurt not only him, but also Sally. 

She returned his smile with a tight lipped one. 

- who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him, then showed his true colours as a world-class jerk. When I was young, I nicknamed him Smelly Game. The guy reeked like mouldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts. 

Aphrodite squawked in outrage, "what on earth was that description?!" she squealed. "That sound horrific!" 

"It was," Percy said between gritted teeth. 

Between the two of us, we made my mum's life pretty hard. 

"I'm starting to agree with Nico, there is so much self-deprecation," Thalia said. The words were said as a joke, but Percy could pick up on the concern underlying her words. 

I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mum would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television was blaring. Crisps and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet. 

Jason looked over at Percy, studying him closely for a moment. He was almost certain there was so much more to Percy's past then he was telling people. Already bad people mixing with alcohol was never a good thing. Jason shook his head for a moment, he wasn't going to jump to conclusions just because of one little detail, he'll just have to keep a close eye. 

Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, 'So, you're home.' 

'Where's my mum?' 

'Working,' he said. 'You got any cash?' 

"Isn't he a grown man?" Artemis said, grimacing as if getting second hand embarrassment from Gabe's absolute stupidity and dumbness. "He can get his own money." 

Multiple people, demigods and gods nodded in agreement, similar looks on their faces. 

Percy didn’t reply, instead he stared at the book as if willing it to burn up in flames before they could read on. 

That was it. No Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months? 

"What a bitch," Leo muttered under his breath, anger simmering. 

He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something. 

Aphrodite looked at Percy blankly for a moment. "Your descriptions are certainly giving me a clear picture, Percy, but I never, ever, want to picture that again,” she said sternly yet politely. 

He just kept collecting pay cheques, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course. Always beer. When ever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds. He called that our 'guy secret'. Meaning if I told my mum, he would punch my lights out. 

The room fell silent; any previous doubt people had about jumping to conclusions about Gabe before had been thrown out the throne room. 

Poseidon's eyes flew up from the book, staring directly at Percy, much like everyone else in the room. Though, most had varying degrees of concern, some held looks of shock, some of horror, some angry, some looked so incredibly sad. 

"He hit you?" Poseidon's voice was low, his words weren't at all a question, they were a statement, a statement looking for confirmation to do unspeakable acts to the monster they call 'Gabe Ugliano'. 

Percy stared at his father; it was clear hadn't even remembered that he had written this in his journal, judging by his mortified expression. Percy looked just about ready to jump back down into Tartarus. 

The room fell back into the screeching silence, the type of silence that made you want to scream, run and hide, shelter away from everyone around you. The type of silence that spoke so many words yet none. 

“No,” Percy said, his eyebrows furrowed like he was daring someone to challenge his answer. 

Unfortunately for him, Thalia was very much up to the challenge. “So, you lied in your own journal?” Her words were like a lawyer who had just proven a criminal guilty. 

“Yes,” Percy still had the same furrowed eyebrows, but his voice didn’t have as much anger, it almost seemed like Percy was scared to admit it. Before anyone could notice, Percy put back on the angry and stern tone. “I lied, so what? Everyone lies sometimes,” Percy began rambling, “I never thought anyone would ever read this so I lied sometimes, you can’t always trust everything I say in this.” 

This is only made Thalia angry, she yelled, “you’re lying!” It was hard to catch, but Thalia seemed like she was about to sob. 

Everyone in the throne room was watching them go back and forth like a tennis match, the back and forth of ‘I’m not lying!’ and ‘Yes you are!’ was starting to give people headaches. 

Suddenly, the next words that came out of Percy’s mouth stopped everyone. 

“It never even mattered, he’s not around now anyways,” Percy seethed. People weren’t sure by ‘not around now’, did that mean dead or just not in their lives anymore? 

Clearly the words made Thalia pause. “We’ll talk later,” she concluded. Percy looked like he was about to protest before he felt Annabeth squeeze his arm twice and he pinched his eyebrows together. 

Poseidon looked like he wanted to say more but for the sake of his son he decided that he should speak with Sally before speaking to Percy, that way he’ll know the full story, the story that Percy will never tell him personally. 

The silence stretched ... and stretched ... and stretched, until finally Hestia spoke up, her usually pleasant voice was filtered with worry and an undertone of anger, "Why don't we continue reading, hm?” 

People agreed quickly, but the quiet that filled the room stayed. 

'I don't have any cash,' I told him. He raised a greasy eyebrow. 

Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should've covered everything else. 'You took a taxi from the bus station,' he said. 'Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right Eddie?' 

"For someone so incredibly dumb, that was smart, and irritatingly so," Piper said, her voice drooping much like her shoulders. 

"Smart isn't quite the word I would use," Nico replied quietly. 

“Only good at math when it’s convinent,” another person added. 

The other two guys passed gas in harmony. 

"Good lord, how did you even live in that gods awful place so long?" Aphrodite gasped. 

Percy merely shrugged, face blank, he didn’t look happy, or sad, or angry, or ... anything. Just there. 

He must’ve noticed the looks he was getting because he chucked on some half-hearted Percy-like grin that didn’t quite meet the ‘could be real’ standard. 

'Fine,' I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. 'I hope you loose,' 

'Your report card came, brain boy!' he shouted after me. 'I wouldn't ask so snooty!' 

Annabeth shot her eyes over to Percy, then to Thalia who held the same look of shock and horror as her. 

"Oh my gods, Percy," Thalia started, her voice quick, "I had no idea that's why you hated me calling you seaweed brain. I'm so, so sorry, Percy." Thalia looked upset, her shoulders tensed up. 

"I don't really care about it anymore," Percy said, muttering the words through nearly shut lips. "I don't mind you calling me that, Annabeth," he added, noticing the shared look of disappointment that was directed at herself instead of him on her face. 

Annabeth nudged him, "Only if you're okay with it, Perce." 

Percy gave her a real smile this time, one of those signiture dazzling smiles that seemed to make everything seem okay. Except everything wasn’t okay, not after the bomb that had jsut exploded on everyone not even 5 minutes ago. 

I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn't my room. During school months, it was Gabe's 'study'. He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer. Home sweet home. 

"I would most certainly not call that 'sweet home', that's more like, 'i want to be anywhere but here' home," Clarisse said, the joke fell flat into something more serious. 

I felt like someone - something - was looking for me right now, maybe pounding it's way upstairs, growing long, horrible talons. 

"Are you schizophrenic?" Leo laughed to himself a bit, though, again, the joke fell flat, no one really laughed, let alone registered his words. (I just realised it seems insensitive for me to make a joke using a real medical condition that affects people, sorry if it’s not okay!) 

Then I heard my mum's voice. 'Percy?' She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted. 

"Thank the gods for Sally Jackson," Thalia sighed, her head dropping slightly. 

"Sally is seriously a hero," Percy agreed, smiling a bit, though this time the smile didn't quite reach his eyes. 

'Oh, Percy.' She hugged me tight. 'I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!' She'd bought me a huge bag of 'free samples', the way she always did when I came home. 

"Glad to know that all parents do the whole, 'you've grown so much!' bit," Leo snickered a bit. Honestly, Leo was about to say that his mum never really got much of a chance to say it much but quickly decided against it. 

“It’s kind of a complimentary gift that is mandatory now,” Piper added. 

And demanded to know everything I hadn't put in my letters. She didn't mention anything about my getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little boy doing all right? From the other room, Gabe yelled, 'Hey, Sally - how about some bean dip, huh?' I gritted my teeth. 

"Seriously, what chapter does he die?" Hazel said, her words a joking tone. 

Percy gave her a wicked grin, one that whilst looked incredibly mischievous, looked deadly serious. “The last one,” he said, maybe a bit too cheerfully for how the tension still lingered around the room from earlier. 

Several of the demigods turned to look at Percy, studying his face for any hints of lying, only to find his devious grin, almost like he was now reminiscing on the memory. 

"Oh, thank the gods," Hazel said, though there was clear amounts of shock in her voice. She most definitely did not expect her joke to actually become reality, but she for one, was not complaining whatsoever. 

“Usually, I wouldn’t celebrate someone's death,” Will began, “but I am so happy right now.” 

For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at Yancy Academy... And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. 

"I strangely find that hard to believe," Athena said, an un-amused look plastered on her face. 

Percy shrugged. "There wasn't as much punching as the guy would tell my mum, it was more kicking and the occasional biting," he said those words as if they were totally normal. 

After he received some odd looks from demigods and gods he added, “New Yorkers don’t exactly fight fairly, y’know!” 

“And here the Romans were before thinking the Greeks don’t fight fairly,” Jason shook his head back and forth. 

“Greeks fight fairly,” Clarisse said. “Just not up to your Roman-pish-posh standard.” 

If you were to ask Jason, he would say he wasn’t scared of Clarisse, but he was seriously scared of her. He might be son of Jupiter, but Clarisse had absolutely no right to be as scary as she was. 

Even Nancy Bobofit suddenly didn't seem so bad. Until that trip to the museum ... 'What?' my mum asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. 'Did something scare you?'  

"She always knows what's going on with people, it's kind of scary how good she can read someone," Nico said. 

"A wise woman," Amphitrite smiled softly.  

Triton grunted a bit, he didn't hate Sally, matter of fact, he actually thought from what he had been told, she seemed like an incredible and intelligent women. But this did not stop him from being a bit salty about his father cheating on his mother with another women, not matter how amazing she seemed. 

'No, Mum.' I felt bad lying. I wanted to tell her about Mrs Dodds and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid. 

"You ... didn’t tell her?" Apollo looked at Percy, shocked, and looking mildly scared. 

Percy looked at Apollo, "I thought I was going crazy, I wasn't about to let my mother know that too." 

"Touche." 

She knew I was holding back, but she didn't push me. 'I have a surprise for you,' She said. 'We're going to the beach.' 

My eyes widened. 'Montauk?' 

'Three nights - same cabin.' 

'When?' 

She smiled. 'As soon as I get changed.' I couldn't believe it. My mum and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn't enough money.  

Gabe appeared in the doorway, and growled, 'Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?' 

"I am so glad this bitch dies, he's seriously getting on my nerves," Thalia seethed. 

Pretty much every single person in the room nodded firmly in agreement. 

I wanted to punch him, but I met my mum's eyes and I understood she was offering me a deal be nice to Gabe for a little while.  

"You should've punched him," Poseidon muttered, not looking up from the book. 

He quickly continued reading on. 

Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here. 'I was on the way, honey,' She told Gabe. 'We were just talking about the trip.' 

Gabe's eyes got small. 'The trip? You mean you were serious about that?' 

'I knew it,' I muttered. 'He won't let us go.' 

'Of course he will,' my mum said evenly. 'Your stepfather is just worried about money. That's all. Besides,' she added, 'Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works.' 

"I think I'm drooling just at the sound of that," Frank said, a dreamy look in his eyes. 

Grover nodded, "It is truly a wonder to experience." 

Percy grinned at the two's interaction; he was so glad that everyone saw the amazing person that he saw in his mother. It made him so proud to be able to call himself her son. The Sally Jackson's son. 

Gabe softened a bit. 'So this money for your trip ... it comes out of your clothes budget, right?' 

Aphrodite scoffed but didn't supply them with any of her irritation on the words. 

'Yes, honey,' my mother said. 

'And you won't wake my car anywhere but there and back.' 

'We'll be very careful.' 

Gabe scratched his double chin. 'Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip ... And maybe if the kid apologises for interrupting my poker game.' 

"There's no way Percy doesn't sass this man out," Hermes whispered to Apollo. 

“Oh, absolutely,” he replied. 

Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought. And made you sing soprano for a week. But my mum's eyes warned me not to make him mad. 'I'm sorry,' I muttered. 

“Oh, how I wished you had,” Thalia said in a mock mournful tone. 

'I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now.' 

Apollo and Hermes grinned at each other; they had been correct. 

Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement. 'Yeah, whatever,' he decided. 

"There's no way he didn't pick up on that sarcasm," Thalia said, almost confusedly. 

"He's a man, they're dumb," Artemis said blandly. Not a single person paid attention to Artemis' words, all too used to it by now. 

'Thank you, Percy,' my mum said. 'Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about ... whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?' For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes - the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride - as if my mum too felt an odd chilling the air. 

"Having a sixth sense at twelve years old would have sent me spiralling," Frank said. 

Percy didn't look away from the journal that lay within his father's grasp, watching the man's eyes scan further down the page. "I had seen much weirder things then a terrified look on my mother's face, Will," Percy let out a half-hearted chuckle. 

"You still see weirder things," Will said, "most of which put you into my infirmary," he added, his voice low in a mutter. 

Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mum's bags to the car. He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking - and more importantly, his '78 Camaro - for the whole weekend. 'Not a scratch on this car, brain boy,' he warned me as I loaded the last bag. 'Not one little scratch.' Like I'd be the one driving. I was twelve. 

Annabeth laughed loudly. "Don't you end up driving during this quest though?" She asked through the laughter, "After I pick-pocketed, Hermes." These words only made her laugh harder, Percy joining in quickly. 

Hermes on the other hand looked annoyed, though traces of an underlying crack of a grin were just beneath the surface. 

"Sorry, I don't think I heard that correct," Piper shook her head, "you pick-pocketed, Hermes, the god of thieves?" Piper looked incredulous. 

Annabeth nodded, the laughter between her and Percy dying down, both catching their breath and clutching their stomachs. "For the god of thieves, you would think he would have caught me." Annabeth's words were smug, but her tone was light and humorous. 

But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me. 

"I'm starting to see a trend with you and getting the blame," Nico said, looking at Percy, albeit rather sheepishly. His and Percy's past of blame and anger had been shoved into the past, but both understood that Percy did not deserve to have the blame for what happened with Bianca. 

Percy shrugged with a wide grin on his face. His eyes flowing back to Poseidon from where they were looking gently at Nico. 

Watching him lumber back towards the apartment building, I got so mad I did something I can't explain. As Gabe reached the doorway, I made the hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement towards Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the staircase as if he'd been shot from a cannon. 

"How can you do that?" Athena demanded, not angrily though, more shocked and as much as Athena would loathe to admit, she was slightly impressed too. 

Percy grinned. "Magic ..." He said in a playful, mysterious tone. 

"Please tell me you got out of there quickly," Frank looked tired, as if he was physically affected by everything being done in the journal. Some nodded at his words, looking rather uneasy. 

... but I didn't stay long enough to find out. I got in the Camaro and told my mum to step on it. 

"Oh, thank the gods," Frank sighed in relief. 

We'd been going there since I was a baby. It was the place where she'd met my dad. 

Triton scowled, pointedly glaring at Percy who didn't indulge in the 'glare-off'. 

Multiple others noticed the behaviour; most understood the reasoning that fuelled the anger - whether they agreed with the reasoning or not was a different story. Others seemed put off by this, aren't they brothers? Why do they seem to be so separate no matter their shared blood. 

We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jellybeans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mum had brought from work. 

"Great ..." Apollo said, drawing out the word and clasping his hands together. "So, when do you explain the blue food?" 

I guess I should explain the blue food. 

"Wow, it's like you know what I was going to ask," Apollo flashed Percy a blinding, toothy grin. Any brighter and the people around him would have had to shield their eyes from the sight. 

"I'm just smart like that," Percy put on a faux nonchalant voice and look, tapping his head. 

See, Gabe had once told my mum there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mum went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop.  

"Every time I hear about Sally, I gain more and more respect for her," Clarisse said. 

Apollo looked a little bit put off, but not disappointed, if anything, he looked amused. "You know, I had so many different reasons going around my head as to what the blue food was about." He added, "Not a single one was even close to that, but I love it." 

"My mother is a wondrous woman," Percy grinned. 

This - along with keeping her maiden name Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs Ugliano - was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. 

Artemis nodded in approval, if she wasn't convinced earlier of Sally Jackson's excellence, she most certainly was now. 

Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk - my father. Mum's eyes all misty. I figured she would tell me the same things she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them. 'He was kind, Percy,' she said. 'Tall, handsome and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes.' 

'I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so proud.' 

Poseidon looked up, "She is right, I am so incredibly proud." 

Percy smiled, something about the smile wasn't his usual quick flash of a smile, this one lingered, held so many emotions that couldn't be voiced. 

Triton scoffed, catching people's attention. He didn't say anything, just had furrowed eyebrows and a scowl held firmly in place. 

Poseidon didn't dignify Triton's response to the words. Percy glanced at his brother with a half sympathetic and half understanding look on his face. Amphitrite looked at Triton with a disappointed look on her face, clearly not overly impressed with him. 

I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about me? A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years. 

Athena looked at Percy, narrowed eyes and a questioning yet stern look on her face. "For someone who I thought to be rather smart, you aren't building much of a case for yourself, Perseus." 

Percy looked at Athena for a moment, reeling in any sass he was about to spit at her. "I never claimed to be smart back then," he spoke, clearly supression copious amounts of sass from leaking into his words. 

"If you ever wish to truly be with my daughter," Athena's eyes flicked over to Annabeth for a brief moment, "I suggest you prove yourself worthy." 

Poseidon cut in front of Percy, "My son has nothing to prove to you, Athena, he and Annabeth being together in none of your concern in the slightest." He said, leaning forward in his chair ever so slightly. 

Athena nodded quickly, rather unwillingly, a short nod that was only given as to not create the situation into something larger. 

People in the room glanced between the four, most of the gods looked tired of this rivalry the uncle and niece duo had going on ever since Athens chose Athena as their patron goddess instead of Poseidon. 

I had always assumed he knew me as a baby. My mum had never said it outright, but still, I'd felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he'd never even seen me ... I felt angry at my father. Maybe it was stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mum. He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe. 

Poseidon winced slightly, though didn't look up to meet Percy's half apologetic look. 

'Are you going to send me away again?' I asked her. 'To another boarding school." She pulled a marshmallow from the fire. 

'I don't know, honey.' Her voice was heavy. 'I think ... I think we'll have to do something.' 

'Because you don't want me around?' I regretted the words as soon as they were out. 

Annabeth glanced at Percy from the corner of her eyes, holding Percy closer. 

Percy didn't look affected by the words, rather just looked plain, like the words were a thing of the past, words that never quite made it into his mind and made a place in their to stay. But now that they were being brought to the light again, he didn't seem to know how to process it. 

'Oh, Percy, no. I - I have to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away.' her words reminded me of what Mr Brunner had said - that it was best for me to leave Yancy. 

'Because I'm not normal,' I said. 

'You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. But you don't realise how important you are. I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe.' 

'Safe from what?' 

"Oh, you sweet, innocent child," Thalia said, an exaggerated look of sadness on her face. 

"That was almost painful to hear," Leo commented with the same expression. 

She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me - all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget. During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head. 

"What the hell -" Clarisse began. "That's like ... kind of insane?" She said, turning her head slightly, much like a dog. 

"Absolutely not, I would have run away," Piper shook her head. 

Percy sighed, "If only the gods took responsibility for their children instead of leaving them to the mercy of the universe that for some odd reason has a vendetta against us." He pointedly side-eyed the gods, some of which shrugged, like they really didn't care enough, others sighed and looked away, some looked slight angered by Percy's words (Zeus.), and some looked rather sheepish. 

Before that - a really early memory. I was in pre school, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. My mum screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands. 

"You're joking," Leo said, looking dumbfounded. "You killed a snake. As a toddler. In a cot. And played with its body." He added, jaw dropped slightly. 

Hera looked at Percy, no doubt thinking of Heracles (Hercules if you want to use Roman terms). She looked half impressed and half unimpressed, he was hard to decipher. After another moment she said, “Very similar to Heracles.” she said the name like it hurt her to say. 

Multiple other gods frowned, none wanted to hear Hera ramble about her hatred for the demigod-turned-god who was also her stepson. 

"It is certainly an impressive feat," Athena said, extremely contradictory towards her earlier despise for Percy. She studied him closely for a moment. 

Percy shrugged slightly, not all too keen on having the spotlight. "I barely remember it," he said, trying to downplay just how insane strangling a snake as a toddler is. 

Athena of course, being the goddess of wisdom noticed this, it seems she liked what she saw because she nodded in an almost approving way. 

I knew I should tell my mum about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs Dodds at the art museum, about my weird hallucination that I had sliced my maths teacher into dust with a sword. 

"You tell Sally everything, and this is the one thing you decide not to tell her?" Jason stared at Percy with a raised eyebrow. 

Percy looked away with a slight pout placed on his lips, "I can keep secrets from my mum, I don't tell her everything." He mumbled. 

Jason shook his head, disbelieving. "You tell her every single detail of every single moment of your life. I'm almost disappointed in you for not telling her that,” he sighed, his words and exhale done in a dramatic fashion. 

Percy turned back to his father, gesturing for him to continue reading. 

But I couldn't make myself tell her. 

"There it is," Jason muttered to himself, "the insanely crucial bit of information." He hung his head low, keeping the dramatic tone from earlier. "That you don't tell Sally." 

'I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could,' my mum said. 'They told me that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Percy - the place your father wanted to send you. And I just ... I just can't stand to do it.' 

'My father wanted me to go to a special school?' 

'Not a school,' she said softly. 'A summer camp.' 

My head was spinning. Why would my dad - who hadn't even stayed around long enough to see me born - talk to my mum about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before? 

"I do not mean any disrespect towards Sally when I say this, Percy," Hestia said, "but, it does seem almost selfish in a way that she kept you by her side for so long. Surely she would have known that Camp Half Blood would have been much safer, no?" 

Percy looked at the goddess, contemplating his next words for a moment. "She is not selfish, and you would be shocked to learn that Camp Half Blood at the time, was not as safe as most thought." He slightly grimaced at the memories. 

Hestia nodded curtly, "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised ..." The goddess held a similar grimace on her face. 

'I'm sorry, Percy,' she said, seeing the look in my eyes. 'But I can't talk about it. I- I couldn't send you to that place. It might mean saying goodbye to you for good.' 

'For good? But if it's only a summer camp ...' 

"'Only a summer camp'," Dionysus mocked the words, rolling his eyes. 

Percy mimicked the action but didn't retaliate. 

Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just the lightning making false daylight, and five-metre-high waves pounding the dunes like artillery. 

Demeter tsk'ed, shaking her head slowly back and forth disapprovingly. "Must you two fight at any given chance?" He eyes flicked between Poseidon and Zeus a few times. 

With the next thunderclap, my mum woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, 'Hurricane.' I knew that was crazy. Long Island never saw hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten. Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end. 

Percy frowned, sinking back into his seat, as much as he was absolutely grateful that his mother hadn't actually been killed by the Minotaur, he still had a personal hatred rooted deep within himself. 

Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice - someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door. My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock. Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't ... he wasn't exactly Grover. 

'Searching all night,' he gasped. 'What were you thinking?' 

My mother looked at me in terror - not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come. 

Athena nodded to herself, approving of Percy's intelligence when it came to the people around him. She stopped herself for a moment, this did not mean she approved of the boy, she merely thought he had excellent people skills. 

Athena's lips came into a thin line, pursed together tightly as she delved deep into thought, only half listening to the journal. 

I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing. 'O Zeu kai alloi theoi!' he yelled. 'It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?' 

Zeus looked over at Grover for a second, a piercing gaze stung right through the satyr's skull. He turned away, a look of disapproval on his face. 

Grover deflated, he knew he should never have said that, saying things against the gods only ever came back around to bite you in the butt. He would know, he's seen it happen in front of his very own eyes. 

I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd understood him perfectly. I was too chocked to wonder how Grover had got here by himself in the middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have his trousers on - and where his legs should be ... where his legs should be ... 

My mum looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before: 'Percy. Tell me now!'  

Percy winced, his mother rarely gets mad, but when she does, it is seriously scary. Scarier than any god has ever been in his eyes. 

I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs Dodds, and my mum stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning. 

"I'm glad Sally was just as shocked and borderline going insane as we were when we found out you hadn't told her like, seriously important information." Thalia glanced at Percy who just held this cheeky grin on his face. 

He shrugged. "I am a man of very few words," Percy said. 

"Said nobody ever," Thalia retorted, rolling her eyes. 

A few demigods giggled amongst themselves. 

Percy had never been obnoxious or overly loud, but he most certainly a chatterbox. Once he got started on a topic that he was interested in or had been hyper-fixated on, it was hard to get him to stop talking. 

She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, 'Get to the car. Both of you. Go!' Grover ran for the Camaro - but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked. 

Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves. 

"Shocker," Clarisse rolled her eyes, her tone sarcastic and drawn out longer then needed. 

Percy pointed a finger at her. "If you saw your best friend, panicking in front of you whilst also having furry goat legs where his human legs should be, you would be shocked." 

"Right," Poseidon cut off the bickering that was about to erupt between Percy and Clarisse. "Any wish to volunteer to read next?" 

Hestia rose from her spot, taking the book from the sea god's hands and returning to her spot. "I shall," she said, smiling as she flicked open the book to the right page. Her eyes scanned quickly across the page, reading the title of the chapter in her head. 

Chapter Text

"My Mother Teaches Me Bullfighting?" Hestia questioned.

Percy tried to keep the frown from spreading across his face, but the ridiculous the titles he'd given such awful situations didn't exactly help.

Hestia took his prolonged silence as a queue to begin reading.

We tore through the night along dark country road. All I could think of to say was, 'So, you and my mum ... know each other?'

Grover's eyes flittered to the rear view mirror, though there were no cars behind us. 'Not exactly,' he said. 'I mean, we've never met in person. But she knew I was watching you.'

"Wow, what a great thing to say to someone." Hermes said, "That you're watching them."

Grover shook his head, "The last thing on my mind was whether what I was telling him would make him feel comfortable or not."

'Watching me?'

'Keeping tabs on you. Making sure you were okay. But I wasn't faking being your friend,' he added hastily. 'I am your friend.'

'Um ... what are you, exactly?'

"Percy, did you seriously not listen once in Chiron's class?" Annabeth joked. "I feel as though he would have at least taught what satyrs are, especially because of Grover."

Percy shrugged, "I don't know, he probably did tell us what they were at some point." Percy said, actually seeming to ponder on the thought.

Grover shook his head, "He find out quickly anyways."

'That doesn't matter right now.'

'It doesn't matter? From the wait down, my best friend is a donkey -'

Grover let out a sharp, throaty 'Blaa-ha-ha!' I realised it was more of an irritated bleat. 'Goat!' he cried. 'There are satyrs who would trample you under their hoof for such an insult!'

'Woah. Wait. Satyrs. You mean like ... Mr Brunner's myths?'

"'Myths'?" Jason parroted in almost disbelief.

Percy stared at Jason with an unimpressed face. "I really don't know why you expected me not to question Grover when he started talking about half goat people."

"Well, I didn't think you would think that it wasn't a possibility after killing a Kindly One." Jason retorted, leaning forward in his chair.

"I'm flattered you would think that at twelve year old, I would be so knowledgeable on something I didn't even think was real," Percy battered his lashes slightly, a teasing tone to his voice.

Jason looked like his was about to spit something right back at Percy, but Hestia quickly cut him off with a quick glare before continuing to read.

'Were those old ladies at the fruit stand a myth, Percy? Was Mrs Dodds a myth?'

'So you admit there was a Mrs Dodds!'

'Of course.'

'Then why -'

'The less you knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract,' Grover said, like that should be perfectly obvious. 'We put Mist over the humans' eyes. We hoped you'd think the Kindly One was a hallucination. But it was no good. You started to realise who you are.'

"Y'know, it's actually really weird seeing how clueless Percy was." Jason said, turning his head slightly.

Percy grew a wicked look on his face, "why? Because I'm always so knowledgeable, amazing, smart and intelligent?"

Jason did not take the bait, knowing Percy's love for riling people up before feigning innocence. He just stared at the raven haired man who battered his lashes at him.

The silence stretched until Percy realised Jason wasn't taking the bait, turning back to Hestia with a pout.

'Who I - wait a minute, what do you mean?' There weird bellowing noise rose up again somewhere behind us, closer then before. Whatever was chasing us was still on our tail.

"Okay, this is actually ticking me off now," Leo said, "can you just tell us what's chasing you?"

Piper turned to look at Leo for a moment, "That's a spoiler, they aren't allowed."

"Yeah, and you'll find out in a bit anyways," Percy shrugged, though he looked rather uncomfortable whilst saying it, as if he really didn't want to hear about said monster let alone speak of it.

A few questioning glances were sent Percy's way, but no one said anything. Not that Percy would ever tell them if he was uncomfortable with it anyways.

'Percy,' my mum said, 'there's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you to safety.

'Safety from what? Who's after me?'

"Oh you sweet summer child," Thalia sighed dramatically, "if only you knew just how much so many monster hated you." The words 'and still do' went left unsaid.

Percy glared at her, "I'm going to chase you in minute if you don't shut your gob."

Thalia stuck her tongue out in a childish manner, "As if you could catch me, kelp head."

Percy started getting up with a mischievous grin on his face before getting yanked back down by Annabeth. "Let's not start any fighting and just get through this," she said. "You can resume later on."

A few gods glanced between each other with confused expressions.

"Wait, I thought Percy and Thalia were close?" Apollo spoke up. "Why are they bickering every chance they get?" He glanced between Percy and Thalia, who sat there making faces at each other, just trying to rile the other one up.

A few demigods snickered at the gods question, very aware of the two's rather sibling-like dynamic.

No one answered Apollo's question, much to his dismay.

'Oh, nobody much,' Grover said, obviously miffed about the donkey comment. 'Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood thirstiest minions.'

Poseidon looked at Hades with a rather blank expression, one not usually found on the sea gods face unless he finds out more of the shenanigans his children get up to. "I truly don't know why my son continues to back you up, even after sending monsters after him at merely twelve years old."

Percy shrugged, grinning widely, very aware of his reasoning behind his respect for Hades, not that he would ever give clarity to his father of course, he enjoys the look of bemusement and indifference.

'Grover!'

"Uh oh, getting told off by Sally," Annabeth nudged Grover.

Grover hunched forward, "I love Sally, but man she is scary."

Annabeth laughed at him a bit, before Hestia continued reading onwards.

'Sorry, Mrs Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?'

'Where are we going?' I asked.

'The summer camp I told you about.' My mother's voice was right; she was trying for my sake not to be scared. 'The place your father wanted to send you.'

'The place you didn't want me to go.'

'Please, dear,' my bother begged. 'This is hard enough. Try to understand. You're in danger.'

'Because some old ladies cut yarn.'

"How ignorant," Zeus scowled, sitting straighter on his throne.

Percy narrowed his eyes at the king of gods, a slightly challenging look on his face. "Maybe if you and the rest of the gods would've been able to handle actually having children, I wouldn't have been so 'ignorant' to the dangers."

Whilst the demigods and gods were aware of Percy's lack of respect for many gods, especially Zeus, actually witnessing it was something none of them enjoyed, it just made for chaos.

Zeus glanced at Poseidon, who was giving him a stern look, his lips went into a thin line. As much as Zeus hates Perseus, he wasn't about to start things with his brother, who as much as he loathed to admit, matched him in strength for the most part.

Zeus gave Percy one last look of disgust before turning back to Hestia.

'Those weren't old ladies,' Grover said. 'Those were the Fates. Do you know what it mean - the fact they appeared in front of you? The only do that when you're about to die.'

'Woah. You said "you".'

'No I didn't. I said "someone".'

'You meant "you". As in me.'

'I meant you, like "someone". No you, you.'

"I'm starting to think Percy's hobby is bickering with people," Demeter whispered to Hera, who didn't reply, much to Demeter's bemusement.

'Boys!' my mum said.

"Ooooo, someones in trouble!" Leo said, akin to teenagers in a classroom when someone gets called to the office.

Jason jabbed his elbow into Leo's side, who jump, clutching his side and glaring harshly. Jason shook his head disapprovingly, obviously trying to get Leo to stop making mischief.

She pulled the wheel hard to the right, and I got a glimpse of a figure she'd swerved to avoid - a dark fluttering shape now lost behind us in the storm.

'What was that?' I asked.

"You know, earlier I kind of wanted to know what it was, but know I really, really don't want to," Frank said, a worried expression.

Hazel pat him on the shoulder as a comforting gesture, a small smile on her face.

'We're almost there,' my mother said, ignoring my question. 'Another mile. Please. Please. Please.'

Percy looked a big hurt at the memory of just how scared his mother was, she gave up so much just for him. And all Percy could do to repay her was be a rebellious and trouble-making son.

There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling boom!, and out car exploded.

"You better hope I never find evidence that it was you who blew up that car," Poseidon threatened Zeus, who pointedly continued looking at Hestia instead of anywhere else in the room.

I remember feeling weightless, like I was being crushed, fried and hosed down all at the same time. I peeled my forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said, 'Ow.'

I tried to shake off the daze. I wasn't dead. The car hadn't really exploded. We'd swerved into a ditch. Our driver's-side doors were wedged in the mud. The roof had cracked open like an eggshell and rain was pouring in.

"You go through that, and your first thought is, 'I wasn't dead.'," Clarisse looked at Percy, a raised eyebrow.

Percy shrugged, "I was right though, I wasn't dead."

Clarisse rolled her eyes.

Next to me in the backseat was a big motionless lump. 'Grover!' He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. I shook his furry hip, thinking, No! Even if you are half barnyard animal, you're my best friend and I don't want you to die!

"Thanks Percy," Grover sighed, decidedly ignoring the barnyard animal comment.

Percy grinned knowingly.

Then he groaned, 'Food,' and I knew there was hope.

The demigods laughed, if there was one thing everyone knew about Grover, it was his love for food.

'Percy,' my mother said, 'we have to ...' Her voice faltered.

"Oh gods," Frank put his hands over his eyes, as if something were going to jump out of the book and attack.

I looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, I saw a figure lumbering towards us on the shoulder of the road. The sight of it made my skin crawl. It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player. He seemed to be holding a blanket over his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy. His upraised hands made it look like he had horns.

"I know that everyone says being a good descriptor is a good thing," Leo started, "but, I never want to hear you describe something like that again, they are a bit too in depth for my liking."

Percy said, "Well, I'd suggest getting used to it, because that's most certainly not the last time."

I swallowed hard. 'Who is -'

'Percy,' my mother said, deadly serious. 'Get out of the car.'

My mother threw herself against the driver's-side door. It was jammed shut in the mud. I tried mine, Stuck too. I looked up desperately at the hole in the roof. It might've been an exit, but the edges were sizzling and smoking.

'Climb out the passenger's side!' my mother told me. 'Percy -you have to run. Do you see that big tree?'

Percy looked at Thalia with a grin, knowing the description that was about to come.

'What?' Another flash of lightning, and through the smoking hole in the roof I saw the tree she meant: a huge, White House Christmas-tree-sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill.

Thalia turned to face Percy, "I'm not sure whether to be more surprised I'm even mentioned in this first journal, or that you compared me to a White House Christmas-tree-sized pine tree."

Percy cackled loudly whilst others looked confused.

"What do you mean 'you' were compared?" Piper asked. "You weren't a tree," she paused a moment before adding, "right?" Piper was aware that being a demigod meant that weird stuff happened far too often, becoming a tree could most definitely be on that list.

"Spoilers!" Percy said quickly, just as Thalia was about to answer.

"If you interrupt me again I'm going to dangle you in the sky upside down," Thalia threatened.

Percy crossed his arms, "I'd love to see you try." He added, "... pine cone face."

"Again, let's not bicker right now," Annabeth said quickly, cutting off the fighting that was bound to happen if no one stepped in now.

Percy and Thalia huffed simultaneously, but complied nonetheless.

'That's the property line,' my mum said. 'Get over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door.'

'Mum, you're coming, too.'

"You are incredibly loyal, Perseus," Hestia said, pausing her reading for a moment, "it is admirable."

Percy smiled at the goddess, but didn't reply.

"It is his fatal flaw, after all," Hera said, a slightly unreadable look on her face.

Percy's smile fell off his face instantly, he looked at Hera with a scowl, a cruel look of deeply rooted dislike for the women. Hera didn't indulge in the 'glare-down' Percy was giving her, and instead waved her hand dismissively.

Her face was pale, her eyes as sad as when she looked at the ocean. 'No!' I shouted. 'You are coming with me. Help carry Grover.'

'Food!' Grover moaned, a little louder.

As much as many people wanted to laugh at Grover, they were aware that this was not a laughing matter right now.

The man with the blanket on his head kept coming towards us, making his grunting, snorting noises.

'He doesn't want us,' my mother told me. 'He was you. Besides, I can't cross the property line.'

'But ...'

'We don't have time, Percy. Go. Please.'

"You should listen to your mother, boy," Artemis said the word 'boy' as if it were a slur.

"With respect, Lady Artemis, I was not going to leave my mother behind, even if it cost me my life," Percy said lightly, though his face was stern, his words left no room for discussion in his decision.

Artemis nodded in understanding.

I got mad, then - mad at my mother, at Grover the goat, at the thing with horns that was lumbering towards us slowly and deliberately like, like a bull.

Multiple people turned to each other, some quickly guessing what the monster was, whilst others still had no idea.

I climbed across Grover and pushed the door open into the rain. 'We're going together. Come on, Mum.'

'I told you -'

'Mum! I am not leaving you. Help me with Grover.'

Whilst Artemis clearly didn't appreciate knowing that Percy yelled at his mother, she didn't say anything.

Annabeth held Percy's arm, trying to be a grounding presence. Even if Percy would never actually admit when things affected him, she could pick up on some telltale signs when he was. 

I didn't wait for her answer. I scrambled outside, dragging Grover from the car. He was surprisingly light, but I couldn't have carried him very far if my mum hadn't come to my aid. Together, we draped Grover's arms over our shoulders and started stumbling uphill through wet wait-high grass.

Glancing back, I got my first clear look at the monster. He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of Muscle Man magazine - bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other 'ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin.

"Good gods," Leo muttered quietly, a mildly creeped out look on his face.

I recognised the monster, all right. He had been in one of the first stories Mr Brunner told us. But he couldn't be real.

"Oh yes he could," Hermes sighed, sighing, albeit, slightly over-dramatically.

I blinked the rain out of my eyes. 'That's -'

'Pasiphae's son,' my mother said. 'I wish I'd known how badly they want to kill you.'

Eyes widened in quick understanding, a few peoples jaws dropped slightly. How could a Minotaur been after Percy at such a young age?

'But he's a min -'

'Don't say his name,' she warned. 'Names have power.'

Athena nodded approvingly at Sally's knowledge.

The pine tree was still too far - a hundred metres uphill at least. I glanced behind me again. The bull man hunched over our are, looking in the windows - or not looking, exactly. More like snuffling, nuzzling. I wasn't sure why he bothered, since we were only about fifteen meters away.

"Foolish boy, had you learnt not one thing about our world?" Zeus said disapprovingly, raising an eyebrow.

Percy ignored Zeus, though, he was questioning whether the Fates were actually correct in thinking reading these journals would actually make the most ignorant, arrogant, irritating, annoying and egotistical god realise that maybe, just maybe, he was in the wrong.

'Food?' Grover moaned.

'Shhh,' I told him. 'Mum, what's he doing? Doesn't he see us?'

'His sight and hearing are terrible,' she said. 'He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough.'

"Your mother seems incredibly knowledge on everything," Athena said, rather impressed.

"My mother knew she needed to be prepared in any ways she could have been," Percy said, though, undertones of sadness peaked through. It was clear that Percy felt bad he had put Sally in a position that most would find unbearable.

As if on cue, the bull-man bellowed in rage. He picked up Gabe's Camaro by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded.

Not a scratch, I remembered Gabe saying.

"Oops," Hazel said, grinning.

Oops.

Hazel and Percy laughed as the words were said.

'Percy,' my mum said. 'When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way - directly sideways. He can't change direction very well once he's charging. Do you understand?'

Athena nodded along with the words, as if noting down the tactic.

'How do you know all this?'

'I've been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you near me.'

'Keeping me near you? But -'

Another bellow of rage, and the bull-man started tromping uphill. He'd smelled us.

Annabeth winced. She had only heard small snippets from Percy about all of this, but this seemed so much worse then what he had ever let on.

Percy noticed this and held Annabeth closer to his side, a reassuring smile on his face, acting as if reliving this wasn't honestly a bit traumatic.

The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds and he'd be on top of us. My mother must've been exhausted, but she shouldered Grover. 'Go, Percy! Separate! Remember what I said.'

I sprinted to the left, turned, and saw the creature bearing down on me. His black eyes glowed with hate. He reeked like rotten meat.

Aphrodite made a grossed-out sound, "Eugh, those beasts need some serious hygiene skills."

Percy laughed a bit, though it wasn't a real one, it fell short and was slightly breathy.

He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at my chest.

Grover unconsciously shoved himself into Percy's side, copying Annabeth's position.

The fear in my stomach made me want to bolt, but that wouldn't work. I could never outrun this thing. So I held my ground, and at the last moment, I jumped to the side. The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, but not wards me this time, towards my mother, who was setting Grover down in the grass.

A few gasps from the demigods sounded around the room as Hestia continued reading, though, not without sparring Percy a quick glance, as if checking he was okay.

The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eyeing my mother, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back towards the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover.

'Run, Percy!' she told me. 'I can't go any further. Run!' But I just stood there, frozen in fear, as the monster charged her. She tried to sidestep, as she'd told me to do, but the monster had learned his lesson. His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummelling the air.

The silence was deafening. Hestia paused her reading once more, looking up, "Are you okay to continue reading, Perseus, I'm sure you would be able to step outside if you wish to do so." Her smile was pleasant and warming.

Percy said, "I'm fine." The words were gruff, and snappy, he clearly didn't want anyone thinking he was 'baby-ish' and weak.

People around the room glanced at Percy, noticing the tension in his shoulders and his jaw tightly shut. They shot him worried glanced and sympathetic looks, all of which, honestly just made Percy more angry, even if he didn't mean to.

Hestia didn't take his snappy tone to heart, just giving him one last tight lipped smile before continuing to read.

'Mum!'

She caught my eyes, managed to choke out one last word: 'Go!' Then with an angry roar, the monster closed his fists around my mother's neck, and she dissolved before my eyes, melting into light, a shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash, and she was simply ... gone.

Once more, gasps from the demigods sounded around the room.

No one said anything, not because they didn't care, but because they knew that Percy just wouldn't appreciate it. They knew that the son of Poseidon already was extremely against having everyone hear this let alone have everyone think lesser of him - which they didn't - just because of traumatic experiences.

The gods seemed to understand this too, not saying anything to the boy.

'No!'

Anger replaced my fear. Newfound strength burned in my limbs - the same rush of energy I'd got when Mrs Dodds grew talons.

The bull-man bore down on Grover, who lay helpless in the grass. The monster hunched over, snuffling my best friend, as if he were about to lift Grover up and make him dissolve too.

I couldn't allow that.

"Thanks, Percy, but you really should've gotten to safety instead," Grover said quietly.

Percy shook his head, "I would never leave you behind, man."

Grover smiled at him in thanks, a sad look in his eyes.

I stripped off my red rain jacket. 'HEY!' I screamed, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster. 'Hey, stupid! Ground beef!'

"You need some serious lessons on insults," Clarisse muttered, shaking her head, much like a disappointed parent would.

"I was under pressure, okay?" Percy dramatically placed a hand over his heart, pretending to be offended.

'Raaaarrrrr!' The monster turned towards me, shaking his meaty fists. I had an idea - a stupid idea, but better then no idea at all.

"When have you ever had a smart idea," Jason 'tsked' disapprovingly.

"I actually have amazing ideas, believe it or not, Jason," Percy huffed, crossing his arms, "I just don't share them with you."

Jason shrugged, "Good thing you don't, because they wouldn't be very good."

Percy rolled his eyes, turning back to Hestia, pointedly ignoring Jason.

I put my back to the big pine tree and waved my red jacket in front of the bull-man, thinking I'd jump out of the way at the last moment.

"Thalia the tree mentioned again?" Percy joked, giggling loudly at Thalia's unimpressed look.

"You know, for someone who stopped me from spoiling it earlier, you sure are trying to give it away." Thalia spat back, though there was no actually anger to her voice. If anything, there was actually amusement present.

But it didn't happen like that. The bull-man charged too fast, his arms out to grab me whichever way I tried to dodge. Time slowed down. My legs tensed. I couldn't jump sideways, so I leaped straight up, kicking off from the creature's head using it as a springboard, turning in midair, and landing on his neck.

"How the fuck?" Leo burst out, a shocked look on his face. "Didn't you have zero experience with fighting at that age? How in the world did you do that?!" He pointed at Percy accusingly.

Before Percy could reply, Piper shushed Leo, gesturing for Hestia to continue.

How did I do that? I didn't have time to figure it out. A millisecond later, the monster's head head slammed into the tree and the impact nearly knocked my teeth out.

"Wait a second, I'm actually curious now," Percy began, "could your tree-self feel that?" Percy turned his head rather like a dog would.

Thalia shrugged, "I don't really know." She said, looking like she was questioning it herself now.

"I'm still confused as to why Thalia is being called a tree," Frank said quietly, a tired expression on his face.

The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake me. I locked my arms around his horns to keep from being thrown. The monster shook himself around and bucked like a rodeo bull. He should have just backed up into a tree and smashed me flat,

"You say that like you want that to happen," Apollo joked, laughing a bit.

"You know, I really want to laugh, but I feel honestly a bit more concerned," Thalia said, glancing at Percy who just waved her off dismissively.

A few others half nodded in agreement with Thalia, though didn't make a move to say anything, rather unsure of what to say at all.

but I was starting to realise that this thing had only one gear: forward. Meanwhile, Grover started groaning in the grass. I wanted to yell at him to shut up, but the way I was getting tossed around, if I opened my mouth I'd bite my own tongue off.

"Leave it to Percy to be in a near death experience but also wanting to tell someone to shut up," Clarisse said, "inspiring, truly."

The demigods laughed, before being cut off by Hestia's reading once more.

'Food!' Grover moaned. The bull-man wheeled towards him, pawed the ground again, and got ready to charge. I thought about how he had squeezed the life out of my mother, made her disappear in a flash of light, and rage filled me like high-octane fuel. I got both hands around one horn and pulled backwards with all my might. The monster tensed, gave a surprised grunt, then - snap!

"Aren't you like, twelve when this happened?" Piper started, "How the hell did you do that?"

Most of the people in the throne room had turned to stare at Percy in disbelief right now, wondering the exact same thing.

Percy shrugged, mildly uncomfortable with all the attention. "I don't know, it just happened." He tried to downplay the moment, looking at Hestia pleadingly to keep reading, in hopes to get the attention back off of his once more.

The bull-man screamed and flung me through the air. I landed flat on my back in the grass. My head smacked against a rock.

People winced, ducking their heads, as if they too felt the pain shoot through their heads.

When I sat up, my vision was blurry, but I had a horn in my hands, a ragged bone weapon the size of a knife. The monster charged.

Without thinking, I rolled to one side and came up kneeling. As the monster barrelled past, I drove the broken horn straight into his side, right up under his furry rib cage.

"I mean, I already kind of guessed that you ended up killing the monster, but it's still shocking," Hazel said, looking at Percy.

"Agreed," Jason muttered.

Percy grinned.

The bull-man roared in agony. He flailed, clawing at his chest, then began to disintegrate - not like my mother, in a flash of golden light, but like crumbling sand, blown away in chunks by the wind, the same way Mrs Dodds had burst apart. The monster was gone.

Some exchanged questioning glances with each other, how come Percy's mother had disappeared differently to the monster, let alone disappeared at all like that, shouldn't a mortal die normally?

I smelled like livestock and my knees were shaking.

"Weakling," Area rolled his eyes, scoffing.

A few gods shot Ares looks, though the god of war just rolled his eyes again and turned back to Hestia.

My head felt like it was splitting open. I was weak and scared and trembling with grief. I'd just seen my mother vanish. I wanted to lie down and cry, but there was Grover, needing my help, so I managed to haul him up and stagger down into the valley, towards the lights of the farmhouse.

Annabeth looked at Percy, smiling reassuringly. The words in the journal were honestly concerningly self-deprecating, especially for a twelve year old, at that age, you shouldn't be thinking such things.

Percy smiled back, though his lips were tightly zipped together, his eyebrows pinched inwards.

I was crying, calling for my mother, but I held on to Grover - I wasn't going to let him go. The last thing I remember is collapsing on a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above me, moths flying around a yellow light and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man and a pretty girl, her blonde hair curled like Cinderella's.

Annabeth laughed at the description she was given, "Like Cinderella's hair, huh?"

Just as Percy was about to respond, Clarisse cut through, "You two are so sappy, it's unbearable."

Percy stuck out his tongue, "Stay mad, Clarisse."

They both looked down at me, ans the girl said, 'He's the one. He must be.'

'Silence, Annabeth,' the man said. 'He's still conscious. Bring him inside.'

"Well, that was certainly ..." Poseidon started, clearing his throat, "something."

"That's one way to put it," Dionysus muttered.

"Alright then, who else wishes to read?" Hestia asked, looking about the room.

"I suppose I'll read the next chapter," Dionysus said, standing up to retrieve the book from Hestia's hold. He grabbed the journal, sitting down quickly back in his throne and flicked through the pages to find the next chapter.

Chapter Text

Dionysus was about to read out the chapters title, when suddenly a large puff of smoke appeared in the throne rooms centre.

As the smoke cleared off, a small child, maybe 12 or 13 years old stood there for a moment, looking around quickly. The child had windswept raven hair, a deeply tanned olive skin tone, sharp green and blue coloured eyes, a lithe frame ... and look suspiciously like a certain son of Poseidon.

"What the hell?" Percy - the older one - spoke up after a few moments of stunned silence, looking at the child with a calculating look before his eyes bugged out.

"Is that me?!" The two Percy's said in unison, staring at each other.

As chaos erupted between everyone else, a note dropped from thin air onto Poseidon's lap.

"Ahem," Poseidon cleared his throat loudly, capturing everyone's attention. "This note is from the fates." Now everyone's bodies were turned to face the sea god straight on, suddenly extremely interested in what he has to say. "It says, 'The Fates have decided the gods are not learning about the demigods lives enough to grasp the reality. Therefore, we are sending in a younger Perseus Jackson, in hopes that this may be enough to change minds.'"

"Right, because that clears everything up, thanks so much," younger Percy rolled his eyes.

"Good gods, you were even sassier back then," Piper laughed, looking between the two versions of Percy.

"Right ..." older Percy began, "so, how old are you?"

"Thirteen."

"Okay so this is after this first quest?" Older Percy raised an eyebrow at his younger self.

The young Percy just gave him a raised eyebrow, "I got back home from camp not that long ago, like, a little bit after lightning man over there," he pointed at Zeus, "tried to kill me over something I never even did."

Annabeth said, "So, do you want introductions or?"

Young Percy nodded, "That would be helpful, yes."

"Leo Valdez, son of Hephaestus," Leo grinned, waving.

"Piper McLean, daughter of Aphrodite," she waved with a small smile.

"Hazel Levesque, daughter of Pluto," Hazel said, glancing around the room a bit, unsure of where to look.

"Pluto?" Younger Percy cut in, cocking his head to the side. "Isn't that Roman ...?"

"Yes, some of us are Roman demigods, which you find out later in life." Frank answered. "I'm Frank Zhang, son of Mars."

 Will smiled brightly at the younger version of Percy, "Will Solace, son of Apollo.

"Never would've guessed," young Percy said sarcastically before his eyes landed on Nico. "You are?"

"Nico di Angelo," he said, "son of Hades."

Younger Percy stared at him for a moment, "You're a forbidden kid?"

Nico nodded, "As are Thalia," he pointed, "and, Jason, both are children of Zeus."

Younger Percy's eyes travelled between the two demigods, "Hang on a second, Thalia, as in pine-cone tree, Thalia? That one?" He said sceptically, looking at the daughter of Zeus with narrowed eyes.

"Aren't you just a bundle of joy," Thalia muttered. "You haven't changed at all, kelp head." She glared at Percy, though there was no real heat behind it.

Just as the older Percy was about to reply, young Percy cut in quickly, scowling, "Don't call me that." He said sternly, fists clenched. "You don't get to call me that." The room fell silent, the anger radiating off of him.

"Calm down, kid, if I didn't like being called that, I would've said something years ago." Older Percy said, patting the spot next to Annabeth, gesturing for him to sit down so they could get settled to resume reading again.

"Why would I let someone call me that?" Younger Percy said in disbelief, a judgemental glare sent at his older self.

Older Percy shrugged, "because it doesn't bother me anymore."

Younger Percy grumbled to himself, glaring at Thalia from the corner of his eye.

Everyone was getting comfortable, talking amongst themselves (mostly about the child version of Percy in the room), and getting ready to hear the next part of this first quest of Percy's.

But, just as all seemed well and good, younger Percy grinned wickedly as a burst of water from a nearby fountain crashed into the room and straight into Thalia's face, drenching her from head to toe in water.

She gasped as the cold water hit her, the room would've fallen into deafening silence if it weren't for the snickers coming from young Percy.

"Who could've done that?" Younger Percy battered his lashes, feigning innocence and looking around.

"Percy," Thalia seethed, flickers of electricity over her body, "you better hope I don't hurt your younger self, because it's looking really tempting right now." Her hair was flattened across her face, clothes sticking to her body awkwardly.

Older Percy stared at her for a beat longer before bursting out laughing, more so at the absurdity of it all then actually at Thalia. At Thalia's unimpressed half glare and half pleading look, he doubled over in another larger fit of laughter.

Zeus scoffed, and with a lazy swing of his hand Thalia was once again dry. "Let's just continue," he glanced over at both Percy's with a exaggeratedly irritated look.

"Yeah, no, I'd love to," younger Percy began, "but, I don't actually know whats going on."

"We are reading my diaries I wrote about my quests," older Percy replied. "You would have already been done with the first journal."

"You're joking ..." younger Percy looked slightly troubled, "I don't want people reading that!" He shouted.

"Yeah, I'm aware, but we have no say."

"Hang on, how do we know which Percy we are talking to?" Annabeth asked.

"Percy," Hazel pointed at the younger Percy, "and Perseus," she pointed at the older version of Percy.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

With that, Dionysus opened the book and scanned over the chapters title. "'I Play Pinochle With a Horse'?" He was about to allow Percy to reply but he cut him off and began reading instead.

I had weird dreams full of barnyard animals. Most of them wanted to kill me. The rest wanted food.

"This is already so embarrassing," Percy muttered, shaking his head.

A few people around the room laughed, but quickly quieted down once they saw the annoyed look coming from Dionysus, who clearly wanted to get on with it.

I must've woken up several times, but what I heard and saw made no sense, so I just passed out again.

I remember lying in a soft bed, being spoon-fed something that tasted like buttered popcorn, only it was pudding. The girl with curly blonde hair hovered over me, smirking as she scraped drips off my chin with the spoon.

"How romantic," Jason teased.

"I don't even know who you are, but I already seriously dislike you," Percy said, frowning at the blonde mans smug look. "I should've downed you in water too," he added, though much too quietly for Jason to hear.

When she saw my eyes open, she asked, 'What will happen at the summer solstice?'

"What a greeting, truly," Piper snorted.

"Hey, look, you can't blame a girl for being curious," Annabeth grinned, laughing along side Piper.

I managed to croak, 'What?'

She looked around, as if afraid someone would overhear. 'What's going on? What was stolen? We've only got a few weeks!''

'I'm sorry,' I mumbled, 'I don't ...'

"I'm making a fool of myself," Percy said, glancing at Perseus who just shrugged.

"It happens more then you'd think," he paused, "or would hope for, for that matter."

Somebody knocked on the door, and the girl quickly filled my mouth with pudding.

The demigods laughed amongst themselves, all except for Percy, who looked well and truly embarrassed. Annabeth looking mildly sheepish, grinning at Perseus with a faux look of sorry.

A husky blond dude, like a surfer, stood in the corner of the bedroom keeping watch over me. He had blue eyes - at least a dozen of them - on his cheeks, his forehead, the backs of his hands.

A few glances were sent at the Percy's, questioning and rather concerned looks. Perseus shook his head, knowing full well just how much that had creeped him out when he was younger, no matter how little he talked about seeing that.

For the sake of his younger self, he wasn't about to sit here and explain what exactly he had supposedly hallucinated.

When I finally came around for good, there was nothing weird about my surroundings, except that they were nicer than I was used to. I was sitting in a deck chair on a huge porch, gazing across a meadow at green hills in the distance. The breeze smelled like strawberries.

The Greek demigods smiled warmly to themselves, almost reminiscing the smell of those sweet strawberries that would float gently through the air, the gorgeous greenery of the hills and large large trees surrounding the place.

On the table next to me was a tall drink. It looked like iced apple juice, with a green straw and a paper parasol stuck through a maraschino cherry. My hand was so weak I almost dropped the glass once I got my finger around it.

'Careful,' a familiar voice said. Grover was leaning against the porch railing, looking like he hadn't slept in a week. Under one arm, he cradled a show box. He was wearing blue jeans, Converse hi-tops and a bright orange shirt that said Camp Half-Blood. Just plain old Grover. Not the goat boy.

"Goat boy," Grover parroted, an un-amused look.

Percy and Perseus nodded at the same time.

"You are a goat and a boy, hence, goat boy," Percy said, looking over Annabeth and Perseus at Grover.

"How creative," Dionysus said before Grover could reply.

So maybe I'd had a nightmare. Maybe my mum was okay. We were still on vacation, and we'd stopped here at this big house for some reason. And ...

"Spoiler alert, it was definitely not a vacation," Percy frowned, folding his arms over his chest and sinking back into the couch.

"You don't say," Hazel said, grinning at the sight of a younger version of the guy who she see's as an extremely mighty and powerful person, only to realise that this version of Percy is young and inexperienced, and maybe a bit more keen to piss off the gods...

'You saved my life,' Grover said. 'I ... well, the least I could do ... I went back to the hill. I thought you might want this.'Reverently, he placed the shoe box in my lap. Inside was a black-and-white bull's horn, the base jagged from being broken off, the top splattered with dried blood. It hadn't been a nightmare.

Percy's expression went stoic, as if remembering the situation that happened to him not long ago in his time line, didn't affect him one bit. Perseus glanced at him, knowing just how badly the fake death of his mother had affected him, no matter how much he always hid it.

"You can be upset, y'know?" Thalia said, looking at both Percy's. "You don't have to act all tough, loosing someone you love isn't easy," she added, glancing around the room for a moment, "I think we all know that."

"I'm not upset," Percy spat defensively before Perseus could even think to respond.

Perseus's lips formed a thin line, knowing full well that he hadn't been a brilliant liar back then, even now, he struggles to lie, especially when it's something about his emotions, the ones he tries so hard to keep hidden.

Thalia being Thalia, took this defensive response badly, her eyebrows furrowing. "You are a terrible liar, you know that, Percy?" Thalia leaned forward, "So, drop the little 'tough boy' act that everyone can see through. You aren't fooling anybody." She said, as if spelling out the words for him, like a kindergarten teacher would for toddlers.

Poseidon looked a bit troubled, how come others could see his son hurting to much under a facade, but he couldn't? His lips pursed together in thought, watching the altercation. He had known about Percy's anger issues, he had gotten it from him of course, but it still didn't make sense how he missed all the signs.

"Okay, that's enough, why don't we continue reading?" Annabeth said, trying to direct peoples attention away from Perseus holding a hand over Percy's mouth as the kid struggled to break free.

"This is not how I was expecting my day to go ..." Apollo muttered over at Hermes who nodded quickly in agreement, eyes fixated on the two Percy's now bickering back and forth.

'The Minotaur,' I said.

"And here he goes, just saying monsters names like he has nine lives," Thalia rolled her eyes, glaring at Percy.

"Shut your trap, pine cone face," he stuck out his tongue.

'Um, Percy, it isn't a good idea -'

'That's what they call it in the Greek myths, isn't it?' I demanded. 'The Minotaur. Half man, half bull.'

"Again with this 'myth' thing," Zeus waved his hand exaggeratedly.

"Again with this 'I didn't have a single clue what was going on' thing," Perseus mocked the god.

Zeus scoffed, but didn't dignify it with a response.

Grover shifted uncomfortably. 'You've been out for two days. How much do you remember?'

'My mum. Is she really ...'

He looked down. I stared across the meadow. They valley was surrounded by rolling hills, and the tallest one, directly in front of u, was the one with the huge pine tree on top. Even that looked beautiful in the sunlight.

Percy frowned. Gosh, everyone was going to know how much of a wuss he was about 'loosing' his mother, she wasn't even dead for Christs sake! And those pitiful looks he could see coming from demigods he didn't even know, it was aggravating.

My mother was gone. The whole world should be black and cold. Nothing should look beautiful.

Perseus shook his head at Frank, who seemed like he was about to say something to his younger self. There was only one way that would end, and that was not good.

Frank nodded in understanding, giving him a quick smile before turning back to Dionysus.

The others caught on quickly and followed.

'I'm sorry,' Grover sniffled. 'I'm a failure. I'm - I'm the worst satyr in the world.'

"More like the best satyr in the world," Perseus grinned at Grover, nudging him cheekily.

Grover smiled back at him in thanks.

I was too miserable to care that satyrs existed, or even Minotaur's. All that meant was my mum really had been squeezed into nothingness, dissolved into yellow light. I was alone. An orphan. I would have to live with ... Smelly Gabe?

"I would never in a million millennia allow that to happen, my boy," Poseidon said gruffly yet kindly, protective tones to his words.

Perseus smiled back at his father, whilst Percy looked a bit iffy with the statement.

Nobody really realised this, most focused on Apollo who was playing around with little sparks of sun around him, clearly waiting for Dionysus to continue reading onwards.

No. That would never happen. I would live on the streets first. I would pretend I was seventeen and join the army. I'd do something.

"Sorry to break it to you, but, you are pretty much enlisting for the army the moment you are born a demigod," Jason said, frowning a bit.

Percy looked at Jason for a moment, seemingly trying to detect any lies to his voice. "Well, shit, how much do I go through in my life?" He seemed a bit weirded out by this, but not all that surprised, of course he knew the added dangers of being a child of The Big Three.

"Too much," Annabeth muttered, shaking her head.

"I'm seriously not excited for the future now," Percy muttered, glancing at scars that ran down his older versions body, the cuts and scars that littered his arms and legs, some larger, some only little nicks.

He pressed his lips together, prying his eyes back over to Mr D.

I said, 'It wasn't your fault.'

'Yes, it was. I was supposed to protect you.'

'Did my mother ask you to protect me?'

'No. But that's my job. I'm a keeper. At least ... I was.'

"You are something so much better now," Annabeth smiled at him.

Grover offered a quick smile back at her.

'But why ...' I suddenly felt dizzy, my vision swimming.

'Don't strain yourself,' Grover said. 'Here.' He helped me hold my glass and put the straw to my lips. I recoiled at the taste, because I was expecting apple juice. It wasn't that at all.

It was chocolate-chip cookies. Liquid cookies. And not just any cookies, buttery and hot, with the chips still melting. Drinking it, my whole body felt warm and good, full of energy. My grief didn't go away, but I felt as if my mum had just brushed her hand against my cheek, given me a cookie the way she used to when I was small, and told me everything was going to be okay.

Both Percy's didn't miss the sympathetic glances that were sent their way. Percy was obviously irritated by these looks, because seriously, what did they know about him? On the other hand, Perseus gave his friends reassuring looks.

'What did it taste like?' He sounded so wistful, I felt guilty.

'Sorry,' I said. 'I should've let you taste.'

His eyes got wide. 'No! That's not what I meant. I just ... wondered.'

'Chocolate-chip cookies,' I said. 'My mum's. Homemade.'

He sighed. 'And how do you feel?'

'Like I could throw Nancy Bobofit a hundred meters.'

"You should've," Clarisse grunted, looking ticked off just by the name being said.

"I could find her location?" Leo offered, grinning evilly.

"I'm sure she's living an awful, miserable life," Percy said, grinning ear to ear.

'That's good,' he said. 'That's good. I don't think you should risk drinking any more of that stuff.'

'What do you mean?'

He took the empty glass from me gingerly, as if it were dynamite, and set it back on the table. 'Come on. Chiron and Mr D are waiting.'

"Again, no one explaining anything to me," Perseus huffed and pouted.

Grover offered to carry the Minotaur horn, but I held onto it. I'd paid for that souvenir the hard way. I wasn't going to let it go.

"Of course you weren't," Leo laughed for a moment.

Grover nodded solemnly in agreement, knowing full well just how stubborn Percy was, especially when he wanted to find something out.

Down at the end of the porch, two men sat across from each other at a card table. The blonde-haired girl who'd spoon-fed me popcorn-flavoured pudding was leaning on the porch rail next to them. The man facing me was small, but porky.

"You better hope you aren't calling me 'porky', Perry Johnson," Dionysus looked between the two Percy's a few times before looking back at the journal.

Both Percy's snickered, giving each other a knowing glance.

He had a red nose, big watery eyes and curly hair so black it was almost purple. He looked like those paintings of baby angels - what do you call them, hubbubs? No, cherubs. That's it. He looked like a cherub who'd turned middle-aged in a trailer park.

Dionysus sputtered in outrage.

Apollo, Hermes, Hephaestus and the demigods, all burst out laughing, the other gods and goddess's - minus Zeus - all tried hiding their laughter. "Percy -" Apollo cackled. "That is amazing, truly spectacular," Apollo said between laughter.

"Actually, now that I look at him, that was strangely and scarily accurate," Nico said, turning his head whilst inspecting Dionysus, his expression calculating, as if he were looking at a diamond, trying to figure out if it was real or not.

Zeus raised a hand, silencing the room, though some giggles still flittered through the people.

Dionysus took this as a signal to continue on reading.

He wore a tiger-pattern Hawaiian shirt, and he would've fitted right in at one of Gabe's poker parties, except I go the feeling this guy could've out-gambled even my stepfather.

"He wouldn't stand a single chance," Dionysus nodded, quickly reading on before anyone could start chatting again.

I realised he was sitting in the wheelchair. Then I recognised the tweed jacket, the thinning brown hair, the scraggly beard. 'Mr Brunner!' I cried.

'Ah, good, Percy,' he said. 'Now we have four for pinochle.'

He offered me a chair to the right of Mr D, who looked at me with bloodshot eyes and heaved a great sigh. 'Oh , I suppose I must say it. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. There. Now don't expect me to be glad to see you.'

Poseidon cut in before the next words exited Dionysus's mouth, he said, "I do understand your dislike for Camp Half-Blood, but do not speak to my son like that." For Poseidon, the words seemed weirdly calm, but it didn't take a genius to catch the threat underneath.

Dionysus nodded, looking bemused.

'Uh, thanks.' I scooted a little further away from him because, if there was one thing I had learned from living with Gabe, it was how to tell when an adult has been hitting the happy juice. If Mr D was a stranger to alcohol, I was a satyr.

Dionysus was rather troubled at being compared to such a vile person. Not that he would ever admit it to the kids face, but he did actually care about Percy, he cared for all the demigods actually, and being compared to a man of Percy's stepfathers' kind was insulting to say the least.

Both Percy's pointedly didn't look at the people who sent concerned glances their way.

Percy seriously wanted to tell them that Smelly Gabe was already dead and it no longer mattered, but he felt like it was bad timing, and maybe, his older version would have already told them by now ... hopefully.

'Annabeth?' Mr Brunner called to the blonde girl. She came forward and Mr Brunner introduced us. 'This young lady nursed you back to health, Percy. Annabeth, my dear, why don't you go check on Percy's bunk? We'll be putting him in cabin eleven for now.'

"Cabin eleven?" Frank turned to look questioningly at the Greek demigods. "Isn't that Hermes' cabin?" He asked.

Perseus nodded, frowning. "Yeah, before I convinced the gods to do the bare minimum for their demigod children, the ones who came to camp were put into Hermes cabin until they were claimed, if they were claimed at all."

The gods - even Zeus, surprisingly, though, less so then others - looked a bit sheepish almost, as if they could see the wrongs in their past ways.

Frank nodded in understanding, but now had furrowed eyebrows, quickly understanding the complete flaws in that.

Annabeth said, 'Sure, Chiron.' She was probably my age, maybe a couple of centimetres taller, and a whole lot more athletic-looking.

Piper burst out laughing, doubling over with a hand clutching her stomach. Heads spun to look at her, confused and concerned looks on their faces.

"Are you okay?" Jason asked, leaning back a bit, acting as if she had gone crazy or something.

"Y-yeah -" she managed to say through the laughter. "I just -" she paused, catching her breath, "I never expected Percy to ever be shorter then Annabeth and it just seems so funny now." She said, ending her sentence before doubling over laughing once more.

Leo joined quickly, picturing a short and skinny Percy next to a taller and more toned Annabeth, it just seemed so odd to picture.

Percy looked at them with a frown. "It's not that funny," he muttered, huffing and puffing in his spot.

Dionysus rolled his eyes, not bothering to wait for Leo and Piper to quiet down, and just continued reading on.

Her eyes were a startling grey, like storm clouds; pretty, but intimidating, too, as if she were analysing the best way to take me down in a fight.

"Knowing Annabeth, she most certainly was," Thalia nodded.

"She is my daughter after all," Athena said, smiling. Annabeth sent a smile back, but it seemed unsure and unnatural.

She glanced at the Minotaur horn in my hands, then back at me. I imagined she was going to say, You killed a Minotaur! or Wow, you;re so awesome! or something like that.

Instead she said, 'You drool when you sleep.' Then she sprinted off down the lawn.

"It's actually a miracle how you two actually ended up together," Grover shook his head, letting out a breathy and short laugh.

Percy's head spun around to face Grover at a shocking speed, sputtering nonsense. "Together!?" he shouted, now looking between Annabeth and his older self. "Like, together together?" he whispered, as if he didn't want anyone else to hear.

Perseus gave him a toothy grin, one that went from ear to ear.

"You have no idea how relieved I was when I found out you two got together," Clarisse said in an over dramatic fashion. "It was getting tiring watching you two dance around each other, acting like an old married couple, all the while claiming you were just 'best friends'," she added.

"Just say you're jealous, Clarisse," Perseus flung his non-existent hair over his shoulder.

The demigods laughed at the two's sibling like bickering.

'So,' I said, anxious to change the subject. 'You, uh, work here, Mr Brunner?'

'Not Mr Brunner,' the ex-Mr Brunner said. 'I'm afraid that was a pseudonym. You may call me Chiron.'

'Okay.' Totally, confused, I looked at the director. 'And Mr D ... does that stand for something?'

Mr D stopped shuffling the cards. He looked at me like I'd just belched loudly. 'Young man, names are powerful thing. You don't just go around using them for reason.'

'Oh. Right. Sorry.'

"You sure seemed really sorry, Perc," Will said, suppressing small laughter.

"I was truly sorry," Perseus battered his long black lashes in faux innocence.

'I must say, Percy,' Chiron-Brunner broke in, 'I'm glad to see you alive. It's been a long time silence I've made a house call to a potential camper. I'd hate to think I've wasted my time.'

'House call?'

'My year at Yancy Academy, to instruct you. We have satyrs at most schools, of course, keeping a lookout. But Grover alerted me as soon as he met you. He sensed you were something special, so I decided to come upstate. I convinced the other Latin teacher to ... ah, take a leave of absence.'

'You came to Yancy just to teach me?' I asked.

"Just boosting his ego more and more," Thalia clicked her tongue, shaking her head in fake disappointment.

"You can not be talking," Perseus raised an eyebrow.

"You are both incredibly egotistical, we get it, let's move on," Jason rolled his eyes, waving his hands about.

Perseus squawked indignantly, pointing an accusatory finger at Jason. "You of all people can't be saying that either!" he said.

"Let's not let this squabbling grow any larger than need be, hm?" Hestia smiled, though underlying annoyance was clear. All three demigods quit the bickering, turning back to Dionysus.

Chiron nodded. 'Honestly, I wasn't sure about you at first. We contacted your mother, let her know we were keeping an eye on you in case you were ready for Camp Half-Blood. But you still had so much to learn. Nevertheless, you made it here alive, and that's always the first test.'

"Wow, that didn't sound weird at all," Nico said, his expression and tone blank from any emotion.

"Nico, I seriously can't tell when you're trying to be funny or not," Will looked at him, sighing.

"I was being sarcastic," Nico replied, looking at Will as if he should've known that. Will just nodded, looking back over at Dionysus, who quite frankly, looked like he would rather be anywhere else but here.

'Grover,' Mr D said impatiently, 'are you playing or not?'

'Yes, sir!' Grover trembled as he took the fourth chair, though I didn't know why he should be so afraid of a pudgy little man in a tiger-print Hawaiian shirt.

"I hope you have already by now found the error in those words, Peter," Dionysus looked up from his book.

"It's Percy, like I've told you a gajillion times already," Percy said, rolling his eyes, choosing to not respond to the gods statement.

'You do know how to play pinochle?' Mr D eyed me suspiciously.

'I'm afraid not,' I said.

'I'm afraid now, sir,' he said.

'Sir,' I repeated. I was liking the camp director less and less.

Athena looked at both the Percy's. He was a disrespectful kid, not at all fit for her daughter, in her opinion. She frowned to herself, Annabeth could have chosen from so many other people, but she had to choose the sea spawn, the son of the man Athena despised.

Annabeth, Grover and the Percy's were all giggling amongst each other, not at all aware of the glare Athena was sending their way.

'Well,' he told me, 'it is, along with gladiator fighting and Pac-Man, one of the greatest games ever invented by humans. I would expect all civilised young men to know the rules.'

'I'm sure the boy can learn,' Chiron said.

'Please,' I said, 'what is this place? What am I doing here? Mr Brun - Chiron - why would you go to Yancy Academy just to teach me?'

Mr D snorted. 'I asked the same question.'

"How many times do people not give Percy a clear answer in this, it's honestly getting tiring listening to it," Leo whined, lips curling downward.

Perseus sighed. "You better get used to it, because it doesn't get much better from here," he said. Perseus paused for a moment before adding, "Except for Chiron, he explained some stuff pretty well."

The camp director dealt the cards. Chiron smiled at me sympathetically, the way he used to in Latin class, as if to let me know that no matter my average was, I was his star student. He expected me to have the right answer.

Percy grimaced, he could remember that face, the face that just felt so degrading. He looked up at his older self, noticing a similar look on his face too, obviously he also felt the same, although, that wasn't surprising considering they were the exact same person just didn't ages.

'Percy,' he said. 'Did your mother tell you nothing?'

'She said ...' I remembered her sad eyes, looking out over the sea. 'She told me she was afraid to send me here, even though my father had wanted her to. She said that once I was here, I probably couldn't leave. She wanted to keep me close to her.'

'Typical,' Mr D said. 'That's how they usually get killed. Young man, are you bidding or not?'

"Jeez," Hazel said, "that's not what I would've said, but anyways."

"Indeed," Demeter nodded in agreement, her lips forming a thin line, giving Dionysus a disapproving shake of her head.

'What?' I asked.

He explained, impatiently, how you big in pinochle, and so I did.

'I'm afraid there's too much to tell,' Chiron said. 'I'm afraid our usual orientation film won't be sufficient.'

"Hold on," Clarisse started, "you have never watched the orientation film?" she said in disbelief.

"No?" The two Percy's said simultaneously.

"You aren't missing out on much," Annabeth said, "it was actually more of a 'welcome to the end' film then anything."

Some gods gave Annabeth a questioning look at those words. "What do you mean a 'welcome to the end' film?" Hermes said, cocking his head to the side.

"What I meant was, in the film it says, 'Camp Half-Blood, where only half of us survive', in a cheery song," Annabeth's expression wasn't angry, but it wasn't calm either, her voice was stern and unwavering.

"Oh," Hermes murmured, a bit taken aback by the harsh words. Many of the other gods glanced between the demigods, taking into account just how many scars, scratches and marks littered their bodies. Were they perhaps wrong? Should they be more open to what the Fates said and try to understand?

Before those thoughts could continue, Dionysus began again, cutting off the trains of thought.

'Orientation film?' I asked.

'No,' Chiron decided. 'Well, Percy. You know your friend Grover is a satyr. You know -' he pointed to the horn in the shoe-box - 'that you have killed a Minotaur. No small feat, either, lad. What you may not know is that great powers are at work in your life. Gods - the forces you call the Greek gods - are very much alive.'

"That might actually be the first time someone has actually explained something even somewhat well to Percy throughout this entire journal so far," Jason said, eyebrows raised a bit.

Piper nodded, saying, "it's actually quite relieving."

I stared at the others around the table. I waited for somebody to yell, Not! But all I got was Mr D yelling, 'Oh, a royal marriage. Trick! Trick!' He cackled as he tallied up his points.

"Well, at least someone was explaining anyways," Percy muttered, although loud enough for Dionysus to hear him.

Dionysus's eyes flicked up to give Percy a look before flicking back down to the page.

'Wait,' I told Chiron. 'You're telling me there's such thing as God.'

"Wow, crazy, right?" Thalia said, snickering.

"Super funny, pine-cone face," Perseus mocked her snickers, pulling faces at her.

Thalia decidedly didn't dignify Perseus's childishness with a reply, simply pulling a face back at him and turning back to the journal. 

'Well, now,' Chiron said. 'God - capital G, God. That's a different matter altogether. We shan't deal with the metaphysical.'

'Metaphysical? But you were just talking about -'

'Ah, gods, plural, as in, great being that control the forces of nature and human endeavours: the immortal gods of Olympus. That's a smaller matter.'

'Smaller!'

'Yes, quite. The gods we discussed in Latin class.'

"I miss Chiron already," Percy said, sighing loudly and tossing himself back into the cushioned couch.

Annabeth smiled down at him. "You'll see him soon enough," she said, patting his wild hair in an attempt to tame it a bit to no avail.

Percy half shrugged, shimmying in his spot to get more comfy.

'Zeus,' I said. 'Hera. Apollo. You mean them.' And there it was again - distant thunder on a cloudless day.

"So dramatic, brother," Poseidon snarked at Zeus.

"Are you not the one with an awfully ill temper?" Zeus replied snootily.

Hestia cut in and said, "the both of you have a flare for the dramatics and terrible tempers, how about that?" Although it was said as a question, it was more Hestia settling it, leaving no room for debate or further back and forth fighting.

'Young man,' said Mr D. 'I would really be less casual about throwing those names around if I were you.'

'But they're stories,' I said. 'They're - myths, to explain lightning and the seasons and stuff. They're what people believed before there was science.'

"You and this 'myth' thing, it's truly astonishing how one could be so ignorant," Zeus claimed.

"How you got aware alive after saying that in front of a god is beyond me," Grover shook his head, looking almost haunted by the memory.

Percy grinned mischievously. "I've said so much worse to the gods, this was nothing," Percy said, almost as if he were announcing a great accomplishment. He pat Grover on the back, laughing at his best friends tired expression and slouched shoulders.

'Science!' Mr D scoffed. 'And tell me, Perseus Jackson -'

"Oooo, full name and everything," Leo teased, giggling to himself.

"Wait, I actually have a question now," Perseus said, grabbing everyone's attention. "How did you know my full name even though I never told you?" He cocked his head to the side, looking at Dionysus.

"I'm a god, Percy," Dionysus said plainly, not waiting for Perseus's reply, moving on.

I flinched when he said my real name, which I never told anybody. '- what will people think of your "science" two thousand years from now?' Mr D continued. 'Hmm? they will call it primitive mumbo jumbo. That's what. Oh, I love mortals - they have absolutely no sense of perspective. They think they've come so-o-o far. And have they, Chiron? Look at this boy, and tell me.'

I wasn't liking Mr D much, but there was something about the way he called me mortal, as if ... he wasn't.

"It's actually a bit crazy how you haven't figured it out yet," Piper said whilst shifting in her spot.

"He was in denial," Thalia snorted.

'Percy,' Chiron said, 'you may choose to believe or not, but the fact is that immortal means immortal. Can you imagine that for a moment, never dying? Never fading? Existing, just as you are, for all time?'

I was about to answer, off the top of my head, that it sounded like a pretty good deal, but the tone of Chiron's voice made me hesitate.

"Smart choice, boy," Athena said in an almost degrading tone.

"The only smart choice will be when you shut up and mind your own damn business," Perseus grumbled in his seat, only loud enough so that Annabeth, Grover and his younger version were able to hear him.

Percy snorted quietly whilst Grover looked over at Athena with a mortified expression, hoping and praying she didn't hear Perseus's less then respectful words. Annabeth shook her head, trying to act disapproving, though her amused grin contradicted it.

'You mean, whether people believed in you or not,' I said.

'Exactly,' Chiron agreed. 'If you were a god, how would you like being called a myth, an old story to explain lightning? What if I told you, Perseus Jackson, that someday people would call you a myth, just created to explain how little boys can get over losing their mothers?'

Poseidon frowned, furrowing his eyebrows deeply. "I'm not sure how much I'm approving of Chiron's words thus far," Poseidon said, looking over at both of his sons.

"He didn't mean it in that way," Perseus began, "and besides, we already went over this before, Chiron has never exactly ... had a way with words, to put it kindly."

Poseidon nodded but didn't look at all convinced, he turned back to Dionysus, gesturing for him to continue.

My heart pounded. He was trying to make me angry for some reason, but I wasn't going to let him. I said, 'I wouldn't like it. But I don't believe in gods.'

Jason, Leo, Frank, Hazel, and Piper all winced at the same time. "I thought I knew how disrespectful you were to the gods, but younger you was on a whole other level," Jason said, eyebrows pinched together.

"I take that as a compliment," Percy piped up.

"You shouldn't," Zeus muttered, more so to himself.

"I never claimed to be a perfect person," Percy said, sighing exasperatedly, putting the back of his hand against his forehead as if the words had actually hurt him.

'Oh, you'd better,' Mr D murmured. 'Before one of them incinerates you.'

Poseidon glared harshly at Dionysus. "You will do no such thing, nephew," Poseidon threatened darkly.

"Again," Hestia started, "let's not start unnecessary fights and continue reading."

Poseidon nodded in agreement, though not before sending one last glare at Dionysus, before quickly changing his emotions back to his regular stoic expression. Dionysus continued reading, not really paying attention to the words. 

Grover said, 'P-please, sir. He's just lost his mother. He's in shock.'

'A lucky thing, too,' Mr D grumbled, playing a card. 'Bad enough I'm confined to this miserable job, working with boys who don't even believe!' He waved his hand and a goblet appeared on the table, as if the sunlight had bent, momentarily, and woven the air into glass. The goblet filled itself with red wine.

Zeus looked at Dionysus sternly. "Your disobedience is utterly disrespectful," he spat. Hestia sent him one look and frowned, resting his chin on his hand, eyes half closed in annoyance.

My jaw dropped, but Chiron hardly looked up.

'Mr D,' he warned, 'your restrictions.' 

Mr D looked at the wine and feigned surprise. 'Dear me.' He looked at the sky and yelled, 'Old habits! Sorry!' More thunder.

Chiron winked at me. 'Mr D offended his father a while back, took a fancy to a wood nymph who had been declared off-limits.'

A few gods and goddesses snickered, remembering the entire ordeal. "Yeah, laugh it up, why don't you?" Dionysus rolled his eyes, ignoring the snickers that quickly turned into laughter. He didn't wait for the laughter to die back down before he started reading once more.

'A wood nymph,' I repeated, still still staring at the Diet Coke can like it was from outer space.

'Yes,' Mr D confessed. 'Father loves to punish me. The first time, Prohibition. Ghastly! Absolutely horrid ten years! The second time - well, she really was pretty and I would stay away - the second time, he sent me here. Half-Blood Hill. Summer camp for brats like you. "Be a better influence," he told me. "Work with youths rather than tearing them down." Ha! Absolutely unfair.'

"He's really dramatic for a god," Leo whispered to Jason.

Jason elbowed him harshly in the ribs, shushing him. Leo yelped in pain, earning himself weird glances from people.

"Whatever," Leo muttered.

'And ...' I stammered, 'your father is ...'

'Di immortales, Chiron,' Mr D said. 'I thought you taught this boy the basics. My father is Zeus, of course.'

I ran through D names from Greek mythology. Win. The skin of a tiger. The satyrs that all seemed to work here. The way Grover cringed, as if Mr D were his master.

'You're Dionysus,' I said. 'The god of wine.'

"Wow, took your sweet old time," Clarisse snorted. "I was starting to think we would be sitting here all year waiting for you to figure it out," she slapped her knee in laughter, clearly finding this hilarious, much like the other demigods and few gods in the room who joined her laughter.

"Well it's not every day you show up at some random camp with people talking about thing that you thought were just silly little myths from gazillions of years ago," Percy sassed her, rolling his eyes.

Mr D rolled his eyes. 'What do they say, these days, Grover? Do the children say, "Well, duh!"?'

'Y-yes, Mr D.'

'Then, "Well, duh!" Percy Jackson. Did you think I was Aphrodite, perhaps?'

"Don't insult me like that!" Aphrodite squawked.

Dionysus stared at her for a moment. "That was slightly offensive, actually," he said.

'You're a god.'

'Yes, child.'

'A god. You.'

"The amount of times you've insulted Dionysus in the span of 5 minutes should seriously be some kind of world record or something, because it's getting out of hand now," Hazel laughed, watching as Zeus's face fell into a look of irritation before she quickly stopped laughing. Just because Percy could get away with being disrespectful to the gods, didn't mean she had to try her luck too.

"It's my talent," Perseus said, turning his nose upwards with a grin.

He turned to look at me straight on, and I saw a kind of purplish fire in his eyes, a hint that this whiny, plump little man was me the tiniest bit of his true nature. I saw vision of grape vines choking unbelievers to death, drunken warriors insane with battle lust, sailors screaming as their hands turned to flippers, their faces elongating into dolphin snouts. I knew that if I pushed him, Mr D would show me worse thing. he would play a disease in my brain that would leave me wearing a straitjacket in a rubber room for the rest of my life.

"I would've had nightmares," Frank said, a shiver going down his spine at the thought of what Percy had described.

Hazel pat his back reassuringly, though the amused grin on her face betrayed her supposed-to-be calming gesture.

'Would you like to test me, child?' he said quietly.

'No. No, sir.'

"Wow, that was scarily respectful coming from you," Annabeth said.

"Well yeah, I didn't want to end up in a straitjacket in a white padded room," Perseus said as if it were obvious.

The fire died a little. He turned back to his card game. 'I believe I win.' 

'Not quite, Mr D,' Chiron said. He set down a straight, tallied the points and said, 'The game goes to me.'

I thought Mr D was going to vaporise Chiron right out of his wheelchair, but he just sighed through his nose, as if he were used to being beaten by the Latin teacher. he got up, and Grover rose, too.

'I'm tired,' Mr D said. 'I believe I'll take a nap before the sing along tonight. But first, Grover, we need to talk, again, about your less-than-perfect performance on this assignment.'

Grover sighed heavily, which he had been doing a lot more whilst reading these journals, he'd noticed. He could remember the conversation he had with the god, and to put it simply, it hadn't gone well.

Both Percy's wore matching scowls, not appreciative of Grover being in trouble for something that he couldn't have controlled even if he had tried. And besides, taking care of a child of The Big Three was never an easy feat, so actually, Percy would say that he actually did really well. 

Grover's face beaded with sweat. 'Y-yes, sir.'

Mr D turned to me. 'Cabin eleven, Percy Jackson. And mind your manners.'

'Will Grover be okay?' I asked Chiron.

Grover smiled at Perseus. "You don't always have to worry about me, you know? Sometimes you should worry more about yourself," Grover said.

"I will always be worried about you, G-man, you're my best friend," Perseus playfully smacked his arm.

Chiron nodded, though he looked a bit troubled. 'Old Dionysus isn't really mad. He just hates his job. He's been ... ah, grounded, I guess you could say, and he can't stand waiting another century before he's allowed to go back to Olympus.

"'Grounded' is one way to put it," Dionysus muttered to himself.

'Mount Olympus,' I said. 'You're telling me there really is a palace there?'

"Dude, I really don't know why you still don't believe it," Jason said, slouching forward.

"Like Annabeth said earlier," Perseus shrugged simply, "I was in denial."

'Well now, there's Mount Olympus in Greece. And then there's the home of the gods, the convergence pinpoint of their powers, which did indeed used to be on Mount Olympus. It's still called Mount Olympus, out of respect to the old ways, but the palace moves, Percy, just as the gods do,.'

"Woohoo!" Leo cheered. "More explaining for Percy!" Leo said, laughing.

"This is a once in a life time experience, watching someone actually explain everything to Percy and not leave out any detail," Thalia said dramatically. "It's a miracle!" she said in a high-pitched voice.

'You mean the Greek gods are here? Like ... in America?'

'Well, certainly. The gods move with the heart of the West.'

'The what?'

'Come now, Percy. What you call "Western civilisation". Do you think it's just an abstract concept? No , it's a living force. A collective consciousness that has burned bright for thousands of years. The gods are part of it...... -but the same forces, the same gods.'

'And then they died.'

"Good gods," Triton rolled his eyes. "This is getting old, how slow are you?" Triton said, sitting back in his seat.

"Not slower then you, that's for sure," Perseus said, frowning.

"Now, now," Amphitrite said in a sing-song voice. "Let's not begin fighting again, shall we? I'm sure the Fates wouldn't appreciate any physical altercations, especially after they directly said not to."

Triton murmured a half unintelligible 'Yes, mother' before crossing his arms over his chest.

'Died? No. Did the West die? The gods simply moved, to Germany, to France, to Spain, for a while. Wherever the flame was brightest, the gods were there. They spent several centuries in English...... - America is now the heart of the flame. It is the great power of the West. And so Olympus is here. And we are here.'

It was all too much, especially the fact that I seemed to be included in Chiron's we, as if I were part of some club.

"You kind of are," Apollo said.

Perseus looked un-amused, "Against my own will I am."

'Who are you, Chiron? Who ... who am I?'

"Ah," Thalia began, letting out a long breath. "The identity crisis that each demigod must go through at some point in their life, truly a wonder to behold."

"Actually, it's really comforting knowing it's not just me that went through a massive identity crisis," Will said. "I though I was going insane, I'm not going to lie," he added, grimacing a bit.

"Nah, think of it as a cannon event," Nico shrugged nonchalantly.

Chiron smiled. He shifted his weight as if he were going to get up out of his wheelchair, but I knew that was impossible.

"Spoiler alert," Percy said, "it is in fact possible."

"You don't say," Perseus replied.

'Who are you,' he mused. 'Well, that's the question we all want answered, isn't it?' But for now, we should get you a bunk in cabin eleven. There will be new friends to meet. And plenty of lessons tomorrow. Besides, there will be toasted marshmallows at the campfire tonight, and I simply adore them.'

And then he did rise from his wheelchair. But there was something odd about the way he did it. At first, I thought he was wearing very long, white velvet underwear, but as he kept rising out of the chair, taller than any man, I realised that the velvet underwear wasn't underwear, it was the front of an animal and sinew under coarse white fur.

"There he goes being all weirdly perceptive and scarily good at descriptions again," Piper shook her head.

"It's actually really odd how good you are at it though," Leo narrowed his eyes questioningly at Perseus.

"A magician never reveals him secrets," he grinned, placing a finger over his lips in a shushing gesture.

'What a relief,' the centaur said. 'I'd been cooped up in there so long, my fetlocks had fallen asleep. Now come, Percy Jackson. Let's meet the other campers.'

Dionysus snapped the book shut, placing it on the arm rest of his throne. "Anyone want to volunteer to read next?" Dionysus said.

"If no one else will, I'd be happy to," Amphitrite got up, grabbing the journal and sat back down next to Poseidon and Triton. She flipped open to the correct chapter.

Chapter Text

Before I edited this chapter, it was me announcing that I was going on a break because of nasty and hateful comments. Now that's I'm back, I'm rewriting the first 5 chapters that I had completed before going on said break.

Before I write another chapter, I'm just going to be rewriting these so feel free to read those rewritten ones if you haven't already! (Would recommend as some stuff has changed kind of.)

Also, term 3 of school ends tomorrow on Friday but I'm going to South Korea so I don't think I'll be able to work on rewriting anything until I'm back, we'll see though!

This announcement will be deleted once I've rewritten all the chapters