(A/N) So this is part of the Papadopoulos Fam AU that's been gaining traction on Discord, inspired by ArtJunkyard's Trials of Apollo Oneshot Series Chapter 4.

Day 1

I blinked open my eyes. Blearily I looked around. Gleaming walls of white greeted my eyes, with a rainbow shimmer overlaying it. I squinted and took a closer look. The rainbow shimmer formed some sort of spherical barrier. I looked behind me to check whether it went all the way around, and choked. Standing behind me was a twenty foot tall man wearing a grey suit, a long black beard, and a severe expression on his face. The air around him crackled with energy.

I scrambled back, wanting to put some distance between myself and this strange, scary giant. I'd seen strange things before, like people with goat horns, and winged horses. Once I even saw a GIANT dog bounding around the city before melting into shadows.

Mum says that I'm clear-sighted, like her. We see the world as it REALLY is, in its full strangeness. We try to stay out of whatever trouble is going in the hidden world. but now it seemed that trouble had found ME.

"Who… who are you?" I cried, hoping I sounded braver than I felt. "Where am I? What do you want with me?"

I wracked my brains, hoping that remembering what happened before this would give me some insight. But it didn't help. I'd gone to school, (DRIVEN myself in fact, I got my license just last month!) come home, played some Mario Kart with my younger brother Cameron, and pretended to be a vicious dragon for my much younger siblings, Katie, Tyler, and Tyrone to slay. (Tyler and Tyrone are identical twins. Most people outside of our family mix them up constantly, but we can always tell who's who, no matter how often they try to fool us.) I helped Mum put them all to bed, then went to bed myself. Nothing that told me why I had awoken in this strange place with the giant scary man glowering at me.

"I AM ZEUS, KING OF OLYMPUS," he bellowed. I felt the vibrations from his voice resonate throughout my body. "YOU ARE HERE TO SERVE AS A VESSEL FOR MY SON APOLLO, AS PART OF HIS PUNISHMENT."

I didn't like the sound of that. "Uh… so what will happen to me?"

He looked down his nose at me. I felt like he was looking at me as a particularly noisy livestock animal, an annoyance he's almost happy to slaughter.

"YOUR SOUL WILL BE SYSTEMATICALLY DESTROYED, BUT YOUR BODY LEFT INTACT. I WISH FOR APOLLO TO BE THE ONLY ONE IN THIS BODY."

I broke out in a cold sweat. He was going to what?

"You don't want me," I said quickly, fighting down my nausea. I didn't think that throwing up would be helpful in getting the King of Olympus to listen to me. "I'm not athletic, I have acnes and pimples, and I trip over my own feet! I'd make a TERRIBLE vessel."

"THAT MAKES YOU THE PERFECT VESSEL," Zeus replied. "APOLLO IS PROUD AND VAIN. BEING IN SUCH A PLAIN, ORDINARY BODY WILL BE PUNISHMENT ALL ON ITS OWN."

Ok, NOW I was insulted. Yes I know I just insulted myself a second ago, but I didn't need Zeus to do it too!

"I… I have a family," I said weakly. "They'll miss me if I'm gone."

"LET THEM MISS YOU," he replied. "WHY SHOULD I CARE?"

I had no answer to that. Even if they could somehow figure out where I was, there was no way they could retrieve me. And even if they could, what would stop Zeus from taking me right back?

A cold trickle ran down my back. Zeus CLEARLY didn't care about human life. If they did find me… if I tried to fight him… he might HURT them.

NO.

I wanted to live. I wanted to go back home and cook with Mum, watch bad horror movies with Dad, attend Katie's first ballet recital (she was SO excited about it, jabbering away to anyone who would listen about what a pretty Sugar Plum Princess she made), cause Cameron to glare at me in annoyance as I chose Rainbow Road again, and stop the twins from giving the cat a bath in the toilet (though our cat made her opinions on that well known already). I wanted to be with my family.

But I wanted them to live even more.

With a jolt I felt myself being dragged into the air by… well, the air.

"What's going on now?!" I shouted, flailing uselessly.

He didn't reply. I guess he was done entertaining questions from lower life forms for today.

He dragged me through several different rooms, all lavishly decorated. Some were even staffed by… beings. They weren't human, that was for sure. some were see-through and wispy, others were close to Zeus's height and dressed in fine clothes, sipping some drink of out of golden goblets. A few glanced over at me as I screamed for help.

None of them made any move to help me.

At last we stopped in a room covered with a gleaming, golden net. On the other side of it stood a teenager, about my age, with golden hair and sky blue eyes. He looked as freaked out as I was.

"F-father," he said pleadingly. No person should look up at their parent with so much fear. "Please. I've learned my lesson. Forgive me."

Zeus merely looked down at him coldly. "NOT YET YOU HAVEN'T."

That's when Apollo noticed me, and his face morphed to one of confusion. "Who..?"

Zeus grinned. I shivered. "HE IS PART OF YOUR PUNISHMENT. YOU WILL BE CAST DOWN AS A MORTAL AGAIN, BUT THIS TIME, YOU WON'T EVEN HAVE A BODY OF YOUR OWN. YOU'LL BE IN HIS BODY INSTEAD."

Apollo gave me a quick look up and down, lingering on my face and my stomach. I shifted uncomfortably, as best I could while being held up in the air anyways. I felt again like livestock, this time being inspected before the slaughter and found wanting.

"But… but he has acne! And FLAB! I bet he doesn't even have a six-pack!"

Suddenly I lost my sympathy for him. I was going to have my SOUL DESTROYED as part of a conflict I had no part of, and he was complaining because I wasn't a MODEL?!

I glared at him. "He's gonna destroy MY SOUL, as part of YOUR punishment. Why are YOU complaining?"

He waved it off. "Hey, it's not like I can do anything about that. I'm not happy about this either."

"I might not ever see my family again," I hissed through clenched teeth. "I'll never get to give my sister piggy-back rides again, or teach my youngest brothers how to ride a scooter, or give my younger brother dating advice, or… or…"

I started to sob. It was beginning to sink in. No one was coming to rescue me. No one COULD rescue me. I was going to die here, and this conceited prick was going to wear my corpse, complaining about it the whole time.

Apparently Zeus decided that that was enough. "I'LL BE BACK," he promised. "I WILL SHOW YOU HOW FAR I'VE PROGRESSED ON PREPARATIONS FOR YOUR PUNISHMENT."

Then he walked away, dragging me along, still floating, behind him.

After a few more minutes, we were back in the room I had woken up in. He conjured a see-through box and laid me down in it. I tried to squirm some more, but he merely snapped his fingers and my body went still and straight, as if someone had cast Petrificus Totalus on me. (I had just gotten through reading the Sorceror's Stone to Katie, Tyrone, and Tyler. I wondered who would take over now?)

"SLEEP," Zeus declared. "NEXT TIME YOU AWAKEN, THE PROCESS WILL HAVE STARTED."

I fought his order as best I could, but it was useless. I could feel my eyes closing against my will. I tried to hold on to myself as best I could, hoping I'd still, somehow, against all odds, still be ME when I next awoke.

My name is Lester Papadopoulos. I have a mother, father, and four annoying, but precious siblings. Cameron. Katie. Tyrone. Tyler. They're my family. Don't forget.

Don't forget.

Don't… forget…