Disclaimer: I neither own nor claim to own 'Percy Jackson & The Olympians' or 'A Song of Ice and Fire'.

Rated T for violence and occasional language.

For those reading on a computer, I recommend reading in 1/2 screen. (This is accessed by selecting the paragraph button above the story and then clicking 1/2)

Enjoy

Long, Long Journey

Traveling from one world to another sucked. And coming from someone who had held up the sky, bathed in the River Styx, and traveled through the bowels of Tartarus, that was saying something.

Percy knew uncomfortable, and he was on more than friendly terms with pain, but what he was currently experiencing dwarfed them all.

With a single step into the unknown, Percy had unknowingly subjected himself to the most unique experience of his life. While in the midst of the mind-numbing agony Percy couldn't quite put his finger on how to describe it, but if asked later, he would probably describe the experience in the following manner.

Have you ever been walking down the wharf and in the window of a candy shop spotted one of those fancy contraptions that are used to stretch, fold, and aerate salt water taffy? Well if you have, you would see the taffy being repeatedly pulled apart and then folded in on itself over and over and over.

Well, that is how Percy felt, like freaking interdimensional salt water taffy.

Percy didn't know how long it had been since he had taken that step into the unknown, but with every passing moment, his awareness faded until his world went black.

As Percy entered the realm of the conscious he was greeted by the wonderful sensation of pins and needles all over his body and the howling of the wind as it passed him by.

Disoriented and awakened by the sudden presence of actual sensation, Percy opened his eyes, and immediately regretted it.

"Oh Gods…"

Below him, a vast expanse of sapphire sea was broken by a countless number of small islands. And he was far, far above them.

And oh yes, he was falling.

In an instant, Percy's body went from limp to rigid as he began doing his best impression of a floundering duck. After a few moments of helpless flapping in the wind, Percy's instincts kicked in as he focused on the rapidly approaching water. As Percy drew closer and closer to the choppy sea he reached out with his senses and felt the ocean below him. With a tug deep in his gut, Percy willed it to catch him.

Percy plunged into the cold water and was engulfed by a receiving brace rather than the hard splat against pavement his impact should have been. Cold and refreshing, the sea soothed the adrenaline that was currently racing through Percy's veins. For a moment, Percy just floated in the salty water, listening to his heartbeat slow down.

But as the seconds slipped by his bodies need for oxygen alerted him to a problem, he was holding his breath. Realizing this, Percy went to take a breath, and hesitated… he was in another world, could he even breathe underwater anymore? His brain raced around the possibility of suffocation, would he drown? But another moment and he realized his foolishness, as he had fallen the sea had responded to his call, he still had his power.

Tentatively, Percy let out his breath and allowed the salty ocean water to pour into his lungs. His powers worked, just like they should. Percy relaxed and began to take deeper breaths as he slowly descended deeper into the sea.

Comforted and relieved, Percy let himself begin to think about his situation.

Survived an agonizing trip though who knows what to another world?

Check.

Survived a fall that could have killed you or resulted in lightning fried Percy?

Check.

Body and clothes intact? Percy looked down at himself.

"Schist!"

His clothes were gone. All of them.

Of course they were, he couldn't just travel through the fabric of reality like a normal person. Nope, he had to be naked too. So of course, that meant no riptide. And that was if the enchanted bladed had even made it through the trip. Gods, Percy hoped that it had.

So, here he was, in an unknown world, without his sword.

No friends, no family, no one…

He was completely alone.

Even during his time when he was without his memory, he hadn't felt this alone. He couldn't quite explain it, but he hadn't felt alone, and he had known Annabeth's name. Gods… Annabeth.

No, no. This was not that time to think about that.

Okay. He was alone, and he was without his weapon. But he definitely wasn't defenseless, not here, not in the sea. And there must be some purpose to being here, some reason he had been allowed to come here rather than just have been killed.

Percy signed, all this thinking was starting to hurt his head.

"Alrighty then, first priority, figure out where in the Hades I am."

Withdrawing from his moments of self-reflection, Percy began to look around. In the minutes that he had assessed his situation he had already sunk a good hundred feet or so below the surface, and he could see the glimmer of the sun high about him. But besides that, Percy had landed in an empty spot. In the distance, he could see a few schools of fish and could faintly hear the dull roar of the tides pounding upon the shore.

Finished with a survey of his immediate senses, Percy turned his attention to the ocean around him.

As soon as Percy opened himself up to the sea, he was suddenly awash with the foreign feelings of this alien ocean. The sensations were familiar, but also indescribably different. It was as if he had returned to a childhood home that had been changed after many years of absence. The oceans back home, on earth (gods how that was weird to say), had been under the domain of his Father, and every time he stepped into them he would immediately feel the welcome embrace of home. His father might not have been there with him during those moments, but he had been able to feel his presence. The closest thing he could compare this sea with was the ocean when he had been in Alaska.

This sea was wild and free, beholden to none. Curious as to how the ocean would respond, Percy, willed to water to form a whirlpool around himself. As usual, Percy felt the tug deep in his gut, but unlike usual, he also felt a resistance, a force opposing his own. The force wasn't sentient, at least not in the way that it had been when he had tried to control water under the power of Phorcys or Chrysaor. It was more the resistance of the untamed sea.

Again, Percy willed the water to move around him. This time, though sluggish, he began to feel the water slowly spin around himself. And as the water began to slowly pick up the pace, he felt it, an echo, faint and ancient, but powerful. While these seas may be wild and tempestuous now, they had once had a master, a master now absent.

Percy let the whirlpool fade as he listened to the distant echo of ancient power. What had happened? A God had once controlled these waters, of that he had no doubt. But what had happened to this being? Had it been slain? Or perhaps it had faded away like Pan had as man defiled nature? Were their even people in this world?

Curious, Percy focused on the taste of the water in his mouth. In New York, Percy had always been able to taste the faint residue of oil and rust under the prevalent taste of salt. But in this water, nothing, not the barest hint. He didn't know exactly what that meant, but it did at least tell him there wasn't a major industrial city nearby.

Below him, but not too far away, Percy could feel the origin of the echo he had felt. He was about to pursue it when he hesitated. Here he was, not even ten minutes on a new planet and he was about to go chasing after an unknown power in the sea. He hadn't yet even found people, let alone a place he might be able to sleep that night. Perhaps following the echo wasn't wise?

He could take time and find his way to one of the islands he had seen while falling, and search for people. But what sort of people would he find? He wasn't truly sure. And having a literal fresh start in a new world he had no clue what he wanted out of life, let alone know what was possible in this world.

Percy decided to trust his instincts, its what Lupa would have recommended.

Focusing again on the ancient echo, Percy began to swim, willing the water to pull him along in the direction of the call. He wasn't sure what he would find, but the presence of some sort of God would be telling of what sort of people lived in this world. Gods, if they were even people. What if there were some sort of alien monster things? What if he was stuck in a world of disfigured mutants?

While the idea of aliens was cool, living on an alien world with weirdo alien gods? Yea, not so much.

As Percy traveled, he could feel the sea around him responding with less and less resistance. And within thirty minutes, Percy found himself drawing close to the source of the call.

By this time, Percy had reached the rocky sea floor and wound his way around kelp forests and darting fish as he approached his goal.

The first odd thing that he noticed was a stone road that wound itself around large protrusions of rock. At the sight of the road, Percy found himself unexpectedly awash in a mixture of emotions and was startled to find himself crying as he floated above the strange road. A road, that meant people! Or at least beings of some kind. The next emotion he felt as the sudden wave of relief left him was confusion. Why was there a road on the bottom of the sea floor? You don't exactly need roads in the ocean.

Confused, but even more curious, Percy followed it as the road lead in the direction of the call. It only took a few moments before the source of the call appeared.

Before him, broken and crumbling on the sea floor were the ruins of a vast city. Floating higher to gain a better view, Percy saw that the city originated in the crevice of a large, jutting sea mountain, and spilled forth from that point like a large flood of stone buildings. Once great walls encircled the border of the desolate ruins.

Percy floated there for several minutes before he realized that his mouth was hanging wide open.

He had seen an underwater city before, and Atlantis had been a marvel beyond words. But this… this was no underwater city. No, this city had sunk beneath the sea. Percy had heard tales of cities that Poseidon had flooded in the times of ancient Greece, but he had never seen the ruins of one. Filled with morbid curiosity Percy descended into the ruins.

As he sunk into one of the streets Percy was confused by what he saw.

The buildings around him were formed from a grey stone and appeared to be perfect for coral and anemones to root themselves on. But as he floated through the streets, he didn't see a single reef. Not one. And on top of that unusual phenomenon, Percy hadn't seen any sea life once he had descended into the city. No fish, no crabs, nothing.

Not unexpectedly, Percy didn't see any bodies. Remains, well at least human remains, only last a few years in the ocean before dissolving completely. But he did find random piles of sea encrusted jewelry, and heaps of what appeared to have once been armor and weapons.

Whatever had happened, it had happened fast enough that many of the people had drowned before they could escape the city.

Not finding anything else of apparent meaning, Percy ceased his wanderings and proceeded to follow the call. As he progressed through the streets he found himself approaching the crevice in the center of the city.

When he finally reached the center of the city, he was greeted by a massive building built into the cleft of the mountain. Grand and impressive, Percy could feel the ancient power emanating from within the building. Entering where massive doors must have one stood, Percy found himself floating through a tunnel that depicted a vast number of murals carved into the stone.

The first showed a group of men and women, struggling in the sea, their small vessel at the mercy of the winds and waves. While the details weren't the best (well, at least compared to what he was used to), Percy was able to tell that yes, the people seemed to actually be men and women, and not some alien monsters. Relief once again flooded through him, as he appreciated that the people on this world were indeed human. At least he wasn't destined to spend the rest of his life communing with weirdos.

Percy continued down the hall, pausing to examine each new carving as he passed it. While he couldn't make each one out due to erosion and some points of the hallway that had broken down in places, he was able to pick up the general gist of the story, and he wasn't sure he liked it.

These people, whoever they had been had been, were saved from some storm by praying to some sea God. This God had answered their prayers and led them to an island where they established a home. As the people grew in strength, they would go out into the seas and return with wealth, riches, and what looked like slaves. The murals went on to depict the creation of a great naval kingdom founded on the what they had learned from this God.

The people seemed to have a pretty bloody history. Not that he was one to talk, the Greeks weren't exactly the model of peace and Virtue. But these people were just straight up cruel.

Percy eventually passed from the hallway and entered a vast chamber carved into the mountain. Compared to the hallway he had just exited from, the room was surprisingly empty of carvings and murals. In the far end of the chamber, he saw several hallways that led further into the mountain, but rubble had blocked the entrances of most of them.

Only one thing stood out in the room, and it drew far more than enough attention on its own.

In the very center of the chamber, a depression was carved into the stone, maybe two to three feet deep. And rising from the center of the pool was an altar. Resting upon the Altar, with a dagger through its chest, lay a skeleton.

At the sight of the skeleton, dread settled upon Percy. This individual, this person, had been sacrificed on the altar. But, the skeleton shouldn't be there. If this poor soul had been sacrificed at the time of the cities sinking, the bones should have dissolved long, long ago.

Still drawn by the pull of the ancient power, Percy approached the altar. And as Percy drew close to the pool, he looked down and was horrified by what he saw. Dozens upon dozens of skeletons filled the pit, all of them strangely preserved in the same way as the skeleton upon the altar. Percy didn't know what usually filled the pool at the center of this room, but on the day these people had been killed, it must have flowed with their blood.

How could people do things like this? Percy understood fighting for one's life, he had done that plenty of times before. He even understood the desire of revenge and the conflicts that came about between nations. But this… the ritualistic slaughtering of men, women, and child, this he did not understand. Anger and pity filled him as he looked upon the simple altar at the center of the pool. How could a God demand such things of their people? Whoever their God had been, Percy hoped that they were dead and gone.

Standing there, surrounded by the bones of the sacrificed, Percy could feel their cries of agony, and the echoes of their despair. He was no son of Hades, but he could swear that he felt a presence around him.

The dagger…

He could see the dagger, thrust through the ribs or the poor soul upon the altar.

Pull it free…

Yes, he needed to pull it out. It had pierced the victim for long enough. Percy stepped forward, and into the pool of bones. He approached the altar and reached out to grab the dagger.

No, what was he doing? Percy hesitated, something was wrong here.

Pull it free!

This time he could almost hear the words, and they definitely weren't coming from him. He resisted.

Do it! Pull the Dagger free!

With the words, Percy felt a foreign force come upon him, and in a sudden motion, he reached out and yanked the dagger free from its human sheath.

A sudden flash of light and Percy was no longer standing in the pool, rather he found himself barraged by a sudden surge of images and sounds. Men and women, clothed in armor, sailing and conquering as they went. Vast creatures of the sea that would swim beside them, tearing apart their enemies. He saw great cities and temples, vast halls of gold and riches, men and women feasting in their wealth. Truly a great and powerful nation, all dedicated to their god of the sea, a dark face in the water with glowing blue eyes.

Then the visions of riches and glory turned to blood and horror. Their great ships and navies were consumed by the same creatures that had once fought beside them. The seas that had once carried them now swallowed their cities and broke the islands upon which they sat. A vision of their once benevolent god, sea blue eyes turned murky and dark, a great maw rising out of the sea to devour what it had wrought.

A great congregation of men and women surrounding a man in grey robes standing in the corpse-filled pool, a white dagger in his hand. Tears streaking down his face as he plunges the knife into the body of the bound man upon the altar. The ground shakes and rumbles, and the man leaves the dagger and pool and frantically runs out of the chamber and through the entrance hallway as the great crowd follows him. As they emerge from the temple, hope shining in their eyes, they collapsed to their knees and fall upon each other as they saw the gigantic tidal wave approaching the city. Percy watched as the island was flooded in water and the refugees were swallowed by gigantic jaws and pulled into the depths by grasping tentacles. In the water, Percy again saw the dark glowing eyes and heard a rumbling chuckle as the islands were shattered and torn apart.

And then as sudden as the force had come upon him, it was gone.

As the images faded, Percy fell to his knees, overwhelmed by the sudden onslaught of images. Around him, the skeletons crumbled to dust. And as they did, he heard a chorus of voices echoing through the halls.

Kill him…

Kill him…

Percy looked at the dagger in his hand, it was the color of faded ivory, and was clearly made of bone. The blade was perhaps a little over a foot long and was sharper than it had any right to be. As he held it in his hand, Percy could feel the echoing cries of those who had died, and their burning desire for revenge.

This was too much. Leave it to him to become entangled in another Godly problem within hours of arriving on another world. No, he wasn't going to be a part of this. Percy stood up and dropped the blade. He was done with Gods and their problems. This had happened eons ago and wasn't his problem.

As the blade slowly fell to the floor Percy felt the ancient power that had drawn him there stir. It wasn't much, barely a disturbance, but Percy felt it, deep and strong, emanating from the ancient altar. And after the vision he had just seen, he recognized it as the power of that ancient and maleficent God who had broken these people.

It was time for him to go.

Turning around, Percy called upon the power of the sea to pull him from the room. Slow at first, the current built in speed until he had left the chamber, the temple, and the ruined city far behind.

Back on earth, in her palace upon Olympus, a goddess smiled. She had been unsure if Perseus would make the choice that he had in choosing the unknown. Undoubtedly she was glad that he had, but she would miss watching the demigod and the headaches he caused the gods. It would be some time before they had a hero of his caliber once again.

But what was done was done, and he was someone else's problem now. She chuckled at the thought.

The poor fools.

While in the Ocean, control over water was not the only perk of being a son of Poseidon. On earth, anytime he had been on ship or sea he had perfect bearings. Not only did he know in which direction was North and South, but he had also been able to list of his latitude and longitude and the speed at which he was traveling. On the oceans of the earth, there was no way he could get lost.

But that was then, and things weren't working the same way wherever he was. He could still feel his ability to sense direction, it wasn't gone, it was just like a compass spinning in circles. Perhaps in time as he acclimated to this planet they would 'tune in', but for now all he was getting was the general outline of a number of islands around him.

Focusing on the vague outlines Percy narrowed in on the largest one and began his current propelled swim towards it.

A few minutes later, and Percy found himself on the shore of an extremely rocky island. Mostly cliffs and rocky beaches, Percy was able to find one semi-sandy beach to climb out of the water. As he walked out of the surf and onto the black pebble beach, the water left him, leaving him perfectly dry. And oh yes, butt naked.

In the water, Percy had forgotten that he was completely naked.

With a cool breeze blowing by and the already cool temperature, Percy realized that until he found some clothes these islands may not be the best place to stay. But after his interesting experience not an hour ago, he found himself reluctant to enter the water once again.

Looking around himself he saw that the island while still small, was much larger than the majority of islands in the area. Perhaps a few miles wide and ten or so miles long, the island resembled pride rock from 'The Lion King' with one end jutting out of the sea and high into the air and the other end gradually sloping into the ocean. Grasses and large rocks dominated the lower portion of the island while what looked like pine trees occupied the rest of it.

As Percy found himself looking around and admiring the jagged island while walking along the shoreline. While walking, Percy felt his ankle hit something riding on the surf.

Percy looked down and saw a white dagger sticking out of the sand

"Well fucking Styx."