Chapter One

Percy's POV

I saved the gods on more than one occasion. I saved them when I stopped the three way war and returned Zeus's lightning bolt. I saved them when I rescued Annabeth and Artemis from the Titan Atlas and returned her in time for the Winter Solstice. Then I saved them a third time when I beat Kronos and sent him into the depths of Tartarus.

And yet the gods and my friends that I consider family betrayed me, accused me of helping Kronos, of just being a spy. They punished me; starting by letting Ares torture me, cause me as much pain as he wanted without anyone to stop him. They bestowed immortality on me just so I wouldn't die.

And then they did something even worse. They sent me to Tartarus to be punished by Kronos, as if he deserved a reward for trying to tear down Olympus. I was down there for one hundred years (that's only six months on Earth), being tortured in the worst ways by Kronos, in ways I can't even talk about without reliving them.

And then the gods decided to release me after one hundred years of that torture and exiled me from Olympus and Camp Half-Blood, but I was broken beyond repair, and will probably never be put back together.

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My mom decided to send me to stay with the 'son' and uncle of a friend from high school in a small town named Bathory. It hurt that even my own mother was sending me away, even though I knew that she thought it was for the best to send me away to help me 'recover'. I looked in the mirror in my bedroom, and winced at the scar going from my left temple, across the bridge of my nose, and to the bottom of my jaw on the right side of my face.

"Percy, are you sure you don't want me to go with you?" my mom asked from the door of my room.

"Its fine, Mom. I can go by myself," I said, my tone indifferent. She looked worried about me, but I ignored it. My mom always looked worried about me lately. I grabbed my bags and led the way out of the apartment and to the car. I yelled my goodbye to Paul, and my mom drove me to the train station.

Vlad's POV

"I can't believe I have to live with a guy I don't even know!" I groaned to Henry.

"Come on, dude. It can't be that bad," Henry said to me.

"Well, one, last time a stranger came to stay in Bathory, he tried to kill me," I looked pointedly at Joss, "and two, imagine if it was you."

"Hey!" Joss protested. "Just let it go already!" I just sighed and said, "We've got to pick him up from the Stokerton train station, though I don't see why he doesn't just take a plane. Whatever, we've got to pick him up in an hour, so let's get as much video gaming in as possible," I grinned at the last part.

Joss and Henry grinned right back and we played videogames for an hour until Otis stopped us. The car ride to Stokerton was filled with comfortable silence until we reached the train station. "I didn't even know Stokerton had a train station," I said to Otis.

He smiled and shook his head at me, but said nothing. We walked through the station, looking for the guy named Percy. What I didn't understand about him was why he would come across the country when he'd just been out of the country a couple of weeks before. It made no sense to me.

One of my theories is that he's just a spoiled brat, but I couldn't be sure of that. Opinions of him would have to wait until I met him. I looked around the station, searching for the guy I saw in the picture. He'd looked pretty happy in the picture, surrounded by his friends.

After a couple of minutes searching, I saw a guy with midnight black hair and sea green eyes that looked like Percy, but there was a scar going across his face, he was a lot paler than the picture, and had a cold expression on his face in contrast to the happy one in the picture.

I pointed him out to Otis and we began walking towards the teenager. I saw the teen looking at us with an emotionless gaze, and he stood up, grabbing his bags. I was surprised at how graceful and lithe he was. He almost seemed like a vampire with the way he moved, but I couldn't sense that another vampire was around other than Otis.

When we met in the middle, Otis said, "You must be Percy. I'm Otis, and this is my nephew Vladimir. It's a pleasure to meet you." Otis put his hand out to shake.

Percy's POV

I was waiting for the guy—Otis it was—to pick me up from the train station, when I felt strange auras, kind of like the children of Hades, but not quite. I looked up and saw a man with a rumpled purple top hat and a lanky teenager that reminded me of Nico. I quickly turned away from that line of thought and stood up, wincing slightly from the pain of my still healing wounds.

I walked towards the two men and we met in the middle. The man with the top hat held his hand out to me and said, "You must be Percy. I'm Otis, and this is my nephew Vladimir. It's a pleasure to meet you." I took his hand hesitantly, still not used to friendly skin on skin contact, but my fingerless gloves limited the contact between us.

I tried for a smile (which was a complete failure) and said, "It's nice to meet you." Otis reminded me of Chiron with his seemingly ageless eyes and kind demeanor. I was still wary of the two men in front of me, and gripped Riptide in my hand (still in pen form of course).

Vlad smiled at me, and I didn't bother trying to smile this time, knowing I would fail miserably anyway, and followed Otis to his car. About fifteen minutes into the car ride to Bathory, Otis asked me, "So, I heard you went out of the country for six months recently. Where did you go?"

"All over," I lied. "Greece, Rome, those kinds of places." My answer was rather vague, so Otis questioned me about the places I went, and I lied about all the details. To me it had been one hundred years and all of it in a hellhole. Once Otis realized he wouldn't get many specific details out of me, he gave up.

"What's life like in New York?" Vlad asked.

I flinched slightly, but neither of the people in the front seat noticed. "Easy enough as long as you're smart. You don't get lost all that easily because everything is close together. The only thing you have to be careful about is being out at night."

I avoided their eyes, but finally looked in the rearview mirror and saw a flash of guilt in Otis's eyes, though I wasn't sure why he should feel guilty. I decided to ask a question of my own and said, "Have you ever been?" Usually I wouldn't be this talkative, but I doubt they would've given me a choice.

Vlad nodded and said, "Twice." He had this sad look on his face like he didn't enjoy his stay there and went quiet. I didn't bother breaking the silence and took my iPod out, putting in the ear buds and turning the volume up high. Vlad's questions had made me remember my time at Camp Half-Blood, and I felt sadness wash over me as I remembered. It hurt to remember, it hurt just to think about them.

I got lost in thought, and before I knew it we were at a small, cozy looking house. I opened the door and got out of the beat up car, walking around the back and taking my bags out of the trunk. As Otis took my last bag out of the car, I glanced behind me and saw Grover trotting down the street.

I froze, staring, before Grover disappeared like a mirage. "Percy, are you okay?" I nodded at Otis and he led me into the house. He showed me to my room while Vlad went into the kitchen to get something to eat. I dropped my bags on the floor by the dresser and sat down on the bed.

'Why did I see Grover just now?' I thought, confused. I knew he hadn't been there, so I didn't understand why I saw him. 'Maybe I'm going crazy' I thought sarcastically. Yes, even though I'd been in Tartarus, I still retained my sarcasm, but I kept that part of me locked away.

I looked at Riptide in its pen-form, clutched in my right hand. Even though even my father betrayed me, I still kept the sword he gave me. It came in handy, and helped me remember the happier times. I was startled out of my thoughts by a knock on the door. It was Vlad. "You want to hang out? I've got some videogames, and a couple of my friends are here," he said.

I was about to refuse, but then decided against it, my instincts telling me to go, so I followed him down the stairs. We reached the living room and I saw two athletic guys sitting on the couch, talking in low voices. They stopped talking when they saw me and looked slightly warily at me.

"This is Percy Jackson. Percy, this is Joss and Henry," Vlad introduced. I nodded to them silently and took a seat in a leather chair by the couch.

"Want to play some video games?" Vlad asked me with a grin.

I shook my head and said, "I haven't played video games very often, so I'm not really interested."

"Not interested in videogames? You haven't lived," Henry said in a mock-awed tone, and I gave a ghost of a smile.

"Yeah, well I'm not very good with technology. It doesn't seem to like me," I said sarcastically, letting some of my old self show. For the next hour I watched them play videogames. They snacked on chips and soda, but I didn't eat anything. I didn't join in their conversations, and they hardly noticed I was there.

Vlad's POV

Percy gave off a weird vibe that said 'don't mess with me', and I didn't trust him. My first theory that he was a spoiled rich brat was shot down quickly. He seemed more like an emo kid. He even dressed like one. He had a black long sleeved t-shirt on, black ripped jeans, a navy blue hoodie over his shirt, black and red plaid converse, and navy blue fingerless gloves.

Another strange thing about him was the pen he always held. When I walked in his room, he was looking at the pen in his hand with a pained look on his face, and even while we were gaming he never put it down or in his pocket. It almost creeped me out the way he held the pen.

About an hour after we started playing videogames I asked him, "Why are you holding that pen?" I was only curious, but he stiffened and put the pen away in his jeans pocket.

"It's just a pen," Percy said in a guarded tone.

"Hey, Percy," Henry said, "What's with that scar on your face? Where'd you get it?"

'Idiot!' I thought, internally face-palming. 'That's a personal question!'

"I was in an accident," he said quietly, but the look Joss was giving me confirmed that no accident could give a scar like that. It looked like someone cut it deliberately. Suddenly, I smelled blood. It wasn't Henry's, Joss's, or Otis's, so I guessed it was Percy. I frowned at him and wondered whether he was okay.

The scent of his blood was making me hungry, and I noticed a strange scent along with his blood that didn't smell human. "I'm tired. I'm gonna go take a nap. I guess not sleeping for twenty hours will do that to you," Percy said, and was shocked when he said he hadn't slept for twenty hours.

Before we could say anything, he was walking up the stairs. Once I was sure he was out of earshot, I said, "He isn't normal."

Joss and Henry looked like they had the same thoughts. "When you asked about the scar, he said it was in an accident, but I don't believe that," Joss said. "That cut looked deliberate, like someone meant to do that."

"Do you think it could've been a vampire?" Henry asked carefully. I thought about that and said, "It's possible, but we can't just ask him. He'd probably just shut up like he did just now. We have to gain his trust before we find out."

Joss and Henry nodded their agreement, and we started making a plan to gain his trust.

Percy's POV

When I had been sitting down stairs one of my wounds had reopened. It wasn't serious, but it was painful. And the questions those guys asked didn't help my pain. If anything it just made it worse, bringing back unwanted memories. I tried to block the memory, but it came anyway.

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I felt pain searing my body as Kronos cut deep wounds into my body. I screamed from the pain, and Kronos only laughed at my pain. He grinned sadistically and said, "I have a little surprise for you. It will be fun, trust me."

He brought a silver knife to my face, dripping with green poison, and cut from my left temple to my right jaw. I could hardly stay conscious, and it took all of my will not to scream this time. Kronos didn't like that and begun cutting through the wound over and over again until even water couldn't heal it, just like all of my other wounds. He always made sure that the wounds scarred.

He always made sure that I felt the worst of the pain. I lost consciousness after the tenth cut, the last thing I saw being Kronos' cruel, cold smile and the last thing I heard being his sadistic laugh.

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I pulled myself out of the memory, my hands shaking and I could hardly keep myself from passing out, but my curse pulled me into another horrible memory.

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I was standing in the middle of the Grand Hall of Olympus, waiting for the important announcement the gods had for me with all of the other campers. Finally Zeus spoke, "You have been accused of and found guilty of aiding Kronos in his war against us, the gods, along with being his spy. You have been sentenced to torture at Ares hand and you will be given immortality to ensure that you do not die."

Zeus paused to let that sink in and outraged cries could be heard from the campers and some of the gods that actually liked me, meaning Hestia, Hermes, Apollo, and Artemis. I looked at my father, and saw his grim face, meaning he believed the words Zeus had spoken.

I couldn't believe it and turned around to see the betrayed and angry gazes of the campers. "I-I didn't-"

Annabeth cut me off, "Go take the punishment you deserve, you traitor." I was stunned and my heart shattered. Every single one of the campers gave me hate filled looks, and I glanced at Chiron helplessly. He only had a grim expression on his face, and I broke completely, everything turning black around me.

The last thing I heard there was the hateful comments from the campers and the shouts of disagreement from the gods that liked me.

The next time I woke up, I was inside Ares' torture room where time would never move for me, and he proceeded to put the worst curse he could think of on me before starting the real torture.

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With that last memory, I passed out on my bed to a mercifully dreamless sleep.

So how was that? Good? Bad? Horrifying? Let me know in the reviews and I will take requests for pairings and for things to happen in the story in the reviews or PMs. Review, PM, and let me know how it was! XD

Dragneellover out!