A/N: So, this is my first attempt at creating an alternate universe fanfic. As a disclaimer, I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians, or anything else that belongs to someone else.

The first lesson that you had to learn was to not ask questions.

Yes, questions just usually landed you into trouble. Like asking how mankind had been forced into a small country by the name of Olympus, ruled by a king named Ares.

Then again, the nation had been named Olympus for some time, but for some reason, the authorities (read, the government) wanted to change the name for some reason but hadn't gotten around to doing it. So, Ares, King of Olympus was now Ares, King of A Country Yet to Be Named. However, considering the fact that they never did get around to changing its name, it will be referred to as Olympus.

And yes, the king's name was Ares. Woe unto those who mistake it for Aries, the astrology sign. Percy Jackson remembered his mother saying that once, some poor senator had accidentally called him Aries in a speech, and after that Ares had glared at the guy like he wanted to tear his arms out, but obviously wasn't going to do that on national television.

A few days later, that same senator went 'missing.'

Yeah, best not to make that mistake.

The second lesson that you had to learn was to learn what you said. Often, a wrong word here and there could've landed you in prison, or worse. That had always been a problem with Percy, as he just had trouble conforming and usually spouted whatever he wanted when he was angry.

I suppose an introduction to this Percy Jackson character is needed here. Percy was a twelve-year old boy born in a poor family in a small town located near the border of the country.

Now, when I said poor, I didn't mean starving poor, just the kind of poor that left only enough for the basic essentials of life. Percy lived with his mother (and only his mother, which wasn't uncommon in Olympus. 76.5% of children grow up in single-parent households for various reasons.) in a small, dingy apartment in one of the poorer areas of the town.

There was a lamp but no lampshade. The food always had to be rationed out so that it didn't run out before the month ended. The only reason they could afford a television was because the government had subsidized it.

Yes, it was odd that a government that wouldn't bother feeding its citizens properly would enforce subsidies to give them televisions, but that was mainly so that people could watch the mandated government programs. Not to mention that Percy heard rumors that they were bugged. He didn't know if it was true, but he had stopped doing weird stuff like picking his nose in front of the television.

Today though, was a normal day and didn't have any special programs. Percy's mother had wanted to be a novelist, or a writer, but unfortunately under the regime that was only possible if she wanted to be a member of the government's propaganda machine or if she wanted to be executed.

Instead, she rode on her cycle every day for two hours to reach her shop where she sold candy. Yes, it took her two hours since the shop had to be located in a part of town where there were people who could afford to buy candy.

Percy though, had never seen his mother complain, even though he knew she hadn't had an easy life. Her own parents had died to the pox epidemic when she was five, and she had been raised by an uncle who didn't care much for her. She had been forced to drop out of a special school where she was honing her talents as a writer to take care of him when he got sick. She wasn't allowed back into her program, and was left with no family, no diploma, and no money.

Still, she didn't complain. Percy had never seen her say an unkind word to anyone, not to him, or even to the tax collector, Gabe Ugliano, whom Percy nicknamed Smelly Gabe.

It was time for Percy to head out to school.

Not that he was getting much of an education anyway. The combined weight of all of his textbooks was less than his lunch's. He only had two real subjects, English and Math.

History had been scrapped away years ago, and before that had probably been nothing but a propaganda instrument for the government back then. Science had been there, but if you showed a talent for it in the earlier grades you were taken away from normal school and sent for private training elsewhere to supply the State's army of doctors, scientists, engineers, nurses, and more based on your talent. They didn't teach science after third grade.

If you showed promise at English, you would be taken to a different school where you would most probably end up as a clerk which the government still needed hordes of as only 1.78% of households had access to the Internet, or if you were good, as a journalist. His mother had been in that program before she had been forced to drop out.

If you didn't show any promise, much like Percy did, who had been held back two grades mainly due to his dyslexia and ADHD, you mainly just trudged through the five years of compulsory education that the government mandated. In reality though, if you weren't selected somewhere after third grade, your chances of reaching anywhere were low

If you didn't get anywhere after school, or your parents didn't have a plan for you, you would either be enrolled in the military, which would probably lower your life span, or forced to work in the factories, which would definitely lower your life span.

Most government pictures of factories showed smiling, healthy, and happy workers, but the truth was that they lived in horrible conditions, often forced to work with toxic substances using their bare hands. The average life span of a factory worker was twenty-four years.

Percy shuddered. His mom had tried showing the school authorities that Percy could help her out at her shop, but the thing was that it didn't get much business and she was having trouble showing that he would be necessary.

Whatever, Percy thought. The only thing was that he knew his mom couldn't bear to be away from him.

And so, Percy tried his best to sit through his classes, hoping that he might still somehow manage to scrape by and land a lower-level government position. That wasn't easy as he was in 'that' class, a euphemism people used to describe the class that the students with problems were placed into.

Was Percy a problematic kid? Perhaps. One thing he was glad about was that corporal punishment was banned in school, because if it hadn't been he would've been beaten up so many times… well, he liked to not think about that.

But the thing was that Percy wasn't really good at English, with the letters leaping off the pages and dancing around, and even worse at Math.

It didn't help that his Math teacher was someone named Mrs. Dodds, wad perhaps the meanest teacher that Percy had ever met. She had assumed, since the moment that she had come to class in the middle of the school year suddenly, that Percy was demon scum and didn't waste a moment to make his life miserable. Though the school lasted for only four hours now, she often forced him to stay for eight hours.

There was some discussion among the students before Math class. Apparently, the principal and the security guards were absent today. Mrs. Dodds seemed to be in a good mood for some reason, but the class was as boring as usual with her glaring at Percy every now and then.

Then, in the middle of the lesson, the lights went out. They hadn't had a power outage in almost six months, before Mrs. Dodds joined, and naturally when the lights went out the students began making ghost noises, which was lame since there was some sort of light from the windows anyway.

Mrs. Dodds somehow managed to glare at them even in the dim light and forced them to be quiet. She then said, "The lights are out… meaning the security cameras no longer work… months waiting."

Percy could still sort of see, and what happened shocked him. Mrs. Dodds seemed to transform, and grew leathery… wings? Her hands outstretched to become sharper, she had talons, and immediately leapt on the desk of one of the students.

There was a scream and then silence.

Suddenly though, the door burst open and several members of what looked like the Internal Affairs Squad, Olympus's version of the Gestapo, walked in carrying charged weapons.

The glow illuminated Mrs. Dodds and more screams followed, and there were more shrieks across the room. Mrs. Dodds glared at the newcomers, and then suddenly lunged at Percy.

Percy wasn't sure what to do, but he tried swatting the claw away but it still hit him with enough force to smack him into a wall and knock him out cold. He had the vague notion of more screams, but this time from Mrs. Dodds.

Percy woke up groggily. He had a vague notion that someone was screaming in his ear and shaking him.

"Wake up!" a gruff voice said.

Percy stared at the person who was shaking him. He was dressed up in the normal uniform of the Internal Affairs Squad, a blue tailored uniform with a baton on the left side which could attack using up to 450,000 volts as well as some other strange weapon that Percy couldn't remember seeing. It somehow seemed to glow in the dark, and was a small dagger.

"What did you see?" he asked this time. He was wearing a mask usually reserved for those working in hazardous areas, so Percy couldn't see his face.

Percy bolted right up. "The teacher. She turned into a monster…"

The guy looked at someone else. Percy took in the rest of the room, there was something splattered everywhere which Percy realized with a chill was blood, and all of the chairs were empty. It looked like a hurricane had passed through the room.

There was only one other officer currently in the room, and he (or she, Percy didn't want to be sexist even in his head) was taking photographs of the room.

"The Mist isn't working on this one," the guy talking to Percy was saying. Percy couldn't really hear what the guy was saying through his mask, so he was wondering what he was talking about.

The other one stopped taking photos and said, "Take him to the colonel then."

"Can you walk?"

"Yeah," Percy said before he tried to get up. His head was swimming and the memory of Mrs. Dodds kept coming in his head.

"Come with me then."

Percy followed the guy, and for the first time noticed the faint whir-whir of the police cars outside. There weren't more people in the hallways except for the other officers. Percy was led to a room that was the principal's office, but when they went inside all he saw was a man who was wearing an Internal Affairs Squad uniform but without the biohazard mask.

The first thing that Percy thought when he looked at him was 'I do not want to get this guy mad.' The man was almost as scary as Ares, whom Percy had only seen on television but was aware of how scary he was. The officer who had brought Percy explained things quietly to the colonel, who began staring at Percy like he was some sort of huge inconvenience to him. The colonel dismissed the officer and looked at Percy like he was pond scum, something that Percy wasn't unused to.

The colonel grunted and said, "You're causing me a lot of trouble boy."

Percy wasn't sure what to say, considering the fact that his Math teacher had just turned into a monster and tried to kill him he wasn't sure how he was the problem. "I'm sorry sir," Percy muttered.

The colonel glared at him. "Well then, I'll explain only a few things to you boy, whatever you saw here, at this school, and whatever happened in that classroom is a top-level government secret. If you even breathe a word of this to an outsider, you will be neutered, and so will your mother."

Percy gulped. "Understood, sir."

The colonel continued, "From now on, your elementary education is over. You are going to be enlisted in the military now. We will set up an explanation for your mother. And if anyone asks, remember that the official story is that there was a poisonous gas leak here."

Gas leak? Percy thought. Was that why everyone was wearing biohazard masks, to keep this sort of façade up? Percy's mind was buzzing with a hundred questions, but he wasn't about to ask them, since the colonel seemed to be in no mood for answering. And he remembered the first lesson.

A/N: And that ends our chapter. One thing I'd like to say, I've mentioned stuff like the Gestapo which don't occur in this timeline, but are there for reference anyway.

Thanks for reading, and I always appreciate reviews. Also, sorry, but an update isn't likely for a while as I will be going on hiatus soon.