Disclaimer: I do not own The Heroes of Olympus, Percy Jackson & The Olympians or The Host.

PROLOGUE: FIRST TIMES

She becomes stronger when the night falls, when Piper's body weakens, making her eyelids close and her limbs numb.

She becomes stronger when Piper is sleeping. But never had she evoked such powerful and vivid pictures in her mind.

Without further questioning, there was nothing more intriguing and rare than dreams themselves. To be granted the ability to build fictional scenarios based on one's memories or thoughts was just… amusing and strange. They could develop such a wide range of responses Piper hadn't even experienced yet, she was eager to know them all.

Maybe that's why she let her gain control of her once the pictures started to reproduce in her brain like in a kaleidoscope. Piper felt her body —was it still her body at this point? — petrify under the white blankets brushing her skin when she made them stop, and Piper, having already gotten used to the constant review of the memories, felt, for the first time, scared.

That's when one last image unwillingly appeared. A face

It was a black-haired male's, to be precise.

He was young, Piper could tell by the abundant pigmentation of his hair and the absence of age marks old hosts used to have in the form wrinkles surrounding each corner of the lips and sometimes all over the forehead. Probably the same age her host was. His tan skin and dark messy hair somehow fitting with that smile slightly drawn on his face…he must've been chuckling over those constant inside jokes of his.

What?

And Piper had never felt so troubled about anything, but when she tried to describe the exact color of his eyes.

They were green, but not green like the wet itchy grass that she mowed every weekend. If possible, they were even greener, much like the color of those tiny little beans they used to serve with chicken and rice at school.

Too absentminded digging into her host's memories in hopes of finding the answer to her question, Piper found herself overwhelmed by the presence of her host within her body. An unknown and threatening power had her locked in the farthest corner of her mind allowing the original owner of the body to regain full control.

For the very first time since she opened those strange new eyes, Piper felt terrified.

Eyes opened, the host had her right hand squeezing its own neck with unbelievable force. Unable to breathe and driven crazy by the terror, Piper gasped and shook her legs in an attempt to fall off the bed and crush her right hand under her whole body's weight, but the host wasn't about to yield.

I will not have my body to be your host, parasite. A feminine voice murmured in her mind.

Piper felt an unknown feeling burn all the way from her feet to her head making her whole body shudder. Anger. She was not weak. She was a strong and experienced soul who was not to perish by the hands of any creature after so many lives.

I-I won't be damaged if you have this body to die. I can be inserted into any other host I desire. Piper responded.

It'd be too late. Do you think I'm stupid? You cannot fool me.

You're a monster!

I am the monster? For all I know I was the one who got her life terminated just because an asshole requested a body to live in! She answered, her voice failing. Your people kill mine.

We-we certainly do not— Piper's lungs ran out of air making dark spots appear at the edges of her vision. Her heart was racing as if anticipating every heartbeat could be the last one. She could actually feel the life being drained off of her body at such a high speed she panicked even more; tears streaming down her face, she managed to regain control of her left hand and with the very last remain of strength, she dragged her right hand away of her neck.

The host finally yielded allowing Piper to catch her breath.

She gasped violently several times, dragged herself across the room and sat with her back against her bedroom door, hands holding her head. Piper felt the anger leave her body the moment her back touched the cool surface of the wooden door and tears still streaming down her face she replayed her host's words all over again.

Y-you know it's…true.

Piper's eyes widened and she shook her head, still in disbelief. Who are you?

Who I was. Now, it just doesn't matter.

Piper felt a twinge of pain in her gut at the memory of the last minutes of her host's human life replayed for her at the very first moment of this new life. One last tear ran down her cheek. I'm Piper.

So I've heard.

The second time Piper's eyes opened, she opened them entirely by her own will. And rather than heading to college, she spent half an hour trying to decide whether she should alert the Seeker of this body about her last encounter with her host's…mind. She had been informed about other souls' experiences with human hosts, how their original owner could easily drift to nothingness within a little time based on its age or past experiences (like human hosts whose lives had ended violently) but Piper wasn't discouraged about it. Not even now as her hand caressed the purple spots her own fingers had produced around her neck. Finger prints.

She put on the grey and green scarf the doctor had given her as a present on the day of her insertion and stormed out of her apartment.