I don't own anything. And Percabeth will happen...just be patient.


"Mr. Johnson?" Peter Johnson's assistant, Steve, said from the doorway of the massive office. "There is a woman here that she has an appointment, but I don't have her down on your schedule for today. Shall I tell her to come tomorrow?"

Peter looked away from his oversized Mac desktop that was filled with new designs for future building projects. Peter glanced at the time, nearly 3:00, noting he had a board meeting soon. This would have to be quick.

"Sure, bring her in." Peter answered.

Peter quickly saved the designs and speed checked the 300 new emails that piled up in his inbox. It was starting to get late, Peter hoped his wife would be off of work soon so the babysitter could go home. Their sitter was a girl name Millie who was a junior in high school who always took the job when needed. Peter knew it was a lot to ask for her to stay out late on a Thursday night. He always felt bad when his work time over flowed into his family time, but at the end of the day, the job needs to be done.

"Right this way Miss." Steve said as he reopened the door.

"Thank you Steve." Said the woman.

Her sing-song voice was smooth like honey, melting as every word dripped from her mouth. Peter knew that voice. His attention was dragged away from his computer and the image of perfection standing before him. Her perfectly curved body looked like it was made to fit the business suit that she somehow made look sexy. Her presence attracted everything to her, especially Steve who was still ogling at her. Peter shot him a look and he left the office, shutting the door behind him.

"I am amazed that you took my unannounced appointment, Perseus." She said, looking around the large corner office. "Well, it's not like I would take 'no' for an answer anyways."

Peter stood up out of his chair, wincing at his true name. "What are you doing here? You took an oath Aphrodite." Anger that he hadn't felt in years filled his veins.

"Calm down hero. Where are your manners? Are you going to ask me to sit? Or for some coffee? I have had a rather long day, coffee would be marvelous."

"Why are you here?" Peter asked.

A steaming mug of coffee appeared in Aphrodite's hands as she walked over to the floor to ceiling windows that made up the back wall of Peter's office. Anyone looking through them could see the beautiful view of downtown Phoenix, Arizona. The sun was setting, the city lights were turning on. The desert was lighting up.

"Why so cold Mr. Jackson? Or should I say, Mr. Johnson?"

"You didn't answer my question." Peter's patience was growing smaller and smaller every second the goddess was in his office.

"Fine." She said, turning to him, a coy smile formed on her ruby red lips. "The Olympians and I have decided to break the oath. Unfortunately there is nothing you can do since... well put it delicately, we're gods and you're not to, which was your choice."

"You're breaking the oath?"

"Gods break oaths all the time Peter, if we didn't you would not be here. I am simply saying, it is time for you to become Percy Jackson again." Aphrodite said forcefully.

"This is ridiculous, why are you telling me this? Why isn't Poseidon here, he is my father." Peter almost regretted saying that as soon as he said it.

"Well if you would recall, it was you who basically decided you didn't want to be his son anymore. Besides, Poseidon doesn't do deserts. Phoenix, Arizona is not a very convenient place for the god of the sea." The love goddess chided. She cocked her head to the side, "You must be so weak here. We can fix that though."

Peter stuck his hands in his suit pocket and thought about his family. He looked out the window with Aphrodite, thinking about the building he was standing in, the one he helped create. She was right though, he was weak. Living in the desert made him tired, and created wrinkles on his face that would go away if he were by the sea.

"I'm very sorry Aphrodite," He said gently and slowly, "I can't go back. I have a family now, a responsibility. I can't have anything bad happen to them."

"We thought you might say that. You have one week to go back to Olympus. If you don't show, the gods will be forced to send someone to haul you all the way the New York. I would hate to stay around find out who or what it is if I were you."

"You can't do this to me!" Peter shouted as he pounded his fist on his wooden desk.

"Calm down, there's a branch of your company right there in Manhattan. Remember, one week."

Peter was going to say something but he blinked and she was gone. He was the CEO of IntelliBuild, he was responsible for many innovative and revolutionary high rises in metropolitan areas all over the globe. He had an amazing family. Peter had no time for running deathly errands for the gods anymore. He left that life a long time ago, vowing never to go back and making the gods promise on the River Styx that he would be left alone, and shrouded by the mist from any monster that would possible attack him or his family. Peter had left Olympus, and never went back. He only went to New York for his mother, and for the occasional business trip. But he stayed away from the Empire State Building.

Peter's family and wife had no idea about his past, just that he grew up in New York, and moved to Arizona after he graduated from high school. He didn't know how they would react to the family tree. All Peter's wife, Veronica, knew about his father is that he was lost at sea when Peter was young. The same story that Peter knew as a child.

When Peter arrived at home later that night, he found his thirteen year old son, Chris, watching a crime show. Peter sat down next to him, still in his work clothes. Chris looked at him, then back at the TV.

"Mom and Cassie got into a fight, again." Chris said rolling his eyes. "Oh, and theres a left over burger in the fridge."

Chris was a soft-spoken kid, he had a lot of thoughts buzzing around in his head and the only way he could get them out was playing baseball. The new baseball season would start in a couple weeks and the local high school coaches had promised a spot on the JV team, which was huge because Chris was only an eighth grader. The ladies also loved his brown hair and unique blue-green eyes, but Chris was too quiet to take too much interest in them. He had spent a year beefing up for baseball, so he could be bigger, faster, and stronger than the season this year. There weren't many kids that were as strong as Chris.

"Thanks bud." Peter said, ruffing up Chris's hair.

Peter left the couch and climbed the stairs to his daughter's room and knocked on the door.

"I'm not here!" Cassie, Chris's twin yelled.

"Just checking!"

Peter moved down the hall to his own bedroom. Veronica was buried in the plush covers of their king sized bed, facing away from him. Peter quickly changed into pajamas and slid into the bed next to her. Veronica was a gentle woman with brown hair and amber eyes. She was tall but not too tall. She was very intelligent, a cardiovascular surgeon at the Phoenix branch of the Mayo Clinic. She worked long hours like Peter, but they always made time for family.

"Is everything alright?" Peter said gently.

Veronica was sitting upright watching TV, under the covers on the bed. A pained looked was in her eyes.

"Chris told me you and Cassie got into another fight."

"She's so difficult." Veronica said, "It's like everything I say goes straight through her. Have you seen her grades? She has three Cs. If she keeps this up she won't be able to dance but she just doesn't understand that."

The Johnson parents did not pride themselves on having children with straight As on their report cards. As and Bs were the grades allowed on their report cards anything below a B- was unacceptable.

"She's a teenager," Peter said gently, sitting on the edge of the bed, undoing his tie. "And she's dyslexic. It took me a long time until my dyslexia started to wear off."

"I know she's dyslexic. And I want her to dance but the dance studio won't let her dance if her GPA is below a 3.0. The end of the quarter is coming up soon. Cassie needs to understand that she needs to spend more time studying, and less time on the phone with her friends."

"I'll talk to her tomorrow, I'll try the sympathy approach."

Veronica paused, "Maybe it's us. Maybe we're not spending enough time with the kids and this is Cassie's way of acting out."

Peter stroked his wife's cheek, "You should go to sleep, I'll handle it. Tomorrow is a new day. I'll make sure Chris gets to bed at a decent time."

Peter stumbled down the stairs and onto the couch next to his son who was watching cops. The weight of the day slapped him in the face, especially Aphrodite's words. He hadn't seen a god, or anything from his past life in 20 years. Peter Johnson changed his name from Percy Jackson when he was 18, he left the gods behind to succeed in living a normal life. He hadn't seen the ocean for years. He lucked out that Veronica had a near death experience in the Gulf Coast when she was a teenager and had no desire to go back. The middle of the desert might not have suited Percy Jackson very well, but it was home to Peter Johnson.

"Did you want to watch something else?" Chris asked, but Peter was in a daze. "Dad?"

"Oh," Peter said, coming back. "Um, this is fine."

Peter wondered what would happen in a week when he wasn't at Olympus. There was no way he was going, he wasn't a puppet anymore. He was nearly 40, and had a family to worry about. Peter never remembered any adults jumped in to help save the day. When Percy was granted a second wish from the Olympic Council, it was that he could live a life free of all things Ancient, no gods or monsters. They swore on the River Styx that they would not intervene. Obviously it didn't mean anything.

When the 10 o'clock news came on, Peter told Chris to go to bed, but he himself stayed to watch, a story caught his attention. He listened as the male news anchor spoke.

"Over the past few days, a group of rogue teenagers have been terrorizing a small town an hour out of New York City, on the Hudson River. The group seems to be at least fifty people strong ranging from the ages of 13 to 18. Investigators seem to think that this disabled man is their leader." They cut to a grainy photo of a man in a wheelchair looking to his right.

The man had curly brown hair and a scruffy beard. Peter knew who he was, but he didn't want to believe it. "Authorities in New York think that this man has kidnapped, or lured in runaway kids and brainwashed them to stand against the law."

Peter snapped off the TV, troubled by what he had just seen. He ran his ands through his loose hair. Thunder rumbled overhead, Peter checked the sky out the window. The stars were shining through the light pollution of Phoenix, no thunderheads in sight. But Peter knew better, it was a warning. It was his decision whether to ignore it or not.

It would be so easy to hop on a plane and fly to New York (he could actually fly in that life) to visit his mother and stepfather. Peter would be able to just slip out and go to Olympus to see what was going on. The kids hadn't been to the city for years, and Sally would love them visiting since she and Paul usually flew to Arizona for the holidays.

Except that was exactly what the gods wanted him to think so they could lure him in. He just had to wait this out. They could find another survivor from the War of the Giants to help out. Percy Jackson had to be old news by now. There had to be some new, young, powerful hero out there that could beat his ass if he were still young. Peter had no problem with that. He wanted a replacement so he could move on. It had worked out for years, until then.

Peter turned off the lights and headed upstairs. Once he was ready for bed, Veronica was fast asleep, spread out on the entire bed, and hogging all the covers. He laughed a little, it was one of the reasons he loved her so much. She was adorable when she slept. Peter snatched some of the sheets away from his wife, who was hardly bothered in the process, and curled up next to her.

But his mind stayed restless and he didn't fall asleep for a couple of hours.