I do not own the PJO series, though I do own Veritas and Victoria.

()

The fires of Victory and the flames of Truth

()

One second I was here the other I was not. I found myself on a stark white featureless plain. White stretched as far as the eye could see. Gradually the portion above my head became a light blue sky with wisps of cloud floating in it.

Needless to say I was very confused, "Hello? Anybody?"

With a disturbing snap hiss, a vortex of red light sprang up in my immediate vision. It was overall a light red color with a dark red center. Tendrils of orange and pink stretched away to points far past the horizon.

"Hello," the vortex said in a whispery but grating voice.

I raised an eyebrow, "Am I dead?"

"More or less," The vortex said, "You would have died three minutes from now."

"From what?" I asked taking this information far too lightly for I actually was perfectly prepared to die for the last years and months. Not that I wished for my life to end just I was curious at what lay beyond.

"Meteorite," the vortex said with a chuckle.

"Phew," I said, then added brightly "At least I didn't die of an aneurism, internal hemorrhaging, drowning, or being eaten alive. Meteorite is very unique; I doubt anybody else died of a meteorite this year after all."

The vortex appeared shocked for a second because he was quiet for a while. After waiting for him, or it, to say something I asked, "Are you some type of supreme being?"

He snorted, "Of course not! God would have gotten over this awkward silence by now."

Another awkward silence ensued. This time the vortex broke it by saying, "Ok, you have now died…and…Well I have a mission for you-."

I cut him off while thinking, I just died now? "I want some powers then."

Startled he replied, "Um, well, I don't know…Oh well…What powers? Why are you even the one making demands?"

I laughed a faux evil laugh then stopped as another thought hit me, "Where am I even going? Am I leaving my reality? If so that would be great! Nothing ever happens here! It's all so drab and innocent and…well you get the idea…does this mission get to have explosions?"

The Vortex gazed at me for a few seconds or at least I think it gazed at me, after all it is kind of hard to tell with something that has no eyes, "Beats me."

"What do you mean? Don't you know where I am going? You're an over grown hyper real freak!"

"Hyper real? How is that even an insult?" The Vortex said with quite a bit of an insulted tone in its voice so I reckoned my insult actually worked, though I had no idea why the stupid thing even considered that an insult.

"Can you give me any clues?" I asked the Vortex and tried to bring a hand up to rub my face in exasperation but found that I actually had no body to begin with. How I missed the fact that I had no body I had no rational thought.

"Let's see," The Vortex muttered, "One lost in the land without rain?"

"Land witho-what? Can you repeat that, I didn't get it all," I said or more like snarled. I mean my day was perfectly fine without all these complications.

"Yes," The Vortex said in quite a different voice and I wondered whether the cursed thing was going to repeat what it said, but it continued talking to someone that was most certainly not there!

"Uh huh, right away, PJO Universe eleven thousand and eleven? Continuity nine? Of course, Sir, Right away."

"What the-" I started as he wrapped up.

"Nope," the Vortex said quickly, "No questions! Off you go!"

As the world faded to black I thought, idiot didn't even tell me what the mission was.

()

Arrival: 1994

()

Warmth…that was the first thing I felt… Additionally I felt groggy, very sleepy. With effort I opened my eyes, looking down on me was a blurry face, but they were bright. It was difficult to discern the color, everything was jumbled together.

I began to get frustrated and my body started to cry. This startled me and I promptly stopped crying, only to blink stupidly.

Then I was up against a warm body that my brain identified as, Mother. Oh, somehow when I had been transported to this universe, wherever it was, they decided to make it as seamless as possible. I didn't particularly mind but then I was thinking so slowly that the implications would probably set in a little later when I wasn't so tired.

"Veritas," The woman, Mother, said, "Veritas Nova, New Truth, that is your name."

Veritas? Latin? Yup, the Latin word for truth. That's a boy's name. It was good since I was male. Though, I wondered sleepily, Why the Latin? My eyes slowly closed.

()

What felt like seconds later I jolted awake to the noise of another baby crying? Was this a hospital? Sadly, my vision was awful and I couldn't make out anything at all. I tried to turn my head but found I could not so I listened, thankfully I could still understand words.

My Mother spoke again but this time it seemed she was speaking to someone else, "Victoria, Victoria Nova."

Victoria Nova? New Victory? What is with the Latin? Maybe Mother is a Latin freak? Or maybe this is the PJO universe…Yeah right. That would be just my luck. I tried to scowl but didn't possess the muscle control to do so, um, I started crying. Evidently I don't control my emotions in this body very well and when my emotions get out of hand this form bawls like a little baby. Odd but true nevertheless.

Suddenly mother was back and I was picked up from the warmth of my bed or crib or whatever I was in. She rocked my back and forth while holding another infant on which I managed to discern had strikingly red hair. Red hair!

What the? My, someone is going to have a temper someday… Of course that is a trope. Then slowly but surely I drifted off into the grasp of sleep.

()

Three years later: 1997

()

Around three years later I discovered something concerning. I had initially thought that reading would be a piece of cake but the words floated around in addition to being hopelessly jumbled. Dyslexia. I had Dyslexia, I couldn't read a thing.

That's when I began to think, I only have one parent, oh yeah I never explained what she looked like, her name was, besides Mommy, Dawn Nova, she had bright red hair and a kind face. She also had what sometimes seemed to be brown eyes but could be dark red.

Only one parent and dyslexia, that would be the recipe for demigod wouldn't it? I gave the issue brief consideration before shrugging it off as, Impossible! That isn't even possible, right? It must be something else, I already had nightmares full of Cyclops and zombies and the like, I didn't need super realistic demi-dreams.

Along this all I learned to speak before my sibling Victoria, in fact I grasped language absurdly fast. My mother would sometimes get a puzzled look on her face when she looked at me. Speaking merely required me to develop the muscle memory to say the words I still retained.

Victoria learned to walk before me. I didn't possess nearly enough courage to walk until I was months past the date she learned to walk. This was another thing that caused my mother to regard me thoughtfully.

Once I got over the fear of taking a step, tripping, and cracking my over sized noggin I developed rapidly, quickly catching up with Victoria.

I was very good at puzzles and other things of that nature, probably because of my oversized intellect.

()

Five years: 2003

()

Around this time I actually paid attention to where we lived, despite my best efforts I couldn't figure out which state we were in. I was positive that we lived in America and I was guessing the state was New Hampshire. The house was very large, far bigger then anything that I had been accustomed to in my previous universe.

Mother loved the hearth. On cold and rainy days we would sit around the living room staring at the fire while we played games. She had to go often to her job which at this point I still haven't figured out what it is.

And so it was on a rainy day when Victoria, I, and Mommy were sitting inside playing checkers that I sprung a question that I had been waiting on.

"Mommy?" I asked innocently.

"Yes, Veritas?" Mommy answered me absent mindedly.

"What's your favorite Greek god?"

Mommy stiffened before relaxing and replying, "I don't know, perhaps Hestia."

"Oh," I said giving her my best smile, "She's my favorite too!"

Mommy smiled; a smile of real warmth, which wasn't uncommon around mother anyways, "How come?"

"Because she is the goddess of families, and I like families," I said picking the first thought that came to mind. I smiled inwardly to myself; my mother almost acts like Hestia in the PJO series.

I wondered iddly whether I went there or not. But even if I went there I would never be a child of Hestia because she is a virgin. Without another thought I banished the thought from my mind and moved another of my checker pieces. I paused after moving my piece into a bad position and my sister crowed with delight as she captured the piece.

()

2005: I am eleven years old

()

It always seemed to me that if I looked hard enough in the mirror that my eyes would change from brown to a dark warm red. The brown eyes were strange though especially with the blazingly red hair.

My sister and I both had red hair and a pale complexion. She had quite a sunny personality, even more so than mine. I found that it was difficult to stay upset at anything she did for long.

I gazed out the door at the nice snowy winter morning; thankfully it was a Saturday, so no school. I galloped down the stairs fully intent on eating breakfast and disappearing with my sister to explore the woods outside for the millionth time.

"Good morning," My mother said happily laying a platter of eggs on the table.

I replied in kind to my mother then smirked, "Victoria not up yet?"

My mother shook her head then grinned mischievously, "You should wake her up."

I grinned and dashed back up the stairs to my sisters room. I slowly eased open the door and snuck over to her bed, and yelled as loudly as I could, "Aliens!"

She shot out of bed with a startled expression on her face and whacked her head into the wall, then turned around and charged me with, "Don't do that again!"

I raised an eyebrow before heading back towards the door, "Breakfast time! The late bird has to eat the worms!"

"Eeeeww!" She screeched and through her pillow at me, something I easily dodged.

I chuckled to myself as I reached the ground floor. I remembered idly a few years ago when I had almost though that me and my sister in this universe were demigods. But when I confronted my mother about her job she seemed to bring up enough evidence that she was a mortal CEO of some moderately large home furnishing company.

Anyways the only Olympian that fit was Hestia and there was no way she could be raising us with the laws Zeus and Hera put in place.

I rolled my eyes while striding into the dining room. If my mother was Hestia she also would have at least done something when I thought of future events around her. Didn't the deities have telepathy?

I paused once reaching the dining room; my mother was watching the TV. But that's not what bothered me; it was the storm clouds and the reporter yelling about the onset of freak storms and earthquakes. My mother almost appeared to be watching something more on the TV, something that only she could see.

Controlling my growing apprehension I sat in my seat and started to eat while drifting off into the land of thought. What year was it? 2005. I knew I was in another reality, but which one? I couldn't help but think that the storms were important to me in figuring out what was going on.

Then it hit me like a gorilla taped to a freight train. 2005. The year that Zeus' lightning bolt was stolen in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. What had the vortex called this universe, the PJO universe?

And what did the sky and seas look like they were doing? Fighting. What were Zeus and Poseidon doing in The Lightning Thief? They were fighting. And with nearly sickening realization I discerned that I was in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians world.

Then my only thought was, Oh Styx, I hope I'm not a demigod. Then again how would I change anything if I wasn't? I groaned under my breath, I hope I'm wrong.

Then my mother said, in a barely controlled voice, "I need to go to work early today."

And she almost literally flew out the door and towards her, she called over her shoulder as she left, "Don't leave the house!"

She had just gotten back from a trip which had lasted several days. And that trip coincided just right for the Winter Solstice meeting on Olympus.

I watched my mother drive off in worry while thinking, is she a goddess? If so which goddess? And if she wasn't why would she need to drive off so quickly after watching that newscast?

()

Well what do people think?