A/N: Second chapter! Yay! Hope there aren't too many mistakes in this and that you people like this.
~Hedley is Amazing
Percy followed Reyna deep in thought. His paranoid side was screaming that he had just left his back exposed to his possible enemies. He tried to calm himself down and have a look around while he waited for Lupa to come back. She had after all promised him a way to what he most wanted- his past. And surely after succeeding in his journey he would be sent back to where he came from. So he could see her. By now Percy knew Annabeth was part of his past, he just didn't know why. She was important to him and he trusted her, without knowing her at all.
When Dakota had screamed at him, his hand was itching to take out his pen and fight but she stopped him. Her blonde hair was a halo around her perfect face. With intense grey eyes analyzing his plans with disapproval. It had been like that for almost two months? He didn't know that and many other things. 'You never did.' Her teasing voice whispered in his head. So he didn't fight Kota, gave up and listened to the girl's voice. It told him he was on a diplomatic mission just like Lupa had.
His mind took him back to the ruined, once beautiful house that looked like it had survived a recent battle. There was ice chunks splattered around in a way that made him question how the wind could have brought them there. There was even a boot in one, which was something he seriously needed. He was dressed like it was summer even though it was December. The only memory he had from his past- knowledge that the gods exsisted and the girl. So he vowed to himself he would see her again. Then the wolves came and Lupa told him his quest.
Reyna coughing brought him back to reality. "Percy listen, I know I don't know you. But you coming so soon after he's gone… It's connected."
"Who's gone?"
"Jason Grace." Percy noticed the way Reyna seemed pained to talk about him even though she was the one to mention it.
"Your boyfriend?" While he asked his mind drifted and he wondered if he had a girlfriend back home. Wherever home was…
"No well…almost." Reyna turned her face away from Percy probably to hide her face. Percy nodded but he thought about what the gorgons had said right before he tricked them. Their patron was Gaea, he knew that much but he had no idea who she was in mythology. There was also something about a Feast of Fortune and armies going south? Why had he randomly thought of that?
He put that out of his mind for a moment when he looked at Reyna.
"So how long have you been here?"
"5."
"Years?" That made sense because Reyna looked around 15 so could've been here since she was ten.
"No I was five. Haven't had contact with my mother more than a few times after that. Other than you know- letters. I think she owns some kind of poetry publishing business so naturally Apollo was drawn to her." Percy didn't know what to say but he realized all demigods had hard, complicated lives not just him. That didn't really comfort him; he knew that making other people suffer along with him wasn't really in his nature.
"Who do you think my parent is?"
"Is it your mom or dad?"
"I don't know."
"Oh, right. Well let's see. Probably not Ceres or Venus."
"Why is it 'cause I'm ugly?" Percy said in a mockingly hurt kind of way but made Reyna blush. She had after all that he'd been pretty handsome when she first saw him.
"Um no, but to survive so long without training… You need have a powerful parent and natural skill." Thunder rumbled in the distance so Reyna quickly added, "Not that you guys aren't powerful." At this point Percy honestly couldn't care less if his mother was a goddess of cereal. He just wanted to know.
"Can you sing?"
"Never tried and would really rather not."
"Ok so can you hit a target with an arrow?"
Percy shrugged and Reyna took that as a no. "Fly?" Percy laughed a throaty chuckle.
"You're seriously asking me if I can fly?"
"Jason can." Percy mimicked her right after she said it which earned him a slap in the face.
"Thanks, I needed that." Reyna noticed he loved sarcasm, well who didn't? She did worry that witty remarks will get him in trouble with the immortals. Maybe that's what happened. Maybe he pissed off some goddess and ended up here with no past. Highly unlikely. Reyna thought because it still didn't explain how he had survived so long without SPQR.
"So you can't?" Percy shook his head with a straight face so Reyna crossed Apollo and Jupiter off her mental checklist. "Are you smart?"
"I'm dyslexic."
"Still are you?" Percy shrugged not really knowing if he was. He hadn't exactly had math exams while on the run. "How can you be dyslexic if almost every language is based off Latin?" She vaguely thought that this wasn't right, that English was not based off Latin... But you know, she was close enough.
"I'm supposed to know?"
"So you're not smart. If you don't know?" Reyna was just teasing him now but the girl popped into his head calling him stupid for something he didn't remember doing. "Shut up." Oh great, now he didn't even know which one he was talking to. He was losing his mind.
"Have you ever taken a particular liking to grapes or wine?" She said moving on down her list to the next god she thought of.
"I don't know!"
"Hmm, so still seems too powerful to be Bacchus…" Reyna murmured to herself making Percy think that maybe he wasn't the only crazy one.
"Do you enjoy the Underworld?'
"Um, no… Should I?"
"Not Pluto. Maybe Vulcan or Mercury…"
"Kay, so can I ask you a question?"
"Shoot." Reyna said ignoring the fact he already did and fighting the urge to say so.
"What the hell do those names mean? Isn't Mercury a planet?" Reyna's eyes narrowed. "Forget the fact that I ever thought you could be a son of Minerva. No wisdom or smarts in you."
"Aw, you're so sweet. So isn't Vulcan Hephaestus?"
"Yes but the correct term is Vulcan. Not Greek." Percy had a sudden flash of memory of a pony dude telling him about the Western civilization. Then it was gone leaving Percy sighing. That had been happening to often, the flashes of his past not helping him in any way but rewarding him with a headache.
The rest of Percy's day passed in a kind of daze. Reyna knew he was kind of out of it so like Hazel had told her, she let him off easy. Normally she wouldn't allow any sympathy in herself to show to anyone and Percy sure didn't like pity. At dinner he sat at what Reyna announced as the Mercury table. Among the throng of new people, one guy had introduced himself first. "I'm Bobby. Leader of this cabin, for now you can have an empty bunk. My siblings and I didn't have the luxury of extra sleeping space until last summer. I guess the gods were feeling generous…"
Percy blanked out; Bobby seemed like the annoying type- a guy that never fully left you alone. But even he along with everyone seemed suspicious, scared or at least wary of him. And yes it was annoying, everyone pressuring him for answers he didn't have. He was tired, all he wanted to do was sleep. The part of his mind that always worked overtime was probably ADHD. And that was the same part is telling him he was on enemy ground and that the tunnel was the entrance to camp. Now it was telling him something he didn't want to hear or believe- that sleeping might be a trap. Who cares? You've barely slept in two months, go get some rest. Said a lulling woman's voice that was nothing like the blonde girl's. His body happily agreed though as he lay down where Bobby showed him he could. He noticed he was still wearing his old torn up clothes but by now he couldn't care less. And of course when he most needed sleep, dreams decided to find him.
