Hello everyone! I'm so happy right now because this story already has over 150 hits. And it's only the first chapter! Yay! A quick shout-out to those who reviewed:

HerCrimsonTears

LobstaFace17: Thank you for the cookie! It was quite enjoyable :D

Fennendra

The Innocent Little Human

MIGHTY RULER OF GUMMY BEARS: I swear, when I saw your username I died. It's beautiful and perfect in every possible way. And yes, I don't particularly like stories that have Rachel as the mean girl so I wanted to make one where she was really nice

Mythomagic-Champion

I believe that's everyone! Here is Chapter 2!

Chapter 2- Percy

I clutched my side as I ran down the winding alleys of Hades. I had the advantage since I knew these streets way better than the King's Guard did. Still, I was running out of breath and I could hear them closing in on me. I had to find somewhere to hide.

I tripped over an abandoned cart lying in the middle of the alley and fell hard on the dirt alley, bruising my elbow in the process. I scrambled up and tried to start running again, but I heard someone whisper, "Percy!" right behind me. Someone grabbed me by my arm (the uninjured one) and forced me into a ditch I hadn't noticed before. It was just big enough to fit the two of us, but it was a tight fit. Overhead, I heard the King's Guard pass by.

"Where did he go?"

"Are you sure he came down this way?"

"I saw him turn here."

"Come on, boys. I'm not letting this street rat get away again." I scowled when I heard Octavian's voice. He was the Captain of the King's Guard in Hades, and my long time enemy. He longed for nothing more than to throw me in jail or have me hanged. I dreamed of meeting him alone in a dark alley where no one could interrupt us. My knife would be the last thing he saw.

After they had passed by, I turned to look at my savior. As soon as I saw who it was, my face turned bright red.

"Hey, Percy," Calypso greeted me. "It's been a while."

"H-hey, Calypso." I was suddenly aware of how close we were. Her chest was pressed up against mine and her lips were only inches from my face. Our legs had somehow gotten intertwined when we jumped into the ditch. "How've you been?"

"Well, it's been pretty boring since you stopped coming by the shop." Calypso worked at a flower shop in one of the nicer parts of Hades. If you can call any part of Hades nice.

"Sorry. I've been pretty busy lately."

"So I've heard. Eight thefts in a month? Even for you, that's a pretty high record."

I shrugged. "It was mainly the Stoll's. They like that kind of work."

"Right." We stood there awkwardly for a few moments before I climbed out of the ditch. I offered my hand and helped Calypso out after me. As she was getting out, she stumbled and fell into my arms.

"Whoa," I said as I steadied her. "You okay?"

She looked up at me, her beautiful brown eyes shining up at me. "I am now." Then she reached up, put a hand on the back of my neck, and pulled me towards her. She kissed me full on the lips, and I was too surprised to do anything. I ripped myself out of her grip and walked away.

"What is wrong with you, Percy? You haven't spoken to me in over a month, and now you won't even kiss me?"

I turned towards her. "I already told you, I can't be with you anymore. It's too dangerous."

"I can protect myself, Perseus Jackson," she said angrily. I made a face when she used my real name. "It's not like you're doing anything more dangerous than you were before. I don't understand what the problem is."

"The problem is that I don't want you to be involved in that stuff. It's better for you and safer if you just forget about me."

Calypso rolled her eyes. "Don't you get it? I can't just forget about you. You're special. There's something about you that just keeps drawing me closer to you." She moved towards me, but I backed away. "When I'm with you I forget about everything else." I was trapped against the wall of the alley, and Calypso just kept coming closer. Soon, her arms were around my neck and she was pulling me closer to her again. "Don't you miss me at all?"

"Of course I miss you, but I can't do this. I have other things to worry about."

"Like what?" she asked as she kissed my neck seductively.

"Like…like…Will you stop that?" I said as I tried to pull away from her again. This time she listened, shocked that I had rejected her. Twice. Then she got angry.

"It's some other girl, isn't it? That's why you don't want me anymore. I mean, the Great Percy Jackson, leader of the Demigods, can get any girl he wants, right?"

I rolled my eyes. "I don't have another girl. I just don't need any complications right now."

"So now I'm a complication? Wow, you really know how to make a girl feel good." She stormed off angrily, probably going back towards her shop. I thought about going after her, but I decided not to. This would at least get her to leave me alone for a little while.

I made my way back to base. The Guard must have given up there search for me because they were nowhere to be found. It probably helped that I had already paid most of them off. They weren't too hard to bribe if you knew who to offer the money to. Obviously I would never try to buy off Octavian or his cronies, but most of the other men on the Guard were pretty cool. As long as I didn't do anything really bad, like murder or rape, or draw attention to myself, they would leave me and my gang alone.

As I walked down the street, people crossed to the other side of the road. Everyone knew who I was, and they knew to stay out of my way. After all, I was the notorious green-eyed gang leader. I saw a group of tavern girls whispering and stealing glances at me. I flashed them a cocky grin and they all giggled. One of them sauntered up to me, a devilish smirk on her face.

"Hey, Percy. Are you gonna come visit me today?"

"Not today, Drew. I've got other stuff to do."

She put a hand on my chest and stuck out her bottom lip. "You haven't been by the tavern in so long," she pouted. "I'm starting to think you don't like me."

I smirked at her. Drew was very pretty, and she knew it. If she wanted to, she could probably make a decent maid at a palace in Olympus or at least a good shop worker. However, she did make quite a bit of money, and she was very good in her…line of work. "Of course I like you. I just don't have time to come by today."

She removed her hand from my chest and started to walk back to her friends who were all watching our exchange with interest. Drew looked back over her shoulder and blew me a kiss. "I won't wait forever, Percy," she called.

I gave a half wave as she turned away from me. "I sure hope not," I muttered under my breath.

The Demigod base was a rundown warehouse in the worst part of Hades. The people who lived there were the absolute worst kind of people, from thieves, to rapists, from runaway fugitives to murderers. We all pretty much stayed out of each other's way. The few people who were out nodded to me in respect. I nodded back, but other than that we ignored each other.

As soon as I opened the warehouse door, I could hear the arguing voices of the Stoll brothers. Their voices traveled down from the upper floors. I climbed the ladder and immediately saw what the argument was about.

"Where is it, dammit?"

"I didn't take your stupid picture. Why would I want a picture of her ugly face?"

Travis lunged at his brother, holding a knife to his throat. "You take that back," he seethed through clenched teeth.

"Boys!" I shouted. They both looked towards me. "Travis, get off him." I surveyed the damage. The entire room had been torn apart. The ratty cushions from the couches were tossed across the room, drawers were pulled out of the dressers, and the extra clothes we stored here were strewn across the floor. "Connor, what the hell did you steal now?"

"I didn't steal nothin' from him!"

"Liar!" Travis was about to lunge at Connor again, but I put my hand on his shoulder to stop him. He glared at me for a second, then dropped his gaze to the floor. "He took my picture of her. I know he did."

Travis was talking about the picture of his first real love, Katie. They had met by chance one day when he had been working as a part time stable boy in Olympus. His mom worked as a maid over there, and she had gotten him the job. Katie was a Duchess who lived at the mansion where Travis and his mom worked, and when she went to the stable to see the horses, she met Travis. At first, they hated each other, but soon they fell in love. Unfortunately, Katie's strict mother had her suspicions about Travis, and she found out about his relationship with Katie. She fired him, but on his last day Katie gave him a picture of herself so that he could remember her. He hadn't seen her in over a year, and that picture was all he had to remember her by. Other than his lucky knife, it was the thing he valued most.

"Maybe you just dropped it, man. Come on, I'll help you look for it." We searched the entire warehouse, from top to bottom. After Connor got over being mad at Travis for blaming him, he helped us look, too. That was the great thing about the Stoll boys. They could fight everyday about the stupidest things, but when it really mattered, they always had each other's backs.

I heard a door slam below, meaning that someone had just come back to base. "Yo, Travis! I think you dropped something!" Nico's voice carried up to the top floor of the warehouse. "I've got a picture of a very pretty Duchess with me!"

Travis climbed down the ladder as fast as he could and jumped the last ten feet to the ground. He stumbled to Nico, who handed him the picture. "Thanks, man. Where'd you find it?"

"I was cleaning up that alley where you got into it with that Guard officer. You musta dropped it while you were fighting."

Travis clutched the picture to his chest as if someone might try to take it from him. He put it in the tiny pocket hidden inside his jacket. Then he turned to his brother, who had followed him down the ladder. "Sorry, bro. I shoulda known you wouldn't have taken it."

"Don't worry 'bout it, man. We're still brothers."

"Well, isn't that touching?" a voice said behind us. We all turned around to see who it was.

My face broke into a grin. "What's up, Thals?"

Thalia smirked. "Not much, Perce. I haven't seen you in a while, though. How've you been?"

"Pretty good." Thalia Grace was an honorary member of the Demigods. There weren't really any girls in the gang, but if there was Thalia would be one of them. She was tough as nails, and she knew how to handle herself in a sticky situation. She was also one of my best friends.

She came forward and hugged me. Unlike with Calypso and Drew, I didn't feel threatened or uncomfortable. I closed my eyes and inhaled. Her familiar pine tree scent filled my nostrils and I smiled. "I missed you," she said.

"I missed you, too." I let go of her, and she walked over to where Nico was standing. They stood together, but they were trying way too hard not to touch. I narrowed my eyes. I couldn't have been gone that long.

"So what've I missed, guys?"

Nico, my second-in-command, shrugged. "Not much. We tried not to get into too much trouble, but Travis here got into a fight with the Guard the other night. Apparently eight robberies in a month is too much for the Guard to ignore, even the one's you've bought." He eyed me suspiciously. "So, where've you been for the last two weeks? The most you've ever stayed away is three or four days. What happened?"

"I had to take care of some things at home," I answered.

Thalia must have sensed the tension in my voice because her eyes filled with concern. "What's wrong? Did something happen with your mom? Is Tyson okay?"

I sighed. Thalia knew me too well. "It's Gabe. I found out he started hitting my mom again." I clenched and unclenched my fists, remembering the bruise that covered the side of her face. Just thinking about it made me want to kill something. Specifically, Gabe.

Travis pulled out his lucky knife. "We can take him."

"Yeah, man, we got your back. We'll make sure he leaves your mom alone." When Nico lost his mom in a building collapse, my mom had given him a place to stay. He knew how awesome and sweet she was, and he was almost as protective of her as I was.

"Thanks, guys, but there's nothin' we can do. If something happens to that asshole, the Guard is gonna know right away that it was me or one of you. That's all the excuse Octavian would need to have me hanged."

Everyone was quiet at that. It sucked that my mom couldn't find a nice guy to be with. She always had the worst luck, but she was the nicest person. It wasn't fair.

I might have only been sixteen, but I was the leader of the Demigods. I was the green-eyed thief. I could get any girl I wanted. I could talk myself out of any situation.

But I couldn't even protect my own mother.

"I need a distraction, guys." I brushed aside all thoughts about my mom and Gabe. I put on a cocky grin. "Who's ready to have some fun?"

And that is the internal struggle of Percy. I hope you guys enjoyed it! I'll post again as soon as I can, but I don't know when that will be. I think next chapter is going back to Annabeth, but that might change. Also I have a question:

If I'm going to swear in this fanfic (using the f word and such things) do I have to write it like this (f***) or can I just say it? Because I think that asterisks are stupid, but I'm not changing the rating to M. So if someone could answer that, I'd be very happy!

Reviews please! Love you peoples 3 ~Belle