I don't own PJO or HOO

Percy POV

When I woke up, everything was silver. I tried to sit up, but Grover was by my side in an instant, holding me down.

"Easy there killer." he said as gently as he could, but I could tell from his voice that he was freaking out. "You got two doses of manticore venom still flushing out of your system. Have some more ambrosia." he finished as he handed me some more caramel squares.

I ate them and tried to remember what happened. Thorn was a manticore, Darren could control water. Bianca. Please say her falling off a cliff was just a figment of my imagination.

"Grover," I asked him cautiously, "Did Bianca really fall off a cliff with a manticore?" I finished and he gave me a sad look before breaking down crying.

"It's all my fault. I was supposed to protect both her and Nico. I was useless the whole time." Grover sobbed. I sat up and gave him a gentle pat on the back.

"If it is anyone's fault, it is Darren's. He was useless the whole time and took up the time of whoever the blonde is." I told him, but he seemed to be even more upset.

"But he threw his sword to save the hunter. He was the only one who did real work. He is outside the tent now boasting." Grover told me, still crying.

"I took his sword and threw it." I told Grover, a little confused as to what Grover was saying.

"I know, but if any one questions what Darren says, he beats the crap out of them. Only Thalia can stand up to him, but he can guilt her into getting his way." Grover said, finally stopping his crying.

"Some quick questions," I asked him carefully, "Who is Thalia, was that really a manticore that Bianca killed, and why the hell do you have fake goat legs on?" I asked him, trying to hide my shock at the last one. Grover must have some strange style choices when outside of school.

"At least you got it right." Grover said with a sigh.

"I got what right?" I asked

"These are goat legs, I'm a satyr." He said in a monotone.

I want to say I took the news well, but I just fainted.

I woke up a little later and Grover was talking to the blonde girl.

"He remembers throwing the sword. He smells extremely like a mortal, but I think he is a demigod. He never has spoken of his family life and he also has ADHD and Dyslexia."

"He's waking up." the blonde told him and turned to me.

"Who are you and why did you lie to us about knowing the DiAngelos?" she asked, her eyes staring right through my facade.

"Darren made it sound like he wanted to kill them, he called them death spawn. I protect my friends." I told her, staring right back at her. I think I saw a flash of understanding in her eyes before they turned steely again.

"He is trying to help, as am I, they are children of Hades that is why he called them death spawn." she answered.

"Well how was I supposed to know that, also, what the hell do you mean when you say they are children of Hades? He is a Greek god, they aren't real." I said and she rolled her eyes.

She then went on to explain about how the gods have been real since the time of ancient Greece. How they had moved as the times changed and the new mount Olympus was a hidden floor in the Empire state building. How the god's favorite past time was knocking up mortals and we were the results. Demi-god heroes. My favorite part was all the monsters were real and their favorite hobby was hunting and eating demi-gods.

Even after seeing Grover with goat legs and a live manticore, I still didn't believe her, but so many things were starting to make sense about my life. My dad was actually a Greek god. That's why he was never around. He probably wasn't very important seeing as I was about as powerful as a stick.

"So then why didn't my dad help me or my mom if he is an all-powerful Greek god?" I asked her as I started my list of questions.

"All the gods are bound by ancient laws set by the greater forces that they cannot interfere with human affairs directly. They have their children so they can do that. We demi-gods are the reason the world goes around today. Most great athletes and business men have relations to the gods." she explained to me and it made some sense, but who would encourage parents to be bad parents.

"Who set the "ancient laws"? Who are the greater forces? Titans? Primordials?" I asked her and she made a face.

"No demi-gods like them, but it wasn't the Titans, they are all evil and so are their children." she told me, which didn't really answer my question, but did raise new ones.

"Aren't most of the Olympians children of the Titans?" I asked her and she nodded

"My point exactly." She said. I got the feeling she didn't like the gods too much.

"So was it the Primordials then or..." I let the question trail off and she shrugged.

"It might have been the gods, they love hiding behind the ancient laws to be irresponsible. No one has heard word from any primordials in millennia. Most people are pretty sure they have faded or are in a deep unawakening sleep." she answered stood up to go.

"Well, that's all we can do for now, the sun has almost risen and we need to get you and Nico to camp. My name is Annabeth by the way. You seem to already know Grover and Darren and the other girl with the big shield and short spikey hair is Thalia" she told me and helped me up.

"Good to know. Anything helpful hints for when we get to where ever you guys are taking us?" I asked as I stumbled to my feet and took the fresh clothes from my dorm that Grover handed me.

"If you see a body builder looking girl or Darren approaching you in the arena or by the bathrooms, run." was all she answered with before she left the tent with Grover.

I changed quickly and rubbed the Bastard carving that Gabe had put in my back. It wasn't true after all. My dad was out there, and he was a god. I wasn't sure if that made me feel better or worse, but it proved Gabe wrong. He was wrong. I could be the hero. This was the start of a new life for me. I finished getting changed and walked out of the tent.

Only to be met with a fist to the face.

I felt my nose break as the fist crunched into my face. Standing over me was the girl who I had saved from the manticore. She had long black hair with a silver circlet in it and blacker eyes. Not soft like Bianca, but cold and hard, like she had never laughed except at someone else's pain.

"That was for attacking the manticore. I had it completely under control." she hissed. We both knew it was a lie, but I shook my head in agreement and tried to crawl away to be met with a foot to the face.

This time it was Darren and he kept kicking me.

"You worthless brat." he started a rant about how I was too weak to be considered a human and how I should be his slave for the rest of my life because he was so awesome. I hate him almost as much as Gabe. Someone really needed to give him a reality check.

And it just so happened that a silver arrow nailed him in the junk.

I flinched as he fell over crying his eyes out and sobbing like a two year old. I saw the arrow was blunt, but that only made me feel a little better.

I turned and saw it was the circlet girl who had shot him. She gave me a death stare that made me shy away from her and she stalked off towards a large clearing where everybody else was gathered. I saw the girl Annabeth had identified as Thalia watching over Nico as he fired off question after question at her. She lost it and swung a fist at him.

I jumped in front of the punch and got hit in the face for the third time in about five minutes. Her fist hurt the most by far though. Her fist for some reason not only zapped me, but it also hurt like hell.

"Jeez, are you stupid or something kid?" she asked me and I frowned at her.

"No one hits my friends." I told her. And she grinned a little at this.

"Loyalty. Something all heroes need, but few have, we might get along yet." She told me and I nodded at her. I don't know what she meant about the loyalty thing, but it sounded like a compliment.

"Thanks, I think. My name is Percy and Annabeth told me you are Thalia." I told her and she smiled a little.

"Trust owl face to spew out as much knowledge as she can on every given occasion, but yeah, I am the one and only resident daughter of Zeus." she answered smiling. Nico had retreated to assault Grover with questions ranging from stupid to completely ridiculous.

"Owl face?" I asked her about her nick-name for Annabeth and she gave a sad shake of her head

"She is a daughter of Athena and her animal is an owl.' she answered, but I sensed there was more to the story she wasn't letting on, but I didn't push her, I didn't feel like taking another fist to the face so early in the day. I liked to keep my beating between 10 and 2.

"Works for me." I told her and then we stood in silence for a bit.

I noticed the temperature start to heat up a little and I noticed the sun had turned into a sports car. It came down to a smooth landing in the field and a 19 year old looking guy hopped out of the driver's seat. He spun the keys on his finger and smiled at Artemis, who was standing at the front of the group. She looked less than happy to see the man while he looked overjoyed.

"Arty!" He exclaimed with fake enthusiasm. "How is my favorite little sister doing?" he jostled some random hunter with his elbow and earned a kick to the shin from sed hunter.

"How many times have I told you to leave my hunters alone Apollo?" Artemis asked him as he massaged his shin. So this was Apollo, he seemed more like a playboy than a god. Probably as responsible as one too.

"Well, if my memory serves me correctly sis, you were the one who summoned me here. Hmm, I feel a Haiku coming on." he said with a thoughtful look on his face. Everyone groaned as he started.

"Baby Arty calls

She is begging for my help

I am so awesome"

When he finished his haiku, Artemis slapped him across the face.

"Let's get a few things straight shall we, I am the older sibling, not you. You are to never to flirt with my hunters again, and if you call me Arty one more time, you will never have another demigod child. Am I clear?" she had grabbed his hair and was staring him straight in the eye. I thought Apollo was going to wet himself, but he just laughed.

"Whatever you say sis." he answered her and he stood up straight. "I understand you lot need a ride to Camp, well I, Sir Awesomeness, am here to give you one. Now everybody hop in!" he called to the rest of us while he pulled Artemis off to the side.

"Where you great oaf, you still have the sun chariot as a stupid tiny car." the circlet hunter told him and I thought he was going to kill her for talking to him like that. Again, he just laughed it off.

"Ah Zoe, I see you haven't changed a bit. I see two young men sporting excellent sets of bruises, your work I guess?" he said gesturing to Darren and me.

"I have no idea what you are talking about." she told him with pure hatred in her voice.

"Well I should probably clean them up a little then." he said and snapped his fingers. My face instantly felt a ton better. I could feel the bruises and black eye were gone and my nose was no longer broken. But I also felt something else, like a stronger connection to him. Maybe he was my father. We didn't have any similar looks, but I was albino, I doubt there are any albino gods.

"All aboard." he called to everyone and clicked his car keys. His epic sports car turned into a crappy school bus. He talked to Artemis about something in private while the rest of us got on the bus. I was barely on my seat as I was next to both Grover and Nico. Darren kept scooching closer to Annabeth, while she seemed unsure on what to do. Thalia had her feet up and taking up an entire seat.

The whole hunt had made their way to the back of the bus, trying to stay as far from all guys as humanly, or godly, possible. I guess it made sense they hated guys when their patron goddess hated them too.

Apollo hopped on board and address the hunters quickly. "Listen up girl scouts." He told them and I face palmed. I may not have known much about the Greek world, but I am pretty sure calling man hating hunters armed to the max with various pointy weapons girl scouts was not a good idea.

"Artemis has to go hunting on a solo hunt for a while. You lot are going to be staying at the camp for a while." he told them and loud groaning could be heard. I guess the camp wasn't really that fun for them.

"Meanwhile, you wanna drive sis?" he asked Thalia and her face drained drastically. She glued herself to her seat and refused to budge, no matter how much Apollo begged for her to move.

"OK, next candidate, what about albino boy?" he asked me and I gulped. I slowly got up and moved to the steering wheel slowly. The hunters didn't seem happy that I was going to drive, but I tried to ignore them as I sat down in the driver's seat. Apollo stood next to me and gestured to the controls.

I had no idea what I was doing, then the information just came into my head. I pulled the wheel upwards slightly and slowly put pressure on the gas. The bus rose at a moderate pace and soon we were going sat a steady pace. Apollo and everyone else seemed surprised. As we neared New York, Apollo pointed me to Long Island, and I turned the bus slightly so we were headed straight to where he was pointed. I slowly let up on the gas and we began to descend. We soon landed peacefully in the middle of a strawberry field.

I stayed glued to the wheel while everyone else hopped off the bus, Darren bragging to anyone who would listen, which only seemed to be Annabeth, about he could have done a better job.

Once every one else was off, Apollo gave me a once over.

"I have never seen anyone handle my chariot with such ease on their first try, not even me. You aren't one of my kids if that was what you were thinking, but I get the feeling you have a bright future. If whoever your godly parent is doesn't see that, then they are an idiot." he told me and gave me a pat on the back.

I got off the bus and found Nico being led by Grover to a big house. It was painted an ugly blue and had an overly large patio.

On the patio was two figures. One was a pudgy man in a loud animal print shirt who reeked of alcohol, even though he was holding a diet coke.

The other was a familiar figure in a wheelchair...

"Mr. Brunner?" I asked my old Latin teacher and when he saw me, his features lit up.

"Percy, my dear boy, you have found your way to camp at last. I am sorry for leaving you behind last time, but there was more pressing matters at the time." he told me with an apologetic look on his face, I felt inclined to accept his apology and move on, but I kept my guard up and pulled Nico closer to me.

"What are you talking about? Did you know I was a demi-god back in 6th grade and never told me? And how are you a counselor here if you are in a wheel chair?" I questioned him and he sighed.

"Grover, if you could take our other young friend into the den to watch the video, I have some things to discuss with Mr. Jackson here. And for starts Perseus, my real name is Chiron, not Mr. Brunner." he said, sounding tired, but with slight amusement. I flinched at my real name, but let it pass.

"How can you be Chiron, I thought Chiron was a centaur?" I asked him as he led me inside. He gave me a quick look over before smiling a little.

"I see you took my advice to try harder in school after all, I was afraid I had not made a difference to you." he told me, looking happier than he had moments ago. I didn't tell him that the real reason was Mythomagic and I only knew because Nico had used his playing card to beat me on several occasions. "As for your question." he said as he stood up.

Except his legs weren't human legs, they were the front legs of a horse. He took a few steps forward and revealed he was a full sized chestnut centaur.

"I am a centaur, just one used to blending in with humans." he finished while I stared in awe.

"As for you other questions, I had a suspicion you were a demi-god based off a few things, but your sent was exceptionally mortal. I had to fix a dire emergency, so I was unable to follow up on my suspicions. I went back to Yancy the next year hoping to see you, but you weren't there." he told me gently.

"What was the emergency?" I asked him, already moving on from the fact that he had suspected I was a demigod, but never looked into it.

"That will be explained in time. In the meantime, what about you, do you know which of your parents is a god by chance?" he asked me and I internally groaned. I hated answering questions about myself.

"I have known my mom my entire life, so I think that means my dad is a god." I told him and he nodded.

"I have no idea who your parent would be, you are albino which overpowers any godly traits so we can't base it off your looks. That leave us with your powers, actions, and which mortal parent you knew." he told me and I nodded, completely understanding most of it.

"What do you mean my actions?" I asked him while flicking a spider off my shoulder.

"Exactly that my boy." he told me and I gave him a blank look I usually reserved for anything to do with math.

"Any child of Athena would have flipped out that there was a spider on them. You simply brushed it off. You also knew your mother which takes Athena off the guess list." he told me and it made perfect sense.

"Do all the gods have cabins here somewhere, or is only children of the twelve Olympians allowed here?" I questioned him, worried I would be thrown out for maybe not being a child of a major god.

"You wouldn't be thrown out for being a child of a minor god, but you would have to be in the Hermes cabin. All children of minor gods, actual children of Hermes, and unclaimed campers stay there." he told me. I was a little worried, Hermes had a rep for being a thief. Were his children the same way?

Thalia ran into the room we were in as Grover and Nico came out of the film room.

"We got a problem Chiron." Thalia told him.

"What did the hunters do now?" Chiron asked, mentally preparing for the worst I think.

"Surprisingly, nothing yet, I think they are still unpacking." she said, "But this is something bigger. A new cabin appeared on the edge of the cabins. A new table in the pavilion as well. They were both made of black stone and bones so I assume it was Hades, but why would he make a place for his children if he doesn't have any?" Thalia asked Chiron, whose eyes drifted over to Nico.

"I only told Annabeth and Darren, but Hades sent me a private message a few days ago. He told me he had two children at the school you all went to. I suspect Nico is one of them and Hades is waiting to claim him. As for the other, I have yet to hear what happened." Chiron told her and the color drained from her face.

"That's why Darren tried to kill Nico." she said and I paled. Darren had tried to kill the closest thing I had to a brother. I was going to gut him alive for that. No matter how hurt I got, Darren was going to stay from Nico.

"I will have to talk to him about that." was the only thing Chiron said and Thalia proceeded to tell Chiron what happened and he began to look distraught.

"That is not a good thing. Monsters respawning that only Lady Artemis can hunt. The manticore and mortals working to catch demigods. I smell the work of a Titan." he said thoughtfully.

"Grover, go show Percy and Nico around camp. I imagine Nico will be claimed at dinner and who knows for Percy. We can only hope it will be sooner rather than later." he said nodding towards me and my heart sunk. How low did people usually wait to be claimed? I wondered to myself.

"This way Nico and Perce. He led us back outside and began the tour. He showed us the rock climbing wall with real lava, the now 13 cabins, the dinner area, the canoe lake, the beach by the ocean, the armory, the archery targets, and the sword fighting arena.

Campers were scattered all over the place. I saw most of the hunters at the archery. Darren was at the ocean making the water move through the air and beat up little kids who couldn't be older than 8 or 9. Annabeth was going into a cabin that looked like a local library, but with owl decorations and a heavy smell of raid. I guess they all hated spiders more than Chiron had first said.

All the cabins were interesting and Nico said he felt drawn to the obsidian and bones. No one had told him that he was a son of Hades yet. Grover asked if I felt drawn to any of the cabins, but I wasn't. Child of a non-important minor god it is.

Grover took us back to the dining pavilion for lunch and for Chiron to introduce us.

"Welcome campers, I would like to announce that the hunters will be staying with for a short while." at that announcement, both the campers and hunters groaned. I guess the hate was mutual.

"Since they are here, we will be having out customary game of capture the flag tomorrow night." Chiron and the hunter's faces brightened. The campers looked even more upset if possible.

"On a different topic, we have two new campers. Nico DiAngelo and Percy Jackson, both unclaimed." he said and I pushed Nico forward with me. When everyone was giving us a once over, an image started to flicker over Nico's head. It was a pitch black helmet. I felt cared of it from being so close to it. I could only imagine how freaky it would be in person.

"Hail Nico DiAngelo, son of Lord Hades, god of the underworld and all it contains." Chiron announced to the camp with a look of worry on his face. The whole camp, minus the hunters and Darren gave a short bow and got back up quickly. I guess it was customary to bow during a claiming.

"Nico, the empty black table will be yours, Percy, you can sit with the Hermes table, with the other unclaimed campers." Chiron said while gesturing to a black and bone table that matched the cabin from earlier, then an overcrowded white marble table for me.

I went, got my plate of food and followed the large group of people from my new table to a brazier.

"You are supposed to put some food into the fire as a sacrifice to the gods, usually to whoever your parent is." One of the two twins who was in charge of the cabin told me.

I just dumped my entire plate into the fire and said a silent prayer.

To whoever my father is, please claim me soon. And to Lord Hades, help me find Bianca for Nico if she is still alive, he needs to find his sister again.

I went back to my table and took a seat near the two counselor guys. They had curly light brown hair and matching blue eyes.

"Well newbie, I'm Travis and the shrimp on my left is Connor." the slightly shorter one said.

"Nice to meet you guys, quick question, are you guys all kleptomaniacs like your dad, or is that just him." I asked them and they gave me identical evil smiles.

"I guess you could say we are." Connor told me and handed me a wallet. It was my wallet. I groaned and took it back and put it in the zippered pocket of my cargo shorts.

"Is there any chance I could stay in a cabin without thieves until my father claims me?" I asked them and they shrugged.

"Our dad gave permission to Chiron to use his cabin as a home for all children that are unclaimed or children of a minor god. You would need to get permission from some other god to stay in their cabin." Travis told me and I put my head down. No god would want to sponsor a loser like me.

When most people had finished eating, I waited to talk to Nico.

"We have archery after this, find us when you are done talking to your buddy." Connor told me and he wandered off.

When it was just Nico, Chiron, and I, I went to talk to Nico, who was grilling Chiron with tons of questions.

I cleared my throat and was about to ask Chiron a question of mine, when a skeleton walked out of the shadows in the corner of the pavilion. It bowed to Nico, gave me a curt nod, and handed Chiron a scroll and walked back into the shadow and vanished.

Chiron gave the scroll a once over and sighed.

"I figured as much." he said and looked at me. "Lord Hades has agreed to let you stay in his cabin until your parent claims you. He says you did a good job for someone who had no idea what a demigod was when you were trying to protect his children. He said you are the reason that the Titans don't have Nico either. He said this is the least he can do.

And to Nico, he said he left you a weapon he made himself in your cabin. He wants you to practice with me as often as you can. Since you are the leader of your cabin, you get to set the activities. Percy will just follow you in the activities." When Chiron finished telling us that, both Nico and my faces brightened.

"Yeah, I get to stay with Percy, and I get my own sword. Wahoo!" Nico and I gave a respectful nod to the shadow the skeleton had gone into.

"Thank you lord Hades." I said and turned to go to my new cabin with Nico.

After Nico and I got our stuff, from the big house and went into our new cabin for the first time.

The inside looked identical to the outside. The main stone work was black and the cement in-between was shaped like bones. There was a sitting room in the middle of the cabin and four doors leading off into other rooms. Three of the doors were labeled.

Perseus Jackson

Nico DiAngelo

Bianca DiAngelo

I checked the fourth door, it led to a bathroom. I followed Nico into his room to help him unpack. His room had a full king sized bed, with pitch black silk sheets. His furniture was all poplar wood, the wood of the underworld. He had a night stand and dresser in addition to his bed. He had a normal sized closet on one side of the room.

Nico, on the other hand, didn't notice anything as he was looking for his sword.

"Where is it? Where is it?" he kept asking himself as he was searching under the bed, in all the drawers, and the closet. I noticed a skull ring on his dresser and tossed it to him when he was paying attention to me.

"Try it on." I told him and he put in on his right ring finger.

"It's cool!" he shouted as he stared at the ruby eyes on the ring.

"Now where is my sword?" he spun around and the ring did what I thought it would do. It turned into a sword.

It was made of some pitch black metal I had never seen before. It seemed to have faces inside it screaming to be let out. It was shorter than a normal sword, but it was perfect sized, and I suspect balanced, for Nico to use affectively.

"SWEET!" he yelled and gave the sword a few test swings. The sword spun from his hand and stuck blade first in the wall next to my head.

"Oops..." he said looking down.

I pulled the blade from the wall and handed it back to him.

"You looked great, you just need some practice with Chiron." I told him and he nodded at me happily.

"Thanks Percy, I don't know what I would without you now tha-that Bianca is gone..." he said the last part quietly and started crying.

I knelt down next to him and gave him a hug which he returned.

"I know buddy, I miss her too. I miss her too." I told him as he cried into my shoulder. I felt the tears begin to pour down my face as we cried together. Soon, he fell asleep in my arms.

I put his new sword on his night stand and lay him down in his bed.

"If I have a chance to get her back, I swear I will do anything to get her back Nico, I promise." I told his sleeping figure and turned and left his room.

I went back into the main room, got my bag, and went into my new room for the time being.

The walls were plain white and there was no furniture. It had the same closet as in Nico's room. The only thing that had any definition was the tall imposing man in the center of the room, silently sobbing.

I knew who it was in an instant and I bowed.

"I apologize to you Lord Hades." I told him. "I failed to protect Bianca and I would do anything to change what happened." I told him and I felt a hand lift me out of my bow and I met the Lord of the dead's eyes.

"You did more than anyone else, including Artemis. None of them cared for my children, just what my idiotic brother told them to do. You actually cared for them. You would have sacrificed yourself for them. You sacrificed some food for me even though I am not your father. I need to thank you for taking care of my son while I am bound by laws most gods would break in a heartbeat if they could. I would take him to the underworld and have one of my servants train him, but the underworld is no place for a child." he told me, the tears still streaming down his face.

"He and Bianca are my friends, I would go, well, to your place and back for my friends." I told him and he gave a watery chuckle.

"You are unlike any demigod I have ever met. You are wise beyond your years and you have unflinching loyalty for your friends. I wish I could call you my son, but sadly, that right belongs to some other god." he told me and stood up.

"I didn't design your room yet, I didn't know what you would like. When I heard you tell the son of Hermes you wanted to stay in another cabin, I figured the least I could do for you is give you a place in mine for now. I didn't know how you would like it, so just tell me what you want and I can make it like that." he told me and I thought for a moment.

"The same furniture as in Nico's room, but everything is a light desert camo color scheme." I told him and he gave a nod and snapped his fingers. My room became exactly how I had imagined it.

"Perfect." I told him and bowed again.

"You don't need to bow to me Perseus, it just makes me feel old." he told me

"Then may I kindly ask you not to call me Perseus, it makes me feel old." I asked timidly and flinched, I had asked for something from an all-powerful god. This might not end well, no matter how kindly he treated me.

HAHAHAHAHAHA

He gave off a booming laugh and gave me a kind smile, something I never thought would be seen on the Lord of the deads face.

"That sounds fair to me." he told me, still chuckling. "Is there anything else, or shall I let you rest?" he asked me and I got an idea.

"Here." I gave him a photo I had pulled from my bag. It was a photo of Nico, Bianca and I in our school gym uniforms. We had just won first in the fall relay race. We had beaten plenty of older students and the school gave each of us a copy of the photo as a keepsake. I was on the left side and Nico was on the right. Bianca was squished between us, but we all had hug smiles on our faces.

"Th-thank you." he told me as more tears welled up in his eyes that were identical to those of Nico and Bianca. He pulled a black picture frame out of shadows and placed the photo gently inside it.

"I get to have the real deal around me all the time, you need it more than I do. I have other too, that one is the best." I told him and he gave me a wistful look.

"You may have heard some things about me and gods in general, but most of us are good at heart, we love our children and would fight anything to rid the law keeping us from them. Zeus is the only thing standing in the way, along with a few others." he told me and I nodded.

"Whoever my father is, he better not be one of the idiots keeping families torn apart. I would knock some sense into him if he was." I told Hades and he nodded.

"I imagine you would, I must be leaving now or Zeus will sense my presence. I wish you luck in finding my daughter. I you ever need help, don't be afraid to ask. We may not be allowed to help our children, but few realize we can help those AROUND our children." he told me with a smirk and he flashed away.

I went to the archery field to tell Travis and Connor about my change in sleeping arrangements.

When I got there, Chiron was teaching some younger children how to hold a bow.

"Ah, Percy, I have informed the Stoll twins of your new sleeping arrangements. They were impressed to say the least." Chiron told me. "Was that all you were here for?" he asked me and I thought for a moment.

"Originally, yes, but I was thinking maybe a legendary archery teacher could give me a few pointers?" I asked him and raised one of my eye brows. His face lit up and he gave me a full smile.

"It would be my pleasure." he told me and he grabbed a medium sized bow and quiver off a rack of them and handed them to me.

"Let's see what you got first, to see where you would fit in on the scale of archery." he told me and I raised an eyebrow at him

"Children of Poseidon are the worst archers in existence. Darren is awful, Orion was the only exception. Children of Apollo and hunters of Artemis are the best. They could hit a bulls eye in a wind storm while blinded folded that was maybe a football field away.

I whistled, if that is how good the demi-god versions of Apollo and Artemis are, Apollo and Artemis themselves must be perfect no matter the conditions.

I knocked my arrow and pulled on the bow string. I lined up with a target about 40 ft. away and let my shot go.

It landed decently close to the bull's eye, inside the closet ring to it. I turned to Chiron and he gave an excited nod.

"Excellent shot for your first try Percy." he told me. "Just a few changes and you might be close to Apollo's children in skill level." he told me and I gave him a big smile.

I worked on my archery with Chiron until it was time for dinner. Dinner was a quiet affair. Nico was still sound asleep, so I let him be. After dinner, Chiron had Thalia take me to tha armory to get a hand to hand weapon.

After an hour, I still had nothing. All the shields were too heavy for me, along with all the axes, hammers, and all of the normal sized swords. The only things I could lift were spears, short swords, and daggers. None of those felt right in my hand and I was ready to give up.

"Why don't any of these weapons work for me? Either they don't have enough reach, they are too heavy for me, and I can't handle a spear to save my life." I complained to Thalia and she shook her head.

"Follow me Percy, I have an idea." Thalia told me and led me off to what I remembered to be the Hephaestus cabin.

She knocked loudly on the door and an enormous African teen answered the door.

"Sup Thalia, what do you need crafted today?" he asked her like he was running a weapon's forge inside the cabin.

"Do I have to want to have something made to visit you?" she asked him and he raised an eyebrow at her.

"So you don't need something made?" he asked her, his voice curious.

"Well, I don't, our new friend here needs some sort of unconventional weapon since none of the standard weapons work for him." she told him and he grinned.

"Right this way man, welcome to the forges of camp half-blood. Run by yours truly, Charles Beckendorf, I go by Beckendorf though." he told me as we headed down an elevator inside their cabin. When we got to the bottom, it opened up into a large fire lit cavern. It seemed like all the children of the forge god were here, working on some project or another.

"Follow me." Beckendorf said and he led me to a larger station in the back.

"Can I see your hand for a second, I need to get a grip down, maybe one for each hand. While I am doing that, describe to me what kind of weapon you would want." he told me and gave me two wax grips to put my hand grip on.

"I need something not to heavy, but still long enough to not have to get close to my opponent to hit them. I also want it to be easy to grip in ice pick stance too." I told him and he nodded.

"I have an idea, but it might take a few days. I'll see if I can speed up the process so you can have them by capture the flag tomorrow. Any metal prefrances?" he asked me and I shook my head.

"Fine by me." he told me and waved me and Thalia away.

"Well, he seems like the nicest person here." I told Thalia and she made a look like she was offended.

"Well that's rude, after I took you to see him." she said and I cracked up. She started laughing beside me and we were both roaring with laughter.

"Well, go check on Nico, no one has seen him since you guys first came here." Thalia told me and I suddenly started to worry about him.

"I'll go check on him, is there any sceduled activities left today, or is everyone just hitting the hay?" I asked her and she made a face.

"Camp-fire sing along left. If Nico is fine, wanna ditch it with me to practice archery, from what I here, you aren't half bad?" she asked me and I was excited, I might be making another real friend.

"Sure, but won't the hunters be there, I don't see them singing with campers anytime soon, and they are archery nuts. You can go, I wouldn't want to make them uncomfortable, or get killed by them." I told her and she nodded.

"I hate the hunters, they are biased against everyone they meet if they are either a dude, or they don't agree with them. They consider me a whore because I don't want to join their forever twelve campaign to kill every dude on the planet.' she steamed and I backed away a little, she was starting to spark.

"They probably have a reason for acting the way they do, they can get away with basically whatever they want and it goes to their heads, kinda like Darren." I told her and she turned on me, oh, I am so screwed.

"You're defending them, they hate you. They would kill you the first chance they got, simply because you are a guy. I can agree Darren is the biggest asshole on the planet, he has no respect for anyone, even the gods, but the hunters are worse, at least Darren doesn't kill people for who they are." she told me and I continued backing away until I hit the wall of Nico and my cabin.

"But he tried to kill Nico for being a son of Hades, but you stopped him. Why you put up with him when you could easily be the leader of the camp instead of him confuses me." I told her and she pulled out her spear, I guess becoming a kebob is going to be added to my list of injuries of the day.

"You don't understand. I put up with him because he saved my life. He has always been a gloating jerk, but he saved my ass when I was a tree so I owe him. He holds it over me every opportunity he gets and I hate It." she shouted at me and she stormed off to the Zeus cabin. Guess I pushed the wrong button.

What she meant when she said she was a tree confuses the crap out of me, but with all the crazy crap that has happened over the past day, she probably was a tree at some point.

I went into the cabin and found Nico sitting cross-legged on the couch having a lively discussion with a ghost. He had his skull ring on and he seemed to be in a good mood.

"Percy, come here. This is Minos, he is one of the ghost judges. I tried to summon a ghost and I got him." He told me excitedly and Minos gave me a courtly bow. Something didn't feel right though.

"Well, did Minos tell you anything interesting, or have you been asking his attack stats for the past few hours?" I asked him and he laughed.

"He told me Bianca isn't dead, he told me a way to find her. I want to leave in the morning." Nico told me, jumping up and down a little. I groaned internally, Minos was up to something, I could feel it.

"Nico, I am going to ask Chiron if we can go find her in a few days. Don't leave yet and maybe I can get a group of people to help us find her. How does that sound?" I asked him and his face brightened.

"Told you he would have a better idea Minos, now go back to your job. Be nice to the souls." Nico told Minos and waved him off. Minos grumbled and sank through the black hard wood floor.

"There is a camp fire and sing-along, do you want to go to that, or stay here and play Mythomagic until bed?" I asked him and he gave me a large smile.

"Mythomagic!" he cheered and leapt up to grab his cards

We played a few games, then I sent him to bed. He gave me a fist bump and collapsed before I could complain he hadn't brushed his teeth.

I went back to my room and fiddled with the bow Chiron gave me as I lay on my bed. I wondered who my father was. Did he care about me like Hades did for Nico and Bianca? Mostly I wondered where Bianca was. I prayed to every deity I could think of that she was ok. I slowly drifted off to sleep, but was unprepared for the dreams that came.

~~~Percy's Dream~~~

I was on a mountain top and there was a figure struggling under a black storm cloud, like he was trying to hold the whole sky on his back. If I looked close enough at it, I could see constellations. Then I noticed who was carrying it.

It was me.

I was wearing the remains of my tux from the dance and I still had all marks from where the manticore shot me with his spikes.

Then the manticore walked in, leading Bianca.

Her hands were bound in chains and she seemed extremely upset. She had tear tracks running down her cheeks.

"I told you we captured you little boyfriend. We also killed your good for nothing brother." the manticore hissed in her ear and she started crying.

I tried to shout to her that it wasn't me holding the invisible weight. That Nico was alive and happier than he has ever been. But my mouth wouldn't work.

"Help me Bianca, please take the weight off Me." the other me begged her, his voice sounding like it hadn't had any water in days.

I tried to shout to her that it wasn't me that I was fine, but my mouth still wasn't working. I was forced to watch in silence as Bianca worked her way out of her bonds and took the weight off the other me.

When the other me rolled out from under it, Bianca screamed in pain. I tried to rush forward to help her hold it up, but I was frozen. Watching this was torture, worse than anything Gabe had done to me. I was fine getting hurt myself because watching someone I loved in pain and knowing I couldn't take it away hurt so much worse.

The other me's image flickered and turned into a taller older looking blond gut. He had dead blue eyes and a scar running down the left side of his face.

"Now you just hold on for a few minutes, then we will have a more permanent replacement for a sky bearer." he told her mockingly and she stared at him, disbelief in her eyes

"Oh, you expected me to be your little boyfriend? Sorry, but he is on the other side of the country, probably already moved on." he mocked her and I gave a silent scream. I hadn't moved on. I would do anything to get her out from under what I now realized was the actual sky from myth.

"Liar." she said him and spat in his face

I gave a silent cheer, she was still going, even under the weight of the sky.

"Here she is Luke." the manticore threw another bound figure on the ground next to the blond guy, who I guess was Luke.

"Ah, Lady Artemis, come to join the Titans?" he asked her with mock superiority in his voice, he was taunting her.

"I am going to kill you boy and hang your guts as a decoration in my camp." she growled at him and he laughed.

"You could try, in which case the general would stop you, but I think you would rather take the weight off this poor maiden, wouldn't you?" he mocked her again and she growled, but started moving towards Bianca. She stood up and broke her bonds and took the weight off Bianca's shoulders.

Bianca collapsed and everything started to become blurry.

~~~End Dream~~~

Sup my wonderful reviewers. Every comment was encouraging me to keep going so keep going I shall. I am having an internal debate as to who Percy is going to have as a parent so I need some votes.

Aether (primordial of light and the sun)

Poseidon

Zeus

Amaterasu (Japanese sun goddess. Recommended by my best friend so I am a little partial to this idea.)

Helios

Anything else-besides Hades or Apollo, I have already ruled them out

If you think I am missing anything or you want to see something, just drop a review and tell me, I can't read minds, I am only human. No matter who Percy's parent is, I don't plan on keeping him weak. He will become a hero by the end of the story, which I plan to have go until the end of the giant war, maybe another after, but doubtful.

Happy Reading- Centurion Africanus