Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or the Percy Jackson Series. I only own the writing I am doing here, though it might be similar to what Rick Riordan has done. Because of the plot of this story, I am taking what he has written with important details changed that tweak small scenes in interesting ways that I believe more closely fit the characters.

AN: I know this is a shorter chapter than I was hoping for, but it felt like the right place to leave off.

"From what you've told me about him, it sounds like he can take care of himself and is probably using Thalia's old hideouts. If you really are that worried, we can check out the homeless centers in the city or other areas he might have gone." Paul was leaning across the table with her hands in his, rubbing her knuckles. The way he looked at her was the same as Dad.

I took a left in the hallway like every night since I got home, throwing myself over a bedspread that wasn't mine. "Where are you big guy? Mom needs you home." A part of me knew that that wasn't why I slept in his bed at night instead of my own, but I refused to admit that I couldn't handle losing someone else. I refused to admit I had lost someone else.

I woke up to the sound of swearing which wasn't that strange considering, but it wasn't a girl climbing through my window even though his hair had grown down to his shoulders. "Mom's gonna kill you when she finds out."

Tyson froze as he fell off the windowsill. "You're back?" I was expecting surprise, I was even expecting anger. But disappointment? That was low. "Cool, taking over my room too. I was totally ready to see that. Or did mom find you another brother to put in your room?" He started shoving extra clothes into his bag, glaring at them like they had ruined his life. "You disappeared, you know. You went to that camp and left me to deal with the police, Gabe and everything else. You went on a trip around the country to save the world and I was holed up in the ground, hiding from Satyrs and that demigod at the shelter."

"Ty, I was worried as hell for both you and mom. I looked for you wherever I was but you were gone and mom was dead and I am THIRTEEN! I was handed a quest to make sure that our uncle wouldn't destroy the western hemisphere."

"YOUR UNCLE! Dad claimed you, Dad sent you to fix this and Mom asked you to come home." He threw his bag at me, tears streaming down his cheeks. "I am twelve years old. Actually I only know that you found me eight years ago, I might be eight! Or nine! Or older than you! But no matter how old I am, you should realize that I can't take care of myself out there any more than you could! That I just wanted to be looked for as much as you would. But if it were you out there, Mom would have had the whole police force looking for you. Probably all of your stupid camp as well." He retrieved his bag which had fallen on the floor, glaring at me as he climbed back out. "I bet you won't even tell mom I was here."

I didn't. I didn't know what to say to her, what was I supposed to do? So when she caught him a week later, I kept my mouth shut. She couldn't understand why we refused to talk to each other and the arguments over the bathroom turned into storms outside, the rain only falling on our block. We didn't go to Montauk that year, not even during Thanksgiving or Christmas break. "You're such a privileged prick!"

Even Mom didn't let that one slide, locking Tyson's window so he wouldn't run away...again, sending him to his room. I thought it was over but then I was sat down in the armchair and told to talk. "You need to get your anger under control. We've tried therapy but it doesn't work because of the lying, we've tried sports but you just get frustrated with the people on your team now. If you get into one more fight, coach is kicking you off the team. What am I supposed to do with you two if you don't talk to me and let me help?" Mom kneeled in front of me like she used to do when I was little and scraped my knee trying to keep up with Tyson when he got bigger than me. "What is going on?"

"He's the one who's angry at us!" I thought it was kept in my head but I very quickly realized that wasn't the case. "Me, he's angry at me." But it was too late, she disappeared into his room to have a talk. A door for privacy. A door to keep me out of it.

The day the monsters came we were fighting. I had had a nightmare about Grover in a wedding dress so I told Mom about it because I learned to never hide things from her. Tyson and I had formed a truce of sorts to forget about it but small things tended to make us explode more quickly. "I'm sorry Percy but I don't think you'll be going to camp this summer...I got a call from Chiron. I need you home so you boys can protect each other."

I was angry and scared about why I wouldn't be going to camp. Tyson was angry about another reminder of who he was born as. What he looked like to everyone else. The shadow following me went to the back of my mind, I ignored it even though it felt familiar and safe. The English exam during first went as expected. Matt Solan gave wedgies to every kid he could reach. Tyson wasn't usually the easy target, but today he almost looked smaller as he sat down on the swings, knuckles white. He didn't even look up when Solan approached him, didn't flinch when I told Solan off.

The next was science. The teacher put us together as partners to try, "reforging (y)our brotherly bond through the inevitable explosion of knowledge" or the literal one that was required to pass the class.

"No, you put these together. Those are basic and won't react the right way!" He shoved me away lightly and I shoved back harder. Then he shoved all the chemicals into the trash can and we were forced to evacuate the classroom while a hazardous waste removal squad took care of our mess. "I told you that your chemicals sucked." He glared at me as he moved out of people's way.

"Look at you boys! See, when you work together amazing things happen! You're natural chemists, no one has passed my exam this quickly!" She was bright and smiling even as we rolled our eyes.

I was safe from dealing with moody brothers during social studies but I was not safe from Solan. I took out Annabeth's picture from her time in San Francisco, hoping maybe her magical wisdom would transfer. When Solab tried to take it away, I quickly shoved it back in my book and leaned on it so they couldn't get to it. "Is there something you want?"

"Another look at that girlfriend of yours maybe." Solan wiggled his eyebrows at his ugly friends while they bared their ugly teeth like it was hilarious that Matt was being a creeper. He declared that he was going to mess up my face enough that she would leave me when the bell rang, the dodgeball game that we were promised making my shoulders sink. I was too tired.

The game started off normally. You know, the big bully picking the teams and deciding his target should be the other captain. Then it all went to Hades, my eyes clearing to see Solan's team for who they really were as they threw a ball at me. I looked around for my sword, panicking as I realized it was in my locker since my gym shorts didn't have pockets. "Tyson!" My eyes must have looked like that squeezy toy puffer fish we bought our neighbor for her dog, wide and terrified. I really didn't want to be that puffer fish…

"Percy, duck!" Tyson grabbed a dodgeball out of the air in front of my face, glaring at the monsters that were starting to to be seen by everyone else. He growled lowly as he looked at them, throwing the ball back at them. "Get the Hades away from my big brother!" He said some other words too but I was too busy dodging the rest of their arsenal. Tyson didn't even notice when Solan ran passed him to get away, he was focused on taking down targets.

I had to think but thinking wasn't something I could do while fire bombs were being thrown around me. So I did the only thing I was good at and pissed the other team off until I got what I wanted.

When Joe Bob went rigid, I wasn't sure what was happening. But then I saw Annabeth standing there looking like she'd been running from ghosts, glaring at the last remains of the attackers. When Solan made himself known, she started stalking towards him. "You got another look at me, do you like what you see? Cause I don't." She knocked him out flat as soon as he was in range, twirling back around and heading out of the building. "I could find the time to talk to you, this morning you were never alone because…" She glared in Tyson's direction. "He was there. But he needs to come outside too, we need to talk about what's happening at camp." She disappeared.

Tyson groaned from the pile of rubble.