(Charlie POV)

It would seem Piper and Percy had missed them because the moment the five of them popped to the surface and hollered for their attention the two of them lept off the boat and into the water.

Piper immediately swam over to Leo and Lily, kissing Leo on the cheek and holding onto Lily with a death grip that was happily reciprocated.

Percy however swam straight over to Charlie and hugged him tightly, kissing the top of his head a couple times.

"Don't you ever do something like that again, you hear me?" Percy demanded, eyes wide with relief as he held Charlie's face in his hands. "You scared the shit out of me!"

Charlie blinked in shock at the demand but automatically nodded his head as much as he could. "Got it, Dad."

Percy gave a relieved sigh as he let go of Charlie's face. "Come on, let's get you in the boat. Your mom has been wearing a hole in the floor for the last nine hours."

The second Charlie got on the boat he was tackled with a hug from his mother. She kissed his forehead and tightly gripped his shoulders as she mumbled "Thank the gods, you're okay."

Then she pulled away and glared at him, rather terrifyingly. Charlie instantly cowered under his mother's angry look, slouching down and ducking his head as he cringed.

"Charles Lucas Jackson," Annabeth said through gritted teeth. "if you ever do something like that again, you will be grounded till you're fifty. Understand?"

Charlie nodded his head hurriedly, not wishing to be under his mother's glare any longer. Percy let him suffer for a few more seconds before laying his hand on his future wife's shoulder.

"Annabeth," Percy said gently, the corner of his mouth twitching as if he was holding back a laugh. "I think he gets it. You can stop terrifying him now."

Annabeth huffed but nodded. She stepped forward and hugged Charlie again, this time letting him breath. "I'm so glad you're okay, sweetie." She brushed his slightly damp bangs off his forehead as she slowly let go of him.

Charlie gave her a lopsided grin. "Me too, Mom."

Silena stepped up next as Annabeth fully stepped away, punching his arm. "Nice going, Spongebob."

Charlie rubbed his arm and gave her a pout. "This is abuse, Lena. We have an abusive relationship."

Silena laughed at that as she finally hugged him. "You love me anyway,"

Charlie heaved a sigh, as if it was a great burden. "Yes, yes I do."

Jason smiled from his position next to a soaking wet Piper as he finished hugging an equally soaked Lily. "Come on, let's get you guys dried off. Then you can tell us what happened."

OoOoOo

After Leo, Hazel and Frank finished their of the story, Lily and Charlie had told everyone about their encounter with the merpeople. Charlie had been able to take the photo of the siblings and had passed it around the room, everyone's tempers flaring as they looked at picture.

As expected it brought the mood down considerably. It got his dad to stop complaining about not getting to meet the merpeople though.

"So," Piper said coldly as she glared at the photo currently in Ethan's hands. "Payton killed a merperson, managed to attack your new ally, and left a picture for us of your younger siblings. One that shows all of them but the twins hurt in some way."

"Yep," Lily said, arms crossed with a pissed off look on her face.

"She's going to die." Percy said in a calm tone that didn't match the murderous look in his eyes. "Someone at this table is going to kill her."

Mumbled agreements went around the room as everyone seemed to glare darkly at the picture. Twenty seconds went by before Zack cleared his throat.

"So, Cythos is going to back us up on our rescue?" He asked, looking specifically at Charlie.

Charlie nodded, smirking as he did. "Yeah, told us to call for her when we find Payton. Gave me this." Charlie reached into his jacket and pulled out a small conch shell.

"Apparently, if any of us blow into that Cythos will hear and dispatch her warriors to meet up with us and help rescue our siblings while going after Payton." Lily explained as Charlie held it up for everyone to see before putting it back in his jacket pocket.

"Hey, kids." Frank frowned in thought. "Where are your siblings going to go anyway? We can't exactly bring them along."

"Cythos is going to help with that, too." Charlie said, leaning back in his chair. "Once we rescue them, the warriors will take the little ones back to camp and give them to Uncle Will. I figured Zack could send him a dream message, letting him know about it."

The parents around the room relaxed as they heard the plan, relieved they wouldn't have their younger kids around for the whole quest. Charlie could relate, after all it was dangerous for the kids already onboard and they were all twelve and older. Louis was the oldest out of the siblings and he was only six.

Everyone was quiet for short time soaking in the information before Percy, who like Charlie, couldn't stand awkward silences asked a question nobody had asked yet.

"Um, Zack and Ethan, you two said you were adopted, right?" He hesitantly asked.

The two boys nodded as Ethan spoke. "Our siblings were as well."

"How exactly did that happen?" Percy asked, slightly confused. "I mean you don't see a lot of adopted demigods."

"Well, Ethan and I were actually adopted at the same time. We were orphaned by the same thing as well." Zack said, leaning his elbows on the table.

Everyone looked interested in the story, the parents especially. "How?" Piper asked, running a hand through Silena's hair.

"Well, it started like this." Ethan began.

(Start Flashback)

Reyna and Nico were walking around Camp Half-Blood before a meeting with Chiron and Annabeth. They were going to be discussing if it would okay to create a permanent portal between Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter. The four of them were on the fence about it because it meant there would be an open doorway between both camps, and if one got over run there wouldn't be anyway to shut the portal off.

So, Reyna and Nico were having a walk through the woods, discussing the topic one more time before getting into the meeting when a sudden scream had them both tensing.

"That sounds like a child." Reyna said worriedly as the two darted off toward the scream.

"I know," Nico grimaced, forcing his legs to pump harder.

They broke through the brush and skidded to a halt upon witnessing the horrifying scene in front of them.

A brown haired woman in what looked to be her early twenties was laying on the ground, eyes open wide and unseeing, her stomach cut completely open. A sobbing toddler, no more than three, was right beside her, covered in blood. The toddler, a boy, wasn't bleeding anywhere or appear to have any wounds. The blood covering the poor child seemed to be the woman's, his own mother from the look of it.

Three feet away from the heart-breaking scene was another one. This time it was a couple on the ground but had child in between their bodies. This woman was a redhead and appeared to have been stabbed through the heart while the black haired man next to her, her husband, had his throat slashed. The child, again a boy, looked like he was a year older than the other boy. This child wasn't sobbing hysterically but was blankly staring at the ground in between his parents, his breaths coming shallowly.

Reyna and Nico shared horrified looks before dashing to the kids, Nico going to the younger one while Reyna jogged to the older one.

Nico crouched down next to the blood covered toddler and soothingly spoke. "Hey, kiddo. It's okay, you're gonna be okay."

The child looked at him and cried louder. Nico shifted and slowly put his hands around the kids upper body, picking him up and holding him to Nico's chest. The child sobbed harder but curled himself into the son of Hades, his tiny fists clutching at his black shirt.

Nico shifted his hold and rubbed his hand down the toddlers back as he stood. He quietly murmured reassurances to the child as he rocked back and forth on his heels.

While this was happening Reyna had already picked up the older toddler, who after being lifted from his parents, began crying silently as he buried his face in Reyna's collarbone, sobs racking through his tiny frame.

"Nico," Reyna spoke softly as she stepped toward him. "We need to get them out of here."

Nico gave a grim nod and shifted his hold again, putting out his right hand for Reyna to take. The moment she did, he pulled them into their own shadows, reappearing at the infirmary.

Will, who was on shift, sucked in a sharp breath when he saw his husband and friend appear from the shadows.

"Oh my gods, what happened?" He asked as he made his way over, looking worriedly at the still crying toddlers.

"We don't know." Nico said grimly. "We found them like this in the woods, next to their parents."

"Are the parents…?" Will started asking, trailing off before he finished his question.

Reyna shook her head. "They're gone. There was nothing we could do for them."

Will gave a saddened look at the kids before gaining a serious look, spinning around to face Austin and Kayla, two of his siblings on duty with him, who had stayed back as they watched with horrified expressions.

"Kayla, Austin, you two go with Nico. Bring them back here for a proper burial." Will ordered, glaring at them when they didn't move quick enough.

Nico instantly passed Will the toddler in his arms before grabbing the two children of Apollo by the arm and shadow traveling back to the horrifying scene.

Will carefully rocked the child in his arms and looked Reyna in despair. "What are we going to do?"

Reyna seemed to debate with herself before coming to a decision. She lifted her chin defiantly and tightened her grip on the child clinging to her for dear life.

"We take care of them. It's all we can do." She said with a tone of finality.

(End Flashback)

"…..Afterwards Uncle Nico and Uncle Will adopted Zack and my mom adopted me. We've been part of the family ever since." Ethan finished explaining.

"Oh, you poor babies." Hazel said, sounding horrified.

Zack and Ethan shrugged together. "Ethan and I don't actually remember any of that. Any memories we had before our fifth birthdays are really hazy. I don't remember a time before having Dad and Papa being my parents." Zack said with a nonchalant tone.

"Same for me," Ethan agreed. "My mom has always been just that, my mom."

"Well, it's still incredibly sad and heartbreaking." Piper said firmly.

Zack and Ethan gave agreeing nods but chose to stay silent. Charlie cleared his throat nervously, not liking the sad aura surrounding the room.

"Okay, that was depressing." Emily dryly said, speaking up for the first time. "I don't know about you but I want to change the atmosphere in here. Who wants to play poker?"

And just like that everyone snapped out their depressive states. Leo and Percy gave chuckles while the rest of the parents shook their heads in exasperation.

The kids on the other hand immediately agreed, Zack even shadow traveling to his room to grab two decks of cards.

"So, who's playing?" Charlie grinned impishly as he began shuffling the cards he was handed.

Jason, Hazel and Frank opted out but everyone else eagerly joined in, taunting each other as they were given their cards.

"You're going down, old man." Charlie said cockily, an arrogant smirk on his face.

Percy matched his expression, his green eyes twinkling.

"Bring it, whipper snapper." Percy retorted back.

The two shared an easy smile, happy in that moment in time.

Here you are! Chapter Twenty Nine! On schedule too! Hope you enjoyed it!

RosettaQueen20- Thanks a million! I'm happy you love this so much! Was this enough Angst for you? I know you need your fix of it. :P I honestly can't pick which of my OC's are my favorite too, so don't worry about it. You also got both protective Percy and protective Annabeth this chapter. Are you pleased? Maybe I'll let Percy do that later, seems like it would be amusing to write. See you next Friday!

EspeonAuraGirl55- If Charlie hadn't been in Cythos's presence, a lot of things would have been destroyed in his rage. Payton does have some standards, she would probably rather raise the twins on her own and turn them evil then hurt them, but she knows she wouldn't get away with that here. Thanks! I'm glad everyone likes Cythos, because we will be seeing her again later on. Check back next Friday for Chapter Thirty! Thanks for the review!

Didi- Thanks! Was Cythos in the books? I don't remember seeing in it, I actually thought her up as an OC but that might have just been my subconscious remembering a name from the book without me realizing. I'm glad you like her though! I wanted to show just how much Payton was other than messing with the Kids, that she actually has other people she's trying to manipulate. That was actually also meant to show off Charlie's Athena side. He mostly acts like Percy so I wanted people to realize that he's deadly with his mind too, I'm glad I did a good job for you guys. Lily is very protective, all the kids are. So expect a lot more death threats and plotting from them. Don't worry about giving me long reviews, I actually like them. They give me more insight into how you feel as a reader of this story and where you want it go. So, go ahead and leave them! I don't mind at all! See you next Friday!