AN: I felt it to be worthwhile to note that one of Sally Jackson's abilities listed on the Riordan wiki is 'Marksmanship' due to her skill with a shotgun. Just thought it was funny.

A note more important to the story– I believe in canon, Percy was home for the school year, but his mom wasn't worried about his disappearance because he IM'd her before running off to rescue Annabeth. But… he was preoccupied in my story.

/

CHAPTER SIXTEEN:

Percy materialized out of the water vapor in the air front of a vaguely familiar New York apartment that he hadn't seen in thousands of years and could barely remember anymore. To be fair, he had only spent the first fifteen years of his life here. He took a deep breath and raised his hand to knock on the dark, oak wood door.

After a few moments of shuffling that could be heard beyond the door, it swung open to reveal a strikingly beautiful middle-aged woman with sparkling blue eyes and long brown hair. Percy stared at her for several moments, unmoving, before she finally reacted.

"PERSEUS JACKSON!" Sally cried, throwing her arms around her son. "Where have you been?!"

Percy couldn't respond, his voice stuck in his throat as he buried his face into his mother's shoulder.

"I was so worried about you!" Sally scolded, faltering when she pulled away to look at Percy's face. "Are you okay, Percy? What's wrong?"

Percy's eyes were red and watery, but he looked happy. He quickly swiped at the errant tears that trailed down his face and shook his head.

"Nothing's wrong, Mom. It's just really good to see you."

"It's good to see you too Percy, don't get me wrong, but you look like you haven't seen me in a thousand years or something." Sally chuckled lightly, before frowning when Percy rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

"Right…" Percy decided to switch topics. He wasn't ready to talk about this yet. "How's Paul?"

Sally's face went red, then pale, then… whatever color goes with suspicious.

"How do you know about Mr. Blofis?" Sally narrowed her eyes, cocking her head in curiosity.

"Shit." Percy mentally facepalmed. Only he had the ability to divert a conversation by leading down an even worse path. Seriously, of all topics to choose…

"Language, Percy!" Sally reprimanded sharply.

Percy winced. He may be a powerful god, but even Zeus was afraid of Lady Rhea. "Sorry Mom."

Sally nodded and chuckled. "So? What's up? You're acting weird, even for you."

"Hey!" Percy cried indignantly, before gaining a more somber countenance. "We should go in. I have a lot of explaining to do, and it's a long story."

/

Sally leaned on her son's shoulder, an arm wrapped protectively around him.

"I'm so sorry, Percy. Your life has been so hard."

Percy smiled. "It really wasn't that bad, Mom. I left out a lot of the good stuff because I was afraid that if I revealed too much then I'm afraid it wouldn't happen again, and I would hate for you to miss out on so much."

Sally nodded in understanding. "Basic time travel theory, then. When'd you get so smart, Percy?"

"On my 2,641st birthday," Percy deadpanned.

Sally chuckled. She was glad to see he still had the same dry sense of humor. "So, nothing special you can tell me about?"

"There is something…" Percy trailed off before leaning forward conspiratorially. "You'll be the second person in the world to know, and the first person I've told on purpose."

Sally leaned in to meet him. "Alright, what's got you all secretive?"

"I got married," Percy whispered, despite them being the only two people in the apartment.

"What?!" Sally squealed, "My baby boy got married?!"

Percy laughed at his mother's wide-eyed excitement. "Yeah."

"Who else did you tell?"

Percy's cheeks tinged slightly gold with embarrassment. "Well, the fact that I got married isn't really as secret as who I actually got married to. Apollo figured it out by himself, and I may have accidentally dropped hints to Thalia and my friend Zoë while I was drunk but I don't think they picked up on it."

"PERSEUS JACKSON! YOU WERE DRINKING?!"

"Relax, Mom," Percy rolled his eyes and shifted into his 21 year old form. "I'm not actually underage, remember?"

Most of Sally's anger faded as she looked in pride at her baby boy all grown up.

"So? Who's the lucky girl?"

Percy chuckled. "I'd be more inclined to say that I was the lucky guy."

Sally watched with curiosity as Percy pulled a necklace out from under his shirt and carefully examined the charms hanging from it when they were exposed to her view.

Two rings, a sun, and a… moon.

"No…" Sally gasped in disbelief, connecting the dots in her head. Let it never be said that Sally Jackson wasn't a very intelligent woman.

"Yup," Percy smiled wistfully.

Sally saw the longing look on Percy's face and sighed, shaking her head in exasperation. "Only you would try to win over the most unattainable goddess in the entire pantheon, let alone actually succeed."

Percy grinned. "And it was so worth it."

"I'm happy for you, Percy." Sally pulled him into a motherly hug. "What are you doing about it now?"

Percy's face saddened slightly. "I can't just tell her, so I'm letting things run their course. I'll tell her when we're closer, probably."

Sally nodded. "That's good. She deserves to know, but it's better not to scare her off so early."

"That's what I was thinking." Percy nodded soberly before perking up slightly. "But she's already starting to like me way more than she did at this time in my first life, so that's good."

"Good luck, Percy. Let's see if you can go two for two on maiden goddesses, yeah?" Sally joked, trying to cheer him up further.

Percy laughed. "Only one maiden goddess, Mom."

Sally laughed along with him. "I can tell you love her, so I don't need to lecture you about being respectful, do I?"

Percy smirked. "Mom, you don't live with the man-hating goddess for thousands of years without being a perfect gentleman."

"I would expect nothing less," Sally stated confidently.

"Any manners that you didn't teach me were beaten into me. Sometimes literally. Should I have been concerned about the nature of my marriage?" Percy wondered aloud.

"You probably deserved it," Sally shot back without missing a beat.

Percy shrugged and nodded. "Probably."

/

"Percy," Sally started tentatively, "I know that to you, I've been dead for thousands of years already, but you're– to me, you– I've only–"

Percy cut her off by pulling her into a tight embrace. "Don't worry, Mom. Thousands of years don't change the fact that you're my mother and that I'm grateful to have extra time to spend with you. I'm sorry again for not reaching out this past week. I promise it was a one time thing; I'm still getting used to being back here, you know. I'll keep in closer touch in the future."

Sally responded by hugging him tighter and hiding her teary eyes in his shoulder.

"Oh, Percy…"

"I love you, Mom." Percy smiled.

Several minutes later, Sally sniffled and raised her head, mostly recovered from her emotional bout. "You mentioned earlier that you had somewhere to go after this?"

"Oh yeah!" Percy smacked himself. "I should get going, sorry Mom."

Sally shook her head. "No worries, Percy. We still have plenty of time together."

Percy nodded. "I'll come back soon. I promise."

Sally beamed as Percy started making his way towards the door, before abruptly turning around as if suddenly realizing something.

"Oh! Mom! Before I go– I'm totally cool with it if you wanna date Paul."

Sally's cheeks reddened instantly as she jumped out of her seat to chase after him. "Get out, you! Out!"

Percy cackled gleefully as he dashed out of the apartment, slamming the door shut behind him on his way out.

"Bye Mom!"

/

Percy closed his eyes from where he stood in a hallway outside the door to an apartment far more expensive than the one he was just in.

Hey Apollo! You got a minute?

Sure, Perce. What's up?

Can you come to my location? There's a girl I need to introduce you to.

And like a dog with a bone, Apollo appeared next to Percy in a brilliant flash of golden light.

"Hey dude! You finally changed your mind about wingmaning me?"

Percy scowled. "No. Do you remember what happened in the throne room?"

Apollo paused. The only thing that was directly relevant to him was… His eyes widened. "Really?"

"Mmhmm," Percy nodded. "The Spirit of Delphi has been speaking to her even before Hades lifted the curse. She receives dreams, visions, and random artistic inspirations that have glimpses of the future."

"Whoa," Apollo breathed. "This is big. You think she can host the Oracle?"

Percy shrugged. "She did in my time."

Somehow, Apollo looked even more excited than he did by the prospect of Percy setting him up with some random girl.

"So? How do we get her on board?"

"Well, her name is Rachel Elizabeth Dare. She should be about 14 now, she's clear-sighted, obviously, and she has hints about our world but nothing confirmed."

"And you called me here to explain our world to her and what her potential role would be as the Oracle?"

"Yes," Percy confirmed. "You need to be sincere and honest with her. Her relationship with her family isn't great so she doesn't have strong ties holding her back. But, you'll still have to try not to scare her off."

"Of course," Apollo said, more serious than Percy had ever seen him.

"Right." Percy raised his right fist to knock on the door. Their godly hearing picked up on soft footsteps that padded to the door and paused, presumably looking through the peephole. The door swung open to reveal the frizzy-haired redhead that Percy had met with Zoë and Thalia at the Hoover Dam.

"Percy Jackson?"

"Hey Red!"

Rachel scowled. "Don't call me 'Red'."

"Fine," Percy pouted.

Rachel, unaffected by his baby-seal face, crossed her arms over her chest and raised an unimpressed eyebrow. "So? Finally come to give me some answers?"

Percy nodded.

"Alright," Rachel said. "Come in. We probably have a lot to talk about. There's some comfy sofas inside."

After the two gods followed her into the apartment and got settled, Percy cleared his throat.

"First, allow me to introduce my friend and part-time partner in crime, Apollo."

Rachel's eyes widened. "Apollo… like the god Apollo?"

"Yup," Percy discretely elbowed Apollo. cutting off the imminent boasting before it could start. "Second, the Greek gods– all real. The myths? They're the history of our world."

"Uhh…" Rachel trailed off. "Wow. I'm somehow not as surprised about that as I feel like I should be. I'm almost relieved, in a weird sort of way. It's kind of comforting to know that I'm not just an insane person with visions."

Apollo took over from here, sensing it was his turn to introduce his potential protégé to the Greek world.

"That's how most clear-sighted people feel when they first learn of the truth."

"Clear-sighted?" Rachel questioned.

"There's magic that separates the mortal world and the godly world, called the Mist. People and creatures with divine blood can see through the Mist, but some mortals, like yourself, are gifted with the ability to see through it as well, sometimes at a level even higher than demigods."

"Right. So… uh. Why was I gifted with this ability?"

Apollo and Percy both shrugged but it was Percy who ended up answering.

"No one really knows why some mortals get gifted with clear-sight, but in your case, I can guess it's because you have a specific destiny to fulfill."

Rachel raised an eyebrow. "Is this related to the 'importance in our world' that you talked about at the Dam?"

Percy nodded. "Yes. Apollo here would be the best person to explain that to you. I'll take my leave for now. You can trust him; you're far too important to him for him to let anything to happen to you."

Rachel cocked her head curiously at him, but he waved her off as he stood to leave.

"You'll understand when he explains it."

Rachel seemed to tentatively accept this, so Percy made his way out of the apartment, but not before he caught the oh-so-Apollo-like blunt way that he chose to begin his explanation.

"So, you ever get prophetic visions?"

/

AN: So Sally reacted pretty well. I feel like it's in character; it specifies in the wiki that part of what makes her special is that she's not overwhelmed in the presence of the supernatural and absurd, such as the way she can treat gods as equal beings rather than blubbering incoherently at their feet.

This ends the first of two arcs, containing the titan war, and roughly the half-way point of the planned out plot. Not to say it's half-way volume wise, since I'm not sure how long this story will end up being, but it's probably close.