Disclaimer: I only own the plot and my OCs. Anything you recognize as not mine belongs to Rick Riordan, Greco-Roman mythology, and/or their otherwise respective owners.

Author's Notes: Gonna try to keep this A/N short, but I am so sorry for the delay! College life has been...hectic, to put it bluntly. My health issues have also been giving me problems and, just when I was getting ready to write, family issues started up as well – which was not fun, let me tell you. Thankfully, though, break has begun, and with it, a new season of writing!

Also, according to the word count on AO3, this chapter should take us just over 100k for this story. I'm very excited about this! :) Let's hope for another 100k, eh?

Sincerely,

~TGWSI/Selene Borealis


~The Finding Home Saga~

~Finding Home~

~Chapter 31: My First Champion Quest Pt. 1~


Despite what Mr. Blofis – sorry, Coach Blofis, 'cause I really should be calling him that now at this point in time – said about Luke knowing that I was alive and that he was looking for me and all that, it actually wasn't until November that I saw him again.

Now, as I'm sure you probably imagine, this was both a blessing and a curse for me. I mean, it was a blessing because, as much as I loved Luke and desperately wanted to see him again, I also...didn't, at least where the latter was concerned. Luke had tried to kill me, after all, and while I could forgive him for that – and for the side effects of his poison of use, which were still bothering me at this point – that didn't necessarily mean that I wanted to see him again so soon. In fact, I hadn't wanted to see him until the next summer at the very least, as while Katie's idea of kicking his ass had become more and more appealing, I also needed to be in a good enough condition to do it.

Still, not seeing Luke was also a curse. It was a curse because, since he had tried to kill me, I had absolutely no idea whathe would when he saw me again. Of course, obviously I hoped that he wouldn't try to kill me me again, but I had no way of knowing if murder still wasn't on the cards for him. Moreover, since he had all the time in the world to do whatever he wanted to, I also had no idea when he was going to show back up in my life. And that was a very stressful thing to know when combined with his homicidal nature.

...Which was also why, in the two months leading up to our reunion, I suffered. My sleep suffered, my eating habits suffered, hell, even my grades suffered. It was only Coach Blofis's pleading to the principal of Goode High School that prevented me from getting kicked off the team from all of the above, but even then, he made sure to warn me that if I didn't clean up my grades before the end of the semester, then he was going to have to kick me off the team.

...Prodigal son of Poseidon or not.

And the reason why I'm telling you this is not to make you feel sorry for me or anything like that, but rather to give you a frame of reference for what's about to happen. See, since I had been feeling so miserable, both because of Luke and because of my grades, on the first Friday in November, when I had been walking home from swim practice and school, I hadn't immediately noticed that someone was sitting on the steps that led up to my mom's apartment building.

...Not until I was right on top of them, anyways.

"Agh!" I screamed as I nearly tripped over the person in question. Instinctively, I both stumbled back and tried to reach for the pen-slash-sword in my pocket. However, this wound up not being a very good idea, because not even a moment later, I fell directly onto the ground, ass first.

"Oof!" I groaned.

"Well, hello to you too, Perseus," the person sitting on the steps said, their tone laced with amusement.

Surprised, I looked up, before asking, "Demeter? Uh – I mean – milady?"

Sure enough there, sitting in front of me, was her. My patron goddess was wearing an emerald green dress coat, complete with emerald earrings, emerald boots, and emerald netting in her done-up hair. The abundance of green surprised me, but not as much as the fact that she was actually sitting before me, looking as if she was a casual pedestrian instead of the powerful goddess that she was.

"Yes, indeed," Demeter replied, a soft smile on her lips. "I am terribly sorry to...drop in one you like this, as the mortals say, but I'm afraid that I have some...business for you."

"Business?" I asked with a frown as I got to my feet. "Like...a quest?"

"Precisely," she said with a nod. At first, I thought she was going to tell me then and there what the quest that she wanted me to do was, but just before she could, a strange...light, I guess – I don't know what else to call it – lit up her eyes.

"Do you mind if I come in to explain it to you?" she asked.

At her words, something in my stomach sank – why, I didn't know. Still, with the best smile that I could possibly muster, I said, "No, not at all, milady. Please, follow after me."


A few minutes later, the two of us were sitting at the small table in my mom's kitchen. I was holding a cup of hot chocolate that Demeter had summoned in my hands, my lips pursed as I waited for her to begin. Strangely enough, though, my lady did not seem willing to speak at all until, at long last, she finally said, "Have you been watching the news recently, Perseus?"

I blinked. I hadn't been sure what she was going to throw at me, but it certainly wasn't that.

"Uh...no, milady, I haven't," I admitted, before I frowned. "Why?"

Demeter sighed. "Well, you see," she began. "A few weeks ago, there was a murder."

Despite knowing how important it was to listen to what she was saying, I couldn't help but deadpan, "There's always a murder in New York City, milady."

Demeter smiled. "Yes, yes, I know," she said, but then her smile faltered. "This one, though...this one is...special. You see, Perseus, the person that had been murdered was a young woman from Georgia. She was only twenty-four. And yet, according to the mortals, she was horribly and viciously torn apart...by dogs."

"Hellhounds?" I guessed with a grimace.

My patron nodded. "Yes. Now, obviously, this happening to any mortal, any at all, would be troublesome for us. Monsters aren't supposed to attack mortals, and any evidence to otherwise is investigated immediately. But this woman, Nerissa Hunter, wasn't an ordinary mortal. She...well, I'll let you see for yourself."

Demeter snapped her fingers.

Suddenly, two pictures appeared on the table in front of me. Curiously, I leaned forward to look at them.

The first picture, the picture on the left, was of a woman – Nerissa, my mind supplied – and a boy, standing in front of the ocean. Nerissa looked to be around twenty-two or so, with long, light brown hair, shimmering hazel eyes, and a smile that was absolutely radiant. The boy, who was obviously her son and looked to be maybe four, was holding a dried sand dollar in his hands, and he looked a lot like her, with a few exceptions. One, his light brown hair was messy, unusually messy, in a way that couldn't just be attempted – it was natural. Two, whereas Nerissa's eyes were a complete hazel, the boy's were flecked with green...a very familiar green.

Suddenly, the sinking feeling in my stomach, which had somewhat lessened, returned, and it returned with more than full force.

Nervously, I turned to look at the second picture. This picture was only of the boy, but he looked older, maybe around five or six. He was standing in front of an aquarium, a wide smile on his face, and – shit, I recognized that smile.

I recognized that smile because it was mine.

Horrified, I looked up at Demeter.

"You can't be serious," I accused her.

Demeter sighed again. "It's true," she said. "He is – "

"But I thought that there was a pact!" I protested. "A pact, saying that none of them could have kids! And you're – you're telling me that Zeus not only broke it once, that my father not only broke it once, but that he also managed to break it twice?"

Demeter stayed silent.

Her silence wasn't comforting, though. If anything, it made it worse, because suddenly, as I sat there, staring at her, a new thought occurred to me.

"Neither of them broke it just once, did they?" I asked. "How...how many times did they break it, then?"

Demeter gave me a mournful look.

"How many times, milady?" I pleaded.

"...Zeus broke the oath twice," she said finally. "Twice with the same woman, Beryl Grace. But you needn't be concerned about that, because...well, both Thalia and her younger brother died. Her brother died before she did, in fact. As for your father..." Demeter trailed off.

When she spoke again, it was only in a whisper, "Including yourself, your father broke the oath four times."

I gaped at her. "Four times? I – what? How does one just – just break an oath that they made on the River Styx four times? Even if they are a god?"

"Not easily," Demeter answered.

I scowled.

"Perseus," my patron said softly. "You must understand, I did not want to have to tell you this so soon. Ideally, this would have waited until...the beginning of this summer, at the very least. Maybe even longer. But, after Nerissa died, well...the police realized that she hadn't traveled alone. That she had brought her son with her. And they also realized that her son was...is missing. In New York City."

"And that's a bad thing," I said.

"Yes," Demeter agreed. "But not for the reasons that you think."

"...What do you mean?"

"Think, Perseus," my patron urged. "Why would hellhounds go after a mortal, even if she was the mother of a demigod? What could be so important about that demigod? Besides his parentage, that is."

I thought about it. Besides his parentage...what could that mean? What's more important than –

Oh.

"Krono – Luke found out about his existence, didn't he?" I asked. But before she could confirm my guess, I said, "Of course he did. He found out about this kid and he – he killed the kid's mom for it. Or Kronos made him do it. Either way, I – ugh!" I screamed in frustration, before I put my head in my hands. "What do you want me to do, Demeter? I can't – I can't just convince Luke to come back. That didn't work the first time, and I swear, it's not going to work – "

"Look at me, Perseus."

I looked up at her, my eyes wide.

"I do not expect you to sway the son of Hermes. Not now, not today," she said gently. "But there is also no denying that your...brother needs your help. And that's what I want you to do. To help him. To find him. And to bring him to Camp Half-Blood when the time arrives."


"You're shitting me," Silena said when I told her.

"I wish," I said miserably.

The two of us were lying on her bed, in the house that her dad owned in Queens. As soon as Demeter had left, I had written my mom a quick note and run out of the house, deciding that I wanted some comfort – specifically, some comfort that only Silena could supply.

But Silena, unfortunately, did not have much comfort to give. If anything, she seemed just as shocked as I was. "Four times," she said. "Four times, including you, that your dad broke the oath. That means that there's – "

"Two other kids besides Tyson running out there," I finished for her, all the while I internally seethed.

Tyson. That was the kid's name. I hadn't particularly wanted to know – hadn't particularly wanted to know anything about him, really – but when I had accepted Demeter's quest – she was my patron, what else could I do? – she had told me his name. "To help you find him," she had said.

"Help you find him," my ass.

"What am I going to do, Silena?" I sighed as I stared at her ceiling. There admittedly wasn't much for me to stare at, though. Her father was rich, and the smooth ceiling above us rather than the rough ones that I was used to only proved that. "I mean, yeah, obviously I'm going to find this kid, but am I just...does she honestly expect me to accept this or something?"

"...Well, what do you mean by 'this'?" Silena asked. "Do you mean the fact that he's your half-brother, or just him specifically?"

"...Both?" I said after a few moments, but...it didn't sound right. "Neither? I don't know!"

"Well, Tyson didn't ask to be born," Silena pointed out. "And before you say anything, yeah, I know you didn't ask to be born either. None of us did. But it wouldn't really be fair of you to take it out on him. The person you should be mad at is your dad."

"And I am!" I cried.

"And that's fine," Silena soothed. "But I have a feeling he's not the person that you're angry with the most."

Frowning, I turned to look at her. "What do you mean?"

Silena gave me a gentle smile – a sad smile. "Percy," she said softly. "You're mad at Luke. You're mad at him more than you are at anyone else. And you've been mad at him for a while."

I flushed. "No, I haven't!"

But the lie was as clear as day, and Silena made sure to say so. "Yes, you have, Percy," she said, her voice soft. "And it's understandable. He did try to kill you, after all. And he broke your heart – something which I still haven't forgiven him for. But Percy, you can't stay mad at him forever. First of all, you love him. It's not good to be angry at people you love, at least not for a long time. Second of all, you're bound to see him again someday, and even if that day is probably going to be much sooner rather than later, it's still going to happen, and if you're mad at him then, it's unlikely he's going to come back in the future."

I could tell that she wasn't done speaking yet, but I had to ask her when I heard her say that, "Wait...you still think he could come back?"

Silena laughed. "Of course, Percy. He's angry at the gods. And while I don't know everything, I do know enough. I know there's still hope for him. Not just 'cause of you – it's just who he is. Now, what was I going to say?" She frowned, before she grinned. "Oh yes, that's right! And third of all, you also don't know if Luke actually...if he actually killed Tyson's mom, now do you? You only assumed so."

Angrily, I chewed on the inside of my cheek. I didn't want to admit what I knew was true.

"...Percy?"

"...You're right, you're right," I groaned, before I playfully kicked one of her legs for good measure. "Gods, why do you always have to be this way?"

Silena grinned. "Well, I'm a daughter of Aphrodite, Percy," she declared. "It's my job."

After that, the two of us just lied there, not saying anything because there wasn't really anything to say, if you know what I mean. Eventually, though I couldn't take it any longer.

"You know," I said as casually as I could. "Demeter did say that I could bring one other person with me on my quest. Just one another."

"Oh, did she now?"

"Yeah. Wanna come with?"

"Of course," Silena said with another grin. "What would you ever do without me?"


Word Count: 2,599

Next Chapter Title: My First Champion Quest Pt. 2 (P.S.: I have decided that this will be the 2nd of 3 parts. Fitting the mini-storyline here into two parts just felt...choppy lol!)