Chapter 1: Combat (I'm Ready for Combat)

Percy Jackson, Two-Time Savior of Olympus, the son of Poseidon, wanted a bagel.

Unfortunately, his roommates had eaten them all, and he was at that oh-so-fragile line of almost-but-not-quite late to English. He didn't really see why a degree in Marine Biology required that class, but the school system was strange. Especially in New Rome.

So it was that instead of a delicious bagel with blueberry frosting, Percy had a dried-out energy bar for breakfast. What a wonderful start to the day.

English was boring. As usual. Luckily, with Annabeth to help with his homework, he was scraping by with a C-plus. He really didn't understand what a Marine Biologist would need with English, but the American School System was strange and unknowable in the best of times.

New Rome was bustling that day, and the chill November sun shone ahead, not giving much warmth. Percy pulled his coat tighter around him as he walked out of class. Having lunch with his girlfriend today was the only thing sustaining him through the morning.

When they had first arrived in New Rome for college, it had been everything they had been expecting and nothing. There was a unicorn stable just a block away from a Starbucks, and legacies walked around with Hercules Busts Heads (Limited Edition) Thermoses. It was a beautifully chaotic hodge-podge of the twenty-first century and Ancient Rome.

That wasn't to say Percy liked it more than New York City. He would never like anything better than his hometown. Still—New Rome came close.

But nowhere was perfect.

"Percy! Percy Jackson!"

He swallowed and determinedly kept walking. Don't turn, don't turn, don't turn, maybe they'll give up—

"Percy Jackson! Sir!"

The voice was getting closer. It would be rude to not turn around. It was very clear that they were talking to him, and passerby kept giving him interested looks.

He consciously made the effort to unclench his fists as he turned. "Yeah?"

"You're Percy Jackson?" The caller was a boy who looked to be about nine or ten wearing a purple SPQR shirt. Next to him was a woman whom he assumed was his mother. She looked almost as excited as her child.

"Yeah. That's me."

The kid looked like his eyes were about to pop out of his head. Most people kept walking towards their various activities, but some stopped, and soon enough there was a circle of civilians around him. Percy reminded himself to breathe.

"You saved the world!" The purple-shirt kid said.

He tried for a smile. It came out as more of a grimace.

"You can control water, right?" Someone else in the crowd called out. "Can you show us?"

He froze. Achlys with tears streaming down her face, Annabeth screaming—

He wrenched himself out of the past. His knuckles were white on his bag.

"Can you control that fountain?" The original boy asked him excitedly. The mother seemed to see something was wrong.

"Jacob—" She started to say.

"I wanna see!" The boy jumped up and down.

Percy fought to keep his voice steady. "M-maybe later, kid." His hands were shaking. Why was it so loud?

Before he knew it, he was backing out of the circle and people were making exclamations. From the corner of his eye, he saw the water in the fountain sloshing.

No—

He raised a jerky hand and pulled it down to a peaceful line—he cringed while touching the water—and soon he was sprinting in the vague direction of his dorm. He just needed to get away from all the people—

Now he was in the shadow of his apartment, and he was turning the doorknob with shaking hands, and oh thank the gods no one's there, and he was in his bed and just trying to breathe. He had minimal success. Images kept flashing through his mind—of Tartarus and Gaea, of running for so long—

"—ercy, Percy!"

Annabeth was screaming again, why was his vision swimming—?

Suddenly he was conscious of touch on his skin. He looked up.

There was Annabeth, his Wise Girl, shining like a goddess in the darkness of his bedroom.

"Annabeth?" He hated how feeble his voice sounded. How... how long had he been lying there?

Annabeth looked at him, a hand on her temple. "Percy, are you alright? You were just lying there..."

"I'm—yeah, I'm great. I thought we were going to meet up for lunch? I-I mean, not that I'm complaining—"

Her eyes creased with worry. "Percy, you were supposed to be there half an hour ago."

His hands felt numb. "I—what? That's impossible." Not again.

She sat down on the bed next to him. The thin ray of sunlight from the window illuminated her blond curls. Her expression was sharp.

"Percy, has this happened before?" It was almost like she could read his mind.

He opened his mouth to deny it, but he looked into her eyes, and he found that he couldn't. "Yeah. A few times."

"You said you would talk to me."

"I didn't want you to worry."

"I'm already worrying." Her expression softened. "I understand. Sometimes I wake up and I don't know if I'm in the Argo II, or with Arachne, or in that... that place again..." She swallowed. "It's only fair that we recover from it together too."

Percy squeezed her hand. "I know. I'm sorry." There was a pause. "Don't you need to go to class?"

"That was my last class for the day." She said firmly.

"Really? But I thought—"

"Percy." She looked at him. "That was my last class of the day."

Some part of him thought that he probably should protest, but he fell back into his covers. He was so tired.

She sat down next to him and let him breathe.

Earlier

Annabeth Chase sat straight-backed in her chair, doodling aimlessly. Her architecture class didn't start for five minutes, and the students were taking their seats. Though Annabeth enjoyed college with demigods more than school with mortals, she couldn't help feeling like she was as different from the demigods as she had been with the mortals. All they had known was this life of safety inside their borders.

Annabeth drummed her fingers on the desk and glanced at the clock.

'I hope Marissa isn't annoyed at me.'

She jumped and looked around. Everyone else was looking as bored as she was, but she had heard that voice as loud as a yell in her mind. It had sounded like...

A pencil fell on the floor, making her flinch. Evan, the boy sitting behind her, leaned down to pick it up.

What...? Despite her sweater, Annabeth was suddenly cold. Being good at reading people was one thing, but that voice in her head had been eerily accurate. She barely noticed the bell ringing. Could this have something to do with—

No. She was jumping to conclusions; she had been more paranoid than ever since the war with Gaea. It had probably just been a stray thought that had been enhanced by how wild her imagination was these days.

Still, she held her knife a little tighter as she walked out of class.

Café Vesta, named after Hestia's Roman incarnation, was a small shop in the corner of New Rome. In its center was a warm fire that heated the entire restaurant. Like its namesake, the Café didn't attract a lot of attention, which was a large part of the reason she had chosen it. She always felt safer here, if only because Hestia was the only goddess who hadn't tried to screw up her life.

A small TV hung on the wall next to her, playing the news. Since Terminus's boundaries were virtually unbreakable nowadays, they were permitted to use electronics inside the borders without fear of a monster attack.

"Ellis Island, once an arrival point for thousands of immigrants crossing the Atlantic, is opening its doors again," the newscaster was saying, "preparing for the anniversary gala of the formation of the United Nations. Among the topics that will be discussed is the controversial Mutant Registration Act, with the Floridian Senator Kelly among the most vocal for its passing. He claims that the mutant population needs to be checked, due to their extreme abilities..."

Annabeth sipped her coffee, trying to tune it out. Mutants hadn't been very featured in her lives, despite the media's frenzy with them. Once in first grade, a girl had sprouted wings and flown off during recess. That girl didn't come to school again. She hadn't met any demigods with mutant powers, and it was difficult to tell what was caused by "the gene" or simply the godly parent.

Where is Percy? She thought.

A young man in a grey coat was sitting in the table next to her, his back slouched. He was worried about his finals in his Economics class. He had scored well on the last test, but he was concerned that there was going to be content that he hadn't studied for. Plus, the teacher was pretty much unapproachable, since he...

Annabeth blinked. She couldn't have gotten that just from his posture. She glanced at the table adorned with an Econ study paper—that had to have been where she had gotten it. Her hands felt sweaty.

She dropped a few dollars on the table and stood. Percy was supposed to have met up with her fifteen minutes ago. She began making her way towards his apartment.

When she arrived, the first thing she noticed was the open door. Her heart seized in her chest, and against her will, her thoughts started racing. Did Hera take him? Was it a monster attack? Did—?

She took a deep breath. All those things were unlikely. He was fine. She pushed open the door cautiously—it creaked—and padded across the floor. From Percy's bedroom, she could hear dry, wracked breathing. He was huddled in fetal position on top of his bed.

What's wrong with him? She thought in fear.

As if that thought had pulled a trigger, her head was suddenly wracked with agony—it was like the worst migraine she had ever had. Images of Achlys's garden and Tartarus flew through her mind, and shaded throughout it all was pain.

"Percy, you're okay!" She rested a hand on his back, and he jerked his head up. His green eyes were wild, almost feral.

"Annabeth?"

After a conversation, it was clear that he had been avoiding telling her about these "episodes". The migraine vanished slowly, fading from her mind as Percy calmed down.

She stayed with him for the rest of the day. She rubbed the back of her neck, trying to hold back the fear. What if this is my fault? What if I lose him again? What if... what if this is the new normal?

He was the only thing keeping her sane. She had to have at least one permanent thing in her life, couldn't she?

A/N Hello, hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing this!

This idea has been in my head for some time, and finally I just decided to sit down and write it. The X-Men universe is one of my favorites, despite the fact that no one, not even the writers, know how the timeline works, and their plans for fixing it seems to be just *shhhhh, don't worry about it*

Well, I plan to fix that. And a lot of other things. With Annabeth. Oh, and Percy too. Of course.

I apologize if this chapter was slow. Updates will be on Mondays and Fridays! If you could leave a review, it would make my day. Thanks for reading!