Percy scrapped food into the fire. "Poseidon, Dad, give me strength," He prayed before he sat back down on the couch.
Nico stepped up to the flames, "Hades, Dad, I hate you for sending me to school, and I could also use some help working out what Lydia is." He scrapped the food in.
"Still mad about the school thing, huh?" the son of Hades turned and faced his cousin.
"Yeah, I haven't been to school in like 4 years. But it's not your fault," he spoke, as Percy just looked away, and whistled. That was… suspicious.
"It's not your fault, right?" he asked in a dangerous tone.
"Well…" Percy drawled.
"I hate you Perseus," Nico said as he sat down next to him. Percy just laughed.
"If it helps, I have to go as well."
"Well you deserve this punishment," Nico stated and he was adamant. "Ever realised when we're together and you get in trouble, I get in even worse trouble."
"What are you going on about? You don't get in that much trouble around me."
Nico's eyes flashed blue, "Need I remained you how this happened?" he pointed to his eyes.
"You ghostified a demigod, even if he was a psychopath, he still had a soul," Percy stated.
"That's how my eyes turned blue, not how I got a second pair of eyes."
Percy examined Nico's face. "I only see one pair," He said smiling.
Nico smiled and shook his head.
"Yes, Nico, I remember how I bit you. It was an accident." Nico's eyes turned back to normal after the admission, his point made clear.
"Sure it was," he said, and then shadow travelled away.
Percy got up, entered the kitchen and placed his plate in the sink. He walked up stairs to the bathroom for a relaxing shower.
Meanwhile Nico was standing in the shadows, watching as the redheaded girl slept. He had no idea what she was. He had gone through a list of all the creatures he knew involved; he couldn't work out anything. Maybe Annabeth would know of a creature that smelled of death.
Nico disappeared into the shadows and reappeared in the cabin of Hades at camp half-blood. He pushed the door open and walked onto the campgrounds. He looked around, 'Where would Annabeth be?'
He decided to try her cabin first. He knocked on the door; Annabeth's brother Malcolm answered it. Nico always wondered and Percy did as well, why all of Athena's kids had blonde hair whereas Athena herself had dark hair, normally.
"Hey Nico, what's up? Aren't you and Percy meant to be in California?" he asked.
Nico nodded slightly. "Yeah, but I need to ask Annabeth something, she here?" he asked as he peered into the cabin.
"No, she's in the Arena," Malcolm answered.
"Thanks," Nico said as he ran off.
When he arrived at the arena, the first thing that happened was Mrs. O'Leary jumping on him, and starting to lick him.
"That's enough girl, good to see you too," he spoke after pushing her off, and patted her head.
He saw Annabeth attacking dummies with her Drakon bone Sword.
"Annabeth hey," he called.
"Nico, aren't you meant to be in California with Percy?"
Nico rolled his eyes, "You Athenian Children just love asking obvious questions, don't you? Yes, but I'm puzzled and need help."
Annabeth sheathed her sword. "So what help do you need?"
Nico smiled, Annabeth was always so nice to him. "There's just this girl who smells like death. I'm trying to work out what she is. She can see though the Mist too. People don't just smell like death, you could be a psychotic killer and you still wouldn't smell like death. You have to be supernatural. So I was wondering if you know of anything that smells like that, besides the really obvious stuff of course."
Annabeth tapped her fingers as she searched her mind. "Nico I don't have your sense of smell. So I'm not sure what smells like what. But I could research creatures of death. Maybe there are some answers on Daedalus' laptop. I'll IM you if I find anything," she said.
The son of Hades nodded. "Thanks, bye," he bid his farewell as he started to disappear into the shadows.
"Bye," Annabeth spoke as she pulled her sword out again and started hacking at the dummies.
Nico shadow travelled back to his new home. It was then that his instincts kicked in, he turned around and caught a bag that was thrown at him before it managed to impact his face. His lips turned to a scowl, "What was that for?"
Percy shrugged and jumped from the second floor. "Let's go to school, and no shadow travelling."
"You're not my father," Nico said light heartily.
Percy smiled at his cousin, "Not but I'm your Alpha and that's an order," he spoke in the same tone as Nico.
"Damn. Then how do you plan to get to school? We have…" He stopped to look at his watch. "Fifteen minutes. I know we run fast, especially you, but even we can't get to school from here in fifteen minutes."
Percy just held up car keys to answer his question.
Nico raised his eyebrows; where the Zeus did Percy get a car from? Chiron probably…
Nico followed Percy out the front door, he saw not one, but two. Nico knew virtually nothing about cars. But even he knew what the blue car was, a Maserati Spyder, Percy's dream car. He had no idea how Chiron could afford it, because he couldn't, maybe it was a gift from Poseidon. The other was a black jeep, nothing fancy. Was that from his father?
"Did our parents give us these?" Percy laughed. "The last gift my father gave me was a sand dollar. Okay, it was useful, but Nico come on. I love my father, but we don't really get gifts like this from them, except if we save the world."
The son of Hades nodded, Percy spoke the truth. It sucked but it was the truth. His father had never actually given him a gift, the closest he got was when he convinced him to fight Kronos.
"Then where did these come from?" Percy smiled, "I bought them."
Nico's eyes widened, his eyebrows rose as high as they could go, and his jaw dropped as low as it could. It took all of Percy's will not to fall down in a fit of laughter. Instead he disappeared into the house and came back with a camera and took a photo of Nico's facial expression.
The flash shook Nico out of his shock. Percy the lost the will and burst out laughing, "That's the funniest expression in history."
"How could you afford the Jeep, let alone the Spyder?" Nico was truly bewildered; Percy was rich? This was the biggest shock, since becoming a demigod, besides Bianca's death, becoming a werecoyote, Bianca's choice to be reincarnated and then Roman demigods. Yeah those were the biggest shocks, well minus a few.
"I'm a Hale, we're rich. Which reminds me, I need to check the vault," he murmured. Nico shook his head. Did Percy even know how to drive?
—
Nico almost ripped the door off as he burst out of the car; he pushed people out of the way and arrived at his destination just in time, the garbage bin, and threw up. Turns out being an all-powerful True Alpha Werewolf Demigod, son of Poseidon, Hybrid, did not in fact make one a good driver, no, in fact it made you the worst driver, ever!
His Alpha was worse than the Gray Sisters. He didn't think that was possible.
"Hey, watch it," one of the two guys he pushed over snapped. The guy was attractive, and an arrogant ass. He went to pick up this sunglasses, Nico moved faster and crushed them beneath his foot.
Jackson got up, he was just a little smaller then Nico. "Those glasses cost five hundred dollars."
"Well maybe if you weren't such a 'superior', arrogant git, they would still cost five hundred dollars," he said drily.
Jackson stepped closer, one could see the frown on his face clearly as he spoke, "You're going to compensate me for those."
"I'm sorry, but you can go jump into the River Styx. I don't like arrogant Jerks," Nico snapped. He turned to walk away, if he didn't, he was going to kill the jerk.
Said jerk however grabbed his arm, and Nico was already having trouble controlling his heartbeat. He was stressed because he had no idea what Lydia was, he thought he knew all death scented creatures in existence, he had go to school, he and Will had broken up a month ago, and he was just part of the worst drive in history.
He snapped.
He wolfed out. He turned around, his eyes glowing a cold steel blue; he grabbed the jerk's wrist with his left and throat with his right hand, then slammed him into the ground.
Jackson tried to fight him, attempted to pull his arm out of Nico's grip, and he failed. He tried to pull the hand off his throat, and failed that as well. His human strength fell short versus the angry were-beast.
Nico leaned down next to Jackson's ear. "I hate arrogant bullies," he whispered. "You think because you're rich that makes you superior? You're wrong, I could kill you right now, and it wouldn't make a difference. People might mourn you, but eventually, they would move on. Here's a piece of advice, The Lord of the Underworld doesn't care if you're rich, or popular. It's our actions that matter; it's our actions that achieve us Elysium, or The Fields of Punishment."
Percy watched Nico for a while as he threatened Jackson, but enough was enough. "Nico," he called.
Nico didn't respond.
"Nico," he growled. This time the coyote looked up at him.
"Enough," he said and pulled Nico off of Jackson. He then threw a dollar on Jackson's still lying body.
"That should compensate your glasses. I don't think anything can compensate your pride, because you just got your ass kicked by the new kid." He smiled sarcastically at Jackson and then pulled Nico away.
"Okay, you can't be here today," He said. Percy knew Scott was listening, he turned to looked at him, and waved. "Nico, go home and see if you can work out what Lydia is? Or train and work off some of your excess energy, ok?" Percy spoke. He was concerned about Nico.
He knew that Nico was stressed because he couldn't work out what Lydia was, so was he. They had encountered so much it was kind of surprising for there to be more. Percy and Nico could identify Greek mythological creatures easily. But he didn't think Lydia was Greek, even if she looked like Aphrodite.
Percy shook away his thoughts. But Percy knew the true reason for Nico's anger was his break up with Will. As much as he wanted to help him, Percy had no idea what Nico was going though. He had never been in a relationship as serious as Nico's and Will's was.
Annabeth and he had tried dating after the Titan War, it took them three weeks to realise it was weird and that they were better as friends. His other relationship was with Reyna, that had lasted three months, but they just never saw each other because they were so busy.
He had never been anywhere close to how serious his cousin's relationship was. He knew that they lost their virginities to each other, stupid werewolf hearing.
Nico flicked Percy on the forehead, "Anything interesting going on in there?" he asked.
Percy didn't think he just answered, "Just thinking about a redhead."
His eyes widened at what had left his mouth, and blushed.
"Oh?" Nico smiled. "She got to you. A girl is actually making you blush." Nico could dance in excitement, "Damn. Now we can add miracle worker to what we know. That narrows it down to…." Nico pretended to ponder something.
Percy gave him a half-hearted glare that made Scott shiver, and he wasn't even looking at him. "Yeah, that narrows it down to Chaos, the creator of the Universe. So Lydia is Chaos, well I have to notify Annabeth that our best friend has a crush on Chaos."
Nico smiled. Percy just laughed while shaking his head.
"Go home," he ordered, Nico held out his hand. "Keys, I'm not letting you drive again."
"It wasn't that bad," Percy objected, Nico placed his hands on Percy's shoulders. He looked him in the eyes, and yelled. "You're worse than the Gray Sisters! You make them look like sloths!"
Percy deflated at that and handed Nico his keys. Nico patted Percy's cheek. "There, there, you can't be the best at everything."
Percy walked over to Scott and Stiles after letting Nico snatch the car to leave for the day.
"Hi, how's Lydia?" he asked.
'Damn it Percy, stop thinking about her,' he scolded himself mentally.
"Well why don't you visited the miracle worker yourself and find out," Scott smiled. Stiles looked confused and Percy growled.
"Stupid cousin," he grumbled.
"Why did he say Lydia was a miracle worker for making you like her?" the beta asked. Beta, was Scott actually part of Derek's pack? Percy didn't know, Omega? Omega-beta, beta-omega?
"I get asked out a lot, but I say no all the time. I said yes the first time I was asked out, and we worked out we were better as friends. Then the next one didn't work out either, both of us were so busy it didn't work. So since my sixteenth birthday I've dated a total of two girls for a total time of 3 months and 3 weeks, exactly. But I get asked out about three times a week."
"Ok, next question and this is the one I should have asked first. Why did you say Nico could go and find out what Lydia is? Isn't she a wolf like us, Derek and Nico?"
Percy shook his head, Nico wasn't a wolf at all, "Scott, Kate Argent and Peter Hale where both sociopathic serial killers did either of them smell like death?"
Scott shook his head, "No."
"Here's some knowledge; you can only smell like death if you're a creature of death. Meaning Lydia isn't a werewolf, because we aren't creatures of death."
"Nico smells like a cemetery, or a morgue," Scott countered.
Percy smiled, "Yeah, but he smells like the dead, not like death, they're similar smells but also different, besides there's reason for Nico's scent."
"Of course there is," Stiles said. "What does he hang around cemeteries a lot?"
Percy chuckled.
"What?" Stiles asked.
"It's just that you were being sarcastic but you're correct. Nico hangs around the dead, a lot." Stiles noted the fact that Percy said the dead, not cemeteries.
"Huh, o…k… Why?"
Percy smiled, "None of your business. Now I have to go transfer or enroll or whatever."
As Percy walked off, Scott and Stiles looked at each before following after him. "Hey, why did Nico say Chaos, creator of the universe?"
Percy kept walking because he had no way of answering that. He wasn't going to tell someone he had just meet about the fact he was half god. Then a light bulb went off in his head.
"Why not God?" Scott clarified his question.
"Well do you know how werewolves came to exist?" he asked.
"Ah, no," Scott said. He was unsure if he wanted to know what Percy was talking about.
"I'm assuming a Shaman curse," Stiles said.
Scott and Percy stopped to give Stiles a bewildered look, something that caused Stiles to run into Percy.
"Ow," he yelped. "You have a hard head," Stiles complained as he held his nose.
Percy just shrugged. "Well, not a Shaman curse. But a divine curse if you will. Short version, there was a human king named Lycaon, Zeus came for dinner, Lycaon didn't believe he was Zeus so he served human for dinner, Zeus was so outraged he cursed Lycaon and his sons to become the first wolves," Percy explained.
"What does this have to do with this Chaos guy?" Stiles asked impatiently. If it wasn't for the fact Stiles smelled nothing like a demigod, he would have thought Stiles was one.
"Girl," was Percy's retort.
That stopped Stiles in his tracks for a second, "What?"
"Chaos is portrayed as female in the myths," Percy explained.
Scott and Stiles looked utterly confused.
"Ok, so in Greek myth–" thunder rumbled and Percy rolled his eyes. 'Drama queen' he thought. "You have Gods who started with the original six, Hestia, Demeter, Hades, Poseidon, Hera and Zeus, who is a drama queen and should have been the God of Theatre. Anyway, they were born to Kronos, who is an ass. Kronos was the king of the Titans, the Titan of Agriculture, at least he doesn't go on about cereal, and Time, and just freezes time the cheating git."
Percy stopped for a second to let the information sink in, "Their mother was Rhea, titan of the Earth. Kronos, Rhea and the other original Titans where born to the Protogenoi, Primordial Gods, who actually embody what they represent, unlike Titans and Gods who just represent something. The Titans' father was Uranus, who was apparently the world's first father, and the first dick. It's no wonder Kronos was a bad father if you look at his example, or maybe he's just evil, it's probably both, mostly the second one."
He paused his rant one more time, "Their mother was Gaea; she was also Uranus' mother. Gaea is evil, worse than Kronos anyway. Gaea, along with the rest of the Original Protogenoi, came from Chaos, the first being in existence; Chaos is the embodiment of the Universe, the creator."
Scott and Stiles just looked bewildered.
"We weren't meant to have history today," Stiles said sarcastically.
"What?" was Scott's reply to Percy.
"She's God, ok? Chaos is the Greek version of God, except she's female," Percy stated.
"Oh," the duo finally understood.
"Why didn't you just say that?" Stiles asked. "What does this have to do with the question?"
"Nico mentioned Chaos because if werewolves are Greek and if Zeus did create them… You know what, let's just go with we believe in the Ancient Greek religion, yeah, let's go with that," Percy said and walked into the office.
"Ancient Greek religion?" a female voiced asked from behind them. Scott turned and smiled at Allison. She followed up with another question to clarify, "What's going on, why was Percy here?"
"He's enrolling," Stiles, said. "His cousin kicked Jackson's ass." Stiles smiled, he didn't like Jackson.
"Really?" she asked.
"Yeah, but there's something I don't get," Scott spoke.
"What?" Allison and Stiles asked in sync.
"It's just that while werewolves are stronger than humans. A human should have been able to move a werewolves arm, even a little," he explained.
"And?" Allison asked.
"Well Jackson's quite strong. What if Percy's pack is so large that it makes human's useless against them?" Scott heard Percy laugh in the office.
"Percy also pulled Nico off Jackson with ease," Stiles stated. "Oh, he also said that Lydia's not a werewolf," he added.
Allison looked at him with raised brows. "What?" she asked in a hushed voiced.
"Yeah he said nothing could smell like death except creatures of death," Stiles explained.
"Doesn't he know that Peter Hale killed a bunch of people?"
"So did your Aunt," Percy called.
Allison went to yell, when Scott interfered. "Ok, calm down. He pointed out neither Kate nor Peter smelled like death."
"If she's not a wolf, then that means she's safe from my family," Allison said. "So what is she?"
"A miracle worker apparently," Scott said with a slight smirk.
"A miracle worker?" she repeated in disbelief.
"Oh, shut up Scott," Percy spoke as he entered the hallway.
"Welcome to Beacon Hills High, Mr. Jackson-Hale," the principal said, and Percy shook his hand.
Hale? Was Percy related to Derek? That same thought went through the three friends' heads. Well Scott and Allison's, another was going through Stiles'. Percy Jackson where did he know that name?
"You're a Hale," Allison accused.
"Hey being a Hale doesn't mean you're evil. I mean sure, there where a few bad eggs, Peter for example. Doesn't mean we're all evil. That's like saying all Argents are evil because your Aunt's a Sociopath," Percy retorted.
"As for Lydia, I've no idea. I've ruled out Zombie, vampire, hellhound and skeleton," Percy told them. "Now where is…. Chemistry..."
"Wait I know," Stiles said out of nowhere.
"What?" Scott asked.
"I know where I've heard your name before," Stiles continued as Percy waited patiently. "You got into that gun fight with your kidnapper on a beach when you were twelve. You used guns like swords," Stiles spoke.
Allison and Scott looked between Stiles and Percy. "I heard about that, and that was you?" Allison asked.
"Yeah I've heard of it too. Stiles talked about it for weeks," Scott smirked at his friend.
"Scott stop right there," Stiles ordered.
Percy looked at Scott and threw an arm around him with a smile, "No Scott, go on."
"Stiles said you were his hero and he wanted to grow up to be just like you." Stiles blushed, and he was horrified. Allison and Scott laughed.
Percy smiled, "Don't worry Stiles, I'm a hero to dozens of people and they want to grow up like me."
"Hang on," Stiles spoke. "That happened when you were twelve, right?" Percy nodded in confirmation.
"I was nine, so that would make you 19," Stiles deduced.
"Well done Sherlock Holmes, I guess that makes you Watson, Scott. Allison must be Watson's wife." Scott and Allison blushed and looked anywhere but each other.
"Why are you at school if you're 19?" Stiles asked, curious.
"Because I haven't been to school since the fire," Percy stated.
"I'll show you where Chemistry is," Stiles said as he felt guilty for bringing up the fire.
—
Percy watched Jackson run out of class, his dick of a teacher wasn't happy. Or maybe that was because Percy got Stiles out of detention by threating Mr. Harris with the idea of going to the California education board and telling them that Mr. Harris had threatened to enact violent measures against a student. So Percy now had detention, but Stiles was free. Percy had no intention of attending though.
Then he smelled his scent, Derek was here.
He ran out of class, he heard Mr. Harris yell about how he had detention back to back now, Percy didn't care. He was finally going to be reunited with his brother. He followed it to the bathroom, pushed the door open, and there was only Jackson.
He was bleeding black goo from the ears. But he didn't care about that. "Where's Derek?" he asked. Jackson turned to him. "I don't know, you one of his pets?" Percy growled; he was nobody's pet.
"Tell me why the bite's rejecting me," he yelled. The next second Percy slammed him against the wall, causing a small crater from the impact. Percy eyes where blazing red with anger, he had no time for games. He just wanted to see his brother.
"I don't care. Maybe it's because you're an arrogant jerk, who maybe I should have let Nico kill," Percy stated, as he scratched Jackson cheek. "Or Maybe I'll just slice your throat myself if you don't tell me where Derek went."
He snarled and placed his claws on Jackson's throat. Percy would never actually kill him, well if he threatened his friends and family he would without hesitation.
"I don't know," Jackson snarled back. "Now tell me," he yelled.
"You're useless, you'll always be useless," Percy growled and then slammed Jackson head against the wall with the right amount of force to knock him out but not cause permanent damage. Percy returned to his human appearance and walked out of the bathroom.
He caught the scent again and sprinted off. He was standing on the Lacrosse field looking away from the school.
"Derek," Percy spoke softly. Derek turned and froze. It was true; he was alive, because standing in front of him was his little brother. He, for the first time in a year, smiled.
"Perseus," he spoke.
Percy leaped forward and the brothers embraced each other for the first time in six years.
