A few things to point out quickly:

This will be M in a few chapters. Nothing too bad is happening right now, other than some cussing. But when shit gets real, I'll let you know.

This is an eventual Pertemis, or whatever that pairing is called, story. He's a kid right now, so it's gonna take a little while. But don't worry, it'll be good when it does happen. It's gonna be M for a reason ;)

Also, Hecate is going to be powerful in this. I don't really remember how she's portrayed in the books since she only makes an actual appearance in House of Hades I believe (maybe once in one of the short stories Riordan wrote), so she may be a bit OC.

Most of this shit is gonna be OC if you couldn't tell already. But for good reason, and it will all be explained. Be patient you fucks.

Finally, this chapter is gonna be sorta fillery. Should still be interesting to all of you, but just be forewarned.

Oh, be sure to REVIEW! I want to hear your feedback, and I want to respond to your feedback, so please, review whenever you're thinking of something. Alright?.

If there's some glaring typos please let me know, also. I do proofread my chapters before releasing them, but I may have missed something. I also barely read them again once they're out, so I'm relying on all of you guys to help me out in that department.

Anyways, let's get to it.

Disclaimer: All characters not created by me are owned by Rick Riordan.

*** β ***

You know, the whole white light thing always seemed way too cliche to be true. But, complete darkness while still retaining my thoughts wasn't something I wanted to substitute for it.

Especially if I was gonna be like this for the rest of eternity.

Umm, I thought to myself. This is kinda weird. I wonder if I can talk.

I decided to try it out. "Testing." It worked, but it was a really weird feeling. It was as if I was speaking, but instead of it coming out as sound, it came out as words that ran through the inside of my brain.

And yes, I know that's what thoughts basically are, you fucking asshole. But it was different.

"Um, hello?" I called.

"Yes Percy?" Asked the voice of my mother. She sounded a lot closer to me now.

"What happened?" I asked. "Am I dead?"

She laughed. "No honey, you aren't dead."

"Well, how come I can't see anything?"

Mother didn't respond for a few moments. "Because your body was destroyed in the crash."

Fuck, so that did still happen. "Then how come I can talk, and think, and do everything I could do before?" Minus physical stuff, I guess.

"Well you see," she began. "Since you're my child, and I'm the goddess of sorcery, I was able to trap your soul when your body was destroyed." A few more seconds of silence passed. "Normally, you would've gone to the Underworld to face Hades. But, since me and him aren't currently seeing eye to eye, you would have most likely been sent to the Fields of Punishment."

That didn't sound like a fun place. "What is that?"

"It's a region of the Underworld. It's where those who committed terrible sins while they lived spend their afterlife," said my mother.

Well, I didn't think I was that bad of a guy. "So I did die."

Mother seemed to wave the comment off. "What is death but a word?"

I thought about replying with a snide comment, because that phrase totally deserved one, but I refrained.

Also, if I was being honest, I really didn't want to know of the fate of the poor baby boy I sat next to on that plane.

"So what am I supposed to do? Now that I'm a spirit, or whatever."

"You won't be one for long. I still need you to be alive." I was about to inquire about that statement, but her words cut off mine. "It's time for the prophecy to be fulfilled, whether Zeus likes it or not."

Prophecy. Sounded like something I wanted absolutely nothing to do with. "What is this prophecy?"

She sucked her teeth. "You'll learn soon enough. By the time you've heard it a thousand times like I have, you'll wish that you never asked about it in the first place."

I didn't like to be treated like a baby when it came to stuff like this. My sister always did it, and it always bothered the hell out of me. But then again, this was my mother, as well as a vigilante goddess, so maybe she was right.

"Alright then, what happens now?"

"What happens now is the recreation of your body," said Mother. "It's a method forbidden by the laws of old. But hey, we've already broken most of those, why not a few more?"

My body was going to be made again? "Have you ever done that before?"

"Well, no." That made me feel great. "But I most certainly can. With magic, you can do anything."

"Even become as powerful as Zeus?" I asked, mostly as a joke.

I don't think she took it as one, though. "Probably. I would never know. My magical capabilities have been limited ever since the Olympians came into power."

"So what happened when the gods took over?" I asked, interested in what I'd learned so far.

A small sigh was heard.

"When my brothers and sisters, the titans, were defeated, I was to initially be thrown into Tartarus along with them. That is, until I swore my allegiance to the Olympians. As a part of our alliance, I taught them how to manipulate and use the Mist, and gave them the power to use all types of magic on Olympus. It was then when they realized how much power I truly had, and how easy it'd be for me to take over." Her voice got low, and heavy, as her frustration and anger became soaked in her words. "Because of this, they drugged me while I slept, chained me hostage, and forced me to swear upon the most sacred oath that I'd never betray them."

She then paused, and let out a humored scoff. "And let me just say, what I'm doing now definitely wasn't in the fine print."

I was now more confused. "But wait, aren't you still under oath?"

I could practically hear my mother smiling at my comment. "Everyone thinks I am. But," she paused again. "Zeus and I are some of the only people on this Earth who know the truth of an oath. What many don't know is that an oath must be renewed on every winter solstice."

I was about to ask why that was, but she seemed to predict it.

"The winter solstice is the day that every god and goddess comes to Olympus for a huge council meeting. It's a symbolic and important day to us, and even Hades, who is an outcast to Olympus, is expected to come."

"So what happens to an oath if it isn't renewed?"

"Then it is null and void. A prime example of this is the Pact of the Big Three. It was an old oath that was sworn between Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades after World War II." She paused, perhaps catching a quick breath. "You've learned about it, yes?"

"World War II?" I'm guessing she nodded. "Yeah, I had to do a presentation this year on the Manhattan Project. It kind of sucked."

"Yeah, it did suck. And at the head of all of it were the sons of Hades, Zeus and Poseidon. Hitler-Hades, Roosevelt-Zeus, and Churchill-Poseidon."

This really didn't seem real. This whole Greek mythology thing really was in our faces the whole time.

"After the nukes were dropped on Japan and the war ended, the Big Three made a pact to never birth another demigod child, in order to prevent another World War from ever happening again. Of course, Zeus knew that it'd be impossible for him not to have sex with another woman again, so he didn't tell anyone of the caveat that came with swearing an oath." She paused. "Now we're here, with both Poseidon and Zeus having demigod children roaming the Earth. No consequence whatsoever for breaking their oath."

This was probably a little too much information to be taking in at once, but this was way too crazy to not hear the whole way through. "So wait, how do you know about it?"

A small laugh was heard. "Easy. Every year after the Winter Solstice meeting, Zeus makes me renew my oath. However, this winter he did not."

"How come?"

"Because, it appears that someone has stolen his prized possession, the Master Bolt. The most powerful weapon ever created." A small pause. "He was so upset, that he had forgotten completely about me and our little oath."

Wow, that sounded almost too good to be true. "Is he that dumb?"

My mother gave a short laugh. "Not usually," she admitted. "It seemed to have simply slipped his mind, for as soon as the meeting was over, he left in a hurry. Perhaps to search for it."

A small fear crept into my mind. "Did you steal it?"

"The Master Bolt?"

I nodded my head, or intended to at least.

She still seemed to know what my answer was. "No, I haven't. I also have no idea who's taken it. All of it happened to just be incredible timing, something I'm not complaining about."

Well, that was good. I still had an eerie thought poking at my mind though. "So, what will you do after you recreate my body? Will you betray the gods?"

"I already have. That is why Zeus wanted to kill you."

If I was still breathing, a breath would have been held in anticipation. "What have you done?"

Her words darkened a bit in tone again. "Kronos and the Titans are rising to overthrow the Olympians, and he has offered me a high position in his army."

Fuck.

"And I have taken it-"

FUCK.

"-for he has promised you and I both sanctuary if they are victorious."

Oh, that wasn't too bad.

My mother continued. "But, he still thinks that I'm under my oath to Zeus, and also believes that you have died. So, Kronos has promised that he will allow me to resurrect you if the Titans win."

I was as confused as ever now. "So … why lie to him?"

She was silent for a few seconds once again. "Because, you will aid the Olympians in the upcoming war I'm speaking of."

My jaw dropped to the floor, metaphorically speaking. "What?! They've done nothing but try to kill me!" I began to stammer a bit. "A-And from what I hear, they've done nothing except treat you like trash. Why should I help them?"

I practically saw my mother holding her hand up, telling me to calm down. "It is quite alright. Only calm down, and I will explain my reasoning."

I nodded in my head in agreement, trying to tone down the theatrics. "Nah, I'm cool."

"Okay, the Olympians are bad, that's true. But there is a reason they are still in power, while the Titans are not. Sure, they treat those in their immediate family well, but Kronos will without a doubt order all humans to be exterminated, as well as all demigods who oppose him."

Okay, that made sense. But that suddenly made the whole "I'm joining Kronos" thing really weird.

"Soooo what's the point of joining them then?!"

Like everything else, she had another answer. "Because, if Kronos does take over, I'll be sure that you and I are both safe." This Kronos character didn't really seem like one to trust, but like she had a few minutes ago, she answered my doubts perfectly. "Kronos has never done me wrong, as well as any children I've ever had."

When I heard the comment, I couldn't help but smile, metaphorically speaking. "You would do that, for me?"

Mother laughed. "Of course I would. You're my last son in this world, the gift your father granted to me."

Wow, that sounded poetic. My dad must've been a dog while he was alive.

Then suddenly, I remembered the last thing my mother had said before my plane ride. "Wait, you said to me that the reason so many people in my family have died in crashes is because of you. How is that if you just now broke that oath you had?"

Mother didn't speak for a few moments. "Well, I have upset Zeus on more than one occasion."

"How's that?" I asked.

I pictured my mother blushing from the question I asked. "Well, when I met your father I stayed with him for a few months of my pregnancy, when it would've been impossible to hide. Zeus asked why I was absent from Olympus, so I lied to him, and told him that I was simply experimenting with the Mist, which I do away from Olympus from time to time."

Zeus really was starting to sound like the domineering father every daughter hates growing up. Except the daughter in this scenario was an immortal witch.

"Despite my best efforts, he still found out that I was pregnant, and that I had been staying with your father. He was furious at first, but he hid it very well, pretending to not care about it. That front went away fast though, since just a few days after your second birthday, your father took a business trip via flight, and crashed due to a lightning storm."

Wow. It was wild to hear the truth about my father's death in a way that was familiar, yet so bizarre. It certainly wasn't making siding with the Olympians any more compelling.

Mother continued. "I was very upset, but alas there is not much I can do to the king of Olympus." Another pause, this one about half a minute. "As for Renee's mother, that was simply bad luck."

"Okay, so let me get something straight," I started. "You've joined Kronos and I've joined the Olympians. So regardless of what happens, we both win. I got that. But if Kronos does win, won't he be like, 'Wait a minute Hecate, your son fought with the Olympians, I can't let him live.' Then he would do an "Off with his head!", or something like that."

My mother snapped her fingers. "See? You're much smarter than you lead on to your teachers."

Yeah, cuz my teachers are cucks and bitches.

"Therefore, today is the last day that you are my son!"

"Uh … huh?"

She said a few things under her breath then paused. "Your eyes are the same as mine, right?"

I didn't respond. "Umm."

"Oh, you can't see me." She laughed a bit. "Well, they're purple."

"Oh, then yeah."

"Okay then," she said, resuming to whisper so quietly that I couldn't pick up any of the words. Suddenly, instead of the black I was getting used to, a white light completely overcame my vision.

After a few seconds, my vision began to clear, until I was introduced to a woman smiling widely at me, standing in the middle of a dark, brick room. She had fair white skin, very dark hair, and purple eyes just as mine. She had perfectly white teeth, long, silky black hair, and a face constructed beautifully by whoever created her. She was absolutely stunning, and even though I didn't remember her, I somehow knew that this woman truly was my mother.

"Fantastic! I thought I had forgotten the correct wording to create matter." She then gestured for me to come over, which I did, despite still lacking a body.

"Where are-"

My words were interrupted by the snap of her fingers, which caused a hole to rip through the very air in front of us. It appeared to be a gate of some sort, for in the hole showed a blue door.

I looked at it strangely. "That looks a lot like-"

"Yes, that is your apartment. We have to find a picture of you, so I can be sure your new face is constructed exactly as it was before. Where does your sister have a recent picture of you?" my mother asked.

"Well, there's a bunch of pictures of me on her phone," I said.

She nodded. "That will work." Mother leaned towards the hole, and said. "Find Percy's sister please."

Some wind was heard, before suddenly the gate began to move. It turned downwards towards the bottom of the door, then shot down in front of the doorknob. After a moment of floating in front of it, the gate moved through the keyhole. Once they were in the house, they were introduced to a floor covered in grocery bags, some of them still full, as if someone had gone shopping but didn't put them up. A few glasses were shattered as well, with some clear liquid leaking out of many of them.

"What the?" Had we gotten robbed?

That suspicion was thrown out the window when the window shifted upwards, revealing our dining room table. Sitting was a young woman with red hair, blue eyes, and tan skin. Grasped between her fingers was a cigarette, burning and leaking ash that landed peacefully on the table below it. She had puffy, moist eyes, and was holding a picture of me as a young boy.

My eyes widened. "What's wrong with Renee? She never smokes."

My mother looked at me as if I had grown a third eye. "She's your sister, and she's just found out that you've died. Why wouldn't she be grieving?"

"Oh. I kind of forgot that even happened." Still, it made me feel terrible to see her like that. I just wanted to jump through the hole, put my arms around her, and tell her:

'Hey I'm okay! I'm not dead, see?'

Mother didn't respond, but instead continued to look intently through the window. She pointed to the table where Renee's phone sat, which was across the room, charging. "There it is. One of you, go make a neighbor come over to share their condolences."

More wind blowing was heard, before a black spot was seen flying towards the door, splitting apart from whatever was providing the visual of my home. After a few minutes, a knock at the door was heard.

Renee looked surprised, but still stood up, placing the cigarette on the table, before slowly walking over to the door. When she opened it, waiting for her was an elderly woman, who seemed to hold a glazed look in her eyes.

"Hello Renee."

My sister wiped her eyes and smiled. "Hey, Mrs. Winchester. Is there anything I can do for you?"

Mrs. Winchester looked at Renee with a frown, before reaching forward and grabbing both her hands. "No sweetie, I just wanted to come over and say how terribly sorry I am about your little brother."

The window that my mother and I were looking through turned back towards Renee's phone. Within seconds they were looking directly above it, just a few inches from the screen.

Mother frowned. "Move back a bit, please."

They did, allowing us to see the screen in its entirety. Suddenly, it turned on, revealing an array of numbers from 1 to 9 and wording on the top that read: "Enter Passcode." Below that was four empty circles, signifying that a four digit pin code had to be entered to unlock the phone.

Mother looked at me. "What's the passcode?"

I racked my brain for a moment. "Um, I'm pretty sure it's the year she was born. So that would be…" I did some math in my head for a moment. Maybe I should've paid more attention in Mrs. Dodds class.

After a few seconds, my mother scoffed. "You don't know your own sister's birthday?"

I flinched from her words. "I know it! Just not the year."

She sucked her teeth, and leaned towards the window. "Put in 1996." The number that she said was entered in that order, before being transitioned to the home screen.

"Okay, good. Press on the camera icon."

The camera app was selected, which led to the photo gallery. It took a few seconds to load, until finally an astounding 3,000 pictures loaded up. "Good lord, how can her phone have this much space?"

I shrugged, metaphorically speaking. "She has a good plan, so she can usually get a phone with a lot of storage."

Whoever was providing the view of the phone scrolled through quickly, until it landed on a picture of me. It was on the day she was dropping me off at Yancy, me sitting in the passenger seat of her car with a blown up sad emoji next to my head. The caption read: "See ya next summer :'("

My mother nodded. "That will work. Get your sister and come back."

I was kinda confused if she was talking to me or not, but she seemed to still be talking to whatever was performing all these acts. When my mother said this, the woman who was at the door gave her goodbye. A few seconds later, the black spot from before came into view, before colliding into the gate we were looking through. Then, the visual disappeared, being replaced with a large clump of dark mass.

"What's that?" I asked, only to see that my mother had disappeared.

My mother was doing something out of sight again, but still yelled out, "What?" I looked to where she was yelling from, to see a really old-looking door a few feet away from me, open.

"This uh … big floating ball of darkness."

"Those are your siblings."

My eyes widened. "What?"

"What I mean is-" she started, interrupting herself with a few whispers. "What I mean is, those are your siblings from the past. They are here to help you."

I looked at the blob strangely. "So wait, they're like … dead?"

"Why yes! That's the reason that Hades is upset with me as well, and why the Fury was ordered to kill you."

Damn, and I thought I had a lot of people who didn't like me.

"I visited Persephone after the winter solstice, and while I was in the Underworld I asked many of them if they wanted to help in my plan. Most of them agreed, but when they were escaping, Hades tried to stop them. He ordered Cerberus to keep them from leaving, but we were still able to escape here."

I chuckled a bit. My mom really was a troublemaker. "I guess you and Persephone aren't friends any more."

"Nah, she hates Hades. Hasn't fucked him in years actually." A few bangs were heard from the room she was in. "She'll probably join the Titans soon."

I eyed my weird shadow siblings. "Why aren't they … you know, bodies or something?"

A few more crashes were heard. "Well, it went a bit messier than I had intended. I didn't have time to send their bodies out of the Underworld as well, so simply their souls remain."

I looked back at the black mass. Hopefully they weren't jealous about me getting a new body, and not them. I decided to move to a new subject. "What even is this place?" I saw a huge spider walk across the ceiling, towards a few trapped insects. "It looks really old."

"Because it is," she called out. "Really cold too, as you'll see in a second. This is a castle created by the Hekatonkheires, in Tartarus. Kind of a depressing place, but it's where the Titans are mobilizing." A bit of shuffling. "Also one of the only places on Earth the Olympians don't have surveillance in."

Tartarus? Holy shit. No wonder that spider looked unnaturally big.

Suddenly, I began to laugh, which I really shouldn't have. "You've really pissed a lot of people off, huh?"

Unsurprisingly, my mother began to laugh as well. "Yup. Which is why our plan has to work."

Our plan? "So you do have one."

My mother walked out from the room, and nodded. "What needs to happen is you need to go home to your sister, and tell her everything that's happened." She pointed a finger at me. "Every detail."

I nodded, metaphorically speaking.

"She'll take you to Rhode Island, where a camp for demigods is at. You will manipulate the Mist, make your hair brown, and turn your eyes pink."

I was about to question the last two demands, but she put her hand up preemptively.

"Let me finish. To make sure others don't see through your Mist, I'll teach you a simple spell that will make it impossible for anyone, including you, to see through it. You'll also need to perform a spell to slightly change the pitch of your voice, to ensure that Chiron and your friend Grover don't recognize you. You'll stay at this camp until you receive word from me, where I'll give you your next set of instructions." She looked at me and smiled very forcefully. "You got all of that?"

My eyes were wide. "I'm not really sure."

She sighed, then walked back into the same room as before. After a few minutes of more whispering, she walked back into the room, with a floating body.

The same one I had on the plane.

"Woah."

It was really weird, seeing my body through something that wasn't a mirror. It wore the same clothes I had that day too, a white Nike tee, ripped blue jeans, and a pair of dirty vans. My face was perfect too, making the experience that much stranger. That's where the similarities ended, however. The body was a lot taller than it was before, while the two legs looked to be completely different lengths. My mother caught my eye and looked at her creation. "I guess it's not as good as I thought. I need you to give it a test drive."

Before I could ask her how I was supposed to do that, I blinked, and when my eyes opened, I was in the body. I looked down at my mother with a wild expression, where I saw her clapping enthusiastically. "Very good! Now, how tall were you when you were alive?"

I thought for a moment. "I think 5' 1" is what the doctor said a week ago."

She nodded, and walked in front of me. She whispered a few things, before touching the middle of my chest. Like that, I began to feel my torso and legs compress, as I watched my vision lower slowly, before stopping at a height slightly below my mother.

"Fantastic!" she exclaimed. "Now, hold out your arms."

I did as she instructed. She examined them for a few moments, before nodding and tapping on my right arm, which looked to be a bit too long. She whispered some more, until she snapped her fingers, which then caused my right arm to shrink to the same length as the other.

"Now sit on your bottom, and lay your legs out."

Again, I did as she said. She noticed fairly quickly that my left leg was a bit shorter than the right one. A few seconds passed, some things were whispered, until finally all my limbs were proportional to one another.

I stood up, and walked around, realizing fairly quickly that it felt identical to my old body. "Feels pretty good. Are you sure all the respective organs are in here?"

My mother nodded, before snapping her fingers again, conjuring up a red, fluffy-looking chair to sit in. "Yes, that's why it took so long. I had to make sure everything was perfect. I hope the health textbooks they give you kids nowadays are reliable."

I gulped. "I hope so too."

She sank into the chair and sighed contentedly. "Alright. We're almost done." She gestured over to the floating ball of mass. "Your siblings over there are going to be keeping an eye on you for me, since we won't be able to speak as much now that I've moved here to Tartarus."

My senses began to come back at this point, quickly confirming the claim of it being cold from my mother.

"Not only that, but they'll be able to give you a few pointers, and help you in your discovery of the arcane arts. They can only communicate with me verbally, but they are able to give you memories that will help you."

Mother snapped her fingers and gestured for the large blob that was my siblings to come over.

"They'll have to tell you a few things that won't be able to be communicated through memories, however. Therefore, I'll be giving you a little present to make up for all the birthdays I've missed."

Right as she said that, she whispered a few things under her breath, ending with another snap of her fingers. When she did that, a white ball of fur landed in my hands that had somehow become outstretched without my knowledge.

I kind of freaked out, and stared at it in disgust. "What is that?!"

My mother sucked her teeth. "Maybe if you would spend more than two seconds looking at it you'd find out."

Right as she said that, the ball of fur began to move around in my hands. I was about ready to throw whatever it was, until it turned around, revealing the small face of a puppy.

The puppy couldn't have been more than a week's old, for it couldn't have been bigger than my shoe. It's legs were tiny, while it's head was huge, definitely unable to be picked up on their own efficiently. It's snout was long, and made its head resemble one of those palm-sized beach footballs. The ears that laid on the top of its head were folded, and its eyes were shut. It's little black nose wiggled a bit as it lifted its head, beginning to smell whoever it was that was holding it.

"You gave me a puppy?"

My mother rolled her eyes. "Clearly." She walked over and scratched the puppy behind its ear. "Dogs are one of my sacred animals, and her mother was one of the best friends I had."

She smiled sadly. "Her mother was one of the first German shepherds ever, a sweet girl. When I betrayed Olympus, Zeus had people sent to my temple, where they murdered all the dogs that lived there. I promised her mother that I would protect her last puppy, so I am giving her to you."

I looked at the dog in my hands, with wide eyes. The last of her kind, like me.

"Since her mother was blessed, she will grow very fast, andl be much more intelligent than any other dog alive. But, you'll still need to care for her as her mother would have, at least for the first few weeks. After that, it should be like having any other dog."

I nodded, and pet her head slowly, making sure not to scare or hurt her. "What's her name?"

She shrugged. "That's up to you."

A few names came to mind, but I decided to do that later. "I'm not complaining, but how exactly is a puppy supposed to help me?"

My mother looked at me and gave a devilish grin. "You'll see."

Suddenly, she took the puppy carefully from out of my hands. She whispered a few words and snapped her fingers, causing a full bottle of milk to appear in her free hand. Cradling the puppy in one of her arms, she shook the bottle and found her seat she'd conjured. After sitting down, she carefully led the nipple of the bottle into the mouth of the puppy. Within moments, its mouth was clamped around it, slowly sucking away at the milk.

"Anyways, you're going to need to learn your first spell. You ready?"

I nodded.

She smiled. "Repeat after me: Summone inter charta et pincello unum."

My eyes widened. "Did you just speak Portuguese or something?"

She rolled her eyes. "It's Latin. You didn't even pay attention in Chiron's class?"

I ignored the second part of her question. "Why Latin?"

She adjusted the bottle in the puppy's mouth a bit, as some milk began to leak out the side of her mouth. "I created the latin language when I was trying to find a way to control magic, not just manipulate it."

I decided to ignore the part where she said she created it, my mind had been blown enough for today. "You say it like it's a living thing."

My mother smiled. "In a way, it is. I spent almost a century learning all ways to use magic and how to control it. Now, almost all of it is binded to the Latin language."

I raised an eyebrow. "Almost?"

She shrugged, though carefully so she would not wake the puppy. "Like I said earlier, the magic on Olympus was granted by me, so that type of magic is so simple it doesn't need to be bound to a language." She then tilted her head in thought. "Then, there's Cosmic magic, which only Chaos can wield."

"Chaos?"

"Chaos is the creator of the universe, and the father of the first Protogenoi. They are the first gods and goddesses, some of whom you may remember with your lessons with Chiron. One of them being the Earth, or Gaea. When he created the universe, he used a surge of magic that created all of the cosmos, as well as life itself."

She adjusted the puppy again.

"His magic is what allows gods and goddesses to have their powers, and what keeps all the planets and stars from colliding into one another." She smiled at me. "I believe you all call it, "gravity". So yes, my binding of magic to the Latin language was accomplished with most, but not all."

I nodded, trying to soak in all of the information I was receiving. "Alright, so basically what you're telling me is that I have to learn Latin?"

Mother winked at me. "Precisely. Which brings me back to the first spell. Simply repeat after me."

She stood up straight, and gave me an encouraging nod.

"Summone inter charta et pincello unum."

I thought about it for a moment, before repeating it slowly. After a few moments, nothing happened. "I did it."

She frowned. "You have to concentrate while saying it, and say it a bit faster. And after you say it, snap your fingers. It marks the end of the spell."

"What am I concentrating on? I don't even know what I'm saying."

"You're summoning a piece of paper and a pencil." She looked at me strangely. "Latin is one of the easiest languages to learn, you know. Especially when you speak English which steals most of-"

I waved my hands. "Alright, I got it."

I closed my eyes, then pictured a piece of notebook paper in my left hand, with a plain, number two pencil in the other.

Wait, no. A mechanical pencil, number two pencils hurt my hand.

A mechanical pencil in the other hand.

Then, I took a deep breath.

"Summone inter charta et pincello unum."

Snap.

The second my fingers snapped, I felt the wind get taken out of my lungs, as I felt two things appear in both my hands. I opened my eyes to find exactly what I was thinking of: a sheet of notebook paper in my left hand, and a mechanical pencil in my right hand.

My eyebrows rose into my forehead. "Woah."

The puppy seemed to be full now, for my mother put the bottle on the floor, and was wiping the dog's mouth clean with a rag she probably conjured up. The bottle, strangely enough, was still full. "Now that you have that, I need you to write a few spells out for me. Ready?"

I knelt down on the floor, and placed the paper down. "Yeah."

"The first one is: Sicut species custodiunt."

I faltered a bit. "You're gonna have to spell that out for me."

I expected for my mother to nag, but instead she nodded calmly. "Well, the first word Sicut is spelt S-I-C-U-T."

Nodding, I clicked down on the eraser to make some lead appear. After a few clicks however, not even an inch of lead appeared. "Why did I make a pencil where there was no lead in it?"

My mother laughed suddenly, and shifted the puppy in her arms so that it would sleep more soundly. "You didn't make anything. When you cast spells, you are simply manipulating reality, not creating it. When you cast a spell, you're just making use of what already exists."

She gestured outward with her free hand. "When you thought of a damn mechanical pencil, you probably transported one too you with no lead." She mumbled a few words then snapped her fingers, resulting in a plain number two pencil appearing in her hands.

"Here." She tossed it to me. "You can never go wrong with a good number two pencil. Now write down the damn spell. The first word is spelt: S-I …"

After he had written down the entire Latin phrase onto the paper, he looked up and nodded.

"That spell will allow your Mist to keep you hidden from any god, as well as clear sighted mortals. The next spell you must write down is: Ad formam meum verum est. This will return you to your true form whenever you like. But remember, no one must know that you are my son except for those you trust."

I nodded. "Got it, super ominous warning."

She spelt that spell out for me as well, for which I was grateful for.

When I finished, my mother stood up, placed the puppy down in her chair, and walked back into the other room. She came back a few moments later with a giant book in her hand. She wiped the cover, and blew off any dust that was caked on the cover.

"This is a Latin dictionary, translated into English for education. There's also a grammar section in the back, which should help with the placement of words in sentences. The more fluent your Latin is, the more well versed you will be in the world of magic."

She placed the book in my hand, which must've weighed at least fifty pounds. I adjusted the weight a bit, and nodded. "Got it."

My mother gave a worried look. "Remember all can be achieved with magic, but knowing Latin isn't the only thing you need to be a strong sorcerer. If you didn't notice, which I'm sure you did, casting spells can take its toll on you."

She poked at the side of my torso. "The air getting knocked out your lungs? That's completely normal for novices. To grow accustomed to spell casting, you'll have to practice simple spells every day, until that feeling goes away, or you become immune to it."

She walked over to her chair, before picking up the puppy as well as the baby bottle on the floor. She walked over to me, and adjusted my arm, placing the puppy in the crook of my left arm. In this hand was the baby bottle as well, so I could use all of my right arm to hold the book of bricks.

"The puppy will only need her milk for the first month of her life, since all the nutrients she needs for now are in that blessed bottle." She placed a hand on her small body. "As for her other needs, your siblings will help you with that."

After that, she stood straight, and smiled beautifully at me. "And this is where we say goodbye, my baby boy. At least for now. I will not see you again for many months I'm afraid, but do know that I will be watching over you and protecting you." She looked at the puppy in my arm. "She will protect you. Dogs are the most loyal friend you will ever have, and they will never leave your side. Protect her, keep her safe, and she'll do the same."

I nodded. "I will mother." I looked over her face once more, being sure to treasure it within my memory.

Then, I felt a pressure build up in my heart, as a phrase escaped from my throat that I'd only ever said to Renee.

"I love you."

My mother faltered for a moment, but after a few seconds she smiled widely, leaned forward, and planted a kiss between my eyebrows. I closed my eyes, and relished the feeling of my mother's kiss, something I had experienced for the first time in my life. A sweet honey scent filled my nostrils, something that gave me a "déjà vu" feeling.

She returned to her position, with her smile never leaving her face. "I love you too, Percy." She took a step back and grasped my shoulders. "Please be safe my son. I don't know what I would do if something happened to you."

With that, she closed her eyes, and began to whisper a long phrase. At first, it didn't do anything. But as it continued, the room around me began to spin in place, until she snapped her fingers, bringing it to a stop. I faced the large blob of darkness that were my siblings, only a few inches from my face.

Then without warning, the mass shot towards me, entering my body through my mouth and nostrils. I collapsed on the floor, and began to shake involuntarily, as I felt crawling and scratching from within my throat and lungs.

My vision began to darken, and when it was gone, I heard no more.

*** β ***

Holy shit, tell me why that took so much longer to do than the last one, when the first chapter had like 10,000 words? Whatever, the important thing is that it's done. Like the first go around of this story, this chapter was basically an exposition dump, but hopefully it was a pleasant exposition dump. Usually those don't go together, but I had fun writing it like before.

But if you hated it don't worry, the next chapter will have some actual shit happen, since Percy will be going to Camp. At least, trying to go. If you read the original story, you should know what I mean by that ;)

I'll be responding to one review from this chapter, since there's no other ones to really to go off of, with there only being 7. So please, PLEASE make sure to leave a review. I always give my responses to them through these author's notes, so other people who may have similar thoughts or questions can see what I think about them. Mkay?

Anyway, this review is from TatsuyaShiva4:

"But is Hecate a Pagan Goddess? And who is Percys Dad? I would love if it was Aether, one of the strongest Primordial Gods. It was never done before and would be epic. Great Story so far."

I'll only be responding to the first thing part of that, you asking if Hecate is a Pagan Goddess.

The short answer is, it depends on who you ask.

If you do some research you'll see fairly quickly that Hecate, along with other deities like Pan and the Horned God (sometimes they're the same thing), are often worshipped in religious cults, like the Wicca religion. Plus, she's the goddess of witchcraft, which is usually a pretty pagan belief in most religions.

For those who worshipped ancient Greek religion, then no, probably not. She may've had cults dedicated to her still, like many who had Athena or Hades cults, but it was probably not seen as strange for someone to worship or show respect to Hecate.

It also depends on what your belief of what paganism truly is. In literal definition, it is said to be a religious belief that is outside that of mainstream religion. As the story goes on, it will probably go more down this path, so just try to be patient with me ;) I'm not gonna hide shit from ya'll, you're gonna see what I mean.

Thanks for your question, super good stuff. I'm not talking about your second question since I told you who it was in the first chapter: Alonzo, some regular mortal man. Or, is that only what Percy thinks? Who knows ...

Also, if you haven't been on my profile then you probably don't know, but I have a Twitter! It's not my personal twitter or anything, but my "writer" Twitter I guess you could call it. If you're interested in following me, go to my profile, it's literally in the first line. I can't put the sign for some reason in this, but the username is theMundaine, named after the world in the book series I'm writing. Mostly I post quotes from my book and little things relating to what I'm thinking about when writing. I'll also make sure to post some stuff about my Fanfiction stuff, so you guys don't get left out.

Anyways, I hope you're all staying safe and indoors, and I hope to see all of you next time I update. Should be done fairly soon!

REMEMBER, REVIEW!