aProcrastinatingOrange: Ooh, that's wonderful to know! I'll definitely try to keep updates consistent. I'm planning a seven chapter run for this prequel which is completely unlike me. I know seven feels very short, but I definitely do not want to exceed ten. Sally, Lily, and James, our 1997 trio!

NebularScreen: Awesome, thanks! I'm going to bring in a quick cameo in this chapter. See if you can guess them before they appear.

Also, I'm still dabbling with Artbreeder. So I'll be putting up my character reference designs on my Ao3 page for this story and the main cast in the full series. (Just realizing that there are like a hundred faces I need to create T.T)

Listening to: We Are To Blame (Wonder Woman OST)

Sally tossed her clothes aside in the narrow closet, digging deeper till she found the tough little backpack that was her emergency kit. She checked it for a safely stowed away sand dollar Percy's father had bestowed, and stuffed it into the bag, slinging it over her shoulder.

Lily and James, decidedly not-demigods, were still by the door, whispering harshly to each other. Sally didn't have a choice but to trust them and their word. People with magic tended to abide by their promises. Apparently, it didn't just cover godly magic.

They had sticks and spoke words for specific magic. Spells?

Sally was mostly sure it was Latin. Relashio and Levicorpe-something. Release and levitate.

They were like witches probably. Or Hecate's children. Sally hadn't known demigods could live up to their twenties. The pretty woman and her husband were definitely older than her. It gave her hope for Percy. Maybe he could live much longer than Poseidon anticipated.

No, he will, Sally assured herself, righting the lava lamp to its original position. Her baby was going to survive any and all things. And if that meant her going out into the world to find him, so be it.

She went into the kitchen and took out a box of date loaf that she'd been saving for the evening, packing it too in the bag. Just in case.

Sally checked the gun's chamber, counting the missing bullets and restocking her little pouch with fresh ones. Anyone in her way would be getting shot, that's for sure.

Sally would deal with the mortals, Lily and James would deal with the rest of them. Should work.

"I'm ready," she called.

For highly trained heroes, these two jumped at the sight of her tucking away her gun. Odd.

"Alright…" Lily said, her bright green eyes flitting from the weapon up to Sally's face. "We tried backtracking signs of magic outside the building, but they disappeared quickly. Whoever took your sister and son were a bit careless in the flat, leaving traces all over the place, but there's nothing outside."

Sally frowned and examined her apartment. The place looked practically the same as she'd left it in the morning to go to work. Kimberly had been recovering from a migraine and had stayed home from school. She was looking after Percy for the day.

The only thing out of place had been the lava lamp. A gift from their uncle, Sally and Kimmy always placed the object on the yellow side, so blue would be on top. When Sally had dropped in for lunch today, the blue side was on the bottom. That was their code for god/monster problems.

"So you can't find them?"

"Didn't say that," James sighed. "We're just gonna have to use muggle means. Tech here should be the same as in London, right? We can check the security cameras outside on the street, hopefully, they haven't removed or blocked it."

Sally grimaced. "This street doesn't have that kind of security. No cameras."

Lily nodded, hands placed on her hips. "Okay, we can find people who were here in the morning, maybe they saw something."

"How long would that take?"

"A couple of hours at the most," James assured her. "The kidnappers can't have left nothing behind."

Sally was already shaking her head. "No… these people… they can cover their tracks really well. If we can't use magic, we'll have to use mortal tech."

James frowned, mouthing 'mortal' as though he'd never heard the word before.

Luckily, Sally had prepared for such an eventuality.

She picked up her house key and said, "Let's get to a computer. I've got a back-up."

It was a nice feeling to surprise adults. She knew that most of them looked at her and sneered at her lack of maturity to get pregnant at the salient age of seventeen. At eighteen years old, she'd dropped out of school to work jobs so she and Kimberly could afford a babysitter for Percy.

Their uncle had been fairly well-off. But Sally's inheritance wouldn't kick in until she was twenty-one. That's alright. They just had to be patient. Maybe she could even go back to school once Percy was old enough?

Two blocks from her apartment was York Cyber Cafe. The owner was a staunch man who always had a greasy smile for Sally. His stench covered the entire store and electronics.

"Sally girl!" Gabe crowed. "I don't see you on the weekdays enough!"

Sally showed her teeth in an imitation of a smile. She hated coming around here. But she'd never been able to avoid him, seeing as how the place she worked, a convenience store, was a dual shop with the cafe, both owned by him. Anyway, that hadn't been her intention.

"Eh… still on my break. Gotta beat my top score on Hangman!"

Gabe just grinned at her till he saw Lily. "Hiya!"

Lily looked a little stunned by the smell emanating off of him to respond. "Um… hello."

"Sally, you have excellent taste in friends."

James scowled. Sally took Lily's wrist and pulled them along to the back.

"Ignore him," she whispered. "He never asks too many questions, so that's good."

"Why does he smell like that?" Lily asked, staring back at him. Gabe saw her looking and winked.

"Some people just smell," Sally explained. "It's natural for him. You stay long enough in his presence, it'll stay on you too."

James stared. "Who wants to smell like that?"

Sally entered a booth at the back and booted up the computer, not giving him an answer. Finding Gabe Ugliano had been an incredible stroke of luck. She'd hang out with him at the end of her shifts every day and check into his cafe on the weekends to get the smell onto Percy when she went back home. It lingered around the apartment for hours at a time.

Unfortunately, that made him assume she was into him.

"Why are we here?" James asked, still frowning.

"Some of Percy's things are missing," Sally explained. "His toys and bottle. Kim would have convinced the kidnappers to take them with him."

"And…"

"Percy's teething ring has a remote tracker in it," she continued, logging into a website she'd purchased it from. "I can activate it from here and find his location."

Lily and James fell silent. A progress bar appeared on the screen, slowly filling the bar with a green line. Sally slouched in her chair, watching their reflections on the monitor.

"Why do you need our help?" James asked finally. "You seem to be on top of this. Or why didn't you ask the pleasemen or someone else?"

"The… what?"

"Policemen," Lily quickly said.

Sally eyed James curiously. "They won't know about magic or anything supernatural. I can't risk that."

"And you don't know anyone else who can help? We're complete strangers."

"You have magic," she shrugged. "I don't. You can fight them when it comes to that."

Lily narrowed her eyes. She had a ridiculously lovely face, an effortless kind of prettiness Sally had seen only with celebrities. "If it comes to that."

"Sure," Sally mumbled.

The progress bar buffered and dragged for a few more minutes. Sally slapped a hand over the monitor's bulky plastic body as though that would spur the page to load.

Finally, the bar filled up and disappeared bring them to a new page. It showed a map of Harlem with a yellow dot over in Marcus Garvey Park. Last known location. The tracker was inactive now.

"That's not too far from here," Sally said, feeling worried.

"Where are we?" Lily asked leaning in.

"Here, in Striver's Row," Sally pointed. "That's my apartment on West 141st Street."

"Everything's really directional here," James noted. Sally logged out of the site and deleted the search history.

"Were you serious when you said there could be a fight?" Lily asked as they left the cafe. Gabe whistled at Sally and Lily. James looked ready to punch the man.

"Forget him!" Sally hissed at James. "And I'm not sure about that, but don't be surprised if there is one. Also… how good are you guys against monsters?"

The pair stared at her in shock. Sally wanted to wail in despair. This was the best she could do, she reminded herself. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

They took a cab to the park. Lily's open expression of curiosity put Sally on edge and James had an arm out on the open window, tapping so hard that the entire car seemed to shake. It did not help matters.

Marcus Garvey Park looked quaint enough, currently occupied by very few people since it was midday. The tracker had pinged off in a west side building beside the recreational center. Sally felt sweat gather up around her neck.

"That's definitely not an evil lair," James nodded towards the forboding abandoned section.

"Wands out," Lily whispered to him. Sally watched them slip their magical sticks out so seamlessly she blinked.

So they had wands…?

What had she gotten herself into?

Sally took out her gun, checking the safety. That was a question too late in the day. She could have not fallen in love with a stranger by the sea, but she chose to. And here she was in an empty par about to barge into an abandoned building to reclaim her kidnapped sister and infant son, assisted by a witch and a wizard.

(Yes, Sally was fairly sure they were not demigods at all.)

"It's empty," James frowned.

"What?" she snapped her head towards him.

"The building," he clarified. "There's no one in it."

"How can you tell? We haven't even checked it!"

Lily walked ahead, swishing her wand over the door of the building. It unlocked and opened by itself and James followed her in.

Sally ran in, heart pounding.

The place was empty.

The walls were dark from moss, corroded sheets on the roof. It was half the size of a high school gym with a tall ceiling. Light streamed in from the door behind them and the broken roof. The windows were boarded up.

A colourful object caught her eye. Sally rushed over to the side where an old rickety chair sat near the wall. Beneath it was Percy's teething ring.

They'd found the tracker, broken it, and left it behind. Sally's gut twisted in pain. She had no idea what to do now.

Strangely, Lily looked less worried. She said, "Portkey."

James walked over to them and agreed. "Good catch. There can't be many portkeys out of the US. We can trace them."

"You can?" Sally asked, desperate. "What's a portkey?"

Lily picked up the teething ring, observing the plastic keys. The tiny chip in it was stabbed through. The damage was done with a blade, as far as Sally could tell.

"It's a way to teleport large groups across long distances," James said, bringing out a palm-sized mirror from his pocket.

"I'll call Sirius," Lily said abruptly, handing him the teething ring. "You can check the trace on this, there's something off about it."

James took the toy, curious. Sally frowned. "It's probably Percy's magic."

"Huh," James said, levitating the key ring. Sally swallowed thickly watching her baby's toy subjected to intense scrutiny. James noticed her discomfort and immediately offered it to her.

She plucked the keyring from the air. The air didn't feel different or anything. He'd just made the ring hover like it was natural for the toy to do it.

"We're gonna find them," he said quietly. Sally's chin trembled for a moment before she nodded carefully.

Lily was off to the side, talking to someone in the mirror. No, not her reflection, that would be crazy. From her vantage point, Sally could see a different face in the mirror.

"Two-way mirrors," James said when he saw her looking. "Neat little trick my friends and I came up with. Undetectable and secure. I've got people working in the Ministry who can help track portkey destinations."

Sally didn't understand most of what he said, but she got the gist of it.

"So… these people could have used a port-key to take my family anywhere in the country?"

"Anywhere in the world," James admitted. "But we can follow them. Remus is excellent with tracking magic. Give him thirty minutes, he'll tell us exactly where the portkey took them. And we can use this..."

James nodded to the teething ring, "... to travel there as well."

It was a nerve-wracking wait. She dug out the broken chips and stuffed them down in her pocket.

"Your friends… they're reliable?"

James smiled and though his thick eyebrows and dark hair made him look like a troublemaker, he was definitely the kind of troublemaker you'd want on your side. Sally gave a small smile in return.

"They're the best. I've known them for years. Remus and Sirius are babysitting my kids this week."

She gawked. "You have kids?"

James grinned happily now. He immediately brought out his wallet and showed her a folded photograph.

Sally nearly dropped it. The babies in the photograph were moving in real-time to her reaction.

"What the hell?" Sally hissed. "It's alive!"

Lily looked up at the outburst for a moment before the man in the mirror began to complain about something. James flinched as she nearly dropped the photo.

"It's just a potion," he said quickly. "Just remembered muggle photos don't move."

"Muggle," she said. "You said that before, what is that?"

"People without magic," he explained before shooting a grin at the pair of babies in the photograph. They were lying in their cribs dressed in floral onesies. They looked up, saw their father, and fell over each other in peals of silent giggles. Sally relaxed almost instantly.

"This one's Rosie," he pointed to the one with thin wisps of pale flaxon hair. "And this darling's Harry."

The small baby with darker hair had a thumb in his mouth, looking up at Sally with wide, beautiful eyes. He smiled.

"Percy would love them," she whispered.

It was the respite she needed. Sally felt like she could breathe for a cool minute.

"You guys didn't seem like parents," she said, a little abashed.

James scoffed, good-natured. "Don't blame you. I didn't think I'd be a dad so young, but stuff happened, and… they're the best."

"They are," she agreed.

He looked at her, interested. "You're younger than us, right?"

Her smile disappeared. She gave him the photo back, watching as Rosie shoved a drool-covered hand on Harry's face and pushed him away from her.

"I didn't mean—"

"A lot of people ask me that," Sally said, fiddling with her bag. "It gets irritating."

James nodded and didn't press for more. Lily finally ended the call with their friend and marched up to James. She didn't look all that pleased but told Sally, "Remus is following up on this. He'll call back in twenty."

Sally nodded, wishing she had it in her to stay put, but she began pacing around them, trying to wrangle the nervous energy in her body. She listened to the couple's conversation, not feeling the least bit guilty.

"You left the invisibility cloak at Sirius and Remus's apartment!" Lily lamented.

"Oh, yeah. Sirius needed it to get the bike—"

"Rosie got her hands on it," Lily continued, sounding annoyed. "And she threw it over Harry. He got out of the playpen and they've been searching the house for him for the past hour now!"

James stared. "The shenanigans have begun early."

"James…"

"I thought we'd at least have until they start walking."

"Your stupid friends caught the flu last night so they can't sniff him out!"

"Hey! They're our stupid friends!"

Lily threw her hands up.

James's shoulders drooped. He ran a hand through his messy hair, making it stick up at the back. "Not to mention, they're gonna break up now."

"What about Harry?!"

"He would have found the first hiding spot and fallen asleep," he reassured her. "The real problem is those two have been fighting for months now. Sirius takes one look at a pretty bird and forgets date night. I'm with Moony on this one. They need a break."

Lily blinked hard. "Then why did Sirius say they'd look after the twins together?"

"Because he thinks that's the best way to get on Moony's good side," James mumbled. "I'm telling you when we get back, Harry would have claimed the cloak, Rosie would be happy to be an only child, and Moony and Padfoot will have broken up for good this time."

Sally looked away. Wizard gossip seemed just a soapy as mortal ones.

She slung down her backpack and unzipped it, heaving up the box of date loaf. After the past few years of practice, she'd gotten pretty good at baking it. It was probably her best attempt. Poseidon would love it.

Barely a few minutes later, the magic mirror buzzed.

A young man with brown hair, the same age as James and Lily peered through the mirror. Sally moved away, carrying the date loaf and searching for a good place to light a fire.

"Egypt!" Lily exclaimed. James massaged his temples in dismay.

"I checked it three times," the man said. "There's no portkey jurisdiction in the US and Canada. So there's no official record to look through. I had to narrow it down to potent international tracers and the only things I got were two connections less than half an hour before you called. One to Cairo and the other to Alexandria. No telling how many people went where."

"We can't go to Cairo," Lily said, urgently. "The authorities there will arrest us on arrival."

James pointed at her. "I still blame you for that."

The mirror man hummed. "I never got that story, you know?"

"And you never will," James chimed. "You're sure it's these cities?"

"Dead sure. Are you going then?"

Lily and James looked over to Sally. She responded with an exaggerated wave of her hand.

"Yeah…" Lily muttered. "A promise is a promise."

Sally's shoulders grew lighter. For a pair of strangers, they were oddly heartwarming.

James pocketed the mirror and looked at them. "Okay. Cairo's gonna be a nightmare. So, let's start with Alexandria."

Sally coughed. "It's not Alexandria."

They frowned. Lily raised her eyebrows, looking more inquisitive than the devil. "Why not?"

"Because, it's a port city," Sally told her. "No kidnapper with a brain would bring Percy to a place next to the ocean."

"Why ever not?"

"Because…" Sally hesitated. "His magic grows when he's near the water. Especially large bodies of water like the sea."

It was hard to tell who was more surprised. Both James and Lily did a double-take.

"Water core?" James wondered. Sally had no idea what that meant.

"Maybe," Lily nodded. "That explains why someone's after him. You're absolutely sure it's not Alexandria?"

"Yes," Sally said, determined. "He's in Cairo."

James moaned. "Great. We're gonna have to be undercover."

"Why?"

"Because this one," he pointed at his wife who huffed. "Likes to make trouble wherever she goes."

"Like you're some saint."

"I don't poke sticks at sleeping dragons, love. That's all you."

"Maybe, but who hands me the sticks, huh?"

"Marriage law dictates I assist you in any and all trouble," James said in a holier-than-thou voice.

Lily's face breaks into a sweet smile. Sally can't hide the grin either. They're adorable.

"Fine!" Lily announced. "Cairo it is. Sally, can I have the teething toy?"

She handed it over to the witch.

"Wait a sec," she said, holding up the box of date loaf. "Can one of you build a small fire?"

The puzzled looks on their faces did not vanish as Sally unpacked the food and dropped the whole loaf into the flames.

Poseidon, Sally prayed as hard as she could. Percy's in trouble and so is my sister, Kim. You met Kim, you liked her. Please send us some good luck. We're heading into Cairo. That's in Egypt. You knew that, but I just wanted to be sure. I've never even been out of the country before. But I need to get our baby and my sister back. Hope you like the date loaf! I added walnut to it.

Knees hurting from the hard ground, Sally was about to stand up, when she remembered.

Also, I made two new friends. They have magic, but I'm pretty sure they're not demigods. They promised to help me. I have their word. Lily and James are super nice.

She nodded to herself and then stood up. The flames changed colours, bursting to a soft green, reminding her of Percy's eyes. The date loaf turned to ash, disappearing in an instant. A delicious smell filled the old, abandoned building.

Lily and James were stunned.

"How… how did you do that?" he stammered. "I thought you said you didn't have magic?!"

Sally brushed the wet dirt off of her knees. "I don't. But Percy's dad is… pretty far out. He heard me. He knows we're going to Cairo."

Lily's hand jerked towards her pocket, breathing hard. "When you say Percy has magic… it's not the kind we have, huh?"

"Probably not," Sally admitted. "But you promised."

James made a face as the fire vanished, put out by a strange gust of wind that smelled like the ocean. Sally breathed it in, feeling better already. Poseidon was watching over them.

She'd rather he snap his fingers and send Kim and Percy straight home, but this was apparently the next best solution.

"This'll be a good story for the kids," Lily whispered to James who groaned aloud.