I Don't Own Percy Jackson

(Percy POV)

Percy was having a very interesting day, well, most of his days were interesting when he was at Camp, but that by itself was unsurprising when he was used to the normally chaotic air that came from being friends with Nick. The guy was normally either around Percy himself, trying to stab him or make him do something or another, bouncing from cabin to cabin to find more people to hang out with that he normally didn't mess with regularly, or hanging with the Aphrodite cabin, mostly for Silena, who Percy thinks is Nick's best friend.

And that's where is problems at camp today starts, as always, with Nick.

Percy can't say he understands the fellow Half-blood, honestly Percy isn't sure anyone does, but what he does know of his friend that it is very hard to hate Nick. Sure he's annoying at times with how persistent he is at the more insane of ideas, but they almost always turn out to be fun, he's pretty funny when you actually take a step out from being annoyed about him being weird, and appreciate what he's saying as the joke itself.

Not to mention the guy loved being with people, since the day Percy met him, Percy has never seen a day where he didn't talk to at least a dozen different people. There was a reason Nick could just change what cabin he was going to hang with every other day and not get a single real complaint about it. He just grew on a person like that, being off beat and out of the norm in a camp of half-bloods was hard, but Nick managed and he lightened the mood of everyone by doing it.

He made everyone see that being children of gods could actually be fun as it was scary, he showed off by winning at any game he played, came up with insane stories about his travels, and learned abilities and powers that Percy had no idea where they came from and Nick never managed to explain enough for it to make sense. But it didn't have to because it was clear there didn't need to be a reason for it, everyone just had to accept it, and decide that, yeah, it was pretty cool.

And that's the issue, that's just how the camp was with Nick, he came and went, doing whatever the hell he wanted, causing chaos and being strange but admittedly awesome at the same time. Even Percy had to admit, for as much as everyone liked to point and stare at him for being the most brave or most talented, especially from Percy's first summer here, he had a feeling Nick was the type who liked to show off, but only to the point to prove something to himself.

That's what the mock fights were with Percy for, a test to both of them Percy and Nick, for what, Percy had no idea, but Nick was like Annabeth in that way, scary smart and scary pragmatic, Nick just didn't see a point in showing it off until he had to.

But apparently he had showed it off, because form what Percy has heard today, the day after Nick showed back up in camp after what was nearly two full months of being gone, from the ever constant rumor mill, was Nick, the weird kid who never did anything to actually scare or piss anyone off, who while incredibly strong and skilled and had way to many abilities that Percy had no idea how it worked, got another camper killed.

No, not killed as in got lost on a quest, he dragged her from her cabin, shoved her in front of Mr. D. and told the God that she was a traitor. He practically signed her death warrant willingly and without remorse, and when his friend, Silena, confronted him about basically killing her sister, he blew up.

Nick, the guy who never did more than pout when anyone mocked or belittled him, raved and shouted about how everyone in camp was stupid and wasted their time, and how he refused to waste his.

Percy from about two days ago wouldn't be able to see Nick being able to even be particularly loud outside of doing that to embarrass someone for his own amusement. But Percy learned something very important about Nick yesterday, and today, Percy fully understood both what Nick meant, and more about Nick as a person, more about how he thought and thinks about things.

Something Percy was sure no one could fully claim, even now, about the half-blood.

But Percy also thinks he has made progress in the endeavor all the same. Something, as a guy who wasn't always the brightest, Percy found himself being quite pleased with himself about.

Nick wasn't... normal, his value set was all over the place, and Percy understood that, Nick didn't exactly have someone like Percy's own mother, Sally Jackson, to teach him everything he needed to know about being a good person, even Percy struggled with that one at times. But that just meant Percy knew Nick didn't have a proper understanding of what was right and wrong.

And Percy knew just how his morals did work now from there talk where he gained a much better understanding on that. Nick was a child of Nike, the Goddess of Victory, he had nothing to base himself off of, he just had that, winning. And he is obsessed with it, over everything possible. Nick doesn't like winning, he needs to win.

Because he needs to win to be able to uphold his own view and morals on life. Percy had the idea of that before, but that was confirmed to him from his talk with Nick not to long ago.

Nick wants to live as long and as best as he possibly can, and from the looks of it, without a moral compass to back his wants up... Nick was willing to do whatever he had to, to make sure that was possible for him, that's what he saw winning as, living. From a logical standpoint, Percy could see why Nick did it, why Nick got pissed when he did something that would preemptively save other lives, through the most pragmatic solution possible, and got yelled at for it, even though Percy knew it couldn't have been easy for Nick to make that choice either.

The guy was literally friends with everyone, Percy wasn't even sure he himself knew everyone in camp's name yet, and he couldn't imagine being able to do what Nick did, who no doubt knew literally everyone.

Doesn't mean Percy was happy with his friend about it, he killed someone, knowing and understanding that she was going to die, some he knew and no doubt was at least on friendly terms with. And Percy couldn't justify that, there was no way of making that better in anyway.

And it also let Percy know just why everyone in camp was avoiding Nick like the plague, and the guy himself, seemed to be content with the sidelines, being on his own, walking around without anyone else, and chatting with whoever wanted to, but never starting the conversation himself. It was weird, and Percy didn't like it. It was clearly also had something to do with the fact it was a Aphrodite kid, that cabin had a grip on the social life of any camper at camp, whether that camper knew it or not.

Needless to say, Percy was very unsure about how to handle this, on one hand, his friend indirectly killed someone, on the other hand, his social butterfly of a friend had been shunned so hard he left for two more months all on his own just so he wouldn't have to deal with that, and the second he returned, the shunning returned like nothing happened.

It was like his mind and heart were being pulled in two directions, Percy didn't like his friend clearly being left out of stuff he'd normally be in charge of, but he also didn't like that his friend killed someone from the camp.

It was times like these Percy really wished he was normal, or Nick was normal, or Luke just wasn't a massive raging jerk. Any of the three would have been enough, and yet here he was, trying to figure out just how to broach the subject without coming across as... whatever he would come across to have Nick make fun of him when Percy was trying to be serious.

So of course it was at this time Nick dropped right next to Percy, a tilt to his head, and a glint in his void black eyes that Percy could swear used to be brown, as Percy realized that maybe he should find a spot for internal debates that wasn't the two's spot to hang out. Especially when he was trying to find out if he was suppose to be avoiding Nick or not at the moment. He just sort of got here because it's where he went to get away, by the water.

"Hello!" Percy didn't jump, but wanted to. Nick had the annoying ability to never be noticed unless he wanted to, Percy was just glad Nick normally wanted to, the show boat.

"Hey Nick" Nick just stared at Percy, and Percy did his best to not shiver, his friend didn't often look at anything like this, but that doesn't mean Percy wasn't used to it. Annabeth constantly looked like that, Percy wasn't sure she knew how to turn off her brain, or given this was Nick, she didn't know how to hide it.

"You heard about what I did about Drew?" He said it as a question, even did that head tilt thing Percy was pretty sure only cartoon characters did, but now he could only think of it as a Nick thing.

"Uh... No?" He just gave Percy a look, and Percy tried to not feel a bit dumb about trying to lie to a walking lie detector, and said to Nick. "Well, I mean, yeah, but I don't know if I want to talk about it just yet" He just hummed. His eyes moving back and forth, like he was reading something in the air, he did that a lot as well, before saying.

"You don't know how to feel about me at the moment, you don't know if this is enough to be a betrayal of your trust in me because I did it for the camp, but you're also to much of a goodie two shoes to side with how I handled the situation. So you are caught in between and trying to figure it out before you talk to me again" Percy... blinked, looking a bit stunned, as Nick just smirked at him, poking him in the forehead as Percy snapped out of whatever stupid look he was sure pulled on his face as Nick said, "You look like a sea otter when you do that"

"Shut up" Percy had a smile, but it vanished soon after as he sighed, "You're so... Whatever, how am I suppose to feel about this? I know you, you're not a bad dude, you just... focus on weird stuff, but you also killed someone! And I know you feel have to feel bad about it bu-" Nick got a weird look on his face, like Percy said something strange, and it made Percy's blood freeze as the words stopped in his throat. Percy managed to choke out his next words all the same.

"You do feel bad about it right?" Nick just stared at Percy, like Percy wasn't quite putting something together that was in front of him.

"No" Percy felt his breath catch as Nick hummed again, doing that thing with his eyes, moving back and forth, a tell of him thinking, before saying "Well, I feel bad because apparently Silena and the others don't like me for doing it. Which I don't really understand since it was either not do anything and have her kill someone, tell her cabin, and then they all get killed for not going straight to the gods, or tell a god and have her face them, and no one gets killed, possibly. She died, so I assume they found her guilty which she was"

Percy... Had to take a minute with that, as he stared at his friend... How could he not care? Percy couldn't imagine not caring, it just seemed... impossible, no matter the circumstance, there had to be something there right? Even Luke, when Percy had seen him on that overzelous ship, had seemed a tad remorseful when Thalia and Annabeth were brought up, and he was crazy!

"I... You know that's not... right? Right?" Percy was just confused, it didn't work in his head, monsters were monsters, gods were gods, it made sense when they didn't care, could do things like this without caring, but people? He knew some real bad ones, smelly Gabe for example, but even he couldn't imagine Gabe doing something like that even to his old poker buddies, half of which he hated given his luck of that day. Nick just shrugged, not looking to perturbed at the information.

"Yeah I know. I'm probably a sociopath at the bare minimum given how I feel about most things... Is that something I should have stated before now? I'm not really used to discussing this with people. Normally they run in the other direction by now" He said it with a quirk of a smile, it was a joke, Percy didn't feel like laughing. He wasn't really sure what a sociopath was, he only ever heard it on tv shows, but in those contexts it usually wasn't a good thing.

"What's that mean?" Nick blinked, before shrugging.

"Means I don't feel things like you do, or other people. I mean, I don't want you to die or could think about killing you, and I'll be real piss if something happened to you, or Silena, or any of the other people I know and like, but if it's just some person off the street? Eh, I don't know them, I don't care about them, if I don't get anything from it, then I probably wouldn't bother doing anything" Percy... leaned back, looked out at the water, and wondered what in the world he was suppose to do with that.

"I don't know what to think..." Nick snorted, like Percy said something funny.

"I don't see the big deal. Everyone makes a big deal about it you know? Well not the crazy and lacking morals part, well, kind of that to, but the not knowing what to think part. Like, come on, does this change anything? I do things for weird and kind of selfish reasons, like everyone else. Only difference is I won't try and justified it to myself. I do what I want, because it'll have the best outcome for both me and the people I want to be safe. You knowing that, does it actually change anything about me? About what I do and say? Does it some how make something about me different from knowing?"

Percy was stunned, for a lot of reasons, but mostly because of how just done Nick sounded, like he was tired of talking about this, like he had made this argument a hundred times, or had to at least think about it as many. And, hell, he probably has. Nick was weird as fuck, just from a generic standpoint, he was a trans half-blood who was different in nearly every way from any other half-blood in the camp.

Just that first one alone, Percy could only imagine how many times he's had to correct people about his gender, about how many times he had to force them to listen from knife point, or whatever crazy thing he would do to get his way. It made sense he sounded exhausted about explaining just why he wasn't actually different for someone learning something about him that no one thought about or even considered before.

And that was a whole other thing wasn't it? Nick wasn't different, before knowing about... that, Percy still could see just why Nick would do something like this, could see his reasoning, could see how it would happen, he didn't know the whole truth, but he knew enough that when Nick said that, Percy shouldn't have been surprised. But at the same time...

"I don't agree... I get how you could do it, I get where your logic comes from, but I don't agree with it, and I don't like it. I just... I don't like it" Nick just shrugged, he didn't seem surprised, though he did seem a bit... wary for some reason.

"You're, like, the perfect hero architype Percy, you'll never like it on basic principle. That's fine, you can be the one to save the world every other day, but I'm not like that, I just... don't care about it. Does that mean you're going to see me differently?" He genuinely sounded nervous, it was the first time Percy ever heard the half-blood sound like that.

"Just to confirm, you do have emotions and stuff right?" Nick's face scrunched up, before smirking a bit as he gave Percy another look before saying.

"I can feel things, just not... everything, or at least I don't feel some things when I'm suppose to. If I accidently kill a cat you can trust me that I'll be the guiltiest person alive because cats are adorable" Percy just stared at him, before a laugh escaped him before he could help it.

"Uh, sure buddy... You're... something man" He just shrugged.

"I know, something awesome!" He sounded cheerfully as ever, but that stopped as he lost the smile and looked back to the lake, a debate rolling over his eyes as Percy just waited before- "I know I don't do this thing right, and I know it can hurt my friends. I didn't mean to hurt Silena, I thought she would like to know, it's part of the reason I did it, but I ended up hurting her and she still doesn't want to talk to me. I'm not so self centered that I only do stuff for me you know? I care about people... just not a lot of them"

Percy had a feeling this was a big thing, something Nick wasn't sure about, something Percy was sure was a new thing for the guy, he went through everything with confidence, a skill Percy was kind of jealous of actually. He couldn't help but think Nick just did something he had been debating about for months. He still wasn't quite sure what to think about all this still, there was just to much on his mind, but he did know what it was like to care past yourself for your friends, to want to make sure they were safe and happy and how it guides your decisions.

And above all else, Nick was Percy's friend, and this wasn't going to change that, it was just going to take a bit for Percy to figure out just exactly he thought about it.

"Thanks for telling me" He just rolled his eyes.

"This is the second big feel good talk we've had in two days. If this was a romance story then we'd probably be fucking by now" Percy choked on his own spit as Nick's laugh echoed around him.

Gods, his friend was so weird.

Percy wasn't sure he would have preferred it any other way.

(Silena POV)

Nick was back.

Silena was having a very hard time with that, he showed up two days ago, and since then she's already had a talk with Percy about him, and it did nothing to help her thoughts on her best friend... Was he even her friend? What kind of best friend get's her sister killed! What kind of best friend doesn't even tell her about it before doing it! What kind of best friend doesn't even say sorry and mean it?

What kind of friend makes like she and everyone else are the crazy ones for not being as crazy as he was to not see life the way everyone else does. What kind of friend tells her that, makes her think she's the one that is reacting wrong, or is acting wrong.

That was no friend, that's the answer, it was as clear cut as it should be! Nick shouldn't be her friend, she shouldn't miss him hanging around, she should be able to just avoid him and hate him, and not think twice about it.

She shouldn't miss the random comments, shouldn't miss the crazy stories, shouldn't miss the way he could just say something and have her laughing, shouldn't miss just how seamless he could just fall into any conversation, any group, and act like he belonged there, she shouldn't miss him.

She missed him a lot, and that made it hurt even more, because Nick was her best friend, somehow he managed to get there in a few interactions, and then stayed there without a hint of an idea of leaving. And then he hurt her, he hurt her badly and after he did leave, without a word, and yeah everyone had been avoiding him, and she sure as hell didn't want to see him at the time, not sure what she would even do if she did, but...

But to just leave! The nerve of him, especially after saying he wouldn't do it again when she thought he died!

Then he showed up, did a small try to talk to her, she ignored him, and then he just did the same! Like he could just pretend she wasn't around!

And for some reason Jackson thought Nick was the one in the right? Or at least not wrong enough that he wanted to defend Nick? What the hell? It was just...

Silena didn't know, it was to much to think about, not enough time to process it all and she had no idea how to even approach something like this. She lost a half-sister, sure she didn't really like drew all that much, but Drew was still family. And Nick was her best friend, who was such a stupid idiot, and... She didn't fucking know what she wanted alright?

She wanted Drew to be alive, she didn't want her sister to be such an idiot to get wrapped up in Luke and his bullshit, she didn't want to think about how she could have been in the same spot if Luke had asked her instead if Nick hadn't been around her so much. She wanted Nick to talk to her, she wanted Nick to leave her the hell alone, she wanted to know what the hell Nick did this time, and why he had a gun on him now, but she also wanted to scream at him.

It was a lot, and she had no idea just how to get through any of it!

So Silena just ignored it, she just kept avoiding Nick, who cares if on the third day she also happened to drop of new clothes for him, it's because what he was wearing looked like it belonged in the last century and nothing else! And so what if she kind of missed the green cloak she helped make for him, even if it did make him look a bit goofy in it.

She certainly didn't! And so the next day passed on by, and then the next and the next, and soon a week went on by, and suddenly Nick was leaving again. This time with Percy, Annabeth, and Thalia, saying he had a quest from a god up north and wanted to go with them while they picked up some new half-blood. It was on the way, apparently that's what Nick said, with that smile that could mean anything from him finding something funny to planning how to best punt kick a kid across the camp's lake.

Silena hadn't come up with anything to say or do by the time the four had left, all she heard was that Percy looked pretty awkward about it when Sally Jackson, Percy's mom, pulled up to him and four presenting good looking girls wearing three very different styles.

If nothing else about this nightmare, the thought about the teasing the big three kid was enduring, either from his own mom, or Nick, was enough to get a smile from Silena, as she wondered, once more, not for the first time, just what the hell was she suppose to do next.

And for some strange reason, the loud, annoying, and painfully persistent Nick like voice in her head, had her for some reason standing in front of the Hefestus cabin. She needed someone right now, someone who wasn't one of her siblings, someone who was not Nick, and someone who could be logical but caring and nice. And for some reason, that lead her here.

Wondering if Charles was around to talk.

Sally Jackson was the best and most hilarious person I've ever met, we got on incredibly well from the moment I realized her potential, and if there was ever one thing to bond me with Annabeth and Thalia, it was through watching Percy Jackson squirm and be red in the face for the entire eight hour drive up as I listened to every single embarrassing detail of Percy's life growing up.

It was pretty damn great.

Thalia opened up with me a fair bit, she liked fucking with Percy to much to resist being social with the weird kid, and I think I even melted a bit of Annabeth's coldness towards me through long term exposure to my charming wits.

I seem to have that effect on people. Adriel thought it was rapid onset Stockholm syndrome.

Whatever that was.

Still, we got dropped off Sally fussed for a while before finally taking off as Thalia asked.

"So, Nick, you going to leave now? Walk to the next town over or something?" I blinked before looking at her with a smile.

"Why would I walk? I can teleport" They just stared at me, before Annabeth huffed.

"Yeah right, if you could do that then why did you take the car with us?"

"Because then I wouldn't be able to find out so much entertaining information about Percy here of course" Annabeth gave me a look, Percy groaned, and Thalia just smirked, giving me a once over again before saying.

"I get that, Percy you mom is seriously awesome"

That got the conversation back to moving as the two walked to the gate, as Annabeth gave me a long look before saying.

"You have something you need to do here don't you?" I smiled. she didn't like me because I was to clever for her to predict, but I liked her because she was the only person who's been able to read me at all. She was scary smart. It's like Percy's overpoweredness got focused just into one trait, that trait being intelligence, and all that raw power was then shoved into this girl's brain. She was still way smarter than me, she just wasn't as cunning with that mind.

"Catch" I tossed her something, as she blinked before shooting her hands out, barely managing to catch the small Stygian Ice stick, she blinked as I moved back and said.

"I don't spend months at a time away from camp doing nothing, some shit is about to go down, and I figure if you have the chance, use that and I'll come help" She blinked, looking down at the item again for a moment, before saying.

"What even is this?" I just smiled. That was one of the many uses for Stygian Ice I've learned through months of experiments.

"A beacon, snap it in half and wherever you level those two pieces I'll be able to follow" Sort of, it was more complicated than that, but the idea was similar to magnets, that was once piece that had one mana signature in it already, and I had an identical one in my bag still. Snapping one would activate the pull, and would lead the other in the direction of the broken pieces.

"You know something is happening don't you?" I just shrugged.

"I know everything that is happening, doesn't mean I can stop it, now go catch up, I have my own part to play" It was going to be a lot more cushy than hers was going to be, but I didn't see a reason to mention that, instead Annabeth shot me a long look before saying as she moved away.

"One day I'm going to make you drop that mask of yours. I want to see the real you" I huffed at that.

"Heh, trust me, no you don't" I vanished into a shadow that leaped up to engulf me before she could say anything else.

I reappeared onto the roof, and just stared on up at the sky for a moment, looking at that big old moon. I was going to have so many questions answers tonight...

Thoughts for later, I moved over to the edge, the one that faced out to the cliff, the one Annabeth will be going over soon, as I just sat down, swigging my legs about as I waited.

I should have brought popcorn to be honest, it was like watching a soap opera, as the half-bloods fought and moved themselves, trying to protect the two kids who had no idea what was happening against one of the strongest monsters I've ever seen. I honestly don't think I've fought one as deadly or as skilled as that Manticore down there, and considering the thing was keeping up against two demigods from the Big Three, I'd probably get my ass handed to me in a straight one on one.

Annabeth went off the edge, and I let her. I could have stopped it, but the plot needed to keep on moving how I needed it to, the time would come where I would fuck the Fates over, but I needed more time until I could deal with those repercussions as well as to wait for the best time to actually fuck Chronos and his boytoy over. Besides, I'm going to be pissing off Fate enough in the next few days that I think it wouldn't be worth the risk.

She'll be fine of course, Fate was a ridged bitch like that, it's why even for all Percy's extra strength from me trying to beat the hell out of him, he some how froze when confronted with a beast he should have been able to beat. Still, it was my time to shine, as I plastered on my smile, and walked forwards, falling off the roof as I looked over towards the small child surrounded by teenage girls that just showed up, saving the day, Artemis.

"Hi!" Everyone's attention snapped towards mine as I wandered over, Percy's eyes were unfocused when they looked at me, he was probably in shock. "Artemis right?" The Maiden goddess smiled as she turned to look at me. Definitely one of the kinder Gods out there, but damn she was impossible to be able to actually track down.

"Yes my child?" I just kept smiling, walked up to her, past two very shocked di Angelos who were staring at me in something close to awe, Percy who was still out of it, and Thalia who was giving me a very sharp look, as I said to the Goddess surrounded by her loyal gaggle of immortal minions.

"I have so many questions! You have no idea! I've had these things for so long! Ok, first up, do transwomen count as women, and if not, why? Is it a mind over body thing or just a body thing" She... just stared at me, everyone was staring at me, I blinked, waiting just long enough to not get an answer before continuing.

"No answer? Ok, what about trans men? Do they count as women still for the same reason trans women don't in this hypothetical? If so, do transgender men count to receive your blessing, and if so, does it matter on a body level only then. And if that is the case, how will you address the allegations of transphobia by the sports teams for who and who can not receive your blessing? Also do lesbians get to join your group, because you have a whole thing against romance, and girls can still like girls without guys being in the picture with girls developing romantic and sexual interests years before some guys, therefore are you homophobic and how will you address those allegations?"

Artemis was just staring at me, so I continued.

"And if a trans guy does count enough as a woman to get your blessing via DNA, then if that person happens to get a sex change, like, full body rewrite, chromosomes and everything, do they get to keep the blessing or does that go away? And if a girl gets your blessing, does that mean they have to join you, do you only have one type of blessing? Because I personally wouldn't want the immortality part and the taking of my independence to following you around everywhere like a sycophant" I thought about it for along moment before saying, "Ok, I think that's all my questions, but I might have more later. I've been thinking about this since the first time I met a Moon Goddess. Oh! That reminds me! Can I have a piece of your chariot?"

No one continued to say anything for a long, long, long minute, as I just looked around, looking at the stunned disbelief on literally everyone's faces, even the Goddess, who was looking more than a little curious about my question, before pouting to myself.

"Oh come on, no one has had these thoughts before, really? We're Greek, transgenderism isn't a new concept" Before anyone could say anything to answer my incredibly important questions, Bianca seemed to finally have enough as she shouted out.

"Wait! What the hell is going on! I- Nick why the hell are you here, what the hell are you talking about, what the heck just attacked us, and why is everyone acting like this child is- is- some Goddess!?" I blinked, as eyes moved back and forth between us before Percy finally blurted out.

"Wait, you know Nick?" I was honestly a bit shocked about that to, but pleasantly surprised.

"Yeah? I mean, sort of? We met him a few months ago, before we got to the school, in the place we were staying at before we were moved here" I blinked, as the eyes were on me again as I said.

"What?" Percy... sighed, rubbing his forehead with clear overwhlemedness as Thalia said.

"Why the hell didn't you mention you knew about two Half-bloods? Why are you still here?" I blinked, before pointing at the two kids and said.

"I said I had a quest from a God, their dad wants them safe, so I'm here to protect them for a while since I already knew them from about two years back"

"W-what what? We don't have a dad, we're orphans!" No one believed her, but it seemed before I could continue to make the situation worse, aka more amusing, Artemis stepped forwards, moving to the children, clearly intent on explaining what was happening to the young'uns before she stopped and looked at me.

"We will have a talk later, I find your questions curious little one" I just smiled and let the plot move on, as the two kids went off for a while with the goddess, as I stayed with Thalia and Percy while Grover made an ass of himself, trying to look good in front of the hunters, said hunters all of which weren't sure whether to glare at me for basically waterboarding their goddess with questions or shocked and awed because I waterboarded their goddess with questions and somehow made said Goddess not be pissed off at me for disrespect.

That's around the time that Percy managed to get his wits around him as he moved over to me before hissing into my ear.

"You could have helped! Annabeth would still be- be here" I turned and looked at him, he was glaring, but he looked hurt and scared more than anything, well, not really, but I can kind of sense emotions from words, so... Point stands.

"She's fine, and we'll get her back. Do you think I would actively not do something that makes myself look good if I didn't have to? Or that I would do something like this to you if I thought it would lead in her death?" He took a long breath in, before shaking his head.

"No, you're not that much of a jerk" I just gave him a smile and a pat on the shoulder.

"Then trust she'll be fine. Just... removed from the equation for a while, no big deal" He gave me a look at that, but didn't say anything else, though it was clear my words did a world of good to getting him to relax, not a lot, but enough.

Anyways, before long, a bunch of things happened, most of them boring, the di Angelos got the you're a half-blood harry speech, Bianca wasn't talking it well, Nico thought it was awesome, we ended up playing mythomagic, Nico raved about it, claiming he'd beat me this time, as Bianca moved through and just sort of existed before Artemis invited her for another chat, I just hummed to myself and waited.

While absolutely crushing Nico of course, but the kid was in high spirits. So much unlike the incredibly edgy little emo he would one day possibly become. His life is the one that is probably going to change the most radically because of all my meddling, and I have to say, I'm quite interested in knowing just how he'll turn out... Though for the time being, as we played our little game, I glanced up at him and-

Nico di Angelo
Heritage: Demigod (Son of Hades)
Age: 10
Level: 4

Mana Points: 4,525/4,525
Stamina Points: 4,250/4,250

What the actual fuck?

I know in the books Nico is a major badass and, like, super strong given he is four years younger than Percy, and frankly from a power stand point, out classes the other demigod in terms of range of abilities and strength of them as well. Percy can lift a few thousand gallons sure, but Nico can travel continents with two passengers and a thousand tons of statue.

It took more than a bit of mana from me, nearly half, to even cross a few states, and I had thousands of points to burn, over twice as much as he had now, which was stupid by itself. I mean, logically I knew the kid was probably the most powerful ability user in the entire series, probably at most tied by Percy, but Percy's Percy, but for him to have that much mana, without an inch of training, at age ten?! It was honestly ridiculous, but it shouldn't be surprising either.

Big Three children are such absolute bullshit, by the time Nico hit the same level Percy had been when he first got to camp, the kid was probably going to have more Mana than Percy did now, I think the only reason Nico wasn't the strongest demigod in the series is because using Underworld stuff has a horrible impact on his mistreated and clearly abused body, not to mention, it costs to fucking much to use just shadow travel, I can't imagine how costly it is to have skeletons poke themselves out from the ground and control them by the dozens.

Like I said, Big Three children are such absolute bullshit. But Nico was awesome, both as a character and as a real boy, and I can only imagine how strong he'll get with some proper motivation. I wonder just how much potential Bianca has if Hades thought Nico should have been the one to die instead?... Hmm, probably not as much to be honest, she certainly wasn't the smart one given how she died, I think Hades wanted Bianca to be the surviving one because she was the one that was closer to sixteen.

Anyways, I kept beating Nico up via card games for about half an hour before Bianca finally arrived back from her talk with Artemis, and right away I could tell she made the deal. I could sense stuff of course, from spirits to weak points to lies and truths to shadows, but I didn't need any of them to see the way she moved.

It was impossible for a twelve year old untrained girl to move with at level of skill, every step measured before she could think about it, walking so gracefully and with care, that the snow didn't even crunch under her foot falls. It should be impossible for the sudden spike in her everything, but it wasn't, because I knew what caused it.

Still pretty weird to see, and I couldn't help but wonder if this is what it's like for other people when I just show back up with a new list of skills and powers. Because I have to say, being on the other end of it was pretty weird, as I watched as she approached the two of us, a look on her face, as she asked Nico to follow her for a minute.

I don't know if it's because Nico just knew his sister that well, or it was one of those kid of death things, but I think he knew something was wrong, as he gave her a look, staring at her as he stood, like he was trying to figure out what was missing or different from his sister but not sure just how to label whatever it was he was seeing.

I didn't have to wonder, instead I just looked at her and saw her.

Bianca di Angelo
Heritage: Demigod (Daughter of Hades)
Age: 12
Level: 25

Mana Points: 7,525/7,525
Stamina Points: 27,450/27,450

Huh, that is something, she had barely any mana to speak of in comparison to her brother, but she has over the same amount of Stamina as Percy of all people, and she was only just over half his level, that was... insane, but that's about normal for this kind of thing. Still it's pretty damn clear who got what from Hades. Nico got the raw magical talent, and Bianca was literally flowing with the psychical side of things.

If she didn't just freeze her body in time where it would never grow or age, then I could see her being psychically just as strong, if not a fair bit stronger than Percy in a few years. As it stands, she just capped her potential. Her body will ever grow old or change, level doesn't mean the same to others as it does to me, those numbers will never move expect for down when she uses them.

She'll become more and more skilled, and with that boost she just got along with her natural potential, she's already probably one of the best the Hunter's have, but she'll never move past that to something more.

It's why for all my talk about Artemis and her blessings, if I don't get it exactly the way I ask, then I will refuse to accept it. I don't want immortality, I don't want anything of the sort, the idea of it, never changing and growing, of becoming better over time and becoming older was the worst feeling I could imagine... Ok, not the worst, but it was up there. Sure, it probably wouldn't effect me like that, but the idea that it could...

Plus it was nightmare fuel to think I'd be stuck as a girl for an eternity.

But then again I don't exactly get dreams, so maybe it wouldn't be since those are negated by Gamer's Body? I'm saying I wouldn't know, I've never had a dream or a nightmare before. My thoughts were broken as Zoe walked up to me, as I glanced up to her and said happily.

"Hi, wanna play mythomagic?" I gestured to the cards in front of me, and she just stared at me, I stared back.

"Thy lady will speak with thy now. Knowith thy place when thy speak with lady Artemis" I just shrugged, before saying back to her.

"I never know my place, it's how I got into half the shit I've been through. Knowing my place usually is bullshit, but I'll see how it goes" She bristled up a bit, I had a feeling the two of us weren't going to be the bestest of friends, but I stood up all the same. She seemed the type to try and shoot me in the head with her bow if I pissed her off to much, and I was the type to shoot her in the head with my gun for trying to shoot me, and that wouldn't get us anywhere.

Heading off, it wasn't exactly long before I found myself in front of Artemis, in a tent that had already been sent up, which was pretty sweet all things considered, who was giving me a considering look.

"You are the half-blood that has raised Olympus's alarms" I blinked at that.

"I did what now? That sounds like something I'd remember" She just smirked.

"You were not present, but your actions have far reaching consequences, all us Olympians know of you, of what you are doing, collecting blessings like tokens to be traded in, you have even managed to earn Dionysus' blessing and both Poseidon's and Hermes interest, no small task, when we put to a vote whether we should kill you or not they were in great favor to keep you around" I blinked at that, wondered if that should be concerning... before settling on something more important.

"Cool, obviously I'm not dead, so thanks for that. Well, maybe thanks, which side did you vote for?" She just smiled.

"The others were scared of what you might become, I chose to see you as more an assets of what you can do for us... Of course, that was before you managed to gain even the Night Mother's favor, and now it is simply out of our hands. Father can not risk the idea of provoking her wrath on the cusp of war with the Titans. You have gained yourself freedom from Olympus's judgement. For as much as I understand just how easily you could turn against us, I also understand the need for a woman to be strong and capable on her own" ...And she nearly had me liking her to.

"I'm a guy" She just waved a hand, dismissively.

"What you assign yourself does not change what you are both inside and out, you may think whatever you may wish, and ask those around you to respect that, but until the time comes in which you are able to change yourself as fully as you seem to want, you are a woman to me. One I can find myself respecting, if this offends you, I apologize, but I am the one who looks over maidens and young women, and you qualify as both" I frowned at that.

"Ok, rude" She smiled stared at me, like she was unaware of the point I was trying to make. Yeah, alright, I can see where she is coming from but fuck her anyways. Still, I've made deals with Goddess that I don't like before, this time was probably no different, as I sighed and said

"So back to my question, will you give me your blessing, that won't involve me becoming one of your hunters, just... like, the standard package you give people who aren't interested in living forever? And will that go away when I do become a man 'inside and out' as you so put it?" Artemis seemed to think it over for a moment before saying.

"I don't not hold this deep seated sexism that some seem to think of me. It is just there are hardly in men that have earned my respect, you as a woman have already managed that, I see no reason why that will change over time, as long as you prove yourself worthy of the hunt, then you are allowed my blessing" It really is as easy as asking most of the time, though, I had a feeling-

"But I will not give it to you now, I want to see if can keep on this path, past the titans, and within the form you so desire, and see how your ambition feeds you then. And if you ever step from the righteous path, ever move away from the aligned goals you have found yourself in with Olympus, I will remove this chance from you, and I will hunt you down myself should you somehow mislead anyone else" Yeah, there it was, that sounded about right.

I could argue for it, but... I didn't really need her blessing, this was mostly just to see if I could get it... and to get just so many of my questions answered, like, just all of them... And for something else.

"I don't suppose to you give me something with a bit of Moon light in it instead then? Preferably full Moon light... if that's a thing you can do" She just smiled.

"You wish to feel closer to the other Moon goddess you have managed to gain the respect of. Admiral and hardly worth a cost to me, your wish is granted" Yeah... that's it, I wanted to be closer to Lupa, and not hang the smooth lightly glowing stone she conjured from thin air onto my necklace so I always have Lupa's Blessing activated... Totally.

Though it is good to know that selling down, a fun trick in giving a big request first, so when the smaller second request comes, the one that you actually wanted in the first place, the person in question is less lightly to shut you down, also seems to work on gods. Anyways-

[Moon Stone of Artemis:
A small stone given to you by Artemis holding a small portion of pure moonlight
When mana is channeled into this stone you can do one of the two effects:
-The stone glows a strong silvery light
-The stone can be changed in appearance]

[Notice: Perk [Lupa's Blessing] has activated; +15 temporary levels to all skill!]

Ah, that's the good stuff.

I focused on the stone and watched as it morphed just a bit until it had a small hook on the top, I attached it to the necklace I was already wearing with my piece of Stygian Ice.

All my skills, at least the ones with phantom modifiers, are all at least twenty-five to twenty-nine levels above what they say they are, and that is pretty awesome.

I left after that, heading around the improv camp being set up before finding myself in a dog pile, literally, the hunter's hunted with actual wolves, and I had a bond with all canines out there, these little fluffy ones were no exception. They also had a lot of incredible gossip about the Hunter's.

Oh yeah, in case anyone forgot, I can literally speak dog. It's sort of like how Percy can understand horses, expect I didn't get it from my Godly parent, I got it from Lupa's blessing, since apparently she's a dog, who would have guessed with the whole being a ten foot tall wolf Goddess. So that just means that these dogs were extra cool because we can understand each other.

Past that, since understanding doesn't automatically make me like them, I'm not sure what kind of animal person I was, I had a ghost butterfly in my chest, I had the respect of all dogs from Styx, and owls are pretty cool because of my connection to Nyx. All things considered, I had a few connections with a lot of animals, but... I wasn't really sure which one I liked.

I also still didn't have a favorite color, I didn't have a favorite food, hell I have so less of a favorite food, when I drink Nectar it doesn't even have a taste. I still don't know what kind of clothes I like, I don't know if I have a preferred music or I even liked music at all. I had some videogames but I barely played them so I don't even know if I like them or not.

It's one of those weird things, that when I stopped for to long to think about I feel weird.

I have two legacy's, Nike as my Mom, four divine blessings, was one of the strongest mortals alive, been to a dozen countries, and have been to a realm of death so much I can probably have it written down as a secondary residence... And I still honestly have next to no clue who the hell I am...

That's a real sad thought, so I'm going to go back to playing with my new dog friends. They were silly, and liked talking about how they ripped the throats out of their enemies, which was just adorable. So I talked to them a lot about my own stuff, about the time I scaled the side of a Cipactli in the middle of Honduras with daggers until I got high enough that I could slice it's throat open, or at least that was the plan, we got hit by an RV before I managed it. They really liked that, so I kept telling them stories.

Like the time I was strangling a Kukudh with the water from the pouring rain pounding down on us, when I got side tackled by a Ahuizotl, who ripped up my side and I had to put it in a strangle hold with my legs while my arms were busy pushing the kukudh who was trying to rip the soul from my chest. I remember that because Adriel was very frantic about the whole thing, making it really hard to see with all the messages he was spamming in front of my face.

I decided to not mention that part to my adoring audience.

Said audience had a habit of growing, Nico had joined the ranks with a huff a while back, and now he was snuggling with the wolves and enraptured with my stories, clearly he had been pissed about Bianca leaving, but his ADHD went brrr and now he's to focused on what I'm saying to remember he's suppose to be mad. It was adorable.

A few hunters also showed up, they looked mostly impressed about all the stuff I've killed and the creative ways in which I did it. Bianca, who showed up after she realized Nico was here, after almost having a small heart attack from seeing him literally half under a wolf who was using his hair to clean their tongue off, looked mostly ill, and clearly wanted to get Nico back to talk to him, but with his attention not on her, and with the massive wolf in the way, she seemed to just be stuck in the limbo of hanging around being forced to listen to my awesomeness.

I didn't mind, it was nice to have people to tell all my stories to again, so that's what I did, I missed being able to rant about my stuff to other people.

Time pasted, everything was neat enough, the tents were all set up... and by a few extra hours time they were put down, the sun was rising, and as such Apollo would be showing himself soon. Good, I wasn't particularly interested in his blessing, but I figured it would be nice to see the God, out of all the gods in the Greek side of things, I knew him the best.

He had a whole book series I don't remember reading about him after all. Sure, this was before all that nice character development stuff, but somethings from it should still apply.

Either way, the dawn was fast approaching and the God was on his way.

I wonder if he'll be as hot as the books said he was?

In the last forty hours I have watched a full eighteen episode forty minute season of a medical drama tv show, worked two over time shifts, have written over twelve thousand words between this chapter and a horror short story idea about ambulances and screaming I couldn't get out of my head, and I have not slept at all in this time. I am ready to either become god or kill him.

But seriously, my ass has been kicked by my insomnia, and it sucks. So the feel of this chapter is probably... a bit weird compared to the rest, at least I think so, either that or I'm just so good it doesn't matter and no one noticed, but either way, I feel... wierd about it, but that's because I have a habit of mimicking whatever media I'm watching at the time in my writing when I'm really tired, and the show I'm watching, The Good Doctor, while awesome, would totally recommend, has a lead character that isn't the best for the habit for consistent characterization.

But for actual story notes, I drifted a bit into another POV, well, two of them, for this chapter, and it was fun, I might do it again a few more times in the future when viable, or I just don't want Nick's view to be the one focused on for an important conversation. It's a whole thing, but on the other hand, we're finally into the actual fun book plot of this story, it'll last at most two or so chapters, and then I'll be doing some more crazy stuff, and then repeat with the other books until heroes of Olympus starts up and then... I'll suffer because I haven't thought that far ahead yet, I'm just up to the point where the first big part of this story is going to take place in, and wondering if just finishing it off before then when Nick becomes a real boy... Or if I want to keep going until Nick kicks Nyx's teeth in, or at least do something close enough, without instantly dying for the action. One will keep this shit going for a long while, and... I have to see just how my own personal motivation is at that point. I get burn out real quick when I power write stories like this, and just for reference, I'm finishing this chapter on October fourth, yesterday I posted chapter ten, that's, like, sixty thousand words right there extra on top of the seventy thousand already posted in under three weeks... Fucking hell 130k words in about half a month just for this story and non of my own original shit that no one ever sees. Wild... Anyways, See ya.