Percy POV

"So what would you do if I told you that I was actually your son, and you didn't know because an evil witch had wiped all of your memories of me?" I asked the two people in front of me. Both of them just stared at me, probably wondering whether or not I was high. Well, I can assure you that I am not. Alcohol was something that had never appealed to me. The idea of being drunk and not knowing what you were doing made me sick. I mean, anything could happen and you would have no idea what you did! I sighed. My "mom" stared at me, not recognizing her son, who she had loved and cared for over 18 years. It drove a knife of pain through my heart. The fact that my parents had no memories of me. It made me want to cry like a 5 year old again.

Unfortunately, I was Persus.

They hadn't changed much, and neither had the house. I could still smell delicious blue cookies; it made my mouth water, which must've looked pretty rude, not gonna lie. I just stood there, waiting for a reply. I got one, too. A slam of a door in my face. Well had I been expecting. Perhaps a "oh Perseus I've missed you for ages," or a "That moon goddess was so rude!". Well that was silly. They didn't know who I was. What had I been expecting?

Sighing, I trudged away from my house. That's right. TRUDGING! There was barely any energy left in my body. I know I was a god, but I felt like a weak human again. Part of the problem was riptide. When I had abandoned my faithful sword, I had expected it to come running back towards me, like it usually does, after a while. Well, after an hour of leaving the hunt, it hadn't come back to me. A few hours later, it still hadn't come back to me. By then, I was feeling desperate, and faithless. Faithless in my sword which I had abandoned. Now, days later, I was trudging down Manhattan, unarmed except from the small knife I had snuck into my pockets, most likely worthless in a fight of any kind. I know Manhattan was one of the worst places to go to, seeing as Olympus was practically next door, but it was one of the few places that I actually knew.

While I was no Annabeth, I did have a few theories on why Riptide wasn't returning to me. One was that someone had kidnapped it and was keeping it in some container which caused its magic to stop working. Another was that, perhaps seeing as I had practically disowned my sword, its power that was bound to me was unbound. I had no idea, but I knew that it had been one of my biggest mistakes. My godly power had been reduced to 10%, which was still pretty powerful, but not as powerful as I used to be. Unfortunately, it was still powerful enough for monsters to sense me, and try to attack me. The few fights that I had got into hadn't been too bad. I had walked away with only a few cuts here and there. Nothing I wasn't used to. However, I knew that soon, my luck would run out, and I would end up facing a twenty feet tall giant! Somehow, I could tell that would end up badly.

I had only been walking for a couple of minutes, but all of a sudden, there was a massive wave erupting up from the ocean. Simultaneously, a massive wind started blowing all around me. It was stopping me from walking more than ten feet in any direction. The gods must have figured out that I was here. As weak as I was, I still contained some godly energy. I knew that it was a bad idea to come here. Remind me why I did please.

Part of me wanted to just stop and let the gods come to me and heal me. They could help me heal and gain my power back. But that would mean meeting Artemis again. How will I ever look her into the eye again. I had no trust for her. And then would come the punishments for Artemis, Thalia, and whoever else had been part of the filthy plan. Could I really do that? It would destroy me! As un human as Thalia and Artemis were, I couldn't listen to their cries as a whip lashed against their skin, could I? No. Besides, I never want to go back to that golden palace. Too many bad memories. It is best that I get as far away as I can. Now, how would I actually escape?

My body was incapable of flashing, and I had figured that out the hard way. When I had first flashed, I had done so superbly. Same on the second time away from the hunt. However, the fourth time I had tried to flash without Riptide, my body had erupted in pain. I had appeared 20 miles away from my destination, screaming my head off. Loads of mortals were gathering around me, taking photos, videos, and asking if I was alright. I just couldn't speak. It took me 12 minutes before I could stand up without feeling too much pain. My body was still aching, but I knew that I needed to move before an ambulance came along. Weezing out a quick, "I'm alright," to everyone, I started hobbling away from there, eventually having to walk the remaining distance. I don't remember Zeus having flashing problems when his bolt was stolen, but I wasn't risking it ever again. That had been my end to flashing for a while.

The more I think about it, I think that I might've just eaten something funny which stopped me from flashing. Still, I'm not risking it any time soon. So I can't flash without consequences. If flashing isn't doable, then time control is too. While I can manipulate time to an extent, there is no way that I will be able to freeze the whole Olympian council. One god, maybe. Two is doubtful. Three is impossible. My eyes darted side to side, looking for some sort of exit. There was none. The wind was blowing me. The sun was beating me. The ocean was blocking me. Wait a second. I'm a time god, right. Well, I'm also still the son of Poesidon, so why am I scared of water? I can just walk right through it and be fine when I come out the other proud that I had found a flaw in this plan, I started walking to the ocean… completely forgetting the wind blowing against me.

It pushed me back so hard that I fell on the ground, scraping the side of my face against the rough concrete. When I put my hands down to push myself off, I could feel the sticky liquid stuck on the concrete, immediately knowing what it was. Ichor. What could I do now? It seemed that every god was trying to pull me in, and I was fighting against it. I didn't want to go back! Why did my body have to be so weak? It's not like I was entirely mortal. I still had a good grasp on time and was much stronger than any demigod could dream of being, but it was nothing compared to the power I had on that feast in Olympus. Even that had just been me testing my powers. Perhaps calling myself a mortal was a bit of an over exaggeration, but that couldn't hide the fact that I felt like the weakest god ever. I was probably too used to Riptide that I would need a month or two to get used to being without it. My power would increase then, don't you worry!

Until I was my true self again, I still needed an escape plan, and I needed it soon. I knew Apollo was increasing the heat so that I would come back because we had a good relationship after all the healing he had done for me. I will never forget that. Not in a million years. Still, I wish he would stop. I was starting to boil. I know Poesdion missed me, and Zeus simply wanted an answer to all this madness, something I was not ready for yet.

I just sat down on the burning concrete, essentially giving up. There was no method of escape. Zeus's winds were far too strong for my weak body. A hurricane around me. All I could do was wait for the gods to come and bring me up to Olympus. There, I would be judged on my actions. While I know that I'm not in the wrong, am I in the right? Did I have the right to walk away from the hunt? Perhaps Artemis had gone mad and killed Thalia because of it. The blame would fall on me. I would be stripped of my Godhood, only weeks after becoming a God. I would literally be the shortest god in history, and then exiled from Olympus. How would I live?

Okay well let's not jump to any conclusions. Artemis might've done nothing. Then, I would get no punishment. Instead, Artemis would be punished instead for sleeping with me. I would still be called a coward for no reason. And no one would like me. I sighed. Next time, if there even was a next time, I would plan a lot more.

The heat was so strong that I was squinting up in the sky laying down on the floor. The burning concrete didn't hurt too much. All I had to do was wait for impending doom. I stared at the sky, waiting for the gods to descend. That was when I heard the voice. A familiar voice that I felt like I hadn't heard in ages.

"Hang in there, cuz," the voice said in my ear. I couldn't see anything apart from the blinding sun. Who was this maniac who had decided to save me. Well he had just made a foolish mistake. You can't outrun all of the Olympians. Looking up, I felt like I could see all of the Olympians descending slowly towards me. The sun stopped glaring at me.

"Come with us, Perseus," Zeus said slowly, trying not to look at my scars or dirty, tattered clothes. I couldn't even shake my head. It was as if all of my power had disappeared in the presence of the Gods. My father Poesdion looked like he had been crying, which was an extremely rare event. Apollo's eyes pleaded for me to come to Olympus. Aphrodite looked like she had gotten into a bad fight as there were a couple of scars on her flawless body. But no matter how bad they all looked, none of them looked as bad as Artemis. Artemis looks 18 years old, similar to me. She was wearing a half ripped dress and had puffy red eyes, hinting that she had been crying a lot recently. I couldn't even look at her. I couldn't look at any of them. Had I really caused all of this.

For a second, Zeus looked happy, thinking he could pull me in. However, not a second later, he spotted something next to me, and immediately started panicking.

"SEIZE HIM!" he screamed all of a sudden.

There were screams, shrieks and yells. I saw all of the Olympians slowly moving towards me.

"Please come back Persues," Apollo pleaded. "Be rational."

"Me leaving is rationality itself," I managed to croak out.

"It's wrap time," the voice spoke. As it did, Artemis made a lunge for me, I stumbled backwards before tripping over something and landing back on the hard concrete. They were advancing on me. They had won.

I had no time to adjust. One second, Artemis was staring at me. The next, I was screaming in pitch back darkness. Voices were all around me. It was fast, and hurt. All that time, the person was speaking next to me.

"Venice, nah. Alaska, nah. Rome, never again! California, that will destroy him." A pause. "Well here sounds like an alright place. There may be bad memories, but there is an ocean."

The screaming stopped as fast as it had started. I was fine. My body was functioning.

"I'm sorry, but there was nowhere else," that voice said to someone. "It was the only good choice."

"Thank you," another, familiar female voice said.

Who were they. And where was I? I opened my eyes, only to close them straight away. All I could see was blinding light. But I could still smell the smell of an ocean.

Not sure if anyone knows what's going on. Any good? Did it feel a bit rushed?

Ocean and cinnamon.