Hey guys, I hope you all enjoy this chapter! The Luke thing hasn't been decided yet btw, I'm trying to figure out if it'd work or not, but he wouldn't be getting off easy.
Replies:
Thickneck: I have pretty clear plans of how and when I'd do it, I just want to know if people think there's any points where he's redeemable- the thing is there'll be a lot of difference from canon in how it goes. But he will not get off easy if he does.
Undeath9087: I definitely think canon Luke is an asshole, but there's certain times when I think he might be reasoned with- though as I've said, it wouldn't be easy on him. And his relationships with certain people would literally never fully recover, believe me on that. He would get multiple beatings for stuff that I have planned for him to do.
Ryan Fowler: Percy: I'm gonna kill those- awe! No!
J1012020: Yeah, it's honestly kinda complicated no matter what with gods and mortals relationships.
Guest: Don't worry I get what you were saying- as for your later question about it- Percy doesn't heal with water that often, Sadie's seen her do it before- but let's face it, she did it a couple of times during the week or so they were dealing with Set, but after that she wouldn't have needed to do it that often in the three months since- so it's not something Sadie really thinks of. Also- Percy just doesn't want to waste time explaining since she's already pretty drained from everything. As for your Luke questions- see it's hard to answer without spoiling things- he will still be the Lightning Thief, but it's going very different from canon in what I have planned, and he won't even get the chance to try and recruit Percy, so make of that what you will. I know how it'd work if I did it that way it's just would he ever switch?
Guest: I do see what you're saying. If I do have him switch it'd be largely for self preservation reasons and partly due to guilt for one specific thing he's gonna do.
Guest: He's definitely not going to have it easy if he does switch sides- and he's never going to like the gods exactly. But I do think I have a realistic way to do it if I do go that way.

Percy hit the water, dropping like a stone- and she felt warmth and strength surging through her as she opened her eyes and let out a breath. The pain from her shoulders was fading quickly.

Unfortunately Percy knew that she couldn't waste time- she needed to get back to Sadie. So she used the water to push herself up, bursting up through the surface, riding a waterspout up to the level of the bridge- and she leapt off of the water spout, clearing the distance between it and the bridge with ease, landing in a crouch.

And when she straightened up she blinked rapidly.

It looked like it was over- Sadie's Gran and Gramps were on the pavement, with Sadie leaning over them worriedly- and- Percy blinked as she stared at Bes.

He'd gotten changed, he was showing off his disgusting physique —his potbelly, hairy limbs, awful feet, gross flabby bits—and wearing only a blue Speedo. It wasn't a sight for the weak hearted. Percy blinked slowly. "Cool." she said after a moment, "You beat those two? Saves me a job."

"Hah! I like you too." Bes grinned at her. "Bast said you two were her favorites."

"Of course we are." Percy made her way towards Sadie- and her grandfather was waking up, groaning as Sadie stroked his forehead gently.

"Sadie?" his voice was very faint, weak.

"I'm here Gramps." Sadie stroked his forehead gently, "How do you feel."

"Strange craving for mangoes." He went cross-eyed. "And possibly insects. You…you saved us?"

"Not really," Sadie started, "It was mostly Percy and my friend-"

"Certainly they saved you." Bes interrupted her, "Brave girls you have their, very skilled magicians."

The old man focused on Bes and scowled. "Bloody Egyptian gods in their bloody revealing swimwear. This is why we don't do magic."
Percy snorted at that, rolling her eyes as she moved so that she was crouched next to Sadie- she glanced over at her sisters gran- who was still out cold, though Percy could see the steady rise and fall of her chest and the color coming back to her cheeks- she hadn't been burned out then. Sadie's grandparents were going to be fine- if possibly traumatised by the whole possession thing.

"We should go." Bes' voice was firm, "The mortals are ready to storm the bridge." And Percy followed his gaze, pulling a face when she saw what he meant. A full on assault team was gathering, heavily armored men with rifles, grenade launchers and the gods only knew what else- though actually, Percy added mentally, they probably didn't know because the gods often didn't know what was going on any better than she did.

In any case, they had any number of things that could and would kill them if the mortals started getting itchy trigger fingers.

"Liz, Emma!" Sadie called her friends, "Can you guys grab my gran? Percy can you help me get gramps up?"

"They can't come." Bes spoke firmly, which made Sadie falter.

"What? But you just said that we should go."

"They're mortals," Bes said. "They don't belong on your quest. If we're going to get the second scroll from Vlad Menshikov, we need to leave now."

"You know about that?" Sadie asked quickly, and then, "Right- you spoke to Anubis

"Your grandparents and friends are in less danger here," Bes said. "The police will question them, but they won't see old people and children as a threat."

"We're not children," Emma grumbled.

"Vultures…" Sadie's Gran whispered in her sleep. "Meatpies…"

Sadie's Gramps coughed. "The dwarf is right, Sadie. Go. I'll be tiptop in a moment, though it's a pity that baboon chap couldn't leave me some of his power. Haven't felt that strong in ages."

That shocked a laugh from Percy. "You're kinda funny." she said, not bothering to hide her surprise.

The man's gaze focused on Percy and he blinked. "You hit me over the head didn't you?"

"Uh-" Percy paused, "I can neither confirm nor deny-"

"Thank you for trying to help Sadie." the look on the old man's voice was hard to decipher- and Percy realised that was probably the single nicest thing he'd ever said to her. Which was kind of sad, all things considered. He'd never outright cruel to her- other than snide looks and comments but- well she'd known what the Faust's thought of her and her mom. She knew that they hated them, that they hated her dad for daring to move on from their daughter-never mind the fact that he'd waited two years before another woman had even come into his life- and it wasn't like he'd been searching for love- it had just happened.

Percy pushed away those thoughts as Emma spoke up. "Sadie it's fine." she adjusted her glasses- which had been broken in the chaos, "We can handle the police. It won't be the first time we've had to do some quick talking, eh?"

"Yeah." Liz nodded, "We'll take care of your gran and gramps as long as you promise to take care of that awesome sister of yours- seriously turning into a bird-"

"Oh I can do that." Sadie laughed, grabbing Percy's hand tightly.

"I don't need taking care of." Sadie's gramps complained before he broke down in a fit of coughing, "Just go my dear. That baboon god was in my head. I can tell you—he means to destroy you. Finish your quest before he comes after you again. I couldn't even stop him. I couldn't…" He looked resentfully at his shaky old hands. "I never would've forgiven myself. Now, off with you!"

"I'm sorry," Sadie blinked rapidly, which made Percy press into her side, silently trying to comfort her sister. "I didn't mean—"

"Sorry?" Emma demanded. "Sadie Kane, that was the most brilliant birthday party ever! Now, go!" She and Liz both hugged Sadie-and then Percy, much to her surprise and secret happiness, and they they were ushered into the Mercedes by Bes.

"Well." Percy breathed out once they were inside of the car, "Uh, sorry for smacking your gramps over the head-" and that earned a laugh from Sadie- she still looked somewhat upset at having to leave the others behind but at least she was actually smiling now, she looked much more like the Sadie she knew and loved.

Not that they had that long to relax- it wasn't long at all before they were slowing down as they approached some barricades and Sadie leaned forward towards the driver seat. "What's wrong? Can't we go past invisibly like we did before?"

"It's not the mortals I'm worried about." he pointed forward, and Percy leaned forward too, peering out of the window.

All the police, reporters, and spectators around the barricades had fallen asleep. Several military-types in body armor were curled on the pavement, cuddling their assault rifles like teddy bears.

Standing in front of the barricades, blocking the car, were Carter, Zia and Walt. They were disheveled and breathing heavily, as if they'd run all the way from Brooklyn. They all had wands at the ready. Carter stepped forward, pointing his sword at the windshield.

"Let my sisters go!" he yelled at Bes, "Or I'll destroy you!"

Bes glanced back at them, "Should I frighten him?" and Percy blinked- and she opened her mouth to say yes- because that was definitely something she wanted to see, but Sadie clamped her hand over Percy's mouth before she could speak up.

"No, no we don't need that I can handle this."

Sadie pulled Percy out of the limo, "Hello boys plus Zia. Brilliant timing as always."

Walt frowned ta them, "You're not in danger?"

"Not anymore." Percy grinned, "We were but it's totally cool now."

Carter slowly lowered his sword, blinking disbelievingly, "So the ugly guy-"

"Rude!" Percy pointed at Carter, "Bes is our friend now-"

"He's Bast's friend." Sadie added, "Also our new driver."

"Driver to where?" Zia spoke up, laying a placating hand on Carter's shoulder, because he looked equal parts confused, annoyed, and uneasy. Which Percy couldn't really blame him for. Though she wondered how he knew they'd been in trouble,

"We're going to Russia of course." Sadie gave a grin, "Hop in."

And soon enough they were all piled into the back of the limo, Percy squashed between Carter and Sadie- which honestly was how she liked it- and Zia was sat next to Carter, with Walt next to Sadie as they talked- Carter, Walt and Zia told the two younger girls about what had happened back in Brooklyn House- apparently Carter's training session hadn't gone well- with a three headed snake sent by Apophis attacking them during training, add that to the dream they'd told them of- how Apophis' prison was weakened so badly that it would break very soon-honestly Percy wasn't even mad that he'd checked up on them through scrying, he'd have been incredibly stressed and worried after an attack in their own home- though from the sounds of it the trainees had all handled it pretty well.

And then Percy and Sadie told Carter, Zia and Walt their side of the story, Percy getting quite excited as she told Carter how she'd piggy backed Nekhbet- and the horrified look on his face was most entertaining for the youngest Kane- and she told him how she'd been very rudely tossed into the river in the middle of her fighting against Babi.

And Sadie told him of her own side of the fight once Percy had been tossed away, how she'd summoned up a shield and had been holding it to protect her friends before Bes had saved the day and scared the two gods into leaving- and Percy did voice her complaints about missing that- which earned her an incredulous look from Sadie.

Once Sadie had finished Carter shifted in his seat to look to the front of the limo, "Thank you. I guess we really owe you." he got a slight nod of acknowledgement from Bes before Carter added, "So you're a friend of Bast's?"

And the gods ears turned red at that- which was a kind of odd sight. "Yeah... sure. She asks me for a favor once in a while. I try to help out." and there was something about the way he said that which made Percy wonder how much Bes did care for Bast- but she knew better than to ask. For now anyway."

"When Horus spoke to me he warned me that some of the gods might try to stop us from waking Ra." Carter spoke again, "Now I guess we know who. It's not good exactly but at least we know."

Sadie snorted at that, crossing her arms over her chest, "If they didn't like our plan an angry text message would have done." there was a hint of bitterness in her voice, "Nekhbet and Babi almost tore us apart." her gaze flicked to Percy- and- was she- did she look guilty? But that was ridiculous Percy was fine why would Sadie be feeling guilty? And she was looking pretty pale too, tired.

"You did great." Carter's voice was slightly softer, concerned, "Both of you did really good."

And Sadie stared resentfully down at the black knife in her lap, apparently Anubis had given it to her-which did make sense. And then Sadie spoke. "I'd be dead if not for Bes."

"Nah." Bes paused, "Well, okay you might be, but Percy would have probably been able to step in, and if you did die you'd have gone down in style."

"But Percy shouldn't have to!"

"Sadie-" Percy frowned slightly, and Sadie's expression turned slightly apologetic.

"No- no I didn't mean it like that Percy I just- you're my baby sister you shouldn't be protecting me I should be protecting you-"

"But I don't need you to protect me I'm the fighter Sadie. You're better at other stuff."

"Didn't feel like it today." Sadie shook her head, "I felt pretty useless-"

"Yeah but it's your grandparents. It was probably a lot scarier for you than for me."

"Percy is right." Zia spoke up, "You should not be so hard on yourself Sadie. You're a skilled Magician, never doubt that."

"Maybe." Sadie cast her gaze downwards to the knife, and there was a moment of quiet before Carter spoke again.

"It's a netjeri." his voice was soft, "A serpent blade. Priests used it for-"

"The opening-of-the-mouth ceremony." Sadie finished, "But how does that help us?"

"I don't know." Carter admitted, "Bes?"

"Death rituals. I try to avoid them."

"Anubis must have had a reason to give you it though. It'll help us eventually." Percy declared, "'Sides, when do we ever know what we're doing before we do it?"

"I-" Carter paused, "I hate that you have a point."

"We do tend to improvise a lot." Sadie's lips twitched.

"Yes." Zia's expression was one of almost fond annoyance, "Things never seem to go to plan with you three."