This idea is entirely new and one I want your honest thoughts on, please review and tell me what you think.


Tyler hated school field trips, he always ended up having horrible migraines whenever he left his room period let alone walked into the world proper. Flashes of terrible images always bombarded his brain, leaving him horribly aching and sick and weak. His meds helped, naturally, but not enough. As it was, just being on the bus, bumping into others, hearing the screeches and screams of various dumb students left him breathless.

"I'm going to kill her," Percy mumbled suddenly and Tyler turned his attention back to his brother. He wanted to reach out and grab his shoulder, but Percy hated him for being Gabe's child. Or at least resented him for it so that touch would be unwanted.

Grover, Percy's annoying friend, smiled at him warily. "It's okay. I like peanut butter." He dodged a piece of Nancy Bobfit's lunch, which Tyler realized was being thrown at the boy's head.

"That's it." Percy started to get up, but Grover pulled him back to his seat.

"You're already on probation," Grover reminded Percy. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."

Tyler turned to the girl and growled. "Knock it off!" The girl froze. Tyler may have been considered a weirdo and freak with his migraine disorder and hallucinations, but he was a big freak with a very strong frame. She knew that he could knock her head off with ease.

Mr. Brunner led the museum tour. He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding themthrough the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.

He gathered them around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top and started telling them how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. Tyler instantly got dizzy, feeling waves of mourning oozing from the column, the memories of ages past sinking into his skin. He always felt such things when he got near old objects, it was like he was peeling back the veil of time and ingesting the agonies of people long dead.

"Will you shut up?" Percy said so suddenly that it knocked Tyler from his agony and woke him up to the real world once more.

The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.

"Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"

Percy's face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."

Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"

"That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"

"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because ..."

"Well...Kronos was the king god, and-"

"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.

"Titan," Percy corrected himself. "And ... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters-"

"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind them.

"-and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," Percy continued, "and the gods won."

Some snickers from the group.

Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"

"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"

"Busted," Grover muttered.

"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.

At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.

Percy shrugged. "I don't know, sir."

Tyler saw a moment. "It's a cautionary tale." They all turned to him. "Don't abuse others, people met their destiny on the road to avoid it, and so on. Everything he did to avoid the prophecy of his demise caused it..."

"I see." Mr. Brunner looked happier. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Half to Mr. Ugliano. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"

The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doo-fuses.

Tyler sat down by himself, away from any others but close enough to see his brother and Grover talking. He wanted nothing more than to be around Percy, but the boy's dislike of him was far too strong. Of course he could have been projecting his own fears, but who knew? The gods knew he felt guilty enough about being tied to Gabe.

Watching for a while, and trying to be less creepy than he was being, Tyler saw Nancy walk over to Percy and dump her lunch on Grover's lap. He shuddered then, and images bombarded his mind. A wave on the beach, an earthquake ravaging a city, a storm butchering a coastline, horses trampling a man. Images unbidden and would not stop until they did just in time to see a literal wave rip out of the fountain by Percy and grab Nancy, shoving her into the water.

Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"

Mrs. Dodds materialized next to them.

Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see-"

"-the water-"

"-like it grabbed her-"

As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on Percy. There was a tri-umphant fire in her eyes and Tyler saw more images. Endless torment, creatures with dogs like faces and wings, hate that echoed from time immemorial! "Now, honey-"

"I know," Percy grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."

"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said

"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her."

She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.

"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said and Tyler felt waves of hate flood the world, so he got up with shaking limbs and followed after her as she led Percy away.

"But-"

"You-will-stay-here."

Grover looked at Percy desperately.

"It's okay, man," Percy told him. "Thanks for trying."

"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "Now."

Nancy Bobofit smirked, only long enough for Tyler to walk over and sock her so hard she fell back into the fountain this time unconscious. He shook, happy he had not had a seizure from touching her. If Fate existed it, clearly it saw that she deserved it.

Tyler hurried over and followed Percy into the building just as thunder shook it. He tracked down the feelings of hate and rage until he found them both.

Mrs. Doddds was speaking. "Confess, and you will suffer less pain. "Well?" she demanded.

"Ma'am, I don't..." Percy said

"Your time is up," she hissed, just as Tyler actually got eyes on them. Mrs. Dodds' eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.

Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.

"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.

Mrs. Dodds lunged at Percy and Tyler ran as fast as he could and slammed his entire body into her, sending them both flying. Shaking, he stood, ignoring his terror. "Leave my brother alone." He stood in front of Percy. "I knew you weren't human, I could feel it... your hate, your rage... the images I saw, the death and torment...you will not touch him." He declared,

A Murderous look in her eyes told him she did not care for his words. "Weak mortal, how dare you interfere!"

"He is my family, it is my job to interfere!" She blurred and tried to hit him, but he saw it coming in his mind before she moved and so he could dodge it and slammed his fist into her temple sending her stumbling back. He focused his gift, which instead of causing him agony seemed to be empowering him, as it had so rarely. "You won't hurt him, not now, now ever." His words were strong, stronger than he ever could have imagined.

She growled loudly, and fly at him once more only for Percy to appear and slice through her with a massive bronze sword, destroying the monster entirely.

Percy turned to him, eyes wide. "Why would,.. I thought you hated me? You never touch me, or talk to me, and get anywhere near me... I always thought you hated me?"

He frowned. "I love you, Percy... you are my family, you and Sally. I don't count Gabe." He then risked it and hugged his brother close. Percy returned his hug, then they separated. " What was that?"

"What did you mean that you could sense her anger?"

He sighed. "My migraines, the seizures... I think I'm psychic. I see things when I touch people. I can feel pain and other emotions, and memories and sometimes pieces of the future. I didn't realize what it was until I got older, around eight or nine. No one knows, not even my therapist. Can I trust you?"

Percy nodded. "What do you see when you look at me?"

"Not much, before this I refused to look into your life,I was afraid that I would see too much, but I could feel pain and rage from you, and a lot of hate... and when the water pulled Nancy in, I saw horses, storms, earthquakes and so on. It was weird. We should get back... " Together, they went back outside.

It had started to rain.

Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."

Percy and Tyler said as one. "Who?"

"Our teacher. Duh!"

Percy blinked, but Tyler stopped him. "I can't sense a lie, Percy." He whispered. Percy nodded.

Percy asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.

He said, "Who?" But he would not look at Percy. Tyler could sense the falsehood, it stunk like all lies tended to.

"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."

Thunder boomed overhead.

Turning they saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, read-ing his book, as if he'd never moved.

They went over to him.

He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."

Percy handed Mr. Brunner his pen.

"Sir," Percy asked, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"

He stared at me Percy. "Who?"

"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."

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He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this fieldtrip-"

"You are lying." Tyler said, and they both turned to him. "I remember her too, and I can feel your lies." He leaned in and let his typically restrained mental curse run at full strength. "You aren't human either like she was... "

The man cringed, eyes wide. "I don't know-"

"Yes, you do." Feeling a nosebleed coming on, Tyler frowned. "I know things I ought to not know, you are lying and we won't stand for it." Grabbing Percy's arm, he pulled him away. "I will help you Percy, with whatever is going on."

Percy smiled at him, and it was a beautiful smile. One of pure relief and appreciation. "Thanks, Tyler..."

And a pact was born, and true brotherhood was formed.

:::

Chiron frowned, he hadn't suspected much of Tyler, the boy was a pure mortal with a horrible condition but now... now he knew better. The boy was a prophet, an oracle of great power. How he had missed that, he no idea. He just wondered how the boy gained his gifts, be it through the Fates or through another force...

A question for another time...

If the boy's gifts did not kill him, as was often the case for mortal prophets without divine power to moderate their mystical gifts.


Chapter end, tell me what you think in the reviews.

This was great, I loved writing this interesting idea.

Love, your Ninja Overlord,

Mika.