He floated through what he presumed was lava, and he felt the heat, all around him. Didn't take him long to realize he was ass naked. The heat was unbearable, but he wasn't dying, or burning in any way, at that. It was like the lava was preventing itself from killing him.

Are we really doing this again? A voice said nonchalantly near him. He turned to his right, where a taller man, with longer, darker hair floated alongside him. The man paid him no attention. He turned his head back, looking downwards, where below a darkness, a rock was. The man to his right reached his hand out, and felt the rock, smirking evilly.

Mestor.

The man turned, locking eyes with him. This man's sea-green eyes bore through his, as if he were looking into everything he'd done, his future, his past. He felt something on his hand, and his head whipped, where a black dot, like a tattoo, had started to form, and was growing. It shot out tendrils, wrapping up his arm, and his shoulder. He looked to the man, and realized the same was happening for him, but much quicker.

Mestor, wake up.

The smile stayed on the man's face, and for a moment, he saw memories of this man, one of war, where there was a ten-thousand acre field full of death, full of bloodshed. Another, where he was knelt beside the body of a curly-blonde haired girl, with an arrow in her throat. Another, where he was standing above a dark-haired man in a suit, but the suited man had an axe in his head, and he saw blood on the green-eyed man's hands.

X

Mestor shot up sitting in his bed. He was sweating, his skin felt raw, he looked down to his hands, and the black dot he saw in his dream was retreating into his skin. He screamed at his own hand, and his mother ran into the room. His mom was young forties and by that age group, looked awfully young.

"Finally! You're up. It's about time, for your special day!" Mestor shook out of his shock, and groaned.

"Is it the first day of school already?" Mestor's mom smiled at him.

"Sophomore year of high school! Imagine all the friends you'll make, all the girls you'll meet." Her eyebrows wiggled. He blushed, and shooed her away, and she walked out, laughing. Mestor stood, and his six-foot-four, 170lbs met his gaze in his mirror. He sighed, and complained to himself in his head about how skinny he was. His hair, a semi-curly middle part fell down his head, and he tried to throw it up into a hat, but it looked like a bowl cut under the hat, so he abandoned the idea. He hated how much anxiety he had about looks. He threw on his jeans and his favorite striped-long-sleeve t-shirt. He laced his Vans and walked into the kitchen. He was met with the sight of his mom cooking pancakes, making them the color yellow. His favorite. She smiled at him, and he sat.

"How are you feeling about today?" She asked. He bit into the pancakes.

"Okay. Kind of nervous for honors Algebra." Janet smiled at her son.

"You were never one for math, were you?" Mestor shook his head. "Hurry up eating, I have to get to school early so I can set up my lesson." His mom said, and he nodded.

X

Mestor walked up the front steps of Bronx School of Science, and got scared by a clap on the back from his best friend Alex.

"Dude, you've grown like four feet since freshman year." Alex said, and Mestor kept his head down.

"Unfortunately." Mestor grumbled, and Alex laughed. "It'll only attract attention to me."

"Nah dude, nobody here cares about that. Everyone is all AP Calculus and BC Chemistry." Mestor cracked a smile. Alex was never someone super smart, and Mestor sometimes really doubted and questioned how he got accepted into Bronx Science. They walked in together, and towards homeroom.

"How'd you get into this school, anyways?" Mestor asked the shorter Alex, who smirked.

"Wanna know my secret?" Alex whispered, and Mestor frowned. "I'm a son of Nyx." Mestor burst out laughing, but Alex's mirroring laugh wasn't as genuine.

"You're insane, dude." Mestor said, and they walked into room 103, where Mr. Reaven met them with a smile and two packets.

"Those are the syllabuses for my class, composition, as well as a couple papers for your parents to read." Mestor nodded, and sat in the back row. Alex sat next to him.

"Okay, my real secret?" Mestor almost giggled. "I'm spider-man. Posing here for a few days." Mestor rolled his eyes.

"Whatever, idiot."

X

Mestor slugged his way through the first half of the day, where there wasn't much going on. He went through Composition, Chemistry and Spanish, before getting to Algebra, where upon entrance, Ms. Fritz stared at Alex as if she'd seen a ghost. Alex replied with a shameless, egotistical smirk, but Mestor paid no attention to it. He sat down, and it felt like the world span around him at accelerated speed, while he sat in his chair, bored out of his mind. His nerves had calmed, and he realized the summer of studying he did was completely worth it, as he'd literally learned all of this over three months ago. His mind switched back to the dream he had, and he looked down to where the dot had formed, just seeing his regular palm.

"Whatcha thinkin' about?" Alex whispered, and Mestor's head snapped to his right.

"Oh. I had this dream where I was floating in a volcano, then this guy appeared, then this tattoo-like thing appeared on my palm and crawled up my arm. It was weird." Mestor said, turning back to the front, where Ms. Fritz was staring at them.

"Would you like to share it with the class, Mr. Theise and Mr. Jones?" she asked, rather rudely. Mestor smiled kindly, and shook his head.

"No ma'am. Sorry." Mestor said, and Ms. Fritz kept to her board. Mestor turned back to Alex.

"So yeah, it was super weird-" Alex's face was pure white, with sweat beading from his forehead. His head stood looking in the same spot, unmoving.

"Alexander?" Mestor asked. Alex shook his head.

"Did the guy have any physical features?" Mestor sighed, "Uh, longish black hair, super weird like, aura-giving green eyes. Pretty built too. Looked really good." Alex's face, if possible, got even more scared.

"Are you getting Vietnam flashbacks or something?" Mestor asked, and Alex shook his head again.

"No, sorry. Just sounds like someone I know."

"Oh shoot, what's his name?" Mestor asked. Alex turned back to the board.

"Perseus, or Percy, for short. But I haven't seen him in like four years. Thought he like, retired to Europe." Mestor gave out a small laugh, and Ms. Fritz's head whipped back. He turned down to the packet, which he'd completed twenty minutes ago.

X

Mestor walked into P.E. class, where Alex was talking to a girl in the corner. Mestor ran to them, and Alex noticed him, nodding.

"Hey Mestor-man!" Alex said cheerfully. Mestor smiled. "Mestor, this is Chloe, my…" He trailed off, as if unsure.

"Chloe Evans, Alex's girlfriend." Mestor shook her hand, and smirked at Alex.

"You got a girlfriend dude?" He said, smiling. Alex rubbed the back of his head.

"Yeah… over the summer… in Italy. That family… trip. I told you about it. We've been dating for a month now…" Alex talked like he was making it up on the go. He turned to her, and gave an eyebrow that screamed, 'bail me out.'

"Yeah! In Venice. We were both there during the summer and we started talking… once I knew that he was attending Bronx Science I transferred in…" Chloe said, smiling.

"Wow, you must be pretty smart to transfer in." Mestor said.

"I got accepted originally, but my mom wouldn't let me go. Changed her mind with some help with this guy." She bumped Alex's hip.

"That's cool." The whistle blew, and the teacher gathered the students.

"Okay! Today we're going to play dodge ball as an icebreaker, seeing as it's the first day of Sophomore year for you guys, and there's still some new students." Alex quietly celebrated, while Mestor groaned. He hated anything to do with sports, despite being pretty athletic.

"We'll start with random selection, before moving to team captains, and eventually boys vs. girls for fun." Chloe whispered something to Alex, who blushed heavily, and smirked.

Mestor was against Alex and Chloe, the only two people he knew in the class, and sighed. The game started, and Mestor played the back for most of the beginning, catching a ball because it flew to him, and when he threw it back, something in his mind and arm clicked, and it was like he could control the air around the ball, and it curved a little to the left, but was caught by Alex, who pointed and laughed at Mestor. Mestor stood, a little confused, and looked at his arm.

"Jones! You're out. Stop staring like a goof." Mrs. Andrews called, and he walked to the sideline. What was that? He'd never felt something like that before, where the air almost, bent to his will. The game continued, and Alex's team won, as usual. The coach realigned teams, and this time Mestor, Chloe and Alex were all on the same team. Alex gave Mestor a fist bump.

"Sorry for getting you out last round." Mestor laughed.

"Only competition." Mestor said, and Alex nodded.

The second game started similarly, with Mestor playing in the back, trying to avoid attention. Another ball flew over his teammate's head, and Mestor caught it. He carefully walked towards the center line, and threw the ball, but he had a feeling in his gut, and swung his arm more forward in the follow through on the throw, and the ball darted forward, knocking some poor, random kid in the nose. He fell backwards, and his glasses fell off. Mestor's heart dropped, and he ran forward to the kid.

"Are you okay?" Mestor asked, kneeling next to the guy.

"Yeah man, you throw like a fucking truck." Mestor blushed, and looked down at his arm.

"Sorry about that." Mestor said, frowning. The kid smiled up at him.

"Okay, Jones! That's enough for you today."

"Yes, ma'am." Mestor said, and walked to the bleachers.

X

Mestor walked out of the school, with Alex and Chloe trailing behind closely. They caught up to him, and Alex threw his arm around Mestor's shoulders.

"Nice throw in gym." Alex taunted. Mestor smiled.

"The guy said he was okay. I felt pretty bad." Mestor said, frowning slightly. Chloe rolled her eyes.

"He'll be fine Mestor. Have some confidence." Chloe said, and Mestor smiled down at the shorter girl.

"Do you guys want to get some dinner at this diner near my place? I can pay." Alex offered, and Mestor shrugged.

"I have nothing in my schedule." Mestor said, and Chloe nodded. "I'm down."

X

They sat in the booth, waters on the table, milkshakes in hand. Alex was laughing at a joke Mestor had made, and Chloe was smiling. This was the environment that made Mestor happiest, with his only two friends, enjoying themselves. Alex stopped laughing, and his face turned really serious, looking behind Mestor. Mestor frowned, and turned around. Mrs. Fritz and Mr. Reaven walked into the diner, and walked towards them. They sat in the booth next to the group, and Mestor shrugged it off. Alex raised an eyebrow at Chloe who rolled her eyes at him.

"We don't need to rush anything, Alex. Don't stress it. We'll deal with it if we have to." Chloe told Alex, who leaned back in his chair, his face still concerned. Mestor was still confused.

"Am I missing something?"

"Personal, Mestor. Sorry." Chloe smiled. "What do you think you're gonna get?" She asked, Mestor knew she was playing something off, but decided not to press it.

"Burger, or something…" Mestor trailed off, before his mind fell back into that dream he had earlier.

He was still staring into the man's eyes.

They were in a stadium, somewhere. It was the dark of night, and the body Mestor was in was knelt, with a man pacing in front of him. He didn't hear or decipher much, but he knew the guy pacing wasn't saying nice words. Mestor hated people who were bullies. In flashes, in an instant, his arm was in the man's chest, and he pulled his arm back, and a heart was in his hand. He was drawn from that memory, back to the lava, back into another memory. He was knelt before a piece of paper, a note. Next to him, crying, was the curly-blonde haired girl who he'd seen dead earlier.

He still couldn't make much of anything, but few words were clear.

Murdered your mother in fear.

He was in a desert, fighting a blonde boy. The body whipped around an axe, embedding it into the boy's arm, before pulling away, separating the body part from the torso. Mestor almost puked. Whose memories were these?

He was drawn back to real life by Alex shaking his shoulder.

"Dude, are you okay?" Alex said. Mestor was sweating. "You were like… not moving. It's been fifteen minutes. We ordered food for you."

"I saw more of them, Alex." Mestor said. Alex's eyes shot wide. Chloe's head whipped to Mestor. "We were… reading a note… someone murdered his mother… then a desert… tore someone's arm off with an axe." Mestor looked up. Alex was almost recoiling in shock.

"What did the axe look like?"
"I don't… know… an omega, from the Greek Alphabet. Do you remember? From Freshman year History?" Mestor asked, and Alex nodded.

"All too well."

"What's going on, Alex?" Mestor said. He was scared. Alex shook his head.

"We'll explain in time. Was there any other memories."

"We were in a stadium, dark of night." Chloe gasped. Alex took a deep breath. "A green eyed man paced before me, said he was going to do horrible things to a woman… I ran my arm through his chest." Alex's hand shot to his heart, "And pulled his heart out." Mestor finished, and noticed Alex and Chloe's states.

"We gotta go." Chloe said, and threw down a hundred-dollar bill on the table, before the three scurried out of the diner.

They walked into Central Park, where Alex stopped them, and pulled out a gold coin, flipping into a fountain.

"O Iris, goddess of the Rainbow, please accept my offering." A rainbow shimmered from the fountain. "Show me Argus." The rainbow turned to show a man in a driver's seat, with blonde hair, and eyes plastering his face. As in multiple, more than two, eyes. Mestor almost puked.

"Come to Central Park, as soon as possible. On the word of Order." Argus nodded, and the image split in two, before shimmering away.

"What's… What's going on, guys?" Mestor asked. Alex sighed, before turning to him.

"I wasn't fucking joking, I'm a son of Nyx. Alexander Theise. This is Chloe Evans, she's a daughter of Aether. The world of Greek Mythology is real, Mestor." Alex said, and Mestor shook his head.

"You're absolutely insane." Alex seethed at the mouth, and slapped Mestor.

"You have a connection the most powerful being in the universe, one that hasn't been seen in over four years, the closest thing to a father figure I've ever had. I'm not fucking insane, I'm just living the life with the hand I was dealt." Mestor's eyes were wide.

"That's who he was?" Alex nodded.

"Perseus Jackson. Son of Order, the single person in this entire galaxy who has the power to do whatever he wants. Despite only getting to spend around five months with him, he was the greatest mentor I've ever had. I've trained under every primordial in the books, Chaos herself, Order himself, nothing compares to him."

"Where is he?"

"No idea. Said something about a curse, concerning his wife, Annabeth. Ran away to some unknown place. Haven't heard a peep since. And for some reason, a demigod I've been sent to scout by Order, his father, has his memories and direct traces to him." Alex seethed, before backing down. "I'm sorry, Mestor. But he's someone I care deeply for, and I'm incredibly worried. You're my friend, I swear it." Ironically, thunder boomed. Mestor jumped, and frowned.

"It isn't raining."

"Because I made an oath, Mestor. I told you, It's all real."

Lightning came down behind them, and from behind some trees, rose a Hydra.

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