Three figures stood on a rocky hill surveying the field underneath them. Their armours glinted in the waning light of dusk. One was cloaked with a blue mantle and held a sword in his belt, his eyes were the color of sand and his hair was as green as seaweed. The one next to him was a woman, long red hair flowed from under her dark hood. The last was the tallest of the three, his hair swayed in the wind, leaving his pointed ears uncovered. The air around them was still, only the occasional crow or raven could be heard. As the clouds overhead moved the light hit the field, showing the remains of large slaughter. Bodies of various sizes and forms lay strewn around, their blood mixing with the mud under their feet. The green haired man grit his teeth as his companions closed their eyes. They remained there still and silent until another figure appeared before them. His blond hair catching their eyes immediately. "Another slaughter I see…how many survived?"

"Too few Lugh."

The woman looked at the new arrival before speaking. "They attacked yesterday night. Even the druids' barriers couldn't keep them out. This wasn't even a military outpost! It was a simple refuge, our soldiers fought with old weapons, and we didn't even have a smith. They just appeared out of nowhere and attacked. They really are as powerful as we though, probably even more. It was only the arrival of Manannan and later of Finvarra's forces that stopped them. We can't keep this up for much longer. Bres and Balor are getting stronger by the day, while our forces wane."

"She is right, we cannot hold much longer like this. What news do you bring from the king?" Finvarra, the sidhe king, asked Lugh.

"King Nuada has called for a meeting of our factions. I fear this might be the end of us; or our salvation…"

"Then we should go. I must go back to the sea and call together our fleet. Tell Nuada that I will be ready when he needs me." Manannan, the green haired man, turned and disappeared in a puddle of water. The remaining three divines stood there before each disappeared, Lugh in a ray of light, Finvarra crumbled to ash, and the woman went up in flames.

Two great armies crashed together in the middle of a large field. What was once a forest with trees and hills was now bare. The trees had been uprooted and used as makeshift fuel or defences. Even the few rivers around had been drained, leaving the landscape scarred, a mirror to its battle worn users.

On one side stood the army of Balor and the fomorians, save for those few who had refused to fight or helped their enemy. Their army was a terrifying mass of chaos. Large beings with heads of animals stood near to rusty-armed cyclopean monsters. Some were even so large that their hulking mass cast large shadows over all. Among them stood taller and straighter those fomorians with more human-like features, especially the two masterminds behind this army, Balor and Bres. The former king waited impatiently for his enemies to attack, so that he might make them repent for fighting his authority. On the other hand balor's plans where darker. He sought to rule over all those who lived in their lands, whether they be sidhe, Tuatha, human or fomorian. Yet Bres didn't know this, believing that Balor wanted to reinstate him as king.

On the other side however stood all those races that wanted freedom from Bres and his brethren. There was Finvarra, ruler of the sidhe, and his army of fairies, whether they were large like goblins or small like pixies. Nuada and the Tuatha de Dannan, the race that was seen by humans as gods, ready to defend their lands from Balor's influence. There were also humans and other similar races, all led by the druids, or their predecessors, who wielded the ancient magics of the earth for the good of the people. Their army fought not only on land but also on the sea, thanks to the intervention of Manannan mac Lir and his ships.

The armies had, after long consideration, decided to fight on the island of Avalon. And fight they did. When Nuada and Balor gave their signals their armies charged at each other. On a hill, the archers of the Tuatha, humans, and sidhe sent volley after volley of arrows down upon the monstruous shapes of the fomorians, who just shrugged them off, for the most part. Axes flashed and broadswords swung as the fighters met in the field. Here and there the more powerful Tuatha used their powers to turn the tide against their enemy. Living soldiers fought alongside shades reanimated by the powers of the rulers of the Otherworld, while godly weapons flew through the air and fell the hulking siege beasts. On a hill the druids and mages, led by the Morrigan and the Dagda, summoned their powers and caused lightning and hail to fall on the monsters.

Many fell that day. The greatest losses on the side of the Tuatha were the Dagda and their king, Nuada. The former was wounded by the wife of the demon Balor, and left in a near death state. Nuada on the other hand was killed while fighting Balor. Fortunately for them the Fomorians had also lost many fighters, including Bres, who was taken captive and held prisoner. Yet the war wasn't over yet, many more battles were to come.

Lugh stood bloodied in the middle of a stone circle. The sounds of the battle around him were now muffled. With the defeat of Balor his forces had also been defeated. Suddenly he turned around, spear poised to strike, but he relaxed when he saw who was there. "Is he gone?"

"Balor is gone. What are going to do with the other Fomorians?"

"Banish them, the others decided before I came here."

"Good now we can…"

Harry woke with a start. Looked around and relaxed once he saw that he was still on the bus he and Clarisse had taken. Harry had agreed to accompany Clarisse on a quest to prove her worth in the eyes of her father. He had done this both as a favour to his friend and to make up the fact that he hadn't had a single quest in nearly a year. Since he was trying to keep a low profile he had decided to do this. He was grateful that the Morrigan had cut him off from the machinations of the Fates. Without the bother of missions and prophecies, or any otherwise death inducing events, he had spent his time practicing his magic and learning more about his origins. He hoped he never met some of the creatures that he had learned about, even his own namesake, the Dullahan. On the other hand Harry missed his wand. While his hurley was a good weapon it could not be used as a focus for his old spells, and his new ability with natural magic wasn't refined enough. Even though he had once managed to turn air into silver he had found that the more he tried to mould the world around him the harder it was to cast spells. This was due to the fact that he was trying to control the world of nature itself, wand based magic on the other hand allowed the user to free their own personal magic and mix it with the surrounding, thus exerting their influence. Unfortunately, wand based magic was easier in Harry's old world because it lacked the magic that was created by the amount of divine power in the other world.

Harry was shaken out from his musing by Clarisse. He got up and took his hurley from where he had placed it, before helping Clarisse get out of the bus. Throughout the ride the driver had kept glancing at them, especially since he was thirteen and she was eleven, and was suspicious about their doings. Thankfully he hadn't acted on it, helped by a small enchantment from Harry. The bus had taken them more than a day away from camp, ample enough time to recuperate his spells. Once they got off the bus they started walking to a map nearby, to look for the green foliage the prophecy had talked about. The only foliage they found was a zoo. Thus, they started going towards the zoo. There they split up to wait for the evening, so that they might look for Ares's challenge undisturbed. While Clarisse went to look for the foliage Harry decided to take a trip to the vivarium, intrigued by the presence of the snakes there. The vivarium was deserted, as most people had already gone home due to the lateness. Walking he arrived in a room that housed many of the snakes in the zoo. Sitting down of a bench he started watching one of the snakes. After a bit the snake started to move towards the glass. Harry raised an eyebrow. "I wonder if you can understand me."

The snake didn't do anything and kept looking at him. The silence stretched until the snake opened his mouth. "Ssspeeak. I ssspeeak. Me sssnaaake, you aape. Youu ssspeeeak."

Harry was amazed and shocked. He believed that his parseltongue had disappeared with Voldemort's death. "Yess I cann. How old are youu?" Harry's words were stilted and incoherent, both due to his not using the ability and because parseltongue was designed for certain words.

"I bornss fffeew ratsss ago."

Harry tried to understand but couldn't comprehend the snake's speech. That is until a large python nearby hissed. "He isss younnng. The ssspeeech of the great aapes he doesss not capture. Youu great aape. Youu speeak like uss. Many not capture."

"I can sspeeak to ssnakess. I was cursssed."

"Curssed, not capture."

Now many of the snakes were looking at him. The young snake was perched on a branch and listened intently. "Bad perssson hunt mee. He ssent bad power on mee. I capture part of power and kill him. He back and I ssslay him. I thhought thiss power losst. But it issn't. I onncee met a bassilisssk." The snakes immediately recognised the name. just like the spiders knowing that it was an enemy because of the sound and their evolution the snakes knew what Harry was talking about because of the sound of Harry's sibilance.

The python asked "Youu ssurvived. You sslayed the bassilisssk."

Harry nodded "Yess. I haad to. He wass going to kill mee and my friend."

"You sslayed to ssurvive. That iss how the world workss. I lived in the foressst. Then the great aapess came. I sslayed to survive."

"I didn't want to. I never liked killing."

"But sslayying iss needed." An older snake said from behind him. "You kill for your 'friendsss'. You do not like killing. Mee ssaw the great aapess' cold beasstss. They teerifieed mee. Mee hhid, and mee killed many aapess trying to capture me. Mee not like tasste great aapess." Harry reflected on the snakes' words. They were right of course. All the times he had to kill someone he had done so in self defence. And yet he still killed. As he was contemplating this Harry heard metal clancking on the ground. Turning his head he noticed that there were five armoured being in front of the door, each carrying a weapon and dark armour.

Standing up Harry clutched his hurley and asked them. "Can I help you?" the beings gave no answer and instead decided to move forwards. Harry prepared himself to fight them, although he hoped that he could survive. One of the armours lounged with a spear at him, which he jumped away from and swung his hurley, decapitating the armour, only for it to kick him away and put its helmet back on. Harry rolled out of the way of an incoming sword strike and countered with a strike to the arms, temporarily severing the appendages. Two more rushed at Harry and tried to pierce him, although only one managed to cut him. As the fight went on Harry became more desperate, to the point of using two spells to summon stones against the armours.

One of the armours had hit away Harry's hurley, in retaliation Harry had taken his sword. Harry jumped out of the way of a spear and grabbed it. Now with two weapons he threw the spear against two suits and then proceeded to decapitate them. As the two managed to dis-empale themselves, the three remaining armours rushed at him. The blows exchanged was so loud that it silenced the hisses of the snakes. The young demigod was huffing in pain, cuts and bruises littered his body. Even his enhanced strength didn't help him, as the armours kept reattaching their limbs whenever he managed to hit them. Running out of options he took the decision to do just that. So, he ran out of the door and into the zoo. As he ran he could hear the footsteps of the armours getting louder and louder. Soon he had to stop to catch his breath. As he started looking around for a weapon he noticed a dog shaped bin. For some unknown reason that bin made something click in his mind. As the armours cornered him he still. Breathing in and out he focused his mind on his power. The air around him started to melt into fog, until it enveloped the entire ground. The armours noticed and tried to advance, but found themselves unable to walk properly. Harry concentrated more and summoned all the fog that he could muster, when he had reached all his power he spread his hands and released his fog. The fog started curling up the legs and arms of the armours and slowly started dragging them down. As they tried to move Harry put more power behind the fog. One by one they started disappearing, being destroyed by the fog. When they were gone the only thing left was a round red stone, that, when Harry touched it, broke into shards and then dust.

As Harry was trying to catch his breath from the usage of his power, he heard growling above him and to the sides. With a leap three other monsters came out, and Harry's back froze in fright. They looked like large furry wolves but lacked a cranium, instead they had two long appendices on their shoulder blades that ended with smaller maws, just like the large one in their front, where their head should be. They started converging on him, eager to kill the demigod, when a bright beam of light hit the closest one and sent him flying back. From the light emerged two women. One sported dark flowing locks and was wearing a dark purple dress while her arms were covered in bracelets, he recognised as Hecate, the goddess of magic, the other one was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, she had light brown hair and was wearing a red dress. The beautiful goddess snapped her fingers and a spear appeared out of nowhere and impaled one of the other creatures, when it kept advancing, she snapped her fingers again and more spears pierced the beast, killing it. Nearby Hecate was throwing fireballs and lightning to another beast, incinerating it before it could attack. The third leaped at Harry who dived out of the way before a pinkish beam incinerated the monster. Looking behind he saw Hecate and the other goddess both holding their arms outstretched, smoking palms up. The goddesses walked to Harry, who promptly scrambled up.

"Harry Potter." Hecate smiled "I do not believe I need any introduction."

"No Lady Hecate. But who is your friend?" Harry asked timidly.

"I am Aphrodite, little celt." Harry paled considerably when she spoke "Don't be afraid. I was one of the few against Zeus's decision about your kind. It's unfortunate that my dear Ares didn't share my opinion. Well, he is a hothead and he never listens to me…but once in a while I would like him to do more than grunt at things and try to kill demigods, especially when he tries to kill his own to try their mettle…"

"Aphrodite dear, please close your mouth. Don't worry Harry, your friend is safe. I put a spell on the area. No one would be able to interfere with my power unless I wanted it."

"Thank you. Why did you help me?"

"We still need you alive." Aphrodite said "There is a darkness coming. There are already many minor gods who have started being disillusioned with Zeus. Other things also have started moving. These monsters weren't the only ones. Hecate found three more groups such as this one just in the past year. I, as well as other gods, have been taking care of them, but even with our powers they are still extremely hard to kill. We have neither the knowledge nor the skills necessary to end them. Relaying on raw power might buy us time but we do not know how we might fare against stronger ones. For now though, they are not yet much of a problem."

"What were they? Even my magic couldn't hit them!"

"They were fomorians."

"What?! I though they had been defeated…"

"Your ancestors sent them away, either in the void or in the deepest recesses of this world. But their banishment and your coming back must have woken those that remained here. I am afraid this isn't the last time we'll encounter them. We can't do much else than wait. Especially you. I noticed how strong your magic has become. But you lack knowledge on how to use your other powers."

"I think it will be harder for me now that my only weapon is broken to train in anything else…"

"That is not a problem." Hecate smiled and pushed him towards where one of the armour's spear had been left. Harry picked it up and gave it to Hecate. With a wave of her hand she melted the iron and shaped it until it looked like a shield, the screaming face of a banshee in the middle. She then summoned the broken pieces, or whatever shards were left, of Harry's hurley and melded them to the shield. When she was done she breathed over it and spoke in a language, that Harry couldn't understand, even with his translating crystal as he called it. She then gave it to Aphrodite who did the same. The goddess of love then handed back the shield to Harry. The silver colour of the shield seemed to reflect the moonlight.

"Think of this as a gift from my part. Hecate helped you defend your magic, this will help you defend your body."

"Thank you…What happens now?"

"You go back to camp half-blood with little Clarisse. Afterwards, you must keep training. Keep your head down though. If Zeus even thinks you are lying and you aren't actually my son then he will try to kill you…" As she was saying this Aphrodite created some sort of portal and started dragging the other goddess through it. "Hey! I wasn't finished.." Hecate was cut off as Aphrodite threw her in.

"Sorry to cut this short but we must go. Remember to also have a nice time!" and with that she also disappeared. Harry was left alone in the zoo. Deciding that he absolutely wanted to get out of there he tried to find the forested area where Clarisse was supposed to be in.

Hidden in the shadows however a shadow was watching. Animal features contracted in anger at those gods who interrupted his hunt. As it got out from its hiding place the beast snarled. The hulking shadow narrowed his eyes when he saw the dust from the armour's gem. That wasn't his doing, nor was it in any plan made. HE decided that his hunt could resume at another, more fruitious time. For now he would fall back and inform his brethren of the news.

Harry found Clarisse easily enough. Her spear was sending enough lightning to power an entire city for a week.

"Harry look! My dad made this for me! It shoots lightning!" Clarisse started to move the spear in front of Harry's face.

"Very cool…could you remove it from my face please?"

"Yup, sorry... what do we do now?"

"Go back to camp?"

Clarisse didn't seem to like the idea. "How? It's the middle of the night and we are in the middle of nowhere."

Harry thought about it, frowning. His mind went back to the previous talk he had with Aphrodite and Hecate and he smirked. Clarisse noticed it and started sweating. She knew that expression, she had after all seen it many times when Harry decided to prank any annoying son of Apollo, or Ares, or Hermes…or anyone else really…

"Harry…" Harry smiled and then threw himself down from a railing. Clarisse rushed to the ledge and saw that instead of Harry there was a large bear waiting for her. With a movement of his head she jumped down onto his back and held to his fur. The bear then started running away, in the direction of Camp Half Blood.

It only took a half a day for the pair to get back to Camp. Between Harry's stamina and the extra energy from the moon they had been able to move faster than they would have done if they had waited. When they got to camp they pair was greeted by shocked glances. Both because Clarisse had survived, and because she was running around on a giant bear. Before anyone could say anything harry morphed back into himself and smiled. The pair was soon surrounded by campers who wanted to know what had happened. Chiron sighed, he was getting too old for all these children running around, and with the latest news from Olympus he was sure the fates hated him. Yet he decided to wisely shut his mouth. Better not to call the wolf dead before you have his skin.