Hey guys! I know this is late, but I've had a bit of a sick week and… and… and I suck at keeping to deadlines. Anyway, forget the deadlines! I got it in, and more are on the way! Enjoy!

Perseus- Rise

I watched in horror from above, as Ares and his undead army descended upon my home. It was like watching a movie; no matter how much I struggled, nothing would happen. Then another figure was floating next to me. None other than Zeus himself.

"It's time, boy. You're needed now, more than ever. If we are to defeat my son, we'll need to be at our full strength."

I tried to speak, but I had no control over myself. I was still asleep, except this time, my dream was being manipulated.

"He has stolen my bolt, taken it's power" he said, obviously trying hard to keep himself together. "If we don't stop him, your friends, and indeed all of Olympus, will no doubt be destroyed."

I watched from above, as Annabeth charged, with riptide in one hand and her knife in the other, out onto the battlefield. She sheathed her knife, and pulled a girl out of a pile of undead corpses. Thalia.

At least the hunters were at their backs. They ran, with Thalia supporting herself on Anna's arm, back to the rest of the group, who were making their way to the forest. They had undead soldiers at their heels. Any second would be their last.

I willed out my strength and my power, trying to manipulate whatever blessing I had hoped I gave her, in the form of my weapon. To both Annabeth's surprise and mine, the sword glowed even more than usual, and her running speed almost tripled.

"You are strong enough now, I can feel it. You aren't a mere mortal anymore, you're an olympian. So get over here, and do something!" He screamed out, desperation clear in his voice.

What did he expect me to do? Lightning bolt or no lighting bolt, he is still Zeus, the king of Olympus and the lord of the skies. If he's afraid, how can I make any difference?

"Our power all follows the same principle. We wish something to be, and it is so. This is true for all gods… to an extent. All you have to do is believe in yourself. Our power is drawn from worship… others believing in us, but it all starts with one person. You. So start believing, and get the hell up here!"

Then everything went black.

My eyes shot open, and I sat up in a sweat. I had to get out. If I don't get out now, I may never see Annabeth again… and there may not be a world left for me to come back too… at least, not my world. Not as I left it.

"Well, well, well… it looks like you're ready to leave now, boy," Damasen said.

I got up and turned to meet him. He was sitting in a chair, observing me… and it didn't take me long to notice that I was looking down on him. He stood and held out a bowl with one hand. He was squinting at me.

"I'm not hungry."

"It's not food."

I took the bowl from him, and looked inside. It was water. Clear, pure water.

"How?"

"This is water from the river Acheron. It's been drained of power… they all have. Even the styx."

"What?" I asked, but then it hit me. Ares.

He has an undead army at his back, and all the rivers of the underworld have been drain… who could be helping him, I wonder?

"You don't think that… why would Hades help Ares?"

"What?"

I forgot that Damasen is completely unaware of the conflict topside.

I had other things to worry about. For all I knew, the battle at camp half blood had already finished, or maybe it hadn't even began. I needed to get up there, ASAP.

"Do you think you could, you know, tone down the light show?" He asked me. "I haven't seen the sun in literal ages, remember?"

Light show? I looked at my reflection in the water, but all I could see was pure gold glistening off it's surface. I had to squint to make out my own features.

I was wearing greek armour, that was clear. My head was encased in a greek style helmet, but it had a face plate built in that looked both a little out of place and a little awesome. Plus it had a blue mohawk which was clearly the coolest part about it. The faceplate was simple, without any detail other than two eye holes, and it was smooth; it made me feel a little bit like Iron Man. A number of things were odd about this. First off, I didn't feel any weight to the armour, and I moved as if I wasn't wearing any at all. Second, I couldn't feel it either. But weirdest of all is that I wasn't looking out of a helmet.

The eye sockets of the helmet shone out ocean blue, and when I went to touch them, I found that the eye sockets of the helmet were, in fact, my eyes. My divine form was a helmet head. I started to freak out, but I calmed myself down and faced facts. This was only my divine form, and I could shapeshift myself to change anyway… I hoped.

The armour… my body, was bronze, most likely celestial bronze, and consisted of a breastplate that was shaped with an unreasonable amount of muscle, boots, and a skirt. Well, it's was a bunch of blue leather strips studded with bronze, but let's face it, it's a skirt. Oddly enough, my skin matched the colour of my armour, bronze, but it glowed ever so slightly more. Looped around my breast plate, over my shoulder and down to my hip, was a blue leather strap. On it hung an empty sword sheath, a simple loop of leather, that no doubt was meant to have riptide hanging from it. On both my boots were small knife sheaths, both of which were also empty. Great. Armour? Check. Weapons? Nah, not important.

But maybe it wasn't important at all, because I felt amazing. Energy and power unlike any I had ever felt was flowing through me. I was sure that I had only now truly achieved godhood. How much of an achievement it was would have to prove itself later; I still wasn't sure whether or not this was something worth celebrating, but at that point I was getting out of Tartarus, so honestly, how bad could godhood be, right?

"Could you stop now, lest you want to attract every single thing living down here," he said.

I focused out my power, and imagined myself separating, into two forms. However, I didn't actually think about where I wanted my other form to be, so while half of me was standing in Damasen's hut, the other half took a great dive into the delta of despair, where all the rivers of the underworld meet.

What Damasen had said was true, the waters of the underworld were drained of power. It wasn't particularly nice to say the least, but it was fresh water. I… uhh, well half of me, ended up drinking the bitter stuff by the gallon. It was also nice to know that just because I had risen to godhood didn't mean I lost my powers as a son of Poseidon. But they felt dulled down in comparison to the new powers that flowed through me.

Now that I was no longer in my divine form, I looked almost exactly how I had before, with tattered clothes and messy hair, but at least my colour had returned.

"I need to leave," I said. "I doubt you can hide me from Tartarus now, and my friends need me. One day, I'll be back, and I'll get you and Bob out of here."

"Boy, you know you can't do that," Damasen shook his head. "You can't just pick us up and fly us out. Besides, Iapetus is-"

"I know. But I will find a way, one day. I swear it on the river styx."

"I doubt that works anymore," he said. "Percy, before you go… what happened to your sword?"

"I kind of… gave it away, as a loan… a blessing to someone important."

"Well then, you might want this," he said as he began to rummage through a pile of bones in the corner of his shack. I approached, and realised that the bones were in fact a number of different weapons fashioned from drakon bone, mostly simple spears and sharp, stabby things.

Eventually, he pulled a small object out of the pile and dropped it into my hand. It grew to match my size, and in my hand was a knife. But it was more than just a boring bone knife. It's hilt was made of drakon bone, with green drakon leather wrapped around the hilt. On the end was a perfectly carved hook jutting forwards, and I could think of a dozen different ways I could manipulate that in battle. The base of the blade was also made of drakon bone, with ornately designed carvings of the beast itself all over it.

But what set it apart the most was the actual edge of the blade. You know, the slice, slice, stab, stab bit? It was made of stygian iron. Razor sharp, it ran from the tip of the knife down the blade's length. It serrated before curving into the hilt, creating the wrist guard. It was only a tiny slither of stygian iron, but I knew how much that increased the blade's strength and lethality. I could also see how it would be a useful tool, as well as a devastating weapon.

"I um… made this for you. I haven't had company- extended company, in… well, I've never had extended company before. So I want you to have this, to remember."

It occurred to me that although I've been here for… what feels like maybe a week, I probably am the longest company he's ever had. I mean, Bob would visit on occasion, but not for this long, and obviously not recently.

"Damasen, this is… I don't know what to say. Thank you. How… I didn't know you could even find stygian iron down here."

"I didn't… I didn't even know it was special metal. Stygian iron, eh? I found this on the banks of the river styx. Thought that it may come in use one day."

I began to think. I didn't want to leave Damasen and Bob alone down here again, but I would need to be at my full strength to defeat Ares. I simply had to make the sacrifice, and come back afterwards.

"I'm sorry, but I have to go. I will be back for you and Bob, I promise. But for now, I have a world to save… again."

"Well… don't go to too much trouble returning things to normal. I happen to like actual water."

"Yea, no promises, but you never know… goodbye, Damasen."

"Well, as you say, it's not really goodbye, is it?"

"Exactly."

I concentrated, picturing myself in not one, but two places. My mind had gone beyond it's mortal horizons, and I could view the entire world. I saw what I was deeply afraid of. The battle wasn't on one front, but it was on two. Just as Ares and his army overran camp half blood, his roman counterpart, Mars, was assaulting camp Jupiter. They were barely holding the line, thanks to the force of all of camp, as well as basically every man, woman and child in New Rome. Even the satyrs- sorry, the fauns, were armed and fighting.

So while I helped the greek demigods escape, my counterpart would help defend the romans.