I do not own Percy Jackson or Kane Chronicles.

TJ's PoV.

WHACK!

"Ow." I said as once again Matt's staff hit me. The past few evenings after school I have been having both him and Walt teach me how to fight with the offending object. It hasn't been going so well. I'm just glad Percy isn't here yet.

"You need to keep your guard up." Matt said. "I don't know if Percy will know how to use a staff or not but you need to get this down before he gets here."

"It's not my fault I can't focus. How can people with ADHD even function without meds?" I asked, complaining slightly. Yes. Today is Saturday. The day my brother said that he would demonstrate how the ADHD is supposed to help in a fight. So far, I don't how it does. It also the day of Emily's birthday, the party starts in an hour. "Matt, I think that's as good as it's going to get."

"You can always get better." He replied.

"Matt, I that's all we can do for now. We've been at this for two hours now and it wouldn't do if he's completely worn-out before his brother even gets here." Walt told him and it was true. I was tired and I hurting. Hopefully Percy doesn't go as rough on me as Matt and Walt have.

"Alright, alright. Let's go get cleaned up before the party." Sloan admitted and I got out of there before he even finished speaking. It felt so nice to wash all of the sweat off, but I also knew that it'd be pointless since I'll have to fight my brother later. At least I won't be all gross for the party.

When I got down to the balcony most everyone was there already. The only exception was Percy. Everyone was talking with each other. At the table I saw Emily and Felix deeply involved in a conversation about the existence of mermaids. Surprisingly those two got along amazingly since Felix loves the cold and ice, whereas Emily loves tropical things, even though this is her first away from home, which could never be considered tropical. Sadie and her friends were also in deep conversation, not exactly sure about what. The other trainees were debating the pros and cons of each of the gods. All the adults were having a conversation about politics or some such. Basically it was a very noisy and cheerful atmosphere.

With everyone present the party got started, starting with the massive cake and a lot of ice cream. After that were the presents, then the games. We were all having a blast. As we were all having a charades war Percy decided to show up, with him were a man and a woman. The woman looked like Percy, in her hands was a plate of what I think were cookies but they were blue so I wasn't sure.

"Sorry we're late." Percy said with a sheepish smile.

"That's alright, Percy." Emily told him with a smile and ran up to give him a hug. She has only seen him twice before but she loves him. Then she turned to the man and woman as did most of the people in the room. "Who are you?" she asked them.

"I'm Percy's mother, Sally, and this is his stepfather Paul." The woman said smiling.

"Does that mean your TJ's mom too?" she asked.

"Yes, it does. Are you Emily?" My sister nodded at her. "Happy Birthday, Emily." Sally told her handing her the plate of cookies.

"They're blue." Emily said surprised.

"And they are awesome." Percy told her and he also handed her something. She sat down on the floor and put the cookies next to her as she opened a small box with a bow on top. From it she pulled out a silver necklace with a single pearl on it. "A mermaid!" she said excitingly. "Thank you" she gave Percy another hug and when she let go of him he took it from her hand and put it around her neck for her.

"If you ever find yourself in an extremely dangerous situation that you can't get out of, pull the pearl off and crush it. It'll reset after three days but only use it if there's no other option. Do you understand, Emily?" he asked and looked her in the eye.

"What's the pearl do?"

"It depends on the situation. But I need to know you understand this Emily."

"I understand. Only use the pearl when in deep trouble and never for anything else." She told him and he nodded. I finally got s good view of the necklace she got. It had a mermaid made of silver swimming around the pearl. It was a beautiful necklace. "Now, come play with us." She pulled him, as well as the cookies, back over to the main group and the game of charades was resumed.

Some of the adults pulled Paul and Sally into a conversation. The younger kids pestered me into charades. A few more games were played and by then it was lunch time and we all went out onto the balcony to eat. Percy sat next to me. Everyone started to drift away to do something else as they finished eating. Pretty soon it was just a few of us left. It was then that Percy passed me a package. It was about two foot long, smallish box and it felt a little heavy. I looked at him.

"Happy late birthday." He said. I opened it.

"What's that, TJ?" Julian asked. Inside of the box was a knife with an eighteen inch long blade. There was also a sheath in the box with it. For now I just took the knife out and examined it closer. "Whoa. Is that I knife or a sword?"

"What do you think?" I grumbled as I noticed something carved into the blade. A word of some sort but I couldn't read it, then I realized it wasn't even in English. It read: κυκλώνας. "Do you know what it says, Percy? On the blade?"

"Oh, it's pronounced kykló̱nas. It means cyclone. That's the name of the blade." He answered and I looked up at him.

"Where did you get it?" Jeff asked. "You have to be eighteen to even go into weapon stores."

"I guess you could say it's a family heirloom. That weapon is about as old as my grandfather." Percy answered him. "It took me forever to find it."

"Why did you give me a knife? I would have thought you disapproved of all knifes from your reaction to Matt's." I told him.

"That knife will actually do you more good in a fight than a pocket knife."

"But why?"

"First rule of survival: never go anywhere without a weapon." We all stared at him.

"Rules of Survival?" Julian asked unsure. "Is that from…?"

"My years 'by myself', yeah, you could say that." I said and I could tell he was hiding something.

"So do you always, always have a weapon with you?" Jeff asked.

"Yup."

"Doesn't that get you in trouble at school?" I asked him.

"As if regular people could detect a magic item." He said with a smirk.

"You have a magic weapon?" Julian asked, awe in his voice. "What does it do or is it just the general magic that the weapons the House use?"

"Where do you keep it though?" Jeff asked before Percy could answer. "Duat storage is pretty difficult and not knowing about…"

"I have a different way of keeping it hidden." My brother answered, still smirking. "So do you want to wait a bit longer before I kick you but in a fight or would you rather do it now?" he asked me. I looked back at the blade he gave me; it glowed softly in the light. Something dawned on me just then.

"Why would you give me a sheath for this when I could just store this in the Duat?" I asked.

"It's different magic. It wouldn't work."

"Different magic?" he ignored me and handed me the sheath.

"Rule number one."

"Never go anywhere without a weapon." I recited and rolled my eyes halfheartedly. For some reason I felt that I should listen to him about this. "By the way we're using staffs." I told him as I stood up from the table and sheathed the knife and tied it to my belt for now.

"You know staff fighting?" Percy raised an eyebrow.

"I had Walt and Matt teach me some stuff over the past few days." He rolled his eyes at me.

"You doubt my teaching abilities?" Walt asked.

"No, just Matt's." they all stood up as well and we headed inside.

"You do know how to staff fight?" Matt asked Percy after everyone who wanted to watch the fight had gathered. Paul and Sally were among them. A few minutes ago Paul had told me to be care because Percy doesn't always fight fair.

"Not really." Percy answered lazily twirling the staff around him. "But it's basically the same concept as any other weapon."

"So you know how it works?" WHACK. Percy swung the staff like a baseball bat and hit Matt.

"Like that." Percy grinned at Matt as he picked himself up off the floor.

"Percy." Sally warned from the sidelines.

"What?" She just shook her head at him but I saw a slight smile on her lips.

"Ok." Walt stepped up as Matt retreated to a safe distance. "Rules are: no use of magic, only chosen weapons can be used, and first one to stay down loses." he explained. "Understand?"

"Yup." Percy told him.

"Yes." I confirmed my understanding of the rules.

"So begin." Then Walt stepped back to the sidelines. Percy made no move to attack, so I did. He easily blocked and kicked me in the chest and I flew back a few feet and landed on my back. For a few seconds I couldn't breathe and my chest hurt from the kick.

"Second rule of survival: never underestimate your opponent." Percy said as I stood back up.

"Couldn't tell me that before you kicked me?" I asked him as I retrieved my staff from where I dropped it.

"If I did then it wouldn't have the same effect to it."

"How many Rules are there?"

"Depends on who you ask." He said and before I could do anything else he used his staff to sweep my feet out from under me. I landed on my back again, but this time I didn't drop my staff and got back on my feet quickly. "Never let your opponents distract you."

"Let me guess, rule three?"

"No, that was five." He said as I went after him again. He dodged and countered and I blocked.

"So what's three and four?" instead of answering he flipped over me as I swung at him and he landed behind me. Before I could turn he hit the back of my knee and I collapsed.

"Expect the unexpected is number three." I rolled out of the way as his staff sailed toward me. I heard a few worried gasps from the sidelines when I barely got out of the way. That distracted me and I found myself on the floor once more. "Four is always be aware of your surroundings."

"I thought this was to show how ADHD helps in a fight. Now it just seems like beat up TJ." I grumbled as I got up again and he stood back.

"I'm just see how much you were taught and were you skill level is." I said and the smile he gave me sent chills down my spine.

"And now?" I asked more than slightly afraid.

"Now it's my turn to teach."

The next, I don't even know how long, was spent with Percy hitting me with his staff and telling me different things to help my fighting abilities. That would have been fine if he didn't continue on with other advice before I could follow what he told me and I had to fix whatever he said was wrong while fighting. It was worse than training with Walt and Matt; they at least gave me time to breathe. Nor did they hit me as hard as he was. I noticed that Percy was also speeding up which was making it a lot harder for me since I could barely keep up before. there were a few people on the sides trying to tell Percy to stop the fight but he didn't.

Also, as we were fighting I was beginning to notice things that I didn't before. Whatever was going on around the room no longer distracted me and I could still see everyone standing there but I was still focused on the fight. Even more surprising was the fact that I could tell when Percy was going to attack. It was incredible.

My energy was starting to run majorly low. Even worse, when I jumped back to avoid being hit I felt my ankle roll and I fell as pain shot up my leg. Quickly, I rolled to the side and ended up on my knees and I saw Percy's staff coming down on my head. Time slowed down suddenly. Gripping my staff in both hands, his hit mine and I rolled back and when he stepped forward I kicked him with both feet as hard as I could and he went flying back. The impact made the pain in my ankle flare up and I almost cried out.

My mind was fuzzy, whether from pain or exhaustion I didn't know, but I think I heard someone call the end of the fight. I did not have the energy to care what was going on around me at the moment. The longer I laid there the more I felt all my bruises and the pain in my ankle. I heard voices above me and I could barely make out what they were saying.

"What was all that about, Percy?" someone asked and they sounded angry.

"He could have ended the fight anytime." Came the reply.

"You went harder on him than Walt and I." someone else, Matt possibly, going off of what was said.

"Your point?"

"Percy, the human body can only take so much before it shuts down." An older voice said and I totally believe it. My body wasn't listening to me anymore. My mind started to slip into unconsciousness. Other stuff was said but I didn't know what. Then I felt arms lift me up and then everything was gone.