Sup. So I took a bit longer for this one to finish up, but it is also longer too. There's also some swearing so watch out for that too. If you're bothered by it just comment about it. This is rated T so you should have seen that coming. I probs won' bother to even warn you next time though, just a heads up. Too troublesome. Anyway, do comment if you have time it makes me want to update more quickly.
"So that's everything basically. I fell back in time because I borrowed gramps power without knowing how to control and you joined in because I somehow managed to strengthen our bond even after your spirit was crushed gramps thinks that the pieces of your lingering spirit somehow latched on to me and joined for the ride." Percy said with a shrug.
"What now?" Grover asked he adapted to the situation rather quickly, but then he expected no less from his best friend, the lord of the wild.
'That's what we were hoping you would help out with. You see my grandson here would like your help in convincing his mother that she needs not be with the despicable mortal to disguise Percy's scent.' Grandpa explained.
"Oh, no problem, but that's not what I meant. What's the plan? What will we be doing for the next let see" Grover made an exaggerated hand gesture as if checking a watch "three years?"
"Well I was hoping to do some pre-war strategies y'know? Get some of the minor sea gods on our side by preventing the pollution of the sea's and other bodies of water. Now that I think of it that's not really going to take all that time, but I was only thinking to help my dad. You could help shift the cloven elders' view from finding Pan to helping restore the wild. I don't know if that'll stop Pan from fading, but it might." Percy said.
'I see so that's the seed of power in you I sensed.' His Grandpa interrupted.
"What seed? What does it do?" Grover asked.
'Nothing to worry about, in fact I'd it's quite a blessing. You see when some beings fade they can pass on their core power to someone else. This core is what produces their power, I didn't think that there anyone who even still knew about, most just leave it within their domain and it dissipates after a few millennium and is forgotten as another takes up the mantle. Anyway, this core if nurtured correctly could give you the power the god had, how powerful it gets depends on the person in question. I could help you nurture it if you'd like?' his Grandpa asked.
"YES, I mean, I'd like that very much please" Grover nearly shouted excitedly. Wasn't that just the kind of power they needed?
'It's not very hard and Percy could teach you. It's just a matter of learning a certain trick. I believe Percy has dubbed it his domain. You could be easily taught since you have something that can easily contain the power without it dissipating. Oh and before I forget, because of this incident that my grandson has caused you could very well save the fellow that's fading with a bit of help from me of course. Though I would come at the cost of nearly depleting your reserves, but by that time if you're as powerful as I presume it will be easily replenished.' Grandpa explained.
"Thank you Percy's grandpa, I won't forget this favor" Grover said bowing. Percy didn't stop him, he knew how much Pan's death affected people under his domain the Satyr's especially.
'It's really no problem my boy, we're all family here and I'm in a way your grandpa just as much as I am Percy's and I've taken a liking to you two kids feel free to also call me in the same fashion.' Grandpa said with a booming laugh, it seemed he liked Grover a lot.
"Of course Grandpa" Grover said with a happy bleat.
"I feel like I'm being left out here." Percy jokingly said and they all laughed some more.
'Ah that's enough of that. In all seriousness though it would be in your best interest if you could establish connections with some minor gods and goddesses, many of them just want fair and equal treatment for their children, that's not too much to ask for. The ancient laws are much more lax for them, so a lot of them frequently help their children. Some might even be able to stay in camp.'
"I think for now we need to have Grover just find as many demigods as possible, although camp doesn't give them the best circumstances, they could make do until I get there then we can really start making the big changes. Until they start acting right the gods will have no say in demigod lives." Percy said with determination.
"What about Mr. D?" Grover asked.
'Oh I think I have a way to have that wine god obey your every word.' Grandpa laughed mischievously.
"What is it?"Grover looked ready to start taking notes. He wondered if he should be worried at the level of worship his best friend was showing.
'This might not have work if you were a normal satyr, but since you have the god of the wilds core it's perfect. So I remember there once a fruit that had similar if not a stronger affect than wine, I could make the fruits seed, but I can't help you in growing it since it's from ancient times and it died out from its hard cultivation method. Pan may have been able to grow it but this fruit surpasses his times. As long as you are able to grow this fruit that is like wine but not, what would that wine god not do for you?' Gramps laughed.
"This plan, ha-ha I love it I'd expect nothing worse from grandpa." Percy joined in laughter.
"Really great" Soon Grover too joined in.
This solved their greatest problem yet.
'Here take this and start growing it in here. If you can help me get a few materials I could make it so anything you grow in here you can take outside and vice versa so that everything you grow outside can be brought in here. This would apply to animals too you could make this your very own Garden of Eden. What do you think? It's very hip isn't it?' Gramps said trying and failing to act cool.
"It's amazing!" the hero worship in Grover's eyes seemed to grow more.
"I'm sensing a huge difference in treatment here. Why is he getting all the cool things?" Percy complained halfheartedly.
'Yes sure you could bring you fishes into you place too if I suppose' his grandpa waved him off in a jokingly uncaring tone.
'Now in all seriousness Percy and I need to be heading back. You can call us if you make some progress in growing those seed. I have a few other useful seeds that I'd like to see if you can grow too.' Gramps said and with that Percy felt a tug on his mind and they disappeared.
He looked around to see that he was still in the now much less burning building; he put out the few fires still around. He quickly ran out the door and was greeted by a worried Esperanza's face.
"Did you find him? Where's my son?" She asked panicked.
"He's fine, but the situation is rather complicated" Percy started then he explained the situation barring a few points.
"Are you sure the Earth lady called the other one Tia?" Esperanza questioned seriously.
"Yeah that's what she called her." She probably already knew about the gods existing so he hadn't held back in those details.
"That gods damned whore!" She cursed angrily.
"Oh and by the way she thinks you died." Percy added as an afterthought.
"What!"
Percy explained the conversation he overheard which lead to even more cursing.
"I'd probably stay away from her if I were you else she might really kill you." Percy finally said helplessly.
"What of my son? Do want me to leave him alone with that crazy bitch?" she screeched.
"I don't think she'll hurt him." Percy argued weakly.
"Yeah well I didn't think she'd hurt me before too, but if it weren't for you I'd be dead!" she yelled.
"There's nothing you could do about it though unless you want her to kill you before you ever meet your son? It's best you ask his father to do something." Percy calmly explained after a pause he really sympathized with her.
He remembered back when Hades had taken his mother he'd been furious especially since he had no idea what was happening to her. She'd been fine in the end, but he still remembered the fear he felt.
"Oh, my little Mijo mammas going to get you back soon as she can, so stay safe" Esperanza promised sorrowfully, her eyes were watery, but she didn't cry showing her willpower.
"Come with me for the time being. You're not in the right mindset right now to be by yourself." Percy said after a while.
"Who are you? Are you a minor god?" She finally asked after she seemed to calm down.
"Me? I'm not sure, but I might be a demigod. My mother and I came here for vacation." Percy lied.
"So that's your real age huh? You're a brave little boy um…?" she asked.
"Percy. Percy Jackson." He answered.
"Thank you for your help Percy, but I think I'll be fine." She said determined.
"If you're going after your son then I'll give you some advice. Have your husband give something to your son that can give you guys a secret two way communication and then go into hiding. It sounds like that stone woman wants you dead, and if she finds out your alive she could threaten your child with your death to hurt him or even have him die to save you." Percy said.
Esperanza paled at that thought.
"Yeah, I think that might be best. I'll see if I can contact him" she gave in.
"I wish you luck" Percy said.
With that said he left. He'd said his part; there was nothing more he could do. If she was anything like his mother anything he said would sound like pity and she probably didn't want any of it. Maybe if he could get his mother to speak to her it would be a entirely different story.
"Wait!" she suddenly cried.
"Yes?" Percy answered turning to glance at her.
"Do you need a ride to where you're staying? You're not planning on walking the whole distance are you? How did you get here anyway?" She asked.
Oh. He'd forgotten he'd been driven here. He didn't even know his way home.
"Yeah that would be a great help. I'm not sure how to get home." He said scratching his head sheepishly.
He quickly explained his situation.
"Oh Sean sent you? Come in I'll make you something to eat before I drive you home. My house is just behind the shop." She said.
They didn't need to call the fire department as most of the fire seemed to have died out when the two goddesses left and the little that had been spreading he'd put out when he left.
They got settled down in the house rather quickly. Cooking seemed to calm Esperanza down very well, although that in turn had her making rather large proportions of food not that he minded much.
'Percy, I'm going to pick up a few Demigods before I head over to you place if that's alright with you. I just need a cover to be allowed to go out and search especially with the event with Thalia having been so recently.' He heard Grover say through the link. It seemed to be easy for him to use.
'Ok no problem, but see if you could us both weapons from camp' he sent back.
Grover had started using weapons when he'd felt his woodland magic just wasn't enough, it had been rather hard to teach he satyr swordsmanship especially since it required a bit of footwork and with goat legs that wasn't really easy. So instead of trying to force Grover into unnatural stances they instead made a whole new style. Goat legs were very agile and fast, which was the base of the style, but they had to change that up when Grover decide he wanted a big sword. He'd learned a lot about his friend at that point after all most people who got big swords where making up for their-.
'Hey don't think weird stuff about me!' Grover suddenly exclaimed.
'You could read my thoughts too?' he thought surprised.
'Yeah your making fun of the fact that I got a big sword weren't you? You and I both know that a lot of the monster we were fighting got bigger and not everybody could have they're sword expand and shrink at their whims!' Grover loudly thought.
'It's alright G-man I won't think of you any less, it's-'Percy teased.
'Shut up!' Grover cut him off.
Percy laughed out loud and had Esperanza looking at him funny.
"Could I get you to lend me a piece of clothing Leo wore? That way if I ever come across him I could help protect him for a bit, but I don't know how long that goddess will let me be around him." Percy asked her after a brief moment of silence when they finished eating.
"How does the single piecing of clothing help?" she asked curiously.
"Oh, I know a satyr ha could smell him." Percy stated.
"I thought you didn't know you were a demigod? How have you met a satyr? Don't they usually look for demigods?" she questioned.
"I guess I'm a special case. The satyr isn't sure whether or not I'm a demigod since he can't smell me, but he's seen me do demigod things." Percy explained.
"Hm" she said with a nod, seeming satisfied.
They descended into silence for a bit more. When he glanced over at Esperanza she seemed to be making faces once in a while. It seemed he wasn't the only one having silent conversations.
"My husband says to leave here with you, he says staying near you is safe and this place isn't." She said breaking the silence.
It seemed that the god seemed to be rather insightful, after all Percy wouldn't let harm come to those under his care. They probably guessed he meant no harm and was more than he seemed, but still it showed their decisiveness. Thinking up a few good ideas and having the courage to go through with them were two entirely different things.
"Then we should get going shouldn't we?" he said standing up.
"Let's drive around for a bit and go for a wash just in case some monsters follow us. Then head to the hotel" Percy said walking to the door.
They soon got to the hotel after. He had to call the school and explain that they now were going to use their extra ticket on 'Aunty' Esperanza that was not really a lie they were related somehow, the school readily agreed since it should have been a three person trip in the first place since they said Gabe was 'sick', but in actuality they just hadn't informed him.
"You don't have to go through all this trouble I get an employee discount." Esperanza told him, but from the grateful look on her face he guessed that probably didn't lower it much.
"It's no problem honestly Mrs. Valdez, I'm glad to help we are family aren't we?" Percy said.
"Well in that case, you must call me Aunty I think I like it much more than 'Mrs. Valdez'." She said laughing.
"No problem Aunt Esperanza." The words flowed out naturally.
"Now, how about we explain this to your mother?" she asked.
"Ok, but let's wait until tomorrow. Moms at the spa today and I'd like her to relax for the rest of the day." Percy explained.
"Aw, how cute. She must be such a great mother raising such a thoughtful child. I hope my Mijo can grow up to be like you someday." She cooed, she seemed to be back to her normal self. Which only lamented Percy's thoughts that she was a strong woman.
'How will you explain this all to you mother?' Grover asked.
'No clue. I'll think about that tomorrow' Percy answered tiredly.
He went to sleep early even though it was still bright out. This younger body of his just couldn't take all the stress.
….
It had been surprisingly easy to explain things to his mother the next day and she seemed to easily accept the fact he knew about the world of the gods. She seemed skeptical when he said he'd been told he didn't have a demigod scent on him. She probably knew that even Gabe's scent only had a repulsion affect and couldn't really hold up under a careful check especially after he had been informed he was a demigod, but she hadn't mentioned anything so he guessed she was waiting to question Grover.
The next 10 days flew by rather quickly. His mother had been rather relaxed considering the circumstances and she'd gotten on very well with Aunt Esperanza even better than he had expected. They would always be sticking to each other's side and every once in a while they would giggle like school girls, he hadn't really got to see this side of his mom last time maybe because he was constantly worrying her.
It was nice to see her with fewer worries.
"So as I walked in I hear a scream and it was his teacher and laying on the floor giggling while strangling a snake was Percy, apparently the snake somehow snuck in and Percy thought it would be nice to act up a scene where he died so he'd wrapped the snake around himself and waited for his teacher to come by." His mom was telling a laughing Esperanza as they entered the train back.
"I would never have thought with how polite and thoughtful he acts that he would have such a mischievous side to him." Esperanza laughed out.
"Oh don't let that fool you, he's only like that to the people he likes. To those he doesn't like he's the devil reincarnate." Sally laughed.
"Mom." He groaned.
"Oh shut it you. Tell me of one teacher you didn't like that have escaped your wrath." She teased.
"I'm a man of justice. How could I not punish evil." He proudly said puffing out his chest.
"A man you say, in what world?" Esperanza teased.
"Whatever." He turned the other way pouting.
They continued on with their conversation the rest of the ride back. His mother had easily convinced Esperanza to stay with them for the time being.
Percy opted to take a nap. He'd recently felt comfortable enough to start pouring all his power into his 'domain'. It had helped a lot; he now had no need to carry around his bottle of water. Now he could have it notify him of presences around him if he spread it throughout the air correctly. It was of no use now, but that had helped him through a few close calls in the past.
Every time he took a nap he ended up in his 'mindscape', the place he had first met his grandpa in. Two weeks earlier when he'd been almost bored to death, his grandpa suddenly pulled him in during a dream and started teaching him how to organize his mind 'As long as you can organize this dump, it'll help boost you mental capabilities' he made it sound easy, but the undersea palace was a lot bigger than on the inside than it was outside not to mention that he couldn't use his powers 'this is your mind, everything here represents something if you're not careful you could forget something important at best and in the worst case scenario…' he hadn't finished that sentence. He'd resolved not to find out.
So that's how he ended up being a janitor in his mindscape. His grandpa also found it funny to change his clothing to one. It wasn't really bad with just the janitorial suit, but he'd always get a note in his pockets of something his grandpa thought to be cleverly written. He was like Apollo was in that sense.
In the two weeks since he'd started he'd only gotten barely a third of the place cleaned up, but he felt that it had the desired effect. He could recall things much easier now, but not much else. Maybe each section of the palace covered a different part of his mental capabilities?
Whatever, he'd figure it out later. Right now he had some cleaning to get back to.
….
"Excuse the mess my husband's not-" his mother started.
The reason for her pause was because of the fact that their apartment wasn't exactly how they'd left it. Plus there was also about a dozen teenagers lying about.
"Percy!" he suddenly heard Grover yell out.
"Grover? What are you doing here, and in my house?" He questioned.
'Why didn't you warn me? And why so many kids?' he asked mentally.
"We were being chased a rather nasty monster and these guys aren't exactly the least attention grabbing bunch so I thought I'd hide them in here until I took care of the monster, but they got hungry so we ended up staying the night, don't worry though I brought groceries!" Grover laughed nervously.
'I didn't even plan to bring so many, but my senses are so much better somehow, I could smell them from miles away and that's without even trying. I think it's because of Pans Core' Grover sent back amazed.
"I'll cook something up right away." His mother said taking things in stride.
"Wait! What about Gabe?" Percy asked.
"We kicked him out. He smelled bad and was annoying, threw his stuff out with him. Grover said you wouldn't mind." A kid piped in grinning.
"Hm" his mother acknowledged.
He looked around to see if he could recognize any of the demigods and realized that none looked familiar to him.
'Do you remember any of them from last time?' Percy asked Grover.
'Nah, they must've died the first time around. Most of the ones I found were being chased. Demigods give a stronger scent when scared.' Grover explained.
'Could you still smell some even now? If we're going to bring a big group of demigods we might as well go all out for today.' Percy asked.
'A few, but some are still younger and with their families still, I don't think they'll be chased by monsters soon. I've been taking mostly the ones with stronger scents or the ones in danger.' His friend sent.
'Yeah, that's probably for the best for now.' He thought back.
Over dinner Grover explained how Percy and he met and how he me the kids, and a few other things. The teens seemed to fall in love with sally's cooking, many even wanting to stay a few more days.
"So, what is it you mentioned about Percy not having a scent? I mean he is a demigod after all." Sally asked after they'd finished up.
"It's exactly as you say, he just doesn't' have a scent. Although I've noticed when he becomes rather moody it comes back full blast but otherwise it's like he's a normal mortal." Grover said.
"And you're sure it won't come back?" His mother asked rather hopefully.
"No, that is why I wanted to have him visit camp half-blood. So I could check with Chiron what his deal was." Grover said sensing where the conversation was heading. He knew Percy's mother enough to tell that if she had the choice she'd never send him to camp if she had the choice.
"Oh, well I guess we can have him accompany your group of it isn't too much trouble?" she suggested.
"That was the plan." Grover said smiling.
Except it wasn't, he hadn't planned to be reintroduced to the Greek mythological world until the date of his first quest.
"When will he be back? We haven't even discussed what university he wanted to attend yet." Sally said saddened.
"I'll let you choose what you think is best for me mom. I'll probably stay half the summer." Percy said. It wasn't like he wasn't going to go wherever she wanted anyway. He'd earned the title of momma's boy for a reason.
"Oh that's just great, I know a few great ones I'd like you to go to." His mother said excitedly.
"Yes that's great we'll talk about them when I get back." Percy said.
"Ok le's get going guys it wouldn't be very fun for us to get caught out in the dark with so many monster treats." Percy said with a laugh as he saw the others pale.
"Percy! Be nice to your campmates!" Sally cried as they walked down the stairs.
"Will do! Bye mom! Bye Aunty!" he called back.
"Bye sweetie" they both called back simultaneous before giggling once more.
They went a few blocks down the road before they saw a rather shoddy old school bus. It looked like it had been parked where it was for quite a while. He gave Grover a glance and saw him grinning back at him. It seemed they were both thinking the same thing. Walking was way too boring!
'How much do you have on you?' he asked Grover. He'd feel bad if he just stole the bus.
'I have enough to buy the bus. Especially given how bad a shape it's in.' Grover sent back.
He didn't ask how Grover had that much money. He'd earned his fair share of riches while questing. Maybe it was the same for him? Then he remembered that the last search Grover had been doing was the one involving Thalia, it made sense for Zeus to want to curry favor from her by sending a load of money, not that it would work.
'Ok ask them if it still works and if it does we'll take it' he told Grover before going for a lap around the block to check if they'd been followed.
When he returned Grover had already gotten the keys. This would be fun.
"D you know how to drive this thing?" one of the teens asked.
Percy chose to ignore their question.
'Do you wanna try first or should I?' he asked Grover.
'Ha can your feet even touch the gas?' Grover mocked.
'There goes your chance of driving his thing first.' Percy thought before shoving him out of the way and snatching the keys.
"Hey!" Grover said aloud.
"Alright hop on kiddos, next stop camp half-blood." He said grinning.
"Who let the kid drive?" one of the teens asked.
"Maybe he's like a satyr and ages slowly?" another brought up.
"Yeah right, did you see the way he talked to his mommy? He's definitely as old as he looks." Another retorted.
Percy chose to ignore them in favor of looking around the bus. There was a load of buttons to his left that he had no idea what they were used for, he ignored them for the time being. He saw the ignition and roughly shoved his keys in. He gave it a little turn and looked around to see some lights flashing and the speedometer move back and forth.
It didn't seem there was anything wrong so he proceeded to turn the car on. There was no 'park' gear on the bus and I was on neutral so he switched to drive.
"Whoa he actually knows what he's doing!" one teen yelled amazed.
Percy drove on with a smug look.
"99 bottle of beer on the wall, 99 bottle of beer take one down pass it around 98 bottles of beer on the wall!" They had decided to start singing halfway through the trip.
I was a good way for some to release stress especially after the treatment they'd gotten from monster all around. It seemed to be working quite well too there was a lot of eye rolling and laughs. It was like a normal field trip if you ignored the fact that there was a 9 year old driving the bus.
"C'mon guys that's the third time you've sang that song, why don't you switch it up?" a girl Sophia if he remembered correctly said.
"What would you suggest then?" Percy asked.
"Green Day?" She suggested.
"Do any of you guys know Good Riddance?" Percy asked.
There were a few nods.
"Well you'll all know by the end of the trip!" he yelled.
"Here it goes! Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road. Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go…" he sang with a few others joining him.
"Hey doesn't this bus have a radio?" once they got bored again someone asked.
"Probably, but I don't know how to work It." he answered.
"Lemme see that I think I can try something." One guy said.
He tinkered with a few things before they suddenly heard a blaring noise from the bus speakers.
"Boo ya! Look at me go, first try baby!" he yelled happily.
"Bring a good station, Noah." A girl cried out in the back.
"Anything for you, Lisa" Noah said with a wink. The girl, Lisa, blushed madly before turning away.
"Smooth." Percy muttered.
For a suspected son of Hephaestus that is. Most of them were usually the shy, quite type, but very good friends when you could finally befriend them. There were however, always exceptions.
"We are now boarding at the next station. Could I have all passengers get ready to leave? Wake any you see on your way out." Percy said through the internal microphones.
"I'm starting to regret having fixed that for you." Noah groaned.
Apparently most of them had just started falling asleep.
"Just a reminder passengers, should not do anything to annoy the bus driver. Doing so may result in getting thrown out the window." Percy said through the speakers again.
"As if you can, little guy. Ahh." Noah exclaimed as he found himself soaked o the bone. Just for giggles Percy froze the water clinging onto him.
"Passenger at the back could you repeat what you had jus said?" Percy said through laughter.
"I'm sorry. Gods you didn't have to do that, I'm freezing! Do you have a towel?" Noah said.
Percy slowly warmed the water on him up before letting it evaporate. He didn't want to get him sick. Though, he wasn't sure if certain demigods caught the cold. He was sure he had never had, but that could be a son of Poseidon thing.
"Can all of us learn that?" One of the teens asked.
"It depends on your parentage really. I've been thinking about what demigods got certain powers and why. Grover tells me not all demigods of the same parentage get the same powers, but I've been thinking that maybe just the starting points are different. I mean it makes sense doesn't it? We all have different levels of talent with different things, so why would this be any different?" Percy explained his thoughts.
He'd been thinking that for a long time now but never got to really experiment his ideas. This could be the perfect time to do so.
They didn't get to discus their ideas too much before they reached their stop.
"Let's talk again after you guys are finally settled at camp, but do try to experiment in the ways you can. I want to know what you guys come up with." Percy said.
With that they marched up half-blood hill.