Percy stood outside his mother's front door. He didn't know if he wanted to go in. It had been six weeks since he had last talked or even seen her. Heck, he didn't even know if she knew he was still alive. Janus, help me decide, his subconscious murmured when knocked on the door.

Paul answered the door. His face appeared to have aged a lot in the six weeks since Percy had last seen him, more so than what was probably healthy for a mortal. His eyes brighten a little bit, and his face does not try to hide the shock. "Sally! Come here! You won't believe this!" he yelled inside the apartment.

Sally Jackson came to the door of her apartment, and her appearance terrified her. Her eyes seemed to have lost their twinkle, her hair was duller. Her eyes were red and puffy like she had been crying a lot, and she didn't look like she was eating or sleeping right.

She blinked once. Twice. Her lips twisted upward into a smile. She hugged the teenager tightly.

"Why haven't you contacted mr yet? I thought you were dead!" she yelled at her son when she had finished hugging him, more out of concern than anger.

"Some things happened after we beat Kronos. We couldn't leave immediately. If I could, I would have come sooner," Percy said.

"Why don't you tell me exactly what happened?" Sally asked. So he told her, without leaving anything out. For the first time in his short life among gods and monsters, he told her absolutely everything. He didn't leave things out or edit them to seam less dangerous, she deserved to know what was happening in her son's life. It must have taken half the night, and by the time he was finished he was exhausted.

"It's getting late, why don't you go to bed? There's nothing that can't wait 'til morning," she ordered as she marched him off to bed.

That night he slept better than he had any night since before the war started.

oO0Oo

Where was I? Percy thought groggily as he opened his eyes when he woke up in the morning. Then he remembered what happened the night before: Annabeth's plan to get rid of Zeus, visiting my mom, and not returning to Poseidon's palace.

"Bye mom!" he shouted running across the living room, "Dad's going to kill me if I don't get back. I'll call or Iris Message when I can!" Even as he ran full speed towards the docks, he knew there was going to be no way he was going to get back soon enough to escape punishment.

oO0Oo

When he got back, he could tell something was wrong. There wan't anything out of place, it was subtler than that. It was the way the water held itself, the lack of living things mulling around, and the feeling of tenseness that usually followed a really bad argument.

When he got closer to my room, he could hear voices. He cracked the door ever so slightly to see what was happening.

"Tyson, can you tell me exactly what Percy told you?" Poseidon tried to coax out of Tyson, who was crying.

"Tell me where he is. I'll take care of him," Triton butted in. Tyson started to cry harder.

"You're not helping!" my father growled.

That is when Percy stepped in and made his presence known.

"Where have you been?" Poseidon exploded.

"I've went to see my mom," he said quietly. This is the angriest he had ever seen his father be at him.

"I told you to inform me when you leave!" he yelled, slipping into ancient Greek.

"I really wanted to surprise her. It's been weeks and she didn't even know I alive! She had been crying when I got there!" Percy was getting defensive at this point.

"It does not matter Perseus! You could have been killed, or worse. If you had informed me that you have put of alerting your mother to the current climate of our world for so long, I would have gone and told her myself! I don't have a choice now."

He hated to admit it, but Percy was scared then. He was confused, and the last time a god was this ominous he had lost his lost much of his freedom, particularly to travel freely.

"You're going to be grounded for a while," he said.

"That's all?" Percy was surprised at how light my punishment sounded.

Poseidon snapped his fingers, and he had a ballpoint pen in his fingers. Anaklusmos. Mermen guards seemed to melt strait out the water. Percy started to panic, remembering when Hades had put him away before he could bathe in the River Styx. He started to thrash.

"It won't work," Triton, who seemed to be enjoying himself in the scene, told the demigod.

They drag Percy deep within the confines of the central structure of the palace, towards the prison section. They entered the section for low security prisoners and marched Percy down the cell block. At the end, they open a small, poorly lit room and threw him in.

"I'll see you in a few days, Perseus," said Triton, who had followed them, with a grin to menacing for Percy to like plastered on his face.

"Why do you hate me so much?" the younger one managed to get out before the the door was closed.

oO0Oo

Percy had no idea how long he stayed in that cell. It could have been days, it could have been hours. He had no working watch, and there was no window that he could use to observe activity outside.

After who knows how long, which was way to long for him, somebody opened the door. "Your time is up, you can go," said the person, who Percy didn't even bother look at as he walked out of the cell. He needed to find Triton.

oO0Oo

Percy was right outside the game room, where he had heard Triton had been since this morning. He thought about taking Riptide out and charge in to confront the minor deity with his faithful sword at his side when he stopped for a moment to think. He was planning to attack his brother, who just so happens to be heir to Poseidon's throne. Attacking with a weapon would just be an excuse to put him back in the dungeon, but for longer this time.

"What do you want?" Triton asked, annoyed when the mortal walked into the room.

"I just want to talk."

"Leave me alone, kid. I don't feel like talking to you." Percy wasn't going to let him win that easily.

"No. Why are you so nasty to me?" Percy asked.

"You want to know why I hate you?" he exploded. "You want to know? It's because dad betrayed Amphitrite, my mother, with your mother to have you! Every time you come back, it's just one more reminder that he isn't loyal to her, at least not fully." He was hysterical at this point. Percy couldn't help but feel a twang of pity as his temper rose.

"You think I wanted to be a demigod? You think I wanted to be involved in the war? Do you honestly think that I wanted to be hunted from before I could walk by the things of nightmares just because the father I never knew happened to be a god?" Percy turned his back on Triton and walked out of that city beneath the sea that, not looking back.