"I'm sorry, could you run that by me again?" Yang asked, leaning forward threateningly. Percy gave her a sideways glance and frowned.

"I don't want to be a hero." Percy enunciated slowly, almost tasting every word.

"One more time…" She tilted her head and patted her ear, pretending to clear water out of her ears.

"I- meaning me, meaning Percy Jackson- do not- Do. Not.- Got this so far?" He paused as Yang's hair began to sizzle, embers already rising. "Want/desire/feel inclined to/have any intention of becoming a hero!"

"You're being an ass." Blake growled.

"Oh, am I? Maybe it's just the fact that out of the nine people I've asked here so far, none of them had heard of New York, or America, or fricking Dunkin Donuts!" Percy stood up and gestured wildly. "So yeah, I'm an ass! Let it go on record that I am an ass! Did you get that? Write that down. I. Am. An. Ass."

"Listen up you-"

"Miss Xiao Long, perhaps you and your team should go get some lunch." Ozpin interjected calmly, his cane tapping along the paving stones.

As team RWBY wandered off toward the cafeteria, Ozpin took a seat beside Percy and pulled out his scroll serenely. "Are you here to convince me to be a hero too?"

"No, I'm here to read you some stories." He then proceeded to read to Perseus tales of Heracles, Perseus, Theseus, Orion, Jason, Bellerophon, Atalanta, and one very special story.

"Her name was Zoë Nightshade," Ozpin began, sighing as he shifted his cane. "and she is a tale demonstrating the darkest side of heroes, and also their greatest points."

"Heracles was not always a paragon of strength…" Percy sat quietly as Ozpin began to explain the gritty underbelly of the hero image. "But then she met a new hero, impetuous and brash, he nearly leapt off a cliff to save the woman he loved-"

"Almost jumped off a cliff? Is that like almost tackling a hand grenade? Or is this more almost donated his kidney?-"

"He was stopped." Ozpin said bluntly, giving Percy a withering stare. "His love was no longer there, she had been kidnapped, and a quest was issued."

"A quest because this guy's girlfriend got kidnapped? That seems like a breach of the whole: greater good thing that heroes are supposed to have."

"The quest was not issued to save the woman."

"Ooh, bummer. Too bad. What does this have to do with Zoë?"

"Zoe's captain, an important general, had also been kidnapped, and was being held near where the girl was." Ozpin cleared his throat and continued slightly louder. "The boy was excluded from the quest, however, being impetuous as he was, he snuck off anyway. He followed the quest and saved them, many times, and as they reached the conclusion of their journey, he displayed something to Zoë something that she had never seen so prevalent in her whole life: Loyalty."

"Yay? I'm not getting the point yet, try small words."

"The boy was the only truly good hero she had ever encountered, and that, Mr. Jackson, is a travesty. Heroes are human, but to fight monsters, one must be sure to never become one, heroes should hold themselves to a higher standard, and in all her life, she hadn't met anyone who fit those criteria."

"Except you." Ozpin concluded.

"What do you mean?"

"Mr. Jackson, you were the only hero that Ms. Nightshade had ever seen as anything more than a hollow echo of an imperfect mold." Ozpin adjusted his glasses and shot Percy a sidelong glance. "I hope that one day you may be that same person again."

"It's not that I don't want to be a great hero, but every great hero ends the same way. They die horribly. Heracles was drenched in poison, Theseus went nutty and Perseus ended up hitched, Bellerophon was shot out of the sky, and Atalanta ended up nameless, following a cult of maidens for the rest of her life." Perseus stood up and throttled an invisible enemy. "I just want to be normal."

He looked to Ozpin and two indomitable wills met fearlessly. "Mr. Jackson, you will never be normal, no matter how hard you try, you will always be exceptional, and with enemies surrounding you, the only place you could ever hope for normalcy is at my academy."

"I won't be a hero."

"You don't need to be." Ozpin stood and stuck his hand out. "You only need to be a student."

"I'm sorry, could you run that by me again." Roman held his hand to his ear and smiled threateningly. "I almost could have sworn that you said that I'm going to be moving this- admittedly massive- stockpile of dust to Mountain Glenn, but that can't be right!"

His eyes darkened and his cane found it's way onto the poor mook's sternum. "Right?!"

"You must be Torchwood!" A melodic voice called from the darkened doorway. "It's a pleasure to meet you ma'am."

"It's Torchwick! And it's Sir!"

"Yeah, sure, whatever." A young girl carrying a wrapped package skipped up toward Roman and tossed him the box. "It's a gift from Cinder's new boss."

Roman opened the lid to the box for a moment and his eyes widened, his cane flipped toward the girl and slammed into her shoulder. He opened the box a little more and showed her the contents: Neo's head, face contorted in a silent scream of panic. "Explain."

"Aww, is someone getting emotional?" The girl asked mockingly. She snickered and took the box, reaching in and pulling out the contents with a sinful innocence. "What's wrong? It's only an apple."

"Wow..." Percy remarked sardonically. "A library, how exciting."

Blake frowned disapprovingly but Pyrrha just soldiered on. Weaving through the towering shelves of Beacon's library, the champion and her raven companions found a quiet desk to sit at and forced Perseus into a chair. "Pyrrha and I will be tutoring you to catch you up on academics, because even if you're not going to become a huntsman, you're still a student, and this is the safest place for you."

"You have three main classes that you'll have to worry about; Dust and Alchemy 101, Grimm Studies and Strategy and Tactics." Pyrrha continued, her voice calm and measured, but her she was obviously on edge. She pulled three books out of her bag and placed them on the table quietly. "For Dust and Alchemy 101 you'll need to read up on the basic types of dust and understand their properties and how they react to each other. Read through the first three chapters of this and you'll have a good basic grasp, we'll work from there."

"In Grimm Studies, we're learning about Grimm habitats, hunting patterns and tracking, but you'll also need a grasp of the Bestiary and general anatomy, so you should read chapters one, five and nine, and make sure to memorize the table on page seventy-five." Blake began, she opened the book up and flipped a few pages, finally pointing to a list of names and facts that seemed rather vague.

"There's not a lot of information here. Are you telling me that this is all you're learning about these Grimm? Shouldn't they teach you more? It seems like this is a pretty big deal to you guys." Pyrrha and Blake flinched for a moment before continuing like Percy hadn't said anything.

"Tactics and Strategy is relatively straightforward, we look at historically relevant battle plans and focus on the tactics they employed, then we create and implement our own tactics." Pyrrha paused and scrounged in her backpack for a few seconds before withdrawing a larger book, already marked up and brimming with random papers. "This class does have a lot of general history involved in it, but that's something else entirely."

"So, you're telling me that there's no math or science?" Percy asked hopefully, a grin spreading across his face. Blake tilted her head side to side. "Sorta...?"

"Dust and Alchemy 101 is huntsman equivalent of chemistry, meanwhile, Grimm Studies contains everything we need to know about biology and physics is an optional course; weapon and ordinance mechanics." Pyrrha said, her mood beginning to waver. "As for math..."

Blake picked up where Pyrrha trailed off with a caustic: "What's four times four?"

After a second of surprised silence, Percy replied with a hesitant: "Sixteen...?"

"Congratulations, you passed math." She grunted bleakly.

Combat training was a bit more bearable for Percy, he got to take off the frankly suffocating suit and tie that students had to wear for a uniform, and he wore a pair of beat up running shorts and a t-shirt.

"Okay, so here's the deal." Yang began as Percy adjusted his sword in his hand, looking at the wooden blade hesitantly. "You need to learn how to fight. Period."

After half an hour of hands on combat training, wherein Yang slammed him across the floor four times, uppercutted him into unconsciousness twice, and kicked him so hard that his head bounced off the floor like a basketball. Percy thought that maybe he'd like to go back to the books for a little while.

"Oh God Yang! You killed him!" Ruby cried out, rushing to his side. She looked down at his bruised and broken body, his eyelids fluttering ever-so-slightly. "Oh, wait, nope, he's fine."

"Your concern is touching." Percy said blandly, his eyes still closed and bruises beginning to form on his arms and legs.

"What happened to you?" Weiss asked, looking down at Perseus with a detached curiosity. "Shouldn't your aura be healing you? You look like crap."

"Yeah, she's not wrong." Blake said bluntly, her eyes flitting along his body aimlessly. Finally, almost imperceptibly, her eyes widened in realization. "You should probably take a shower, I know it helps me."

Percy looked at her suspiciously but finally rolled over and pushed himself to his feet, rolling his shoulders and picking up the wooden sword. "One more match and I'll go."

Yang's fist slammed into the flat of the blade before the word 'go' was finished. The swordsman wasn't used to fighting with a wooden sword, but his muscle memory took hold and he deflected her fist harmlessly over his shoulder. Yang's leg came around as she pulled her arm back and Percy blocked again, his sword was held in his left hand and was supported by his right leg as he stepped into the blow and leaned the wooden blade against his knee, catching her foot and stopping it in its tracks.

To the audience, the battle seemed to be progressing well, but Yang knew that soon Percy's buzz would wear off and he would lose all his momentum. It had already started. His muscle memory and reflexes were tapering off; soon, he was focusing on dodging Yang's fury and occasionally using his sword to block a kick or a haymaker. The fight was over within two minutes, but it was an improvement.

"So...shower?" Percy asked from his place on the floor. The group looked at him almost piteously. He began to pry himself off the floor. "Yeah-" There was a loud pop and he moaned in pain, falling back to the floor. "Shower it is."

As he prepared for his shower in the co-ed locker rooms (Who thought that was a good idea?! They're teenagers hopped up on dopamine and adrenaline!) Percy was being watched by a sassy badass...err, a non-amnesiac one.

Coco Adel was doing routine maintenance on her weapon and would soon be glad for it. "Hey, Vel, check out eight and a half over there, ten o'clock."

Velvet cocked her head to the side and pursed her lips in confusion. "I'd give him a nine, why only eight and a half?"

"No sense of style." Velvet nodded knowingly, pulling out her camera to take a picture of Percy. Personally, she liked it, but in all honesty, it was a bit blurry. "But I could change that."

Soon, they heard the shower running and a sudden blissful moan, then, out of nowhere; "holy fucking hell!"

The boy ran back across the locker room, completely uncaring that his junk was waving in the wind. He had to show Team RWBY his discovery.

Coco and Velvet just stared.

"Nine and three-quarters."

Which coincidentally enough, was also the same length as the weapon that Velvet wished she had just gotten a picture of.

Blake had expected a surprised reaction from Percy, she expected him to be ecstatic, perhaps confused and even the tiniest bit awestruck, but what she did not expect Percy to be was naked.

"You're not going to believe this!" He shouted, skidding to a stop in front of team RWBY without a care in the world. Yang covered Ruby's eyes while openly gaping at Percy's-...abs...

"Oh God, the books aren't exaggerating." Blake murmured, awestruck, her eyes glued to Percy's-...legs...

Percy looked down, noted that he was naked and shrugged, a blush burning across his face as he looked back up. "That doesn't matter. I was in the shower and all of a sudden- what's up with Weiss?"

Everyone looked down at her twitching body and then back up at Percy. "Don't worry, she's fine."

"Okay...anyway! I was in the shower, and I started to wash my hair and suddenly all of the pain just goes away!" He used exaggerated hand gestures, and hopped excitedly on the balls of his feet, causing other balls to bounce around freely. "And then, after a few seconds, the bruises all started going away and-"

"Okay, I can't take this anymore! Can you put some pants on or something?" Ruby asked, not much caring that Percy wasn't wearing any pants, more that Yang's hand was still in her face.

"But I still need to finish my shower." Percy said sadly, his eyes beginning to shimmer with faux tears.

"Yeah Ruby," Yang said distractedly, her eyes glued to Percy's-...abs..."He still needs to finish his shower."

"Yeah...shower." Blake voiced distractedly, she too was staring at Percy's-...abs...

Suddenly, Coco walked in. "Is no one going to mention that gargantuan package he's got between his legs?!"

"Well, I think we can all say that today was a very...informative day." Yang said brightly, the seven of them sitting at a table in the cafeteria, munching on a late dinner. Coco smirked and stuck her can of soda in the air in a silent 'cheers'. Percy simply snorted and looked down at his burger with a smile.

He ran his hand through his hair and shook his head, loosing a splash of water on his seat mates who happened to be Blake and Weiss, both seemed to be irked by this. "So, what exactly did we learn?"

"Percy sucks at studying." Blake suggested.

"Percy has zero skill, but he's got good reflexes, and he's pretty tough." Ruby piped up, smiling innocently.

"Percy has fantastic abs." Yang said predatorily.

"Percy has zero boundaries when it comes to modesty." Weiss growled.

"His co-" Coco was elbowed by Velvet. "-Umm, package is humongous."

"Yang leads with her right foot when her combo is going to rely entirely on punches, but when she's planning on throwing kicks into the works, she keeps her legs closer together, giving her more range of motion." Percy began, surprising everyone. "Yang has potential for some serious acrobatic stuff, considering the strength in her legs, her coordination and her balance, but she doesn't use that skill, meaning she's holding back on me."

Percy paused and as an aside, turned to Yang and nodded thankfully. "Much appreciated, by the way."

"We learned that Yang's straight kicks aren't as strong as rotation kicks and that she uses the muscles along her shoulder blades to control the force of her blows because of how far back her fist comes. She's versatile and light on her feet, but as soon as her heels touch the ground, you can expect a heavy blow."

The whole time, Percy was gesturing with a French fry and frowning thoughtfully. He finally tossed the French fry into his mouth and chewed, beginning to smile. "Also, Blake reads books that depict men's genitals, and apparently at my size."

Blake's face flushed as she glowered at Percy, her fists clenched. "It's art."

"I learned that the only thing between Percy and the mythical ten status is a good wardrobe." Velvet teased, causing everyone to reexamine him critically. "A quarter of a point."

Yang tilted her head to the side and nodded slowly, while Blake just pursed her lips and shrugged affirmatively. Weiss rolled her eyes while Ruby blinked a couple times but shrugged apathetically, returning to her dessert. Coco turned to Percy, smirking.

"Hey, Artois Winter Collection." Coco hailed, drawing Weiss' confused glance. That's what I'm wearing! "Mind if I take that seat?"

Weiss shrugged, picking up her tray and switching seats with Coco, who poked Percy with a well manicured nail. "Tomorrow. Nine. Bullhead docks."

"Your mission, if you choose to accept it-" Percy teased, lowering his voice conspiratorially. Coco stomped one of her heels into Percy's sandal clad foot, causing him to grit his teeth. "Gotcha. Nine o'clock, come prepared for anything."

"I think this would be a fun group outing!" Ruby said happily, nudging Coco. Yang wants to come but is too proud to admit it. "Can we come along?"

"Yeah, that'd be fine, but if you find something for Percy that I don't approve of, you're paying for it." Coco shrugged impassively and leaned back, bumping into Percy. Percy gently patted her on her head and awkwardly removed himself from the table, only to walk into his new best friend: Cardin Winchester.

"Can I help you?" Percy asked, a thin veil of politeness barely dammed up a wall of unstoppable sass. Cardin just smirked and pushed Percy out of the way, right into the back of none other than Mercury Black. "Hey, watch yourself man!"

Cardin and his cronies just walked past with mean chuckles and leers, one of them pushing Velvet into the table so that her soda spilled all over her lap. Coco's grip on her fork began to crush it from the tips of the tines to the blunt end of the handle. Team RWBY all went to stand at Velvet's defense, but it was Percy who took the leap, pulling Cardin back by his left shoulder and decking him. Percy put his hands up for a fight, but was surprised when Cardin instead turned around and looked blankly at him and smiled eerily.

"We've been looking for you Perseus. Tartarus misses you." Team RWBY and CV jumped to their feet when they heard the creaking in Cardin's voice. "The Eidolon are many, we are mighty, we are hungry, and we will not be denied."

"Eidolon…?" Percy asked cautiously, his voice taking on a distant edge. "Isn't that a tv show."

Wrong answer.

Cardin's mace crashed into the place where Percy had just stood. As Percy fell back into his seat, Coco released the hem of his shirt and swung herself to a stand, slamming her tray into the side of Cardin's head hard enough to leave an imprint of his head in the metal. Cardin hardly flinched and instead turned to face Coco slowly. Coco's eyes widened slightly before she turned around and grabbed another platter, smashing the edge into his gut.

"You must be another of Percy's friends. I'm surprised he would dare have one after what he did to his fiancé." Everyone at the table's eyes flitted to Percy and noticed his eyes glazed over as if trying to remember something. "Annabeth~"

Any words the Eidolon had to say after that went unheard as it's head crashed into the table, shattering the wood into matchsticks. Even the floor cratered as Cardin's head bounced off the concrete.

"Missed me~." An Eidolon spoke from inside a mohawked teenager, only for the teenager to suddenly become imbedded in the wall fifty feet away.

"So close~." Spoke another of the boys as he swung his halberd, only for the pole arm to be batted aside by a bare forearm. Soon he too found a position with his back imbedded in the floor.

"Maybe next- urk!" Percy, apparently having caught on to the pattern gripped the throat of a boy with a sword already batted aside effortlessly. "We may be defeated, but Nyx will soon send more."

"Let." Percy lifted the boy off his feet. "Them." He cocked his fist back and glared. "Come." His fist slammed into the boy's face and knocked him backwards, completely upside down.

"Nine and four-fifths." Coco muttered quietly, looking at the mess that had previously been Eidolon controlled Team CRDL. Percy started panting soon as tears of blood slid down his cheeks.

"Let them come…" He whispered to himself. "Let them come. Let them come. Let them come."

He turned to the table, grabbed Coco harshly by the collar, looked deep into her eyes, the bloody tear stains not yet faded. "Rain check." He murmured, dropping her and marching over to Yang, gripping her arm and bodily dragging her out of the cafeteria. "More training."

"How much more?" Yang asked distractedly, her mind still whirring over what had happened.

"Until I can't move my fingers." Percy growled.

"No holding back." Percy growled, standing at the far side of the arena, matching Yang's bare fists with his own taped ones.

Yang dashed forward and threw a right hook that would have decapitated Percy had he not been pushing forward as well, moving his head just inside her swing and pushing his shoulder into her chest, grabbing her arm and making to flip her over his shoulder, only for her other arm to wrap around his chest and lift him off of the ground, bending backwards and slamming his head into the arena floor.

Percy could barely stand as his ears rang and six Yangs split into twelve and then turned to three and then to one. His hands scrabbled for something to push off of, searching around helplessly for the floor. He eventually raised himself to his feet with wobbling knees and still uncertain footing. He shook his head to clear out the lingering haze and raised his fists again, reengaging Yang in combat.

Yang leapt up briefly and spun, slamming her entire upper body behind a punch that just barely missed Percy's head. Percy brought his own fist around and plowed it into Yang's jaw, knocking her out of her focus and causing her to hesitate for a moment, but it was enough for Percy to leap up and slam his foot down between her shoulders, causing her to hunch forward, rolling forward until she spun around and roundhouse kicked Percy in the head, slamming him back into the ground. His hands began to shake and his vision blurred again, but he got up and charged again, his speed surprising Yang. For someone with a concussion and three broken bones in his hands, he wasn't afraid to charge straight at Yang, popping her twice in the face, unable to hit harder than a love-tap, but still doing his best to make impact. He hopped back half a step and grabbed Yang around the back of the neck, slamming his knee into her chest, and then using his other knee to hit her between the legs which obviously wasn't as effective as it would have been on a guy, but it still sent a shock through her pelvis. Yang started throwing body blows at Percy until he finally hopped back and bent over, spitting up some blood and shaking his head dazedly. Percy's eyes narrowed and he clutched onto his shirt, trying to stop the shaking in his hands. Lilac eyes met sea green and they both of them charged, but this time, almost as if they were dancing, Yang and Percy met in the middle of the arena and began combat, Yang threw a kick and Percy blocked with his forearm, throwing a punch that Yang leaned back out of the way of with ease. Yang threw another punch that met Percy's own, causing both to pull away and spin, their shins meeting as both kicked at the same time, first toward each other's chest, than toward their heads and then toward their legs, each time they were forced to pull back. Without warning, the battle changed, Yang hopped into the air,preparing to slam her elbow into whatever part of Percy she could find, meanwhile, Percy ducked down and slide tackled towards where Yang was, both avoiding each other's attacks. They were facing each other again as soon as Yang landed, their elbows met between them and they both deflected.

Yang pushed away from Percy and suddenly he collapsed.

After a tense moment of silence, with the eight- err, nine, occupants staring at Percy's body blankly, Jaune decided to break the suffocating quiet.

"What the heck was that?!" He demanded, leaning forward in his seat and throwing his hands up like an upset sports fan. Soon chaos followed, with Ruby voicing her agreement and following conversations.

"-We were just fighting-"

"-Is he dead?"

"-That was so awesome!-"

"-What happened?!"

"-He was all like-"

Blake calmly cleared her throat and drew everyone's attention. When she had it, she instantly regretted it and wanted to return it to someone else. She sucked it up and gulped. "Shouldn't we go see if he's okay?"

"...That's probably a good idea." Ren said calmly.

"He's alive!" Yang hollered, waving a thumbs up. "He's also saying something. Anaklusmos? Anyone speak gibberish?"

"That's not gibberish." Pyrrha said, aghast. "It's Mistrali for Undercurrent."

"Or Riptide?"

"Helloooo~ Wakey Wakey Percy, it's time for fun and games time with your girlfriend!" Percy's eyes opened to a scene that brought back an overwhelming smell of strawberries, s'mores and nostalgia. "G'morning bright-eyes! It's time for me to whip you back into shape."

"Who…?"

"I'm your girlfriend…" She supplied slowly, waiting for him to get it. "Annabeth…? Ringing any bells?"

"Annabeth." Percy leapt off the ground and wrapped his arms around the girl, smothering her into his chest kissing the top of her head. "I knew you couldn't be dead!-"

"I'm gonna stop you right there, because if you keep going then we're both going to end up crying, so let's just get one thing out of the way: I'm sorry Percy, but I am dead. I only exist here." She prodded his chest, and he felt a warmth surge through him into his heart. "And here." She grasped the sides of his head and kissed him.

"So, I'm hallucinating?"

"No! Not hallucinating! Dreaming." Annabeth corrected, pulling back slightly before she took a fighting stance a little away from him. "I'm your subconscious, and because I'm just that badass, I'm going training you in a more intense capacity, and teach you how to fight like your new team."

"What...what does that mean?" Percy asked, looking around in confusion as his surroundings changed. He went from an open field of wildflowers and stuff to a full contact MMA ring in the span of a few seconds.

"I'm going to fully immerse you in Yang's fighting style, and eventually, in everyone else's." Annabeth frowned and gave Percy a look of disbelief. "And by the way, you've seriously become a man slut. I'm surprised. You never even gave another girl a second look while we were together, and now you're hitting on Yang and giving Blakey a morning striptease, why don't you tell me what that's about?"

"Firstly, I don't remember ever giving Blake a morning striptease, and secondly, I'm not flirting with Yang! We're training." Annabeth nodded her head in faux acceptance and then smacked her forehead.

"Of course! You don't remember. That's why." She shrugged and sighed, looking at him sadly. "Fine! Be a man-whore, but don't just treat it like love isn't a thing. These girls might actually hold feelings for you, and you may not understand what I'm about to tell you-"

"I get that a lot. People tend to assume that I won't understand."

"That's because you act stupid a lot." Annabeth explained playfully. She continued after giving Percy a kiss on the cheek. "I loved you. I loved you to the day I died, but I had lost my mind. I didn't know what I was doing. I had gone insane, and I said things, terrible things, and if you ever remember them, then I want you to remember this too; I didn't mean that. I love you, and I could never hate you, but I'm dead and you're not, and I'd rather you never had to die, so live a good life, find a girlfriend, marry her, get her knocked up and when you die, I'll be here, waiting to say I told you so and poke fun at you for the rest of eternity."

"Okay...so, let me get this straight, my dead ex-girlfriend is currently telling me that I should go get married and have a kid-?"

"Or six or seven...and one of them better be named after me!" Percy smiled and felt something inside him clench up. "Okay, you'll be waking up soon, so let's get started with that training."

Annabeth leapt towards him, throwing two jabs at his face. He leaned back and dodged the first one, batting the second one aside and spinning, and so began Annabeth's version of combat training from hell.