I am so sorry about the delay in getting this up. Six honors courses is honestly kicking my ass. Add onto that four hours of dance a week along with a private band lesson, which takes another two hours out of my already insane schedule, and I have time for absolutely nothing. I honestly just want to sleep right now, and it's only 5:30. Once again, I am so so so sorry.

This story is officially over a year old, so wish it a happy birthday!

Sirius moaned as Sally put another plate of cookies in front of him. "You are the best, Mrs. J," he said, picking up a cookie and taking a bite. Three different Defense books were spread out in front of Sirius as he sat researching the different ways to use a diffindo in a duel. Fifteen inches were due on his first day back for Charms. "You're cooking is even better than the house elves' at Hogwarts."

"Thank you, Sirius," Sally said, smiling. "An for the last time, it's just Sally."

"Right, Sally," Sirius said. "Thanks for letting me stay, too. Do you know when Percy's getting back?"

"I don't know," Sally said. "However long it takes to cross the country and find Annabeth." Sally looked away towards the window.

Sirius stood and rested a hand on her arm. "You're worried," he said softly. "You're worried he won't come back."

"I always do," Sally replied. She rested her hand over Sirius'. "And I worry about him when he's away at school or camp. To be honest, the only time I don't worry about him is when he's right in front of me where I can see him."

Sirius froze, staring at Sally. He couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to have a mother who actually cared; what it would feel like to get a hug from a mother.

"I worried about you too, Sirius," Sally said suddenly. "While you were away at your school."

"Why?" Sirius asked quietly. "I'm just a friend of your son's."

Sally took Sirius' hands in her own and squeezed. "You're like a brother to Percy. He would be heartbroken if you died." Sirius cringed at thought. "But there's another thing. You've never known the love of a mother, Sirius. I could tell it the moment I saw you." Sirius opened his mouth to argue, but Sally held up a hand. "It wasn't obvious, just a motherly instinct we old timers have." A smile curled Sirius' lips. "My heart went out to you, Sirius. And seeing you with Percy? I consider you a part of this family. I don't just let any old demigods camp out on my couch."

Sirius' smile widened. He wrapped his arms around Sally. "Thank you," he whispered.

Sirius could honestly say that when he walked into the apartment, he wasn't expecting the strange man with salt and pepper hair. Sirius and the man stared at each other for a moment before the man smiled widely and stuck out his hand.

"You must be Sally's son."

"Excuse me?" Sirius asked. "No, I'm Percy's friend Sirius. I'm staying with Sally for my winter break. Percy's visiting some of his friends."

"Sorry," the man said. "I just assumed. I'm Paul Blofis."

"Nice to meet you," Sirius said, albeit a little awkwardly. He shook the man's hand. "You know where Sally is?"

"She's just getting changed," Paul said. "She'll be down in a moment."

Sirius and Paul stood together in an awkward silence for several minutes until Sally came rushing down the stairs in a nice dress. Sirius stared at her with wide eyes as she kissed Paul's cheek. Out of the corner of her eye, she must have seen him because as soon as she released Paul from her hug, she was on Sirius, crushing him to her chest.

"I didn't expect you for another five hours, Sirius!" she exclaimed, clucking her tongue and looking him up and down. "You've lost weight since I last saw you."

Sirius could feel his cheeks burning. Paul was most definitely not-so-subtly staring at him. "Sorry?" Sirius said, but his voice tilted up at the end, and it sounded like more of a question.

Sally frowned disapprovingly before suddenly getting flustered and turning to Paul. "Oh, Paul, I'm so sorry. I didn't realize Sirius was coming so early. Do you think we could reschedule?"

"No!" Sirius shouted before Paul could say a word. The blush was back full force. "I'll be fine by myself for a few hours, Sally, really. I wouldn't want to get in the way of your plans."

"But Sirius," Sally started to say.

"We can really go out any day," Paul agreed with her.

"Absolutely not," Sirius said, placing a hand on the upper back of each adult and starting to shove them towards the door. "I promise not to have any parties. I'll just watch some Disney movies. Percy showed me them this summer; they're great!"

Sirius groaned as he shut the door behind a heavily protesting Sally and Paul. Sally had a boyfriend. Did Percy know? The thought of Percy's face when he found out alone made Sirius smirk. He went to the TV with a copy of 101 Dalmations, and he struggled to remember how Percy had put the VHS in. Gods, this was confusing.

"Why is Sirius staying with you?" Paul asked Sally cautiously. "Shouldn't he be with his family?"

Sally sighed. She figured these questions would be unavoidable. "Sirius' birth mother isn't the...nicest person in the world," Sally started. "I haven't know Sirius all that long, but, according to Percy, Sirius' mother and stepfather disowned him when he was thirteen. They told him who his father was, and Sirius came here looking for him. As far as I know, Sirius and his father get along well enough, but his father is a pretty high up there businessman and hardly spends any time at home. Sirius normally spends the winter break at his boarding school in Scotland, but I thought it would be nice if he got to spend a real Christmas with a family."

"You really are something else, Sally Jackson," Paul said with a large smile. "He really looks up to you."

"How can you tell?" Sally asked. Inside, she was bubbling with joy at the idea.

"Call it a teacher's intuition," Paul said jokingly with a wink.

Sally's couch had absolutely no right being so ridiculously comfy, Sirius decided. He had absolutely no urge to get off it. It was just so damn comfy.

"Sirius!"

Percy's voice startled Sirius so much, he fell off the couch. He groaned as he lifted himself off the floor and rolled over to sit up. He threw his hands back behind him and looked up at Percy's' face in the IM. Percy was filthy, standing in a bathroom with a red haired girl Sirius had never seen before.

"Hoover Dam," Percy panted out. "Help, now, please!"

"Just ten seconds," Sirius replied, jumping to his feet. He slashed through the image of Percy and the mystery girl and grabbed a pen and paper. He scratched a quick note to Sally and left it on the coffee table. He didn't have the time to wait to tell Sally where he was going. Sirius squeezed his eyes as tightly shut as he could and focused as hard as he could on the bathroom Percy had IMed him from.

The shadows came to Sirius easily enough, but he could feel the strain. Sirius was tired, hence he had been napping. Controlling the shadows took a lot of energy, energy Sirius would need by the state Percy had been in. The shadows wrapped around Sirius and released him. He opened his eyes to Percy and the redhead.

"That did not just happen," the redhead said, staring at Sirius with wide green eyes. For a moment, he was reminded of Lily Evans. "Did you just-"

"Yes," Sirius said with an eyeroll. He just managed to hide his slight stagger from Percy as he stepped forward. Gods, he was tired. Perhaps, he should have eaten breakfast this morning. "What's going on, Percy?" Sirius asked. "Where are Thalia and Grover?"

"We got separated," Percy said. He was still panting slightly. "We were attacked by these skeleton things. I thought you might be able to help kill them."

"Kill them?" Sirius asked. What kind of skeleton things? Sirius wondered. Oh, gods no! "Percy, were these things made by a dragon tooth, do you know?"

"Yeah, how did you know?" Percy asked.

"Luke mentioned them years ago," Sirius said, groaning. "They can only be killed by a child of the Underworld or by themselves."

"What the hell?" the red-haired girl shouted. "What is going on?"

"You should just forget about it all," Sirius said, glaring at the girl. They so did not have time for this. "Percy, we gotta go like now!"

Percy nodded, lifting his sword. Completely ignoring the mortal girl's shout of, "Wait!," the two demigods burst out of the bathroom and down the hall. Percy quickly took the lead. Sirius followed the slightly younger boy down different halls and up several staircases to a cafeteria. They ran straight to where Grover and Thalia were just sitting down with a dark-haired girl Sirius had never seen before.

"Grover, Thalia, Zoë," Percy said, panting. "We have to go now. The skeletons are here. Sirius can kill them."

"How do we know you're telling the truth, boy," the girl, Zoë, sneered. She was glaring at Sirius, and Sirius glared right back.

"You don't have a choice right now," he sneered right back. "I'm a son of Thanatos. I don't see anyone else hear who can kill those things."

Zoë opened her mouth to argue some more, but Thalia cut in before she could. "There's not really anytime to argue, guys."

The other four all turned their heads to see where Thalia was pointing. Three skeletons were standing in the doorway. Sirius turned and saw three more climbing out the elevator. Sirius glanced out the windows on either side of the cafeteria. To the west, three skeletons stood guard; to the east, another two. Eleven skeleton warriors total. Sirius was tired. He didn't know if he could take all eleven.

That's when Grover had the most ingenious idea. He cupped his hands to his mouth and hollered, "Burrito fight!" He grabbed the burrito he had yet to eat, and hurled it at one of the skeletons guarding the doors. The head was sent flying. All around the five companions, burritos and other foods started to go flying. In the chaos, they all managed to run out of the room.

Sirius had his hand to the pendant around his neck even as he was running. He whispered Skia's name under his breath and pulled his sword from nothingness. Sirius, Percy, Thalia, Grover, and Zoë were all outside now, facing off five angry skeletons with another six behind them. One rushed forwards, and Sirius swung Skia in a large arc, cutting the skeleton in half. It burst up in angry red flames. Sirius cringed back, shocked by what happened. None of the others seemed that surprised as the flames died away to a pile of ashes.

The other skeletons seemed to grow wary of Sirius after that. They refused to come any closer. Instead, the raised their guns and fired. Sirius hardly had the time to raise his hands and summon a barricade of shadows around the entire group. As soon as the guns stopped firing, Sirius dropped the shadow wall and raised his sword again. He could hardly lift the blade, so drained was he. His eyelids were fluttering, and he couldn't hear anything around him. Another skeleton charged, and Sirius just barely managed to swing his sword to dispatch the warrior. He stumbled back as it burst into flames, landing heavily against Percy.

The younger boy wrapped his arms around Sirius to support him as the skeletons raised their guns again to fire. Sirius couldn't even find the energy in himself to attempt to lift his arms again and summon a shadow shield. The first one had taken too much energy out of him. Sirius was fully prepared to get shot when his vision went completely bronze. Am I hallucinating? he wondered. What's happening? Is this what it feels like to die? You'd think I'd know that. The bronze started to shift, and Sirius was able to see for a minute before everything went entirely black.

"Percy?" Sirius moaned as he opened his crusty eyes. He lifted his hands and rubbed at his eyes, blinking in the bright light. "Wha's goi' ah?"

"The bronze angels saved us, Sirius," Percy said. He was curled up across from Sirius, wrapped in a strong bronze arm. "Are you okay? What happened back there? You just blacked out!" As Percy kept talking, his voice got more and more frantic.

"'M fine, Perce," Sirius mumbled. He yawned widely. "Jus' tire' an' hungrah. Where're we?"

"Just above 'Frisco," a deep voice rumbled. Sirius looked up and gulped. A giant statue of an angel was clutching him to its chest. In the angel's other arm, Thalia and Percy were squished up against each other. "Where do you guys want to land?"

"There," Zoë suggested. "By the Embarcadero Building."

"Good thinking," the angel holding Zoë and Grover said. "Me and Hank can blend in with the pigeons."

Everyone looked at him.

"Kidding," he said. "Sheesh, can't angels have a sense of humor?"

At that point, Sirius had to stop listening. They had begun to descend, and the angel made his head spin like James on the quidditch pitch. The ground was coming towards them at an insane speed, and Sirius had to squeeze his eyes shut to prevent himself from throwing up the only thing in his stomach, acid.

The only warning Sirius got of their landing was a heavy thump. Sirius was plopped down on the ground not entirely gently, and then the angels were gone. Sirius staggered over to Percy and leaned up against him, still feeling sick. Never again would he go flying if he could help it.

"Sirius?" Percy asked worriedly.

"What is wrong with thee, boy?" Zoë asked.

Sirius didn't have the energy to glare at her. "You try holding up a wall of shadows for five minutes after not eating anything all day and getting hardly any sleep," he grumbled. "Tell me how you feel then."

Zoë didn't answer him. She turned to the others. Sirius watched as they discussed what to do next. They agreed to figure out who the mystery monster was, which Sirius was too tired to ask about, and that they'd need to speak to Nereus about who the monster was. Zoë took the lead leading them to their destination.

Sirius stood on the docks with the others as Percy caught a hold of Nereus, refusing to let go of the old man. The god jumped into the ocean, but still Percy held on, even when Nereus changed Sirius was fairly impressed. Nereus eventually came up to the dock with Percy.

"One question," he said. "That's all I'm answering."

"Alright," Percy said. He seemed rather put out. "Tell me where to find this terrible monster that could bring an end to the gods. The one Lady Artemis was hunting."

"Oh that's too easy," Nereus said, smirking. He pointed down. "It's right there."

"Where?" Percy asked, but it was too late. Nereus had already disappeared.

"Âne(Jackass)," Sirius cursed under his breath. Zoë looked at him with a heavy blush, and Thalia sniggered. Percy and Grover didn't even look over, so Sirius assumed they hadn't heard him.

"He tricked me!" Percy yelled in frustration.

"Wait!" Thalia said. "What is that?"

"MOOOOOOOO!"

Everyone looked into the water and stared at the cow serpent that was staring up adoringly at Percy.

"Ah, Bessie," Percy said. "Not now."

"Mooo!"

Sirius stared in horror at the creature as the others conversed about it. This couldn't be. It had to have come back now, of all times. Right when Luke was trying to take over, the one thing that would make for sure the gods would lose any war was resurrected. It could not be coincidence.

"The power to overthrow Olympus," Thalia muttered. "That's...that's huge."

I apologize for the abrupt ending, but I didn't want to put Thorn in at all until next chapter.