Aaaaaand we're back. I haven't forgotten about this story, just needed to finish the introduction to our newest family member.

I think the only part of my writing I hate the most is that I'm dedicating myself to five stories and yet I've already worked out concept drafts to a new story already, and I want to put it out but I also want to make sure I can update on these stories without continuously putting them off like the crapbasket I am. So, I'll probably just write the chapters off to the side and wait a while longer as I flesh out these stories before dedicating myself to writing a 6th one that I can care about.

I do plan on updating once a week, a new chapter or two for a certain story depending on the rotation (check my profile description for the order in which updates will commence.) Depending on their length will determine if I make one or two. Long chapters like this should take about a week to flesh out correctly in the middle of all my other work, but shorter ones like those that Child of Magic should be having for the next three or four will have two made in a week, just to maintain a word count quota. I do have with me a general idea of what each story will have in content up to their first 10 chapters, and the rest to follow has yet to be squeezed into a number count beyond them. Some of these might end in the 20s and maybe if I decide to or not will break into a second "book" if I decide to end them in that size. By the end of next year, some of these won't even be close to a climactic point, but that's just how I'll have to manage.

Now that I am done boring you and wasting time, enjoy a new chapter to the story of Warriors.

Percy now sat outside by the campfire, having finished the meeting only minutes ago. By his side sat J and Hailey, flanking both arms, and around the fireplace sat his old friends Thalia, Nico, Annabeth, Clarisse, and, luckily enough that she was still at camp at the time, Rachel. The five of them had agreed to Perseus' request to accompany him and the two who had been with him since before his return.

"So." Percy looked around to the seven in his presence. J had left shortly after returning to the meeting, and returned with a tea set, offering a drink to those who wanted one. Thalia and Clarisse were the only two to turn down the offer. "Any questions I can offer an answer to that I didn't during the meeting?"

Rachel raised her hand, and Percy smiled and gestured to her. "I think I'm the only one who missed out on proper introductions," she began. "Although Apollo did share with me the fact you're a god now; congratulations, by the way. I just don't know who your friends are?" Percy didn't know why Rachel had ended that with a question, but he chose not to dwell on it.

"Oh, right." Percy gave his old friend a soft smile. "You were absent from the meeting. I do believe some introductions are in order, then." Percy turned his face to the left and gestured to the man beside him, quietly sipping on his tea. "This is J. He was my partner and at the start of our travels my guide for where we were. A lot of our time was actually spent in Asia, in case you're wondering. He's been living in the continent before we met. He's a really nice guy, to an extent." Hailey let out a small snicker and Thalia and Clarisse sent their own glares towards J. First impressions of him weren't the best, and the one he was giving to Rachel was, well nothing. Even with the many set of eyes on him, J made no notion of acknowledgement their way. "Do pardon him if he doesn't act out in any way. He gets off on being stoic." The young girl beside Percy let out a laugh behind her hands. The two were cupped over her mouth, trying their best and yet still failing to conceal the smile and giggles. J lowered his cup of tea onto the plate in his other hand, his eyes trained on the liquid, before shooting his now free hand behind Percy and into the back of Hailey's head with a jab.

"Ow! What the hell, old man?!" Hailey screamed over Percy's lap to J, who had returned to his tea as fast as he had left it.

"You were laughing at me," J responded, his mouth hovering over his cup. "It was rude."

"Then you hit me!"

"Now we're even."

"And this is Hailey," Percy continued, placing a hand on Hailey's head where J has struck and patting it gently. Said girl leaned forward against Percy's side, leaving half of her face revealed to glare across her for J to look over at her eye out of the corner of his. "J and I found her abandoned and with only a loss of memory not too far out from where we were staying. We tried but have come up short in finding her parents and home before us. However, we did ultimately decide in taking her in to live with us, and have come to know her and call her Hailey."

"Is she a demigod?" Rachel pondered, looking down to the girl, still locked in her staring match with J.

"Maybe," came Percy's response. "As I've told everyone else here, we aren't too sure on her past, though we do sense godly essence in her. We've come to figure it out as a connection to water and the sea, though not to the extent of which I'm at. And yes, I have asked my father about her, months ago, but he's confided in me the truth that I have no demigod siblings, so that possibility is ruled out."

"Wait." Annabeth set her cup down to her lap as she spoke up, leaning forward so she didn't have to look at Percy over Rachel's shoulder. "You've talked with Poseidon months ago? I didn't know you had come back until today."

"That's because I didn't come back until today, at least not like this. I've had to meet with the gods for the past two months. How else do you think I got the permission of running a camp from Zeus so fast? I had to get approval from the council anyways, so I decided it would be less of a bother to the king if I got a tally before asking him, just so he didn't have to call in all the gods on such a simple manner in the middle of no time. And I'm glad he's given the ok to this whole thing. Had he not, this would have been a more boring return."

"So…" Nico spoke distantly from across the fire, his cup cupped in his hand as his eyes glowed across the fire to look at Percy. "Where is your camp set up, anyways? You've come back, but you've made it just as clear that you're not staying here, specifically."

"Until I can get one build in America, J and I have decided on using a place in Japan. It's more difficult than I thought it would be to set up the border protection so far from the Olympian land, but we managed to make one that will at least keep mortals out of our hair for the time being." Percy's smile wavered. "I wanted to stay here longer, at this camp to be with all of you, but Zeus isn't as patient as you would believe when an offer like this comes groveling to his feet. I will try to make it a habit of coming back here to meet you all, though I cannot promise when and how often that'll be, right now. Just do understand that I want to come home now, and be with my friends and extended family again."

Percy let his smile return as his death cousin, old girlfriend, and almost girlfriend smiled back in equal emotion. Thalia and Clarisse gave their own softer smile and smirk, respectively, whilst J and Hailey continued to ignore them all and glare at each other.

"Prissy, I think you're forgetting something." The new god focused his gaze to the daughter of war. "You still haven't told us what you've been doing with your boyfriend for the past 10 years."

Percy and Hailey blinked in Clarisse's direction, the latter having broken from her match with J to do so. The father and daughter were silent in their gaze before the two of them broke down in a fit of giggles, confusing the five campers around them. The only one with a different reaction was J, who sighed out his nose and dropped the lids of his eyes as he refilled his cup.

"The fact you keep using the term 'we' is why people keep mistaking us for a gay couple," J spoke out, looking over to Percy as he set the kettle back down by the fire. "You need to tone it down on that front, please."

"But-" Percy snickered and shook as he spoke "-but it's funny every time."

"I don't care if you find it funny. I will never date you, no matter how much you 'love' me."

Percy chuckled again and turned his attention back to his friends. "Sorry about that," he apologized, gesturing to himself and Hailey, who had fallen over into his lap in her fit of laughter. "J and I have be called a couple before, one too many times in the past, and he's had much more…offended, you could call them, reactions to the claims."

"Is there a problem with being called gay?" Nico questioned from across the fire, looking over to J who looked back over to him.

"Do you like it when people assume you're straight?"

"Touché."

"Don't worry about J," Percy said over the flames. "He's not a people person to being with. I'm unsure if he even has a sexuality."

"Didn't you say not even five minutes ago that I'm into being stoic?" J looked back over to the god beside him.

"Stoic isn't a gender."

"If demivapor can be a gender than so can stoic. It's best not to question stupid logic. It can't be reasoned with."

"Aaaaanyways," Percy drew out, returning the attention back to the matter at hand. Speaking of which, with Hailey, now across his lap, Percy placed one of his hands atop her head as he continued. "I'm happy to answer your question, Clarisse. We spent about…" Percy tapped a finger on Hailey's head gently "…just under two years in Japan to start. We had a place to stay, of course, but most of the time we spent there was traveling up and down the country, training and meeting people, but no one who would stay with us. After we had been everywhere we could be, we moved on out of the country and worked out way west. We've been in Russia the most, but given it is the largest country it's almost to be expected. Visited a few more countries in Asia, and did about the same that we did in Japan. After that, we went into Europe, but we spent most of our time on the Eastern side since monsters were less common the further we were away from Greece."

"Are there no monsters in Asia?" Nico questioned, taking the tea pot as Clarisse passed it over to him.

"Not really. Greek monsters like to follow the gods and where they move to. Olympus never went to Asia or most other countries to the East. Monsters don't like staying away from fresh meat. So, aside from one or two ballsy monsters, and to this day I'm wondering how they got there, we were relatively unbothered.

"And moving on from that, we stayed in Europe for a while, and then then returned to Japan. We've been pinned there for the time being, leaving the country only a few times. And after five years into our travels, I was made a god. Since we had a bit plot of land to ourselves, we decided to stay there and train my powers for the time being, until I could master all that I could under my domains."

"You've been training yourself as a god for five years?" Annabeth questioned him.

"Three, actually. I spent the first three years of being a god learning the basics for all gods and what I have control over. The past two years have been more exploratory work for me, testing out my abilities in other ways than the straightforward approaches, and the latter of which includes taking care of Hailey." Percy lifted a strand of said girl's hair and smiled as he heard her breathing grow soft and tired. "While the past two years have been slow, it's been nice, having that relaxing feeling in the air. After I finished training myself, it took me a year to decide to train demigods myself, and I've spent that past year doing a lot, alongside what I've already mentioned. The last two months was a slow burn of getting the approval of the gods to take demigods into my care and train them in a more intense way than is taught here."

"Oh, that remind me." Annabeth straightened in her seat and put her own cup of tea to the side. "If you're a god now, but you still have the ability to interact as freely as you are with demigods, does that mean the laws are less lenient on you, similar in a way to Artemis?"

The smile that decorated Percy's face fell ever so slightly. From the corner of their eyes, Percy and J shared a look, and within it, a conversation. J lowered his cup down to the plate in front of his knees, breathing softly from his nose, before resting his gaze in the flames of the fireplace. "We do not know if Perseus is a Greek god," J admitted. His eyes stayed trained on the flames, flickering and disappearing into the small sky above. "He bleeds gold, we know that much, but it doesn't prove enough to us. We've had no way of confirming it other than small details that could apply to other tiers of gods, and I know of your recent endeavors with them. It was the Fates themselves who appeared and made Perseus a god, but not once have they referred to him as a 'Greek' in the same context. We've even asked them directly about it, but they have continued to avoid giving us a solid answer. Giving the benefit of the doubt to the situation, we have agreed to see Percy as a Greek god, with his parentage in mind. But, since we do not have the answer we want, we cannot say for certainty that our assumption is correct. Percy and I agreed to share this information with a small group of people he trusts, and it seems you five are that group." His eyes rose from the flames, staring off into the distance but still grounded in front of Percy's friends. "We advise you keep this information to yourself, and not share this with anyone, even each other to find reason amongst yourselves. It's for the best that word of this does not come into the open. We know how messy dealing with multiple hierarchies at once can be."

"If it was the Fates who made Percy a god, then he would have to be a Greek one," Annabeth reasoned, a trail of sweat rolling down the side of her face. Whether it was from the tense aura J was giving off as he spoke his last words or that she had leaned down closer to the fire as he spoke, she was uncertain. "Had it been anyone else from another set of deities, then we could reason that Percy would be made one of them."

"We've taken that into context as well," Percy spoke up again, his gaze resting on Annabeth's eyes. "But it doesn't mean much when the Fates continue to play their word games when we ask. At best, we're right in assuming that I'm just a minor Greek god."

"And at worst, he's a god unconnected to any mythological or religious structure," J continued for him. "A new solo god, and maybe with a capital G if we are to be open to interpretation. That is something we are doing our best to avoid being true. It is trouble we would like to avoid."

"That I'd like to avoid." Percy turned his upper body to face his companion. "You don't give two shits."

"I do when you drag me into your problems."

"My problems are our problems. Tough shit." Percy turned back to his friends and smiled again, but in the flame lit light, it was only half comforting. The other half of it was strict and much more striking. "We would appreciate it if you keep this to yourselves individually. A discussion between any of us about this, after this, is not something we want people to spy on."

Nico nodded his head slowly, staring back at his cousin. "I can do that. I can keep another secret just fine." The other four nodded and softly voiced their agreement to do the same.

"Thank you. That means a lot to me. And speaking of things we should avoid talking about, Thals." Percy turned his attention to his other cousin. "I think you have a group of sisters and a goddess you need to return to."

"What do you mean, 'avoid talking about'?" Thalia asked back in a tone mocking Percy's.

J made a quiet noise from the top of his throat and Percy nudged him in the arm with his elbow.

"Don't worry about it. I don't think they care much about me either. But aside from that, it's getting late." Percy tilted his head to the sky and gazed softly at the stars above them. "Best we call it a night now. I'll be here tomorrow, since I don't leave for the camp until the morning after, so we can talk some more if you'd all like. Gives everyone a day to decide if they wish to join me or not, if they even can."

"I can hang out more tomorrow," Nico admitted, raising a hand to brush his hair back. Rachel nodded her head in agreement, looking between the two and giving both boys a smile.

"We don't have anything important to attend to, so why not?" she agreed.

"Sorry, but I don't think I can," Annabeth admitted solemnly. "I was only given today to have off from construction, and I don't think mother will give me another day in a row when we're so close to being done with the recent project."

"That's fine," Percy reassured her. "If you can't make it, I'll pay you a visit myself. I'm curious to see everything you've made whilst I've been away." The two shared a smile of their own before Percy turned his attention to the last two girls.

"I have squirts to train throughout the afternoon," Clarisse stated with a grunt, "but I can waste my time bothering you the rest of the day. That's fine with me."

"Nice to see your personality hasn't faltered one bit, War Girl."

"Call me that again and I'll main you."

"Good luck with that."

Thalia hummed and leaned back in her spot, looking up to the sky as well. "I'll have to ask Lady Artemis for permission to see you again tomorrow," she told her cousin across the fire. "I have some other things I need to ask her regardless, so I'll make sure to throw that one in there too."

"Good." Percy nodded towards her. "I hope she gives you permission then." Then he nodded to every one of his friends and smiles gently to them. "Have a good night. I hope to see you all again tomorrow."

J took from Nico and Rachel their cups of tea as they left, and only gazed to Clarisse and Thalia as they took their leave too. He took the tray of cups and tea in one of his hands and looked over to Percy, who had made no notion of getting up, who was looking at Annabeth, who had risen from her seat but was still facing Percy. J blinked, said nothing about it, and took from Annabeth her cup when he approached. He kneeled down beside Percy, shaking Hailey gently to wake her up and taking her by the hand to walk her over to the Poseidon cabin for the night, allowing Percy to move to his feet silently. The new god's gaze followed his friend and daughter as they made their way to cabin three before turning back to his once girlfriend and smiling at her, a gesture which she returned.

"I see your vocabulary got bigger," she teased him.

"Yeah, so did my beard," Percy joked back, widening his smile. "Bound to happen eventually." Annabeth chuckled at his comment.

"Apparently so." Her smile stayed on her face, but dropped slightly when she spoke again. "You never did try contacting me, or any of us really, while you were gone."

Percy's own smile dropped to that, and he let a sigh escape his lips. "I know, and I'm sorry for that. A part of me just…wanted to be disconnected from my old life as a demigod, and the other felt like my intrusions would only be of a bother, so it's something I pushed to the back of my mind."

"You're not a bother, Percy." Annabeth's voice turned soft as her head lowered. "You shouldn't think of yourself like that."

"I know. J tried to beat it in my head with a stick a while back." Percy gave his own chuckle, but its tone mirrored the sky above. "Sorry. I've missed you all, and I've neglected contacting any of you. Even after becoming a god, I saw it best to keep to myself until I could get control over my new powers. Should have told you all sooner than this. My bad."

"You're right, it is your bad." Annabeth raised her head back to look him in the eyes and worked her small smile back to her lips. "But I forgive you. And I'm happy your back."

"I'm happy to be back."

The two stood in silence after that, smiling slightly and staring into the eyes of the other. It took time, but the daughter of Athena stepped forward to meet Percy where he stood before wrapping him in a hug, which he returned in kind.

"I've missed you."

"I know. I've missed you too."

Their hug continued in peace of silence, both looking past the other over the shoulder of the other. Percy could feel Annabeth's body move slightly as she breathed in tandem. He held her gently as she held him equally.

"Goodnight Percy," she whispered, pulling away slowly, allowing their arms to untangle from the other. She looked up to him with a smile. "I'll see what I can do about mother's permission, but if she doesn't give, I expect to see you on Olympus."

"I'll do my best to live up to my promise," Percy responded with a smile. "And if you'd like right now, I can flash you back to Olympus the way I did with J. I need to make sure Hailey is comfortable staying somewhere new for the night, so I won't be able to join you back myself."

"That's fine. I understand, and I'll gladly take you up on that offer."

"Okay. Just close your eyes, and you'll be back with the gods before you know it." Annabeth nodded and did such, and Percy took a step back and raised a hand to her, eyes glowing a soft gold as he prepared to send her back.

"Percy?"

His actions paused as she spoke his name.

"Yes, Annabeth?"

"…You're doing a good thing with Hailey. I hope everything works out for you and her."

Percy stood still, staring at Annabeth's form, and he was lucky her eyes were closed, as to not see the frown that he wore.

"Thanks…goodnight."

Without giving her the time to respond, Percy flashed her away in a dim light. His hand lowered slowly to his side, and hung lips as it arrived. He sighed out his nose and turned away, following the path J took Hailey in to his cabin. At the front door stood J, whose body was facing in the direction of the shoreline at camp, if Percy's memories didn't fail him.

"She's already asleep," J shared with Percy once he was close enough. "It might not last forever though."

"I'll join her for the night then," Percy concluded, and J looked out of the corner of his eye to his god as the tone of his voice reached his ears.

"What is it?"

Percy met J's single eye with both of his. "I can't say I'm too comfortable lying like this."

"To who?"

The son of Poseidon grimaced. "To my friends. To my father. To…" Percy tilted his head to the door beside them "…her."

"There isn't much else we can do now, you know. Nor that we could do back then. Anything else we could have done, and that we can do, is still a big risk to take, and dangerous at that."

"I know. Doesn't mean I'm going to like any of this more than I do now, which is pretty skim to begin with." Percy opened the door slightly, peering through the opening to see Hailey sound asleep on one of the beds. "She deserves to know."

"In due time. Now is not that time." J turned his attention away and began walking towards the entrance of the camp. "I'm going out. I'll check on the source's assumption and see if the ritual site is real or not, or even one of concern. Goodnight."

Percy watched him leave, one hand still resting on the door of his old man's cabin. Once J's figure had disappeared from sight, Percy pushed the door open and too another look at his daughter. She had taken one of the lower beds of the bunk bed options, with one pillow resting below her head and another hugged against her chest. The blanket covered up only her upper half, probably kicked off her legs while she was asleep. It was a cute sight for Percy to see.

And Percy couldn't find it in his heart to smile.