He felt the vibrations through the stone floor as Ares shifted his weight. He stretched his senses to their very limits as Ares had instructed him to. The stench of charred earth and blood surrounded him, unhelpful as he knew that Ares was here. He needed to pinpoint his position, and Ares' scent had made him even more disoriented. He stretched his senses once more and finally saw wisps of red light. They slowly moved from his right to his left. They suddenly halted and flew towards him.

CLANG

Percy brought his broadsword that Ares had summoned up and caught Ares' own in a diagonal cross. Almost instantly the wisps appeared in his right peripheral.

CLANG

Dead center.

CLANG

Thirty seven degrees to his left.

CLANG

The lights disappeared and before Percy even knew what he was doing he bent both arms behind his and aimed his blade perpendicular to his spine.

CLANG

"You're an exceptionally fast learner, Destroyer."

Percy ripped off the blindfolded Ares had him wearing and promptly collapsed on the ground.

"Fifteen hours today. An hour more than yesterday. Your endurance is markedly improving, even for a god." Ares summoned a glass of water and handed it to him. "One last thing to do today, then it's time. I'll be waiting in the main forge." Ares set the glass down by his head and exited their makeshift training room.

R and R he had thought. Two weeks to reflect on his life, to sort out his thoughts and emotions. A time to wind down. An oasis in the desert of Greek Gods who wanted him dead.

So far Ares had: set him on fire, stabbed him multiple times in the throat, broken multiple limbs and who could forget cutting off his hand to show him how godly regeneration worked.

"The King will kill you," Ares had said. "But not before he is satisfied. This is the treatment you can expect from the Olympians."

So no, Percy had very little time to sort out his old daddy issues and his brand new mommy issues.

He sat up, wincing as his clavicle reset itself automatically, and downed half of the water before pouring the rest over his head. He sighed as he felt bruises and welts fade as his jaw slid back into place.

It was utterly disturbing how normal that was getting as he thought about his old life. It was to the point where it would be even more disturbing if his bones didn't set themselves.

He picked himself off the floor and stumbled into the main forge. Ares stood off to the side by a blueprint of what looked like a giant armored ring. Looking closer, Percy realized that it was meant to cover the entire planet. Hephaestus was in his normal position of hammering away at something unexplainable in the center of the forge, speakers in all four corners of the room blasting Carlos Santana.

"He can fuckin' play, and he's not even one of The Sun's kids. It doesn't get any better than that." Hephaestus had told him when he inquired about it. Percy had half expected gods to only listen to lyres and harps and the beating of war drums.

"You don't say any of their actual names." Percy pointed out. "Only titles."

Hephaestus had looked at him with one eyebrow raised. "You'll understand it better when yer a full god, but imagine a big ass beacon going off whenever you say someone's name, and they can hear whatever you say about them." His face turned serious. "Don't fuck with names, it would be a stupid way to die." He turned away and resumed hammering, though he looked almost mournful. Like he was speaking from personal experience.

Shaking his head, he stopped reminiscing and moved towards Ares. The War God lifted his head from the hunting magazine he was reading and nodded his head at Percy. "We're going to try to teach you to flash, you should be close enough to maturity to safely attempt it on your own."

"You're sure about this?" Percy asked skeptically. There were a lot of assumptions in that sentence, and he wasn't exactly jumping at the chance to find out what happened when flashing went wrong.

"Yes yes, the worst that will happen is bodily harm but you don't have to worry about that." Ares waved his hand nonchalantly and Percy wondered if all gods had this attitude toward dismemberment or if Ares was just totally detached from pain.

"Right…" Percy said slowly. "So, how does one flash?"

"It's really very simple, just close your eyes." Percy did so, and made a silent bet in his head that the key to teleportation was believing in yourself really hard.

"Now just imagine somewhere you've been, somewhere familiar to you. Picture your surroundings. Imagine the feeling of your feet on the ground. Latch onto familiar scents and sounds."

Percy knew there was only one place in the world that he ever cared about so much as to remember the feeling of his feet on the ground. So he did as Ares said. He imagined the gentle waves rolling in the background, the salty air, the feeling of the small sand dunes that surrounded him. He didn't notice how he started to glow that same ethereal light that Ares had when he saw his divine form.

"Now you must simply demand to be there. Believe that you are there, that you deserve to be there. You are a god, and you cannot be contained by mortal science. If you want it to be so, it is."

Percy didn't even register that, yes, the key teleportation really was just believing in yourself. He was too busy thinking of summers that seemed so long ago. Trying to build the deepest pit he could in the sand, swimming as far as he could before she called him back to shore, franks and beans in their little cabin, Harry Potter before bed. How desperately he wished to go back there. To go back to their little getaway and just relax. Didn't he deserve some peace? Didn't he deserve to spend justa second of his time not worried about death or torture? How he longed to sway in that tiny little hammock swinging life away again. How he longed for Montauk. How he longed for home.

And then…

And then the waves crashed in his ears and the tide swam below him.

Percy opened his eyes and there he was. Their little slice of paradise. He slowly walked to the cabin, the tire tracks from the Camaro still faintly visible. He opened the cabin door hesitantly because he knew. He knew a part of her was still in there.

The beds were unmade, the covers half on the floor. The small kitchenette still had the frying pan and two dishes in the sink they had brought from the apartment. He opened the mini fridge, his cherry coke was still there. He checked the freezer, his Charleston Chew he was saving for the ride home was still there. Everything was as they had left it.

He walked over to the small living area and laid down on her bed. He swore he could still smell her shampoo on the pillow. He stared at the bedside table, noting her travel bag with her blue toothbrush poking out.

It wasn't until he felt the tears roll down onto his neck that he realized he was even crying.

Gods he just missed her. So damn much.

He had two living parents, a mother and a father. But he only had one mom. And realizing he was a god was a poor consolation prize for her not existing. And in that moment he hated them. Poseidon and Hecate both, for his very existence he was cursed with prophecies and death threats and shattered memories. He just wanted to be left alone. Those fucking gods think they knew what was best, every single one of them. That they knew what was best for him, for the gods, for the world. They didn't know what he was. They didn't know what he could do. He could raze Olympus down to a fucking pebble, he could tear their fucking skin off and feed it to them, he could rip and rend and tear them in ways the couldn't fucking imagine. He could-

Oh gods.

The bed was mangled, looking almost melted. The windows had somehow shattered without them noticing and the faucet had burst. The room was filled with a murky orange gas that seemed fatal just to look at. He shakily brought his hand up to his face and watched as small arcs of energy crackled around his fingers, the same dark orange as the gas.

Something was very wrong.

He didn't- he didn't really believe any of what he was thinking. He was mad, sure. Pissed, even. But he didn't- he wasn't so vengeful or morbid or-

Destructive.

Percy thought back to that first night in the Poseidon cabin, when he asked Ares why it was always his fault. Why he was always blamed. Why he always made things go wrong.

"You were born for this, Destroyer."

And that little voice inside that just loved to hear that name.

And then he knew. He knew that there was something sick inside of him that craved this. That wanted carnage and ruin and above all else, destruction.

He had to do something about this, there had to be a way to fix this, to kill that twisted thing or at least lock it away. Ares would know what to do, he always did. And if he didn't, Hephaestus would know. And in his head he kept reaffirming to himself that they were his friends and he did not want to rip their skin off.

He closed his eyes and pictured the forge. The smell of sweat and soot, the warm stone beneath his feet, Maria Maria playing so loud the bass shook the walls.

And there he was. Hephaestus hammering away and Ares in the corner pouring over a little black book that Percy had seen him with constantly over the past two weeks. He moved towards Ares as quickly as he could without outright running. "Ares," he said, grabbing him by the shoulder as gently as he could despite the terror that welled up in him. "We need to talk."

Ares raised one eyebrow. "You were gone for quite a while, Destroyer. You took to flashing with a quickness I've never seen. Only one attempt! Why, when I was your age-"

"Ares. Please, this is serious." Percy cut him off, trying to get through to the War God before he went off about more of his misadventures in Ancient Greece. "I think there's something wrong with me. There's something inside-"

He never finished his confession as he suddenly collapsed onto the ground. It was a pain he had never felt in his entire life. A pain he never could have even imagined. His vision swam as his head seemed to be trying to burst into halves.

"Ah." He heard Ares say faintly. "I suppose it was about time."

"Perseus. The Destroyer." New voices. Or was it one voice? It took all of his energy to crane his neck toward his visitor.

Yes. Definitely more than voice. In front of him stood three elderly women dressed in white chitons. They were deathly pale and looked as if a swift breeze would knock them over. They looked harmless, but the air around him seemed to thicken and his brain flashed with warning signs as he looked at them.

"What," He choked out desperately. "What is this?"

They stalked towards him, their pace and form all identical. "Transcendence." They said plainly. The middle one knelt down and placed one cold hand on his cheek. "Are you ready, godling?" She sounded amused as she watched him writhe on the ground in agony.

"The pain. End it, please." He said desperately. It grew worse every second. He felt like his blood was boiling, every bone ached. He felt like he was made of glass.

"Nothing ever ends, Destroyer." She said with a sickly smile. "This is only the beginning." She reached out with one long bony finger and pressed it to his forehead.

He screamed as the searing in his brain crescendoed.

And then.

And then nothing at all.

He found himself drifting for what seemed eternity. And endless black void with nothing in sight but himself. Just as suddenly as he found himself in the strange place, lights started flickering. Wisps of light of every color he could imagine swirling and rushed around him settled in the center of his vision, like puzzle pieces.

And when the puzzle was completed, he watched his life flash on the screen. He saw himself with her and Grover in the Camaro. He watched as the Greyhound bus shuddered back to life as the three old ladies, which he realized were his visitors, cut the electric blue yarn. Chiron and Grover whispering in secret. Killing Alecto. Drenching Nancy Bobofit. Peanut butter and ketchup sandwiches. His twelfth birthday at midnight in their little apartment in the lower west side, his regular blue cake surrounded by candles. His eleventh birthday. His tenth.

Then a man that looked just like him but older and a beautiful woman with raven black hair and startling purple eyes.

"Look at him." She said with a smile. A smile so similar to the one she always gave him.

His father smiled, and he knew it was him, he just knew. "How could I not? Have you thought of a name?"

"Yes. Yes I think I have." She pressed her lips to his temple and he subconsciously touched his own. He felt its warmth, as if it had just happened and not some twelve odd years earlier. "Perseus." She said proudly. "After my grandfather. It would seem they're destined to be birds of a feather." She stared deeply at him. "If you are to be our Destroyer, my sweet boy," She murmured. "Then let it be with conviction."

All too suddenly his mother was gone along with the lights and he once more drifted in the void. His mother. There were no mental gymnastics, no more denial. Hecate was his mother. And…

And she had looked at him with such love.

His father was out of reach for an undefined amount of time. But her? She was out there somewhere.

His mother wasn't her, but she loved him. He could see it in her eyes.

That was good enough for him.

He was broken from the black when a voice called him from seemingly everywhere and therefore nowhere. It was genderless and reverberated around him.

"Rise, Destroyer."

And so he did.

The void faded and he was back in the forge, still hunched over on his knees but the pain was gone. In fact, he couldn't remember ever feeling this good. Gods, he felt like he could level a city with his pinky. He stood up slowly and just like that night at the campsite, his perspective had changed. He was well over seven feet tall and just all around… bigger. It was uncanny, he had always been on the scrawny side but now he more closely resembled Ares. He turned toward his visitors. "Is this it?" He asked. "Is this maturity?"

They smiled, all identically terrifying. "This is evolution." They said as one. "This is fate." They circled around him, their eyes never blinking. "Smith, the symbol." They demanded, and Percy only now remembered that Hephaestus had been in the room the whole time. Without a word, he walked to a table and removed a thick sheet. He revealed a massive golden claymore with red accents and a gleaming blood ruby embedded in the hilt.

"Adamantine, my ladies." Hephaestus kneeled and offered the claymore. Percy had never heard him act more polite and had almost thought him incapable of manners. "My finest work since I took up my post."

One bony had grabbed the claymore with surprising ease. She inspected the blade and ran a finger along the edge. "Exceptional." She said plainly and turned back to Percy. He could see Hephaestus' wide grin as he knelt.

"Θραύστης." She pointed the blade above his head as she spoke. "Thráfstis. The World Breaker." She thrusted downward, embedding the claymore a good three feet into the stone. "This is The Symbol of Destruction. Long may it reap." They turned their attention back to him, he felt their eyes boring into him from every angle. They snapped their fingers simultaneously and he found himself wearing a white chiton and a laurel wreath. Then, to his utter surprise, they knelt. "All hail Lord Theós Perseus. God of Destruction, Strength, Endurance, Lies, Deceit, Cunning, Charm and Trickery. The Destroyer. The Serpent. The Bastion. The Herald of Ruin. The God Killer." Before he could even comprehend what had happened, the fates appeared in front of Ares. His eyes were wide in what looked like… like terror. But not at them, no, he was looking straight at Percy.

"This is your future." They said as Ares hung his head. "Zeus had a kingdom. Now he has nothing. This is The Fall of Olympus. He fell. He fell the furthest."

He blinked and they were gone. Ares and Hephaestus didn't move from their position, Hephaestus looked like he was almost shaking. "Guys," he said. "Guys what the fuck just happened." He ripped the claymore out of the ground. Thráfstis, was it? The World Breaker. And he had a new name. A ton of new names really. Theós Perseus. He knew what that meant. More information being shoved into his brain without even knowing it.

"Theós." Percy snapped his head in Ares's direction. Hephaestus wasn't kidding, Percy knew exactly who said his name and exactly where they were. Ares was worrying him though. His voice, it wasn't his familiar monotone, devoid of emotion. Ares was always stone faced, the key was his eyes. His eyes told everything.

Percy didn't need to look Ares in the eyes to know he was horrified.

"It's just a name," he tried desperately. This couldn't be happening again. He was just getting used to their little group of traitors. But now Ares wouldn't even look at him. "It doesn't mean anything."

"It means everything." Ares whispered. "Names are power, our power. Not many gods are given another name, but when they are, they are strictly adhered to." He finally made eye contact with Percy, and his eyes broke him. "What sort of power do you think you have as, christened by fate itself, God Destroyer?"

No.

No, it was time to leave. This wasn't supposed to happen anymore. He was supposed to be around peers, people who believed in him. He couldn't keep terrifying people everywhere he went. And gods dammit it wasn't his fault.

"Perseus."

He blocked Ares out. He needed to get out of here. Somewhere safe, somewhere to relax. Maybe a beach, somewhere south where the water was crystal clear. Just a place for him to exist in peace. Maybe someone to talk to, who wouldn't be terrified of him. Bonus points if they were a pretty girl. Didn't he deserve that?

"Perseus!"

Yes. Yes he did deserve that. And nothing could stop him. He was Destruction. He could break anything. What difference was space? Yes. He would take himself to his paradise. If he wanted it to be so, it was.

And once more, the waves crashed in his ears and the tide kissed his feet.

This place, wherever he has brought himself, it was heaven. He was strangely certain that it was a small island, only ten miles across, which he chalked up to weird Poseidon powers. He could see a beautiful oikos in the distance. Two or three stories in a u-shape with a beautiful courtyard in the middle. There were stables off to the right, and a garden a little ways away from him. And… was his mind playing tricks on him?

He found this place and got the pretty girl too? This was genuinely the best thing to happen to him in weeks.

He said he wanted a break from all The Destroyer business, didn't he? Ares and Hephaestus could wait a day or two.

He walked toward her, she was crouched in the distance placing a blooming flower in a hole she must have dug by hand from the state of her hands. Also, his vision was crazy good now. She was still a couple hundred yards from him. What was he gonna say to her? Did he try a pickup line? Did he know any pickup lines? Being twelve then a god was confusing. On one hand, he knew why he liked Lindsay Lohan movies, on the other, what the hell was he gonna do with himself? This was supposed to be a gradual change but it was hitting him all at once like a truck.

He was only a few feet away from her now. Gods she was pretty. Cinnamon brown hair in an elaborate braid fit for a queen, tanned olive skin like his own, her nose pointed upward slightly adding to her royal appearance. A white chiton like his own and a forest green gardening smock. She just looked effortless. And her eyes, he had never seen green eyes like that before. They were just so deep and vibrant and-

And she was staring straight at him.

How long had he been staring for even? He cleared his throat awkwardly. "Uh, hi."

She quirked one refined eyebrow at him. "Hello." She said cautiously, eyeing him up and down. She stood and wiped her hands on the smock. "You're different."

"Yeah. I just wanted a place to relax."

"And that brought you here?"

"I asked for a pretty girl too."

She quirked her eyebrow again. "You intrude upon my island. You interrupt my gardening. And now you're… flirting with me?"

All or nothing. "How's it going?"

Her lips twitched upwards, and he struggled not to stare for too long because gods almighty she was driving him wild. "I haven't decided yet." She shook her head and looked toward what he assumed was her home. "You're very strange, but I very unusually find myself welcoming it." She looked back at him. "Would you like some rabbit?"

He blinked, not expecting that. "How could I say no to my equally strange, beautiful host?" So far God of Destruction and God of Charm were balancing each other out.

She smiled for a second before turning and walking in the direction of the oikos. "Calypso." She said over her shoulder.

He fell in step with her. "Perseus, or Percy, whichever you prefer." Looking at her, he couldn't help but feel that, despite world ending prophecies and kill-on-site orders, everything might work out okay. "You know Calypso, I think this is the beginning of something beautiful."

thank you all so much for your reviews and favorites/follows. please keep reviewing, i love the engagement and i'm open for PM if anyone has any questions. this is the most motivated i've ever been to write. thank you for letting my my idea grow.