The trip Ma and I took to the market was filled with surprises.

And not all of them were good.

Perhaps the most notable one was the appearance of none other than, oh, I don't know…

…FREAKING GAEA?!

No, seriously. I wish I was kidding.

She'd literally formed out of a mound of earth, her eyelids closed, as usual. Everything seemed to go silent as I stood perfectly still, unable to believe my eyes.

We meet at last, reincarnation. Her voice was softer than I expected, almost motherly, but I still flinched away from her.

How did she know?!

Gaea let out a laugh, like she found me amusing. Your soul may have been given into the hands of Thanatos, but it is through my realm that he carried you. Her earthen dress shifted as the dirt swirled around her. I shuddered as waves of power emanated from her body. Even asleep, Gaea was nearly as powerful as a Titan.

If she wanted to, she could crush my and Ma like ants.

But for some reason, she seemed interested in me. I wasn't sure I wanted to know why.

It's time to leave, I thought uneasily. I tugged on my mother's skirt, looking up at her with wide eyes. Mortals couldn't see Gaea through the Mist, could they? Maybe she would listen. "Ma, I wanna go home."

I don't know why I thought saying that aloud would be a good idea. I suppose I was just so frantic to get to safety that I forgot the basic logic of the Percy Jackson world.

Gaea would still be able to follow me even if we left. No, not just that — we would've also led her straight to our house, straight to Bianca and Nico — both still blissfully unaware of their heritage, and horribly unable to defend themselves.

Thankfully — well, not really — it turned out that Ma was frozen, unable to move. I looked around in a panic, but the entire market was still. The only sound that I could hear was the faint chirping of birds and the lapping of water in the canals.

What the hell?

Gaea's face split into a benevolent smile, laced with just a hint of malice. Do not worry. My son will relinquish his hold over this place once we finish talking.

Her son, I thought dazedly. "You mean Kronos."

Gaea nodded slowly, eyebrow quirking in amusement.

I clenched my fists and hoped that I had been gifted with the power to shadow-travel in case things went south, before asking cautiously, "And what is it that you want to talk about?"

I really hoped my voice didn't quaver, because all I was thinking at the moment was, I'm gonna die I'm gonna die I'm gonna die —!

Thankfully, Gaea didn't seem to have the ability to read minds — not yet, anyway. She just smiled as if I'd asked the right question, before saying, I will not go into much detail yet. Your time has not come.

"Great," I said sarcastically, unable to help myself. "So, you just showed up here to freak me out?"

I know, I know: maybe I shouldn't have been snarking a primordial goddess who could smite me with barely lifting a finger, but I didn't take well to my family members being threatened, regardless of whether they were just frozen in time or not.

Also, I knew what Kronos was capable of, and that he could easily kill my mother if things didn't go Gaea's way.

Gaea gave that amused laugh again, and I decided that I really didn't like it.

It felt too patronizing, like I was a toddler declaring the sky was pink and she was simply humouring me.

I scowled.

You interest me, little demigod, she said. A situation like yours has never occurred. I cannot see what you could be. The Fates may be your patrons, but you walk your own path.

I twisted my fingers, trying not to betray my anxiousness. "So you're saying I'm a loose cannon."

Perhaps. But that…ah, cannon be turned either way.

My heart skipped a beat. I scoffed a little, taking a minute step back. "Are you trying to recruit me? I'm sorry, but I don't make it a habit to betray my family."

But I am your family, little one, Gaea reminded.

I inhaled sharply, shaking my head.

Of course, how could I forget? She was my great-grandmother, technically.

My family was so epically screwed up.

"Right," I cleared my throat. "Well, then, I don't make it a habit to support megalomaniac earth goddesses who want to kill everyone like me."

Gaea hummed. You will change your mind soon enough. Perhaps I could speed the process up by sending a couple of monsters after you?

Crap. I'd done it now.

I should not have snarked the goddess. I made a mental note for the future: do not use sarcasm on ultra-powerful primordial goddesses who want to kill you.

Unfortunately, it was a little too late to back down now.

"I-I'm not scared," I said, even as my voice shook.

Damn it, I cursed in my head.

Gaea just smiled patronizingly again, knowingly. I will see you soon, reincarnation. I do hope you're still alive.

And then she vanished in a whirl of dirt.

I stared blankly at the spot that Gaea had been in, mind spinning.

Ma scooped me up into her arms, peering into my eyes worriedly. "What's wrong, piccolo?" She asked, checking me over. I snapped out of my daze, relief spreading through me that my mother was left unharmed. I hugged her back tightly, hands trembling.

"N-Nothing," I mumbled, but my voice sounded distant, even to me. Ma placed a hand on my forehead, concerned. "Are you ill, darling?"

I shook my head miserably. "I just wanna go home."

Ma searched my eyes for any signs of distress, but I just felt numb.

Gaea was going to send monsters after me.

That was just great, especially since I had absolutely no way to defend myself.

Wow, I was screwed.

—-

Predictably, I ran away to my little alcove the minute Ma and I reached our house.

I closed my eyes as the shadows swarmed to me, cloaking me in the darkness. My shoulders relaxed as a familiar rush of power coursed through me, and I let out a small sigh of relief, my head falling back to lean on the wall.

I wasn't sure how long I stayed there, basking in the shadows, but I eventually, I gave up on staying there.

I'd been fiddling with the buttons of my black coat to keep my ADHD busy, but it couldn't occupy me for long. I grew restless and finally stood.

It was yet another annoying thing in my life: my energy was sometimes so seemingly boundless, and something that I couldn't always control — it was always there, making my knee jump and bounce, or my hands constantly fidget. It was like I could never stay still.

Needless to say, I had gained a lot of healthy respect for all demigods for being able to go to school in this state.

But anyway, I was going off-topic.

I still needed to figure out a way to protect myself from the monsters. There was no point in being a sitting duck.

If I was going to get killed, I was going to put up a hell of a fight first.

I frowned and thought for a minute.

I knew I didn't have access to any kind of Stygian Iron, or Celestial Bronze, or really any metal that killed monsters. I had no idea what kind of powers I had gotten from Hades, or heck, if I even had powers at all.

But the monsters were going to come, sooner rather than later.

Especially seeing as I'd now pissed their patron off spectacularly.

I needed some sort of defence mechanism, but what?

A shadow wriggled in the corner, and I turned my head to stare.

A thought sparked in my head, but I pushed it away.

I couldn't shadow-travel.

I paused, frowning.

…Could I?

Well, it didn't hurt to try. It wasn't like I didn't have the time to do it. I scrunched up my face to remember how it had been done in the books, and let out a breath, calming myself.

Um. YOLO, I guess?

I gathered my strength, and charged head-first at the corner. I closed my eyes, envisioning the darkness around me, speeding me away, but instead, all I did was crash into the wall.

Hard.

I groaned, rubbing my aching head. "Ouch!"

The second time I tried (and failed epically) to do it, I let out a stream of violent curses that would've made Ma faint. I glared at the shadows, and they writhed side to side, as if laughing at me. Come on, you couldn't have expected it to be that easy, they seemed to say.

I got up again, scowling.

"I'm going to do it," I informed them haughtily.

Yes, I'm aware that I was talking to a bunch of shadows. Did I care? No, I did not.

They wriggled in challenge, and my glare increased in intensity. I spread out my hands and backed up a little, staring hard at the wall in front. I focused on the shadow writhing underneath, and thought about the feeling of shadow-travel as explained in the books: a fast, face-peeling method of transportation that could fling you across great distances such as from New York to China.

I faltered for a minute.

Wait, where was I going to end up? This was the pre-WW2 era, after all. What if I landed straight in the middle of, I dunno, Hitler's office?

Well, then, I just have to focus on not ending up there.

I nodded determinedly. Nothing was going to stop me from learning this.

It was the only way I could escape from the monsters. I would not give up.

I charged.

—-

In the end, it took me seven tries to shadow-travel, and I'd only succeeded because I'd slipped at the last second. I'd been so panicked about falling that I fell straight into the shadow and vanished in a whirl of darkness.

The books hadn't been kidding about how fast shadow travel felt.

It was like my skin was being prised off my face. Strange noises and creepy sounds followed me as I tumbled wildly through the darkness, shadowy winds making my black hair flap behind me like some sort of demented bat. I had no intended destination, and panic seized me as I showed no signs of stopping: was I going to be stuck in this place forever?

It was at this moment that I realized, too late, that this had been a very, very bad idea.

But before I could try and seize control of myself and attempt to divert the shadows back to my house, I felt myself getting sucked violently to the side like a magnet, and spit out of the shadows — out onto a cold, red rug, rolling several times before I finally stopped.

I looked up, vision hazy as exhaustion hit me like a truck, and caught the barest flicker of a concerned, pale face leaning over me before my eyes shut and I blacked out.