"Sir, the sun is setting. I can take over the rest from here for the night."

Perseus Jackson stood from his crouch as he wiped his dirt-stained hands on his jeans. It did little to remove all of the soil that had caked itself into the grooves of his skin. He would need to wash them once he was inside.

With a sigh from the depths of his soul, his gaze drifted to the darkening sky, where two stars blinked at him, watching him.

"We are almost done here, Olive," he told the tree nymph, his companion, as he squatted back down to continue weeding his garden. "Just a few more weeds to pull for today."

"And I assure you, I can take care of it myself," she responded. It was always the same cat and dance when it came to closing out the day. She would insist that she could bear the workload and that he could rest, but rest didn't suit him, no matter how hard he tried.

"I know you can, but I didn't ask for a farm in the middle of nowhere to sit on my porch like an old man all day and night," he told her. "It was supposed to be a labor to keep me busy and safe."

"Yet, you spend much time on your porch not laboring."

Right, his guilty pleasure: watching the sky from his favorite chair…

"What can I say? I like my rocking chair. It is soothing."

Olive giggled, "Perhaps you are an old man in an eighteen-year-olds body."

"Yeah, yeah," he smiled. "Let's just finish this. The old man has to go to the farmers' market in the morning. "

"This Sunday," she corrected him. "We have two nights before then. We need not rush the harvest."

"Right," he looked out to the greater portion of his farm, where olive trees grew like grass and where other summer crops budded around their bases. "The days are starting to blur together now," he looked at his friend. "Y'know?"

"I do not."

"Well, I guess it is just me. I haven't been sleeping well and all that. Something has just been…" he hesitated. His shoulders slumped as he relived his dreams. A flash of green, and someone was always yelling, begging someone to wake up. "I don't know. I just- I just feel like something is coming, you know?"

The tree nymph paused for a moment as she stared at him. Her green eyes, like the color of light that had plagued his nightmares, met his cold ones as she quirked her head to the side, confused.

"No, I do not," she shrugged and turned back to picking weeds. "The summer air still is strong. The winds gentle upon my leaves. Autumn will not come for weeks if that is what you mean."

"I don't know. Maybe it's a demigod thing," Percy tucked his head and joined Olive back at work. "There is just something happening. I can feel it."

He ripped a young thistle weed out, and dirt fell from the roots like blood from a severed head. He blinked away the vision and threw the weed as far away as possible.

"I think I understand. Do you think it has to do with the Gods?"

"Maybe? I just know that I don't want to go back, Olive," his voice trembled as he yanked at another plant and threw it behind him.

"But the Gods would not make you," she carefully uprooted a dandelion and placed it to the side to be replanted elsewhere. "That was part of the deal: your freedom, your peace. Was it not?"

"It was, and they have been honoring that. It is just that I know me."

"You would fight for them, your friends," she told him as he watched her carefully dig out another weed. "It is what makes you great. Your compassion and loyalty. That you would be there for them. That you are afraid for your friends who did not seek their peace as you did."

Friends? He snorted and stood, "Are they my friends still?"

"Do not say that!" she rounded on him, almost meeting his height in a flash. "They still care for you. It is you, "she jabbed a finger into his chest, "who pushed away."

He flinched back, "Look, Oli, let's just not get into this again," he sighed. He really didn't want this argument tonight, "Do whatever for the night. I am going to go clean myself up and make dinner."

She held his gaze for a moment before frowning, "Of course, sir." Her stature shrunk as she lowered her head and shoulders, "Do not forget to check on Blu in the morning."

"Blackjack would kill me if I didn't check on his baby momma," a weak laugh escaped from his lips as he walked away towards his farmhouse–away from the conversation.

Life had changed dramatically in the year that had passed since the Giant War. They had won. Everyone survived and walked away—no small thanks to Percy. However, he would never accept the praise Olympus and her denizens wished to lavish him with. What he did… what he did in the final days of that nightmare…. It was nothing people should worship, but it was what needed to be done–to see his friends delivered safely from the bloodshed.

The blood he had spilled and the blood that stained his very hands was for them. It was always for them, for her.

The gods recognized it. He recognized it.

Annabeth rejected it, and he rejected himself.

"The world does not need to accept you. You need only to accept yourself in the world."

His Father had told him that the last time he was on Olympus. When he pleaded for an escape, a break. That he was no longer willing to fight for them and that he was tired. Poseidon and the Gods had been compassionate and understanding. They had looked into his broken eyes and granted him his rest.

What a loser, quitting at seventeen. Percy had seen the looks his friends had given him. The haunted looks upon the monster he had become to survive. What he became to tear his way through Tartarus and drown Gaia. He had accepted that of himself, but they could not.

None of them would understand—none of them but Annabeth.

He had forgotten the shade of her grey eyes, for she had neglected to let him meet her gaze since they limped away from Akhlys. Her words had been short, and her heart was fractured. He knew the scar that wept from the left end of his eye did not help his image in her mind.

That he had become corrupted like Luke.

Yet, here he was, liberated from tragedy, from the Greek Tale, on a farm raising pegasi and growing a harvest with an olive tree named Olive. It was simple, easy, and boring. It was enough. It had to be, or else what was?

He put his hands under the kitchen sink. The cold water was refreshing as it soaked into his sore digits and eased away the pain. The runoff turned brown as the soil was banished from the callouses of his palm. Any dirt from under his nails fled, but his thumbs would never come clean. The green ichor of Gaia would not part from his being. Just as the black blood of Tartarus and Akhyls lived under the nails on his right hand. That was the cost of his victory.

He dried his hands on a rag as he opened his fridge. A long day's work in the fields worked up an appetite. Nothing caught his eye. He crossed over to his pantry and searched there to no avail, but he was low on potatoes. He would need to pick up some more in town at the Sunday Market—another thing to add to the list. Hopefully, Henry would have some fresh meat, too. A steak would be amazing…. Just not tonight, tonight he would order in.

That was one of the few perks of being who he was and his reputation, his scent went from being a tasty delight to a warning, or at least nine months without a monster attack, and blatant usage of phones had led him to believe. His scent did not pull monsters in anymore, and Grover was sure to tell him that his scent was ever so present, if not more noticeable than before. All in all, it made calling up the pizza guy a worry-free affair.

Life had become simpler in the last year.

In no time, he was on his couch with a full stomach, the tv playing something mindless as he closed his eyes. It was quiet, the farm life where he found himself. No gods demanded tributes or tasks. No primordial beings tried to make him suffer and beg at their feet. He could afford to doze off on his couch.

:P LINEBREAK d:

"Perseus," the blonde in his dream called for him. "Wake up, Perseus!" a violent green light flashed across his eyes, and he woke.

He rolled off the couch into a crouch, his right hand hovering over his pocket's entry. As he stared up at his intruder. A woman with purple eyes, curly black hair, and tall.

"Took you long enough to wake up. Victory has made you lax."

Good odds she was a goddess.

"Out of my house," he stood to match her height as his fingertips dipped into the denim of his pockets. Don't make me do it.

"Cannot. I have business to attend to," she sighed, crossing the room to his window. "Debts to settle and all that."

"That is cool and all, but I don't remember caring, so get out!" he growled. Please.

"Mortals," she rolled her eyes and stared out the window. "I am not leaving till we handle our business."

"What business do we even have?"

"Ah-ha!" she turned with a predatory grin. "So you will hear me out!"

"By the Gods," Percy groaned. "Look, two options. One, you leave through the front door. Two, you can spend some time reforming. Let's make this easy for the both of us, yeah?"

"Please," she scoffed, looking him over. Her eyes stayed on his pocket momentarily, "You touch me, and the Greek world crumbles as the Mist falls."

"Not my problem. I'm retired."

"Oh, but it will be," the Goddess purred as she approached Percy. "Your mortal government is controlling. If they found demigods existed, do you think you'd be safe? That they wouldn't subject you and weaponize you?"

"Sounds familiar." Will you leave now?

"Yes, I'm sure it does. The Olympians were never the best rulers," she shrugged and pulled away. "It was why I fought for Kronos' return," Percy clenched his hand around Anaklumos. "He wasn't better, but I knew he would never win. The Gods just needed a reality check. To wake up and realize their inaction was squandering things."

"So, you never supported Kronos' rule?" he tracked her as she poked around his living room. "Just wanted to kick the Gods in gear?"

"More or less," she shrugged once more as she pulled a book down from his shelf. "Why do you have books in English if you cannot read?"

"They are for someone else," he told her as she returned the book and grabbed a new one. "Now, how do I tie in?"

She flipped through the pages before stopping on one and nodding contently before placing the book back.

Don't make this any harder.

Sweat crept down his spine like a spider dangling from a web.

She turned on him and studied him for a moment. Her eyes flickered silver for a moment before going back to purple, "You ordered the Sky God to pardon me and my children," again, her eyes twinkled as she frowned and lowered her chin. "You see, I had made the choice to condemn my blood for the next generations to correct the pecking order. Do you know what that would have meant?"

He didn't respond.

"Death, if they were lucky. Servants to the gods for my daughters. I would've likely been bound as something foul ate out my organs day after day, probably an owl," she paused and closed her eyes as a shudder ran through her body before opening them and meeting his gaze. "Yet, I was willing to damn them and me to this fate if it meant things would be fixed.

"And then you won. You beat the Titan-Lord. Slaughtered his armies and all. You became the Hero of Olympus. Then, you saved my children and me. You gave the gods a check when you declined godhood. You gave them a metaphorical middle finger and told them to fix their mistakes. To become better."

Percy stayed silent. The proper words evaded him as he digested the extent of what the woman before him did, what she was willing to do, and what he did for her by extension, "I think you'll find how much I care outside if you want to go look."

She frowned, "Hmm. I see," she approached him. "You are not ready to listen to the gift I wish to give you. The happiness I wish to expose you to," her hand graced his chin as her thumb tracked over his scar. "You are drowning in a false sense of control in this house. A shame, really."

He flinched away and finally brought his right arm up. His thumb twitched along the edges of the pen cap; with a flick, the cursed blade could be summoned. The very blade that slew monsters and titans alike. That had cut down anyone or thing that had tried to kill him or his friends.

That did the trick. Now leave.

The goddess went quiet, her face blank as her eyes honed in on his twitching thumb.

Neither said a word as knuckles went white around the pen.

LEAVE!

Her gaze remained resolute as she stepped away slowly, showing she did not pose a threat.

Then she twirled away, vanishing with a small pop.

Immediately, Percy's shoulder slumped as he dropped the pen entirely. Air could not reach his lungs fast enough as he fell onto his couch. He strangled his right wrist as he tried to still the trembles that ran through his blood.

He could hear her screams, her garbled choking as she struggled to breathe through the blood in her lungs. He could see her screaming as she was being dissolved. He could hear him panting as he watched his legs join his torso on the ground. He could feel the course dust like sand on his lips and in his mouth as he slumped on his couch, trying to breathe.

He could see all their faces as they realized they were dying.

"Sir!" hands cradled his face. They were warm, comforting like his mother's own as they pulled him close, "Breathe, Percy. Breathe," and he tried. He really tried as he followed her counting, "Eight. Nine. Ten. Eleven-"

Olive, she had continued counting all the way to thirty before he calmed and found his own breath once more. His mind cleared from the haze it plunged itself into.

"You are getting better, sir. Last time, it took us till forty-four."

"There is nothing better about this," he sulked in her arms.

"There is always something positive to be gained from any situation. You just need to find it. Find the silver lining in the clouds."

"I'm weak."

"Never, sir."

"I can't even hold my pen anymore."

"You no longer need to draw it," she countered.

"What about when something comes back, and they need me? And, then, I can't even fight."

"You've beaten all there is to rise, and the rest will not dare challenge you."

"But, I'm becoming an immortal. Ever so slowly, I can feel my blood thicken every week. I feel stronger every time I open my eyes. And the Gods themselves know this. It's why they let me rest because soon they know I will be theirs forever," hot tears bit at his eyes, but he refused to let them fall and instead suffered their heat. "I-I don't want this."

She cupped his face, "Why? Why do you refuse immortality?"

"I don't want to live forever trapped in this endless nightmare, Oli," he turned from her comfort. "I can't."

"Then live now," she pulled his face back to meet hers. "Worry not about what tomorrow brings or the days after. Live your life now, and when forever comes, you can grow your farm then. You can forever pick Demeter damned weeds from sunup to sundown," she huffed. "Lady Hekate was right. This place is drowning you. You are a son of the sea. You were never meant to sit still in land-locked Kansas. All this soil is clogging your veins. That is what you feel thickening."

"That was Hekate?"

Olive gave a soft pitiful laugh as she mumbled words to the heavens before looking back at him, "That is what you take from my words? You ask about the goddess in your house… How did you not know that the Goddess of Magik was in your home?"

Percy could only shrug as he forced himself to sit and escape the nymph's arms, who refused to let him go and instead helped him get comfortable on the couch they occupied. Her touch ghosted his hands but never entirely left.

"After a while, they all start blending together. The Gods become just another being who ruin things."

"They don't always ruin things, Percy. The Gods have blessed the lands with great riches and wonders."

"Right, then they strike down anyone who dares do something that doesn't praise them. I've read about the Silver Age."

"Yes, well, maybe once, but times have changed. The Gods have changed. You've made them change."

Percy scoffed, "Gods don't change, Oli. Immortality blinds you to change when you remain forever."

"That is what you fear… What you refuse: Stagnation, but yet you chose it when you chose this farm."

"An attempt at control. That is all this farm really is," he frowned. "Hekate was right."

"What did she even want with you?"

"I don't know. A gift or something. I didn't care to listen."

"Don't tell me you threatened her."

"She wouldn't leave. What else was I supposed to do?"

"Violence isn't the solution to all your problems, Percy."

"Yet, it is the only answer the world accepts."

"Then maybe you should change the world. Learn another way, teach another way. You'll have forever to do this."

Forever….

"My mom is going to love you, Oli."

"Perhaps. When does she come to visit again?"

"Sunday. Everything is happening on Sunday."

"Then we shall have a feast for her."

"Suck up," laughed Percy.

"Of course."

They sat there a moment, lingering in thoughts of Sunday.

Percy's eyes flickered briefly, eyelids like lead, "I think I want to go to my own bed now and just sleep."

"Do you need help? A lullaby to help calm you to sleep?"

"No, Mother," he chided. "But, thank you. You truly have been a gift in all of this."

"You never need to thank me. The world owes you."

"Thank you, regardless."

"You're welcome, Percy."

:P LINEBREAK d:

Sleep came easy, all things considered. Yeah, there was a period of running rampant thoughts and overthinking, but at the end of the day, that was how he knew he was still mortal and human. That he still worried about how his house looked for when his mother would come by, what he needed to gather at the farmers market, and what he should have said to Hekate. Would a monster worry? Would a god?

It didn't matter. She left. It was Saturday. He had things to prepare for tomorrow.

Bzzzzz.

What the Hades was that noise? Was that a giant bug buzzing around in his kitchen? What is going on out there?

Throwing on a plain white shirt, Percy stepped out from his room, crossed the hall, and into the main living room, where a golden ball buzzed around his kitchen on wings, not unlike a hummingbird. He followed it through the air, jittering around his bookshelf and in the morning light that streamed through his windows.

"It's called a snitch," the woman from yesterday spoke as she appeared from around a corner. Her arm reached out and snatched the snitch from the air. The insect-like wings fluttered a moment between her black-painted nails. "Some would call it a toy, and others would call it their dream."

"Hekate," he stared her down.

"Perseus."

"You are back, uninvited, I might add."

"I was hoping to talk properly."

"That's a shame. I don't have much time. I have a busy day cleaning up this place and picking crops."

"I need only ten minutes of your time," she insisted.

Percy stared her down as he tried to think of a better reason to kick her out, but nothing came to mind.

"Five, and I'm counting."

"Seven."

"Already counting."

She raised a single eyebrow before exhaling, "Fine. As I mentioned yesterday, I owe you. As friends with Nemesis, it is important to me to repay back deeds done with kindness or harshness. That said, I wish to take you to the United Kingdom. Experience a new culture, sports events, and overall fun, worry-free adventures."

Bull. There was always a catch.

"The catch?"

She faltered a moment, "It will be with wizards."

Wizards? What the Hades does that mean?

"No thanks," he turned away. "I don't want to deal with Circe's brothers."

"Hear me out," she reappeared right before him.

"I did, and I don't want to deal with some blindsided quest you are trying to force me on."

"Never," she hissed. "The last threat that the wizarding world faced was thirteen years ago, a civil war that almost killed off the society. It was what made me realize that we, the Gods, could be doing more to aid the world. It was the reason I helped Kronos. That things need to be fixed. So, in honesty, our excursion would be for us to immerse ourselves in that world for a single school year-"

"School?" he whined.

"Yes. Hogwarts. A fine establishment. One of the best."

"I'm not going back to school, Hekate. It never worked out for the teachers or the building."

"Well, worry not, we are only there in charade. I could care less for your grades or attendance. I just wish to see the youth and where they stand. To see what is being done for future generations so that I can help them become better than the last generation. Does that appease you? It would be no different than visiting camp for a summer."

Not really. Summer was only a few months, and there wasn't homework.

"Two minutes."

"Plus, there is a great event happening at this school this upcoming year. It will be games that will keep you entertained and such. It is a rare opportunity to see this event as it has not been around for some centuries."

"So, let me just make sure. School. Sports. Limited Event. Cultural shock and worry-free adventures. That is what you are selling me?"

She rocked her head side to side as she processed his oversimplification, "More or less."

"And if I don't want to do this?"

"Look, I'm not taking no for an answer here."

"Yikes, bit rapey."

"Perseus. I will literally bend over backward for you on this trip. The debt you have accumulated with me is the happiness and free living of my children and me. The least I can do to pay you back is to provide you with a level of happiness in your life. Hell, I'll take you to a veela enclave and leave you with enough stamina potions to make Apollo jealous."

"What is a veela?"

"A creation between Aphrodite and I. Beautiful women who can become birds but are also witches."

"See, you say stuff like that, and I think of a harpy who would try to eat me, but she looks hot while doing it because of Aphrodite and all. Not really that enticing."

"I assure you, Percy. While there, I will not let any danger befall your person or being. I swear."

But not on the Styx.

"The Ancient Laws?" he asked next.

"Do not apply to you due to your unique status."

"Right, because I'm losing my mortality?"

"Precisely. Just like Hercules was before he died and was reborn a god. You are now a grey area in the laws that were never accounted for."

Hercules…

Zoe…

"This happened to Hercules too?"

"The greatest demigod to exist, did you think his journey was unfollowable? I do believe you have completed many of his labors yourself already."

Stars. I can see the Stars again, m'lady.

"I just-I just promised a friend I wouldn't turn out like him," his tone fell.

"Was this before or after you gouged out Gaia's eyes?"

No. Shut up. Not this. Leave.

"Your time is up," he growled as his hand dropped to his pocket.

She held her hands up in surrender, "Still a sensitive topic. I guess I apologize."

"Leave," he bit out once more.

"I'm going," she began to walk to the front door. "When you are ready to travel over the pond, just pray to me and do it before Thursday. Friday is the World Cup, and we will want to be there before sundown."

Why won't she leave?

"Out already!"

"Ok, ok, I am going sourpuss."

He heard her huff as she closed the door behind him, and he heard the same small pop he heard the day before when she left. She was gone, and he once more let out a deep sigh.

Wizard school…He'd end up turned into a guinea pig again. Like he would ever take that offer.

"You should take it," Olive appeared, peaking around a corner, her drab green hair hung down like a curtain. "I can take care of this place for a year for you. We both know I can."

"What if I don't want her favor? To be a travel buddy because she wants somebody to be with her as she plays human?"

"She feels indebted, Percy," Olive began. "If she is such friends with Nemesis as she says, she will pay you back regardless. It is either here, now, where you can influence control over it, or one day she will appear and force it upon you."

Nemesis… Ethan's mother, the one who took his eye. The goddess of balance.

"I need to think on it."

"Please do."

"In the meantime," he approached his hall closet full of supplies, "I need to clean this place up, and that isn't even talking about the crop picking we have to do."

"Actually, it is all done."

He turned to face her, "What? When?"

"When she came by before you were awake. Lady Hekate used her powers. The crops are already in the bed of the truck and charmed to be preserved. That and she cleaned the house for you, again with her powers."

He looked around the living room and the house overall. It was clean, all the way down to the baseboards, as clean as the day he moved in, if not cleaner.

"Hmm."

"I do believe she means well, Percy," Olive laid a hand on his shoulder. "It would be just a year, like a vacation."

He patted her hand, "I'll think about it, Olive. I just want to see my family first before I go and decide to take a vacation for a year. That isn't even considering the possibilities of what could go wrong."

"You could even find someone over there to make you happy," she hoped.

"No, I don't think that's on the table for me," he forced a smile as he winked at her. "I'd have a better shot with Artemis than some mortal girl."

"You never know where you will end up in life, but you just have to find yourself in it."

AN: Hello! Thank you for reading. Hope you stick around. This is going to be a fun story to write, so please drop a follow, review, or favorite.

I like to preface what you, the reader, are getting into if you read this far.

As always, with my works, themes and symbolism will always abound.

Percy will be blatantly OP. Won't even deny it. However, his mindset and willingness to use his powers are the catch to that. If you couldn't tell by this point, Percy is very mentally scarred by the two wars and Tartarus and, more importantly, what he did. A classic case of realizing you have all the power in the world and used it wrong.

There will be no official pairing for this book. There are three books planned as of now in all this, so that romance will happen at some point. However, this first entry is a journey of Percy learning to accept himself again. However, people still just might fall for him, and he might be fond of others to an extent. Just not Artemis. She was a throwaway line at the end.

Additionally, I am going to be exploring myths and mythologies to a larger extent, especially through the view of how wizards interpret them and such. Other myths beyond Greek ones will be present, but that is more on the "to come later" side of things.

I hope you can join me as I write about Percy finding salvation.

That's about it.

-Manke