November

Percy gripped the railing with one hand and had his other hand on the wall for support. Physical therapy did help with the prosthetic, but it's a struggle for him to get used to it. He slowly took a step down on the stairs, Mrs. O'Leary treaded carefully by his side. Percy still used his crutches for support, but he's trying to wean off it. He took another step and silently cheered himself on, oh the small victories.

Triton cleared his throat behind him, "Could you go any slower? It's not like we have places to be." Triton mumbled sarcastically.

Percy rolled his eyes and took his hand off the wall and held on to the railing with both hands to give Triton room to pass him. Mrs. O'Leary still is planted by Percy's side, not giving room for Triton to pass.

"The beast needs to move as well." Percy rolled his eyes once more before whistling at her, she followed the command and trotted the rest of the stairs down. Triton followed Mrs. O'Leary's lead whilst tying his long hair up.

Percy slowly finished his way down the stairs, grabbing his crutches and backpack. Again he still need crutches for support, but hopefully won't need them for too much longer. Triton looked back annoyed but continued his way out the door. Percy huffed while slinging his backpack on to his shoulder, and followed him out the door.

It wasn't long before Percy was sitting down across from Annabeth at their table in the cafeteria. Both Annabeth and him have been meeting up here every morning before school since late August to work on Miss. Dodd's project.

"Alright did you understand last night's homework?" Annabeth asked not glancing up from her stacks of paper.

"Uh, about that-" Percy stopped as she slowly lifted her head and gave an unimpressed look. She sighed and vigorously erased some markings on her paper.

"I don't know why I still have hope, but I do. Well the homework problems last night are similar to those on section 9.A, question numbers are 450-465 on our project. Since you didn't do your homework, did you at least understand the lesson yesterday?" She swiped at the eraser shavings off her paper onto the table.

"Somewhat, but I kinda of lost focus twenty minutes in."

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, "I think you spend too much time in the aquarium. Is your brain filled up with seaweed?"

"No."

Annabeth sighed and mumbled something under her breath.

Percy frowned, ever since August he thought they were making some improvements with their- uh, what's the term? Companionship, yeah that sounds about right. Anyways this past week has been rough between them, every step Percy takes forward, she pushes a step back. Perhaps it's because of his prosthetic? He's been taking up more time trying to get used to it than working on schoolwork.

Percy sighed. "Truly I don't understand why you are throwing a fit if I missed a couple problems-".

Her head shot up faster than he could say 'fire'. She glowered, her eyes as dangerous as an owl stalking their prey.

"No you don't understand. I don't expect you to even get close to a fragment of acknowledgment of the pain and the work I go through. I spend day and night working, studying, memorizing for the past decade. All those years of sacrificing social events, sleeping, and most of all having a normal life, is going to the trash. I have dreams you know, college. I'm not going to let a sad D-average student mess me up."

"They got apples man." Grover hurriedly sat down with a bag of apples in his hands. He probably heard the escalating tension between them, and tried to put a stop to it before it got too out of hand.

Percy shot her a glare and open his mouth to roast her, but before he got to articulate any sound, an apple was shoved in his mouth. He wasn't expecting an apple to block his airways, so he started to choke and cough.

"These Granny Smith's Apples are delicious, don't you agree Percy?" Grover said, totally oblivious to Percy's struggle trying to breathe.

"Geez Perce, settle down. You okay?" Jason and Thalia sat and joined the many eyes staring at him.

By the time Percy was able to catch his breath, he became aware of the fire set upon his face, and the wet tear tracks on his cheeks due to the strain. He leaned his head back accepting the gasps of air.

Percy could hear Grover meekly ask between his eager gasps, "Does anyone else want an apple?"

Triton dried his hair with a towel. The locker room was empty except for Triton. It was only six in the morning and he just gotten done with his morning swim practice.

Deeming that his hair was dry enough he tied it up and slung his backpack over his right shoulder before making an exit.

To his dismay someone was waiting outside the locker room.

"Castellan, what do I owe the pleasure?"

Luke grinned, the light reflecting on his shiny teeth seemed almost sinister, "Olympion, did your web feet break another record?"

Triton ignored his comment, instead observing that Luke was unusually alone, "Where's your sidekick?"

Luke's grin slipped into a smirk, "I have Nakamura on observation duty."

"Observation of what?"

Luke shrugged, "You'll find out later."

An uneasy feeling swept over Triton over that comment. Luke has never been straightforward, he liked to leave his words up to interpretation.

Triton thinking the conversation was over turned his back towards Luke and started his walk away from Castellan.

"One more thing. Why don't you and Jackson share the last name even though you share the same father?"

Triton stopped in his tracks. He shouldn't be surprised, they looked too similar for them not to be connected. He didn't think Luke would actually guess their relation correctly as it was not as common.

He also knew that Luke was aware of Percy's existence as he ran into them back in August. He figured maybe Percy relented some information. Triton's eye twitched as he thought he made it clear to him not to.

Luke continued, "I asked Grace the same question last year on why her name differs from the rest her family, but she didn't give me a full answer. Jackson hasn't mention even being related to you, so I wasn't getting any answers from him. I asked a different family member and they were vague."

Triton turned around to look at Luke. He was still leaning against the wall with his hands in his pockets. The smirk still graced his features.

If it wasn't Percy or Thalia then who was the family member? Jason maybe? But he highly doubted it as Jason never interacted with people he didn't like.

"I'll see you in third period, Olympion."

Percy was on his knee cleaning the top of the jellyfish tank.

"Percy do you mind if you go and get the stingray's food from the cooler?" Poseidon asked Percy somewhere to his left.

Percy glanced up and looked over to wherever his father's voice came from. Poseidon stood in a wetsuit holding a bucket of some kind of meat. Percy nodded and stood up, stretching his leg and grabbing one crutch, before going into the cooler.

The cooler was essentially a closet filled with shelves of food. Percy hurried to grab the tray labeled stingray and got out before he could freeze to death. He froze in his spot as soon as he exited the cooler, there stood two older men outside of the cooler's door. This is an employee only area, and Percy didn't recognize these men. He frowned, he didn't hear anything about two new employees.

"You must be Percy. Ah, I didn't imagine you would look so straggly." The man on the left said.

Percy frowned even more, "Excuse me?"

The one on the right smiled, "He is on the thinner side, nevertheless we need to go. It was nice to meet you Percy. We will see you again on a later date." The two men took their exit through one of the doors in the back.

Percy stood there in shock not really processing on what just happened. He wrinkled his brows in confusion, who were they?

He already memorized their features. These men looked to be in their sixties to early seventies. Their hair turned grey, and they wore business suits. What really struck Percy as odd were their eyes. The man on the left, the one who insulted Percy had eyes of gold. The other one to the right had these grey-blue eyes, an unnatural shade of blue like the ocean during a storm.

Percy looked back at the door they exited from. That door lead out to the parking lot for the employees.

He shook his head and proceeded to go over by the stingray tank with their food. Poseidon and Triton are already there, waiting.

"Took you long enough." Triton muttered and took the tray from his hands.

Poseidon turned to look at Percy and frowned, "Did something happen? You look troubled."

"I-um. Did you hire two new employees?" Percy asked hesitantly.

Poseidon frowned even more, "No. Why do you ask that?"

"They were two older men by the cooler. They knew my name but I didn't recognize them. They already left to the parking lot, anyways."

Triton threw him a weird glance over his shoulder, and his father looked even more confused.

"Stay here and help Triton. I'll be back." My father then left the brothers alone.

Percy sighed and stood there awkwardly, He leaned onto his one crutch for support as he watched Triton dump the tray of food to the stingrays. Both of them stayed quiet as they did their rounds with the tanks.

Poseidon first ran into Delphin. "Hey Delphin, did you see two older men back here?"

Delphin snorted, "Unless you're talking about Nerus and yourself, no I haven't."

Poseidon rolled his eyes, "I am not old! I'm not even forty yet. And no I was not talking about Nerus either. Percy said he saw two older men that he did not recognize by the cooler."

Delphin frowned. "I thought Percy knew every employee here? Isn't Argus at the security post today? That man has eyes everywhere, I'll ask him if he saw anything."

Poseidon nodded, "I'll go ask. Thanks Delphin."

Poseidon asked the other employees on shift to see if they knew anything, and none of them did. Before Poseidon talked to Argus he ran into Ariel. "Hey Ariel. Did you happen to see two visitors or two older men around where there shouldn't be?"

"No. Should I have? Was there an incident?"

"I'm not sure yet. I was just asking everyone around here if they saw them. Percy mentioned he saw two men earlier. I'm just wondering if anyone else saw them."

"I'll keep an eye out. I would check the cameras, I'm sure they would of been picked up on it."

"Thanks Ariel. I was just on my way to talk to Argus."

Poseidon strolled in the front office where Argus sat.

"Hey Argus did two older visitors check in today?"

"Older visitors, no. We did have three school field trips come and visit today. Though the children were all younger than ten. All the chaperones were all female too, so they were no adult men visitors today."

Poseidon frowned deepened further than what he thought was possible. "Only female chaperones? Can we check the cameras? My son said he saw two men he didn't recognize before by the cooler."

Argus pulled the tape on the computer. "No man entered through the front. The only entrance they would've entered from is through the back, but you need a key card to open those doors." Argus explained while rewinding the tape.

"So you said by the cooler, right?" Argus asked. Poseidon nodded in confirmation.

"Alright, here's the footage from the last two hours. We should be able to see what your son saw." Argus fast forwarded it until they saw Percy enter the cooler. A second later you can see two men enter the frame and stand outside the cooler.

"Pause it. Can you zoom in on the men outside the cooler?" Poseidon instructed.

Argus zoomed it in as much as he could, but the quality of the film wasn't providing them clear images.

"Argus, I'm going to have you send me an email with a reminder to get better cameras. Is this the best quality we can get."

"Unfortunately, this is the best I can do with these cameras. Nerus is the only employee that has grey hair, correct?" Argus asked frowning at what he saw from the camera.

"Yes, but that isn't him. No employee wears a suit to the aquarium. The only entrance they could've entered from is the back?"

Argus rubbed his chin with his pointer finger and thumb. "Yes, but they need a keycard to open the door. Unless someone let them in. Did you talk to everyone?"

Poseidon nodded, "Nobody saw them enter. I'll have an extra talk with Percy to see if he can give some more information. Thanks Argus! And don't let me forget about buying new cameras!" Poseidon shouted the last part out in order for Argus to hear him as he was walking to find his sons. He found Triton and Percy by the turtle enclosure.

Poseidon cleared his throat, "Alright so I asked every employee around, and no one saw those men. I checked the security cameras by the cooler and I did see them on the cams. They are not employees, ask them to leave if you see them in the future. Now our security cameras quality is terrible, so I couldn't make out their appearance other than their clothes and that they have grey hair. Percy you said that they knew your name. Are you sure you don't recognize them?"

Percy furrowed his brows again and shook his head, "I would have remembered if I seen them before. I never seen eyes like that before."

"Eyes like what?"

"One of them has these deep blueish grey eyes, the other man has the color of gold."

Poseidon felt his face drained of color instantly. He took a shallow breath trying to calm himself and not go into hysterics in front of his sons. He needed no other description of the men as he instantly recognized them based off Percy's observation of the eye color.

Clang

Poseidon flinched a hair, he didn't need to turn around to see the tray of food Triton was holding was now on the floor. Triton has never met him in person, but Triton was informed about his character. Poseidon told him his description a long time ago in case Triton ever saw him, and Poseidon told Triton to run if he did.

Poseidon cleared his throat again. "I take that back, if either one of you see them in the future, do not confront them, find me immediately then leave. Now what exactly did they tell you Percy."

"The one with the gold eyes said I must be Percy and I looked more straggly than he imagined."

Percy did say they called him by his name before. Knowing who that person is now made Poseidon ill.

Percy cleared his throat and continued, "The other one with blue grey eyes agreed, and said he would see me later. They left after that. I'm guessing that you both who know whom I'm talking about, don't you?"

Poseidon nodded. "Percy that was your grandfather and his brother Oceanus. It is very important that either of you do not make contact with them. They are not friendly people, they seek to harm, and harm shall come if they get close to you. I'm not quite sure how they knew who you were, but it isn't good."

Poseidon sighed. "I need to make some calls. Go finish your rounds for now. Do not split up, stay together, until I figure out what to do."

Poseidon went straight for the door his father and uncle exited from. He scanned the parking lot looking for them.

Poseidon didn't expect them to stay, but he needed to be sure. He grabbed his phone from his back pocket and dialed the first person he needed to tell.

"Why are you calling me?" Hades deep voice answered.

"He's back." Poseidon said putting his hand in front of his mouth in shock.

"Who's back?"

"Father."

"...What do you mean he's back? In what way is he back? Did you actually see him?"

"I didn't see him, Percy did. And it wasn't just father, he brought Oceanus along."

"He brought Oceanus? That's not good... Not good at all. Where did Percy see him?"

"At my fucking aquarium. Somehow father got passed security and was able to actually speak to Percy."

Hades let out an exhale on the line, "What did he say to Percy?"

"Nothing much, just scoping Percy out and told him they will see him later."

"That's concerning. Did you see any signs of father before today?"

"None at all. It took me by surprise."

"No shit. Did you tell Zeus?"

"Not yet. I'm calling him next. I called you first after what happened last time..."

Hades sighed, "I'm putting Nico on the tight leash again until this is resolved."

Poseidon nodded in agreement even though Hades couldn't see it. "I'm going to call Zeus. Keep an eye out."

"You do that. Keep me informed if anything else happens."

"I will" Poseidon hung up and called his younger brother.

"Hello?"

"Father's back."

Argus - a giant with multiple eyes in Greek Mythology. In the PJ series he was also mentioned to have eyes everywhere. I put him as a security guard as it was fitting.