Author Notes: Thank you for the reviews, favorites, and follows. I wrote and deleted this chapter three times, and it still doesn't seem quite right. If you have any suggestions to make it better, please review. I promise the action is coming soon and most of this world building connects back to the larger plot eventually. Thanks for your patience.

Chapter 6: I Meet His Bossness

Over the next few weeks, my life on Naboo settled into a nice gods and monster free routine. I had classes in the morning, patrolled with the Security Guard three times a week, and spent the rest of my time exploring the maze of water-filled caverns that fed the Solleu River using a Naboo aquatic transport, aka futuristic submarine, borrowed from the university. One of my professors even offered me extra credit if I mapped the underwater network as I went, though he did warn me to be very careful around the dangerous marine life which had halted their previous efforts to explore the passageways leading to the planet core.

I couldn't believe that I was actually doing extra credit. It was like I entered some weird Twilight Zone. But for the first time ever, I loved school. It helped a lot that I could easily read now that the alphabet consisted of Greek letters and symbols instead of dyslexia inducing English letters. My ADHD still crept up, but the lessons were so fascinating that it was a lot easier to focus back on them. As I learned about how the oceans on Naboo formed and its liquid core, I started to understand why my dad was the god of the sea but also called the Earthshaker.

The only downside to my new routine was that both Annabeth and I were so busy with our schooling and community service that we didn't get to see each other too often. We got up early in the morning just, so we could have the extra time to walk to the university together. We also made sure to eat lunch with each other. Originally, it was just the two of us. I loved listening to Annabeth talk about her classes, not that I actually paid attention or could understand what she was saying, but I loved her passion and how her eyes would light up, and she would almost glow with happiness. As the days passed, more and more people would come with Annabeth to lunch. I think some of them might have been her friends, but most of them were guys from wealthy and influential families on track to be the next generation of politicians.

I had always known that Annabeth would be an amazing architect, but here on Naboo she really had the mentorship and resources to truly flourish. She was quickly gaining quite a reputation around the city as the next architecture prodigy. Since the Naboo placed so much importance on architecture, I knew along with those other guys, that Annabeth's current popularity could soon become major political power. Hey, I may be a Seaweed Brain, but I also had my own very brief political career as a praetor of New Rome and had to thwart Octavian's evil political schemes.

Now, I suppose I could have been the overbearing jealous type of boyfriend and glare at the wanna-be politicians as they hit on my girlfriend, but this would make them think I felt threatened by them. It was much more amusing to just smirk at them as Annabeth repeatedly turned them down and watch as they got angrier and more embarrassed and then smirk some more. Not that I would ever take my Wise Girl for granted, (she definitely wouldn't put up with me if I did) but giving up immortality and jumping into the eternal pit of damnation all for love, does give a boy a little sense of security in their relationship.

As Annabeth and I left holding hands after a lunch, she said, "You know, Percy, you should really stop antagonizing them."

I gave her my best innocent look, "Who me? I haven't done anything." She just laughed and rolled her eyes. "Besides," I said, "I remember a certain daughter of Athena said some very unflattering things to a certain future Oracle of Delphi until she swore to a lifetime of maidenhood."

Annabeth's cheeks turned bright red, and she sputtered, "That was so totally different."

I smiled and responded, "Whatever you say, Wise Girl."

My favorite part of the day, besides spending time with Annabeth, was hopping into the futuristic sub and exploring the network of underwater passages. Due to my heritage, I had a definite advantage when it came to navigating the caverns. I could sense the direction the water flowed, where the openings were, and if a tunnel ended in a dead-end. Plus, I knew when extremely large and dangerous sea creatures were going to try and eat me.

On my first exploration trip, I was so excited to finally be back in my element that I decided to travel through the deepest, darkest tunnel I could find which might not have been the brightest idea at the time. I barely avoided getting eaten by a colo claw fish and had to use my control over water to speed up my sub and slow down the eel-like creature while it telepathically shouted, "I will destroy you!" It kind of made me miss the VIP treatment I got from the marine life back on Earth. I mean a few annoying 'Yes, lords,' was definitely better than almost getting eaten.

A few twisting passageways later and I was in a lake that the sub's navigation system identified as Lake Paonga, nearly 8,000 klicks from Theed. I couldn't believe that I traveled that distance in only about half an hour. The lake seemed to be in the middle of a deserted swamp, so I decided to get out and have a little fun. I ran on top of the water then used the water as a trampoline, so I could spring up and dive in. Relaxing in the water, I closed my eyes and just let myself slowly drift down. When I reached the bottom, I was standing on a ridge of sorts, and beneath me was a strange cluster of large glowing bubbles that looked like really big Christmas ornaments just sitting near the bottom of the lake.

Curious, I willed the water currents to propel me over there for a closer look. Standing on a kind of platform, I cautiously poked the bubble. When nothing happened, I pushed at it with my hand. It felt like pressing against jell-o for a second, and then my hand passed through to the other side where it felt dry. I brought my hand back out of the bubble. It looked fine, so I shrugged and asked the one question that has gotten me into more trouble than anything else: why not? I stepped through the jell-o bubble.

On the other side, I was met by gasps of horror from these weird gangly beings with heads like frogs. The part of my brain that sounded like Annabeth realized that these must be Gungans, the other sentient race on Naboo. The rest of me was wondering if they ate flies. I quickly tried to remember everything Annabeth had told me about them. They were an amphibian race, which explained the frog heads, and lived in hidden cities in the planet's swamps. When two Gungans in armor and holding spears rode up on two-legged featherless duck mounts, I also remembered they had a very strained relationship with the Naboo.

Great, I just waltzed into their super-secret city, and I'm an honorary member of a race they consider unfriendly. Good going Percy, let's try not to start a war today. The guards glared at me and leveled their spears. I tried to look as non-threatening as possible and said "I come in peace. I was just swimming around in the lake. You should really have some sign for no trespassers or something. I'll just go back now, okay?".

I tried to step back to the bubble border, but one of the guards said, "Outsider, Stopa dare. Yousa goen ta Boss Ness."

"Wait did you just call your leader, Your Bossness, like Your Highness but with boss? That's a pretty cool title."

The guard said, "No, Boss Nass."

"I thought that's what I said," I muttered. They led me along a few hallways, through some more jell-o bubbles, and down several stairs until we reached a bubble room where five Gungans sat on fancy chairs. The Gungan in the middle was huge, so I figured this must be His Bossness. The guards directed me to stand in the middle of the chamber and backed up. If things went bad, I was confident enough in my abilities to know I could escape. However, I was afraid that I would do some serious damage to an already strained relationship, so I tried to be polite and hoped they would let me go without having to fight my way out.

His Bossness made a weird clicking noise and then said, "Yousa cannot bees hair."

"I know," I said, "it was an accident. I'm terribly sorry, and if you let me leave, I won't bug you again, Your Bossness." I even added a little bow of the head.

His Bossness continued like he never heard me, "Wesa no like da Naboo. Da Naboo tink day so smarty. Day tink day brains so big."

I blinked in surprise. I didn't think anyone had ever accused me of thinking that I was smart before. "Well I'm not actually from Naboo. I just kind of magically poofed here one day. I definitely don't think I'm smart, and as far as brains go, my friend claims my brain is just made of seaweed," I replied.

His Bossness just looked at me for a long minute, and then he let out a big booming laugh and said, "Yousa are not like da Naboo. Meeesa like dis. Meesa tink wesa bein friends."

With that, it was like I was given the keys to the city. They showed me their cool sub called a bongo which had a much sleeker design than the Naboo sub, and I bet it could go faster. When it was time for me to go, His Bossness made me promise to not tell the Naboo where they were, but he wanted me to come back and visit. Apparently, he found me amusing.

When I got back to Theed, I told Annabeth about meeting the Gungans since she technically wasn't from Naboo either. "Wow, Percy, you have a chance to end a centuries long rift and could improve interspecies relations." Then she smiled and added, "Try not to mess it up, Seaweed Brain."

I know most people didn't like the Gungans and especially Jar-Jar, but I felt like I couldn't not have Percy find an underwater city. However, the Gungans were so hard to write, I think I will avoid them in the future.

Reviewer Questions:

spell checker 11111 - Excellent question about celestial bronze and drakon bone resistance to lightsabers. Before I even started writing this story I just googled Percy vs Anakin to see who people thought would win, and one of the forums spent three pages just discussing whether a lightsaber would cut through celestial bronze. It is definitely a controversial issue. I did decide how I would handle it in this story based more on Percy Jackson cannon for inspiration. I hope I can convince y'all of my reasoning, but I know some people will probably still be disappointed. It should pop up in chapter 10 if I keep with my current outline.