Disclaimer: This is a fan work expanding on the stories of Rick Riordan. No intent to infringe on his market is intended. Please support the official release.

When Percy arrived in the throne room of the gods, he was no longer wearing the adamantium armor, and he was immediately forced to swear loyalty to Olympus for all eternity on the river Styx. Percy did so without hesitation, as he already held the belief he would never betray Olympus. Even then, Zeus, Athena, and Dionysus still believed Olympus would be better off if he were dead.

Zeus believed he had found some way to circumvent the oath, as he had shown no hesitation whatsoever when asked if he would be willing to swear by the Styx. Zeus feared this mega-powerful demigod might lead an army of minor gods to destroy him.

Athena felt that a child of Poseidon could not be trusted not to act rashly. With such immense power, he could do a lot of damage, even if he acted in what he thought were the interests of Olympus.

Dionysus just thought it would be a pain in the ass.

Ares surely wished the boy were dead, but he did not think Olympus would be any better for it. At any rate, he was not present when the vote was called for. His embarrassment would last him decades upon decades. He could not show his face in the throne room for votes, much less the weekly family game night(A/N no joke though that's fucking canon it's in the second trials of apollo).

As such, Percy was allowed to live. It was decided that Kronos was attempting to rise, but no actions to prepare could be taken, as the threats were not yet apparent. Preparing for everything would stretch them out too thin, making it easier to defeat them with a planned attack. Preparing for nothing, but treading carefully, was the best move to make.

When Percy returned to camp, a party was thrown for the returning heroes. It had not been made public that Percy seized total victory in single combat against Ares, in part because it would demoralize the camp, in part because Ares's betrayal was not made public either. The council agreed that Ares was not in league with Kronos, he was merely too stupid to notice he was being manipulated. As such, he was not punished as a traitor. More like, he was so weak that even if he betrayed Olympus, he would have no value to the enemy. It was almost a burden on Olympus to have to keep him.

After the party, Luke tried to sic a pit scorpion on him again, but Percy smacked it with the flat of Body Odor so hard it practically vaporized.

Percy had already decided he could not just kill Luke here and end it all. Firstly, there would be no evidence of Luke's betrayal. Secondly, Kronos would just take some other host, and Percy would have no grasp on his fighting style or anything else. Percy would rather deal with something he knew was very dangerous than something he knew nothing about. If there was a chance of winning, he would never go for broke and try dealing with the unknown.

A tough battle with Luke commenced, and Percy was unable to win with Body Odor alone. He was saving Riptide to be a surprise weapon. He had not used it when fighting the war god, whom Percy could never have known was so weak, so it was assumed by the Titan forces that Body Odor was his only weapon. Percy assumed they had spies everywhere, and knew of what had happened, but perhaps it was not the case. He could not tell.

Percy had no wish to play his trump card in such an inconsequential and early battle, so he was beaten handily by Luke. While their skill with a blade was relatively equal, Percy's current body had not gone through puberty yet. When the tactics, rather, the skill, is the same, it all comes down to the weapons you use. Body Odor in the hands of a twelve year old couldn't compete with Backbiter wielded by a nineteen year old. Still, it was impressive for a twelve year old to fight a nineteen year old for so long before falling. It was all due to Percy's knowledge of Luke's style. Luke however, had never seen Percy's style. Percy tried his hardest to fight differently to how he normally did, to give him an extra edge in future battles.

Percy received many wounds, large and small, though Luke was not unharmed, but before Luke actually made him faint from the pain and blood loss, Percy pretended to. He wanted to see where Luke went. Luke walked into the woods, towards Zeus's fist. Did they already know about the Labyrinth? When Luke left, Percy took a bottle of seawater and covered himself with it. His wounds were severe enough to not be fully healed by only one bottle of seawater, but they were not severe enough for two bottles of seawater. However, he only used enough to stop the bleeding enough that he was not in danger. He needed everyone to see Percy could not have done this to himself, that Luke was definitely guilty.

He left and informed Chiron, who was stunned, and all that. Percy was just pissed off. Soon, Luke would try to frame Chiron, who cared for him so much, by poisoning his best friend. Despicable. Percy said that he was afraid Luke might try to destroy Thalia's Pine, which Chiron said was impossible. But, in the end, he relented to the only heroic class demigod the camp currently possessed(though the term was utterly unknown to Percy and other demigods and was only used by Chiron to describe them in his head), and the Hephaestus cabin installed numerous security cameras in the branches under cover of night, without alerting any other cabins. Since Luke had apparently turned traitor, no one trusted anyone. For this particular task it was convenient, but something had to be done to maintain the balance of the camp.

Since all Percy did after getting to pick all his own activities was free-style sword practice and desperately try to read a translated version of the Art of War, which he was convinced was the greatest thing ever written, Percy was unable to unite the camp. The duty had fallen to Annabeth, but she had been rendered slightly insane after the betrayal of Luke, and was also unfit. Many people had tried to unite the camp, but it always came back around to Percy. He was the first person to come back alive from a quest in several years.

Percy was nearly certain he would be unable to defeat the Titan Lord this lifetime, so it did not matter what state the camp was in. All that mattered was training. Of course, making efforts to sustain his life for as long as possible in order to train was also prudent, as was figuring out the best way to proceed after deciding he would be able to win against Kronos. He needed to know exactly what things to do in order to save everyone and give him the best advantage over Kronos.

This was almost as important as training, so he decided he would take the time to unite camp, two weeks after everyone began suspecting anyone. He also needed to know exactly who the spies were, for certain. If they were different every time, he'd be in deep shit. In this world, what things were random and what things were set in stone? It was fascinating to him. After he finished digesting the art of war, he took action.

At lunch one day, amongst the nervous chatter, Percy's loud, juvenile voice rang out as he stood up.

"Everyone!" he yelled.

"Now is not the time to doubt your brothers and sisters in arms! This will soon turn into war! In a battle, the worst possible thing is to doubt whether the man next to you will protect you with his life! Do not fear spies! Spies are inevitable during times of war. Double agents, triple agents, fake spies, feeding real spies fake info, giving our double agents real info, giving some spies tons of fake information, giving some spies no information at all. We will confuse the enemy's information network so badly, inundate it with real and false information, that they will have no idea what information is true, have no idea which spies are loyal, and have no idea what to do! They will have no choice but to not rely on any information from their spies, do you understand? Even if this information is leaked, as it undoubtedly will, it will only serve our own purposes. Have we already enacted this plan, or have we only now thought of it? Which spies have already turned, which spies have already been fed deliberately false info? The enemy has no way of knowing. Spies are not to be mistrusted! Even spies who are not loyal to us are a valuable resource! Everyone in this camp is your ally, regardless of whether or not they agree! So trust your fellow man! Trust your brothers and sisters in arms to protect you! And trust me to win this war!"

The crowd was utterly silent.

However, this was only for a split second while everyone waited to see if he would say anything else.

The instant it became clear he was finished, every single person shouted war cries, followed by cheers and hollering, whoops of joy. It was impossible to tell who was faking it and who was truly happy.

But Percy was not actually finished. After he waited for everyone to settle down, he said, in a much more normal voice, "Also, to the spies only. Please listen. If you are being threatened into being a spy, you will be forgiven immediately, and we will handle the problem together. If you are a spy because you are truly angry with the gods for mistreating their kids, suck it up. Need I remind you how the Titan Lord mistreated his kids? Compared to eating you whole, what kind of injustice is being ignored? You are no longer babies. Do not expect your parents to save you from what you must defeat. Get stronger, and defeat it yourselves. And finally, if you are a spy because you want to be on the winning side of the war... I am not sure how to give you solid proof, but we will definitely be the victors in the end."

At this, the crowd truly was silent. Were these truly the words of a twelve year old? It sounded like he was a trueborn hero, born to lead. Who was it that would not follow him into battle?

Of course, not everyone was pledging their loyalty yet, but a not insignificant number vowed to follow him on the spot. This was the effect of a man who led on the battlefield. He was used to rallying his troops in the heat of battle, when their lives were on the line and they were too scared to move. Just what kind of effect would this have on people who had only just learned of the threat? Would it be more effective, or less effective?

The result was that everyone, even those who hadn't totally signed off on him being their official leader, called him 'commander.' That was the kind of effect a former leader of camp had on the current residents.

Of course, Percy had gotten permission from Chiron to say all of this stuff. Chiron was delighted. 'So that's why you were reading that book,' he had mused.

That night, four spies came, separately to Percy's cabin in the middle of the night.

The first was Silena Beauregard, who had been told it was the only way to save her friends. When she wanted to back out of it, they had told her they would expose her and all her friends would hate her. Now that she had been talking with her cabin about the speech given by the wise son of Poseidon, she discovered that no one would have blamed her once they found out why she did it. Due to their having such enormous faith in the new 'commander' of camp to feed spies false data and all that other complicated stuff he was talking about, spies were actually thought of as what Percy said: a valuable resource. It was a radical change in perspective only possible for children.

Silena had come because she figured Percy would know what to do with her.

If Percy hadn't known her for years, he would probably forget how to speak. She was that pretty. Luckily, he had known her for years.

"Well, Lena. First, we'll decide whether you're a loyal Titan spy who was told to tell me that, to make me think I'd know how to use you."

Silena's already pale face turned paper white.

"I.. I... I'm not..."

"Exhibit A and exhibit B. Not enough information to decide definitively."

Some of the color came back.

"Thank... I.. I just... Um... I.."

"Exhibit C and D. We're almost done here."

Silena's face drained again, and she started to cry. It broke Percy's heart to see her cry. However, she would be an excellent deterrent against people thinking they could fool him. He had to be gung ho about his strange new abilities. After fully reading the Art of War, it was like Percy was a totally different person. Gone was the oblivious moron of the past. Though he still seemed to have a strange blind spot for certain things, for the most part, he was actually intelligent. It came from the wisdom of age. Though Percy was only sixteen, all his life and death experiences made him think he was more like thirty.

Silena's sobs of agony broke his heart and he felt his soul dying, but it was almost over. He was almost certain. Well, he'd never be a hundred percent certain, but people who weren't professional spies probably wouldn't be able to stand up to this emotional scrutiny. Now that she was in distress, it was time for the kicker.

"If they threatened to kill Charlie if you didn't give them information, would you go back to being their spy?"

She started crying harder. He would explain to her why she needed to cry later.

"I.. I... I don't know! I want to say I wouldn't betray camp but I can't let Charlie die! You'll save him, won't you!?"

Percy grabbed her shoulders and comforted her.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to let anything happen to Beckendorf. I can tell you're not a spy. You're just a girl, who loves this camp, but loves Charles Beckendorf more. I'm so, so sorry for making you cry, but I had to be sure, you understand that, right? Shhh sh sh, it's okay to cry, but if you're too loud you won't be able to fall asleep again."

A sort of low groan of sadness was being emitted from the girls throat.

"I've got you, I've got you. It's okay. It's gonna be okay, everybody is okay."

After thirty more seconds, Silena stopped crying. Percy sat her on the edge of a bunk, and he sat facing her on a different one.

"Do you want to hear why I did all this? How I know you aren't a spy?"

She nodded.

"When I first said I thought you might be lying, your face turned white. You were terrified. I figured there could have been three reasons. You were telling the truth but couldn't prove it, thus you were frightened. You were a terrible spy who was frightened I'd found you out. You mere a mediocre spy, who was pretending to be scared but would give a reason later why you weren't a spy. Or, you were an excellent spy who was pretending to be scared, to make me think you were telling the truth."

"Wow."

"Then, you stuttered badly and tried to say you weren't a spy. You could still be either telling the truth, a terrible spy, or a terrific spy, but no ordinary amateur spy with half a brain would use the defense 'I'm not a spy.' Instead, they would have a reason prepared to convince me they weren't a spy. It was clear you had no intention of giving me a speech."

"That's amazing, Percy."

"That's not much, yet. After I mentioned I didn't know for sure if you were a spy or not, only a little of the color came back to your face. Your jumbled words agreed with this. A terrible spy would have been much more relieved that they had a chance to convince me. You were smart enough to know that everything you did, I'd analyze. You knew you weren't out of the water, but you were a little less scared. I judged you to be smart enough that you could not possibly be such a terrible spy. However, that still left the possibility that you were actually a terrific spy, who was either pretending to be a stupid spy or pretending to be telling the truth. That's why I said we're almost done here like I did, to see if you would try to make a desperate ploy, like a dumb spy would. It's also possible that a person telling the truth would do that, so if you had made a desperate ploy, I would have changed tactics accordingly."

"That's incredible. To think you were analyzing me so closely... to think every word you said was to draw out a specific reaction..." Silena silently shuddered, as if the thought was terrifying.

"Well, when you started crying, I decided you weren't pretending to be a bad spy. But you could still be excellently pretending to act this way. So I asked about Beckendorf. Luckily I know about you two, don't worry I haven't told anybody, but if I hadn't known I would've had to do things differently. And I needed you to be crying when I asked about Beckendorf, so you'd forget that they have no way of hurting him while he's in camp, and give me your honest answer. Your answer was excellent. Right from the heart. But it was what you said at the end that really sold me. It sounded like you thought they really were going to do that. Your heart took over your brain at that moment, and begged me to do something I didn't even need to do. It was then I decided you were telling the truth. Or, rather, if you were able to fake something like that, you would have to be an excellent, professional spy, and I'd have no way of figuring it out. If you were able to convince me that was really from the heart, I would have no choice but to concede defeat to you."

"You're amazing, Percy. I'm so glad you're on our side. It's like you're a child of a Athena."

No, one just rubbed off on me. I had so many epiphanies when I was reading the Art of War, I feel like an entirely different person! I can barely wait to use all this stuff to fool with Kronos!

"No, no. Besides, no one has infiltrated camp. The only spies they have are amateurs. They couldn't be at a professional level."

"Oh... I hadn't thought of that."

"No worries. Now, what to do with you... your story is so noble it's nauseating. The enemy knows your story, and once they find out about the speech I made, they'll have no doubts you came to me. Now, our goal here isn't to feed every single spy false data, so that they'll use inaccurate info when making decisions. No, the goal is just to confuse them. They probably think I was lying about giving people real information, but I'm not. If I only give false info, then they'll be able to counter it. I can't do anything they'd expect. They'd expect everything we do to be to our advantage, but if we do that, they'll be able to predict our actions, and that is the worst outcome. That's why, we'll do things randomly. That's what I said, and if they're smart, that's what they'll believe. So then, what's the one thing they would never expect me to do? Simple."

"Yeah? What is it?"

"Nothing."

"Huh!?"

"At least, in your case. It's practically a guarantee that you'd come here and do what I tell you, so they'll probably be expecting me to feed you false data. You'll feel indebted because you've been spying on us, so you'll have no problems doing that. Or, they might expect me to have you do nothing at all. So, they'll be thinking it's fifty fifty whether they'll get no information or false information. In any case, they won't rely on anything you tell them. So, you'll tell them everything. All the truth. What better outcome than the enemy doubting the truth? In all likelihood, we won't catch every spy, so they'll have all the information. Our true objective here is to give them false information they think is true, and true information they think is false. They won't even be able to trust the information of spies that they're certain stayed loyal. Brilliant, don't you think?"

"That's... terrifying. Have you always been like this? Children of the big three are really scary."

"No, no. I was born a nincompoop. There's three people I have to thank for being like this. Sun Tzu, and two people I can't tell you about."

Annabeth, and Kronos. Kronos sent me back in time, and Annabeth opened my eyes to the ways of knowledge over brute strength. Without her, I'd have focused solely on training my physical skills. I'd only be useful during battle, not before or after. That's the one thing I can thank you for, Wise Girl. And of course, Sun Tzu. That Art of War is a nasty piece of work. Hell of a book. No way was he a mortal.

"No, don't say that. I'm sure you've always been smart. Even if it wasn't like now, I'm sure you still had street smarts. You were never stupid. I think. I've only just met you."

"By the way, Lena. How did you communicate with their army?"

She showed him her scythe charm.

He thanked her, and sent her on her way.

The next day, Silena told everyone to call her Lena from now on.

It was also the first day she told Beckendorf, whom she was secretly dating, that she loved him. He replied in kind. She didn't tell him she'd been a spy, but it was because Percy warned her that her part to play would be compromised if people knew she wasn't a spy anymore. It made no sense to her. Wouldn't her real info be even more likely to be seen as false if all the other spies said she became loyal to the camp? Percy told her he didn't think so, so she didn't tell anybody about it.

Three other spies came to Percy the same night as Silena. Two had been threatened, while the remaining one said he had been angry at the gods, but now he saw it Percy's way. Percy was able to figure out he was lying fairly easily. He decided to pull out one of the two that had been threatened, told the other to report to him for false reports, and for the one who was lying, he said, 'Make stuff up. But tell me what you make up before you tell them.' He had done this because he decided he couldn't gain much, so he just wanted the spy to tire himself out. No need for Percy to waste time giving him false reports he wasn't going to tell them about anyways.

But then, as he was leaving, Percy added, "But, occasionally, I'll need you to give them specific true information, which I'll give to you personally. From someone who's always totally wrong, they'll never believe you, so it's a good way to trick them into thinking their loyal spies are actually double agents."

Of course, he was actually planning to give him information that was wrong, but hopefully he'd gleefully report the situation to his superiors. It seemed plausible enough, so they might actually believe him. Even if they didn't it was no big loss. It would only be faked intel anyways.

When weak, appear strong. When strong, appear weak. When near, appear far, when far, appear near. When prepared for battle, appear disorganized, when troops are scattered, appear cohesive. The root of all warfare was deception. If all information was distrusted, it would come down to an all out fight. However, if Percy had potentially infinite time to make note of the enemies movements, then he would know everything spies could tell him. This way, it would not be an all out fight, but a fight much in his favor. Of course, all this was mixed unit tactics. It meant nothing if he wasn't able to defeat Kronos personally.

Over the course of the next few weeks, he trained diligently in the day, and in the evening he dealt with the spies. When he wasn't busy, he studied mixed unit tactics, and what formations had worked across history.

It was the day after the summer solstice, in which Ares finally showed his face to the other gods, when something incredible happened.

They all discussed what to do about the Kronos situation, but until more information emerged, nothing could be done. That was the decision.

All the female goddesses ridiculed Ares's defeat against a kid who couldn't even be called a hero yet. Ares tried to protest, saying that Percy had exceeded the hero rank and was definitely on the great hero rank, the rank that Heracles had necessitated, but only Heracles and Daedalus ever sat upon. Even Daedalus was only really an honorary great hero, since in battle he couldn't match an ordinary demigod, much less a hero, certainly not a great hero. The suggestion this twelve year old was a match for Heracles at his prime was enough for even the gods trying to defend Ares to burst into laughter. Well, except Zeus and Poseidon. Poseidon was doing his best not to look too proud, and Zeus was doing his best not to look too terrified.

At any rate, the next day, Percy went through all the events that would happen next summer. Then he remembered. Circe.

What had they said? Did they say only women could do magic? Percy thought that sounded pretty plausible, but what if it wasn't? What if he could learn magic? If magic was more like a skill, like his water controlling abilities, and could be brought back even when he reset, then... he needed to get on this right away. There were so many ifs. If men can learn, if he can learn, if it's a skill, if it carries over across resets. But, in the event the answers to all of them were 'yes,' then he would gain a powerful new trump card. He needed to learn about magic. Maybe he should ask Chiron? Maybe there was a child of Hecate amongst the undetermined campers.

He decided he'd immediately head for the Hermes cabin.

He went in, after putting everything he had on him, save his two precious swords, in his cabin, but it was nothing like he remembered.

Without Luke, the place seemed... dead. Percy hadn't noticed in his first lifetime. There weren't many jokes flying, and everyone seemed slower than usual.

They perked up a little when they saw Percy, but that was it.

Travis greeted him.

"Yo, what's happening, commander? Pretty brave wearing a Beckendorf original in this place."

A few heads turned at the words Beckendorf original, but lost interest when they saw it was Percy. Nancy followed him around like a lost puppy, and she was an even better thief than the Stolls. If it was Percy's, and he still had it, it was unstealable. That was the general consensus. You could not steal from the commander. Anything you could take was already gone.

But he never seemed to 'lose' things, and Nancy insisted she had never been able to steal anything from Percy, so deep down, they assumed it just couldn't be done. Which was more or less true, actually. Percy trained himself to the point where he was alert and focused even when he was relaxing. It was common knowledge that if you tried to hide from Percy Jackson, if he was looking, he'd find you even if you were invisible. Which was more or less true, actually. He'd caught an invisible Annabeth looking at him from far away numerous times, thinking he didn't notice the Annabeth-foot shaped indentations on the grass. Inside, he couldn't see invisible people, but outside it seemed he could. As soon as he noticed her, Percy would always look right where he thought her eyes would be and stare at her until she left. It was probably her who spread those rumors. Actually, there were way more rumors about him than even he knew. There was something called 'the Seven Mysteries of Percy Jackson,' but he was only aware of four of them. Whenever he asked about the remaining three, people would just look blankly at him and say, "Don't you know? The two missing mysteries are the seventh mystery," the exact same way, every single time. They were definitely hiding something from him.

The mysteries he'd heard of were:

1. [All-seeing]. If he's looking, he'll find you even if you're invisible. (true-ish, but only outside)

2. [Theft-proof]. It's impossible to steal something from him. If you make away with something, it's because he let you take it. (The only fully true mystery. He'd been protecting himself from the Stolls for years, and Nancy was even worse. He'd eventually built up an immunity.)

3. [Pre-lie Detection]. If he looks in your eyes, he can tell if what you say next will be a lie, even if you haven't thought of it yet. (True-ish. He couldn't tell if they hadn't decided to say anything, but he could almost always tell from facial expressions and body language if a person was going to lie. Dealing with spies day in and day out had made this a necessity.)

4. [Legendary Swordsmaster]. He's such a skilled swordmaster he can even drag his sword across his arm without hurting himself. (True-ish. Body Odor chose him, so it won't hurt him. He'd shown someone this once, but they misunderstood and thought it was him that was incredible, not the sword. Others had seen it from far away as well, so it was impossible to quash the rumor just by correcting the guy he meant to show. In any case he was a very skilled swordsman, but he did not consider himself a swordsmaster.)

The three he didn't know were kept from him because no one wanted to know whether they were really true. They were too terrifying.

5. [Phantom Sword]. He can decide whether or not his sword will touch your sword, and if he wishes it, his sword will pass straight through yours without a noise. It was impossible to defend against. (True-ish. He had such excellent feints that moved so quickly and passed so close to the edge of the opponent's sword before going immediately back up that it looked like his sword passed through the opponent's sword. His feint had only gotten more refined after his fight with Ares. The idea that no one could block his attacks if he decided to stop playing around was so utterly terrifying that everyone who knew the mystery vowed never to learn if it was true. Even if they just told him about it, his reaction might give it away. Though Percy did start wondering why every single person on the enemy's team in capture the flag had a shield all of a sudden. They believed Phantom Sword wouldn't work on shields. It seemed to be true, though he still beat them every time.)

6. [Advanced Mind Reading/Memory Reading]. He could see every thought you ever had, as well as what you were thinking at the moment, just by looking at your eyes a single time. (Untrue. It came about because Percy seemed to have dirt on every single person in camp, and knew about people's crushes even when they hadn't told anyone but themselves. He also seemed to know about where everyone was from, and what their parents were like. In reality he was just from the future, but isn't that even more unbelievable? Everyone wanted to believe he just had good intuition. They didn't want him to know every bad thing they'd ever done. This was especially helpful for Percy, because it caused most spies who were still loyal to the Titans to stop looking at him. It made it obvious they were hiding something, even if he had no idea about the crazy rumor.)

7. [Martial God]. During his quest, he fought the god of war to a standstill. (Untrue. He defeated the war god. There was no standstill involved.)

At any rate, Percy decided he'd humor Travis.

"Oh come on, Travis. You know it's impossible to steal from me."

The life seemed to drain away from him. [Theft-proof] was true!

"Travis, seriously, it was just a joke. I'm as human as any of you. Connor that pen you just took will be gone in three minutes, might as well give it back now."

Connor, who was behind him and had in fact just taken Riptide right from Percy's pocket, lost his cocky smirk, widened his eyes, and dropped the pen in surprise.

"Holy Hermes! You're the real deal!"

"Damn straight! Long live the commander!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, you big idiots. I came here for a reason, you know. I want to see if I can figure out which gods the undetermined are from."

About half the cabin shot up to attention, standing and staring at Percy. The rest looked at him for a few seconds in shock before going and doing whatever.

"Listen, guys, follow me to the Arena. You guys have a free slot and I'm booked there for this one."

A faint taunt of 'awww, Percy's breaking the ruuuuuules' was heard from someone at the other end of the cabin, and Percy ignored it.

"Is this all of you? No, it's not, is it. Uhh, Butch, can you collect who we're missing and bring them to the Arena? Thanks, you're a pal."

Percy was really only looking for any children of Hecate, but as soon as he stepped into the Hermes cabin he knew he had to help these people.

The undetermined marched behind Percy towards the Arena. Butch went and found everyone, and finally it was time to start.

"Alright, this might be really boring for all but one of you at a time, so you can watch or do whatever, it's fine, just don't make too much noise."

There was a portable brazier with them, which Percy would use for sacrifices. Chiron was also alerted and came to watch, in case anyone was actually claimed.

"Well, line up, I guess."

After some mad shuffling, the first kid was a boy, age 10.

"Alright, kid. So, what let me know who my dad was before I got claimed was knowing what I liked. I loved the ocean and water in general. Around water, I just felt good. It was pretty obvious. Maybe some of you are also like that. I'll see if I can find something in your likes and dislikes that's a clue, not just what powers you can use and what activities you're the best at. So, kid, what's your favorite thing in the world?"

"Definitely construction equipment! Back hoes, front end loaders, cranes, dump trucks, cement mixers! So cooooooool!"

"Isn't that pretty obviously Hephaestus? He owes me a favor, more or less, so let's see if I can ask."

Percy ignored the wide eyed looks when he said a god owed him a favor. Was it because [Martial God] was really true?

Percy said, "for Hephaestus," and dropped a drachma into the sacrificial flames, and sure enough, it dissolved. If Iris accepted them, why not the other gods?

Hephaestus, I literally killed Ares, so pretty please at least listen. Is that kid really not yours!? He's crazy about construction equipment, so, I mean, it really seems like-

Kid, I appreciate you taking Ares down a few notches, so I'll talk to you for a measly one drachma. The gods I know don't claim their kids for no reason. They've got to accomplish something. Well, I don't know about some of the other Olympians, but every minor god I've talked to agrees with me. For the record, that is my kid, but I'm not claiming him til he makes something of himself. Oh, and no other god will even blink at you for less than a hundred, by the way. With this, I no longer owe you anything. For what it's worth, good luck.

Well, that was insane. Did Hephaestus really just talk in my head? Holy shit.

"Well, change of plans, everybody. Sort of. Turns out, the gods typically won't claim a kid unless they do something to prove themselves worthy. Why nobody just told Chiron that in the first place is entirely beyond me. Oh, by the way, kid, your dad is Hephaestus, but he's waiting for you to do something great. Go forge something. Build a toy dump truck or something. I don't know how those guys operate."

"Okay! Bye, Mr. Commander, sir!" he said, with a five finger salute.

Well, that was adorable.

"Anyways, next up."

The undetermined where in a daze, but they moved up regardless.

"What about you? What's your favorite thing in the world, Butch?"

"Err.. can I whisper it to you? It's kind of embarrassing... *I really love when the rain stops and the sun starts shining. It's so peaceful, you know?*"

"*So, do you like rainbows?*"

"*...yeah...*"

"Sounds to me like you're a son of Iris, goddess of rainbows! Even if you aren't, try figuring out what abilities you have. If you can communicate like your mother, that would be crazy helpful. If not, don't worry about it. Maybe it's something else, but... what did your dad describe your mom like?"

"Er... someone really beautiful and gentle. I should always try to be like her, he said. Of course, he was in the mob, so I'm not sure how much I can trust what he says, but..."

"Your dad's shitty career decisions aside, that sounds like Iris would, right? What are rainbows if not beautiful and gentle?"

Who would've thought Iris had a thing for bad boys?

This went on for quite some time. Most were so simple that Percy wanted to cry, but some were a challenge.

Just as Percy was beginning to think there really wasn't a child of Hecate, there she was.

Lol, this chapter's a mess. I apologize for it being so weird. I hope I continue to meet expectations. I already have a lot of the next chapter written, so I can't promise anything, but if this chapter is really technical and you totally hate it, please tell me. If you can bear with it for one more chapter, please do. I mean, it is adventure/humor, but I honestly can't tell when I've written something other people will laugh at. I hope it is half awesome and half hilarious, but I can just vaguely tell this chapter is different than the others, only because almost nothing in it has a correlating event in the books. Please tell me if something is wrong with it.

Also, 200 followers. Pretty good for six chapters by someone who's on the follow lists of under 50 people, if I do say so myself.

One more thing, please advise me on the matter of the new summary. It's not different, I just expanded it a bit.

P. S. I solemnly swear on the river Styx that chapter 8 will be uploaded this Friday, 7-21/17