Disclaimer: I only own the plot and my OCs. Anything you recognize as not mine belongs to Rick Riordan, Greco-Roman mythology, and/or their otherwise respective owners.

Author's Notes: ...So, uh, hi? I know, I know, you're probably looking at this story thinking "but Selene, didn't you already write this shit?" And yes, you would be right. I did, in fact, already write this shit! But now I'm rewriting it because, TLDR: 2020 and 2021 were not good years for me. I had writer's block, then on top of that had stomach issues that cost my family a good several thousand dollars (yay American healthcare!), then on top of that found out those stomach issues had actually been caused by severe endometriosis all along. So...yeah. That was fun. And I had already been debating on rewriting Finding Home anyways because of all of that, but then all of my files for this story except one got corrupted, so I went ahead and took that as a sign of the gods. Oof.

Anyways, if you're new to this shitshow (and even if you aren't), here are the warnings for this story: this story has an older!Percy and a younger!Luke, both by about two years. Annabeth is not really relevant to the story, at least for now, and Grover does not exist. Neither will Tyson...yeah, oof again. Sorry, not sorry. There is also going to be some implied/referenced rape/non-con, unlike before. Oh, and yeah, I have my own fucked up version of genealogy for the gods. I'll explain it as I go, although if you go to AO3, I do have a link to it there as well with some mild spoilers.

Finally, for now this story will have weekly updates. Only exception to that rn is this week, since I'm posting this chapter now instead of Saturday. I just started revising chapters 1-28 of the previous version of this fic, and I don't want to burn myself out by revising too much at once/writing too much at once. Plus, I got other WIPs going on. Feel free to check out the one I just posted if you're an MCU fan. It's probably not as bad as I made it out to be, lol.

Anyways, sorry for this clusterfuck of this A/N and I hope you enjoy, because I'll see you on Saturday!

~TGWSI/Selene Borealis

~The Finding Home Saga~

~Finding Home~

~Chapter 1: I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher~

Look, as I'm sure you've heard me say before, I didn't ask to be half-blood.

Being a half-blood – regardless as to whether you're a demigod, a demi-titan, or even a fabled demi-primordial – is dangerous, and not just because of all the monsters out there that would love to kill you in dozens upon dozens of painful, nasty ways. It's also dangerous because when you're a half-blood, the gods have a tendency to notice you, which can lead to you either becoming their new pet project or getting your ass smitten. Or transformed. Whatever.

Now, of course, that's not to say that being a half-blood is a total drag and that nobody would ask to be one. I mean, while I've had plenty of bad experiences because of my half-godly status, I've also had a lot of experiences because of it that I would classify as the "times of my life" – such as gaining friends that I never would've had otherwise, falling in love, and becoming a mom despite being a guy.

(And besides, even if being a half-blood was a total drag, I'm pretty sure that there are people out there who would ask to be one anyways. Because, you know, that's just how life works.)

So, if you feel like you're recognizing yourself in these pages – if you feel something stirring up deep inside – I want you to take a deep breath before you do anything else, because you may be a half-blood. And that's dangerous. But it's also an experience unlike any other, if you decide that you want to risk everything you thought you knew to have it. And if you do decide that, then I encourage you read on – if not, then I urge you to take another deep breath before closing this book and never opening it again.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

My name is Percy Jackson, by the way. I turned eighteen years old (yes, I know, I'm a teen mom, don't judge me) three months ago, aka August 18th, 2009, aka the day that the entire world went to shit. But that was just for a day and I'm pretty sure most of the mortals – people who aren't half-bloods – don't remember it anyways, which I'm relatively thankful for.

Now, I could tell you all about why that day happened – if you remember it, that is – right now, but I'm not going to. Because why that day went to shit is a very complicated thing, and I'm not going to do it justice by explaining it without explaining all of the stuff that makes it complicated.

So, I'm going to rewind time back to around three years ago, aka May of 2006. I was in the eighth grade at the time, attending a private boarding school for troubled kids called Yancy Academy in upstate New York.

Was I a troubled kid?

Yeah. You could say that.

On this particular day in May – of course, of course I forget the date – all twenty-eight of the mental-case kids in the eighth grade at Yancy Academy, along with two teachers, took a field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at some cool ancient Greco-Roman stuff, courtesy of our Latin teacher, Mr. Brunner.

Now, if you didn't know Mr. Brunner very well, I'm sure this field trip would've seemed like the worst thing ever to you. I mean, not to diss on him or anything, but he looked like your stereotypical, middle-aged white guy, which are never fun teachers to have. The fact that he wore tweed jackets that always smelled like coffee and was in a motorized wheelchair only made first impressions of him even worse.

Yet, in all reality, Mr. Brunner was actually a pretty cool dude. He actually taught grammar to help us learn Latin – which was nice, because it helped me out with my problems in English due to my dyslexia – and told us fun stories and jokes as well. Plus, he had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, which made the games that he also let us play in class even better.

So, basically, I was pretty excited for this trip, which was a weird thing for me to think, much less say, because I didn't exactly have a good track record when it came to field trips. In fact, out of the eight schools I had been expelled from up to this point in time, five of them had kicked me out for something that I accidentally did or was said to do (in the case of my third grade school) while on a field trip.

But I didn't want that to happen this time. This time, I was determined to be good.

...Or, at least, as good as I could possibly be, because all the way into the city, I had to put up with Hudson Lake, aka the blonde-haired, whiny douchebag that had a tendency to hit on my best friend, Katie Gardner.

Which, don't get me wrong was...not understandable, but unsurprising, I guess? Because Katie was (still is, honestly) very pretty. She had a very beautiful face, with long, chocolate brown hair that fell in loose curls and probably the greenesteyes that I've ever seen. She was also very smart, to the point that I didn't really understand why she was at Yancy Academy and not some other boarding school, regardless if she was "troubled" or not.

Still, despite her beauty and her smarts, the fact that Hudson hit on her when she obviously did not like him back was an incredibly shitty thing of him to do. And not only did him hitting on her irritate me to no end, but the way that Katie never directly told him to go fuck himself was downright infuriating, too.

For instance, when we were finally almost to the museum, Hudson turned around in his seat with a smirk that simultaneously made my blood boil in anger and my stomach churn in disgust, because dear gods was this guy insufferable. His voice was pretty nauseating, too, especially when he said, "Katie," in a tone which tried to come off as seductive yet only succeeded in making him sound more whiny.

"Hudson," Katie replied, not even looking up from the rose that she was drawing in her notebook as she sat next to me. "What do you want?"

"Well, there's a lot of things I want," he replied smugly, which increased the urge I had to punch him in the face tenfold. "But you being my partner on this trip is something I want very, very much."

Ah, yes. Partners. Because as if sending twenty-eight basket-case kids on a field trip wasn't enough, we also had to fill out a worksheet with a partner about it. It was the only part of the field trip I wasn't looking forward to – and even then, it was only because Hudson was using it as an opportunity to flirt with Katie.

Unfortunately for him, though, Katie saw his desperate attempts for what they were, as always. "I'm sorry, Hudson," she said, still not looking up from her drawing, which was horribly amusing. "But I already decided to partner up with Percy."

"You mean Prissy?" Hudson snorted as he glared at me.

That, if nothing else, caused Katie to look up with a frown on her face, while I clenched my fists and continued to ignore the urge to punch him in the nose right here. Because 'Prissy' wasn't just a nickname to bully me or whatever – I mean, it was used to bully me, but it was used to bully me specifically for the fact that I was gay. How Hudson had figured that out with his head so far up his own ass, I have no idea, but ever since he had he'd been using the nickname to belittle me for it to no end. As if being gay was something to be ashamed of.

But it seemed Hudson finally got lucky, because before Katie could reprimand him and before I could punch him in the face, the bus pulled up to the museum and came to a stop. Immediately, all of the other kids scrambled to get off, but I just sat there because: 1) I needed to cool down, and 2) Katie was in the aisle seat and she wasn't moving yet.

Instead, she was looking at me with a concerned expression on her face. "You okay?" she asked softly.

I shook my head in response, mumbling, "I'm going to kill him – for real this time. I swear, I will."

"No, you won't," she said sagely. "Because you know who'll get blamed if anything happens."

Looking back on it, I really wish I would've ignored her and just punched Hudson as soon as we got off the bus. At least that way he would've gotten a taste of what he deserved for once in his life.

Ten minutes later, we were all in the museum, with Mr. Brunner leading the tour while the other teacher, Mrs. Dodds, walked behind us. We walked past big galleries full of marble statues and glass cases which contained black-and-orange pottery, and all of it was really cool – especially when you considered how this stuff had survived for three thousand years.

But I digress, because nobody else in the class except for Katie thought it was cool, if the fact that they were all talking over Mr. Brunner was anything to go by. Their incessant noise was annoying and really gave me the desire to shout at them to shut up, but every time I opened my mouth Katie gave me a warning look and I felt Mrs. Dodds's piercing gaze burn into the back of my neck.

Yeah, Mrs. Dodds hated me. I didn't really know why, as I always tried to be a good student in her class, pre-algebra, but nevertheless she seemed to have had a grudge against me ever since she came to the school halfway through the school year, after our last math teacher had had a nervous breakdown.

Supposedly, she came from Georgia, wanting to teach us out of "the goodness of her heart," but I doubted that. I mean, she treated me like the devil and Hudson like he was the best kid born since Jesus, plus she always wore a leather jacket and looked like she could ride a Harley into someone's locker. Enough said.

After walking our way through most of the exhibit, Mr. Brunner finally came to a stop in front of a thirteen foot tall column with a big sphinx on top, and started talking about how it was a stele, or grave marker, for a girl about our age. I did my best to try to listen to what he was saying, because again, interesting, but everybody kept on talking and it was grating my nerves.

All of this is to say, when Hudson suddenly snickered something about the naked guy on the column a few minutes later, I couldn't stop myself from turning around and snapping as quietly as I could, "Will you please shut up?"

Apparently, though, it wasn't as quiet as I thought, because in the next instant the whole group laughed and Mr. Brunner stopped telling his story.

"Mr. Jackson," he said, his voice reprimanding enough for to me to flush something awful. "Do you have something you want to share with the rest of the class?"

"No, sir," I replied.

Mr. Brunner then pointed to a certain picture on the stele. Strangely, somehow, it looked vaguely familiar. "Well, here's the chance to. Do you know what this picture represents?"

I stared at it unblinking for a few moments, before it suddenly clicked in my brain just why it had looked familiar. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"

He nodded. "That's right. Now, can you tell us why he did this?"

"Well..." I began. "Kronos was the king god, and – "

"God?" Mr. Brunner interjected.

"Titan," I corrected myself. "It was his kids who were the gods. And he didn't trust them, because when he overthrew his own father, he told him that one day his kids would do the same. So Kronos ate them. But after Rhea, his wife, gave birth to their sixth kid, Zeus, she hid him in the wilderness and gave Kronos a rock instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked Kronos into vomiting up all of his siblings – "

"Gross!" one of the girls in our class shrieked.

" – so that they could go to war with their father and all of the other titans who hadn't done anything to help them. And they did. And the gods won," I finished.

Some snickers broke out in the group, but nobody said anything. Except for Hudson, that is, as he just had to go and and open his big mouth and say, "Mr. Brunner, why is this important? I mean, when are we ever going to be required to know and explain just why Kronos ate his kids?"

As you can probably guess, Mr. Brunner turned to look at me again. "Mr. Lake has just made an excellent point," he said. "Mr. Jackson, can you think of a reason why this might matter outside of class?"

I pondered it for a moment. "Well, if I wanted to become a Latin teacher like you, Mr. Brunner, knowing what the Romans, the people who originally spoke Latin, believed in would be important in helping me and others understand their language, right?"

"A good answer," he replied, and yet for some reason he seemed to be...disappointed? "Full credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which caused him to disgorge his other five siblings – Hestia, Hades, Poseidon, Demeter, and Hera – who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in his stomach. The gods went on to defeat their father, cut him up into pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the underworld. And on that happy note, I believe it is time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"

The class walked off, the girls talking about how disgusting the whole presentation was and the guys pushing each other around and laughing their asses off. Katie and I were about to follow them when I heard Mr. Brunner say, "Mr. Jackson?"

Katie looked at me, concerned, but I just shrugged and told her to keep going before I turned around to look at Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"

He looked at me with what I liked to call his "thousand year old stare," because it was an intense look that made him look like he was incredibly ancient and had seen everything. "While your answer about why all of this might matter was a good one, it wasn't one, I think, that applies to you," he said calmly. "In the future, I expect one that does. Because everything I teach you, Mr. Jackson, is vitally important, and you should treat it as such."

My eyes burned with tears then, and I hated that they did. Because while I always tried hard, again, in his class, it just never seemed to be enough for him. He always expected me, and Katie to a lesser extent, to be better than everyone else, despite how I had both dyslexia and ADHD. And it wasn't fair, especially whe we both knew that I just couldn't do it because of those things.

"Okay, Mr. Brunner," I mumbled, then turned to walk away before he could get another word in.

The fact that he didn't even stop me for leaving before I was dismissed or whatever only made me feel worse.

Outside, the class had gathered on the front steps of the museum, while overhead a wicked storm was brewing which made me shudder. Ever since Christmas, the weather in the entire state had been weird, with back-to-back snowstorms, flooding, and wildfires from lightning strikes. In fact, I wouldn't haven been surprised if this storm was a hurricane blowing in.

Nobody else seemed to notice the shitty weather, though. They were all busy with talking, pickpocketing, and pelting pigeons with food from their packed lunches. Typical.

I sat down next to Katie on the edge of the fountain, away from from the others. "Detention?" she asked, concerned.

I made a face. "Nah. Not from Brunner. I just...I wish he'd lay off on me sometimes, you know? I mean, I'm not smart or anything – not like you."

Katie didn't say anything for a while, which I didn't mind, because I wasn't really in the mood to hear her tell I was smart or something like that to make me feel better. Because I wasn't.

Smart, I mean. I wasn't smart, and I knew it.

Wistfully, I watched the cabs streaming past us down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, which was only a little ways uptown from where we were. The distance was actually probably short enough I could walk there, and gods, did I want to. I hadn't seen my mom since Christmas, and I wanted to hug her and tell her about Katie, who had been my first friend in who knows how long.

But I also knew what would follow that conversation. My mom would ask me why I wasn't at Yancy, and I'd have to tell her how I ran away from my field trip and she'd be – well, she would be disappointed. And if there was one thing I didn't want to do, it was make my mom disappointed in me.

Sometime during this daydreaming of mine, Mr. Brunner had come outside and parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while reading what, to me, looked like one of those trashy paperback novels, and I almost snickered at the thought.

'Almost' being the key word here. For as soon as I noticed him reading that novel, I also noticed how Hudson Lake was sauntering his way towards Katie and I. I scowled. "Douchebag alert," I whispered snidely, causing her to snort and roll her eyes.

"Very mature, Percy."

Looking back on it, the statement was kind of funny, because neither of us were prepared for Hudson to straight-up dump his half-eaten lunch on me with a feral grin. I mean, outside of calling me "Prissy," he had never really bullied me before, but I guess the fact that Katie chose me, the gay guy, as her partner had really struck a nerve with him. Or something.

"Oops," he said sarcastically. "Sorry, Prissy!"

I tried to stay cool. After all, as Katie had said, I knew who would get blamed if anything happened on this field trip – me, that's who. But I was so, so angry at him that my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears, loud and powerful.

I didn't remember touching him, but the next thing I knew, Hudson was sitting on his ass in the middle of the fountain – with leaves, strangely enough, in his hair – yelling, "Percy pushed me!"

In an instant, Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.

All around, the other kids were whispering. "Did you see – "

" – the water – "

" – like it grabbed him – "

" – and those vines – "

I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that, as Mrs. Dodds turned towards me with a sickly grin on her face, after she'd helped Hudson to his feet and made sure he was alright, I was in deep ass shit.

"Now, honey," she crooned softly.

"I know, I know," I grumbled. "Time for me to spend a month erasing workbooks."

Obviously, that hadn't been the right thing to say, as Mrs. Dodds scowled and said, "Come with me."

"Wait!" Katie suddenly yelped, and both of us turned to look at her. Much to my surprise, her face was pale and her eyes were wide, like she knew something much worse than verbal talking to was going to happen. "It was me. I pushed him."

I stared at her, stunned and a little touched. I couldn't believe Katie was trying to cover for me, as it wasn't exactly in her nature to do.

Mrs. Dodds, however, didn't buy her lie, not for a single second. "I don't think so, Ms. Gardner," she said coldly.

"But – "

"You. Will. Stay. Here."

Katie looked at me desperately, in such a way it made me distinctly uncomfortable.

Still, I did my best to smile at her as I said, "It's okay, Katie. Thanks for trying."

"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked impatiently. "Now."

Hudson Lake smirked.

I gave him the best glare I could, before I turned to face Mrs. Dodds – except, she wasn't there. Instead, she was standing at the museum entrance, already at the top of the steps, and gesturing impatiently for me to come with her.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end then, because I was sure, ADHD or not, that she had just been standing right next to me. And if that was true, how on earth did she manage to get there so fast?

Nevertheless, I followed after her, my heart hammering in my chest as I did.

Much to my surprise, Mrs. Dodds went back inside the museum instead of chewing me out right in front of it. I followed her through the entrance hall, thinking that she was going to make me go to the gift shop and buy Hudson a new shirt or something.

But apparently, that wasn't part of the plan.

I followed her deeper into the museum, all the way back to the Greco-Roman section, until we were standing in front of the stele from before. Well, more like she was standing in front of it, her arms crossed and a scowl on her face as she made this deep, throaty sound which sent shivers down my spine. I stood a good ten feet away from her, my eyes darting around the gallery nervously as I noted how, except for us, the entire room was empty.

"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.

Not sure of what else to do, I replied, "Yes, ma'am."

She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think that you could get away with it, honey? That you could steal not one, but two symbols of power?"

Symbols of what? What was she talking about? "I – I don't know what you mean, Mrs. Dodds," I stammered out, terrified and confused at the same time.

"We are not fools, Perseus Jackson," she growled. "It was only a matter of time before we found out – before we realized the thief was you. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."

I still didn't know what she was talking about. As a powerful batch of thunder shook the building, I realized all I could hope for was that this entire ordeal was a dream, because otherwise it was reality and none of it made any sense at all.

"Well?" she demanded.

"Ma'am, I really don't – "

And that was when shit really hit the fan. Because then, Mrs. Dodds' eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her leathery jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and I was pretty sure she was just itching to slice me into ribbons with them.

Then, if at all possible, things got even stranger.

Mr. Brunner suddenly wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, while holding a strange, fancy pen in his hands. You know, like one of those fancy designer types. "What ho, Percy!" he shouted, before tossing at me.

Mrs. Dodds lunged.

With instincts I didn't even know I had, I dodged her as best as I could and vaguely felt talons slash the air next to my ear. Then, I snatched the fancy, bronze-colored pen, except when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword – Mr. Brunner's sword, which he had showed to us once after my team won a game on one of his tournament days.

Mrs. Dodds circled back around towards me, a murderous look in her eyes.

My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.

The monster – because that was what Mrs. Dodds was, what she had to be – snarled, "Die, honey!"

And then she flew straight at me.

Absolute terror coursed through my body. But so did the powerful voices of my instincts, and they were screaming at me to swing the sword.

So I did.

The metal blade hit her shoulder, before passing clean through her body like she was made of butter. A distinctive hissing sound rang out in the air as the blade moved through her, and I could see her face out of the corner of my eyes just enough to see the utter shock that spread across it, before...

...Before...

...Before she exploded into a yellow powder and vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill in the air, as if those two glowing, coal-like eyes were still watching me.

I was alone.

The sword was still, somehow, in my hands, but Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.

With shaky hands, I lifted up the sword, looking for signs of blood or anything like that. But there was nothing of notice, and all I managed to see was the cap of the pen in the reflection of the bronze metal.

Not knowing what else to do, I grabbed the cap and held it next to the sword. A strange, magnetic pulled the cap – and my hand along with it – to the tipof the sword, before the cap settled on it and the sword somehow transformed back into the pen.

"What the fuck?" I whispered as I held the pen-sword in my hands.

Knowing it was now the only proof I had that something had happened here – because something had definitely happened, of that I had no doubt – I shoved it into my pocket before scrambling to my feet and walking out the museum.

Outside, it had started to rain.

Katie was still sitting by the fountain and her face was still pale as well, but when she saw me she did her best to give me a smile. At the same time, Hudson Lake was standing not too far away from her, still soaked from the water fountain with leaves in his hair. When he saw me, he smirked and said, "I hope Ms. Kerr whooped your ass."

I blinked. "Who?"

"Our teacher, Prissy. Who else?"

An uneasy feeling formed in the pit of my stomach. We had no teacher named Ms. Kerr. I asked Hudson what he was talking about.

He just rolled his eyes and turned away.

I asked Katie where Mrs. Dodds was next.

At first, she opened her mouth to say something, but then closed it, before leaning in so close I could feel her hot, shaky breath on my hair. In a trembling voice, she whispered, "I can't tell you. For now, act normal. Everything will make sense...eventually."

After she pulled away, I looked at her apprehensively, before I nodded, grateful for the fact that at least my best friend believed me and wasn't lying or whatever.

It was then, and only then, I turned to look at Mr. Brunner. He was back to sitting at the end of the handicapped ramp, trashy paperback novel still in his hands, as if he had never moved. For a moment, I thought about going up there and giving him the pen back.

But I didn't.

I just didn't.

Word Count: 4,688

Next Chapter Title: Necessity Pays Me A Visit