Prelude to the Sixth Life

It's done. It's over. I have officially graduated college with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, and am now looking for a job.

Sorry about how long this took to get out. The boot loader on my laptop decided to quit, and nothing I tried got it to work again, so I had to take it into the shop for system repairs, and they struggled to get it working themselves. In the meantime, I started playing Jedi Survivor, and that took up a lot of time.

I also played AC: Mirage, which is probably the more relevant game to this story.

The game felt more like a companion to AC: Valhalla in the same way Rogue was a companion to AC3 and 4—not really a standalone title, but a tie-in. The story was short and rushed at times, the parkour was slow to me, and the combat was absolute ass. The outfits were ugly, with the starter robes being the ones I wore the whole game, and the color options also sucked until I beat the Full Synch challenge and unlocked the black robes.

I thoroughly loved the stealth mechanics, though. Crouching, rolling, stalking zones, whistling, a proper hidden blade, and gadgets galore! That being said, the Assassin Focus ability with the chain assassinations was cool in concept, but poorly executed. It should've been done more like the Fear Takedown in Arkham Knight, in that the chain can only be done in close groups, and it triggered a brief cutscene, instead of Basim teleporting up and down walls because he's "fast."

Speaking of Basim, I'm still lost on what he's supposed to be. He's being hailed as the next protagonist now that Layla is finally gone, but he spent Valhalla trying to kill Eivor and Sigurd, he's the reincarnation of the Isu Loki, and his final declaration at the end of Mirage was about how he was going to kill anyone that wanted to control him.

Not really feeling the "good guy" vibes.

Also, can't really say I'm all that excited for the upcoming game, despite you literally being a ninja in Feudal Japan.

"We removed the crossbow for historical accuracy."

-Proceeds to make the only Black guy in all of Japan at the time a playable character, and way overhypes his historical significance.

In a grand show of irony, back in November of 2023 when the last chapter was posted, FFN was having email issues. Now it's May 2024, and those same issues have come back.

Anyway. On to the story! Starting with an attention grabber.

Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or AC

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Inspired by historical events and an over-active imagination, this work of fiction was designed, developed, and produced by a single-cultural team of one religious faith and belief, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

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"I did it! No more diapers!"

Usually, an exclaim like that would be typical of a toddler finally having achieved potty training. Not a sixteen-year-old witch girl. Granted, it made sense when you appreciated that it was Lou Ellen.

Percy looked up from the journal he was writing in as his girlfriend came sprinting into the room with a water bottle in one hand, a pair of panties in the other, and a huge grin on her face. "Here, hold these!"

Percy was a bit bemused when she thrust the underwear into his hands. Just a pair of her generic red bikini cuts, nothing to get excited over, but it was still one of those things: your girlfriend just giving you her panties. While completely oblivious to how awkward that was.

"Hold them open," Lou said.

Percy did so.

"And watch!" She opened the water bottle and poured the liquid into the inside. Instead of the fabric getting soaking wet and leaking a mess everywhere, the water seemingly vanished on contact. "Ta-da! I finally got it. That rabbit-out-of-the-hat enchantment that turns an object into a time-space warper. With this, I can wear panties to bed and not have to worry about accidents. My pee will hit the spell, and go on a one-way trip to the Mariana Trench. No cooldown, either. The enchantment is permanent."

Lou Ellen beamed with pride at her accomplishment.

"Well done," Percy said. "Is the spell keyed to just liquid?"

Lou blinked. "Not…really? I mean, it's not like I poop in my sleep…"

"Not what I was getting at, but good to know. Based on my understanding of the principal of your spell, you can enchant an object to basically be a portal to distant locations."

"Yeah? But we have the Labyrinth. As long as we have floor, a wall, a ceiling, or any solid surface, really, we have a magic hallway at our beck and call."

"True, but we don't have magic on-hand storage for supplies while mission."

"So, like, magic gloves that are also storage portals?"

"More or less, yes."

"Or magic pockets, like the same enchantment I put on your minotaur horns when we were twelve?"

Percy paused. "You know? That honestly slipped my mind."

"I'll see what I can do about enchanted pockets." Lou took her panties back and walked off, though she muttered something under her breath that Percy was able to hear. "These should work with periods, too. No more tampons, pads, or waking up to a crime scene under my butt…"

Having once been a woman himself, and being the father of a couple of girls, Percy would've welcomed magic period panties back in the day.

He sat back down and picked up the journal he'd been working on before Lou had come running. They were in the Big House of Camp Half-Blood, had been for about two weeks now, though it was almost a year since the Battle of the Labyrinth. Percy's sixteenth birthday was on the horizon, along with the deadline of the Great Prophecy.

More than that, Percy was due to go on a mission later with Lou Ellen. The Princess Andromeda had been spotted approaching the East Coast.

Percy had started writing a journal not because he feared his imminent demise, but because he thought it would be something fun to do. His own codex, if you will. He had written down everything he remembered from his past lives as Faris, Virgil, Jake, Cheyenne, and Peter, and his current life as Percy. The recollections weren't perfect, of course, because very few people had perfect recollections of their entire lives, much less six of them. Most were just stories that he remembered, the main events, and very few had dates associated with them.

Not very good for a historical document, as there were hardly any supporting documents that existed to verify anything written in Percy's codex, but that wasn't the point.

It was therapeutic, writing it all down, getting it out of his system in some kind of semblance of order.

As for where he was in his codex, after working on it for almost a year in between missions, he was at the parts of the past year since meeting Piper for the first time following the Battle of the Labyrinth.

The Templars were in near-absolute chaos. Their pride following the purge at the hands of Daniel Cross, their sleeper agent in the Assassins, had made them cocky, thinking they had finally beaten their ancient enemy for good, and with this cockiness came sloppiness. While they maintained their public front as Abstergo, they weren't shy or subtle about their offices, their board members, their production facilities, etc. They made it extremely easy for what Assassins remained to gather terabytes of intel on them.

There had been tons of motivation issues over the years, many of the Assassins struggling to find a reason to keep going when the Templars finally seemed insurmountable. Rants like, "Why are we bothering with this? There's nothing we could do about it anyway! We don't have the resources or the manpower left to pull off anything meaningful!" were common, and it took leaders like William Miles to keep morale up and the soldiers in line.

In the end, it obviously paid off.

Using the Labyrinth to completely bypass all Templar security measures, the Assassins, specifically Percy's personal team of demigods from the last chapter (Bianca/Mary, Nico/Giovanni, Thalia/Evie, Robert/Arno, and Lou Ellen), repaid the Templars ten times over for the Great Purge. It was just that the Templars had grown so vast over the years without the Assassins keeping them in check that ten times the payment was barely twenty percent of the Templar top brass.

There were a lot of Templars in very high-ranking positions around the globe. Business executives, military officers, politicians, and so on. Unfortunately, in this modern era, it was no longer so easy as just sneaking up behind them and slicing their throat. There was a degree of surgical precision required today compared to centuries past, due to vast technological improvement and increased geopolitical instability.

Again, the Templars weren't totally evil. They did have standards that they upheld, and they did have a vision for a better future, and while they were working towards that vision, they did get their hands dirty the same way the Assassins did: determining who got to live and die based on their actions when weighed up against a moral and ethical standard. In some places in the world, the Templars were the only force keeping a dam of bloodshed and violence at bay, and killing them would unleash more death and chaos than leaving them alive.

Not to say that there weren't similar situations in the past, but it was more widespread today because of how big the Templars had grown.

And also a prime example of just how much worse the general world had become.

Still, the Templars had taken a huge hit in the past year, struggling and scrambling to figure out the Assassins had been able to hit them so hard and so quietly. Their leading theory was that the Assassins had gotten their hands on some new Piece of Eden, which wasn't entirely inaccurate since Percy was in possession of the Sword of Destiny, but that definitely wasn't it.

The Assassins had the most unfair advantage of all: magic.

And also money.

A neat thing about the Trials of Apollo was that in the final book, Tower of Nero, it was confirmed that demigods could control the entirety of their dreams. This was already hinted at with Sadie being able to change her ba form in her dreams from a bird with her head attached to the neck to her proper human form, and hinted at again with Reyna having been able to isolate her dream visions to the pool in the Garden of Bacchus. But it became canon that a demigod could control their whole dream, and not just control how they manifested in their dream or how they saw their dreams.

Apollo was able to direct his consciousness through the Tower while imprisoned to find where the Leontocephaline was hidden with Nero's fasces.

Obviously, this has some very serious implications when you stop and think about it. With a power like that, being able to direct your consciousness through time and space, being able to see the past, present, and future, and see behind all the closed doors and high walls, there was nothing that could ever be hidden from you unless by other magical means. This also meant that a demigod could prevent themselves from being helplessly subject to horrific nightmares through training and discipline.

One might wonder why Chiron didn't teach such a thing to his students, or if he even knew demigods could do that, which he very well should given he's been training demigods for apparently over 3500 years. It seemed an obvious thing that Chiron should teach young demigods how to control their nightmares, but when you stopped and thought about it, perhaps not.

One easy reason is perversion. Unless there was some kind of magical dream barrier up, what was to stop some horny demigod from watching someone else bathe? Or use the toilet, change their clothes, have sex, and so on. Another reason was integrity. Chiron was a schoolteacher, after all, and it would be unbecoming of him to teach his students how to cheat on their exams. One quick daydream, and a demigod could look into the future and see all the answers. A third reason was to prevent someone from pulling a Biff Tannen and placing bets on sporting events, or gambling, or playing the lottery, or basically cheating with the stock market, and getting absolutely loaded through morally questionable means.

Which was exactly what Percy and the Assassins did to raise hundreds of millions of dollars over the months, but it was okay because they were the good guys.

All that being said, there was a fourth reason, the true reason why Chiron didn't teach his students dream manipulation—or essence projection, as it has been called in other places—and that reason could be found in the Bible. Ecclesiastes 1:18, "For in much wisdom there is much grief, and he who increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow."

Yes, essence projection could be used for perverted reasons, educational reasons, and financial reasons, and it could also be used to reveal the dark secrets of the world. For example, was 9/11 really an inside job? Was COVID deliberately released in China and used as a bioweapon to rig the 2020 election, among other unscrupulous means? Just what were the CIA, FBI, NSA, DoJ, FDA, IRS—and a bunch of other alphabet people organizations—really doing that the public didn't know about? Just who really were the corrupt politicians, and what were they doing that made them so corrupt? Just which corporations really were evil, and what were they doing that made them evil?

All of this and more were available to a dreaming demigod to find out, and what they could find could be absolutely horrifying. More so than any monster.

That was why Chiron didn't teach demigods how to control their dreams. What started as a means of preventing nightmares about hellhounds and giant spiders could spiral into a true nightmare—a true nightmare because it didn't end upon waking.

But not to someone like Percy. Not to the other demigods that called themselves Assassins.

The scope of the Brotherhood went beyond the Templars, obviously, as their operations concerned the whole of mankind. Developing a mastery of essence projection, and using the Labyrinth to traverse the planet in seconds, they hit the whole planet like a rogue celestial body. In short summary, they spilled an ocean of evil and wicked blood, and filled graveyards.

It had been a very busy year for the rebounding Assassin Brotherhood as Percy directed operations across the globe.

About another hour of peace and quiet later in the Big House with Percy writing his codex, and Lou Ellen came back in.

"There's a thing going on outside."

"Oh?"

"The Ares and Apollo kids are back from the raid, and they're arguing over a chariot."

Percy calmly set his pen and codex down. "Sounds fun."

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On the walk over to the middle of the cabin area, Percy noted that the Apollo kids were lamenting that their swords, arrows, and spears were now rubber, and their shields and armor were now made of plastic. Likewise, the Ares kids were speaking in rhyming couplets.

Percy looked at Lou for an explanation as to how this was.

"One of the lesser-known things we can do is cast curses on people related to the domains of our godly parents. Apollo's the god of poetry, hence rhyming curse. Ares is the god of war, so weapons, hence weapon curse."

"Can any demigod do that? Just curse people? Or does it take a specific level of power? Or everyone gathering in a circle and chanting in unison?"

"Yes," Lou Ellen said. She giggled to herself and elaborated. "Any sufficiently powerful enough demigod can cast curses, but getting in groups can boost the effectiveness of the curse. For example, a whole cabin getting together to curse another whole cabin."

"…that is…ridiculously overpowered…depending on application."

"I'm more so," smirked the witch. "That curse power—and all demigod powers, really—are rooted in magic. Me being the daughter of the magic goddess…"

"You can cast every curse they can, undo every curse they cast, and emulate the powers of any demigod."

"Yep! Well, now I can. Took some work, and depending on just what I do, I get really drained."

Percy nodded. "Well done."

"Who said you could only be a jack of all trades but master of none?" Lou Ellen said proudly.

"Careful. Pride comes before the fall."

Lou shrugged. "True. Granted, I do have this minor condition that does occasionally keep me humble."

She drew an air circle around her crotch with a lucid smile, indicating her bedwetting.

Percy shrugged. He could see it, if only from a mean perspective. Oh, yeah? You think you're hot stuff? Well, you still pee the bed!

But, if that's what kept Lou Ellen from getting too full of herself, then so be it.

The two demigods made it to the cabins, where Clarisse was arguing with Michael Yew.

"It was my raid!" Clarisse shouted, "therefore all the spoils are property of the Ares cabin! The chariot is mine!"

"That is not how raiding parties work!" Michael shouted back. "We found it, we lugged it all the way back here, it's ours!"

Percy couldn't keep the small smirk from playing at the corners of his lips. Watching Clarisse and Michael argue, all he could think of was his own children fighting over something way back in the day. Virgil's day, that is. So, he couldn't help but take an old page from an old book.

"What if I want it?" Percy said loudly as he approached.

Clarisse and Michael paused and stared at him.

Now, from the perspective of the general Camp Half-Blood, Percy was a rather scary enigma. He rolled up one day after having fought the minotaur, was openly a Christian—a devotee of the biggest religion on the planet, one that wasn't at all shy about calling the Greek gods false idols—kicked everyone's ass during his first game of CTF, went on a quest, and then vanished for almost a year before randomly popping up during the Golden Fleece incident to rally the camp behind a class-action vote to boot Tantalus from being camp director. Then he basically vanished again, and then literally magically reappeared about six months later in time for the Hunters to grace CHB with their presence, he sucked face with their hardass lieutenant Zoë and had a seizure, then he woke up and went another quest. Then he vanished again, and only reappeared right in time for the Battle of the Labyrinth.

Then he'd been in and out of Camp Half-Blood for roughly the past year, doing some sword classes, teamwork exercises, some missions here and there, and—perhaps the most terrifying action of all—baptizing people.

Yes, Percy Jackson had begun a ministry at camp, teaching the kids about Jesus, answering their questions as best he could about how the narrative of God fit with the gods, and led many to repent of their sins, confess and accept that Jesus was their Lord and Savior, God-made-Man to be broken and sacrificed for the sins of the world, His blood shed as propitiation for sin, and that He died and rose on the third day, thereby conquering death. All culminating in baptism, the public confession of faith, the washing away of the sins of the old life by going under the water, and rising again to walk in the newness of life.

So, yes, a very terrifying person. A Christian demigod going on quests and doing other stuff, mysterious past that had never been explained, preaching the gospel and baptizing people.

Considering that he hadn't been struck down by Zeus for preaching the Word of God, that was an obvious indication that something was up with Percy.

As far as Clarisse and Michael were concerned, neither of them had ever been in a serious conversation with Percy about anything before. Clarisse had once been personally humiliated by Percy and since kept her distance, and Michael was of the "unsure of what to make about Percy" crowd, and so he also shied away from the son of Poseidon. Now he was right here in their midst, looking quite amused about their argument over the chariot.

Percy's eyes slide between the two demigods. "Well?" he prompted after so many seconds of tense silence. "What if I want the chariot for myself? What are you going to do to stop me from taking it?"

Clarisse and Michael looked at each other, decidedly unsure.

"How about this, then," Percy said. "Clarisse, without saying anything along the lines of it was our raid, why do you want the chariot?"

Clarisse's mouth set into a thin line. "I can…outfit it for use in the coming battle?"

"So can we-"

"Michael," Percy cut in sharply, silencing him. "Continue, please, Clarisse. How will you outfit the chariot?"

"Well…we can get some automaton horses from the Hephaestus kids, have them outfit those with weapons and gadgets and stuff. And we can outfit the chariot ourselves! Armored sides, spiked wheels, probably mount a turret or something in the basket…"

Percy hummed. "Michael? What would you do with the chariot?"

"Basically the same, I guess, but we're going on the defensive, right? Defending Olympus and Manhattan. My idea would be to turn the chariot into a mobile turret. We could fly it around the city with pegasi and provide ranged support wherever. Air superiority. Clarisse's idea sounds more like an offensive one, like she's going to charge the enemy lines."

Clarisse crossed her arms. "Well, yeah. What's wrong with that?"

"There will be no charging of the enemy lines unless I give the order," Percy said. Then his posture shifted, his countenance changed, and when he next spoke, there was an unyielding edge in his voice that had Clarisse, Michael, and even Lou Ellen standing straighter. "The chariot will be armored in accordance with Clarisse's vision, and outfitted for ranged combat in accordance with Michael's. I want this thing flying and capable of taking some damage. That is my final word on this matter. Am I clear?"

"Yes, sir!" Michael almost saluted.

Clarisse's response was much more subdued. "You're the boss."

"I know some enchantments," Lou Ellen offered.

Percy nodded. "Help them as you can, but do not overstrain yourself. Our mission begins at sunset."

"Don't worry. I'll be fine."

Percy nodded again and took his leave, and the other three got to work on the chariot.

Meanwhile, one Silena Beauregard watched the entire exchange from a distance, her hand covering the charm bracelet on the opposite wrist.

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"Ready?" Percy asked hours later.

Lou Ellen gave a thumbs up. "Yep. Ate. Went potty. Put on clean underwear. Brushed my teeth. Checked our inventory. Reviewed my spells. Ready to rock and roll."

Percy nodded after a few seconds of staring blankly at her. "Let's go."

They waded into the water of Long Island Sound, and with Percy's hand in Lou's, they went rocketing through the water out to the ocean. In seconds, they were in the middle of the Atlantic, literally right underneath the Princess Andromeda.

Shooting out of the water like a shark taking out a seal, Percy pulled Lou Ellen up with him and they landed upon the walkway of the cruise ship. Unlike a shark with a seal, though, they were quiet as an owl.

"Let's assume we tripped a magical alarm and move with a purpose," Percy said. "You disable the ship. I'll find Luke."

The witch girl nodded and took off down one way, and Percy went the other.

The Princess Andromeda wasn't anything special, as in she was some kind of classified vessel. She was a common cruise ship, and her schematics were available to the public, something Percy and Lou Ellen took full advantage of. They knew their way around the ship, and with Percy's experience as an Assassin combined with Eagle Vision, and Lou Ellen's training as an Assassin combined with her magic, they were able to dodge the search parties well enough.

Yes, search parties.

Percy's assumption had been correct.

He didn't concern himself with Lou Ellen, having faith in her abilities and that she was being watched over. He focused on making his way through the ship to the captain's quarters where he presumed Luke was at. He made it, used Eagle Vision to confirm the presence of a golden figure inside the room, picked the lock, and entered.

"Hello, Grandson."

Percy stared at the golden-eyed Luke dressed in a suit of black armor, a scythe held lazily at his side.

"Kronos," Percy said, slightly inclining his head. "So, Luke gave himself over to you."

"Not entirely," Kronos sighed. "I had hoped he would be more willing, but in the end, he had more reservations than he let on. It was quite the struggle to take hold of his mind and body—he developed a very strong will over the years—but I obviously prevailed. Now he is my vessel until I am powerful enough to shed this form and assume my true…er…form."

Percy cocked a brow. "Having trouble with your words there, old man?"

"Apparently so, yes," Kronos chuckled. "Anyway, let us talk business. No need to shed blood if there's no need, especially since most of the blood in question would be that of children."

"Indeed," Percy said evenly. "What is your pitch, then? Why should you be allowed to overthrow the Olympians and take control of the planet?"

"Do you want specific examples or the broad overview?" Kronos smirked.

Percy stared at him, unamused.

Kronos twirled his scythe a little. "Firstly and most simply, it's the right thing to do. Any being with any kind of sense of justice and morality can see that the Olympians need to be removed from power. Their antics with each other result in catastrophic consequences. Hurricane Katrina, for example, was caused by Poseidon because he was angry at the New Orleans Privateers for having a losing 2005 Spring season. Almost 1400 people died, and damage estimates went beyond a hundred billion.

"Another example: the Three Mile Island accident in 1979 was caused by Ares and Hephaestus having a chainsaw fight in the Unit 2 reactor because Hephaestus had some choice words to share about the bellbottom jeans Ares was wearing. Because of them, the American nuclear program was practically destroyed, which has since resulted in decades of continued fossil fuel consumption, power grid failures, gigantic environmental damage from the numerous oil spills—just to name a few things—despite nuclear being the objectively, numerically, and factually cleanest, safest, most efficient form of energy production short of turning a god into a battery.

"Those are just two examples. Their rap sheet goes back thousands of years. You want to talk about how many sins a man can commit in a single lifetime—man, think about how many sins an amoral and unethical god can commit in a few millennia. Even if the Olympians stayed completely out of mortal affairs and only had children with willing partners—many of their partners weren't, and aren't, willing—they would still be guilty of being neglectful parents. If you can convince me in any way that the Olympians do not deserve to be removed from power, so that they can no longer harm society or harm people, then I cordially invite you to try."

Percy just stared at Kronos with a blank expression.

The Titan shifted in place. "This is typically the part where you argue on behalf of your father, and argue that the Olympians can be redeemed and change their ways, and that I'm a liar and what I said about them is completely untrue…"

"Oh, good heavens, no," Percy said. "I am well aware of the innumerable faults of the false gods, and that they are indeed a humongous detriment to mankind and the planet as a whole. Just like I am well aware that their fate lies in my hands. Preserve or raze, according to the prophecy."

"…then you support my cause?" Kronos asked.

"We agree that the Olympians need to be dealt with, that's for sure. We agree that there are many systems that need to be changed and altered because of the harm they cause mankind. What I presume we will disagree upon is the methodology. So, tell me: you have done a spectacular job in presenting problems, now what are your solutions?"

"Throw the Olympians into Tartarus and keep them there as prisoners, a just fate befitting their millennia of evil. Then we will impose our will upon mankind, using our divine power to sift through the guilty and the righteous, and bring judgement upon the wicked. We will bypass the likes of Congress and the Supreme Court, and there's nothing the mortal military could do to stop us, and begin enacting changes to systems such as taxes, the economy, education, healthcare, immigration, and so on. We will completely overhaul global society as it is known. In short, we will do what mortal men cannot do in this modern age, and that is forcibly change the law and overcome any armed opposition."

"Inspiring speech. What changes do you have in mind?"

"In terms of judgement, nothing you aren't a stranger to. We'll execute those who deserve execution-"

"What merits execution?"

"Senseless murder, rape, human trafficking, domestic abuse, torture, illegal experimentation—to name a few. Not every crime will warrant death, and those found guilty of non-executable offenses will repay their debts to society as hard laborers. No reason to waste resources on incarceration when they can serve other purposes. In terms of taxes, we will review what taxes are fair and which ones are unfair, and abolish the unfair ones. For example, the inheritance tax. A tax placed on any inheritance that a person leaves behind for their family."

Percy arched a brow.

"Also the whole tax filing system as a whole," Kronos continued. "Companies like TurboTax and H&R Block spend millions every year in lobbying the American government to keep the tax system in the complicated and convoluted state that it is, that way they can happily offer their preparation services for a chunk out of the peoples' tax returns. In contrast, other countries use what's called a return-free filing system, in which their IRS fills out the forms for you, and then sends them to you for your approval."

"That sounds-"

"It works better when the people actually have trust, faith, and confidence in their government."

"Of course."

"Which we will bring back. I have no intention of becoming ruler of mankind, Percy. I only intend to restore law, order, justice, and fairness within the scope of the Constitution, and then take on the role of world police. Me and mine will monitor the planet after we've got things running smoothly again, and will only interfere in mortal affairs if it is absolutely necessary, such events being relief efforts for natural disasters, extreme cases of medicine, or when the mortal ability of investigation and law fail, and there are false convictions."

Percy stared at the possessed body of Kronos.

Kronos stared back at Percy, smiling kindly, his golden eyes softly glowing in the dim light of the captain's cabin.

"How many people have you convinced with that?" Percy asked flatly.

"Everyone on this ship."

"Wow."

"Bunch of gullible youth who want to get back at their divine parents for their neglect and also make a difference in the world."

"So you're taking advantage of children."

"Unapologetically so, yes. I didn't earn the monicker of Crooked One for my honest nature. That being said, I haven't actually lied to you yet."

"True. If anything, this conversation has been a textbook example of the difference between lies and deception."

"Glad you think so. May the best man win?"

A rush of air escaped Percy's nose as his lips quirked up. "For one, you're no man."

"And for two?"

Percy's whole posture and demeanor shifted. "You tried to kill me when I was only a few hours old."

For a few seconds, Kronos had the classic "caught red-handed" look on Luke's face, and then his expression morphed into a cruel smile. "Found that out, did you? Well, what can I say? I saw that you would be my enemy one day, so I tried to remove you. Simple tactics, really. No hard feelings."

"Just like there will be no hard feelings when I destroy you once and for all in the name of every sin you've committed."

"Good luck, boy. At the very least, you'll need better luck than what poor little Lou Ellen is having."

Just then, the whole ship was rocked by a huge explosion.

Kronos lost his balance and stumbled, his lack of coordination demonstrating that he still wasn't completely used to a physical body. Percy, on the other hand, while not expecting the ship to blow, was able to quickly regain his footing and attack. His Hidden Blade popped free of his gauntlet, and he thrust his arm forward. Imagine his surprise when the little knife snapped like a stick when the point made contact with Kronos's exposed skin.

Said surprise almost cost Percy his head.

Kronos was able to grab his scythe and swing so hard and fast that a cone of air formed around the blade as it moved. While there were a number of factors the affected the formation of an air cone, for the sake of easy mental math, we'll just say that Kronos was able to swing his scythe at approximately 335 meters per second. Just shy of the typical speed of sound.

While that was a tremendous display of how strong Kronos was in the body of Luke, what was a tremendous display of how strong Percy was, was that despite the speed of the scythe, Percy was still able to react fast enough raise his forearm, causing the scythe blade to sheer off the Nemean Lion pelt that was truly his black leather prowler coat from Cheyenne's time.

However, while the blade was redirected from taking off his head, a small sliver of red still appeared on Percy's neck from where he was barely nicked. Then the transfer of momentum kicked in, and Percy got blasted through the wall of the cabin.

He staggered to his feet, feeling very wrong. His whole body felt cold and weak, but more than that, in a way he couldn't explain with words, it felt like his soul had been cut.

"Something wrong?" Kronos taunted as he walked out of the new hole in the wall. "My scythe is special, you see. It was crafted eons ago by my mother Gaea from her own body, and I used it to cut my father Ouranos to pieces. Then it was ironically used to cut me to pieces by my son Zeus. Anyway, the point is that the blade is beyond magic, being made from a Primordial, having tasted the blood of another Primordial, and my own blood as well. As such, it doesn't just cut the body. It cuts the soul. The slightest graze guarantees death. As I'm sure you're experiencing now."

Percy called a smoke bomb from within the magic recesses of his enchanted Minotaur horns, detonated it at his feet, and rapidly stumbled his way down the hall. He was in no condition to fight, and he knew it. He needed to find Lou Ellen, and then get out of here.

As the Lord would have it, she ran into him barely seconds later.

Lou Ellen looked pale, haunted, and had the light in her eye that she felt like she'd just done something horrible but necessary, but she didn't have the time right now to dwell on it. She looked at Percy, saw the cut on his neck, and she could feel the curse sapping his soul. She grabbed him, and she dragged him over the railing and into the ocean below.

Just in time to avoid the explosion that destroyed the whole cruise ship.

Though not the shockwave that rippled through the water and knocked them both out.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

All right. Lots of things to go over here.

First, in the time it's been since I started writing this chapter and now, it appears that the email thing has once again been fixed, as I saw email notifications about new Favs, Follows, Reviews, and PMs, so hopefully people will see this new chapter and leave some more new Reviews. Hopefully there are people still here reading this story.

Second, Kronos's spiel was mostly fact. In fact, the only actual lie was that Hurricane Katrina was caused by Poseidon. The Ares/Hephaestus thing came from a side comment from Apollo in ToA, the thing about taxes is actually how it happens IRL, and the general idea about Kronos caring about mortal affairs and taking down the Olympians is a mixture of me having fun and me being serious.

Just like Rick, where he brings real world problems into his writing, I also bring real world problems into my writing. One of my big things that I've explored is power and responsibility—just what are demigods supposed to do now that they've saved the world? Find a way to be active in such things like organized crime, greedy corporations, corrupt politicians, armed conflicts like Ukraine and Israel, medical and technological advancements, etc., or wash their hands of everything, saying they've done enough for the world and they owe nothing more to it.

It's just where the real world problems Rick likes to write about is underage teenagers trying to figure out what genitals they want to play with, I like to talk about the real world problems that are arguably a little more important.

And propose the solution of literal divine intervention being the only way things will ever straighten back out, haha.

Which brings me to thirdly: guys, I'm starting to think I'm actually mentally ill. That's not really saying much if you've read enough of my work, because I obviously have a screw loose somewhere in there—most people actually think I'm high-functioning autism, which may explain a lot—but I'm actually scared of myself now. The reason for this is because I can see myself so vividly and clearly being something like the director of Percy Jackson and taking the franchise to far more serious and darker heights.

The Kronos monologue was truthfully me trying to vent some of that out of me.

Like, I see myself revamping the whole show in 2D animation with a TV-MA rating for blood, gore, strong language, sexual innuendo, and other mature themes—for adults, essentially. Fully expanding upon Luke's character with a mini series that details his years at CHB as the counselor of the Hermes cabin, and really show where his fury with the gods comes from, and show how Kronos was able to take his sense of justice and passion, and corrupt it.

I see myself writing a new story that puts Percy on the spot not just physically, but mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and psychology, and really makes him think about what it means to be a hero, and what a hero is supposed to do to make the world a better place now that he worked so hard to save it in the first place. I see a whole new conversation with Luke at the end of TLT and on the Princess Andromeda in SoM that goes similar to the one with Kronos, but much more expanded upon, and way deeper on Luke. It's a conversation that would change the whole tone of the franchise.

Further, I see myself spearheading a Jason prequel anime that starts from his days as a toddler with Thalia, goes through his time in New Rome and Camp Jupiter, fully fleshing out the city and the camp because Rick will probably never do it at this point, climaxes with the Battle of Mt. Othrys, and ends with him waking up on the bus with Piper and Leo. I see myself in charge of a Piper anime based on my own fanfiction, with me going to Tahlequah to speak with the Cherokee tribal leaders on their customs, traditions, history, culture, and folklore, and speaking with the school board of Tahlequah to ask them about the exact procedures that would go into Piper joining the student body—what would they do about her ADHD and dyslexia, would her discipline record from the Wilderness School follow her—and also interviewing the student body of the high school, the Cherokee citizens of the town, and the non-Cherokee citizens of the town, that way I could create a 100% accurate recreation of Tahlequah, and personally handcraft Shel from the information of dozens of Cherokee Americans.

And also doing HoO, ToA, KC, MC, and my personal favorite idea, "The End of Percy Jackson," which is the story of Tartarus raising a gigantic army and storming the planet alongside Nyx and Akhlys, with Akhlys having freed Loki, who is bringing in Ragnarök, and also having freed Setne, who is bringing back Apophis using a spell to summon a banished shadow, and the cacodemons from Sun and the Star actually being the sleeper agent children of Tartarus and Nyx, who Nico unwittingly brought into CHB with him because he bought Nyx's bogus story about how they're his and her children, born from his bad memories.

But it'll literally never happen.

I'm struggling to get a job as it is despite having a Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering. As if I'll ever get a job with Disney working on Percy Jackson; it would definitely not be a family friendly show, I'll tell you that much. It would have to be branded under Fox to allow the rating, first and foremost, and there's no way Rick would let me anywhere near life's work.

Not with my extremism, lol.

"What if we made Percy Jackson a dark, serious, and gritty project that delved into the mature themes of responsibility, law, morality, ethics, justice, power, the philosophy of being a hero, and just how far a hero with superpowers is allowed to go in making the world a better place before they become a villain?"

"Uh, okay, crazy person, but my Percy Jackson is about gay teenagers."

"Yeah, but we could have gay teenagers and everything I just listed."

"No."

And when I shared all of this with my best friend, he was like, "Dude, write that story yourself. Rick Riordan doesn't have a patent on the modern-day demigod training camp idea."

Not to sound too dramatic, but it was like a sign from God.

I've been running it over in my head for a while now, thinking of the characters, the plot, the setting, and how to do it in such a way that people wouldn't automatically go, "It's a Percy Jackson rip off!" OR making that something of a running gag in the series where the MC is constantly fed up, like, "Oh, my gods! Why is my life like Percy Jackson's!? I never asked for this!"

But given the ultimate flop of my published novel on the Kindle Store, and how I haven't touched the second novel I was working on based on the story Alleviate by ForFun100 referenced in Voidwalker in almost three years, I don't know if I want to go through with a third novel.

Which finally brings me to fourthly (yes, that humongous block of text was only thirdly). What do you think happened to Lou Ellen that made her look so haunted?

And finally, I finally have an idea for the Sixth Life where Percy is a Templar in WWI! I really think you guys are going to love it!

Now that all of that is out of the way, please Fav, Follow, and Review!