Note: This is a sequel! If you'd like to check out the previous stories, please look up 'It's the Mindset'. Thank you.

xXx

Percy doubted many people could say they'd been on a bus with a Fury at least three times before and lived. He recalled his previous trip to the museum from his former life, then the awful accident at the beginning of his first quest, and now. Really, it was such a shame Alecto hated demigods so much or they'd practically be friends. Although, even as an immortal in the future, she hadn't liked him. Then again, she didn't seem to like anyone who wasn't completely associated with the underworld (his small tie to Tartarus apparently didn't count—not that he really wanted it to).

"Will you stop that?" Nancy Bobofit snapped at him, pointing to where he was drumming his fingers nervously against his leg. He sat squeezed against the window, trying to take up as little space as possible to keep a low profile. Apparently, that wasn't working.

"ADHD," he muttered back.

"Yeah, well, find some other thing to do about it because you're freaking me out."

She could have said it nicer, but that was a fair request. As a twelve-year-old the first time around, he probably would have just snapped back at her and gotten them into a fight. This time around, he switched to tapping his foot and folded his arms. His assigned partner rolled her eyes and turned around to keep talking with her friends behind them.

Percy took the opportunity to peek over the seats at the bus driver. The (barely) disguised fury's red eyes glinted off of the mirror right back at him.

Son of a satyr.

He felt his lips tighten, thankful she probably couldn't see it due to the seat in front of him, and sat back. Yeah, she was definitely there for him. Which probably meant the helm had been stolen along with the bolt again. He'd kind of hoped none of the symbols would go missing, but it was nice to know that Kronos was going through with his original plan. Although Luke… It could have been someone else, he supposed, but was he really that lucky?

Either way, it looked like he'd be going on a quest this summer… probably to the Underworld.

Joy.

If Luke did steal that bolt, he wasn't going to survive long enough to make it to Kronos. Percy wouldn't let him destroy everything again.

But that was all for later. Right now, he had to figure out how he'd survive the current trip. Not that he didn't have the control or power to take on Mrs. Dodds, even if she didn't underestimate him like she had the first time, but he couldn't underestimate her either. She was a Fury, and they had a reputation for a reason. She was not a weak monster, and he couldn't think of her that way. Especially not now when he was mortal again (and would like to stay that way).

If he could talk her down instead of fighting, it would probably be better for everyone. He just had to convince her of that.

Taking a deep breath, he let it out slowly and forced himself to calm down. He could do this. One way or another.

The museum trip went pretty well for the first part, even if Mrs. Dodds joined them. She stayed at the back of the group, following them the entire time. Wasn't she supposed to stay with the bus? Or had she twisted The Mist for that?

Well, two could play that game.

Bracing himself, Percy reached out to The Mist around them and twisted it. Mr. Guerrero—the Language Arts teacher (he wasn't anywhere near as good as Paul)—suddenly paused from where he stood at the front of the group and frowned.

"Mrs. Dodds," he called out.

Percy watched the old woman's eyes narrow and shoot over to him for the barest moment. "Yes?"

"Shouldn't you be waiting with the bus?"

She smiled (it was all teeth) and waved her hand. Percy felt The Mist twirl. Well, that confirmed that. "Oh, it's fine. It's completely locked up. I can do whatever I want with the time it's not in use."

"Ah," the teacher nodded and turned around. "Very well then. In here, we have the Egyptian artifacts," he turned into the room they'd been approaching. Percy sighed. It probably wouldn't be a good idea to get into a mist fight with a Fury. Looked like he'd have to do it the old fashioned way.

As they walked through the Egyptian room, he noticed several pieces that had subtle magic attached to them and smirked. No doubt the Nomes had an eye on all of these. He wondered if a magician worked in the museum. Probably.

Then, of course, they moved onto the Greco-Roman section.

The comparison to the first time he'd been there couldn't have been more different. The first time around, it had been a boring trip with a few odd, if interesting pieces. Now… everything spoke to him. Some more than others—mainly the weapons—but also the statues and pottery… even the replicas. Each piece had such history to it. And he could read it all. Prayers, wishes, epitaphs, poems. It almost felt like he'd stepped into another world.

It was amazing. He may have to visit more museums after this.

Percy didn't hear a thing the teacher said as they moved through the room, unable to take his eyes off of the displays.

And then they got to the Roman art. That jarred him. He hadn't been expecting such a sudden change, but he did remember Mr. Guerrero saying it was Greco-Roman, not just Greek. The fact that he could tell so easily—that he could practically hear the history with the Roman works too—surprised him.

He frowned, stopping in front of a statue of Neptune. He'd met his father's other self a couple of times, but Neptune always seemed so… tired to Percy. Tired and annoyed and done with the world. The former god much preferred Poseidon most of the time. Poseidon had a fascination with the world, an adventurous spirit that always added a sense of excitement to anything he did. Even in his calmest moments, there was an intensity there that Percy found inspiring, if extremely frustrating at times. Neptune lacked that. Although if something needed to get done, it was usually easier to go to Neptune. Or at least more profitable. He was still very industrious. It was a Roman thing, apparently.

And this statue had been dedicated to him. He could tell. It reeked of the water's claim. Not the sea, necessarily, just water in general. Huh. That hadn't been exactly usual in Rome. He was glad to see it had happened. He may not like Neptune as much, but that didn't mean he wanted to see that side of his father forgotten.

A sudden hand on his shoulder made him jump and shriek and he almost attacked his teacher, who backed away with his hands in the air.

"Percy," Mr. Guerrero said sternly, his mustache twitching like a fuzzy, black caterpillar as he spoke. "I'm glad you like the artwork here, but we are moving on. We have a lot to see today. And we need to stay together."

Percy blinked at his teacher as if seeing him for the first time.

"Right. Yeah, sorry," he said.

"Troublemaker," said a sickly-sweet voice behind him. He stiffened and looked around. It was just him, Mr. Guerrero, and Mrs. Dodds. The rest of the class was with the other escort—Mrs. Turner, the history teacher of course—on the other side of the room.

Percy grit his teeth and clenched his fist, willing The Mist to bend the way he wanted. Thankfully, Mr. Guerrero frowned at the monster in disguise. "Mrs. Dodds, I do not appreciate that kind of language towards our students. Consider this your only warning. If I hear more from you, we will ask for a different driver, even if we have to wait for one. Am I clear?"

The time-traveler grinned as he practically heard the Fury grind her teeth. "Perfectly."

"Good."

That was one thing Percy liked about The Mist. It didn't actually change people's minds, but it could poke their moral center if manipulated just right. Nothing that wasn't already there, just a nudge in the right direction. He very carefully didn't look at the Fury behind him as Mr. Guerrero began to lead them back to the class. None of them had seemed to notice or care that Percy was gone, which was fine if annoying. Wasn't Nancy supposed to be his partner for that very reason?

Before they got there, though, a taloned arm reached out and grabbed him. The Mist swirled. "Oh, you need to go to the restroom?" Mrs. Dodds asked, "I'll accompany you."

Percy considered bending The Mist again so the others would, you know, remember he was there but ultimately decided against it. She wanted their confrontation now? Fine. Bring it.

He didn't fight as they stomped back to the other side of the room. Other patrons suddenly seemed to remember something they needed to do and quickly hurried out. More mist manipulation. Percy reached back in his backpack and pulled out a water bottle. With a thought, the bottle cap exploded off, the water already forming into the shape of a sword floating in the air. Not a long one, but it would be good enough.

He really needed Riptide. Why hadn't Chiron given it to him last year? Maybe he was waiting for a quest? Well, Percy would ask when he got back to camp. Until then…

Noticing his sudden armed status, Mrs. Dodds leaped away from him spryly. Smart lady. They began to circle each other as her human disguise melted off, revealing leather wings and those burning eyes.

"Where is it?" she hissed at him through sharp teeth.

"Where is what?" he asked, though inside he was cursing up a storm. Confirmation that the Helm had been stolen. Yippee.

He really hoped, for Luke's sake (and Annabeth's) that the older boy hadn't been the culprit.

"Tell me now and I'll kill you quickly," she said. "I won't offer to be so kind again."

Right. She seemed about as ready to talk as she had the first time around. Go figure.

Fortunately, he had an idea. "I swear on the Styx that I did not take whatever you're referring to, nor am I knowingly in league with the actual culprit." Outside, thunder rumbled.

The Fury was not expecting that. She actually froze, staring with large eyes at Percy for several seconds. He didn't say anything, and after a moment, she scowled again. It looked particularly awful on her wrinkled face.

"Did you go to or near the Empire State Building at any time in the month of December or January?"

Inwardly, he cheered. His choice to not go near downtown New York paid off. "No. I swear it on the Styx."

She deflated as more thunder rumbled, and took on her human guise again. "I should kill you anyway," she muttered.

Percy shot her an unimpressed look. "I'm sure my father would be very displeased at the blatant injustice."

"Your father has no love for justice," she hissed back.

"He's not a god of justice," Percy corrected. "That doesn't mean he has no care for it. Especially recently."

Alecto's eyes still burned, and if looks could kill, he'd be a pile of ashes. Good thing they couldn't… at least not hers.

Deciding to throw her a bone, Percy sighed. "What was actually stolen?"

"None of your business!"

"Well I can't keep an eye out for it if I don't know what it is."

She grit her teeth again. "Impertinent!"

He threw his hands in the air, sword and all. "How is that impertinent?! I was literally offering to help, if not go out of my way to do it!"

"Disrespectful brat!"

Percy rolled his eyes and shook his head. "You and I have very different definitions of the word 'disrespectful'. Now, if you're not going to tell me, I'm going back to my class. Follow me or not, I don't care. But if you do attack me, I will send you back to the Underworld the fast way."

She hissed again, but made no threatening advances. Percy took that as a concession and turned to leave. Thankfully, she wasn't stupid enough to try and attack him when he was still armed and not guilty.

"Also, no more mist manipulation," he called over his shoulder. "Or I will retaliate. Maybe you'll win in a magic contest, but I'll make you earn it."

He got back to his class with his water bottle refilled. He'd melted his ice-sword, as he really didn't have an excuse for that and didn't want to expend energy to hide it or leave it to The Mist. With his luck, it would end up putting him in jail anyway. Casually, he re-inserted himself with the group. Alecto never showed up again. When the time came to go back to school, they had a different bus driver and no one noticed, of course.

Even though Percy had to sit by Nancy again on the way back, and she was as awful as ever, he counted the entire outing as a success. Probably one of his best field trips to date. He'd avoided a fight and established his innocence while avoiding killing the Lord of the Dead's right-hand monster. Maybe now Hades wouldn't utterly hate him when he showed up in the Underworld this summer?

Yeah, he wasn't stupid enough to count on that.

xXx

Okay, there straightforward, and then there was ridiculous. Now was definitely the latter. Of course, were Percy the original twelve-year-old from the first timeline, this would probably be terrifying, but… he wasn't. So ridiculous it was.

He folded his arms as his classmates surged in chaos around him, trying to get away from the monsters breaking through the school's perimeter fence while he was in PE (why was it always PE?). His class had gone outside to do some running when the monsters broke through the chain-link fence, yelling and screaming for him. By name.

He sighed. There was no way he'd be coming back to Yancy now. Although… was that a bad thing? He didn't think so. He could try to magic up something with the Mist to keep him there but he'd be staying at home with his mother next year too. He wouldn't mind staying at that one until Goode. And he'd be staying there too, if he could.

Shrugging and figuring he'd deal with whatever happened later when he came to it, he let The Mist do what it would and drew water from the nearby fountain. While everyone else panicked and surged back into the school, he stalked forward with a sharp (literally) grin.

"Hey! You looking for me?"

The group of twelve or so monsters—a couple of cyclopes, some lycanthropes, some cynocephali—all zeroed in on him. Good. That meant no one else would become collateral damage. Which meant he could go all out, in terms of fighting if not power. The fight shouldn't be too hard, even in his younger body. Especially with a water source nearby.

His grin sharpened even more. Within seconds, he had his ice-sword in hand and was charging forward with a yell. The monsters obviously weren't expecting a twelve-year-old to do that and hesitated. That was their mistake.

He'd decapitated one cyclops and two cynocephali before they all managed to get their bearings and jump at him. He was able to dodge underneath some of the diving monsters, leaving several to knock into each other behind him, scowling and yelling curses. So not the most intelligent of monsters. Good to know.

He directed the water from the fountain to spear a couple on the other side of the pack from him while he jammed his sword down into the back of the lycanthrope struggling to get to his feet. One of the other lycanthropes was either lucky or a little smarter, and managed to jump at him as he swung, missing the blow and swiping at the demigod's head. Percy noticed and managed to move at the last moment. The claws raked along his shoulder instead of his face as he tried to duck out of the way, hissing in pain. It wasn't the worst pain he'd ever felt by a long shot, but it still hurt. He didn't let it affect his fighting and kept his sword swinging.

The scent of blood just made the dog-related monsters go nuts, their jaws salivating as Percy continued to fight. They scrambled at him with claws, backed up by cyclopes with hands the size of ceiling fans while he slashed and swung his sword, making sure to keep part of his mind on the van-sized, floating mass of water he was using to corral them on the other side.

One cyclops managed to get behind him, slamming his fist into Percy's ribs. He gasped, but it didn't feel like anything broke, and he still managed to spear the monster through with a water spike, even as he flew through the air. The cyclops poofed into dust as Percy forced himself to his feet. He brought his sword up just as another cynocephalus managed to get his head around Percy's shin, almost snapping his bone in half as his jaws slammed closed. Percy cried out in pain, but stabbed the thing through its head before it could let go. He left the resulting sulfur dust and turned to the remaining monsters. He'd have a harder time getting them due to his leg, but he could treat that later, so he forced himself to push through the pain. Again.

It still wasn't the most difficult fight he'd ever been in.

He and the monsters clashed again, him blocking more swipes and bites, but surprising them all with a smaller ice-blade in his left hand that he'd solidified behind his back. He swiped it across necks and into the bases of their heads.

"Tell the Titan King 'Nice Try'," Percy hissed at the final monster—a cyclops—before driving his sword through the large chest. The body crumbled into yellow dust and blew away on the slight breeze.

As it often did after a fight, silence fell and Percy stood there breathing heavily, weight on one leg and bleeding from several cuts and bites, but victorious. He'd had to work for it, but he'd won.

After a moment, he looked around and saw only the empty courtyard. A couple of people watched from the doorways or windows, but other than him, it was empty. Good.

Tiredly, he willed the water back in the fountain, walked over, and plopped down into it, splashing water all over his wounds. Now, being a school fountain, it wasn't the cleanest thing, but much like the Mississippi river way back on his first quest (that he'd likely be going on again later this year, yay), it was water, which meant it was enough to help him heal. It wasn't ambrosia, but his wounds began closing up almost immediately and his hurt leg (that was probably a hairline fracture, joy) began to ease too, as did his aching ribs.

By the time the cops showed up a couple of minutes later, most of his wounds were fully healed. His leg still ached, as did his chest, but otherwise, his cuts and bruises were gone. He had to twist The Mist so the officers didn't see his ruined clothes and ask uncomfortable questions, but he was still rushed to the hospital, where he was given a clean bill of health except for his leg and ribs. They kept asking him how he got out of that without so much as a scrape. He just shrugged and told them once the guys realized he was willing to fight back, they ran like the cowards they were. The cops didn't seem to really buy it, but they also didn't push it, so he counted it as a win. They'd probably see just what he said on the school cameras later anyway. The Mist was usually consistent in cases like that.

Usually.

Of course his mother was called too. It took her two hours to get to the hospital, and by the time she did get there, he was more or less finished. She hugged him and asked him if he was alright and hovered…. He didn't mind in the slightest.

Naturally, that whole thing would happen a month away from the end of the school year. She almost took him home right then and there, but he wanted to finish at least. Yancy agreed, but also asked him not to return, 'for his own safety'.

Percy just rolled with it. He really didn't care. Although the new respect (and unfortunately, fear) from the students and faculty members was… interesting. He hated it mostly, he'd never been one for attention, but he had to admit it was useful.

When the school year finally ended, his mom wanted to come and pick him up, but he insisted he was fine and he'd just take the bus home. It took a fair amount of convincing, but Percy really was curious as to what Kronos or the Fates might throw his way and didn't want his mother involved more than she had to be. He also had a sneaking suspicion something would happen on his way back no matter what, so he eventually managed to convince her, and the last day of school had him getting onto the bus with his luggage.

At the first transfer, he managed to get all of his stuff and started weaving around the crowds, trying not to run into too many people. It was just a bus stop, but more crowded for some reason than he thought it should be. His paranoia didn't help his clumsiness either.

After running into no less than five people, the last one being a girl about his age who shot him a strange look, he managed to get his luggage loaded and was about to get onto the bus when he heard his name called.

"Percy! Percy Jackson! Thank the gods."

Grabbing his water bottle, he looked back, ready to destroy whatever monster he found. Instead, he saw a familiar face with a scraggly beard under brown, curly hair dragging someone through the crowd.

No, dragging two someones…

The Fates were laughing at him. Again.

Because that was Grover Underwood. And while Percy was thrilled to see his best friend there, it also made him freeze because Grover was leading two very familiar, dark-haired children through the crowd.

Bianca and Nico Di Angelo.

What.

xXx

AN: Alright, so officially book 2. I'm calling the entire series 'The Once and Future God', you know, after King Arthur lore and the Once and Future King? Yeah. Enjoy.

Also, I have a patron (with an e) now, for anyone who would like to support (there are free tiers). Since I'm going to be putting out my own original book after I get it back from the editor, I will be announcing it there and on Discord. I can't link anything from here due to the site's rules, and I do want to follow those. You can find more information on my discord under 'announcements'. :) I will be selling digital and physical copies of the book eventually, but digital first.

A special thanks to my beta readers, discord helpers, and tier 3 readers: Berix, The Shadow Slayer, Asterius Daemon, Quathis, Harlequin, Speedster, Snow, Starlightluv, Squirps and The Chronomancer! Also, all of my discord peeps and my readers here! Thank you!

Discord: www. discord. gg/xDDz3gqWfy (no spaces)