He awakes with a gasp, as if he had just been reborn again. Only dreams, though. Nightmares to be more specific. He swings his legs off the side of the cot, willing the sweat away from his soaked shirt. He'd only slept two or three hours at the most, he guesses.

It's the best sleep he's had in several lives.

He stares at the children for a moment. Bianca had insisted on pushing her cot against Nico's, saying it was more comfortable that way. It certainly had nothing to do with her protectiveness toward him. She'd stuck her tongue out at him when he'd said as much.

He steps out of the tent, careful to not make a sound. They'd need as much rest as they could get today, Camp Half-Blood would surely be a shock to them. He makes his way to the campfire. It roars, illuminating the forest around it in orange light- confirming that he's the only one awake at the moment. Good.

He sits in one of the many camp chairs with a heavy sigh. He'd noticed at several points last night that his hair was entirely too long. Long enough to get in his eyes, which was just a pathetic way to make a mistake in battle. He uncaps Anaklusmos, grasping several locks of hair and cutting through them with ease. It had become a sort of bi-weekly ritual for him, as his hair seems to grow abnormally fast in every life. He'd gotten quite good at it, enough so to make it look like a conscious choice and not a horrific accident.

He repeats the process again and again, staring into the fire as he lets muscle memory take over for him. He's about to cut his sides, placing the blade against his neck before a hand latches onto his.

Zoë looks at him with disgust and something dangerously close to compassion in her eyes, though they flicker occasionally to the sword in his hand. He's struck with how this must look, being up at such a late hour with a blade pressed against his neck.

"Haircut." Is all he says. Her eyes narrow, about to say something before she catches the ridiculous amount of hair scattered across the dirt. Her eye twitches, hand shooting back like he was a leper. She stomps toward a chair on the complete opposite side of the fire, muttering a variety of insults. She speaks in Latin to his surprise, perhaps her own version of courtesy. "Aures habeo, tu scis." He can't help but say as his lips twitch upwards.

She snaps her head from the fire, looking at him like a deer in headlights. "How?" She asks.

"I've traveled." He says, thinking of his excursions to California. That had been a particularly interesting revelation, one he wasn't quite sure mattered at all. He was fairly certain that the Romans had little to do with his lives, especially after having been convinced for so long that they were the missing piece of the puzzle. He'd pretended to be a Roman (though with how quickly he'd taken to Latin there was a question of how much pretending he'd had to do in the first place), joined a cohort, risen through the ranks on his own merits, even making Praetor occasionally. Each and every time he'd tried to rally support for the Greeks in the east, he'd been executed for treason. Their hatred ran deep and their punishments reflected that.

Crucifixion was truly agonizing.

"My lady was correct." Zoë says, breaking him from his thoughts. "Thou art not what was expected." Mixed in her eyes, buried deep below the loathing and frustration and similar angry feelings was a spark of curiosity. Something he'd have to watch out for.

"You've heard of me?" He asks, hoping to gain any information on what exactly he'd done in this life so far. There was also the issue of his dramatic personality shift, as being involved with the Greek world for so long was sure to create notions on how he was expected to act.

To say nothing of his vocabulary.

The hunter hums, eyes following the flames as they flicker and weave through the air. "I have heard thou are loud, thick-headed, insolent to authority and remarkably quick to anger." Her mouth twisted uncomfortably. "I have also heard… positive thing about thee." She says, looking like she'd just tasted something extremely sour. Her eyes return back to him. "Thou art making me question these descriptions- the good and the bad."

He frowns at her words. Whatever this body had been, how he'd acted and carried himself prior to now was surely dead. He couldn't pretend to be that person if he gave it his everything, it would be a mockery. "I'm trying something new." He says to her, thinking of the children.

She nods slightly, getting up and moving towards her tent. She puts one foot inside the tent before turning back to him. "Oculi tui defossis secretis pleni sunt." She steps out of sight, leaving him with her words. It was troubling to say the least; these were the consequences of not being sent back far enough.

He stares into the fire, letting the blade finish the job as he contemplates her words for some time. Hours pass, yet the sky remains dark. It confirms it's winter, he'd have to ask one of the children the exact date. With that thought, he stands and makes toward their tent. They'd have to be leaving soon and he doubts they're up.

"So he's acting weird. So what? I've known him a lot longer than you guys, he gets in moods sometimes."

He stiffens as his steps slow. Grover, Annabeth and Thalia stand outside their tent. They haven't seen him yet. He's curious, so he'll try to keep it that way.

"It just doesn't seem like a 'mood', Grover." Annabeth says as she chews her bottom lip. "He seems angry at the world, his eyes… they're scary."

"The kids don't seem very scared of him." Grover says, shuffling his hooves. It's a nice surprise, how the satyr defends him. He very much doesn't deserve it, but he appreciates the gesture all the same.

"Well, that's another thing." Annabeth sighs as she wrings her hands. "He's very protective of them. Even you can admit that kids aren't Percy's strong suit, Grover. It's… strange."

"Strange?" Thalia snorts. "It's fucking creepy is more like it. We barely got their names before he dragged them away."

He sets his jaw sharply, deciding that was enough of that and walks into their view. They all jump slightly, thinking that he'd still been sleeping. "H-hey Perce. Nice cut." Grover says as he comes to a stand before them, crossing his arms tightly.

"It got in my eyes." He says, flicking his gaze between the three of them. They're all varying levels of discomfort, worried that he'd heard them perhaps. He had, and he's fuming. But they don't need to know that yet. "We'll be leaving soon."

"R-right, better go join the hunters." Annabeth says shakily before moving past him, Thalia swiftly following behind her. Grover steps parallel to him, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"You doing alright, man?" He's once again shocked by the satyr's kindness, wondering what this body had gone through with him to have gained such loyalty.

"I'm fine, Grover." He says softly, not wanting to punish Grover for being polite. Grover nods, smiling slightly. He smacks him softly on the shoulder before walking toward the center of the camp. "Grover." He calls out, not entirely sure why but following his instincts. Grover turns back to him. "You are… a good friend." Truthfully, he's not entirely certain about that. It couldn't hurt to play nice though, especially as Grover had been good to him since he'd woken up.

Grover smiles widely, his eyes brightening. "So are you, Perce." He says happily, walking away with a spring in his step that hadn't been there before.

He shakes his head, wondering what had possessed him to say that. Grover was just so trusting of him and it seemed cruel to not reward that with a little trust of his own. Although…

When has ever had any trouble being cruel?

He sighs lightly, stepping into the tent. The children are still sleeping as he expected. Sometime during the night they had become entangled in another, Nico's head rested on Bianca's chest while her own rested on one of the boy's arms. It was nice. More than nice, really, he just had no other words to describe it. Only the desperate want of feeling this again.

He kneels beside their combined cot, unsurely placing a hand on Bianca's arm. He shakes her gently, surprised when her eyes snap open immediately. "Good morning." He says, his lips curling upwards as she grunts a response to him that he can't make out. "Wake your brother. We'll be leaving soon."

Bianca groans before violently throwing Nico off of her causing the boy to yelp as he lands face first onto his pillow. Nico responds by taking said pillow and smacking his sister on the back of the head. Bianca growls, then wraps the blanket around Nico's head. In a few short seconds, they've gone from totally asleep to at each other's throats. A laugh bubbles from his throat. It's rough, like stones clashing together. It doesn't even sound human and it's so embarrassingly depressing that he shuts his mouth as quickly as he opened it.

To his displeasure, the children had already heard it and were now staring at him in a sort of wonder at how a human being could ever produce a noise like that. But they're so fucking good that they simply start to laugh with him and its not long until he's ducking under pillows aimed at his head.

It's serenity encapsulated in its fullest, to him anyway. These children have brought emotions out of him that he'd thought had been drawn and quartered centuries ago. A crooked, unsure smile is permanently painted across his face as he indulges them, even as Nico keeps hitting his head just a bit too hard.

For the very first time in any of his lives, Kronos is the furthest thing from his mind.

They stand along the very edge of the forest, the cliff a good fifteen feet away from them. The hunters are irritable, glaring at Grover, Nico and himself more than they were last night. He doesn't think Nico's even noticed, the boy's been babbling to him for several minutes about every single thing that pops into his mind. Bianca certainly has though, shooting nasty looks back at every girl who meets her gaze.

"Have you ever seen a penguin?" How did they get to penguins? He'd just asked if cyclops' had peripheral vision (though in many more words than that and not using the words 'peripheral' or 'vision' at all) and now they were on penguins.

"I have." He says, thinking of a trip to the Bronx Zoo that could've been fifty or five-hundred years ago at this point.

"Wow! Hey, I think I read somewhere that when they meet a penguin they really like, they stay with them until they die. Like they're married! Is that true?" At least there was a correlation from this question and the last one.

"Yes, I do believe I've heard that before." Every answer he gave to Nico, the boy seemed to accept with absolute certainty. It was a staggering amount of innocence and trust, like he couldn't even fathom the possibility of being lied to. Not by him at least.

"How come people don't do that? Stay in love like penguins?" They were broaching philosophy now?

"Because people are not penguins." He says. "And they are fickle with love in a way that penguins are not."

"Have you ever been in love?" Bianca says to his surprise. He'd no idea she'd been listening to them.

"No." He says quietly. There'd been a few times where he'd thought there might've been something. The possibility of more if he ever lived.

He never got to finish what he'd started.

"Why?" Bianca says softly, though her eyes seem to anticipate his answer.

"I've never had the time."

She smiles sadly, leaning her head on his shoulder. "Couldn't you find the time?" She asks. "You found time for us."

"I did not set out to." He says as his lips twitch upwards. "You forced my hand and left me little choice."

Bianca giggles, sending vibrations through his skin. "Yeah, right. I don't think anybody could force you to do anything you don't wanna do. Face it, you need us just as much as we need you."

He's silent for a moment. "You're quite perceptive." Is all he says. To affirm her, to speak it out loud, would be too much for him at the moment. These children seem to have a special power of bringing him to tears and he'll be damned if that happens right now.

Bianca hums, seeming to understand his unsaid words. "Don't worry, dad. I'll find you a nice girlfriend." She whispers in his ear. He can hear the bright smile through her voice "What about the lieutenant, Zoë? She's pretty."

His eyes widen to the size of dinner plates. Before he can even open his mouth to give a firm 'no', the sun fell out of the sky.

A red sports car appears on the cliff, flames in the path of its tires. His mind briefly flashes to an image of an old car disappearing into white light, similar flames trailing behind it. A movie, perhaps? How long had it been since he'd seen a movie?

His musings are broken when Apollo exits the car. Ah, so that explained how they were getting back to camp and why the hunters were more on edge than usual. The Sun God swaggers in front of the car, shouting out a flirtatious greeting that makes the hunters violently groan. Artemis flashes behind him and promptly smacks him on the back of the head with her bow. The siblings dissolve into an argument that, knowing them, would take several minutes to resolve.

He studies Apollo for a moment. Bronze skin, golden hair and sky-blue eyes makes him the splitting image of how he imagines a younger Zeus. Apollo might be one of his favorite Gods, purely based on how predictable he was. There was no lying to him, which could be a problem in some situations, but with a bit of creativity and cunning it was like the God had a teleprompter attached to his brain.

"Dad?" Nico tugs on his sleeve, his dark eyes wide with excitement and a touch of fear. "Who's that?"

"Apollo." He says. "Do not be concerned. His temperament is almost always agreeable." The Sun God never seemed to have any plans or ulterior motives, always distracted by material pleasures and matters of the flesh. To be honest, he preferred Apollo's type of useless God to that of Zeus.

"Yeah." Bianca said almost dreamily. "He looks real agreeable."

A sudden and inexplicable flash of rage surged through him, his mind quickly running through the logistics of throwing Bianca in a very comfortable and very locked room with an unlimited supply of food and water. Deciding that idea was probably a bad course of action, he settled for grabbing her hand, tightly lacing her fingers with his own.

"I- I didn't say that out loud, did I?" Bianca said, an embarrassed lilt in her voice.

"You did." He said tightly. Apollo was useless without his bow, and ichor was still blood. It might take a considerable effort to subdue him, especially in this body, but one precise strike…

"It's not my fault!" Bianca whined as she squirmed in his grip. "Just look at him!"

"I will blindfold you if need be." Her eyes widened as she could tell he was seriously considering it, among other murderous things.

"Did I ever say how good your haircut looks? I really love it." She said desperately as she batted her eyelashes at him. "I think the hunters noticed too. You're a real looker, dad." It was adorable, unbearably so, and it might've worked if the biggest slut in Olympus besides Zeus wasn't in front of him.

"Nice try." He said, maintaining his grip on her.

He had to force himself not to tighten it as Apollo walked over to them. "Demigods! How's it going?" He flashed a blinding smile as his eyes turned to Thalia. "Little sister! Looking good!"

Thalia's face flushed a deep red as she bowed. "L- Lord Apollo." Her voice was higher than he'd ever heard it before. He squeezed Bianca's hand tighter.

Apollo's eyes flickered over to him. "Percy Jackson! Good to finally meet you, man!" The God stuck his hand out towards him, shocking him for a moment.

Shaking his hand, he dipped his head. "Apollo." He's not sure a God has ever shook his hand before, Apollo gaining a modicum of respect for the gesture.

"You're making waves up on Olympus. Get it? Waves?" The God chuckled to himself. "And who're these guys?" Apollo turned his gaze to the children and he once again began to contemplate how quickly he could kill him.

"New demigods." He said quickly to keep Apollo's eyes on himself. "We'll be taking them to camp."

"Of course! Camp!" The god snapped his fingers, fishing car keys out of his pocket and pressing a bright red button. In a flash, the sports car was replaced by a yellow school bus. "All right everybody, get on!"

He nudges the children toward the bus, knocking them out of their silent wonder. He catches Artemis conversing quietly with Zoë. The lieutenant looks worried, but nods resolutely. Artemis meets his eyes, says something to Zoë, then vanishes into the forest.

Something to keep an eye on, he thinks to himself as he follows the children onto the bus. They slide into a middle seat, the children sandwiching him between them. Apollo stands at the entrance of the bus, grinning broadly at them. "So, who's gonna drive?" His eyes trail across the bus before locking onto Thalia. "Thalia! Get up here, girl!"

Thalia's face goes white as she stands shakily. "Lord Apollo, I don't think that's a good idea." She says quietly, her hands trembling at her sides. Her fear of heights was such a lovely thing to exploit when the opportunity arose. The irony was just too perfect.

Apollo only smiles wider. "Nonsense! C'mon, I'll show you the ropes. It's just like a car, I'm sure you'll be great at it!"

They careen through the sky in the general direction of camp, the children latching onto him so tightly that a rib might break. Nico yelps as they hit a particularly rough patch of turbulence. The boy turns up to him, screaming over the various terrified voices of hunters and demigods alike. "Isn't she a daughter of Zeus?"

"Yes." He says loudly in response.

"Then why is she so bad at flying?!"

He laughs harder than he has in a millenia.