Fuck off PETA, this one's not for you.

"I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it."

Maya Angelou

Enter, Pressured By A Bruised Ego (A Lesson On Humility)

2 October 2010, Gifford Pinchot National Forest, Washington, USA

1 month and 15 Days Since Percy's Death

NIGHT WAS WATCHING

She was always watching in some way or the other, but this was one of the few times you could say she was watching.

You could tell with the ominous chill in the late autumn air or see it in the shadows that shifted and warped upon each other on the oak trees and hillocks.

Or in that subtle sinking feeling on your neck telling you not to look backward.

And if that wasn't enough?

The enlightened eye would need only look upwards to the faint star-traced constellation in the bare cloudless sky, of the winged woman swirling a dainty star-studded chalice in muted anticipation for the coming brawl.

Nyx's all-seeing gaze bore down on the top of Percy's snowy-white scalp with a laser-like focus, her energy blanketing the forested glade like a death shroud and directing the rest of her challenge his way.

He exhaled, his breath thick and misty in the chill, and sang to himself, "~ She'll only come out at night, the lean and hungry type. Nothing is new. I've seen her here before ~"

The son of Poseidon wasn't all too bothered by it if he was being honest. Not even the sight of the goddess so close yet so far paralyzed him as much as it once had. A boast he could accredit to the ruthless basketcase he called 'Teacher'.

Getting kicked off the top of a mountain with nothing but a sled and your tightie whities would do wonders for coming to terms with your mortality.

He pocketed a half-finished bar of Cadbury – his 3rd? 4th? 50th bar? He'd lost track. – as he stretched and rested his back on the trunk of his perch, the small creaks of his spine getting lost in the score of cricket chirps and shuffling leaves as he uncapped Riptide along with Kymopoleia's whetstone and began to sharpen her.

"~ Watching and waiting. Ooh, she's sitting with you, but her eyes are on the door ~" He continued, his mind filling out the melody for him even as his enemy's footfalls sounded out in the distance...and the other clown got brave.

Percy placed the whetstone in his pack, satisfied with Riptide's sharpness, and shifted his position to the center of the branch.

His gaze drifted down to what had been his 'home' for the past few weeks or so. An insignificant cropping of foliage and boulders he'd spilled blood, sweat, and tears onto for the past month of training he'd endured...an irrational ache formed in his chest at the sight of the burnt-out campfire.

Avery had already packed up and left a few days ago, justifying his exit with Percy needing to finish this test alone.

Asshole.

The bastard could've at least left the marshmallows.

"~ So many have paid to see. What you think you're getting for free. The woman is wild. A she-cat tamed by the purr of a Jaguar ~"

A faint rustle on the tree leaves behind him got dulled by a mighty roar a few yards out. The frantic wing beats of roused birds and scampering of other local wildlife followed the disturbance almost immediately, the animals baser instincts warning even the most stubborn creatures that some shit was about to go down.

Percy yawned.

His hands fussed over an appropriate set of loops and knots for a weighty cord of blood-soaked rope even as his senses remained spread around the edges of his little enclave, a pesky little trick he'd cooked up in the past month for traps and surveillance, but more on that later.

"~ Money's the matter. If you're in it for love, You ain't gonna get too far ~"

A low growl.

So hushed that Percy would have lost it to the winds had he not been anticipating it.

She was getting impatient.

The scent of blood and his apparent vulnerability were all too tempting for her to ignore any longer.

Percy held back a smile.

Hook, line, and sinker.

"~Oh-oh, here she comes. Watch out, boy, she'll chew you up. Oh-oh, here she comes. She's a maaaan-eat-"

The beast leaped at Percy's exposed back with its claws and fangs poised for his dainty neck, the force of the sudden leap shattering the tree branch and kicking out a spatter of shrapnel. As if practiced, Percy leaned backward on the branch and fell 20 meters off the ground.

The boy righted his body in the air parallel to the ground and latched onto the tail of the beast with both his hands, stifling a chuckle at the way its body clenched on itself with the act as he windmilled the both of them in the air till he was on top.

As the ground got closer, Percy planted his booted feet on the lioness's neck, a chilling snap following and sounding out through the forest. An ethereal ray of silver light shone down upon the broken corpse of the lioness like a beacon, confirming the kill, a trail of blood already leaking out the side of the beast's mouth.

"It's almost cathartic..." Gaia whispered in his head, her voice holding just a touch of pity.

Percy hummed in approval. He'd spent the better part of six hours now waiting for the shameless camper to make a move at this point, yet the exchange had taken six seconds.

Well, it would've been dumb to expect any different.

Percy didn't have much of a scent anymore, monsters, animals, nature spirits – even satyrs – had trouble tracking him now unless his blood was out, or they were given special intel on his exact location from someone who had it out for him – Hi Nyx!.

The only reason this 'poor, unfortunate soul' had gotten so close to him in the first place, was because he'd been bored out of his mind. He'd come across the rest of the beast pack a while ago on the 28th of September – the actual day of his test – a pride of 8 lionesses and an alpha.

Percy had spent a fair bit of time picking the group apart for the past 6 days, deciding to finish things up tonight. When the New Moon plummeted clarity down the most.

The creature was intelligent. If a bit arrogant. It'd probably got uppity with the arrival of so much of its pride and decided to get first dibs on the pie.

Percy snorted, "...fat lot of good that did her."

His senses pinged just before a furious roar boomed through the clearing like a jet engine. The rest of the corpse's entourage had arrived.

Percy half-turned to the source, a dangerous grin splitting his face as he eyed his opponents, his fists tightening at the sight of the Nemean Lion and four of its mates glaring down at him from on high.

Y*C*O*Y*W

It was bigger than he remembered.

The beast was a more majestic-looking specimen now, surrounded by its mates and bolstered by the blessing of Nyx, compared to the furry clown that'd choked on space food and silver arrows against him and his friends years ago.

The lion was the size of a semi-truck and about half as wide. Its gold fur and silver claws gleamed dully in the dim light, with its amber eyes hard enough to cut diamonds as it glared at the corpse Percy was still standing on.

"Are you with me?" Percy asked quietly.

"Do you even need to ask Perseus?"

He smiled as he shifted into a crouched stance, his mind already whipped into action and his hand drifting to his pocket as the head lion barked an order to the remaining lionesses.

Something cruel and menacing like Save me his throat. Or Dump his sorry corpse in Jersey.

The lionesses took up the call, their back muscles stretched taut as they scaled down the hill and raced through the rough terrain. The Nemean Lion stayed back in favor of studying Percy's tactics...

It would regret that. (DOR: Ha ha...foreshadowing.)

Two lionesses came for his front, one leaping high and the other going low, while the remaining two split the formation in opposite directions and aimed for his unprotected flanks.

It happened in a second.

Percy tossed an object right down the gullet of the lioness coming for his face and ducked below it, a smile splitting his features as the beast gagged and began to foam at the mouth a ways away from him.

His fist came down like a hammer on the head of the one aiming for his groin, immobilizing it for a bit, as he kicked the corpse beneath him and bowled over the other two in one fluid move.

His senses rang in his head like a school bell. He'd missed one.

A lioness had managed to leap over the corpse and had its claws and jaws bared to tear a chunk off of him. He wouldn't be able to defend himself and keep the lioness trapped below him...alone that was.

"Brace yourself. The right side of your back. We're using the density of Chromium." Gaia warned calmly.

"You're the best Loli Grandma."

"Stop calling me that!"

Every-dam-time.

Percy winced at the feeling of most of the blood in his body converging on one singular point, but the euphoria he received at the ear-splitting screech of his enemy's jaws shattering on his body more than made up the deficit.

Hardening was one of the more advanced tricks he'd been able to manage with his blood manipulation in the time past.

In the tenth of a second, and with an even smaller window of success, he had the power to momentarily gather and harden the blood in his body. The smaller the area the higher the window for accuracy.

It was worse than a chest wax to perform it on just that tiny piece of his body and more than a little risky to juggle in the heat of a battle, but that was where the voice in his head came into play.

With Gaia's nigh omniscience on the properties and materials of all things about the earth serving as their measure for hardening density, and her battle instincts and sound judgment to boot?

The two of them had concocted an attack and defense strategy centered around the ability so long as he was willing to give her autonomy over his body.

Two battle geniuses working in perfect sync with each other, it was the ultimate tag team.

While blood manipulation may not have been as flashy or impressive as summoning flash floods and storms or walking on water, you'd have to be stupid to deny how versatile the total control of your body's limits and functions was.

And according to Avery...Percy had only begun to scratch the surface of his mysterious powers.

The thought both excited and terrified the son of Poseidon.

Percy grabbed onto the head of the dazed lioness below him as it began to stir, and with a strength inhuman, pulled apart its lower jaw till it rested level with its navel. The beast could do nothing but flap its tongue and murr at the sight of its brutalized body before its eyes rolled back into its skull for the last time.

Percy glared at his enemies, the iron in his eyes and the blood clinging to his front enough to have the rest of the beasts pawing at the ground in uncertainty, a human-like plea for help leaving their snouts as they prayed to the Nemean Lion.

And well, could you blame them?

Three lionesses lay dead before the son of Poseidon: The corpse with the neck he'd smashed on his way down, one he'd poisoned, and the one he'd just divided.

There were two more lionesses, but only one remained in fighting condition. Not like that wasn't saying much. He wanted to end this before the head honcho got antsy and decided to step in, but these two didn't look too keen on engaging in hostilities alone.

Gaia coughed to get his attention, "We still have the traps. Take 50 paces to the left and leap when I say so."

Percy uncapped Riptide and rested her sharpened edge on his left palm right on his scar, a muted feeling of melancholy overtaking him for an instant, "...nah, screw it."

He slid the blade over his palm and brought his fist to bear, a mote of focus the cost as his blood slaked through the cracks and down to the ground.

He could practically taste the change in the air, where before the eyes of the lionesses had only held worry and hesitation, they'd now become clouded with an insatiable hunger and a need to see the man before them dead.

Even Walmart Simba up top twitched and itched to sashimi Percy then and there.

They scrambled over each other to get a hit, their eyes so drawn and desperate on his wounded hand they didn't notice Riptide's dull tint blurring through the gloom.

No. Percy didn't allow them to notice. Such was the power of the Mist.

Percy had never been able to understand it that well under Chiron, and Thalia would never let him hear the end of it if he ever came to her for pointers on anything period. But Gaia could be a pretty competent teacher if she put her mind to it.

"I'm saying it with love! I'M SAYING IT WITH LOVE!" He squealed like a schoolgirl as the tyrant hardened his nut sack to the density of Iron.

Y*C*O*Y*W

14 September 2010, Percy's Mindscape, Gifford Pinchot National Forest, Washington, USA

2 Weeks And 5 Days Ago

"Influence, Confidence, and Divine Authority most importantly. To manipulate the Mist is to part the metaphysical veil warding off the realm of the Divine." His partner lectured, "Mortals – even Demigods – should never hold the right to such a privilege."

Percy sighed, "It's just me here Waterworks. You don't need to keep that imperialist stick up your ass with me."

His head got smacked from side to side as Gaia let her displeasure be felt, "You, without a doubt, are the worst. The most infuriating. Brat I've ever had the displeasure of being inside of! I mean-I've taken over the bodies of animals and pregnant women. But you-you're something else, Jackson. I mean that wholeheartedly."

Percy laughed at her antics, tears welling at the edges of his vision at the sight of a prepubescent Mother Earth pouting. A gentle feeling of relief washed over him from his core, she'd mellowed out by a lot.

"Love you too Gigi."

Gaia didn't push the matter further, in agreement with his affection or acknowledgment that her begrudging partner was a lost cause, he wasn't sure.

"Moving on...while the average mortal or demigod shouldn't have the authority to tickle the mist...it doesn't mean they can't attain the right."

"What does that mean?"

Gaia knuckled her eyebrows in annoyance, and for once Percy didn't think that feeling stemmed from him, "That circles back to the concept of Divine Authority and the skeletons attached to that closet."

Gaia sighed, "It is regrettable, but I cannot disclose as much as I'd like to. Putting aside the sheer danger attached to such knowledge, your body cannot handle leveraging its use right now. I'm sorry."

To her credit, Gaia did sound sorry.

It hadn't been quick, and nowhere near easy, but their dynamic had changed substantially in the weeks past, all the more when their connection had grown to the point they could meet together like this in his dreams to talk and strategize.

They weren't best friends per se, but they'd gotten past the I butchered you and your children phase of their relationship.

They had each other's back. That was enough for now.

"Let's work towards that then?" He said, "We'll start with the Mist then move upwards as much as possible."

Gaia chuckled, "That's the spirit brat. To put it simply, Divine Authority is the boon of Creation to all living beings regardless of species. Primordials, Gods, Demigods, Monsters, Animals with Mortals dead last on the scale of importance to the known universe."

"It's a pity for the mortals though..."

"Irrelevant."

Ice cold Gaia, damn.

Gaia rubbed her palms and exhaled, pushing her hands in an open sesame gesture. She patterned and weaved a massive, grand tapestry of ever-shifting mosaics, rippling and pulsing like capillary waves.

It looked so simple in practice, yet even that was enough to topple Gaia, thick beads of sweat caking her forehead as she huffed and puffed. Percy had to hold her as she started to fall, but even the threat of a face-plant couldn't wipe off her satisfied smile.

"Imagine this tapestry as reality," She started with a croak,"Intricately woven from the threads of abstract and conceptual laws, which Gods and their ilk, with their divine power, can deftly manipulate. In essence, this manipulation is the application of their boon."

"So when we manipulate the Mist, we're only nudging the set threads our way, not outright controlling it."

"Exactly. The Carrot and the Stick. It's the most basic application of the system yet more often than not the trickiest to grasp. It requires the user to encourage the target with the promise of a reward – peace of mind or something else - while simultaneously ensuring they retain the undesired consequences for non-compliance. Mortals and animals are the easiest to persuade with Chaos and Primordials a venture not worth testing."

She tapped his chest as she continued, "You are the son of Poseidon Perseus, and even that barely scratches the surface of the depth of your inborn Authority. You've continued to bolster your natural pool time after time with feats and names of power as the years have gone by."

"Then how did Thalia manage to learn it so early?"

"Names hold power Perseus, the more infamy attached to a title the greater the power to draw from. Thalia's name already carried substantial weight with her heritage as the daughter of the King, but remind me...what is the story attached to that Pine Tree of hers back at camp?"

Percy thought back to his climb with Annabeth as he mulled over the question, the view from the treetop as they looked upon their utopia.

A pride in something greater than themselves.

"A final stand." He answered, "The epitome of a true hero, fighting to her last breath and even further to ensure the people she loved the most got the lives she'd always dreamed of."

Gaia hummed in approval, "Can you even imagine the love? The power attached to the retelling of a tale so noble? That tree is chock full of divine energy not unlike the Yggdrasil. In a few thousand years, provided nothing untoward happens in the short term, its roots may yet have the power to latch onto whole worlds."

"And Thalia was inside of it."

"And Thalia was the origin of it."

Gaia got up on shaky feet and started pacing the mindscape as he murmured to herself.

"Ordinarily, it would've taken only a word to bend the minds of mortals, perhaps even gods given the right conditions. You'd already started the process in Tartarus, but we don't have that luxury. You are not the divinity of before."

Percy's face grew stormy at the reminder, and his mindscape shared in his suffering. Rage bubbled inside of him at the memory of his spirit bound head to toe like a sick criminal.

Bound and tamed like a wild animal.

Just as his intrusive thoughts started to leak, Gaia placed a hand on his shoulder, grounding him to a halt with a vicious smile.

"You've been hollowed. Violated. Shackled." Gaia voiced the word with a venomous loathing he found himself sharing, "But, not all is lost. As Fate would have it, you have power and an iron will even the gods of Olympus have no control over...and you've long since proven yourself to be more than just your father's mimic."

The words shouldn't have meant much to him, but Percy latched onto them like scripture. Rising to stand beside his partner, he saw visions of warriors and civilizations. Gods and entire worlds bowing at his feet from the aether.

"The gods think you dealt with, the world ignores your perceived death and continues to go on unbothered. The Giles boy believes you ignorant and naive, a charity case he hopes to manipulate with false platitudes. Let them go on with their foolish venture. The Spades will teach you how to thrive Perseus. I will teach you how to conquer."

His partner extended a hand towards him, and Percy took it with a full-blown smile. An unspoken pact sealing itself from now evermore.

"And on my honor as Gaia, on my name as Polyvoteira, by the time I'm done with you...Nyx, Ananke, even thrice-damned Chaos will compelled to bend the knee when your mere presence imbalances the stability of the cosmos, this I swear to you Perseus!"

Y*C*O*Y*W

"AND THEN THERE WAS ONE..."

His voice was mocking and cold as he turned to the Nemean Lion, laced with all the pompous audacity you could place on a lawyer who'd managed to fleece a mom 'n' pop shop for all they had and then some.

Avery was a smug lawyer with enough shady cases to give Michael Cohen the sniffles. Don't ask.

Percy shook off the distraction and penned Riptide in his pocket. He'd rather not test the limits of his baby girl on the lion's hide, especially when the fuming lion looked about ready to blow a gasket.

The lion let its fury sing as it shook the clearing with a mighty roar, the shockwaves sending the corpses of its pride flying.

"Gaia."

"The Nemean Lion. A creation of the faded Titan of the Sun, Helios, as a gift for his sister, Selene. The beast was sent from its abode on the moon at the behest of Hera to challenge Heracles, her bastard stepson."

The beast coated its fur with ghost-white flames and launched itself into the air, the force of its leap flattening the hillock he'd perched on to dust as it came slamming down to the earth with the force of a meteor. A wide-sweeping ring of fire scorching up a decent chunk of the land and pushing to eat at the trees and grass.

The Nemean Lion prowled about the clearing wreathed in flames, brimming with golden energy, far too paranoid to think that could have killed Percy.

"Makes sense." Percy piped up from a far-off tree branch, a layer of boiled blood chuffing from his pores, "Any weaknesses? Apart from it's mouth and eyes."

"I highly doubt it. The Antithesis of Civilization, its only known weaknesses are inside of it. The beast scoffs in the face of weaponry and modern warfare. It can be overwhelmed by numbers or simply overpowering it like Heracles did."

The lion sniffed at the air for him, a throaty growl sounding out at it zeroed in on Percy's blood. Percy stared it down from his perch unfazed, waiting for it – daring it to make a move towards him, but the beast surprised him.

Standing on its hind legs, the lion sucked enough air into its lungs to make its stomach bulge...

And held it.

Percy's instincts pimp-smacked him, and it was as if his body couldn't move any faster.

A cold wind rushed against his face as his quadriceps continued to push and pump with a mind of their own. Entire trees shook or buckled under his weight as he leaped from branch to branch with near-godly agility, his sole objective to get just a minuscule inch out of the beast's range.

Percy might as well have stayed on his branch. His efforts were futile.

Time seemed to slow as Percy glanced behind him, the lion's thick tail cracked at the air like a starter's pistol, and the beast released its full payload with a sky-piercing ROAR.

"TUNGSTEN!"

Time snapped back into focus, and all Percy knew was pain.

A divine surge of air pressure ravaged the serene forest to its foundations and caught up to Percy in the time it took to blink.

His body tore right through tree trunks like a buzzsaw, bouncing and tumbling end over end on the rough terrain for what seemed like an eternity before he came to a stop on a sturdy boulder, the rock shuddering under the impact but standing firm.

Percy's vision swam with tilting shades of red and yellow before he gave up all pretenses and heaved his guts out. His head was a mess of cuckoo birds and comical hammers, but he was pretty sure puke wasn't supposed to look or smell like blood.

He couldn't find it in him to complain though. The broken shells of hundreds of woodland creatures and trees served as a humbling reminder.

Percy was lucky to be alive.

Gaia's quick thinking was the only reason that attack hadn't liquefied him then and there.

As it was, she'd made her play at the precise moment his body's heart rate spiked, and the lion's blast picked up speed, hardening everything from the top of his scalp to the tips of his toes at a go. And even then, the blast and subsequent tumble had shredded most of his back.

It'd been a deadly gamble, and if Percy's thoughts weren't so loopy he'd probably be screaming his throat raw by now at the feeling of his nerve endings getting spit-roasted.

But it was only pain.

Already, he could feel the blood from the wound congealing as Gaia put everything into damage control.

If anything, he was more bummed that hardening was off the table as far as the battle was concerned. Any more and his heart would burst from the strain.

He tried to get to his feet but thought better of it as a flurry of black crept up from the edges of his vision, his eyes roved over the devastated forest with a grimace. A third of the woodland looked like someone had taken a mile-long scoop out of an ice cream tub.

Percy gave his clothes and body a once over, letting out a sigh of relief at finding his pants and knick-knacks intact.

A half-decent strategy already forming in his head, he brought out a testing tube from his pockets, a transparent cylinder no wider than his middle finger, and scooped up as much of his blood as the instrument could carry before corking it.

Satisfied, he spat out a globule of blood spit onto his hands and stood up. He could hear the lion charging his way, a good hundred yards away by his estimate.

Percy closed his eyes and tilted his head, a relieved shudder warming his core as the base of his neck popped.

"Perseus..." Gaia whispered, her voice quiet yet carrying a broiling torrent of fury underneath it.

Ah.

Yes, he could feel it all too clearly.

His partner's rage at the needless destruction of her realm. Her worries and concern for Percy at his near stroke with death. The blow to her pride at having been pushed to such desperate measures by a beast so beneath her...

He hummed for her to go on as his hands fiddled with his hiking boots.

"That power." She said simply, "That power from our bout with the Chimera, we could eviscerate that beast with a single strike here and now. End the coming battle before it even begins."

It was a test, a poorly disguised one at that.

The easy way out.

Gaia wasn't interested in just their survival anymore; she was livid.

When she told him they could end the fight with a simple punch, she wasn't advising him to do that. She was putting to perspective just howbeneath them this arrogant creature was, how foolish it was to think it would leave this forest alive.

The fallen goddess wanted to make this beast suffer for daring to desecrate this piece of nature for little to no reason. She wanted Percy to make sure the Nemean Lion knew only agony and terror before he snuffed its sorry life out of it.

Gaia wanted vengeance.

"Yeah, we could..." He mused to himself, letting the admission trail on as he tightened a bunny knot.

His torso and arms were littered with devastating cuts and bruises, his stomach was twisted in knots and a few fractured ribs and his knees wouldn't stop knocking against each other from exhaustion.

Yet he'd never felt so alive.

The pounding of his heart in his ears, the tangy taste of copper in his mouth, the vibrations on the earth as the beast thundered its way towards him.

That subtle charge in the air that he couldn't stop from electrifying him, told him even Nyx was getting excited at the coming melee.

Avery had created a monster.

Or maybe Percy had always been this fucked up.

On the brink of death - right at the edge of the abyss - Percy felt a private synergy with the world around him that he hadn't been able to replicate since his stroll through the Endless Nothing. An addictive high sex and LSD just couldn't compare to.

Gaia felt it too, if her shiver of ecstasy was any indication. Percy giggled, the pair of them were two twisted peas in a pod it seemed.

His body lit up with a bright pink hue as he bared his teeth in challenge, "But that's how losers think."

The lion slid into view a few meters away from him, its head twisting and turning every which way as it looked around at what it wrought in shock, visibly spooked that Percy had somehow managed to survive the blast.

The shock didn't last, and the unimaginative hack was already gearing up to repeat its trump card, but Percy wasn't worried, the problem-solving skills he'd nurtured in his training with Avery already making up its weight in gold.

See, the air bazooka was a new one – and something he doubted 14-year-old Percy would have been able to handle – but it wasn't completely busted.

Its greatest strength relied on time and distance, with enough space and prep time the move probably had enough oomph to blow a hole through a mountain.

Its weakness, however, was more subtle.

It needed total concentration to generate its more powerful gusts. The longer it was allowed to cook the greater the bang, but for whatever asinine reason, it could only charge its nuke while standing on its hind legs.

The most unstable position.

It was ridiculous.

Really.

Then again, the infamy of its impenetrable hide would discourage anyone from trying to get close enough to imbalance it, so who really was the sucker?

If it'd been fighting anyone other than Percy or a god it'd be unstoppable.

Shame.

The Nemean Lion tried to let out another explosive roar in his direction but Percy was already moving, his body a blur as he sped his way to the beast's right flank and shoulder-checked its thigh off balance.

Its tail curved to clothesline him but Percy dropped to his knees and slid out of its reach, shifting to a crouch and grabbing a flimsy hold of it while tensing his calves. As expected, the beast whipped its tail up to slam Percy into marinara sauce only for him to let go of it at the last second, Percy flipped in the air and landed right on the base of the beast's neck.

The wild beast didn't give Percy a second to decompress, never mind get comfortable, before hunching in on itself and giving Percy's groin and thighs the worst bucking bull ride since the Minotaur.

Between grunts and groans he grabbed a fistful of mane and wrenched its head closer to him, jamming his clawed fingers through the side and bottom of its eye socket, and giving himself some leverage on its skull.

The effects were instantaneous, the lion reared on itself once again and its tortured wail played like a divine choir to his uncultured ears, a magnificent encore of drowned cat hisses and pspspsps's, but Percy wasn't close to finished.

Releasing his hold on the beast's mane and fishing out the test beaker from earlier, the boy tossed the concoction right down the lion's gullet before vaulting off the top of his enemy's head. The force of his leap was enough to throw the shaky beast even more off-kilter, sending it rolling along the gravel all while it heaped curses at him in Cat.

The beast's tumble kicked up a spatter of dust clouds and shrouded its form from Percy, but he didn't bother pursuing too close. Caged animals and all that.

A good thing too, as a massive paw swept towards him as he started to circle the beast. In a move that'd bring Neo to tears, Percy leaned back just low enough for the paw to pass by the tip of his nose by a hair. He handspringed backward with his free hand and kept his muscles tensed in a crouch just in case, but the Nemean Lion wasn't taking any chances with him anymore.

Color him impressed, the creature was evolving.

If it hadn't been before, Percy was certain this lick was personal now.

The fuming beast wasn't cocky enough to leave itself defenseless by gearing up a roar with Percy so close to it, but it also wasn't suicidal enough to charge at him unprepared. Instead, the beast contented itself with circling Percy, studying him for any slip-ups or a minuscule window of opportunity with its teeth bared and murder in its eyes.

Sorry, it's eye.

Tilting his head to the side, Percy's voice was choked as he struggled not to laugh, "Looking for this?"

True to form, in Percy's extended palm was the lion's bloody, slimy right eye. Optic nerve and all.

'Was' being the operative term.

Percy pushed the muscle right in front of the beast's snout and crushed it to a pulp without effort, a spray of blood and mush coating both of their faces.

And in Percy's case, his teeth, yet even that couldn't cow his sadistic glee.

If the lion had been pissed before, it went ape-shit at Percy's actions. Gone was subtlety and strategy, in its place, was an unbridled fury given breath with an endless surge of air cannons firing at the speed of LMGs.

Percy pulled off a hopscotch shuffle, his feet kicking up sparks on the gravel before he leaped around the battlefield and explosions faster than the lion could follow, whooping like a loon until the beast couldn't differentiate between his taunts and its labored breaths.

Eventually, the lion ran out of steam and the carpet bombing came to a close, with the beast struggling to hold up its weight. It felt a nudge, just a ghost of a butterfly kiss, on its flank and the poor bastard had to struggle not to let out a tortured groan.

"Didja get him?" Percy stage-whispered in its ear.

Quick as a whip, the lion's tail wrapped itself around Percy's throat and brought him up to its open mouth. A pale wisp of energy lit up the cavernous maw as the exhausted beast readied another blast to send both the boy and its tail to hell.

The threat of this white-haired twink unleashed upon the world enough motivation to go through with the sacrifice, it was doing the Lord's work as far as it was concerned.

Just as its energy peaked the beast held in a blast certain to send him to Oz...Percy grinned. The lion only had a moment for its lone eye to widen in terror before the green-eyed gremlin snapped its fingers and-

Nothing.

Nothing happened as far as outside observers were concerned.

The beast's cannon came out in a weak puff of air, because what the Styx?

All that gravitas, all that effort and time wasted, all the mates it had lost in this endeavor, and now, only now on the brink of death did the white-haired menace struggle to perform?!

An indescribable feeling of rage bubbled at the base of the beast's stomach, enough games!

The beast unhooked its jaw and let it trail downwards, determined to swallow Percy whole and-

The lion's eye bugged, thick red capillaries webbing the orb all over, with bits of green fizz flowing from its tear ducts.

Percy long forgotten, the monster gagged like a cat with a hairball stuck in its throat and tried to claw out its stomach, before giving up altogether and staggering away from Percy as if he'd caught the plague.

The white-haired demon in question didn't look the least bit gruntled, standing up and dusting off his palms, he asked: "What's the matter Nemy'? Scared?"

The 'King of Beasts' brayed weakly, a wave of weariness and corruption seeping its way into its bones and soul the longer it was forced to stew. Seconds felt like hours, the Earth went flat, and gravity went the way of the Hippie, yet the Nemean Lion couldn't do more than choke on its oxygen.

Percy ignored the dying beast and turned an annoyed frown upwards, his high coming down with a moody hangover as the battle came to a close. Nyx's star-patterned form tipped her chalice in acknowledgment of his victory before the divine constellation popped out of existence.

Like she'd never even been there.

"Theobromine," Percy said simply, his eyes still on the sky as he uncapped Riptide.

The lion's breaths grew frantic at the sight of the Celestial Bronze, its survival instincts overriding logical rationale, the beast didn't realize that no matter how this played out it wasn't walking out of this forest alive.

Percy couldn't help but snicker at the sight, it didn't seem to matter what race or species, the fear of death was universal regardless of standing.

"Theobromine," Percy repeated, plucking out a rag and wiping invisible stains off his blade, "Or chocolate if you want the dummy definition. Well, calling it just chocolate is kind of underselling it."

He fished out a crushed cellophane wrap, straightening it out some before tossing it the beast's way.

It was a flashy purple and pink Cadbury delight with a red-haired goddess of Love feigning a bite of the dark chocolate.

Its banner read: Aphy's Amour in stylish cursive, but the font was unable to overshadow the bold black CAUTION!GOD GRADE GOODY. CONSUME AT YOUR OWN RISK. At the bottom.

The Nemean Lion wailed and pawed at the ground as the realization made headway, its fur losing its golden sheen and fading to the color of coffee brown.

Ironic.

Percy planted Riptide into the ground and strolled to the dying beast, "See, I hate Chemistry - probably more than Math to be honest- but even the thickest chucklehead'll sober right up when your teacher tries to make you feed a dog chocolate."

Meriwether. College. Prep.

Don't ask.

"Humans have a higher tolerance to chocolates or so I'm told, demigods even more so. But even that blend of cacao nearly gave me a heart attack the first time I tried it." Percy continued, "It was a shaky hypothesis at best, and not one with an abundance of test subjects."

Percy crouched to a knee in front of the great beast, his hand carding the lion's mane almost affectionately, "That's where you clowns came in and...well, what did we learn?"

The lioness from earlier.

She'd swallowed a half-eaten bar and died near-instantly, not a sound following in her wake.

"Your little pal back then confirmed my suspicions, but even then I couldn't be 100% sure a little food poisoning would work on a big strong monster like you could I?" Percy squished and toyed with the giant furballs cheeks playfully, his voice light and teasing before all pretenses dropped, "That's what my blood was for."

The lion's breath hitched, its bloodshot pupil dilating in terror the longer Percy caressed it.

"I'm not gonna bore you with all the details, or spill all my secrets, but think of my body – my blood – as a witches cauldron. A great, big ever boiling crock pot constantly taking in all sorts of ingredients."

"See, it doesn't matter how much I dilute it. Doesn't matter how much is taken. It doesn't even matter what's added. The broth is always tasty. Always potent. Divine curses, Chimera poisoning, infections, Pit scorpion venom, Gorgon's blood."

Percy's eyes flashed with unhinged malice at the last ingredient, his scarred hand tightening on the beast's snout as it hacked out a torrent of steaming black blood onto the space between them.

The lion's eye scrunched in disbelief, What the fuck is wrong with you? It seemed to say.

The monster looked at the child before him and shook its head slowly. The unassuming, frail little child before him couldn't be the same boy who'd fluked his way upwards against it all those years ago.

He couldn't be.

This was, this was a-

"Mon...ster."

Percy's eyes narrowed to slits, a nerve throbbing on his forehead at the hypocrisy before he shook his head with a scoff, "And you're a disappointment."

When he'd first stumbled on their little hunting party...words couldn't even begin to describe how furious he'd been.

All that training. The traps and strategies he, Gaia, and Avery had spent planning into the early hours of the day for weeks.

All of that had been pissed on as Nyx thought it wise to send in an enemy Percy had already beaten, an arrogant buffoon far too absorbed in its hype to be taken seriously.

The vindictive thought of hanging the dying beast from a tree with his lasso and not even bothering with its pelt still ate at his heart, but he decided against it. That was his pride talking.

Incompetent as it'd been with it, its hide was still priceless. He would be stupid not to put it to good use.

As the furry clown gave up the ghost and crumbled into black ash, Percy didn't let its terrified eye stray. He would be the last thing the beast ever saw.

He fished the pelt out of the dust mound and sighed.

It was an oversized coffee brown duster, complete with snow-white fur lining.

Not bad per se, but so not his style.

A flash of silver blinked in his peripheral, before Percy tilted his head to the side casually, a dull thunk sounding out as a familiar hunting knife dug itself into the sand behind him.

Percy clicked his tongue. The cheeky manchild was still here. He traced the path and elevation of the blade and groaned.

This was gonna be a drag.

He turned his attention back to the duster if he was hoofing it for 2 klicks he was dam well going to look good doing it.

"Remember Perseus: Confidence. Inborn talent is a boon, but if you can't believe in yourself, how can you hope to rein in the Veil of Creation?"

Confidence eh?

Percy closed his eyes, his hold on the pelt tightening as he visualized what he wanted this artifact to symbolize.

He thought of his mother, of her tears and her face covered in his blood as she cradled his broken body. Of his friends at Camp Half-Blood. Of the campfire spots that would forever remain empty because of his mistakes.

His heart pulsed in his chest as he remembered his oath with Chaos to be better, with Gaia and Avery to be greater, and with Nyx to be her end.

His blood boiled inside of him as he thought of his enemies - both monsters and gods – of their unseen laughs and jeers as they mocked him for his failings and weaknesses, as they downgraded him to just another snack to quench their sick appetites.

Another pawn to toy with.

A ripple reverberated around the battered clearing. The Mist opened her heart to Percy like a lover in waiting, urging him to choose his path, and Percy knew what he wanted this pelt to symbolize.

For his friends. His loved ones. His Family.

It would be a prayer, a hope, a stalwart symbol they could always rely on to lend a helping hand or be there for them when nobody else would.

And for his enemies?

It would be a promise. A warning. A declaration of war if push came to shove.

He would be the last thing they ever saw, a necessary evil they'd learn not to piss off.

He would teach them fear. He would make them hurt.

As his arms slipped through the arm holes and he fluffed up the fur-lined leather jacket, the symbol on his back waved and rippled in the wind.

A battle-beaten lion's head short of an eye, with a thick long chain leashed around its neck.

Percy's blazing green eyes shot through the breaks in his platinum locks like heat-seekers, ruthless and ready to get this show on the road.

His voice was low and rough as he voiced the final oath, "I'll destroy them."

Y*C*O*Y*W

2 October 2010, Gifford Pinchot National Forest, Washington, USA

2:32 AM EST

"DO I KNOW HOW TO PICK EM OR WHAT?"

Avery Giles' smug New York drawl was always a sorrow to behold, but for once even Maria found it hard to discredit his boast.

It shouldn't have been as impressive as he made it out to be.

The Nemean Lion, for all its infamy, wasn't much of a this fight, it had only been a class B threat, far below more powerful disaster-class monsters and enemies like Drakons, Hydras, and rogue gods.

"And traitors..." She whispered in the back of her mind, a shock of pale-white hair flooding her memories, "Dangerous traitors like him."

She shook her mind clear as she gave the white-haired annoyance a response.

"Percy Jackson..." She murmured, the name worming an unwelcome niche into her cerebral cortex the longer her mind replayed the fight. "He's...talented."

Avery snorted, "Talented? Try genius, Hernandez. The Nemean Lion had the numbers advantage, the blessings of 3 gods, eons of battle experience, its hide, -"

"Yes, I'm more than aware of how the battle played out Avery."

"Then give the kid his flowers, why don't you? Even old Tooth-Eyes wouldn't have done any better. Chocolate Maria. He brought the bastard down with chocolate!" Avery waved his hands wildly, his expression screaming Why didn't we think of that?!

Put like that, it was hard for her to find an argument against it. What Jackson had just done might as well have revolutionized Hellhound hunting for the rest of time. It had always been a possible tactic in the back of their minds, but even the most grizzled Spades never quite felt comfortable using dogs as test subjects.

Even fewer had the balls to gorge themselves on enough chocolate to put down an elephant and still test that theory in the middle of a fight to the death.

"I'm not trying to belittle the boy, Avery," She said for what felt like the thousandth time already, "But, as wise as she is, the Mistress overestimates our sector's tolerance for disrespect. We'd have a mutiny on our heads come morning if we gave the boy the title of Captain so callously."

They'd danced around the subject since Jackson first agreed to join them. The entire council had been up in arms and ready to toss their 'gallant' Inquisitor in a burlap sack and down a river when he'd first proposed the idea, with Maria at the front of the mob sack already in hand.

That was until the obstinate manchild had delivered that letter.

A blood-red envelope sealed and approved with a thorn-riddled spade.

The effect had been instantaneous, and to her eternal regret, Avery Giles had lived to see another day. It was a rare – no, a mythical – occurrence, but every high-ranking member of the Spades knew the mark of the Blood Maiden by heart.

Their Head Chancellor had personally endorsed this madness.

No, if Avery was to be believed...their Mistress had ordered it.

Maria massaged her temples to stave off the coming headache. Autolycus had been bad enough, but they'd been able to calm the masses at his unprecedented rise with the title of 'Ambassador'. A thankless position with more work and travel attached to it than was deemed workplace healthy for most to contend with, yet the lovable old coot had only taken the veiled slight in stride and continued to work with pride.

And even then, his abilities and influence as the last legitimate Patriarch of both the houses of Odysseus and Jason were enough to put to rest further discussion. But it was so much more different – and all the more dangerous – for Percy Jackson.

There were reasons Chiron – and even the Greek gods – were so dead set against any of their demigods getting snatched up by the Spades, and it wasn't just the fact half the time you couldn't trust your comrades to not stab you in the back.

The children of the gods – the Romans -believed themselves superior to the mortals. Thought themselves so 'honored' by the Heavens...they had no idea what occurred behind the scenes. How much life-changing information the gods were purposely withholding from them.

How 'expendable' they were in the eyes of the Veiled Realms.

Ignorance was bliss, and their gods would prefer their cannon fodder remained just that. Blissful.

Maria sighed, taking out a cigarette and lighting it. She took a long drag of the roll and exhaled. Hard. "I need to get the fuck out of this pantheon."

"Those'll kill ya." Avery had to chime.

"Fuck off. You're ignoring the issue, as usual. Our Charter prides itself on merit. You work to earn your keep, that's the code. How do you think our other recruits working their asses off will react to getting told they're dogshit compared to the 'great' Percy Jackson?"

"Anyone with a problem can bring their own dead Titans to the mix."

Maria's fist slammed into a nearby tree, felling it in a single blow. She glared hard at the son of Death's smug face, "The day you ever utter such foolishness before our men is the day I fucking kill you! Get it through your thick skull! He's not ready!"

"You're right."

Huh?

"What? Give me some credit Hernandez. You think I don't know the snakes we roll with?" The bastard chuckled like a fool, "They'd eat the kid up for breakfast."

"The-then why-"

"Percy's a kid. Immature, reckless, and far too emotional, he's a skilled fighter but that's where he starts and ends. Put him in a cage with a monster and he'll have it eating out of his palm, but he'd sooner flip those old fossils the bird than put up with their bullshit."

Maria collapsed to the ground, an overdose of relief all but fossilizing her kneecaps. She took a second to compose herself as she worked out her...eugh... colleagues' angle.

Jackson was too skilled and accomplished to start up as a ranker, but far too reckless and unstable for the Elder's liking. Their Mistress favored the boy and wanted him as close to her as possible, but with the threat of the Night on Jackson, they couldn't risk Lady Sorcha's safety so easily...

"The Internship program. Our most promising operatives are monitored and trained personally by the Captains at all times. You want him taken on as an apprentice?"

Avery nodded, half-impressed, "Not me. Old Scati herself."

"Yes...yes that makes a lot more sense."

It wasn't the most complicated of plans, but it worked well enough. Jackson didn't care about the Spades, and the Elders would sooner die than let him get that sort of influence so easily. But they knew the Blood Maiden would never be denied of her whims.

One way or the other, she would always end up on top.

They couldn't outright support their Mistress' will without bringing down a rebellion on their heads from the Elders, but they could delay it. Compromise with both sides while mentoring the boy until he was ready,because let's be honest, that was the best they were going to get.

The Head Chancellor of the Spades herself had shown blatant favoritism towards him with that generous signing bonus, assigned their charter's Inquisitor Supreme to put everything down and train him for a month, and called for the immediate promotion of an untested recruit...

Maria had to admit, even she felt a little miffed at the circumstances, and that was after all the context she'd gotten.

"The other applicants won't be happy. Torrington won't be happy." Maria said with a sigh, already dreading that conversation, "But life 'n' lemons, so you're taking him on as your apprentice?"

"What are you nuts? You're taking him."

...

"Eh?"

Maria didn't get the opportunity to rip the smirk off the cocky bastard's face before they were interrupted by a rude ahem. Smooth as silk, her saber left its sheath and blurred to the interloper's neck on instinct, alarm flooding her features as her thoughts caught up to her actions...

They were waiting for-

That alarm turned to horror as her blade ground to a dead halt with a jarring screech on Riptide. Maria stared at the deadlock gobsmacked, her sword straining to move the Celestial Bronze blade an inch before her gaze shifted to an amused Percy Jackson.

"Nice sword." He said unbothered like older women trying to take his head off was an everyday occurrence.

Maria withheld a gulp as she glared at an equally amused Avery. What sort of monster had he molded that even she couldn't sense the boy? For her Rakuyo to not even budge against him? Her webs hadn't so much as twitched in the time he'd taken to get up here.

If she had any doubts before, they were more than tempered now. Jackson was the real deal.

He was that battle fiend's blood, without a doubt.

"You made it kid! Percy. Maria. Maria. Percy. Be good kid you're stuck with each other now, ok byyyyeeee!"

"Son of a-" Avery didn't hear the rest of her cuss before he dove into the shadows and ran. He ran like the crafty coward he'd always been.

Maria's fingers itched to eviscerate the ground the bastard had been standing on until a stifled chuckle drew her away from her wrath. She turned to Percy and balked, the elements were dark and vision was a chore and a half without the moon. And yet the boy shone.

As he smiled and laughed her way, Percy looked...he looked like an-

"Believe me, I know the feeling." He managed through chuckles, capping Riptide and extending a hand her way, "Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon. Nice to meet you Ms...?"

It was an olive branch. A fresh introduction for a master and student without any preconceived expectations...

The Captain gave a tiny smile, her hand grasping his in a firm grip at the elbow, "Maria Hernandez, Daughter of Athena. Well met Jackson."

Y*C*O*Y*W

2 October 2010, Sorcha's 'Playroom', Fortress of Dun Scaith, Isle of Skye, Scotland

9:47 AM GMT

An Hour And 15 Minutes Since Percy's Victory.

"THERE YOU ARE," MAY MUTTERED SOFTLY.

Her lips curled as she took in the state of the despicable room, but her lady was the only sight that mattered to her at the moment. She hiked up her dress and picked her way through the paint buckets and soiled canvasses to her lady's side, her golden brows scrunching together as she took in the finished portrait, dreading the omen.

"Here I am." was the quiet response, the princess much too preoccupied – May lied to herself – to give her a more candid response.

May took in her lady's disheveled state, from her rumpled pajamas to her deep, bruised eye bags. She still wasn't sleeping. Her hand reached up to caress her ward's messy brown locks, but thought better of it, deciding her little spitfire wouldn't take too kindly to the act.

"It doesn't bother me, you know?" She chirped to May's surprise, quite sure she hadn't heard her right.

She turned to face May, her warm blue eyes – older...so much older and more weary than she remembered – filled with that same childlike mischief she'd missed for so long. Tilting her shoulder in a manner that looked innocent, yet so teasing, her Lady invited her to do her worst.

May shook her head with a snort. With a twitch of her authority she fashioned a brush out of thin air and began to comb and disentangle, "And here I hoped you'd matured in your old age."

The little shit headbutted her bosom for the rib. Hard. She tilted her head to face her with a pout, "I'm in my 30s. Hag."

"You could have fooled me with those wrinkles! And what's this?" She pulled out a stringy, gray lock to the woman's periphery and tutted in faux-disapproval, "A little more and we might have to start calling you-"

"Don't you do it May!" Her angel warned, her eyes narrowing to dangerous slits.

May scrunched the woman's cheeks and tilted her head to face hers. She whispered: "Gran-mummy."

Her ward covered her ears and shook her head from side to side like a squealing toddler, warming May to her core as she recalled much simpler times. Before the-

May shook off the memory in favor of cradling her little spitfire in her bosom, unbothered to the fact that her ward was not the same babe she'd caught nibbling on her mother's spear.

"We've received word from the overgrown manchild," She whispered, "He passed the 2nd ordeal."

Her Light only smiled at the news, unsurprised, "Of course he did. He's my kid."

May sighed for the second time in just as many minutes, "I see your humility hasn't improved much either Lady Sorcha."

She knew she'd misspoke as soon as the name left her mouth, with her little dragonfly's shoulders clamming up on herself and her fists clenching to her sides. She shrugged off May's hold and got to her feet, her lip curling at the sight of her.

"I'm-" May rushed to apologize, but Sally cut her off with a look.

"Was there anything else you thought prudent to share, Lady Medb?"

May withheld a flinch at the ice and formality in her tone, like she was just another bad day for her to get over with. Memories best left dead and buried threatened to catch her unawares, but...

"The Inquisitors have gathered. All of them. We hope to discuss the young Master's progress and what comes after-"

"I'll tell you what comes after!" Sally growled in her face, "I get out of this shithole! You take off the mindwipe you put on my husband, and all of you bastards can go right back to staying the hell away from us!"

Maeve's jaw trembled involuntarily, her eyes closing as she nodded her acceptance. "The others would still like to see you Sor-Sally." She took a pause when it looked like the lass would sock her. Again. "She would like to see you. It's been close to a month now since you arrived."

"She managed just fine for 20 years May. I don't see the need to break the streak."

Sally shouldered her way past her towards the exit but hesitated as May cried: "A stórin!"

Sally half-turned to her voice, her face a myriad of emotions as she took in her sister-figure's devastated expression, "Please, A stórin."

"...I'll be there in 10 minutes." She conceded with a sigh, giving the room one last once over. She whispered, "What a mess."

May took a second to gather herself, her eyes growing hazy with tears the longer she stayed in this accursed room. Every blood-spattered portrait, the scraped etchings on the wall, the shattered talismans and sealing wards, May took in every atrocity with a stone-cold frown, her eyes hardening as she stared at the latest addition to the house of horrors.

A pitch-black world devoid of light, save a golden, cat-like eye high in the sky that seemed to follow her wherever she moved. Monsters of all shapes and sizes streamed out of the shadows by the thousands, their furs and hides soaked as they lapped at a communal pool of blood.

Armies of man and the Veiled Realms fighting against eldritch monstrosities the size of castles. The banners of the Spades flew high in a sea of bodies and blood, and a blood-red spear cleaving its way through the hellscape.

At the center of it all...

A bloody, battle-beaten boy with snow-white hair and blazing sea-green eyes hobbled his way to a secluded 'church', its perimeter outlined by a score of decapitated heads.

"What a mess indeed."

Y*C*O*Y*W

Chapter 9, done and done dusted. It should have come a lot sooner, but I went into a depressive slump after that last Cowboys game. I'll keep it short: Get Jerry's ass outta there. Throw Dak in the gulag too.

I gotta say though, I had a lot of fun with this one. For one the nonsensical breadcrumbs I'd been dropping for that Divine Authority bit for the past few chapters are finally seeing the light of day, and we've got some more unanswered questions on Sally's lore and the whole 'Meredith' thing.

Yes, that is the actual Queen Medb from the Celtic myth's, more on that later (What's that?...Whaddya mean you have no idea who the hell that is?!)

Side note: This isn't a concrete return for the story. I'm still saddled with taxes and programming algorithms till December, but I didn't want to end the year without dropping something. I'm still writing chapters, I just don't plan to release them until I've got Part 2 is done.

This chapter was more so a tribute and an apology to any fans that prefer a slightly more OP! Percy. An apology because he's going back to getting his ass handed to him hard in a few chapters, but it'll be great I promise.

Side note 2: Not really as important, but I wanted to ask either way. A few chapters are going to feature Sally and the shitshow in Scotland for a while, would you guys prefer I referred to Medb as May, Maeve or just Medb? I don't really want any confusion between Luke's May or Medb.

Side note 3: Any of you guys ever watched Black Clover? That one anime from a while back with the loud mouth kid with the literal 'fuck you' to his universes power system? I've had an idea in my head for a PJO crossover for the longest time now, that I just cant seem to get out of my head.

I've got a timeframe, a plot, a beginning, a decisive ending and a set pairing, but not a lot of time to dedicate to it. I'll come around to writing it either way, but I'd like to at least get through Arc 2 of this story first.

Side note 4: To the jackass that keeps spamming my shit for a PercyxGaia...please stop. Please.

Foreign words used in this chapter.

A stórin - My Little Treasure

Polyvoteira - All-nourishing

Aphy's Amour - Aphrodite's Love(No. Aphy isn't actually french for Aphrodite.)