A/N: Amphitrite shows up here, my personal fancast for her is Keira Knightley. Also, POV changes start here, so here's the rule for the story: anything in first person is Percy, third person SHOULD be easy to figure out. Finally, sorry about this being late!

Rebelling Against Fate

Chapter IV: See, I Can Take Care of Myself!

As it turned out, I had nothing to worry about with the cops. When I went back to them, one of them told me "Your step-mother showed up and took care of everything, young man. She's waiting for you outside."

I had to admit, I was confused when I was told that. Amphitrite and I got along pretty well in my fist life, once we had finally been introduced, but I was still her husband's bastard, so I had no idea what she thought of me right now, in this life. When I saw her, she ran to me, catching me in a tight hug. "Percy Jackson, do you have any idea how much you worried your father and I?" She leaned in enough to whisper in my ear "I hope you don't mind the performance for the mortals' sake."

"Not at all," I whispered back. The hug was … nice, so much like my mom's hugs that I couldn't help but enjoy it.

As soon as he was gone, she pulled back and waved her hand. "There, now he won't bother us for a while. Let me get a good look at you." After about a minute, during which I had started squirming, she said "You remind me of your father."

"Is that a good thing or bad?" I asked, hoping to get an idea where I stood with her.

"It is what it is," she said before offering me a smile. "I've never resented his demigod children, nor does he about mine."

I stared in shock. "Your demigod children? Do you have any at camp?"

She looked sad at that. "Yes, three at the moment, and I have yet to claim them."

"What? Why? Don't you care about them?"

"It's because I care that I haven't claimed them. You probably haven't noticed, but when we 'lesser' gods claim our children, they are ostracized by the unclaimed who had once been as close to them as proper siblings. Only the Twelve are allowed cabins, so only their children are able to be proud when they're claimed."

"Did you ever think about asking Dad to see if your kids could stay in his cabin until things change?"

She stared at me in shock, like the idea had never occurred to her before, then a smile broke out on her face. "Did you know that I've been wanting to meet you since the day you were born?"

"Really?" That was new … I think. She made sure to invite me to Atlantis, sure, and was happy when I visited, but she'd never said anything like that.

"Yes, and I am so glad that I did! And that is why I have to say something: Percy, you're honestly worrying your father. You're taking all of this far too calmly and rationally for a twelve-year-old, he's worried about you, not to mention the pressure you must feel due to the quest. Please, can you talk to me about what's going on?"

I have to admit, I started laughing at that, while tears gathered in my eyes. Dad worried about my mental health? That was honestly really touching, and the fact that Amphitrite bent the rules to check on me made me decide something. "Okay, I need to talk to Dad in person and in relative privacy, but it needs to be after the quest is done. Would you let him know and come with him?"

"Happily, Percy. And know this for when you meet him: your father loves you, he's proud of you, but he also has a bad habit of sticking his foot in his mouth, so try not to hold that against him when you meet." I laughed and reassured her before she left and the train set off for Denver. Honestly, some things never changed! She had said much the same thing to me the first time!

Luke stared in shock. When he had been called to the Big House because there had been trouble on the quest, he had reasonably assumed that Percy or Grover had been hurt and they'd turned back for medical attention. What he had found instead was that Annabeth had been sent back by the most impertinent demigod he had ever met! And on top of that, everyone could understand why. "Annabeth, he's right! It doesn't matter who's the most experienced, the one in charge is the one who received the prophecy. Besides, I think he's hiding something, because that is one scarily competent twelve-year-old." He actually knew exactly what the sea prince was hiding thanks to his master, but Luke also suspected that things were not going to go the way the Crooked One expected.

Speaking of which, Annabeth's eyes had turned cold towards him of all people. Then, before he could even react, she pulled out the knife he had given her five years before and stabbed him with it! He was so shocked that he barely felt the pain in his shoulder, even though she ran off without pulling the knife. "I'm … going to the airport," Grover said before running off in the exact opposite direction that Annabeth had.

Luke couldn't blame him. The little family he'd managed to build had been completely destroyed, and the only person he could really blame was himself. First, he had been the oldest and should have sacrificed himself for Thalia, now he had failed to recognize Annabeth's growing hubris and keep it in check. There were so many times he hated himself, and this was one of them. He slunk off to the medical wing to get his shoulder taken care of, hoping that new Apollo kid was there, he'd heard some good things about Solace, and he needed a sympathetic ear.

One hour later and he was feeling better, Will Solace was everything he'd heard and more. Luke was heading off to his cabin when, much to his shock, a goddess appeared in front of him. "You're Luke Castellan, son of Hermes, correct?"

"Yes, my lady," he replied. Not like he could do anything else.

"Good, we're going to your cabin. I have something I need to do." Luke was completely confused. While he knew that she was a goddess, he had no idea which goddess. All he knew for certain was that she couldn't be any of the major goddesses. Hera hated them on principle, she looked nothing like Demeter, her appearance didn't change like Aphrodite would, Artemis had no kids and she didn't have Athena's distinctive eyes. "Would you mind calling them out here? I want this to be as public as possible."

"Sure." What was going on here?!

As soon as everyone was outside, (and Luke did mean everyone, the other cabins had also taken notice and were watching as a result,) the goddess started speaking. "I am Amphitrite, Queen of Atlantis and wife of Poseidon. I am here because I have demigod children, and I need to ask their forgiveness. Many of us 'minor' Olympians have children here, but have stopped claiming them because they are rejected by those who have yet to be claimed. Well no longer. My husband has granted my children permission to stay in his cabin, so I am claiming my children." Instantly, three upside-down tridents appeared over the heads of Greg Simmons, Diana Cross and Bobby Steele. Amphitrite then gathered her children and spoke to them in private. Luke, and many others just stared in shock. Could the gods actually be … changing?

I woke with the sound of an inhuman scream of pain and rage echoing in my ears. It didn't sound like any monster I'd ever heard, so I figured it was from a dream … except that I didn't remember dreaming last night. So what caused the scream, and why did I hear it? Oh well, it didn't matter. I got off the train and started looking for a place to eat when a motorcycle rode up to me. "You want some help?"

"Depends on what kind of help you're offering, and who you are," I countered, though I already knew who he was.

"There's a few decent places to eat around here. Pick one and we'll talk there." Just then an Italian restaurant called Venice Ristorante caught my eye and I walked towards it. "Italian, huh? Well, it's been 70 years since I've had Italian, why not?"

We sat down at a table and ordered, while he started a fight on Twitter of all things! It was so petty and thus so Ares that I just shook my head at the idea. With that done, he revealed what Gabe had done, which honestly wasn't so different from my first life. The usual, claiming I was a troubled kid, had something to do with Mom's disappearance, destroyed his oh so beloved Camaro, things like that. Hmm, maybe I could make a deal with Medusa? "Now, the FBI is all over you, and the chances of you making it to LA without getting arrested are slim to none. And even if you did retrieve the Bolt, Zeus is going to war with Poseidon. You're young, so let me teach you something about our family. See, years before I was born, my grandpa Kronos ate my aunt and uncles. Then my dad made him puke them back up, then chopped him up into a million pieces and chucked him into a bottomless pit, so that kind of set the tone right outta the gate. Olympians fight, we betray, we backstab, we will push anyone down a flight of stairs to get ahead. And that's why I love my family so much! My dad knows he's not getting this bolt back with quests or goose chases. He knows there's a war coming, and in reality, I think he's okay with that. I think he just feels its' time for a war, so we're gonna have a war. Isn't that great?"

"I think you're projecting right now, god of war," I countered. "See, I know I'm going to get the bolt back, and I'm willing to bet that if I get it back in time, there won't be a war. So, you offered help, tell me what kind of help, or else."

Ares laughed. "Or else, what?"

"Did your brother ever tell you what I did when he played at being my dad?" I asked.

Ares' eyes widened, and looked down to see Riptide at his crotch. "Oh, I like you! Okay, so here's the deal. There's an amusement park down the road. I left my shield there. You get me my shield back and I'll get you to the Underworld by … lunch tomorrow."

I smirked. "Let me guess, you went there with Aphrodite and Hephaestus caught you again? I'm in."

Waterland was … different from what I remembered, but I was starting to get used to that. The gate almost seemed like a trap, and I was certain that I caught sight of some celestial bronze in the mechanism, but nothing happened. I wandered around the park, constantly seeing small signs of divine work. One of the most obvious was when I got close to it, the Thrill Ride of Love woke up. Since that was where the shield had been before, I followed it and boarded one of the boats. Along the way, Hephaestus' story was shown along the walls, and it made me resolve to do what I could to help him as well as the other demigods and Hades. No one deserved to be treated like that by their own family.

Once at the bottom of the ride, I spotted the shield in the hands of a statue, and at the foot of the statue was a throne. I had a guess as to why that throne was there, and I was not going to suffer Ares' punishment. So now the question was how to do it. Fortunately I was energized by a little swim I had been forced to make, so I figured I'd have plenty of energy to try either of my options, and if not, well, I still had plenty of ambrosia in my pack. So, first I tried just pulling the shield out, but the statue had a surprisingly strong grip. That left me with a technique that I'd started working on after Nico's death and that I had continued working on after my arrival in this timeline. I had only been able to manage it a few times, but this time I had no choice. I manipulated the water, pulling on all my desperation, pain, loneliness and the love I had for my friends and family to force it into the shape I wanted, and a water clone came out. It immediately walked up to the throne and took a seat before being covered in gold.

I gave a sigh of relief at that. No matter how much I didn't like this Annabeth or Grover, I would have never wanted to see them as a statue. I grabbed the shield, then spotted Aphrodite's scarf behind the throne and grabbed it for good measure. With that I got up to leave, only for a maintenance door to open. "Do you need help? The exit's right there."

"Thanks," I replied to the old man who I suspected was actually Hephaestus. "Listen, next time you want to get back at Ares, why not try humiliating him? Don't do something that could hurt a demigod."

"Why would you care? You're just leaving your friend down there."

I chuckled at that while climbing the ladder up to him. "Friend? I thought you guys were keeping an eye on me. If you were, you'd know that Annabeth is back at camp by now and Grover … well, if Grover's a good friend then he's on his way here. What's in there is nothing but water. Besides, even if they were here and trapped in there, I wouldn't leave without them, that's not who I am. Call it my fatal flaw if you want, but I don't betray or abandon my friends." I dropped the scarf at his feet. "Give that back to your wife, then maybe you should try building something that she'd like, try patching things up with her." He gave me an odd look, but I wasn't done. "We're family, and families are messy, immortal families are eternally messy. Sometimes the best we can do is remind each other we're related and keep the killing to a minimum."

Hephaestus continued giving me that odd look, like he couldn't figure me out. "You're a good boy, Perseus Jackson. I look forward to seeing you become a hero."

A few minutes later, Grover showed up. "Percy, I can't believe I found you! How are things going?"

"Better, now that you're here," I answered. "Listen, I need your help. Ares is waiting for me, and I need you to steal something from him." Grover stared at me, but stayed quiet long enough for me to explain.