Three days. seventy two hours. Four thousand three hundred and twenty minutes. Twenty five thousand nine hundred and twenty seconds. Over twenty five thousand little ticks of a new watch Percy had gotten from Annabeth the day after he had met Carter and Reyna. Grover had been watching as she had sarcastically asked if he knew how to tell the time, and had then tagged along as Annabeth took him for training.

Not the type of trains that ran through the cities across the huge expanses of Olympus, not the kind that only transported soldiers or supplies, the type of training that meant practice, doing things over and over again.

Percy found it easier to focus with Annabeth, and the way she would talk tersely and to the point and make things easy to understand. And then she'd stop talking, and Percy would focus on Grover for a moment. He had nice shoes, like the ones belonging to the unconscious man the day the big KABOOM had happened and blown him all the way to this underground base. He had mumbled a lot when Percy looked at him, and hadn't spoken up when they ate meat and rice in the dining hall.

Percy had been introduced to Leo the next day. Well, introduced wasn't the right word. According to his teachers, an introduction was a formal presentation of one person to another, in which each is told the other's name. Percy hadn't been told Leo's name at first. When he had first entered Leo's lab, he had gotten blinded by a bright explosion.

"Whoops," Leo had said, taking off huge goggles that covered his eyes, nose, and part of his bushy hair. Once Percy had gotten has vision back and hadn't just seen white all over, he had stared at the mass of hair for a few seconds. Percy's hair had always been kept a certain length above his eyebrows, and his mom had always cut it so that it was neat and conforming to school policy. Leo's was the opposite. It was like his hair had been caught in a huge explosion too.

Kaboom, kaboom, kaboom. An eternal explosion caught on top of Leo's black hair.

Percy had started stumbling forward, but Annabeth gripped his thick shoulder tightly. Her fingers were thin, but that just made them more painful as they sank into his flesh. Maybe bits of wood had sunk into his flesh as he had been blown back by the big kaboom. Not a small one like Leo's hair, or the one that had just blinded him, but the big one.

"Oh, Annabeth. Hey, really sorry about that." Leo was tapping his hands nervously on his legs. (tip-tap tippity tap) "Hope you're okay."

"Of course I am," Annabeth said, "My eyes don't react strongly to harsh changes in light." Percy's eyes were beginning to adjust, and he could make out Leo's brown skin and black hair. His face had red imprints pressed into them while his face outside the red goggle imprints were charred black. The skin around his ears were peeling off, and they looked red. Not as red as blood, but a pinkish red like a newborn baby. Not that Percy had ever seen a newborn baby, but his mom had talked about it enough for him to imagine him bursting out of her stomach.

Annabeth shook him and he quickly concentrated on Leo again, who was saying, "Man, I keep on telling Chiron to get me cheaper metals so they won't cost us so much when I blow stuff up, but does he listen?"

He sighed, then looked at Percy. "You're Poseidon's son, right? Heard a lot about you. You got super powers that let you breathe underwater like they say?"

Percy blinked and said, "I haven't really tested it yet."

"Seriously, Annabeth?" Leo asked incredulously, "We've got the most important cyborg right here, right now, and you haven't taken him for testing?"

Annabeth's grey eyes were like steel rods that pushed Leo's words back down his throat. She looked at him as if she was bored, but Leo immediately changed subjects. "Anyways, you brought Percy here for the normal check up, right?"

Annabeth nodded. "I want to make sure he's prepared for the recoil of a gun."

Leo nodded. "What type? Because guns are different, different weights, different feels, diff-" Annabeth cut him off and dragged Percy forward first by the black arm. "Make sure that his joints won't jam or anything. Nothing fancy. I'll be back for him in an hour."

"Right, got it." Leo said, "So, let's see your arm. Pretty standard model, guess Poseidon didn't pay attention to your arms too much. Or maybe he's working on upgrades right now."

Percy nodded and asked, "So what are your upgrades?"

"Me?" Leo asked, "Who said I had upgrades? I upgrade upgrades." Percy must have looked confused, because Leo went on, "If they want a scope built into your forearm, they come to me. If you want super cool lasers built into your fingertips, they come to me. If they want flamethrowers built into their mouths to breathe fire, well, we're working on that, but once we get firebreathing cyborgs, there won't be anything stopping us from winning."

Percy was able to concentrate on that, even if it was just because of the mental images that Leo's words were evoking. He imagined running around with lasers coming out of his eyes and burning holes in everything he looked at. Maybe his eyes would be red, like Annabeth's were grey.

"Anyways, that comes later. You look like the kind of guy who likes things simple. Maybe I'll just put a little pistol that retracts into your kneecap. How'd you like that?"

"Um, what did Annabeth bring me here for?" Percy was able to keep up with Leo, and enjoyed being around this boy with a huge head of hair and skin that was browner than the wooden desks Percy would fidget behind. Leo's mind moved like Percy's did, and he felt like Leo understood what it was like to be distracted, to have that itch. It was obvious in the way he twirled a spanner expertly between his thin hands, and the way he would tap out a rhythm on the wall with his chipped fingernails. (tippity-tap, tippity-tap) There was an itch in Leo that he'd learnt to use.

"Come here." Leo beckoned Percy to follow him past a load of drills and hammers and different coils of twisted wires. Percy's brain was going into overload, processing everything at once, from the dull roar of a furnace to other assistants that had their faces hidden behind helmets or goggles.

Leo opened the door into a cleaner room with an operating table in the middle. "Now, I know how it looks," he said, "But I'm not going to take your organs. I need to take apart your arm to make sure it's functioning fine."

"Don't worry." Leo cut Percy off as his green eyes widened. Leo's smile hadn't once shifted from his face and he twiddled a syringe between his long fingers. The spanner he had initially been fiddling with had somehow vanished. Leo gestured onto the table and Percy reluctantly lay down.

"I'm not going to bother with straps." Leo said, "Just don't jerk your arm or anything, wouldn't do to have your interior filament chip getting lost in this place. Man, that was a real pain to deal with. Jason had to walk around with a dud arm for a week before I could fix it. Never blamed me for it, though, can't say the same for Reyna and Octavian."

Percy remembered Reyna and Carter from a few days ago, but hadn't met Octavian. "Who's Octavian?" He asked. As he did, he felt a short stab as Leo stabbed the syringe into his collarbone. "Normally we'd inject you through your arm, but since we just need to nullify pain below the shoulder, we can use a cheaper drug."

Percy nodded, not minding the quick change of subject. "Where do you get the drugs? My school never had any."

"We've got connections." Leo said, "Besides, success pays off. We couldn't have been this picky half a decade ago, but the war cabinet sees our value, and pretty much gets us what we want."

Percy's arm started feeling numb, and his mind started to slow down. At the very least, he was able to remember one of his previous questions. "So who's Octavian?"

"Just this guy from the Strikeforce." Leo said. He had picked up a screwdriver and was doing something with Percy's arm. Percy tried to tilt his head up to see, but he couldn't find the strength. His neck was limp and all he could do was stare at the black ceiling. Not being able to see what Leo was doing, he contented himself with asking, "Do all of the Strikeforce not like you?"

Leo laughed, though his arms stayed steady, and said, "Lot's of people don't like me. Too smart for them to handle, you know? But some members of the Strikeforce don't like us Infiltrators, and vice versa."

A small hook somehow seemed to appear from his hand, like he'd had it up his sleeve, and was inserting itself deep into Percy's arm. "Of course, that's just some people," Leo said, "Look at Jason and Piper, they've been together for three months and seem to be going well. No deaths, no fights, no abuse, no nothing. I'm happy for them. They deserve it. They-" Leo opened his mouth again, but closed it again, working on Percy's other arm with renewed vigour.

Leo's tongue was now sticking out as he fiddled with Percy's arm some more, and Percy thought it made him seem more childish. He wondered how old everyone here was, and it only occurred to Percy now that everyone he had met except for Chiron was young but looked old. It was like all of them had a mask that said they were adults. A mask that they had built themselves, a mask that they had crafted to fit their faces perfectly.

Some people like Annabeth had an expressionless mask. The mask that hid her from the vision of others. Reyna had that kind of mask too. But everyone had a grownup mask. The grownup mask that made their eyes more tired but made their faces harder, like they could make decisions that most people couldn't. He wondered how they made these masks that were constructed from skin and flesh instead of clay and plastic.

But when Leo was with his gadgets, handling inventions, fiddling with peoples' arms, it was like his mask came off and he was a child again. The way his tongue stuck out made him seem more human and less metal.

"How old are you?" Percy asked. Leo glanced up at him for a moment before saying, "I'm fifteen. Been here for a while now. I came with Jason and Piper, you know?"

Percy nodded. He felt like there were a lot of things being said that he should have been piecing together. Maybe it was the tense way Michael and Malcom were looking at each other, or if it was just Grover who couldn't even look at him, but Percy felt like he was missing something that he should be piecing together. Annabeth could probably piece it together. She would just look at the pieces with her grey steely eyes, and she would know exactly what had happened.

"Grover said he knew Annabeth for a long time." Percy said. Leo looked at Percy, and his grownup mask came on quickly. "What else did Grover tell you? He doesn't usually talk much." Percy thought for a bit and tried to remember what Grover had been saying, but Leo kept on talking. "I've known him for a while now. He was here before me, and even then he'd been here for a while. He was my first job, you know? I was working next to Beckendorf and I needed to replace Grover's tracker."

Leo went on to talk about the complexities of Grover's malfunctioning chip, but Percy had lost interest. Again. But before he had time to think for long, Leo tapped him on the shoulder and said, "Done. All your limbs are fine. You could get shot and you could still punch someone."

Percy nodded and got up. Leo was still talking, but Percy didn't hear much of it.

Later on in the day, or maybe it had been the next, Annabeth had taken him to fire guns. He had only seen them on a blackboard, all flat and in white and black. Annabeth had told him what to do, which switches to flick in order to make them work. But Percy had been scared. He had dropped the gun when he had first fired it and heard the huge BANG that came from the sound. Was it an oversized gun that had taken his mom away from him? He didn't know, he hadn't seen anything.

Annabeth had said something about recoil and momentum transference, but Percy hadn't been listening. He had just been looking at the gun in his hand, and froze there. Scared.

"What's wrong?" Annabeth had shaken him while keeping that mask on. The mask that hid her from everyone and allowed her to see everything.

Percy had just shrugged and shook his head. He wanted to leave this place. This place of explosions and deaths. How many Orthians had they killed? It wasn't fair for them to have so much power. It just wasn't.

Annabeth had cocked her head and asked, "Is your arm hurting?" Without asking, she ran her fingers mechanically over Percy's arm. She spun him around and checked the elbow and the connections next to his shoulder and armpit.

Percy quickly jerked away and mumbled, "I'm fine. It's just, it doesn't seem right."

"What doesn't seem right?" Annabeth asked. "We're supposed to be attacking Orthians."

Percy never knew what Annabeth was thinking. He just couldn't understand her. Couldn't understand anyone here. Why was Grover acting like he was supposed to answer some unasked question? This place did things to the people here and made them into something else. Percy was scared.

"Perhaps we should concentrate on his aquatic abilities." Chiron had said. He had wheeled himself in as Percy had shot his first bullet, and was now making his way towards Annabeth and Percy.

Annabeth shrugged and then said, "Alright then." She beckoned to Percy and he followed her down some more corridors. "Grover said the two of you used to be friends."

Annabeth didn't stop and didn't say anything. She just kept on walking with her shoulders slightly raised. Percy waited for her to say something, then continued, "Did Leo come here with Piper and Jason?"

This time Annabeth answered him. "Yes." But she didn't elaborate anything. Maybe her mask was covering her mouth, making it harder for her to speak.

"Do you like the Strikeforce?" Percy asked again. By now they were in front of a lift, and when it opened, Carter and another girl walked past them. Carter nodded to both Annabeth and Percy respectfully before heading in the opposite direction of the lift. Annabeth waited until they were in the lift and heading downwards before saying, "I don't hold any unjustified grudges against anyone."

Percy supposed that was her fancy way of saying no. As the lift stopped at another floor, Annabeth commented, "For someone so absent minded, you've remembered a lot of information."

"I guess because it's interesting." Percy said absently. He was staring at the buttons on the lift, realizing that there were twelve floors. "That and people talk clearly."

"You're talking more clearly as well." Annabeth walked out as Percy was still processing the comment and didn't slow down as Percy hurried after her. Percy almost tripped over his own feet in his rush, and his leg didn't respond as quickly as it once did. He fell on his metal knee, and instantly felt a huge stab of pain travel from his thigh to his chest to his ear. He fell on the ground again as his heart started trying to break his ribs, like his heart was trying to shoot its way out of his chest with a huge BANG and his head started throbbing again.

Annabeth had quickly rushed over and was holding him up, fiddling with his knee. Percy watched in gross detachment as she popped open a compartment on his thigh and looked at it, picking at some of the wires and fibers within.

Annabeth was saying something, but Percy couldn't concentrate until Annabeth grabbed his face and looked at him closely. Percy could concentrate on those grey eyes that were constant and steely and hard and unfathomable. They didn't reveal anything, and Percy could look at them trying to reason what Annabeth was thinking.

"This is normal." Annabeth was saying, "Your legs are still adjusting, and you need to remember that you have drugs in your system to dull the pain."

Percy nodded and tried to get back on his feet, but they buckled. They always buckled and trembled and shook. And the shaking from his legs made its way into his chest where his heart started to shake and try to escape from his chest like it was doing now.

The two of them limped forwards, Percy leaning on Annabeth's bony shoulder. He was always surprised that Annabeth could always support him, even though he was obviously heavier than she was. They made their way through more doors in bland corridors until they made their way to a huge bathtub.

Or at least, that was what it looked like to Percy. He saw the words pool written on the opposite side, and was amazed at the sheer amount of water in the area. It was bigger than Percy's apartment, and seemed to be deeper as well. He could see some people swimming in it, seeming to fly through the water, hovering over the bottom. Some wore black suits with black cylinders on their backs, as if getting cylinders were their modification. Others were hardly wearing any clothes at all, just swimming back and forth on the top.

Percy had never seen so much water in one place. This was Olympus, the land of earth, could it really be true that there was a small ocean inside their country? Percy's mind was going into overdrive, like a car that was overheating after suddenly going faster. He saw people somersaulting and pushing off walls, and saw poles and other obstacles that were floating in the water. Some of them were moving in synchronization and were coming up for air while shooting at floating targets that were supported by wires.

"Want to get in there?" Annabeth asked. "You said you always wanted to swim."

Percy nodded eagerly and jumped in.

He had had his mouth open in amazement when he had jumped in, which was a mistake. Water flowed his mouth and he started to cough, pushing up for air. It was only then that he realized he didn't know how to swim. No one did really, since there was never any need to. Where would he find water in Olympus? But now there was water, plenty of it, and he realized he couldn't swim. He thrashed around, splashing water all over the place, but he realized he was just swallowing more and more water. He started to sink as his arms grew tired and the water seemed to hug him. Almost like how his mom would hug him, except for the fact that he could breathe if his mom did hug him.

Suddenly he realized he could. He could breathe. He was swallowing water and breathing. He was gasping in panic underwater. He was floating and sinking underwater. It didn't make sense. There was that tight feeling in his stomach that always came when he held his breath. Only he wasn't holding his breath. He was breathing quickly and his arms were tense as they flailed about in the water. It was still amazing. He couldn't see anything except for vague shapes, and his eyes were stinging from the water that sometimes made their way past his eyelids. Maybe eyelids were like masks to the eyes, and they closed off and hid eyes from the outside world. Maybe there was always something, like water, that would seep in through the mask and sting and stab at the eyes behind them.

But then his eyes focused, and he suddenly saw everything as clearly as if he was on dry land. He could see figures swimming and twisting along the bottom of the pool on the other side.

Realizing he had reached the bottom, and kicked off the hard tiles to jump out of the water. He was laughing as he sprayed Annabeth's shirt with droplets of water as he surfaced. "Are you going to come in?" He laughed as he bobbed up and down. He had never been taught how to tread water, but found it coming naturally to him. Spread and kick, spread and kick. It was all in the legs. Spread and kick.

"I don't like getting my clothes wet." Annabeth said. Her lips didn't even twitch, and her stance didn't change, even though Percy was laughing more than he could ever remember. He didn't remember a lot, so it wasn't saying much, but he was happy.

Percy shrugged and then dived back down. He realized that he was kicking his legs and swinging his arms methodically, as if he had already knew how to fly through the water. Percy started spinning around and around, and he lost sense of direction and orientation. Where was up, where was down? Down was always where his feet hit the ground, but now he had his hands on the floor and his feet pointing towards the air. There was no up, no down, no left, no right, no then, no now, no right, no wrong, just him and the water, him and the peace, him and his home, where he would think and notice and be by himself.

He didn't know how long he floated there, and he didn't care either. Just something else he didn't notice. But he was noticing things all around him. His mind was clear, so clear, like the water he could see through. He had never swam before, so he didn't know that most people needed goggles to see. He just knew that he could see clearly as if he was in the air. The next day, he had looked in the mirror and noticed that his eyes, which had once been dark brown, were now a brilliant green.

Finally, he broke into the surface and started breathing air again. It was novel and seemed new to him for a moment, as if he was more at home in the water than he was on land. He turned at the sound of steady clapping, and looked up at Travis, who was sitting with his legs in the water. Beads of water dripped down his bare chest, and Percy saw bits of metal sticking out of Travis' elbows, marring his skinny frame. They shone and glittered under the bright lamps of the pool as he asked, "So, how do you like your dad's little gift?"

Percy cocked his head and asked, "What do you mean? What does my dad have anything to do with this?"

Travis laughed and said in a lyrical drawl, "That technology inside you is your dad's work. Wanna know why your bright green eyes are let you see through the water? Wanna know how your limbs are programmed to help you swim? Wanna know why those little slits on your neck let you breath in the water? Ask your dad."

Percy frowned up at Travis and thought. Was this his dad's work that kept him away for so long? Could he never be home for Percy because he was doing all of this? Was this his way of loving Percy?

Percy, love is complicated, his mom had said, everyone has their own way of expressing it.

Of course. This had to be what his dad's love was: helping him with metal limbs, and saving him even though he wasn't there. That was what love had to be, right? Percy smiled happily as visions of his dad's love came over him. Poseidon staying up and delicately working over the construction of his gooey eyes, Poseidon bringing together metal fibres and metal spars together and meshing them in a hot flame to build his arms. He felt happy at this obvious act of love Poseidon had obviously been giving to him from afar.

Travis had been looking at him with a smile, and Percy just shrugged, not knowing what to say. Travis ran his hand through wet hair, and again Percy could see a metal shine from his elbow. "Want to come swim some more?" Travis asked.

Percy nodded, and Travis slipped in the pool. "There's an obstacle course down on the bottom in case you didn't notice. Orthus is in the middle of a sea, so swimming's sort of an essential skill we need."

Travis dived down and started swimming with powerful strokes to the other end. Percy followed him, and could easily keep up with him. Travis had to tilt his head to the side every few seconds or so to give himself air, but Percy contented himself with staring at the bottom as he flew along like a bird flew across the grey sky.

When they had swam the entire length of the pool, Percy was breathing more heavily. He felt a small burning in his four limbs, and had a bit of a headache as he looked at the others. He saw Malcom there, the boy with grey eyes the same as Annabeth from yesterday. He was breathing heavily and holding onto a bar that was sticking out of the edge of the pool. "See you got all outfitted by Leo."

Percy nodded, forgetting about the argument that had happened yesterday, and said, "Yeah, he was really good."

Malcom tightened his lips, but suddenly two figures burst from the water. Percy blinked as a tall blond man started treading water next to a smirking brown haired girl. The boy seemed a lot like Carter. Proper. But he was more nervous than Carter and not as relaxed, like he thought he was being watched. Percy had seen the usual posters of handsome soldiers parading around, but none of them looked as handsome as the boy. His blond hair looked just right, proper and well-cut in proper Olympian tradition, and his arms were muscular, just like they were shown in the posters.

"This the new guy?" He asked Malcom. Malcom nodded and said, "Percy, meet Jason and Piper."

Piper grinned, and Percy noticed that she was good looking as well, but he couldn't compare her with any posters. Females fighting with guns just seemed wrong, it seemed unnatural, and Olympians hated the unnatural and unusual. Just look at how Percy himself had been treated. He nodded and said, "Nice to meet you."

It was what he had been taught to say, what had been natural. Civility to fellow Olympians had been drilled into him since he was five and started learning at the public school his dad had sent him to. The fellow Olympian was supposed to nod and and say something like nice to meet you to, or it's my pleasure. Granted, these conversations rarely happened while both parties were swimming in a pool. Piper laughed, and Percy was intrigued by her brown skin. It hadn't occurred to him before, but Carter had black skin, far blacker than any skin colour Percy had seen. Olympians looked down on people who weren't pure blooded because of that dreaded unwritten law, but both Carter and Piper were completely fine with it.

"So what do you think of this place?" Piper asked. She was holding onto Jason while they both kicked up with their legs. One of her skinny shoulders was hidden behind Jason's bare back as she clung to him.

"It's amazing." Percy blurted. "All of the other people are really nice." Jason and Piper smiled at each other, but Malcom just snorted. "Enjoy it while you can." Jason sighed and said, "It wasn't your fault, Malcom."

Malcom curled his lip and said, "If you want self-blame go talk to Annabeth for a bit. I'm not under the illusion that what happened was my fault, even if I was friends with Ethan before this."

Malcom spat out the word Ethan as if it was a frog that had worked its way from his stomach and now had to escape from his mouth because of his disgust.

"Reyna's been bugging me about why we didn't let any of the Strikeforce on that mission." Jason said, "I'm going to have to tell her something legitimate, not just some stuff about Infiltrators taking care of Infiltrator business."

Malcom's grey steely eyes were fixed on the water below him. "Just ask Annabeth. Isn't she our little expert on lying?"

Piper's eyes flicked up and she nudged Jason, who was still treading water. Malcom looked behind him his face went almost as pale as his eyes when he saw Annabeth standing next to a door behind them. "Go train some more." She said. Her face didn't change one bit, but Malcom immediately dived into the pool and didn't resurface for another minute.

She turned to Percy and asked, "Enjoy yourself?" Percy opened his mouth but Annabeth wasn't listening and turned to Jason. "I'll handle Reyna. Don't worry about it."

"What are you going to tell her?" Jason asked, "She knows we insisted that the Strikeforce stay out of it because of Ethan and his troops."

Annabeth shrugged. "Reyna's stressed because she has to report to the War Cabinet. Just so long I come up with something that sounds legitimate she won't mind."

She turned to leave and added to Jason, "Make sure Percy doesn't get lost. Don't leave him alone, I don't need an attention deficit teenager wandering into the generator areas."

Jason saluted ironically, but quickly stopped as both he and Piper started sinking into the pool. Annabeth turned and left just as Malcom resurfaced. He was gasping from having held his breath for so long and said, "Damn, she's scary."

Jason smiled and started swimming over the edge of the pool. Piper let go of him and asked Percy, "Want to go see the obstacle course below?"

Percy nodded and dived down without waiting for Piper to lead him. Going into the water felt different, but not unnatural. His body had been designed to fit in the water, and he felt as if water was rushing in and out of his arms and leg while more water rushed through his mouth and out of his throat. Below him were several bars and hurdles attached to the bottom. He easily moved through some of them and swam over and under and around even flipped over a spar that he hadn't noticed until he had almost swam into it. He then pushed off the floor and surfaced again with a huge grin on his face.

Piper hadn't tried to follow him, choosing to float back next to Jason and asked, "Want to go somewhere alone while we leave Percy to enjoy himself?"

Jason smiled at her but shook his head, "I promised Annabeth that I'd make sure he got back safely. Besides, Beckendorf would kill me if Percy got his hands on some of those new guns."

"Beckendorf's too nice to kill anything except for Orthians," Piper said dismissively, "But sure. We can stay here then."

Leo had mentioned Beckendorf earlier, or maybe it was Annabeth who had mentioned the two of them. "Do the two of you go to Beckendorf for modifications?" Percy asked as he easily swam up to them, only slightly out of breath. They both nodded, and Percy asked, "What are your modifications?"

In answer, Jason held up his hand and electricity sparked from his fingertips. "My fingers can emit electricity. It can be a little effective in a country surrounded by water."

"A little?" Piper smirked, "You're one of the strongest half-bloods out here and you know it. Stop being modest."

"Reyna and Annabeth would say it's always good to have your enemies underestimate you." Jason smiled, earning him a splash of water from Piper. His shoulders were more relaxed and lower when he was talking to Piper. He wasn't trying to be all rigid and proper like Carter. Carter seemed to be able to pull it off naturally, but none of the others, not even Annabeth, could be as upright yet loose as Carter.

"You listen too much to Reyna," Piper said as they pushed themselves up from the water. Their arms both tensed and Percy just noticed that both of Jason's arms were black and polished, just like his. "What's your modification, Piper?"

"I have a couple of strengthenings in my tendons and joints, nothing visible." Piper said, "Apart from that, I have eye modifications that record peoples' expressions and the way their face moves. That sort of stuff. That, coupled with a bit of psychology research means I can usually tell if people are lying or not."

"Usually?" Percy asked, "So does that mean there are people who can lie to you?" He wasn't too sure how her eyes worked anyways. Maybe he'd ask Leo or this Beckendorf person they went to.

"Annabeth." Jason said with a grimace, "Piper can't understand Annabeth. She finds it hard when Annabeth's expression never changes."

That was right, Annabeth's mask that hid everything from everyone. They were like her steely eyes that didn't let anyone in and didn't let anything of herself out.

"Could Leo fix it?" Percy asked. He remembered Leo mentioning Jason and Piper before, but he wasn't prepared for the dark brooding look that both of them put on. The sad mask, or the serious mask that always came when people were sad and unhappy at the same time. Like when his teachers would take him out for a little talk, or whenever his mom was thinking about dad and thought Percy wasn't looking.

"We go to Beckendorf for our technical problems," Jason said carefully. There was a mask that was slowly coming up, and Percy knew not to try and push. He would just end up hurting his hands if he tried hitting a brick wall, and that was what these masks around him were made of.

There was another silence, after which Percy dove down into the pool and swam across the length of the pool, breathing in huge gulps of water and relishing the feeling of it rushing through his mouth and back out his throat. Carter had touched it in fascination, probably not knowing what kind of modification it was. He flew through and across and above and below the water, kicking hard and fast. He quickly touched the wall at the far end and somehow, instinctively, planted his feet on the wall and pushed off even faster back to where he started from.

He broke out of the water again, and looked up at Piper and Jason, who were smiling down at him. "Someone's enjoying himself." She waited for a bit, then said, "Jason and I are going to go practice our firearm skills. Want to come?"

Percy froze, remembering the huge BANG! that had come out of the weapon, and the way a bullet had shot out from the gun, recoiling painfully against his arm as the bullet tried to make its way into someone's skin and out through the other side.

Jason had come put his dripping hand on Percy's shoulder, but Percy shook it off. How many people had Jason killed with that hand? How many holes had he pierced in peoples' bodies? He seemed out of place, like a bird who had fallen in the water. Except that Percy could still fly through the water and breathe on land.

Piper squeezed Jason's arm, and Jason looked at her. "Maybe we should just go back to our rooms? Percy needs to change his clothes anyways."

Jason frowned in confusion, and Percy looked down and just realized he hadn't bothered taking off his shirt or trousers when he had first plunged into the pool, and he was soaked. Percy nodded distractedly, noticing how droplets of water ran down Jason's bicep and pooled around the crook of his elbow before trailing down his forearm and gathered on his fingers where they gathered into droplets and splashed and the ground. "Sure, I guess, if that's what you want. Just let us get changed first."

Jason gestured towards a set of doors that he walked through to change, and Piper followed through a different door. Percy went out the way he had come in with Annabeth and waited outside.

Annabeth, Travis, Grover, Jason, Piper, Leo. And Clarisse and Chiron, as well as Malcom, Michael, Carter and Reyna. All these new people that seemed so distinct, so different but alike. Before this, he had only known children, teachers and his mom. The children that sat at desks and repeated what the teachers said. The teachers standing in front of them and repeating what their teachers had said. And it had gone on and on, everyone looking the same, even though some had a smaller jawbone or were slightly shorter. But all the students in his school had the same heritage, only pureblood Olympian with black hair and pale skin. And all of them had the same bored yet yielding expression, like they had resigned themselves to opening their mouths and swallowing every word and ideal they were taught.

And then there had been his mom, who had stood out blazing with compassion and vision. She had seen Percy. Not the Percy that his teachers had thought him to be, but she had actually seen him. And Percy loved her for that.

But these people here were so different. Their skin colours were different, heights were different, eyes were different, masks were all different, characters were different, they were all so distinct and memorable. Especially Annabeth, with those grey eyes that seemed to see through everything the same way Percy's mom would see through him. Even though Malcom had similar eyes, Annabeth's seemed different and sharper.

"Hey, look who just fell in the drink." It was Clarisse. Percy remembered her because she was carrying her spear halfway down the shaft. The one who had yelled at Travis for cheating. Travis had gotten away with that, Annabeth had even said they should all cheat, even though in school the teacher had said that cheating was something only Orthians did.

Percy nodded and said, "Can you swim?"

Clarisse snorted. "Of course I can. Hell, Chiron could probably tread water for a while before he sank if, for some reason, he fell in the sea."

The sea. The sea. Their enemy but Percy's desire. The sea. Percy dreamed about going there, past the grey buildings and black pavements to a blue expanse that went further than his imagination and with waves that flowed faster than his thoughts, and with far more power. "Why don't you like people?" Percy blurted out.

Clarisse was taken aback for a second, then rolled her eyes. "I see what Annabeth means, you're really an annoying brat."

"Hey," Jason said, as he came out of another door. "Why are you suddenly so unfriendly to the new guy? You don't like many people, but you never really went out of your way to call them out. You got something against him?"

"I'm not calling him out." Clarisse replied, twirling her spear absent-mindedly. "I-"

"Good." Jason said, cutting her off. "Because we're all just Olympians working towards the same goal, remember?"

"I remember." Clarisse said, "I also remember that you've lost your edge ever since you hooked up with that-"

"That what?" Piper said icily, coming out of yet another door (where did these doors all lead and where did they lead?)

Clarisse sneered at Piper and said, "You know exactly what I think of you."

Jason stepped between them, and Percy was surprised to see that Clarisse was almost as tall as Jason. It seemed jarring that a girl would be as big as a boy, all the girls and boy in the books, and even the children in Percy's school had noticeable differences in height and build. "That's enough. Go test out that spear of yours again."

"You don't outrank me, Jason. You're still part of the Strikeforce, even if you want to act like you're one of us."

Jason looked stonily at Clarisse, and Percy realized that Jason was dangerous. He was as dangerous as Clarisse's spear was. He hid it behind a smile and behind Piper, but he was dangerous. He was suddenly wearing Annabeth's expressionless mask that didn't let any of Clarisse's words to hit him. They would bounce off his mask the same way Percy had bounced off the wall behind him as he had been caught by the huge explosion that had shattered his world and sent flying into this confusing whirlwind that was now his new home.

Clarisse and Jason stared at each other for a few more seconds, then Piper tugged at Jason's sleeve. Percy noticed that the shirt Jason was wearing was orange, the same as Piper and Clarisse's. Piper tugged more insistently, and Jason stepped back, turning to Percy and saying, "Let's go. I'll show you some of the movies we've got."

Percy perked up immediately, and quickly followed Jason and Piper down more hallways. Piper glanced at Percy quickly, then quietly said to Jason, "Don't listen to her. She doesn't know what she's talking about."

Jason shook his head. "Maybe not all the time, but she was right this time. I could've insisted on more Strikeforce going on the mission. We should've been more direct, more forceful. And now Pollux and Castor are dead."

"It wasn't your fault." Piper said, gripping his arm tightly. "It was Orthus' fault. It was Ethan's fault. It was Luke's, but it wasn't yours."

"Maybe it wasn't my fault, but I could have prevented what happened. I should have been able to see through it all."

"What happened?" Percy asked, utterly confused. "What are you talking about?"

Piper and Jason looked at each other, then Piper slowly said, "Have you gotten the feeling that people have been acting a little strangely?"

"He's just gotten here," Jason said, "For all he knows this is what we're usually like." He sighed, then said, "Well, it's not like it's a secret. Every goddamn politician in the War Cabinet will be using it against us."

He stopped walking and leaned against the white and pristine wall. He ran his hand through his damp blond hair that stuck together in clumps. His blue eyes that seemed so bright, as bright as the sky, seemed to darken in sadness. Like the sunset that was sad because it knew that it would have to leave for a little while.

"There was a mission. It was a standard raid against an Orthus outpost. It was on the archipelago itself, not on Olympus, but it still should have been easy to infiltrate. That's what they're named for, isn't it?" Percy only understood half of what Jason had said, but still picked up on his sorrow and kept on nodding.

Jason continued. "Normally it wouldn't be such a big thing, but there was someone in the outpost that we wanted. He's called Ethan Nakamura. He used to be an Infiltrator but left them. Which meant the Infiltrators wanted to deal with it. Some of them have a grudge against Ethan. Anyways, they told the Strikeforce to butt out of it, and they went in secret to try to get to Ethan. I still don't know what they were going to do with him if they did get to him. Try to get him to talk?"

Jason's expression scared Percy. No smile. He sneered. His lip curled in hatred, and his eyes darkened even further until it seemed like he would kill someone. Jason's mask slipped and what was revealed was ugly and frightening.

Piper put her arm around Jason's waist and clung to him, letting her head rest on his chest. Jason's face softened, and his civilized and polite mask came back on. Piper picked up the story where Jason had left off. "Anyways, the Infiltrators walked into a trap. Pollux and Castor were killed instantly. Others got injured pretty badly. Connor actually lost his arm, and Thalia's still recovering from a gunshot wound to her kidney. It was only down to Clarisse holding their retreat and Annabeth's quick improvisation that we didn't lose any more lives."

Percy nodded. He supposed it made sense. "Is there any reason why Malcom seemed more angry than the others?"

Piper looked at Jason, who shrugged. "That's not for us to say. I wouldn't ask him though, he's still brooding about it."

"How do the Orthians fight?" Percy asked. It seemed like something he should know. It had never been touched upon in class. His teachers had never taught it to the class, never made them repeat it for days on end.

Jason's face brightened at the change of topic. He didn't smile but he looked Percy in the eye now. "They fight with different methods to ours. We use cybernetic modifications, Orthians use biological ones. They test genetic modifications on animals, and when they're perfected, then they're applied to humans."

Jason then paused, seeing Percy didn't understand what he was saying. "Basically, we attach metal body parts to ourselves, but the Orthians change their actual bodies. Does that make a little more sense?"

Percy then nodded. It did. And he was glad Jason had seen that. Teachers never did, and up until now, his mom had been the only one who had realized whenever Percy didn't understand. The rest looked at Percy as, what? Furniture? An animal? No, as a child. Children never needed to be listened to. They were to do what teachers told them to. They were to be fed ideas and to spit them back out, but never have ideas of their own.

But in this place, none of them were children. None of them were, not Leo, not Jason, and not him. He wasn't a child anymore, it had been blown off along with his arms, legs, skin and eyes. He wondered what kind of war required the fighters to change their bodies, change who they were. Percy wondered who Jason and Piper had been before they had gotten these modifications. How carefree and childlike were they before all this happened?

"So how many humans have had their bodies changed?" Percy asked. Jason looked at him and asked, "Any reason why you're so curious?"

"Not really." Percy said, "I just have questions, that's all."

Jason had smiled and the two of them had walked into a dark room with several shelves full of disks. "Have you heard of movies?"

Percy whirled his head around. He had heard of them, of course, but he had never seen one. He shook his head, and Jason had laughed. They put in a disk and watched a cartoon. Percy was startled when they turned out the lights, but then he was made speechless when light started coming from behind him, and he could see a real movie. It was moving pictures of perfectly drawn people moving and dancing about. Percy quickly forgot the plot and the names of the characters, but he liked it that way. He could see them again and again and be just as fascinated by the events and the characters as when he first started watching.

Percy quickly got lost in the grace of the main character, who danced about on rooftops with a long stick and slid on ice he himself had created. Percy remembered slipping on ice multiple times when he was small, and he still did slip a lot on the ice. His body would move without his mind, and before he knew it he'd be sitting on the ground, sometimes with classmates laughing and sniggering at him.

He couldn't remember anything in particular about the movie, but he remembered the wonderment and fascination he'd felt throughout the whole experience. He realized he had a huge grin on his face. Jason grinned back at him, and he said, "Enjoy it?"

Percy nodded, and Jason started to get up and turn on the lights when he heard the door open. Percy recognized Annabeth's voice immediately as she said, "He's too inexperienced. He can't even fire a gun and you want to send him in already?"

Another voice replied, and it took Percy a second to realize it was Chiron speaking. "You always wanted to do things efficiently, and without him, this mission will cost us."

"We don't need to accept this mission." Annabeth said, "It doesn't gain us anything except for an unstable and unpredictable boy."

"We gain a well-trained boy, who we can use." Chiron replied. Their voices were getting closer, and Jason motioned for Percy to lie on the couch the three of them had been sitting on. He and Piper then got up and stealthily made their way behind the shelves where the disks were being stored.

But it wasn't stealthy enough. Annabeth stopped and said, "I can see fine in the dark, Jason. Come out. Piper, turn on the lights."

Sheepishly, Jason started walking to where Piper was, and Percy looked up from where he had been lying down. "How've you been? What were you talking about just now?"

Annabeth looked at him for a second, then turned to Jason. "Leave eavesdropping to those who were trained to do it. Stick to what you're good at."

Jason flinched, but nodded and beckoned to Percy as he started to walk out. Percy started to follow, but Chiron held out an arm. "Why don't we ask him ourselves? He should have a say in what he does, don't you think?"

"None of us have a say in what we do." Annabeth said, "And I don't trust his judgement."

Chiron still smiled up at her, and Annabeth narrowed her eyes back at him. It seemed surreal that someone in a wheelchair could stand up to someone as strong and scary as Annabeth. Annabeth then sighed. "Do what you want then. But if he says yes and dies, his blood is on your hands."

Chiron nodded, and Annabeth left with Jason and Piper. Chiron looked up at Percy and smiled. "Have a seat."

Percy sat back down on the couch and Chiron rolled his way over to him. "How do you feel about this place so far, Percy?"

Percy coked his head thinking, then said, "Weird. It's good and bad."

"How so?" Chiron quirked an eyebrow at Percy as he pushed his wheelchair so that he was facing Percy.

"Well, people seem nice, but not nice." Percy was finding it hard to explain it. It felt like he was contradicting himself, going against whatever he said, and teachers never liked that.

Olympians must be true to their word. Orthians may dabble in double-speak and trickery, but we Olympians must stay true to our word. Percy had remembered repeating it again and again with the teacher and his students as the teacher strode up and down like a soldier on parade.

Chiron smiled. "I was not wrong. You are more perceptive than Annabeth gives you credit for." He paused, then asked, "Do you think what we are doing here is wrong?"

Percy frowned and said, "I don't think you should be killing people." He shuddered at the memory of the gun yelling at him as he pressed the trigger. The BANG! had startled him badly, and he still remembered how it felt.

Chiron nodded again. "What if you were about to be killed. Would you kill in self-defence?"

Percy didn't know the answer to this question, and his mind started swirling again. To avoid hurting his head, he thought about how Annabeth had been able to see through the dark. Could she see through the water as well?

"What if you didn't need to kill?" Chiron asked, "What if we needed you to rescue someone." Chiron was wheeling himself closer to Percy, and Percy suddenly wanted to draw back. Chiron seemed to be nice, but so did Jason, and there was something behind that mask of his as well. What if Chiron's whole being so far was just an intricate mask?

Percy shook his head, but Chiron continued, his brown eyes gazing intensely into Percy's new green ones. "We need you, Percy. You don't have to kill anyone yet, but you might need to run from people who do want to kill people."

"Why me?" Percy asked, "Why not Annabeth or Clarisse?"

"Because you can swim. You can swim better than any of them and can breathe in the water. Your father has given you a great gift, and it's now time to put that gift to use."

Percy looked down at his legs, but his mind was somewhere else. His dad wanted him to help. His dad had worked and had put his love through his limbs. How could he not fulfill and live up to his dad's love? Percy nodded. "I want to do it. For my dad."

Chiron frowned in surprise, but nodded slowly. "Very well then. The mission in concern is a rescue mission. I will give you the details later. Report to Annabeth now. Follow me."

Percy grinned and stood up, waiting for Chiron to leave the room before following him. Chiron wheeled himself smoothly down some corridors and up a lift. As they waited in the lift, Chiron asked, "Why the change of heart regarding your father?"

Percy looked down at Chiron's brown piercing eyes. They seemed to be able to see into him, not just his outer shell. His eyes were like Travis and Connor's eyes when they talked to him. And Percy felt at ease the same way he felt at ease with Travis and Connor. He felt comfortable talking to Chiron and projecting out his thoughts.

"I just want to repay him for giving me my new body." Percy stared at his black arms that were made of cold steel, and turned them around, examining them in the harsh light of the lift. The lift suddenly opened, and Percy walked out after Chiron, who said, "Still, your change of heart is surprising. Perhaps you should think through this more carefully, child."

Percy shook his head. He wanted to do it, wanted to use his dad's love to good use. He was going to make his dad even happier than he no doubt was. Chiron sighed. "Very well then. Just hide your enthusiasm in check around Annabeth. She won't be happy about this, especially since it is so irrational."

"She doesn't like things that don't make sense?"

"No, she doesn't." Chiron said. They rounded a corner and Percy opened another door for Chiron to roll through. "In her world things make sense. Things need to be ruled by logic. That's one of the reasons she finds you so aggravating."

Percy looked in confusion at Chiron, but Chiron didn't elaborate and opened the last door to a room that Annabeth, Malcom, and a few other half-bloods were sitting. "He has accepted."

Annabeth's looked flatly at Percy, but the look bounced off his oblivious head. She then turned and said, "How well can you read?"

Of course Percy could read. He didn't do it well, since he didn't like practicing, but he could read proficiently. He could read what the teacher wrote on the board, so he could avoid having a little talk, but he could still read.

Annabeth reached under the table and handed a file over to him. "Give this to Grover and have him help you read the file. It contains details to the mission."

Percy nodded and started walking out the door. He opened the file and saw that the first page was a profile of the person he was supposed to be rescuing. He remembered Annabeth referring to him as an unstable and psychotic boy. The boy looked like a proper Olympian, with white skin and black hair. He looked young even by the standards of the other half-bloods. There were a lot of words that Percy didn't bother reading. Well, that was a bit of a lie. He had read the first line of the page, and from what he could tell, it was the boy's name. After all, the first word of the line was "name". The next words, and the only other words on the page that Percy read, were "Nico di Angelo".

Three days. seventy two hours. Four thousand three hundred and twenty minutes. Twenty five thousand nine hundred and twenty seconds. That was how long it took before Percy was going out again. Three days, three days, three days. That made it almost a week since he had been blasted out of his house and his old life. A week ago he had been a child, listening and repeating to things a teacher said. And now what was he? Certainly not a child, but not a teacher either. Something else. Grover was sitting next to him, reading the file and about to explain things to him and make sure he understood. He was going to see more of Olympus, not just the dreary city he had been living in. And maybe there he'd find out what exactly he was

So, really sorry that this update took me so long. I have school. That's basically it. We had a pretty long chapter (by my standards anyways) because I wanted to get to some action. Set up is still going on, but hopefully it'll be in a more exciting atmosphere. I'm actually not sure if I'll be able to update for another couple of months because I've got exams coming up soon.

...and no, I'm not going to say "April Fools!". I do mean it. Sorry if I let you guys down on that front. Were you guys expecting some author's prank in this note?

Anyways, thanks to all the guest reviews. Keep it up, because I appreciate every one of them. I just don't really know how to respond to them. Thanks to all the other reviewers with accounts for reviewing, because I really appreciate them as well.

Feedback's always appreciated. Even one word reviews. 'till next time.