A/N: I LIIIIIIIIVE! Seriously though, I'm back! Sorry for the wait, but I was somewhat obsessing over some chapters for the other two stories I have going. Couldn't really write any other stories properly. Then school started being... school so... yeah. Again, sorry. I'll rant about it at the end. But, because of that stuff, I kinda struggled to keep the mood consistent. I wrote bits and pieces at different times, whenever I had the time, and energy, to do so. So MY mood changed a lot from part to part, meaning the story might be a bit... odd. I'll try to get a few chapters backed up so I can start a schedule of some sort. Thinking every week or so. We'll see.

Percy grinned at Frank and Hazel, who were trailing behind him and Mars, as they entered the place he hadn't seen in person for ages. Camp Jupiter. 'Oh, the nostalgia is gonna hit me HARD on this one.' He could FEEL the skepticism from Purge, and he handily ignored it.

Instead he just kept moving, trailing a step behind Mars as they made their way to the Tiber. By the time they made it to the actual river, most had probably been alerted to their presence, as there was already a large gathering on the other side.

Once they saw who was in the group, they ALL dropped to knee. Quickly. Percy couldn't help but snicker as he saw some of them fall over or fumble with their equipment from the rush. As they crossed the bridge, a bolt of lightning fell in front of them, which dispersed to show Jason, kneeling directly in front of Mars. Behind him were two Romans with purple cloaks on Pegasi, coming in for a landing. They too kneeled once they landed, taking up the position on either side of Jason.

It was a moment before anyone spoke. When the silence was broken, it was Jason that spoke. "Greetings, Lord Mars. Is it the time you prepared us for?" Mars nodded.

Standing up straight in front of the Olympian, Jason and the two praetors saluted Mars before turning to the rest of the legion. It was Mars who spoke, though, announcing his intentions to the entirety of the legion. "All applied legion members for project exodus will gather here in the next 5 minutes with all supplies and belongings they wish to take!" After showing their understanding, they dispersed, going to collect prepacked supplies and belongings.

Jason then turned to the group and went to address Mars. "Uh, I mean no disrespect, but what threat, exactly, are we going to combat?"

Percy looked at Mars incredulously. "YOU DIDN'T TELL THEM!?" To his further shock, Mars looked rather sheepish. His palm impacted with his face rather quickly after that revelation.

At that point, Jason focused on him, wondering who was talking to the main god of Rome so casually. Unable to discern his identity, he decided to ask. "And who may you be?"

Clutching his heart in mock pain, Percy stumbled forward. "Oh, you wound me so, Jason!" After chuckling at his own theatrics, he answered him by changing his eyes back to their original sea green and masking the grey streaks in his hair. "Recognize me now?" Jason stared at him, getting the familiar feeling from both his voice and his looks, but couldn't pin it down.

Sighing, Percy brought out both his new iterations of Riptide. "Now?"

Jason's widened eyes was all Percy needed to see that he did. "You!? How- but- when... what!? Aren't you supposed to be..."

Percy just laughed at him, but kept an eye on the now tensed god. "Yeah, yeah. I'll explain everything another time. Surprised you managed to believe I'd do that, by the way." Jason flinched from his words and looked away, feeling more than a little guilty.

Waving it off, Percy asked him something. "So, who were the two Praetors? Don't think I know 'em. And what happened to Reyna?"

Jason, thankful for the switch in topic, answered. "Well, the praetors are James Fetterman, legacy of Jupiter, and Marcelene Wright, daughter of Minerva." Percy raised a brow at the Minerva part, but then remembered that she lost her grudge against the Romans. "Reyna, well... she's working with her mother. She earned minor godhood a few decades back."

Percy nodded. "Fine, fine. Well, I have some things to set up. Once everyone returns, march them over to the Field of Mars. You'll find out what's happening by the end of the day." With that, Percy disappeared in a flash of light. Light travelling, as he called it.

Just outside of Lebanon, Kansas

Percy appeared in front of a farm house and two silos looking over a LARGE amount of land. "Ah, the perks of being a mercenary. You amass so much money that you can just do stuff like THIS." Purge agreed with him wholeheartedly.

Sighing, he got to work. Holding his hands out forward, he started chanting in an arcane manner. Barely visible, a small barrier appeared from the road FAR to his left, School Avenue, to the one to his right. Both the area of land in front of him and the area of land behind him was covered by it. "Okay, barrier set up. Now, where should they arrive..."

After making up his mind, he held out both hands above an area in front of the house he owned. A large glowing circle appeared on either side of him, which made him smile. "Good, I can still do it. Now, to head back to camp and set up one there... This'll be annoying." With that, he disappeared in another flash of light, rather glad that it was still daytime.

Camp Half-Blood

Appearing in front of the crowd again, Percy got their attention with a quick clearing of his throat. "Okay, so if you're still going, follow me." They had little choice but to follow him, so they did just that, following the super-powered demigod to the pine tree that maintained the magical border of the camp.

Pushing a hand out, Percy began to chant lowly. A circle appeared in front of him, a rather large one, in fact. Large enough to fit almost a fifth of the camp population at once. Even after it appeared, he kept chanting, now linking this one to the one he had in Kansas. By the time he was done, there was sweat visible on his forehead. 'I sooo have to practice that more often.'

Shaking his head, he turned to the group. "Just go into the ominously glowing circle... I promise it won't bite." He added the last part when some of the people looked anxious. "Seriously, though. You should start now, because I'm leaving now and I don't wanna find you guys staring at the circle like it's the entrance to Tartarus. Get going." He disappeared just like that, after wiping his face, of course.

Field of Mars

Appearing in front of the OTHER group of partially divine and mythological beings, Percy began to wonder why he was bothering to go through all this trouble for them. Shaking his head, as he was already this far into the process, he just looked over to Mars, who answered his silent question.

Clearing his throat, he addressed the Romans for the first time since he returned, shouting so that all of them could here him clearly. "Romans! Most of you do not know me, but I expect you all to behave with the same dignity and respect as if you were speaking to one of your own." Silently, his chain tattoos seemed to slither around his arm, parting to reveal Percy's old SPQR tattoo. "I have been here before, and I know what you are all capable of, so do not disappoint me. You'll be informed of everything soon, so for now, just follow me."

A thought occurred to him mid-mini-speech, which made him face-palm, as he could feel the distrust spreading through the legion. "Ah, I haven't introduced myself to you lot yet, have I?" He riased his arm so that his SPQR tattoo was facing them. "I am Perseus Jackson, son of Neptune, former member of the Fourth Cohort, former Praetor of the Legion, bane of the Minotaur, slayer of Hyperion, slayer of Kronos, slayer of Polybotes, slayer of Gaea, and defender of New Rome, among other things. I have been fighting for you since before many of you were born, and right now, I am putting in my effort to give you and the Olympians a fighting chance in what is to come." Percy didn't really want to recite all those titles, but he remembered that the Romans respected things like that and he didn't feel like just telling them to follow him into a suspicious, glowing circle while they didn't trust him.

The entire crowd was silent as they realized that they were looking at a living legend, regardless of what he was accused of doing. Even with the final, and only, stain on his record, none could find it in them to disregard everything he'd done, even if they only knew about it from stories. He was the reason any of them could be there. They'd all heard the stories. There wasn't a single one of them at the time, and possibly even now, that really stood a chance against Polybotes in the legion, and, considering that the Tiber was right there, they'd have been overwhelmed easily by the water wielding giant, had he gone unchallenged.

Percy then turned around, not bothering to wait too long to give them time to digest all of that. "Now, I'm creating transportation to... well, you will all understand momentarily. Just follow my orders for a little. That is all I request." With that, he pushed his hand out and, once he was done a bit of chanting, a large circle that, once more, glowed ominously, appeared on the ground.

He turned back to them, looking out on the crowd as he tried to gauge the size of the force. "It will likely take a few go's, but all of you will be taken care of. Enter the circle, and I recommend going in large groups. Maybe even just go by cohort. I don't care how you wish to do this, so I will leave that up to your Praetors, but when you are done, you'll be in a circle in a different area. Make sure to exit that one so that the rest may follow. I'd wish you luck, but I know a simple task as this is well within your abilities."

With that, he was gone, and the Romans got to work. They'd taken his advice of going by cohort, so, as the first cohort filled up the circle, the rest waited and watched. It was a surprise when the ground in the circle turned black before they disappeared in a flash.

Back in Kansas(Lots of traveling this chapter, huh? Well, it still ain't over.)

As Percy arrived, he was treated to the sight of most of Camp-Half Blood already there, the last group arriving at that moment. Looking to the exit point he'd designated for the Romans, he saw that the First Cohort was popping out. Then, when he turned to the Camp Half-Blood circle, he had to sigh. "God damn it. These fucks are making me work way too hard. I better get paid a fortune for this shit." Once he was done grumbling to himself, he shot over there.

Camp Half-Blood

A flash of light in the branches of a tree indicated Percy's arrival. Again. "Okay," he called, getting their attention. "what the actual fuck." They were silent as they looked at each other then back to the ominously glowing circle. "Oh, I get it. You're all a bunch of pansies. Well, grow a pair, for you males, get your panties out of a bunch, for you females, and for those of you with unspecefied gender... I don't give a fuck, step in the circle. Oh, and that part goes for ALL of you. I don't give a shit if you identify as an Apache Attack Helicopter! GET YOUR ASS IN THE CIRCLE!" When he saw that they were all now staring at him in shock, he started to get pissed, the strain of maintaining the magic making him irritable.

Snapping his fingers, he made another three circles, boxing them in and giving them multiple entrance points. "NOW!" And like that, they scrambled to follow orders. With a sigh, Percy waited until the last of them were gone before he closed all four circles. "I'm starting to root for the monsters..." Shaking his head, he returned to the place he'd set out.

Kansas... Again

Percy showed up, expecting two groups of at least somewhat organized demigods. And that was what he got, much to the pleasure of his blood pressure. "DEMIGODS!" he shouted to get the attention of the rather massive group of hybrids. "Good. Now, I will explain what is going on and what's going to happen." At that moment, Percy went into drill sergeant mode.

Clearing his throat, Percy prepared to launch into an explanation as he closed the last of the portals. "I've gone through the process, at the request of your Olympians, of getting help for all of you. And I mean ALL of you. You will be fighting a war against monsters, so I called in a few favors to get you the help you NEED to have the slightest chance of survival. It is here that you will be training with those I have convinced to help. It is here that I will strip away the childish innocence and pathetic sense of honor that you have built up and adhere to. It is here that I will turn you all into the kind of warriors that survive this kind of fight. It is here that you will toss away the bonds that shackle the true potential of your power. It is here that you will learn how to dash your humanity on a whim."

There was dead silence for a moment as Percy paused. "It is here that you will learn to fight, even in the event of your death, and learn to survive, be it in spirit or in body. I will turn you into people worthy of being the victor, or kill you trying. If what you learn here cannot be engraved into your souls, you will lose. If what you learn here doesn't save you, you stood no chance to begin with." He scanned his audience, picking out and mentally marking down who showed signs of faltering from just his words. There were a great number among them.

"Hmm..." Was the only response Percy gave for a good half a minute as he scrutinized them. "It seems I have a lot of work to do. Many of you began to falter from just hearing my words. I will temper your resolve into adamantium. By the time we are done, you will not falter in the face of adversity of any sort, even me. And, if I do my job right, a group like this would also stand a ghost of a chance."

Percy floated above them and began to walk on air, a power that was now his, not his blessing's, due to Zeus. "Now," he continued, drawing their attention back to him, "don't expect hell on earth all the time. Working you to the bone, and I mean to the bone, will only happen every, oh, one, maybe two weeks. I will not force you all to immediately start fighting with sharpened, stygian iron swords while blindfolded in a sinking ship lit with greek fire." The description alone was enough to make many of them look at him like he was crazy.

"No, that won't be for at least a few months." And now many of them were convinced he was crazy. "I have already created a balanced schedule of relaxation and working your ass of, along with everything in between, that can be adapted for just about everything, even finding out that the monsters are launching their attack now. You should all survive, as I won't give anyone anything more than what they can do, just more than what they THINK they can do. And then, after digging deep in a life or death situation, you'll get the rest of the day off and take up to the next three days easy, depending on what you do."

"Now, as the Roman's are unaware of the full scope of what's coming, due to a god who won't do his job..." Percy paused so send Mars an accusing look, "... I will go over it. You are going to be going to war with monsters. Not the shit you called war previously. No, there will be no room for honor here. They'll let you get back for the sole purpose of beating you down again and again until they break you. Then, they'll devour you, if you're lucky. I won't elaborate on what happens if you aren't." Many of the audience members shivered at the thought, something Percy made note of, in order to correct it.

"Despite this," Percy continued, adding new vigor to his voice, "they don't even want you that much. No, their problem is with the current world leadership. The gods." There was dead silence for a moment as Percy stopped his small air stroll above Zeus. Looking down, he narrowed his eyes at the king of the gods before looking away. "You are in danger only because you stand between them and their goal, as do a lot of other things. They are preparing to go on a war path. I've managed to ensure that the Titan's won't interfere with this, or take advantage of you afterwards in your weakened state, nor will Gaea attempt to take you down here. But, unless you get really good, many of you will likely fall in this bout to protect your parents."

A lot of whispers went through the crowd, which Percy allowed for a grand total of ten seconds. Clearing his throat, Percy regained their attention and continued. "And that is why I am making them fight as well. For too long have they, and I mean this rather generally, made their children fight for them. For too long have they preferred to allow you, their CHILDREN, to address the problems of the world they are supposed to rule. So, since they wish to retain their rule, I will force them to act like real rulers." One could here the bomb he just dropped go off if they listened closely.

"Just as you demigods learn to unlock the true power you've been born with," Percy continued, walking beyond them towards the field, "those who have grown lax upon their thrones will be thrown into the heat of battle once more. As immortals, I CAN work them to the bone, though I will refrain. I will save the baptsim by fire for when I know the mindsets of everyone has changed to accommodate it." Stopped on the air as he stared out at the field, he allowed a few moments of silence before saying a word. "Any questions? I won't bite... for now."

No one was bold enough to even speak to him after the bombs he just dropped, but, eventually, one person managed to muster enough courage to raise a hand. It was Annabeth. "Yes, child of Athena?"

Said immortal flinched ever so slightly at the cold title from the familiar voice. "Wh-wh..." Annabeth paused to take a breath, making sure her voice came out confident and steady. "Where would we be training, exactly?" She gave herself a little pat on the back for managing not to stutter in that situation.

"Hmph," was his only response for a few seconds before he gave a dry chucke, his face adorned with a wry smile. "Figures you would be the one to ask the question." Shaking his head, he stretched out both hands. "Here's lesson one. Guess what level of immortal I am from this. Maybe I've changed since you last saw me. Maybe not. Oh, and take this, and every lesson I give you, as seriously as possible."

With that, he closed his eyes and began to shape the land. The ground split in certain areas while rising to make hills in others. Water poured into ditches formed on Percy's whim, and two small lakes formed, one near the middle of the land he faced while the other was to its left, nearing the street, though "near" was relative, due to the size of the land. A river formed between the two lakes then off to the side, down to the road. Then, the ground itself began to shake.

It got so intense that people were falling over left and right. When they regained their bearings, they looked around. Everything looked normal... except for the fact that they could see nothing but blue sky all around. The rivers, which had mysteriously stopped before, now kept flowing, and they could tell what had happened. They were floating. Percy had ripped a chunk of the earth out and was suspending it in midair.

Those who realized whipped their heads around to find a sweating but smirking Percy. Said immortal, super-powered demigod then got to work on everything else. He set up water portals between the bottom of the crater he just left before connecting said portals with the bottoms of the two lakes. Then, he began to fill the crater down there, creating a HUGE lake beneath them. Then, after he filled it, he created an island in the center. Building on it, he widened his creation until it was large enough to hold a couple skyscrapers.

Done down there for the time being, he began to weave a spell that would keep the island afloat for him, as it was becoming seriously taxing for him to keep an island afloat for so long. For a moment, the bottom of the island glowed a light purple before Percy slowly released his hold on the island, testing to see if the spell was stable. He released a deep sigh at that point, as he could finally relax that part of his mind, which was getting rather strained at that point.

Finally able to take his focus off maintaining the altitude of a chunk of earth, he started to build on the land he'd formed previously. On the west of the river(which was also west of the farm house), he created what one could call a path of pillars, each of them in the Corinthian style of Roman columns. At the front, though, he had two huge statues of Mars with a sword out to the side, covering the path to make an arch as the mirrored one another.

He made the road that followed the path into a replica of the roman road, though he layered the top with imperial gold, which he then covered with a spell to prevent both damage and thievery. Then, from memory, he reconstructed the barracks of New Rome. Oddly, though, this only took up a fourth of the total land available.

Then, on the other side, right in front of the obviously roman path, he began construction of what, by process of elimination, would be the greek side. He started to chant as he focused on what he knew about life, and, after a few moments, a few laurel wreaths began to grow. And they kept growing, getting to the point of being able to match the large statues of Mars they were facing. Then, as he topped chanting, they stopped growing. They'd, by his command, began to intertwine and arch over, touching the ground as they finished.

With a snap of his fingers and a deal of concentration, Percy froze them in time, leaving them to encircle the entrance forever. Then, behind them, he grew a multitude of trees. He sped up time so that they grew into rather large trees and, with a couple more seconds of chanting, he tied their life force to the floating island. If it was ever sunk, the trees would die.

Then, as he'd made it look nice enough, he cleared out the path then embedded stones along the path, fitting them loosely together. While not looking quite as sophisticated as the roman roads, the road had a more natural feel to it, which Percy thought was a bit more fitting.

Shaking his head, Percy concentrated really hard. He'd remade all the greek cabins already, having been prepared for this. Now, a ripple appeared in the sky above the greek side as Percy snapped his fingers. Then, it disappeared. Below, seemingly out of nothing, had appeared an exact replica of each and every greek cabin Percy had seen, with space for him to make more.

Now, he turned his attention down the river, to the other lake. Around it, he constructed a multitude of tables, while he had a large amount of fountains ring it with plates that collected water and allowed it to trickle back into the lake after drawing it up(magically). There were areas for serving and places to give sacrifices, which doubled as natural lighting, due to their even spacing. A bigger fire roared to life with a snap of Percy's fingers, behind it a statue of Hestia, who Percy still held a sense of attachment to. This fire was a straight shot down the river, directly across from the farm house, which placed it centrally.

Then he created a large amphitheatre off to the right of the dining area/mess hall in a depression he'd left in the ground, though it was to the left if you were looking towards the farm house. It was, in simpler terms, on the greek side. He constructed it out of a mixture of smoky black marble, stygian iron, and imperial gold, though the gold was more for accents than anything else. There was even a roof above it, supported with golden beams. Percy retracted it with a thought, though, leaving only structural pillars that doubles as decoration, as they contrasted well with the black seats.

On the other side of the mess hall, he began to concentrate once more, having worked on this with the help of a few protogenoi. When the ripple, similar to the ones that had appeared previously for the cabins but far bigger, disappeared, there was a massive dome, the purpose of which Percy didn't look like he was going to disclose, but they could only assume that it was part of their training in some form. As the dome didn't take up all the space, next to it Percy created training areas for everything from archery to broadsword fighting, and everything in between.

Mostly done with everything over there, he turned around to the farm house and snapped his fingers, creating a large wooden structure. A stable, the demigods would later recognize it as, though, as they were, they were a little to stunned to recognize much that wasn't obvious from the get-go. One thing that was obvious, though, was the touching up of the farm house and the periodically placed bridges Percy made along the river before deciding he was done.

He jumped into the lake after that, rejuvenating himself for a moment before springing back out in front of them. "I think that's about it for now." He didn't want to show it, but he was actually rather tired after all of that. Instead, though, he floated back up into the air and looked down to where he'd identified Annabeth earlier. "So, how's that for architecture, wise-girl." At this point, the nickname was more of an insult than anything else, and it had the same stinging effect it always did on her.

Percy, however paid it no mind. "Now," he continued, back to addressing the crowd of at least partly mythological figures, "guess. Let's see who's able to observe the best out of you." There were no hands as they started discussing among themselves as best they could in their shocked states.

After a full minute of no one answering, Artemis put her hand up with a sigh. "Why yes, Arty? And do explain your answer." Percy's voice reminded the demigods of a teacher speaking to a child, though Artemis ignored it completely.

"You're still a demigod." And like that everyone thought she was crazy. That is, until she started backing it up. "Last I saw your blood, it was red. Then, when he strained, there was a light tint of red to your face, not the gold of a god or titan. Then there's the fact that you can't travel around how immortals do: by revealing their true form then using the power to move to our desired location. There's no way you're anything more than an immortal demigod." There was dead silence as it sunk in. A demigod just did all of that.

Percy allowed them a moment to let it sink in. "Good," he began after a minute or so of waiting. "Then again, you are a hunter, so I shouldn't expect less of you." He took a moment so shake his head, realizig why she was able to piece it together so much better than the others. "Well, I do have one correction to make. I'm only a partial immortal. I can be killed and won't come back, unlike you, who would return after a while. Regardless, this is just another thing we will have to work on if you wish to survive."

Lowering himself down to the water's surface, Percy began to walk along it. "Follow." The entire crowd did as told, the Poseidon/Neptune crew following on the water. "These," Percy explained as he reached the two paths he'd built, "are your quarters. You can tell which is which, I'd imagine. And if you somehow can't, ask a friend. If we get to the point that you are all comfortable enough with each other, I may even merge them and free up space to add something extra. Now, follow along. We have much more to see."

As they walked, Percy continued to make minute changes to things. A tree lining here. A pillar or two there. The island was really a work in progress, and said progress was visible to any who bothered to look around.

Eventually they reached the mess hall, which all of them marveled at, seeing it up close for the first time. All but Percy, who walked up to the largest flame and smiled. Next to him appeared a woman with red hair and a covering that looked rather similar to the statue Percy had made. Hestia. Before she could say anything, Percy cut her off. "Don't thank me. There's no need for that." He looked to his left, where she resided, with a small smile. "Besides, I figure they need some more hope if they were to prevail. And where better..."

She smiled softly at him as she nodded, fading into nothing once more. Percy shook his head and turned back to the crowd, which was starting to return their attention back to him. He could still feel the comforting presence of Hestia, regardless of whether she was visible, and he didn't have to worry about her leaving. He knew she wouldn't.

Instead, he splayed his hands out to the side. "There will be no enforced segregation here. You may sit wherever and with whoever you wish. In fact, I encourage it, for the petty arguments of your parents are another shackle I seek to shatter. They limit your teamwork far more than you imagine. Children of Ares and Athena, of Zeus and Poseidon, of Hephaestus and Ares, of Athena and Poseidon..." He paused to wink at the crowd for that one. "Hell, even the hunters of Artemis and children of Apol-..."

He paused, realizing that THAT mix would need a lot more time to be eased into. "Uh, we'll see about that one." A round of laughter went across the crowd as the hunters nodded at Percy's correction. Percy cleared his throat, to regain their attention after a moment. "Well, uh, you get the point. THAT feud is more than the argument between Artemis and Apollo, but the others are just you acting out your parents petty argument, which they can never seem to finish for whatever reason." He gave Athena a small glare, as he had PERSONAL experience with her grudge. She didn't meet his eye, though she did sweat.

"Anyway," Percy continued, "that is the purpose of this. To allow you to tear down the barriers your parents have set up. You will work together and win together, or you will fall together. Simple as that." Then he gestured towards the amphitheatre. "Now, ladies, gentlemen, and those of unspecified gender, is the new amphitheatre. Don't worry about lighting, as I'm imbued it with a light Lumnos spell, giving enough light to see where you're going at all times. We'll focus on that later, though. For now..."

He walked to the side that the dome was raised a hand. "This, people, is probably me second greatest creation ever. Eat your heart out Hecate and Hephaestus, for this is the Biodome. Using spacial displacement runes and matter recollecting spells, I've managed to create a dome that simulates just about any environment you can think of, from the vacuum of space to the bottom of the sea to the center of an active fucking volcano. If you can think of it, I can make you experience it... ten times more intense that you think possible."

He looked rather smug as he crossed his arms, smirking at his creation. "A sinking ship lit with greek fire is child's play so simulate with this. I've actually been working on the spells for this for a long time, and I finished them around, oh, 50... no, 60 years ago. My time, mind you. It was only 12.5 to 15 years ago for you guys. Still, took a lot of trial, error, and ambrosia to build this bad boy."

Percy turned around, smirk still firmly in place on his face. "You can keep that concealment spell you, ah, "adapted," Hecate, because I've moved onto bigger things!"

Seeing the confused looks on some of their faces, and the outrage of some of Hecate's children, he decided to explain. "Oh, you don't know. Forgot. Well, Hecate and I met every so often while I stayed in Tartarus, and the meetings would last a while. She'd found out that I learned some magic and helped me out. By the time I caught up, we were outright working together. But that spell that she gave to Hephaestus was for concealment of my home and it's energy signal, not the concealment of your location whenever you used your little demigod phones. I even showed her the prototype for concealing phone signals, which was my idea to begin with, and she took that and ran with it."

There was dead silence as Hecate blushed. "You're all welcome, by the way." Was the next thing Percy said. "I understand why you had to be underhand about it. I REALLY didn't like demigods at that time, so if I knew you were helping them with it, I probably would've flipped. Still, not cool... but I don't care anymore. Do whatever you want with it." She looked really relieved that he was chill about it. "But," he continued, "if you pay attention, that's part of the spell surrounding this entire area, so you don't have to worry about that. No need to waste extra battery by turning concealment on." A good chunk of the demigods cheered at that. It really ate away at your battery life.

A mass chuckling was heard at that point, which made Percy scowl and blush slightly. These voices weren't normal voices. Two, somehow, sounded like waves crashing onto a cliff face, while another gave off an airy feel. Yet another was dark, making you feel as though it was the darkest night possible and you could only stare of into the sky, waiting for the sun, while another, in contrast, gave off such brightness that one would wish for the embrace of the night. There were others, too. One that gave a sense of foreboding, one that gave a sense of moving yet going no where.

Some made you feel tiny, others made you feel light. Some made you happy while others filled you with dread. One, the most powerful laugh of all, was more of a feeling than any form of sound, yet they could still identify it as a laugh. It made you feel empty, yet full at the same time. Like you had so much inside you that you were about to explode. You wanted to cease to exist as a single entity from the feeling, and just spread out as evenly as possible, attaining a sort of equilibrium.

Your individuality didn't matter in the face of this feeling.

Nothing did.

Only your existence and how it should end. Where it will go, beyond even the after life. When you returned to that which all of creation sprung. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. From nothing everything came, and to nothing it will return. Back to the void.

Percy's sigh broke them of their trances. "Oh, stop scaring them already. Some of them are about to pass out." You could feel the pout from... whatever was capable of making such sounds.

Suddenly, a host of characters appeared. No one had to introduce them, as everyone could tell from the feeling of their presence that they were beyond the gods, beyond the titans. They were Protegenoi. The basics, the building blocks on which the world exists. They even saw Gaea among their ranks, but could do little about it, really. They could barely handle being near them as they were, let alone fight back if the protogenoi wished to end them.

Once more, Percy stepped in on their behalf. "Okay, their getting sorta light headed now. May wanna lay off." They either rolled their eyes, shrugged, or sighed. But they complied. Then, they proceeded to greet him like old friends, which they kind of were. Percy had to keep it short, though, as he had introductions to get to. "Okay, these are the Protogenoi, or primordial deities, as many refer to them as. You better consider yourselves very lucky, because I got them to agree to both not interfere in this war and help train you all."

With the overbearing immortal presence that they gave off gone, people were getting a bit more brave. They associated them with bad news, due to Gaea more than anything else, so they were understandable suspicious. One asked, "How do we know you "accidentally" kill us all while training? If anything, how do we know you'll even bother helping us?" As people started to see the logic behind the statement, more and more rallied behind it.

The protogenoi, however, just began to laugh, to varying degrees. Some cracked up, others hid their chuckle behind their hands, and others did something in between. Percy, however only blushed. "I may have agreed to some terms... you better be fucking grateful." He grumbled the last part to himself, though, as they were focused on him, many heard it and were confused.

The general question of what terms came across the crowd, making the protogenoi look at Percy with devious faces, for the most part. Khaos was the one to give an answer. "Oh, nothing too big. He jus-" Suddenly, a piece of tape appeared on her mouth, as odd as it was when she seemed to made of the lack of things.

Percy just glared at her with a small blush, which he'd been getting under control the whole time. "Nothing. Absolutely nothing." His words failed in conveying what his eyes did, and they spoke of every ounce of suffering he'd find a way to put them through if even one of them spoke. Khaos got rid of the tape with ease but put her hands up in surrender, not saying anything else.

Sighing, Percy turned back to the demigods, turning his sleeves into his skin tight shirt with face mask in order to maintain his appearance of authority. "ANYWAY, they will be teaching you." He switched into drill sergeant mode in order to regain any lost authority over them. "You have the rest of the day to get used to the layout of this place, but lunch is in half an hour, so put down your stuff, maybe wash off, or whatever, then get back here. Dismissed!" They felt compelled to salute him then march away before realizing what they were doing.

Percy, once they were gone, looked over to the protogenoi. "Okay, let's lay down some ground rules. Not one of you will be revealing what I had to do to get you to do this. If even a word of it passes any of your lips in revelation of our terms, I will bring it out. And I will use it to kill a fucking protogenoi... or ten." They had no problems with that, allowing Percy to breathe a sigh of... slight relief.

About ten minutes later, Percy was taking a dip in the lake as he waited. He ended up sitting at the bottom of the lake, pondering things that were to come. Who he thought would survive. Who he thought would "win". 'There's never a winner in war. Only the ones that are able to stand when it is all over.' He had to sigh to himself at the thought. He knew that it was better if he just let the monsters overrun the gods and be over with, but that wouldn't be all too fair. At the very least, he'll give them the tools of victory, but how well they were able to use said "tools" would be up to them.

He felt Artemis flash in beside him, and smirked. "Sup, Arty."

"Arty" just stared at him for a while before sighing. "What are they?"

"What are what?" was Percy's oh so eloquent response. Albeit, a warranted response, but still.

Artemis floated in front of him and looked him in the eyes, not in the mood for him avoiding her questions. "What are the terms?" she asked/demanded. "You wouldn't have shown such a reaction if it wasn't bad."

At that, Percy made sure to suppress a light blush. "Oh, YOU will find out soon enough."

She couldn't help but narrow her eyes at him. "What do you mean?"

Seeing no way out of telling her, besides running, which would prompt her to chase him, he relented. "Promise you won't hurt me." Warily, she did. "Do you mean that?" This time she nodded, getting a bit anxious.

Taking a deep breath, Percy asked a question that he didn't see himself asking in a long time. "Uh..." Despite getting her to agree to preserving his safety, he still braced for impact. "Wanna grab some lunch tomorrow? There's also a movie that I've been dying to see and a good amusement park around..." He trailed off when he saw her staring at him with a "stop stalling" look.

"I'm serious!" he explained, or at least started to. Her confused look made him face palm.

Sighing, he looked around for naiads, which wasn't very likely considering how recently he made everything. He sighed once more and tried to calm down his fight or flight reflex which was screaming at him to run away and not say a thing. Resolve set, he opened his eyes, both of them a deep sea green that locked onto her silver ones.

They stayed like that for a few moments before he actually spoke. "Artemis," he began, "will you go out with me?"

Artemis just blinked. "What?"

A/N: AAAAAAAnd cut. I'll leave it on a cliff hanger, because I'm evil. Anyway, I feel like you can guess the terms of the Protogenoi's service from the last few lines of this. If not, I will give you a warning. Prepare for the most vanilla, fluff-filled chapter I have ever written in my life. Shivers. Seriously, though, I'll explain it for those who couldn't get it. The Protogenoi, in return for their help, wanted to see one thing without Percy interrupting their view.

His first, and possibly only, date with Artemis.

Just about every one of them ship the hell out of the two. Even if a relationship doesn't work out for the two, they want to see that. And they wanna see that baaaaaaaaaaaaaaad. As do I. And yet, I'm not that big on love. Go figure.

Regardless, this is literally them forcing Percy to go out on a date with "Arty", as I've structured his character in a fashion that wouldn't allow him to do so otherwise. I kinda needed to do this, the more I think about it. Oh, but wait until you see what happens during the date. Not gonna spoil it, but I'll say this much. I hope you like movies. And that is no where near as straight forward as it seems.

Moving on, I must say that school throws any semblance of a schedule right out the fucking window with me. Sadly, I won't really be able to post too regularly for a little while, for reasons other that school this time. Unless I get REALLY lucky, that is.

Small Rant Incoming - You have been warned.

My mom went through a somewhat minor surgery recently. The danger to her life was negligible, but she had something removed from her leg, which has left her with limited mobility. So, as the son of a single mother, the responsibilities she would normally take care of fall upon my shoulders. And that takes up a lot of my writing time.

Here's an example of my evening, so you can understand why I can't get more than five minutes in which I can take a break and write. When I get home, which would usually be the time when I have a chance of writing, I shower, do homework for an hour or so, make dinner, eat dinner, clean up after dinner, attempt to finish homework, then try to be in bed before 2 am. Other times I have to tack on laundry, trash, or music lessons mandated by my mother to the aforementioned list of things to finish in a respectable amount of time. Weekends are only marginally better.

Sometimes they're worse, though. I might have extra things shoved onto me. Like recently when I had a rather big test. Mum made me study. And I mean STUDY. And yes, something I can classify as a big test in the second month of school. Speaking of school, this week seemed to be "fuck the students over with fifty tests in one week" week.

Seriously, though, it was kind of ridiculous. Digital Electronics CLASS feels like a test, and a test in that class feels like hell. And that's one of, what, 8 classes? One would think Health would be a break class, or even Physical Education, but NOPE! Got tests and homework from them too. Hell, I got a project from PE and one coming up in Health.

Speaking of classes, though, I really must wonder why I'm required to take an English class. A class on the language I speak quite well, in my humble opinion, is rather pointless and wastes both time and a period I could be dedicating to furthering my education. I know that an English class is a salient part of building skill in communication, critical thinking, etc., but I'd prefer to double up on something more useful for my current goal of being an engineer(specializing in nanomechanics is the end goal there). It's really frustrating at times.

Small Rant Over - Safe reading may resume.

Ah, first world problems. I have them in spades, and I let them build up far too much. Oh no, I'm being forced to take a class that will give me information and practice that's likely going to be applicable in the real world! What ever will I do!? Seriously, though, don't take any of that seriously. It was just me getting it off my chest. I feel far better now that I've said that. If you need to rant, feel free. Hell, maybe you just need to rant about it. Venting is good for your health. Seriously. I had to memorize that for my health test. I know.

Ignoring me and my problems, critiques and comments are welcome. As always, thanks for taking the time to read this and have a nice life! R&R!