A/N: I decided this story wasn't quite finished (: This chapter is a bit insane, but I hope I didn't go overboard *shifty eyes* And Kirby77DP77, I included the old man...

---An Encounter With the Past---

---

It was an ordinary Thursday morning...

Well, not exactly. It was the opposite actually. It had been ordinary up until the point where Percy found himself running for his life through the woods with Todd the troll in his heels. He could hear the cracking of twigs and trees being pushed over behind him and it was as if the ground shook every time one of Todd's feet hit the ground.

Percy didn't know how long he'd been running, but he knew his legs would collapse soon. Adrenaline was the only thing pushing him forward together with the fact that a troll was chasing him.

The last time he'd seen the gigantic Troll was in the slave house, a memory that he'd been trying hard to forget. Five months had gone by. Annabeth had learned about the event, not every detail of course, just that Percy had been imprisoned for a while. She didn't know about the Viking king, or the birds or Todd... Percy still felt uncomfortable talking about it, even with Chiron. Percy just wanted to forget and pretend the whole thing had never happened. It wasn't working. As he was running now, it was like one of his nightmares had come true. His past had caught up with him, even though everyone had promised him that it was over. It clearly wasn't, Percy thought bitterly and continued running even though his legs were threatening to falter underneath him.

Percy had woken up that morning feeling fresh and excited. He'd managed to go one night without waking up drenched in sweat from dreaming about the birds. Later on he was going on a date with Annabeth. He'd planned everything. He was taking her up to a lake quite far up in the woods. It was close to the cabin he'd stayed at during his recovery. He was pretty sure she hadn't been there before. And it was warm, maybe they could go for a swim, he'd thought happily.

Percy had just wanted to go up there during the day alone and make sure that it was as nice as he remembered it.

Needless to say; he regretted that decision now.

Suddenly Todd had been standing there, in between the trees, just staring at him with his huge yellow eyes.

Percy's heart had nearly stopped by his sudden appearance.

How the hell had he managed to come back? Percy thought all the portals had been destroyed...

This was as mush reflection Percy had time for before he turned on his heel and belted in the opposite direction. He'd run straight to the part of the forest where he remembered the woods growing thicker, hoping it would slow down the large clumsy troll. It had worked for a little while until the forest soon had spread out again. Percy knew he wouldn't be able to keep this pace up for much longer. The troll was twice his size and his strides twice as long.

When they reached a little grass field Percy's feet decided to give up and as they collapsed underneath him he crashed against the ground and rolled around until a rock stopped him from getting any further.

As Todd leaned over him Percy was just sort of laying there stunned for a moment groaning and trying to blink his eyes into focus.

"Plaything did a bad, bad thing!" Todd bellowed from above. He grasped around Percy's shirt and lifted him off the ground and held him up before his angry face.

"Unhhh..." Percy croaked, still not fully focused on what had just happened. The impact of the fall had made him nauseous and he thought he was about to be sick. He hung dangling in the air, panting while he stared into the trolls yellow eyes.

"Todd is very disappointed" The troll said, looking very disappointed indeed.

Percy felt the nausea rising in his mouth, making his eyes water and he fought to swallow it back down.

"Helloooo?!" The troll shouted annoyed, as he didn't get a response out of the boy. He shook Percy violently and in the next second he had sick all over his shirt.

Percy sighed.

He was tied to a tree, but at least he didn't feel sick anymore. The troll had dipped Percy's head in the lake before washing himself. Then he revealed what as inside his rucksack; a lot of ropes, which he had used effectively and tied up Percy to a large tree stem.

"Todd make sure masters plaything don't run this time!" He said, his voice was sad "Todd show master that Todd is not useless..."

The troll folded his hands and looked down to the ground and sighed deeply.

"What happened?" Percy asked the depressed troll.

"Master punished Todd for loosing pretty plaything!" A tear dripped from the trolls eye and he wiped it from his cheek before drying his enormous nose on his sleeve.

Percy actually felt bad for the troll. "I'm sorry about that..." He mumbled. There were deep scars across the trolls skin, he had clearly been tortured for his mistake.

"But... Isn't it better to be free?" Percy tried.

"Free?" The troll asked confused "Free is without purpose"

It was the most insightful thing Percy had heard the troll say, and for a short moment he was a little impressed. That all changed as Todd put up a mean spirited face.

"But all will be forgiven when Todd bring plaything back to master" He rummaged around his rucksack for yet another rope.

"I'm pretty sure I'm tied up enough" Percy said resignedly. He had a rope sloped around his chest, his knees and one little one around his wrists, just in case. It was safe to say Percy was in a tight spot.

"Plaything is very fast" The troll said, and Percy thought he heard a hint of awe at Percy's running abilities. Clearly not fast enough, Percy thought to himself.

"You run fast for a girl at least" The troll continued.

Percy had forgotten about the gender issue and sighed.

"OK. First of all, my name is Percy" Percy exclaimed, "Second of all, I'm a human being, and I'm not a girl, I'm actually a boy, believe it or not"

Todd looked at Percy in disbelief, before he smiled and poked Percy in the stomach with a finger.

"Plaything is funny" Todd said and giggled. "But Todd is not dumb!"

"Ow..." Percy groaned "Just... Call me Percy ok? And stop poking please"

"Percy "Todd repeated, concentrating on the pronunciation. Then he held out his hand and said, "Todd, nice to meet you."

Percy looked at the trolls hand before looking back into his huge yellow eyes. "I'd love to shake your hand, but..."

The troll put his hand away quickly and blushed. "I forgot that I had tied you up, haha!" The troll laughed.

"Percy and Todd" The troll repeated happily.

"...Together at last" Percy mumbled, before clearing his voice; "Just out of curiosity, what're you going to do with me?"

The troll's mouth hung open for a moment as he scratched his head and tried to remember. It finally deemed on him and he nodded firmly "Going to make Percy cry just like Todd cried when master hurt him"

"I thought as much" Percy said depressed and he swallowed when he saw the knife Todd pulled out of his rucksack.

Todd had an IQ of a 2 year old but he was a faithful servant. He seemed fixed on punishing Percy and bring him back to his master so he could be forgiven and get his own position as a slave back. and the knife was sharp.

Todd lifted it up to Percy's face, the blade glinted a little in the light from the afternoon sun. Percy could feel his pulse quicken as panic rose.

"No no no!" Percy shouted, sounding frantic; his wide eyes set on the sharp blade only inches away from his face. "Todd mustn't ruin Percy's face, master will not be happy!"

"Oh" Todd said after a while and lowered his knife.

Percy took a deep breath. He just had to keep this up; he had to keep talking around Todd. Somebody at camp must notice his absence soon, he hoped.

The troll brought up his hand to Percys face and petted his cheek. His hand was larger than Percy's head. "Master would not like it if Todd ruined pretty face."

"No he wouldn't!" Percy said.

"But I need to punish." Todd said and lifted his knife again. He lifted Percy's t-shirt and put the blade to Percy's ribcage.

"You don't have to! Because I feel really bad for what I've done and I want to go back to Arvid and apologize so bad!" Percy stammered.

"Apologize?" Todd said surprised, raising his eyebrows.

"YES!" Percy nodded enthusiastically, "The thing is, I didn't really run that day, I just wanted to say goodbye to my friends and family first! But I was coming right back!" Percy tried to look his most innocent.

"I promise" He croaked eventually.

A fool could see that he was lying through his teeth.

"Oh, I cant wait to go back to Arvid!" Percy finally exclaimed loudly and joyfully and he sighed happily and looked dreamily up to the sky, like he was longing for the horrible Viking king.

The troll gasped at this new information.

Then suddenly Todd started roaring with laughter. His eyes rolled back and he held his large belly as he laughed.

"Heh... Misunderstandings!" Percy said weakly and tried to smile, but he failed. His eyes were still fixed on the blade in the Trolls hand.

"Todd thought Percy had run away!" The troll said and wiped tears away from his eyes "Todd misunderstand all this time?"

"Shockingly, yes!" Percy mumbled, relaxing a little as the troll put his knife back.

"I knew Plaything... I mean Percy, would do the right thing" Todd smiled affectionately.

"M-hm, you bet!" Percy nodded.

"I'm so happy!" The troll blurted and poked Percy with his finger again, making Percy gasp for air, but he nodded and smiled.

"Percy wait here and Todd will fetch master?" Todd's eyes were wide with enthusiasm. "And then we can both go back and everything will be ok and we will be safe with master?!"

"Yes!" Percy called out excitedly.

"I'm so happy!" The troll shouted. He was beside himself.

"Me too!" Percy said, "I... I want to hug you!"

"ME TOO!" The troll jumped and clapped his large hands.

He held out his arms ready to embrace Percy.

"But I want to put my arms around my friend!" Percy pointed out quickly and looked down at the ropes pressing into his skin all over his body. "You'll have to open these first"

"Aww..." the troll said and smiled tenderly. He used his knife to cut all the rope away from Percy. Percy was free. Todd leaned down and picked the boy into his arms.

"I love my human girl. Boy. Friend" The troll said as he hugged Percy tight.

Boyfriend, Percy wanted to correct him, but then he remembered how wrong that sounded. And he couldn't really object as he was busy trying to survive the hug and not be crushed to death by Todd's gigantic arms. Percy stumbled upon the ground a little bit as he was finally put down and had to lean against the tree for support.

"I'll just wait here and then you can go back and get master!" Percy breathed.

"Great!" Todd said as he picked up his stuff and pushed it down into the rucksack. He pulled out a gold coin of his pocket; the ticket needed for traveling through the portals.

Percy nodded and waved. " OK Bye! See you soon!"

As soon as the troll vanished though the time portal, Percy belted.

---

When he stood in Chiron's office some time after he was panting hard and struggling to get the information out. He kept pointing to the woods and looking terrified, frightening Annabeth and making Chiron look concerned.

He was given a tall glass of water, which he jugged down before leaning forwards on his knees. "Todd!" He wheezed "...He is back!"

Chiron's face fell immediately and Annabeth looked confused at the both of them for answers. "Who is Todd?"

"My new boyfriend apparently" Percy said depressed before looking anxiously at Chiron, "You didn't close all the portals"

Annabeth gaped at Chiron, since Percy wasn't making any sense "His boyfriend?"

Chiron closed his eyes for a moment and said, "I was contacted by an old man this morning, trying to warn me about this. I Didn't take him seriously I'm afraid" Chiron admitted.

"An old man?" Percy said "What did he look like?"

"He was standing by the gate entrance, making a ruckus. He had a white beard and a strange robe. I didn't think that it could be that old man" Chiron's eyes were full of regret as he looked at Percy. "Percy, tell me everything. It's time to fix this once and for all, but you have to be completely honest about every detail"

Percy fell into a chair and nodded.

***