6. The Beginning

Third-person POV

Perseus Jackson.

A name of a great hero, a person known by both demigods and monsters alike all over the Greek world. He is a demigod son of Poseidon and Hero of Olympus. He had accomplished things other people can only dream about.

At the tender age of twelve, he had prevented a war amongst the Olympians by retrieving and returning Zeus' Master Bolt and Hades' Helm of Darkness, effectively stopping World War Three from ever happening. He had even managed to defeat Ares, the god of war, in a duel. Even though he used his powers over water, it was still no small feat for a child.

He had helped retrieve the Golden Fleece from the Island of Polyphemus the next year, helping Clarrise save the camp by using it to heal the poisoned pine tree that held the magical borders of the camp. He had traversed the Sea of Monsters with his friends and may or may not have been turned into a guinea pig in the process.

The year after that was the first time he had lost someone. He and four others had gone to the Titan's stronghold on Mount Tam in San Fransisco to rescue the goddess Artemis from under the sky. He had even been the one to free Artemis from the burden, holding it in place until Artemis managed to get Atlas back under it. Five had gone on the quest but only three had returned.

Before his fifteenth birthday, he had found a Labyrinth entrance in camp and went with three of his friends into the horrendous maze on a quest to locate the workshop of Daedalus, the creator of the Labyrinth. He single-handedly destroyed the telkhines in Hepheaustus' workshop in Mount Saint Helens by blowing it up and managed to awaken one of the worst threats Olympus has ever faced: Typhon, the father of all monsters. All his friends thought he had died in the explosion but he arrived back in camp in time for his own funeral after recovering on Ogygia. The quest members had returned back into the maze and managed to find Daedalus with the help of a clear-sighted mortal, but had found him too late. They made haste back to camp just in time for the Titan army to invade, only stopping the attack because the Labyrinth was destroyed after Nico di Angelo, a son of Hades, had released the soul of its creator. Many demigods had lost their lives during that battle.

The year the Great Prophecy was meant to be fulfilled, he had lost another one of his close friends, Charles Beckendorf when they blew up the Princess Andromeda. Nico had convinced him to take a dip in the River Styx and after he was spat out of the river, he ended up completely destroyed a small army of skeletons commanded by Hades himself. When the Titan army invaded Manhattan, he along with about 40 other demigods and just over 20 hunters managed to prevent the army from reaching Olympus with the help of the Party Ponies and the last-second backup that Hades provided. After a long and tiring fight in the throne room of the gods, the prophecy had been fulfilled and Kronos' essence was scattered into Tartarus by Luke Castellan. After the whole battle, Percy was offered godhood but not only did he refuse for the love of his life, but he used that wish to greatly change the lives of the demigods and helped Hades and the minor gods gain recognition at camp.

Two months after the war, he was dragged into another one, this time against Mother Earth herself. He had his memory wiped and sent to the Roman camp in the west. After rescuing Death and defeating the giant born to oppose his father, Percy and the other six demigods of the prophecy travelled to Rome on a giant flying warship. Upon reaching there, he had to let Annabeth go on a solo mission no child of Athena had returned from to retrieve a statue that was vital in bringing the Greeks and Romans together.

After killing two giants with his friend Jason and the god Bacchus, he reunited with Annabeth only to be pulled down into the Pit by Arachne, the mother of all spiders. After many close calls with death, the duo had made their way to the Doors of Death and returned to the mortal world in Epirus, Greece before sailing to Athens to battle the giants born to oppose the gods. After defeating the giants with his friends and the gods, they got slapped all the way back to Camp Half-Blood for the final battle, which they won but with a heavy price.

As you can see, only people with a lot of time on their hands would tell his full story in one sitting.

Monsters of all kind fear his name, having known what he does to the ones that oppose him and his friends and family. They talk about him in Tartarus, how he had vanquished them in the mortal world and sent them to the pit to reform painfully. They make plans to finally eliminate him but it was never successful, so monsters would just avoid him at all costs and resolve to curse him immensely for all the monster deaths he had caused.

Demigods from both camps tell his story to new campers whenever they appear, talking about his quests and heroics and his overly long title. He is an icon, showing demigods from both camps what a true hero is meant to be.

He is even a constant topic of discussion on Olympus. The immortal citizens of Olympus - gods, goddesses and nature spirits - tell his story to their children as either a bedtime story or a person they wish them to become, or simply as a fairytale character.

He even has a limited edition Mythomagic card and figurine!

Poseidon is proud, proud that it was his son that achieved the title of being the greatest demigod the world has ever seen and not a child of Zeus that it normally was in ancient times. That gave Poseidon the ammunition against Zeus and ultimate bragging rights.

Nobody ever said the gods were mature.

Percy Jackson has been the first hero ever to so everything that he did, marking him as the greatest hero the Greek world has ever seen, even surpassing Heracles, Theseus, Odysseus and his namesake, the original Perseus. He had lots of friends that had his back and would do anything for him in a heartbeat.

That was four years ago.

You see, the last anyone has seen Percy Jackson was the day before his seventeenth birthday. All his friends broke into his cabin early in the morning on his birthday to surprise him but found nobody there, causing panic to spread like wildfire amongst the campers.

The campers looked everywhere in camp in hopes to find him but the efforts were in vain. After failing to locate the son of Poseidon, word spread all the way to the other demigod camp in San Fransisco. They too were worried for him as he had gained the respect of the legion and was their former praetor. The demigods from both camps immediately sent out search parties of volunteers to find their friend.

The gods of Olympus were informed of Percy's disappearance and they helped where they could since Ancient Laws prevented them from doing more. Hades had confirmed that Percy was not dead and according to Poseidon, he received an Iris Message from his son the day before his birthday saying he was fine and they should not worry about him. That was the only thing that stopped the Lord of the Seas from completely annihilating coastlines all over the world. That piece of information did nothing to stop the demigods from searching.

Despite their most important person being missing, the Greek and Roman world had taken a turn for the best.

After the reward ceremony where Percy Jackson made a wish to abolish one of the Ancient Laws, the gods had never been so happy. For millennia, that law had prevented them from seeing their children and they were ecstatic that they could finally do so, all because of a noble wish from an even nobler demigod.

Even Zeus and Dionysus, who had disagreed with the idea at first, seemed to feel a lot better now that they got to speak to their children. Zeus even wanted to apologise and thank Percy for allowing him to see Thalia and Jason but he had disappeared before he could, giving Zeus the motivation to help find him as soon as they could.

Ever since Annabeth, the head architect of Olympus, had passed, her mother had taken it upon herself to finish her daughter's work. Athena herself had found Annabeth's old designs and finished them off, slowly transforming the ruined Olympus into the most beautiful city to ever exist, surpassing the old Olympus by a mile. After completing all of Annabeth's designs, Athena had gone to Camp Half-Blood (since she didn't really have children in her Roman form) and spent almost all of her time with her children making designs for temples, shrines and new palaces for her to build in honour of Annabeth.

Other than Athena, the gods and goddesses that visited the camps the most often were Apollo, Hermes, Demeter, Hephaestus and most of the minor gods. Apollo would usually visit after dinner - since he had to drive the sun during the morning - and would take part in the campfire singalong with his children.

Hermes would visit his children whenever he had free time from making deliveries and delivering messages, which means he would often pop up in the middle of his cabin at any time of the day, including sometimes in the middle of the night. Something that mildly annoyed his children but they got to see their father, so they weren't complaining.

Demeter and Hephaestus would go to the camps to visit their children and just enjoy each other's company. Demeter would help her children make new gardens all over the camps, sometimes getting them flowers that were not native to America and incasing them in their own unique climate bubble so they can thrive in their specific environment. Hephaestus spends time with his children in the underground forges of Cabin Nine or the forges of Camp Jupiter making all sorts of machines and new designs, most of the time causing miniature explosions and lots of injuries, both major and minor.

The minor gods spent the most time at the camps as a whole, as they didn't have as many duties to attend to as the Olympians. The minor gods spent as much time as possible with their children, often thinking about how they finally had their children's recognised at camp and had their own cabin. Of course, that was all thanks to the one and only Percy Jackson.

Ares and Aphrodite usually visit the camps together, both discussing things with their children that were completely opposite. Aphrodite would chat with her children about the latest gossip over tea and biscuits whereas Ares would debate with his children what was the most brutal way of killing someone.

Artemis and her hunters would visit camp a lot more often when they weren't in the middle of a mission hunting dangerous monsters or searching for the son of Poseidon. After Percy Jackson, the Hunters and Artemis herself had realised that not all men were the disgusting pigs that they were all taught to hate. The Hunters interacted with the campers more, especially the males but they were still wary of certain people.

They would usually stay clear of Hermes' children due to their mischievous behaviour and after the poisoned t-shirt incident regarding Phoebe. They would also steer away from the Ares campers as well as the Apollo campers, both for different reasons. Ares because they were cocky and flirted with them way too much and Apollo because they were just as annoying as their father.

The Hunters would sometimes talk with boys that they deemed worthy, or had not shown any signs of being, well, a pig. The only males that they usually talked with were Jason Grace, Nico di Angelo, Will Solace and Frank Zhang, although they didn't talk with them much either.

They were all nice and respectful but the Hunters had slight problems with each one of them. Will and Frank were okay, but they were children of Apollo and Ares (Mars, whatever) respectively and the Hunters had problems with children of Apollo and Ares/Mars. Jason Grace was fine, not only because he was Thalia's brother but also because he didn't try to do anything to the hunters, although the hunters had a bad history with sons of Zeus. Nico di Angelo was polite enough, but being a son of Hades gives him a sort of 'death vibe' that made the Hunters uncomfortable around him.

Right, back to Percy Jackson disappearing.

After a few months and no success, not only did they not find their hero but all communication regarding demigods were cut off and Rachael Elizabeth Dare, the Oracle, had said that she lost the connection to the prophetic Spirit of Delphi. This made it harder in the search for Percy Jackson as the search parties would often use Iris Messages to inform the camps about their search and the locations of which they had searched.

But the peculiar thing was, two months after all communication and the Spirit of Delphi were cut off, the campers could suddenly start sending Iris Messages and use normal mortal cell phones again. A month after that, Rachael announced that the Spirit of Delphi had returned to her. Everyone thought it was strange but they shrugged it off, deciding that locating Percy Jackson was more important.

The Hunt was also helping the demigods look for the missing demigod. Everyone thought the Hunt would have more success since they were usually out in the open and could move quickly when they wanted to due to Artemis' blessing, but that was not the case as the Hunt had the same amount of success as the campers.

Artemis would sometimes join her Hunters in the search but could not find any leads as to where the demigod would be located. After a while, the Hunters had lost the motivation in the search but were constantly pushed by their lieutenant. Thalia had remembered what her cousin had said to her the day she arrived at camp all those years ago but she was still determined to find her best friend.

Two years ago, a strange occurrence had started happening. Demigods, both Greek and Roman, mysteriously appeared at either the Wolf House or the borders of Camp Half-Blood. At first, nobody thought anything of it but when the first girl appeared just outside of the Hunters' camp, it brought the attention of both the demigods and gods.

Artemis was furious. Not only did she fail to locate a male demigod, but an unknown person had managed to drop off a girl at her camp without her noticing. Chiron immediately questioned the demigods brought by the mysterious person and found out that the person was indeed a man. This brought hope to a number of campers as they thought it could have been their missing hero, Percy Jackson. When asked to describe the man, the demigods had said that the man was at first really scary, but had shown himself to be a really caring person after getting to know him, even if he never told them his name.

The demigods, usually children ranging from the ages of ten to thirteen, had been picked up by the man either from their home or from their school. A few demigods were even picked up from an orphanage. He had helped them and the girl that the man dropped off had told Artemis that the man had rescued her from an abusive household where she was beaten. The man had dealt justice and had made sure that the man would not hurt anyone ever again.

The demigods had told Chiron that the reason they found the man scary was his initial appearance. He wore all black clothes and had a black mask covering the bottom half of his face. But the most unnerving thing about the man was his eyes.

They were a pure golden colour, and what added to the intimidation factor was the long jagged scar over his right eye.

Definitely not Percy Jackson.

After a few months and a dozen or so demigods appearing near the individual camps, both the gods and demigods wondered what the man's motive was, so they decided to hunt for this man as well.

Two more years of searching for Percy Jackson while looking for the golden-eyed man with, again, no success. The demigods had already established long ago that Percy Jackson was not in America, since they had searched all over the states and had not found a single clue. They had not given up looking for Percy but had focused more on the mystery man since he was seen a lot more often.

The mystery man was very smart. He would never walk into camp with the demigod he helped. When the new demigod would appear by the border, the man would be nowhere nearby despite the campers' best efforts. The gods that often visit camp would not be able to locate the man either. The man was also very careful. If there were gods at camp, he would either wait for them to leave or he would send the demigod he guided to go on without him from a distance. Nothing the campers and gods did were enough to find him. He did a good job of avoiding capture and keeping his identity a secret.

Despite being infuriated by the mystery man, the campers and gods couldn't help but hold some form of respect for the man. He had helped young demigods at reaching either camps or the Hunt safely and had asked for nothing in return. After deciding that the man wasn't a threat, the search for Percy Jackson continued, though the campers had no idea how soon they were going to see their lost hero again.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

It had been a little over four years since Percy Jackson disappeared. The Hunters were currently setting up camp after another long day of searching.

It was already night time when all the tents were set up. This was one of their favourite camping spots in America, the forests of Yellowstone National Park near the borders of Wyoming. The stars glittered in the night sky, the constellation of the Huntress glowing brightly.

Artemis was not with her Hunters at the time, having to drive her moon chariot through the sky. This was the first of many problems that came upon the unsuspecting immortal maidens.

Almost immediately after the tents had been set down, the trees surrounding the clearing where their camp was set started rustling violently. Suddenly, the undergrowth parted and out came hordes and hordes of monsters.

The thing about the Hunters was that they like to be the one making the first move, firing arrows into their enemies before they even realise they were surrounded. Now, the Hunters were the ones being ambushed.

Cyclops, dracaena, Laistrygonian giants and packs upon packs of hellhounds emerged from the trees and threw a handful of projectiles; spears, rocks and exploding bronze cannonballs flying towards the Hunters.

Thankfully, the Hunters were quick on their feet and most of them managed to dodge the things being thrown at them. Unfortunately, not all Hunters had managed to escape unscathed. A spear had caught a huntress on her shoulder, eliciting a pained yell. A bronze cannonball thrown by a Laistrygonian giant blew up a tent, sending debris and rubble to rain down on the group of Hunters. Several huntresses fell to the ground after being hit with rocks, too injured to keep on fighting.

The remaining unharmed Hunters drew their hunting knives, preparing to fight in close quarters but they were not hopeful that they would make it out alive. Close to 200 monsters had them surrounded and they didn't have the numbers to hold them off.

Thalia Grace, the lieutenant of the Hunters, stepped forward in a defensive position in front of a number of fallen Hunters, brandishing her spear and magical shield Aegis. The monsters flinched at the sight of Medusa's head on the shield but they continued forward.

'Pathetic little girls!' a Laistrygonian giant boasted as he stalked forward holding Celestial Bronze cannonballs in both hands 'You are all weak. I will have enough food for Babycakes!'

Ugly cheers rose from the monsters' ranks as they gathered in a tight circle around the group of Hunters, making sure none can escape. Just as the first monsters were within twenty feet of the group, they abruptly froze.

About half of the monsters had suddenly stopped moving, rooted in their place causing their fellow monster friends to crash into them from behind. Everyone in the ruined clearing stopped moving and looked at the hundred or so monsters frozen in their spots with fear evident on their faces. Their comrades tried to push them to move forwards but failed. The frozen monsters seemed to be stuck to the ground no matter how much force was applied to try and move them.

After a few seconds, the first screams rose into the silent night sky, effectively breaking the silence of the stunned group. The first scream was closely followed by a second, and a hellhound yelping in pain until all of the frozen monsters were screaming or whimpering, unable to move. They were just standing there unmoving with agonising screams coming from their open mouths.

Both Hunters and monsters stared at the screaming group in horror but as suddenly as it started, the monsters that were still frozen in their spots broke into a cloud of golden dust one by one until half of the small army had been sent back to Tartarus.

Before the other monsters could attack the equally awestruck Hunters, another scream rang out from the outside of the circle. All heads turned to see a black blur tear through the monsters so fast that some couldn't even let out a scream, monsters seemingly dissolving randomly as a figure broke through the monsters' ranks with ease.

As one, the Hunters broke out of their shock and charged the remaining army, finishing off the ones that tried to escape until the last cyclops was struck down by the mysterious figure. All the remaining uninjured Hunters simultaneously drew their bows and had silver arrows notched and aimed at the figure.

The figure appeared to be a man wearing all black clothing. The man wore tight-fitting black sweatpants and had a black sweatshirt that fit the man's frame perfectly, leaving no fabric loose or being in the way. The man had his back towards the Hunters and they could see him sheath a pitch-black sword to his back as he started walking away.

'Stop!' Thalia said with such authority that it almost made the man stop.

Almost.

Thalia could see the man's unruly black hair that seemed familiar, like she should recognise it but she brushed it aside and spoke up again.

'Stop where you are, boy, or we will be forced to shoot!' Thalia said again, but the man just ignored her and continued walking. The other Hunters had left Thalia to deal with the man to start helping the wounded and clean up their ruined camp, only leaving three others who still had their bows pointed towards the retreating figure of the man.

When the man was about thirty feet away, Thalia released the arrow she had notched on her bow straight to the man's head. What happened next was so surprising the four Hunters thought they had not seen properly, and that their eyes were playing tricks on them.

Just as the arrow was about to hit the back of the man's head, he shifted to his left slightly and brought up his right hand in a 'peace' sign. The arrow flew in between his two fingers and stopped when he had caught it with his two fingers just above the fletching. The man turned around following the momentum of the arrow and by the time he had turned to face the four Hunters, a bow had materialised in his other hand and he already had the arrow notched and ready to fire. Before the Hunters knew what was happening, the man released the arrow and it flew towards a Hunter that was cleaning up a fallen tent.

Luckily, the man was not aiming to harm or kill the huntress. The arrow flew past her shoulder and into the open jaws of a hellhound that had leapt out of a shadow of a tree behind her, showering the Hunter in golden dust.

All the hunters that saw what happened turned to look at the man. To their shock, he was already walking away again with his bow nowhere to be found. The Hunters didn't even bother trying to stop him this time.

The man continued walking until he reached a bush 20 feet away from where he shot the hellhound. He knelt down and reached into the bush to pull out a young girl. The Hunters were about to rush in to help the girl but stopped in their tracks when they saw the man seemingly talking to the child and pointed in their direction. The girl looked over to where Thalia and three of her huntresses were standing and then back at the man before nodding.

The man, with his back still towards the Hunters, stood up to leave but before he could do so, the girl rushed forward and pulled the man into a tight hug. The man returned the hug but Thalia could see he was somewhat hesitant.

The girl bounded towards the four Hunters with a smile on her face. The huntresses couldn't help but smile back as they welcomed her with open arms. Thalia looked back up to the man to see harsh golden eyes looking straight at her.

Thalia took the time to look at the man's face. The man had a black mask covering the bottom half of his face. The mask itself had tiny slits running horizontally from one cheek to the other. The slits were obviously there so the man could get enough oxygen but the slits were just far enough apart so anyone looking at him couldn't make out his full face. Thalia looked up a bit more and saw a long scar over his right eye.

With a start, Thalia realised this was the man that they had failed to locate. The man that had helped demigods reach the camps or had brought girls to her and her mistress. Thalia now understood what the demigods had said about the man being intimidating and scary. She would never admit it, but the man standing in front of her unnerved her and made her uncomfortable. Thalia shifted a bit under his stare but steeled her nerves and reached for another arrow, her Hunters following her example.

'Who are you?' Thalia asked forcefully. To her chagrin, the man stayed silent even with four arrows pointed at him.

The man looked at each huntress individually before he turned behind a tree and vanished without a trace, leaving behind the girl he helped with four Hunters and the golden dust of over 200 monsters still on the forest floor.

A/N: Right, so this chapter was long. Totally surpassed the previous chapter. (4626 words)

So yeah, the 'mysterious man' had been seen by someone other than the rescued demigods for the first time. Who do you think he is?

Who am I kidding, you all know who it is.

The next chapter would be kind of like a filler chapter so bear with me.

Thanks fellas.

~Sacai2005