Previously:
The face I was looking at made me freeze. He looked almost exactly the same as when I last saw him, his smug look seemed permanent and he still had weak muscles. Then I saw the sign of my mother on his wrist.

"Where did you get that, Calem Peterson?" I said in a cold, emotionless voice.

"You know this man, Fire Lord?" Bock asked me, shocked.

I looked up to answer to Bock only to see the face of the girl that broke my heart. "Annabeth Chase," I growled.

One thing was different. They both had the symbol of a traitor on their foreheads.

"What are you two traitors doing here?" I growled, silencing any conversation going on around me. The only sound now was the rushing water somewhere in the cavern.

"Who are you?" Calem sneered, "and how do you know our names?"

I hesitated, unsure as if to trust the rock giants here. I glanced at Bock, who had a completely confused look on his face. He was looking between the three of us, trying to figure out what exactly was going on. Then, slowly, I pulled down my hood.

"My real name is Percy Jackson," I said quietly but I could still be heard around the plaza, "I know your names because you are the ones whom I used to call friends. At least for Annabeth that was true."

"Percy," Annabeth breathed, bringing her hands to her chest. A small smile made its way onto her face. Why was she smiling? She broke my heart.

"Jackson," Calem spat, "what are you doing here?" Now there is a reaction I expected to see.

I smirked. "Fulfilling my destiny, as usual," I answered, "How about you answer my question?"

"Can you not see?" Calem asked, brushing his sandy blond hair out of the way. There the black mark of the omega symbol stood out against his pale skin, catching every eye in the room. "The gods banished us and sent us off with some Keeper. We're making our way in the universe."

I narrowed my eyes. "What did you do to get banished?" I inquired, the gods don't do things for no reason. Unless you are Dionysus. "Betraying me is not enough to gain such a severe punishment."

Calem's and Annabeth's expressions immediately turned guarded. "Nothing," Annabeth now spoke, "they called us to Olympus just as we were going to lunch and accused us for no reason."

"How long have they been here?" I asked Bock over my shoulder, still looking at them.

A bald rock giant to the right answered for him. "They just arrived this morning," he said, "some lady called Sadmep brought them. Said we had to watch them until you got here after she made them go from the size of an ant to our size."

Suddenly I remembered the iron bracelet with my mother's symbol. In a blink of an eye, I had Calem's wrist in my hand and my thumb brushing the symbol.

A secret compartment opened up and out fell a note folded so it could fit in the small space. It was slightly yellowed and stiff and it fell to the floor fast, like a falling leaf.

Annabeth made a grab for it but when her hand touched the paper, my foot shot out ad stomped on it. Some of the giants cringed at the sound of breaking bones and Annabeth let out a screech.

"What could a simple note so obviously from my mother contain that you do not want me to see it?" I asked in an innocent voice as I reached down to grab it, bringing Calem easily to the ground with me. "Could it be information on what to do with you if I ever see you? What you did to get banished?"

"No!" Annabeth shouted from her spot on the ground. "It's nothing!"

"If it were nothing, you wouldn't mind me reading it," I replied coolly. I smirked as I eyed my surroundings, wary of peeking eyes that were not supposed to peek. I saw three rock giants in my general area. The rest were busy with the stalls of what looked to be a market. One of them was Bock and the other two were obviously in charge of the two demigods from Tartarus. There was a large door way behind them, probably led to some sort of holding cell as I saw that it led farther down.

"You," I ordered one with a fedora on his head, "Come get this one," I jerked Calem up and turned to the other one. "You come get the scum from beneath my feet."

"Don't be rude, Percy," Annabeth said tearing up.

"Don't be fake, Annabeth," I retorted, unfolding the note as the giants took them as I ordered.

Dear Percy,
    My dear boy, your time to avenge yourself has finally come! Do what you wish with Annabeth Chase and Calem Peterson but know that they were marked traitors for a reason. Another war has come. With whom, we have yet to find out. It's driving Athena mad as you can imagine and Elpis has become weak. Her flutters in the pithos has become more frantic and less frequent. Annabeth Chase and Calem Peterson have been found guilty of aiding the enemy in this new war and have been tried accordingly.
    I will not ask for you to come home, we will do our best to handle this on our own. It is high time we begin doing that. Zeus, however, is nervous. As well as the demigods at camp and Artemis' hunters, especially Thalia. They are unsure on how we will do this with out your help. We all miss you and wish you well on your journeys. Know that your father and I love you and long for the day when you return to us. Stay safe, keep out of trouble and be the hero we all know you are.
                Love, Mother

The note did not end there but I had to stop to wipe at my eyes. No, I was not crying...I just missed my family. At the very bottom, a large paragraph was written in hand writing similar to mine. "Dad," I breathed and continued reading.

Percy,
    I see that Hestia has told you about the traitors and the war so I will skip all that and tell you something I must ask be kept secret between the three of us. Back on our planet, as I'm sure you've heard about by now, there is an empty castle. None of the Titans nor the gods have been there, as we were all born on Earth. That castle was for a great leader; the legend of the Empty Castle has been passed down from our grandfather, who lived on Pomeacus, the planet he lived on before leaving to come to Earth. Oranus told Kronos, who in turn told Prometheus who then told us thousands of years ago during the first fight with the Titans that one day a great hero and leader would' return to Pomeacus and rule there for a time before fighting and winning a Great War on behalf of the entire universe. My son, you know better than I how your luck is. If this is something that speaks to you as your Destiny's of Destinies, do not hesitate on taking your first chance to the home of the Primordials. As much as I wish with all my heart this would not be so, I have a horrible feeling that it is your Destinies of Destinies. Fare thee well and all that. I miss you.
        Love, Dad

I sighed heavily. My mind flashed back to the two-word-note I received the summer before the last battle against Kronos and I groaned. Both notes were ominous and foreboding but at least this one had more information. The Destiny of Destinies worried me the most. The Destiny of Destinies is the destiny that will be the greatest adventure and mean most to you as your purpose than any other quest. Most demigods never find their's but I apparently, will find mine in the near future. I sighed and decided to worry about it later and stuffed the note in my pocket.

"Who was that from?" Bock asked.

I flashed him a sad smile. "My father and adoptive mother," I told him. "Haven't seen or heard from them in centuries."

Bock's eyes widened as I picked up the assassin giant once more and followed the giants carrying the demigods into the door way I noticed earlier. "How old are you?" He asked in awe.

"I don't know," I answered, "I lost track on the Planet of the Golden Shadows. I spent almost two centuries with Keeper Sadmep, learning as much of the universe as I could before setting out into it and one and a half on Yona. I stayed the longest with the Golden Ninjas on the Planet of the Golden Shadows and now I am here."

"You don't look centuries years old," Bock muttered, impressed, "and how did you escape the Golden Ninjas? I've heard they don't let anyone leave."

"I'm special," I said with a smirk.

I heard a snort from up ahead. "You got that right, there was this one time-" Annabeth was cut off as I growled.

"You have no right to speak, traitor," I spat, my voice echoing in the halls. "You will be receiving your punishment soon enough. I wouldn't dig yourself a deeper hole."

"I could say the same about you," Calem sneered. "Isn't August 17th coming up?"

"Gag them," I growled. I'd had enough of them for a while. I heard strangled and then muffled shouts before it was silent once again.

"What is August?" Bock asked.

"The eighth month of the year on my planet," I answered.

"What was he talking about?" one of the giants ahead asked as we finally reached the cells.

I did not answer for a moment as we all put our respective charges into an individual cell. Once the doors closed, I looked into Annabeth's eyes. "August 17th, the day before my birthday," I began just as the giant with the fedora opened his mouth to re-ask the question. "Used to be the day I was put into a torturous sleep. Forced to relive all my worst memories. As my horrible experiences grew, so did the memories of which I saw in my sleep."

The three rock giants all looked at me in horror.

"Several centuries of it," I said, shaking my head, "the length of my curse was extended to weeks, even months from the usual one day." I turned to look at Calem, a smug smirk on my face. "The family I gained on my last planet was shocked, horrified and I had finally had enough. Want to know what I did?"

"What?" the bald rock giant asked.

I frowned and looked at him. "What's your name?" I asked, "I can't keep calling you guys the 'rock giants' in my head."

"I'm Michael," the one with the fedora laughed.

"Davyd," the other one answered, laughing as well.

I nodded then turned to look at Calem and Annabeth. "To rid myself of the curse you two put me under," I continued, "the Golden Ninjas found that all I needed to do was join another family and cut ties with the ones on Earth but for the godly side. So I joined them, simple as that." I laughed at the furious looks on their faces. "I'm free of you two. Granted, I would probably go back and reforge the ones with Thalia and Jason and everyone else but you two will never be going back home." I held up the note from my mother and father before spinning on my heals and leaving the cells.

I had reached the plaza before Bock caught up to me, panting since he ran all the way from the cells. "Are you okay, Fire Lord?" he asked.

I looked at him questioningly. "You know my real name yet you call me by my other name," I started, toneless, "why?"

"I have a feeling you wish to forget that life as long as you can," Bock said thoughtfully. "I will comply to your wishes since you will be doing so much for me."

I stayed silent as I followed him through the caves. He was right, in a way, I do want to forget. Forget the horrors of war and the betrayal that happened on Earth. Forget the pain. Forget the heart-wrenching loss. Forget the hardship.

Forget.

Forget.

Forget.

Yet, I don't want to forget. Forget who I am, Perseus Jackson, son of Poseidon and Hestia. Son of the sea and hearth. Hero of Olympus. I do not want to forget all the good times I had at camp. The wonderful memories and fun but embarrassing moments. I don't want to forget the lesson I learned from Annabeth and all my other trials. Because if I forgot them I'll make those mistakes again and again. More people will suffer, more pain caused. I can't do that to everyone.

Neither one of us said another word as Bock led me through the plate like cavern and into a series of tunnels that took too many turns to count. My sense of direction which was inhanced by Hermes even got confused.

"Fire Lord-"

"Call me Perseus," I interrupted him, "I need to face my past even if I am a different person than I was back then so I wish to be called by my full name."

Bock glanced over his shoulder, grinning at me. "Very well, Perseus," he said, coming up to a curtained door way. "This room has been prepared for you, I hope it is to your liking."

I pushed back the curtain and peeked inside. The room itself was mostly made of rock. Including the bed. There were shelves carved into the wall to the left, same with a nightstand by the bed to the right. Torches lined the walls, lighting up the small room. Colorful rugs covered the hard rock floor and thick blankets and pillows laid on the bed, making the rock hard bed seem more inviting than it sounded. There were tapestries, colored green, gold and silver lining the walls. Some told stories, some held battle scenes and others showed family crests.

I smiled. "It's perfect," I said, walking in and dropping my bag on the small table by the door. "I wouldn't change a thing," Except for the curtain, I'll have to change that to something that will help me keep my privacy and keep the thieves out.

I turned all the way around and ended up looking at Bock. "Where to next?" I asked, grinning up at him. Even with my increase in height, he was still taller than me by at least a head.

Bock looked at me in surprise. "You don't want to unpack?" He asked.

I shrugged my shoulders. "I'm good, don't have much to unpack anyways," I told him with a wry smile. "When I leave, I take only what I need. " Even though my bag has no limit to its space.

"In that case we will go to the training room until my father and the dressers are ready," he said, "You must be presented as my Protector since I am the son of the chief. It's a huge ceremony and every one comes. "

I gulped. I hated ceremonies, especially when they are for me but I brightened when it registered that he had said training room. "Alright, let's go!" I said, leading the way out of the room. I popped my head back in after a few seconds. "Where is the training room?"

Bock laughed and showed me the way through the cave tunnels.

The training room was huge, even for the giants. It was separated into four sections. One was weapons training, one for muscle building, one fore sparring and the last for fist fighting. A running track went around all four of the sections with a force field at the corners of the rectangular track so no one can cut corners, supposedly for your agility. I'm not sure if it actually helps or not. A few people were running the track and a few were in the weight area and fist fighting but most were with the weapons training and about the same amount was sparring. I saw Bock eyeing me and the sparring section, probably wondering how good I was.

Well, I was not going to make it that easy. I'll start with something easy and work my way around until I reach the sparring area. I went to the weight area and started small. Seeing the unimpressed looks I got from the others working out, I realized that the rock giants here are a lot stronger than the average demigod let alone human. I saw a young rock giant lifting two 45 weights on each side of the bar. I'm pretty sure that not even Clarisse, daughter of Ares could do that. Therefore, I upped my game, I put about twice as much as the young rock giant I saw. That turned some heads.

After that I migrated with Bock on my tail to the fist fighting area. Both Davyd and Michael were there, eager to help train me along with Bock. I fought with Michael first, losing that fight just so I could get a feel for how they fight. For the last two fights with Bock and Davyd, I knew I could beat them, however, I held back just so I could save my energy for the sparring part. Something I'm saving for the end. Those two fights ended up in a tie.

The weapons section was chaotic at first before I saw how it was organized. Archery to the right with the targets against the wall and same with crossbow and knife throwing. I skipped that one, seeing as I was horrible at shooting with bows and arrows. I could do a crossbow and the knives but I decided to check out the other areas first. Swords and knife fighting was on the far left and the place closer to me was for any one who wanted to learn a weapon that wasn't standardized. The weapon rack was in the smack middle of the weapons training area.

I stood by the weapon rack, rubbing my hands together. Training with weapons has always been my favorite next to sparring. I especially loved learning new weapons. However, this time I decided to stay with the sword since I knew I could control my skills better because I knew that weapon better.

Still, I went to the lesson one of the trainers was holding on how to use the sword. I wanted to see how they fought with the sword. Everyone had different styles and I intended to learn them all.

The rock giant had gathered all the students in a group so that he and another student was in the middle.   He told them that he was going to show them a disarming move, how you were suppose to twist the enemy's blade with the flat of your own so that your opponent had to let go of their sword. He first demonstrated the move in slow motion then he told the student to try it before anyone else tried it.

It reminded me of my first sword lesson with Luke.

I listened intently, smirking inwardly and my hand twitching around the blade I grabbed from the weapon rack.

"Now don't worry if you don't get this move the first few times, it takes years to master it," the trainer said. Really? I think I forgot that part when Luke was talking.

"Do you truly need to be here, Perseus?" Bock asked from his spot next to me. "You looked like you knew that sword well in Mother Teresa's cave."

"It never hurts to learn new things," I said cryptically.

The teacher set us sparring in order to try the move, much like Luke did. I was the newbie, just like last time so I was paired with the teacher.

Needless to say, I went through a sense of deja vu. I bided my time, not wanting to make the teacher think I already knew this just yet, before I finally did the same thing I did when I was doing it against Luke. I twisted his blade and sure enough, the sword flew out of his hand and landed by the weapons rack, hilt up. Silence fell through out the arena but then whispers went around. I heard something along the lines of "best swordsman in a thousand years."

Would you look at that. I bested the best swordsman in a long time for the second time in my life.

"Show me that again," the trainer said, his eyes wide with shock.

I smirked. "Very well, but after this I am going to spar," I told him. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Bock perk up when I said that.

We fought for a while and it happened much like the time before. Not with Luke, where I didn't do it again but like the first time I tried the move. The sword flew out of his hand and went flying through the air. Except this time, it landed in a target in the archery section.

"Come on, really?" I demanded, almost throwing the sword down in my frustration. "I can't hit the target when I am actually trying but when I am doing something completely different, I get a bullseye! How is that even fair?"

I saw Bock hide a laugh while the others stared at me, jaws hanging open, catching what ever insects fly through their air. I didn't know they like to eat insects here. I shrugged as I strolled over to the sparring section of the arena.

"Perseus, why don't you spar with me in the middle?" I heard Davyd ask. I turned to see him walking away from Bock and towards the middle of the area where a circle larger than the others was. I smiled and followed him in that direction.

We stood facing each other for a few seconds, allowing the crowd to gather before Davyd suddenly let out a battle cry and lept at me, his sword posed to thrust.

"You really shouldn't announce to everyone that you are going to attack by doing that," I said in an off-hand manner as I stepped to the side.

Davyd got his balance and made a move for my head.

I blocked just in time and effortlessly made a counter attack. "Keep your guard up," I said. I was blocked just barely and had to bring the sword up in a defensive position. We went back and forth for a few minutes before I finally had enough playing around and I got tired of shouting out pointers.

My entire demeanor changed and I had on an emotionless mask, becoming a typhoon of attacks. I wasn't even breathing deeply as I penetrated his opening, pushing him farther and farther back and knocked his sword away, making him stumble and fall on his butt. My sword ended up at the base of his throat.

Bock had me fight the trainer in the weapons area again, this time with him going all out. The result was the same with my blade at his throat.

By this time I had drawn a crowd of what seemed like the entire clan. Rock giants of all sizes and genders gathered to see the never tiring warrior and soon to be Protector fight against the best fighters in their clan. Or so I heard on of the teens say. 

"Are all your people as skilled as you?" Bock asked me after the latest of my victims ran away. Apparently I was scary when I fought like that.

I laughed at his question. "No," I told him. "The god of war on my planet said that I was the only one to beat him in a century. My father and adoptive mother both tell me that I am the best they have seen in all their immortal lives and they have been around longer than the god of war."

Bock and those who had been listening to our conversation looked at me, impressed and maybe relieved. I'm sure they would not like to learn of thousands more Percys, all of which might be able to take down their entire army. Even to me that seems a little nerve-racking.

"Prince Bock, your father and the dressers are ready for you and your Protector," a small voice came front the large doors on the other end of the arena.

🔥 🔥 🔥 🔥 🔥

The ceremony was long, unlike the ceremony on the Planet of the Golden Shadows. I was wearing traditional ceremonial clothing tailored by the dressers. It looked something along the lines of what the Aztec would wear.  Bock's father had to present Bock who in turn had to present me then the person initiating the ceremony had to list all the duties of the Protector of the prince of the Malachite clan.

Apparently I was to protect the prince in case of an attack from an enemy clan, train him, ensure he fulfilled his destiny, become a member of the Malachite clan, ensure he fulfilled his duties as the prince of the Malachite clan and chief should he become one prematurely, ensure he fulfilled his duties as chief when he became one, serve him to the day he died to my last breath...there was more but I forgot them. I'm not sure how he said it all in one breath.

After he said all that, I was to make my vows to do all of that. I am really glad all I had to do just then was state, "I solemnly swear to do so" and then bow in front of the guy and allow him to place the necklace of the Protectors on my neck. After which he turned me around (something I was not comfortable with since he had to put his hands on my shoulders and forcibly turn me) and present me again, this time with all my titles...

...That he had to read from a list I had written up for him. I am not going to tell you exactly what he said since telling my titles alone took the better part of an hour but I will tell you that the old guy in the front row had fallen asleep about half way through.

The final part of the ceremony was thankfully short since Bock had way less titles than me. The ending consisted of the guy presenting Bock and I with the added title. Protector of Bock, son of Thophes for me and Protected by Perseus Jackson, son of Poseidon and Hestia, etc. for Bock.

Post the ceremony, I was eating at the feast provided for the celebration in different clothing so I could eat at the feast with out being afraid of getting any food on my ceremonial clothes. What can I say? I like to eat and when I eat, I wolf it down with out a care about making a mess. Let's just say that that was a glorious day for me and my stomach and I was ready to take on the world.

Little did I know that I was literally going to have to do just that on Rocthag.

I apologize for the lack of dialogue in this one, it really is more like a filler until I get to the filler chapter that will be the next chapter :) I hope you liked it anyways!