Hello all! I hope that you all actually read this chapter- A whole heck of a lot has been added to this chapter, things have been worded better, and things have been fleshed out better. I hope you like this version of the chapter and I will see you next time!

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Amidst violence, unhappiness, and suffering, the Fates observed the human race, who were scrabbling at the dirt, trying to become better than their fellows in whatever way they could. They were newly created, just recently standing up on their own two feet. Death was high and numbers dwindling, and the Fates had decided that the humans needed something to live for, something to work towards. The first sister spun the new string of Fate, a strong golden thread woven into the fabric of a mortal's life. The second sister removed the tangles, deciding when that golden string would connect to another's cloth. The third and final sister, cut both normal and golden string, determining the end of the life that they had woven.

This gold string created something in this world that would go by many names: Bonded, Entwined, Life-Mates, Melded, and Connected. Yet the most common term created was Soulmates. 

Roughly half of the human population had this string entwined within them. Those without the golden string weren't any less off in a way- some people would do better without the extra entwining string, while others too vile for the string to keep its luster, causing the string to die and wither away even before the life was made.

Humans and mutated fellows were found to have soulmates. But demigods, on the other hand, tended to have no soulmate. They died young and often lived in pain and suffering. It would be cruel to pair a demigod up with another, only for the demigod to die a horrible death, leaving holes in their Entwined's cloth of life. 

Now, over the years of humankind, scientists alike have found the explanation of Soulmates a difficult thing to explain or even to find out the reason of how they were developed or created. No one knew how Bonded could feel not only their counterparts emotions and communicating through them, but how injuries and pain were transferred to the other in a shared experience.

Bruises transferred to the other, the marks fading from the non-recipient a few hours (or a day at most) after the conception of the injury. Cuts and mild lacerations also appeared, taking the form of pink lines on the other Soulmates skin, the marks fading just as fast as a bruise would. Major scarring stayed on both, the marks lighter on the non recipient than the ones who had received them. When one was sick, a light pressure could be felt in the affected areas that the ill possessed. Oddly, certain injuries did not transfer over between the Entwined. Major burns, limb loss, diseases, blindness, frostbite, and other considerable damage did not transfer.

Studies have been conducted for decades, and one of the most puzzling things found, was the fact of pain thresholds. If the pain one Soulmate experienced went over the pain threshold of the other, the other Soulmate would feel a nothingness coming from their Bond until the pain abated enough for the other Soulmate to handle the pain alongside their Life-Mate.

There were many things that the world didn't yet know how to explain about Soulmates, but the world cherished each and every one.

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Aphrodite's POV

The goddess of love was a misunderstood creature, her true intent and actions having become twisted in the minds of men. She wasn't some vain selfish creature, who only worked to further her own ends. She was a god who helped the Fates with their golden threads, helping to make the bonds stronger between the two Entwined. She walked battlefields and conflicts, she kept hopes going strong among the suffering. Love wasn't always sexual, it could be familial and platonic, it could be something that was incapable of being described. And her domain tended to be just that- indescribable. But as the years passed and she matured, Aphrodite cared less about the perceptions of her. She played the part she was assigned beautifully, and she was happy at her underestimation.

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As she was attending to her duties, Aphrodite felt a tug in her mind, signaling that one of her children was praying to her. Seeking out the source, the goddess smiled as she found that it was her daughter Sally Jackson. The woman had never gone to camp, the death of her father and step mother consuming her and then the need to take care of her ailing uncle became too much. The years passed and Sally never made it to camp. Looking at her child's life, Aphrodite always softened. Sally embodied her mother's true nature and intent, unlike those in Camp Half Blood or Jupiter, too concerned with seeing their mother at face values through tales and myths. 

Sally never took advantage of others and basked in the love that surrounded her. And when Aphrodite felt her domain shift around her daughter, felt the touch of the sea of which she herself emerged from, she was livid. She found the god of the sea, and threatened him, for she had lived amongst the battlefield too long to truly be left without its taint. Luckily, the god knew that should he harm her precious daughter, there would be Tartarus to pay.

When the goddess arrived in her daughters small apartment, she saw the woman lying on her stomach next to her own daughter, coloring. Immediately Sally jumped up, whispering a few words to the two year old. The little girl had startling sea green eyes that seemed to glow and shift, a churning of the domain that ran through her blood. Her black hair hair, pulled up in a french braid complemented the little girls tanned skin, freckles dotted across her face in dazzling constellations. Her blue tee shirt was rumpled and the blue overalls worn and covered in paint, but she seemed cozy and happy. When her mother's words registered, the little demigod ran full force at the goddess, letting out a happy squeal of "Grandma!"

Aphrodite chuckled and caught the small child, spinning her up into the air to defuse the momentum before settling her onto her hip. "Hello little bird," Aphrodite cooed and brushed a black lock of hair behind the girl's ear. She laughed as she looked up at the goddess, amazed as Aphrodites complexion shifted a few times before settling into one that looked the most like Sally. Amusing herself with the hoodie strings and the long hair now at her disposal, the child was quickly occupied while the two mothers talked amongst themselves.

Sally shifted, nervous. The woman was never comfortable asking for help, not wanting to feel as if she were a burden. "Umm..." Sally hesitated, "I was wondering, mother, if you can help me protect myself and Percy." Sally's eyes were pleading and wet with budding tears. She was so scared for her little girl. "Her father told me the danger that she would be in, especially with her being a legacy. Mom, she's a daughter of both aspects of Poseidon. He said that his love for me joined both sides of him together during our relationship and our union. He also explained to me that, for some reason, probably because of the Fates, after World War Two, the Big Three's children were destined in the way they are born. Poseidon said that his Greek side bore male children, while his Roman side bore female children. The Fates have made her look more Roman and Camp Half Blood, while only the gods know of the change in the Big Three's offspring, Posiedon feared that deep down, the campers may know that something was off about my little guppy."

Aphrodite looked down at the little girl in her arms that quietly babbled to herself. Looking deeper, the goddess could see the strands of pinks and reds of her domain wound so tightly around this small demigod and Aphrodite made her decision as Sally continued to talk. "I will have to send her to camp early; with your birth from the sea and her father's joined duality, she will be a strong magnet for trouble. We've already been attacked several times and I refuse to put her in danger by keeping her out of camp. I'm thinking of going to stay year round, saying that since my daughters birth, monsters have been attacking me. It will be easy to explain off, an omission more than a lie, something that wouldn't be flagged as a lie by the sun god and his brood. I can just say that something in my head, a presence of some sort, lead me to camp. I can get claimed by you and the monster attacks will be put away as a weaker demigod only being attacked after her scent increased with the birth of a legacy."

Aphrodite smiled at her daughter's train of thought; she was a smart girl who grew up to be an intelligent woman. Handing back her granddaughter back to her mother, Aphrodite began to think of how to help her daughter. Percy, on the other hand, once firmly held by her mother, began to pepper Sally's cheeks with kisses, as if feeling her mother's sadness at the situation.

Solution found, Aphrodite conjured a sailors knot bracelet, an homage to the sea running so deeply within her veins, and made it so that it would grow with her granddaughter. Being happily married to the god of the forge tended to tended to teach you a few things over the millennia. Anyways, once on, Aphrodite explained to her daughter that it would change Percy into a male, and that it wasn't just a mere illusion. She included magic that would make it so the only way to take the bracelet off would be through Perseus' consent. Tartarus, if something happened to the limb that it was on, the bracelet would either switch to a new limb, or would change into a bead on the necklace that she was bound to get when she was at Camp, only reverting back to a bracelet when wished to. It was extreme both adults thought, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Long story short, the enchanted item would always stay upon Percy's person in some way, shape, or form at all times until Percy herself took it off herself. 

"The enchantment just changes her on the outside; her organs and DNA are still coded to female. When it comes the time for her period, if she is wearing the enchantment, she will bruise easier and bleed longer. But she will be safe and her body will eventually get rid of the blood through waste. Another thing that I couldn't avoid was the pain involved. I suggest that you only have the little bird wear it in short intervals so she can adjust. Luckily it will only be a dull pain and nothing too bad- but this does change her body into something it shouldn't be and thus the pain is inevitable." 

"Thank you so much mother." Sally sniffed, holding back tears of both happiness and sadness. 

"I thank you for letting me help my darling." With one last goodbye, Aphrodite was gone and her daughter went to go pack to move into Camp Half-Blood.

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Sally, soon after setting foot into camp, was claimed by her mother, a glowing dove shining above her head. The mother and daughter, now son, pair quickly moved into the pink cabin, thus starting their new life.

..................TIME SKIP TO AFTER THE GIANT WAR..................

Percy POV

Percy sat on the beach, smiling as her father's waves caressed her feet. Her mother was now in the mortal world, living with Paul ever since Percy went into the labyrinth. Sally had met the man at a writer's workshop in downtown New York. The two had immediately hit it off and upon finding out, Percy took the man aside and told Paul about what had happened to the tutor aid that was hired to help her in her classes, no matter what school she attended. After Paul was properly cowed, Percy smiled and offered to get to know Paul better. The man had gladly jumped at the offer and the two had gotten closer, especially after Sally found out that Paul was clear sighted and Sally deemed that their relationship was serious enough to tell the English teacher that her son was actually her daughter in hiding. The man took it graciously, especially after the incident of the discovery of his clear sightedness upon seeing Percy kill a rogue hellhound.

When Percy heard the sand shifting behind her, she stood to greet her friends. Travis, Connor, Katie, Jason, Piper, Thalia, Nico, Leo, Calypso, Reyna, Frank, Hazel, Grover, Juniper, Coach Hedge, and Clarisse. Clarisse, surprisingly, nodded to Percy and gave him an encouraging smile as she sat down. "So I asked you all to meet me here because I think that it is time to tell you all something." Percy took a deep breath to steady herself, ready to spin her tale. "As you know, I am the result of the union between my father Poseidon and my mother, a demigod daughter of Aphrodite. I have lived in camp since I was two with my mom. I am still a year rounder but my mom moved in with her now husband when I was fifteen- she met him when she was doing a strawberry delivery to his house." Clarisse nudges the rambling boy, reminding Percy to get back on track. "You may also know that I can easily speak Greek along with Latin, easily see which aspect a god is currently in, and if you noticed, my father never had any problem with the switching personalities like the other gods did when the Greeks and Romans united during the war." Murmurs were heard and nods of assent rippled throughout the small crowd that Percy had gathered.

Percy cleared his throat and started up again, fiddling with his fingers as he tried to combat his ADHD and tell what needed to be told. "Now, this may be a totally unrelated topic, but it isn't. Just hang in there. This isn't known, but sometime after World War Two, the Fates made it so that the Big Three's children would have a certain gender depending on what aspect they were in during contraception. Only a small handful of mortals know." Thalia, Jason, Nico, and Hazel looked at each other in shock while the others looked mind blown. "Zeus has female kids while Jupiter has males. Pluto has females and Hades males. And yes Nico, I think a reason why your sister joined the Hunters and felt uncomfortable at camp was because she was a Roman in a Greek camp. Anyways, Poseidon has male kids and Neptune has females. Each one of the Big Three, if you noticed, has one son and one daughter. I believe that this is to balance power. All except my father."

Unsurprisingly to Percy but surprisingly to everyone else, Leo burst into flame with this revelation. "You are the child of both Poseidon and Neptune!" Everyone gasped at Percy's nod and Leo quickly got his flames under control. 

"Now, I am even more of a genetic freak. I have a Soulmate as you all should know." They all did know this. Percy would wake up with bruises on his face and body; he also was often spotted curled into Hestia's side, due to him being so cold that his breath turned into mist even on the hottest of days. Chiron had calmly explained on multiple occasions that the bruises and extreme cold was from his Soulmate which was odd; the centaur wasn't afraid to admit that while Annabeth was Percy's Soulmate, no one knew why Percy was having these reactions. Some speculated that it was because the two were demigods and thus the Bond translated their feelings super oddly. "And no demigod has ever had a soulmate since they die so young." Percy finished.

Reyna then spoke up. "What do these things all have to do with each other? There is no connection it seems."

"Well, these facts are all about who I am." Percy then smiled and took off her sailors knot bracelet from her right ankle. The demigods were shocked as their male friend abruptly changed into a female. Her figure changed and her black, loosely curled hair reached the middle of her back. Although things changed, her eyes twinkled as the pain from the spell was lifted off. Clarisse patted her on the back, gearing up to tell the group of how she knew that Percy was actually female and not male.

Clarisse took a breath before beginning. "Percy and I were sparring one day since I dropped by in the fall over a weekend to get more ambrosia. I punched her in the chin and she got a nosebleed and pretty nasty bruise around her nose and her chin pretty much immediately. Percy urged me to take her to her cabin instead of the infirmary. I did and once she finally got the bleeding to stop after a solid five minutes she explained about her being a girl and how when her traditional period is, she would get bruised more easily, bleed for a longer amount of time when she got hurt, and have pretty intense stomach cramps because of how her bracelet physically changed her body. I helped the twerp because she deserved it, never once complaining or letting anyone know about her predicament. That's how we got so close."

Percy's hair. Its is totally black, but when the light hits it in a certain way it looks like this^

Percy then slipped on the bracelet, professionally hiding the wince of pain. "I'm gonna go tell Annabeth about this since the wars are over and things have calmed down a bit. My mother made me promise I wouldn't tell until I was safe and the Romans were introduced. I thought that this would never happen. I planned, and got permission, to tell Annabeth after the first war but things got so hectic and then I was kidnapped. I'm going to propose and I wanted some support from my family." Percy smiled and her friends smiled right back at her. 

Turning to face the group so Annabeth couldn't see the group during the proposal, wanting to only let her see them after she said yes as a surprise. It was going to be so nice and once she asked about their friends, the others could pop up and reveal themselves.

The group waited patiently as Percy put the ocean to her back and Iris Messaged Annabeth. Annabeth quickly answered and smiled at the demigod on the other end of the call. When Percy, in male form, broke the news that he was actually a she and got down on one knee to propose to her Wise Girl, Annabeth screamed and yelled about how he was a filthy traitor trying to deceive her. She cried out about how Percy was despicable and how, in Tartarus he pledged allegiance to Gaea.

What happened next was honestly a blur. Percy and the people around him were summoned directly up to Olympus. Annabeth raved on and on about how, in Tartarus Percy met with Ares' Giant counterpart and the Janitor Titan, saying how they drugged her to sacrifice her to Gaea when they got to Greece. The daughter of 'wisdom' told the gods how Percy would drug her to fall in love with him, forcing her into a relationship with him, that made not only her cheat on her soulmate, but had him cheating on his own. By this lie, Percy and her friends could see that this claim was the other way around, that Annabeth was the one using Percy. 

As Annabeth shed fake tears describing Percy talking with Gaea and being promised immortality if he pledged himself to Gaea and awoke her, Percy's friends protested vehemently. Nico and Thalia even came forward and told the Council that they had seen Annabeth putting something in Percy's drink when he wasn't looking, but believed their supposed friend when she said that she was actually putting Percy's medicine in the liquid because Percy always forgot so Sally had given her the meds so Percy wouldn't be without them. When asked what the meds were for, the Greek children of the Big Three told the room that it was to help with Percy's cold spells that were brought on because the two of them were demigods and thus their bond was weird and computed Annabeth's happiness to a physical cold for some deranged reason. They pointed out that it was clear that Annabeth was lying and he was the one to manipulate Percy.

Seeing she was being backed up into a corner, Annabeth said the most disastrous thing that silenced all of Olympus. "You would trust easily broken loyalty over the cold hard truth of wisdom?"

Zeus spoke up, voice bouncing off of the walls. "All gods who just recently got their thrones on the Council due to the demigod in question are not allowed to vote due to their bias in this matter." Hestia and Hades both got angry, rightfully so, and gripped their armrests so hard that they almost splintered. "Those of you stand by Perseus' innocence stand now." Poseidon, Aphrodite, and Hermes stood along with three of the most surprising gods: Artemis, Apollo, and Hera. 

Zeus growled, disregarding that his son Apollo was the god of truth and could easily detect the truth of the situation. "GUILTY!" The six standing gods gasped. If it was a tie, then it meant that the defendant was innocent on all charges. Hepheastus then made a move to stand as well- he wasn't good with living things, but seeing not only his beloved wife stand but also his mother and his half brother the god of truth, it swayed him over. Zeus ignored the change and continued talking in his booming voice. "AS THE KING OF THE GODS I DECLARE PERSEUS JACKSON AS GUILTY. Those who believe him innocent may say goodbye to him now before he is cast out."

The ones standing along with Hestia, Hades, and Percy's friends ran at the trembling demigod, bringing her into a hug, all of the gods quickly reducing to human size as to not squish anyone.

"Percy." Hestia whispered, voice quick, "I would like to give you my blessing. It should help you survive in the mortal world." Percy nodded, a warmth filling her, and Hestia handed the demigod a metal circlet made of some kind of metal forged in the flames from the hearth. A small red gem which caught the light and made it look like it was shining from internal flames sat in the center of it, swirls of metal from the circlet holding it in place. She quickly showed Percy how to change it to a bracelet and a pen that looks eerily like Riptide's pen form, but with the gem, in a smaller scale, imbedded in the side. "Press the gem and it will turn into an exact replica of Riptide. I know that you gave Zoe her sword back after the first war as I have seen her running with it." Artemis gave Percy a tender smile. "With my blessing, you shall become more resistant to fire, and you will always find your way home. You can, in dire circumstances give hope to those you love." The mention of hope reminded of how Percy had given Pandora's pithos to Hestia during the first war, and it brought a smile to Percy's face. 

The other gods had done quick blessings, nothing that would really increase her power, but things that would help her survive in the mortal world cut off from the godly one; things such as the promise of finding her own family, the ability to see better in the dark, and to tell if something was poisoned were among the gifts given. Percy was grateful for anything that would help her survive and didn't increase her power.

Ready, taking a steadying breath after her father pressed a kiss to her brown and her grandmother kissing her temple, Percy stepped forward. The King of the gods raised his bolt and threw it at the young adult. It struck the child of the sea and Percy screamed as her back burned and smarted from the electricity. The ground under her disappeared and Percy fell from Olympus, somehow landing alive on Earth. She stared up at the sky for days before she was found, unable to move, by two assassins- one with a bow and one with flaming red hair.

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Edited September 20, 2019

Thank you all for sticking with me, especially through my atrocious writing. I'm glad I have had the chance to actually realize that my writing has evolved and that I can improve upon my work. I love you all,

-Tug