Hello, my lovely readers, I think it is time I pay a little attention to this fanfiction, yeah? Without further ado, begin!

Chapter Twenty One: The Lord's Greatest Secret

Point of View: Zianthos

'You drool in your sleep.'

'You were a mistake.'

'Be ready for anything.'

'Son of Poseidon!'

I look around blankly, seeing each of these memories, not processing the majority of them as they agitate me.

'Don't worry, this poison won't kill you.'

'Bianca!'

I am thrust forward into the powerful memory, landing and watching as a fourteen year old Percy Jackson faces a devastated, ten year old Nico di Angelo.

"I am so sorry, Nico." Percy whispers.

The Hades figurine is cast down as a crack appears in the pavilion.

"It was an accident!" I call before I am falling into the railing of the Princess Andromeda, watching as Charles Beckendorf is brought out.

Charles gives almost sixteen Percy this look and glances at his watch.

"No!" I yell at the Percy who escapes, the memory dissolving around me as the explosives go off.

It is black around me as the voices of my former identity claw at my attention.

"I don't know you anymore. Stop!" I shout at them, but they do not cease their pleas.

"You know that is not true, you know them all better than anybody today or past." A man materializes in front of me, the red glow surrounding him.

His countenance is familiar to me in a way.

"It is because I remind you of the god you serve." He replies to my thoughts.

"I..." I shake my head, the voices are focused around him. "I passed out, I know I am in my head. What are you doing here?"

"So, you know who I am?" He inquires, waving his hand to make a table and a set of chairs appear.

The information slides into place.

"Helios, Apollo's predecessor." I reluctantly join him at the table, trying to block out the voices.

"That will be impossible." Helios answers and I scowl. "They are eternally a part of you. Your soul is one and the same and no matter how many times you are reborn and the new mind forgets, the soul will always feel drawn to those it knew before. Bianca di Angelo, Zoë Nightshade, Lee Fletcher, Michael Yew, Luke Castellan, Ethan Nakamura, Charles Beckendorf, and Silena Beauregard. Those names still have meaning to you and they want to be recognized once again, by you. That is why you are vulnerable. Out of all of my successor's little group, you deny everything and accept only your new leaf."

"Why are you talking to me? What do you want?" I demand.

"Those aren't the only ones either, Zianthos." Helios ignores my questions.

"You acknowledge my current identity, but you speak to my former one." I murmur, a frown deepening the scowl on top of that.

"Rather I am appealing to your old one because he still exists. Perseus Jackson, Percy Jackson, whoever he wanted to be, he turned into you and left behind a trail that leads to you. You are what Percy Jackson has become, in a sense, he lives on within you. No mere soul can be erased, it will always be remembered and that is a remnant. He is not dead, he exists, and he is still here in senses that still matter. Zianthos was born to keep him going and he can't ever be released from Apollo." Helios crosses his legs and leans back to observe my behavior.

"Now will you answer my questions?" I shake it all off.

"I am talking to you because you are the vulnerable one, despite the ability. This is an invasion from the inside. Ares is so easily corrupted because war is a corrupted power, one passed to every species in their own forms. What I want is my original power back. Apollo stole it from me." Helios answers patiently. "I want to convince you how wrong your patron is, I am partly your patron as well. Do you know what that means?"

I sit back as it comes to me. "We cannot harm you, the one enemy we cannot fight."

He smiles politely. "Quick discovery. I have an offer for you."

"Whatever it is, I know it does not come from you. You perished long ago. Who brought you back?" I reply.

"You think your brothers are the only ones able to reform on a source of light? It is still my power source, the sun revived me. I have been stewing for years. I tried convincing those three boys you brought back, but they won't remember me because they are forbidden from remembering their time up there. It would be pointless to ask them. My offer is as follows: Help me with the transfer of power and responsibility and I promise to make the world a better place one step at a time." Helios remains composed.

"I see it now, from the memories. Kronos had the same glow and when I was younger, it frightened me without me being aware of it. I am able to see it around you and this is the same curse. You rose late. Kronos tried to call on you, so did Gaea, but they could not bring you from your place on the sun. And now your time has come to pass, they were not released from me, a last tie still held their cycles open. It was you." I realize.

"Clever." He is amused. "Until you agree with me, I will not allow you to wake up. You can suffer here in your own mind, proof that your lives are one and the same. The Fates just love taking everything good away from you, don't they? It makes a man wonder." He chuckles as he fades from sight, along with his chair and the table.

I stay seated as I think things over, taking all of his advice into account.

'Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God.'

'Percy, you're an omen, and outcast.'

'Neptune is always trouble!'

'You ruined my home!'

'I knew you would forget about me.'

"No, I planted the Moonlace, you know now." I murmur.

'Graecus!'

'You led them here to destroy us!'

'Traitor!'

'Oh, Leo.'

My eyes widen.

'You idiot!'

'You left her all alone without explaining to her where you went?'

"Toshiro?" I whisper. "Stop it, Helios! You are crossing a line."

His laughter booms around the darkness and the chair blinks out of existence, yet I still sit here.

His advice.

I squeeze my eyes closed and I finally allow them to form. "I may not want to be him, it is easier just to be someone else. I can live with the pain, I just want all the horror to go away. So, please, let me return."

"Simple, yet so difficult." Helios comments, I feel his arm snake around my shoulders.

"I accept I am both people with one front." I whisper and the pain in my head goes away, just like the voices do.

I open my eyes to find I am laying down on a beach with gray waters and ashen sand, the breeze freezing me to the core. I sit up and a woman is there, waving at me. I get to my feet as she turns away from me to start walking. I get the feeling to chase after her and rush through the water.

My powers have abandoned me, but I am running on the surface of the ocean.

"Wait!" I plead with her.

A familiar melody picks up and I can hear her faintly humming along to it.

I should recognize her.

She is someone important.

The closer I get, the louder the melody and the more melancholy it sounds.

I catch onto her arm and pull her to a stop, heaving breaths in and out.

"You haven't changed one bit, have you?" She speaks.

I slowly look up. "Mom?"

She smiles tenderly, gently caressing my face. "My little baby boy, I cherished you. Where did you go?"

"I left." I cast my eyes downward and she lifts my chin up so I cannot avoid her gaze.

"I missed you so much and I never got over you." She informs me.

"I am just now beginning to heal, mom, I am so sorry." I embrace her. "I was so selfish that I left you behind, I never deserved you."

"Don't talk about my son like that." She chastises me and I hold her closer. "I could feel how heartbroken you were, I knew you weren't gone. I got the message it conveyed, though, so I tried to lead a happier life free from myth."

"I miss you." I sigh.

"I missed you since you were twelve." She pulls back. "You were just like me, I am afraid, never could be tamed, not until I had you. Adventurous little thing and it got you into worse trouble than it ever did me. I blame myself for letting you go without warnings."

I smile and then see what Helios means.

She smiles. "You are who you are, sweetheart."

"What does that mean?" I ask, grabbing onto her hand so she will not vanish on me.

"You'll be my child no matter the name you choose, just like you are your father's son. Your immortality is the answer." She taps the bottom of my chin and kisses my cheek. "I think I should return now, I'm sure Hades is alarmed."

"Mom, I am so sorry. I wish I could go back, make it better." I apologize.

She smiles warmly. "Live your life the way you want to."

And she is gone.

My eyes are fighting to open and I hear my idiot brothers arguing over me.

"He is waking up."

"You said that last time."

"That's because he was going to, but didn't."

"Calm down."

"They can't calm down."

"They should at least try."

"He'll open his eyes when he is ready."

"Shut up, you're giving me a headache." I groan.

"It's alive!" Senna shouts dramatically. "And it is actually complaining."

I slide my eyes open and cringe at the concerned faces hovering above me.

"Thank Apollo." Zach is relieved and pulls back.

"But seriously, how are you feeling?" Frederick questions.

"Like Minotaur dung." I rub at my head.

"He is making jokes." Benjamin deadpans.

"Is that possible?" Hycu pokes at my cheek until I push him away to sit up, scattering the Hunters.

"How's Ares?" I rumble, rubbing at my eyes.

"In a lot of pain with an immortal fever, but he'll be fine." Apollo answers and comes over to place a hand on my back. "What in the Sun's name happened?"

"Helios." I state. "It wasn't the betrayal, it was the leftover ties and now he has found a power to strengthen it. He's behind this."

"Holy crap." Zachariah gets it immediately and has to sit down.

"Well, you're not a liar and aren't deathly ill to form hallucinations, so this is the truth. But how can it be the truth?" Lau surmises, beginning to pace.

"We are sworn to never lay a harmful finger on any deity of the Sun. Past, present, even future." Raphael grumbles. "That is going to be frustrating."

"Even with the hindrance, we can beat him. Restraints, distractions..." I mutter.

"Helios loves to be out in the open." Apollo sighs heavily. "I do not think it will be so easy."

"Whatever the case, this is bad, guys." Sirius chimes from the door.

"The aura that surrounds him has been allowed to foster for millennia and that is what fuels the force that drives the others now. If we could just eradicate it, then there would be no need for the war." I input.

"How do we do that?" Gen tilts his head in curiosity. "There would have to be a source."

"I have an idea." I nod. "Disband the Hunters of Apollo." 

Sorry it took so long, but here it is as promised! See ya soon, my lovely readers!