If Percy had a drachma every time he woke with his head feeling like it was just being hit with a giant bat with spikes protruding at the end, he'd have... maybe seven drachmas?

Raising his hand to his face to rub his eyes, the jet black-haired young man felt his vision clear as he recalled fainting in the middle of a storm. Great, now I'm becoming the next Jason Grace.

But he was certain he had not fainted more times than Grace. No, no. Blonde Superman faints so easily one might worry the gods had hidden kryptonite all over the place just to watch the son of Jupiter fall unconscious in the name of humour.

Percy felt dread wash over his body at the thought of his friend. But as his ears caught wind of the sound of something being lit in flames Percy straightened up in a blink of an eye.

Fire?!

But there was no fire around him, even when his nose picked up the scent as if the air was singed. There was a small tug in his gut, but Percy ignored it when he heard a man talking like he was giving instructions, while another voice – possibly that of a young man – grunting in frustration.

"That's enough training, for now, Prince Zuko."

Prince?

Sea green eyes scanned the place he was in, and he was definitely certain he is in no royal place. The walls were worn out and the ceiling had a huge hole at the centre, allowing the light from the sun to enter and partially illuminate the dirt floor.

Where am I?

Peeling his eyes from the ceiling and walls to look at the ground, he realized two makeshift beds – are those futons? – placed next to a lit fireplace. It reminded him of Hestia. A grey ceramic kettle was placed over it. Well, someone was boiling something.

His gut tugged at him again when he laid his eyes on the kettle, and he felt slightly warm inside. Percy, however, did not have time to dwell on the sensation when he heard the sound of footsteps. Muscle memory kicked in as he snapped his head around while his hand reached into his pocket to pull out his pen. Except there was no pen, nor did his jean have any pocket to speak of.

Confused, Percy's eyes darted down to realize he was no longer wearing his orange t-shirt nor his blue jeans. In their place was a sleeveless tunic – which showed his muscly built arms, along with the tattoo of his a trident SPQR on the underside of his left arm – and long, baggy pants, both in the shade of green, but were faded to the point Percy thought it looked more grey than green.

The sound of the older voice expressing an "ah!" caused the demigod's reflexes to kick in as he rolled over to his side before getting on both his feet, putting himself in a fighting stance as he prepared for an engagement.

Standing in front of him were two men in similar-looking long-sleeved tunics, one in his late fifties and the other possibly in his teens. The older man was stout, and he spotted a long grey beard and grey hair which was tied into a bun. The teen, who was about a head taller than the senior had short brown hair and looked clean-shaven. The thing which stood out the most to Percy, however, was the red scar on the upper left side of his face.

While the older man just stood calmly at the sight of Percy, the teen had also entered his own battle stance – he hunched his back forward, both legs bent as if he was squatting slightly, while both his arms were raised in front of his chest, the left hand forming a fist positioned behind the right hand which formed the shape similar to a knife.

"Where am I?" Percy asked, his voice so low he might as well be growling.

The older man didn't flinch at the tone of his voice, despite the teen looking more agitated. Instead, his lips curved up slightly as he took a small step forward, as though he wanted to approach Percy.

"You – we – are in Earth Kingdom territory." The man replied. His voice was calm, reminding Percy of Chiron if his trainer of a centaur adopted a thick Asian accent.

Percy's face looked dumb, the same face he makes whenever someone threw him Greek names he didn't know. He did have years of practice looking that way much to everyone's chagrin. Who knew it'd come in handy when someone told him he's in the 'Earth Kingdom'? Because as much as he did not pay attention to his geography lessons (thanks a lot, ADHD), he was very certain that no such place existed, nor would any sane person on Earth would call their country that.

"The 'What' Kingdom?" For a second he thought Gaea woke again and named a kingdom after her domain. A possibility that has a low to nil likelihood since that battle with the Earth Mother over half a decade ago.

"Tu Zin to be more specific," the older man replied as he stroked his beard with his right hand.

"Tu Zin?"

"Just great, Uncle," the teen spoke up irritably, his amber eyes (eye?) narrowing at Percy as he studied the demigod "he's both dumb and an idiot."

With that 'uncle' glanced over his shoulder as he muttered softly to the younger man. Percy may have been standing apart from them but he could still make out the words: "What's the difference? And you're the one who picked him up."

'Uncle' let out a sigh and turned to Percy with an almost genuine smile. "Forgive my nephew. I'm pretty sure you're smart. Just confused."

The tone of the old man's voice and tone tempted Percy to drop his guard. The demigod straightened his posture, taking a less tensed stance, but did not drop his guard. The teen standing next to 'uncle' did not return the favour, standing ready for a fight.

The sound of whistling caught the trio's attention and 'uncle' tilted himself to the side and a smile formed on his face.

"I see the water's ready," his smile broadened, "would you like to have some tea with us. Perhaps we could clear some of your confusion as we sit down and clear our minds. After all, there aren't any villages around for a few kilometres."

Percy watched as the teen glared at his 'uncle's suggestion but didn't outright object to the offer. Looking at the delight at the old man's face as he mentioned 'tea', Percy could not find any reason to reject the invitation.

oOo

Iroh placed his cup of tea and let out a soft yet satisfying sigh. The stranger had accepted his invitation and had joined him and Zuko for tea, though he could feel his nephew's disapproving glare as he made the suggestion.

They introduced themselves to the young man as Li and Moshi, the cover names they adopted when they deserted the Fire Nation. In return, the stranger introduced himself as Zhang. Despite the warm exchange, Iroh had suspicions that the young man was using a cover name just like he and his nephew.

The old man was certain Zuko had similar suspicions. While Iroh kept his theories to himself, his nephew was not as subtle at hiding his emotions. If looks could burn, Iroh was certain 'Zhang' would have been burnt to a crisp as Zuko was glaring flame daggers at their guest, though their guest appeared to not have noticed.

Apparently, 'Zhang' could not remember much of his past, the only thing he remembered was that he had to 'walk through a thunderstorm to get something'. Whatever that 'something' was he could not remember – or as Iroh surmised, unwilling to divulge.

To the former general, this individual had him feeling somewhat 'off'. He had the posture of a seasoned warrior, yet was humble and did not put on an act, which most high ranking military officials would. He kept a lot to himself – the former general was certain of that – even as Iroh briefly explained the Hundred Year War to 'Zhang' without exposing their involvement whatsoever. But he still joined in and laughed at Iroh's jokes at the expense of Zuko hitting himself in the face with his palm at every two 'tea' jokes.

There was something else Iroh was unable to shake off. As far as he remembered, he had only once felt strong energy radiating from one individual: the Avatar when the legendary figure fused with the ocean spirit 'La' in the North Pole. And here, he is feeling the same as he sat down with 'Zhang', laughing and drinking tea together.

Just who is this man?

oOo

The hard, dry ground was rather uncomfortable to Percy's back. Not that good sleep could help him especially with the dream he was having.

Percy found himself in the middle of the desert, far away from the torn-down house he was taking shelter. All around sand desert glowed orange and gold from the sunlight shining down, and the sky was blue with rare desert clouds in its midst. He heard the whistling sound of the desert wind blowing in his ear, but he was not physically affected by it. There was another sound in the background. A rumbling noise like the desert was hungrily trying to fill its 'hunger' by trying to swallow something.

The source of the rumbling sound was a tall cylindrical tower that was sinking into the sand. But its descend into oblivion was being halted by a young girl gripping onto a part of its wall. Percy guessed she wasn't over the age of thirteen, and seeing her battle with the gravity that pulled building reminded him of the time he watched Annabeth Chase hold the sky in an older vision.

Percy heard a roar to his right, and he noticed a fluffy cloud tied to the ground in the midst of a small dust storm. When the dust cleared, he realized that he wasn't looking at a cloud, rather a large beast surrounded by people wearing headwraps to cover their faces from the heat of the sun. The beast had two horns on its head like a bison and shaggy white fur. As it tried to stand the demigod realized the super huge beast had six legs.

"Don't make me put this down!" The girl grunted as the beast roared in desperation. Sea-green eyes watched helplessly as she released her grip onto the building, letting it sink at an alarming speed as she turned around. She punched the air in front of her, in which sand rose and flew in the direction of the beasts and its would-be captors.

As Percy witness the slice of sand completely missing its target, his vision shifted somewhere else. Or someone. It was a girl in a long, kimono-like blue tunic running down a dark room that had doorless shelves filled with scrolls. All around the room sand was pouring in from the ceiling, flooding the place. As she makes a hard left onto the main corridor Percy realized she had a white lemur with wings perched on her shoulder.

His vision followed her from behind as she made another turn for her to cross a bridge; while his question as to who she was running from was answered when she stopped in her tracks to turn around only to be overshadowed by a large figure that he learnt that it was not a 'who' but a 'what'. The figure spotted black feathers and a head shaped like an owl but its long neck reminded Percy of the long-neck dinosaurs from Jurassic Park.

"Your Waterbending won't do you much good here," the owl spoke through its beak, which would have surprised Percy a lot more if he couldn't talk to marine life and horses or had a satyr for a best-friend who can literally speak to any animal. But as far as he remembered, he never encountered a talking owl.

"I've studied all the waterbending styles: Northern, Southern, even Foggy Swamp," it continued. The owl's voice seemed ancient and had a hint of arrogance in it. As the girl prepared for a fight, the large avian spread its wings and pulled its head back for it to strike.

A yell from above caught everyone's attention, including the winged-lemur. Percy's vision looked up to see a figure falling, hands outstretched in the path of the owl's head. Before impact could be made, Percy felt a tug on his legs and started falling into the darkness as he was pulled in by gravity. Not again.

Eyes snapping open, Percy woke up in a jolt. His breath was quick and shallow as if he just experienced a panic attack. There was a growing urge in him to punch the ground and yell at Hades to tell his daimons to "knock it off!". Looking around, he noticed both Li and Moshi – the moody teen and generous uncle who had saved him from a storm and nursed him back from being unconscious for two days – lying in their makeshift beds.

Pretty sure that both were asleep, Percy got on both his feet and started walking towards the torn down door and out of the hut. The moment he stepped out of the hut, he felt his gut tugging at him again. Pushing that strange feeling aside, he turned his head for sea-green eyes to look at the hut under the brilliant glow of the moon.

The condition of the hut reminded him of the Neptune 'shrine' when he arrived at Camp Jupiter: worn out and unattended. He guessed that his saviours had stayed in the hut as a temporary shed, especially when they own an ostrich-horse hybrid which Percy assumed is used for transport. Even standing a good twenty to thirty meters away from the shed the son of Poseidon could hear the ostrich-horse using colourful words for being tied to a tree stump.

The hybrid ostrich, large horned beast, big talking owl with a long neck and the name 'Earth Kingdom' served as a reminder to Percy that he was in a different world.

Hoping to turn his attention from the grim fact he has no way of knowing if he doesn't actually know what 'world' he's in, Percy shifted his thoughts to his dreams. As far as he could tell, the small, strong girl was probably an Earthbender since she could shoot sand from the ground; and according to the weird-looking owl, the girl in his second vision is a waterbender.

What do these visions mean? Why is the owl attacking the blue dressed girl? How is this all related to me?

Frustrated by the lack of answers he was getting, the demigod turned his attention to the stuff that 'Uncle Moshi' explained which he could get some grasp on.

This 'world' has been embroiled a 'Hundred-Year War'. Apparently, there were four Nations, each a namesake of the 'element' the nation represented. The 'Fire Nation's war on the other three nations has led to the genocide of the 'Air Nomads' for reasons Percy could not understand. The old man did say that the 'Air Nomads' was attacked first to stop an enemy. Regardless, this Hundred Years of War and the absence of a legendary figure called the Avatar has resulted in many being uprooted from their homes, Li and Moshi being one of those 'refugees' – or so they claim.

Li and Moshi. While Percy had his impression that the pair were using fake names – he did hear Uncle 'Moshi' call 'Li' 'Prince Zuko' after all – he did not blame them for doing so. He too used an alias, one from an old friend – Frank Zhang. He did feel guilty of using the son of Mar's name, but considering Moshi and Li might not believe him if he had said his name was Perseus 'Percy' Jackson he used Zhang when the name popped up in his head.

Jet black brows furrowed as Percy thought to himself why he did not push for the pair to reveal themselves. Internally he reasoned that they had saved him, and they deserved the benefit of the doubt. Whatever they were hiding, it was their secret. The son of Poseidon had secrets of his own, and he was certain that 'Uncle Moshi' and 'Li' had their suspicions about it.

Especially Li. He had many resemblances to Luke, and it's not just the scar on the face. It was the constant bitterness and anger he had. The demigod could feel that the teen does not believe him at all, especially with all the glaring the teen gave despite the scar on his face. Whoever 'Li' or 'Prince Zuko' really is, Percy had to summon all of his willpower to resist the urge to stare back, or even make a sarcastic remark about it.

"Trouble sleeping, Zhang?"

The voice of 'Moshi' snapped Percy back to reality as he turned around to see the old man standing at the door. Seeing the young man reply with a slow nod, Moshi asked another question.

"Mind if I join you?"

"Join me in questioning my place in the universe?"

The air was filled as 'Moshi' bellowed with laughter while stating that he had some resemblance to his nephew. Seeing the laugh, Percy felt a small smile creeping onto his face as the old man approached him. 'Moshi' reminded him of his trainer and his father, during happier times. Still, he could not help but amusedly cock an eyebrow at the statement.

Both of them spent five minutes looking into the stars, which reminded Percy of the constellations at his own world. Two of them were familiar to him – both Ursa Major and Minor. But he was unable to recognize the others, nor see any other star alignment that resembled Perseus or the constellation he expected to see in the Northern half of the world.

"Hey, Moshi," Percy spoke up, hoping to find an answer to a nagging question in his head as he watched the old man turned his attention away from looking at the stars in the sky. "This thing you called... 'bending' –"

"The power to control the elements, yes."

Moshi examined Percy's face and sea-green eyes watched the old man ponder before acknowledging the unspoken question.

"Li and I are no Earthbenders if that is your question."

Hearing that, Percy nodded softly. He felt the answer was missing something, or it had a cryptic message. The demigod could not decide which it was.

He turned his head to look at Moshi again when he heard his name being called.

"We will be heading out to tomorrow," the old man said. "To the nearest village."

Noting the quizzical look on the young man's face, Moshi continued. "Perhaps we could help with finding a place to help you settle."

Percy smiled at the offer but gestured at the ostrich-horse tied to a tree. "Thanks, uncle. But I doubt the three of us can fit on one bird of yours. Don't worry. I'll find my own way."

Moshi nodded in response despite looking a little disappointed. Then he extended his hand towards Percy.

"I believe these belong to you," Percy looked down towards the hand, and recognized Riptide in its pen form. Taking the pen from the older man, he also noticed the thin black leather wallet, and took it into his hands. Opening the wallet, a smile formed on Percy's face as he found what he was hoping to see.

"Thank you, Uncle Moshi."

The older man nodded again, a smile forming on his face this time. Wishing him goodnight, Percy watched as the older man walked back to the hut for shut-eye. Then he turned his attention back to the sky above as he felt the tug in his gut grow stronger by the minute along with a voice egging him on.

"Bend them... Command them..."