20 Chapter 19: Twisted Bonds

A/N

Post next chapter, updates will be biweekly unless I get in some writing done beforehand.

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Disclaimer : I do not own PJO or any of its characters.

x.x

Chapter 19: Twisted Bonds

Beads of sweat trickled down Percy's face as he tried to focus on the task in hand. The precious few hours were spent getting a hang of using Bond Manipulation but so far, all he had done was manage to disrupt the bond between him and Hestia to something else altogether rather than his intended intention. If not for the goddess, he couldn't begin to imagine how things would be between the two of them.

Hestia had taken the special bond between the two of them in stride and deduced that if Percy was able to manipulate that perfectly, he would have no problem with anything else. Moreover, her calm and homely demeanour was completely gone and replaced with a different side of her he only saw when she was training him. For every mistake he made, Hestia made him think and answer as to what he did wrong and if he couldn't answer, he would be scorched with a fireball. Being Hestia's champion made him fire resistant but for some reason, her fireballs still hurt and his clothes were singed. Upon asking her what would she do if he was burnt, she just summoned nectar and ambrosia and waved it in front of him as though it was the most obvious answer in the world, not that he could fault her logic. Hestia really was fully prepared.

"Percy, focus on understanding and gauging the underlying reasons behind the bond. That is how to manipulate a bond. Humans are beings of emotion, each feeling that they emit has some hidden meaning. If you're able to understand that, you will have full control over that particular instance or instances which you can then change. This will change the way they feel about the other person which in turn would change the bond between them. I do not expect you to fully comprehend this on the first try but I expect you to get a gauge on how this is done. You will have to practice this until the effort itself becomes effortless and second nature to you," Hestia explained.

"But where will I be able to use it?," Percy asked. He was grateful for the brief break Hestia had given him when she started this conversation.

"You have no idea how versatile this strength is and where all you can use it. It is up to you to see what you can come up with. However, I will give you one example. Say you're locked in a battle along with some demigods against monsters. Here, you can use bond manipulation to strengthen the familial bonds between the demigods thereby increasing the trust between each other and make working together and executing plans more efficient. You can also use this to sow discord amongst the monster ranks by increasing mistrust among some of the things."

"Woah!" Percy exclaimed. This would be extremely useful for him, but, he still needed to learn more about the power before he could come up with something more innovative and helpful.

"While we're on this topic, I know it is far too early but I expect you to start reading up on human psychology in order to become more proficient with this power. By learning about it, you'll be able to understand the human mind better and the way people function. This will aid your power greatly, I am sure of it."

"I will start reading Hestia but can you recommend some easy books which I can start with? I'm still 12 and don't know much about science and all that," Percy said. Even though this was something out of his depth currently, Percy vowed to start increasing his intelligence which would enable him to comprehend the subject better. This would not only help him become stronger but also make Hestia prouder of him.

"I will ask Athena for some books and send them your way. Now, let's start again. Begin by bringing up the threads and feeling the bond between us. After that, once you start getting the emotional input, let it flow until you begin to understand the basis. Once you do that, start overwriting the key emotion and instance related to that and the whole bond will change slowly until eventually the previous bond will no longer exist and be completely replaced with what you want. Understood?"

Percy nodded and began the process once again. His power started rising steadily until the special bond between both of them became visible to him once again. Percy then closed his eyes and proceeded to understand all the feelings in it until he was hit with the emotional input from the bond. Feelings of warmth, happiness and love were amongst the most prominent ones that he felt. He let these keep flowing and tried to dive deeper only to be met with resistance. However, he knew that this was the point where he kept getting stuck so he pushed through and exerted all his power into it.

~Hestia~

Outwardly, Hestia smiled as she felt Percy's power rising at a rapid rate. She waved a hand to contain it in their area since she did not want anyone else to feel the sudden spike in godly energy, especially her youngest brother.

~Percy~

Percy kept pushing till he felt his power exhausting and the fatigue starting to take over. Just as he was on his last leg, he felt a rip in the resistance until a small portion of it was exposed to him. Immediately, he connected to what lay behind the resistance and was exposed to a feeling of sadness and want. Images of mortals and demigods being claimed as champions by other gods flashed through his mind briefly before it ended as swiftly as it began.

~Hestia~

The normally calm Hestia stiffened when she realised what Percy was exposed to from the bond. This feeling of wanting a champion had been kept buried within her for millennia as she saw the other Olympians claim one after another. She had never had that feeling of happiness to be able to share her powers and train another one in its ways. But it all changed when Percy came. He managed to do what countless others before him could never do, not to mention it was all unintentional. What made it better was that somehow he had access to her main powers and not just pyrokinesis which was weak when compared to her power over the hearth. She was snapped out of her thoughts when she felt Percy disconnect from the bond and turned her attention to her champion.

~Percy~

Before Percy could see more, the last reserves of his power ran out as he felt himself get ejected out of the space and his knees started to crumple as exhaustion crept in. However, he never fell. Slender arms were wrapped around him in a hug and helped him to stay upright as a feeling of warmth and happiness invaded his being once again. He knew it was Hestia since she was the only one who could make him feel this way, with the exception of his mother.

"You did very well, Percy," Hestia praised, "It is never easy to get into the bonds of a god, especially an elder one. However, you were able to access mine, brief as it may be. I wonder how proficient you will be when you practice more and get a good grip on this. Here, have some water and replenish your energy. Once you feel better, let me know. I will demonstrate how to manipulate the bond properly."

After a few minutes, Percy had recovered his strength thanks to drinking water, which immediately restored his MP. He then signalled to Hestia that he was ready.

The goddess momentarily closed her eyes, channelled her powers, then called them forth. Her eyes snapped open with the embers, gaining an ethereal glow. To her, the bonds became visible once again, especially the sea-green and orange colored one connecting between the two of them which made her smile inwardly. She had been thinking hard, whilst Percy was taking a breath. Another conclusion that she had drawn was that the bond between them could indeed be a special one. Hestia was never one for wishful thinking but for some reason, she liked this thought and didn't mind entertaining it. She then shook those thoughts away and concentrated on the task at hand.

Percy, on the other hand, had also activated his powers and was keenly observing the elder goddess in front of him. It was not every day that a deity displayed and taught their skills to someone else, so Percy's gaze never wavered even once as he tried to soak in everything.

Hestia focused on their shared bond and easily ripped through the barrier that surrounded it. She felt all of Percy's emotions that immediately hit her. As she expected, there was nothing but love, care and gratefulness that emitted from his being. Everything about it was pure, something that she thought that she would never find in anyone be it god, demigod or mortal. She couldn't help but sport a huge grin on her face as she basked in the emotions that were only meant for her. She soon identified the overlying reasons that made up his emotions for her and exited the bond quickly to explain to the demigod what she was about to do.

"Percy, I will now start changing the bonds between us temporarily so that you can experience what it's like. Don't worry, it will just be momentary," Hestia explained quickly before she closed her eyes and dived into the bond yet again.

She found the place quickly, channelled her energy into it and quickly went to work. She altered a few instances that were meaningful to him and opened her eyes to see the demigod's reaction with half of her attention still on the bond to change it at a moment's notice.

Percy had been observing the goddess carefully until he felt something twisting and turning within him. It was barely noticeable and Hestia had already told him what she was going to do so he assumed it was her. However, that soon changed when he suddenly felt a pang of sadness hit him out of nowhere. His smiling face soon turned remorseful. The flames in his eyes also dimmed. The longer he looked at Hestia, the sadder he felt.

"Why Hestia?," Percy began, "Why did you leave me? D-did I do something wrong? P-p-please tell me." At this point, he barely had any control anymore as a lone tear made its way down his eye. Gamer's Mind had deactivated automatically sensing that its host was undergoing some training so it didn't need to intervene.

Seeing the look on Percy's face made Hestia forget everything momentarily. Those dimming flames, the tears making their way down his cheeks, those downturned lips and slumped shoulders made her feel sad herself. She felt something within her ache suddenly seeing him so downtrodden. All she wanted to do was take away all the pain and sadness and replace it with as much happiness as she could. Maybe it was her care for him, maybe it was her bond with him or maybe it was her being his patron that caused this, she wasn't sure. But she was sure of one thing – she would never want to see that face again.

"Why are you ignoring me Hestia? Am-am-am I not good enough to talk to you now?," Percy's words interrupted her from her thoughts and just hearing those words sent needles through her heart. She was about to tell him that everything was alright, he meant a lot to her, and this was all a facade but was forced out of her thoughts quickly from the voice screaming in her head telling her to shut up already and turn their champion back to normal. Her eyes then widened in realisation as she quickly dived into the bond and changed it to as it was earlier.

The effect was almost instantaneous. The feeling of grief within Percy subsided and was immediately filled with love and happiness that could easily rival his mom's which was something significant in its own right. He didn't know why he was feeling this suddenly since he was a little distorted and couldn't think properly. The moment his eyes landed on the goddess in front of him, he immediately engulfed her in a hug with intense fervour.

"Thank you for everything Hestia. I'm so happy that you're my friend and patron. I-I couldn't have asked for anyone better," Percy whispered. He could've said more but right now, he was far too overwhelmed to form any coherent sentences.

~Hestia~

"You idiot. Did you have to alter his memory to such an extreme extent? I thought we agreed to give it a little twist, not twist the entire thing," a voice screamed inside Hestia's head.

"Hey, I completely forgot about it okay? The emotions were far too intense. I've never felt something this pure before and you're not one to talk since you too felt them as clearly as I did Vesta," Hestia berated her Roman counterpart.

"W-well at least I did not screw up things so badly that you made our champion cry," Vesta retorted, making Hestia silence her protest.

That's right, the moment Hestia had decided to make Percy her champion, Vesta too had done the same. The two didn't need to argue since they had been looking for their first champion and the moment they saw Percy, they had made up their minds. This essentially made the demigod 3/4th Greek and 1/4th Roman. One half was Poseidon while the other half was Hestia and Vesta. That half was essentially divided between the two goddesses. So now, due to Vesta's influence, Percy could read Latin as well and was technically Roman too; not that the demigod knew in the first place.

"But still, I can't believe how that one sight was enough to make both of us that sad. I don't recall either of us being affected so much before," Vesta commented inside Hestia's head.

"True, but first, let me take care of him. We can discuss this later," Hestia said as she returned outwards only to have a moment to react before she was engulfed in a hug by Percy as he whispered those words.

This made Hestia blush a little for some reason. She had already experienced the full depth of Percy's emotions towards her so why did this feel good still?

"Always Percy," she then replied quickly.

After a moment, Gamer's Mind kicked into action and immediately straightened Percy up.

"That was amazing Hestia!" Percy exclaimed, "One moment I was happy and in the next, all my memories changed somehow, as though they had been fake and new ones showed up, making me sad."

"I am sorry Percy, I didn't mean to make it that extreme. I lost focus for a moment, which altered things for you to such an extent," Hestia said. She was still sad about her slip up.

"Don't worry, I trust you. I know you'd make things fine quickly," Percy said with a large smile on his face, successfully brightening the goddess' mood.

"So now you know how this power works and have felt its effects first hand. You now know how dangerous it is, Percy. Please be sure to use it very carefully. Do not let it get out of control and don't forget to read up on human psychology. Understood?"

"Yes Hestia, I will tell you my progress every day after dinner at camp, okay?"

"Good, now as much as I want you to stay around and relax with me, you still need to return to camp and explain yourself to Chiron and the others. Better get going," Hestia said as she snapped her fingers and sent the demigod on his merry way.

...

~Percy, Camp Half Blood~

...

Percy opened his eyes to find himself back in his own cabin. It hadn't been a long while since he left but it sure felt as though it had been months since he was last here. He turned to look at the clock which read 5 am. He still had 2-3 hours before breakfast so he locked the cabin door and settled in his bed for a well-earned rest. However, that was very short-lived since not even a minute later, he heard knocks on his door which made Percy sigh deeply. Who in their right mind would wake someone up at 5 in the morning? He reluctantly got up and opened the door only to be greeted by Annabeth.

"What happened?" Percy asked with exhaustion evident in his features. He had an extremely long day and was not ready to do anything yet.

"I should be the one asking you. What happened after Hecate kidnapped you? You still have to tell me," Annabeth exclaimed. She was too full of energy for Percy right now.

"Can't we do it later during the meeting? I want to sleep," Percy whined.

"You want everyone to know about what happened with Hecate?"

At that, Percy's eyes widened in realisation. He still needed to inform everyone about what had happened during the quest and Zeus himself had forbidden him from revealing any details about it. Moreover, he was sure that Hecate would not be too thrilled for others to find out about their interaction.

"Thought so," Annabeth said, smirking.

"Fine, come in," Percy grumbled as he made way for the blonde to enter which she did with a smile on her face.

"Now, first things first. No one knows about our quest except for Chiron so we need to figure out what to tell them. We can't just tell them about what we experienced right off the bat plus it would be hard to believe. If anything, it would raise even more questions. And secondly, we need to tell them why a goddess 'kidnapped' you and sent Grover and me alone to the camp."

"So we just have to make a fake quest right?"

"Pretty much."

Both demigods then fell into silence for a few minutes to think of an excuse until a light went off in Percy's head.

"How about a monster slaying quest?"

"Explain."

"Since I'm the first son of Poseidon in a while, we could make it look like the gods gave me a quest to slay some monsters to prove my worth and I chose both of you to help me."

"That could work but we already have a goddess of hunt whose job is precisely this."

"Umm… what about something related to water then? That could work being the son of Poseidon and all that."

Annabeth fell silent at that and contemplated the suggestion. Percy could almost see the virtual gears turning and clicking in her brain as she analysed each and every scenario.

"That can work actually. We could say that some water nymphs needed some help from the gods because of monster attacks. Since you're the son of Poseidon, they decided to send you to test your abilities along with 2 other members. You chose me because of my knowledge and Grover since he's a satyr. Further, we could say that we went to California or some place near the west coast to make the timing more plausible. And that you were then called to Olympus to give a full report about it since it was your quest. How does that sound?"

"That actually sounds good and believable."

"Of course it does. Who do you think I am? Also, while we are on this, I will explain this to Chiron as well before the meeting so that he doesn't call us out on it"

"Fine."

"Now, that that's done, why don't you tell me why you disappeared for such a long time?"

"Can't we do it later?"

"No."

"I want to sleep."

"I just reminded you about something important and helped you with it. You should return the favour."

"Hmph, alright. Remember when Hecate warned us about the test in the Underworld?"

Annabeth nodded.

"She just wanted to see whether I noticed what it was or not and whether I learned anything from it."

"That's it?"

"Pretty much."

"So why did you take so long to come back to camp?"

And there it was, the question Percy had been hoping to avoid for as long as he could. He did not want to lie to her nor could he tell the whole truth, so he decided on another course of action.

"Turns out my dad wanted to meet me after this whole thing was over. He wanted to talk about some stuff."

"What did he want to talk about?"

"That's between him and me. Why should I tell you?"

Seeing the expression on Percy's face made Annabeth realise that she might've crossed the line a bit. It was not her place to know what the father-son duo spoke about and yet she was bugging him to tell her. All to satiate her curiosity.

"Sorry Percy, I shouldn't have asked that," Annabeth apologised quickly.

"Eh, it's alright. Anyway, is there anything else? Now let me sleep for an hour or so."

"No, that's all I guess. Get some rest. See you later," Annabeth said. With that, she got up and left the cabin, giving Percy some much needed sleep.

Soon, breakfast was over and the demigod found himself in the big house where the counsellors meeting was taking place. There were 12 seats in total. Each seat represented a god from the Olympian council and thus, Percy was sitting towards the head of the arrangement since Poseidon's throne was right beside Zeus'. This was definitely not an idle place since he wanted to be as inconspicuous as possible. Then again, this meeting was for him so it wouldn't have mattered either way.

Slowly but surely, the head counsellors started trickling in and started taking their places. Finally, once everyone had settled in, Chiron started the meeting.

"Demigods, there are two things that we have gathered to discuss today. The first is Percy's quest, so Percy, if you may?" Chiron asked as he gave Percy the floor.

"You guys are already aware that me, Annabeth and Grover had gone on a quest. It was nothing special to be honest. There were some water nymphs on the west coast who needed some help with monster attacks. They prayed to Poseidon who in turn spoke to the others and the gods deemed it fit for me to go on a quest to take care of that problem as well as prove my worth. And before you ask, Lady Artemis was busy hunting far more dangerous monsters and this problem was related to dad's domain so he gave me the quest," Percy explained briefly.

"That sounded cool for a minute until we heard the rest of it," Connor commented.

"I expected something better Jackson, this is just… sad," Clarisse commented.

"What did you expect?" Annabeth asked.

"Some great battles and epic adventures. Which monsters did you face anyway?"

"The usual – hellhounds, cyclopes and empousai, nothing too special."

"So it was like a clean-up job disguised as a quest," Travis said.

"Now that you put it that way, it does sound like one," Lee commented.

And with that, the bickering, questions and laughter started until Charles Beckendorf, the head counsellor for the Hephaestus cabin spoke up.

"So why did Annabeth scream at Percy for being kidnapped by a goddess?"

That effectively managed to shut up everyone and all eyes to turn towards Percy.

"It wasn't a kidnapping really. I was just taken to Olympus to give an update about my quest and my dad wanted to meet me. That's all really," Percy replied.

"Poseidon wanted to meet you?" asked a surprised Lee.

"Yeah?"

"Lucky you. Our parents have never met with us," Lee continued effectively bringing down the mood in the room.

"You just can't stop running your mouth, can you?" Connor berated Lee.

"Hey, it's my nature to be honest and blunt."

"Blunt my ass. That's on you. You just can't lie because of your dad," Travis said.

And with that, the bickering started yet again. Anyone else observing the scene would've become confused seeing how the Greeks interacted. Nothing seemed to affect them as they just took everything in stride regardless of how bizarre things looked or sounded.

Chiron who had been silent all the while finally stomped his hoof on the ground, silencing everyone.

"I know everyone was expecting something more unique from Percy's quest, but it is as he stated. Now that all the questions seemed to have been answered, we must move on to the more important part of this meeting," Chiron said. Seeing his serious face, all signs of goofiness were gone from everyone's faces and an air of tension fell in the room.

"As you all may have observed by now – Luke is not at camp anymore. Let me finish first," Chiron said just as someone started speaking.

"A few days ago, I came across a letter in the morning from Luke. He did not say anything except for the fact that he was abandoning his life here at camp for something else. His belongings are still here except for a few things that he must have taken with him. I had tried searching for him but had come up short. I have informed the gods about this as well, I expect to hear from them very soon. Now, do you have any questions?"

There were a few questions from some counsellors but most had realised the disappearance of their friend/cousin and had even tried to find him but to no avail. The Stoll brothers as well as Annabeth seemed to be affected the most. The former had lost their half-brother but why was Annabeth upset? He knew they were good friends but it seemed there was more to it than he initially thought. If Annabeth didn't share it with him yet meant that she didn't want to talk to him about it so Percy didn't push matters in that regard.

The discussions continued for a few minutes until there wasn't much left to talk about. However, one question was still on the minds of the demigods.

"What do we do now Chiron?"

"There isn't much that we can do for now except go about our daily business. I suggest we train and get ready for whatever the gods decide to do," Chiron said.

It looked like Annabeth wanted to object but then she shut her mouth. She too must've realised that it was a sound suggestion. There were no leads for Luke's whereabouts currently so it would just be a waste of time and effort.

With that, Percy's first counsellor meeting was over, everyone slowly walked out of the big house and went about their daily activities. Chiron, too, decided not to ask Percy much more about his quest, since he knew that the boy must've succeeded otherwise he wouldn't have been here. Moreover, Chiron had given Percy free reign to do his training since he knew that Percy was the sort of person who could do his training on his own and wouldn't want to be hampered by a set schedule. The results were quite evident when Chiron had given Percy free reign before the demigod went on the quest. As long as Percy's training didn't lag, Chiron was happy.

Now that Percy was alone, he knew he had to start increasing his stats to become stronger. He pulled up his stats menu to give a glance through his stats. If he had a quest to find Luke soon, he needed to up his sword fighting skills since Luke was an expert swordsman. Moreover, he needed to learn how to use a dagger as well so he could use Rule Breaker in case he didn't have Riptide. If he trained in either weapons, his STR and VIT would increase as well due to the extensive routine. Other than those, he needed to develop Mage Armor so that he could withstand more attacks. Water Control and Fire Control were another vital ability that he needed to master. And of course, he had to develop Bond Manipulation but that could only be done once he raised his INT and WIS stats so there was also that he needed to work on.

With the plan in mind, Percy walked towards the arena to begin his training.

...

~Hestia, Olympus~

...

'Now, what have you been saying all this time Vesta?' Hestia asked inside her head.

'You do realise how affected we were earlier. Further, we both know that this isn't ordinary and what it could be,' Vesta replied. Apparently her Roman counterpart hadn't forgotten about the conversation Hestia was trying to avoid. Hestia just sighed.

'But I still feel that it is far too early to make any assumptions, especially about that. I don't think we'd take a liking to someone so quickly even if he's our champion.'

'Yeah but then again, he has a knack for changing everything. What's to say that we may end up changing as well?'

At that, Hestia fell silent. She did not have any words since what Vesta had pointed out was actually true.

'Well, we can wait and see how things pan out. There isn't much that we can do for now. I don't want to distance myself from Percy because of this and neither do you. By the way, did you notice the other thing?' Vesta said.

'Yes, it has become even more fragile now. I think it is time we finally had a talk with our dearest brother.'

'No need to hold back. You know who it concerns. I'd rather do this than experience that again. If you can't, I'll do it.'

'No, I will do this Vesta.'

'Fine but if I find you lacking, I am switching over forcefully.'

'Fine.'

With the conversation finally over with her Roman counterpart, Hestia sent an urgent message to her younger brother and called him to her palace. She waited for a moment before the air shimmered and in a burst, another person appeared in front of her.

"Poseidon," Hestia said with her eyes blazing with anger.

x.x

Percy's Stats

Perseus Jackson

Species : Demigod (gives +2 STR and +2 DEX)

Title : Son of Poseidon

Perseus is the son of Poseidon and Sally Jackson. Blessed by Elpis, the spirit of hope, he has a natural affinity with water due to his heritage which grants him control over water, horses, storms and earthquakes. He is also Hestia's champion which grants him control over fire and lets him summon meals.

…

Level - 17

Exp – 4,596 / 7,290

…

HP : 900 / 900 (+ 2,000)

MP : 1,000 / 1,000 (+ 2,000)

…

STR : 23 (+ 2 + 20) (Bonus : Weapon damage - Damage + STR | Unarmed damage - STR * 2)

VIT : 18 (+ 20) (Bonus : 50 HP per 10 levels)

DEX : 18 (+2 + 20) (Bonus : +10% HP regenerated / min)

INT : 22 (Bonus : 50 MP per 10 levels)

WIS : 18 (Bonus : +10% MP regenerated / min)

LUC : 26 (Bonus : +14% chance of better loot)

Points : 22

Money : $37,200 / D520

…

Status : Demigod

…

Skills

…

Combat :

Sword Fighting (Level 17)

…

Inherited :

Ancient Greek (Max)

Tongue of the Old Times (Max)

Modern English (Level 25)

Swimming (Level 7 - 9 km/hr)

Breathe Underwater (Max)

Akachan Shiru no Me (Max)

Running (Level 7 - 34 km / hr)

Storms (Level 3)

Earth Shaker (Level 1)

…

General :

Observe (Level 4)

Sneaking (Level 6)

Critical Strike (Level 5)

Taunt (Level 1)

Mark of the Furies (Level 8)

Mage Armor (Level 5)

Summon Meals (Max)

Makarios tis Elpis (Level 3)

Battle Strategy (Level 5)

Bond Manipulation (Level 1) (Purple: Romance, Brown: Family, Red: Dislike/Hatred, Blue: Friends, Grey: Neutral)

…

Chores :

Cleaning Dishes (Max)

…

Passive :

Gamer's Mind (Max)

Son of the Sea God (Gives +20 STR, VIT & DEX as well as +2000 HP and +2000 MP when in water)

Battle Instincts (Max)

Champion of Hestia (to be declared)

…

Abilities :

Water Control (Level 17)

Water Spikes (Level 4)

Blood Control (Level 1)

Water Spear (Level 3)

Dimension Create (Max)

Ice Control (Level 4)

Steam Control (Level 3)

Fire Control (Level 8)