[June 16th 2016 - see end of the chapter for new notes and a sneak peak at the following chapter.]

[April 16th 2016]
CHAPTER TWELEVE: Family Affairs

Kronos found it odd that his mother would arrange a meeting for all his siblings, including Percy. Despite being alive for fourteen years (and currently looking like a twenty-one year old, thank you Rhea) his mother had never ordered a gathering and his siblings never just met up, most ignored each other like if they met up they would be condemned to death. However what really shocked Kronos was the fact that his mother was inviting Percy, the very same Percy that she called a demon child and seemingly hated with all her heart. Gaea had searched high and low for Percy yet he had seemingly vanished from the face of, well, her. And if that wasn't confusing enough for Kronos, he knew how much most his siblings detested Percy and how much of a fuss it would cause.

'He's a freak,' Krios had whispered when Kronos asked why he hated Percy so much. He failed to elaborate.

'Yes, he's a "freak" you've said that already but why is he a freak?' Koios -no, not Krios- let out a laugh that and it Kronos' ears ring and shivers shoot down his spine.

'What ya don't know won't hurt ya kid,' Kronos scowled.

'But you're domain is intelligence,' he retaliated. 'Shouldn't you be encouraging me to learn about things as much as possible?' Kronos had smirked, thinking that he had back Koios into a corner. He hadn't.

'Not when it comes to Perseus, kid. He's a lost cause.' And with that his siblings had left.

Despite being discouraged by them, Kronos didn't stop asking his siblings and, somehow, Krios managed to be present every time.

'I thought we went over this Kronos, he's a freak, just drop it,' Krios said, agitation was clear in his voice. He was sat with his back pressed against a tree, a straw sunhat tilted in a way that prevented Kronos from seeing the annoyance flashing in Krios' eyes. All week the sun had been relentlessly bearing down on them but that day it had been particularly bad, leaving everyone to seek refuge in the shadows of the trees -a weak attempt at keeping cool. Kronos had hoped that because of his hot and bothered state, Krios would tell Kronos exactly why Percy was considered a freak. Although it seemed that -once again- Krios was one step ahead of him, 'I know what you're trying to do!' he sang, fake glee plastered on his face. And then, quicker than he could follow, Kronos was pinned beneath Krios, his ten year old form unable to fight off someone nearly double his height and strength. He struggled weakly. The sun hat that had previously been perched on Krios' head had fallen off, revealing eyes which were glowing in anger.

An arm had found its way to Kronos' throat, pressing down against his wind pipe and preventing him from filling his screaming lungs with the air that they were so desperately demanding. Krios lent down, allowing his lips to brush against Kronos's ear, 'So stop asking.' His words were simple but they cut into Kronos like a blade. Then, as quickly as it was there, Krios' weight was gone and Kronos could breath.

He sat up and looked around him, Krios was gone yet his hat remained. Kronos reached up and allowed his fingers to brush against his throat, wincing as he did so. He noticed that he was breathing heavily, lungs greedily sucking in air. He didn't mention Percy in front of Krios again.

Kronos pushed the curtain that shielded his clothes from view out of the way, fingers unconsciously brushing against his throat at the memory. Sighing deeply. Kronos began to dig through his wardrobe, searching for his best chiton, which also happened to be his most uncomfortable one. He hated it, it made him feel like someone had put a nest of green ants down his chiton. And he knew what that felt like, although it was him that accidently fell onto the nest. Kronos cringed when he felt the rough material beneath his finger-tips. Allowing his mind to once again wonder from the task at hand.

It had been a year since the incident with Krios and Kronos had been reluctant to bring Percy up again. Yet on that particular day, Krios was busy completing a task for their mother (Kronos suspects that it's hunting Percy down but he doesn't voice this) and Hyperion and Oceanus were home. Kronos knew for a fact that Hyperion had a tendency to think with his muscles, not his brain, and that Oceanus was (to put it lightly) a suck-up. With that in mind, Kronos' resolve crumbled, he shuffled outside and asked them the same question that he had asked before, oh so many times. 'Why is Percy a freak?'

Oceanus opened his mouth like his was going to say something but was silenced by a glare from Hyperion. He settled on pressing down on what looked like a scar from an arrow puncture. Hyperion turned to Kronos, seemingly satisfied with Oceanus, and knelt down so that he was eye-level with Kronos. He smiled a horrid smile which reminded Kronos of a predator playing with its prey. 'I'll tell you why,' Hyperion's voice was deep and ragged. 'It's because he's a perverted mother f-' before he could finish, a shadow swallowed him whole and Iapetus emerged from another nearby, shaking his head.

'He has always had such a foul mouth,' Iapetus sniffed. 'Ignore him Kronos, Chaos knows that's what we all do, Hyperion and I are going to be having a discussion about what language is acceptable.' He clapped his hands together, startling both Oceanus and Kronos. 'Right, I best be off, Kronos I'm sure Oceanus will be more than willing to answer any and all questions you have regarding Percy. Laters.' And then Iapetus was gone, swallowed by a shadow, as if he was never there to begin with.

Kronos turned to Oceanus and crossed his arms, waiting for an explanation that all his other siblings had deprived from him. 'Okay, ' Oceanus spoke, his voice was oddly soothing. It reminded Kronos a little of waves lapping against the shore, he didn't doubt that it could change in an instant. 'I guess that I should begin by telling you that Perseus -or Percy as you seem to know him- is not at all perverted. Now, you are aware that everyone refers Perseus as a freak?' At Kronos' nod Oceanus continued. 'Why don't you sit down? Yes, that's it, anywhere is fine. Right, er, so as you know Perseus' domain is life among other things, like space which is odd because theres's no life in space - I'm rambling, sorry. Anyway, as I was saying, Perseus' domain is life which means anything and everything living falls into his domain. Although, not everything under this domain was very... positive. One thing it did, was make Perseus an excellent judge of character -he can read most people as easily as words on paper. However, at a young age Perseus discovered that he could make anything living do what he wanted, he was able to take away their free will, our free will and he hated it. He promised himself no matter what, he wouldn't use it and he didn't, well, he never did it purposely but he was still learning to use his powers and accidents happen. He'd get angry and make someone repeatedly hit themselves and then run off crying himself, you'd find him curled up in some dark corner.

'As he got older he discovered yet another power, similar but at the same time different from the last -possession. With this power, though, Perseus requires permission (something which relieved him greatly, I'm telling you). Possession involves him entering a host's body, with permission of course, and sharing a mind with them for an extended amount of time, any injuries on Perseus or the host will be healed instantly or over time depending on how sever the said injuries were.

'However it wasn't until Perseus started hearing voices in his head, our thoughts, was he referred to as a freak. He wasn't able to keep all of what he was hearing to himself and just blurted things out. As you can probably guess, our siblings didn't appreciate that too much. Although the last I've heard he's now able to block them out.' Oceanus looked up, the sky was just beginning to darken, 'You better head back, Nyx is coming out and mother shall be concerned about your whereabouts.'

Sighing through his nose Kronos took one last look at his reflection, combing his fingers through his golden locks just to make sure every strand of hair was in its' place. Stepping back, Kronos admired his reflection, he was wearing a knee length golden chiton, a brown belt was tied around his midriff and had his favourite leather sandals fastened up to his knees. Nodding to himself he walked out of his temple, if he kept going at a decent pace, he'd arrive with five minutes to spare. He detested lateness.

~ Ψ ~ Ψ ~ Ψ ~

As expected, Kronos was the first to arrive, before even his mother. When all of his siblings turned up, Kronos was pushed to the back of them all, honestly he didn't mind, it helped him notice the absence of one of his favoured siblings -Percy. Though, to be honest, Kronos wasn't exactly expecting him to turn up, pretty much everyone there hated him. With that in mind Kronos attempted to listen to his mother's speech welcoming them all but found he couldn't. His eyes kept drifting to Rhea's back, he was wearing a long white dress that dragged along the floor, a plaited bely was tied around her midriff and her long, earth coloured hair was tied back in such a way that it didn't obstruct her view yet could cascade gracefully down her back. Kronos could vividly picture her grass green eyes and her soft smile. He could picture the way she would-

"Oh," a deep voice interrupted his thoughts. "Am I late?" Imminently, Kronos swirled around and he noticed that he wasn't the only one. Standing there (whom he assumed) was Percy. His signature cloak was fastened around his neck, his hood blocked his face from view but his sea green eyes pierced the darkness. From what Kronos could see, Percy was also wearing a dark navy blue chiton. Percy shifted awkwardly.

Kronos felt a smooth hand gently push him out of the way, looking down Kronos noticed that it was Rhea. He watched as she charged forward and embraced Percy. Kronos felt a sharp spike of jealousy in the pit of his stomach, Rhea never hugged him like that. He felt a calloused placed on his shoulder and looked to his left to see a smiling Iapetus. Kronos turned back to Percy and Rhea, trying to ignore the jealousy that he knew was illogical, he had no right to be jealous.

"Alright," Kronos heard Percy choke out, absentmindedly, he noticed that Percy's hood had fallen down and that his hair had been cut shorter and styled to reveal a scar. "I think you have successfully demonstrated my lack of needing to breathe but could you please let go? It's becoming painful."

"That's the point," Rhea hissed. "You disappear off of mother and come back expecting to just strut up and expect everything to be fine?!" She shoved Percy away from her. "NOT EVEN A LETTER PERSEUS!" Rhea once again embraced him, quickly this time and walked back towards the still shocked group of titans. "You smell like blueberries." Was all she called out. Percy shook his head in amusement and his lips tilted upwards in amusement.

Kronos felt the jealousy evaporate when Rhea came and stood with Iapetus and himself. He also watched Iapetus approach Percy, his hand leaving Kronos' shoulder in favour of embracing his twin. Kronos couldn't help but to notice the fact that Percy was actually slightly taller than Iapetus (who happened to be the second tallest there, Kronos was taller than him though) due to the fact that Percy had to lean down slightly so that Iapetus could whisper something in his ear. Whatever Iapetus had said caused Percy to blush and pull away from the brotherly embrace blushing madly.

Percy walked towards Kronos and Rhea, Kronos couldn't help but to feel a slight rush of excitement, would Percy recognise him now that he was older? The last time he had seen him, Kronos was five and Percy has rescued one of their siblings from the wrath of their father. Successfully becoming Kronos' hero. Yet before Kronos' question could be answered, Hyperion spoke up.

"Look everyone!" he bellowed. "The freaks back to do more freakish things!" Kronos heard Percy snort.

"Hyperion, please do refrain from speaking -you lower the intelligence of everyone here."

"Oh look, Freak back talks now!" Kronos could practically feel Percy's annoyance.

"Oh please," Percy retaliated. "I'm hardly the teenager that you tortured in the forest anymore."

"Why are you here?" Krios demanded.

"Isn't it obvious? I was invited, Rhea sent me a letter. I would have responded but I only got it an hour ago, mother, please do continue with what you were saying."

Kronos turned back to look at his mother, her face looked slightly shocked but otherwise indifferent. "Hi," Kronos looked to his right, Percy had somehow came to stand beside him without him noticing, he now noticed that Percy was slightly taller than him (an inch, if that) which made him the tallest there. "You've gotten tall, kid."

He couldn't help but to smirk, "How'd you know it was me? I was, like, five the last time you saw me." Percy snorted, like the answer was obvious and if what Oceanus had told all those years ago was true, it probably was obvious for Percy.

"Last I checked you were the only one who had golden eyes, kid."

They both turned back to their mother, listening to how they would achieve greatness and become favourite child. And then she said the three words that caused Percy to visibly tense beside Kronos.

"... kill you father."

[April 16th 2016]
[Edited: N/A]

Alright, here's the chapter that you've all been waiting. I finally got rid of the dam dam that prevented my ideas from coming to me. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter I've been loving all your reviews and votes.

Tell me what you think of think of this chapter!

'Til next time.
Yours,
~ ForlornSpirit

[June 16th 2016]
Just thought that I'd let you guys know that I am nearly finished with the next chapter. It will then be sent off to my beta but it shouldn't be too long before it is up. Just thought I'd let you know and leave you with a little teaser.
Enjoy!

~ForlornSpirit

{Patricide; the act of murdering ones own father. Derived from the Latin word 'parter' meaning 'father'.}

Turning back to the group of people that Percy stood amongst, Kronos grinned, “I’ll need volunteers.” He didn’t shout yet his voice held the attention of everyone there. His voice was like that of a hiss and his face resembled one of a predator that knew it had its prey trapped yet chose to toy with  it anyway. Silence reigned.