Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Get in the water Percy,” Annabeth said. “Chiron watch this.”

I stumbled into the water, my chest burning with pain from the Hellhounds claws. I slumped in relief the moment my feet hit the water.

Between one breath and the next the pain cut in half, the water soothing it without even touching it. The pain quickly drained away, and when I looked down the large gashes were sealing shut, good as new.

“This isn’t good,” Annabeth muttered.

And then gasps filled the air, and I looked around, finding everyone staring at me. No, not at me. They were staring right above my head.

The crowd around me slowly kneeled, and I looked up.

Above my head, glowing with blue-green light, was a conch shell.

“It is… determined,” Chiron declared. “All hail, Perseus Jackson, son of Aphrodite.”

OO OO OO OO

Moving into the Aphrodite cabin was actually nice. I had my own bed now, and a whole cabin full of friends- or well, siblings.

They helped me carry my few things, despaired over my wardrobe and the state of my hair, and promised to help me set up a skin routine.

They were nice, they welcomed me easily. I was offered new clothes from the collection they kept for new campers. I was given some nicer hair products, and a face wash and moisturizer. They even taught me how to care for my hair properly.

The bed was soft, and they’d switched the white and soft green bedding for blue because it was my favorite color.

And after I was all settled in, I got to join them for activities.

It was my cabin now, so I did sword fighting with them, though most of them preferred not to fight. And we did archery, I was horrible but so was Mitchell so it was fine. We painted pots together, and Silena helped me learn how to layer the glaze to get a vibrant color. We climbed the wall, with Drew offering me a hand up in the harder sections.

Dinner was with a whole cabin who cared.

I still met with Annabeth for review, she seemed a bit confused by me, but was still a good teacher. And our cabin worked in the strawberry fields with the Demeter cabin, so I made some friends from there. The Hephaestus cabin worked with us in the forge, and I learned how to make a knife… sort of.

It was nice, I was happy. I still missed my mom, but it was… comfortable.

And the cabin activities were a lot of fun! We made snacks together, and did each other’s hair, and I learned how to do makeup. Giovanni taught me how to play cards (and count them, which I didn’t quite understand yet), and Marinette was teaching me to knit.

They asked me about my life and told me of theirs in turn.

I learned that my claiming was a bit odd, because normally Aphrodite gives the kids a makeover as part of the claiming.

“Maybe you were already in your most comfortable look?” Lacey offered.

None of the others seemed to agree, but they weren’t sure what was up.

I made an offering to my second mom at dinner, thanking her for claiming me and asking if I’d done something wrong to not get a makeover.

I was confused that it was Aphrodite at first, but one of the others explained that she’s a Hermaphrodite, which means she has man parts sometimes, or is a man, I didn’t quite understand it yet but they said it was possible for her to have been a he when with my mom.

Did that mean I should call Aphrodite he? I asked that while offering some of the freshly made bread, but I didn’t have an epiphany.

One of them mentioned Aphrodite could’ve always just used her powers as a Goddess to make my mom pregnant with me too. I didn’t know how that worked either, but I supposed they weren’t mortal, so the rules didn’t really matter.

By the end of the first week, I felt comfortable. The cabin was like a second home. I could imagine staying there.

But I still thought of my mom. I still thought of how to get her back. Most didn’t seem to consider me much anymore; I was an Aphrodite kid, and they were “weak”. I was a weird one, inheriting from her ocean aspect rather than her love or beauty aspect like most. But I was still one of her kids.

I didn’t care, I was still going to get my mom back.

It was during the next game of capture the flag that I was given the opportunity.

Or more like told to.

OO OO OO OO

Aphrodite was teamed up with the Hermes cabin this game and was mostly hanging out without participating. I wanted to play, so did a few others, so we helped with the defense.

The Dionysus kids had just jumped across the creek, the cheers starting up, when I noticed the mist.

Green mist snaked through the forest, faint at first but steadily growing darker and thicker. Appearing in the mist was a shambling figure.

“What the-“ Annabeth started, stepping up next to me. “Is that-“

The cheers died down quickly, everyone watching the figure coming forward.

“It can’t be-“ Silena whispered.

“Is that… a mummy?” I hissed, eyes wide as I stared at the mummified girl in coming towards us.

“The oracle,” Annabeth responded. “But she never leaves the attic-“

“Approach, asker, and speak,” hissed a voice, curling through the air and my ears, winding over me like snake scales.

I swallowed, glancing at the others, but none stepped forward.

The oracle was looking right at me, did she mean me?

“Percy,” Annabeth said softly. “I think that’s for you.”

I took a deep breath and stepped forward.

“Uh- what do I need to do?”

Mist filled the air, spilling from the mummies mouth, slithering over the ground. It thickened until I could barely see in front of me.

“You shall go West, to the God who has turned.

You shall find what was stolen and see it safely returned.

You shall return to find friends on whom you can depend

You shall fail to save what matters most in the end”

I swallowed hard as the mist seemed to suck back into her, clearing the air in just a few moments. And then it was silent.

The mummy was sitting on the ground, looking as if she hadn’t moved in a thousand years.

OO OO OO OO

We sat in the Big House, all the cabin heads, Grover, and me.

They were arguing over the prophecy, and what it meant.

Chiron had started out by explaining the theft from Olympus, and how Poseidon was being accused. He explained his suspicion that it was Hades who completed the theft or had another complete it for him. As Hades was in the West, he argued that was proof.

Mr. D seemed to disagree but also didn’t care to argue.

“You’ll end up in the West regardless, if heading to my dear old Uncle’s place will give you a goal then go ahead.”

“Annabeth has already volunteered to go with you,” Chiron explained.

I glanced at Annabeth, who straightened. She looked a bit nervous, but her jaw was set and her eyes gleamed with determination.

“Grover has also volunteered, if you’ll take him,” Chiron continued.

I glanced at Grover, understanding why he was present now.

“That’s fine,” I agreed.

“We need to get him ready for the quest,” Silena said, a worried frown on her face. “When will they leave?”

“Tomorrow morning,” Chiron declared. “This quest is urgent. I’m not sure why Percy has been assigned it, but we must handle it swiftly.”

“Then if that’s all?” Luke asked. “We should help the questers get ready.”

“That will be all,” Chiron confirmed.

With that, the meeting adjourned and I followed Silena back to the cabin.

OO OO OO OO

“Okay, we’ve already gathered good questing clothes.”

“We’ve packed face wash for the go, and some wipes to clean yourself when you don’t have access to a shower or any water.”

“And we packed some extra medical supplies and money.”

“I added the money,” Giovanni chimed in. “Or do you think you need a credit card?”

I didn’t think I needed a credit card, and the amount of money in the bag was more than I’d ever had in my life.

“We also have a present for you!”

I blinked, looking up at them in confusion as Marinette handed me a box.

Inside, wrapped in an embroidered handkerchief (“I was working on that for you, thought you might like it now”), was a very pretty comb, the top shaped like a cresting wave.

“It’s a comb knife,” Drew explained. “All of us have one, it’s kinda a cabin tradition.”

“In an emergency you’ll have a hidden weapon!”

I couldn’t help tearing up, thanking them profusely for the gift. Marinette scooped up the handkerchief she’d embroidered with my name and shells, starfish, and hearts and dabbed at my tears.

OO OO OO OO

They insisted they do my hair in the morning, bright and early. Drew helped me pick out a sword to use for the quest, the best one for me considering that none of them worked. They grabbed one of the enchanted sheaths, that shrunk it to the size of a knife so long as it was sheathed.

I had one last breakfast at the camp, savoring the fresh fruit and homemade bread. I made sure to make an offering to Zeus and Aphrodite, asking for help and guidance on my quest.

And then I was walking down the hill, heading to the camp car that would take us to the bus station.

OO OO OO OO

The ride to the bus station was strange, I had been at camp for weeks and felt like a stranger out in the mortal world once more. I looked at everything we passed, newly fascinated by it.

Annabeth was doing it even more than me, though she attempted to hide the way her eyes were drawn to every colorful sign, every ad for food, every towering building.

I remembered her saying she’d been at camp longer than just about anyone. I wondered what it was like for her, to see the world for the first time in years.

We reached the bus station and Argus bought us our tickets. While we waited for the bus to arrive, we played a game with an apple. It ended when Grover ate it mid move, and we had to sit down from laughing so hard.

Getting on the bus was quick, and we stored our bags above the seats. We were tucked into the back, all three of us in the one spot.

We kept an eye on the entrance, Annabeth pulled out her architecture book, and we relaxed.

The bus started up just a few minutes later, and we were off.

OO OO OO OO

The first bit of the ride was very quiet. I stared out the window, or looked at the pictures on Annabeth’s book, bouncing my leg as the bus drove down the road. Grover was conked out against the window, snoring softly.

Annabeth and I talked softly together about the quest for a bit, wondering why exactly I’d been chosen and what we’d face.

We hadn’t faced any monsters yet, and I hoped we’d avoid that for the whole quest, but somehow, I didn’t think we’d be that lucky.

Almost as if that thought had jinxed us, the bus swerved violently.

The driver pressed down on the horn, a loud honk filling the air as he cursed out a semi for crossing lanes right in front of us.

Annabeth peaked ahead, then blanched.

“Percy that’s not a semi, we need to get out of here.”

“What?”

She reached across me and shoved Grover, who woke with a yelp.

“We need to go, that’s a hellhound,” she hissed.

I peaked past her, out in front of us, and blanched at the Hellhound sniffing the bus.

“Back entrance?” Annabeth asked.

“Can the hellhound get us in here?” I asked.

“If it can’t, it might just tear the bus apart, or knock it over, we need to get out. If not for ourselves, for the mortals.”

The Hellhound barked, then body slammed the bus.

“The hell!” the bus driver yelled, throwing the bus in reverse. There was a crashing sound from outside and I had a feeling we’d just caused a car crash. “What the fuck is his problem!”

The passengers were screaming as the hellhound lunged once more, and we stumbled out of our seats.

“The windows don’t open,” Annabeth hissed. “And there’s no back entrance. Who designed this bus? This does not meet federal regulations, I guarantee it!”

I clutched the seat back, eyeing the hellhound getting ready to launch itself forward once more, and decided reporting the bus company to the government could wait until we got a few miles from here.

The hellhound promptly knocked the bus over, and screams filled the air.

I crashed into the window with a cry, Grover groaning where he was laying next to me. A lady from the row next to us had gotten thrown on me by the movement as well and I had to pull myself out from under her.

“Annabeth!”

She pushed herself up with a hiss, scrambling to grab our bags. “Percy, we need to get out of here.”

I yanked Grover along and stumbled with Annabeth over the windows. Annabeth handed me and Grover our bags as we moved. We had to climb over many groaning people and seats to reach the front and found the driver unmoving against his own door.

I swallowed and looked away from the blood pooling under his head. “Can we help him?”

“No,” Annabeth said with a grimace. “Ambrosia and Nectar will kill a mortal.”

She pushed the doors open with some difficulty and glared up at the door that was above us.

The hellhound was sniffing at the middle of the bus at the moment, so we had a short window of time to make a break for it.

She helped boost me up to grab the exit, and then Grover after me. I balanced on the top and reached down to help her as she used the handles to pull herself up partway.

A bark sounded behind us, and Annabeth yelled for us to get down.

The road was basically at a stop thanks to the accident right nearby, and the bus on its side, so we could run to the trees without worrying about being hit by a car.

The hellhound lunged for us and we dove out of the way. We managed to reach the trees before it knocked Grover down.

I drew the sword, nearly stumbling at the weight of the blade growing as it came out of the sheath, and clumsily stabbed at the hound.

Annabeth darted round and leapt onto its side, driving her knife into its neck.

It howled, shaking its head and throwing her off. I drove my sword into its neck right after and lost my blade to it.

The hellhound stumbled, snarling as its feet collapsed under it.

Moments later it started crumbling away.

“Well,” Grover said. “That was exciting.”

Annabeth wiped off her knife, breathing hard. I drew in a few deep breaths as well.

“To the victor goes the spoils,” Annabeth said, nodding to the dust.

I noticed the claws poking out of it right then and nodded, scooping them up. I wasn’t sure if they were worth anything, but I supposed there was no harm in keeping them.

I also grabbed my sword from the pile of dust and sheathed it.

It was hard to fight with a sword you couldn’t really use right.

Annabeth let out a breath, “Well, we need a new ride.”

Police sirens echoed in the distance, heading towards us.

“And also, to get out of here.”

“I vote no more buses,” Grover said.

I agreed, that was not fun.

“No,” Annabeth agreed, tilting her head. “But I think there’s a train nearby.”

I blinked, and now that she’d said that I could hear a faint noise in the distance, sounding remarkably like a train.

“That would make things easier,” I agreed.

Thus, we started walking towards what we hoped was a train station.

OO OO OO OO

There was a train station, and between the three of us we had enough money to get tickets a good portion of the way there.

“We’ll have a stop in St. Louis,” Annabeth said, eyeing the route. “For a whole two hours.”

“Is that good?” I asked.

“It would give us enough time to visit the arch,” she said, voice full of longing. “Do you think we could?”

“I don’t see why not,” I agreed.

“Sounds interesting,” Grover added.

And thus we boarded a train.

OO OO OO OO

The train ride was fairly boring overall. It was several days of sitting there doing nothing. The stop in St. Louis was entertaining. Annabeth explained the history of the arch, and we got to stop in the souvenir shop (though we didn’t buy anything). It was kinda cool being at the top but Annabeth was right, it would’ve been cooler if the floor was made of glass so we could see down.

In the end, our tickets only got us as far as some small town in the middle of nowhere. Annabeth led us to a car wash of all places, and we managed to get a call through on a rainbow to Camp. Apparently, people were taking sides over the Zeus-Poseidon war.

After Annabeth terrorized some poor mortal that was blasting music at an obnoxious level, we headed off. I wasn’t the only one who looked longingly at the diner, but we still had snacks in our bags and needed to save our money for an emergency.

“We shouldn’t,” Annabeth said with a sigh.

“I wish we could,” I said longingly.

“Well today’s your lucky day,” drawled a voice from behind us.

Annabeth and I yelped, whipping around, Grover jumped half a foot into the air before copying us.

Before us was a tall, hefty, figure. Wearing a leather jacket, leather jeans, a deep red shirt, and sunglasses, the figure before us was plenty intimidating. There were two scars on his face, criss-crossing on his cheek. And his nose looked like it had been broken a few times.

He pulled off his sunglasses and grinned at us.

“So, you’re my gal’s kid.”

Annabeth gasped, “Lord Ares.”

Oh, Ares. I remembered Silena explaining how he was dating Aphrodite… who was my second mom. Oh.

“Lord Ares,” I said quickly, unsure if I was supposed to bow or not.

“Lunch on me,” he said. “I’ve got a little job for you to do in exchange for a bit of help on your quest.”

Well, that was nice of him.

OO OO OO OO

Ares did indeed buy us lunch, and it was delicious. Then he informed us of the location of a place he brought Aphrodite on a date to and asked us to pick up his shield from there, cause he’d left it.

I wasn’t sure if he was trying to get an excuse to help us, because this seemed easy. Annabeth agreed that he was probably being nice, giving us an easy job to give us a reward. Probably because he liked my second mom.

That sentiment held up about until the mechanical spiders tried to eat us while in the Tunnel of Love ride. Naturally it was all caught on camera too, by my second mom’s husband.

I wasn’t sure I enjoyed the family drama.

Ares cheerfully told me that my second mom (I really needed something else to call her, mother? Mama? I’d have to think on it) said I could keep the scarf though, so that was cool!

Quest complete, Ares was kind enough to give us a backpack with more snacks and clothes, and a ride. Our ride was on a truck for some animals, “Humane transport”.

The inside was not humane, at all, and I wondered if he was also asking us to rescue them. Grover looked about ready to commit murder on the drivers, and I figured Ares would also approve of that.

It was hot, stuffy, and smelly in the back of the truck, but it was a free(ish) ride so we didn’t complain.

We snacked on oreos while we rode, and occasionally broke up the silence with soft talk of our lives and families. I found out that Grover was the one who brought Annabeth (and Thalia and Luke) to camp, when he was even younger than he was now. And Annabeth told me about her dad.

I didn’t think I liked him and told her she deserved better.

She hummed, “Yeah, his wife is worse, but… he never wanted me, and I knew it.”

“Well, his loss. Sucks to be him, he had the coolest daughter around and didn’t want her.”

Annabeth laughed, shoving my shoulder. I couldn’t see her expression well in the dark, but she leaned against me and seemed to relax so I figured I did alright.

OO OO OO OO

When the truck stopped in Las Vegas, we rescued the zebra and the other two animals. It was cool how Grover could understand all the animals. I wondered if I’d be able to understand a dove, or maybe sea creatures?

Of course, that also meant we no longer had a ride.

And it was really hot here. I didn’t like the heat at all.

We wandered around for a bit, staring around at all the casinos and various buildings, before a bellhop offered to let us rest in one of them.

I didn’t know if that was legal, but I was hot enough to not really care.

It got really confusing when they gave us cards for the casino and told us we had a room ready though. We definitely weren’t old enough for a casino. Also, how did they know we were coming?

Twenty minutes later I decided that wasn’t important, and what was important was the very cool surfing game I found. Annabeth was building something on some architecture game, and Grover was hunting humans in a reverse hunting game.

I cheerfully explored the place, playing any game that caught my eye. It was while playing bowling with some guy in old clothing that something started to bug me.

There were a lot of people here, a lot, in all different style of clothing. Some didn’t seem to speak English, and some spoke English weirdly, like an older way of speaking. The guy I was playing kept saying “groovy” when one of us did well too.

It was weird. One or two using older terms was one thing but-

I asked them the date and they said 1975.

Well then.

I went looking for Annabeth.

OO OO OO OO

We escaped the casino fairly easily after that, but it turned out days had passed. We did gain a ride out of it though, so I wasn’t sure if that balanced out. Those casino cards were amazing, and I was absolutely keeping mine. I hoped they worked at stores, because this would be great for mom.

The cab driver we paid with the casino card was treating us like royalty, and the car hadn’t dropped under 90mph for a good hour.

This was both a good thing and a bad thing. We weren’t sure where in LA the entrance to the underworld was, and we didn’t have much time to find it, so every minute counted. But also, we weren’t sure what awaited us in the underworld.

It was scary, but hopefully it would go well. We didn’t have much time, and the world was counting on us.

More importantly, my mom was there, and I was determined to save her.

OO OO OO OO

The city itself was big, and we didn’t know exactly where to go. The taxi driver drove us around for a bit, not at all concerned with the delay considering we were paying him double. We didn’t see anything that was obviously “underworld entrance” so asked him to let us out on a street as the sun started to go down.

He seemed mildly concerned for our safety, but Annabeth added a tip of another five hundred dollars and he shut up and headed off.

Grover was the one who ended up finding the place in the end.

“It’s the smell,” he said, as he led the way. “It’s kinda… underground… and dead stuff… I’m not sure how to explain it.”

Neither of us complained, just followed him to DOA STUDIOS.

“Dead on Arrival,” I read out. “No living allowed.”

“Cool,” Grover squeaked.

“Okay,” Annabeth said. “We need a plan.”

“A plan?” Grover asked.

“Yeah, we’re going into the underworld.”

“Doesn’t Hades have a guard dog?”

“Yeah, Kerberos.”

“How do we get past him?” I wondered.

Grover and Annabeth looked at each other, then back at me, both looking worried.

“We could… throw a ball?”

Grover turned to look at her, baffled. “What?”

“Well, he’s a dog.”

“He is a dog,” I agreed. “Dogs like balls, I hear.”

“So…” she shrugged.

Grover sighed, “Okay, we’ll throw a ball. Do we have a ball?”

“I think I have one from the water park?”

“Why did you get a ball from the water park?” I asked.

She shrugged, it was deemed irrelevant.

With our plan solidified, and clearly unmatched, we headed in.

And promptly realized we forgot a plan on how we died.

OO OO OO OO

“All three of you drowned in a bathtub?” Charon asked mildly.

We sweated and nodded.

“Big bathtub.”

“So uh… can we go?”

“No, I don’t allow the living in the Underworld.”

Damn, that didn’t work.

I switched to plan B, which I came up with on the spot, bribery.

I still had the money from my siblings, and I promptly got to work convincing him to let us in with a bit of sweet talk and gold.

OO OO OO OO

When we got off his boat, Annabeth let out a breath. “You know, I really thought your parent was Poseidon at first, I mean after the water healing. But I absolutely see how you’re a child of Aphrodite after that.”

“What?”

“The sweet talk, the soft voice, the smiles, that was all Aphrodite.”

I straightened. I’d been noted to not be the normal Aphrodite kid several times, so it was nice to hear that I did resemble her, somewhat. Even if it was because I was good at manipulation.

“Well then, time to play ball with a three headed hound of hell,” Grover muttered.

“Hell is fake,” Annabeth corrected, leading the way forward.

OO OO OO OO

It was just our luck that the magic shoes Luke gave us at the beginning (that I’d honestly forgotten about cause they’d been exactly no use thus far) ended up trying to drag us into a pit.

“That’s Tartarus,” Annabeth whispered as we escaped the wind pulling us in. “The greatest prison of the Gods.”

“Why did the shoes try to drag me in?” I asked, rubbing my arms and eternally thankful that Grover had snagged my arm and pulled me back.

“I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe they were sabotaged?”

I wasn’t so sure, but I wasn’t sure what exactly could’ve messed with them.

Regardless, we’d escaped Tartarus with only minor injuries on myself.

I hoped we didn’t end up anywhere near the pit in the future.

OO OO OO OO

Hades was the first God I’d met that made me think God on sight. I figured the other two were hanging out with us Mortals, so they didn’t give the vibe, but Hades… we were in his house, and it was clear.

The air was heavy with power, his mere presence made me feel the urge to bow. Divinity shone from him.

He watched us, gaze intense.

“You dare to enter my home, claiming to be innocent and accusing me, while you carry my brothers bolt?”

I blinked. Annabeth blinked. Grover was the one who asked “What?”

“Open your bag, little demigod,” Hades challenged. “I suspected you had a hand in it but thought as you were Aphrodite’s child and not Poseidon’s that I was wrong. Clearly I’d been correct.”

I opened my bag to find only the stuff my cabin packed.

“The other bag,” he snapped. “Don’t play coy.”

That wasn’t my bag, that was Ares’ bag that he …. Gave… us…

Oh no.

Annabeth was the one who opened it, her face going white when she saw what was inside.

“Lord Hades,” I said quickly. “This bag isn’t ours. It was given to us by another.”

He studied us, eyes narrowed, “Oh?”

“Ares gave it to us,” Annabeth said. “It was supposed to be a reward for helping retrieve his shield-“

“It’s a trick,” I muttered. “The God who had turned was Ares.”

“You are accusing Ares of being the thief?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “But we got the bag from him. If he had the bolt, then he might have your helm as well."

“Let us return to the land of the living,” Annabeth pleaded. “We can retrieve your helm.”

“Yeah,” Grover said. “Ares gave us the bolt; we can get your helm from him too.”

Hades seemed to consider us carefully. His gaze lingering on each of us.

“I hold your mother,” he said, looking at me. “Sally Jackson. She is not dead, she is in my grasp. Should you fail to retrieve my helm, or should you lie to me, I will claim her soul. Should you return my helm, I will return her to your home.”

My breath caught.

“You have until the sunset on the solstice.”

OO OO OO OO

We arrived back above in an instant, on the beach. It was a pretty day, lots of surfing and people playing. I wondered for a moment how we would find Ares, but then I noticed the figure wearing all leather.

Looks like he found us.

“What do we do?” Annabeth asked. “We can’t beat him-“

“We could ask nicely,” I offered.

Annabeth and Grover both stared at me.

What? Silena always said to ask nicely first. It worked for her.

I led the way to Ares, who grinned at us when we reached him.

“You made it out.”

“You set us up!” Annabeth cried.

“I did,” he agreed. “Felt bad, of course, I mean the kid here is my gal’s child. I don’t like getting her kids involved in things… but you were headed there and I needed the bolt there. Course, you were supposed to leave the bolt there.”

I swallowed, “Well that’s not happening. We have to return it to Zeus. Can we have the Helm?”

Ares snorted, “What?”

“Can we have the Helm? I assume you have it?”

He plucked up the helmet on his bike, and it morphed into a helm in his grasp. “I do indeed. But I’m not giving it to you.”

“Why?” Annabeth asked.

“It’s war darling.” Ares said as if it were obvious. And at our confusion, he helpfully elaborated. Going into his whole elaborate plan to start a war of epic proportions.

I was confused.

“But that’s senseless?” I said. “Don’t you like- stand for something? It’s not just killing for killings sake. You’re war, and war has a purpose even if its dumb. This is just… conflict for conflicts sake.”

Ares blinked at me for a moment, something strange in his eyes. “Anyways-“

“No, Percy is right. This is… weird.”

“It’s war!”

“Not the right kind,” I snapped back.

“There’s a right kind?” Grover asked.

“How am I supposed to know?” I grumbled. “I’m twelve. I imagine fighting to protect or to rescue or something would be ‘right’?”

Ares looked up for a long moment. “You are definitely Aphrodite’s kid.”

I blinked at him in confusion, but he just shook his head.

“So can we have the Helm?”

“No, you’re not getting it. And the only reason I’m not killing you is cause Aphrodite would be upset.”

“Can we fight you for it?”

“What.” He said, looking entirely unimpressed.

“Fight you. For the Helm.”

“… you know what, sure. If you can draw blood I’ll give you the Helm.”

Annabeth shot me a worried look, clearly as aware as me that I sucked with the sword I had.

“Awesome,” I said. As the challenger do I get to pick the spot we fight?”

“No, you get to pick weapons. I pick the spot.”

I did not want him to pick the spot, but I drew my sword nonetheless.

“Spot is right here, try to survive,” he grinned, all teeth and sharp edges.

And the battle began.

OO OO OO OO

It was quick, it was dirty, it involved a lot of screaming mortals. I lost my sword at one point and didn’t bother to try and get it back. I only had to draw first blood, if I could get close enough-

I jumped back, into the water at last, and dodged his next swing. He stalked after me eyes narrowed and gaze intense.

“Have you considered getting a balanced sword?” he asked, blade held loosely to his side.

“There isn’t one,” I explained between breaths. “It’s a pain.”

He swung at my head, and I ducked and leapt towards him, the water crashing over me and around me. A shape slid into my hand, the water swirling around it, and I thrust without thinking.

Between one moment and the next, all the water was gone.

Ares had screamed, I realized belatedly. I was laying on the ground, the water having been forced away. There was still something in my hand, and I looked at it with blurry vision.

A trident.

“You-“ Ares staggered, hand on his side.

I’d managed to hit him with the trident pretty hard too. He was bleeding.

“The fuck- where did the trident come from-“

Water crashed down on us and I forced myself to the surface, clinging to the trident.

Ares glared at me, hand covering the injury that was still bleeding.

“I suppose,” he grit out, “that you win this match.”

He started glowing, and I didn’t need Annabeth’s shout to know to look away. When I opened my eyes, he was gone.

The Helm washed onto the shore.

“Well,” Annabeth said after a moment. “That was… something.”

“Where’d the trident come from?” Grover asked.

I shrugged, holding it up in front of me.

A conch shell charm hung from it.

Had my second mom- my mother? Sent it?

Annabeth moved over to look at it.

“It’s a lovely trident.”

It was. It shone bronze, with curling waves pressed into the leather. The trident itself was sleek, shining in the light. The base had a strange pattern curling around it. An octopus maybe?

“Well,” what do we do now?” Grover asked.

I opened my mouth to respond, only to falter at the sight of three demonic grandmothers coming down to us.

“You retrieved the Helm,” one said, staring at the Helm Grover was holding.

He quickly held it out.

“Please return it to Lord Hades,” I said. “We’ll get the Bolt back to Zeus.”

They accepted it, considering us for a long moment. “Very well.”

And with that, we were alone… except for all the police heading towards us.

OO OO OO OO

Apparently, they’d been looking for me. I didn’t know that.

They explained to us that we were clearly kidnapped, the poor kids that we were we’d tried to escape from the evil kidnapper (Ares apparently), and I’d been so brave to fight him shotgun to rifle on the beach.

Why they thought our weapons were shotguns and rifles I wasn’t sure. I was just glad that they didn’t seem to notice my trident… for some reason.

We managed to get plane tickets back to New York, with a little bit of teary eyes and also throwing Gabe under the bus. I hoped he got fired for this.

OO OO OO OO

Annabeth and Grover came with me to Olympus, riding up the elevator with me and walking up the Mount by my side.

We walked into the room where Zeus and Poseidon sat, both studying us as we entered.

“Lord Zeus, Lord Poseidon,” I said, kneeling before Zeus alongside Annabeth and Grover.

They both studied us, gazes intent.

“Heroes,” Poseidon said. “Why don’t you tell us about the quest.”

We shared a look before diving into the story.

Annabeth explained our travel, I talked about the monsters we fought, Grover described the side quest Ares sent us on. Zeus confirmed he’d seen the video of us on the Love Ride, which was… something.

Apparently, it was a popular episode on Hephaestus Trapping.

We talked about the trip to the Underworld, and what Hades revealed, along with how we nearly got dragged into the pit. I told Zeus about the conversation with Ares, and the following fight. I explained how the trident I held, still unsure what to do with it, had arrived in my hand.

Zeus sent a look to Poseidon, but Poseidon just shook his head.

At the end of it all Zeus nodded and told me to take out the Bolt.

I carefully reached into the bag and pulled it out, stepping forward to place it before his throne.

“You’ve done well,” Zeus said, holding out his hand to call the Bolt to him. “You shall be rewarded. Hermes will deliver the reward later.”

We nodded, eyes wide.

“I believe,” Poseidon said mildly. “That I am also owed something.”

Zeus grimaced, shooting him a glare. Poseidon just raised an eyebrow.

“I… apologize,” Zeus grit out. “I should not… have… wrongly accused you.”

“I accept your apology,” Poseidon declared, magnanimously. “There’s one more thing to discuss before you leave.”

Zeus, who’d been about to stand up, paused. “What?”

Poseidon coughed and turned his gaze to me. I stilled.

“Perseus… is not Aphrodite’s son.”

I blinked. Annabeth blinked. Grover asked “What?”

“I knew it!” Zeus snapped. “You did break the oath!”

“What?” Poseidon said. “No. He’s not my child.”

“Wha-“

“He’s my grandchild.”

“What.” Zeus said.

“What?” I asked.

“He’s Triton’s son. The conch shell is Triton’s symbol. Triton was claiming him at the creek.”

There was a long beat of silence.

“Well,” Grover said. “That’s uh… awkward.”

“Oh my Gods,” Annabeth whispered. “That’s why you didn’t get a makeover.”

I gaped.

“Triton is quite upset about the mix up,” Poseidon continued. “Amphitrite had to stop him from vaporizing Chiron for mixing up the claiming.”

Zeus coughed, looking a dash awkward himself. “I see… well… I’ll send a message to Dionysus and he’ll clear things up.”

“Naturally,” Poseidon said, “As he’s my grandchild he can stay in my cabin.”

“He can?” Annabeth asked.

“That’s not allowed!” Zeus argued.

“Let me clarify, if he has to stay in the Hermes cabin, I cannot guarantee the safety of the cabin when Triton slips past Amphitrite.”

“… fine he can stay in your cabin.”

“Wonderful,” Poseidon smiled at me and it was like the clouds cleared, brilliant sparkling sea ahead. “It’s good to finally meet you.”

“It’s- it’s nice to meet you too,” I said shakily.

That meant that Aphrodite wasn’t my mom. I… wasn’t sure what to think of it.

“I thought Triton didn’t do relationships,” Zeus said, as he waved a hand to dismiss us.

“He doesn’t,” Poseidon said. “But he grew very close to Sally from what I understand, and as a result crafted a child-“

“Wait,” I faltered. “Crafted.”

Then I realized I’d interrupted their conversation and flushed.

Poseidon smiled, “Yes. He has only had one other child, besides yourself. It was after he grew close to a naiad of a lake. Pallas was her name, she was a nymph Goddess herself. Unfortunately, she died-“ he shot a look at Annabeth there “-and Triton has not had any children since… until you.”

I wondered at the look he sent to Annabeth, but nodded all the same. “Oh. Does that mean I wasn’t like- born?”

“You were born when he crafted you,” Poseidon said. “It’s akin to the same thing Athena does. In fact, I’m fairly certain that for all most call her children thought kids, they’re actually crafted by her much the same that Triton crafted Pallas and yourself.”

“Huh… interesting,” I said after a moment.

I’d have to ask mom about it sometime.

“Oh,” Poseidon said even as we’d bowed and turned to leave once more. “And your mother was returned to her home. You can see her on your way back to camp.”

OO OO OO OO

I gave my mom a big hug when I saw her and didn’t stay too long. Gabe was still there after all, and he sucked.

I wasn’t sure if I’d return home after camp, I wanted to. I wanted to see my mom again, be home and with her… but I really didn’t want to be around Gabe again.

I decided to pray to my dad and my uh… not-second-mother. Would Aphrodite be upset that I was mistaken for her kid? I felt a bit bad.

Hopefully that got figured out.

OO OO OO OO

We arrived back to camp to a celebration. We were the first to come back from a quest since Luke, the first to take one since Luke, and his wasn’t exactly a success from what I understood.

We were celebrities as a result and were treated to great food and entertainment. We also got to burn the shrouds they made for us in our absence. I smiled at the beautiful shroud, covered in curling waves that shaped like doves and hearts, with a conch shell emblazoned in the center.

It was at dinner that Dionysus stood up.

“It has been revealed that there was a misunderstanding at Johnson’s-“

“Jackson’s,” Chiron whispered.

“-er- Jackson’s claiming,” he declared. “It was actually Triton claiming him, not Aphrodite, so-“

There were gasps suddenly, heads turning to me. I blinked, noticing the pink light that my cabin members were bathed in.

I looked up and found another conch shell floating above me. This one glowed a light pink, not blue-green.

I looked down and found my clothes changed. My jeans new and gleaming, with a nice belt. My shoes very nice tennis shoes, with a wave pattern along the sides. My shirt was collared, very soft, and seafoam green with a little embroidered conch shell on the chest.

“Nevermind,” Dionysus said. “I don’t get paid enough to deal with this. He’s whoever’s kid, let them fight over it.”

Oh dear.

Chapter Text

Now, there were a lot of things that could be done over the fact that I had been claimed by Aphrodite right after everyone had been told my parent was actually Triton, but the Aphrodite cabin cheerfully dragging me to their table and refusing to listen to anyone was not what I had expected.

They shoved food onto my plate, and asked me to tell them about the quest, and summarily ignored that my parent wasn’t Aphrodite.

The rest of the camp slowly turned back to what they had been doing, while Chiron came over to us.

“You need to move to the Poseidon cabin-“

“No,” Silena said.

There was a long pause.

“Pardon?”

“You’re pardoned.”

“He must-“

“He was just claimed by our mom,” Drew said. “We’re not sending him away.”

“Yep, that’s our brother.”

“You’re not taking him from us!”

“He was claimed!”

Chiron sighed and shrugged. “I will bring this up with the Gods.”

“You do that.”

OO OO OO OO

Apparently, Aphrodite and Triton were about to throw down, Zeus had declared a vote, except since Aphrodite couldn’t vote he was the tie breaker and very much didn’t want to be the tie breaker. Apparently, he normally abstained from a vote so as to not influence the results.

Thus, no decision was made.

And I stayed in the Aphrodite cabin.

OO OO OO OO

The summer was basically over at that point, and I still hadn’t decided what to do. I wanted to go home but didn’t want to deal with Gabe. I wanted to see my mom again. I wanted to hug her.

My siblings- er- friends? Uh… my cabin offered advice but most of them had great families.

I was thoroughly lost on what to do, at least until I got a letter from my mom saying that Gabe had died in a robbery.

Giovanni patted my shoulder and said that meant home was good now.

Silena muttered to him to be a little more subtle about using family connections, I wasn’t sure what that meant.

Drew cheerfully informed me that his dad ran the Italian mafia.

I wasn’t sure what that had to do with Gabe’s death, but I gathered Giovanni probably had a hand in Gabe’s death.

That worked.

OO OO OO OO

Grover left for his mission, and I was sad, but he was going to find Pan and I would support him. He deserved to be happy!

Didn’t mean that I didn’t hug him forever before he left. He was required to come back alive, I would accept nothing else.

OO OO OO OO

Camp ended without much fanfare. Though I heard that Luke went missing at the very end, no one was sure what happened to him.

I got my first bead, which had a conch shell with blue and pink around it.

Everyone seemed to find the (apparently ongoing) fight between my dad and my (adopted?) mom very funny.

I found a few pretty seashells on my nightstand, and a very soft stuffed octopus on my bed. I was pretty sure those were from Triton.

In contrast, my closet was filled with new (designer according to my cabin members) clothes.

They got replaced with pretty flowy clothes the next day. Then replaced with the original clothes right after. Then both were there. I wasn’t quite sure what to do about it but decided to just thank them both.

My cabin members definitely found it funny. The rest of the camp, even those who were jealous, were also laughing as I randomly got doves landing in my hair and fish followed me around in the water.

I just… rolled with it.

I went from having one mom (and a stepdad who sucked) to having two moms and a dad and a bunch of siblings. And all of them seemed to care about me. I was only really used to having my mom care, so it was a lot.

But I loved them all.

I was kinda sad to leave, even though it meant returning to mom, but I really liked the people here. I didn’t want to leave them. But they promised to meet up during the school year some, and we’d get to see each other next summer. It was enough.

OO OO OO OO

The new school was nice, I supposed. I got to Iris Message my cabin members regularly and I had a new friend (Tyson).

Tyson was nice, shy but nice. I kept the bullies off of him and hung out with him. We learned to skateboard together, and studied together.

But when he met Drew things kinda went a bit sideways.

“Percy! That’s- get away!”

“What?” I asked, looking between her and Tyson. “Drew, don’t be mean.”

“That’s a Kyklopes!”

I blinked slowly, then turned to squint at Tyson’s eyes- er… eye.

“So he is…” I considered it for a long minute but when I saw his scared face I decided it didn’t matter. “Well okay then.”

“Okay then?” Drew spluttered.

“Yep. He’s my friend,” I turned to Tyson again. “You’re not gonna eat me, right?”

“I would not!” he said immediately. “You are my friend!”

“See,” I said, waving to Tyson.

Drew squinted, “Okaaaaayyyyyyy.”

I nodded, “Now, we were going to get lunch?”

Drew sighed, “Yeah, we’re gonna get lunch. Let’s go.”

And thus, I had a Kyklopes for a friend.

I figured it wasn’t much different from having a satyr for a friend. Just, you know, different kind of mythological creature.

OO OO OO OO

On the winter solstice I went to camp and got to go on the trip to Mount Olympus. We got to sit in on the Gods’ meeting.

They discussed weather phenomenon, and agriculture stuff, and just general things that kinda went over my head. Most of the campers didn’t seem to be entirely following it.

But after all the boring technical Godly things about how to keep the world from falling apart, there was a great feast!

Silena dragged me along to the sushi table, having heard from Drew that I’d enjoyed the sushi she got us. She helped me get a plate, and we debated over which kinds tasted the best.

“Ahem,” a throat cleared behind me.

I turned around and froze.

Before me stood a man I’d never met before, and yet-

He had the same messy hair as me. And the same sea green eyes. And more importantly, he had a pin shaped like a conch shell on his chest.

“Er… hi?” I said, awkwardly.

Poseidon practically materialized behind the man.

“Ah, Perseus-“

“It’s nice to get to see you in person,” the man interrupted. “I’m Triton, your father.”

I shuffled, peering up at him. “Hi, I’m Percy- er… you already knew that…”

He smiled, “I did, but it’s fine. We haven’t gotten to speak before. I wanted-“

“Oh! Percy, right?”

I got a perfect view of Triton’s eye twitching violently before a woman draped an arm over his shoulders.

She was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. Her hair like silk, like waves, curled tightly, flowing gently. Her eyes were deep and dark, shining brightly, shimmering a thousand shades. Her skin was smooth, bumpy, darker than night, and light enough to glow in the dark. She was thin, chubby, settled in her shape. Her clothes were soft jeans and a t-shirt, a dress, a skirt and flowy shirt, shorts and a tank top-

She was everyone all rolled into one.

“It’s such a pleasure to meet my new son!”

Uh oh.

Triton flung her arm off of his shoulders and spun to glare at her. “That is my son. Mine.”

“I do believe that Chiron said-“

“Chiron is a damned fool and I’d smite him if Zeus wasn’t in the way!”

I sweated as the two faced down.

“Well, too bad. He’s in my cabin right now. Not yours- oh wait, you don’t have one.”

I thought Triton was going to attack her right then and there. His hands flexed and he was glowing a dangerous amount.

“Well,” Poseidon said, deftly slipping between the two of them. “I for one am delighted to get a chance to meet you again, Perseus. You’ve grown since the summer solstice!”

I looked down at myself, had I?

“Yes,” Triton said, shoving Aphrodite aside. “I’ve watched you and you’ve grown quite a bit-“

“Well I’ve gotten him a new wardrobe.”

“So did I,” Triton hissed. “He’s my son.”

I coughed, “It’s uh- nice to meet you… um… dad?”

Triton went from murderous rage to teary eyes in an instant.

“Yeah-“ his voice caught “-it’s really nice to get to meet you, Percy.”

“And I’m your mother!” Aphrodite chirped. “You can call me mother, or mama, or whatever you want.”

Triton went right back to rage.

“Uh, hi mom,” Silena said.

“Hello, love,” Aphrodite cooed, swooping down to kiss Silena’s cheek. “How are you?”

Silena shuffled, “I’m good. Just showing Percy around.”

“Awww, you’re such a good big sister to your new little brother-“

I blinked as Triton gently tugged me towards him and away from Aphrodite and Silena.

“Fuck off,” he snapped to Aphrodite before turning to me. “Would you like to walk with me for a bit?”

“Hey!”

Poseidon swooped between them, working to sooth Aphrodite as she bristled at Triton.

“Uh, sure,” I said, letting Triton lead me out.

OO OO OO OO

Talking with Triton, my dad, was nice. He asked after me, after my mom. He let me ask questions.

He told me how he “crafted” me, out of a black pearl and seafoam and my mom’s blood. He told me about Pallas, his only previous child, also crafted from a black pearl and seafoam and her mom’s blood.

He told me about the ocean, about his home. He talked about the laws related to raising their own children. He told me how he was proud of me. He told me he was sorry he couldn’t be there more. He apologized for how the last summer went. He told me to pray to him, if I needed anything.

He told me that he loved me.

It was a nice conversation. I… I appreciated him coming to me, talking to me. I extra appreciated him telling me that the trident I’d gotten during the fight with Ares would shrink to a charm on a necklace if the conch shell was tugged. That was helpful.

We eventually came back to the rest of the group, where they were talking with the Gods and various other nymphs.

“Have you calmed down?” asked a familiar voice.

Poseidon slipped up next to us, peering down at us with a smile.

Triton rolled his eyes, “Yes, father. Getting to spend time with my son was very calming.”

I flushed at that, only to squeak when a hand landed on my shoulder. I looked up to find Ares squinting down at me.

“Uh, hi?” I offered.

“You. Are not. Aphrodite’s. Son.”

“Oi!” Aphrodite materialized next to him. “Yes, he is!”

Ares blinked, turning to look at her baffled. “Triton is right there-“

“Triton doesn’t get him! He’s mine!”

“I literally made him with my own two hands,” Triton snapped.

“No.” Aphrodite said, a determined gleam in her eyes. “My son now.”

“I’ll end you,” Triton hissed. “I was old when you were born, I am the eldest God after the Kronides. Do you truly believe you can steal my son from me?”

“Watch me,” she said with a smirk, blowing him a kiss.

“Does the brat get a say in this?” Ares asked, and I was honestly thankful for that.

“Yes,” Triton and Aphrodite said together.

“But I will not put the stress of picking which God he wants as a parent on him. We won’t have a repeat of the Trojan war.”

Aphrodite smirked, “You just know he’d pick me.”

“Die-“ Poseidon pulled Triton back.

“You’re not making Perseus pick one of you. Leave him alone. Triton is his father-“

“I claimed him-“

“After me!”

“-and you will respect that.”

“No, but it’s cute that you think I will.”

I looked between them, then back at Ares who seemed to be the only sane one here.

“Good luck, kid,” Ares said, patting my shoulder. “This is gonna last a while.”

“Should I… go?”

“Probably. I don’t recommend ever picking one of them because the other probably will start a war.”

“Oh no,” I whispered. “Can’t I just pick both?”

Ares laughed, patting my shoulder once more. “Good luck.” He left.

Silena walked up to me, both of us watching Poseidon, Aphrodite, and my dad argue. “Uh…”

“I’m just gonna… pretend I don’t see this,” I decided.

“Probably for the best.”

OO OO OO OO

By the time the school year ended, I was used to the doves that fluttered past me. And apparently doves and pigeons were very very closely related, and thus I had a lot of pigeons following me around too.

The last day of the school year had quite a few scattered across the top of the school, watching as we handled the Lord of the Flies exam.

I didn’t know how starting a fist fight and trying to strangle three kids meant that we passed, but I wasn’t complaining.

The last class of the day, PE, was miserable with Matt Sloan on the opposing team, but at least it was peaceful.

Somehow, I managed to avoid being expelled this year.

Score.

“Ah, Mr. Jackson?”

Damn it.

I turned to the principal, a dove on my shoulder.

“You’ve been a great student here, really-“

“I’m expelled?”

He coughed, “Yes.”

I blinked as bird poop stained his clothes.

Yeah, I was definitely expelled.

OO OO OO OO

Apparently, camp had some major issue? How had I not heard of it?

Annabeth and I hurried to camp, Tyson coming with us because he had nowhere else to go. The taxi ride was a disaster, but I did have time to explain to Annabeth that Tyson was my friend, and I didn’t want him getting hurt, it’s just like Grover.

She didn’t seem to agree, but we arrived at camp and fought the metal bulls regardless. Clarisse wasn’t happy about that.

No one was very happy right now, and that was probably because the tree was poisoned.

OO OO OO OO

Chiron was gone, instead some other guy, Tantalus was here. He sneered at everyone equally, snapping at anyone looking at him too much. He seemed to take delight in bullying Tyson for the bit he was in the front.

And Tyson being claimed by Poseidon didn’t really help him.

I was with the Aphrodite cabin, but right then I wondered if I should’ve gone to the Poseidon cabin, to be with Tyson. I didn’t want him to be alone-

Drew held my arm, “You can spend time with him regardless of his cabin. Don’t leave ours just to make it so he’s not alone.”

“But I don’t want him to be hurt,” I whispered.

“Then make sure he knows you care. But like- you’re our brother.”

“Not technically,” I muttered.

She jabbed my side, “No matter your actual parentage, you’re family. We love you. Don’t leave.”

I didn’t leave. But I did go to talk to Tyson before bed. He was very excited when he found out my dad was his brother.

“We are family?”

My heart ached, “Yeah, you’re my uncle.”

“Yay! You are the best family!”

Wow, I felt horrible about not being in the cabin with him.

OO OO OO OO

Camp was nice, as it was last year. Only this year there was a lot more nervousness, and monster attacks, and people being mean to Tyson.

The Aphrodite cabin rallied around him though. They did it for me, I know Drew talked to them about Tyson being my friend, but I appreciated it no matter their reason.

People left Tyson alone pretty quickly after the Aphrodite cabin started taking revenge for him.

Tyson was all smiles when we dragged him into stuff with us.

My semi-siblings definitely came to like Tyson after a bit though, that wasn’t surprising. Tyson was a sweetheart, who could resist showering him in love? He was awed by all their makeup and clothing, and was happy to let them use makeup on him and to judge their outfits and hair.

He learned how to make jewelry from Beckendorf and cheerfully started making things for my siblings.

They adored it for the first few times, then clearly felt bad about it and informed him he didn’t have to make things for them to like him. That only made him more determined to make things for them though.

I helped too; it was fun!

And we were working on a chariot for the cabin. Tyson had decided to team up with us and was a big help on getting it done.

Not everyone was interested in participating, but Drew was ready to fight, and I was excited to try out our additions to the chariot.

OO OO OO OO

Annabeth and I still met up to read the myths and stuff. It was interesting, though she was a lot tenser lately.

Everyone was though, so I didn’t think too much of it.

“Are you okay?” I asked when she closed her book just a bit too sharply.

“I’m fine.”

There was a long beat of silence where I stared aggressively at my book.

“It’s just- I’m worried. Thalia’s tree- it- she’s-“

“It’s dying?” I asked softly.

“It’s all I have left of her,” Annabeth whispered. “It’s all I have left and it’s been poisoned and no one knows who or why and-“

“Can I hug you?” I asked.

She gave a small nod and I leaned over and hugged her.

OO OO OO OO

I had dreams, of course. Dreams were the norm for Demigods apparently.

My dreams guided me to Grover, to an island that was full of life. Grover whispered of something of great nature presence.

A pit yawned in front of me. Words washed over me, crooning and soft and silky. It whispered of the venom the tree suffered from.

It whispered of the cure.

The Golden Fleece.

OO OO OO OO

I told Annabeth, after the chariot race, the attack on the chariot race, and during our subsequent punishment. Honestly, what was Tantalus’ problem?

She agreed that that was probably our only chance, but she was suspicious about the voice I’d heard. I didn’t remember it from anywhere else, so I wasn’t sure what was up with it. But Grover had found it, so we’d be rescuing Grover and the camp.

We brought it up at the campfire that night, knowing from Tantalus’ previous behavior that the only way we’d get a quest would be to get the camp’s support.

And oh, we got the support. The entire camp chanting for a quest while Tantalus’ face twisted with rage.

Until it smoothed over.

The story he told was horrifying, and I approved of the Gods punishing him so harshly for it. I wondered why Tantalus was at our camp as he was, considering his crimes.

Annabeth explained that night after Clarisse had been assigned the quest, that in the Underworld those in punishment could be “reviewed” yearly to see if they’d learned and could be sent to be reborn. This was probably Tantalus being given a chance to prove if he’d really “changed”.

I didn’t think he’d changed and hoped that he would get removed quickly.

OO OO OO OO

“Silena,” Clarisse said, from the cabin door. “Can I talk to you?”

The two of them moved out and away, talking softly to each other.

I shared a look with my pseudo-siblings, everyone dressed in their pajamas and about to head to bed. What was up with that?

OO OO OO OO

In short order I’d been volunteered for the quest, and Annabeth tossed on with me, and then somehow Tyson too. We joined Clarisse on the boat her dad got for her and headed off at first light.

“This is weird,” I muttered.

“This is scary,” Annabeth agreed.

She was eyeing the confederates, which was fair. They didn’t seem to mind her, but I was being side eyed, probably because I wasn’t white. Why did we have to deal with confederates again?

Oh right, they were our ride.

I did my best to avoid them on the small ship, but it wasn’t exactly easy.

OO OO OO OO

The best part of being on the boat was the way I could feel the waves. I constantly felt like just a little nudge from me would soothe the waters. Like I could calm a storm if I just tried.

I got to test that when we neared Kharybdis.

The ocean crashed and roiled and raged. It dragged at us like a devouring maw. It was a devouring maw. Teeth clashed; the ship shuddered.

Clarisse was trying to force our way through, to kill Kharybdis. That wasn’t going to work. I knew that wasn’t going to work.

The ship shook again, and Tyson rushed down to help stop it. I swallowed, considering the ocean.

I could calm the waves.

I knew I could.

I knew it the same way I knew I needed to breathe, the way I knew I needed water to live. I knew that the ocean would calm at my command.

I remembered my dad’s words, the way he’d told me to pray to him if I needed him.

I prayed to him, for calm waves and safety. I prayed for the ocean to soothe, to stop raging.

And as I prayed, I reached out. I didn’t know what exactly I was doing, but I knew that the ocean would obey.

A hand on my back, my fingers twitched at the feeling of something guiding my hand. Not physically, and yet- and yet it felt physical.

And with a soft nudge, a gentle sweep of a hand, the ocean calmed.

I felt the strain immediately. Kharybdis was trying to devour us, but the waters wouldn’t move while I stood here.

“Go,” I croaked out. “Go.”

Clarisse gave the order a moment later and we made it quickly through the strait.

OO OO OO OO

We had to slow the ship down massively after this, as it was built for the river and not for the open ocean. Tyson managed to fix the engine somewhat, but we’d need to be careful from now on.

Sailing the Sea of Monsters was actually quite peaceful. For me.

Annabeth got seasick.

But other than that, things went well.

OO OO OO OO

We had a very close call with Kirke, but thankfully Clarisse noticed and stopped us from walking to our doom.

She was apparently suspicious of a nice spa just offering us a spot without any explanation. That quickly devolved into a spar with some of the workers before we got the ship going again.

We did manage to get past the Siren’s with minimal issue. Annabeth almost got free but a Confederate dragged her back and we hightailed it out of there.

And then, at last, we made it to the island.

“Okay,” Clarisse said. “I vote blitz attack.”

“I vote no,” Annabeth said, and I nodded in agreement.

“What?” Clarisse asked.

“Well,” I said. “We know Grover is there-”

“We know what?” Clarisse interrupted.

I realized we’d forgotten to mention that. I quickly explained to her my dreams of Grover, and how that was how we’d found the fleece.

“Okay, so we’ve got an inside agent, that’s good.”

She frowned and thought hard for a minute.

“We could try to grab the fleece,” I said. “But I remember him mentioning a guard in one dream.”

“Well, he is a Kyklopes. Maybe we could send Tyson in?”

We turned to look at Tyson who blinked at us.

“What do you think, Tyson?” I asked.

Tyson considered it, “I just need to go get the gold fleece?”

We nodded.

“I can do that!”

“There might be something guarding them,” I warned. “You don’t have to.”

“I can,” he insisted. “I will do it, you will see.”

He moved into the field and walked through the sheep there. We watched with bated breath, ready to charge in should we see anything.

But nothing happened, he just walked in, grabbed the fleece, and walked back.

“Well, that was easy,” Annabeth muttered.

“Now to get Grover,” I chirped.

“We could go around the back,” Clarisse offered. “Sneak in when his back is turned, stab him, grab Grover, and bolt?”

That seemed like a solid plan, so we moved the ship around back and did some mountain climbing.

Two hours, and countless cuts, bruises, and feet to the face later, we made it to the top. The Kyklopes was just leaving the place, so I we decided to let Annabeth slip in invisibly and find Grover.

In the meantime, I distracted the Kyklopes. We were out of reach, and the mountain top didn’t have any good ways of climbing to the top for the Kyklopes, so all he could do was throw rocks.

Clarisse did not like the plan. But when I saw Annabeth and Grover scrambling over the rocks behind him and heading down the hill, I decided it was good.

We hurried backwards, back across the top of the mountain and down the side.

“Can’t we just jump?” Clarisse grumbled.

“Feel free to,” I chirped. “But I’m not responsible for your death.”

“Bitch.”

I stuck my tongue out, though she couldn’t see it.

OO OO OO OO

Escaping the island was strangely easy in the end. We reached the boat, Grover and Annabeth snuck down the mountain and met us on the beach. We were in open water just twenty minutes later.

I shared a look with Annabeth, “This seems to be going well.”

She nodded, “Yeah, I really thought quests were harder than this.”

OO OO OO OO

We rode the ship all the way back to camp, and Clarisse welcomed the round of applause as she put the fleece on the tree.

Well, that was easy.

OO OO OO OO

I side eyed my bed, which had three boxes on it.

I picked the one least likely to start a war, from Ares.

…

Okay, I could recognize the irony in that.

It was heavy, what was even in-

Oh, it was a cannonball.

The note cheerfully informed me it was a reward and a memory of the quest we’d gone on.

Weird.

I eyed the other two boxes, from my dad and oops-not-actually-Chiron-learn-claiming-symbols-mom.

Which one to open first… that was a loaded question. That could end badly. Could I open them at the same time?

I dug around for two knives, then cut open the paper.

Inside the one from my dad was a very pretty seashell shaped box. Like a clam almost, it was closed. I poked it before pulling it open and oohing at the pearl bracelet inside. It was made of soft green and black pearls, alternating. At the center was a place for a charm to clip on.

The note told me congratulations for the quest, and said that my trident charm could clip onto the bracelet, to have a proper method of holding it.

Nice.

Inside the one from my in-another-life-mom was a very pretty hair pin, with a spiral of shimmery green and white that reminded me of seafoam.

I admired it for a moment before looking at the letter. Huh- that was interesting.

I stepped back and put the hair pin in my hair. Then reached up and tapped it.

In an instant a sword was in my hand.

Huh… cool.

I now had a sword and a trident it seemed.

Well, guess that was handled.

OO OO OO OO

Tyson had been invited under the sea by Poseidon, so was planning on leaving soon. I would miss him, he was a very good uncle. But before he left, he gave me a watch.

It was a pretty thing, in green and black and white. There were curling waves and shells dotting it. He cheerfully informed me to press the green button on the side if I needed to protect myself.

During the chariot race, I discovered it turned into a shield.

I was just getting a whole arsenal it seemed.

OO OO OO OO

Camp ended peacefully this year, with the end of year beads handed out at the campfire. This year it was a golden ram next to a pine tree.

Pretty.

OO OO OO OO

I take back what I said about it being peaceful.

Chapter Text

Thalia’s awakening was a big deal across the camp, and beyond from what Percy understood. He knew she was a hero but he didn’t realize the camp knew her?

Annabeth explains they didn’t, she’s not sure why they’re so obsessed with her. Thalia is Annabeth’s sister.

But well, she’s really happy to have Thalia back and that’s what’s really important in Percy’s eyes. She’s been all but vibrating with joy since Thalia woke and he’s not entirely sure she’s slept. She’s barely left Thalia’s side, so Percy has seen a lot of Thalia!

Thalia doesn’t seem to know what to think of Percy. She stayed silent a lot when Percy and Annabeth hung out and puzzled over him. She definitely didn’t understand his parent situation.

But well, no one did. So that was fine.

Percy tried to be extra nice to her though, she was Annabeth’s sister after all. He wanted to make sure she knew she was welcome!

His siblings helped too, offering hair dye to touch up her dyed sections and helping her get new clothes in her preferred style.

Percy had a blast, even as the summer closed up and Grover left for another mission. He hoped this one didn’t require a rescue from a Kyklopes.

But school this year was extra great! He was at the same school as Drew and Lacy. He loved being at school with them! Sure, Lacy was a few grades beneath him, but she was a sweetheart whenever he saw her.

Drew was in a lot of Percy’s classes though, and he loved having the extra time with his sister/aunt/cousin.

They both called him their brother too, which was really funny. The teachers were visibly baffled and multiple classmates checked up on what they were talking about.

He didn’t help ever, just said their mom had adopted him.

Then he usually went to say hi to his mom.

They were always left more confused. Percy had learned to enjoy those reactions.

But being in the same school gave them a lot more time to hang out! Between their class projects, lunch time (which Lacy shared with them luckily) and after school study time they spent a lot of time together.

Drew and Percy helped Lacy with her homework and helped each other with theirs as well. Lacy enjoyed doing both of their hair and Percy was starting to practice crochet a lot more than before. He was starting off with some stuffed animals.

He made Drew a horse (it was… a little wonky) and Lacy a betta fish (which was also a little wonky) but they both loved them and he was happy about that.

And! He could sell them! Which helped make him some spending money (outside of the money that kept ‘appearing’ in his bag). He used some of that money to get presents for his siblings and some to buy yarn to make presents for his siblings. And his mom. And other friends of his.

He also enjoyed spending time with Annabeth, though it was less than he wished.

She was attending school with Thalia, at an all girls school. It wasn’t a boarding school, not even part time, so Annabeth and Thalia had to commute from camp every day. But Annabeth was enjoying it.

She also spent some weekends with her mortal family, trying to bond with them at least a little.

He wished it was going better for her, it was still really rough apparently. He wished her the best and let her talk to him about her attempts regardless. He offered advice sometimes, sometimes just gave her a hug, and sometimes offered her a distraction by rambling about his own school days.

He had a lot of stories to tell, so it wasn’t hard.

Like the time in chemistry class when a classmate dropped the beaker full of acid and Drew had lunged for something to counter it and knocked over two more beakers of acid which didn’t help the situation. Percy had accidentally countered the acid with his powers, which confused the chemistry teacher so much they got out of school early because she called in experts and kept yelling at the cleaning crew for trying to clean the “scientific breakthrough” up.

Or the time Drew and he were practicing with their weapons (he had a lot!) and ended up breaking one of her mom’s expensive vases. They’d tried to glue it back together before her mom got home and ended up gluing one of the pieces upside down.

That had been awkward to explain.

Or the time that Lacy had wanted to make jewelry and accidentally created some sort of cursed artifact that turned their house upside down. No, they had no idea how that happened. She was no longer allowed to make jewelry.

Annabeth always enjoyed his stories, and he found her stories of school and dealing with the monsters that cropped up (hunting for her and especially Thalia) really interesting. He was surprised by how many the two dealt with.

Drew, Lacy, and he only had a handful of monsters bothering them. None seemed all that interested in targeting the trio. And even that was more than Drew and Lacy had faced the year before apparently. There was a general uptick in monster attacks all over.

Maybe it was because of their parentage, Thalia was a big three child and that was supposed to be a big deal.

Regardless of the reason, by the time winter break had come along Percy was excited to go back to Olympos and really excited to spend time with more of his cabin. Most were too busy to meet up as much as they did before this year.

Before they finalized their plans for the break though, Grover called.

His mission was to find more demigod kids apparently. Finding Pan was put on pause due to the uptick in monster attacks and the fact that demigods were disappearing, either killed or joining Kronos.

Percy offered to help quickly, it was Grover after all. Annabeth had chimed in agreeing to help too, and since she did Thalia was on board as well.

Khiron cut in and said that was good enough and asked if we needed a ride.

Luckily, Percy’s mom was happy to help out so they didn’t need a lift. Percy was glad, a bus trip up North and back would’ve been a bit awkward he thought. He wouldn’t have been impressed if the camp had rescued him then dropped him on a bus.

But his mom was just glad Percy had friends so was happy to rent a van to bring them all to Maine and back.

OO OO OO OO

Percy wondered why this job was so much rougher than the two real quests he’d been on. Those were practically a breeze and here he was already being held hostage by the monster along with the two kids they’d come to rescue.

Annabeth and he had split up, him to make sure the kids were okay and her to find the others to bring them with. It took barely any time at all for Percy to be forced to heel or risk the kids they were there to save.

The monster, a Dr. Thorn, wouldn’t stop rambling about their evil plan. Which, well, was helpful in the sense that Percy was sure this information would be useful later. But it was really boring at the moment.

A great stirring bringing forth all the evilest and ancientest monsters, the Titans rising once more, the death of the Gods, the prophecy child making the decision to doom the world by the solstice.

Honestly, Percy had tuned out half of what he said.

However, it occurred to Percy that Dr. Thorn talking the whole time was good for keeping them busy and not killing them so he should keep the monster going.

“So, someone is starting a war?” Percy asked, radiating innocent confusion.

“Did you hear a word I just said,” demanded Dr. Thorn, sounding very offended.

“It was a little confusing, information overload and all, ya know? Could you repeat the bit about uh- the Gods winning I think?”

“The Gods losing you little- You’re a horrific student aren’t you?”

“That’s so mean!” Percy said as they stood at the cliff side. “My sisters will beat you up for that you know. They know appreciate people insulting me for my auditory processing issues. It’s your fault for lecturing a demigod anyways. Don’t you know we all have ADHD?”

Percy saw the snow indent behind Dr. Thorn and hid a grin.

“I mean really, what are you ableist? You deserve my sisters beating you up for that-”

He tackled the kids down as he heard Annabeth body slam Dr. Thorn.

“I suppose that’s if Annabeth doesn’t kick your ass first,” he chirped, grinning openly now.

“Woah,” the boy, Nico Percy thought his name was, whispered.

“Were you tricking him?” asked the girl.

“You guys okay?” Annabeth asked before Percy could respond.

He stood up, helping Nico and uh- Bianca he thought, up.

“Now that you’re here I am,” he said, shooting her a wink.

“You’re spending too much time with the Aphrodite kids,” Annabeth huffed, smirking at him.

“Stop flirting and help!” shouted Thalia, blocking a spike from the manticore- wow a full fledged manticore- with her shield.

“Boo,” Percy said as he summoned his trident and shield forth. “Spoil sport.”

“Menace,” Thalia threw back as she held off the manticore’s spiney tail.

Percy threw himself forward, using his shield to bash the manticore back and give Thalia a moment to breathe.

She took full advantage of the opening and summoned a bolt of lightning.

A teeth rattling BOOM shook the air, though the manticore dodged right just in time to avoid the strike. The hole it left behind steamed.

“Terrible aim,” Percy teased.

“Hold them still next time,” she snipped back with an eye roll.

Percy struck out, knocking a flying spine wide as Thalia charged in with her spear.

Annabeth appeared, hat being throw off as she landed on the manticore’s back. Thalia tried to stab them in the side but they managed to swipe at her with their claws and force her back.

Annabeth drove her knife into their back, a roar erupting.

Before Percy or Thalia could lunge forward again, or the manticore could try to hit Annabeth on their back, the horns started.

A haunting melody, playing and weaving through the air and twining over their skin. A threat and a shelter, a call for battle, for the hunt, a gleam of light in the night.

“Not them!” Thalia complained, head turning towards the nearby woods.

“No!” the manticore roared, sending their tail towards Thalia.

Percy leapt in front of her, his shield raised and deflecting the thrown spike.

The manticore snarled and shook, trying to knock Annabeth off their back as Percy raised his trident.

Power swirled in his veins, he remembered the time he faced down Kharybdis, he remembered the calm in his veins as the sea settled. He felt it now, thrumming in his blood, through his bones, down his arms and into the trident.

He stilled, even his breath fading, and he threw .

His trident sailed through the air, a beautiful arc of deadly bronze.

And slammed into the manticore, right into the ribcage where it stuck.

A pulse of power, the manticore freezing, and then… they crumbled. Gold dust unfurling from where the trident pierced their fur. Bit by bit it crumbled away and Annabeth leapt free, rolling on the snow.

Percy stumbled, tired from… whatever that was, as he drew breath in once more.

“You alright?” he called to Annabeth as Thalia steadied him.

“What was that?” she asked lowly Annabeth called an affirmative and started cleaning off her hat.

“I don’t know,” he murmured back. “It was just… natural.”

“To the slayer go the spoils,” declared a voice, one he recognized vaguely.

He turned and found Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt, standing before them with her hunters scanning the area around them.

“Lady Artemis-”

She raised the pelt in her arms, a handful of spikes piled on it.

“Oh, uh, thank you.”

He hurried forward and took it from her, marveling at how complete the pelt was.

“Your trident,” said a hunter, not someone Percy knew.

He accepted his trident, transforming it back into a charm so he didn’t have to juggle so much.

“Oooh,” Annabeth said, petting the pelt. “I can’t wait to see what your fake siblings make of this.”

“Same,” Percy murmured.

There was no way the Aphrodite cabin wasn’t going to go insane over it. They always did when someone got something like this from a monster.

“Are any of you injured?” asked Lady Artemis.

Percy shook his head, checking the kids who seemed torn between awe and horror at everything happening.

He felt that, his life was wild once he was introduced to the Godly world too.

Thalia was scowling though, and just shook her head at Percy’s raised eyebrow. He wondered what was up.

OO OO OO OO

The hunt had invited them to stay the night, as Lady Artemis wanted to ask Percy and the siblings they’d rescued some questions about Dr. Thorn.

Percy knew he should be taking the situation seriously, but honestly how was he supposed to do that when Artemis had a BABY DEER in her lap and let him pet it.

He cooed over it, scratching it by the ears and awwing as Lady Artemis let him feed the deer some snack she proffered.

This was so cool! He’d pet sea animals and obviously the pigeons and doves that stalked him before but a wild deer! And it was a baby! So cute!

He did answer her questions when she asked them though, giving a summary of what Dr. Thorn said in their evil rant.

“Woah! So you did hear what they said?” Nico interrupted him when he got to the part where Dr. Thorn was talking about the defeat of the Gods.

“Hmm,” Percy glanced at him, confused. “Yeah, I just wanted to keep them talking.”

“A smart move,” Lady Artemis said. “You did well to keep yourself and others safe. And it was a pleasure to see the weaponized calm of Triton used in battle once more, it has been a long time.”

Percy beamed, he supposed the weaponized calm was what he did at the end there. Then he cooed as the deer nuzzled into his side.

The Goddess smiled, “Thank you for answering my questions. I had noticed an increase in dangerous monsters, and the increase in monster attacks, but if what Dr. Thorn stated was true then it is something far more worrying than I’d thought.”

Percy nodded, “Yeah, there have been a lot more monster attacks lately.”

She turned to the siblings, “Thank you for being so brave in the face of something so terrifying. I know it couldn’t have been easy.”

Bianca flushed and Nico beamed, bouncing in his seat.

“We just… just followed what Percy said.”

Percy didn’t tell them to do much but he was glad he’d helped them nonetheless.

“Indeed. There is one other matter I’d like to discuss, though it is a matter regarding you specifically, Bianca.”

“Me?” she asked, surprised.

“Yes. I would like to invite you to join the Hunt.”

“Wait, why can’t I?” Nico said. “Why just Bianca?”

“Only women can join the Hunt,” Lady Artemis said lightly. “While I welcome men to hunt alongside us, they cannot join the Hunt. Not truly.”

“I… I don’t know,” Bianca murmured. “What about Nico?”

“He could join the camp,” Zoë said. “He would be safe there, they protect their own fiercely.”

Bianca chewed her lip, looking uncertain too.

“Could you… tell me more about the Hunt maybe?”

“Certainly,” Lady Artemis said, warm and gentle. “We do many things, though one of our primary duties in the modern day is to cull the monster populations when they grow too dangerous for the average demigod. We have had to do that quite a lot in the last two years.”

“That is not all that we do,” Zoë said. “We also work in the conservation of rare species. We protect preserves and raise abandoned or orphaned young. We help those in need, particularly children, and often escort those in need to camp or another safe space. Many ex-hunters have founded women’s shelters or work in the foster care system as well.”

“Ex-hunters, so you can leave?”

“Yes, of course,” Lady Artemis said. “Any Huntress who no longer wish to be in the hunt can leave. I would never punish for doing so.”

“Though,” Zoë said with a tone of warning, “if thy break thine vows to Lady Artemis then thee will be punished.”

“That all sounds really cool,” Percy said. “I kinda wish I could be a hunter.”

“Why couldn’t thee?” Zoë asked, puzzled.

“I’m a man?”

“Thou art a sea child. All sea children are capable of changing their sex as they please. I have rarely met one whom only utilized one gender.”

Percy’s jaw dropped and he immediately started questioning the huntress on how that worked.

He was vaguely aware that Bianca and Nico were having a very serious and heartfelt conversation to the side, but Zoë and Lady Artemis seemed to be giving them a minute and focusing on Percy so he was happy to do the same.

Percy wasn’t able to change his sex before their conversion finished, but he was content to keep trying in the background while Bianca informed the Goddess that she wanted to make sure camp was truly safe for Nico before making her final decision.

Percy didn’t hesitate to rush to Annabeth once they finished their conversation (after giving the baby deer several more pets and praises for being amazing). Annabeth was fascinated by the ability to change his sex, and was quick to start theorizing on how that worked.

Percy had no idea how it worked, but he was excited!

Annabeth was happy to inform Percy of the many many species of sea creature that were able to change their sex in one manner or another and Percy listened intently as he tried to change his sex according to her theories.

By the time the sun was about to start rising he had managed to… sorta? Become a woman… sorta… more that he was both a man and a woman (Annabeth called it intersex) but it was partway there!

Zoë assured him that it would take practice, while it was an inherent ability he’d never done so prior so he couldn’t expect to master it immediately.

“Why would you want to become a woman though?” Thalia wondered.

“Why wouldn’t you?” Percy asked back, eagerly continuing his attempts at doing it.

OO OO OO OO

Apollon arrived right at dawn, which made sense since he was right there with dawn. Percy wondered if Eos every joined him on his morning. Or drove the chariot. He wondered what the difference was or if they went together.

Annabeth probably knew, he’d ask her later.

He was still trying to be a woman when they met Apollon and Apollon noticed immediately.

The God smiled, bright and brilliant, and offered Percy a few tips on the transformation. He reminded Percy that gender was a construct, and he needed to feel being a woman to be a woman. And he gave Percy a book on the transformation, which would probably help.

Percy all but skipped onto the sun-bus, happily leaning against Annabeth so she could read the book alongside him as Apollon started the sun-bus up and they took to the skies.

Percy had to admit, he got a little distracted by the amazing view from the sun-bus. He’d never flown except the one time after all and that had nothing on this.

They didn’t have much time to read the book on the sun-bus because they reached camp barely fifteen minutes later, but Percy was sure to thank Apollon for the book and the tips before he got off.

Apollon ruffled his hair, “Happy to help kiddo.”

Percy happily let Grover and Annabeth lead the siblings to Khiron for their intro as he headed to his cabin. He was sure one of them would help him with being a woman.

OO OO OO OO

His siblings were a great help in figuring out how to become a woman, so by the time capture the flag came around the next day he was now a she. Percy wasn’t sure if she wanted to use a different name when she was a woman yet, but she thought it was super cool to change.

Also her siblings were now plotting getting her a new wardrobe so she had a feeling there was a lot of shopping coming up.

She was forced (well, they didn’t have to try too hard) to dress up very cool and stylish for the Capture the Flag game though.

Partly because they wanted to kick the Hunters asses. Percy had already had to step in and stop several fights. Not just with her siblings but with other campers too.

Thalia seemed to be trying very hard not to fight them but Percy had noticed the tension she had.

Regardless, Capture the Flag was set to be a very exciting game against the Hunters. Her cabin was on offense and she delighted in helping her honorary siblings sneak through the woods and find the Hunters flag.

Percy was the one to grab it, slipping past the defense and catching an arrow with her shield before bolting with the flag in hand.

The Aphrodite cabin defended her, racing alongside her and behind her to block the hunters from reaching her. She leapt over arrows and used her shield to block other arrows and wove around traps set through the woods on her way to the creek.

She reached the river right as Zoë did, the two clashing in the creek as the Huntress dodged Percy’s attempt to knock her back with her shield. The Huntress was in close near instantly, hand clasping on her arm and before she could blink she was on her back on land, on Zoë’s land. The Huntress standing beside her with flag in hand.

She wheezed for breath for a moment before accepting Zoë’s hand and standing up.

“Good match,” Percy said. “That was close.”

“You did well,” Zoë agreed. “Though thou might wish to practice thy hand to hand.”

Percy nodded but cut off her reply as she turned to face Thalia at her shout.

“What were you doing? I was at the flag!”

“Okay?” Percy wondered, confused. “I was at the flag earlier and took it?”

“Why!?”

Thalia shoved Percy, not hard but obviously angry and upset and-

A crackle pop boom and Percy hit the river, clothes smoldering.

Thalia froze, eyes wide.

“I- I’m so sorry- I didn’t mean to-”

Percy breathed, hearing Annabeth’s shout as she rushed towards Percy. She slowly dragged herself to her feet, head fuzzy as calm swept through her. Her blood stilled, her bones hardened, her skin healing over as water stilled on his skin.

“Are you okay?” Thalia asked, stepping forward only to be stopped by Zoë.

Percy swayed for a moment in the river, feeling out of place in doing so. The air was calm. The water was still.

A naiad appeared beside the creek and fled into the woods. More appeared, near and far from him as they fled into the woods.

The hunters had gone very still, Zoë keeping her hand on Thalia and keeping her from coming closer. The very air held its breath.

Annabeth didn’t hesitate, stepping into the water (not a ripple displayed her step, the water was calm).

Percy didn’t know what would’ve happened, couldn’t have said what might’ve come from the deadly calm that had swept her being, as before anything further came forth… mist did.

Green and thick and cloying, smelling of incense and deep earth.

Percy turned, the calm snapped and the water rippled as Annabeth touched her arm. She leaned against Annabeth and watched as the Oracle came forth.

And Zoë requested a prophecy.

OO OO OO OO

Percy wasn’t allowed in the meeting, since she was just one of the Aphrodite cabin members, so she didn’t know all that happened.

Silena said that Zoë and Thalia got in a fight, which made sense to Percy. Thalia definitely had some anger building up with the Hunt.

She rubbed her chest, wondering at it.

The quest team was apparently Thalia, Grover, Zoë, a Huntress named Phoebe, and someone else that Zoë wanted to ask to join them.

A knock sounded at the door.

Silena opened it and stilled, finding Zoë standing there.

“I would like to speak to Percy,” the huntress informed them.

Percy came out, ignoring her siblings squinting at the huntress.

“I would like for thee to join on the quest,” Zoë said. “If thee would be willing.”

Percy blinked, “Oh, I mean sure. I thought you’d have three hunters on it, considering the prophecy.”

“I considered such, but I believe thee would be a good fit.”

“Why?” demanded Drew, shoving beside Percy to scowl at Zoë.

“Pardon?”

“Why are you asking Percy?”

“She expressed an interest in the hunt prior,” Zoë said, “and further is a skilled warrior. She would be a great aid on the quest and would be able to get some experience with hunters to decide if she is truly interested in joining the hunt.”

Drew’s eyes widened and her lips pursed as she glanced at Percy.

Percy realized most of the Aphrodite cabin didn’t like the hunters much, and perhaps she should’ve mentioned this before they learned from Zoë.

“I’d be happy to help,” Percy said. “When will we be meeting up?”

“At dawn,” she said.

“Great!” Percy chirped. “I’ll see you then.”

Zoë nodded and headed out and Percy turned to her semi-siblings.

“You want to join the hunt?” Drew asked softly.

“I- I mean I dunno?” Percy said, rubbing her arms. “I mentioned I wished I could join the hunt before I knew I could be a woman. I didn’t think it was possible at the time so wasn’t thinking seriously about it.”

Drew nodded and drew Percy into a hug.

“Well, if you do we’ll support you. But make sure you think carefully about it! The Hunt bans relationships, of any romantic nature. I mean, I’ve heard Lady Artemis will allow release from your vows if you fall in love but-”

“It’s okay,” Percy said, hugging her back tight, “I’m not planning to just skip off with the Hunt.”

She nodded, “Good.”

“We’ll have to make you look good for the quest!” Silena declared.

“New clothes!” Drew realized. “And you’re going as a woman oh no- we don’t have the right clothes for this-”

Percy laughed, “I trust you with my dress.”

“Shoo,” Drew said, shooing Percy away. “Go play on the beach or something. We need to plot your outfit.”

“Make the hunters wish they could date you,” Silena muttered, dragging Drew into the cabin once more.

Percy snickered but did as she was told, stopping briefly to check on Annabeth who was delighted to get a good look at Percy’s female form.

“It’s you just if you were a girl, that’s so cool- Marianne will be so jealous when she learns. She’s trans, she’d kill to magically change into a girl bodily.”

“Oops,” Percy said sheepishly.

“Maybe a God can do that for her, I mean we didn’t even consider that it was possible so it’s maybe something she can pray for! I’ll have to tell her.”

Percy headed off to relax on the beach for a bit before going back to her cabin. She happily laid down on the sand and prayed to her dad, telling him about how she’d learned how to transform into a woman.

She knew she’d see him soon, and her uh- semi-mom, but she still liked talking to him in prayer like this. She always felt better at the beach, like she was chatting on the phone to him.

She was partway through explaining how she now needed to consider if she wanted to join the hunt or not and how it was half a joke originally but now she was being seriously offered a position when a Pegasus nearly crashed face first into the ocean.

She squawked and quickly waded into the water to check on the poor thing.

There was a net tangled around one wing and with a bit of soothing he let her carefully unwind it from around his wing.

“There you go, see isn’t that better?” She carefully bundled up the net and threw it to shore so it wouldn’t cause problems in the ocean.

“Much better,” The Pegasus said. “Thank you.”

“Happy to help.”

“Princess,” called another voice, not from the Pegasus.

Percy looked around and found some fish gathering by her legs.

“Princess! There is a problem undersea, please help!”

Well, apparently the sea knew her no matter the form she took. She couldn’t help but grin at that.

“Yeah sure, lead me there?”

The Pegasus nickered and took into the sky, following her and the fish as they swam into the deeper ocean. Percy hoped she wasn’t too late getting back or Silena would have her head.

She found a collection of Hippocampi in the deeper water and they helpfully showed her to the creature that was in need of a rescue.

Percy… had no idea what it was. Half fish and half cow, it was frankly adorable. Still no idea what it was.

Maybe Hera and Poseidon made it?

She shrugged and went down to help untangle it from the net it was trapped in.

She reached for the power she’d called upon before and calmed the water, particularly around the ship threatening to fall on them, so that it wouldn’t fall on them.

The ocean was still around them, allowing her to get to work carefully untangling the little thing as she cooed to it and assured it that it was safe and she was going to help it out and she’d get it free and it would get to swim alllll over and have lots of fun-

It was slower than she’d like it to be, but between her hair comb knife and her soft words and careful hands she was able to untangle the little guy and get it free.

She made sure to give it lots of pets and cuddles before she headed up to go back to shore.

It would’ve been a long swim, but apparently the Pegasus she’d helped had waited for her and gave her a life back. That was nice of him.

“I’m Blackjack,” the horse said. “Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too,” she said as he dropped her off by her cabin. “Stay safe!”

“You too bossette!”

OO OO OO OO

Percy’s morning for the quest started dark and early, before sunrise.

Her siblings had plotted out her outfits for the quest and were very excited to dress her up.

She wore comfortable but stylish jeans (it’s important to have style!) that had elegant embroidery at the hems and on the pockets of various seashells. Her shirt was comfortable (100% cotton!) and a deep blue/green that matched her eyes. It had a conch shell in the center that shimmered faintly.

Her outfit was paired with a warm leather jacket, lined with some type of fur, that would keep her comfortable even in the cold. The jacket matched well with the leather boots embossed with waves that hid the very soft socks.

Her camp necklace was on her neck, her necklace with her trident around her neck, and her pearl bracelet on her wrist.

Her hair held her hair pin from Aphrodite and her knife comb from her siblings, pinned up into a pretty braided bun. Her hair had been lengthened by Lacy, who’d worked very hard to do so when Percy had agreed to it.

She hadn’t known Lacy could do that, apparently it was something several of the Aphrodite kids could do but took a lot of focus.

Cool!

By the time she was ready to go they’d packed backup clothes (including three other shirts, another pair of jeans, pajamas, a pair of linen pants “quick to dry!”, washing soap, and a small pack of various self care supplies for on the go), money, and food into her backpack.

“Remember to IM us if you need anything,” Silena said, fussing over Percy.

“This isn’t my first quest,” Percy teased them.

“Yeah but this one is- it’s different. The Hunt doesn’t do individual quests often. And this one has a big three child on it-”

Percy hugged her siblings, “I’ll be okay.”

“You’d better be,” Drew said.

With that Percy headed off, meeting the rest of the questers at the van.

“Where’s Phoebe?” Percy asked, seeing Zoë but not the other huntress.

“The Stoll siblings tricked her with a cruel prank,” Zoë said darkly. “Annabeth will be coming instead, though I am displeased with the lack of hunters on the quest.”

“For the best,” Thalia muttered. “Quests are for campers usually.”

Zoë shot Thalia a dark look and turned to Percy.

“For the remainder of the quest thee may be a provisional huntress,” she said firmly. “If you so please. Tis not proper for only one huntress to be here.”

Percy couldn’t help but feel flattered even as Thalia bristled openly and Annabeth frowned.

“I- uh- I appreciate the offer-”

“Absolutely not!” Thalia snapped. “You can’t decide that for-”

“As the Lieutenant of the Hunt I am capable of offering provisional Hunter status, to be confirmed or denied by Lady Artemis-”

“But Percy hasn’t made any of the oaths and you can’t just spring this on her-”

“Um-” Percy said, for none of the girls to notice.

“Has anyone told you yet that you make a really pretty girl?” Grover asked Percy, ignoring the three fighting.

“Oh, no I don’t think so. Thanks!”

“No problem,” Grover said with a nod. “Are you actually joining the hunt?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “I hadn’t thought of it enough yet. I kinda wanna talk to my mom and dad first…”

“That’s fair,” he agreed, before turning to the fighting trio. “HEY!”

They all stopped, turning to him.

“Percy doesn’t know if she wants to be a hunter yet, so maybe offer it as a trial run to help her decide instead of anything solid.”

Thalia and Annabeth agreed, reluctantly, and Zoë sniffed before agreeing.

“Come sit beside me,” she said, motioning Percy to the front passenger seat.

Percy dutifully sits there, putting her back at her feet.

“Where to?” Zoë asked Grover, who was apparently their tracker.

“Los Angelos,” he said. “I got a bit of a reading for Washington D.C. but I think it’s a miss, it started leaning to Los Angelos right after.”

“Los Angelos then,” Zoë said.

And with that they were off.

OO OO OO OO

The ride was long and boring, as most quests seemed to be at the start.

They played a game of find the license plates for awhile, but got bored within an hour. They tried playing a few other car games, but Thalia got snippy with Zoë every time and Zoë got snippy with Thalia every time so Percy gave up on that and pulled out her crochet shawl that she’d started experimenting with.

Annabeth had loads of patterns she could borrow, so she was using one of those for this one. She hoped to have it finished for her mom’s birthday.

Annabeth had her own crochet project for the trip as well, since they’d both learned how boring quests could be.

“Why did you bring crochet?” Thalia wondered aloud, clearly unused to quest boredom.

“Quests get boring,” Percy said with a sigh.

“You sit around for hours on the drives,” Annabeth agreed.

Zoë hummed, watching the road, “The downtime can be deadly.”

Grover sighed, “I heard quests were all action but it’s a lie.”

“Weird,” Thalia muttered. “My time out and about has always been pretty action filled.”

They all shrugged.

“Big three child thing?” Percy offered.

OO OO OO OO

The drive continued, terribly boring, for the entire first day and a large portion of the second day.

Right up until they were partway through a desert area.

Then the monster attack came.

Percy saw them just before the van hit them, but it didn’t seem to make the skeletons falter and she heard the screeching crash underneath the van as something tore through the bottom of it and ruined its mechanical parts.

She was out of the car quick, sword in hand as she threw herself at the first skeleton to buy the others time to get out and ready.

The skeletons didn’t seem terribly interested in Percy, trying to aim past her for someone else, but Percy didn’t give them the chance.

Her shield was summoned and in the way of the gunshot and she shivered. Guns in a demigod battle was just wrong.

She moved forward again, slicing through the skeletons and scowling when they came back together. Lightning crackled behind her, a jaw rattling Boom echoing through the desert as lightning destroyed one skeleton. It got back together a few moments later.

Two skeleton’s aimed their guns at Zoë as she dueled another close up. All of them were aiming for her it seemed.

That wasn’t going to happen.

Percy threw her sword at one skeleton as she yanked her hair comb free and drove the knife into the spinal cord joints. She felt that deadly calm come up within her once more and she let it fuel her movements as she systematically tore apart the skeleton until it was a collection of unmoving bones.

Exhaustion swept her as she came out of it, leaving a pile of bones behind her as she yanked her trident free and put her hair comb back in her hair.

She couldn’t do that again, not right now. But she knew that the skeletons could be killed now.

“How did you do that?” Thalia called, knocking one skeleton down and trying to separate the bones before they could rejoin.

“It’s only to be expected of a child of Triton,” Zoë called back. “The Calm of the Sea is the final warning before the King comes forth.”

The calm before the storm, that was how the saying went.

Percy found that her calm was the storm.

“Can you do it again?” Thalia asked as she came back to back with Percy.

“I don’t think so,” Percy said. “It was exhausting to do the one time. Maybe once more but…”

Thalia murmured agreement as she launched another lightning bolt at a skeleton.

The battle continued, fierce and deadly with the skeletons avoiding getting too close to Percy again. They didn’t know that she couldn’t do that again.

They’d managed to gather the skeletons into one place, hoping a truly powerful bolt of lightning from Thalia could slow them, when-

BAM

Percy wasn’t the only one gaping as a limo slammed into the crowd of skeletons and sent them flying. Percy couldn’t even see where they ended up.

The limo froze right after hitting them and a door opened.

Ares stepped out.

“Hi,” Percy said, waving at him.

“Yo, brat,” Ares said. “Your self-declared mom wants to talk to you.”

“Oh, okay!”

Percy got in the car when Ares held the door open and slid onto the very comfy leather seats.

“Hello dear,” Aphrodite cooed, brushing a loose strand of hair out of her face. “Aren’t you a darling, I love your female form. And the long hair- oh it’s so pretty.”

“Thank you,” Percy said, blushing.

“Have some cookies,” Aphrodite offered Percy a number of snacks, including cookies. “How has your school year been doing?”

Percy shrugged and happily began telling Aphrodite about her school year and the rescue mission she went on. Aphrodite was delighted to hear that Percy was getting along with her siblings and was doing well in school. She was also interested in Annabeth and Percy, though Percy wasn’t entirely certain why.

Sure, Percy loved spending time with Annabeth but she wasn’t sure if there was anything else there. They were great friends at the moment, why push for more?

“One day,” Aphrodite sighed dreamily. “Oh, but you have to finish this quest first. You’ll do amazing love.”

“Thanks,” Percy said. “We’re all doing our best.”

“I know,” she pat Percy’s cheek, smiling at her. “Off you go, and do remember to leave my husband’s stuff alone.”

Percy nodded as she slid out of the car, arms now full of snacks that Aphrodite had insisted she take.

A moment passed and then with a blink the entire group was standing in a junkyard.

“Oh,” Annabeth said. “I noticed this in the distance but-”

“What is this?”

“Aphrodite said not to bother her husbands stuff so… something to do with Hephaestus?”

“One of Hephaestus’ junkyards,” Zoë murmured. “Touch nothing, it will be trapped.”

The group nodded and carefully made their way through, though several items were very tempting.

It was a long walk, and by the time they reached the exit it was night, but they made it safely.

“Oh!” Thalia said, pointing, “It’s a car! That’s outside of the junkyard, so we can take it right?”

Zoë seemed to agree so the two of them and Annabeth started fiddling with it to make it run again.

That was handy.

OO OO OO OO

The car did fine until they reached the Hoover Dam. It was out of gas at that point and Annabeth was muttering about the break lines and how she didn’t really trust them so the group agreed to find another way to get to their destination. There was probably a bus that ran through here after all.

They took a bit to buy food and relax at the Dam, taking a breather that wasn’t driving.

During this time Percy heard a moo, and paused wondering where the moo could’ve come from.

Before she realized that it was coming from the edge of the Dam.

She moved over, Zoë following right behind as the two saw the little creature Percy had saved the other day.

“Oh,” she said, “hi little one. What are you doing here?”

Zoë gasped, “You know the Ophiotaurus?”

“Is that what it’s called?”

“Yes. It is an incredible powerful creature.”

Percy looked down at it, “It doesn’t look powerful. It looks like a baby.”

“There is great power in innocence,” Zoë said solemnly. “Be careful, allow none to know that thee know this creature.”

Percy nodded, turning to face Zoë and seeing behind her the skeletons.

“Uh oh, we need to run. Skeletons at twelve o’clock.

Zoë only shot one quick look over her shoulder before grabbing Percy’s hand and yanking her away.

They ran into an elevator right before the door closed and Percy nearly did a double take as he realized the guide that was speaking was Athena.

“Is there another way back up?” she asked, hesitantly.

Athena turned to Percy, her gaze ancient and sad and nodded, “There is always another way.”

Foreboding but helpful, Percy supposed.

Zoë and she ran from the elevator, searching for the other way out, when they found a dead end. Great.

They were debating heading back the way they came, and hoping the skeletons were in a different elevator, when a chattering noise came from right behind them.

Percy whipped her sword from her hair in a smooth motion, Zoë raising her bow in turn and both froze at the mortal standing behind them.

“What the fuck,” the girl said.

She had strikingly red hair and was positively covered in freckles. She was also staring at their weapons wide eyed.

“Do you try to kill everyone that blows their nose?”

“What?” Percy said.

“You’re pointing a sword at me,” she said.

Percy put the sword behind her back, “No I’m not.”

Zoë’s bow vanished, “I do not know what thou speak of.”

“Did you just make your bow disappear.”

Zoë frowned, and Percy could all but feel the power in the air as she spoke again, “No, I had no bow.”

“Uh, yeah you did.”

Zoë blinked. Percy blinked. The girl looked at them like they were crazy.

And then Percy heard the skeletons and the redhead looked over her shoulder and went white and shoved the two into the girls bathroom.

Percy heard her shouting about a guy jumping over the side into the motors or whatever while Zoë and Percy shared a baffled look.

The girl opened the bathroom door again, face still pale as a sheet as she hissed for them to hurry.

“What is thy name,” Zoë said, before they left.

“I’m Rachel Elizabeth Dare,” the redhead said. “Now get out of here before those… things come back.”

Percy waved as the she followed Zoë out and up the elevator once more.

Time to get out of there.

OO OO OO OO

Thalia’s prayer to Zeus got them a really cool ride. Percy decided she wanted to fly most places now. Maybe she could get a Pegasus to help her…

Zoë entertained herself on the way by shooting at any billboard with a design she could use as a target. Annabeth and Percy did bemoan that they couldn’t do their crochet work while being carried like this. Thalia had her eyes shut tight. Grover kept pointing at different trees and trying to identify them with the quick glimpse he got.

By the time the flight was over Percy knew her siblings would be horrified with the state of everyone’s hair.

It was mid morning when they arrived at the mountain that Grover confirmed was definitely where Lady Artemis was.

Zoë recognized the mountain apparently, and grimly said they wouldn’t be able to get to Lady Artemis until sunset.

“We’ve made great time though,” Percy noted.

“Yeah,” Annabeth agreed. “Though this has been a more active quest than our other ones.”

“It’s the big three kid energy,” Percy agreed solemnly.

Thalia was unimpressed with their commentary.

“What should we do until we can go up the mountain?” Grover asked.

Annabeth shared a grin with Percy, “Shopping!”

“Shopping?” Zoë and Thalia wondered.

“Shopping!?” Grover asked in horror.

Shopping indeed.

OO OO OO OO

By the time they’d reached dusk Percy and Annabeth had stocked up on some hard to get yarns from a lovely little yarn store owned by a nice lady named Lexy. She’d delighted in helping them find all the yarns they’d wanted.

“I can’t believe you’re shopping for yarn on a Quest,” Thalia muttered.

“They’re horrible about yarn shopping,” Grover bemoaned. “I only spent a month with them before you showed up but so much yarn shopping- the whole Athena cabin is like this. Annabeth infected Percy.”

Zoë laughed softly, having found a comfortable place to sit as they waited for the two to finish paying.

“I think it’s time to head up the Mount,” she said. “We should find a place at the base for thee to put thine purchases.”

And off they went, back to the mountain.

OO OO OO OO

They slipped into the garden of the Hesperides at dusk and Percy felt that maybe they should’ve checked for an invite to this very tense family reunion.

Yikes.

But also they were like- definitely jumping to conclusions. Zoë looked obviously devastated to Percy. And well, Percy had been having dreams. She hadn’t focused on them, because stuff was going on. But her dreams featured Zoë an awful lot.

So she stepped in and interrupted.

“You should honestly be ashamed. Did you even ask her why she’d done it? Or did you throw her out immediately? Maybe she was threatened, maybe she did it to protect you, maybe she did betray you but did you ask?”

The nymphs stared at Percy, looking… confused? Baffled? Shocked?

Percy sniffed and grabbed Zoë’s hand and dragged her past them. The rest of their group scrambling after them.

“The nerve of them,” Percy grumbled.

“Thank you,” Zoë whispered.

“I’m so confused,” Thalia admitted. “But at least we got through that unharmed.”

Percy glanced back, finding Annabeth and Grover grinning at her. She grinned back.

And finally they reached the top of the mountain.

Zoë gasped, “My Lady-”

She rushed the Lady Artemis’ side, Percy hurrying behind her and the others behind them.

The Goddess was bent beneath the sky, her clothing torn and stained gold from her ichor. Her arms shook as she held the heavens aloft.

Percy fussed, using water to try and clean some of the Goddess’ wounds.

“Do not, you must flee. Tis a trap-”

Laughter came from behind them and they all turned to find a figure behind them.

“Hello, Daughter,” he said, looking at Zoë.

“Father,” she said, rising to stand in front of Artemis.

Percy looked between them as the Titan and Zoë spoke, shooting barbs back and forth. He studied the area, letting them work out their drama for the moment as she tried to figure out what the trap was-

She blinked as she noticed the monsters behind Atlas.

And more importantly-

“Luke!?” she squawked.

Luke! He hadn’t just vanished!? He’d Betrayed them!

That bitch

“Wait- you poisoned Thalia! What’s wrong with you?”

Luke straightened, looking smug and ready to speak but Annabeth was gasping beside Percy and Thalia looked devastated.

“How could you?” Annabeth demanded. “You- You traitor!”

“You tried to kill me?” Thalia asked, voice soft and broken. “Why-”

“Yeah,” Atlas asked, sounding amused. “Why would you do such a thing?”

Luke shot the Titan a dirty look, Percy supposed they didn’t get along.

“You have some nerve calling me a traitor while standing besides the huntress, as if she didn’t betray her family-”

“Do none of you know how to ask a question?” Percy demanded. “Here, I’ll demonstrate. Luke, why are you working with the Titans?”

“Because the Gods are horrible!” And with that start Luke went off on a long rant about how terrible the Gods were and how the Titans would fix things and the world would go back to their caves and the Gods would be gone and honestly it sounded like he just wanted to make the Gods suffer and didn’t care about the world at all.

Bitch.

“Now you,” Percy cut off Luke and looked at Atlas expectantly.

The Titan snorted, “Sure, why did you betray us to aid Herakles?”

Zoë swallowed, “Because his plan originally was to kill everyone and torture you until you gave him the knowledge he needed.”

Atlas went very still, eyes wide with shock.

“And that’s why you ask questions,” Percy said with a sniff, offering a side hug to Zoë.

“Enough of this,” Luke snapped. “Attack!”

And the monsters attacked.

OO OO OO OO

The battle had grown fierce, with Percy locked in battle with Atlas who seemed to have shoved his shock into a box to deal with later as he battled to keep Artemis under the heavens.

Percy just wasn’t able to beat the Titan, her sword already knocked aside and her trident barely able to keep up with the general.

No wonder he was considered one of the most dangerous Titans.

She was kicked back and Zoë whirled into Percy’s place, her blades flashing even as Atlas hesitated to strike her as he was willing to strike Percy.

Percy knew they couldn’t keep this up. Annabeth and Grover were dealing with the monsters while Thalia dueled Luke on the cliff. But there were more monsters coming and they’d all be captured if they didn’t do something.

Percy turned to Artemis.

“Give me the sky, I’ll take it so you can join the battle.”

“No,” she said. “You are mortal, you couldn’t-”

“I have to,” Percy said fiercely. “We’ll lose, maybe die, if you don’t join the battle.”

She slid underneath beside Artemis and took a deep breath before taking the heavens upon her back.

“Go,” she grit out, the weight immense and incredible and beyond anything she’d ever held.

The Goddess slid out and Percy buckled.

The weight had already been beyond her comprehension and now it was beyond even that.

She only caught glimpses of the battle from then on, seeing Zoë duel her father, seeing Artemis flow seemingly between a dozen forms as her knives flashed like claws and fangs. Thalia backed Luke up to the edge of the cliff. Annabeth and Grover wielded plants and Annabeth’s knife against a hoard of monsters and held them back.

Atlas lunged for Artemis, spear ready to cleave her in two. And Zoë leapt in the way.

Horror struck Percy, Artemis, and Atlas alike as the girl bled out, hitting the ground hard but giving Artemis the opening she needed.

“Be ready,” whispered Artemis in Percy’s mind.

She grunted, unable to respond verbally.

Atlas went flying to Percy, who let the force of his body knock her back and out from under the sky.

Atlas roared, a cry of rage and grief alike as he caught the heavens and watched Zoë bleed upon the ground.

Artemis called her chariot down and ushered everyone upon it, Annabeth and Grover carrying Zoë onto it. They flew to the base of the mountain once more and Percy clutched Zoë’s hand tightly, tears in her eyes as she realized how bad the wound was.

“Thank you,” Zoë whispered. “They know now.”

“Lady Artemis,” Percy asked, “can’t you- can’t you save her?”

Lady Artemis settled on her knees beside Percy, brushing Zoë’s hair back.

“It is her time. The Fates have decreed it. Such an injury cannot be healed, not even by myself or my brother.”

Percy cried, holding the Huntress’ hand.

“My Lady,” Zoë murmured. “Thank you.”

“Thank you,” Lady Artemis murmured. “My most faithful Lieutenant. You have done so well.”

And Zoë shimmered away, like the last breath of dusk, like the fall of stars, like strength finally giving out.

Percy was left clutching a pen as he cried at her death.

Annabeth wrapped her arms around Percy and sniffled as well, tears clinging to her eyelashes.

“It’ll be okay,” she whispered.

Percy pressed her face into the crook of Annabeth’s neck and let her friend hold her.

OO OO OO OO

Percy truly had forgotten about the pen until later. Until after the Gods had voted and Thalia was to live. Until after Hades had publicly claimed Bianca and Nico as his children in front of all the Gods. Until after Bianca was added the hunt as its new Lieutenant (in training).

It was only after Percy, back in his male form, had gotten comfort from Triton and Aphrodite (who had of course argued over who comforted him better) and gotten a slap on the back from Ares over his battle with Atlas (he’d almost fallen over) and gotten Athena run off by Triton again (he really did wonder about her grief towards him) and finally gone back to camp that he remembered the pen.

He pulled it out of his pocket, confused as to where it had come from. It had just… been there at the end.

A beautiful pen, crafted of pure bronze that looked like the moment dusk hit the sky. Carved upon it was Anaklusmos. A final gift from Zoë?

Tears welled up once more as he mourned the huntress who’d offered him a place in the hunt.

“Do not mourn me, I am not gone.”

Percy nearly jumped out of his skin, looking around for Zoë as he heard her voice. And then he looked down at the pen in his hand.

“It appears my father has accepted me back. And restored my immortality.”

Percy’s breath caught, that-

“I will return, and for now… I will offer the one who saved me another weapon. Wield my blade well, Percy.”

He took the cap off the pen, as she directed, and gasped at the beautiful blade that appeared.

He had the one from Aphrodite, but this one was different.

“I will always return to you. Until I am whole once more.”

Percy smiled, tears still there but filled with happiness now.

Zoë wasn’t gone for good. She would return.

And until then Percy would guard her new form fiercely. He wasn’t a part of the hunt, but maybe he could still help them out.