Chapter Text
“Athena!” Zeus’s roar was the very thunder in the sky. Lightning danced against darkening clouds as a bolt struck and Zeus appeared in all his ridiculously tall, probably nineteen-foot form. Compared to Poseidon and Athena who had taken a more mortal height, he stood out. Literally.
The thought caused Percy to giggle. Dramatic appearances, dramatic disappearance, Zeus was still such a drama king no matter the age.
“And Poseidon! What have you begot?” Thunder rumbled with every step he took towards them.
Poseidon didn’t even glance at Zeus. Instead, he turned away from the other gods and shielded Percy from view. Poseidon smiled down at Percy. The smile that Poseidon wore was familiar to him. It was the same as the distant memory of his, the first memory of his father.
“Papa.” Percy reached out and grabbed his father’s finger and giggled again.
“My child.” Poseidon reiterated.
“Love Papa.” Percy flooded the newly established bond with all his affection, saying the words he never had the chance to tell Poseidon before the end. His father’s expression stuttered momentarily, as an intensity grew in his eyes.
“Father!” Athena’s voice rang out.
“Athena, is it not enough that we have freed your mortal? Now this?“
“The child belongs with me. Poseidon has plenty of immortal offspring. I have none.” Athena spoke, despite her mortal child still being present. Both Anna and Telemachus were still kneeling on the ground, their gazes cast to the floor. Not daring to look up, to risk the gods choosing to take their true form and killing them in an instant.
”Hmph. Poseidon, give me the child.” Zeus demanded. “And I will-“
”No.” Poseidon’s voice resonated through the clearing. The roar of waves crashing against the rocks below, and the wind picked up. Poseidon took a step forward. The seafoam that made his father’s cloak-fabric thing wrapped around him, tucking him neatly to Poseidon’s chest as his father grew in size, matching Zeus. Percy clung to the seafoam fabric, feeling his father’s power wrap securely around him. Did they really have to change form for this? Percy wasn’t. He had never bothered to try and figure that out, and he didn’t mind being in the form of a human infant for now.
Let the other gods think he wasn’t a threat. He could figure out how to age himself up later. But for now, he just wanted to be held by his dad.
“You dare to tell me no? Me?” Zeus thundered as he approached
Percy pulled at the fabric wrapped around him, peering up at Zeus. When he got the electric blue gaze of the god-king, Percy grinned, and chirped, “No.”
Zeus gaped at him. He opened his mouth, a finger extended out. A moment later, Poseidon blocked Percy’s view. A large hand rested gently against him.
“Poseidon!” Zeus roared, ozone permeating the air.
“The child defers to his father. This is only right.” Poseidon sounded smug as Percy tried to peer through the gaps in his fingers. So what if his current baby form could fit into the palm of his father’s hand when the gods choose their larger forms.
“What is right,” Athena cut in, “is for the child to be raised by his mother.”
”You raise a child?” Poseidon asked incredulously. “You who swore off anything to do with families.”
”I have no interest in lying with another, nor household management. But he is my child. My immortal child. I have a right to him.”
”He is of the sea-”
”He is of Athens! He was always meant for the world of man, not to be sequestered away in oceanic depths.”
“Athens,” Poseidon sneered, “that city of yours that cost me this child to begin with.”
“What-“
”Yes.” Poseidon closed his fingers, cupping Percy in his palm. “When those mortals rejected my divine gift, the brief connection I felt, the conception of this child, was lost. When they chose you, they denied his existence.”
Percy remembered that, the pull, the arguing and then the feeling as if he would disappear once more into the nothingness between worlds. How he fought to wrap himself in his father’s essence and fell into a deep slumber. Until-
“I found the shell.” Athena hadn’t found him. Sure she had given him the spark necessary to exist, but Anna had found him. ”Without me, he would never have been born. He is my child.”
”I will let Odysseus go.” Poseidon offered. “Give this child to me, and that mortal can go free.”
Athena was silent.
”Is that not what has you dripping ichor still?” Poseidon continued. “You fought your own father for this mortal’s freedom.”
What? Percy shoved at his father’s fingers, peering out to study Athena again. And she did look battered, a deep cut on her arm sluggishly dripping ichor, and her garment torn, frayed as if she had been struck by lightning.
Athena had fought for a mortal.
A mortal hero.
Even now, she stood in such a way to shield the two kneeling mortals at their feet. Both Anna and Telemachus were eerily silent. Percy could particularly feel the odd mix of fear and awe radiating from them. Listening to a custody battle between the gods was probably not on their to do list.
The Athena Percy had known, thousands of years in the future, would never have done such a thing. So, what had happened? Was the scars left from Rome, the slight carry over between the personalities enough to do this damage?
What had made Athena so cold?
“Enough.” Zeus boomed. “I weary of your bickering. The godling can speak. Let him choose.”
What? Zeus was actually being fair? Asking his opinion, giving him a choice. This world felt so surreal. The gods were different from the ones he knew. Athena caring about mortals, about her children, and Zeus trying to be just and fair, it was a little crazy.
Percy crawled out of the cloak fabric thing that had wrapped around him, until he landed in Poseidon’s palm. He tugged at his father’s thumb, sending a wave of affection down their bond.
Poseidon sighed, then brought Percy out. “ My child wishes to speak.”
Athena smiled at Percy. She seemed so young. For one moment, he could see Annabeth in her features.
”Well.” Zeus tapped a foot. “Choose.”
Percy stared at Zeus, tempted to stick his tongue out at the god. He could tell any interest that Zeus had in him initially was rapidly fading. Zeus, Athena. All the gods that would get stuck in their ways, would ignore the world.
A second chance.
A way to make things better.
”Nine months with Papa,” Percy decided, hugging Poseidon’s thumb. Then he pointed at Athena, and channeled some of Estella’s nonsense. “Three months with Athy! Summer ones.”
’Athy.’ He saw Athena mouthed the word.
“Hmm…Splitting the year works well for Persephone. It will be so.” With a flash of lightning, Zeus disappeared.
“I get him first.” Poseidon shrunk to mortal height, cradling Percy to him, before tossing him in the air. Percy giggled.
”It is the last month of summer.” Athena stepped forward, shrinking in size as well, hands outstretched.
“Don’t you have affairs with your mortals to sort?” Neatly dodging Athena, Poseidon gestured one handily to the two kneeling mortals. “Give him to me first and I won’t try to hinder Odysseus as much as I was planning.”
“Let me hold him.”
”Haven’t you already?” Poseidon glanced back to the shell that Percy had been in. “And someone needs to work on building his temple.”
”At least let me name him," Athena stomped.
”Percy!” Percy grinned, tugging on the material of Poseidon’s cloak. “I’m Percy.”
“Derived from Perseus?” Athena asked as she walked a pace with Poseidon.
“No.” Percy lied. He didn’t want to be called anything else, nor give Zeus any conniption that he’s using one of his demigod's names.
”Why that name, my child?” Poseidon lightly tapped Percy’s nose.
”Mine.” Percy grabbed his father’s finger, grinning up at him again.
“Hmm.” Poseidon stopped. They had reached the shores, and waves clashed against his hills. Athena stood on the beach. In the distance, Percy swore he could make out the watchful gaze of other gods. Especially, Apollo’s.
”Poseidon.” Athena stepped forward, uncaring as the waves hit her ankles. “You will give him to me next summer.”
“We will see.” With that, the waves crashed over them, wrapping around them.
The world flashed around them as Athena cried out, "Poseidon!” and then “Percy!”. In a blast of bubbles, they reappeared directly above the heart of the sea, the ancient city of Atlantis.