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Snapped

Summary:

Percy thought his death would finally mean he is done with this shit.

Percy has been wrong before.

-------
I'm not good at summaries and this is my first story, but this has been something I've had in the back of my mind so I hope you give it a chance and I hope you enjoy it.

Notes:

I do not own these characters, they belong to uncle Rick.

I want to say thank you to Lorixjake for being an inspiration for this.

I haven't added any relationship tags as I am not set one for definite, once I am I will put it on.

I apologise for any spelling mistakes

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Chapter 1: Prologue

Chapter Text

Prologue

Percy pov

I’d love to say my death was unexpected, honestly I would absolutely love to be able to say “yeah me dying at the age of 18 was totally not foreseeable” but honestly a long and prosperous life never seemed to be in the cards for me. Actually, scratch that my death was surprising, I am surprised it didn’t happen sooner, by their standards the Fates seemed to have been in a generous mood for the past 2 years.

So here I lie, at Thalias’ tree, where it all truly began just over six years ago. Blood soaking the grass, eyes blurry as I stare at the sky above.

Was this all my life was supposed to be?

Did I not give enough of myself?

Was this death deserved or earned; pain or relief.

I'm so tired.

I don't know if I even care anymore.

~~~~~~

3rd Party Pov

“NO” the alloter exclaimed; voice croaky, despite its volume, from the lack of use. “No, no, no how dare you cut his string before my say so sister”

“Do not speak to me with such a tone sister" the inflexible, turned her head with a glare impossibly quick for her perceived age “besides this was not my doing, the string snapped”

“Snapped” the spinner repeated in disbelief, “that's impossible, its shown no prior signs of weakness”

“There is another reason a string as strong as Perseus’ could snap, my children”

The Fates turned their heads towards the new voice.

“Mother” they called out hesitantly

Amused the primordial of necessity smiled at her children “such a warm welcome you've given me”

“Do not mistake our confusion for displeasure mother” Atropos said.

“I suppose I am teasing am I not, let me get straight to the point, the young heroes’ string snapped not due to his weakness but his strength, his mortality cannot contain his power.”

“Should he not have ascended then, as Dionysus once did” Lachesis inquired.

Ananke glided further forward, her humanoid form not quite able to contain her true self, as her movements seemed more calculated and perfect than any human could deem as natural. Her hair flowing down to the ground, not moving an inch even as she herself did. Her skin was impossibly pale, and was heavily contrasted by her glowing ruby red eyes.

As she moved closer to the spindle wheel, she traces the vibrant green string with one of her fingers. She winds the string to further inspect it “truly a beautiful string” she muses as she notices flecks of gold in places.

“The destroyer has been on the cusp of divinity a few times in his life however though it should not be possible, it seems as though his rejection against immortality was strong enough to maintain his mortality.

“A remarkable feat, make no mistake, but it has led to the situation you are faced with now. A situation that spells out disaster, his failure to follow his fate will damage strings tied or reliant on his”

The morai were frozen in place processing the information when Ananke appeared behind them, “I don't like giving out spoilers” she whispered next to their ears followed by a giggle similar to that of a child trying to keep a secret. It caused a shiver down their spines “but one of his domains would have been demigods and heroes”.

“Skatá”

“Indeed Clotho, I can see I didn't need to spell it out for you”

Silence takes over as Ananke studies her daughters. For the first time in millennia she sees concern on their faces, as they think about how to remedy the situation.

They look adorable in her eyes though they wouldn't appreciate being called that.

“I do come bearing a solution however”

All three heads snap back in her direction, eyes impossibly wide, their expressions almost too human for what they are.

Ananke smiles; adorable.

“Well more like half the solution, your father Chronos is willing to allow you to use his powers just this once to remedy the situation.

“I trust you understand what kind of boon this is?”

“Yes Mother” they say in unison as they smile.

Ananke matches their smile and disappears.

The wheel starts turning again.

Chapter 2: Chapter 1

Summary:

Hey who dis??

Notes:

Hi guys, sorry for the long wait. Life just got really hectic, and everything I went to edit this chapter it just didn't feel right. I hope you guys like this.

I apologise for any grammar or spelling mistakes

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

3 Weeks Ago

Ever since I turned 9 my life completely fell apart, sounds dramatic but I don’t know how else to describe a monster chasing me and my mom through New York only for it to catch up with us in dead end alley. I can still smell the scent of garbage; the feel of grime mixing with blood on my hands as I crawled towards my moms body. I don’t remember when I started screaming but I remember mom quietly shushing me as she weakly embraced me and sang in my ear, humming a tune, her voice slowly getting weaker.

The huge doglike monster, that had been pitch black in colour, had turned to gold dust when mom stabbed it with hair stick pin she always wore. I always thought its bronze colour made her hair look like soft caramel, making her even more beautiful than she already was. Now all I could see when I closed my eyes was the red, red hair, red hands, red clothes.

I don’t know how long I stayed there, curled up next to her. I couldn’t tell whose body got cold first either, all I remember is the cold slowly taking over, but I was too numb to truly react to it.

And I would have stayed like that until it completely took over.

Then I heard an ear-piercing screech, immediately my body reacted on its own, as if it knew what needed to be done. Heat spread through me for the first time since the whole nightmare started and I felt aware of everything.

I knew whatever made that sounds was not the same monster as before but it did not mean that it was not just as if not more dangerous, I look at my mom one more time, taking in her features. I would never see her again, I knew this for sure.

I started crying, not able to keep it in any longer.

I kiss her cheek the way I had so many times before; I take the locket off that’s around her neck and throw it in my pocket, making sure I zip the pocket. I pry the hair pin out of her hand, with it now clutched in my own hand and one last look back at her, I run.

I run and cry at the same time, never stopping, not even when bumping into others. As I run out of tears, I realise I’m having trouble breathing; my throat starts to close up, and I start gagging; I stop on the side of the pavement as I throw up. My throat burns, my eyes tear up from the pain and I realise just how tired I truly am.

As I empty my stomach I hear a voice from behind me.

“You alright kid, need any help”

I turn to see a tall boy with black hair and some very strange eyes, he has a reassuring smile on his face. I know I should say I’m fine to make him leave as soon as possible but my voice doesn’t seem to work. He talks again “Are you in danger, is something following you” he asks.

I don’t have energy to deny anything, all I can say is “yes”.

Before I could explain, I hear the screeching again, closer this time, nobody else seem to be hearing anything apart from the boy in front of me, he throws a concerned look towards the direction I was running from.

Once again my mouth moves before my brain can stop it, “ Please tell me you can hear that”.

He turns his head back to me, his eyes soft as he says “ Yeah I can”, he looks like he is thinking about something before he says “ hey I know its difficult to trust a stranger, especially with what you most likely have been through but we need to get out of here, somewhere safe, that sound is a Harpy and it would be best if we avoid it, my house is close by, it’ll be safe there.”

All the warnings about stranger danger that my mom told over and over again were completely forgotten about when I heard the screech again. I looked back at the boy and said “Okay I’ll come with you”

He smiled, offered his hand and said “My name is Percy, what’s yours?”

I paused before taking his hand, he started leading me towards his house when my legs collapsed, before I could say anything I felt myself being carried by strong arms; now at eye level, I feel him walk faster as I say “Delian, my name is Delian but mom always called me Ian”

“Its great to meet you Ian”

I can finally feel the last of that strange energy I had finally leave me, but cold didn’t come back, Percy's warmth lulled me to sleep.

~~~

I woke up to the smell of freshly baked cookies.

I slowly opened my eyes blinking a few times to get used to the light, I panic not recognising where I am at first, before the memories come back; Mom, the Harpy and Percy.

“Oh, you’re awake” Percy appears at the door, he’s wearing different clothes “you slept the entire day so you might be slightly disoriented.” He moves across the room to close the curtains, I’m glad he did as I sit up on the bed without feeling too dizzy, he turns back to me with a warm smile “How are you feeling?”

I take a moment to think “I feel better I think”

My stomach growls just as I say that and I feel my cheeks heat up. Percy laughs “Come on, there’s breakfast waiting for you and a batch of freshly made cookies”

He waits for me to get out of bed before he leads me to the kitchen, there I see a very pretty lady with a baby in her hands, on the table next of a middle aged man are stacks of paper. The lady looks up at us and gives me a bright smile. “You’re finally awake, come come, sit down breakfast is ready” she says “ my name is Sally dear and that’s my husband Paul”, he looks up at his name to give me a smile.

“I’m Ian” I said, all of a sudden I was feeling shy and embarrassed “I’m sorry to be a bother”.

Sally suddenly looks serious, she gives the baby to Paul as she starts fussing and kneels in front of me, now eye level with me. “Never think that, we are happy to help dearie, you can stay here as long as you need and I bet we can answer some of your questions as well” she said with a reassuring smile which reminds me of Percy.

Suddenly I feel an ache in my chest, Sally’s kindness reminds me of my mom and I feel my eyes sting. Before tears could fall however I wipe my eyes.

I feel Percy leading me to the table with a plate of food in front of me. They both sit across from me as Percy speaks up “How about you tells us your story and we’ll help you understand what is going on.”

I think about it for a minute, I take a sip of water before nodding.

Going through everything again really took a lot out of me, it took a lot of time and at some point we ended up on the sofa with a plate of blue cookies (not the weirdest thing I have seen recently) on my lap. As they filled in the gaps, about the gods and the monsters a lot of things fell into place, not just what had happened these past few days but also a lot about my childhood. The weird things I saw as a child, some of my mom’s behaviour, how she always had this hair pin with hair which now I know kills monsters, my ADHD and Dyslexia.

“Well Percy will be going to camp in about 3 weeks anyways, if you are happy to stay with us until then you can both go together, of course we could get you there sooner if you want” Sally mentioned.

The idea of going to this camp without anyone I know scared me, even though I didn’t want to say so, “I’d like to stay here a bit longer and go there with Percy”.

“That’s more than alright bud, now come on you still need some more sleep” Percy said.

He leads me back to bed to be tucked in, when Percy is about to leave I hesitate before grabbing Percy’s hand. He turns back to me “Mom always sang to before I went to sleep, can you please sing to me”.

Percy looked unsure, so I was about to ask him to ignore what I just said but he spoke up first “Not that I don’t want to buddy, but I’m not the greatest singer, you might regret asking after you hear me.”

“I wont, I swear”

And so he sang, true to his word his singing wasn’t great, but as he sang it was the safest I’d felt in days.

Days passed quicker than I thought they would, I spent most of my time with Percy when he is free, but I also spent a bit of it with different members of the family, with Sally and Estelle when Percy was in School, and with Paul when Percy was doing homework.

When Percy was free though we would spend it playing games or just watching movies, he also tried to teach me how to skateboard though I don’t think I’ve improved much.

Everything was going so well, I even started looking forward to camp as I heard Percy tell me more and more stories about it.

~~~

It was the weekend after Percy's last day of school, we had packed our stuff and packed it in the car. We were saying our goodbyes to everyone. I hugged Paul and Sally and gave Estelle a kiss on the forehead as she babbled at me trying to grab me hair.

“Remember, you are always welcome here Ian” Sally smiled as she gave me one last hug.

As I enjoyed her embrace, I mumbled “Thank you Auntie Sally”.

“Come on bud, time to hit the road” Percy calls from the car.

I get in the car and I wave back as Percy starts the car.

“It’s not a long journey to be fair just over 2 hours with traffic” Percy says, before I could reply I let out a huge yawn and Percy chuckles, “If you want you can take a nap to catch up on sleep, it’s still quite early in the morning, I’ll wake you up when we get there”.

I blush “I’ll be fine, I’m awake, I’m not even that sleepy”

“Whatever you say kid”

Despite what I said I could feel the soft engine hum and Percy’s voice as he is singing along with a song on the radio lulling me to sleep.

~~~

I felt my self jerk to the side.

“Shit”

I turn to Percy “ What’s wrong” I ask.

“A monster is following us, has been for a few minutes now, our scents together was clearly stronger than I thought they would be, especially if we are attracting monster like the Chimera”

“The one from Hercules?”

“No, you’re think of the Nemean lion, the Chimera is made up of goat, lion and snake, its both fire breathing and venomous” he parks on the side of the road and get out the car “Come on, we have to get to the border past the barrier before it catches up with us.”

We are running through the woods when I feel my self pulled back and I see Percy in front of me fall down to one knee with a glowing sword in his hand.

“PERCY”

He looked back at me, his face pale, he is clearly not well but before I could ask or say anything “Stay back” he calls out to me “I don’t want you getting hurt.”

I can’t reply, I’ve shuffled my way backward against tree, curled up with my knees to my chest; As I listen to the sounds of the fight I start to panic. I can’t breathe as I remember my mom struggling with the Hellhound; I shake my head trying to remember where I am and trying to, for a moment, forget the memories coming up. Finally when there is quiet, my mind clears and I realise the fight is over.

I stand on shaky legs and spot Percy lying on the ground, all I feel is fear as I stumble my way to his side. I can see a wound on his arm that looks like a snake bite, I realise he pushed me out of the way before I got bit by the snake tail. It’s my fault he got hurt, its my fault he could die. I can’t lose anyone else, not after mom, gods please if anyone is looking down please please don’t let this happen; “please please please please please, gods someone help please”. I put my hand on his cheek gently and whisper “Percy please don’t go, please.”

He didn’t react, his eyes looked glassy as he stared at the sky, he was shivering now, whether it was from fear or from the cold I am not too sure. But I didn’t want him to feel like he was alone, so I lay down next to him and sang, the way my mom did for me and the way Percy did for me.

*Rip the earth in two with your mind*

*And seal the urge which ensues with brass wires*

*I never meant you any harm*

*Your tears feel warm as they fall on my forearm*

*But close my eyes for a while*

*And forced from the world a patient smile*

*How can you say that your truth is better than ours?*

*Shoulder to shoulder, now brother, we carry no arms*

*And the blind man sleeps in the doorway, his home*

*If only I had an enemy bigger than my apathy I could have won*

*But I gave you all*

•

*I gave you all*

•

*I gave you all*

•

Half way through I felt him stop shaking, I hugged tighter after that, I sang a bit louder until I hear rustling from above on the hill.

“Hey punk you alright?”

I look up and see a buff girl around Percy’s age with a spear in hand. “ It’s Percy, please help him, I think he got poisoned by the Chimera. Please please please help him” I plead.

“SHIT Prissy, of course this happens when I am on border patrol”

She runs over and picks Percy up bridal style, she turns to me “ you alright to walk on your own?”

I nod and we run to a what I assume is the big house from Percy’s stories.

“CHIRON, CHIRON”

A centaur appears and I’m too out of it to even be shocked.

“Clarisse what is it… Gods is that Percy, quickly bring him here”

“I found him like this, with this punk, apparently he got poisoned by the Chimera” Clarisse tells him as he lays Percy down on a bench.

Chiron inspects him with a worried look, after a couple of minutes his face becomes sad, he turns back to Clarisse and shakes his head silently.

Clarisse shouts something and other people seem to be coming from different directions, but I can’t focus on any of that. All I can do is stare at Percy, eyes blurry as I hold his hand like a lifeline.

---

Notes:

Hope you guys like that chapter. I don't wanna rush going into the reading of the books, I wanna set up the situation that leads to that as best as I can.

As for Delian, he won't play a huge role but he will be a somewhat fresh prespective. I love the little bean. And I'm a sucker a good wholesome content between found brotherhood, so just setting up that brotherly relationship with Percy. Though righting in Delian's prespective was hard I did so much editing in this chapter. I didn't want to make him sound too childish (despite being a child) because of who and what he is. But also didn't want him to come off like it was an adult speaking. God it caused me headaches.

But hey if you got to the end, I can surprise you, for your patience with me please enjoy the next chapter right away.😊😘

Chapter 3: Chapter 2

Summary:

A bit more on our dear Percy and how he is fairing bless his heart.

Notes:

As promised guys the second chapter.

Please let me know how it is.

Again I apologise for any mistakes

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

*How can you say that your truth is better than ours?*

*Shoulder to shoulder, now brother, we carry no arms*

*And the blind man sleeps in the doorway, his home*

*If only I had an enemy bigger than my apathy I could have won*

*But I gave you all*

•

*I gave you all*

•

*I gave you all*

•

•

•

•

The bittersweet melody followed me even after the cold took over, I couldn’t quite make out the beginning, but as the words being sang became clearer towards the end, I realised I was having an almost out of body experience.

Its a bit cliche to say but I felt floaty. Death is simultaneously an odd and familiar experience, the feeling being somewhat similar to when I would be afloat at sea; the sunlight bright and warm over head whilst the calm waves underneath carry me for as long as I needed them to, for as long as it took to calm me down or to quiet the voices in my head. It makes sense I guess, after all Hades and Poseidon are brothers. Or maybe the similarity had more to do with dad’s past, I remember Annabeth saying how Poseidon was the god of the underworld in Mycenean Greece.

There are two main differences however, in the ocean I never felt lost or cold. I can’t shake either feeling, both seeping in and bringing me back to the reality of the situation.

I’m dead.

I’m dead.

The thought keeps repeating in my head.

So…. what happens now?

I look around, hoping to spot Thanatos or anyone really that can help me. However the sound of sobbing distracts me from the task, I look towards the source of the cries and notice Ian tightly hugging me, and my heart clenches. I realise he must of been the one that was singing to me, trying to comfort me in my final moments. I hadn’t known him long but I’d really bonded with him these past few weeks. After I got to know him he reminded me a little of Nico before things turned to shit, before I turned things to shit. Foolishly I thought I could at least do right by Ian when I couldn’t for Nico. He really is a sweet child with such a kind heart, he’d been through so much already and now I‘ve become one more thing that’ll haunt him. Instead of helping him, I’ve burdened him even more.

“I guess that is the curse of the living, they spend a lifetime of suffering in pursuit of peace; that they might never experience, not even in death.”

I turn my head towards the new voice only to quickly turn away.

I hear a chuckle come from the same direction “I apologise, I don’t interact with mortals often, I forget how fragile you can be. Be assured you may look now.”

Hesitantly I glance towards my left again, in place of the blinding light from before is instead a deity, for he cannot be described as a man. Framing his stature, a pair of magnificent gleaming wings so large that they could swallow him whole. The golden shine of the wings reflect off the scales of the coiled snakes wrapped around him. Though not noticeable at first, the snakes are moving constantly in an infinite loop never quite changing position on his body despite their contact motion. I was never really great at remembering specific myths so accurately that I could identify new deities from their appearance alone. But my instincts have always been something I trusted and from that alone I could tell whoever he was, he was not to be messed with. Not that I could do much in my current state.

“Are you quite done staring child” even his voice sounded inhumane, rhythmic almost, like the vibrations of living creatures being amplified and molded to imitate a human voice, “ I do believe you humans say it rude to do so.”

“But you personally don’t feel it is?” I speak up for the first. Damn it, I don’t know if questioning him is a good idea but as usual my mouth worked before my brain could catch up.

His head tilts almost as if he was thinking, “ I suppose not, you could say we have a different standard for manners and acceptable behaviour, one that doesn’t adhere to mortal understanding”

“Who is we?” I ask.

“You know us as Primordials, personally I am known as Phanes. I am here to guide your soul after death, not my usual job I must say, but having a favour to be able to call in with my sisters is quite rare indeed especially for such a measly task of guiding your soul to them” his answer is deceptively unhelpful, I have no idea who Phanes is, let alone his sisters, not that I was going to tell him that. I don't know if souls can die after they have already died but I wasn't going to test that by offending an unknown deity today.

Still very confused I ask “Wait, so are you not taking me to the Underworld?”

“Chaos no, if this was the usual journey for the dead I wouldn't go to the trouble of blocking the knowledge of your death from the gods. No, I am taking you to my sisters, the Morai, they have unfinished business with you”, ah finally names I recognise but now my confusion disappears as my blood boils. (Can a souls’ blood boil, do souls even have blood.)

Unable to keep the anger in “What unfinished business, have not gone enough, have I not given all of me to their damn plans. Can they not even show their faces themselves to tell me this.”

Up until now Phanes had never looked at me properly, not even once, almost like everything around him was too distracting. If he had been human I would say he had the worst case of ADHD that I have ever seen and that's coming from me. But as soon as I spoke all his attention turned to me, he stood stock still, the snakes stopped moving and his vibrant emerald eyes stared at me. No, not at me, it looked like he was looking through me.

“You've definitely been pushed to the limits of you mortality the wear and tear on your soul is proof enough, but I can't say more than that lest I step on my sisters toes. Fate is not my domain, I can't say what should or shouldn't have been.”

Before I can protest, or have a last word with anyone or anything, and in an almost anticlimactic action he simply grabs my shoulder and flashes us out of there the forest we were in and … gets us to an almost identical forest, only it looks like we are at an edge of a clearing. The trees are almost encasing this clearing from above with glimmers of sunlight challenging their way through the thick luster foliage. The clearing looks like what I would assume is a grandma’s garden is supposed to look like, now I can’t be a hundred percent sure as all my grandmotherly figures have either been dead, evil or absentee in my life. At the edge furthest from us I could seen what looked like a small green house, there seemed to be an ever burning bonfire in the middle burning green with Greek fire and a porch swing with a couple of rocking chairs near it. To the left of us there seems to be a pile of discarded yarns in a plethora of colors and to the right of me I finally notice what I would assume is the Fates.

Now, as a human, I think I have a right to say that we are known to make assumptions. For better or for worse, it’s in our nature to do so, a survival instinct that used to only help us perceive what could be dangerous that is now also used in our day to day judgement of the world around us. Now some assumptions have reasoning, for example I assumed that when meeting the Morai I would be faced with three elderly women that are so old that, if i didn’t know any better, a gust of wind would have them falling over. Now this assumption is based on my one and only interaction I have ever had with the Fates from when this whole mess started. Instead in front of a spinning wheel I see three young looking goddess, no older than what Athena or Demeter present themselves as. All their hair is in intricate braids that would give me nightmares if I ever tried to replicate them. Thankfully Estelle never knew such braids existed or she would have surely made me learn this for her too as I had to with the fish braids. As we enter the clearing and their heads stimulatingly turn towards us I am met with three pairs of eyes, all identical, as red and gold swirls make them look like molten lava.

Now you would think with their appearance being so different from last time I saw them that I would ask about that, or with them being the Fates that I would just keep my mouth shut. Then you wouldn’t know me very well because instead what came out of my mouth was “Hey I always thought this place would look like an evil, dark cave from a Batman villains’ lair.”

God I wish I could put a sock in it, what the fuck is wrong with me.

Notes:

Phanes- primordial God of creation

Notes:

(Skatá - shit)

I hope you enjoyed the first chapter.

Please let me know what you think

Be kind please 🙏

If this is something people like I hope to finish it to completion.