Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

'Not again' Percy thought with a bit of a whine to his voice.

He stared at the Fates.

They stared back.

He observed them silently some more.

They observed him silently as well. Noting that the first one looked like a kid, the middle an adult, and the end one a bitter old woman.

...

It was a strange staring contest, a deadly one.

Or, it probably should have been.

It didn't seem to him that they were here to cut his cord. They didn't even have their fruit stand this time. They just stood there, silently staring at him in the dark vastness of his dream.

Assessing.

Waiting.

Planning.

Cause that was always it with deities was it? They're always planning to ask something of him, and it was always annoying. Especially when they personally showed themselves to him, coming to talk about some "urgent matter".

Hadn't they done enough the past years? Couldn't they find some other, more willing, less retired demigod to do their bidding?

He stared at them some more.

He didn't really mean that.

Better it be him, rather than some other poor untrained and underprepared 12 year old again.

"Perseus Jackson," the middle one spoke, Lachesis, his mind whispers, "We come to you in need of assistance."

'Great, another quest. What is it this time? Finding their long lost 4th sister in a day?' He thought sarcastically.

"Nothing with such a short deadline, Perseus," The one on his left says, Clotho, he thinks, "in fact, not much of one will be given."

Okay. Ominous, he's mildly intrigued now.

"But it's still a quest," he says with mild annoyance. Fates who control his life in front of him be damned.

"In the sense that there is an inevitable prophecy to be fulfilled," the one to his right, Atropos, the end, says. "Quite a new one too." She says a bit distastefully.

Now that gives Percy pause. Another prophecy, aaallllllways with the prophecies. But, 'A new one? Werent they all written down in those books?' His brow furrowed.

"It is new, because it were thought not quite possible," Atropos grew agitated, "until those blasted wars" she spat.

"Peace, sister," Clotho began, lightly patting her arm, she turned to Percy again, "but, yes Perseus, all great prophecies were once written down in the sibylline books. This newest one appeared to Apollo only recently after his restoration to his godhood."

Okay..."But what makes you all so sure this one will be about me?" He pressed a bit thoughtlessly, and then felt a bit silly once he realized.

Luckily, the goddesses looked at him with different levels of mirth, instead of being smite-happy.

"Aside from the fact that we have already begun to weave the thread of the prophecy in, it is obvious once you have heard it, and take recent events into consideration." Lachesis says, "which brings us to our question."

Then, things got strange. The area they were in grew chiller, darker. Like a cold night on a beach that was about to storm.

"Would you like to go back?" They ask, voices in a sort of echo of one another.

"I– What?" Percy asks back, confusedly. 'What does that mean? I swear, if I have to do mental gymnastics one more time–"

"Would you like to go back, Percy Jackson? Go back and help elongate their lives?"

Their meaning washed over him then. He felt cold. Unresponsive. He stared at them, barely breathing, dreading their next words, yet hopeful in them as they started to elaborate.

Clotho, the spinner, began to speak , "too many threads frayed during those wars."

"Threads that still had plans," spoke Lachesis, the weaver.

As they spoke, Percy felt a sense of shock rushing through his veins, he felt horrorified, rage washing over him like the tides. Eyes swirling with thoughts, he grit his teeth in an attempt to calm himself.

"Threads I didn't plan to cut yet, threads I didn't get to cut before they snapped with tension." Atropos had spat.

He swallowed down his emotions best he could, but the thoughts kept arising. Crashing into his brain like boats upon jagged rock.

Lives were lost during wars, he knew that there were always going to be lives lost. War was unfair, shit happens, he knew that no matter how many plans made, there would always be a casualty.

When he looked around the camps after every war he'd always wondered if anything could have changed. If anything could have gone better. He thought of who he could have saved, who would still be here, what would they think of the camps now? He thought, he thought, he thought, it was always just a thought . Never reality.

"And so we ask you, son of the sea, do you wish to go backwards? Back to when your stories plans began to be, when they were fresh. Back to when those threads were still strong and filled with life, filled with a Fate. Before they were frayed, broken, or cut."

But this. This was a chance. And he'd be dammed if he passed it up.

"I accept," he said solemnly, yet readily. "But I have to ask, will I have help in this?" He once again stared into their eyes, hopeful, yet fearing he may have overstepped with that question.

They stared back, "of course, we would not have our champion go in this alone."

Clotho waved her hand, and in a misty scene appeared the others.

Turning to peer at the first figure, there stood Apollo, in his form of Lester, nodding at him.

He looked towards the others, and his heart clenched.

He saw his family. His father, and his mothers waving at him.

Clotho spoke again, "you may also tell whomever you think should best be in the know. But, do know that there will be a price for pay for that."

Turning back toward the Fates, he nodded, knowing now that this was all rhe information he would get, "thank you, I–" he paused , glancing briefly back at the others, " I am ready to hear the prophecy."

They smiled at him, "we knew you would accept."

'Creepy', he thought a little, 'but okay, whatever.'

Then, they looked more serious, and he grew a bit worried that this was all some sort of test he failed, "But first, we must warn you," oh boy, "this time line, with all its faults, is dying."

"And... and what does that mean for me?" Percy swallowed thickly, brows furrowing.

Clotho elaborated for him, "That we cannot send you back in this universe's timeline, but we can send you to anothers."

"Would things I know be different?"

"But of course," Lachesis spoke, he winced, of course things would be different– "you will be there to change things how you see fit. After all, you will still have your memories. How you choose to use them is up to you. The myths, and the general scenarios that happen on your quest should be in roughly the same order as well. Are you still fine with continuing?"

Oh. Well, thats not that bad then. He thought there would be more to that, like there would be some other more terrible threats, like a billion drakons roaming the Earth or something. He nodded, and then things got... bright.

They spoke in unison, "As child of seas conscious is shifted,

Gifted with change he takes the story reigns closefisted.

Stream in hand, he changes worldview,

Using knowledge known to only a few.

Threads once frayed too thin now shall mend,

Lives now saved, slowly he will transcend."

Before he could really comprehend that last part, his only thought was, 'wow do I feel like a plant that's being misted with a spray bottle right now.'

And it was lights out.

Chapter Text

I Get Isekaied, And I Have A Gods Awful Headache .

When he woke, Percy groaned feeling the preasure of a headache building up behind his eyes, and was mildly confused when he opened them. It wasn't the room he fell asleep in. It was...

Memories washed over him, and he felt a sense of hopefulness for the first time in a long while. He could save his friends— better yet his friends were still alive .

He couldn't wait till he could go back to camp. He was half-tempted to hotwire a car and just drive there.

But then it hit him, the Fates said he was going to the time before he knew.

This Percy hadn't been to camp yet. He hasn't trained, gone on quests, killed monsters or made any of his friends yet. Which would also mean that Gabe was still alive.

Smelly Gabe, his abusive bastard of an ex-stepfather. Who was probably in the next room over, or on the couch, right now .

"Shit." He wispered hoarsely, confused for a second at the highness of his voice.

"Fuck, okay, first things first, find out what day it is. Then find mom and somehow convince her to— wait scratch that. The Fates said she would be aware too... Okay that just makes things easier, now we just have to..." He mumbled out some more plans as he untangled his legs from the blankets, only pausing as he noticed the webbing between his fingers.

'Syndactyly,' he recalled. One of the kids in the Athena cabin, a scrawny nine year old kid named Janice had it. It was apparently a common birth defect. She had wanted to be a geneticist, before she died in the second war.

He swallowed harshly, "it won't happen this time," he muttered, "I'll make sure of that."

He clenched his fists, slightly marveling at the off feeling of the action, and got up. Only to stumble upon late contact with the floor.

'Right,' he thought, rightening himself , 'I'm about a foot less than I was yesterday.' Would be? Whatever, he'd think more about that later, he needs to find his mom ASAP.

He brushed off his stumbling with only slight embarrassment burning his cheeks as he looked around his room, attempting to remember where everything should be.

Spotting his old marine life calendar he waded toward it, fumbling his first 3 steps before muscle memory decided to kick in. It was the 18th and a Thursday, he noted first, distantly wondering why he wasnt at Yancy. Did this universe start schools late? Gods he wished so.

Then he looked at the year, okay, 2006. He could live with being 12– okay never mind. It was July and he was 11. Great. Wonderful. That probably also meant schools still started in August too.

He brought his hand to his head, ready to run it through his hair, and old nervous tick he had before he got riptide and–

What the fuck was that.

He lifted his other arm, grasped the... furry things on the top of his head, and tugged.

Okay, firstly, ow. Secondly, WAS HE PART HORSE NOW?? He let go, and lightly sprinted to the bathrooms mirror. Making quiet steps, and locking it when he was inside.

"Oh my gods, what the flipping flipity flip. Why am I a horse. Wha– Huh? What the fuuck..." He muttered some other confused phrases, taking in the two brown and white horse ears on the top of his head.

They were reared back, like a horse in shock. He thought a bit, and one twitched in kind.

"Oh, this is so weird..." he looked closer at himself, in confusion, same blonde to black hair with a white streak, same tanned skintone, same ever-changing ocean colored ey– wait never mind, they're off.

He leaned in closer to the mirror, and blinked.

Just not his regular eye lids.

'Thats freaky...' It was that second eyelid sharks and turtles had. They called them their nictitating membranes.

Percy vaguely remembers telling a shark how cool he thought they were, and how he thought it would be cool to have his own.

Guess his wish came true, as weird as it is.

He unblinked them to focus on his second eye related issue, his left eye wasn't really the same as his right anymore.

It looked more like different colored threads weaving in an out of eachother, rather than clashing waves of sea. The weirdest part of his eyes new appearance was his pupil. It looked like a pair of arrows, spinning idly in a counterclockwise motion.

Guess he'd need an eye patch now, "Man, the Fates couldn't have been more subtle about this could they..." he mumbled aloud accidentally. (Percy smelled wool, and heard mildly amused chatter coming from somewhere just over his right shoulder, but the feeling left before he could investigate.)

He studied his face further, noting four pink scars starting from his hairline to just above his eyebrow.

It looked like a cat had scratched him.

But he had a feeling that wasn't it.

Looking further down, he almost didn't notice the scar running across his nose and left cheek, it was a lighter shade than the rest of his skin was, and it was extremely thin, not connected fully, like something had just barely scratched the surface of his face.

He also found that he now had two triangular scars under the Fate affected eye. It reminded him of the back button on music apps, the third sign of his Fates afflicted time-travel.

Just then, a wave of pain washed over him, and gods did his head hurt even more. The pressure of his headache finally seemed to peak to the point where he couldn't ignore it.

Suddenly, memories rushed their way through his mind. Memories that were his, but also weren't at all. These were Percy's memories, but they weren't at the same time.

He gripped the sink, an attempt to not fall, but had to give into the temptation of it eventually. When he fell he immediately curled into a fetal position on the cold bathroom floor, lightly shivering from the sudden temperature drop.

Memories overlapped with eachother, and some just passed by, as if deemed unimportant. There were missing ones, but then suddenly his brain found new ones to fill in the gaps left behind.

Memories of him and his mother reading greek stories had replaced the two watching a show, mindlessly making occasional comments.

There were memories of him swimming around at Montauk freely. Enjoying the cold water brushing against his gills in a gentle caress, as if trying to cradle him (since when did he have gills? Nevermind, worry about that later, after the pain is over). Those had replaced memories of the two visiting the cabin and staying in doors most of the time spent there, explained by faint memories of his mother apologizing to him about how "the water would be too cold to swim in".

He almost chuckled, if it weren't for the fact that his head felt like it was being hit with several hammers. He instead let out a quiet whimper, an action he just barely noticed he'd done through the haze. He fought to quiet the sounds down, lest he wake up Smelly Gabe.

There were entirely new ones of him and his mother praying to altars of Hecate, Apollo, Triton, and Amphitrite that filled in the gaps of missing childhood he couldnt remember after what Hera had done.

Memories of their patrons occasional responses to things through different divination tools, a turquoise crystal pendulum for Triton, or an celestial body themed oracle deck for Apollo, etc..

His mind was mostly telling him a story on how he grew up religious in this life. About how he wasn't raised an atheist, but rather a hellenic pagan.

It told him that he used to enjoy helping his mom make ward jars. Showed him pictures of his mother teaching him different cleansing rituals and techniques. Memories of them going into a shop run by another practitioner, named Ms. H.

He remembered his mom's lessons. Lessons on what was a closed practice or not. Her teaching him how to read tarot and oracle cards, what certain crystals were related to, what color candles to use for what, and so many other things.

But there were also more memories of them running into monsters, how he once ran into a baby hellhound that scratched his face above his eye. He felt guilty remembering how worried his mother had been.

It was an okay life, until he was 7, when his mom first met Gabe.

Like his old universe, Gabe had been simply weird at first. Nothing too crazy, the occasional harsh grip, or biting comment that was passed off as accidental or him not minding his word choice. How he and his mom went on dates every now and then, where she had to pay everytime because he 'forgot his wallet' for the few months before they got married.

Then he had moved in with them fully, and it was normal for about a week.

Until one day when Percy was attending 3rd grade, and when Sally was at work, they felt something was... wrong. They saw signs that their gods were becoming angry.

The sun had shown with a brighter and sweltering heat, the secnt of ocean grew strong, they saw more stray black cats and large dogs than usual, and there was a flock of crows that followed them. At first, his mother had been worried they were angry at her and Percy for some perceived slight.  And she began to pray extensively on their drive home.

The reason why became sadly clear when they arrived.

Their alters were absolutely trashed. Ripped pieces of tarot cards littered the floor. Broken incense sticks and cones without holders, were smashed into the floorboards. Sally's collection of small plastic statues and printed artwork in the images of their gods lay broken on the floor, crystals and geodes that had been carefully collected over the years gone, presumably pawned off somewhere.

It looked like a tornado had erupted in the room.

Percy remembered staring at his broken alter for Triton with tears in his eyes, the candle he had so lovingly decorated carelessly discarded on the floor. The imperfect pearls and shells he had found at the beach gone missing or smashed.

Even the rubber duck he had placed in childish offering years ago, the one that Triton had told him was his favorite, was missing.

That day was the day everything had changed. They had to do things in silence now.

They couldn't visit Ms. H at her shop, they couldn't update their wards as much as they would have liked to. They couldnt cleanse, buy incense, or have candles either.

Home started to feel less like home, and more like a prison.

Of course, people noticed the change. Miss H had known that Sally was seeing someone, had gotten married to a non practitioner who "said he didn't care". And was immediately worried, and attempted to call their house phone, only to have a man pick up and say they were busy and to not call again.

Percy teachers had noticed how unusually quiet he had gotten, but brushed it off. His school friends began noticing more bruises than usual.

From then on, things blended in more with Percy's old life, and the headache finally lessened. The flashbacks started stuttering, like an old projector malfunctioning before shutting off.

He groaned, lying there for a few moments mulling over the new information he had.

He debated on what to do, he had already investigated his room, and found out how far back he went. He now knew what he looked like, and he even knew what his life had been like this time around.

He struggled to remember what he was doing before he got sidetracked, 'goddamn, this ADHD shit is not for the weak... Battle reflexes my ass...' He thought in a grumble.

When Percy eventually remembered, he lifted himself from the bathroom floor to search for his mother. Then they could come up with a plan of action together.

He unlocked bathroom door, and slowly stepped out, he could smell the scent of stale cigars and old beer, a sure sign Gabe was probably still asleep.

Chapter Text

My StepDad Goes Spalt, My Cousin Is Unapollogetic

 It was pretty easy to find Sally, mostly because she was freaking out in her room across the house. And if Percy now found it weird that he could hear that from so far away, he didn't let it show. Brushing it off as a side affect of the whole horse ears thing.

Which now that he's thinking, how do his features even correlate? Aside from horses being made by his father, and him being able to talk to fish, he just couldn't see it. Eh, maybe he'd figure it out later, they had to finish their plan first.

He tuned back into the conversation, "... but if we go to camp first, we could kick start your training early. Then you would be more prepared." His mother finished her speech, anxiously wringing her hands as they sat an the bench outside their apartment talking.

It was early in the morning, and sort of humid out. Bugs making their noises, the occasional jogger, cars coming and going to work. The park was pretty for their area, but their somber mood had dampened things a little. Percy couldn't help but be pessimistic, noting that there was trash all over the place. Gods did he hate pollution with a passion.

"But, it would also be more likely that Uncle Zappy would have me smited instantly," Percy said, newfound strangely sharp nails picking the skin around his cuticles, "the thing gets stolen December 21st..?" He looked at his mom, sort of questioning if that was this years winter solstice, when she nodded he continued, "when they take a field trip up there, and if I where to go too..." he trailed off, staring at his mothers shoes.

"You would be immediately assumed guilty... no quest, no nothing, just..."Sally didn't finish her thought, ending with pursed lips.

It was silent for a while after that, neither could really think of anything lighter. Either way, Percy was going to be accused and would have to go on that quest, and they both knew they couldn't prevent that.

"At least school should be easier this time," Percy let out eventually, his mom glanced at him and let out a small smile, "I mean, I barely passed those grades, but I did graduate 12th grade, so 6th should be fine."

His moms eyes sparkled, and in a joking tone she bumped their shoulders, "knowing you, it'll be just as hard as it was the first time."

They laughed for a little while more, the sun was just starting to fully peak behind the horizon by the time they settled once more.

Suddenly, Percy's eyes widened and he jumped up, "Ah shit, that reminds me!"

The sun was sort of, blinding for how early it was, and Sally squinted in its general direction then back at Percy.

"Okay, I may have forgotten to tell you about the other dream details–" Percy was cut off with a sharp breath, "fuck."

Gabe had woken up, and he was not happy that the two of them were outside, fully dressed, and evidently holding bags of clothes. Which they had packed, just in case the two of them spotted a monster brought on by Percy now Knowing and needed to book it to camp. They didn't, however, do them any favors with Gabe around though.

"Sally!" The walrus of a man bellowed, "you get your asses back in the house or so help me!"

Sally flinched, it was early out, practically no one would be awake yet but an Apollo kid. And even then, a few kids milling around wouldn't be enough to deter Gabe from doing anything.

"Percy we have to run–" she started, shouldering her bag, and grabbed his hand ready to bolt.

Gabe was on the street now, rushing toward them, when suddenly a car slammed into him.

The thudding sound of Gabe hitting the car and then the road was almost comical, and Percy couldn't help but let out a snort.

A snort that turned into full blown laughter when he realized just whose car it was.

"Percy!" His mother yelled scandalized.

"Wait, wait, listen–" he barely got a word of defense out through his chuckles. Honestly, he didn't even know how to defend himself.

"Oh gods," she muttered as she and her giggling son sprinted over, "I hope that person and their car are okay..."

That only made Percy laugh a bit more, he was bordering on hysteric at this point. To go from a scared sort of anger immediately to disbelief was not something that should be done within only seconds.

The car door opened a few feet before they reached it, and out stepped a teen. Percy could recognize him semi–immediately, his mom took a bit to catch up, but she did eventually.

He had curly brown hair with streaks of blonde surrounded by golden laurels, slightly tanned skin, a bit of acne and freckles smattering his cheeks. He had on a random band tee, a black bandanna with a yellow sun pattern, and to top it all off, he wore brown cargo shorts with keychains of planets and certain animals hanging off the belt hoops, along with black socks and white sandles.

But the most eye catching thing in Percy's opinion were the animal features he now had.

He donned 2 horn like antlers(his mind told him they were those of a roe deer, he didn't know how he knew that, but he brushed it off as something from the Before), with golden rings along the few prongs there. His fingers now sported thick and sharp wolfish claws that had been messily painted with a yellow nail polish. And neither Percy nor Sally could really look away from the ever-shifting black and yellow-gold snake scales that ran across his cheek bones, arms, and shins.

They were very distracting, as they kept glittering in the sunlight whenever he moved. There weren't that many of them, but they made it look like the god was glowing.

Actually on second thought, maybe he is glowing.

This was no doubt Lester Papadopoulos, aka, the god of many unrelated things, Apollo. And he had hit Gabe with the Sun Chariot . Percy couldn't believe it, and Sally couldn't either, the two letting out a few half-laughs.

"Gods, do you all realize how long this me has been waiting to do something like that?" He questioned with a cheery smile, "For years!"

"Wh– Bitch the law???" Percy lets out, in mild confusion.

"Bitch fuck the law," Lestollo said deadpan, waving him off, "besides, this form is made up of so little of my essence i'm practically mortal again. Unless another god is close to me, they won't really know." He says smiling cheerily.

"Since when could Gods do that..." Percy asked, miffed, and a little angry. If they could do that, and not have Zeus notice them, then why not spend time with their kids more.

"In this universe? Since always," Apollo said truthfully.

Percy bristled, what?

Apollo, sensing his anger, spoke again, "in our old one, we couldn't. Sure, we could split our essence in half, and then divide it equally into our other incarnations. But we could't control it, not to this extent."

He then offered a smile at Percy, "and according to my memories, my kids have a lot of fun at doctor appointments."

Percy chewed his lip and nodded, not really satisfied with the answer given what it meant, but also contemplating.

In the original universe, the first war happened mainly because the gods hadn't been paying attention to their children. Luke was able to recruit them far easier than camp, using their collective abandonment issues for fuel.

'But', he smiled, 'if the gods are more present here, then its likely that camp would have the upper hand this time.'

Suddenly, Percy was knocked out of his thoughts as someone spoke, "That's great! Uhm, but, what do we do with Gabriel?" Sally said, gesturing at the man on the road, who was eerily silent.

Apollo stared for a second at the man, then turned to Sally, "so... have you ever heard of life insurance..?"

Chapter Text

Percy Finally Has Time To Think! It Doesn't Go Well!

They ended up taking Apollo's advice on the whole life insurance thing. It went very well. Unsurprisingly, given he is the god of knowledge, it ended up being a good idea.

Once they got past the hard part of staging the "terrible accident", it was a smooth ride to the money.

...

Okay cringe moment there–

Yeesh... on one hand, Percy felt like a jackass for even thinking that. But on the other hand... fuck Gabes bitchass.

Anyway, upon Apollo's advice, they acted really sad at the funeral to keep up appearances. Well, for the agents. At the start of the funeral the mood wasn't really somber. Hades, there was a banneer written by one of Gabes 'friends' that said, "The Wicked Beast is Dead!!", and half the people there knew how he treated them, so they were initially confused. But when they realized what was going on the energy of the funeral turned into a more fake-ish greiving feel when the agents arrived.

In the end, Sally was pleasantly surprised to find a lot more money than they were told they would get initially.

And if Percy was wailing at the top of his lungs about how "unfair" it was that his "beloved stepfather, who was oh so much like a real father to him" died, all while sobbing into the nice suits of the workers to guilt trip them? Well, that was between him, the people in that room, and the worker who had to write "to help pay for emotional therapy needs" on the paperwork...

While it didn't make as much money as the whole, "selling his medusa-ified remains" thing they did last time, it was still enough for a good new apartment. Sally was even able to buy some nice furniture, clothes, and food.

And as a small surprise, Sally, with a small amount of help from Apollo apparently, got Percy a snake to keep. He remembered the day he got her clear as rain.

"A little inside joke, between me and you!" Sally had told him with a wink, carefully handing over the snake.

Percy remembered staring at her dumb little face, only thinking about how cute she was, and being startled when she said a simple little, 'hi!' back to him.

She was a diamondback water snake, and she was absolutely beautiful, well, to Percy at least. She freaked Apollo out mildly.

He had ended up naming her πέτρα, or Pétra, stone in ancient greek. Later, he had dubbed her as Miss Smelly, as she had accidentally released her musk into the room when Sally got out the vacuum (he had wondered why his mom quizzed him on snake upkeep the week before... Curse his obliviousness! But oh well, he knows now, and he has his silly smelly girl with him).

And they did all this while having enough money left over for later bills and necessities.

Speaking of bills and necessities, attending a boarding school is NOT cheap. Last timeline, Sally had been forced to work four times as hard to make up for the amount spent after sending him off. Luckily, the left over money and the money Sally had already saved previously in preparation for the school was enough to save her from that.

And as Percy waved goodbye to his mom for the first time since he was sent back, he almost broke down. Only staying strong for the moment because he was still holding a box of semi-breakables that he needed to pack away into his dorm(and because he was in public).

When he finally was there though, it felt like everything had suddenly hit him all at once.

He was spiraling and he knew it. His head swam with thoughts rushing through his mind, carving paths in his brain like hurricanes through the coastal states. Thoughts he had been distracted from ever since arriving.

Why was his brain so... against him? Everything still felt new to him, everything was like it was the first time and he wanted to know why. Its like his stupid brain couldn't catch up to the memories of already going through this.

He knew that the gods were real, he's a practicing witch for fucks sake, so it wasn't that part at all.

What was really bothering him were these feelings of nervousness, as if he really is some 11 year old whos experiencing his first time in a boarding schools dorm rooms.

He's been experiencing so many feelings similar to that lately and its making him so– so frustrated – so distressed.

He isn't really an 11 year old anymore. He knows this intrinsically, he's got the memories, C-PTSD, and reflexes to prove it. But its like his mind just won't get the memo already‽

And then there were the other thoughts he'd been putting off, thoughts of, " Whats happening to my original universe? To my friends there?", "Why me?", "What will happen if I tell anyone, the Fates were really ominous with it... Could I tell Annabeth or Grover?", "Why is my mom involved, why isn't Paul included as well?" "Why Apollo too?" and "Why haven't I heard from mother or dad yet?"

It was his first time being truly alone since arriving. His first time without the distractions of legalities, moving in, taking care of Pétra, studying for the schools entry test, or random ass 5AM tarot chats with Lestollo.

His first time not being around his mom. Not wanting her to see him be so utterly vulnerable and not know whats going on.

As he lay with tears streaming down his cheeks onto his newly made bed, Percy couldn't help but be greatful that the way Yancy Academy worked had it so Grover(and half the other students who submitted their entry paperwork on the last day) didn't move into dorms until tomorrow.

It just gave him more time to sort through this emotional shit, and to get ready for things. And while he briefly thought about ignoring it all, some warmish feeling and the smell of bay laurels made him dismiss that thought rather quickly.

He eyed the few boxes still lying around, sat up and wiped his face. He decided to work through this while fixing up the room in preparation for Grover. He always did stuff better when his hands were occupied. And keeping that in mind, he left the 'stim box'(a basket full of stim toys Sally managed to get approved on his 504 plan this time) for last, just in case.

He opened one, began to take out and fold the clothes, still sniffling, and started on the easiest question he could answer himself.

'Why Apollo?'

Well, probably because he's the god of truth. (He ignores the feeling of extreme warmth, on his left side, like someone was patting his shoulder in encouragement.) It would be hard to keep it a secret from him at all– his muscle memory stopped.

He looked down, set the folded pants beside him, and grabbed something else, a shirt. He put it on a hanger and set it aside, grabbing several more pants.

He was dragged back into his thoughts.

If he didn't know, it would probably mess a lot of stuff up for the Fates. Because then Percy would have to tell him if he asked, and whatever consequences that may happen because of that could be detrimental to other things.

Percy set down 3 more pairs of pants.

But then, 'what are the consequences?'

His hands faltered in their task, hesitantly picking back up the motion. His brow furrowed with thought.

Would it be like telling mortals about god stuff? Without the presence of a god or some other definitive proof most people went crazy. Did he have to have the Fates present? Or someone else in the know? But then what would happen afterward. Would they also get that same head rush he and his mom did?

He winced, how much of the past would they know? It already hurt like a mother fucker when his old memories overlapped with 11 years of new-ish memories, what would happen to an older person? ... what happened with Apollo and his parents? (He felt an uncomfortable warmth, and the air smelt of singed laurels. Wisely, he noted to never ask them.)

'Gods, we could never tell Paul' he thought with dread. The poor man was surely going to be incredibly confused and concerned all the time in the future.

He didnt really have a good answer to the question of the consequences. But he figured his conclusions were as good as he would get. So he started to think on his next most easily answered question, 'why haven't his dad or mother given him any signs?'

The more obvious answer was that they hadn't had their memory blasting turns yet, or they were getting busy preparing/preventing the oncoming wars as best they could.

The other worse answers he had were all along the lines of them not caring.

He choose to believe the first ones.

Percy zoomed back in to see his hands running with nothing in them, and turned to rifel through the basket for more pants. Coming up empty handed, he quickly put them away with the others, and got out more hangers for his shirts.

The first shirt he pulled was one of many gifted to him by his mom the week before school. It had stupid fish puns on it, and it was blue, and it reminded him so much of her that he started to tear up again. Sniffling, Percy hung the shirt and set it aside, and then started to work through the box while he thought.

'Why was his mom also here?' The gods? Them he could understand, at least a little. But his mortal mom?

Percy felt sharp teeth nip at the back of his lips in frustration. One of the shirts was nicked by his claws, he needed to file them soon.

But back to his questions... Maybe she's here for, like, emotional or moral support? Who knew really.

Percy thought about his last two questions. He could answer one of them. The answer being, 'the Fates just like to fuck with him thats why.' (He ignored the scents of fresh, old, and rotted wool that were lightly amused, but told him that he knew that wasn't why.) But the other question?

Percy breathed in a little slower.

He really didn't want to know a lot more than a simple undetailed statement.

Percy hung the last shirt on its hanger and set it aside. He sat there on the bed for a while, seemingly staring at nothing but the way the suns rays casted themselves upon the floor. Eventually, he knew he had to move, so he gathered his shirts and head to the closet on his side of the room to hang them.

He glanced at the other boxes, and things lying misplaced around the room, taking note to see which ones had books, school supplies or other knickknacks.

Percy sighed at the site, and decided to put it off for the next day, he'd get Grovers help with plant and candle placement. Didn't want to burn down the school after all. Yet.

He lit some frankincense incense on his small corner alter, glad the school permitted its existence, prayed to his deities (directing some previous questions at the Fates) and fell asleep absolutely exhausted.

Chapter Text

Percy Attends Middle School, it's eh.

Percy was... struggling. To say the very least. He had been ignoring it since he arrived. He just, hadn't been ready then, Hades, he still wasn't NOW. He had picked up new and old hobbies like skateboarding(he scraped a few knees after attempting to go about it like he had in the future-past, he learned quickly to reset his balance again.), wood carving (there were now a few shoddily carved wooden animals and weapons lying around the house. Sally was delighted to find a wooden horse on her nightstand, but not so much at finding a knife with a blade as long as her hand under her pillow.), he went out and mowed a few lawns (it was sort of... freeing in a way. To actually save his earnings to buy himself things, rather than fund someone else and get nothing.), and eventually he put his all into caring for and pampering his Pétra.

Keeping himself busy was what he did best.

It was, admittedly, a bad habit. But it kept his mind off of the past, and forced him to coast on through the present. And it usually worked really well. Until the things he was ignoring we're right infront of him.

And... well, Grover looked... different. He was oh so young to Percy that it hurt . And while there were only a few subtle differences, (permanently rectangular eyes, what was clearly fur and not arm or leg hair was on his limbs, all likely hidden by this universes stronger Mist) they were still differences.

This was not his Grover, an alternate universe indeed.

And it had hit him hard when he realized what exactly that meant. His Annabeth wasn't his, not anymore, and putting some thought into it? She probably never would be.

None of them had shared any quests, happy, sad, platonic, nor intimate moments. And the ones they might would be different due to his own future course corrections. Not to mention how she would also be so much younger .

Mentally, his age is circulating, in one minute he was a semi-calm and calculating 17 year old again, then in the next he was a cringy 12 year old. He couldn't and wouldn't subject anyone to that until he could catch up. Dating would probably always feel so wrong, wrong, WRONG, until he reaches at least 15 in three years.

Furthermore, looking at Grover, his first thoughts weren't exactly thoughts anticipating a budding friendship, rather about offering mentorship, his instincts from working with the younger  campers had hit him.

Sure, he liked to say he was friends with the younger campers, but more in a, 'this kid would be heart broken if I said no to their very cool, very nice, friendship bracelet, and I dont want to ruin their fun, so yeah I invited them to come shadow me, but it's so they wear out enough for their counselors to put them to sleep easier, and I dont mind cause they're just a curious excited and yappy kid, I guess.'

Really, it shouldn't hurt as much as it did. He could still have a good relationship with his friend. It would be different, he would mostly be at a higher maturity level compared to them, but it would be fine. He just had to not really treat them like he would the younger campers. Should be fine... right?

Oh, who is he kidding. He'd spent 3 years teaching young kids by playing the part of the 'fun adult'. He knew they made quick bonds with specific labels in their heads, near immediately. He had probably been mentally written down as a older brother or funcle figure for half the kid demigod population.

He doesn't even really remember how he used to interact with other kids at this age. Was he snappy? Or did he just ignore them? It's blurry.

After everything, those boring ass school interactions slipped his attention. Mr. D had said something like, "ontop of the battle reflexes you actually also have ADHD, dumbass. Why do you think it's that bad?... Do you even think regularly?" and "Stop suppressing your emotions, Perry. Thats also why your mildly forgetful." Or whatever.

Dear gods, he's probably gonna mildly parent his classmates. School for rich delinquents his ASS, school for rich kids with parental and or mild abandonment issues and bad adult influences more like it.

"Oh! Uh, you're Perseus, right?" Grovers worried tone snapped him out of his thoughts. "We're roommates, i'm Grover! Uh, Grover Underwood!" He nervously chuckled, and held out his hand for him to shake, and Percy noted how the tips of his fingers were all faded into something similar to a dark goats hoof.

Gripping it back, mindful of his webbed fingers and small dull claws, he spoke with excitement, "call me Percy, glad to have you, dude!"

And that was that. His mind was made up, he wouldn't try to act younger, just play the maturity off as a quirk of his personality. And as he helped Grover settle in his own belongings, clothes, plants, books, school materials, and his own altars to nature deities he figured it wasn't so bad.

They had more shared topics than before, environmental issues, plant care, Hellenic Polytheism. Their conversations never dimming for the next few hours, well, until a kid across the hall accidentally opened their door.

Turned out that his parents left him and his stuff in the hall, and he had the rooms mixed up. Feeling bad, Percy immediately offered to help out, and Grover followed. He joked with the kid as he would any other camper, it seemed to do the trick in cheering him up about the abandonment. And by the time his roommate arrived Percy had formed a new bond it seemed. And eventually it spread into helping out the other unfortunate kids in general.

By curfew, Percy sat down at their school issued desk with Grover, chatting about the others in their dorm building while they were making poetry for offerings.

Grovers was, of course, an offering to Pan, and Percys was to Apollon. When they finished, they took turns lighting their prayer candles. Giving the other privacy during the prayer time, so neither heard the others prayers.

Grover went first, then Percy, they began with a thanks to Hestia for the connection, read aloud their poetry and prayer, stored them away and blew the candles out.

The scents should have been at least a little confusing together. Percys was rather citrusy, with a light myrrh scent in its background, and Grovers emitted a strong oak and Piney scent, with a hint of mint inside it. But they smelled surprisingly nice together.

When they finished, they cracked a window and lit incense as offerings to all the other altars. The room smelled like frankincense, and it was nice enough to send Grover and him immediately to sleep.

And as he "opened" his eyes, the sight of a particular island and one grinning sun god greeted him. Ah, so he had heard him, that was good news, they had schemes to plan and discuss.

Chapter Text

School Goes Rather Swimmingly, Until She Arrives Of Course.

Unsurprisingly, Percy actually found school rather enjoyable when he actually knew the material. The only downside to having an entire highschool education and being back in the sixth grade was that instead of struggling to learn he was struggling with immense boredom instead. Which was arguably worse, he hated having mind free time.

He would sit in classes stimming or drawing or sleeping for hours, wishing that demigod safe phones were a thing again so he could scroll through tiktok or something. But then again, that didn't exist either, and now that he thinks about it? The internet was pretty cringe in this time too, wasn't it?

Ugh, the point is, is that he was extremely fucking bored ALL THE TIME. Eventually, the teachers noticed that the lazyness wasn't born of procrastination and gave him little tasks.

Things like, "Go Help Joshua with his math", "Emilline needs tutoring with her history, can you?", "Clear the board please?", "Make sure those two get along.", "Go give these papers to Mr. Kirkland", "Can you go across the halls and hand this to Mr. Beilschmidt?", etc.. It wasn't too bad, and most of his boredom was sated.

He couldn't really complain, they gave him free passes to go anywhere during certain times, and let more things slip with him. The freedom was a nice change, and all the running helped his stamina. Though, he remembered them all being rather rude last time.

But that may have mostly had to do with how snappy and quick to fight he was? And this time around he was kinda friends with everyone else.

Even Nancy Bobofit was nicer? While she did make rude comments, with a closer look he figured out that she was just really blunt. Percy noticed that she wasn't really trying to be mean? Just speaking her mind with no filter, and without thought as to what the outcome of her words would be until after the damage.

He didn't notice this before, they weren't that close after all, but after catching some upperclassmen trying to goad her into things he figured out why it escalated after the first couple months. He wasn't going to let that happen, and so he chased them off. Nancy has had a begrudging respect for him ever since if he's still reading her right.

It was all really repetitive, until Chiron came of course.

When Percy heard the twang of a bow, and smelled old pottery and papers, he immediately knew. But when they first saw eachother, there was still some surprise. Percy from seeing all the differences in his appearance and attitude, and Chiron from seeing the horse ears they both now shared. They got along far quicker, and a little better (Percy thought it was because he could actually sort of understand Chirons terrible speeches now, he used to take them completely the wrong way).

It had been two months since the start of school, and sometime in October the centaur arrived. After he did things got a bit more intense in his Latin classes. No day was really the same since then. And the difficulty of the tasks he was assigned had escalated. Preparation, maybe?

But of course, there was still an underlying boredom, and longing. He longed to go home to Sally, to find Tyson, to see his friends at camp, to see camp itself. But he knew he wasn't really going to be able to do that soon.

On one of his weekend visits during a holiday break, he and his mother had talked about a lot, about school and how if everything went right he could attend again next year. And they talked extensively about Christmas break in particular.

Sally wanted it to be a quest Percy could avoid, Percy knew it wasn't one he could.

Eventually, Sally had to relent that prophecies would self-complete in nasty ways if one tried to avoid them, and Percy was utterly wrapped in the Fates strings. They switched topics eventually.

And as class finally let out, Percy quickly said bye to the gaggle of students around his desk with promises of getting them some of his moms cookies leaving his tongue, he ran to the pick up area. Signing him out at the desk was his mother, he ran to Sally excitedly, every inch a 12 year old boy again.

"Ready to find him?" She asked as they were getting in a taxi.

"Of course," he said breathlessly, nodding rapidly, and off they were.

Of course, convincing taxi drivers to drive around seemingly random streets as they looked for Tyson was hard, but with enough money and some honeyed words it was also rather easy.

It took them the first three days of their break to find him, another two to convince him they were safe, and the rest of it was spent adopting him. It was hard, and the legal processing was long (although shortened by a mysterious blond man in a high position) but Tyson was home, here to stay.

And even as the storm clouds rolled in, Percy was content to watch his brother watch and talk with Pétra. Yeah, she was going to be well taken care of while he was at school.

Tyson couldn't start yet, he needed to get all of his placement tests done, and it would take a while for Yancy to have times available for all the classes and grades. So he was once again brotherless, but Grover kept him good company, and the other kids asked questions about his brother, and he was eager to share.

Of course, Alecto had to drop by and ruin it a little. She was sharp, eager to call out his mistakes. With the weather changes, and his little practice in tuning out his dads emotions so far, although his grades never dropped from their A's, his mood certainly did.

Grover and other kids, godsends they were, noticed and would try to help, but Percy would tell them they didn't need to. He didn't want them to get in trouble, some of them couldn't take the chance of getting in trouble, and he refused to let them get expelled or in trouble with their parents in his defense.

He would rather eat Alectos horrible leather jacket collection than let that happen.

So he bottled it up, stayed busy, still helped the others, and while it wasn't really good(he'd snapped at Grover five times already) he was still staunch in his position.

He had to last till the field trip. After all, it was only 4 more days.

Chapter Text

Field Trip of Doom, Gloom, and A Hint of Gaslighting

The field trip was one he remembered clearly, how could he not? It was the first time he had actually noticed the strange world he lived in. The beginning of it all.

It was no wonder his head was getting a little vertigo.

The bus was the same one, but the people had changed in a way. Kids were actually talking animatedly with Percy and Grover, Nancy and her crew were currently debating on whether peanut butter and ketchup were a good combination.

Nancy was insistent it was, her friends not so much.

Joshua was yapping animatedly about goat facts with a very amused Grover, and Percy interjected occasionally to further the conversation along. It was a rather nice time, the bus was far more lively in a nice way and Percy was glad that they were all having a better time this round.

But he could see the looks they were giving him.

Since Percy was actually a rather liked student this time around, he wasn't on probation. Which meant he and Grover didn't have to sit right behind their teachers. Instead, it seemed like all the students collectively seated themselves in such a way that they were farthest, but not suspiciously so. The louder kids, Jacob, Emma, Emily, and Ray, were at the front this time, pestering one "Ms. Dodds" and chatting amiably with "Mr. Brunner" about what they might see.

None of them really liked their new pre-algebra teacher. The teacher before her was actually pretty well liked, before something had happened at home with her husband and she had to step down for her mental health. The difference between the Fury and her was like night and day, and Emily especially hated her with a passion.

Grover nudged Percy, "you okay?"

Thats when he noticed the lull in conversation around him, Joshua looked worried too.

"Oh! Uh, just worried," he laughed a little, "weird things usually happen on field trips with me...."

A voice piped up from behind him, "Like what?"

Percy smiled at May, and grinned at the kids around him, "okay, so last year, my history teacher took us to a battfield, uh. Saratoga? I think?" He paused, in question, glancing at their interested faces.

"Yeah, Saratoga Battlefield, and the tour guide had us look at these canons yeah?"

"Did you blow something up?" May interjected.

Joshua rolled his eyes, "Of course he didn't, there's no way they left ammo in those if they're showing them off, May."

Percy smiled, "y'know, thats what I thought too man."

"No way!" Nancy exclaimed.

"Yeah way! So the guide tells us the history right?" There were some absent nods, "And she also told us how the canons worked right?"

" No ..." Joshua gaped.

"She had me demonstrate it, and then the canon ball flew out!"

" No! " Grover was in disbelief, and his friends were similarly slack jawed.

"And it hit a bus ! They expelled me so quick guys..." Percy said laughing.

"Oh my god, I was so wondering why you of all people were at this school! This makes so much sense actually... Why were they loaded ?" Percy giggled even more hysterically at Nancys tone.

"There's more incidents, guys."

"No way!" May exclaimed.

For the rest of the ride to the museum Percy regaled the kids on his past field trips, from dropping his class in a shark tank, to accidentally releasing the petting zoo animals. He was animated, making wild gestures with his hands, his friends giggling and gasping, it reminded him of the camp fire.

When they got there, Percy was even more attentive than last time, there were a few things he had missed, and a few things he pointed out to his friends. Emily and May were particularly interested in the story of Achilles and Patrocles. By the time they got to the stele, Percy was quietly answering questions some of the more nervous kids like Jermey were afraid to ask Chiron or Alecto about.

He must've been a little louder than he should've, as Chiron had once again called on him.

"Mr. Jackson, anything to add?" The centaur asked without turning around, ear flicking, "I know that this is one of the subjects you know a lot about given your religion."

Jermey stiffened a little, probably thinking he might've gotten Percy in trouble, Percy smiled at him and patted him on the arm in reassurance. "Nothing really, Mr. Brunner! One of the kids-" he ignored the faint 'he says as if he not the same age as us' from Nancy and continued on, "was asking about the mural over there."

It seemed like this conversation was a canon event! Fun.

"Oh good! That's the final art piece were scheduled to look at before lunch, do you mind explaining it for us all this time, Mr. Jackson? Im sure the kids would enjoy being taught by someone their age." Chiron said amusedly, a few kids giggled.

"Sure," he huffed a little, before walking up to the front so they could all see him a little better.

"Okay so, basically this," he pointed animatedly at the wall, "is the titan of time right?" A few nods, "Do we remember who he is?"

Surprisingly, Jeremy piper up, "he's- uh" he quieted, Percy nodded, and he straightened up despite the eyes, though a few kids looked away politely, "Kronos, right?" A faint wind pulsed in the air.

Percy swallowed, "that's right! So here he's eating his children," a few kids looked grossed out, some looked more interested, "he had gotten a big prophecy detailing that his kids, the gods, would overthrow him one day. So he got paranoid, and ate them. Anyone remember who he ate?"

"Oh! Oh! Pick me, me!" Emma jumped waving, cutting off Jacob, who turned to look at Ray as if asking why they were all friends. Ray shrugged, and Percy grinned.

"Yes, Emma!" Even Alecto looked a little amused.

"So he ate, uh- Hestia, Hera, Hades, Demeter, Poseidon and Zeus!"

"Kinda! He didn't eat Zeus," he briefly felt something look over the area, but upon noticing a gaggle of children it left. He swallowed again, and shook his hand to let out the jitters.

When he noticed her sigh, he quickly reassured her, "but it makes sense why you think he did! You probably remembered how he thought he ate Zeus."

"Why did he?" Jacob asked confused, "how can you only think you ate a baby?"

"Well, their mom Rhea used something called uh," Percy faked a furrowed brow, and turned to Chiron, "it was called the Mist, right, Mr. Brunner? The thing mentioned in Homers works?" At his nod, Percy flipped back to Jacob.

"She used something called the Mist, which is like illusion magic, and she disguised a rock as baby Zeus and gave it to Kronos to eat while she sent Zeus to be raised elsewhere."

"Oooh!"

He nodded, "yeah, so later Zeus is like. Raised as a cupbearer, which is like. A servants that brings rich people drinks, Jay would know ask him-" he ignored the offended squeak and chuckled a little as he continued talking, " and he like. Goes in a disguise, and he gives his lovely father some concoction that makes him throw up his siblings, which is seen there."

"And then there was a huuge battle and the prophecy came true, right?" Darcy, Nancys friend, asked curiously.

Chiron took over from there, waving Percy back to his friends, "indeed, they defeated their father by using his own scythe against him, and scattered his remains across the deepest part of the underworld, like ashes in the wind. Then, the brothers divided up the world for themselves, and thus began the rule of the gods. On that happy note, let's break for lunch, Mrs. Dodds, any futher input? Or, would you like to lead them out?"

She shook her head, and lead the way for the children to the courtyard.

When they stepped out the doors, Percy glanced at the sky, worried about the storm brewing.

"Hm, yeah it smells like its gonna rain real soon doesn't it." May commented.

"We should stay close to the doors, who knows how bad it's gonna get." Percy said, and they all nodded.

Percy and Grover set up on the bottoms of the steps, eating and people watching. When Percy caught the beginnings of Jacob and Ray pelting crackers at the pigeons he set Grover on them. It was amusing to watch a more confident kid Grover scold two kids.

He never would've before, nonetheless, he was glad about the changes.

Grover was definitely way more happy, which was a nice thing to see.

Percy turned to the traffic, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Nancy glancing worriedly back and forth at him. It seemed that she eventually had enough of whatever it was that was annoying her, and she groaned and got up abruptly to sit next to Percy.

"You good, man?"

"I miss my mom and brother, they're so close, around a cab away right now." He said softly.

Nancy grew silent, her face looking rather sad, "But you know you can't, and despite the closeness it still seems so distant."

He nodded, and felt there was a little more to her words. But opted to let her come clean on her own without prompting it. He leaned against her for a moment, the bump like a little side hug.

It worked like a charm, cause she laughed and did it back. They turned it into a small game, and when Grover came back he joined in too. Eventually, a lot of them were playing to see who could bump the person next to them harder, the goal was for someone to fall. Percy won almost every time, and Chiron just supervised their activity with a chuckle as he read his book. Alecto sneered, but leaned against a pillar vigilantly to watch them, arms crossed.

During their game the rain had hit, not many kids had gotten wet yet, and those who did laughed it off and sat further up the buildings steps or just by the door. But during one of the games, Jeremy had toppled over a bit too hard, and went down the steps into the mud with a quiet, "oof!"

"Jeremy!" Percy exclaimed, rushing down with Alecto a little ways behind, willing the water to not let him slip. He crouched down uncaring of the mud on his jeans, "you okay little buddy?"

Surprisingly, Jeremy just giggled, "yeah im okay!" And as he let Percy lift him up he looked at his clothes, "Uhm, a little, er- wet though, and my palms are a little scraped."

Percy laughed, dug in his pockets for some bandages and handed them to Jermey. "Lets get you to the bathroom, bud, i'll buy you some clothes from the gift shop, i think they have shorts and sleep pants? Definitely shirts." He turned to face Alecto, who was watching silently.

"Ms. Dodds, do you mind taking me to the gift shop?"

The Fury had paused, clearly not expecting the question. Her eyes narrowed, and she turned to walk up the steps, "follow me, Mr. Jackson."

He followed.

When they got inside, the rest of the class having been ushered in by Chiron, had immediately swarmed Jeremy. The poor kid seemed overwhelmed, and a little embarrassed when Ray apologized to him blubbering his sorrys.

Eventually, they got him in the bathroom, cleaned his hands and bandaged them, before walking to the empty giftshop.

Percy browsed the floor, looking for the shirts and pants Jermey would probably like while Alecto stood behind him. It was tense, and quiet. Percy found a shirt, a minotaur on it. He looked for pants and found some dark blue ones with some writing on the side. He bought them, and when the cashier left in a daze after the purchase he turned to the silent woman.

"Y'know," he started, "i was wondering what that dream meant."

The monster tilted her head.

"The one with the smell of burning, and the bat and dust." He walked closer to the entrance area, Chiron would be here soon, he heard the electric wheels screeching on the tiles floor.

Alecto began to make a low noise, a warning growl. "Furry...," he whispered, though Percy stopped short taking it for what it is, though still within throwing distance.

"Do you think we're fools, Perseus." She stated, it wasn't a question, and assumption she made that he did think that.

...

'I mean, a little, but not for the reason she thinks.'

"No mam" He swallowed, the air felt heavy, heated.

"Confess, and your punishment will not be so harsh."

He swallowed, "I know not entirely what you are accusing me of."

"LIAR!" She hissed, shedding her disguise. The room smelt of Burn. Burnt crops, burnt fabrics, chemicals, burnt organisms, and behind all of that he could faintly hear flames.

She looked like before, just as terrifying, the same talons, fangs and wings. And she was flying at him at top speed.

And just like before, Chiron came in clutch. With one "What ho, Percy!", there was a sword in his hand. Riptide.

Percys face hardened, his stance shifted, and as the Fury got close, he swung up.

Poof, just like before, there was an explosion of golden dust, and he was alone, a ball point pen in hand.

No Chiron in sight, no employees, and no customers. Just him and his bags of clothes. With a sigh, he picked them up and ran to the bathroom, Jermey must be worried by now, and they both needed to change their pants.

When he and Jeremy got back, Percy headed to where Grover and Chiron were talking immediately.

Grover startled, "oh! Percy! Jeremy! You guys are back! I hope Mrs. Kerr wasn't too chatty, you know how she is with fashion."

Breifly, Percy was confused, Kerr? It must've shown on his face, cause Chiron caught his eye, winked and wiggled a white horse ear.

Percy grinned, wiggling one of his brown and white ones back, "oh! Yeah, she was really particular about getting plain and not patterned pants."

Delighted to be actually let in on the scheme instead of gaslighted like last time, he passed over the pen automatically without much thought or sadness when Chiron replied and simply held out a hand.

Damn automatic reactions, giving up riptide was stupid. Oh well, he would get her back soon anyways.

Chapter Text

The Knitters of Decision are Back, and Grover Meets Tyson!

Unsurprisingly, not having to deal with being forced into a psuedo breakdown gave him better standing with his teachers.

Late after getting back to their dorm, Grover had immediately asked if he was okay. Percy didn't really know what excuse to use, and almost fumbled before Grover had given him an in. Apparently, he and Chiron had just assumed that his mother had told him that his features were blessings from the gods she worshipped and that's all he knew. Relieved about not having to explain everything he went along with it all. Percy couldn't bear the thought of making Grover go through all of his past and future memories. He was 28, mentally 14 yes, but having to remember so far ahead was already fucking with Percy and he was only 17, he saw how his mother already had to take so much medication prescribed by Apollon for migraines. He couldn't do that to his friend.

Mrs. Kerr was an Aphrodite kid it turned out. She was beautiful, blond hair, with sharp light green and blue eyes, she had sparrow feather like highlights in her hair. His excuse about her being picky with clothing was offhanded, a lucky guess. But it also helped to further the excuse he and Lester had come up with.

They were geniuses, really. Percy hadn't wanted to reveal things to too many people out of fear of consequences futher than the standard headaches. Apollo agreed, and also wanted to get some payback on his family, as a treat. And so when people started digging, Percy came up with a Prophet excuse.

It worked nicely, mostly as he was seemingly half blind already. Percy had thought it might be suspicious due to his lineage, Apollo reminded him that blessings were a thing, and his hair looked the part. Their cover was that Percy experienced Possible Futures. And that due to him not being fully blinded or fully sighted, only half were truthful ones, the visions being 50/50.

Still even with all the reassurances, Percy couldn't get quite comfortable. He thought it had been because of Alecto. But he was still having a mildly difficult time with his father's influence on his emotions. It had taken him a year to get rid of it completely last time, but all that progress had been lost.

Still, at the rate he was going he'd be able to tune him out by mid quest.

Sure his grades had slipped to lower A's and high B's at one point, but he didn't forget anything. He knew the material, he just wasn't doing it. His teachers had noticed him skipping out, but most didn't say anything because they weren't F's or D's. Instead, they just reduced his teaching assistant duties in those classes. Which made his mood a little sour, but he couldn't deny it loosened the feeling of responsibility on his shoulders.

Once again, it was the final week before school ended. The semi-dreaded exam week. Astonishingly, he had not been expelled this time! Hooray for Percy! A feat, greater than defeating the minotaur if you asked him.

When Sally had told him that they had invited him back again next year he almost couldn't believe her. She laughed in his face, and Tyson giggled at him too. He grumbled a little, but ultimately rolled his eyes and accepted it as it was.

Currently, he was finishing up a little studying for the Latin exam. He didn't need it, but he had decided to take all of them early, and Grover worried a little for him– even if the satyr was also doing that. The hypocrisy was strong in this one.

Briefly, he thought that maybe it would knock out the whole minotaur debacle. He wasn't really holding out any strong hopes however. The smell of a yarn store wafted through the room lightly.

He knew he didn't have any good luck, he should probably start an altar for Tyche.

Percy had stretched when he got up from his chair, head lightly swimming, one hand clutching a small stress ball as he placed his Latin paper in the bin. He had extra testing time, but he didn't need it, and Chirons policy was that they could come and go when they were done until their next class, which was a godsend.

He had almost made it out before the teacher called him back in. Fuck, he had almost forgotten the talk, he wondered how this one would go?

"Percy," the centaur started, "im glad you've come so far, it must've been hard for you. I know it far exceeded my expectations."

Behind him, he could see Nancy and his fellow classmates make grimaces. Chirons talks were the worst, everyone had gotten one so far. They were infamous for being generally good advice to dwell on, but they were so so terrible and soul crushing when you first heard them.

"Thanks..." he said. He knew what the man meant, but it was a rough start so far. He really needed to take a class on how to give speeches.

"I mean, it must've been hard,"

'auugh, Chiron, I beg of you please think about your words, oh my gods'

"After all, you're not normal, and–"

"Uh, yeah... okay." He heard several heads thump onto their desks, and 2 people audibly groaned out of second hand embarrassment. "Thanks a lot sir. I get it. Really, I do. "

"Oh- Percy, wait!"

And he was leaving, nope. No. He wasn't doing it.

"Percy-"

Couldn't, wouldn't, was never gonna. Nope nope nope. Nada. Percy is gonna nap until his next test, he wouldn't dwell on it and redevelop any internalized abelism. Nope, Nope. No .

Percy sat on the bed, it was stripped of everything. The school had services to deliver things to peoples homes, a policy implemented once too many absent rich parents complained about having to both deliver and pick up everything. And so they made parents sign slips and fees during the easter break.

All Percy had left to so was pack up a few remaining clothes and items and he was set to leave with Grover.

He would miss the kids here, he knew it was a bad idea to get attached. But they were all really sweet, and he couldn't not. Thankfully, he was going back next year, he didn't think he would've handled it well if his environment kept constantly changing again. He needed the grounding feeling it bought.

When they boarded the bus, Percy was sure nothing too bad would happen, they were a whole three days ahead of schedule after all. Grover was even less anxious this time too! That had to count for something!

The ride was taking a little longer, more people were leaving work around the time they boarded. And so they were to be sat for a few hours according to the driver.

It was when they ran out of gas and had to pull into a gas station when Percy noticed them.Thankfully, Grover was asleep, so he didn't see it. But Percy smelt the strong scents of freshly spun, old and rotten wool.

There, at the corner of the building away from the traffic were three very important women.

One was a teenager, she was sorting through different colors of wool on their set up table, comparing a metalic bronze next to a multicolored cool tone wool, and a golden set of threads. Seemingly satisfied, she handed over the bronze color to a middle aged woman who was knitting a long scarf with the ocean wool.

The woman nodded, and had a significantly older lady snip the blue thread.

Percy shuddered, and stared on entranced as she rolled up the old yarn, and lit the ends of the old and new ones on fire. Quickly, she blew them out and smushed the melted ends together, and continued to knit a bronze line into the scarf, the bonding of the wool strong. Forged by fire.

Percy wondered what that meant exactly, and trailed her other hand that was setting aside the gold roll.

His eyes traced the scene, taking in the old crafts, and the many works in progresses. His eyes caught on the head of a snake, and wooden colored horse with a red cape, and so many other references to old myths. Winding scarves, and knitted socks and clothes were everywhere. And there were a few signs on the small stall too, a wooden one stained blue and detailed golden cursive caught his eye, "some things need to happen".

The bus swept away before he could truly wonder what that would mean.

Upon getting to the bus terminal, Percy silently got his and Grovers things, and hailed them a taxi to his apartment. Grover was worried, but Percy reassured him he was simply just a little hungry. Grover still eyed him funnily.

When they got to the doors, Percy grabbed Grover by the shoulders.

"Okay little dude, you have to promise me something." Percy started seriously, staring down into Grovers eyes.

"Uhm," Grovers face twisted in anxiety, "yeah?"

"When you see Tyson, I need you to not under any circumstances be mean to him."

"Is something wrong? Percy, you know what we look like, anything off about him isn't too outlandish. Trust me."

Percy pursed his lips, "I need you to promise, Grover."

Grover paused, clearly this was something Percy was worried about extensively. He nodded, "I- I promise you, Percy." The ground rumbled a little, and Percy let go.

"Okay," he sighed. "Okay good, just... just please, honor your word?"

"Xenia matters, Percy. I won't be rude to anyone in your household."

Percy knocked on the door, and he smiled as footsteps rumbled through the house.

"PERCY!" The door opened, and Percy was caught in a huge hug from his brother. He patted his brothers back lightly, and was set back down gently.

Tyson turned his big brown eye to Grover, and although it widened in curiosity, he stepped behind Percy best he could, wary.

Grovers eyes widened as he took in Tyson. The kid wasn't as tall as he would be yet, a little under Percys height for now. He had black hair, and small black claws like Percy did. He also had finned ears, and small bulls horns, and a matching tail flicked around behind his own cloven feet.

"Percy is that..?" Grover trailed off.

"Tyson? Yeah, he is!" Percy forced cheer into his voice, "Tyson do you wanna say hi to Grover? This is the friend I mentioned! Look, he's like us!"

Tyson stepped out a little, one hand still on Percys shirt. He waved silently, paused, and whispered out a small, "Are you part bull too?"

Grovers stood still. Clearly a little uncomfortable, but significantly less worried when he realized Tyson was just a baby. He breathed in bravely.

"I- uh, no. No it's all goat over here!" He smiled encouragingly. "But bulls are cool too! Do you have any facts you wanna tell me?"

Tyson brightened up immediately. And when Sally rounded the corner with a tray of her cookies, and dragged them all inside to chat the pressure lessened. And Percy was utterly relieved at the sight of his brothers getting along. He smiled a little sadly, and Sally caught his eye and looked extremely empathetic. He turned away, and joined in sparsely.

They knew what the next stop was.