Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Percy woke up feeling gritty and uncomfortably warm, with an object digging into the small of his back and his neck bent at an angle. This was odd, especially considering the fact that he went to sleep in his comfortable bed in new Rome, with the thermostat at a lovely 62 (fight him, he likes it a bit cooler during the night).

Wincing, Percy reached up and rubbed at his clumped eyelashes. Looking around, it was obvious he was in a forest, though it was odd. Too verdant, soft, and wild to be anything he recognized. Actually, it seemed slightly familiar, like Grovers wood.

At least I have my memories this time.

Stumbling to his feet, he took stock of what he had on him. Which was- Nothing. Twisting around, Percy frantically looked around.

“Really?! You drop me off in the middle of a forest with no clothing or weapons?” He glared up at what he could of the sky “What the hell? And what's with the gold paint?”

If anyone had been walking by, the sight of a buck naked teenager covered in gold paint would have had Percy sent to the mad house immediately. Luckily, only the trees saw his humiliation. When nothing happened, Percy pursued his lips and glared harder.

“I'm not joking guys, I served my time as a hero. Someone better teleport me home.” He scowled, “OR AT LEAST GIVE ME SOME CLOTHES”.

Grinding his teeth, he spun around, only to immediately yelp when something crashed on top of his head. Cursing, he untangled himself from the three blankets that had wrapped around his head.

“Don't suppose I could get some shoes with that?” He sighed, “didn't think so”.

Wrapping the blue blanket around his hips and bundling the rest in his arms, Percy marched into the woods. He'd only been walking a minute when he heard cursing in the distance. Very familiar cursing. Breaking into a run, he pivoted towards the far away sounds of a pissed off Thalia. And immediately tripped, scraping his palms as he dropped the blankets and pinwheeled his arms.

What the- I'm not that clumsy, why did I…

Shaking it off, he gathered himself (and his blankets), and stumbled closer to the only familiar thing so far. When he reached Thalia, he did so by bodily throwing his body through a bramble bush. (It was definitely on purpose, he did not trip and fall through). Groaning, he picked up the blankets and looked up.

"That was on-”

Percy had to stop himself there, because staring at him was a naked kid covered in gold paint. A kid with very familiar black hair and electric blue eyes.

“Thalia?” His voice cracked.

The kid snorted before going back to glaring at the canopy. 

“Kelp Head”

Percy relaxed, that was definitely his cousin.

Tossing the silver blanket at her, he couldn't help the incredulous look on his face.

“I see you got the paint treatment too, but why do you look like a 12 year old?”

Thalia glared at him, wrapping her blanket like a bastardized toga around her.

“Take a look at yourself idiot, or did you not notice shrinking two feet?”

Percy had not noticed that he had shrunk two feet.

“I was a little distracted by everything about this situation” he said, “and by the fact that I could hear my least favorite cousin yelling in the distance”.

Which, come to think of it, why was Thalia yelling? And why was she here and de-aged too? Artemis never would have allowed a god to kidnap her lieutenant, and probably wouldn't have let Thalia be de-aged. As if echoing his thoughts, Thalia’s face scrunched up.

“My lady's blessing is gone. It was the first thing I noticed” her hands clenched around where she held up her blanket. “I’d thought if she'd forsaken me, she should have at least had the courage to inform me face to face.”

Percy's eyes widened. “No way, she wouldn’t do that. Not after Zoe”

And Artemis loved her, he thought, as much as a god can.

“Think about it”, he continued “isn't it more likely that someone kidnapped us both and removed her blessing?”

Thalia untensed slightly, “I’m not you, I don’t know why anyone would risk My Lady’s wrath”.

“Rude, but true” he paused before continuing, “You are Jason’s sister, maybe maybe Mrs needs a divorce was feeling nostalgic. It’s not the first time Her-”

“Stop”

Both Percy and Thalia cursed before spinning around. It took a slight snigger for them to see a sharp white grin with hints of gold peeking out from the shadow of the bramble bush Percy had tripped through.

“Names have power here” Nico di Angelo, the Ghost King and Son of Hades, strolled out of the darkness like a demon from hell. It would have been intimidating if he hadn’t looked like a toddler that had gotten into the mustard stash. “But I’m sure you both remember that”.

“Holy Moly you’re tiny” Percy felt a shit eating grin stretch across his face.

He glanced over at Thalia and saw a matching evil smile.

“Itty Bitty” She concurred.

Nico’s veil of intimidation faltered “we wake up deaged and covered in ichor and that’s what you two choose to focus on?”

Percy paused and looked at his gold chest.

“I thought this was gold paint”

Nico scoffed, “Aquaman, what kind of gold paint is that shiny?”

Percy shrugged “You’d be surprised, I’ve seen some of the younger campers make pegasi look like gold statues before.”

He summoned some water and scrubbed at the paint “so did we get drunk and murder a god? With the kid forms being our punishment?”

Nico walked over and grabbed the last blanket, putting it on like a cloak. Most of it dragged on the ground.

“If we had committed homicide the king lightning would have just killed us, and you know it.”

Percy frowned and looked at Thalia, “What do you think, sparkplug?”

She was frozen, looking at her wrist. Before Percy could repeat the question she jerked into motion, bringing her arm up to her mouth and tearing through flesh like butter. Percy and Nico flinched back, before simultaneously rushing in.

“Why would you do that” Nico said, kicking her shin “We don’t have any ambrosia, or even bandages!”

“How did you do that!?” Percy asked frantically, putting his hands on her shoulders, “I know we aren't fully human but our teeth aren’t that sharp!”

Thalia was still, looking at her arm. “Stop”, she raised her head, her eyes wild and shaking, “look”. She raised her arm, and it wasn’t red with fresh blood, but bright orange. It looked like she had Sunny D pouring out of her wound, and for a frantic second Percy wanted to drink it to see if it tasted sweet. 

Percy laughed nervously. 

"That's not mortal blood" he turned to Nico, "Did Will ever tell you about a disease that gives demigods orange blood?"

Nico looked at him.

"We don't feel mortal anymore, Percy. I can't feel the strings of death as strongly on ANY of us."

Thalia ripped off a piece of her blanket too tie around her cut, and Percy shifted the water to clean her cut.

"At least we won't go thirsty with you here" she commented blankly. 

It was enough to shake a slightly hysterical laugh from all three of them. 

Nico shook his head, "We might not feel mortal, but that wasn't Ichor in your arm either Thalia. This could just be the after affect of whatever they did to deage us."

That would be too easy.

"Okay then" Percy bent down and heaved Nico onto his shoulders, "Let's find some form of civilization, and hopefully a phone"

Nico beat his fists against Percys head, "Do you have to carry me?"

"You're shrimpy right now" Thalia chimed in, reaching over to tug at Nicos cape "though I guess that isn't too different from normal".

"Oh go climb a pine tree" Nico grumbled, before shifting right. "Go north-west, I can feel a large gathering of souls that way."

Percy obediently changed directions, with Thalia walking beside him.

"Is it normally that easy to find towns?" she asked.

"Not really" Nico admitted, "But things are amplified right now. That's why I warned you about the name use, if I can feel souls this strongly..."

Percy and Thalia shared a grim look.

"Who knows what else is amplified"

Chapter Text

The thought of what could be listening kept them quiet, but that was almost worse. Even with his constant tripping over roots, and Thalia's paranoid head swiveling, Percy's mind was racing. All around him was forest, the type of woods Grover had tried desperately to recreate at camp. Clean air, with no trace trash left behind by stupid hikers. But also, no trace of anything but animals. It was like humans didn’t know this place existed.

That didn’t make sense though, most land surrounding human populations had been thoroughly explored, and whichever godly nuisance kidnapped him this time probably wouldn’t have placed them too remote.

“Nico,” he spoke up, “how far away is this town?”

Nico stopped tapping Percy’s shoulders and switched to fiddling with his hair. “We’re getting closer, if we keep this pace we’ll probably arrive just after sundown.”

“So, twentyish minutes then” Percy summarized.

He felt Nico tug on a newly crafted braid. “That’s what I said, kelp for brains.”

Thalia glanced over, “Don’t tell me you’re getting tired already?” She smirked, “we can switch baby carrying duty if you need to.”

Nico threw a twig at her head, which she dodged laughingly.

“Guys, Guys” Percy gently jostled his shoulders, “I just meant, this close to civilization, shouldn’t we see signs of people?”

Thalia hummed before shaking her head, “Not necessarily, especially in places infested with monsters. Mortals might not realize what it is, but they know something is wrong.” She frowned, looking around, “though I will admit this is unusually nice, somewhat like Delos.”

Percy raised his eyebrows, “you've been to Delos?”

“Once” she murmured.

She looked tense, and nostalgic. Maybe it was because something had happened while there, or maybe it was just the thought of Artemis, but the look on her face made Percy drop the topic.

“Well,” Nico said, “I can’t really sense monsters the way I sense living things; something about their souls and how they never truly die messes with my perception. For all I know we could be surrounded”.

Percy smiled, “I trust our instincts. If we feel safe, chances are we are safe.”

Thalia and Nico groaned in tandem.

“Now you’ve jinxed us” Nico groused.

“Why would you test the fates like that?” Thalia scolded, lightly punching his arm.

Percy laughed, darting ahead. Suddenly, with his cousins within arms reach and the thought of food only minutes away, he felt bright. He might have completely forgotten where his center of gravity was, and the gods probably had another quest waiting, but he wasn’t alone. Anything could happen, but with Nico and Thalia, he could figure it out.

Tossing a look over his shoulder while also splashing some water behind him, he called out “Race you to town! Nico, point me in the right direction!”

Thalia spluttered, running after him “Oh no you don’t! Death Boy, switch sides, get on my shoulders!”

Nico just cackled, directing them both onwards.

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They were still giggling slightly when Nico signaled that they were close.

“I think the child bodies are affecting our minds, we haven’t played like that in, well, ever” Thalia quietly said, adjusting Nico where he was on her shoulders.

Percy nodded, stretching his arms. Thalia had tackled him to steal Nico, and he was still brushing off leaf litter from his blanket. “Our brains shrunk, so that would make sense.”

Nico pointed out a gap in the trees, “Just over there, it feels like a hundred or so people.”

They quickly approached, Thalia swinging Nico from her shoulders and Percy crouching down. Looking through they could see they were on a small hill looking into a valley. The last rays of sun were lighting up pale brick and people below them. It was pretty, with a small collection of temples located on a hill opposite them.

Percy felt his blood go cold.

He turned to look at his cousins. Nico had his brows furrowed, completely focused on the village below them, but his hands were shaking. Thalia looked back at Percy, her lips bloodless and expression blank.

“Tell me this isn’t what I think it is.”

Thalia turned back to the valley. “I don't think we can”, she said.

Nico let out a shaky exhale. “We have villages like this, in the oldest parts of asphodel.” His voice was soft, “The souls sometimes construct what they remember from life. Sometimes, Dad even lets the buildings stay”.

Percy closed his eyes.

Even Hera couldn’t send three demigods back in time like this. I don’t think anyone could but…

He opened his eyes. “Do you think Grandfather might have done this?”

“No” Thalia shook her head, “He was weakened drastically after he was defeated again. It would have taken thousands of years to muster up that strength.”

Still…

“It could be a prank?” Percy posed weakly.

“Thalia’s blessing is gone, we wake up younger with our blood tampered with, covered in ichor.” Nico looked up. His eyes were wild. “Even ignoring that, souls are amplified, the land feels unpolluted and cleansed, and THAT-” he pointed down to the village “is a perfect replica of ancient Greece, this isn’t a prank.”

“Okay” Percy swallowed, “okay”.

Nico’s expression crumbled. “So I guess the question isn’t where we are, but when.”

Percy glanced at Thalia, “Could we summon a ghost? Ask if they know what year it is?”

“We don’t know who’s dead yet” she refuted.

Nico’s mouth twitched into a bleak smile “I can’t exactly get McDonalds either”.

Percy and Thalia forced a smile at the weak joke.

“Plus” Nico continued, “We don’t want to attract my fathers attention.” He looked down at the ground. “He doesn’t often have demigod children, and if he realizes he doesn’t know where I come from it would be…”

“Bad” Percy finished.

“At least Percy and I don’t have to worry about that. What’s two more children in a long list of affairs?” Thalia muttered.

They all turned back to the village. The sun had fully set, but they could see lanterns in houses and a bonfire surrounded by people.

“We have to go down there.” Thalia pursed her lips. “We’re covered in blood, and they’ll probably realize what it is. Gold liquid is well known as ichor”

“Percy, can you get it off us?” Nico asked.

“I can try”

Percy scrubbed at the blood. A bit of gold flaked off but the rest stuck stubbornly. He scrubbed harder.

“This isn’t working” Thalia frowned.

“I can see that” Percy snapped back.

Nico tugged at his cloak “we could try to cover every inch of skin. It’s dark, they might not notice.”

Or I could try something different.

The ichor was dried, but still somewhat tacky. If Percy stretched his imagination it almost felt like water. Sort of.

He focused, feeling for something in the blood. Liquid, it's just liquid. Just like what I did down there. His head started to feel floaty, and a sharp tug in his gut caused him to open his eyes.

Nico and Thalia were staring at a ball of floating gold, both paused in the middle of fully covering themselves with their blankets. Percy shifted on his feet, waiting for their reactions.

“That’ll come in handy” Thalia said.

Nico hummed in agreement, “Now get us.”

Percy relaxed. He hadn’t realized how tense he had gotten until they had responded. He quickly added their ichor to the mix, and Thalia dug a quick hole to dump it in. Percy scooped up Nico and turned to the town. He tried not to think of how easily he had done that.

“We are nothing but pitiful kids, completely normal and lost” He said.

“So normal” Thalia agreed, before starting down to the bonfire.

Percy could feel Nico’s heartbeat quickening as they approached, and he shifted his grip more securely. Nico looked up at him, and his eyes were wide and dark. Percy thought of the first time he had met his cousin, tiny and unguarded. He held Nico tighter.

The villagers stared at them, muttering slightly. A man, tall and bronzed with a full beard stepped forward.

“Hello” Thalia greeted. “We are travelers. We lost our parents on the road. Do you have any room to spare for us” Her voice was smooth, but Percy could tell she was ready to fight.

The man's brow furrowed in confusion, and he replied. Percy only understood a few words. Children, home, parents.

Thalia swallowed. “I’m sorry, I only caught some of that”.

The man moved closer slightly, before repeating slowly. “Where … parents, children? Are you … to home?”

It was a bit more understandable this time, like puzzle pieces sliding into place.

“We are lost.” said Thalia, carefully enunciating every word. “We need shelter for the night. We will find our family in the morning”

The man's expression cleared slightly, but he called out behind him “Penela! Bring … from …” A woman moved towards them, with bread and three bowls of soup. Percy and Thalia glanced at each other before Thalia took them.

“Join us. We have a temple … travelers you … rest in tonight” The man smiled at them, “But children … food, no?”

“Thank you” Percy murmured, moving to sit by the fire. Nico clambered off of him, settling in between his older cousins. Thalia passed out the food. The man moved to sit in front of them.

“We can … a runner to find your family in the morning?” He offered. “What village … you from?”

Percy and Thalia froze from where they were shoveling food in their mouths, looking at him with blank faces. Before panic could set in, Percy felt a tug on his blanket.

Nico was looking up at him soulfully, his fist rubbing his eye, and his mouth open in a yawn. He had somehow finished all his food and was now looking like a devastatingly sleepy toddler.

“Big brother” Nico whined, “I’m tired. I wanna go to sleep” He turned his pout to the man.

Percy watched as the man visibly softened. He looked at Thalia, only to see her looking back at him with a similarly disturbed expression.

“It’s bedtime, then?” The man asked softly, “We can figure out the rest in the morning. Let me show you the traveler's temple”.

Percy and Thalia quickly finished their food before standing up. Nico clung to Thalia like a limpet, still looking like he was half asleep. He gave a sweet smile to the man. “Thank you for the food!”

The man melted.

He led them up a slope, to a simple temple with a caduceus carved on it. The hearth was lit inside, and three piles of bedding had been set out. After checking to see if they needed anything, he left them to go back to the bonfire. All three watched until they were sure he was gone.

Percy spun to Nico. “That was adorable. Never do it again.”

Thalia shivered, “It was so disturbing”

Nico smirked, the expression much more at home on his face then the bubbly sweetness of before. “It worked, didn’t it?”

Percy snorted, turning to set up the bedding. He froze, staring at the three simple beds already made, and the little girl watching them next the hearth.

“Lady Hestia” he gasped, moving to kneel. He felt Nico and Thalia flinch next to him and rush to do the same. This wasn’t an aunt who knew him, this was a god who could inform of their existence to the Olympians.

She looked at them queerly, “Little godlings who recognize me on sight?” She smiled, “tell me, why do you reek of my fathers power, but not his attention?”

That’s time travel confirmed.

Percy chanced a look at his cousins, “We don’t know, my Lady. We have no ties to him.”

She tittered a laugh. It sounded like home and peace. “Of course you don’t, my father has no ties to anyone! It’s not like he has a base of power!” The feeling of safety pressed down on him. It tasted bitter on his tongue.

“He has no base of power. We hold no allegiance to him, Lady Hestia.” Nico forced out, sweat on his forehead. “We swear”

She hummed. “You each recognize me as aunt in some way, but I don’t know you.” It was hard to breathe. “Why is that?”

They stayed silent. Percy couldn’t have responded if he wanted to. Heat and home and hearth, it was choking him, pulsating in the air and wrapping around his throat and head.

Hestia smiled. It was sweet and motherly, out of place on such a young face. “I know all my family. Why have none of you graced my hearth before, little godlings?”

“Please” Thalia choked out. “Stop.”

Hestia’s face shifted, and the artificial safety flowed away.

Percy gasped for breath as his muscles unlocked, all three of them collapsing onto the ground. He was shaking, he realized distantly, each of them were. A hand touched his forehead and he lethargically shifted his eyes up.

Hestia was staring down at all three of them, her form shifted to a younger child. “My apologies. I did not know you would react like that.” Her face was uncertain, the most honest expression so far.

Percy blinked and he was lying in the bedroll, Thalia and Nico curled around him in a nest.

Hestia was sitting in the hearth staring at them. A wave of heat passed over him, but it was gentle and hesitant. She settled more firmly into the ashes.

“Normally, any place of human worship would allow a god to know of your existence. But I am the eldest Olympian, and I hold certain privileges because of it. No one will know you were here in this town.” She blinked, hazy and heat blurred. “ Of course, as you are in his temple he knows.”

She was still sitting across from them, but Percy felt a kiss upon his brow.

“A favor, nonexistence for a night, as an apology.” Her eyes were coals winking in and out of existence. “I won’t do it again. Goodnight children.”

She left, but the warmth stayed. Percy let out a puff of air and turned his head into Nico’s hair, drifting off to exhausted sleep.