Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Piper’s still not entirely sure how she got here. Her last week of school she’d gotten a call from her dad’s personal assistant saying he’d arranged for her to attend a survival camp for summer.

Survival camp is definitely her sort of thing, but she’d been hoping to spend some time with her dad. The new PA was useless, couldn’t even send her a brochure or something.

A car picked her up from school, the driver was… not normal. Sometimes he looks like a huge bodyguard in a sleek black suit, the sort that followed her dad around movie premieres. Other times she could swear he was in jeans and a t-shirt with something sticking out of his curly hair. No. No way does the guy have horns. She’s seeing things. He tries to talk to her but the not-horns are getting to her, so she ignores him. He eventually gives up and makes a few phone calls but otherwise the car is dead silent.

When they reach Long Island the car pulls off and parks outside a bus station. The bodyguard (nope, not horns, didn’t see that) tells her to stay in the car and he walks off. He comes back a few minutes later with a latino kid. Looks kinda like a fae or an elf, all little and mischievous. Kid is definitely the sort to play jokes that drive you to tears and then just stands there laughing at you while you cry.

The car pulls back out and the new kid will not stop talking. Something about foster homes, new placement, hopes it’s not Juvie… He probably told her his name, but she’s already forgotten it.

When they finally arrive she finds out that ‘survival camp’ is a strawberry farm. Are they using kids as slave labour or something?

Not-horns guy looks even weirder as they walk towards a sky blue house. Kinda walks oddly, bit bouncily? Then she realised he had hooves where his shoes should be. Yeah. No. Totally didn’t see that.

The other kid is vibrating with excitement, like he’s seconds from just exploding out of his skin. She swears she caught a flicker of… fire? what? out of the corner of her eye, but it’s not there when she turns to look.

When they reach the house, two people are waiting for them. An older guy, like, in his twenties? He’s built like a tank and called Beckendorf apparently. His arms are HUGE! Like, Hercules huge. The girl, a couple years older than Piper, is dressed like Elle Woods headed to a party. Her name is Drew. She even sounds like a stereotype!

Apparently, someone called Percy had seen their arrival and assigned Piper to Drew and the other kid to Beckendorf, (“Call me Beck!”).

They told them to just watch the video first and then they’d explain further. The video was… a lot. They are demigods, children of gods and mortals, Olympus is on the Empire State Building, monsters want to eat them, welcome to survival camp, try not to die, have fun and learn lots!

She blinks, and then turns to the welcoming committee. “So, you know who my mum is?”

Drew shrugs, “Yes, and no. Technically, we won’t officially know who your parents are until they claim you, but Percy says to put you in Cabin Ten and the other kid in Cabin Nine. Percy’s always right about this stuff, and so far, other than Cabin Six, the gods haven’t made a peep about it. Much better than just stuffing all the unclaimed kids in one cabin like we used to!”

Piper blinks. They aren’t big on actually explaining are they?

“Was that supposed to answer my question?”

Drew huffs, looking annoyed. “If Percy says you’re in Cabin Ten, which bee tee dub, is my cabin, then Aphrodite is your mum. Cabin Nine is Hephaestus, so that’s probably his dad,” She waves a manicured hand at the excited kid, “Beck’s Cabin Head at the moment, so he’ll look after you, Leo. Piper’ll be with me. But first, we have one more briefing to get through.”

Piper stopped listening after she said Aphrodite. The love goddess. Seriously? Wait, did the pink princess say they had the same mother? Yeah. No.

“Who’s Percy? None of this sounds right. Why does this Percy get to decide who our parent is?”

Drew stares at her, like she was a bug on the windshield, “Percy’s a prophet. He sees the future. It’s like a whole thing. He saw you coming. Saw your auras. Told us where to put you. He didn’t decide where you go, your godly parent decides that. Percy said Cabin Ten. Which means, Aphrodite. What aren’t you getting?”

“Like, all of it? A prophet? Like the bible? Some random old dude with a beard just what… does a tarot reading? Really? That’s how you run things?”

Drew throws her hands up, turns to Beck. “Dude, I just, I can’t! Where is your girlfriend? This is her job!”

Beck is laughing at Drew, “Silena’s busy, that’s why she asked you to take over as Cabin Head.”

He turns back to Piper and the other kid, Leo? “Percy is twelve. He has lived at camp since he was little. I know it’s weird just coming into all of this, but the kid actually does have the sight. He’s a divinely ordained prophet, under the protection of Lord Apollo, and uh, I would not recommend testing him. Apollo is kind of intensely protective of Percy.”

Twelve. A twelve year old decides who their godly parent is. Yeah. Nope. Piper’s out. Even she’s older than this ‘prophet’ of theirs.

Drew is watching Piper, like she’s dissecting her outfit and finding every single blemish, Piper is so over girls like that.

“Uh, Beck, I think we may need to do the full ‘How not to break the prophet rules’, Lee is still kinda twitchy after that whole thing with the creepy fish. I really don’t want him yelling at me in my first week as Cabin Head. Because if that happens, I am going to hunt down your girlfriend and kill her. Very very slowly.”

Leo finally has something to say, “Is this like, a skit? Y’all put on a show for new campers? Coz, five stars man. This is the best entertainment I’ve had in ages. But, also. Hephaestus, God of Making Really Cool Stuff? He’s my dad? Do you all have a workshop or something?”

“Percy says you’re in Cabin Nine. He’s not allowed to directly tell us who your parent is, it’d interfere with some sort of godly rule about the claiming, but Apollo gave the okay for him to tell us which cabin to assign to new campers. Basically achieves the same outcome. So. Percy did not tell us, but since he did say Cabin Nine, I’m gonna assume Hephaestus is your dad. There is a workshop and lots besides, but that needs to wait till we finish the orientation. Drew’s right, we should cover Lee’s rules before we go.”

Drew has pulled out a sheet of paper which is written in something that is not English. Greek? Piper’s not great with other languages.

“So. These are Lee’s Rules. Also known as ‘How to not break a prophet, so Apollo doesn’t wreak vengeance on the entire camp.’ Mr D calls it ‘How to avoid all the complaints he’ll have to deal with if the sea gods drown the entire camp’ but, same diff.”

This place is insane. They are all insane.

The rules are… unique. Some are odd but liveable. Others. Not so much.

1. Don’t ask Percy to see the future, this includes any and all predictions, no matter how harmless. Prophecy is sacred and Apollo gets really butt hurt when people harass Percy about it.

2. Do not, under any circumstances, look inside any of Percy’s sketchbooks. Lee and the camp are not responsible for any impact such an action will have on a person’s psyche. If you do look, be aware that any people you talk to about what you saw will also be punished, should Apollo discover what you have done. But seriously, those drawings are not things you ever want to see. Like ever. Just don’t.

3. Do not make physical contact with Percy. Not even if you are wearing gloves. Maintain a clear distance. While there are some people he permits closer to him, it is solely at his discretion. Any attempts to make physical contact with him will result in harsh punishment, up to and including banishment from the camp and/or incineration.

4. If you come across Percy standing still and kind of not entirely present, just leave him be. If you are worried you can go to Lee, or grab one of his friends. Under no circumstances should you try and snap Percy out of it. And maybe don’t mention it to him later. It freaks him out, and upsets Lee.

5. If a god turns up looking for Percy just give them directions and get out of the way. The gods are a lot less patient with the rest of the campers. Be polite and respectful and leave as soon as you can. Some gods will transform campers into animals if they get too annoyed, and sometimes it takes a while before Percy can convince them to transform you back.

6. If Percy tells you he knows something is going to happen, he is telling the truth. For the love of the gods, listen to him! If he tells you to do something and says it’s a prophet thing, even if it sounds nuts, just do it. Things will go so much better if you do what he says the first time. While Percy loves pranks, he will never use the sight for that. He treats it as seriously as Apollo does, no matter how casually he acts.

7. Unless you’ve been given permission from Poseidon, do not enter Cabin Three for any reason, especially not for pranks, but even if you’re just dropping something off, leave it outside the front door. Do not enter.

“Wait, so Percy’s dad is Poseidon? I thought it was Apollo?”

Drew shrugs, “We don’t know, kid’s unclaimed. If he knows, he hasn’t said. Poseidon opened his cabin to any children of the sea and apparently Percy’s a sea kid, but there are like thousands of sea gods. Georgie’s a daughter of Galene and she stays there too. The Big Three gods don’t have kids, it’s a whole thing.”

The rules go on and on and end with number whatever, that the creepy fish is off limits. Do not involve it in pranks. Do not feed it. Do not joke about it. Best to pretend it does not exist.

“The creepy fish?”

“Percy says the fish told him that it’s a demigod who’s been cursed by Circe. No one’s actually sure if he’s telling the truth or not. Lee won’t say either way, says it’s for him to know and us to find out, but the fish looks majorly creepy. It’s got this whole moustache and beard thing. It’s weird. It lives in Cabin Seven during the year and Cabin Three during the summer. Someone tried to sell it to a pet shop last month, Percy freaked out and Lee got upset and it was all super tense. I would like to not go through that again.”

Okay. This is a camp full of crazy people who are all being manipulated by a spoiled twelve year old kid. Cool. Can Piper go home yet?

“Wait, the orientation video said we were being trained in combat, and there were mandatory camp wide full contact games. Doesn’t that give this kid, like, an unfair advantage? If he can touch us but we can’t touch him?”

Drew rolls her eyes, Piper really cannot understand how anyone could think they were related. There’s no way Piper is the daughter of a love goddess. Jeez.

Besides the kid they claim is a prophet doesn’t know who his own parent is. Seems kinda obvious he’s just making it all up? No?

“Percy does individual training with an outside tutor. He doesn’t join in the general combat classes. In Capture the Flag he will be participating this summer but is never involved in the melee fighting. You’re not going to accidentally hit him unless you go hunting for him.”

“And seriously, just don’t. Years ago there was this whole thing where a group of kids started going after him, five of them were banished from the camp, no one knows what happened to them.”

“Seriously? What, we’re doing ghost stories now?”

Beck’s leaning against the wall all casually, just waiting for the briefing to end.

“Me and Drew were here when it happened. It was… memorable. And terrifying. You can still see the path burned into the ground from Apollo. Five campers were banished, three more were punished but allowed to remain. There’s still one of ‘em here, in Athena cabin. Plus Lee saw the whole thing up close, with one of the Ares kids and some from Hermes. It’s not a ghost story. It happened.”

“Lee is the… Camp Director?”

Beck’s all casual and laconic, “Unofficially. Mr D’s the official Director. He’s kinda a god? But Lee’s the oldest here, started as a camper and stayed on. Then Apollo brought Percy and gave ‘im to Lee to look after. Lee’s got some official title too, from Apollo, but yeah, mostly he just manages the camp. Makes everything a bit safer. Adds a bit of common sense to the normal insanity.”

Drew gives them all a bright smile, “So, ready to head to your new cabins now? Get the whole camp tour thing underway?”

“I really don’t think I’m meant to be in Cabin Ten, can I request to be like, reassigned?”

Drew just rolls her eyes, “I can’t say I’m that fond of you either, sweetheart, but that’s where you’ll be sleeping. I doubt Hermes cabin will be willing to make room for you. Not when you have a nice comfy bed waiting for you and they already have kids sleeping on mattresses on the floor.”

Leo raises his hand, “I’m very happy to go to Hephaestus’ Cabin, he sounds awesome. I have nothing to do with her, I like my room assignment!”

Drew laughs, “Don’t worry Leo, Beck’s got you all set up in his cabin already. He’s been looking forward to a new brother!”

She crooks her fingers at Piper, “C’mon princess, let’s go do a tour. If you’re that set on avoiding Mum, I’ll introduce you to Travis and Connor, the heads of Cabin Eleven. If you can convince them to give you a patch of floor, you can stay there ‘til Mum claims you. Bet you they don’t have room to spare, though. Pity, I wouldn’t mind being rid of you so quick!”

________________________

Summer! Finally! It’s the best part of the year as far as Percy’s concerned. No more morning lessons, extra activities, tonnes of free time to visit the pegasi, campfires every night, extra training with Triton and twice the number of kids to prank!

Plus, after his first summer of Lee hovering over him like a neurotic mother hen, Percy had made Lee promise that during the summer he’d treat Percy like all the other campers. It’s just embarrassing to be the only one with a hovering parent! Well, Castor and Pollux also have Mr D, but he never hovers over them, at least not when anyone can see.

So now, every summer, Percy moves into Cabin Three with Georgie, Lee stays at the Big House and Percy gets to be just another camper.

Well. Mostly. He does actually know about the mortifying briefing they give new campers, the one about how to be nice to Percy. Because Lee is an overprotective mother hen. It’s been five years! Nothing’s happened. It’s fine!

Percy had tried to put a stop to the briefings, but Lee had very pointedly asked if Percy would like to live in a temple full time, like he’s actually meant to, with Lee as his High Priest (gaoler).

Percy’s a teensy bit worried Lee might one day make good on that threat. He likes camp, and all the kids. He has no interest in being shoved in some stuffy temple somewhere and only ever talking to the gods.

Percy might have a bit more reverence for the gods if he saw them a little less. As it is, he sees one or another of them practically weekly. Like, Mr D is fine, he’s literally stuck at camp until Zeus gives up on the whole punishment thing. But the others…

Percy’s even insisted that they stop visiting in summer. It’s just too awkward, especially with all the campers he doesn’t really know that well. The year rounders are used to it and while the new ones are weirded out for awhile, the others just treat it as one more aspect of being a demigod. But the summer campers really don’t handle it well.

As far as Percy’s concerned, the only acceptable reason for a god to visit in summer (besides Triton collecting him for training) is if they are just using Percy as an excuse to visit their kids. Apollo has agreed that it’s okay to help the gods see their kids more, but only so long as their questions are harmless. He’s even more overprotective than Lee. It’s annoying.

Apollo had already been getting worse before the whole thing happened last winter. Normally, demigods come into their powers around twelve or thirteen. Percy’s started when he was a baby. Apollo’s kinda panicking about what him turning thirteen means for his abilities.

Until Percy is claimed, they can’t start properly training Percy to use his prophetic abilities. Percy calls it the knowing, Apollo insists it’s called the sight, they compromised on ‘prophetic ability’. It’s a whole thing.

There are reasons Percy doesn’t know who his godly parent is. Reasons Percy knows but does not know. Basically, it keeps Percy safe. But at some point he needs to learn to function without the shield charms he wears. Charms, as in many, because Apollo is an overprotective neurotic drama queen who makes Percy wear multiple charms. Just in case one breaks. It was one time! When he was seven!

He’s been wearing a shielding charm on an unbreakable forged-in-Atlantis metal cord ever since. He also has a bracelet. And an anklet.

Sometimes, Percy is surprised the god hasn’t injected him with a tracking chip too.

Especially with the winter thing. That’s… going to be a problem. Eventually. Percy still isn’t clear on exactly what happened. But when they came up to Winter Solstice he was absolutely certain he needed to not be here. He never joins the field trips to Olympus. If a camp of demigod auras can get overwhelming, he has no interest in watching a Council of the Olympian Gods. At least in person, he dreams about them plenty.

Anyway, for Winter Solstice Triton came and took him off to Atlantis and Percy spent some time with Amphitrite at the palace! Percy is well aware that most people at camp believe either Triton or Amphy is his godly parent. It’s safer that they believe that.

But it also means things are going to be… not so great for a while. Something was stolen and Zeus is majorly cranky about it. The knowing says there’s more to it, but until it becomes Percy’s problem, he’s ignoring it.

For now, he’s getting settled back into Cabin Three. With it just being him and Georgie, they both have an extra large bedroom each. Percy figures one day they’ll be converted back to dorms. For now they each have a bed, an additional huge day bed covered in cushions that’s kind of like a couch, and a big desk. All in their own private bedrooms. They each even effectively have their own bathrooms!

Percy keeps a lot of his stuff in Cabin Three year round. It’s kind of embarrassing he still hangs onto the old sea horse, the blanket and the little kiddie water bottle he got the day he came to camp. So Percy keeps them in his room in Cabin Three where no-one will see them.

Plus there are the sketchbooks. They kind of overflow from the book shelf in his room and are just crammed in wherever there’s room. All part of being a prophet. He has to have a way to get the things he sees out of his head or he’d go completely nuts. Good thing Apollo is a god, he doubts Lee could afford to keep him in art supplies at the rate Percy runs through them.

The sitting room is awesome, all done in blues with an ocean theme. Huge comfy couches and armchairs scattered around. It’s way too big for two people. The first summer he stayed in the cabin someone had a huge tank added to one end of the sitting room. Just for James! During the year James has a six foot tank in Apollo cabin, but the tank in Cabin Three is enormous, big enough for a shark even!

Percy kinda wishes he could have kept James in his room so he could talk to him at night, but everyone still gets super weirded out at the idea of James watching him sleep.

James is a goldfish. He’s mostly orange, with a black moustache and beard and a black patch on top of his head, like he has hair. He used to be a demigod, but a sorceress called Circe cursed him and turned him into a pig over a hundred years ago. The only reason James is still alive is because of the curse. So he can’t ever be turned back into a demigod.

James isn’t really sure on the timeline, but at some point he turned into a goldfish. He says it’s because his mother was a naiad? Anyway, when Percy was little he kept dreaming about this fish that talked weirdly. Lee ended up going and buying James for Percy.

Percy knows Lee would never have bought James if Percy had told him he was a cursed demigod. But once he’d actually brought James back to camp, he kind of just accepted him? Though, Lee still only ever calls James ‘the creepy fish’.

But still, last month when one of the Hermes kids stole James and took him to a pet store, Lee drove straight there and got him back as soon as he found out. James likes Lee, especially now he’s saved him for a second time.

Lee was super furious at the Hermes kid. So were Travis and Connor. Some of the Hermes campers are still upset at Percy over everything that happened to Luke and Chris and the others, especially when Lou Ellen and Jeremy left like a month later. Percy thinks it’s kind of stupid. He was a little kid and he didn’t actually do anything. But if he admitted Clarisse is the one that actually told, they’d go after her instead.

Travis and Connor have always been fine with Percy. Or at least, they are constantly getting into prank wars with Percy, Castor and Pollux. Percy figures it’s just their love language.

Travis and Connor know James is off limits. They might put silly ornaments in his tank, but they’d never hurt him or try and sell him. It’s why they are allowed in Cabin Three, they know how far they can take the jokes, and they don’t cross that line. It makes Percy feel a little more normal that they can prank him without gods getting cranky.

This summer is going to be the best yet. Eventually, anyway. There’s some less than fun stuff coming up, but after that, it’s going to be awesome!

There are new campers arriving today. Percy wants to be elsewhere when they start their tour. The boy, Leo, seems like he could be fun, but the girl, she’s gonna be angry. Best to delay that confrontation as long as possible.

He finds Clarisse in the arena going over sword drills. It really isn’t fair that she is still so much taller than him. They are pretty evenly matched when they spar but Clarisse is all heavy muscle and half a head taller than Percy.

Percy’s more about speed and rapid movement than brute strength. It’s good though, means they both get a workout when they fight.

But they can’t spar right now, too many kids around. It’s one of the less fun things about summer. Unless they sneak off into the woods, the only time he and Clarisse can really go full out is at one of the underwater training grounds, and they can only do that if Triton’s around. Percy’s still not allowed out of camp without a godly escort.

“Yo, War Drum! Ready for a break?”

She rolls her eyes at him, she gave up complaining about the nickname years ago. Which is good. As far as Percy is concerned she’s War Drum, has been from the day they met.

“You hiding from the newbies?”

One of the Aphrodite kids must have got to her because her dark honey blonde hair’s french-braided and some sort of spiky ribbon thing is woven through the braid. Looks super pretty, definitely gonna hurt if someone’s stupid enough to grab it. The brown shade of the ribbon even matches her eyes. Percy knows better than to tell her it looks nice.

“You know it, new girl’s got a chip on her shoulder, don’t wanna deal with it. S’what Hot Air’s for.”

“Uh huh, and where is Lee?”

Percy shrugs, “Not here? Honestly, no idea. But a ragingly angry daughter of the Love Goddess is incoming in, oh, ten minutes? So I’m gonna bounce, you coming or not?”

“Thought you weren’t allowed to name the parents directly?”

“Maybe I meant Bright Eyes?”

Clarisse just shakes her head at him, “C’mon Prissy, let’s go see what Wise Girl’s up to.”

Percy sighs. That’s really not what he meant. But, still better than sticking around for the incoming explosion.

His relationship with Annabeth is… not wonderful. At least from his side of it. Things were really bad for the first few months, to the point that she’s the only one left of the eight campers that Mr D and Apollo freaked out on. He figures she mostly stuck around because she was so little when it happened, and she’s been trying to be friends ever since.

Annabeth can be great fun to be around and from Percy’s perspective, people who don’t think like him are super interesting. If people can accept him and roll with the weird, then there isn’t much he won’t roll with in return. It used to be better with her, but this past year it’s been… yeah. Maybe just her teenager instincts kicking in a bit early?

He wouldn’t mind it if being friends with Annabeth was like being friends with Clarisse, or Castor and Pollux, or even Georgie or Drew. But Annabeth is the sort of person who needs to know things. She needs to know everything, all the time.

Percy is a person with a natural ability to know things. If he wanted, he definitely could know everything. It’s kind of the whole being a prophet schtick. But he also knows there are things he shouldn’t know.

And he’s been attempting to explain this to Annabeth for five years now. He thought he’d gotten through to her, even had a few good years where things were great. He’d been so sure they were past all this.

And yet…

Annabeth starts up almost as soon as they come across her, sitting on her bed surrounded by books. Unlike Clarisse, she has not been near Cabin Ten, her blonde hair hasn’t been brushed in quite a while. It makes his hands itch. Even Clarisse lets him play with her hair! With lots of complaints, but she still lets him!

“So, Percy, have you started training with the Sun God yet?”

He blinks. “Hi Percy! Good to see you, how have you been? I’ve been great, thanks for asking.”

She just stares at him confused. “Wise Girl, it’s polite to greet someone you haven’t seen since winter. Not just start right in with the questions. How’d things go with your dad?”

Her answer is clipped. “It was fine. It’s good to see you. Have you started training?”

This is fun. Angry new girl might have been the better option.

“No. I haven’t started training. I won’t be starting training until certain things happen. They have not happened yet. So. No training.”

“What things?”

Clarisse butts in, “You literally had this conversation with him the last time you saw him, can’t you just drop it? We came to say hi? Summer camp is starting? Super fun? Capture the Flag game on Monday and Prissy’s joining in!”

Annabeth turns back to Percy, “Which side are you on?”

He shrugs, “Dunno, depends on who Sea Sister picks. I haven’t seen her yet, though her stuff’s in the cabin so she must be around somewhere.”

Annabeth looks confused, “Why would Georgie pick?”

“Because she’s my Cabin Head in summer? Has been for years now? But this is the first year Hot Air’s letting me participate in the games. Still gotta be non contact but at least I can play.”

Clarisse manages to jump in and defuse things before Annabeth starts with another round of questions. Eventually conversation starts flowing more smoothly as Annabeth shows them a bunch of new blueprints and things she’s designing.

Percy tries not to notice these are clearly blueprints for a temple. The sort Apollo used to stick his prophets in. Annabeth means well, she really does, and she wants to be friends with him, she’s just… gotten really bad at it.

Unfortunately all his avoidance proves useless, as soon as they leave Cabin Six, angry new girl is right in his face.

Ow.

This girl is armour settling on shoulders, straps buckled, ready for battle, teeth bared, sharp eyes, intense anger, love, passion, all burning in a fierce ball of fire. She is blood red roses, hissing swans and sharp-edged sea shells.

Someone got the full force of Aphrodite Areia and barely any of the love aspect.

Silena has the war aspect, but it’s nothing to the volume of the new kid’s aura. This one’s gonna be powerful.

Also. Ow.

She’s up in his face, nose to nose, almost touching and she’s yelling about… spoiled rich kids?

Awesome. Percy drifted. Lost a few minutes. If Apollo finds out it was involuntary and caused by the girl’s very loud aura, Percy’s going to lose the little bit of freedom he has.

In a strained voice, not moving a muscle he goes, “Ah, War Drum? Little help? Just drifted. Need her to back up before you know who notices.”

Clarisse has always just accepted the weirdness that comes with being friends with Percy. So long as she’s allowed to regularly beat him up she doesn’t care at all about the prophet stuff.

But. The first time they met he named her War Drum with a Shield, and that is very much who she still is.

She yanks the new girl back, completely unbothered as the new kid goes crashing to the ground. Behind her Percy can see Drew racing towards them.

“Shit! Sorry Perce, I turned my back for like a second and she was gone. You okay?”

“Yeah, didn’t last long. She didn’t touch me, she’s just super loud. Aura got me by surprise.”

New girl’s back up off the ground, and even more pissed, Clarisse shoves herself in front of Percy and forces the girl back before she can grab him. Percy sighs. This sort of drama really does not help things. Makes it easy for people to assume he needs other people to fight his battles for him.

He’s given up attempting to explain that his friends step in because if they grab him and something happens, Apollo will very literally incinerate them. Percy does not want anyone to die.

Also. Even if they don’t set Percy off, Percy is going to end up learning far more about them then they want him to know. He’d really rather people get to know him and decide for themselves whether they are okay with Percy learning their most deeply guarded secrets. Because it will happen. It’s not something he can actually prevent if he makes physical contact with someone.

If Percy knows a person’s aura well, then he’s all for a no holds barred fight. Clarisse had understood the risks before they started sparring together. She trusts Percy to never mention what he knows and he is happy to pretend he doesn’t know any of it either. It works for them. Plus they get to regularly beat the shit out of each other. It’s fun.

Castor and Pollux are the same. Georgie too, though that was a touch less voluntary. Triton started them sparring against each other and well, that would be when they first discovered how much Percy just knew after sparring with her.

Triton is very careful to never touch Percy. Unfortunately Percy already knows the grief he carries.

He and Annabeth keep very clear boundaries. Something to do with whatever happened when he was seven. Lee made it clear at the time that they could be friends, but distance was required or it would trigger… something. Annabeth seemed to know what he meant, and that worked for Percy. The knowing, or his ‘prophetic ability’ said it’s best he not know. The trigger issue had been dealt with ages ago, but Lee wouldn’t let him tell Wise Girl.

New girl’s still hissing at him. Huh, sounds just like her aura, but also… Yikes. He needs to give someone a heads up. That is some intense charmspeak.

She tells Clarisse to let her go. Clarisse lets her go, looking dazed.

New girl starts telling Percy to admit he’s wrong about her cabin.

Yeah. Nope. Not doing that.

“Stop! Now! You don’t just charmspeak someone like that, it’s basically mind control. Emergencies only!”

New girl is looking at him like he’s lost his mind.

Drew’s looking dazed too, shit. How strong is the new kid?

“Percy, what do you mean? What happened?”

“New girl just charmspoke the whole lot of you. It’s stronger than yours, Bright Eyes, and she’s a lot more deliberate with it than you ever were.”

New girl informs him her name is Piper not new girl. Cool.

“Hey! Perfect name, ‘cause you’ve got a real set of pipes on you! With that voice and all. But seriously, don’t do that. Also. Won’t work on me. But you do it to the wrong camper and things won’t be pretty. Ask Bright Eyes, she’s got some great stories from when she was learning.”

Piper is very very pissed at Percy. He’s talented like that. He can see Clarisse getting ready to grab her if she lunges again.

He interrupts her latest rant about the cabin and how a love goddess isn’t her mother.

‘Dite likes him, she’s totally listening in. But just in case.

“Not sure if you know, but charmspeak is specifically an Aphrodite thing. Also, based on your aura you inherited the Aphrodite Areia aspect, strongest I’ve ever seen. Just so’s you know, she’s a war goddess.”

And right on time…

“Also, you might wanna look up? Your mum’s calling.”

A pretty (and extremely fluorescent) pink peace dove is floating above Piper’s head. Aphrodite must be feeling cranky, her claiming sign isn’t usually quite so… eye-smartingly pink? And she’s given the girl her whole makeover blessing thing. The one where it feels more like a curse because you end up stuck in elaborate evening wear. New girl is even angrier.

Percy leaves as soon as she’s distracted. Not his problem. This is going to make his gossip sessions in Cabin Ten super awkward. He likes visiting Drew and Silena. But angry girl is not his problem.

“War goddess, huh?”

He rolls his eyes at Clarisse as she catches up to him, “You can’t talk, little miss ‘I inherited Dad’s shield instead of his sword’. It does happen!”

Clarisse offers in a conversational tone, “You do realise if you ever tell anyone else about the shield stuff, I’ll cut off your tongue and feed it to you?”

“Yeah, yeah. S’been five years and I’m still standing. You don’t scare me. Besides calling you Shield doesn’t have quite the same ring to it as War Drum does.”

Clarisse is silent, it’s only as they reach the stables that she asks much more quietly, “New girl really used charmspeak on me?”

Percy gives her a sympathetic look, “Yeah, sorry, but only to make you let her go. Not sure what would’ve happened if I hadn’t stopped her though. She’s way too comfortable with it.”

“You gonna tell Lee?”

“Nah, the shielding charms stop that sort of thing affecting me, so it’s officially not Hot Air’s problem. I know Sea Foam’s handed over Cabin Head, but if Bright Eyes doesn’t tell her I’ll talk to her. She’s better with the whole uncontrolled charmspeak thing. They can deal with her and loop Chiron in. None of it has anything to do with me. I missed most of her rant, but I did catch the ‘spoiled little rich kid’ part. Which is kinda hilarious actually.” He adds thoughtfully.

Clarisse pokes him, “Oi, if you have gossip, give.”

“Nuh uh, you’ll find out when everyone else does. Gonna be awesome though.”

________________________

After the kid, Percy, leaves, with the big aggressive girl at his back, Drew turns on Piper.

“So, this is your one and only warning. You try and use charmspeak on Apollo’s Prophet again and no one is going to step in when Apollo finds out.”

Piper is just so done.

“I. Don’t. Know. What. Charmspeak. Is. I did not use it. I have no idea what just happened or why the kid was accusing me of mind control or why that awful girl threw me on the ground. I don’t know even know why I’m dressed like this!”

Piper is mortified to realise she is about to burst into tears. Just, what is happening?

Drew sighed, “Look, just come back to the cabin. Let me and Silena explain it all to you. We would have already, except you came out here and attacked him!”

“I didn’t touch him!”

Drew just blinks at her. “Seriously? You didn’t notice him go all vacant and not present? You got close enough that he got your aura full force. Apparently you’ve got a big aura. Probably means you’ll be powerful. But this is the entire reason we told you to keep your distance from him!”

Drew drags a hand over her face, looking frustrated. “Look, just come back to the cabin. We can sort it out there. We’ve kind of got an audience?”

A blonde girl with sharp grey eyes interjects, she at least looks like she’s at survival camp. A bit rougher, ready for action. Knife strapped to her hip, hair in a no-nonsense ponytail, and there’s not a speck of makeup. Nothing like princess barbie, or all the fashion models the camp is apparently filled with.

“Do you want me to come with you? I can help explain?”

Drew frowns, “Annabeth, I’m really not sure that’d be all that helpful, charmspeak is an Aphrodite thing-”

Piper cuts her off, “Yes, please, you look like you might be able to explain this total madhouse. Let’s go to your cabin, The pink princess is just making it worse.”

Drew throws her hands up, “Fine! But!” She points at Annabeth, “You’ve got thirty minutes and you better keep her in your cabin till I get back. I need to go and find Silena, this is so far above my pay grade right now. If she goes after Percy again, I’m not gonna bother the Sun God, I’m going to tell the Sea Prince, got it?”

Piper has no clue what she’s talking about, but apparently it means something to Annabeth, she looks kind of anxious. “Yep, of course Drew.” She smiles at Piper, “I live here, Cabin Six, there should be a couple free seats in the common room.”

As they go in, Piper can’t help but say, “Seriously, I have no idea what that girl’s deal is. She seems majorly stuck up. What’s with her threatening you with a prince?”

Annabeth winces, “Uh, we tend to nickname the gods, names have power so it’s best to only say their actual names when you want their attention. The Sea Prince is Percy’s… tutor? Or at least that’s what they say. He is not fond of Athena kids, kinda aggressive.”

“You sound like you don’t believe he’s a tutor?”

Annabeth shrugs, “He and Percy look super alike, plus Percy doesn’t fight and he’s not really an intellectual. He’s my best friend, but he’s kind of a total goofball. He’s not the type to be dedicated to his lessons. The rumour is that the Sea Prince is his dad.”

Piper still has no idea which god is meant to be the Sea Prince. She knows a fair amount about the Olympian gods because of her dad’s work, but he’s never mentioned a Sea Prince?

“He’s your best friend but he hasn’t told you if the rumour’s true or not? What is with this kid? It’s like all I’ve heard since I got here is that this twelve year old kid has the entire camp wrapped around his finger. He just sounds so spoiled, and ugh, I knew kids like him back home. I can’t stand them!”

Annabeth stares at her. “Uh, I’m really not sure how you came to that conclusion? Before he got to camp, Percy’s life was pretty terrible. He virtually lived on the streets. The guy he lived with was majorly abusive and his mother was not really around.”

Piper blinks. This is not the story she’s heard. “Drew and the other guy, Beck, gave us this whole lecture on how we needed to be nice to him and that the gods would, like, incinerate us if he got hurt?”

Annabeth shrugs, “Well, yes. I, uh, when I was little, I lived here year round. There was a group of kids who kind of… went after Percy. They convinced me to go along with them. It was… bad. I’m lucky they let me stay after.”

“Wait, are you the Athena kid, the one who was punished?”

Annabeth winces, “Yeah, that’d be me. I was just a little kid, and being really stupid. But, it’s fine now! He’s my best friend! All in the past.”

Piper is really not sure if Annabeth believes that or is trying to convince herself it’s true. “So the whole incineration threat? You look pretty unburned?”

Annabeth shrugs a shoulder, looking uncomfortable, “Uh, I was definitely actually burned. Blisters and all. The Sun God kind of… blazes with the light of the sun when he’s angry? I don’t remember a lot of it. I was mostly just terrified. The burns would have taken a lot longer to heal and probably left a tonne of scarring, except someone, Percy or Lee, got the Sun God to ease up on the punishment thing and let them give us nectar and ambrosia and use a healer.”

“Uh. That sounds. Not ideal. This is a camp for kids?”

“We broke the divine laws. They actually were within their rights to just kill us. Us living was them being lenient.”

“Divine laws? What divine laws?”

“Touching a prophet. There’s a bunch of reasons why it’s an ancient law. It’s… complicated. But physical touch, or even just getting a bit too close to him. It hurts Percy, it’s physically painful. It can do something to his mind too. To us he looks like he’s kind of absent, but for him he’s seeing something else entirely. Sometimes just auras, sometimes your future, sometimes your past. He can see everything and he can’t actually prevent it happening if you get too close. The people he is close with, they have to accept that he’ll know everything about them. The good and the bad.”

“Like their worst memories and all that?”

“Yeah.” Annabeth gives her a kind of grimace, “I… wasn’t okay with that. So we’re careful never to touch. Clarisse decided she was okay with it, and there’s a couple of others. Some would be fine with it but their auras are still too strong for him, like Castor and Pollux. He really needs to actually go and do the training the Sun God wants him to do, but he keeps dodging it. I’ve been trying to convince him, but no luck.”

This just keeps sounding worse to Piper. “So, because he’s lazy and won’t get training, the rest of us have to worry about him knowing our secrets?”

A new voice comes from the door, “Percy isn’t lazy, he’s a prophet. If he says something needs to happen before he can train, then something needs to happen. It isn’t an excuse, he’s not dodging anything.”

Annabeth just rolled her eyes, “Silena, that’s not a prophecy, it’s too vague. He’s just avoiding it, just like he always skipped lessons.”

Silena’s a tall slender woman, in her early twenties, with long black hair and brown eyes. Perfect makeup. Piper’s definitely going to get a complex with how many of the girls look like they just stepped out of a photoshoot.

“He skipped lessons because he couldn’t read. Because he had never had the opportunity to learn. You haven’t been year round since Percy finally got his schooling back on track. It’s different now. And no way would Sun God let Percy skip out on training if he thought it was necessary. The guy’s like, obsessive over making sure Percy knows as much as possible.”

Annabeth just kind of huffs, but doesn’t argue back, Piper figures she may as well ask, “He seems to be kind of a favourite around here? The way people talk, he’s pretty popular?”

Silena shrugs, leaning against the doorframe. “Sort of. Part of it is just that he’s been at camp so long, and with Lee adopting him Percy’s just always around. And well, the prophet thing is less than fun for Percy. Prophets don’t normally come into their abilities until their late teens, early twenties. Sun God first became aware of Perce when he was three, but he thinks the visions started even earlier.”

Okay. That definitely sounds kind of horrible.

“He never got a chance at anything normal. And as it is, at some point he’s going to end up having to be a full time prophet to the gods in a temple somewhere. So, we did what we could for him, tried to give him a chance to be a kid.”

Never mind. Sounds to Piper like it’s basically the kid had a shit life and they spoiled him too much and now he’s just another rich kid. Yeah, she has no interest in talking about him further.

“Okay, so. I still don’t know what charmspeak is or why the kid accused me of mind control? Also, why am I dressed like this?”

She’d been trying very hard to ignore the fact she was wearing a slinky pink evening gown and high heels. She had not been wearing them when she confronted the kid. Then there was that pink dove thing above her head and suddenly she was dressed like this.

Silena kind of huffs a laugh, looking way too amused, before she smoothes her expression out. “Uh, well, the clothes are… from Mum? Technically it’s called the blessing of Aphrodite, but at some point she realised most of us see the insta-makeover thing as pretty invasive and more of a curse. So now she does it when she’s annoyed at us. Like a reverse time out?”

“I have never met her, how could I have annoyed her?”

“You got into Percy’s face, and didn’t back off when you were told to. And tried to charmspeak him.”

Piper just stares at her. Why does the love goddess care about this kid?

“Mum likes Percy, there’s this rule that the gods can’t have direct contact with their kids outside of specific situations. Percy lets her use him as a loophole. She comes to camp and asks him a yes/no question about the weather. Then, since she’s here already, she drops by the cabin to say hi to us. It makes her a little… protective of him. She hated not being able to see us except for quests and stuff. Now we get to see her pretty regularly.”

Piper is just so sick of everything. “That seems super counter intuitive? And why does Percy have any say in it?”

Piper is sick of hearing about him.

Silena sighs, “Look, Drew said you were having trouble with all this. I know it’s a lot. We tend to inherit different aspects from our godly parent. Drew has the whole seeing beauty everywhere and building genuine connections, but she hasn’t got any Aphrodite Areia. I’ve got both, and from the sounds of, you’re all Areia.”

What? She knows about the stupid love goddess, But she’s never heard that name before.

“Areia?”

“Mum’s war aspect. Less relationship, more fighting, protection and defence. It all comes from the same place, but just shows up differently. And we really need to talk about the charmspeak.”

Piper huffs in irritation, “I still don’t know what that is.”

Annabeth jumps in, “It’s when people just do what you tell them to, like they are hypnotised. Earlier, you charmspoke Clarisse to let you go, and she just did it.”

Piper frowned, “Didn’t she let me go because I asked her to?”

“If you hadn’t used charmspeak, I guarantee you she’d have kept you restrained till Percy was out of reach.”

Huh. Now Piper’s thinking about it, this sort of thing had happened before. She just figured it was because of who her dad was, people didn’t want to upset his daughter.

Silena’s watching her, “You really didn’t know you were doing it?”

“No?”

Silena was weirdly happy about this, “Oh, this should be interesting! We definitely have to find a way to get you and Drew talking. Poor Drew just could not get control of her charmspeak for so long, she ended up practically tethered to me for nearly two years before we got that sorted out. It’s finally her turn!”

“Can’t I stay here? Annabeth is cool, I bet they have a spare bed?”

Annabeth smiles at her, “Not how it works unfortunately. You’ve been claimed, you’re in Cabin Ten. Some kids never get claimed, and others don’t have an Olympian for a parent so they end up stuck in Cabin Eleven, it’s so overcrowded. But, things’ll get better, at least meet the rest of your siblings?”

Piper gives up and follows Silena to the quaint farm cottage looking cabin. She wished she could have stayed with Annabeth. War goddess or not, Aphrodite was a love goddess first and foremost, and Piper did not belong.

Chapter Text

Ha! Clarisse is a little too happy when she finds out Georgie (which means Percy) has allied with Athena for Capture the Flag, any time she gets to try and beat Percy at something is a good time.

If he does something sneaky and there are no witnesses she can beat him up too. Kid’s got some sort of extreme water healing so even Lee has given up trying to make them “use a little more self-preservation.”

She probably should be annoyed that the kid took one look at her and basically announced that she belonged to him, but well… She’d hated camp when she came here. Her mum had just told her that she’s being deployed and since Clarisse’s dad is the God of War, Clarisse will now be living at a camp for demigods.

She hadn’t even known what a demigod was. Then her mother just bluntly told her she was the reason that… Nope. Not going there.

Clarisse’s barely seen her mother since that day. They write letters occasionally, but other than that, well, Clarisse is used to it now.

She does get it. In her mother’s shoes she wouldn’t want to look at Clarisse either. Not after what happened.

Still hurts though. Not that she would ever admit it.

Her first week at camp just absolutely sucked. Her siblings were like her, but also not. Like, fighting is awesome and honestly, there’s nothing better than winning a hard fight, but there still needs to be a reason for it. A better reason than just breaking bones and drawing blood. She grew up believing you fight to protect what matters. Otherwise her mum would be like, a bouncer at a bar, not a Captain in the army.

According to Percy, Clarisse is ‘missing the angry bits the other kids have’ and she ‘got a shield instead’.

It doesn’t make sense, but also does.

She hadn’t even spoken to the kid when Apollo asked if she was Percy’s ‘big war drum’. She’d had no idea what to think, but after everything was over, Lee just started casually including her in everything Percy did. Same as he did with Georgie.

Lee did sit her down and do the whole serious conversation thing where he warned her that it would cause friction with her siblings and her dad, but she’s yet to meet her father, and her siblings, well, it still does cause friction, but that friction had already been there. She wasn’t like them.

She wanted to fight, to lead, to matter. But she didn’t want her glory to come from someone else’s pain. The pain was just a… side effect? It wasn’t actually good? Unless it was Percy. But he was always fine as soon as he’d been shoved in the lake, so he doesn’t count. Plus he fights back as hard as she does. It’s fair.

Her siblings had mostly gotten used to her now. It helps that the rest of them were all constantly coming and going. Turns out, it was pretty common for Ares kids to be dropped off because of their parents work.

Lots of military parents, but also diplomats, one kid who she’s fairly certain has an actual real life assassin for a mum, and definitely some people Clarisse thinks are in the mob. Crime family of some sort anyway. So kids’ll come and stay for a few months, then get collected and the cycle repeats. Not many actually stay all the time like she does. Right now the only other one is Sherman. He’s sixteen and Cabin Head.

Being year round actually makes things a little easier. It gets her more respect from her siblings since she’s always there. Lets her lean into the leader bits and draw attention away from her lack of bloodlust. For the most part the kids who turn up relatively regularly are a lot more used to her spending time with Percy and don’t make a big deal of it.

She is still an Ares kid, Lee loves teasing her about the first time they met, when “all four feet of you squared up and glared me into submission over a random kid you’d found in a shed.” At least no one can argue she isn’t a war kid, even if she’s not quite normal.

Some of her siblings are… less accepting. They call her Percy’s little lap dog, and make endless jabs about him being a weak little boy who can’t even defend himself.

It’s so stupid. Kid doesn’t fight back specifically because it wouldn’t be fair. It’s one thing for her and the kid to beat each other up, but for most people, if they knew the moment their fist connected, the kid is going to see everything they keep hidden?

All their nightmares, all their fears, all the shitty things that happened before they came to camp? Virtually every demigod at camp has something super traumatising in their past, something they don’t want to share.

She steps in because she knows they don’t want Percy to know. Percy also does not want to know.

He’d also win most fights. Not with her. Well, not always. But definitely with them. He’s been training for five years, one-on-one, with a god. Triton’s the head of the entire military of Atlantis. He’s absolutely obsessed with making sure Percy’s form is perfect and instinctive.

Besides, if Clarisse is considered the best with a sword in camp, what does that mean for the kid who can fight with a sword and a trident? She’s even seem him use both as the same time when he’s gone full out on Triton!

Unfortunately, the kids don’t listen. She can hear it before she sees them. It’s a group of the older Hermes kids, the summer ones. Like, she gets it, one year everything’s fine, and the next summer they come back and seven year round campers are just gone. Five banished, two left by choice. All they were told is that the kids had done something to the new kid in the Apollo cabin, the divinely ordained Prophet of Apollo who was also an absolute shrimp of a kid.

Now it’s a yearly ritual to go Percy-hunting. She’s not sure Percy is actually aware of this, or if he thinks it just accidentally keeps happening on the first day of every summer camp. Even worse, it’s not just the summer campers from five years ago anymore. They’ve collected new ones who never even met Castellan.

She’d left the kid in the stables with the pegasi and hoped he’d stay there till dinner, but no such luck.

The Hermes kids had even remembered his water powers and cornered him far away from the lake or the beach. Clarisse can’t remember their names. Percy probably knows, names were not her thing. Kid collects people’s names and then refuses to ever use them.

They’ve got Percy backed up against the side of armoury, he’s trying very hard to dodge and get away, but they’ve hemmed him in. Strange, normally the prophecy schtick means he knows well in advance and leaves before they even turn up. He doesn’t normally get cornered.

He’s no longer the shrimp she first knew, still shorter than her, but not by that much. Messy black hair, sea green eyes, tan skin… And a lot more solid muscle hidden under his clothes than anyone ever seems to realise. He looks just like Triton, but she’s learned not to mention it. Kid does a weird twitchy thing whenever someone talks about it. Whatever’s going on there is not her business.

A Hermes kid lunges forward, she can’t see what he did, but now they’ve got him completely hemmed in. Percy’s stopped moving and Clarisse moves to get a good look at his face.

Oh. Shit. That’s how they cornered him.

Percy’s drifting again. Second time in one day, he’s seeing something no one else can and it means they were able to sneak up on him. Not good. Other than that first day, it’s only happened for more than a breath a handful of times in the years she’s known him. Maybe twice he wasn’t doing it deliberately. Of all the shit luck for it to happen now.

“Oi! There are a rules for a reason. Back. Up. Now.”

One of them sneers back, “Oh look, his guard dog’s back, here to bark at us?”

She considers the scene, she could call for Apollo, he’ll come, and Percy will be upset with her for calling in the big guns. There are six Hermes kids, all older than her. But that’s fine. The issue is not letting any slip past her.

The situation isn’t great, but if she can get in front of the kid she should be able to hold position long enough for him to snap out of it. Then he can help her bash some heads in. Kid deserves some fun.

She goes for it.

“Why would I bark when I can bite?”

She’s only got a wooden training sword, but oh it is glorious, spinning and ducking and hitting them all in turn. She gets the blonde girl right across the face. She goes stumbling back. Oops. Hopefully that’s just a bloody nose and Clarisse didn’t break it? Lee gets annoyed when Clarisse breaks kids ‘without good reason’. Especially when it’s an unclaimed Athena kid.

She still misses one, her sword comes down hard on his arm just as his hand grabs the kid’s upper arm. Not good!

He lets go, but he made contact for long enough that Percy definitely learned more than he wanted to. She can’t turn to check whether the kid’s back yet, she’s still got the other five coming back at her.

The one who grabbed him is down. Hey! Looks like she broke his arm. Lee won’t mind, he touched the kid.

She turns towards the closest attacker, her foot catches on something but she uses it to add power to the spin and-

What the hell? Everything is shaking?

Earthquake! The ground rumbling and shaking and sending all of them tumbling down.

Tight strained voice, “War Drum, gotta go, now. Help?”

She gets to her feet. He’s still upright, clutching against the wall of the armoury for dear life. He looks like utter shit, pale and shaking.

“Gonna have to carry you. You can’t walk Prissy.”

“Yeah, whatever, just, need to go. Now.”

She grabs him, heaving him over her shoulder in a firefighter carry. It’s undignified but it works. “Where am I taking you?”

“Big House. Hot Air.”

Even worse. He spends summers ducking Lee, the hell just happened?

Lee sees them coming and is waiting for them outside the Big House, immediately going on ahead to open the door. Clarisse dumps the kid on an infirmary bed and steps back so Lee can fuss over him and shove water down his throat.

Kid’s kinda blankly staring at the ceiling while Lee demands answers.

Finally he blinks and asks, “Say, Hot Air, did ya know I could cause an earthquake?”

Lee freezes. Looks at the kid. Glances at Clarisse.

“Uh, Perce, Clarisse is still here. If you want her to stay, she can, but if you’re going to ask what I think you are, you should know. Clarisse is standing right here.”

She has absolutely no idea how either of them ever know what the other is saying. She’s gotten used to the bizarre conversations by now. Seems to be just how those two work.

“S’kay, War Drum’ll need to know.”

“Kid, I really don’t need to know. You do enough weird shit already. I just keep you around because of the water healing. It’s useful to be able to beat you up and have you good as new ten minutes later.”

“You just keep telling yourself that. One day you’re gonna admit you’re my friend.”

She rolls her eyes. Far too sappy for her.

Percy’s still staring up, not looking at them, “Hey, Hot Air, you know who my dad is, right?”

Lee has gone very still and is no longer even trying to check the kid over. He sits down next to the bed, “Yes, I do.”

“S’him isn’t it?”

“Yup.”

“Huh. It’s all gonna get bad for a bit now. He’s not gonna be happy, even he thought it was Triton.”

Clarisse just waits out the cryptic conversation. Eventually one of them will say whichever part is relevant to her. They go and back and forth a bit more, with a break for Lee to force the kid to drink yet more water. He’s looking better at least.

Eventually Percy turns to her. “So, just so you know, Apollo’s been gaslighting the Sky King for five years now. Had him completely convinced Triton’s my dad. I knew he wasn’t but didn’t know who. Well I did, but I was very carefully not remembering that information. Then I caused an earthquake. And now I know.”

She blinks. “And now the Sky King’s gonna be pissed? Do I want to know who your dad is?”

“Sea King.”

Shit.

“In five years, it never occurred to you to mention you were a forbidden kid? Seriously? Prissy!”

“Hey, you never said you were my friend! That’s friend level information. Also, I didn’t know?”

“You see the future, you idiot! And Lee clearly knew!”

Lee puts in all mildly, “It is my job? Can’t be the High Priest of Apollo if I don’t know who to protect him from?”

“Is he gonna go all lightning bolt happy and fry you now?”

Percy shrugs, “Probably, eventually, got a little wiggle room, at least ’til I’m officially claimed. Something else’ll happen first, then I’ll be claimed. Then it’ll be kinda shitty for a bit, then it’ll be good again.”

Kid gives her a serious look, the face he makes when he has to be the Prophet of Apollo and not just a random camper, “War Drum, you gotta decide, like now, if you’re coming along for the ride. It’s kind of a big thing, like, huge. Life or death big. Can keep you out of it, but only if you tell me in, like the next five minutes. Only gonna take you with me if you’re actually willing.”

She has spent far too much time with the kid, gods help her, she actually understood that mess.

She sighs, “I’m in, gotta get some fun out of you adopting me, right?”

Lee is watching them, debating something. “Perce, should I get that thing from Tri? Will it help?”

And serious moments over, gleeful sea kid’s back in business, “Yes! War Drum deserves nice things. I know he’s being all nervous about it, but she’ll like it, really!”

Lee rolls his eyes, “I meant with whatever’s coming, you dork. We set it aside because it’s not camp-appropriate, not because Tri was nervous.”

“Answer’s still yes.”

Kid’s grin is a little too mischievous, what did she just agree to?

Lee just gives him a fond look, gods he’s such a sap, “Okay, earth-shaker, you are going for a swim. I’ll take Clarisse to Cabin Seven, you are not supervising this. It’s her choice, not yours.”

Percy sticks his tongue out, he’s already mostly recovered but still happy to head off to the beach while Clarisse follows Lee to the Apollo cabin.

Lee opens the weapons locker in their sitting room and pulls something little out. They keep the ocean forged weaponry in there. Even though Percy carries a transformed sword and trident everywhere he goes, they still lock the rest up. Percy always makes snarky comments about Lee being all parental and child-proofing everything whenever he is reminded that Priss doesn’t actually know the combination.

Lee pauses for a second, holding whatever it is. Oh. Poor Lee. She knows Lee’s parental thing extends to her, though she prefers to ignore it. The kid can adopt her, that’s fine, he’s younger than she is. But she does not need any more adults. Lee always agrees with her, and then just keeps on fussing at her.

Lee looks at her, looking so very serious and camp leader-ish, “So, Triton had this made a while back. We were… aware, that something would be coming. Since Percy has been absolutely insistent you were his, we figured he’d probably be dragging you into it. It’s ocean-forged, but it’s been made for a land dweller so the balance should work for you.”

Lee holds out a little pendant on a necklace, all sleek elegance looking like nothing particular, the sort of necklace Drew likes to wear, those Tiffany ones. Lee pulls the pendant off the chain and it abruptly extends into a spear in his hand.

“It has the same sort of returning charm Percy’s sword and trident uses. And a few extra tricks. Please never use it unless you intend to kill. It’s not a practice weapon. And it will work on gods, mortals, demigods and monsters. Like I said, it’s for battle, not for games.”

He stares at her seriously, “Triton will kill you himself if you ever use it with Percy, even just for a spar.”

Clarisse ignores him, she is just staring at it. Just. What.

It’s a spear, but the sort of spear forged for the gods. The same sleek silvery metal with the blue sheen Percy’s charms have. That his trident has. That Poseidon’s trident has. It’s the signature colour of something made in the Royal Forge of Atlantis.

She takes it and stares some more. The balance is perfect, an exact match to the spear she uses daily. There’s a tiny engraving, just beneath the lethally sharp head. A conch shell. Clarisse knows what that conch shell means. She’s just gonna ignore that.

She looks at Lee, still shocked, “Where? What?”

He grins at her, “It’s yours, it was forged for you. It’ll change as you grow, always the right length, the right balance. It’s called Amyntor.”

“Defender.” She keeps staring at it.

“It seems appropriate? Perce calls you a shield. I know it’s an aura thing, but it does fit.”

He pauses, she finally drags her eyes away from the spear to look at him. He focuses on her, making eye contact,

“And, as much as I hate saying this to a thirteen year old, Percy is a Prophet of Apollo, the only one left. Clarisse, he needs to have someone with him who can defend him. Protect him. Be his shield.”

She frowns, “Not you?”

Lee is an adult, Percy’s High Priest, is that not his job?

“It’s complicated. Eventually, yes, it will be me. But there are some things that have to happen first. The next few years, they are going to be rough. I don’t know what will happen. I don’t think Percy really knows either. Just that it’s going to be a lot and I may not be able to be with him.”

He gives her a small smile, “It’s your choice, Clarisse. You don’t have to go with him. You don’t have to take Amyntor. It can sit here until it’s needed, even if that’s never. We just wanted to make sure you had something to keep you safe if you decided to follow the kid into everything that’s coming.”

She glares, “I’m not giving it back! It’s mine! Triton had it made for me!”

Lee rolls his eyes and holds out the necklace chain, “Put that on then. When you let go of the spear intentionally, it’ll return to the necklace.”

She does and stares in awe as the spear disappears and she feels the pendant’s weight on the chain.

“Told you War Drum would like it!” Percy’s already back, grin plastered all over his face.

There’s something in his eyes though, the way he looks at her pendant. Something just happened. Something he dreaded, but also expected. Awesome. More prophet bullshit.

Lee gives him a glare, “She’s already been told not to use it on you, don’t you dare encourage her. It’s not for sparring. Triton will take it back if you talk her into fighting you with it.”

He rolls his eyes, “Seriously dude, relax. You’re starting to live up to your nickname.”

“Pretty sure it started out as Warm Air? Something to do with me being so welcoming? Home-like?”

Prissy goes red. Ha! She’s going to remember that one.

He turns back to Clarisse, “Since kill-joy won’t let you use it on me, wanna go test it out on one of the sparring dummies?”

Yes. She definitely does. There are distinct benefits to being adopted by this kid. Amyntor may be the best yet.

________________________

Dionysus watches as Apollo’s kid comes back to the Big House. He’s looking a little too serious for the first day of summer camp. More fighting?

Dionysus has gotten used to the kid basically running the camp these days. The finances are always sorted and there are far fewer injuries with the kid handling things. Though, twenty-five isn’t so much of a kid as he used to be.

“Something wrong?”

Kid winces. “Yeah, uh, so Percy knows now?”

“Kid, that really doesn’t clear things up, brat’s in deliberate denial over a lot of things.”

“He caused an earthquake.”

“Ah. You let the Sea King know?”

“Not yet, I went to give Clarisse the spear.”

Dionysus sighs. Among the kid’s ramblings when he had first come to camp, he’d told them it would start with the drum.

A month later and the kid’s virtually adopted one of Ares’ brats and relentlessly calls her War Drum. They’d taken it as granted she’d be involved. Even had a weapon forged for her from Uncle’s personal armoury.

It didn’t sit right. Too much relied on the prophet, he needed more than a thirteen year old with a God-level weapon to protect him.

The fact Dionysus was so unbothered by the thirteen year old possessing a god-level weapon should be a little more concerning than it is.

“Apollo named her yet?”

“No, I don’t think he will either, not for a while anyway. It’ll just draw too much attention from the War God.”

“What, he going to be cranky his daughter’s the first person in literal millennia to be named Hiereia phroura tou Apollonos?”

“He’s still going to think Dad stole her away from him, Priestess Guard of Apollo or not.”

“But she did take the spear?”

The kid nods. Well, it’s something at least.

“When’s he being claimed?”

“Don’t know, he said something still needs to happen. He didn’t say what, not sure he knows.”

Kid pauses, and suddenly he looks like the lost confused twelve year old Dionysus bullied into pinochle while Chiron failed to explain demigods to him. Before golden sparks announced him as one of Apollo’s and his siblings took over.

“They are going to be alright, aren’t they? All of this, all of the preparation, it just seems… wrong. He’s still just a kid!”

“He’s thirteen in two months, we’re on a countdown now. Three years, two months. There’s only so much we can do. We can’t do this one for him.”

Dionysus has seen a lot of brats come and go. Part of the whole undying god routine. Though, he had been a demigod once. Still. He didn’t normally get attached. If the brat was just a forbidden kid, then, he’d have wished him luck and sent him off. If he’d really liked the kid, he might have offered him an out, life as a dolphin or something. But that’s as far as he’d go.

So long as the Great Prophecy was sorted, he would not have really minded if the kid lived or died.

Instead they got a forbidden kid who was the most powerful prophet any of them had ever seen. A kid whose continued existence re-balances the Council of Gods. There was a hell of a lot riding on the brat’s continued survival. Far more than just the completion of the Great Prophecy. Dionysus isn’t going to think about the war kid. The brat is bad enough.

Apollo’s kid sighed. Slumped into a chair. Glared as Dionysus dealt him into a game. “I liked being camp leader. Why did I agree to be a High Priest again? Things used to be so easy!”

Dionysus just rolled his eyes, “You’d never give up your brat, no matter how much easier life without him is. Without him you’d not have the girl either.”

“Now, play your cards and try and work out how you’re going to tell my brother his kid’s got Uncle’s earthquake aspect. I’m definitely watching that conversation. It’s going to be hilarious.”

________________________

Okay, Percy may be feeling a little jealous. War Drum’s new spear is amazing.

It is so unfair they can’t spar with it, he really wants to see what it can do against his trident.

She’s already absolutely trashed three sparring dummies. The thing just glides right through them, as if they weren’t even there.

Percy considers things. Lee went back to the Big House, he definitely has to go have some awkward talks with gods after Percy’s little earthquake moment. Technically no one would see them…

“Don’t even think it, Prissy.”

“Oh come on War Drum!” He whines at her, “Look at it! Can’t you just imagine how awesome it’d be, going against Katecho?

“Prissy. Yes. It would be awesome. But. You do remember who gave you your giant pitchfork?”

Yes, his trident came from Triton. And yes, Triton being far too sappy had named it Katecho, ‘Hold Fast’, because of course he did. Gotta make sure Percy won’t forget his heritage, to the point even his trident’s name is a reminder to anchor himself to the ocean. Triton is a secret fusspot.

“Yes? So? Your spear came from him too?”

“Dude. Stop with the dumb act already! You know what happened? It involved a spear? I am happy to fight you with any other weapon. But I’m not doing that to him.”

Oh. Yeah. Good point.

Huh. “Hey, I wonder why he gave you a spear? Like, I’m pretty sure he’s the one who organised it all?”

She rolls her eyes, “Because it’s my best weapon, spears come natural for me. He cares more about you surviving than he does about past memories. Which is also why I’m not fighting you with it. Especially since Lee described it as a god-level weapon.”

Neurotic. Overprotective. Drama. Queens.

“Sooo… which god are we killing first? I vote for Ol’ Grey Eyes!”

“You do realise this is why Wise Girl keeps treating you like you have rocks for brains?”

Percy just shrugs at her. He could be the smartest in the room and people would still treat him like he’s stupid. He’s used to it. The people who matter know the truth, it’s enough for him.

“Ah, I had wondered where you two got to.”

He sighs, turns around, “Hey Chiron! I was just watching War Drum take some of her aggression out on the straw dummies.”

By the time the centaur’s close enough to see what they’ve been up to, Clarisse is holding her practice spear, Amyntor back on it’s chain. They don’t always get on with the centaur.

Chiron is apparently a far better training master than he was before Percy came to camp. He honestly doesn’t really remember. He just noticed when the guy’s aura finally lightened up.

Percy still keeps his distance, he does not want to know what’s in the guy’s memories. He spends a lot of time trying to coax Percy into combat training. Which kind of makes sense, as far as he knows Percy’s the only demigod at camp with zero training. Plus Clarisse deliberately riles Chiron up.

Percy supposes he probably could do more training now, or at least, whenever he’s formally claimed he’ll be able to. No more needing to keep Katecho hidden. A trident’s a little too much of a giveaway as to his actual heritage.

“Clarisse, we do need the dummies to last longer than the first day.” Poor guy sounds so disappointed in her.

“All good, man, me and Prissy’ll get em fixed up like new before they’re needed again.”

Also known as one of the gods lurking about will replace them before anyone realises exactly how destroyed they are. Percy and Clarisse had entirely given up being discreet years ago, and Percy is happy to take advantage of the gods’ overprotective natures. when it suits him, anyway.

Chiron turns to Percy, “I hear you’ll be joining Capture the Flag on Monday?”

“Yup! Still non-contact, but at least I can play now! We’re allied with Athena.”

“It’ll just make things better when I beat you!”

“Nah, I’m gonna enjoy rubbing your face in the dirt.”

“Now, children.” Dude. He and Clarisse constantly insult each other. Playing nice is not in their vocabulary. Then again, Chiron probably thinks the “Prissy” nickname is an insult. He can’t remember if they ever explained that one to him.

With Chiron lurking, their fun was definitely over. They headed back to the cabins, but as soon as Percy caught sight of Cabin Three, he froze and started edging backwards.

“Uh, War Drum? What’d it take for you to hide me in your cabin? For like, the next month?”

She shoves him forwards, “Guessing there’s a god in there?”

“Try three.”

She’s laughing at him. Why did he adopt her again? She’s mean.

“Which ones?”

“Sun God, Sea King and Sea Prince.”

Now she’s downright cackling. “Yeah, I’m not touching that. Go have fun with that, earth-shaker.”

He sighs. “Can you at least make sure I don’t get any visitors? Sea Sister’s fine, but keep Strobe and Power out?”

Castor and Pollux do best when they can pretend Percy doesn’t have private meetings with gods. Georgie is uncomfortably deferential with the Atlantis royals, but at least she doesn’t care about offending land dwelling gods.

“Sure thing, I’ll go hassle the twins. Have fun!”

He heads in, he so does not want to deal with this. It’s only the first day! Stupid Hermes kids and stupid earthquake. Since when could he do earthquakes?

He plops onto one of the couches, across from the three gods. Half the reason the sitting room is so well furnished is because of these super fun godly drop-ins.

“Hi ‘Pollo, Hi Brother-not-Dad, Hi Dad-not-Grandad.”

Oh, the looks on their faces! Okay. The fact he’s like, the only one who can torture the gods, and not be vaporised? Well, it is kind of awesome.

Apollo recovers first. “So an earthquake, huh? This is new.”

“Yeah, surprised the hell out of me. Totally sapped all my energy too.”

“You never actually told Lee what led to you causing an earthquake?”

Uh. No thank you. Let’s not do that question.

“So, how’s things going? Did you notice the King of the Sea and his heir are in my sitting room?”

Apollo just looks at him. Percy misses the days when he could distract the god from his questions.

“Kid. I don’t know how many different ways to say ‘that was a completely different situation’. There was a lot more to it than bullying. I’m not actually going to vaporise kids for acting like little shits. But I still do need to know what caused the, uh, change? In your aura?”

Percy perks up. Change?

“My aura changed? Hot Air always refuses to tell me what my aura looks like!”

Apollo snorts. “That would be because I told him not to tell you. You’d have worked out who your dad is immediately if he’d shared anything with you.”

“Well, I know now!” He glances at Poseidon, “Hi Dad!” Switches straight back to Apollo, “So? What’s it look like?”

The sun god just rolls his eyes at him. “Before today, it looked like him, if you trapped it in a bottle.” He gestures to Poseidon, who’s still watching them, kinda smirking.

They have actually met before. Not like, spent time together one-on-one, but Poseidon’s watched a few of his training sessions with Triton, been in Atlantis when Percy’s visited, and occasionally stopped in at the camp. So long as no one directly told Percy he was Poseidon’s son, they could keep playing the denial game indefinitely. At least until he caused an earthquake

“Huh, like a storm in a glass bottle kind of deal?”

That gets their attention, “You’ve seen your aura?”

Percy huffs, “Didn’t know it was mine, been dreaming about it, storm in a bottle, but with an earthquake and a riptide as well? All sealed behind glass. Then the bottle cracks. And the dream ends.”

Apollo sighs, “Kid! We’ve talked about this, you need to share these things! I already feel like a creep constantly checking your sketchbooks, but if you don’t draw it, I don’t see it! I’m still not a mind reader?”

Drama queen. Seriously.

Percy just shrugs, “If I’d drawn it, I’d have known. So I didn’t. ‘Sides, you knew it was all starting, you’ve known since the Winter Solstice.”

Poseidon breaks in, still highly entertained, “Is it always like this? Percy just declaring he knows? Even though the whole reason we are here was to inform him?”

“Yes. It is aggravating. It happens constantly.”

Poor old fusspot. If Triton wasn’t quite so fun to mess with…

Percy just grins at them. “Though, seriously, can someone explain why I have earthquake powers? That wasn’t in the brochure!”

Poseidon goes to answer and Apollo cuts him off, “We’ll give you information, if you give us information. What triggered it?”

Percy huffs. No fair. Ruining his distraction. It almost worked!

“Some kids cornered me. They’re still pissed about the stuff with Luke. They’ll age out soon, just gotta wait ‘em out.”

“Define, ‘cornered’”

“Come on Tri! You know I can’t use the trident without giving the game away. And they got me at a bad moment. There’s a new girl, super loud aura, majorly pissed at me.”

Apollo goes all stiff and cranky. Gods!

He sighs, “Not because of me, she’s just angry at the world and I was a convenient target. But, I was thinking about her and not my surroundings. And one of the kid’s grabbed my arm. The memory I saw was kind of super bad. Actually I gotta remember to have a chat to Mr D, that kid needs help. Anyway, War Drum turned up just after, so I was fine.”

“At no point in that did you mention an earthquake.”

He rolls his eyes. “Okay. Fine. War Drum decided to fight the whole lot of ‘em off while I shook off the memory. There were like six of them though, and all she had was a wooden training sword. One slipped under her guard, she got him good, think she broke his arm, but he still made contact. Same guy, terrible memories. Like, way worse than anything I had before I came here.”

Oooh all three gods did not like that. Time to distract with the earthquake bit?

“And War Drum kinda tripped a bit, she would’ve been fine but I was still stuck in the memory of being too small and about to be hurt, so I just kinda… shoved back. Felt something crack, like, inside my powers, and then boom, earthquake.”

Apollo and Triton are far too used to his explanations. Poseidon… huh, yeah, he might need some time to adjust to Percy being Percy.

He gives them all an awkward smile. “So, can I go? I already know about the Bolt. Also the other thing. Dunno if you know about that one though. So I’m not saying more unless you do.”

Poseidon’s laughing at him. “Yes we know about the Helm. Or at least, we know it is missing along with the Bolt. The Sky King seems to be unaware a second item was stolen.”

Apollo jumps in before Percy can leave, “You do realise that I’m going to insist you also speak to Dio, as well as Dio speaking to whoever had the terrible memory?”

“I see way worse, like nightly!”

Mr Fusspot immediately comes back with, “Then should you not be speaking more often with Dionysus?”

“Hey, I’ve had this prophet schtick for like, a decade now. Pretty sure it comes with some side effect of helping me handle all of the super graphic violence, because otherwise I’d be insane already?”

They all wince. Yeah, no one likes being reminded that he has a nightly front row seat to the goriest real life violence in history. It’s great fun.

“Kid, you wouldn’t have reacted like that unless it triggered one of your own memories. It’s why we tend to lock prophets up in nice little ivory towers. The prophecy schtick, as you call it, only protects you from the stories that aren’t your own. If this kid’s memory made you freeze like that…”

Apollo trails off, but he got the message across. And yes, fine, Percy’s earthquake happened because, for a moment, he saw Gabe and he was terrified for Clarisse.

He sighs, “Fine, I’ll go see Mr D. Can I go?”

“No, we still need to discuss what’s coming. There’s only so much we can do without my father noticing. Lee said something needed to happen before your claiming?”

“Uh. Can we just not talk about that?”

Apollo gives him a look, “Because you can’t discuss it, or you just don’t want to?”

Percy doesn’t actually know for sure, but the one thing he is certain of… “Because it’s gonna be a little less mortifying for me if you don’t have advance warning?”

Poseidon is starting to look tired. Yeah, Percy has that effect. “Will I know the right time to claim you?”

“Yeah, Chiron’s gonna absolutely flip out. You’ll know.”

“How wonderful, the centaur is involved. Precisely why is he still here?”

“I told you Tri, Trainer to the Heroes and all that. Besides, his aura has improved tonnes.”

“I trained you. And your Shield. Not he.”

“You do realise that every time you call her my Shield, she hits me? Right? Like, this is a thing she does? Regularly. Every time you use that nickname? And then you went and named her spear Amyntor?”

Triton just stares at him, unrepentant.

Apollo finally gets them back on track. Besides another lecture about talking to Mr D, he gets a shiny new lecture about how if they send him on this quest he does actually have to go see the Oracle, and no, he can’t just spout a prophecy himself. No one else knows Percy can do that and Apollo would like to keep it that way. It’s just taken as given that there will be a quest. Which, there will be. Though Percy’s pretty sure everyone else worked that out using logic not prophet weirdness.

Percy is debating on whether he tells them the other thing that’s gonna freak ‘em out. But he has a feeling if he doesn’t tell them, they are going to descend en masse regardless when they learn of it.

“So, uh, one more thing you need to know, if this quest happens?”

“No. Do not.”

He winces, he genuinely does feel bad about this one. He gets it, he really does.

“Sorry Tri, Wise Girl has to come with. And War Drum. If she’d said no and hadn’t taken Amyntor it’d have been someone else, but now… Yeah. It’ll be those two.”

Apollo considers him, “Just how long ago was this path set in place?”

Percy makes a face, half truths are fun, “My memories of that time are pretty messed up, but I know at some point I told you it’d all start with the drum? Yeah, that’s when.”

“If she hadn’t taken the spear?”

He keeps his face blank, yeah, let’s not go there, “Uh, it would have been not so great? I’d have survived what’s coming, sort of, but, yeah, super glad she took it. We’ve got a better path now.”

None of them look very surprised. Makes sense, he did just spout prophecy all over the place at the time. Someone would have actually paid attention. They don’t know all of it though. Not yet.

Apollo is still looking thoughtful. “I’ve not brought it up before, but at the time, you did mention two other people…”

He trails off, giving Percy the chance to stop him. They have this whole denial thing down pat these days.

But Percy’s just confused. “Two? No, that’s not right. It should be three?”

Now they are looking equally lost. “Can you elaborate?”

“Uh, one you definitely know about, I probably called her something like loud crackle? Bright crackle? She’s currently a tree.” He hooks his thumb towards Thalia’s pine tree.

Apollo is doing the silent laughing thing, “Yes, that was one of the names you mentioned. I didn’t notice a third though, the second was ‘twisty shadows’?”

“Oh! Yeah, there’s two of them. Not one person. Two with similar auras.”

Poseidon’s face clears and is full of understanding, “Ah, yes, they are still in stasis currently.”

“Yeah, figured. Need to get ‘em soon. Like, next few weeks I think? Thalia’ll take a bit a longer. But it’s almost time for the other two.”

“I can arrange for them to be ready for you, should your quest bring you there?”

“Yep, works for me. Rather not deal with whatever that situation is. Feels uncomfortable.”

Apollo just stares at him, “Percy, I mean this in the kindest, most caring way possible, but you are the weirdest prophet I have ever met.”

He rolls his eyes, “Well, half my knowing” he emphasises the word intensely, “comes from that guy” he waves at Poseidon. “I got a double dose. Thanks ever so much.”

Poseidon gives him a smug smile, “I admit, I was quite pleased when I learned why Apollo struggled to seal your knowing, though I am sorry you had to suffer. But I don’t believe either I or Apollo had much to do with you receiving such abilities, I’m fairly certain the Fates had a hand in it.”

“Yep, them too. I don’t like them. But they can’t do jack, so it’s all good.”

Three horrified gods stare back at him. Even the gods don’t antagonise the Fates.

“S’all good, seriously! They can’t actually go all return to sender on me. I’m their solution to them bungling it all up in the first place. I gotta get some fun out of it?”

“Yeah, letting you spend so much time around gods was not a good idea. I should have stuck you in a nice quiet isolated temple where you might have learned a bit of respect.”

“But then who’d go and fetch the giant taser and the bronze hat for you?”

Three stunned gods. This is fun. But also, time to go before they recover.

“Cool, I’m out, let me know if you need me, otherwise, I’ll see you when I get back with the goods! Kay? Cool! Bye!”

He bolts out the door, Clarisse is waiting for him. “Hey War Drum! Time for dinner? Let’s go to dinner!”

“Prissy, what did you do this time?”

“Temporarily confused a few gods to the point where they bluescreened?”

“By?”

“Calling the lightning bolt a giant taser and the Helm of Darkness a bronze hat?”

“They really are gonna vaporise you one day, you know?”

“Then I’ll annoy Uncle till he sends me back. All good!”

________________________

Leo is having the best day ever. He’s just found out he’s a demigod, been shown around a camp that has like, flying horses! And been given a bed in a cabin that has its own attached forge! This whole place is just… totally nuts.

The weird bitchy girl who’d been brought to camp at the same time as him, Piper? she was less great, had a total bee in her bonnet about the prophet kid. But Leo understood how much it sucks to have powers that scare people.

Honestly hearing about the kid, about how much effort’s been put in for people to interact with him despite his kind of terrifying abilities… It made Leo think he might one day be able to tell Beck about the stuff he can do.

Granted, he’d not seen any kids around camp who could set themselves on fire, but if a kid could just kind of regularly see the future, then, maybe?

They were at dinner now, Beck had shown him how to make an offering to Hephaestus (Leo knows who his dad is!) and now Beck was explaining the magical cups. They were getting kind of side tracked talking about how they worked, when this kid rocks up to the table and taps on it to grab their attention.

Kid sort of chirps, “Hi Metal Man!” And just stands there grinning like a hyena. Super messy black hair, deep sea green eyes dancing with mischief, this kid looks like he would be great fun to mess with. Or prank other people with. Either works.

Beck just looks at him, and goes “No.”

“Aww come on, you didn’t even hear me out!”

Beck just looks tired, “Prophecy or prank?”

Oh! Leo perks up, is this the kid?

“Uh, neither? Actually, now I’m thinking of it, it might be a prophecy thing. Just not life changing? And probably only important to me?”

Big tired sigh from Beck, “Spit it out. If this upsets Lee again, I’m making you clean the forge.”

Kid’s way too energetic, and Leo thought his ADHD was bad.

“It’s just, I think there’s something wrong with James’ feeder? Well, actually, I think there will be something wrong. Might not have happened yet. But can you check it? Please?”

Beck is just staring at him, “You feed the creepy fish by hand. Like, obsessively. Lee keeps complaining about it. Why am I checking the feeder you don’t use?”

Kid blinks. “Uh. Actually, I can guarantee you do not want me to answer that question.” He switches his attention to Leo, “Hey! New kid, you look fun! Don’t suppose you’d mind checking over an automatic fish feeder for me?”

Leo goes to answer, but Beck cuts him off, “No. Nope. Leo’s off limits. You are not doing your trial by fire thing. I like Leo. I would like to keep him. You are not breaking him.”

Kid’s outright pouting now. “Fine, will you check it then? It’s important!”

“Give me an actual reason, in ten words or less.”

“If not, Lee’ll have to feed James while I’m away.”

Beck stares at him, hard, “You aren’t allowed outside camp, not without an escort. Why would Lee be the one doing it? He always goes with you?”

“You really don’t want to know the answer. Please? Just fix it?”

“I’m not going near your cabin. Or the creepy fish.”

“Awesome, I’ll bring it over to you! Thanks so much Beck! Good to meet you New Kid, come talk when Mr Grumpy’s not watching! Bye!”

And the kid’s gone, an absolute whirlwind of energy, he’s headed to a table a bit further down from them, an empty table between. Most of the kids are blonde and blue eyed and clearly very familiar with the tornado kid.

Leo blinks, “Uh, I don’t know what to ask first?”

“That was Percy. The prophet kid. He’s either pulling ridiculously complex pranks and begging for devices to help, or attempting to rope me into something without explaining why. It always works out for him, not so much for the bystanders. Lee’s the unofficial camp director and also his guardian, kinda his dad, but also not.”

“And his cabin?”

“Tends to have gods lurking around, constantly. I have no idea how it doesn’t bug him. And when it’s not a god it’s the creepy fish who acts extremely human and apparently talks to Percy. It’s creepy. I avoid it as much as possible.”

Leo’s watching an older blonde guy mess with the kid, poking at him and teasing him till the kid moves up and makes room at the table, “You do realise you all act like overtired parents around the kid?”

Beck gives him a flat look, “I dare you to live with him year round and not feel the same way. Kid’s exhausting, literally has gods riding herd on him and even they need time away from him.”

“Huh. So, this fish feeder, I take it it’s not actually like a normal one?”

And they’re off on a discussion of a little machine that lets the creepy fish pick exactly what it wants to eat from a range of over twenty options. Leo doesn’t think the fish talking is a prank if it can both choose which food it wants and also serve itself, but maybe fish are more intelligent then he realised?

________________________

Beck’s definitely not letting him near Leo anytime soon. Pity. They could have such fun together, someone from Hephaestus who’s willing to prank the others would totally help him dominate the latest prank war.

At least Beck did finally take the fish feeder to look over. He still wanted an assurance from Percy that he would tell Lee if he was leaving camp. Dude means well but doesn’t quite get the whole prophet thing. Percy would very gladly be a kid and do what his guardian says, but some gods and the Fates got in the way and he kind of has to go where the knowing tells him to.

Lee at least does understand. And it’s also why the angry girl, Piper, is so totally convinced Percy’s a spoiled rich kid. Because he doesn’t really get to be a kid. It’s a little more play acting as one, and a little less being one.

Add in that Percy’s a forbidden kid and definitely at the extreme end of the power scale even before you consider his double dose of prophetic ability…

Yep, from the outside he looks spoiled rotten.

Normally he’d be doing everything he can to avoid Lee and Mr D. Summer is his being a normal kid time. He’d be focusing on convincing the newer campers that Lee’s whole ‘don’t break the prophet’ briefing was just a prank and Percy’s just like everyone else, really. Castor and Pollux have long since disappeared into the crowd of campers and will be avoiding their father like the plague.

Percy’s not feeling it tonight. He knows he’s only got a few days now. Doesn’t know the specifics, never does, it’s a feeling rather than thoughts with words.

But tonight, at the first campfire of the summer, even though he knows it’s just going to piss the new girl off more, he sits with Lee and Mr D, leaning into Lee’s side.

Lee wraps his arm around him and lets him just sit there, enjoying the warm air and spilling light, the sun warmed wood and tension of the bow string, all the things that make up Lee’s aura, that tell him who Lee is. That tell him how much Lee cares about him.

Percy knows he has a dad, has always known. Lee knows too. But Lee’s his guardian, his High Priest and all the other titles that come along with being handed a too young prophet. Being told to keep him alive. Keep him safe. Keep him anchored in the real world.

Lee’s his Lee.

Percy speaks quietly, a secret just for them, “It’s gonna start soon.”

Lee’s reply is just as soft, “Yeah, kid. I know.”

“Once it starts, it’s not gonna stop. Not ’til it’s over.”

Lee’s arm tightens around him. “You’d tell me, if there was anything I can do, right?”

Percy sighs, leans harder against Lee. “You’re doing it. Need an anchor. Need to know there’s a place to come back to.”

Mr D speaks so softly, with the voice he uses when he doesn’t want others to know he actually cares, “You’ll always have a home here. Always have people waiting for you.”

Percy sighs. “Not all of them will be waiting. It’s… it’s going to be bad. Gonna do what I can, but…”

“Oh, kid. That’s not on you. This all started long before you were born, before I was born. We do what we can, with what we have, but you can’t save everyone.”

Percy doesn’t answer, just curls into himself, shrinks down a bit.

Mr D, still soft, “Percy. This is about her, isn’t it?”

Percy looks across the fire, Annabeth surrounded by her siblings, sitting next to Piper. Annabeth with her face lit by the firelight, smiling as she sings along. Annabeth with the blonde hair and fine sculpted features, her eyes the same shape as Percy’s own.

Annabeth who looks more and more like Pallas every day. Annabeth who says Percy is her best friend. Who genuinely, deeply cares. Who wants things to be better.

“Yeah. I can’t save her.”

Lee’s voice, rumbling in his chest. “You know what Apollo would ask,”

Percy sighs, he does, “How long since the path was set?”

Mr D’s voice is still just a whisper, no one else will hear him. To the campers, he’s looking bored and irritated, sick of the demigods singing silly songs around a fire that’s full of leaping flames fuelled by the excitement of the first day of summer.

“How long since it was set, Percy?”

The words when Percy finally says them, are quiet, but they are true, an answer he had not known, “It was set the day she met Thalia. It was sealed by Thalia’s loss and… something else.”

“Perce, you were what, five years old? You knew nothing of this world then. You could not have changed her path. You can’t change what is coming. Her thread is woven already.”

He watches her. This girl who looks like Pallas. His brother’s daughter. Who Triton still grieves, who Apollo still mourns.

He knows how she will die.

“She looks like her. By the time it happens, they could be twins.”

Lee sighs, “Perce, no. You need to stop going back to that dream. If Tri’s triggering it, I’ll ask for a new trainer if I have to. It’s not good for you to keep reliving that.”

Percy stays quiet. “I know you keep dreaming about it, Dad checks your sketchbooks, he tells me when there’s an issue.”

“Tri’s not the one triggering it.”

Lee pauses, “Then who…?” He trails off.

Mr D is the one who answers. “My brother is a little… stressed about the coming events.”

Silence, then, “Perce, why are you tracking Dad’s dreams?”

“What, he can’t be the only mother-hen in the family?

“Kid.”

He sighs, “There’s something… not right. Not with him. But someone he’s been near? Spent time near? I’m not sure. It’s driving me nuts.”

“You cannot fix everything. You are twelve.”

“Yeah but then I start thinking about her and it’s just… Seeing the future kind of sucks, you know?” He finishes plaintively.

Lee pulls him closer, tucking his head on top of Percy’s like he’s still that terrified little kid being offered a proper home for the first time.

“Kid, if I could carry all of this for you, I would. You know that right?”

“Yeah, I know.”

When Percy finally makes it to bed, he feels a little better. A little less guilty. It’s stupid to feel guilt over things he has not even done yet. But Clarisse took the spear today. Amyntor found its rightful place.

Everything starts with the drum. Everything ends with the drum.

Lee must have decided that he needed to call in backup for Percy’s little morbid depressive slump.

The god’s nightly checkins had changed over the years, most of them were now fully aware Percy could sense them. For some it meant they pulled their aura in and reduced the sensation to a here and gone flash. Others took advantage of how much he could feel in their auras.

Apollo’s liquid sunshine and Artemis’ moonlight were brief touches, the taste of their aura brushing through the room and leaving again. As long as Percy was where he was supposed to be and uninjured, they didn’t linger. Tonight the liquid sun reminds him it is not his fault. It sings of truth, and yet, it never seems to convince him. The moonlight tells him that home is people, that the hunters consider him one of their own.

Poseidon has never bothered containing his aura, which, now that Percy knew he was his dad, makes sense. The sea gods are known for their possessiveness.

Besides, Poseidon’s aura is awesome, it’s one of the changing ones, so every night is a whole new range of sensation. He could spend millennia experiencing the guy’s aura and there’d still be new aspects to it every time. Tonight, Poseidon’s aura was all earth shaker, rumbling rocks, trembling ground, crashing, grinding, mountains growing, cracks opening, crevices yawning. Loud and huge and overwhelming, filling the room with its tremors. All of it touched with delight, with pride, announcing exactly how happy he is that can finally acknowledge Percy as his.

Amphitrite follows. She always follows Poseidon. If you didn’t know her, if you couldn’t feel the sheer power in her aura, you might think she’s a meek, polite wife, following her King. But Amphy was a Queen. Her aura was strength, and stillness and restraint. It balanced Poseidon, anchored him, kept his chaos firmly rooted in place. She was the still eye of every storm, the breath of quiet as a maelstrom engulfs the world. Today, the dancing currents and flashing fish announce, just as her husband’s had, her pride and delight in Percy finally knowing he was theirs.

Triton’s aura was the most emotional. It always was. He still didn’t quite know what to do with Percy. He had not wanted to feel attached to a mortal demigod child. But he does anyway. So when the conch horn sounds it calls with a demand in its tone, that Percy survive, that he come home to them, and it’s filled the same pride as the others. Triton’s fiercely proud to call him brother.

Percy sometimes amuses himself wondering what would happen if Clarisse could sense auras. Both she and Triton would categorically deny any sort of parental attachment. But Percy knows. Because right after Triton’s aura appears in Cabin Three, it moves next door, to Cabin Five. And Clarisse. Every time.

Other gods look in on him, they don’t feel quite as protective of him, so the touches are a little more absent, more impersonal. He’s just somehow been included on the list when they check their own children. Tonight there’s the hidden steel, sea foam and cooing of a peace dove from Aphrodite and the briefest molten bronze touch from Hephaestus.

Lee’s warm air and spilling light drifts across him for a moment. Sun warmed wood in clenched fingers, tension on the bowstring, arrow nocked, pulling back. Saying all at once, welcome home, you belong, I will protect you. Unlike the gods, Lee had to learn how to do this, he can project his aura to a specific place but he doesn’t get any feedback from Percy. He does it just for Percy.

The purple vines slink in last, Mr D likes to wait until Percy’s nearly sleep, so that he never can quite remember clearly what the guy was up to. They twine around the room, sneaking up to Percy before pouncing forward and giving him a single flick on the forehead. Today they are full of commentary on Percy being an idiot who thinks he can save the whole world, when all he needs to remember is that his home is waiting for him. There’s a touch of fond exasperation, like Mr D cannot understand how he ended up claiming Percy as his, but claims him anyway.

It’s nice. Percy figures he’ll be seeing a lot of check-ins for the next few days, they won’t be able to once he leaves camp. It wouldn’t be safe if Zeus realised how closely he is watched. But right now, it’s one of the better aspects of being a prophet.

________________________

He dreams of Zeus and Poseidon in the throne room, voices echoing off the walls. Zeus is accusing Poseidon of having his grandchild steal the bolt. Poseidon is reminding him the boy is unclaimed. Triton is the child’s combat trainer. The child was in Atlantis across the Winter Solstice and multiple other gods can verify this. The boy has never set foot on Olympus. Zeus goes back to screaming about Poseidon using his grandchild to steal from him. Percy is so sick of this argument.

His dream changes and he’s in the dark, the place where it hurts. He can’t remember how he knows this, but it’s from a real memory, one of Percy’s, not from the knowing.

Something speaks and he does not listen.

He doesn’t want to deal with this. Not tonight. He focuses on the sensations he remembers from the day, the faint touches of auras and visions still lingering in his mind. His attention snags on a bronze dagger, the one Annabeth carries. His hand had brushed against it as he looked over her blueprints.

The aura is growing, Percy does not want to feel this. He grabs at the feel of the dagger, of the memory it holds, and he falls into a new dream.

There is a young man here, he looks like Lee, like Apollo. His aura is full of the echo of Apollo, tension in a bowstring, sharp focused gaze, the deep good ache of healing bones. The confusing dizzying mix of now/then/later that sings of the sight. His aura is heavily coated in the possessiveness that Apollo himself carries, but it is not tempered by the ocean flavoured loyalty Percy is so familiar with.

It is not a good combination. Balance is needed.

The man is frozen in place, a movie on pause.

Across the room, Apollo is standing, watching the man. He looks up, making eye contact with Percy.

“Not sure what brought you here, kid. I won’t stop you seeing this, but some parts are not for you to know. Not yet. You okay with that?”

Percy considers, and agrees. Whatever this touches on, there are things for him to know now, and things that will only be known later. It is acceptable.

Apollo turns away, and the world starts moving again.

This man isn’t really a man, Late teens perhaps? Younger than Lee. As he stands and approaches Apollo, his suit jacket shifts and Percy sees it. Annabeth’s knife.

This man greets Apollo cheerfully and calls him Father. He speaks in a slightly strange cadence. Now that Percy is looking around the room, he sees this is a past dream, but not an ancient one. The furniture is the timeless type, good quality, unchanging over decades, it makes things harder. The 1920’s? Maybe the 30’s?

Apollo’s own expression is not one Percy has seen before. Apollo is devastated, miserable, broken. This is an Apollo who carries the weight of the world. And he hates himself for it. He may still have the form of a teenager, but he looks ancient.

Apollo speaks with a quiet voice, there is no sunlight, no warmth in his tone. “Halcyon, do you know why I am here?”

The man, no, this is a boy, he is too young, too cheerful, too innocent, to be a man.

He speaks so brightly, “I know, Father, you said I shouldn’t speak of the future, but I saved a life! Isn’t that what heroes do?”

Apollo just stares at him, grief in his eyes. “Halcyon, heroes save lives with swords and shields and mighty acts. Not by defying the Fates themselves.”

Halcyon just looks confused, “The Fates? It had nothing to do with the Fates. I met a little girl and when I touched her hand I saw how she would die. I was able to prevent it. She gave me her knife as thanks. Is this not a good thing?”

Apollo just watches him, he looks so sad, so exhausted. “Halcyon, very few of my children inherit the sight. Even fewer are named prophets or become oracles. Seeing glimpses of the future is not enough. A prophet must see the future, see the strands of fate and be able to discern which threads can be guided on a new path through the tapestry of the Fates, and which threads have already been woven.”

Halcyon still doesn’t realise. Percy does.

Apollo continues, “Even the greatest, most powerful prophets in history do not touch a thread that is already woven. To do so would be to tear that tapestry of fate. To cause cataclysm.”

Yes, Percy knows. One day she will look like her grey eyed twin, and still, Percy does not speak. Will never speak of it. Not to her. Her thread is woven already.

Halcyon asks, “How do you tell which thread is woven and which can be changed?”

“Only my prophets know, it is instinctive, and it is through the spirit of a prophet that an oracle knows. Halcyon. You are not a prophet. Nor are you an oracle.”

“But I saw her future! I changed it”

“You were told never to speak of the future, not to anyone. I am sorry you were born with future sight. It is extremely rare for even my own children to inherit it. It is not a good gift to have. It causes much pain to the one who sees. I had hoped you would be different. That I could keep you safe. Instead, you have doomed us all.”

Halcyon goes pale, “But, how? It was just a young girl!”

“A young girl who was fated for death. A thread already woven. A thread that has now been torn out of the tapestry, out of the weave. It will take thousands upon thousands of threads, of lives lost, before the tear is mended. Because of your foolish actions, she will bear a child, who will bear a child, and that knife-”

Here it cuts out, everything freezing, and Apollo turns back to Percy.

“This part is not for you to know. Not yet.”

They are quiet for a long moment.

“‘Pollo?” He raises his eyebrows and gestures Percy to continue.

“What normally happens, when your children are born with future sight, but can’t see the tapestry?”

Apollo cringes, sighs, “I’d rather you not share this with my kids. It is… known, but it’s easier to think it’s just an old myth, a story that’s gotten warped over time. Kids like Halcyon, they are rare, less than one every five hundred years. In the millennia since my birth, there have been only seven including him.” He nods his head to the frozen boy.

“I won’t tell the others, but I think I need to know? There’s something the knowing says I should hear.”

Apollo looks down, there is so much grief on his face, “Some were killed on Father’s orders, days after they were born. You know of one. The stories give a different reason, but Astyanax, he was my son. He could see the future, but not the threads.”

“Dionysus has attempted to help others, sealing their abilities within them. It does not end well.”

“When Halcyon was born, I just… I couldn’t face the death of another baby. Father allowed me to train Halcyon, to teach him. I tried, Percy, I really, truly tried. I thought he understood. He just needed to keep quiet. But he didn’t.”

There are tears in Apollo’s eyes as he looks at the frozen boy.

“What about Lee? He has the sight?”

Apollo shrugs, looking lost, “He sees auras, and I suspect he sees a little more than he lets on. But he doesn’t speak of it, to anyone. If he sees more, he does not share. He does not let it guide his actions. Not in the way he allows you to guide them.”

Apollo gives him a pleading look, “Don’t ask him, Percy. As long as he does not speak of it, he is safe.”

“He’s safe anyway, Lee understands about the tapestry. He might not see it, but he understands. He would never risk it, not like Halcyon did.”

They are silent again, before Percy asks, “What happened to Halcyon?”

“You don’t want to see for yourself?”

Percy shakes his head, “Not tonight. The knowing says I need to hear it. Wish I didn’t have to, I’m sick of the Fates.”

That gets a smile, it makes Apollo look so much more like his Apollo, and not the heartbroken father that had been speaking to Halcyon.

He looks back at the frozen boy, and his expression saddens again, “I cursed him. To remain within this house, the place where he was born. To wear the skin of the Python that I killed, in order to claim the domain of prophecy. To be forever reminded that he is not a prophet, nor an oracle.”

He sighs and walks to Halcyon, a hand reached out but not touching this still unbroken boy, “I took his voice. Placed a Leucrota with him to filter his words. He could still speak, but would be unable to tell people of the future. Then I turned my back on him. Left him to suffer for decades, alone and isolated with only monsters for company.”

Percy frowns, there’s something Apollo isn’t saying.

Apollo sees and gives him a small smile, “Not everything is for you to know. Not yet. Halcyon’s story is grim, and it gets worse. Another god interfered and turned his prison into a trap intended to lure demigods to their deaths. It was after the Oracle of Delphi was cursed. They wanted to force Halcyon to speak of the future.”

Apollo looks so miserable, “I was unable to intervene, all I could do for him was promise his punishment would not last forever. A day would come when a demigod dismantled the trap.”

Apollo’s face darkens further, “What I didn’t tell him, was on that day he would have a final choice to make. If he did not share what he had seen, the King of the Underworld would personally ensure his final rest. But, if Halcyon chose to share their future… Then, there was nothing I could do for him.”

“He told them about the future, didn’t he?”

Apollo grimaces, “The very moment he was free.”

Percy frowns, “I don’t get why I needed to know this. I can see the tapestry, I know the risks. I may hate it, but I know.”

“Perhaps you will be tempted further down your path? We see how her fate weighs on you. We wanted to separate you, to stop you becoming so close. Lee argued it would be even worse if we didn’t at least give you a chance.”

Percy ignores most of that. It is better to not respond.

He sighs, “I guess I’ll know when it becomes important? Though, there is something the knowing wants me to say to you.”

“Yes?”

“Even the Fates must pay their debts. You are owed much for your protection of the twice-blessed prophet. There will never be another child born like Halcyon Green.”

The dream fades before he hears Apollo’s response.

Chapter Text

Castor and Pollux find him right after breakfast, matching grins on their faces.

“Hey! Where have you guys been? I didn’t see you at all yesterday!”

Castor is looking a little too gleeful, “Dad sent us on a job! But, we thought you’d want to see the fallout yourself.”

He looks at them suspiciously, “Strobe Light. A job as in chores, or a job as in he wanted to prank someone and needed you to do it?”

Pollux, “What do you think?”

“Power! Just tell me I’m not the target?”

“Nah, Dad said you were stressed about something and we shouldn’t make it worse, but that you might like a distraction?”

Gods, what had they done?

But Percy could never resist a bit of mayhem, “Fine, where are we headed?”

Back to the cabins apparently, soon stepping onto the burned path Apollo made all those years ago. It’s just become the path now, nothing ever grows there.

Percy flashed a grin at Hestia as they passed the big outdoor hearth that sits in the middle of the cabins. The goddess had been spending more and more time at camp recently. He’s not sure if she’s keeping an eye on them or just avoiding her bickering brothers.

“Uh, guys. That’s Cabin Ten. Angry girl is already super pissed at me?”

Pollux is entirely remorseless, “And? He said you’d like a distraction!”

“I don’t think he meant having the new camper try and murder me though?”

“Uh, well, it’s also…” Castor trails off.

Pollux fills in, “He might be loopholing the rules because he’s a little upset over the charmspeak? She used it on us yesterday…”

What. “On you? Why?” That came out with a little more anger than he’d intended.

Castor waves him off, “She uses it, like, constantly. She was still trying to get a new cabin assignment and someone told her it was only us two in our cabin…”

Percy chokes, “Uh, I take it no one explained your dad and Mr D were the same guy? She seriously charmspoke you to let her sleep in your cabin? Did she actually stay over night?”

Percy is suddenly highly entertained. This girl is breaking records at how quickly she can piss off gods, even Percy lasted longer than this!

If she could just stop hating him, they’re gonna be great friends.

“Nah, Dad got to her soon as she stepped inside, marched her straight back out and dumped her on Annabeth, said even Drew didn’t deserve to deal with her. But he did make sure she went to the correct cabin last night, and left a harpy on guard.”

“And, what exactly did you do?”

They didn’t need to answer, that was definitely the angry girl’s voice, screaming, very loudly.

Castor and Pollux headed straight for the front door of the cabin, Percy gives in, his curiosity was so getting him killed one of these days.

Aphrodite’s cabin was littered in torn pieces of glossy paper, posters? Angry girl was ripping more and more of them off the walls. From the looks of it, every inch of the cabin’s walls had been carefully papered over, except for a single lower bunk, probably where new girl had been sleeping.

Most of the screaming was incoherent, cursing out all her new siblings. But there were a fair few comments about invasion of privacy, how the camp couldn’t be trusted, someone had gone snooping… on and on she went. It was kind of impressive.

But also, she was definitely going to notice Percy soon and while he was willing to let this play out he wasn’t so willing to let her actually grab him.

He spoke quietly, “Uh, guys? Please make sure I have a clear run to the door? War Drum better be out there. Now is not the time for anyone to question her abilities.”

“Relax, Shortstack, we sent her over before we went to get you. Dad said the same thing. Something about her ‘audition needing to go well’.”

That’s one way to put it. He’s really not sure if it’s the ongoing exposure to Mr D or to Percy that makes the twins just roll with the weird comments that are never explained.

“YOU!”

Uh, oh.

“Me? I just heard a lot of yelling and came to make sure everything was okay? Looks like you’ve been redecorating, gonna be a bitch to clean up though.” He tries his best innocent face.

“You told them! Your father told you and you went and told everyone else, how dare you! That information was private!”

He blinks. “Uh, you do know I’m unclaimed, right? Wouldn’t it be hard for my father to tell me if I don’t know who he is?”

Also, Poseidon has no idea who Angry Girl is.

“The Camp Director! He told you who my father is!”

He uses his most mischievous devil-may-care voice with a big grin, “Mr D is also not my father. He’d like to be, but he isn’t. Say, who is your father?”

She just screams in wordless rage at him.

Drew calls from the side, where she’s watching everything with almost maniacal glee, “All the posters were of Tristan McLean, shirtless.”

He glances at Castor and Pollux and their matching smug grins. How many mortal stores did they have to hit to get so many? Like, yeah the guy is mega-famous, but there must be a couple of hundred posters shredded on the floor.

He backs up towards the door, “Hey! I know him! Like, I don’t get out much, but he’s the guy you were telling me about, right Bright Eyes? The one with the washboard abs?”

“Yes! That’s him! See I knew you’d appreciate his physique.”

Angry Girl is advancing, he takes a couple of more steps back as he cheerfully answers Drew, “Oh, totally, he was way hot! Especially that poster you had where he was wearing the, what did ya call ‘em? Oh! Budgie smugglers!”

He makes it back through the door and into the open as Angry Girl reaches maximum rage.

And here’s the charmspeak.

“YOU! Stop. Right. There.”

Everyone around him freezes. Except for Clarisse. Huh, he’d figured that’d be one of the “extras” her spear came with. Neither Poseidon nor Apollo would have allowed it to be handed over without some protections added.

He keeps carefully picking his way back, leading Angry Girl into the middle of the common area with plenty of space to move. Clarisse joins him, standing shoulder to shoulder.

Angry Girl is looking confused, but it just seems to make her try harder.

“I said, stop moving.”

Percy offers conversationally, “You know, yesterday, when you didn’t know what charmspeak was, you had a bit of wiggle room.”

He dodges sideways and Clarisse steps back, as Angry Girl lunges for him and continues, “Today, you know what it is. And it’s obvious you were expecting it to work.”

She grinds out, “Admit you stole my file from your father, and told everyone about me.”

Wow. That’s a lot of charmspeak. At least this time she only targeted him, might take another minute or two before the others unfreeze though.

He keeps moving, increasing the distance between them, “Hey, that’s a tonne of power you’ve got going on. It’s impressive.”

She pours even more into her voice, “Admit you did this.”

She’s stalking forwards again, aiming right for him.

He sighs. This is not a situation that calls for the new spear. And he’s a little sick of Clarisse getting all the fun.

He draws Anaklusmos, holding it at the ready, a clear threat. She finally stops.

He speaks calmly, “No. I had nothing to do with this. I’m not the only one you pissed off with your obsession over cabin assignments.”

Yet more charmspeak, “Put the sword down, and admit you did it.”

“Seriously, your control is super impressive, you’re an absolute natural at it. And with the whole Areia thing you’re going to be great with a sword too!”

Oh good, people are moving again. One of the newer Demeter campers goes racing for the Big House. Awesome. Thanks Mr D. I love playing bait for your games.

Angry Girl actually lunges for him. While he’s holding a sword. Not even a training sword. A live sword.

He smacks her arm away with the flat of the blade, and backs up, “What the hell? Angry Girl? Live weapon? Capable of killing? Why would you do that?”

She sneers, “You won’t use it on me, you don’t fight.”

“Uh, correction, I don’t fight friendlies if they haven’t fully consented to the whole ‘I have the sight and see more than they want me to see’ deal.”

Clarisse pipes up, “I beat the shit out of Prissy regularly, it’s fun.”

She seems happy to stand back and watch this play out. He knows she’ll step in if he drifts.

Angry Girl’s aura is still loud but now he’s more familiar with it, it’s easy to push away. Unlike the twins, she doesn’t know how to use it offensively. And given how much she pissed off Mr D, she’s not gonna learn that trick anytime soon.

“Besides, why do you keep grabbing at me? What exactly do you think will happen if you catch me?”

“I’m going to shake some sense into you and make you admit it!”

She grabs at him and he bats her arm away again with the flat of his blade.

“For the love of the gods! Yes. I knew who your father was. I know stuff like that. Comes with the prophet gig. I. Did. Not. Tell. Anyone. Actually telling people tends to be for important stuff, like world ending type things? You being a spoiled little rich kid? Doesn’t make the cut.”

He shouldn’t have poked the angry bull, but he could see Lee heading towards them and he couldn’t resist the opportunity.

She pours every ounce of her newfound power into her voice, “You are not a prophet. You cannot see the future. Tell the truth. Tell them you are lying to them.”

“What is going on here?”

Lee’s voice cracks across the common area, his loud commanding tone, the one the Apollo kids call his “Drop everything and go” voice.

Percy keeps his blade up, focused on Angry Girl, Mr D wanted a loophole, not an incineration. If she actually gets hold of him he may not be able to prevent her being vaporised.

“Hey! Hot Air! Angry Girl here, has got the strongest charmspeak I’ve ever seen, in person anyway. She’s a natural too. Didn’t even know what charmspeak was yesterday.”

Lee comes up beside him, arms crossed, doing the whole towering greek god impression. For a mortal, he’s really good at it.

“You just found out you had charmspeak, and the first thing you do is test it out on Apollo’s Prophet? By trying to force him to lie about his abilities?”

“That’s not a prophet, that’s a spoiled little boy who’s been manipulating the whole lot of you!”

Lee blinks, side-eyes Percy. Percy gives him his big innocent eyes and cheerful smile and chirps, “Hot Air, Mr D ever tell you about projection?”

Lee shuts his eyes briefly, takes a deep breath.

Yeah. Percy might have been pushing her towards that conclusion. Just a touch. Better to fix the bitterness now, before it festers.

“Okay. Piper, right? It’s clear you aren’t doing so hot right now. Can you tell me why you are so angry at Percy?”

Piper gives an incoherent rant about her father, Lee telling Percy, the posters, being ‘outed’-

“Hey, hold up! ‘Outed’?” Lee holds a hand up in a ‘stop now’ gesture and glances back towards Cabin Ten where Drew and all the other Aphrodite kids are gathered. “Drew?”

Drew drawls, pulling hard on her whole California mean girl thing, “Not that sort of outing, golden boy, she ain’t said a word and you know we wouldn’t care. She’s talking about us finding out who her daddy is. But we wouldn’t have known if she hadn’t freaked over the posters.”

Now Angry Girl is ranting about her sexuality. Oh shit. Do not go there.

And then, “I’m normal! I’m not a dyke!”

Cool. Hope she didn’t want a peaceful sleep anytime soon.

Most of the audience are now furious. It’s one of those things that Lee had to explain to Percy because it’s not something he remembers from the mortal world. The whole, ‘demigods are a lot more okay with all of this and really don’t appreciate mortal attitudes being brought into it, because of Ancient Greece and how the gods don’t exactly have a preference’ thing.

“Uh, Angry Girl? Word of advice? You might want to walk back that sentence. Before you get lynched?”

Lee drags his hand down his face, and says in a firm tone aimed at everyone, though he keeps his eyes on Piper, “Rules still apply guys; no maiming, no killing, no injuries that will exhaust our medics or require nectar and ambrosia, nothing that will cause permanent mental or physical trauma.”

Surprisingly, it’s one of the younger Hephaestus kids who speaks up, not the fun new guy, the young one with the loud click in his aura. He arrived a few weeks ago but is probably going to be a year rounder, Harley? Harry? Something like that.

“Uh, Lee, what about the charmspeak? She was trying to make Percy stop backing up, but she froze like, all of us, I’m kind of, not okay with that?”

Lee sighs, “Piper, of the people here, who will you trust to give an unbiased account of what just happened? I’m still going to ask others, but you can name a witness.”

She’s still glaring, but starting to cool off. Lee is good at that. Percy, not so much. His main talent is confusing people until they bluescreen.

She answers a little more quietly, the aggression fading a bit, “Annabeth.”

Percy winces at the minute twitch Lee gives. No one else would notice it. He’s good at hiding his dislike of her, but Percy can see his aura.

“Fine. Annabeth? Also, Drew, Clarisse, Percy and… “ He glances around at the field, Percy knows who he’s looking for, but the twins are long gone, “and Georgie.”

Shit! Percy whips his head around. Yep, Georgie is there, near the back of the crowd. How long has she been there? She still looks like a real life Ariel, curly red hair down to her butt, cream skin, the colour of seashells, a scattering of freckles and… Uh oh. Given her green eyes are radiating fury and her cheeks are pink, he’s going to guess she saw all of that. Awesome. Tri’s going to get a blow by blow account of this. Yay.

He recaps Anaklusmos and stows it in his pocket as he trails behind Lee and the girls as they head back to the Big House. He can already feel Apollo’s sunlight, so Mr D will get his loophole at least?

Georgie drops back to walk beside him. He hadn’t actually seen her yet, he knew she was around but these days she lives in Atlantis in Galene’s household. She only spends summers on the surface.

“Still causing mayhem, troublemaker?”

He gives her a weak smile, “Always, you know me.”

“I take it you baited her on purpose?”

The problem with Georgie spending so much time with Atlanteans is she now has a much clearer idea of both her status and Percy’s. She knows her befriending Percy completely changed her mother’s standing in Poseidon’s court. She knows Percy is the reason she carries a trident.

Georgie may not know who Percy’s parent is, but she does know he’s a direct relation of the royal family. They are still good friends but she always defers to him a little too much, get’s a little too protective of him. It’s going to get worse when he’s claimed. He’s going to miss her.

“Yeah. Angry Girl’s really bitter. I didn’t want to let it fester. Better to get it all out now, give her a chance to actually make friends here.”

Georgie sighs, “You’re going to ask me to help her, aren’t you?”

He shrugs a shoulder, kicking at the ground as they slowly approach the Big House. Lee’s going to be annoyed he’s dawdling.

“Only if you want to. Not gonna even ask otherwise. She needs people who genuinely want to help. She’s so focused on how she doesn’t fit, she’s missing the obvious.”

“That none of us fit?”

He gives her a more real smile as they finally reach the meeting room.

“You know it, Sea Sister.”

She’s not going to let him call her that once she finds out. Stupid knowing, can’t he enjoy the now, without mourning what hasn’t happened yet?

Apollo’s there, sprawled out on a chair, looking like any other teenage camper.

He gives Percy a cheerful smile and Percy gives him a ‘Dude. Really?’ unimpressed look back.

And yep, Angry Girl starts right in demanding who Apollo is and why he’s there, since he didn’t see anything. Apollo just lets her keep on digging that hole until…

“What, is he here to prove the spoiled brat can see the future? Gonna show me a magic trick?”

Yes. Apollo is going to show her a magic trick.

His eyes flash gold, and the room blazes with heat, though the guy stays in his lazy laid back sprawl.

When he speaks it’s as silky as Hades at his most dramatic, “Actually, yes. The ‘spoiled brat’ happens to be my prophet. You broke the divine laws when you knowingly used charmspeak on him.”

Lee cuts in before she can keep digging. “Piper, this is Lord Apollo, God of Prophecy, Truth, Light, Music, Healing and Archery. One of the Olympian Gods”

Apollo gives Lee a hurt look, “You forgot poetry.”

Lee sighs, “And also the God of Poetry. He’s here because of what you did to Percy. Under the divine laws he has the right to decide your punishment.”

Piper turns away from the slumped god who’s now balancing his chair back on two legs like the teenager who’s form he takes.

“Annabeth? That can’t be right?”

Poor Annabeth is just staring at Apollo, petrified. Generally they avoid each other at all costs. Percy had thought she’d moved past being afraid of Apollo, but guess not.

She speaks barely above a whisper, “Uh, Piper, if you were using charmspeak when you said those things, Lee is… well, yeah. You broke the divine laws.”

“And if I wasn’t using charmspeak? I thought charmspeak forced people to do as I say? Kid didn’t, so it must not be charmspeak.”

Apollo purses his lips and eyes Piper, “Hey, Georgie, Lee did say I was the God of Truth, right? I didn’t mishear?”

“Yes, he said Truth right after Prophecy.”

“So, Piper, just so you know, I can tell when you lie. It’s literally impossible to lie to me. Believe me, Percy has thoroughly tested that one out.”

Piper looks confused. Awesome, she’s going to try and rage quit again.

Drew adds, “And I can sense charmspeak being used, and you were absolutely dripping with it, honey.”

Apollo would have also felt it hit Percy’s protective charms. It was never a question of proving it.

Apollo pulls a little gold chain out of nowhere and tosses it to Lee.

“Well then, Piper, regardless of whether you were aware of it or not, you charmspoke my prophet. I did not like it. I also have better things to do than babysit one of Dite’s kids. Well, I’ve always got time for Drew and Silena.” He grins over at Drew, she grins back.

He turns back to Piper, “But that doesn’t apply to you. So, you’re going to put on that bracelet,” He nods his head towards Lee, “And when I feel like you can be trusted with your charmspeak, I’ll take it off. Till then, you can train to your little heart’s content, but it’s not going to have any effect.”

He stands and moves to leave, before pausing, back to them, “And Piper? If you don’t voluntarily put that bracelet on? I will exact the full punishment prescribed by the divine laws. You do not want to test me.”

And off the dramatic little drama queen goes.

Percy’s seen all of the gods pull that whole talking with their back to you thing, a few too many times to still be impressed by it. Totally scary if it’s the first time you’ve seen it though?

At least Mr D now has his loophole. He can’t directly interfere with another god’s kids. He can assist with power management if the kid asks, but otherwise, he’s bound by the divine laws. Apollo can interfere because Percy’s his prophet, not his kid, and he comes under a whole seperate set of rules.

Percy’s pretty sure Mr D was mainly worried about her controlling the twins. Besides Percy, the twins have the strongest powers in camp, whether turned on themselves or someone else it could be disastrous.

Lee holds the bracelet out to Piper, she glares at him. Clarisse has been standing leaning against the back wall through the whole conversation. “I could make you put it on if you’d like, princess?”

Lee sighs, “Clarisse, it needs to be voluntary.”

Piper sputters, “You’re just going to let her get away with the threats?” She points at Percy, “He pulled a sword on me!”

Lee just keeps steadily staring at her, “Piper, I raised Percy. I am immune to the whole distraction tactic. You need to wear the bracelet.”

Percy’s surprised by her determination. He’d figured she’d go the denial route and convince herself it’s all just a bit of theatre and the bracelet can’t do anything.

Finally Annabeth reaches out and takes the bracelet from Lee, she holds it gingerly, like it might explode any moment, but she does give it a careful examination.

“Piper, it’s nothing bad, look it’s kind of pretty, even? Based on what he said, your charmspeak won’t effect people when you use it, but it probably changes colour or something so you can tell when you’re using your powers. It won’t hurt you.”

Drew adds, “I used to have one, too. When I was younger, I was stuck at camp year round because I couldn’t control my charmspeak, like at all. Then Silena kinda adopted Surfer Boy, though he was just a shrimp back then. It got awkward because I needed to be near her, but the kid was not okay with the accidental mind control. Apollo offered me a bracelet like that one. I’d been trying for years at that point to control it, but it only took a couple of months with Apollo’s help.”

Piper sneers at her, “What, so he lo-jacked you with an ankle monitor too? That supposed to make me feel better?”

Before Drew can fire back, Lee intervenes, “Piper, I know you’re scared and feeling kind of alone and isolated right now. But you really need to find a better outlet than just lashing out at everyone. You only got here yesterday, please, just… give camp a chance.”

Georgie adds, “You’ve been really insistent you aren’t a daughter of Aphrodite, I’m kinda thinking that might be because you’ve decided you don’t belong and you’re clinging to that with everything you’ve got?”

Percy loves his Sea Sister. Aphrodite’s kids consider her their sister from another mother, but Piper won’t know that. It’ll ease the way for her, especially with everything with Annabeth.

Piper fires right back, “Oh and what, you aren’t another one of the love goddess kids? You sure look like one!”

That gets them. Lee gives her a very confused look, “Uh, no, Georgie isn’t a sibling. I’m really not sure why you think that?”

Piper just waves her hand gesturing at Georgie, “Just look at her! Everyone here looks like a fashion model, with the clothes and the hair and the makeup!”

Percy blinks. Looks at Georgie. Nope. He’s missing something. Percy thinks Georgie is gorgeous, but she’s not a fashion model. She clearly came straight from a morning beach swim, and she hasn’t been near the cabin since she dropped her stuff off yesterday.

Lee realises something, “Uh, Perce, I know you said Piper was all Areia, but are you absolutely certain she hasn’t got the eye of the beholder thing?”

Oooh. Okay. That would suck. That is so not a good combo.

Percy frowns, looking Piper over, “I can’t check that unless she lets me. But, that would actually explain like, everything? I can’t imagine that being a fun power to have if you aren’t aware of it.”

Pipers getting confused again, Drew jumps in before they get another tongue lashing, “Eye of the beholder is one of things we can inherit. Basically, we always see the true beauty of something. I’ve not heard of someone using it without knowing, but in theory, it could make all the people around you look like models. It doesn’t work on yourself though. Pretty sure if I didn’t know about it, it’d make me like, intensely insecure.”

“Hey, Mermaid, you mind if I use you as an example? You’re gorgeous regardless, but I don’t think she’s seeing what we are?”

Georgie waves a hand, “Feel free, I know I’m a hot mess right now.”

“Cool, So Piper. Not sure what you’re seeing, but IRL? Mermaid’s hair is absolutely stiff with salt, she’s even got sand in like the whole bottom foot of her hair. Definitely no makeup and there’s… Girl, is that seaweed? There’s something green and stringy tangled in her hair. Her clothes are like super wrinkled. She totally slept in them. Possibly did the walk of shame. But! I don’t judge!”

Lee is rolling his eyes and the others are laughing. Piper… Piper is blinking, and staring, looking away and looking back and blinking again. “Uh. What just happened? Like, before I swear you were Elle Woods in that pink suit, and that guy was a blonde Adonis, she looked like a real life Lara Croft, and both of them were like straight out of Teen Life?” She indicates Drew, Lee, Clarisse, Percy and Georgie in turn.

Drew gives her a kinder smile, “Well, it’s nice to know how you see me? Now we def know your powers are totes out of control. So you think you might put the bracelet on and let us go and talk about all this? Like, without the rage?”

Piper, finally, finally, puts the bracelet on. And then calmly leaves with Drew. A miracle!

The others follow behind, Percy goes to sneak out, but Lee’s not done.

Just as Percy gets to the door he hears, “Perce.”

He stops. Turns back and sits on the table near where Lee is standing and leans against him.

Lee sighs, wraps his arm around him. Percy never normally clings. But right now…

“Kid, I know you’re worried about what’s coming, but you cannot solve everything. We can handle our own messes.”

Percy sighs, “I’m ignoring most of them, but that one, it would’ve been bad.”

Lee pauses, “Bad for the camp?”

Percy shakes his head, nods, “Well, yes. But not only the camp. Her path wasn’t set.”

“And now?”

“Not set, but… much less likely to be bad.”

“How important is she?”

Percy shrugs a shoulder, “She’s a piece of it. Not… Not like her. But, this is still better.”

“Like the thing with Zoe?”

He nods. He knows he uses his abilities more than is really allowed, Apollo lets him have free rein so long as no one but Apollo and Lee can directly link his actions to his knowledge of the future.

Years ago, he’d said the right thing at the right time to Artemis’ lieutenant, changing her path. The outcome will still be the same, but her path will be kinder.

It had led to a lot of uncomfortable discussions about what he can and can’t do. Baiting Piper into revealing her abilities was very much barely toeing the line.

Lee is thinking about something, debating on whether he wants to ask.

“You can ask, won’t trigger anything.”

Lee ruffles his hair, “You always know, don’t you? There’s only two new kids so far, I’m assuming if existing campers were involved you’ve already done something and I haven’t noticed. These two aren’t the first you’ve seen and told me about. Makes collection easier when we get them before the monsters come. But if she’s important, what about the boy?”

Percy hadn’t actually done anything with anyone else. Not deliberately. Him just being at camp changed paths but it wasn’t intentional.

“Dunno yet. It’s the angry bitter ones that are… Of interest? Important? Not sure how to explain it. He looks fun though. Wanna be his friend. He needs friends, got some stuff to deal with. Camp can help. But he’s not the same as Angry Girl.”

Lee’s silent again. “And if I asked about the six campers who targeted you yesterday?”

The answer is short, clipped. ”Don’t.”

Lee’s voice is soft and sad, “Yeah. I figured.”

They sit quietly for a few minutes. They both hate this. At least knowing Lee struggles with this too makes him feel less alone.

Lee finally asks in a more cheerful tone, “Okay, can you please go and actually do some activities? I will make Triton play bodyguard if I have to, but go and just be a camper, okay?”

“Nope! No need for Tri! I got War Drum and the Twin Terrors and Wise Girl and my Sea Sister, we’ll be fine!”

“Okay, go and have fun, cause chaos and all that. Just, keep an eye on your powers, yeah? Your aura is… a touch terrifying right now.”

He grins, “Lotta cracks in the glass, huh?”

Lee is less impressed, “Yeah, looks like a spiderweb. Let’s not push it, ‘kay?”

Percy agrees. Free at last, he races off, he’s sure he has actual scheduled activities but Georgie knows he’ll cheerfully ignore her plans. Even more so if she’s helping with Piper.

So. First stop, War Drum, then the Terror Twins, and then they’ll find a nice quiet patch of the woods for a proper workout.

________________________

The rest of the week goes much more smoothly, mornings are spent ‘attending’ activities, or more accurately, disrupting activities.

He and Georgie sneak up underwater and dump campers out of canoes, Pollux uses his powers over plant growth to create a jungle in the common area between cabins and Percy supplies the necessary water, the three of them coat the dining pavilion with so much glitter the camp’ll never be free of it’s sparkle, and with a lot of very careful stealth he and Drew tie pink sparkly ribbons in Chiron’s tail.

Their list of ideas is unending. Mornings are for pranks and Percy fully embraces the chaos. Clarisse pretends she’s above it all, but is always willing to stand guard while they make mischief.

Just to make sure the campers don’t think Percy’s a total demon, Georgie and he do a few boat trips out to the more open ocean (his godly escort remaining far below, only known to Percy). They call over nearby whales to give the summer campers an up close and personal introduction to their friends. A couple of Atlantean merman even turn up and don’t attack the gawping land dwellers. Percy’s honestly not sure if that was Triton or Galene’s doing.

Percy spends time with Annabeth talking about her favourite architecture and describing the most impressive buildings he’s seen in Atlantis, complete with sketches for her to keep.

He wants to poke at Annabeth’s invisibility hat some more, but she’s gone all possessive again. Percy was a bit disappointed. The hat just turned up one day last year. Annabeth asked Percy about it and he recognised Athena’s aura on it. He’s still hoping it does more than just make Annabeth invisible. Annabeth isn’t okay with him experimenting on it though. Actually, no-one likes Percy poking at godly made things. He’s already had like ten lectures on not touching Amyntor.

Annabeth tells him her favourite stories of Athena and finally shares how much she’s struggling at her dad’s. Mortal schools have not been kind to her, but they spend time with Leo (under Beck’s watchful eye) talking about the possibility of software that could translate her schoolwork into Ancient Greek and then back to English for submission.

He even agrees to let Chiron try, yet again, to teach Percy to use a bow. Given Apollo has repeatedly failed, Percy doesn’t hold high hopes. He may have made the centaur cry from frustration. Percy isn’t actually sure how he can be so truly terrible at archery.

He makes a couple more attempts to befriend the satyrs, but gets nowhere. One of them, Grover, is good friends with Annabeth, but disappears the moment he sees Percy. It’s the downside of being known as the Prophet of Apollo, the other kids are good at seeing past the title, the satyrs and a fair chunk of the nature spirits seem to think it’s against the divine laws to so much as look at him.

Each afternoon Triton turns up and regardless of what Percy is doing, drags him and Clarisse out to one of the sea floor training grounds. The guy acts like a petulant child the whole time he’s retrieving them from camp, as if he wasn’t turning up entirely unannounced.

At the training grounds he mercilessly drills both of them, pushing them through the same repetitions, looking for the slightest flaw or hesitation in their movements. He takes Katecho one afternoon, providing Percy with a temporary replacement. He doesn’t give any explanation, but the next day he returns Katecho.

Like Amyntor, when not in use Katecho takes the form of a pendant. It clips to the necklace that holds one of his shielding charms and in pendant form it looks a bit like a stylised letter “P”, nothing about it’s shape really says trident.

The necklace itself was forged in Atlantis, Apollo and Poseidon both say it’s unbreakable. Years later and they still have never told Percy how to remove it. He can’t find a single crack on the slinky snake-like metal cord to suggest a catch or an opening.

When Triton returns the trident, the engravings have been changed. Instead of the three royal sigils, it now only bears the mark of Poseidon’s trident. The three sigils of a trident, crab claw and conch horn declared Percy to be a member of the royal family. The trident standing alone, claims Percy as a son of Poseidon.

(When Percy looks closer, there’s a sneaky conch shell engraved on the ferrule at the base of the shaft.)

More importantly Katecho now hums with power, similar, but not, to Amyntor.

“Tri? Do I want to know what you did to it?”

The guy just holds a second charm out, a similar not-shape to Katecho’s pendant form, but without the new aura.

“Uh, Tri? Words would be good?”

“This trident is to be used for training, and when sparring with your Shield.” Percy doesn’t flinch as Clarisse hits his shoulder, the ocean washing the bruise away before it can form.

“Katecho has been improved. As with Amyntor, it must only be used for true battle, when you intend death for your opponent.”

“Tri, just spit it out, am I holding a god-level weapon?”

“Yes.”

“Cool, cool. You do know I’m twelve? Right? Pretty sure you once told me that you wouldn’t usually give a kid their first trident until they were twelve?”

“It was necessary.”

“Uh huh. And, uh, why does it have it’s own aura?”

Triton is all stiff sea prince in his bearing and his voice, “Father felt it necessary.”

Percy rolls his eyes, “Okay. Tri. I’m not actually an idiot. It hasn’t got his power in it. It has yours?”

Triton is silent, then, finally, “I had not thought you would be aware of the difference.”

Oh. Tri. Buddy. At least Percy is used to emotionally constipated gods.

“Fine, I’ll stop asking. But just so’s you know, I do know you love me. I love you too, Tri!”

He grins at Tri who looks like he’s regretting everything right now.

“That being so, please keep Katecho with you. Even outside of battle, its power will give you a constant connection to the ocean, no matter how far you wander. It will connect you to the ocean even in the domain of another.”

“Awesome. But also, now I can’t use it on War Drum?”

Triton holds the charm out again, “That is what this is for.”

“Do I want to know what you named this one?”

“Paizein.”

“Tease. Of course you named the slightly-less-lethal trident ‘tease’. What was I thinking?”

Paizein is of course just as brutal as Katecho had been. But when Triton switched them to sparring dummies and their new weapons, the trident swept through them like they weren’t even there, shredding everything in its path.

Percy is really hoping he never needs to use it. Amyntor was bad enough, but at least it wasn’t his weapon. He trusted Clarisse with the spear. He wasn’t sure he trusted himself with the upgraded trident.

Katecho only clips to his necklace and Paizein only to the cord of his backup shielding charm bracelet. Even without the aura, there was no risk of him mixing them up. With Anaklusmos in his pocket and two seperate tridents he’s starting to feel just a touch overpowered.

When he tries to tell Triton this, the god’s response is blunt and firm.

“You must select the appropriate weapon for each opponent. Paizein is solely for what you term “friendly fights” where your main objective is victory, not death. It will not cause fatal injury without intention.”

He nods towards the sword, “Anaklusmos poses no risk to mortals and while it can induce injury in a god, it is best suited to fighting monsters in the mortal world. It can lethally injure a demigod, and should not be used for casual sparring.”

Yeah, even Percy isn’t big on the way Chiron has the campers spar with live celestial bronze weapons. Lee doesn’t like it either, it’s an ongoing debate between them.

Add in that Anaklusmos carries the immortal power of a Hesperide... Not quite a fair fight. Fine with Clarisse who always has an equally powerful weapon to counter it, but even they only spar with weapons like that under Triton’s supervision.

Triton continues, “Katecho is to ensure your survival. It is not a toy. Nor should you draw it for a mere monster.”

Yep. Percy figured. The trident’s upgrade is in case Zeus tries to kill him. Awesome.

Then again. Percy knows what Zeus did to Rhea’s oracle… Yeah. Having Katecho to protect himself is probably a good idea.

Evenings are spent around the campfire between the cabins, singing ridiculous songs that don’t exist anywhere but Camp Half-Blood with Percy mingling with the summer campers, making new friends, reinforcing old friendships. He drags Annabeth along and for a while they get to just be kids at summer camp.

Clarisse is settled with her siblings, pushing and shoving and heckling each other, but still a welcome member of the family. Even Piper is starting to find her way, still not quite comfortable but a little more willing to speak with her siblings, to learn about a goddess who is more than a stereotype.

They all take turns telling stories across the flames, tales of their favourite heroes, of their parents’ greatest achievements. For once, Percy’s prophecy shtick is a welcome addition as he brings to life the details long forgotten by the myths.

Castor and Pollux, sometimes Clarisse and Annabeth, are happy to act out sword fights as Percy calls out the moves, and campers cheer and heckle, calling for rematches of fights won millennia before.

He falls into bed each night, tired out and feeling like any other camper. Belly full of s’mores and heart full of laughter, feeling the touch of too much sun on his skin and the light ache in his limbs from all of the physical activity of the day.

________________________

Alliances are forged in the exchange of chores, trinkets and favours owed and by Monday, the teams for Capture the Flag are set.

Athena has allied with Cabin Three, as well as Apollo, Dionysus, and Hermes. Ares has Hephaestus, Aphrodite, and Demeter. With Lee acting as umpire, the teams are fairly even, with equal numbers.

Or, most would assume so. No one was aware of Percy’s non-prophet, non-water powers, and while Clarisse knew that Castor and Pollux were powerhouses in their own right, it wasn’t exactly common knowledge. Piper would one day be a powerhouse and she has the natural skill of any child of Ares when it came to weaponry.

Ares, Hephaestus and Aphrodite cabins were all packed in summer, and Apollo’s numbers had dwindled since Percy’s arrival. Though perhaps only Lee and Percy were aware that this wasn’t from an inability to find his newest children. Apollo has no children younger than Percy, evidence of the Fates meddling yet again.

Percy is… not looking forward to this game. It’s the first summer where he isn’t stuck acting as umpire alongside Lee, and he can’t even enjoy it.

He does play with the year rounders when all the summer campers have returned home. So he isn’t completely missing out, but still.

Georgie handles most of the planning meetings for the upcoming game. It took Georgie threatening to switch alliances before Annabeth stopped asking Percy what his sight told him about the Ares team’s plans.

Annabeth has been Cabin Head since Malcolm left for college last year. She’s the youngest of all the Cabin Heads at camp, and only looks after her cabin during the summer. She is both brilliant and terrible at it. Her cabin is always organised, always scheduled, everything ship shape and incredibly efficient.

But she forgets the bit about young kids being away from home and needing comfort. The late night talks with the older ones as they try and find where they fit in the world.

It’s weird because when Malcolm stepped in for Annabeth he’d been so good for her. He’d done all of those things from her, stepping into the space left by Luke’s absence. Oh. This is her first time at camp with Malcolm. He’d been here last summer. Maybe she’s struggling with that?

Percy might actually be spoiled now he thinks about it. He’s too used to having Lee and Mr D to lean on. But even with Lee spending most of his time running camp or at the Big House, Will and Kayla do the same, both for Cabin Seven as well as Six. Even lending a hand with Aphrodite’s kids when Silena’s away working.

By the time the games are about to begin, Annabeth has repeatedly lectured everyone about where they should be, and what they should be doing. Ares still holds the flag from the last game of the last summer. Despite various wins during the year, Athena is taking it as a personal insult.

Percy is on defence, set up near the creek. He might downplay his water powers, but they all know he has them. He pretended not to notice at breakfast when Clarisse took Castor and Pollux aside and gave them a lecture about protecting him. She’s definitely going to try and break past their line, just to prove she’s the only one who can be trusted to protect Percy.

For someone who hates being called a shield or a guard dog, she sure acts like one. At some point she’s going to find out what Apollo has planned for her and she is… not going to be happy. At least right now she can keep pretending she doesn’t care.

Guard duty is extremely boring.

Since they are still pretending all his (and Clarisse’s) trips underwater with Triton are family visitation disguised as tutoring, Percy is wearing camp supplied armour, that really doesn’t fit. He’s also been provided a honking great shield that he’s already ditched, and a much more normal, much less lethal, bronze training sword.

It’s also completely unbalanced and more useful as a baseball bat than a sword.

He feels the aura approach and keeps himself still, staring out at the very boring forest and pretending he has no idea Annabeth has a hat that makes her invisible. Look at him, right where she told him to be, doing what she told him to do. Why is she micromanaging this? Because Malcolm isn’t here?

Percy amuses himself trying to work out what logic led her to believe the hat concealed her aura.

Auras change and reflect the person they belong to, but only the biggest things change them. For as long as Percy’s known her, Annabeth’s aura has been the sound of words whispered in a king’s ear, the crackle of a page turning, the smell of ancient books, of knowledge. He can feel the pencil in his hands, drawing the perfectly straight lines of an architect’s blueprint and the weight of an owl settles on his shoulder.

It’s one of the louder auras at camp. But unlike Castor and Pollux, it’s volume comes not from her power level, but from her own mental intensity. It shouts and jabs at whoever catches her attention and does not relent until she’s satisfied her curiosity.

Percy’s gotten a lot of entertainment over the years watching Annabeth’s aura batter Chiron’s into submission. It makes her interesting, he hasn’t seen someone’s aura so responsive to what truly amounts to just a strong personality.

Oh! That’s why she thinks he can’t see her aura. Since she got the hat last summer, Percy’s gotten used to pretending he doesn’t see her sneaking past, when she’s gone on one of her information scavenging missions.

Faulty logic it may be, but it is logical. He would never give a friend away like that. To him it was no different than pretending not to see Castor and Pollux or Travis and Connor doing something they shouldn’t.

She’s still here. Why is she still here? She’s standing on the edge of the clearing, just… staring at him?

He hears crashing in the undergrowth, and catches the tone of the voices. Awesome, Wise Girl’s getting a front row seat to the coming entertainment.

He turns towards the sound, taking care that his expression does not show as instead of triumphant Ares campers, six Hermes kids head straight for him. The same group as before, three are Luke’s siblings.

“Hey, hey, guys! Same side!”

It’s the leader of the group, Percy still can’t remember his name. Doesn’t want to guess it, this will be bad enough as it is. He knows he’s eighteen and this was meant to be his last summer at camp. He stays far away from these particular summer campers.

“Same side? Never the same side as you! Not after what you did to Luke!”

He sighs, spreads his hands out, tries to mimic Lee’s calm confident face, “Guys. I was seven. I don’t even remember what happened. They told me afterwards that Luke and the others triggered a bad PTSD flashback. I’m not the one who accused Luke.”

The leader again, “Uh huh. We don’t believe you. You’ve got Mr D and Lee totally snowed, but not us. We know what your game is.”

“Uh, game?” He eyes the creek. He knows it won’t help him, not this time, but he really does not like feeling cornered.

“You’re whole little prophet thing. You might have a bit of the sight, same as Lee, but not like you claim. Then we saw you and the new girl last week. You didn’t twitch when she used charmspeak on you. And everyone says she’s powerful. That means your abilities are even stronger. You ain’t a prophet, you’re just good at mind control! Even got a god in your pocket.”

Oh shit. That was not on Percy’s bingo card. He knew something not fun was coming, but uh. Not so great.

He calls out, “Yo, Terror Twins, lil help? Maybe War Drum? Anyone?”

They won’t hear him. But he’s not exactly functioning with the thinking part of his brain right now. Why is Wise Girl just standing there? Can’t she see what’s about to happen?

Big bloodlust smile from the leader, it looks wrong, Hermes features with Ares smile. “Already led your little guard dogs off on a merry little chase.”

Yeah. Nope.

Percy runs, heading straight into the woods towards where he can feel Lee’s aura. Chiron’s there too, but he doesn’t care. He wants Lee.

The guy snags him, another son of Hermes, the bad memory guy, the one who is refusing to talk to Mr D. Got a cast on his arm now, but it doesn’t slow him down at all.

And now Percy is running from Gabe, and he’s smaller and he’s terrified and he’s outside but not, it’s the apartment?

The ocean at his throat, Triton’s words, “survival only”, Gabe will hurt, but he is a mortal. Not a god. The ocean is for a god.

Warm air, where is warm air. Is that warm air’s voice? Where?

Hand grabs his wrist, yanking at him, and for just a moment, less than a second, he remembers Gabe’s aura. Feels Gabe’s aura. Clamping hands, stale sweat, ghost bruises. It was long ago and far away. But there is a real hand on his wrist and Percy can’t tell the difference anymore. Someone’s yelling. Percy crashes to the ground, the hand still there.

The ocean at his throat is for a god. Gabe is not a god. He is mortal. Anaklusmos does not work on mortals. Paizein is under the hand gripping his left wrist.

Percy throws his right hand out, sinks it deep into the dirt, claws his fingers, turning his focus inwards and grabbing at the glass bottle. The spiderwebbing cracks have been holding strong all week, keeping his power mostly contained.

Now, he crushes the glass and lets the power flood through him.

As the hand on his wrist tries to drag him up, drag him away, he jabs down with his right hand and lets the power flow into the earth.

Startled yells everywhere The ground shakes and rumbles and tremors, shaking and shaking and grating, and Percy’s power pours into it.

The hand has already fallen away from his wrist. Even as the earthquake continues to shake the clearing, Percy stands, the tremors beneath his feet having no effect on his balance.

He pulls Paizein from its cord, and stands steady, assured, eyes finally clearing of memory. Ready for battle.

Oh.

Uh. Okay. Guess Apollo is not the only drama queen in the family?

He’d been heading for Lee and not thinking about anything else. Apparently, Lee and Chiron had been in the middle of dealing with a dispute between most of Ares, and a fair chunk of Athena. The six Hermes kids had raced into the clearing right after him.

And now there are a whole lot of kids all collapsed on the ground that has finally stopped shaking. Even Chiron’s down. Lee isn’t, he must have grabbed a tree when it started, he’d already made it across half the distance between him and Percy before the earthquake hit.

So. Lotta kids on the ground, plus centaur. In the middle of it all, Percy is standing. Holding a trident. One that none of them knew he owned.

A white faced Chiron is looking at him, utterly horrified. “Percy? Did you cause that? Did you cause the earthquake? Percy, how did you do that? Percy, what just happened?”

And oh look, there’s a shiny sea green trident glowing in the air, right above him.

He gives the centaur a sheepish smile.

“Say, did ya know I could cause an earthquake?”

________________________

Lee cannot understand how anything Percy does still catches him by surprise. The kid literally told him this was coming.

And yet…

As soon as she’s back on her feet, Clarisse is there. Collecting Percy and shepherding him out of the woods, haranguing him the entire time with threats of just tossing him over her shoulder if he doesn’t focus on walking.

Chiron hasn’t even tried to stand up. He’s just lying there, gaping.

He turns to Lee. “Did you know? I… I thought it was the Sea Prince?”

Lee cringes internally. They gaslit everyone over this, but all of the gods were particularly harsh with their handling of the centaur. Poseidon had the guy completely convinced that most children of the sea were claimed by twelve months old and the reason Percy hasn’t had an official claiming at camp is because Triton refuses to acknowledge land dweller customs.

Both facts were true. Neither applied to Percy. Lee hates lying. He really does.

“I… had a suspicion, there was an incident last week, Percy said he may have caused a small earthquake. But as no one else mentioned it…”

Chiron is aghast, “The Sky King has been accusing Percy of stealing the Bolt since winter. And that was when he thought he was a grandchild, not a son!”

Yeah. Actually.

Lee is not responsible for the two thousand year old centaur. Lee’s not doing this.

“Look, I gotta check my kid. Can you deal with this?” He gestures to all the freaked out campers. “Great! Thanks! Bye!”

And he’s off, though not without collecting shadows in the form of Castor and Pollux. And an invisible Annabeth. Great.

He can only feel her aura because Apollo did something to the charm that lets Lee track Percy, at least when he’s at camp. They could handle Percy being friends with her. They were still going to watch her.

He feels the touch of sunlight that is Apollo’s mental version of a door knock.

“Dad?” He calls out silently.

“Hey Lee, looks like it’s all about to kick off.”

“Yeah, Chiron is completely freaking out.”

“Father too, Uncle is here, and Dio. They’re calling an emergency meeting. I can’t risk directly contacting Percy.”

“How bad is it?”

“Be glad he doesn’t have the Master Bolt, I’m not sure we could have stayed his hand, natural born prophet or not.”

Lee winces. Gods, Percy’s twelve!

“Anything I can do, or need to know?”

“We’ve done all we can. If you can find a less than obvious method, let him know the two packages are aware and ready for collection, but he is not to divert his path. They can wait for another opportunity if needed. The Sea Queen will be monitoring the quest, Father is still unaware of her attachment. The rest is up to the kids.”

Apollo breaks the connection as Lee makes it back to the Big House. He’s had enough silent conversations with his dad at this point that he’s not worried about his visible or invisible shadows noticing what he’s up to.

________________________

They barely make it out of the woods before Clarisse gives up and swings the kid over her shoulder. She’d really like to make it to the Big House before the lookie loos start turning up.

He just sighs and lets her. It’s only when she dumps him on a bed in the infirmary that it starts up.

“War Drum, seriously, I know I’m shorter than you and like, smaller in general, but could you stop treating me like a sack of potatoes? It’s bad enough that Triton doesn’t even blink every time you punch me!”

She shrugs, “I only punch you hard when we’re underwater, it literally heals in like half a second. Triton said that while actual injuries were bad, it’s a good way for sea warriors to learn pain management.”

“Warriors, War Drum. Warriors. Not twelve year old kids!”

She just drops into a seat beside the bed. Lee’ll turn up sooner or later, depends on how panicked Chiron was.

“So, that whole thing was like, way over the top, you been taking lessons from Apollo?”

She’s not going to point out the kid definitely had a flashback. The hell was in that Hermes kid’s memories?

He just gives a half shrug, “Honestly wasn’t expecting that. Knew something was going to happen, knew I’d be mortified after, knew Chiron was going to flip out. I just… Yeah.”

“Pretty sure if you’d known what was gonna happen you wouldn’t have set foot in the woods today.”

“Yeah. Probably.”

“So. Kid. We going on an adventure?”

He rolls his eyes, “You could say that.” His eyes flick to the door, then he says much more quietly, “Heads up, Wise Girl’s got that hat on, she was at the river when they came at me. She’s going to hear everything we say, and…” He trails off again.

Yeah. She knows. Annabeth was like a dog with a bone when it came to the future stuff. Even the slightest comment about a future event and she’d harass him endlessly. Didn’t matter how many times the kid told her that it didn’t work out for people who knew too much about the future.

Clarisse isn’t stupid. She’s well aware the kid knows a hell of a lot more than he ever shares. She figures there’s a good chance he knows exactly how every demigod at camp will die. Knows the major beats of the next few decades of events.

It’s not her business, and she’d honestly rather not know. He’ll tell her if it’s information she needs, and otherwise she’s happy he doesn’t share. Though, when it’s over, she’ll still relentlessly tease him about it.

Clarisse wouldn’t do any of it; the teasing, the sparring, the underwater slightly-too-hard punches, if she thought for a second he wasn’t okay with it. When they were younger there were a few moments where she panicked that she’d gone too far and was actually hurting him, and just stopped doing any of it.

Kid had come and found her looking like the saddest puppy ever. Told her it made him feel like he belonged and like he was normal, and could they please go back to how they were before? He promises if it actually bothers him or hurts him he’ll have Lee or one of the gods tell her so she knows he means it. Lee later assured her he would tell her if it ever became a problem, even if the kid didn’t ‘fess up. So, she was happy to go back to their old dynamic.

Now she beats the crap out of him and ignores all the bitching. Works for her. Confuses the shit out of everyone else. Especially Chiron.

Lee’s given her a few lectures about her attitude to the centaur. If she didn’t have Triton training her she probably would do the hero worship thing the other kids do. But she has Triton, and he’s like, an actual warrior.

Chiron thinks Clarisse is just a complete natural with every weapon she touches. Since everyone thinks she just tags along on Priss’s underwater trips for fun? Or something? Honestly, Clarisse has no idea how that logic works.

When Lee finally turns up, he’s alone. Except not, she catches the kid’s little head tilt towards an empty corner and Lee’s answering tiny nod. That’s just great, Wise Girl. Invasion of privacy much?

Lee does his fussing thing, they conclude that while the earthquake definitely drained the kid, water’ll fix it. There’s a brief debate that the kid wins, something about a water bottle? And Lee finally lets him leave the infirmary when he’s looking a little steadier.

They end up in a meeting room where Chiron is waiting for them. Mr D too, though he looks like he’s not staying.

“Chaos Causer up to his usual games?”

Kid grins at him, “You know it!”

Mr D rolls his eyes, “Well, I believe you did promise not to cause me additional headaches, yet I’ve been summoned to Olympus for an emergency meeting. Father’s not too happy with Uncle, you got anything to add?”

Kid just rolls his eyes, “Hey, this isn’t on me! No one ever told me who my father was. It seemed best for my sanity to just not think about it?”

“I’ve also been ordered to ask you about the trident?”

Kid winces. “Uh, I think that might have been Triton having fun at my expense? Or possibly at the Council’s? He literally only gave it to me two days ago? And well, when he told me the name…”

Kid didn’t tell a single lie either. The trident he’d pulled out in the woods was the new one. Not the upgraded one he’s had for years.

Mr D just looks exasperated, “And what did Mr Stick Up His Butt name your pitchfork?”

“Uh, Paizein?”

Lee is laughing, Chiron looks horrified and Mr D definitely regrets asking. He says flatly. “The Prince of the Sea gave you a trident, and named it… Tease?”

Kid actually pulls the trident out and shows Mr D the name engraved on the shaft.

This is why Triton is Clarisse’s favourite.

“Wonderful. I really wished I did not know that. I cannot wait to see how Father responds to this. Uncle better already know about this.”

Kid just shrugs, “Triton didn’t say.”

“Well, now that question’s answered, I best go back to this emergency meeting. Given the screaming, I’ll probably be deaf when I return. Thanks ever so, brat.”

And Mr D is gone.

Chiron immediately launches into a whole spiel about how since Winter Solstice the gods have been fighting, and how Zeus’ Master Bolt was stolen during the festival. Even Clarisse knew something went wrong at winter. Wise Girl had been so annoyed that their field trip ended so abruptly and way sooner than normal.

Finally, Chiron makes it to the whole bit where Zeus thinks the kid nicked it. Kid points out he’s never been to Olympus because the auras are too much. Chiron says Zeus thinks he snuck there. Kid points out he literally spent Winter Solstice at Atlantis, at some sort of moon ceremony witnessed by hundreds of Atlanteans.

Chiron says it doesn’t matter. Zeus had accused him when he thought Percy was Poseidon’s grandson. Now he learns Poseidon has been concealing his son in plain sight and he’s now certain it’s not the only thing being kept from him.

They go back and forth for awhile. It’s missing the kid’s usual pizzaz, more like he’s arguing because he’s meant to. There’s none of that utter glee he has when he’s deliberately trying to confuse someone ’til they just completely give up their will to live.

Kid lets Chiron lead him to the conclusion that the kid needs to retrieve the bolt before the Summer Solstice in two weeks. Kid asks some slightly more pointed questions about who could have stolen the Master Bolt until Chiron finally outright says he thinks Hades pinched it.

Which perks the kid right up. Uh oh. “Say, he’s the one who’s responsible for Thalia dying, right? Except she’s not dead, just turned into tree?”

Kid barrels on before Chiron can answer, “I bet, while we’re there, we could totally convince him to release her soul! Bet that’d make the Sky King so much happier! Totally less likely to kill me if-”

Chiron finally just talks over the top of him, “NO! Percy! I swore an oath on the Styx that I would no longer seek a solution to revive Thalia! You must not do this!”

Kid just beams at him and goes, “Cool, cool, keep you out of it! Totally understood, all good. You had nothing to do with this. My lips are sealed.”

Chiron is horrified. Kid’s just sitting there, giving him this huge grin. Stalemate.

Ha! Chiron loses and changes topics.

“To officially take up this quest, you will need to consult the Oracle, a quest requires a prophecy, unless…” He looks kinda hopefully at the kid.

The kid who is looking a little too thoughtful, goes to open his mouth and then, “No.” Lee’s serious command voice. The one even the kid obeys.

“I am your Hierus tou Apollonos, You are not experimenting with your abilities immediately before a quest.”

Kid, sighs, slumps. But there’s that flicker. Whatever just happened, kid’s grateful Lee took the fall for it.

Kid’s looking at Clarisse now. “War Drum, you wanna hear this too? You know you’re going on the quest with me, right?”

Chiron objects. Lee’s command tone again, “It’s me or her, I’m not sending the only living Prophet of Apollo to face a cursed oracle alone. The only one capable of objecting is Apollo, and in this matter, I speak with his authority.”

Clarisse does not want to visit the cursed oracle. The mummified oracle situation makes her skin crawl. But if they are doing a quest, better it be the one going with him than the one staying behind.

“Yeah. Fine. You drag me into the weirdest shit, Prissy.”

As they leave the room, there’s some sort of awkward tussle thing between Lee and the kid, kinda choreographed, kinda not. She ignores it as Priss carefully shuts the door behind them, and lets him keep quiet as they head up the stairs. They are most of the way to the attic when she cracks.

“Prissy?”

“Mm?”

She gives him a vague questioning gesture.

“Oh! No, we’re clear. She got stuck in the room with Lee leaning on the door. He can sense her aura too.”

“You seem very unbothered by her snooping?”

He just blinks at her, “I’m like, a born snoop? I have access to everything, right here,” He taps his head, “no need for sneaking or invisible hats? There are things I don’t want to share with her, or with you, but since I can sense her, it just doesn’t bother me?”

Guess that makes sense. Well, not really. Kid’s weird.

Kid hesitates as just before they enter the attic.

“Uh, Clarisse?” That gets her, kid never uses names if he can avoid it. She gives him her full attention, “This Oracle, it uses smoke in images from your memories as it speaks the prophecy. Specifically, your worst memories. Some side effect of the curse. It’ll use mine, not yours, but I have a feeling it’s gonna be bad. Just… when we’re done and out of that room, can you act like you never saw it?”

Oh. Kid.

“Percy, in over five years, you’ve never asked about my aunt. I know you’ve seen it. You never mention it. Why do you think I’d do any less for you?”

He grins at her, “See! I knew we were friends!” She rolls her eyes and gestures him forward.

The Oracle is horrifically creepy. The images are bad. Not as bad as she expected. Still bad. All Percy says is it’s his last memory of the guy, that Apollo appeared seconds later. That all he knows for certain is the guy is dead and that’s all that matters.

Dead is good.

The prophecy is also… concerning.

She waits until they are back outside the attic door. “Prissy, safe to talk?”

He closes his eyes and focuses for a moment, doing whatever it is he does, he nods.

Then he softly recites,

“You shall go west, and face the god who has turned
You shall find what was stolen, and see it safely returned
You shall be betrayed by one who calls you friend
And you shall fail to save what matters most in the end”

“Kid, I’m fine with the first two bits. Sounds good, works for me. But the next line…”

Kid knows what she was not asking, “It’s not you. It’s not something I can explain further, but I can tell you, in the third line, the friend is not you.”

“That’s good. Because we aren’t friends. You’re just my punching bag.”

That gets a small smile at least, kid’s starting to put himself back together.

“I’m not telling them the last two lines. It’ll… cause problems. Need you to go along with it.”

Clarisse frowns, she’s fine keeping it from Chiron and Annabeth but, “Priss, you sure about keeping it from Lee?”

He blinks, surprised, “Oh! I’ll tell Lee. Later, when we’re alone. Don’t worry, I don’t keep prophecy stuff from him, like ever, unless it’s a specific thing the Fates don’t want him to know, which hasn’t yet come up as an issue…”

And now he’s babbling. Awesome. Why was she worried again? She gives him a shove forward and they head back towards the meeting room.

Chapter Text

They have to knock on the door when they get back to the meeting room. Lee’s still leaning on it, probably chatting all casually to Chiron like he’s entirely unaware he’s keeping a cranky daughter of Athena trapped with them.

From the exhausted defeated look on Chiron’s face and the hidden glee on Lee’s, he’s been fertilising Percy’s little seed about ‘rescuing’ Thalia’s soul from Uncle Hades.

Percy looks at Lee. Percy would really like a hug right now. He’d had an idea of what the Oracle would show him. It did not make it easier. To hear Gabe’s voice shouting those lines as he kicks a very tiny Percy… Not good.

Gods, he can’t believe how small he’d been! Who does that to a child?

He needs to keep it together, they have an audience. He’ll find Lee later tonight. Given everything, Lee’ll probably come and camp on the day bed in his room. If not, Percy can track him down to the Big House. They won’t be leaving tonight, it’s already dark.

Until then, he’s Percy, Prophet of Apollo and Chaos Causer. He gives them the first two lines of the prophecy and cheerfully gaslights Chiron into believing it’s totally normal for a prophecy to have only two lines. Lee confirms it, as if there’s no chance the two thousand year old centaur could have more experience with the Oracle of Delphi than them.

Percy agrees it’s sounding more and more likely that Hades has the bolt. Nods when Chiron tells him the bolt needs to be back by June twenty-first, only two weeks away.

Ignores Chiron’s unsubtle comments about Percy having a greater role to play now he’s been claimed by Poseidon.

He plays the reluctant leader bit up, showing Chiron (and Annabeth) that he’s just that goofball, the one who avoids class, who has no formal training. Only had Paizein for two days after all…

He hates this. So much.

Finally, Chiron starts making pointed comments about quests needing three people, not two.

Hang on. Does Chiron know Wise Girl’s here?

He flicks a glance at Lee. Gets a slight shrug in response.

Then Chiron says a third has already volunteered. What. Lee’s been there with them, the entire time. Wise Girl has been invisible since before those kid’s attacked him. No chance Chiron and she spoke.

The hell is going on?

“Volunteered? We literally only just found about the quest, I got claimed like, an hour ago? How did someone manage to volunteer? Besides War Drum I mean?”

She corrects, “Pretty sure I was voluntold, Prissy.”

Yeah, fair. Take it up with the Fates.

Chiron starts to say something and shit. No. This is not for Percy. He can feel the phantom threads snapping already. He snaps a hand out.

“Stop! Now!”

Everyone freezes.

Lee with his very serious voice, “Perce? What’s wrong?”

“Whatever he was about to say, it’s not something I should hear. Not now. Not for me. Not yet.”

Uh oh. That’s a lot of things going across Lee’s face. Percy doesn’t want to know. Not his problem. Ghost threads are gone. Problem fixed.

“Look, without giving me an explanation, tell me who volunteered?”

Finally. Wise Girl takes her hat off and there she is, grinning smugly.

“Me.”

________________________

Lee would like to be with his kids right now. His twelve year old kid who is leaving in the morning to lead a quest to the Underworld. Along with the thirteen year old kid who is not Lee’s. But also is.

Instead, with all of the gods stuck in an emergency Council meeting, Lee gets to interrogate an immortal centaur.

“Chiron.”

The guy looks over, he’s in his little magic wheelchair doodad and slumped at the meeting table, lost in thought, one hand tapping absently at the table.

“When did Annabeth volunteer for this?”

He raises his eyebrows, “I thought it was not for him to know?”

Lee shrugs, “And he won’t. That’s my job. If he needs to know something, he’ll tell me. If it’s not for him, I still go digging. I just don’t share. Unless he tells me it’s time.”

Chiron is looking at him with this calculating expression, “Just how much do you know?”

“More than you, a lot less than the gods. My sole focus is protecting my kid. Doesn’t matter what form it takes. When did Annabeth volunteer?”

“How much do you know of the Great Prophecy?” Oh lovely, enigmatic teacher mode. Lee is no longer one of Chiron’s charges. Thank you very much.

Lee speaks very bluntly, “More than you.”

Chiron’s eyebrows jump, but Lee doesn’t give him anything else,

He just stares the centaur down. Right now he’s not a camper. Right now he’s the High Priest of Apollo. He speaks with the authority of the gods.

“Chiron, I can and will summon Apollo from his very important emergency meeting if you don’t ‘fess up.”

The centaur sighs, gives in, “After everything that happened with… with Thalia, before Percy came, I asked the Oracle about Annabeth.”

Lee just stares at him, “Why? That seems… odd. She was just a little kid?”

Chiron smiles a little nostalgically, “She was incredibly determined, even then. While things have improved for me, at the time, it felt like Thalia was the final straw. I was searching for a bit of hope to hang onto. Annabeth was that hope.”

Lee does not like where this is going.

“And what did the cursed oracle tell you?”

Chiron winces, “it wasn’t a prophecy, just some vague comments. Her destiny was yet to come, it relied on a child of the eldest gods, their arrival would signal the beginning and their fate was entwined with her own.”

Shit.

Lee’s voice is a little too loud, a little too insistent, “Please tell me you didn’t tell her about this!”

Chiron just looks away.

“Chiron! I need to know. Now.”

He cracks, “Yes, I told her. I told her that one day she’d go on a quest with the forbidden child. I did not tell her the specifics of the Great Prophecy, but she’s aware of it.”

Lee just stares at him horrified. He shouldn’t say what he wants to. He is a High Priest of Apollo and making angry blunt statements in anger is not a good idea.

Fuck it. He’s gonna. He is his father’s son after all.

“Chiron, there is something I need to say to you. But first, you’re going to swear on the Styx you will never tell it to anyone else.”

Chiron looks confused, but does so. Lee’s betting Chiron thinks he’s trying to prevent him telling Percy.

Lee makes deliberate eye contact with the centaur, pulls at every ounce of sun god blood in his veins, he wants his eyes to glow and burn.

When Lee speaks his voice comes in a quiet hiss, “There will come a day when you learn of Annabeth’s true fate. On that day, I want you to remember something. You are the one who set her on that path. You are the one who sealed her fate. Her fate is on your head.”

Chiron stares at him, shocked. Lee no longer cares. He can be polite to the centaur, but that was his last chance of ever being considered an ally.

He snarls out, much louder, “There is a reason prophecy is dangerous. This is why.”

Lee storms out. He is going to go and find Beck, and they are going to spar. When he is calmer he is going to go and hug his kid and promise him, yet again, her fate is not his fault.

________________________

When Lee finally turns up, it’s far later than Percy expected. He knew to wait. Some part of him certain Lee wasn’t at the Big House. Something must have happened. Lee’s hands are red and bruised, his arms are scraped and his eyes are red. He’s been crying.

He doesn’t even try and act like he’s just checking in. Lee heads straight for where Percy is stretched out on his bed staring at Artemis’ stars on the ceiling, and collapses right down next to him.

“Hot Air? Something happen?”

Lee tries to give him a smile. “Hey Perce. Yeah. Something happened. I found out something. Got an answer to a question I’d been struggling with.”

Ah. Percy curls up against his side, laying his head on his chest. He should feel like he’s too old for cuddling his dad/guardian/high priest/parental-figure, but not tonight.

“Bad answer?”

Lee gives a choked laugh, “Yes, and no. It gave me confirmation of something I believed, but I learned something kinda shitty too.”

“Will you say it?”

Lee tilts his head trying to get a look at Percy, “Kid, I want to tell you, but some of it… you already shut it down hard earlier?”

“Not that bit. That’s not for me. Not yet. The bit you’ve said before, but now have proof for.”

He feels Lee take a deep breath, and then he speaks, his voice full of certainty, “Percy, her fate is not your fault. You did not set her on her path. Her path was set before you came to camp.”

It has always rung with truth, every time Mr D, Apollo and Lee tell him. But now it carries a deepening Lee’s own faith, a new level of certainty.

He sighs. “Thanks. Wanna hear the rest of the Oracle’s deranged rant?”

A huff of a laugh from Lee, “Sure. Though, I’m here too if you want to share what you saw? You were pretty shaken when you came back.”

“It was just before ‘Pollo came, just before I prayed to him, when I thought I was gonna die.”

“You need me to say it?”

He sniffs, “Yeah, I know he’s dead, but yeah.”

“Percy, you will never see Gabe again. He is never coming back. You are safe from Gabe.”

It helps. It’s been years since he’s asked. But still. It helps. When this is over he really does need to talk to Mr D. Between the Hermes kid and then the Oracle…

Oh.

“When you see Mr D again, can you get him to help that kid? Like, soonish? He’s in Cabin Eleven? Name’s Daniel, cast on his arm, he’s claimed, Thief God, don’t think he’s in danger, but the memories are bad.”

Lee hesitates, “This like Piper?”

“Nah, nothing we can do to change his path. Just don’t think he should have to feel like that. Mr D can fix it.”

“Only you, Percy. You’re a real good kid, you know?”

“Yeah yeah, wanna hear the prophecy?”

Lee goes to answer, than pauses, “Before I answer, just to clarify, this is the prophecy from the cursed oracle, not a Percy special?”

Percy rolls his eyes, “Yes, the Oracle’s one.”

“That’s fine then, let’s hear it.”

After Percy recites it, Lee is quiet, thoughtful.

“Well, none of it is unexpected. The fourth line though, ‘what matters most?’ I did have a message from Apollo for you…”

“Mm?”

“‘The two packages are aware and ready for collection. But you are not to divert your path.’ Sounded like they couldn’t quite work out how the quest would lead you there, wherever it was?”

“S’fine, it will. Fourth line’s probably about the tree, or… Huh. Not sure. Not ‘bout the packages though.”

Lee goes still, “Perce, exactly what have you been planning? I thought that bit about Thalia was just you causing chaos?”

“‘Pollo knows, best you have plausible deniability.”

“Kid, you’re my priority, not the camp.”

“Yeah, but I don’t really want you incinerated either? S’fine, the gods been scheming but they didn’t tell me, I told them. They’ve left the rest to me. ‘Sides, you’re gonna like how this one plays out, gonna help tonnes. Even keeps me safer.”

Lee gives such a heavy exhausted sigh. Yeah, Percy feels like that too. Fates make stuff hard, and the whole playing games with who knows which bit. But Zeus’ll freak if he finds out a mortal knows about Amphy’s collection of ‘leverage’. And their plans for them. Percy’s fine, because no one actually told him. Loophole doesn’t apply to Lee though, even as a High Priest.

“Do you need anything for the quest tomorrow? You’re taking the new debit card, it came from Rhode via Apollo, so it’s linked to actual real accounts, no Mist, no gods poofing money into existence.”

Percy considers.

“Need cash too, card could be useful to miraculously discover later, but if we have a debit card to get straight to LA, one that the watching gods don’t know about, it’s gonna cause problems.”

“What about other supplies? You taking the water bottle?”

“Can’t risk it, War Drum knows not to touch stuff like that, but if Annabeth tries to drink the water of Delos…”

“Good point. Let’s not.”

“Think it’s fine otherwise. But, uh, Lee?”

That gets his attention. It’s fun using real names when Percy’s been so focused on nicknames. The nicknames make sense to him, gods are nicknamed because names have power, the people who are important to him get the same treatment.

“Percy?”

“You’re gonna get lots of bits of information, and all of it is gonna make you panic. Need you to remember, ‘m gonna survive this. S’not my time. I’ll be coming home before the Solstice.”

Lee sighs, “Kid, having a fate doesn’t make you invulnerable, it could still go to pot. It has before, it’s the whole reason we’re in this mess.”

“Yeah, but if it hadn’t all gone wrong, I wouldn’t have been born, and even with the Fates stuff, I kinda like being alive?”

“Okay, I’ll give you that. For all the heart attacks you give me, I am glad Dad brought you here. You were like a stray kitten dropped off at an animal shelter, all feral and angry and half-starved.”

Percy wishes he could protest, but that is an accurate description. Unfortunately.

“I will be careful, really. And Triton gave us not one, but two god-level weapons, just in case I wasn’t already too overpowered…”

“Plus a normal trident, that he named Tease. What is it with sea gods and antagonising the Sky King?”

Percy huffs, “Yeah. That was personal. You know how he feels, no way was he gonna miss a chance to screw with the Sky King. Not sure he expected me to pull it out as I was claimed though.”

He sighs, he’s already packed a backpack, not much more he can do. Lee probably has the debit card with him, and he’ll hand the cash over more publicly in the morning.

“You’re staying tonight, right?”

“‘Course kid.”

________________________

The next morning Percy rounds up Clarisse and Annabeth and they head out of camp with Lee. They stop at the tree, Lee and Clarisse hanging back. Percy pretends not to notice Lee hand something off to her while Annabeth’s back is to them.

Annabeth pauses, looking up at the tree. “You really think we can save her?”

“I honestly don’t know Wise Girl. But I dream of that night, like, a lot. She didn’t die like she should’ve. She transformed. If the Sky King turned her into a tree, the only reason he’d be unable to change her back is if her soul isn’t here.”

She frowns and turns to him, “You’ve never mentioned that? Why wouldn’t you tell me that she might still be alive?”

Percy sighs, runs his hand through his hair, tugging at the strands, “She’s not alive, Wise Girl. It sucks to hear, but right now, Thalia is dead. I just have a theory about how she could possibly, maybe, be revived. I haven’t mentioned my dreams because I try really hard not to remind people of their worst memories.”

She’s confused, “But we’ve never touched, how would you know? Wait, am I why you dream of her?”

“I’ve been dreaming about her since before I came to camp.”

He carefully doesn't mention he dreamed of that night well before it happened. Four year old Percy couldn’t exactly do jack about it, but Annabeth wasn’t always reasonable when it came to Thalia.

“You don’t trigger those dreams, but you are in them. It’s just how the sight works. I see a lot I never talk about. Not just your worst memories, but everyone’s. When I first got here, and me and Lee were still working things out, I saw all of his worst memories. He and Mr D helped me work out how to tell what was safe to share and what really wasn’t.”

He shakes off the gloom, “Anyway, we can talk about this as we go. For now, we really should head off.”

At least that gets them all moving. Lee drives them back into civilisation and to the bus station. The whole drive he can see Annabeth debating on something. He doesn’t mind talking about this, just not where Lee can hear.

Somehow Lee has ended up with even stronger feelings about Athena and Pallas than Percy has. He knows Apollo told Lee the full story. Lee was super shaken afterwards, even had nightmares. That was just from hearing about it, not seeing it. Maybe the knowing protects Percy from the full impact? No one’s ever told him the story, he just dreams about them.

Actually, now he’s thinking about it, when Clarisse was told about Pallas she was super freaked too. Maybe Percy is the weird one?

Either way, not a conversation to be had near Lee, so Percy does what he does best, and keeps coming out with random comments and jokes every time Annabeth looks like she’s about to ask. It’s easy enough to thoroughly distract her by reminding her that Ares absolutely trounced Athena during Capture the Flag. Since Annabeth, the Athena Cabin Head, abandoned the game partway through. Sherman, the Ares Cabin Head had stayed on the field of play.

They made it all the way to the bus station and onto the bus (with Lee still watching from the parking lot, because, of course) before Annabeth finally gets too curious.

This time it is Clarisse who cuts her off. “Yo, Prissy, did I just see what I thought I saw?”

Did Clarisse just see three Kindly Ones? The three Furies of the King of the Underworld? Wearing fluffy pink knitted cardigans?

Yes she did indeed. Percy had seen them too.

“Yeah, you saw them War Drum.”

“And what are we doing about it?”

He gives her innocent look, “Nothing. Unless they actually attack, we are ignoring them. If they want to talk to us they can.”

Annabeth butts in, “Wait! What did you see? How does Clarisse know what you saw?”

Clarisse grins at her, all teeth. They do actually like each other, but Clarisse isn’t really made for defusing arguments. The three of them each do great with just one of the others, but all of them together tends to be kind of hit and miss.

“Prissy wasn’t using the sight, just his eyes. The three Kindly Ones are near the front. Wearing pink cardies for some reason.”

Annabeth is horrified. “Uh, shouldn’t we go, escape? We can’t fight three of them!”

“Wise Girl, we walked straight past them, no problem. If they wanted a fight, we’d be fighting. I’d really like to make it a little further on this quest first?”

Annabeth is looking them both over. “I should have checked our supplies before we left! What weapons do you have? Do you even have any? I’ve got my knife. They’re going to smell that you’re a forbidden kid! This can’t be happening!”

Why is she so upset? Oh. Oops. Percy may have forgotten what was chasing Thalia when the tree thing happened. Guess that’s why?

“Hey, hey, Wise Girl. Take a breath. There we go. Take another. It’s okay. We’re fine, you’re fine.”

“War Drum and I are both armed. I have a trident, and I’ve got a sword too. Pretty sure War Drum has plenty of other surprises stashed on her as well. Weapons are kinda like a security blanket for her.”

That gets him a punch in the shoulder, but Annabeth is settling down as he rattles on.

“As for the smell, don’t you think someone would have sniffed me out by now if I smelled like a forbidden kid? The charm doesn’t just shield my powers, it shields me too. Unless someone actually knows who my dad is, all they are gonna smell is a sea kid.”

She’s finally calming. The Furies haven’t moved. Percy has an idea why they are here, and it isn’t to fight.

He manages to keep Annabeth distracted for a while. When they hit a long tunnel, just one of the pink fluffy cardigans moves in their direction.

Annabeth is stiff beside him, hand clenched on her knife, she’s entirely forgotten Lee’s old rules about physical touch.

The Fury finally reaches them. Annabeth is definitely a single twitch from pulling her knife.

Percy gives her a cheerful grin, “Hi! Can I help you?”

“Prophet, do you know where it is?”

He shrugs, “I can’t give a solid answer on that. It depends what you mean by “it” and also “know”. I can say, if I find it, I will return it to its owner. If that owner is your master, he can have it for the low low price of one soul.”

She frowns at him, “You truly do not know?”

“Lady, I know a lot. Either ask me outright, or go away. Even for him there are divine laws about what you can ask a prophet.”

“We will be watching you, if you have lied…” She trails off threateningly.

He rolls his eyes, “Lady, I’m a Prophet of Apollo, the punishment for me lying about what I see is way worse than anything you can do.”

She nods, and returns to her sisters.

Annabeth is just staring at him. “Percy! That was a Kindly One!”

He sighs, “Wise Girl, this is why I don’t talk about the sight with you. I like being a kid, just another camper. All this,” He gestures towards the Furies, “it’s the other part of my life. I don’t love it. It kinda sucks actually. Prophets aren’t meant to do quests or be involved with any of this. Shit’s gonna be weird. You need to just roll with it.”

Before she could say more, they pulled out of the tunnel. Electricity crackled unseen across Percy’s skin.

Uh oh.

“Guys, get your bags, like now.” Clarisse moves immediately, grabbing her own bag and shoving Annabeth’s towards her. Percy never let go of his. He gets them up and moving down the aisle.

The Furies had noticed the three of them bailing and they clearly weren’t stupid. One was already heading for the driver, the other two close behind. Completely ignoring the guy’s yelling, she just reached across him, grabbed the wheel and forced the bus off the road. Guess they didn’t want to be fried either.

The bus sort of rolled/crashed to a stop. The Furies had already disappeared by the time Percy chivvied the two girls off the bus, the rest of the passengers pouring out behind them.

“The woods! Now!”

As they raced for cover, the lightning bolt struck the bus, it went flying, a huge crater at the strike point. Behind them people were yelling and flames were crackling. Percy’s fairly sure everyone escaped. The knowing says so anyway. No time to check.

Zeus either hadn’t realised they’d escaped, or didn’t want to attack again straight away. Percy was kinda wondering how many of Zeus’ weapons shot lightning bolts. Clearly it was more than just the Master Bolt…

They keep heading deeper into the woods. When they finally slow down some, it is Annabeth who asked how he knew.

“I could feel it coming Wise Girl, like an aura, but not. I’m really not sure if I even know how to explain it. This stuff I mostly just talk about with Lee and Apollo, since they both experience auras like I do, it’s kinda easier?”

She frowns, but Clarisse has an answer for her, “You ever wonder why the kid calls me War Drum?”

“Because of your dad right? God of War and all that?”

Perce grins, “Half right! Sorta!”

Clarisse just rolls her eyes, “He calls me War Drum because the loudest part of my aura is the sound of a war drum, he can feel it in his chest. When we met, kid was kind of totally out of it and kept telling Lee I was the biggest War Drum he ever heard.”

“But, why Wise Girl then? That doesn’t sound like an aura thing?”

“S’not. Wise Girl came from War Drum actually. I never gave you a nickname. If I had, it’d be something like Whispers and Owl, hasn’t got quite the same ring to it.”

“Whispers… and Owl?”

At least it’s keeping her distracted from being terrified about the lightning bolt and the Furies?

He tries very hard to explain it all to her, she both gets it, and really doesn’t. She wants each component to align with how she sees herself. But that’s not how auras work. Each component does mean something, but without the knowing they are meaningless. It’s too instinctual to really explain logically.

Since not even Castor and Pollux get the aura thing, he’s not bothered. Castor’s aura flashes light and dark, so he’s Strobe Light, Pollux’s aura is all contained power in a steel vault, so he’s Power. They gave up trying to understand after awhile and just let him nickname them as he chose. Plus Mr D likes their nicknames.

All Clarisse knows about her own is it’s the loudest war drum and has a shield instead of bloodlust. She’s never asked about the rest, he’s never said.

When Annabeth suggests working out where they are, he gives her a vague comment about being able to sense the rivers, and finding their way from there.

He knows where they are going. He can already feel her aura, though it’ll be a couple of hour’s walk yet. He knows they’ll be safe. For reasons. But he isn’t in the mood to try and explain the whole backstory to either of them. So he just… doesn’t. This is why he drives Lee crazy isn’t it?

Finally Annabeth asks the question she’d been chewing on in the car.

“You know, Athena can work with most gods, except for the Sea King. Before last night, I’d figured the Prince was your father and he didn’t share the King’s old rivalries.” Clarisse kind of trips over her own feet at that, but at least she doesn’t say anything.

Annabeth goes on, “But, the rift between my mother and your dad is famous. You’ve never said anything. We’ve been best friends for years?”

Yes. The rift is definitely between Poseidon and Athena. Nothing to do with Triton. Or Pallas. Nope. Not at all.

He shrugs a bit, “There’s a lot to it. More than you know, probably more than even I know. I didn’t actually know who my dad was. I knew Apollo was doing a lot of misdirection about who my parent was, but not the reason why.”

“You didn’t know you were a forbidden kid?”

He tilts his head, “If you’re asking if I knew like as in, this was knowledge I was told. No. But the knowing… it hides things away that would be dangerous for me to know at a conscious level. I was always aware this was a subject I shouldn’t go poking around.”

She still seems so confused, like she can’t imagine just letting knowledge sit.

“Wise Girl, what’s actually bothering you about this? ‘Cause I don’t think it’s the metaphysical implications of prophetic ability.”

See! Percy does listen to Apollo's lectures, even knows the right words!

She frowns, thinking hard, “I guess, I can’t imagine being so fine with not knowing who my godly parent was. If I didn’t know who Mum was… The only reason I never pushed was because I was so certain you knew it was the Prince, and for whatever reason you just weren’t allowed to talk about it.”

He laughs without humour, “Wise Girl, I have gods obsessively hovering over me. It’s the not fun part of the prophet thing. I’ve never had a chance to feel abandoned by my godly parent. From my perspective, it’d just be one more drama queen to add to the mix. Besides. I have Hot Air. He’s all I need.”

That gets a more real smile. Yes, he loves Lee. No, he’s not ashamed about it.

Then she frowns again. “And the rivalry?”

Yeah, he doesn’t feel like telling that story right now. Or ever. Half truth it is.

He shrugs, “All the gods have tonnes of rivalries. Apollo is full of ‘em. If I was to go by the alliances of the gods closest to me, and then judge their kids for it, I wouldn’t be trying to find a way to revive Thalia. She’d be my sworn enemy.”

Annabeth goes to protest, then stops herself and gives him a grin, “Huh, I was all offended for a second there, but you’re right. We aren’t our parents.”

“Nope, and thank the gods for it or me and War Drum would have completely flattened camp from all the fighting.”

Clarisse adds, “Who says we won’t? Still got time! Prissy, we ever going to get where we’re going?”

“Well… thing is, I can get us a hot lunch and a lift to the train station. But, well, it’s going to take some trust from both of you.”

Clarisse is suspicious, “Exactly where are you taking us?”

He winces. “Okay, firstly, I swear, once we’re on the train I’ll tell the whole story, answer any and all questions. But even if I had started explaining when we were still on the bus, we would not have had enough time for either of you to wrap your heads around the weirdness of it all?”

Annabeth is just gaping, yeah, Percy should have thought this whole quest thing through a little more. He’s too used to people just going along with him, because they kinda had to, being the High Priest and God of Prophecy and all…

Clarisse finds words first, “Prissy, if you get killed doing this, I’m telling Triton exactly what you just said, word for word.”

Annabeth frowns, completely distracted, “Why is that a threat?”

“Because Triton has some very specific trauma that is still a major sore spot and Priss’d rather die than remind him of it”

Annabeth blinks, Percy sighs. “Let’s just say, Tri once trusted someone absolutely, and he has regretted that every day of his existence since.”

“But!” He turns on Clarisse, “Even Tri just goes along with me when it’s a prophet thing! He doesn’t like it, but he does it!”

“And this is an actual prophet thing? Like, if we go along and don’t ask questions we will be fine? You aren’t guessing?”

He sighs, turns his mind inward and pokes at the bright spot that is his knowing, “Yes. I just checked. But only if you don’t ask questions. Wise Girl, you’re going to find this hard. You gotta keep in mind that I actually can answer every question you ask about her. She won’t answer you, and would probably kill you after the second question.”

“She?”

“The person who’s gonna feed us and drop us off at the train station. It’s a once in a lifetime chance to learn a story involving your mum. One that no-one else knows. She’s sworn not to speak of it, I haven’t.”

That does it. He leaves them in the parking lot, where they can’t see the freaky statutes and heads into Aunty Em’s Garden Gnome Emporium. Not that he could read the sign. But, he knows where they are.

She slinks out from the shadows, ready for the whole spiel, and utterly freezes. Ha! Medusa freezing! Percy has puns!

“Hi Ma’am! I’m not who you think I am. I am a son of the Sea King, but not… that one.”

“What. What do you know?”

“Hey, it’s all good. Sea King didn’t say a word. I’m a Prophet of Apollo, got the whole dreaming of the past thing. I dream of you a lot. Of your story. I never name you, but I make sure the kids at camp know that dude ain’t a hero.”

“That… is not an appropriate story for one so young to dream of.”

He shrugs, “Yeah, I know. It sucks. Can’t help it though, Fates decided they needed a prophet, and here I am. Look, I’m here with two friends, daughter of the Grey Eyed One and a daughter of the War God. We aren’t our parents, but I’m also not my half brother.”

He’s definitely caught her interest now, “What he did, it was wrong. I’m gonna make sure his story is forgotten. Gonna keep telling yours though. A couple friends of mine, daughters of Aphrodite, they use you as an example of why it’s so important to believe the survivor and not the big hero.”

Her whole aura has calmed down now, she actually seems kind of cheerful, huh, who’da thunk telling someone you believed them would make them less likely to kill you? Weird, huh?

“Anyway, we’re kinda a bit lost at the moment. I was really hoping we could buy a hot meal from you? Maybe get a lift to the train station? We can pay!”

She doesn’t take his money. She does however pack up cheeseburgers, fries and vanilla shakes for all three of them.

With her veil firmly in place she looks like just any Muslim lady in religious garb, and doesn’t even flinch when she catches sight of Annabeth. They are soon at the train station, tickets bought and scarfing down their lunch.

Annabeth is the one who finally asks, “Percy, was that Medusa?”

Clarisse chokes. Oops. He pounds her on the back and finds her some water.

“Uh, yeah, that was Medusa. She’s cool.”

“Prissy! What! How?”

The explanation lasts all the way onto the train and into the night. Annabeth is absolutely gleeful that he’s given her carte blanche on one of his visions, especially since no one else knows about this one.

It’s one of the few times where sharing information no one knows doesn’t carry a risk. It’s nice to freely talk about it all.

Annabeth does eventually tire herself out and she’s the first to fall asleep. Percy keeps himself awake, there’s dread building in him, tonight’s dreams will be bad. He’d rather give the girls at least a little unbroken sleep before his dreams wake them.

“Prissy?”

“Mm?”

“How old were you when you first dreamed of Medusa?”

“Her conversation with my dad, or any part of the story? Because those are two different answers.”

“Priss.”

He sighs, “The dreams about her were some of the first, Apollo thinks my dreams started when I was two or three? That specific conversation, I was six or seven I think? I’d been trying to force my sight to show me my father. Didn’t realise at the time that it had.”

“How are you not like, completely nuts?”

“There’s a longer explanation but short version, the knowing protects me from the things I see, but only so long as it’s solely from the prophet stuff. Gets messy when my own memories are involved.”

“That why that kid got the jump on you twice?”

“Yeah, little too close to home.”

“Gonna happen again?”

“Maybe? Probably not. Requires someone having a near perfect match to my own memories. Don’t like seeing people’s worst memories but doesn’t make me freeze.”

Silence. He sighs, “Just ask War Drum.”

“Lee told me never to mention it you. Said it’d cause a flashback.”

He rolls his eyes, “It was five years ago, soon as I started spending time around her, he and Apollo did a thing. Mr D was part of it too. Don’t know what. Specific to her and whatever the memory was. It might still freak me if she manages to trigger it, but I won’t freeze up.”

“Good. Won’t get any glory if you die on this quest.” Because Clarisse totally cares about glory.

“One day you’re gonna admit we’re friends. Now seriously, sleep.”

She finally shuts up. She’s surprisingly gossipy for someone so determined to fit the stoic warrior image. Percy thinks she’s got a touch of hero worship for Tri.

When he finally dreams, he’s in the dark. Again. He never remembers these dreams when he’s awake. He’s kinda glad of it.

The aura hits next. Gut churns, aching, wrenching hunger, it bites into him, claws at him, his skin blisters, burning from something worse than heat, anger blazes like ice, pottery shatters, reforms, cracks, shatters.

Something is speaking, but he doesn’t listen. Couldn’t if he wanted to. The aura is too loud, too all-encompassing.

He holds himself still, desperately focusing on Apollo’s lessons, remember home, find your anchor. Ocean at his throat, warm air, spilling light, waiting for him. Calling to him. He focuses harder on the warm air, spilling light, sun-warmed wood, arrow nocked.

He blinks and he is drifting through the Big House. Lee is asleep. He’s holding Eric, Percy’s sea horse toy. He’s been crying again.

Percy would like to stay. To be a total creep and watch his anchor sleep, but Lee has served his purpose. He closes his not-real eyes and pushes himself backwards. Feeling along the not quite there rope of sunlit ocean, until he’s back lying in a bunk, with a war drum vibrating in his chest and whispers in his ear, the soft whirr and clatter of a shuttle, an owl on his shoulder. He falls back into his dreams.

The next dream is… not good. Percy can fix this. Maybe? He has to. He can save her. He must.

________________________

The train was incredibly boring. They spent most of their time just staring out the window. While there were glimpses of the divine world, Percy was a lot more interested in the mortal one. He’d missed it. He never wants to live on the streets again, but he does miss the chaos of it all. The normality.

Annabeth talks about her family, the difficulties with her father, her stepmother who ignored her, her younger half-brothers who just didn’t understand. Percy tries to offer comfort and sympathy. He’s not sure how successful he is.

Clarisse and he don’t have a family outside of camp. Not really. Sally Jackson was who knows where. She was alive and living in the mortal world, Percy knew that. But no-one was willing to say exactly what they’d done to silence her.

Percy knew she would have jeopardised everything. But little Percy would be upset if she died. Apparently, that was why they chose the more compassionate route. If not for that, they’d have killed her. It was… yeah. One more aspect to the prophet shtick that he wasn’t fond of.

But even when he’d had Sally, she was nothing compared to Lee. Percy still never goes by Jackson if he can avoid it all. As far as he’s concerned his name is not Perseus Hercules either. Not even the gods with their ‘names have power’ stuff call him anything other than Percy.

Clarisse has a mother, almost permanently overseas working for the military. The deployment isn’t the reason Clarisse lives at camp, but it is an easier answer to give.

Even before, Clarisse had lived with her aunt, her mother’s twin. There’d been a car accident. Not Clarisse’s fault. Eight year old demigods who don’t know they are demigods cannot be blamed for monster attacks. But the outcome was the same. Her mother still does not want to see her. They exchange letters a couple of times a year and that was it. Clarisse wants nothing to do with the War God.

Clarisse has been very clear from day one that she didn’t want another parental figure. Instead, Percy adopted her, kept her, dragged her along for the ride and if she just happened to be included in the parental affection he received? Well, that worked for the both of them. It kind of weirded people out, the Prophet of Apollo treating a daughter of Ares as a sibling, but they got over it.

It did make it hard to understand where Annabeth was coming from. On the one hand, both he and Clarisse had five, nearly six, years of Lee treating them like his own. On the other, they both knew, from painful experience, how terrible parents can be. What Annabeth was describing was not that.

Arguments that were stressful because her father was trying to understand and asked too many questions. Feeling coddled because he keeps asking about how to protect her from monsters. Young brothers who want her to teach them Jedi fighting, but wander off as soon as she tries to show them the right stance. A step mother who keeps taking her along when she has coffee with her friends and their children.

Annabeth talks about a future with Thalia, of maybe finding Luke, twenty-four now, if he’s still alive. She cannot wait to see her friends again, to ‘put her family back together’. When she tells Percy about this she has such a hopeful light in her eyes.

Annabeth still talks as if her time with Thalia and Luke, on the streets and running from monsters, were the happiest moments of her life. She still carries that knife.

Percy thinks he hates that knife. He knows it’s story now. The real one. One life saved, thousands lost. He knows there’s more to it. More to it’s past. A story that will make him hate the knife and what it represents even more.

It’s odd, a knife that symbolises the best parts of her life, and also the worst of his. The worst parts of being a prophet. Of feeling like you are choosing who lives and who dies. Even knowing the Fates decide, not the Prophet.

The knife was a gift to thank Halcyon Green, when he took the choice of the Fates in his own hands. When he ignored the Fates and decided himself which thread to cut.

________________________

After two full days, and two very long nights on the train, they pull in to St Louis. Annabeth is utterly fixated on the giant shopping bag handle bridge thing from the moment she first sees it.

She talks so enthusiastically about the architecture, about how incredible it is, how badly she wants to visit it. When the three hour stopover is announced, she’s headed straight for it.

He knows it’s useless, he tries anyway.

“Uh, Wise Girl? Isn’t that a temple to your mum? Not so sure she’d like me being there?”

He gets brushed off, she doesn’t even ask how he knows it’s a temple to Athena, she’s that distracted. She leads the way through the streets.

Clarisse drops back, “We could just stay on the train, let her go by herself?”

A tiny part of him wants to say yes. That death by chimera is a kinder fate for his Wise Girl. But, she has that knife on her hip. It’s not his decision. And even if it was, those are not the sorts of thoughts he ever wants to entertain.

Nothing he will say will convince Annabeth not to visit the Arch, so the second best option it is.

He sighs, gives Clarisse a weak excuse for a smile, “Either we all go, or none of us go. I really don’t want to. But.” He shrugs helplessly.

He’s silent for a beat, and then, “War Drum?”

“Yeah?”

“You’re gonna hate this, but I need you to promise me something.”

“All I’m gonna say is, Triton.”

He sighs, “Yeah. I know. Plus I can feel the Sea Queen nearby, so I’m gonna get lectured, like, immediately. But, if Wise Girl’s going, so are we.”

“And what do you want from me?”

“Don’t fight, let me. I need you to keep Amyntor hidden. I’ll use Katecho if I have to. But you gotta stay back and keep Wise Girl outta the way. And after, do the sack of potatoes thing.”

“And where am I dumping you?”

“In the Mississippi?”

She just stares at him. “You are completely insane.”

Yep.

It goes exactly as the knowing said it would. At the top of the Arch is a crazy goddess monster lady who is now more known for a spiky Australian creature, but he still recognised as Echidna, goddess of monsters

She has a chimera with her, but only a baby one. He briefly debates on the best response, but then the idiot goddess outright announces Zeus gave her permission to hunt him. Zeus gave permission for a monster to hunt the only living Prophet of Apollo. Seriously? Is he nuts?

He’s so distracted he pauses a fraction too long. The chimera gets Percy with the tail, poison starting to burn in his veins.

He decides with Amphy nearby, and him freshly poisoned, he has not got time to play ‘goofball who can’t fight’. Not if he’s going to stop Apollo marching on Olympus. This is gonna freak Wise Girl out but hopefully she thinks he’s just pulled Paizein. After all, why would he carry two tridents?

He draws Katecho, lets his own essence, the ocean of his own power, connect with the conch horn’s call to war that echoes within the weapon. He moves.

Okay. That was terrifying.

Katecho barely glanced against it’s side, and the Chimera’s dead in one hit, dissolving into gold dust. He may need to have a chat with Triton after this.

Percy collapses after, hurriedly returning the trident to his necklace, getting a grip on the Paizein charm just in case. Echidna is both horrified at the chimera’s death, and very pleased he’s been hit.

She doesn’t react as Clarisse shoves past, flings him over her shoulder and races back out. He doesn’t have any clear memories of the ride down or the race to the river, he only really comes to as, true to her unspoken promise, Clarisse dumps him in the Mississippi.

Amphy is waiting for him. She tuts over him and shoves ambrosia at him. He already feels perfectly fine, water healing is awesome, but he eats it anyway. Tastes like Lee’s hot chocolate in cookie form.

“Uh, Amphy, is there any chance Apollo didn’t overhear what just happened?”

“Oh? You mean the part where she outright admitted the Sky King told her to assassinate his only living prophet?”

“Yeah, that.”

“You need not concern yourself with such matters, he knows what is as stake, if he marches on Olympus it will be his own choice. You cannot direct the fate of the gods, my dear.”

“Yeah, but I like ‘Pollo, I just don’t really want him to lead a mutiny in my name?”

“It seems wrong to say it, but if it were you alone, he would not. There is far more happening then you are aware.”

Wrong or not, it makes him feel better.

He sighs, “Okay, I’ll try not to think about it. This just a check in? Or are there things I need to know?”

She gives him a smile, least Amphy’s okay with him being so done with everything.

“Either your father or I will meet you at Santa Monica pier with additional information for your journey to your Uncle’s domain. If you do retrieve the packages, they can be left there under your father’s protection while you continue your quest.”

Percy considers, “There gonna be witnesses? Someone the Sky King will believe?”

She looks concerned, “Is there an issue?”

“I… It’s not clear yet, I can’t give you any explanation. I just, I don’t think I should take War Drum to see Uncle.”

She frowns, “He is aware of her importance, he would not harm her.”

Yeah, Percy does not want to think about exactly how closely allied certain gods were.

“No, it’s not him… I don’t know, not sure how to explain.”

“The Kindly Ones could watch her and the packages?”

Percy focuses inwards, as much as he tries not to push his sight, he’s not risking Clarisse. Not this soon.

“Yeah, s’long as they stay on the surface, the Kindly Ones will be fine. Poor War Drum, she will not like that one bit.”

“Very well, I will make the arrangements. Neither of your fathers will be happy about you going to the Underworld with the girl.”

He rolls his eyes, Amphy has been jokingly calling Apollo his father for years. Apparently she’s just upgraded to two of them now.

“Just make sure Uncle doesn’t make it too realistic, I do know that if we were breaking in for real, we’d die, like immediately. No one has ever actually done it, no matter what the old heroes claim.”

She smiles at him, “It does makes a good story though, no? Even the centaur believes it possible.”

Chiron believes a lot of fairy stories. So do most of the people who are immortals but not gods. They aren’t old enough to know they are tall tales. Though this is one of the more ridiculous. But, Annabeth believes in Chiron and none of the gods want anyone to know about all their backroom dealing.

Technically, Clarisse shouldn’t know either but she is very good at deliberately not noticing things. But it means Annabeth is gonna get an adventure. Percy can’t help thinking about roller coasters and theme parks.

He’s still not clear on why this trip into the Underworld is so necessary, none of them are. But the Fates say go, so off Percy goes.

“This is why people barely ever come back from quests, they’ve gotten completely ridiculous. Anyway, I need to go back before the girls panic. We good?”

“Yes, your father says ‘not to trust the gift’, but he also said your knowing was stronger than his and you probably don’t need a warning.”

He smirks, poor Poseidon, poor Apollo, if his prophetic stuff came from just one of them, they’d know what to do with him. But when it comes from both, it’s all just a bit too weird, even for the gods.

He says bye to Amphy and heads back to the girls. They should just make the train in time to head to Denver.

________________________

When they fish the kid back out of the river he looks good as new. Thank the gods. She really hadn’t expected him to get bit by the chimera. Kid could have warned her! But no, he just asks her to dump in the river after.

Annabeth completely freaked out. The moment Clarisse saw the kid reach towards his necklace instead of his wrist, she’d muscled Wise Girl back and body-blocked her, hiding the kid from view. She has no idea why he wants her to hide Amyntor. And since Clarisse is just a tag along and he’s the focus, Katecho is probably even more powerful. Monster mum won’t notice the difference, but Wise Girl sees too much.

Didn’t matter in the end, one half hearted swipe from a very green Prissy and the monster was gold dust.

Clarisse does not know how she feels about that. A quick kill equals less injury but also kinda ruins all the fun?

Wait, is that what fighting for real with Amyntor will be like? Huh. Maybe she can weasel a second weapon out of Triton, a spear version of Paizein? God-level weapons are great and all, but fighting should be fun!

Kid’s already dry and up and ready to leave, way too bouncy for someone who looked seconds from death. Happily chattering about how they need to meet a messenger in Santa Monica. Clarisse would really like some water healing, please and thank you.

She has spent too much time around Lee, she even sounds like him!

Kid hustles them back onto the train and it heads off almost immediately. Annabeth demanding answers. Before Wise Girl can derail them completely, Clarisse jumps in.

“Prissy, what do you want done with the fangs?”

He cringes, “I forgot about that, do you have them?” She nods.

“Ugh. I guess we burn them as offering to Apollo? We aren’t keeping them. I have no need for an unlimited supply of deadly poison.”

Clarisse agrees, Annabeth tries to argue but is shut down when she is reminded they are all armed and a trident is a lot safer to use than attempting to stab someone with the snake fangs from a chimera’s tail.

The argument about which god would be more appropriate is also stopped in its tracks at the reminder that the Sky King broke like, every law, when he tried to assassinate a prophet. Not even Hades was that daring! Giving the spoils of war to Apollo as a tribute was appropriate.

All three go and find a bathroom at the end of the train and burn them, leaving the kid to do the praying bit. While they wait, Annabeth says all wistfully that she wishes she had Percy’s ability to speak to the gods, so she could hear her mum’s replies.

Clarisse keeps her face blank. She has no idea how to explain that hearing the gods wasn’t a Prissy thing. If Annabeth hasn’t heard a reply, it’s because Athena hasn’t replied.

They are set to arrive in Denver in the morning, but much of their time is taken up discussing the non-fight over and over. While Annabeth agrees heading to Santa Monica before the Underworld is a good idea, she also wants to know how Percy killed a chimera with a trident he’d gotten less than a week ago.

He suggests that maybe he was a natural at the trident because of his father? And also mentions how he honestly doesn’t know how such a grazing blow could have killed it. Clarisse doesn’t know either, other than the obvious answer of overpowered weaponry.

Wise Girl happily chatters on about weak spots, with the kid deliberately setting her off with new suggestions. He’s entirely too delighted by the theories she comes up with and it starts a whole debate about what unexpected weak spots a monster could have.

Annabeth’s the first to fall asleep again. Clarisse really wishes she was better at just trusting the kid.

But that bit about the spear…

“Prissy?”

He sighs, “I know, War Drum. I wish I could give you a better answer. The thing with Amyntor… the stuff that’s coming, it’s not just this week, some of it is like, years away. The fewer people who know you carry that, the better. I should’ve asked Tri for a secondary weapon for you. I’m sorry.”

She considers, there is a lot more to this than a scarily powerful spear, “Apollo’s planning on naming me, isn’t he?”

Kid hesitates, “Uh, you got specific opinions about that?”

She shrugs, unseen in the dark, “I don’t love it, same as I don’t like all the stuff you do, chasing after unseen things ‘cause three old ladies are pulling strings. I like the idea of you doing all that without someone to guard your back even less. You need Lee, but that isn’t his role and he can’t be both.”

She can hear him smiling, “And that would be why Apollo wants to name you. Just… don’t make a decision yet. Wait ’til the end of summer. Best you know what you’re getting into first.”

Well that’s not ominous or anything, kid.

“Anything else I need to know?”

“I don’t know, Amphy asked the same, there’s something… off about what’s about to happen. It’s odd, unclear.”

Kid hesitates and continues, all the joking gone, she doesn’t hear him like this much. It’s the same tone he used when he stopped Chiron from explaining how Annabeth could have volunteered for a quest that hadn’t happened.

“There is one thing. When we’re about to go downstairs, if I ask you to stay behind, I really need you to stay. I’ll be fine either way, but the knowing says that if you go with me it’s going to set off a whole new path. You won’t be there when it really matters.”

“What about Wise Girl?”

“She and I will both safely return from this trip to the Underworld.”

That was very carefully phrased, Prissy.

She doesn’t call him on it. No point. He doesn’t do things like that for fun.

“Anything else?”

“Keep that card hidden, even from Wise Girl. We need to run out of cash. Not sure why.”

Prissy isn’t supposed to know she even has that card. Stupid prophets and their stupid sight.

The next day, in Denver, the kid lets Annabeth drag them around half the city before, in a very casual tone, he reminds her that he has water powers and can make mist at will.

He looks absolutely maniacal when he sees their faces. Kid’s definitely been cooped up for too long on the train.

Eventually they settle in a park and the kid tosses a drachma through the mist, he jumps in before Wise Girl can and asks for Lee. Good call, Clarisse is trusting the centaur less and less these days. That whole thing with Annabeth volunteering…

Lee looks tired and stressed, he’s in his office in the Big House (technically Chiron’s, but only ever used by Lee) going over some sort of hand written reports. As soon as he sees them he gives a huge grin.

“Percy! Clarisse! Annabeth, it’s so good to see you!”

From there the conversation between the kid and Lee is weird. Because it’s normal. No cryptic comments, hidden messages or mentions of the future. Just casual chat about camp, how the two new campers are doing well, the way all the campers are taking sides like it’s an actual war and how much Chiron is struggling to contain the fighting. No mention is made of Lee or Mr D stepping in, so Clarisse knows it can’t actually be all that serious.

Annabeth joins in at this point. They talk about how the King of the Underworld must have the Master Bolt and they rehash Chiron’s weird judgey, ‘it must be him because dead people’ thing.

They talk about rescuing Thalia’s soul, and how if he releases her soul, they might be able to save her. How this would keep Percy safe because Sky King would have his own forbidden kid. Lee assures Annabeth that this quest is not the same as when she arrived with Luke and Thalia.

It’s… weird.

Kid had outright told Clarisse he’d been talking to the gods about a giant taser and a bronze hat. No one says anything about the Helm. No one says anything about how much more protection the kid has as a named prophet. That an extra forbidden kid really wouldn’t have any impact.

Clarisse can’t work out if that conversation was for Wise Girl’s benefit or for Zeus’, but she does know Prissy and Lee don’t talk like normal people unless it’s for a reason. It’s just not how they work.

It’s weird. Gets even weirder when they finish the call and head for a cafe to get some food. Percy looks… very unwell.

Chapter Text

Oh, this is going to suck. Percy still doesn’t know what is about to happen, but he suspects he’s finally going to find out whatever weird feeling has been driving him nuts for the past few weeks.

He also knows this will suck, like, completely. But it is necessary. It can’t be avoided, not even like the Arch where they could have skipped it if they’d managed to persuade Annabeth. This time, it has to happen. It’s a weird little point in the tapestry where even though the threads aren’t woven yet, they must cross at this exact moment.

He lets Annabeth head in first, and pauses, “War Drum?”

She sighs, he did this to her on occasion at camp, but not multiple times a day, every day. Quests are just so much fun.

“Yes, Prissy?”

“S’easy ask this time. You and me, we gotta stay together for this next bit. Wise Girl can split off, but I need you with me. Please.”

She just gives him a look, and heads in. He’s not even sure if it’s actually essential. He knows it will be much much better for Percy if he has her. They could probably manage in another combination. He’s being selfish. But this is gonna hurt.

It’s fine, at first. They order food and talk quietly, Annabeth is full of theories about the three feuding brother gods. He thinks Clarisse has noticed something. She hid it well, but he can feel her aura. The steady beat of the war drum stuttered for just a second as he and Lee babbled on about everything Zeus wants to hear and Annabeth expects to hear.

He hates it. Lee hates it. But Iris messages aren’t secure. And even if he could share everything with Annabeth, her mind just doesn’t work like that. Most people’s minds don’t work like that. Chiron’s the same, Georgie too. It doesn’t bother him, but it does mean there are parts of his life he can’t share with them.

Ow.

It’s not even close yet, but that aura, it’s just too much.

It overwhelms everything, there is not enough of his mind left to work out who is here.

He feels thousands upon thousands die on the battlefield. To swords, guns, arrows, nuclear bombs, to stones, IEDs, to drowning. He feels each death, one by one, and all at once, each impact on his body. He holds the sword that cleaves, he is cleaved by the sword. Something is burning, something is shattering, everyone is dying.

There is nothing but violence, but death, but pain, and his body shakes and shakes and there is nothing but blood, nothing but rage.

Who is he? What is he?

Wait.

There’s an ocean at his throat. Pulsing against his neck. The conch horn sounds a call to war, but it’s call vibrates within him, pushing back against the war that is drowning him.

He struggles, trying to remember he has a mouth, has a tongue, can speak.

“Am prophet. You’re aura, too much. Am blind, deaf. ‘Less you dim aura, cannot hear, cannot see. Please. Dim.”

Slowly, so slowly, the pain and the blood and the death fade a little. It still coats him, clings to him, but he remembers who he is, where he is. He knows who has arrived. Ares, the God of War.

And, oh. That’s Clarisse. She’s never met her father, never had any contact. And yet, there is his War Drum, a full foot shorter, getting right in the face of the God of War, and telling him to back the fuck up.

He loves her. She is family. Just like Hot Air. She belongs to Percy, Percy belongs to her.

He is also feeling very very sick. He throws himself off the bench and lurches out the door, making it just in time.

Clarisse follows.

“Prissy? What just happened?”

He slumps onto the ground and leans his head back against the cool glass of the cafe’s windows.

“The War God decided to walk in with his aura in battle mode. Gods have some control over their auras, depends on their domain what they can do with it. He’s turned his into an attack dog. It hurts.”

She frowns at him, “Hurts as in overwhelming? Or hurts as in you’re feeling actual pain from whatever you saw?” She’s definitely spent too much time with Lee. That’s a Lee question.

“Last one.”

Percy sighs, “He’s here for something, but won’t be able to talk to him ‘less Apollo or Dad are here shielding me.” He gives her a weak smile, “S’one of the reasons for the whole temple thing, some gods are too much for prophets to come near, temple keeps the prophet protected. Not meant to do quests.”

Clarisse is still squinting at him, “We could also just skip whatever this is? We don’t need a side quest?”

He tries to make his mind focus, to give her words that weren’t too much, but all he can see is violence. “War Drum, brain is mush. If ask again, will tell, s’fine for you to know, but might not wanna.”

“Just tell me, kid.”

“He’s got something we need, dunno yet, only way to get is to do the thing, please, need to get ‘way from him.”

She tells him to stay right there and marches off.

He blinks and she’s back. Uh oh. Drifting not good. It hurts and it’s loud and gods, this is bad.

Clarisse grabs him by the shoulders and gets him standing, turns him around and shoves at his back until he walks forward. He has no idea how far they walk or for how long, but the feelings finally start to fade.

Then the tears start. He just collapses down on himself, not caring where he is. He just keeps crying, so much hurt and pain and it was so bad, and just…

There’s a voice. Not hers. Something is being held against his ear and there’s a voice.

Calm, confident, “Hey Percy, it’s Lee, I’m here, I think Clarisse called me. She couldn’t speak to me though, she’s not shielded like you are. Percy, can you tell me what’s wrong? I can hear you crying.”

It’s hard to remember how to speak, it just hurts, and hurts, and so much death, so much blood, finally he chokes out, “Warm air?”

Still calm, sunshine in his voice, “Yeah, kid, it’s me. Do you think you can tell me what happened?”

No, Percy is still crying too hard for that. Clarisse is in front of him, facing away, one hand reaching back to hold the phone against his ear, the rest of her is on high alert, scanning for danger.

“Okay, you’re okay, Percy. Is Clarisse with you?” “Yeah.”

“She got her backpack with her?” “Yeah.”

“Okay, just have her listen to the phone for a minute, she knows not to speak.”

Odd, but whatever. He pulls at Clarisse’s arm, she turns, “Warm air says listen?”

She takes the phone back, holds it to her ear, taps against the back of the phone, listens, taps again. Then holds it back out to Percy, “Priss, hold this against your ear, yeah? I need to get something.”

He’s still crying, he can’t stop it, he has no idea what’s going on, but he likes Lee.

Calm voice, “Hey Percy, I’m back, it’s okay, you’re safe, we need to get you a bit calmer, okay? Clarisse has something you need to drink. It’s from Artemis. It’s safe, I promise.”

He frowns. Clarisse has pulled a little flask out of her backpack, silver, engraved moon, like the flasks people used to drink alcohol from? But Artemis would never give him alcohol. She was there that first day.

Even stranger, the flask had been sealed shut, solid silver across it’s mouth, but when it comes close to his face, the silver evaporates. He jerks back. Still crying, and staring and just…

“Prissy. It’s fine. Artemis made it so only you could drink from it. That’s all that happened. Let’s try that again?”

This time he lets her hold it to his lips and he drinks. It’s just water. Clear, clean water. The best tasting water. Water from Delos.

Apollo and the others don’t actually know why Delos is important to Percy. Percy had an inkling but only when he was claimed did he know. Poseidon raised Delos from the sea floor so Leto could give birth. So Apollo could be born. Delos is the point where the older ancient domain of knowing touches the newer domain of sight. It is where they exist in balance. The same balance that exists within Percy.

How did Lee know the water would help? When did he give it to Clarisse?

It does help though, the jerking sobs finally stop and the tears are no longer sliding down his cheeks. He feels a little more normal, a little more in control.

Lee’s still talking, still coaxing, calm and patient and completely unbothered about having to sit and listen to Percy just sob his heart out.

“Hot Air? M’better now.”

There is liquid sunshine relief in his voice, breaking through the professional calm from before, “Thank the gods, that sounded pretty bad. You up to telling me what happened?”

“War God turned up, his aura hurts, Hot Air. Like feeling every injury on every battle that has ever happened.”

“Damn it, what is he doing there? Sorry kid, he’s one of the gods that has to be supervised because of the aura thing, he’s the worst one actually. Mr D’s the only other one who can make their aura get that loud, but he doesn’t keep it set at that volume like the War God does.”

“Yeah, noticed. Loud. Ow. Like War Drum’s better.”

“Do you know why he’s there?”

“Not properly, sent War Drum to ask. By the time she came back I was drifting from the loud. But knowing says it’s a fetch quest. S’just an excuse though. He’s got something we need. He’ll only give it if we get the thing for him.”

“Wonderful, and is this side quest going to be safe?”

“Yeah, it’ll be fine with me and War Drum doing it. Left Wise Girl with the god I think?” He glances at Clarisse, she nods, mouths ‘hostage’.

“Apparently, he’s keeping her as a hostage till we return. Bet that’s great fun for her.”

Lee just harrumphs, he’s being all parental now they don’t have an audience. “You got transport?”

“War God’ll set it up, don’t worry. This bit needs to happen. It’ll get me where I need to go. Then we can use cards for Santa Monica.”

Silence, “Sorry, Hot Air. Know this sucks. We gotta go, but first, can you say the thing?”

A smile in his voice, “Percy, I am here at camp. I am waiting for you. Your home is waiting for you. You have a home to come back to.”

“Thanks, Hot Air.”

He hands the phone off to Clarisse, and when she glares, takes another long drink from the flask. She still glares at him.

“Uh, War Drum, Hot Air did tell you this thing never empties right? You aren’t going to try and force me to drink the entire Delos spring, are you?”

She rolls her eyes, whacks his shoulder and helps him up to his feet. “You gonna manage the next bit?”

“As long as I don’t gotta deal with your daddy.”

Ow. That punch hurt. Worth it.

Apparently Ares left his shield in a water park. Clarisse grins at him and asks for Katecho when they see the fence and he gives in and lets her have her fun. Kinda cool to see a god-level weapon cut a nice big hole in the fence, it’s like a laser. Awesome. They are never telling Triton.

He pauses at the old abandoned souvenir stand. There’s this big red ball… He can’t resist. He snags it. Then grabs a second and a third. Clarisse eyes him but doesn’t ask. Good War Drum, you really don’t want to know.

After that, things are fairly simple. They find an empty abandoned pool in a ride called the tunnel of love. The shield’s in a boat on the bottom, Aphrodites scarf’s there too. Clarisse sees the cameras even before Percy, and they have a rather dramatic non-debate over how they should handle it.

Percy may be the Chaos Causer but Clarisse is an absolute enabler and both of them are a little too gleeful at the idea of Apollo’s Prophet and a daughter of Ares being caught on camera in the ‘tunnel of love’. They kinda want to see which god disowns them first.

In the end they both give in to that little voice of reason that always sounds far too much like Lee. They take the sensible, less chaotic route and Percy floods the pool. The boat floats up, some sort of mechanical things mixed in with the water.

He uses the water to hold the boat steady while Clarisse uses Paizein to hook the shield up and out of the boat and flip it onto solid ground. Neither care if it gets scratched. They get the shield clear of the pool before the weird woven net thing is in place.

By the time the cameras are rolling all the audience sees is an empty boat in a pool of water. They leave Aphrodite’s scarf there. If she asks they are going to tell the truth. Ares only asked for his shield, never mentioned the scarf. Aphrodite likes Percy.

________________________

She side-eyes the kid as they head back to the cafe, “You gonna crash out again? Maybe drink more of the weird water before we get there?”

The water is really weird. Lee gave it to her all sneakily with instructions to only let Percy drink from it and don’t let anyone else see it. Apparently people who aren’t prophets get driven insane by just a single sip.

According to Lee, the stuff helps the kid focus when his visions get too much. Unlike nectar, there’s no limit on how much the kid can have. Certainly kicked in quick, he went from looking seconds from death to bright and perky in like, a minute flat.

Lee’s not getting that flask back. Not if she can keep it to shove in the kid’s face anytime he looks a bit pale.

Kid just huffs at her, but takes the flask, and drinks. No telling how much he drank. Hopefully he doesn’t collapse again. No wonder prophets don’t do quests.

Her ‘father’ is waiting for them when they get back to the cafe. Ugh. She had never really cared whether she met him or not, but now she has, she isn’t impressed. The way he got all offended and butt-hurt that his own aura had made the kid deaf and blind was just…

Yeah. Clarisse thinks she might hate her birth father.

He’s just as angry and butt-hurt now as he was when they left. He really doesn’t like it that she made Priss keep his distance while she went on ahead with his dumb shield. Apparently the guy wanted to yell at the kid some more. So not happening.

Wise Girl is next to him, eyes fixed on the kid, looking utterly terrified. What? Did something happen? Wise Girl looks fine, no injuries. Did the moronic so-not-her-father dude do something?

Clarisse refocuses on the War God.

She shoves the shield into his chest. “Here’s the shield, you got something for us?”

He’s staring at her as if she’s the weird one. “You know, my kids are normally super grateful to meet me? Best moment of their lives? I’m your dad? Yay?”

She just stares at him, unimpressed.

“Okay. This is new. You are a fighter, right? Blondie here,” he jerks a thumb towards Annabeth, “says you’re the best fighter in camp, but, I’m really not seeing any of the Ares aggression, you know?”

Clarisse just stares back. Dude.

“Okay. Not impressed. I can respect that. Not many who’d stare down a war god. Though, you gonna blink anytime soon? ‘Cause the staring? Kinda creepy?”

That would be the point. She keeps staring.

“Fine, whatever. Here’s some supplies. There’s a truck leaving tonight, I can sneak you on if you go now. Give you a ride all the way to LA. Not quite to His Highness’ standard, but it’ll get you there.”

Why do people keep thinking Prissy is spoiled? Oh. Wait. Sea King’s his dad. Kid’s a prince.

Huh. Cool.

She takes the backpack. Still staring.

“Uh, well, truck is this way.” Ares breaks eye contact and strides off. Ha!

Annabeth is giving her a very weird look. “What, Wise Girl?”

“Did you seriously just stare down the God of War? Who is also your own dad?”

Clarisse gives her a big grin, “Yup. Won too.”

They follow him to a huge, horrible looking eighteen wheeler. It claims to be humane animal transport. Uh huh, and the Colosseum was totally an animal sanctuary.

Only when Ares has done a stupid showy finger snap to make the door swing open, does Clarisse head back for the kid. The so-not-my-father dude has already vanished and kid’s looking calmer already.

They head back to the truck and Wise Girl absolutely throws herself at him, like, she literally hugs him? Five years of her obsessively avoiding any form of physical contact, and she hugs him? The hell happened?

“Oh my gods! I was so worried, you looked so bad, and then I had to stay, and I was so scared. You’re my best friend! I should have been there with you! Clarisse could have stayed with her dad. You needed me and I wasn’t there!”

Clarisse suddenly remembers Prissy asking her to make sure they stay together. He hadn’t known what was gonna happen, just that he needed her. She’d had Delos water and a phone connection to Lee. What was Wise Girl going to do, use the power of friendship?

Clarisse loves her, she does. Half the fun of hanging with Annabeth is because the way she thinks is just so weird to Clarisse. And at a camp for demigods, weird has a pretty high bar. It’s fun. But also, sometimes kinda problematic? At least when they aren’t at camp.

Kid’s got that look in his eyes. The one that’s started showing up every time Annabeth says he’s her best friend. He never says it back. Never said anyone was his best friend. She doesn’t think Prissy would know what to do with a best friend. He thinks any person spending time with him is the best thing ever, he doesn’t do favourites.

Clarisse doesn’t count. She has to protect the kid. It has nothing to do with friendship.

Once they are settled on the truck, they hit the next problem. There’s a lion, an antelope and a zebra in cages. They’ve got the wrong food, no water and they look like they are about to keel over. Wise Girl is hesitant, edging around the lion’s cage, and the kid… The kid is seconds from tears. Again.

“Priss?”

“Sorry War Drum, it’s just, mortals really suck, you know?”

She huffs, “War Gods suck too, kid. Think he did this on purpose.”

Annabeth says she has news. Prissy says he definitely wants to hear it, but they should help the animals first. Annabeth suggests cleaning up the antelope and zebra, and fixing the food and maybe giving them water if there’s any in the backpack Ares had shoved at them?

Kid looks at the backpack, turns pale for a second, then does the same ‘close your eyes, take a deep breath, and forget you saw that’ thing Lee does. Priss loves being the cause of it.

“Uh, yeah, we could do that, but actually, I have a better idea? Anyone got some food to burn?”

He doesn’t explain further, but his face is full of mischief. This looks like him causing chaos rather than a prophecy thing. Clarisse lets him have his fun.

Apparently war gods think three kids can live on a bag of double stuff Oreos and a single bottle of water. And $20. Lots of drachmas though, like, several thousand dollars worth of mortal money. Wait, didn’t the kid say the War God would give them something they need? They needed Oreos?

The kid burns a handful of Oreos and calls all casually, “Yo, Dionysus! Mr D! We’re on the world’s crummiest animal transport, hitching a ride to our next stop. But there’s some super sad animals here. I know animals were Pan’s thing, but I also might have possibly overheard a whole tonne of convos between you and him. I know everything, man. Think you might help your friend out and take care of these sad lil beasties for him?”

Clarisse can’t feel auras, but even she could feel the there-not-there sound of an irritated huff of laughter. A little breeze that smelled like ripe grapes swirled through the truck. When it fades the animals are gone, and a picnic basket has been left behind.

Annabeth wants to know about Mr D and Pan, but does pause to point out that they won’t be able to get to LA now. Since she’d overheard the drivers mentioning a stop in Vegas.

Priss’s shrug is a tad too casual. Clarisse gets the feeling he had no intention of taking the truck to LA.

They settle in to eat a proper meal from camp. The junk food has been fun, but the camp food is a different sort of good. A taste of home. At least for her and the kid. Annabeth only spends summers at camp these days, so maybe it’s just boring for her? Clarisse is turning into Lee with all this mother hen crap. She needs to stop.

“Wise Girl, you said you had news?”

“Yes! The War God said Thalia is definitely alive! We actually can save her!”

Kid blinks, opens his mouth, closes it, shakes his head, starts again. “Hey! That’s great, Wise Girl! I’m still not sure on how we can persuade the King of the Underworld though, got any ideas?”

Annabeth is off, she is full of ideas about sneaking into the Underworld palace, or stealing something and using it as leverage. She thinks Prissy should wear her hat because he’s got the aura shielding charm so the King of the Underworld won’t even notice.

At one point she mentions that Ares- (both she and the kid practically jump on her, no names!). -That the War God said he’d told the Sea King about the King of the Underworld stealing the bolt.

Kid looks… unconvinced. But he lets her go on for awhile. Then she pauses, and completely switches topics.

“Hey Percy, how come you’re so big on not using names but you regularly say the Sun God and the Sea Prince’s names?”

He snorts, “We don’t use names because we don’t want their attention. Apollo has me all but chipped. He hears and sees everything regardless of if I use his name or not. Triton is… kind of the same deal. Kind of not. He specifically asked me and War Drum to use his name, he’s pretty overprotective.”

Annabeth is offended? Like, really up in arms at the idea of Apollo always tracking Percy. She asks him why he doesn’t take the necklace off. He manages to say he can’t, but she cuts him off before he can add the rest. Now she’s ranting, completely furious that a god would treat Prissy “like he’s some sort of lap dog!”

Kid seems kind of stunned, “Uh, Wise Girl? Loving the enthusiasm, but you literally just saw me collapse from being a bit too close to a god. That was with the shielding in place? The main reason it took so long for me to learn to read is because the strength of my sight overwhelmed my eyes. I was like, actually blind, couldn’t see the words on the page?”

She still seems to think this could be handled without a god tracking him. Kid gives Clarisse a look, spreading his hands wide in a ‘little help?’ gesture.

She has no idea what to say. While they wouldn’t want just random people tracking them, neither of them have ever been bothered by how closely certain gods watch Percy. Or that Lee has a charm that lets him track Priss at camp. It keeps the kid safe.

Besides, the kid can tell who’s watching. Can see straight through Annabeth’s invisibility cap. Clarisse has been an unwilling audience to far too many conversations between the kid and Lee about how since he can sense them, the kid can tell the gods to back off if he wants, “just say the word, Perce!” Kid’s always been fine with it.

Wise Girl keeps ranting about phone tracking apps and invasion of privacy and something about her father? Huh? Clarisse just stares back at the kid, just as helplessly. Words are more his thing, not hers.

________________________

Annabeth had eventually run out of air for her very weird rant about gods spying on Percy. He has no idea how to explain to her that it’s different for him. Telling her he spies on them as much as they spy on him did not end well.

At least Clarisse cut her off when she called him ‘seaweed brain’, he can’t decide if she meant it affectionately because of the whole nickname thing he does, or if she was implying he was stupid. It felt… off? Didn’t have the same feel as the nicknames he’s used to. But he had no way of translating that type of odd feeling/knowing into words, so he was glad Clarisse stepped in.

Anyway, now she’s asleep and everything is blessedly quiet.

They are finally getting closer to Vegas. This bit is going to be a bit trickier to handle. Percy’s actually known about this little side trip for weeks. Even asked his dad to make the arrangements.

It’s a risk, of everything he’s done this is the most theatrical, the least rooted in truth. He hates lying, even if it’s just half-truths.

He lies awake, and just like every other night he can feel Clarisse keeping herself awake. Percy’ll feel the change in Annabeth’s aura well before she’s awake enough to hear. It’s safe to talk.

At least their sleep is a little more comfortable, Mr D delivered some sleeping bags along with the picnic basket, and a note saying it’d all disappear before the door opens. Nice of him.

He should say something. He doesn’t know how. He sighs.

“Prissy, just spit it out.”

“Sorry, War Drum. You do know how much I hate this right? Like, at camp, the occasional cryptic comment is fun. I like screwing with people. But all this… It’s hard. I’ve never really minded before, that Wise Girl didn’t get it. I don’t get her architecture, doesn’t make her any less fun to spend time with.”

“Kid, I get it. Super glad I’m not the one with all that stuck in my head. Don’t know how you’re not nuts.”

He shoots her a cheeky grin, one she can’t see in the dark, “Who says I’m not?”

“If you were, we wouldn’t be here. Crazy people do the things they want to do, not what the Fates say.”

“I kinda hate you sometimes.”

“S’mutual. This about the thing we needed? ‘Cause I checked the bag, Priss. Just money and a bag of Oreos…”

“Uh. Yeah. It’s there. Don’t ask. We’re just dumb kids, don’t know a thing.”.

“You are definitely carrying that bag. It’ll fit in yours.”

He huffs, “Yeah, figured.”

“So, what’s so hard to tell me?”

He kind of loves Clarisse, she’s awesome. He should tell her.

“War Drum, you’ve been like, amazing, with just going with all the weird shit I keep saying. Gotta say thanks first. ‘Cause seriously, ten out of ten. We might break Wise Girl if this keeps up much longer, but I really appreciate it.”

“Stop with the sap, spit it out.”

“This next bit, I gotta do something. It is kinda a prophecy thing, but I’ve known about it for… a long time. But, right now is when I need to do the thing. I’m gonna have to be a lot more… theatrical than I usually am. I think I can fool Wise Girl, but you are definitely going to see through my bullshit. If I don’t warn you before, pretty sure you’ll just stick me in an armlock till I ‘fess up.”

“Who’ll be watching?”

“Dunno, anyone, everyone? I… If it was just up to me I’d tell Wise Girl everything, but the gods, they insisted she not know.”

“‘Cause of the thing with Castellan?”

“Yeah, they said I could be friends with her, but only if I kept her out of it all. I kinda hate it.”

“Priss, you ignore the gods regularly. You’d only be going along with this if your weird shit said it was the safer option.”

He stays silent. There’s still time. He’s going to find a way to save his Wise Girl.

The bronze knife flickers in front of his eyes for a moment.

He sighs. It is the Fates and not the prophet who chooses.

“It’s okay, Priss. Gotta be worse for you than me. I’ll play along. But, if we’re fighting, I want Paizein.”

He grins in the dark. “Shouldn’t be any fighting, gotta do a thing, then head to Santa Monica, gotta see a man about a horse. Arranged some… security while me and Wise Girl visit Uncle.”

“Paizein.”

“Yes, you can have my trident. Loan only. Though, ‘less it clips to your necklace you’re gonna be stuck carrying a honking great trident around the mortal world.”

“I’ll make it work.”

Yeah, she totally would.

He dreams of the dark again. The words he can’t hear. There are more auras now. He ignores the painful one. The one that makes him feel small and scared and like he’s lost his anchor.

A war drum beats in his chest. What? No!

He looks around frantically. The third line was not about Clarisse! He knows it isn’t!

He’s starting to panic as he feels battle surround him, but the call to arms of a conch horn blasts it back. Oh. He re-focuses, remembering the ocean at his neck, shaking off the sudden panic. All Ares kids carry a war drum to some degree, just like Apollo kids carry sunlight. In a dream, he can’t be certain this is Clarisse without feeling for the rest of her aura.

He knows Clarisse’s aura as well as he knows Lee’s. She is the loudest of the drums, the one that vibrates through his chest, calling the troops to war. The sound of a born leader. Clarisse is a raised chin, planted feet, crossed arms, and an unyielding glare. She bows to no-one. Clarisse is a shield. Intense focus, sharp eyes, standing between the world and all she claims as hers. Where her siblings’ auras call for blood, Clarisse’s aura screams with her need to protect. It is her war cry, her very essence,

There is no war cry in this aura. The drum beats, the chin is raised, the knees are bent, a sword strikes bone, blood sprays. It is soaked in blood. Filled with the battlefield.

Oh. This is Ares. The aura only feels smaller, more like a demigod, because the painful one is so much louder.

There’s an even quieter aura near the War God. One he would have dismissed as mortal, entirely without divine blood. But if Ares sounds so much smaller, than this one would be…

Click of a lock opening, vocal chords vibrate as a rousing speech is given, crumbling of sealing wax as a letter opens, skin blisters and pottery shatters, reforms, shatters again. A breath of whispers, of feathers, the slightest touch of electricity.

It wakes old memories in Percy, from a time he barely remembers, a time when he was lost in a maelstrom of auras, still adjusting to life surrounded by demigods.

Is that… Luke? Luke Castellan?

Percy can’t tell if it’s real or not. Or if he’s reliving a memory. He has felt these auras before. Clarisse had mentioned Luke Castellan earlier.

The dark sharpens, the painful aura, the one he avoids, sees him? Maybe?

Time to go. Warm air, spilling light, an arrow is nocked… Lee. Lee who is now sleeping in Percy’s room in Cabin Three. Holding his stuffed sea horse.

Percy blinks, hovering insubstantially over his guardian. Seriously dude? How much sappier can you get?

He pulls himself back along the ocean tether, back to the truck on the other side of the country. To the familiar beat of the war drum, the sound of her war cry, the whispers in his ear, the clatter of a loom, the scratch of a pencil drawing perfect lines.

He wakes and falls asleep again thinking of how he is going to torture Hot Air over this mercilessly when he gets back.

________________________

It is a night for dreams.

He feels a tug on his mind, and he opens his not-real eyes to a new scene.

He freezes, can they see him? He does not want to talk to them. He listens, he obeys. But he’s not interested in having actual conversations with them.

They ignore him. Or don’t see him. He honestly isn’t sure which.

He’s in an endless room. An enormous loom at one end, the completed woven sections have overflowed any attempts to contain it. They now lie in great crumpled swathes down the length of the room. Discarded now they have served their purpose. One piece sits seperate, a jagged tear across its width.

On the loom itself, a complex impossible to describe image is forming. The whole room echoes with the soft rhythmic rattle of the shuttle as it travels along its path.

The three Fates move around the room, seeing to their appointed tasks. Spinning thread, measuring it, cutting it. Every now and then one will pause and place a neatly wound skein of thread on a little tray beside the loom.

Percy moves closer.

Somehow, each thread’s colour is an aura. Something beyond a mortal’s eyes. With his knowing Percy can see the true shade of each thread. These threads belong to demigods. He sees the sunshine of Apollo, the copper of Hephaestus, the bright white of Zeus, the grey of Athena, the purple of Dionysus, the ocean greens of the sea gods, the blood red of Ares, the deep black of Hades, the sky blue of Hermes, the soft brown of Demeter, the pink of Aphrodite…

Some are auras he knows. Some are not. All are waiting for their turn to be woven by the Fates.

Off to the side, some threads sit apart. These threads glitter in the light. Something has been added to each thread as it was spun. Ruby, gold, sapphire, silver, and steel. One skein is far smaller than the others, the thread much shorter. Percy looks. He knows who it belongs to. Then, Percy chooses not to know.

He looks towards the Fates, they look straight back at him.

They do not speak with words. Percy still knows.

Chapter Text

Well, the kid had told her it was going to be theatrical…

They were already awake and mostly ready for the day by the time the truck stopped. The picnic baskets were already gone. Annabeth did the invisibility thing and kept the truckers distracted long enough for the three of them to duck out.

They were long gone before the absence of the three animals was noticed.

Oh no. Mr D. Prissy really gave Mr D a lion, an antelope and a zebra? Priss better think of a way to force the god to find them proper homes, they are not keeping a pet lion at camp. No.

And now the three of them were ‘stranded’ in Las Vegas. Since the kid is still pretending they don’t have debit cards. At least it makes her feel better knowing they have them. She’d be absolutely losing her shit right now if all they had were the drachmas and the $20 from Ares.

Annabeth is all for immediately finding transport to Santa Monica, so the kid can meet the “messenger from his dad”. Clarisse would bet dollars to donuts that the Sea King will be waiting at some discrete distance. Hopefully not in some weird mortal disguise like Triton used to use when on the surface.

Annabeth has got some surprisingly well-developed ideas about sneaking onto different forms of transport. Like, she knows a lot about schedules and all the nitty gritty info? Clarisse side-eyes her. Lee ensures all the camp kids have transport between their homes and camp. Wise Girl planning to run away somewhere or something?

Kid keeps dragging them on, he doesn’t show any signs of actually having a destination, he’s just stopping and peering into every casino they pass.

He was right about her putting him in an armlock if he’d done this without giving her a heads-up.

Still, she eventually breaks. “Priss, I know we had Mr D’s picnic, but that kind of feels like a long time ago? $20 doesn’t go far, but, food? Drink? Now? Please?”

He just flaps a hand at her and plunges onwards. “Yeah, yeah. Sorry, War Drum. In a minute. There’s something…”

He trails off. She sighs. Follows behind. If he walks into an ambush she’s just gonna let them stab him full of holes. Serves him right.

Four casinos later, it’s Annabeth’s turn. “Percy, seriously, what are you looking for? It’s like a thousand degrees out here. Can we please stop?”

“In a minute, I just, I gotta…”

Clarisse notices he’s dragging them in a large loop. Still stopping and poking his head into every single casino they pass. Just the casinos.

Finally, as they are almost back where they started, he switches direction. Doing a sudden right turn and darting down what looked like an alley. Clarisse grabs Annabeth’s arm and chases after.

It’s not an alley. It’s another casino, but bigger, better, the air smells good and- OW! The Amyntor pendant on her necklace definitely just shocked her. What. The. Hell.

Annabeth is tugging at her arm, trying to get Clarisse to let go, her eyes are fixed on the casino ahead. She looks incredibly dazed.

Oh. Fun. Magic of some kind.

Shit. Where’s the kid?

She keeps a tight grip on Annabeth as she starts sweeping the area outside the casino. She needs to stay calm. If Clarisse’s Amyntor has built in protection against mind magic, the kid will have like five different versions of the same thing.

Percy getting mind-whammied is like, an end-of-the-world level catastrophe. She’s pretty sure half the reason the gods gave her protection is because the kid’s too loyal by half. If Clarisse got whammied he’d go chasing after. Easiest solution is to protect her too.

Which is why Annabeth’s little freak out over being watched is so weird to her. The kid’s knowledge in the wrong hands equals end of the world, so of course they keep him safe?

Oh, thank the gods. The kid is standing just inside the lobby, talking to a couple of kids and looking entirely unaffected by the weird mind magic. But it still has Annabeth firmly in its grip. Wise Girl keeps demanding she let her go,

Clarisse has already had to confiscate her little knife. Wise Girl’s liable to bite her if this keeps up. But Clarisse hasn’t really got any other option, she doubts Amyntor will zap Wise Girl on command.

By the time Priss comes back, with two random kids? Clarisse’s got Annabeth in an armlock and is seconds away from dumping her on the ground and sitting on her. The girl is absolutely determined to go into the weird magic casino.

“Uh, Priss? Real glad you made friends, but Wise Girl’s been whammied?”

He winces, “Yeah, you and I have Apollo’s protection, couldn’t do much for her. Thanks for grabbing her before she made it inside. She’ll be fine as soon as we get out of the alley.”

He turns to the two new kids, “I promise you’ll get more explanations in a second, but we really do need to get a bit further away from the whole time warp thing.”

Clarisse muscles Annabeth forward, but she almost misses a step at that. “Priss, time warp?”

“Relax War Drum, it’s still only day five of the fourteen day deadline. If we’d gone into the Lotus Casino though… Yeah, we could be in there for like ten minutes and it end up being months.”

The younger new kid chirps, “He says that’s what happened to us! We thought we were only in there for a month, but he says it’s been like eighty years!”

She blinks, then decides she needs to focus on Wise Girl and not answer that bizarre sentence.

Annabeth finally stops fighting her when they make it back onto the main street. Clarisse is hot and tired and she is also starving.

She turns her most pointed glare on the kid.

“I don’t suppose you found any money while you were there? Since none of us have eaten and we now have two extra kids to feed?”

Bright smile, chirpy voice, “Oh yeah! Look what I found while I was there!” And he pulls out a debit card identical to the one Clarisse has. Yep. ‘Found’. In his pocket. Where it has been the entire time.

Oh, she’s going to murder him.

Priss leads them straight to a heavenly air conditioned cafe, finds them a corner booth at the back and Clarisse dumps a much more compliant Annabeth into the corner seat and slumps down beside her.

New kid is still chattering away. The older girl wrangles him into a seat and sits down, staring around her with wide eyes.

They look like siblings? Actual siblings, not demigod weirdness. Shiny black hair, sort of olive toned skin, girls got some freckles. Both have kinda sharp features and dark eyes, and the boys are absolutely huge as he takes in the whole cafe.

Percy’s handing out menus and chattering away, he’s watching them closely, and the look on his face… It’s like half-awe, half-relief, half-panic. This is big. Whatever it is.

“I’m sorry, I uh, can’t read this?” The girl is hesitant, blushing, looking mortified.

Kid jumps right in, “Oh, it’s fine! Like I told you, we’re all kinda like that. Back at camp, my guardian, Lee, he’s done a tonne to make things easier on kids. We’re hard wired for Greek, but English… English is just plain hard.”

Oh. New campers. Ok. She can work with this. “Yeah, don’t worry about it, I still read stuff to Priss, like, all the time, he got the dyslexia bad, worse than most.”

Percy flashes her a grin, then sees the boy’s face and jumps in again, “Oh! She’s not being mean. It’s a nickname. It’s… a long story, but she and I have been friends for like, ever. I took one look at her and told my guardian I was keeping her. And he was nice enough to let me.”

That… isn’t wrong.

“Huh, what just happened?” Oh look! Wise Girl’s back!

“Ya got whammied.”

Annabeth just blinks at her, “By what? And uh, who are they?”

Percy chirps cheerfully, “The Lotus Eaters, apparently they are a casino now? Anyway, this is Nico and Bianca Di Angelo, they’re demigods. Nico is ten, Bianca’s eleven. They were trapped in the whole time warp thing, been there for, like, eighty years. But they are demigods, their auras say so!”

Huh. Priss loves announcing the cabin assignments of new demigods. Like, it’s his favourite part of new campers. But not a word. She raises an eyebrow at him.

He gives her a quick head shake and refocuses on the kids. Interesting…

Annabeth is not coping well with the mind whammy or the two random new demigods. She starts to explain to them they are on a quest and they haven’t really got time to- Percy cuts her off.

“S’all good, I gotta go do the thing at the beach anyway, and after, me and you can head downstairs and War Drum’ll stay with Nico and Bianca. Once we’ve finished our errand we can take them back to camp!”

Annabeth is getting frustrated, “But we haven’t even found a way to get to Santa Monica! It’s going to be hard enough getting the three of us-”

He cuts her off again, “Oh! I got that sorted. Just before I met these two. Got a driver, gonna take us all the way to the beach after we’ve eaten.”

Annabeth wants to know how he can be so sure the driver can be trusted. Has she forgotten the prophet thing?

Nico and Bianca are just watching all this like it’s a tennis match.

There was like ten seconds between Clarisse losing sight of him and then seeing him standing with the newbies.

Oh. He’d mentioned arranging security while he went to the Underworld. And when they were still on the train, gods that feels like a lifetime ago, but that last night on the train, he’d said if he asked her to stay behind it was really important she stayed…

She looks at the two confused time warp kids. Just who were these kids?

Annabeth breaks off the argument when she realises her knife is missing. She’s heading towards actual panic when Clarisse remembers and hands it back. Oops. She’d forgotten how protective Wise Girl was of that thing.

After eating, Annabeth takes both kids to find the restroom, while she and Percy settle up. She side-eyes him.

“Ask, but quickly.”

“I’m here to guard your back, Priss. Not theirs.”

He speaks quietly but rapid fire, way too serious, no mischief, “Was gonna leave ‘em on the beach, and us three go downstairs, already had security arranged. But. Something’s wrong. If you go downstairs, a whole chunk unravels. You’re staying because there’s bigger things at stake. Not as a guard. Promise.”

“You still gonna be safe with your Uncle?”

“Yup, that hasn’t changed.”

Kids are coming back, so best they can do.

They finally go back outside and there is a literal armoured SUV waiting for them. Like the sort diplomats use in war zones. She looks at it. Looks at Percy.

He grins at her, all mischief.

Then the driver steps out. What.

That is Triton. Triton in his weird mortal disguise that Percy calls “Grumpy Guy Wants to Die”. Brown floppy hair, weird moss coloured eyes and he’s super pale and thin. Add in that he still has the facial expressions of the proud stoic warrior Prince of the Sea and it just looks… bizarre.

Percy thinks it’s hilarious and moped for weeks when Triton stopped using it when he was on the surface.

Triton is wearing a black suit. With the curly ear bud thing bodyguards wear. Did he lose a bet?

He doesn’t say a word, just opens the rear door for them to pile in. Percy is just chattering on and on about finding a driver and how this’ll make the drive to Santa Monica so much better. Now they can get some sleep, and have a break and it’s just going to be great!

Triton slides into the driver’s seat and does something to raise a partition between them, still hasn’t said a word.

Annabeth is less than okay with the whole situation. She’s like seconds from panicking.

“Priss.”

He’s still looking gleeful, still not saying.

Clarisse sighs, “Priss, if you don’t give her an explanation, she’s gonna try and jump out of the car, while we’re moving.”

He huffs and slumps down, “Okay, fine. Apollo was kinda not happy at me collecting two more demigods, worried we’d attract the wrong sort of attention. So he sent a car and a driver. It’s totally safe. S’just incognito, ‘cause gods aren’t meant to help on quests. But Apollo is allowed to protect his prophet in whatever way he sees fit.”

Apollo was worried, huh? Not the Prince of the Sea currently in the driver’s seat?

Now Nico is chattering excitedly, asking a thousand questions about gods and prophets, and somehow Annabeth is the one answering him, while Bianca listens with fascination.

Percy takes advantage of their distraction, poking around the car, opening all the little hidden storage pockets. Clarisse catches him palming a little box out of the centre console. While the other three are distracted, he wordlessly hands it off to her.

Oh. Thank the gods. It’s a bracelet, with a little oddly shaped charm. This one is kind of vaguely in the shape of the letter “C”. If she hadn’t seen charms like this before, she’d be very confused.

It’s even got a scrap of paper with it. Triton really loves naming things, doesn’t he? This spear is Afosiosi. Dedication. She’s pretty sure it’ll end up as Afosi, few too many vowels and s's in that one, Tri.

Guess at least she got the sea god stamp of approval?

She murmurs almost silently, “Like Paizein?”

He gives her a nod, taps the trident on his wrist and flashes a thumbs up. Perfect. Clarisse is fine not pulling out a god-level weapon at every turn, less fine when it makes her feel like she has no weapon at all.

Percy leaves the others chattering, though he does break in long enough to remind Annabeth they have a long night ahead of them, and she should try and sleep when she can.

________________________

They head to Santa Monica, the big SUV eating up the miles. He’s glad his dad and Apollo thought to send it, though he really doesn’t know if it’s for his benefit or for the Di Angelo’s. Either way, it’s nice to travel knowing with absolute certainty they have a god willing and able to protect them.

And Triton… Dude can look as miserable and done with life as he wants, no way he didn’t volunteer for this. They didn’t really need the Prince of the Sea to play bodyguard, they had plenty of options.

Percy just hopes he isn’t actually driving the car and is using godly powers or something. Triton barely manages to walk in a straight line on the surface when he’s spent too much time with tails instead of legs, cars aren’t really a thing he has any experience with.

It’s a little uncomfortable being crammed in with so many auras. He very firmly decides he isn’t going to even think about the Di Angelo’s auras. That’s for a time when less is happening. At least Triton’s conch horn is as comforting as Clarisse’s war drum. He falls asleep to the feel of whispers and owl feathers, and an almost unheard soft whirring clatter.

Once he’s gotten a few hours of sleep, (hopefully Wise Girl at least attempted a nap), and the Di Angelo’s have reached maximum information saturation and clearly need time to digest everything, he draws Clarisse and Annabeth into a conversation about what comes next.

Percy reminds them he needs to go into the ocean to meet “the messenger”, and make sure they have everything they could possibly need for the trip to the Underworld. He is very firm about War Drum staying behind when Annabeth argues.

Annabeth eventually admits it would be bad to leave two shiny new demigods alone. He desperately wants his Wise Girl to volunteer to stay behind too. She won’t. He won’t ask. She has the bronze knife on her hip. It’s a warning all by itself.

He does amuse himself with what her face would look like if she knew who the Di Angelo’s were. If she had been worried about Percy’s scent attracting monsters…

He repacks their backpacks, sneaking the flask into his and more obviously shoving the three big red balls he took from the water park into Annabeth’s bag. Because “they might get bored down there”. There are distinct advantages to the goofball thing. This time he isn’t even doing a prophet thing. He’s just screwing with her. It’s gonna be hilarious.

He brings up how the Furies had been asking about something, and why would they ask about the Master Bolt if Hades has it?

Wise Girl looks even more worried at that. She doesn’t give him an answer.

Annabeth stresses over the deadline. They left on June seventh, it is now late on the eleventh. They have ten days. She worries how long it will take them to traverse the Underworld and back. Percy blinks. Oh. Yes. This is a thing people don’t know. Oops.

She sees him flinch, and starts with the questions.

If he’s followed so many heroes, surely he knows how Heracles got in?

He tells her Heracles has never been to the Underworld. Which is true. At least she doesn’t question him further, she knows it would lead to a long Percy rant. After over five years of him complaining about the guy, even Annabeth has accepted that this particular loser was a huge liar.

Then she starts down the list.

Orpheus? Yeah, that never happened, Cool story, bro.

Odysseus? Spoke to a spirit on the surface world, never set foot below.

Theseus? He cringes. Then tries to explain, in very vague terms, that he had been invited by both Hades and Persephone, and they escorted him. He gives her his best, ‘ask questions and I guarantee you will regret it’ look.

She actually pauses, goes to ask, and for a second he thinks he won’t have to say anything. Until she still blurts out, “threesome?”

He makes a face at her. Then nods. At least she stops asking after that.

Sisyphus? Still there, never left.

She gets frustrated at this point, though their audience of three is looking totally enthralled.

“Well! How are we supposed to do this?”

He blinks at her, “I’m a Prophet of Apollo, the only living one in existence? I was kinda planning to just… ask for an audience?”

That face she made was amazing. He needs to make her do that again.

“Seaweed brain!”

Or not. He flinches.

“Oi! Wise Girl! Nicknames are one thing, that’s just name calling!”

War Drum is always ready for a fight. He flashes her a half smile. He should hate having someone fight his battles for him. If he didn’t have the prophet thing he’d be horrified at the way Clarisse always steps in.

But there’s only so much that can fit in his head, only so many words, most of him is taken up with the whole mess of past, future, now knowledge. He’s far more anchored in the real world than he was as a kid, but half of him is still not here at any given moment.

He thinks if he didn’t have someone like Clarisse at his back, he’d be begging Apollo for that ivory tower the god always threatens him with.

Wise Girl announces he likes the name.

“Uh, no? I actually don’t. Makes me feel kinda of completely awful every time you call me that, like you think I’m actually stupid and useless?”

She frowns at him, “But Clarisse calls you Prissy?”

He snorts. “Yeah, that started out as ‘Prism’. Hot Air was attempting to explain the whole seeing the past, future and current at the same time thing to her. He used one of those little glass prisms as an example? I’m not sure when it changed to Prissy, I think it’s just easier to say?”

“Plus it’s funny, coz everyone thinks I’m picking on him!”

Clarisse has always been delighted that he lets her keep using the slightly warped nickname. He thinks it’s funny too. It’s not an insult, it’s a callback to how very weird Percy’s life is.

He hoped it might have clicked with Annabeth but nope, she just waves a hand and is off again, talking about all the best ways to break into the Underworld.

It’s a relief when they finally make it to the beach. He slings his bag over his back and heads for the water with a casual wave behind him. The Di Angelo’s call out, but someone will explain it to them.

He could take War Drum with him, she’s got a bracelet thing so she can use the sea floor training grounds near camp, but right now, he’d really like to just talk to a god who gets it.

________________________

Percy heads straight into the water, all gold and pretty from the sun dropping low, and he just keeps walking. By the time he’s fully under water a great white shark swims up. Huh. He’s met this guy before at Atlantis, one of the ones who lingers around the royal quarters. The shark cheerfully reminds him his name is Snuffles. Oh. Oops. That was a thing that Percy did. Apparently the shark had liked his nickname enough to keep it?

Politely not asking why he kept the name, Percy gets a grip on his dorsal fin and lets the shark take him out to the drop off. Huh. Pretty. Apollo must be around, they’d normally go much deeper to talk. Here the sun can still reach him.

Poseidon is waiting for him, all cheerful smiles, “Percy! Good to see your quest is going well, and I hear the two packages were successfully collected?”

Yeah… He has a question about that.

“Yup, they seem nice? Though they are… not quite what I expected? They don’t seem to remember anything before the hotel?”

Poseidon sighs, “Yes, it was somewhat of a hasty decision by my brother. It has kept them safe, but it will take much effort for him to re-form those bonds.”

That’s gonna be fun. “Okay. I know this is all way above my pay grade, but I don’t love the idea of those two being left in Cabin Eleven?”

“Plans are in place, it can be managed when your quest is ended, and things are more… settled.”

Yeah, no. Not touching that.

“Okay, so I do have some actual questions for you, mostly because you’re the least likely to flip out over the reason behind them. But first, anything I need to know?”

“Straight to the point I see?”

He shrugs. He wants to go home. He hates this. He never wanted to be a hero, never wanted his own quests. He wants Lee and he wants home.

“Very well. We are currently taking a brief break from Council meetings, nothing is being achieved. The Sky King remains certain you stole the Bolt. He has ordered Apollo to turn you over to his custody by the Solstice.”

That’s… bold of him, “I’m not a piece of property? I’m a person? Also a prophet?”

Also. No one is going to let Zeus keep a prophet. Not after what happened to the Oracle of Dodona.

“We are confident it will not reach that point. Should things become more heated, my brother will offer you sanctuary in his domain.”

“Uh, no thank you?”

That gets a smile from Poseidon. “All will be well. I do have this for you. Apollo and I forged it together, it should reflect your own balance.”

He holds out a new charm. Yet another one. He’s gonna jingle like a belly dancer at this rate.

He raises an eyebrow at his father, not taking it. Poseidon grins, a little too amused by his stubbornness, “Lee informed us of your interaction with the War God. This will shield you from his aura, you will still be aware of it but it will not overwhelm you.”

Oh. Cool. That’s one problem sorted.

He takes the charm, “That’s great! ‘Cause that was one of my questions. I won’t have confirmation till I get back, but pretty sure he’s involved in all this. Also pretty sure I’m going to be fighting a god, like in the next day or so? Feels like it anyway. That’s actually why I wanted to talk to you.”

“Would not Triton be better suited to advice on combat? He has trained you for several years now.”

“Nah, not that, it’s kind of to do with whole knowing thing? I know Apollo still wants me to call it the sight. But…”

Apparently Poseidon can tell what he’s asking.

“While it is simple to say that Apollo and I both held the prophecy domain, the way in which we held it was quite different. For my nephew, his principle domain is light. Hence the prophetic ability that is gifted by him is focused predominately on sight. On what is visible. Knowledge is seen in the form of memories, visions. A person gifted the power of prophecy by Apollo can lose it if they are blinded.”

Percy frowns, like, yes, he does experience all of that, but also…

“My principle domain is water, the ocean. It is something that is fully experienced by your entire body. It is felt, tasted, smelt, it is the inner perception of movement, the touch on your skin, sensations within your body. The power of prophecy that is gifted from my domain is focused on knowing, on feeling. It goes beyond words. As you have both aspects, in equal parts, it is easier for you to integrate Apollo’s sense of seeing into my more all-encompassing knowing.”

Huh. That makes sense. “So, Apollo bickering with me constantly about knowing versus sight?”

“We gods are a possessive lot.”

Yeah, he’s never calling it the sight again.

“Okay, so if I tell you, I know something, you’re not going to try and force me to put it into words?”

Poseidon gives him another mischievous grin, “Only if I wish to be annoying. My abilities work in the same way. There are things I just know, they go beyond explanation.”

“Okay. So. I know I’m going to fight a god. I know the War God is involved somehow. I don’t have any real sense of if those two things are related, but logically, it fits that he’s the one I’m gonna deal with.”

Poseidon gives him a nod, “I have Katecho, super overpowered, definitely a better chance of drawing blood and winning a challenge. Or I can stick with Anaklusmos and Paizein, I’ll probably win the challenge still, I think, but it’s going to take a lot more.”

Poseidon is still watching him, encouraging him to continue. He barely understands this himself, but right now, he needs someone to tell him what to do.

“Using Anaklusmos and Paizein is going to come at a price, not an injury, I don’t think, but something that’s going to affect the tapestry. The final weave can still happen, it’ll just be… harder? Maybe?”

“Is there a reason you don’t want to use Katecho?”

“Amyntor has to be kept hidden. Like, there’s a tonne riding on specific people not seeing it. I… can’t say why. Apparently I’m stuck with that stupid fact in my head for who knows how long. Katecho… it’s so powerful, I can feel it. I’m just a twelve year old kid. It’s something you should be wielding. Not me. It’s not a weapon for mortals.”

“Perhaps not, but you are not precisely a mortal. We did discuss this at length. We all concluded that too much rests on your continued survival to be questioning whether you could be trusted with such a weapon.”

Poseidon tilts his head, carefully making eye contact with Percy who is trying to look anywhere but at him.

“Percy, you were born with too much power. Whether you admit this to yourself or not, you do know this. You carry more awareness of the future than any god does. What is a mere weapon in the face of that?”

“Okay. That… did not help. Now I feel like I really should talk to Apollo about that ivory tower he keeps threatening me with.”

“And that is precisely why we are all so willing to support you, to protect you. You may have lived for twelve mortal years, but your mind is far older. Your abilities came in far too soon, it has aged you in ways few can see.”

Yeah, let’s not talk about that. Percy likes being a kid. Percy would like to continue being a kid.

“That fear you feel for for what could be done with your abilities, you are projecting it onto the trident. They are not the same thing. The trident is a weapon, a tool. A powerful one, but you could wield it every hour of every day and it would still be a mere toy compared to your mind.”

Dude, really?

Poseidon smiles at him, “Percy, your trident is just a toy. Use it however you choose. If that means using it to fight the War God, than so be it. Especially if it preserves the tapestry. Fear is good, but only when directed to the right place. Katecho is not to be feared.”

Oh. Hey. That actually makes sense. Cool.

“Thanks, Dad! That was the scariest supportive lecture I’ve ever heard, but I think it helped in the end? Anything else I need to know?”

Poseidon hands over a pearl thing, one he can smash if something goes incredibly wrong and he needs a quick escape from the Underworld. It’ll even return to him if someone takes it from him. But there’s only one.

“Dad? One?”

He gets a blank face back. Yeah. The gods let him be friends with her, but they really don’t like her. Awesome. Gods are super good at grudges. Wise Girl was eight! She was just a little kid! He is so sick of this argument.

Apparently, Clarisse and the Di Angelo’s will be camping on the beach. In theory they are just three kids enjoying summer. Someone will be beneath the surface keeping a close eye on them, and three Kindly Ones will set up on the bluff behind them. Poor War Drum.

Percy knows there’s a lot more to the Di Angelo’s than anyones sharing. He does know their story, but he is really unclear on what sort of alliances and bargaining is happening between Poseidon and Hades. Percy also really doesn’t want to know.

Triton’s going to give him and Annabeth a lift to the Underworld entrance. Which is a music studio. Because that makes sense.

“Guess it’s time to go and put on a show, huh?”

He hitches a ride back to the beach on Snuffles. Annabeth is quickly herded back into the SUV and soon enough they are standing outside the DOA recording studios. Yay.

________________________

Hades sits on his throne in his palace and watches the two children enter the surface entrance to the Underworld. As the King of the Underworld he can see anything within his kingdom, simply by willing it. Today it is proving quite useful.

It seems so very strange to find himself in this position. The son of Poseidon, King of the Sea, is also the Prophet of Apollo, and both gods are trusting Hades with this child.

When Hades cursed the Oracle he had genuinely believed that he was facing a war with his nephew, and Poseidon too. He had not cared at all. Maria was gone and his children no longer knew him. All he could think was, at least he has cut off Zeus’ access to prophecy.

Only for his next younger brother to just… keep visiting the Underworld. Bringing him gossip from the Council, even passing on thanks from his nephew, for noticing something Apollo had missed.

It was Poseidon who placed his own protections on the Lotus Hotel, now a casino, at a time when Hades could not risk Zeus learning of his subterfuge. It was Poseidon who delivered gifts to his children at Hades’ request. Poseidon who brought him regular updates on the syrup-slow movements of his children in stasis and in the same breath spoke of the day Hades’ children would be free to live in the world once more.

It was Poseidon who told Hades of his plan to sire a child to finally bring the Great Prophecy to a resolution. Poseidon who told him the Fates had given Poseidon a choice. The child would be born regardless, but either Poseidon or Zeus could sire them. It was Poseidon who asked Hades to make the final choice of who was to be the father of this not yet conceived child.

Hades had asked why Poseidon would turn such a choice over to him.

“Because your children were the final casualties of the war. It is your right.”

This brother who he has wronged again and again, who he has fought a war against. His brother who is still as loyal as the sea to Hades. Who trusted him with the knowledge of his own forbidden child. Even before this boy was conceived.

His brother’s child, who is now gleefully heckling Hades’ ferryman. Constantly making quips about the Trainer of Heroes and centaurs. Charon is looking incredibly frazzled.

Well, Poseidon did say Hades would find this entertaining. Apparently his brother’s youngest son has inherited the family’s penchant for theatrics.

Athena’s girl is less than impressed with the situation. She turns even paler when the child finally announces he’s a Prophet of Apollo and requires an audience with the King of the Underworld.

It truly has been too long since prophets were known. The child was well within his rights to make such a request, but the girl… She looks horrorstruck.

While Hades is certain the boy would never be so foolish as to risk it, he can’t help but wonder how she’d react if the boy pulled the same trick on Zeus. Or what would happen if she learned his youngest brother would immediately grant the boy an audience if asked.

Even so, Charon had been given orders to let them pass. He was possibly a little miffed about the centaur comment as his ferryman still attempted to demand payment. The boy just stared him down, and said in the flattest driest of tones, “Prophet. Of. Apollo”

Charon allowed them entrance.

Hades has watched this child from afar ever since Poseidon requested his assistance in handling the centaur who was attempting to circumvent the curse on the Oracle. And revive the tree.

He rather likes the boy, he is certainly fearless. In a world that has long forgotten the divine laws surrounding prophets, this boy still demands his due.

His brother has never requested any repayment for his protection of Nico and Bianca. Has never said a word on what Hades would need to do to in order to repay the debt. Even when Poseidon spoke to him of the centaur, it was in terms of how Poseidon would owe Hades, Hades! a favour if he provided assistance. Poseidon had done the same just before, when he requested lethe water to manage the mortal woman.

The same mortal woman who intended to inform Zeus of the location of the first natural born prophet in millennia. At a time when the child was entirely without protection. Hades considered himself in Poseidon’s debt for informing him of the threat.

He had not risked war by cutting off his brother’s access to his nephew’s domain, only for Zeus to be handed an even younger, more impressionable prophet. A prophet whose power cannot be quantified.

At this point Hades doubts he will ever be able to repay Poseidon what he owes him. Yet, here again, Poseidon asked him to grant him a favour. To allow the prophet child access to the Underworld and let him put on a bit of a performance for his audience of one while he’s at it.

And oh, by the way, this should result in your Helm being returned.

He’s starting to think Poseidon’s doing it deliberately. One day Poseidon will just appear before him and ask for Hades’ entire domain. At the rate his debt is increasing, he will hand it over willingly.

He frowns as he looks at the boy, now picking his way up the path towards Cerberus, the pale terrified girl at his side. There’s something… odd about him. Outside his domain, it is more difficult to read a person’s essence, but when they are in the Underworld, he can see far more.

There is Triton’s essence, some sort of transformed weapon? Touches of other gods, Apollo and Poseidon blaze from multiple points. Amphitrite has made comments about the boy’s adornments and the paranoia of “both his fathers”.

Artemis, Dionysus, some sort of mild blessing from Aphrodite, not romantic, a touch of Ares essence in the backpack, the essence of a very minor god, nymph? in the form of a transformed sword and underneath it all…

Oh. Interesting. He was aware the child had inherited more of his brother’s power than most, not surprising given how long it has been since a child of Poseidon was born. The longer he and his brothers go between children, the more powerful the child is.

But this child… There is a touch too much ichor in his veins. It could yet go either way. He may just be a great hero. Or he might follow Dionysus’ path. Time would tell.

The two children are having an argument, a little ways away from Cerberus. The boy is-

He is far too much like his father is what he is.

Is he really handing the girl three bright red rubber balls? And gesturing towards Cerberus?

She argues back, waving around a baseball cap, one that oozes Athena’s essence. Hades has to hear this.

The girl is insisting that his charm (singular, not plural?) will only conceal his “forbidden kid scent” so much, and the hat will keep him safe.

He has to agree with his brother. The child of Ares is one thing, she claimed the prophet as her own and has never wavered in her loyalty. Even when facing down her own father. But this child of Athena…

Even without her own history with the boy, it is deeply uncomfortable to see her so close to a son of Poseidon.

The children of Athena and Poseidon may no longer know the truth of the matter, but they always knew they were not to mix with each other.

The children compromise. The boy places the hat on his head, and Hades notices him roll his eyes as soon as he is ‘invisible’. The child does not need any foreknowledge to know invisibility means nothing in a kingdom of souls. Physical bodies matter little in the Underworld.

The girl catches Cerberus attention, and begins a game of fetch as the boy ‘sneaks’ by. Cerberus would have entirely ignored them if they had simply walked past. Given the child came prepared with the balls, it appears he was set on causing at least a little mischief.

Of course, Cerberus ends up so overexcited by his new friend that when they leave and the hound must stay on guard, he sits down and begins howling.

Hades rolls his eyes. Given the evidence before him, he is now going to be expected to act as a taxi to the prophet child. He can hear it already, “Cerberus wants to play with me, truly!” Even Poseidon uses Cerberus being lonely as an excuse for his visits on occasion.

His nephew will be just so thrilled by his prophet regularly visiting the Underworld.

He frowns. The children have made it to the Fields of Asphodel and begun making their way through the crowds of lost forgotten souls. The girl’s demeanour has been unchanged throughout, but under his ‘invisibility’ the boy is becoming pale, and a tear is tracking down his face. Ah.

Hades sends a little power towards them, shielding the child from the touch of the lost souls. The girl will not notice, but he hears the whispered, “Thanks, Uncle” from the boy.

They pause and the boy taps her shoulder, letting her know he is here. It is… somewhat ridiculous. She is the only one unable to see him.

She tells him of Elysium, the Isles of the Blest, how “this is why we fight.” He can see the boy’s frown, the furrowed brow, he looks back towards Elysium, and then looks at the girl, looking even more confused.

For a child who has likely trod the path of every hero who inhabits Elysium, it would be a strange wish. There are far better things to live for, to fight for, than for your death.

It is as they finally approach the palace that it happens. The child must have had some forewarning. He jerks the hat from his head and throws it, mere moments before the hat is dragged towards the narrow cave entrance the children are passing. There is a clear sense of power to it. Had he been wearing it, it would have taken the boy also.

Hades stands abruptly. This is… No. He is ready to flash straight to them. He promised the child would be safe. What is happening?

He hears the child mumble “‘M fine Uncle, don’t come, meant to happen,” and tries to calm himself.

If the child had been dragged to the pit… He would never forgive himself. Hades owes Poseidon so much, he assured him the child would have safe passage.

The boy is pale, shaking, trembling. He does not look fine. The girl flutters around him, her eyes flicking between him and the cave entrance that leads to the pit. She looks scared, confused, relieved and guilty? all at once.

The boy is not well. Hades focuses closer, if something has happened, he can find a reason to approach now.

“I’m okay Wise Girl. Really. It was just a flashback. Would’ve been worse except for whatever Mr D did. I’d forgotten. I’ve been here before.”

What. When? Hades would have noticed the moment the child set foot in his realm.

The girl is asking the same questions. The boy gives her a shaky smile.

“‘Member that time the charm broke? The first one? I wasn’t exactly… anchored, in the world at the time. Broke the tether, soul went wandering, technically my body was dead. This is where I came. Was only here for a moment, there’s something in there, something awful. It hurt so much, Wise Girl. I was so scared. I called for ‘Pollo, he came ’n got me.”

She asks something, about Luke?

“Yeah, before that, was my own abilities that kept the memory suppressed, But when you grabbed me that time, I was right back here. It was after that Mr D did something. Said I shouldn’t have things like that in my head.”

She looks shaken, horrified, she’s asking about if that’s why the Sun God had been so angry.

The boy just blinks at her tiredly and says with blunt honesty, “He was angry because Luke wanted to make me lose my mind. Guy’s nuts. Thought since his mum did something stupid, no one else deserves the knowing either. If he’d succeeded… well, death would’ve been kinder for me than that.”

She doesn’t believe him. Hades can see it on her, in her essence. She thinks the boy is lying. He had spoken the truth, had softened it significantly for the girl. Yet she didn’t believe him.

The boy just gives her a tired look. Before digging through his backpack, flinching as his hand brushes against… another backpack? Hades assumes it will be explained in time. He pulls out a flask bearing Artemis’ mark and drinks quickly, dodging away from the girl as she grabs at it.

Hades was willing to let this play out, but if the girl keeps this up, he will intervene. The boy has just relived the aura of Kronos, most would be catatonic for days from such an experience. Even Hades, the one daring enough to curse Apollo’s only remaining oracle, is growing infuriated by the girl’s treatment of the prophet.

________________________

Percy is regretting everything right now.

He knew something awful was going to happen. Had known there was a reason this whole Underworld adventure was necessary.

What he hadn’t been expecting was for Wise Girl’s hat to try and drag him into the pit.

He threw the hat away from him as soon as he felt the screeching siren of his knowing. And then watched it get yanked into the pit. He doesn’t need his abilities to know he’d have gone with it if he’d still been wearing it.

Then, Annabeth fussed at him and wanted an explanation from the flashback, while he was still halfway stuck in said flashback.

Then she flipped out when he pulled the flask of Delos water out and wanted to know where he got it, and she kept ranting about how you can’t eat or drink anything in the Underworld or you’re stuck here, and he is just so done.

He’s not thinking about the electricity he can feel, about the Master Bolt that has just appeared in the bag from Ares.

“Wise Girl. I’m the Prophet of Apollo. I’ve been granted safe passage. Also? Do you really think, if all those heroes you asked about never actually went to the Underworld, that the stories about the food are real? Just, give it a break!”

She goes all contrite and apologetic and then, “Sorry, Seaweed brain, I-”

Yeah. No. He’s done. He just turns away and marches to the palace. She can follow or not. He no longer cares.

She’s jogging behind him, still demanding answers. She’s super upset about the Delos water. That he won’t explain it. That it is a trick to keep him trapped. This is why he told Lee he wasn’t bringing it. But also, totally saved his butt twice now. So. Thanks, Lee.

He just knows answering will make it worse, but she just won’t stop.

“It’s water from a spring in Delos. Helps when I’m overwhelmed. It’ll send anyone else who drinks it insane. There? Happy now?”

No. She is not happy.

He’s still seeing the dark pain, and the cracking and the blistering and she. will. not. stop.

There was meant to be a lot more drama to this. More theatre. But he no longer cares.

He marches straight through the palace, ignoring the guards who make no attempt to stop him. Wise Girl is still yammering. She doesn’t appear to have noticed where they are. She’s so focused on being his best friend and needing to look after him.

He wants War Drum. He wants Lee. He wants Apollo.

Percy makes it to the throne room. Hades has apparently also abandoned the intended theatre. He’s mortal height and standing near his throne, already facing the door as Percy pushes through.

She’s still talking.

It comes out far too shakily, but he gets the words out, “King and Uncle Hades. Thank you for granting me an audience.”

Oh, thank the gods. That shut her up.

“Nephew, it is good to meet you at last. Will you allow me to shield your mind? You appear to be quite affected still by Father’s essence.”

Yes. Please. Make it stop. All he manages is a choked, “Please.”

Oh, finally. The awful cracking blistering pain fades, Hades isn’t Apollo, he doesn’t use auras. But he’s somehow surrounded Percy in a little layer of nothingness. Percy can still feel the ocean within, the touches of various auras in his weapons and shields. But no more darkness, not even Hades’ own aura.

Percy breaths. He can do this. Gotta keep the theatrics going a bit longer, definitely need to sound polite and professional.

“Thank you Uncle, it is much appreciated. I had not realised how much more difficult it would be to shield myself in your realm.”

Nailed it.

Hades nods, “You are welcome, If I may make a suggestion?” He glances at Wise Girl. Uh oh.

Percy nods anyway.

“I would never claim to speak in my nephew’s stead, but I would recommend you… rethink your choice of companions, She does not show the proper respect that must be accorded to you as a born prophet.”

They hate him, don’t they? Even Lee gets this look on his face when Percy talks about his Wise Girl. How come they all welcome the daughter of Ares but get their panties in a twist over Annabeth?

He ignores the little voice that reminds him she just chased him through Hades’ Palace while haranguing him about a flashback. That if it had been War Drum she’d have wrestled him to the ground and sat on him until he drank his water and talked to Lee. That those two things weren’t the same.

“I, uh, thank you for your advice, Uncle. I actually came to speak to you on another matter?”

Hades lets him change the subject. Percy’s never actually met the guy. Officially, Poseidon is the only one with any contact with the King of the Underworld (And it is King, no matter how often Zeus says ‘Lord’ instead).

Messages are passed through Poseidon, and most of it happens without involving Percy. The guy must have been informed about his kids being retrieved and he did send the three Furies to stand guard, but Percy really doesn’t know how much he’s been told or even how much of an ally he is.

But Apollo seemed totally fine with Percy coming here, so, there’s definitely more to it than he’s aware. Percy may see the past and future, but Apollo is incredibly good at noticing him spying and sending him elsewhere when he dreams.

Once they get down to the business, the rest of the drama goes fairly smoothly. Percy points out Hades has no interest in war or more deaths, and no use for the Master Bolt, Hades agrees, says he’s looking for his Helm, blah blah blah.

Lot of angry ranting when Percy asks for Thalia’s soul. Poseidon gave him the exact wording for the next bit. There’s something in all this that is not for him, so Poseidon made sure he knew what to say.

So, Percy points out that with Thalia ‘frozen at just turned twelve and Percy about to turn thirteen, he is the oldest child of the three brothers’. While carefully not mentioning anything else that is not for Percy to know.

Someone must have given Hades the run down on that at least. His words seem to be equally precise. No repeats of the Chiron incident. Annabeth’s too terrified of the King of the Underworld to notice.

Actually, what is Hades doing with his aura? With Percy fully shielded he can’t tell, but Wise Girl’s looking a little… yeah, that’s definitely Underworld God Aura doing a thing. Best to pretend he didn’t see that. He already knows nothing he will say will persuade Hades to let up. Bringing it up will just make Annabeth aware of what’s happening. Which somehow seems the worse option?

A couple of threats from Hades about cursed oracles, which they both know is absolute bunkum. Annabeth doesn’t though, and Hades is clearly enjoying himself. The three brothers were totally theatre kids.

Hey, does that mean Nico and Bianca are going to be Chaos Causers too? That could be fun.

They eventually reach an agreement, if Percy retrieves the Helm, Hades will release Thalia’s soul. Though Hades warns ‘only the god who transformed her can turn her back’. Hades even does a whole light show and summons a little ball of golden light which is… a little ball of golden light.

Percy can see auras. It’s not Thalia. He really doubts souls actually look like that. He keeps quiet. But Annabeth is entranced. While she’s staring, Hades winks at him.

Drama queens. The whole lot of them.

Unfortunately the next bit is not so fun. While he doesn’t say anything directly, Hades clearly knows something about what’s waiting for Percy next. He has no intention of letting Percy leave while he looks so “overwrought.”

Annabeth finds her voice in time to object to Percy eating the ambrosia the King of the Underworld is shoving at him. When Percy tries to refuse, the guy just holds it against his closed mouth and gives him a flat ‘try me’ glare.

Yay. Percy has officially collected a new neurotic mother hen. Awesome.

Percy eats the ambrosia. Lee’s hot chocolate. The mug pressed into his hands on the bad nights when the dreams are too much. The hot chocolate that’s left beside his sketchbook as he frantically draws and draws and draws. That’s tapped against his hand when he’s sulking on the couch over yet again feeling too weird and strange even in a camp for the weirdest and strangest of kids.

Percy wants to go home.

He sighs. Flicking a glance towards Annabeth, he extracts his flask from the bag and goes to drink and-

“Do not.”

Hades has her by the wrist, forcing her back. She must have been grabbing for the flask again.

Hades says conversationally, “Did you know the punishment for touching a prophet is execution?”

She babbles something about poison and mind control? Something about the shielding charm being invasive?

Hades is… not happy.

Even if Percy somehow finds a way to get through to his Wise Girl, Hades is not going to be okay with her near Nico and Bianca. Awesome. Great. This just gets better and better.

Percy still has to fight a War God. Sorry, Annabeth. You’re on your own.

He drinks. While Hades has her contained he takes a moment to focus on Katecho. On the trident Triton named ‘Hold Fast’. Percy’s had it for years, but given the name, Triton had clearly been planning the upgrade the whole time. Triton had always intended Katecho to act as Percy’s anchor.

Percy focuses on what his knowing shows him. He pushes aside the feel of whispers and owl feathers, armour settling, the point of a spear.

Instead he focuses on the conch horn sounding its call to arms and beneath that call, slipped in sneakily as if Triton was trying to hide it, there’s his deep feeling of stiff pride. The pride that burns with a fierce sense of love, of devotion. Triton does not love easily, but he does love totally. To the point that he has placed his own essence in his brother’s trident, supplanting Poseidon’s own right to provide his son with his primary weapon.

In Katecho, Triton has staked his own claim. Bound himself to his mortal brother. Triton, the god who mourns just as deeply, four thousand years after his daughter’s death. Percy is mortal, Triton has guaranteed his own suffering, has doubled his own deep pool of grief. Tripled even, because Percy brought him Clarisse, and Triton is now attached.

Triton was willing to accept the cost. Because Triton has faith in his brother. Triton’s essence rings with honesty, with truth. Triton wholeheartedly believes that Percy can face everything that is to come.

Poseidon told Percy he should not fear Katecho’s power. Because Percy does not fear his knowing. He has a lot of complicated emotions about it, but he’s not afraid of his ability. He’s afraid of what happens if he is without the protection of the gods. If he is forced to use his power against his will.

But under his own control? No. He does not fear the knowing.

And if he does not fear the knowing, how can he fear Katecho? It is just a toy. A symbol of his brother’s faith in him. Just a tool to be used.

He breathes.

“Uncle Hades, I’m ready to return to the surface. I’ll have your Helm back shortly.

Hades gives him a look, seeming happy with whatever he sees. He still has Annabeth by the wrist, She’s looking kinda ill. This quest is not shaping up to his Wise Girl’s dreams.

“Very well, are you sure you want this… one, to accompany you? I could keep her here for a few centuries, I’m sure I have a distant cell available?”

He knows it’s just a joke, Hades enjoying the drama, but…

The knife is at her hip.

He sighs. There are so many things he could say. But he is a prophet. So he says the truth.

“Annabeth’s got her own part to play, Uncle. She’ll be needed.”

Chapter Text

When Percy finally appears again, Clarisse just about collapses with relief.

It had been hard, to keep the two new kids happy and settled, while she tried not to lose her mind worrying about the other two in the Underworld.

She’s not happy to see the three Kindly Ones perched up on the bluff, still in their pink cardigans, trying to look like they are enjoying an evening at the beach. They look so weird like that, Clarisse kinda wants to know what the Mist shows.

Both new kids can apparently see through the Mist. Nico clocks them straight away, and apparently knows what they are because of some card game called Mythomagic? Keeps him amused chattering on though. She just has to nod occasionally and kid’s happy as a clam.

Prissy said he’d arranged security. Triton was lurking somewhere too. If the Kindly Ones weren’t meant to be there he’d have done something by now.

She was surprised Triton had vanished, she’d figured he’d want a visible presence. At least she did until she saw who else was standing on the beach, much further down.

You have got to be kidding!

Ares, God of War stands there, sword slung casually over his shoulder (how does that not cut him?), he’s just looking out to the horizon, waiting.

There’s a helmet on the bike next to him. She’d bet everything that’s the bronze hat.

But the dude's ignoring her, staring out at the ocean. Waiting.

Uh. Not great. She doesn’t need Percy’s weirdness to know what’s coming. She really hopes someone’s done something about the aura thing. If they can sneak her Afosi, a whole ass new spear, then surely someone has done something about the aura thing? They’re had over a day since he spoke to Lee about it.

She really hopes the kid doesn’t try the goofball thing again. Being underestimated is good, but also. War God? Not so good.

It is a very long exhausting night. She doesn’t sleep.

The sun is rising when Percy and Annabeth finally reappear in the middle of the ocean. Fine for the kid, less fine for Wise Girl. She can see her thrashing around, while what she assumes is the kid's head moves much more smoothly.

Is that a shark?

Kid. Seriously?

From the look of it, the kid’s grabbed Annabeth, and the shark? Just, why? And now the shark is towing them both to the beach?

Priss. Yeah, she hasn’t even got words for this.

They walk back onto the beach close to where Clarisse sits with the newbies. She makes the newbies stay behind as she heads down to meet them. She still has no idea what’s so special about the new kids, but the less attention they call to them, the better.

Kid gives her a smile, but he looks, not great. Healthy, but something happened down there. The bounciness is missing, though he’s making an effort.

He hands his bag off to her, his voice extra chirpy “Hey War Drum! Can you watch this for me? Gotta deal with something.”

As she reaches for the bag, he grabs her hand and squeezes hard, flicks his eyes to the backpack, then to her. Flat, focused look in his eyes. Cool. No clue what’s in it but kid definitely just told her to guard the bag with her life. Great. Please don’t let this get her killed.

She swings it onto her back and even clicks the stupid flappy chest strap shut. She really doesn’t know how big the fallout from a Percy v Ares fight will be. Best to be prepared to make a run for it.

Priss gives the new kids a cheerful lazy salute and heads straight for the War God. His hand is reaching up to the necklace. Good. Screw Zeus, this is not the time to play act.

She follows behind, as close as she dares, finding a point where she can see the kid’s face with Ares’ back to them. Wise Girl is trotting beside her, craning her head to stare around the beach at the few people here so early, babbling a mile a minute. What she’s saying is just… Yeah Clarisse hasn’t got words for that.

If Hades had actually poisoned Prissy, Triton would have already stormed the Underworld. Also something about them keeping Percy as a pet? And a collar? And she keeps mentioning mind control? Something about being brainwashed about what really happened? And Luke? Huh?

“Wise Girl, look, I really do want to hear all about it, but right now, can we focus on the demigod fighting the God of War? Please?”

Annabeth stops long enough for them to hear Ares admit to hiding the bolt in the backpack (Clarisse is going to murder Prissy!), and talk about wanting a three way war between the brothers.

Which… doesn’t make sense. Clarisse barely sees those three, just during Olympus field trips, and even she’s noticed the whole diva thing they’ve got going on. They literally think arguing is the bestest thing ever. Also how would Ares having the Helm make Hades blame Poseidon?

Oh, Master Bolt only turned up when the backpack was in the right place. At least they know the reason for the whole trip downstairs now? Stupid Fates.

Prissy’s fidgeting with his necklace. Talking casually, pissing off the War God and keeping him off kilter. She sees the kid’s eyes flick sideways, and when Ares is completely focused on the kid, she looks out towards the ocean. Hey! That’s Poseidon. In his whole terrifying Sea King outfit. No beach bum clothes today.

He’s just watching, hand gripping his trident at his side, not getting involved, why…? Oh. Non-interference rules.

She’s pretty sure Priss can technically refuse to fight Ares, there’s a thing in there about prophets and champions. Triton made sure she knew. But this is definitely a Percy thing. She’s not actually sure she’d win an outright fight against Ares, too similar, too predictable. Priss is the opposite of predictable. It’s why sparring with him is so much fun.

She’s so glad Triton lets them use the sea floor training grounds, they’d have trashed camp a thousand times over otherwise. As it is, there are already three sets of abandoned training grounds surrounding the beach. One’s even got a giant crater in it.

Priss leads the War God through a dance of bright bouncy chit chat, keeping him off kilter. Somehow getting Ares to admit that a demigod had the Bolt and Helm. Ares tracked the demigod down and stole them himself. Then, Priss finally gets Ares to yell, kind of high pitched and hysterical, that he doesn’t have dreams.

Clarisse is missing something.

She’s distracted by Wise Girl, who’s still frantically talking about Percy being mind controlled, (another mention of collars and pets?) and someone? saying Percy is not in his right mind.

Clarisse needs to make a choice. She has the kid’s backpack. Pretty sure it has the Master Bolt in it. Wise Girl is absolutely flipping out beside her, finally hitting her limit on Percy’s weirdness. She gets it, but also, not the time. Clarisse can’t guard the bag and handle the hysterical girl.

Sorry, Annabeth.

She looks over at the Sea King, who is now splitting his attention between them and the ongoing argument between Percy and Ares.

Clarisse calls, softly, “Little help?” She gestures to the panicking Annabeth.

The Sea King gives a short nod and flicks his hand.

Annabeth’s ongoing rant about how “-be trusted, they can’t let him do this, he’s such a stupid seaweed-” cuts off.

Now Annabeth is like, handcuffed? restrained? Clarisse doesn’t know the right word, by little ropes of water. It keeps her in place, and something has been done to stop her yelling distracting Priss. Not a gag. She’s just… got no voice. Kinda weird. Clarisse’ll deal with it when the fight’s over.

Ares goes to snap his fingers, and it is Apollo’s voice that cracks across the beach. When did he get here? Apollo is standing there arms crossed, up on the dunes, directly opposite where Poseidon is standing in the ocean. He looks much more like the scary Sun God she first met and a lot less like the younger sunnier version of Lee he usually is.

“Stop. Now.”

Ares goes to answer, but is cut off.

“If Percy wants to challenge you, I won’t stop him. But you will not summon a monster to kill the Prophet of Apollo. Even gods can be executed for knowingly breaking that particular law.”

Clarisse winces. She’d been nine when she was invited to train with Triton. Lee had taken her aside a full week before her first session and told her about Pallas. It’s been years and the idea of a god dying still freaks her out. It was just wrong. The fact that Apollo could have the God of War executed? It gave her the heebie-jeebies.

Wait. Zeus sent that chimera? He gonna execute himself?

With two Olympian gods watching, Ares couldn’t just bullshit his way through the challenge. It had to be issued properly, and answered correctly.

Suddenly she was kinda glad Triton lectured them so incessantly. Super annoying when you were trying to focus on a spar and the guy just kept talking at you. But useful now.

Percy was precise with it.

The fight was to the first blood drawn. Not to the death.

If Percy wins, the Helm is forfeit to him, Ares cannot challenge him again. He must leave immediately. Since Percy is already in possession of the Master Bolt, it’s not up for discussion.

Ares attempts to claim Percy as his prize if he wins. Apollo’s reminder of it being an executable offence to enslave a prophet shuts him down. In the end Ares decides if he wins the Master Bolt is his. And, “that new little ‘Tease’ he’s so proud of”.

Clarisse is very grateful for how frequently Percy pranks her. She was able to keep a straight face and not die laughing at the smug look on I-refuse-to-acknowledge-his-genes’ face as he tries to take the kid’s practice weapon.

The one that was literally a practical joke targeted at Zeus.

Finally the fight begins. Percy’s been fiddling with his necklace the whole time, looking like a twitchy hyperactive demigod. His hands were constantly dancing about, what’s a bit more fiddling? He keeps his left hand at the necklace as he draws Anaklusmos.

They meet in a clash of steel, and then it’s near impossible to keep track. Ares aura becomes overwhelming, she can see why it hurt the kid so much. It’s hurting her and she doesn’t have the sight.

It washes away just as fast. Apollo’s doing, probably? She checks Wise Girl. She looks ill and green, and keeps randomly flinching. Apparently Apollo’s kindness didn’t extend to her.

Clarisse has her suspicions on what the deal is. But so long as the kid’s firmly in denial, she’s not touching it. ’Til he says otherwise Clarisse will treat Annabeth as his Wise Girl.

Kid’s now screwing with the War God. Seriously? Just stab him! He’s dancing about, ducking in and out, dodging the god’s giant two handed sword, and oh. Of course he is. The kid is literally cackling with glee.

Glad he’s having fun?

Finally the kid manages to circle the War God again, making the guy spin on one foot in a demented pirouette. As Ares spins he raises the giant sword even higher above his head and starts to bring his sword down, Percy finally pulls Katecho off the chain and draws his arm back.

As the trident extends to full size in his left hand, Percy raises his right hand above his head deflecting Ares’ blade on Anaklusmos and then he just… absolutely fucking skewers Ares with Katecho in his left hand. In the gods entirely unprotected side.

Ouch.

That. Just. Ow. It’s not a killing blow. But. Jeez, kid! Katecho has struck just under the rib cage on the god’s right side, all three prongs shoved through and emerging out of his back before the kid yanks the trident out of the War God and dances out of reach as the god screams.

Then the scream stops and now Ares is just staring at him. Golden ichor raining down.

Guy looks even stupider like that. How is Clarisse related to him?

Apollo goes, all mildly (he’s copying Lee!), “I believe it was to first blood? The Helm is Percy’s.”

Ares goes to say something, stares at Katecho, frowns, spins towards Poseidon, takes a deep breath ready to yell, and freezes when he realises the Sea King hasn’t moved and is still holding his own trident.

Poseidon just gives him a smug grin, “It is not my trident he used, if that is what you were going to accuse me of. My son or not, he does not wield my symbol of power.”

Hey, cool! They’ve broken the War God. Kid can officially add Ares to his list of gods he’s made bluescreen. The guys still got ichor pouring out. Apollo doesn’t seem interested in helping.

Ares stands there opening and shutting his mouth like a fish, then… he just slumps. And disappears. Doesn’t even bother with a big flashy exit.

Seriously. How is she related to him? Can she exchange him for a different god?

He did at least leave the Helm behind. Though, Poseidon looks like he wouldn’t mind going on a War God hunt. Ares isn’t gonna be making friends anytime soon for actually accepting a challenge from the Sea King’s twelve year old kid.

Apollo didn’t even bother walking over, just flashed straight to the kid and now he’s fussing over him and the kid’s trying to bat his hands away.

Clarisse sighs.

She calls, “Yo, Priss, maybe put Katecho and Anaklusmos away before you have your little slap fight with Apollo?”

Kid freezes, looks at his hands. Gives her a very sheepish smile. He returns both weapons to their proper places.

Points to Apollo though, he’d been entirely unbothered by the kid trying to shove him off while holding a god-level weapon.

Apollo and Poseidon can handle the kid for a minute. She looks at the still restrained mute Annabeth and then at the Helm sitting a good twenty metres away. Sighs.

“I’ll be back Wise Girl, promise. Just gotta get the Helm.”

She moves as fast as she can, and is back beside Annabeth with no-one else approaching. Then she realises the next issue. Poseidon doesn’t trust Annabeth. There is zero chance he’ll remove whatever he did while the Master Bolt and the Helm are right next to Annabeth. Doesn’t matter what Clarisse and Percy say. Percy has tried everything over the years to make the gods back off on Annabeth. At camp, they mostly do. But out in the mortal world? No chance.

This is really annoying. Quests suck.

“Uh, guys? Got two symbols of power, a Wise Girl who needs to be freed from the whatever, and we also need transport back to New York for five demigods? Any suggestions?”

Apollo has finally decided Percy can be trusted to walk without assistance. Clarisse still can’t see any signs of actual injury, so she’s assuming he’s just fussing for the sake of it.

Poseidon is… Uh oh. The Sea King is glaring at Annabeth.

They’ve never discussed it, her and Percy. But during that whole horrific story Lee told her about the time a god murdered another god, Lee did say that Apollo had shown him Pallas. And other than the eye colour, Annabeth was her spitting image. Lee had told her so she knew not to accidentally introduce her to Triton or whatever.

But it means Clarisse also knows exactly why there are all those complicated emotions on Poseidon’s face. It’s really not helping.

Percy finally reaches them and gets a good look at Wise Girl’s whole situation. All of him very visibly cringes.

“Priss?”

“Uh, she may have kinda pissed off Uncle, when we were downstairs? I’m thinking he’s already told Dad about it?”

“He did.”

Wonderful. Wise Girl, what the hell? Why would you piss off the King of the Underworld?

Clarisse still doesn’t know what to do with her whole rant about poison and mind control and the more she thinks about it the more skeeved out she feels about those mentions of pets and collars. Please don’t let Wise Girl be thinking what Clarisse thinks she is.

Percy at least takes the Helm from her and gestures for the backpack. He’s got this dead look on his face. Like he knows as well as she does, the gods aren’t going to do jack about Annabeth until Percy and both symbols of power are out of her reach.

This is fun.

Percy heads straight for the newbies, and Triton’s turned up again, his eyes fixed on the kid. Yeah, he’ll be fine while she deals with Wise Girl.

When Percy is finally at an ‘acceptable’ distance, Poseidon releases Annabeth.

Who throws herself at Clarisse. Clarisse catches her and hugs her and tries not to fall apart.

Suddenly, Clarisse is eight years old again, standing in the big arena, watching a god absolutely rip into the group of kids who she’d seen torturing that tiny Apollo runt. She remembers Annabeth’s face from that day.

It’s the same face Wise Girl’s making now. Oh. Annabeth.

Clarisse feels terrible. Annabeth is sobbing and so utterly terrified. Like she genuinely thought she was about to die. But, what could Clarisse have done? She’s thirteen! Same age as Annabeth. Clarisse knows how to fight, she’s good at it. Clarisse had no idea how to deal with everything Wise Girl was babbling, and Percy was about to fight a War God and he’s twelve!

Clarisse wants Lee. She wants Lee right now. She’s done. She can’t handle this. Lee knows how to handle scared kids. Clarisse doesn’t! Even with Priss. When he’s upset, she gets Lee!

The gods have disappeared already. She can see Priss handing the Helm over to a Fury in a fluffy pink cardigan.

While Clarisse kneels on the sand and a sobbing Wise Girl clutches her for dear life.

________________________

With the Helm back in the Furies possession and Triton agreeing to stay with the Di Angelo’s “until his Shield returns”, Percy heads back towards Clarisse and Annabeth.

He doesn’t blame Clarisse for asking for assistance. She had the Master Bolt strapped to her back, and Annabeth was absolutely flipping out.

Actually, if he was honest, it was super distracting. He had started to think the fight was a really bad idea when all he could hear was Annabeth almost screeching about Percy being mind controlled and how they can’t let him fight because he’ll be killed and how this is murder. He had to focus and suddenly he didn’t know if he could do this and Poseidon and Triton were right there. He started thinking he was going to make them relive Pallas.

Percy thinks he might have broken his Wise Girl. He’s not so sure she even is his Wise Girl. Not anymore.

He hadn’t even done anything, not really. He still can’t pin down why she flipped out. Like, he knew the Delos water would upset her, but he’s gotten kind of used to gods force feeding him ambrosia every time he looks ‘a bit peaky’.

It’s well known that Apollo will declare an actual real war if one of his prophets is so much as injured. And that was back when there was more than one of them. Gods wanting to make extra sure Percy doesn’t die, is just… normal?

He’s not thinking about the other bit he caught. He actually flinched at that one. It just… Ares giant sword would have hurt less. Both the watching gods saw. But straight after, Annabeth went totally silent. Since Clarisse wasn’t panicking he assumed they’d gagged her or something.

Which was also… not surprising? They aren’t human. They are gods. Oh. Maybe that’s the issue? Is she expecting them to behave like people?

That’d suck. Would feel kind of terrifying too.

But seriously, if Percy thought the gods were the same as mortal people, he wouldn’t have shoved a trident through Ares. That’s not something he’d do to a person. Ares was fair game. He agreed to the challenge and he’ll be healed in, like, an hour.

Hey! Is this why Clarisse likes hitting him so much? Because actually. Yes. He totally can see the appeal.

He is definitely a bit too fight happy. He shakes his head trying to focus. Helm returned, Master Bolt is on his back. Just need to sort Annabeth out, then head back to New York.

It was like, an hour after dawn? Super early. If Poseidon lets them use the hippocampi they could be back in New York by lunchtime. Normally he’d think having the Di Angelo’s with them would mean no ocean, but he’s beginning to think the kids are legit under his dad’s protection?

Like not just a tit for tat deal, but more of a ‘they are my brother’s kids and I care about my brother’ thing?

“War Drum, need help?”

She grits out, “Yes.” Between her teeth. Sorry, War Drum.

Okay. What does Lee do when a camper’s flipping out? Hot chocolate, calm words, hugs… oh! Breathing.

He crouches down beside them and starts coaxing the sobbing panicking Annabeth through Lee’s favourite breathing exercises.

He eventually manages to pry her off Clarisse, she’s still taking big sobbing gulps of air, but she’s seeming a little calmer?

He knows Triton will vanish the moment they start approaching. He does not blame the guy. In his position he’d also prefer to pretend Athena’s kids didn’t exist. Athena was such a bitch.

“Okay, Annabeth, let’s get you back to the others. Have a drink of water, take a break, catch your breath. I gotta arrange our transport but-”

She cuts him off. Seriously?

She’s asking how much money is on the ‘card from the Lotus Eaters’. Because she wants them to take a plane.

“Uh, Annabeth? I can’t go on a plane? It’s the Sky King’s domain?”

She thinks it’ll be fine because they have the Bolt with them. They need to get it back as soon as possible.

They are on day six of a fourteen day deadline. What?

“Pretty sure I’ll die long before anything could damage the Bolt. The Master Bolt can survive a plane crash, I can’t. I don’t think having that’s gonna offer any insurance.”

Oh gods. That reminded Annabeth of something else. She’s just remembered Thalia. Wants to know where the Helm is. She’s talking about going back to the Underworld to do the exchange.

“I’ve actually already returned the Helm? The Furies took it back to Uncle.”

Now she’s running down the beach desperately searching for someone. She’s shouting Thalia’s name?

He exchanges a helpless look with Clarisse. The hell are they meant to do?

He speaks very quietly, “Uh, War Drum, thinking this is way beyond our skill set?”

She replies just as quietly, “Ya think, Priss?”

He barely breathes the words, still watching Annabeth frantically rush along the beach, “So, I have an idea. But. There are rules about prophets outright lying. ‘Pollo might let it slide, but I’d rather not test it… Not with everything else.”

He regularly lies to Apollo’s face, but the whole point of that is that Apollo knows it’s a lie. If either he or Apollo thought he could successfully lie to the god, he’d never even try it. Half truths are uncomfortable but necessary and kind of a given because of the prophecy stuff. But outright lying about his knowing to someone who would believe him is not allowed. His brain is weird.

Clarisse sighs, “I’ll do it. If it gets her contained till camp. What am I telling her?”

He still has to be careful with how he says this, the wrong wording and he’s saying something his knowing knows for certain is untrue, “I think Annabeth may be more willing to stay calm and return to camp if Annabeth believes that since Thalia’s physical body was turned into a tree, Thalia’s soul would be returned there too. So if Thalia is alive…”

Clarisse pauses, thinking over her words just as carefully, “Before I do this, are you able to tell me if there is a chance Thalia will be standing there alive and human when we arrive at camp?”

At least he can tell Clarisse the truth for this. “No, she’ll still be a tree when you get back to camp.”

She catches the ‘you’, gives him a look, he gives her a helpless shrug. She can’t go to Olympus with him. After. Once it’s all fully over, he’ll be able to explain. But not now.

“Right, awesome. If you die on Olympus, I’m fishing you back out of the Underworld so I can kill you myself. Stay with the newbies. I’ll sort Wise Girl out. Maybe time to start feeling super homesick or something? Do the mopey shit you do whenever Lee is away from camp?”

Huh. Good idea. He is actually homesick. It’s a good way to avoid questions if he’s being a brat and refusing to talk because he misses Lee.

While Clarisse deals with Annabeth he heads back to the Di Angelo’s who are standing with… Poseidon in a new mortal disguise. Just who he wanted to see. Auras never lie, gods can’t hide from Percy, it’s awesome.

“Heya! Hadn’t been going to ask before, but now I’m getting the feeling the sitch with your older bro is more involved than I thought. So, uh, could I pretty please borrow five fish-ponies?”

Percy loves hippocampi, half horse, half fish. Best creatures in existence. He happily calls them anything but their actual name just to annoy Triton.

His dad in the black suited bodyguard disguise gives him a smirk. They definitely share their sense of humour.

Then his dad’s face goes flat. No. Please. He wants to go home. Stop doing this to him!

“Five? Not four?”

He closes his eyes. Breathes. “Look. I get you lot want something done about her. I get you’re sick of my ignoring you about it. But. I’m not actually going to go against the Fates. I hate it. Deeply. But.”

He just gives a helpless frustrated gesture. He wants to go home.

His dad’s face softens, “My apologies, I did not like seeing you distracted at such a critical moment. I will summon the hippocampi for you. You intend to go alone to Olympus?”

“Yeah, the others need to be taken straight to camp. I… Yeah, Lee can deal with them. I’m done.”

“Your personal mount can take you up the East River and leave you near the surface entrance.”

One day he’s going to get one of these stiff sea gods to actually refer to his hippocampi by name. Fluffy is a perfectly reasonable name for a fish-pony! He will win this argument. This may also be why Triton insists on naming their weapons himself.

“Cool, be good to see Fluffy again, been a bit.”

Ha, it’s fun making gods make that expression.

Once he’s successfully talked Poseidon into summoning the five (not four) hippocampi, the actual trip home was easy.

The Di Angelo’s were a bit freaked but the boy, Nico, had some sort of card game that talked about hippocampi. When things aren’t completely insane, he needs to look at that game, he has a suspicion…

Whatever War Drum has done has at least meant Annabeth got on her hippocampi. Percy is still wearing the backpack with the stupid zap-happy Master Bolt inside. He cannot wait to be away from it’s aura.

Percy’s sulking about how badly he wants to go home and instead has to go to Olympus and talk to the stupid gods. Every time Annabeth tries to ask him something, Clarisse cuts her off and tells her to let him sulk in peace.

He loves his War Drum. He and Lee are totally locking her in a room for a Disney movie night when this is all done. She deserves it.

Hippocampi travel is both awesome, and utterly strange. Not all of them can do the weird semi teleport trick, but of course, the Royal Stables of Atlantis is just full of highly skilled hippocampi. Which means from the rider’s perspective, they get on a fish-pony, tell them where they want to go, and the fish-pony swims straight out to sea, heading directly for the horizon line.

When the fish-pony reaches a point where all the rider can see around them is horizon, no land at all, something happens. Percy still can’t work out what, and then a second later, there’s a landform ahead, and it’s your destination. Kinda works like the sun chariot, kinda not.

He doesn’t exactly wear a watch, but he doesn’t think it’s much later than midday in New York when the other four hippocampi peel off towards camp and Fluffy heads further in. Poor Fluffy, the East River is completely gross.

________________________

It’s only when he gets to the Empire State Building that Percy remembers he’s not actually meant to know how to access Olympus. Like, he does know, because dreams. But no one has ever told him anything about it. Mr D poofs campers to Olympus and back, they don’t go through the mortal entrance.

He considers for a moment. This quest has sucked. It’s been a very long day. Other than the nap in the car he’s been on the go since the truck pulled into Las Vegas yesterday.

This means Percy deserves a treat. Yes?

Yes.

He can already see Apollo facepalming.

He waltzes straight up to the big desk with the bored looking attendant.

Percy’s wearing the same ratty jeans and t-shirt he wore through the Underworld trip, the Ares fight and then for the hippocampi ride. His dark hair is definitely wild from the wind and sea spray and he has not done a thing about it.

In the loudest most official voice he can muster, one that rings off the marble lobby and absolutely shatters the stuffy silence,

“I am the Prophet of Apollo and I require an audience with Zeus, King of the Gods! You will grant me entry! Immediately!”

Then he plasters his biggest most gleeful ‘you can’t do jack to me’ smile on his face and just stands there beaming at the gaping attendant.

Bluescreen. Nailed it.

He doesn’t move. Just keeps smiling. Watches as the guy blinks, shakes his head, actually processes what he just heard, gapes at Percy… Then squints suspiciously, and very visibly debates whether to believe the scruffy child in front of him.

Who is still grinning like a loon and staring right back.

Percy didn’t even need to show the guy the Master Bolt. Dude caved long before Percy got bored with his new game.

He stuck the keycard in the elevator and hits the shiny 600 button that popped into existence.

Then, since he already knew this was a very long elevator ride, he tried to see if he could balance on the little waist high railing thing inside the elevator. He could. Not even hard. Next time he’ll practice his handstands.

When the doors open he has to face the bit he was dreading. There’s a reason he never goes on the field trips to Olympus.

Percy stays inside the elevator, staring through the open door at the stone bridge thing that connects to Olympus. This will hurt. He doesn’t wanna.

“You going to come out of there anytime soon?”

Oh! Hey! Apollo!

“Apollo! I thought you’d be waiting up there!” Percy waves towards the scary bright white palace thing.

Apollo gives him a bright smile, “Yes, but there was a question put to the Council concerning the sacred laws. Specifically whether asking a prophet with such an extreme sensitivity to auras to walk unaccompanied through Olympus amounted to torture. The Council voted and agreed it did. So. I’m here to act as your shield!”

Oh. Thank the gods.

Wait.

He squints suspiciously at Apollo, “I thought I could break through your shielding?”

A bigger grin, a very gleeful one, uh oh, “Not if I maintain physical contact with you!” He holds a hand out, wiggling his fingers.

Percy is expected to walk the length of Olympus, while holding Apollo’s hand.

He stays inside the elevator. Does Zeus really need his Master Bolt that badly?

Apollo softens, “Come on, kid. I know this sucks, But you’re almost there, just this and then it’s over.”

“No it’s not, still three weeks to go.”

He freezes. He did not mean to say that. Shit.

Apollo purses his lips. “We will be discussing that. But not here. Was that from you, or the sight?”

He sighs, slumps. “Me, known for awhile.”

Apollo is not happy with him, but is clearly choosing to save the interrogation for later. He holds his hand out again, “At least you can get this part over with?”

Percy gives in and takes the sun god’s hand.

The actual walk through Olympus was… fine? Lotta craning heads and curious divine people of every description. Apollo cheerfully waving back to every greeting, but not stopping to talk.

It was interesting, Percy had never felt the sun god’s aura feel quite so… smug? Huh. Guess it makes sense. Light’s his primary domain but prophecy is his most powerful. It’s been well over a thousand years since the guy had a new prophet to show off. Even if Percy’s heading for a showdown with Zeus, for Apollo this is a moment for pride.

This might also be why Annabeth keeps ranting about gods treating him like a pet. But, they are gods? Percy’s not? Is it really all that different to him keeping James? Who is a demigod turned into a fish?

Everyone eventually agrees that it’s okay that Percy keeps James because James did give permission. Plus James can’t actually be turned back into a demigod. He’s been a fish for too long.

Maybe it’s just the being a prophet thing. Makes his mind work in weird not-entirely human ways. Annabeth’s attitude is probably the normal one?

It didn’t feel like he was Apollo’s pet though. Felt like he was Apollo’s kid who’d just won an award at school and Apollo’s being a proud parent showing off what his clever kid did.

Embarrassing, but kinda nice.

The hand holding was just mortifying. But since it means he isn’t drowning in auras, it’s still preferable.

The Olympus palace was just like Hades’, except white and it hurts his eyes. It wasn’t quite so glaring, in his dreams. Certainly on brand for Zeus though.

They make it to the throne room. Waiting for them is a very cheerful Poseidon casually slouching on his throne and a very cranky Zeus. From the looks of it, Poseidon’s been deliberately annoying his little brother. Yeah, Percy might’ve got a few too many genes from his dad.

The throne room was the same as it ever was. The weird shifty mirage thrones that appear differently depending on the person who sees them. Percy knows to the rest of the kids at camp, Poseidon’s throne is a modern deep-sea fisherman’s chair and Zeus’ is a weird ultramodern artistic melted metal thing. Like Drew’s favourite Tiffany necklace in throne form.

Percy has lived twelve years in the real world. And who knows how many in his dreams. He can’t really see the thrones, there are too many different images overlaying each other. It’s… uncomfortable. The thrones are intended to suit the time and the culture of the audience. Percy sees the past, future and the now in a whole big jumble.

Yeah. He’s going to stop trying to work out what he’s looking at. It’s making his eyes and brain hurt.

He refocuses on the two gods in their supersized forms. Apollo has at least shifted from holding his hand to standing slightly behind him and off to the side, one hand on his shoulder. A little less mortifying.

He ignores Poseidon’s aura, Percy’s seen it enough he can just shove it the side.

Zeus’ aura is exactly what he expected. Poseidon’s aura is loud and turbulent and constantly changing. Hades’ aura whispers with it’s promise of peace and threatens judgement in its ringing silence.

Their youngest brother has an aura as big and loud as they, but the core of Zeus’ aura is its steadfast immovable unchanging nature. His aura is the essence of power. Holding the entire strength of the world in the palm of his hands. The weight of a crown settling on his head. It is the heavy thick silence in the moments before the storm crashes through. It is wings stretched out, catching the wind and thrusting down, propelling him into flight. It is unending, unrelenting ambition and desire. The constant yearning for more.

It makes sense, the three together. The immovable force, the unstoppable change and the final end. Together, they work. Separately… not so great.

As Percy tries to work out how to say what he needs to, some distant part of him is thinking that excluding Hades from the twelve Olympians was a very bad idea. He is needed, he gives balance that cannot be found in this collision of immovable and unstoppable.

Zeus has been surprisingly patient while Percy tries to grapple his knowing and seeing into submission. He has been speaking with Apollo, entirely ignoring Percy’s little freak out.

“-still believe your prophet would be better suited to a temple on Olympus-”

Oh, wonderful, Zeus wants to keep him. Not like Percy knows exactly what happened the last time Zeus kept an oracle or anything.

He takes a breath and hitches his shoulder, letting Apollo know he’s back from his little drifting episode and ready to deal with this fun.

“Uncle Zeus, greetings.”

He keeps his head up, making eye contact with the Sky King. The Prophet of Apollo does not kneel. Does not bow. He is not a servant. The King of the Gods is not his king.

Zeus pauses, looking at him, there’s something in his eyes…

Yep. Called it. Sky King is not happy Percy knows the rules.

Percy dreams of the past, like, nightly, you really think he isn’t familiar with the sacred laws? Millennia without prophets notwithstanding?

Also. Zeus is the reason half those laws exist. Laws that were written in the blood of the innocent. Especially the one about enslaving a prophet. The knowing may protect Percy from going completely insane from what he sees, but he’s never going to forget what Zeus did to the Oracle of Dodona.

Zeus is all strong commanding confident tone, “It is good to have a prophet advise us once more.”

Yeah. Nope.

“I am a Prophet of Apollo, Uncle Zeus. My advice is given solely at Apollo’s discretion.”

Zeus glares at him, “But today, you are here as the son of Poseidon, born in direct contravention of our sacred oath?”

Dude. Really?

Okay, lets do this, “An oath that my father was no longer bound by. Uncle Zeus, it was your own actions that freed your brothers from the sacred oath.”

Zeus’ voice cracks like thunder, “He was not aware of this at the time you were sired.”

Percy blinks. Debates. Flicks a glance slightly off to the side and back, towards Apollo. He gives Percy a slight shrug. Apparently if Percy wants to go there, Apollo’s gonna let him.

“Uncle Zeus, I know it has been millennia since a prophet walked these halls. Perhaps you have forgotten the sacred laws?”

Percy gives Zeus his best serious face, the one with the big innocent eyes, as he continues, “Once an oath is broken, it does not matter if another is aware of it. The oath is still broken. Only the initial oath-breaker can be punished for breaching the sacred oath. Your child was born a full five years before I. It does not matter if she no longer lives. Your daughter, Thalia Grace was still born years before I was.”

Suck on that!

Poseidon jumps in, asking if Zeus would like to continue their discussion on the appropriate punishment for breaching a sacred oath?

No. Zeus does not.

“Uncle Zeus, I did not request an audience to speak of the sacred oath. I have information that you will need. I have retrieved your Master Bolt. I can tell you who ordered your Master Bolt to be stolen, and who they intended to give it to.”

More blistering commentary on lying thieves and Percy being evidence of the sacred oath being broken.

Apollo’s voice behind him, lashing across the throne room, crackling with the sun’s heat.

“May I remind you, Father, on the laws regarding prophets and truth-speaking? And that I, as the God of Truth, would know if he lied?”

Poseidon’s anger is growing as well. Between them they pretty much tell Zeus to sit down and shut up, or he’s not getting his Master Bolt or any information.

Finally, Zeus lets Percy speak of his quest. Percy brushes past most of it, though he makes deliberate mention of the chimera and Echidna saying Zeus had sent her. He doubts anything will come of it, but still, Zeus broke a sacred law. Percy focuses on Ares approaching them for his little fetch quest and how Percy’s abilities told him Ares had something they needed.

Zeus gets cranky again. There are sparks kind of just randomly bouncing around the throne room.

Apollo’s voice, all the heat gone. Now it’s ice cold and radiating fury, “Father, I can and will go to war against you if you attack my prophet. I do not want to. I am not interested in your throne. But I will do what I must to protect my prophet. Before you speak further, take time to consider whether you truly wish to go to war.”

Apollo pauses, then continues, his voice going all soft and purring, “And ask yourself, which of us would have the support of the Council in such a war?”

Uh. Can Percy be elsewhere? This is big scary god stuff and he wants nothing to do with it. He can’t even say it’s not for him to know. The knowing doesn’t care if he knows or not. This stuff just… is?

It does shut Zeus up, and the sparks stop and the air no longer feels electrified.

Apollo squeezes Percy’s shoulder, so he guesses he needs to keep going. Percy gets through more of the quest, all the way up to the thing with the pit. He focuses on his knowing telling him he needed to go to the Underworld.

He’s careful not to mention the extra stop for the Di Angelo’s or the whole Thalia thing. If Zeus eavesdropped and knows about Thalia, than Zeus can bring it up. But then, Zeus would have to admit he is not the one who turned her into a tree. After all, that claim came straight from Zeus himself. The lying liar.

Percy explains how he had nearly been dragged into the pit and how he had been near enough to the pit to learn the aura. Then, Percy speaks of fighting Ares, of realising he could feel that same aura on the War God, of Ares admitting he took the Master Bolt from a demigod. That Ares had been having dreams of the pit.

Zeus asks who the aura had belonged to, who did Percy think was behind all this?

This bit’s going to suck.

“Your Father, Uncle Zeus. It was he who arranged the theft. I believe he may have intended to sway me as well. I have dreamed of him. But his aura rendered me blind and deaf each time. I did not hear the words he spoke.”

Zeus jumps into a whole rant about how Percy needs to be kept on Olympus for his own sake. If the Crooked One is interested in him, Percy cannot be put at risk. Not one god has said the name Kronos out loud. Percy does not know how he feels about even the King of the Gods being unwilling to name him.

“Uncle Zeus, I was not his target. You were. It was your symbol of power he wished to claim.”

And suddenly Zeus has decided this matter is closed. No more discussion. Which also means he can’t use it as a reason to keep Percy.

The next bit should be fine. But Percy hasn’t actually seen how it plays out without Clarisse. He had dreamed about it. When they were on the train, before the Arch. He had seen what would happen if Clarisse went to the Underworld, if she came to Olympus with him…

With Clarisse here, an angry frustrated Zeus retrieves his Master Bolt and in the same movement, turns it on Clarisse, the only unprotected one in the room. After, Zeus labels her the thief. Because she was a child of Ares who had possession of his Master Bolt out of sight of trustworthy witnesses.

Percy’s War Drum dies, standing shoulder to shoulder with him. She dies in the throne room of the gods. Because Zeus was angry. He was not even angry with her. Zeus never knew her name. Didn’t know anything about her. Except she was born of a god she never spoke to and did not like.

With Clarisse’s death, everything unravels. It was not a matter of whether her thread was woven already. It was that it must not be woven in this way. It wasn’t a choice Percy made, it was a demand from the Fates. She must live.

So. Clarisse is not here. His War Drum is at camp. She did not travel to the Underworld. There was not a single moment where she had possession of the Master Bolt away from Hades, Apollo and Poseidon’s joint gaze. Together they represented all three brothers. Together they are unimpeachable.

Percy opens his backpack and Zeus retrieves the Master Bolt. Percy holds his breath.

Zeus is furious. Unable to do anything. His eyes flick around the throne room, his hand tightens on his weapon. The world stands still for a silent, heavy, endless second.

Zeus throws himself from his throne and charges out of the room.

Oh, thank the gods. Percy slumps forward, gasping for air. A puppet cut from its strings.

Apollo is panicking and Percy is sobbing. It is Poseidon who finally gets his attention, holding Percy’s face firmly between his hands, forcing him to make eye contact. He’s mortal size. When did that happen?

His dad guides him through several deep breaths. A hand holds a flask to his lips. Delos water. His mind turns to Ann- Nope. Not right now.

Apollo’s holding the flask, watching him. Very stressed.

“Sorry ‘Pollo, saw a thing. Fates said stop. Fucking terrified. But. Did it. She’s safe.”

Both gods get even tenser, faces dark, almost panicked? He’s too exhausted to try and work out what’s wrong. They are staring at him, both are stiff, frozen in place.

Apollo’s very careful voice, the one where he needs answers but is sure one wrong word will collapse the house of cards he’s spent years building.

“Percy, we need to know. It is very important. Who is the she that is safe?”

He blinks tiredly at them. Things aren’t making sense, but he can answer this. “War Drum. Sky King killed War Drum. Ruined everything. All of it. Just ‘cause he was angry.”

As soon as he says her name, both gods relax. Tears are still sliding down his face and Poseidon carefully hugs him.

Not quite how Percy thought he’d get his first hug from his dad, but it’ll do.

“Home now? Want Lee. Want Clarisse. Need to see her. Saw her die over and over.”

Apollo tells him he did good, that he’s very proud of him. Poseidon says the same.

They lead him outside. The sun chariot is waiting for them. Back in its two seater bright red sports car form. Poseidon says he will be remaining on Olympus to ensure Zeus “does not do anything rash.”

Apollo drives him home. As they drive, the car disappears off the road in Olympus and reappears on a road near the camp. Odd, Apollo normally drives straight into the camp, no point wasting time with mundane travel.

Percy is tired. The water helps, but he is at his limit. In the last day and a half he has found two time-warped demigods, met Poseidon in Santa Monica, travelled through the Underworld, re-experienced Kronos’ aura, had the mother of all flashbacks, dealt with Annabeth flipping out, fought a War God, won, dealt with Annabeth flipping out again, travelled to Olympus, had an audience with Zeus, stopped War Drum being killed in a tantrum…

Apollo pulls the car onto the side of the road and parks.

Percy just looks at him, “‘Pollo, am fucking done with everything. What?”

Apollo’s face is all gentle compassion, not offended or upset that his prophet is being rude and aggressive. “Sorry, Percy. I know. We’ll deal with the rest later. But I do need to know about the three weeks.”

Percy sighs. “It’s only gonna hurt me, but not physically. If I explain it…” He drags a hand through his hair, frustrated.

“I would like to explain, because if I do it won’t happen. And I really really don’t want it to happen. But. I’m doing what the Fates say. I swear ‘Pollo. This isn’t like him and the little girl. It hurts ‘cause I’m doing the thing he didn’t. I don’t want to. But I’m doing it!”

Gods, can’t Apollo wait until he’s slept and able to actually make sense? He feels like a little kid again, completely unable to explain what he feels and sees. He used to feel like everything he said was just word salad. He had been so grateful when Lee started to understand his language.

Apollo puts a hand on his shoulder, gives him a kind smile. “It’s okay Percy, you’re right. I was… concerned. But, I believe you. You aren’t Halcyon. I won’t mention this to the others, we can talk more when whatever it is has happened. I know this hurts, it’s horrible and I am so sorry. You’ll get through this. You’ve got Lee and Clarisse and me and Dio, and you’re very extensive sea god family. You aren’t alone.”

Percy gives him a shaky smile. “Thanks ‘Pollo. I’ll make more sense once I’ve had proper sleep. There anything else? I really wanna go home.”

He looks longingly towards the camp. He can see Thalia’s tree in the distance.

“Yeah, kid, lets take you home.”

________________________

Clarisse is so glad to see the beach with the camp beyond. The Di Angelo’s are fine. Nico’s still utterly delighted by the hippocampi and while Bianca was a little weirded out by them as soon as they picked up speed she looked totally thrilled. Just wait till she meets the pegasi.

Annabeth… Yeah. Clarisse does not know what to do with that. She’s thirteen. Whatever is going on with Wise Girl requires an adult. Preferably several. Right now her only focus is delivering Annabeth to an adult. Because Clarisse is totally lost.

Clarisse could handle lying to her. She genuinely didn’t mind that Priss had handed it off to her. As much as he likes pissing off gods, it’s almost comforting that there are rules he does respect.

Annabeth was anxious to see the tree, and when she wasn’t trying to get Priss to use his sight to see if Thalia was back, she was talking about meeting up with Luke again.

Until this quest, Annabeth had spoken of Luke as a memory. She hadn’t known if he was even alive. Now she was speaking of him like he’d be at camp waiting for her. Clarisse will happily joke about Priss being nuts. Actual mental health issues… Please let Lee be at the camp. Please.

Oh, thank the gods. She can see Lee standing on the beach waiting for them. Uh, someone did tell him that Priss went on to Olympus? Clarisse cannot handle two breakdowns. Nope.

His eyes scan across the hippocampi, clearly counting. Then he gives Clarisse a huge beaming smile. Okay. Cool, wasn’t expecting Priss. Great. Just Wise Girl to handle.

As the hippocampi come to a stop in the shallows and they all splash down knee deep in water, Mr D walks onto the beach.

Two adults! Even better!

She checks the newbies are with her as the hippocampi head back out to sea, and then herds Annabeth onto the beach. She’s still chattering about Thalia and the moment she sees Lee she’s asking if Thalia is awake yet?

The next bit plays out like a skit. Clarisse is pretty sure that hysterical bark of laughter was her own. Oops.

Annabeth is still barrelling towards Lee, still asking about Thalia, and as she’s heading straight past Mr D he reaches a hand out and taps her head. Annabeth just collapses straight down onto the sand.

Mr D looks at her, turns to Lee and goes all calmly, “I believe Ashley is best left to Chiron’s care. She appears somewhat hysterical.”

Lee goes to argue and Mr D goes almost glacial, “Given the reports I have received of recent events, until she is in her right mind, it would be best she have limited contact with Percy or Clarisse.” Hang on. Mr D used her actual name?

Lee just pauses and looks at Clarisse. Chiron’s already heading towards them and that’s apparently reason enough for him to turn towards Nico and Bianca and start shepherding them up the beach. As he passes Clarisse he reaches a hand out and clasps her shoulder, giving it a squeeze.

She pretends she doesn’t hear the murmured “Proud of you, kid. You did good.”

She doesn’t need a parent. Lee isn’t anything to her.

It still makes her feel a million times better.

________________________

Waiting for his kids to complete a quest was the most nerve wracking time Lee has ever experienced.

He’s dealt with Percy nearly dying, several times now. But he’d always been fixed up and good as new by the next morning at the latest. Perks of the God of Healing being Percy’s patron. But day after day waiting for his kids to travel across the country, and only hearing afterwards what happened?

Awful, terrible. He hates it. So much. He ends up sleeping in Percy’s room most nights.

He pretends not to notice Georgie is definitely not sleeping in the cabin. Since he’s also not meant to be there, Lee really doesn’t have a leg to stand on. She’s sixteen, a member of the Atlantean court and she has an overprotective godly parent raising her who could give Triton a run for his money. She is not Lee’s problem.

He needs to stop adopting children.

Technically he is only Percy’s guardian. But Lee considers Clarisse his too. Lee would never say it out loud. Clarisse needs family to be on her terms and only on her terms. Lee can be that for her.

Percy gets Lee as an over the top neurotic mother hen (his words) and Clarisse has her quiet moments with Lee. When things are too big and scary for her, but admitting it would be even scarier. Whatever she wants to call it; parent, big brother, guardian, her favourite punching bag’s High Priest… Lee’s there for her, same as he is for Percy.

Percy’s been good for her, and she’s been good for Percy. They fit together. They seem to exist in this strange state of constant orbit around each other. Lee isn’t sure either of them are aware how twitchy and volatile they get whenever one is away from camp for more than a day.

It doesn’t seem to matter if they don’t interact, both are much more settled when they are within a couple of miles of the other. He and Dad spent significant amount of time testing that theory during that first couple of years. Especially when they realised that while they’d never met, Clarisse had lived less than a mile from Percy’s old apartment before she came to camp.

After learning that, his dad had traced her movements. The first monster attack was the day after Percy was moved. Clarisse couldn’t see through the Mist, didn’t even know she was a demigod. Clarisse still isn’t aware of how many ‘incidents’ were actually monster attacks. If Percy knows, he hasn’t said. Lee intends to take the knowledge to the grave. She already believes it was her fault as it is.

His dad has his theories about Clarisse. They knew Percy’s very existence was at the direction of the Fates. The Fates hadn’t exactly been subtle about it. Unfortunately, Ares was never going to tell them if Clarisse was the same.

Clarisse was as unusual a child for Ares as Percy was for Poseidon. They each embodied their godly parents and also really didn’t. They both also have a perspective on the gods that is frankly bizarre. Lee’s given up on understanding it.

When his dad sends a brief mental message to Lee, telling him the quest was done, Percy was continuing on to Olympus and would be back later, but Clarisse would shortly be returning with Annabeth and two new campers, Lee has to sit down and just breathe for a moment.

Less than an hour and one of his kids would be back.

He was so focused on Clarisse, on making sure she wasn’t hiding injuries as she slid off her hippocampi, he entirely missed whatever Annabeth was almost shouting at him. Kind of caught Lee by surprise when Mr D knocked her out.

Then he got a better look at Clarisse’s face. That look of guilt and relief directed at Annabeth. Percy calls it her “I need an adult” face. Doesn’t show up much.

Lee suddenly doesn’t care about whatever is going on with Annabeth. Clarisse needs him. Chiron can handle Annabeth. Not his problem.

Since Clarisse would rather die than have him show any sort of affection for her in public, he gives her a quick shoulder squeeze, tells her she did good, and goes to collect the two new campers.

As he heads back he catches Mr D mouthing “VIP” at him and tilting his head towards the two kids.

Oh. Dad mentioned two ‘aware’ packages for Percy to collect. Awesome.

He checks his kid is following. If she ducks out to one of the training grounds it will take hours to find her again. Triton keeps obsessively landscaping the sea floor surrounding the camp and is constantly adding new training grounds. Lee has no idea how the kids keep track of them all.

It’s simple enough to drop Bianca and Nico off. He pulls Travis aside and tells him the kids are VIP. As in, Very Important Parent. It’s a shorthand that is easily missed by new unclaimed campers and makes Lee’s life much easier. Chiron has a talent for unintentionally pissing off godly parents, best to know which kids need a closer eye kept on them.

With the kids off his hands, he catches Clarisse before she slinks off and herds her up to the Big House. He talks casually about how Percy will want to see her as soon as he gets back so he can tell her all about Olympus. Lee adds even more casually, that given how tired the kid’s going to be, why don’t they set up for a sleepover in the unused living room?

By the time Apollo’s sun chariot glides into camp, Lee has Clarisse curled up under a blanket on the couch with hot chocolate in her hands and Sleeping Beauty playing on the television. Because Percy will want to watch it. They can just start it over when he arrives.

Angry kids are still his thing.

________________________

Lee! Lee is here! Percy can feel him.

He’s standing in the door of the Big House and he has the biggest smile on his face. Percy climbs straight out of the car, ignoring Apollo entirely and walking forward until he collides with Lee.

He’s home.

“Can we never ever do any of that again? Please?” Lee gives him a big hug and turns him towards the Big House.

“Clarisse is in that back living room, we’re having a sleepover.” Oh, good, Percy wanted to give her a Disney movie night.

“Sleeping Beauty?” Lee grins, “Of course, it’s your favourite isn’t it?” Yeah, Clarisse would never admit to it. Totally is her favourite though.

Lee tells him to head in, clearly intending to talk to Apollo before he joins them.

Uh.

Percy looks at Apollo. He’s got his firm parent face on. Yeah, no chance he won’t tell Lee.

“Okay. Just, please remember. I fixed it. She’s fine. In the living room. Watching Disney. Won’t happen?”

Apollo’s very calm serious voice, “I don’t doubt you fixed it. I’m more concerned that, by your own admission, you ‘saw it over and over’. Lee needs to know. We know she’s okay, it’s you I’m concerned about right now.”

Lee’s still staring at him, completely confused. Percy nopes out. He wants War Drum.

He leaves them to their conversation, he’s just going to pretend this is no different to the time they had that debate about whether it was actually healthy for Percy to keep a cursed-demigod as a pet. Purely ridiculous, adults being weird.

He finds War Drum all snuggled up on the couch. Lee has definitely been fussing at her. She has that baffled but pleased look on her face. She really doesn’t know what to do with parents, does she?

He flops down right next to her, and grabs the blanket waiting for him. He grins, it’s Apollo’s sun blanket from when they met. Lee’s such a sap. It’s awesome.

He can feel her aura in his chest. She’s alive, she’s here. They made it past that terrible dream.

She gives him her own once over, raises a single unimpressed eyebrow, “You’re looking very non-crispy?”

He gives her a cheerful smile, “Sky King’s super pissed I know so much about sacred laws. Might have told him to his face that only the first one to break a sacred oath can be punished. And then I might have pointed out Thalia was born five years before me?”

She hits him. He loves his War Drum.

“He gonna come after us?” He flinches.

That gets her focus, she sits up. “Priss?”

He has no idea how to explain. He just stares at her, Then Lee comes into the room, pale, eyes kinda red, but fully focused on him and Clarisse.

Percy is still just staring. Lee asks all gently, “Something wrong?”

“I asked Priss if Sky King was gonna come after us and he kinda just froze up?”

“Ah. Yeah, Dad was just telling me about that. He doesn’t have the details, just what Percy said earlier.”

Clarisse is getting annoyed. Sorry, War Drum. He wants to tell her, and he will. His brain is just not currently working.

Lee sits down next to him, wraps an arm around Percy and pulls him into his side, blanket and all. This is nice. Leaning against Lee, War Drum on his other side. He can feel the warm air and the beat of the big war drum and it feels safe. Feels like home.

Lee is speaking gently, “Clarisse, I’m assuming Percy asked you to stay on the beach when he went to the Underworld with Annabeth?”

She nods, “He said if I went with them a ‘whole chunk would unravel’, wasn’t sure what it meant, sounded like prophecy stuff. So…” She shrugs and trails off.

Percy’s thinking the Annabeth stuff was worse than he thought, War Drum looks so… not like herself. Guess they’ve all hit their limit.

He frowns, “Hot Air, you sure ‘bout telling her? Think we’re all at max capacity.”

Lee gives him a squeeze, “It’s not going to happen. She’ll be more upset if you kept it from her now that it’s over and you can explain.” Okay. True.

Lee continues, “I only know the bit you said to Dad, you think you can explain what you saw?”

Percy sighs but starts talking, “That first night on the train, I had a dream. A future vision. Different though. Usually I dream of things that are… no, guaranteed isn’t right. The way it’s supposed to go? You can change it, but it’ll wreck everything. Or I dream of things where the future could go in several directions. I can choose which way to go. Which path to travel.”

War Drum seems to be following. She’s had plenty of exposure to the weirdness of prophecy, but not to this level. He’s never needed her to understand before.

“This dream was different. It was what would happen if I didn’t make changes. But if it happened, everything that comes after goes completely wrong. Like. End of the world wrong. Don’t know how or why they are linked. Might be the tiniest of things.”

He needs her to understand this isn’t a fate of the world is in her hands thing. If it comes to that, then it comes to that. She still doesn’t need to live with that hanging over her head.

Clarisse is smart. “What would have happened if I’d gone to the Underworld?”

“If you’d been out of sight with the bag with the Master Bolt, and then gone to Olympus with me, like we’d planned…”

Gods he can’t do this. He turns towards Lee, and Lee wraps his arms around him, lets Percy bury his head in his shoulder.

He breaths for a minute. Finally raises his head. War Drum would not want Percy to see her reaction to this. He keeps his eyes on Lee, who looks back at him, so calm and focused.

“You died, standing beside me. Sky King just… He took the Master Bolt back, and just straight away turned it on you. He was angry and he couldn’t attack anyone else, but you weren’t under anyone’s protection and because of the War God and being out of sight with the bolt, he killed you. You were right there. Right beside me. And you were dead. Then he said you were the thief. He didn’t even know your name, War Drum.”

She pokes his back and her voice is loud and strong, “Oi! Priss, stop spiralling! I’m right here. How the fuck have you been dreaming about that and staying so calm?”

He shrugs, “Had to, wasn’t gonna lose you. Dunno what I would have done if the Fates said I had to let it happen. Glad they didn’t.”

She snorts, “Well, I guess they can have a day off from my hatred of them.”

Then she immediately follows up with, “Did you at least make him bluescreen? Like, surely you got some fun out of it all?”

At that, he could finally turn away from Lee and give her a smile. She glares back at him, entirely unimpressed by his little meltdown over her whole not-dying thing.

He tells her about the guy in the lobby. About how frustrated Zeus was that Percy didn’t defer to him, that Percy knew the proper way a prophet behaves.

She just shakes her head at him. She isn’t surprised Zeus tried to keep him on Olympus, she’s glad he was protected. Neither of them are surprised Zeus ignored the Kronos thing. It’s currently a god problem, not a Percy problem, so it’s whatever.

Lee listens and occasionally fusses over them, Percy accepting the lion’s share and acting as if Clarisse is doing him a favour by distracting Lee every now and then.

The sun is still up, but he’s exhausted. He’s betting War Drum didn’t sleep either. There are things he needs to deal with, but not right now. He needs sleep. So does she.

Lee sees it. Lee always sees. Percy’s not even sure how he managed it, but somehow there’s a movie playing and he and Clarisse are both lying on the couch, heads near the arm rests, legs kind of tangling in the middle. Shouldn’t be comfortable, but it works. Lee is nearby, he can feel him. He’s too tired to actually open his eyes and check where he is.

He’s home. War Drum is home. Lee is here.

All is well in Percy’s world.

He sleeps.

Chapter Text

When Percy is at camp, no matter where he sleeps, Apollo wakes him with the same dawn music alarm he greets (tortures) his own kids with.

Percy still has no idea why, but Apollo likes to choose a song from the fifties whenever he has strong opinions about Percy. When Stupid Cupid plays, Will and Kayla hunt Percy down and hold him hostage until he admits exactly what he did to upset Apollo. Percy thinks Apollo just finds the explosive reactions of his kids funny.

Still, fifties music is a Percy thing. This morning, Percy wakes to Rock Around the Clock. He lies there blinking, trying to make his brain wake up. This is a very bouncy song. About a party later?

Oh! Yes. Quest party!

Clarisse is long gone. Knowing her she left just before dawn. Staying as long as she can, but disappearing before anyone actually saw her acting like a kid. Percy once asked Lee about it, if the way she acts meant she wasn’t okay? Her aura felt fine, but the whole denial-but-not thing seemed like it should be worrying.

Lee told him it’s kind of like Percy’s no touching without consent thing. Clarisse feels safe and loved when she’s given full control over how people can show her affection. As long as she knows that if she asks they’ll be there for her, Clarisse’s whole stray cat vibe is just her being herself.

Hopefully she hasn’t gone too far, though. It’s one thing for Percy to tell stories of the quests of old heroes. Telling the entire group of summer campers the story of his own quest… Yeah. He’s gonna need War Drum.

Quest parties are a Lee thing. Lee has very strong opinions on how returning questers were treated when he was a camper. He’d lived year round at camp since he was twelve, and only started doing the whole unofficial camp director thing, like, a year or so before Percy got there.

Back then, when campers were on a quest, their cabins would make them burial shrouds. If they returned alive, they’d each burn their shroud in a big bonfire celebration thing. If they came back dead they did the same thing, just with the camper in the shroud.

Lee thinks it’s horrifically morbid and Percy has sat through a lot of emotional ranting from Lee about how the campers are just kids, coming back from a quest should not include a tangible reminder they almost died, it’s terrible for their mental health…

It’s a long rant. Percy knows it by heart. Back then, the quests were all like what Percy just experienced. With a prophecy and doing tasks at the will of the gods and the Fates. Since Lee, little quests were issued more often. Lee says for a lot of demigods, questings in their blood, something they need to do, and if he stopped the quests entirely the kids’d get antsy and “make their own quests up”.

Since Lee has lots of contact with gods these days, he calls in favours from minor gods. But only when he thinks a kid is in the need category, is at least sixteen and Lee is certain the godly parent won’t step up. Some parents are fine, Aphrodite always handles her kids herself, same with Apollo and Demeter. Hit and miss with Hephaestus.

Only Lee’s arranged quests have an age requirement. The gods just do as they please. But Lee told Aphrodite if she ever sent an under-sixteen on a quest again he would bar her from Percy. Which would stop her visiting her own kids. Drew was the last time an under-sixteen Aphrodite kid went on a quest.

Percy isn’t meant to know this, but last year, Lee offered to make Clarisse an exception if she thought she needed it. He was worried she had too much fight in her to be confined to camp. Clarisse told Lee her fight was for Percy, not for quests. That was a nice dream, Percy felt all sappy when he woke up.

Not that the other campers know Lee arranges the quests. First they hear of it is when a god approaches them with a quest. It’s fetch quests mostly, sometimes escorting a god’s favoured mortal to somewhere in the divine world, that sort of thing. It’s still dangerous, still has monsters and fighting and opportunities for heroic deeds. But nothing like what Lee describes from when he was a camper.

Prophecies are still only for the much rarer big quests, anytime Chiron tries to suggest a visit, Lee says Apollo will inform him if a prophecy is needed. Which, hey! Now Percy thinks about it, he actually did. Cool. No lying.

Whenever questers come back, whether from a Lee-quest or a big quest, they have a quest party. It’s a whole day off from scheduled activities or lessons and Lee turns the camp into one big festival. The normal camp food is upgraded with all sorts of treats, both from the camp kitchens and mortal junk food. Everyone eats too much sugar and the whole day is spent in a hyperactive ADHD demigod haze.

At least, the campers do. Percy’s usually so hyped up he doesn’t notice, but sometimes he sees Lee sneakily collecting the questers one at a time and taking them back to the Big House for one on one debriefs. Lee’s super sneaky and clever. And he really cares about all the kids. It’s nice.

At the end of the day, when the sugar high has run out and everyone is feeling quieter and a little more thoughtful, they have a bonfire on the beach. During summer, the nightly campfire near the cabins is for singing and telling stories of gods and heroes of old. On a quest party day, the bonfire is for telling the quester’s story. It’s for questions and congratulations. Laughter and celebration. The questers are awarded laurel crowns that Mr D’s done something to, so they always look freshly picked and never wither.

It’s a good day, something everyone looks forward to. Today though, Percy doesn’t even want to leave the Big House. He doesn’t know how he feels about any of it, but the idea of going out there with all the laughter and the chaos and the happy campers, it feels wrong. Like he doesn’t fit anymore.

He’s only been gone a week. He’s been away from camp longer than that before. But he feels like he doesn’t belong here.

He isn’t sure what to do. So he curls up in the corner of the couch and just… stays there.

“Oh, kid. It’s okay.”

How does Lee always know? He’s there in the doorway with two plates of food, bottles of juice under his arm. He’d known Percy wouldn’t want to deal with everything. How?

Things feel a little easier sitting next to Lee and eating breakfast while Lee tells him about everything that happened while they were away.

Georgie apparently was super offended over Piper’s comments. Especially since Georgie has two mothers, a mortal one and a godly one. She’d waited a while, even spending time helping with Piper, then done the sneaky revenge thing. Only reason Lee knows it was her is because she’s the only one who could have.

Georgie had gotten help from one of her Atlantean friends and Piper’s hair has been magicked into a permanent dyed rainbow. Georgie won’t admit to doing it, and Galene claims she’s “never heard of such a spell!” So. Piper’s stuck until either Georgie feels like forgiving her, or Percy asks Triton to help.

Lee is very amused by the whole saga. He says compared to what she was like when she arrived, Piper’s already majorly improved. She’s mostly taking the rainbow hair in stride. She’s even been actually practicing controlling her charmspeak with the help of Apollo’s bracelet. She still calls it a lo-jack but Lee thinks she’s starting to find the humour in it.

Piper still needs Drew to sort of reset her eyes, because she doesn’t always notice when campers start looking like supermodels. Eye of the beholder isn’t really something you can learn to control, but Lee is hoping that now she knows what’s happening her insecurity will fade in time.

Lee mentions he thinks there’s something going on with the new Hephaestus kid, but he can’t work out what. Kid seems to be hiding something and he’s worried there’s something wrong. Leo’s a runaway foster kid so he’s going to be year round, and Lee wants to be sure he gets the support he needs.

Percy carefully doesn’t say anything. He may know everyone’s secrets, but he doesn’t tell without their permission. Lee knows this, he’d never ask, doesn’t expect Percy to explain. Percy does intend to have a private talk with the kid, of anyone at camp he probably has the best understanding of what’s going on there.

By the time breakfast is finished Percy is feeling a little calmer. He still doesn’t feel like joining the festivities but Lee says he didn’t expect him too. All Percy needs to do is go to his cabin and get cleaned up because his clothes have been through the Underworld and a fight with a War God and they smell like it.

Percy cringes at that, yeah, Lee is probably right. Lee says whenever Percy is ready, Lee will be at the Big House so they can talk everything through. Percy hates these talks. But also, he knows he feels better after. And the quest was awful. He is definitely not a camper who needs quests. He likes home.

Lee doesn’t know where War Drum is but says he thinks she’ll be sticking close. He’ll be speaking to her too, but he reminds Percy that she’s unlikely to talk to Lee before Percy does. Yeah. That’s how she works. She likes insulting people, explaining things, not so much.

He should ask about Annabeth, but he really doesn’t want to know. He’s being a coward. Lee reminds him he stinks. Percy gives in and heads off to clean up.

________________________

It’s great to be back in his cabin, his room just as he left it. Well, close to it anyway. Lee at least tried to make it look like he’d never been there.

There’s a new sketchbook on the desk, a little golden sun imprinted in the corner of the nice leather cover. It’s Apollo’s version of subtly reminding him he has a week of visions and dreams stuck in his head. Drawing what he sees makes them stop running on repeat through Percy’s mind.

Apollo’s even left him a new set of the expensive coloured pencils. Bribery and suggestion all at once.

There’s also a note from Mr D about making sure he’s at the bonfire because he has a ‘surprise’ for Percy. Which is… ominous. Mr D is not exactly predictable.

Percy drags his shower out as long as possible, but eventually he does have to face Lee and the conversations he’s dreading.

When he gets to the Big House Lee’s on one of the big porch swings that look out over the camp. He’s got drinks and snacks set out. Guess he would be used to this, it’s not a High Priest thing, just a camp thing. While Lee is a lot more involved with the year rounders than he is with the summer campers, he still cares about them, still looks after them.

“Hey kid, it’s not an execution! I really wouldn’t have thought you’d find this bit so hard, you tell me about your dreams pretty regularly.”

Percy sighs and drops onto the swing next to Lee.

“It’s not that, I just… Things were bad with Annabeth, and I left before anything was fixed. I know I need to ask, I just…”

Lee seems weirdly surprised. Weird, Percy had almost believed Lee really could read his mind. Guess not.

Lee gives him a smile, “I have no idea what you think happened, but it’s not that terrible. When Annabeth gets an idea in her head, she can find it very difficult to change from it. Your quest was one change after another. She also had far more contact with gods than she’s ever experienced before. You might be used to gods popping in and out, she isn’t.”

Percy frowns, “Back on the beach, she was kind of freaking out. I asked War Drum to lie to her. I didn’t know what to do and we needed to get back.”

Lee’s face is all soft and understanding, “Percy, how many times have we talked about how there are times I need to lie to you, in order to keep you safe? I know Annabeth doesn’t have the sight, she won’t be able to know your motivations, but you were still just trying to keep her safe. You knew the situation was beyond what you could handle at the time, and so you made sure she got help. You did the right thing.”

Okay, Percy can accept that. He needs to tell Lee about what she was saying though. War Drum will understand and tell him Annabeth was just plain wrong, but… it had hurt. Easier to focus on the rest of it, he’ll find some way to explain that part later.

He can ignore most of it. All that weird ranting about the gods watching him, she and her dad are clearly not getting on. Projection is a thing that happens, especially with teenagers.

As far as Annabeth knew, eating or drinking anything while in the Underworld was a trap and would bind Percy there for eternity. So the ranting about the water and the ambrosia from Hades is understandable. Especially since she wasn’t shielded from his aura.

Percy hates the way Hades and Poseidon treated Annabeth, it must have terrified her. But it’s also just how gods act? Percy gets different treatment because of the prophet thing. Lee is protected because of the High Priest thing.

There’s something about Clarisse that had Apollo’s attention from the start, and he knows the god wants to name her. So Percy’s protection sort of covers her too, at least when around Apollo’s allies.

The way they handled Annabeth was not… unexpected. But.

“Annabeth was the one who wanted to go on a quest. Like, she used to talk about it constantly, about the glory of it all. I… I don’t get it, Hot Air, how did she think it was going to go?”

A lot of complex emotions cross Lee’s face, “I think, she had this idea of leading a quest where each obstacle was defined and could be handled with carefully thought out strategies. She may have thought she could draw on her knowledge of the old heroes to solve each challenge.”

Percy winces, yeah, there really wasn’t much glory in what they did. He’d talked her into playing fetch with Cerberus because he thought it would be funny. Percy had planned to have Annabeth talk her way into the palace, but then he’d had the flashback and just didn’t care about putting on a show.

Then he frowned. “You said leading a quest?”

Lee sighs, “Yes, it appears she believed she would lead this quest, even though it was your quest.”

Percy debates for a moment, “You know, if not for the knowing, I don’t think I’d have asked her? Like, if I didn’t have all the future stuff I’d have taken Sea Sister or maybe Bright Eyes. If it had to be someone the same age, probably Strobe. I like Annabeth, I do, but arguments are only fun when there aren’t…”

Lee finishes the sentence for him, “monsters and gods trying to kill you?”

He nods. He should tell Lee. “She said something, just before the fight with the War God. I was trying to get him to admit he was being controlled by Sky King’s Dad, and Annabeth had been yelling for awhile. I’d been able to ignore it but then…”

He doesn’t know how to say this. He pulls his legs up, tucking his knees under his chin and wrapping his arms around his folded legs. He looks out at the campers yelling and laughing and having fun. It shouldn’t have hurt. He’d been about to fight the God of War. He’s lived hundreds of years in his dreams. He likes being seen as a kid, but he isn’t, not really. Especially not with all the visions stuck in his head. He’s not a kid. It shouldn’t have hurt.

Lee just lets him sit, gives him time to find the courage to say it.

“She said I’d been too lazy to learn to read, and that she’d known a lazy boy who never even bothered to learn the basics couldn’t be trusted. That she had to stop me because I was such a stupid seaweed brain.”

Lee’s calm voice, “Poseidon told me he gagged her shortly after that. That he’d seen you flinch. That she’d distracted you from the fight.”

He nods.

“I haven’t heard her call you a ‘seaweed brain’ before, is this new, or is she using it only when no one can hear?”

Poor Lee, he’s worried he missed something. Even with all the spying they still think they could miss something. Huh. That means there are holes in the supervision. Holes that are just asking for pranks.

“Nah, it started during the quest. War Drum cut her off the first time. Second time, War Drum told her it was name calling. Annabeth said I liked it, and even if I didn’t, I let War Drum call me Prissy.”

Lee looks confused, “Annabeth didn’t know where the nickname came from? Clarisse was determined to call you Prism after I told her names have power so you use nicknames instead. But it’s not easy to yell Prism in the middle of a spar. I told her if you didn’t mind, she could change it. Wasn’t quite expecting what she changed it to though.”

Percy grins, he’d always wondered why Lee never minded the name. Hadn’t realised she was screwing with Lee too.

“Hey! I’d always wondered why you never reacted. She’s got good sticking power. Never said a word.”

He frowns again, “Annabeth didn’t know. Or didn’t remember. I’m honestly not sure. Like, I know it confuses new campers and that’s why it’s fun to never explain, but I knew Annabeth before War Drum?”

Lee is debating on telling him something. He sighs. “Just tell me, I’m all prophecy’d out but whatever it is won’t do anything.”

Lee gives him a small smile, “I wasn’t concerned about that. More that it might hurt your feelings. But, I hadn’t thought she still believed all this. Maybe it was just the stress of the quest? Do you remember when it started?”

Huh, Percy thinks back. “Uh, in the truck to Vegas, so just after we left her with the War God while we got the shield?”

He sits straight, “Oh! War God calls Poseidon ‘Seaweed’ in Council meetings, I’ve dreamed of that. I was kind of, not present, when we met him but isn’t there something about his aura making people angry and fighting?”

Percy is aware that Annabeth had very strong opinions when she found out he couldn’t read when they were kids. But, like, his eyes didn’t work? Only reason he could draw was because that was a sight thing, he still doesn’t know how he draws such precise images. He does know he doesn’t have to look at the page, so long as a pencil’s in his hand it just kind of happens.

He can read now. Not well. Greek is easier. Most of the time if he needs to read something, asking War Drum to do it is just plain faster. But a demigod’s dyslexia and ADHD tends to be proportional to how much power they inherit from their parents. He has the most inherited power in camp, being a forbidden kid and all.

Athena’s kids don’t inherit power. Side effect of them being products of her mind. Out of all the children of Olympians, they are the least affected by the dyslexia.

Lee says it might have been part of it. Lee doesn’t go as far as encouraging him to try again with her, he never does. But he says he trusts Percy to know his limits. That her behaviour could just be from spending so much time around gods who were in particularly combative moods.

Then he tells Percy that they think Annabeth had struggled with the constant unexpected events and just reached her limit during the Underworld trip. She’s been exhausted and irrational when War Drum brought her back. She’d been sedated and was now with Chiron. She was apparently doing much better after a sleep and being back in familiar surroundings.

It’s weird. Lee’s being a lot more understanding than he usually is. Before they’d left Percy had been under the impression that Lee didn’t trust Percy to know his limits, particularly around Annabeth.

Maybe Lee just missed him so much it’s affected his brain? Oh!

“By the way, you know, I might have checked on my anchor a couple times while we were on the quest. Sleeping in my bed? Really, Hot Air?”

Sigh. Lee is entirely unashamed. Just cheerfully tells him he missed his kid.

Then Lee gets that look on his face. Go on, Lee. Do it. Ask Percy where Georgie spends her nights. He can see Lee debating on whether it’s appropriate to ask the twelve year old what the sixteen year old is up to.

Darn it. Lee decides not to ask. Sigh. Percy’s going to have to try harder to bait him into it.

If Georgie was actually doing what Lee thinks, Percy would be mortified. But Percy knows where she was. She’s been doing this since she started living in Atlantis during the year. Georgie always makes sure Percy knows where she is and he can come and get her if he needs anything.

Georgie’s mortal mother died when she was eleven in a monster attack. Before she died they’d been super close. Her mother had been stargazing on the beach when she met Galene. Atlantis is amazing, but you can’t stargaze on the sea floor. Every summer when Georgie comes for camp, she mostly sleeps on the beach under the stars. It’s a tribute to her mother.

Georgie’s actually fine with Lee knowing. But while she doesn’t (usually) play pranks herself, she constantly encourages Percy’s mischief. Torturing Lee with this is a little too entertaining.

Lee instead changes the subject and asks if anything on the quest had suggested who the demigod who actually stole the Bolt and Helm was. Alarm bells start ringing in Percy’s brain. The knowing does not like this question.

“Uh. Don’t ask? There’ll be an answer eventually. But, for now, can we just pretend that’s not a thing? Like super not a thing, never happened?”

“But there will be an answer?”

Percy can answer this one, “By the end of summer at the latest.”

Lee just nods and switches to asking about the new kids. Considering he’s apparently spoken to Poseidon already about the Ares fight, it’s interesting he knows nothing about Nico and Bianca.

“Uh, just to check, none of the gods said anything about them?”

“Mr D said they were VIP. Nothing else. You want to add anything?”

Percy frowns. This is not his thing. Lee does the people thing. “Uh. If the gods didn’t say, I’m thinking I’m not allowed to, until they are claimed?”

“Any idea when that will be?”

“Not from the knowing. But Dad said something-”

Oh, oops. “Uh, I maybe should have checked if you were okay with me calling him that?”

Lee just looks confused, “He is your dad? You don’t need to call him that if you don’t want to, but it’s not something I really have a say in either way?”

Percy just stares at him, tries to give him his best ‘you’re a moron’ look. Lee blinks. “Oh! You mean because you’re my kid? If you want to call me that, you can? I guess? I’m fine with being Hot Air, Warm Air, Lee… or whatever nickname you come up with next. I don’t know, saying I’m your father would feel kind of… inadequate? Might be a demigod thing. I call Apollo, Dad, and my idea of what a father looks like is not…”

Percy finally takes pity on him and grins at him. “Kinda nothing like this? S’all good. I’d find it weird too. You’re my Lee. That’s better.”

And now he’s gone all mushy.

“ANYWAY, I told Dad I didn’t love them being stuck in Eleven, but he said he’s waiting for something. Got the impression it wasn’t far off. Maybe just give it to the end of summer? I’ll go snark at their parent myself if I have to, those kids need people.”

Lee gets himself back together. “Okay, do you want me to arrange for them to go with you and Georgie for scheduled activities? Cabin Eleven is always overflowing. Easy to get lost in the shuffle.”

Yeah it is, it’s better since Percy reassigns any unclaimed kids who belong to Olympians to the right cabin (except for Athena, for reasons), but there’s thousands of minor and not so minor gods without cabins, and even if they claim their kid, the kids still stuck. Hades doesn’t have a cabin.

Hermes cabin has been renovated recently and it’s a lot larger, but they still need approval from the Council to separately house the claimed-but-no-cabin kids. The Council is still ignoring them.

“How about you send Nico with me, and, um, could Bianca join the Aphrodite kids?”

That got him a very strange look. Percy still hasn’t taken time to properly focus on their auras. The one thing he had seen straight away was that Bianca was not coping with feeling responsible for Nico. The time warp is making it worse. Silena and Drew can help her, and Drew’s probably going to go back year round now she’s Cabin Head, so Bianca’ll have a friend.

“You sure about separating them? It’s not really the norm?”

“Yes, she’s gonna bolt or do something stupid if we don’t. Need to look at their auras again, but certain on that one.”

Lee just shrugs and says he’ll arrange it. Hopefully this will help. He has a feeling about Nico… Huh. Thought for later.

After that, the rest of Lee’s concerns were fairly easy to cover. On the topic of campers, three of the Hermes kids have left camp. They didn’t give a reason but said they wouldn’t be returning. Daniel was one of them. Lee says he did have one meeting with Mr D. Hopefully that helped. Percy can’t actually change his path, but he still thinks he shouldn’t have to keep reliving those memories.

Lee is concerned about the remaining three. Percy just shrugs him off. Tells him not to ask. Apparently Lee hasn’t noticed the pattern in the six kids. Percy doesn’t mention it.

Talking about the Hermes kids reminds Lee of something he did want to ask.

“By the way, I know during that game, Annabeth followed you into the clearing. I’ve been wondering something. Do you remember when you first saw her?”

Lee. Really? Maybe he really can read minds.

Percy’s response is sulky and he knows he sounds like a brat. “Do you have to know?”

Lee just looks at him. Yeah, Percy isn’t winning this one.

He gives a big gusty sigh, “Fine. She turned up before them. Don’t know why. She was just standing there, staring at me. Maybe a prank or something?”

Lee’s not happy. “Did they prevent her from helping you?”

He shakes his head. “She just stood there. Didn’t help. I called out, but… When I realised she wasn’t going to, that’s when I went running for you and then… yeah. Can we pretend all that never happened? Super mortifying. Especially since I stabbed the God of War a week later.”

Lee’s answer is very dry, “Yes, Poseidon was very… gleeful as he described that particular moment to me. Even demonstrated your move. With his own trident. On me.

Percy’s laughing, Lee’s tone changes. Uh oh. “I was less happy that you’d been put in that position. He did say I should ask about your choice of weapon?”

Hmph. At least he distracted Lee? For like a second. New question sucks too.

“It was one of the choices. Only reason I started second guessing is because when I first decided to use Paizein the outcome was… different? The knowing can be confusing. Pretty sure it still ended in me winning, but it must’ve been like, a technical win or something? It pissed him off. There was a price.”

Percy mulls it over, very cautiously poking at his inner knowing. He isn’t interested in prophecies, but now it’s over he is kind of curious what it was he was trying to avoid.

“Oh. Huh. I think if I’d used Paizein I’d have felt too out of my depth, gotten scared. I think I would have ended up using my powers and done something with the ocean. Which would’ve broken the rules of the challenge. So I would have won, got the Helm, but War God would not have taken it well. Think he would have cursed me? Something that wouldn’t have changed eventual outcomes, but made the path much harder.”

Lee smiles, “Who’d have thought the War God would rather a trident thrust through his gut than have his opponent break the rules?”

Percy just grins, “It was kinda fun actually. Totally understand why War Drum likes hitting me so much. Instant healing does make for good punching bags!”

Lee just rolls his eyes. He trusts them not to go too far, and he knows Triton would rather die a thousand times than put them at risk.

“By the way, I’m to tell you that ‘Triton knows what you did’?”

Oh. “Um, with the fence?”

Yeah, Triton definitely knows about the fence. Lee’s looking way too gleeful. Definitely time for War Drum to take a turn.

________________________

Leo’s been at Camp Half Blood for two weeks now. It’s been the most amazing time of his entire life. Beck got him setup in the Hephaestus cabin (with an attached private forge!). Beck has also assigned Leo a bed down at the very back of the cabin in the corner. Apparently year-rounders get priority for the better spots.

Leo could not believe it when Beck told him that. He’d been looking at the dorm room thinking that it was light years beyond what he’d had in any foster home. Then the guy apologises for how crowded it is and how little space is available?

He said that during summer, the cabin has a fairly equal number of girls and boys, but up til recently it had just been Beck during the year. Then Harley turned up like a month before Leo. Poor kid’s only eight and in the same situation as Leo. Foster homes suck.

But it means there will now be three of them year round in the cabin. Beck said it’s fine during summer when there’s more siblings and everyone’s in dorms, but when summer ends, he’ll take the girls dorm since he doesn’t love the idea of sharing with two kids. With a dividing wall installed during the rest of the year, Leo and Harley will get half the boy’s dorm each as a private bedroom and workspace. Just for them. Sound’s nuts if you ask him. Beck warned they’d need to rearrange if more year rounders came, but he seemed to consider it a personal challenge.

Leo was so paranoid he’d misunderstood he absolutely peppered Beck with questions. Leo’s still not sure Beck quite counts as an adult, he’s seen him pulling enough pranks, but he is twenty, twenty-one? Beck stayed on at camp when he aged out for the access to the forge. In return, he manages the cabin and does maintenance around the camp.

Cabin Heads seem to be pretty varied. Beck’s the only one over eighteen who hasn’t handed their duties off, and he says he’s only Cabin Head because there weren’t any other year rounder siblings. Silena’s the same age as Beck but she’s just handed her duties over to Drew who’s fifteen. Lee’s also technically a Cabin Head but sixteen year old Will and seventeen year old Kayla handle all the actual duties and Lee mostly stays at the Big House.

Camp Half-Blood does not work like any foster-home Leo has ever seen. It’s totally amazing.

He was absolutely gleeful at having so much access to the workshop, and then Beck goes and apologises again because he has to share, when during the year he’ll have his own permanent workspace in there?

Leo still can’t understand why that other new kid had been complaining. This place is literally a gift from the gods!

Today is shaping up to be good too. Apparently, some kids on a quest returned last night so today will be an all day ‘Quest Party’. When he asked, Beck said not to expect to see the questers or hear about the quest before the bonfire. Until then, everyone spends time in a free for all of fun. With a tonne of junk food.

He was less happy that Beck chased everyone out of the workshop and locked it, but Beck just said kids tend to get hyper on sugar and he’s not in the mood for dealing with injuries from overstimulated kids making killer robots. That sounded kinda super specific?

For awhile it was fun just racing around with the other campers. There was proper junk food, the prepackaged with extra corn syrup sort, not the homemade camp food. He got into a vicious water fight with an older redhead girl, and eventually surrendered when he realised she had abandoned her water gun and was still shooting water at him. Demigods, man.

Later in the afternoon he found a quiet spot under a tree and just sat watching the chaos around him. He’d noticed there were a few kids his age who were constantly playing pranks on like, everyone. He kinda really wants to meet them, but also, he’s just a runaway and they look so settled and confident. He loves this place, but he really isn’t sure he’s supposed to be here.

Another kid plops down next to him. Messy black hair, dancing green eyes, hey! It’s the prophecy kid!

“Hi! New Kid! Saw you sitting here and thought I’d come say hello.”

Kid’s leaning back on his hands, grinning at him.

“Hi! It’s Percy, right? Haven’t seen you around recently.”

He pulls a face, “Yeah, just got back from a quest. You can hear all about it tonight.”

Yeah, fair. Problem is Leo has no idea what to say now.

Kid just forges on, “Look, I’m figuring you’ve been at camp long enough to know about my whole prophet deal. I’d been going to talk to you earlier, but then the quest stuff happened.”

“Uh, me?”

Percy just gives him a big grin, “Yeah, you. Look. First up, I don’t share what I see outside of like, world ending things. Sometimes if I truly think someone’s in danger and I can help, I might tell someone. Maybe. But, mostly? I don’t tell. Ever. Just… Please keep that in mind when I say the rest?”

“Okay?”

Kid nods, “Cool. So. I’m a prophet. A natural born one. I’m told I’m the most powerful prophet Apollo has ever seen. Also the first prophet to exist in well over a thousand years.”

This is genuinely interesting, but also, why is the kid telling him this?

Kid grins at Leo’s confused face. “Some abilities are super rare. Like, other than me, every born prophet has been a child of Apollo. But it’s still a once in a thousand years thing. Most of the Olympians have something like that, something it’s super rare for their kids to inherit.”

Wait, is he saying…?

“There’s a whole bunch, like, one gift we haven’t seen for nearly as long as prophecy is Aphrodite’s true love’s touch. Children born with that can sort of force an insta-relationship between people? It’s like the super-powered form of charmspeak?”

Kid pauses, tilts his head, it feels like he’s staring into Leo’s soul. “Like I said, I don’t tell secrets. If you truly don’t want anyone to know, then, they won’t. Not from me. But. I know what it’s like to feel too weird for a camp for weird kids.”

He’s giving Leo such an earnest look, “I can’t promise everyone will be okay with it. There’s a whole bunch of stupidity about how demigods being born with the rarer powers is a sign of future troubles. People have it backwards though. The Fates like balance. They are the ones who make sure the right people have the right powers at the right time.”

Leo’s not convinced. “If you know about me, do you know what happened? Because what you’re saying, that’s not comforting.”

Prophet kid looks so sad, “It’s not meant to be comforting. It just is. Yes, I know. I saw that first. It was because of that dream that I started trying to find you, and when I did, I asked Lee to bring you here.”

Kid gives a jerky little shrug, “It was a future thing where I could choose whether or not to do something. If I’d left it, it would’ve been at least two more years before you came here. I lived on the streets when I was little. I just…” He shrugs again.

“Hey man, this place is amazing, definitely happier to arrive sooner. Foster homes are just bad. You got me curious though, how much time between when you dreamed of… that and me coming here? ‘Cause I didn’t exactly get any warning?”

“Uh, it was like an hour before Lee diverted the satyr driving Angry Girl to camp, and had him pick you up before you got on that bus?”

Leo freezes, “Wait, you saw… that, and immediately went ‘I want that kid at camp’? What?”

That makes no sense. None of his foster homes even know it was his fault and plenty have rejected him straight off because of what was in his file.

The kid pauses, looking confused. “Wait. Leo. What do you think happened that night?”

Leo just stares at him. “You clearly know what I can do?”

The kid nods slowly, “Yes. You have the fire thing. Sorry, reading’s not my strongsuit. I know it has a modern day name but I know it from the old heroes. I think it would translate to fire hearted? Flame hearted? You have control over fire. I have an idea what you might be capable of with training, but right now I’m assuming it’s mostly being fireproof and able to summon fire and control it?”

Leo nods, he’s still confused. “But you said you saw that night? The night my mum…”

“Yes, I saw the night your mother died. I’m just confused?” Kid seems to realises something, “Oh. Wait. Leo. Did you think you started that fire?”

Yes. Leo killed her. He knows this.

Kid’s looking at him, kinda horrified. “Uh. Okay. Maybe this was a conversation I should have involved Lee in. But. I don’t tell secrets, so I couldn’t have. Um. Okay. You didn’t cause that. Any of it. Uh, I can tell you what actually happened? Only if you want to know?”

Leo nods frantically, “Yes. Tell me. I’m so confused. But. Tell me.”

Percy’s giving him increasingly stressed looks, but Leo needs to know, now.

“You were asleep on the couch in the workshop before the fire even started. I don’t know what you remember but you were sleeping peacefully. No nightmares or anything. Your mum… she was trying to finish something. I don’t know what, she was mumbling about a deadline of some sort.”

Yes, Leo remembers, an engine part needed to be machined for delivery in the morning.

“She knocked over a bottle of some sort of oil and started cleaning it up. Then I think she got worried about the deadline and just dropped a towel on top of the spill, and stood on top of it and went back to… sorry Leo, I don’t know what the metal thing was. She was working on it, using a metal tool. It threw off a spark, it was just one spark. But it hit the towel and…”

Leo barely whispers, “I spark, like all the time.”

Kid is frantically shaking his head, “It didn’t come from you. Leo. I’m literally bound by divine law to speak truthfully about what I see. I’m not lying. The spark came from the tool hitting the metal thing. It hit a towel soaked in oil that she was standing on. It was just… incredibly bad luck. You survived because of your abilities. If you didn’t have them, you’d have…”

He doesn’t need to finish. Leo knows what he means. Leo is crying, like, ugly sobbing.

Kids looking anxious. “Uh, I’m going to get Beck, kay? I’m not so useful for comfort with the no touching thing. Just, take some deep breaths? I’ll be right back!”

When Percy comes back he’s got a very angry looking Beck following and he’s absolutely babbling at him, “I can’t talk about it Beck, not ‘less he says I can, but, he’d thought it was his fault something terrible happened, been blaming himself for years. I didn’t realise, and just told him what had happened and that it wasn’t his fault. I swear I didn’t mean to break him, I like the New Kid! I wanted to be his friend. I just… Sorry, Beck.”

Leo’s still crying but the kid looks so contrite.

“S’all good man, needed to hear that. Need time to try and get my head ‘round it though. But later, totally friends. You’re like, my new hero, man.”

Beck waves the kid off and bundles Leo away, full of kindness and care and Leo is just, yeah. He owes that kid, like, everything.

Later when he finally finds the courage, he asks Beck if any Hephaestus kid has been able to control fire.

Beck watches him carefully, seeming to realise something. “Occasionally, maybe once every few hundred years? The last one, he got blamed for a fire.”

Of course he did. Great, maybe Leo should stop now.

But then Beck continues, “He wasn’t involved, Dad apparently even had the God of Truth confirm it. But the mortals still blamed him for it. He’d had decades of experience and was well known for his exceptional control of fire. It didn’t seem to occur to anyone that if he could control fire, it would not have spread as it did. Only reason I know, is because I asked Percy about it once, years ago.”

“So, this is an actual thing Hephaestus kids can sometimes do?”

Beck is still giving him a thoughtful look, “Yep. Not common. The guy I mentioned, he was born in the 1600’s? There’s some superstitious idiocy about demigods with strong powers heralding doom, but also, people are idiots. So. As far as I can tell, if you sieve out all the weird paranoia, it was considered a great blessing to inherit Dad’s fire aspect. A good thing. It’s powerful, yeah, but whether power is good or bad entirely depends on how you use it.”

Beck doesn’t ask Leo why he wanted to know. Doesn’t push him or even ask what the kid had told him. Just says he’s here if Leo has any questions and then gets Leo to help him start rounding up kids and herding them towards the pavilion for dinner.

________________________

Clarisse has to practically hogtie Percy before the bonfire. Kid wants nothing to do with laurel crowns or accolades. If she doesn’t keep a close watch, he’s going to make a break for the beach and he can get a hell of a lot further out in the ocean than she can.

Lee’s already there when she finally gets to the bonfire, one hand clenched around the kid’s arm. He is not getting out of this. If the kid bails, than Clarisse has to talk. She is not talking.

So she yanks even harder and drags the protesting Percy over to Lee. Completing ignoring anything he says, she stands him up against the log seat, grabs his shoulders and forces him down to sit beside Lee. Then she grabs Lee’s arm and wraps it around the kid.

She sticks a finger in his face and orders “Stay!” And stomps off again.

She still needs to find Wise Girl. But Lee’ll stop the kid disappearing.

Annabeth is at least easier. She’s with Chiron and looks genuinely excited for the bonfire. Huh. Clarisse is dreading it. Priss is too. Maybe they can make Annabeth do the talking?

Then again. Priss hasn’t noticed the change, but she has, Lee too. Priss hasn’t called her Wise Girl since they got back. Not even once. Not even just switching to a new nickname like how he’s calling Georgie ‘Mermaid’ now. Percy’s calling her Annabeth.

Lee brought it up when he dragged Clarisse to the Big House to talk about the quest. Thank the gods he didn’t want a blow by blow. Just wanted to check if there was anything she wanted to share. She told him bits and pieces, but really, other than the thing with Annabeth she was pretty okay with it.

She’d rather not do that again, but she’s not stupid. Priss had given her the option to walk away, after that first earthquake. She’d known he was saying this was something big, something that’s probably going to last years. Lee had given her Amyntor, a spear she never even drew during this quest. Though that reminds her.

“I know you or Apollo have something to ask me, worked it out myself but Priss confirmed. He said to wait ’til the end of Summer. Said I should know what I was getting into first. Don’t think he meant the quest.”

Lee seems to agree, gives her a kind of forced looking smile. Says they’ll wait. Then says he does need to talk about Annabeth, ‘cause he’s worried. She is too, once he explains. Not just about Priss calling her by name either.

Apparently, before the quest even started, Annabeth had been in the clearing before Priss was attacked. She’d been right there, in her stupid hat, and even Priss had expected her to help, he’d told Lee she just watched. The fact Priss admitted it and didn’t just refuse to tell him is… yeah. Kid’s like, intensely loyal.

Lee told Clarisse that Percy had heard the things Wise Girl was saying just before he fought Ares, that it’d thrown him off and from the sounds of it, the kid flinching freaked Poseidon. Which, fair. She’d been so distracted by it she’d missed half his conversation with the War God.

Lee is also very not happy about the ‘seaweed brain’ thing. Clarisse doesn’t like it either. Priss’s nicknames might seem strange, but he’s not just pulling them out of thin air. Most of them are direct references to a person’s aura. Because that’s how Priss sees people.

He always checks if a person’s okay with the name. He freely admits he can’t always tell what will upset someone. If someone says they don’t like a name, he won’t use it. Ever.

If someone asks for something different, he always respects that. Georgie is one of those, Clarisse is fairly sure Georgie was the one who asked him to use Sea Sister. And, Clarisse thinks with a mental wince, she definitely asked him to switch to something else now he’s claimed. It was one thing for him to be unacknowledged random relation to royalty. Kind of another for him to be the second prince of Georgie’s people.

Seaweed brain is just… mean. Seaweed, maybe. Still on the edge of not nice. But, not quite so insulting.

Clarisse sighs, she’s already seen Annabeth heading towards the bonfire, now she’s just trying to find reasons to avoid it herself.

She gives up and stomps back. Priss is exactly where she left him, and he and Lee are both laughing at her. Hmm. She has the new spear now. Afosi is for normal fighting.

If she attacks him in the middle of the ceremony, maybe they could escape during the chaos and do some sparring elsewhere?

Percy grabs her arm and makes her sit next to him, “If I gotta be here, so do you War Drum.”

Mr D turns up and makes them all stand up in front of everyone while he crowns each of them with scratchy laurel leaf crowns. He is looking far too gleeful. Clarisse is suspicious.

He also gets her name right. He always gets Priss’s name right. But Clarisse, not so much. And never Annabeth. Today he uses the right names for Clarisse and Percy and then calls Annabeth ‘Adelaide’.

He then announces he has something extra for them. A ‘Quest Trophy’ for the leader of the successful quest.

Annabeth goes to step forward. What? Mr D gives her a weird look and turns to Priss.

“Since you were so kind to request my assistance…”

Oh no. Please don’t be the lion. Please don’t be the lion.

“I thought the son of Poseidon would appreciate a trophy he could communicate with.”

It’s the zebra.

Yeah. No. That’s not better.

She demands, “What’d you do with the other two?”

Mr D is far too gleeful, but apparently both have been placed in animal reservations in their actual natural habitat. Mr D names the places, but Clarisse knows nothing about lions or antelopes and where they are supposed to live.

Priss is hugging the zebra and chattering away to it. Guess it makes sense? He constantly gossips with the pegasi, a zebra is kinda like a horse?

Mr D’s done something. It looks nothing like the miserable dirty zebra from the truck. She (because Percy says it’s a she) is all glossy and clean, shiny hooves and she looks way healthier.

Percy has a hippocampi he named Fluffy when he was eight. Clarisse still can’t decide if he actually wanted to call it that, or if he was just causing chaos.

Clarisse really hopes the zebra has a name because otherwise-

“She says I can call her Spot!”

Nevermind.

She sends a pleading look to Lee. He just holds his hands up in a helpless ‘what can you do’ gesture.

Yep. Awesome. Yet another weird pet that Priss can have whole conversations with.

________________________

Percy is utterly gleeful. Spot is amazing. Best trophy ever. Mr D keeps making comments to Lee about how Spot had asked to stay with Percy, since she’d recognised him as a prince.

Spot says she thought she’d be safer with someone who understood her. He told her there were tonnes of nature spirits who she could talk with, but she is adamant she stay with Percy.

Percy’s not really sure if anyone will expect him to do something with her. She’s amazing, and he loves her already, but, don’t zebras need friends? Spot says she’s never met another zebra. Which seems sad.

Maybe she can stay for now and eventually she might be willing to meet some zebras? He’d totally miss her, and he knows the pegasi will look after her, but she still should have her own people.

The look on War Drum’s face is just… He’s never wanted a camera more. It needs to be preserved, for like, ever.

Unfortunately, they soon move on, to the bit he’s dreading. Telling the story of their quest.

He knows this is important to the campers. For most of them, they want nothing more than to go on quests and earn glory. They want their stories to be told like the heroes of old. Percy might have most of them convinced that Heracles is a moron, but to the campers, being a hero is still the goal.

They want people to tell their stories. Percy is the odd one out. He has no interest being like the people in his dreams. He just wants to be himself. Be a kid. Play pranks, have fun, occasionally go to lessons. He knows his future is set. But it isn’t yet. Until then, he just wants to be a kid.

The other campers… not so much.

Annabeth at least is enthusiastic. She’s practically glowing. So, he and Clarisse let her tell the story.

It’s fine. Bit exaggerated, bit dramatic but, fine. He’s not fond of how she makes the Furies and Medusa sound, but it’s exactly like the stories. He gets it.

Thinks get a bit stickier when they get to the Arch. It’s normal for questers to re-enact their fights. It’s a thing. He’s already dreaded the Ares fight, he’s gonna get lynched by Clarisse’s siblings. But the chimera… That was all Katecho.

Oh! And War Drum takes the fall!

When Annabeth admits she didn’t get a clear view, Clarisse sticks her hand out at him and just goes “Paizein.”

So, he hands over the trident, and she helpfully re-enacts the fight using one of the big log seats as a chimera stand in. She doesn’t change it too much, just switches the angle slightly, claiming the trident hit the chimeras side and struck the heart.

Annabeth is nodding enthusiastically. Cool. Percy is never answering questions about that fight. Ever.

Then they are in Denver and meeting Ares. He leaves it with Annabeth. Her description of him collapsing from War God aura is uncomfortable to hear. Kind of mortifying. Was he really that bad? Yikes.

Also. Hadn’t War Drum gotten in Ares face? He was sure… Huh. Must have been really out of it. Annabeth never mentioned it. He’d have thought that was a cool thing to tell.

Then they get to the fetch quest. This bit at least he can do the talking for. He brushes straight past his freak out, just saying he recovered once they’d put some distance between them and the War God.

He tells everyone they broke into the theme park and found the shield at the bottom of the tunnel of love ride. Lots of cat calling from the audience and Annabeth has a weird look on her face.

He gets the rest out fast, about how they’d realised it was a trap, he’d flooded the pool and steadied the boat. Then, Clarisse had used his trident to fling the shield clear before the trap was sprung.

Mr D adds a gleeful description of the cameras filming the empty boat and how disappointed Ares and Hephaestus had been.

Annabeth takes over again. Covering returning the shield, Mr D taking the animals. Then, “It was kind of weird when we got to Vegas, like Percy’s sight made him too sensitive to stuff. He got caught by the Lotus Eaters.”

He blinks. What? Then again, he had done that whole theatrical checking-every-casino thing. He’d figured if she’d asked he could say something vague about a vision of two demigods at a casino. She’d never asked.

Clarisse jumps in, like, voluntarily? and continues the story of finding the Di Angelo’s, Annabeth getting whammied and Percy arranging a driver using the debit card he’d found. He keeps his face calm, but oh he is snickering on the inside. Yep. He did find it. In his pocket.

Clarisse gets them all the way to the beach and her staying behind with the Di Angelo’s. For all her bluntness, she makes it sound entirely reasonable and like Percy was being super responsible in asking her to guard them.

Then again, if he hadn’t had gods watching them, he absolutely would have asked her to, probably would have asked Annabeth to stay behind as well. He could have done the Underworld on his own. Even if he still walked through the whole thing.

Annabeth starts up again. Huh. Guess he did good with the theatrics? Sounds like the trip was super intense for her. Though, he hadn’t realised him screwing with Charon would sound so… bad from someone else’s perspective. The way she’s describing him-

Lee’s hand touches against his back, a quiet whisper, “Perce, I do actually know what happened. Your uncle showed me. Do you want me to stop this?”

He shakes his head. He’s confused. But, she’d been so scared, maybe she saw it differently? She didn’t know they were safe. Though he told her they had safe passage. At least, he thought he had. Maybe not?

And Percy honestly has no idea how people see him. He’s always loved screwing with people, Apollo and Lee and Mr D encourage him to do it. They never seem to mind it, even when they are his target. War Drum and Georgie too. And Castor and Pollux. And Travis and Connor.

She’s talking about how she used her experience with her dad’s dog going to obedience school to manage Cerberus and how she’d persuaded Percy to wear her invisibility hat to keep him hidden from Hades.

Mr D has a very weird look on his face. Has Percy ever seen Mr D confused before? Though, Percy’s right there with him. He’d thought the idea of her hat being able to hide him from Hades in his own realm was… unique logic. He’d taken it just because he was sick of arguing about it.

Percy was so glad she skipped straight past his flashback. He so didn’t need to share that tidbit, thank you very much. Then she describes how he’d stormed into the palace and demanded Hades hand over Thalia, and she’d had to try and smooth things over. What?

She also mentioned how she stopped him eating food offered by Hades. Uncle had literally held the ambrosia against his mouth till he ate it? Percy had definitely told Annabeth that the food in the Underworld thing wasn’t true. No one’s ever actually broken into the Underworld! He and Annabeth sure as hell didn’t. Mr D is frowning now.

Purple vines start twining up Percy’s arms, they don’t have the normal gleeful mischief, it’s all gentle comfort. He hadn’t realised he was getting so upset.

Annabeth finally finishes describing the Underworld trip, talking about how she had attempted to negotiate for Thalia but Percy had gone and told Hades he’d retrieve the Helm in return for her soul. She very pointedly said Percy hadn’t made Hades swear on the Styx. What does that have to do with anything?

Also, he’s getting majorly uncomfortable having her describe Uncle like this. Nico and Bianca are right there!

Finally they get to the bit where they are teleported back. She dramatically describes finding herself drowning in the ocean with a great white shark circling. Yes. Because Snuffles had been waiting for him? And had clearly come with Poseidon?

War Drum jumps in at this point. She says the Master Bolt had dropped into the backpack during the Underworld trip. Huh. Percy hadn’t even noticed Annabeth didn’t mention that bit.

Clarisse describes the whole confrontation with Ares and it’s kind of super embarrassing for a whole other reason. She’s a little too gleeful and full of compliments for Percy. This is very weird.

She says she’d been given the Master Bolt to guard because “Wise Girl was totally flipping out, I think Hades terrified her, because she was definitely babbling.”

What? Percy is getting very confused. War Drum can be mean, sure. But never without provocation. And he’s never heard her use that tone on Annabeth.

Lee steps up then, says that since he’s already been used as a sparring dummy for one reenactment, he may as well play-act as the War God again. Clarisse still hasn’t returned Paizein, and she uses one of the blunt training swords to play out the entire fight with Lee who is using a big plank in place of the two handed sword.

Like, she did the whole thing. Blow by blow. With Paizein dropped off to the side. Making sure everyone knows it had been in charm form at the time, so it just sort of popped into existence as he shoved it straight through the War God.

There’s dead silence after they demonstrate the killing blow.

Yay. Time to be lynched. But, the Ares kids just seem… impressed? They keep asking Clarisse exactly how far the trident had stuck out from their dad’s back, and how much blood there was?

Apparently the fact it was such a solid hit means they don’t hold it against him. Percy thinks about that weird knowing when he’d been trying to decide which weapon to use. Yeah. He’s pretty sure if he’d taken that route he’d have given the guy, like, a paper cut.

He’d have won, but in the eyes of the Ares cabin it would have been a cowardly win. The fact he skewered their dad through the gut? Apparently, they now have a lot more respect for him.

People are not making sense to Percy today.

Annabeth goes to jump in but Clarisse just talks over her, taking the story all the way up to them returning on the hippocampi. She makes another blunt comment about Annabeth trying to get Percy killed by sticking him on a plane.

Only Percy was there for the last bit of the quest. He really doesn’t want to talk about it.

It’s Lee who steps in. He uses his clear calm professional voice to explain that certain things are only for the Prophet of Apollo, and Percy cannot speak of them. He assures them that Percy did return the Master Bolt to Zeus with a full description of the quest.

Annabeth tries to tell him he missed a part, that Hades’ Helm was returned and he didn’t release Thalia. It’s Chiron who tells her, very gently, they can discuss this later. But that Hades only released Thalia’s soul, and Thalia can be at peace now.

Percy looks at Lee, Lee looks back just as confused. Okay. No clue where that came from. But, sure, whatever. Let’s use that excuse. Percy isn’t clear why Thalia can’t be a person yet, but there is a reason. One of those not for him to know things. He’s pretty sure Lee does know why.

Percy also knows when the time is right, Thalia will be a person again. The main reason (other than Fates weirdness) they’d done all the theatrics was so that Zeus would not suspect any backroom dealing when Thalia was revived. Since reviving her needs Hades and Poseidon working together.

Even if he said this to Annabeth, she’d want to know why and what information was not for him to know, and it would ruin everything. But she is getting her friend back? And soon?

At least the story telling is finally over. Now it’s question time. Percy is dreading question time.

Except the questions aren’t what he expected. Nico keeps asking pointed questions of Annabeth about where she was during the Ares fight. Behind Percy, Lee murmurs that ‘someone’ gave him binoculars while they were on the beach.

Percy is going to kill Triton.

Then, an Ares kid wants Clarisse to re-enact Ares approaching them in the cafe, and also when she returned the shield. Because “Dad was super impressed!” What?

War Drum actually was almost enthusiastic with it. Bullying Lee into position and then getting right into his face and snarling “Back the fuck up! Right the fuck now!” Lee is looking kinda horrified. Yeah. She’s scary. Percy loves her.

Her siblings are cheering her. Like, they are so proud of her bullying their dad? They get even more excited when she re-enacts returning the shield and how she outstared the God of War. Ares kids are SO weird.

Silena’s next, she says she doesn’t want an answer today, but she’s hoping when things are back to normal, Percy might be willing to tell Medusa’s story during a campfire? He happily agrees. He’s all talked out but he has a soft spot for Medusa, she deserves to have the full story told.

Then Will asks, all polite confusion, “I don’t understand why you had to sneak into the Underworld? Wouldn’t being a Prophet of Apollo grant you safe passage? And since the Underworld is a kingdom of souls, how would a hat of invisibility hide Percy?”

Percy should smooth things over. But he’s tired and confused and just done. He lets Lee step in and confirm that Percy had been granted safe passage and that yes, the hat was superfluous. Lee gives Percy a look.

Percy sighs, “I took the hat because I didn’t want to waste time arguing, I was tired and running on no sleep. It seemed a stupid thing to fight over.”

And now Annabeth is glaring at him. He looks at Lee, he has no idea what he’s even asking for.

Lee knows. Lee always knows. He announces question time is over and asks Kayla and Will to get them started with some camp songs. He encourages everyone to take time to celebrate the safe return of the questers and a successful big quest.

Finally the attention is off him. Except for Annabeth who is still glaring. Then War Drum casually steps between them and starts like…. chattering at Annabeth? Asking about how her day has been and something about her seeing Mr D?

Percy’s done.

“Hot Air, can I go? I’m really not feeling it.”

Lee looks him over, tells him he’s worried it’s going to be a bad night. Asks if Percy would mind either sleeping in a spare room at the Big House or having Lee stay in Cabin Three with him?

“Cabin.”

Lee is all gentleness as he says goodbye to Mr D and leads Percy back to the cabin. Percy doesn’t want to talk or debrief or anything. He wants his own bed and the sounds of home. The only reason he changes into pyjamas and brushes his teeth is because Lee won’t leave him alone.

He assumes Lee is on the day bed. He’s asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow.

Chapter Text

His dreams are filled with memories. Memories of the future. Percy hates these dreams. They are always worse in summer, when the number of nearby demigods doubles.

It’s all shattered images, the only thing connecting them is the presence of each person at the bonfire. They flash past, far too fast for him to do more than occasionally recognise a familiar face.

Some part of Percy knows that this was intended as a kindness. The Fates telling him he will be remembered. Percy doesn’t think the Fates understand that holds little interest for him. He doesn’t want to be remembered. He just wants to live his life. He doesn’t want to be a hero.

The world is filled with stories. Every person he meets, he sees their past, their now and their future. Everywhere he looks, time intersects and shows him everything, all at once.

In this dream from the Fates, it is like looking at the thrones on Olympus. Too many images, too many overlapping moments.

Finally the images slow and occasionally one will pause just long enough for him to see. These images are not guaranteed. No future is guaranteed. Not until the tapestry is woven and the now has become the past. The images he is shown are of the people he cares about, the people he worries about.

He sees Nico. Older. He’s shown a succession of Nicos, some good, some terrible. He sees Nico dead, far too young. He sees Nico dying, an old man. Nico leading a war against Olympus. Nico, gaunt and so pale, like a living corpse. Nico being handed a laurel crown by Hades.

He sees Bianca, her graceful dancing aura swirling around her as she leads the camp. Bianca living on the streets, starving and under constant attack from monsters. Bianca dead, the same age as she is now. Bianca lying dead in the junkyard of the gods as Zoe frantically searches. Bianca with grey hair, still graceful, welcoming children who look like her, like Nico.

He sees Thalia. Thalia fierce, eyes crackling with power as she leads the hunt. Thalia married with children. Thalia dead, the same age as when she was transformed, lying beneath the pine tree. Thalia leading camp. Thalia leading a war, Clarisse lying dead at her feet, Percy and Nico standing together defending against her attack.

Percy sees glimpses of himself. In the throne room, bowing to Zeus. Kneeling to Zeus. Standing defiant, glaring, refusing to surrender. Old and tired, visiting a tomb on Olympus. Younger, wearing Triton’s circlet.

He sees Clarisse. Clarisse dead at his feet in the throne room of Olympus, her face blackened. Clarisse holding Amyntor aloft, surrounded by the red glow of Ares’ Blessing of War. Clarisse fighting a war, side by side with Triton, faces fierce. Clarisse broken, Percy dead at her feet. He sees himself standing shoulder to shoulder with Clarisse as adults. They stare down Zeus and dare him to challenge them.

He sees Piper. Piper standing on a ship beside Luke Castellan, Apollo’s bracelet gone. Piper standing beside Percy and Clarisse as a giant thunders towards them. Piper charmspeaking a cyclops. Piper surrounded by a deep pink glow Percy has never seen but knows is Aphrodite Areia’s own Blessing of War. Piper holding a sword and charging. Piper watching a war between demigods, and turning her back on all of them.

He sees Leo. A young Leo, sleeping as his mother’s workshop burns. Leo meeting Hephaestus. Leo dying in a junkyard. Leo frantically working on an engine in the bowels of an old warship. Leo riding a huge bronze dragon, he’s flying and his face is full of glee. Leo walking the halls of Atlantis.

He sees Georgie. She wears a fine circlet of silver with a blue sheen, Percy beside her, wearing a much grander circlet. He sees an older Georgie wielding a trident and leading the armies of Atlantis, the city under siege. A much younger Georgie dead, her body being consigned to the waves by a sobbing Galene.

He sees Travis and Connor, fighting, dying, living, growing old, dying young. Leading Hermes Cabin. Leaving the camp. One dead, the other mourning, and then the reverse.

The images fly past, more and more people, Castor, Pollux, Kayla, Will, Beck, Austin, Harley, Silena, Drew…

He cannot make it stop. Cannot slow them down. The Fates drown him in images of the future, in promises of hope and threats of death.

Warm air floods his senses, light spills, a door creaks open. He feels the bow in his hand, the nocked arrow in his fingers, the tension of the bowstring at full draw. Eyes focused, a single breath, fingers release, an arrow flies. It fills him, pushes the images back, floods his mind until the future and the past and the now are driven back.

“-here, Percy, I’m here. You need to breathe. Percy. It’s Lee. I’m right here. I promise. I’m here. Come back to me, kid. Percy. You need to breathe.”

The voice of his anchor finally beats back the dream, pushes the images away. He swims towards it.

It takes an age, hearing this unending litany in his ears, the promise of safety, feeling the warmth of home, hauling himself closer and closer to that little spark of hope.

Finally, finally, he breaks through and jolts upright on his bed. Lee kneeling next to him. His voice rasping but still talking.

A flask is placed in front of him, he flinches. No. She was wrong. This is Lee. Lee is safe. He drinks.

He finally calms, propped up against Lee, hearing the steady beat of his heart.

Percy speaks softly, a secret just for them, “He told me not to ask you. ‘Cause you’d be safe if you never said. But Lee? I do know.”

A smile in Lee’s voice, he doesn’t seem at all tired, even though it sounds like he’d been talking for hours.

“Like Dad said, I’m safe if I never say. I can’t see the tapestry. Not like you can.”

Percy wants Lee to know, wants him to understand how special he is. “Did you know you’re the only one? The only one who can’t see the tapestry, and still made the right choice? I dream of the others. Dreamed of you too. Didn’t tell your dad. Didn’t know it was you though. Not then.”

“I’m safe if I don’t say, Perce.”

“D’you know who Halcyon Green is?”

A pause, and then “Yes.”

“He did the wrong thing. I dream about him.”

He knows Lee does too. It’s why he doesn’t say. Why the only time he allows his sight to guide him is when it shows Lee helping Percy.

Like tonight. Lee had seen that tonight would be bad. It’s why Percy is careful about touch. He sees everything Lee sees. Percy didn’t even give Lee a choice, just decided he wanted a hug one day and went for it. Lee has always said he would have said yes regardless. Lee never mentions what that hug actually cost him.

It didn’t used to be like this for Lee. Before Percy, Lee saw flashes, tiny glimpses, nothing useful. Nothing worth risking everything for. Being so near Percy affects him too. Makes him see more.

“’M sorry. Could never give you up, but m’sorry ‘bout the cost.”

A gentle sigh from Lee, a soft earnest voice, “It isn’t a cost, Perce. I knew what would happen. Long before we met, Dad gave me lessons on the sight. He always said it was just in case. I figured he knew. It wasn’t much use at the time. But Dad did make sure I knew what would happen if I started spending time around a powerful prophet. I chose this, Perce. I went into it knowing the outcome. You aren’t responsible for my choices.”

He’s still sorry. He hates seeing all this, as it is. Seeing it and not knowing what is safe to fix and what isn’t… that’s just torture. Lee is much stronger than Percy could ever be.

“Perce, why are you asking about Halcyon?”

“Fates are stupid, showed me a whole bunch of possible futures for the people I’m worried ‘bout. Think they wanted to motivate me?”

He can feel the frown in Lee’s aura, “People you are worried about?”

Percy shrugs, “The ones whose fate isn’t set yet. The four newbies, the tree, War Drum, Mermaid, some of the others.”

“Not Annabeth?”

He sighs, “It’s the same as it always is. I can’t say more.”

“I know, kid. Not asking you too. I just meant after everything at the bonfire, I wouldn’t put it past the Fates to try and tempt you.”

Percy just shrugs. He is still confused by whatever that was earlier. He can’t change her fate. He isn’t Halcyon Green.

“Did you know her knife was Halcyon’s?”

No, Lee did not know this. He’s very surprised. Huh, guess Percy will have to be patient and wait for that particular answer. Percy would like a better explanation than ‘the Fates’.

“They showed me War Drum again, dead in the throne room.”

“Anything else in the throne room? Anything that felt related?” Percy makes a face, “Me, kneeling to Sky King.”

Lee’s silence is a little telling. Oh. “S’warning isn’t it? He kept trying to make ‘Pollo give me to him, like I was a thing. Like with…” He trails off. Lee will know who he means.

Lee is quiet for a long moment, “Am I okay to say this?” Percy considers, nods. “The prophecy domain is only powerful so long as its prophets are sworn to Apollo. If the Sky King can shift your allegiance…”

Oh. “I refused to even call him King.”

“I know. You did good, Percy. It’s not something we can do much about, other than keeping you away from him. Dad was going to name Clarisse, I know we avoided it happening but he wants her under his protection as soon as possible. But Clarisse said-”

“She’s gotta wait a bit. If Apollo’s worried, tell him ‘three weeks’ he’ll know what I mean.”

Percy can already feel the dream itching at him. He sighs, he really wants some proper sleep. He hates this.

“Gotta draw, Hot Air.”

Lee gets him set up at his desk with a sketchbook and pencils, leaves him a mug of hot chocolate. Percy props his head up on his left arm, and lets his sight do the thing. He’s not even sure his eyes are open as his hand moves and pictures form on the pages. He’s there for hours, still awake, still drawing as dawn breaks. There is no dawn song today. Apollo must be actively watching him. Yay. He’s worried him. Again.

When he’s finally able to put the pencil down, it’s nearing breakfast time. His hand is sore and cramping but he feels settled. More than he has since he left on the quest.

He’s back to feeling like a twelve year old in a twelve year old body. Well, almost thirteen? It’s mid-June, isn’t it? He should probably check the date at some point, but he’ll be thirteen on August eighteenth. Cool. Officially a teenager.

“Hot Air, if I ever get shoved on a quest again, I wanna sketchbook that’s safe to take with me. That sucked.”

Lee comes over, flicks through the pages. More than half his new sketchbook has been filled. All with pictures of current campers. Percy doesn’t bother looking. He knows what he drew.

“Yeah. This… doesn’t look like fun. We might need to lock this one up, Perce.”

He nods. Yes. These are not images anyone should see. To easy for them to think they are guaranteed futures, not just fractured images of possibilities.

Lee looks him over, seems happy with what he sees. Yep. Percy feels like Percy again. He hates how he gets when he goes too long without an outlet for the stupid dreams.

“You ready to get back to being a summer camper?”

Yes. Percy is absolutely ready for that.

________________________

Percy decides the best way to handle the thing with Annabeth is to pretend it never happened. He’s just at a total loss of what to say or how to deal with… whatever that was.

It kind of makes him think about how the myths about heroes are so completely different to what the heroes actually did. Maybe what Annabeth did was normal and he’s the weird one? He probably is, he usually is anyway.

He has time before breakfast to feed James. James is full of gossip. James had Percy convinced for years that he couldn’t understand anyone but Percy. He did eventually confess he’d just been worried Percy would lose interest and he’d have no one to talk to again.

Percy really didn’t mind. Unless one of the sea gods visits, James can only tell his gossip to Percy. So, it’s all good. Though, Triton definitely threatened James with… something, if James ever shared secrets. Neither of them will tell Percy what Triton said.

James really likes the New Kid. He got permission from Georgie to come and see James use his upgraded feeder and he was apparently fascinated by him and his fancy sea god made tank. He has all sorts of ideas for upgrades. James isn’t so sure about all of them but he really likes the idea of building a whole little apartment inside the tank so he can sit on a couch and act like he’s still human.

Percy cannot wait to see Lee’s face if New Kid builds that. Percy is also sick of calling him New Kid, but he can’t exactly call him Flicker without giving the guy’s secret away. Hopefully Beck manages to convince the guy they can be trusted.

He still can’t believe Leo genuinely thought he’d killed his mum. He can’t imagine going five years thinking that. Hopefully Leo does believe him that it wasn’t his fault?

When he gets to the dining pavilion, Castor and Pollux are already set up at Poseidon’s table. Most gods get really annoyed whenever kids sit at different tables, but Poseidon gave permission for specific campers to use his table so that it wasn’t always just Percy and Georgie. Still needs to be a camper with an understanding parent though.

“Dad said we needed to cause lots of chaos today!”

Yeah. Mr D was not an understanding parent so much as he was worried about Percy. Fun.

“Can we prank Mr D?” Hey, if the dude’s gonna fuss at him, Percy’s gonna make him suffer for it. Fair’s fair.

With Caster and Pollux’s help, and the consent of a very gleeful Spot, they moved the zebra right into the Dionysus cabin. Gave Spot her own couch and everything. Even set up a nice glass of wine and some decorative grape vines.

With the zebra happily installed and set up with everything else her heart could want, Percy couldn’t resist heading to Cabin Ten. He’d gotten a brief glimpse of Piper’s rainbow hair last night, but he really wants to see it in its full glory. He’s just passing Cabin Eleven to cross the common area when he remembers Nico.

Hm. Beck has strong opinions on Percy putting new kids through a ‘trial by fire’, Percy thinks it’s awesome fun. Beck thinks it breaks them. Lee stays out of the argument entirely. If Percy was actually upsetting campers, he’s fairly sure Lee would tell him? Percy (and Clarisse) are his focus, but he genuinely cares about all the kids.

So. Trial by fire for Nico? Yes?

He nods to himself. Yes.

“Hey! Nico! Wanna come see an Angry Girl with rainbow hair?”

The kid just blinks at him, “Uh, okay? Why is she angry?”

“‘Cause she was super upset when I met her and I haven’t had a chance to ask her about nicknames yet.”

Nico was fascinated and Percy rattled on about the whole names have power thing and why he ended up applying that rule to mortals. He’s given the spiel to most campers, so he can do it while focusing on other things.

Nico’s aura is fascinating. He and Bianca are the first time Percy’s seen another kid from the three brothers in real life. It’s loud but also not. Maybe a Hades thing? Hades aura does the super loud ringing silence thing. Though Nico’s aura doesn’t ring. Bianca’s does.

Nico’s aura is fun. Shadows dance and writhe around him, twisting and bouncing and spinning. They are as hyperactive as the kid himself. Percy can hear earth cracking, tearing open. There’s a growing dark like a promise of unwilling death. Nico feels like bone, smooth and cool, old but awake. Percy can feel bone move as a skeleton walks. There’s the touch of souls, drifting around him.

He looks closer, there was something he kept noticing, but didn’t have time to stop and look. Where is it?

There! A glacial flash of unyielding cold at Nico’s centre. It’s asleep, but it’s the sort of intensity that would anchor hate.

Okay, that’s a super not fun aspect to have from Hades. Percy knows the more power a kid inherits the more likely they’ll inherit some of the bigger personality attributes. Percy isn’t Poseidon but his loyalty is still an issue. Apollo points it out regularly. Knowing when to let a friend walk alone is not Percy’s strong suit.

Clarisse has the Ares aggression, but a lesser known aspect of it. She can happily walk away from a fight when the only person affected is herself. Nothing will make her back down when she’s protecting someone else.

Nico’s is abiding hate. The same aspect that led to Hades cursing an Oracle, and doing whatever he did to Thalia. His children were alive, but Zeus thought he killed them. That was reason enough for Hades. He wasn’t thinking long-term, he just wanted to punish Zeus. Didn’t care if it plunged them straight back into another war.

Nico’s capacity for holding onto bitterness and anger is manageable. Same as Percy’s loyalty, Clarisse’s aggression. When balanced, it’s a good thing. A core trait. It can be channelled into determination, resilience, an absolute refusal to walk away from what matters most.

It does also mean they really have to get Nico and Bianca away from each other. Bianca’s aura is all elegantly gliding dancing shadows. She’s surrounded by a larger gentle all embracing shadow. She has the ringing silence of a true commander. Bianca was born to walk alone, even her aura pulls away from the people around her. Her aura stands still and separate from the world. She has such a deep kindness in her too, the gentle touches of peaceful souls. Bianca is all stillness and calm, her aura full of gentle welcome.

Where Nico carries an anchor for hate, for grudges, Bianca carries a fierce need for independence. He clings while she flees. It sits so deeply at her core that it can never be separated from her, never changed.

Both incredible auras, both very loud, full of good things. They both draw Percy in, he so badly wants to be friends with both of them.

But their two auras together? No. Not good. It’s the bad sort of opposites. The sort that leads to mutual destruction. His ability to form an unconquerable resentment and her already existing need to be alone. It will end so badly. If they hadn’t been stuck in stasis these two could have triggered a third world war just between themselves.

Nico seems to have finally run out of questions about how names could have power. But of course he has one more.

“So, if you only use nicknames, what’s mine?”

Percy really likes this kid. He very much wants to keep him. He doesn’t even have to ask Lee. Poseidon and Hades already said he could. Sort of.

“I do have a nickname for you. I wasn’t sure if you’d be okay with it though, I’m not so great at telling what nicknames are offensive and which aren’t. I just go with what your aura says?”

He’s kinda wary of the dormant icy core. He wants to make friends, not an enemy for life.

“Well, what is it?”

“Shadow.” Percy gives him a shrug, and a hopeful look. Please don’t hate him.

“Huh. I like it! I’ve never had a nickname before!” And the kid’s off again. Cool. Percy totally wasn’t worried. Nope.

They do eventually make it to Cabin Ten.

“Angry Girl! I just came to see how you were doing?”

Please don’t attack Percy. Percy just wants to see your glorious hair.

And it is glorious. Not a solid striped rainbow like a Pride flag, but a gradual ombre, pink at her scalp and shading through every colour of the rainbow down to purple at the ends of her mid-back length hair.

He wants to say it. Percy starts to think of Annabeth last night and stops the thought. Unless Lee or War Drum say otherwise, he’s not second guessing himself. Not today, anyway.

He says it, “Your hair is the most amazing thing I have ever seen. I really hope you keep it!”

Piper actually smiles at him. She smiles at him!

“Thanks, Surfer Boy! It’s growing on me. By the way, I owe you like a huge apology. I was at bitch eating crackers stage and definitely took it out on the wrong person. Can we start over?”

Yes. Yes we can.

He gives her a proper smile, “Oh, thank the gods! You seem like, amazing, and I was really hoping you weren’t going to hate me. Kinda wanted to be friends?”

Piper is surprisingly cheerful when she agrees. He and Nico are readily welcomed by the Aphrodite kids and they settle in for a good gossip. Drew lets him braid her hair while Silena attempts to explain a fishtail braid to him. When he’s done it looks… yeah. Percy steps aside so Silena can redo it.

The rest of the day is much the same, checking in with friends, introducing Nico and getting settled back into camp all over again. It feels a bit like the first day of summer all over again, just two weeks late.

Triton turns up after lunch, standing outside the pavilion glaring a hole into the side of his head until he gives up and follows him. Georgie just waves cheerfully as he leaves. Ever since Clarisse started regularly sparring with him, Georgie has very happily relinquished her place as his sparring partner. She didn’t love sparring with a tiny kid that was like a quarter her size. Though, Georgie was still trained to wield a trident by the Prince of the Sea. Galene never shuts up about it.

Clarisse is already on the beach when he and Triton arrive.

“War Drum! How’s life as your dad’s favourite?”

Oooh, she did not like that one bit. She is definitely not thrilled that her behaviour impressed the War God. It’s not like Lee where she just doesn’t know what to do with a parent. Clarisse genuinely wants nothing to do with the War God. Who is apparently crowing about his favourite daughter.

She turns and stomps angrily into the water without answering him. At least the fight’s going to be great fun?

Triton didn’t even try to start his lecture. Just checked Paizein, Anaklusmos and Afosi and gestured to the arena. He did at least give Clarisse a sword too, so they were both fighting with two weapons. It was both frustratingly difficult and awesome fun. Percy suspects Triton wants to make a point.

Specifically about the dangers of sneak attacks like he did with Ares. But also, trying to fight two handed against someone wielding similar weapons is very entertaining. This is just for the pure fun of movement and sparring. Triton would probably have some lengthy explanation about training reflexes but whatever. It’s fun, and Triton likes indulging them.

Case in point, the ridiculous number of weapons he has gifted them in the past two weeks.

Triton steps in occasionally if he thinks one of them is actually going to get stabbed, but otherwise they just chase each other all over the sea floor arena, beating each other up until they both collapse from exhaustion.

Once they get their breath back, Triton starts in on them. Though he also needs to brag, apparently.

“Father says he quite enjoyed informing the War God that I personally trained his favourite daughter.”

Oh. That face. That is an awesome face. Clarisse is both extremely pleased at Triton’s version of saying he’s proud of her, and horrified that he’s saying it at all.

Then Triton turns on Percy, “Though, I cannot decide if Katecho’s first blood was a chimera or a War God. I was impressed with your maneuver with Katecho on the War God. The chimera fight however, was rather… underwhelming.”

“Come on Tri! It bit me! I was poisoned. I still don’t know why it died, I like, grazed it. At best.”

“I did tell you your trident was for fighting a god?”

“So, naturally, that means it makes monsters explode on contact?”

Triton just kind of… shrugs. In a very stoic proud warrior sort of way. Cool. Awesome. Percy’s never touching Katecho again. That’s terrifying.

“I also need to remind you that Katecho is not for cutting through mesh fences.”

He and Clarisse exchange looks. Yeah. It was still worth it.

“But! It was like a laser. One of those… From that movie, War Drum? The laser swords?”

Gods bless War Drum and her translation skills, “Lightsabers?”

“Yeah! Katecho worked just like that.”

Triton’s still unimpressed.

“I thought you felt your weaponry was already, how did you put it? ‘Overpowered’? You truly wish for a laser sword as well?”

They both freeze. And then they are both attacking Triton with questions. Laser swords are a thing?

________________________

Things are finally back to normal. After Percy’s little night time drawing marathon, Lee tracks him down each day and makes him sit with a sketchbook for a couple of hours, until the flood of images finally slows.

A fair chunk of the sketchbooks end up being handed to Apollo for safe keeping. They knew Mr D wouldn’t go snooping but Lee had gotten all twitchy about Chiron knowing about camper’s futures. Percy didn’t really have an opinion either way. He just wanted to be certain no one would see them other than him and Lee.

They were just too hard to explain. He doesn’t lock away all his future images. Sometimes his dreams take him super far into the future. To a world that looks so totally alien it may as well be another planet. Those drawings are just interesting. No risk.

The drawings of the past they almost never hide away. Except for the ones of Pallas. Even if there wasn’t a risk of the wrong person noticing her similarity to the Athena kids, Tri doesn’t need to see that.

Triton does have a drawing of her. It was from a vision but it’s of Triton and Pallas standing together laughing, in the Atlantis throne room. She looks so happy. Lee suggested offering it to Triton, he even passed it on for him because Percy didn’t want to upset Tri. Triton has never mentioned it but Amphy told Percy it’s framed in his personal quarters at the palace.

Mostly, Percy is back to his usual summer routine. He drags Nico along with him as he wanders between activities. He still completely ignores Georgie’s schedule. He and Castor and Pollux end up in a prank war with Mr D which is somewhat hilarious. Poor Spot keeps being installed in new strange places. Since both Percy and Mr D can communicate her and she always assures them she is enjoying the game and thinks it’s wonderful fun, he doesn’t feel too guilty.

Percy even gets James involved and his fish has a fantastic time supervising all of Mr D’s card games from his new tank in the main living area of the Big House. Then, Mr D somehow made James his own pond in the common area between the cabins overnight. After that. Percy decided he should probably keep James in his cabin where he’s safe. He’s sure Mr D wouldn’t have actually let anyone hurt him, but still…

Mr D is a touch too gleeful when Percy says he won that round.

It is at least keeping Percy entertained. Lee has once again barred Percy from Capture the Flag. He doesn’t give a reason, but Percy knows Lee won’t be letting him near the game so long as the remaining Hermes kids who’d chased him were still at camp. Since arguing with Lee would involve explaining that whole situation, and Percy can’t currently explain that, he’s had to just sit out. He’s totally not sulking about it.

Percy keeps his distance from Leo, giving the guy time to process what Percy told him. A week after the Quest Party the pavilion is buzzing as Beck announces Leo is their first fire-hearted camper in over four hundred years. Hephaestus fiery hammer shines above the kid and officially claims him.

Percy still keeps his distance. Leo will come find him when he’s ready. If he’s ever ready. At least he’ll have some support now?

Percy wonders how many people have noticed what’s happening. Drew was already considered to have the most powerful charmspeak in the last hundred years, Piper is more powerful by an order of magnitude. Mr D has openly acknowledged Castor and Pollux are significantly more powerful than the majority of his children ever were. In Ares cabin, it’s not just Clarisse who is taking the concept of being a war kid to new heights.

Admitted or not, Lee is Apollo’s eighth child in four thousand years to be born with the true sight. The only ability rarer in Apollo’s children is actual prophecy, and there’s been four born prophets, total. Will is a powerful healer, strong enough that Apollo was able to personally train him without breaching the non-interference rules. Nico and Bianca rival Percy when it comes to the strength of their innate abilities.

There is power gathering in the camp. Percy still doesn’t know what is to come. It is not for him to know. Not yet. But, the increase in abilities won’t go unnoticed forever.

It feels even more apparent to Percy when Poseidon starts turning up every few days in the afternoons. Percy had just given up and accepted that until Triton feels a little less anxious, he’s going to continue insisting on daily training. Then, Poseidon started randomly showing up instead of Triton.

Not for combat training but for power training. Poseidon is very smug that Percy inherited both his earthquake and storm aspects. Now the quest is done, he is insistent that Percy train regularly. At least the training happens well away from land? Percy’s attempts at controlling his power are very… inconsistent. He either unleashes a storm that grows out of control and becomes an absolute monster, or he can’t summon more than a light mist of rain.

Percy somehow created a whole new canyon on the seafloor. But other times he can’t cause so much as a tremor. Poseidon is very unbothered by it all. He is impressed Percy can do anything with his powers so soon. He also tells Percy that arrangements are being made for Bianca and Nico.

He seemed willing to listen when Percy explained the need to separate them. That they both need to stay where they are safe. They also need to not spend all their time together. Poseidon says he has an idea, but it will need to wait until ‘things are settled’. He also tells Percy that Nico and Bianca are to be kept away from ‘that girl’ as much as possible. Sigh.

When Poseidon returns him to camp Lee fusses over him and feeds him ambrosia and makes snarky comments about Percy overextending his powers. He certainly feels weirdly limp and noodly, but it’s good too. Like a hard spar, gets his muscles all loose and happy.

Percy has finally found a balance with Annabeth too. He’s still just avoiding the whole quest thing, but somehow it’s kind of settled her down? She’s cheerful and full of chatter whenever he sees her and it finally feels like they are friends again.

He still doesn’t understand the architecture but he’s very happy to sit and listen as she tells him about her ideas and shows him blueprints. She’s still working on the temple. He’s still pretending he can’t tell what it is. She never calls it a temple.

They mostly avoid the problematic topics. She’s tried asking about the Delos water a few times now. Wanting to know exactly what it does. She was not happy when he explained it helped him calm down when the sight overwhelmed him. She kept trying to compare it to being medicated? She wanted him to promise not to drink it anymore? Eventually he just told her he didn’t want to discuss it anymore. She did listen this time and they went back to much easier conversations.

On the plus side, there was one thing he could now give Annabeth.

It’s not even a week since they returned from the quest when she asks, “Hey Percy, I was wondering if you’d given any more thought to training your sight?”

He grins at her, “Yup! I’m actually gonna be starting tomorrow with Apollo learning to build my own shields.”

She is very surprised. “Oh! Wow! I’d thought you were still waiting for something, but I guess with that thing with the Lotus Eaters…”

She’s muttering to herself now. Percy really isn’t following how the Lotus Casino has anything to do with it,

“No, uh, I needed to be claimed. The whole sea kid thing does weird things to my prophetic abilities. I need my godly parent to anchor me while I learn to shield. Now that I’ve been claimed, I can start learning!”

Uh oh. He recognises that face. Yep. All the questions and then-

“Stop! Now! I can’t know this.”

She’s staring at him, mouth open. “Yeah, I’m gonna go. I, ah, guess ask Lee? No clue how to explain. Sorry?” He gives her a grimace and leaves, very quickly.

He has no idea how to handle this at all. He goes to Lee and tries to explain. Lee seems to understand what happened with very few words. He even seems to know what Annabeth would have said.

Lee drags his hand down his face and asks Percy if he’s sure he can monitor this himself, or does he need someone to accompany him? Lee makes it very clear he’d rather Percy at least take Clarisse with him.

So now, whenever Percy wants to see Annabeth, he drags Clarisse along. It doesn’t go well. He still can’t work out why Clarisse is acting like this. She’s more like Percy’s bodyguard than Annabeth’s friend now. It’s not fun to spend time with them anymore.

When they are alone, Clarisse tells him, “Sorry Priss, I know you don’t like this. I just… Wise Girl said some things that really didn’t sit right with me. It was fine when we were at camp, but the quest…”

Yeah. Percy knows. In the end, with Clarisse’s help, he extracts a promise from Annabeth not to discuss the prophet thing. He tells her Lee is concerned and if she can’t avoid speaking of it, Percy’s going to end up with Lee babysitting him. Can she please help him keep the little bit of freedom he has?

She gets this look on her face. Like she heard something entirely different to what he said. But she does agree to “help him keep his freedom.”

It’s even screwing with her aura at this point. He can’t decide how much is her and how much is him. It’s still the whispers in a king’s ear, the weight of an owl, the whirring clatter, the smell of books, crumbling wax, the feel of pages turning, the perfectly drawn lines. The armour settling onto shoulders, the touch of a spear. But it has this weird creaking noise now.

He’s sure he knows the sound. But he also doesn’t. Which is so helpful. But at least things are improving?

________________________

Lee has been teaching Clarisse about the whole prophecy deal. He told her he had no expectation of her applying these lessons. But since Percy said she should know what she was getting into, Lee can explain the parts Percy can’t.

She is not surprised when Lee explains the deliberate denial thing. She’d gotten used to Priss occasionally telling Lee something wasn’t for him to know. Lee always just acknowledged it and moved on. She hadn’t realised how intense it was though. That there are literally big chunks of future knowledge Percy is deliberately ignoring.

And she had no idea the denial was because if Prissy knew, it could trigger a kind of cascade of things that could result in world ending events.

That’s… kinda scary. Like, his knowledge in the wrong hands being a world ending catastrophe is one thing? Someone saying the wrong thing where Prissy can hear and causing a cascade that results in the end of the world? Super scary.

She understands why Lee and Prissy keep saying the kid’s meant to be isolated in a temple. Priss doesn’t want that, and Lee doesn’t want it for him. So, it won’t happen. But she can see why it’s a thing for prophets.

And it also explains why he’s so willing to just ignore gods when he wants to. Kid’s power is a whole different sort to what gods have, but he’s still got power.

Which also means when she finds out that Annabeth knows things she’s not meant to, and was going to tell Percy those things, Clarisse gets kind of… very angry. Most people don’t handle future knowledge well. It makes everything go wrong. This is like, a fact everyone knows? Shouldn’t Wise Girl know how dangerous future knowledge is?

She just paces the room, unable to even speak she’s so full of actual literal rage. Clarisse has never felt like this before. Lee just watches her pace for a while. He doesn’t even try to talk to her. Then he tells her to follow him. He takes her to the closest training ground underwater. Triton’s waiting there with a sword.

Triton is amazing with a sword, but it’s not his preferred weapon. It’s not Clarisse’s either. He and Clarisse fight for what seems like hours, Lee sitting nearby, just watching.

Finally the rage lessens and she feels like she can breathe again.

Lee is waiting, Triton steps back giving them privacy to talk, but he doesn’t leave. She tilts her head at Lee.

“You’re not going to like any of this, he’s here if you need him. I’m decent with a sword but I can’t keep up with you. He’s a bit less breakable.”

This is what having parents is like, isn’t it? Yeah. Not thinking about that.

She sighs and drops down next to him.

“What else?”

Someone, Lee doesn’t say who (bet it’s Chiron) told Annabeth about the Great Prophecy. Like, in way too much detail. Hang on.

“Wait, that’s the whole thing that made the brothers swear off kids, right?”

She’s vaguely heard about it. Whoever it was, they’d called the three brothers, the Big Three. That name weirds Priss out for some reason so she got used to calling them the three brothers. Annabeth still says Big Three. And Chiron always does.

Lee gives her a smile. He is definitely not surprised she has completely ignored the whole looming prophecy thing. Priss is a prophet. If she needs to know, he’ll tell her.

Oh. Lee gives no details (which she is very glad of), but does share the common knowledge of a child of the three brothers, reaching sixteen, bad things happen.

Okay, obviously about Priss. Definitely something he does not want to know. That’s fine.

“If that’s the common knowledge, what does she know?”

Someone, (Chiron, she just knows it), had told Annabeth her fate was entwined with the prophecy child. They had told Annabeth the prophecy kid would take her on a quest.

“So she legit did volunteer for the quest, but like, years ago? How did Chiron know all this?”

Lee gives her a look. What? She ain’t stupid.

He finally tells her that Chiron admitted to going to the creepy oracle in the attic.

She is even more confused, “That thing is definitely cursed, super badly. Did he think it could be trusted? Like, actually?”

Apparently, yes, Chiron did think that. She knew he was a weirdo.

Then Lee tells her Priss gave a prophecy of his own. The day they met.

“Was it about her? Always wondered why she stayed on at camp. I thought I must have misunderstood her or something when they told me she was staying. But you seemed to expect it?”

Yeah. “Her thread is needed to mend the tear. It is to be woven alongside mine.” Just great. Lee made sure she knew Priss can’t know the words of the prophecy, he’d forgotten it as soon as he spoke it. Which is fine. But.

“Please don’t tell me she’s going year round again.”

Lee kind of smirks at the look her face, “Percy has been insistent we stay out of it. We are reasonably sure this is coming from his abilities and not him just wanting to help a friend. If she’s still here at the end of summer, Poseidon will step in. After her behaviour during the quest and then at the bonfire he’s reached the limit of his patience with her.”

Yeah. She’d been handling things since the quest by pretending she didn’t know Priss was spending so much time with Annabeth. Clarisse was furious with her. She could forgive her behaviour during the quest, sort of. They were kids. Annabeth reached her limit and had a bit of a breakdown. Fine. But the bonfire… Gods she wanted to strangle her!

Priss was nearly crying! He looked so confused and lost. Like he genuinely thought Annabeth’s story was the right one. At least most of the campers weren’t fooled. Like, sure most people see him as a total goofball who doesn’t fight, but no one questions his sight.

The longterm campers know that Percy’s status as a Prophet of Apollo means he can request an audience with Hades and be granted safe passage. And the thing with Cerberus? She saw Priss nick those balls when they got the shield. He’d been planning that the entire time. Annabeth had nothing to do with it. Makes her angrier because she knows Priss did it to make Annabeth laugh.

Lee sends her back to Triton. She’s gone wordless with rage again. Triton starts being all sneaky and trying to trip her up and dancing away and she just keeps whacking at him. All brute force, no skill. He doesn’t seem to mind. Normally he’d lecture her for ages, for losing control during a fight.

When she collapses down again she’s feeling calmer. Also exhausted, She is definitely going to feel this tomorrow. Stupid sea kids and their stupid water healing.

Then Lee asks her to watch Priss whenever he visits Annabeth. She suddenly very much wants to stab him too. She didn’t, because it was Lee. But still.

He says he knows how hard this is but it won’t be forever. That while he can’t be certain, something Percy mentioned makes him think something will give within the next few weeks.

He’s all gentle sympathy as he explains that, for him, this is the hardest part of being named. They can’t carry this for Priss. That there will be times where it’s so incredibly hard not to just demand answers from him.

That Lee sometimes feels completely terrified he’s doing the wrong thing allowing Percy to decide what he keeps to himself. That from the day he met Percy, one of the most difficult things he’s ever had to do, is blindly trust the kid when Percy genuinely cannot explain why.

“This is part of what he meant about knowing what I was getting into, isn’t it?”

Lee just gives her a kind smile. There’s something else she’s always wanted to know, since he’s actually giving answers…

“All of you were like, weirdly okay with me spending all my time with Priss when I came to camp. I’d been here for like a week. And your cabin and mine don’t get on. Why…?” She doesn’t even know how to ask the question.

But Lee knows what she’s asking. Maybe Priss is right and he is a mind reader.

“Percy told us, more than a month before you came, that he was waiting for the big war drum. That everything would start with the drum. He also implied he needed you, that things would be better when his big war drum arrived.” He shrugs “We decided to trust him. Can’t say I’ve regretted it, even for a minute.”

Gods, he’s such a sap. But also. Priss literally prophesied her arrival? Huh. She thinks there might be more to it. She probably doesn’t want to know. So she’s not asking. Lee or Percy will tell her if she needs to know.

Oh. The blind trust thing. She does that already, doesn’t she? Huh.

She probably should ask though. Priss either doesn’t know, or can’t share. But if Lee’s actually answering her questions…

“What about Amyntor?”

“Ah, that is… more complicated. Percy kept drawing it, over and over again. He tends not to check through his drawings so I’m not entirely sure he’s even aware he was doing it. Sometimes just the spear, sometimes you holding it. It started just after you arrived at camp, and only stopped when Poseidon had Amyntor forged.”

Okay. She doesn’t know what she was expecting, but not that.

“All Percy ever says about it is that he knows something that he can’t share. That it’s important specific people don’t see it. We don’t know who. I know Percy believes Triton named it, but the name came from Percy’s own drawings, a few show the name engraved on the shaft.”

Okay. Uh. That’s a lot. And Lee isn’t done.

“He also told us that if you hadn’t accepted Amyntor, the path would have been… ‘not so great’ is how he phrased it. We didn’t want to pressure you, tried to give you an out if you wanted it. But, if you are going to do this, you need to know that you aren’t just along for the ride. You’ll be walking this path side by side with him. It’s your path too.”

Yeah. That’s all the big stuff she can handle right now. She blinks. Lee grins at her. He doesn’t seem to be expecting a response. Good. Because, yeah. Got nothing.

After that, when her brain reboots, making sure Priss wasn’t alone with Annabeth seems an easy ask.

Chapter Text

Percy dreams of the arena. It’s different from the usual dreams of Pallas. Normally, he watches the memories of Apollo or Triton. It was Triton who triggered this dream the first time.

Today, it is much more purposeful and he sees the auras through his own knowing and not Apollo’s sight.

This is another dream from the Fates. But why? He knows this story. He knows Triton’s fathomless grief. The scar this left on Apollo’s essence. The way it changed all of the sea gods.

The fight is already in progress. They near the moment of the final fatal blow.

The auras change the story slightly. They add a new depth.

He’s never seen Pallas’ full aura before. It’s not quite what he expected. Not at all like her father’s. Pallas is born of the ocean and her aura sings of the surface ripples, a constant ceaseless motion. Her core holds the complexity of a coral colony and she glows with the sheen of most beautiful of pearls. She is full of buoyant joy and the sort of gleeful mischief that sits at Percy’s core. Had she lived, he would have called her sister. Triton being his brother notwithstanding. Her soul speaks to him in such a familiar way. Her aura feels like she could have been Percy’s twin. It’s strange, he’s never felt such familiarity before in an aura. Not to this extent.

Athena’s aura is different too, from what he is familiar with. He knows her aura well, has seen it frequently in his dreams, but he has never seen her aura from when she was young. It explains much.

This young Athena’s aura still holds the scent of books, the brush of feathers, the feel of pages, a thread being drawn through the weave, the rhythmic whir and clatter of a loom, the confident whisper of a king’s advisor and the gentle weight of an owl settling on his shoulder. But it is full of Pallas’ own buoyant joy, it carries the scent of the ocean and the feel of bright blonde curls brushing against her cheek as she whispers to her best friend and sister.

Young Athena’s aura carries an echo of Pallas’ own. There is no armour. No spear. No olive trees. None of the ferocity or the strategy that now sits at her core.

The fight continues. Then. Percy sees.

A slight shift in Athena’s aura catches his attention. He watches her eyes flick to the stands. Towards the top, where Zeus and Poseidon sit watching the exhibition. Zeus’ face darkening, Poseidon’s full of joy. Percy sees the tiniest, slightest of head twitches. Athena’s chin dipping in the tiniest, barest impression of a nod.

What.

She turns as the fight continues, repositions her familiar spear. She adjusts her grip. As Athena moves to strike, Aegis flashes, Pallas hesitates and the spear hits true.

He focuses on Athena. He has always watched Triton, Pallas and Apollo in these dreams. He has ignored Athena until she makes her accusation that it was Pallas’ fault for failing to dodge.

This time, Percy watches Athena.

He sees the shift in her aura. The deep guilt and the horror that coats it. He sees Athena close her eyes and just… push it all away. Her aura clears as if it was never there. He sees her make eye contact with Zeus. Sees Zeus give her a single regal nod, pride in his eyes. Unseen by anyone else.

Percy sees the moment Athena’s aura shifts. When some inner part of her swears her allegiance to the Sky King.

The scent of the sea, the buoyant joy, the brush of curls… All of it swept away in a moment. It is replaced with armour, a spear, and ruthless ambition a match for Zeus’ own.

This was- Gods! Triton and Poseidon always call it murder. But it was more than that.

This was an assassination.

________________________

He doesn’t tell Apollo about what he saw in his dream. Percy does draw it. He needs that not to be in his head anymore. Whether Apollo caught the significance of the new perspective of the arena fight, he doesn’t know.

It worries him. The Fates warning him of Zeus. He doesn’t think they actually want the King of the Gods to be overthrown. Percy’s not even sure that’s something he’s remotely prepared to be involved in. He’s twelve. Godly politics is not for him.

It feels more like… Huh. He thinks about what he’d seen in the throne room. When he was still trying to stop drifting from the intensity of the auras and the weird thrones.

They’ve just finished yet another session of Percy trying to work out how to pull up his own shields. Neither Apollo nor Poseidon expect him to ever go without their shielding. But if Percy can learn to call on his own shields, situations like the whole collapsing from Ares aura thing can be much more easily managed.

Eventually. If he ever learns.

Like with the earthquake and storm lessons, this is apparently a practice makes perfect thing. Right now they just want him to keep practicing it and don’t seem to think his skills will be improving any time soon. Or even anytime in the next decade from the sound of it? Fun.

Poseidon’s already left, so it’s just Percy and Apollo. He really does want to ask Apollo about this…

“Can we go to Delos?”

Apollo gives him a look, Delos is heavily shielded and its shields never change. It’s a good place for private conversations without risking Zeus getting paranoid.

Apollo does eventually agree and flashes them both there. Percy really hates godly teleports. Makes him feel like they put his body back together wrong when they land.

Still. Now he can ask.

“Don’t suppose you ever noticed something interesting in the auras of three brothers?”

Percy grins at Apollo’s very dry look. As much as he encourages Percy being vague and ‘cultivating a prophetic vibe’ he’s not so amused when Percy uses it on him.

“What exactly am I meant to be noticing?”

“You ever looked at them all together and thought how you’ve got an unstoppable constant change, an immovable solid force and an absolute declaration of the final ending?”

Apollo looks so done with him. It’s awesome. “Okay. Not how I’ve ever heard their auras described, but yes, I suppose that is what they are at their core. Your unique wording aside. Why?”

That’s annoying. Apollo’s not getting it.

“Well, I’ve heard you lot talk about the need for balance in the Council, like, endlessly. That the Council only works when everything is balanced. The tension of the threads constant and even.” Percy may be dreaming about the Fates and weaving a little too much.

Apollo is still not getting it, “Yes? Your birth went a significant way to restoring that balance.”

“Uh, yes. But also. I’m mortal? Gonna die one day? Like, probably in the next hundred years?”

Sorry, Apollo. Yes. You needed that heart attack.

“So. The three brothers all together. Perfect balance. Perfect tension. Nice and even threads. No bunching, no loose bits.”

Apollo is starting to look more thoughtful. Percy keeps going, “Unstoppable and immovable together? Bad idea. Kinda explosive. Unstoppable and absolute? Little better, too different to outright clash, but also too different to work cohesively. Immovable and absolute? Bad idea. Too different. Too unmoving. Both anchor themselves in place and refuse to move.”

“You’re saying the balance won’t be restored unless all three have an equal seat on the Council?”

“Yes? Sort of? When I first noticed it I thought it was just a me thing. But then…”

Oops. Hadn’t meant to say that much.

Apollo’s looking at him, waiting. He gives up, “Been having some weird dreams. Weirder than usual. Feel like Fates directing me to them rather than people triggering them? It’s kind of like… moments when Sky King has done something to change allegiance of different people or gods? Specifically by taking them from his brothers?”

Apollo is still thinking deeply. It seems to at least have caught his attention.

Apollo eventually tells Percy that the Winter Solstice, the only time Hades is welcome at the Council, has always been the least argumentative of their meetings. That any conflicts that crop up at that meeting aren’t between the three brothers. He notes placing Hades on the Council would be difficult as Zeus must be somewhat aware that the balance of power would shift away from him.

Percy just shrugs. Not his problem. He said the thing. Hopefully his dreams get a bit less weird. He really isn’t interested in Zeus’ stories.

________________________

Percy was very pleased with how well Nico and Bianca were settling into camp. After two weeks of summer camp there was nothing to suggest they’d been stuck in a time warp for eighty years.

He doesn’t have as much to do with Bianca. She needs things he just can’t give her. Silena and Drew can though. Percy also has some ideas for other people who might help her. It’ll depend on how she’s doing at the end of summer, and her father’s plans.

They did have a kinda awkward conversation where she attempted to thank him for ‘babysitting Nico’. He first tried to do the polite thing, and tried to act like Lee would. But she just doubled down on how stressful her brother is to handle and how glad she is Percy is so willing to ‘help out’.

Okay, he’ll admit, Nico is a ball of hyperactivity. But. So is Percy. He’s heard more than one god tell Lee they don’t know how he manages, because they can only handle Percy’s chaos in small doses. Triton constantly tells him he’s as relentless as the ocean.

Nico only manages to keep up with Percy till lunch time, sometimes he might last an extra hour or so if they are doing something really interesting. In general though, after lunch, Nico decides to go and do a quiet activity. Without Percy. Whereas after lunch is when Percy trains with the head of the Atlantis military. Often for several hours.

So. Nico might be a lot. But compared to Percy? Yeah. Nah.

“Nah, Dancer, not babysitting. I decided I want to keep him, so he’s mine now. Like, you can borrow him whenever you want! You’ve still got sister privileges, but, yeah. Mine now.”

He gives her a cheerful grin and a casual shrug and collects a wide eyed Nico for breakfast. They leave Bianca behind them, still staring. Nico was just as stunned, it was like he couldn’t understand why Percy would be so willing to spend time with him? The insecurity was kind of weird, if he was being honest. He couldn’t decide if this was a time warp thing or a forties thing.

Hades adored his children. In the dreams of their life before Maria’s murder, he was happy. The kids were happy. Percy knows they don’t remember that life, but it’s still strange.

With Piper’s rainbow hair a constant reminder of the last time a camper said something dumb, Percy arranged for Silena to have a private talk with Nico. Like, during their first week. She also assured him she’d be talking to Bianca as well.

It might be stereotyping to keep handing things like this off to Aphrodite kids, but Silena was really good at it. And also, an actual adult. Percy still remembers his own awkward conversations with Artemis and Lee and he just knows this is not a conversation Nico would want to have with Lee. Lee’s an utter sap but kinda intimidating if you don’t know how mushy he is. Silena may have a war aspect but she’s all soft compassion and gentle sea foam.

It’s a conversation most new campers have at some point. It’s less structured and more individualised because life as a demigod tends to be… kinda super shitty before camp. It was really just Piper’s bad luck that half the camp heard her say that when she’d been here for only a single night. Her rage quit thing meant no attempts were made to explain this aspect of Greek life to her.

Percy knew for Nico, it had been an age-appropriate conversation mostly on the whole any physical touch without consent is not okay, if something happens, here’s who you can tell. If you’re worried about something, here’s who you can speak with privately, no judgement.

Poor kid also got a much more thorough canvassing on Greek attitudes to things. Silena apparently touched on modern day mortal attitudes too.

By the time he got the kid back, Nico was blushing dark red and very confused. Which, yeah, to be expected. Then, Nico very tentatively asked how Kayla could have two dads, or Georgie have two mums?

“I honestly don’t know, man. They just do? But then the Grey Eyed One can gift children to people she’s never met, born from her mind, gods just be like that I guess?”

Nico was thinking very intensely something. Percy had been starting to think he’d need to go and get Silena for whatever it was. At least until Nico blurted out, “Do Athena kids have belly buttons?”

Huh. Percy still doesn’t have an answer for him. He keeps staring at the Athena table as they sit down at table three for breakfast. Do they have belly buttons? Unlike Ares and Aphrodite kids, Athena kids tend to be a little more conservative in their clothing, no belly bearing crop tops or just going shirtless. It’s bugging him that he still doesn’t know.

Percy was half thinking of taking the boat out and introducing Nico to a whale pod he can just sense way out in the ocean, when Castor and Pollux found them.

“Guys, I surrendered, put James back in his tank. Mr D won. I’m not sure I really want to-”

“Don’t worry Shortstack! Not Dad, we just wanna see if Piper’s attitude had improved.”

Oh Percy is torn. On the one hand, Piper and he are actually kinda friends. Or at least, she’s being civil and trying to make friends. Trying too hard really, the super polite thing is grating. He just knows she can be as prickly and snarky as War Drum, but he can’t work out how to get her to understand he truly wants her to just be herself.

On the other hand, her reaction to the twins’ prank was just beautiful. If he hadn’t been so focused on baiting her into showing her abilities, it would have been a thing of wonder.

He sighs, “Okay, we’re in. Right, Shadow?”

Nico nods enthusiastically. Pranking is a new concept to him. He’s utterly delighted by it. Percy did extract a promise that he wouldn’t apply his new lessons to his sister. To make up for it, he offered to help him prank anyone else he wanted. Kid needs a chance to stretch his wings.

The twins came prepared. They’d been back to the mortal stores for more Tristan McLean merchandise. Since this was a test not a declaration of war, he is at least fully dressed in all of it. Though the shirt with Tristan McLean as Hercules printed on it is…

“Guys, no. You know how I feel about Heracles.”

Pollux is full of glee, “Won’t that make it even better when you burn it?”

Castor adds, “Don’t worry, totally stole that one, no paying money for the moronic loser!”

He has taught them well.

Ah well, time to go poke the bear and see what happens.

“Hey! Angry Girl! Me and the twins got you a present. Like a belated house warming gift?”

He gives her his most innocent grin and holds out a messenger bag. The bag has a big print of her father on the flap. Inside is an entire outfit of Tristan McLean merchandise, all with his face and/or name on them. The twins even found an academic diary, and an entire pencil case of stationery.

Piper purses her lips as she sorts through the bag. She pauses on the t-shirt.

“Uh, Surfer Boy? You sure they were pranking me and not you? All I’ve heard since I got here is how much you hate Heracles.”

Castor and Pollux hastily assure her that no, definitely not aimed at Percy, and besides, they stole it. So all good!

Nico is standing back, keeping a safe distance so he can run. While he never saw Piper in her full screeching glory, he has heard a lot of stories. It’s rapidly becoming the stuff of legend, that time a daughter of Aphrodite attempted to charmspeak Apollo’s Prophet into assigning her a new parent on her very first day.

Now that’s a hero story Percy will gladly tell at the campfire.

Piper is still just amused by the new merchandise. She refuses the t-shirt but does go and change into the jeans, jacket, shoes and socks. She comes back laughing and saying she supposes she should be glad the twins didn’t get the underwear too.

What? Mortals are so strange, “Wait, he has an underwear line? Why?”

She just shrugs, “Publicity? No clue, I totally hate it. Makes school so awkward. I’m dreading going back.”

Percy considers her for a minute. Normally this is a thing that needs to be run past Lee first. Not because of prophet stuff, but just because Lee looks after the year-rounders.

“Ah, Angry Girl, you can stay here, you know? Like, Lee has glossy brochures that make it seem like a swanky boarding school for the parents that aren’t so big on the survival camp angle?”

She seems very surprised, “Oh. I’d thought… I dunno, I haven’t met all that many of the year-round campers but most seem to be here because well-”

She cuts herself off, suddenly looking horrified.

Percy cheerfully says it for her, “Because we’ve got nowhere else to go?”

She gives him an apologetic grimace.

He gives her a big smile, “Nah, Angry Girl. Been trying to be patient, but seriously, can you stop with the polite stuff? It’s weird. War Drum beats me up and teases me constantly. Much rather you be yourself than keep worrying about upsetting me. I’ll tell you if you the cross the line. Or if you like, totally stomp past the boundaries, War Drum’ll be after you.”

Nico looks like he’s seconds away from chanting, “Fight! Fight! Fight!” Nico’s great fun.

Castor and Pollux are also watching avidly, Piper’s doing well so far, but Percy knows they are half hoping she does the rage quit thing.

Piper gives him a proper grin, all her intense ferocity on display for once. It looks so much more natural on her than the polite rich girl thing ever does.

“Actually, I think I’ll take you up on that. Everyone says Clarisse is the best fighter in camp, and now we find out you and she are sparring partners? Bet you’d be fun to fight too?”

Oh, he likes this girl. She’s had what, all of four weeks of training?

He grins viciously, “Well, War Drum’s always up for a spar. See how you go with her first, Sparring with me comes with some extra considerations, War Drum can explain. But once you know the sitch, if you still want to, just name the time and place!”

He tries to be a little more serious with a less vicious grin, “But, seriously, year-round camp isn’t just for us strays. Most kids go home during the year because they want to be nearer their family and things are easier if you grow up in the mortal world. But if you’re going to be sent to a boarding school anyway, maybe try it out? You can always switch back to summer only if it doesn’t suit you.”

She seems very thoughtful. Gods, if she’s been dealing with the eye of the beholder thing while at a mortal boarding school for rich kids… She’d have had the kids constantly telling her she was inferior and depending on the individual kids, she may have genuinely believed them because of how they looked. At least to her. Do mean kids have inner beauty? Percy has no idea.

“By the way, Surfer Boy, I was hoping you could help me with something?”

He squints at her,“Uh, depends what it is?”

She gestures to her fabulous rainbow hair, “I’m told I need someone from Atlantis if I want to change my hair?”

He hesitates, Georgie rarely pulls pranks, he’s not all that comfortable with interfering with this. “Uh, in theory I know people. But also, your hair is like that for a reason, and-”

Piper just talks straight over him. “Oh! No! I’m gonna keep the rainbow! I just want to change it up a bit. The pink at the roots is kinda the wrong shade of pink? I want to make it deeper, Silena said the shade I want is called deep magenta? And maybe some longer streaks of the same pink through the rest? Decided I want to embrace the Aphrodite Areia thing.”

Oh, hey, Georgie won’t mind that. Actually, it’d probably be the thing that makes her finally forgive Piper.

“Oh, cool. That sounds like it’d look completely rad. Yeah, totally can help with that. Dunno who did the original charm, but I’ll ask around. If you can give me something that’s the right shade of pink I can arrange it?”

Piper not only has a paint swatch card in the right colour, but also an entire sketch of how she wants her hair to look with the streaks. Easy done. He can just hand it off to Georgie and she’ll get a new charm from her friend.

When they finally leave Cabin Ten, he turns to the twins, “So? Verdict?”

Castor grins, “Camp legend! She’s gonna fit right in.”

Nico peels off early, wanting to go through his Mythomagic cards. Percy tags along and with Nico’s permission is finally able to take a very careful look at the cards.

He’d been wondering about them since Nico first mentioned them. Mortals know a lot about Ancient Greece but it’s been heavily changed over time. Like a game of Chinese whispers, there are bits of truth along with endless conjecture and creativity. And yet, every time Nico brought up something from the cards, it was exactly right.

Nico knew what hippocampi were, that only the most skilled could do the horizon teleport thing. He even knew the proper name for it. Also the Kindly Ones. Nico recognised them, even knew the name of each individual Fury.

Forties or not, Percy couldn’t imagine Mythomagic being so accurate unless it had a different source. Which. Yes. Definitely godly in origin. When he looked for the traces of an aura he found Hades’. The slightest shadow echoing with feelings of gentle welcome, be still and rest and underneath it all Percy could feel the trace of deep love, of intense undying devotion. These were a gift from Nico’s father.

The slightest tang of the sea suggests Poseidon had something to do with them as well. According to Nico, he’d been getting new packs almost daily during his ‘month’ with the Lotus Eaters. That would be what, every two years? Maybe Dad was acting as messenger?

Percy sits back as Nico continues humming to himself as he arranges and rearranges the cards in different orders. It’s an interesting gift. A very clever gift for two demigod children with no memories trapped in stasis. Mythomagic gave them enough of an introduction to their world without turning them into monster-bait from the whole ‘you’re a demigod’ revelation.

It’s probably something that’s more of a Lee thing. Percy says bye to Nico and heads back out, half-thinking of finding Lee but mostly just wandering while he thinks about the game.

Percy could definitely see wider applications for Mythomagic. In the short term, he’s going to need to get a message to Hades about continuing to supply Nico with new cards and figures. These matter too much to him to just stop. Besides, Hades isn’t dumping his kids on Percy and walking away. His kids, his problem. Also, Percy wants to visit Cerberus and actually play with him. The puppy dog was so sad when he and Annabeth had to leave him behind! Besides, Nico’s gonna love him.

Eventually both kids will need weapons and all the other bits and pieces that come from being a demigod with a non-land dwelling parent. And training. No one at the camp has any experience with Underworld kids. They struggled with sea kids and they were a lot more used to that idea.

Also. Chiron is… Yeah. Percy doesn’t know what Chiron is. But he has some very strange ideas about the Underworld and Hades. Since he’s never really had many lessons with Chiron, he’d not noticed before. But when Percy saw the cursed oracle, Chiron kept talking about how Hades wanted to increase the size of his kingdom through mass death.

It’s even weirder because Percy has dreamed of that conversation Hades had with the centaur. Hades pretty much offered Chiron a place in the Isles of the Blest if he ever chose to relinquish his immortality. Immortals don’t go to the Underworld when they are killed, no more than gods do. Monsters and the like end up in Tartarus. But Chiron? Because of the whole gift of immortality thing, if he did die, without Hades help he’d just go, well, poof. No longer exist.

Percy’s still trying to work out the logic of the guy’s ‘Hades equals bad’ thing when he wanders past Annabeth sitting under a tree. He’s really not meant to talk to her without War Drum, but… Yeah. He has no excuse. Percy drops down beside her anyway.

“Hey Annabeth! Watcha doin?”

She still has that weird creaking noise in her aura. Might be getting a bit louder? He can still hear the whispers, the click and the whirring clatter under the creaking, so maybe not? The pages turn, wax crumbles, scent of books, a spear point, armour straps on his shoulders, an owl’s talons digging in, perfect straight pencil lines.

She’s been reading about the three brothers, and their interactions with prophets.

Uh oh. No. There’s no way she knows that story. Please. Can they go back to the architecture? Percy liked the architecture. Even the temple plans! Really!

She does know that story. How?

Annabeth tells him all about Zeus and the Oracle of Dodona. Unfortunately for Percy, wherever she got the information from was fairly accurate.

The Oracle of Dodona is known as the oldest oracle in Greece, some of the prophets and oracles attached to Poseidon are older, but far less known. The Oracle of Dodona was already long gone before Apollo and Artemis were born. Most people only know of Herophile. Originally the Oracle of Dodona was under the patronage of Rhea, and Zeus kind of just… stole the Oracle? From his own mum?

Like the Oracle of Delphi, the Oracle of Dodona was a spirit that passed from mortal to mortal. As far as most people are aware the Oracle of Dodona disappeared for unknown reasons, and their story is lost to time.

Percy has no clue how on earth Annabeth dug up the story. This isn’t like Pallas where it’s a known story that’s been suppressed. This is a story that has very literally been forgotten.

But Annabeth’s sitting here, eyes sparkling, telling him about how Zeus caged the Oracle. At the time, the spirit was hosted by a clear sighted mortal man. Basically, well, Zeus kept him. In a cage. The King of the Gods forced him to speak of the future.

The glimpses Percy’s had of that poor man… It was bad. There were some very uncomfortable conversations with Apollo when he first saw those drawings. Actually, given what Lee told him about Zeus wanting Percy’s allegiance… Huh. Zeus has been after prophets for very literal ages.

Zeus also kind of got distracted after awhile and forgot the Oracle was hosted by a mortal body. And. Well. It was kind of like what is currently happening to the Oracle of Delphi in the attic. Except much less intentional?

The cursed mummy in the attic still lived a normal mortal life and she died a natural death. Hades just prevented the spirit from moving to its next host and made her prophecies extra creepy. So long as the curse is lifted before her body completely falls to dust the spirit of the oracle will be able to move on. If her physical body deteriorates too far, the spirit is lost.

The Oracle of Dodona… Well, there were no other clear sighted mortals on Olympus. Gods are also not good at remembering what mortals need for survival. By the time Zeus remembered he had an Oracle in a cage…

Yeah. That would be when Lee asked Beck to make James the automatic feeder. Percy might have been having a lot of nightmares about the whole thing.

Annabeth is telling the story with relish, talking about the Sky King keeping an oracle as a pet, and how he saw the oracle as nothing more than a tool, that even the Master Bolt got more attention from him.

This is making Percy extremely uncomfortable, “This is a super old story though. And I’m Apollo’s prophet, not the Sky King’s. Sky King tried to make Apollo place me in a temple in Olympus and Apollo basically threatened war if Sky King tried. Uncle offered me sanctuary in the Underworld if we ever reached that point.”

Okay. That was the wrong thing to say. He can’t even tell why it was wrong. Annabeth is very unhappy. She’s giving him this weirdly intense look.

And now she’s making direct eye contact with him while she kinda fails at copying Lee’s professional calm voice. Annabeth explains to Percy that he is a person, not an object. That Percy is not a pet and it is wrong for the gods to treat him like one. That she wants to help him. She’s very worried about him as he’s been saying some very concerning things.

Parts of this are word for word things Lee taught Percy to say if he ever came across a camper in a bad situation and an adult wasn’t available. Like, she’s just totally changed the context, but is still using the same words? It is very very uncomfortable. He does not like this. At all. Definitely should have brought War Drum.

Percy tries to explain he’s not a pet. Apollo does not treat him like a pet.

She starts talking about his necklace and how he still doesn’t know how to take it off. It was the first thing she asked after he came back from training with Apollo. She was not happy when he said Apollo and his dad had just dialled down the shield temporarily to help him start learning to sense what it was actually doing.

She’d insisted he needed to know how the necklace came off, even said something about what if it gets caught on something? Isn’t it basic safety to be able to remove anything from your neck? It’s even one of Beck’s rules before using the forge!

At the time it had been weird, but Annabeth is full of weird comments and logic that makes sense to both her and everyone else, but confuses Percy and Clarisse, so he hadn’t really thought about it. But now she’s calling the necklace a collar and no different to putting a collar on a pet?

Yeah. Nope. He’s done with this conversation.

And hey! That’s Leo. He’s finally ready to talk! Bye, Annabeth.

Chapter Text

The night before everything changes, he stands still and silent at the edge of the clearing. He watches the children around the campfire.

Since returning from the quest he’s slowly settled back into who he was before. He has been able to push the Prophet of Apollo to the side. He’s had a few weeks of feeling the right age, both in mind and body. He’s sat and filled sketchbooks every time he was asked to, but he never looks at what he draws.

He knows he won’t have drawn this. Her fate is not for him to share. Not even really for him to know. He both knows, and does not know. Little flashes, glimpses of the woven tapestry fill his dreams. They always have. Since before the sun god saved him.

He knows he cannot change a person’s fate. He can only change the ending for those people who the Fates deem uninteresting. Not worthy of their attention.

Zoe Nightshade has a fate. There is nothing he can do to change that. But the Fates allowed a little Percy to help his hero. He still does not know if Zoe always had an option for a kinder path, or if this was the Fates’ doing. His dreams of Zoe helped him in his worst moments. Little Percy had been desperate to repay her. This hero who he’d never met.

He still carries Zoe with him wherever he goes. Her essence pooling within Anaklusmos. A cursed blade no more. He’d known even then, at some deep intuitive level, what it meant for her to gift the sword the way she did. For Zoe to kneel before little Percy and offer the sword freely, knowing she and he could never walk together.

Artemis wished to heal a breach. But not one between Zoe and little Percy. Artemis wanted her lieutenant to willingly lift the curse and heal the tear in her soul. The one caused by Heracles taking the sword containing her essence while abandoning Zoe.

Artemis had hoped, that in little Percy admitting to being named after the hated hero, Zoe would see how very different this tiny half-starved child was, to the hero she hated. That it would move her to either give the sword willingly or to reclaim her essence from Anaklusmos.

Instead, little Percy had babbled on about how stupid Heracles was before speaking of the future and completely redirecting his favourite hero’s path. Zoe had lifted the curse on the blade and healed the rend torn in her own soul. She still carries a scar, but it is not the wide streak of empty darkness of before.

The more he sees about the future, the clearer it is that the change to Zoe’s path was the Fates’ doing. It had been a gift. Later, he would be faced with a fate he could not change. A path he could not soften.

The children sit around the flames that are dancing and leaping. Full of bright colours and still fuelled by the excitement that has barely lessened since the first day of summer.

Piper sits with Drew and Silena, hair bright and vibrant even in the dimmer light of the fire. She looks settled, not entirely at peace with herself but better. No longer using her anger as a shield for her insecurity. She sings loudly and off-key. Her eyes dance with mirth as Silena and Drew mock her voice. Bianca sits with them, her eyes are sparkling, a small smile on her face. She is alone, but always welcome.

Georgie sits near the Aphrodite campers. She’s pulling back, now that twelve year old Percy’s heritage is known. She attends camp for him. She always has. He may refuse to acknowledge it, but Georgie now knows he is the second prince of Atlantis. She will soon step back entirely, voluntarily relinquishing her right to walk beside him as his sister. Her path is not his. Good things wait for her in Atlantis.

Leo sits between Beck and Harley, at last allowing himself the comfort of family. Near him the flames change shape, sometimes taking on recognisable forms, sometimes not. He’s learning to release his guilt. It will be a long time before he does not fear his gift. The damage it could cause. One day, he will learn to trust himself.

Nico sits with Castor and Pollux, joining in the pushing and shoving. Laughing as he wrestles Pollux off his seat. His icy core is showing signs of thawing with time.

Clarisse is sitting in the middle of her siblings. Still unsure what to do with their new respect for her. She had never wanted it. Never attempted to earn it. She had always simply accepted she was not like them. They respect her now. In time, their respect will grow. One day, they will gladly follow her into battle.

These are good things. Threads that are showing increasing evidence they will travel good paths.

A calm soft voice, “Percy, don’t do this to yourself.”

The High Priest stands behind him, he takes his hand and leads him to where Dionysus sits alone.

The High Priest guides him down with hands on his shoulders. He sits beside him.

He has no words. He is not twelve tonight. Not a child. He is ancient, marked by the years he has not lived. In the morning he will not remember what he has seen. He will not remember the images that overlay the face of each child. The faces that tell of the future their thread is yet to travel.

He is leaning against the High Priest. The High Priest’s arm is wrapped around his shoulders.

The High Priest’s thread is tightly entwined with his. They cannot be separated. Where one goes, the other follows. So it was foretold, so it shall be. Both walk the path the Fates decreed. To know the High Priest’s fate is to know his own. It is not for him to know.

Dionysus is on his other side. Dionysus who still bears his young regal face. The face of a demigod who earned the right of ascension. He changed his form when he first met little Percy and has not deviated since. Nor will he. Millennia from now, this is still the form he will take. His face is firm and serious. Tonight, he does not hide his concern.

They speak to him. Reminding him of who he was before. Not this ancient being who has lived millennia. They remind him of the small moments. The things that twelve year old Percy most delights in.

He watches her across the flames. Today she sits separately. Away from her siblings. She sings quietly. Her face is sad. The blonde is the exact shade. Her eyes the same shape. Her features exact. All of Athena’s children across the millennia bear the mark of Pallas. But none more so than her.

He knows why. Has always known. Will always know. There are years yet before he learns why.

Something taps his cheek. He ignores it. Ignores the voice. He watches her. Unblinking.

No one ever speaks of how she could be twelve year old Percy’s twin. But for the colour of her eyes and the shade of her hair.

The High Priest’s voice is growing desperate. Yet still hushed. The High Priest does not want to draw attention to the strangeness that is him. He is sitting still and silent. Unmoving. His head is slightly tilted and his eyes are fixed on her.

A voice, command in it’s tone. Metal against his lips. Pressing hard. A hand is holding something. He ignores it. Liquid is flowing down his neck.

The children will not speak of this to twelve year old Percy. It is not the first time, nor will it be the last. It is the cost of the power the Fates poured into this body. Power not meant for a mortal frame.

Dionysus tells him who he is. Where his home is. The High Priest tells him that he belongs to the High Priest. Promises that the High Priest will find him. No matter where he drifts.

Finally, he speaks. A low murmur. “I know how she dies.”

A desperate voice, an undercurrent of sharp fear, “I know, Percy. I know. Her fate is not your fault. You cannot change what the Fates have woven.”

He blinks. Change? Why would he? This is the tapestry. It is woven by the Fates. He is only a vessel. He watches her.

The High Priest wants him to squeeze his hand. Hands? He does not remember hands. All he sees is her face as she watches the fire and softly sings. He sees her future. Her past. Time intersecting and converging. Her entire thread exposed to him.

He ignores the voice and it’s demands.

Something is placed across his vision, stealing her from view. Purple fills his mind. A single soft word, “Sleep.”

________________________

When Percy came and found her, it was a little too like all those quiet talks during the quest.

It’d taken a while for her to work out to handle everything Lee said. It was… a lot. She’d known, sort of, that Apollo, God of Prophecy, wanting to name her was a big deal. Lee has gotten good at heavily downplaying what it means for Priss to be a prophet and him to be a High Priest. Even on the quest Percy had mostly avoided doing anything that drew attention to his status.

But it’s one thing to kinda suspect and another to realise the twelve year old kid she regularly treats like a punching bag can stand in front of the King of the Gods and just go all ‘try me’ and get away scot free.

The stuff about Clarisse herself having an actual role, beyond guarding Priss’s back, is… She’s still not sure what she thinks of that. She actually wasn’t all that bothered by how she would have died if Priss hadn’t rearranged matters.

Bothered her more, that Priss kept seeing it on repeat during the quest and Clarisse’d had no idea. She’d asked Lee to show her the drawings. Lee had sort of stared at her for a minute. Whatever he saw must’ve been the right thing because he got the sketchbook back from Apollo and showed her.

Lee had kept a tight grip on the book, said there were other pictures that she didn’t need to have nightmares about. Which. Fair. The sketches of Clarisse dead were… not great. Priss looked so broken, standing there staring at her. Like his entire world had ended. Priss’d said everything would unravel if Sky King killed her.

Clarisse is pretty sure Priss would have led a war against the gods if it had actually happened. He’s stupidly loyal. Definitely gonna get him killed one day.

But it didn’t happen. So. One shitty thing, successfully avoided. It wasn’t over though. Poseidon had set a deadline for the end of summer. If nothing happens in the next two months, the gods will be doing… something? to remove Annabeth’s access to Priss.

This morning, Lee had woken her before dawn. Told her he thinks something is happening today. That Priss had gone somewhere beyond their reach at the campfire last night. Mr D had ended up knocking him out and Apollo had checked the kid over. He doesn’t say, but Clarisse is certain Lee didn’t sleep at all last night. Probably came straight from Priss to her.

Lee said he’d be fine when he wakes. Wouldn’t actively remember any of it. Priss will know at some level what happened, but Lee thinks he’ll ignore it. Since she’s seen him do that before, it’s not as concerning at it should be. Prophet shit is just so fun.

Best they can tell, whatever has been causing the weirdness since the quest is ‘reaching a crossroads’. Something will happen today. Treat him like usual. Don’t mention it. Yeah. This is definitely Priss’s “know what you’re getting into” day. Awesome.

And now Priss is standing in front of her, still way too early in the morning, and giving her that look. That ‘I’m going to ask you to do something you hate, but it’s necessary’ look.

Great.

“What is it, Priss?”

He looks so apologetic, “Yeah, uh, so, something’s going to happen today? Not sure on timing, definitely before midnight though.”

Clarisse can’t help it, she goes all drily, “You mean the fireworks, because July 4?”

She still has no idea why they celebrate American Independence. They’re Greek. It’d be like the camp doing Christmas instead of Winter Solstice.

“Well, yes. That too. S’why I know it’s today.”

She looks at Priss. Lee’s worried that this whole ‘crossroads’ thing will be a choice between following the Fates and saving a friend. He’s worried Percy is too loyal to the wrong people.

Clarisse refuses to be as weirdly sappy as they are, but she does know. She knows in an intensely weird instinctual way. If Priss has to choose between Annabeth or Clarisse, he will always choose Clarisse.

No matter how much Priss struggles with whatever he knows about Annabeth’s future, he’s going to take the path that keeps Clarisse with him.

And no way in hell is Clarisse keeping Annabeth around past Poseidon’s deadline. Annabeth has tried several times to have a ‘private chat’ with Clarisse about Apollo keeping Percy ‘like a collared pet’ and drugging him with the weird water? It was creepy in Santa Monica, but forgivable, because mental breakdown. Now, it’s just… yeah, no.

Clarisse just walks off whenever Annabeth approaches her now. If not for Lee asking her to let it play out she’d have done something drastic about Annabeth herself.

“Priss, what do you need from me?”

He gives her a grateful look. Kid really is struggling.

“I need you to… not be seen? Like, you can still stick close, honestly would prefer it. But I really don’t want all of this to play out somewhere isolated. It won’t happen if they know you’re there?”

“I take it this is during the fireworks? Or am I playing stalker the whole day?”

He shrugs, “It happens when there are fireworks. Dunno if it’s the scheduled ones or Strobe and Power having fun. You gotta stay hidden. Promise I’ll call for you when it’s time.”

“Does Lee know?” She knows the answer, but is kinda curious how much the kid knows.

He shrugs, “I haven’t said anything to him. I… I have no idea how to explain this to him. He’s gonna be so pissed at me. But it has to happen. It’s not a me thing. It’s a Fates thing. I swear.”

Kid’s genuinely upset at the idea of Lee being angry. To be fair, Lee is almost never angry at Percy. Unless the kid’s done something extra dumb and put his health or life at risk. Which. Yeah. Tells her all she needs to know about today.

“I won’t mention it to Lee today. If you agree to a god supervising, you can choose which.”

There will be gods lurking anyway, but she’d rather have one actually here. Means a slightly faster reaction time.

Triton would be best. As much as he gets super anxious about Priss, he’s very good at telling actual risk from possible. He’s perfectly happy standing back and watching, even when she and Priss spar with Amyntor and Katecho. The only times he steps in is when a block is too slow and injury guaranteed.

All he does is stick his sword or trident into the spar just long enough to deflect the blow, and then he leaves them to it again. It’s not exactly a… normal training technique, well probably not for mortals? But godly reflexes do have their advantages?

If Percy’s at risk, Triton will supervise. He’ll only step in when the likelihood of injury goes from probable to guaranteed.

The problem is, if this involves Annabeth it’s also going to make Triton remember stuff he doesn’t want to. And Priss is stupidly loyal. He won’t want to hurt his brother.

And yep.

“I… Normally I’d say Tri, but I hate him seeing her.”

Yeah, no. She’s doing a judgement call, “Unless you can tell me the Fates say no, I’m calling Tri in.”

Kid finally gives in. Even he knows the only thing worse than Triton reliving those memories is Triton finding out Percy was injured while trying to protect his brother from his grief.

________________________

It’s today. He knows it. He’s had years of knowing this was coming. Not knowing precisely what, it’s all feelings, not words. But it is happening today.

He has changed some things. Not with intention. Something at some point caused slight changes to the thread’s final path.

At one time, this would have happened on the last day of summer camp. At another point, it resulted in Percy nearly dying and being left permanently disabled. Beyond even Apollo’s abilities to heal.

Before Apollo saved him there had been a path where no one knew Percy had the sight. There were no lurking gods, no War Drum watching. His path had ended today. Percy died, alone and without protection.

There had been a week, when he was seven and already at camp, where the path ended in Percy living in a gilded cage, the gods dead and broken, overthrown. The knowing had told a frightened little Percy to find the big war drum and he had blindly followed. Clarisse found him in a shed, and the path was no more.

Percy has changed the path many times over the years. Just… not the way he had hoped. He hasn’t changed the Fates desired outcome. Percy is not Halcyon Green.

So, Percy spends July Fourth like he does every year, he races around with Castor and Pollux, attacking Travis and Connor with water bombs. Starts a water fight in the common area between the cabins. He avoids Lee, but takes care to stay where Lee can see him. He lets Spot follow him around like a giant stripy dog and, with her consent, helps the much smaller and lighter Nico ride his zebra.

By the time the fireworks are set to start, he’s sitting on the beach, legs stretched out, leaning back on his hands. A little separate from the main group of campers but still very visible.

Mr D is watching him. Guy’s not even trying to hide it. Percy is aware he did the freaky prophet thing last night. Definitely scared the shit out of Lee. He can’t do jack about it though.

The Fates do what they want. Pretty sure it was deliberate. A way to make sure he’d have a lot of gods actively watching him today. Extra security to ensure her thread travels the correct path. His as well.

Plus War Drum. And Triton. Who are at least being invisible. He’s assuming Tri is responsible for the invisibility thing. If someone gave Clarisse an invisibility spell and didn’t share it with Percy…

She’s wearing the knife when she sits on the ground beside him, crossing her legs and sitting stiffly. He still doesn’t know how it travelled from Halcyon Green to her. He’s certain the Fates were involved. It’s too obvious to be accidental.

He absently watches her aura, the crackling creaking sound has become so loud. It’s frozen though, can a sound exist on pause? Apparently? It’s building towards something, but for now, it waits. The whirring clatter and the click is drowning the whispers, the crumbling of wax, the soft rustle of feathers. The scent of books is almost gone, the feel of the pencil is faint. Her aura is all armour and talons now. Worst of all, the spear point presses against his chest. Directly over his heart.

Well. It is today, after all.

“Percy, can I talk to you?”

He blinks, “You are talking to me, Annabeth?”

She looks at him seriously, “I mean, have you actually listen to what I have to say. I really need you to hear me out. It’s important.”

He shrugs and looks back to the ocean, “S’long as you don’t mention the stuff I told you not to talk about, I’ll hear you out. I’ll still stop you though, if you try to talk about that.”

She huffs, “I know. I won’t mention it. I still think you should know, but I won’t push it today.”

Nope. She won’t. He knows that already.

Annabeth starts her speech. She talks about the quest. How disappointed she was when they came home. How she’d wanted glory and recognition. He pointed out they’d received laurel wreaths. Had a day long party. Told their story to the assembled campers.

She frowns, “Mum never said anything to me after. I’ve never heard her reply to my prayers. I’m not like you, Percy, I can’t hear the gods when they reply.”

Percy keeps his face blank. Athena is an absolute bitch. Even Clarisse got congratulations from the War God and she has never prayed to him. Ever.

He does try to offer something though, “She did send you that hat last summer though?”

Athena hadn’t even left a note. Even the aura was impersonal, none of the emotions Hades’ Mythomagic cards had. But it was still something from her mum? Yeah. That’s not gonna fly is it?

Yep. Annabeth just shakes her head and keeps going, “Victoria is still in Cabin Eleven. It’s obvious just to look at her. But you confirmed it, Percy! Mum still won’t let her move to Six until she does something worthy.”

Victoria was one of the six Hermes campers who attacked Percy, which led to the earthquake and the claiming. He has a lot of sympathy for unclaimed campers. He’s not entirely clear why Annabeth still thinks he’ll have sympathy for Victoria though.

She’s getting passionate now, “I mean, we broke into the Underworld! We retrieved the Master Bolt! And I still haven’t heard from Mum, there was no glory, not even Victoria moving to our cabin.”

She shakes her head, getting herself back on track. Percy wouldn’t be surprised if Annabeth had written out dot points for this.

“And the way you were treated during the quest, Percy! With the Big Three fighting over you. Like you were a thing! You even told me Sky King wanted to take you from Sun God and keep you on Olympus.”

“Well, yes, but that’s only one of the three? Poseidon’s my dad and I like Uncle Hades?”

She’s looking frustrated, “You said you’d hear me out, Percy! I was there when the Death King tried to force you to eat ambrosia. He was trying to kidnap you! And even the War God tried to claim you!”

He’s still lost, “Uh, Annabeth. I did eat the ambrosia? Pretty sure Uncle just didn’t want Apollo hunting him down if I appeared on the surface in less than perfect condition? Also, didn’t you hear Apollo telling the War God it was against the sacred laws to enslave a prophet?”

She tells him again he has to hear her out and orders him to stop interrupting. Okay, then.

She talks about finding out the gods watch him, that he’s so used to it he doesn’t even understand how concerning this is. Yeah, he’s not staying quiet.

“Annabeth, I have the sight, the knowing. The most powerful abilities any of the gods have ever seen in a mortal. I actually can tell when a god is watching me? I can even tell if it’s passive monitoring or if they are actively watching me. I’ve always known and they have given me a lot of opportunities to tell them to stop. If I minded it, I would stop it?”

She’s not happy with him. He plunges on before she can tell him to be quiet again.

“I also know when you’re watching me. Your hat did nothing to hide your aura.”

He wasn’t going to go there, but she’s still not getting it, so, “I also know you were watching me well before those kids attacked me during the game. I called for help and you didn’t move. Not sure you have a leg to stand on when it comes to creepy watching. I consented to the gods. They actually asked me. You never have.”

“Seaweed brain!” He flinches. Really? “You don’t understand! It’s different! I care about you. I want you to have a good life, a proper life. Not be treated like a toy, just an object by the gods. They keep you drugged, Percy! You deserve more than that!”

The problem is she genuinely believes this. There is no lie in her aura.

He’s going to ignore the bit about being drugged. She really doesn’t understand the Delos water. But the rest of it…

“Annabeth, they aren’t mortal. They aren’t human. If it helps, think of them as entirely separate species? I know they don’t see me as the same as them. I’m not a god!”

He’s a little more passionate than he’d intended, “Dad and Apollo always listen to me, even before I knew he was my Dad. The fact I’m here at camp proves that they listen to me! I’m a powerful prophet. It takes a lot of work to keep me safe. To keep me anchored, especially when I’m constantly surrounded by demigod auras. I should be in a temple with no contact with anyone but Hot Air. They made it possible for me to live here because they do see me as a person!”

He knows it’s pointless. Has always known. Over five years of her watching him interact with gods. Five years of watching him learn to control his abilities. She was there, both times, when he was seven and his tether snapped and he very literally died. He was saved only through the direct interference of gods. There is nothing he can say to change her mind.

She just switches to her next point. Yeah, he knew this one was going to bite him in the butt.

She’s insistent that Chiron was wrong, Thalia isn’t at peace. She’s not in Elysium. He just watches her speak. What can he say? She’s right. It’s not time yet, but the knowing says Thalia will be at camp by next summer.

Annabeth stares at him, speaking so earnestly. “Percy, I need to go and save Thalia. She’s waiting for me. She needs help. But. You’re my best friend. I need you to come with me. I can help you, I promise. We’re going to fix this! Fix you. Make everything better.”

He goes to answer but his attention catches on something. Huh. What is that?

Percy tilts his head, looking closer at her aura.

Wait. That’s not right. Percy tries to seperate the mess of sensation out. The aura reflecting Annabeth’s intense desperation.

Annabeth is speaking the truth. She believes every word she’s said. Percy does not question how much she cares about him, how deeply she wants to ‘save him’. But her aura is carrying the echo of another. Annabeth believes what she says. Whoever told it to her, they didn’t believe it.

And that aura… a click, crumbling, a vibration, heat on the skin, pottery. That’s not Annabeth.

Oh. That is Luke Castellan. Luke Castellan whose aura he had last seen in a dream of the pit. Talking to Kronos.

Oh, no. The Oracle of Dodona, the true story lost to time. Remembered only by those with the sight or the knowing. And those who were alive at that time. Kronos.

He speaks over her, cutting into her increasingly desperate speech. “Annabeth, who told you about the Oracle of Dodona?”

She flinches, just slightly,

“Annabeth. Did Luke Castellan tell you about the Oracle of Dodona?”

The dam breaks. It all comes pouring out. She’d started speaking to Luke just after last summer. He’d approached her after school one day. She’d been so happy to see him again.

She talks about how much she’d missed him. Luke had called her his little sister. Said they were a family. She’d already been so worried about Percy, about the way the gods treated him. She confided in Luke. Luke had suggested a way of saving Percy. So that Annabeth, Luke, Thalia and Percy could be a proper family.

Luke had told her they’d need to force a big quest. Big enough that Percy would have no option but to go. To force the gods to let Percy leave the camp without an escort. Luke had told her that, since Percy was the grandchild of Poseidon, if the Master Bolt was stolen, Zeus would blame Percy.

Oh, Annabeth. You didn’t. He doesn’t want to ask. He wants everything to stop.

He asks, “Did you steal the Master Bolt and the Helm?”

“Yes.” He shuts his eyes. She did.

She continues, not seeing his reaction, sounding almost proud and desperate that he understand. “I used the hat. During the Winter Solstice field trip. When I came back to camp for the winter. I had to Percy! I needed to save you. I asked you about the necklace. I thought if you could take it off we could just leave. But you said you didn’t know! I had to take them. I needed to get you away from the Sun God!”

He wants the world to stop spinning. Everything to just stop. He needs her to explain the rest. “Did you give them to Luke Castellan?”

She’s happy, glad even. Like she thinks Percy understands? “Yes! He was going to organise everything, make sure we got you far enough away. He even had this charmed bag, so I could sneak the Bolt and Helm out of Olympus. Luke said I was the best option because the Sun God’s the only one who would see but he only watches me if you’re around.”

She’s staring at him so earnestly, “Luke said he’d be waiting for us when we left the Underworld. That he’d help me get you away. Then you said that stuff about saving Thalia. I told Luke and he said he’d make sure he and Thalia would be waiting for us, as soon as we left the Underworld.”

Her voice turns heartbroken, “But they weren’t on the beach! I looked everywhere!”

Percy redirects her with another question about Luke’s involvement. He needs information, and they are well past the point where he can offer her any actual comfort. Not with Tri and War Drum watching.

Luke had given Annabeth a lot of advice for the quest. Told her just how it needed to go. She said he’d found something that let him visit her in her dreams, each night he’d help her work out exactly how to overcome the next challenge. He’d promised to meet on the beach. If something went wrong, Luke said she was to get Percy on a plane and head straight back to New York. That it was the only way to keep him safe. But Annabeth doesn’t know who Luke wanted her to protect Percy from.

It’s pretty obvious that Annabeth doesn’t realise Luke intended them all to die if he wasn’t able to capture Percy. A plane carrying a Percy in possession of the Master Bolt was a death sentence to everyone on board. Zeus would not care about the other mortals.

Annabeth says something must have gone wrong with the Underworld trip. Her hat was supposed to keep Percy safe. She doesn’t understand why it disappeared into that tunnel.

Percy’s voice is flat, tired, “Annabeth, did Luke tell you to make me wear the hat?”

She still has that happy note in her voice. She truly believes Percy agrees with her.

Yes. Luke had said Percy should wear the hat. He’d found something that would make Annabeth’s hat fully conceal Percy’s essence from the Death King. He’d told Annabeth it was essential to keep Percy safe from the Death King.

Luke told her that the Death King would put Percy in a cage and keep him as a pet just like Sky King did to the Oracle of Dodona.

It’s very clear that Luke didn’t tell her that what happened to the Oracle of Dodona is the reason Zeus has no access to prophecy. Why Zeus has resorted to stealing the prophets and oracles of others. That Zeus and his treatment of the Oracle of Dodona is the reason why under the sacred laws even an Olympian can be executed for enslaving a prophet. Those laws were written in that mortal man’s blood.

“Did Luke ask you to design a temple for me?”

She’s still speaking with so much enthusiasm. So grateful Percy understands.

Yes. Luke said it’d be better for Percy. Better to keep him safe. Luke’s mother was meant to be the next Oracle of Delphi. He knew a lot about what Annabeth would need to do to protect Percy. Those blueprints were for Percy. Luke is going to have it built as soon Percy is free of the Sun God.

He has to ask.

“Annabeth. You do understand that Luke actually does want to keep me as a pet? That he’s manipulating you to bring me to him? So he can have his own enslaved pet prophet?”

She’s horrified, her voice turning desperate. So very worried. She rushes to explain.

Annabeth tells Percy that the Sun God has brainwashed him. That, as the God of Healing he has the ability to manipulate Percy’s thoughts. And the Delos water is doing something to him. Keeping him compliant. Luke told her that he had been banished from the camp because Luke had been attempting to save a seven year old Percy from a terrible fate. Annabeth had been too young to leave with him, that’s why Luke left her behind. She was safer at camp.

“Please, Seaweed brain. I need you to come with me. While everyone’s distracted by the fireworks. Luke knows how to help you. How to fix you. He’ll know how to remove the charm that’s controlling you. He says he already has an idea of how it works, how to get it off you. Free you. You asked me to help you keep your freedom, Percy! Some part of you is still in there. Still fighting against the Sun God’s manipulations!”

Percy has never felt more grateful for Apollo’s obsession with the shielding charms. For Apollo’s insistence he keep the bracelet and the anklet secret. They’ve even been disguised, they look like ratty cords, the sort from friendship bracelets. The few times anyone has asked, War Drum takes credit for them.

If someone actually managed to break the unbreakable Atlantis forged necklace, it would immediately alert multiple gods. And the bracelet and anklet would keep Percy’s shielding stable until the gods arrived. He doesn’t care if he jingles like a belly dancer. He likes this much better than what Annabeth is describing.

“Annabeth, you do remember that day in the dining pavilion? Luke broke my first shield charm? I collapsed. Actually died? Heart stopped and all?”

She’s really upset with him, angry and almost crying. Pure frustration and grief on her face.

“Seaweed brain, I’m so sorry. I’m going to help you. I will free you. I’m going to save Thalia as well. I will!”

The sound in her aura has been taken off pause. Percy listens as the wood finally cracks, the loom breaks. Her thread’s path is now set in place beyond any mortal attempt to change it.

She takes a deep breath and stands, before saying more gently, “I’m going to help you. Seaweed brain. I promise.”

She steps away, and makes a gesture to someone off to the side. The bronze dagger on her hip catching the light. Now, the three unclaimed campers approach, Victoria in the lead.

Annabeth is standing back, watching. Victoria is holding a little bronze jar. Its aura reeks of the pit. It may be small but whatever it contains is very very bad.

There’s nothing more to do. The Fates have spoken. The path is set. Percy has his answers.

He speaks quietly, “Tri? War Drum?”

The invisibility around them shatters. They’d stayed silent and unmoving through the entire conversation. Nothing to show they’d been standing barely a metre behind Percy the entire time.

Triton steps forward and plucks the jar from Victoria’s hands and examines it.

He looks to Percy, expression blank, “A young pit scorpion. This would have proved fatal within two minutes. An excruciating way to die.”

Annabeth is yelling at Triton, accusing him of brainwashing Percy, of controlling him. How the gods won’t even let Seaweed brain sit and talk with his best friend without supervision!

Annabeth doesn’t seem to realise ‘her friends’ intended to kill Percy if she failed to convince him to leave with her. They chose such a fast acting poison for a reason. On the path where he died, alone and without protection, it was a pit scorpion that killed him.

Triton considers Annabeth, tilting his head. Percy wonders what he sees. He doubts Pallas ever showed this particular face to the father she adored.

All Triton says is, “Percy?”

Percy sighs, “Your call, Tri. She’s the only one. The rest… I’m staying out of it.”

Triton nods. He waves a hand and the three unclaimed kids are gone. Teleported elsewhere. Percy has no wish to know.

Triton speaks to the abruptly shocked silent Annabeth, “At my brother’s own request I supervised your conversation. While you have been treated very ill by this Luke Castellan and your opinions are… extremely misguided, it is clear you genuinely care for my brother.”

His face is blank, no emotion at all as he continues, “You intended to leave the camp tonight. Your intentions are pure, even if your actions are problematic. Because of this, I will allow you to leave unaccosted, so long as you leave now. Do not return.”

She stares at him. Flicks her eyes towards Percy.

Triton’s tone turns abrupt and commanding, “Leave. Now. Or I will make you leave.”

She leaves.

Percy remains seated on the ground, and he watches her run for the border. He speaks in a low whisper. She would not hear him no matter how loudly he speaks.

“Goodbye, Wise Girl. I’m sorry. I tried.”

It is done. There is no more he can do.

________________________

When Lee approaches, Percy finally stands.

He walks silently towards his cabin, Lee, Clarisse and Triton following. He knows Apollo and Poseidon will be waiting for him already.

He has refused to talk about this for so long. Had known if he told them what would happen, he would be too tempted to change her fate. Too tempted to find her a kinder path. He knew what the cost would be. But some days he just wants his friend to be safe. Some days his own loyalty pulls too hard at him. So, he did what he had to do.

He had never known why this was the path she would take. He’d seen glimpses of the way different threads ended, but never the why.

He’s not sure having answers makes him feel better.

He did as the Fates required. He avoided injury or death for both himself and Clarisse. Annabeth is alive and uninjured. She has left camp for good, without violence.

When they enter the cabin, they all sit silently around the sitting room. James watching avidly from his tank.

Percy takes a seat off to the side, away from the others. He’s avoided Lee all day for a reason. To do what he must he needs to release his anchor. Let himself completely detach from the real world and the now. He needs to trust Lee will pull him back after.

Percy sighs. “There’s something you all need to hear first. It’s a knowing thing. The rest is still not for me to know. But this… It’s time.”

Apollo considers him. It doesn’t matter what his answer is. This will be said, whether Apollo gives permission or not.

Percy knows he gave a few of these before Clarisse, before his mind finally settled back into its right place and he could at last be a normal kid. At least for a while. As it is, he’s still not quite back to being the right age. Last night still lingers, it makes everything feel a little too strange, too wrong.

He does not want to do this. An oracle has a distinct separation between the clear sighted mortal and the spirit that inhabits them. As a prophet, Percy has no such helpful distinctions. He was born as a muddled mess of mortal and prophet. Like Poseidon said, Percy was born with too much power. No mortal is meant to carry this strong a connection to prophecy.

Percy settles himself and breathes. He opens the door and lets the prophet take over his body, that millennia old part of him that has lived for twelve years and for thousands. That exists outside time.

He speaks with the depths of the ocean and the heat of the sun.

“The loom stands ready. The threads have been gathered. One thread is yet to be renewed. The tear in the tapestry shall be healed.”

It takes time to pull himself back. To claw back his own body from what is essentially himself.

He sits and blinks and waits as the prophet recedes, as it gives him back the kid he is. Twelve years old. Nearly thirteen now.

He wants Lee.

“Warm air?”

Lee is there immediately, sitting beside him, wrapping an arm around him, holding him close.

Lee is kinda shaking. Even his aura feels terrified. What? Oh.

He finds his words, he’d do anything for Lee, “Sorry, Hot Air, this isn’t like last night. Just needed to do it long enough for the prophecy thing to happen. Last night… that was the Fates interfering, not my doing.”

“Wait, you know about that? Perce, were you aware that whole time?”

He shakes his head, “Nah, sort of? It’s weird. I don’t remember what I saw, I know you were absolutely freaking out though. Never heard Mr D so worried either. Stayed away from you today, couldn’t risk anything changing what had to happen. Really wanted to apologise though. Lee, you sounded so scared.”

Lee turns and buries his face in Percy’s shoulder and hugs him tightly. It’s nice.

Apollo’s voice, “Why were the Fates interfering last night?”

Percy shrugs, “Didn’t want to risk anything going wrong. Been trying to find a way to tell you for like, years, but couldn’t find an option that didn’t knock it all off course. Every time I worked out what to say, the knowing would go all red alert and tell me not too. Fates found the answer I guess?”

Apollo is thoughtful, “Because of last night, we were all watching you today. We were also staying away and out of sight. We were concerned any interference from us, even you just seeing us, would change your course. If you’d have asked us directly for assistance, we would have had a more obvious presence.”

Percy gives Apollo a smile, it’s kinda strained, Lee’s still hugging the stuffing out of him, “Yeah, pretty much. Knew even before I ever met you or came to camp that today would happen. But the outcome kept changing as little things happened. I really fucking hate it. But, according to the Fates, what happened today was the best path.”

Apollo has no idea how to respond to that. Fun. He settles on, “How much did you already know of what she said?”

“None of it actually. I knew the result, I saw a lot of really terrifying outcomes over the years. Never the why.”

Apollo hesitates and then asks, “The knife she carried, was that…?”

Percy nods, “Yep, I brushed against it and it triggered the dream about Halcyon. Don’t know why she has it. Hoping I’ll get an answer one day that isn’t just, ‘because, the Fates’.”

Triton breaks in, “What other outcomes did you see?”

Really Tri, did you have to ask?

He makes a face, “Uh. Really? Fine. Me dead. War Drum and Hot Air dead beforehand because they could’t get me alone otherwise. Me unable to walk. Lots of paths that were okay-ish but put us at a major disadvantage for whatever’s next.”

He takes a deep breath. He should tell them, “Me in a cage and Olympus fallen. That was the worst one. Saw that like, on repeat for a week not long after I came here. I remember Hot Air kept finding me hiding weird places and trying to get me to tell him I was so upset. All I knew was I wasn’t allowed to explain. I didn’t really know how to tell him that though.”

Apollo is super focused on him now, he’s clearly starting to put the pieces together, “Do you know why that path changed?”

Percy grins at Clarisse, Lee still attached like a limpet, dude’s not letting go anytime soon. “The knowing told me to find the big war drum. I went and hid in the shed where it said she’d be.”

Apollo quotes, “It all starts with the drum.”

Percy shrugs uncomfortably, “I told you what I could. The new path started with the arrival of the drum. That week I kept seeing myself locked in a literal cage, all of the gods were dead. Even you, Apollo. I’d just met you. You’d just saved me. I was not entirely rational. I was seven.”

Lee finally speaks, talking into Percy’s shoulder, “That day, the day you met Clarisse, you told us that the reason you ran to find her was because your sight had warned you about something. You never told us what. You ignored me whenever I asked, as if I hadn’t spoken.”

Yeah. Percy had done that. “I uh, honestly had no idea how to say, ‘I just saw all the gods dead and me in a cage, and the knowing said if I don’t run, like right now, the world’s gonna end?’ That really wasn’t in my vocabulary!”

Apollo finally decides Lee has strangled Percy enough and comes over and pries his son off Percy, hugging him and softly murmuring something in his ear. Percy feels kind of really bad for how much he scared Lee last night. Stupid Fates.

Clarisse is kind of just staring at him, looking stunned. Oops. He did just tell her she changed the fate of the world by just being in the right place, at the right time.

“Uh, sorry War Drum. Probably shouldn’t have dumped that on you like that. But uh, yay? You saved the world when you were eight!”

She rolls her eyes and drops down on the couch next to him, “Dude, does any seven year old know how to say stuff like that? Also, you sure it’s me who saved the world? Given you’re the one who made sure Sky King didn’t kill me? And didn’t die by pit scorpion just now?”

“I knew you were my friend!”

Clarisse punches him. He loves her.

She perks up, “Wait, does this mean I can finally ask about the rest of the cursed oracle’s prophecy?”

He grins, “You did real good pretending those lines didn’t exist, War Drum. I was sure you’d break before it was over! Yeah. Prophecy’s done. It definitely did the multiple meaning thing though. Problem with the oracle being cursed is it makes the prophecies, like, extra weird. Deliberately depressing and confusing. Plus the whole plural ‘you’ thing. The ‘you’ in the prophecy could be me, War Drum or Annabeth. Uncle did a real good job on that curse.”

Percy goes on, may as well keep talking and distract from his guardian who is still crying on his father. Percy’s feeling kind of super bad about how scared Lee must have been. Last night was not fun. For anyone.

“First two lines were done when I went to Olympus, the whole ‘You shall go west, and face the god who has turned. You shall find what was stolen, and see it safely returned’ Both pretty self explanatory. Found the Bolt and the Helm and your dad’s an idiot.”

She punches him again. He still loves her.

“I’m pretty sure the last lines were meant for Annabeth. She was the ‘you’, s’why I said not to share them and only told Lee. Some futures people shouldn’t know in advance.”

He hated it, but she wouldn’t have understood, just made everything ever harder. And given how she was talking, probably insist that Lee was the friend betraying him.

He continues, “‘You shall be betrayed by one who calls you friend’. Pretty sure that’s Annabeth and Luke. She genuinely believes Luke wants to help me. If we’d gotten on a plane like he told her too, she’d have died along with us. What Luke is doing to her, that’s a whole ‘nother level of betrayal. Could be Annabeth betraying me and War Drum too. Or me betraying Annabeth by choosing the Fates over her. Cursed oracles are just such fun.”

He cannot wait until Uncle lifts that curse. That thing is just terrifying.

“Final line also does the multiple meaning thing. ‘And you shall fail to save what matters most in the end’. I’d not realised it was about her though. Thought it was about me not being able to change her Fate. Doesn’t make sense though. Wanted to save her, so badly, but am a prophet. What ‘matters most’ to me is never going to be a single person. Not compared to what the Fates say. But, Annabeth, she wanted to save me. Like, desperately. I’ve got no idea if that came from her or Luke. But it mattered to her. She wanted to save Thalia too.”

He hesitates, “I, uh, didn’t realise how much Thalia not being immediately revived would set her off? I needed to get that started, Fates insisted, but I didn’t think…”

Triton is the one who offers comfort, “It was an illogical response from her. From all you’ve said, she seemed quite accepting of the girl’s fate. It is strange, of the three of you, she was the only one with a genuine stable family in the mortal world. To be so focused on building a seperate family elsewhere…”

Percy just shrugs. “I really don’t know, Tri. I know she didn’t want to switch to summer only. I know you all did something sneaky to make it happen. Like, it made no difference to the outcome, so I left you to it. I thought having more time with people who loved her would be a good thing? Annabeth seemed to have a good family? The way she talked about them, nothing she ever mentioned was actually bad? I even tried dreaming of them, and I still never saw anything!”

He looks at Clarisse, hoping she has answers, she shrugs a shoulder back at him, “You and me don’t exactly know what normal is, Priss. Neither of us ever had a mortal family like she did.”

They are quiet for a time.

It’s Poseidon who asks, “Do you know her fate?”

Percy shrugs a shoulder, uncomfortable, “I have a lot of broken glimpses. I have a fair idea. I can’t tell you. I can’t talk about it. I know you’ve all been panicking that I was going to go against the Fates and save her, but that was never an option. I did what I could. I tried to give her a kinder path. I knew it wouldn’t go anywhere, but I just…”

Lee is finally getting himself back together, wiping his eyes. Percy doesn’t need the sight to foresee many sleepovers in his future. Sorry, Lee. “Like Daniel? You wanted to give Annabeth some good moments, some kindness?”

Percy nods. “I fought so hard for her because I knew if I gave even an inch you’d all insist I stay away. That might’ve changed the outcome, might not. But I knew for certain that if I just ignored you, I could give her good memories. And still let the Fates decide the outcome.”

He frowns again, thinking, “Looking back, me going to War Drum and Luke being banished did give Annabeth a kinder path, Malcolm instead of Luke. A few good years. It was the best option I had. I still wouldn’t have chosen it over better paths, just to help Annabeth though. I took it because otherwise the world was ending? I was never going to choose her over everyone else.”

Apollo has the good grace to look a little sheepish. Yeah, dude. The whole lot of them made the quest so much harder with the constantly threatening Annabeth thing.

“You gotta admit, kid. You spent a hell of a lot time telling us to back off.”

Percy just blinks at him. Seriously? “She has a fate. A decreed by the Fates sort of fate. I was so incredibly tempted every time one of you offered to drop her into a prison or teleport her elsewhere. Because then she’d have been safe. It would have been kinder.”

Percy’s voice turns sad and bitter, “When War Drum suggested letting her go to the Arch alone, I genuinely had a moment where some part of me thought her being killed by the chimera was better, because at least it was quick!”

He frowns at the gods, “It is not for the prophet to choose the path. The Fates decide. I was trying very hard to keep everything on the right path. You lot did not help.”

Three sheepish gods stare back at him. Yeah. Thanks so much for doing that to him. It made everything so much harder.

It’s Clarisse who asks, “Was all that weirdness since winter, Luke? Because, like, she’s always been kinda weird, her brain works differently to ours. It’s why I liked hanging out with her. But she’s never been mean, not since Luke left and Malcolm started spending time with her. Not till this summer. I’d thought it was just ‘cause it was her first summer without Malcolm. But now… And that whole freaking out thing, that was new?”

Percy doesn’t know either. How much was the Fates, how much was Luke, was it both? “I still don’t know how much of the change in her was the Fates meddling or if this was just who she was. But there was a moment on the beach, after the fight where I just… I knew she wasn’t my Wise Girl anymore.”

More silence. At least the gods might be realising that twelve years old or not, Percy is trying to be a proper prophet?

Poseidon finally asks, “Luke Castellan is working with Father?”

Percy doesn’t really want to talk about Luke. Luke broke sacred laws that he definitely knew about. Luke apparently wanted Percy in a cage. Percy has no sympathy left for him, if he ever had any to start with.

Also, there are still things he hasn’t shared. He probably should.

“Ah, so you remember back before War Drum came, and I did that whole dying thing, and Apollo found my spirit near the pit?”

Three unhappy gods and an even unhappier guardian stare back at him. Yeah. That’s not really a thing they’ll ever forget is it? Percy hadn’t known Triton then, but Tri had already been doing the nightly aura check in thing by that point.

“Yeah. Shouldn’t have asked. Anyway. The reason I ended up in the pit was because with Luke breaking the charm, he was the one in physical contact with me when the shield fell.”

Apollo is staring at him, “It was Castellan who was carrying an echo of the Crooked One? You showed Dio the reflected aura but it was too faint for us to track. We knew it was from the first night you arrived, but it was barely a trace of an echo. We’d assumed it was a cursed item!”

Percy shrugs, “Again, I was seven. ‘Less the Fates direct it, my dreams follow triggers. ’Til camp, I’d never dreamed of the pit. Had no idea what it was. Just that it was bad. After Luke left, until the Bolt and Helm were stolen, I didn’t dream of it again. Knew the myths about him, but that’s it.”

Percy is so glad he’s not a god. Since Zeus has already said it’s not up for discussion and all.

Percy does need to explain the aura thing though. Even Apollo admits that Percy sees more than him. They’d needed Hades to confirm the weirdness that had been Chiron’s aura back then. Something about aura versus essence?

They also still don’t understand how Percy can tell if someone’s lying. He’s learned to sort of turn that one off most of the time. It got annoying noticing white lies all the time. Kinda bit him in the butt with Annabeth though.

He refocuses on the still stressed looking goods.

“Look, this is like, way above my pay grade. Most of it, I only realised when Annabeth was talking just now. I only learned how to separate the echoes out of someone’s aura, like, last year. When Annabeth was talking I was trying to work out why her aura told me truth, but the echo said lie.”

He is so glad Apollo spent so much time helping Percy learn to translate what he sees and knows into words that other people will understand. Otherwise, he’d be telling them he doesn’t know why the whispers were honest but the pottery was lying. He’s surprised anyone ever took him seriously with how garbled his explanations were. The nicknames helped at least, less uncomfortable than trying to label auras with unconnected names.

“Annabeth’s probably been carrying an echo of Luke Castellan since they met last fall. But the echo was so faint and jumbled I wasn’t consciously aware of it. It was only because of the truth but lie thing I could separate out the elements. Then, when I had the lie part distinct, I realised his aura had its own echo.”

This is making Percy think of those little Russian dolls, the ones that all fit inside each other.

“Once I recognised Castellan’s aura, since I had been to the Underworld and already relived that super fun episode, it was kind of easier to back trace it? Only been a few weeks, the memory’s still pretty fresh. I think he may have carried the Crooked One at least since I arrived here? I’ve dreamed of the day Thalia turned into a tree a lot, but I don’t remember anything in his aura like that.”

Apollo asks, “Has the echo changed since you saw him at camp?”

Percy nods, “Yeah, it’s a tonne stronger. Got more… what’s the word you like to use? Nuance? More of the Crooked One in it. Can’t tell you if he’s a willing follower or a slave though.”

Lee speaks up, “Luke has always hated the gods. He started at camp around the same time I did. Never stuck around though. Even at twelve he was full of anger and bitterness.”

Lee pauses, sudden realisation on his face, “Perce, you told me that the angry bitter ones held significance? You didn’t seem sure why though?”

Percy shrugs, “I still don’t know why. Just that it’s… better? preferable? to give them a kinder path? Like with Angry Girl, no clue where her path is going, I just know that baiting her like I did gave her the chance to choose a different fate. Pretty sure she has? She’s not one the Fates care about, so it’s a bit of a wait and see.”

Apollo frowns at him, “You don’t usually use your knowing in such an obvious way.”

Percy gives him a grimace, “I knew something was coming and soon. The one thing I could see is that if she was left to fester she’d already be gone by the time we got back. I didn’t know when the quest was gonna happen, so I just… pushed her a bit harder than I usually would? Like. I totally would have still baited her, don’t need the sight to see she was doing the destructive spiral thing. But if I hadn’t been so certain that if I waited she’d be gone, I would have have given her more time. Been a bit more gentle with it, gotten Hot Air to help.”

Poseidon interjects, redirecting the conversation, not interested in discussing demigods that are not children of the sea or his or Hades’ own.

“Do you believe Father was directly manipulating the quest?”

Percy nods, “Yeah. Or, well, sort of? Think they might have had some sort of plan to tempt me to him or something? Kept dreaming about him, but the aura is so overwhelming, I have no clue what he was saying. But yeah. Luke was working directly for the Crooked One. I really don’t think Annabeth knew. She’s gotten super fixated on family since winter. In an uncomfortably creepy kinda way.”

Clarisse butts in, poor Poseidon. This is why Lee keeps saying he and Clarisse have weird ideas about the gods, isn’t it?

“Speaking of creepy, did you seriously know those plans she kept showing us were for a temple, like the entire time?”

He gives her a sheepish smile, “I was kind of hoping she just had like a crush or something? And was really bad at dealing with it?”

Clarisse hits him again. Yeah. Well. Percy’s twelve, almost thirteen. He didn’t know how to deal with it! He’d hoped if he ignored it, it’d just like… go away?

They seem to be winding down. Poseidon’s clearly given up on getting answers from Percy. Which is good, because Percy’s fresh out.

Lee’s perched against the desk, just listening, still red-eyed but only half-focused on the conversation. He’s thinking about something.

Lee finally asks, “You were attacked by six campers during the Capture the Flag game, the three that left, they were all claimed children of the Thief God, but the three today were all unclaimed?”

Hey, Lee did notice the pattern! Took him long enough.

Percy nods, “Yeah. I, uh, don’t know for certain. It’s not really a knowing thing, but kinda is? Like more of a hunch than a certainty? But I think their dad might have pulled them out when I was claimed and he realised exactly who his kid’s had been hunting?”

Apollo looks ready to kill Hermes. Triton’s pissed for a whole seperate reason, “Hunting?”

Yeah Percy’s going to pretend he didn’t hear Triton ask that. Just gonna move on-

“Yeah. There’s a group of campers that hunt him down on the first day of summer every year. Four were summer campers when Luke was still here and they collected two new ones. One of the new ones was the unclaimed Cabin Six girl from today. Victoria? I think?”

Thanks, Clarisse. So glad you told a room full of parental figures about that.

Lee is not happy, “Are any still here?”

Percy sighs, “No, that was all of ‘em. I knew the actual Thief God kids would be gone before I got back from the quest. Others had to stay till today. Didn’t know why. Actually. Not sure I even know now. Guess they might’ve been encouraging Annabeth or something?

Triton’s voice is clipped. “I will be finding out why.”

Yeah. Percy doesn’t want to know. Could just be some mind magic. Could be something else. He’s not asking. Gods do their own thing.

Lee again, “Perce, I can understand why they had to stay. But just to be clear, if anyone else bullies you and you don’t tell me. If it isn’t the Fates directing things, I will have Tri guard you round the clock.”

Overprotective neurotic mother hens.

He sighs. Nods. Lee absolutely would do that if he thought Percy was keeping non-Fates things from him. Guardian/High Priests be like that.

Moving on, “So. I kinda want to chuck all you the gods out, spend some time with Hot Air and War Drum? Any more burning gotta know now questions?”

Apollo asks, “Do you remember the prophecy you just gave?”

Percy sighs, “Yes, I don’t remember the ones from when I was little, but pretty sure they were all kinda provoked by events. The Fates just barging in because something was going off track. Today’s one was them basically saying ‘good job! Have a gold star!’”

He can see Apollo’s eye kinda twitching as he tries to process precisely how disrespectful his prophet is to the Fates.

Not like they can do anything to Percy. He did what they said. He don’t gotta be polite about it. Percy’s spent too much time around Lee. Blunt is best!

Apollo clearly decides calling Percy on it is pointless. “One thread is yet to be renewed?”

Percy rolls his eyes. “The tree. I don’t know if it’s the Fates or something else. But apparently that’s gonna be a little more involved than y’all had planned. Not my problem right now. I’ll deal with it when it’s time.”

On that note, he finally manages to make his cabin a god free zone. Yay.

Lee then sheepishly tells him the daybed in his bedroom has a rollout bed underneath it. Huh. How long has that been there? Clearly a while based on Lee’s face. But it works. Percy and Clarisse decide Lee will be sleeping on the rollout on the floor, just because. Clarisse takes the daybed.

Percy has never had so many sleepovers as he has had this summer. Like, he’s used to sleeping in the Apollo dorm room, but this is a different kinda nice?

It’s good to have family.

Chapter Text

Things settled down pretty quick after Priss’s little chat with Annabeth on the beach. Clarisse was very glad to have a break from the sheer weirdness of it all. And very glad when Lee finally decided he was okay to let her and Priss out of his sight.

Like, sure, she spends a tonne of time with Priss, but during summer, outside of training they usually do their own thing?

Priss is a non stop ball of chaos. If Clarisse spent that much time around him she’d definitely have bashed him over the head ’til he stopped talking. Clarisse is pretty sure half the reason Lee eased up was because even he was ready to kill Priss.

Gods! What if the kid didn’t have a camp full of demigods to keep him entertained? Clarisse tries to picture Priss in a mortal school. Yeah. No.

Well. It would be very entertaining to watch the chaos from a safe distance. But also. Clarisse is very glad Lee never tried to give the kid that ‘normal experience’. She’d definitely have been expected to go with him. Yeah. No.

Clarisse hadn’t realised how panicked Lee had been by whatever happened at that campfire. She’d asked Priss later and he’d just shrugged and said he’d gone ‘full prophet, no Percy’ and the whole point of Lee being his High Priest is he’s the one person who can pull him back.

Scared the crap out of Lee when he couldn’t do anything. Priss said the Fates picked the most efficient, least nice option to get the message across.

Clarisse should probably dial down her hatred of the fates. Especially since she still hasn’t changed her mind on the naming thing.

Now that things are quieter and Priss is off spending the day in Atlantis with the sea gods, she figures it’s time she actually told Lee that.

She finds him in the Big House, reading yet more paperwork. Seems to be all he does, apparently paperwork is not a thing Mr D or Chiron know anything about? Which must be super fun.

“Lee?”

He focuses on her, like straight away. It’s still weird, still makes her feel kinda strange, but she’s gotten used to it. They don’t push her, Priss might tease her, but he never comments on the way she just straight up leaves when the sappy stuff gets too much for her.

“Hey Clarisse, you here to ask about being named?”

Priss is right. Totally a mind reader.

She nods, gives him a shrug. She hasn’t got the words. Doesn’t know how to start this.

Lee apparently does. He leads her to the kitchen and bustles around making hot chocolate and telling her about Piper’s ongoing attempts to join in Tri’s training. Not gonna happen. Clarisse is pretty sure Piper knows this, but points for sheer determination?

Lee seems to think hot chocolate is the go to answer for, like, everything. To the point that, for both her and Priss, ambrosia and nectar tastes like the crummy cheap powdery hot chocolate Lee shoves at them constantly.

Clarisse prefers not to think about what that says about how she sees Lee and Priss. These quieter moments with Lee have always been for her. When Priss is off somewhere driving someone else to distraction, she sometimes comes to the Big House, and Lee makes her hot chocolate and lets her just sit near him.

She doesn’t want a parent. She had a mortal mother, a godly father and an aunt. Her aunt never seemed to like Clarisse much, but she did look after Clarisse. At least till Clarisse got her killed. Everyone says it wasn’t her fault, since she didn’t even know what a demigod was. But the monster was after Clarisse. She couldn’t even see it through the Mist. She’d thought the car had been attacked by wild dogs, then they crashed and her aunt was gone.

After, she stayed with her mum for all of two days, before she was left at camp. Until the quest, Ares didn’t care about Clarisse and she didn’t care about him. Never made an offering to him. Never prayed to him. Her offerings and prayers were for Apollo at first, and other gods later as she spent more time around Priss.

Clarisse still doesn’t care about the War God. He can crow all her wants. He had nothing to do with any of it. If an adult has to take credit for what Clarisse did, then she’s giving it to Triton and Lee.

Lee will never say it, because he knows she’d freak out and probably bail entirely from camp. But Clarisse does know Lee considers her to be his kid. Same as Priss. Different too. But not in a bad way.

Lee takes her and Priss as they are and tries to give them what they need from him. After the last time Clarisse went a little overboard sparring with someone who called her and Priss siblings, no one dares say it where she can hear. But she knows most of the camp sees them like that.

Lee lets her sit quietly for a while. Gives her time to try and find how to ask the questions she has.

“Why’d you agree to naming?”

Lee gives her a smile, he’s never bothered by how long it takes her to talk about the big things. It’s weird. Priss never shuts up and she goes all weird and silent at the worst times. Lee just rolls with it either way.

“Dad asked the day after I found out who Percy’s father was. After I’d heard Percy give a full prophecy and not completely melted down over it. I can only really tell you my own experience. It’s been too long since the last prophet, even our own records are gone.”

He pauses, thinking, “For me, part of it was mostly because of the less divine sort of reasons? Perce was a terrified little kid. He had no one, well, no mortals, and the gods… They aren’t like us. They don’t know how to take care of a kid. I knew I could give him a childhood. That I was the only one who’d had enough training on the sight to have an idea of how to integrate it all to give Percy a decent life without trying to force him to be who he’s not?”

She considers, “Was thinking before, about Priss in a mortal school.”

Lee laughs, “Yeah, Perce would not have coped. Apparently most Sea King kids are like that. Kinda glad we only have the one.”

Clarisse winces, yeah, no. Two Priss’s? No. Thank you.

Lee turns a little more serious, “The other aspect to it is a bit harder to explain. I have a little bit of sight. Mostly I just see the auras of gods, and with Dad’s help I can see demigod auras. But it has a bigger impact. Makes me a little more in tune with the whole fate thing. Dad once told me I was born for this. Some part of me feels like he’s right?”

He shrugs, “Dad told me something. This bit applies to you as well, Clarisse.” Now he’s super focused on her.

Lee’s using his confident calm leader voice, “Dad told me he could have chosen anyone. Even a god. He was well within his rights to choose whoever he wanted to look after Percy. He chose me because Dad knew I was the right choice.”

Wait, is he saying? Uh. That’s a lot. Then again, after what he told her about Amyntor…

He grins at the look on her face, “Yeah, I know. It’s both great to hear someone believes in you that much, and also terrifying. At this point, the only thing preventing you being named is you. Dad’s seen enough to be certain of his choice.”

“I still don’t get why he wants to name a second person though?”

Lee gives her a half shrug, “From what I understand, normally a prophet would have a whole host of named protecters. Depending on their sensitivity, only some of them would have direct contact. But all were divinely ordained to care for the prophet.”

She hates the way this makes it sound. Priss is just Priss. This is all big and godly and just weird.

Lee gives her a little smile, he definitely knows what she’s thinking, “In Percy’s case, a temple just straight up isn’t an option, not just because of his age but also the Great Prophecy. Even afterwards, it’ll be Perce’s choice what happens. He needs people who can go where he goes. People who can keep up with him. He’s the only prophet to ever be born with additional powers. The only one who is not a child of Apollo. Most prophets genuinely want to live in solitude in a temple.”

Clarisse grins, Priss locked in a temple will never not be a hilarious mental image.

Lee gives a little helpless shrug thing, “I won’t be able to follow where he’s going. I’m not considered a camper. I’m an unofficial camp director and a High Priest, but I’m not a fighter. I’m good with a bow, good at leading. But not the fighting part. I’ve never been on a quest, never been interested in it.”

He grimaces a bit, “I also don’t quite have the capacity for trusting him that you do. Which is fine when he’s safe at camp and I have time to talk with him about the reasons behind his decisions.”

Clarisse snorts, “Yeah, but Priss needs that. He’s big on gut feelings, less big on safety.”

Lee smiles, “Which is where you come in. Out there, with whatever is coming, he needs someone who can just go along with what he says. He told you to hide Amyntor, to not follow him into the Underworld, to lie to Annabeth. You didn’t hesitate, didn’t argue. You trusted him.”

Clarisse frowns, lips twisting, “Uh, I thought that’d actually kinda reflect badly on me? Like, I know he said he’d be safe in the Underworld, but the thing with the pit, and then Annabeth just losing it?”

Lee grins, “Mr D’s been calling the quest ‘your audition’. And as far as the gods are concerned, you nailed it. Percy can fight and he can protect himself. You listen when he tells you he can handle something. You also listen when he says he needs you.”

Huh. Okay. Maybe. She’d been incredibly pissed at Priss every time he’d pulled her aside for one of those weird chats, but she hadn’t even considered saying no.

Lee’s watching her, he has that intensity in his eyes, he’s so very certain she can do this.

“Perce told me he genuinely didn’t know what was going to happen at the cafe. All he knew was something was going to happen, it was going to be extremely painful for him, and some part of him knew you would know what to do. As far as Dad’s concerned, what happened at the cafe and the fetch quest confirmed it for him.”

Lee really wants her to hear this. He’s getting kinda a bit too much.

“During the quest, you saw Perce at his worst. Rendered blind and deaf by his own abilities. The next day, when he said he could handle the Underworld without you, you didn’t hesitate. When you realised he was going to challenge the War God, you stayed back and trusted he could handle it.”

Lee’s kinda sheepish now, looking away from her, “You were the only one there who wasn’t bound by divine law. Your trust in him was enough. Even Dad and Poseidon didn’t have that level of faith in Perce. I’m not sure I would have either. It’s like we talked about a while ago. For me, the hardest part of this is trusting Percy when my every instinct is screaming at me to protect my kid.”

Huh. She’s confused, “At the time I was mostly thinking that I was too predictable to fight the War God? Doubted I’d win. Priss is sneaky, never know what he’s going to do. Neither of us would win with brute force. I was kinda thinking he was just gonna, like, scratch the guy? Wasn’t expecting him to just totally skewer him.”

Lee’s laughing at her now. “Uh, pretty sure that caught us all off guard. Sea King said if he hadn’t been there he’s not sure he’d have believed the kid would pull such a move.”

Clarisse offers, “Go big or go home?”

Lee smiles, “Exactly! But that’s what I mean. I’m a caretaker, a guardian, my primary role is to look after him, keep him safe. I can give Percy a lot, but what I can’t be, is his partner. I can’t stand beside him and take on the world with him. You’ve proven again and again that you can protect him, and also fight alongside him. That you’ll listen to him, even when the rest of us don’t.”

He does a little jerky shrug, “Everything with Annabeth… When he was able to finally explain it, well, we definitely made things a lot harder for him. We didn’t listen when he asked us to back off.”

Clarisse snorts, “To be fair, he’s been saying the same thing since he was like seven, not sure I’d have listened to a seven year old either.”

Lee gives her a pointed look, “And yet you were just as close to Annabeth as Percy was? You were present for a lot of those arguments, didn’t stop you being friends with her.”

“Well, Priss said it was fine?”

He just looks at her. Oh. Yeah. Okay. She’ll give him that.

At least he switches topics after that, “Before we talk about what Dad wants to name you, there’s one more thing you need to know about all of this. Percy’s aware of it, as far as I know it’s fine to discuss it with him. But only with him. The only reason Dad’s okayed me sharing it now, is because of the successful quest and Annabeth no longer being a risk.”

Oh. This is gonna be a fun. She gives him a look, raising her eyebrows. Come on then, what else can there be?

Oh. Okay. Not what she was expecting.

Apparently the Sky King is a bit more obsessed with prophets and oracles than she’d realised. Even though Sky King’s the whole reason the divine laws exist. Because like, thousands of years before Apollo was even born the guy had stolen a prophet.

Huh. Lee is being very careful with his words. Oh.

“Wait, is this the thing that Priss used to have nightmares about? He kept dreaming about forgetting to feed James for too long and coming back to…?”

She’s not saying that. Nope. Priss described it to her once. When she was like, nine? Then Lee found out and said that Percy doesn’t need to share that nightmare with another kid, and from now on he’s only to talk about it with Lee and Apollo.

Lee’s wincing, “Yeah. That’d be the one.”

Yikes.

The rest was less traumatising. Still shitty. She hadn’t known the mummified oracle was cursed mostly to cut Sky King’s access to the prophecy domain.

“What would have happened if Sky King found Priss before Apollo?”

Lee just tells her to be very glad he hadn’t.

She frowns, “I’m not going to say I’m a bad fighter, but uh, I’m very sure I can’t actually win a fight against Sky King?”

Lee’s grinning, eyes sparkling, “Love the war kid spirit! But, no, we aren’t asking or ever expecting you to fight the King of the Gods!”

Yeah, he’s definitely laughing at her. She glares at him. Kinda makes him laugh harder.

He finally gets himself under control and gives her an apologetic smile, “Sorry, Clarisse. But, seriously, we don’t need you to physically protect him from Sky King. We need you to be Perce’s partner. Remind him of what matters. Step in if someone does something sneaky and attempts to change Perce’s allegiance. Sky King at least, isn’t doing sneak attacks. He’s still very focused on giving Percy the most impressive temple ever built, in the highest position of honour on Olympus.”

Huh? She tilts her head, “No one told him to just buy the kid a weird pet he can talk to? ‘Cause that’s all it takes.”

Lee snorts, “Yeah, pretty much. Though, to be clear, we don’t want his loyalty to be forced either way. Apollo’s power over the prophecy domain depends on the loyalty of Apollo’s prophets and oracles. Right now, that’s just Percy. There’s no one else. But Percy needs to be genuinely loyal, to freely choose Apollo at every step. Not because he has to, but because he wants to. It’s why the gods are around so much, why they are trying to give Percy what he needs, even if it goes against their natures.”

“Pretty sure Tri is just emotionally attached,”

Lee grins, “Yes, but he doesn’t like us pointing that out. Basically what we are asking from you is to make sure Percy isn’t being manipulated, by us or by Sky King or anyone else. You heard the way Annabeth was talking. She genuinely wanted to help Percy, but she was being manipulated by someone who just wanted the allegiance of a prophet. Even the best of people can change allegiance with the right motivation.”

“Yeah that was creepy, she sounded so convinced. But everything she said was just… wrong.”

A shrug, “From her perspective the way we treat Percy IS wrong. Somewhere along the way she failed to understand that everything we do is with Percy’s full knowledge and consent. Even that necklace. I might have asked him to wait when he was younger, but if he genuinely wanted it off now, even if his reasoning was irrational, we’d still take it off.”

Clarisse had never doubted that. Going without shielding would make life totally suck for Priss, but they’d still do it if he asked.

“So. What exactly is Apollo naming me?”

“Hiereia phroura tou Apollonos. The Priestess Guard of Apollo.”

Huh. She considers it. Yeah, that could work.

“Does it come with any cool extras?”

“Well, you’ll be under Apollo’s protection so the next time Perce goes to Olympus, you can go with him and not risk electrocution?”

Yes. That would be good. Though, is that really it?

Lee smirks at the face she’s pulling, his eyes lighting up, “Also, it’s going to absolutely infuriate the War God, Apollo naming you completely overrides the War God’s own claim on you.

Now that was more like it! Clarisse gives Lee a vicious grin.

________________________

It had fallen to Lee to tell Chiron. Apollo had offered to do it, Mr D as well. The problem was, neither of them had ever made any attempt to hide their hostility for Annabeth.

Lee kind of understood. That first year she lived at camp, she’d be an absolute terror. Seven year old Annabeth could not be reasoned with. Every attempt Lee made to befriend her had been rebuffed by Luke or Annabeth herself. After Luke left, Lee had realised much of what the little girl said were direct quotes were from her hero.

Most of Lee’s reasons for continuing to keep his distance were selfish. He’d been there the day Percy gave that prophecy. The one about Annabeth’s thread being “needed to mend the tear.” Lee’d also been there later, in the months that followed. It had taken time for Percy to truly settle into a mental age that matched his body.

For those first few months after Luke was banished, after Clarisse arrived, whenever Percy got overtired, he’d say things about the future. Some were about the future of people he’d been near. Lee had heard a lot about Georgie’s “pretty crown” and how “scary powerful” the twins would be in those days. Something about Clarisse that Percy refused to talk about. Mostly though, Percy talked about Annabeth.

Lee still doesn’t know what Annabeth’s fate is. What Lee does know is that it is a terrible one. That Percy is genuinely frightened of what is in Annabeth’s future. It takes a lot to scare a kid who’s seen what Percy had.

Percy used to wake from his future dreams of Annabeth in the same state as when he did from past dreams about the Oracle of Dodona. All Percy would say is that her fate could not be changed. It had been woven already. The path was set.

So, Lee kept his distance from her. Every time he found his kid watching Annabeth, looking grief-stricken and guilty, Lee’d repeat the mantras they’d all starting using. Her path was set before they met, her fate was not his fault. Percy listens and agrees, but it’s only a matter of time before he’s watching her again.

None of them know what to tell Percy when he talks about how Annabeth looks like Pallas. That they could be twins. Percy never explains.

Lee had been the one to insist the gods allow Annabeth to stay on at camp. Gods do not forgive. They hold grudges that last centuries. Whereas Lee had a lot more forgiveness in him for the eight year old who’d been manipulated by an angry bitter nineteen year old.

Lee just wanted her away from Percy because he wanted his kid’s nightmares to stop. When it became clear that Percy’s interest in her was not going to wane, Lee let Percy make the decision. While Percy may not have remembered exactly why Annabeth had upset the gods, she still hadn’t been exactly nice to him. If the kid could forgive that, then Lee should at least try to do the same.

Percy and Clarisse had befriended Annabeth. Malcolm had worked hard to smooth out the edges on the prickly little girl. They’d ended up seeking advice from the mortal world. Neither Lee nor Malcolm had any experience with what had, at times, felt like deprogramming a cult survivor.

It had seemed to work. Percy and Clarisse would constantly crow about how weirdly Annabeth’s mind worked, and then cheerfully admit they were pretty sure they were the weird ones. Which is true. Lee loves his kids, but the way they see the gods and the divine world is downright strange. His kids were right when they said Annabeth was the normal one of the three.

Lee had been the one to suggest moving Annabeth from year round to summer only to the gods. At Lee’s request, Apollo had done the sneaky thing and thoroughly checked her family. Looking for any signs she wouldn’t be safe at home. Lee couldn’t be a parent to Annabeth, couldn’t let himself get attached. Not with what was ahead. But she still needed an actual parent.

Apollo had confirmed her mortal family was safe. Had shown it all to Lee. Had even grudgingly agreed to place wards on her school and home, ensuring they were monster-free zones. Lee arranged transport and they brought her back to camp every holiday. Every time she returned to the mortal world Lee ensured she had a fresh supply of drachmas. Percy and Clarisse reminded her to Iris message as often as she wanted.

Lee still didn’t want her around his kid. He hated the way Percy’s nightmares increased whenever she stayed at camp. But, Percy had always been determined to be friends with her. Lee tried to stand back and let Percy lead. He’s not always good at it. He had definitely made things worse for Percy.

Prophet or not, Percy had been a little kid, and he was loyal to a terrifying degree. He’d refused to talk about Annabeth in any detail with them. She’d become an enmeshed part of his life at a time where Percy struggled to make Apollo and Lee understand when he genuinely could not tell them something. At a time where their worry for the kid had led to him forcing a prophecy just to make them stop.

They didn’t trust Percy. Lee still isn’t sure how he feels about that. Percy was seven. He had so little experience with friends. He was desperate to save people, to prevent their deaths. To learn years later that even then, Percy had been listening to the Fates… Lee feels both very guilty and also a little helpless. What else could he have done? He wanted to protect Percy from all of this.

Percy still believes the gods refusal to allow Annabeth to know about their plans and their alliances was because they didn’t like her. But, for a god, not liking a mortal means ignoring their existence. Not constantly watching them. None of them can work out if Percy is doing the ‘not for him to know’ thing, or if this is an aspect of the future he genuinely hasn’t seen.

The gods kept Annabeth at a distance and limited her knowledge because both Poseidon and Apollo’s sight showed Annabeth standing against Percy. That whatever is coming, they will not be on the same side.

Lee had seen that too. He doesn’t know what he would have done if the gods hadn’t brought it up. He’s safe if he never says. But that image? Yeah, that would have broken his silence if the gods hadn’t mentioned it.

Trying to very gently explain to Chiron that Annabeth had left camp had not gone well.

He’s starting to think the gods’ dislike of the trainer is more about Zeus gifting immortality to a random centaur without warning, than it is about Chiron himself. His kids’ reasons for keeping their distance are more normal teenage reasons. Clarisse adores Triton, Triton doesn’t like the centaur, therefore neither does Clarisse. Percy just doesn’t like the memories he sees when he spends too much time near him.

Chiron had listened as Lee explained that Annabeth had re-established contact with Luke Castellan sometime in the past year. That Luke had convinced her that Percy needed to be rescued from the gods. That she could not be reasoned with, to the point she had not only stolen the Bolt and Helm but also unknowingly made several attempts to ‘save’ Percy that would have resulted in his death.

Then, Chiron asked if this is what Lee meant about one day knowing Annabeth’s fate? Lee had to tell him, that no, this was just the beginning. But it was in Chiron telling an eight year old Annabeth that she would one day play a central role in the Great Prophecy that her fate had been sealed.

Chiron has changed since that time. He may still needs reminders that modern expectations on child safety and mental health have changed, that the myths he knows are not always correct. Chiron was still a good trainer.

The problem was, regardless of his intentions, of how much he has improved, they cannot undo what he has done. To know of the future without seeing the tapestry is a terrible thing. Halcyon Green had seen the future, but not the threads. He had met a little girl and learned her fate. He had shared that knowledge with the little girl. The tapestry had torn. All previous attempts to mend the tear failed.

Chiron had a met a little girl and asked a cursed Oracle about her fate. He had shared that knowledge with the little girl. A little girl who is now fated to mend the tear.

The Fates demanded payment for Halcyon’s choice.

Because of Chiron’s choice, Annabeth will pay that price.

________________________

Summer camp ended quietly. After the July Fourth fireworks things settled back into their normal rhythm. Percy creating chaos and dragging Nico, Castor and Pollux along for the ride. The gods are back to brief nightly aura checkins with far less active supervision. Even the training sessions have dialled back to a more normal routine.

Percy has been assured that once the camp had returned to its quieter year round rhythm, Bianca and Nico would be claimed and have more permanent arrangements made for them. Bianca found the chaos of summer camp a little difficult to handle.

Percy’s pretty sure it’s mostly the sheer amount of kids. Bianca’s a born leader, but she needs space too. And that’s kinda in short supply during the summer. Depending on things, he’s hoping either Hades or his dad will let her stay in the Underworld or Atlantis when things get extra chaotic. Like the reverse of what Georgie always did.

Like Percy had figured, this was his Sea Sister’s last summer at camp. She’s Mermaid now. She was gentle about it, and Percy knows it’s time. Georgie pointed out that Percy has a sister, but it’s not her. Georgie will still visit the camp, she’ll make sure to stop by often. She just won’t be staying there anymore. She promised they were still cousins and would always be cousins. But Percy is royalty and she isn’t. No matter how casually Triton acts on the surface, it’s just not appropriate for her to claim that type of relationship.

Especially with where she’s going. Georgie’s accepted a placement with Triton, sort of like an internship within the leadership of the military. It’s something she’s looking forward to, something she’s been working towards for awhile. Galene’s bursting with pride.

Percy knows there’s more to it. Poseidon’s own knowing has led to him subtly directing Georgie’s path. It will be a good thing. She has the sort of future ahead of her that most campers can only dream of.

Percy knows Lee’s not going to like it but he can’t resist telling her one thing. The thing the Fates keep saying about him. It doesn’t matter to Percy. He doesn’t want it. But Georgie does. It’s in her blood.

“Georgie? They are going to be telling your story for all time. You will never be forgotten. You’re gonna do great things, and I’m gonna see you do them.”

Georgie grins at him. For just a second Percy’s sight flickers. Instead of the beaming sixteen year old with the waist length red curls in faded jeans and a t-shirt, Percy sees who she will be. Wearing Atlantean armour, hair tightly braided. A circlet on her head. Her trident in hand. She’s screaming her war cry as she leads an army, a conch horn blowing. Percy cannot wait to see her grow up.

Chiron has been more difficult to face. Percy’s never really sure how he feels about the centaur. He avoided him when he was little because his aura hurt. Even when his aura improved, Percy still didn’t want to see whatever was in the centaur's memories. So he keeps his distance. Clarisse hates him because Triton does, and she blames the centaur for the weirdest things. Triton has opinions on the centaur solely because, as far as Triton is concerned, no one is good enough for Percy and Clarisse.

Plus, Chiron doesn’t handle Percy being, well, Percy, very well. He’s one of the ones Percy knows with absolute certainty can’t be trusted with prophecy. Which means he gets to deal with the pranks and the chaos and Percy basically making him bluescreen when he needs to be a prophet because the guy’ll argue back otherwise. Percy feels kind of sorry for Chiron.

Annabeth was always Chiron’s favourite. She actually listened to his lessons and always asked the right questions. In a camp full of demigods who hate lessons and can’t sit still, it made sense that Chiron was fond of the one kid who wanted to learn.

Percy has heard nothing about Annabeth, he doesn't expect to either. If the gods have been unable to find Luke Castellan since the day he was banished, they will not find Annabeth either. She is alive and uninjured. It’s the best he can ask for. He doubts he’ll never not feel guilty.

Percy has no idea what Lee told Chiron about Annabeth leaving. He’s not going to ask either. Chiron is needed at camp, he has heroes to train yet. But Percy isn’t one of them. Lee’s not a trainer, nor is Mr D and the fact Triton agreed to train Clarisse is a miracle in itself.

Though, something will have to be done about Chiron’s ‘Hades equals bad because death’ thing. Nico and Bianca being claimed is gonna be interesting. Percy has no idea how many campers share that opinion. He’s been trying to find stories about Uncle he can share at the campfire. Problem isn’t so much that there are bad stories about the guy, more that there just aren’t any. Dude keeps to himself.

Percy is also aware Chiron knows something he shouldn’t. After Annabeth left, Lee practically turned out the entire attic and did, something? Percy’s not actually sure what, to lock down access to the oracle. She still has to be used for the big quests but now accessing her needs Apollo’s permission? Something like that. Not Percy’s problem.

Probably his favourite moment of this summer was when Ares decided to drop by. It was certainly a choice. To just pop into demigod camp and stride up to where Percy was sitting with Clarisse. Given the whole ‘War God lost a fight to a twelve year old’ thing.

It was just after lunch and most of the camp were still at the dining pavilion. Everyone went silent when they saw the War God. If Percy didn’t have the charm thing still clipped to his necklace he’d be like… unconscious already. Lee was kinda turning purple with anger.

Then the whole scene played out like a piece of theatre. It was just amazing.

Ares headed straight for Clarisse and went, “Heard your preferred weapon was a spear?”

Clarisse just… looked at him. It wasn’t even a glare. Just blank, like how you look at a random stranger who’s blocking the path?

Ares just stood there, waiting, And so did she. Still not reacting.

Ares eventually went kinda awkwardly, “Anyway. Since you had a successful quest and all that, figured I’d drop off a reward. Had it specially made and everything! It’s electric!”

Then he produces a spear from nowhere and holds it out to her and goes “It’s called Maimer!”

And Percy’s War Drum just stands there for like a full minute while just looking through him.

When Ares is finally starting to go all pissy and heading for a rage quit she says all casually, “Guess you heard about the naming, huh?”

And then she just walks off, stepping around the War God still holding a spear out.

Gods, Percy loves her. She made the War God bluescreen!

He told the entire story to Triton with great glee. Triton was definitely proud of her. Didn’t say anything, but Percy could tell.

The electric spear was on Clarisse’s bed when they got back. She just stood there glaring at it. Percy ended up suggesting they just stick it somewhere before anyone gets a good look. Then if someone sees Amyntor by accident they can gaslight them into thinking it’s Maimer?

So now the electric spear is stored next to the cursed oracle mummy. Clarisse insisted. She’s petty. It’s awesome.

Plus, Ares got lectured by like, all the gods. Because he’s not allowed near prophets without supervision. The aura thing and all. Now he’s gone and done it three times!

Percy’s thirteenth birthday passed quietly. It may not be for him to know, but he is aware that there is something Lee is dreading about the future. He always tries to give Percy a good birthday, but Percy prefers not making a big deal about it. Maybe one day, but right now he wants to enjoy the good moments. He doesn’t need gifts or big parties, he just needs his people, his family.

Now here they are, most of the summer campers already gone. Piper has decided to stick around and see if camp is better than boarding school. Leo is still incredibly enthusiastic about everything. Still seems a little unsure if he belongs here, but Percy just drags him along for the ride. If the guy genuinely didn’t like him, than Percy would leave him alone. But since Leo’s reasons amount to “I don’t deserve friends” too bad so sad, he’s participating. Seems to be helping?

The year rounders are rearranging dorms and settling back into their normal routine. Percy had been told he wouldn’t be returning to Cabin Seven. Apparently, when Apollo first spoke to Poseidon about arrangements for Percy they’d agreed Percy would live in Cabin Three once he was claimed. He’s going to miss living with Will and Kayla but he’s been assured he won’t be living in Three alone. Percy’s not sure what they are planning though. Georgie has completely cleared out her room and Percy’s been asked to stay in the Big House tonight.

The knowing says he’s going to like the surprise. So instead of trying to sneak back, he’s rounded up War Drum and Lee and they’re spending tonight doing the family thing. Or the temple thing? A Prophet, a High Priest and a Priestess Guard?

Huh. Either way. They are Percy’s people. That works for him.

________________________

There is far too much mischief and glee on Poseidon’s face.

They are seated in a side room of his Underworld Palace, the furnishings similar to the comfortable living room in the house Maria had lived in. It is nostalgic but he finds himself longing for Maria and their children. For all that their situation has improved, he still cannot be with them.

As far as Hades was aware today’s visit was merely to finalise the arrangements for Bianca and Nico and ensure the children will be protected when their little brother inevitably discovered the subterfuge.

Yet, Poseidon is grinning at him. It is unsettling. Unfortunately Hades knows full well that his brother can maintain this expression indefinitely. He had been horrified when only a handful of hours after he had confidently told himself the child prophet would never dare, his brother had shown him the image of the boy approaching the doorman and demanding an audience.

The expression on his face was an exact match to Poseidon's. It is… concerning.

Hades breaks, “What is it?”

“Fear not, brother! For once you are not the source of my entertainment!”

That still leaves a very wide field of options. Hades sighs, “And who is the source?”

Okay. Even Hades is amused by the end of Poseidon’s tale. Hermes had quietly removed several of his children from the camp after learning they’d been deliberately targeting Apollo’s Prophet. When Apollo learned of this, he informed his sister. Artemis is very fond of the child. Together the two archers led a hunt through Olympus for their little brother. For Hermes.

Poseidon describes the hunt with relish. He clearly still harbours his own resentment for the thief god’s actions.

Ordinarily Apollo and Hermes were quite close. But things have not gone well between them since Hermes encouraged a mortal lover to attempt to take on the spirit of Delphi. Without speaking to Apollo beforehand. The mortal’s mind was damaged beyond repair. Not only from Hades’ curse but also the mortal not actually meeting the requirements for an oracle. Hermes still blames Apollo. Clearly he’s a touch too intimidated by Hades to blame him directly.

When Poseidon’s enthusiasm finally fades, Hades asks about Echidna.

“Our little brother claims she lied and acted without his authority. We have been unable to prove culpability either way. He also claims that as the child was uninjured, there is no crime to punish.”

Hades is confused, was the child not poisoned?

Poseidon continues, “He does not appear to know of Percy’s healing factor. I’d prefer not to draw it to his attention.”

“Understandable. It would only encourage him to try riskier methods of swaying the boy to his side.”

Poseidon grimaces in agreement.

“I will be relieved when we can revive the girl. At least then, he will be far less likely to attack the camp directly.”

It helps that both he and Poseidon are confident the girl feels no loyalty to her father. If there had been even the slightest chance of her softening her attitude towards her father, they would leave her in stasis indefinitely. But Zeus had ensured the girls hatred when he kidnapped her little brother and handed him off to Hera. The girl believes him murdered.

Nothing Hades or Poseidon could arrange could so effectively guarantee the girl rejection of her father, than Zeus’ own actions.

“Has there been any further progress on our plans?”

Poseidon just shrugs, “Not particularly. Percy is insistent it will be soon, but he does not appear to know the specific timeline. With Bianca turning twelve in a few weeks, she will have aged beyond the girl by the first week of October. If we wait until after Winter Solstice she will be at least eleven weeks older.”

Hades nods. It was one aspect of all this they had been agreed on. If their little brothers child is to be revived from her stasis, she must be younger than Bianca. She was frozen at twelve years and two weeks. Had any of the brothers working alone placed her in stasis, she would have continued aging. Albeit far more slowly. With himself and Poseidon maintaining the stasis together, they have kept her frozen at the moment of her ‘death’.

Not that the girl died. She transformed into a tree before the Furies had struck. Poseidon’s son had been six and the Fates were certain he was the subject of the Great Prophecy. Something needed to be done about the girl. They could perhaps have simply killed her, but Poseidon proposed using her as leverage. So long as she was not revived before Percy reached her age, she could still have a life. Like his own children her existence had been put on hold, rather than ended.

He had not expected Zeus to outright lie and claim responsibility for ‘saving’ his daughter. He had not even known where she was!

“And the border will remain intact?”

“Yes, the pine tree will continue to anchor it, even when we remove the girl from her stasis. It was always intended to continue after. It will stand us in good stead, especially given our brother’s claims.” Poseidon smirks.

Hades was equally entertained by their brother’s claims. She was a pine tree! Poseidon had all but stamped his work with a trident. It also prevents Zeus from attacking the camp’s border.

He may not be able to admit it, but Zeus is aware his brothers are holding his child hostage. Should he strike at the camp, he will hit the border and his own daughter will be the first to die. Callous, yes. But necessary when handling their violent younger brother.

Hades own face turns grim, “Even more so if Father is reviving. The children must be protected. At least until his sixteenth birthday.”

Poseidon’s expression matches his own, “Yes. Unfortunately our little brother has closed all discussion on the matter. Apparently, even the presence of a prophesied child standing before him telling him that Father attempted to steal the Master Bolt is still not enough to convince him of what is coming.”

“I take it you are making preparations regardless?”

“As are you.”

Of course. After all, the main reason they have become so closely allied recently is because of the Great Prophecy. A prophecy such as that… Something is coming for Olympus. It would be more surprising if their foe was not Father.

He turns his mind to more pleasant thoughts, “Have all the arrangements for the cabins been finalised?”

Poseidon’s face turns gleeful, “You’re not worrying about your children’s reactions to the claiming, are you?”

No. Of course not. What a ridiculous suggestion. Well. Perhaps.

“I merely wish to ensure all is ready for them. You have to admit, what we have negotiated is not precisely orthodox.”

“Ah, I think that will be part of the appeal. Dionysus has been placing the camp's requests for additional unassigned cabins before the Council at every Solstice. Our brother is refusing to discuss the matter. Your children’s sleeping arrangements are guaranteed to make a statement.”

“Our niece is still willing, even knowing who her father is?”

“Yes. She has said that as long as Bianca is a candidate for the hunt, she may stay in Cabin Eight. She also gave permission for renovations so that Bianca’s quarters would match Nico’s. She did speak with Percy first. I’m honestly unsure what he’s seeing in your children that makes him so insistent they be separated, but he has persuaded our niece.”

Hades snorts, “He sees what I see. They both inherited my implacability. In opposing ways. It makes for a difficult relationship between them. Before, Maria was constantly separating them.”

“Ah. That makes it more understandable. Our niece also wished me to tell you that once the Great Prophecy has concluded, should your daughter be willing, she intends to offer her a place on the hunt. I expect she will do so earlier should something happen to our brother’s child.”

Hades considers, “It would suit her, I believe. She is a leader, but needs time to mature. They also will be more accepting of her being my daughter than others will be.”

“Percy has been concerned about that. He is growing quite frustrated that you have had so few interactions with mortal heroes. There are few stories he can tell, other than his own trip here.”

He can see the look on his brother’s face, he knows what’s coming. Hades rolls his eyes, “Before you ask, I am aware the child wishes to visit Cerberus. He has been making offerings to me and requesting ‘playdates with my puppy’ each time.”

Poseidon snorts, “Yes, he is very… fond of animals. Triton added a tank to his cabin for the cursed demigod that is now a goldfish. Percy is now requesting some sort of outdoor housing be attached to the side of the cabin for the zebra Dionysus gifted him.”

Hades raises his eyebrows, “And you aren’t at all pleased that he will be living permanently in your cabin?”

That is an extremely smug smile on his brother’s face, “Apollo did agree. It may have taken nearly six years, but he is finally where he is meant to be.”

“With my son in the bedroom next to his own?”

Poseidon shrugs cheerfully, “I allowed you to renovate it as you chose. Besides, this is guaranteed to infuriate our little brother. Our sons sharing a cabin! It may be enough to move him to permit the new housing to be built.”

Poseidon considers him for a moment, “You are going to claim them? All these arrangements mean nothing if you don’t claim your children.”

Hades sighs.

He waves a hand and allows a vision of the camp to form before the two of them. The children are at dinner. With the summer at its end, there are only thirty or so children gathered in the camp. Nico sits with his brother’s son at his table. Bianca sits at the end of the Hermes table, separate to the odd collection of Hermes and unclaimed children who live at that camp.

He considers the scene for a moment. Nico is chattering away to the boy. Except, the boy stills and looks up. It is as if he can see Poseidon and Hades watching them. Perhaps?

Hades murmurs, “Brother, can he see us?”

Poseidon shrugs, “Yes. He’s unable to put the sensations into words. But he knows when a god is actively watching him, and he generally knows who.”

Nico has not noticed the boy’s distraction. The boy gives a little wave, and tilts his head towards Nico, giving his unseen watchers a smile and flashing a quick thumbs up.

Poseidon’s dry voice, “I believe my son is telling you to get on with it.”

Hades gives a long suffering sigh, but he does make a small gesture and matching glowing black bidents appear above his children’s heads.

He watches with interest as Dionysus steps forward and proclaims his children a son and daughter of Hades. There is hushed whispers among the children before a daughter of Aphrodite approaches Bianca and enthusiastically congratulates her. Dionysus' twins, two almost identical sons of Hermes and a son of Hephaestus descend on Nico.

While some children do stand back looking worried, more than half the children seem to be reacting well to his children’s claiming. It is hopeful.

He and Poseidon watch a while longer as the children are informed of their new living quarters. He does not miss the flash of relief on his daughter’s face when she learns she will not be sharing her quarters with her brother. He hopes Maria is proud of him. Perhaps it is time for another visit to her spirit.

He watches his brother’s son. Now talking to the daughter of Ares, his newest named protector. There is something he became aware of during the quest. He has not spoken of it.

Hades hesitates. It is not his place to say this. Yet. He is concerned that his brother has not seen what he has. He owes Poseidon so much for his care of Nico and Bianca. If there is a new tragedy coming, Hades needs to speak his mind.

He waves away the vision and turns to Poseidon. His face and tone serious and a little hesitant.

“Brother, while I have not seen any reason for worry, I am concerned by the way your child and his protector’s relationship with your eldest son, and with each other, echoes one from your family’s past.”

Poseidon watches him, unbothered by the subject matter. His tone equally calm, “A beloved child that my son considers his own. This child befriends the land dwelling daughter of an enemy. My son also adopts her as his own. Then, my son has a spear forged in Atlantis for her. Would that be the echo you refer to?”

Hades inclines his head, he is glad his brother is aware. This is not news he wishes to be responsible for. “So you are aware of the similarities? Especially given the boy looks…” He will not say her name. It is not his right. His brother speaks for him, “Other than his dark hair, he looks like Pallas.”

Poseidon considers him, “Do you wish to know why? I will tell you, if you ask.”

That is a very dangerous question from his next youngest brother. He is saying that Hades can have his answers, but there will be a cost. There is no telling when or how it will be paid. Or if the demand will come from his brother or the Fates.

He owes his brother everything. He can carry this.

He gives Poseidon a considering look of his own, “It appears there is more to this than simple coincidence. Tell me then, why is there an echo?”

Poseidon smirks. Oh no.

“Because you chose me. Had you chosen our youngest brother to sire the prophecy child, they would have carried an echo of the Grey Eyed One. The Fates are taking the opportunity to heal millennia old wounds while they mend the current tear.”

Hades pauses, “Wait. Are you saying that the child is…?”

Poseidon simply smiles back.