Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Percy handed the taxi driver the pilfered casino card as the three tweens in the backseat buckled their seat belts. The oldest and youngest were confused by strap and buckles (the youngest nearly wrapping his around his neck), but the shaggy haired middle child was quick to aid them; a mixture of confusion and disbelief written on his face as he struggled to understand why the others were having such a hard time with such a simple thing.

“Where to, Mac?” The unshaven, sleep deprived cabbie grunted as he twisted the card around in his hand. Chances were he was unfamiliar with the casino’s flower logo, which might have seemed impossible for how long he’d been servicing The Strip.

“Dead Or Alive Recording Studios. Los Angeles, California,” Percy replied, trying his best not to laugh at the blushing Italian boy as the other boy leaned over him to assist with his seat belt. “And they need to get there fast.”

“Los Angeles, huh?” The cabbie muttered as he spun the card around in his hand. “That’s go’n to be pretty pricey.”

“I believe you’ll find the balance on there is more than enough to get them there,” he grinned as he remembered how the card had caused the meter to display an infinity symbol and how the guy’s jaw had dropped at the sight. “And whatever’s left is your tip.”

To anyone that would have been watching, it was plain as day that the guy resisted the urge to roll his eyes. The cabbie probably thinking this was all a big waste of time given their ages, or that his tip might be only a few bucks if they had the funds to cover the trip. “Wow… Thanks...”

“Trust me,” Percy grinned as he patted the door with his Celestial Bronze hand; the mortal probably questioning how he lost his arm and where he got such an advanced prosthetic. “Now, while you ring this up, I’m gonna stick my head back there and have a quick chat. Tell them to behave for you and what not.”

“Yeah. Sure. Whateva,” the man muttered as he swiped the card on the dash’s reader.

Percy sidestepped to the next window and stuck his head inside the compartment. His sudden appearance making the only girl emit a startled yelp and attracting the immediate attention of the ten and eleven year olds; the latter’s hand reaching into his jacket. “Hey, uh... Percy-”

“What?” His younger self asked, with his hand still ready to draw Riptide at the slightest hint of trouble.

His breath hitched as vivid green eyes peered into his own. It was shocking to see how much hatred, distrust, fear, and pain those young eyes (his eyes) contained before Smelly Gabe became nothing but a nightmare, that his mom would be safely returned from the Underworld, and the love of Annabeth had illuminated his view of the world.

And a guilt far heavier than Ouranos settled in his stomach as he realized that his younger self would never know Annabeth’s soothing love.

Or that he’ll never get to know her period… Wise Girl, I’m so sorry…

“What?” His younger self repeated, snapping him back to reality. “I don’t have time for you to be gaping like a fish out of water.”

Percy blinked. Was I really such a brat? He set his jaw and glared at his younger self, but he merely mirrored his actions, making Bianca roll her eyes and the younger Nico snicker. “Whatever,” he mumbled as he dropped his glare (which means he thinks he won). “When you get to LA, you need to do the following: Go straight to DoA, do not go into any mattress shops-”

“Why would I go into a mattress shop?” His younger self asked, face twisted in confusion.

“Yeah, why would we go into a mattress shop?” Nico parroted with goofy grin. The young son of Hades no doubt trying to make a good first impression with his younger self by sucking up. Whether it be the start of a crush or just wanting a friend only his Nico would know.

“Just- just don’t, okay?” He sighed, rubbing at his temples with his real hand. “Once you enter DoA, go straight to the main desk and tell Charon-”

“Charon?! Like the ferryman?!” the young Nico cried, bouncing in his seat. The high pitch squeal making all who heard it wince.

“Uh… yeah,” he continued, as he began to have second thoughts about his plan to make sure his younger self survived his first quest. “Tell him you’re there to negotiate a pay raise for him. That’ll-”

“Why would anyone believe a little kid could give someone a raise?” Bianca asked.

“I am not a little kid!” The younger Percy protested. Doing an absolute perfect job of convincing everyone he was mature by crossing his arms and puffing out his cheeks.

“Look, Charon’s not the sharpest guy in the world. Hades, you’re going to find out there are a lot of dumb people out there. Like, a disturbing amount of dumb people. Just- Just try to use that to your advantage,” he sighed, as he began to feel the start of a headache coming on. “Charon will then take you to, uh, the floor his boss’ office is on.” He pointed to the energetic son of Hades. “Nico, you still got that ball, Nic- I mean, Nick gave you?”

“I’m not dumb, you know,” Nico grumbled as he held up a red, rubber ball Nick pilfered from The Lotus. “I know that’s me...”

“You’re talking crazy, little dude,” he answered honestly, albeit with a nervous chuckle. “Now, one of you is going to have to-”

“Just like I know you’re an older version of him!” The young son of Hades cried, pointing to Percy’s younger counterpart.

Bianca narrowed her eyes and examined both green eyed boys. “He does look a lot like you,” she agreed.

“You both are crazy,” the tween son of Poseidon huffed as Percy’s face drained of all color. “No way I’m that ugly...”

“That ug-” He clenched his teeth and suppressed the urge to reach in the cab and throttle his obnoxious younger self. This gives self-loathing a whole new meaning… He massaged his temples and dragged his hand down his face, earning giggles from both di Angelos. “One of you is going to have to use the ball to distract the boss’ guard dog, while the other two sneak by.”

“That sounds really dangerous,” Bianca said. “Why do we have to leave the hotel again? And why do we have to help this stinky kid?”

“I’m not stinky!” Both he and his eleven-year-old self cried out.

“I knew it,” Nico gasped. His eyes wide in amazement.

Percy let out a frustrated groan and took yet another deep breath. “You have to leave because he’s going to take you to someone really important to you,” he said, pointing a Celestial Bronze finger at his younger self. “After that, he’ll take you to a super cool summer camp.” And drag you into a world of monsters, gods, and danger waiting around every turn.

“But I don’t like camping,” Bianca whined. “And why doesn’t that person send an adult?”

We’re wasting way too much time right now. He looked away from the daughter of Hades and became determined not to be lured into another series of time wasting questions. “Anyway, the dog will turn friendly after a few minutes of playing and you’ll be able to join up with the others. From there you’ll-” images of Grover flying towards the gaping chasm to Tartarus pushed their way to the forefront of his mind “-shit!”

Nico gasped. “You said a bad word!”

“In front of a lady!” Bianca added, turning her nose up in offense.

“I’ve heard a lot worse,” his younger self grumbled.

“Percy, you still got those shoes Luke gave you?” He asked, sticking his head further in the vehicle to check his other self’s feet. None of them have fake feet, and none of them could even begin to handle Tartarus at this age!

The younger Percy hung his head low and sadly shook his head. “No… Grover was wearing them. Luke’s probably going to be mad I lost them, isn’t he?”

Right now Luke just wants you dead, Percy thought as he exhaled in relief. “I wouldn’t worry about that. Luke’s a pretty cool dude, just, uh, don’t ever be alone with him.”

“What does that mean?” His younger self asked with Nico parroting the question immediately after.

“Okay, so the boss may seem really intense at first,” he continued, earning a glare from both boys. “But once you get to know him a bit, he’s a really cool guy.” A smile tugged at his lips as memories of Hades doing his best to be the father Nico, Jason, and even he needed when their world was collapsing around them. The god-turned-mortal wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but he more than made up for it by just being there. Your sacrifice won’t be in vain, Hades. We will set things right.

“The guy’s a dick,” the young son of Poseidon growled.

A nearby fire hydrant exploded into the air, causing tourists to scream only to immediately pull out their cameras and snap pictures of the hundred feet high torrent of water left in its wake. It was a reckless use of his abilities, but it was the only way he could vent his frustrations that didn’t involve dragging his snotty counterpart through the window.

Keep it together. Hades does have mom right now, so you’d be the same way. He doesn’t know Hades like you do, he mentally reminded himself as his right eye twitched.

“I don’t think Nico should be around people like you,” Bianca grimaced. “And a young lady should definitely not be around such sailor talk!”

“Look, Percy,” he said through clenched teeth. “You don’t know it right now, but you have the greatest assets you could ever need to get what you want.”

The younger son of Poseidon looked at Bianca, then to Nico, and then back to him with confusion written on his face. “You mean these two?” He asked, cocking his head like a confused puppy. “How are they going to help get my mom back?”

Because they’re Hades’ kids! He wanted to yell. I can’t have been this dense!

Bianca ceased her offended lady act and looked to the middle demigod. “Your mom’s in trouble?”

“We’ll help you!” Nico cried with the enthusiasm and conviction only a ten-year-old was capable of. “I’ll even distract the dog!”

“I don’t know about that, Nico,” Bianca tsked. “That sounds like a job for the oldest.”

“’Anca!”

Percy smiled at the siblings’ eagerness to help his younger self complete his first quest. They weren’t Grover and Annabeth, and the future was irreparably altered with their tragic deaths, but he was certain Bianca and Nico would become the pillars of strength his other self would need to overcome Kronos and Gaea. If they were lucky, things might even work out for the better. Bianca might not meet her tragic end and Nico wouldn’t be devastated by her loss.

But Annabeth and Grover become nothing but footnotes in their lives…

“Hey, Mac! We’re burning gas here! Let’s get a move on!” The driver cried, smacking his hand in the dent covered door. The man clearly ready to get the drive over with so he could start his retirement as soon as possible.

“Yeah! Just need another second!” Percy shouted, making Bianca jump at the sudden change of volume. “Er… Sorry,” he apologized to the daughter of Hades with a sheepish smile, before turning his attention back to the boys. “Okay, there is one last thing you need to do before you reach LA.”

“What’s that?” The three tween demigods asked.

“You need to become friends,” Percy answered with a smile, though he felt unfathomably corny saying it.

“You are definitely not me,” his younger self huffed. “I don’t make friends.”

“I’ll be your friend!” Nico volunteered, shooting his arm up like he was in a classroom and had the answer to a question no one else knew.

“See you got one already,” he grinned, grateful that this Nico was just as friendly an energetic as the one he met at Westover Academy so many lifetimes ago. “As for Bianca, I’m sure you’ll be friends in no time after you talk to her.” Sorry, little me, but that one’s a total shot in the dark. I didn’t get to interact with my Bianca much.

The younger Percy looked to Bianca and frowned. At that point in his life girls were still considered gross and annoying, which was made all the worse by his primary bullies, Nancy and Clarisse, being girls. “What do we talk about?”

The question gave him pause, as even after several thousand years of life he still sucked at icebreakers. But then he remembered a late night fireside conversation that had clued him and the others that the di Angelos weren’t like other demigods.

“Hey, Bianca?” He asked with a devilish grin, as he could already picture the chaos he was about to unleash. “Who’s the current president?”

Bianca blinked in surprise at the question. “Franklin Delano Roosevelt?”

And just as he expected, the younger son of Poseidon shifted the entirety of his attention to the daughter of Hades. “No he’s not! He died like a hundred years ago!”

“Yes he is!” Nico cried, jumping to his sister’s defense. “I heard him on the radio a few nights ago!”

“There’s been like ninety presidents since him!”

Percy laughed as the three kids began to bicker among themselves. His presence completely forgotten as Bianca called his counterpart a liar for saying the war ended years ago.

“Alright, that should get you guys through this step of the quest,” he chuckled as he retreated from the window. He rapped on the roof of the cab- and cringed when the metal dented from the force of his prosthetic hand. “We’re ready to-”

Before he could utter the last word, the driver slammed his foot down on the accelerator, causing the tires to squeal and burning away a troubling amount of tread before launching into the busy traffic of The Strip. A limo slammed on its brakes and swerved to the right to avoid collided with the cab, only to slam shotgun into a stretch Hummer. The jacked-up gas-guzzler was knocked into the next lane, sending a small Saturn flying onto the sidewalk; thankfully not hitting any pedestrians. Traffic lurched to a sudden halt as all outbound lanes were now blocked by long bodies of the limo and Hummer, and the blaring horns of angry drivers drowned out buzzes, whistles, and alarms of Los Vegas.

“Oooo,” Percy hissed as the Hummer driver jumped out and began to scream at limo driver. “I hope everyone’s-” the limo driver screamed something and pointed in his direction “-okay! Gotta go!”

Though it would have been trivial to handle a couple angry mortals, a joke really with his arm forged from his father’s trident, it was better for he and Nico to maintain as low a profile as possible. It wasn’t just worrying how the gods would react to knowing there were additional copies of them lurking around, but if a Guardian or Watcher knew of their existence it was game over. Not game over in the sense of them being killed and sent to Elysium to chill, but every reality that had a version of him and Nico would be purged.

Everything and every soul they ever knew damned to nonexistence.

And he really wanted to prevent that from happening. He wanted that just as much as he wanted to permanently lock away the gods of the void and their ruthless minions to prevent them from ever destroying another world.

Percy backed away slowly from the scene of the accident before breaking into a sprint to the entrance to The Lotus Hotel and Casino, in hopes that The Mist would do its thing and alter the mortals’ perception. Sure enough, as he reached the smashed in doors, he looked over his shoulder to see that the two drivers were now on the sidewalk engaged in bare-knuckle fistfight while their drunken passengers cheered them on.

“You really need to learn how to control The Mist, Percy,” a heartwarming voice chuckled to his left. “Piper and Persephone have, and it makes their lives so much easier.”

“I’ll get around to it someday,” Percy chuckled as he turned to watch his Nico step out of the shadows with his Master Bolt in hand- and a few splatters of drying blood on his hoodie.

“You’ve been saying that for at least three thousand years,” the son of Hades playfully groaned as he leaned against the scorched wall beside him.

“What can I say? I’m a slow learner.” He wrapped his fingers through Nico’s belt loops and pulled him closer until their foreheads touched, only to immediately cup his chin and tilt his head back to catch his lips in a kiss. It was short and sweet (and gods did he really want to deepen it), but it provided enough warmth to steel him for the unpleasantness to come.

“You definitely mastered that quickly,” Nico purred as he wrapped his arms around the son of Poseidon. “We hadn’t even graduated high school and you knew how to press my every button.”

“I had a great teacher,” Percy chuckled as he rested his chin on shorter demigod’s head. “And I was an eager student.” Though he couldn’t see it, he was positive Nico was rolling his eyes at his cheesy comment.

They stayed in each others embrace until the first of the first responders arrived to the scene of the accident. As a short, but ripped cop tried to break up the fighting drivers, Nico pulled slightly away to look Percy in the eye.

“How did it go?” The son of Hades asked, his voice just above a whisper, yet drowning out all the sounds of Sin City.

“I think as well as can be expected?” His eyes darted briefly away from Nico’s to see the officer take a right hook to the jaw. “I told me- gods, that sounds weird aloud -the necessary info to make it to your dad’s throne room without-” His throat constricted and he forced himself to swallow “-without Annabeth and Grover...” He took a shaky breath and Nico began to rub circles on his back. “And I followed your advice by not telling you and Bianca you’re demigods. I think you’re right, your dad’s going to be suspicious anyway, but if they and me don’t know they’re demigods, then he may think the Fates are involved.”

“And he’ll hate that,” Nico chuckled. “But he’ll feel forced to help you to protect Bianca and me.”

“And I’m sure it will be full of threats until he warms up to me and switches to passive aggressive jabs.” He huffed in amusement and shook his head. “Unless that version of us starts dating someday.”

“Oh, then the threats will never stop,” his husband laughed.

They fell back into silence, though it was not a comfortable one. There was one topic that had yet to be covered and could not be ignored. Still, he tried to put it off for as long as possible by watching the escalating fight and counting the beats of Nico’s heart to ground himself. How many nights he had clung to that rhythmic beating to drive out the horrors that haunted his dreams was something even the gods were incapable of knowing or even comprehending.

Finally, after the limo driver was dropped to the ground by a cop’s taser, Percy closed his eyes and asked, “what did you do with the body?” The already fragile mental dam he had erected burst and the flood of tears it had been holding back surged forth, and if wasn’t for Nico holding him he would have collapsed to his knees.

He had seen so much death through the eons as they continued their quest to prevent the Outer Gods and their malignant offspring from awakening. Countless worlds where decaying bodies were piled high with no one to attend to their last rites. The mummified remains of those that had survived the invading calamity, only to waste away on poisoned Earth. Streets turned into ankle deep rivers with the rotting mix of blood, bowel, and the acidic contents of burst stomachs. The remains of cruel experiments composed of the fused flesh of men, women, and children.

And despite every horror that he witnessed, every tortured soul that haunted his idle thoughts, it was the recently discovered twisted remains of an eleven-year-old Annabeth sprawled out on the floor of The Lotusthat would be the one he could never forget.

One he refused to forget.

Her arms and legs bent at unnatural angles with the flesh of every joint bruised and swollen from the broken bones within.

Rib cage ripped open exposing flesh and organs that had been cruelly and expertly eviscerated to prolong her suffering.

Bloodied jaw dislocated and broken yet still stretched wide in an eternal silent scream that exposed her severed tongue.

Her right stormy eye wide with a pleading fear as the hollow, bloodied socket next to it stared into oblivion.

Just lying their in a pool of her own blood while the bewitched guests of the casino merely stepped around her as if she was some puddle.

He couldn’t imagine what her final agonizing moments were like, and it was made all the worse by knowing all she had been denied.

Reconciling with her dad and rejoining her family once more.

Finding a second mother and family in his own.

Reuniting with Thalia.

Traveling throughout the country and then Europe.

Knowing love…

Every fountain in Vegas exploded skyward as the first sob escaped his throat. Every muscle in his body went limp and he dragged Nico to the ground.

“I took care of her, Percy,” the son of Hades said through his own tears. He knew he wasn’t just crying out of empathy, but because Annabeth had been his friend too.

He managed to nod his head as his body shuddered, and clung all the more tighter to his partner.

“I c-cleaned her up the best I could and t-took her to The Big House.” Nico stopped and wiped away his tears into sleeve of his black hoodie. “I beat the d-door until I heard clopping of Chiron’s hooves.” He sniffled and wiped at his nose. “I shadow traveled away and w-watched to make sure he found her...” Nico trailed off.

“What?” Percy managed to choke out. “What happened?”

“H-He really cared for her, Percy. He really did...”

They clung to each other like the lifelines they were and bared their grief to the world. Their shirts became soaked with tears and the world of flashing neon lights around them became nothing but a blur. Through their painfilled sobs, they struggled to listen to the beating of their eternally young hearts.

“He’ll- He’ll take care of her,” he sobbed, drying their clothes. “He’ll honor her and tell her dad.”

And only we’ll know the heights she would have reached.

Chapter Text

“Can we go now?” Percy managed to ask after the tears had stopped and their breathing had begun to even out.

The heir of Hades pried his face from the son of Poseidon’s chest and frowned. “Only if you still have the book.”

He tossed his head back with an exasperated sigh.

The book Nico was referring to was either a copy of or the real Necronomicon, as the human prophets of the void called it.

If it was a copy, it appeared as a black book whose pages were made of flayed, human skin and inked in blood. Within the black tome were written fragments of knowledge of the Outer Gods, their twisted minions, long forgotten magics and technologies, and a seemingly endless amount of other topics collected by a long dead race that had sacrificed themselves to seal the hungering darkness away.

It was all valuable information (even if he couldn’t make heads or tails of it) but it was insignificant to the real deal.

Or at least that’s what they hoped…

There was next to no concrete information about what the Necronomicon was; they weren’t even certain it was a book. All they learned about it coming from the rare, passing mentions in the copies they managed to locate. They knew it contained the sum of the Elder Things’ knowledge, which according to Piper included a map to the Dream Lands; a world apart from all others that would contain the tools needed to defeat the forces of the Void once and for all. They also knew that it was constantly jumping from one reality to the next. Only stopping long enough to depart some of its vast knowledge to those it seemingly deemed worthy, which so far included an eighth century nut job from the Middle East, a thirteenth century monk with the unfortunate name of Herman, and some random nineteenth century guy from Rhode Island whose parents hated enough to name Whipple. All met unfortunate ends, or vanished without a trace. The only thing they had in common were strange first names.

“Well, that answers that question,” Nico mumbled as he slowly began to untangle himself.

“Please don’t tell Piper I dropped it,” he sighed, moving his legs so the other could stand up easier. “I do not need her chewing me out when we get back. Not after...”

“I would never.” The insignificantly younger demigod held out his hand which Percy gladly took. “But when you say chewing, do you mean that figuratively, oooor-”

He slugged his partner in the shoulder, earning a satisfying yelp that quickly turned into laughter. “Gods, you’re an ass,” he smiled, reaching down for Nico’s Master Bolt.

“I learned from the best,” the son of Hades smirked as he took back the Celestial Bronze cylinder. “Now, do you got any idea where you dropped it?”

“Can’t you track it like before?” he asked.

Nico shook his head, making him swear under his breath. “The whole place is practically covered with its stench.”

“I feel like I’m in an episode of Scooby Doo,” Percy stated as he shined his flashlight across the ruins of the once resplendent entrance hall.

“Mixed with a twisted homecoming,” Nico muttered aloud from his perch atop the overturned reception desk. His sweeping gaze lingering for a moment on an overturned coat check rack and its now scattered contents, the numerous styles like a strata showcasing just how many eras the Lotus had trapped people from.

“It’s definitely not what it once was,” he said as he quickly turned his beam of light away from a severed arm. A needle-like phantom pain pricking at his own damaged limb at the sight, forcing him to roll his shoulder. “We really did wreck this place...”

Only a scant few hours ago the resort had been the closest thing to paradise on Earth. Grand gaming halls filled with every variation of slot machine, Blackjack table, roulette wheel, Backgammon table, Keno, Craps, Texas hold ’em, Mahjong, and every other game one could wager on, and there was always an opening at the table of your choice. For those had no desire to gamble, there were multiplex IMAX theaters that always played your favorites, arcades that had every video game ever made and then some, indoor and outdoor water parks with slides that seemingly had no top, live shows where you were also brought on stage to assist the performers, theme parks that put Disney World to shame in every way, and so much more that one could never experience it all in a thousand lifetimes. Outside the realm of entertainment, every room was a penthouse suite with an unparalleled view of Vegas, room service and restaurants to appease any palette, and lavish spas that could work out even the most stubborn of kinks.

And all it cost to experience this paradise was forgetting the world just outside the gilded entrance.

It was kinda like that one hotel out in California, but with better service and less nonsensical metaphors.

But it was none of that now, or at least the parts he could see. The resort nearly leveled from a battle between him and Nico against a pair of gigantic, deep sea salamanders called Dagons or Mother Hydras based on their sex (and he had now idea how to tell them apart).

The brightly lit halls were now cloaked in darkness. The power knocked out when he used the water from an Olympic pool to drill through several levels of the casino in an attempt to slow the void creatures down, inadvertently flooding the maintenance levels and soaking just about everything else. The only light now coming from their flashlights, a few scattered neon bracelets worn by corpses, and the frequent arcs of electricity from the Master Bolt.

The gaming tables and furniture were scattered about or smoldering piles of rubble. The serpentine monsters showing no sign of hesitation as they crushed any obstacles under their behemoth, black girths as they pursued their prey. Even the entranced resort guests were given little attention, whereas the monsters they had known from their youths would have stopped to grab a quick snack. He and Nico had tried their best to warn the bystanders, yelling and screaming for them to flee, but so powerful was the spell of the Lotus that they didn’t notice the bus-sized amphibians until they were on top of them. Still, Nico tried to at least reroute the creatures away from the ignorant populace by using his lightning to set the casino’s amenities aflame.

Massive sections of the once immaculate ceiling had collapsed and whole walls had been obliterated, covering everything with and filling the air with a thick fog of plaster and drywall. For once they realized that the salamanders were faster than they had any gods given right to be and that they couldn’t outrun them forever, Nico opened the shadows so that they could engage them with guerrilla tactics. It seemed like a good idea, but the void creatures seemed to know exactly where they were going to reappear, and wasted no time to get to them by charging through anything in their path.

Percy could not recall a monster as relentless or resilient as the milky-eyed Dagons. Not even the amorphous, shapeshifting Shoggoths that had devoured their home.

Even trying to pull the moisture from the creatures didn’t stop them. Only pulling a few gallons of water from their rubbery bodies at most, and he was positive he placed it their to begin with with his attacks.

The Master Bolt, the most powerful divine weapon of the Greco-Roman pantheon, barely made a scratch. The Dagons at most being momentarily stunned if Nico managed to strike them in the nose or their unblinking eyes.

Though they would never admit it aloud, the cyclops-forged weapons seemed to be growing weaker with time, as it used to be able to smite even a god.

It wasn’t until they were forced to retreat to a kiddie pool did he figure out a way to stop the rampaging beasts. A pile of discarded water balloons provided him the eureka moment they desperately needed.

If the Dagons didn’t have much water in them, then he would just have to hydrate them himself.

As the legged serpents surged forward in their relentless pursuit, he called upon all the water contained in the immense network of slides to come to his aid. With his own natural abilities enhanced by the power of the trident, the water obeyed his command without question. Bursting from the rainbow of interconnected plastic tubes that provided an additional barrage of shrapnel for his initial attack.

With a little concentration, he then pulled the water down in a uniformed layer, the sheer weight of the which stunned the Dagons and sent them crashing through several levels of concrete floors. Then with a great deal of concentration and effort, the Celestial Bronze of his arm glowing brighter to match the strain he felt, he refused to allow the water to disperse and instead forced it into converge on the massive beasts. He forced the water down their throats, through their gills, and every orifice he could feel until they were swollen like balloons on the verge of popping.

Without a word or so much as a gesture, Nico understood what he was trying to do, and unleashed the awesome might of the Master Bolt on the squirming Dagons.

The moment the lightning made contact with bulging, black flesh, the creatures exploded in a flash of blinding light. The water within their bodies launching skyward like twin geysers and shattering the glass ceiling above the now ruined water park.

“You think the gods got insurance on this place?” Percy asked Nico as his flashlight illuminated a small, black rectangle. Only for his hopes to immediately fall when he realized it was an old VHS tape. “I mean, that sounds like something Athena would do,” he said, kicking the tape away.

“I doubt it,” the son of Hades answered as he ducked down to check under a poker table that had been split in two. “They probably thought The Mist would handle any damage that might occur.” Nico stood back up with a frown and looked around their surroundings. “But even The Mist has its limits.”

“As long as it stays asleep.”

“Don’t even joke about that, Perce,” Nico said, shooting him a dirty look. His face paling ever-so slightly at the thought of the true origin of the magics that obscured the divine from mortal eyes. “If it awoke, it’s-”

“I know. I know,” he sighed. “Fire and brimstone coming down from the sky! Rivers and seas boiling! Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes! Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!” He cried, before bursting out in laughter. He knew Nico was unquestionably right about the seriousness of an Outer God awakening, but sometimes he just needed to joke about something to relieve some of the tension that sometimes made him feel like he was teetering on the edge of insanity.

Nico shook his head in faux disappointment with a grin betraying his true feelings. “You and mom are watching way too much TV...”

“But it keeps us out of your hair while you try to understand the facility. Plus, you knew that was a reference!” Percy laughed. “I’m really proud of you!”

“Everyone knows Ghostbusters,” Nico smirked. “Now, where should we look next?”

He shined his flashlight at the only directory sign still hanging, albeit barely, and tilted his head to better read the gilded words. He ran down the list of names and tried to remember which ones they had visited while fighting the Dagons, finally stopping on one of the gaming halls. “Let’s go left.”

Chapter Text

Percy took an unconscious step away from the onyx bust. Keeping his flashlight trained on its creepily perfect, androgynous face, and ready to blast it with a torrent of pressurized water if it so much as blinked. Normally such a thing wouldn’t bother him, but when some of the only things left undamaged in a room were two perfectly arranged rows of fragile busts on ridiculously narrow pedestals, his instincts were screaming that something was up. A something of the surprise attack variety.

And jumping statue heads would definitely be a first, he thought as he moved the beam of light to the next haughty, nubian face. I think?

“This would probably go a lot faster if you looked at something other than some crummy hotel art,” Nico said as he slowly scanned his own flashlight across the width of the hall.

“Not going to argue that, but don’t you think it’s strange that...” He paused and gestured with his free hand at the casino hall’s vigilant guardians. “None of these have been damaged? I mean, I keep expecting them to sprout bat wings from their ears and launch themselves at us.”

Nico stopped his search and looked to the bust Percy was currently focused on. “Not really.” He then strode over to the nearest pedestal, and before the son of Poseidon could ask what he was doing, Nico smacked the onyx decoration with the base of the Master Bolt- only for both the bust and its display to remain unmoved.

His eyes widened. “That’s some strong magic...”

“That’s some strong glue, Percy,” Nico corrected with a laugh. “You got to remember that there were a lot of kids here, which means a lot of things got broken. A lot. Most of this crap probably heavily reinforced by the Mist after a few accidents.” Nico shook his head. “I can kinda remember breaking a few things myself.”

Percy looked at the busts once more, but was still not convinced they weren’t suspicious.

“And I know that look,” the son of Hades sighed. “But if it makes you feel better...”

Nico snapped his fingers, and instantly all across the hall, the shadows opened beneath the marble pedestals and swallowed them and the regal busts they held. Then, before the tops of the ancients kings’ intricate pschents were devoured by the swirling shadows, the bases of all the pedestals emerged from the ceiling- where gravity immediately took hold and pulled them from the shadows. The decorations tumbled end-over-end as they fell, only to shatter into hundreds of shards when they slammed against the floor.

“There. No more statues,” Nico chuckled before resuming his search.

He shined his light on the remains of the pharaonic bust and then quickly followed after the other eternal teenager. Sometimes, he forgot just how powerful they both had grown since the fall of their world. Nico could manipulate the shadows in ways they could have never dreamed of before, and could summon and control the dead just as easily as he could control the rage of the seas, create hurricanes, and dehydrate his enemies to dust. Any of which would have left them exhausted or on the verge of death, but they could now perform with hardly a thought.

Truthfully, (and Persephone had said as much) they had surpassed both their fathers in terms of skill centuries ago.

“Way to make me sound like a frightened-” his heart skipped a beat when his flashlight illuminated a staircase to his left, and a small, black object sitting in a pool of water. He nearly tripped over his own feet to turn, but before he collided with Nico, he managed to shout, “THERE!”

Nico yelped, more in surprise than in pain, as Percy’s Celestial Bronze arm hit his ribs. Several lifetimes ago, an inexperienced son of Hades would have accidentally fired the Master Bolt, but now such misfires were a rarity. Now instead of falling on his face, Nico simply fell through the shadows only to reappear next to him. Looking as calm and collected as his father. “What-” The Heir of Hades fell silent when his eyes locked on the water logged tome.

Percy cracked a smile, thrilled that they were only a few feet away from finishing their quest in that nightmare of a reality. “Let’s grab it and get out of here,” he said, stepping onto the fallen Ramses’ Tomb sign that once welcomed all visitors to the ancient Egyptian themed gambling hall. “We give it to Persephone to look over, and then we can relax for a-”

Just as he reached the base of the stairs, what he could only describe as agonized shrieking echoed throughout the hall. The shrill screaming forcing both him and Nico to cover their ears and resist the urge to collapse to their knees. He felt the pools of water that littered the hall begin to freeze as all warmth was sucked out of the air. The deafening screams were quickly overwhelmed by a tearing that originated from everywhere and nowhere, and it took all of his willpower to keep one eye open.

Not good! Not good!

At the top of the staircase, everything distorted around a single point of space no larger than a baseball. The stern, stone face of a pharaoh's guardian was stretched across the room, looking like something straight out of an old cartoon. The top stair was pulled to the ceiling and beyond, creating the illusion that the staircase stretched on to infinity. The golden handrails were pushed away from the origin of the distortion, which made his mind struggle to comprehend the depths and dimensions of the hall. It only got worse when everything began to swirl around the point on multiple axes, like multiple whirlpools overlaid and rotated atop one another.

Just as he managed to force his jaw open to scream at the mental assault, everything snapped back to normal and the world fell silent save for his and Nico’s rapid breathing.

Save for a small, black orb that hovered in place at the top of the stairs.

Shit! Shit! Shit! Percy mentally screamed as he reached out for any moisture that would heed his call. The sheets of ice that had formed around the room shattered into razor-sharp segments and launched themselves at the dark sphere- only for them to absorbed.

And for something to ooze out.

It was just as black as the orb- no, hole he realized, with the consistency of old machine grease. The ooze fell from the hole and hit the ruined, red carpet with a sickening splat. The crack in reality closing as the last gooey tendril broke free.

He reached out with his powers with the intent to rip all moisture from the pulsing goo, but to his horror it contained none. The only water he could feel was in the carpeting beneath it. “NICO! NUKE IT!”

Before the final word past his lips, the world exploded in a blinding, white light. Such a blast would have killed or left both of them critically wounded from the extreme heat and force, but his subconscious created a cushioning barrier of ice and water around them. It had saved their butts more times than he could count, but he couldn’t remember if he had learned that trick or if his trident-turned-arm did it on its own.

Percy blinked several times until his vision cleared, and he sighed in relief at the sight of the smoking crater before him. His relief only grew when he saw that the book had not been destroyed, only thrown further in the Egyptian themed hall with its cover slightly charred. “Thank the gods. Let’s grab the book and-”

“What. The. Actual. FUCK?!” A shrill, nasally voice that was definitely not Nico’s cried. Though he was quick to believe it was just his exhausted mind playing tricks on him.

“I’m on it!” Nico shouted, dropping to his knees and sticking his arm through the shadows swirling at his feet. His hand reappeared across the room, and grabbed the smoking book by its spine. He yanked his hand back-

Only for three whip-like, pitch-black tendrils to wrap around the book and more alarmingly: Nico’s wrist.

Percy jumped the small distance between them and wrapped his arms around Nico’s waist. He dug his heels into the waterlogged carpet and pulled the son of Hades with all his might, while simultaneously mentally commanding all the water and ice to converge at the damned book. “I got ya, babe!”

“I believe you, but pull harder!”

He looked up just in time to see dozens of jagged icicles erupt from the floor. Impaling or slashing the otherworldly limbs while completely avoiding Nico and the book. To his horror, more rubbery tendrils rose from the darkness, but he mustered up everything he had and with one last tug, pulled Nico free. Both of them fell to the floor, with Nico landing squarely in his lap, Necronomicon in hand.

Percy fixed his gaze on the flaying tendrils as pushed Nico to his feet, not daring to even blink with a creature of the void present. Especially when that something was a shoggoth…

The inky appendages that had been damaged by his assault liquidized and rejoined the unseen primary mass while those undamaged dragged itself forward. The corrupted servant of the Elder Things was no bigger than the baseball-seized hole it emerged from, though that did not mean it was any less of a threat than its whale-sized siblings. Four additional boneless tentacles sprouted from its gelatinous body as it doubled, and then tripled in size. The limbs glided to opposite ends of the swelling body, thickening and losing their flexibility as the traveled. Its back split open into a fang-filled maw that would intimidate even the biggest of sharks, only to immediately be swallowed up by the twisting flesh and replaced by one significantly smaller and far more human.

Percy had no idea what the creature was doing. Shoggoths were known for their ability to rapidly adapt to any situation (one of the reasons they needed to be quickly killed) but there was something different in the way its body shifted. It was slower, more deliberate in its actions, and smaller in size compared to the others.

Must be a runt. Or defective?

Whatever it was, it needed to be destroyed. He raised his Celestial Bronze arm at the amorphous blob and Nico raised the Master Bolt-

“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” The same nasally voice growled from the shoggoth’s human mouth.

Percy was stunned, and he was forced to blink. “Uh, Neeks? Did- did you hear that?” He asked, slightly lowering his arm.

“The nightmare blob swearing?” Nico asked in turn, the arcing electricity of his divine weapon dissipating. “Yeah, I heard it.”

“Why couldn’t I just be crazy?” He gulped.

Shoggoths were capable of a great many things. They could could adapt to nearly any environment, sprouting wings to soar through the skies, fins and flippers to dive to the inky depths, and even adjust their body chemistry to withstand extreme temperatures and pressures. In moments they could divide themselves into multiple separate but connected individuals or join together to create towering juggernauts. Any technological or magical obstacle (and the distinction between the two was growing blurrier by the day) the encountered would be disassembled in a matter of seconds, granting the amorphous beings complete understanding of how it worked and how it could be overcome or exploited.

They were nightmarish beings that washed over countless realities like a dark flood.

But for all their sophistication and tactics, the Elder Thing’s janitors were incapable of speech. The only sounds they were capable of were their strange calls of "Tekeli-li."

“I never said you weren’t,” the son of Hades rebuffed. “And as interesting as this development is, let’s kill it before it becomes a problem,” he said, reigniting his Master Bolt.

Percy nodded and reestablished his control over the area’s water; careful to exclude his and Nico’s. Without a word, he willed five twisting torrents of water to blast the eloquent blob, while Nico did his thing and fired a bolt of lightning that would have deep fried a giant. The casino shook from the resulting blast, causing more of the ceiling to collapse and some of the weakened walls to buckle. The shields of water and ice that encased him and Nico evaporated sooner than expecting, sending them falling back, with undoubtedly singed eyebrows.

Let’s see you survive that!

Eyes and lungs stinging from the dust in the air (gods, I hope this isn’t asbestos), he collected the moisture in the air to both clean their faces and drag the cloud of debris down. When the air cleared, he was proud to see that a huge section of wall had been blown to bits along with much of the floor, revealing rows upon rows of Egyptian-themed slot machines (one of which, was somehow still running, though absent a little old lady with a bucket of quarters). But best of all, the shoggoth was no more. More than likely vaporized by their combined assault.

“That takes care of that,” Nico groaned as he hopped to his feet, careful maintain his hold on both the book and weapon. “My face feels hot and tight, and my ears are ringing, but this world shouldn’t have to worry about shoggoths anymore.”

Percy let out a satisfied snort. Mostly from knowing the threat was over, but also from biting back a comment about what else Nico had that was hot and tight. “Yup,” he replied, his lips twisting into a sly grin. “All we have to do is get out of here. Then how ‘bout we take a much needed break?”

Besides gaining some new insight into their enemy and the god-like race that first imprisoned them, there was another perk to recovering copies of the Necronomicon. One that made him sleep a little easier at night, in that once they removed the book, incursions from the void ceased. Whether it was because the book was what allowed them in, or the void simply only cared about worlds that still possessed a copy. He didn’t care what the truth was, just that it meant another version of him and everyone he cared about would never know the horrors that lurked just behind the shadows.

“I can practically read your dirty mind, Percy,” Nico said with a roll of his eyes and a sly grin of his own.

“It’s no dirtier than yours,” he purred, leaning in close to the smaller demigod. Though it was hard to tell with his face already red from the explosion, his close proximity was rewarded with a deep blush, wide eyes, and a trembling lower lip. “Isn’t it?”

That was the great thing about ceasing to age as teenagers: hormones still wreaked havoc on their bodies. It kept them easily susceptible to the other’s advances and eager to jump in bed (or just about anywhere) with the slightest stimulation. In his mind their eternal youth was one of the secrets that made their relationship last throughout the eons, which in turn helped them retain their sanity.

He lowered his head to the crook of his lover’s neck, who in turn tilted his head to further bare the delicate olive flesh as his breath hitched. He brushed his lips against Nico’s neck, earning a small, ecstasy filled mewl that drove him mad with want.

And then he yanked the Necronomicon from Nico’s hands and spun around. And I just guaranteed tonight’s going to be amazing, he thought with a satisfied smirk.

“Huh? Wha- ?” The son of Hades exclaimed at the sudden denial of physical intimacy. “You- You- PERCY, YOU ASSHOLE!”

Percy laughed deeply as he deposited the arcane tome in his hoodie’s pocket. “Oh, you know you love it, Neeks,” he grinned, zipping the pocket closed (Not making the same mistake again). He patted the pocket twice, and content that their precious cargo wasn’t going anywhere, he stood up to continue his favorite pastime of teasing his husband- only for his blood to run cold.

For churning before him was the shoggoth they just destroyed.

Its four tentacles doubled in girth before lying flat on ground. With a snap like a rubber band, it rose up on two of its appendages that continued to mutate. The ends growing longer and wider, while joints formed near the halfway point, and the inky, rubbery flesh took on an almost fabric-like appearance. The main body twisted and elongated, creating flaps of skin that dropped to the knees of its pseudo-legs. Another glob of flesh rose from the top as the body and the two remaining appendages transitioned from black to paper-white.

“What in the name of the gods...” Nico muttered in awe at the disturbing transformation.

The newly emerged glob ripped in two, where hundreds of needle-like teeth grew from each half before receding and losing their points. The flesh at the ends of the upper appendages turned gray like that of a corpse before splitting in five with a sickening crack. Dozens of glowing, purple, painfilled eyes blinked open across the entirety of its being, frantically scanning their surroundings before all but two on the top mass sank back into the shifting flesh. Thousands of spindly tendrils erupted from the top mass, squirming like Medusa’s hair before turning a vivid red and growing still. A series of rapid, painful snaps filled the air as the shoggoth contorted and its body solidified. It buckled over and placed its newly formed hands on its knees as its head became more defined. Its eyes losing their glow and its mouth drawing in its first shaky breath.

In a matter of seconds, the shoggoth had transformed into a man with a shock of red hair and a battered lab coat.

“Are- Are you okay?” Percy asked the stranger. The son of Poseidon at a complete loss on how to handle the situation. Do we kill it? Is it some kind of Elder Thing tech? Did he somehow merge with a shoggoth? Is he on our side?

Still panting heavily, the stranger held out his left hand with his index finger raised.

Nico clutched the Master Bolt tighter. His olive skin turning as pale as it had been during the first and second wars. “Percy… There’s something horrifically off about this-” The son of Hades slammed his hand to his mouth as his stomach started to heave.

He went to grab Nico when the stranger finally lifted his head. Allowing him to make eye contact with a pair of blue eyes that radiated a paralyzing, seething hatred. “Do I fucking look alright?!”

Chapter Text

“Why in the fuck did you drag me here?!” The shoggoth-turned-human shouted at the crumbling ceiling. “I was in the middle of something important! Something you ordered me to do!” The redhead screamed in frustration, his eyes momentarily transitioning to the glowing, purple orbs that the viscous blobs often spawned. “What did those fish-lipped bimbos screw up again?! ‘Cause I can smell their rotting shrimp, skank asses!”

Percy kept one wary eye on the ranting man as he offered what assistance he could to his husband. He couldn’t put into words how worried he was that Nico had become violently ill the moment the redhead appeared; dropping to his knees and emptying his stomach all over the already ruined carpet. There was always some concern of contracting a disease unique to the given world they were in, but the timing was just too perfect to be a coincidence. Though what would I give for that to be the case just once…

“Do you know how much it hurts to be shoved through a hole smaller than a photon?!” The redheaded stranger continued to roar into the darkness.

Gods, Hazel and Bianca would faint if they heard this guy, he thought as he draped Nico’s arm over his shoulders. Although he was curious about the stranger, his concern for Nico’s well-being was far greater. And if the guy turned out to be hostile (which was growing likelier with each profanity-ridden exclamation), he would be at a severe disadvantage by having to defend the two of them. So, he believed his best course of action was to get Nico as far away as possible and hope he recovered. “Neeks, think you can hop on my back?” Percy asked as he crouched lower and tugged on the son of Hades’ arm.

Still panting, and as pale as death, Nico looked up and nodded slightly. He started to climb on Percy’s back, only to suddenly halt and heave what little contents remained in his stomach. After a moment though, the lightning wielding demigod took a series of short and rapid breaths and managed to crawl onto the son of Poseidon’s back with a little assistance from some small geysers.

“That’s my man,” Percy whispered as Nico wrapped his arms around his neck, passing him the Master Bolt in the process. With hardly a thought, water pooled beneath the soles of his shoes, setting up for a trick he learned back before they learned about the cosmic horrors that surrounded them and when their greatest threat was a group of mortals seeking to topple the gods. I even figured this out carrying Nico. He shook his head to clear his mind of the past and focus on the present. With another thought, the water began to roll beneath his feet, propelling him forward-

“And where the fuck do you think you’re going?!” The nasally man cried. Bringing Percy to sudden stop.

Shit… He looked over his shoulder and gave the shoggoth-man-thing a sheepish grin. “Oh, my husband’s not feeling good, so I thought I’d take him out for some fresh air. That, and it sounds like you could use a minute to yourself, sooooo...” He turned back and skated forward-

Only to see the redhead now standing at the end of the hall.

He quickly glanced over his shoulder and saw that there was in fact only one of the creature. That’s quite the trick. Some form of shadow travel?

“You ain’t go’n anywhere with that book, Percy,” the redhead growled as he raised his hand. The gray flesh of his hand stretched and warped, the fingers losing their features and reverting to the inky flesh of a shoggoth. A tubular growth rose from the center of his palm until the skin ripped, revealing a silver-colored rectangle, which Percy was quick to realize was a phone of all things. The man’s hand snapped back to normal like a rubber band, and a malicious grin ripped his right cheek open as he unlocked the phone. “Neither is Nico,” the man laughed as he tapped on the screen once more.

“How do you know our names?” He asked, taking a step back and activating the Master Bolt. The powers of cyclops-forged divine weapons creating what felt like strong magnetic field as their Celestial Bronze components touched.

“What?!” The monstrous stranger cried, frantically tapping on the phone’s screen. His thumb splitting into a twisting bundle of tentacles for unparalleled button mashing.

“I said how do you know our names?!” Percy demanded as electricity arced across the body of the Master Bolt and up his arm.

A third eye replaced the redhead’s right ear such that he could observe both the phone and Percy and Nico. “You two should be falling over dead!” The monster in human skin shrieked in rage as the phone’s screen began to crack from the rapid barrage. “The boss’ signal can’t be-” All three of stranger’s eyes snapped wide open, followed by dozens more across the entirety of his body. And all of the glowing orbs swelled to the verge of bursting when their pupils landed on the demigods’ wrists.

At the same time, a chill ran down Percy’s spine. Not out of fear or even from being disturbed by the grotesque sight of flesh bubbling and tearing itself apart, but from an eons old name brought to the forefront of his mind by the stranger’s actions and the utterance of a single word. He looked down at the white, nondescript bracelet on his remaining arm and uttered, “Avalon...”

The multi-eyed monstrosity’s eyes widened, some even ripping causing a foul purple and black mixture to gush from the damaged sockets. It took a step back, only for its right leg to collapse on itself- sending the Argus-like humanoid falling to the floor. In mid-fall, its flesh shifted once more, flipping vertically so that its head replaced its legs so that it landed on its feet. “Where did you two get those bracelets?” The redhead snarled as dagger-like tusks erupted from its jaw.

Percy narrowed his eyes and studied the human features of the creature; growing more certain by the moment that this was not the first time they had met. “A prick that called himself Merlin,” he stated in an emotionless, even tone. “Who I’m going to bet was your boss,” he added, raising a brow.

The redhead clenched its jaw so tight that the flesh melded together, as the blood vessels in eyes burst. Its jaw moved as if to speak, but whatever it tried to say was muffled by the gray skin that had replaced its lips. The inability to speak only enraged it further, and it transformed the entirety of its right hand into a chunk of razor-sharp bone. In one fluid motion, it sliced its mouth open with the makeshift blade. “You- THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!” It roared, black ooze pouring down its face.

“I have a hard time believing that,” Percy shot back, skating back a couple feet. “I mean, I don’t even know who you-”

The redhead’s bladed-limb shot forward, the shoggoth flesh having an unparalleled elasticity that allowed it cross the distance between them, but Percy dashed backwards as fast as the water would carry him and at the same time struck the oncoming limb with a bolt of lightning. The world exploded in a blinding, white light, followed by the nauseating stench of burnt rubber and ozone filling the air.

“Sorry, Neeks,” he mumbled as rapidly blinked to clear the spots from his eyes. Once his vision cleared, he was rewarded with the sight of the charred remains of the shoggoth-man’s arm lying lifeless (though are shoggoths technically alive?) on the floor. However, his relief faded immediately when he realized that there was no body attached to the severed limb. “Shi-” The only warning Percy received was a flicker in the shadows to his right, causing him to raise his prosthetic arm up just in time to block the lash from a clawed tentacle.

“My name is Brian Bender!” The redhead screamed as his new limb latched onto Celestial Bronze. The razor-sharp tips of the black claws causing the plates of divine metal to buckle and bend under the intense pressure. “And you’re going to be screaming it until the end of time!”

Percy froze the water beneath his feet as he struggled to free his arm from the psychotic redhead’s grasp. “Sorry, but I’m happily married,” he shot back through clenched teeth, his shoulder plate pulling away from his body and revealing the golden threads that connected the arm to his nerves. “Plus, tentacle monsters are not my type!”

“Not your-” The former Avalon stooge repeated before scores of black, bony spine exploded from his back as he unleashed a primal scream. “FUCKING FAGGOTS!” The furious Brian bellowed as the spines elongated and lost their rigidness; becoming another set of barbed limbs not unlike the tail of a scorpion.

“Ah, shit...” He groaned as the newly grown appendages flexed in preparation to strike. It seemed like most of the members of Avalon, Brian was not a fan of sass. And if he didn’t do something quick he wasn’t going to walk away with a limp and the inability to write in cursive. “Neeks, I REALLY need you to pull yourself together right now!” He pleaded as he dropped the son of Hades to the ground. At the same time, a wall of ice rose between them and Brian. The barrier was hardly more than a few millimeters thick and stood no chance in blocking the deadly assault, let alone damage the black mass crushing his arm. But that wasn’t the wall’s purpose. He just needed a single moment hidden from sight. “Neeks!”

Percy releases his hold on the Master Bolt and his heart stopped as the bronze cylinder fell through the pulsating tentacles that were destroying his arm. If an eye spouted on the limb or the divine weapon touched the Stygian flesh his hastily formed plan would fail, as there wasn’t a doubt in his mind that Brian wouldn’t snatch the weapon out of the air.

The cylinder cleared the last of the redhead’s monstrous limbs just as the lance-like protrusions exploded through the wall of ice; shattering it to a million pieces.

Fu- His own thoughts were drowned out by an explosion of white light and deafening thunder, and he knew that his gamble had paid off. An arm wrapped around his waist, and pushed him into the familiar coolness of the shadows; a half-mad grin forming before they reemerged into the real world. Gods, I love you, Nico!

Still blinded by the blast of lightning, Percy jumped to his feet and quickly pulled Nico upright. To his relief, the son of Hades was still breathing (though still labored), and wrapped his arm around his shoulders.

“Per- Percy,” Nico choked out. “That g-guy-” he retched and would have collapsed if Percy didn’t hold him. “He’s-”

“MOTHER FUCKER!”

“Still alive,” he sighed, wondering what it was going to take to send the shoggoth-hybrid back to the void. “Got it...”

“N-No!” The son of Hades protested, only to start gagging once more.

Percy blinked twice and his vision cleared (definitely going to need some Lasik after today). He fully expected to see the survivor of their world poised for another attack, but instead was greeted with a welcome sight: Brian melded to the floor, his limbs ash, and much of his pseudo-clothing falling from his body like chunks of dead tree bark. “This will be just another moment,” he smirked as he raised his Celestial Bronze hand (with some alarming creaks, pops, and groans).

“YOU THINK YOU CAN KILL ME?!” Brian screamed as his amorphous flesh began to shed his destroyed flesh and reform. “BECAUSE THIS IS NOTH-” A torrent of swirling water shot down his throat.

“Would you just shut up?” He sighed as he willed the water within Brian to rapidly expand by opening his palm.

Brian’s throat, cheeks, and terrified eyes bulged as the water tried to force its way out through the limited routes Percy allowed. The Avalon stooge (who he swore was looking more familiar by the second) twisted and morphed his flesh in a vain attempt to dispel the water, even going as far as creating another mouth on his neck, but Percy countered every change. A mixture of blood, mucus, and water began to seep from his eye sockets. His jaw unhinged like a serpent, which the son of Poseidon used to his advantage by blasting it off with a sudden increase in pressure. The back of his head swelled up until it took on Cephalopod-like proportions. Then Percy made a fist, and Brian’s eyes were blasted from their sockets by two jets of water while his swollen head exploded like an overinflated balloon. The former human slouched forward, and collapsed into a puddle of black ooze.

“What were you saying about killing you?” Percy huffed as he surveyed the gelatinous mess with disgust. “Because-”

“You think that was enough to kill me?” A nasally voice scoffed from behind.

“Wow… Death by pressure,” another sighed. “Haven’t done that a million times already.”

“And a head explosion,” a third identical voice tsked.

“Somebody watched Scanners,” another chuckled humorlessly.

From the shadows of the ruined pharaoh’s tomb, four identical copies of the void-corrupted human emerged. All with their hands in their pockets and a bored expression on their faces. Three of them casually strolled across the hall towards the demigods while the remaining redhead approached the black puddle that had been him.

“Nico, you need to get us the fuck out of here,” Percy hissed as he launched a lance of ice at the approaching Brians. The projectile impaled the chest of the centermost redhead, but to his horror, snake-like growths sprung from Brian and pushed the lance completely though without him breaking stride. “We need to get the fuck out of here NOW!” He cried, blindly firing a barrage of lances.

“Impalement,” the leftmost Brian yawned.

“I’ll just have to see how he likes it,” the Brian on the right cackled.

“Just as soon as I figure out how you two are still alive,” the center redhead sneered, as its hands turned into a pair of Stygian scythes. “And then I’m going to rip every ounce of moisture from your bodies in the slowest, most agonizing way I can before I-” Its jaw turned to ooze, falling to the floor with the rest of its body immediately following.

“Or not...” Percy gulped as the left and right Brians followed suit. What the Hades is this guy doing?

“What the fuck did you just do?!” The final Brian called out, fear creeping into his voice.

“Uh… That wasn’t me,” he responded, though he wished it was. “Neeks, did you-”

Nico fervently shook his head. His hands firmly clasped against his mouth.

“Don’t fuck with me!” Brian screamed, his face turning as red as his hair. “I know you- AHH!” The former human’s rants gave way to horrified screams as his body began to tear itself in two from just below his right shoulder all the way down to his hips. His screams grew louder as jagged fangs sprouted along the length of the growing gap, forcing the redhead to stagger about.

No clue what’s happening, but I’m taking this opportunity! In one fluid motion, he scooped Nico up bridal-style and sprinted down the corridor as fast as his legs could carry him. The familiar pain in his right leg nonexistent thanks to the adrenaline coursing through his veins. “Feel free to shadow travel any time, Nico!” He cried as they entered the Lotus’ main hall. “I-” He tripped over the air, and just barely managed to stop himself from falling- only to realize he was back in Ramses’ Tomb at the bottom of ruined stairs. The remaining Brian standing frozen above them, his face twisted in terror and pain. “What the...”

“Oh, JuSt A sImPlE pArLoR tRiCk,” the fanged maw that divided Brian said with a malicious chuckle that made Percy tremble. “BuT I cOuLn’T hAvE yOu LeAvInG jUsT yEt. NoT wHeN I wEnT tHrOuGh AlL tHiS wOrK tO sEt ThIs AlL uP...”

Chapter Text

Percy took a step back from the former Avalon engineer’s twisted, toothy form, only to instantly return to where he started. While he had overcome the nausea brought on by shadow travel eons ago, this looping of space had him fighting to keep his lunch down. Which was a better problem to focus on than how every iteration made it feel like his skin was being stripped from his body by invisible, icy hooks.

We’ve been through worse, he thought as he tightened his hold on the incapacitated son of Hades in his arms. There’s always a way out of crap like this. Some limitation. A distraction. Or… doing the opposite of what’s expected!

Emboldened, Percy stepped closer to the gaping mawed shoggoth-

Only to be returned to his starting position, and nearly drop to his knees from the renewed agony.

“MaYbE yOu ShOuLd TrY tHe KoNaMi CoDe,” the gash-like mouth that ran from the redhead’s shoulder to hip snickered in its unsettling multi-pitched voice; reminding Percy of the deep rumbling of the darkest depths of the ocean overlaid with the cries of beached dolphins. “ThAt SeEmS tO wOrK oN eVeRyThInG.”

“I don’t know what game you’re playing, but you can stop that stupid screeching anytime now!” Percy snarled, as he forced his legs to stop quivering. “It’s creepy, but it loses its edge when I already know you can talk like a normal human!” He shouted, hoping to bait Brian into attacking once more.

“ScReEcHiNg?” The mouth repeated, before opening and closing twice like a blinking eye. “OnE sEcOnD,” it said, holding up one finger for him to wait. A chilling snap filled the air as Brian’s head was violently jerked closer to the mouth that dominated his torso. “ChEcK. ChEcK. ChEcK oNe. SiBiLaNcE. SiBiLaNcE. ChEcK. ChEcK. ChEcK tWo,” the mouth chanted like some arcane ritual. “SiBiLaNcE- Ah Ha! I hEaR iT!” It cried in twisted amusement. “I cAn’T bElIvE nO oNe’S eVeR sAiD aNyThInG bEfOre!”

“I… Did…” Brian choked. The left side of his face beginning to lose its form and hang from his skull. “Y-you... just... refused-” Brian’s drooping mouth stitched itself closed with a series of nail-like spines. The redhead’s eyes bugged out with such agony, that even Percy had to wince in sympathy.

“AnD lEt’S rEmBeR wHo’S tHe MaStEr HeRe,” the mouth snarled. The threat dripping from its voice making it feel as if a blade of burning ice was pressed against Percy’s throat. “SoRrY aBoUt ThAt, My AsSoCiAtE fOrGeTs HiS pLaCe. AnD AnOtHeR aPoLoGy FoR mY vOiCe. I’lL rEcTiFy ThAt NoW…”

The corners of the ruined Egyptian-themed gambling hall grew darker as the fabric of reality twisted and turned at the forceful intrusion of the void. Geysers of thick, inky ooze burst from violent wounds in the darkness before the damage healed. The ooze coalesced into the amorphous forms of blank shoggoths, and hurriedly approached Brian. The three puddles that had been additional copies of the loud engineer followed the newly birthed creatures’ quest, climbing up the ruined staircase to join with the prime Brian.

“Gods of Olympus...” Percy gasped as he took an unconscious step back. The pain barely even registering as he watched in awe as the first of the shoggoths rose up and them slammed down on the redhead like a black tsunami. “Why do I know we didn’t get lucky with cannibalistic shoggoths...”

Brian’s twisted form rose above the sea of shoggoths as another contributed its flesh to the pile. The mouth on his torso twisted in place until it was level with his head as his right arm was absorbed into the black mass. Tentacles, tails with scorpion-like stingers, and serpentine limbs ending in lamprey-like mouths grew from what had been the redhead’s legs like perverse roots of an ancient tree; latching on and entangling themselves on anything within their reach. Flesh shifted up the towering monstrosity to atop the gaping maw, creating a bulging growth that threatened to smother what little human form remained of Brian, who now was little more than a shrieking tumor in comparison. Glowing, purple eyes blinked themselves into existence in the tangled mess of root-like limbs, as more human-like appendages violently grew from the thing’s left side and back. The spines that had pierced Brian’s lips receded, allowing him to scream in agony as the bubbling mass atop the black tower ripped open and unleashed an otherworldly roar that made the very world tremble.

The monstrous roar quieted, transitioning into an obnoxiously loud yawn that was all too similar to Smelly Gabe’s. “That’s better,” the black pillar of flesh said, smacking every set of lips as Brian continued to scream; its voice now hauntingly deep. “Don’t you think?” It grinned, smirked, frowned, and scowled, as the carpet around it began to fade from red to brown. The golden paint of the stair banisters flaking off as the metal beneath lost its sheen.

Percy stood transfixed at the site of the newly birthed horror. The idea of fleeing or attacking failed to register as he came to a terrifying realization. “You’re-” He gulped, struggling to find a single point on the amalgamation of shoggoths to focus on. “You’re not Brian...”

Every mouth twisted into a wicked smile. “Nope,” it replied, multiple mouths popping the ‘p’. “But I think you know who I am...”

A chill ran down his spine. The lone Outer God that was still active was supposed to be trapped outside reality. Its influence could still be felt, as its very existence was the source of all entropy, but that was supposed to be the extent of what its ever replicating cage allowed. Knowing that it could now directly communicate with them, like a prisoner sticking its arm between the bars, felt like a noose was being tightened around his neck. Their seemingly endless time now feeling painfully finite.

“No clue, huh?” The many mouthed monstrosity cackled. “How ‘bout a hint then? I am the Howler in the Dark. The Faceless God. The One of A Thousand Forms. The Cir Kae Daemon. The Whisperer in the Dark. The Black Pharaoh,” it announced, many of its limbs gesturing to the ruins of Ramses’ Tomb. “The Crawling Chaos. The-”

“Nearly-home-top,” he interrupted; doing his best to hide the fear gripping his heart.

The avatar’s many mouths either snapped shut or, quite literally, dropped to the floor. One human-like hand formed from the end of a shapeless limb and wrapped around the throat of the screaming Brian, tightening its hold until the engineer fell silent. The two maws atop the pillar of inky flesh tilted to the side and gaped. “You… Wow, no. Try again.”

Percy furrowed his brow and pictured the god’s bizarre name in his head. A name so unusual that even his ADHD thought it didn’t need any help. “Narly-hotep.”

“Nope.”

“Neigh-lee-”

“Uh uh,” the god cut him off. A hint of annoyance in its voice.

I think I can work with that. Or get us killed. Percy screwed his face up tightly, doing his best to feign that he was growing frustrated. “Nope-ah-”

“Show me the ‘p’ in the first syllable of my name,” it interrupted again with a frustrated huff. Its grip on Brian’s neck growing so tight, the flesh was beginning to fuse.

“Sheogorath.”

“...What?”

“Nyarla-” the twisting mass of flesh perked up “-homie-” and it slouched forward with a groan.

“Of course I chose the one who needed Hooked on Phonics...”

“Cegorach,” Percy stated, his ability to keep a straight face rapidly diminishing.

“I know you’re messing with me. And if you keep messing around, you’re going to find out,” it snarled.

“Not my fault your name is the result of someone smashing their face on a keyboard,” he countered, hoping to further enrage the Outer God. Lots of unknowns here, but if I piss it off enough, it may forget it’s holding us in place. He adjusted his hold on Nico and stared defiantly at the mass of eyes and tentacles that made up the bottom of the creature. “If I were you, I’d seriously consider a nickname. Bill, Ash, or-”

Percy mentally grasped at one of the puddle of water between them and the avatar of the Outer God, and propelled it at the creature as a trio of ice lances. The action caused his nearly severed prosthetic arm to hiss and heat up to point that the divine metal would have burned the sick son of Hades if not for his thick hoodie. He spun on his heel and jumped forward-

Only to be returned to his previous position faster and more violently than before.

The amalgamation of shoggoths remained motionless as the icy lances careened toward it, with the exception being the redheaded tumor who was frantically trying to separate himself from what had been his body. Percy had not expected the frantic volley would do any significant damage to the malevolent being, the attack just meant to distract it for a second or two tops, but he thought that it would least connect.

But that was not the case.

When the subzero tips of the blades got within a foot of the void monstrosity, they appeared to be sheered off by an unseen blade. The lances seemed to shrink midair, as not a shred of ice or water fell to the ruined floor, and it wasn’t until Percy reached out to try and find any traces of his go-to weapons did he realize what was happening.

Di immortales… The ancient exclamation pushing itself to the forefront of his vocabulary for the first time in years.

The monstrous being, not even a shadow of true self, had wiped the lances and the water they were composed of from existence. The entropy its presence brought decaying the matter until not even a single electron remained. All in the space of a heartbeat.

“I’ll give you one more try,” the god’s many mouths grinned. “Then we get down to business…”

Percy gulped, his mind racing to find some way to escape the situation. “You’re-”

“Nyarlathotep,” Nico rasped, prying himself from Percy’s shoulder. The son of Hades squirmed from his grasp and carefully stood on his own, though his face was still sickly pale. “You’re Nyarlathotep. And you’re a monster,” he panted.

The avatar of Nyarlathotep grins grew wider, with more tooth filled mouths forming to further express its sadistic joy. “We have a winner! But you can’t blame me entirely for that little spoiler you’re so sensitive to. Most of the blame belongs to the good doctor and this revenge-seeking ginger,” it laughed, multiple limbs gesturing to Brian.

“Kill… Me...” The redhead weakly pleaded. His skin rapidly cracking and peeling away to reveal the sickly, black flesh beneath. “Kill… Me…”

Percy looked to his husband from the corner of his eye. “Nico, what is he talking about?”

“Percy, he’s got-”

“If you spoil the surprise, augmented bodies or not, I’ll cut you down here and now!” Nyarlathotep roared, causing a massive fissure to form in the ceiling above, and the lone working slot machine to spit out a waterfall of quarters. “He’ll find out soon enough…”

Nico looked to him with pain and guilt filled eyes. The son of Hades still deeply regretted the instances he lied, or unknowingly betrayed him so many lifetimes ago. He was over it, and understood why Nico had done the things he did, but Nico was adamant about not keeping secrets or lying. So much so, that for the first few years of their relationship that he had to assure the son of Hades that keeping positive things secret, like birthday and anniversary gifts, was one-hundred-percent okay.

“Neeks, I completely understand,” he said. “You can say or do anything right now if it means getting out of here alive.”

“Percy...”

“How touching,” Nyarlathotep cackled. “But let’s get down to business.” A clump of flesh fell from what passed as its torso, only to dissolve before it hit the crumbling floor. “Time is a luxury neither of us can afford at the moment...”

An immortal being, already billions of years old, is concerned about time? Something isn’t right…

“What do you want?” Nico asked, voice void of all emotion. The electricity arcing across the length of the Master Bolt conveying his anger for him.

“What do I want? What an interesting question,” the Outer God hummed in amusement, several whip-like tentacles spawning to tap on the lips of the two largest maws. “What I want is to end this wretched existence, but that’s the endgame.”

“You sure?” He asked while trying to push his bronze shoulder back into place. “Because Neeks and I would be happy to take a crack at it right now.”

“Percy, this is not the best time to be antagonizing-”

“Oh, you’ll have every opportunity to vaporize this failure of a body once we’re done,” Nyarlathotep boomed, with many of his other orifices echoing with cacophony of laughter. “But to get to the point, you have something I need...”

Percy shivered as both of the human-like arms jutting from the right side of the avatar pointed their gnarled, decaying fingers at his stomach, his first thought being that the god wanted him. “The book,” he realized, placing one hand over the pocket that contained the arcane tome. “You want the Necronomicon...”

The tower of flesh swayed from side-to-side, shedding more pieces of rapidly decaying flesh with every movement. “Almost. I want all the copies you have tucked away in that cozy facility of yours. Every. Single. One.”

“That’s not going to happen,” Nico announced before hurling a bolt of lightning at the center of the possessed shoggoths.

Like before, the attack didn’t land. The lightning losing its energy even faster than his ice lances. Even the ozone left in the divine weapon’s wake was destroyed without a trace; the familiar scent absent.

“Of course I don’t expect you to give them to me for nothing,” The Outer God continued without acknowledging Nico’s rejection or his failed attack. “You two are far and away from the cultist monkeys, so we shall barter for them.”

“There is nothing you can offer that would make us give even a single copy to you,” Percy growled.

Nyarlathotep’s avatar twisted to its left to “look” at the writhing, tumorous mass that was Avalon’s engineer. “Wow, even they don’t want you,” it said, followed by a series of strange clicks and whistles. “But give me, say… ten minutes and I think we can change that.”

Beside him, Nico furrowed his brow and then tilted his head in puzzlement. “Wait… Why are you even interested in our copies? What information could they contain that you don’t already know? The biology of your minions, some details about the universes before, and Elder Thing history should be meaningless to you. Unless...”

“We’ve been looking at them the wrong way,” he said, finishing his husband’s thought. Not really surprising when you think about it. Three demigods with two high school diplomas between them should not be expected to understand god-slaying, reality-making sea-cucumbers. He sighed. This is my life now…

“That is one hypothesis,” Nyarlathotep stated. “Or it could be that after spending countless eons trapped in endless nothingness after a humiliating defeat, I’ve been humbled enough to not leave anything to chance. Pride before the fall, as your human poets put it.”

Percy looked to Nico. “Yeah... There is definitely some kind of weapon or something that tall, dark, and tentacally doesn’t want us to know about.”

“Yup,” the son of Hades nodded in agreement.

“So, like we said before, you’re not getting squat from us!”

The Outer God appeared to be unperturbed by their rejection. Or as unperturbed as a mountain of tentacles, purple eyes, mouths, and fangs could be. “That would be something I wouldn’t want falling into your hands, wouldn’t it?” It mocked. “Which makes it exceedingly valuable. Priceless even.” Nyarlathotep’s many mouths twisted with sadistic glee. “Thankfully, my lovely assistant has been working himself to the bone, gathering treasures worth far more than anything contained in those musty tomes.”

“You’ve got nothing,” Percy spat as the bottom half of the avatar began to roll into itself.

What little color Nico had regained drained away as Nyarlathotep’s body began to bubble. “Percy, you need to listen to me! He’s-”

Whatever Nico said next was drowned about by an abominable chorus of screams of agony, pleading whimpering, mournful wailing, and plaintive moaning. Eyes and maws receded into the inky flesh as it stretched outward like it was growing another limb, only to snap back into place. The chorus grew louder, more distinct, more feminine, as the avatar’s flesh looked as if it was boiling from the rapid expansion and retractions. The avatar added it laughter to the hellish refrain when one of the violent growths failed to reabsorbed. The limb twisted and turned as five fingers formed, frantically clawing at the air. Three more of the bubbling growths solidified and gained a pink, fleshy hue; all desperately grasping for something to hold, with more on the precipice of transforming.

Percy’s blood ran cold. Those… Those are human...

The otherworldly flesh contorted and stretched into terror-filled, mummified faces that were fighting to push their way through the churning membrane their arms had. Their screams grew louder as their flesh was hydrated and midnight flesh took on a golden hue.

No… He turned to Nico for some form of comfort, but the tears leaking from the Italian’s eyes only amplified made things worse. No! No! No!

A head of gold ripped through the shoggoth flesh-

And the stormy, gray eyes that plagued his every nightmare snapped open.

Chapter Text

Percy could only choke on his own spittle as dozens of his first love pleaded for help to escape the sea of oozing, black flesh. He wanted to run forward and pull them free, flee in fear and disgust at the living monument to his failures, and drop to his knees and scream all at the same time.

“HELP ME!” The first Annabeth pleaded, before another pushed her beneath the inky surface and took her place in begging for salvation.

“HELP ME!”

“HELP ME!”

“HELP!”

“PERCY!”

“WHY WON’T YOU HELP ME?!”

“HELP!”

“SEAWEED-BRAIN!”

This can’t be real, he told himself. This can’t be real! He begged as he clamped his hands over his ears in a vain attempt to silence the terrified screams. “THIS ISN’T REAL!” The son of Poseidon screamed, violently shaking his head. But before he closed his eyes, he caught a glimpse of Nico with his head hung low. Tears leaking from the son of Hades’ tightly shut eyes.

Confirming that this was no nightmare.

This is why he was sick, he realized as his knees buckled, arms dropping limp to his sides. He could feel her... He could feel every single one of her…

“Oh my, I didn’t expect them to be this noisy,” the dark god grinned. “Well, that’s not true. I’ve been listening to the angelic chorus of screaming Chases for millennia now!” It cackled. “But I can see how this would be a little overwhelming for you two, so allow me to rectify that...”

Percy watched in horror as one-by-one the daughters of Athena were violently reabsorbed into the avatar’s body. The pleading cries growing quieter and quieter.

No!

He jumped to his feet and leaped forward, hellbent on freeing at least one Annabeth-

Only to snap back into place as their fingers brushed.

“Easy there, lover boy. Wouldn’t want to give your husband any wrong ideas would we?” Mocked Nyarlathotep, as one of its many shapeless tentacles wrapped around Annabeth’s arm; stopping her from being devoured.

“You don’t speak for me,” Nico snapped. “I know Percy’s feelings, and he knows mine! And Annabeth was my friend too!”

The dark avatar hummed in acknowledgment, seemingly unconcerned by the son of Hades’ words. The god’s many toothy mouths then smiled, and in a blur of motion, ripped Annabeth from its twisting, decaying body. The Daughter of Athena went limp in the shadowy appendages, her mouth open but silent, as it moved her through the air like a child carelessly playing with a ragdoll. Every muscle in Percy’s body (as well as a few phantom limbs) tensed as he awaited whatever sick torture the god would inflict on his first love, but it simply dropped her at his feet while its numerous mouths snickered.

“It wouldn’t be a fair offer if I didn’t offer you a test drive,” Nyarlathotep snickered as it retracted its limbs from the motionless blonde. “Go right ahead, Percy. See that I am a god of my word.”

“Percy, it’s a-”

His husband’s voice faded away along with the avatar’s antagonizing snickering, the creaking and groaning of the crumbling building, and the electronic bells and whistles of the remaining slot machines. The only thing he could hear was the beating of his own heart and Annabeth’s shallow breathing.

“Annabeth...” His breath hitched as he took a step forward, discovering that he was free to move once more. His legs buckled and he dropped to his knees before lifting the naked Daughter of Athena with shaking arms; the former trident rattling with every tremor. She was soaking wet, her long golden hair plastered to her face, so he dried her off and pressed her tight against his chest; both to warm her up and to know what it felt like to have her in his embrace after so many lifetimes. Her beautiful eyes were closed and he tried to coax them open with a strangled sob. “Annabeth.”

It was impossible to say how many times he had been tempted to find each universe’s Annabeth and tell her how much he loved and missed her. To tell her about the unspeakable horrors waiting behind the curtain they called reality. To tell her and himself to never leave each other’s side for even a split moment or waste precious seconds squabbling over something petty.

But… he couldn’t.

Just knowing about the Outer Gods and their cruel machinations would change their entire world view. Shattering their blissful, ignorance born innocence, leaving them in a heightened state of constant guard and preparation. Their dreams cast aside to focus on the lurking threat while still dealing with the familiar.

And what was the point of fighting if there was nothing to protect? No hope that somewhere, Annabeth got the life she deserved.

“Come on, Wise Girl, look at me,” Percy pleaded, gently tapping her pale cheeks. “I got you. You just need to open you eyes. You’re safe. Open your eyes and see for yourself.”

Pale eyelids slowly rose, revealing glassy, gray eyes that made his heart soar.

“Nico! She’s awake!” He cheered, pulling the Daughter of Athena into a tight embrace. “It’s okay, Wise Girl. We’re going to get you-”

A shrill shriek filled the air before something sharp sank into the flesh of his shoulder. Something slammed into his stomach, then chest, legs, and arms in a violent flurry faster than he could process. The wild assault made him drop his first love.

And she hurriedly scurried away from him like a frightened animal.

“Anna-”

“ST-STAY AWAY FROM ME!” The blonde screamed in pure terror. Her eyes wide as saucers, rapidly darting from side-to-side as she continued to distance herself from him.

“Annabeth… It’s me. Percy. Don’t you-”

“I S-SAID STAY A-AWAY FROM ME!” Annabeth shrieked, frantically scurrying back on all fours. “I KNOW TH-THIS IS JUST ANOTHER G-GAME! Her hand brushed against the rotting staircase and she nearly jumped out of her skin from fright. “THIS ISN’T REAL!”

Percy awkwardly jumped to his feet and threw himself next to Annabeth, not caring that it put him closer to the twisted pile of possessed flesh. She tried to hit him again, but he caught her wrists and began to utter reassurances. “Annabeth, this is real. I-”

“THIS ISN’T REAL!”

He let out a loud “oof” as a stray knee connected with his stomach, but he held tight. “I promise you, this is real. I’m here, Wise-”

Annabeth continued to struggle against his hold, tears flowing from her closed eyes. “THIS ISN’T REAL! THIS ISN’T R-REAL!”

“We’re going to get you out of here,” he promised the thrashing girl. Blood flowing down her left wrists from slicing the delicate flesh on the Celestial Bronze plates that made up his hand. “But you gotta-” he narrowly dodged a headbutt “-but you gotta calm down! Nico! I could use a hand here!”

“LET ME DIE!”

The Son of Hades didn’t move from his spot, only looking up at Nyarlathotep’s avatar with cold rage. “What did you do to her?” Nico hissed with enough venom to drop a shoggoth.

“Little old me? Nothing,” The god cackled as an eye on its “thigh” popped, with a mix of glowing purple and black goo seeping from the empty socket. “The living boil on the other hand, well… to put it simply, he subjugates all those delightful legacies to every horror imaginable until their souls are spent. Right, Brian?”

The human boil was brought to the forefront of the mountain of mangled flesh as it slowly repeated the same two words in excruciating agony. “Kill… Me...”

“We really need to work on your vocabulary,” Nyarlathotep said with a sigh, before it flicked the tumor of a man with one of its dwindling limbs. “That one right there is nearing the end of its run. The things she’s seen… The things she’s experienced… She could still be saved, which is why she’s my initial offer, but I would gladly offer you a new one instead. I’d even throw in one of those little pine tree air fresheners. All I need you to do is hand over one. Silly. Little. Book.”

It was a trap. He knew it in his bones that handing the Outer God even a single page of the book would be disastrous. It was damning countless realities and their versions of Nico, Annabeth, and everyone he loved to nonexistence or worse.

And yet…

The Necronomicon weighed heavily in his pocket as he cradled the Daughter of Athena in his arms. The crying girl and the eldritch tome seemingly repelling each other as a voice in the back of his mind whispered that only one would leave the Lotus with him and Nico.

Percy squeezed his eyes shut and whispered a quick prayer for forgiveness for what he was about to do. He could not let Annabeth return to whatever hell she had been through for a book. There was not a single scenario where he could make such a sacrifice.

Shaking, he removed one hand from his first love, and she jumped in terror. “It’s okay,” he whispered, pulling her tighter against his chest with his remaining arm. “You’re not going back.” He slipped his free hand into his pocket and-

“And what about me?” Nico hissed, snatching his wrist. “Percy gets Annabeth back, but what’s in it for me?”

“Nico! It’s-”

“Surely the return of your mutual friend is enough?” The Outer God’s avatar asked- a hint of uncertainty echoing in its haunting chorus of voices. “To reunite with someone you thought lost forever is worth-”

“Sorry, but I’m a bit greedier than my husband,” Nico snarled as he took a step forward. Nyarlathotep’s twisted, decaying form leaning away from the Son of Hades as the shadows began to swirl around its trunk. “For a Necronomicon, the one thing you want, we should at the very least get our Annabeth back,” Nico continued as one of the avatar’s left arms fell off; decaying into ooze before it his the floor. “And our Jason! Our Demeter!” Nico swallowed hard as tears of rage prickled at the corners of his eyes. “And my father!” The lower half of Nyarlathotep’s top most maw fell off. “That’s my one and only offer,” Nico spat.

“Nico! We can’t just-” The Son of Hades clasped a hand over his mouth, muffling his protests.

“Take it or leave it,” Nico growled.

The amalgamation of shoggoths many maws opened and closed as if at a loss for words. Many of its arms and tentacles growing hands that held their index fingers in the universal gesture to wait a second. The tower of dark flesh twisted from side-to-side before violently splitting laterally, transforming most of its being into a new fanged mouth.

“Listen here you little shit!” It roared with enough volume that the ruins of the casino shook, and he was forced to hunch over the Daughter of Athena to protect her from falling debris. “I’m the one calling the shots here! Do you really think I’ll let you leave here alive if you don’t accept my offer?! You should be THANKING me for even giving you such an offer! I could’ve just let this wart kill you and-”

Oh… Though he had known the deal was a trap, hearing the Outer God indirectly admit to such made his heart sink. The minuscule spark of hope that the deal had no strings attached was extinguished with no hope of being relit. Still… He looked down at the quivering Daughter of Athena. We can take her back. There’s got to be something at home that can remove his influence…

“-If you could have, then why didn’t you?!” Nico snarled. His screaming match with Nyarlathotep only growing more tense with each uttered syllable. “Because you can’t, that’s why! For some reason, you can’t kill us! Or...” Nico’s eyes widened as he stared up at the melting mound of flesh. “You- you need us alive! You want us to take Annabeth!”

The tumblers of the lone working slot machine came to an abrupt halt as its lights flashed and an electronic melody filled the dead air. All three spinners displayed flashing, stylized dollar signs, and an excited, somewhat sultry, female voice proudly declared, “JACKPOT!”

“What?” The avatar of Nyarlathotep ceased its screaming at Nico and twisted its hulking mass towards the noisy machine, as all its disgusting eyes rolled in their oily sockets-

Only for it to be engulfed in an explosion of lightning, fire, and neon shrapnel as the machine detonated.

“SHI-!”

Before he could finish his exclamation, his arm sprang into action. All the water he could muster shot upward from the soaked carpets, forming a wall between Nico and the exploding slot machine. Freezing the water solid would not have been thick enough to withstand the concussive blast, so instead he unconsciously increased the water’s surface tension to ridiculous levels. It would shield Nico from most of the heat and pressure, but there would still be damage.

And it left him and Annabeth wide open.

“-T!” He dove on top of his first love just as the wave of heat washed over them. Annabeth thrashed violently against his hold as the synthetic fibers of his hoodie melted and seared his back. The air was forcefully expelled from his lungs and his vision went white when he felt something pierce the tender flesh just above his hip, but he still focused on protecting Nico and Annabeth.

Finally, the heat dissipated and he allowed himself to slump forward. The only things he was aware of were the ringing in his ears, Annabeth’s frantic attempts to push him off her, and the warm blood flowing down his abdomen.

I really hate being blown up. With a shallow breath, he allowed himself to be rolled off the blonde- but still held onto her wrist. But if it means keeping Nico and Annabeth safe, then it’s worth it. He took a deeper breath, only to wince as a sharp pain ran up his right side. But let’s try to not make this a common-

“Well now, That was certainly… Unexpected,” Nyarlathotep’s otherworldly voices cackled over the crackling of flames. “And that is not a word I use lightly,” it added with a snarl that shook the casino to its foundation.

Fuck me… Percy pressed his hand against his throbbing side and slowly sat upright; searing pain blinding him as whatever was embedded in his flesh shifted. Once up, he blinked to clear his vision, and immediately his spirits were lifted considerably. “More like, fuck you,” he smirked.

The towering avatar had been toppled in the blast, with most of its right side burnt to a crisp. Thick, glowing purple ooze bubbled up and leaked from numerous punctured eyes. Tentacles, arms, and pseudo-limbs hung limp and withered, all rapidly decaying to the point some were already turning to dust. Nyarlathotep’s primary maw weakly opened and closed, while the monster that was Brian struggled to pull himself out from under his master’s crushing weight.

“I’m willing if you are, lover boy,” the dark god chuckled, instantly making Percy’s stomach churn. “But unfortunately-” the flesh touching the destroyed staircase began to rapidly flake away “-I’m going to take a raincheck. That little stunt has rendered this form useless, so I must take my leave.”

“Don’t let us keep you,” Nico growled as he raised the Master Bolt; arcs of electricity arcing from the ends of the cylinder. “In fact, let me help you!” The Son of Hades unleashed a powerful blast of lightning from the divine weapon that shook the Lotus’ very foundation-

Only for it to once more dissipate before reaching its intended target.

“Two things before I go.” The maw twisted into a mocking grin before dozens of its teeth fell to the ground. “First-” one of its remaining eyes looked right at him and his blood ran cold “Since negotiations broke down, I will be taking what’s mine…”

Fear like none he had ever known gripped his heart as the words washed over him-

As Annabeth’s wrist melted in his grasp, the once tan flesh falling from the bone as a gory slush only to hit the floor as a familiar black and purple sludge.

“NO!”

The Daughter of Athena’s jaw stretched wide in a scream as she watched in horror as the flesh of her arms fell away like hot candle wax. But her screams never came as her jaw fell to the floor, leaving only her rapidly blackening wriggling tongue and her bulging gray eyes to convey her unimaginable terror. Her neck sank into her body as her shoulders collapsed inward, her torso momentarily bulging before her ribcage tore through the malleable flesh.

“NO! NO! NO! I GOT YOU!” Percy cried as desperately tried to hold her together in every he could. “YOU’RE GONNA BE FINE! I-”

Annabeth’s calves exploded into ooze under the weight of her body as the flesh on her face began to fall away. Her arms completely fell away with a sickening ‘snap’ and the Son of Poseidon quickly lunged forward to catch her- only for her back to snap in two at his touch. The girl’s upper body fell to the floor, the impact stripping most of the remaining flesh from the right side of her face.

“NO! NO! NO! NO!” He shouted, collapsing into the pile of rapidly decomposing flesh to cup what remained of his first love. “DON’T LEAVE ME!” He pleaded to the softening skull clenched tightly in his hands, staring into the glazed over gray eyes that had been so cruelly spared. “DON’T LEAVE ME!” Annabeth’s eyes rolled back, and the last remaining trace of her poured through his fingers.

“That was quite dramatic,” Nyarlathotep said with a rasping chuckle. Little more than Brian’s upper body all that remained of the once titanic avatar. “And also avoidable,” the decaying being added as the redhead’s arm began to spasm. “Which leads me to my second item. I am always ready make a deal. Be it one of your copies for a dear sweet Annabeth Chase, or better yet, joining the winning side, I am always open. Always listening. Always watching. All you need do is stare into the void, and-”

The taunting jaw that was the left half of the former Avalon minion’s body exploded like a water balloon as Percy poured every ounce of moisture he could scrounge up into the thing with a primal, painfilled scream. He rose to his feet and stormed up the ruined stairs as he continued his assault; filling each piece of decaying tissue with water until they burst, only to collect the moisture again and direct to the ever shrinking portions. The attacks were conducting purely by feel and his abilities, as he was blinded by tears and the terrified gray eyes seared into his retinas.

He screamed until his throat was raw and bloody, yet still he fused to relent his blind attack. Every trace of the Outer God needed to wiped off the face of the Earth before he would even considering stopping. Every-

A nasally guffaw pierced through the roar of raging water. The sound strange and insulting enough to cause him to cease his lashing out and turn to its source.

“Oh, that was worth it,” the redhead smirked before bursting into a coughing fit. With his remaining arm, Brian propped what remained of his body up. “Worth every second of agony to see you fucking suffer.” A torrent of water rose up beside Percy but the shoggoth-hybrid’s smirk only grew- the flesh from his lips to his ears ripping to reveal a set of jaws that were far from human. “Because now I know how to hurt you,” Brian chuckled, the whites of his eyes turning jet black as the torn flesh of his waist began to retake human characteristics. “And all I have to do is keep doing what I’ve been doing all along! Taking that little blonde cunt-”

Whatever the deranged man was going to say was silenced by a torrent of water slamming into his deformed face; the sheer force of the spinning liquid tearing his monstrous jaw off. The redhead’s remaining eye burst from its socket as every drop of water was forced into what remained of his body. The water whipped itself into tempestuous whirlpool within the monster’s head and chest, sharp needles of ice forming and shredding him from within like a buzz-saw. In a matter of seconds, the redhead was reduced to a spinning black slurry of water, ice, and gore.

Yet it didn’t make him feel better in the slightest.

Annabeth…

The floor beneath the rotating ooze collapsed as the Daughter of Athena’s name echoed in his head. Despite everything he had done in the eons after the fall of his own world, it still wasn’t enough to save one single soul. All the intense training, the excruciating alterations to his body, the years retrieving and studying every scrap of arcane knowledge, all of it amounting to nothing before but a shadow of an Outer God.

Is winning even an option? Percy asked himself as he dropped to his knees and released his hold on the swirling liquid. Can we- A strong hand gripped his shoulder, and he looked up to see Nico standing over him, skin as white as a ghost and eyes bloodshot from silent tears.

“I am so sorry, Percy,” his husband said with a shaky whisper as he knelt down beside him, his body trembling as much as his voice. “I- I tried to hold her here. Tried to t-tether her soul here.” The Son of Hades wiped his eyes with his sleeve. “But…” He sniffled and turned his gaze to the floor. “You have every right to hate me… I just-”

“She was a trap,” he interrupted, his words just as fragile as Nico’s. “I- I know that… And I know you tried, Nico. I know that.”

“Doesn’t make it any easier.”

He dried his tears with a thought and did the same for his husband before collapsing onto his back. There was so much he wanted to say, but every time he opened his mouth all that came out was a strangled croak. Nico’s mouth opened and closed a few times, but he too was unable to speak a single word. So, they reached for each other’s hands and stared at the stained floor where Annabeth had been only moments ago. Both reaching out with their powers in a futile attempt to bring the Daughter of Athena back.

Chapter Text

“Something needs to change, Neeks,” Percy sighed after what felt like an eternity of uncomfortable silence. “Because tonight proved this isn’t working.”

The Son of Hades was silent for a moment, eyes still focused on darkened spot. “Yeah...” He slowly nodded. “But what? All we know is we need to find the Necronomicon and the Dream Lands.” He took a deep breath and hung his head. “Not like there’s a weapon we’ve been overlooking. Although… based on what was said tonight, I think we need to reexamine our copies again.”

Percy nodded with a grunt, glad that Nico at least realized things needed to change. “I...” He gulped as he knew what he was about to say would be controversial at best. “We-”

A shrill shrieking filled the air as the temperature dropped below freezing. On pure reflex they rolled away from one another- narrowly avoiding being crushed by the gelatinous form of a pitch-black shoggoth.

“Miss me?!” Brian’s voice echoed from the numerous mouths that dotted the amorphous being.

“Not in the slightest!” Nico spat as he unleashed a bolt of lightning at the shoggoth, instantly incinerating it- only for another to form just behind the eternal teenager.

“Quick question!” The redhead’s voice cried out as the shoggoth lashed out at Nico with whip-like appendages that ended with vicious looking barbs.

“The answer’s no!” Percy shouted as he blasted the creature into the air by forming a waterspout beneath its huge body, saving the Son of Hades from being struck.

“You two fucks ever play Starcraft?” Brian laughed from the mouths of four additional shoggoths pulling themselves from the void. Each artificial creature reshaping their malleable bodies into forms meant to maim in the cruelest ways possible. “Or is the concept of a Zerg Rush completely lost on your dumb asses?”

All around them shoggoths poured into the room, be it from the destroyed roof, the surrounding halls, oozing up from cracks in the floor, or even from the void. Every creature took on a unique form as they rapidly converged on the two demigods, some even merging together to create larger monstrosities, while others took on features of the former human who controlled them. Every single mouth twisted into sadistic grins that only grew wider the closer they got.

“Percy!” Nico shouted, reaching out with his free hand as he blindly fired blasts of lightning at the approaching horde.

He didn’t need to be told twice and grabbed his husband’s hand. Instantly he was pulled into the shadows, narrowly avoiding a lunging shoggoth, and felt himself being pulled through the darkness. The trip was short, and they emerged just outside the main entrance of the Lotus.

And into hell.

The Vegas strip was on fire, with the glow of the flames and neon lights illuminating a sky filled with winged shoggoths. The traffic congested streets flowed with the blood of those trying to outrun the shifting abominations that effortlessly pushed aside and tossed still running abandoned vehicles. Shards of shatterproof glass rained down from the highest floors of the resorts and casinos as the insatiable creatures burst their way into the rooms of cowering families. Shoggoths wrapped their elastic limbs around the support beams of the hotels and broke them, causing entire buildings to collapse in a violent chain reactions.

And in the center of it all, standing atop the gilded entrance of Caesar’s Palace in a bloodied Elvis costume, was Brian. The redhead flipping off the collapsing city with gusto.

“Again,” Nico gasped beside him. “We lost again.”

His stomach twisted into a painful knot at the Son of Hades’ assessment. We failed… We failed Annabeth twice tonight. Failed this world. Failed- His gaze shifted to an overturned cab and it was like someone dumped a bucket of ice water over his head. “No!” He cried, startling his husband. Before Nico had a chance to even lower his shoulders, he spun him around and dropped down such that they were face-to-face. “Nico! Us! Can you find us!”

Nico blinked. “Uh… We’re right here?”

“No!” He shouted, placing his hands on the Italian’s cheeks and smushing them. “Us. Young us! The kids, Neeks! Can you find this world’s us?!”

The younger man pried his significant other’s hands from his face and took a step back. “Percy, I-”

“We can’t lose again, Nico!” The Son of Poseidon cried. “We can’t! I can’t do it! I can’t take another loss tonight! We can’t just let them die! We have to-”

Nico grabbed him by the chin and bore his dark dark eyes into his own. “I can and I will, Perseus. Just cover me for a moment so I can catch my breath.”

His heart soared and he pulled Nico into a spine shattering embrace. “Thank you, Neeks! Thank you!”

Percy starting pumping his legs before they even left the shadows, hitting the ground running as the reemerged in the cold Nevada desert.

Fuck!

Ahead of him lie the cab he had flagged down for his younger self and the di Angelo children. The vehicle on its side, a pool of blood spreading across the asphalt as a shoggoth slammed tore the cab apart piece-by-piece. The thing ripped off the driver’s side passenger door with a chuckle not its own, and the high-pitched scream of child filled the desert night.

YES!

The pounding of his shoes and labored breathing caught the otherworldly creature’s attention as seven glowing purple eyes emerged from its back, but a bolt of lightning struck the beast down before they could focus. Void of life, the shoggoth collapsed in a pile of goo, and the cab began to roll backwards.

“I GOT YA!” Percy cried as a single geyser, erupted from deep within the earth. The spray of ancient water hitting the roof of the cab with just enough force to make it fall onto its three remaining tires. His breath hitched when the vehicle’s interior lighting flickered on to reveal three forms still strapped into the backseats, and he pushed himself to close the remaining distance as fast as possible. Please be alive! Please be alive! Please be-

Nico stepped out of the shadow of the cab and stuck his head into the open compartment. “They’re alive,” the younger demigod announced with a relieved sigh. “They’re banged up and afraid, but alive.”

“I am not afraid!” The unmistakable voice of his younger self cried out in protest.

He slid to a stop beside Nico, pausing for a moment to peck his husband’s cheek, and stuck his head in the car. Sure enough, the three tweens were in one piece. Covered in the blood and gore of their driver, but still in one piece. The two di Angelos leaning heavily against his younger self, who was attempting to cut his restraints with Riptide. “You guys okay?”

“Are we- ARE YOU KIDDING?!” Bianca screeched. “LOOK AT US! WE’RE COVERED IN-”

He silenced the Daughter of Hades by placing the palm of Celestial Bronze hand. “I know what you look like, but are you hurt?”

“No,” the young Nico sniffled. “But I did hit my head really hard on the window.”

Bianca shook her head with a pointed glare.

“Percy?” His Nico asked the younger Son of Poseidon. “What about you?”

“No,” the green-eyed youth answered with his own glare directed right at him.

“Good,” he sighed, removing his hand from Bianca’s mouth and immediately working to remove her seat belt; the safety restraints having gotten twisted and bent from the shoggoth’s assault. “Now we’re going to get you guys out of here.” He furrowed his brow when the mechanism refused to release, so he used one of the sharp edges of his damaged arm to slice through the nylon weave. “Take you someplace safe.” He lifted Bianca from her seat, the girl mortified by the action, and handed her to Nico who looked like he was going through some existential crisis as he held his “older” sister at arm’s length. “A new home,” he muttered as climbed into the cab to help his younger self.

“I have a home,” his younger self sneered as he pulled away from him. The boy pointing Riptide at him in an attempt to appear threatening.

He would have found his alternate self’s actions cute if the world wasn’t on the verge of being consumed by the void. So, swatted the inexperienced swordsman's wrist, making him wince and drop the Celestial Bronze blade. “I hate to say this kid, but not anymore,” he said as he began to cut at the squirming tween’s restraints. “Shit went bad in the worst way possible.”

The raven-haired demigod made a wild swing for his face, but he caught his fist with ease. “I have to save my mom!” His younger self growled, trying to wrestle his arm free. “I have to! And no one is going to stop me!” His alternate self threw his head forward, and this time he couldn’t parry or counter the attack. The young Son of Poseidon’s forehead slamming into his jaw.

“Owe! You little-” Percy hissed as he pulled back to cup his now throbbing jaw.

“Percy, you need to hurry up,” his Nico said from behind. “The sky to the East is starting to glow purple.”

Fuck! He pulled his hands away and cursed under his breath as the copper tang of blood filled his mouth. “Tons of shoggoths inbound. Got it.” He spat out a mix of saliva and blood, earning a “gross” from the young Son of Hades, and then reached into his hoodie pocket and drew Riptide in one fluid motion.

“I knew it!” The young Nico gasped, his eyes darting rapidly between the two of them.

“Trust me, I want to save mom as much as you!” He growled as Riptide sliced through the seat belt with ease. “Would march right down to Underworld and grab her myself if we had the time.” He leaned over and sliced Nico’s seat belt. “But I chose to save you three. Give you a chance at life that Annabeth and Grover were denied.”

“No one asked you to!” The younger demigod snarled, reaching down and to pick up his fallen weapon. “Now let me go! I’ll walk to L.A. if I have to!”

The boy tried to push his way past him, hate-filled eyes locked on his own, but in one quick motion was pinned to the back of the driver’s seat. “Did you not see the monster trying to kill you?” He shouted in his younger self’s face.

The young Son of Poseidon bit down on his arm, only to wince when his teeth made contact with the Celestial Bronze appendage. “I would have killed it! I’ve been trained by Chiron!”

“And what about the millions of others out there?” He growled. “The ones destroying every city around the world as we speak? You going to kill them too? ‘Cause I don’t remember Chiron teaching me how to do that!”

“Chiron only trains the best! He doesn’t waste his time on one-armed losers!”

Oh my fucking gods, I hate myself! He lifted his younger self up by the collar of his jacket as both Nico’s and Bianca’s watched their exchange in concerned silence. “I am you, dumb ass! Everyone but you figured that out hours ago! Now would you listen to someone for once in your life and come with us?! We’re trying to save your gods damned life!”

His younger self glared at him with teary eyes, his small hands wrapped the arms holding him up. “Not without my mom.”

“Zeus’ sandals,” Percy sighed, lowering the kid to the floor but still gripping his jacket. He understood what the kid was feeling. Truly, he did. On every conceivable level. Yet, he after so many losses and him feeling like he was on the edge of a total nervous breakdown, he refused to let this version of himself throw his life away. “Fine,” he sighed as he released his grip, the boy instantly perking up at the idea he was going to continue on his first quest-

Only for him to instantly collapse as the flow of blood in his Carotid Artery slowed.

“Did- did you kill him?” The young Nico asked, eyes wide in shock as he clutched at the sliced seat belt.

“Just knocked him out,” he grunted as he tossed the boy’s body over his shoulder. Heavier than I thought I’d be. Probably all that candy mom snuck home for me. He rolled his shoulder until he found a semi-comfortable position and looked down at the small Son of Hades. “Please tell me you’re not going to be a problem. I really can’t deal with… anything right now if I’m being honest.”

Nico leaned forward in his seat and looked to his sister and then to his older self. “I just have one question.”

Oh, fuck me… Percy tried to muster a smile, but failed in a horrific manner; his lips spasming. “Sure. Hit me.”

He expected the boy to ask him what that monster was, if they were from the future, if the world was ending, where they were taking them, or anything that would make sense given everything happening around him. But instead he got-

“Do you know how to surf?” The blood covered demigod happily chirped. “Um... either of you?”

It was the last thing he expected, and yet there was no other question he could imagine a young Nico asking. Nerves frayed, all he could do as drop to the floor and laugh like a madman. The first additions to their team, and as their world collapsed around them, all one cared about was if he could surf. 

Chapter Text

For the second time in the entirety of its existence, Nyarlathotep paused.

Every iota of its incomprehensible being stalling for an instant so minuscule only Yog-Sothoth and its ilk could possibly detect it. Each facet of its being turning away from its endeavors to study the impossibility that had just occurred.

That it had been taken by surprise.

The exploding machine of vice had not been part of the plan or any of its endless permutations. The unforeseen detonation and destruction of its temporary form creating a deviation that required its full attention to minimize its cascading impact. Yet despite its near instantaneous response, three new variables were added to equation and it was forced to reflect on how such a thing had come to pass.

Everything had been proceeding as scripted up until that moment.

The Son of Poseidon and Son of Hades discovering the grizzly remains of Allison’s encounter with the Daughter of Athena, damaging their psyches.

Brian’s reintroduction to Percy and Nico, sparking a rivalry born of hate and history that would work to its advantage.

The one-sided fight upon its commandeering of its minion’s form had enlightened the humans to the fact their “divine” weaponry was losing its power and that repairs were needed if they hoped to ever prevail.

Revealing a small fraction of countless number of the female Chases in its thrall only provided further motivation for the malleable demigods, while further chipping away at their frayed sanity.

Offering one of the broken souls in exchange for one of the worthless books had unfolded perfectly. Whether they accepted the deal or not was inconsequential, as either scenario only created further mental anguish. Either from the knowledge that they had failed to help someone within their reach, or from watching the Trojan Horse be incinerated by their home’s defenses.

All that had been left was to cement the rift in the demigod’s relationship for future exploitation, when the “one-armed bandit” exploded into a ball of flame and shrapnel.

It perceived all things on micro and macro scales simultaneously in ways far beyond any mortal or their gods could ever comprehend, yet it had been blind to the attack until it was too late for its limited form to react. The sudden shift in electrons at the very heart of the machine occurring too fast and just out of range of its avatar’s influence.

It dedicated a significant portion of its being to replicating the scene; recreating everything down to a scale unknown to the mortal races. The event replayed a near infinite number of times as it studied every particle, every charge, every spin, every tug, and every pull, searching for the start of the chain of events that led to the explosion.

Yet despite seconds of thorough and brutal analysis, it was forced to conclude that it had missed something.

It just wasn’t sure what.

It was a humbling experience to be sure, a stark reminder that nothing was infallible- including it. But the experience was not without worth. Quite the contrary, it was an extremely valuable learning experience- much like any episode of Jeopardy!

If it had missed something then, what is to say it didn’t miss something before?

With that revelation, it adjusted how it processed the information it received from beyond its prison and began to reexamine past events, and almost instantly found a multitude of subtle deviations and blind spots that lacked the signature of the Elder Things and their accursed constructs.

In fact, there seemed to be several parties at work under its nonexistent nose. All seemingly acting independent of one another, yet all equally careful to conceal their existence.

Until now…

Which birthed several questions for it to dwell on.

Why did this one foreign party risk revealing itself now?

What value did it see in the son of Hades and son of Poseidon to justify its reckless actions?

Was this party and the others unaware that the demigods were part of its grand machinations?

Were they aware of its plans for the fragments of Yog-Sothoth and Shub-Niggurath?

All questions required further investigation and immediate action. With less than a thought, its being began to compensate for the momentary lack of entropy throughout existence- instantly destroying a nigh infinite number of universes that had been teetering on the brink of oblivion -and adjusting its designs for things to be based on the new data. The new variables and their unknown weights were for the most part unwelcome, but they were for the most part mitigated with the introduction of a second son of Poseidon and its desire to be reunited with his mother...