Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Michael had absolutely no idea what was going on, which wasn’t saying much, since he usually didn’t. But something about the scenario he found himself in made him think this was a bit different.

The first thing he was really aware of was the sound of rushing water. He was standing in front of a fountain, and that one girl - Nancy, he had her in his notebook as “girl that bullies Grover a lot” - was lying in it as if she’d been pushed. Judging from where he was standing and how everyone was staring at him, it wasn’t very hard to figure out who’d pushed her.

A familiar teacher ran up to her, apologizing profusely. What was the teacher’s name? ‘Her name’s Ms. Dodds. Don’t trust her.’ A voice spoke in his mind, something he attributed to his thoughts. Almost like she could hear his thoughts as well as he could, Ms. Dodds looked up at that exact moment and glared at him. He caught himself almost apologizing for nothing. It was a bad habit of his.

Ms. Dodds stood and looked at him with something like satisfaction, as if he’d just done something she’d been waiting for. “Come with me, Mr. Jackson.”

Michael faltered. “Uh… ok.” He blinked and Ms. Dodds was gone. He looked around and there she was, up on the steps of the museum, waiting for him. God, he hated when that happened. With nothing else to do, he shook his head to clear the blurriness and went to follow her up the stairs.

He had a bad feeling about the leather-clad old woman, but he had a bad feeling about just about everyone, so he figured this wasn’t very different. Somehow, this eighty-something lady was already at the other end of the museum. Michael sighed and jogged towards her. She wasn’t looking at him, but had apparently heard him approach. “Did you really think you could get away with it?”

Michael shook his head, a lie already formed that he was really hoping was true. “No, ma’am, Nancy was just being a jerk to Grover and-“

“Insolent child.” Ms. Dodds turned to look at him, and her eyes were all black, with irises such a deep red Michael was certain they were glowing. “Give it to me, Perseus Jackson!”

The woman shifted forms. Where Ms. Dodds once was now stood a creature Michael could only describe as demonic. It stood 6 feet tall, but that was the most human thing about it. Its skin was leathery and baggy, with folds and scars all over it. Out of its back stretched something like bat wings, each about as long as it was tall. Its mouth had fangs at least an inch long. It didn’t have hands and its arms weren’t human, they were bony lengths maybe 4 and a half feet long, ending in something like if the arm of a claw machine had fingernails growing all over it.

Michael stumbled back and shouted things that might’ve been words if he’d had more time to think. The thing lunged at him and he barely had time to dodge out of the way. His senses were going nuts, every sound in a mile radius was converging on his eardrums solely to give him a headache. His Latin teacher rolled in on his wheelchair and shouted something, something that might’ve included his legal name. He glanced over and a pen was flying at him. Out of no conscious effort of his own, he reached out and caught the pen. Except it wasn’t a pen anymore, it was a sword. The bat thing dove at him again and he moved entirely on instinct. He stabbed it.

He felt the blade go into the creature’s skin, heard it cutting its organs. He looked at his hands still gripping the sword with such intensity that his knuckles were white. He stared at his fists as his eyes unfocused and reality became a blur. Nothing existed beyond what he was looking at, and that barely existed, either. He was breathing hard. He dropped the blade and it fell to the floor with a crash, somehow not in the creature’s body anymore. His breathing got harder as he lowered himself to the floor without wanting to. Soon every breath sounded like a gasp, and with tears leaking out of his face, Michael screamed.

Chapter Text

Why was she on the floor?

That was the first question that came to Andromeda’s mind. The second was, where the hell was she? Was this the Met? She’d been here with her mom when she was really young, but what was she doing here now?

Judging from the water in her eyes and the tears on the floor she could tell she’d been crying, which was odd because it didn’t seem like there was anything around to scare her. Just a weird pile of dust or sand or something on the ground. Wasn’t she at that boarding school? Did she get out already, is that why this happened?

Finally she decided to stand up and walk out of the museum. It was weird, there wasn’t anyone around, almost like they’d been cleared out for an emergency. She stepped outside to see her class in separate bunches eating lunch. So she wasn’t out yet, this was a field trip. But then what the hell happened?

She tried to walk towards Grover only to see a drenched Nancy Bobofit walk up to her. God, she hated this girl. “I hope Ms. Kerr whipped your butt.”

Andromeda looked at her. “…Who?”

Nancy scoffed at the other girl and rolled her eyes. “Ms. Kerr, our math teacher. Did she hit you in the head or something?” Oh, they’d gotten a new teacher since September, she thought. She wondered how long she’d blacked out this time.

Andromeda walked up to Grover and waved. Grover looked at her. “Oh, hey Percy.” Andromeda internally cringed. She hated her legal name, hated acting male, but she felt like she had to. She didn’t think Grover would mind too much, if anyone could understand being different it was him, but she just didn’t want to talk about it. With anyone. Period.

Andromeda made a show of perking up. “Hey man, how’s it going?” Grover looked at her surprised, as if he’d expected her to say something she hadn’t, but before he had a chance to respond Mr. Brunner rolled up to them.

“Excuse me, Percy, I believe you have something of mine.” Andromeda furrowed her brow and began patting her pockets to see if she had anything, thinking maybe she’d find whatever she apparently took from her Latin teacher. Finally she found a ballpoint pen in her left jeans pocket and, thinking it was the kind of thing you borrowed from a teacher, held it out to him.

“Sorry, Mr. Brunner, I forgot about it.” The lie flew out easily, and it seemed convincing enough to her, but Mr. Brunner still gave her a minor look of confusion, something he quickly masked with gratefulness.

“Thank you, Percy. And, er, are you feeling quite alright?” Ok, seriously, what the hell happened to her?

She nodded and smiled. “Yeah, I’m fine. Thanks for asking.” Her answer only seemed to concern him more, as if he didn’t think she should be fine.

“Well, erm, make sure to bring your own writing utensils next time.” The Latin teacher spun around and left the two.

Grover gave her another look of worry as Andromeda turned towards the bus. “Hey, we’re leaving.”

Chapter Text

Percy could not believe it.

All day, he hadn’t been called into the office, hadn’t been given a note by the principal, hadn’t been given pitied looks by the teachers, nothing. He’d checked the calendar to make sure that it was, in fact, the last day of school, and it was. But then where was the bad news?

Finally, the end of the last period was announced by the bell. Percy got up and decided to go to the principal’s office to check, but there was no need to, as Ms. Porter, his science teacher, called him up to her desk. Here it comes, he thought. The 20-something woman smiled at the boy. Ms. Porter was a nice enough lady, so he didn’t know who gave her the job of telling him he was going to be expelled. Maybe she pulled the short straw or something.

“Percy, I know you’ve had a… hard time staying in one school in the past, right?” Percy stuck his hands in his pockets and nodded. 

‘Just get to the point already,’ a voice spoke in his mind. ‘Everyone here knows we got kicked out, just get on with it.’ 

“Well, I’m happy to say that won’t be a problem this time. I’m lucky enough to personally tell you you’re invited back to Yancy in the fall. Congratulations, Percy.” 

Grover had a bad feeling about today. He’d been having bad feelings about a lot of days recently, but today stood out. It could be because today was the last day of school for Percy. Honestly, Grover was worried about him, and for more than just his aura alerting monsters.

As if he’d been summoned by Grover thinking of him, Percy ran over and waved excitedly. “I didn’t get expelled!” 

Grover’s train of thought melted away at the sight of Percy so happy. He smiled and high fived him. “That’s really cool, man! I’m happy for you.” The boy beamed at Grover, a smile so bright the satyr thought he was going blind.

The boys sat together on the bench waiting for the bus, talking about everything and nothing, a comfortable stream of sound between two close friends. Percy was mostly carrying the conversation as he always did. Say what you wanted about him, Percy Jackson could talk your ear off if he knew you well enough. Finally, Grover decided to ask something innocent enough, just a throwaway question to get conversation started again.

“What do you think you’re doing this summer, back at home?”

Something passed Percy’s face. Something dark and scared and almost animalistic in how purely instinctual it seemed, like how a cat’s ears went flat against its head when it was threatened. It was only there in an instant before Percy masked it with excited energy, going straight into a rant about his favorite spots on the beach he went with his mother to for special occasions. It happened so fast that Grover thought he might have imagined it, but suddenly the satyr found himself worried for his friend. Was he really as safe at home as he said?

The conversation continued until the bus arrived, the two friends climbing aboard and going to their seats.

Percy was on top of the world until the bus stopped.

The driver grumbled and told everybody to get off the bus. Grover seemed almost anxious about something. Would his parents be mad if he was late getting home? Percy knew not all adults were bad, not all parents were bad, but it still concerned him.

“Hey, G-man, you alright?”

Grover looked up at him with an emotion Percy couldn’t read. “Percy, don’t get off the bus.”

Percy chuckled. “That’s… a weird joke, man, but we gotta get off, the driver said so.” He went to stand up before Grover grabbed his arm and yanked him back down onto the seat. Grover looked into his eyes with a dead serious expression.

“Don’t get off the bus.”

Grover was still holding his wrist. It was too tight. He was holding him too tight. He was holding him too tight. Grover was mad at him he wouldn’t want to be his friend anymore he was holding him too tight he was holding him too tight hewasholdinghimtootight hewasholdinghimtootight-

He was running before he knew what was happening, bolting out of the bus and onto the side of the road. Tears pricked his eyes as he sprinted towards anything other than that bus.

‘Calm down, Percy.’

No no nonono go away go away go away leave me alone go away-

‘Percy, sit down and even out your breathing. Focus on breathing softly and evenly, ok?’

Go away go away go away go away I don’t need you go away I’m fine go away-

Percy seemed to, well, he wasn’t sure how to describe it. It was like a cutscene in his life. He could still see through his eyes just fine, but he and everything around him moved without his input. He wasn’t even sure he could give input. He watched on as he-not-him sat down on the grass, taking deep breaths and tapping his foot to burn off anxious energy.

Soon, just as quickly as whatever it was started, it ended and Percy had control again. The cutscene ended, he thought. He heard footsteps and looked up to see Grover.

“I’m sorry for yelling at you! Fuck, man, why’d you run so fast?” Grover took some deep breaths and hunched over as Percy sighed in relief. He wasn’t mad.

“Nah, it’s fine, donno what all that was about, sorry.” Grover gave him a skeptical look, to which he just shrugged. He got up and went to walk back to the bus with Grover but then he noticed something across the street.

It was some kind of shop, a small stand selling what looked like fruit. Manning the stall seemed to be three old ladies. Like, really, really old, as if a human aged normally and lived to be 1000. Maybe they all stole like 5 winning lottery tickets from Father Time each or something, owing him a debt of their lives. What might’ve been even weirder was what they were doing. They were all sitting in rocking chairs knitting the most ridiculously oversized socks Percy had ever imagined. The one to the left sat what could’ve been a wicker basket if it wasn’t the size of a bathtub in her lap, holding enough yarn to give blankets to every homeless person on earth 3 times over and still have enough left for maybe a crochet glove or something. There was no way it was balanced on her lap, since it was 4 times the size of said lap, and he had no idea how the Prom Queen from Class of 1349 BC could’ve held it up since it had to be at least 80 pounds of yarn. Some of the yarn hung out of the wicker tub and was being knitted together by the Ancient Elder of the Universe, Seer of All on the far right with what looked like if someone made knitting needles with railroad spikes, which just had to be unnecessary (as if anything they were doing was necessary.) The progenitor of all humanity in the middle was seemingly ready to snip the yarn with what looked like garden shears, which told Percy that they had to be just committing to the bit way too hard, there was no way they needed garden shears to cut what looked like normal yarn, albeit the most electric blue color he had ever seen.

All three of the grandmas turned to look at him at once as the middle one snipped the yarn with the shears. Afterward he would remember hearing the snip as if it was right next to his ear, swearing on his life the wind picked up on a perfectly clear day directly afterward for just a second.

Percy looked over at Grover, who had paled more than Percy thought was healthy or possible, and finally admitted he was right.

“Maybe we need to get back on the bus.”

Chapter Text

Andromeda didn’t remember getting to her apartment. She often doesn’t. It didn’t really matter how she got here, it just mattered that she was here now, and she needed to do her best to avoid getting noticed by-

Oh, shit.

“Hey, brat.” Gabriel Ugliano slurred his words together from his favorite recliner. Judging from the smell and the time of day he was at least 3 bottles deep, although it was hard to tell considering how the apartment always smelled like alcohol. She just had practice.

A lot of practice.

Gabe burped and pointed towards the kitchen. “Get me another beer, would ya?”

Andromeda sighed and started towards the kitchen, biting the inside of her cheek to keep from saying anything and doing her best to distract herself from the smell. She opened the fridge. 5 cases of beer, a quart of milk, and a half empty container of bologna. She didn’t smell anything sour (beyond the all-encompassing stench of beer,) so it might not be expired yet. She’d have to buy food anyway, the free lunches at Yancy spoiled her and she’d go insane off of just bologna, but it’s nice to know she at least had something to hold her over until she got a chance to go out.

She grabbed a beer and walked over to her stepfather, placing it in his hand. He nodded at her vaguely and popped the bottle open with the edge of the desk next to him. Andromeda turned to leave before being stopped.

“Hey. How ‘bout a thank you?” Gabe slurred. “For that expensive ass school. Hope it was fuckin’ worth it, for that kind of tuition.” Andromeda nodded, presenting a false agreement. She knew Gabe only paid the tuition on that school because it was the cheapest middle school with dorms in the state. He just wanted her gone for 9 months, and of course she knew that. But she couldn’t tell him that.

“Thank you, sir.” Gabe grunted in apparent satisfaction and waved her off. She nodded and walked out of the room, racing to her own room once she was out of his line of sight.

She just wanted a soda.

She was grabbing five dollars from Gabe’s wallet to buy her favorite soda from a convenience store. Gabe was in the bathroom, she thought he wouldn’t be out for a few more minutes.

She was wrong.

“You fuckin’ brat!” Gabe ran over and yanked his wallet away from her, shoving her to the ground. “After all that fuckin’ money I spent on that nice ass school you wanna take more fuckin’ money from me!? After everything I do for you!? Where would you be without me!? Huh!? Where!? Tell me!”

Andromeda saw the fist flying before she was completely aware of what was even happening. It connected under her right eye, knocking her head to the left as she froze. She felt like she was shutting down. ‘Isn’t this the opposite of what fight or flight is supposed to do?’ She wondered.

“After everything I fuckin’ do for you! I bought you that damn jug of milk in there! Me! I did! You can’t survive without me!” More fists. Her cheek, her chest, her nose. One found placement in her stomach as the wind was knocked out of her. She was shoved back onto the floor after trying to sit up and kicked on the side of her head.

“You ungrateful little shit! You need me!”

Andromeda couldn’t breathe.

“You can’t live without me!”

Andromeda couldn’t breathe.

“Where would you be without my money!? Huh!?”

Andromeda needs to breathe.

“I’ll tell you!”

Please just let her breathe.

“Six feet under, just like your mother!”

The sink exploded. Pipes burst and water blasted out towards Gabe, blasting him back. Some of the water flew towards Andromeda, forming rings around her head like a halo, some going through her mouth and nose.

Going into her lungs.

Filling her lungs.

Her lungs were full of water.

She wasn’t drowning.

She could breathe.

Gabe looked at her in horror. “What… what the fuck are you!?” He grabbed a frying pan and threw it at her. The flow from the pipes concentrated on the pan, blasting it against the wall.

Gabe growled in anger. “You fuckin’ brat!” He sprinted toward Andromeda.

He swung a fist.

The fist exploded.

Gabe exploded.

Her clear halo gained a double of deep red, like she was some kind of morbid angel. She started breathing heavily and the halos rotated faster in response. She tried to cry, but her tears only added to the rings. She ran to a trash can and threw up, refusing to look back at the corpse drained of fluids.

Gabe was dead.

She killed Gabe.

She killed him.

Panicked, she dug a card out of her pocket, dialing the numbers into the phone hung on the wall.

A familiar voice picked up. “Hey Perce, you ok?”

“I- I think I killed someone, Grover.”

Chapter Text

Grover had to explain a lot of things when he found Percy. He explained that the Greek myths were all true and a good 78% of them wanted to kill Percy. He explained that Percy himself was a demigod, and a powerful one at that, judging by his scent. He explained that they needed to get to Camp Half Blood in Long Island, which, even if they got every subway on time  and jogged the rest of the way once they got to Long Island, would take too long to be done in a day. 

He could not, however, form the words to explain the rings of water and a deep crimson liquid that he chose to ignore orbiting his head. (He recognized the smell of it, of course he knew what it was. What happened to his friend?) He found him crying trying to swipe them away, but they just recollected and his tears only served to add to them.

Percy refused to explain what he meant by “I think I killed someone,” just rapidly changing the subject whenever Grover brought it up. He also refused to explain where he had been and what happened to him in the 3 days they’d been separated. “We need to go, right? So let’s go.”

Grover finally sighed and nodded. They really did need to go. He helped Percy off of the sidewalk and started the walk towards the subway.

Andromeda didn’t feel real. She felt like she didn’t exist. All the stuff about the Greek myths and Grover suddenly ditching his crutches and kicking his pants off to reveal goat legs - ("It's New York. The guys on the subway saw weirder stuff last Tuesday.") - proved this couldn’t be real.

She tried not to think about the apartment. The beige walls suddenly sprayed with red. A lifeless, dry corpse left on the floor. The fists and shoes of a man meant to care for her flying at her. The pipes exploding. Gabe exploding. Gabe being murdered. She killed Gabe. She killed someone. She-

“Hey, hey, Percy. Hey.” Grover was holding her hands, trying to get her to look at him. “Copy my breathing, okay? Breathe with me.” Grover breathed slowly inward, Andromeda doing her best to follow. He held his breath for a moment, slowly exhaling afterward. Andromeda followed his example. 

They stayed like this for a few minutes, Andromeda slowly calming down, Grover sitting patiently with her. Even once her breathing evened out, Andromeda didn’t move. She just sat there, leaning towards Grover very slightly.

“Hey, Perce? You can hug me if you wan-”

If anyone asked, Grover cut that sentence off because a hobo a few seats down started playing electric guitar or something. Not because Andromeda cut him off by pulling him to her chest, crying softly as her tears floated up and out to the rings around her head. Grover definitely did not hug her back, and he absolutely did not say, “It’s okay, kid.”

“It’s gonna be okay.”

The first subway ride was spent in silence until Percy forced out, "Hey, uh.. I-I wanna talk to you about something."

Grover immediately snapped to attention. Percy was opening up about something! Maybe now he'd understand what'd happened to his friend. Grover nodded invitingly, waiting for him to explain what he meant by “I think I killed someone” or even whose blood was orbiting his head.

“I’m transgender,” Percy said.

Oh.

Or that.

“Yeah, um, I identify as female, and I prefer the name Andromeda. Um, I figured you should probably, like, know that, or, um… y’know this is weird lets just keep walking and forget I said anythi-”

“Hey.” Grover looked into his - no, her, he was gonna have to remind himself of that a lot - eyes. “It’s fine. I’m okay with it. Andromeda’s a pretty name. Thanks for trusting me with this.” 

Per- ‘Crap, I’m bad at this. Maybe I should read a book on it or something.’ Andromeda stared at him for a second, and beamed at him like he’d personally hung the stars in the sky. Grover smiled back.

It was nice seeing her happy.

Chapter Text

By the time they woke up Andromeda’s halos were gone. There wasn’t a visual trace of them anywhere near her, as if they were never there in the first place. Grover couldn’t smell blood anymore, either. If she noticed she never said anything, which wasn’t surprising since she never brought them up the day before, either. Grover decided to leave that topic alone until they got to camp.

They’d reached the end of their last subway ride, now they had to hike through the woods to get to camp. Luckily, they hadn’t run into any monsters yet. Monsters that could easily kill a twelve year old, demigod or not. Monsters that could end a child’s life like the Fates had shown him.

No. No, he wouldn’t fail again. Andromeda would make it to camp. She’d be a great hero.

Even if he had to take her place, if he had to make it his thread instead of hers.

 Andromeda was getting really sick of hiking. She had no idea how people did this for fun. Her legs were on fire and her breathing was as heavy as she’d allow it to be so Grover wouldn’t notice how hard she was having it. Grover seemed to be doing just fine with the incline, which made sense, seeing as he had goat legs. This was probably an evening stroll for him.

At least the hike took her mind away from don’t think about it don’t think about it don’t think about it don’t think about it don’t think about it don’t think about it don’t think -

“Hey, Ang? You ok?” Grover was looking back at her worriedly. “You uh, stopped walking and just started staring into space for a bit. We can take a break if you need to-”

“No, I’m fine.” Andromeda cut him off and smiled. “Just… zoned out for a bit. Let’s keep going.” Andromeda set to walking faster than before to force Grover to follow her and go back to walking in silence.

Grover didn’t seem to get the hint, catching up to her easily and continuing. “You can tell me about it if you want, whatever it is I’ve seen worse.”

I seriously doubt it, Andromeda thought.

“I’m worried about you, ok?” Grover stopped walking and turned to face her. “I get a call in the middle of the night from your home phone and you sound like you’re ten seconds from crying and tell me you killed someone, and now you’ll barely talk to me! Can you please just tell me what’s going on so I can help?”

“HE HIT ME!” Andromeda’s eyes well up with tears as words flow out of her mouth before she can stop them. “He hit me like he does whenever he’s mad and I got so fucking scared and I didn’t know what to do and the pipe exploded like it fucking responded to me or something which makes no sense and then he went to hit me again and he just fucking exploded and the blood was everywhere and it formed those FUCKING HALOS THAT I COULDN’T GET RID OF AND I DIDN’T KNOW WHAT TO DO SO I CALLED YOU!” Andromeda started crying. Massive gut-wrenching sobs dragged out of her throat as their sharp edges dug into the inside of her mouth. Her tears started floating and collected into a new ring around her head.

“I didn’t mean to…” Her voice cut through the sobs, so quiet and small it was reduced to almost nothing. “I didn’t mean to I’m so sorry I don’t know what to do I-”

Pressure around her body. Arms. A chest against her own. Grover’s  chest against her own. Grover was hugging her. “I’m sorry,” Grover whispered. “I shouldn’t have made you relive that. It wasn’t your fault, ok? You didn’t understand what you were doing, you probably still don’t.” Grover pulled back from her and looked into her eyes. “Focus on me, ok? Focus on me and where you are. Can you do that?” Andromeda nodded slowly. “Good. Keep focusing on small details around you, ok? Now come on, we’re almost there, we have to get moving before-”

A deep, inhuman bellow rang in Andromeda’s ears. A massive form rushed out of the woods from behind Grover, a humanoid thing  almost 8 feet tall with massive horns and a ring through its animalistic nose. 

“Before that,” Grover finished.

The beast roared and charged at both of them, Grover grabbing Andromeda and dodging out of the way. “Andromeda, listen to me! If it goes after you, wait until it’s almost on you and then sidestep it, ok? I’ll try to keep it distracted, just go! It can’t follow you into the camp, just run that way and don’t look back!”

Andromeda couldn’t move. It was just like when Gabe swung at her, she was frozen solid. Grover tried to get her attention again. “Andromeda? Andromeda! Please, you’ve gotta run! Please!”

The beast bellowed again and charged. Grover threw  Andromeda out of the way at the last second, the girl still unable to move. The thing passed, and in its tracks was…

A body.

A body of a boy with shaggy legs and black hooves, red liquid drenching his mangled form. Body parts were bent in places they shouldn’t be, bones were showing all over his body, and his face was almost completely caved in by a hoof of the monster.

Grover was dead.

Andromeda’s heart started pounding. All sounds were reduced to a low hum in her ears. She turned to look at the monster that had taken her friend’s life and screamed.

Every drop of liquid in the area coalesced in front of her, a mix of dewdrops and tears and so, so much blood. It flew towards the monster and entered its mouth, its nose. Choking it. Drowning it. The beast tried to scream but nothing came out but a gurgle. It swayed, fell dead, and disintegrated. 

Andromeda looked at the powdered remains of the monster and fell back, lightheaded. She looked up at the stars and cried. Andromeda cried and cried until she had no tears left. She lied back on the ground, to sleep or die, she didn’t much care which.

Chapter Text

Michael’s head hurt like hell.

That was the first thing he was aware of. The second thing was that when he finally managed to open his eyes without slamming them shut again from pain, he had absolutely no idea where he was. Which wasn’t super out of the ordinary for him to be fair, but what was out of the ordinary was he couldn’t even tell what “here” was supposed to be. It was something like a cross between a hospital and a really boring minimalist circus tent.

“Hey, the mystery boy’s awake,” a voice spoke near him. He looked up and saw a girl staring into him with the most piercing grey eyes he’d ever seen. “You can thank the satyrs for bringing you here, they dragged you all the way here saying they found you covered in blood in the woods and you reeked of demigod.”

Michael had no idea what this girl was talking about. “Wh- okay, back up for a second. Where am I? What’s a satyr and why did they think I smelled like whatever “demigod” is? Who are you?”

The girl sighed and seemed to retract a bit mentally. “Right. Sorry. Okay, my name’s Annabeth. The Greek gods are all real and you’re a child of one of them, I don’t know which. Monsters are also real and every single one of them wants to kill you. We’re currently at a summer camp designed to train children of the gods, or “demigods,” to fight so that we don’t die to some hulking beast of legend and also so we can do odd jobs to make sure the world doesn’t fall to evil. Did you get all of that?”

Michael stared at the girl, apparently named Annabeth. He blinked. “No!?”

Annabeth said a word in a language he didn’t recognize in a way that made him think it was a swear. “I hate initiating new kids.Why was I the one assigned to wait on you?”

A large form entered the tent. For half a second Michael thought some guy rode a horse into wherever he was, but then he looked closer and the guy and the horse weren’t separated. Not just that, the guy looked familiar. Almost like…

“Mr. Brunner?” Michael prayed that he remembered the name right. “Your, um… your legs are a horse.”

Mr. Brunner chuckled. “I am well aware, Percy. It’s good to see you again! Although I haven’t seen Grover since you arrived, do you know where he might be?”

Annabeth seemed to perk up at the mention of Grover. Was he well known around here or something? “Um, sorry sir, you remember my, um… memory issues?” Mr. Brunner nodded. That had been an interesting conversation, and the teacher had reacted at the time as if it explained a lot. “Right, well… The last thing I can remember is a few days before school ended. I have no idea where I am.”

Mr. Brunner took a breath. “Percy, that was almost a week ago. Several days before you were found in the woods. It’s the Second of June. Our medical staff have been caring for you here for 3 days.”

Oh, woah. That was a big one. Ok, well, don’t panic, half of that doesn’t even count, he was in… whatever this place was recovering from whatever happened to him. Wait…

“Um, sir?” Mr. Brunner looked up. “Annabeth said they found me covered in blood in the woods… and you can’t find Grover-”

“Stop.” Annabeth was glaring at him. “You don’t know anything. Don’t talk about anything you don’t understand.”

Annabeth stood and set for the exit of the tent. “I’m going to find Grover. He’s fine, I know it. He probably just stopped to look at flowers or something, he’s fine.”

Chiron watched her leave and sighed. “That girl was always stubborn. At any rate, I assure you, Percy, Grover can handle himself, and wherever he is, he’ll turn up soon. Now, I believe it’s time that I tell you where you are, and what you are.”

The day passed in a blur. Chiron gave him a rundown of where he was and what was happening (which, to Annabeth’s credit, was much the same information given by her, if a little more considerate to the listener.) He was given a sleeping bag and some basic toiletries and given a spot in the Hermes cabin. The Hermes cabin, by the way, was probably simultaneously the most chaotic and most dead-inside group of people he’d ever seen. He didn’t want to spend too much time in the claustrophobic building, so he wandered off to see other parts of the grounds of the camp.

It was the most normal-looking abnormal thing he’d ever seen. Kids casually playing volleyball next to a giant wall with lava coming out of it. A random unlocked shack that he opened out of curiosity to see a bunch of ancient weaponry inside. A huge farmhouse with a weird green light coming out of the attic window. It was all so casually weird.

Finally dinner came along and he followed the Hermes cabin into the eating area. He took his food and shoveled some off into the fire as directed, sitting on the floor to eat because the Hermes table was so overcrowded. 

A voice came from the table that Chiron stood at. “Attention, brats! We have a new arrival today, and I’ve been told to pretend to care. Come over here so the other vermin know your face during Capture the Flag.” Percy stood to see a rotund old man chuckling to himself. Mr. D, Michael remembered. Camp Director. Also the god of wine. Can’t say his name or it’ll make him mad. I’d rather not make a god mad, I just got here.

Michael walked toward the camp director, who had stopped laughing by now. He seemed to notice him walking and did a sort of double take, turning around to ask Chiron something, to which the centaur responded. Michael approached the camp director, who seemed to look at him more seriously. He turned to address the campers. “This is Percy Jackson. Remember him.” He turned to speak to Michael directly, “Go to my office in the Big House when dinner is over. You will not like what happens if you avoid me, boy.” Michael swallowed and nodded, rushing back to his spot on the floor to finish his food.

Michael stepped uncomfortably into the camp director’s office. Sitting in a chair with a can of Diet Coke in front of him was Diony- …Mr. D. He doubted just thinking the god’s true name would do much, but he didn’t want to take any chances. 

“You, uh… wanted to see me, sir?” Mr. D nodded and held a hand out to a chair in front of him, which Michael just hoped was an invitation to sit down and not some wordless warning that said, If you sit in my favorite chair I swear to fucking Zeus I will turn you into a bottlenose dolphin and have your head taxidermied and hung on my wall. Okay, maybe he was being a bit paranoid. He was standing in the same room as a Greek god. Alone. Sue him.

Mr. D, luckily, did not turn him into a porpoise when he sat down. He instead turned to speak to the boy across from him. “You know, so many people forget some aspects of my domain as a god. Everyone always focuses on the wine and parties and whatnot, you know, the fun stuff. You mortals love to focus on the fun stuff.”

The god gained a dangerous glint in his eye, “But they always forget I’m also the god of madness.”

“And one interesting aspect of being the god of madness,” Mr. D continued, “is being able to peer into the mental state of mortals. Not to the degree of, say, Asclepius, but if there’s something exceptionally out of the ordinary I’ll pick up on it.”

“And you?” The god made a noise that might’ve been a chuckle. “I don’t get to see many like you anymore.”

“They never make it here, or they make it but don’t last long, it’s such a pity. I always thought your type was fun.”

Michael shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “Sir- um- I- I don’t-”

“Tell me, Percy.” Mr. D- no, this was Dionysus. “Just how many of you are there?”

Chapter Text

uh, hey. my name is tommy, i'm a part of a system that's bodily a minor and living in the southern united states. i just wanted to explain a couple of things about me and my system and the things we deal with (is this a good idea? probably not, its 3:30 in the morning and my heart's pounding for some reason. well, im doing it anyway, so fuck it.)

just to get this out of the way, no, this is not an announcement of cancellation or hiatus (but with my upload schedule i don't think it matters.) i still plan to write this fic whenever i get motivation to. so if you were worried about that, don't be, TTS is keeping its normal state of horribly unorganized upload bursts.

speaking of this fic, holy fucking shit. 939 hits when i'm writing this. this is the first fic i've ever uploaded to ao3, it was practically the first thing i did when my membership was processed and i got to make an account. it was entirely supposed to be self indulgent between me and someone i talked to on discord at the time, the original title even joked about it ("The Percy DID Fic That Exactly 2 People Asked For and the Internet Deserved.") but so many people have actually stopped to read it. and youre all so nice, too! ao3 is probably the least toxic site ive ever been on, at least on the side i stay on.

you know, i'm not even fully in the pjo fandom anymore? i still interact with the fandom every now and then (hence this fic,) but i wouldnt count myself as completely in it. i actually usually read MHA and MCYT fanfiction. (yeah, i read dream smp fics. oh btw, fuck wilbur soot. ive been doing my best to separate the character he played from him bc i do plan on eventually writing a dsmp fic and i need hurt/comfort sbi for my soul. maybe i should do a benchtrio focus with like sbi undertones. ah, fuck, im getting off track.)

right, so, uh, the reason this fic is the way it is. well, i'm part of a system so obviously growing up my home life wasn't great. and it never really got better. im not going to share our exact body's age but i will say im 1-3 years from aging out and going out on my own, so there's that to look forward to, i guess. also i have school to deal with (free me from high school please </3 /silly), and as you can probably tell by the fact that im on a fanfiction website i am absolutely not neurotypical. we were one of those people that came out of the goddamn womb with an ADHD diagnosis, and ask anyone close to us and they'll tell you we have undiagnosed autism. plus all the added-on trauma related stuff like OSDD and PTSD and all of that. but yeah, all of that coupled together and even when i do have the motivation to write this fic sometimes i just. can't. a lot of times i leave this thing alone for so long i actually just straight up forget i'm writing a fic. 

but hey, there's good news! with how sparingly i write this thing i don't think it's possible at all for me to get burnt out on it, at least not the way i'm going right now, so give me like 7 years and TTS will be a 850k wordcount megafic across all of PJO and HoO and my mental health will be just as much of a dumpster fire as when i started lmao. or hey, maybe i'll actually set a schedule for myself at some point and have a healthy relationship with the "date updated" stat on the summary :p

anyway, uh, yeah. i wanted to do some sort of introduction of myself to you guys, but i had a feeling if i posted it as an extra work nobody would read it, so i decided to drop this in the middle of my ongoing fic for a fandom im barely a part of just so you guys would know some stuff about me.

by the way, thanks to everyone reading this fic and leaving kudos and commenting. seriously, i see the numbers go higher on the summary of this fic and i smile like the antagonist of a shitty creepypasta from 2013/vvvpos. one thing i will say though: everyone that keeps complimenting my writing in the comments is making it really hard to convince myself in dogshit at writing lmao. you guys are making my imposter syndrome work overtime. (omg imposter like among us LMFAOOOOOO im so funny its 4 in the fucking morning i have school today its a thursday what am i doing)

anyway, thanks for reading my fic so far, ill update it when the stars align i guess, some of you have been around long enough to know what to expect from my uploads. (also to those of you that are, THANK YOU SO MUCH HOLY SHIT?????????? i know i saw one guy that commented on chapter one comment on chapter 7 and my brain exploded/vpos. you guys are insane)

oh, and one more thing. i'm considering making a discord server for this fic/my ao3. you guys are all so fucking nice and i wanna talk to you more than just the occasional back and forth comment on a fanfiction website lmao. idk if ill actually do it but if i do id love to meet you guys in it. usually whenever i read those from authors im like "oh haha theyre just being polite to get people to join the server," but no, i get it now, i /gen realy want to meet you guys. hell, i was half considering just dropping my discord username somewhere in this chapter as i wrote this, that's how much i want to talk to all of you.

ok, fuck, this thing's way too long and ive been adhd rambling for way too many words. bye <3

Chapter Text

Percy blinked awake in the sleeping bag, trying to adjust his eyes to the midnight darkness. Wait. Sleeping bag? Wasn't he on his way home? He looked up and around, taking in his surroundings.

Oh.

Oh, God.

He was in a frat house.

At least, that's what he thought at first. He analyzed the other occupants of the cramped room a bit closer and realized everyone in the room was anywhere between a bit too young to be in college and much too young to be in college. It seemed like he was in some sort of log cabin that was converted into a homeless shelter or something.

…Was he homeless now? When did that happen?

Actually, that’s a thought for in the morning when someone is awake and he can gather context clues. Right now he needed to look around for any sort of notes he was keeping. He’d usually hope for his trusty composition book, but judging by his vastly different surroundings he’d probably been out for a while so the pages might’ve run out and he’d gotten rid of it, not to mention he had no idea how he even got here and if he’d been able to take anything on the way.

He reached under the stained pillow he was lying on and felt a piece of paper underneath, taking it out and squinting to read it in the dim light.

Hey there, other me! Or... guy I share a brain with. What would be the correct term here? I don't know, I'm new to this.

Anyway, hi. My name is Michael. I've sort of always wanted that for a name so I just... went with it. You're probably a bit confused, and it's a lot of information to catch up on, so I'll just drop the basics.

You (or I guess "we") are a child of a Greek god and a human, or a demigod. You know how you never knew your dad? Yeah. On the list of possible reasons for never meeting him, that had to be at like, the very bottom.

Another bit of new info, you aren't alone in your head. Yeah, who knew, apparently hearing voices advising you on your life is "abnormal" and "a sign of trauma." I'm another person with you, maybe if you ask for me I'll be around, I'm still not exactly sure how this works.

Anyway, for more info on both of these things look for the big farmhouse on the hill and ask for Mr. D. You'll get a lot of weird looks for seeking out the guy, but to me he seemed nice enough, if a bit intimidating.

It'd be nice if you wrote back, even as little as just saying your name if you have one.

Anyway, have fun! -Michael

…

Oh. Oh, okay. So he’d gone crazy. 

He decided to scribble down a response on the bottom of the sheet, if just for the hell of it.

My name is Percy. You probably should’ve made a couple drafts of this, it’s somehow both way too wordy and with not nearly enough explanation.

What kind of a last name is D?

In the early light of dawn Percy rose from his sleeping bag. He knocked on the door of the farmhouse, analyzing the flaking paint on the walls. The door was answered by a plump bearded man sipping a Diet Coke.

“Ah, Michael! Nice to see you again. Say, are you here for another meeting?”

“…What?”

The man seemed to fully look at Percy, almost scanning him for something. He seemed to find it a moment later, mouthing oh. “Right. Come with me, my office.”

The man sped off, forcing Percy to follow at a brisk walking pace. He entered a small room with 2 chairs, a desk, and a mini fridge.

“Sit.”

Percy sat.

“My name is Mr. D. I am the camp director here at Camp Half Blood. I’m going to ask you a few questions. Please answer completely honestly, I will know if you lie.”

Despite his tendency to dance around questions to avoid people noticing the severity of his memory problems, he got the feeling this man was telling the truth, and he sensed that he absolutely did not want to test that feeling. “Yes, sir.”

“Right. What is your name?”

“Percy.”

“Right, well, yes, I know that, but what’s your name?”

Percy blinked. “I… Percy? Was that the wrong answer?”

“No preferred name, nickname, nothing?”

“I- well, my legal name is Perseus, so I guess technically Percy would be a nickname.”

The man hummed and started noting something down on a clipboard that Percy did not remember him ever holding before then. “Alright then, Percy, where are you and why are you here?”

Percy swore under his breath, trying to remember what the director had said the name of this place was. “Um… Camp Half Blood. And I’m here because…” Well, it’s not technically lying if I don’t know the truth, right? I’ll just guess. “...I’m homeless?”

Mr. D huffed. “I’d berate you for lying to me, but due to your circumstances there’s a good chance you’re not technically wrong. No, Percy, while you are probably homeless, that is not the reason - well, the main reason - you are here. No, you are here because you are the son of a god of Greek legend.”

Percy chuckled. “Oh, I get it. You got me to write that note for myself. To what, mess with my head? Do you think I’m an idiot?”

Mr. D seemed unperturbed by this accusation, instead seeming proud of something. “Ah, so Michael did write a note! He had seemed against the idea in our session, I’m glad he changed his mind.”

“Okay, stop. Stop that.” Percy was growing annoyed at this point, pointing a finger at the rotund man sitting across from him. “I don’t know who Michael is, and yet ever since I woke up at like 2:00 this morning I’ve heard that name more than my own. Frankly, I’m pretty sure you just forged my handwriting and decided to gaslight me for whatever reason. Is this a joke to you?”

This seemed to make Mr. D stop in consideration for a moment. Finally he seemed to decide on something. “Michael, if you can hear me, would you mind helping me prove a point? Swap with Percy for a moment.”

Percy stared at the man in confusion before his mind went blank. He almost felt like he was struggling to stay present, like he was fighting with his own brain. He could almost feel arms around his body, dragging him away from reality.

'Fine. Try to pull me out, see where it gets you.'

Percy imagined biting down hard on skin.

“Ow! Son of a-” Percy’s body spoke without him wanting to.

“What happened?” Mr. D looked up from his clipboard.

“He bit me!”

“Oh, is it Michael now?”

“Yes, hi, anyway, I tried to pull the guy out of the way for a second like you asked and he bit me! I didn’t even know he could do that!” Percy was confused. What was happening right now?

“Hm. Apologies, I thought he’d be so unaccustomed to being in your mind to the point of being too distracted to meaningfully fight back. I suppose I was wrong.”

‘That’s what you get for dragging me,’ Percy thought annoyed through his confusion.

“Fine, smartass, how else was I supposed to move you?” Percy’s body responded.

“Oh, good, you’re communicating, this is great!”

“Shut up,” Percy said.

Oh, he was back.

“Hm, that was rude. I thought you knew better, Michael.”

“My name isn’t Michael!”

“Ah, that explains it. Hello, Percy.”

Percy groaned in frustration. “Forget it. Let’s focus on the other unbelievable thing you said, the whole Greek god thing. What’s that about?”

<I mentioned it in my note,> a voice spoke in his thoughts.

“Shut up, Michael.”

The voice huffed. <Fine. See if I try to help you again. Jerk.>

“Right. Well, Percy, in simple terms, all of the Greek myths are true. So the gods, the monsters, the heroes, blah blah blah, the details aren’t very important currently. Anyway, as gods, we get rather bored and will occasionally, how does your generation put it… ‘hook up’ with mortals. You are the product of such an arrangement, as well as seemingly quite a few others.”

Yeah. Right. Where was the camera?

…Did he say “we?”

<Oh. Right. Mr. D’s a god. Did I forget to mention that?>

Percy so desperately wanted to smack the voice in his head.

Oh, right. He could.

Percy smacked the voice in his head.

‘You let me tell a god to shut up!? Why did you never mention that!?’ Percy thought-screamed at the other boy.

<I don’t know! It slipped my mind! I got used to being around him, I stopped thinking about it!>

‘You’re an idiot.’

<Right, yeah, says the guy who always puts his shirt on backwards.>

‘No, I don’t! Where did you even get that from!?’

<Oh, was that someone else? Are there more than just the two of us?>

‘How the hell am I supposed to know!?’

<Ask Mr. D.>

‘Fine!’ Percy snapped back to reality and frustratedly asked, “How many of us do you think there are?”

“Hm… Do you remember how you got here?”

“No.”

“At least one more.”

“Great. I’m done, I’m going back to bed.”

“That’s alright, this was a lovely session, it was nice to meet you, Percy.”

“Yeah, thanks, my head hurts now. Bye.”

Percy speed walked out of the office and thrust his hands in his pockets. He was not doing that again.

<We have required weekly sessions.>

Fuck.

Chapter Text

Andromeda couldn’t remember how she’d gotten in this chair.

She was sitting in a small office with a plump man in front of her, who seemed to be staring and waiting for something. Did I do something again? Is this the principal of a school I’m in? What month is it?

“Did you hear what I said?” The man asked. 

Andromeda blinked. “Oh, sorry, no, I think I zoned out for a bit. What was the question again?”

The man seemed to analyze her for a moment. “What’s my name?”

Andromeda mentally winced. She rapidly glanced around for any nameplates on the desk the man was sitting at, finding nothing. Shit. “Sorry, sir, I forgot it. I’m bad at names.”

The man seemingly chuckled a bit to himself. “Can you tell me where you are?”

/This guy is asking far too many questions for my liking./ “...School?”

He shook his head. “No, no you very much are not in a school. This is okay, I had anticipated another. What is your name?”

Andromeda blinked again. “Another… what? What’s going on here?”

The man sighed. “We’ll get to that. First I need to know your name.”

Andromeda collected herself to give the robotic answer. “Perseus Jackson, I go by Percy.”

“No, your name.”

“...What?”

The man thought for a moment. “Do you have a nickname you prefer, maybe something you ask your friends to call you?”

Andromeda’s a pretty name. Thanks for trusting me with this.

Hey, Ang? You okay?

Andromeda, listen to me!

Andromeda? Andromeda! Please, you’ve gotta run! Please!

A body.

Grover was dead.

Grover was dead.

Grover was dead.

Grover was-

“-hear me? Hey! Come back to reality.”

Andromeda’s lap was wet. Why was she looking at her lap? Her face felt wet. Her eyes felt wet. Where was she? What was she doing? Did the man ask a question? Did she ever learn his name? What was-

“Nope, nope, losing you again. Okay, look at me. Look at my eyes.”

Andromeda’s focus shot up to the man’s face. He had his arms sitting on the desk and wasn’t making any movements, simply locking eyes with the girl in front of him.

“I’m not going to hurt you. There’s nobody in here but me. My name is Mr. D, I am working with you as your therapist. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Andromeda nodded.

“Good. Now preferably without getting lost in your own thoughts again, can you tell me your name?”

She took a breath.

“A-Andromeda. I prefer to go by Andromeda.”

“Andromeda. You do realize that’s a feminine name?”

She blushed. “Yes.”

“So would that make you…”

“Yes. I- um. I’m transgender, yeah. I identify as female.”

The man seemed to exhale a bit. “Transgender. Seems they call it something different every year. At any rate, I do not have an issue with that, nor should anyone else, frankly. Mortals are so close-minded sometimes. Nice to meet you, Andromeda.”

…Oh.

…Wait, did he say “mortals?”

Come to think of it, this man - Mr. D, apparently - had said a lot of things she didn’t fully understand.

“Hey, um- I get the feeling I’m not fully caught up on… a few things you’ve mentioned.”

Mr. D nodded. “Yes, right, of course. What would you like me to elaborate on first?”

Andromeda took in the grounds of the camp. The place was… different, but not unwelcoming. What did feel a bit unwelcoming were the other residents. People seemed to give her looks as she walked past, hearing one boy mutter to another about “Mr. D’s weirdo favorite.” Gee, wonder who that could be.

She wandered aimlessly for a while before eventually finding her way to some horse stables on the outskirts of the grounds. They seemed like just regular horse stables, outside of the horses having wings. Because nothing could be completely normal in this place.

Hey! Hey, kid! Mind giving me some food?

Andromeda sighed. She’d paid attention to what Mr. D had said about being an “alter” or whatever and occasionally having others control her body or talk to her, but she currently didn’t feel like thinking about it. Or talking to them.

/Shut up voices, I’m looking at the horses./

A horse made a noise in front of her. Kid, I am the horse.

She blinked. Okay, that was a step too far, now she really was crazy.

Nope, not crazy! I just want an apple.

She looked at the horse in front of her who she was apparently communicating with. /If I’m actually talking to you, stomp your hoof twice./

The horse did as directed.

/Holy shit, I’m telepathically communicating with a horse./

Yes, yes you are. Now please give me an apple.

Andromeda glanced around. /Do they keep apples around here?/

No, that’s why I’m asking you for one.

/I don’t have an apple. Why would I have an apple?/

Kids always bring me apples.

/I didn’t even know you were here, I got here by wandering!/

Well, can you go get me an apple?

/I don’t know where to find apples here, I just got here!/

‘Can you two shut up.’

Andromeda and the horse both blinked, the horse seemingly looking for someone else he’d missed the arrival of.

‘You, new one. Your name was Andromeda, right?’

/...Yeah?/

‘Why are you arguing with a horse.’

/...The horse started it./

I just want an apple.

/Can you shut up about the apples?/

‘Stop arguing with a horse!’

/What am I supposed to do?/

‘Ignore it! It’s a horse!’

I have a name, you know.

‘I could not care less.’

“Hey.”

Andromeda jumped and whipped around, seeing a silver-eyed girl standing in front of her.

“Haven’t seen you in a few days. Was wondering how you were adjusting.” The girl sat on the ground next to her and gestured for Andromeda to sit with her. “How’ve you been?”

Andromeda blinked. “I actively do not know.”

The girl looked up at her. “What do you mean?”

“Um, well. I have… memory issues. Probably due to trauma stuff, I think? That’s what my therapist told me, anyway.”

“‘Your therapist.’” The girl snorted. “Didn’t expect Mr. D to take you up like that. He normally hates… well, everything. You must be interesting to him somehow. Any idea why?”

Andromeda thought for a second, before getting an idea. /Hey, voice in my head that wasn’t the horse. Mind driving for a second?/

‘Uh, okay?’

Andromeda felt herself distance from reality, feeling like she was watching everything on a screen rather than doing it. She saw the voice look up in recognition at the girl in front of her. “Oh, hey Annabeth!”

The girl - Annabeth - blinked. “Why’d your voice drop?”

“I don’t feel like explaining it, it’s someone else’s turn for once.” The voice then stepped back and sort of shoved(?) Andromeda back into control.

“That,” Andromeda said. “That’s why he finds me interesting.”

Annabeth blinked. “Wait- was that- are you-”

Andromeda nodded. “That was another person in my head.”

Annabeth stared at her, and then her eyes sparkled in excitement. “Oh you are going to tell me everything.”

Chapter Text

Percy wasn’t fully sure if Annabeth was his friend. (Their friend? Should he count all of them as a collective? He still wasn’t sure if they were parts of a whole or multiple, separate wholes. Both, maybe?)

At any rate, he was still trying to process what exactly Annabeth thought of him as. She’d said he was her friend, but some days he felt more like an unknown species she was tracking the behaviour of. Like right now, for instance.

“Do you ever randomly remember things that happened to others?” They were sitting under a relatively small tree on the grounds, Annabeth holding a notepad and pencil and asking random questions.

Percy thought for a second. “I think sometimes the others might get flashes or impressions of stuff that happens to me. Me specifically, though? Not really. I can barely remember what happens to me half the time, let alone anybody else.”

“That sounds… annoying.” Annabeth spoke as she wrote, as she had been for the past few days with whoever happened to be in control in the moment (fronting, Mr. D had called it.) She didn’t tend to ask for many personal or difficult things, she’d seemed to have noticed something important every now and then but ignored it. He wanted to ask what it was she was seeing, but a part of him didn’t want to know.

“What exactly do you even write in that notebook, anyway?” If Percy was going to be researched he wanted to at least hear some of the results, as long as it wasn’t too concerning.

Annabeth perked up a bit. “I’ve been making profiles of all of you and your general interactions with the others.”

Oh. Mildly creepy, but now he was curious. “What’s mine say?”

She glanced down at her paper. “Slightly aggressive or annoyed when your routine is changed or something you don’t understand happens, you don’t seem very aware of anything too serious, you’re more separated from the others than they are from each other or you, and your name is uncreative.”

He gave her an indignant look. “Hey, I didn’t pick it!”

“You fully could have changed it when you figured this out.”

“I… didn’t want to?”

She shrugged. “Alright, not my place to judge. Just figured there’d be a bit of overlap there since depending on how you look at it, literally all of you are named Percy.”

Percy felt Andromeda prickle at that. /I am definitely not named Percy./

Percy translated, “Andromeda disagrees.”

Annabeth winced a bit. “Not what I meant.”

‘This helmet is very uncomfortable.’

Percy didn't want to participate in Capture the Flag, especially because apparently what this place considers Capture the Flag involves battle armor and sharp objects, but apparently being under the special attention of the camp director only gets someone so far, and his therapy session didn’t line up with the scheduling this time. The look the god sent his way before he was led off gave him a feeling it was done on purpose. Traitor.

<I could do it if you wanted?> Michael didn’t seem to want to let Percy do this himself. That simple fact changed Percy’s mind.

‘Nope. I’m handling my own problems for once.’

<You… do realize we’re separate for a reason, right?>

‘Sure, but I doubt it’s in case we have to fight for our lives in an ancient Greek backyard game, so unless either of you have experience with swordfighting I might as well do this myself.’

/I have experience in swordfighting./

‘Everything you say concerns me.’

/I try./

Percy shook his head to force himself back into reality, picking a random sword and jogging back over to his team, noting how it felt awkward in his hands. Despite the oldest member of his team being a guy from his cabin (‘Luke, I think it was?’) the leader was apparently Annabeth, who wasn’t even the eldest of her cabin, not even close. In fact, next to himself she was probably the youngest on the team. That didn’t seem to make anyone distrust her leadership though, so he just decided to go with it.

“Okay, Luke will lead a team into the other’s territory as a scouting team and distraction, your team will follow behind them and flank around the other team to grab their flag, and Percy will stay with me near our flag to guard it since he hasn’t had much training yet and I don’t trust him on the front lines.”

/Slightly demeaning, but fair enough./

‘Have we had any training?’

<I did. Once. More like Luke cleaned the training ground floor with my face for half an hour.>

Percy mentally sighed. ‘This flag better be very well hidden, I can’t die yet.’

The flag was not very well hidden.

“You couldn’t think of anything better than ‘perched on top of a well-known landmark?’” Percy opened his arms in frustration and gave Annabeth a look as she planted it on top of Zeus’ Fist (The secret place they were hiding in the woods had a name! A name!)

“The idea is since everyone knows where this is, nobody will think to look here. Also, if anyone happens to find us I get to see you get your ass kicked before I handle it.”

Percy’s face lowered. “You’re a bad friend.”

Fifteen minutes go by without anything happening, Percy tapping his foot and fingers in rhythm to stave off the boredom. Apparently the others had taken him wanting to do this himself to heart, he hadn’t heard them say anything in a while and he had a feeling they were silently watching what was happening.

Percy listened to the sounds of the forest around him. The day was a bit windy, the leaves rustling against each other as the branches gently swayed in the wind. A bird called to his right, another responding behind him. He listened closer. He heard rustling in the leaves, too heavy to be a small animal, too careful to be a large one, almost like…

“Someone’s coming.”

He saw the spear before the girl. He stood hastily, readying the too-heavy sword in his very inexperienced hands. He glanced behind him to see Annabeth had vanished. 

‘Shit.’

<Shit.>

/Shit./

The girl stabbed at him, Percy barely blocking with his own blade. “I heard you were Mr. D’s favorite! Care to show me why?”

Percy busied himself desperately blocking everything, his arms moving almost on instinct. “I really don’t, not right now!”

“Pity.” 

The girl sped up, hardly leaving Percy able to continue blocking with his awkward blade. She finally seemed to get sick of the game, knocking the blade out of his hands. She stabbed at his chest and he dodged. Went for his stomach, he dodged again. She seemed to get frustrated. “Stand still, coward!”

“You’re trying to stab me!”

“Exactly! Let me!”

“No!? Don’t you even want to win this!?”

She shrugged. “Not really.”

Percy sighed. “Of course.”

He continued trying to evade, getting a little bit further before the girl seemed to give up on playing with her food and stabbed at his shoulder faster than he could react.

He felt a bolt of electricity go through his body, taking over his muscles and crumpling him. The girl seemed disappointed. “I thought that was going to be harder. Did they really leave you all by yourself?” She chuckled. “Oh, but I do love an initiation. Maybe I’ll have some fun with this after all.”

Percy felt Andromeda trying to take over, apparently deciding he couldn’t handle this anymore. ‘Stop, stop, I can handle this, leave me alone-’

The girl holding the spear was knocked back by nothing, stumbling in surprise before finding a realization and growling in frustration. “Damn it, Chase! You better take that fuckin’ hat off!”

“Nah.” Annabeth’s voice came from a space between Percy and the spear holder, making the girl even angrier as she stabbed at empty air. He almost felt a rush of air like something had moved, and the spear hit nothing. The girl continued swinging at and being hit by nothing, before Annabeth finally appeared before her holding a baseball cap and kicked her to the floor.

The girl made another angry noise and went to stand before cheering sounded through the woods. Luke and his team broke through the woods with damaged armor, holding a red flag into the sky. “Athena wins!”

Annabeth grinned and held her hand out to the other girl. “Nice job letting yourself get separated from your team, Clarisse.”

Clarisse seethed and stood up on her own, grabbing her spear off the floor. “Next week. This isn’t over.”

Annabeth smiled. “It never is.”

Chapter Text

Percy tended to have nightmares.

Dreams of everyone close to him being murdered. Dreams of him being chased, of running just a bit slower than what’s trying to hurt him. Dreams of being trapped, beaten, tracked like a prey animal. It used to make him wake up in a cold sweat, but after years and years of it happening at least once a week he got used to it, got used to waking up bolt upright at 4 in the morning and just being thankful he didn’t have to be in the nightmare anymore.

He’d never had one that felt like this, though.

He was trapped in a small crevice in a cave wall, barely able to breathe around the rocks enclosing around him. He wasn’t alone in his naturally formed cage; there were two people behind him, arguably even worse off than he was considering he was the closest to the exit and could at least see out, although he couldn’t move to escape. One was a boy, obviously taller than he was, and the other was a girl about his height. It was too dark to judge any of their features beyond that. The taller boy looked at him reassuringly, like he’d make sure Percy was safe here, wherever here was. The girl locked eyes with him in a way that made him understand why she was placed farthest from the exit, although he almost felt a sort of comfort from it, as if he’d known that feeling, known that look, and knew it was never directed at him. They both gestured for him to look out, through the exit. He obliged.

He quickly decided he didn’t want to.

There was a man standing in front of a pit. He couldn’t explain it, but he got the feeling that pit went down a long, long way, far enough down that nothing should really exist except lava. But he knew something was down there. He knew, he could feel it, and he so desperately hoped it never got any closer to him than this. He could feel the malice coming from that pit, feel the hatred, the want for violence, for destruction, he could feel the true evil so many miles beneath him. He was petrified.

“Lord Kronos.” The man knelt in front of the pit, and a rush of bone-chilling air came from deep within it. “Yes, I have come to report to you directly.”

“There has been a new arrival. He’s small, weak, scared, but I can tell there’s something in him, something we can exploit. I come to request your advice on how to get him on our side early.”

Another gust of wind rose, making Percy flinch. He could feel the others behind him tense, whether it was because they felt the wind too or they were simply responding to his reaction he couldn’t tell.

“No, he has not been claimed. He likely won’t be, but of course you know that.”

Another gust. This one seemed to startle the man.

“P- Poseidon!? Lord Kronos, you must be-”

Another gust. The man’s head dropped to the floor.

“No, my Lord, I was not calling you a liar. It’s just that- the Big Three haven’t had children in decades! What’s different now?”

Another. This one was slow, flowing through the room with an energy that seemed to make time itself slow a bit.

“...Him. Him? You-- you want him as your vessel!? After everything I’ve-”

A fast, strong rush of wind came from the pit, pushing the man back. Still clearly angry, his head dropped once more. He sighed in resignation. “Yes, Lord Kronos. I will achieve this. He will soon be yours to keep.”

Percy was shaken awake by a tall form. Luke, the eldest in his cabin, also the cabin head. He looked up at the teen. “Am- am I in trouble?”

Luke smiled gently and shook his head. “No, you’re not. Come outside, I want to show you something.”

With that he walked outside, gently opening the door to not startle the dozens of other campers in the cabin, gently offering Percy to come with and leaving the door opened for him. Percy raised from his sleeping bag and followed, very gently shutting the door behind him.

Luke led him out into the edges of the camp (“The harpies don’t tend to fly out this far, but it’s still pretty well within the borders so it’s safe,” he’d explained.) He brought him to a clearing in a small patch of woods, stopping and pointing upwards. “Look.”

Percy looked straight up, and saw the night sky. It was… beautiful. He’d lived his whole life in New York, and you don’t see much at night in the city, just especially bright stars against the lights and sounds of the city at night. But here, you could see everything. Every star, every planet, and the gorgeous band of the Milky Way stretching across the cosmos.

“All anyone talks about is how the clouds pass around the camp. Nobody ever brings up how light pollution doesn’t really reach us here, either. Here, you can see everything in the sky at night like you were in an unpopulated desert. What do you think?”

Percy didn’t look down. “Wow.”

He heard Luke chuckle. “Yeah. Wow.”

Percy sat down on the ground, still staring up, taking it all in. Luke walked over to a tree, picked something up from around the roots, and tossed it to him. It was a cold can of Coke. 

“Camp has rules about no sodas or caffeinated drinks on grounds and all that. Luckily, I’ve been here a while, and I know a lot of people. Pretty easy to sneak stuff in if you just promise to give the smuggler some of it, honestly.” Percy looked at Luke, who winked. “Enjoy, kid.”

Percy cracked the can and took a sip. He couldn’t remember the last time he had a soda, honestly. He decided to drink this one slowly. “Why are you showing me all this?”

Luke’s expression shifted slightly, but it just as fast changed back to the inviting, almost smug grin he’d seen on so many of his cabinmates. Must be a Hermes thing. “Wanted to make the new kid feel welcome! Personally, I’m not that big a fan of how they really just throw you to the wolves around here. Figured maybe I’d change it for you. Maybe at least one of us will be well adjusted.” He punctuated that last sentence with a snort at his own joke.

Percy looked up at him with a smile and a barely hidden look of awe. “Um, thank you.”

Luke grinned wide, showing as many teeth as he was comfortably able. “Don’t mention it, kid. Just promise to get the Hephaestus kids to build me a statue when I’m gloriously killed by a giant snake or something. Always thought my name would look good in bronze.”

Percy was having a good day. Granted, it started at 3:00 in the morning, but that interruption was welcome with what it led to. His therapy session had been mostly uneventful, the most interesting part had been when he’d mentioned he hadn’t really heard anyone else around in his head that day and Mr. D explained the concept of being “frontstuck” to him. Not that he minded much, he liked the idea of having his mind to himself for once.

He’d met up with Annabeth, absentmindedly talking about whatever came to mind. The girl could be a bit too curious for his liking sometimes, but she was genuinely a nice person to talk to. He found himself looking forward to seeing her every day. 

They’d been chatting for a while, maybe 30 minutes, before Luke appeared through the woods. Annabeth and Percy both brightened at seeing him. Annabeth called him over, “Luke! Luke, come over here, have you met Percy?”

Luke perked up, seeming almost startled, but he quickly covered it up with a smile and jogged over. “Hey, Annabeth! Yeah, I’ve met him, what’s up?”

“I just wanted you two to meet. How’s it going?”

Luke joined the banter easily, although the ensuing conversation left Percy feeling a bit left out, the two in front of him clearly much closer than he was with either of them, maybe even closer than he was with…

With…

Huh, weird. He didn’t remember what he was thinking about. It probably wasn’t important, anyway.

The conversation continued much like this for a while, Annabeth and Luke talking back and forth, Percy occasionally chiming in when possible. Annabeth never fully mentioned Percy’s… mental situation, apparently leaving it up to him whether or not Luke knew, which was a nice thought.

Either that, or she didn’t feel like explaining it.

It might’ve been unfair to her that he thought of that as a reason, but to be fair, she wasn’t always the most considerate person. An electrified spear came to mind.

Finally, Luke mentioned, “Y’know, I brought Percy out to see the sky last night.”

Annabeth seemed to almost brighten in realization. “You did? Oh, Percy, doesn’t it look amazing?”

He chuckled awkwardly, this being the first time in a while that he’d been addressed without saying anything. “Uh, yeah, it is. It looks… yeah, it looks amazing. I don’t think I’ve even seen that many stars in pictures, not very often, anyway.”

“Oh, that’s because cameras can’t pick up stars very well, you need to have a really slow shutter speed to capture them.” Annabeth knew this, of course, because she, as Percy was beginning to assume, just knew everything.

Luke cleared his throat. “So, um, Percy.”

Percy looked up. “Yeah?”

Luke seemed anxious about something suddenly, as if he had something on his mind. “Do you… have any guess as to who your godly parent is?”

Oh. Right. Because there had to be something else weird about him.

“Honestly, I’ve had a lot on my mind, I forgot I even had one.” Percy shrugged it off.

Luke stared at him. “You… forgot you had one.”

“...Yes?”

Luke kept his eyes on Percy’s before he looked away, seemingly in thought. “You- you forgot you had one. He picked you over me and you forgot you had one!”

Luke chucked darkly, which grew into a sharp, unnatural cackle. “You don’t even remember having one! You don’t--”

Annabeth seemed uncomfortable. “Luke, are you okay?”

Luke calmed his laugh down enough to respond. “Oh, don’t worry, I’m great! No, it’s just that I’ve been working at this for years, and he drops me for-- for some idiot that can’t even remember he’s a demigod!” He punctuated with another threatening chuckle and locked eyes with Percy once more with a manic grin.

Percy backed away from Luke, Annabeth trying to process what her friend was doing. “Luke, you’re scaring me, what are you talking about?”

Luke stopped, and thought for a moment, before coming to a conclusion. “Fuck it. Fuck Kronos. Fuck the gods, and fuck you. I won’t deal with this shit anymore.”

Percy felt his throat tighten at the mention of that name, Kronos. He didn’t know what it meant, but something in him felt like he didn’t want to find out.

Annabeth paled as the sky darkened, almost like the sky itself did not want to hear the name he had uttered. “Kr- The Time Lord!? Luke, what are you even saying right now-”

“And to you.” Luke shot a look at Percy, him taking 3 steps back in response. Luke starting chuckling again, almost like he truly couldn’t believe his situation.

Luke shot his arms open, and started belting out words with exaggerated dramatics.

“Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses!”

Luke swung his arm in a wide arc, posing like he was waiting for applause at the end of a play. His arm passed very close to Annabeth's side, not quite touching her.

“Hail, Perseus Jackson!”

It was then that Annabeth realized Luke had stolen her invisibility cap. 

“No-!”

“Son of the Sea God.”

Luke was gone.

Chapter Text

The camp had been on high alert since Luke’s disappearance. The harpies came out an hour earlier every night and left an hour later every morning. The camp counselors were put on a rotating watch schedule waiting for some kind of attack, but that was more in case an army was coming. If it was just Luke, he’d be impossible to find by sight unless he wanted to be, being a child of Hermes with the ability to turn invisible, not to mention he was more than dangerous if he was found, anyway.

The camp still needed a way to find him if he came back for some reason. That’s what the satyrs were for.

All satyrs currently available were called back to the camp to patrol select areas to sense him. With the satyrs’ ability to smell demigods and the harpies out longer, the camp thought they’d find him if he came back, but they needed to be certain.

Which is why Michael was being questioned about the whereabouts of Grover by Mr. D and Chiron.

“I told you, I don’t know! I wasn’t there, all I can remember is some end-of-school math class and then I ended up here!”

“We are aware, we just…” Chiron sighed. “We take any mention of the Time Lord very seriously here, and that isn’t… all that’s happened recently, so we need any help we can get. Do you have any idea who might remember what happened to him?” The old centaur seemed worn a bin thin, his back leg kicking occasionally and his fingers rubbing at faint bags under his eyes. Mr. D seemed neutral, as he often did when not in a therapy session. Michael got the feeling he didn’t lift that act around many people. Or maybe the way he was in therapy was the act, it was hard to tell.

Michael took a moment to listen inside his head. “Percy has no idea, but he doesn’t know a lot, so I can’t say I expected anything else.”

‘Hey!’

<Oh, shut it, you know I’m right.>

‘Yeah, but you could at least keep it to yourself!'

<Nope, this is more fun.>

Mr. D spoke up. “Have you asked Andromeda?”

Michael took a moment to think. “Y’know, I haven’t actually heard from her since you asked.”

The god nodded. “Go find her, then.”

Andromeda did not want to talk about Grover.

She didn’t want to talk about Grover, or how she got here, or the way water reacts to her emotions, or what she had been told Luke had said about her being the child of fucking Poseidon which frankly would explain her being able to breathe water among several other things but that’s a problem for a later fucking date. She didn’t want to think about it, she didn’t want to think anything, she didn’t want to talk about anything.

So when she heard Chiron ask all of them where Grover was, she stopped talking. Stopped listening. Backed away from the two others, and hoped nobody would realize she hadn’t responded to Michael’s question.

But of course, someone did.

Michael left front, leaving their body to just sort of stare off into space the way it always did when nobody was in control. He saw Andromeda and walked over to her.

“You didn’t say anything. Do you know something?”

Andromeda shook her head. “No.”

Michael didn’t seem to believe her. “Are you sure?”

“100%, now fuck off.”

“You’re being defensive.” Michael looked at her face. “You do that a lot, actually. Whenever someone asks a question you don’t feel like answering.”

Her eyes shot up to meet Michael’s. “Okay, how the hell do you know that? You’ve known I exist for like, a week.”

Michael shrugged. “You did it a lot with Annabeth.”

“I-” Andromeda cut herself off. “...Okay, yeah, she did ask a lot of questions, fine. But still, I know nothing, stop asking me.”

Michael sighed. “You don’t have to give me any details, I just need to know if you know where he could be.”

She chuckled darkly, wondering what the Greek afterlife looked like. “Yeah, I’ve got one or two ideas.”

“Great! Tell them that.” Michael pointed at the weird control panel that was the front.

“Nope.”

“Wasn’t a question.” Michael grabbed her arm and started dragging her towards the control panel.

“Hey- let go- what the- Michael- let fucking go of-!”

Andromeda shook her head, processing where exactly she was. She looked up to see the two highest ranking people in the camp staring at her expectantly.

/I’m going to fucking kill you, Michael./

<Pretty sure we can’t die in here.>

/I’ll figure it out./

Andromeda sighed, mentally preparing herself for dodging as many questions as possible. “Hi, I’m Andromeda. I take it you want to know where Grover is?”

Chiron shot to attention. “Yes, we would love to know that.”

“Dead. Now leave me alone.”

She tried to dramatically leave front, realizing she couldn’t. 

/Ah. That’s bad./

He could feel the looks coming from the two others in her head. Chiron seemed to nod sadly, and Mr. D seemed like something clicked into place for him.

“You,” Mr. D pointed at Andromeda, “are that one. You remember things, don’t you?”

Andromeda shot the man a look. “So what if I am?”

“How did you get here?”

Andromeda was now the one pointing at Mr. D. “No. Don’t do that. I don’t want to talk.”

Mr. D sighed, looking like he was preparing himself for something he didn’t want to do. “I need to know so I can help you, and not only for your sanity, but for your safety. I hate to rush something like this, but the camp is very likely to be in danger, and we need to pick up speed in the ‘processing trauma’ department so I know you are stable enough for what’s to come. Now, I’ll ask again, how did you get here? Chiron can leave if you want.”

Andromeda paused. He was right.

/Fucking hell./

“Fine. Chiron can stay, I don’t care.” She took a breath. “I called Grover to pick me up for… my own reasons. He was run over by a giant bull thing in the woods, and I blacked out then. From what I can gather from everyone else, we were then found by satyrs and kept in a medical wing until Michael woke up.” 

Mr. D took a moment to process what he’d heard. “So, seeing death in front of you, plus the death of someone who was likely close to you. Is there anything else of note?”

Andromeda thought of the Minotaur drowning in Grover’s blood. She thought of Gabe’s blood circling her head for hours. “I-... I think I can control blood. And- and water, I guess. I think I can also breathe water.”

Chiron seemed surprised, Mr. D seeming to have a thought. “How do you know that?”

Andromeda shut her eyes. “Chiron needs to leave.”

The centaur nodded in understanding, leaving the room. Andromeda sighed, looking at the floor. She couldn’t hold eye contact with him, not for this.

“Um- for the breathing water, I’ve done it once. I was at my apartment. My stepfather, Gabe, was mad at me. He um… he was hitting me, and he’d knocked the wind out of my lungs, and I kept thinking I needed air. And then the pipes burst and some of it filled my lungs, and I could breathe it like air. Some of it also sort of formed a ring around my head.”

Mr. D nodded. “That adds to what Luke said about you being a child of Poseidon.”

Andromeda nodded. “Yeah, I- I guess it does. And um… the controlling blood and water thing. After the pipes burst, Gabe seemed like… scared of me, I guess? The water was aimed at him, but then he threw a pan at me, and the water changed direction to blast the pan back, and then it changed back to him. And for blood, um… it’s happened twice.”

Andromeda took a deep breath. “The first time was my apartment again. After the pan didn’t work, Gabe swung at me, and he- he just… he just exploded. Blood was all over the walls, but none of it hit me. Any of it that came near me formed another ring around my head.”

“And um, the second time was after Grover… died. I was… really angry, and all the blood came off the ground and drowned the bull thing.”

She took a breath, sitting on the floor. Nothing felt real, but she didn’t care. She wished nothing was real right now.

“Did your stepfather-”

“Don’t. I… I can’t right now. Ask me later.”

Her therapist nodded. “What you did today was very hard, Andromeda. You should go rest for the day, I need to adjust my plans to help your specific traumas."

Andromeda stuck her hand out for the god to help her up. “Thank you. And uh, thanks for wanting to help me, too.”

“You are my client, I need to do that. Oh, and before I forget, after what you’ve told me I believe what Luke said about your parentage, at some point soon you need to move your belongings to Cabin Three. It’s not a very usual claiming, but I’m willing to consider it valid. Congratulations, Children of the Sea God. I’m sure the old man is happy or whatever.”

She chuckled at his demeanor towards the other gods. “Thank you, Mr. D.”

She walked out of the building, going towards Cabin Eleven for her things. She needed to move cabins, and then she was going to take a fucking nap. She’d like to think she earned one.

Chapter Text

Be with me, child.

Be of me.

I can bring her back.

I can destroy those who wronged you.

Help me burn down Olympus, and everything will be yours.

I am not to be feared.

I am to be celebrated.

Celebrate me, child, and invite me in.

Andromeda sat bolt upright in her bed in Cabin Three, her sheets soaked with cold sweat. She groaned. That was going to ruin her cabin’s hygiene ranking.

The master bolt had been returned.

Andromeda didn't know what that meant, but she knew it must be important by how she was informed of it. Chiron had announced it in front of her and Annabeth alone. It had been left in the elevator of the Empire State Building (because of course Olympus was on top of the fucking Empire State Building, why not at this point) next to the Helm of Darkness which had not been reported missing and a post-it note. It read:

now leave me alone. you've all done enough.

Search parties were being sent out to find Luke and bring him back to camp for questioning. Despite his last known words being of him supposedly cutting himself off from the Greek world, the gods did not take the action of invoking the King of the Titans’ name, much less the implication of having worked for him, lightly. They needed him back to know he wasn't working in the shadows, they needed to keep eyes on him. Penance for his thefts against the gods (and technically nobody could prove they were his, the bolt and helm had simply disappeared and reappeared with no further evidence) could come later.

Neither Annabeth nor Andromeda were sent out.

For Annabeth, it was an attachment issue. She was simply too close to Luke, she might try to let him go out of emotion. And for Andromeda, or all of them at large more accurately, it was their mental health. Mr. D had not cleared them to leave camp grounds yet, he did not believe they were stable enough to go on a quest, much less to find someone who was 1. incredibly dangerous and could turn invisible at will and 2. had a mental breakdown the last time he had seen them.

Which is why they were sneaking out together.

Annabeth had been there as long as Luke (“Just as long,” she had said, as she looked to the massive pine tree on the border solemnly,) and knew just as much about the camp grounds as he did, if not more so. She knew exactly when and where from the harpies would be released, and knew the places and times they could go to avoid them.

That hadn't stopped Chiron from finding them.

“I know what you two are planning to do,” the old centaur had said, “and I know I cannot truly convince you to stay. I can, however, give back what was returned to me.”

He had reached into a bag across his human torso and pulled out a pen, handing it to Andromeda. The pen looked… familiar… wait a second.

“Is this the pen I gave back to you on that field trip?”

Chiron smiled softly and nodded. “Yes, it is. Although, as you might not remember, it is not only a pen. Uncap it, if you may.”

Andromeda did as told. A perfectly weighted sword sprung to life in her hands.

“Anaklusmos. Riptide. An ancient blade imbued with binding magic. It will return to you should you ever lose it. Use it well, and return soon, heroes.”

With that, he left them to continue running.

You will do as I ask, little hero.

I recommend you agree quickly. If you force me to ask less politely you will not like it.

I will give you everything. All you have to give me is you.

Everything will be yours, and you will be mine.

Give in, child. Let me in.

They had been chasing Luke for over a week. Any lead they could find led them to a trap, or a monster, or a small glimpse of the man before he vanished. As it turns out, it was hard to catch a son of the god of thieves and travelers who could turn invisible at will. Who knew.

The current lead had brought them to a place with a sign Andromeda couldn't read. The first word could've been “Ant” if it didn't have so many letters, and there was a lone M in there somewhere. It was in cursive, she had a hard enough time reading normal people English, sue her.

The building was surrounded by stone statues, all of them seemingly screaming in horror or in the middle of shifting their face to achieve that effect.

“So, just so we're clear, this place is a trap, right?” Andromeda had asked.

“Oh, yes, definitely. Do you have any other ideas?” Annabeth sent back.

“Nope.”

“Me neither. Let's go, then.”

The good news is, they had found Luke.

The bad news is, he was a bit busy clenching his eyes shut and blindly swinging at- holy shit.

That's fucking Medusa.

“Don't look at her face,” Annabeth whispered at her.

“I know how fucking Medusa works, I'm not that stupid,” Andromeda had snarked back.

“Distract her. I’m going to cut off her head from behind.”

“Wh- why am I the bait?”

“You walk about as quiet as a falling piece of metal.”

“That is not true!”

“Shut up and be a distraction so I can kill the lady trying to turn everyone here to stone, Andromeda!”

“Fine.” Andromeda counted to six in her head to give Annabeth time to hide herself before loudly announcing her presence. “Hey! Snake lady! Stop trying to touch my friend’s face, he did not consent!”

Medusa’s head swung much faster than she was expecting.

/I don't have time to close my eyes. Oh, gods, I'm going to die. I don't- I can't- I need more-

-time!/

Time seemed to slow as the monster’s head turned. Seconds seemed to drag on for hours.

One second.

The beast’s face was nearly pointed at her.

Two seconds.

Andromeda slammed her eyes shut.

Three seconds.

The soft sound of Annabeth pulling out her knife.

Four seconds.

Metal through flesh.

Five seconds, silence.

At six seconds, something hit the floor with a wet thud.

“She's dead,” Annabeth announced. “I think this means I'm the rightful ruler of Seriphos."

“All hail Queen Annabeth,” Andromeda replied. “What's your first decree, all spiders be burned at the stake?”

“Oh, like yours wouldn't be to ban alcohol,” Annabeth shot right back as she grabbed a towel to place over the head of the monster.

“Fucking hell, you went below the belt quick.” Andromeda turned around to look at where she last saw Luke standing.

…

Luke was gone.

“Luke's gone.”

“GODS DAMN IT.”

I told you you wouldn't like what comes next.

Oh, quit screaming. It's only a stab wound. You'll survive.

You aren't allowed to die, after all. I still need you.

You will be mine eventually, little hero. Give in now, or I will show you how rude I can truly be.

Let me in, child.

Let me in.

Chapter Text

I told you. I told you, and yet you did not listen. So we go again.

Everything hurt. Percy's entire body hurt. He wanted to go back to sleep. Was he asleep? He wanted his mom. Where was his mom?

You will die over and over until you give in, hero. But I guarantee you, if you force me to take matters into my own hands, your friends will suffer a much worse fate than this.

Let me in, little hero.

Let me in.

Percy was getting really sick of chasing after this Luke guy.

It’d been days since they saw him, and that was just a glimpse. Not that any other time they saw him was any better, but it was still frustrating.

So when they finally cornered him, Percy felt like he could be cut some slack for holding Riptide against the young man’s throat to keep him from running again.

For a moment, nobody said a word. They all just waited to catch their breath. As Percy inhaled, he took a closer look at Luke for the first time in almost a month.

Luke Castellan looked, frankly, like utter shit.

His skin was much paler than Percy remembered. He looked dirty, and not just in his clothes. His skin looked rough and grimy, like he’d been sprinting through woods for weeks, which Percy assumed he probably had. He had bags under his eyes, dark splotches allying with his ever prominent scar to break up an otherwise perfectly smooth face.

“Just–” Luke spoke first. “Just let me leave. I just want to be left alone, I want this to be over.”

“No, Luke.” Annabeth stared the man down. “I don't know what you've been doing or for how long, but you invoke the Titan Lord’s name like you're quitting a job, and two of the strongest weapons on Earth reappear with no warning the second you go underground! What the hell do you think you're doing!?”

“I’ll explain,” Luke said, “if your friend removes the sword from my neck.”

“Not happening,” Percy replied. “You are not making me chase you through another Burger King managed by a Hydra.”

“Okay, to be fair, it was a very good distraction.”

“Don't change the subject!” Annabeth screamed, demanding the conversation be directed toward her purposes. “What the fuck were you doing, Luke!?”

“I-” Luke sighed. “I… I was tired of the gods, alright? I was tired of the dozens of campers who end up in my father's cabin awaiting a claiming that never comes. I was tired of them sending kids to their deaths. I was tired of being treated like a soldier or a tool just because my mom had a fling with a member of some fucking pantheon. I wanted something else, and Kr-... The Time Lord offered me another way.”

“He came to me in a dream, and he said that if I gave myself up to him, he’d see my dreams come true. He'd reclaim his spot over the gods, and no more kids would be stolen off the street and trained to be weapons. But… I realize now that's what he was using me as. A weapon, I mean. Or I guess… more like a vehicle.”

Percy thought for a moment. “...He came to you in a dream… and offered you things so you'd help him destroy the gods?”

Luke gave Percy a look. “Yes. Why, did you not catch that the first time it went through your head, dis you have to think it over for a second?”

“No, I just think I've got the same guy.”

All four eyes nearby were on him.

“What,” Luke deadpanned.

“What,” Annabeth said in equal levels of enthusiasm.

“Yeah, um… ever since you ran from camp, or maybe a bit after it I guess, I've been having dreams of a voice. At first it offered me things, bringing my mother back, destroying those who wronged me, things like that. When that didn't work, he threatened me with torture. And when that didn't work, he started torturing me while threatening to do worse to my friends.”

Luke stared at Percy. “...He's been keeping you from sleeping, too.”

Percy shrugged. “Yeah, guess so.”

Annabeth was still staring at him wordlessly.

“Y- you never fucking thought to tell me this!?”

Oh, nevermind, no longer wordlessly.

“I have nightmares often, half the time I just go back to sleep until the next morning, I thought it was just a new thing my brain was trying to make my life worse.”

Now they were both staring at him again.

Finally, Annabeth spoke up. “I am not going to address how many things are wrong with what you just said for my own sanity.”

Luke spoke up next. “...I'm coming with you.”

Annabeth and Percy both shot up to stare at Luke. “I'm guessing the next step in your little outing is to get the Titan out of the kid's head, and if you find a way to do that I also need it. Plus, I've been doing this longer, if the kid starts struggling I'll be able to help more.”

Annabeth took a moment to process, before shoving Percy's sword away from Luke and clinging to him. “Thank you.”

“Yeah, yeah, don't mention it, Annie. Just one rule: we do not go see my father.”

Chapter Text

“What was my ONE RULE!?” Luke was not happy about Annabeth’s plan.

“Look, Hermes is the god of messengers, and we need to get a word in to Apollo to get healing magic to be done on you two. Also,” Annabeth continued while she fiddled with the water pipe on the outside of the building they'd found Luke in, “we need someone that'll put in a good word so you don't get smote for stealing the two most powerful things in the universe, and currently the most likely to hear you out, at least from my point of view, is your own father.” Annabeth slammed the tip of her dagger into the pipe, causing water to spray out at high pressure and form a mist, making a faint rainbow in the sunlight. She walked next to the two boys, muttering a prayer to Iris and throwing a gold coin into the refracted light. Little to Percy's surprise at this point, the coin disappeared, as Annabeth simply spoke, “Hermes.”

A twenty-something man in a UPS uniform appeared as an image in the mist. “Lord Hermes,” Annabeth stated, bowing her head. She glanced over at Percy and smacked the back of his head, making him drop it. Luke didn't move.

“This better be good- oh.” The man, who was supposedly Hermes, spoke. “Right. Hello.”

Luke cleared his throat. “Yeah. Hi.”

Annabeth spoke up once more. “We are in need of assistance of Apollo, and as the messenger god we wished to ask of your help with reaching him. Also, your son says sorry.”

“Hey, no I don't, I have nothing to apologize for to him-”

“Your son. Says sorry. Because if he didn't, he would be in a lot of trouble. So obviously, he has the common sense to shut up and admit when he's wrong.”

“Ah. Um. Yes. I was wrong. I am… I'm sorry.”

Hermes glanced between the two. “Are you finished?”

“Yes, Lord Hermes.”

“Yeah.”

“Good. Now tell me what I'm telling Apollo, I have a lot of boxes to ship today.”

“Right, right, um… These two need help fighting off a… mental issue. And we need his medical expertise to help us.”

Hermes seemed to wait for a moment. “Is that all?”

“Oh, um, and give him their names. Luke Castellan and Perseus Jackson.”

“Right. Okay, gove me a second.”

Hermes dug out a phone from his pocket, seemingly sending a text to someone. A few moments later, his phone let out a notification. “Okay, he says to meet him at his nearest demigod clinic. Do you know where the nearest one is?”

Percy slowly glanced over to the others, who seemed about as lost as he was.

“Right. I forgot they teach you kids nothing these days. Okay, I'm sending a vehicle to you, it will lead you to the destination and then vanish. Will that be all?”

“Yes, Lord Hermes. We are very grateful for-”

“Yeah, yeah, thank you so much, I get it. Now please hang up, I have things to do other than this.”

Hermes sighed as the mist dissipated.

“I can't bear to look at Luke. Not since I know I can do nothing.”

He turned, muttering to himself. “Good luck, heroes. You have my blessing. Make it count.”

Apollo's demigod clinics were, if this one was anything to go by, unassuming.

The unmanned car had driven them through the rest of the day into the night and parked in front of a perfectly normal looking doctor's office, let them out, and then sped off, leaving from view past one hill and never reappearing on the next. For all Percy knew, it could have truthfully stopped existing just as much as it could have just parked between the hills and waited for them to go inside. He decided to oblige.

A bell rang as the door opened, a receptionist glancing up before sitting up straighter when he noticed them and calling to the back. Moments later a blonde man in a white coat came through the door.

“Ah, good, you made it here on time. Come to the back, I need to see what I'm working with.”

The man, who did actually turn out to be Apollo and not some random nurse like Percy had half been expecting, investigated their illness as best he could. He froze at the mention of it being caused by Kronos.

“I… I am sorry. I’m the god of medicine, sure, but I'm also the god of the Sun, the god of music, I'm a lot of things, y’know. I'm not very… specialized in just one thing, and this… for this, you need specialized. Very specialized.”

“My son, Asclepius, he's the god of medicine. Just medicine, nothing else. If anyone can help you, it's him. However,” Apollo had pulled out a notepad and begun scribbling things on it, “he's currently locked up behind a giant robot in Europe. The Europe part is easy, I can give you a ride on the Sun in the morning, but the giant robot part… Do any of you know robotics?”

“Percy has a sword.” Luke pointed generally in Percy's direction without looking away from Apollo.

“That'll work.” Apollo nodded as if Luke had said something especially helpful.

“You three go find a cot to sleep in for the night, we don't get many patients here, especially at night. We’ll leave in the morning, bright and early.”

Apollo watched the three children leave to find a place to sleep. He sighed to himself, trying to forget what he already knew by heart.

“I hope I can save you.”

Chapter Text

It will come soon, little hero.

Your fall will come soon.

And I will make you wish you hadn't made me wait.

You should have let me in.

Michael always hated waking up.

It always look longer than it should, even when you get up your brain still feels asleep for the next hour, there's that weird crust in your eyes you need to get out sometimes.

He could now say for certain it is not made any better by climbing into the fucking sun right before dawn.

Apollo had shifted the sports car to an ambulance at some point. Despite there being a passenger seat, he had sent them all to the back, Annabeth and Luke taking up the seats against the walls and Michael lying in the stretcher, which he felt was a little awkward.

Despite literally riding the Sun, the trip from America to Europe was not a short one. At some point, Michael got bored and decided to use his strange seat to his advantage. He went to sleep.

Luke didn't know Percy's situation. He didn't know how intensive Kronos was going to be with his head, or how susceptible or resistant to it he was.

He definitely hadn't expected this, though.

After falling asleep, Percy's eyes shot open and immediately locked on Luke. He sat bolt upright on the stretcher and went to strangle him, Luke grabbing his arms and pinning him back onto the stretcher with Annabeth's help.

“Traitor! Disgusting traitor, you will die first! Your death will be the beginning of my-”

Luke punched Percy in the cheek full force.

Percy’s entire body jerked, him waking up and looking at the two holding him down, and then staring indignantly at Luke. “Ow!”

“We’re going to see a god doctor, calm down.” Luke sat back down in his seat and resumed waiting.

The robot wasn't as big of an issue as Apollo made it out to sound. After all, Michael had a sword.

They trekked the halls of the sealed off building, looking for signs of life. Eventually, the signs of life found them.

“Ah, you're here, you're here!” An older man with a white beard waved them over. “Come, come, I must examine you first.”

The trio blinked, glancing between each other and shrugging. They followed the strange man into the room, which is a thing you should always do and tell your kids to do, Percy Jackson himself said that. Well, one of him did.

The man stared at Annabeth, seemingly sizing her up. “Hm… Annabeth Chase… weight seems healthy… sleep seems sound… ah!” The man threw open a cabinet on the wall, grabbing an orange pill bottle and handing it to her. “Here you are. Antidepressants, non-addictive.”

“Wh- anti- excuse me-!”

“Ah, right, of course, where are my manners. I am Asclepius, and I will be your doctor today.”

“Now, Luke Castellan.” Asclepius completely moved on from a bumbling Annabeth, “...hm, now that is an interesting case. I might have something, but I will need to make it.” The god turned around and speedwalked to the room behind him, grabbing what seemed like plants and crushing them in a mortar.

“So… are we all just going to ignore how he gave Annabeth antidepressants?” Luke spoke up finally.

Michael responded quickly, “I don't know. I'm surprised he wasn't just refilling her already existing prescription.”

Annabeth seemed to almost seize at this, which is probably a horrible thing to imitate next to a doctor, but what did Michael know.

“Okay!” Speaking of doctors. “Here’s your prescription, specially made for you and you only, give this to nobody else. It should help your mental walls keep out the Time Lord as you sleep.”

“Oh, um, thank-”

“Perseus Jackson!” Asclepius turned to him before seeming to realize a something. “Ah, of course, my mistake. Hello, Michael! How are you feeling?”

Michael glanced over to Luke, who seemed confused before shrugging it off. “Uh, I'm mostly okay. I thought you could do this on your own?”

“I can! That's why I asked, I wanted to see if you'd lie, and you did! Now, come with me, we must discuss something in private.”

“Oh, NOW he respects privacy,” Annabeth complained.

Michael followed Asclepius deeper into the buried medical wing, stopping about 5 rooms down with the god shutting the door being them. “Well, I have good news and bad news, son. The good news is, thanks to your Dissociative Identity Disorder, your mental walls are fortified enough to need less of a dosage of what I gave Luke.”

“Oh, is that what it's called? Mr. D never actually gave me the name-”

“That old drunk’s your therapist? Bah,” Asclepius spat, “he couldn't tell the difference between ASD and ADHD sober, and he is not sober very often, I will tell you so much. If he didn't have his madness domain, he would have no chance in helping.”

“But at any rate, the bad news. The bad news is, you are not the same case as Luke. The Time Lord simply wants to torture Luke, but you? He wants to possess you. He wants to use your specific mental state to forge a pathway for him to crawl his way into your body without your permission. It has already happened… what, once? Twice?”

“I- um…” Michael thought back, finding nothing.

/I mean, I thought time slowed down for me at one point? But I wrote it off as adrenaline, I guess./

“Ah, yes, thank you, Andromeda!”

/He can hear me!?/

“God of medicine, dear, of course I can hear you! But yes, the Titan King has already begun to take hold in your mind, and I… I cannot help you myself.”

“I cannot fight off a Titan’s possession with my godly magic. To fight off a Titan, you need a Titan.”

“Luckily, I happen to know one. Let us grab my father, we must go to meet my grandmother. Michael, I am bringing you to meet Leto.”

Chapter Text

The ride to Leto’s Island on the Sun was much shorter than the one to Europe, but still long enough in length to notice.

Asclepius and Apollo were sitting in the front seats of the ambulance separate from the three of them. Luke was blackout asleep, not shivering for once, which was nice to see. Annabeth was staring out the back window. And Percy was thinking.

“Hey, Annabeth?”

Annabeth turned her attention to him. “Percy? Your voice sounds like Percy.”

“Yeah, it's… it's me. Um… If… If something happens-”

“Don't-”

“No. Let me do this, please.”

Annabeth stopped, nodding slowly. Percy took a breath and shut his eyes.

“If something happens… if something goes wrong… you, uh. You were cool. You were a really cool part of my life. And… and I'm glad I got to know you as much as I did.”

Annabeth smiled sadly. “Yeah. You- um. You too.”

“Hey,” Michael said.

Annabeth looked up. “Michael?”

“Michael, yeah. Don't… don't blame yourself if something goes wrong, okay? You're not even 13 yet, you don't need that kind of baggage.”

Annabeth chuckled wetly, thinking back to a tall tree she wished she was sitting under. “Bit late for that.”

“Hey, Annabeth-” Andromeda started.

“No. No, I can't. Not… not from you. Please, not from you.” Annabeth stopped her, tears pricking at the corners of her eyes. “I can't… I can't take hearing it from you.”

Andromeda sighed and stared at her lap. “Okay.”

Luke had woken up by the time they arrived. It seemed like the two younger half-bloods had a hard talk when he was asleep, although he didn't feel like prying.

A knock came from the ambulance door. “Alright, everyone out! My mom doesn't like people who’re late to everything, which means I get to be late to nothing. Let's go, come on!”

The trio peeled themselves off their respective seats and left the ambulance. The scene outdoors was beautiful, a green island with a massive greek temple in the center surrounded by blue ocean. Andromeda felt empowered, being surrounded by the sea.

The two gods began to lead them towards the temple, the demigods lagging behind, talking amongst each other.

“You think that whatever magic Leto uses on Percy, she can use on me? The meds work and all but I’d like a more permanent solution.” Luke seemed to have been thinking about this on the ride over.

“Unless it's too draining, probably. If not, maybe she'll like you and just ask for you back soon, I don't know.” Annabeth shrugged.

Andromeda had a headache. The closer they got to the temple, the worse it became.

“Eh, I don't know. I don't want to bother this lady too much. If she can, she can, I guess.”

“No sense in not asking at least, right?”

Andromeda’s head was killing her. She could feel her pulse in her skull. The pressure wouldn't stop building.

“Hello, I am Leto.”

Andromeda collapsed.

Annabeth watched her friend crumple and knew before anyone else what it meant.

She dodged.

She knew he was after Luke, she should have done something, she could have done something.

But she dodged.

A flash of bronze. A slice of metal through flesh. A wet cough. A splatter of blood on the ground.

Riptide retracted, and Luke collapsed.

“I tried to warn him.” 

Annabeth felt a pressure in the air blow past her. She turned for as long as she dared, and there were Leto, Apollo, and Asclepius, all willing Kronos to stay where he was. 

They couldn't heal Luke because they needed to restrict Kronos.

“Ah, getting help from my kind, are you? Well, even still, you should know this will not hold me for long. And then this world will return to my rule.”

“PERCY!” Annabeth screamed to wake up her friend.

“Ah, ah, ah. Percy’s not here right now, try again later.”

“M-Michael! MICHAEL! PLEASE!”

“Ah, no, not here either. It's just me. Unfortunate, isn't it? Don't worry, you'll be with your friend here when this pressure lets-”

“ANDROMEDA!”

Kronos froze. He blinked, shaking his head, seemingly fighting off something.

And then in his place was Andromeda.

Oh.

Well. She guessed this is what she deserved. Eye for an eye, as they say. Hey, at least this way she got to make an exit.

“Hey, Annabeth?” Andromeda said.

“...No. No, what are you-”

“I always thought you were pretty.”

Andromeda drove Riptide through her own neck.

Annabeth screamed as Andromeda’s body crumpled.

The weight in the air lifted. She ran over to both of their friends, shaking them.

“Come on… come on, guys, we've got doctors! We came here to get you guys healed, right? We've got the two best doctors in the universe, right here, we can- we can…”

Annabeth was crying.

These were not silent tears. They were not gentle sobs that were barely audible except to those who listened, to those it was meant for. No, these were guttural, primal screams of grief. Every sob was pulled out of her throat with a fishhook, the hook caught on the edges of her throat and ripped and tore and took pieces of her with every blood soaked noise that was pulled through her mouth.

Asclepius placed his hand on the screaming girl’s shoulder. Leto sat next to her, close enough to lean on should she need. And Apollo spoke of a prophecy fulfilled.

A half-blood child of ocean blue

Shall reach the mother of sun and moon

And fall in mind and fall to sleep

Two heroes’ souls, the blade shall reap

A single choice shall end it all

The time will come for time to fall.

Annabeth wasn't there. She wasn't there at that island, wasn't sitting in front of her two friends’ corpses.

No, because this was not Annabeth. In that moment, Annabeth Chase did not exist.

This was Annie. A little girl named Annie, who just wanted to speak to the people she loved.

Chapter Text

Annabeth wished they had computers at camp, because something told her this meeting probably could've been an email.

Chiron just kept going about budget for new metals for the Hephaestus cabin and what the next camp-wide event should be themed after. She absentmindedly rubbed her fingers against one of two beads on her necklace that truly mattered to her, the trident. Three spokes. Three friends she lost all at once. She tried not to think about it, it was nearly four years ago by now, but even still, it was still on her mind from time to time.

“In other news, our Annabeth Chase turned 16 years old this week, which is always a cause for celebration. Everyone give her her dues.” The cabin heads all glanced over to her and wished her a happy birthday, which she thanked them all for.

“Now, for the reason I called this meeting. Recently there's been reports of a rogue demigod rampaging through the Nevada desert. Satyrs can never get close to him, but we know this much. He talks to himself, and occasionally spectres can be seen floating around him, speaking back. There are four that we know of, a young adult male, an teen boy and girl, and a young boy. The half-blood himself is known to wield a sword-” Chiron looked at her, “-that can turn into a pocket-sized object. One satyr described it specifically as a pen.”

“We know he has a very strong scent, and he has an aura of death about him. Now, satyrs cannot get close enough to him, so we need to send a quest out to find him and bring him back here safely.”

Pen-sword… one young adult, two teens, one young boy… oh, of course those dramatic assholes would haunt the sword that killed them.

Annabeth chuckled to herself and raised her hand. “I volunteer.”