Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The first thing Perseus “Percy” Jackson did when he came out of Tartarus was run, run, run.

What month was it? What year? He didn’t know. But what he did know was that he was no longer in the pit. He slumped down against a tree in the middle of an unfamiliar place. Where exactly was he? Noticing the flags on the large building to his right, he realized he was in America.

Oh. Oh gods. Where was the rest of the 7? Where was Piper, Jason, Hazel?

Annabeth.

He looked around, desperately trying to find something he could use, anything that could help his sorry self.

After searching through the murky depths for an hour, he finally pulled up a weathered 10-dollar bill, its edges slightly tattered and stained. Alongside it, he retrieved a half-full bottle that seemed to contain drinking water, although the color and floating debris made it look suspiciously unclean. He hesitated, unsure if it was safe to drink, but it was all he had.

That and his sword, his clothes, a small pouch of Drakon meat from Damasen’s swamp (he had visited a day or so before he made a run).

He felt an overwhelming wave of relief wash over him as he finally escaped what had felt like a literal hell. Yet, he couldn't afford to linger in this moment of respite; his mind was laser-focused on one thing: getting to camp. There would be no breaks, no moments of relaxation, not until he was safe at home. Every ounce of his energy had to be devoted to this single mission.

After about another hour of intense determination, he managed to piece together two crucial facts.

First, five months had slipped by since August 1, 2010, the day known as the Feast of Spes. The day when Gaia was supposed to rise.

Second, he discovered that the world outside wasn’t destroyed. Their efforts had made a difference, and now he had to do everything possible to reunite with them..

“Hey, excuse me?” Percy ran over to a random guy. “Where are we?”

The man raised his brow. “Kid, are you crazy or something?”

“No, sir.”

“Hmph. This is Nevada.”

“...How far is that from Manhattan?”

The guy almost snorted in laughter. “Far. Now shoo. I have better things to do.”

“Rude.”

Percy sighed and jogged over to the big building with the flag a while ago. It had a map of the US.

He reviewed it and figured that it would take a few hours by flight, but he would get charbroiled by Zeus. But it would take at least a month if he had to bike. The best chance, he figured, was taking a series of cabs, which would take at least a week. But he had to grab some cash, fast.

He had a plan, and a decent one at that. Now, he had to find out how he could manage to get enough money.

The first thing he fished out was a drachma. It was worn out from months of being kept in his pocket. He had looted it from a cyclops in Tartar… in there.

He made a poor rainbow the size of a lamp using the glint of his sword and a water fountain. He tossed the coin in, and it dissolved.

“Hey, Fleecy, do me a solid. Take this line to literally any demigod.”

The rainbow let out a surprised sound before it shimmered and faded, eventually revealing a raven-haired girl with blue eyes as powerful as a minor god, donning a silver parka. She looked up, and the surprise on her face was almost comical.

“P-Percy?!”

“Thalia?”

Her lips curled into a wide grin, but a flash of worry and guilt crossed her face. Percy frowned. He’d never seen her like that.

“What’s wrong?”

“It doesn’t matter. Where are you?”

“Nevada.

“What?”

“Look, it’s complicated. Where are you?”

Chapter Text

Percy had been in some town in Nevada for a day. Thalia was still coming, and it would take several hours to complete the journey. Although Thalia had persuaded (AN: persuaded = harassed) Artemis to send the young demigod a bag of mortal cash for a place to stay while they headed to Nevada.

Percy slumped on the bed of a dusty hotel on the outskirts of the area. It wasn’t much, but enough to stay for at least half a day.

The bed was soft and warm, and he sighed as his body refused to get up. It had been a while since he was in a comfortable room, with the exception of Damasen’s place. But even if he had a home with the rogue giant, it felt like a load was lifted off his shoulders as he stared into the ceiling.

Gods, he had wished Damasen was with him. But Tartarus had kept his son from fleeing his punishment. And he thought Zeus was a bad parent. It was a miracle the Pit didn’t notice him sneaking by and running head-first out. How was he even out? He had forgotten how. But he remembered everything he had to do to get here. The death, the pain, the never-ending slaughter. He would make sure that it wasn’t in vain.

He had swung by a convenience store, grabbing a sandwich and instant ramen for breakfast. The taste overwhelmed him with comfort. For his time in the Pit, he had eaten and drunk not much, and the options were… not restaurant grade.

A little more waiting, and he received another message from Thals.

They were less than 2 hours away, and all Percy had to do was wait. But Percy and his ADHD wanted to do something else while he waited, and so he wandered outside. Sometimes, being a demigod isn’t good for your attention span. Or your health.

He had stumbled into a park and smiled. The families, the children, it was all refreshing. For once, the sky wasn’t red, and the water wasn’t molten. He sat down on a bench and took in the scene.

Wait a minute. Water?

His eyes widened, and he sprinted over to the fountain, reaching out. Why hadn’t he thought of that when he was drinking a while ago? Maybe because he had forgotten. Instantly, the liquid coated his hand at the touch. It slithered over his body, and a small glow had enveloped the demigod.

“I’ve missed you.” Percy smiled, laughing as the water seeped into his scars and regenerated torn and marred flesh with extreme efficiency. He felt good, for the first time in a long time.

He jogged around the park, waving at the people who would pass.

To a regular person, they would see a regular kid with slightly torn clothes, unnaturally happy. They would think he was just another person in a sea of faces.

To a demigod, they would see a legend thought dead, a savior standing in front of them. A ghost who escaped Hell and had crawled his way back to the surface. They would see someone more famous than any monster or mortal.

To a monster… well, Percy found them first. It was nothing more than a hellhound, a mutt of Tartarus. He had killed hundreds before. He approached it, drawing Riptide and pointing the blade at the hound. “You!” He yelled. The hellhound growled. Then more came from the shadows. They had grown bigger and stronger since the Titans.

At least 3 dozen of them in a pack. They were led by a dracaena in bronze armor, riding atop the biggest mutt the size of a Sherman tank. But Percy knew better. As soon as the woman turned her head, she found her upper half suddenly detached from her lower half, as his sword, sharpened and honed using a flat drakon bone, ripped through her stomach (do monsters have organs? The monsters Percy had slain dissolved before their guts showed.).

The hellhounds howled in rage and alarm as their leader was dissolved into gold dust, blown into the wind. They all charged, aiming to kill the demigod who had slain thousands of their brethren. They all charged into each other.

They cried out in annoyance and anger as he easily passed between their legs, avoiding the onslaught and slashing at any legs he could come across. He slew one after another, weaving between their fangs and slitting throats, decapitating legs, ripping out flesh.

They all slowly dissolved, leaving 6 or 7 left. At this point, Perseus was livid. His eyes had turned the shade of cold pine, his sea-green irises darkening. It happened every time he fought with hate. It was all a blur. He remembered flesh ripping and dissolving to golden dust.

Canine whimpers as they tried to flee, only to meet the Bane Of Monsters’ blade.

When the dust settled, he was beaded with sweat, Riptide at the ready, covered in golden dust. The next thing he remembered was a shocked, feminine voice muttering softly, echoing in the gold-stained clearing. Thalia?

“Percy..?”

Chapter Text

"What was that?"

Thalia inquired over a dark chocolate donut and a cup of coffee in a cafe a few miles away from the park.

Perseus shrugged. "I've been like that since I fell into Tartarus."

He raised a brow at the pastry being stuffed in Thalia's mouth. "Dark chocolate? Seriously? Why not sweet?"

She stuffed more donut in her already crammed mouth, her speech muffled. "One, you're avoiding my question. Two, it's the only donut i like other than glazed."

"One, I already answered your question. Two, you must be sad if you're favorite flavor of donut is glazed. I respect glazed, but seriously? Favorite?"

"Shut up, Jackson. Drop the donuts, and I'll drop the fight in the park."

"Fine."

“Fine.”

Ah. Sometimes Percy thought Thalia was his genuine sibling. The dynamic between them suggested in his favor. They both smirked and bit in their respective donuts.

Percy hadn’t had the taste of real, cardiac arrest-inducing American food in a long while. Usually it was Drakon steak. Not as worthy of the term 'steak' and more of 'sad slab of flesh'. The meat was quite chewy, and the demigod had no real spices to flavor it. It reminded him of that space food at the Smithsonian a few years ago. Different in all ways, but the flavor was definitley just as bland and makes you wanna vomit.

"Sooo... How are... You?" Thalia asked, a glint of worry in her eyes. Acceptable, seeing that Percy had crawled his way out of Purgatory less than 48 hours ago.

The boy shrugged. "Fine. Food's amazing."

A brow raised. "Seriously, Kelp Head?"

"What? You think there's donuts in hell?" He took a bite of his belgian cream. "And you're one to talk about me coplimenting the donuts. That mouth is more crammed than a Chinese subway."

The Hunter sputtered in outrage, flecks of dark chocolate landing on Perseus's shirt.

He frowned in disgust, flicking the crumbs off him. "Rude."

Thalia swallowed, before swatting him on the head.


---------LINE BREAK I GUESS---S-3340---LINE BREAK I GUESS---------



Percy was led by Thalia (after a brief session of physical abuse in the cafe) To a small clearing filled with tents and storage chests. Trinkets of cresent moons and silver deer horns were nailed to the trees for no apparent reason. A bigg and bigger tent was set off to the side, most likely for Artemis herself and Thalia.

"Welcome to camp, Perce." Thalia leaned her bow against a tree. "Lady Artemis is hunting alone, she'll be back by weekend.

Perseus was taken aback. "Saturday? That's, like, 3 days from now. You sure you got that schedule right?"

The Hunter shrugged. "Hey, it's Artemis' schedule, not mine. Probably feels like 2 hours to her."

All of the sudden, Percy heard a faint whistling. He knew that sound. He had that shot at him many times before.

He sidestepped, the silver arrow whizzing by him by a estimate of 3.2 inches.

Thalia yelped bafore glaring at whoever shot it. "Seriously, Pheobe?"

Pheobe's head peeked out of a nearby tree. She had an eyebrow raised, suprised that the boy had dodged. "Sorry, Thals. Is that... Perseus?"

"Yep."

"Oh, wow. It's been a while since Tamalpais, hasn't it, boy?"

"...Didn't you get Stoll'd? Something about Centuar blood?"

"Please don't remind me that about what happened. I shot at them for 2 hours straight. But the Lieutenant has been so kind to tell me of your exploits while i was in 'sick leave'. Quite impressive for a male."

"Gee, thanks."

"Don't mention it."

(A/N: I absolutely refuse to recognize the fact that most of the named Hunters were shot by Orion. If you have a problem with that, piss off. (cries) )

Thalia sighed. "Pheobe, can you at least pitch up a tent for Percy here?"

Pheobe shrugged. "Should only take 3 or 4 minutes. I'll get another one of the girls to help."

"Yeah sure, thanks, Pheobs."

"No problem, boss. We have nothing to do, anyway. You still owe me 40 drachma, boss."

"Ha ha ha, shut up, Pheobe."

"Whatever the boss says." She smirked at Thalia, did a once-over and a small nod at Percy, and jogged over to... semi-immortal stuff."

Thalia shook her head, smiling. "Watch out for the other Hunters, Percy. They. Can. Bite.

Percy once more was taken aback. "Hey, i though you guys hated men."

Thalia sighed, plopping herself on a log next to a decent fire. "Well, you are the savior of the world. You saved all their lives multiple times, and you've won two wars. Trust me, them being a playful pain in the ass is the highest form of friendship a male can have here."

"Ah, fair enough."

She stood up after a few minutes. "You're tent must be good to rest in. Sleep well."

"Alright, Bolt Head. See you dinner."

"Same for you, Seaweed Brain."

Chapter Text

As Perseus arose from his bed, he soon discovered why the Hunters were always aware.

A muffled yell followed by the twang of a bow was barely heard. Thankfully, his senses have improved somewhat, being hunted by the occasional titan/giant/abominations of darkness.

Soon enough, a silver arrow soon whizzed past him, sinking itself in the nightstand. Oh well, he'd just pull it out as soon as he discovered what had provoked this accident. Well, accident or murder attempt. Percy gave them the benefit of the doubt.

He stumbled out of his humble abode, opening the entrance to his tent, his eyes greeted by the green of the trees and the blue of the sky. The blazing orb of light driven by Apollo was partly blotted out by the few clouds forming in the distance, allowing Percy the view above.

He directed his eyes towards the direction where the silver projectile flew, to be met by an interesting sight.

Several of the Hunters were up, shooting at dummies made of wood and dressed in spare clothing from... he didn't really want to know. Most were male clothing, and had several puncture marks in the chest.

It seemed one of the Hunters, a raven-haired girl much like Thalia had tripped on... something and had fallen face-first. The actual Thalia had her face in her palm, groaning in exasperation.

"Sorry, Percy. Honest accident." Thalia murmured, helping the girl up, giving her a stern look, and sending her off. She turned and walked towards Perseus. "Nice sleep, I assume?"

Percy shrugged. "Planned to sleep in, but I guess you guys have a very unconventional alarm.

"Shut up, Kelp Head."

"You still remember that name?"

"Yeah, I-" Thalia hesitated. Then she switched topics, not for the best. "Hey, its been a while since you fell in there. Are you, like, okay?" Her eyes showed genuine pity, which was equivalent to her father Zeus actually being a good being in general.

The Sea Prince thought for a while.

To be honest, he really didn't think of that. It had been so long his mind had gotten used to killing and such. He was still Percy, with the behavior that Percy possessed, but it had been 5 months here and millennium there. He had experienced so much trauma his mind slowly shifted, and now the worst things he had endured, his mind had seen it as normal. It was weird to him, but he didn't mind.

"Mmm, I mean, I feel fine," He shrugged. "But I don't really think what happened down there was good.

"Uhh... Alright, then." Thalia didn't want to press, but knowing Percy also ment knowing he wouldn't give anything more. He always thought he could handle his own problems alone.

So she decided to switch topics. Again.

"Wanna shoot?

"Where's the harm in that?"

Most evidently, there was harm in that.

---------LINE BREAK---S-3340---LINE BREAK---------

"Percy!"

You may be wondering who that was. Well, dear friend, that was Thalia. And she was going to kill Percy.

After he was given the privilege to shoot, he proceeded to shoot at not only the dummies, and also everything within a 40 meter radius. Luckily, the tents were only 150 meters away.

"You are never doing that again."

"Hey, in my defense-"

"No."

Chapter Text

Four months didn't feel like a long time.

Four months on the surface made for a thousand years in the pit, though, so he would take it.

Camp 'welcomed' him back, which included a punch from Clarisse, and a hug from everyone else.

Annabeth... wasn't around.

Strange. He asked around, and everyone went eerily still. Even the Hunters, who had a accompanied the Demigod there, wouldn't speak a word regarding Annabeth.

He assumed she was out of the country, in a random college or high school somewhere, tutoring or listening to lectures.

Anyhow, there were new things to do, new features to the camp, and most importantly, blue pancakes to devour. He refused to eat monster jerky for the rest of his short, short life.

As he stepped into his cabin, he breathed in the sea-air. It was kept clean by Tyson, the fountain in the middle freshly renewed, and coral mini statues of the descendants of Poseidon (and for some reason, every actor who played Aquaman in the bottom shelf) decorated a cabinet at the corner.

He picked up a coral figure of Admiral Nelson (who was that guy? Annabeth probably knew) and examined it. Every figure was a life-like copy.

He peered to see a sticky note on the bottom of the shelf.

3 months in Tartarus, pls come back!

Love, Camp Jupiter & Half-Blood + Tyson

Ah, yes. He supposed he would have to make a visit to Reyna and the Legion. I wonder if Reyna's greeting punch was as strong as Clarisse'.

He sighed, and started counting the figurines. A few dozen, including Nelson, Stalin (not all leaders are Zeus' offspring, okay?), and Crassus.

A/N BTW I have a headcanon that World War Two was started by the kids of Zeus (Churchhill), Hades (Hitler), and Poseidon (Stalin because there were no more options so it's logical)

Stepping away from the coral display, Percy smiled to himself. Camp was his second home, after Sally (who he already FaceTimed to spread the knowledge of his well-being). He loved camp, and camp, apparently, loved him.

Piper was waiting for him when he went outside, half because she was bored, half because she became slightly protective of him after she thought he was with Jason.

"Percy, when are you going to Camp Jupiter? I Iris-messaged Hazel and Frank, and I'd never seen so much gold in my life." She asked, arm propped against a sheath (she finally ditched Katopris for a sword).

Percy gave a unreadable expression. "Not sure. Maybe in a few months. I have a lot of catching up to do."

Piper sighed, a small smile on her face. "Cmon. Lunch is in 12 minutes."

"Yeah, yeah."

A few minutes went by, as the duo walked into the Pavillion. The camp was much more lively after Percy's return, and they started to go back to normal routine.

They sat at the Poseidon table, right next to Rachel, who was muching on a plate stacked with mashed potatoes and brisket.

Piper snatched a Ceasar salad, joked about Ceasar, and shut up when he gave her a disappointing look.

So, it seemed Piper had become the new Leo.

Accoesing to the news Piper gave him, Leo went with Hazel to Camp Jupiter, mostly because the Legion had found out how to enchant and make Imperial Gold, and they needed Leo to forge new, deadly weapons. Nico went, too, for the cheap but divine brownies at that one Cafe at the corner of 26th Hadrian Av.

He picked out a plate of barbecue and blue soda, comfortably chewing on a rib.

Rachel, after stuffing her face, felt quite sick, which was obvious. She was pale only when she was suffering from indigestion or issuing a prophecy.

Then she started spewing green smoke, and chanting. Well, it was a prophecy.

He didn't really memorize the lines, but after the episode, she was carried to the infirmary by the Apollo (apparently nicknamed Lester now...???) kids.

Well, he would know the lines layer in his life. But today? It was time for him to get back into shape.