Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“You’re hiding something,” Thalia accused. She didn’t even need to yell for her voice to fill the car.

Annabeth didn’t look at her. Annabeth often didn’t like look people in eye but usually, Percy had noticed, she would look at their face when they drew her attention.

“….I can’t talk about it,” Annabeth eventually admitted. She didn’t sound happy about it. Of course, she wasn’t. Percy remembered what it had been like after they had gotten out. First, she had been angry she couldn’t tell Chiron about the future and then she had-

Thalia inhaled sharply. Anger made her facial features twisted. “Why the fuck-“

Percy cut off the moment she started cussing. “Don’t.”

Thalia whirled her head to look at him. “This doesn’t have anything to do with you.”

“If you cuss at her, I’m kicking you out of this car,” he threatened before breathing in through his nose. He didn’t bother counting in his head to try and calm down; it never worked. This did have to do with him. Everything, unfortunately, about this had to do with him; if the gods had never gotten ahold of that book then Annabeth and him wouldn’t know Bianca and Nico were children of Hades. They wouldn’t have known-

Thalia’s mouth thinned. When Percy breathed in again the air smelled different. It had been two years since Percy had been reading that book in the Olympian Throne room but the scent of ozone was still familiar to him.

“Percy,” Mom said. Her voice was chiding and Percy fought the urge to grind his teeth. It wasn’t good for his enamel and Percy didn’t exactly have the money to go to a dentist to-

“Even your mom agrees you should stick out of this.” Thalia pointed out and in this moment Percy didn’t understand what Luke had seen in her.

He exhaled through his mouth. It came out as a sigh.

There were moments where he couldn’t help but wonder what it would have been like if he had joined Luke despite all that Luke had done. (It was a dangerous pastime, Percy knew. After all, at any moment the gods could peep into his head and rummage through his memories.) This was one of them. Luke wouldn’t have-

Percy turned his head to the driver seat of the car instead of continuing to crane his neck to look at the backseats where Thalia and Annabeth were sitting.

“She doesn’t get to cuss at Annabeth.” He told his mom. Percy didn’t argue with her often but this was something he would over.

His mom kept driving. Her grip on the steering wheel made her knuckles and fingers pale. “Sometimes people cuss when they can’t find the right word to say.”

Percy thought about that word fuck. Calling someone a fucking idiot just sounded better than calling them extremely stupid or something like that. He didn’t argue about that with Mom though. He didn’t like arguing with her.

Percy turned his head to look back at Thalia. The older girl had her arms wrapped around each other. Percy wondered if that leather jacket was keeping her warm. The A/C in the car wasn’t that great.

“How about we make a deal?” He asked before immediately continuing to talk. He didn’t actually care for Thalia’s answer. “I’ll buy you a dictionary if you stop cussing at Annabeth.”

Percy saw Annabeth bite her lip. She was struggling to keep a certain expression off her face but the way her shoulders shook told him that she was fighting laughter.

He wasn’t the only who noticed. Thalia’s expression changed. She didn’t stay silent for long.

“Are you two dating?” She accused, voice incredulous.

Percy’s face felt hot despite this not being the first time someone had accused them of this.

“No,” Annabeth blurted out immediately. “I wouldn’t have kept that from you, Thalia.”

“But you are keeping secrets from-“

Percy cut her off, “She’s my best friend.”

Thalia stopped her sentence to glare at him. “Sure,” she said it like she didn’t believe him. “That’s why you’re more pissed at me cussing at her then the time I called you-“

Percy interrupted her again. “And if I was cussing at her?”

“You’re not her family.” Thalia pointed out and Percy’s anger rose. He was her family. They had been family ever since that day they had been kidnapped and placed in the throne room to read that damn book.

“And if I was her family and I cussed at her?”

Thalia abruptly looked away from him. His words had hit a sore spot then. Of course she didn’t stay quiet for long. For all that Thalia and Percy argued, they were alike in a lot of ways. (Annabeth had been right that time she had said they would either get along well or murder each other because of how much alike they were.)

“That doesn’t explain all the times Annabeth snuck into your cabin at night.”

Percy didn’t freeze despite being very much aware of the fact his mom in this car. He had gotten too good at lying over the years. The thing about lying was that sticking to truth as much as you could made lying easier. “And Luke use to visit my cabin after curfew. Does that mean I’m dating him too?”

Thalia flinched. Annabeth made a noise in the back of her throat. It was Thalia who spoke first. “You don’t like guys.”

That wasn’t true though. Percy did find men attractive; how couldn’t he figure that when around gods? The gods who were handsome despite how much a part of Percy’s mind screamed it was unnatural how they didn’t have a pimple or a single blackhead on their nose. Despite that attraction, Percy had never acted on it. He was giving them a Grinch treatment. He wouldn’t touch the gods with a thirty-nine and half foot pole.

“There’s nothing wrong if he did,” Annabeth said, breaking the tense silence that had fallen over the car. Her words made Percy feel warm despite how much he didn’t want to be having this conversation.

Thalia’s eyebrows drew together. She looked at Annabeth, then at Percy, and then back again Annabeth. She made a face before blurting out. “I don’t care if you fucking like guys.”

The words were oddly com-

“But this doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten about the fact Annabeth slipping into your cabin.”

His mom was definitely going to be pulling him aside once they reach Westover Hall.

“I use Cabin Three for war plans,” Annabeth blurted out and it wasn’t even a lie. They had been using his cabin as a meeting spot ever since Annabeth, Grover, Luke, and him had been released from Olympus.

“Bullshit,” Thalia immediately said. She said the word so fast Percy didn’t even think she had time to think about whether she should cuss or not. It had just been an instinctual reaction. “If that was true, I would have been allowed-“

Percy cut her off. “We don’t like each other.”

That wasn’t why they hadn’t allowed Thalia to join them. They couldn’t. They physically couldn’t tell anyone about what they had learned about the future. Which was really fucking stupid. What was the point of changing the future-

“So you would let that get in the way over fighting the Titan Army,” Thalia said incredulously. “Wow. I didn’t realize how fucking arrogant you were.”

Percy opened his mouth. Nothing came out. He closed it. He didn’t bother trying to count in his head. It had never helped before with his anger. It was exercise that helped Percy in managing his emotions and right now he was stuck in a car so it wasn’t like he could go for a walk.

Thalia’s shoulders started shaking before she laughed. It wasn’t a booming noise like her father’s laughter. It was a bitter thing. Honestly? It reminded Percy of Hera more than Zeus. “I can’t believe you’re friends with him.”

Percy and Annabeth both opened their mouths to respond but Mom beat them to it. When she spoke it was calmly. Of course it was. Mom never yelled even when Percy deserved it. “How about everyone calm down and take a breather for ten minutes?”

Thalia opened her mouth, probably to protest but Mom beat her to speaking. “If everyone does, I’ll tell you some stories of when Percy was a baby.”

Percy whipped his head around to look at his mom. His face was red. He knew without looking at a mirror that his expression was incredulous.

How was that fair?

“How’s that fair?” He cried out only to wince. He sounded whinny.

Mom looked away from the road to shoot him a glare. Percy closed his mouth.

“We’re taking a break from talking.” She then glanced at the car’s clock. “At 2:40, we can all talk again.”

Chapter Text

“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay?” She asked as Thalia and Annabeth were gathering their things.

“No, thanks, Mom.” Percy told her, keeping his voice calm despite not feeling it. He was waiting for other shoe to drop. Percy reached over and unbuckled the seatbelt. He didn’t try getting out of the car. He knew Mom would want to have the conversation in the car. Thankfully, the weather was bad so it wouldn’t be long conversation. Even if they weren’t here to protect two demi-gods, Mom wouldn’t leave Thalia and Annabeth out in the snow for more than a few minutes.

It was only after the two other demi-gods got out of the car that Mom spoke. “Can you give me a minute with Percy before you all head in?”

Percy breathed in his nose. His heartbeat was fast.

It was Annabeth who spoke up. She sounded nervous. “Mrs.Jackson, we’re here to extract to demi-gods. Grover reported there’s a monster-“

Mom interrupted her. When she spoke,
he could hear the forced smile in his mom’s voice. “It’ll just be one minute, Annabeth.”

Someone shifted their weight. It made snow crunch under their foot.

“One minute,” Thalia agreed and she didn’t sound happy either. “But after that, we do need to get going.”

“Thank you, dear.” Mom said even though she was an adult. She said that even though she had driven them here. If Gabe was here, he would mutter something about this was his car and if you had a problem with what he was saying then you can fucking walk. “And you have everything you need? Extra sweaters, ambrosia, nectar, and my phone numb-“

Thalia interrupted her. When she spoke, she sounded tense. It reminded Percy of Annabeth. She had been like that too when she had first started interacting with mom. It was like she hadn’t been used to someone mothering her. “We’re all good.”

“Call me if you need me.” Mom told them all. Her tone of voice demanded no argument even though she didn’t raise her voice. Mom never raised her voice.

“Mom, seriously, we’ll be fine,” Percy snapped. He was ready to get this over. He had also been ready to get out of this car since the first minute of his mom telling baby stories of him. Thankfully, she didn’t have pictures in the car to share. Said baby photos were at home. Though honestly? Percy might hide them after she had-

Mom bit her lip. She looked hurt. It made Percy’s stomach twist. He hadn’t meant to upset her. It’s just every minute they wasted out here was another minute Grover was the only defense Bianca and Nico had.

Thalia shut the door. She had slid out the seat Annabeth had been sitting in so Annabeth didn’t need to shut a car door too.

Besides air blowing out of the vents, the car was quiet for a few seconds. A few seconds dragged onto probably thirty seconds. Percy felt more nervous now than fighting some of monsters he had fought in the past. Probably because he didn’t care if his disappointed a monster where as his mo-

“I know you told Thalia that you’re not dating Annabeth but are you together?”

There were words in back of his throat.

Mom kept talking. Words were rushing out like if she didn’t say them now she wouldn’t say them at all. “Your father and I never dated but we still had you.”

So his dad had never taken his mom out for dinner or a movie before they had-

“We’re not together.” Percy said and it wasn’t a lie. Gods, he hoped Thalia and Annabeth couldn’t hear them outside. If whichever god controlled wind could do him a solid and just-

Mom kept talking, the words still rushing out. “I would be hypocrite if I told you that you can’t be together but you two need to be safe if you-“

Percy interrupted her. Really they didn’t have time for this. (Even if they had time, Percy wouldn’t want to be having this conversation.)

“Mom, I’ve already had this conversation.” Luke had gone over it, had deemed it necessary because of the knowledge that Annabeth and Percy would one day be together. Or maybe that wasn’t why Luke had done it. Maybe Luke had-

Mom’s eyebrows drew together. “You had this talk?”

Percy already had known babies weren’t given to parents by storks before he had been twelve. Condoms and birth control? That hadn’t been a conversation Mom has given him. That had been Luke. Percy could still remember how hot his face had felt as Luke started about condoms and stuff like that.

“Luke gave it to me.” It hadn’t just been because they had known a war was coming and Luke didn’t want Annabeth to potentially get pregnant. It hadn’t even been about how an child Percy and Annabeth might one day have would be a pawn to the gods. It had been-

“Luke,” Mom said and Percy’s shoulders curled. He didn’t like how Mom sounded so unsure. “Luke as in the demi-god who-“

Percy cut off her off. They were suppose to have stopped this conversation a minute ago. Bianca, Nico, and Grover were in that military school and Percy wasn’t going to wait much longer in rescuing them.

“Yeah, him.” He croaked out, sounding like a frog that had been straggled. He didn’t elaborate.

Mom inhaled sharply. Her fingers were, once again, a pale white from how hard she was gripping the steering wheel. “….We’ll talk about this later.” She said the words reluctantly. It was like she wanted to drop everything and ask but knew it didn’t work that way with the world they live in.

Percy nodded. He lifted his and reached for the car door handle.

“Percy?”

He paused from unlocking the door. He looked back at his mom.

“I love you.”

Percy’s stomach twisted. He wish things were different between them. Ever since that book things had shifted. Mom had brushed off the change. She had thought it had been from Percy being a camper. She thought the distance was from the monster attacks. It wasn’t just those things though.

“I love you too.”

Mom held his gaze. “Stay safe.”

It wasn’t himself Percy was worried about. He knew he survived past sixteen. Thalia though? She probably hadn’t because there hadn’t been a mention of her in that book. Or, Percy realized, it was because Thalia had never been brought in that original timeline. It had kept Annabeth up. Yes, they used his cabin for plotting but Annabeth also didn’t have anyone but Grover and him to talk about her fear of Thalia dying. Percy had spent more than one night brainstorming how to save Thalia’s life. One suggestion of his had been take a Hades approach and shove her in the Lotus Casino until Percy’s birthday occurred and then get out of there. Problem was, Percy was pretty sure Zeus would interfere. The god had never outright said it but Percy knew he would rather have his daughter be the child of prophecy than his nephew. Never mind the fucking fact, Thalia had already died once. She deserved a chance to live a life stolen from her instead of being weighed down by the Great Prophecy.

“I will.”

She nodded. Percy got out of the car. Snow crunched under his shoes. Percy made his way to Annabeth and Thalia. When he got near them, they abruptly stopped talking. They had been whispering earlier so Percy had only known they had been talking instead of knowing what they were talking about.

He knew it was about him though. People only shut up when you approached when they’re talking about you. It was a probably a good thing they had been whispering. Despite how close he was to Annabeth, Percy would have eavesdropped. He didn’t have the strength not to pass on the chance to overhear what people were saying about them even though he knew it would piss Annabeth off to be spied on.

It was Thalia who broke the silence. Of course it was. She didn’t like it. “Your mom is so cool, Percy.”

The words made Percy feel unbalanced. He has been expecting Thalia to interrogate him.

“She’s pretty okay,” Percy admitted even though she had embarrassed him earlier. Annabeth was so going to tease him about those baby stories. “What about you? You ever get in touch with your mom?”

He couldn’t tell her about Jason so he had hoped that she had at least been able to find her mom. (That, keeping Jason’s survival, from Thalia had been another reason Annabeth struggled to sleep.)

As soon as the words came out of his mouth Thalia glared. He wished he could take the words back because she was fucking great at giving evil looks. It helped that she always wearing punk clothes. Even at camp, she wore that ripped up army jacket, black leather pants, and chain necklaces. Despite being dead for years, Thalia’s winged eyeliner was always sharp and it didn’t get messy no matter how sweaty they all got after climbing the lava-

“That’s not any of your business.” Thalia snapped as they treaded through the snow.

“We better get inside,” Annabeth abruptly said as they climbed the steps. Snow fell off their shoes as they made their way to the doors. “Grover told camp there already was a monster at the school.”

Thalia’s mouth twisted. She didn’t protest though. After a minute she admitted, “You’re right. I wonder why he asked for us to extract them.”

Because Grover knew the kids in that building were Hades’ children and, despite all odds, Bianca wasn’t dead yet. Percy was going to keep her that way and somehow he was going to later convince Nico to jailbreak Hazel out of the underworld.

Percy grabbed the handle of one of the oak doors. He pulled it open but didn’t go through. He was waiting on Thalia and Annabeth to walk through first.

Thalia raised an eyebrow at the gesture. She didn’t say anything though as she walked into the school. Annabeth followed and only after she passed the threshold did Percy walk in. Their shoes left snow as they made their way in. The place looked expensive. Almost inch of wall space was were lined with some sort of weapons or battle flag. Percy frowned. He knew this place was a military academy but it felt like too much. Even if the amount of weaponry on the wall wasn’t overwhelming, Percy probably would have been put off. He was a demi-god. (So were Bianca and Nico.) Those weapons could be used to harm him but couldn’t be used against the monster.

Percy’s hand slipped into his pocket. His fingers wrapped around Riptide. Having the ballpoint pen around his fingers helped calm his nerves. It wasn’t just because the weapon always returned to him - which was nice considering because Percy had adhd and he forgot where he put a lot of things - but because Riptide was the only sword he had ever felt comfortable using. Luke had tried so hard to find him a weapon that Percy was comfortable with but-

“I wonder where,” Annabeth began to say only to stop. She had heard the footsteps as well. More than one person by the sound of it.

Thalia began to rub her bracelet. It wasn’t a normal piece of jewelry. It was enchanted like Riptide was.

“We should stash our bags before they get here,” Percy whispered. Cause one way or another it would help. If it was the monster, their bags wouldn’t be damaged in the fight. If it wasn’t a monster but, rather, the teacher then they could pretend they were students who had skipped out of the dance.

Annabeth jerked her head toward a door. There was a plac that probably read employees only but for Percy the words looked like-

“That’s probably a supply closet.” Annabeth’s said, breaking Percy out of his thoughts. She didn’t wait for either of them to say anything. Annabeth headed immediately to it, shrugging off her book-bag as she walked. Percy didn’t exchange a look with Thalia. He didn’t need to. Both of them were going to follow Annabeth without thinking about it.

Annabeth opened the door - guess they didn’t lock employee only areas here - and threw her bookbag onto the floor. There wasn’t much space between the multiple brooms, dust pans, and the single mop bucket - it was yellow, industry kind. Which was to say it was the bulky kind.

Annabeth offered out her hand. Thalia gave Annabeth her book bag. Percy didn’t have one to give; his stuff had been packed with Annabeth’s.

It was only after they had ditched their bags and started walking further down the hallway that they ran into someone. Well. Not someone. It was actually two people. A man and a woman. They were both adults - old enough to have their entire hair be grey - with short hair cuts. The two of them wore a black military uniform with red trim. The clothes didn’t look comfortable at all. Percy couldn’t help but wonder why Hades had chosen this place for Nico and Bianca instead of somewhere that was less-

“Well?” The woman demanded, her sharp voice filling the silence in the hallway. “What are you doing here?”

Visiting because it’s so lovely, Percy couldn’t help but think. He didn’t say that of course. It would just escalate the situation; teachers never took well to his sarcasm. Well that wasn’t true. Percy had a teacher who hadn’t minded his sarcastic nature but then Luke had betrayed them so there had went that.

“We’re transfer students,” Percy blurted out. “….Did the admissions office not tell you about us?”

The man - he was tall, clean shaven, and had walked like he had a stick up his ass - made a face. He didn’t believe Percy. Percy didn’t tense though. He just breathed in and kept his hand on Riptide. (It wouldn’t hurt the mortals in-front of them but it made Percy feel calm.)

“It’s too late into the school year for you to have enrolled. You’re guests!” The hawkish faced man declared, nostrils flaring. He didn’t sound American. He sounded French or, bare minimum, some sort of European accent. “Visitors are not allowed at the dance!”

The man had that thing; Percy couldn’t remember the term but it was when your eyes were two separate colors. One of his eyes were brown. One was blue. Percy couldn’t help but wonder if his parents had brown and blue eyes or if he had inherited one of those eye colors from a grandparent. It, where he had gotten his eye colors from. wasn’t important; Percy wasn’t going to even ask about. It’s just his mind like to go on dog trails.

Thalia abruptly stepped in front of them. She raised a hand and snapped her fingers. (The black nail polish was chipped on one of her nails.) The sound was sharp and loud. The noise filled the hallway even though it was just a snap of someone’s fingers.

Percy’s eyebrows knitted together at the strange sight. Just what was she doing?

“We’re not visitors,” Thalia told them. Her chin was held high. It was like she wasn’t worried they would argue with her even though the guy had just called Percy a liar without actually calling him a liar. “We go to school here.“

Percy turned to look at Annabeth, trying to see if she knew what was going on. Her face wasn’t twisted in confusion. She would have looked relaxed if not for the dark circles under her eyes.

“Remember us. I’m Thalia, she’s Annabeth, and that’s Percy.” A moment and then Thalia added, “We’re in eighth grade.”

The man narrowed his brown and blue eyes at Thalia before turning his head to look at his coworker. “Ms. Gottschalk, do you know these students?”

He wasn’t serious, Percy thought as he bit his tongue. Only the women’s face didn’t twist at being called the wrong name. Percy still couldn’t believe. That guy couldn’t be serious.

A teacher named Got Chalk was too-

He heard footsteps. Percy’s grip on Riptide tightened.

The woman blinked. It was like she was just waking up or had been broken out of a trance. “I,” she began only to trail off. A few seconds went. She frowned. “Yes, I believe I do sir. Annabeth, Thalia and Percy. What are you doing away from the gymnasium?”

Percy opened his mouth, an excuse already on hand. He didn’t get a chance to use it though. Those footsteps? Those were Grover’s. He had burst into the hallway before running up to them. His breath was heavy.

“You made it!” He declared and Percy winced. What were the chances that trick Thalia just pulled would be ruined by Grover’s reaction to them? “You-“

He abruptly shut up at the sight of the two teachers. “Oh, Mrs. Gottschalk. Dr. Thorn! I, uh—”

“What is it, Mr.Underwood?” The man - Doctor Thorn apparently - snapped. His sounded like he loathed Grover which was weird. At Yancy, most teachers had either liked or been apathetic about the satyr. Mrs.Dodds had been the only one who had disliked Grover. It had been Percy who most teachers detested. “What do you mean they made? These students live here.”

Grover shallowed. His Adam apple bobbing at the action. Abruptly, Percy realized Grover had grown some more since the last time he had seen him.

“Yes sir,” Grover immediately said. His voice sounded nervous. Percy wondered if he had gone to bathroom recently or had been waiting for their arrival before he went; whenever Grover got nervous, his bladder acted up. “Of course, Doctor Throne. I just….I’m just glad they made the punch for the dance! Have you had some? It’s great and they made it!”

Percy fought to keep his amusement off his face. Grover was not a good liar.

Doctor Thorn went back to staring at Thalia, Annabeth, and him. Percy didn’t shift his weight under the weight of the glare; he was use to teachers - well, Thorne wasn’t a teacher - giving him an evil eye. Taking about eyes. Maybe one of them was fake. (What were the chances he had bought colored contacts and only put one in?) Was it the brown one? Maybe it was the blue one.

Doctor Thorn’s face twisted in anger. He looked like he wanted to throw us off the castle’s highest tower or the nearest cliff.

Only Mrs. Gottschalk then spoke up. (Who decided Got Chalk was a good last name?) Her voice sounded sleepy compared to how she had sounded a few minutes ago when she had demanded to know what they were doing here. “Yes, the punch is excellent. Now run along. You are not to leave the gymnasium again!”

Percy didn’t need to be told twice. Neither did Thalia or Annabeth. They made their exist with Grover but not before saying a lot of ‘yes sirs’ and ‘yes mamas.’

It was only after they had walked several feet away - Grover was herding them to the gymnasium because the rest of them sure as shit didn’t know where that was - that Percy whispered, “What did you do back there?”

He whispered because he could still feel the teacher and doctor’s eyes on them. The adults were making sure they didn’t “ditch” the party again.

Thalia’s eyebrows tugged together. Abruptly, Percy realized that once Thalia was an adult she was likely to get one of her eyebrows pierced.

“You mean the Mist?” She asked like it was obvious. Thalia made a face after asking. “Hasn’t Chiron taught you that?”

An uncomfortable lump formed in Percy’s throat because, no, Chiron hadn’t taught him that. Chiron was the head trainer at Camp Half-Blood but he hadn’t taken time to show Percy anything like that. It would have been useful though. Percy often got in trouble with mortals because of the Mist manipulating them to think he was attacking someone. Being able to use the Mist to make mortals realize he wasn’t a criminal would be pretty useful. Especially when there had been a national manhunt for Grover, Annabeth, and him back when Percy had been twelve.

So why had Chiron taught Thalia but not him?

“Actually never-mind,” Thalia muttered. “Of course he didn’t teach you. You’re not mature enough for it.”

Anger rose up, evaporating the lump in the back of his throat.

“I’m mature.” Percy winced after speaking. He sounded whiny even to his own ears.

Thalia’s shoulders shook. Percy figured it was from fighting laughter instead of anger but he could be wrong.

“Sure you are.” She gave him the evil eye despite her words.

“Look,” Percy abruptly said. “We barely know each other but I’m not some-“

Grover cut them off. “Guys we don’t have time for this.”

Percy didn’t shoot Grover a hurt look. See. He was mature.

“Catch me,”” Thalia said as they entered the gymnasium. There were a lot of black and red balloons was the first thing he noticed. It didn’t surprise Percy. This was a military school. They probably didn’t often get the chance to party or just loosen up in general. Of course they were zealous about the party distractions.

“Every time I’ve tried to get close to Bianca and Nico, he’s been there. He’s not sure but he suspects their demi-gods. This is the last day of the term so there’s no way he’s not going to try and find out,” Grover explained as they continued to walk through the gymnasium. Guys were kicking the balloons in each other face. The girls were moving in football huddles, like they always do, reminding Percy of a pack of piranhas.

Also, huh. No wonder Doctor Thorn said it was too late to be a transfer student. It was the last day of the term.

“I don’t know what the plan is.” Grover admitted before turning to give a pleasing look to Thalia. The sight made Percy’s stomach twist despite how much Percy tried not to get upset by it. Before Thalia came back, Grover use to look to him for answers. It hadn’t been like that at Yancy Academy. That had only happened after they had read that book and had learned Percy was going to kill Kronos.

But now that Thalia was alive?

Grover looked to her for help. She had seniority over Percy and not just because Zeus was her dad. It was also because she had more experience than Percy when it came to monsters.

It made sense that Grover looked to her. Percy could admit it made sense. Still, a part of him-

“Who is he?” Thalia asked, addressing that first.

“Oh,” Grover said, looking surprised. (Had he gone to restroom recently?) “You’ve met him. The monster is Doctor Thorn.”

So, wait, did that mean his eyes were natural after all?

Percy didn’t ask despite being genuinely curious. He didn’t want anyone looking at him like he was an idiot to be asking that.

“There they are,” Grover abruptly said before nodding his head in the direction of the bleachers. “Bianca and Nico di Angelo.”

Immediately, Percy looked that way. Nico’s sister - the one who had died which had lead to him stealing Hazel out of the underworld - wore a floppy, green hat. It covered most of her face. And then the boy was obviously her brother even if Grover hadn’t just told him that was Nico. They both had dark hair, olive skin, and both were moving their hands while talking. (Annabeth and Tyson often gestured with their hands when talking too.) Percy stared at the siblings, unable to peel his eyes away from Bianca and Nico. Bianca seemed to be scolding Nico as her younger sibling played with some sort of cards. (Did he like Pokémon or some other card game like that?) It was weird and also thrilling to see them. He had spent years wondering about when he would meet Nico and now they were both in-front of his eyes. Bianca wasn’t dead. He could keep her safe and-

Annabeth shifted her weight. “Do they…..,” she trailed off for a few seconds. “Have you told them?”

Grover made a face. He opened his mouth. Nothing came out even as Grover’s lips moved. It was then that Percy realized Grover was trying to talk about the future. Grover shut his mouth. His expression darkened from frustration. Grover tried to talk again and, unlike before, he succeeded. “Telling them would only put them in more danger.”

“Okay, let’s grab them and get the hell out of dodge then.” Percy said before heading to the bleachers. Abruptly a hand was wrapped around his wrist. Percy didn’t tense. (He didn’t whirl around and attack.) He turned around to see it had been Thalia who had grabbed his wrist.

“Let me go.” He told her, voice sharp.

“Look,” Thalia hissed instead of letting go. It was only then that Percy noticed Doctor Thorn had slipped into the gymnasium. He was standing near Nico and Bianca. The sight made Percy’s throat dry. His heart started beating faster. Doctor Throne’s blue eye seemed to glow as he watched them. If he was the monster then Thalia’s trick from earlier hadn’t worked. The Mist only worked on demi-gods and mortals. It didn’t work on monsters or gods.

“Don’t look any longer,” Thalia ordered even though she had just told him to look. “We have to wait for a chance to get to them.”

Had this been how Bianca had died in original timeline? Had they waited too long to rescue her?

“I could distract him while you grab them,” Percy argued quietly as he watched Bianca keep looking around. It was like she already knew she was in danger. Percy wondered if she had nightmares too; even before he had been kidnapped, Percy had demi-god dreams - not that he realized it at the time. “I could meet back up with you lat-“

Thalia cut him off. “No, that’s too dangerous. We need to pretend we’re not interested in them. That will throw him off.”

Percy glared. “He’s a monster. Your trick from earlier wouldn’t have worked on him. There’s no way he doesn’t know-“

Thalia interrupted him again. Percy was started to understand why his teachers hated it when he talked over them. “You heard Grover. Doctor Thorn isn’t sure they’re demi-gods. If we just act like they’re not important then he’ll start questioning if they’re even the demi-gods.”

Expect Bianca and Nico were children of the Hades. Their scent had to be demanding Doctor Thorn’s attention.
Percy opened his mouth to argue only Thalia beat him to it.

“….Unless you don’t trust Grover either?” She asked, voice morbidly curious.

“I trust Grover just fine. I just don’t think-“

“Guys, I’m right here.” Grover chimed in. He sounded uncomfortable. They probably weren’t helping the fact Grover needed to use the restroom.

“You mentioned Luke visited your cabin but you never said anything about Grover.” Thalia said as her black haired eyebrows drew together. “Which is weird considering how you’re suppose to be close to him.”

“Not now,” Percy told her, frustrating mounting. They could fight later. This wasn’t the time. “We need to get Bianca and Nico out of here.”

“I told you,” Thalia said harshly. “We do something else to cause Doctor Thorn to be distracted. Our presence is going to demand his attention and if we’re mingling and dancing instead of-“

Annabeth cut her off. “Dancing?”

Thalia grinned. Her teeth weren’t the kind of perfect white teeth you saw in dental office’s adds. “Yeah, dance.” A moment later she closed her mouth and grimaced. “Ugh. Who picked Jesse McCartney?”

“I did,” Grover said with a hurt tone of voice.

Huh. Percy would have thought Grover would have picked a Hillary Duff song considering how much the satyr liked to play her songs on his reed pipes.

“Oh my gods, Grover.” Thalia said with a scrunched up expression. She looked like she had abruptly smelled shit. “That is so lame. Can’t you play, like, Green Day or something?”

Grover’s brown haired eyebrows drew together. “Green who?”

Thalia made a face before shaking her head. “Never mind. Let’s dance.”

It was only then that she let go of Percy’s wrist.

Grover’s eyes widened. He looked like Athena’s scared animal with how wide his eyes were. “B-But I can’t dance.”

“You can if I’m leading,” Thalia told him confidently. “Come on, Goat Boy.”

She reached and grabbed his wrist. Grover yelped as Thalia dragged him to dance floor. Percy watched without a word. Annabeth drew close. She was smiling at the sight of Thalia trying to teach Grover how to dance.

“You okay?” Percy asked. Annabeth had been mostly quiet since the car ride. It was unusual.

“….It’s nice to have Thalia back,” Annabeth admitted quietly. “I just….I wish we could tell her what we know.”

Percy stared at her. There were words he wanted to say to comfort her. He couldn’t make them get past his throat because they were demi-gods. He couldn’t promise it would get better. Fuck, even when Percy defeated Kronos that wouldn’t be the end of him fighting a war for the gods. Hera was going to kidnap him and erase his memories just so he could-

“How are you?” Annabeth abruptly asked.

Percy brought up his shoulders and shrugged. He didn’t want to talk about it. Some days, Luke’s betrayal felt like the older boy had sliced open his stomach and taken out everything inside if Percy. Hollowed him out to be-

“Want a dollar?” Annabeth asked quietly.

Percy raised an eyebrow. This wasn’t Annabeth’s way of doing ‘a penny for your thoughts’ or even giving him money to use at a vending machine. It was a habit she had developed after they had been kidnapped. Back when he had been twelve, Percy had given her all the cash he had on him so Annabeth could make notes about the future. After they had left Olympus, Annabeth had eventually started giving him money with messages on it. Some of the messages were things she thought he should learn. Other times the messages were to cheer him up.

“I’m good but thanks.”

Annabeth nodded. She didn’t look happy but she didn’t argue. Percy glanced at the bleachers before his gaze slid to where Doctor Thorn was. He frowned.

(She didn’t ask him to dance.)

“Design any buildings lately?” Percy asked before he did something stupid like asking her to dance with him.

(They hadn’t ever danced before despite everything.)

Annabeth’s eyes lit up before she began talking about her new school.

Chapter Text

“So what about you?” Annabeth asked after she finished talking about projects she was doing at her new school. She was wearing jewelry now, Percy realized. She had on owl shaped earrings. They were silver not gold, Percy noted. Mom liked silver jewelry too; despite that, Smelly Gabe had bought her gold wedding ring.

Percy opened his mouth to answer her only Thalia abruptly yelled at them.

“Hey!” At hearing Thalia’s voice, Percy turned his head around to look at her. She was slowing dancing with Grover who very clearly was not familiar with this type of dancing. His friend was tripping all over himself, unintentionally kicking Thalia in her shins, and looking ready to be taken outside and shot like Old Yeller if that meant the dance would end.

Percy’s shoulders shook from laughter he was fighting not to let out at the sight of the two trying and failing to dance; so much for Thalia’s comment about Grover could dance if she was leading. Grover, having noticed his humor, mouthed to him: ‘you’re a terrible best friend.’

A part of Percy wanted to stick out his tongue in response. He didn’t. He wasn’t that immature. Real quick, he glanced at the bleachers. Bianca and Nico were still there. It looked like Nico had dragged his older sister into playing that card game of his.

“Dance you guys!” Thalia yelled at them. Her expression had changed from earlier. Whatever emotion it was, it was sharp. “You look stupid just standing there.”

The words immediately made Percy angry. He didn’t bother pushing it to the side.

“You look stupid too!” Percy shouted back.

“Percy,” Annabeth immediately said, tone berating. She didn’t lecture him though.
Percy turned to look back her. His eyebrows were drew together.

“What?” He asked, confused. Just because they weren’t dating didn’t mean he was going to let Thalia insult-

Annabeth made a face. “I’ll talk to her later,” she promised him and it made Percy’s anger less overwhelming. Annabeth wasn’t taking Thalia’s side. She was-

Thalia had let go of Grover before marching over to them. “What did you just call me?”

Percy didn’t back down. He didn’t back track either. It wasn’t his nature. “I said you looked stupid too.”

Percy breathed in. Abruptly, it smelled like ozone. Percy couldn’t help but wonder if people ever smelled the ocean when he got pissed off. He turned to Annabeth. “Does it ever smell like the ocea-“

“You don’t get to change the subject.” Thalia immediately said, interrupting him. Grover, meanwhile, was walking over. He hadn’t hastily made his way over here like Thalia had. “You-“

Percy raised an eyebrow at her. Apparently, whatever expression his face made had caused her to shut up. It wasn’t that he was trying to change the subject as much as if he didn’t ask now - he would forget. That was one of the things about having ADHD, Percy often-

“How about we all,” Grover began to suggest only for Thalia and Percy to both glare at him. That made the satyr shut up.

“You told us we looked stupid. I told you that you looked stupid. We’re even.” Percy lifted the eyebrow he had just lowered a few seconds ago. “Right?”

Thalia made a face at that. “Is getting even all you care about? We’re suppose to be blending in,” Thalia hissed out.

Abruptly, Percy was reminded of a stray black cat that sometimes was in the alley near his apartment building. Specifically, he was reminded of her fur rising up when she hissed. He fought the urge to smile at the memory of that cat; Tyson had liked that cat. The cyclops use to feed her parts of his peanut butter and jelly sandwiches which said something; Tyson didn’t like sharing his food, especially not his favorite meal.

“Not everyone is dancing,” Percy pointed out, trying to keep his voice calm. He wasn’t like his mom. Not raising his voice didn’t come naturally. Or, Percy realized, maybe it wasn’t natural to Sally but she put so much effort into even though Percy didn’t always deserve it.

At that, Thalia’s blue eyes darted around. Her mouth thinned. She opened her mouth but Percy didn’t give her a chance to speak. “Wouldn’t it look more natural if we’re all not near each other? If Annabeth and I dance then we’re near you two. If we’re talking to the side, it doesn’t look like we’re all plotting together.”

“Fine,” Thalia said and Percy couldn’t wonder how difficult it was for Thalia to agree. “Grover and I’ll go back dancing.”

“Have fun.” Percy said and in that moment he couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic or not. Thalia shot him a look, unamused.

“We will,” Thalia promised in an unfamiliar, sweet tone. It made the hair on Percy’s neck stand up. He didn’t trust that tone for one second. After Thalia and Grover walked away, Annabeth spoke up.

“She jealous,” Annabeth began to say. Despite loyalty not being her fatal flaw, Annabeth was too willing to overlook people’s mistakes. Exhibit A: Luke Castallen. Luke had been the one to poison Thalia’s tree and Annabeth thought she could convince him to come back home. The thing she failed to realize was Camp Half-Blood wasn’t Luke’s home. If they were to get Luke back, they couldn’t bring him back to camp.

“And?” Percy asked, unapologetic. “That doesn’t mean she gets to be a dick to everyone around her.”

Annabeth tilted her head. Her grey eyes were focused solely on him. It was like she was analyzing something he couldn’t see; cataloguing every-

“And when you’re a dick?”

“Call me out.” Percy immediately told her. They might not be in a relationship but that didn’t mean they weren’t partners. Annabeth was there to pull him back when he was doing too much. He was there to pull her back when she was doing too much.

If they both had their heads up their asses, it was then Grover’s turn to make them get their shit together.

It wasn’t like Luke was here to do that anymore.

“She’s worried about me,” Annabeth said quietly before her eyes darted away from him. The daughter of Athena began to scan the gymnasium. “I didn’t use to keep things from her and now-“

“You would if you could.” Percy told her. It was meant to be comforting but maybe it twisted a knife between her ribs. Annabeth didn’t like falling short; she liked facing problems and finding a way to get around them. It was thrilling to her than having no resistance in life. Percy didn’t know if it was because of who her godly parent was or if it was the ADHD. Under stimulation could be-

“Percy,” Annabeth abruptly said. Her tone of voice immediately made Percy wary. Nothing good ever came from that tone. “They’re done.”

Percy didn’t need to ask who they were. He didn’t bother looking at bleachers to confirm what Annabeth had just told him. He trusted her like he trusted his own hand; they had grown to be extensions of each other even before Chiron had made Annabeth swear on the River of Styx to protect Percy.

“Get Thalia and Grover,” he told her before running off. He didn’t need to explain they needed to meet up later; Annabeth already knew. Bianca do Angelo was not going to die tonight.

Percy didn’t stop at the doors. He stopped before the doors cause something caught his eye. It was about fifty feet away from where he had originally been standing. Bianca’s floppy green hat was lying on the floor. Near it was some scattered cards - the ones Nico had been playing with - on the ground too. Percy’s mouth twisted. His heart was beating fast in his chest as his eyes darted around and it wasn’t only because he had just been running.

He caught a glimpse of Doctor Thorn. The monster was rushing out of the gymnasium, herding Bianca and Nico out of the room. He had them by the scruffs of their necks.

Percy didn’t waste a second. (They could come back and grab Bianca and Nico’s stuff after they were out of danger.) He started running after them. He bumped into people and didn’t apologize. He just focused on getting to the siblings as soon as possible. Someone shouted hey after him but Percy didn’t stop.

Bianca di Angelo would not die tonight.

The door Doctor Thorn had used lead to a dark hallway. It was only then that Percy shoved his hand into his pocket, pulled out his own, and immediately uncapped Riptide. The sword brought a small amount of light. His eyes darted around but there was no one in the hallway. Percy’s lips twisted in disappointed. He didn’t stay standing around though.

Percy ran down the corridor. Only when he got to the other end, he didn’t see anyone there. Great. Fucking great. Percy opened a door and found himself back in the main entry hall. He had completely turned around and he didn’t see Dr. Thorn anywhere. Thing was on the opposite side of the room were the di Angelo siblings. Bianca and Nico stood together. Their faces were pale.

They stood frozen in horror, staring right at him like he was Pennywise the clown or some other horror movie villain. Which…..to be fair, he was holding a sword.

Great introduction there.

(He had waited years to meet Nico and this was how he introduced himself to Hazel’s brother.

What a great job.)

“Where did Doctor Thorn go?” Percy asked, lowering his sword. A part of him wanted to turn Riptide back into its pen form so they wouldn’t be so scared of them but Percy didn’t know where Doctor Thorn was. He couldn’t risk that.

Neither of them said anything. (It was weird to see Nico pale and afraid.) Their eyes were wide. They looked like….

“He’s behind me, isn’t he?” Percy said as the realization dawned on him. (How had he managed that? Had the monster climbed on the ceiling or could be turn invisible?)

Bianca quickly lowered her head slighty. It was a blink and you would miss it but Percy hadn’t blinked.

He whirled around. A whoosh noise filled the air. Pain abruptly flared up in Percy’s shoulder as something dug itself into his shoulder. A pained noise escaped from the back of Percy’s throat. Blood began to blossom around the wound. There was something sticking out his winter jacket but-

Percy’s head slammed into the wall. Pain made the back his head burn. He still raised his sword and slashed around him.

Riptide didn’t hit anything though. Doctor Thorn was apparently quick.

Percy blinked and then blinked again. The black spots in his vision didn’t disappear.
His shoulder, meanwhile, was growing more wet. The ambrosia was in the bookbag so. He didn’t have any in his pockets. Stupid. He had been stupid.

He should have asked Annabeth to grab some to keep on them. They had known a monster was in a school. They should have-

“Perseus Jackson.” It was Dr. Thorn’s voice. Of course it was as Percy blinked again. The spots were growing in his vision. The monster’s accent mangled the J in his last name. “We thought you would come.”

We?

Luke. It had to have been Luke.

“I’m famous to monsters,” Percy muttered because his mouth did not turn off during life or death situations. Now his filter? Totally different story. “I can die happy.”

His mouth felt like there was cotton balls shoved it. It was so dry.

Doctor Thorn let a laugh and Percy winced. It was too loud. It made Percy’s head hurt.

“I’m not going to let you die,” the monster promised. Of course not. That would be too kind. Monsters were like cats with mice. They liked dragging it out.

Percy lifted his free hand and wrapped his fingers around the spike; it was probably called a spike. If it wasn’t called that, that didn’t matter.

“You’re far too important to die so soon son of Poseidon.”

It was always son of Poseidon. Never mind, Poseidon had never raised him.

Percy began to pull out the spike. He let out a whimper as pain flared up. His hand grew wet from his blood. It felt warm on his fingers and calloused palm.

“You shouldn’t do that.” Doctor Thorn told him. “You’ll bleed out.”

No, he wouldn’t. Doctor Thorn had been right when he said Percy was too important to die. No matter how much he tried, Percy couldn’t die.

Percy managed to tug the spike out. He dropped it unceremoniously on the floor. Blood didn’t gush out of the open wound despite there being no pressure being put on it.

Percy didn’t let it.

“We’ve never met before. So let me introduce myself,” Percy said before his feet moved into a familiar stance. He wondered if Doctor Thorn had ever seen Luke fight. If he had, the monster would recognize the stance. He blinked. The spots were still growing; he was going to have to worry about that poison even if he didn’t have to worry about blood loss. “My name is Percy Jackson and fun fact about me. I’m like a cockroach. I don’t die easy, dude.”

Doctor Thorn’s eyes were focused on his shoulder were blood wasn’t gushing out despite Percy taking the spike out of his shoulder. “I see.”

The ‘I see’ sounded weird in that accent of his. Percy didn’t comment about it though.

Whoosh.

Clang.

This time Riptide caught the spike and parried it. Which was nice because Percy didn’t want a second portion of poison today but thank you very much for the offer.

Doctor Thorn’s lips twisted into a snarl.
“All three of you will come with me,” he told them.

Percy didn’t say his mom had taught him stranger danger. He needed to listen in case Doctor Thorn sent another spike. He didn’t need Nico and Bianca getting poisoned as well.

“We’re not,” he croaked out. Gods, he couldn’t wait until this fight was over because he was going to gulp down water. His mouth seriously felt like someone had shoved a bunch of cotton balls in it to dry up all the moisture in it.

Doctor Thorn smirked. Percy felt the urge to punch it off. Maybe he would. It wasn’t every day he got a chance to attack school staff; there would be some satisfaction to it even though Doctor Thorn wasn’t his teacher.

“That poison will kill you in a few minutes. If you come with me, I can save you from it. If you spend that time fighting me, I’ll let the General know you were too stupid to live.”

The General?

(Annabeth, Thalia and Grover had to be close.)

Percy transformed Riptide back into a pen. He tossed it as a sign of defeat. Riptide would come back to him though; it always did. The spots were still growing.

“Okay.”

Doctor Thorn’s grin grew. The sight still made Percy want to punch him. He didn’t though. He wanted the monster to feel like he had won.

That would make him more likely to run his mouth after all.

Chapter Text

It was only after Percy had tried to get Grover’s attention through the empathy link that he started digging for information.

“So Luke is a general now.” Percy remarked, pushing the words out of his dry throat. There were still black little spots dancing about his vision but Percy was treated them like he treated clean laundry that needed to be folded: ignoring it until the last minute when it was absolutely necessary to handle it. “How did he manage that?”

He doubted it was Luke. It made more sense for it to be Ethan or Chris. After all, Ethan had been the one-

“I said for you to follow quietly and obediently.” Doctor Thorn sharply reminded him as they continued to follow the monster through the snow. Snow was just water frozen. Okay. There was more to it than that but it was water and that’s what mattered.

Percy ignored him despite Bianca shooting him a panicked look, “Was it betraying everyone at camp by poisoning Thalia’s tree or-“

“Stop your jabbering.” Doctor Thorn ordered, voice clearly annoyed. “That boy could never hold such esteemed position.”

Luke wasn’t a boy; when he had met Luke years ago, he had thought Luke was just a few years older than him but he had been wrong. Luke had been nineteen back then. He was twenty-one now. Luke was the only adult Greek demi-god Percy knew of; Greek demi-gods weren’t like Roman ones. They didn’t live long enough to attend college and then settle down even though they could.

Percy’s mouth twisted as he thought about it. Annabeth had papers in his cabin, detailing ways they could have a college in their camp. It didn’t matter though. The gods would have to approve it and Percy doubted they would. After all, if the gods cared about their kids why had they sent Tantalus as Chiron’s replacement. That guy had murdered his own son and tried to feed the gods-

“So who are you taking us to?” Bianca asked, interrupting Percy’s thoughts. Despite the circumstances, her voice wasn’t shaking from fear. Percy wondered if this actually was her first monster attack.

“Silence, you insufferable girl!”

Immediately, Nico yelled at the monster. “Don’t talk to my sister that way!”

His voice was quivering but Percy was impressed none the less.

Doctor Thorn made a growling noise a human wouldn’t have been able to make. The snow was melting by Percy’s feet. After a few seconds of sounding like a dog, the monster spoke up. “Would you prefer I strike her into silence, boy?”

The throbbing pain in his shoulder didn’t matter. “Lay a hand on her and I’ll kill you.”

He felt everyone staring at him. His words apparently had made Bianca and Nico stop walking. Doctor Thorn didn’t immediately snap at them to keep moving. Apparently, Percy’s threat put the monster’s panties in a twist. Good. Anger made people - and monsters - stupid. That was one lesson Luke had drilled into his head even though Luke was just as guilty of letting his emotions control him.

Percy blinked. There were still dots in his vision but they weren’t multiplying like bunnies anymore.

Doctor Thorn began walking toward him. Nico started to dart toward Percy but Bianca thankfully grabbed onto her brother before he did something stupid. In different circumstances, he would have mouthed a ‘thank you’ to her but he was too focused on keeping them alive. Bianca di Angelo would not die tonight.

“You couldn’t even defend yourself. How would you even be able to kill me?” It felt less like a question and more like a taunt.

“What?” Percy taunted back as he began to make his way toward a striding Doctor Thorn. He stumbled landed in the snow. It was partially melted so his jacket grew wet from water. Percy made a show of struggling to push himself off the ground. His fingers felt frozen from how cold the wind was. “Did Ethan not debrief you about me despite being your general?”

Percy stared at Doctor Thorn as the monster let out a snarl. The dots in his vision were slowly disappearing as the water began to not only heal him. “As if that little whelp could be my leader.”

So not Ethan either. Was the General another monster or maybe a Roman demi-god? Or maybe it wasn’t a demi-god at all considering how Thorn was reacting to Luke and Ethan’s names. Maybe the General could only be monster or a god for the Titan Army to respect the General.

Percy’s eyebrows drew together. The pain in his shoulder was no longer a harsh throbbing sensation. “Then who is the general?”

“You have no idea what is happening, Perseus Jackson.” Percy fought the urge to roll his eyes at that. “I will let the General enlighten you. You are going to do him a great service. He’s looking forward to meeting you.”

So the general wasn’t a goddess. So Nemesis wasn’t an option then. That meant the General also couldn’t be Hecate; Dionysus was somewhat tight lipped about which gods had joined the Titan Army but Percy had known about those two.

“Get moving,” Doctor Thorn barked out before turning around to start leading them again. “We still have some distance to cross.”

Percy glanced at the siblings. Bianca was still holding onto Nico. Her ears, like her cheeks, were red from the cold. Percy’s mouth twisted. Hopefully, they would get out of this weather soon. It was then that Percy mouthed ‘we’ll be fine.’

Bianca’s eyebrows drew together. Bianca mouthed back something to him that Percy was pretty meant ‘what?’

“I said get moving,” Doctor Thorn said as he continued to keep walking through the snow.

Percy, in a moment of immaturity, put his thumb under his other fingers and then lifted his fingers from his thumb. He mimicked someone talking and Nico let out a little bit of laughter at the sight. Percy fought a smile despite knowing there were more important things to focus on.

Doctor Thorn whirled around. Anger only made his face uglier. “Just what is so hard to understand about my instructions?”

Whoosh.

Something pushed Percy down, making him fall into snow. It took a few seconds to realize what happened: Annabeth.

It had to be Annabeth with her cap. She had saved him from getting posioned again.

“For Zeus!” Thalia abruptly yelled as Percy looked around at the snow. New footprints were made as Annabeth made her way to di Angelos. She didn’t need to though.

“I’ve got them,” he yelled at her before pulling. The melted snow around the siblings began to harden into ice before growing around them. It was a wall of ice that Percy wanted. Something thick enough to block any of Doctor Thorn’s attacks.

Woosh. Woosh. Woosh.

Doctor Thorn had launched multiple spikes - not for the first time Percy wondered if they actually were called spikes - at Thalia. This time he could where they were coming from. The monster had a tail - it looked leathery - that reminded Percy of a scorpion. The tip of the tail was where the spikes came from.

Thalia raised her shield in time to deflect the attack but the force of the spikes knocked her down. Her spear fell out of her hand. Percy’s heartbeat picked up at the sight. He began tugging at the snow.

“Switch.” He immediately yelled to Annabeth. She should have an easy time protecting the siblings with the barrier Percy had made. Still Percy didn’t want them left alone.

Percy ran over to where Thalia was but Grover had already sprang forward with his reed pipes ready. The problem was his friend had ran in-front of where a walk of ice had begun to grow from the ground. Grover, despite having to focus on the song he was playing on the reed pipes, must have felt the ground shift under his hooves because he jumped to side. Grover’s song made grass break free from the snow under Doctor Thorn’s legs and begin to climb his legs. The grass started binding the monster and-

Woosh.

At hearing that noise, Percy reacted. He didn’t run forward to try and block the spike. No, he didn’t because he wouldn’t make it in time. The wall of ice jerked to the side, blocking the spike from hitting Grover.

“What the fuck,” Thalia began to say only to trail off. She was still getting up from the snow.

Percy couldn’t see it but he could feel poison leaking out from the spike and into his ice. He frowned. Was that going to affect his ability to control the ice?

But that was thing. Poison was just-

A roar filled the area and Percy didn’t wince at the volume. The gods talking when angry was harsher than that roar. The monster began to change shape. His back body twisting like he was a character being possessed in horror movie. A loud crackling noise filled the air and Doctor Thorn’s arching, the human skin ripping at the action. Percy watched in horror as his back grew larger and-

“A manticore!” Annabeth yelled. Percy’s head jerked only to wince. She was wearing her Yankees cap. Of course he wouldn’t be able-

She had taken it off.

“What’s happening to him?” Bianca asked, her voice muffled by the barrier of ice. She sounded horrified. Not that Percy could blame her. This transformation was terrifying to watch.

“A manticore?” Nico asked, repeating back Annabeth’s words. He sounded excited despite Doctor Thorn’s rendition of an xenomorph-

“He’s got three thousand attack power and plus five to saving throws!” Nico yelled.

Doctor Thorn’s transformation came to abrupt end. The monster began to claw at the weeds that were trapping his legs.

Percy tensed, getting ready to leap in.

“Get down!” Annabeth yelled before darting behind the first wall Percy had made.

At the last second, Percy remembered the shield Tyson had made. He hit my wristwatch, and metal plating spiraled out into a thick bronze shield. Not a moment too soon. The thorns impacted against it with such force they dented the metal. Percy winced. He knew without inspecting it that the beautiful shield, a gift from his brother, was badly damaged.

Percy wasn’t sure it would even stop a second volley.

“Yield.” Doctor Thorn roared out.

“Never!” Thalia responded as she began to charge at the monster. She ran toward the monster, spear back in her hand, and for a second, Percy thought she would run him through. But then there was a thunderous noise and a blaze of light from behind us. A helicopter appeared out of the mist, hovering just beyond the cliffs. It was the type of sleek gunship you saw the military have, with attachments on the sides that looked like laser-guided rockets.

The helicopter had to be manned by mortals, but what was it doing here? How could mortals be working with a monster?

The searchlights blinded Thalia, and the manticore swatted her away with its tail. Her shield flew off into the snow. Her spear flew in the other direction. That pulled Percy out of his shock.

“No!” Percy ran over to help her and it took a few seconds to realize he had yelled. He parried away a spike just before it would’ve hit Thalia’s chest before raising his shield over them. Percy brush to tug at the ice because he knew Tyson’s gift wouldn’t be enough to protect them.

Doctor Thorn laughed. “Now do you see how hopeless it is? Yield, little heroes.”

They were trapped between a monster and a fully armed helicopter. Even if Percy had enough water to reach the helicopter there was no chance the pilot wouldn’t have enough time to move it out of the way of Percy’s attack. And if Percy was focused on that, he couldn’t defend the others from Doctor Thorn. Thalia didn’t have her spear on her.

Abruptly a clear, piercing sound filled the air. It was a call of a hunting horn blowing in the woods.

Doctor Thorn froze. For a moment, no one moved. There was only the swirl of snow and wind and the chopping of the helicopter blades.

“No,” the manticore said. “It cannot be—” His sentence was cut short when something shot past Percy like a streak of moonlight. A glowing silver arrow sprouted from Dr. Thorn’s shoulder. He staggered backward, wailing in agony. “Curse you!”
Thorn cried. He unleashed his spikes, dozens of them at once, into the woods where the arrow had come from, but just as fast, silvery arrows shot back in reply. It almost looked like the arrows had intercepted the thorns in midair and sliced them in two, but his eyes must’ve been playing tricks on him because no one, not even Apollo’s kids at camp, could shoot with that much accuracy.

But what if it wasn’t a demi-god, Percy slowly realized. What if it was a god-

The manticore pulled the arrow out of his shoulder with a howl of pain. His breathing was heavy. Percy tried to swipe at him with his sword, but he wasn’t as injured as he looked. Doctor Thorn dodged Percy’s attack and slammed his tail into Percy’s shield. That caused Percy to fall onto the snow but he scrambled back up a few seconds later just in time to see the archers came from the woods. They were girls, about a dozen of them. The youngest was probably nine or ten. The oldest, about fourteen, like Percy. They wore silvery ski parkas and jeans, and they were all armed with bows. They advanced on the manticore with determined expressions.

Percy recognized them despite not meeting them. It was the hunters of Artemis. They actually did look like their brochures.

“The Hunters!” Annabeth cried out in relief.

Next to him, Thalia muttered, “Oh, wonderful.”

Percy’s eyebrows drew together at that comment. He didn’t have a chance to ask what Thalia why she had said it like that.

One of the older archers stepped forward with her bow drawn. The teenage girl was tall and graceful with coppery colored skin. Unlike everyone else, she had a silver circlet braided into the top of her long dark hair, so she looked like some kind of Persian princess. “Permission to kill, my lady?”

Artemis.

She was talking to Artemis.

The monster wailed like a toddler having a temper tantrum. “This is not fair! Direct interference! It is against the Ancient Laws.”

“Not so,” another girl said and immediately Percy knew who she was despite the different appearance. Her voice was the same after all. Artemis’ appearance was younger than the last time he had seen her. Her appearance actually looked a a few years younger than him. The form she had taken was probably twelve or maybe thirteen. The goddess had her auburn hair gathered back in a ponytail. Her eyes were a startling. They were a silvery yellow like the moon. Like all gods, her face was beautiful, but it was twisted in a stern expression.

“The hunting of all wild beasts is within my sphere. And you, foul creature, are a wild beast.” The goddess looked at the older girl with the circlet. “Zoë, permission granted.”

The manticore growled. “If I cannot have these alive, I shall have them dead!”

He lunged at Thalia and him. Percy abruptly realized he had forgotten about raising a wall of ice between Thalia and the monster.

“No!” Annabeth yelled and she charged at the monster. (When had she left the barrier?)

“Get back, half-blood!” the girl with the circlet ordered. “Get out of the line of fire!”

But Annabeth had already leapt onto Doctor Thorn’s back. She drove her knife into his mane. The manticore howled, turning in circles with his tail flailing as Annabeth hung on for dear life.

Percy began to pull on the ice-

“Fire!” Zoë ordered.

“No!” Percy screamed. But the Hunters of Artemis let their arrows fly. The first caught the manticore in the neck. Another hit his chest.

The monster staggered backward, wailing, “This is not the end, Huntress! You shall pay!”

And before anyone could react, the monster, with Annabeth still on his back, leaped over the cliff and tumbled into the darkness.

Percy ran without a thought about any of the others. A scream tore out of his throat, “Annabeth!”

Snap. Snap. Snap. Snap. Snap-

Gunfire.

He had forgotten about the fucking helicopter. Percy whipped around to look at the others. He didn’t know if the barriers he had made for Grover and the children of Hades were bullet proof.

Most of the Hunters scattered as tiny holes appeared in the snow at their feet, but Artemis just raised her head to look at the helicopter. The way she looked at it was like the way kids often looked at ants: beneath them.

“Mortals,” the goddess loftily announced, “are not allowed to witness my hunt.”

Artemis then thrust out her hand, and the military grade helicopter exploded into dust. Only, no, it wasn’t dust. Percy squinted his eyes. The black metal - what about the mortals in the helicopter - had dissolved into a flock of birds. Raven to be exact. They scattered into the night while squawking.

The Hunters of Artemis, meanwhile, has advanced on them but Zoë - that was the Zoë Artemishad brought up before - had stopped short when she saw Thalia. “You,” she said with distaste. Her mouth twisted like she had taken a bite out of a lemon or had tried wasabi for the first time.

“Zoë Nightshade,” was Thalia’s response. She sounded pissed. “Perfect timing, as usual.”

Zoë glanced the rest of us. Her eyes lingered on the ice walls but didn’t comment on them. “Four half-bloods and a satyr, my lady.”

Artemis didn’t look at Zoë despite the girl talking to her. Her silver, yellowish eyes were focused on him. “Hello, Perseus.”

“That was Annabeth,” Percy yelled out instead of being respectful and making small talk back. “You have to help us save her!”

Zoë was the first to respond. “My Lady isn’t yours to command-“

Artemis made her shut up with a mere glance.

“I’m sorry but Annabeth is beyond help.”

The words hurt more than a kick in the ribs.

Okay. So what if the goddess wasn’t going to help? Percy was used to the gods not being useful. He would just save her himself-

“You are in no condition to be hurling yourself off cliffs,” Artemis told him sharply. Percy abruptly wondered if the goddess had read his mind.

“I healed myself earlier,” Percy argued instead of fruitlessly pointing out he would survive worse. Artemis knew he could survive that jump; she had been there too when Percy had kidnapped and forced to listen to that book.

A couple of the hunters rushed forward as though to grab onto him but a wall of ice abruptly shot up from the ground, blocking them from him. Zoë’s eyebrows drew together. Artemis, of course, didn’t show any sign of being shocked.

“Grover get Bianca and Nico to camp,” Percy ordered while keeping his eyes on Artemis and her companions. “I’m going to get Annabeth-“

Artemis interrupted him. “Try to sense her in the water.”

It was only then that Percy took a second to focus on the water nearby. He closed his eyes and searched for any bodies in the water. Only…..he could only sense schools of fis-

“You know, as well as I do, that she’s gone.” Artemis told him, her voice almost coaxing. “Now drop this barrier and let us make camp.”

Chapter Text

It was Grover who broke the silence.

“Thank you for saving us, Lady Artemis!” He all but yelled out. Percy made a face; guess, Grover wasn’t over that crush after all. Thalia’s face twisted at their friend’s words. “You’re so-“

“Get up, Goat Boy.” Thalia snapped at him, interrupting his gushing. “We’ve got other things to focus on. Annabeth is gone.”

“She’s not dead.” Percy blurted out. Because he would know if she was dead. If she was dead, there would be a corpse in the water. There wasn’t.

Annabeth was just gone.

Thalia stared him. Her expression was something Percy couldn’t name no matter how many seconds went by.

Snow crunched under feet as Bianca, who had her hand around Nico’s arm, and Nico made their way toward them.

“What just happened?” Bianca sounded out of breath even though she hadn’t actually been fighting earlier. With her free hand she pointed at Percy and then Artemis and then-

“Who are you people?” Bianca demanded. Her ears were still red from the cold weather. Percy wondered how long it would take the hunters to set up camp. They would probably set up a fire if they were going to make a camp site.

Artemis’ expression softened. “It might be a better question, my dear girl, to ask who are you? Who are your parents?”

Bianca put down her finger. Her eyes darted at Nico before she went back to staring at the goddess. After a few seconds she admitted, “Our parents are dead. We’re orphans. There’s a bank trust that pays for our school, but…”

She trailed off. Their faces probably gave away the fact they didn’t believe her. It wasn’t that they didn’t trust Bianca’s word. It was just they - actually it was only Artemis, Grover, and him who knew - already knew who Bianca’s father was.

“What?” She demanded, anger having crept into her voice. “I’m telling the truth.”

“Bianca, you’re a demi-god.” Percy said, trying to keep his voice calm. “One of your parents a god.”

Hades specifically but Percy couldn’t say that. Even if he opened his mouth, the words wouldn’t come out no matter how much he tried.

Artemis abruptly became still at hearing Bianca’s name. It was only then that Percy realized Artemis hadn’t actually known this was Bianca until now. A few seconds went by before the goddess spoke up. “It is a honor to meet you.”

Bianca’s eyes widened. She opened her mouth but nothing came out. After several seconds, she managed to say something. “Do you always speak like that?”

An almost growling like noise came from Zoë. The girl opened her mouth but Artemis placed a hand on the hunter’s arm. It made her stop growling.

Bianca wasn’t staring at Zoë though. Her dark eyes were focused on him. “Demi-god?” She asked, repeating back Percy’s words.

Percy grimaced. “Welcome to club,” he said before admitting, “if it makes you feel better I didn’t want to be one either.”

Grover made a noise. Percy ignored him.

“One of your parents is a Greek god. Because of that, monsters, like Doctor Thorn, are going to attack you.“ A few moments went by and Percy decided to go ahead and rip off the bandaid. “We’re also at war is another reason you’re going to be attacked by monsters.”

“Percy,” Grover began but Percy shot him a look. He wasn’t in the mood to be lectured about being honest about what circumstances they were in. It wasn’t like they needed to worry about the scent the two children of Hades had. After all, they would be-

“At war?” Bianca repeated, voice incredulous. “There isn’t-“

Percy interrupted her. “How familiar are you with Greek mythology?”

Bianca turned her head toward Nico before looking back at him. The pointed look would have been funny in different circumstances. Nico, meanwhile, was squirming in her grasp but didn’t manage to break free; the squirming made it look like he really needed to pee. “Very.”

“Kronos is trying to overthrow the gods.” Percy said with absolutely no interest in sugar coating it. Bianca was alive and he wanted to keep her that way after all. The more she knew about their world, the safer she would be. “He’s got an army of monsters and some demi-gods-“

“Are you a son of Boreas?” Nico blurted out, interrupting Percy.

Who?

His eyebrows drew together. He turned to look at Annabeth-

She wasn’t here.

He couldn’t ask her who that was.

The realization hurt. It was like being kicked in the ribs. Percy tried to push his grief down. He turned his head some more and looked at Grover. “Whose Boreas?”

“He’s one of the wind gods,” Grover began to explain only to be interrupted.

“Or are you the daughter of Khione since you didn’t know who Boreas was?” Nico’s face screwed up. “But wouldn’t you know Boreas if you were Khione’s son? Cause Boreas would your grandfather.”

How did he know this many names? Well, Percy amended, it was less about Nico knowing this many names of Greek gods and more about the fact the kid was naming obscure gods; Percy had been aware of Greek gods being real since he was twelve and, despite the two years that had gone by, he didn’t know the gods that Nico was name dropping.

“Perseus is a child of Poseidon,” Artemis patiently told Nico.

“I hate when you call me that.” Percy muttered out.

Artemis cocked her head. ‘You told me your mother gave you that name for a reason.’

That made any argument die in the back of Percy’s throat.

“My Lady have you had the acquaintance of this demi-god before?”

“My name is Percy.” Percy snapped at Zoë before really looking at her. Unlike her fellow hunters, her cheeks weren’t red from the cold. Percy stared at her and after a few seconds he narrowed his eyes. It was hard to tell in this lighting- after all, it was in middle of the night - but it didn’t look like she had a single blackhead on her nose.

She was a god, wasn’t she?

Gods never had acne in Percy’s experience. They never had anything but perfect teeth too.

“I was not speaking to you,” Zoë sharply told him. Her accent made Percy frown because it was hard to try and place. All he could deduce was that Zoë sounded old-fashioned, like she should be on a stage acting out Shakespeare or some other really old author’s works, instead of being out here.

Percy raised an unimpressed eyebrow at her. He had butted heads with Zeus and the Olympians about this when they kept trying to call Hazel that girl or Luke the demi-god; he wasn’t going to give Zoë a free pass on this. “But you were talking about me-“

“If you’re a son of Poseidon how come you made those ice walls?” Nico abruptly asked, his voice eager. It was like he was completely oblivious to the fact Percy was about to get into an argument with a god; also who named a god Zoë of all things?

Percy shoved down his frustration and turned to look at Nico. “Practice.”

“But ice isn’t one of Poseidon’s-“

Bianca cut her brother off. “Not now, Nico.” After a few seconds she added, “You were talking about a war?”

“How about we raise the tents?” Artemis suggested to Zoë before turning to look at Bianca. “That way you can be warm and have dinner while we answer your questions.”

Bianca shallowed. Her eyes darted nervously around them. Part of Percy wanted to reassure her that Artemis was one the better gods but they didn’t know each other; it wasn’t like she was going to trust him. In the end, the daughter of Hades nodded after a few seconds.

“Yes, my lady.” Zoë said in agreement. She shot one more evil look at Thalia - you would think Thalia pissed in her coffee with the way Zoë was acting toward her - before heading away from them with the other hunters.

Artemis continued to look at Bianca. Her eyes were bright but not as harsh as Apollo’s. She hadn’t blinked once since the conversation had started. “Come with me, Bianca. I can begin to fill you in as we wait for camp to be made.”

Thalia shifted her weight. She didn’t look happy but it was Nico who spoke up. “What about me?

Percy’s stomach twisted at hearing those words. He knew where this was going; after all, Annabeth had been considered Thalia joining the hunt as a way to keep the daughter of Zeus from dying. The two of them had never considered the option for Bianca because they thought she was already dead. Now though…..

If Bianca joined the hunt, she couldn’t be killed unless in battle unless she broke her oaths to Artemis. But if she took that oath, that meant she would have to give up growing up with her brother.

Percy tried to shallow. His mouth was dry despite having already healed from Doctor Thorn’s poison.

But Bianca would be alive.

Bianca couldn’t grow up with Nico if she dead. If she took the oath then-

Artemis spoke up. “Perhaps you can show Grover how to play that card game you enjoy. I’m sure Grover would be happy to entertain you for a while…as a favor to me?”

Grover almost tripped over himself getting up. “You bet! Come on, Nico!”

Nico and Grover walked off toward the woods, talking about hit points and armor ratings and a bunch of other geeky stuff.

Percy didn’t move. He felt cold and it had nothing to do with the weather. “You shouldn’t read his mind.”

Bianca froze at his words. Thalia, meanwhile, had jerked her head to look at him.

“What are you talking about?” Thalia demanded just as Bianca spoke up as well.

“Read his mind?” Bianca said the words like she didn’t believe despite everything that had gone down tonight.

Percy didn’t look at either of them. It was Artemis who had his attention. Artemis didn’t look angry at his words but that didn’t mean anything. “Talking about the card game will soothe the boy after tonight’s events.”

Percy didn’t snort despite the urge. “Nico never brought it up.”

Artemis stared, unblinking. Percy wondered if it ever unnerved her companions that the goddess didn’t regularly blink. “My intentions were not harmful.”

Bianca made a noise. It reminded Percy of a startled mouse squeaking.

“That doesn’t mean you had a right.”

“He’s got a point,” Thalia chimed in and Percy’s eyes didn’t widen despite his surprise. Maybe he shouldn’t be shocked. Despite how much they fought, there was a reason why Percy reminded Annabeth of Thalia. “You shouldn’t just pry someone’s head open and read their thoughts.”

Artemis glanced at Thalia. Her mouth thinned. “The intent-“

“Good intentions can pave the road to hell.“ Thalia all but spat out. It was weird to see her angry and it not be pointed at him. “Don’t do that shit again.”

Artemis stared. Silence fell between them all for a few seconds. It was the goddess who broke it. “I’m not your enemy.”

There was a phrase Luke had told him once: the enemy of your enemy is your ally.

But that was the thing. The enemy of your enemy wasn’t necessarily your ally.

Bianca turned to look at him. “Are you willing to explain everything to me?”

His mouth was still dry. (Bianca was safer if she joined the hunt even if Artemis read people’s minds without their consent.) “Sure,” he croaked out.

“And I’ll fill in anything he forgets,” Thalia told Bianca before jerking her head to where Grover and Nico had wondered off to. “Let’s go have this discussion with your brother. That way you don’t have to worry about explaining to him what we tell you.”

Bianca’s shoulders relaxed immediately at that. It was then that Percy was reminded of the fact Thalia was an older sister to, not only Jason, but Annabeth as well; of course she knew how exhausting being the older sibling could be when your parents weren’t around. That weight was heavy thing to carry. “Okay.”

Chapter Text

Nico’s eyes widened at the sight of Bianca and them. His face scrunched up. Nico, Percy realized, could be a cute kid when he wasn’t doing a pee pee dance; the kind of cute kid that old ladies loved to pinch the cheeks of and smuggle candy to. “I thought you were-“

In the corner of his eye, Bianca gave a strained smile. She looked tired. Not for the first time, Percy wondered if she had been having demi-god dreams. “And leave you behind?” She shook her head. “Not going to happen.”

Nico ducked his head at those words. His ears were red from the cold weather. After a few seconds he added, “I didn’t think you were going to-“

Bianca interrupted him. “I told you earlier. It’s just a nightmare, Nico.”

The words made Percy tense. Thalia, meanwhile, stopped walking toward Grover and Nico.

“Nightmare?” Thalia asked like someone might ask about a bomb after being told there was a bomb being in the building and hoping to be wrong.

Nico made a face. His grip on some cards - guess he hadn’t lost all of them earlier - tightened. He didn’t look in any of them in the eye when he spoke. “I had a nightmare about my sister last night.”

“I know you all think we have a parent but we’ve always been all each other had,” Bianca blurted out. “Of course he’s worried about losing me.”

Percy’s heart was beating fast, like he was still in battle even though the fight was over. He tried to shallow. His mouth was dry.

“What did you dream about?” Percy asked because dreams were rarely dreams for them. Well….that was assuming Nico was like Percy. Luke had told him a lot of demi-gods didn’t have as many dreams Percy apparently did. But since Nico was a child of the Big Three-

“Don’t.” Bianca abruptly said, voice sharp for the first time since Percy had met her. Her order made Nico close his mouth because Bianca’s little brother had been trying to answer Percy’s question. Bianca then turned to look at him. “He woke up crying last night. You don’t need to-“

Percy cut her off despite knowing people usually liked it when others didn’t interrupt him. Most of the time, Percy did it without thought or because if he didn’t say it then - even if it was a totally different topic than whatever was being talked about at the time - he would forget. Now though? It was on purpose. The book the gods had read two years ago hadn’t gone into detail about how Bianca had died. Percy just knew she was dead and that had lead to Nico letting Hazel out of the underworld.

“He’s a demi-god,” Percy told her, trying to make his voice gentle. It was the coaxing tone he used when a panicked fish got stuck in one of those plastic gloves that, for some reason, had been in the water instead of the trash. He had gotten the fish out by tearing a hole in the glove because trying to give John instructions on how to swim out of the glove hadn’t worked; the little guy had been too panicked to listen to Percy. Or maybe he had just been too panicked to tell left from right and, if that was the case, Percy couldn’t judge much. He tended to mix up his left and right too. Annabeth did too but she didn’t like to admit it; apparently it was a common thing for people with ADHD.

Luke had once told him that a former member of the Hermes cabin had used an eyeliner to write a l on her left hand and a r on her right hand before spraying her hands with hairspray before she had gone to take her driver’s test. Percy couldn’t remember what that girl’s name was but he knew Luke had mentioned her name. Percy had asked if Luke had done that for his own driving test - he would probably use a permanent marker instead of eyeliner - and Luke had just grinned. It had been the type of grin that had always made Percy feel like he had won something whenever he got Luke to look happy like that. Luke, who had been middle of driving, had looked at Percy and said that he never tried to get his driver’s license because there was no way it wouldn’t get suspe-

“So?” Bianca asked, abruptly reminding Percy that he was in middle of a conversation.

Percy opened his mouth but Thalia beat him to it.

“Some dick decided that demi-gods get to see stuff like how their friends can be in danger or like a sneak peak on monsters trying to hunt you down.” It was only after she spoke that Thalia seem to register there was a ten - maybe nine - year old present. “Sorry,” she blurted out. “I shouldn’t-“

Bianca has turned to look at Thalia. Her face was scrunched up in confusion; Nico took after his sister in more than one way apparently. “Dick?”

Thalia made a face. Percy’s shoulders shook from laughter he was fighting. Thalia’s face grew red. “Stop laughing,” she hissed out.

Percy raised his hands in mock surrender.

“Look,” he began to explain and it going to be one of Annabeth’s phrases he used as an explanation. “The shoe is usually on the other foot. Let me enjoy not being the one to accidentally introduce someone to a cuss word-“

“Cuss word?” Bianca repeated. Did people not use dick in the 1940s as a swear? Wait. Did Bianca even know what dick meant outside of cussing? Had their school ever given them a birds and bee talk?

“You’re going to be around Percy,” Grover dryly admitted. “Of course, the two of you are going to gain a wide variety of cuss words.”

Percy looked at Grover in mock hurt.

“Dude.” He protested. It wasn’t because Grover wasn’t right - he was - but he was trying to make the siblings less stressed after this evening’s events. Percy shoved both his hands in his pockets. Only it wasn’t just Riptide in his pockets. Percy’s eyebrows drew together. In his left pocket, there was something in there. He shouldn’t-

The shape was familiar. It was money. Specifically a dollar folded.

Percy’s stomach twisted.

Annabeth must have put it in his pocket earlier. Annabeth didn’t just know how to pick people’s pockets - something Luke had taught her when they had been homeless - she also knew how to put something in people’s pockets without others usually noticing.

Grover shot him a fond look. “Annabeth is just as bad. It’s just her cussing is in Greek.” A moment went and then he spoke up. This time he didn’t sound as happy; likely, thinking about the fact they had no idea where Annabeth was. “If Chiron made a swear jar, the two of you would fill it before-“

Thalia abruptly turned to look at Percy. “What were you thinking earlier?”

Gone was the good mood. It had been snapped into two by those words.

Percy’s thumb brushed against the bill in his pocket. He wondered if Annabeth was relying information about the war or if it was something she thought would cheer him up. She hadn’t regularly been doing the latter since last year. Even though she understood why Percy hasn’t told everyone, she still had been mad at the fact Percy hadn’t told her that Luke had been the one to-

“I was worried about Bianca and Nico.” And it wasn’t a lie. He had been worried about them.

“You should have waited for backup instead of going off on your own,” Thalia snapped.

Percy shot her a look. “And then what? They could have been kidnapped for the General by then. I-“

“The General?” Thalia asked but it felt more like a demand than a question.

“The Titan Army has a general,” Percy admitted and Thalia stared at him, unblinking. There was something about the way she was staring at him that made feel like she really confused. Percy didn’t get why. Armies having a hierarchy made sense. Honestly, Percy was surprised today was the first time he heard about a general in the Titan Army.

“I don’t know his identity. I do know it’s not Luke, Chris, or-“

“Who?” Thalia asked and her eyes were narrowed.

Percy shook his head. Of course Thalia didn’t know that name. Chris wasn’t important to Camp Half Blood the way Ethan and Luke were. “He’s a son of Hermes that wasn’t claimed until after he joined the Titan Army.”

“Of course,” Thalia muttered out and in that moment she looked like Luke even
though there was nothing about their appearances that was similar. It was the bitterness in her voice that made him thinking of his ex-

“How familiar are you with Chris?” Thalia asked sharply. Why had this become an interrogation?

Percy’s eyes darted to Bianca and Nico. “Look, we can talk about it later. We still need to learn about Nico’s dream-“

Thalia interrupted and gods was Percy starting to understanding why his teachers hated it when he interrupted them. “Grover can ask. We can step to side and talk about this.”

Percy stared. His hand clenched around the dollar. “No.”

Thalia raised a single eyebrow. Her expression was one that Zeus had made on multiple occasions when Percy had been talking to him. She still wasn’t blinking. It was then that Percy realized he hadn’t blinked in a while too.

He blinked.

“No?” Thalia repeated the word in a dangerous tone. She was repeating it like she was giving Percy a chance to give a right answer. Percy wasn’t good at tests though. Even though he knew that saying no was obvious wrong answer, he was going to stick by it.

“No,” Percy repeated, unrepentant. “We can talk about it later. Right now, we need to-“

Thalia began to walk toward him. She wouldn’t have to go far. They had been walking together in a group after all.

Bianca’s eyes darted between them. She looked like she abruptly realized she was between two angry demi-gods.

“Guys,” Grover began to say but no one listened to him.

“Annabeth is gone because of your mistake-“

“I told her to stay with Bianca and Nico. I had an ice barrier for them. I-“

“You fucking ran off to play hero,” Thalia snarled out. “We’re a team. We’re suppose to be working together instead of-“

“Thalia, he was just trying to protect Bianca and Nico.” Grover said, trying to deescalate the situation.

“We were all trying to protect them,” Thalia pointed out angrily. “If he had just waited we could have made a plan instead of flying by the seat of our pants.”

“And it would have worked like your last plan,” Percy couldn’t help but say. He was getting angry now. “We tried your plan of waiting. Look where it got us. Bianca and Nico were kidnapped right under our-“

Thalia had crossed the distance between them. Percy wasn’t intimated though. “Because you two didn’t listen to me. I told you two to-“

“So it’s Annabeth’s fault now?” Percy asked incredulously. Thalia’s lips thinned.

“How about it’s only Doctor Thorn’s fault,” Grover yelled as ozone began to fill the air. Percy’s eyes darted away from Thalia.

Bianca was inching away from them. Nico didn’t look scared. He actually looked like-

“Stop enabling him,” Thalia told Grover. Her voice was harsh. Of course it was. She was upset about Annabeth just like they were. Maybe even more even though Annabeth was not only Percy’s best friend but his ex-girlfriend as well.

“We’ll get her back.” Percy told her quietly. It was promise he shouldn’t make - they were at war after all - but he made it none the less. He refused for anything else to happen.

Thalia stared at him. Her blue eyes were unblinking as her father’s eyes. “We shouldn’t have to. She should be with us.”

Percy opened his mouth only to pause at the sound of snow crunching under someone’s shoes. He looked away from Thalia. It was the girl Artemis had mentioned years ago: Zoë.

She looked as pleased to be here as Thalia was at Annabeth not being here. Which was to say, she looked pissed.

“Percy Jackson and Bianca di Angelo my lady has requested your attendance,” Zoë loudly said.

Thalia looked away from him to glare at Zoë. “We’re busy,” she snarled out.

She sounded more pissed to see Zoë than just a minute ago when she had been talking to him. Why did they not like each other? (Annabeth had never mentioned Thalia didn’t like the Hunters of Artemis despite thinking about that being an option for Thalia to escape the prophecy.)

“Then do not be,” Zoë advised in a tone that would have made Percy’s filter fly out the window - breaking glass on its way out - if he was the person she was talking to. It was then that Percy realized Thalia was probably about to lose her shit. And that was dangerous considering this hunter was a god. Which, again, who named a god Zoë of all things? It was so normal compared to the names other goddess had.

Thalia opened her mouth. Percy interrupted her before she got turned into a raven or crow. “We’re coming.”

Thalia whipped her head around to stare at him. She glared before shaking her head. “Bianca has a family, Zoë. She’s not joining your little club. So get your panties out of a twist and-“

Is this how his friends felt when Percy was being impertinent?

“Panties?” Nico asked, confused. Percy didn’t look at him though. He was too busy trying to keep Thalia out of trouble.

“Joining,” Bianca began to ask but Thalia cut her off with a glare.

“Don’t.” Thalia said and there was something about her voice that Percy couldn’t name.

“Do not fret about her words,” Zoë cautioned Bianca. Who used fret nowadays? “She is merely resentful about being wrong.”

Bianca made eye contact with him. She didn’t need to mouth the question on her mind. Percy already knew what she was going to ask. Percy jerked his head toward Zoë. Bianca frowned. There was a furrow in her eyebrows but snow crunched under her foot as she nonetheless followed Percy as he walked toward Zoë. It was better they go now before the goddess started threatening to turn Thalia into something.

Chapter Text

Artemis didn’t smile at the sight of them. That was normal for her. She had never been a goddess who had smiled a lot; even then, the goddess who did smile a lot wasn’t honest about it. Aphrodite often smiled - it was beautiful sight until you slowly had the horrifying realization that the lips you were staring at belonged on someone else’s face - but she was rarely happy.

Zoë was quick to cross the distance between them and Artemis. She joined the other goddess at her right side. It was only then that Percy realizes the animal pelt laying across Artemis’ lap was actually a deer because the animal lifted its head for a few seconds at the sight of Zoë before once again resting its head. Zoë’s lips twitched but she didn’t scratch the deer’s ears; she had more self control than Percy.

“Join us,” Artemis ordered. She wasn’t loud but Percy didn’t have a hard time hearing her despite the space between them.

Bianca didn’t immediately move. She turned her head slightly to him. Her expression was pinched; Percy wondered if it was Nico’s nightmares or Artemis reading Nico’s mind without his consent that made Bianca look so stressed.

Percy didn’t nod silently to her. He just put one foot in-front of the other - letting himself be the person in the front and, thus, the center of attention. (Not that it mattered. Artemis knew Bianca was a child of Hades.) The sooner they got this over, the sooner they could go back to Nico and the others.

Artemis’ eyes met his. Her lips twitched. Percy wondered if it was amusement. “You would make a good donkey.”

It wasn’t the first time an Olympian or even a minor god had threatened to turn him into an animal. The threat of it being a donkey was a new one.

Percy’s eyebrows drew together. “Are you saying I’m stubborn or an as-“

The deer made a sound almost like a snort. Artemis, meanwhile, cut him off because he could call himself an ass. “Donkeys can be good at protecting livestock.”

Percy’s eyebrows stayed together because that didn’t explain much.

“Just,” Percy began only to stop talking as Artemis shook his head. It was better to just give up now than continue talking. Artemis was just as stubborn as her twin.

“It’s a compliment,” Artemis told him. Never mind the fact she was the goddess of the hunt and therefore killed animals but, yeah, sure Percy should feel honored or some emotion like that.

“Sure.”

Artemis shook her head. Even though she wasn’t her twin, she had noticed that was a lie. Most gods probably were good at detecting lies; they had been around for thousands of years after all. Or maybe they wouldn’t be. They often forgot simple human things like blinking or-

“I think most people don’t like being compared to animals,” Bianca blurted out. When everyone looked at her, she ducked her head. Her cheeks were red.

“They shouldn’t be insulted,” murmured Artemis. “Humans have always been far more cruel than animals.”

Percy looked back the goddess. They still hadn’t made their way toward her despite Artemis invitation to join them. (Talking about them….did the deer have a name?) He thought of Smelly Gabe. He didn’t argue.

Despite everything, he also thought of Luke. Luke had been the one to poison Thalia’s tree which endangered the demi-gods at camp. Yet he had also been the one to cut off Tantalus’ head and mail it to Olympus. It had been months. Percy could still remember the blood that had gotten on Luke from dismembering Tantalus’ head from his corpse.

Tantalus who the gods had sent to Camp Half-Blood to replace Chiron. Tantalus who had tried to feed his own son to gods even though Zeus was Tantalus’ father. It had been years. Percy still remembered Demeter talking about how she ate some of-

“Come sit,” Artemis ordered. The deer opened its eyes at the goddess’ voice before closing them. Percy wondered if the deer had always been a deer. He didn’t ask though. He had enough stuff to worry about. “I had an offer I would like to give.”

Percy didn’t tense. He forced himself to walk forward and sit down. A part of him wanted nothing more than to grab Bianca and bolt. Another part of him knew if this was what he thought it was, Bianca’s likelihood of surviving would increase if she took a vow to Artemis. After all, the hunters of Artemis were immortal outside of dying outside of battle. They were also-

“What did you want to offer?” It was Bianca who broke the silence. “And who is the offer for?”

Artemis’ eyes flickered to him before she went back to staring at Bianca. “In different circumstances, I would have offer the something to Perseus. Alas, these are the circumstances we are in.”

Bianca squinted her eyes. Before she could speak, Artemis spoke up. “How far did you explain our world?”

Percy’s face felt hot. It had nothing to do with the fact Artemis somehow had a fire place in this tent. A tent that would have made PETA scream and break down crying. Not because of the fireplace but the amount of animal fur in it. “I didn’t get anywhere.”

Artemis stared. Her yellow eyes were unblinking. She didn’t look impressed. It wasn’t Percy’s fault though. He had been trying to help Bianca and Nico. Thalia just didn’t-

“He got sidetracked,” Bianca rushed to say. “Nico been having nightmares and that distracted him.”

She didn’t mention Thalia and him arguing. Percy couldn’t help but wonder why.

Artemis’ mouth thinned. “And what of them?”

“We didn’t get that far,” Percy somewhat reluctantly admitted. The goddess raised an eyebrow. Percy didn’t elaborate. First rule about being in trouble: you don’t snitch on yourself more than you have to.

Artemis hummed. She still didn’t look impressed. She turned to look solely at Bianca. “I am Artemis. The goddess of the hunt, protector of children, and there are many more epithets I could list. I’ll spare you of that though.”

“Okay,” Bianca said in a warily way that made it clear she didn’t know where this was going. Percy did though. Annabeth had shown him brochures and had talked about the idea of Thalia joining the Hunt to escape the prophecy. Percy still thought his idea of Thalia taking an extended vacation to Alaska should be considered before swearing loyalty to a god.

“There are maidens who swear an oath to me. With such vow, they not only receive immorality but a family. You will no left be left to struggle to on your own. Here you will never have to worry about your next meal or if you will have shelter from the environment.”

Speeches had to be easy when you didn’t need to breath.

“Should you at any time wish to continue education, I would sponsor you. You would not need to worry about loans or scholarships.”

Percy couldn’t help but wonder if hunters of Artemis attended New Rome or another college. Did they stay on campus or did they attend through online classes? Was it a mix?

When Bianca spoke up, it wasn’t about college or what their dental plans were. “You said maidens,” Bianca began only to pause for a few seconds. “What about Nico?”

“You can visit him time to time,” Artemis told Bianca to reassure her. “But you will be free of responsibility of raising him when your parents cannot. He will have the camp counselors to take care of him. And you will have a new family. Us.”

Percy’s stomach twisted. Despite knowing joining the Hunt would protect Bianca, he couldn’t-

“A new family,” Bianca repeated. “Free of responsibility.”

There were words in back of his throat. There was so much he wanted to say. It wasn’t just the curse keeping him silent though. Percy breathed in.

Bianca turned to at Zoë. “Are you happy here?”

Zoë didn’t smile before reassuring her. She merely nodded. “I am,” the goddess admitted after a few seconds. It was the softest Percy had ever heard her sound. “I too discovered a family here.”

He thought of the kid outside. The one that had been terrified about his sister leaving. “Bianca,” he began only to pause.

It didn’t matter that the idea of Bianca leaving behind her brother made his stomach twist. The thing was he knew being a hunter would make it more likely that Bianca survived this war. And that mattered more. After all, Bianca could visit Nico even if she pledged herself to Artemis.

Bianca had turned to look at him. She had dark circles under her eyes despite being younger than him. Percy wondered if Nico was the only one who had nightmares recently. (Bianca had been alive since the 1940; she had spent all that time being the oldest sibling. Percy couldn’t imagine how tiring that was.)

Percy pushed words past his throat. “I’ll help take care of Nico no matter what you choose.” A moment and then, “Nico wouldn’t be alone.”

Bianca stared. She didn’t have gold eyes like her sister. “You don’t even know us.”

But he did. He had known them for two years.

And they were his family.

Percy brought his shoulders up only to drop them a second or two later. It was only after he shrugged that he spoke up.

“I’m Percy.” He held out his hand before promising, “You’re not alone even if we don’t know each other.”

Bianca stared. There were tears started to swell up in her eyes. “I’m tired,” she crocked out.

And Percy got it even though two years ago he wouldn’t have been able to. He loved Tyson but taking care of his brother could be exhausting. He couldn’t imagine how hard it had been to raise Nico all by herself for like over sixty years.

“I have a younger brother too.” Percy admitted even though a part of him wanted to not have this conversation in front of Artemis or Zoë. “I love Tyson but he can be a lot.”

Percy didn’t go into more detail. It was hard to explain. And even if it wasn’t, Percy still had nightmares about Tyson dying when Clarisse’s ship was destroyed. After he had ‘lost’ Tyson, he had wanted to drown himself. The problem was - like almost all problems in his life - he was a son of Poseidon. He couldn’t drown.

Percy shoved his hand into his pocket. There was only so long he could hold it in the air before it got awkward.

Bianca stared at him. There were tears going down her face. Percy wondered if anyone had ever tucked her into bed and read her a bedtime story. Mom use to do that before she had start sending him away to schools. He wondered if anyone had ever hugged her and told her she was doing the best she could.

“How about you go get some sleep?” Percy suggested, voice rough even to his own ears. “You’re tired. We can talk about this tomorrow.”

Someone made a noise of protest. Percy didn’t turn his head toward the others until Artemis spoke up.

“This offer is not one made with a time limit. You may dwell on it as long as you desire.” Artemis gently told Bianca. Her words made Bianca’s shoulders relax. She was still silently crying though. “However, to remind you of my interest I shall give you a boon.”

Percy‘s mouth was abruptly dry. Nothing good from gifts from the gods. After all, Hazel’s curse had been meant to-

Artemis reached out. She took Bianca’s hand. The goddess’ hand was smaller than Bianca’s hand. After a second, she let go.

“I hope it serves you well.”

Bianca was staring. She didn’t look like horrified and why would she? She didn’t understand the attention of gods was never a kind thing. “It?”

“Invulnerability,” Artemis admitted and Percy could hear his heart beating.

He thought of how the gods had reacted to him having invulnerability in the future. Athena had originally thought Poseidon had given him invulnerability like he had once given Caeneus.

“May it serve you well in the days to come.” It was only after Artemis wished that, that the goddess turned and looked at him. “Part of why I asked you here was because I wish you to relay to me what the manticore said tonight.”

Percy opened his mouth.

[\]

“About time,” Artemis commented. Her mouth was thin from disapproval. Despite her young face, Artemis reminded Percy of a disapproving mom then a disappointed sister; it should shock but Percy knew Artemis had not even born a day before she had to help her mother give birth to her twin. Everyone liked to talk about Hermes stealing Apollo’s cattle despite his youth but no one really talked about how Artemis hadn’t even been a child before responsibility was placed in her hands. “He always is so lazy in winter.”

Percy looked at the skyline. He knew Apollo drove the sun but, despite everything else he had gone through, the idea of Apollo driving a star that was billion miles away was hard to wrap his head around. “You don’t really have to get us a ride.”

Artemis raised an eyebrow. It was a silent “do you really another option?”.

Percy stared at her. (It was easier than looking at Nico.) “I could steal a car and hot wire it.”

His mom would be disappointed in him - it would just be more distance growing between them if she found out - but he doubted Grover or Nico would snitch. Least, Percy amended, Nico probably wouldn’t do it intentionally. He probably would accidentally rattle it off without meaning to give away the information. Thalia though? She would do it purposefully; Percy had never really fought with Thalia but he knew she wouldn’t fight fair. Thalia would absolutely snitch to get back at him.

“You know how to?” Artemis asked despite being well aware he would one day learn. After all, in the future Percy had stolen a cop’s car and, unless he managed to swipe the keys from the cop, then he had hot wired a police car. Percy couldn’t help but wonder if Luke had also taught him how to hot wire a car in last time line.

“I’ve known since I was twelve,” Percy said instead of mentioning that Luke had taught him. It had been Luke and Annabeth who had picked him up when-

Artemis turned her head to look directly at him. Her cheeks weren’t red from the biting cold unlike everyone else around her. “You’ve grown far from the boy who couldn’t successfully filch a pizza slice.”

Being punched would have hurt less and Percy would know; he had been punched more than once before. “I had to,” he admitted quietly.

That book hadn’t just revealed the future. It had packed away Percy’s childhood, like a toy he had grown out of and couldn’t play with anymore. His mom had tried more than once to get him to be a kid by offering to take him to skateboard shop or-

“You’ll survive this,” Artemis told him. In different circumstances maybe it would have been comforting. It wasn’t comforting though. After this war was won, they had Gaia to worry about. Even if Hera didn’t steal his memories - which Percy doubted despite the swiper no swiping conversation Poseidon had made to Hera - they still had to foster an alliance between New Rome and Camp Half Blood before they truly went to war with Gaia and her children.

Percy didn’t mention that though. He just admitted, “I want to do more than just survive.”

He wanted his relationship with his mom to not be so distanced. He wanted Annabeth to be able to be with him and not think about Luke; which was hard since Luke had pushed them together more than that fucking book had. He wanted Grover to be able to look at him and not look like he was watching a car crash about to happen. He wanted-

It didn’t matter what he wanted.

For all that this was about Percy - it wasn’t about what he wanted.

Silence dragged on. It was more agonizing than a clock in a classroom slowly ticking as the last few minutes before the class ended dragged by. Artemis didn’t break the silence to promise he would. She simply nodded instead of giving some pleasant lie. Percy would rather have the truth than a lie dressed nice.

Abruptly, there was a burst of light on the horizon followed by warmth flooding the area. Percy was thankful for it even though it meant Apollo was about to be here; the less gods he had to deal with - the better off he was.

“Don’t look,” Artemis commanded. Her voice filled the entire area, it was like there were invisible speakers blasting her voice. “Not until he parks.”

For a few seconds, Percy rebelled. (It wasn’t like the Fates would let him die. This was probably like drowning: an useless attempt in trying to die.) The light grew brighter. It hurt Percy’s eyes but so had staring at Apollo’s teeth. Abruptly, there was a tug on his jacket. Percy looked down to see that Nico, despite having his eyes closed, had tugged on his sleeve. Percy fought a smile despite how much his stomach twisted at the gesture; after all, he had been the one to encourage Bianca to join the hunters even though that meant she had to leave her brother behind.

Nico didn’t know that. If he did, he would resent Percy because it wasn’t like he could explain he was trying to keep Bianca from dying because a book had told him that she was dead.

Percy looked at Nico’s face for a few more seconds before shutting his eyes. It was selfish of him of him to play Russian roulette with his life when, if he died, Nico would be-

The light grew harsher. The warmth was so strong it made Percy want to strip off his winter jacket because it was suffocating to wear when it was this hot.

Abruptly, like a light switch being flipped down, it all stopped. The light died. Percy didn’t feel like he was walking desert while wearing too much clothes. Percy opened his eyes. It was his car. Well, not actually his car. It was the car he dreamed of but knew he wouldn’t be afford to afford: a red convertible Maserati Spyder. The car was so awesome it glowed. Only Percy realized a few seconds later it was glowing because the metal was hot. The snow had melted around the car in a perfect circle. Which explained why he now standing on green grass. His shoes were wet. Percy frowned. Wiggling his toes, Percy begrudgingly realized his socks were wet. Percy closed his eyes again. He wanted his socks not to be wet. He didn’t care if his shoes were wet. Percy just didn’t like wet socks.

When he wiggled his toes a second time, his socks weren’t wet. Percy opened his eyes to be greeted with the sight of Apollo.

The god was both familiar and different at the same time. His hair was blonde just like every other time Percy had seen him though this time it was sandy blonde shade that reminded Percy of Luke’s hair. His teeth were artificially white - the kind you saw on billboards for dentist advertisements or tv advertisements for toothpaste - but it didn’t make Percy’s eyes sting to look at his smile too long.
He wasn’t as tall as before and Percy wasn’t talking about the giant size he took on why in the throne room. Last time they had seen each other the god of music, Percy-

“Wow,” Thalia muttered. Her blue eyes were wide. “Apollo is hot.”

“He’s the sun god,” Percy blurted out only to wince a few seconds later. Despite having sex before, innuendos still went over his head.

“That’s not what I meant!” Thalia hissed out.

“Little sis!” Apollo called out. His tone was delighted. Percy wondered how often Artemis asked for a favoring. Knowing her, probably not that often. Artemis wasn’t like other gods. She liked doing stuff on her own which was part of why Percy didn’t dislike her despite everything. “What’s up? You never call. You never write. I was getting worried!”

Percy glanced at Artemis. The goddess looked like she was grinding her teeth. Percy didn’t tell her to stop; it wasn’t like she had to worry about the enamel of her teeth.

“I’m not your little sister,” Artemis immediately corrected. “And I have been fine, Apollo.”

“Hey, I was born first.”

“I thought your sister helped deliver you.” Percy blurted out. He didn’t regret it. There was a petty satisfaction in knowing a myth and throwing it in the gods’ faces that he knew something.

Apollo turned his blue eyes on him. He had a pair of black Ray Bans sitting on the top of his head. They were probably were more expensive than a month of electricity in the apartment Percy lived in. The ironic thing was the god didn’t need them. He was not only a god but the god of the sun. The sun was not going to harm his eyesight the way it would Percy or someone else. The god wore sunglasses to blend in. Only he didn’t want to blend in. If it was about blending in, he wouldn’t be wearing a pair of sunglasses that had cost hundreds of dollars.

“Percy!” Apollo exclaimed and he sounded genuinely happy to see him. The hair on the back of Percy’s neck stood up. To this day, Percy didn’t know what was worse: a god’s apathy or their attention. “How’s the book?”

Grover inhaled sharply. Percy felt the weight of Grover, Artemis, Nico, and Thalia’s stares. Grover was probably wondering how Apollo had been able to mention the future around people who hadn’t been kidnapped years ago. The thing was Apollo wasn’t talking about that book.

“What book?” Thalia asked, taking one for the team by asking what was likely on everyone’s minds.

“I’m writing a book.” Percy said and didn’t explain further. This book was his second but he wasn’t going to tell anyone that. He already hadn’t liked Apollo knowing and now the god had ran his mouth and more people knew. They were suppose to be a secret. A backup plan in case Hera or some other god did decide to wipe his memories.

“I asked first,” Apollo pointed out. His voice sounded petulant as a child. Percy didn’t trust it though. He knew what Apollo was like. The god could flip flop between moods faster than-

“That’s so cool!” Nico blurted out. His cheeks were still red from the cold despite the heat of Apollo’s car. “What’s it about?”

Percy ignored Nico. He didn’t know how long Apollo would accept Percy ignoring his question over other people’s questions.

“I finished it.”

Apollo’s smile grew into a grin.

“You’ll give me a copy, won’t you?” It didn’t feel like a question despite being one.

It would have been easy to blame yesterday’s events for putting him in a bad mood but that wasn’t why he said, “Am I?”

There was delight in Apollo’s eyes now. “I’ll convince you then.”

He said that like he wasn’t a god. Like Percy could-

“Are you done flirting?” Artemis asked, voice sharp.

Percy’s head jerked to her. “I’m not flirting.”

He was being impertinent. Why the fuck did that translate as flirt-

Artemis shot him a look. It wasn’t an angry expression but Percy still shut up. “I need you to escort my companions to Camp Half Blood. I have some hunting I need to do alone.”

Apollo slowly cocked his head. “Do you want company after I drop off the kids?”

Percy couldn’t help but wonder if Apollo and Artemis saw the other as part of each-other; they were twins after all. Or, Percy thought, maybe Apollo was ignoring Artemis’ statement because he-

“Not yet,” Artemis conceded.

Huh.

“Just call me when you want me to join the hunt.” Apollo told her before admitting, “I feel a haiku coming on.”

The hunters groaned in unison. Percy’s eyebrows drew together. Haiku?

Apollo cleared his throat. It was to draw attention. There was no way his throat was bothering him. Apollo lifted his arm and held up a hand dramatically. Gods this was weird. Apollo wasn’t acting like the god Percy had known during the short time he was kidnapped. “Green grass breaks through snow. Artemis pleads for my help. I am so cool.”

After he finished the haiku - was a haiku just bad poetry - Apollo grinned at us. He didn’t say anything. It was like he waiting for applause. Percy knew the god had skinned a satyr for blasting he was better Apollo at playing an instrument but had the god ever skinned people for not clapping?

Silence dragged by. It was Apollo’s sister who broke it. She pointed something out to her twin. “That last line was only four syllables.”

Apollo frowned. He looked confused. “Was it?”

“Yes. What about I am so big-headed?”

Percy fought the urge to smile. He lost the battle with himself despite knowing for all the gods’ sibling antics, they weren’t safe to be around. They were gods after all.

“No, no, that’s six syllables. Hmm.” Apollo muttered to himself. He had raised his hand further up and was now touching his chin.

Zoë Nightshade turned to them. “Lord Apollo has been going through this haiku phase ever since he visited Japan. ’Tis not as bad as the time he visited Limerick. If I’d had to hear one more poem that started with, There once was a goddess from Sparta—”

“I’ve got it!” Apollo announced, interrupting her. “I am so awesome. That’s five syllables!” He bowed, looking very pleased with himself. “And now, sis. Transportation for the Hunters, you say? Good timing. I was just about ready to roll.”

“These demigods will also need a ride,” Artemis said, pointing to them. “Some of Chiron’s campers.”

“No problem!” Apollo glanced away from Artemis to acknowledge them. “Let’s see…Thalia, right? I’ve heard all about you.”

Thalia blushed. “Hi, Lord Apollo.”

“Zeus’s girl, yes? Makes you my half sister. Used to be a tree, didn’t you? Glad you’re back. I hate it when pretty girls turn into trees. Man, I remember one time—”

“Brother,” Artemis said. “You should get going.”

“Oh, right.” Apollo then turned his head to look at Percy. “Ever driven a car before?”

“Considering what happened to the last guy that drove your chariot, I’m good.”

“You’ve been studying.” Apollo said, his voice pleased. He then broke out in a grin. “But not enough. Phaethon wasn’t my son.”

Then why did Zeus-

Apollo winked. “No gold star for you.”

“How will I survive,” Percy dryly remarked.

Thalia made a noise. Percy ignored her.

Apollo, meanwhile, had merely grinned at Percy’s words.