Chapter Text
Apollon tried a few more times to gently prod at the kids, but he could see they were fading fast after he’d gotten food into them, so he let them fall asleep. This trip absolutely counted as an exchange meaning he could call upon any of the trio to repay this favour in the future. And Perseus was technically correct about telling Zeus first, so he couldn’t be that upset.
As they slept, he considered what he did know.
Perseus, son of Poseidon. Son of a broken oath, born at the dawn of spring. He was thirteen, and so far polite and well-spoken. Likely also impulsive and reckless considering the duel with Ares, which the kid had somehow won, which Apollon was, admittedly, a little suspicious of.
All that ocean power and the kid had only known he was Poseidon’s for a week? Yeah, it wasn’t quite adding up, not unless Uncle P was helping in the fight.
Technically not against the rules, but Ares wouldn’t be pleased to hear about it. He was a big proponent of fair play.
As for the visions, Apollon didn’t have enough to go on yet. It was possible the kid had been cursed, but he didn’t seem distressed after the visions triggered, so they weren’t immediately upsetting. It wasn’t medical, and only had a hint of prophecy tied to it, as if the kid was viewing things that belonged to him already - his own memories, triggered in a strange way.
But what kind of curse forced someone to look back over their own life?
It made no sense.
At least Apollon had bragging rights on seeing the duel. Athena would find it hilarious.
He dropped the kids at the entrance to the Empire State Building, idling the car as he considered just sending it off by itself for the last few hours so he could go up and watch the drama.
But Father had been so angry last time he’d done that, even though nobody had even been hurt! The other pantheons had taken the sun just fine as it passed to Europe, like always, but gods forbid the schedule change.
Eurgh. It wasn’t worth it.
“Give ‘em hell!” He called to the trio, and took the chariot back up into the sky.
-
Percy was shaking by the time he'd made it up the elevator. His heart was pounding. He didn't know what was wrong. He felt like he'd been here before.
Why was he terrified?
~ “Finally, I have my lovely daughter home.” The man had a lecherous grin and eyes that roved across his body like Gabe’s did- ~
He couldn't face Zeus, what was he doing?
He was going to be killed.
He didn't want to die.
His feet led him away into the city.
~ “Crawling your way back to us again, Persephone? Aren’t you tired of it? Don’t you want to come home for good?” This man was blond, his smile crooked, cap askew on his curls as he grinned at Percy. ~
He didn't notice, but dandelions sprouted behind him - a trail in his footsteps, every third step he took.
A temple loomed ahead.
White stone marbled with light gray, draped in climbing roses and ivy and honeysuckle and... doors closed. Locked, in fact. He wasn't sure how he knew this but he knew. Before the door, on the steps, was something of a shrine. Sealed letters, flowers, coins, and a bowl that held rich brown soil, all in veneration of this god.
In mourning.
~ “Mother- something is terribly wrong!” He felt sick, dizzy, the worst pain he’d ever felt and then faintness, collapsing into the arms of a blonde-haired woman who gasped and called out his name, his name was~
Percy had something in his hand. A bread roll.
Where had it come from? He looked at the steps - there was a plate of matching bread rolls. How...?
This was getting weirder and weirder.
Percy dropped the bread, backed off, and ran.
It took him a while to get to the council's chamber. Not necessarily because he didn't know where it was (he assumed it was the big building at the top of the hill, and he was proven right), but because his legs were jelly and he had to keep sitting down to breathe. Eventually a nymph stepped forward and took his arm, silent as the grave, and led him. He leaned on her gratefully, feeling terrible, terrible deja vu.
The council chamber felt uncomfortable. Standing within were two who had to be Poseidon and Zeus. The backpack had never felt heavier.
~“You’re not Hades!” He cried, struggling beneath the man whose embrace was foreign, whose arms were like iron, as he dared to crawl into their wedding bed! ~
The nymph helped him inside, bowed to the gods, and then fled, leaving Percy alone with his twelve-foot father and uncle.
Zeus was a man with curly black hair, olive skin, and a neatly trimmed beard. He wore a pinstriped suit, which seemed out of place, and had grey eyes that seemed to pierce through Percy when they locked upon him. "Perseph-," He stopped. Shook his head. "You are Perseus? His child?" He gestured to the second god that had to be his father.
Poseidon looked older than his brother, with white at his temples and lines around his eyes and mouth, but he was neatly bearded like Zeus with dark hair. Straight, and dark and shiny like ink with a hint of unnatural blue, it flowed behind him as he took a seat upon his throne, green eyes locking onto Percy. He wore an outfit that could only be described as irreverent, cargo shorts, a loud Hawaiian shirt, and the kind of sandals that only dads wore. His expression was unreadable at first, but then the corner of his mouth lifted into a smile, and he offered Percy a small nod.
Percy stepped closer, hands shaking, and pulled the backpack off his back. He kept his eyes down as he laid the bag at Zeus's feet, retreated to his father's side, and knelt. Poseidon was unknown, but he didn't feel nearly as terrifying. His heart was thundering in his chest. He felt like he might faint. "I... I am Perseus Jackson, my lord," He said, and was proud that he kept most of his fear from his voice.
Had Zeus nearly called him Persephone?
“Should you not kneel to the master of the house, boy?” Zeus’s voice rolled like thunder across Percy’s shoulders, and he stifled a flinch.
~ “Respect is not earned on Olympus, little Cora. It’s demanded. Keep your head down and always, always be respectful.” A dark-haired woman said with a sigh. They were sharing a bottle of wine in a room full of cushions and incense and rubied light. ~
Poseidon leaned forward in a move Percy faintly recognised as taking attention onto himself, something he'd done countless times with Mom and her boyfriends and Gabe. “The child defers to his father. It is only right.” He said, voice mild. Percy’s eyes flickered between them, then back to the floor.
He tried to steady his breathing without much success.
“I am the Father of the gods,” Zeus replied, reaching for the lightning bolt’s bag and pulling out the metal cylinder, which immediately resized to fit with the god’s larger form. Percy shivered. “The only one who receives deference before myself is Hestia.”
~ “I am her MOTHER. I have raised and nurtured her and taught her, and you claim it means less than you, who has only claimed her when convenient?” ~
Poseidon hummed softly, but Percy could see the tension lines around his eyes. His fingers on the arm of the throne were relaxed, but the god himself was not.
This moment was critical. “Forgive me, my King, Zeus All-Father,” Percy said carefully, “I’ve had little time to learn the lessons of this world.” The words rolled off his tongue strangely, pulled from the place within him that had felt unsteady and cracked since he’d collapsed in the ferryman’s boat. And they left him feeling worse; weak and shaky and nauseous. He wished he’d eaten that bread roll, but it had been an offering to a god. Absolutely not something he could dare to eat.
Poseidon let out a surprised hum. “Did your mother teach you that?”
“What?” Something had clearly happened, but he couldn’t see what, only knowing it had sapped his strength further. He could barely hold his position.
“That was Greek, boy,” Zeus said, brow furrowed.
“But I don’t...” Percy swayed on his knees, but before he could fall, Poseidon was on the floor beside him, steadying him with a warm hand on his shoulder, that turned into an arm around him, and suddenly he was leaning against his Dad’s side, safe, and it was overwhelming.
~ He was sleeping in the safe cave, curled in a bed of lush clover, and then he was awake, a drakon coiled around him pinning him down and making the most terrible sounds. ~
Fear rose in his throat. He didn’t know what a drakon was, but the vision was so real, it felt for a moment like he was being restrained by the huge creature. He buried his face in Poseidon’s shirt, and a strange noise came from his throat, almost a squeak or a chirp.
“Hush,” Poseidon said immediately, pulling him in for a hug. A hand stroked Percy’s hair, soft and gentle. “Breathe, my little pearl. You’re safe.”
“This is not-”
“Brother.” Poseidon’s tone was controlled but stern, interrupting whatever Zeus was going to say. “Later. You have your bolt, let us be. I will get the tale out of him - he is too afraid to tell it right now.”
Zeus stopped talking, and there was a strange sizzling sound, which Percy flinched at, burrowing deeper. Poseidon smelled of salt and seaweed and rot. Air pressure that Percy hadn’t even noticed faded away instantly, and his ears popped. Percy didn’t dare look up, but he knew Zeus was gone.
Poseidon moved, pulling Percy into his arms and onto his lap, tucking him into the warm spot that made him want to cry. He’d only ever felt this safe with Mom before. He hadn’t expected it from his absent Dad. “Perseus,” He said softly. “Tell me what’s wrong, son.”
It was the first time Poseidon had called him that.
This was all he’d wanted all his life. A Dad. Who asked how he was. Who noticed when he was scared. Who wanted to help. A father who stepped up. He didn’t know how to respond to Poseidon’s question, casting around for something more concrete than just ‘Olympus, and especially Zeus, terrify me’.
~ ”I know it was sudden, but I hope you can give me the chance to court you properly.” The voice was familiar. Hades, but far lighter and almost happy? ~
“I keep, since the Underworld and meeting Hades... having these...” His father nudged him gently when he trailed off. “Moments. Where things happen, thoughts come, I do things I can’t explain. Reactions to things I didn’t used to do. Flashes of visions of someone else’s life.”
Poseidon frowned, his hand tightening on Percy’s waist. “Hm. I suppose it is possible you have been cursed. Did you upset anyone on your quest?”
“Do you want the list?” Percy said bitterly. “Seems like all I do is annoy people.”
“Perseus,” Poseidon’s voice was achingly soft. “Please.”
“...Ares cursed me,” he admitted.
“That wretch did what.”
“But it was about my sword!” Percy protested. “Not my mind, or my soul or whatever this is! I don’t think anyone else was mad at me that I didn’t kill - Medusa, Echidna, Chimera. Hades was surprisingly nice. But-”
He offered a quick summary of what had happened in the Underworld. The flying shoes leading to the gaping pit, which had opened up a memory of unimaginable tiredness. The voice from within, beckoning him and his friends to fall with the Bolt.
Poseidon listened in silence, clearly thinking deeply. His face was unreadable, but he’d stiffened. “There are others within the Pit, powerful bad actors,” Poseidon said slowly. “Other than... Father. I can think of six off the top of my head. But... did you feel as if time was slowing down when you tried to flee? As if the very world was forcing the seconds to extend?”
Percy swallowed, and nodded. “Yeah. Like trying to run through mud.”
“The power over Time has been granted to precious few,” Poseidon pulled Percy in tighter, almost smothering him in his embrace, his voice low. “The Fates have not chosen a true holder in our generation. Some thought my sister should take it, as she took Father’s other aspect over grain.”
Demeter.
~ “She’s done something terrible.” the blond man with the curly hair was on his knees before Hades. Percy stood beside them, watching silently. “Please, the mortals cannot survive without grown food. Zeus orders that you return her.” ~
“If it is him? He failed. That’s good,” Percy said slowly. “I got the Bolt and the Helm back, and-”
“The Helm?”
“Oh, yeah. Hades’ helm was taken too. He didn’t tell anyone because he didn’t think you’d care.” Hades hadn’t explicitly said that was the reason. But Percy knew it was, the same bone-deep certainty that had had him protesting Hades' innocence the whole quest. “He’s really lonely, nobody ever visits him. He looked really bad.”
His Dad let out a little laugh, the tension in the room breaking somewhat. “How kind you are, my son. Hades is in mourning for his dear wife, it is natural he would not be at his best. Especially if also worrying over war. Some might have blamed him for the theft, but Hades has insulted me enough times over my own disasters that I know he hates when many mortals die at once. I’ll try and make time to visit him.”
Percy decided he liked his Dad.