Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

A week after his sixteenth birthday and the subsequent titan war, Percy thought it would be polite to visit his dad. That’s what you were supposed to do with extended family, right? Visit every now and then, chat about ‘oh how tall you’ve grown!’ He’d been trying to get the gods to have better relationships with their kids like him, so he thought maybe he and poseidon could start a trend. Tea with celestial beings. It’s the least the gods could do.

Meanwhile poseidon fears he has grown attached to the — no, his — boy. He’s so brave, and so strong for everyone, and he probably has more sense than all olympians combined when it comes to treating the demigods. Even Athena, and that’s a miracle for any offspring of his. And this newfound attachment for his son has led him here. To the fates. And as he enquires about his beloved son's inevitable future, he feels his previously hopeful heart sink into despair. Tartarus, they inform him after his extensive persuasion and pressing for answers. There’s no fate worse than to go through that and come out back to reality, to a taunting normal where nobody understands what haunts you. He needs to do something, to prevent this. He can’t let it happen, even if it breaks the ancient laws. Anything to keep Percy from that fate. Speaking of the devil, he feels Percy's presence touch into the ocean. It was now or never, no time to second guess.

After yeeting himself into the ocean and waiting semi patiently, tapping his hands on its delicate sandy carpet for no longer than 30 seconds, Percy has resulted in playing subway surfers on his phone, which is perpetually in airplane mode or with a VPN to avoid attracting monsters. He won't drown and neither will his entertainment due to the thin layer of air he encased it in thank you very much. It’s only a minute after that when his father arrives, a factor that his adhd is eternally thankful for.
“Hello, son,” he greeted, standing regally with his trident in his hand, contrasting nicely with the chill uncle iroh vibes radiating from his Hawaiian shirt and tan shorts combo. His greeting was warmer than Percy expected from someone which he can count on one hand the number of times they’ve met. It also held an unexpected somber undertone, making Percy cautiously suspicious. He hopes it's not a new quest, he’s soo done with quests. Or maybe all his hard work is for nothing and Poseidon is going to turn him down right then and there, and he'll never have him in his life again.
“Yo dad, what’s up?” He replies, his worry thick in the ocean's currents as he slips his dry phone into his equally dry pocket under at least 10 meters of definitely not dry water.
There was a long pause, and then, “I’m sorry, Percy, but this is for your own good.” That was all Poseidon said before Percy's world vanished with a bubbly transition that would put spongebob to shame to a blindingly blank white. And thus, all he’d known was gone. Poseidon stood alone in the ocean, the only thing left of his first son in forever being the slowly settling sand. grief burnt through him, for his son now gone from this world, but if he were to wait a second longer for goodbyes, he would have been caught by Hera, which would set Percy's terrible fate on course. Poseidon meant it when he said this was for the best.
———————

As Percy's consciousness slowly bubbled to the surface, the first thing he noticed was the smell. “What the hades,” he said, although it came out more as a loud groan. This was not what the ocean smelled like, more like someone had tried to replicate the smell of Cerberus’ breath as an obnoxious air freshener. It didn’t feel like he was in the ocean anymore either, surprise surprise. What it did feel like was if he had taken a brick to the head, like Jason Grace, although he has no idea who that is let alone why he made that spontaneous and serendipitous connection. Percy opened his eyes to find himself in the dim illumination of a busy city at night, obscured by the fact he was probably in a dark alley or something. He was lying with a banana peel comically stuck in his dark, curly hair, with other bits and bobs discarded by humanity poking into his back and butt contributing to the horrid aroma. His once bright orange shirt is now stained with an impressive number of questionable solutions. He was in a dumpster. “I gone did an Apollo,” he grumbled to nobody in particular. He thought his brain must be more muddled than he previously diagnosed, because this is the second time he’s referenced something yet to happen. Blame it on the demigod dreams. After that spaghetti like line of thought, he heard someone else in his alley. They were obviously good at sneaking around, but being constantly hunted by monsters and his very marginally superior demigod senses (thanks godly blood, ya couldn’t make me a little more op could you? It’d be most useful, sincerely, Percy.)
meant that he could tell he was no longer alone. He kept as quiet as you possibly could in a bin littered with loose unknown objects, not wanting to be caught by some sort of monster.
But it was too late for that, for his grumbling that came unfiltered due to a shortage of brain cells that weren’t zapped from inter-dimensional travel has already attracted one of Gotham’s bats.

Chapter Text

Nightwing was just finishing up patrol when he heard a commotion in one of bludhavens many dodgy alleys. There was a rather loud shuffle that sounded like that one time when he dragged Dami to a ball pit, followed by a loud groan. What sounded like a teenage boy mentioned Hades and Apollo, hey whatever kids are into these days, and also mumbled something about jason and bricks? As soon as he took the first light step around the corner, the mumbling stopped. He must have been made, which is weird considering the only people he couldn’t sneak up on were limited to metas, aliens, and bats. None of which normally roamed bludhaven spouting out nonsense about Ancient Greek gods.
Despite the best efforts of the suddenly silent being, a lot of sound could still be heard coming from a dumpster. That’s unfortunate, landing in dumpsters is the worst.

“Hello,” Dick calls out just as he reaches said dumpster. Inside was what appeared to be a boy in his mid teens, the dark hair and sea blue eyes combo making him fit perfectly in Batman’s adopting criteria. When he saw nightwing, Percy instantly sat up, causing him to clutch his head as though it would roll right off his shoulders.
“Here, let me help you out of there, kiddo,” Dick offered, scooping up the mucky teen with no effort. He kept hold of the kids shoulders as he set him down, just in case he decided to topple into any more dumpsters. “What are you doing out so late?”

Percy was thankful that the strange guy didn’t mention the fact that the demigod was covered in trash. His head hadn’t stopped aching and he badly wanted to sleep. blinking adorably a couple of times, reminding Dick of a pre-coffee Tim, he blurted the first thing that came to mind, which was apparently, “catching a train?”
It would be a pretty smart excuse for being out late, if it wasn’t for the fact that there weren't any trains around to catch. Percy blames it on subway surfers being the first thing his adhd brain could connect to. At Nightwing’s not impressed look, Percy had had enough.
“Look dude, i have no idea who you are or how i got wherever i am, so you can just go back to Comic-Con or wherever you spawned from and leave me to mind my own business,” he snapped, sounding more fed up than truly angered.
Now it was Dick’s turn to be surprised. How could you be in bludhaven and not have at least heard of nighting? And the whole not knowing where you came from? Is this kid high? Something fishy was going on, and it wasn’t just because of the weird ocean aroma of the alley.
“You never heard of nightwing?” He exclaimed in fake offence. the kid's blank face indicated no recognition, so he continued, getting a bit worried now. “What about robin? Red hood? Batman?” The last one seemed to get a reaction, but not the one he expected.
“What, like a half bat person? Would that make them a Demi-bat? Are they some kind of monster I should be looking out for?” Nightwing couldn’t tell if he’s serious or not, but it's clear that the mystery boy did not know of any of the bats, which was nearly impossible. He had to have been living under a rock. Nightwing was starting to think may have bonked his head and muddled his memory. The kid was showing signs of a concussion.

“Look, you don’t seem too well, do you have someone i could call to come and get you?” nightwing asked gently.
“Um, thanks sir, but I got my own phone,” replied Percy, not knowing what to do about this sudden turn to kindness. Noticing the man was waiting for him to make a call, Percy dialed up his mom. This was the safest bet because Annabeth gets very annoyed whenever she’s interrupted by a call in the middle of a monster fight. It’s happened a couple of times since she’s started staying with her family, and boy did Percy not want a repeat.
The phone dialed for a while, and Percy was starting to worry. Mom normally picked up straight away when he called. But, that worry vanished soon enough as she picked up.
“Yello, Olivia from Subway here, how may I help you?”
And just like that, Percy's hopes went to Tartarus. What did this mean? He double checked, and, yes, this is the right contact. His vision was starting to get blurry, and he blinked as a tear hit the screen of his phone, the display reflecting the light to make it rainbow. He didn’t understand. Didn’t want to understand.
“Hey, are you…” nightwing trailed off as Percy shook his head and dialed another number. Then another. He dialed them all, even tried to call Chiron’s office at camp, but they all were all answered by people he didn’t know, if the number was even registered.
“It’s, I, it's like they don’t even exist,” Percy whispered.

Nightwing's mind was racing as he saw what was happening. He wasn’t a bat for nothing, and bats were detectives. At first, it seemed the kid may have just been lost and confused, but now it's clear something much bigger is going on. Possibly memory modifiers, or perhaps time travel. It wouldn’t be the weirdest thing to happen. It would barely phase him if this were a case of dimension travel.
“Your friends’ and family’s numbers don’t work? And you’ve never heard of Batman? I hate to break it to you kid, but I think you’re very far from home.”
The adrenaline that Percy had been running on since he woke in the dumpster finally ran out, and he promptly gave in to the siren call of sleep.

Chapter Text

Percy woke up alone and feeling much better, which is surprising because normally waking up in a strange place comes with post monster attack pain. On the topic of unfamiliar places, he looked around to try and decipher where he was. It looked like an average apartment, and he was happy to see a box of sugary cereal on the kitchen bench. He was currently laying on the couch with an obnoxiously fluffy blanket over him. There was a small wet patch of drool on the blanket where his face rested previously, and some of the fluff had gotten in his mouth. He spluttered to try and get rid of the uncomfortable feeling.

Dick sat at the deceivingly powerful computer on the ikea desk tucked in the corner of the room and ran the kid’s face and prints through all the bat systems. For the third time. once again, no results at all. Nada. He was an enigma, didn’t exist, at least in American records, and the kid definitely had a strong accent that sounded like it came from somewhere round New York. He sighed and decided it was time for a break; he’d been at it since he found the mystery boy, and now the sun was coming up.

Percy was still trying to rid his mouth of floof when he saw some dude scoop up the cereal from the bench and just started eating it raw, like some barbarian. Their eyes met, and they stared at each other for a few seconds, the older one with a handful of colourful sugar half way poured into his mouth and the younger looking uncannily like a cat caught in the middle of grooming; his tongue out and hands in by it. While the older man continued calmly consuming cereal after a bit, Percy rushed to gain at least some of his dignity back.

“Your blanket’s moulting,” he informed the older with a mildly annoyed expression.

“Sorry, my brother likes them so I keep a bunch to throw at him whenever he needs to relax,” the man replied.

He continued to scoop cereal into his mouth, so after a brief pause to contemplate the weirdness of this situation, percy replied, “not that I appreciate this awkward silence and all, but who are you and what the hades happened last night?”

“Sorry, I’m nightwing, but you can call me Dick. And i was hoping you could tell me what happened. I was just patrolling the neighbourhood when i came across you all out of it in a dumpster,, -wait, What’s your name?”

“Uh, percy jackson.” It was a habit to give this information, as those who were asking obviously were never monsters, but as soon as he said it he shut his mouth.

“Nice to meet you percy, could you tell me anything you remember before waking up here?”

“Now why should i trust you? I just met you, and no offence, you just seem like some wacko mortal who dresses up in a wetsuit and goes looking for trouble.”

“I’m a hero.” At Percy's puzzled look, he added, “Also a cop if that helps.”

Percy was very confused. A hero? Was he a demigod who went on one too many quests and decided to crown himself Maui saviour of men- excuse me Moana, saviour of all? And a cop. That’s just… odd. They never seemed to do much except mildly irritate him during quests, but his mom always said they could be trustworthy. When he was really young he remembered having police officers come into class to be friendly with the kids and they seemed chill enough, so what the heck, why not humour this guy.
“My- this dude said, ‘sorry its for your own good,’ like some cliche miscreant and poof, I’m in a dank alley. It’s weird, it was the middle of the morning and then suddenly, pineapples. I mean night, that’s a asdf movie reference.” He was about to reveal that his dad was the one who zapped him, but then thought better of it. How many people had dads that could teleport them?

Dick seemed unphased by that random pineapple tangent he went on and replied, “Well, i looked you up on face’ rec’ and you didn’t show up. I’ll put your name through it in a bit, but i doubt that’ll change anything. You aren’t on any databases, its as if you don’t exist. I’m sorry kid, with that and all the evidence you’re throwing at me, it seems like you are a long way from home. Where do you live?”

“America, obviously,” percy sassed, knowing full well not to give such information to a stranger who may or may not have kidnapped him

“Well, that’s impossible,” Dick said to himself. “Earlier, when I found you, you said you didn’t know any of the local heros. Can you name any? Maybe from where you’re from,” He continued to percy.
“What, like those fictional people who save the day on tv? ...Iron man??”
After a pause to think, Dick gave the younger guy an empathetic smile. “I think you might be from an alternate universe.”

Well that was blunt.

————-

As expected, Percy Jackson’s name came up with no results. Said boy was sitting on the couch now, begrudgingly snuggled in the blanket and listening to the tv while picking at different strands of blanket floof. Percy had tried calling all his contacts again, even got Dick to google them, but it seemed that half of them did not exist, and the half that did lived very different lives. It was something that Percy did not want to dwell on, hence the tv to drown out his thoughts. Sadly, he was still Poseidon's kid. He couldn’t drown, and neither could his thoughts.

Dick was dressed in his police uniform for work. He didn’t want to keep the kid in his apartment alone all day, it was hardly the most teen-friendly place with its hidden weapons and bat tech waiting to be sprung on anyone who was too curious. So that left only one option.

“Hey kiddo, how do you feel about staying with my dad while we figure out this situation?”

Chapter Text

Percy had some questions. They were running around his head like miniature Pegasi after a feast of doughnuts, and were probably more numerous than his brain cells. Were the gods in this crazy new universe? How about monsters? Would it be weird to ask for blue Mac and cheese?

They were in a mundane car, the city rushing past them. Dick had put the radio on but it only seemed to play songs from the 2000’s to mid 2010’s, the energetic, if not slightly cursed vibes making him nostalgic for the times when his only worries were school bullies and Smelly Gabe.
“So, you get universe travel cases often?” Percy said over that epic song which he could only remember by the meme for some reason. Mom’s spaghetti?

“Nah,” Dick said, before continuing despite his previous conclusion, “But a while back there was this girl, and she came from a universe where every hero was in comic books. She was only here a week before vanishing, but i do remember she said she'd write fanfic about us when she returned? Like she wanted to write a crossover with us and her favourite character from a Rick Riordan book.”

“Who’s Rick Roll?”

“Haven’t a clue.”

Dick told Percy about his family until they arrived. How they all were heros who at one point fought beside Batman, their dad. Apart from their butler. Who has a butler these days? Percy didn’t think that was a thing anymore, like slavery and DVD stores.

Percy may have spent the whole time in internal panic. He’d been away from home before, his quests the main evidence, but never this far. This was more than a cross country goose chase, he was in a totally foreign universe. He may not see his friends and mom for ages. As he saw the unfamiliar city slowly transition to the countryside, he felt detached. This was scary and new and. And…

He swears to Zeus. Something accurate about who he sleeps with and how his lightning succs. It’s stupid risky, he knows, but he cant help but whisper the curse. And there was no lightning.

Dick gives him a weird look. “Careful with that mouth of yours, you might offend someone,” he says.

“Nobody on this earth, apparently,” Percy replies glumly.

————

The door opens to an older man dressed pretty fancy to Percy's standards.
“Master Dick, and you must be master Percy. Welcome, may i take your coat?” He does so and continues, informing us, “master Bruce is awaiting your arrival in the living room.”
Percy feels out of place amongst all the fancy paintings and such, and follows Dick like a sunsure duckling to where he presumes this ‘master Bruce’ will be.

When they enter the room, the man looks up from his laptop. He has a mug of coffee steaming on a coaster dangerously close to the electronic. Percy noticed with a smirk that the mug said, ‘#1 DAD’.

The dude stands up and wow, he did not skip leg day. Or arm day and whatever else. This is not a guy Percy would want to pick a fight with; mortals could easily overpower him as he cant use his sword or more desperate measures. He's known since he was small that using his power over water around mortals would have dire consequences. Percy’s eyes roam the room in search of potential exits.

Percy regains his focus just as Bruce reaches him. He holds out a hand, introducing himself like he’s famous or something.

“I’m Bruce Wayne, nice to meet you.” His grip is very strong? And he doesn’t smile like most people do during introductions.

“Percy,” he replies, removing his hand as quickly as possible. His grip was too similar to Smelly Gabe’s than he could handle right now. The past few hours had left Percy feeling the perpetual bad vibes™, which he hadn’t caught since that first week after the battle.

Percy takes a couple steps back and his eyes flick from Dick back to Bruce then the oldest, who he presumed was the famous butler, then back to Bruce. “So you’re Dick’s dad? You just let him be a superhero, or do you make him fight your battles? Because it's not cool to have to fight, dude…” he trailed off, not sure where his sentence was going.

“No, Percy, I do not force anyone to fight. Everyone made their own choices, and despite my efforts to dissuade it, they do fight crime with me. I will never force you to fight for me, okay percy?” He said it kindly, like Percy was a frightened kid that had just witnessed Batman in action a bit too vividly. Bruce didn’t try to get closer to the kid, he reminded him of when Jason had first arrived.

“So, just to be sure, you don’t make your kids do quests for you” at Bruce’s nod, Percy continued, “ok.” He’s feigning confidence, standing strong like the hero of Olympus he must be. Percy didn’t know why, but his brain just wouldn’t let him trust these people. He kept thinking, what’s the catch? When was Bruce going to turn into a monster, when would percy wake up in a monster den from this wacky hallucination. But he didn’t think that even a hallucination would prevent thunder pants from threatening him after that string of curses to lord sparky head.

nothing good ever comes to demigods, so what’s the catch?

Dick, who had been watching the exchange silently, stepped forward, although still maintaining a nice distance for percy. He gave a big smile and said cheerfully, “come, Alf’ will show us to your room.

————

Dick and Alfred left Percy, who sat on the big, soft bed in the big, impersonal room. Alone with his big, never ending thoughts. Dick had said something about going to find some clothes to fit him. Percy tucks his knees up to his chest and fiddles with his camp beads as he thinks about how he is a whole universe away from all that was familiar.

Chapter Text

Dick found Bruce still sitting in the main living room as he was about to head out.
“He’s seen violence before. Those questions were too specific,” bruce mused out loud, inviting his oldest to join the brainstorm.

“‘Making your kids fight for you’... do you think his family was involved with gangs?” Dick counters.

“I don’t know. One problem at a time, though. You believe he is from an alternate universe?”

“Has to be. He’s clueless about heros. The last thing he remembers is someone saying that it’s for his own good before he ‘teleported’.” Dick gestures dramatically to show that he does not actually believe teleportation was what had happened. “So he can stay here while you look for a way to send him back home?”

“Already attached, are you?”

“I mean, you’re the one who keeps collecting lost kids,” Dick hollers as he walks out the door, content that he’s leaving the new kid in good hands.

———————

Percy wakes to the sound of arguing. He must have accidentally fallen asleep, because he is still in the same orange shirt and jeans. No, the jeans were not orange, thankfully; the orange shirt is enough of a fashion crime as it is.
His lights were never turned on, leaving the room in dark shadow, but the door is wide open. Light is spilling in, showing off the new additions to the room like a stage light focusing on the main act; percy and a small pile of what he presumes is the borrowed clothes he was promised.
Brushing his hands through his messy floof hair, Percy tumbles off of the bed with about all the grace of a cat. If that cat were drunk. Stepping into the hall, he can hear the argueing more clearly now, and absently sets off to follow it.

“I aint steal ya’ hairbrush! Do ya know how hard it is to take care a these curls wi’out that f—“ the guy ranted very loudly, but cut himself off as he saw percy leaning in the doorway. “Frack, I can't swear in fronna a kid,” he finished lamely. He looked older than percy by a few years, with the repeating pattern of blue eyes with black hair which was only broken by his white bangs. Kinda like a skunk, that’s unfortunate.

Percy spluttered, “dude, I’m not a kid! Plus, you were going to swear in front of that guy right there,” Percy gestured at the one with significantly longer hair who is trying to sneak away. He looks about Percy's age, and is a bit on the short side too.

Long hair notices his defeat and gives up trying to escape to have a silent conversation with the loud dude, before he sighed and said, “when’s your birthday? And year?”

Percy rattled it off and the loud one gave a whoop that honoured his nickname. “Timmybird is a year older, therefore you are a kid, an I can’t swear in fronta ya’. I’m jason by the way, this midget here is Timmy.”

“I’m percy. Hey, is that a ps2? Dude my cousin has one of those, they’re the best!”

“You should join me and Timbo for a round of singstar”

“Its tim,” Timmy sighs in defeat, “but yea, that’d be great. Jason needs to loosen up, anyway.”

Percy notices Jason tug at the white strand of hair when he loses one of the matches and decides to try to get a little small talk started that isn’t yelling about whatever game they’ve moved on to. “Hey, i got one too,” Percy exclaims with a bright smile, picking out the light grey strand from where he knows it stands out against his dark hair. “Twinsies.” His smile drops a bit at that. Annabeth was his twin in this aspect before, even if it didn’t show very well against her bright blonde curls.

Jason and tim stare at percy, and jason looks very taken aback. “Whaa—where on earth could ya’ get that from?” Asks jason.

The person from an alternate earth ignores the ‘where on earth’ irony.

“Weight of the sky on my shoulders, dude,” percy said in a solemn yet teasing tone, fully not expecting anyone to take it literally.

Jason crosses his arms and tilts his chin up, proclaiming, “Pshhh, well, mine’s from dyin’, I win.”

Percy didn’t know what to do except burst out laughing at that, and Jason and Tim were quick to follow suit.

——-

“Have you boys seen percy, he wasn’t in his room.” Bruce walks into the room to find his kids lounging comfortably on the couch, very concentrated on a tense lego Star Wars battle. He almost didn’t notice the third kid was not his own, he looked so at home. But when bruce spoke up, he stiffened and whips his head around.

“The door was open. I was bored.” Percy goes for nonchalant, but it comes out more defensive. He tries to read Bruce’s face for any sign of how he will react. His face is the definition of calm, which is very dangerous on some. ‘Honey, you got a big storm coming,’ percy thinks.

“I’m sorry, I was worried you had got lost. You’re not locked up here.”

Percy didn’t know what to say about that.

“Ok.” He decides on, and glares at Bruce, just because.

“Lunch is ready,” Bruce states. Jason and Tim whoop and race themselves out the door into the maze of a house. Leaving him alone with Bruce.

“Look, about the food, I don’t have anything to offer you in return, so you don’t have to bother. I’ll, just, …”

Bruce reaches a hand out to put on Percy’s shoulder but the boy slips away from it as if it were a sword.

“Don’t worry, Percy, there’s plenty of food, and nobody will request anything from you in return. All we ask is that you do eat with us, the boys really enjoy having you here.”

Percy thinks that’s silly. How would Bruce know if Jason and Tim liked him being here? They’d only played one game, and Jason and Tim haven’t said anything to Bruce about what they think of him. He’s hardly earned their friendship. But the man has asked him to show up to eat, so that’s what Percy does.

—————-

Something happens during lunch. Percy’s been really stressed lately, that’s his excuse.
Percy zones out after he finishes eating to his ful and uses his powers to swirl the water in his glass. It’s something Gabe never noticed, and nobody at any of the military boarding schools he went to knew about it either. This was the only way he allowed himself to use his powers before he went on quests, because if Gabe or a teacher caught him doing anything like that he would be dead. But he gets a migraine worthy of Zeus if he spends too long holding it in. this was a safe way he could unwind.
What percy didn’t account for was that these people are more observant than gabe.

“What’s up with your glass, percy?” Asks bruce.

The glass breaks as the water reacts with percy. He’s been found out. And suddenly, he’s not there. He’s back with Gabe, when he first discovered his scum of a step kid is a freak. He’s back at one of the many military schools he went to which let beatings pass. Harsh words about being a freak, dangerous, unwanted, echo over everything, and Percy needs to get away. Away. A w a y.

He runs to a bathroom or something, he’s not entirely sure because one second there’s the dining room with everyone staring and the next he’s on the cold tile floor. He doesn’t calm down as he usually does. He wonders what’s wrong with himself.
He finds it hard to breathe, it's like his first quest, where he was near the entrance of Tartarus. Or maybe he’s in the Styx again.
Can’t breathe. Nobody’s there to pull him back this time, he’s alone.
Can’t breathe. Will he ever be normal? He hates being weak, get it together. But he just broke a glass, using his powers, and he’s not got his friends to help him through this.

The toilet gurgles threateningly.

Then everything explodes.