Work Text:
Olympus (a couple of millennia before the events of Lightning Thief)
In the throne room on Olympus stood four figures cloaked in the shadows with the shadows behaving erratically around two of the figures in the group, "I don't agree with this idea considering the possible repercussions of this." said the lone female who is revealed to be Hera the Queen of the Gods and the male next to her only identified as Zeus the King of the Gods decides to interject, "I don't necessarily think this is a bad plan by any means as this could give us an early advantage, but if you go through with this…you might not see them for who knows how long."
The shorter male cloaked in the shadows to reply, "Listen Hera, Zeus you heard what the fates said, so you know that I have to find his cradle before any of the remaining titans or allies do."
The youngest male dressed in all black armor featuring a quiver filled with a multitude of black and silver arrows strapped along his back along with a greek Xiphos made of Stygian Iron and with Celestial Bronze with the black leather-wrapped handle just seemingly absorbing any light that touched it sheathed in a scabbard on his back next to the quiver that was also accompanied by a multitude of throwing knives along his belt and finished off with a pair of silver hunting knives in sheaths on each thigh, inhales deeply and says with an aura of assurance.
"Listen Hera, Zeus you heard what the fates said that if I don't do this then there is the possibility that everyone I love will die and I can't handle that, so you know that I have to find the cradle containing his soul and destroy it before any of the titans or their allies do and if there is even the slightest chance that I can save you all before it happens then I have to take it."
The two that he mentioned give him looks filled with pain and regret as they know what this could cost him and force him to give up.
"And what of your wife and daughter huh? What am I supposed to tell them? That I, Hades God of the Underworld and the eldest of Kronos and Rhea couldn't save her husband and father to their daughter from going to the most dangerous place in existence and not to mention I would have failed my son because I let him do something as stupid as this and I couldn't save him!" yells the now revealed Hades.
The youngest male takes a deep breath and begins to speak.
"But you did save me. You adopted a boy just barely grown that was going to be struck down by the living kelp that we call the God of the Sea after he killed his mortal lover and raised him as your own and I couldn't have asked for more I truly couldn't have. You didn't save Perseus, son of Poseidon, but Perseus, son of Hades. Adopted or not, you will always be my father in this life and the next, but this is something I have to do, but I will never blame any of you for this should anything happen to me, and besides it's not the first time I had to go to Tartarus."
Hades rushes forward and grabs Perseus (or Percy depending on how well you know him) in a hug that you wouldn't normally associate with the God of the Underworld with Zeus and Hera joining in and hugging the boy they proudly call nephew.
"What do we tell the rest of them? You know that they both will know something is wrong right away." Hera says.
Perseus sighs sadly.
"I will let you decide on whether or not Hestia is told, but I think we all know that Artemis would convince me to find some other way to figure this out or bring me with her and then proceed to slap me repeatedly and Zoë would tell me not to go." he admits out loud.
"Yes you do know how to pick a wife that somehow manages to keep you in line despite all the poorly thought out things you have done, but then again you knew what you were getting into when you married her." Hades says with a chuckle at the end despite the very depressed and solemn mood going around the three Olympians.
"Yep and I am very proud of that" Perseus says with a growing smirk on his face, while keeping his gaze on the mask currently held in his gloved hands, but then sombers up immediately and so does the rest of the group once they hear what he has to say next.
"Hera, I need you to make me disappear from their memories." Percy asked the goddess.
"ABSOLUTELY NOT!" says the three Olympians with a roar.
"You have to." Perseus says determinedly, "It is the only way to ensure that this mission does not go outside of us four and the three fates said they will help us with this, " which is awkward considering they don't normally get involved with these matters, but hey can't complain." he thinks to himself. "I'm not saying you need to erase everyone's memories of me, but create a set of false memories for everyone and I wouldn't be asking you to do this if there wasn't any other way, but this ensures that the rest of you are safe from this knowledge. Hera, I am asking you to do this because I trust you with this task. Please do this for me."
"I'll do it...on the condition that us three and Hestia, once we tell her, we keep our memories as it is, so we can remember you. You promise us that you will stay safe and we immediately restore their memories once you get back," Hera says with a pained expression that you wouldn't normally see if you were any other demigod that she would be distastefully talking to.
"I accept the conditions, but you three have to promise me that you will look after Artemis and Zoë for me." Perseus says with an aura of finality and starts to walk away to begin what would be a journey that none of them could have prepared for mentally nor physically and just as Perseus reaches the doors leading outside from the throne room takes one last look back at the remaining gods, " Dad, Zeus, Hera no matter what happens to me down there just know that I couldn't have asked for a better family and I will always be there when Olympus needs me." with that being said Percy puts on his mask and lifts his hood and opens the doors to disappear into the night not seeing the three Olympians silently having tears run down their face at what could be the last time they saw him and not knowing how true their thoughts would become and how Perseus wouldn't be seen anywhere or contact them for the next 3000 years.
The gods and goddesses of Olympus that night slowly, but surely forgot that Perseus even existed thanks to the help of Hera.
On that very night in Greece and deep with the forest, host The hunters of Artemis and within one of the many silver tents lay a moon goddess, wondering where her husband could be at this time only knowing that he was called to Olympus to discuss something important not knowing that this would have been the last time she saw and remembered her husband and lover, while also thinking about their daughter Zoë's future whose tent was right next to her parents when all of a sudden she fell asleep not knowing that this was the work of Hera and the process of her starting to manipulate the memories of everyone to follow through with Perseus's plan. This would lead to Artemis and Zoë being none the wiser as to how close they truly were as a family with both girls constantly having dreams of a male that always seemed to be with them throughout the hunt's history and with them personally. Zoë would later wake up the next day believing herself to be a daughter of Atlas and a former Hesperide and Artemis thinking that she was a maiden goddess.
Back on Olympus
The hearth that is usually roaring with flames would be seen at the lowest it has ever been as the caretaker of the hearth would be seen crying in her palace after being told by her family what her son would be doing not knowing that she would not see him again for some time.
The Pits of Tartarus
If the monsters of Tartarus were to watch the doors of death open then they would have seen a man disappear into the shadows as soon as they closed. An unfortunate monster that was sent to check out the disturbance would be later killed by Perseus utilizing a blade and drove it through its throat and soon found itself decapitated.
Throughout the years leading up to Perseus's return demigods and hunters alike would report seeing a man dressed in all black saving them from the monsters and either taking them Camp Halfblood or the Hunters of Artemis where they would be safe, but neither party would be able to search for this man as it always seemed like this man never existed leaving most of the council perplexed with only Zeus, Hera, Hades and Hestia knowing the truth and whenever this man was mentioned in the council meetings if you look closely then you would see a glimmer of hope flash across their faces only to disappear when search parties would come up empty-handed. The four gods would always be seen with solemn and sad looks on the day they sent Perseus on the mission and would leave the council confused as to what could have caused them to be like this and would refuse to answer questions related to the matter and Hades even snapping at them at times.
During the events of the Lighting Thief a son of Poseidon named Theseus Parker would tell the council of how a man dressed in black armor saved him and his quest-mates when they were confronted by Ares only to find the war god on the ground a few minutes later, unconscious, badly beaten with black arrows sticking out of his shoulders and chest and bleeding when the area around them was covered in shadows and only seeing a glimpse of the man before he disappeared.
The demigods would later see this event similarly repeated on the quest for the Golden Fleece with Polyphemus being defeated by the same man only for him to leave through shadows before any of the demigods could get a word or question out of their mouth.
Artemis herself would later see this man save her from holding the sky after being captured by Atlas's forces and Zoë from being stabbed by Atlas by brutally beating Atlas back leaving him a bleeding mess with multiple arrows in him and lacerations made from the guardians' bladed weapons on the titan's body before kicking him back under the sky and the man giving them a longing glance once he ensured that they were safe only for Artemis to try and grab him, but ultimately failed when the man shadow traveled before she could do anything leaving the quest members, the three hunters and the goddess confused and forming more questions than they have answers for. They would later find Luke Castellan bound and incapacitated on the throne room floor during the winter solstice and in the middle of Artemis recapping what had happened to her before and after she was captured and the battle at Mount Othrys. Athena herself would not be able to provide an answer as to who this individual was and calls from the council to possibly issue a quest after this man would meet resistance in the form of Hades, Zeus, Hera, and unexpectedly from Hestia surprising the gods and goddesses as well as the demigods. Little did they know that the approaching war has all the answers to the questions that were left unanswered where memories would be restored and a family being reunited after three millennia.
A week after the battle at Mount Othrys, Artemis would see herself plagued by memories where she saw herself in the arms of a man with piercing green eyes and herself holding a baby with green and silver eyes and the darkest shade of black hair on the baby's head and smiling, while unknownst to Artemis, Zoë herself would also see flashing images of her younger self being cradled in the arms of a male with dark black hair and a female with auburn hair and laughing repeatedly at her parents in the memory. The missing man himself would feel the presence of a new hunter in the form of Thalia Grace and smirk at the possible arguments his daughter would get up to with the daughter of Zeus.
Alaska
Deep within a cave in the woods of Alaska hosts a lone man with a short beard sitting around a fire looking at a locket around his neck with the front opened revealing an image of his wife and daughter smiling at a younger version of himself behind them as he hugged them close to his body.
"I will see you two soon. I promise my love." said a tired-looking Perseus whose green eyes were glowing with power and fiddled with a silver ring on his left hand.
During the final battle of the Second Titan War
The Olympian gods and goddesses can only watch in shock as Kronos flashes into the battle and instantly kills half of the demigod forces with one swing of his scythe. The demigods being led by Theseus quickly retreated to the Empire State building to hold the line with the Hunters led by Artemis providing support with half of the Hunters positioned on nearby rooftops rapidly firing their bows in an attempt to push back the titan's forces and the other half on the ground doing the same thing with the demigods trying to feebly repel the attack. They could only look on in horror as none of their attacks or tactics seemed to work against the Earth giant. Theseus in a moment of pure adrenaline decides to rush up to him and fight him only to get smacked away by the titan's massive scythe before he could land a hit on him resulting in his sword getting broken upon impact.
Kronos rises to his full height and starts to speak to those that are opposing him.
"How foolish must one like yourself be to think that a mere demigod like you can defeat me? Do you truly think that poorly trained demigods like yourselves have even the slightest chance of beating me? You might have destroyed part of my army, but I can summon a lot more. And what about your Hunters moon goddess? If I were to kill them right now whatever would you do? Your Lieutenant and yourself would be quite the fun tool for Hyperion to use." Kronos says with an evil smirk on his face that soon disappears as quickly as possible along with a hint of fear when he feels a disturbance behind him.
Kronos turns around just barely catching an arrow that has found itself lodged in his left shoulder before pulling it out with a grunt of pain and the defending forces are astonished to see fear appear on his face, but a look of surprise and barely hidden confusion is found on the faces of Artemis and Zoe.
"But y-y-your d-dead!" Kronos yells with fear laced in his tone. That look of fear turns into a look of panic when he sees the shadows violently pulling the remains of his army apart with shadows and fire intertwined acting accordingly to its owner before forming one massive shadow tendril and violently grabbing Hyperion who was standing next to him and starts to thrash him around and pulls him into the shadows where you could only hear his screams of pain and the body of Hyperion is seen being thrown back out with massive cuts and lacerations appearing on his body and just as he starts to get back up an arrow and a shard of frozen water is seen shooting out of the shadows and into Hyperion's head killing him and making him fade until the shadows are finally seen converging on one position in the middle of the street with the shadows flickering and growing in size until exploding out sending everyone sprawled on the ground.
The shadows still for a few minutes before slowly rescinding back to reveal a lone figure dressed in armor as black as the night with one hand on a sheathed greek xiphos on his back and the other hand holding a bow that was vaguely similar to the one the Hunters used. His face covered by a mask and hood over his face, the only movement he gave was the occasional twitch of his fingers around his bow.
"The rumors of my death were...greatly exaggerated I think, but I believe that we have another problem on our hands don't we? I told you what would happen to you should you even think about harming them, didn't I? I very clearly remember myself warning you that I would rip you apart? I might have failed in stopping you the first time, but not this time. No place to escape and this will be your last. No more allies to help you escape from me this time. No more running!" Perseus says with an aggressive tone at the sight of the titan of time threatening his wife and daughter.
Four pairs of eyes went wide at the sight of the man in the middle of the street and all were accompanied by tears of happiness at the image while drawing massive looks of confusion and shock across the faces of the other Olympians at the sight of the Lord of the Underworld crying as well as the goddess of the hearth who made a rare appearance in battle. The Olympians could hear Hestia and Hades utter the name "Perseus" causing them to whip their heads towards them.
"Do not interfere as the titan is mine. He has evaded me for far too long and I intend to rectify that problem." Perseus said with finality before willing his bow back into the black ring on his left hand and drawing his Xiphos with his right hand, while a five-inch blade made from stygian iron and fused with celestial bronze that was stored under his forearm in a gauntlet placed on his left arm seemed to pop and extend past his fist.
Artemis amid the conversation was confused as to why this male seemed so familiar despite never meeting him, "This male… seems so familiar, but why? Who are you to me?" she whispered to herself, which is heard by Zoë causing her to respond "Milady are you alright? Are you injured or need a medic, should I get your brother? Zoë asks with concern, lacing her voice.
"Any injuries I have can be healed after the battle by my annoying brother later, but for now the male seems familiar, but I cannot figure out why," Artemis says with hesitation causing Zoë's eyes to widen.
"Milady I have been getting the same feeling," Zoë said quietly causing Artemis to whip her head around to face her with shock displayed on her face.
"We will talk about this later." Artemis said and stared at Zoë until she gave a nod, then resumed her attention to the fight that was slowly but surely brewing.
Perseus took off running towards his opponent and shadow traveled directly in front of Kronos and swung his Xiphos wide, while keeping his hidden blade close to his body and punching towards Kronos landing the first strike on the titan forcing Kronos to grunt in pain as the blade pierced the host body, Kronos tried to swing his scythe aiming for a lethal blow but was merely deflected off of Perseus's armor though it did cause Perseus to stumble back a bit, which immediately forced him on the defensive though it proved to be no challenge to him as he had years of experience and his journey in Tartarus helped him greatly, while Kronos due to years of being dormant had started to struggle to continue on the offensive, which was noticeable as he started to slow down causing his movements to get clunkier and more predictable. Perseus noticed Kronos faltering in his steps and capitalized on it by stepping within Kronos's space and swinging his sword towards Kronos's midsection using his wrist blade to parry the scythe off its intended direction towards his neck, causing Kronos to get angry only to suddenly cry out in pain when the sword pierced through his lower back causing him to drop to a knee, but not before landing a punch with all his power sending Perseus several miles back and making him grunt in pain from the initial impact upon landing into a tree.
Percy slowly gets up and releases his hold on his powers and shadow travels back in front of Kronos and parry the incoming strike from the scythe with his sword and proceeds to pummel Kronos repeatedly into the ground, while using his control of shadows to restrain him and his control over the hearth to slowly heat the ichor in the titan's body, while he stabs his sword through the titan's abdomen pinning him to the ground forcing a scream of pain and suffering to come out of the titan's mouth. The sounds made the Olympians and demigods wince.
"Threaten the two of them again through any means and I'll reform you myself just to make you suffer a whole lot worse." Perseus says with a snarl that is just barely contained under his mask before finishing the titan that has made him miss moments of his life that he can never get back just to see him fade to keep his family with the wrist blade finally piercing through the host body's throat causing the titan's essence to fade before putting his hands around the host body's neck and twisting as hard as he can successfully preventing the body from being used.
"Percy." at the sound of his name he slowly turns around to face the people that he hasn't seen in well over a millennium, seeing Hestia standing a few feet away from him with tears on the edge of escaping from her eyes and Hades just simply staring at him in shock and his mouth half-opened.
"You know, if you don't close your mouth then a fly is going to go in there and you'll somehow choke." Perseus says with exasperation in his tone before looking at his parents and Hera with a serious look and gives her a nod to go ahead and start reversing what she did all those years ago.
"I'll meet you in the throne room." Perseus whispers to the pair almost inaudibly before walking away into the shadows. Apollo who has remained quiet for so long, finally says what has been on everyone's mind when it came to the topic of the mysterious man, "Who the hell was that?" his eyes almost as wide as everyone else's who was still recovering from seeing the titan of time being beaten like a ragdoll before Hades speaks up, "That would be my son who I adopted when he was younger and Hestia is his adopted mom, so you would do well to cease your line of questioning until a more appropriate time, now come we must go back to Olympus to prepare for his imminent arrival." he said with a grin on his face and Hestia matching it.
The throne room of Olympus
15 minutes later
"Soooooo where is the supposed brat?" muttered Dionysus, while clutching onto a glass filled with diet coke causing Hades and Hestia to glare at the wine god and made him shrink back into his throne.
"Seriously though, where is he?" Hermes asks, visibly bouncing in his seat due to him being excited about the prospect of a potential new drinking buddy when all of a sudden, large shadows gather in the middle of the throne room in front of the Olympians and demigods and starts to form the reclusive man that is tied to the council in some way.
"I've been waiting in the shadows for quite some time for your information and when did the council get a purple-haired alcoholic? What use does he have for this council?" Perseus with pure confusion laced in his tone and took his hood off at the same time, while also putting his right hand on one of his hunting knives and activating the hidden blade on his left in the event the god decided to act using his ego.
"So, Hera how long should the whole thing take? I'm getting tired of this." Percy said while spinning one of his hunting knives in his hand. That statement caused Hestia, Hades, Zeus, and Hera to look at him in concern knowing how he normally is, but couldn't see his face as he was still wearing his mask, but with his hood down.
"Who are you? Why have we never heard of you, but those four have? How have you been hiding from us for so long? Are you a god?" Athena says all in one breath causing Percy to look incredulously and an eyebrow raised.
"First of all calm down, book head. Damn, I almost forgot how annoying of a habit that is. Secondly, you'll all get your answers in a few minutes...I think." Percy says while looking at Hera almost expectantly.
Hera gives him a pointed nod and points at both Artemis and Zoë, causing them to widen their eyes as the entire council's attention was on them now when all of a sudden they clutched their heads and shake in pain as the locked away memories were rushing back to them with the rest of the council and the hunters following after the goddess and her lieutenant.
Artemis was the first to recover with Zoë following soon after and her eyes went wide as she could finally recognize who the man in front of her was after all this time and quickly shrunk down to human height in her adult form and took slow small steps as if the person in front of her would all of a sudden disappear from her again and stood right in front of him and tenderly reached her hands up to take the mask off and lifted it completely off before dropping it on the ground revealing Percy and the bags under his eyes just barely showed what his journey in Tartarus had done to him, the bright green eyes that she could now remember herself getting lost in still shined as bright as the day she met him and gently grabbed his face with her hands.
"Wha-what? Where have you been all this time? Why did you leave us?" Artemis said with confusion and hurt lacing her voice, tears threatening to escape from her eyes after seeing the man, she calls her husband, appearing in front of her after all these years and only looks away from him when she noticed that Zoë was slowly walking towards them with tears starting to fall from her eyes until she stopped a few feet in front of them before jumping and latching onto Percy and herself, causing the pair to tightly wrap an arm around their daughter.
"I didn't want to. The last thing I wanted was to leave you two for so long, but the fates gave me no choice and I had to protect you all. I am so sorry for leaving you." Percy said with his own tears threatening to spill while holding onto his wife and daughter as tight as he could without possibly hurting them before almost collapsing onto the floor due to the amount of energy he exhausted throughout his journey causing the fully reenergized council to yelp at the scene and Hestia to quickly conjure a comfy chair for Percy to fall back in.
"Gods, I just missed you two so much," Percy said and stood up only to get pushed back down by Artemis who was still grabbing on to him, and Zoë who wasn't letting go of the both of them and subconsciously reverted to a younger form of herself. "Well, I guess I'm not moving then according to you two ladies, would that be correct?" Percy says with a small smile on his face.
"I haven't been able to touch or see you for millennia, so what do you think?" Artemis said while tightening her hold on Percy.
"What about you, Zoë? You think I should stay here with you and mom or do you think you can let me go for a few minutes?" Percy asked while looking at Zoë and her green and silver eyes that very clearly showed who her parents are.
"I want you to stay with mommy and me," Zoë said with tears still falling from her face.
Percy lifted a hand to wipe the tears from her face, "Hey, I'm not leaving this time. I'm staying with you forever. I promise." and kissed her on the forehead.
"You heard your daughter, so I guess you'll be staying with us," Artemis said while smiling at Percy and grabbing hold of his hand to lace their fingers together, and buried her head into the crook of Percy's neck.
"You won't hear me complaining." Percy said, smiling down at the both of them and receiving one back.
After the award ceremony
"And with that done let us applaud our demigod he-" Zeus could barely get that before being interrupted by Poseidon.
"I believe my son, Theseus should be deserving of something more for saving us and Olympus." Poseidon arrogantly said with an aura of smugness just radiating from him.
"Do you disagree with the reward of immortality for your sea-spawn brother?" Hades said to Poseidon with the glare he was giving the sea god saying I believe your son deserves a lot less, so watch yourself and Zeus giving Poseidon a disgruntled look.
"My son bravely fought off Kronos and saved us, so yes I do disagree with the rewards given to him as he deserves better." Poseidon said while glaring back at Hades "He deserves to be made one of us after going on multiple quests that ensured the survival of Olympus."
"If that is the case then I believe Perseus should be the one receiving these awards since he is the one that defeated Kronos, while your son was unconscious throughout the fight I believe, and if my suspicion is correct then Perseus would be the one that saved the demigods when they went on the quest to retrieve Zeus's bolt, getting the fleece and saving Artemis from the Titans," Hades said with Hestia and Hera all agreeing with that statement with the rest of the council just watching on and moving their heads back and forth between the big three.
"To settle this I believe we should ask him as we do have him in front of us after so long." Zeus said with the council nodding in agreement and Poseidon grumbling like a petulant child.
"Perseus do you care to explain your possible involvement in the quests issued in the past few years?" Zeus said while rubbing his eyes as he can already expect what Poseidon is going to do if the guardian's involvement was true.
"Uhmm, he's not moving?" Apollo said while throwing a thumb over his shoulder and pointing at the family that was still huddled together in front of Artemis's throne on the chair that Hestia summoned for Percy.
"I think he's dead," Hermes replied slowly in the event his answer was taken the wrong way by the gods that cared for Percy from the beginning.
"No, he's just taking a nap," Artemis said with her head still buried in the crook of his neck with Zoe in between the two of them, sleeping on Percy's chest. "Do you need him for something?" Artemis said, a bit angry with the fact that their family time was interrupted.
"We need him to confirm his involvement in the quest to shut up Barnacle Beard here," Hades said while pointing a finger at the Sea-god.
Artemis nodded and started gently shaking Percy awake without waking Zoe up. "Percy, love, wake up, the council needs you for something." Percy started shifting in his seat, but proved to be difficult with a goddess in her adult form and a huntress in a 6-year old form on his lap and holding on to him.
“Huh? What’s going on?” he replied intelligently, his eyes slowly opening.
"What exactly do you guys need me for? You don't need my help awarding them, do you? Cause I'm pretty shit at doing stuff like that just saying." Percy said with one arm rubbing the tiredness out of his eyes and the other arm holding onto Artemis and keeping Zoe asleep, while gently rubbing circles on her back and raising his eyebrow at being disturbed.
"Did you help Barnacle Beard's son on the quests he was assigned?" Hades said while smirking at the sight knowing his son missed moments like this when he was gone.
"Yep, kind of had to since my family was threatened with quest number one and three and quest two possibly causing more of a problem in the future, so yeah I stepped in before It could become even more of a problem, but I didn't have to do much for quest number four. Was that a problem?" Percy replied while glaring at Poseidon as he thought of what could have happened if he did not intervene during the battle of Mount Othrys.
"YOU DARE INTERFERE WITH MY SON AND HIS ACCOMPLISHMENTS. YOU DARE STEAL HIS GLORY!" Poseidon said fully yelling at the guardian while ignoring the disapproving looks coming from Hestia, Hera, and Zeus and a glare from Hades telling him to shut up or else he would get thrown down to the underworld.
Poseidon's yelling did cause Zoë to wake up and look around in confusion before setting her eyes on her father, causing tears to erupt from her eyes once more, "You're not leaving again, are you? You promised me, daddy." Zoë said on the verge of breaking down once more while tightening her grip on her mother and father, shocking the younger hunters since they never expected the lieutenant to be the daughter of their lady. Percy's heart broke at the look his daughter was giving him.
"No, no baby, I promise I won't ever leave you or your mother ever again. I swear on the Styx." a crash of thunder could be heard accompanying his proclamation to his family. "I promise I will be right back alright? I'm not going anywhere without you and I'll still be in the room, but can you stay with your mother for a few minutes while I deal with this?" Percy asked grabbing her hands gently and handed her off to his wife when Zoë nodded her consent and held on to her mother just as tight as she did to her father. Percy stood up and started addressing Poseidon head-on.
"You know I can handle and deal with a lot of things, but you know where I draw the line at? My family and I refuse to put the safety of my wife and daughter in the hands of a demigod who can't even see two feet in front of himself because of the size of his ego he possesses, thinking he has the right to dictate what the camp should and should not do. If you think that just because I was missing in action for 3000 years in Tartarus that I would willingly trust a demigod like him to protect my family then I might as well beat the crap out of you to see if I can't find that brain anywhere inside that empty cavern you call a skull, you dimwitted fuck." Percy said, seething furiously, trying to beat down the urge to pummel Poseidon into the ground as he flicked his hidden blades out and grabbing one of his hunting knives.
"Watch how you talk to an Olympian you mongrel and you dare threaten me!" Poseidon said gripping his trident tightly causing his knuckles to turn white.
"Oh, you want to call me a mongrel? Have you looked in the mirror recently to take a good look at yourself? And that wasn't a threat, but a promise." Percy said getting ready to attack the arrogant Sea-god before Hestia jumped in and prevented a brawl between the two to happen.
"ENOUGH! Poseidon, you will reign your temper in or I will do it for you. You were just told that my son saved yours and this is how you repay him? And after being told that he saved us from our father! Attempt something as foolish like that again and expect retribution from the Hearth." Hestia said with her hair lighting on fire giving her a dangerous look and surprising everyone at the usually peaceful goddess's outburst.
"Now, if that is all you wanted from me I believe it would be beneficial for this council to be read in on what I have been doing all these years and my supposed unknown status and need I remind this council that this is information for you and you only meaning no demigods should still be here if you want the report." Percy decided to point out once he realized that this gathering was going nowhere after the award ceremony and that the demigods were still here.
"But I deserve to be here for this!" Theseus said and only did a glare from Zeus and Percy shut Theseus up making all the other demigods think before trying to argue their reason for staying and let their parents flash them out of the throne room and back to Camp Half-Blood leaving only the hunters left.
"Now that your memories are returning to you or should be returning to you at this point then you will all know who I am and what I am. Now in case some of you do not remember due to either being a new god or me simply being gone, let me introduce myself. My name is Perseus Jackson, I'm the guardian of the hunt, husband of Artemis, and father of Zoe. As this council will now remember my unfortunate leave of absence 3000 years ago I was assigned a mission or quest more specifically by the Fates themselves and only known to Lady Hera, Lord Zeus, Lord Hades, and Lady Hestia, which would take me to Tartarus throughout a big portion of my quest, but to protect the integrity of the quest and myself, I had Lady Hera alter and block any memory of myself that would appear to you. This revelation did cause half of the council to start yelling at Hera and Percy for their actions with Apollo being the most vocal at the thought of his sister being hurt.
"Apollo, you will sit down and listen or I will force you to. Do you truly think I wished for my wife and daughter to forget about me? If I had a choice I wouldn't have done it at all and simply stayed with them, but by all means, if you would like Kronos to rise again and very possibly kill you all then go ahead, but if you dare question the depths I would go to protect my family then you have another thing coming." Percy said while glaring at Apollo.
"Now as I was saying the journey took me all the way north and to Alaska for the doors of death for me to access the Pit. I was looking for Kronos's cradle originally and the fates said it was somewhere in the Pit, so I searched all across Tartarus and found it a couple of years later, but I already encountered Oceanus, Hyperion, Prometheus, and Iapetus who beat me to it causing a fight to break out between the five of us. I managed to kill Prometheus and Oceanus causing them to fade and severely injure Iapetus making him bleed out, but I was injured by Hyperion allowing him to escape with the cradle. I managed to leave the Pit and find a place to recover, but I was in no position to immediately come back as I was practically running on reserve energy, which put me into a temporary coma for the next hundred years or so which very nearly killed me now that I think about it." Percy said as he continued his report ignoring the bulging of the eyes of Hestia, Hades, Hera, Zeus, and Artemis at his nonchalant attitude at the knowledge of him almost dying.
"After I did somewhat recover, imagine my surprise when I caught wind of Zeus's bolt missing and that civil war was about to be declared if the bolt wasn't found before the next solstice." Percy said with an eyebrow raised at Zeus, who looked sheepish at his previous declaration of war prompting Percy to go even further, "and the fact that none of you thought of any other god besides father that could have turned rogue got me very confused and concerned for the wellbeing of some of you, so I intervened and beat Ares before he could seriously hurt any of the questing demigods. Now for that second quest, all I did was beat Polyphemus, so that's pretty self-explanatory and I do care about all members of the hunt and since Thalia is your daughter and a member of the hunt albeit recently I do care about her safety, but what took the cake was me hearing that Artemis was captured and that my daughter was going to die 'at a parent's hand’." making air-quotes with his fingers before continuing with his recap.
"which caught me off guard because I was pretty sure that neither Artemis nor I would even think of harming her even if we lost part of our memories, but since the memory altering did happen I didn't realize that Atlas was her 'father', which was a terrible fucking idea, so I also intervened in that as well and the Fates weren't exactly the happiest of trios with me, but I couldn't care less about them and the safety of my wife and daughter matters more to me than anything else." Percy explained and stood protectively in front of his family.
"With Kronos...everything changed because what I didn't expect was for the campers to form such a shitty defense plan around Olympus and for the Sea-spawn to think he can take out Kronos by himself and not to mention that the campers to be so under-trained and for the love of all things holy please tell why the campers were basically caught with their pants down when the battle started? Poseidon your son Theseus whether you want to admit it or not as a child of the big three he has a responsibility to the demigods around him and to be the camp's leader, but what I found was an egotistical boy who cares more about what other people think of him and a boy who does not know when to stop trying to get in the pants of the opposite gender. As he is your son, he should be training the demigods for moments as we experienced, but because of you both Camp Jupiter and Camp Half-Blood have lost more than half of their members due to his incompetence and inability to grow up. Should a moment like that happen again and my family's lives are on the line then your blood will be spilled," Percy said with rage practically rolling off of him at the end and his hand quickly moving to his Xiphos when Poseidon started to get up to retort, but was interrupted by Hades by way of him being restrained with shadows and forced back into his fishing chair.
"If that was satisfactory to this council then I shall take my leave with my family and resume my position as the guardian of Artemis?" Percy said while picking back up the mask that Artemis dropped on the floor from when the two embraced each other.
"Yes, of course, nephew you are free to resume your duties." Zeus said smiling down at the guardian. "Council dismissed," he said before flashing Percy with a thumbs up and disappearing in a bolt of lighting with Hera following after giving him a quick smile and the rest of the council following suit.
"Mom." this was all Percy could get out of his mouth before the adult form of Hestia slammed into him, grabbing him in a tight hug before pulling back and kissing him on the forehead, "It is so good to have you back with us my son." Hestia said smiling up at Percy.
"It's good to see you too, mom." Percy said with an equally big smile on his face.
"Take good care of yourself and I'll visit you soon. Try not to get into too much trouble, son." Hestia said, still smiling as she tussled his hair a bit before disappearing in a column of fire.
"Dad." Percy said, grabbing Hades into a hug.
"Perhaps we should find some time for you to show the old man all your new shadow tricks. Quite the show you put on during the battle." Hades said with a smirk before sinking into the shadows.
Percy took a deep breath and turned around to face the people that kept him motivated when he was in Tartarus and walked back to Artemis, a sleeping Zoë as well as the group of hunters.
"So you want to go back to the camp?" Percy asked a smiling Artemis, who handed Zoë back to him.
Zoë snaked her arms around Percy's neck and nuzzled into his neck making him smile.
"Let's go to my palace since I believe you owe us some family time." Artemis said, wagging her finger in front of Percy with a smirk on her face and flashed her hunters to her palace so they can get situated and rest up before flashing all three of them into her room to see all the previously missing pictures of the three that were framed in her room reappearing back in their original spots. One particular picture caught her eye and moved closer to inspect it and instantly remembered that the picture was taken when Zoe took her first steps while Percy and she were smiling like they were given the greatest gift they could ask for, " which is correct in a sense. We did receive the greatest gift we could have asked for in our daughter." Artemis thought, the one next to it was taken when Zoe was first born and Artemis was holding her for the first time with Percy holding the both of them in the bed.
"Reminiscing on old memories love?" Percy asked her as she caught his gaze and wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him on the lips.
"I'm just happy you're back for good." Artemis said as she kissed Percy again with Percy reciprocating happily.
"That makes two of us." Percy said with a goofy grin, his armor melted off of his body, "Now I believe we should follow in the footsteps of our very smart daughter and get some rest ourselves, wouldn't you agree?" Percy asked her as Artemis let out a yawn at that exact moment.
"Hmm, that sounds like a wonderful idea, my husband." Artemis said, gently leading Percy to the bed as she placed Zoë in between them before lacing their fingers together, giving Zoë a peck on the forehead, causing Zoë to gently smile in her sleep at the feeling. The two parents slowly fell into the realm of Morpheus just feeling a little bit more complete than they did before.
“I fully expect to be pampered by the way.” Artemis whispered, making Percy chuckle softly.
The next morning
Percy woke up to a presence on his chest and opened his eyes to face a pair of green and silver eyes staring back at him. He gently smiled at the presence now identified as his daughter, "Yesterday wasn't a dream? You're here!" Zoë said as she tried to contain her excitement, while also trying to prevent herself from waking her mother who had a smile on her face and was still sleeping next to her father, "Yes I am very much here and I'm staying with you forever." Percy replied in an equally quiet tone as to avoid waking his wife who was still very much asleep to his knowledge.
Percy gently lifted her above him making her giggle a little bit and set her back down on his chest.
"Since your mother is still sleeping, what do you want to do?" Percy asked his daughter who replied, "Can you tell me a story?" she asked, tilting her head.
Percy smiled lightly as he very much missed these moments, "And what story would you like to hear?" he asked, while gently patting Zoe on the back.
"The one where you and mom went on your first date?" she asked with childlike curiosity.
"Anything for my precious daughter," Percy said while gently ruffling Zoë's hair causing her to softly pout and then giggling softly when Percy made a funny face.
"I took your mother on a picnic on the cliffside where the moon and tides met the first time I asked her out, originally, I thought your mom wouldn't show up which made me nervous because I thought I just messed everything up since we were already friends at that point and it would have made everything awkward and I thought your mom would have freaked out and beaten me up for asking her out on a date, but that wasn't the case luckily and she did agree to it and showed up. Now when she showed up she took my breath away mainly because she tripped and fell on me when I caught her and also because of how hot she looked, but everything went pretty smoothly the rest of the ni-"
Artemis decided to open her eyes and interrupt him at the moment, "Are you telling her the time where you forgot all your basic brain functions at the sight of me?" Artemis asked with a small grin directed at Percy and threw her hand over his chest and snuggled herself deeper into his side.
"In my defense, you looked really hot on that night. Gave me a nosebleed if I recall." Percy tried to defend himself, while Artemis just laughed at him, her laugh sounding like music to his ears.
"You know our anniversary is coming up in a few days." Percy responded happily.
"Hmm, do you have something planned for us?" Artemis asked of him and rubbed circles on Zoë's back.
"Yep and seeing as how you and I missed multiple anniversaries and missing Zoë's birthday a lot if you want we can make it a family day?" Percy asked the two females.
"Hmm, that sounds like a great idea. What do you think Zoë? Do you want to spend the day with us?” Artemis asked her daughter, who nodded in excitement.
Zoë hadn't changed back from her current 6-year old form which was something both of them noticed, “Zoë, are you more comfortable when you're with us? Is that why you de-aged yourself?" Percy asked but wasn't complaining since his daughter looked cute in her current form.
"If I say yes, will you still let me stay with you for bedtime when we're by ourselves?" Zoë asked her parents timidly, almost afraid of them saying no.
"Of course you still can." Artemis said with a comforting smile.
"No matter what happens, you will always be our baby girl forever and always," Percy replied, soothing the worries of their daughter.
"What do you want to do about your hunters? You want to drop them off at Camp or let them stay at your palace when we head off?" Percy asked Artemis.
"Since our anniversary is in a couple of days, I could drop them off at Camp Half-Blood before we leave." Artemis said to Percy in response to his question.
"We really should get up, shouldn't we? Zoë, are you hungry for breakfast?" Percy asked his daughter who was perched on his chest with her legs crossed and whose face lit up at the mention of food.
"Yeah! Come on let's go!" Zoë excitedly said, making her parents laugh at their daughter's failed attempt at getting them out of bed and getting tangled back in the sheets between them.
"Alright alright, we'll get up only to save you from getting possibly injured." Percy told his daughter who was grinning like a fool.
"Why don't you wake the other hunters up and we'll meet you in the kitchen?" Artemis offered her daughter.
"Alright," Zoë said before she shifted into the form she used around the hunters and left her parent's bedroom in search of the hunters that were scattered in the living and guest room of Artemis' palace.
"Yeah, I admit that I don't miss being jumped on by Zoë right in the morning." Percy said with a groan and pulled Artemis to his side. Artemis squealed at the sudden motion.
"Come on, if you wake up I'll let you join me in the shower." Artemis whispered in her husband's ea, resulting in Percy shooting out of bed as he followed his wife into the bathroom, ready to face the day and leaving the hunters to wonder why Percy and Artemis were grinning and smiling like fools.
Day of Percy and Artemis anniversary
"Alright, hunters do try not to severely injure or maim any of the campers permanently as I am sure Chiron would not appreciate that. Thalia, you are in charge of the hunt in Zoë and I's absence is that understood?" Artemis asked her hunters.
"Yes milady, your orders are clear and we will wait for Zoë and you to return." replied Thalia, already thinking of ways to annoy Nico.
"Oh, hunters, do try to enjoy yourselves at least cause I'm sure there is going to be some poor soul who thinks he's going to beat one of you in a fight and we can't have that now can we?" Percy said with a smirk as he stood next to Artemis while holding onto the six-year-old Zoë, who was clutching onto his hand.
"Ok, so we're going now, and IM us if there is trouble." Artemis reminded her hunters and walked off hand in hand with her husband to begin the fun part of their day.
"So where are we going first, Percy? I know you mentioned you have something planned tonight, but you never said what you got planned now." Artemis asked Percy who looked amused.
"Well, I thought we could re-visit some places that you love so much from when we were dating, so there's that and after I thought maybe we can go to wherever this little princess wants to go until dinner which I have something very special planned and don't worry, I know you like to keep things simple." Percy replied smiling gently at Artemis, shifting Zoë to his other arm, so he could pull Artemis close to him and shadow-traveled the three of them to the first of many destinations throughout the day.
A few hours after they left camp
"Maybe next time we shouldn't have gone on that ride…" Percy said kind of weakly with a small grin.
"I told you that you shouldn't have eaten so much before we got on it." Artemis replied with a big smile on her face.
"So Zoë, have you had fun so far?" Artemis asked her daughter, who was happily clutching a stuffed animal and holding her mother's hand with Percy on the other side of her.
"Uh-huh, I had lots of fun, but it was mainly because I was laughing at how silly daddy was most of the time." Zoë said with a bright smile on her face causing Percy to put on a faux look of hurt and Artemis bent down to ruffle Zoë's hair gently.
"You know, mommy thinks daddy is silly most of the time as well, but we still love him don't we?" Artemis said, looking up and raising an eyebrow at Percy with a smirk directed towards their daughter and ran another hand through her hair. Zoë laughed before nodding and swung the arm her mother was holding.
"Why I have never been so insulted by the people I love, however, will I go on?" Percy said, throwing a hand to his forehead in a gesture of exaggeration, making Zoë laugh at the antics of her father with her mother laughing along with her. "Anyways we are almost at our destination and I have everything prepared." Percy stated with a wave of his hand making Artemis look around and her eyes widened in recognition at the spot they deemed 'theirs' a long while ago.
"Well doesn't this seem familiar? So that's why I recognized that path and felt a pull here every time. You were bringing us to our spot." Artemis said with a smile which turned even bigger once she reached the clearing and saw the already set up picnic area with blankets and pillows placed around the basket, "When did you have time to set this up for us?" Artemis asked with happy tears in her eyes.
Percy bent down to pick Zoë up and lifted her up in the air making her squeal in happiness.
"Well, I set this up when we reached camp and with mom's help we made everything over the past couple of days and thanks to her, everything stays fresh in that basket." Percy pointed out, happy that Artemis liked it and the three-plus Zoë's new stuffed animal sat down on the blanket to start eating. The rest of the night was filled with laughs from the family and the occasional kiss between Artemis and Percy.
Zoë giggled whenever Percy and Artemis kissed, "Mommy, daddy no PDA." she giggled out and put her hands over her eyes. Artemis reached over Percy, picking Zoë up, who squealed and placed her down in her lap, causing Zoe to look up at her.
"Hi, mommy." Zoë cutely said with a wave of her hand and a wide smile on her face causing Artemis's heart to melt.
Artemis gently nudged Zoë's nose with her own, "Hi, Zoë." she cooed out and tickled her daughter lightly, making Zoë laugh.
Zoë looked around her mother, "Where'd daddy go?" she asked when she noticed that Percy didn't seem to be in the vicinity.
"Can you guess where?" Artemis asked, teasingly as she knew exactly what Percy was doing.
Percy reappeared onto the blanket, behind Zoë holding a cake in his hands and gently set it next to the basket. Percy quietly and quickly put his hands over Zoë's eyes and kissed Artemis on the lips again. "Hi Zoë." he said and removed his hands from her eyes.
"Daddy!" wrapping her arms around his torso, while staying in her mother's lap. "Where'd you go?" she asked with a tilt of her head.
"Well, I thought that it would be fitting to celebrate something that we would have celebrated each year," he said with a smirk.
Zoë had a look of confusion on her face.
Artemis started to hum a specific song in Zoë's ear as she pulled Zoë closer to her chest and Zoë had a sudden look of recognition and happiness on her face. Percy pulled the cake out from next to the basket and set the candle tip aflame before placing it in front of Zoë with a smile. "Happy birthday Zoë." he said with a smile and gently cupped the side of her face before kissing her on the forehead.
"Happy birthday, my little girl." and Artemis kissed the top of her head and Zoë smiled at both of her parents before Percy put a slice of the cake on a plate and held it out to her. Zoë dug into the cake with vigor and her parents soon followed after. Zoë was smiling throughout.
Soon, night fell and the family was done eating, covered, and laying on blankets with Percy acting as the pillow with Zoë on his right side holding her stuffed animal and an arm around her keeping her close to him and safe, and Artemis on his left with her left hand on Percy's chest making her wedding ring glisten in the moonlight and head on Percy's shoulder just about to fall asleep with Percy's remaining arm wrapped around her protectively near her waist.
Percy said and kissed Artemis on the lips once more, "I love you to the moon and back."
"I love you to the moon and back too." Artemis happily said after the kiss.
Zoë popped up from Percy's side, "Don't forget me! I love you two too!" she happily yelled out, making her parents laugh.
Artemis lifted her head off of Percy's shoulder, "And here I thought that you were sleeping, my little girl." and tickled her lightly, making Zoë squeal once more.
"We love you, Zoë." Percy said to her, who simply smiled back. "Now, weren't you sleeping?"
Zoë poked her father in the cheek, "I was, but I can't."
"And why can't you go to sleep? You have your stuffed animal and we're here with you." he asked his daughter who muttered something incomprehensible under her breath.
Artemis looked at her daughter in slight concern, "what was that Zoë?"
"You didn't kiss me goodnight like you usually did," Zoë mumbled out and clutching her stuffed bear tighter.
Percy grabbed her and moved their daughter between the two of them, "Well we can't have you missing that now can we?" smirking at his wife, who returned the gesture.
The two parents kissed Zoë on both cheeks making her giggle once more and fell back asleep after settling into a comfortable position between her parents with a smile on her face.
The pair wrapped an arm each around their daughter and soon followed their daughter into the realm of Morpheus, listening to the sounds of the waves softly crashing against the base of the cliff.