Chapter Text
His mother just gave up her son, Percy's little brother. She let them take him, gave him willingly despite Percy's protests.
That was his last straw.
That night Percy cried in his room, thinking his little brother was dead, that Percy's never going see him again. That's when he decided to run from home.
Just at the age of 9 he run and never came back. And 3 years later he met a boy, a 14 years old son of Hermes, with whom he became really close his name was Luke and he learned from him that he run away because his mother wasn't stable enough to take care of him.
After their recounter with Halcyon Green, who they learned was a cursed son of Apollo, Percy and Luke find a 7 year old girl alone, Annabeth, she tells them that she run away from he home just like Luke and Percy did and that her mother Athena guided her towards them. They decide to unofficially adopt her into their little family.
Together they escape monsters, find food and search for a safe space. Boys deeply care for Annabeth and look after her as much as they can protecting her from the bad things of the world while they both struggle with the every days of the world.
They stumble upon Hunters of Artemis who tries to recruit Annabeth. Percy gets into the argument with one of them, her name is Zoe Nightshade, and she tells him that he'll be hurt by the one he now holds deeply in his heart.
While hunting for a food, they meet a satyr Grover who fell into their trap. Grover tells them who he truly is and that he's here to take them to a safe place.
Percy's never been happier to hear that there's a save place for people like them and that there they would never have to worry again about monsters and his family being in danger.
He would never ever have to worry about that and mostly important he would be safe there with his little sister and Luke who he developed a little crush on. His family would be safe and that all he cared about so he let the satyr take them to camp.
But of course, when they were getting closer to camp more monsters started to show up until there was literal few dozen monsters chasing them as they got closer and closer.
And they would've make it across the border if Annabeth didn't twist her ankle near the border of camp. So Percy did the only thing he could think of at the moment.
"Luke! take Annabeth and Grover and run. They won't get you when you cross the border" Percy screamed toward Luke who was helping Annabeth stand, but just as he heard Percy he turned towards him and began protesting, refusing to let Percy sacrifice himself.
"Don't say this Percy! You're going with us. I can't let you die like this!" Luke protests refusing to acknowledge that Percy might die. " You- we made it this far, you can't just die like this! I can take Annabeth and we can all cross the border!"
"You know it won't work Luke! They're too fast we won't be able to cross the border in time before they catch up to us" Percy slows down and take his sword out, ready to hold off the monsters so his family can get safe into camp
"Percy please! I just can't let it end like this! You don't have to die just come with us we can get there in time" Luke tries desperately as he shifts Annabeth's weight on his back
''Wake up Luke! we won't be able to cross the border in time together, i'll hold them off and you can take Annabeth and Grover and run" He looks at Luke last time, tears streaming down his face as he runs to fight the monsters buying his family time "Run Luke!"
Luke looks at Percy knowing it's the last time he'll be able to see him alive, tears streaming down his face as he runs with Annabeth on his back and Grover beside him.
The last thing he sees he sees is Percy being thrown across the field, his body slamming hard into the ground, Luke can see life drifting away from Percy.
But then a miracle happens, a lightning hits place when Percy's dying form is and from his body a tree starts to grow, a Pine Tree. Zeus himself took pity on his son and to prevent him from dying he turned his son into a tree which now will be keeping camp safe from monsters.
Luke never cried harder as he took steps further into camp with Annabeth on his back and Grover next to him. Soon enough they saw a group of children running towards them to help.
The last thing Luke registers is some boy taking Annabeth from his back, and he feels himself falling, vision turning black and someone catching him.
When Luke finally wakes up he takes a notices that no one else is there save for some blond boy sitting on a chair, close enough to Luke's bed, sleeping. All the memories from the day before came running to him. All three of them running away from monsters towards the camp. Annabeth twisting her ankle and slowing them down. Percy's sacrifice. Percy's death. It should've been Luke who died if only he wasn't a coward Percy would've lived .Zeus turning Percy into a tree.
He feels tears streaming down his face, the emotions overwhelming, grief catching to him realizing that he lost the most important person in his life, the love of his life. He chokes on his tears trying to be quiet so he doesn't accidentally wake the sleeping boy. And it worked for a few minutes until Luke made a little louder noise that unfortunately woke the blond boy.
"Hi! You're finally awake, are you feeling alright?" The blond boy rose from his seat and finally looked at Luke, his smile faded away replaced with concern. "Oh. I'm so sorry, if that's no problem you can tell me I'm a pretty good listener." He sits on the edge of Luke's bed looking at him with sad smile. "Name's Lee Fletcher son of Apollo"
"Luke- Luke Castellan son of... Hermes" He stutters out looking at his shaking hand trying to calm down his breathing with the tears that were running down his cheeks just before. "My friend... best friend Percy Jackson died trying to save me and our little sister Annabeth" Luke chokes out desperately holding onto the last memories he has with his now dead friend, Lee looked at the boy before him with pity and understanding smiling gently and encouraging him to talk more and let it all out. "He was a son of Zeus. His father looked after him until he found me and then we met Annabeth and-" He gags on his tears making it harder to speak "And gods he was the sweetest, he took care of her and protected her, I loved him oh how i loved him and- and now he's gone forever and all I have left of him is a stupid tree" The son of Apollo holds him through it as Luke spills all out crying his grief away.
" I know that whatever i say will not make the grief and longing for your friend go away, but thanks to your friends sacrifice the children here and thee upcoming will be save from monsters because Percy is now looking after and protecting the camp, so his sacrifice won't go to vain"