Chapter Text
Percy Jackson never wanted to be a god. He never even wanted to be half of one.
It was supposed to be a nice little trip to New York to see Percy’s family. Percy and Annabeth had not been to Manhattan since their daughter Lily was born about a year ago. It was hard for the two of them to get out of New Rome as much as they wanted to, and especially more so with an infant. Although the Titans had been defeated and Gaia scattered, it didn’t stop monsters from sniffing out demigods and hunting them down. Percy and Annabeth generally had no issues when they went out alone, but having a baby with them made things complicated. They hadn’t risked it until Lily started walking. Right now Percy wished they had waited even longer.
“Percy!” Annabeth screamed above the roaring of the storm Percy was trying - and failing - to suppress. She was holding Lily tight to her chest, their daughter crying loudly.
Percy gripped Riptide’s hilt tighter, staring down the roaring serpent and all of its heads. Last time he had battled a hydra, he was in the arena of the twin giants, Ephialtes and Otis, and he’d had Piper and Jason close by for backup. That time he’d managed to vaporise it with explosives. This time he had nothing but his sword, and he was the only thing standing in between the beast and his wife and daughter.
“It’s alright,” Percy said sharply. “Just get Lily away, I can - agh!” Riptide clattered to the ground and Percy clutched his arm, covering a fresh wound that burned him like acid.
“Percy!” Annabeth screamed again, grey eyes darting from Percy up to the hydra and clutching Lily tighter. Percy knew that look on her face - she was planning, trying to come up with a better solution. His arm burned, but he forced himself to pick up his sword and take a few steps forward.
“Hey, snake-face!” An unfamiliar voice yelled out. One of the hydra’s heads turned away from Percy to look in the direction the sound had come from, and received a blow dart straight to the eye. It wailed with pain, then all of its heads turned away from Percy to face its other aggressor.
Percy turned to look and saw a satyr standing off to the other side, blow gun in hand and fuzzy legs trembling.
“Uh-oh.” The satyr gulped. “Uh… help?”
The hydra roared, and Percy summoned all his energy to run and jump on the monster’s scaly back, digging Riptide into the flesh and trying to slice as deep as he could. His injury held him back, though; without enough strength in his sword arm, he couldn’t cut deep enough to kill, and succeeded only in drawing blood and making the hydra even angrier.
“What’re you doing out here, man?” Percy yelled to the satyr, struggling with his good arm to not get flung off the hydra’s back.
“I got demigods!” The satyr gestured behind him, and Percy caught sight of two young boys, both not older than twelve, hanging back with pale faces and holding hands tightly. From a glance they were obviously brothers, though neither particularly resembled any of the gods Percy had met. Besides, it’s hard to guess a demigod’s parentage in the middle of a life-or-death fight. “You’re Percy Jackson, right? Son of Poseidon? I sensed you on our way here and thought you might be able to help, but this is - yikes!” He dived out of the way of a thrashing tail as the hydra kept fighting to lose Percy.
Suddenly, looking at the boys, Percy was struck with an idea. “Hey, Annabeth, take these guys all to camp.”
“What about you?” Annabeth protested.
“Don’t worry about me!” Percy grunted. “I’ll catch up - camp is safest, go!”
His wife swallowed hard, visibly fighting back the urge to shove Lily into the satyr’s arms and join the fight, but she just gave Percy a curt nod. “Come on, it’s not far to Half-blood Hill from here.”
She was right. The hydra had been chasing them through most of New York, and although they hadn’t planned to go to camp something in them subconsciously had made them flee in the direction of Long Island. Percy clung tight to the hydra’s back with what strength he had left until he was sure Annabeth and the others were out of sight, then let go and slammed down heavily on his back on the ground.
The hydra screeched, the sound from each of its many heads ringing in Percy’s ears. How he longed for another bunch of explosives to vaporise every head at once. Unfortunately, not an option right now. Percy forced himself up onto his feet and started running in a different direction to the others. To his relief, it followed him instead of chasing after the group. The hydra had been faster than him when he was trying to run with Annabeth and Lily, but on his own without anyone else around to worry about he was able to move quicker. Maybe not enough to outrun the hydra, but certainly enough to lead it somewhere he’d have a better environmental advantage.
While he ran, Percy racked his brains for a way to defeat the thing. Hercules had done it before explosives were really a thing - he’d figured out a way to stop the heads growing back once cut off. Something with fire, Percy recalled - but he didn’t have that. In fact, quite the opposite. This torrential rainstorm that he had definitely caused and failed to suppress was following him around. Then the sting of his arm reminded him - the hydra was extremely venomous. He could cauterise the stumps with its own venom. Someone had done that before, in one of the myths. Percy’s head was getting foggy, he couldn’t recall the details. The sea was getting closer, though. Percy reached for it, feeling that all-too-familiar tug in his gut as he made contact with his father’s domain and commanded it to obey his will. A tidal wave swept over his head and crashed into the hydra, knocking it off his feet. Gritting his teeth, Percy fought against the searing pain in his arms and slashed through one of the necks with Riptide. He could feel the venom in the monster, rushing through its veins. The action made him feel sick, but he thought of Annabeth, Lily, those little demigod boys. His stomach turned as he used every ounce of willpower he had to grip onto the venom in the hydra and pull it up to the surface of the wound.
The hydra’s remaining heads all screeched with pain and one lashed out at Percy, catching his thigh with another worryingly deep wound. He forced himself not to think about it. Annabeth. Lily. Camp Half-Blood.
Another head went down before the hydra managed to get up to its feet again. Percy turned and ran, hobbling now on his injured leg, heading for Half-blood Hill. He’d given the others plenty of time to get there now, and hopefully they’d be getting him help from among the campers.
Camp was almost in sight by the time the screeching hydra caught up to him. It had slowed down significantly as well, in too much pain to overtake Percy until now. He stood at the base of the hill, turning around to face the hydra. Three heads left, and one of those was the immortal head. He ducked just in time to avoid losing his own head, and with a roar he slashed upwards and took it down to two.
Akhlys.
Percy gritted his teeth as the name came unbidden to his head. This was different. It was. He was only controlling the poison to kill the monster. To protect Annabeth.
Was it really different?
Percy stumbled backwards, dry heaving. He felt terrible. Maybe it was the venom that had already got into him, the blood he had already lost from his wounds. Maybe it was the act of doing this at all. He forced himself to think of Annabeth, safe and happy at camp, sitting by the fire with Lily in her lap and singing camp songs to her.
Another roar. Percy had been too distracted by his own pain to notice the attack, and couldn’t stop himself from screaming out as he took a bite right to the shoulder.
“PERCY!”
That was Annabeth’s voice. Percy saw red. He was not letting this thing get to her. With a roar, he gripped onto everything he could feel within the hydra, everything he had pushed down and tried to ignore. Venom, blood, saliva. He took control of it all, and with a gasping shriek, the hydra was flung off him onto the ground. There was blood dripping into his eyes from a head wound he didn’t remember getting, and his whole body was screaming out in protest as he felt the hydra’s venom being moved through his bloodstream. He ignored it all. Riptide trembled as he held it up in the air and brought it down on the hydra’s neck, burning its flesh with its own venom to stop another from growing back. Just the immortal head left.
“Percy! We’re coming!”
Annabeth was running to him, without Lily now. She must have given her to someone else in camp to watch. More campers followed behind her, armed and ready to join the battle. Percy took strength from the sight of his wife coming to help and dragged himself forward again. Just one head to go, and this one would kill it.
The hydra screeched. Percy roared.
Riptide clashed against the hydra’s teeth. Its tail whipped around and smacked the back of Percy’s legs, making him stumble. His vision was getting spotty. Even the storm around him was starting to sputter. He didn’t have long before he lost consciousness, he could tell. He dug deep, focusing on his body and how is was responding to him. Everything was screaming in pain, everything was slowing down, but he had just enough. He swung Riptide again. The hydra’s screech was cut off as it crumbled into dust and Percy fell to his knees.
Okay, yeah. He hurt.
“Oh, gods, Percy.” Annabeth dropped to her knees at his side. “Will! Will, come quick!”
“Anna…be…”
“Shh.” She hushed him, cradling his head in her lap. “Why’d you do that all yourself, Seaweed Brain? I got the whole Athena cabin dressed up for war to help you, and half of Ares too.”
Percy tried to respond, but his whole body was on fire. All he managed to get out was a strangled cry of pain.
“Annabeth, I’m here, what’s - di immortales. Okay, Percy, hang tight. Uh…”
Percy was vaguely aware of Will Solace - what was he doing in camp? He’d graduated years ago - tearing his shirt off his chest. He gasped as cold air hit wounds that had been hidden on his chest, making his whole body tense up and flood his bloodstream with even more venom.
“Will,” Annabeth said sharply. “Do something.”
“Gods, Annabeth, I… I’m so sorry. I can’t…” Will’s voice was thick.
“What do you mean you can’t?” Annabeth demanded. “Heal him! Call Apollo himself if you have to! Do something!”
Percy felt a few drops of nectar hit his tongue, and he fought his body to swallow them.
“Annabeth,” he rasped. “Where’s Lily?”
“With Chiron.” Annabeth’s voice was terse. “Come on, Seaweed Brain. Hang tight. We haven’t even seen your mom yet.”
Percy closed his eyes. His body was screaming at him to let go, that he’d finally done too much this time. Wouldn’t that be nice? To drift away, cross the Styx and finally take his rightful place in Elysium. No, he told himself. Annabeth needed him here. Lily was barely a year old. He had promised himself when she was born that he would be around for her. He would not let anything get away with his relationship with his children.
Akhlys.
The name drifted to his mind again, and Percy pushed it away. It was different, it was. Annabeth told him some things were not to be controlled. He didn’t make a habit of it. But right now, he could save himself. He could reach that place within him - that dark, terrible place - and he could do something good with it.
Percy Jackson was dying. He could feel it. There was too much hydra venom in his blood now for even Apollo’s children to save him. But hadn’t he just controlled the hydra’s venom to kill it? He focused, tried to breathe through the agonising fire that was burning throughout his body, and took hold of the venom. It took all the strength he had left in him, but he forced the venom to separate from his blood and leave his body through the open wounds that were still bleeding out. Ah, and while he was here… no need for all that blood to be pouring out of him at all. He tensed his whole body, putting himself through more pain than he’d felt in a very long time, and forced his blood to go back where it was supposed to be, inside his body, flowing through his veins as best it could.
And then his whole body lit up with searing, white-hot agony.