Chapter Text
When I woke up in the Poseidon Cabin, instead of my room back home in New Rome. I did not freak out.
After all, it’s not unusual for dad to sometimes carry me to the chariot Lord Apollo gifted him as a token of appreciating for his service to Olympus or whatever… he would carry me to the vehicle if I’m asleep, not wanting to wake me up and well… I might or might not have exploited that as a kid, I liked to be carried by my wonderful dad… Sue me.
And he’s so gentle as well! Mom tried her best but as I grew up in both body and age, she eventually stopped and let dad handle it or… handle me to be precise. I can be a little shit sometimes and I’m pretty sure he always knew whenever I was acting but didn’t say anything about it.
The thing is though, he hasn’t done that in at five years, I’m fifteen after all and I thought we had grown out of that phase…
Anyway, Mom’s ankle has never been the best, I had heard that she used a cane for a year when she was nineteen. I found it weird initially because isn’t Ambrosia supposed to heal stuff like that? And my mom’s like a hero of Olympus or something, one of the strongest demigods alive. Don’t get me wrong, I never looked down on her for having that problem… I just didn’t get it… at the time anyway.
As I grew older, I heard stories about my parents and well, they’ve had a rough life to say the least. Apparently, the ankle problem my mom has, she got it from the worst place in the universe: hell, literally. Like as in, Tartarus.
To say I felt a little bad about being such a demon as a child, is an understatement. Suddenly the water splashes, teasing and being an ADHD nightmare and her having to deal with it… It made me feel horrid. It wasn’t cute was it? I knew in my heart that my mom didn’t care at all, and she probably thought it was cute. But me being an anxious 15 year old girl, whose parents probably had like severe trauma and although they tried their best to hide it from me, I could always feel it…
When I finally gathered up the courage to talk to my mom about it and apologize… She laughed. Like actually laughed.
“Oh… honey.” Mom tried to control her laughter, “Come here.”
She opened her arms and made a gesture, I didn’t need to be told twice. I made my way across in a second and gave her the best hug I could manage.
“You’re the most precious thing in the entire universe.” Mom said kissing my cheek, “It is true that you were sometimes kind of a little gremlin growing up…”
I winced.
“But… I would never change anything, okay?” Mom looked at me with her stormy grey eyes that had even immortals quiver before, “Don’t ever apologize for who you are baby, you are smart, kind, caring and loyal... So what if you were a little shit sometimes? I loved you for it and always will.”
I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding. It was scary, really… I didn’t even realize I had lifted Clawy, my brother’s pet goldfish’s tank up in the air. I got her back down, as gently as I could… I didn’t want a seven- year- old screaming at me tonight about how I’m worse than hitler for accidentally killing a goldfish.
“Thanks, mom.”
“Don’t mention it Soph.” Mom gave me a warm smile, “So… About Ophelia-”
“And we are done with this conversation.” I spoke in horror, my cheeks reddening.
Mom laughed. I admit it, it felt good making her laugh, I don’t know why but I have always liked seeing her laugh even as a baby. Maybe I inherited it from my father who I kid you not, he would go to such extreme lengths just to make her laugh. I have also noticed mom always kisses him whenever he does something stupid like singing bad, making dad jokes, being slow and oblivious…
Part of me thinks I was made because he did something extremely stupid nine months before 3rd February 2015-
“I can help you, you know…” Mom said, “I might not be a teenager anymore but I know all about teen romance.”
I scoffed. “Please mom, you met dad when you were twelve, you married the first boy you kissed, and you both are so sickeningly old school when it comes to romance like you call each other ‘my love’ for fu- heaven’s sake….”
Mom blushed. “… Just because we found each other early, doesn’t mean it was always easy.”
“I’m not saying it was… Gods, you guys should have gone to therapy like way earlier but, it was different you know? This is some stupid shit like pettiness, jealousy and stupid grievances…”
“I know a thing or two about those.”
I stared at her blankly.
A beat.
I started laughing actual tears as she pouted. POUTED. I made Annabeth Chase pout.
“Wait no, are you telling me, my dad, Percy Jackson, the guy who would actually submerge continents if you asked on a random Tuesday…. You were jealous that some random chick had a chance over you?”
My mom’s cheeks turned pink as she moved her head to the side, refusing to meet my gaze.
“I… Shut up.”
I did not shut up. I started laughing even louder until my mom turned back to me and pouted… again.
“Sally and Percy have turned you into a New Yorker… Chick? Really Sophia?”
“Oh come on, you love it…” I muttered.
Mom sighed. I was right.
“Alright young lady, go to bed.”
“But-”
“No buts, its 11 PM and uncle Frank says you’re cranky during the morning warm ups if you haven’t had enough sleep.”
“I am not-” Mom glared at me, “Okay, maybe I do get a little cranky.”
“Sweet dreams baby!” Mom smiled at me before picking up a book.
30 minutes later, after I had tired myself from finishing some sketches, I decided to go into a slumber.
And then… I woke up in the Poseidon cabin back in Camp Half Blood. Being a granddaughter of Athena, I didn’t freak out instantly after noticing that mom or dad weren’t here. My brother and I preferred to sleep in the Athena cabin whenever we came here anyway, It was much nicer staying with our… uncles and aunts? Gods, my life is so fucking weird.
I should probably go ask the new Athena counsellor about my parents’ whereabouts. Although I doubt I would have to go that far, we were an event whenever we visited camp. I did feel like a spoiled nepo kid when the kids at camp looked at me like I had slain Kronos or something. It’s my dad dumbass! Not me, I’m not the bane of Kronos. I’m the bane of Jake, legacy of Mars that had the gall of asking Ophelia out! Anyway-
I noticed the cabin looked a lot… different? Wait, It wasn’t anything like last summer at all. All our pictures were gone, my special bunk was missing, all the decorations we had added throughout the years were all gone…
Okay, maybe its time to start freaking out but not yet. Maybe the Stolls are trying to play a prank on me or something? Continuing the tradition or whatever cheesy shit they had said before I broke their nose for making my brother cry some years ago.
I took a deep breath and decided its time to head out. Its okay, nothing’s wrong. All of this is going to make sense soon enough.
I opened the door gently, and slipped out. The summer air hitting me as I felt whole again. There’s just something about this place that felt like home. Even though, I had lived my whole life in New Rome and I love it as well don’t get me wrong, but holy shit man, Camp Half Blood is just something else. I can feel my ancestry here, the divine nature of it and I loved to imagine my parents and their friends as kids messing around in the strawberry fields.
It made me feel things, man. That’s all I’m gonna say. As I took the fresh air in, and cherished the silence of early morning, I revelled at how rare this was. Like this place was noisy all day but this early in the morning? It was so silent. I could hear the sea waves… Feel them as if they were my own blood.
“If I were you, I won’t move a single inch.”
I froze. The voice had cut through like glass, instantly breaking my daze. It came from just behind me as I felt something sharp lightly poke my back.
“What the hell?” I spoke.
“Who are you?” The voice replied.
I turned my head slightly and what the fuck? There was no one there. I could feel the weapon poke my back but there was nothing visible.
“What the fuck?” I tried my best to level my voice.
“Answer. Why are you here?”
“I… I don’t know man! Do you not know who I am?”
“You are not supposed to be here. That’s all I know and if you don’t start answering soon… I will make sure you don’t answer a question ever again.”
I gulped. “Look, I don’t know what’s going on but I’m not here to harm anyone, I swear I don’t know how I got here! Where’s my dad?”
The weapon withdrew and I breathed.
“Thank you-” My voice caught in my throat as the figure who was ready to kill me a second ago revealed itself… or herself.
My mom… A much younger version of her slipped her yankees cap off, she looked about my age. She looked…. Horrible. She was so pale,thin, with scars littered across her arms and her eyes bloodshot red, as if she hadn’t slept in days and was probably crying before I stumbled out of her lover’s cabin. They got together around this time, right? If I’m right, then I’m gonna kill my dad for not taking care of her or worse, if he was the reason for this.
Wait, my mom looks like she’s my age. What the fuck? What? How? Gods, what the fuck is happening-
“You should go to the Hermes cabin. It’s not right wandering off unclaimed, whoever you are.” She said, trying for her commanding voice that wasn’t nearly as impressive as usual.
“A-are you okay?” I couldn’t help it, I hated seeing my mom unhappy. That was like my biggest weakness. She deserves to be happy goddamnit.
She glared at me. Okay, now that was just as impressive as usual.
“None of your business. You are lucky I can sense you are too pathetic to cause any harm or I would have done so much worse for potentially endangering my fri-” She stopped herself. “for potentially endangering him.”
I raised an eyebrow. “That how you refer to your boyfriend?”
Okay, now before you call me stupid, I know… I know okay. I had just potentially dug my own grave. I had just made an extremely demeaning comment on one of the best warriors of my generation, she could probably slash my throat before my brain even thinks about dodging.
In my defence, the stubbornness I have running in my veins, I got it from the person standing right in front of me.
Mom took a deep breath, then another and another. Probably trying her best to convince her hubris to not kill me.
“You have ten seconds.” Her eyes tearing though my flesh, straight into my soul, “explain how you know Percy, you are not an old camper since I have never seen you around and you aren’t new to our world either. Now, you are going to explain exactly what you are doing here or let’s just say… The apollo cabin won’t be too happy with what they find in front of their door this morning.”
I swallowed. Part of me just wanted to break down because what the fuck is happening man, I’m here… Presumably in the past getting death threats from the person I love the most in the world. What would mom do? I don’t fucking know, I might love her more but I am my father’s daughter. I’m hopeless in situations like these.
I took a deep breath, “Listen… This is going to sound very weird and insane.”
She laughed bitterly. “Speak.”
I sighed. “I’m your daughter.”
Don’t laugh.
Mom laughed.
“Are you fucking serious?”
“My name is Sophia…” I tried. “You named me out of respect for wisdom and something like that… I know it sounds diabolical-”
“You actually think I believe an iota of that?” Mom replied.
“Look I don’t know how I got here, I just talked to you… or the 37 year old version of you last night, I went to sleep and now I’m here… I- I don’t know what’s happening… I’m scared please- I don’t mean any trouble, I didn’t mean what I said earlier as offence please- I swear-”
“Calm down.” Mom said plainly. I hadn’t noticed I was hyperventilating and had started tearing up.
I wiped some of my tears away. “You gotta believe me.”
“You seriously can’t expect me to-”
“I know! Gods, please just… what can I do to make you believe. Tell me, I’ll do anything, is there a DNA test here?”
“Look… Sophia. You didn’t even try by the way, that’s a horrible name if you are going to try to fool me into believing I thought of it-”
The blush on her cheeks didn’t go unnoticed though.
“-And I don’t want you to prove it to me because you are lying.”
“Wait! I think I can prove it to you.”
Gods, I’m such an idiot. I’m wearing one of the identical corals dad got mom, me and my brother. He gave it to my mom when they had started dating if I remember correctly.
“This… look at this.” I pointed toward the coral, holding it in front of her. “Dad got one for each of us. You must have it too.”
Mom looked unimpressed. “I don’t”
“W-what?”
“Look, I’m getting tired of this prank. Tell Connor I’m still not going out with him.”
“C-connor? You mean Connor Stoll?”
She laughed bitterly again. “Oh come on, isn’t that what this is? You and the Stolls are trying to make fun of my feelings for Percy. I know he doesn’t care, and I’m pathetic for holding on. I don’t care okay.”
She sobbed, hiding her face with her hands as she took a few steps back.
“M-mom…”
She started sobbing harder. Trying and failing miserably to retain some composure. Then, she looked up. Eyes bloodshot, tears and snot all over face. The view was such a gut punch… I started tearing up as well.
“Fuck you… just leave me alone please… I don’t know what I did to anyone. I’m not the fucking spy-” Her voice cracked as she sobbed harder. “I don’t know why you hate me so much.”
Seeing her like this made my blood boil. To think people at camp thought she was a spy? And that this implied people at camp were making fun of her feelings for Dad? And what about the he doesn’t care. Was dad in on it?
No… There is no universe where Dad would ever hurt my mom intentionally. He would rather die than do that. But it seems Mom was having a hard time in this timeline… I had heard how the first titan war had taken a toll on her, how she was at camp year-round, preparing for the war and trying to keep dad alive. I knew intellectually it must have been hard, but actually seeing it… It made my fists clench.
“Mom! Please wait.” I called for her as she tried to run away. She turned back and looked at me in horror. Stopping her movements.
I blinked. What the fuck did I do now? I looked behind me and oh shit… The water from the small pool inside the Poseidon Cabin had formed a tendril like structure and it was making its way toward me. Well, no going back now.
I concentrated hard and pulled it toward me as it ran circles around my body. I thought and decided to turn it into word.
Wise Girl
This was the first trick my dad had taught me when I was twelve, my mom was watching us as dad wrote the words Wise Girl. A corny nickname he had for mom and she blushed like a school girl, before kissing him. I gagged at them but the view warmed my heart.
Mom gasped. She slowly made her way back to me, still too shocked to speak.
“Are you… are you really?”
“Yes.”
“He… He lived.” Mom closed her eyes.
“Yes mom, and he does care by the way…”
She looked away for a second. “I don’t know anymore…”
“How can you say that? Isn’t he supposed to be your-” I paused. “How old are you by the way?”
“Fifteen. About to turn sixteen next week.”
“Oh… So, we are in That era.”
Mom frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“The Aphrodite cabin has stories about pre-” I gagged at my own words. “pre-relationship-angst… I thought they were just exaggerated bullshit stories.”
“Language.”
And despite ourselves, I laughed and mom smiled.
“So… What’s your name?”
“Sophia Elizabeth Dare.”
Mom’s eyes widened. “Wait- but I thought you said- wait what- you are…” She looked at me and frowned. “You are laughing at me…”
“It’s nice to meet you Annabeth Chase. I’m Sophia Chase-Jackson.”