Chapter Text
There was something wrong with the universe. It did not actually worry him, nor did he knew the exact shape and size of what was wrong, but he had felt everything being moved. Everything settled slightly over to make room for new things, as one shuffles a few cushions over, done by the loving warm hands of Chaos, their First Mother. And after, everything was as it should, changed but still right, and she left with a brushing kiss to her grandson that felt of every piece of love the reaches of space held for all that had been created.
A gift, was whispered into his being, a gift that would be cherished, that would not be taken from them. That will be our answer.
And so Zeus set out to find it.
He soared on clouded wings, spreading out the center of his being in a search. He could feel where his family was when he did, spread out across their lands but close enough to call to should he need. They had long since given up hiding from one another, and had no use for it, unless it was for one of his son’s pranks or jokes.
The far oceans rumbled in greeting as he flew past, the grand waters themselves made up of his brother, and the core of his brother, a great inferno of divinity, lied in his own kingdom beneath the waves. Poseidon’s miracle of a son and wife where smaller shards of divinity there with him.
Hades, Zeus’s other brother, far below within the Underworld, was a force he could not exactly reach nor feel, but he knew his brother was safe there. He would need to be called upon soon, and asked if there was anything in the underworld out of place.
Hestia, his eldest sister, was with his wife on Olympus. His caring wife who oversaw family and contract and marriage with iron clauses and a sharp eye and his beloved sister who warmed their home and the homes of any who asked.
Below the palaces and monuments, on the outskirts of Olympus in great long fields full of beautiful life strolled his other sister, Demeter. The flame of her divinity was fanned out across the crops, overseeing the growth of each piece that would feed Olympus.
His son, Ares, raging and powerful was overlooking a skirmish that even Zeus could feel in the distance, form divided amongst the warriors who had prayed to him, not understanding the cost of tasting such divinity.
Mortals were all the more willing to destroy themselves in the process of such matters, such is why Zeus rarely showed anymore unless a great slight needed to be corrected with a scar across the land of any who defied or insulted his family.
Above the battle on beautiful wings, circling, gazing, calculating, was his daughter Athena, and beside her the fuels of war built upon passion, Aphrodite. The soldiers would only see them as vultures circling, instead of the great owl beast and delicate terrifying dove that they took the form of.
Soon, in the blink of an eye to a god, the battle would be over and they would disperse; Athena to go gaze upon the handcraft of mortals, and Aphrodite to the calls of love and want, and Ares to where warriors trained and where blood was shed.
Hermes was wandering the roads, the trails of his divinity skirting across roads upon his usual trek. Like the rest of his children, his domain was heavily involved in the affairs of mortals, though he traveled now, as he usually did, for his own benefit. Bringing news and stories with each step, and a trick when he felt like was warranted, or unwarranted.
His daughter Artemis rested in the forests below, under cool trees where her each step would beckon the sound of the hunt. It was mid morning, and she would not emerge to guide the moon alongside her hunts for some time now, but he could feel the way she shone within the hunters and animals of the hunt that.
His son, Apollo, was making his way across the skies already, looking down and watching with his numerous eyes. It was him that Zeus sought, landing in the form of a great bullheaded eagle upon the lip of his chariot, careful not to unbalance his son though it would be rather difficult to do so.
“Father,” Came the warm greeting. More of a many winged wolf than a man, Apollo’s eyes peaked from behind feathers, gazing upon his father with a respectful amount attention, though Zeus could see how he was still drinking in the view his domain. “To what do I owe a welcomed visit?”
“My son,” the storms in his chest purred at one of his beloved children, love deep his tone. “I have received news from the First Mother, that she has given this world a gift. I do not know where it lies, nor what it is, but I ask for you and your sister to watch for it.”
“And what is it?” The gaze of the sun sharpened across the lands, cataloging all it could see.
“I do not know, just that it shall be cherished.” Part of him had hope, a hope that had long sense been squashed after the birth of his final child. A hope that would soon prove true, but he hesitated to tell his family just now, in case he was wrong and their hopes were for nothing.
It was Apollo who saw it, his form brightening into a blistering heat that could not hurt the god of lighting, but instead showed his excitement. “There, father, a shard of divinity. It’s as if…”
“A piece of us broken off,” His father finished. He could feel it now that his son had pointed it to him. He leaned forward and knocked their heads together in affection, before rising upon great wings. “Watch for any others and pray this gift is what Chaos has once promised.”
An answer to their curse.
And with that, the storm left the sun, sweeping across the skies in a rumbling fury. A fury that became true when he realized there was a monster dying beside the shard.
A child, a baby perhaps, something he’d only seen for a single moment with his own children before their divinity took root and let them grow into true gods. It was being beset and hunted by monsters, perhaps even now it was hurt or worse…
And than a bright divinity reached it first, a divinity of power.
One of his family had found it! The gift of Chaos was theirs!
How exciting, if it was truly what he believed, if it was truly an answer…
Zeus swooped down, landing with a storm driven crack, wings arching behind him and greeting on his tongue and churning out of the core of his being for whichever member of his family had found the child, to celebrate together.
He did not recognize this god.
But he could feel, where the bones of his being met and connected to muscle of rain and blood of lightning, where feathers grew in resemblance of powerful beast to howl in the winds of oncoming storm, to deliver his seat of power and domain, that this was one of his. His child. His son.
His son who turned to look at him.
And the world for a moment, stood perfectly still.
Zeus stepped forward, reaching a clawed hand out to him. His son. A son he'd never known, had yet to cherish as he cherished his other rare children.
Oh how he wished to sweep this one into his arms, but his soon to be beloved son took a step back, form shifting in uncertainty, his divine self wrapped tightly in thorny vines letting only whispers of concern and anger and panic out, as if he expected Zeus to strike him down.
His son bared his teeth at him, a leopards mouth on a barely contained human form, eyes shifting with a raw madness, churning and twisting and strange and staring at him, into him, as if this god could undo Zeus with just a glare.
And he could, nearly. Zeus felt his own mind revolt, a confusion growing in his chest. Surely this was his son... Surely this cowering animal, this rabid mortal, this old yet young god, this strange being that held pieces of him deep within the creation of his soul as his sons and daughters did. And his mind wanted to say it wasn’t, it was just a mortal playing a joke, it was just a laughing of the wind, a trick of the eyes, a cackling rage that would bite and claw and ram and do everything it could to rip him apart.
Zeus clung to the knowing, the truth, and fought through this one's power. And it all came crashing down as he glimpsed the shard of divinity.
Curled in vines and wrapped in this new son's arms was what at first he had waved off as a mortal. And than he saw the growing horns, so similar to the golden one that donned his new son’s head, and the sparking growing divinity that churned in the child's chest, a broken off piece of the full grown god before him, cherished and allowed to grow, laden with claims of forest and nature and madness and the many small ties of what he realized could be other godlings.
A mortal, yet divine, gold and crimson churning in the same veins, bearing the promise of others like him
The most important gift besides his family and children that Zeus had ever been given was an almost feral god who bared his teeth and stomped his hoof like a satyr in warning to not harm the other gift of a nearly mortal child who was unconscious and injured.
His grandson.
Zeus would never harm either. He went to condense his form into something more manageable, something to be on the same level his son had chosen so they could talk easier and to not frighten his precious grandson when he awakens. To bring them into his arms and curl wings around them, to guide them into the eye of his storm so they might never be in danger again, never be touched by the sour smell of a monster who’d died, attempting to hurt his child and his grandchild.
He did not get the chance.
Something crashed in the distance, his brother's sea having risen up and slammed into something by the familiar sound. Perhaps just a punishment to a mortal, perhaps Triton having fun, but instead when he reached his senses to check just in case it was something coming to harm his new family, he felt a simple piece of his brother's power that had been grown into a new being like his new grandchild. Another little godling, like the one his new son held. Who stood beside another shard, that he almost assumed was his daughter Athena for a moment, but realized this one was too different than his daughter.
Three godlings. They bore the ties to his grandson, the cause of only three of those many ties… So how many would there be? How many more members of his family would he need to gather, to save?
And when he turned back to ask this of his son, he was gone, in his place was the beginnings of curling vines.
Zeus let out a storms worth of worry, lightning brewing above in his sky. He called to his family, his summons reaching out across the skies and down to the underworld and in the woods and under trees, wherever his family had gone. He needed them now.
And he took to the skies to chase his son. He could apologize for scaring him later, bringing him and the children home took precedent.
Mortal nearly divine children who could die. And his new son understood that too well, his new son was acting, and moving as if there was a threat that Zeus himself could not see nor feel that wasn't the dead monster.
Zeus, for the first time in many long centuries, was scared.
Percy was having a shit day.
This wasn’t particularly uncommon for Percy in all honesty, because having a shit day meant many things for demigods and was actually quite common all things considered, but this was kind of taking the cake.
The chimera was massive, its lion eyes trained on him with calculating fury while Annabeth held the snake’s gaze. Its goat head attempted to keep its eyes on both of them, smoke pouring from its nostrils, though it wasn’t doing much.
The water had doused the flame in its throat but Percy didn't trust himself not to accidentally drown Annabeth alongside his main target, not after his first attempt.
He'd felt the ocean calling him, singing for him, shifting to his beck and call.
There had always been resistance put up against his call to the sea. As much as it was his birthright, he was also mortal, he still had to work for the call, and while it healed him and held him, it still took work to get the sea, which did not like being held down or controlled, to follow his command.
This sea, this young sea that was clean and full of myth and legend, had responded with barely a whim. It had slammed into all three of them, sending them tumbling until he willed it away. He'd been reinvigorated, but Annabeth had been left sputtering and coughing, even than as they kept the Chimera between them. It looking more like a drowned rat at least, which made him feel better.
The places on his back where it had scratched him were nearly healed, leaving behind the itching call to enter the sea and let it care for him. Annabeth across from him winced as she put weight on her burned leg.
It was only his sword and her dagger keeping it between them. They could take it though. He saw the way she shifted, her eyes never meeting his but her dagger repositioning in her hand in a subtle sign for him to shift his stance and prepare.
And so of course a leopard pounced.
Well… to say it pounced would imply it used its teeth. Instead, Percy watched the chimera be rammed into the sea, leaving behind the culprit. A leopard whose long curling goat horns were now tipped in the chimera’s blood. But the chimera was close enough to the water. Percy willed the ocean to grab it and not let go. He could feel the force of the water rip it to shreds, each thrash and struggle as if it were his hands doing it, before spreading the dust far and wide as nutrients for the life below.
He didn’t like that he felt that in all honesty.
The leopard stalked forward just enough to check its work. It was as tall as a horse, with purple gleaming in the spots along its fur that seemed to shift and change each time he blinked and looked away, as if tricking his mind that he had not quite seen it right. When he did stare he realized they were turning, which nearly made him stumble as they drew his attention more and more into the center of each tiny vortex. He blinked and shook his head to get rid of whatever that was.
Its horns gleamed gold as vines curled around the base, and in its snarling mouth, held by the scruff of its neck, was a kitten wearing a familiar friendship bracelet set. The mama cat had its own bracelet as well that matched.
There was a brief moment that Percy worried this leopard had stolen Pollux's bracelets, and that made him angry for a moment since one of those was Castor's and in the time since the war he's befriended Pollux and that was an insult he would not let happen to his friend's lost brother.
But than he was reminded of every single leopard print shirt Mister D and remembered the bracelet Mister D wore in honor of his sons. He than had the realization that first, this leopard with swirling violet violent eyes who growled with every ounce of wild animal and screeching flutes at the remains of the chimera and than began to corral him and Annabeth together closer to the cliff faces was Mister D, and second that Mister D had just saved them.
Gods were not able to save demigods, not without being given something or asked, and especially not Mister D on orders of Zeus himself. That would be too involved in the lives of the campers. Each of them, at most when the god was feeling like disobeying his father, got one attempt, and Percy had already used his.
He also didn't remember asking, not that he would and he didn’t think Dionysus would answer, but here he was sitting on some rocks with Annabeth at his side, watching Mister D check the sky before he transformed.
He wasn't exactly the director they knew, appearing younger, with long hair hanging wild behind him and horns still curling from his head. Percy could almost believe this was who Dionysus was as a demigod, young, androgynous, wild and free, raised by the wilds who turned sailors into dolphins and who had a hoard of mad followers in his wake ripping those who denied his power limb from limb
But he was also wearing socks and Hephaestus designed Olympus crocs—Percy didn't know the difference beyond them saying Hocks—with little wine charms the camp counselors had given him as sort of a joke and had left them pleasantly surprised when he was a fan and wore them, so all in all Percy just decided to ignore the weird appearance change and move on.
"Is Pollux a cat now?" Percy asked first and foremost, because he was curious. Annabeth elbowed him and he just raised his hands, "Its a genuine question. Is he okay? He looks uh… dead"
Mister D fixed him a look, "Pollux will be fine, he will awaken soon. A beast got to him before I could, it’s just easier to carry him this way. I'm half tempted to turn the rest of you into kittens as well until I can find the others but I think giving you all claws might be a bad idea."
Annabeth regarded the unconscious kitten, "Do you know where are we, exactly? When we woke up, Percy said this is Greece but..." She looked to him for his help.
"The sea is wrong," Percy supplied and shrugged, "Its a lot younger I think? Which I would say is time travel but its also... I don't know how to describe it. Its not our ocean. It’s a different time and new power entirely."
It was a knowing in the pit of his stomach, the consuming knowledge of the sea and everything nearby. The waves that washed upon the shore and the sea breeze that reached toward him knew him and yet were different.
Each intake of water into the gills of creatures and each exhale where known to him. The lull of the sea, in tune with his heartbeat, now slowing its crash against the shore as his slowed.
It was different, younger, yet more powerful, more condensed.
He expected Mister D to disagree, but the god just shut his eyes and sighed, "Yes, that sounds right. I met my father, or who I think to be my father, just a bit ago. Tragically he will be heading this way very shortly if we do not move."
Now Percy didn't like Zeus as much as the next guy, but to see Mister D run from him? "Is he angry with us?"
He stole a glance at Annabeth, already seeing those grey eyes beginning to calculate plans with the information they had.
"No, it wasn't anger that I saw," and the god scowled, "But it was not the father that I knew. I don't trust it, not until I know you demigods are safe." He said it like he hated the idea of having to protect them, but he tucked his cat-son closer to his chest and gazed upon them with eyes that held the weight of power, power that curled around them, holding them close like vines do the trellises they claim.
"So we find the others. Do you know how many, Mister D? If this is the past, or if its another world, we need to find everyone. The others might know something." Annabeth said, taking Percy's hand in hers and squeezing it. He willed the water to leave her clothes in a slight, quiet apology for the whole water wall earlier and she gave him a smile.
Dionysus sighed, "Yes, I suppose we must. Especially before the other... these versions of our family finds them."
"You said your father wasn't hostile?" Percy tried but Mister D shook his head.
"If your father suddenly looked at you with love and care, as if you hung the stars... or I suppose created the ocean itself for him, would that not scare you? Your father looking to you and expecting nothing? My father doing so?"
Percy hated that he understood. His father, he knew, loved him in the distant way that most gods did. He knew that because of the few times they were together, when his father looked to him with care, when he had given him a gift to help during the war, when he had claimed him in front of the other gods. And yet it was only because Percy was a hero. He knew that, knew that he was the son a god would want, knew it in the way that he was loved because he was needed. Most gods did so, in the end. Before, they had only claimed children they believed would bring them honor. The best of the best. The rest forgotten.
And even than it was as if it was only the success that mattered, not the pain that had occurred.
Very few gods were different, one of those standing before him. The one who ate meals with his son every day, who Percy had seen hanging out together in the strawberry fields, who Percy had walked in on in Pacman competitions in the Big House, who had comforted and mourned his son’s death and still visibly did.
Percy would have been jealous if it wasn't Mister D who was the father in this scenario but he also didn't want to admit that was a lie as well. He was jealous and had wished and wished…
And if Poseidon had turned to him, expecting nothing in return? After everything, after years of wars and pain and expectations? Suddenly wanting him in his palace after turning him away, after the rare answers to his calls, the years left alone?
"I think I would assume it was a monster tricking me," Percy answered honestly. "But if its Z-"
"Do not speak that name, we are hiding from him, Penny Johannes." Mister D gave him a sharp look that sprouted vines around them, "It was my father though, or at least a version I did not recognize."
"Ew."
"Ew indeed. Now than," Mister D stretched for a moment like he was about to go on a run, "Off to get the rest of you brats than."
Annabeth made raised her eyebrows, "With the king of the gods chasing us?"
"All the better to hurry," Dionysus gave a wicked grin, "And hope that I am still good at what I do."
Percy scowled, already not liking whatever plan was coming, "Turning people into dolphins?"
"Worse."
Percy was pretty sure he wasn't talking about it being worse for him and Annabeth, but he considered it.
Good news, he actually didn't mind being a leopard kitten that much which sounded weird but he was really enjoying his claws and the way he could hear so much more and that in the sort of cool morning air he was rather comfy.
Bad news, being scruffed was not fun. Being scruffed by a leopard with teeth sharper than his own sword was double not fun. Being scruffed and carried at extreme speeds as they bound through a twisting version of their world, as if reality became their labyrinth to navigate and only Mister D, their intrepid mama cat, knew the way, was quadruple not fun. The triple not fun was canceled by the sharp teeth actually not hurting them.
He'd gone limp upon being scruffed, which he was pretty sure, just based off the alley cats he'd helped his mom care for, didn't work after the first few weeks of being alive. He could do nothing but stare and feel the
heartbeats of his girlfriend and friend next to him. He hated it with everything in his being, not being able to move or fight. But he endured, as he always did, and complained in a little yowling voice all the way, even if it was sort of fun because he was a sucker for going for a ride at high speeds.
Eventually their bounding came to an end, Dionysus pausing after leaping up into the boughs of a tree to gaze below, stalking whatever prey had come with them to this world.
Will and Nico. They were still unconscious, wildflowers and long grasses dancing lazily around them as they lay in the shadows cast by a wall bordering a road.
Percy didn't get why Dionysus hesitated, his tail causing the leaves to swish as a low pan pipe growl built in his throat, vibrating them.
He really did not like being so close to a growling god but he could deal with it.
He set them down gently onto the branch, Percy instinctively sinking his claws into the wood which was weird. He didn't like this. It reminded him a lot about being a guinea pig.
At least this time he could defend himself and he had Annabeth with him, even if she to was looking around with wide grey cat eyes. Pollux was settled in between them, delicately shifted by a way too uncomfortably big cat nose until Mister D was sure he wouldn’t fall.
Percy scooted up next to him, putting an arm... paw? Leg? Front part of cat that walks around him as Annabeth did the same. A safety measure, because while cats landed on their feet, Percy didn’t trust an unconscious cat. If Dionysus was grateful, he didn't voice it just yet, though Percy watched vines crawl around the branch, leaves unfurling to hide them from below.
"Whatever the light touches, my brother will see," Mister D hissed, the words forming into his mind in understanding, "It is only the shade that shields these two. I cannot grab them with you three blocking my mouth, especially if he shows his face. I’ll grab them and come back for you."
"I thought you were on good terms with Apollo," came the squeaky mew from Annabeth who than airplane eared at realizing that’s what they would sound like as kittens. Mister D got a cool growling low voice that curled in their brains and felt powerful, and they were the tiny little shits he always regarded them as.
"My own I like, but an archaic form of him? That worries me," Mister D shook his head, ears folding back. His fur rippled like leaves for a moment, unsteady almost, before he steeled himself and leapt down.
Mister D circled them once, twice, and than bent down to pick up Nico first. As he grabbed the demigod, Nico's form shifted, turning into a leopard kitten whose spots nearly engulfed him like a little shadow. Dionysus settled him down again gently, before doing the same to Will whose fur barely had spots, seemingly made up of brighter yellows and oranges exclusively.
Percy looked back and realized his spots were more like a large cresting wave had splashed over his body. Pollux shared Mister D’s swirling spots, though his made Percy less dizzy. He got horns though. Neat!
"Do you think everyone is going to get cool spots," he asked Annabeth, whose spots seemed to twist around her in a pattern that Percy didn’t get but assumed meant something
Annabeth looked at him and than considered it for a moment, "Mister D's domain is also about embracing the true self, so its possible any transformation will always reflect us."
"Godly assigned fursona, huh... what color Dolphin do you think I'd be?"
"Percy!" She hissed lightly, playful and almost like a laugh though it was a bit scary considering in his perspective, she was a leopard the size of him with a mouth full of sharp teeth. She was still cute though.
"Its an honest question!" Percy went to say but noticed the way Dionysus perked up, two kittens in his mouth. Those eyes looked at them in panic.
For a moment, Percy wondered what could make a god of madness worry, especially with how he seemed to have a handle on the situation, and especially how he’d seen Dionysus take down hoards of monsters and mortals alike without even being near them.
And than a large bird talon circled his rather delicate kitten stomach and Percy realized the truth.
Another god. That's what would make Dionysus afraid.
They'd been found.