Chapter Text
Percy blinks and the overwhelming brightness that had been blinding his vision clears, overtaken by a looming darkness. As the world around him starts to come into focus, he realizes that he isn't in the underworld. He isn't even in Tartarus.
Percy breathes. It's deep bringing his lungs clean, fresh air. He could practically feel the molecules of humidity separating from the air, revitalizing him in a way only a child of Poseidon would understand. He was alive and still sitting right where he had been before he thought he had died.
That was when his brain finally caught up with what his vision had focused in on. The reason that the brightness had went away was not because he was smote and his long torturous life had come to an end, rather, it was because someone was casting a shadow over him.
Someone was standing directly in front of him.
Someone had stopped the masterbolt.
For Percy.
Percy looks at the deity in front of him and he knows. How could he not know? This back. The stature, the hair, the tan, the trident.
Poseidon had practically teleported in front of Percy, using his trident to deflect the strike.
Except it wasn't only Poseidon who had made a move as the masterbolt was hurled toward him. If Percy could see around Poseidon's figure he would have seen the evidence of the Olympian's impulsive reactions.
The mess they made of the pristine throne room painting a picture of the chaos and split second decisions made by the gods. Dionysus' grapes had been hurled across the room in various directions in an instinctive panic, the bowl flipping from his grasp as he reached his arms out in defensive surprise. Artemis' favorite arrow firmly penetrated into the decadent marble roof, her bow tight in her grasp with a harried look on her face, like she had been startled. Phoebus had abruptly stood from his now white hot throne with an ashen face, his eyes wide and his hands in fists at his side. Hermes was panting like a mortal after being denied oxygen, his brows creased in worry as he clutches his caduceus tightly with both hands. All of these things had happened in sync.
Without a single one of the gods actually moving an inch away from their thrones, it still felt like they had as their aura in the room expanded. Even the gods who were nonplussed by the masterbolt being hurled across the throne room. This was a rare display of the danger their emotions posed, the suffocating aura of a room filled with gods who were internally disagreeing.
Meanwhile, completely oblivious to this Percy whispers, "Dad?" his tone filled with something akin to hope.
However, it is apparent that Poseidon doesn't hear him. Not now, not when he is faced against his younger brother during one of his more murderous moods. Not when Poseidon is desperately trying to come to terms with a slew of things that shouldn't make sense and yet somehow do. Not when he can feel the desperate ache in his chest at the mere thought of Percy being injured because of Zeus.
Poseidon pinned his brother with a dangerous scowl, an overwhelming smell of sea salt filled the air threateningly, actively warring with the scent of ozone.
"HOW DARE YOU?" Poseidon bellows and the words seem to swallow the room whole like a tsunami wave enveloping a shoreline.
"Poseidon. Step aside at once. Must I remind you once more that you have no claim to the boy? You wanted nothing to do with him." Zeus retorts coldly.
Percy fought the urge to wince, he had picked up on an odd attitude from this time's Poseidon, but did the past version of his father truly not want to admit that Percy was his? Was there something that fundamentally turned Poseidon away from him? He knows his Dad, he knows how much he cares about all of his kids. Why would this Poseidon have written him off so easily?
Was there something rotten in him, something sinister that he had long feared was there? Something that this Poseidon could see? Was his father lying when Percy had laid in the hospital bed on Olympus? All those gentle reassurances that he was okay and safe; the promises that everything was going to be fine?
He remembers so clearly, when his father had sat at his bedside looking at Percy in such genuine concern. Percy hadn't spoken yet at that point. He remembers the mutterings happening outside his room in Apollo's temple, that no one thought he could hear. They thought he might be mute and thinking back perhaps Percy did go through a temporary bout of selective mutism. He remembers those first couple days where he did nothing but stare at the wall blankly. Trying and failing to come to terms with everything that felt broken inside him. He remembered how Poseidon sat there dutifully, stroking his hair back with a level of care Percy didn't really think a god was capable of, even his father.
The words that had been mumbled to him ring in his head in a whisper, "I've been working on your room. I thought some necessary adjustments had to be made to it. It felt too much like a plain guest room. I don't ever want you to feel like a guest in Atlantis, Percy. I hope, once you're better, once we figure this out, that you'll consider staying with me; at least for a while."
At the time, Percy had said nothing, he had barely even reacted to his father's words. He couldn't, not when the only thing he could think of was the echoing words of Tartarus. The way it felt to torture Akhlys, the power that thrummed in his veins as he did it. The fact that he didn't want to stop. Percy was trying to come to accept the fact that he was a monster, turning out to be no better the very things he fought for years. And he knew he must be a monster because ever since he left the pit, ever since he had been practically tied to the bed, he had felt something broken deep within him. He assumed it was his morality, it wasn't until much later he realized it was mortality.
Had his father been lying to him because he had grown attached to who Percy had once been, something that this version of him didn't have to worry about getting in the way? Had he wanted him closer because he knew he was slipping away? Nothing more than lost innocence, stripped away by the harsh reality of their dangerous world. But if that was the case, why would this Poseidon step in to protect him now?
Percy blinked, pulling himself out of his thoughts as his father spoke once more.
"No, Zeus. I am not stepping aside. What of your mighty justice?" Poseidon looks imploringly at Zeus, "Where is your justice in smiting a child whose only crime seems to be experiencing horrors that no child ever should. For us, may I add, Apollo said that everything Percy had to do was for Olympus." Poseidon stood perfectly still as he argued his point, but Percy could feel the tumultuous waves rolling off his shoulders. No doubt there were currently sailors having a horrible day at sea.
Percy also noticed that Poseidon seemed to be perfectly hiding every inch of Percy a few paces behind his back. The words echo in his brain once more: If Poseidon had written him off, why was he trying to save him now? Percy glanced to the side and he looked to see Apollo, struggling in Ares' iron-like grip, his eyes glowing in his anger.
"If we had him sent to Tartarus, or even the Underworld, then he should be dead, Poseidon. I won't have a threat such as him wandering Olympus, I have a duty as King. Now move." Zeus commanded in a tone that crackled as severely as his thunder. He ignored the last part of Poseidon's statement.
Despite the seriousness of the moment, Percy thought to himself that there was no wonder why Athena- who was born out of Zeus' head -had a problem with hubris, it sees to have been an inherited trait.
"Do not start something that you cannot finish, Zeus. Leave my child alone." Poseidon glared at his brother.
"He was not sent to Tartarus!" Apollo interjects the conversation harshly, "We would have never wished for Percy to be sent there- none of us would have wished such a fate on him."
"I had to close the Doors of Death," Percy mumbled the truth, barely audible. Flashes of that place flashed in his mind. The doors. The monsters. Bob. The elevator. It all played in a constant cycle in his mind no matter how hard he tried to forget. He wished so desperately for it all to leave him alone for a moment, the memories building up in his mind feel like they are pushing him to the very brink of mania.
Despite Percy's mumbled words, somehow the whole room silenced instantly as they digested the meaning of his words.
Poseidon turned his gaze over his shoulder, moving slowly as he faces Percy, "What?" he said in a cautious tone.
"Apollo is telling the truth, I wasn't sent to Tartarus. I kind of just… fell in? And we knew that the Doors of Death had to be closed so," Percy’s voice falters slightly and he ends his statement with an uncomfortable shrug, "It was inevitable that someone had to go down there."
"What do you mean the Doors were open?" Poseidon questions, before repeating in a near whisper as he tries to understand the gravity of the situation, "They shouldn't have been open in the first place."
"Everyone was escaping," Percy pauses. He tries not to remember those moments now. He blatantly ignores the flashes in the back of his mind of himself with memory loss, fighting the same monsters multiple times a day. His skin starts to subtly burn and itch with sensations that weren’t truly there anymore, "they had to be closed."
"Are you saying that I let you be sent there to do such a thing?" Poseidon looks deeply troubled.
Percy shakes his head, "no, it was like I said: technically, I fell in." Percy repeats again. Under different circumstances, he might have been annoyed at the gods for not listening to him the first time but he was too busy trying to suppress the memories. Pausing to release a tired sigh, he continues, "The only reason that I survived the fall was because I managed to land in The Cocytus and swam out from there."
He's numb as he says it, staring at the marble wall over Poseidon's shoulder. He feels the Cocytus around him. The numbing cold that he never felt before in water. Not for the first time since returning from Tartarus, he wondered if that's how non-children of Poseidon feel when submerged in water.
"You swam in the Cocytus?" The panicked yell isn't from Poseidon but rather Apollo, who finally wrestled out of Ares' grip. Ares was now sporting rapidly healing burn marks covering his arms. "Percy, that was vital information for your work up! Who knows what effect the river will have on you, Percy."
"Oh, I mean I was fine, I guess," Percy mumbles, hating that he has to talk about this when so far no one had pressed the subject back home, "compared to everything else that was going on, I would consider that to be pretty easy. It’s hard to try and force a son of Poseidon to drown himself." Percy weakly attempts to crack a grin.
“Is that supposed to be a joke? That is not funny.” Poseidon speaks in a low tone as he narrows his eyes, concern gathering in the furrowing of his brow.
"Yeah, a joke. Let's go with that." Percy hums, trying to edge away from the direction he fears that the conversation will go in. His gaze averts up to the marble ceiling, if he focused hard enough he could almost pretend it is really the marble of the throne room back home.
Zeus seems to regain his voice in that moment as he moves from his throne, coming to stand in front of Poseidon. His stance is stern and serious. "It is inconceivable for me to believe that a child would be asked such a task Poseidon, you do not truly know this boy, you mustn’t let his word blind you. No child would survive that,” he takes on an incredulous tone, “most gods would not survive that. There are ways to get around the truth without lying, Apollo- er Phoebus, whatever- has proven that to us before during times of conflict. We have a duty to our people as rulers to protect them. Every word out of this boy's mouth has alluded to him being a threat. I do not say this to be unnecessarily cruel, I say this as King and more importantly as your brother."
"Okay, no. You know what? I'm sick of this!" Apollo says in an outburst, stomping up to Zeus' side, "I'm done playing your game, father. I can't sit here and entertain your idiotically stubborn point of view. We aren't lying. Stop acting like just because it isn't what you want to hear, it isn't what happened. You talk of duty and protecting your people?! He is the savior of Olympus. Meanwhile, you were the one happy to ignore what was happening while my sister was trapped by Atlas under the sky. He is the one who led an army of children to fight for us while we fought our own battles. The amount of our children that lost their lives because of your insistence that nothing could ever be wrong. He has been used and mistreated and blamed for everything a hundred times over but the truth is, in the future, there would be no Olympus if there was no Percy Jackson. I am so unbelievably tired of trying to convince you of that. What you claim to be a concern as king is really just a way for you to try to pass blame on anything else. You think he is a threat? Well guess what? We made him one." Apollo fumes.
Zeus turns to Apollo in rage but his eyes hold an undertone of betrayal, as if he truly could not have seen this coming. Apollo simply glares at him, hurt in his own eyes.
Poseidon, who had immediately turned to better shield Percy and gripped his trident in warning as Zeus came close, took advantage of the brief moment of shocked silence. "And power does not equate to a threat, brother. Where is the justice in sentencing a child to death based on paranoia? If we begin to slaughter innocent children out of paranoia- out of fear of their potential power... are we any better than our father? I do not believe this child- my child -to be a threat the prosperity and safety of Olympus or the beings inhabiting it. I know for a fact that he is telling the truth about everything, Zeus. Please brother, I am asking you to trust me."
Percy frowned almost unperceptively, the way in which the god's conversed here was an oddity that Percy had caught onto quickly, but this was something he was a little more familiar with. Sure Zeus and Poseidon argued almost constantly, threatening war with every other breath, but Percy had also seen the two rely on one another's word before. His mind flashes back to the memory of his father vouching for him when the council had wanted to kill Bessie the Orphiotaurus. If Percy were any less aware of the very delicate nature of the conversation, he might have gave in to the urge to sarcastically comment on it but he found himself silent, letting himself be truly protected for the first time since Tartarus.
His gaze shifts to Apollo and he feels an abundance of gratitude for his godly cousin. He knew Apollo cared, everything about this unplanned trip had gone beyond proving it, but still, Percy knows how hard it must have been for Apollo to finally get that off his chest. Opening his own metaphorical Pandora's Box when it came to the complicated feelings he held for Zeus.
Percy's attention snaps to the main entryway as he feels someone's presence enter the throne room. In normal circumstances, he would have felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up. In fact, the sudden lack of his demigod instincts put him more on edge than anything. He turned and the moment he saw the figure in the doorway a sigh of relief left his lips. This makes sense. Hestia.
The whole throne room seems to take notice of the goddess' entrance.
"Brothers." Hestia greets in a soft calm voice.
"Hestia." Zeus says in a royally cordial tone.
"Sister," Poseidon says a slight crinkle by his eye.
"I heard the commotion," Hestia lets out a breath, "And the hearth was being quite volatile, I remembered the guests we had in our company and I thought it would be best to investigate what was happening."
"We have things under control, Hestia, not to worry." Zeus says, even though the whole throne room knows it's a lie.
"No, you don't." Hestia shakes her head, "and truthfully I am here because I have news," she explains softly.
Zeus tips his head in polite consideration, the stormy expression he had sported when talking with Poseidon and Apollo fading slightly. "Could you expand upon that news, perhaps?"
"In light of the most recent argument, I think it would be best if I begin by confirming what you all have been told, since I see that there is still heavy suspicion clouding many judgements: this is truly Apollo," Hestia takes a tentative step towards where Apollo stood just a couple steps to Percy's side, " And Percy means Olympus no harm."
Hestia sighs as she takes in the two of them, "It seems you have both struggled significantly since your arrival, I apologize I have not kept a closer eye on things.”
Before the sentence fully leaves her mouth, Apollo is already releasing a soft breath of exhaustion and nodding gently, "It is alright, Aunt Hestia."
Hestia hums softly in acknowledgement, resting a hand on Apollo's in understanding before pulling away to address the rest of the room.
"The truth is, the fates approached my hearth not long ago," Hestia whispers quietly, the words pressing heavy against them.
The room seems to pause, now thick with apprehensive tension. Looks are shared between the gods who had not been directly involved in the conflict as they shift on their thrones.
Demeter takes the newfound silence as an opportunity to ask the question none of them wanted to, "what ever do you mean, sister?"
"You see, I stoke the fire of our family but that is not my only duty." Hestia brings her hands up in front of her demonstratively, "Imagine this hand," she waves her left hand, "and this hand," she waves the right, "are two separate entities that derive from the same parent entity: me. Both are connected in a way that was predestined. However, if I were to do this." Hestia interlocks her hands, "They are intertwined. Both hands decided to extend their fingers toward each other. Reaching to share an embrace. That was a choice, a decision. I oversee bonds or rather the intertwining of entities. Specifically those that come from our godly lineage. Those choices that we all make of who we desire to care about, who we determine to be our family."
Hera interrupts, "I don't think I quite understand."
"Fate and Freewill has been in a constant ebb and flow since the beginning of existence itself. Fate cannot concern itself in our choices so as the Goddess of Family, the one who stokes this hearth day in and day out, I was chosen to oversee them. they are similar to the threads of fate, but they are also entirely different. I could spend the next millennia and still not do the importance of my duty justice. The point is: those bonds are fragile so when Lachesis, Atropos, and Clotho visited my hearth, I knew something more was happening concerning these two." Hestia says in a measured tone.
"And what would that be?" Aphrodite asks with a frown of concern.
"Truthfully, I was not told much, but I know that it has something to do with the bonds. bonds that I oversee. Like it or not, we are a family and these bonds are important for our continued survival through the eons. All of us have at least chosen one other amongst us to trust and confide in within some capacity and if we do not take care of those bonds, they could be pulled apart by our own distance from one another-" Hestia tries to explain.
"But what does that have to do with the apparent time travelling duo in front of us?" Phoebus asks with a prominent frown.
Hestia sighs as she adjusts her thoughts to answer, "Apollo and Percy were brought because somewhere along the way, whether in the future, present, or past Fate itself made some kind of error. Luckily, for all of us, Fate desires balance in the form of Freewill- like I mentioned earlier. That balance is what resulted in them having to come back- to change something or perhaps even plural things. I am sorry that the two of you were pulled so far from your current lives, but we need you here temporarily, Fate needs you here."
Percy tilts his head in consideration as he lets Hestia's words sink in. If anyone else had been the one to drag him into this he would be fuming, but Aunt Hestia has been nothing but kind to him his entire demigod life. A gentle nod is all he can give in response as he struggles to accept that even without a proper quest in front of him, he still has yet another task to complete for the gods of Olympus.
"Figures that Fate would drag us around though time for a solution, I'm well versed in prophecy enough to know that fate is rarely anything less than a dramatic affair." Apollo lets out a breath.
"And what are they supposed to do to help exactly?" Zeus crosses his arms, no longer debating smiting them, but still not willing to trust so easily.
"I don't have all the answers brother, but I know they are here to help, so I am asking you as my youngest sibling to trust me. Fate cannot afford your Freewill to kill them, life as we know it could not afford such a thing," Hestia says softly and warmly, like the tender glow of the hearth.
Zeus pauses and gives a short nod, "Very well. You have my word. They will not be harmed unless they commit an act deserving of further suspicion."
"Regardless of the severity of their previous experiences in their own time," Hestia adds, knowing how her brother enjoyed loopholes.
"Regardless of their past experiences." Zeus grumbles.
Apollo lets out a breath of relief, "Thank you."
Phoebus blinks as things connect, "The prophecy. It mentioned people being in danger in your current time. Fate must need you to fix something here that ends up ruining the future, or rather your present."
Apollo looks at his past self and nods in agreement, "We don't know what we need to fix, though. The prophecy didn't go into detail about that."
"You also said that the future got their own prophecy about this. Maybe they have to fix things on their side?" Dionysus speaks up, remembering what they had heard when they went to visit Phoebe.
"If there are two prophecies, would it not be the wise assumption that both sides need to do things? They obviously were taken from their time for a reason and the future obviously got their own prophecy for a reason." Athena points out, "Where they overlap is probably what the larger problem with Fate is, right?"
Apollo pauses before he reluctantly nods, "That would make the most sense."
"So what exactly are we supposed to do here?" Percy speaks up in confusion.
"Live. Exist. Maybe even change a few things." Hestia suggests gently.
"But I can't just stay here," Percy frowns, "I have to go home. We have to go home. They'll be worried about us."
"And you will, in time." Athena says, her head tipped slightly as her thoughts swirl with possibilities.
"In the mean time, I'd prefer to take Percy back to Atlantis with me." Poseidon speaks up, placing a hand on Percy's shoulder, "If he is here for a reason then it is to be assumed that he should be aware of the current state of things and how they differ to what he knows from his own time."
A torrent of emotions cross Apollo's face, "I don't know if that is the safest-"
"I'm his father, realistically I'm the safest option for him." Poseidon says firmly, "If it is to be assumed that you are truly here because of our... bonds?" He casts an unsure look at Hestia, "Then that extends to my family, most of which do not prefer to breech the surface. besides I want to learn more of my son, especially regarding how much potential danger he has been in."
Percy's stomach sinks at the thought. He knew his father well enough to know that the god wanted to pry. The father of his time at least meant well with his prying, now though Percy wasn't sure if he could trust it. He also knew his father's stubbornness, it was an inherited trait after all. Percy was going to Atlantis whether he wanted to or not. Percy looks at Apollo, hoping the god could read the words Percy was thinking.
Apollo looked between Poseidon and Percy, "fine. I need to discuss the two prophecies with Phoebe anyway to decipher what the overlap may be.”
"You can't just disappear under the sea," Zeus scowls at the father son duo.
"No one plans to make it a permanent arrangement," Apollo says neutrally, familiar with his father's tempers to know how to placate him without so much as a pause in conversation, especially now that they were so close to reaching a resolution. "But I cannot abandon Percy alone without me on Olympus when he is still having physical effects like we all just saw." He gestures to the bed sitting abandoned behind where Percy and Poseidon stood. “At least with his father, any power outbursts would be able to be controlled safely.”
"So they can split their time between Atlantis and Olympus? That should work for everyone, yes?" Hermes proposed hopefully.
"Very well." Zeus frowned, clearly less than pleased but relenting anyway.
"Come along, Percy, Your siblings will want to meet you." Poseidon says, placing a hand on Percy's shoulder that was so incredibly reminiscent of the father he knew that it made his sick to his stomach.
Percy mentally shook off the feeling and bit his lip so as to not let on that he already met one. Not to mention the fact that he was quite certain that his other half siblings would not wish such a thing.
Percy's eyes lift to meet Poseidon, eyes which perfectly mirrored each other as Poseidon seemingly stares directly past Percy's eyes and into his soul. A heavy look passes the sea god's face before it is well hidden once more. Perhaps it was something in the premature lines on Percy's forehead, the slight bags underneath his eyes, the scars there against his tanned skin visible if you really looked. But for a moment, it looked to Percy like Poseidon really saw him. Percy blinked and took a small inhale of air before nodding slightly.
"Yeah, okay." Percy said almost quietly in comparison to his usually loud tone.
Poseidon nodded once and although he was carefully hiding behind his stoic face, Percy could tell from the movement that he was pleased that Percy agreed to come with him, rather than having to drag him like he would have done.
Percy looked at his father, this version of his father. The god who apparently had relinquished any claim on him only to throw himself in front of Zeus' masterbolt to save him. Percy had spent so much of his life resenting his father from before he knew who his father was and even after too. But then things like this happen. It was complicated and messy and surely would make no sense to anyone else but Percy understood- even when he hated it. Poseidon cared in a way that was beyond what one could expect of a god to feel for a child with blood that bleeds red. On the other hand, when compared to mortal fathers- his dad was a deadbeat eighty five percent of the time. Percy knew that. He had no problem telling his father such things in the future. But here? Percy felt his complicated feelings for his father more than quadruple in size.
"I want him back here in the next few days, Poseidon." Zeus says sternly.
"So it will be." Poseidon says neutrally, "Let us go, Percy. Apollo, you are welcome to join us in Atlantis when you are done."
Apollo nods once before turning to Percy, "Call for me if you need me, okay?"
Percy nods in agreement and then in a rush of salty sea spray, Poseidon and Percy vanished from the throne rooms.
Zeus says, "Apollo perhaps we should have a chat before you venture off to talk to Phoebe. Everyone else, you are dismissed for the time being."
"Yes, father." Apollo sighs.