Chapter Text
In the time it took Percy to blink, he disappeared from the throne room of Olympus and reappeared in the throne room of Atlantis. Percy breathed the water and instantly the ache that existed in his stomach seemed to dull significantly. If he thought the air quality was better in this time, than to say the water was revitalizing would be a gross understatement. This was cool, crisp, and refreshing in a way that spoke to Percy's bones. It felt like home in a way nothing had ever really felt like home before.
Taking in his surroundings, Percy falters, he had seen his father's throne room in the future and there was no denying that it was vastly different to the one he found himself standing in now. The marble was the same and so were the thrones. The archways that led out to overlook the rest of the gleaming city of Atlantis were even the exact same. But the rest? The things that would have made the space feel familiar? Those were all wrong. Pieces hung on the wall that signified importance but meant nothing to Percy. What looked like priceless antiques- or perhaps they were the most modern of creations in this time, Percy certainly wouldn't know the difference. However, the most blatant difference in this throne room is without a doubt the color. It was a deep, rich red with gold embossing.
Percy tipped his head, "Not blue?" Percy mutters before his mind can catch up to his mouth.
"You never cease to be an oddity to me." Poseidon says after a moment of staring at him, "what do you mean by not blue?"
"The walls... they're red?" Percy wrinkles his nose in distaste. Red was never a color he would associate with Atlantis or with his father. His father stuck to blues and greens that reflected his seas, not red.
"Yes?" Poseidon says, dragging out the word in slight confusion.
"They're blue... in the future." Percy says with a half hearted shrug.
Poseidon hums, "Well, renovations are not necessarily a rare thing here I suppose."
"It's just weird." Percy says, staring at the walls. It really is the little things that upset him most, that feel so glaringly wrong.
Poseidon shifts his own gaze to the walls of the throne room as his mind wanders, "I have to say how surprised I am that you have seen these walls before. No demigod child of mine has ever visited Atlantis. Then again I've also never had one of my children time travel before so I suppose you are just an exception to the rule?"
"You have no idea," Percy mutters with a slight frown.
"You also have a pearl." Poseidon comments quietly, "I don't give those to all of my children."
"I think you just liked having a tracker on me." Percy quips sarcastically before he can think it through.
Poseidon huffs out an amused breath, "Something tells me that isn't inaccurate."
"The future is... really different." Percy admits.
"And you truly do not have any demigod siblings in your time?" Poseidon questions.
Percy can tell by looking at his father that he wasn't doubting what Apollo and Percy said but rather that it was a truth that was so inconceivable to him that it confused him.
Percy lets out a soft hum in agreement, "Just me... that I know of." Percy narrows his eyes as if rethinking, "No, yeah. It's definitely just me, you've been too busy with the wars to father a new demigod child and before that you were still trying to keep me a secret so you hadn't really made any trips to the surface. At least, that's what you've alluded to in things you've explained to me in the future."
Poseidon lets out a hum that perfectly mirrored Percy, although his was slightly more curious sounding, "In all of my existence, I've never had just one demigod child."
"I know." Percy says quietly.
"How did I let my only child who was so prone to death constantly be so close to Thanatos' reach?" Poseidon asks.
Percy winced, "I don't know. Obviously in some circumstances there weren't any options."
Poseidon's eyes narrow slightly, "I do not like when my children are wrongfully hurt, Chaos, I do not like when those who might deserve it get hurt."
"Yeah maybe, but you've never gotten mad at me for sending your monstrous children to the pit." Percy says, for a moment forgetting the Poseidon in front of him was not yet his.
Poseidon pauses in consideration momentarily, "I assume they attacked you first?"
Percy nodded, "Yeah pretty much, I mean I guess I antagonize everyone but I don't usually swing a sword unnecessarily."
"Well, it is like I said, you have a pearl." Poseidon says as gentle of a receding shoreline at low tide, "I would not feel the same about, say, Triton having to temporarily dispose of one of my children compared to a random mortal or immortal for that matter."
"But I'm not Triton," Percy scoffs, not understanding.
"No and you are not Kymopoleia or Rhodos or Benethyskime or Charybdis, but you all share the same privilege of being my favorites."
Percy turns his gaze to his father and nods as if he understood, even if he didn't completely.
Poseidon takes the silence as an opportunity to shift the conversation, "Speaking of which, if you have been here in your time and you have a pearl, I assume you know your siblings."
"Some of them." Percy says guardedly, hoping nothing in his face gives away that he actually met one of them in this time already since he promised not to tell anyone, "I've not had too much free time to socialize in my time with everything going on."
"Right." Poseidon says neutrally, "well they'll be waiting in the meeting room."
"Meeting room?" Percy asks.
"Family meeting room, really. That's all it is used for at least." Poseidon expands.
Percy took a breath and nodded, "Okay." Percy paused before he continued, the question that had been pounding in his mind spilling from his lips, "Why did you change your mind?"
Poseidon falters, glancing at Percy as if he couldn't believe Percy had the gall to question him.
Percy pushes on, "About me. I heard what they said- that you didn't want anything to do with me. That you thought I was a threat just like Uncle Z did. Why did you change your mind? Was it just because of the pearl?"
Poseidon closes his eyes briefly, "Because you are my child."
"So? You knew I was yours from the moment I got here." Percy frowns feeling that was a shitty explanation.
Poseidon shakes his head, "But I didn't. Not truly. There is a difference, Percy. I have plenty of children. But you are my child. It was a distinction I didn't realize at first."
Percy's frown deepens, "That's literally the same thing."
"At this point in time, only five of my children have ever received a pearl from me. You possess one. Only my most favorite, most trusted children receive such a gift from me. So yes, in part, it is because of the pearl. It signifies to me that you are loyal to this family. But Percy, ever since your arrival, I have felt the physical effects of you being here, I have experienced a slow but continuous pain in my chest- that seems to be the bond settling here from where it left in the past. A bond this strong had to have been nurtured for years. Over the last few hours, I've started to feel things that the version of me that you know has felt. You are my son, I would not have made a different decision on Olympus today, do you understand?"
"The bonds? The same ones that Hestia said are the reason I am here?" Percy tipped his head, hating prophecy and time travel more with every passing second.
"The very same. Knowing what I know now, I expect that is also the reason that others on the council have been acting different around you. It is what made Hermes more rebellious and Dionysus more bold. It is what made me protective." Poseidon says intensely.
"I'm making you feel things? I'm like... manipulating everyone?" Percy swallows, flashes of Tartarus appear before him, the feeling of power as Akhlys- A cool current sweeps past him, drawing him out of the memory and into the present. Manipulation. Control. The thrumming in his veins as his mind went so blissfully numb while a goddess begged.
"You are drifting." Poseidon says in a low tone. "You do that often. Like currents take your mind off into other directions, leading to more perilous waters than you need to be in."
Percy blinks a few times, grounding himself in the feeling of being in Atlantis, which was so vastly opposite of being in Tartarus. Invisible water currents brush past him like comforting caresses, the water slightly warm even at such a depth. He clenches and unclenches his fists once as he gets a handle of his feelings.
"You aren't manipulating anyone, Percy. These bonds are our real feelings, just transferred from the future back until now. That is what Hestia meant." Poseidon clarifies. "I take it that you have been in your head about things since before your arrival here."
Percy tries to stop his eyes from stinging as he whispers, "Sometimes I feel like I am becoming a monster."
He wasn't sure what made him say it. Maybe it was the comfort that this wasn't his dad. At least not the one with any standards of him. He breathed deeply, the water molecules giving him the strength to continue, "Everyone forgets that something had to break in me to begin ascension."
Poseidon froze, lowering himself slightly to look directly into Percy's eyes. He shakes his head once firmly.
"You, child," Poseidon pauses to stare at him for another moment, "You are no monster, you are clearly just a boy who was born on a ship that was already going down. But let us entertain the idea that you were, what is it that you believe makes a monster, Percy?"
Percy frowns, not expecting that at all. He had prepared for either empty placating words or for Poseidon to suddenly see what Percy saw in himself and shun him.
"What?" Percy mumbles the word clumsily, stuttering over it.
"What makes a monster?" Poseidon hums, "Is it the physical attributes? Because if so, then by no means are you a monster. You are very easy to underestimate in this state. If it is the ability to do monstrous things, then we are all monsters in our own way. If you mean because of any choices you have had to make thus far, I am not so inclined to agree because it does not sound you were ever really given the chance to make a choice in the first place."
Percy is suddenly thrown back to the memory of his Poseidon standing in his bedroom at his fifteenth birthday. Percy felt his urge to cry triple as his eyes burn.
"I don't know if my future self has failed you so desperately or-" Poseidon's tone begins to become tense.
"No" Percy says harshly and the water becomes a few degrees hotter at his outburst, "That's not it. He tried his best, he-"
"Well not hard enough." Poseidon says bluntly and the water drops several degrees colder in retaliation.
"He's tried harder than anyone else I know." Percy mumbled before he scowls at Poseidon, "My father always believed in me, something I can't say for you in this timeline."
"I apologized for that!" Poseidon barks with a glower.
"No, you didn't. You gave excuses for why you were ready to let Uncle Z kill me until you suddenly decided you cared! When you realized I might be worth something for you!" Percy snaps, "You can't stand there and act like I should be more mad at that version of you than this version of you!" Percy felt the water start to spin as the current battles between the sudden warm and cold fronts.
Poseidon levels Percy with a sharp look, "At least I would be able to protect you, something he obviously cannot achieve if he lets you believe that you could be a monster."
And maybe there were things in what this Poseidon was saying that made sense. Maybe his father could be a better dad. Hades, how many times had he thought exactly that. But someone else saying it felt wrong. Percy could resent his dad but no one else was allowed to, not even his own dad.
"If my father didn't want to protect me, then why would he let me sit on his throne on Olympus and summon him away from the war in Atlantis only because I needed him?" Percy snapped. "Why would my father vouch for me in front of the council because I couldn't bear to see an Orphiotaurus be slaughtered just for existing. You have no idea the god you become so you don't get to judge my father because he doesn't reflect the version of you that you are now. My dad was always there for me when I needed him, even if I wish he could have been there more, he showed up every time I really needed him. He broke laws for me. He lied for me. He threatened war for me. You can't possibly understand how different things are." Percy pins Poseidon with a matching sharp look, angry tears burning as hot as the water currents surrounding him.
Instead of the further anger he expected, Poseidon's face suddenly split into a large almost feral smile, "And that is why you could never be monstrous, Percy. Your feelings are entirely too human."
Percy blinked in confusion, flinching backwards, "Huh?" The swirling currents between him and Poseidon seemed to pause, the heat fizzling into something more neutral.
"You are loyal and caring- probably to a fault. Monsters are incapable of such attributes." Poseidon says knowingly.
Percy just stands there for a minute, trying to make sense of what just happened, "Did you just instigate me on purpose?!"
"You must have wondered where you got your healthy bout of impertinence from?" Poseidon winks conspiratorially.
Percy blinks at him and wonders internally if perhaps he did get hit by the masterbolt after all and this was a side effect. "Are you saying you did," Percy gesticulated wildly, "all of this to get a reaction out of me?" Percy's breathing picked up slightly as a new kind of anger rose in him.
"Yes." Poseidon nods, "and I can see another reason why I am partial to you in the future, you have a very healthy grasp on the seas."
Percy continues to stand there, somewhere between aghast and mad, "Why would you do that!" Percy purposely ignored his father's comment on his abilities.
"You needed to connect to your humanity, or rather your morality. From what I understand, loyalty is your fatal flaw. You just needed to feel that loyalty. Monsters cannot be loyal, They can have aligning motives, but never loyalty." Poseidon says, "And perhaps later we can have a proper discussion about the differences? It might help you adapt to being here since it seems you are going to be here for a while."
"With no ulterior motives?" Percy raises a brow.
"We will see." Poseidon says simply.
Poseidon brings his arms back up, placing one large hand on each of Percy's shoulders, levelling him with a analytical look.
Percy swallowed nervously at the gaze, feeling an overwhelming mix of emotions.
"I am... sorry." Poseidon says awkwardly.
Percy gapes at him like a guppy coming face to face with a shark.
Poseidon clears his throat, looking extremely uncomfortable, "Now, after the family meeting, when Apollo gets here I will have him properly set up your room. It is to my understanding that in the future I had entrusted him with your recovery."
Percy nods once before he answers audibly, "No one knew how to treat it but it's more-so his domain than anyone else- well and Dionysus, he was there a lot too."
Poseidon begins to navigate him out of the throne room as he replies, "I would not expect anything less. Is that how Apollo wound up here with you?"
Percy winces as they walk, "I'll explain that later, but to put it simply, I was out of bed when I shouldn't have been and Apollo was following me."
"I wouldn't think any god future or present would be so inclined to assume you would stay put. The sea is a restless entity and it flows through your veins. I would say you never could be forced to stay still, even after the events you had experienced."
"I did for a while- I think it was the longest I have ever sat still in my life." Percy says. With every inhale he could feel the water further calm him from his prior turmoil.
Poseidon turns to him as they approach a heavy, ornate door.
"Now, I've already called the meeting, so they'll all be waiting inside. I'll explain everything, alright?" Poseidon says.
"I guess." Percy shrugs.
"Good. Now then." Poseidon nods as he turns and opens the door.
This room, was a stark contrast to the throne room. It was still ornate, but where the throne room was decorated with all sorts of art and memorabilia, this was almost cozier. The walls glowed softly, a white opalescent color that Percy had no idea how they achieved.
The five favored children of Poseidon sit around the large meeting table. Percy immediately recognized Triton and Kymopoleia. Then his gaze met Charybdis and he had to resist the urge to wave. The other two, he had never personally met.
"Children." Poseidon says in his low cadence, "This is Percy, your demigod brother from the future."
He is immediately pinned with a few glares and yeah, Percy would say this felt like home. Triton and Kymopoleia notably did not like him based on the encounters they shared in his own time. But as his gaze turned to Charybdis who was smiling warmly. He let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding.
Unfortunately for Percy, the only open seat that wasn't Poseidon's at the table was not next to Charybdis, it was across from Kymopoleia and next to one of his siblings that he didn't know.
"Percy this is Triton, Rhode, Charybdis, Benthesikyme, and Kymopoleia." Poseidon says as he sits and Percy follows by sitting in the chair he now knew was next to Benthesikyme.
"Hi," Percy says somewhat awkwardly.
"Father why is he here? I thought you said-" Kymopoleia frowns
"Perish the thought, Kymopoleia." Poseidon says firmly, cutting off her sentence.
There is a brief, tense moment of silence before Poseidon speaks once more, "Percy will be staying here for the moment and I expect all of you to help him adjust to this time."
"How far in the future did you come from?" Rhode asks Percy, leaning forward in her chair as if the questions in her brain desperately desired to be answered.
"Oh uhm... I'm not sure exactly but it's thousands of years." Percy says with a small shrug.
"Interesting." Rhode hums, tipping her head as she thinks.
"So then why and how are you here? Father mentioned Fate in our last meeting." Benthesikyme says with a soft frown.
"And the theory was correct." Poseidon cut in, "Because of this, I want each of you to remain here until further notice."
Kymopoleia rolls her eyes, "Father you cannot ask us to just stay here. We have duties not to mention-"
Poseidon levels her with an intense look, raising a brow as if daring her to continue.
Kymopoleia decides to not continue her sentence, slumping back in her seat in annoyance.
"Percy is sick." Poseidon continues, addressing the whole room. "So I must remain close to supervise his health-"
"Demigods die every single day, so what?" Triton says before realizing what he said and closes his mouth with wide eyes.
"Triton, that's not fair" Charybdis frowns softly.
"Charybdis you should not concern yourself with these affairs you are much too young to understand." Triton says, looking at his sister as all older brother's do when they underestimate their siblings.
"I'll have you know I met Percy on Olympus, just like I told father I would. None of you might have believed in me to pull it off but I did. And he is kind." Charybdis crosses her arms petulantly.
Triton blinks in surprise.
Poseidon tilts his head, "Why did you not inform me that you successfully made contact with Percy?"
"You have been pretty much stuck on Olympus since you left our last meeting, there wasn't time." Charybdis says honestly.
Percy sits their awkwardly, not really wanting to get in the middle of their arguments.
Kymopoleia stares at him from across the table, "So then what's your deal, demigod?"
Percy, suddenly on the spot says an awkward, "What?"
Poseidon tsked at Percy before he replied for him, "Percy is the savior of Olympus in his time."
"But he's a child." Triton points out, his expression sour.
"Can everyone stop saying that?" Percy frowns, "I'm not a child- not anymore. I don't think I ever really got to be a kid. I spent my life on the run from monsters. My mom constantly moving me around and trying to cover my scent. There was no protection. When I finally got to the one place that was supposed to be a sanctity, I was turned out within a week to go on a quest that led me to the Underworld. I was twelve. Then the next year I had to travel the sea of monsters. Then a few months later I had to track down Artemis because no one on Olympus was allowed to. She had been trapped by Atlas. That next summer I was-" Percy cuts himself off shaking his head, "That's not the point. What I'm trying to say is that I am sick of everyone treating me like I'm some helpless kid."
Kymopoleia's eyebrow raises impossibly higher as her eyes glimmer in interest.
Poseidon stares at him for a long moment, before turning to glance at each of the five of his other children at the table, "Perhaps Percy is right, and with note of some of his accomplishments, I suppose it would be an opportune time to share with you all that he is ascending."
Percy immediately scowls, crosses his arms defensively, ready for his siblings' outburst. He wasn't prepared for the silence that hung over them instead.
In the momentary silence, Percy missed Tyson in a way that ached in his bones. Surrounded by siblings that didn't really get him, it made the emptiness of missing his brother even more prominent. He wondered if Tyson knew he was missing, Percy almost wished that he didn't know. Percy caught Charybdis gaze and shook out of his thoughts.
"You're ascending?" Charybdis questioned softly.
"That's what Dionysus told me, he's kind of the expert on that." Percy answered quietly.
"That's good news, isn't it?" Charybdis smiled warmly, eyes twinkling like waves under sunlight.
Percy instinctively reached for his camp necklace, his fingers brushing over the beads, "I guess."
Triton turns, looking to Percy directly, "Don't be ungrateful. This is a high honor, one my father’s children have never received before."
Poseidon opens his mouth to say something but Percy doesn't give him a chance.
"An honor I respectfully declined when offered only for Fate to demand it of me anyway." Percy says, holding Triton's gaze.
"You turned godhood down?" Benthesikyme frowned from where she sat next to him, "I didn't know that was possible."
"Maybe it isn't. It isn't like saying no worked." Percy said, still holding the beads in his grasp.
"But you actually said no?" Kymopoleia practically leans across the table in her interest, "Who did you say it to? The council? Father?"
"Uhm, the whole council was there… but technically I had to tell Uncle Z no." Percy said, thinking back on the moment.
"Uncle Z?" Rhode's nose wrinkled in distaste at the term.
"Are you lying? Please tell me it's real." Kymopoleia had a wide, manic grin on her face as she talked overtop of Rhode.
Percy leaned back in his chair, blinking in surprise. "I- I'm not a liar." Percy says sharply.
"The future is glorious," Kymopoleia whispered to herself, her eyes swirling like her storms.
"We are getting off topic, now as I was saying-" Poseidon begins.
"No." Kymopoleia says, smiling so widely her sharp teeth poke out.
"Excuse me?" Poseidon blinked in shock.
"No." Kymopoleia said again, looking between her father and Percy, "That's a thing we can say in the future. Something we can say and live to see tomorrow."
Percy scrunched his eyebrows in confusion as Poseidon said, "And it is not yet the future, daughter, so I would rethink that answer."
The other children of Poseidon glanced nervously between Poseidon and Kymopoleia.
Eventually, Kymopoleia relented, "fine."
"Percy can't you tell us a little bit about the future?" Charybdis asks with a warm grin, somehow seamlessly redirecting the conversation, "Father said you're hear for a purpose, maybe we can help you."
Percy saw as the others redirected their full attention to Charybdis and immediately he understood what was happening because he had seen it before countless times with his mother, his father, and even Chiron. He suddenly remembered what Charybdis had told him when they met, she was still quite young. They give her their full attention like a family does a child who is learning new things and asking questions.
"I don't know if that is something that should be shared-" Percy says hesitantly.
Charybdis deflates slightly in her disappointment.
"Nonsense," Poseidon smiles sharply, "I think it will help in your adjustment here and perhaps even help with your prophecy."
"He has a prophecy?" Rhode questions, intrigued.
"I always have a prophecy." Percy grumbled to himself.
"I would want to hear of your home, Percy." Benthesikyme says, looking at him warmly.
"I mean it's pretty complicated to explain. So much has changed from now till then. My home doesn't really exist yet. But I guess I can say that I spend most of my time on an Island that has a protected camp for demigods." Percy's hand finds his camp beads around his neck as he always does.
Everyone at the table caught his motion, focusing in on his necklace. Even Triton, who still looked annoyed at having to have this conversation was looking at the beads in the demigod's grasp.
"Oh uhm-" Percy says as he realizes, "These are my camp beads, you get one every year you spend a summer there. I first started going when I was twelve so I got one every year after that."
"But I thought you were seventeen summers?" Charybdis points out in confusion, "There are five beads on your necklace. Shouldn't there be six?"
Percy froze, how was he supposed to explain everything he was trying to forget, succinctly he said, "I was kidnapped and stripped of my memories."
The change in the current was palpable with how silent they became as their gazes intensified.
"By who?" Poseidon eventually says, his tone low and dangerous.
Percy swallowed nervously, remembering the wandering helplessly, fending off monsters who just wouldn't die, "Hera." Percy whispers.
Meaningful glances are shared between the daughters of Poseidon, speaking to each other without having to speak at all. Triton simply crossed his eyes and slightly adjusted his position, turning even more toward the demigod, practically sitting sideways in his chair.
"Why would she take you?" Triton asked bluntly.
"She dared?!" Poseidon said as rough as a wave in the North sea.
"It was a prophecy, like always." Percy says in a quiet bitterness.
"Didn't we look for you?" Charybdis asks with creased brows.
Percy shakes his head, "No. There was too much going on."
Charybdis doesn't seem to understand as she blurts, "But you're our brother!"
"I'm just a demigod." Percy corrects quietly.
Around the table, the gods could not help the uncomfortable silence that fell over them.
Charybdis stubbornly shakes her head, "No, you're ascending, you're not just a demigod."
"But I was- and technically I still am." Percy cut in.
"If you were just a demigod, Apollo wouldn't have been so relieved to realize you were ascending." Poseidon speaks up, his words heavy.
Percy pauses, his fingers still wrapped around his beads.
"What do they mean?" Benthesikyme asks softly, catching the movement and realizing Percy desperately wished for a pivot in the conversation.
Percy looks up at her and she speaks up again, "The beads, they have drawings on them."
"Oh." Percy said quietly, holding them loosely now, looking down at them and spinning them around the cord.
Charybdis grins, "Yeah, they're important to you. We should know what they mean."
"And it would probably curb most of our questions," Rhode added.
Triton and Kymopoleia stayed quiet, exchanging looks across the table.
"Fine," Percy sighed, "This first one represents my first year, being claimed by dad."
Percy goes to continue on to the next bead only to be interrupted.
"What do you mean by that?" Rhode questioned, "Why would he have only claimed you upon your arrival to camp. Do demigods in your time not know their parentage from birth? It is seen as a high honor here."
Percy frowns at the beads as he answers, "In my time it was pretty common for demigods not to know. The gods didn't really care to claim them. I mean after so many years of having their children die before even reaching adulthood what was the point, right? When I first got to camp there were more than few people who didn't like me because I got claimed in my first week."
"I would never not claim my child, how else are my enemies to know to stay far from them or else face my ire?" Poseidon raises a brow.
Percy blinks at him flashes of every monster and god who had specifically targeted just because of who his father was, "That is definitely not how it works. Is that even how it works here?"
Kymopoleia was deadpan in her answer, "No, it is not."
"What?" Poseidon frowned, "who has dared to harass you? Do they desire being smote?"
"Okay, that's what I thought." Percy says with a nod as he ignores Poseidon.
Kymopoleia rolled her eyes at her father before turning her gaze to Percy, "So... what does the next bead mean?"
Percy contemplated his words for a moment, how did he exactly explain any of this, it wasn't like he could compare what happened to events they would know. He still wasn't exactly sure when he was, all he knew was after Dionysus became a god... unfortunately that didn't help him at all. Percy thought he was in a time before most of the famous Greek heroes got their acclaim, but he wasn't entirely sure and he definitely was not going to ask.
"So, camp was in danger." Percy begins slowly, trying to keep his explanation simple, "The borders were protected and someone poisoned the tree that was the source of the protection and we had to get a magical item to heal it."
"How vague." Triton says deadpan, looking rather unimpressed.
Rhode frowned at her brother, "Triton."
Triton huffs out a bubble in annoyance.
"But you succeeded, right?" Charybdis asked Percy hopefully.
"Yeah, mostly because my brother helped." Percy said with a firm nod.
All eyes went to Triton whose nose wrinkled in distaste.
"I helped you?" Triton said almost reluctantly.
"No-" Percy shook his head, realizing the assumption, "my brother Tyson, he's a cyclops."
Poseidon looked overjoyed at the news of another child, his siblings looked almost confused.
"Huh." Kymopoleia hummed, tipping her head at Percy.
"What?" Percy said defensively, "Tyson is the one I am closest to out of all of you by far and just because he is a cyclops-"
Kymopoleia holds up her hand, "Cease your defense, I only meant that it is odd for a demigod to see less than conventional children of gods as legitimate relation."
"I don't care about that." Percy said firmly, "Tyson has saved my life more than once. He's a master craftsman."
Poseidon grinned, delighted as he aims a knowing look at Percy, "Well not all monsters are monstrous."
Percy locked eyes with his father and nodded slowly, "I guess so."
He hated that his father seemed to have the same power here that he did in his time. That ability to calm all of Percy's fears in the moment and then keep proving it to him over and over again. Maybe Percy would be willing to relent. To really, truly believe that his fears are unfounded. But Poseidon did not see what Percy was truly capable of. If Percy had his way, his father would never know. It was nice to pretend. As if Akhylys never pushed him into being a monster. As if that power wasn't addicting. But when his father looks at him, the version of his father that he knew would drown legions of men just for daring to brave the Sea on a day Poseidon was angry... well, it made Percy feel like if his dad did know maybe he would understand it. Poseidon held Percy's gaze for a few moments more and Percy breathed the calming waters of his father's domain, letting the soothing murmurs of 'what ifs' float through his head.
"Anyway," Benthesikyme says, stealing Percy's attention, "what of your third bead?"
"It represents Artemis and her hunt." Percy says quietly, "Like I said about Artemis earlier- why Apollo cares about me. He thinks I saved his sister. I wasn't the only person who was there but... I physically took the sky from her so to him it doesn't matter who else was there to help."
"How?" Charybdis asks in a matching quiet tone, "how did you do it?"
"I don't know." Percy admits with a gentle frown, "I just knew I had to. Atlas was out from beneath the sky, we had no hope of putting him back without help. Artemis had to be freed. So, I did it. I didn't deliberate the risks. I didn't worry about how a demigod would be able to bear the burden of a Titan. All I knew was that I had to do it." Percy's hand ran through his hair.
"I suppose it is not an act one would be able to do without a push from impulsivity," Rhode hummed in acknowledgement.
"These last two beads are from the end of the war- two battles. This one, the first. The Battle of the Labyrinth." Percy gave no additional information for that as he steamrolled into the next, "And this is from the Battle of Manhattan. We lost a lot of people that day... all the days leading up to it really. It was my sixteenth birthday and all I remember from that day amongst the blur of fast decisions was the ones I couldn't save. There were no gods to help us, not at first. Just a group of demigods against an army of monsters, rogue demigods, and Titans."
The rest of the table stared at him in silence.
What do you say to that? Children do not and should not go to war and yet they did. Poseidon wanted to point that out, but refrained when he knew it would do nothing to help.
"Then, I thought it was over but we were just finding ourselves in another war against giants and primordials. And we won that too, I guess. Doesn't feel like a win. They never do." Percy says, gripping the beads tighter, his mind reciting every name engraved on the bead. His friends, his family. The one's he could nod save. The face of Michael Yew flashes in Percy's mind and he has to push it away before he gets too upset.
"Why didn't we help you?" A voice speaks up hesitantly.
Percy looks up to see it was the last person he expected to speak: Triton.
Percy gives a sardonic grin, "They attacked Atlantis too. Heavily. I'd never seen dad look his age before."
Poseidon recoils slightly, "The attack was that bad?"
Percy nodded, glancing around the table, "They knew if the Sea wasn't otherwise indisposed, they would have little to no chance of winning."
"And you're saying that all this information, these wars... they aren't why you're here?" Rhode frowned softly, as if thinking that could be the only reason for them to be in this situation.
"Not according to the prophecy. But who knows, I never do. Prophecies only tend to make sense after you fulfill them." Percy crossed his arms tiredly.
Talking about this, for what seemed to Percy like the thousandth time, was exhausting. However, he knew they needed to know or they would never trust him. His father's word only goes so far. Children of the sea don't like to be told what to do, they like to make their own conclusions. He hated that his father's slogan always rung true. The Sea cannot be restrained. That included those who came from the Sea. As he looked at his family, sitting around this table, he knew that they understood him. It was something he didn't often have the luxury of. He wondered, if things had been different, if they had met under different circumstances in his own time... maybe everything would be different. Maybe Triton wouldn't hate Percy's existence. Maybe Kymopoleia wouldn't be so hostile. Maybe he would know Rhode and Benthesikyme. Maybe Charybdis... maybe things would be different.
"If you're ascending, then that means we're stuck with you in the future." Benthesikyme said with an almost jokingly before it faded, "It seems like a really grim place."
Percy shrugs, "It's complicated. But it's home."
Kymopoleia hums in consideration, "Well I guess we'll have to see how you fare in our home, hope you don't drown."
Percy meets her gaze and he knows that is the closest the goddess would come to actually saying that they accept him into their family.
Poseidon looks around the table at his children and nods once to himself, "Well with that, Percy, we welcome you to Atlantis. You're all free to go, so long as you stay near Atlantis."
Immediately his siblings begin to disappear into the currents, Charybdis offering a smile before she left. Once only Poseidon and Percy were left at the table, Poseidon stood.
"Come along, we'll get you a room, perhaps you can tell me what more is wrong about my palace since you apparently despise my red walls." Poseidon grinned easily.
Percy looked up at his dad, the expression so achingly familiar that a small smile forced itself onto his own face, "I'll make you a list."