Chapter Text
Would you believe me if we told you Perseus Jackson never meant to get anyone hurt?
We’re almost certain you would, if you knew the whole story.
But you don’t. No one does, and Perseus prefers to keep it that way. To him, the truth only hurts others, and he’s hurt enough people that he doesn't need to stoke the flames of pain anymore.
You’re probably wondering what we’re talking about. You’re probably asking yourself, “Who has Percy hurt? Why would he hurt anyone!?”
If you truly wish to know, it’s going to be a while.
How about you sit back and relax while we tell you a tale of love and betrayal.
But don’t worry, you won’t be the only one being told this story. What, did you think we would just tell you this story for free? No, you might not have to pay, but others will.
That way, you’ll be able to see exactly what Perseus felt watching as those he loved suffered for his contentment.
Sit down now, we have a tale to tell and have to gather the characters…
Listen, if there's one thing I know for certain (there's a lot of things I know) is that you should fear for your life when all the Olympian gods are quieter than the dead.
Even more so when they are glaring at the titans in the room who are equally as silent.
Alright, let me back up a bit.
We, as in me and the rest of the seven, defeated the giants with the Olympians (Yay) and then immediately had to race back to Camp Half-Blood at super-sonic speeds to help the rest of the demigods beat Gaea and what was left at her minions. After that, there was a big party that was frankly very boring. So, I had slipped out, and just as I was about to get a taxi, a hole opened up right beneath my feet and I fell in.
Apparently, some part of Gaea was still alive and wanted revenge on me, so she sent me back to... well, that's not important right now, all that's important is that it was unpleasant in the very least.
I don't know how long I was down there for, only that I was alive for far longer than I should be. Somehow, me being captured messed with the fate of the world and that was obviously a bad thing, so the fates came and got me and now I'm here on Olympus in this situation with a bunch of demigods after falling from a ceiling.
This certainly is not how I thought my day was going to go.
Most of the demigods are Greek, that I have noticed, but there are a few Roman demigods as well.
But it seems like the Greeks do not recognize the Romans, which would make sense for Luke, who is supposed to be dead, Travis, Connor, and Katie who have not personally met any of them as far as I know, but even Annabeth, Nico and Thalia were looking at them with distrust.
Hmmm, interesting. It seems as though the Greeks haven't met the Romans yet, even though the Romans clearly have and are from after the fight with Gaea. That backs up my thought that we were all from different periods in time, along with the fact that Zeus is glaring at the titans with intrigued-anger instead of war-anger.
Right now, it would be best to just stay in the shadows and watch what--
And now a stack of books has appeared in my arms, great.
There's a note on top that just says: The faster you read these books the faster you get out of here, now go and get this over with. And it's signed by the fucking fates, of course.
Sighing, I rest my head back on the pillar I had been leaning against.
I really don't wish to be the one to break the silence, especially since I've done such a great job at not being noticed so far. But the fates might get mad if I don't do this, and since they were the ones who sent me here, it probably would be best to comply with the beings who got me out of that hellhole.
Might as well just get it over with and deal with the consequences later.
I do first make sure my glasses are centered on my face so no one sees my eyes (It's a thing, okay?) before I speed walk into the middle of the throne room.
No one notices me, somehow. The Gods are too busy glaring at the Titans, the Titans are too busy glaring at the Gods, and the Romans and Greeks are busy having a staring contest.
Well, that might be a lie, Hestia notices, mostly because I waked straight towards her and only stopped when I made it to her hearth, so she was kind of guaranteed to notice me.
"Hi," I say, setting down the books with a loud thunk before plopping down next to her, "Weird day, isn't it?"
She stares at me for a second before she realizes I'm talking to her, which means this Hestia has not met me yet, and responds with, "Yeah, yeah it is."
We have a bit of small talk for a moment, very loudly, hoping that would draw the attention of at least one god, but that doesn't happen.
Guess I have to do this the hard way.
"Hey um, Hestia, do you mind going over to the demigods and shielding them for a moment? I think I might have a way to break this staring contest," I ask, eyeing Zeus up and down.
She nods and swiftly walks over to the demigods, but not before sparing me a worried glance. It's warranted for sure, but it still shocks me that she doesn't have more faith, as I keep forgetting this isn't the Hestia I know.
For a moment, I just stare at Zeus before standing up and grab the book on top of the stack. Well, here goes nothing...
Leaning back a bit, I throw the book with all my might at Zeus.
It hits him squarely in the face and I think I hear a soft crunch of a broken nose, and he's momentarily stunned, just staring down at the book now in his lap.
Using that distraction, I turn around, grab the second and throw it at Oceanus.
He unfortunately manages to dodge that book because he was expecting it, but it did still manage to hit someone in the face, that someone being Krios who was standing right behind him.
And while it was still silent, this time it was because everyone was staring at me in shock and not because they want to murder someone.
"There," I say exasperatedly, "Are you done acting like children now? Because glaring at each other won't answer the question of what we are doing here. And lucky for you all, I know why we are here. But did anyone bother asking me? Nooooo, because you all are stuck on your petty grudges and refuse to acknowledge-"
"Percy!" Annabeth suddenly shouts, "What have I told you about aggravating gods?"
I roll my eyes (not that anyone good see) and grumble, "That I shouldn't piss off gods because that's how I find an early grave."
"See, you know what you shouldn't do yet you still decide to do it! No matter how many times I've told you so," She says as she storms over to me.
Gesturing around me, I hiss under my breath, "Annabeth, we have company. If you wish to berate me, berate me later when we don't have something important to do."
She grumbles and crosses her arms but thankfully shuts up.
I collect my rampaging emotions and then turn towards Zeus and the rest of the gods.
"As my lovely companion has so graciously pointed out, I was a bit rude with how I addressed you all as my nerves were quite frayed from waiting for half an hour as you all glared at each other and wasted our time, I do hope you forgive me for that. Though I do not feel sorry for throwing a book in Zeus's face, I only threw one at Oceanus to be fair. Now, as I was saying before I was interrupted, I know why we are here and sort of what we need to do to leave, and I have a feeling you would like to know why," I say politely, sarcasm oozing from my words.
Zeus rubbed his temples for a moment as he pressed a handkerchief against his nose to stop the bleeding, and Hera uses that time to interrogate me, "You dare to hurt the King of the gods, mortal!"
Yelp, this is going great already.
I might like antagonizing people, especially immortals, but that does not mean I would like to be smote.
"Well, I wasn't planning on doing it, but me and Lady Hestia had already tried to get your guys' attention, and it didn't work, so I resorted to my tried-and-true way of getting people to notice me. Now may I please elaborate on why we are here so we can actually start on the task the fates have given to us, or will we continue to stand here arguing?" I retort back respectfully.
Zeus sighed like he's heard arguments like this all the time and has been tired of it for centuries, "Please, I would rather not sit here for fifty years listening to an argument. I would like to know what the titans, who I'm pretty sure are still supposed to be in Tartarus, are doing here."
"Zeus," Hyperion growled as he took a step forward, "You should know why we are here. We have been-"
He stopped talking, but the weird thing is that he didn't, his mouth was still moving but no sound was coming out, and he looked equally as perplexed as everyone else in the room. He tried again to say whatever he had tried to say, and still there was no sound.
'By chaos, what is wrong with me!" He cursed and then looked surprised at the fact he actually made a sound that time.
Huh, that's an interesting feature of this whole predicament.
Clearing my throat, I bring everyone's attention back onto me, "To be honest, I didn't know that was a side effect but if I could say what I've been meaning to say for the past," I check my non-existent watch, "seven minutes and forty-three seconds, we could figure out what other side effects there are."
No one interrupted me this time.
"Alright, I don't want to be here, you all don't want to be here. No one wants to be here, so let's get this over with. The reason we are here is because there were two wars," interesting, that doesn't count as a spoiler, noted, "And after the second war something happened to me and it messed up the fate of the world. So, the Fates came to me and gave me a choice: either fix my mistake or let the world have to be destroyed by chaos. And I chose to fix my mistake because of survivor's guilt. Which is why we're all here now, having to read my whole life up to when fate got messed up," I say, almost panting near the end of that mini speech, and there's still more to explain.
Hyperion narrowed his eyes at me, "So you know what's happening with the voice-suddenly-not-working thing?"
"I assume that whatever you were trying to say was a spoiler, and that means either there are things you cannot say because some of us don't know certain things, or" I glance around at everyone, "we are not all from the same time period."
And that's when everyone decides to start talking at once.
"What?" "How could that happen?" Do the fates really have that kind of power?" "How can we be sure this isn't some kind of trick from Kronos!"
"Silence!" Oceanus yells, immediately causing everyone to jump three feet into the air.
That's the first time I've ever seen him get angry like that.
He takes a deep breath before he continues, "We need to approach this carefully, if the fate of the world actually hinges on this... situation, we need to gather all the information we can, so we aren't just making baseless accusations."
I was agreeing with him, until that fucker decided to address me directly.
"Since you are the only one who interacted with the fates before we came here, I assume you have some type of idea of what has been prohibited by the fates?" He asks.
Despite what Oceanus has said, I have absolutely no idea about we can and can't do, I didn't get a chance to ask, because as soon as I agreed I was whisked away to here.
But he can't know that! He'll think poorly of me if he finds out, and I can't let that happen!
Oh, but does that mean I have to come up with stuff? I don't know how to do this on the fly, it was always other-me who had the rules and restrictions and stuff like that, I never had control during that.
And I certainly can't copy what he did, cause then everyone would disagree with me because the rules would be too cruel, and I don't have enough sway here for them to go along with it.
Urgh, I need to come up with something. Just how did other-me do this??????
If I stay quiet for too long though, they'll definitely get suspicious though.
Maybe I should just make something up that sounds reasonable enough, that's like, basic book reading fandom regular etiquette or something?
"O-oh yeah, uhh...," I stutter, "J-just no spoilers, no harming others with a maliceful intent, and umm... keep grudges out of this."
Chaos, I sound so unsure of myself. This is why I should never have been given any type of leadership role.
Luckily, Oceanus somehow accepts it, nodding along with what I said, though Iapetus definitely caught onto my nervousness. Curse his perceptibility.
Now I need to prove him wrong.
"And I personally think we shouldn't hide things from each other, as I think this whole situation happened from secrets being kept. Of course, that's more optional than mandatory, so if you feel uncomfortable you don't have to share," I suddenly add, my confidence randomly coming back. Chaos, I really did want to prove Iapetus wrong so badly that I almost jeopardized myself. Good thing I added that part at the end to save myself. It certainly would be an awkward and uncomfortable conversation if I had to explain myself.
Oceanus nodded, "I agree, there is no need for pointless lying. Any objections?"
No one spoke up, not even Annabeth who guards her privacy as if it's her life savings that are somehow in jeopardy by a pebble.
"I agree," Zeus suddenly says, "It will stop needless arguing over details if we're all honest."
Taking a deep breath, I sighed knowing that stage is over.
And then Hestia walked forward, and politely interrupts the much needed silence, "I think it's time we introduced ourselves, after all, I don't think most of us are aware of the mortals' names."
There was some mumbled agreement at that and then everyone turned to stare at me, again.
I groaned, "I'm not going first. I've gone through enough today, make someone else go first. Please, I beg you all, torture someone else."
Annabeth sighed like it was the most inconvenient thing ever but stepped forward anyways, "I'm Annabeth Chase, Daughter of Athena." Athena shot her a proud smile and Annabeth preened at that.
"I'm Thalia Grace," Thalia said, "Daughter of Zeus."
"But... how? I turned you into a tree," Zeus mused.
Hera scoffed, "More like why does she exist, you're married!" No one paid much heed to her though.
Nico went next, "I'm Nico Di Angelo, son of Hades."
Said god looked surprised, but didn't say much, probably so as not to attract Zeus's attention. Though he didn't seem that angry, more thoughtful then anything.
The next few introductions went smoothly, Hermes was happy he had three children with him, not having noticed Luke by the titans yet, Demeter was happy Katie was here, Apollo almost sag when he learned Will was here, Chaos, even Ares seemed proud of Clarisse which I thought was impossible of him.
"Uhh, I guess I'm next?" Leo spoke up, stepping out from where he was grouped up with the three Romans, "Hi? I'm Leo Valdez, son of Hephaestus."
"And I'm Piper Mclean, daughter of Aphrodite," She cringed at that though, I hadn't realized her parentage was still a sore spot for her.
And now it's time for the Romans. I almost wish I had popcorn for this.
Jason stepped forward first, always the leader, "I'm Jason... guess I can't say my last name, and I'm a son of Jupiter."
"And why, if I may ask, are Roman demigods interacting with the Greek demigods?" Zeus asked me, somehow keeping his cool.
Just how do I go about this without spoilers, "It happens in the future? Can't say anything else that wouldn't be spoilers unfortunately." Smooth Percy, real smooth.
Zeus sighs, thankfully accepting that mediocre explanation, and waves the introductions forward.
"I'm Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano, daughter of Bellona," Reyna says, completely and utterly straight-faced and monotoned, "And this is Hazel Levesque, a daughter of Pluto."
As the last roman, Frank steps forward, "I'm Frank, son of Mars."
With that, the only ones left were me, Rachel, Grover, Zoe, and Luke.
"I'm Rachel, and uhh I guess just a mortal, I can't really say anything else," Rachel shrugged, which, saying she's the oracle would be a spoiler.
Grover went next, "I'm Grover Underwood, a Satyr." I always knew that goat had a backbone.
Zoe sighed, "I assume that I'm next? Well, I'm Zoe Nightshade, daughter of Atlas and Lieutenant of Artemis."
Iapetus looked proud at that, wonder how he'd react if he knew she wasn't technically his granddaughter now?
Great, now only me and Luke are left. I don't want to be here, but I'd rather not be last.
"Well, I'm Percy Jackson, and umm, I don't think I'm allowed to say who my father is as that would be a spoiler, but just know he's in this room?" That's a lie, my father, at least my biological father, is not in this room. If he was in this room, we'd all be dead and I'd be grounded for a century.
And Poseidon took the bait, "I have a feeling that the spoilers only count as spoilers if there are anyone before the speaker's time period? And since I assume we gods are from the earliest period pulled from, then it's safe for me to say that you are my son."
I honestly didn't think he'd recognize me, considering the fact that I wear glasses that block out my eyes completely, the purple lenses fully opaque to anyone looking in but perfectly clear to me looking out.
After that, I turned to Luke, "Well Luke, it's your turn, unless you're going to hide behind your allies again?"
He didn't take the bait unfortunately, and just huffed as everyone's attention turned to him, and the fact that he is standing with the titans.
"Fine, I'm Luke Castellan and I'm regrettably a son of Hermes," He grumbled just loud enough for everyone to hear.
Hermes looked dejected at that, but didn't say anything, seeming to know when is and isn't time to push for answers.
And now that the introductions were over, Hestia smiled and clapped twice.
Instantly, the thrones in the room were gone and replaced by a circle of fourteen couches all surrounding the hearth in a circle.
"Go on," Hestia urged, "Sit down. It'd be bad manners as a host if you all weren't comfortable."
Most of the demigods sat with their parents: Connor, Travis, and Chris with Hermes, Katie with Demeter, Clarisse and Frank with Ares, Leo and Piper with Hephaestus and Aphrodite, Will with Apollo, Nico and Hazel with Hades, Zoe with Artemis, Annabeth with Athena, and Jason and Thalia with Zeus and Hera.
The titans meanwhile sat more spread apart, with Koios and Krios sitting together, Hyperion and Iapetus sitting together, Helios and Selene and Oceanus sitting with Luke who looks like he got put in timeout.
Reyna joined Frank and Clarisse as her mother isn't here, Poseidon joined Hades as I had sat with Rachel and Grover, and Dionysus and Hestia sat together as neither had children nor spouses who were here.
Athena looked satisfied like the set up pleased her, "Alright, let's get started so we can get this over with. Who has the first book?"
"Uhh, I kind of threw it at Zeus and Oceanus should have the second one. The rest are in the pile by the hearth," I say, feeling a bit embarrassed by my earlier actions for some reason.
"One question," Koios spoke up, "Shouldn't we figure out which time period everyone is from so we know what is counted as a spoiler?"
I shrugged, "Well that's easy, the gods are from before the first war, probably from the winter solstice, the titans plus Luke and Zoe are from during the war, presumably from when.... ah, a certain person was captured, the Greek demigods are from directly after the first war, the roman demigods plus Leo and Piper are from directly after the second war, and I'm from some time further down the timeline."
Everyone just looked at me perplexed.
"Uhh, Percy? How can you be so sure?" Leo asked timidly.
I blinked, confounded by that question, "What do you mean, it's kind of obvious? I get the gods and even the titans not being able to guess as they haven't experienced everything yet, but I would have thought... ah, it's because I'm the only one who has lived through all these events, considering you and Piper weren't at camp yet when the first war was playing out and all the ones who participated in the first war have either yet to live it fully or haven't lived past it yet. Interesting, very interesting..."
It was silent for a moment as everyone processed the word vomit I just spoke.
"Ooookay. How about we come back to that later," Apollo said slowly before turning to Zeus, "Father, the book?"
"I have it right here," he said as he opened up to the first page.
Guess we really are doing this.