Chapter Text
Percy didn’t want to be a half-blood.
It’s dangerous, scary, and it usually gets you killed in painful, nasty ways. However, Percy would take all of those things over the fate he was handed.
He could start anywhere in his miserable life, but everything truly went wrong when his mother died. Taken from him by the minotaur, and now he was alone, left at Camp Halfblood to live maybe for the rest of his life.
Percy’s legs felt wobbly, and he had to lean on Grover to make it all the way around the big house.
“That’s Mr. D, and you already know Chiron,” Grover told him as they approached.
“Mr. Brunner!?” He stared at his previous teacher, alarmed. Chiron gave Percy a rueful look and apologized for the ruse, but Percy was barely listening. Everything he thought he knew was being stripped away. He wondered what he’d have left after all of this.
He was only 12. Why was his whole world being ripped out from under him? This wasn’t supposed to happen until he was older.
“Percy?”
He was startled out of his thoughts when Chiron touched his arm. “Sorry, what?” He looked between Chiron and the chubby man in the leopard print tracksuit. Mr. D Grover had called him. Percy wondered what the D stood for.
Mr. D looked annoyed, rolling his eyes, but he regarded Percy with narrowed eyes. “Tell me, is Percy short for something? Percival or_?”
“Perseus, actually.” Percy rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “It’s nice to meet you?”
“Perseus,” Mr. D ignored his greeting, locking eyes with Chiron, who had a particular look. Percy couldn’t place it, but it gave him a bad feeling. “Do you know the stories surrounding that name boy?”
“Um..no..”
“You might want to get acquainted. Your mother gave you a regrettable name.”
“Wha–?” Percy tried to protest; how dare Mr. D bring up his mother after what had happened? But one look at Grover made him choke on his words. His friend looked pale as a ghost at Mr. D’s words, and Percy glanced at Chiron, who avoided his gaze.
He was saved from further conversation when a camper named Luke came summoned by Chiron to take him around camp.
“Perseus, right?”
“Percy. I– nobody calls me Perseus.”
“Probably a good idea.” Percy wanted to ask, but Luke was already moving forward. “You’ll probably be a son of Apollo, and he’s usually pretty good at claiming his children, so you won’t be squeezed in with us at cabin 11 for long.”
“How do you know that?”
“Black hair, green eyes. Apollo has a type, and you look just like most of his kids.”
“Oh.”
“A little overwhelmed?”
“More than a little. I’m still trying to wrap my head around all of– this.” He gestured at all the cabins.
“Yeah, it can be a lot. But you’ll get used to it. Before you know it, out there will be weirder than in here.” He gestured to the border of the camp.
Percy wasn’t sure how to respond, so he changed the subject, “Who is cabin 11?”
“Hermes.”
“The messenger guy?”
“God of messages, thievery, travelers, merchants, jack of all trades, master of none.” He sounded slightly bitter, and his scar looked deeper and jaggeder, especially as the sun set beyond the horizon, casting shadows. “Here we are.”
—
Soon enough, he forgot about Mr. D’s words, too busy trying to catch up and get used to his new normal. At least with campers surrounding him, he never felt alone.
“Hey, you’re Percy, right?” A boy with blonde curls spoke to him as he struggled to draw a bow.
“Yes?”
“Hi, I’m Lee Fletcher.”
“Nice to meet you.” Percy fiddled with the bow.
“My dad is Apollo.”
“Oh! You mean we might be?”
“Related, yes. I mean, you look similar to a lot of my siblings.”
“How long did it take you to get claimed?”
“A few weeks.”
“Can you be a child of Apollo if you can't shoot a bow?”
“Will isn’t good at Archery either.” He pointed out an 8-year-old who was also struggling. Percy didn’t think there was much of a comparison, but he knew Lee was trying to be nice, so he forced a smile. “Hey, you might have other talents. Healing, music, art? Dad kind of has a million domains. You might even be a rare talent like truth.”
“Thanks for trying.” Percy laughed, and Lee ruffled his hair, making him feel like a little kid. Having a brother might not be such a bad thing.
The fates must hate him.
Because just when he was starting to adjust, everything went to shit, some sort of endless fucked cycle he was caught in. It turned out he wasn’t a child of Apollo, as everyone thought. He stared up at the trident above his head, and everyone looked at him as if he were already dead.
Percy sat in the Poseidon cabin alone and tried not to be ungrateful, but being in this cabin felt like a curse. Whispers seemed to follow him through camp. Some were about the broken oath, but weirdly enough, most were talking about a Lord Perseus. For the first time, he remembered once again the way both Luke and Mr. D had called his name unfortunate, and he wished he had a computer to look it up.
Fortunately, he knew someone he could ask. If only she would stop scowling at him every time they were in the same vicinity.
“Annabeth?” Percy tried to catch her between activities, but she pretended not to hear him.
“Annabeth! Wait!” At every meal, he waved at her, uncaring of the stares he was getting. Everyone was already acting like he was the freak show of the week. She hid her face in her arms, steadfastly ignoring him.
Finally, he’d had enough and walked straight up to Cabin 6 and knocked on the door. A blonde boy answered, looking at Percy and taking a slight step back. Percy rolled his eyes, his annoyance at an all-time high. He hated the reaction everyone had around him, and he was getting real tired of keeping his mouth shut.
“Is Annabeth here?”
“Uh...” He glanced back inside briefly. “No, she’s out.”
“Fine, I’ll just wait.” Percy took a few steps back, crossed his arms, and waited.
Malcolm stared at him and then moved back into the cabin, not quite shutting the door, and yelled, “ANNABETH!”
There was shuffling and many annoyed voices before Annabeth appeared at the door. “What?”
“I need your help.”
“With what?”
“Why do you hate me all of a sudden?”
Annabeth looked taken aback and then glanced behind her before stepping out of the cabin and shutting the door behind her. “I don’t hate you… Look, my mother and your father have a sort of rivalry.”
“Ok, and?” He didn’t get why that mattered.
Annabeth rolled her eyes. “Look, it's just… ugh, you just don’t get it!”
“Clearly.” Percy frowned, not moving.
Annabeth looked annoyed, but she slowly deflated after looking at his unmoving form until she finally gave up. “What did you need help with?”
“You know a lot about Greek mythology, right?” She just stared at Percy like he was an idiot, and he shuffled from foot to foot uncomfortably. “Right, well, what do you know about Perseus?” Annabeth’s expression changed from annoyed to sad in a fraction of a second. She looked at him with a grimace. “See, everyone keeps looking at me like that.”
Annabeth turned red and looked a bit put out. “Meet me by the lake in an hour. I’ll get together all I know about it.”
Percy looked relieved. “Thank you, Annabeth.”
“Don’t thank me yet. I don’t think this is something you’re going to like.” She returned to her cabin, and Percy walked down to the lake to wait. He had nothing else to do. None of the other campers wanted to be anywhere near him. He skipped rocks across the lake and sat on the pier.
The sun was bright and hot, almost suffocating, and he thought briefly about jumping into the lake to swim with the naiads.
“Percy! Over here.” Annabeth waved him over to a shady spot, and Percy quickly walked over and sat with her. Her arms were laden with books, and he was hoping she didn’t make him read them.
“I found all the books I have on Lord Perseus. Don’t look at me like that; I’ll give you the synopsis.” He smiled brightly, and she rolled her eyes, but he could see the slight lift of her lips, and Percy knew they would be okay despite their godly parentage.
“Well, to start with, Perseus is also known as the Lover. He was Apollo’s love in Ancient Greece, circa 62 A.D. He was a young god of the sea.” She looked pointedly at Percy, who rubbed his arm and looked out at the lake. “A son of Poseidon like you. He was said to be kind and gracious. He saved Athens from a tidal wave sent by his father after they chose Athena as a patron over Poseidon.”
“I thought he was a son of Poseidon.”
“That’s what makes him so different. I mean no disrespect to the gods, but the stories are not kind. You’ve heard some of them.”
“Yeah.” Percy grimaced.
“Well, all of Perseus’s stories are tales of his warmhearted nature. I don’t think there’s a single one about him raping, pillaging, or cursing anyone. It's refreshing.”
“That’s nice.”
“Yes, well, he ended up as Apollo’s lover. Apollo had temples built in his honor and created statues of his lover all over Delphi. Perseus was said to be the only god who could soothe his temper and allay his more violent tendencies. The world was free from plagues, and the sun ceased to burn the land. Harvests were plentiful under his mercies. Of course, Demeter had a hand in that, though their domains go hand in hand.”
“So what happened?”
“No one knows. One day, Perseus just vanished.”
“He died.”
“Immortals can’t die, Percy. They can fade, and many believe that may have happened to Perseus, but only the fates know what really became of him.”
“I don’t get it. Why does this have anything to do with me? Everyone looks at me like I’m going to die.”
“Well.. Look, Percy, we all know the gods aren’t perfect. They do things without thought for mortals. When Apollo’s lover vanished, Apollo was no longer tamed. He raged at the world. A lot of terrible things happened. You know the story of Persephone, right?”
“Yes, didn’t her mother almost kill everyone with endless winter?”
“Exactly.” She looked impressed, which annoyed him.
“I do know some things,” He huffed.
“Well, Apollo was just as bad until Zeus stepped in. That’s where most of the myths of Perseus end just another tragedy. But that didn’t just end things. Apollo has a type: You’ve met the inhabitants of cabin seven. They all look like Perseus because their parents all resemble Apollo’s lover. And well, most of the time, that love doesn’t end well.” She looked at him with pity. “If you live long enough to reach maturity, Apollo will surely take you.”
“Take me?”
“Away to his palace in Delos.” Annabeth looks down. “There’s no books about it, but it's happened before. It never ends well because none of them are the one he wants.”
“But he can’t just take people! That’s crazy!”
Annabeth flinched. “Probably not a good idea to call the gods crazy. I know it seems that way to us, but gods are gods. They haven’t changed since ancient times.”
Percy thought that was bullshit. Gods should behave better!
Their lesson ended on that delightful note.
Percy returned to his cabin in a daze. Was that going to be his fate?
The ocean raged as it had for months because of his dad's fight with Zeus, but right now, it accurately resembled Percy’s own inner turmoil. Percy felt the anger deep in his bones. He wasn’t going to let that happen to him. If Apollo tried to take him, Percy was damn well going to put up a fight. He didn’t know what he could possibly do against a god, but that was a thought for another time.
—
Apparently, he could do a lot to a god. Kicking Ares’s butt left Percy feeling on top of the world. He knew he shouldn’t get ahead of himself, but it gave him hope.
Olympus was stunning. Percy couldn’t believe a place like this was above the Empire State Building. The whole city was alive and teaming with satyrs and naiads and a bunch of good-looking teenagers who might’ve been minor gods and goddesses. Nobody seemed worried about an impending civil war. In fact, everyone seemed to be in a festive mood. Several of them turned to watch him pass and whispered to themselves.
Percy felt a bit on edge.
Steps led up to the central courtyard where the throne room was located. He climbed them, knowing the king of the gods awaited him there.
All the thrones were empty except for 2, and Percy felt massively relieved. With everyone whispering about Apollo and staring at him as if he were about to get abducted at any minute, he was worried the god of the sun might pop up at every turn like the boogeyman, but it hadn’t happened. Maybe it never would, and he was worrying over nothing.