Chapter Text
Percy was 7 when she finally spoke to the women she saw in the Hudson River, she had seen them all her life but no one else did and when she mentioned them people would give her strange looks. Even when she told her mother, Sally she would just say that she was imagining it and not to worry but Percy knew she was lying, her mother saw them too.
The day she approached them wasn’t special, her mother was at her job at Sweet on America, a candy store and she didn’t want to stay at home with her Step-father Gabe. Percy had no idea why her mother married him, he was mean and did nothing all day. When her mother wasn't around he would say bad things to her, calling her useless and a waste of space. A few times he had grabbed her and yanked her around. He got worse the longer he was around. Percy didn’t like spending time around him if she didn’t have to so she would wander around the city. At 7 years old you would think people would be concerned seeing her on her own but no one ever said or did anything.
When the younger girl approached the edge of the river a group of three of them were already there waiting for her, smiling at her as if they had known her all her life. Each one was beautiful and clearly not human, their hair looked like it was made from sea foam and their skin shimmered like pearls. Their ears and hands were webbed, their arms patterned with scales like fish and when looking at their smiles she could see that their teeth were slightly pointed. But despite all of that Percy felt safe being near them.
“Hi.” Percy whispered, kneeling at the surface nervous to finally speak to them.
The tallest one on the right came closer to the surface but without breaching it spoke back in a smooth, comforting voice muffled by the water, “Hello little Princess, we were wondering when you would finally come.”
Percy was confused, “I’m sorry I think you have the wrong person, I’m not a Princess.” the little tucked her chin down looking away slightly.
The woman on the left spoke next, her voice bubbly and full of life. “No you're the King's daughter, we could all tell, you feel so much like him and those eyes are definitely his!”
“My father?” the child whispered even more confused.
The last woman, the one in the middle who looked to be the oldest appearing as an adult while the other two teenagers, broke the surface of the river to stroke the young girl's face, “Don’t worry dear one we’ll explain, there is no reason to be afraid.”
Percy couldn’t help but lean into the woman's hand on her skin, the comfort reminding her of her mother. “I’m not afraid but who are you?” she asked, voice a little louder.
“My name is Vepos and I am Naiad, my sisters here are Brooke and Aphros.” the eldest gestured to her left then her right. “We have been watching you for quite some time.”
Percy blinked, still surprised to know they were there for her “Oh, sorry I took so long. My name is Persephone Jackson but everyone calls me Percy.”
Brooke grinned up to the girl, "It's great to meet you properly Percy. Oh, I can’t wait to see what you can do!”
Aphros was more hesitant, “Should we really be speaking with her about this, she is still young, what if we cause more monsters to follow her?”
“Monsters? Like the man in the trench coat with one eye?” The child asked, the sisters paused to share a concerned look, “I keep seeing him, he tried to follow me and mom home once.”
At this Aphros looked panicked, “See even now she is in danger, we shouldn’t be tempting the Fates!”
Vepos placed her other hand on her sister's shoulder in comfort, “Peace sister, her life is already difficult at least with our knowledge she will be prepared.” She turned back to face Percy, her voice serious, “Little Princess what I am going to tell you is dangerous, you will learn it one day eventually even if not today. Do you wish to learn?”
The little girl's face scrunched up as she bit her lip unsure of her choice. The Naiad spoke before she could decide “Know that whatever you choose we will protect you until you can protect yourself.”
“I-”
2 Years Later
Since she had first met those three Naiads as a child Percy had learned a lot about the world she was born from, a world of Gods and monsters, creatures that would seek her out to destroy her for things she had no control over.
They taught her slowly about Ancient Greece, Olympus, the Underworld and most importantly what lies under the water. Beings and animals she had never heard of, how they live, who her allies would be and who would hate her very existence. Percy knew who her father was, she had known for a long time at this point, Poseidon, God of the Sea and a lot of other things.
She had questioned many times whether he cared about her or not and in the end she at 9 years old decided it didn’t matter. She had her mother and her teachers, to her he didn’t really matter. The more she learned about him the more she questioned if she wanted him to be in her life, the Gods had done some truly terrible things.
Even if she didn’t want anything to do with him, his influence on her wasn’t something she could hide. After meeting her new teachers Percy noticed every time she got angry any water around her tended to react, telling them that got them to start training her to control it. It took her a long time to manage the push and pull of water shaping it and how to use it to sense the people around her which came in handy a lot with all the monsters that started to show up around her.
Vepos recommended learning from more than one teacher and helped her find other nature spirits around New York. There weren’t many as it was a city with little nature but there was a surprising amount of Dryads in Central Park. They were forgotten by a lot of the divine world and happy to help Percy learn Nature Magic, even some of the Aurai spent time with the daughter of Poseidon gossiping about the world and its secrets.
On that day, Percy was late leaving her lesson, something she would always regret.
Over the years since he moved in Gabe had gotten much worse. He had moved on from general complaints and little grabs and shoves onto smacking Percy if she spoke back, making her get things from him and threatening her mom if she told her about what he did.
Sally was a wonderful mother, she wasn’t always there because she was the only provider for the family. Gabe apparently had a manager job at a store but Percy had never seen him working, so Sally had to support the three of them. Her mother lost her parents when she was young to a plane crash and dropped out of high school to care for her sick uncle who passed soon after. She told her daughter that she was the best thing to happen in her life after meeting the girl's father. They met while Sally was staying at a beach house in Montauk, her mother would bring her there every now and then just the two of them.
Sally told her daughter that her father was lost at sea, now Percy knew better but she never told her that she knew the truth. It was a secret she kept because she didn’t want to be a bigger burden to her mother who had given up her future for her. Sally had to take night classes at a community college as she had dropped out of high school, she wasn’t even an adult when she fell pregnant with Percy. She had been offered a place at a good school before she had her daughter and lost it to care for her.
As Percy rushed up stairs to the apartment she could hear Gabe and her mother arguing, their muffled voices echoing down the corridor. She slowly opened the door and creeped in as quietly as she could, her eyes locked on to the two adults in the dirty apartment. Sally noticed her daughter almost immediately but brought no attention to her, just subtly motioning for her to sneak into her bedroom which Percy moved to do but Gabe noticed her and lunged for her shouting incoherently at the little girl.
Sally threw herself in front of her daughter, trying to push the man away to protect her, crying out for him to ‘Stop!’ and ‘Leave her alone!’ It only lasted a few seconds but to Percy time slowed to a near stop. She stood frozen as her step-father threw her mother to the side. Sally fell and loud ‘CRACK!’ sounded through the room.
Percy stood in shock as her mother laid motionless, a pool of blood started to spread from under her head. Sally’s eyes stuck wide open staring down her daughter as the light left them.
Sally Jackson was dead.
Sally Jackson was murdered.
Her mother was gone.
The 9 year old girl was left alone with a mortal monster. She didn’t leave the apartment for days after that, she had no idea how but Gabe managed to convince the police that her mothers death was an accident that she fell on her own. He now had sole custody of her and the abuse, because that is what it was, abuse was only going to get worse for her. Her only solace was with her teachers, unfortunately her monster was mortal and thus they couldn’t interfere no matter how much they wished they could. Some even tried reaching Poseidon again to no avail.
Percy Jackson was alone, no mother, no father, praying for someone to save her. She had all but given up on ever being free until she met him.
Luke.