Chapter Text
CASTOR:
Long ago, we would have taken our sister from your land to safety, since Zeus had made us gods. But we were subservient to fate and to the gods as well, whose will it was that these things should be.
- Euripides, Helen, lines 1658-62
“Thalia’s staying in Camp.” Ann says, her eyes distant as she throws a stone into the pond. It skips a few times before it sinks. “The gods want to keep an eye on her. That’s what she said anyway.”
There’s a summer storm in the distance. Though this time, Percy isn’t sure if the barrier would keep it out.
Percy sits next to her on the pier, though he hugs his knees and doesn’t dangle his legs over. The naiads leave them alone. “What about you? How are you feeling?”
The past two weeks were… tense. An emergency meeting was called on Olympus and Dad was forced to attend, whisking away Tammy before reappearing and giving a curt warning to his sons to stay away from Theodora if they know what’s good for them. Percy knows Dad is just tense, so Percy just gives him his wine and leaves whenever he sees him.
At least everyone’s too busy gawking at and gossiping about Tulip to shoot bitter looks at Percy and the twins. Nico, Travis and Connor had filled Percy in on what Dad had said the night Percy was in the infirmary, to which he says, what the actual fuck, Dad?
“…I should be happy. I am happy. Thalia’s back. I thought I would never see her again.” Ann finally says after a few moments of silence. “But…”
“The prophecy.” Percy whispers.
“…Yeah.”
“Do you think Tabatha would destroy Olympus if she had the chance?”
“No, she wouldn’t do that.” A frown sets in on her face. “I know she wouldn’t.”
Percy is suddenly reminded of Dad’s constant grumbling about Tammy’s presence and ‘how things would be so much easier if Father just let me set her molecules on fire’. Even then, Percy wants to give Teresa the benefit of the doubt at the very least. He knows what it’s like to have people afraid of you.
Though approaching her is another question altogether. The girl glares at everyone except Ann and overall tries to scare people away. There’s no way in Tartarus he’s approaching her during dinner while Dad’s watching and certainly not alone. Castor and Pollux had deemed Tammy as too prickly and Percy doesn’t want to bother them about it either.
“All we can do is hope for the best.” Percy concides.
Ann’s brows pinched, clearly disagreeing as that familiar calculating glint appears in her eyes again.
Deciding to change the subject, Percy asks, “Are you going to stay at Camp year-round again?”
“My dad wants to try again.” Her fist squeezes. “But I don’t want to.”
“Your step-mom, right?” Percy remembers how Ann had complained about her, how her step-mom didn’t want Ann around her kids, bring monsters to the house and over all just being a demigod in her general vicinity.
More and more Percy’s really glad he lucked out when it comes to family, divine or not. Ariadne, Semele, Dad, Castor and Pollux, Mom, Percy wouldn’t know what to do without them.
The water ripples and Percy frowns.
Well, mostly lucky. “What are you going to do?”
“I told him in my letters that I don’t want to come back, but he decided to compromise and reserve a seat for me at this boarding school in Brooklyn.” Ann explains. “He and his family would be close by if I ever decide to visit and it’s close to Camp if anything happens.”
“Really? Brooklyn?” If Ann’s going to be close by, then they can hang out more, right?
Before Percy could give an open invitation to visit his apartment - Ann’s just a friend, shut up, Pollux - Ann’s eyes widen in that familiar look of epiphany. “That’s it!”
“What?” Percy asks but Ann’s already sprinting to the Big House, leaving him alone at the lake. “Um, okay?”
“Now what kind of goddess of love would I be if I didn’t love my children, Dionysus?” Aphrodite says, sickly sweet with narrowed eyes.
“All my children are a reflection of me, of course I pay attention to them!” Apollo insists, with an honestly whiny voice.
“My children are proud to have me as their Mother. I expect nothing less.” Athena says, firm as stoic stone and pretending like she doesn’t dangle the prospect of love like a carrot on a stick.
“Come on you guys! Maybe he just switched over to weed instead of wine and has his head screwed over, right Dionysus?” Hermes says with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes with hands gripping his throne. “After all, I love all my children.”
Dionysus scoffs to himself as he sips his wine can, the bustle of children filling their bottomless stomachs all around him. If the council didn’t want to hear it, then maybe they should be better parents. How revolutionary.
On that note, he probably shouldn’t order anything over the mail, Hermes will undoubtedly sabotage the packages as payback. How annoying.
His eyes slide over to the Hermes table. Wait, that Noah boy is very attached to Percy and listens to him far more than his actual sister. Maybe he can use the boy to act as a courier between Dionysus and Percy delivering wine. Transporting and smuggling, the task is perfect for a Hermes brat. He’ll remove the leash he has on the boy after the summer is over.
The Grace girl sits all alone at the Zeus table, head cocked high and her face stone, like telling the world that she wasn’t afraid of it. Rebellious. Certainly won’t bode well for Olympus if she decides to join Liam and his merry band of suicidal idiots. Surely someone had told her that she was poisoned by that very same boy.
Percy’s absolute loyalty is to Dionysus, which automatically makes Percy a far better candidate for the prophecy. At least when Percy disobeys Dionysus, it’s out of loyalty to Dionysus himself funnily enough. Already better than this walking bomb waiting to go off.
Just two more weeks until the summer session is over and the Grace girl will most certainly find a reason to leave Camp. There’s no doubt in his mind that Anastasia Castle has some plan in mind to make that happen.
Whatever. As long as he doesn’t have to deal with any more nuisances.
A sip of his wine and the can is empty. Great.
With the summer session winding down, a lot of things at Camp needed to be checked before switching over to the next session. Castor and Pollux were busy coordinating with Cabin Four to determine what would be planted for the incoming fall season, Cabin Nine was looking over all the weapons in the armory to see if it’s in shape or not, and Connor and Travis had raised their prices for last-minute goods.
Since Percy didn’t have to do anything special, he was put in charge of taking care of the horses alone in the meantime.
He didn’t really mind in all honesty. Since he’s alone, he can talk to the horses and no one would look at him like he was crazy-
Anyway, Percy’s busy grooming their hair. “I can’t believe Nico asked me if I could bust through walls like the Kool-Aid Man on TV just because I drink a lot of grape juice. Who even told him about the Kool-Aid Man anyway?”
“That kid needs to get his priorities straight.” Blackjack neighs in agreement, though with a bit of whininess in his tone. The aptly-named black pegasus was actually the same pegasus that Luke had as his personal steed on the Princess Andromeda, though Blackjack clearly didn’t like the position and had followed Percy and his fiends when they escaped.
It was Grover who told Percy what his name was, and now Percy can actually understand what they’re saying, which has given him a lot of gossip on the Campers who think they aren’t being heard.
Percy snorts. “Dude, maybe if you didn’t nip Nico’s hand when he was giving you an apple that one time, he would be giving you sugar cubes like the rest of the pegasi at Camp.”
Blackjack stomps a hoof. “It’s not fair, Boss! At all! I said sorry!”
Percy shakes his head. Nico holds grudges like nobody’s business and is the reason why Cabin Eleven and Cabin Ten have been on opposite sides for every Capture the Flag game since. Blackjack’s not going to see any sugar cubes from him anytime soon. “Keep telling that to yourself, man.”
The demigod moves closer to the pegasus’s mane. “So what’s the latest gossip-?”
“Uh, Boss?” Blackjack interrupts. “That chick over there is staring at you.”
Huh? Percy turns around and sees-
“So you’re Percy Jackson.” Tatum Gill’s electric eyes seem to pierce the air. Her black punk attire seems at odds with the surrounding color of the stables. “Heard a bit about you around this Camp. They call you a ‘madlad’.”
Percy’s good mood disappears in an instant. “Don’t call me that. Only Ann is allowed to call me that.”
“Her name’s Annabeth. Shouldn’t you know that by now?” Taylor looks him up and down, as if sizing up how good he would be in a fight. “She talked about you.”
“About what?”
“About how Luke tried to kill you for some reason last year and again this year.” Tabatha finishes. “But why?”
“She didn’t tell you?”
“She did.” Teresa says. “About how you guys stopped the world from being destroyed from civil war on Olympus and how Luke didn’t like that. But why target you specifically? I get why he wouldn’t go after Grover or Annabeth, but why does he hate you so much?”
Percy would very much like to stop having this conversation. “What’s it to you? It’s none of your business.”
“Because I wake up four years in the future where I got poisoned by someone I thought I could trust with my life.” The overhead lights start to flicker. “It is my business.”
“What, didn’t you hear about how spoiled I am for a demigod?” Percy grabs the bucket on the floor and throws the water out, preparing to leave. “Luke tried to kill me because I’m spoiled and he was jealous that my Dad loves me and his Dad ditched him. Happy now?”
“Not really.” Tammy follows him out of Blackjack’s stall. “Because I heard that you made Luke insane-”
Keep calm. Keep fucking calm-
“-And that’s why he decided to rebel against the gods. So?”
“So what.”
“Is it your fault or not?”
Fuck it. He whips around to face Tabby. “Fine! You want to know so bad? The truth is I didn’t do jack-fucking-shit! Luke was always going to snap and it didn’t matter if I was there or not! He stole the Master Bolt a whole fucking six months before I even showed up at Camp and all the bullshit he got in his life didn’t help either.”
He turns to leave. “I don’t care if you’re Ann’s big sister, I don’t need someone else blaming me for Luke’s actions. His fucking Dad is enough for me.”
Teresa doesn’t try to stop him from leaving.
Percy walks up Half-Blood Hill, the sun high in the sky. “Are you okay, Nico?”
“I’m fine.” Nico answers in a curt tone, practically stomping the way up. If Nico didn’t want people to know he’s grumpy, he’s doing a bad job at it. “It’s whatever.”
Percy seriously doubts that a sister leaving to be part of an immortal group of bow-and-arrow hunters would be ‘whatever’, but poking the bear probably’s going to make things worse.
Finally they reach the pine tree, the Golden Fleece still glittering in its branches, the former prison of one Tabatha Greene, who avoids the place like the plague. Percy waves to the Campers on guard duty and spots Bianca standing a ways away, still within Camp borders, a duffle bag at her feet and bow slung on her back. She waves when she catches sight of Percy, though her smile gets strained when she spots Nico.
Nico’s eyes are pinned to the ground.
“I didn’t think I was getting a send-off party. Everyone got weird when I said I was joining the Hunters.” Bianca says.
“What kind of friend would I be if I didn’t say goodbye?” Percy says. “And who cares what they say, you’re gonna be an awesome huntress, I just know it.”
He then offers the bag of grapes in his hands to Bianca. He may or may not have asked the twins to help grow them super last minute the day before. “It’s not much, I kinda put it together a bit last minute, but I hope you like some grapes for the road. Until you kill a deer or something?”
“It’s more hunting supernatural creatures than normal animals.” Bianca clarifies. She plucks a grape piece and pops it into her mouth. “And thanks for the snack.”
“Of course.”
It gets a bit awkward as the conversation kinda dies, more so since Nico has yet to say a word.
“Guards!” Someone shouts near the pine tree, “Intruder! By the tree line!”
At the alarm, Percy’s hand automatically goes to his pocket-
Oh right, Dad took Riptide away, fuck-!
At the edge of the woods emerges a girl, clad in a silver jacket and camo pants, black combat boots, and a bow slung over her shoulder. Her hair shone in the sun almost oddly, like it was the wrong kind of light being reflected.
The sound of hooves reaches them as Chiron rushes over the hill. “Stand down! That is Zoë Nightshade, lieutenant of the Huntress. She has business at Camp.”
The Campers lower their weapons, though their unhappy expressions are clear as day. Percy knows there’s a bit of a feud between Campers and the Hunters, but is it that bad?
Then again, the twins had told Percy about the last time the Hunters were at Camp which ended in Cabin Ten being burnt down. Dad apparently didn’t care about it since it wasn’t Cabin Twelve that was destroyed.
The Hunter approaches the group. Percy gets the feeling she is very, very, serious and it would be wise not to cross her. “Chiron.” She nods.
The centaur returns the nod, “Zoë Nightshade. I presume you’re here for Miss di Angelo? Though I must say, I’m surprised your Mistress personally sent you here instead of someone else, or perhaps even one of her hunting animals to guide her.”
“My Lady simply wishes to be cautious, considering the times.” The Hunter, Zoë Nightshade apparently, replies before glancing at the Golden Fleece. “We have to stay one step ahead as it stands.”
“...Indeed.” Chiron responds tiredly.
The Hunter turns to face Bianca, ignoring Percy and Nico. “And this young lady has caught her attention for reasons beyond me.”
Shit, that doesn’t sound good. Does Artemis not buy Hermes claiming the di Angelos?
“Is… that bad?” Bianca asks tentatively.
“I doubt my Lady would go through the trouble of sending me if it were.” Zoë says, almost amused. She glances at Bianca’s bow on her back. “You are an archer?”
Bianca fidgits a little. “I’ve been practicing! I mean, I just started archery when I made my decision to join the Hunters, do I have to pass an archery exam or-”
Zoë lifts a hand up. “Peace. We do nothing of the sort.” She glances at the duffle bag at Bianca’s feet. “Though your eagerness will certainly help you. Come, we will rendezvous with the rest of the Hunters and I can answer any questions you may have on the way.”
“Of course!” Bianca answers, “Can I say goodbye first?”
Zoë finally glances at Percy’s and Nico’s direction. Percy gets the sinking feeling that the Hunter recognizes him when her eyes turn to stone. “You may. And remember that we Hunters take an Oath of celibacy, so you must cut any romantic relationships lest you break it.”
Wait, does she think Bianca and Percy are a thing? The fuck? Can’t a guy bid farewell to a female friend without it being weird?
“What!?” Nico exclaims. “Bianca and Percy aren’t dating!”
“She’s like a sister to me-”
“Yup, there’s nothing between us-”
Zoë blinks. “I see.”
“Percy likes Annabeth anyway!” One of the guards shouts.
Percy’s face flushes as he whips his face around. “Who the fuck said that?!”
“Language, Mr. Jackson!” Chiron chides.
“It’s kinda obvious, Percy.” Bianca says. “Though I don’t think Annabeth has noticed?”
Embarrassment takes root and Percy turns away. “Anyway, you’ll do great, Bianca. Go kick some monster ass.”
“Again with the langauge, young man.” Chiron sighs. “That being said, I wish you the best in your endeavors, Miss di Angelo. May the archery lessons help you on your journey, however brief they were.”
“Thank you.” Bianca smiles brightly. “...Nico?”
Nico’s hand shoots out, fist closed. “Here.”
Bianca locks eyes with Percy, questioning. Except Percy doesn’t know what’s in Nico’s hand either and shrugs.
With that, Bianca holds out her hand and Nico’s fist opens, dropping something on her palm.
Percy leans over and sees a leather necklace and a bead with the painted image of the Golden Fleece already attached. Bianca blinks. “...Oh.”
Huh, those weren’t supposed to be handed out until tomorrow night at the last bonfire for the summer. How did Nico get his hands on that?
“I asked Connor and Travis if I could have it early to give it to you since you wouldn’t be here and they said okay. And I didn’t steal it, I asked for it!” Nico insists to Chrion before looking down. “…I’m sorry for yelling at you. I’m sorry for not listening to you and…”
Nico mumbles the next part, so Percy didn’t hear it clearly, but Bianca somehow did. “Oh Niccolo.” She takes Nico in for a hug. “Why would I ever do that?”
A sniffle. “I don’t know, maybe you were going to be mad at me forever or something.”
They separate and Bianca takes the necklace and ties it around her neck. The glitter used for the Golden Fleece glints a bit as it rests against her collarbone. “Thank you, Nico.”
“Come, we mustn’t keep the Hunters waiting.” Zoë says. “May we see each other again, Chiron.”
Percy watches Bianca follow Zoë down the hill and into the woods. Nico lifts his hand as if to reach for Bianca’s retreating back, only to flinch when it hits the barrier. Before Percy could say anything, Nico turns and vanishes away in Percy’s shadow.
The bonfire was… painfully awkward, if Percy had to describe it. No one went near Teresa and she looked like she was fine with that. When it was time to pass out the Camp bead for the year - the Golden Fleece of course – in the end, Ann went over to give her a bead and necklace and Tammy took it before shoving it in her pocket when Ann turned around.
Later when the Campers head out back to their Cabins, Percy goes to find Ann-
Except she’s talking to Tabetha with an excited demeaner and the other girl nodding along in agreement to something, whatever it is.
Percy turns around and goes back to Cabin Twelve.
As son of the Camp Director, Percy doesn’t have to rush to pack as the rest of the Camp has to. Clean the Cabin for inspection, sure, but nothing like the panic of all the Campers who left things to last minute. ADHD is certainly a bitch.
Except whenever he tries to leave the Cabin, he finds that he just… can’t.
“Listen, I was going to come looking for you. I wanted to talk in private, but how about we go into the woods to find something to fight?”
Castor and Pollux shared a glance like they always do and didn’t question it when Percy put up excuses on why he couldn’t go outside, don’t they know that the shower floor needed deep scrubbing? Who knows what Silena might say if she sees it as it is. Yes, he’ll be fine, go finish up whatever you need to do at the strawberry fields, Percy’s not a baby.
Except he really wants to find Ann, at least to ask what has her all excited. But the thought of leaving just makes his chest constrict in the worst ways and he just can’t.
(Later his therapist would say that it’s PTSD and it’s expected after the things he went through.
He would later hate being more broken than he thought he was.)
A knock at the door interrupts Percy’s sweeping. “Percy, are you in there?”
He opens the door to see Ann on the other side. “Hey. Is your Cabin already cleared?”
“We’ve been ready since yesterday. That way we don’t have to deal with guessing who’s project is whose on the last day of Camp.” Ann waves off. “I just didn’t see you at breakfast today.”
“Oh, that.” Percy lifts the broom in his hand. “The truth is the Cabin was really dirty and we kinda lost track of time cleaning up?”
Before Ann can reply, Percy asks, “So what was that thing you ran off on me from the lake anyway?”
Ann has a look that said she knew what Percy was doing but answers anyway. “I got an idea. You know how my dad enrolled in that boarding school in Brookyn? Well, I wondered if Chiron could use the Mist to enroll Thalia with me. It lets Thalia leave Camp and I wouldn’t have to fend off monsters on my own.”
“And Tammy agreed?”
“Yeah. My dad is picking us up and we’re going to head back to his house just to pick some things up before driving over to the school to get checked in. We won’t see his wife and kids at all.” Ann explains with some relief. “I’m actually looking forward to it.”
“That’s good! Really good, you deserve it.” Come on Jackson, you’re a star actor and the son of the literal god of theatre. “But… can I just give you a piece of advice?”
“Um, sure.”
Percy takes a deep breath. “Just… remember you don’t owe your dad anything. He’s the one who hurt you and didn’t try to understand what it’s like being a demigod and pushed you to run away. You don’t have to reciprocate just because he’s your dad and he wants to try again. If he really wants to repair your relationship, he has to earn it.”
Her eyes flick to Percy’s ring. His finger twitches before he could stop it. “Percy-”
“Just promise me you’ll keep that in mind.” Percy urges. “Please?”
“…I promise.” Ann turns to leave, but give Percy a smile. “See you soon, Madlad.”
The nickname doesn’t sting coming from Ann. Percy returns the smile. “Right back at you, Wise Girl.”
Percy watches Ann return to her Cabin before closing the door and heading back inside.
The bathroom needs scrubbing after all.