Disclaimer: The world of Percy Jackson, its characters and settings are the copyrighted works of Rick Riordan and his publishing companies and affiliates. No profit was made from the writing of this story nor was any malice intended in any way, shape or form to the author or the actors/actresses who so brilliantly have brought them to life.This author is not responsible for underage readers. Please observe the ratings, warnings, and age of legal consent for your country.
Trigger Warning for Vomit
Luke is Not Happy with me.
I never thought I'd be afraid of him, but with the furious snarl on his face as he drags me out of the Walmart, I'm terrified. The only way this could be worse is if he simply walked away.
He pays Annabeth no mind as she screams at him to let me go, tugging on his arm, but he only pushes her off. I yelp as he shoves me towards the wall of an alleyway. Even as I stumble away from him, he stalks forward, hands visibly twitching.
"What the fuck was that?" he spat, unsheathing his sword in a single, clean movement. "Who are you?"
I put my hands up in surrender. "Whoa! I think we all need to calm down here," I tried.
"Calm down?" he spat. "Calm down? The Fates just showed up, and you are not who you claim to be!"
"Then who do you think I am?"
He jerked as if to make a violent motion and Annabeth hastily tried to step in, but she could only hover helplessly at his wordless growl.
"Look, Luke-"
"WHO ARE YOU?" he yelled at me. "Who the fuck are you!"
"I'm me! Persephone Ophelia Jackson! Me!"
"Stop lying!"
"Lu-"
He slapped me.
I read somewhere once that there was a world of difference between a closed fist and an open palm.
Gods forgive me, I know exactly what they meant.
The effect was instantaneous. I shut up, cradling my cheek as tears streamed down my face. Annabeth gasped made an aborted movement and Luke... Luke had suddenly doubled over, coughing and hacking. He wheezed audibly, choking on something that wasn't there, panic plain as day as he realised he couldn't breathe.
"No!" I shouted, scrambling towards him.
He collapsed backwards, gasping for air that wouldn't come, Backbiter clattering on the concrete.
"Nononono," I cried softly. My hands hovered over his chest, panicking as my soulmate lay dying in front of me. "Come on, you can't- please, Luke breathe!" I sobbed.
Annabeth knelt over him too, screaming something that I couldn't hear. It could've been at either of us, but I was barely registering right now.
"Please! Please! I'm sorry! Please!" I begged anything everything. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! Don't you dare! Don't you dare die on me! Luke!"
His face was turning blue, his eyes fluttering closed.
The hole in my chest- the pressure- grew.
"Breathe!" I told him, clutching at him desperately. My hands came to cup his face. "Breathe!"
His eyes flew open. Blue skies met green seas. He breathed.
I collapsed, snaking my arms around him, sobbing into his chest in relief, chanting "thank you," to every deity I knew.
There's a knife at my throat.
I lifted my head to greet tempered steel.
"How did you do that?" Annabeth asked, eyes flintier than I thought possible. "What are you?"
I tried to stagger away from her blade, but she followed me, relentless. "What did you do?"
Through the tears still choking me, I could see Luke scrabble to his feet, rubbing his neck as he stared at me in horror.
I took a deep breath.
This isn't how they were supposed to find out.
Shit. Fuck. Damn it. Stupid.
"Ophelia Marie Eduarda de Lopez was the name I died with," I began. "After that, I was named Persephone Ophelia Jackson."
Annabeth's blade at my neck wavered for a second but quickly came back to press against my skin in a cold kiss.
"What is that supposed to mean?" she threw out.
I closed my eyes.
A salty tear hit the blade.
"It means that I was reborn, but they never took my memories."
"What?" Luke's voice was raspy from when the Soulmate bond tried to kill him.
"I lived for twenty years in another Universe; a world where this, this entire world, is a fictional story. Then I got born again. Born here."
"That's impossible," Annabeth hissed, implications visibly running through her head.
A thin sliver of blood welled up on my neck.
Quietly, I added, "I had thought so too."
Luke looked betrayed, his shoulders hunched and back to the wall. "Why did you lie to us?"
I want to lean into the knife.
"Would you have believed me?" I don't let them answer. "I was planning to tell, after the quest, but I suppose that won't be happening."
"So what, that's what the Fates were after? They figured out you're not who you say?"
I smiled, proud and broken.
"No," I whispered. "I destroyed their Fates. Now they don't have to die."
The knife is pulled away from my neck.
I almost miss its presence.
Annabeth staggers back, Luke grabs her close as he stares at me in horror.
"What?"
"I went to the Fates with a proposal; I get their permission to change your fate. Luke, you... Kronos' plans hinged completely on you. I save your life and the entire tapestry unravels. I acted on what I know from the stories, and I stopped so many disasters. A hundred lives have already been saved in the past three weeks since the deal was made- It's far more than they offered. Than what they thought they offered." My fist came up and clenched my chest, over my heart. "I don't regret it."
I'd never regret it- not when this was the best option. Could I have done it better? Yeah. Is there anything I can do about it now? No.
It had to be enough.
"What was the deal?"
My head snapped up to Luke's corpse-pale face before flinching to the side.
I didn't say. How could I tell him?
"Ophelia, what was the deal?" he pressed.
How could I tell him that I manipulated him just like Kronos?
"What did you do?"
His voice was desperate and scared and choked.
"What did you do to save my life?" he screamed.
If my heart were glass, it would be fine dust.
"You can't just extend a Life-String when the Fates have chosen its future." A shaky breath rattled my entire being. "To change its fate, you have to intertwine it with another. A soulmate if you will. To harm one is to harm the other; for one to hurt their own soulmate... is akin to suicide."
I couldn't go on.
Luke was pale, shaking with the realisation of everything that had ever happened.
"I think you know, now," I concluded lamely.
The silence dragged.
Luke collapsed, screaming incoherently. His hand reached out and grasped the closed thing he could find. His sword sparked against the wall. Once. Twice.
I don't blame him. I'd be pretty pissed if someone told me my life had been tied to someone else's in order to save the world, too. 'This is what you deserve,' I remind myself. 'This is what your manipulative, puppeteering, secret-keeping ass deserves.'
A noise akin to a dying animal made me peer up.
Annabeth was crying.
"Why?" she sobbed out. "Why?"
"I had to try," I defended weakly, tearing blinding my vision. "I couldn't just let them die."
"You lied to us. And family- !"
My voice came out broken. "And family doesn't lie to protect each other?"
She didn't reply.
With a stuttered sigh, I tilted my head to the sky. The sky... A place that I couldn't even go anymore. That's sad- if I were Catholic it would be kinda detrimental. Do souls need to fly to get up to Heaven? Ah, too bad I'm not Catholic- I'm a demi-god now.
Oh, who am I even kidding?
Something shattered. I began to grieve in earnest.
Three teenagers sobbed in an alley as secrets worth their weight in blood came crashing down.
Heh. Never knew something could sound both clichéd and new.
They hate me. I know they hate me.
I took those words and tried to scream them wordlessly as I wailed.
This. This is it. This is where it all ends. I want this to end. Oblivion. Sweet oblivion where are you? Are you there? When can I-
Something's tugging me forwards. Something wrapped itself around me and-
Oh. Now two somethings have wrapped around me.
Something wet and warm trickled down my neck. A lump of warmth draped itself across my lap. My neck had a crick in it and my eyes were so salty they might've crusted over. I blinked, some kind of shaking bringing me out of my daze. Then slowly, ever so slowly, I looked down.
Annabeth. Her head's in Luke's stomach, her body sprawled across my lap. The shaking's from the force of her silent sobs.
Luke. Bawling into my shoulder, hands fisting my shirt. His arms locked around me, tighter than any bond.
... This is real?
"Are you real?"
"What are you even talking about-"
Annabeth breaking off with a choked snivel made me bite my tongue. I could taste copper and stings, I could taste salt and weakness.
It was the taste of reality.
What is it that people say? If you fall, get back up again? Such a stupid, fitting, phrase.
I got people to save, sanity to keep a hold of, you know- the usual.
As I hugged them tighter, I figured all that could wait.
-
I sniffed, scrubbing at my face with my hands. "What now?"
Luke ran his hand through his hair, the other massaging eyes. "Now we return the Bolt."
"How?" Annabeth, ever the pragmatic one, asked. "It took us a week to get to LA, and we don't have a week to get back to New York."
"Well," I spoke up. "We could always just take the Gray Sisters Cab."
Luke and Annabeth shared a look, one of passionate hatred, then turned back to me.
"No."
"Hells no."
For fuck's sake!
"It's the quickest way!" I argued. "It's not like we can fly there!"
I could see the debate in Annabeth's eyes.
"No. No planes." I pointed a finger at her. "The Cab is safer and we don't even need our passports for it."
Luke huffed, "Fine. I'm not holding your hair back if you vomit though."
I snorted at that. "As if I'd vomit."
With our teasing banter, it's so easy to pretend that so much had never happened. I knew better. No way anyone's that forgiving, especially with street kids like Luke and Annabeth.
We all stumbled towards the mouth of the alley, back into the light of day.
I nearly hissed out loud. My head was pulsing a dull beat from all that crying and the sunlight hurt my retinas.
Wasting no time, Luke dug into the backpack his father had given him, pulling out a drachma. He tossed the coin into the road, watching it sink through, and cried out, "Stêthi, Ô hárma diabolês!"
The now-familiar taxi rose up from the smoking asphalt, hissing as it melted from the ground.
The Sister's rolled down the window.
"Sup girlies!" I gave them a toothy grin. "One way trip to Manhattan, Empire State Building please!"
They narrowed their eyes at me. "You're back."
"And paying!" I opened the back door and climbed in. "Just like last time! Now, how much is the fare?"
They eyed me greedily. "Another one of those cards of yours will do nicely."
I yanked on Annabeth's arm so she'd fall inside the taxi.
"I don't have any," I lied. "How much in drachma?"
Luke slid in just as they answered.
"Seven."
"Ripoff," I muttered but forked it over.
They cackled, and Luke frantically clicked his own seatbelt on, then Annabeth's and mine.
"Hold onto your seats!"
"I'd hold onto my soul if I could," I got out before one of the Sisters slammed it.
Ay porra-! (Shit-!)
-
Wanna know what I found out today? Uncle Rick's description of the Gray Sisters' Taxi ride was right.
After you magnify it by a factor of 100.
When we arrived at the Empire State Building, I clambered out and vomited on the sidewalk.
Luke, true to his word, didn't hold my hair back when I threw up.
I'd insult him, but I'm fully aware that he's being just as petty as I would've been in this situation.
When I straightened and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, the words were in my mouth before I'd even thought about it.
"You're not coming up with me."
"What?" Annabeth scowled. "As if."
"You have to get to Camp and explain everything to Chiron. I might get murdered for this, and I rather someone live to tell the tale," I explained.
Luke shook his head. "No way, not after all those secrets. We're not letting you go off on your own so you can lie to us again."
I winced. He's completely right.
"If I get hurt, so will you," I warned him. "The distance might lessen the blow."
Annabeth hesitated, but Luke persevered.
"We're going."
I sighed. What else was there to do?
One minute later, we walked into the lobby of the Empire State Building.
I went up to the guard at the front desk and said, "Six hundredth floor."
He was reading a huge book with a picture of a wizard on the front. I wasn't much into fantasy, but the book must've been good, because the guard took a while to look up. "No such floor, kiddos."
"We need an audience with Zeus."
He gave me a vacant smile. "Sorry?"
"You heard me."
He said, "No appointment, no audience, kiddos. Lord Zeus doesn't see anyone unannounced."
"Oh, I think he'll make an exception." I slipped off my backpack and unzipped the top.
The guard looked inside at the metal cylinder, not getting what it was for a few seconds. Then his face went pale. "That isn't..."
"Yes, it is," I promised. "You want me to take it out and-"
"No! No!" He scrambled out of his seat, fumbled around his desk for a key card, then handed it to me. "Insert this in the security slot. Make sure nobody else is in the elevator with you."
I did as he told us. As soon as the elevator doors closed, I slipped the key into the slot. The card disappeared and a new button melted out of the console, a red one that said 600.
Annabeth pressed it and we waited, and waited.
The Spice Girls were playing, 'So tell me what you want, what you really really want!'
Finally, ding! The doors slid open.
-
I stepped out and almost had a heart attack. I was standing on a narrow stone walkway in the middle of the air. Below me was Manhattan, from the height of an aeroplane. In front of me, white marble steps wound up the spine of a cloud, into the sky. My eyes followed the stairway to its end, where my brain just could not accept what I saw.
Look again, my brain-cell said.
We're looking, my eyes insisted; it's really there.
From the top of the clouds rose the decapitated peak of a mountain, its summit covered with snow. Clinging to the mountainside were dozens of multileveled palaces-a city of mansions-all with white-columned porticos, gilded terraces, and bronze braziers glowing with a thousand fires. Roads wound crazily up to the peak, where the largest palace gleamed against the snow. Precariously perched gardens bloomed with olive trees and rose bushes. I could make out an open-air market filled with colourful tents, a stone amphitheatre built on one side of the mountain, a hippodrome and a coliseum on the other.
It was an Ancient Greek city, except it wasn't in ruins. It was new, clean, and colourful, the way Athens must've looked twenty-five hundred years ago.
This place can't be here, I told myself. The tip of a mountain hanging over New York City like a billion-ton asteroid? How could something like that be anchored above the Empire State Building, in plain sight of millions of people, and not get noticed?
Right. The Mist and godly powers. I really should stop trying to think of things logically when that exists.
Annabeth was gaping at everything just as much as me, and she's been here before. Luke had to grab us both by the elbow and drag us forwards since we couldn't take our eyes off the architecture.
My trip through Olympus was a daze, and Luke only pausing to save me from tripping over a few times. Annabeth fared marginally better.
I passed some giggling wood nymphs who threw olives at me from their garden. Hawkers in the market offered to sell me ambrosia-on-a-stick, and a new shield, and a genuine glitter-weave replica of the Golden Fleece (as seen on Hephaestus-TV). The nine muses were tuning their instruments for a concert in the park while a small crowd gathered- 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, everybody seemed in a festive mood. Several of them turned to watch us pass, and whispered to themselves.
I climbed the main road, toward the big palace at the peak.
It was a reverse copy of the palace in the Underworld.
There, everything had been black and bronze. Here, everything glittered white and silver.
Hades must've built his palace to resemble this one. He wasn't welcomed in Olympus except on the winter solstice, so he'd built his own Olympus underground. I felt sorry for him, he shouldn't be banished from here just because he presides over death. Death is a natural part of Life- trust me, I'd know.
Steps led up to a central courtyard. Past that, the throne room.
Room really isn't the right word. The place made Grand Central Station look like a broom closet. Massive columns rose to a domed ceiling, which was gilded with moving constellations.
Twelve thrones, built for beings the size of Hades, were arranged in an inverted U, just like the cabins at Camp Half-Blood. An enormous fire crackled in the central hearth pit. The thrones were empty except for two at the end: the head throne on the right, and the one to its immediate left. I didn't have to be told who the two gods were that were sitting there, waiting for us to approach.
We strode towards them, me at the lead.
The gods were in giant human form, as Hades had been, but I could barely look at them without feeling a tingle, as if my body were starting to burn.
I could barely stop my expression from twisting. The idiots must have their godly forms leaking out, and at least Hades had had the courtesy not to do that no matter how emotional he got.
Zeus, the Lord of the Gods, wore a dark blue pinstripe suit. He sat on a simple throne of solid platinum. He had a well-trimmed beard, marbled grey and black like a storm cloud. His face was proud and handsome and grim, his eyes rainy grey. As I got nearer to him, the air crackled and smelled of ozone.
The god sitting next to him was his brother, without a doubt, but he was dressed very differently. He reminded me of a beachcomber from Key West. He wore leather sandals, khaki Bermuda shorts, and a Tommy Bahama shirt with coconuts and parrots all over it. His skin was deeply tanned, his hands scarred like an old-time fisherman's. His hair was black, like mine. His face had that same brooding look that had always gotten me branded a rebel. But his eyes, sea-green like mine, were surrounded by sun-crinkles that told me he smiled a lot, too. His throne was a deep-sea fisherman's chair. It was the simple swivelling kind, with a black leather seat and a built-in holster for a fishing pole. Instead of a pole, the holster held a bronze trident, flickering with green light around the tips.
Pai.
The gods weren't moving or speaking, but there was tension in the air as if they'd just finished an argument.
I smiled politely and knelt at my Pai's feet.
Luke and Annabeth, knowing better, knelt at Zeus' feet.
To my left, Zeus spoke. "Should you not address the master of this house first, girl?"
I physically bit my tongue and let my nails dig into my leg to stop myself from reacting.
"Peace, brother," Poseidon finally said. His voice stirred my oldest memories: that warm glow I remembered as a baby, the sensation of this god's hand on my forehead. "She defers to her father. This is only right."
"You still claim her then?" Zeus asked, menacingly. "You claim this child whom you sired against our sacred oath?"
"I have admitted my wrongdoing," Poseidon said. "Now I would hear her speak."
I took this as my cue and stood back up.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Luke and Annabeth do the same.
"Address Lord Zeus, daughter," Pai told me. "Tell him your story."
So I did.
Well, a story riddled with lies and carefully crafted plot holes because I don't want the gods to smite me for knowing the future or committing treason or some shit like that.
I took out the metal cylinder, which began sparking in the Sky God's presence, and laid it at his feet.
There was a long silence, broken only by the crackle of the hearth fire.
Zeus opened his palm. The lightning bolt flew into it. As he closed his fist, the metallic points flared with electricity, until he was holding what looked more like the classic thunderbolt, a twenty-foot javelin of arcing, hissing energy that made the hairs on my scalp rise.
"I sense the girl tells the truth," Zeus muttered. "But that Ares would do such a thing ... it is most unlike him."
"He is proud and impulsive," Pai pointed out. "It runs in the family."
What a mood. That's exactly me, 24/7, 'Prideful and Impulsive'. Maybe I should get a nametag? I'm sure a lot of family members would need them- Tia Gloria for one, that horrible Karen hag.
Wait a second, don't I have something important to tell them?
"My lords?"
"Yes?" they inquired.
"Ares didn't act alone. The whole thing isn't his modus operandi- someone else must have come up with the idea."
I described the way that Tartarus tried to suck me down into it. The feeling of being watched by a dark presence, and the disappointed noise something had made when I didn't fall.
"The voice told me to bring the bolt to the Underworld and I'm pretty sure Ares hinted that he'd been having dreams, too. I think he was being used, just as I was, to start a war."
That's the basic gist of what canon Percy had said, right?
"You are accusing Hades, after all?" Zeus asked.
... Which part of being able to control Tartarus sounded like Hades? If anything, he's the one who knows to avoid the Pit because he'd immediately be associated with it.
"No," I repeated. "I've met Hades, and that wasn't it. Whatever it was, it was older than the gods, powerful and evil, and in Tartarus."
Do I really have to spell it out for him?
Poseidon and Zeus looked at each other. They had a quick, intense discussion in Ancient Greek. I only caught one word. 'Father'.
Finally! They've caught on!
Poseidon made some kind of suggestion, but Zeus cut him off. Poseidon tried to argue. Zeus held up his hand angrily. "We will speak of this no more," Zeus said. "I must go personally to purify this thunderbolt in the waters of Lemnos, to remove the human taint from its metal."
Oh for fuck's sake! What does a girl have to do to get a little bit of common sense around here? It's Kronos! K-R-O-N-O-S! If I were them, I'd be sending out feelers to confirm the situation, stat!
Zeus rose and looked at me. His expression softened just a fraction of a degree. "You have done me a service, girl. Few heroes could have accomplished as much." He turned to my companions and gave them a short nod. "You too." Then back to me.
"To show you my thanks, I shall spare your life. I do not trust you, Persephone Jackson. I do not like what your arrival means for the future of Olympus. But for the sake of peace in the family, I shall let you live."
Luke discreetly elbowed me so my, "Thanks," wasn't as politely sarcastic.
Thunder shook the palace. With a blinding flash of lightning, Zeus was gone.
I wonder how often the Olympians has to fix their eardrums.
Now, there are only three demigods and one god in the room.
"Your uncle," Pai sighed, "has always had a flair for dramatic exits. I think he would've done well as the god of theatre."
An uncomfortable silence.
Fuck it.
I boldly walked forwards, stopping a couple of meters away from his feet. Firmly pinning my gaze on his amused eyes, I raised an eyebrow.
He stood up, shrinking down to human height to face me without craning his neck too much (and I'm fully aware of my short stature, thank you very much).
I launched myself at him in a clearly telegraphed movement, wrapping my arms around him in a warm hug, that, after a beat, he reciprocated.
"Eu senti sua falta, Pai," I murmured into his chest, "Te amo." (I missed you, dad. I love you.)
I could hear his deep voice rumbling around me, "Tambien te amo minha princesa." (I love you too, princess)
He turned to the others. "If you please give us some privacy, my daughter and I need to have a talk."
Luke and Annabeth seemed reluctant to go, but neither of them would directly refuse a god without any underlying suicidal tendencies. They left without a fuss, and then we were alone.
"You've grown," he stated, making me turn back to him.
He was smiling softly, eyes shining with the ocean.
"Not that much," I joked. "Mãe still towers over me, and she isn't that tall either."
He laughed, a full-bodied one and every part joyful. "I know."
I didn't speak, silent for once as I soaked in his presence.
He sobered slightly. "Your Mãe is at home."
I let out a sigh of relief.
"Medusa is with her."
I froze. Uh oh, am I in trouble?
"I don't approve," he told me sternly. "She is a monster and can seriously harm you and your mother."
I froze.
Oh. Oh he just did not.
I straightened, lifted my chin high and stared at him defiantly.
"But you did the right thing," he huffed out, amusement back in his eyes.
My mouth gaped in shock. Did he just...?
Pai raised an eyebrow.
Oh he just did. I can see where Persassy inherited his ways from.
A faint smile played on his lips. "Obedience does not come naturally to you, does it?"
"Nope." I popped the 'p' with a grin.
"I must take some blame for that, I suppose. The sea does not like to be restrained."
I was fully beaming at that. The famous line, said to me!
There was a pause, during which Pai drank in my features with a sad glint in his eye.
"Your mother is a queen among women," Poseidon said wistfully. "I had not met such a mortal woman in a thousand years. Still... I am sorry you were born, child. I have brought you a hero's fate, and a hero's fate is never happy. It is never anything but tragic."
I grabbed his hands. "I'm glad to have lived anyways, tragedy or not."
It was so sweet, I could almost mistake it for a lie.
It isn't, and I'm surprised it isn't.
He lowered his head to give me a soft kiss on the forehead before straightening. "Go on princesa, your fellow heroes await you."
I was five steps away when he called, "Ophelia."
I never understood, why is it that he calls me Ophelia and not Persephone.
I turned.
Perhaps, it's because he's family and he knows the hidden me.
There was a different light in his eyes, a fiery kind of pride. "You did well, Ophelia. Whatever else you do, know that you are mine. You are a true daughter of the Sea God."
I did the only thing I could think of.
I smiled.
As I walked back through the city of the gods, conversations stopped. The muses paused their concert. People and satyrs and naiads all turned toward me, their faces filled with respect and gratitude, and as I passed, they knelt, as if I were some kind of hero.
I've never felt like any kind of hero.
Just a desperate little girl trying to stop the world from falling apart all on her own.