Chapter Text
ACT ONE, CHAPTER FORTY FIVE
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH! NOOOO! NOOOOOO!" THE SOUND of Persephone's gut-wrenching screams were enough to send Demeter into overdrive. She teleported straight to the garden of her palace, ready to deal with whatever had terrified her daughter only for all her fury and courage to drain away in an instant the second she saw who the intruder was.
"Po-Poseidon...!" She sputtered out, her breath coming out shaky.
All three of her grandchildren were in the merciless grasps of her younger brother. Makaria, Melinoe, and Zagreus were each trapped in an aquatic prison—large spheres of seawater keeping them caged in. She watched in horror as they struggled to breathe. Gods couldn't simply die from drowning, Poseidon was most definitely pumping seawater into their bodies to incapacitate them.
Persephone was on the ground before him, kneeling down as she pleaded desperately for her children to be freed.
"Look up, you insignificant wench," Poseidon ordered her coldly.
Persephone looked up, tears rolling down her face as she whispered a never-ending stream of 'please, please, please'.
"Choose." He said.
"W-w-what?" She hiccuped.
"Choose," he repeated himself, his voice booming throughout the garden. "Pick which one of your worthless children you wish to die."
"Poseidon, please, that's enough!" Demeter shrieked, trying to get to him. He merely flicked his hand and a watery trident came forth, piercing her shoulder and sending her flying back to the palace walls, pinning her there.
"I'll be dealing with you later, Demeter," Poseidon sneered before turning his attention back to the other sobbing goddess. "I must finish this one off first. You have three seconds, filth. Three... two—"
"—Zagreus!" Persephone cried out. "I choose Zagreus! Spare my daughters and kill him!"
"MOTHER?!" Melinoe's gurgling voice could be heard from the prison as she thrashed around.
Makaria started banging against her prison as Zagreus struggled some more, panicking at his mother's decision to let him die.
"Oh?" Poseidon lifted a brow. "I'm surprised. You wish to sacrifice your first born son instead of one of your useless daughters? Why is that?"
Persephone's lips trembled. "B... because... h-he looks too much like his father."
Poseidon hummed in disinterest. "Alright then." And then, as if to pour salt into the wound, he turned to his nephew with a look of sadistic amusement in his icy blue eyes, "Did you hear that, Zagreus? It seems your mother never loved you after all."
Zagreus started kicking around desperately. "Mother—!" He gurgled. "MO—"
There was a sickening crunch sound as Zagreus' body instantly flattened, his body imploding from the underwater pressure. In a nanosecond his body was reduced to nothing, every bit and piece of him just mere atoms. His aquatic prison quickly filled with ichor.
Persephone covered her mouth to hold back her scream.
Poseidon released the other two goddesses, who flopped to the ground, sputtering, crying, and screaming in disbelief as they watched whatever was left of their brother leave for Niflhel.
"The seas do not forgive. It only takes. A child for a child," Poseidon droned on, walking away as the three goddesses broke down into hysterics. "Learn that lesson well."
He kept on walking until he reached Demeter's prone form, still pinned against the wall. She had gone numb from shock, her eyes as wide as saucers as she stared at the place her grandson once stood.
"My daughter is still missing, Demeter," he said as he grabbed the handle of his trident, twisted it around into her shoulder, and pried it off. She was so shell-shocked that she didn't even scream. She simply dropped to her knees.
"My poor little girl," he murmured, his voice soft for once, but there was a crazed look in his eyes that would've shaken her to the core had she been in a better state of mind. "Gone. Because of a few meddling goddesses that dared to offer away what belonged to me."
"..."
"She must be so scared..." He muttered, using water to clean the ichor off the points of his trident. "A god could be holding her hostage. She could be trapped somewhere. She could be lost, or hurt, or worse. All because of you."
"..." Demeter remained silent. The only thing that could be heard were the sounds of Persephone and her daughter's broken cries.
"You were willing to starve humans for the sake of your daughter," he went on, his trident dematerializing. "But I am willing to kill a god."
He grabbed his disgraced sister by the head. "This," he began. "Is my divine retribution."
He jabbed his thumbs into her eye sockets, slowly pulling her body apart. She finally let out a scream, but it was short-lived as he spread his arms out, ripping her cleanly in half.
He released her two halves, letting them fall to the ground with a wet splatter.
"...Disgusting," he muttered, staring down at the two slabs of meat that once was a goddess.
Behind him, the sound of the goddesses wails increased in volume. Not wanting to irritate his ears with their frantic screeching, he left.
He calmly walked back into the palace. As he headed for the front door, Zeus met him in the foyer.
"Hades isn't gonna be happy about this." Zeus informed him.
"I'm well aware," he replied in a clipped voice, walking out the door.
Zeus followed after him. "Neither will our mother."
"I don't care. She can throw her fits. I was in my right to kill them. A child for a child."
"And as for our sister?" He pressed on.
"Such a pitiful goddess was never a sister of mine," Poseidon's lips curled in disgust. "But now that she's finally dead—and good riddance—there is now an open spot amongst the Twelve Olympians."
"Yes..." Zeus trailed off, having a good idea where this conversation was going.
"When my daughter ascends, she will take Demeter's place," he demanded firmly. "She would make a far better Olympian than that piece of trash anyway."
"Hmmm," Zeus stroked his sad excuse of a beard before letting out a boisterous laugh. "Alright! I like it! No worries, brother, it'll be done!"
"Good." Poseidon said. "Now let's go find my daughter."
‧₊˚✩彡𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟‧₊˚✩彡๋ ࣭ ⭑ ࣭ ⭑
Seven half-bloods shall answer the call,
To storm or fire, the world must fall.
An oath to keep with a final breath,
And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death.
"What...?" Artemis muttered to herself as she read the words Apollo wrote. These were not poems.
She reached out to grab another piece of paper. She opened it, and it said the exact same thing. She grabbed another one. Same thing again.
She rose to her feet, bewildered and with a sense of trepidation unfurling within her. Something was not right. Something was really not right here. Percy was right to call her for help.
"Brother, what is this?" She demanded, holding the paper up. When he didn't respond, her voice rose, "Apollo!"
Apollo didn't even glance her way, frantically trying to finish up the painting he was still doing. She looked at it and grew even more apprehensive than before.
Apollo was painting a massive dark pit. But that wasn't all, she could see two small figures clawing at the edge, as if they were being dragged in. She spotted a head of curly blonde hair—possibly the boy from the first painting—and then...
"Is that Percy?" She whispered, shocked.
The second figure had her arm wrapped around the blonde boy, desperately holding him tight while she tried digging her free hand into the dirt, clearly trying to stop from getting dragged away. She knew right away that it was Percy because she could recognize those sea green eyes from miles away. Artemis couldn't help but shiver at the terrified look in those eyes. She had never seen the girl look so scared before, not even after escaping a forced marriage by two powerful gods.
Then she saw something else—a thin, barely visible white line wrapped around the boy's ankle, the other end leading to something at the bottom of the pit.
Artemis was starting to get a clearer understanding of the scenario: the boy was being pulled in, and Percy was trying to save him, even if that meant getting dragged down along with him.
"Apollo..." Artemis felt shaken as she looked around the room. "What is this?"
Apollo finally finished the last bits of the painting: tiny figures surrounding what looked to be the statue of the Athena Parthenos, completely ignorant to what was happening to the other two.
With a shaky breath, he set his paintbrush down.
"Her fate," he spoke. "This... this is her fate. She will fall."
Artemis grabbed him by the shoulders so they could face each other. Her expression was serious, but he looked absolutely haunted.
"What do you mean?" She asked firmly. "Did you get a vision?"
He shook his head. "No, I visited the Fates."
"You what—?!"
"—I was desperate, Artemis!" He cried out. "Percy was starting to get worse. I fear that even my healing wouldn't be enough eventually! And then—then I finally realized what was happening."
He grasped her shoulders back, squeezing them. His eyes were wide with fear and insanity. "It's her soul. Her soul is starting to break apart. That's why nothing's been working! I thought, if I tried to find a way to safely ascend her then maybe I could save her, but when I went to the Fates—" There was pure hatred when he said that name, his golden eyes burning like he was ready to incinerate something. "They laughed at me and refused to help! So I asked to see her future instead, and THESE are what I saw!"
He rose to his feet and motioned to all the artwork he had done.
He pointed at the blonde boy with the coin, "This boy here. He has power over lightning and flight. I've seen glimpses of him flying in the air, sometimes he's fighting, sometimes he's talking with Percy. There was one vision I saw where they both had golden eyes, and they were fighting each other."
At the girl with multi-colored eyes, "She gets visions every time she peers into her dagger. In one of them, she sees Percy drown and says nothing."
At the boy with fire in his hands, "I saw him blow up a city, but his eyes were golden—they aren't naturally like that. Percy was angry with him. She was yelling at him, I think that city was important to her or something." He muttered.
"And these two," he pointed to the two children with the SPQR shirts. "I see them with Percy a lot. They often fight alongside her."
"Fight?" Artemis cocked her head back in surprise. "Percy? Fighting?"
"Yes," he answered grimly. "I see her holding a sword sometimes. Other times, she's using her powers. There are always ancient monsters coming at them."
"And the SPQR on their shirts?" She asked. "Brother, the only thing I can think of when I see those initials are—"
"—Ancient Rome," he finished, eyes dark. "Yes, I'm aware. I have no idea what the connection between them is, however. I could only hope it has nothing to do with those sacrilegious heathens..."
He let out a growl of anger, before shaking his head. "There's something else you're missing, sister. It's not just on their shirts. Look at their arms."
Artemis looked, her eyes widening in astonishment. She had almost missed it, but she could see something black on the forearms of three of the children. In some paintings, it was cut off, but on the one with the blonde boy with the coin, she was able to see it clearly: the black branding of SPQR on their wrists, and underneath it were twelve lines.
"And look," Apollo murmured, pointing at his recently finished painting with Percy. In her outstretched hand, she could see something black on her inner wrist.
Artemis sucked in a breath, "Don't tell me..."
"Yes, I saw it," he replied. "In the first few visions, she didn't have them. But after meeting these two," he pointed at the kids with the purple t-shirts. "It started appearing in the rest of the visions."
Artemis tried not to think that there was some crazy conspiracy going on, but it was hard not to. A group of teenagers, some of them branded with SPQR initials on their skin, were traveling around Midgard while being attacked by monsters. She had no idea what any of this could mean, but she had a bad feeling that Percy's soul breaking apart would be the least of the girl's worries if this was the future the Fates had shown Apollo.
"I don't understand," Artemis murmured. "Who are these children? What connection do they have with Percy?"
He shook his head in frustration. "I don't know. The Fates only gave me brief glimpses. All I know is that these six are connected to her somehow. They travel around Midgard on some flying warship."
He looks around and grabs a piece of paper from a nearby table. On it was a hastily drawn sketch of a flying Greek trireme with a bronze dragon as the masthead.
Okay. So Percy's future was even more weirder than she initially assumed. Seven teenagers were apparently going to travel around Midgard in a flying warship while being attacked by monsters—oh, and some of them just so happen to be branded with Roman initials. Percy included, despite clearly being a Greek child.
"And what about this boy here?" She asked, motioning to the painting of the curly blonde with grey eyes.
That was probably a bad question to ask, because Apollo looked about ten seconds away from exploding the sun at this point. His eyes were blazing with fury.
"As for him," he spat. "I saw him with Percy—always with Percy, and he's the reason she falls!"
"Alright, let's calm down," Artemis wasn't just seeing jealousy in his face, but hatred. Real, genuine hatred. Whatever he had seen, it was enough to make this boy number one on her brother's hitlist. "Can you tell me more about this?"
She held out the piece of paper with the concerning words on it.
"It's a prophecy," he said darkly, with certainty. "I could not hear anything from the visions the Fates saw me, they happened too quickly for any talking to occur. But I did hear this. Always in the background, chanting in repeat. It was terrifying..."
The anger faded away, and that haunted look came back with a vengeance.
Artemis fell quiet as she stared back at the words on the paper.
Seven half-bloods shall answer the call,
To storm or fire, the world must fall.
An oath to keep with a final breath,
And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death.
She could not blame her brother for being so shaken. Not only did this prophecy have to do with Percy, someone he loved dearly, but it also spelled a potential doom. Not to mention the vision he received of Percy falling down a dark, eerie abyss...
"Do you know of their names?" She murmured.
"No."
"Did the Fates tell you anything else?"
Another headshake. "No. After giving me these visions, they ordered me to leave. I returned home and went here to make physical manifestations of everything I saw and heard. This is all I know."
He motioned around the room.
"So Percy doesn't know about any of this?" She asked.
"...No," he answered. "I don't know if I should tell her. I don't want to scare her..."
"What do we do?"
All Apollo could do was give her a hopeless look.
‧₊˚✩彡𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟‧₊˚✩彡๋ ࣭ ⭑ ࣭ ⭑
Shiva stopped in his tracks the second he overheard Percy's name coming from the lips of a satyr. He looked over, spying two satyrs hunched over, speaking quietly together like a pair of gossiping teenage boys.
He narrowed his eyes, already on high alert since he remembered the scandal about an unknown satyr trying to rape the girl in her dreams.
Oh hell no, he inwardly growled, already storming towards the small group.
"Hey!" He barked, marching for them.
The satyrs jumped, realized who was coming forward, and quickly tried to flee. Shiva grabbed them by the hair and yanked them back, throwing them to the ground. He stood over them, all four of his arms crossed and his eyes glaring them down.
"Couldn't help but overhear you guys talking about a certain girl who's been missing for a few months now," he started off. "Percy. You know where she is, don't you?"
"Lo-Lord Shiva," one of them stuttered. "It—I—we—"
"—Talk already," he demanded. "You're lucky I don't kill you both just for being near me. After hearing what one of your own tried to do to a girl in her dreams, it's a miracle Poseidon let you all live!"
They both blanched.
The other tried to speak up, "No, no, no, we didn't—we wouldn't—"
"—I heard you say her name," he sneered. "Planning on another attempt, huh?"
"No!" He cried out. "We were talking about what we overheard from one of Lady Artemis' nymphs! We heard them talking about Percy—she said that Percy called Lady Artemis and then Lady Artemis left her camp in a rush. Something about her brother, I think?"
"Yeah!" The first one nodded frantically. "We swear we didn't do anything! We just heard the nymphs talking about Percy! We've been trying to find her too!"
"Yes, Lord Shiva, we only wanted to help! Her entire Pantheon was ready to kill us and she managed to get us spared! We just wanted to make sure she was okay."
Shiva continued to stare at them like they were mere bugs scurrying around his feet. "Percy called Lady Artemis and then she left in a rush because of something related to her brother, huh? Do you know where she could be?"
"They didn't say," they shook their heads.
Shiva groaned in annoyance. Guess I'll have to visit that camp and ask around.
Without another word, he turned around and started to walk away. As he left, the two satyrs watched on, their tense bodies slowly relaxing at having been spared a second time.
"Oh thank gods..." One of them breathed out shakily.
"Yeah," the other agreed. "I thought for sure he was gonna kill—"
SPLAT!
Both bodies blew up into millions of little pieces, every centimeter of them destroyed and left scattered all over the ground. As the last droplet hit, their blood sunk into the ground, and a patch of beautiful flowers started to grow where they once were.
Shiva glanced back, grinning. "Heh. That's a better use for them."
He teleported straight to where Artemis' camp would be. Fortunately for him, the location hadn't changed so it was right where it was several centuries ago.
"Yo!" He greeted the many nymphs tending to the camp while the goddess in charge was away. He gave them a friendly wave, but his next words weren't friendly at all.
"A few lil' goats told me you might know where Percy's been," he started. "So I came here for answers. Tell me where the kid is, and you won't end up dead like those two satyrs I found."
They were very quick to spill. As they rushed forward to tell them the truth, a group of flies quickly took in the scene.
Miles away, their master was being relayed with every piece of information from the flies he sent to search throughout Valhalla.
Beelzebub let it all run through his head. Speedy glimpses of his flies traveling through Svarga, glimpses of the hallways of Odin's palace, even secret conversations from gods who didn't know they were being spied on. His flies were everywhere throughout the realm in his desperate search for Percy.
And then he found it.
He watched it through the eyes of one his flies and listened to it through the ears of another—Shiva in Artemis' camp, her nymphs hastily explaining to him of Percy's whereabouts for the past month.
"Delos," he breathed out. She was with Apollo.
I told her to stay away from him, he thought furiously. So why—?! No, did he take her? I'll kill him!
He took to the air. He had no clue where Delos was, so he couldn't just teleport there. He flew straight for Mount Olympus, knowing it at least had to be somewhere floating above it.
It took him a while, but it was fortunately very easy for him to spot. A massive chunk of land was levitating up in the clouds, with a gaudy looking fountain that practically screamed Apollo. He could sense two presences inside the palace—Apollo and Artemis. Percy's aura wasn't there, but he knew she was still using Loki's cloak to hide.
She has to be there, he thought, heading for the palace only to get blasted mid-course.
"PIECE OF SHIT!" He heard Loki screech before he was pelted with more magic.
"Fuck—!" He cursed, trying to re-balance himself. Before he had time to even recover, Loki slammed into him and they found themselves fighting yet again.
‧₊˚✩彡𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟‧₊˚✩彡๋ ࣭ ⭑ ࣭ ⭑
"LET GO OF ME!" Hades yelled, fighting back against Adamas who was trying to hold him back. "HE KILLED MY SON!"
"A child for a child!" A bloodied Poseidon spat, also being held back by Zeus. "You took my daughter, I kill your son! You're a fool if you thought I would never retaliate for daring to commit a crime against me!"
"And you let him do this?!" Hades' furious glare stabbed daggers into Zeus.
"It was his right, brother," Zeus said calmly. "You married his daughter without his permission. He had the right to act against you."
But Hades was beyond reason now.
With a heart-wrenching roar, he shoved Adamas away and went for Poseidon. Poseidon kicked Zeus aside and lunged forward, their divine weapons clashing and sending a powerful shockwave that nearly sent the other gods stumbling back.
"If you didn't want Zagreus dead, you should've done better to train him," Poseidon hissed. "He was all too easy to kill. Your negligence made him weak."
His icy blue eyes shone with sadistic pleasure as he leaned in to whisper, "Do you want to know who he cried out for in his last moments? He cried out for his mother, and never once spoke of you."
Hades' hands trembled with rage. He let out a cry of anger, shoving Poseidon back and shot him down several miles with a blast of darkness. As the sea god flew back, his shadow reached out to grab him, slamming him down into the ground.
Poseidon let out a choking noise as his neck was grabbed and his face was smashed into the pavement. As he tried to push himself up, Hades descended from the skies and stomped his face down several more meters into the dirt.
Before he could do anything else, a geyser of water erupted behind him, forming into a giant water hand that plucked him up from behind and threw him elsewhere.
Poseidon rose to his feet. His trident materialized in his hand and he pulled his arm back, prepared to throw it. But suddenly, he was struck down by lightning. At the same moment, Adamas snatched Hades in mid-air, forcing him to the ground and keeping him immobilized.
"Did I not warn you two that I would throw you both into Tartarus for fighting again?" Zeus frowned. "I love a good fight, brothers, but now is not the time! Shiva just called, Percy's been found."
That caused their heads to turn to him.
"What?" Poseidon said. "Where?!"
"...Delos," Zeus grimaced. "It appears two of my children have some explaining to do."
‧₊˚✩彡𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟‧₊˚✩彡๋ ࣭ ⭑ ࣭ ⭑
"I told you to leave me alone!" Anubis snarled.
"Yeah! Leave daddy alone!" Kebechet chimed in, angrily ramming her little fists into Ra's calf. She was achieving absolutely zero damage to the Supreme God, but Anubis gave her an A for effort.
Ra's eye twitched as he glared down at her, needing to suppress the urge to punt her to the skies.
"And I told you to stop looking!" Ra said through gritted teeth. "The girl is hiding from you all because you're all maniacs! She clearly doesn't want to be found, so leave it and return back to Helheim!"
"She's my wife!"
"She was your wife," Ra corrected coldly. "Poseidon nullified it, and as her father, it was well within his rights to do so."
The growl that left his throat would've made anyone tuck their tail and flee, but Ra met his glare head on.
After the five-way fight in Helheim between him, Hades, Poseidon, Beelzebub and Loki, Poseidon had basically announced that Anubis' marriage to Percy nullified—effective immediately, and there was nothing Anubis could do about it. The murderous rage Anubis went on was only quelled with the efforts of Ra and Zeus, and the only reason another fight didn't ensue was because of the urgency in finding Percy.
"I'm getting her back," Anubis said with dark determination. "I'm gonna mark her, then we'll be married and mated forever, and nothing is going to get in the way of that. I don't need a father's permission to mark what's already mine."
Ra's eyes hardened at that. He already had an inkling that Anubis would be planning this, and he dreaded it because he was right. There was no consent needed for a mating mark—it was permanent and could never be removed. Ever. Poseidon wouldn't be able to retaliate the same way he had done with Hades (by killing his firstborn) either because Anubis wasn't breaking any laws. Sure he may be furious enough to wage war on his Pantheon, but he knew the other Greek deities would eventually try to stop him from going too far.
He hated to admit it, but his great great grandson was more cunning than he expected. He would've been proud if that cunning nature wasn't being used to piss him off.
Suddenly, Kebechet let out a gasp.
"Daddy, grandpa, look!" She pointed up at the sky.
They craned their necks back and looked up. Soaring far above them was the familiar sight of Beelzebub—and he was heading straight for the floating island of Delos. But before he could reach it, he was nearly blasted down by Loki who tackled him in mid-air. They could hear them yelling at each other as they fought, but Loki got the upper hand and with the help of his magic, shot Beelzebub straight towards the floating island where a loud BOOM was heard.
Anubis tilted his head. Beelzebub had been looking for Percy too—for reasons he didn't know or care to learn about (probably some experimentation shit or whatever, he'd deal with that pest later)—and for some odd reason, he was going to Delos.
Delos... He mused. Has anyone checked there yet?
Wait.
Apollo. He sometimes had the penchant for kidnapping beautiful girls. Did he—?
Anubis bared his fangs as he let out a feral snarl. "Oh he's fucking DEAD!"
‧₊˚✩彡𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟‧₊˚✩彡๋ ࣭ ⭑ ࣭ ⭑
Ignorant to the fact that a bunch of gods were about to appear, Artemis and Apollo continued discussing what they learned of Percy's fate.
"I cannot make heads or tails of this," Apollo was pacing around the room. "I have no idea who these other children are, why some of them have those accursed marks branded onto their skin, or why they're traveling around Midgard being hunted down by monsters that should be in Helheim!"
"Lord Poseidon would never let his daughter touch Midgardian land," Artemis muttered in agreement. "None of this should even be possible..." She looked back at the individual paintings. "These children... are they even human?"
"I don't know," he said, pained. "They look human, but some of them have abilities that most humans should not have."
"The prophecy mentions seven half-bloods," she murmured. "Do you think... perhaps these kids are like Percy? Biologically half human and half god?"
"What? No, that's impossible unless the bifrost decides to shoot out more godly babies who failed to ascend," Apollo said doubtfully. "Percy was a rare case—an extremely rare case."
"And how about this woman..." Artemis made a face of discomfort as she picked up the painting of the dirt lady. "Something about her... troubles me."
"Yes, I feel that way too," he said grimly. "She only showed up once in the visions, but she certainly left her mark. I feel as if she is someone dangerous."
"A god?"
"Mayhaps older."
Artemis swallowed thickly and set the painting back down. "And this one," she walked up to his most recent piece of work; the eerie painting of Percy and a boy being dragged into a pit. "Did you... see anything else after this?"
"...No," he said shakily. "That was the last thing I saw."
They both fell quiet at that. If Apollo received no other visions after this moment, then it could possibly mean that Percy... dies here. And that was not something any of them wanted to think about.
"And here I thought I would only have to worry about her soul," Apollo let out a bitter laugh. "But the Fates love to torment me."
"We need to tell her, brother. She should know about this," she said firmly.
"No!" He paled. "We can't! I agree that she deserves to know, but you don't understand how much worse her condition's gotten! The slightest thing can cause an episode. The amount of stress this knowledge would bring her would only make her suffer worse! Who knows what this could do to her soul!"
"Apollo—"
CRASH!
A loud crash sound interrupted Artemis before she could finish her sentence. It sounded as if a massive meteor had hit the palace, making the island slightly tremble. Then, what followed after was a series of high-pitched screams from startled nymphs, but one scream stood out to them.
"Percy!" Apollo gasped, immediately teleporting to her aid.
He arrived at the Great Hall, nearly getting ran over by a stampede of terrified nymphs. Percy was still inside, and she had stopped screaming and was instead gaping at what had crashed through the roof.
The 'meteor' wasn't actually a meteor, but Beelzebub.
"BEEL?!" Percy scrambled for him, throwing aside all the debris. "Oh my gods, what the fuck?! Beel, are you okay?!"
"Percy!" Beelzebub rasped, getting up and rushing to her. His arms were out, like he was about to embrace her but Apollo wasn't going to let that happen.
Before they could touch, a golden arrow struck Beelzebub on the shoulder, making him teeter to the side and clutch his fresh wound. Percy instinctively jumped back, eyes wide with horror.
"Pesky little Devil," Apollo glowered, notching his bow. Another arrow appeared, ready to fire. "Leave."
Beelzebub glowered back, yanking the arrow out and snapping it in his fist. "I should've killed you the first time you tried to take her."
Just as he was about to attack him, his eyes suddenly widened and he quickly jumped away from the hole in the ceiling, narrowly dodging a pair of swinging blades that would've given him a clean coronal cut.
A deranged giggle echoed around the ruined Great Hall. "Oh hey there, Percy~! Looks like I finally found ya!"
Loki jumped in, landing on the debris. His face was split wide by his crazed grin, and Percy's eyes widened when she saw him.
"Loki?!" Her jaw dropped. "You're okay! Dude, you had me so scared, I thought my crazy uncle was gonna kill you!"
Her words made him laugh. "Oh so you DO care about me!" He cried out in relief. "I'm so glad to hear that, haha! Alright, let me just take you back to my uncle's palace while I deal with these annoying vermin, 'kay?"
"No!" Beelzebub shouted, lunging forward and shoving his hand through Loki's back, impaling him with his hand right in front of Percy. Loki's ichor spurted out, staining the front of her dress. She let out a horrified scream.
Her scream only made Loki burst out laughing. He twisted his head all the way back to look at the furious Beelzebub, spitting blood at his face. "Nice going, dumbass! Now she's scared of you too, HAHAHAHA!"
Apollo shot an arrow through his throat, silencing his deranged laughter. "Dammit, all of you get out of my house! You are not welcomed here! Artemis! Take care of Percy!"
"Got it!" Artemis tried reaching out to Percy, ready to teleport her to safety, when a dark blur suddenly knocked her aside, sending her flying through the wall.
"PERCY!" Came a familiar cheery voice.
"Ohhhh my fucking gods," Percy backed into the wall, staring at her second husband with wide-eyed panic.
"Aww, baby! I missed you!" Anubis laughed good-naturedly, casually sauntering towards her with his 7'5" frame that easily overshadowed her once he was close enough. "What, not happy to see me?"
"Um—uh—" Percy shrank, wishing she could disappear right now.
"You're so cute!" He beamed, leaning down to reach her height. "It makes me just wanna kiss you all over your adorable, scared, little face!"
"Get away from her, you fucking mutt!" Three voices yelled in unison. Apollo, Loki, and Beelzebub had stopped fighting each other the second the Egyptian god entered the fray.
"You three losers can go kiss my ass!" Anubis cackled, sticking his pierced tongue out.
He grabbed Percy and hoisted her over his shoulder, but before he could do anything else, the island started to tremor erratically. Percy's eyes widened in recognition—she knew this earthquake, knew what it meant.
Her father was coming.
Poseidon's voice nearly shattered all the glass in the palace. "PUT—HER—DOWN!"
SHICK!
Anubis let out a howl of pain as her father's trident ripped through his leg. He fell to his knees, and Percy used this chance to scramble off of him. A familiar heaviness started seeping into her bones, a terrible ache that threatened to consume her whole.
She internally groaned. No, not now!
"Where is she?!" Hades demanded, teleporting into the room. Darkness oozed out of his body and Percy blanched at the sight of him, almost wishing Anubis had actually been able to take her away.
"YOU ALL NEED TO LEAVE!" Apollo looked ready to rip his hair out from all the intruders in his palace. "You're going to make her condition worse! Get out! Get OUT!"
"You dare to order me around as if you have the right to?!" Hades stormed towards him. "You were the one who dared to hide my wife from me!"
"Wait!" Percy called out. She swallowed down any trepidation and hurried forward to get to Apollo's aid. She wasn't about to let him face the fury of all these gods alone. "Uncle, stop, Apollo's been trying to help me!"
Poseidon intercepted her, his large hands squeezing her shoulders. Usually this would feel like nothing, but now it was as if the Curse of Achilles was gone, making her feel the pain of his grasp tenfold.
Her father didn't seem to realize how much pain she was in. "Percilla, look at me," he demanded. "He's had you for a month! Did he hurt you? Touch you?"
"Let her go!" Anubis snarled, standing up. His leg was fully healed now.
"Don't order me around, mutt! I am her father! You're nothing more than her captor!" He spat.
"Something's wrong..." Beelzebub whispered, looking at Percy in concern. She looked... unnaturally pale all of a sudden. Her tan skin had a tint of grey.
"What did you do to her?!" Hades demanded, grabbing Apollo by the throat. "If you so much as touched my wife in any way, Apollo, I will have your head!"
"HEY!" Percy shouted, trying to pry her father's hands off of her. "Uncle, cut it out! Apollo didn't do anything wrong!"
Poseidon yanked her back to him, incensed.
"You're hurting her, idiot!" Loki barked at him.
"You're all at fault here!" Poseidon's voice rose. "My daughter would've been safe and fine if you all hadn't entered her life and ruined it—"
"Grrk—!" Something suddenly spurted out from Percy's mouth, getting over Poseidon's chest.
Poseidon whipped his head back to her. "Per—"
She suddenly bent over, grasping his arms to keep her up. "—Grrk! Urgh—urk—!" A bunch of god awful sounds left her lips before suddenly she went slack, her father managing to catch her before she could fall. One arm looped around her waist, holding her against him.
"O-o-oh my..." Loki whispered shakily, eyes wide with fear.
The whole room was silent now. Hades had released Apollo, and everyone was staring at Poseidon in silent, stunned fear.
Poseidon looked down, wondering what had happened. There was something wet on the front of his chest. It looked red.
He gingerly touched it. Blood. Red, mortal, blood.
Poseidon lifted up his hand, staring at the blood on his fingertips. He wasn't certain of it, but he was sure his hand started to tremble at that moment.
This blood... it couldn't be from...
"Percilla?" He called out to her, his voice uncharacteristically weak.
He grabbed her with both hands, too scared to care about staining her dress with blood. He tried shaking her gently, but she remained slumped against him, unmoving. He lifted her head up to look at him and then he saw it, blood on her lips, coming from her mouth.
It was her blood.
Beelzebub and Loki had gone numb with shock. They had never seen Percy bleed. Ever. It just wasn't possible. She bore the Curse of Achilles. She could never get hurt, could never get injured to the extent that she would bleed. This... shouldn't be possible.
Anubis took an unsteady step forward. "Is... is she...?"
Poseidon slowly dropped to his knees, cradling his unconscious daughter to him. It was as if the sight of her like this had drained all the strength he had in his divine body.
"I need help," his words would've shocked everyone if they weren't equally as afraid as he was. He looked around, his pupils dilated with fear and panic. Nobody moved. "I NEED HELP!" He screamed at them, anger and desperation laced in his voice. "Somebody do something! Don't just stand there, you fools! My daughter is... is...!" He didn't dare finish the sentence.
They finally jumped back to life, rushing forward to do whatever they could. But deep down, they knew that something irreversible had happened. Something that would forever change the course of her life.
Somewhere in the distance, the three Fates cackled at the tragedy unfolding before them.
.
.
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END OF ACT ONE
FANART!
Fanart from spicytunayumm:
^Context: this is based from my tumblr posts about future babies and basically, Beelzebub would definitely kill any baby that looks like him more than Percy cuz his self-loathing’s just that bad (he would also experiment on them in the womb to make sure they come out with Percy’s features 💀)
^Yes that’s Anthonius’ face and the funny part is that they made this WAAAAAY before this chapter was published and it ended up fitting sooo well anyway 😂😂😂
A Perpollo comic from yagodnyizefir:
“Clown to clown violence”:
Percy fanart from ALLIiIIy_IoveIy:
LINKS!
Check out my tumblr for sneak peeks, updates, and questions: here