Chapter Text
I can tell you from personal experience that sticking a kid with ADHD in a museum and expecting them to have the time of their life is a recipe for disaster. My last museum visit had involved my algebra teacher trying to kill me, and while this wasn’t any worse, the experience didn’t seem to be shaping up to be anything much better.
The curator of the museum was waiting for us on its steps, two guards on either side of him. A large grin split his face, displaying his not-so pearly whites.
“Dr. Kane!” He exclaimed, shaking Julius’s hand with such fervor I thought it might fall off. Julius could have been a celebrity for all the man was shaking with excitement, and in the magnificent world of Egyptian history, maybe he was. “Your last paper on Imhotep—brilliant! I don’t know how you translated those spells!”
“Im-ho-who?” Sadie muttered to me, as if I was somehow all knowing in the realm of ancient Egypt. I looked at Carter, who out of the two of the siblings seemed more well versed in whatever the curator was going on about.
“What she said.” I muttered to him.
“Imhotep,” Carter replied. “High priest, architect. Some say he was a magician. Designed the first pyramid. You know.”
“You sound like Annabeth.” I blurted.
“Whose that?” Sadie asked, voice quiet under the conversation between Julius, the curator, and now my mom.
“My friend. She’s crazy smart, it feels like she knows literally everything. But she’s really good at explaining things—”
“So Carter, if he wasn’t a know-it-all.”
Carter looked affronted, and standing between the two of them I wasn’t sure if there was any side better to take. “I guess?”
I thankfully didn’t have to plead my case as Julius interrupted our conversation, placing a hand on Carter's shoulder.
“Dr. Martin, I’d like you to meet Carter and Sadie.” He looked at me, awkwardly standing between his kids. “And Sally’s son, Percy.”
“Of course! It’s a pleasure to meet you all. Pleasure to have you here, really, Dr. Kane, we’re incredibly honored.”
Did everyone suck up to Julius like this? Was he the man to know in the world of museum curators? It seemed like it, and as we followed the curator into the Great Court, the guards remaining outside, he and Julius only got more buddy-buddy. My mom trailed slightly behind them, arms crossed and lips pursed, her demeanor becoming even more closed off as we turned into the Egyptian wing.
“So,” Julius asked, “the stone.”
“Yes, of course!” The curator led us forward, ignoring the massive statues lining the walls and instead going to a small stone slab placed in the center of the room. “Though I can’t imagine what information you may glean from it, as it has been studied to death of course, but we’re brought out the real one. Typically we keep out a replica, but for you—this is quite real.”
Our small group was gathered in front of a dark gray slab of rock, about three feet tall and two feet wide. It was encased in a glass box and stood on a large pedestal, the flat surface of it facing us having writing chiseled into it. The top appeared to be what I thought were hieroglyphics, but it was the bottom that caught my eye. The familiar letters of Ancient Greek stared back at me, taking up the bottom third of the rock.
“The Rosetta Stone.” Carter said.
“Isn’t that a computer program?” Sadie asked.
Carter looked like he wanted to strangle his sister at that moment. Possibly he was morbidly embarrassed, but I couldn’t blame her. It sounded like it could have been a computer program. I would have believed her at least.
“Young Lady, the Rosetta Stone was the key to discovering hieroglyphics! It was discovered by—” The curator interrupted with a nervous laugh.
“Oh, I remember now.” Sadie said. She clearly didn’t.
I walked closer to get a better look at the writing, Julius next me. I was mainly considering all the ways Annabeth would flip when I told her I looked at the real Rosetta Stone and got to read its original Greek. Cool, right? If I wasn’t sure the Curator might have shot me on sight, I would have taken a picture.
“Ptolemy the fifth…” I muttered quietly as I skimmed the stone, ignoring Carter's long winding rant on the importance of the stone to Sadie.
“Young man!” I jumped, the curator suddenly beside me, eyes wide. “Do you speak Greek?”
“Me?” I asked, as if he were asking anyone else with the ways his beady eyes were staring me down. My mom and our odd extended family all were looking at the two of us, even Julius having stopped his manic studying of the stupid rock. “I, uh…nope.”
“Well you were just—”
“Was I?”
“Dude.” Sadie interjected. “You’ve been standing over there staring at the stone and muttering nonsense for like a minute.”
I figured I’d been muttering in english. My mistake. “Oh, well, I take it as an elective!” I exclaimed, scrambling for a lie. I wasn’t sure how well, ‘My dad’s a Greek God and the language is kinda just inherited’ would go down with this crowd.
“That’s wonderful!” The curator grinned, walking over to Julius quickly. “Dr. Kane, your family is really something extraordinary. It’s great to see young people have an interest in the classics.”
“Yep. That’s me. Ancient cultures are really my passion.”
I’m not sure I was too convincing, as the silence between all of us grew awkward. Only the curator seemed genuinely excited. Sadie was staring at me in what looked to be disappointment, and Carter had his eyes narrowed in what could have been disbelief or suspicion. Probably both.
“Dr. Martin.” Julius said, saving me. “Is it possible I could have the glass removed? And if you could bring me the papers I asked for from your archives.”
Dr. Martin nodded. He pressed a small code into a remote control he pulled from his pocket, and the front of the glass box clicked open.
“It will take a few minutes to retrieve the notes.” He said. “For anyone else, I would hesitate to grant unguarded access to the stone. But I trust you’ll be careful.”
He glanced at us kids like we were trouble makers, but for the first time in my life the look didn’t seem directed at me as he smiled and tacked on one extra note. “And maybe Percy here can do some translating! How exciting!”
As soon as Dr. Martin’s steps receded, Julius turned to all of us with a frantic look in his eyes. “Children, this is very important. You have to stay out of this room.”
He slipped his workbag off his shoulder enough to pull out a bike chain and a padlock, pushing them into Carter's hands. Carter took them with wide eyes, and my mom made some indiscernible sound of protest.
“Follow Dr. Martin. You’ll find his office to the left of the Great Court. There’s only one entrance. Once he’s inside, wrap this around the door handles and lock it tight. We need to delay him.”
“Julius!” My mom exclaimed, walking up to him.
“You want us to lock him in? Brilliant!” Sadie was suddenly interested, grabbing the chain and padlock from Carter who was still standing shell shocked. He looked like how I felt. Which was like his dad had actually gone mental.
“Dad,” he said, “what’s going on?”
“We don’t have time for explanations.” Julius said. “This will be our only chance. They’re coming.”
“Who?” I asked.
Julius ignored me, pulling his kids in towards him by the shoulders. “I’m sorry, for many things, but there's no time now. If this works, I promise I’ll make everything better. Carter, you’re my brave man. You have to trust me. Remember, lock up Dr. Martin. Then stay out of this room!”
He moved to push all of us towards the doors, but my mom caught my wrist before I could follow Carter and Sadie. She pulled me to the side, eyeing Julius with nervous eyes as he dug through his workbag.
“I owe you an explanation, honey.”
“Hell yeah you do!” I whispered, taking a look back at my crazy relative. “I swear I thought your side of the family was normal, or at least mortals , but weird things keep happening and I’m pretty sure your cousin over there is an actual criminal —”
“There’s more to this world than the Greek Gods.”
I looked at my mom like she’d just grown another head. “What now?”
“The ancient civilizations of the world all manifested divinity in their own ways. Before I met your father, I was a magician, and a—"
“You’re screwing with me.”
“I’m not, Percy.”
My mom looked deadly serious in front of me, and for all the world I wished she was joking. That someone would pop out of the doors to the room we were in and yell, ‘You’ve been pranked!’
“And you deserve a better explanation, and you’ll get one, I promise. I just need you to listen to me. Julius wants to mess with the Gods, something you and I know never goes well, right? I don’t care if you lock Dr. Martin in his office, just keep Carter and Sadie out of here, okay? Stall. I need to deal with Julius.”
“Mom, I’m not just going to leave you—”
“I can handle myself. I know this doesn’t make sense right now, but trust me. Just trust me when I say this will work out.” She reached forward and grabbed my hand, pressing something into it. Opening my palm, I looked at the necklace Amos had gotten me for my birthday that summer.
“Where’d you find that? I’ve been looking for it—”
“No you haven’t. You put it in the junk drawer in the kitchen. And that’s fine.” My mom interjected. “Just wear it, will you? It’s important.”
Even with the way everything told me to not leave, to stay with my mom and protect her from whatever odd thing was coming, I knew one thing. I did trust my mom. Above anything. And so what if Egyptian Gods were real? New God to deal with? That was my average afternoon. As soon as I’d tucked the necklace under my shirt, I ran out the doors.
·𖥸·
I found Sadie and Carter attaching the padlock to the door of the curator's office, the two squabbling as Carter argued the ethics of the situation and Sadie threatened to hit him with the lock.
“What are you running for?” Carter said as I approached, coming to a stop.
Sadie also turned from where she’d finished attaching the padlock, arms crossed as she looked me over.
“Yeah, Mr. I speak Greek. And I thought Carter was a nerd. What’s up with that?”
“I’m not a nerd—”
“Me speaking Greek is hardly an issue. Why the hell are we actually locking that guy in there.”
Sadie just shrugged, as if imprisoning a man in his office as her average Tuesday night. Carter just sighed, shaking his head.
“Do you have any idea what’s going on?”
“Why are you asking me?” I asked, crossing my arms. “Your Dad’s the one acting like a complete maniac. Is he always like this?”
“Yeah, Carter.” Sadie turned her gaze from me, locking eyes with her brother. “What’s up with Dad?”
“I don’t know. He’s been acting weird lately, but I thought it was just about mom. He keeps her picture…”
Carter trailed off, and Sadie didn’t push. She nodded like she understood, and the two shared a look before both of their eyes were caught by something behind me. Back the way we’d come a blue light streamed from the Egyptian gallery, as if my mom and Julius had gone and installed a huge glowing aquarium.
“That’s not normal.” Sadie stated.
“Yeah it’s not normal!” Carter hissed, before Sadie whipped around to face him.
“What’s in his workbag?” She asked. “He’s always weird about that.”
“I don’t know, he told me to never look.”
“Dude,” I interrupted, “That’s practically an invitation to look.”
“He’s so right. Carter, you’re absolutely hopeless. Percy, we’re on the same wavelength right now.”
Carter opened his mouth, probably to defend himself, when a tremor shook the floor. All three of us turned back toward the light streaming from the gallery as a scream was heard, Sadies face turning pale. Startled, Sadie grabbed onto Carter's arm.
“Dad told us to stay put. I suppose you’re gonna follow that order too?”
Carter looked plenty happy to follow that order, but Sadie moved to run down the hall. I jumped in front of her, blocking their way down the hall. If my mom was telling the truth, and Julius was getting himself involved with some ancient Egyptian deity, over here was much safer than in that room.
“We need to stay here.”
“Why would I listen to you?” Sadie said with a raised eyebrow, trying to move past me as I pushed her back.
“I don’t know? Because I’m older than you and trying to make sure you don’t die?”
“Somethings wrong.” She stated, looking at Carter before glaring at me. “And I don’t care what you want to do. I want answers.”
With that, she shoved Carter into me, sprinting down the hall. Pushing Carter away from me, I sprinted after her, Carter whining a ‘ wait for me’ as his footsteps pounded behind me as another tremor shook the building.
When we reached the entrance of the Egyptian gallery, Sadie had stopped dead in her tracks. Carter and I stopped abruptly behind her, as I looked in at the sight within the gallery. Julius stood in front of the Rosetta Stone with his back to us, a blue circle glowing on the floor around him. My mother stood to the side, brandishing what looked to be a curved piece of some type of white material.
Julius had his overcoat thrown off, workbag open on the floor, revealing a wooden box about two feet long. Images were painted across it, similar to those seen on the statues within the exhibit.
“What’s your mom holding?” Sadie whispered to me. “A boomerang? Dad has one too.”
Sure enough, her dad then raised his hand, also holding a curved white sick. Instead of throwing it like a true boomerang, he touched it to the Rosetta Stone. Sadies breath caught. Julius was writing on the stone, everytime the boomerang thing made contact, glowing blue lines appeared on the stone.
From the corner of my eye, I watched as my mom raised her hands, boomerang pointed ahead.
“ Ha-di! ” She yelled, and the blue circle around Julius flared brighter, the light from the ground seeming to stretch into the ceiling. The ground tremored.
“Julius!” My mom lowered her arm, while Julius etched out a symbol onto the granite. “Don’t do this! You can’t.”
“Your magic is weaker than before, Sally. You’re not stopping this.” My mom let out some sort of animalistic growl, and I watched as Julius continued to somehow write glowing words with his stick. Based on what my mom had just done, it was practically a wand out of Harry Potter. Julius finished his symbol, and ram’s horns sat above a box and an X.
“ Open. ” Sadie murmured. I stared at her, because to me it seemed that she’d just translated whatever Julius had just written. Was that some sort of Egyptian demigod thing? Being hardwired for hieroglyphics just like Greek demigods could read Ancient Greek? Were Egyptian demigods even a thing? Julius raised his arms. He chanted: “Wo-seer, i-ei.” And two more hieroglyphic symbols burned blue against the Rosetta Stones surface.
As much as I’d seen strange things happen, watching Carter and Sadie's dad, and my mom , basically pull out magic wands and act like wizards was a bit much. Whatever odd thing was possessing Carter and Sadie beside me was a whole other issue, as Carter also began muttering the english translation of the hieroglyphs their dad was creating.
“Osiris, come,” Sadie whispered, voice trancelike before her eyes widened. “No!” She shouted. “Dad, no!”
Julius turned in surprise, my mom also spinning to face us, her face draining of all color.
“Children—” Julius started, but it was far too late.
“N’dah!” My mom screamed as the ground rumbled. The blue light turned searing white, and as I dived sideways to push Carter and Sadie to the floor, the Rosetta Stone exploded.
·𖥸·
Regaining consciousness, the only two thoughts running through my mind were that I felt like I’d been run over by a chariot, and what the fuck. Gleeful laughter rang through the air as I sat up and spit a piece of the Rosetta Stone out of my mouth, looking around at the ruined gallery. Fire rippled along the floor, statues and sarcophagi knocked to the ground and shattered. The Rosetta Stone had exploded with such force that pieces of it were embedded in the walls and floor of the exhibit.
Carter and Sadie were both beside me, still unconscious. Where the Rosetta Stone had once stood was a smoking pedestal. The floor looked like someone had taken a blowtorch to it, blackened and smoldered aside from the glowing blue circle around Julius and where my mom stood, seemingly unscathed aside from a cut on her forehead.
Julius held out his boomerang in front of him, to the figure standing between him and the three of us. It looked like someone made out of fire, their form flickering in and out between the flames and smoke in the room. He loomed over both Julius and my mom, and his maniacal laughter cut through the room. He reminded me of the Gods I’d met, the power that radiated off him. From what my mom had told me earlier, I could assume he was one.
“Well done!” He said to Julius. “Very well done, Julius.”
Carter and Sadie still remained unconscious beside me, though Carter let out a low groan. Turning towards him, I shook him by the shoulders. His eyes opened groggily, as he looked around.
“What's going—”
“Shhh.” I whispered. “We have to move Sadie, alright?”
Carter still looked like he had woken up from a midday nap, but shook himself awake. As soon as he was coherent enough to take in the room, his face paled.
“What the fuck .”
“You were not summoned!” Julius yelled, voice trembling. He held up his wand, but with a flick of the Gods finger, the stick flew for his hand and shattered against the wall.
“Return to the Duat!” My mom yelled, brandishing her wand. “We will not warn you again.”
The God laughed, the flames of his form rising higher toward the ceiling. “You think you can do anything against me? Sally, do your dear cousin a favor and stand down.”
“ Tas! ” My mom yelled, and just as soon as a rope somehow started to spring from her wand, the God flicked his hand and in a burst of fire the rope went up in flames, my moms wand flying across the room. The fiery form shrunk slightly, and a large sigh was heard, as if my mom was a fly this guy needed to swat away so he could go about his day. A minor inconvenience.
“You both know I’m never summoned. But still, when you open a door you must be prepared for guests to walk through.”
“Back to the Duat!” Julius roared. “I have the power of the Great King!”
“Oh, so scary. Sally, get a load of this guy.” The fiery man, possible God, said in amusement. “Must be so shameful to be related to him. Julius, even if you knew how to use that power, which I will remind you, you do not, he wasn’t my match. And now you will share his fate.”
Beside me Carter's eyes went wide as he inched forward. I pulled him back with a hand on his shoulder, shaking my head. No matter how much I wanted to help, no matter how much I knew I could, I had other things to worry about. Carter and Sadie couldn’t defend themselves. I would have to. My mom caught my line of sight from across the room, shooting me a look of warning. Julius and my mom were doing their best to keep the man's attention while we could take our chance to get out.
Sadie was still somewhat unconscious, and I put my hands under her armpits to pull her with us as Carter and I moved. The three of us hid behind a column that hadn’t been fully destroyed by the explosion of the Rosetta Stone. At her groans of protest, and her eyes opening, Carter slapped a hand over her mouth. As soon as she saw what was going on, she stopped fighting.
The alarms blared, fire still circling the doors of the gallery. My powers buzzed under my skin, and I itched to pull on the water running through the pipes in the museum. Instead, I watched Julius crouch to the floor, opening a small painted wooden box. He pulled out a small wooden rod that suddenly extended into a wooden staff as tall as he was.
Sadie squealed. Carter gasped, and braced himself on my shoulder with one hand as if I knew any better that the hell was going on.
Julius threw the staff, and it changed into a giant serpent, at least ten feet long and as wide as I was, its eyes glowing a deep red. It looked a bit like Hermes’ snake, George, if George was ginormous and ate kids instead of multivitamins. It lunged at the fiery man, who simply grabbed the serpent by the neck. His hand burst into flame, burning the serpent to ashes in a second.
“An amateur trick,” he chided.
I looked over to my odd cousins, both looking like they’d seen a ghost. Realistically, this was probably much more shocking.
“We have to get out of here.” I whispered, tilting my head back towards the door.
“And leave my dad?” Carter hissed. “Not happening.”
Sadie nodded her head beside him, still looking over at her father.
“Your dad and my mom can clearly handle whatever's going on. We, on the other hand, can not,” I stated. Quickly, I grabbed each of their arms and pulled them with me as I crawled towards the door. Thankfully, they followed, the three of us moving slowly around the edge of the room towards the flame covered doors. That would be a problem for later.
“How many?” Julius asked quickly, keeping the man's attention as we moved. “How many did we release?”
“We?” My mom said in disbelief before the fiery man kept talking.
“Why, all five,” he said, as if talking to a five year old. I would have preferred he explained it better. I was still lost. “You both know we’re a package deal, especially you, Julius. Soon enough even more shall be released, and I will be named king again.”
“The Demon Days.” My mom practically whispered, a look of disbelief on her face.
“They’ll stop you.” Julius said. “You will never be king.”
The fiery man's maniacal laughter rang through the room once more. “You think the House can stop me? Those fools can’t even stop arguing amongst themselves. Let's make one thing clear, Julius. You shall never rise again.”
The fiery man waved his hand. The blue circles at Julius and my moms feet went dark. Julius went to grab for the toolbox he’d pulled his staff from, but it skittered across the floor as my mom moved to dash behind a column. As she ran, the God, his flame covered figure growing, flicked his hand and she was pushed through the air, slamming against the wall of the exhibit. Carter gasped beside me, and I resisted the urge to run and check on her, her body lying still on the floor.
“Goodbye, Osiris,” the God said. With one last flick of his hand, a glowing coffin was conjured around Julius. It was transparent at first, but the more he struggled and pounded against its sides, it suddenly became solid gold. Before the gold encased all of it, Julius looked at us one last time, mouthing the word Run! before the coffin sank into the floor.
“We have to go, we have to go, come on.” I hissed, grabbing Carter and Sadie and dashing for the doors. Sadie broke my grasp.
“Dad!” She yelled, throwing what looked like a stone at the God. It sailed through him harmlessly.
He turned, and momentarily, a face appeared in the flames. It was as if two faces were overlaid on top of eachother. One terribly human, and the other reminiscent of the monsters I’d fought over the years. Animal like, red eyes blazing and sharp fangs jutting out of its mouth. I stepped in front of Sadie and Carter, feeling the pull of my powers as I heard heavy steps echo on the marble floors behind us. The police, or security guards, or really whoever was coming, wouldn’t be any help here.
The God lunged. The sprinklers turned on. He hissed, and paused a few inches from where we all stood, as if something shoved him backward. The air seemed to crackle with electricity, and the necklace around my neck burned where it sat against my skin.
The God narrowed his eyes, looking at the water coming down around us and then at me. “Interesting. Now, step out of the way, boy.”
“You’re not touching them.” I glared, itching to grab Riptide from where it sat in my pocket. I’d fought Gods before. Sure, they were Greek, but I wasn’t going to let anything else bad happen in this hellscape of a museum.
The God just shook his head, before turning and regarding Carter carefully. “And you. ”
The building shook again, and at the opposite side of the room, part of the wall exploded in a glowing light. Two people walked through the hole, and I recognized them immediately. The man and the girl who’d appeared at the Needle, their robes swirling at their feet.
The God snarled, looking at me one last time before turning his gaze to Carter. “Soon, boy.”
The sprinklers did nothing as the entire room burst into flames. A blast of heat stole the air from my lungs, and I crumpled to the floor. As much as I tried to regain consciousness, to look over at mom on the other side of the room, my head was spinning. As soon as my eyes closed, I was out.
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