#I know that Annabeth says that Frank is twice Leo’s size

[poppitron360]

I’m sorry but their “Reluctant Besties” dynamic is just too cute I had to draw them-

[percyjacksonfan3]

Finding Home (Part Ten)

Part One: http://percyjacksonfan3.tumblr.com/post/164310003982/finding-home

Part Two: http://percyjacksonfan3.tumblr.com/post/164310003982/finding-home-part-two

Part Three: http://percyjacksonfan3.tumblr.com/post/164310003982/finding-home-part-three

Part Four: http://percyjacksonfan3.tumblr.com/post/164310003982/finding-home-part-four

Part Five:  http://percyjacksonfan3.tumblr.com/post/164310003982/finding-home-part-fiive

Part Six: http://percyjacksonfan3.tumblr.com/post/164310003982/finding-home-part-six

Part Seven: http://percyjacksonfan3.tumblr.com/post/164310003982/finding-home-part-seven

Part Eight: http://percyjacksonfan3.tumblr.com/post/164310003982/finding-home-part-eight

Part Nine: http://percyjacksonfan3.tumblr.com/post/164310003982/finding-home-part-nine

The giant claps gleefully. “Is he dead? The poison acts fast, really he should have died minutes ago.”

No one speaks. They’re all staring at Annabeth, hunched over Percy, hands cradling his face, pressing into his torso, her voice begging him to open his eyes, to say something, to look at her.

Percy doesn’t move.

“It had to be done.” The giant says, and now his tone is almost regretful. “Quite the demigod you see, much too dangerous to be left alive. And after everything he saw and heard in the last couple of days… I couldn’t risk it, you understand?”

Everything happens quickly.

Hazel staggers to her feet, holds her hands out, mutters an incantation and suddenly the demigods can move again.

Jason absolutely lunges for the giant, rage contorting his features. He slashes once, twice, deep gashes that makes Aristaeus howl and brandish his axe but Jason parries and keeps pressing forward, so lethal the giant backs up.

The Chimera moves to protect it’s master but then Leo is there, withstanding the fire, taking it, molding it to suit his needs and throwing it back at the monster. The boys move together effortlessly, covering each other’s weaknesses and Jason summons winds made of fire, throwing it at the giant.

Meanwhile Hazel is bringing every spell the giant ever wrought down. Every ward on the cave, every glamour, every mind trick is gone, and she notices a mortal lying unconscious just inside the cave walls.

She silently wills the mortal to stay that way until this is all over. It will be safer for her that way.

Frank begins to groan and Hazel looks at him, seeing him start to move.

She doesn’t stop speaking but she does back up, keeping an eye on her best friend, the boy she’s loved for months.

Annabeth looks at Piper as soon as Leo moves away from where he was standing near Percy. “You saved Jason. Come save Percy.”

Piper looks stricken. “Annabeth-”

“You brought him back to life after he saw Hera’s true form, you told me!” Annabeth’s voice is wild, almost a yell. “Do it for Percy! Bring him back too!”

Piper’s running over, coming to a halt beside Annabeth and Percy’s bleeding body.

She swallows the bile in her throat. Percy’s blood, still wet, likely still warm, is covering Annabeth’s hands.

“I don’t know if-”

“Try!” Annabeth demands, and Piper, not knowing what else to do, does.

oooOOOooo

“Nephew.”

Percy’s eyes fly open.

Hades’ oily face looks back at him.

Percy promptly vomits all over Hades’ throne room floor.

Or he tries. He dry-heaves, but nothing escapes his stomach. When he tries to breathe he feels his body move, but there’s no relief, no feeling, from the action.

Percy looks down and sees he’s hovering about an inch above the floor.

He walks, or tries to, and instead just manages to float a little closer to his uncle, who’s seated on his throne carelessly. Ceremonial robes with faces of the tortured souls on it is his fashion choice of the day, and Percy is reminded strongly of the first time they’d met.

That meeting hadn’t ended well.

Hades sighs. “You're dead. Really, why does everybody who arrives here act like a newborn trying to walk for the first time?”

Percy looks at him, not comprehending the words. “Dead?”

He thinks back, tries to remember what had happened. It takes him a few seconds of Hades’ scrutiny, but eventually he manages it.

“No, no, no…” He looks at Hades desperately. “No, I can’t be-”

“Finally caught on, have you?” Hades doesn’t sound the least bit interested. “Thank Zeus. No, thank me. Usually it takes more blubbering and dramatic staring off into the distance for memories to return.”

“There’s a giant,” Percy says, mind racing. “My friends need help-”

Hades waves a hand dismissively. “I am well aware.”

“Then help them!” Percy shouts, trying to stomp a foot but not managing to do anything other than kick some air. Skeleton guards appear from nowhere and Hades look down his nose to meet his eyes, thoroughly unimpressed by his temper tantrum. “They need a god-”

“I do not see why I need intervene more than I already intend to.” Hades says, looking at his cuticles with pursed lips.

“More than you- what are you talking about?” Percy asks him.

Hades raises an oily eyebrow, finally meeting his gaze steadily. “You are not in Charon’s lobby. You are not in the lines of judgement. You are not standing before three judges being tried, nor are you standing before me on trial. Have you come up with no reason for this? Does it not seem odd to you? Dead souls generally don’t all end up in my throne room, demigod.”

Percy looks at him dumbly. Really, he hadn’t even thought to wonder about why he was here, it’s not like he was an expert on death. “Umm…”

Hades rolls his eyes in disgust. “Honestly,” he says scathingly. “Do you know how much I dislike you, nephew? I would love to see you sentenced to working on castle construction for eternity, or working at the admittance gates- what a miserable job that would be- but that will have to wait.

“What do you mean?” He’s really trying not to get his hopes up, but…

“You’re not staying. As much as I love the pleasure of your company, there are some,” Hades sneers, “who have requested- no, demanded- that I allow you to leave. So when your friend calls you back I am letting you answer her call.”

“Demanded I leave?” Percy asks. “Who-”

Hades gives him a long suffering look. “You want me to list them all? Not a chance. Just know you have some very powerful, very unexpected allies. Immortals I never would have pegged for being on your side.”

Hades waves a hand. “Now go. Even being in your presence this long exhausts me. You have a giant to fight and a much more horrendous death years ahead of you.”

Percy’s mouth falls open. “You’re letting me come back from the dead?”

“Letting you?” Hades scoffs. “Demigod, I am ordering you. Get out of here. I don’t want the Underworld to suffer from your presence before the Fates deem it necessary.”

“But-”

“Goodbye, Perseus. Consider this the last favour I ever do for you.”

oooOOOooo

Next time Percy opens his eyes it’s Athena standing in front of him, on the edge of a grassy hill overlooking an ocean. Sun glares down on them and Percy thinks this must be a dream because the landscape looks suspiciously like Greece. He might even see Athens in the distance.

She turns to him. “Don’t make me regret it,” is all she says before she’s gone.

He blinks and he’s in Apollo’s sun chariot. “I heard you, kid.” The god grins. “Now go kick some butt for me, will you?”

When the words sink in, Percy’s at Camp Half-Blood, in front of the fire, and Hestia is sitting cross legged in the flames. Homesickness fills him faster than the Chimera’s poison did as she smiles warmly at him. “You belong home, Percy.”

When he draws in his next breath there’s Hermes, standing outside the house of May Castellan, looking wistfully at the house but never going in. “You’re a good kid.” Hermes says, never looking away from the house. George and Martha are silent around the caduceus. “It was Luke’s time, up on Olympus. Yours is still to come.”

Next is Hephaestus who’s in a forge, banging on some sort of blade. He pauses enough to look up. “Ares didn’t want you to live,” the blacksmith shrugs. “That was good enough for me.”

Artemis follows. She’s staring up at the sky and from where she is, it’s night and they’re sitting on the edge of a cliff. Percy follows her line of sight to be greeted by the view of Zoe Nightshade’s huntress constellation, eternal up in the stars. “It would be a shame,” Artemis says, “to lose one of the only men I can stand. You could still teach my brother a thing or two. Besides,” she looks at him, and she’s not in her preferred twelve year old form, she’s in the form she adopts for council meetings and serious matters. “My Lieutenant says you owe her cheeseburgers. It wouldn’t do to let a debt go unpaid.”

Percy’s confusion morphs into reluctance when he’s greeted by Aphrodite laying on a white chaise lounge. He really tries to meet her eyes, given that she’s scantily clad in a sheer white dress. “Your love story isn’t over yet,” she sniffles, dabbing at her eyes. “And Annabeth was just so sad!”

He can’t say anything before he’s whisked away and greeted by Ares.

For some reason he can speak now. “I thought you-”

“You don’t even want to know what Aphrodite’s giving me for this,” the god of war says grinning wickedly, right before he punches Percy in the face.

He feels the pain briefly, but it’s gone by the time he’s standing before Hera in the middle of a garden. She looks over at him and purses her lips. “It wasn’t for you or the silly blonde girl, I can tell you that,” she sniffs, right before he’s whisked away to stand in the throne room of Olympus.

The sight of Zeus, full sized and looming from where he’s sitting on his throne, greets him.

Percy would bow but he really doesn’t feel like it. Instead he just stands and looks at the King of the Gods, who frowns down at him for a few moments in silence.

He’d blame the rudeness on his very recent, very sudden death but really it’s because he just didn’t feel like it.

“Every single member of my family vouched for you, and many outside as well.” Zeus looks troubled and furious in equal measure. “Even I cannot go against the Fates. Don’t mess it up.”

Finally, the next time his eyes open Percy feels more permanently settled.

He looks around and realizes; he’s in the water just in front of the cabin he and his mom always rented at Montauk.

Floating on his back in the water just beside Percy is his father.

“Dad?” Percy whispers and he’s ashamed when tears fill his eyes. “I haven’t seen you since-”

“We killed that nasty giant in Greece,” Poseidon’s eyes met Percy’s, and neither his Hawaiian shirt, nor khaki shorts seemed to be wet from floating on the waves. Poseidon’s voice is as gentle as his facial expression. “I would have stayed longer but you know how my brother gets. He was especially grumpy that day.”

Percy blinked strongly, the tears receding as quickly as they’d come and lays down on his back beside him.

“Am I still dead?” He asks, looking up at the blue sky. Clouds drift past, the water is cool against his back and Percy sees the cabin tucked away on the beach.

Peace settles over him.

Poseidon hummed at the question. “Technically, though that’s soon to change. Your friend, Piper, is calling you back right now. Can you hear her?”

Percy concentrated, trying to hear anything except the waves against the shore and his father’s breathing.

“No.”

Poseidon looked thoughtfully up at the sky, eyes tracking a seagull overhead. “You will.”

Percy turned to look at him, keeping the water away from his face subconsciously. “Why am I seeing you? All of the gods. Am I hallucinating?”

“Are you?” Poseidon looked surprised, but there was a twinkle in his eyes that made Percy think he knew more than he let on. “It’s not a hallucination. Funny, isn’t it, how many of us are willing to stick our necks out for you.”

Percy closed his eyes. “I thought they hated me.”

“Many do.”

Percy chooses to not think about that. It will save him a headache, he’s sure. “I don’t deserve it.”

When he opens them his father is watching him intently. “Believe me, son,” Poseidon says quietly. “You do.”

“You said you were sorry I was born,” Percy says past the lump in his throat, sitting up on the water. “The first time we met, you said you wished I hadn’t been born because I had a hero’s destiny and that it was full of sadness and pain. Was this it?”

Poseidon’s eyes turned sad. “Even I can’t see the future, Percy. I know snippets, as Hermes did with Luke.” He lifted a hand to rest heavily on Percy’s shoulder. “I saw your death, yes. I never foresaw all of the immortals coming together to argue it, nor did I ever know the Fates themselves would overturn it, mending a snipped string.”

Percy’s mouth fell open and Poseidon nodded. “Perhaps your mother named you aptly after all,” he said, his eyes moving past Percy to stare sadly at the beach and the cabin sitting there.

Percy closed his mouth, new questions occurring to him. “Do you come here? In real life I mean?”

Poseidon looked at him sharply before his features softened. “In real life,” he mused as if amused by the question. “Sometimes.” He answered softly. “Not as much as I used to, and not as much as I would like. But sometimes.” His eyes looked over Percy, making him shift uncomfortably. “I am- so proud of you, son.”

The lump in Percy’s throat grew. “Thanks, dad.” He whispered.

He started when a new voice reached him, breaking the moment. “Percy,” Piper was saying, and he looked up, trying to pinpoint the voice’s location. It echoed in his ears. “Percy, come back. Please. Wake up!”

Poseidon smiled at him again as if hearing the voice too. “You will need a god when you go back,” he said seriously. “Remember, son, that I am always looking over you. And that almost three quarters of the earth is water.”

Percy opened his mouth to ask but Poseidon spoke first.

“And congratulate your mother for me when you see her again.” Poseidon looked at the cabin once more, the timeless grief that all gods seemed to share etched in his features.

“Percy, Annabeth needs you. Come back.” Piper’s voice is stronger this time, and Percy feels like something grips his heart and stomach inside of him only to give a powerful yank.

Poseidon winked at him and then was gone.

oooOOOooo

Percy woke up with a gasp.

He sucked in air greedily, sparing a thought to anticipate the familiar pain in his ribs and feeling nothing. He breathes again and still nothing hurts.

Feeling the air go down his throat to his lungs and out again. Feeling warm hands on him, hearing Piper’s gasp and mutter of, “Oh my gods,” and seeing Annabeth over him, hair hanging down from her ponytail, grey eyes locked on his. “Seaweed Brain?”

Percy smiled at her crookedly. “Turns out I’m not that easy to kill.”

Annabeth gives a half-laugh-half-sob and throws herself at him. Percy grips back tight, holding her against him and tucking his face into her neck, breathing deeply once more.

“I’m so sorry,” he whispers, and her grip tightens to be almost painful.

“Never do that again.” She says brokenly before her voice steadies itself. “Piper might not be around next time and then I’d have to go to the Underworld, like Orpheus. You think I’d let you get away so easy? We’re staying together, remember?”

“I promise.” He replied gently, knowing deep in his bones that Annabeth isn’t bluffing. He knows because he would do the same for her.

He lets her go and grabs Riptide from where it lays beside him on the ground. He used the sword to stand up, half expecting his legs to collapse under him. When they didn’t he looked at Annabeth who was watching him from the ground and grinned.

Piper’s eyes are shiny with tears as she slowly creeps forward. “Percy, you were dead, oh my gods…”

He opens his arms just in time for her hug, feeling the newly found air in his lungs whoosh out at the force of her embrace. “Thanks, Pipes.” He says, and she lets out a strangled laugh of disbelief before backing away slightly.

He turned away, his dad’s words ringing in his ears. “Be ready.” He warns, looking to the giant.

While it seems like a lifetime had passed- which, Percy supposed, his had- there was still a giant and a Chimera to fight. Still enemies, which had taken the wrath of Jason, Leo and Hazel, but still stood standing.

Jason was lying on his back, fear written across his face, gladius feet away from his splayed hand, as Aristaeus advanced towards him. Percy looked at Leo and saw him once again try to summon a fireball only to have it sputter out as the Chimera looked like it was almost grinning while it prowled towards him. Hazel was panting, pale and sweaty as she murmured beside Frank, but her voice never faltered and her focus never wavered from the giant. Frank was still unconscious.

Aristaeus stopped moving towards Jason as he caught sight of Percy.

“Impossible!” He said as Percy stumbled towards him, Riptide in hand. “I felt you die!”

Jason’s head turned to look at Percy and a grin split his face. Percy was surprised at the strength of the reaction because he and Jason had never been that close, not really, but for a moment Percy allowed himself to believe that maybe in the future they could.

Leo laughed, backing away from the Chimera long enough to meet Percy’s eyes. “Did you have a secret cure for death too”

Percy’s smile twitched at his lips but he was distracted by a light touch on his arm.

“Percy, what are you...” Annabeth started, and he looked over and met her eyes as he felt her grasp both of his arms in support. “You’re too weak.” She said, eyes searching his, trying to silently ask what he was doing. “Percy, he’ll kill you.”

“Hold your breath,” Percy told her again before closing his eyes and ignoring the giant’s confusion and fear completely.

Three quarters of the earth was water.

Percy feels that familiar tug in his gut, he lifts his hands, curling his fingers in a come hither gesture. He’s filled with rage, he has been for a while now, and when Percy taps into it, using it to help fuel his powers, he realizes he can’t find the bottom.

When he opens his eyes Aristaeus’ axe’s blade has fallen to the ground, the handle gripped loosely in his hand as the monster turns to look at the tops of the trees, wide eyed.

Percy silently prays that Hazel can keep the giant’s magic at bay long enough just as the wave crests over the treetops and surges into the clearing.

He clenches his hands, containing the water to the clearing alone, remembering the mortal in the cave, and he makes air bubbles around his friends as the water from the Mississippi River rushes towards Aristaeus.

Percy surrounds himself with it, feeling it surge past him without knocking him off his feet. A sudden rush of energy fills him and Percy pushes the water forward, looking around to see the air pockets he’d wanted surrounding each of his friends.

The water is like a tidal wave when it finally reaches Aristaeus and the giant doesn’t stand a chance. He’s bowled over by the force of it, falling to the ground and the water is like chains, criss-crossing the giant, holding his arms and legs in place, making him powerless to move.

Percy stops pulling from the river, allowing the liquid around his friends to fall and flow away, soaking into the ground and creating little rivers and tributaries to stream between the trees. Aristaeus is laying flat on his back and Percy moves to stand overtop of him, walking across his chest and standing with Riptide poised at the giant’s heart.

“You can’t.” Aristaeus’ voice is a croak. His eyes betray him, flickering with fear. “You can’t kill me.”

Percy tightens the water’s hold on him. He’s tempted, for a moment, to draw the water from Aristaeus’ very pores out of him, to leave him a wrinkled and shrivelled husk. It would be so easy, too, that’s the worst thing, Percy doubts he would really care to remember in the long run if he did so. Just another death by his hand.

He’s lost count of how many people and monsters he’s killed.

It would be so easy to torture Aristaeus. Easy to prolong his agony through death but Percy finds he’s just too exhausted.

“After everything… You can’t kill me,” Aristaeus says again brokenly, and Percy’s resolve hardens.

“I can.” Percy replies steadily. “And I will.”

“You hate the gods,” Aristaeus says and his tone is honest confusion. “More than any of the others you despise them. You’ve tortured them in the past. Yet you are their fiercest protector. Why?”

Percy swallows, remembering Akhlys. It had taken him months to come to terms with what he’d been capable of doing to her down in Tartarus; to come to terms with everything he’d wanted to do to her.

But he had.

Long ago Percy accepted that he didn’t agree with most of the gods and the things they did. He couldn’t silently go along with them ignoring their kids and wreaking havoc only to leave others to clean up their messes.

But his dad was a god.

He knew all of the gods made mistakes. He’s suffered from many of the most recent ones himself.

Percy made mistakes too. Akhlys, Bob, Damasen, Calypso, Luke, Ethan, the manipulations, the pain.

He was mortal and he made mistakes.

So did the gods. Just like mortals. The only difference was that they had an eternity to keep making mistakes, and the power to do it on a much grander scale. Percy finds he can’t fault them just for being gods. It’s what they are, how most of them were born. Every mistake and consequence is a result of that.

And they’d saved him. Granted, he’d saved them more times than he could count which evened out the scales, but the gods had brought him back. He hadn’t expected it- the thought had never crossed his mind that they even could- especially when so many of them hadn’t seemed to care one bit whether he lived or died any other time.

Percy glanced over at Annabeth to see her standing and watching him closely. Her blade was in hand, her ponytail was a mess and her grey eyes somehow still had a sparkle in them, her mouth hinted at the ghost of a smile. The relief was still evident on her face and his heart swelled with love.

The gods had brought him back to her. He had to be grateful for that. That had to prove something about them.

“I believe they can change,” Percy answered Aristaeus, feeling the breeze around him pick up and he moved with it, by lifting Riptide a little higher. “Which is more than I can say for you.”

Percy felt power fill the clearing and run just across his skin, and the smell of ocean, of salt water and a coastline breeze, filled his senses.

Arion whinnied and Percy saw a bright green glow surround the horse’s injured ankle. His eyes were caught by Frank who was surrounded by the same thing, and when it faded the blood coating his friend’s skin was gone. Percy looked at Riptide, which was glowing green as well; the same colour that had surrounded Frank, the same colour, Percy remembered, that he had seen fade from around him when he’d fought the Chimera a couple of nights ago.

The Chimera that was currently yelping in pain, drawing all eyes towards it, before it went on to dissolve into golden dust.

Aristaeus’ expression morphed into one of genuine fear at the sight of the glowing sword. “No!” He rumbled, the vibration running up Percy’s legs at the exclamation. “The gods cannot interfere-”

It was the last thing Aristaeus said. Percy brought Riptide down sharply and Aristaeus dissolved, his howl echoing throughout the clearing as Percy was left down on one knee amidst a pile of sand. The smell of saltwater fades as the sand is gently blown away, scattered across of the surface of the earth.

It’s quiet for a couple of minutes, the only thing Percy hears is his own heavy breathing. All of his injuries may have disappeared, but he did just die and come back to life only to kill a giant minutes later. He felt like he deserved a short time out.

A hand slid up from the small of his back to rest between his shoulder blades and Percy tensed before realizing it was Annabeth.

“Hey,” her other hand pushed some of his hair back from his forehead and he looked up to meet her eyes, which were glistening. He blinked and realized his own were slightly damp.

“Hi.” He said back, soaking in the fact that she was standing in front of him, alive and relatively unharmed.

They were both alive. It was over. He could go home.

A sound escaped him, a choked and strangled sound, and Annabeth’s expression immediately softened before she settled down to kneel  in front of him. “Come here,” she murmured, and Percy felt another sob escape him just as she pulled him to rest against her.

Riptide fell forgotten to the ground and Percy’s arms came up shaking. He wrapped them around Annabeth and brought her closer, taking full advantage of the fact that they were alive, they were together and for the moment, they were safe. They had all the time in the world.

“Annabeth,” he gasps. He doesn’t say anything else, just her name, but it’s enough and she understands because she just grips him tighter and keeps running her fingers through his hair.

“Shh,” she says gently. “I’m right here.”

He loves her for that. The way she doesn’t say it’s okay, or thank the gods that they’re both still alive. She doesn’t say anything like that, she just reassures him that yes, they’re still together. They beat this just like they’ve beaten everything else and somehow, miraculously, despite the odds and the fact that, by all logical reasoning, they shouldn’t be, they are together.

Annabeth repeats the most important thing, the most comforting thing she could have possibly said to him at that moment. “I’m right here, Percy. I’ve got you.”

He lets himself fall completely against her

oooOOOooo

Afterwards, when Piper and Jason have embraced, and Hazel has checked Frank over and seen that his injuries are completely healed, when Leo goes in and finds the mortal still unconscious and unharmed, they all slump to the ground in exhaustion at once. Leo sits beside Festus, the woman beside him, picking up loose pieces of metal, stroking a hand over what used to be a golden dragon’s head.

"Let's take a vacation," Piper says suddenly. "I think we all deserve a couple of weeks. I'm feeling Paris, personally. Or London."

Leo looks up. "London, please. Paris is too mushy, and we all know what a romantic you are Beauty-Queen."

Piper scoffs and goes to give a sharp retort but Frank groans, making all of them look over at him.

Annabeth and Hazel hover over the son of Mars and Percy looks at them. "How is he?"

"We have enough ambrosia to keep him stable for now but he needs to get medical attention." Hazel looks up and meets his eyes. "I want someone to check him, make sure he’s really healed."

Arion whinnies and nuzzles Frank's shoulder, surprising Percy. He has enough tact not to say anything. Now is not the time for that horse to start cussing.

He looks over at Jason. "So what they're saying is, we need rides."

Jason's brow scrunches together in confusion for a second before his face clears and he grins at Percy. "Whoever gets them here first makes the other debrief Mr. D."

"You're on," Percy says, ignoring the confused looks from the others and Piper's exasperated eye roll before he closes his eyes and concentrates.

Luckily Blackjack answers.

He swoops down, wings flapping, and Percy grins up at him, clambering to his feet. "Hey buddy, long time no see."

Boy am I happy to see you, Blackjack answers him straight away, annoyance and exasperation obvious in his tone. Porkpie here has been getting ideas boss, about who's in charge in the stables. I keep trying to tell him that after you there's a certain rank-

He's a tyrant, Porkpie chimes in from where he's nuzzling Annabeth. Those two seem to have developed quite the bond. First dibs on donuts all of the time-

The horse that pulls the most weight gets first pick-

"Enough, guys, can we figure this out at Camp?" Percy interrupts, and both horses turn to him with an unimpressed look, almost as if they were raising an eyebrow.

Which was very strange because horses didn't even have eyebrows.

Tempest appears seconds later after a quick drop in air pressure and the distinct smell of ozone follows him. Percy shoots a grin at Jason who just sighs in defeat.

Hazel and Annabeth are already moving to lift up Frank.

"Which of them will be able to handle him better?" Hazel asks Percy and he doesn't have time to respond before Blackjack sticks his neck forward, prancing up to Hazel and preening before her eyes.

Hazel stifles a laugh. "I guess that answers that."

Percy grins at the girl's amused faces and moves forward, helping to hoist Frank onto Blackjack, careful of his wound. "Blackjack could carry three-"

"I'll go on, Arion." Hazel says. "His ankle looks better..." She trails off and Percy glances at the horse in question. Whatever magic Percy's father had swept through the clearing seems to have cured the Chimera's bite and Arion looked just as impatient as ever. "But I don't want to put too much weight on him until we know for sure. Camp Half-Blood?" She finishes.

Annabeth nods. "It's closer."

Jason and Piper settle onto Tempest's back. "Leo?" Jason calls and Leo looks up again from Festus.

Leo's face clouds over. "With enough parts- if I could get all the metal I need I could fix him."

Annabeth looks at him sadly. "Leo."

"I fixed him before." Leo says stubbornly. "Maybe if I stay I could at least figure out what I need."

"Leo," Piper slips down from Tempest to walk over and kneel beside him. "Frank needs help now."

"You guys could go-"

"We're not leaving you here." Jason trots Tempest over to them, voice allowing no argument.

Leo swallows, looking back down at his automaton. "I can't just leave him here."

Piper places one hand on Leo's shoulder, another on his cheek. "We'll come back for him."

Hazel's voice rings clear. "All of us will."

Percy nods at Leo's inquiring gaze and he watches as the son of Hephaestus catches sight of Frank and nods. "Okay."

He pulls away from Piper and stands up, still looking at Festus. "Don't worry buddy," and Percy didn’t comment on the break in his voice. "You'll be whole before you know it."

Then he visibly gathers himself and turns towards the four horses. "So how are we doing this?" He asks, gesturing towards the woman.

“You said she’s okay?” Percy asked Leo.

He nodded. “I think she’ll wake up eventually… I didn’t do anything to knock her out when I took her, Aristaeus did something and I just found her…” He trails off, face clouded. “If Hazel just takes her back to the town I could tell you where I- where did I find her?” Leo trails off to mutter to himself and Hazel frowns before walking over to him and the woman.

She snaps her fingers and the woman wakes up in a jolt. Her hair is in disarray, her clothes are wrinkled and dirty and her face is flushed.

She looks around and screams, scrambling back straight into Leo’s legs.

The woman shrieks again and stands up, taking in her surroundings.

Percy wonders what she sees. The horses probably just look like regular horses to her, but what about the mess of metal that was Festus? What about their weapons? Do they look like guns? It had happened before.

“Where am I? Who are you people?” The woman gulps. “What am I doing here? Please don’t kill me. I’ll give you money, seriously, anything you want-”

Hazel moves a little closer and the woman pales. “What are you- you’re just kids, she’s coloured just like me, how can you all commit these- these hate crimes-”

Percy frowns trying to make sense of what she’s talking about but it’s Hazel who puts it together.

“We’re not going to hurt you, please don’t panic.” Hazel looks stricken. “I promise. We- we-”

Annabeth jumps in. “We’re a camping group,” she says, moving closer to get into the woman’s line of sight. “We’re learning horseback riding- well, we’re the more advanced group, and we all know how to ride, so the counsellors let us go on a little run as long as we promised to stick together.”

The woman looks at their horses before meeting Annabeth’s eyes again, eyes wide.

“We found you here, so it should really be us asking you why you’re out here all alone.”

The stranger looks around, meeting each of their eyes. Percy tries to smile.

“I don’t know. I was in bed, last I remember.”

“Maybe you sleepwalked?” Percy asks her and then he cringes, because it takes hours to walk from the town to here.

“I- I guess so?” She looks confused.

“Listen,” Piper hunches down in front of her. “How about you let my friend here take you home,” she gestures to Hazel, “and then you can get to work or- or your family.”

All eyes zero in on her wedding ring and the woman nods. “If- if you wouldn’t mind. Actually could I borrow one of your cell phones?” She pats herself down. “I don’t seem to have mine.”

Annabeth has a hand out before she’s done talking, cell phone in hand. “Of course.”

The woman gets up and dusts herself off, looking at them all warily once more before dialling and walking a little bit away. Percy hears her say the name “Marshall” and “I don’t know, but some campers are bringing me home, it shouldn’t take more than- hold on,” she covers the mouthpiece. “How far away from home am I? How long will it take to get back?”

Hazel shrugs. “If we go on horseback, then about half an hour? 45 minutes tops?”

The woman nods and goes back to speaking while Hazel turns to look at Piper. “Why am I the one bringing her home?”

“Blackjack has Frank,” Piper points out. “She can’t fly, that would be too weird. Plus Arion will be fastest, and you both already know where the town is. I’m sure Tempest could find it, but why waste the time? And she’ll trust you most, I think.”

“Why?” Percy asks, feeling like he was missing something obvious.

“My skin colour.” Hazel sighs and Percy says, “Oh,” dumbly. He hadn’t though skin colour would be an issue, but now that he thinks about it, and what he’s seen recently on the news, it makes sense. “Ok. Then you’ll meet us all at Camp?”

Hazel nods, the woman finishes her phone call and Piper claps her hands. “Okay great. Well, we’re going back to… our camp. It was nice to meet you…”

“Dalia.”

Jason smiles at her. “Nice to meet you, Dalia.”

“You too. Thank you, all of you. And thank you…”

“Hazel,” Hazel jumps in at the woman’s questioning look. “I’m Hazel.”

“Hazel, for being able to bring me home. My husband was worried.”

Leo makes a strangled noise that he turns into a cough and Jason moves over to say something to him. Leo shakes his head and turns away.

Dalia gives him a look but apparently decides it’s better not to ask. From the guilt all over Leo’s face Percy thinks it’s a wise choice.

“If we could go soon?” She asks. “I really do need to get back.”

“Of course.” Hazel moves over to Arion, saying a few calming words while she strokes his nose. “Do you ride?”

“My family owns a ranch, I grew up around horses,” Dalia said. “I ride.”

Hazel grins and Percy looks back and forth between them, almost able to see the horse bonding going on.

He looks over at Blackjack and Frank, wondering if Dalia even noticed Frank or whether he was made into something else. A saddle maybe?

With one last farewell and a significant look from Hazel to Frank the two girls are gone with Arion.

“Well,” Annabeth says. “I think that went pretty well.”

Piper snorts and rejoins Jason on Tempest as Percy swings up behind Frank, taking care to keep from jostling him.

Annabeth hoists herself up on Porkpie and looks at Leo. "Looks like it's you and me, Valdez," she says and Leo nods, slowly moving to climb up behind her, gazing sadly at Festus from the pegasus' back.

"Alright Blackjack," Percy tears his gaze away from the automaton and claps the black pegasus. "Take us home."

[fireandgloryrpg]

Congratulations Micah and welcome! We’re so happy to accept your application to play Percy Jackson with the faceclaim of Tyler Posey in Fire & Glory RPG! We can’t wait to begin roleplaying with you so please remember to look over our checklist!

Out of Character Information:

Name: Micah

Age: 20

Timezone: GMT

Triggers: redacted

Activity: while I’m at uni I work evenings a few times a week, otherwise I am pretty much all the time!

Skeleton Character Application:

Desired Character: Percy Jackson

Reason you want to play this character: Percy is definitely my favourite fictional character. I find it super easy to slip into the Percy muse and he is someone that I consistently enjoy writing, I played Percy in the original fire and glory and I’ve played him several times since then. I really look forward to developing him further and discovering the new avenues of development that I can take with him!

Are there any changes you wish to make (faceclaim, age, affiliation etc)? Please explain and provide alternatives: nope! Considering I wrote his skeleton there’s no reason to :)

Biography:

Perseus Jackson - or Percy as he preferred to be called - was definitely not hero material straight away, in his younger years he was a scrawny young man with bright eyes and dark hair that never stayed neat no matter how many times he or his mother tried to comb it into order. But never let that fool you, because Percy would later go on to be one of the most powerful, skilled and courageous heroes of all time. But the thing that made Percy a hero was the fact that he was always humble. Except when it came to skateboarding, he knew he was the best at that.

The first twelve years of Percy’s life were far from normal, he lived in New York, growing up with a mother who was kind, loving and together they had a little bit of a strange love for the color blue. You might think that his early childhood and life was ideal, perfect and amazing. You’d be wrong. Sadly. An ugly man named Gabe Ugliano ruined all of that, with his pot belly and the stench of beer on his breath. He was always mean to Percy, and Percy was sure it was more than just that with his mom.

But at twelve years old that all changed when he discovered that he was actually a son of Poseidon, a demigod hero who would eventually save the world. It wouldn’t be easy, neither would it be free of pain, but Percy would do great things. He would fight monsters and slay them, the Minotaur, Medusa, the Chimera and Nemean Lion, Hydras and Cyclopes all within the first few years of his time as a hero. But that never stopped him for one second. He simply kept going. He even fought some gods, now that was interesting to say the least.

His list of achievements include taking Zeus’ nuclear powered lightning bolt back to him, even thought it had been in his back pack the whole time. He grabbed the golden fleece from a cyclopes that barely had one eye. He duelled Atlas the Titan one christmas and he held the sky on his shoulders. He navigated his way through the Labyrinth and fought in the battle of Camp Half Blood, he even duelled Kronos multiple times and eventually saved the world. That was all before he was sixteen.

After he was sixteen however his life didn’t get any easier, he was kidnapped, had his memory wiped and got dumped in a house full of wolves, from there he made his way up to Alaska and fought giants and monsters he’d never dreamed existed. From there he watched his friend bomb New Rome and start a war, then they fled to Greece, stopping off for some interesting detours.

Yet through and through Percy stayed a good guy, with his trusty pen sword thingy Riptide he fought monsters, gods and even other heroes (when they were being particularly stupid). But with his best friends Annabeth, Grover, Nico, Thalia and Tyson having his back he was never alone. Later he’d made friends in Jason, Hazel, Frank, Reyna, Leo and Piper. Whatever the case Percy was never alone to face the world.

It has been a few years since he saved the world with the rest of the crew of the Argo II, since then he has received a bachelor’s degree in Marine Biology from New Rome and is currently studying for a masters degree in Marine Biology. Life is a mad flurry of books and trying to live a normal life, but it is never that easy when you’re a demigod. Right?

Para sample:

If there was one thing that you had to give a therapist, it was that they definitely had the money to buy nice sofas. You could literally feel how much it had cost, just from running your fingers over the leather. He could feel the expensive leather as he nervously ran his fingers up and down the arms of the chair he was sat in.

It was funny, normally he wouldn’t be nervous. He had fought people who were literally twice his size. He could leap off of a hundred-foot-high cliff into a pool of water without his heart skipping a beat. Yet usually the only thing that made him nervous was Annabeth. When he had done something to piss her off, she would give him one of her trademarked glares that made you think she could see right into your soul, with those stormy grey eyes of hers. Well it was enough to make anyone’s stomach turn. But for Percy it was enough to send him running for the hills.

The key to avoiding the glare was to avoid fucking up too royally. Usually he could manage it. But sometimes he had to hide at the bottom of the lake.

Yet today, he wasn’t nervous about the stare of Annabeth, it was the stare of his therapist. She was an incredibly thin lady. Percy couldn’t help but notice every single bone in her face. Prominent cheekbones, a jawline that supermodels would envy and slightly sunken eyes. She seemed to be a stern individual, however the way she looked at him, staring at him over the rim of her golden wire glasses, he couldn’t help but wonder if she was reading him like a book.

Dr. Arkwright had been suggested to him by Rachel Dare, a good friend of his, apparently she had helped her through a number of issues and was uniquely talented at her job in her own special way. If Rachel swore by her then that was enough for Percy.

“Percy,” she said in a quiet voice, “I know this is our first session, so there is on no pressure for you to open up right away…” she trailed off, her eyes never wavering from him.

He had been to other therapists before, but they had been mortal, unable to see through the mist or understand what it was that he had been through. They had tried to help him, but with everything he had been through, he hadn’t been able to be helped. Not until now, at least, that was what he hoped. The trick to this was that his therapist was a demigod. A daughter of Apollo, cabin counsellor in her day, though that was a long while ago. She had started out working in New York, but after the recall she’d moved her office to New Athens. Percy guessed that Demigods seemed to need therapy too

“… but this will only work if we can develop a relationship of trust, I can’t help you if you don’t let me help you.”

He took a deep shuddering breath and looked away from his hand, meeting people was an easy task, he could deal with that, but it was different when it came to this woman.

Meeting her eyes wasn’t easy, but he forced himself to do so.

“I don’t even really know where to start,” he admitted, biting his lip gently as his sentence ended.

“Just from the beginning perhaps,” she replied. “The beginning of what?” he replied, perhaps a little too sharply, “My life? Or just specifically falling into Tartarus, or the fact that I’ve been all but a child soldier since I was twelve, gods that is ten years…” he said, more to himself than to her. “Wherever you feel comfortable,” she said quietly, she didn’t seem startled by his revelation or his little outburst.

Falling silent again he sat there and shifted in his seat, that was a problem with his ADHD, sitting still drove him insane. He had never been good at it, maybe that was one of the reason he’d always done so badly in class. He couldn’t sit still. So he stood up, and walked to the window. Staring out into the city of New York he thought about what it would be like to be stood out there, rather than in here. He stared at the cabs and the pedestrians on the streets.

Sighing he ran his fingers over the curtains that were at the edge of the window, even this material felt expensive.

“I guess,” he sighed and tapped his fingers against the glass, leaving little finger marks on it, “I guess the best place to start would be with my childhood…”

There was a sudden binging that interrupted his line of thought, reaching into his pocket he pulled out his phone and stared at it.

“Monster attack, need your help, Annabeth.”

“I’m really sorry,” he said, turning to the therapist, “but I’ve got to go, duty calls.” He said wiggling his phone and grabbing Riptide from his pocket. He turned and strode from the room, his heart thumping in his chest. This therapy thing was hard.