Summary: At the tender age of 6, Percy Jackson loses his sanity, creating an alter ego that kills his step-father after watching him beat his mother in a drunken state: Willow. Unable to remember what he did, Sally tells Percy that Gabe decided to leave them and buries him somewhere. 6 years later, when Miss Dodds attacks Percy, Willow awakens once more, with a strange power...
Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Story is Rated M for language and future lemons
AN: Not too sure on the pairing just yet. I should mention that Percy is NOT the son of Poseidon in this fic, but it will be revealed who his father is in time, and Percy's connection to Poseidon
Chapter 1: I am...Willow
Fear.
That's what Perseus Orion Jackson- also known as Percy- felt as his mother hid him in a cupboard. Percy had heard the door open, and heard Smelly Gabe's voice, but it was different than normal. It sounded slurred and angry. He didn't know why, but his mother was in a panic. She quickly hid him in a cupboard, whispering to him to stay hidden, before she closed it quietly and quickly got up, working around the kitchen. Percy opened the cupboard just a crack to see what was happening.
"Where's the brat?" Gabe's slurred voice came as he entered the kitchen.
"Sleeping," Sally replied quickly. "I told him that he should go to bed an hour ago, and I checked on him a few minutes later to see he was sleeping."
Gabe nodded slowly, but his eyes were on Sally. "Strip," he told her.
Sally's eyes widened, and she spoke in a soothing voice. "Your drunk, wouldn't you rather wait unti-"
She was smacked across the face and fell to the floor, Gabe growling at her. "Don't you talk back to me! Strip! Right now!"
"B-but Ga-" she tried to talk, only to be hit in the stomach hard, making her scream.
"I SAID DON'T YOU TALK BACK TO ME!" he roared at her as he crouched down and began to beat Sally without mercy, his desires for her body now long forgotten as he was consumed with rage at her denying him.
All this, Percy saw from the Cupboard, his eyes wide and filled with tears. How dare Gabe do this to his mother?! She was so kind, so nice to Gabe despite his absolute crap personality! But then he saw something that made him snap. He saw tears at the corners of his mother's eyes.
It was at that time, that young Percy's sanity broke. His young mind did what it did best: it used his imagination to an extreme. Cold, amber eyes replaced Percy's sea green, a strange glint in his eyes that couldn't be described. He slowly opened the cupboard and got out, staring at Gabe.
Gabe turned to him and sneered. "So Sally lied to me? You've seen too much kid." He grabbed a knife, smirking darkly. "I guess you'll just have to die now."
The small boy tilted his head at Gabe, his Amber eyes showing absolutely no emotion, except that small, unknown glint. When he spoke, it was a cold voice, no emotion to it. "Will you lie in Willow's Way?"
Only slightly unnerved,`Gabe ran at the boy, wildly swinging the knife. The boy merely laughed, his voice without emotion, and darkness covered the room. Gabe stopped running, looking around. "Where are you, you little bastard?!"
The laughter continued, now coming from Gabe's left. He turned, but now it was behind him. He turned again, but now it was to his right. The laughter grew louder and louder, before it stopped. The boy's voice came again. "Do you love?" It came from all around Gabe, in multiple directions.
"Wha-" Gabe tried to speak, but was cut off.
"Do you hate?"
"Where are you, you little bastard?!" Gabe raored in anger.
"Do you die, forever late, in Willow's Way?"
Gabe's eyes widened. "Wha-?"
"WAHAHAHAHA!" The laughter came from behind him, but before Gabe could even turn or talk, the voice spoke softly. "I didn't think so."
The drunk man turned, only to feel something plunge into his throat. The last thing the step-father of Percy Jackson saw before he died was a pair of cold, amber eyes, the psychotic glint in them clear.
When the darkness faded away and the room came back into view, the boy stood over Gabe's body, a knife in the man's throat, his eyes glossed over and dead.
Sally looked at her son. "P-Percy?"
Slowly, the boy turned towards Sally and shook his head. "No..." he spoke softly. "Not Percy..."
"Who are you?" Sally asked him quietly. He looked just like Percy, but his cold voice and amber eyes made her think twice...she was scared of the boy, but at the same time she cared for him.
The boy stopped, and tilted his head, thinking. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, he spoke. "I am...Willow."
"Are you my son?" she asked him again.
The now named Willow stared at her and nodded slowly. "I am...your son." Amber bled into green as Percy collapsed on the ground.
Sally acted quickly, picking up her son and taking him to his room. She tucked him in before heading to the kitchen and looking at the now dead Gabe. She hesitated before taking the knife out of his throat and cleaning it off, and then pushing his body into a large black bag. She had to dispose of the body, remove traces Gabe had ever been here. She'd just tell Percy that Gabe decided to leave...
(6 years later...)
Percy sighed in annoyance. He didn't want to be on this trip, he really, REALLY didn't want to be on this trip. Things always went wrong when he went on trips, one way or another. This one he was very determined to be good.
He was on probation right now due to a few incidents during the school, so he was forced to watch as Nancy Bobofit- an annoying girl and a bully- threw peanut-butter and ketchup sandwiches at the head of his best friend at school, Grover Underwood.
Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He had to have been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but damn could he run on on enchilada day in the cafeteria.
"I'm going to kill her," Percy all but snarled.
"It's fine," Grover tried to tell him. "I like peanut butter." He quickly dodged another piece of her lunch.
"Please, just one punch?" he begged Grover. "I'm totally cool with getting expelled. Just PLEASE let me hit her once?"
Grover shook his head. "No way," he told Percy firmly. "I'm not letting you get expelled for this. Just let it go, okay?"
Percy grumbled. He wished he could deck the bitch right then and there, but he wouldn't...he didn't want to get into trouble. With a reluctant sigh, he looked out the window, and waited for the bus to arrive at the museum.
Mr. Brunner led the museum tour. He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding the group through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.
He gathered the group around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling them how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about Percy's age. He told them about the carvings on the sides. Percy was trying to listen to what he had to say, because he found it interesting, but everybody around him was talking, and every time he told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give Percy the evil eye.
Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art. Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and Percy turned around and said, "Will you shut up?" It came out just a little bit louder than he'd meant to say it.
Everyone roared with laughter, and Mr. Brunner stopped talking and slowly turned to Percy with a raised eyebrow. "Mr. Jackson," he said. "Did you have a comment?"
Percy- his face completely red- mumbled, "No, sir."
Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"
Quickly glancing at the carving, Percy wanted to sigh in relief since he recognised it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"
"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because ..."
Percy frowned at Mr. Brunner prying for more information, but he didn't really have a choice. "Kronos did this because he was the king of the titans, and he received a prophecy one day stating that one of his children would overthrow him as king. He freaked out, and ate his kids as they were born. Finally, his wife got tired of it and replaced baby Zeus with a rock, and took Zeus to be raised elsewhere. When Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into throwing up his brothers and sisters-"
"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind him, who he promptly ignored.
"-and then there was a big fight between the titans and the gods, though some titans who were tired of Kronos joined the gods," Percy continued, "and the gods won."
Some people snickered. At the back, Nancy mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"
"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"
"Busted," Grover muttered.
"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.
Percy hummed in thought at the question. "Well," he began, "Greek culture still has a huge affect on the modern day. A lot of our buildings are built from what the people learned in Ancient Greece. Some people like Greek styled buildings, so if you're aiming to be an architect, it's important to know about the structure of Greek buildings. Or if you want to be a historian, it's important to know all the myths about Greece."
Percy thought his answer was pretty good, so he was surprised when Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "I see," he said. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?
The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like morons.
Grover and Percy were about to follow, when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."
The black haired boy sighed, as he'd seen it coming. He quickly told Grover to go on ahead, before he turned towards the man in the wheelchair. "Mr. Brunner?"
Mr. Brunner had a look that wouldn't let Percy go- intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything. "You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told him.
"About the Titans?"
"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."
"Oh."
"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."
Percy wanted to get angry at him. Brunner pushed him way harder than anybody else did. Okay, the guy was pretty awesome on tournament days, when he dressed up in Roman armour and shouted: "What ho!" and challenged everyone, sword point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped. But it was almost like Mr. Brunner expected Percy to be just as good as everyone else, despite his dyslexia and ADHD...and the fact that the highest grade he'd managed to get was a D.
No, Brunner didn't expect him to be as good. He expected him to be better. And no matter how hard Percy tried, he just couldn't remember all the names and facts, he just found it too difficult.
He mumbled something about trying harder, before turning away and leaving. He glanced back and saw Mr. Brunner looking at the steele sadly, almost like he had been to the girl's funeral. He told Percy to go outside and eat his lunch.
The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where they could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.
Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than Percy had ever seen over the city. He figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas. There had been massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. Percy wouldn't have been surprised if it was a hurricane about to come blowing in.
Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, Mrs. Dodds acted like she didn't see a damn thing.
Percy sat beside Grover on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. They were hoping if they sat there, then nobody would think that they were from Yancy- the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere. It was a stupid hope, but it was a hope nonetheless.
"Detention?" Grover asked.
"Nah," Percy told him. "Never from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off and let me breath sometimes, ya know? I'm not a genius or anything."
Grover didn't say anything for awhile. Percy thought the guy was about to say a deep comment to him, but instead he said, "Can I have your apple?"
Percy nearly sighed. He didn't have much of an appetite at the time, so he gave Grover the apple.
Percy watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about his mother's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where they sat. They hadn't seen each other since Christmas. He wanted to jump in a taxi and head home. They'd hug and she'd be glad to see him, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd just send him right back to Yancy, remind him that he had to try harder, even if this was his sixth school in six years and he was probably going to be kicked out again. Percy know that he wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give him.
Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table.
Percy was about to unwrap his sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of him and Grover with her ugly friends- he guessed she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists-and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.
"Oops." She grinned at Percy with her crooked teeth.
Percy tried to keep calm, he really did. The school counsellor had had told him what must have been a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But he was livid. His mind went blank, and he heard psychotic laughter in his ears along with the roar of a wave.
He couldn't recall touching her, but the next thing Percy could recall, Nancy was sitting in the fountain, screaming loudly, "Percy pushed me!"
Mrs. Dodds almost seemed to appear next to them.
Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see-"
"-the water-"
"-like it grabbed her-"
Percy didn't know what the heck they were talking about. The only thing he knew was that he was in trouble. Again.
As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure 'poor little' Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on Percy. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if he'd finally done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey-"
"I know Mrs. Dodds," Percy sighed. "A month erasing workbooks."
Percy knew that wasn't the right thing to say, but he couldn't bring himself to care.
"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds told him.
"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her."
Percy turned to Grover in genuine shock. He honestly couldn't believe that Grover was trying to cover for him. Grover feared Mrs. Dodds more than anything. When Mrs. Dodds called on him in class, Grover paled so much that Percy sometimes thought that Grover was ready to jump out the window to get away from her.
She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled. "I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.
"But-" he tried, but got cut off.
"You. Will. Stay. Here."
Grover gave Percy a desperate look.
"It's alright Grover," he promised, patting him on the shoulder. "Thanks for trying though."
"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked. "Now."
Nancy Bobofit smirked.
Percy gave her a dark glare that promises Nancy she wouldn't be getting away with what she'd done. He turned to Mrs. Dodds, but blinked. She wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at him to hurry up.
'How did she get there so fast?' Percy thought.
He followed Mrs. Dodds.
Halfway up the stairs, he glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between Percy and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Brunner to notice what was going on, but the Latin teacher was absorbed in his novel.
Percy looked up again, and Mrs. Dodds was now inside the building at the end of the entrance hall. Percy hoped for just a minute that she was going to make him buy Nancy a new shirt.
No such luck.
He followed her deeper into the museum. When he had finally caught up to her, they were back in the Greek and Roman section. Except for the two of them, the entire place was empty.
Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making a weird noise in her throat, as if she were growling.
Even without her growling, Percy was going to be feeling nervous. It was really weird for him to be alone with a teacher, especially if that teacher was Mrs. Dodds. There was something strange about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to destroy it.
"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.
Percy went with his safest option. He said, "Yes, ma'am."
She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?" The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.
It unnerved Percy a hell of a lot, but he thought to himself, 'She's a teacher. It's not like she's going to kill me or anything.' He spoke aloud, "I-I'll try harder Mrs. Dodds."
Thunder shook the building, and her gaze darkened. "We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds hissed. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."
Percy didn't have a clue what she was talking about. He thought that maybe she'd found out about the illegal stash of candy he'd been selling out in his dorm room. Or maybe that his essay on Tom Sawyer was one he found on the internet, meaning he didn't read the book, and now they were gonna take his grade away. Or worse, they were going to make him read the book.
"Well?" she demanded angrily.
"M-ma'am," he stammered. "I don't..."
"Your time is up," she hissed. Then the strange times began. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shrivelled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice Percy to ribbons, and then eat those ribbons for her meal.
Then things got even stranger. Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand. "What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.
Mrs. Dodds lunged at him. With a yell of fear, Percy dodged and he felt talons slash the air next to his ear. He knew that if he had dodged even a second then he would be dead. He snatched the pen out of the air, only it wasn't a pen anymore. It was the same bronze sword that Mr. Brunner used on tournament day.
Mrs. Dodds spun around, her eyes murderous.
Percy's knees were jelly, and he trembled in fear. His hands shook so hard her nearly dropped the sword.
She snarled, "Die honey!" she lunged at him.
Terror run through Percy, as he couldn't bring himself to move. He screamed in his mind, 'HELP ME!'
And his cry for help was answered.
In his mind, a voice spoke, 'Take a step back...I will deal with her...' The voice was cold and emotionless, but Percy trusted it, and let it do as it wished.
Mrs. Dodds yelped in surprise when the boy she was about to run through stepped to the side, easily avoiding her. She turned and looked at him, before her eyes widened in shock.
Green eyes were now a cold amber, a small glint in them. Opening his mouth, the boy spoke in a cold and emotionless voice. "Will you lie in Willow's Way?"
Mrs. Dodds shivered at the voice, before she snarled. "Return what you stole!" she commanded him angrily.
The boy just sighed at her. "You are a fool..." Darkness surrounded them, and Mrs. Dodds couldn't see anything at all.
"Where are you?!" She snarled angrily.
His voice came from behind her, "Do you love?"
She turned, and lunged, but she cut through the air.
"Do you hate?" it came from her left. She lunged again, but once more just cut through the air.
His voice came from all around her, in multiple directions. "Do you die, forever late, in Willow's Way?"
"I will slay you!" she roared angrily, trying to find him.
"WAHAHAHAHA!" the psychotic laughter came from behind her. She turned, but his voice came from behind her again. "I didn't think so."
Mrs. Dodds turned again, but she was too slow. The last thing she saw was a glint of bronze, and psychotic amber eyes. She let out a horrible scream as the bronze sword sliced through her chest, and she exploded into gold dust.
The darkness cleared, and Willow stood over the dust, a wicked grin on his face. He looked at the sword, twirling it in his hands. "A beautiful weapon," he told himself. He looked around and soon found the cap of the pen. He walked over and picked it up. He was about it put it on the tip of the sword, before he stopped and thought about it. He put the cap on the butt of the sword, and it shrunk into a ballpoint pen, but with the cap off. He smirked, and then looked around.
He was alone. No Mr. Brunner. No Mrs. Dodds. Nobody but him.
He took a breath and began to walk before he stumbled. "So tired..." Willow mumbled. "I suppose that it's best if...Percy has control..." Amber shattered into sea green, and Percy looked around in confusion, before looking at the pen in his hands.
He remembered the whole thing. The voice in his mind was...Willow, and it lived inside of his mind. Why? He didn't know. He looked at the pen- no, the bronze sword- and wondered if he could get Mr. Brunner to let him keep it. He suspected that this was only the beginning.
Percy went back outside. It was raining. Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw Percy, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."
He looked at her, "Who?"
"Our teacher, duh!"
Percy blinked. He might have been slow, but he was pretty sure that they didn't have a teacher called Mrs. Kerr. When he asked Nancy what she was talking about, she just rolled her eyes and looked away.
He frowned, then walked to Grover, and asked where Mrs. Dodds was. Of course he knew where Mrs. Dodds was, he'd just vaporized her.
Grover said, "Who?" Percy much have believed him, but he'd paused at first, and he wouldn't look at Percy, so he thought that maybe Grover was messing with him.
"Not funny, man," he told him. "This is serious."
Thunder boomed overhead. Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.
Percy walked over to him.
He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."
He hesitated, "Um...if it isn't too much trouble, do you mind if I keep it sir?" he showed the uncapped ballpoint pen, and Mr. Brunner looked a little surprised at it's appearance. "I'm not the best at keeping track of pens, but I promise I won't lose this one!"
Mr. Brunner looked at him with a calculating look. For a minute, he seemed like he'd demand the pen back, but eventually he nodded, "Very well Mr. Jackson."
Percy cleared his throat. "Sir," he said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"
He stared at Percy blankly. "Who?"
"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."
He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"
Percy blinked and coughed. "Y-yeah, I'm fine," he told Mr. Brunner. "I just...guess I'm feeling a little dizzy."
Mr. Brunner nodded, "I suggest you go take a seat Percy, we wouldn't want you to hurt yourself."
He just nodded and walked back over to Grover. He thought to himself, 'What the hell did I get involved in...'
Willow was all too happy to answer his question, 'Who cares. They'd all better hope that they don't lie in Willow's Way. WAHAHAHAHA!'
Percy Jackson sighed to himself. 'We are definitely going to talk, Willow...'