Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Nor will I ever if the series is to survive
Author's Note: This is a slight AU-ish story where instead of what happened in TLO Percy defeats Kronos by himself and Percy & Annabeth don't get together. Just FYI. Another important thing to note: Nico is only a year younger than Percy in this story.
"Run, Alex! We'll hold them off!" Annabeth shouted at the new half-blood.
"But they'll kill you!"
"They won't kill us! We've beaten them before and we'll beat them again. Now get your butt past that pine tree before I dropkick you over there!" Annabeth was screaming at the boy who was a year younger than she was.
His face was that of a stubborn rhino as he shouted back at Annabeth. "I won't do it! I'm staying here!"
I can safely say from past experience that Annabeth was not used to being disobeyed. Even campers that were several years older than she was minded her. Therefore, it came as no surprise to me that Annabeth looked ready to tear Alex to pieces herself for his 'insubordination.' So it was in the hope of preventing any bodily harm to Alex that I interrupted Annabeth's angry, and likely violent, retort. "Alex. Please."
Slowly, his expression softened. "All right," he said reluctantly. "But you have to promise me that you guys will make it back."
"I do. Now go!"
With that said, Alex took off toward Thalia's pine. Annabeth raised an eyebrow at me, like, How come all of a sudden Alex listens to you? I stuck my tongue out at her.
It was after making sure that Alex was far enough away that we turned and charged the horde of Lastrygonians that had followed us to camp.
FLASHBACK AWESOMNESS!
2 days after the 'incident'…
We got off the bus we'd been riding and started down the street. I attempted to strike up a friendly conversation in order to eliminate the awkward silence that saturated the air. I say awkward because over the past couple of days, I had been learning and experiencing things about the female body that I have no desire to reiterate here. "We've finally made it to Akeley. Now let's find directions to the high school to get this kid and get outta' dodge." Annabeth provided no response and looked to be deep in thought.
"Annabeth? Helloooooooooo?"
"Huh? Oh, sorry. I was just thinking that you need a name."
"I already have a name. It's Percy, remember?"
"Well duh, Seaweed Brain, but 'Percy' is hardly an appropriate name for a girl."
"But I'm not a girl."
"But you look like one to everyone else–"
"Thanks for reminding me."
"–So you need a girl's name."
"Well did you have any particular name in mind? Or are we just going to go with 'Percy-ella'?"
"Ha-ha," Annabeth said dryly. "As a matter of fact, I do have a name in mind. I was thinking maybe 'Andromeda'."
"Care to explain why you chose Andromeda of all names? 'Cuz that hardly seems like it would be on the list of most popular baby names."
"It's pretty obvious, Percy. Don't you remember the tale of Perseus?" I shook my head sheepishly. She sighed. "Hopeless. Well, the long and short of it is Perseus rescued the maiden Andromeda in ancient Greece. Since your actual name is Perseus, I thought this would be a clever substitute."
"Oh goodie. I went from being named after a brave warrior to being named after some maiden. This just gets better and better."
"Oh, stop complaining and help me look for directions, Andromeda." I decided that the smart, non-seaweed-brain thing to do would be to shut up. After all, Annabeth was helping me through this whole ordeal.
After a few more minutes of searching, we found a pedestrian who was kind enough to give us directions. The school was a few blocks from where we were. After a few more minutes, we were standing outside the school.
"So how do we go about doing this, Wise Girl? We can't exactly barge in and snatch the kid."
"Don't you think I know that already? I'm trying to think of a plan."
"Why don't we just wait until school is dismissed? It's not that long of a wait."
Annabeth looked exasperated. "Because, Seaweed Brain, unless you have the ability to distinguish one kid from hundreds of others, we would never be able to find him."
"Oh. Well while we're waiting, why don't you remind me of what we know about him? 'Cuz that might make it easier to find him."
"Well, his name is Alex Chiverton, and he's Nico's age. He's about as tall as you were before your… change. He has brown hair and blue eyes. He comes with the basic half-blood package. That's about all we know about him."
"Are you kidding me?!? We don't know anything other than the basics! It'll be impossible to find him!"
"Well, we could tell the people at the front office that we… need him for something…" Annabeth finished lamely.
"That has to be the worst plan that I have ever heard from a child of Athena."
"Well, I don't see you coming up with any brilliant plans," Annabeth said defensively.
"We could just…" I was cut off by the school's intercom.
"Would Alex Chiverton please come to the front office? Alex Chiverton to the front office."
"…Ambush him on his way to the office." I finished my statement with a grin.
"How is it you always manage to come out ahead through a series of dumb luck and coincidence?"
"Excuse me? Who exactly is it that's cursed to look like the opposite of their natural gender right now?"
"Right, right. Sorry. Let's just go meet the kid."
END OF THE FLASHBACK AWSOMENESS!
It turned out that Alex was being called to the office to be eliminated. The principal was actually an empousa. I hadn't known that empousa could get as old as this one had been. She had shocked the kid, but it made it easier for us to explain. From there, it took us another week and two more buses, both of which ended up exploding (man, I have the worst luck on buses), to get to New York. After another day we were within range of Camp Half-Blood, but that's when some Lastrygonians attacked us. That brings us up to now.
Annabeth and I were heading to the Big House after defeating the Lastrygonians. Annabeth had a nasty cut and I was sporting several bruises on my ribs. We needed to get some ambrosia when we made it to the Big House. When we got there, we saw a satyr leading Alex to see the introductory movie. I didn't see why he needed to go, since Annabeth and I had been explaining things to him for the past week, but I guess we might've skipped a couple of details. Alex came over to us. "Annabeth, Andromeda–" I winced at the name, but tried to cover it up "–are you two okay?"
"We're fine. We go through this kind of thing on nearly a weekly basis." Annabeth replied using a weak attempt at humor. Alex looked doubtful, but dropped the topic. He left with the satyr. At that point, Chiron walked up.
"Welcome back Annabeth, and, um… who is your friend here? Where is Percy, Annabeth?"
I sighed, and let Annabeth answer for me. "Chiron, there was an, um, an accident and well, this is Percy, actually."
"And you expect me to believe that, Annabeth? Really, one would hope that a daughter of the goddess of wisdom would be able to tell the, ah, differences between this young woman and Percy. Now I suggest you tell me what happened to Percy."
I felt close to tears. I had been worried about how we would explain this to everyone when we got back, but this was too much. "Chiron, it really is me," I said, my voice laced with desperation. "I was bathing in some lake in Minnesota and this happened. We were hoping that you or one of the gods could explain."
"Give me a reason to believe you."
After considering this for several moments, I spoke up. "When I was in sixth grade you were my Latin teacher. I had a pre-algebra teacher named Ms. Dodds who turned out to be one of Hades' Furies. You gave me the sword Riptide in Metropolitan Museum of Art when she attacked me. Do you believe me now?"
"No. It is possible for anyone to have found that information."
I sighed again, but immediately brightened. I had just thought of something that only he and I knew, as I had unwittingly witnessed it occurring. Walking up to him, I began to whisper in his ear.
Chiron immediately cleared his throat loudly. "Yes, well, I suppose it really is you Percy." I grinned at my success. " But what on Earth happened to you?"
"I already told you, some weird lake in Minnesota did this. I have no idea why."
"It is possible that… No that simply cannot be," Chiron started trotting off a little bit and was talking more to himself rather than Annabeth and myself. "I will have to consult with the gods on this matter."
Annabeth whispered to me. "What could you have possibly said to convince him so quickly?"
I smiled at her. "Believe me, you don't want to know. And even if you did, I couldn't tell you, because it's a secret."
Annabeth looked slightly frustrated, but left it at that and started addressing Chiron again. "Anyway, Percy is going by the name of 'Andromeda' until this matter is over. I was thinking that maybe you should introduce 'her' as a new camper. He can tell our closer friends about what actually happened."
"That is a sound plan, Annabeth, but I believe that we should meet with the gods before deciding anything. Have you informed your mother about this change, Percy?"
I blushed as I remembered the humiliating event. "Um, yes. She took it better than I expected, saying something about how she 'always wanted a daughter'. Annabeth laughed for a good ten minutes. It was mortifying."
Chiron chuckled. "I can only imagine. Now, I suggest we make a trip to Mt. Olympus posthaste."
I got several different reactions from the gods. Zeus, Hephaestus, and Demeter looked bored, like they didn't care about my personal problems (which the probably didn't), while Apollo and Hermes actually had enough common decency to look sympathetic.
It didn't surprise me that Dionysus and Hera looked pleased, as they had both openly admitted their dislike of me. Nor did it surprise me that Ares was roaring with laughter. However, I did wonder why Athena was looking so pleased, as I couldn't recall having done anything to offend her.
Artemis and Aphrodite looked like they were both planning something. Now, I have no idea what Artemis could be scheming, but the look on Aphrodite's face sent shivers down my spine. When she had that look on her face, you knew you were in for an experience far worse then any monster fight.
My father took it the same way Annabeth had initially. By passing out.
Several minutes later, when the clamor died down and my father had been successfully revived, the question was asked on whether anyone knew anything about what might have happened. Athena immediately spoke up. "This is pure speculation, but I believe that these two may have unwittingly found the lost spring of Hermaphroditus."
A.N: There you go, edit number two.
Oh, and one of the passages in here is almost a direct quote from one of the books. If you can guess which, then kudos to you. I might even give a sneak peek of chapter 5 to anyone who guesses both the book and passage. Again, please check out the help wanted section of my profile.
