Perseus Breanna Copperspoon

Thank you everyone that's been here since the beginning. You mean a lot to me.

Here's some irony: You guys made all these comparisons between Sally here and Tobi's Sally due to the ideas of castration/raising Percy as a girl, and that all totally slipped my mind as I was writing that whole scene of inner thoughts.

Yeah, I was just writing a scene about a disappointed witch that had all her expectations shattered and was going through a crisis. So that was interesting moment when I started reading those Reviews about people being happy that Sally didn't pull a Tobi's Sally.

Also, no one pegged the irony I spoke of. The irony is that where Sally hates the power of Possession because it robs a person of their free will, independence, and autonomy, valuing these three things quite strongly, she has no problem more or less forcing the lifestyle of an arcane assassin onto her child. She values personal choice, but isn't going to give Percy the choice about what he becomes.

You guys need to go back to English class.

Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or Dishonored

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sally had a huge collection of parenting books and a journal of interviews she'd conducted with other parents over the decades, because she entertained no delusions that her little living weapon was going to be a totally compliant killing machine. Still, nothing could have really prepared her for the sheer stubbornness of a child.

Percy's potty training had been weird. Sally had started in earnest when he was about two-and-a-half, and he'd just flat refused to go near his little potty, leaving to Sally to continue wiping his butt for almost six more months until she woke up one morning about a week before he turned three to discover he'd climbed out of his bed, discarded his diaper—Sally couldn't get him to go in the day, she wasn't about to tackle nighttime as well—and was tugging on her to come and see the fruits of his labor.

Boom, just like that, Percy was daytime potty-trained. Nighttime took another three years, until he was a few weeks past six years when his body caught up and he started waking up to go pee instead of wetting his bed.

That was just one example of Percy's childhood stubbornness, his flat refusal to use the toilet until he just woke up one day and apparently decide he didn't like pooping his pants.

Another example was his refusal to eat anything that wasn't blue, and another was his choice in underwear from years three through the beginning of six. When it came to grooming him to become an expert killer, Sally had let Percy watch programs with violence to desensitize him to blood and death. However, that still didn't stop him from figuring out how the remote worked and finding the shows for kids his age. On top of liking the movies and shows that depicted heads getting blown off with buckshot, Percy also like the shows that were educational…and the ones primarily geared towards girls.

When it became clear that Percy didn't need pull-ups anymore, and Sally took him to the store to pick out his first big kid underwear, he'd come padding back with 3T-4T panties with prints of his favorite show. Sally had blinked and informed her toddler son that those were going to be very uncomfortable, but he didn't care and insisted on the girls' underwear.

Sally's parenting approach was like this: she'd tell Percy not to touch the stove because it was hot and was going to bite him, and then she'd stand there and let him touch it.

Gotta let him learn.

With that approach, Sally let her son wear panties, and her son had stubbornly refused boys' underwear right up until he didn't. They went to the store because he'd gotten bigger and needed new clothes, and he'd come back with a pack of underwear depicting designs of his favorite boy-oriented show.

Percy was weird, and Sally was totally on board with it. He was a demigod, which came with its own abundance of weirdness, like ADHD, dyslexia, and dreams, and he was a Frankenstein's Monster kind of kid, with a skeleton made of whalebones inscribed with arcane symbols to give him supernatural powers and all of his organs were taken from other people, primarily girls around between the ages of six months to three years.

Remember, Sally was a witch, and not the kind that graduated from Hogwarts or helped Dorothy.

To that effect, Sally was honestly surprised her son wasn't more girly than what he was since the majority of his organs had come from girls based on the idea that Sally was certain she was going to have a daughter. But, true to her original word, she didn't force one gender role or another on Percy.

She let him pick his clothes, his toys, his dinner sets and cups, his blankets and bedding, his toothpaste and toothbrush, and what he had for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if he didn't like what Mommy had prepared. Sometimes Mommy did that on purpose to encourage adaptability and resourcefulness.

And yes, sometimes he picked the girls things, and sometimes the boys things. Did Sally think Percy was "gender fluid" or "transgender" as the new words were beginning to circulate through the Empire? Not even close. Sally thought her son was a child that obeyed whatever whim or fancy that took hold of him without a care in the world for other people's thoughts or opinions, even his own mother to an extent.

Like right now.

Sally watched her son while in her bikini under the shade of her umbrella on the beach. Percy was going through another of his phases, this one being that he refused to wear pants. A few months ago, he refused to wear shirts, and before that, underwear. There was another phase in which he wanted his hair in certain ways, like pigtails, a braid, ponytail, and even buzzed. ADHD, the ever-changing nature of the sea, and his freaky biology made Percy a strange little boy.

Granted, he'd be just as strange if he were a girl, so Sally didn't care.

Right now, Percy's phase was pantsless with a spring of a pigtail jutting out the right side of his head as he wielded a saber just as big as he was as if it were a stick, fighting against an endless horde of enemies seen only by his imagination. He wasn't just whipping the blade around either.

Sally had schooled her son well in swordplay, even at the young age of eight. His movements were fluid, controlled, coordinated, and precise. His footwork was nothing short of graceful. His swings were at perfect angles and alignments. Between his demigod physiology and his magical one, and Sally's training and the way she'd instilled in her son a burning desire for her approval, Percy was already a very lethal little boy.

Just ask the people he killed in the night under his mother's instructions.

As Sally watched her son playing with a sword, she had to wonder who he was fighting. Was he fighting a battalion of the Dunwall City Watch as he stormed the Tower to kill the empress? The Overseers as he went to burn down the Abbey of the Everyman? A bunch of back-alley thugs? Daud's assassins? The monsters he had dreams about and wanted to fight one day? Did Percy even know who he was fighting?

Percy pulled off a flourish and turned to face Sally. "Mommy! Mommy! Did you see!? I just killed Corvo and Emily!"

"Good job, sweetie!" Sally praised, quashing her mixed emotions of pride that her son would fantasize about killing those two, and a sting of jealousy that she didn't kill those two herself due to her own boneheadedness ninety years ago.

Granted, if not for her defeat, she never would've met Poseidon and created her most precious treasure.

"Mommy, I'm hungry. What's for lunch?"

Her son ran up to her, clad in his character-print t-shirt and matching underwear, length of hair on the right side of his hair bouncing slightly.

"Food," Sally answered.

"I know that," Percy pouted. "What kind of food?"

"The kind you eat," Sally said innocently.

"Mwaaaah!" Percy whined. "Stop doing that!"

"Stop doing what? I'm just answering your questions, sweetheart."

"Stop answering like that, though…"

"Ask better questions, then."

Percy pursed his lips. "…what are we having for lunch?"

"Grilled cheese, some chips and pickles, and a beverage."

Percy's eyes lit up. "Blue water?"

"If that's what you want."

"Yay!" Percy cheered. Then he went running inside the house.

There were a lot of imperfections to Percy that made him perfect to Sally. However, if there was one thing she desired above anything else for her son, it was the Outsider's Mark.

The Outsider was slave to nothing but himself. There weren't any rituals or spells that could be performed to summon him or bind him that Sally knew of. The god just went around giving power to people he thought we interesting and were set to play pivotal roles seemingly out of his own boredom, just to spice things up. To that mindset, Sally couldn't fathom why her son hadn't been marked yet. How much more interesting did it get beyond being the son of a god from a different world with magic bones carved by a witch mother in order to make him an arcane killer with the skills necessary to kill an empress?

Sally knew the Outsider was watching, because that was what he did: watch. Past, present, and future of everyone and everything and everywhere were the Outsider's to know. He knew everything about a person—every little secret, no matter how trivial or monumental—and all the things that could happen to them.

So just why had he not marked Percy? What better candidate in the whole world was there than Sally's son?

Sally didn't bog herself down with these thoughts, however, because she knew they would do no good. It wouldn't do to bank on the Outsider's mark, and so Sally didn't. Instead, she had focused on swords, knives, guns, and bow-type weapons, and running, jumping, climbing, swimming, and sneaking, utilizing the magic in her son's bones.

Wasn't hard, either. With Percy so eager to earn Sally's approval, combined with his strange childish whimsy, it was quite easy for Sally to leverage things over her son. He wanted that shirt or that skirt? Then he'd better get ten bullseyes with the pistol. He wanted blue ice cream? Then he'd better slice through seven bundled up stalks of bamboo in one swing.

Yes, skirt.

Eight-year-old, mix-matched demigod with magic whalebone skeleton trained to kill people in dozens of different ways with the whims and the phases sometimes still wanted a girl's clothing item.

Honestly, Percy was a pediatric psychologist's dream. Sally wasn't raising Percy to become a strong young man or a proper young lady, and so Percy was the product of not being told that was for a boy or that was for a girl, what was and wasn't proper. Sally was training him to be a professional killer, a hunter and slaughterer of men and women. She knew just how evil that effectively was, and how it could all backfire, which was why she was super careful and allowed her son a great deal of freedom in letting him do whatever it was he wanted to do, because one day, he wouldn't have that choice.

One day, if all went right, he'd look back on his childhood and cringe at his memories when compared to his present.

It broke Sally's heart in places, but ultimately, it was all necessary.

Delilah, the coven, and herself must be avenged.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Did Percy think he was a weird boy? Yep. Totally. Absolutely. No question about it.

His body hurt on regular occasions, but he kept that from Mommy. He knew that sometimes he styled his hair like the girls he saw, because he saw it and liked it, just like the boys' hair. Same for the clothes. He saw something he liked, and he wanted it. He didn't care whether it was supposed to be for a girl or a boy. He knew he was a boy, and from what he'd seen, there were certain things that a boy was supposed to do that he did the opposite of.

He just really couldn't be bothered to care on account that he could control the water and the weather and the creatures of the water, and horses, and how he had enough strength in his body to punch through the trunks of the palm trees and crush the coconuts in the palm of his hand. Not to mention how he could run down fleeing adults spurned by adrenaline and preservation instinct.

Yeah, Percy really didn't care about the opinions of people he could snap in half like sticks.

Except for Mommy. He loved Mommy. And he knew that Mommy loved him and made him and was making him into the thing that was going to bring honor to the Copperspoon name and vengeance to the Brigmore Coven.

Percy was just hoping that he could actually do it.

Natural doubts plagued the little amalgamation of a boy. What if he didn't do it right? What if he failed? What would Mommy say? What would she do? Would she no longer love him? Percy didn't like these thoughts. That's why he prayed to his Daddy, Poseidon, to help him, and to the Outsider as well, praying that the black-eyed god would visit him and Mark him.

Percy's legs kicked back and forth from his stool at the bar of the kitchen as he munched his sandwich and sipped his water. The TV was on, playing his second favorite show. It was about a lanky boy who had a magic sword that turned him into a hulking muscle man, and he could turn his scaredy cat into a terrifying battle tiger.

Percy had mixed feelings about this show. He knew he was powerful as he was, stronger than any man alive, but that didn't stop him from dreaming about even more power. The power he thought he needed to secure victory beyond the vague shadow of the vaguest doubts. The kind of power than enabled him to not really have to worry about sneaking around. He could just walk into any place, wreck it and everyone there, and the continue with his day having a merry time.

Which, he supposed he could, using water, but trying to control too much water made him hurt, and trying to make a big storm really hurt. It felt like his gut was being torn apart and his body was about to explode. Another reason for Percy's desire for power—the Outsider's Mark—was so he didn't hurt when using his Daddy-powers.

Percy went to take a bite of his grilled cheese only to bite into nothing. He blinked and realized there was no more sandwich. He'd eaten it all, lost in his thoughts. He pouted and then devoured his pickle before opening up his little bag of chips, finishing it all by chugging his blue water.

"You okay, baby?"

"Yeah…" Percy answered from somewhere far away.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

Percy's mouth shifted back and forth as he thought about it. He sighed and answered. "Mom, what if I don't…what if I…Mom, what'll happen to me if I don't kill the empress and avenge the coven and Aunt Delilah and Aunt Breanna?"

"Nothing," Mommy said, "because that'll never happen. I know my baby, and know you'll never quit until you've succeeded in whatever you've set your mind to, and your little mind is locked into killing the empress. Because of that, I know nothing will happen to you besides you'll accomplish what I've trained you to do."

Percy's spirits soared like they always did when he received such words from Mommy.

He just wished his spirits always stayed that high so he never had these dreadful thoughts.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Two years later, at ten, and Percy's dream turned into reality.

"Hello, Percy."

The boy literally squealed at the sight of the black-eyed man. He was so excited he went running with his arms splayed and jumped. He passed right through the Outsider and smacked into the wall behind the god.

"Owwww…" Percy moaned as he rubbed his forehead. "You're supposed to catch me."

"No."

"Why?"

"I am the Outsider," said the Outsider. "I do not catch little boys who throw themselves at me."

"…you make that sound so much worse than what it actually is."

A little sparkle seemed to appear in the Outsider's black eyes before it vanished.

"I'm sure you know why I'm here, Perseus Breanna Copperspoon."

"Please don't call me that," Percy mumbled, shifting his feet. "Momma only calls me that when I'm in trouble….But, yeah. You're here to Mark me, right?"

"You make that sound much worse than it actually is."

Percy's eyes narrowed at the Outsider as he tried to figure out what was happening here. "Are you making fun of me?"

"Would it matter if I was?"

Percy blinked. "Well, no, I suppose not."

"Yes. I'm here to give you my Mark."

A burning bloomed on the back of Percy's right hand. He looked and saw a symbol glow to life as if it were being branded. Percy was almost brought to tears at the sight of the Outsider's Mark, not because it hurt so severely to have it applied, but because it was what he'd been wanting for so long.

"Your days will be marked by struggle and hardship," the Outsider informed the ten-year-old boy. "This will not only enable you to better protect yourself, but will make things that much more interesting. I expect a good show from you, Percy."

The Outsider and the Void vanished in a swirl of color and black, and Percy was left to bolt upright in bed as a rooster crowed somewhere outside, the morning sun starting to peak out over the ocean. He looked at his hand and saw the Mark was still there.

Percy bounded out of bed and went running through the halls of his home, hitting the corridor to his Momma's room and crossed the distance in the Blink of an eye. He unceremoniously banged the door open, startling his mother who was thankfully clad in a towel after her morning shower, and before she could get mad at him, he ran up to her and showed off his hand.

Momma stared at the Mark, mouth open. Tears brimmed in her eyes and she flung herself onto her son. She whispered in Percy's ear, "I am going to drill your little ass down into the core of the Earth."

Percy paled.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sally had dreamed that Percy would get every Void power on record and then some, but that was not to be. Still, Percy had more than enough abilities to bring down an empire. He had:

Fog Caller

Thorns

Blood Briar

Foresight

Swap

Void Razor

Doppelganger

Domino

Possession

Displacement

And an original power that Percy called Lightning Blast.

From the top, Fog Caller was the ability to summon a fog of varying size and thickness; Thorns was the ability to launch a series of projectiles from the hand; Blood Briar allowed one to summon a deadly tree; Foresight allowed one to separate their spirit from their body while stopping time, and go flying through the halls and walls to see things; Swap let one mark an object and then switch places with it; Void Razor was the power to conjure a ball of thin tendrils that would violently untangle and destroy all organic matter within range of the tendrils; Doppelganger allowed one to someone a copy of themselves that could do things—essentially the Shadow Clone Jutsu from Naruto; Domino let one link several people together, in that what happened to one would happen to the rest, so if you chopped off one head, so many others would fall off, or if you rendered one unconscious, then all of them would go night-night; Possession was pretty self-explanatory, and Sally found the fact that her son had that power to be ironic given her aversion to it; and Displacement.

Displacement was the love child of Blink and Swap. Its use involved setting an invisible placeholder, and then teleporting to that marker when you wanted. So, you could set a marker outside a place, rampage through that place, and then teleport back outside once you were done, or things got too hot.

The last power was Lightning Blast. It was a bit different than what it sounded. If you were thinking that Lightning Blast was a huge wave of lightning, then you were wrong. If you were thinking that Lightning Blast was a concentrated bolt of lightning that completely incinerated the target, then you were correct.

Now, inherently, each power received was at its baseline, and could be upgraded with Runes, as per gameplay. Storywise, it went that the more Runes one sacrificed, breaking them apart to attain the power inscribed within, the more powerful they became, acquiring more powers and upgrading the ones they had. Since it was illegal in the current time to kill whales for any purpose under the edict of Empress Jessamine Kaldwin II, and just as illegals to make any heretical artifact, Sally had gone overboard on Percy's skeleton, meaning all the powers he received were at their peak, and with his godly body, they were beyond their in-game peak.

To match this, Percy's mana reserves were huge. Incomparable to anyone who had ever lived, even Delilah who had bonded with the Outsider and increased her already incredible power by several factors. If Sally had to give an honest estimate to how much mana her son had, she'd say he had more mana than all the previous Voidwalkers combined. Corvo, Daud, Delilah, Emily, Vera Moray, a witch unaffiliated with Delilah, and only a handful of others across history due to how selective the Outsider was.

Yes, Sally honestly believed her son was more powerful in regards to reserves of mana than all of these other Voidwalkers combined.

And she taught him as best she could given the fact that she could no longer demonstrate how to use the powers he had. Ultimately, it was entirely up to Percy and his resourcefulness and ingenuity to refine his skills. Refine them he did.

For another two years he refined his skills, stalking the streets of Karnaca, laying waste to the Grand Guard, the Overseers, and even storming the palace of the current Duke of Serkonos to kill everyone there, including the Duke, effectively sending Serkonos into chaos and stirring up the whole Empire.

"Did I overdo it?" Percy asked, gesturing to the burned ruins of the Grand Palace, the home of the late Duke and his wife and their three daughters and youngest child, their son.

In the distance, warships from Dunwall were speeding to the city, loaded with Imperial troops and anti-magic technology commissioned by the anti-magic empress to summarily suppress and destroy any and all heretical people and things.

Sally gave it some thought. "Yes," she decided. "Your power is great, and the destruction you can bring about is even greater, but sometimes discretion is better. For example, this. I wanted you to kill the General of the Guard, the Vice Overseer, and the Duke before we went to Dunwall for the Empress, and though you did, you did so too loudly.

"Now, instead of simply hopping on the next ship to Dunwall, Serkonos is being blockaded and the Imperial army is set to come ashore and impose martial law on orders of the empress in order to find whatever heretic or force is responsible for so much chaos and murder. Now it is going to be that much harder to get to Dunwall and Jessamine's throat."

Percy's shoulders slumped, and Sally placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"Chin up, baby. These were training exercises so you could learn that actions have consequences. Now that we're in this situation of trying to find passage off this island to Dunwall, it's up to you to figure out how we get there. Make me proud."

Sally moved her hand up to ruffle her son's hair, and she walked away to head back to their house, knowing her son would take this lesson on actions and consequences to heart and would take better care in his decisions on whether to sneak or attack. Percy jumped off the cliff, leaving Sally alone with her thoughts for a while.

It was happening. He was twelve and hadn't changed his wardrobe or hairstyle in over a year now. Percy was maturing, becoming the assassin that Sally had painstakingly groomed him to be. He didn't adhere to his whims like he did, going after some article of clothing or toy just because it caught his eye, regardless of whether it was for a boy or girl. Nowadays, her son's toys were guns and blades and deadly gadgets, and his wardrobe was dark clothes and quiet boots and underwear designed for active, athletic young boys that let skin breathe and wicked away moisture.

Just like she predicted, Sally's heart ached at what her precious treasure was becoming. A whimsical boy that didn't care whether his shirt was from a boy's tv show or a girl's, to an apathetic, destructive assassin that killed over 200 people in less than a week and hadn't lost any sleep over the lives he'd ruined.

Sally hardened her heart. Yes, she was sad that her baby was becoming what he was, but it was what she'd wanted, what she'd created and trained him to do. He was everything she'd wanted him to be: skilled, deadly, and powerful. Percy was baby steps away from being the perfect weapon of the Brigmore Witches.

Sally thought baby steps because the amount of chaos he'd created here in Serkonos was admittedly way too damn high.

But that's what children did with almost unlimited power.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Finding passage away from Karnaca was not that hard. You just needed the right smuggler and enough money. Percy and his Mom were tying off in the main Dunwall port before the end of the month, no muss no fuss.

The sun was high overhead in the summer, and with the harbor right behind them, it was quite humid. The stench of dead fish was strong in the air, making Percy frown. He chalked it up to his nature as the son of Poseidon, the foreign god of the sea, his dislike for the butchering of sea creatures.

Ironically, he didn't feel bad about the fact that his skeleton was comprised of magical whalebones, which was probably because his bones were filled with the love of his Mom and Dad.

Or something like that.

"That's Dunwall Tower?" Percy asked as he had his mother walked away from the harbor to the city streets.

Perched at the apex of a hill overlooking the city was a regal castle of white marble, flags waving from the corners of the four towers. On the other side of the castle, down far below the steep sides, was the river known as the Wrenhaven.

"Yes," Sally answered. "It is."

Percy glowered at the tower, displaying the fact that Sally had done a great job ingraining hatred into her son for what the Kaldwin family had done to the Copperspoons. Starting with Emperor Euhorn screwing Ms. Copperspoon and siring the illegitimate Delilah, denying the girl her rights as the princess and then having her viciously whipped and cast out of the Tower along with her mother after being framed for Jessamine's blunder, and eventually ending with disgracing Sally and robbing her powers after a botched assassination attempt after Sally learned what Emily had done to Delilah and Breanna, Percy's namesake.

Revenge ran deep in Percy's ritually made veins.

"Do you want me to go now?" the boy assassin asked.

"Goodness, baby. I know you've done your reading on the Tower, but I didn't know you're such an expert on its fortifications as we speak that you can just go up there and kill the empress."

Percy's cheeks dusted red.

"Calm down, Perseus Breanna Copperspoon. Do not learn only from your mistakes, but from others. I stormed the Tower once myself with no planning and would've died if not for the ritual that makes me immortal. Time is on our side for now, and we will use it."

Percy nodded. "Where are we going, Mom?"

A shadow crossed over Sally's face that had nothing to do with the few clouds in the sky.

"Home."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It had been over a century since Sally had been in her childhood house. Exactly how many years she didn't know, but she did know it had been over a hundred now. It made her feel old, despite her youthful appearance as a twenty-year-old young woman, the age that she'd been made what she was now. Some people had even commented how cute and heartwarming it was to see a big sister showing such devotion and protectiveness over her little brother.

Sally had to keep her son quiet and control his ADHD outbursts in order to avert suspicion.

The house was occupied by some fat pig of a man called Gabe. Sally killed him herself with a sword through the throat and set to work on getting the nasty odors out of the house with her skills in potions to create a pleasant yet powerful aerosol. The house served as the base of operations for Sally and Percy, the latter using the safety of the abode to send out his spirit using Foresight to go and case Dunwall Tower.

Now, to understand how impressive that was, you had to understand the natural limitations of Foresight and where Sally's old house was. Sally could only travel about 50 meters in any direction with Foresight before her spirit automatically returned to her body based on the nature of the power. Sally's old house was close to the Slaughterhouse Row, which was close to the Office of the High Overseer, which was close to the Golden Cat, which was why her father had worked in the Rothwild Slaughterhouse and been able to hop over to get himself a whore and contract the Plague, and why Sally had been beaten by the Overseers. They were all close to each other.

What was not close to Slaughterhouse Row was Dunwall Tower, effectively on the other side of the city about a mile away.

A power that was limited to almost 50 meters for Sally was being used by her son to see things almost a mile from his body.

That was pretty much how all of Percy's supernatural powers worked. There was a general limit equal to all practitioners of the ability, and then he came along and blew those limits clean out of the water.

Anyway, with the great range of Foresight, Percy spent a combined eighteen hours over the course of two days flying around, in, and under the Tower, combing the sewers, the water lock, the grounds, the walls, the backs of the castle, and the whole interior, taking note of guards, weapons, layout, passages—secret and known—depots, shacks, quarters, security systems, and how long Empress Jessamine II spent in the shower.

Percy didn't know how the Tower was prior to his attacks in Karnaca, but the Tower was nothing short of a fortress now. An army of Imperial soldiers, City Watch guards, and Overseers were in attendance, all armed with the latest in guns and swords and woven armors. The empress was employing upgraded versions of old technology, like the Walls of Light—parallel sets of Tesla coils that incinerated anything that passed through them that wasn't properly attuned to the electrical signal that the Walls used to differentiate between authorized and unauthorized person—Watchtowers—lighthouses from hell that fired explosive rounds at whatever was in their light—and Clockwork Soldiers, mechanical monstrosities from the mind of Kirin Jindosh, but upgraded after decades of refinement to longer have the same weaknesses, like a rewire panel to switch the programming, or easily exploited armor, or a head that when shot off, made the machine attack whatever else its sensors detected.

The most dangerous thing, however, was the genius weapon of the Overseers: the Music Box.

The Music Box functioned like a player piano, in that the machine was strapped to an Overseer's chest like a huge reverse backpack and he spun a handle that turned a cylinder in the center of the machine, a cylinder with holes on it that made noise when struck by prongs on the side of the machine. This noise functioned on a system of mathematics, wavelengths, and the waves produced by a Music Box could negate a Voidwalker's powers.

It brought into question just how a Voidwalker's power worked. Delilah theorized that the Mark of the Outsider functioned like a conduit, the powers of the Void flowing through the Mark to resonate with the will of the Marked one. The sound produced by the Music Box jammed that resonation, silencing the whispers of the Void in the world.

The reason why the Overseers had such a weapon was because they believed that everything in the world came from the Void—the seas, the lands, the skies, the stars, space, and everything that exists in between—and that in addition to all these good things, also came bad things. Bad things like the Outsider and other spirits.

The Abbey of the Everyman were essentially humanists, in that they believed in no god and that any spirit or proclaimed god, especially the Outsider, was evil. Mankind was good and there were measures to take to maintain this goodness, called the Seven Strictures. In order they were the Wondering Eyes, the Lying Tongue, the Restless Hands, the Roving Feet, the Rampant Hunger, the Wanton Flesh, and the Errant Mind.

Each Stricture had its own paragraph of description, and the short versions were don't look at things that weren't yours, don't lie, keep your hands and feet busy before you were doing things you weren't supposed to, don't be a glutton, don't be a whore, and have a strong mind, resistant to manipulations. The full Strictures can be found on the Dishonored wiki, but are not required from here on out.

It was the opinion of Sally instilled into Percy that the Overseers were hypocritical shit, and they really were, operating in ways similar to the Witch Trials in that they would ruthlessly torture anybody accused or suspected of heresy until they confessed, heresy in the eyes of the Abbey being anything contrary to the Seven Strictures and anything even remotely related to the Outsider. Sally had lost her fair share of sisters to the Overseers during the interregnum after Delilah's initial banishment as many of the coven were found out and eventually executed, often times by public burning, but they never confessed to the Overseers.

This brutality eventually resulted in the Abbey's liquidation across the Empire under Emily's order after she regained her throne, witnessing the measures of the Overseers firsthand during her quest, but the Abbey was reinstated after Emily's passing by her own son, Euhorn II, and their power increased under Jessamine II, Emily's granddaughter.

Percy's regard for the Abbey was below zero thanks to his mother, and his consideration of them extended purely to their Void-cancelling noise makers. They didn't work on Foresight since he was so far away from their sound, technically making him immune to their power, but only at a distance. And no, he entertained no delusions that he would be immune to the music.

Delilah and the coven hadn't been immune when the Overseers had stormed Dunwall Tower decades ago in order to depose the witches. The only thing that saved them was Delilah's cunning use of Jindosh's Clockwork Soldiers, the machines immune to the Music Boxes.

The Music Boxes wouldn't actually be that much of a problem except for the fact that Jessamine had the music playing nonstop over the castle loudspeakers in the correct assumption that whoever attacked Karnaca was a Voidwalker that was gunning for her next after killing the Duke, the Vice Overseer, and the General. But Percy had a plan in place.

As night fell, he got ready.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Percy's assassin outfit was derived was from an animated show he'd seen and a live-action movie. A black overcoat that was buttoned down to below his breastbone, the rest hanging down in a way that covered his legs and waist and hid stuff, as well as allowed for fluid movement. The mask he wore on his was solid black and rounded, no expression, two circular lenses for his eyes. Along the bottom of the mask was a bronze filter that was curved in a way that looked like an innocent smile. Combined with the circular eyeholes, Percy's gasmask made him look rather dopey.

His main weapons were a pair of unconventional swords. The weapons were a make called a tonfa, though typical tonfas were made of wood. Percy's tonfas were made of stainless steel and reinforced with a thin rod of titanium. 30 inches from point to point, clean and clear as a mirror, and extremely deadly in Percy's hands. They sat in holsters at his thighs, hidden by his overcoat.

Attached to the underside of Percy's left wrist was the same mini crossbow once used by Daud and his assassins, though upgraded to run on gas and the right wrist movement. On Percy's right wrist was a weapon a great deal more powerful and versatile: a voltaic gun, designed and crafted to fit and fire from under the forearm. Ammo for it was anything metal and small enough to fit between the rails.

Between his "wristbow" and "wristgun," Percy saw no need for pistols or other bow-type weapons. As such, the pouches on his belt contained various types of wristbow bolts—standard piercing ones, knock-out ones filled with a sleep toxin, and incendiary bolts that lit the target on fire—a bunch of metal nails that had been bought from the nearest hardware store, some thumbtacks specifically for using Swap, some smoke bombs, some grenades, and a pouch containing vials of seawater for quick healing and power-ups.

"Are you ready?" Sally asked her son.

"Yes."

"Plan A memorized?"

"Yes."

"Your backup plan?"

"Also memorized."

"Your other backup plan in case your first backup plan fails?"

"Ready to go if I need it."

"Your third backup plan?"

"Mom," Percy said sharply, getting into his mindset of a deadly, supernatural assassin.

Sally smiled slightly, understanding what it meant to be a mother.

Tonight was the night. The night when it all came together. All the carving, all the gathering, the time spent gathering wealth, making this baby, the nights with Poseidon, and then all the time, effort, energy and more in raising this baby into what he was now. Sally's heart thumped in her chest probably harder than her son's.

Sally knelt on a knee and grabbed her son's shoulders tightly.

"Do. Not. Die."

"I won't. I promise. I'll make you proud."

Sally's lips twitched as she almost told him that he already had, that he'd already made her the proudest mother in the world, but she didn't. She'd raised him dependent on her feedback and approval, and she wasn't about to stop now.

"Good," Sally nodded. "See to it that you don't."

Percy nodded and drove a thumbtack into the surface of the wooden kitchen table, the little item marked for Swap. He could mark a total of twelve items for Swap, and when he went over twelve, the oldest mark would vanish and be applied to the newest item. Just like he could mark more items with Swap than Sally, so too was his range with the technique greater.

Without looking back at Sally, Percy put his gasmask on and left the house, gently shutting the door behind him before he used Displacement like Blink to basically teleport to the roofs and go running for the Wrenhaven River.

With him gone and out of earshot, Sally released a shuddering breath and had to sit down as she fought back a sob.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The only thoughts on Percy's mind were that of success. As he bounded from rooftop to rooftop, teleporting and leaping, sailing through the air, he was mentally reviewing all the fortifications of the Tower, the patterns of the guards, and his first, second and third strategies. Once he reached the river and went diving in from four stories up, Percy felt his powers naturally get stronger.

Being Poseidon's son with a whalebone skeleton inscribed with magic symbols specifically pertaining to water made being in water a big deal for Percy, especially because the Wrenhaven dumped right into the sea. With this added boost in power, Percy accessed the Void, using Fog Caller on a scale beyond any Voidwalker in history to conjure a thick fog that rolled in from the sea and blanketed the city, including the Tower.

Percy dissolved in the water and rematerialized inside the water lock of Dunwall Tower. Down in the shallow water, the noise of the Music Boxes over the loudspeakers was muffled enough that it didn't work. As such, Percy used Foresight, stopping time and separating his spirit from his body.

Foresight was hardly a powerful ability, as he couldn't interact with the physical world at all. Couldn't open doors, flip switches, kill people, or anything. However, what he could do was place markers for Displacement, link people with Domino, and summon Doppelgangers. Because of that, Foresight was invaluable and extremely versatile.

However, thanks to the Music Box playing its jamming song, the only thing Percy could do with Foresight was travel in spirit form. He could place markers or link people or summon his clones, but once he ended Foresight and time resumed, the Music would also resume and cancel his markers, links, and dispel his clones.

However, the Music Boxes only cancelled Percy's powers of the Void.

His powers as Poseidon's son…

Percy cancelled Foresight, all that he had seen remaining as a glow that he could see through walls and other obstructions. He went shooting out of the water down at the bottom of the water lock, sailing right past a couple of patrolling Imperial guards through a gap in the water lock building's roof to land silently on the surface, the material of his boots cancelling all sound.

Immediately, the power of the Music Box washed over him through the loudspeakers, and he staggered. The noise was disorienting and fatigue-inducing, not to mention draining. Percy growled, looked across the shrouded courtyard to the Tower. More specifically, the location where the Music Box was playing under heavy guard.

Deeming that as priority, Percy grabbed one of seawater vials, popped the lid and poured the cup-amount of liquid on his head. Power surged through him, strengthening his body and clearing his perception. He didn't suddenly regain access to the Void, but it didn't matter.

Percy ran and bounded off the rooftop, sailing down to the ground and into the heavy fog. He landed and took off sprinting, silent as a mouse, fast as a diving raptor. The guards were all panicking and running about, trying to find their way in a fog so thick they couldn't see their hands when held up a distance from their face. It being night also didn't help.

Percy was inside the Tower within seconds, using a maintenance duct located above the front door that put him inside the Tower foyer with its black and white tile floors, grand chandeliers, and marble staircase that led up to the central corridor that led to the rest of the Tower.

Along with the assembled battalion listening to the empress's decree via television.

"-find him and kill him, men! You are the finest of Dunwall's armed forces, hand-picked by me, for me. Do not rest until you have this Voidwalker's head on a plate and their marked hand with it! Use any means necessary! DISMISSED!"

"Hoo-rah!" went dozens of voices.

The man that must've been the general given his uniform stood up and faced the soldiers.

"You heard her, pussies! Get fans and get this fog cleared out. The Tower is now on lockdown! No one in, no one out, and anyone that looks out of place is to be killed on sight! Now, move out!"

"Yes, sir!"

The power of the sea was still with Percy, and so when everyone had cleared out for the most part, he leapt forward from his vantage point along the ledge over the door, and repeated the history from mere seconds ago in that he sprinted full speed down through the halls without a sound thanks to his boots. He went speeding past guards who balked and panicked, screaming for help, but Percy was gone before they finished their syllable.

Down into the bowels of the Tower did Percy go, down into a room that had once been the Torturer's Chamber then converted into the heart of the Tower. Here, plumbing and electricity was maintained, along with the Music Box that was hurting Percy's body. Security around the Box was abysmally low, as in nonexistent, due to the fact that seemingly everyone had been summoned upstairs.

Percy drew one of his tonfa swords and approached, spinning and twirling his sword with expert motions of his wrist and arm, the blade making a whooshing whine as it moved. He stood over the Box and slashed once, but once was enough. There was a spray of sparks and a high-pitched screech as the metal of the Box was cut clean through, the metal along the diagonal slash actually glowing a faint whiteish orange from friction.

The music stopped and Percy instantly felt empowered, the Void connecting with him once again.

He wasted no time in activating Foresight, sending his spirit straight up through the Tower. During the days of the Lord Regent and the Rat Plague, the Regent had renovated the Tower, adding a new structure to the roof that was his safehouse, complete with war room, bedroom, and library. In the days of Empress Emily Kaldwin, the safehouse had been redone into the new throne room, and even expanded and added onto to become an entirely separate living quarters, housing the empress, the Royal Protector, important guests, and others.

Right now, the current Royal Protector had hurried Jessamine II into a secret saferoom that had been built decades ago by Anton Sokolov and thought that was enough to protect her from Percy's powers. In spirit form, with time stopped, Percy set a Displacement marker in the saferoom, cancelled Foresight, and then activated his marker, teleporting right behind the empress as the Royal Protector went storming down a stairwell far from his charge.

Empress Jessamine whipped around when she heard the sound of Displacement, and she let out a sharp gasp when Percy's tonfas went right through her midsection. He yanked them up into her ribs, ripped them out, and then sliced her head off. The empress's head rolled along the floor and her body collapsed in a heap.

The silence of the saferoom was only broken by the breathing sound of Percy's gasmask.

He stared at the warm corpse, an idle thought running through his head that he needed to get out there because A) he needed to get out of Dunwall Tower, and B) she was going to start stinking really bad pretty soon due to postmortem voiding, but those thoughts were quiet compared to the others in Percy's mind.

Was that it? Was that really it? It was that easy? Percy supposed it was, since the empress was a human being just like the Duke of Serkonos was, and the Vice Overseer of Karnaca too. Even a century ago, the Knife of Dunwall, Daud, had simply Blinked right in front of Empress Jessamine Kaldwin I and ran her through, leaving her to bleed to death on the Tower grounds.

Kind of poetic, in that sense, both Jessamine Kaldwins dying in Dunwall Tower.

Percy honestly couldn't believe it. His whole life had been spent leading up to this moment, and from the time he'd shut the door to when he'd decapitated the empress it hadn't even been five minutes…in real time. Counting the time of Foresight, it hadn't even been eight minutes.

In less than eight minutes, Percy had infiltrated Dunwall Tower, the most secure place in the Empire—perhaps even the whole world—disabled the magic-jamming Music Box, and assassinated the empress. His whole life training and preparing for this mission, and now it was over, just like that. It left Percy feeling hollow, empty, and lost. He felt unfulfilled.

Then his instincts kicked in and he raised his tonfa, blocking a sword aimed for his neck. The offending blade had come in so hard and his arm so stiff that the blade bounced off and the wielder stumbled. Percy turned and tilted his head at the sight of Empress Jessamine Kaldwin II. He turned and looked at the corpse.

"That is one very convincing body double," Percy said, voice distorted by his mask to sound deeper and more mechanical.

"You're a stain," Jessamine sneered. "And I'll wipe you away."

"I doubt it, but I do have to ask: how did you hide from my powers?"

"Dead men have no need of information."

Jessamine vanished in a Blink, and Percy raised his sword to once again block with such firmness that the empress staggered. The empress started Blinking all over the place, trying to get a lucky strike in on Percy, only to have him block every single strike.

"For an empress so steeped in the Strictures and so vehemently opposed to heresy, you're so steeped in heresy and so vehemently opposed to the Strictures. Let me guess: when you said you wanted my marked hand, it's because you're using other hands to access the Void. I presume Emily and Corvo's, either given willingly as a failsafe plan, or you robbed their graves."

Jessamine growled. "Who are you?"

"Dead women have no need of information, graverobber."

"I am not a graverobber! My grandmother and great-grandfather foresaw something like this and made sure their descendants would be able to protect themselves from the evil of the Outsider."

"Thanks for the info. Now I know how to kill you."

Percy executed Possession on Jessamine. To the outside perspective, he vanished entirely, not a trace of him anywhere. To his perspective, his vision went zooming into Jessamine's forehead, there was a series of flashing colors, and then he was looking through her eyes, hearing through her ears, tasting with her tongue, feeling with her skin, and smelling through her nose. He could feel the clothes on her body, the thong wedged into her ass, her beating heart, the adrenaline, and could move every part of her as if he were actually she.

Possession was a great and versatile power, but it did have its drawbacks. The primary one being if the target had a strong enough mind.

Possession? You make me laugh.

Jessamine kicked Percy out of her mind and he materialized behind her, disoriented after that experience. Jessamine turned and stabbed him through the eye with her sword. For a brief half-second, Jessamine thought herself safe, and then Percy burst into smoke and shimmers.

"Doppelganger!" the empress breathed.

When the clones of Doppelganger were destroyed, they burst into nothingness with a disorienting cloud. Jessamine recognized this from her studies on her grandmother's journal of supernatural powers.

Jessamine turned around, sword ready. The saferoom was not a very big place. There were two alcoves, one for a bedroom, another with a whole lot of gold, to make an "F" shape room. Along the side were weapons and tools to work on those weapons. There was a door at the far end that led to a back hall that led to a door that opened up to the rest of Dunwall. There weren't a whole lot of places to hide.

As for what had happened, Jessamine could only conclude that in the time between when she'd broken the Possession and when she stabbed her attacker, he'd created a Doppelganger and then transposed with it, switching places with it, all in less than a second.

That was some terrific speed.

Jessamine's eyes darted around, sweat dripping down her face. Her life was really in danger right now. She didn't know why, she didn't care to find out; she just wanted to kill this person and put this night behind her. She wanted to melt into the arms of her darling Royal Protector, let him carry her to bed, undress her, eat her out, make her cum, then fall asleep curled up together, and when she woke, give him the greatest blowjob he'd ever receive in his life.

Then maybe they could start thinking about a family of their own together after they destroyed every last scrap of heresy across the Empire so they didn't have to live in fear of another Voidwalker coming in the night to kill them and any potential children they had together.

Now, as for Percy, he was indeed hiding in the saferoom, just in the last place Jessamine would ever look because she didn't know it was possible. With Possession, Percy could inhabit all creatures—bugs, animals, fish, birds, and people—but also those same things that were dead. Freshly dead, no more than three hours as such, but still dead. Corpse Possession was the name, a subdivision of the Possession umbrella of abilities.

It was kind of ironic. Percy had killed the body double, the empress hidden from Foresight with the powers she had, and felt disappointed by how easy it had been, then reinvigorated when the real empress appeared. Now here he was, using the initial object of his disappointment to his lethal advantage.

Jessamine might've been schooled and trained in the assassin arts, rapidly glancing all around her, left, right, up, down, behind, forward, above, below, but she was still just a human, one using watered down powers, and those very brief moments when she was looking elsewhere was when Percy struck.

He left the corpse of the double and sprang forward off the soles of his silent boots, driving his tonfas into Jessamine's back right as her muscles were pulling her bones to turn around. A gasp left the woman as her lungs were punctured and her ribs were pierced through. The momentum drove them to the ground, Jessamine on her chest with Percy on her back.

Percy stood and pulled his swords out, spurts of blood leaving the wounds. He twirled them around so hard the red was flung from the surfaces, and right before he stopped them to drive them down to sever the head, the dying empress croaked.

"Wait…"

Against his better judgement and all his training, Percy did stop.

"At least…let me see your face…I want to know who killed me."

Blood leaked from Jessamine's mouth, a pool of crimson steadily forming underneath her. She did not have long, and she was totally broken. Percy could see it in her eyes. That didn't stop him from setting up a Displacement marker on the other side of the room.

With his sword still in hand, Percy reached up and took off his gasmask, revealing his youthful twelve-year-old face.

Jessamine's eyes widened. "You're gorgeous…your parents must be proud…will be proud…"

"I know my mother is. Sally Copperspoon. I'm her son, Perseus Breanna Copperspoon."

Jessamine's eyes widened even more, a light going off in them. "Copperspoon? Delilah Copperspoon?"

She coughed blood, breathes coming in ragged wheezes.

The way she said it, so surprised and bewildered like she was shocked this was happening for a reason contrary to what Percy was here for. Because of that, he grabbed her and propped her up. Her front was stained red, two black slits in her torso just under her breasts.

"You are…Delilah's grandchild?"

"Her nephew. Sally, my mom, is Delilah's adoptive sister. A ritual was done on Mom to make her immortal. She was the one who attacked the Tower decades ago, the witch that couldn't be killed that escaped."

"I see," Jessamine rasped. "Revenge, then, after all these years?"

"Yes. With your death, unless you have children I don't know about, the Copperspoons are avenged for what the Kaldwins did to Delilah and her mother."

Jessamine chuckled, a painful thing that resulted in more blood spurting out of her body and mouth. She had minutes at best by this point.

"Tell me, child…what story…did Delilah tell your mother…that put her and you…on this path?"

Percy narrowed his eyes and relayed the tale, how Delilah was born illegitimately to the Copperspoon kitchen maid, denied her rights as princess, then whipped and cast out after being framed by Jessamine for breaking the urn containing royal ashes. Damned to suffer on the unforgiving Dunwall streets, sleeping in back alleys, eating out of the garbage, eventually ending up in debtor's prison where Ms. Copperspoon's jaw was broken by a guard after she refused to spread her legs for him, and she was left to slowly die of the injury, then Delilah was cast out of even the prison, orphaned and righteously furious with her father and half-sister. Percy added the transgressions of Emily and Corvo to the story, and concluded with how he was the agent of revenge, trained to kill the Kaldwins in the name of Delilah and the Brigmore Witches.

"Poor boy," Jessamine finally croaked. "I thought as much, and it breaks…urgh…it breaks my heart knowing I've died at the hands of…of the deceived."

"An empress lying in her last moments? Pathetic."

"Don't insult me, boy," Jessamine bit out, showing she still had some fight in her. "The journal of my great-great-grandfather, the record book of the Royal Spymaster, and the report of the prison warden…they have this event logged. It's true that Delilah was born to the maid and Emperor Euhorn, and there was a broken urn, but it wasn't by Jessamine's or Delilah's hands…but her mother's. She argued with Euhorn about wanting more—more money, more status, more of his cock. She was drunk and wanted him to make her his wife so she could move out of rags and pans. Obviously, that couldn't happen as it could've torn apart the Empire, and when that wench was denied, she flew into a drunken rage, attacking Euhorn and destroying the urn in the process.

"She was restrained, beaten by the Imperial guards, and thrown out of the Tower along with the confused Delilah. She could've been imprisoned in the dungeons, never to see daylight, or simply executed, but Euhorn chose to giver her life, her daughter, a sum of money, and another chance, but he couldn't here in the Tower. He had the Royal Spymaster keep tabs on them, how she spent all the money given on drink and gambling, ending up in the debtor's prison, taking her frustrations out on Delilah, beating the poor girl. Delilah's mother died because she got drunk and attacked one of the prison guards, and he knocked her silly. When she died, despite what she did to Delilah, it was still enough of an emotional blow that she went mad with grief and became warped by delusion."

Jessamine chuckled, coughing even more blood. She was pale and cold now.

"Poor Delilah. Poor Sally. Poor you. Your whole lives dedicated to a cause that never existed."

"Lies!" Percy hissed, but it lacked venom as his whole world was rocked.

"Denial is unbecoming of an assassin," Jessamine chided, "especially one skilled enough to kill the empress. I wonder now, since you've killed me, what will you do knowing it was all for nothing…what will become of my beloved Empire, the home of my parents and grandparents…what will become of you?"

A sharp gasp left Jessamine, her eyes flashing with her life as it passed by. Her final words left her in a rushed breath.

"Mommy! D-Daddy! W-W-Wyman! L-Love…ah…ahhhh…"

Finally, Empress Jessamine Kaldwin II passed on, leaving no heirs.

Percy, however, was totally numb. In a daze, he went over to the bookshelf, the condition identified as dyslexia in the how-to guide on demigod rearing left by Poseidon making it especially difficult, but Percy managed to find what he was looking for. As indicated by Jessamine, the journal, record book, and prison report. All were clearly old, easily the twelve or so decades they had to be to match the narrative, and true to Jessamine's word, after finding the dates, the stories matched.

According to these written accounts, Delilah's mother had indeed gotten drunk and assaulted Euhorn, been exiled from the Tower with Delilah and a thousand coins, spent every one on alcohol and gambled away whatever was left, which was why they ended up in debtor's prison, the mother still a drunk, violent with Delilah, and the prison report corroborated Jessamine's account that the woman assaulted a guard and was struck in self-defense. Since this was a debtor's prison, no money was spent on a doctor or even painkillers, and she was left to rot. No one was sad to see her go, either, since she'd garnered the reputation of a crone.

The report of the warden included Delilah's reaction. Hysterical screaming, thrashing, and a "mad, crazed, wildness in her eye like an asylum patient."

Percy didn't know what to think anymore. He wanted to say Jessamine had been lying, a last-ditch effort to make him doubt, and that these papers were all fabrications, but he just knew that wasn't the case. Or at least, he wasn't certain. It could be that Euhorn, the Spymaster, and the warden had all collaborated to fake these documents, or it could be that these were forgeries made after the fact to hide the real story, the one Delilah told. It could be that Jessamine was the delusional one, her perception warped and twisted by these papers and the teachings of her mother and grandmother.

Percy needed help. He grabbed these documents and initialized Swap with the thumbtack he'd placed on the kitchen table.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"I saw the truth in her eyes," Percy said quietly as he watched his mother's hands shake as she finished reading everything.

Like him, she couldn't believe it. Couldn't not as in it was so outrageous that it couldn't be believed, but as in to acknowledge it as truth would be to accept that her entire life had been a lie and a waste, led by a crazed and deluded madwoman. To that effect, so had Breanna and the whole coven—the whole sisterhood, deceived and living life under false pretenses. Not to mention Percy; his whole creation, the purpose for his life, all the people he'd killed, the destruction he'd wrought, all for nothing.

All for a fever dream.

"These…" Sally started, trying to find words. "These…are…these—these are fake. These are not real. Delilah's story is the right one. And we have finally done it. Almost a hundred years later, and Delilah, Breanna, and the sisters of the Brigmore Coven are now avenged."

Sally cast aside the controversial papers and opened her arms to her son. Percy smiled, happy for the chance to put these damaging thoughts out of his mind, and he ran to his mother. She scooped him and spun around as his arms and legs wrapped around hers, both laughing in pure joy and delight.

Sally pressed her forehead to her son's. "My precious baby—you did it!"

"You did it too, Mom! You taught me."

"True, but you were the one who executed. You've made me, Delilah, Breanna, and the whole coven proud today."

Percy smiled, then gained a thoughtful look. "So…what do we do now?"

"Delilah isn't dead. She's just trapped in her painting above the throne in Dunwall Tower. I've done sparing research into how to free her, but now we can devote all our time to it."

Percy nodded, content that there was a direction they were headed.

"I'm afraid not."

Their heads whipped around just in time to see the house break in half and fall away into the Void, the Outsider walking across the air towards them with his hands behind his back.

"Hello, Percy. Sally."

Sally's heart thumped in her chest as she came face to face with the Outsider after a century of life embroiled with the Void. This was actually happening, and she didn't know what to think or feel right now. He looked just like Delilah had painted him as: a man with pale skin, sharp features, oily, short black hair, solid black eyes, wearing a brown jacket over a white shirt, and bluish-black trousers tucked into black boots that came up to below his knees.

"Are you going to give Mom her powers back now?" Percy asked.

"I never gave her any powers in the first place. Delilah did that."

"Same difference."

"Not really. And no, I'm not here to give her any powers at all. In fact, you could say I'm here to break her heart."

Mother and son looked at each other. Percy started reaching for his tonfas.

"What do you mean by that…?"

"You are the son of Poseidon, a god from another world. Being such means you have a role to play in that world. Duties and responsibilities that you must adhere to. I could have just dropped you there, but I thought I'd give you a fair warning first."

"What does this have to do with breaking my mom's heart?"

"Sally is a denizen of this world. My world. There are rules when it comes to different worlds overlapping each other, and because of these rules, Sally will not be permitted to accompany you…"

The two immediately broke out into protests, but the Outsider sharpened his voice and spoke over them.

"…as she is."

When the two fell silent, the Outsider continued.

"Long ago, I used Piero Joplin to create a Heart of a Living Thing to house the spirit of the first Jessamine Kaldwin for Corvo, and later Emily, to use in locating Runes and Bone Charms. The Heart also provided useful knowledge about people and places because of its connection to the Void. Due the nature of the Heart, a thing of metal and leather able to house the spirit of an empress, it would be able to accompany others into other worlds."

Percy and Sally were not at all lost as to what the Outsider was alluding to.

"It is not negotiable what happens to Percy. He will be leaving for the world of Poseidon. What remains to be decided is Sally's fate."

"What…will I be able to ever come back here?" Percy asked.

"It is possible. What is unknown is how much time will pass during the coming interim period. You could return and find only a few seconds have gone by. Or several more millennia."

Neither looked thrilled at taking that gamble.

"If I inhabit a Heart," Sally started slowly, "what will happen to me?"

"Your body will be destroyed, and you will become a spirit tied to the Void, immortal in the Heart so long as it exists. You will be blessed with eternal life, forever bound to Percy, and cursed with knowledge. The secrets of men and the places their feet tread will be known to you."

Gravity suddenly felt like it had increased ten-fold. This is not at all how this day should've gone; Percy was supposed to simply infiltrate Dunwall Tower, get through nearly 300 armed personnel and tons of security measures, assassinate the empress, the most powerful, influential, and well-guarded person in the Empire, and then make it back home safe and sound. Easy peasy.

There was not supposed to be an existential crisis revolving around the truth of Delilah's life story, and there was certainly not supposed to be this visit from the Outsider telling them life as they knew it was effectively over. Percy was going to have to do things in Poseidon's world and be gone for however long, with no way to know how much time would pass between his departure and return here—seconds or centuries, putting Sally's ritually-increased lifespan on the line—and Sally's life was up in the air.

Neither of them was about to fight the fucking Outsider, the effective god of the Void itself, especially not while in the Void, nor were they going to argue with him. His word was final, and he was saying Sally either got to stay as she was in his world and may never see her son again, or she could be with him forever as the spirit in a Heart of a Living Thing. That might've sounded like the easy, optimal option, but if she were a spirit, she'd never get to hold her son again, never kiss him, never hug him, never make him breakfast, lunch, or dinner, never tuck him into bed—all physical aspects of their relationship would end.

Forever.

That might've been a much smaller factor if not the for the fact that the two were huge into physical contact. Percy loved being able to hug and kiss his mother, loved it when she made him blue food, and just loved her comforting touch in general. You could say that Percy was still in the last phases of his "cling to Mommy stage," and instead of being eased out of it, he was being violently yanked messily away.

He might've been beyond his years of childlike whimsy and lack of modesty, back when he was wearing whatever he felt like wearing regardless of intended gender, styling his hair with the same disregard, but he still very much loved being with his mom. Seeing her smiling face, her sparkling eyes, feeling the embrace of her arms and hearing the beat of her heart…Percy loved that.

He loved his mother, and even the promise of her presence forever in the Heart did not bring comfort.

Call him a petulant child if you wanted, but he was a petulant child that had just assassinated an empress and thrust a whole empire into chaos by toppling one of the island governments using an array of supernatural powers.

Sally put a hand on her son's shoulder. "I would rather be with you as a spirit and never hug you again, then remain as I am and might never see you again. I want to inhabit the Heart and stay with you."

Tears welled in Percy's eyes and he embraced his mother for what he refused to thing was the last time.

"I love you, Mom."

"I love you, too, baby. So much."

Sally nodded at the Outsider.

He raised his palm and a grotesque thing of wires, tubes, and flesh all arranged to resemble the human heart appeared in a swirl of black. A gasp left Sally as her body disintegrated into nothing, only a wisp of light remaining. The wisp floated into the Heart, making it light up and start thumping.

"Mommy," Percy whimpered.

The Outsider's black eyes zeroed in on the boy.

Percy yelped when he was yanked off his feet and brought through the air of the Void to the Outsider's empty hand. The god gripped the Heart, reared his fist back, and slammed it into Percy's chest. Most disturbingly and uncomfortably, it didn't hurt. It just felt…weird. The Outsider removed his hand and dropped Percy.

The boy put a hand over his heart, feeling not just the beating, but the presence there.

I hear you, Percy.

"Mom…"

"Sally is now a part of you," the Outsider said. "Never physically or spiritually away."

His tone slightly changed. He sounded pleased, like a father who had given his first baseman of a son a catcher's glove.

It had never really occurred to Percy just how out of touch the Outsider really was with humanity, but now it was clear as a polished mirror.

"I meant what I said when I warned you your days would be full of struggle and hardship. I also meant it when I said that these powers will help protect you."

"Will I ever be back here?" Percy asked.

"Yes, though a part of you never leaves the Void."

"No, not here!" Percy shook his head. "The world I was born in—the Empire, Pandyssia, the whales and oceans?"

"Why would you want to come back here? The Brigmore Coven is extinct, there are no others here that bear my Mark, and your mission has been complete."

Percy shifted on his feet. "Um, there's Delilah…trapped in her painting…"

The Outsider leaned forward, getting disturbingly close. "Do you really care about Delilah now?"

Percy's mouth worked until he finally managed to ask, "What…is…the truth?"

The Outsider posed a challenge. "Does it matter?"

Faced with this uncertain future in the world of his father with all its gods and monsters, Percy supposed it wasn't. But he wasn't going to let this die. He needed to know the truth about Delilah; his whole life revolved around her, as did his mother's and the aunt that was his namesake's.

"I'm ready to go," Percy said.

The Outsider nodded. He held his hand up and a swirling portal appeared next to him. Percy walked up to it, but before he entered, the Outsider spoke.

"Oh, and Percy?"

"Hm?"

"I still expect a good show."

The portal sucked Percy into a brave new world.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

And that is who Perseus Breanna Copperspoon is. Confused, uncertain, powerful, wearing BK-201's outfit from Darker Than Black, Kroenen's mask and tonfa sword from Hellboy, and now he's got Sally's spiritual heart inside his body, which is going to lead to a whole lot of fun later.

Now, you can probably guess where and when Percy's entering the PJO timeline, and you have to remember a little detail from last chapter close to the top. It's about the period of the world when Poseidon goes swimming and ends up in the Void.

This circumstance raises a question that popped into my head while I was writing this chapter: should there be a sibling?

As Percy enters the timeline, should there be a sister, a brother, a combination thereof? How should this (or these) potential siblings react to suddenly having a scary assassin brother? What would the dynamic be? Would Percy integrate as the senior or the junior?

I'm sure anyone who's read Backup Plan is probably already thinking of a Persephone/Shin'en kind of relationship.

Just something I thought of, but personally, I'm leaning towards there not being a sibling, and focus entirely on Percy dealing with the Greek and modern world as the Voidwalker son of Poseidon that he is.

Also, it is Dishonored canon that Delilah's past is ambiguous. It is not made clear one way or another whether she is telling the truth about how her and her mother were treated, is outright lying to unbalance Emily, or is actually just completely confused. I expanded on that in this story.

The way Jessamine II is able to use magic is indeed because of the Marked hands of Corvo and Emily. They had their skin cut off and nailed to Bone Charms so the next royal leader would have magical protection against any foe or assassin, supernatural or otherwise. Percy didn't bother looking for these Bone Charms on Jessamine's body because he was having a crisis.

I think that covers everything.

Fav, Follow, and Review please!