The Family
I've been a bit fucked up since I posted the last chapter. I'll explain down at the bottom.
I've come to a decision on what to do about whether Percy has a sibling or not in this story, and you're about to find out what I've come up with.
Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or Dishonored
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When Percy's senses cleared up, he heard the honking of horns, the hum of engines, and foot traffic. He smelled a variety of smells, like waste, greasy food, and a pungent odor he couldn't explain. He saw that he was standing in an alleyway, tall buildings rising around him on all sides with metal, rickety fire escapes on the sides. At the end of the alley, Percy saw people streaming back and forth, with yellow machines on the other side of them.
They looked like cars, but different, more advanced.
Percy heard footsteps closer to him, and he turned to face the owners of the feet. A group of older teens and younger twenties, dressed in ramshackle ways, with graphic t-shirts of what Percy assumed were either musical groups or fictional characters. They all stopped when they saw Percy, dressed in his black overcoat and his gas mask with the eyepieces and bronze air filter that made his expression one of a dopey smile.
They were shocked and surprised to see him, a bit creeped out, but not afraid.
"Well, look what we have here, boys," the biggest one said. "Some freak that got lost and ended up in our territory."
Percy stayed silent, deciding to see where this was going to go. It seemed it was heading in a very fun direction.
The gang walked up and surrounded Percy, the big leader standing directly in front of him.
"What's with the mask, freak? Gotta face that even your mother couldn't love?"
There was the patter of littler feet.
"Hey!" a high-pitched voice sounded from the other side of the alley. It was a little boy, perhaps eight or nine, putting him four or three years younger than Percy. "I would leave him alone if I were you guys. He'll hurt you really bad."
Percy stared at the child, not just because he spoke in a way that made him seem to know Percy, but because he looked a whole lot like Percy. A natural tan, black hair, and eyes that were green as the sea. The face was totally different, and he looked concernedly skinny, his eyes weak and bloodshot. He looked like he needed to be in bed, not running into alleys.
"Who the fuck are you!?" the leader called out.
The boy looked pensive as he answered. "His brother."
Percy's head tilted to the side as dots connected.
The leader snorted. "Alright. We'll fuck you both up, then."
Percy's hand clamped around the big boy's throat, and with a generous squeeze, splintered the vertebrae and ruptured all the soft tissue of the esophagus and trachea. Percy let him drop to the ground, but before that body hit, his hands were at his hips, drawing his tonfas. Like a whirlwind, swords glinting in the light as they moved, throwing up splashes of red, Percy moved, slicing apart the whole group in three seconds flat before they even knew what was happening.
The gang collapsed, a big mess of blood everywhere from all of their deep cuts.
Percy spun his swords so hard and fast the blood cleared off them. He sheathed them at his hips and let his coat settle over him, hiding his weapons. He approached this boy who had to be his divine half-brother.
"You don't look very well."
The boy smiled tiredly. "Yeah, I'm sick. The doctor doesn't know what's wrong with me, or our sister."
"Our sister?"
"Yep! We're all kids of Poseidon. We need to hurry back home. I snuck out because I saw you in one of my dreams. Here, I brought these because the cops are going to get called on us if you walk around dressed like that."
Percy's brother took off his backpack and handed it to the assassin. Percy accepted it, deciding not to comment on how small it was or on the design of people in color-coordinated outfits with animal-themed helmets.
"It's Power Rangers: Wild Force, by the way," was the helpful input.
"Thank you."
Considering how everyone Percy had seen was dressed, he could only conclude that changing his own clothes was the best course of action. So he took out the provided outfit of denim shorts and an orange t-shirt with a winged horse on it, and written above the pegasus were the words "Camp Half-Blood."
"That's where we go during the summer. It's a camp for other demigods that teaches us to how kill monsters and go on quests."
Percy hummed as he began to take off his overcoat, folding it up to put it in the backpack. He knew about Camp Half-Blood from the book Poseidon had left behind before he had come back to this world. After putting the coat inside, then came the mask, putting it in a different pouch, and then he had to stuff his utility belt down inside. The poor Power Rangers backpack looked ready to explode. Percy put the camp shirt on over the black, long-sleeved muscle shirt he was already wearing, tucked down into his pants.
He didn't feel the need to change his pants or boots. He might get some looks from what he'd seen, but nothing to warrant law enforcement.
"Do I have to guess your name, or are you going to tell me?" Percy asked.
The boy blushed. "O-Oh, r-right…uh, I'm Bell. Like Zatch Bell."
"Not like…Bellerophon?" Percy asked with a teasing edge to his voice.
He didn't know what Zatch Bell was, but he did know the story of Bellerophon, the son of Poseidon that tamed Pegasus, killed the original Chimera, killed half of the warrior tribe called the Solymoi, and even defeated the Amazons. All at the request of a king whose daughter fell in love with Bellerophon, but had her advances denied by the hero who eventually ended up marrying the woman's younger sister, given away by the king out of gratitude for having his life spared by Bellerophon after it was revealed that those three accomplishments were intended to kill him at the request of the older daughter.
Who committed suicide after learning that Bellerophon survived and was now her brother-in-law.
Bellerophon would live a happy and faithful life with his wife, until he got to his middle years, became bored and restless, and decided to fly on Pegasus to go see the gods themselves, ignorant to the fact that only mortals with special permission could go to Olympus. Zeus made a fly sting Pegasus, who bucked, and sent Bellerophon plummeting to his death. How Poseidon reacted to that is canonically unknown, but he was probably very unhappy.
Percy hoped that Bell didn't die by falling to his death. He seemed like a good enough kid.
Bell's ears turned red at the mention of the hero. "No," he said stubbornly, "like Zatch Bell!"
"Okay," Percy conceded, though now he knew the truth.
Bell nodded. "Come on, I'll take you to-"
He was cut off by his own body. His eyes went wide, and he doubled over, coughing and retching until he spat out a nasty glob of yellowish mucus between his shoes. He shakily reached into the back pocket of his shorts to pull out a handkerchief and wiped his mouth.
"S-Sorry," he said sheepishly.
"The doctors don't know what's wrong with you," Percy remembered, "or our sister."
"The doctors don't," Bell said with a little smile, "but the gods do."
Percy raised a brow.
Bell answered. "None of us are supposed to be alive."
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The walk to Bell's home through the streets of Manhattan had Percy listening intently to the provided information.
"There's this thing called the Great Prophecy, and it talks about a demigod of the Big Three—Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades—having enough birthdays until they get to be sixteen, and then they'll make a decision about whether to destroy or save Olympus and the gods."
"A demigod will reach sixteen…and the gods will make a decision about whether to destroy the gods or not?" Percy asked, the phrasing having confused him.
"Huh? No! The demigod will get to decide. So, because no one wants to take the chance on Olympus being destroyed, the Big Three made an oath on the River Styx—if you break an oath on the Styx, you die—to not have anymore demigod kids, but Zeus broke the oath and had a girl called Thalia, who is now a tree, and Dad had me and our sister, Galatea. I call her Tea, though. Anyway—last year, Zeus's Master Bolt was stolen, and there was a big fight over who it was, and Dad had to claim me and Tea, and we went on a quest to get it back, and we did, but after we did, Zeus brought up the Great Prophecy and Thalia and us, and decided to not kill us but just make us sick and see if the Fates let us live to sixteen. That way Dad isn't angry and Olympus might not be destroyed."
After that roller coaster of information, Percy was left wondering if he was going to be cursed with disease until he turned sixteen. If that was the case, then he was going to see firsthand how the power of the Void compared with the powers of the gods. Well, he just might do that anyway.
Being an only child, one that was trained to kill and had superpowers, Percy hadn't had too much social interaction based on the fact that he had this problem of killing his playmates on accident due to his strength. As such, he'd just mostly watched the other kids playing. That was why he had known he was weird kid for not caring about his clothes or hair based on the other boys and girls.
Percy never had a brother or even a friend, besides his mom, and after this informative talk, watching Bell cough and spit out snot again, Percy was already willing to kill for his newfound little brother. However, Percy still entertained the great possibility this was all just a ruse, his mother's training still very much present in his mind. That was why he'd crushed the throat of that gang leader by hand; he'd left a marker for Swap if he needed it.
He hoped he didn't. Bell seemed like a good kid. He'd really hate it if he had to kill him.
Percy kept Bell talking the whole walk to his house, learning many things about him and his sister, Galatea. They were biological siblings with the same mother, Poseidon having visited her twice. Galatea would be turning fourteen this summer, and bell would be turning ten. Percy would be turning thirteen last he checked—the calendar of the Empire did not at all match the calendar of this world, this place called Earth. That made him the middle sibling, and he didn't know how to feel about that.
He was kinda on the fence about the fact Poseidon had other kids.
What did Sally mean if the god was siring children with other women? What did that mean for Amphitrite, Poseidon's wife in the first place? Percy didn't like those questions and so didn't dwell on them. He didn't like what answers he came up with. Instead, he just focused on the fact that he had siblings and just hoped he didn't accidentally kill them or hurt them.
He wanted to know what having siblings was like.
Percy learned all about Camp Half-Blood, with its cabins, its counselors, the cursed god Dionysus, the director Chiron, the social hierarchy, who was friends with who, who the important power couples were, the various activities, and also why Bell hadn't flinched when he just saw so many people diced up. Bell had seen people roasted alive in the lava climbing wall, so when you compared sliced bodies to melting, flaming, gurgling ones, the former wasn't so bothering as the latter.
And none of those gang members had been friends that Bell had made.
"Mom's at work right now, but Dr. B is here…and she's probably going to kick my butt for sneaking out."
"I'll keep your butt safe," Percy promised.
"Please don't kill her."
"I'm not going to kill her…just maim, or seriously injure."
"Percy~!" Bell chided, begged, and pleaded all at once.
What was noteworthy about that was the fact that Percy hadn't once said his name to Bell, especially not his nickname, and yet the boy knew it.
The house of the Gates family was modest. Single-story, an attic under the steepled roof, with no particular architectural structure in mind. The brick of the house was rust-colored red with various different shades, a garage door next to the front porch, the front door built into an alcove for shelter from the rain, which was in turn next to a set of windows that Percy surmised to be those of the master bedroom.
Bell put his key into the lock on the knob, but never got the chance to actually unlock the door because it was unlocked from the inside and violently thrown open to reveal an angry young woman that was probably in her mid-twenties, wearing simple blue scrubs with a white lab coat over them, brown skin, dark eyes, darker hair pulled into a ponytail—all of which made her Hispanic, as Percy would later learn about the ethnic groups.
"Where have you been!?" Dr. B demanded shrilly. "And who is this!?"
Bell's answer took the wind right out of the doctor's sails. "I told you my big brother was coming. This is him, Perseus Breanna Copperspoon."
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Doctor Brittany Inigo Latoya Courtney Ortiz, sired by Asclepius when the medicine god decided to go on vacation to Vera Cruz a little over twenty-six years ago, was a medical genius. Being the daughter of Asclepius, Dr. B's demigod powers were all oriented in the exact same way that her father's were.
For example, in the Blood of Olympus, when Piper, Jason, and Leo were there to get the Physician's Cure, Asclepius was able to pull up each demigod's medical history and apparently their medical future. He could tell that Piper was on a vegetarian diet and broke her arm when she was six due to falling off a horse. He instantly pegged Jason as near-sited and possessing a mole on his left foot, and that he'd recently been stabbed by an Imperial Gold sword. When he got to Leo, he trailed off ominously, leaving Piper and Jason to worry themselves almost sick. In the Trials of Apollo, Apollo himself admits that Asclepius is a better god of healing and medicine than he is, due to the fact that Apollo's power is split between so many domains whereas his son's are locked in to just healing and medicine.
As such, Dr. B's demigod powers of healing and medicine surpassed all her "aunts" and "uncles," something that burned those who had healing powers to no end. Yes, she had spent her summers at Camp Half-Blood, and was even allowed to stay in the Apollo cabin at the request of her father, though she was bullied for being everyone's little "niece."
Regardless, where most of her extended family ended up dead either during CTF games, monster attacks during school, or drunk drivers, she made it to adulthood, her demigod scent waning from age and maturity, no longer smelling as appealing for whatever reason—Dr. B theorized it had something to do with hormones, and was researching ways to mask demigod scent that didn't involve some horrible human—and with her natural gifts in the world of healing, flew through high school, college, and med school to receive multiple doctorates, and kept herself on the down-low.
Obviously, being able to diagnose any and all diseases, and bring up a person's entire medical history through magic and force of will, would make someone hugely popular and in-demand the world over. The snag was that yes, Dr. B could peg any disease, but that didn't mean she could heal every disease. Some people were just too far gone already, or whatever they had there was no cure for yet. That was the trick, you see: she could diagnose and prescribe medicine for anything, so long as it was known and recorded in the medical journals.
Dr. B hated that.
She hated that as good as she was, she was only so good. That she could only help so much, do so much. That she could only look a child in the eye and tell them they were going to die in a year if they didn't get a heart transplant, and then end up attending the funeral a few months later.
So, in order to avoid those situation, Dr. B took up a simple nursing job at an elementary school, where most of the little patients that came to see her were complaining of an upset tummy, to which the cure was that it was their lunchtime and they were hungry, or they just needed to go poop and refused to do so because school bathrooms were nasty and foreign. Totally understandable.
Dr. B did her best to keep her distance from the mythological world, hoping to never catch the eye of some god or particularly frisky goddess, but even she couldn't ignore the theft of Zeus's Bolt. Every time she had the chance, she tuned her TV to the Hephaestus channel and got live updates on how the quest was going. Poseidon's daughter and son, Tea and Bell, Athena's daughter, Annabeth, and a descendant of Pan, Grover Underwood.
Dr. B really hated it how the gods had chosen literal children to undergo the extremely dangerous quest to find and retrieve and stolen Master Bolt, and then she was downright furious when it became known that Zeus had cursed his niece and nephew with disease that would progressively kill them based on the idea that if one or the other was the Child of Prophecy, then the Fates would save their lives. And then Dr. B was beyond livid when the majority opinion of the gods was Yeah, that's fair.
So when Poseidon came to her, eyes red and gripping his trident so hard his knuckles were white, not a word had to be said. Dr. B went to the Gates house and set up her own hospital, determined to undo the curse. Ms. Gates, heartbroken, was grateful beyond words, and full of so much hope that if could've been turned into usable energy, the planet could've been sustained for a month.
Now, however, coming up on a year later with her daughter getting worse, Ms. Gates was just happy to come home from work and find her little Tea still alive. Bell hadn't gotten so bad yet as to require a ventilator, but Dr. B was already looking into a dialysis machine since Tea's kidneys were starting to show signs of failure.
Dr. B could diagnose anything and knew what the cure was as long as it was known, but she couldn't magically heal people in the way a god could. She couldn't snap her fingers and cure people. She couldn't magically heal organs, or create organs out of thin air; she could only put people on the donor list and pray. Pray to Apollo, pray to her father, and she even found herself praying to Jesus sometimes she got so desperate to save lives only to come by and find out they were already dead.
On top of having to deal with a couple of dying kids that she could help so much, Bell started reporting having dreams of a big brother called Perseus Breanna Copperspoon. Weird name, and Dr. B wanted to tell him it was just a dream, but Tea was reporting the same thing whenever she was awake enough to speak. Dr. B knew demigod dreams were a powerful thing, but she didn't want to believe the kids based on the fact that she was losing it.
She couldn't do anything to heal them, the last thing she needed was a third child to be cursed by Zeus to steadily deteriorate until sixteen on a gamble of fate.
And now here he was, Perseus Breanna Copperspoon, and Jesus Christ was he a medical nightmare. An unnatural skeleton, a weird heart, a history of cuts and stabs and bullets and burns and torn muscles, a whole childhood spent in combat training it seemed. Not to mention his eyes and his posture…those of a killer. Dr. B had seen those eyes in some of the lives she'd had to save, criminals that had been injured during apprehension and needed to see court for judgement.
But also in those eyes was a curiosity about this house and these children.
Also in those eyes was a brokenness, an emptiness, a sense of purposelessness.
A look for direction.
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Dr. B sent Bell to Tea's room, their shared room, and was almost frantically poking and prodding at Percy, nervous and apprehensive.
"I'm not sick," Percy said simply.
"I-I…I just…I'm just making sure, ah, Percy."
"Are you their aunt or something? You don't look like them."
"Uh, no, I'm their doctor. I'm Brittany. Brittany Inigo…it doesn't matter. Just call me Dr. B."
"I'm Perseus Breanna Copperspoon. Just call me Percy."
Dr. B smiled slightly at the sense of humor. "Breanna Copperspoon, huh? Is there a story there?"
"Mm-hm. Breanna was the name of Mom's adoptive aunt, and Copperspoon was Aunt Delilah's last name."
"That's cool. Who is your mom?"
"Sally Copperspoon. The Outsider turned her into my Heart because she couldn't come with me here with me as a person."
Dr. B felt like she was falling down a rabbit hole. "Who's the Outsider?"
"God of the Void."
"The Void…the place where gods and stuff go when they fade?"
"Nope. The Void's not really a place, and it's much older and stranger than you know…or that's what Mom tells me. I think it's kinda like a bridge between different worlds—I'm from a different world by the way. We have a different calendar, different continents, different animals, and the only god is the Outsider, but there's this church, the Abbey of the Everyman, that tells everyone the Outsider is evil and so it's illegal to worship him—but Dad, Poseidon, managed to go swimming into the Void, met the Outsider, then met Mom, and then Mom made me."
"Your mom made you? By herself?"
"Mostly. She had to break up a bunch of whalebones and harvest the organs of bunch of other kids so she could make me, and Dad left some of his essence behind to help Mom finish."
Dr. B was totally mortified, but Percy mistook the expression for confusion and elaborated, telling the story of his mother's start, Delilah, the Brigmore Coven, the assassin Daud, the plan to bring Delilah back and the interim, the séance, the success, then the backup plan that was Sally's immortality, Delilah's ultimate imprisonment, the second destruction of the coven, Sally's reckless assassination attempt that got her powers taken away and almost executed if not for the intervention of the depowered witches. Then Sally's fallback plan of making a weapon, her methods, her success, the training and upbringing and childhood he had, capped off with the success of his life's mission and how and why Sally was now his heart and how and why he was now here, in the world of gods and monsters.
"…wow," Dr. B managed to utter quietly after a few seconds of silence.
"I think it's pretty cool, too, but now I've got no idea what to do with my life."
Given everything that she'd heard, Dr. B had a feeling that Percy was going to figure that out pretty soon. Great Prophecy, and now he shows up, a trained killer with immense supernatural powers that didn't fit into any Greek category? Dr. B was honestly hoping Zeus never found out about this kid, because if he was willing to curse Tea and Bell just for being children of Poseidon in the name of gambling with the Fates, then what was he going to do with Percy, who had the powers of the Void? An assassin from another world.
"Do you have any ideas?" Percy asked.
He looked so honestly lost for a purpose that Dr. B's heart hurt just a bit. She had a pair of siblings that were coming apart, and now she had a boy that was totally lost and confused. He'd fulfilled his life's mission and didn't know what to do with himself anymore. He was desperate for purpose and direction, and given his upbringing as a killer, Dr. B was certain that Percy would take the first thing that came along.
"Come with me," Dr. B said.
She led Percy through the house to his sister's room.
Galatea was sleeping in her bed as she usually was, a mask over her mouth to help oxygen keep flowing in and out of her body, an array of machines hooked up to her that kept track of her vitals. There was an odor in the air that told the doctor that sheets and clothes needed to be changed, and that she needed to get the ball rolling on that dialysis machine.
"Zeus did this," Percy stated neutrally.
"He did."
"What's happening to her?"
"Everything. Her organs are starting to shut down. At the rate she'd going, she won't live to December, much less sixteen."
"Does anyone else know?"
"No. I keep telling Bell and their mother that she's doing alright and that this is normal for a disease like this."
"Is it progressing out of magic or on its own now?"
"On its own. Zeus started it, but that was it. Everything now is by itself. Kind of like dropping a match in a pile of dead leaves ends up as a forest fire."
Percy hummed. "I'll be right back."
He left and back a few seconds later with a utility belt. He popped the biggest pouch and pulled out a vile of clear liquid. He unscrewed the lid, and the doctor lunged, catching his wrist.
"What are you doing?" she demanded.
You didn't just let people poor unknown liquids onto your patients!
"Pouring saltwater on her," Percy said like this was an obvious thing.
"I've tried saltwater," Dr. B said, letting Percy's wrist go. "I went to the beach buckets and lids and brought back gallons of saltwater, filled up the bathtub, and bathed them both. No good."
"You're not Poseidon's kid, though."
There was no pride that surged through Dr. B at the insinuation that she wasn't good enough with the saltwater as a daughter of Asclepius as opposed to a son of Poseidon. Maybe that was it—maybe this was it. The key was that a child of Poseidon using saltwater on a child of Poseidon would save them.
Dr. B nodded to give Percy the go-ahead.
He took the mask off Galatea's face, noting how she looked like her little brother with the structure of her face, her hair and its shape, and no doubt her green eyes as well. Percy unceremoniously dumped out the whole vial on the girl's face, making it contort, and all the water vanished down her mouth. Percy put his hands on Galatea's throat, working them down her chest to her stomach area.
His expression was intense and focused as he worked the saltwater through his sister's body.
Dr. B was touched and impressed. Percy was coming from the life of an only child with no friends. He had his mother and a bunch of blades to play with. Now suddenly he had two siblings—half-siblings at that—that he knew next to nothing of, and here he was already trying to save their little lives. Granted, it was probably out of the sentiment that he literally had nothing better to do with himself so he might as well do that, but still.
He hadn't even shared a simple hello with Galatea, and he was trying to save her already.
Dr. B hoped it worked.
"Are you sure Zeus just the lit the match and walked away?" Percy asked. "There's something in there that's wrecking her organs as fast as I'm healing them."
Dr. B's jaw went slack. She heard I'm healing them, meaning Percy was achieving success where she failed, but she was entirely hung up on there's something in there. She didn't know if that was metaphorical or literal, as in there was some kind of hidden entity present that was actively killing Galatea, but it was horrifying all the same.
"I mean, it feels like it, anyway. I fixed her kidneys, took the water away, and then they started screwing up again."
Kidneys. Definitely needed the dialysis machine. Healed via Percy, then started failing again.
Dr. B swallowed, trying to think positive. Progress was being made. Galatea could be healed—was being healed—but there was something else going on that was resulting in Percy's work being undone. Perhaps it was some kind of magic, then. Or an evil spirit of some kind, like Nosoi or Eidolons.
Dr. B put her hand on Galatea's blanketed leg, staying out of Percy's way, and focused. After so many seconds, her facial expression changing each second, she took her hand away.
"I don't know," she breathed, aghast. "This…this has never happened before. I always know what's medically wrong with a person. If it's an STD, a cancer, an immunodeficiency—whatever, it is, I know about it…"
She trailed off in thought.
"Yes?" Percy prompted. "I feel like there's more to that statement."
"I know what's wrong with a person so long as it's been recorded somewhere in the thousands of years of medical archives, whether currently known or forgotten. If it's an unknown disease, then I don't know about it. I can't know about it."
"So Galatea's sick with something that no one has ever seen before."
"Yes."
"…well, what do we do?"
Dr. B's lip trembled and she had to compose herself. She couldn't let emotion get the better of her right now—not frustration and not despair.
"Is it j-just—ahem—is it just her kidneys, or other organs?"
"Kidneys, lungs, liver, pancreas, heart, stomach, intestines, spleen, gallbladder—just about everything in there, really."
Dr. B had to sit down. The flippant tone in Percy's voice wasn't helping, and her emotionally aching brain decided to focus on that as an escape.
"Why do you sound so unconcerned? Why don't you sound worried that your sister is dying right next to you?"
"Because I'm not going to let her die," Percy answered, miffed. "Besides, if she does, I can just go get her back from the Underworld."
"…that's not how that works. That's not how any of that works."
"The Physician's Cure, Orpheus and Eurydice, Heracles and Theseus, and these two went into the Underworld and came back out. You don't know me and what I can do."
Dr. B couldn't argue that, but she wasn't willing to gamble on how powerful Percy was or wasn't when it came to lives of the little kids that might as well have been her own children now, no disrespect to Ms. Gates, of course.
"What about replacing the organs?" Percy asked. "You can do that, right?"
"Yes, but organ transplants are very specific. You need to think about size and blood type, and there's actually getting it—without murdering people," Dr B. hastily added when she saw the look on Percy's face.
He raised a brow. "Random people you don't know, or my brother and sister, the two kids that you're supposed to be trying to save?"
That was certainly the moral and ethical quandary that all doctors faced, Dr. B no different in that regard.
"We'll reserve that as a last-ditch effort. Besides, even if you get the right organ, the body might still reject it, and then we're back to square one."
"Okay, any other ideas?"
"Several," Dr. B responded in a clipped way, Percy's irritation causing her to rise and match it. "We can get Zeus to undo the curse or just heal them outright, or get some other god to do it, or put Tea and Bell in an ICU and use magic to twist the donor list around to where they're both at the top on the global level, or we can get an Apple of Immortality from the Hesperides' Garden, or maybe we can find the Golden Fleece and just hope its powerful enough to undo whatever this is. Just off the top of my head."
Before Percy could retort or ask questions, there was the sound of a key in the front door, followed by the opening of the door.
"Dr. B! I'm home!"
"Oh, boy…" the doctor muttered.
Before she could tell Percy to hide so as to ease into the introduction, the boy turned right around and went marching through the house.
"And I brought a guest—who are you?"
"Ah, Ms. Gates, Annabeth," Dr. B said, hastily bringing up the rear. "This is Perseus Breanna Copperspoon. The boy the kids were dreaming about."
Percy waved. "Hi."
Ms. Gates and Annabeth Chase were totally floored.
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Just like earlier, where Brittany was fussing over every square inch of Percy to occupy herself out of shock, Ms. Gates, whose name was Wendy, was also fussing over Percy, making sure he was comfy on the couch, if he was thirsty or hungry, fixing him a glass of juice and bringing him some cookies anyway, while Annabeth was trying to dissect Percy with her piercing grey eyes.
"Can I help you?" Percy asked her, annoyed with her silent attitude.
"Do you know what a tonfa is?"
"It's the style of sword that I use."
"Oh, good. I didn't make these in Arts and Crafts for nothing."
Percy blinked when Annabeth rubbed her thumbs over the silverish-bronze bands on her middle fingers, and the bands turned into a pair of tonfa swords that were almost exact replicas of his own. Almost, because one flat side was a bronzish metal, and the other side was the polished steel he was familiar with.
Annabeth had an air about her like she was in pain but was hiding it. "I saw these in a dream and made them with Beckendorf's help. They're Celestial Bronze on one side and Damascus steel on the other. That way you can kill both monsters and mortals if you need to."
Annabeth handed the weapons over to Percy. He bounced his arms a little bit, getting a feel for the weight, and then demonstrated his skill with a flourish of twirling and spinning, crossing and moving his arms. He caught the swords in a dramatic "X" in front of his torso, and nodded.
"Cool. Thanks."
"They turn into rings by rubbing your thumb on top of the pommel," Annabeth supplied.
Percy tried it and true to her word, the swords turned into rings the were fitted on his middle fingers. He rubbed them like he had seen Annabeth do, and they sprang back into swords. He then repeated this process, totally transfixed, until Annabeth's eye twitched.
"Will you please stop playing with your swords?"
Percy displayed his maturity by sticking his tongue out at her.
"Boys," Annabeth huffed with a roll of her eyes.
Brittany and Wendy watched this with a little smile in their eyes, but a wet, throaty cough from Galatea's room had Wendy and Brittany both practically running, leaving Percy and Annabeth alone.
"They told me about you," the blonde said. "Tea sent me letters about the dreams she and Bell were having about this assassin brother of theirs. I had my doubts, but….Are you the Child of Prophecy?"
The hope was not hidden in her voice, leading Percy to deduce that she and the siblings had tightly bonded during their quest for the Master Bolt.
"Considering I'm also Poseidon's son and I'm a trained killer and I have a whole bunch of extra powers, I'd say yes I am. It only seems right."
"Like what kind of extra powers?"
Percy demonstrated the power of Doppelganger to her. With a motion of his hand there was a burst of thick, white mist. The mist rapidly cleared away, revealing a perfect clone of Percy. Hair, clothes, and even the new rings. Annabeth's eyes widened.
"That's just one thing I can do. Everything else kind of requires some space."
Percy dispelled his clone, and it vanished the same way it appeared.
"That's incredible," Annabeth breathed.
Percy could see the wheels turning in her head as she came up with all kinds of tactics and strategies that could be used with duplication powers.
Wendy and Dr. B returned, both looking rattled and perturbed.
"Can you save them?" Wendy asked Percy, fatigued and desperate.
"Dr. B and I have worked on some theories. The most viable ones are stealing an Apple of Immortality or getting the Golden Fleece."
"Ah…" Brittany shifted.
She hadn't really been serious about any of what she'd said because she the impossibility of them all, but it was clear that either Percy didn't realize that, or didn't view them as impossible, demonstrating extreme confidence that bordered on arrogance, or naivety. Of course, what no one in here knew was that Percy had tackled a whole empire, storming the strongholds of the Overseers, the Grand Guard, and the very palace of the Duke of Serkonos, laying waste to the entire venue by himself.
The dreams of the siblings hadn't been that forthcoming.
"That's…actually rather fitting," Annabeth said with a surprised blink.
"What do you mean?" Brittany asked.
Annabeth's eyes darkened. "Thalia's Tree has been poisoned and Camp's borders are failing. Monsters are starting to break through. We need something with enough magic to cure the Tree and bring the borders back up. I've done my research, and I'm certain the Golden Fleece can do it. The problem, however, is twofold. We need permission for a quest from Chiron or Mr. D, and the Fleece is with Polyphemus in the Sea of Monsters."
"How do you know that?" Brittany asked.
"Grover. I've been having dreams of him. He's in a cave wearing a wedding dress and a fake eye on his face, saying he's been captured by the cyclopes who's been using the Fleece to lure satyrs to their death."
"Oh," Brittany blinked. "Any idea just where in the Sea of Monsters? That's a pretty big place."
"I do have an idea," Annabeth affirmed, "but a child of Poseidon could help narrow it down to the exact coordinates. I was hoping that Tea would be better than she is, but since Percy's here-"
"Let's go. Right now."
Annabeth cracked a smirk at Percy's serious, no-nonsense attitude, and shook her head. "Unfortunately, something this big requires special permission and guidance. Like I said, we need either Chiron or Mr. D—Dionysus, the god of madness and wine—to give us the go-ahead, and we need to consult the Oracle for a prophecy."
"Whatever. I take these guys are at Camp Half-Blood, the location of which is unknown to me, so let's get going."
Annabeth nodded, standing up. She saw no reason to Delay this.
"Ms. Gates?"
"Dear, how many times do I have to tell you to just call me Wendy?"
Annabeth's cheeks became dusted with red. "Sorry, it just feels weird."
"You're fine, dear. Let's go, you two. Camp is a bit of drive from here."
Wendy gave Brittany the Look, and Brittany nodded back.
Please, do everything you can for them.
I will.
Percy grabbed his coat and mask out of the backpack, his utility belt already around his waist. "Is Camp near a connected body of water that's close by?"
"Yes?" Annabeth said, having to pull up a mental map of where they were now compared to where camp was sitting, and if the rivers were connected to the Long Island Sound.
"I can teleport through connected bodies of water," Percy explained. To Wendy, he said, "Get us to the nearest waterway, and I'll take care of the rest."
Wendy nodded, and only ten minutes later, only due to battling traffic, they were at the edge of the East River. In transit, Annabeth used a map to show where they where and where CHB was at, and Percy just nodded, deciding not to tell them that he could've figured that out all on his own based on how his powers worked.
"So…we just jump in?" Annabeth asked.
"Yep? Ready?"
"Percy!" Wendy called.
He turned and went over at the woman's beckoning.
"When my kids said they were having dreams of an assassin brother named Perseus Breanna Copperspoon, I…you're not what I expected. I'm sorry. And thank you, so much. You don't know my kids, but you're already willing to risk your life to s-save them from th-this terrible curse."
Wendy paused to collected herself as tears started welling in her eyes.
"I don't know what it's like to have siblings," Percy said. "I want to find out what it's like. Just one thing though."
"Yes?"
And here, Percy turned deadly serious. "You are not my mom. Don't ever think you are, or pretend to be, or I'll kill you. I have a mom. She's right here."
Percy tapped his chest where his heart was, and instead of it being left as some sentimental thing, a glow emerged through his clothes, a pulsating, warm light in perfect synch with his heartbeat. Wendy's eyes widened.
"How…?"
"Dr. B can explain. Mostly. I think she can. Anyway, we'll get the Fleece, and if that doesn't work, then I'll drag Zeus down from Olympus and make him fix Tea and Bell."
He didn't sound sarcastic or peppy. He sounded like he was saying if Walmart didn't have any milk, then he'd go to target and get milk.
Wendy really hoped it was going to be that easy.
In spite of being warned not to think she was or pretend to be, she put her arms around this boy and hugged him tight.
"Good luck. I'll be praying for you."
Percy patted her lightly on the back. "Thanks."
He disengaged and went back to Annabeth. "Ready?"
"Yeah."
Percy grabbed Annabeth's hand, and before her blush could fully form, he jumped into the water and yanked her with him.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Right. Up at the top I said I've been a bit fucked up since last chapter and that I'd explain at the bottom. Well, here's the bottom.
06/25/21 was the date of Chapter 3 for the time travelers, and the date of this chapter is 07/02/21, a full week later. After posting Chapter 3, I got a wild and stupid idea over the weekend. I asked myself what would Reyna be like on her period, and then went to google to see if anyone had wrote a humorous one-shot about Reyna terrifying the legion with her ferocious mood swings. If such a story exists, I didn't find it.
The top hit was Chapter 4 of a story called Alleviate by Forfun100, who I'm pretty sure is dead to Fanfiction by now, since she hasn't posted anything since October 8, 2020. I thought it was weird that what I searched landed me on Chapter 4, but I clicked and got ready for some laughs.
I did not find laughs.
I trust we're all familiar with Mortal AUs. Well, this story is a subdivision of Mortal AU dubbed Hospital AU by Forfun100, and it's told through Piper's first person. It's about how she, the Seven, and Nico, Bianca, and Reyna are all bunkmates at a pediatric hospice home run by Dr. Chiron and Dr. D. Everyone's got their terminal diseases, and there is character death, but for some reason, despite all the other character death stories I've read, this one really fucked me up.
I spent all of Saturday, Sunday, and Monday reading it, then Tuesday and Wednesday Reviewing it to get the count up to an even 800, and for the life of me I don't know why. I cannot explain why this story hit me so hard. Hard enough that I see a whole new novel clear as day in my head, on top of the other ideas I already have and the one I'm fighting to get published.
I won't spoil this idea nor this 105k+ fanfic, but I strongly encourage you to read it. Maybe you won't feel a thing, or maybe you'll feel like I do…an explainable sadness.
Anyway, this story.
The way this story went is not what I originally had in mind. Percy was going to get dropped prior to TLT and adjust to living in Yancey. He was going to kill Nancy Bobofit and vaporize Alecto with Lightning Blast, thoroughly confusing Chiron, and then waltz right into the middle of the conversation between the centaur and Grover. After reading Alleviate, that all changed.
That story hit so hard that Percy having two siblings, a younger brother and an older sister, both sick, is a homage to that story. Zeus cursing them with that sickness was just an idea I came up with that made sense and serves as even more motivation for Percy, paving the way for some interesting future plot possibilities.
Dr. Brittany Inigo Latoya Courtney Ortiz, Dr. BILCO, is an OC. I had her written as a daughter of Apollo but changed my mind for the sake of variety, and so she is the daughter of Asclepius instead. I hope you like her.
And Wendy Gates. And Bell Gates. I'll get to Galatea Gates in the future.
Sea of Monsters arc starts next chapter.
Fav, Follow, and Review please!
And read Alleviate if you have the spare time. It'll give us something to talk about.