An Arcane Assassin in Middle School
You guys are still here, yay!
And I'm happy that everyone seems excited for some Thalia/Emily vs. Percy action, instead of being angry and/or unhappy that I decided to go with that route.
Some more drama going on in this chapter as Percy faces your average middle school, but it gets fun at the coming end.
Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or Dishonored
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Was she Thalia Grace with the memories and experiences of Emily Kaldwin, or was she Emily Kaldwin with the memories and experiences of Thalia Grace? Considering she spent 63 years as the empress, bereft of all knowledge of her "true" self as Thalia, she honestly considered herself more as Emily with the memories of Thalia.
It really felt like Thalia's life was a brief dream compared to her life as the empress.
Granted, that didn't mean she discounted her shorter life as the daughter of Zeus. She still loved Annabeth, her little sister, and she still loved Luke, her brother, and her heart ached so much at the thought of Jason, her actual little brother. Her blood boiled at the thought of Beryl Grace, and her disdain was immense for the sky god. But ultimately, overshadowing all of this was Emily.
The girl who'd been kidnapped right after witnessing her mother's assassination, then spent months in captivity, alone and with no shoulder to cry on after having her life destroyed. Until life picked back up when Corvo rescued her, and then slowed back down until she requested that he train her in combat and stealth. And then life really took off when Delilah stole the throne and Emily became a Voidwalker like her father before her.
Daughter, Voidwalker, then wife, mother, widow, and grandmother.
Emily had married Wyman, the man she'd taken a liking to and eventually started dating and exchanging letters with whenever they were apart. They had one child together, their son Euhorn II, named after his maternal grandfather. Wyman contracted cancer and died when the boy was twelve, leaving Emily to manage the empire and her son all by herself until she declared him fit to rule when he was 25, and she happily retired. It was only a few months later that she became the grandmother to little Jessamine II, named after her paternal grandmother in a new tradition.
And in what was apparently also a tradition, poor Euhorn's wife died shortly after her daughter was born. The emperor was hit hard by that, and not even the comfort of his mother helped him. He became cold, distant, focused almost solely on the job. Euhorn the II was a great emperor, but an absent father.
Emily was more or less left to raise her granddaughter Jessamine—a very strange feeling, calling her grandchild the same name as her mother—by herself. She did have servants, of course, being the retired empress, but where was the fun in that? So, in essence, she was actually more mother to Jessamine than grandmother.
She did everything you were supposed to do for a baby: changing diapers, changing clothes, bottles, mushy baby food, toys, playtime, exercise, taking her to the doctor for checkups, etc. Emily toilet trained little Jessamine, and cleaned up her accidents, changing her underwear and her bedding as needed. She took her to the library, out for ice cream, to the pool, to the garden. She was there for the school programs, oversaw the studies, provided tutoring.
She was even there when Jessamine was eleven and woke up one morning to discover that she'd started puberty.
That had been a fun morning.
Emily had two more years with her granddaughter after that. She was 25 when she married Wyman and had Euhorn, 50 when she retired and let her son take the throne, 50 when she became a grandmother, and 63 when she passed away of cancer, ironically enough. Based on the teachings of the then-disbanded Abbey, Emily had fully expected that to be the ultimate end.
Her individuality would cease, and she'd become one with the cosmos.
Except she found herself in the Void with the Outsider.
"Hello, Thalia Grace. Did you have fun being the empress?"
"Huh?" was Emily the Wise's dumbfounded response.
The Outsider reached forward with his finger and tapped her forehead. Emily was seized as the memories of another life came rushing back to her. Thalia, Jason, Beryl, Zeus, Luke, Annabeth, Grover, on the run, monsters, sacrifice, a tree, the offer.
"It's time to go back. You are from that world, and you have responsibility in that world. You will keep all of your powers. You'll need them."
"Wait!" Emily cried out in a panic. Too much was happening at once. "What about my son? What will happen to him? A-A-And my granddaughter? What'll happen to my Jessamine? And what's going to happen to my home? Will they be alright? Will they be safe?"
"What does it matter now? Your life here is over and you'll never see any of them living again."
"I just have to know," Emily pleaded.
"Eventually, they will all become one with the Void."
Emily frowned. She stared at the Outsider. He stared back at her, face completely neutral, black eyes betraying nothing.
You see, that had actually been a joke on the Outsider's part. Though delivered in his usual flat monotone, that had been a smartass response, intentionally delivered just to mess with Emily, and she knew it. She'd interacted with the black-eyed god to get a small feel for his personality, and what he considered to be funny.
"I mean what'll happen to all of them in a more immediate sense."
The Outsider almost seemed to smirk, and his eyes almost seemed to gleam, and Emily knew she was definitely getting exactly what she asked for.
The Outsider vanished in a black wisp, and the Void shifted and changed. Emily found herself standing amidst the scene of a funeral, frozen in time. Everyone around was still as statues, and up there in the casket was Euhorn. A painting made it known he lived for 55 years. He was 38 when Emily passed, and so he only lived 17 more years. A grown-up Jessamine II was delivering the eulogy.
The scene shifted, showing how Euhorn died. It was a battle in the streets, the old Regenters, devotees of Hiram Burrows, architect of the Rat Plague, giving it one last effort to depose the Kaldwin line. Euhorn died fighting to protect his daughter.
The scene shifted again, showing Jessamine's coronation at 30 years old, five years older than her father at his coronation. There were a few more still shots of Jessamine II as empress, finding love in her Royal Protector, her own Wyman. Then it all changed.
Emily gasped as she saw the witch from a lifetime ago, the one that had attacked the Tower, been subdued, and then freed by her fellow witches. Emily could only stand there in mute horror as the Void did not spare any of the gory details of what the witch did, killing babies and toddlers—all girls, Emily numbly noted—taking specific organs from their little corpses, all in the name of some sick ritual.
Emily saw the witch and a very handsome man with black hair and green eyes hugging and kissing in a way that was far too pure and true for what the witch had been doing. Then Emily saw the culmination of it all: a little boy with green eyes and black hair, and a face like that of the witch.
Her son.
Her creation.
Emily then saw several more still shots of the boy through the years as he grew up, as the witch trained him, as she molded him to become a killer. No doubt in the name of revenge.
Confirmed to be in the name of revenge.
Emily's heart ached in her chest as she watched helplessly as the boy rampaged through Karnaca, wiping out the Grand Guard, the Overseers, and destroying the Grand Palace, killing the Duke therein. Then she saw the boy in Dunwall, and her blood boiled over when she next saw him standing over the corpse of Jessamine, arms crossed in an "X," gas mask on, blood dripping from the blades of his tonfas.
The setting of the Tower changed to show the boy standing in a bedroom that had been converted into a small hospital. Two children were in the beds, an older girl and a younger boy. Emily could tell just by looking at them that they were siblings, even siblings with the boy. Emily saw some still images of the boy fighting two huge sea monsters, then fighting a whole coven of witches, then fighting a huge beast of a man with one eye, then fighting a young man on the deck of a ship while other teenagers and monstrous humanoids stood around and watched. Then Emily saw the boy placing a strange golden blanket atop his siblings, and the scene changed to show the two alive and well, the three embracing in a tight group hug.
Then Emily was treated to dozens of rapid still shots as the Void showed her a summer camp, the siblings having a ball together. Finally, the Void finished its little story by showing the siblings in what was obviously some kind of dress code, heading up the stairs to a school. Emily saw the name.
The Void's modern imagery faded back to its usual display of floating rocks.
"That was Perseus Breanna Copperspoon," the Outsider said as he rematerialized. "Son of Sally Copperspoon, Delilah's adopted little sister, and Poseidon, Greek god of the sea and brother of Zeus, your father. By all rights, Perseus is your cousin."
"I'm going to kill him," Emily hissed. "He killed my granddaughter!"
The Outsider let out a noncommittal hum. He almost sounded disappointed with the empress's declaration.
"Like you, he bears my Mark. He is well-trained, and highly skilled. It will not be easy to kill him. However, to make things interesting, I will grant you two new powers…"
Emily grunted when the Mark on her hand burned. In her mind, those two powers popped into place: Windblast and Lightning Blast.
"A fair warning," the Outsider said. "There is more to Percy than he simply killed your granddaughter. Before you decide to take his life, watch him and observe. Or else you may find yourself sharing your granddaughter's fate sooner than you would like."
Emily glowered at the black-eyed bastard.
"One more thing before I send you on your way."
"What?" the empress demanded tersely.
The Outsider leaned in uncomfortably close.
"I expect a good show."
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And so Emily had woken up, back in her old body, her first body. It felt great being young again, and this youthful demigod form was leagues better than her old body ever was. On the back of her left hand was her Mark.
She could feel the Void.
Did it cross Emily's mind that there was no real point in going after Percy? That it was futile and moot based on the fact that they weren't even in their world anymore, and would never be back? Yes, those thoughts went through Emily's mind, and she defeated them both.
Right world or not, currently on the throne or not, Emily was still an empress of the Isles. She still had a duty and responsibility to her people. Percy had gone on a rampage through Karnaca and butchered probably dozens of people, toppling the economy, and causing untold amounts of chaos and destruction. Never mind how he was a Voidwalker, which was heresy and illegal in and of itself, but the many counts of murder instantly guaranteed the death penalty.
Something Empress Emily was not afraid to carry out.
During those two months of exile while Delilah was falsely ruling, and Emily had been stalking the streets of Karnaca, she'd been listening to the Heart, sometimes just to hear her mother's voice. The secrets the Heart revealed to Emily about so many guards that she hadn't hesitated to kill those men on the spot.
When it came to capital punishment, the empire did not fuck around. You committed a crime that deserved death, you were going to die practically the same day of conviction. And not even something ceremonious like an injection, but something simple like being shot in the head.
Multiple times.
Or you'd just have your head chopped off.
The point was that Emily had not ever been shy about carrying out a death sentence. In fact, when it came to Imperial courts, if a case managed to work itself through all the district and appellate courts, the Office of the Empress served as the equivalent of the United States Supreme Court. If a case made it all the way up to Emily, she was judge and jury, and if she wanted, executioner as well.
Sometimes she did. Sometimes a creature so vile ended up in her personal courtroom that she had zero hesitation in killing that person herself.
So, in the name of the Empire, and in the name of all the people he'd killed, the lives he'd ruined, the chaos he caused, the destruction he wrought, Percy would face Imperial justice.
And also in the very personal pursuit of revenge.
Oh, yeah, Emily wasn't going to lie to herself. The little bastard had killed her granddaughter. She wasn't going to take that sitting down, or try to rationalize or justify her chosen course, or undergo some kind of moral discourse on the merits of revenge. Percy had killed her beloved little Jessamine—a capital offense itself, killing the empress—and she was going to kill him.
Corvo's hands hadn't been clean when he was working with the Loyalists to bring down the Lord Regent, and her own hands hadn't been clean when she'd been working to bring down Delilah. Empress Emily was a killer like her father before her, but she was not a murderer.
She killed with a purpose, a just and righteous cause, and pursuing the life of a person, boy, girl, man, woman, or otherwise, for the crimes of dozens of counts of murder, and the assassination of beloved family, was about as righteous and just as it got.
But she wasn't called Emily Kaldwin the Wise for nothing.
This was a whole new old world. She remembered how things worked when she was just Thalia, like schools, police, America, and she had seen where Percy was at now with his siblings. A middle school. Drowning in hormones and acne that place was. And also a restricted area.
She couldn't just go waltzing into the school, announce herself as the empress, and declare the death penalty upon Percy for his crimes. Other than being an officially registered student of the United States, he was also brother to Tea and Bell, children of Poseidon. There was also the gods and all of the demigods here. From what Emily had seen, Percy had made acquaintances, ones that would stick up for him.
She was going to have to be very careful in how she pursued her "cousin."
Emily took a deep breath.
It was night, the air was crisp and cool, and she was alone at the top of the hill—her hill. The tree named after herself stood tall and strong next to her, the Golden Fleece hanging from a low branch, powering Camp Half-Blood's magical borders.
In the things the Void had shown her of the place, it looked like a total blast for an adolescent demigod. Percy and his siblings certainly had a good time here. She hadn't seen Annabeth or Luke in any of the Void's visions, so she hoped they were alright. That they weren't dead.
Man, what was she going to tell them? What was she going to tell anyone? Did she pretend to just be Thalia Grace, keeping her life as Emily and the Mark a secret? Did she dash Thalia completely, and announce herself as the empress? Or did she admit the truth, that she was Thalia Grace, and at the advent of her transformation into a tree, she was taken by the Outsider and lived the life of Emily?
And to one effect or the other, did she make her intentions with Percy known?
Pondering these things, Emily the Wise decided that the best course of action was to remain totally anonymous. To anyone that looked, she was a punk rock girl. Ripped black jeans, black leather jacket, spikey black hair, metal bracelet on her wrist that transformed into a shield with Medusa's face on it, and a can of mace that transformed into a spear. It was the school season, and Thalia didn't look like she was beyond high school, so that might be a problem.
However, she had plenty of experience in sneaking around places where she wasn't supposed to be.
Emily Kaldwin—no, she wasn't just Kaldwin anymore. She couldn't deny who she used to be and now currently was and wasn't.
Emily Grace looked over the nighttime grounds of Camp Half-Blood, hoped that she might return one day and reunite with Annabeth and Luke, and then turned around. She headed West for Manhattan.
She had an assassin to kill.
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For the first time in his life, Percy was actually understanding what it felt like to have ADHD. Coming from a childhood in which he was allowed to do pretty much anything he wanted, whenever he wanted, he was never bored or at a loss as to what to do. He could always go for a run or a climb; he could always ask for sword lessons; he could always play with his projectile weapons, or just any weapon period; and once he got the Mark, then it was a whole new realm of fun and entertainment.
School, however…
Restricted to this desk, forced to sit there as the teacher went over this thing called a syllabus, Percy could understand why demigods hated school. It was just so boring, and that ADHD brain locked onto even the slightest disturbance. The second hand ticking by, someone reaching into their bag, a fly, the other fly, dew rolling down the window, the second hand ticking by—aaaaaand the teacher finally finished one sentence.
Ms. Goodwin was her name, Percy's first period teacher. Seventh grade English.
She was of average height for a woman, above average weight, glasses, brown hair pulled into a short ponytail, and she smelled like cats and coffee.
Percy already didn't like this woman, not that he liked many adults in the first place, but he particularly didn't like this one. She kept looking at him. Every other word out of her mouth she was glancing at Percy with a critical eye. No doubt she was comparing him to his siblings, trying to figure out how much of a problem he was going to be compared to them.
Percy hadn't taken any meds like Tea and Bell did, since he hadn't been tested or anything or given some kind of court order to take medication. If Percy had to guess, Goodwin was under orders—or was just going above and beyond—to observe him and see if he needed to be lumped in with the other Gates kids. It made him want to cut her eyes out.
Maybe he would later tonight.
Once the teacher finally finished the syllabus, going over how homework and grades and projects would be graded, how late assignments would be graded, the hall pass policy, the late to class policy, expected conduct, etc., stuff Percy really couldn't bring himself to pay attention to because the ticking second hand on the clock was so much more interesting, she switched gears.
"Alright, class. I'm going to hand out your own copies of the syllabus. You need to have your parents look over it and sign it, and you need to turn it in to me on Friday. Since we have 45 minutes of class left, we're going to introduce ourselves. Any volunteers who want to go first, or do I just need to go down the roll sheet?"
Predictably, there were no volunteers, and so Ms. Goodwin went down the list. Percy was number four, with the three before him bearing an "A" last name and two "B" last names. As far as his new paperwork went, he was Perseus Breanna Copperspoon-Gates. The hyphenated Gates was to represent his official adoption by Wendy, something that Percy only allowed because it signified that he was the official sibling to Tea and Bell.
He already had a mother that he loved very much, and he was not going to tolerate any attempts by Wendy to subvert Sally in any way, shape, or form.
Percy stood before his English class, aware of all the attention he was getting. The name "Gates" was known throughout the Manhattan area. But of course it was; not only did word travel fast amongst the mothers that were part of the PTO, but it was last year that Tea and Bell made national headlines for "kidnapping" their mother, "blowing up" a transit bus in New Jersey, "destroying" the St. Louis Arch, and engaging a "domestic terrorist" in a "gunfight" on the beaches of Santa Monica.
The Lightning Thief quest as covered by the Mist-addled media.
Of course the Gates siblings were well known. And then suddenly a new brother pops up out of nowhere with a weird name. A girl's name for a middle name, "Breanna," and a funny last name, "Copperspoon." What kind of name was Copperspoon?
In accordance with the dress code, Percy was wearing a black polo shirt tucked into navy shorts with a black leather belt going through the loops. His rings were visible on his fingers, and his snap bracelets were just as easily seen.
Was Percy nervous standing before the class? Not at all. He'd killed an empress; what were a bunch of kids?
"Hello, I'm Perseus Breanna Copperspoon-Gates. Tea's my big sister, Bell's my little brother. We have the same dad. I like spending time with my siblings, and I don't like people who give them a hard time because they're different." Then, just to entertain himself, he asked, "Any questions?"
Hands went up, but a boy instead opened his mouth.
"If Tea and Bell have the same mom and dad, but you three have the same dad, but you're younger than Tea and older than Bell, doesn't that mean your dad cheated on their mom?"
"No," Percy answered simply. "Next question?"
The boy was totally miffed at being so casually rebuffed.
Funnily enough, since Poseidon had wondered into the Void back during the 1770s, during the American Revolution, that technically set Percy's creation 220 years before Tea was conceived between Poseidon and Wendy, meaning Poseidon really didn't cheat on the Gates woman since it would be two centuries before Poseidon met her.
Percy pointed at a girl.
"Do you have ADHD and dyslexia like Tea and Bell say they do? My daddy says their mom is lying to try and cheat the school system for some handouts."
Percy's lips quirked up as his eyes adopted a dangerous twinkle that went unnoticed by these juveniles. "Don't know about myself. Haven't been tested. Your daddy is wrong. Next question?"
Just like the boy, the girl recoiled at being dismissed.
Now, a comment like the girl had made, bringing to light her father's accusations against Wendy, should've been enough of an event to warrant action on the teacher's part. At the very least, a sharp bite of the girl's name in a scold, or a trip to the principal's office at the most for disorderly conduct or something. Bullying, perhaps. Instead, Ms. Goodwin kept quiet, her bespeckled eyes focused solely on Percy.
She wasn't a monster, Percy knew that much. At least, not a mythological monster. As far as human monsters went, well…she did seem to have a particular out for Percy, like she was compiling evidence during an undercover operation.
"What are those rings and bracelets?" another girl asked.
"They're rings and bracelets," Percy said. "Next question?"
"Where's your mom at?" a boy asked with no small amount of maliciousness.
"In here," Percy tapped his chest without missing a beat.
"Oh, so she's dead."
"No. I had a Cherokee shaman take my heart out of my body and tie my mom's spirit to it, then he put my heart back in my body so Mom's with me all the time now."
Dead silence reigned as everyone stared at Percy. He continued.
"Since she's a spirit, that means she knows things about people, and she can tell me those things." Percy eyed the boy that had thought he was getting at something with his question about Sally's whereabouts. "For example, you steal and wear your mother's panties."
The boy went pale and stiff as a flagpole, while Ms. Goodwin decided it was time to speak up. She'd let Percy practically be harassed by the other students, but when he fired back, then the line was crossed.
"Alright, that's enough! Percy, in the hall, now!"
Percy shrugged and left the class. He was joined by the teacher seconds later. She looked down on him from a head above with a severe expression.
"I will not tolerate any misbehavior out of you, do you understand me, young man? I've heard the stories about your brother and sister, and I won't be as lenient in handling it as other teachers, got it? From now on, it's straight to the principal's office with you the next time you step out of line. And I'll have security escort you out of my classroom if I have to."
Percy tried very hard to keep the smile off his face. He just barely succeeded in the endeavor. "Yes, ma'am," he nodded.
"Return to your seat and apologize to your classmate. Sincerely. Talking about another student's underwear like that is grounds for sexual harassment, and it's only out of my mercy that I don't write you up this instant and have you expelled."
Whew, boy. The battle got harder to keep from grinning, but Percy maintained control over his facial muscles. Just for the sake of Tea and Bell, calling upon the conversation he'd had months ago with Dr. B about actions and consequences, Percy refrained from slicing this woman up and turning her corpse into a puddle of seawater.
He entered the classroom, prepping his lying voice, but what he saw made him stop in his tracks, Ms. Goodwin running into him.
"What are you—what in the…"
The boy that Percy insulted had been assaulted by two other boys and a girl. The boys had him pinned over his desk and the girl had untucked his shirt and reached down inside of his shorts to yank out his underwear. Revealed to the class was a bubblegum pink thong with Victoria's Secret written in white letters patterned around the waistband with a stylized heart separating each iteration of the name.
Everyone was too stunned and mystified by the fact that the boy was indeed wearing what was apparently his mother's panties. Percy had called it.
Ms. Goodwin stared at the assassin with wide eyes and a slightly agape mouth, while the class had turned their heads at the sound of the door. They also stared at Percy in shock, so much shock that no one was laughing or jeering at the poor boy having his thong wedgied harder than it naturally was.
The three bullies kind of just slid away, while the panty-wearing boy adjusted his shirt and buried his face into his arms upon the desk.
Percy returned to his desk with a smirk.
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The rest of English passed in tense, self-conscious silence. The bell rang to signal the end of First Period and the beginning of the five-minute passing period to get from the current class to the next class. In an attempt to limit the foot traffic, the school had been designed with wings, one for each of the grades, fourth through eighth, with the cafeteria, fine arts wing, and the boy's and girl's gyms being placed amidst the structure.
Percy's Second Period—he didn't like the use of the word "period" on account of having lived with Tea for three months in the Poseidon cabin; he'd learned that Annabeth had lied to him about what tampons were—was New York history. The classroom was just down the hall.
A middle-aged lady was the teacher, Mrs. Spurgeon, short, petite, her grey-streaked hair pulled back across her scalp. She wore a blouse and pants under a full-length wool coat. She was nicer than Ms. Goodwin based on first impression alone, in that when Percy walked in, instead of receiving a silent, assessing stare, he got a beaming, welcoming smile.
It still wasn't enough to make him pay attention to the syllabus though.
However, Percy did find great amounts interest in listening to what his mother had to say about his classmates. It certainly made the time go by much faster, listening to his mother reveal the secrets of the other seventh graders to him.
Some had very sad stories, some were just a bunch of budding perverts, and some had some very damning skeletons in their closets.
And Percy knew every bit.
Mrs. Spurgeon handed out copies of the syllabus with the same instructions: sit down with your parents and have them sign it. After she finished that, she occupied the front of the classroom and shared fun stories of times past for the rest of the period. Percy continued soaking up information.
His Third Period class was his first elective for the day. Since he didn't care at all in building his class schedule, Dr. B had done it all for him, and so where he was required to take the four core classes, English, Social Studies, Math, and Science, he needed two electives and one athletic period. His first elective was Robotics. Since the teacher's main focus was the advanced algebra class that she taught, Robotic fell into the category of "blowoff class."
By now, Percy had come to expect classes to pass by slowly for this first day as the teachers went over the syllabus. The Robotics teacher, Mrs. Regian, didn't even do that. She explained quite bluntly that she was not qualified to teach Robotics, that she was the math teacher, and work would be very light to the point of nonexistent.
Percy passed through the period by himself in the back corner, listening to his mother talk about everyone. No one approached Percy here, just like none of them reached out to him in History. To anyone that looked at him, they saw him staring blankly off into space. They wrote him off as weird and didn't bother him.
Which was good.
He wondered how long it would take for the news to spread about how he'd been right about that boy wearing his mother's panties.
Third Period ended with a shrieking bell, and Fourth Period Math was underway. Typical of a Math class, the teacher, a short, squat, overweight, older woman called Ms. James, handed out the syllabus and got right to work in teaching the first lesson, how to compute the percentages of numbers, and how to get a percentage based on a fraction.
Leave it to the math teacher to actually do work on the first day of school.
And something interesting about Percy's teachers so far: the first one was out to get him, the second one was nice to everyone, the third was uncommitted to everyone, and the fourth was just out to get everyone. Ms. James was short-tempered and as crass as you could be with students at the seventh-grade level without getting into overt trouble.
After Fourth Period came Fifth Period Homeroom/lunch. This particular period was unique in that it was split in half, with 30 minutes being dedicated to lunch for those that had "A" lunch, being the fourth, fifth, and half the sixth graders, then 30 minutes of homeroom, while it was the opposite for the ones with "B" lunch, the other half of the sixth graders, the seventh graders, and the eighth graders. They had homeroom then they got to go eat.
Homeroom was nothing special, though Percy did get to discover the library. A huge space in the school with a high ceiling, big windows that let one enjoy a great view of skyscrapers, and high shelves filled with all kinds of books. The idea behind it was that you were to use this time to start on any homework you had, or finish it, or just rest a moment and take a break. Percy used the time to once again learn all the dirty little secrets of his classmates.
The bell rang, and there was a veritable stampede to the cafeteria. The Gates children were smart, however, and had packed their lunches. A simple spread of a couple of PB&J sandwiches, a small package of chips, a small package of some Oreo's, and a Capri Sun juice pouch.
The cafeteria was big, with alcoves along the far wall for the lunch lines. A whole bunch of cheap, crappy school food in one line, and expensive, delicious food in another line.
Percy did not spend lunchtime learning everyone's secrets. He found his sister sitting alone at the edge of a table at the edges of the cafeteria.
"Hi," he chirped when he sat down next to Tea.
Tea managed smile. She looked horrible.
"Meds?" Percy asked unhappily.
Tea nodded. "They hit the heaviest a few hours after I take them. They're supposed to help me focus, but they just make me really sleepy. My head hurts and I feel like a zombie. And I need to poop."
Percy frowned, not at his sister's bluntness, nor at her description of what the meds did to her, but at why she simply didn't get up and go to the restroom. The siblings had many conversations over the summer as they learned about each other, and one of those talks was about how Tea and Bell had gotten expelled from every daycare and school they'd been to. As it happened, the reason they were kicked out from last year's school was because had gone to use the restroom and found herself cornered by a clique of bullies.
They tried to shove her head down inside the toilet for a swirly, only Tea destroyed the plumbing, making the water explode out of the toilet and out of the pipes in the wall. The clique predictably lied and spun the story that they'd been doing their makeup when Tea walked in a detonated a bomb. Authorities got involved on that, a student bringing a bomb to school and setting it off, but no evidence was found of any bomb. Still, the destroyed bathroom was pinned on Tea, and she was expelled.
Bell got himself kicked out along with his sister by confronting his own bully of the year, breaking his arm like a Cheeto.
The two refused to go to separate schools if the could help it, which meant that they were in for an interesting time year when Tea became a high school freshman and Bell was only a fifth grader.
Anyway, Tea vowed she would never go into another school restroom, and resigned herself to having to hold it until she got home, no matter how bad it felt. Of course, the biggest tragedy to that whole episode was that where Tea had walked in needing to relieve herself, almost got swirlied and destroyed the pipes, she walked out no longer actually needing to use the toilet.
She did need a shower and a change of clothes, however.
"How's classes going so far?" Percy asked.
"Meh. The teachers are all watching me, and the kids are all smirking at me. I already know who my bullies this year are going to be."
Another thing talked about was how in every school and daycare, they'd always been singled out by some group of hoodlums.
"And no, I don't want you to kill them," Tea added before Percy could suggest it.
"I wasn't going to kill them," he said innocently.
"I don't want you to main them or injure them, either. They're just a bunch of little assholes. They don't need to be killed or crippled."
"I wasn't thinking about doing that either."
Tea looked at her brother with eyes that were tired from her meds. "Then what's your plan regarding the little turds that have decided to torment me?"
"Publicly humiliate them so bad they can never show their faces here again."
"…I shall allow this. But I don't want to know what it is."
"Got it. How's Bell?"
"I guess he's alright. We're in different wings of the school. Haven't seen him, and he hasn't come running for me, and no one's come to get me about him."
"Same."
"How's your classes?"
"I'm probably going to kill my English teacher before th month is over. She's annoying. My History teacher is alright, and the Robotics teacher is meh. She doesn't really care for the class since she's really the Math teacher. The Math teacher I have is just mean to everyone."
"Doesn't sound too bad," Tea said.
"Not really. I spent most of the time listening to Mom and what she had to say about everyone."
"Oh? And what did she have to say about everyone?"
"They're personal secrets and stories. Really cool stuff."
"Sounds cool. I wish I could know the secrets of my classmates. I could blackmail them so they stay away."
"Why do you and Bell always have some group of kids targeting you?" Percy asked. "Come to think of it, all the demigods at camp say they have problems with schools and their homes."
"I asked Chiron about that. He said it's because we're heroes. Heroes have to be strong so they can save the day, and one of the ways we're made strong is through personal suffering. Broken homes, tragic backstories, bullying, etc. Kind of like how you make a sword strong by putting it in a fire a bunch of times and hitting it with a hammer really hard, demigods are supposed to go through hell so we can be strong. Apparently, we're all magically inclined to be tragic."
Percy frowned. "I don't have a broken home or a tragic backstory."
Tea smiled. "You're not a hero, Percy. You're a magical assassin."
"Oh, yeah."
It was the truth and Percy wasn't bothered by it in the slightest. If anything, he was a menace to society. He was the villain in just about any story that could be told about him. He did ruthlessly slaughter, like, half the population of Karnaca, and then he plunged the empire into chaos by murdering the empress. Yeah, not really a hero.
So, if he wasn't a hero, then he didn't get a tragic backstory.
Not even what happened to his mom could be considered truly tragic, since the only thing about her now was just that she and her son couldn't touch. They could see each other and hear each other, and while not being able to hug certainly hurt, it wasn't too much of a loss compared to what was still had.
Lunch finished and the bell rang.
Sixth Period was Science with Mrs. Dodson, a teacher with the same inclination as Ms. Goodwin. She kept an eagle's eye on Percy the whole time, as if eager to jump at the slightest misstep on his part. Seventh Period was Percy's second elective, Theater Arts. It had the air of a blowoff class, but the Ms. Nelson strongly disagreed with that sentiment.
Eighth Period was where it got interesting.
For grades four, five, and six, they had no other PE class they could take besides gym. For grades seven and eight, they could either take gym, and be lumped in with the losers, or they could join the athletics program. The middle school offered basketball for boys and girls, soccer for the boys and girls, football for just boys, volleyball and cheer for just the girls, and track for them both.
Since Percy wasn't a girl, he could not join the volleyball or cheer teams. Since he was a demigod with magically enhanced strength, he was forbidden from playing soccer and basketball on the grounds of potential collisions with other players, and was strictly forbidden from football because it was nothing but contact.
In 2007, anyway.
But, since Percy had no interest in middle school gym, Dr. B went ahead and signed him for track with the idea in mind that he wasn't out there sprinting at 30mph and drawing massive amounts of attention to himself.
For reference, Usain Bolt's top speed was clocked at 27.8mph at Berlin in 2009, two years after this chapter canonically takes place.
Tea also had eighth period track, and by that time, her meds had worn off and now she was as awake and alive as she was supposed to be.
The track coach was a man in his 40's with the appropriate build for a runner, Coach Deelo, and the assistant coach was a woman who also had the right physique for running, Coach Biel. The majority of the students did not look like they were fit for running, and so Percy and Tea stood out with their muscular bodies.
Even more so because they'd already been given their track "uniforms," being a light grey quick-dry shirt with the school's name printed on the front in the school's color, and athletic shorts designed for running, which meant they were really short. Percy honestly didn't like them, because he and Tea and been given the XL shirts since they'd run out of all other sizes, and with the length of the shirt and the shorts, it looked like they didn't have any bottoms on.
Percy didn't like how the boys kept sneaking glances at his sister's butt.
"I'm Coach Deelo and this is my assistant, Coach Biel. It is our job to get you couch potatoes into shape for the coming competitions and meets. To do that, we'll be doing a whole lot of exercising out here, and a whole lot of ignoring those football boys. Now, I don't have a syllabus, but it's pretty self-explanatory out here: pass your classes or you're off the team, be here on time for practice or you're off the team, disrespect your teammates or your coaches, and you're off the team."
Then, looking directly at Percy and Tea, he said, "And if there's any funny business going on, you're off the team. Got it, potatoes?"
There was some lackluster mumbles and moans.
The coach put his hands on his hips. "The proper response is, Yessir, Coach Deelo!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, reaching a volume so high they probably heard him up in the school.
The whole football practice came to a halt to look over at the track coach.
"YESSIR COACH DEELO!" the team started.
"That's more like it! We're going to start easy today. Eight laps around the track and you can head back to the locker rooms and chill till school gets out for the day. Here's these popsicle sticks that I or Coach Biel will mark to monitor your progress."
The coach handed out the sticks.
"Run, get to it, let's go! Go, go, go!"
Everyone took off.
It was a painful sight, watching these out-of-shape lumps of meat try to run the mile. Percy and Tea, however, look like poetry in motion. They didn't run at 30mph, but they did reach 20 and held it as they ran side by side, picking on each other in a little mini competition. They poked and tugged each other and their clothes as they ran, and when they ran past the coaches, they didn't even bother to stop and get the sticks marked.
They had too much momentum in the first place, and the second place was that they just didn't care to. Deelo had pissed them both off.
Being 14 and 13, you could expect Tea and Percy to finish their mile somewhere between ten and twelve minutes, being generous. They were both done before nine minutes was up, and with all the time spent in changing clothes, heading down from the locker rooms to the track, and Deelo's speech, there was still 40 minutes of class left.
The siblings didn't even bother saying anything to either of the coaches. Hell, they didn't even break stride when they went running from the track up the path back to the locker rooms.
"Dick," Tea huffed when they were safe behind closed doors. "But don't kill him, maim him, injure him, or publicly humiliate him."
"Okay."
"That was fun."
"Yeah, it was. I could've beat you though. Really easily."
"Nope. I'm your big sister. You can't beat me. Ever. The universe won't allow it."
"I know the universe is certainly on your side when it comes to smelling worse than I do right now. I can smell your sweaty butt from here."
Tea flushed. "I can smell your butt from over here, too!"
"I mean, yeah. I just farted."
"EWW! Percy!"
The assassin broke into a snickering fit.
They were both in the girls' locker room, putting their school clothes back on because neither one of them was inclined to take a shower in this place. They were fine with drying off in their uniforms and showering when they got home.
Towards the end of the class period was when the other started walking in, faces red, mouths wide open to gulp in as much oxygen as they could get, sweat dripping down their faces like rain. Compared to the siblings who'd only had a moderate amount of drops upon their foreheads and were barely winded.
When the bell rang, the two bolted from the gym and through the halls, dodging the other students as they eventually found Bell. Upon seeing his big brother and sister, the youngest son of Poseidon went flying into their arms for an awkward group hug.
"Did you have a good day?" Tea asked.
With a huge smile, Bell said, "I hate this place!"
"Same," said the older siblings.
They merged with the throngs and left the building. Outside was the source of about 10% of the overall exhaust fumes of Manhattan as so many parents were there to pick their kids up from the first day of school. Wendy was not among this crowd. Wendy was two blocks down and away from everyone.
The kids all piled into the backseat, Tea and Percy sandwiching Bell.
"The school's not on fire and I didn't get any phone calls or emails, so I consider that to be a good enough day," Wendy said. "How was it for you guys?"
"I wanna set it on fire," Percy answered flippantly.
"Only if a really powerful monster attacks and the battle just gets that out of control," Wendy allowed.
"Noted."
"Tea, Bell?"
"Pretty meh. I know who my bullies are this year."
"So do I!" Bell chimed.
"Great," Wendy sighed. "Should I start looking for a new school now?" she asked, only halfway joking.
"Nah," Percy said. "I'll handle them."
Wendy turned the color of milk. "Young man, I'd better not hear about the discovery of bodies, alright?"
Percy stuck his tongue out at her, something Tea elbowed him for because that was her mother up there.
"I'm not going to kill them. Or maim them, or injure them. I'm just going to publicly humiliate them."
"…I shall allow this, but I don't want to know."
Percy snorted.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Wendy pulled into the driveway of the house. "Home, sweet home," she sighed.
It had been a long and stressful day for her as she dreaded the phone ringing or an email popping up on her computer from the school.
"We're having Hamburger Helper for dinner, tonight, kids. Cheeseburger macaroni, and some green beans. And since it's the first day of school, I figure we'd bake some brownies for desert. Sound good?"
"Yeah!"
Bell and Tea clambered out of the car and to the door, Tea using her copy of the house key to get inside. They got the stuff for dinner out and turned on the stove, and Wendy followed at a sedate pace. She turned her head when she noticed an absence.
"Percy? Is everything alright?"
A lead cannonball settled in her stomach.
Percy was looking around with a look on his face. "Go inside. I'll join you guys in a little bit."
Wendy paled. Her eyes darted around, scanning everything. At 5:16 on this late August evening, the shadows were getting long.
"Go. Inside," Percy said with more force in his tone, more warning.
Wendy hurried inside her home, praying to Poseidon that her adopted son would be alright in whatever was going on.
"I know you've been following us since we left the school. Now get out here before I kill you."
And from around the corner of the house, back far enough along the wall that she hadn't been seen, came a girl dressed like she was going to a punk rock concert.
"You're Thalia Grace," Percy said with a raised brow. "I've seen you in a few pictures. I thought you were a tree."
"I was. The Fleece brought me back."
"And you came all the way here from Camp Half-Blood to say thank you, right?"
Percy rubbed his thumbs on his rings, and the action brought his tonfa swords to life in his hands.
"Not even close. While I was a tree, the Outsider came for me and offered me a choice. I could stay in limbo, or I could live another life." 'Thalia' brought out her can of mace, transforming it into a bronze spear with a tip that crackled with little sparks of lightning. "I am Empress Emily Drexel Lela Grace, and in the name of the citizens of Karnaca, in the name of the Empire of the Isles, and in the name of my granddaughter, Empress Jessamine II, I declare your life forfeit."
Percy tilted his head to the side. "Huh. In that case I'd rather not kill you just yet. I want to ask you something."
"What?" Emily barked.
"What really happened between Delilah and the first Jessamine? What's Delilah's true story?"
"What does that matter?"
"Well, I grew up being told that Delilah was the firstborn of Euhorn and a maid, and that when Jessamine broke a burial urn and pinned it on Delilah, the emperor saw it as the perfect opportunity to get rid of the proof of his infidelity. He kicked Delilah out onto the streets, where she had to beg and starve, and her mother was beaten to death and tossed into a mass grave. Then she was sealed into Void by Daud, and when she returned and claimed the throne, she was then sealed into the Void again, permanently, by you. And when Mom came to get revenge, you were going to execute her, but she was rescued and made me to get revenge for her since you stole her powers.
"However, your daughter told me something different, that it was Delilah's mother that broke the urn during an argument with Euhorn. She wanted more and he wouldn't give it to her, so she attacked him. The urn was broken and the guards came in and took her away, throwing her out of the Tower along with Delilah. But Euhorn looked after them, sending them money that was wasted on drinks and gambling. Delilah's mother ended up in debtor's prison, and she took all her anger out on Delilah, beating her, and when she finally died after attacking one of the prison guards, it caused Delilah to become delusional, spinning her own story about how she ended up where she was.
"And you're here to kill me for what I did, but I did all I did because of what Mom told me to do based on what Delilah told my Mom. So, if everything I did was because of a delusional lie, I'm just going to break your spine and let you go. But, if everything I did was based on the truth, that Delilah and her mother were unfairly expelled from the Tower, then I'm going to kill you. So, what's the truth, then?"
"And why would you trust anything I say?"
"Because there's no reason to make this complicated. You're here to kill me. I'm not ready to die yet. We're going to fight. How hard I fight depends on either a yes or a no. Is Delilah telling the truth, or is she not?"
"Do you know what the River Styx is?"
"One of the five rivers of the Underworld. It's the oath one. You swear unbreakable oaths on it."
"Yes. I swear on the River Styx that Delilah's story about being unfairly blamed and banished from the Tower is the result of her fractured psyche and delusional mind."
A crack of thunder sealed Emily's oath, and after a few seconds in which she didn't burst into flames or something, Percy shut his eyes tight and sighed.
"All of that for a lie," he said quietly. "I exist based on a lie…"
Emily felt a small pang of sympathy and pity for the amalgamation before her, this thing of black magic and harvested organs, but she pushed that pang aside with thoughts of her dead granddaughter and all the innocent people of Karnaca.
"I'm sorry that's your life," Emily said, "but that doesn't excuse anything that you did in Karnaca or Dunwall. For the crimes you committed, it's my job as empress to see you punished. And the punishment is death."
"Whatever," Percy said lowly.
He wasn't even going to bother arguing with Emily over how that didn't even make sense seeing as how they weren't even in the right world anymore, or would ever be going back.
He just used Displacement to get behind her, only for her to whip around, swinging her spear like a baseball bat. The shaft collided with Percy's tonfas, and Emily put a dosage of Windblast into it. The concussive force knocked Percy through the air.
He twisted and landed on the roof of the next house over.
The battle had begun.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
So…does Emily Grace die in the next chapter, or does she live? Does she live with a crippling injury? Does she turn around and become an ally, or does she go and join Luke for another shot at Percy?
Whose side are you on? Are you with Emily, in that in the name of revenge for her granddaughter and justice for the people of the Empire, that Percy deserves death, or do you think Percy should be forgiven since all that he did was based on an unintentional lie?
Yes, while it is never confirmed in canon just what Delilah's true story is, here, in this story, her true story is that she went mad and mentally rewrote the truth of the matter as a coping mechanism for her grief, anguish, and pain.
Also, I strongly thinking about taking Chaos War down and rewriting it. There's some scenes I feel that could be done better. Besides that, with Sea Devil and Transcendence unfinished, the story can't go anywhere. Just some things to think about.
I welcome and appreciate everyone's input.
Fav, Follow, and Review please!