Happy Halloween! Quick bonus chapter for this ostentatiously spooky day, probably another on Thanksgiving, but still no recurring updates until December.
Important info now, promise, the following chapters will not contain any actual book dialogue, as that has been edited out due to the site's rules. You can read the individual chapters with book context if you request a link to a google doc, or once the fic is complete I can email you the whole thing, it's up to you.
PJOPJOPJOPJO
The other thirteen books were neatly stacked and organized now. The blue book with a yellow 2 on the spine was sitting in the spot Percy had been in yesterday for him to read when he came in.
The other option had been a book of brightest pink with a green 2 on the spine, and Alex had never met Percy, so it felt obvious to check that one last before she'd even skimmed through it.
The last had been the only other real shot, it was seafoam blue-green with the roman numeral for two on the spine, but she'd flipped open the first page and saw there was no bizarre chapter title, and yet there was one waiting for them about this upcoming wedding dress in her selection.
What, exactly, all of these colors did have to do with each of them though she was still pondering with little sleep. It had barely taken five minutes to sort them all out and the rest of the night to sit in silence on her beanbag and contemplate her options when she went back; plus fighting all of her self control not to read at least that particular one she'd bet her heritage on contained her experience... but no. Percy's life was being revealed without his control, as were the others around here, and she had no shame in revealing her own in due time.
...
Magnus couldn't remember the last time he'd slept in a real bed. It made his sleeping bag back in the park feel inadequate for the first time in months, how easy it was to fall into a routine for forgetting that wasn't normal.
He wasn't sleeping much though, as Hearth sat on the end of his bed, playing with the fringe of his scarf. They were worried about Blitz and how much he was probably freaking out about them just up and missing, and yet Magnus's thoughts kept flickering to everything else in the greater world he also didn't know about. He'd never felt so small in his life being trapped at the bottom of the ocean knowing a god was probably responsible for sending those wolves after his mother because of whomever his father was.
Yet the thing really keeping him awake was the question he'd asked Hearth, and Alex's determined face when she'd declared herself genderfluid. 'Tired?'
Hearth had simply nodded and followed him out, but clearly wasn't going to luxuriate in his own bed as he still sat down there eating a bag of chips. To be fair, the guy had no idea how loud and distracting that was.
The white noise of crunch, crunch, crackle on repeat as his friend got up to get another bag after he finished the last one was a pretty good comparison to how his mind still felt as Alex kept rolling her mismatched eyes at him.
...
Jason wasn't catching any sheep either no mater how many he counted, he kept standing in his empty room feeling as out of place and empty as his mind still was. Every time he stepped towards the bed, it felt wrong. He didn't know what was missing from the plain walls or bedding, but he knew he wasn't going to sleep, so he took to pacing the halls restlessly, half surprised someone didn't come out and shout at him for nosing around.
His feet quickly took him to the last door after he'd mapped out the rest of the place and thought maybe it was not having a feel for their entire location that had him so ill at ease, and went up to the roof.
Taking in the view was the last thing he did, as the first thing he saw was Nico, hunched over the forgotten city. His shaggy black hair a mess around his face, his grip white knuckled along the railing as he took calming breaths.
He seemed younger than any of them, an unfair assessment Jason associated with his mean stature and often green tones to his olive skin, yet Nico had no memory loss to speak of to blame for that. He carried himself like a practiced warrior when he walked and even sat on the edge of his seat, the black attire and even skull ring made him seem older rather than a child playing dress up, but there was something inherently fragile in his visage that made him think of a little kid.
Torn between offering comfort and leaving him to his peace, the choice was taken from him when the guy straightened up and looked around right at him. His voice was calm and level when he told, "I have a deal for you."
Jason hesitated, he doubted he had anything he could offer Nico since he felt lucky to know his own name and nothing else, what did he have to give in return? Nico took the choice from him again by saying, "I might know where you're from."
He jolted forward like somebody had flipped a switch and he was standing in front of him, holding his coin threateningly as he demanded, "what?"
Nico smiled, it was a grim expression that made the little hairs on his arm stand on end. "I found another camp recently, out in your precious California. I never got close enough to be certain, just did a little looking on from afar, but it would make sense. They wore purple a lot." There were a million unmarked tunnels in the Underworld, and he'd been poking around each with little sleep in between. The place had fascinated him deeply even before he stumbled across what felt quite like another world of kids he recognized...but didn't. He'd shadow traveled around enough to ascertain they had no prisoners, but he'd decided to do his own recon before seeing if Percy was in there with another trip through the Field of Asphodel, now listening more intently to the whispers to hear of any that had a story to tell he might not be so familiar with.
It didn't matter now he hadn't yet found one of interest he could resurrect and take back to this camp to find out, he knew where Percy was, and where he was headed next.
"I can take you there when we're eventually done if you do something for me," he finished.
Jason was studying him like he was deciding where best to shove that coin for withholding this, but Jason had nobody to blame but himself for not mentioning already his memory loss, perhaps if he had Nico wouldn't now be holding this over his head. That was a stupid plan, he realized now, Thalia had known practically since the beginning. Whatever sense of self preservation he'd been holding onto was quickly fading the more he was around these guys. "Something like?" He hedged, not at all liking the idea of being in this strange guys debt, but this vital news gave him a powerful ache to at least consider it...
"Once your memories are back, I think you'll know," he said dismissively. "Just help me and you'll be welcomed home I'm sure."
The impulse to give his coin a flip was bizarre and one he tampered down on even as Jason rubbed his thumb over the engraved IVLIVS. He felt threatened, but Nico wasn't even reaching for his own sword to unsheathe, just watching him expectantly.
"You never told those other Greek kids about this?" Jason confirmed, and the fact he'd never once lumped himself in with them spoke of his displacement.
"No," he agreed, "there's lots of things those campers have no clue about." He wanted a better look at those temples, see what was in Hades's, but more than that the idea occurred to him that if Rachel could spout the next prophecy, it was possible this other camp might have some more information about Gaea too. Nobody in Hades's domain knew of the Doors of Death, he'd checked repeatedly, but maybe somebody else might.
No, he wasn't stalling about going into Tartarus. He'd made up his mind and had no reason not to. Why not try to get a little more information before he did though while he was trapped here? Make some good out of his forced time spent in here, concentrate on that next time Percy did something.
He was only being vague to Jason because he didn't want to be cruel and start quizzing him on such things now, make him get that same pained expression Percy did when he couldn't remember something properly. If or when Jason did get his full memories back, he'd simply ask to come along as a guide, that's all he wanted, a proper way in instead of sneaking.
Jason was still hesitating, no good could come of such an open ended deal. The idea of him being a hurt child was long gone now, there was something about the way he had so casually kept this a secret he both inherently didn't trust and respected him all the more for it. This guy was the biggest mystery even more than the son of Neptune.
The door opened before he could come to a decision, and Will was now leaning casually there smiling as cheerfully as always. "Is anybody getting some sleep here tonight?"
He was on his toes, clearly wondering if he should leave but watching the proceedings with such open curiosity Jason had no urge to turn him away, he sort of wished for a second opinion.
Nico however gave an exaggerated yawn and muttered agreement, quickly slipping off.
Will gave a disappointed sigh as he watched him leave and hardly waited long enough Nico couldn't not hear Will say on the stairwell to Jason, "I'm glad he's talking to somebody around here."
"Um, we weren't, really," Jason said blankly. Nico had done most of the talking anyways.
Will shrugged and came over to the edge, looking out at the crumbling city. Will didn't know much about Oceanus, just that he was the Titan of the sea before Poseidon took over the job. Apparently the downgraded position hadn't done wonders for his kingdom. The very little movement he spotted below was mostly critters sorting through crumbling buildings, ancient colosseums toppled with moss and urchins, the palace in the distance was only visible in the gloom for its decaying steps. What should have been a huge, sprawling, and well loved place had been forgotten with time.
Whatever Poseidon had promised their host in exchange, he hoped it would make Oceanus happy. It was certainly giving him a thrill lately to be so involved.
There was no air of expectation for conversation as Will stayed casually beside him, just his calming presence and ever glowing smile as he looked at the abyss. Jason wanted to tell him what Nico just had, but he didn't.
Oddly, he wanted to tell Thalia, but he didn't think he'd do that either. He still wasn't sure he wanted to agree at all and wished to come up with that for himself before consulting.
As if he'd sensed his resolution, Will stretched casually, and then gave a cheerful wave as he said, "get some sleep," and walked back out, leaving him more confused than ever what the correct course should be.
...
None of them dreamed, which they found concerning. Thalia had been expecting at least a message from Artemis, but it seemed whatever force was keeping them from the gods also kept their thoughts at least unburdened in sleep, with no way to know what was going on in the world around them.
There was no sense of telling time around here, but they all eventually sat back around in the circular room again. Will was even smiling in delight and offering up some of his eggs to Nico at once when he sat next to him again with no clear reason to, it's not as if he didn't have an abundance of choice for other couches and beanbags present.
He dismissed the food but gave Will a casual hello, trying not to look anymore out of place than he already was so things could go on as they had yesterday. He still enjoyed his anonymity to much to give it up and sit alone in the back where that was more likely to draw questions. Even the annoying prospects of Will trying to talk to him weren't as annoying as he thought they'd be.
Alex came sauntering in somehow in a new outfit than yesterday with the green and pink of his vest reversed, the green pants were artfully ripped up and had pink stitched into some snake design, which was far more distracting to them before he opened his mouth and said, "It is he/him today."
Nico got it this time, seeing in action Alex walk to his seat. There was something in the way he moved, how he held himself, his voice wasn't noticeably deeper but something humanly different in his shape that didn't even seem to be on purpose. Alex still sat in it crooked, his green hair was the same length and his mismatched eyes glinted around at them all with the same taunting smile inviting you to speak and have no idea what answer you'd get. He was doing nothing noticeably different than he had yesterday, but in the same guise as everybody had looked upon first landing and found Alex a she, today, he was a he.
Magnus was already blinking quizzically at him again, the donut falling into his lap, that static noise back in his ears, but he hadn't even noticed Hearthstone was eating cereal for breakfast.
Jason had just finished lacing up one boot and was still doing the other feeling embarrassed for his lapse not being the first ready, he must have been really distracted-
Thalia didn't even get a whole moment to joke about what Artemis would have to say to her about being in a room full of boys, Percy was just picking up the book with a half-eaten burger still in his other hand when-
"I think I got it!" Oceanus appeared literally in the middle of the room, startling all of them and causing an arrow to whiz into his beard and get stuck there. He frowned at Thalia and scolded, "now, now, you weren't the problem, I'm sure of it," his tide-pool eyes traveled over them for a moment before landing on Hearthstone. "Ah, yes, it was you, wasn't it? Here," he snapped his fingers, and the bowl fell to the floor with a shattering splash as somebody else was in his place with milk and Lucky Charms all over his shoes. A boy with curly black hair and brown skin.
The books still stacked on the ground began to flicker, in and out of existence for a moment, and some of them were starting to change colors.
"Hey!" Magnus shouted, jumping away as his hands formed into fists. "Give me back my elf!"
"What the hell!" The poor stranger shouted, looking from them to the marshmallows in his lap.
"Is that still not right?" Oceanus seemed perturbed at all the shouting as he checked something on the palm of his hand. Then he snapped his fingers again and Alex vanished too, to be replaced by a large dude with military-short black hair and his own bow and arrows on his back.
"Alex!" Magnus had never resembled Annabeth more than the moment where he now glowered at the Titan as he contemplated what he was going to do to him to get them back.
"Oh yes, it was you too," he moved to snap his fingers as he eyed him critically. "I'll grab the right kinds this time, I'm sure of it." They all ducked in fear of where his fingers would send them next and the poor Latino kid was clutching his throat, his oddly pointed ears were starting to literally smoke as if he'd catch on fire any second. The other guy was standing there with his mouth hanging open at Jason, an odd plaque hanging from his neck obscuring the golden laurels on his fresh, new purple shirt.
Jason couldn't help it, startling right out of his shoe and trying to stumble forward on a barefoot, but Percy threw his arm up to stop him in concern for what this was.
"Lord Oceanus, please bring them back," Thalia valiantly stepped into his line of sight to keep his attention, "Hearth and Alex, you know, I think they had some valuable insights and were really helping?"
"Hmm," he seemed bored of it already, snapping his fingers as he watched her, each time he did a ripple of waves caused a new person to appear where Magnus was standing. A fair skinned, blue eyed girl in combat boots and a blue streak in her hair, a brown skinned girl with a dark braid and a purple cloak, a curly haired girl with cinnamon brown hair and golden eyes, an Asian girl in ringlets her makeup only half applied, Grover who was taking a huge bit of an apple he spit into the room, then a girl with blonde curls and grey eyes- "If you like, I suppose," he snapped his fingers one last time just as the two boys were starting to recover; Alex and Hearth falling flat on their butts and Magnus was right back where he'd started. "I told Poseidon I'd harbor you three and your close friends, but you half-mortals all look alike. If you don't care who I pulled in, then you continue enjoying yourselves."
"Enjoying!" Alex protested, but he'd already vanished back out of the room.
Magnus was bent over Alex and offering him a hand up, signing with his left hand to Hearth if he was okay.
"Wait, can't you at least bring back-" but the tantalizing glimpse he'd seen, what Annabeth probably thought was a dream, stopped Percy. He realized he was yelling at an empty room and Magnus was looking around carefully with legitimate concern to make sure everybody else was still here and okay. Percy didn't know how to summon a Titan back, nor what would happen if they started making demands like he bring Annabeth here to be trapped in this mess with them. He considered for a few moments going to the nearest mirror and saying Oceanus's name three times, but his eyes fell on the book and he conceded there was at least one sure fire way to keep this moving. It would have to be enough, for now, as he knew somewhere, she was okay.
His splattered burger was already being whisked into the trashcan anyways.
Jason was refusing to glare at Percy as he trudged back to his seat. Magnus's cousin had only been here a brief moment, but Percy had seen her, known her and knew how to get back there. In the collage of random kids that had flashed in here, only the purple cloak of a girl lingered in his mind, but he waffled on anything about her. She'd had dark hair...but her name? How he might have greeted her? He couldn't even remember anymore now than he had yesterday as Percy picked up his book.
"Will?" Nico asked quietly when he alone hesitated going back to a seat, staring at the place where the three Norse kids had nearly been double-ganged by completely different people.
"Um, yeah, coming," he agreed as he flopped down in his seat by Nico again, but the idea lingered in his mind. If they'd been pulled in here by accident, than likely he had too. Sure he knew all of the Big Three's kids, but never more than just a causal hello at camp. His eyes flickered to Jason with even more confusion how Nico might apparently know him, and then down to his own hands for a moment as he wondered who was really supposed to be here, because it probably wasn't him.
Percy was reading the chapter title still wondering what a normal life was like. "I just want it on record, Grover never so much as mentioned a girlfriend! And I'd better be best man."
"Young love?" Magnus looked just as confused but at least interested to hear what satyr customs could be going on. "Oh crud, they don't have arranged marriages do they?" He suddenly asked in concern.
"Um, no," but Will didn't sound very confident either as he exchanged a look with Thalia. Great, they were right back to only knowing the end results with only a vague idea of the madness in-between, leaving them just as confused as everybody else at least half the time.
"The real question is where are you taking him for the bachelor party," Nico sounded more confused than anything though. Wasn't this the summer he was taken by a cyclops?
"I adore nobodies questioned the dress," Alex approved with a boisterous laugh.
"That is the least weird thing we've heard yet," Jason rolled his eyes. "At this rate cross dressing satyrs is on the same level as minotaur's chasing you in their undies."
"Great, more of these things," Magnus sighed, extremely grateful he hadn't seemed to get any last night.
"Why am I not surprised the crazy's starting in Florida," Alex nodded.
'Even among the nine realms, this place does get the most crazy's it seems' Hearth agreed. Alex watched with keen interest and repeated the gesture for crazy much to Magnus and Hearth's amusement.
"Unexpectedly or not," Will nodded sagely.
"Is the minotaur a deal breaker in that, because otherwise," Alex trailed off suggestively he'd very much like to see that. He'd tried turning into a satyr and centaur over the night and had been unable to manage either, to his disappointment.
"Don't go trying to ruin his wedding now Alex," Thalia chuckled while Magnus was looking a little miffed and telling himself Alex was just joking around.
"Yeah, all that aside," Jason muttered like that still wasn't a strange summary of anyone's life.
"Bridezilla?" Will asked in concern. "He didn't ruin someone else's dress and has to buy a new one does he?"
"I'd be hauling goat tail too if that was the case," Percy nodded.
The less context that was given, the more the fun of this situation began to wear off. Grover was afraid for his life, and Percy had called this a nightmare. He wouldn't be warning anybody about something trivial like a hurricane, which meant whatever was chasing him could very well be the thing stopping any satyr from ever finding Pan.
Percy was leaning forward anxiously in his seat already, tapping his pen against his knee and holding the book lopsided.
Percy was now too, not quite as bad, but the fresh memory lingered in his mind same as if he'd just woken up all over again. He paused to touch the back of his head, trying to convince himself if Grover weren't okay now he'd know, but it wasn't as soothing as he hoped it would be.
"What the hell kind of faulty logic is that?" Jason frowned. "You scaled a lava climbing wall half of last summer."
"Thank you," Alex scoffed, trying to say it in sign too as that was one he was sure he knew, brushing his hand under his jaw towards him. Once you see someone doing it enough you start mimicking things like that yourself after all, no, he wasn't watching Magnus out of the corner of his to see if he'd done it right.
He apparently didn't, as Hearthstone choked on a laugh and Magnus was watching him with a very strange smile.
"It's, um," he put his fingers against his chin instead and tipped them towards Jason.
"What's the difference?" Alex asked.
"You just, err, flipped Jason off," Magnus politely corrected.
Hearth signed something else, slowly so they could watch, he brushed his hand against the side of his face and his smile increased. "Yeah," Magnus nodded, "at least it wasn't that."
"Cool," Alex looked delighted while Percy cleared his throat theatrically.
"I'll let you take bets on my faulty logic if you let me keep going," he sighed.
"As if we needed your permission to do that before," Thalia rolled her eyes.
"Annabeth would be so proud to see him begging to be reading," Will added with a hopeful smile at Nico. He rolled his eyes and still didn't respond back, but at least wasn't glaring at the door to leave again, yet.
"You're going to explain that, right," Alex left no room in his voice for argument.
"Chiron was worried about me leaving and let me take a few souvenirs," Percy shrugged like this was an accident that could happen to anyone. "Well, we were unpacking some things she'd stored away from Smelly Gabe, and ah, they clashed?"
"You mean crashed," Thalia snorted.
"Mom made me send them all back that weekend," Percy sighed.
"Says the guy who heard a voice from a pit last year," Nico frowned at him strangely. He found it hard to believe Percy wasn't leaping at the chance to go save Grover's life already.
"Didn't you hear? Zeus said we were safe from that," Percy grumbled. Honestly, he'd spent the whole school year with nothing strange happening to him and he'd gotten really good telling himself to stop staring at every pedestrian and oddly shaped meatloaf square and had really wanted to believe that.
"What sort of miracle educational system did your mom find?" Thalia teased. "I'd have thought you'd flunk out from the homework even without monster attacks."
Percy frowned at her, not for the snide remark, but how she'd known he'd gone a whole school year without attacks before he slowly turned back and read.
"I think that teacher was doing you a favor, less work for them," Alex smirked.
"Tell that to the scorch marks on his desk," Percy huffed.
"I swear you're jinxing yourself on purpose," Will sighed.
Percy sounded so wistful as he read that out. The jealousy that flowed through the room seeped into the water for a moment as none of them could really relate, the way he could so easily talk to his mother about something like this, a gift none of them had ever gotten.
Percy knew his mother just as well right back, he was shifting so much he expected the words to leap off the page at odd angles. He'd saved the world last year and his mom was still treating him like a little kid, not telling him something was wrong. How long had she been hiding this?
Thalia smiled for the mention of Tyson, the only cyclops she actually liked, but then noticing the pained grimace on Percy's face for clearly only having a vague feeling of who his half-brother was yet to him, she gasped and slugged him on the shirt as she redirected, "you made a normal friend! Grover will feed you to a monster himself for replacing him!"
"Are you calling yourself not normal?" Percy chuckled, taking her eye roll with relief as his headache vanished the moment he stopped trying to think about it.
"A shame that Gabe money couldn't last longer," Alex sighed.
"If something was wrong at camp, shouldn't they want you there?" Jason protested.
"My thoughts exactly," Percy groaned, his mind now swirling with the horrible things Luke could have done in his absence so much, the ocean around them was starting to move the furniture just slightly to the right.
"Percy," Thalia gave him a none so gentle shake. "Focus on the problem at hand, remember?"
"Right, yeah," he sighed, not at all agreeing, but he wasn't getting anywhere by taking it out on them.
Percy swallowed the bitterness and questions and let it all wash away. His mom was still trying her best and he was loath to make that worse.
"I would be too after all I've heard," Jason frowned, distinctly remembering how the place apparently smelled like monsters. It seemed strange Percy hadn't run into any, given the repeated dire warnings of it last time.
"Ominous," Alex said in a mystifying voice. It wasn't hard at all for any of them to remember the new gender pronouns, he'd been making his voice just slightly different enough it seemed to have a masculine edge that he didn't even seem to be doing on purpose. It just seemed natural and not one of them had thought of him as her since he'd walked in.
"Nope, just on the nose," Magnus grinned at Alex, and he still grinned right back.
'That's obviously involved,' Hearth frowned uneasily. Annabeth was not the only invisible person who could be keeping an eye on Percy, and she'd last been mentioned with her father, so she was also least likely.
"What a horrible way to start this one," Percy huffed as he tossed the book to Thalia. "I'd rather kill more math teachers."
"Careful what you wish for," Thalia was frowning just as much as him, not at all looking forward to details about the misadventure that had gotten her out of the tree.
