Hehehehe. Am I mean and evil? Maybe a little bit- poor Sadie, poor Percy, Poor Julius- I love this chapter. I hope you do too.
Replies:
Undeath9087: The KC plotline will be starting very soon- as you can see from this chapter- after all, it all starts on Christmas eve.
Ryan Fowler: I mean, at this stage he'd probably just be super happy that she's alive. Because last he knew Sally was married to a stinking abusive bastard and then she and Percy just disappear.
The Official Clarisse: You'll like this chapter then- and to be fair Sally wanted to try and ease Sadie into it so she's part of the reason he didn't propose so quickly. And truthfully I'm not sure exactly how long it'll be yet.
Superstary: Awe, thank you I'm glad you like it, as for the strengths- Carter and Sadie will definitely be badass- and technically once they're trained they'll be better with magic than Percy- but Percy does have other strengths as well- girl has the best of both worlds, as for how strong she is compared to canon Percy- that's difficult because it changes at different stages- I mean, at nine she's probably stronger than TLT Percy already.
Guest: Yeah, she's gonna be really powerful, not gonna lie. And I can't say too much because it'll be spoilers but I will say that Percy will not be a year rounder at camp. I promise you that.
Julius did propose to Sally, five months after the visit to Sadie- and Julius introduced Sally to Sadie during the next visitation- that didn't go over as well as he'd have liked, but she did soften slightly- only very slightly when Sally offered for her to be a bridesmaid- the wedding was only going to be a small thing but Sadie had seemed happy with that- especially when Sally sent her pictures of dresses to choose from.
Then the big day had come, and Sadie hadn't. Julius had called the Faust's, had had a raging argument with them over the phone, had gone to their house only to find that they'd hidden the invitation from the little girl and she didn't even know that the wedding was that day- and they'd sent her to one of her friends houses.
Sally had suggested postponing the wedding, but Julius had decided against it. It had hurt, not having Sadie there for such an important day- but he was
smart enough to know that the Faust's weren't going to let Sadie be there for her fathers wedding- it was a bitter truth but there was nothing he could do about it.
Of course when Sadie learned that they'd had the wedding without her it soured their relationship even further. Julius had reluctantly- at Sally's counselling, not told her what her grandparents had done- it wasn't as though it would help him get custody- that wasn't ever going to happen, and all it would do would hurt Sadie. It wasn't kind but it was the way the world worked.
The twice yearly visits were always tense and uncomfortable after that, Sally wasn't welcome- and Percy often stayed home with her mother, though she did come occasionally, when Julius asked her too- as she got older she got more skilled at magic- and she was incredibly close with her father- and he was her father, legally, both Percy and Carter had agreed to the adoptions- though Sadie had understandably not agreed.
And when they'd filled out the adoption papers Percy had made a request- her mother had changed her name to Kane shortly after the wedding, and Percy wanted to do the same- when she told Julius that, almost shyly, he had hugged her so tightly that she'd been worried her ribs would break. He'd been incredibly proud, and he and Sally had both agreed, so at seven years old Percy Jackson officially became Percy Kane.
And time passed, when Percy was seven, shortly after she officially became a Kane, and Carter was twelve Sally and Julius rented a nice apartment in Egypt, where Sally settled down for a time- Julius still travelled of course, but Percy and Carter actually went to school for a year- though they were ahead of their classmates due to Julius' advanced homeschooling.
Sally did a writing course during their year long stay- and at the end of the year she published her first book.
Thing were going as well as they could be- other than the Sadie problem. But they were happy. Julius was starting to forget about his worries- about what Ruby had seen all those years ago. Things were going well, he could be forgiven for hoping that perhaps she'd been wrong to be so worried- that they'd been wrong.
Didn't he deserve a second chance, a chance to raise the children?
And then it happened, Percy was nine, Christmas was approaching, it should have been good- she'd grown up a lot since she'd first met Carter and Julius- since she'd learned that she was a demigod and she'd started learning magic. She understood better now why they had to keep it a secret- when she'd turned eight there had been an unfortunate run in with someone from the House of Life, luckily Carter hadn't been with Percy and Julius- but he'd explained to her the truth about the House of Life, that he'd been exiled. He even explained why- though he'd softened the story somewhat. Still, Percy was a smart girl- she'd understood the things he'd told her- and he'd taught her about Magicians and gods- about how they'd bound the gods years earlier- she was young yes, but she was smart. So she knew how Ruby Kane had died- even if she didn't know the details as to why they'd decided to free Bast.
And she also knew that sometimes Demigods had prophetic dreams.
It was two weeks before Christmas that it happened, she'd gone to bed as normal- tired out after a long day- their mom and dad had decided to take a day to themselves- they were in Greece- Percy had begged to visit and as usual Julius had ended up caving- he had learned a lot more about the Greek gods in the years since he'd met Percy and Sally, so that he could teach Percy and Carter all they might need to know when the time came.
In any case, they'd spent the week in Greece visiting ancient sights of interest- and Percy and Carter were trusted to visit sights on their own as long as they stayed together, and they'd spent the day visiting the Acropolis and the Athenian Agora. By the time they returned to the hotel they were both exhausted, and they only just managed to clean themselves up and get themselves some food before they'd padded to their rooms and went to bed.
Percy had slept for perhaps three hours before the dream started- she was in Egypt, flying high in the sky- and she could see the the Great Pyramid below- golden red sand familiar in a way that felt like home- except it didn't feel like home any more because writhing through the landscape was a snake- though snake didn't really do it justice because the snakes head was almost the same size as the Great Pyramid- it was coiled around the other pyramids, it body- it was almost like a red sandstorm. And she could see a familiar hieroglyph blazing on his cobra's crest. Isfet.
Percy whimpered, her eyes wide as she watched an army of tiny dots below desperately attack the giant snake- Magician's she realised. They were so tiny below, so tiny compared to the snake- and she knew, she knew what the snake was- it wasn't hard to figure out. And she watched, helpless as with a flick of it's take the serpent wiped out the majority of the tiny tiny dots below and she heard a loud, deep voice that turned her blood to ice.
"Victory will be mine, the Per Ankh falls!" and then she was jerking awake, hand flying to her chest- her heart was pounding so hard in her chest that she was surprised it didn't wake everyone up.
She swallowed hard, her hand shifting, curling around the amulets hanging around her neck- she had a Scarab, a Tyet- much like Sadies, and an Ankh, all imbued with protective magic that concealed her from gods and monsters alike- specifically all things Greek.
Percy closed her eyes, lips moving slightly as she counted backwards from ten- it was a trick that her dad had taught her to calm herself down after nightmares.
She hadn't needed to use it since she was seven- when she was little she'd often had nightmares about Gabe, but those days had long ago passed.
Once she got to zero Percy breathed in slowly before opening her eyes, blinking slowly in the darkness of the hotel room- there was a bit of light coming in through a crack in the curtains- and Percy knew that if she opened the window she'd see the moon and stars, casting their soft glow.
She flopped back into her bed, staring at her ceiling for a long moment, her mind racing.
After a long moment she pushed the blankets aside, swinging her legs over the edge of the bed, slipping her fluffy slippers on and moving to the door, turning the handle and pushing it open as quietly as she could.
She padded towards the little kitchen area, maybe a glass of water would help settle her some- and she paused halfway there, glancing towards the glass doors that led to the small balcony attached to their suite- then she relaxed when she recognised the familiar figure stood outside- and her dad must have spotted her because she saw him moving, and a moment later the door was sliding open.
"Percy? What's wrong?"
"I-" Percy swallowed hard, "When did you get back?"
"Maybe an hour ago. Your mother's tired, she's getting some sleep. Which is what you should be doing too."
And Percy hesitated before she moved out onto the balcony, the cool air making her shiver slightly. "I had a nightmare."
"Ah." Julius sighed, reaching out and wrapping an arm around Percy's shoulder, carefully pulling her into his side. "Did you do the count down?"
"Yes daddy."
"Oh?" Julius looked worried at that- it wasn't that Percy didn't usually call him daddy often- she did. And he secretly loved that fact- Sadie had grown up from that stage a long time ago, but Percy was his baby really, his little girl. He'd be sad when she stopped calling him daddy but- she didn't often say it like that- her voice was so nervous and uncertain, "Did it help?"
"Yeah." Percy hesitated, "Kinda. I-" she swallowed hard, tongue darting out to dampen her suddenly dry lips, "I was in the sky in Egypt- near the Great Pyramid."
"Oh?" Julius quirked an eyebrow at her, "Now that doesn't sound too bad to me."
"There was a snake." Percy almost mumbled the words, "Made out of a sand storm- it was huge daddy- and- there were magicians trying to fight it but it just swept them away with it's tail."
"Percy-" Julius had gone stiff, "Persephone-"
"It had a hieroglyph on it." her voice was incredibly small as she said that, "Daddy it had a glowing Isfet on it's crest-" and Julius sucked in a sharp breath, his arms tightening around her. "It said about the Per Ankh falling."
"Oh gods." Julius closed his eyes, his expression filled with grief, "Percy- sweetheart- has- is there any reason you'd have had a dream like that?"
"I- I don't think so." Percy shook her head, "I-"
"You and Carter haven't been talking about- things related to that have you?"
"No daddy- you know I don't talk to Carter about this stuff, I mean, other than in our lessons." she pouted, "Which sucks- Carter and Sadie should know just like I do-"
"You know that things are complicated Percy." Julius' voice had a note of sternness in it, "Now isn't the time for that. This is important. Did it feel like a normal nightmare or-"
"It felt real." Percy bit her lip, "Daddy-"
"I see." Julius closed his eyes, a grief stricken look on his face for a moment before he managed to push it away. "Thank you for telling me sweetheart." he brushed Percy's curls out of her face, "Let's go inside- would you like some hot cocoa- I might not have your mothers gift with baking- or her obsession with making everything possible blue, but I do make good hot cocoa."
And Percy nodded, some of the tension easing out of her shoulders. If anyone could handle whatever was going to happen it was her dad- he was unstoppable, she had no doubt about that. And together they headed back inside, Julius sliding the door shut behind them before he got to work, heating up the milk and adding the cocoa powder while Percy moved to one of the bar stools next to the counter, and soon enough they were both perched on the stools sipping the chocolate as Julius gently prodded and coaxed Percy into telling him about her and Carters adventures earlier that day, guiding her thoughts away from sand storm snakes and tails that could wipe out a whole army of magicians.
And when Percy eventually started drifting off once more Julius carefully slid the now empty mug of cocoa across the counter and with a practised ease lifted Percy up, letting the girl snuggle into his arms as he carried her back to her room just as he'd done a thousand times before when she'd been little- though he hadn't done it in over a year- she always said that she was too big to be carried to bed- and a part of him was secretly grateful that she clearly wasn't too big, even as he set her down, pulling her slippers off before he pulled the blankets up to cover her small frame.
He sighed heavily as he looked down at the once more sleeping girl- she was still so young- it scared Julius sometimes, all of his children, sometimes he felt they were growing up so fast- but when they were asleep- Julius could see just how young they still were- even Carter, he was fourteen and growing up fast- but thanks to Sally he was still a child- as he should be.
Gods but he hoped Sally would be able to care for them if anything happened to him. He pressed a kiss to his sleeping daughters forehead, a heavy weight in his chest.
Before he'd met Sally he'd obsessed over Osiris, had thought that if he became the eye of Osiris he'd be able to bring Ruby back- and it was necessary for the battle that he knew was to come- but then he'd met Sally and his obsession had faded- he no longer wanted it to bring back Ruby- it wouldn't be right, the world wasn't supposed to work like that- and as the years passed he'd started hoping that they had longer- that they'd have more time to prepare. But
Percy's dream- she was half god- he knew that children like her could have prophetic dreams.
It seemed that he'd have to reach out to the British Museum.
The time was fast approaching, Apophis would rise, sooner or later.
They would need the gods to defeat him.