This fic is not canon-compliant, though it does align along the timeline more or less. The world itself is different. The gods are a bit darker, a bit more true to the myths in their past actions, how they treat people etc. The pairings in this are undecided. Expect graphic content: violent and sexual. I am a slow-paced writer! The main character in this is not meant to be particularly likeable; so if you find yourself not liking her - I'm taking that as a compliment. No, but seriously, the characters in this are flawed, complicated, and might not be for everybody.

P.S. I've made Percy into a pisces. Not that anyone truly cares, but still. It bugged me that he wasn't a water sign! PLUS, Pisces is ruled by neptune. It just makes sense. I've also made it so that the dates are a bit vague like in the series itself. I've written the girls as if they were born in the late nineties/early two-thousands. So if that bothers you, well, too bad I guess. Oh! And if you're curious as to who I see when I write them - Chiara Scelsi is the first person that comes to mind. Anyways, without further ado!

ALSO: If you've seen, followed, favorited this fic and were wondering where it went or how it disappeared. My first review was some dude complaining about Percy being female. LIKE? My guy it is right there in the summary lololol anyways it tainted the older version.

Prologue

Poseidon – Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses – was not supposed to be here, in Sally Jackson's apartment, standing over the babe she'd born him some few months ago. He stretched out a hand, the tips of his fingers shaking in their eagerness as he tried his very hardest to resist his temptation to stroke at the infant's round, plush cheeks, caress at the fine, black curls sprouting off the top of its head, and worse yet, take the baby into his arms and cradle it against his chest. Poseidon knew if he did so, there was a slight, slight chance he would be unable to put it back down again; an action ill-advised, to be sure.

And, before he knew it, or so Poseidon claims, even if only to himself, he found himself holding his child tight to him, hearing its heart-beat and the way its steady drum seemed to march in rhythm to his own. "You have a hard life ahead of you, dear one," he found himself whispering, pressing a kiss down into its downy hair. "And you will find none sorrier than I, to have been the curse you with it."

He stilled at the sound of rustling sheets, turning his head to eye the woman pulling herself out from underneath them. Sally Jackson was as beautiful as ever, with her long, dark hair – and those eyes, a shade of brown that made him feel safe, at home in her presence. Poseidon had seen her dancing around in the middle of the night, her feet bare and dipped into the wet, sandy shores of one of the Montauk beaches. He merely thought to watch, but then, he waded out to her, rising from the seas, unable to keep away. It was rare he found himself truly enamored so quickly, as fascinated by a mortal as he was Sally Jackson. It had been love, it was still love – at least for him.

Despite popular belief, when gods loved, they loved deeply, and forever: lust and affection were not synonymous for a reason, after all, but this was no mere lust, not for him. Poseidon understood that now, even as he met with her eye-to-eye, watching as surprise crossed her features, then exhaustion, and then, at last, a sort of contentedness that left his heart beating a little more erratically than before.

"I have missed you, Sally Jackson," he spoke freely.

Sally bit at her bottom lip – and oh, how he wished to bite it for her. "I did not expect to see you again. I thought it was…I thought it was against the way of things?"

"It is," he admitted, continuing to rock the child against him. He was warm with love, basking in the way their babe nuzzled into him keenly, as if aware that it was his arms that held them. "It is forbidden for me to be here, to be with you, and our son. To love someone whom you have never met is a strange thing, Sally, and I found I couldn't keep away no matter how hard I tried – and I did try, for I know being here I risk my brother's wrath were he to ever find out."

"Daughter," Sally corrected, her eyes glistening, though her words remained calm; her voice brought him comfort, though did nothing to stop him from jerking his chin down in shock, as he eyed the face of of his newborn daughter. "I named her…I named her Persephone," she said, then quickly added, "but I call her Percy, just – just in case. I thought it would be of help to her, to keep her out of danger, because there's power in names-"

Poseidon cut her off. "A daughter, my love, a daughter, my first in over a thousand years. Sally, for that gift alone, you could have named our daughter after one of my brothers and I doubt I'd care. I am beyond happy, but," he looked down at Percy. "I don't know how I'll ever be able to part with her, now that I have her here in my arms. She's such a tiny thing. I could fit in her in one hand – in my mortal form, no less."

"She was born early; on the 10th of March," Sally said.

In less than a week, it would turn August. For five months, Poseidon was able to keep himself busy and away. With careful hands, he eased his daughter back into the sanctity of her crib; it pained him to do so. A hand brushed lightly against his shoulder, drawing his attention. Poseidon turned, his mouth set into a grim line. Sally continued to run her hand along the muscles of his arm, tracing the shoulder in the same way she had all summer. "I mean it, Sally, every word of it."

His hand came up to grasp her by the chin, pulling her mouth onto his as he gave a soft, gentle kiss; an innocent gesture, but one that still managed to set his ichor pumping, his body on fire. "Live with me," he begged. "I could keep you safe; far away from the eyes and ears of Olympus. I could grant you eternal life, and if not that, then a life spent at my side. I'd give you a castle, and however more for each of our children. But, I cannot do that while you are still up here and out of the safety of my realm."

"I want to," Sally let out a sad sigh; he could feel her breath fan out across his cheeks, and he bit down the urge to kiss her yet again. He knew her like he knew himself, and knew already the answer she was going to give him, but he let the torture continue out of the desperate hope that maybe he was wrong. "I want to so badly, Poseidon, but I…I cannot. You are married." And the acknowledgment of that sent a flinch through him.

"I know that things work differently between your kind, but I cannot live my life in an underwater castle, hoping and praying that your wife might have mercy on me, that your brothers won't band together to have our daughter and I slaughtered in our sleep. Up here, we have a chance at hiding, at preventing them from finding out for as long as possible, but you know it as well as I do, the moment we bring Percy down there – everyone will know, and then she will die. I refuse to let that happen. I just got her, after all." Sally gave a weak smile, but there was no happiness behind it.

"I understand." He did, but the thought of ignoring her wishes and whisking her away regardless did cross his mind. It was how he would have done it in the olden days, in a time long gone, but things were different now.

A tear slipped down Sally's cheek, followed quickly by another. His anger of having been rejected dissipated faster than it originated and Poseidon was quick to kiss away her tears, tasting the salt of them upon his tongue, and not finding them to his taste. He loathed to make her cry. She ran a hand through his beard, stroking his cheek, looking at him with her wide eyes.

What Poseidon should have done was step back, step away from the mortal woman whom he loved, and then leave and never return. As per usual, he did none of these things, and instead opted to kiss her, properly, as a man and a woman in love ought to kiss.

"One night," he pleaded, "one more night." She did not deny him and he spent their last night together between her thighs, spilling his seed within her once more.

In another world, another life, another time, this would have been the end of it. Percy Jackson would grow up to become something out of the legends of old, and the two of them would be close in a way most demigods and their immortal parents were not. However, this is not that story. When Sally Jackson awoke the following morning, a second life woke with her – and a girl who died once, found herself with an unexpected chance to become something better, greater, more powerful than she ever thought she could be. This is the story of Helena Jackson.