And here's my favourite chapter :) Featuring an often talked about but rarely seen character in the Percy Jackson books, finally I get to play around with their relationship. This was fun to write, even if it turned out to be much longer than I expected.
Disclaimer: I still don't own anything mentioned in this story. Nothing at all.
Poseidon knows something is wrong immediately. It was not always this way with the gods. Once, when they had many followers, temples and cults devoted to their names, their demigod children had to vie for their attention like any other mortal- even if they favored them.
But that was a long time ago.
And Poseidon now only has one mortal child to love and care for.
(Not that he has ever had many. Despite what the stories say, rarely does he lie with mortals, and though the children of those unions are always great heroes, he knows well enough by now he can never keep them with him. And it hurts so much to lose them. He is immortal, everlasting, but his children are not and sailors used to say in the old country when storms gathered quickly and unexpectedly over the seas that Poseidon was mourning the death of his children.)
So he knows something is wrong when their (bond/connection/tie) snaps and reforms in a blink. Different now.
Of course, his bond with his youngest was always different. Because of that prophecy he's had to ignore his son in a way he's never experienced before with another. And mortals favored by the gods are never brought anything but trouble, Olympian politics being what it is, so Poseidon can very rarely cast his glance or even his love towards his son. This is fine, mostly. Perseus asks for help so rarely, that typically he or one of the others can send aid when needed. Perseus, of all his mortal children and lovers, seems to understand the position Poseidon is in. But understanding is not the same as acceptance.
Sometimes he worries his son thinks he doesn't love him.
Because he does, he really and truly does. Percy is his baby, his youngest, his little boy and it doesn't matter how many monsters/Titans/gods he has defeated, Poseidon is always going to worry because he knows (perhaps better than any of his family) that mortals are fragile and demigods are even more so.
So Poseidon knows damn well something has happened to his boy, he just isn't sure what it is.
He gets inkling when the Summer Session of Camp Half-Blood starts and Percy Jackson fails to make his expected appearance. His son has a reputation for being late though, so it goes unnoticed until nearly mid-July, when even the latest of the veteran campers has trickled in.
Then the worry begins. Sally Jackson is contacted, though it is her husband that gives them the news. Percy Jackson disappeared in April while on a fieldtrip. He is thought to be dead.
Camp Half-Blood thinks this is unacceptable. Camp Half-Blood sends out search parties. The Hunters of Artemis are contacted. Nico di Angelo travels to his father's realm for news.
Chiron brings the news to the council personally. Percy Jackson is, for all intents and purposes, Missing In Action.
For the next few weeks his family treads very carefully around him. He has a bit of reputation after all.
Hades treads especially carefully around him.
Poseidon finds that odd, considering. He has never had a bad relationship with his eldest brother, not like Demeter (though that's mostly because of the whole Persephone fiasco), and not like Zeus with his paranoia. But the sea and the underworld rarely have a chance to interact, so he's not the closest to Hades either.
If anything, they understand each other very well. Hades has had even fewer demigod children than Poseidon, (who has never held with keeping the children of other gods out of his realm, even the ones he doesn't get along with) so perhaps understands the best about losing them. Hades generally tells Poseidon when one of his children reaches their Judgment, so he learns their Fates in the afterlife.
But Hades tells him more with his silence than with his words. That he does not tell Poseidon anything suggests there is nothing he can say to him. Perseus Jackson is the greatest Hero of the Age and even if he annoys Hades, that's never stopped him from being fair.
Because Hades must always pass fair judgment on those that come to his kingdom, personal feelings aside.
Percy Jackson should have made Elysium. He should have been sent there quickly. He should be passing into the afterlife in happiness and peace or else chosen Rebirth.
By not saying anything, Hades had said very much indeed. If his son is dead, than his spirit never made it to the Underworld. To his Uncle's care and keeping.
It is a worrying thought.
But as the gods do, times passes, the Heroes of the Titan War die and are given Elysium and the gods forget their promise.
A new generation of heroes arises. One hundred years after Percy Jackson goes missing (not dead, no matter what Athena tells him, his bond with his child is still so strong he just can't FIND HIM) one the gods breaks their Oath.
It is minor god, so for sometime it goes unnoticed, but Poseidon notices eventually. (Poseidon watches the Camp more closely now, hoping his son will come home) A Demigod turns thirteen and there is no one to claim them. The Campers are confused (they don't know why everyone is claimed before thirteen, just that they are), and Chiron winces, knowing this was coming but disappointed all the same.
And slowly that god loses their powers. It is a slow drain, but a noticeable one. When Poseidon helpfully points out that their child needs claiming he gets an irritated look -that he politely ignores- but the child is promptly claimed and the god recovers. The incident is forgotten.
Poseidon doesn't forget.
Twenty, thirty years of watching this happen, watching as more and more demigods enter camp safely, watching as they smile more, seem to have more fun, watching them be children, Poseidon thinks he's worked it out.
He goes to the Camp in the night and removes his son's cabin (despite what anyone says that Cabin is Percy's Home) and replaces it with one more suitable to his purposes. Then he goes to Chiron.
Chiron is surprised by what he wants to do, but the old teacher takes one look at his face and understands. Chiron has never forgotten what his son did for the demigods and if Poseidon is choosing to honor that wish who is he to say no?
So the Poseidon Cabin becomes the Haven for unclaimed demigods.
It's not like he's expecting any mortal children for a long time anyway. (Chiron thinks he's still grieving even after century, but Poseidon knows his youngest is still out there. He can be patient, even if it hurts him that his son seems to be avoiding him.)
Percy's Cabin is quietly placed on the beaches of Montauk where a rickety old wood cabin stood once. He still hopes to call his son home.
Time passes and eventually, one by one, the council slips up and forgets to claim a child. Poseidon watches, as they grow weaker and weaker, wondering if they've noticed the pattern yet. But even Athena is at her wits end, her wisdom made useless as they try to figure out what's wrong. Demigods are sent out on useless quests and every one turn up empty handed – if safe and alive, just like Poseidon knew they would.
Then, on the Winter Solstice Hera, Queen of the Gods, turns to him and asks, how many unclaimed children he's housing at the moment. He stares for moment, before realizing she's figured it out and that the question isn't malicious for once, but that he actually has an ally.
He responds he has about twenty, though he should have less because several are over the Claiming Age (as he's started calling it in his head). And if that comes out a bit sharply, then she doesn't correct him as they gaze out at their assembled family, most looking a bit worse for the wear.
Most of the Council glares at them irritated, but Poseidon doesn't care over much. He's at Camp Half-Blood more often then not, so he sees the effects of his son's work (his son's protection, doing as Poseidon knows he's always done). Somehow his son found a way to make the gods keep their promise and judging by his sister's smirk, Hera knows it too.
He wants to ask her what she knows, but at the same time, he's afraid what the answer will be.
He spends a lot of his time at Camp now. Dionysus has long since served his sentence, so Chiron is basically on his own again. The new demigods don't know Dionysus used to be the Director, and that Poseidon doesn't actually hold the title, but a fair few think he is. He doesn't bother to correct them, and neither does Chiron.
And if his family wonders what one of the Big Three finds so interesting at Camp Half-Blood no one is stupid enough to ask him. Zeus never tells him off because his brother does actually remember what Perseus did for them, so he leaves Poseidon to his business.
He's waiting for news for his son, and if he gains a reputation for looking after demigods, for doing more than tolerating heroes than all the better. Camp-Half-blood is his best source for news of his wayward child. (Because Nico di Angelo told him Percy wasn't in the Underworld, the first thing he did after Hades made him his lieutenant to Nico's great surprise, but not Poseidon's, was go searching. He found nothing.)
He knows Perseus is watching over the children. The littlest ones have told him about an angel that they can see out of the corners of their eyes sometimes at Camp. And he has more stories of miraculous saves, strokes of luck and whispers of advice than he can count.
The youngest and smallest gather around him sometimes and if he asks, will tell him of a bright angel that gathered them up and flew them to Camp (these are the ones who stumble in without the aid of a satyr, to young to survive outside, and too young for training or even to know Camp exists) They say the Angel has wings made out of starlight and a sword that can cut through anything, any monster, any obstacle and that he will always protect them. They say he reminds them of their angel, which is why the youngest gather around him, a little desperate for the reminder of the only safety they had ever experienced.
Poseidon doesn't mind. He has always liked children.
Camp Half-Blood has magical defenses and climate control.
Yet for some reason that doesn't stop Snow Days.
Chiron can't figure it out, but more than once Poseidon has seen a white haired sprite running among the children and leading them in snow games. They laughed and played, while the older campers just looked confused.
He also heard one of the younger girls ask when Angel was coming to visit.
Jack Frost just laughed and said soon.
When Perseus finally comes home, it is both like and unlike Poseidon expected him to. He finds Percy in his cabin, running his hands over everything, repeating stories to himself, wings fluttering anxiously.
He knows for sure now his son wasn't avoiding him, he just couldn't remember.
It's an old hurt, one he came to terms with years ago, so he's surprised when Percy sees him in the door and his eyes light up.
He rushes him with a "Daddy!"
Poseidon just holds him and says, "Welcome Home, my son."