Ch18

Percy didn't waste any time. He grabbed his burger, Ares' bag, and was out the door as fast as he could be without raising any suspicion. Well, without raising any more suspicion. He paused outside just long enough for Annabeth and Grover to catch up and then they were all high-tailing it for the animal transport van.

Shit shit shit shit. Okay. Deep breath, Percy. Everything is going to be fine. You'll be out of St Louis before Dean is anywhere near here, and there's nothing to indicate you're going to L.A. Everything will be fine.

Still, the adrenalin had them all glancing around nervously as Annabeth wrenched open the rear door of the truck and they all clambered. Percy eased the door shut behind them and they knelt in the darkness, waiting for their eyes to adjust to the lack of light. Percy thanked the gods that none of the people inside the diner had appeared interested in following them. Even still he stared at the closed truck door, half expecting it to be wrenched open at any moment.

"What was with A– with Clarisse's dad?" Annabeth breathed, her voice barely audible. "It was like he was a completely different person! He was helpful. For no reason."

Hidden in the dark with an escape plan in motion, Percy felt some of his tension ease with every second the door remained shut. "I don't know. It was…I don't know. Maybe it's just a…a duality of divinity or– I have no idea. I'm making this all up, don't ask me."

She snorted softly. At least, Percy was pretty sure it was her.

Assuming the truck isn't empty, it could've been whatever animals that were being transported.

"You grabbed the bag he left behind, right? It's basically a gift and I don't want to push our luck by rejecting a gift from a god."

"Ye–"

"Forget that!" Grover cut in, voice low but fuming. "Humane Animal Transport? There is no way this is legal."

Percy squinted into the dark. Apparently Grover's satyr eyes adjusted faster than Demigod eyes because next to him Annabeth made a confused sound. He could just make out three vague shapes dotted along one wall, taking up about half the space in the van.

'Free me, Lord.'

Percy tensed. He strained his eyes, trying to cut through the gloom and see clearer. "Who's there?" He whispered into the darkness.

"Percy?" Annabeth sounded concerned.

'Please, Lord. We were taken. They are starving us.'

"There's someone there, can't you hear them?" His mind was racing. Were they transporting…people? No. The shadows didn't look right.

"Percy," Grover still sounded angry, but less so than before. "There's no one here but us and the animals."

Percy's eyes finally adjusted well enough to make out details. The albino lion looked like it had given up, collapsed on the floor of its cage with chewing gum matted in its dirty mane. A large sack of turnips sat in front of it, untouched. The antelope was also laying on the ground of its cage, huffing quietly in the gloom and trying half-heartedly to avoid the balloons that were dangling from its horns. It was the zebra standing in its cage that gave Percy pause. Its mane was chunky and uneven, as though someone had taken scissors to the hair just for the hell of it, and the animal was so skinny Percy could count nine of its ribs. It stared straight at Percy.

'Please, Lord, set us free.'

"I think," Percy said shakily, never once looking away from the zebra. "I think the zebra is talking to me."

Beside him, Annabeth inhaled sharply. "Oh." It was said so softly it was almost an exhale of air rather than a word. "Percy. Your dad is the father of horses. He created them. It makes sense that you can speak to them."

Percy ignored the fact that she'd called Poseidon his dad. His mind was stuck on the whole talking-to-zebras thing. Because of course. Of course there was something else. Another power. Something else that made him stand out from othe– from humans. Really, the list was never ending.

Your dad's a god and suddenly you can read Greek, and control water, and heal too fast, and talk to horses.

"Percy, I can hear you spiralling from here." Grover's voice was calm and soothing, having finally lost all of its previous anger. "You can't keep going like this, you know. If you don't work through this sooner rather than later you're going to end up hating yourself for something you can't change, or worse than that you'll just end up dead."

Percy swallowed roughly, trying desperately to collect his scattered thoughts. Annabeth remained quiet, apparently content to let Grover handle his latest meltdown.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Percy winced at his trembling voice and tried to take a steadying breath.

"Percy," Grover kept his voice gentle, "I had to remind you about your powers at the water park. I had to tell you you were a child of the earthshaker–"

"It's not that easy, okay? I am trying," Percy cut in. "I have been taught nearly half my life that anything supernatural is wrong, is, is evil. I've spent the last few years killing–" he cut himself off and took a steadying breath. "But then I met you, and Chiron, and Annabeth," he glanced at her quickly before returning his attention to Grover. "And I found out about my– my parentage and I know, okay? I know you're not evil and that there's nothing wrong with me, but it takes time to break through my instincts. I am trying."

Grover held his gaze for a moment before nodding. "Okay," he said softly. "Okay."

...

Voices outside drew their attention and Percy quickly motioned for them to move further into the truck. A moment later the door they'd entered through opened and slammed shut again. Doors in front of them banged shut and the truck grumbled to life around them. Percy felt another ball of tension unknot as they started moving, taking them closer and closer to L.A with every passing moment.

"Percy," Annabeth sounded hesitant, and he braced himself for another round of you-need-to-accept-yourself. "I just want you to know that you're not alone in trying to shake ingrained responses."

That was…not what he'd been expecting.

She took a deep breath. "I'm sorry I left you to deal with the…with the spiders earlier. I completely froze up."

Right. In the wake of everything he'd forgotten, but she'd gone practically unresponsive once the mechanical spiders had appeared. He tentatively broached the subject.

"That's a…pretty severe fear, but I'm guessing it's not often that you actually have to deal with it in a battle situation." Across from him, she shuddered. "Right. We don't have to talk about it. I… like you said, I know how hard it is to try and work past something like that."

Don't think about it, don't think about it, don't think–

"It's a result of my…parentage. My mother. All of her children are arachnophobic after what she did to Arach– to the Weaver."

The weaver? Who's– oh. Percy knew the story. It was one of the ones his mom had told him. A warning against hubris. Internally he winced, if she'd seen how he'd been interacting with gods…

He nodded at Annabeth to show he understood what she was trying to say, and she continued.

"All spiders are her children. When I was younger they used to seek me out. I would wake up with– with cobwebs all over my face and all these little bites covering my body. I'd go to my dad but I don't know whether the Mist covered it or if it was some other magic but they'd always faded before I could show him. My step mother used to accuse me of making up stories to 'steal their attention away from my brothers.' Step brothers." She looked away then. "Eventually my father believed her. Any time I tried to tell him, she'd intervene and I'd end up grounded. It's one of the reasons I ran away."

Percy could see her shaking slightly in the dark. He reached out and caught her hand, giving it a tight squeeze. Something in her shoulders loosened, and she squeezed his hand back.

"Once Thalia and Luke found me, the spiders stopped bothering me. I don't know why."

It was…awful. The whole tale. Percy could just picture and littler, younger Annabeth waking up in a panic and running to her father just to be told she was, what, making it up? Imagining the same thing every night? Or worse, running to her father only to be intercepted by her stepmother and sent straight back to bed. Back to the spiders. It just didn't mesh with the confident, intelligent girl he knew now.

"I'm sorry." His voice was rough and he swallowed to try and soothe it. "That's…there are no words for how awful that is and I'm sorry."

She gave him a shaky smile. "Yeah, well…" she tried to brush it off.

"Annabeth," he caught her attention. "Parents are supposed to be there for you when you need it, not brush you off when you're hurt. Even when they can't tell what's hurting. I'm sorry yours…I'm sorry you didn't get that." She pulled her hand back gently and sniffed like she was trying to hold back tears. "At least John had the decency to stitch me up whenever I got injured." He couldn't hold the bitter mumble in and winced at the immediate concerned looks he garnered from both Annabeth and Grover.

"He what." Grover sounded horrified and Annabeth was staring at him, shocked, her own trauma seemingly abandoned in the face of more of his.

Oh. Okay. Even among Demi-gods that's not normal. Got it.

"Don't worry about it," he tried to brush it off. He saw an objection forming on Annabeth's lips and hastened to cut her off. "I'm serious, guys. We can talk about it sometime, but not tonight. That's not– it's not something I'm ready to deal with. Especially not after so many emotionally charged conversations."

Annabeth's face settled into something akin to resigned acceptance. Grover just looked…sad, but he also nodded. Percy blew out a shaky breath.

"Okay. Thanks." He looked around at the animals and his gaze settled on the zebra, which was still looking at him. He slowly stood up, getting a feel for the moving vehicle. "I'm not going to be able to sleep until we fix this."

Grover immediately sprung into motion, muttering something that sounded awfully like 'about time.' In short order they managed to get the food into the correct cages and had refilled the water bowls with a water jug Percy unearthed from a pile of hay at the back of the truck. It was so far buried that only someone who could sense water like he could would've known to look for it. He and Annabeth finished untying the balloons from the antelope's horns to find Grover standing staring at the gum in the lion's mane with a murderous look on his face.

"Grover," Annabeth started tentatively, "do you know a song on your reed pipes that will make sure we don't get…eaten if we go in there?"

Grover's expression turned a little miserable as he shook his head. "No. We're probably best just to– to leave it." He surveyed the cages, "I think we've done all we can for now. We should get some sleep."

It didn't take long for Grover to find a comfy spot on the floor and doze off, Annabeth not far behind. Percy stared into the darkness, unable to settle his mind enough to drift off. It was a long while later when he finally slipped off to sleep, a quiet 'thank you, Lord,' from the zebra echoing in his ears.

Kronos' cavern never got less intimidating. His presence felt more…solid, somehow, despite it being a dream. Percy wasn't sure if the shadows had gotten deeper, but he could feel them reaching for him, oily and sharp. He walked up to the pit in the centre of the room.

"I see you finally understand what I've been showing you." There was no question in that voice, no room for hesitance. It rankled, even as the boom of lightning echoed in Percy's ears and the photos of the wreckage on the highway flashed behind his eyes.

"That doesn't mean I want you to rule."

"You don't believe that." Kronos' voice cracked through the room and Percy couldn't help but take a step back. "Stop lying to yourself, child, and stop lying to me."

"I– I–"

"Enough." Percy swallowed roughly. "My eldest son is the key. You must make for the underworld with haste and bring me my bolt."

Percy staggered back from the pit. Kronos' voice continued to echo around the cavern, but Percy could no longer understand what he was saying. He reached the wall of the cavern, but instead of hitting solid rock he fell ba c k–

–and into another dream.

...

A man stood on the edge of a cliff, looking down on…New York? Percy walked closer, but the man didn't seem to be able to see him. He walked around to see him better and came face to face with tired eyes. Tired, sea green eyes. The face staring out at the city was an older, wearier version of his own. The word came to Percy's mind unbidden.

Dad.

Suddenly, Poseidon's expression closed off. Percy took a step back, thinking he'd been seen.

"Nephew." Poseidon's voice was low and flat. Behind Poseidon, Ares walked into view. Poseidon didn't turn away from the city. "What brings you to see me? You have already pledged your support in the event of war." On the word 'war,' Poseidon's blank mask broke. His lips twisted down in a frown and his brow furrowed, turning his blank look stormy. "I don't believe my brother has even thought of turning you yet, so it can't be that."

"You know why I'm here." Ares' tone was angry.

"Don't tell me you've changed your mind, nephew. You may be supporting me but you too wanted him dead. I won't forget that little…knife incident for many centuries to come."

"You have no idea what you're sending him into." Ares didn't rise to whatever bait Poseidon was laying. Percy stood there staring at them in confusion. The knife incident? They didn't mean–

Were they talking about…him?

"Is there something you wish to tell me, Ares?" Poseidon's tone was decidedly cool but…Percy had seen that furrowed brow in the mirror. It was the same one he made when he was worrying about something and couldn't work out what to do.

"There are more forces than just my father working against him, Uncle. Your scheme will see him dead and we will have war on our hands."

A storm raged to life in Poseidon's eyes and Percy startled backwards. "If you are threatening my son, Ares, I will remind you just who was the god of battle strategy before Athena came along, and take great pleasure in reducing your form to a golden splat."

"Not I," Ares said softly. "But you would do well to realise that your power will not save him if you do not have allies. My father may be king, but we are a council, and it was your son, not you, who secured my loyalty this round."

Percy watched as Poseidon's jaw slackened and Ares bowed shallowly at the waist, before beginning to glow. Something about the searing light was terrifying in a way Percy couldn't explain. He shouldn't see this. He couldn't see this. He had to wake up. He had to–

...

"Wake up!" Annabeth's hissed words startled Percy as he jerked awake. The hand she had clamped over his mouth was the only thing stopping a panicked expletive falling from his lips, but it was the finger she had pressed to her own lips in a shhh–ing motion that had him freezing. It took him a moment to get his bearings but once he did, he felt his panic spike once more.

The engine was off. He could hear their drivers outside the truck somewhere, wandering closer to the end of the truck. Fuck. They'd arrived.