️.ೃ࿐ i. TRIGGER WARNINGS ⸺ bring on the monsters mostly features the canon typical behaviours, events, and warnings that the original percy jackson books do! there is also graphic and medically inaccurate (because i'm definitely not a doctor!) descriptions of injuries, canon and original character death, topics and descriptions of war, past mentions and flashbacks to the salem witch trials, post traumatic stress disorder, unhealthy coping mechanisms, internalized homophobia and misogyny, time period typical behaviours to time periods mentioned in this book. more warnings will be added as this story progresses, if you're reading this one ao3 please check the tags every time you come to read an update, if you're reading this on another platform new warnings will also be added to the chapter where they are present as well as being added here!
‼️.ೃ࿐ ii. PLEASE NOTE ⸺ major canon divergence! this is only the reading of the lightning thief rather than all five books because they'd only really need to read the lightning thief in order to change practically everything about this series! also this a heavy luke castellan-centric fic because he is my baby girl ( what about the murder you ask? i say what murdaaaa ) but like he is held accountable for his wrong-doings because he did some messed up stuff but this luke has yet to do it and we're gonna be NICE to him in this fic OKAY he's a lil pookie bear right now and all he needs is a good old hug!
?.ೃ࿐ iii. AUTHOR'S NOTE pt. I ⸺ THIS IS A READING OF THE BOOKS FANFICTION which is plenty of over done but it is one of my favourite types of fanfics! I've added my own lil twist to it by making my pjo fic THE SWORD OF DAMOCLES IS SWINGING canon in the books that the Gods will be reading! you don't necessarily have to read my own pjo fic to understand this one because the sword of damocles is swinging takes place in the titan's curse BUT sarah was along for the lightning thief quest so that's why she's mentioned in this fic and obviously she's the one who helped create the book idea to help save some Demigod lives! Anything you need know about Sarah WILL be explained in this book but it'd be pretty cool if you checked out my other pjo fic because i'm working super hard on it!
This is a project I am working on FOR FUN, it is completely one hundred percent SELF-INDULGENT so at times it will be more comedic than serious or it will seem a little OOC for canon characters but i try my best to stick to their characters while adding my own flare to them! So please keep this in mind when reading! THIS IS FOR FUN and i hope you have fun reading it and understand that this book is SO UNSERIOUS and just a fun lil writing project for me!
THE SWORD OF DAMOCLES IS SWINGING AU
THE PROLOGUE ⸺ THE WINTER SOLSTICE THAT IT WENT TO H-E-DOUBLE HOCKEYSTICKS
CIRCA ⸺ THE WINTER SOLSTICE OF TWO THOUSAND AND FIVE
HIS ENTIRE BODY WAS RIGID, IF HE COULD SEEM HIM NOW, HE WOULD BE LAUGHING ⸺ A COWARD! LUKE CASTELLAN COULD NOT IMAGINE HOW HE COULD PULL THIS OFF. Thievery came to him like a second nature but stealing Zeus' Master Bolt and Hades' Helm Of Darkness? It was almost too much. He rolled over in his sleeping bag, he had the perfect opportunity, everyone was sleeping, the Gods had left the throne room, leaving their symbols of power behind because why would they have any reason to believe one of their children would steal such an item from them. They had left quite urgently, Chiron had muttered something about a message for them, Luke had a feeling they would be gone for quite awhile from the stricken look on Chiron's face. It was the perfect moment for Luke to strike but he found that he could hardly move.
Beside him slept Annabeth, she should've been with the other two year-rounder campers from Athena's cabin but she always had a bit of trouble fitting in with her cabin especially during the school year when the half-siblings she was closest too were gone. She was sound asleep, safe ⸺ but how long would she be from the Gods? How long would it be before they destroyed her like they had Thalia? How long would it be before they claim her as another victim, another pawn in one of their schemes like so many others? Luke swallows thickly, Kronos was right, the Gods had to be wiped out before they did anymore damage, he had to take them out before they got to Annabeth, before they got to his little siblings, or before they got to Sarah. All he had to do was steal the bolt and the helm, they would do the rest.
Luke looks around the throne room at the Hunters of Artemis, they're all asleep too, huddled up in their sleeping bags, Sarah is among them. He can spot her red hair spilling out from the silver sleeping bag, it reminded him of a splatter of blood. Earlier that evening, she had recounted a story to Annabeth about a fight she had with a monster. Luke knew that she left out most of the gory details but he saw the scar that the Cyclops had left her, it was terrible. It had left a pit in his stomach, the way Zeus and several other Gods had looked at her tonight did not help. They wanted her dead, though he couldn't tell anyone why they did, he could just tell from the looks on Zeus' and Hera's faces. That thought alone was enough to send him bolting up right, he couldn't let them take Sarah like they had Thalia.
He looked around at the kids' sleeping faces, most of them mostly untouched by the Gods' ways, still innocent and moldable, willing to do anything to make their Godly parent proud. He needed to protect them all, he sets a steely gaze upon Zeus' lightning bolt ⸺ he would never let them take another kid again. He gets up, a part of his brain feels fuzzy as he starts making a path for the bolt, he ducks just along the sides of the throne room, lurking in the shadows. He feels as though he's dreaming, he keeps an ear out for any waking kid or returning God, he's only met with the sound of scattered snores.
If he does this, then there is no going back . . . He feels heavy as he walks but his feet hardly make a sound against the marble floors. Luke inches closer towards Zeus' throne, the heat radiating from the Master Bolt is the only thing that tells Luke that he's not dreaming.
"What do you think you're doing, thief," the question is not bellowed, it does not come from the likes of an Olympian but it has Luke freezing all the same. His insides grow cold at the familiar faint Scottish accent calling out to him, he swore she had been sleeping.
Luke swallows thickly, turning to face Sarah only when he does he blanches because it's not quite Sarah. It's not the Sarah that's been with the Hunters for three centuries but it's not not Sarah. She's older, there's a scar on her face, a series of claw marks mar the right side of her face, her hair is shorter and she's taller and Luke is stunned. Is he dreaming? He must be dreaming.
She laughs at him, so softly he barely hears it then she whispers "Don't worry, I know what you're doing."
He pales "You ⸺ you do?"
Her faces crumbles as she nods and she looks like she might cry, Luke hasn't seen her cry since Thalia. His brain is running rampant at a thousand miles an hour, what is going on? Is this a dream because it doesn't feel like a dream? It has to be a dream, Sarah would not look the way she does, she would not be acting so calm if this was actually real. Luke swallows thickly, what is going on?
"I know a lot of things, Luke . . . I am from the future after all."
He almost burst out laughing but it dies on his throat, all that comes out is a squeak. He doesn't believe her but this is certainly the weirdest dream he's ever had.
"I am from the future," Sarah repeats again, slowly this time as if she thinks he didn't' hear her.
It definitely takes the cake, Luke thinks as Sarah gives him a small smile.
"I know it sounds ridiculous, trust me, I'm still kind of getting over the fact that I actually succeed in creating make-shift time travel, but, hey . . . It seems there's nothing I wouldn't do for those bloody Jackson twins."
"The fates wouldn't ⸺"
"Allow this? They helped this Luke . . . A little help from them, Lady Hecate as well as Lord Apollo, and some of," She cuts herself off as she shudders dramatically, "Kronos' ashes, and viola, we got Greek time travel!"
"I ⸺"
"Luke, you were going to steal the Master Bolt and my dad's Helm and bring it to Kronos and you do do that in my time. Well, you get stopped by Lord Ares who nearly kills you but ultimately decides that stealing them would create war between the Olympians and he wants a little fun."
"I don't ⸺"
"You nearly take out Olympus before realizing, after killing several of the Demigods that you looked after for months to years, that it was a bullshit idea and betray Kronos at the last minute and then die. Very anticlimactic ⸺ not even a good redemption arc by the way ⸺ so I use necromancy because it turns out I can do that to bring you back so you can see that your actions have consequences, that doesn't go very well but I don't want to talk about that, but you live. So starting an uprising with Kronos, it's not your finest decision and I'm here to stop that."
Luke blinks, jaw dropping as he takes it all in. It sounds fantastical, impossible even, but still plausible that Luke doesn't know what to say. He looks away from her to look at where she should be, tucked into her sleeping bag, and her sleeping bag is empty.
Sarah looks over at the sleeping bag as well "Yeah, that Sarah ⸺ she's gone! Two of us can't exist at the same time, the Fates said that just me coming back here as branched off into an entirely new universe, yeah, turns out the Multiverse is real. Which is why I'm the only one from my time period who came back, the Fates said it would be for the best if it was only me."
"It's real," Luke says weakly, turning back to look at Sarah.
She nods her head "It's real, Luke, I'm from five years in the future."
"My Gods," He breathes out, stepping away from the Master Bolt.
"It's a lot to take in, I know but . . . It's real but I'm going to fix it, I'm going to save everyone's lives with the help of my cousin's outrageous narration skills."
"Cousin," Luke echoes, "Zeus breaks the oath again?"
"Nah, Poseidon did ⸺ twins. The most annoying twins you'll ever encounter, twins that ended up as your scapegoat, by the way! I ended up as your scapegoat too!"
Luke frowns "I'm sorry, I didn't think ⸺"
"Clearly," Sarah snaps than softens as she lets out a sigh, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be this hard on you, not this version of you! You're being manipulated after all, you have good intentions but . . . I just, I haven't had a lot of time to process everything. Look, we're going to read a book . . . It's take right from my one cousin's memories, Hecate turned it into a book to get the story across best. The Olympians should be finishing their discussion very soon. I am going to go rescue my siblings from the Lotus Hotel and round up my cousins. They deserve to be here since I'm absolutely scrapping the original source material!"
Luke's frown deepens, before he can question the siblings remark, Sarah is shouldering on, clearly in a rush for something.
"Please don't turn around and steal the bolt or the helm and don't do anything like fall into Tartarus," Sarah says, her tone is teasing but there's a haunted look in her eyes. She lightly nudges his shoulder as she struggles to give him a small smile "You might as well start waking up the kids, especially Annabeth, you know how she can be sometimes."
And with that, Sarah is enveloped in shadows, leaving Luke as the only soul awake in the throne room. He wonders just want this is, could it be real like this Sarah insists it is or is it just a dream? Could this be a test from Kronos, a nightmare? His hands are shaking, he looks once more at Sarah's empty sleeping bag, it's untouched, like she was never there in the first place. If this is a test from Kronos then Luke fails.
He walks back over to his sleeping bag, his feet drag against the marble floor, something weights heavy on his chest as lays back down. He couldn't go against Sarah, Kronos had finally proven that he was weak. A coward. It would have been the same if he had chosen Annabeth or Grover to say what Sarah had. But when it came to punishments, Kronos always chose Sarah to deliver them in his nightmares.
It feels too real to be a nightmare but it feels to surreal to be true.
Luke turns to look at Annabeth to find her looking at him with blurry grey eyes.
"What were you and Sarah talking about," Annabeth wonders sleepily, "It sounded serious, is everything okay?"
Normally, Luke tries to refrain from swearing in from of the kids given how he didn't with Annabeth when they were on the run and she turned into such a little potty-mouth, but he can't help the gasp that falls from his lips at this moment:
"Oh, shit!"ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ
THE AUTHOR'S COMMENTARY!
Am I actually writing this type of fic? finally after years of it being my favourite type of fanfic to read! I indeed am finally doing it! I'm literally so so excited for this this fic! But keep in mind that this is crack fic ( crack treated it somewhat seriously ) so it's more of a self-indulgent fic and not my most prioritized book i'm currently writing! slow this work will have really slow updates compared to my other percy jackson fics! anyway thanks for reading hope you're looking forward to reading this cliche mess as much as i'm having fun writing it, please leave a comment and let me know what you thought of it!
also please remember that this is SO unserious and just me having fun so don't read into it to hard and if you read it and want to leave a scathing comment please don't this is a HUGE joke and just for funsies i know it's cliche and overdone but I love these fics and had to write one myself for the hell of it!
