A Loss of Identity

by Sun Wu K0ng

A Percy Jackson/RWBY Crossover. During the Battle for Manhattan, Percy and Artemis unwillingly traveled between dimensions until they ended up in a world with a fractured moon and a mindless swarm of enemies. It's a familiar setting, but when Percy starts to make new friends with the main cast of RWBY, he struggles to find whether his loyalty belongs to Earth or Remnant.

2. LOI Ch 1

Brief note: If you have a comment you would like me to read, please PM me so I can respond directly.

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Ch. 1

The water in the reservoir hissed and bubbled, billowing steam over the sheen of a golden breastplate. Grass crumbled under the blaze of a massive gleaming sandal. As Hyperion stepped fully onto land, he raised his brow at the volley of Greek fire streaking towards him and lazily flicked his hand. The ceramic shattered, hurling their contents back towards the catapults. The wood ignited, sending the demigods into a frenzy.

"Percyyyyyy?"

"Moving!" The son of Poseidon dashed past Annabeth, leaping to slash at the Titan's head. Riptide clashed against a flaming blade, bouncing off and forcing him to drop and roll between the titan's legs. Even as he got up, he barely pulled his weapon up in time before the golden sword crashed into his guard, blasting him through a tree and into a metal railing.

"You are the insect that defeated Atlas?" Hyperion scoffed. "How underwhelming." As his body screamed, Percy felt heavy footsteps plodding towards him and rolled just as the titan cleaved through concrete. "Why don't you just save us both the trouble and fall on your–"

"Yeah, yeah. I've heard it all before," he panted. "I'm small, I'm weak, you're gonna make me scream. Blah blah, I'm still here. Find some new material." Seeing Hyperion's eyes narrow, the demigod side-stepped a thrust towards his chest, parried, and sliced into the crook of the titan's hand. "I mean I get it. A millennia out of the spotlight would make anyone rusty. Just look at Atlas. Everyone kept going on and on—'Oh, he's such a strategic genius. Oh, he's so brilliant and cunning'—and then he just rolls back under the sky." Percy ducked a swipe at his head before diving in and carving Riptide through a massive thigh. The titan roared, again burying his sword into the ground as the demigod dashed backwards. "And you? People say you're supposed to be the second strongest titan, but you're not even half the threat he was." Hyperion snarled and closed in. Again, Percy parried and tried for a stab only for a massive fist to grip Riptide by the blade. The weapon didn't budge and he barely deployed his shield a split second before the titan sent him flying. He crashed through an elevated walkway, groaning as crumbling bricks dropped a gold-painted bust straight on his forehead. Were it not for the Curse of Achilles, he was sure his shield arm would have been broken in four places with his skin blistered and bubbling. As it was, the folded ends of the shield twitched, struggling to contract past the enormous dent with scorch marks running down the middle.

"And what do you know of strength, boy? By what metric are you in any position to judge me?" Hyperion mocked, tossing away the celestial bronze sword. "I have fought more battles, won more wars, than years your history can touch. That you think you can best me is laughable!" The titan marched closer and extended a ball of light spooling from his fingertips. "You are little more than a rat I cannot drown. What could you possibly hope to accomplish?"

Bracing his feet against the wall, Percy lunged, shoulder tackling his two-story opponent and pushing him halfway to the water's edge. Sidestepping an overhead slash, he then sent his shield crashing into the titan's nose and drop-kicked him in the chest. Hyperion stumbled, tripping over the metal railing and into the reservoir. Percy felt a tug in his gut as the water carried Riptide back to his hand and he leapt into the air, flowing in one smooth motion to swing down on his opponent. The titan caught the strike and twisted, shoving him away and rising. What followed could only be described as a flurry of clashes as they exchanged wild strikes amidst a miniature hurricane. Waves of light momentarily sheared through the edge of the storm.

In the eye, Percy wreathed himself in water rising from the reservoir. The lake rolled with him, twisting him out of danger while swinging into his arms with enough force to match Hyperion. And yet, the titan looked bored - completely disinterested if a little annoyed. Even as Percy felt his attacks get faster and stronger, he was losing headway against his opponent. Over and over, the titan's parries and swipes forced Percy's grip open, flinging his sword away until the storm brought it back or he retrieved it. Every technique the demigod tried—reaching back to Daedalus under his training as Quintus, reaching back to every fight with Luke and Clarisse, reaching even back to Ares on that beach—all of it was repelled with contemptuous ease. Hyperion's feral smile sent chills down his spine. Without warning, the titan swung his arms wide, dispelling the storm entirely, and brought the golden sword down with both hands. Percy fell to one knee as their blades locked, bracing Riptide with his spare hand. Even with the water pushing on his arms, legs, and back, the son of Poseidon still felt himself sinking into the reservoir.

"Was this puddle supposed to even your odds?" the titan sneered. "I am the second strongest warrior of the Titanomachy, that much is true. Over and over, I grabbed victory through sheer will and overwhelming might. But I still mastered my weapon. How long have you even held a blade? Four years? Less?"

Growling, Percy tilted Riptide so that the golden blade slipped off and slashed at the Titan's hip. Hyperion lazily spun it away with a flick of his wrist. Stepping in, the demigod snarked, "So? I had less than a year of training and that was still enough to beat Ares!"

"That dumbass?" Hyperion's merrily backhanded the demigod, sending him reeling with stars flashing in his eyes. "That pathetic excuse for a war god?" The Titan of the East laughed hysterically, wiping away tears of liquid fire with a blazing thumb. "I'm sorry. You just looked so proud when you said that. As if you had actually accomplished something. That moron got crammed into a bronze jar by two idiots, who—in a supreme act of stupidity—went on to skewer each other with their own spears. And I'm supposed to be impressed that he lost to a child?"

Dipping Riptide into the water, Percy swung and launched a tide before sinking below. As his opponent swiped away the wave, Poseidon's son leapt up behind him and finally landed a direct blow between the Titan's shoulder blades. His victory was short-lived as a massive hand wrapped around his waist and chucked him forward. He crashed into the concrete walkway and crumpled railing, bones numb and rattling. His body again writhed in shock as he caught another downward strike with both hands bracing his sword, pinned against the walkway with his feet dangling in the water. Hyperion switched to his off hand and tore away what remained of the demigod's shield before drawing back his right fist. Percy had enough presence of mind to shift his head just as the blow scraped his ear before wrapping his left arm and pinning his opponent's wrist to his side. To this, the titan merely rolled his eyes and continued to press down his sword.

"This is your best? How have you survived this long? Even Luke Castellan was leagues better than your pathetic attempts at combat." Eyes wide, Percy shoved off the golden sword and called on the reservoir to pull him away. Hyperion simply leaned in, jamming a forearm against his neck. "That's right. I dueled with your friend right before my brother made him into his puppet."

"Luke's no friend of mine," Percy gritted through clenched teeth.

"Yes, that much is obvious. Perhaps you might have stood a chance had you learned even slightly from your little spats," the titan drawled, knocking Riptide into the water. Percy caught his fist before the titan could finish his swing, but even then his arm was trembling. "Then again, your lot didn't quite know how to use him, did you? The Olympians like to play their little games. Nudge you, manipulate you, convince the little worms to do their dirty work. Not like us; direct and to the point, without all the tedious bluster and falsehoods. Is it such a mystery why so many of your kind flock to us like sheep?"

"What are you talking about?" Percy's eyebrows furrowed, his voice laced with confusion and anger. "Kronos has done nothing but mess with my head since the day I learned what I was. Every monster I've had to kill is because of his stupid games! When in Hades are you not manipulating us? Tricking us? When have you ever been direct? When–" The arm he'd been pinning abruptly slipped out of his lock and meaty fingers clamped down around his throat.

Hyperion sighed and rolled his eyes. "I suppose I should grant you that much. Yes, my brother isn't able to utilize his full strength and usual methods. Yes, that puts him in a position where he must sooth and coerce rather than simply ordain and it be so." The titan plucked the demigod off the wall and turned towards the Jersey Shore. In the distance, a storm reaching over fifty feet tall raged on a warpath towards the empire state building. Percy's heart dropped when he only counted seven chariots still circling it. As he thrashed, the grip on his neck tightened. "So I will speak plainly in his stead. You lost this battle the very moment my brother awoke. You lost when you roused Typhon at the Stolen Forge and pushed our plans three months ahead of schedule. You lost because we chose this time specifically - when your gods were weak and in shambles, when enough time had passed that they drained the world of any possible respect and loyalty, when every living creature, save their progeny, was prepared to abandon them for our stability and rule. When we knew, with absolute certainty, that their vain, self-centered, and conceited nature made true loyalty impossible. We will win because, unlike you, our actions are coordinated and calculated precisely." The Titan of the East hoisted the son of Poseidon into the air, roaring triumphantly. "Now witness the dawn of a new age!" As Typhon sank into the river up to his calf, Percy felt his gut lurch like his stomach was actively twisting itself into a pretzel. The king of monsters made to step forward, only for his leg to abruptly seize. He glanced down, yanking twice as if his foot were wedged in cement.

A delirious laugh bubbled past Percy's lips and he looked back over his shoulder. "Ready to eat those words?" The colossus roared, rearing back his fist and driving it down. The very moment his knuckles scraped the surface, the water erupted as a veritable tide of cyclops, hippocampi, and the last of the hekatoncheires himself raced up the gigantic arm, dragging and lashing it behind Typhon's back with thick iron chains. A squadron broke off, looping around his neck before dragging it back down. At the head of the legion, the Lord of the Seas met with the Lord of the Skies. The brothers shared a look. Then, they turned towards their shared enemy.

"Strike now! Bring him down!"

"For Olympus!" A deluge of lightning, bolts, javelins, and every other weapon imaginable fell upon the father of monsters, chasing him down to Tartarus as the river sealed behind him.

On the reservoir, Percy felt the titan's grip slacken and viciously ripped to the side the massive thumb on his jugular. The fingers at his throat spasmed, allowing the demigod to twist and slam both heels into the soft of Hyperion's elbow, kicking-flipping out of his grip entirely before landing on the water. As Riptide drifted back within reach and his opponent stared at the open air above the Hudson—lost and completely silent—the son of Poseidon swept his arms wide and laughed. That his voice quivered and cracked didn't matter in the slightest.

"Well?! How about that? Huh? All that talk, all that smarmy bullshit, and it looks like even an Olympian—the King of the Seas—will answer the call of his son. Because that's what family does! We call! We help! No matter how much it hurts us, we value our bonds. Cherish them! Nurture them in the desperate hope that our future might be better for it! Unlike you and your brethren, who'd sooner kill your children on the possibility that they might threaten you. Because that is your truth. You fight alone. We will always fight together!" Gripping Riptide with both hands, Percy charged.

"I see." Percy froze, almost stumbling. The voice swept over him, reverberating like a layered shockwave. The intonation felt indescribably archaic, commanding with inherent noble authority and unquestionable malice. Around the reservoir, monsters and demigods alike fell to their knees, clutching their ears. The raging battle immediately ceased at those two words and all eyes turned to the Titan of the East. Eyes alight and flames shifting to a bleached white, he spoke softly simple words that shook the earth. "I see now. When Atlas made excuses for his failure, I laughed with my brothers. I dismissed his concerns—that mere mortals, barely half-gods, might pose a threat even slightly. That you might be even remotely capable of heralding our downfall. I thought him a babbling, bumbling fool. But I see now my mistake. Our mistake. I see what it has cost us." Eyes white as dwarf stars turned to Percy, sending chills down his spine. "Congratulations, sea spawn. You have my undivided attention."

Percy blinked and his world exploded into white. If there were stars flashing, he couldn't tell because the sun was still wrapped around his eyeballs. His back hit something rough and unyielding. The moment his feet touched solid ground, his head throbbed like Dionysus's worst hangover and his stomach viciously inverted onto the pavement. Something as thick as a tree slammed into his ribs, launching him and robbing his lungs of air. The moment he landed, blows rained down on his back and legs like punches from a pneumatic piston, narrowly missing the small patch on his lower spine by some miracle, before he was flipped over. He brought his arms over his face only for them to be ripped away and something edged to strike him over and over like a hydraulic anvil. Then, for a brief moment, the onslaught stopped and he sucked in a wheezing gasp.

"The novelty of this scuffle has worn out its welcome." Fingers as thick as his wrist clutched onto his throat, hoisting him up and pinning him against a wall. The other hand joined it. "Styx may have given you her blessing but I do not need to know your fatal weakness to end your life." Percy's lips dried and split. He thrashed as he tried to work Hyperion's grip open to no avail. Then, his vision darkened. The fact that was somehow possible, despite the Titan still standing in his true form, filled the demigod with terror and he struggled that much harder. At some point, Riptide reappeared in his pocket. Uncapping it and gripping the hit with both hands, he drove the point down into the titan's forearm as hard as he could. The impact told him he struck metal instead of flesh. Without warning, the blade warped in his hands and he heard the sound of metal snapping.

The hilt slipped from his grasp.

His arms slumped at his side.

Darkness consumed him.

Then daylight slammed into his face as he collapsed to the ground, hacking desperately as his intakes rattled a parched throat. The glow diminished rapidly as Hyperion stumbled away from him, one hand pulling at something on his face. It settled on a thin silver shaft and tugged, dragging out the ruined remains of his left eye.

"Over here, you overgrown matchstick!" The titan of the east snarled, turning towards the speaker. Recognizing her voice, Percy also turned and tried to call out to Thalia. His warning came out as a rasp from lungs too dry and throat too sore to obey him. "This party got room for one more?" Hyperion caught the second arrow an inch from his eye and regarded her coldly.

"Truthfully? No. But for you, I will make an exception." He lunged, appearing before her faster than she could blink. Eyes wide, she swayed back precariously, evading his grasp by a hair's breadth before gracefully backflipping and loosing another arrow. The tip bounced off of the titan's forearm and he stepped forward. Her mocking expression rapidly shifted to panic as he drove his fist into the pavement, rending the ground precisely as she landed. The rock she pushed off slipped and in the next moment, her neck and chest burned as her bow snapped in two and fell to the side. Her screams evaporated with the moisture in her throat, her mouth frozen in a horrific silent wail. "Now to make you-" Hyperion shifted awkwardly, glancing up to his left. Without warning, his hand shot out and snatched thin air above his left shoulder, hurling it behind him. There was a loud crack several meters away as Annabeth re-appeared, her baseball cap falling beside the blood pooling around her head. The titan ignored her, pressing his thumb against Thalia's eyelid. "Now to ma-" Vines leaped out of the ground, wrapping around his hand and wrenching it open. Grover charged forward, bellowing the same cry of panic last heard at the battle for Camp Half-blood. The titan winced and growled, ripping the roots out of the ground before swinging it like a whip and smacking the satyr away. "Enough! I will-" Another arrow sprouted from his remaining eye, causing him to roar and release the daughter of Zeus.

"GET AWAY FROM MY LIEUTENANT!" Artemis dove from her chariot as it passed overhead, seeming to shift momentarily into a leopard before landing on all four and drawing back another arrow as she rose. Her bow creaked as she pulled even further, launching the arrow with so much force that it punched into Hyperion's breastplate and made a dent as large as a soccer ball. The titan reeled, stumbling and falling to one knee. "Never again! Never again will you ever touch a single one of my hunters!" She fired again. And again. Faster. Faster still. Each draw became a blur until they all smeared together, the glint of the arrowheads melting into a veritable stream of silver. The titan crossed his arms over his upper torso but it did little to stop him from being peppered until he looked like a tumorous sea urchin. Her followers joined in, turning the onslaught into a hail of horizontal death. Feeling himself sliding back, Hyperion planted one foot back and braced his stance. Percy watched as the titan stopped sliding back. Then, he took a step forward. Then another. Eyes wide, the demigod groaned and dragged his arms under him. His fingers scraped the charred gravel that had once been soil, finding the pommel of his shattered sword and curling around it. Staggering to his feet, he reversed his grip as though he were holding a dagger and limped toward the flaming giant. His strides lengthened and the gap closed faster.

"What is he–... Perseus, stop! Stop!" Artemis's breath hitched as the demigod's pace increased, realizing he was either ignoring her words or had been rendered incapable of hearing them in the first place. "Check your marks! Don't hit him!" The deluge lessened significantly as the tide of arrows parted around the demigod like a school of fish to a barracuda. Coming within arm's reach of his opponent, Percy stooped before leaping and driving his blade between the titan's wrist. Hyperion's guard broke upward and Percy sank the sheared tip of Riptide into the soft of his collar, tumbling with the titan into the reservoir. Cool water kissed his skin like a cold shower on a summer day, seeping into his limbs and filling his muscles with renewed vigor. His lungs swelled with a full breath and his exhaustion washed away, leaving a mind flushed, lucid, and alive with renewed purpose. He dragged out his blade before stabbing into Hyperion's chest, this time plunging the tip between the ribs just where the heart would be. Over and over, he sank the broken blade into the titan's flesh, drawing out so much ichor that the water around them turned beige. Within the water, he screamed with utmost clarity at a volume that echoed with ripples.

"Fall, you bastard! Just die already!"

"ENOUGH!" Giant arms wrapped around his torso, pinning him in place as Hyperion again glowed white hot. In a split second, the entire lake evaporated with a thunderous pop, splitting the concrete of the walkway and launching an explosion of steam in one massive shockwave. Percy's ears rang with a whine higher than the combined pitch of a thousand steam whistles as his skull rattled like a maraca. The arms pinning him tightened and he felt his spine creak. "If I must fall today, you are coming to hell with me!" Above them, he heard Artemis calling for everyone to retreat and evacuate the reservoir. He could only hope that someone would help get Annabeth and Grover out of the blast radius. Again, he felt his lips dry as the hot air burned down his esophagus. His arms strained against the titan's warped breastplate to no avail. Riptide refused to budge when he pulled it. "The Sea God will pay for his transgressions! Let us see who Fate favors today!" The stranglehold constricted like the coils of Python. The last thing Percy processed before the darkness took him was someone tackling him from the side and ripping him from Hyperion's grasp.

Then his world exploded in pain.

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For those who remember the original version, it's probably really easy to see that this iteration of Ch. 1 is a large departure from the old string of events. I got a couple comments about the things I got wrong before and how a lot of the events didn't line up close enough with the book version. Somehow, I got lucky that Thalia was on scene but then I wrote it so that they were fighting in a random park near a bridge over a river instead of the reservoir and Hyperion was fighting with a spear instead of a sword. Since Riordan doesn't make it clear which reservoir the battle is taking place in—and I'm a bit too lazy to do any significant research and don't live in New York—I just picked a random reservoir in Manhattan and ran with that, hence the boat house, bust, and walkway Hyperion can demolish as he wrecks house.

On that note, while rewriting this chapter I realized that one of the things I found disappointing about Riordan's version is how easily Hyperion goes down. Don't get me wrong, I understand that the Curse of Achilles gives Percy a massive leg up but Hyperion is supposed to be the second most powerful titan next to Atlas. Annabeth even says so right before Percy engages (Kronos has time manipulation but I'm not sure how he fits into this power dynamic). It should take way more than a juiced up demigod (even if he is Poseidon's son), a couple hunters of Artemis (even if one of them is Zeus's daughter), and a juiced up satyr (even if he is Pan's significantly weaker successor) to seal away the Titan of the East. Achilles only looked so impressive because his competition were other demigods and mortals. Do I think Achilles was probably strong enough to go toe-to-toe with Atlas or Hyperion? Not really. So, I asked myself what it would look like if Hyperion actually tried and what his opposition would need to look like.

It might be helpful to consider exactly how you feel as a reader when comparing Atlas to Hyperion (who should at least technically rival but not surpass the former). When I look back on the feeling I got from the last battle of the Titan's Curse, Atlas makes you feel dread at his presence. The moment he steps on scene, everyone starts sweating bullets because he is a brick shithouse who can fold each and every single one of the protagonists into origami with a lax smile on his face. When I look back to Percy's fight on the reservoir, Hyperion just makes you roll your eyes. If you're still having trouble with this comparison, consider this: even with an additional two years of training and the curse of Styx, is Percy strong enough to beat Atlas outright? My answer is no, so it shouldn't be any different for Hyperion. I decided to put them in at least the same ballpark. Percy can just barely match up until Hyperion actually starts trying. Then, Hyperion just starts manhandling him like a ragdoll until Artemis shows up to even the playing field. If anyone thinks she shouldn't make that much of a difference, she matched and held off Atlas after a week holding up the sky (presumably unarmed because I don't see Atlas leaving her weapons with her).

To clarify Percy's condition, no he's not really getting injured by being near Hyperion. Yes, he still needs to breathe so Hyperion strangling him was a very real threat but he wasn't getting burned or hurt by the titan's heat. That said, I wanted to set Styx's Curse apart from something like Baldur's curse from GOW Ragnarok so my take is that Percy can still very much feel pain (albeit reduced significantly) but his body won't be affected by any attack except for a something that directly targets his vital spot. Also, if anyone is uncertain as to why Percy was disheartened when he counted only seven chariots still circling Typhon before he goes down, it's a math easter egg. Doing a quick head count, Demeter is with Hades, Poseidon is en route, and Dionysus is down and out for the count. That leaves nine remaining Olympians, two of which are now out of the picture for some unknown reason (I like to imagine Ares and Hera getting swatted down and everyone else just shaking their heads but you can make your own head canon. For some reason during the Trojan War, Hera is depicted as being stronger than Artemis and knocking her around with her own bow - despite the latter spending the majority of her time either hunting or in combat - so it wouldn't be the first time head canon changes the script).

For those that would argue I did Riptide dirty and are upset that I broke the sword, let's consider again how powerful Hyperion should be. Celestial bronze is a unique and sufficient material for combatting normal and strong monsters. I can buy Riptide not melting when clashing with Kampe's cursed blades. Who knows? Maybe Zoe was skilled enough to have enchanted her weapon that degree. But when compared to the resources of gods and titans, it doesn't make sense for Hyperion's sword and armor to not be comparable to Backbiter or Zeus's master bolt. Weaker, for sure, but not by much. Zoe may have been a very skilled craftswoman but she's the daughter of Hyperion's nephew and it feels disingenuous to argue she'd be able to close that gap. I also don't see how her craftsmanship could match up to that of the three elder cyclops and the three hekatoncheires (if anyone thinks that Hyperion's equipment wouldn't have been crafted by them, I would ask for your logic as there's no reason for that not to be the case). Combine this with Hyperion flexing his arms as he's strangling Percy while in his true form and that Percy struck his arm guard after several minutes of clashing blades with a weapon that constantly radiates extreme levels of heat and I can easily see the sword weakening and shattering.

For anyone that's wondering, Thalia's fine. Well, not fine but alive. My thinking is that her landing the first shot knocked Hyperion out of his true form so he wasn't burning nearly as hot as he could have when trying to gouge out her eyes. Anyone else is toast but Artemis probably gives a little bit of a stronger blessing to her lieutenant than her other hunters so she's probably ok.

Obviously with the changes I've made to the first chapter, the following chapters are going to be a bit inconsistent. I'm gonna fix those next but I don't know how long it'll take. Don't hold your breath.