YOU GUYS HELP ME OUT IM KINDA STUPID❗️❗️❗️ Ok so I'm trying to do some worldbuilding for Atlantis rn. There are SEVEN kingdoms of Atlantis, if Poseidon rules ALL of them, wouldn't that make him... an emperor??? And not a king??? And it would technically be called the "Atlantean Empire"?? Right?? I'm sorry, I'm no good with royal stuff 😭😭

THIS WAS THE WORST FAMILY lunch ever.

Percy stared down at her plate of Greek meatballs, nervously lathering it with blue tzatziki. Poseidon sat down across from her, arms crossed, and his icy blue glare directed to her bowed head. Hades sat off to the side at the head of the table, smiling awkwardly.

After her disastrous appointment with Beelzebub, Hades took them back to Poseidon's Palace, but he didn't leave. He probably assumed that Poseidon was gonna snap and kill her, and stayed for her sake—something that she greatly appreciated.

But before she could scurry off to her room and pretend that she didn't exist, her stomach grumbled and Hades got the bright (not) idea of having a family lunch together.

And now here they were. Five minutes into the meal and no one had spoken once.

Poseidon was the first to break up the silence. "This is a waste of my time."

"Oh come now, brother," Hades tried to appease him. "Family meals are fun."

The blonde scoffed. Then he turned his icy glare back to Percy who immediately ducked down to admire her untouched food again.

"Are you going to eat or not?" He questioned, beginning to lose his patience.

"You're not eating either," she mumbled.

He grabbed his fork and angrily slammed it onto the plate, splitting it in half. He did, however, manage to pierce through a meatball. Then, he placed it in his mouth and chewed.

"There. I've eaten," he said after swallowing.

Off to the side, Hades could only sigh.

"Now you eat," he demanded. "I highly doubt my stubborn brother is going to let us leave the table until you finish your meal, so hurry it up."

Well, at least they could agree on one thing: they did not want to spend a minute longer with one another. Percy began to eat with gusto, practically shoveling meatballs into her mouth.

"You two are ridiculous," Hades sighed once more. "And Percy, eat properly or else you'll choke."

Too late. Percy was already coughing by the time he finished his sentence.

At first, Hades didn't realize what was going on, but once she started clutching her throat—the universal sign that someone was choking—he panicked and quickly whacked her on the back. The chewed up meatball comically flew out of her mouth and landed splat on Poseidon's bare chest.

Hades sucked in a breath. Percy's face turned white in terror.

There was a very tense silence as they all watched the soggy clump of meatball slip down from Poseidon's chest and onto the front of his tail with another wet splat.

.

.

.

I'M SO DEAD! She internally screeched.

They waited with bated breath for Poseidon's reaction. His expression was covered by a shadow, face angled down to where the soggy meatball had fallen on his lap.

Finally, he lifted up his head. Percy flinched back at the pure rage and disgust in his expression. He immediately rose to his feet (or fins in this case), fork clenched in his fist. He started to pull his arm back to throw it at her.

"Poseidon, NO!" Hades was on him in an instant, grappling for the fork. "Put the fork down!"

"I'm going to kill her," he growled, trying to wrench his arm free from his brother's grip. His deadly stare was still aimed at a pale-faced Percy.

Percy had never been stabbed by a fork before and she wasn't looking forward to experiencing it for the first time either. So it was no surprise that she was already hurrying for the exit.

"I'm super full right now, so if you'll excuse me—!"

She shot out the doors of the Great Hall and went straight for her room. The second she was inside, she slowly felt herself slide onto the floor, out of breath despite the short swim.

"Oh my gods..." She breathed out. "I fucked up. I fucked up so bad."

She got up and started pacing around the room.

She couldn't believe she was going to die all because of a meatball. A fucking meatball. She was never going to eat a meatball ever again.

And she meant that literally because Poseidon was going to fucking kill her once he managed to get around Hades.

He's probably gonna kill me with a fork too, she realized. Oh gods, that's so embarrassing. Imagine getting killed by a fork?!

Her friends would surely grieve, but after getting over it they'd probably laugh over the hilarity of it all. She could see her gravestone now:

Here lies Percy Jackson. Killed with a fork all because she spat a meatball on her dad's tits.

Some Savior of Olympus she was turning out to be.

Her frantic pacing was interrupted by a knock on the door, making her jump.

She stared at the door anxiously. Was it Poseidon...? No, it couldn't be. He didn't seem like the type to knock. Plus, with how mad he was he probably would've broken the door down instead. Maybe it was Proteus. Maybe he heard what had happened and was rushing to give her an escape plan.

She inched the door open and peeked out. Then she glanced up.

"Hello, Percy," Hades' smiling face greeted her. He had an iron grip around Poseidon's shoulder. "Mind if we come in?"

No, was what she really wanted to say.

But instead, she gritted her teeth and smiled, "Sure."

She let them in. Hades was still holding onto Poseidon's shoulder, as if to anchor him down.

"I'm sorry about the meatball," she blurted out. "It was an accident."

His glare didn't lessen.

Hades squeezed his shoulder. "You're supposed to say that you forgive her," he whispered to him in Ancient Greek. It occurred to her that these guys probably didn't realize that she could understand it.

"I don't forgive her," Poseidon replied back.

He closed his eyes. "At least apologize for trying to attack her then."

"I will not apologize. She is the one at fault."

"You don't have to apologize to me," she said, pretending not to understand what they were saying. "It was entirely my fault. I'm really sorry. For messing things up at Lord Beelzebub's place and, uh..." She winced. "The meatball thing."

Poseidon's eye twitched at the mention of the accursed meatball incident. Percy was just glad he wasn't holding on to that fork anymore.

"Well, at least you're aware of what you've done wrong," Poseidon began, sneering. "But if you dare to step one more toe out of line—"

"—Poseidon," Hades said in a warning voice.

"...Tomorrow you will be sent to Beelzebub's for a second time," he retracted. "You will behave yourself, is that understood? Do not cause trouble for me again."

She nodded hastily. "I won't. Promise."

Shit, she inwardly cursed. She could only hope Beelzebub wouldn't try to draw her blood again. Or use needles. Or knives.

Hades clapped his hands together. "Wonderful. That settles it. Now why don't you two hug this out?"

Heads turned his way.

"Huh?"

"Excuse me?"

Hades let out a chuckle at their bewildered stares. They were more alike than they thought. "No need to be shy with each other! You two have hugged before just moments ago back at Beelzebub's castle."

"That was not a hug," Poseidon scoffed. "This gremlin—"

Percy let out an offended gasp, "—Hey!"

"—put her grubby little hands on me without my permission. She should be grateful I didn't cut her arms off for such insolence."

"She's not a gremlin, brother, she's your baby," Hades corrected, exhausted. "And she was scared. It's only appropriate that a young girl would run to her father for protection. Does that not warm your heart?"

"We are gods, we have no hearts." He said bluntly.

Another sigh. "You know what I mean."

"I refuse to hug her." Stubborn jerk.

"It's fine," Percy pretended to sniffle. If the cutesy act wouldn't work on Poseidon, then maybe it'd work on Hades and he would adopt her instead. "I'm used to not getting hugs from him... He never hugs me... And why would he? I'm just a little gremlin baby after all..."

She dared to steal a glance at the brothers. Hades was giving him a disappointed look as if to say, See? Now look at what you've done.

He was now muttering to him furiously in Ancient Greek. He was speaking so fast that Percy couldn't understand him, but Poseidon sure did because suddenly he was gritting his teeth and addressing her.

"I will not apologize for calling you a gremlin," he began, ignoring his older brother's pointed look. "But I was merely stating a fact. I did not mean it as an insult so do not get upset."

Dear gods, this guy is shit at apologies.

But... she still needed to survive so her best option was to just grin and bear it.

And so, she forced herself to smile so sweetly that Hades started to coo in the background.

"It's okay, daddy, I forgive you," she forced herself to say. And then, just to sell the whole 'I'm so cute and sweet uwu' act, she stepped forward and enveloped her 'dad' in a hug.

Hades watched on, hand placed over his chest and a smile plastered onto his face. He did not see the pained grimace Percy wore or Poseidon's deadpanning eyes.

Finally, he thought, wiping away an imaginary tear. Progress at last.

‧₊˚✩彡𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟‧₊˚✩彡๋ ࣭ ⭑ ࣭ ⭑

CAMP HALF-BLOOD

"Things aren't going well..." Anthonius trailed off.

Night was falling over the camp. The other campers were already at the amphitheater for the nightly sing-alongs with the Apollo kids. Meanwhile, Anthonius and Grover were sitting on the dock overlooking the lake.

"That potential clue we got in Michigan? It ended up being a dud. She wasn't there," he went on. "They've got another one in New Mexico, but I think it's all pointless. Whoever took her wouldn't make it this easy."

Grover was making a sad tune with his reed pipes. Anthonius vaguely recognized it as If I Die Young by The Band Perry. He always hated that song, it might as well be every demigod's theme song. But today, he didn't have it in him to tell Grover to quit it.

"...I know she's alive," Grover said once he finished. "I can feel it, Anthonius. But at the same time, she's so disconnected from me... It's weird. I've never felt this before. She always feels so much that it makes it easy for me to feel her emotions, you know what I mean? But when I woke up that day and her side of the line was just... gone, I was scared."

Anthonius didn't know what to say to that, so he kept quiet and listened. He could tell Grover needed to let this out.

The satyr sniffled and reached out to wipe away a stray tear. "After you guys rescued me from Polyphemus, I told Percy we could cut the empathy link. I figured that I'd probably die and put her at risk, and I didn't want that so I told we should just cut it off, but she said no. She wanted to keep it. That way, she could save me again if I was in any trouble."

He let out a shuddering breath. His eyes stared out into the river. "I never thought we'd be in a situation where it would be the other way around; with her in trouble and me needing to find her... And I can't even do it."

"That's not your fault," Anthonius told him with a worried frown. Grover had always lacked confidence in himself, especially after what had happened with him, Luke, and Thalia. But ever since he had found Pan and became the Lord of the Wild, Grover gained a sense of confidence.

Now it looked like all of that had faded away along with Percy.

"Percy wouldn't want you to think like this, and she wouldn't blame you either," he said firmly. "Someone's kidnapped her and hidden her away. It's got to be another god, or a Titan or... or something. Of course they wouldn't make it easy for you to find her with the empathy link. They probably know a way to tamper with it."

"I know...! I'm just scared. Just who would be powerful enough to hide her away from all the gods?" Grover cried out, setting his reed pipes down.

Anthonius opened his mouth, but then a panicked voice cut him off.

"Anthonius! Grover!"

They both turned around. It was Clarisse. The daughter of Ares was one of the main campers leading the search for Percy and she had been taking it very seriously.

Anthonius could feel something fall into the pit of his stomach when he saw her. Why? Because her face was pale with fear. The only time that had ever happened was when Silena was dying in her arms.

"Clarisse?" Grover was quick to stand up, Anthonius following suit. "What is it? What happened?"

"Mr. D just came back from his meeting with the other gods," she said hastily.

Anthonius' eyes widened. "He's back already? What did they say? Has Percy been found—"

"—No," she shook her head. "This... gods, this is really bad. The meeting was interrupted. The fates—all three of them—came to Olympus."

Anthonius could feel his heart stop. "The... the fates?" He swallowed thickly. "Why did they...?"

He and Grover exchanged terrified looks. A meeting with the Fates was never a good thing.

"Not even they know where Percy is," Clarisse said grimly. "And the worst part? Her kidnapping was never supposed to happen. It wasn't part of her destiny. Whoever did this—whatever happened—just completely altered the fate of everything we know."

‧₊˚✩彡𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟‧₊˚✩彡๋ ࣭ ⭑ ࣭ ⭑

Percy made a mental vow to give Hades a giant gift basket before she finally left this world.

The next morning, her newfound 'uncle' had arrived earlier than she expected. She had a feeling he only did that to make sure she was still alive, but she appreciated it anyway. Especially when he accepted her offer to eat breakfast together. It was pretty sweet of him.

"You surely have a fondness for the color blue," he noted in amusement as he picked up a forkful of blue waffles.

"It's my favorite color," she said after swallowing. Usually she had no issues with talking with her mouth full, but after the Meatball Incident™ (yes the trademark was necessary), she wasn't going to risk it.

"I can tell," he chuckled, a twinkle in his eyes. "Your father's favorite color is blue too. He loves it. That, and sea-green. Just like your eyes."

She nearly choked on her waffle. She quickly gulped it down with a glass of milk.

"Um, what?" She asked dumbly.

His smile widened. "You heard me. He likes your eyes."

"Did he actually say that?" She asked doubtfully.

"Well, not exactly."

She snorted.

"His exact words were more, 'she looks nothing like me, but her eyes are adequate'," he quoted. "But trust me, that's a very big compliment from him."

She let out a weak snort. It came out a lot more bitter than she wanted.

Hades gave her a sympathetic smile. "I'm sorry about my brother, Percy. He's rough around the edges. But he is capable of love, I promise you that."

"He doesn't want me," she said. She didn't know where this was coming from, but her mind was suddenly going back and forth with her father back home and the one she was stuck with now. "Because I'm not perfect."

Poseidon (the one back home) didn't want her because she was just another one of his many half-blood kids. Sure her being a girl made her different from the rest, but initially, he really hadn't expected much from her. But over time she continued to shatter his expectations over and over again.

He was quick to warm up with her—she knew that and she ate it all up, but she stupidly let the hope blossom, that maybe, maybe he would say 'fuck it' to the Ancient Laws and spend more time with her. That maybe he would visit her during her birthdays and holidays, or that he would ask her to visit him in Atlantis.

But that never happened. Naively, she used to tell herself that he was just afraid of getting attached. She was a prophecy child and a product of a broken oath on the River Styx. Her life constantly tethered on the edge; Poseidon would be a fool to get attached to her when the chances of her dying were so high. But the war passed and she survived and nothing ever happened between them after that.

(He's doing this because he cares about you, she would always tell herself. He can't risk breaking the Ancient Laws. You would be the first one to be punished should he break them.)

A warm hand on her shoulder snapped her out of her thoughts.

"Percy," Hades' gentle voice came from her left.

She turned to him, seeing the worry in his eyes. He reached out to her carefully. At first, she didn't know what he was doing, but then she felt him wipe away something wet from her face.

Tears? She was crying? She hadn't even realized it.

Great. He probably thought she was crying over this Poseidon.

Speak of the Devil and he shall appear. With the absolute worst timing ever, Poseidon walked into the Great Hall and paused at what he was seeing. He looked at Percy, then at Hades.

"What did you do?" He asked his brother.

"I don't know," Hades frowned, still looking at her in concern. "Percy are you—"

"—'m fine, yeah," she blinked away the rest of her tears. "Are we going now?"

Poseidon was watching her carefully, but his face remained stoic as ever. "Yes. Are you done here?"

She nodded wordlessly.

"Good. Then we shall go."

‧₊˚✩彡𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟‧₊˚✩彡๋ ࣭ ⭑ ࣭ ⭑

"Not going to try and run away now, are you?" Beelzebub questioned as he led her down the hallway of his castle.

She winced. "Hey man, uh... I'm really, really sorry about kicking you... and messing up your house... and wasting your lemons. I'm just, like, super scared of needles."

That last part was a lie (obviously), but she really did feel bad about everything else!

"I'm sure you are," he said ominously.

Well that certainly wasn't weird and creepy.

She followed him into his personal morgue (seriously, why did he have that?) and sat down on the metal operating table.

"So," she started, swinging her legs around. "Since you're not gonna draw my blood, what're you gonna do then?"

"I'll take your saliva instead," he replied, slipping on his latex gloves. "You're not afraid of cotton swabs too, are you?"

She had no idea if he was just teasing her or not. It sounded like a genuine question because of how apathetic he was.

"Nope," she said, feeling relieved on the inside. A cotton swab was far better than a needle.

Beelzebub nodded wordlessly. She watched as he opened up a plastic bag containing a long cotton swab before turning to her.

"Open your mouth," he instructed.

She did as she was told. He swabbed the inside of her cheek before drawing the cotton swab out. She couldn't see what he was doing with it since he turned his back to her afterwards, but she could see him working over a small machine that seemed familiar to her.

PCR machine...? She guessed, vaguely recognizing it from her biotechnology class.

She waited several moments as he pressed some buttons. After that, the machine came to life and a whirring sound could be heard.

He finally turned back to her. "You require nutrition for sustenance, correct?"

"Huh?"

He had to dumb it down for her. "You need to eat food."

"Oh! Yeah, why?"

"Come," was all he said, motioning for her to follow him out the door.

She trailed behind him as he led her away from what she dubbed the 'laboratory section' of the castle.

They entered a very familiar room. It was his Great Hall, the same place where she stole his lemons and squirted them into her eyes to make it look like she was crying (she cringed at the memory).

Now that everything was calmer between them, she was finally able to admire it. Beelzebub lived in a castle, so no room was small, the Great Hall included. But it was pretty... empty. It was the kind of room where you would expect one of those super long tables with at least ten chairs like back at Poseidon's palace. But aside from some creepy paintings, all there was was a small round table with four chairs.

He motioned for her to sit, so she did. He sat down across from her. The first thing she noticed was that his basket of fruits were gone. He probably removed them because of her. Whoops.

Beelzebub suddenly waved his hand. The shadows on the table rose before taking a physical shape. As they dispersed, a plate of food was revealed. Percy suppressed the urge to drool. It was a plate of elotes, Mexican street corn. She had eaten those a bunch of times from street vendors around her apartment building.

"Eat," he said.

She probably shouldn't. Helheim was technically the same as the Underworld and she knew all too well to never eat any food from there... but the corn looked so good so maybe a little bite wouldn't hurt?

(Spoiler alert: she had more than just a bite.)

She took a cob and started to eat.

Beelzebub watched her quietly, hands folded together in front of him.

"This is so good!" She said between a mouthful of corn. "Is food part of your domain? No wait, are you a god? Or a demon? Sorry."

"It's... something like that," he answered her first question vaguely. "And I'm a little bit of both."

"Beelzebub, right? You're the Lord of the Flies dude?"

"You really don't know? Your father and uncle haven't told you anything about me?" He asked. It would certainly explain her lackadaisical attitude towards him.

"Not really," she shrugged.

"Percy, I'm the Devil," he said bluntly.

"Ooh, edgy," she said, mouth full of corn. She swallowed. "Can I have some water, please?"

He summoned a glass of water.

"I'm a little confused," she said after taking a sip. "But isn't the Devil Lucifer? Or Satan?"

"Lucifer was much too good to be called such a thing," he suddenly snapped, anger visible in his tone. The past tense he used didn't go unnoticed by her. "And Satan... I'd rather not talk about that. Did you learn this from those human books?" He scoffed. "They get everything wrong."

"Oh, sorry," she said apologetically. He genuinely looked angry too, which was concerning because he had always been emotionless with her up until now.

Fortunately, he calmed down, his stoic expression returning.

"Enough talking about me. I'd like to talk about you," he said.

Oh shit, she thought.

"Uh, about me?" She asked, nails nervously digging into the cob. "There's not much to talk about..."

"I disagree," he said smoothly. "As the Devil, I have a better understanding of the soul than Hades. You see, Hades can only see the outer surface, whereas I can see deeper than that. I can see a person's character."

"Like... whether a person's good or bad?" She asked.

"In layman's terms, yes," he nodded. "And, well... your soul is rather peculiar to me. It's pure—which is expected of a newborn. However your soul is also... heroic. It reminds me of Heracles, actually."

She swallowed thickly. "Heroic?" She echoed feebly.

"Yes. When I saw it, I wondered, 'how is it possible for a newborn to already be considered a hero?'. Heracles' heroic nature took years to develop, and he had to go through many trials and tribulations. Yet you were only born less than a week ago and you've spent most of your time lavishing within the confines of your father's palace. Tell me, Percy, how exactly did your soul become this way?"

"The more they try to learn, the more questions they might have," Mnemosyne's voice echoed in her head. "We must take advantage of this. If they want to learn more about you, then fine, let them try and figure you out on their own and become lost in their own theories. As long as they believe that you can still be fixed and waste time trying to find a solution, you will be safe. Stalling will help prolong your survival."

"I don't know," she answered, trying to keep her voice steady. "You're the soul specialist here, you tell me."

Her hands were trembling, but she grabbed onto another elote to hide it.

As long as they never knew the truth, as long as they wasted their time trying to find out, she would survive.

But the way Beelzebub stared at her made her think otherwise. His blood red eyes were piercing through hers. The fact that he could literally see through her soul only made her all the more nervous.

"You look nervous," he noted.

"I'm not," she lied. "You're just creeping me out with the invasive questions that I can't answer."

Suddenly she found herself bound to the chair. Her head snapped downwards; shadows had solidified themselves like rope and kept her arms stuck against the armrests and her legs to the legs of the chair. Her heart beat faster; this was just like in her dream.

"What the hell are you doing?" She said sharply.

"Apologies. I was worried you might try to run away and cause trouble for me again." He replied, not sounding apologetic at all.

"Let me go."

"This is just a precaution," he said. "I'll let you go once I'm satisfied with your answers."

"You're crazy!"

"Do you recognize this?" He went on, ignoring her outburst. He held his hand up and something small materialized into it. It was a blood drawing needle.

She told him exactly that.

He shook his head. "Take a closer look, Percy. What's missing?"

She squinted a little. The little plastic tube was still there, and so was the small vial where the blood would be stored. And then, she realized what was wrong.

"The needle?"

"Correct," he nodded. She couldn't help but feel like he was patronizing her the same way a teacher would patronize a student they thought was dumb. "Do you know what happened to the needle?"

She sighed impatiently. "Dude, can you just get to the point and quit it with the annoying questions?"

The corners of his lips curled upwards. She suppressed a shudder. Beelzebub was smiling. She doubted it was for anything good.

"If that's what you wish," he drawled, and she knew she was about to regret everything. "The needle is missing because you broke it, Percy. This is the same one I threw at you the other day. You thought you dodged it, but you didn't. In fact, the needle shattered upon making contact with your skin."

The color drained from her face.

No, was her immediate thought. He had to be lying, he had to! She knew she dodged that needle!

...Right?

He seemed to be able to read her thoughts, because his smile turned a lot more sinister.

"Did you assume I would just simply throw it at you? How naive. Had I just thrown it, you would've dodged it perfectly. I realized that, which is why I moved the needle a little bit to the right in order to nick you," he explained, and then to demonstrate, he opened his palm and let the instrument float over his hand without touching it.

Telekinesis*. Of fucking course the Devil would be telekinetic.

"I'm very good at sensing lies, Percy. I know you're not afraid of needles, but you were very adamant not to let any touch your skin. I was curious as to what would happen, so I threw the needle at you. Now why would you be so scared of needles when your skin's apparently so strong that nothing can penetrate it, hmm? Are you trying to hide something?"

She knew that gods had super good hearing, so he could probably hear the sound of heart hammering away at her ribcage. He was probably enjoying it too. What a sicko, she thought.

She liked it better when he was emo and apathetic.

He sighed at her silence. "I had a feeling you wouldn't answer. Would you like to hear what I think, then?"

"No."

"I'll tell you anyway," he said, which made her roll her eyes. "I think you're lying about a lot of things. First off, you're not a newborn. Evidence: it's impossible for newborns to have so much character to their soul—they're far too young to experience anything yet. By the looks of it, you're at least ten years of age. Secondly, your skin. It's impenetrable. All of my tools are made by me and are capable of penetrating a god's skin, they can't break that easily. But you managed to do the impossible with your skin..."

"I heard a story long ago," he went on. "About a man who gained impenetrable skin just like yours. But it was just a story that humans came up with. I thought it couldn't possibly be true... Until you came. You took a dip in the River Styx, didn't you?**"

Fuck. This wasn't good. The Curse of Achilles was supposed to be her backup if everything went to hell! It wasn't supposed to be revealed this early!

Mnemosyne's gonna kill me, she inwardly grimaced. She was the only other person who knew about it. Not even Brunhilde or Goll knew.

Beelzebub leaned forward, placing his hands down on the table. "How did you do it? According to Hades, you've only been in the Underworld twice; today, and yesterday. Both times were overseen by me, and I know you never snuck away to the River Styx and I doubt Hades would allow you to go there either. He also would've known if someone had traveled to Helheim without his permission. So how, Percy? How did you get to the River Styx without him knowing? And how did you even know what you would gain from it?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," she answered through gritted teeth. "I've never been to any river! The only body of water I've been to is my father's kingdom!"

"Another lie," he drawled, finally pulling back and folding his hands together once more. "I know you know about the river, Percy. If you were truly ignorant, then you wouldn't have been so desperate to avoid letting the needle touch you yesterday."

"These are getting really tight," she gestured to her bindings. "Can you loosen them up?"

"No."

"Wow," she muttered under her breath. She was beginning to hate this guy more than Poseidon.

"The bifrost sent you here, whether by accident or not, I don't know," he was beginning to mumble to himself. "You're definitely Poseidon's daughter though, your aura tells me that enough. But everything else is a mystery I want to solve... Mnemosyne was the one who vouched for you. She looked through your memories, so she surely knows the truth, doesn't she?"

She stiffened. Shit. Mnemosyne was the first goddess to help her after she was suddenly sent here. She didn't want her to get dragged into this.

"But why lie for you?" He wondered aloud.

"If you're just gonna talk to yourself like a weirdo, then can you at least let me go?" She let out a tired sigh, pretending to act calm.

But he ignored her and continued to talk to himself. You know, like a weirdo.

Meanwhile, Percy remained silent and thought hard of what to do. She didn't think it was a good idea to attack him with her powers right now, that would just make things look worse for her. She didn't want to sit here and let him interrogate her either. Plus, these bindings really were getting uncomfortable.

But fortunately for her, she didn't need to do anything.

Beelzebub looked up as if he sensed something, and sighed.

"Hades and Poseidon are here," he said, sounding disappointed.

He rose to his feet and with a snap of his fingers, the shadows liquified and dispersed from her limbs. She was finally free. She rubbed her wrists and glared at him, but he merely smiled back.

Tell a word of what happened, and I'll bring up these questions again right in front of them, the smile on his face challenged.

What a dick, she thought.

"I'll bring them over, so stay here." He instructed.

Percy flipped him off when his back was turned. He walked out the door without a clue. When he returned, Hades and Poseidon were with him.

Hades, as usual, was all smiles when he saw her.

"Thank you for feeding her, Beelzebub," he said gratefully.

"Of course," the ravenette returned in a cordial manner. "I wouldn't want the little one to starve."

It was taking Percy a lot of energy from glowering at him. Instead, she turned her attention back to her 'dad' and pretended to play nice.

"Want to try one, daddy?" She offered sweetly, sliding the plate of elotes closer to him. "Beelie made them."

Beelzebub stiffened. "Beelie?" He repeated.

She looked at him with wide, innocent eyes. "It's my nickname for you! You don't mind, right?"

Hades was looking at him expectantly, so Beelzebub had no choice but to nod, "...I don't mind at all," he lied.

She beamed. "Great!"

"I'm not interested," Poseidon replied to her offer in a clipped tone. He turned to Beelzebub. He was obviously impatient for results. "Well? Do you have anything or not?"

He nodded. "The results should be ready. Give me a moment."

He pulled out a... cellphone (she didn't even know there was wifi down here)? Before Percy could see what kind it was—it definitely didn't look like an iPhone or a Samsung—a hologram appeared before them. She could see diagrams and words, but she didn't bother to read them since they were all in reverse.

"...What?" Beelzebub suddenly murmured. He frowned, back straightening up as he read the results.

Hades frowned in concern. "What is it?"

"This... should not be possible." Beelzebub stole a glance at her, brows furrowed.

"What is it?" Poseidon demanded.

"Her DNA," he replied. "I tested it using two PCR machines. One is a regular one used by humans. The results I got from that one reveals that she only has 23 chromosomes instead of 46, which shouldn't be possible. Under my own PCR machine, it reveals that the other half of her DNA—the missing half of her chromosomes—is made entirely out of divine essence."

"Ichor..." Hades marveled.

He nodded.

"Then that would mean... she's the perfect split between human and god." Hades concluded, staring at her in wonder.

Percy quietly ate her corn. She looked nonchalant, but she was really worried about Poseidon's reaction to this. He was being concerningly silent. He wasn't looking at her either. Instead, he just kept staring at the space in front of him, his expression unreadable...

"She's like the demigods in those stories the humans wrote eons ago," Beelzebub added.

"But if that's the case, then..." Hades shot his brother with a cautious look. "Wouldn't that mean Percy has a human mother?"

"No," Poseidon finally spoke. His voice was hard. "I have never and will never lay with a human."

"I have a theory," Beelzebub proposed.

Percy had to mentally prepare herself.

Hades motioned for him to go on.

"It could be an ascension gone wrong," he stated. "Right now, we believe that the bifrost created her. If that's the case, then we must remember that the bifrost has been damaged due to Nostradamus' actions several centuries ago. The damages it sustained from the incident could have led to an incomplete ascension."

"That... could be it..." Hades said slowly. "It would certainly explain why Percy doesn't look like Poseidon. That streak of grey hair could even be an attempt at turning her hair blonde until the process was interrupted."

Percy couldn't help but wince. It was so obvious that he was clutching at straws, wanting desperately to make her seem worthy enough to his brother in order to keep her alive. She appreciated it, but she knew it was pointless. Her hand was already inching towards her pocket, waiting for Poseidon to strike her down for daring to be biologically half human.

Gods, she was so nervous. Poseidon wasn't even looking at her. His face was devoid of disgust and hatred. It was eerily blank. She had no idea what he was thinking and from the looks of it, neither did Hades.

"What if... what if one of us just turns her right now?" Hades asked. "What if we just turned her into a god like Zeus had done with Heracles? Complete the ascension ourselves?"

"We could try..." Beelzebub said lowly. "But we could also be putting her in danger. It would be a fifty-fifty chance. Ascending a half-godling into a full god could be different from turning a human to a god."

Hades sucked in a breath. He definitely didn't like the thought of putting her in danger.

"Let me study her some more," Beelzebub suddenly said, making everyone turn to face him.

"...What?" It was Percy who spoke.

Beelzebub kept his gaze glued to Poseidon. "Let me study her some more, that way I can find a way to fix her."

"You're going to attempt to fix an incomplete ascension?" Poseidon asked him. "Such a thing has never happened before."

"I'll find a way."

"Do you truly believe that?"

"Brother," Hades said quietly. "I trust Beelzebub's capabilities. If anyone can figure a way, he can. Don't you want to give your daughter a chance?"

Don't kill her, were the unsaid words.

Poseidon finally turned to face her, his icy blue eyes piercing through her as if they were trying to find anything of value. She tried not to shrink or cower away. Let me live, she pleaded. Don't kill me now.

"Brother?" Hades implored.

"...Fine." Was all he said. Then, he rose to his feet. "I'll be taking my leave now."

He disappeared in a wave of seawater.

All Percy could do was let out a deep breath. Her hands were still trembling, but she had done it.

She was allowed to live another day. 

— author's note —

* One of the canon divergence things that I'm changing here are the ror gods' abilities. In the anime/manga THEY WERE MORE LIKE SUPERHUMANS THAN ACTUAL GODS 🤢. They honestly reminded me of X-Men mutants since they were only ever seen using one power. I hated it, so I'm changing it by making them like actual gods. In canon, Beel's ability was vibration, but in here, he will have so much more, as will the other gods

** Yup the Curse of Achilles doesn't exist here! It's just a story the humans wrote about, but it never actually happened so they don't believe the Curse of Achilles actually exists!

Forgot to mention this but fun facts! Percilla's name is Latin for "venerable" (meaning deserving of respect because of age, high position, or religious/historical importance) and "ancient". I really wanted to keep the nickname 'Percy' so I tried to find girl names that started with 'Perc-', but that was hard, ESPECIALLY since I was also trying to look for Greek names 🥲 Sorry, but she'll have a Latin name lol

As for Anthonius, I noticed that ppl usually name male!Annabeth 'Andrew' or 'Anthony' and I always go 🤮 cuz those are so plain and boring. So I picked Anthonius, which is a Scandinavian (*wink* Magnus Chase *wink*) name meaning "highly praiseworthy"

Btw, this is basically gonna be Percy in the future: 

THANK YOU TO Noodle_19 FOR MAKING ME A FANART/MEME!! Idk what they're called, but I love memes where people draw over it and stuff: