Chapter Text
Chapter One - March 24th, 2005, New York, NY, Deadly Pre-Algebra Teachers
Percy stared out the window of the of the District #24 yellow school bus. He was on a field trip to The Metropolitan Museum of art with Mr. Brunner’s 6th grade Latin class and Ms. Dodds 6th grade math class. There were 28 mental case kids shoved in a yellow box on wheels for an hour. The only reason he was still sane at all, was his best friend, Grover Underwood.
Grover was a tall and thin kid who had mousy brown curls and crutches to help him walk. Since Grover and Percy had started at Yancy Academy they had become fast friends, and Percy had learned quite a lot about the boy, from how passionate he was about saving wildlife and stopping pollution, to his love of playing the reed pipes, even if he wasn’t great at it. He was also a satyr, and Percy got the feeling as if he was playing in the woods anytime he was around him or talked to him but that was neither here nor there.
That happened a lot actually. Feeling or seeing or smelling or hearing weird things that aren’t actually there. Most people would call them hallucinations, but Percy knew better. His momma had told him what they were after all. She said that he was especially sensitive to magic and he believed her. How could he not when all the things in his life seemed to be influenced by the Greek World. Like when for some reason very few people could see the things he did or looked different, like he did. Or how his teacher was a centaur.
The world of Greek Mythology was scary at times but he didn’t mind it. He knew there was something off about him and his mom. He knew he and his mother were demi-gods. His mom had told him when he was much younger, when she had told him of the gods that rule the earth. He wasn’t all that surprised considering what he looked like. He snapped back to reality when the bus suddenly came to a stop.
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Mr. Brunner led the classes in the museum with Ms. Dodds in the back. The fact that he couldn’t see the woman made him uneasy. There was something off about her. She gave off the same vibes as most monsters, like there was something that was breathing down his neck, claws tracing his arm. Eyes always watching him. And she smelled funnily enough, like asphodels. There was a faint black glow (which was weird because black couldn’t glow) outlining her which was the ‘final nail in the coffin’ for Percy. All monsters had that glow. Percy could tell she was a powerful monster, one he wouldn’t be able to kill with θαλάσσιο λιοντάρι, the celestial bronze dagger hidden in his jean’s pocket.
He didn’t yet know what monster she was, despite his visions. Oh yeah apparently Percy could often see parts of the future or past too. Weird. The same couldn’t be said about Mr Brunner though. He knew who he was, he was Chrion, the immortal trainer of heroes, immortal as long as the children of the gods needed him to train them. He had no idea how the centaur had managed to fit in the motorized wheelchair of his, but Percy just chose to ignore it.
He also chose to ignore the firing of arrows and the smell of horses, that apparently no one else could smell or hear, that seemed to follow the centaur.
Not to mention Percy did not know why three different creatures from Greek Mythology were at his school. Were they there for him? He didn’t think that there were any other demi-gods at his school, he would’ve noticed by now, he thought.
They were in the Greek section of the museum when Brunner-Chiron asked a question.
“Does anyone know exactly what this is?” Brunner-Chiron asked, pointing at a stele, a grave marker.
Percy raised his hand. This was the only class he felt confident enough to answer a question in front of the class.
“Yes, Mr. Jackson?” Brunner-Chiron said, nodding at him.
“That is a stele, or a grave marker. This specific one would be for a little girl that would have been believed to be a daughter of the Greek Goddess Demeter, goddess of agriculture, because of the sickle and wheat bundle engraved on the stone.”
“A very good observation Mr. Jackson. Ms. Bobofit, could you tell me what this one is?” Brunner-Chiron said pointing. Nancy Bobofit was a girl in Mr. Brunner’s Latin class who seemed to get joy out of tormenting those different from her. She had firetruck red hair and freckles that looked like someone had sprayed Cheeto dust all over her face. She had also been talking ever since they stepped into the museum and Percy was just glad she had finally shut up.
“I don’t know.” Nancy snapped, face as red as her hair.
“Then please refrain from speaking while others are trying to learn.” Brunner-Chiron then continued, “Mr. Underwood, which is this one?”
Grover stuttered out a response. “T-that's the T-titan of Time, Kronos, eating his kids, the oldest 5 gods and goddesses.”
“Yes. Very good. Does anyone know why he did this?” Brunner-Chiron said. Percy didn’t know why he was asking so many questions. It was like he was doing a pop quiz on their field trip.
Brunner-Chiron pointed to a short girl with curly blonde hair and glasses too big for her face. Percy was pretty sure her name was Kira. From what Percy had gathered she was constantly reading Greek and Roman mythology books and had probably the highest grades in at least half of her classes.
“There was a prophecy that said one of his kids would overthrow him and it made him really paranoid, so he tried to circumvent the prophecy by eating his kids and it would have worked except Rhea, Kronos’s wife tricked him into eating a rock instead of their youngest child Zeus, who later ticked Kronos into drinking a mixture of what modern interpreters believe to have been a mixture of mustard and wine-” Kira said but was cut off.
“Ew!” Nancy exclaimed from behind Percy.
Kira just continued like nothing happened. “Which made Kronos disgorge his siblings-who had been living inside Kronos because they are immortal. The gods then declared war on Kronos that led to a ten year long war in which the gods eventually won by chopping up Kronos with his own scythe and casting him to Tartarus, the deepest part of the underworld.”
“Yes! Wonderful explanation Ms. Brown.” Brunner-Chiron said. “On that happy note, let's go eat lunch, shall we?”
Percy didn’t know how that story was happy but none-the-less made his way back out to the front of the museum, walking slowly so Grover could keep up with him.
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They sat on the edge of the fountain and the faint mist splashing his back felt nice. The museum was right in front of fifth avenue so the noise of the passing cars made it hard to hear anything not close to him. Percy liked to observe the people around him-his mom had jokingly called it people watching- and even though the wind was going so fast it almost hurt and the clouds were blacker than he had ever seen in New York tons of people were still out and about.
He could see a couple on what looked like a date, people hailing taxis, employees trying to make it to work on time, a family holding hands while they walked across the street.
Percy also looked at the other people that had come with him to the museum. Ms. Dodds seemed to be watching him intensely but when he looked at him, Percy never caught her eyes on him. Percy watched as Nancy tried, key word tried , to pick-pocket strangers passing by. Percy watched as the boys tried to push each other into oncoming traffic, and he watched as the girls sat in a circle on the stairs talking loudly while eating their lunch.
Grover and Percy ate in comfortable silence for a while, content to listen to the hustle and bustle of New York. Then Nancy Bobofit, of all people, just had to ruin it.
“I still can’t believe that they would let a cripple, ” Nancy spat out the word as if she didn’t want it on her tongue, “into a school like Yancy. I thought this place was for functional people.”
Nancy was purposefully standing close enough for Grover to hear her. Grover ducked his head and curled in on himself a little.
A wave roared in Percy’s ears. How dare she?! Insulting someone like that! Oh, how he would love to-
“Percy pushed me!” Nancy cried. It broke him out of his thoughts. The girl was lying in the fountain soaked from head to toe. He didn’t know how she had gotten there, it was like he blanked out for a minute.
Percy turned to glare at her and she must’ve seen something in his eyes because she visibly paled and shut up. Percy turned to his friend who was staring at him in shock.
“Grover,” Percy began, “Are you okay? That was completely uncalled for.”
Grover swallowed. “Uh y-yeah I’m okay. And thanks for that you didn’t have to do that.”
“Of course I did.” Percy said, smiling at Grover, anger at Nancy temporarily subsided. “You’re my best friend I-”
“Jackson!” Ms. Dodds yelled. Percy turned his head back around to look at the monster disguised as a pre-algebra teacher. She was helping Nancy out of the water while glaring daggers at him.
For a second when Percy looked at Ms. Dodds he saw something else. He saw a bat-like woman with long claws and sharp teeth. Her glowing red eyes staring at him, her lips pulled back in a snarl. She was crouching on an empty black throne made of bones, bronze and pitch black stone.
Then it was gone again, and, with growing horror, Percy thought he knew what type of monster Ms. Dodds was now.
“Yes Ms. Dodds?” Percy asked nervously, eyeing Ms. Dodds with extreme wariness.
Ms. Dodds walked up to him and roughly grabbed his wrist, forcing him to stand. “You will come with me.” She growled at him.
Grover tried to stop her. “W-wait, no! I did it! I-I pushed Nancy.”
“Sit down Underwood.” Ms Dodds barked.
“But-”
“It’s okay Grover. I’ll be fine.” Percy said, but he wasn’t too sure of that.
Grover sat back down on the side of the fountain. He kept anxiously glancing at Brunner-Chiron who was watching them over his book while Ms. Dodds led Percy up to the Museum.
Percy heard the other kids whispering on his way inside.
“Did you see-”
“-the water it”
“-like it grabbed her-”
Percy and Ms. Dodds walked back over to the Greek and Roman section. There was something off about this. His instincts were telling him to flee and they hadn’t been wrong so far. Percy fingered his dagger.
“You’ve been giving us problems honey.” The monster began, tugging at her jacket sleeves.
“I’m sorry ma’am. But Nancy was being-”
She cut him off, “Do you really think you would get away with the theft?”
Well now Percy was just confused. What theft? Percy may be sneaky, but he wasn’t a thief.
She spoke again, not waiting for a response.“We are not fools, Percy Jackson. It was only a matter of time before we found you out. And now we have complete evidence. Confess now, and suffer less pain!”
This whole conversation was confusing Percy. He had no idea- wait. ‘The Theft’ she said. Was she referring to… The Master Bolt? Percy knew Zues’s Master Bolt was missing. He had put it together from the mindless doodles on the edge of his homework he didn’t remember putting there, the dreams of horses, eagles, and dogs, the words that would come to him at the oddest time where he couldn’t tell if they were his own thoughts or not. From the dreams he had almost every night.
It was possible she knew of the theft, she was one of the Furies, the Erinyes, the Kindly Ones after all. And something in his gut told him he was correct about that assumption.
Just last night he had a dream of three thrones. He still remembered it vividly.
---
The throne on the far left was made of limestone and blue agate with rainbow colored coral that framed the throne, with dark blue plush padding and a massive trident, blue and silver in color with etching of different storms or disasters, placed where if one had their arm on the armrest they would only need to twist their hand and they could been gripping the trident. Poseidon.
The middle throne had been made of white marble and what looked like densely packed clouds. There were gold jewels lining the base of the throne. There were also occasional lightning flashes that danced within the clouds. Zeus. The final one, the one on the left, was made of stone as black as the night sky, covered in ocher and ivory colored bones. It seemed to suck in all the light from around it. The top of the throne was in 5 separate peaks with bronze tips making it look as if it were wearing a crown. Hades.
Noticeably, Both Hades’ Helm and Zeus’ Bolt were absent.
There was loud shouting practically shaking the 60 ft tall room but it was indistinguishable words and he couldn’t make out what exactly the voices sounded like. There was one thing he could make out, the voices sounded furious.
Then the ground had begun to shake, and a fissure had opened beneath his feet, then he fell-
Percy refocused on Ms. Dodds. “Ms. Dodds, I haven’t stolen anything.” Percy denied. He tried to sound calm but the longer he spent alone with her the more nervous he got.
“Then face the consequences, Perseus Jackson!” The Fury snarled. She took off her black leather jacket and flung it to the side. Once the jacket was no longer in the way, bat-like wings sprouted from her back, her hands grew long talons, and her teeth changed into fangs. Her once amber eyes now glowed like fire-hot coals.
“What ho, Percy!” Brunner-Chiron called from the entrance to the room. How he had gotten there so fast, Percy didn’t know, Brunner-Chiron then threw a pen at him, A pen. Percy didn’t have time to think about why the hero trainer would throw a pen at him when he was about to be sliced to ribbons, however, because Ms. Dodds lunged at him.
Percy just barely dodged the attack. In the same second Percy grabbed the pen out of the air, except it wasn’t a pen anymore. It was a celestial bronze sword with a strong grip. The moment it fully settled into his hand Percy had another vision.
This time it was of a girl that couldn’t be any older than 14 and a man that looked to be in his early twenties.The girl had braided black hair and copper skin. She was wearing a beautiful orange-yellow ombre chiton. The man had dirty blond hair and a handsome sort of face. He was wearing classic grecian armor. They were hiding behind a bush and the girl was giving the blond man a sword, the very same one he was holding now.
Percy snapped back to reality and not a moment too late. Ms. Dodds lunged at him again, so he did the only thing he could think of at that moment, and he swung the sword.
It connected with her shoulder and in the next second she was a pile of gold dust on the floor.
Percy stared at the sand like substance slowly disintegrating on the floor with no small amount of shock. He had just defeated one of the three Erinyes, Hades’ torturers in one swipe with a pen-transformed sword. He was breathing heavily and when he looked back to the entrance of the museum section he realized Brunner-Chiron wasn’t there.
Percy was alone in the museum with nothing but a pile of golden dust, a pen-sword, and his own memories to prove this had indeed, just happened.
What the fuck. Percy thought.