#and my mind went STRAIGHT to annabeth chase and luke castellan

[all-too-unwell-13]

I KEEP ON WAITING FOR A SIGNNN

I REGRET YOU ALL THE TIME!!!!!!

[letannabethchasesayshit]

Summary: Ripley Curbello's father always told her how she was born of the night sky. As it turns out, he was telling her the truth. She is the Daughter of Nyx, Greek Goddess of the Night. After Ripley's father is killed, she is sent on the run. She is all alone but not for long. She finds Annabeth Chase, Thalia Grace, and Luke Castellan. All four of them lost their families or were rejected. All four were alone, but they found love and family together. It was the four of them against the world and Ripley thought it always would be. Ripley must grapple with finding a family, losing them, and her fear of herself. All rational people are afraid of the dark, and Ripley is not different.

Fandom: Percy Jackson

Read on AO3 here

Part 9/14

Chapter Nine: Mothman?

Thalia never did wake Luke up for second watch. At first, I think she didn’t want to, she didn’t want to talk to him. Not yet, anyways. There was too much on her mind, she couldn’t unpack it and act civil around her best friend at the same time. She needed some space.

I stayed with her the entire night. She relaxed whenever I was out there with her, the weight on her heart got lighter and I could tell the thoughts racing through her mind got slower. As I sat right next to her, she finally found enough comfort to fall asleep.

Thalia didn’t realize she was drowsy until she was fully unconscious. She slid off the log, using it as a pillow with her feet towards the last few sparks in the embers. I slid off with her. My head was still on her shoulder when she fell asleep. I watched her chest rise and fall in rhythm while she slowly began to snore.

That left me all alone in the darkness. The hairs on the back of my neck stood straight up. Even with my eyes wide open, I could hear my own voice flinging the same taunts she did every night. No matter what I did, every time I closed my eyes, it was the same nightmare. I would open them in a wide expanse of dark nothingness and hear my own voice telling me everything I feared most about myself.

It was always worse at night. The darkness weighed down on me, smothering me, trying to bury me in the ground before I could become what I feared most. The night acted as an echo chamber until my own thoughts sounded louder than a hurricane.

I gripped tightly to Thalia’s hand. She started to twitch in her sleep, grumbling under her breath and wincing every so often. Her sleep quickly became unrestful as my own fear began to grow. I was not the only one plagued with nightmares. When I saw a single tear fall down Thalia’s sleeping face, I knew I couldn’t stand it anymore.

I walked on my knees over to the last dying ember in our firepit. At any second, it would go out. I quickly threw in dead leaves, dry spanish moss from the nearby tree, and a few twigs. Thalia had left a few thick branches next to the firepit to act as the base of the fire. I stacked them exactly as Luke had taught me. There had to be enough room for air, you couldn’t get a fire if you didn’t let it breathe.

The last ember went out before I could get the fire going. I gasped, falling on my hands and knees where the ember had once been, “No, please come back. Please.”

I tried to blow on the ember like I had seen Luke do a million times but nothing happened. Panic began to grow, starting in my chest and expanding outwards. My broken ribs and bruised body only made matters worse as I suddenly felt like it was impossible to breathe. Tears began to hang at the corners of my eyes.

“Please, please come back,” I muttered.

Nothing happened. I glanced up at the night sky and an idea popped into my head. Thalia had told me before she would pray to her father for help and he would often respond. More than once, she had been saved with a little help from Zeus.

“Mom, please hear me,” I rocked back on my heels with my eyes on the sky, “I-I’m scared. I can’t bring the fire back and I-I don’t know what to do. Please send me some help, I’m scared.”

For what felt like forever, nothing happened. I kept my eyes on the sky and did my best to ignore the darkness surrounding me. For a moment, I wondered if my mom could even hear me. Perhaps I wasn’t loud enough or perhaps she just wasn’t listening in that moment.

The bushes nearby began to rustle. I flung my head towards the sound and watched as they began to shake. Shakily, I pulled myself to my feet. My own weapon was still in the tent next to Annabeth, but Thalia’s was right at her side. I grabbed her spear and took shaky steps towards the trembling bush.

They only began to shake harder as I got closer. I could hear something sniffing, like a bloodhound that finally caught the scent they wanted. There was a slight mumbling underneath that, and something that sounded like bleating. I had never heard such a sound before but I had learned early on that was never a good thing. A new sound always ended up being some monster I had never heard of.

I held the spear up, ready to stab whatever was back there, when they finally burst through the bushes. The creature landed straight up and caught a glimpse of the spear I had pointed at its chest. Both of us screamed at the exact same time, almost on the same pitch.

I stepped back and tripped over a loose rock. I went down screaming the entire time. My screams were what woke up the rest of my group. Thalia was awake first, quickly spinning around on one knee and reaching out towards me, “Ripley!”

“What’s going on?” Luke dove out of the tent with his sword raised.

Thalia got to her feet and pulled me to her. I stumbled, ending up almost tripping before I caught her shirt. She took her spear from my hand as I hid behind her. I gripped her jacket, peering around her side. Luke and Annabeth both came running up with their weapons drawn. Annabeth was slightly behind Luke, but she never once stopped pointing her knife at the creature.

“Bla!” the creature bleated, “Wait, no, I’m not going to hurt you!”

He threw up his hands in a universal gesture of surrender. The first thing I noticed was his baby face. He had chubby cheeks a lot like mine but had a few wisps of hair underneath his chin. His eyes were wide and full of fear just like the rest of us. He held his hands in the air, pulling out the orange t-shirt that was much too big for him. His brown hair was curly and hung around his head like a mop. I could count every freckle going across his face right up to his brown eyes.

Perhaps the most startling part about him were his legs. They were covered in curly hair that matched the mop on his head. His knees seemed to be permanently bent as his legs were pointing in the same way as a goat. Where his feet should be were two hooves caked in mud.

He was at the end of a sword, a knife, and a spear. Despite the fact that his hands were straight in the air and he had a look of fear across his face, none of us backed down. Any monster could easily pretend to be just as scared as we were and gobble us up just as quickly.

“Who are you?” Thalia demanded.

“My name’s Grover Underwood!” the creature exclaimed, “I- bla!- I’ve been looking for you!”

Annabeth looked him up and down, “You’re a satyr?”

“Ye-yes! Yes, I’m a satyr!”

“Looking for us?” Luke pressed on, “What do you mean looking for us?”

“I-I didn’t know there would be so many of you! I was sent by Chiron to find Thalia Grace.”

Thalia lifted her spear even higher, “Chiron?”

“Chiron? What do you mean-” Grover paused, “Right, of course you don’t know Chiron. He’s the immortal trainer of heroes. You know, Jason, Hercules, he swears he trained Achilles too but I think he’s just making things up.”

“Stop blabbering and get to the point, what does he want with Thalia?” Luke brought the tip of his sword closer to Grover’s neck.

Grover let out a long and nervous bleat. It sounded like a goat being strangled, or one in fear of being strangled. His entire body shook as he spoke, “He- I’m supposed to bring you to safety!”

“Safety?” Thalia asked.

“It’s called Camp Half-Blood. It’s designed to protect demigods just like you four. It-it’s in Long Island and Chiron he-he wanted me to find you before they did.”

“Before who did?”

“The monsters on your tail.”

Luke and Thalia enchanted worried glances. I had the exact same thought they did, what monsters? We hadn’t seen a monster since the boar back in New Jersey. Luke turned back to Grover, “What monsters?”

“You don’t know,” Grover bleated, “Oh dear, you don’t know! They’re almost here too, oh man, oh man.”

“I am not in the mood for games, goat man, who are you talking about?” Thalia demanded.

“The Kindly Ones, all three of them, and a hellhound each.”

Silence fell over the group. Grover gazed at all of us, waiting for us to respond with shock or fear, but we simply stared at him. Annabeth furrowed her brow, “Who’re the Kindly Ones?”

“The Kindly Ones! The-the-” Grover hesitated before dropping his voice into a whisper, “The Furies.”

“The Furies?” Luke repeated.

“Shush! You’ll call them closer!”

“We’re in the middle of the woods with nothing for miles, I doubt they can hear me.”

“Names have power, just saying their names can summon them,” Grover swallowed roughly, “there’s no time, we’re running out of time, they’ll be here any minute.”

“Why are they after me?” Thalia demanded.

“Because you’re a daughter of Zeus.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“What does- oh man, this is harder than I thought. Look, it’s too much to explain right now, but you have to understand you are a very powerful demigod. The Lord of the Sky broke a lot of rules when he had you and that made a lot of people very upset.”

Thalia did not take this in stride. Thunder cracked in the distance, and all of us had a difficult time deciding if that was Thalia or Zeus. Lightning struck as Thalia raised her spear even higher, “Are you calling me a mistake?”

“No! I’m saying you’re in danger,” Grover bleated again, “The Kindly Ones and the hellhounds, they’re just about the worst of the worst and they are almost here. We have to get you to safety.”

Luke and Thalia exchanged glances yet again. In the distance, something howled, followed by the most demonic screeching I had ever heard. I covered my ears with my hands and whimpered, squeezing my eyes shut and waiting for the sound to pass. When it finally did, I opened my eyes again to see Thalia going paler than I had ever seen her.

“Thals-” Luke began.

“You said you can take us somewhere safe?” Thalia ignored Luke, turning to Grover.

Grover nodded, “Yes! Yes, that’s why I’ve been tracking you.”

Thalia seemed to think this over. The howling got closer as did the screeching, it was only a matter of time before they found us. All of us turned to Thalia as she made the decision.

“Annabeth, get your things and the ambrosia, we’re going to need it,” Thalia spun around, “We’re going to have to move fast. Luke, take Ripley, I’ll cover you.”

Luke followed Thalia as she grabbed my weapon from the tent, “Thalia, how do you know we can trust him?”

“I don’t but we don’t have a choice,” Thalia flung her backpack over her shoulder, “If he’s right, we need to get to safety.”

“Wait- wait- I was just supposed to get- bla- I was just supposed to get Thalia,” Grover muttered.

I turned to him, “Are you gonna leave the rest of us?”

Grover glanced at me. Wringing his hands together, he looked over the entire group. He saw Annabeth, Luke, and I all staring at him with wide eyes and terror in the pits of our stomach. I felt like I was about to cry and, though she did a good job of hiding it, Annabeth didn’t seem that far behind me. Grover looked at all of us before making a decision he would carry for the rest of his life, “No, no I’m not. I couldn’t.”

“We need to move,” Thalia said as the howling got closer, “Lead the way, goat boy.”

Luke crouched a moment to let me climb onto his back. My ribs were still broken and just standing took it out of me. I hesitated a moment as Grover said, “We have to move fast.”

“Ripley, come on,” Luke coaxed.

“I’m gonna slow you down,” I argued, “You gotta go on without me.”

Annabeth was the first to spin around and fling her hands in the air, “We aren’t leaving you, Ripley!”

“Annie’s right, you’re a part of this family, Rip,” Thalia added, “We aren’t leaving you behind.”

“What if you get caught cause of me?”

“Ripley, listen to me,” Luke spun around to face me, “I’m not going to leave you here and I’m not going to let you slow us down. Do you trust me?”

The guilt still weighed heavy on Luke’s heart, but that wasn’t the only thing. I could feel the love he held deep in his soul. It wasn’t just love for me, it was love for all of us, for the family we had created together. That was stronger than any guilt or doubt he had hidden deep inside. Taking his hand, I smiled, “I trust you.”

“We need to go,” Grover coaxed as I swung onto Luke’s back, “Now!”

Grover cantered into the woods with all of us close on his heels.

[asyeralovelies]

ICARUS - percy jackson x oc (chapter one)

word count: 3,909

trigger warnings: gory description (mrs dodds) , implied physical abuse

a/n: lmao i posted this on wattpad first (@/asyeralovely) so you guys can check it out there too. also on ao3, same user as my wattpad.

"My, my..." Dittany celeste murmured as she looked around Yancy Academy, a private school in upstate new york. Her satyr friend, Grover Underwood, and her mentor at Camp Half-Blood, Chiron, or tío as she liked to call him, had asked for someone to help in picking up a demigod in the school. Apparently, it was so hard to get the half-blood that they needed another one from camp.

Well, Dittany wasn't really "just another one at camp."

The dark haired girl had been left at camp borders when she was a mere one year old, the only information of her mother she had was that the woman's last name was "Celeste."

Honestly, she didn't know what to feel about the woman. Did she leave her there to train early at camp to learn to protect herself? Did her mother simply not want a child and left her there to fend for herself? The daughter of Hephaestus had no clue.

The only other long-timers at a young age in camp was Annabeth Chase, another friend of hers. The daughter of Athena had been there since she was seven.

Dittany snapped her fingers, willing the mist, a veil that covers up the Greek Myths world in mortal eyes, to make her seem like another student in Yancy Academy. She had learned that trick when she was ten, after six years of pestering her tío.

As she walked casually around the halls of the private school, her mind went through notes about the new demigod. His name was Percy Jackson, a boy with black hair and green eyes. He was in sixth grade and seemed to have attracted a very dangerous monster, because Grover had been panicking when he Iris-Messaged her about the situation.

Finally, the girl caught sight of a certain curly haired satyr talking to who she assumed to be Percy Jackson and stalked towards them. She snapped her fingers again, willing the mist to make it seem she was already friends with the two. Well, to Percy. Grover already knew her, without the mist.

The green eyed boy met her own dark eyes and he grinned as if they really did know each other, as if the scars on her face were a natural sight, and Dittany grinned back, acting her role.

"Hey, Perce," she said enthusiastically, using the first nickname that came to mind. She sent a subtle nod to Grover, who gave her a quick thumbs up. "You two having fun without me? After all we've been through!"

Percy rolled his eyes and smiled fondly at her. "Shut up, An. Grover was just saying something about being worried for the field trip tomorrow." He looked at her with a raised eye brow, like he was saying, "can you believe him?"

Dittany was a great actress. "What? You afraid our teacher's gonna turn into a monster and slash us to bits?" she asked Grover, mirth in her eyes. The satyr narrowed his own eyes at her, clearly too worried to laugh in amusement.

"No," he said through gritted teeth. "I'm just.." he couldn't seem to find an excuse for his nerves.

"Just?" said Dittany amusedly.

"Whatever." he grumbled.

Dittany only smiled teasingly at him.

"I'm going to kill her," Percy mumbled. Nancy Bobofit, a red haired girl with kleptomania and freckles that seemed spray painted with crushed Cheetos, had been throwing wads of her sandwich into Grover's curly brown hair.

Dittany knew Percy wouldn't do that, because according to Grover, the demigod was on probation and had been threatened by the headmaster himself with death by in-school suspension if anything remotely strange happened.

See, from what she had gathered with observations in one day, the boy had ADHD and dyslexia, like most demigods. Dittany didn't have dyslexia, meaning she could read perfectly fine, but she could still read Greek. In truth, she didn't know how that worked, but she didn't question it.

"It's okay. I like peanut butter." Grover said. Being thrown at your hair, Dittany mused. Hope you're not serious.

Grover dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.

"That's it." Percy snapped, standing up, but Dittany pulled him down by his shirt.

"You're already on probation, Mr Jackson," the girl air quoted the last part. "Anything remotely shitty happens and you're out of here." then she smirked. "Wouldn't want to leave your two best friends in the whole world, would you?"

That shut him up.

When Dittany willed the mist, she made it so Percy thought she had been here since day one and only had Grover for a friend. The daughter of the forges had noticed that the only things keeping Percy from straight up leaving was because of his friends who would be all alone without him and his mom who would be disappointed that he just gave up.

Sally Jackson was a nice woman, from last night when Dittany had Iris-Messaged her. She informed the mother that she was also going to keep watch on Percy, since the situation was getting desperate with the really powerful monster. But Dittany had assured her things would be fine when Sally started panicking about the statement.

But today, Dittany's senses were on high alert.

She knew immediately that Mrs Dodds, the other chaperone for the field trip, was their monster. From the way her eyes had widened when she caught sight of Dittany, who had not been there before, and seeing the students just pass by her like she had been there all along. From the way the monster had glared at her, like she was silently asking, "how dare you interfere!?"

She had glared back at the woman. The students saw it as "what're you gonna do about it?" because in their mist memories, the dark haired girl liked to stir trouble. The "what're you gonna do about it?" glare really meant that she was challenging the monster.

Ever since Dittany had left for a quest with Luke Castellan, a son of Hermes and a mutual friend with Annabeth, about two years ago, the twelve years old wasn't so terrified of monsters. Well, she never was, really, but she got to see the real world. She knew what it was like to fight monsters in life or death situations and not just for practice.

She remembered the days very well.

Luke had been offered a quest by his father. Well, not personally, but according to tío, Hermes wanted Luke to go to the garden of the Hesperides and get a golden apple like Heracles had once done.

Luke immediately took it, consulting the oracle.

He had went back down the attic ladder looking confused. He had said the oracle required him to bring only one other person along with him.

The Hermes boy had asked Dittany because she was the most skilled person in combat at camp, partly because of staying the longest there and partly because she trained relentlessly to spite her unknown mother for leaving her at the borders by herself.

They had travelled to San Francisco together, stopping every once and a while for take out food or fighting monsters.

When they were outside the garden, just about to enter, Luke had told her the prophecy.

SEEK THE LAND WHERE THE GREEKS ARE FORBIDDEN,

FOLLOW THE TRAIL OF THE HERO OF TWELVE LABORS,

ENTER THE ONCE SO BEAUTIFUL GARDEN,

FAIL TO PROCEED WHAT SHOULD BE DONE BY SCAR'S FORCE,

TAKE ONE COMPANION OR YOU'RE DOOMED FOR DEATH,

A DISTRACTION, AN ILLUSION, WILL FALL FOR THE THEFT

TAKE A CHANCE WITH FATE IN A HERO'S TRUE END

THE GAMBLE OF HERMES, A GAME OF PRETEND

Unlike Luke, Dittany caught a meaning to it. Well, the first part, at least. The demigods were never allowed in San Francisco unless for a quest because, apparently, it's where they're most likely to get killed off. They were doing one of the labors of Heracles. They were about to enter the garden of the Hesperides.

She didn't understand anything from the second part except that Luke needed one companion or he'd die and Hermes apparently had a gamble going on.

When they entered the garden, at first, Dittany didn't understand why it was only "once beautiful." It was mesmerizing, reminding her of those religious bible stories about the garden of Eden where Adam and Eve used to live before their sin. But the longer they looked around, she felt like a part of the place was missing. Like a song cover with missing lyrics. It could still be beautiful, but it just wasn't right without those missing parts.

Then they approached the hundred headed dragon, Luke warning her to stay put before he called signal so they could both have a role. Luke would distract while Dittany would go for the apple.

The whole time with the ordeal, Dittany felt like she was being watched.

In the end, Luke ended up with a scar running from above his eyebrow down to his jaw. Dittany had to step in the distraction to save him from the dragon's other claws that were going for a second strike and got Dittany's face and shoulder instead. It looked like three knife slashes on her face going diagonally and a scar from her shoulder to the small of her back.

They failed to steal a golden apple, but Dittany felt like they were meant to fail.

They came back with heavy injuries because of going back to camp and facing more monsters while they were already scarred. From then on tío banned quests, not wanting anymore heavy injuries.

Luke had felt like he ruined chances for everyone, but Dittany assured him that he didn't. She told him she should have kept with the plan because Luke could protect himself, but then Luke told her that he would have died without her.

Luke told her he also felt like his father was making fun of him for thinking he could do it, and Dittany silently agreed. But she didn't voice out her thoughts. She just hugged him and told him that one day, someone would clear for the camp and quests would be allowed again. Someday, things would get better.

But both Luke Castellan and Dittany Celeste knew that things only ever get worse for demigods.

Annabeth had taken it to herself to cheer up both of them, saying corny jokes that were so bad they were funny and reading random facts about architecture to distract them.

In the present, Dittany found herself smiling sadly. Luke was better now, and so was she, but sometimes the girl would find the sandy haired boy looking grim and trying to stop the tears.

She knew the boy wanted to make his father proud, prove that he was a hero, but instead he had failed. Dittany would walk up to him, sit on the seat next to him and make his head fall to her lap so that he could cry. She would never ask, because she already knew. She didn't whisper comforting words, because someone's presence and knowing they're there for you was enough.

Sometimes Annabeth would join them and would just tell silly stories where she describes the places in the story.

They would pretend they were a normal mortal family where Luke was their father who was overwhelmed with work and needed comfort and Annabeth would be the one to tell him about her day while Dittany made snacks. A normal, happy mortal family.

Dittany found herself following Mr Brunner— aka Chiron or tío— as he led the museum tour. Tío already knew she was there, and he played his part of acting like she always had been.

He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding the class through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.

It blew Dittany's mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand to three thousand years. What, with the gods' tempers and tendencies to destroy things? Wow.

He gathered them around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling them how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about their age. He told them about the carvings on the sides.

Dittany noticed Percy was trying to listen to what he had to say— she didn't really need to now— because it was kind of interesting for him, but everybody around was talking, and every time he told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs Dodds, would give him the evil eye.

Dittany would back him up discreetly by smirking at Mrs Dodds and playing with her sword's hilt that stuck out of her sheath, right at her waist, and was disguised as some chain belt in the mist. But the monster saw right through that mist and only settled for keeping away from her while keeping eyes on her weapon and on Percy.

Tío kept talking about Greek funeral art.

Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and before Dittany or Grover could stop him, Percy whirled around to face the redhead and said, "Will you shut up?"

Dittany had a feeling he had said that louder than he meant to. She silently watched him in pity as his face reddened from his own realization.

The group of kids laughed, tío stopped his story.

"Mr Jackson," he said, effectively adding more attention to the embarrassed boy, and making Dittany want to face palm at the centaur. "did you have a comment?"

"No, sir." Percy said, looking down to hide his face.

"Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"

Damn it, tío, Dittany thought, but her lips were pursed.

Percy looked up with a face of recognition. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?" he said with uncertainty. Dittany looked away and curled her lip in disgust, remembering about reading the "myth."

"Yes," Chiron said, not sounding very impressed. The Celeste girl rolled her eyes. "And he did this because. . ."

"Well, Kronos was the king god and— " Dittany turned to look at him with an eyebrow raised, forgetting that he still didn't know he was a demigod yet and didn't think the Greek Myths were worth the read.

He caught her gaze and cleared his throat. "Titan. Titan.. Lord." he corrected himself.

Dittany nodded, looking away again.

He continued, "And... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters—"

"Eww!" said one of the girls behind Percy and Dittany, making the latter roll her eyes and smirk. She, too, was disgusted when she first read the story, but then she joked around about it just to annoy campers.

"—and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," Percy continued, "and the gods won."

Some snickers from the group.

Behind them, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"

"And why, Mr Jackson," tío said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"

"Busted," Grover and Dittany snickered.

"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair. Grover only smirked and looked away and Dittany stuck her tongue out childishly.

At least Nancy got packed, too. Tío was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.

Percy thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."

"I see." Chiron looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"

The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.

Grover, Dittany and Percy were about to follow when Chiron said, "Mr Jackson."

Dittany internally face palmed, having been used to her tío's dramatic tendencies.

Meanwhile, Percy knew that was coming.

Dittany turned to Chiron with an are-you-fucking-serious-right-now look before heading outside with Grover.

When they reached the fountain, they started talking.

"Ten drachmas that tío'll be ominous again and confuse Percy," Dittany immediately said. Grover replied, "Twelve that he actually gives him a clue."

The scarred girl rolled her eyes, muttering with a smirk, "Yeah, right."

They sat in silence after that, waiting for the boy in question to come outside.

Dittany zoned out, staring at the water. She realized she looked like a stereotypical skater girl with a grey sleeved shirt under a black tee. Her ripped denim jeans were just a quick in-the-moment choice that Silena Beauregard, a close friend and her older half-brother's crush, would have not approved of. The sapphire eyed teen would have chosen black jeans to match the "aesthetic" or whatever the hell it was. Dittany just wanted something to wear.

The she caught sight of Percy approaching her and Grover. He sat down between them with a brooding look.

"Detention?" Grover asked.

"Nah," Percy said, but he still looked grim. "Not from Brunner. I just wished he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean— I'm not a genius."

Grover didn't say anything for a while, and when he opened his mouth, Percy thought the boy was going to give some deep philosophical comment to make him feel better, but instead he said, "Can I have your apple?"

The raven haired boy didn't have much of an appetite, so he let him take it.

Dittany saw Percy look to the road with a longing expression, and she did, too. But her reason was the want to get hit by a car, feeling restless at just sitting. At least she'd have a reason to be still. She was hit by a moving vehicle! Of course she can't move right now!

As she mused the thought, Nancy Bobofit was suddenly in front of them, or maybe the Celeste girl just didn't notice the redhead approaching.

The bitch had the audacity to dump her lunch in Grover's lap, and Dittany felt her hands prick and warm up, like a flame about to ignite, but she quickly calmed herself. No one knew about that power. She wasn't going to let the secret out anytime soon.

Percy wasn't so calm.

Dittany swore the fountain's water had suddenly lurched forward, grabbed Nancy, and pulled her in the fountain.

Poseidon, Dittany thought immediately. You three gonna do this in order, she silently asked the three gods, Zeus, Poseidon and Hades. Thunder rumbled and the earth slightly shook beneath her feet. She rolled her eyes.

She was referring to Thalia Grace being the first child of a broken oath, and Percy now being the second. All she had to do was wait for a Hades child and it'd be a complete set. Thunder rumbled again, and the earth shook, but specifically only under her.

How terrifying, she thought sarcastically.

She was splashed by the fountain's water in the back, but her clothes were quickly made dry so Poseidon seemed innocent. She discreetly flipped off the god.

With her interactions with the three gods, she had missed Mrs Dodds taking Percy away and Grover looking at her with an exasperated look, like he knew exactly what she was doing.

When the brunette finally noticed that Percy Jackson, apparently the son of Poseidon, was gone, she looked to Grover with an eyebrow raised. He only shook his head worriedly.

She stood up and ran to her tío who was watching the museum doors worriedly. He took out a pen and looked ready to follow inside when he spotted Dittany.

Chiron handed her the pen and nodded, emphasizing she could get there quicker.

Dittany took it and ran up to the entrance, swinging the doors open and just in time as Mrs Dodds was ready to slash Percy to bits.

A fury!?, she thought furiously, hopefully sending her thoughts to the god of the underworld. How petty can you get, Hades?, she huffed.

"Percy, catch!" she yelled and tossed the pen in the air, the said boy whipping around to meet her dark eyes and catching the pen, watching it turn into a double edged celestial bronze sword.

Dittany would have taken out her own weapon to help, since a fury wasn't usually killed at first try, if Percy hadn't immediately sliced through the monster.

The girl's eyes widened but she didn't stay, immediately running out. She had a feeling Chiron would want Percy to think it was all just an illusion, so she immediately went back to the fountain with Grover, sending a quick thumbs up to her mentor.

She took the face towel Grover offered to dry her sweat, partly from running and partly from seeing the fury.

She sent a look to her tío, silently asking him if she should will the mist again to make up some new teacher, but he shook his head. He had it handled.

A few moments later, Percy came out of the museum looking dazed. It had already started raining, and Dittany was soaking while Grover hogged the only cover.

Percy said something to Nancy, and the girl looked at him like he was mad before scoffing and walking away. Then he walked over to Dittany and Grover.

"An," he immediately looked to Dittany. "Where's Mrs Dodds?" He wanted to know if this was a dream or not.

As was said earlier, Dittany was a great actress.

"Perce," she said slowly, emphasizing that she was trying to see signs if he was going insane. "Who the hell is that?"

Percy looked desperate.

"Mrs Dodds!" he exclaimed. "Our pre-algebra teacher!"

Dittany looked at him in concern. "Percy," she started. "We never had a teacher named Mrs Dodds."

Percy looked to Grover.

The raven haired boy would have believed it was all an illusion if Grover hadn't looked around nervously, like preparing to make an excuse, and said, "She's right, Perce. Are you okay?" in the most unconvincing voice ever.

Dittany mentally face palmed.

Percy looked to Dittany. "But.. You gave me the pen, only it wasn't a pen, it was a sword, and—" he raised his hand, which was holding a normal ball point pen. He looked at it with wide eyes suddenly, like it wasn't a pen the previous moment.

Dittany let her eyes widen, too, but to say, "Hey! That's mine!" in a playfully accusing tone. "Well, I only borrowed it from Mr Brunner.. But still!"

She snatched the pen from him, but the boy was still in shock.

The dark eyed girl ran to Chiron, quickly giving him the pen. She glanced back at Percy who looked to be in a crisis.

"What monster?" her tío silently asked.

"Kindly one." Dittany said simply.

Chiron heaved a breath and the demigod only shrugged.

"Could be worse, honestly."

And... she jinxed it.

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