Chapter Text
Percy wanted to know at what point, in his long list of offenses, the fates decided he was doomed to always be fighting. He would like to swipe the threads from them himself and fix the damn problems to the best of his fractured abilities. Following that he would like to yell at the gods for everything.
He could understand why Luke had done it now. Of course he would. Percy doesn't understand or agree with most of Luke’s choices. But a freshly 19-year-old Percy the general with two wars to his name understands why Luke had been so angry.
–Two hours prior–
There were things he noticed before he had fully woken up. Cold metal had dug into his palms. Rope secured tightly around his wrists. The feeling of the area surrounding being wrong. Like everything from the water to the very concrete on the floor being tainted.
Without much hesitation he opens his eyes to see a girl and a boy standing watch. The girl had dark hair and tired eyes. The other kid was blond and definitely had concealed injuries. Both looked, for lack of better words, scrappy and small but had spines of steel.
A bolt of something undefinable went through his mind. If he had to guess it would be some distorted form of anger. But he couldn’t really tell. The same with a lot of his emotions after Tartarus. It was hard, Percy was finding, to care about how he felt now.
The girl yells a name that sounds like ‘Ben.’ For a moment, Percy calms down just a bit. Because that was a kid calling for backup with fear of Percy and not who they were calling. The rage hidden in him fades out because no matter how bad off they were, they had an adult.
Ben walks in and he’s the same age, if not a bit younger. It brings that unidentifiable rage flooding back into him. The sea doesn't like to be restrained, but it has always cared about life reliant on it. Percy knows that he would kill for these kids.
Despite how well Percy keeps the emotion off of his face, the kid flinches back from him. Empathic. He’s talked with enough Aphrodite kids to know how to show calm instead of the boiling anger inside him. So he does and watches as the kid calms ever so slightly.
“Where are your parents,” Percy finds himself asking.
All three stepped back without thinking and oh. Percy was going to commit crimes. Because if his eyes don’t deceive him, it was their parents who did this to them. He’s seen this a lot in children of the gods and it angers him every. Single. Time.
“We are neither Melida, nor Daan if that is what you are asking,” The girl said. Factions. She expected him to be talking about a faction. Percy was tired of children dealing with war.
Percy shakes his head and said, “That is not what I asked. I asked where the person looking after you three is.”
“We are The Young. We look after ourselves,” The blond boy said, barely keeping a sneer out of his tone.
I can’t keep doing this. Kids shouldn’t be a part of war. It starts repeating in his mind. Kids shouldn’t be soldiers. Why are they soldiers? They deserve to be kids. Over and over. I can’t keep doing this. He knows the turmoil is showing on his face now. Another war where kids fight because of their parents. Again and again. Kids deserve to live. Adults- Gods- parents- repeating each other, verbatim.
The more he looks, the more ties he can see between these kids and demigod children. The blonde with the same tired, chaotic look in his eyes as Hermes kids. The girl with the same detached calculation as Athena kids. The redhead with the desperate looks of empathic Aphrodite kids.
He knows he’s not home. He knows it’s not the same war. Percy knows that the gods do not truly exist wherever he is. He might not know how. Still he does. He doesn't think that he should be a breathing entity here either.
But he keeps getting caught on the mirroring details. All the little callouses that tell of weapons held. Not swords or bows, but definitely something. The look of kids not taking care of themselves on Princess Andromeda. Kids who after two wars look at Chiron with the same skeptical glance as they see other adults.
For all he knows, this could be a divine punishment. An act of caution for the first time in their lives. Percy’s grown bitter, and he’s grown tired. He’s been through Hell and came out swinging. They were scared of him. Percy wonders if this is how Luke felt.
At some point he must have started thinking out loud. The confused and wary looks he gets for it means he was probably speaking Ancient Greek. Plans and strategies sort themselves out. Percy does that sometimes, when he has no idea how to handle a situation. Giving himself something to control in chaos.
He gathers up the shattered remains of himself and stops. Breathes in and out. Settles the pieces back together. Once he knows that he won't scream the moment he talks he begins, “My name is Percy Jackson. And I think that I am meant to help you.”
They talk. Percy learns their names. Learns that Cerasi had been the child of a faction leader. That Ben had been left on this planet with no weapons but his powers and his bare hands. Finds that the three of them are the oldest in their faction.
It’s the first time that he tells an outsider about the wars that he has led. Maybe not the enemy, or the bodies clad in neon orange that still haunt him. Percy does tell them a diluted version of why he was fighting. The general he was made to be.
Percy is told of the statistics. What supplies remain on their side. The people (children, they were children) and what skills they have or lack. Percy hates playing the numbers game again, but this is what the situation calls for. And damn it, he has never allowed kids to fight when he won’t.
He and Ben learn of each other's powers. Ben has had formal training but Percy has spent his life learning out of necessity. A calmed river versus a raging ocean. They make a deal to teach each other. And he swears under Oath of the Styx to protect as a general.
Lightning or some distorted imitation of it strikes very faintly. Of all the things that can reach him here, in this messed up galaxy, it makes sense that it was the river. His blessing-curse may have been washed away. But once you are a part of the river you always will be.
Ben finally waves his hand, and Percy is released from the rope. Percy stands and stretches enough for his bones to sound like they would break. He follows the kids through broken buildings and destroyed streets. The manhole cover was lifted, and they were dropped into the sewers. He loses track of time walking
–Current–
If this is what Luke saw when he looked at them, he had every right to be angry. Percy loses count of how many there were in the open space. But every one of them looks tired, injured, and hungry. Something in him breaks, but he’s not sure what.
The first real use of his powers is for cleansing. He’s sat through enough lectures from Apollo kids to know that infection can kill just as easily as any blade could. It takes less power than it used to. He ignores warning bells that set off.
Percy is led into a room filled with miasma and antiseptic. Percy wants to scream when he sees it. He wants to ask who would leave their children like this. He ignores the bitter part of himself that said the gods would do it without any hesitation.
It’s here in this room, with hollow faces staring at him, that Percy learns how to heal. Not how to wrap wounds in gauze or to sew up wounds that would fester if left untouched. Not how to keep someone's blood from flowing in their own body. But how to convince someone's body down to its marrow to heal.
For now though, he just cleans wounds to the best of his abilities and fixes any mistakes made from untrained hands. He hadn’t been a healer the way Apollo campers had been. But in their world it was learn or die. Percy was good at surviving.
At first, the children were terrified of him. Percy wasn’t used to that. He used to be the teacher who was only hard on students when they needed it. The one who would whisper stories to those who couldn’t sleep. Camp’s unofficial big brother. Another thing he inherited from Luke.
They look at him the way that Annabeth did in Tartarus. The last thing he could do was blame these children. Years at war and they never had adults they could trust to be safe. Percy was here now and that would change. Even if it was the last thing he did.
So he stays away to the best of his abilities. He applied the rules that one would with a cat that had seen just a little too much in its early years. They would approach him when they felt it was needed. Hopefully.
Eventually, one of the kids on the younger side of the spectrum came up to him and started chattering. She introduces herself as Liv and enthusiastically says her favorite color was blue. Carefully not to startle her, he ruffled her hair before kneeling and saying that it was his favorite too.
Across from them, what has to be her older sister glares at him. That’s fair. He saw that a lot from campers who hadn’t even been old enough to be claimed yet. Percy backs up a bit and the girl eases but he can still see the tension in her shoulders. He knew she still wanted to fight.
-—
It takes a week for him to be invited to their war council. Percy could tell that it was with great hesitance that they even brought it up around him much less say it to his face. He accepts the invitation without a show.
There's a desk made out of scrap pieces. When he looks at it, the thing is held together by tape and hope. It reminds him of the Fifth Cohort and shoves a bitter feeling down his spine. Echoes of memories that remind him that this is his life.
Percy was cut out of his thinking by Cerasi clearing her throat and saying, "There's two places that we can hit tonight. Since Ben has joined our ranks the rule has been to have him on every mission that poses more danger.”
Neild cuts in and says, “Normally we’d only take one team out and rationalize what we need more. But now-”
Ben gestures to him and says, "We have more routes open to us.”
He leans forward to examine the map on the table. There's spots marked as red to show streets that are too destroyed to navigate. “So where do you need me?”
Cerasi points to the spot that's closer to their current location. It takes a few seconds for her to speak but as always, it’s clear and confident, “They keep their bacta and rations there. One full bag full of each is enough to feed 20 and get the current people in the med bay back on rotation.”
“This base is on a split schedule with two others. We hit one every week,” Neild said. “If you mess up.”
He cuts himself off and Percy continues, “It’s a week without food.”
Ben takes his turn to describe the raid on a smaller weapons cache that he and Neild would run. For them their mission was more about causing a distraction and taking as much from the Daan base as possible. He’s surprised that he is the one getting put on the higher stakes mission.
Cerasi tells him that she would be the general coming with him. Tells him that they take a different route into the building every time so that they don’t become compliant and get caught. She outlines the runs for both groups. Their mission was fine. But he knew that Ben and Neild’s wouldn’t be.
The only reason Percy could tell that this was a bad plan was because of spending time in camp. When Athena campers strategized, you listened. And Damn it, Percy was good at listening. He didn’t know the Daan, but he did know that if they were smart they would put the most defense on the side they planned on using.
“Hold on,” Percy said to get their attention. Their eyes snapped to him. “That’s going to be the most guarded area.”
Ben looked at him and said, “What told you?”
“The east has buildings forming a barrier. South is going to be a nightmare because of the cameras you've spotted. West has a lot of destroyed buildings bleeding into the alleys. North is the only place that they don’t have an obvious defense,” Percy said.
“And you suggest,” Ben asked.
“West poses challenges, but it is your best bet,” Percy said, “The buildings are still structurally sound if you tread carefully, Correct?”
“Correct,” Cerasi said.
“I suggest that you stay inside the buildings when you can, and use possible fire escapes when you can’t,” Percy said. “When you get close enough you should be able to use rooftops and take out anyone guarding.”
—
Percy heard the second round of explosions going off and dragged the kids with him. They had gotten what they needed from this mission. Enough to keep their faction alive for another short period of time. Exactly what they had needed.
Cerasi guides them through winding halls and Percy nearly gets lost three separate times. They move with a different kind of care to most demigods. Demigods get taught young that it was to hunt or be hunted. Be bigger and scarier than your opponent when the time comes to engage in an attack.
Given what he could see from these kids, it was the opposite. Hide in available spaces. Strike quick and fast but under no circumstances let them get a read on your strengths. A different type of children becoming warriors, but child soldiers all the same.
He heard footsteps and didn’t even realize what he was doing. Percy unsheathes Riptide and swings. The man goes down without much fanfare. Down with a whisper and not a bang. It took him all too long to realize that a divine weapon worked on someone with no divine blood to their name.
Percy shoved those feelings away and picked the man up. They couldn’t afford to leave any traces. Cerasi looked pale but eventually nodded at him and continued out of the building. They leave the man in a barren building before making their way back to their base.
Food gets tossed into the piles and Percy finds himself walking back into the decrepit med bay. Percy wakes the kids up and begins to apply the medicine. Bacta, Percy has discovered, is kind of like a catch all for remedies. Almost like Nectar and Ambrosia but lacking the risk.
At some point during this routine, Cerasi comes into the room and starts helping. Without looking up he said, “You know, I came to do this so you would get a chance to rest.”
“‘Not going to rest until the work is done,” Cerasi said, pressing forward.
Percy knew better than to argue with her. The look on her face was the same one that Annabeth used to wear. The one that meant she would fight tooth and nail to help, especially for him. The one that had left her face in Tartarus. He had to shove those thoughts down before they became a problem.
Later in the night Ben’s team comes back hauling ammunition and proud faces. Percy scans the group and finds that none of them came back with Injury’s. Really that’s all he could have asked for on their side of the mission.
It usually wouldn’t be enough for him to thank the gods. But Percy hasn’t seen enough of this war to know what the outcome of these missions usually are. So he prays and he thanks the lady of the hearth for bringing them back to him and the lady of wisdom for their success and survival.
“Why do you do that,” Ben said, coming up beside him.
“Hmm?”
Ben took the cue to keep talking, “When you pray you never say a god’s name, only what they represent.”
Percy sighs. “Names have power. To speak their name is to invoke their attention. And in my experience the gods' love is synonymous with wrath.”
“Does it make a difference for regular people,” Ben asked, “Like if someone tried to be who they weren’t wouldn’t it have negative consequences? Even if they have a good reason too?”
“I think that names are something you claim for yourself. It's its own power, but you get to choose what it means,” Percy said. “My mother named me Perseus because he was one of the few Greek heroes to get a happy ending. I got curious and did a little digging. My name means destroyer. I chose what out of the two defined me.”
—
Obi-wan isn’t sure what to think about Percy. He cares, deeply and utterly so. Obi-wan isn’t used to having a guardian around him that’s reliable. And he hasn’t trusted an adult since a little over a year ago on Bandomeer. But he’s survived without someone to rely on.
Yet it’s weird to see Percy care the way he does. He doesn't openly say that he cares like creche masters. Percy doesn't initiate contact like he’s seen with most Masters with their padawans. He doesn't try to overstep boundaries that were in place with all of them.
But you could see it in the line of his shoulders. The way that he wrapped wounds with a gentleness Obi-wan hadn’t seen in the temple. Whispering stories to kids waking up screaming. The way that Percy would tell Obi-wan, Cerasi, and Neild to take a break and that he can handle it alone for a few hours.
They train together and Obi-wan finally sees what Quin meant when he talked about Tholme. Percy was calm in a way that Jinn never was. Cared less about Obi-wan getting angry and more about keeping him alive. Jinn would have sacrificed them for the greater good, but Percy doesn't get to that point.
He liked all of these things and yet every one of them hurt. Because some day, Percy would leave. Maybe not the way Jinn would. But that didn’t mean that the anticipation of it didn’t kill him. Obi-wan only had the time it took for the war to end.
That was the first night that he had a vision since coming to Melida/Daan. Obi-wan gets flashes sometimes, warnings when a mission is just a little too precarious for them to do the run. But this was the type of vision that creche masters dreaded.
Out of everything that he noticed, the fact that this vision had changed so much is what he realized first. The army of identical soldiers changed. But for some reason the only thing that wasn’t blurred about the appearances was that the armor was diffrent. It flashes to a different scene.
An older Percy standing on an unfamiliar planet getting stabbed instead of his head removed like the man in the old vision. Obi-wan screams as Percy mouthed an apology. Somehow, he just knows that Percy had been innocent in that small moment. He doesn't reach Percy before the scene flips to something different.
It’s something he’s seen over and over again. A death that seemed inconsequential when he had first seen it. But the older Obi-wan had gotten, the more he realized it spiraled out and affected everything. For once the vision didn't have a feeling of dread to accompany it.
The Mandalorian is laying on the ground with his helmet off and looking like there were five different emotions on his face. In front of him is someone lacking armor and wielding a sword with deadly precision under blaster fire. One gets reflected off the blade and hits another Mandalorian, sending the man to the ground.
Whoever was attacking looked enraged and abandoned their weapon as they charged the protector. There is the sound of a lightsaber being lit but it sounds more like drums than a humming. A third person joined the fray. Obi-wan gets dragged out of the vision before he could see the end of it.
The final thing that Obi-wan sees is the wars that Percy said he had fought in. He looked younger in some of them, older in others. Obi-wan sees Percy standing in front of a funeral pyre looking devastated. Strikes that should have killed him if he was a normal person.
Obi-wan keeps finding himself trying to run towards him. To warn or try to protect him, Obi-wan didn’t really know. But he did know that the vision kept shifting before he could get the chance. A hand on his shoulder drags him out of the array of maddening sights.
Before he knew what was happening, Obi-wan sent an elbow to his attacker. It misses and Obi-wan throws himself off the bed to try and throw another punch. He loses track of his movements and Obi-wan gets caught and pulled into someone. The arms are firm but gentle, holding him in place as he struggles.
Minutes later Obi-wan started to fade back into consciousness. Sound starts being able to process and he can hear Percy muttering words into his ear. Obi-wan draws into the force and can see concern with a little hint of fear coming from Percy.
And Obi-wan feels mortification crawl up his spine. He should have been able to write this off. Obi-wan shouldn’t even be listening to the vision in the first place. And he definitely should not have attacked Percy. Obi-wan could see that he had gotten a lucky hit in because Percy’s nose was bleeding.
“You back with me, kid,” Percy asked.
This time Percy lets him scramble back as he mutters apology after apology. Percy tries to soothe him and Obi-wan can’t let him. He shouldn’t have resorted to violence so easily like that.
“Kiddo. You're okay,” Percy said, placing his hands on Obi-wan’s shoulders. “I’ve seen worse reactions than that. I should have found another way to wake you up.”
Obi-wan shakes his head and Percy continued speaking, “I mean this one time before I had been claimed by my father I tried to wake another kid up for breakfast. I think the only reason I lived to tell the tale was because they went back to sleep a few seconds after.”
For a while Obi-wan lets Percy mutter nonsense while he tries to collect his bearings. Eventually, Obi-wan ends up intact enough to whisper a ‘thank you for staying when you didn’t have to’ to Percy.
Percy shook his head this time and said “I’ll stay as long as you need me too. Do you want to talk about it?”
“Just visions,” Obi-wan said, “Nothing worth telling.”
“If they startle you this much, then they are not nothing. I don’t know if visions work the same for us, but I do know that they can be terrifying if you have to deal with them alone. I don’t know who taught you that they weren’t important, but I've found that it’s better to know possibilities than to ignore them,” Percy said.
For the first time in a long time, Obi-wan considers sharing his visions.
----
In a raid on a Melida weapons cache, Percy found an actual sword. Maybe not one that had been used in a while, but one that would work perfectly when cleaned and sharpened.
Like most blades, the weight is off just enough to feel wrong in Percy’s hands when he spins it. But he had felt that it wasn’t meant to be his. He’s pretty sure that, for the time being, it is supposed to be Ben’s blade. At least until he can make a new lightsaber.
Percy leads Ben into an empty training space and gives the blade to the boy. Percy uncaps riptide and gestured for Ben to attack. The first few hits were slow before the boy realized that Percy had the skill and the speed to block his hits.
He could definitely see the skill Ben had with his old weapon. The main thing that was currently holding the boy back with it was that he fought like it was a fencing sword and not an actual blade. Not uncommon in camp, but not easy to train out of someone if they were taught young.
Training Ben becomes one of his distractions as weeks pass. Before he knows it, he’s been in this universe for two months. The kids get more used to him and stop flinching when he makes sudden movements. It helps that younger ones have latched onto him.
By now Percy’s learned enough to know that if Qui-gon Jinn ever shows his face, Percy knows that only one of them will be leaving with their life. And for all intents and purposes, the person surviving will be Percy. He does not tell Ben this fact.
They’ve spent so long coming out of missions successful that it takes him by surprise when something goes wrong. Between him and Cerasi, they end up dragging four kids back to their base. Because that’s what they were. Children. Percy forces himself to remember facts about the two that died on the field.
It’s not his first time having to leave behind friends. But it never really gets easier, does it? This time Percy could feel the blood leaving the four they carried. Could feel it as he had to wipe their tracks away, less they lead the Daan back to their home.
All four get set on beds as other kids come in to scan and see how much blood they still had. One of them, Elenore, was too low. Percy knew that if she lost anymore, if any of them kept losing blood, they would not make it through the night.
So Percy does something that he promised he would never do again. It wouldn’t be the first time that he had broken anything other than an oath. Percy stops the blood from spilling out of their wounds without any real hesitation. He chooses not to think about how wrong this is.
He makes sure that while he does this, the blood keeps moving through them. Percy can’t run the risk of their body’s not getting oxygen while he holds them together with hopes and sheer force of will. Percy can’t pray because they might just strike him down for this.
Percy hears as they figure out what was happening. The abomination that he was. He could hear as they started yelling orders to stitch the wound back together. Percy was helping but was the cost worth it. Did they even want him to try and save them if this is what has to be done to do it?
Percy Jackson had never liked reading books for class. They were usually long and drawn out, written by people who didn’t care for the art. But he had liked Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein. Had liked the creature, and argued that the real monster was Victor.
Now, Percy thinks, one quote that stuck out fit him all too well. He thinks it was page 44 of the Modern Prometheus that the line ‘I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine, the rage the likes of which you would not believe. If I cannot satisfy the one I will indulge in the other.’
He feels their wounds get stitched up. Percy feels as the blood tries to spill out. He can feel his muscles strain and his head begin to pound because of the exertion. He can’t tell where his pain ends and theirs begins.
The wounds get sealed and Percy feels like he’s going to drop when he cuts his powers off. There's blood in his mouth, but he isn’t intact enough to tell what it came from. Percy makes sure no one is looking when he runs.
Percy is pretty sure that he looks like a mess right now. Sweat and dirt deep into his skin and the blood he knows looks like he just killed someone. Hell, he might have. He hears the screams of Akhlys ringing in his ears. Percy can’t do this again.
No one stops him on the way to one of the spaces that rarely gets used. Percy feels himself fall against all walls with his knees drawn to his chest. His hands dig into his ears and he tries to ignore Annabeth screaming at him to just stop Percy! That's enough!
Despite everything, Percy doesn't cry. His throat feels like he was back drinking fire and inhaling glass shards. Far from his fathers domain and he doesn't cry. Gods, why doesn't he cry?
“Marci said I could find you here,” Ben said. “Said you didn’t look like yourself? I can see what she means.”
Percy lets out a laugh that he knows sounds harsh. Is this what it had sounded like when he tried to talk Luke down? Someone who believes there is a different path versus someone who's determined to become a monster. There's a reason Poseidon is called the father of monsters.
“Percy what,” Ben gets cut off.
“I promised Annabeth I wouldn’t do it again,” Percy said. “That I wouldn’t do something monstrous. Yet I do and I’m not even in the land the gods fear this time.”
“You aren’t a monster, Percy,” Ben said. “You saved their lives.”
“And I had to become something evil to do it,” Percy said.
“Lian would have wanted you to do it so her sister survived. Ivan would tell you to do it again, despite the pain because he needs to be there for his siblings. Thia and Crow would have kept a straight face just to prove that it doesn't hurt. Hell, Stella and Riker would probably try and sock you in the jaw for thinking about yourself like this if they weren’t so busy in the med bay,” Ben said. “Does that make any of them monsters?”
“No. but-”
“I was told that because I was angry, violent and impulsive that I would become a Sith. Do you think I am evil,” Ben asked.
That was not a fair question. Ben, who Percy has seen put everybody’s life above his own. The same kid who apologizes on nights that Percy helps him with nightmares. One of the three kids that Percy is starting to see as his little siblings.
And so without question, Percy said, “No.”
“Either both of us are, or neither of us Percy. If I am not evil then you aren’t.”
Percy doesn't say anything else. He’s spent enough time in camp to know when a battle is a losing one. And Percy doesn't really have it in him to keep fighting with any of the kids. Ben seems to sense this and takes a seat next to Percy. It will be a long night.
—-
Block, dodge, parry. From what Percy could tell, Ben was picking up this type of sword very well. It doesn't feel the same as when he taught campers. Not as much of a necessity as it had felt like before. Percy thinks that it should bother him more than it does.
Percy wasn’t teaching Ben how to use a sword because it was life or death. Yes, having a backup weapon can make a huge difference. But it was different in this war. Because this was fought with blasters and whatever tools they could get their hands on. Not bows and swords.
He thinks it’s about time to teach Ben how to disarm someone. He tries to shove down the part of himself that feels like he’s just walking in Luke’s footsteps. Ben has to know how to get a weapon out of someone else's hand when he can’t use the force.
Right now, he knows how to get a blaster away from someone. But it is always good to be able to get a sword or a knife from someone. Percy tries not to hear the alarm bells ringing in his mind. The voice that still tries sounding like someone else's.
So as gently as possible, Percy knocks the sword out of the other boy's hand. Ben’s eyes widened and he immediately asked him how to do that just like any other time. Percy hands the sword back to him. Percy then does the move but slower this time.
Ben picks his sword off the ground, and the spar begins anew. Dodge, parry, dodge, block. Riptide gets knocked out of his hand. Percy ruffles the boy's hair and caps his own sword. That's all Percy needed to teach him tonight. It’s all of Luke’s old training that he can stomach.
He forces himself to tell the kid he was doing a good job. Gods know that if he doesn't tell Ben that, he’s going to believe that he did something wrong and spend all night trying to perfect a move. Once again, Percy swears that if he ever meets Jinn, there will be bloodshed.
The moment Percy spots Cerasi, he can tell that she hasn’t slept in too long of a time. So Percy does the only thing he can. He picks her up from the war table and deposits her in a blanket pile. He tosses another one on her for good measure.
Cerasi glares at him, grumbles for a few moments, then shuffles deeper into the pile. Both of them know that Percy will make sure that she gets sleep one way or another. It’s quicker and easier for everyone if she just accepts the loss now.
Percy spots Neild already on the verge of sleep for the night. Ben walks into the area and settles himself down on the floor. Good. That makes three out of three of his kids set for taking care of themselves. With that, Percy takes the chance to settle in for tonight.
—-
It’s after another one of his training sessions with Percy that Obi-wan gets the urge to take a different path in the sewers. For a few minutes he tries to ignore it. Attacked the training dummy just a bit more. Planned to go find Cerasi wherever she was in the base.
The feeling wasn’t a bad one. Still Obi-wan is hesitant to follow. He hears Qui-gon telling him to ignore it and go about his day. But this time he hears Percy say that ignoring a feeling can be so much more dangerous than following it. Obi-wan steels himself and listens.
Obi-wan isn’t sure what the force is trying to tell him yet. If the force was even trying to tell him anything. He doesn't get any other impressions than a nudge for him to move. And the feeling that he should leave his blade behind. Like a fool, he does.
When he steps forward, Obi-wan doesn't feel like himself. The sensation of electricity flows in and around him. Sparks strong enough to electrocute someone dance around his fingers. He recognizes the feeling. Obi-wan feels like he was back on Ilium for the first time looking for a Kyber crystal.
His hand comes up to brush his hand against the coarse cold walls. And he hears. The song of a Kyber bounces around the old walls. Not like a choir but a sole voice. Obi-wan follows it deeper into the systems. If he dies then he goes down singing.
A left, a right, forward, left, left, right, left, right, right. All the while he can see old memories flash behind his eyes. Being told he was too angry, Bandomeer, Qui-gon leaving him behind. All floating in front of him. Obi-wan doesn't know why those ones stick out the most out of the first group.
Following them comes scenes of his time on Melida/Daan. Most prominent memories were of the worst of the missions he ran. The ones where he couldn’t look Cerasi or Nield in the eyes for days after. Obi-wan didn’t know why he had been seeing any of this.
Going off the force's suggestion, Obi-wan sits down without opening his eyes. The Kyber in the distance sings and he hums back. Somehow, it sounds like the crystal is trying to make a decision of its own. Obi-wan doesn't move, waiting for its judgment to pass.
Obi-wan knows that all kyber holds their own level of sentience. Enough to encourage and make decisions. Enough to pick the user it thinks will click with them. But this crystal feels different this time. Like it had the choice to pick past, present, and future. Obi-wan is almost scared of it.
The force nudges him to stand. For a second, he hesitates. The force pushed him much harder this time. Obi-wan stood and walked forward. In front of him lay two paths. For the life of him, Obi-wan could not figure out which one he should walk. It wasn’t like this last time.
From one corridor, Obi-wan could hear the halls of the jedi temple. Can hear the sound of Qui-gon’s quiet disappointment. From the other, he can hear Percy’s voice. And Obi-wan knows without a shadow of a doubt, he would follow Percy wherever the man went. He follows that path.
The Kyber seems to sing louder. The path gets rougher like he was in an actual cave instead of the decrepit halls of the sewer. Obi-wan feels himself going down. Until it stops. He finally opened his eyes from where they closed and he looked. There laid the Kyber.
He stepped forward and plucked the Kyber from the wall as was his right. Obi-wan can pick out the differences between his old crystal and this one. Yet this one was meant to be his more than the old one ever could be now. The notion that he did change that much bothered him.
Obi-wan recognizes the tune now. In the force it sounds like blaster fire and swords clashing in the training room. It felt like war and home. The buzzing of energy seemed to get absorbed into the crystal. As if the Kyber fed off that organized chaos.
Kyber gets wrapped around a cord that Obi-wan can’t remember where he got it from. The song is warm and loud against his chest. Now Obi-wan feels more grounded than he has in a while. Why had Jinn taken this from him when he left Obi-wan here?
It takes less time for him to find his way back to the war room. Cerasi eyes his new necklace and it takes a moment for her to ask “what is that?”
Obi-wan weighs the pros and cons of telling her before he said, “A Kyber crystal. It’s what gives a Jedi's lightsaber its power.”
“I thought Jinn took yours,” Neild asked more than said.
“He did, but I found this one,” Obi-wan answered.
“Feel like we would have known if there was one lying around here somewhere,” Cerasi said.
“Theres a running theory that the crystals grow where they need to. That the ones on Illium and Jedha are just two of the caves that had been found. Some people say they grow in Mandalore’s waters and that’s how Tarre Visla found his crystal,” Obi-wan said.
“So that's it? You have a new lightsaber,” Neild asked.
“Not quite, I still have to find the parts to build one. But once I can find them, yes. I have a lightsaber,” Obi-wan said.
For a second they are quiet. Enough revelations have been made tonight. Obi-wan got a piece of himself back that he didn’t think he would get to see again. All three of them understood the weight that held.
The quiet ends when Neild blurts out, “Can I touch it?”
“Neild,” Cerasi yells, scolding.
“What? It’s a genuine question! I want to know if I can hold the pretty space rock,” Neild said, affronted.
Obi-wan takes the necklace off and gently passes it over. Neild takes it into the palm of his hands with revelry and a carefulness Obi-wan rarely sees. Cerasi tried to hide the way she found herself leaning in. A jedi’s lightsaber is their life. So of course, he would let the two hold the crystal if they asked.
—-
Percy doesn't say anything when he sees Ben with a new necklace. It seems to boost his morale from what Percy can tell. Not much. But Ben’s shoulders are looser. His eyes are a little less tired. If it was the crystal that helped him, then Percy was thankful for it.
The ease at which Ben seemed to be moving seemed to drip away the moment that two members of his team came in heavily injured. Without thinking, Percy rushed over and picked one of the kids up. Darcy tried to squirm out of his grasp but was too injured.
Ben gives him a rundown of their injuries. Darcy had a wound in her side and they didn’t know if it had hit anything fatal. This time the voices yelling at him are quieter when Percy holds the blood inside. Still a cacophony, but not like it would shatter him.
He doesn't feel it when it happens. It wasn’t until he had reached the med bay and heard the confused sound from Riker and Stella. Percy blinks at them from next to Darcy’s bed. Percy realized that there was a lot less pressure pushing against Percy’s powers. As expected, he was confused.
The table next to the bed had an empty glass of water. Wait. That wasn’t right. Riker and Stella were chaos incarnate but they always had water for their patients. Percy’s eyes flick to Darcy and Percy realized that her wound wasn't as deep as it was before.
“Alright, can we have our revelations when I don’t feel my skin breathing,” Darcy said. Injured and still snarking. Yeah. That sounds like her.
Percy steps back and lets Riker and Stella do their jobs. He knows that his hands are shaky enough that even bandaging something will come out jagged.
It’s time for his mission anyway. Percy taps on Cerasi’s shoulder when he finds her in the halls. She nods at him and goes to collect the crew for their mission. Percy taps his foot against the ground trying to convince himself that he’s not anxious.
One thing has already gone wrong tonight. It would be his luck to end up worse off by running this mission. But he felt like he needed to go. So Percy would tell them to be more cautious than usual. He made a sarcastic comment about not putting more work on Riker and Stella’s shoulders.
Like normal, they cut through the empty cityscapes and found themself at a new warehouse. They don’t know what’s in this one. But Percy understands that he has to keep moving. He tells them to stay behind him when they enter the building.
As he expected, none of them were happy about the comment. Cerasi seemed to understand why he made it though. So she nods and tells the group to stay behind the both of them. That wasn’t the deal but Percy has tried to argue with her on safety before and she’s more stubborn than he is.
Cerasi and him guide the group through winding shelves until they find something interesting. This place held bedding, clothes, and medical supplies. Two out of the three they had been running low on. The kids clip their bags open and start strategically grabbing items they saw.
Percy froze when he got the feeling. Not bad. Still he knew that he had to find whatever it was. Cerasi catches his eye and gives him a concerned and questioning look. Percy shakes his head and keeps trying to figure out what it was from.
There was something in there that he just felt he needed to grab. Like the fates had drawn his hands closer and would plant his feet in place if he didn’t. It was a small box that held deconstructed parts. In truth he didn’t know what he was looking at. Percy grabbed it despite his hesitation.
—-
It’s late one night when Obi-wan finds himself springing awake from a nightmare. A rude awakening, but he’s used to having worse. Percy walked into the room and must have noticed his frazzled look. The man watched and asked if Obi-wan thought he would be able to go back to sleep. Obi-wan gave a definite 'no'.
Percy nodded and gestured for Obi-wan to follow. They did this sometimes. When the voices got too loud, they would end up in the training rooms. Every once in a while, they’d be there together but more often than not they were alone into the late hours of the night.
At night was when Percy was always more open to teaching the more brutal methods of sword fighting. He didn’t hurt Obi-wan, actually he’s certain that Percy never could. It’s the only time he doesn't see any sort of weight to the movements. Just a cold sort of efficiency.
On this night Percy taught him how to slash away at any type of bag a moving opponent could have on. It could give the enemy an advantage by giving them less weight to hold. But you never know how useful any items they have could be later down the line.
Fatigue kept him from getting it the first few tries. That and Percy never makes a win easy at any time of the day. But one thing that was always so different between Qui-gon and Obi-wan was that Percy always meant it when he said you did a good job.
So when the strap gets cut and Obi-wan gets his hair ruffled, he knows that Percy is honest with the praise. Obi-wan slides down against the wall and gets his exhausted breathing in check. Percy sits down next to him with much less hesitance. Obi-wan just stares at the floor.
It’s quiet here now that the fighting is over. A calm that you don’t normally see in the old and echo filled tunnel walls. Obi-wan can’t seem to appreciate it like he used to. Now it feels like quiet is just an anticipation for the next attack.
There's things he's wanted to tell Percy for a while now. The fact that it was right people always called him too attached to everything that he finds. The way that every adult that he knows leaves, and why Percy stuck around longer than his own guardian. That he’s scared to be left behind again.
So it’s not a surprise that in the quiet of the night Obi-wan finds himself saying, “My name is Obi-wan Kenobi. It means no one, child of nothing. But it also means child of the river. In Stewjon, where I’m from, they believe force sensitives are daemons and drown them to avoid misfortune. I don’t know how I survived.”
“The sea is violent and thrashing. Not meant to be contained. But it takes care of the life inside it. All rivers lead to the sea. And you, kiddo, were led to me,” Percy said, pulling the boy into his side.
Obi-wan finds himself sobbing into Percy’s shoulders. Because he hadn’t expected that reaction. He didn’t know exactly what he thought would happen, yet Obi-wan didn’t think that Percy would take it well. He should have known that Percy wouldn’t be angry. Force knows that he’s never been mad at them before.
Arms tighten protectively around him. Obi-wan rarely feels safe on Melida/Daan. That doesn't stop Percy from doing the impossible every chance that he gets. Obi-wan finds himself falling asleep against Percy’s shoulders. He wasn’t really awake enough to feel himself get carried back to his blanket pile.
—-
Percy was scribbling down information when Obi-wan pointed out the box beside him and asked what it was. Percy looked down and saw the box of random scattered parts. He still hadn’t known what they went to, if they were meant to go together at all.
“Oh this,” Percy hums. “Box of spare parts I picked up based on a feeling I got during a mission. Wanna see if you can figure it out?”
It takes a few moments of Obi-wan’s baffled staring for him to finally look up and say, “These are lightsaber parts!”
“Your weapon that got taken,” Percy asks. He gets a frantic nod in return. “How do you put it together?”
“The force has to guide me. I won’t be able to do it without sinking into meditation,” Obi-wan said.
“Alright,” Percy said, “I’ll be here while you do.”
Obi-wan all but falls down and starts clearing his mind of any and all negative thoughts. It’s hard for him to keep them away. So he grabs on to Percy’s force signature like a lifeline. Percy radiates warmth, home, and such a vibrant crashing blue that reminds Obi-wan of planets still so untouched by pollution.
He can hear pieces click together in a pattern so utterly right. It’s been a long time since he’s heard what a lightsaber sounds like snapping into place. His Kyber crystal hums its slashing sound even louder than it had before. Behind Obi-wan’s eyes he can see something glowing.
Kyber finally frees itself from the necklace and slots itself perfectly into place for the blade. There is a final hissed click and the casing is fully covering the crystal. The comfortable weight drops into Obi-wan’s hand like it had been waiting for him this entire time. Maybe it had been.
Obi-wan opens his eyes and the saber flicks on. Its color is somewhere between a bronze and a rose gold and it looks like it’s shaped like the sword Percy never loses. And the saber is so beautiful and comforting after he’s been without that part of himself for so long.
“Woah,” Obi-wan finds himself whispering.
“Something wrong,” Percy asked, just staring into the blade.
“Some people say that where and how a Kyber crystal grows has an effect on its shape. Jedha and Illium’s sabers are more like circles. The Dark Saber was shaped like a vibro knife. But my blade-” Obi-wan gets cut off.
“Looks like mine.” Percy said.
It’s at this point that Cerasi comes into the space. She blinks a few times. Turns and steps out into the hall. Steps back in. And blinks again. She points at Obi-wan. Then Percy. Then the lightsaber. And she raised an eyebrow.
“Percy found the parts needed to reconstruct a lightsaber,” Obi-wan said.
“Are you ready to try it out?” Cerasi asks.
—-
Two weeks later finds them staring down an end to the war. What Percy means by that, is in front of him sits the leader of the Melida dressed in silks while his child starved.
Percy knows that the man had to be Cerasi’s father. He also knows that it’s better if she doesn't watch this. So he tells her to leave the room. Percy can see the warring emotions in her eyes. She shouldn’t have had to make this choice.
The need to stay and assure herself that the man wouldn’t continue to haunt her fighting whatever fractures of care she still held for the man. In the end, she left. Percy made it quick. Percy’s seen the underworld, and he knows a man like this wouldn’t make it a day.
Percy brought Cerasi the man’s pocket watch and stayed as she sobbed into his shoulder. He rocks the two of them back and forth. Eventually, Cerasi pulls away and wipes the tears from her face. She squared her shoulders and set her jaw.
She starts walking out of the building and Percy follows close behind. They cut off the head of one snake. One more to go. Percy, after months of being on this planet and fighting for these kids to have a chance, is ready to see these kids get the life they had always deserved.
That’s when Percy hears a deafening boom and screaming. Cerasi and him start rushing through the halls to get to where their second team was. Obi-wan and Neild's team had been much larger because they weren’t planning to run into much trouble. For him and Cerasi, it was just the two of them.
Both of them tear through the streets to get to the others. As they get closer, Percy can hear the cries get louder, the blaster fire more damaging. And Percy is livid down to the marrow that made his bones and his blood. Someone’s going to die.
As expected, Cerasi makes a mad dash over to Obi-wan and Neild. The two boys provide cover as she tears into people with untapped rage. She had been stewing in her fury since they got the information saying they had found where her father was. A kind of righteous destruction.
Percy begins helping with emergency medical treatment. Riker and Stella are going to be pissed when they see the damage. All Percy can do is make their job easier now. Blood coats his hands as he wraps wounds in bandages. He ignores the staticky panicked feeling in the back of his mind because of the feeling.
Then he hears a voice yell “Cerasi!”
Percy turns just in time to see Obi-wan tackle Cerasi to the ground and take a shot for her. Percy freezes. Because those are his kids. Kids that are too young to be dying for each other on a decrepit battlefield.
He runs at a speed that only a demigod could truly manage. He drops on the rubble and ignores the feeling of rocks digging into his skin. Percy’s fairly certain that he was the one letting out an enraged scream.
A man flinches back, and Percy just knows that this was the one who tried to kill Percy’s kids. Percy doesn't even think about throwing Riptide straight through the man's lungs. He didn’t even need to look to know the man dropped like a rock. And Percy couldn’t feel anything about it.
Percy’s not a medic, but he knows that If he didn’t do something quickly Obi-wan would die. One hand gets placed over Obi-wan’s wound. Percy does something that he hasn’t even considered doing in a while. Percy clutches at his camp necklace with all the beads that mean so much to him and he prays.
Not a single sentence for something to go right, where he says a title and not a name. It was a prayer in the way that he had learned at camp Jupiter. Vesta- Hestia is the only one Percy would ever consider begging. And so he does.
Begged for Vesta to let whatever scraps of family he has to be safe. Begged Hestia to give him a chance to bring him home.
“Hestia, in the high dwellings of all, both deathless gods and men who walk on earth, you have gained an everlasting abode and highest honor: glorious is your portion and your right. For without you mortals hold no banquet, –where one does not duly pour sweet wine in offering to Hestia both first and last,” Percy finds himself saying. “Please aid me in allowing Obi-wan to live another day. For one such as you, knows the meaning of family.”
—-
Percy found himself clutching at his camp necklace and Obi-wan’s saber as he prayed. There wasn’t much to do now but sit and wait at his bedside. He’s prayed more in the last few hours than he has in his life but goddamn it he couldn’t lose his kid.
When Obi-wan woke up the first thing he said to Percy was “You prayed.”
Percy nodded without much thinking, but he pulled the boy into a hug. He didn’t realize that words from before were ringing in his head. Percy was willing to weather the gods' torment for him. Willing to beg gods that he said love was the same as wrath. He doesn't think Percy understood what that meant to him.
It meant that Percy was willing to not only fight and protect him but face divine judgement to do it. And Obi-wan knows that, if given the choice, Qui-gon never would have done the same. It was a kind of love that Obi-wan really wasn’t used to.
At some point, Cerasi rushes in and tells them that the war’s over. That both Melida and the Daan factions had lost their leader and had made terms of surrender.
Obi-wan shouldn’t have even been sitting up right now. And yet all three of Percy’s kids are strong willed enough to defy “weakness” when hurt. You know what, if Obi-wan was determined to be there while negotiations happen, Percy would be the one to hand deliver him.
The moment he stood up, Percy swooped Obi-wan into his arms. The boy gave him an affronted look and tried to wiggle out of the hold. Percy didn’t let him move an inch. Obi-wan huffed and settled into his spot. He was smart enough to know it was the only way he’d be getting there.
All in all, the meeting didn’t take that long. Everyone at that table was tired and wanted a chance to live. Sure, there were multiple arguments that had broken out. But none that couldn’t be solved with a glare and a few harsh words from Percy’s mouth.
Percy wasn’t good at this whole politics thing. But he was good at finding out what each party truly needed versus what they thought they needed. And then Obi-wan would swoop in and manage to convince the people at the table it was their idea this whole time.
Eventually, they found themselves walking out of the meeting room. Obi-wan was walking this time because he was determined to show that he was fine. Percy saw him holding back the occasional wince. Right now, Percy felt it was better to wait for him to ask for help. Obi-wan would when he really needed it.
“You two are always welcome here,” Neild said out of nowhere. “But you said it yourself Obi, if we establish ourselves as a government the senate is likely going to come sniffing around. And if they come then the jedi are likely to follow.”
“And the jedi will take you back over my dead body,” Cerasi said.
At the same time, they said, “So we’re not telling you not to come back, just to play it safe.”
Percy watches as the boy pulls the two of them in a hug that looked more crushing then when Clarisse wrestled with someone.
If Percy heard right there was a, “Oh force not my ribs.”
He gives them a moment to whisper their goodbyes before pulling back.
The three of them stare at him for a few seconds expectantly. Percy takes a few steps forward and draws all three of them into a hug. Goodbyes weren’t his specialty. He’s said too damn many. But he knows that he’ll come back. Gods know he will.
“My dreams were all my own; I accounted for them to nobody; they were my refuge when annoyed - my dearest pleasure when free.” Percy quoted. Another one of his favorite lines from Frankenstein.
These kids deserve the chance to see their hopes come true. Percy would ensure they do. For now, he thinks he should leave and bring Obi-wan with him.
—
“So, where do you want to go kid,” Percy asked, gesturing to the control panel.
Obi-wan took a moment to consult the force before saying, “Korda 6.”