Chapter Text
Persephone Jackson was having an exceptionally bad week. She stared out the window as the heavily wooded countryside rolled past. A few days ago she was living a relatively normal life back in NYC and her biggest worries were the occasional bully lashing out at her and trying her best to keep her grades up. That all changed when her math teacher transformed into some feather covered monster and attacked her. No one believed her of course, in fact no one else even seemed to remember Mrs.Dodds. To make a long story short, she had been so upset about this that she managed to get herself expelled...again.
She had been expecting her mother to be furious with her, or even just disappointed? Instead after a short talk with Mr.Brunner her mom simply pulled her into a hug, took her to the car and started driving.
“I don’t understand.” She said while crossing her arms and staring off into the distance. “Why can’t you just tell me what's going on?”
“I will soon honey I promise, it's just complicated.”
“That's what everyone keeps saying, you, Mr. Brunner, even Grover!”
She pulled her legs up from the footwell and tucked her knees close to her chest. This wasn't supposed to be happening. High School was supposed to be her fresh start. A way to leave behind anyone who knew who she was, the baggage of her past and finally move on. Instead she had a year of constant fuck ups, only made a single friend and then gotten her self expelled from a third school.
“I know darling and I'm so sorry, if there were any other way I would do it.” Sally said as she reached into the cup holder and fished out a blue jelly bean which she offered to her daughter. “I thought that Yancy was far enough away that you might finally be safe.”
“Safe?” She asked, unable to keep the exasperation from her voice. “Safe from what, freaks like Mrs.Dodds?”
“Yes.” Sally finally admitted in a whisper.
Percy turned to face her mother, eyes wide. “Oh so now you do believe me?”
She felt bad about that almost as soon as she had said it. She could see the pain in Sally's eyes as they sunk in. “Mom I didn’t mean it like-”
But Sally was already cutting her off with a shake of her head even as she turned the wheel and pulled onto a side road. “I know you’re angry and tired, Seph. It was never supposed to be like this.”
“This is about them again isn't it?”
Sally pulled the car down a long and winding road toward a distant beach. “It is.”
“I knew it.” She said defensively. “Everything is always their fault! I feel like I'm always stuck in their shadow.”
Sally frowned as the car slowly rolled to a stop. “Your parents were exceptional Persephone, and you are special because of them.”
“Special?” She scoffed as she turned to face her mother once more. “I know I’m not normal mom, you don't have to sugar coat it to save my feelings.”
Sally reached out with one gentle hand and cupped her daughter's cheek. “I'm not sugar coating anything darling, I'm telling you the truth, you are exceptional, just like them.”
“Yeah well maybe I’d believe you if they had bothered to stick around.”
Sally nodded slowly. “You're allowed to be mad at them sweetheart. I understand that it's been so hard on you having to grow up without them. Just know that they never wanted to leave you, they had to. They were forced to.”
Percy’s eyes widened. “What do you mean someone made them leave? Who made them? Hell, who even were my other parents?”
She was letting her frustration into her voice, she knew that, and she also knew that Sally probably didn’t deserve it but at this point she couldn't help it. She felt like she was actually going insane. Strange things had been happening her entire life but they had always been ignorable, or at least forgettable. Strange men watching her from the playground or a car that followed them home from the store, all explained away by the fact that normal people did bad things all the time. But this? This was unexplainable, Mrs.Dodds had turned into a monster and tried to kill her, and she couldn't tell anyone because no matter who she asked, they all said that there was no Mrs.Dodds in the first place, let alone the whole monster thing. Tears began to streak down her cheeks.
“They…they were wonderful. Beautiful and kind. They were strong when they needed to be and gentle whenever they could be.”
“Then why did they leave us?”
“Their family is…complicated Seph. They were forced to leave. But they never wanted to…not really.”
“Is that why you never talk about them?” Percy asked as she looked into her mothers eyes.
She had tried asking about them in the past, after all children don't make themselves and so she knew that she had to have a father out there somewhere. At first Sally had dismissed her questions, letting Percy fill in the gaps on her own. But as she grew up half answers stopped cutting it and Sally sat her down to talk one day while Gabe was out drinking. She asked Sally about her dad and was blindsided to learn that she had two missing parents. A father and another mother. They had apparently both loved Sally and started a family with her only to suddenly vanish one day. It was a lot to process back when she was twelve. Hell it was still a lot to process now if she was being honest.
“That's part of it…It still hurts. I won't lie. I miss them every day, but there's so much more Seph”
“Well now would be the time.”
“I can’t, not yet I'm sorry but you have to understand. It's not safe for you to know.”
“You keep saying that, but you won't even tell me what it means.”
Sally let go of her daughter, as a deep rumble sounded off in the forest. Both women in the car turned to look at where it had come from only to be scared half to death when something hit the car with a boom on the opposite side. Before they could even react, whatever it was had popped the door and was scrambling into the back seat.
Sally let out a scream and whipped around in her seat to level a can of pepper spray at the back of the car, maybe not the best call in an enclosed vehicle but it was all she had.
“Nonononono please don’t, It's just me!” Shouted a familiar and desperate voice from the back seat.
“Grover?” Percy asked incredulously as she whipped around to look at her only friend. She quickly realized two things. The first is that Grover was not wearing pants. The second is that despite that he was fully covered from the waist down by a layer of fuzzy brown wool.
“Yeah just me uh…sorry to uh drop in uninvited but we need to go like right now.”
“What the hell are you doing here, how did you find me, and what fuck is going on with your legs.”
“Uh looking for you, it's complicated, and it's complicated now please Ms.Jackson I am begging you to drive, that thing isn't going to be distracted for long.”
Sally turned back around and slammed her foot on the gas sending the car rocketing down the wooded back road once again.
Percy caught her mumbling to herself under her breath, something about ‘Aretemis, and protection. Then her brain jumped back to the matter at hand.
“Wait, you two know each other?” She asked, looking back and forth from her mother to her best friend.
“Uh kinda.” Grover admitted, an awkward frown on his face. “We’ve never really met but she knew I was watching you.”
“I'm sorry, watching me?”
“Yah you know, keeping an eye on you, making sure you stayed safe. Not that I was lying about being friends. We are friends I promise.”
Percy shook her head struggling to come to grips with the reality she now found herself in.
“Persephone Jackson I swear to all that is holy if you don’t turn around and put your seat belt back on!” Sally reprimanded her from the driver's seat.
“Really mom? My best friend is a donkey from the waist down and you care about my seatbelt.” She complained even as she turned and did as she was told.
“Hey.” Grover literally bleated from the back seat. “Goat, satyrs are half goat!”
Percy blinked a few times. “I'm sorry Satyrs, like the myths from class?”
“Do I look like a myth Perce? Was Ms.Dodds a myth.”
Percy’s blood nearly flash boiled in her veins. “So you do admit there was a Ms.Dodds!”
“I mean yeah obviously.”
“Then why did you just leave me out to dry like that dude?”
“It was too dangerous, the less you knew the fewer monsters you’d attract, but that doesn't matter now, you're putting out a signature a mile wide. We’re out of time, your blood is waking up, you're finding out what you are.”
“I…I don't even know where to start…monsters? Blood, what does any of this mean?”
“Persephone.” her mom said, drawing her attention back to the front seat. “I'm so sorry sweetheart, there is so much to explain but we don't have the time. I promise we’ll tell you everything just as soon as we get you someplace safe.”
“Safe from what?” Percy finally shouted, tired of being left out of the loop.
“That!” Grover shouted and pointed further down the road.
Sally spun the wheel violently to the right and managed to just barely avoid a massive something in the road. At the speed they were traveling it was next to impossible to make out any details but whatever it was, it was big.
“Can’t this thing go any faster?” Grover asked from the back seat.
“What does it look like I'm doing?” Sally responded as she pulled onto an even narrower path. And that's what it was, a path. You couldn't call it a road. At best it was a driveway serving the surrounding farms tucked away in the woods. High fences and mailboxes rushed past faster than the eye could really even register.
“Where are we even going, this is the middle of nowhere!” Percy asked.
“Do you remember that summer camp we talked about after the last school?” Sally asked hesitantly.
“You mean the one you didn't want me to go to and cried about?”
“Yeah that one.” Sally admitted. “It’s not as bad as I made it sound, I…I was just being selfish by trying to keep you here, with me.”
“So you are sending me away?”
“It's not like that Seph I promise. You’ll come back as soon as it's safe.”
Percy opened her mouth but never got the chance. She instantly became thankful for Sally forcing her to put on her seatbelt as some tremendous force lifted the car from the road and threw it deep into the woods. The next thing Percy knew she was coughing up fumes and trying to push the airbag out of her face. She hadn't even remembered the car hitting the ground. Had she passed out? She looked around as best she could through the smoke. Sally was next to her in a similar state, pushing away the airbag and looking around the cabin. Grover…well he hadn’t fared so well, just by looking Percy was pretty sure that she could tell his left leg was broken. Goat legs or no, knees shouldn't bend that way.
“Sephy.” Her mom coughed. “You…You need to keep going, do you see that hill, the one with the lone tree.”
Percy looked around desperately through the shattered windows trying to find the tree her mom was talking about. At first she was confused. They were in the woods in the middle of the night, there were trees everywhere. Then she saw it, there, maybe a hundred meters from the spot they had landed was a large hill that rose above the surrounding woods and at its peak was a single resolute pine tree that stretched above the surrounding canopy.
“Ye-yeah I see it.”
“You need to go there, please baby just run.”
“No, I'm not leaving you.” She mumbled as she shook her head clear and unbuckled her belt.
“Please hun you need to.”
“No.” She stated firmly before popping her door open. “Help me with grover, he's hurt.”
She stumbled to the back and pried open the bent and buckled back door. From this closer angle she could see a few other injuries. He writhed slowly, mostly unconscious only mumbling vague vocalizations of pain under his breath. Sally joined her not long after and together they managed to carefully pull him out of the back and then after draping his arms over their shoulders they began to carry him through the woods and towards the tree. Things almost felt like they were getting better, that though was almost instantly shattered by the heavy thudding footsteps of something from behind them.
Percy turned to look and pretty quickly wished she hadn’t. There was a towering beast of a man stumbling through the dark after them. He was wearing some weird fur coat or maybe even some weird shag carpet number…..but then if that was the case what was the deal with his horns….
“We’re running out of time.” Sally whispered. “We need to split up. I can't get past the threshold anyway.”
“Split up, are you crazy?” Percy hissed back “I think that thing is a mi-”
Sally cut her off with a glare only a mother could give. “Don't say its name, names have power.”
“I…well then what do we do, why hasn't it seen us yet?”
“Because it's night vision is pretty bad, and yours is ... well it's pretty good.” She smiled but it didn't hide the fear in her eyes. “It hunts mostly through scent and sound at night so stay quiet and keep going. When it charges you, wait until the last second and then throw yourself straight to one side, it can't turn well once it gets going.”
“How do you know all this mom?” she asked in confusion.
“I've been preparing for something like this for a long time honey. Now be quiet and keep moving”
The thing behind them that Percy was now pretty certain was in fact the Minotaur let out a truly god awful roar and took off into a sprint. She looked over her shoulder just in time to catch her life flash before her eyes in the glint of the bulls horns. With everything she had she grabbed Grover and both threw him and herself as hard as she could to the left.
She hadn't planned out a landing, nor a way to catch Grover. They both hit the ground hard and she could only wince in apology as she heard him groan in pain. She hoped that it hadn't made his leg any worse. She was torn from that though as she heard her mother scream. She scrambled to her feet to see her worst nightmare. She might have gotten out of the way but Sally had not. It had her gripped in one massive hand, damn near crushing her chest.
Her fear turned into rage, something deep in her veins just took over the second that she saw the pain in Sally’s eyes.
“H…hey..fuck face…with the cowbell” She coughed out as loud as she could while backing away slowly. “I..Im the one you want right?”
She kept eye contact with the minotaur as she kept shuffling backwards until her back was pressed firmly into the trunk of one of the larger trees nearby.
“What are you waiting for, I'm right here, forget about them.”
She watched in horror as the bull didn't so much drop her mother as it did throw her to the ground where she landed with a dull thud and then laid in a tangled and unmoving heap. She could only pray to whoever might have been listening that she was still alive.
“C..come get me instead.”
The bull took the bait, charging straight at her with alarming speed. At this point the flaw in her plan revealed itself, between the tree at her back and the Minotaurs outstretched arms she wasn't going to be able to dodge to the side again. Moments before her death it happened. Something deep in her gut pulled on her, she panicked and fell backward into darkness.
She was there again, in that sea of inky black nothing from before, just like when the harpy had pounced at her. There was no light, nothing to see, so sense of direction, space or movement, just comfortable perfect nothing. She breathed in deep, the void filled her lungs and she opened her eyes again to find herself back in the woods a few feet away from where she had once been. It was disorienting to say the least but she was at least expecting it this time.
The minotaur hit the tree so hard that the rattle in the ground alone shook Percy down to her bones. Its horns lodged firmly into the trunk just like she had been hoping. Alas her hopes were short lived as in a fit of rage the bull grabbed the tree and with a mighty shove ripped its head free. The sound of shattering wood and the snap of its left horn echoed through the forest. If the monster felt any pain from the break it didn't show it.
Percy was out of ideas, and as it would seem, out of time. Now free from the tree the minotaur began its advance again. Percy waited for the charge but it never came, it had been fooled twice and it didn't plan on letting it happen a third time. Seeing this, Percy scrambled to put any distance she could in between her and the beast.
This was it right? How she died, In some random forest, mauled by a monster that she was still struggling to believe was real, even as it bared down on her. She threw herself behind another tree and landed flat on her back a split second before the minotaur sent its first through the trunk where half a moment ago her head had been. Splintered wood rained down on her as the tree groaned in protest, the remaining trunk struggling to hold all the weight. It gave her an idea. It was stupid, It would probably get her killed, but it was all she had.
She scrambled to her feet again just in time to avoid a stomp that no doubt would have popped her head like a grape. This time though she didn't run, she put her back to the trunk again and hoped beyond hope that her plan would work.
“Quit playing around and fucking hit me!” She screamed at the top of her lungs at the giant of a bull as it towered over her.
Whether it understood her or not the beast took the bait, throwing another haymaker of a punch that was no doubt meant to turn Percy into a fine red mist. It never got the chance. Percy dropped to the ground, going fully limp. In truth she had really really been hoping that the weird shadow ink thing would happen again. It didn't, instead she hit the ground with a thud just as the minotaur took another massive chunk out of the tree.
The result of this was rather immediate, the thin remaining center of the tree snapped like a toothpick and sent the entire fifty foot behemoth crashing down right onto the minotaur that had knocked it down. All Percy could do was hold close to the stump and pray that she made it out alive. The thunderous roar of the minotaur was soon silenced by the colossal crash of the ancient tree collapsing to the ground and crushing all in its way.
When the dust had finally settled and the noises stopped, Percy finally dared to open her eyes. Nothing moved aside from the wind. She had done it. As quickly as she could she pulled herself from the collapsed rubble of the tree and rushed through the woods back to where her mother laid on the ground. She threw her arms around Sally and pulled her head into her lap as she sat on the ground.
“M…Mom are…are you ok…please i..”
Relief flooded over her as Sally opened her eyes, albeit weakly. She looked bad, blood trickled from her nose and her breathing was weak and ragged. Her eyes were hazy and struggled to focus.
“P..Persephone….I…I knew you'd make it…my perfect miracle.” she coughed out.
“Im ok mom…a…and you will be too, Ill ... .I'll go get help from them. The camp is here right?”
Her mother shook her head.
“l-listen to me Stardust…there's something…something you need to promise me…ok. Don't tell them about your mother….not even Grover.”
“Wh…what are you talking about mom.”
“Promise me Seph, I…Am your only mom….it was just me and your father…promise me!” She insisted, causing her to enter another coughing fit. Before percy could even answer the coughing turned into a seizure and then as she hugged her mother close and sobbed, Sally fell completely still, no breathing, no heartbeat. She was gone.
“No…no , no mom stay with me.” Perry begged through tears that were already starting to overwhelm her.
But no amount of begging was going to bring Sally back, especially not from this, because even as percy tried to clutch her mother tighter she continued to slip away. Her body began to glow, faintly at first and then brighter, a soft golden light that then dissolved, leaving no body behind. Percy didn't understand why or how, she couldn't, just one more awful impossibility forced into her life.
She collapsed, she hadn’t always seen eye to eye with her mother. They argued often, mostly about school and the men her mother spent time with, Gabe especially so. And none of that meant that she didn't love her mother more than anything else on the planet. She was at times her only friend, the woman who had supported her through any mistake she had made, and her only real support and now she was gone.
Something shuffled under the fallen tree, Percy’s eyes snapped to look at it. That thing, the monster that had taken away her mother was still alive, and that was not going to stand.She rose to her feet.
Percy stormed over to the fallen tree. She had no plan, no idea how to finish the job, she simply knew that it had to be done. This thing was never going to hurt anybody ever again, she would make sure of that. She found her answer along the way, the broken horn, she hadn't seen where it landed in the commotion but she felt it clink off her boot as she walked. She reached down to pick it up. It was demonically sharp, the already thin point had been reinforced with a metal cap that narrowed to a viscous looking barbed spike.
Fueled by the rage and sorrow of losing everything she kicked away the shattered boughs and branches until she found her prey buried within. Struggling to breath and impaled in at least half a dozen places it laid there, pathetic but nonetheless alive. She took up the horn and with all the weight of her body behind it drove it deep into the beasts chest, right under the ribcage and angled up into the heart, she struck true and found some sense of relief and morbid satisfaction as it jerked one last time, went limp and then faded away to ash, just like the harpy had….just like her mother had. It crumbled and blew away with the wind until there was nothing left.
It was over, the threat was gone…and so was her mother. The rage and adrenaline of the kill leaked away and left her with nothing but the despair and grief of loss. It took everything she had to drag herself back to her feet and make her way back over to Grover. He didn't look good, it had started to rain again and his clothes were now soaked. His leg still hung limp at that unnatural angle. She had no idea if she could move Grover on her own like this but she had to try.
With a grunt and a tug she managed to get his limp arm over her shoulder and then force him to his feet, or well foot…hoof? Didn’t matter. He was heavy but she could manage, at least as far as the tree on the hill. One step became two, two became ten, then ten became a dozen. Fuck she was tired…was he this heavy when she started?
Twenty became fifty, halfway there. Fifty became seventy five and her knees began to shake, something was definitely wrong but she couldn't stop now. Seventy five became ninety, she could practically touch the tree now, she could also taste the blood in the back of her throat. Finally, one hundred.
She collapsed to her knees and as gently as she could propped Grover against the trunk before giving up and just laying on the ground, too exhausted to even roll onto her back. That was how they found her nearly ten minutes later when the search party crested the hill. Tangled in a loose heap beside grover, nearly incoherent.
“I found her!” A soft voice called out.
Percy flinched at first as the silence was broken, when she opened her eyes she saw a girl approaching her. She was probably around her age, she had warm brown skin and curly hair with gold highlights. Her eyes were slate grey, with almost no hint of other color. Her features were set in a concerned frown as she approached. Not far behind her was a boy, he seemed slightly older but not by much, at most he was in his very early twenties. He was tall and lean. In fact they both looked like they worked out quite often. He carried a sword on his hip that he held one hand on in caution.
“Are you hurt?” The girl called softly, slowing her jog into a brisk walk as she got closer.
Percy tried to sit up but all she managed was to roll onto her side. She felt like a mess, she was covered in mud from the rain and splintered wood, she was shivering and her already messy hair now stuck to her face and shoulders, and no matter how hard her body tried she simply couldn't get up.
“P…Please.” She coughed. “Grover he…there was a car crash…and this monster it…my mother she…” She rambled until the girl knelt down and put a hand on her shoulder.
“Shhh you're safe now.” She turned back to look at the boy. “Luke! We need help!”
The boy doubled his pace and dropped to his knees as soon as he arrived, he unslung a pack from his back and pulled something out of it which he handed to the girl before turning his focus to Grover.
“I need you to drink this for me ok? It will help.” She said while helping Percy prop herself up, without waiting for an answer she pushed a flask to her lips.
Percy opened her mouth and braced herself for the bitter taste of medicine. She nearly coughed when instead the liquid was warm and sweet. The girl above her laughed a little as she saw the reaction.
“Sorry, I should have warned you about that. It surprised me the first time too. Keep drinking ok, I'm going to help Luke with grover now.”
Percy nodded as she took the flask. She easily downed the rest of the small vial and as the warmth suffused her body she finally passed out.