Chapter Text
Before sunset, Perseus had blasted off into the sky and was shooting South-West at top speeds. Not to toot his own horn, but he was sure that he could beat a plane in a race. However, he was getting tired. Flying wasn’t exactly his strongest suit and flying across the United States took a lot out of him. His eyes drooped and, sometimes, the natural currents would push him off course, towards the North.
Until he was passing over the Rockies, he had no problems. Then, in the distance, he saw it. The floating island of Aeolia. Perseus swept to the side, hoping to avoid it and Aeolus’ ego. While he wasn’t found by the god of wind, the wind swirled tight around him and threw him down.
Perseus hit the mountain-side with enough force to kill someone and plummeted. Down and down. He got back up with a pained groan, deep in a forest of oranges and reds. A chill fell over him. The leaves coalesced into a figure. The man across from him smelled of rotting apples and dampness. Fungus crawled across the man’s skin, growing, merging, expanding, shrinking. Different colours of mushrooms, from white to bioluminescent red. A crown of leaf-less thorns sat on his hair, the same colour as the leaves around them.
“I heard a rumour about you,” the man- no, god- said with a voice like a dying breath.
“Really?” Perseus asked neutrally.
“Oh, yes, son of Zeus. I heard that you are not of this world. So, tell me,” he melted and reformed behind Perseus’ shoulder, a cold hand on his neck, “how did you do it?”
Quickly, he scrambled away from the god, wiping off the fungus that tried to eat through his skin. “How did you find out about that?”
The god shrugged, rustling. “Global warming. My time starts earlier each year… One day I hope that it will always be my time, but until then, I will settle for my months.”
“Autumn. You’re autumn,” Perseus realised. “Eurus.”
“I am much more than that,” he said, rattling dangerously, the mushrooms that made up his high collar flared bright blue, making it impossible to see. The god mellowed, “But yes. I am.”
“I don’t know how I got here. I just did.”
Eurus smiled. “I was hoping you wouldn’t say that, son of Zeus.”
The wind knocked his knees out from under him. Fungus grew over him, across his legs and arms and chest. A heavy blanket. Perseus couldn’t move, even as he struggled desperately. “Let me out!”
The god clicked his tongue, eyes wild. “Now, now, child. Tell me what I want to know, and I’ll allow you to continue on your quest. How did you get to this world and what is the fate of Aeolus in yours?”
“Aeolus died ,” he hissed. “The storm spirits are all that’s left.”
“Perfect! How did you get here?” He waited for an answer, razor-teeth bared in a smile, but Perseus had none to give. “Very well. I’ll leave you here to rot… it’s not a pleasant process. Slow, painful. You’ll feel it as your flesh peels off your bones, bit by bit.”
“I don’t know how I got here, let me go,” Perseus snarled. He pulled the wind towards himself, but with a flick of his hand, Eurus made it dissipate.
“If nothing else, my Lord will thank me for keeping his enemy’s child out of the fight.”
“You’re a wind god!” he spat. “Shouldn’t you be allied with my father?”
“No, no, no. Don’t be silly, child. Aeolus has sided with Zeus, I can’t kill someone on my team.” Eurus became autumn leaves again, gone.
Perseus struggled and fought for hours, getting colder and colder the longer the night dragged on. When he tried to muster up lighting to blast the fungus away, they snatched it away from him. Finally, he reached up for the clouds, clenching his fists and focusing hard. Lightning hit the trunk of a tree near him with an almighty bang! It blew the tree apart and split the trunks of everything around it. Fire spilled onto the leaf-covered ground. He tried harder to get out. The dead leaves of Eurus’ territory were lighting up faster than kindling. Fire drawing closer. Closer. Another blast of lightning had the chance of messing up, too.
“Eurus! Let me out!” he shouted. “I’ll tell you what you want to know!”
The god materialised, squatting beside his head. Perseus was overcome with the scent of rot. “Tell me.”
He thought quickly, panicking. Something generic but believable. “Magic. Magic was what transported me here.”
“Hecate…”
Perseus’ eyes widened as he realised that it made a startling amount of sense. Once, Hecate had cared for him- or pretended to, at least. Then she joined Kronos’ army. Hecate was on what remained of Olympus that day. Perhaps even in the throne room… “Yes! Her.”
Eurus hummed. “I must gather strength… then I will make your world mine. By blood and rot, it shall be mine. ” He snapped his fingers. The fire vanished, Perseus was freed.
“Right… okay…” He got to his feet. “Quick question,” Perseus asked, “you mentioned a lord, who might that be?”
Instantly, the god looked shifty. “Ah, slip of the tongue. I have no lord but the wind and the march time, leading the year back to Autumn.” Eurus smiled sharply.
“Time?” he repeated.
Eurus froze.
In a smooth motion, Perseus whipped out his sword. Gold ichor splattered through the night air. With two thunks, the god’s head and body fell to the leafy ground. It decayed into dirt before his eyes, overtaken by creeping, warring fungi, sprouting faintly glowing mushrooms that seemed to wink.
It was past midnight on Wednesday when Perseus saw the Las Vegas skyline. Probably around 5AM in New York. He landed outside the Lotus Casino and, focusing hard on the dull ache of the oath, he went inside. Pool tables, bars, arcade games, slot machines, all kinds of table games. The colours were bright and enticing, but he kept his mind focused on his goal: find Bianca and Nico and get out as quickly as possible.
Past hundreds of people. Some of which he recognised as being part of his world- satyrs, empousa and the like.
He thought he saw them a few times. A hint of onyx waves and a glimpse of olive skin in the crowd. Perseus started trying to think of where they would logically go, so he checked the old-style arcade and the food court.
The siblings were in the food court. Nico was holding a set of cards- Mythomagic, Perseus remembered with a start. The boy hadn't played in a long time, in his world. Bianca had a book in Italian open on the table between them.
“Hi,” Perseus said, coming up to them.
Bianca instantly looked wary. Which was fair. Perseus looked too old to be hanging out with little kids. Ew, don't phrase it like that, he thought.
“What do you want?” Bianca asked coldly, giving Nico an admonishing look when he opened his mouth first.
“Your… dad… sent me to pick you up. I’m Perseus.”
Bianca narrowed her eyes. “Did he.”
“Bianca and Nico di Angelo. Aged eleven and thirteen. Born in 1927 and ‘29. That's you, right?”
“Nine and eleven,” Bianca corrected harshly. “Our ‘father' must've given you the wrong information.”
His eyes widened. No way. Bianca was younger than Percy. That was perfect. There was no chance of her being the child of the prophecy, which made her safe . “Math isn't my strong suit,” he replied with a casual shrug and grin.
“You know our dad? Can you take us to him?” Nico asked excitedly.
Perseus winced. “Not right now, he's… busy. But there's a nice summer camp that you can go to until he's available.”
He managed to convince the siblings- who were disappointed to hear that their dad wasn’t available- to leave the casino. Until he was right at the doors, he hadn't realised that he couldn’t fly them back. Either Zeus would sense them in his territory or the wind gods, who must be on look-out for a god killer around the Rocky Mountains by now, would ambush them. Definetely not safe. Nor would it be safe anywhere in the vicinity of New York and Mount Olympus.
“Crap,” Perseus said aloud. Wait- Percy, Annabeth and Grover would be at Santa Monica-
“Don’t swear in front of my brother,” Bianca snapped.
“Sorry.”
-So they would need to have a way to get there and to the entrance of the underworld. He remembered the Iris message cutting off and that Hermes- the god who could and likely would help the trio to find the entrance to the underworld- used to hang out at this casino.
“Alright, we’re gonna need to make a pit-stop at the Santa Monica beach,” Perseus said and quickly ushered the siblings out into the daylight. He stopped the first person he saw on the sidewalk. “‘Scuse me, what’s the date today?”
“Twenty-first,” the woman replied, popping her bubblegum. Then she wandered off.
“You’ve got to be kidding…” The deadline was today. He grabbed Nico and Bianca by their hands. “Alright, let’s check Santa Monica.” The three of them shot into the sky, Bianca and Nico screaming as they went. He was careful not to go too far into his father's realm.
“WHAT?!” Nico shrieked, “YOU FLY? AWESOME!”
Eventually, they relaxed a bit, but Bianca still had his forearm in a death-grip.
“Are you a god?” Nico asked, starry-eyed, when they landed near the pier. “How do you fly? Can I learn? What else can you do? Can you sword-fight? That’s so cool-”
“Nico, stop it,” Bianca hissed.
“It’s alright, I don’t mind questions,” he hurried to say. “I’m not a god, but I can fly because of one- my father. Since we don’t have the same father, you won’t be able to fly. And, yes, I can sword-fight.”
“Awesome…”
Perseus left them further away from the ocean, out of caution, and wandered down to the water. He stepped out of the way of the waves that tried to lap at his feet and crouched down to summon a slice of wind across the surface of the water. The spray of water formed a mist, and the sunlight hit it at the perfect angle, he pulled a drachma from his pocket.
“Oh, Iris, goddess of the rainbow, please accept this offering. Show me Percy Jackson.” Perseus tossed the coin and the faint rainbow swallowed it whole. The image blurred into focus and he saw his younger self frantically running. Was that the Lotus Casino? They were still there? Gods, that was not good at all.
“Hey! Percy!”
The boy turned to face the message. “Hi. Uh- what’s up?”
“What are you doing?” he asked quickly.
“Umm… looking for Grover. Then we’re stealing Hermes’ car.”
“You’re stealing it?”
“Yeah, well. Things happen.”
“Perseus?” Annabeth cut in, her face appearing in the Iris message. “Why are you calling?”
“I was hoping you already had the car. I’ll meet you in Santa Monica, okay? The casino isn’t dangerous, you can leave Grover and pick him up later.” His chest clenched with guilt as he said it. After everything that Grover had done- But it was safe this time. Grover wasn’t lost. They knew where he was.
“We aren’t leaving him,” Percy snapped, his expression blazing, and he viciously swiped a hand through the message. The image vanished.
Part of Perseus was relieved. The other part of him wondered when he had stopped caring about others.
The waves drew back. Inch by inch. It took Perseus nearly a minute to notice. When he did, the earth trembled, sending the sand particles into a frenzy. He scrambled to his feet and backed away from the water.
In retrospect, the wave that crashed towards him was quite small. It drenched his clothes anyway. There was a god standing before him, clad in khaki shorts and a loose teal Hawaiian shirt.
“What are you doing on my turf at the edge of a war, nephew?” Poseidon questioned, his voice a dangerous rumble.
