Chapter Text
His eyes flew open and he reached into his pocket to pull Riptide out instantly at the sound of a sharp gasp. Percy slashed with Anaklusmos blindly, too disoriented to really do much damage, before his senses honed in a little, just enough to let him know that he was, in fact, still in the Poseidon cabin. And the one who’d gasped was his past self.
Percy blinked tiredly and glanced over the edge of his bed to see young Percy sitting with a look of extreme worry and distress on his face. The moment his eyes fell on Percy, he pulled out his own pen, too, and prepared to uncap it only to blink once and realize who he was actually staring at.
“Bad dream?” Percy guessed, voice hoarse from sleep.
Young Percy looked around, as if making sure he really was awake and the place wasn’t filled with enemies. Then he slumped down and let his head land back on the pillow below him with a thud. He was pale and a little shaky, but unhurt. Of course he was unhurt—it was just a dream, no matter how bad it was.
“I hate demigod dreams,” young Percy groaned, pressing his hands to his eyes.
Percy smirked a little. “Don’t we all.” He opened his mouth to say more when he heard a knock at the door. Both of them turned to stare at the door like they couldn’t believe someone was outside, waiting to come in. Then Percy shrugged. “Come in!”
The door swung open and Annabeth entered the cabin. Unlike the two of them, she was already all set to go. She wore an orange Camp Half-Blood shirt and a pair of tattered denim shorts. Her hair was pulled up in a ponytail and she looked alert, like she’s been awake for hours even though it couldn’t be that late.
Her eyes moved between one Percy to the other before she glared at her Percy. “You’re not up yet?” she demanded.
“Just woke up, actually,” Percy supplied.
“What?” Annabeth shrieked.
Young Percy pulled his pillow from its place underneath his head and then pressed it to his face. “You’re enjoying this way too much,” he grumbled, his voice coming out muffled.
“Percy, get up.”
“Five more minutes… I didn’t get enough sleep,” he whined.
Annabeth’s gray eyes trailed over to the Percy on the top bed. “Did you keep him up all night?” she asked.
“He kept me up!” Percy protested.
She just threw her hands in the air, letting out a huff of exasperation. “You have five minutes to get ready, Seaweed Brain! Otherwise I’m gonna leave without you!” she declared and pounded out of the cabin.
Young Percy peeked at her retreating form from behind his pillow and then locked eyes with Percy. “If you wouldn’t have already known she was my girlfriend now, you wouldn’t have been able to tell,” he deadpanned.
Percy laughed.
They left Mrs. O’Leary in the care of someone named Beckendorf. Percy couldn’t help but stare at the guy, an uneasy feeling cutting through him every time their eyes locked. And it wasn’t because the older boy could probably pound him to a pulp with his fists—he just got this feeling that… something bad was gonna happen to the guy.
Then they both bounded up Half-Blood Hill to meet up with Annabeth next to the pine that young Percy had explained was once Thalia, daughter of Zeus. Percy heard that and then couldn’t help but just gawk a little at the tree—a dragon wrapped around its bark, sleepily resting next to a golden fabric that glistened in the sun.
“Is that… a fleece?” Percy asked, slightly appalled.
Young Percy glanced over at it and then nodded. “The golden fleece. Super powerful and all. Also very hard to retrieve.” He shuddered. “If there’s one thing I wouldn’t mind forgetting, it would be turning into a Guinea pig.”
“Excuse me?” Percy stared at him.
He received no answer as they finally caught up to Argus and Annabeth. Argus—a son of Hera that had way too many eyes but otherwise reminded Percy of a surfer dude—smiled at the two of them like he didn’t see anything abnormal about having two of the same person before him. Annabeth, on the other hand, eyed them both like she wasn’t sure what was going on.
“You’re coming, too?” she asked Percy.
He shrugged. “Just to Manhattan.”
“I told him he could see Mom,” young Percy chimed in.
The slightly edgy expression on Annabeth’s face melted away and she nodded like it made perfect sense. It probably did—he was a kid, lost in both space and time, apparently. Why wouldn’t he want to head out to see his mom and try and remember her, right?
As they made their way down toward the truck, the three of them following Argus, Percy saw the pleased surprise on his younger self’s face as Annabeth grabbed his hand and let it swing between them, like he couldn’t imagine this was actually happening to him, even though he made a remark about it right after waking up.
In the truck, Percy sat next to the younger him with Annabeth sitting on his other side, still holding his hand with a slightly triumphant glint in her eyes. She pulled out two sandwiches from her knapsack, handing them both to the boys who eagerly dug in and listened as she told them about the IM she got from someone named Eurytion who was looking after a kid named Nico that both young Percy and Annabeth seemed to be very worried about.
“He’s in danger,” young Percy said around a mouthful.
Annabeth wrinkled her nose at him. “No kidding,” she said and young Percy sheepishly swallowed the bite he was chewing. “Minos is one of the judges of the dead, but he’s got a vicious streak a mile wide. I don’t know what he wants with Nico, but—”
“That’s not what I meant,” young Percy cut in. “I had this dream last night. Luke and another half-blood were studying a map, I think, lost in the Labyrinth. They mentioned how larger groups got more lost in the Labyrinth and how they’d sent scouts first because of it. They still don’t have the thread, but it sounded like Quintus could get it for them and Luke trusts him to do just that.”
For a moment he hesitated and seemed to study Annabeth’s face as she pressed her lips together, like the mention of Luke changed something. Percy watched the two of them in confusion, a strange feeling stirring inside him that he couldn’t put a name to. Luckily, young Percy moved on soon enough.
“He mentioned an arena and having a truce with its master. And then someone else came and he said they’d found another half-blood. They had him cornered, and it was someone they didn’t know.” He widened his eyes. “It fits Nico. They’ve never seen the kid before. And if he escaped the ranch yesterday…”
Annabeth’s jaw tightened. “That’s very, very bad.”
Percy raised his hand and stared at the two of them questioningly. “Hold up—why is Nico so important? I mean, I’m all for making sure he’s safe and all, but you talk about him like he’s… different or something.”
They exchanged an anxious look and then Annabeth leaned forward and explained: “Nico is a child of the Big Three, too. His father is Hades,” she said.
“O…kay?”
Young Percy dragged a hand down his face. “You don’t remember the prophecy,” he mumbled. “There’s a big deal about a child of Zeus, Poseidon or Hades who turns sixteen. And right now they believe this prophecy could only apply to me because Thalia will never reach sixteen and they don’t know about Nico. But if Kronos ever gets his hands on this kid…”
Percy stared at the two of them. “Oh, you’ve mentioned this prophecy yesterday, right?”
“Stalker,” young Percy muttered.
Annabeth ignored him and nodded at Percy. “Yeah, I think so. He only knows about it because he forced me to tell him everything I know about it,” she said, squeezing young Percy’s hand a little.
He snorted. “I know you haven’t told me everything,” he said. “I’m just not sure I want to hear more when I already know I’m gonna probably destroy the world with some kind of choice. Stressful enough as it is.”
She flashed him a smile and shrugged, as if saying that it wasn’t her fault. Then she turned serious again and looked down at her hand—the one not holding young Percy’s—with furrowed brows and a downward tilt to her lips. She looked like she was deep in thought, calculating something in her head and trying to see the outcome of some situation they weren’t privy to.
“Well, let’s hope our guide will be able to help us then, huh?” she said eventually.
Young Percy looked like he had a retort at the ready, but he swallowed it down and instead kept his mouth shut.
It was strange to follow Annabeth and young Percy up the stairs of the apartment building, his nerves rising as he looked around, trying desperately to spot anything that would remind him of some kind of long-lost memory, but nothing stood out to him—everything looked very normal. Percy would never have known it was his apartment building had he not known for a fact that young Percy and Annabeth weren’t trying to confuse him on purpose.
Okay, he didn’t actually know that for certain, but he figured they wouldn’t do that to him. They were on a tight schedule—they didn’t have time to mess around with an amnesiac from the future.
The closer they got to the apartment, the more anxious Percy felt. And by the looks of it, young Percy was doing only slightly better, dragging his feet down the hall toward the right door as he fidgeted with the rim of his shirt like he didn’t know what the heck he should do with his hands.
The thing was—even Annabeth looked nervous. She was the one to draw her hand out of young Percy’s when they started scaling the stairs of the building, and maybe young Percy was too stuck in his own head to notice or care too much because he didn’t react to it at all. Frankly, Percy had no idea why Annabeth was so nervous right now. She must have met his mom already, right? They’ve been friends for a few years now—they must have visited each other before.
Eventually young Percy stopped in front of one of the doors, his knuckles suspended in the air in front of him as he hesitated.
“Just knock,” Annabeth urged him, her voice tight.
“Right.” He didn’t move. “She’s gonna kill me.”
Percy glared at him weakly. “You said she doesn’t get upset!” he hissed.
His younger counterpart threw him a look over his shoulder. “It doesn’t mean she can’t get worried sick when she knows I’m risking my life! What did you expect?” He didn’t wait for an answer. Instead, he rapped his knuckles against the door and then pulled his hand away like he got burned and slipped it into his jeans pocket.
For a few seconds nothing happened. The three of them just stood there awkwardly and waited. Young Percy looked up and down the hall with wandering, restless eyes. Annabeth tapped her foot on the floor, biting her lip anxiously as she looked from the door to the ground and back. Percy just sort of tried not to act exactly like his younger self—he felt weird watching someone else doing the exact same thing he was. Even if said person also looked remarkably like him. And, you know, was him.
Then the door opened, revealing a beautiful woman with brown hair streaked with a few white stands here and there. Her eyes were blue—different from Percy’s, but still strikingly similar to the color of the sea. Or maybe not the sea—more like… a lake. Something smaller, with sweet water.
She had a warm, pleasant smile on her face that widened almost impossibly wide at the sight of the people at the door. Or, well, at the sight of young Percy, more like. Her eyes never travelled past him. She spotted him and immediately let out a sound of delighted surprise as she pulled him closer, crushing him in a hug that made the boy huff out, like his lungs were being squeezed.
Percy didn’t recognize the woman, but the sense of familiarness filled him at the sight of her, and a warm, fuzzy feeling spread through his body. He loved her—he didn’t need his memories to know that. Or young Percy’s guarantee that this woman was the best. He could just tell that she was important to him. If only he could actually remember her…
“I told them you were all right,” she said, relief etched into her every word as she squeezed young Percy in her bear hug.
“Mom—can’t breathe!” young Percy choked out.
For a moment she just squeezed him even tighter. Then she finally stepped back and put her hands on both his cheeks as she observed him, her eyes sparkling like she was about to cry—Percy really hoped she wouldn’t. Annabeth looked rather amused—though still bashful—as young Percy protested weakly, trying to get his mom to back away a little and let him go, but there was no conviction in his voice.
At long last, she let him go and instead let her eyes roam over his shoulder. Sally beamed at Annabeth. “Oh, Annabeth, it’s so good to see you again, dear,” she said warmly.
The girl smiled a little, her eyes darting from young Percy to his mom, a little wider than usual, like she was being put on the spot. “You, too, Mrs. Jackson,” she said politely.
And then the woman finally noticed Percy, too, and her smile froze a little, completely taken aback. She blinked furiously, as if Percy was only an image her mind had conjured up for her and not actually present, standing at her doorstep and swinging his arms awkwardly back and forth with an embarrassed, unsure smile on his face.
Her mouth opened and closed a couple of times before she finally uttered, “Poseidon?”
Percy wanted to bang his head against the nearest wall. “Okay, first Chiron and now you—do I look like a god?” he asked in exasperation.
“You do look a lot like your father,” Annabeth commented.
He shot her a look before his eyes met young Percy’s whose head tilted to the side as he observed him quietly, probably trying to see what everyone else was seeing when looking at the two of them. He looked like he couldn’t decide whether or not he understood everyone’s confusion. Sure, Percy could see the similarities between himself and his dad from his dream, but they weren’t the same person!
“Your father?” his mom said faintly. Then she turned her gaze to look at young Percy, her eyes nearly bugging out. “Percy—”
“He’s me,” he said, pointing at Percy vaguely. “From the future and without ninety-nine percent of his memories.” He must have seen the overwhelming shock hitting his mother, because he quickly pulled her deeper into the apartment. “We should probably sit down for this.”
So they did. They settled around the kitchen table and despite looking a little out of sorts now, Sally managed to mutter to young Percy to get some of the cookies in the kitchen so they could have something to snack on while explaining to her what the heck was going on. She kept on glancing between the two boys like she was trying to compare them to each other, see every single change between now and the future.
Something about it must have calmed her down because she soon regained some of her color back and smiled again at Annabeth and Percy as they tried to explain to her how Percy just popped out of nowhere back in the past—apparently because of Poseidon. He didn’t have his memories (his mom looked slightly worried about it, but she didn’t press the matter) and he was trying to remember as much as he could now. Frankly, it wasn’t going that great.
Then young Percy came back with a plate filled with blue chocolate-chip cookies and Percy dived right in, his heart lightening at the blue cookies entering his system. He wasn’t sure what his thing with blue food was, but he didn’t care. It made him happy so he ate it with a content smile and listened absently to young Percy and Annabeth’s recounting of their quest so far.
It sounded like a lot to Percy, and he got the distinct feeling that young Percy was careful not to mention some of the more dangerous stuff they’ve encountered so far, but somehow the holes in the story just made everything sound even more dangerous and morbid and by the unamused look on Sally’s face, it was clear she knew the story was being altered for her benefit. Still, she kept her mouth shut most of the time and simply listened, her eyes wandering toward Percy every once in a while.
“So,” she said once both kids fell quiet, their story finished with. “You wrecked Alcatraz, made Mount St. Helens explode, and displaced half a million people”—young Percy cringed and looked down a little, his shoulders hunching at the mention of the catastrophe that was that blown mountain. To be fair—Percy felt incredibly guilty, too—“but at least you’re safe.”
“Yep,” young Percy said with a forced smile. “That pretty much covers it.”
“I wish Paul were here. He wanted to talk to you,” she said, her voice a little quieter than it was before, like the words were meant mostly for her and not her son.
Young Percy winced. “Oh, right. The school.” He exchanged a look with Annabeth who offered him a shrug and a small, encouraging smile. Then he turned back to his mom and asked, “What did you tell him?”
The woman shook her head and sighed tiredly. “What could I say? He knows something is different about you. He’s a smart man.” Her voice was fond when she said it and Percy decided that if she liked this guy—Paul—that much, then he would, too. “He believes that you’re not a bad person. He doesn’t know what’s going on, but the school is pressuring him. After all, he got you admitted there. He needs to convince them the fire wasn’t your fault. And since you ran away, that looks bad.”
Annabeth looked like she knew what this must feel like from experience—Percy believed it was probably true. Considering his life’s been very abnormal so far, he figured other half-bloods had crazy lives, too. So mortals probably tended to see things a certain way through the Mist and, well, it usually didn’t look good for the demigods.
“I’ll talk to him. After we’re done with the quest,” young Percy said, looking slightly uncomfortable. “I’ll even tell him the truth if you want.”
“You would do that?” his mom asked, putting her hand on his shoulder as her eyes gleamed a little with relief and love that Percy drank in even though it wasn’t aimed at him (technically, in a way, it was, but he wasn’t going to think about that too hard).
Young Percy smiled awkwardly. “Well, yeah.” He sent Annabeth a brief look. “I mean, he’ll think we’re crazy.”
“He already thinks that.”
“Then there’s nothing to lose.”
His mom beamed at him. “Thank you, Percy. I’ll tell him you’ll be home…” she started and then trailed off and a furrow formed between her eyebrows. “When? What happens now?” she asked.
Annabeth snapped a cookie in half. “Percy has this plan,” she said, still sounding less than thrilled about it.
Young Percy shot her a concerned, slightly alarmed look. When Annabeth noticed that, her shoulders slumped and she offered him a small smile—like a peace offering. Percy wasn’t sure, but he thought it looked genuine, however uncomfortable with this plan Annabeth seemed to be.
Leaning forward, Percy cleared his throat and drew his mom’s attention to himself. “Um, they need to get back in the Labyrinth and find Daedalus so they could convince him not to give the thread to Kronos’s army,” he explained. “So they’re going to use a mortal to get through the maze, the same way Theseus had done with that princess.”
“A clear-sighted mortal,” Annabeth added. She pursed her lips for a moment. “Like Rachel.”
Slowly nodding, Sally looked slightly concerned. “It sounds dangerous,” she admitted. Then her eyes landed back on young Percy and she seemed to soften a little. “But it might work.”
“You have the same abilities, don’t you?” young Percy asked. “You can see through the Mist.”
“Not so much now. When I was younger is was easier. But yes, I’ve always been able to see more than was good for me. It’s one of the things that caught your father’s attention, when we first met.” She completely ignored his reddening cheeks at the mention of his parents meeting. Percy could definitely relate to him—it was an awkward thing to think about. “Just be careful. Promise me you’ll be safe.”
“We’ll try, Mrs. Jackson,” Annabeth said after she swallowed half the cookie she had. “Keeping your son safe is a big job, though.”
She looked out the window with a faraway look, like she was thinking back to the two weeks in which she had no idea whether or not Percy was still alive. It must have been awful, trying to hold on to hope when there was no proof anyone could have survived such a terrible explosion. Percy was pretty sure they would have actually burnt Percy’s shrouds had he not appeared out of the blue, confirming that their Percy was still, in fact, alive.
It seemed like young Percy was thinking about the same thing because he looked at Annabeth with concern and guilt glinting in his eyes as he nudged her fingers with his, silently asking her if she was okay as she tore her eyes away from the window and over to him.
Nothing about it stood out to Percy in particular—how could it when he came from a time where the only thing he remembered for sure was that he and Annabeth were dating each other and were very much in love? But, of course, this entire development was still new in this point in time, so Sally watched the small interaction between Annabeth and young Percy and her eyebrows raised a little like she could see something’s changed, but she wasn’t sure what it was quite yet.
“What’s—” she started asking and then shook her head and swallowed back her question, though her lips tugged upward, like she knew what was happening and she didn’t need to question the others to know what’s shifted in Annabeth and young Percy’s dynamic. “Percy, you’d better use the phone in the hall. Good luck.”
Young Percy grimaced as Annabeth started crumbling the other half of her cookie to blue crumbs. “Right, um…” He looked around helplessly, as if searching for a solution to his problems that would just pop into existence out of thin air. Then his eyes landed on Percy. “Can you talk to Rachel?”
Percy spluttered. “I don’t even know her!” he protested.
“It doesn’t matter—she doesn’t know that,” Annabeth argued back, suddenly looking a lot more on board with this. It was so ridiculous, because whether Percy or young Percy ended up talking to Rachel, it was still going to be a conversation between Percy Jackson and Rachel… something. He didn’t even know what her last name was. Still, Annabeth gave him a desperate look, begging with her eyes. “Please?”
He glared at the two of them as he pushed himself away from the table. “Fine. But you guys need to stay close just in case,” he relented and tried to ignore the triumphant grins the couple shared as he moved past them and down the hall.
They all left his mom sitting alone at the table, but he figured it would be good for her—maybe she will have some time to take in all the information she’d just been given. It couldn’t have been easy to try and act normal while sitting around the kitchen table with two versions of her son.
Picking up the phone in the hall, Percy let young Percy punch in the number he seemed to remember by heart.
(“You memorized it?” Annabeth asked with a raised eyebrow.
Young Percy rubbed the back of his neck nervously as he backed away from the phone. “It felt important…”
She narrowed her eyes at him, but still reached out for his hand, so Percy figured they would survive this)
It rang five times before Percy heard a click and then the voice of a girl said, “Hello?”
“Hi!” he said, pitching his voice a little higher. “Is this Rachel?”
“Quit it!” young Percy hissed at him as Annabeth shook with silent laughter. “Dude, just speak like yourself! You sound like Elmo!”
The girl on the other end hummed a little. “Who’s asking?”
Percy waved dismissively at his younger self, though he still dropped the weird voice. The reaction he got from Annabeth was already worth it as it was—no reason to ruin his social life any further, even if Rachel wasn’t exactly the kind of person he would spend a lot of time with, considering the fact that Annabeth couldn’t seem to stand her.
“Uh, it’s Percy.”
“Percy—the guy who slashed me with his sword?” the girl sounded absolutely delighted now.
Eyes widening, Percy choked a little. “I slashed you with my sword?” he spluttered and then saw the sharp gestures of young Percy as the boy whispered to him to say yes. Percy glared at him in confusion as he said, “I slashed you with my sword! Right! How could I forget?” He shook his head at his younger version in exasperation. “Yeah, that’s me.”
“I’ll tell you later…” young Percy muttered.
Annabeth was covering her mouth with her free hand, looking like she was having a lot of fun just listening to this phone call. “You never told me this—you tried to cut her with Riptide?”
Young Percy pouted. “I thought she was a monster!” he protested.
Percy ignored the bickering of the two of them as Rachel spoke to him again. “Wow. It only took you a couple of weeks to call. I figured it’d be either a day or a month or two,” she said. “Do you need help destroying another public building?”
“No. My friend and I—” He cut himself off when Annabeth cleared her throat and looked at him expectantly. Next to her, young Percy was blushing furiously, looking very much like a deer caught in the headlights. “Um, my girlfriend and I needed some help, and we figured… you might be able to help us.”
For a few seconds the line was dead silent and Percy feared they may have just chased away their guide for this quest, all because he showed up and intervened and made Annabeth and his younger self date—probably ahead of time. Would they have to enter the Labyrinth without a guide, then? Would they survive? Or make it back in time to prevent the attack on Camp Half-Blood?
“You need my help?” Rachel asked eventually. “You and that blond girl you were with last time, right?”
“Yeah, Annabeth.”
“What do you need help with? Is this because of that thing you said I can do? See through the… veil thing?”
“Mist. And yes.” He could feel the pressure of the looks he was getting from the other two next to him, so Percy trained his gaze on the wall ahead of him, trying hard not to focus on them. “Look, it’s kind of a long story and it’s super urgent.”
Rachel hummed again. “What’s the long story?”
He could see Annabeth gesturing to him that he needed to hang up soon, her finger pointing at the watch at her wrist as her eyes roamed around like a monster was going to attack them in the hall of the house. It made sense, too, since he was using a phone right now—not the best idea for a demigod, he’d learned.
“I can’t explain over the phone. Technology attracts monsters,” he said.
“Technology attracts monsters? So I should never make another phone call again?” Rachel asked, sounding a little surprised but also very much done with the weird rules of the Greek mythological world.
Percy groaned. “What? No, it only applies to half-bloods, which you’re not.” He shifted his stance a little. “Can we meet up, maybe?”
She didn’t say anything for a few moments and Percy could already see the defeat creeping into young Percy’s eyes and the apprehension in Annabeth’s body as she shifted, now looking more alert and ready to fight anyone and anything that was in her path. Percy had the feeling she wouldn’t hesitate to pounce on Rachel if she was only given a good enough excuse.
Then Rachel finally said, “Okay. But I’m kind of busy right now. How about meeting up in Times Square around an hour and a half from now? I should be done by then.”
He sighed in relief. “Yeah, that sounds good,” he said and both young Percy and Annabeth relaxed, looking at each other with relived looks mixed with slight wariness, likely realizing they were going to have to also put up with Rachel later on. Young Percy wouldn’t have a problem with it. Annabeth, on the other hand… “We’ll be there. And I promise not to try and kill you this time.” He gave young Percy a pointed look which the boy just ignored.
“Okay. See you guys there.” She hung up.
Percy put the phone down and turned to the couple. “An hour and a half at Times Square. You’re welcome.”
“We’re really doing this,” Annabeth said anxiously, hopping from one leg to the other. She didn’t look too happy about continuing her quest. “Do you think she’ll agree? It’s really dangerous and she can’t exactly protect herself against monsters. She has no training and no weapon.”
Young Percy shrugged. “Sounds like me when I killed the Minotaur,” he said. Percy blinked at him in surprise but the younger boy just continued casually. “I don’t know if she’ll help us, but it’s worth a shot, right?”
“Sure,” Annabeth said, sounding less than thrilled about it.
In true mom-fashion, Sally sent young Percy down with the trash once they finished with the phone call. Grumbling a little, the boy left the apartment after giving Percy a warning look, telling him not to do anything stupid or embarrassing while he was gone.
In true Percy-fashion, Percy walked over to his bedroom after hearing from his mom which door to open, Annabeth following in his steps curiously. She told him she already got to see his bedroom when she watched him through the window—which made Percy stare at her for a full minute as Annabeth ignored him in favor of taking in the chaotic bedroom around them.
It wasn’t really surprising that his room was a mess considering the state of his cabin back at camp and the disorder in his own backpack which he’s been carrying with him in his amnesiac travels across the United States. In short, Percy could tell he wasn’t an organized person even without his memories. So seeing the clothes and shoes strewn on the floor and the unmade bed and the papers covering his desk… well, it didn’t feel strange or out of place. It almost felt like a big hug, inviting him in.
There was a moment when Percy glanced nervously back at Annabeth, a little worried about her reaction to the mess, but she looked very much unsurprised by this as she kicked a stress ball that rolled aimlessly on the floor—it must have fallen from the desk at some point.
“I knew you were a skater boy!” she exclaimed when her eyes landed on a skateboard that was leaning against the wall next to the bed. She grinned as she crossed the room and picked it up, looking at it from every angle possible, like it held secrets she didn’t know yet.
“What gave it away?” Percy asked as he wondered whether or not he would be able to skate without his memories. Was it like riding a bike or using a sword—a skill that would follow you through life and would only get rusty instead of completely forgotten—or was it more like… people’s names? Would he fall on his butt if he tried skating or would he be all right?
Annabeth lowered the skateboard and leaned it back against the wall before she turned her gray eyes on Percy, scanning him from head to toe as if trying to spot something specific. He tried not to squirm too much as tingles broke throughout his entire body at the attention and instead just raised an eyebrow at her.
In the end, Annabeth shrugged. “Maybe it’s just the clothes. Or this whole… vibe you’ve got.” She gestured at him, as if that explained everything. “You know, kind of scruffy.”
He glanced down at himself. He was wearing a new Camp Half-Blood T-shirt Chiron and Annabeth had given him and his pair of jeans that have seen a lot of fights while he was on the run from undying monsters.
His hair was always kind of messy, he knew, but it was mostly just because he couldn’t be bothered to brush it properly all the time. Especially when he didn’t have time to spare to stop and check his reflection in a nearby mirror since, you know, he had monsters chasing him, longing to slice him to Percy-bites. Plus, he ran his fingers through it a lot—not to mention the number of times he ended up bolting or jumping or taking a dive, disheveling his hair in the process.
“Me? Scruffy?” he said dryly. “Gee, you sure know how to give a guy a compliment.”
Annabeth offered him a grin that only looked mildly sheepish before she turned around again to look out the window. Of course, there wasn’t much to see out there except for the rusty fire escape, so she soon moved on to the desk, Percy following right behind her. It was better than standing there, trying to think about whether or not he looked like a stereotypical skater.
It didn’t take Percy long to figure out what drew Annabeth’s attention on the desk. It wasn’t the pile of essays left undone (he got the feeling young Percy never would work on those,) or the stack of comic books haphazardly thrown everywhere, but rather the pictures taped to the wall above the desk.
There was one of a satyr eating a tin can, clearly oblivious to the camera trained on him as his eyes gazed at a butterfly passing by. Next to it was the picture of slightly younger versions of Percy and Annabeth standing in front of the camera, grinning at it as they stood near the cabins at camp, their clothes dripping wet, for some reason. Still, they looked extremely happy as they beamed at the camera—or the person holding it.
Another picture was of Percy and his mom. He looked around seven in the picture, sticking his tongue out—it was blue—as his eyes crinkled with mirth. Next to him, ruffling his hair fondly, his mom grinned down at him with a loving look, wearing some kind of strange dress that looked like the American flag. She seemed to be content with simply watching her son’s joy.
The last picture was of Annabeth. She was younger in it, yet still very recognizable. Behind her was some kind of monument—the Lincoln Memorial, maybe—and it looked like Annabeth was very proud of it even though it wasn’t hers in any way. Still, you’d think she had a hand in building it with this proud gleam in her eyes as she stood with her arms crossed and stared straight into the camera, as if saying, look what I did!
“Gods, I can’t believe you kept that…” Annabeth muttered, her fingers brushing the old photo faintly. Then she withdrew her hand and looked at Percy with a fond smile. “My family and I went on a vacation to Washington, D.C on spring break, the year I decided to give them another chance again. I was thirteen. I e-mailed it to you, but I didn’t think you’d print it again.”
“Again?”
“I’ve been stalking you once, following you to school,” she said casually, like it was something every person did at least once in their life and not, you know, slightly psychotic. It was a testimony to how much he loved this girl that he didn’t comment on it. “And then you opened your textbook and this picture was inside. This bully at your school ruined it, though.”
Percy’s face burned at the thought of Annabeth seeing younger him carrying around a photo of her to school of all places. When they were thirteen? Was he that desperately in love with her that he took with him a photo of her to a place where everyone might stumble upon it? Gods, this was so embarrassing… and it sounded even more awkward when the one telling him about it was Annabeth who’d stalked him.
His life was seriously messed up—the amnesia was just another blow dealt to him. At this point, he figured time travel and memory loss were two very mundane things that could randomly happen because, well, why the heck not, right?
“Hey,” Annabeth said. She turned away from the picture and instead looked straight at Percy, her gray eyes intense. “You’ll remember everything soon. I’m sure you will,” she told him.
He smiled back. “I hope so.”
“And in the meantime, you can make sure nothing attacks camp until we get back. You can just IM us if anything changes.”
“I will. Though I’m sure Chiron will be on it, too. Just… focus on the quest. Find Tyson and Grover.”
Which he only knew of thanks to all the explanations he’s gotten so far. Grover was a satyr, he knew, and Percy’s best friend. It had to be the satyr in the picture on the wall, then. And Tyson was his half-brother, a Cyclops. He didn’t even have a hard time digesting that—it made perfect sense in his head.
“The one time you enter my room,” a voice said from the door and they both turned to see a flustered young Percy standing there, looking around at the mess with a self-conscious grimace before focusing on Annabeth, “and I’m not even in it.”
Annabeth gestured toward Percy—the older one. “Technically, you are.”
Young Percy rolled his eyes. “Mom said she’d give us some food to go, but we should probably leave soon, right?” he said, glancing around the room once more before looking at Percy. “Are you coming with or staying here?”
“Staying. I think going through this quest once is enough,” Percy answered immediately. Then he gestured around him. “Besides, I have a lot of things that can trigger my memories here. I should probably take a look around and try and see if I remember anything else.”
For a moment the thought of leaving Percy alone in the room seemed to bother young Percy a little, until his brain must have reminded him that they were the same person, so there was nothing embarrassing in this room that he should feel compelled to hide. Though it did make Percy wonder what the heck was hiding around this room that his younger self didn’t want anyone to see.
“Come on, Seaweed, Brain,” Annabeth said as she moved away from the table and took young Percy’s hand. “Let’s go finish this quest.”
He tore his eyes away from Percy and smiled at her. “Right.” Then he threw one more look toward Percy, a strange glint in his eyes, though Percy was pretty sure it was some kind of hope. “Good luck.”
Percy smiled. “You, too.”
And then they were gone. Percy heard the two of them exchanging a few more words with Sally before the front door clicked shut and suddenly his skin tingled at the realization that he was left alone in the apartment with his mom… and he wouldn’t have even known her name had he not asked young Percy about her the night before.
He was certain he’s had plenty of awkward moments in his forgotten past (young Percy’s mention of turning into a Guinea pig came to mind,) but this had to be somewhere at the top of the list. And he was sure there was, in fact, a list.
His insides flipped as he hesitantly made his way out of the bedroom and back to the living room. Sally—his mom—was kneeling before a cupboard, looking for something inside as she pulled out old books, piling them up next to her. Her hair was spilling over her shoulders and she wore comfortable clothes that somehow made her look younger than she must have been.
At the sound of his footsteps approaching, she peeked at him over her shoulder and smiled like this was completely normal. “Hi, honey,” she said and then turned back to the cupboard. “I’m just looking for the photo album…”
“Photo album?”
He stepped closer to her and then bent down next to her, his eyes scanning the books now resting next to his mom. He was wrong—they weren’t exactly books, but old albums, probably full of pictures. He hesitantly picked one up and opened it on a random page.
The first picture his eyes fell upon was of his mom. She was clearly a lot younger—in her early twenties, maybe. Her hair was tied back with a bandana and she was wearing a sundress and a pair of sunglasses as the sea sparkled behind her. The beaming smile she had across her face wasn’t aimed at the camera, but at the person behind it, taking the picture.
In the next photo, Percy realized who said person was. It was a picture of two people—his mom… and the guy from his dream, Poseidon. The god fit the image so perfectly—Sally Jackson, the sea and him just chilling out together, happily grinning at a camera, looking young and energetic and happy. So that had to be from their time together, before Percy… came to be.
Gods, that was something Percy didn’t really want to think about right now.
“Found it!” his mom called triumphantly and then walked over to the couch, gesturing for Percy to follow her there as she got comfortable. “You said you were trying to restore your memories? Well, pictures might be a big help, right?”
He smiled at her, some of his earlier nerves flitting away at the care and kindness aimed toward him. She was an angel. He was pretty sure of it. If there was anyone in the world who deserved to be called that, it was his mom. And it was only partially because she also brought to the living room with her the plate of blue cookies for him to munch on in the meantime.
They went through the photo album together, sitting side by side. The longer they sat there and the more stories Percy heard, the more comfortable he felt around his mom. He didn’t remember her or any of the stories she recounted, but it felt nice to listen to her voice as she spoke about things with such fondness, it was impossible to imagine a sad or lonely or unloved childhood. Because she cared. He could feel it in every fiber of his being, that she loved about him more than anything else in the world.
“What’s the deal with the blue food?” Percy asked after seeing a picture of his fourteenth birthday celebration with his mom standing proudly behind him, beaming at the camera along with Percy whose eyes seemed to dance from the light of the candles spread on top of a blue chocolate cake. “I mean, I know that I love it, but I’m not sure why.”
She smiled and tucked her legs underneath her. “You were much younger at the time. I was still married to Gabe,” she started and Percy mentally reminded himself that Gabe was the name of his mom’s first husband—the petrified one. “He and I got into an argument and he claimed food couldn’t be blue. I disagreed and to prove my point, I started making everything I could blue.”
Percy smirked. “This sounds awesome,” he said.
His mom chuckled. “Yeah, you always thought so. I think you were just glad to see I could stand my ground against him from time to time. Now you just tend to eat blue food if you have a choice.” She looked down at the picture from the birthday. “I remember this day. It was after you came back from a quest to get the golden fleece to cure the pine tree at camp. You told me a girl came back to life and that you couldn’t stand her.”
“I’m guessing that was Thalia.”
“It was. I met her once—she reminded me of you, actually.”
Percy shrugged. The words tingled in his brain, like a sense of déjà vu. Or a memory begging to be released so that Percy would be able to tell why these words were so familiar to him. Like he’s heard before that he and Thalia were a lot alike. It made sense to him, in a way. Like a part of him already knew it to be true even though he didn’t actually remember said girl.
He hummed questioningly when he felt the weight of his mom’s eyes on him, considering him like she was trying to understand something. “Annabeth and you,” she said gently, like she thought he might get too flustered and run away. “In the future, do you think you’re…?”
“We’re dating,” Percy confirmed easily. He could feel the heat in his cheeks, but he didn’t care. Saying these words made him feel that much better, knowing they were true, that they were important enough to follow him even though he barely even remembered himself. “I remember that much.”
His mom’s smile brightened. “I’m so happy for you, honey.” She brushed his hair back lightly and Percy’s brain whispered: familiar, familiar, familiar. “I can’t say I’m surprised, though. It was kind of obvious.”
Percy laughed. “Yeah, looking at our interactions from the outside kind of makes it clear,” he said, a smidgen of embarrassment surging through him, but he just ignored it the best he could. He started fidgeting with his shirt then. “I hope she’s okay. Annabeth from my time, I mean. And you. And Grover. And everyone else I know…”
“I’m sure we are,” his mom said.
“What if you think I’m dead? I mean, it’s been months. I’m not even sure how long exactly, but it was way longer than two weeks. This absence is nothing compared to what’s happening in the future. And I was all the way in California—not sure why. I mean… it’s not like I’m going to accidentally run into anyone I know over there.”
“It’s going to be okay, Percy,” she promised. “You don’t remember it, but when Annabeth was taken last winter, you called me and you were so lost and confused and you didn’t know what to do, but you were determined to find her. I know you would have looked for her everywhere, for however long it took. And I’m sure she would do the same.”
A smile crossed his face and Percy looked at his mom gratefully, his heart warming a little at hearing these words—especially after the skeptic ones young Percy had told him the night before.
“You’re right. Thanks, Mom.”
