Chapter Text
Finnick walked alone along the shore, fiddling with a piece of rope in his hands, a fire burned in his chest where his heart layed, and a tornado of thoughts swirled in his mind.
He had heard whispers from fishermen, whispers of a god…
They spoke of a man who had cast rain and wielded water, he had used the power of the rain to blast away the peacekeepers, a man who had saved a girl on the brink of death, healing her wounds and saving them all.
Finnick knew the mouths of the fishermen often changed the story along the way into something far from the original event, but something like this? Fishermen don’t get awed often. They’ve seen it all in the sea; so a story as crazy as this must at least have some credibility.
As he walked closer and closer towards the sea, he felt something vibrate in the ground. It felt like a hum of something ancient, something powerful.
Finnick paused and tried to feel where it was coming from,
It was from the Sea.
Maybe this was the god they were talking about? He knew he had to check it out for himself so, taking a deep breath, he plunged into the sea.
Something grabbed him from the yoke of his shirt, dragging him backwards through the water for what felt like forever, the ocean streaming past in a dizzy, endless rush
The figure moved so fast it should’ve been classified inhuman, and impossible for a normal person. He stopped holding his breath long ago, he didn’t know how he hadn't drowned yet.
Around him he realised they were getting pulled into a secluded area of the sea, a place nobody would even be able to find his carcass.
Finally the person, god?, stopped and jerked him around to face them; the words he wanted to say suddenly got caught in his throat, choking him, his jaw dropped and eyes widened.
Standing in front of him was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, her silky black hair, which resembled the inky abyss of the sky at night, or like the deepest parts of the ocean, cascaded down her elegant shoulders, dainty but she held power in her stance; her eyes were the sea, he could see the shimmer of a fish’s scale, the violent winds in a typhoon, even the gentle current on an early morning’s day mixed into them. She looked down at him with interest.
She reminded him of somebody he couldn’t recall. She was definitely a god born of the sea, he concluded.
His guts screamed at him to run, to swim somewhere very far away, but his brain kept him rooted, knowing she could catch up to him as easily as he could breath.
The silence engulfed him, he wanted to do something big to impress her, to do anything so she’d look at him with kind eyes. He mentally scolded himself, this must be her effect on people, his hand twitched towards the pocket where his dagger was held, even though he fought with a trident, a dagger was more portable and easier to bring around with him, he never left the house without one.
“So your Percy’s new lover?” she spoke at last, an edge of disdain on her tone.
Faster than a blink Finnick had his dagger unsheathed and pointed towards her neck.
Anger flickered in her gaze for a single, scary second. A laugh rose from her throat, “you’re going to kill me? How sweet!” she giggled, then waved her hand and his knife burst into a golden shimmer and it was gone.
Shock evident in his gaze he looked down where the dagger had been just a second ago, then back to the woman, she was not to be messed with.
“How did you do that, and how do you know Perseus?” He glared at her,
How did she know Perseus? Why did she call him Percy, are they close? And what does she mean “new lover”. Endless thoughts rang around his head like bullets.
“That is not a concern of yours mortal,” Her tone dripped in disgust at the last part, like his life had personally insulted hers “Tell me, do you know what Percy's life was like before he appeared here?”
Finnick did not, how could he? Even Perseus himself didn’t know, before he could say anything she seemed to know his answer already.
“You don’t, do you?” she seemed to mock him.
“No, what are you doing? Why are you trying to mess with Perseus?” His voice angered at the last part, rage and fear corrupted his body, Perseus had already been through enough, he didn’t need this lady to try and mess with his life further.
She leaned in, he could smell the faint whiff of an ocean’s breeze on her, she reminded him of Perseus.
A grin split her face, something so vicious and ugly that shouldn’t have belonged on such a pretty face, suddenly he realised just how powerful this lady was, she could kill him with just a snap of her fingers, make him disappear like his blade.
She was so close he could feel the twitch of her eye in the ripples of the water.
“I promise all my favourites an interesting love life.” She grinned.
Finnick’s survival instincts kicked in and he surged forwards, hoping to catch her off guard and tackle her to escape.
He couldn’t move,
This wasn’t because of fear or anything silly like that.
Every atom in his body froze, panic jolted through his body in harsh beats, mimicking his heart.
Then suddenly his vision faded and he saw black.
—
Aphrodite hated Perseus Jackson’s relationship with that Annie Bell girl. She was much too disrespectful towards the goddess of love, and no matter how hard Aphrodite tried to pair Percy with another girl, he still stayed with her.
That's why when she found out that he would have a different lover in the future she immediately jumped at the opportunity, using her vision to look into who it was.
A mortal, not a demigod, not even a legacy, a mortal, a man of the name Finnick Odair but the most interesting thing is that he wasn’t from the 21th century, he was from around 3000 years in the future.
Silently, she smirked to herself, a plan forming in her head.
—
When Finnick woke up he didn’t see his bedroom, nor the ocean he had been in before, he was lying on the shore of a beach, numerous cabins surrounded him.
He rushed to sit up, pain ringing in his head and confusion written across his face.
The woman from before appeared in front of him, he didn’t know how and didn’t care to ask, he stood up with sudden fury and grabbed her throat tightly.
“What
did
you
do
?”
She laughed at Finnick and then pushed him down to the ground with ease.
He felt as if she had grabbed his heart and ripped it out his body, like she had tied his guts into a noose and hung him from it in shame, he felt rage, strong enough to smash down all these cabins and kill the families inside, maybe that would get her to stop laughing. But he also felt fear, fear knowing this woman could torture him or worse, Perseus.
“Stand.” She ordered, he obliged. “Come on a walk with me.” she offered, but it seemed more like a demand.
Listening about the world of gods and mythology was… surprising to say the least, having your whole world flipped around in a matter of 3 seconds wasn’t easy but something like this? Yea, he could see how it did that. One thing that really irked him that, if there were gods why didn’t they at least care? Help out with their super awesome powers, or whatever. He despised them for that, and it was surely clear on his face alone.
She had also made him appear younger, he looked like he was 14; she wouldn’t give a clear answer to why, he felt sick – fourteen was the age when everything in his life went downhill, when he was reaped into the hunger games.
“So in our time we don’t have a lot of heroes around like Heracles or Achilles, but we do have one similar hero!” She exclaimed in her overly high-pitched girl tone, her accent was so similar to the capital’s that he wouldn’t be surprised if she was capital, except for the fact her voice felt softer, and more giggly like a teenage girl expressing her favourite romance show, not a goddess explaining the very facts that could bring the world into an apocalypse – heck, maybe him and Perseus were her favourite romance drama.
She looked at him like she expected him to know already,
“Who is it?” he asked tiredly, can’t she just get this over with already, it's not like he’ll know the guy.
“You really don’t know?” She said, flicking her long lashes at him with every slow blink.
It hit him like a ton of bricks, puzzle pieces in his mind left untouched, forgotten, started to form together, he did know, he just dreaded the answer. He had hoped that it wouldn’t be him, that it can’t be – but now he knew who the god the fishermen were talking about, no, not Aphrodite.
“Perseus” he whispered, eyes wide, mouth agape.
All she did was smile.
On their walk they had left the beach, and now were surrounded by dark trees that seemed to have faces that mocked him, and rabbits that hurriedly scurried away in long, white streaks. A sense of uneasiness passed him, he turned to Aphrodite, to tell her that maybe they should head somewhere else; these forests didn’t seem scary to him in a childish way, no he was a victor. But it felt ancient, magical almost, just like Aphrodite when he first saw her in the sea.
He turned his neck and Aphrodite was gone.
A heard a leaf crumple, usually he would ignore something like that, but the woods had gone unnaturally silent, even the trees looked to be afraid.
His hand flicked towards his pocket, dread filled him and the colour drained from his face when he realised it was gone, Aphrodite took it; he still felt her presence in the air, like she was watching over him, was this a test? If it was, he would do his best to show her just how much fight he has in him.
He turned around to where the noise came from, already in a defensive stance, he’d have to rely on his fists. His eyes searching for where the noise came from, he saw a twitch of a leg.
Teeth grappled onto the back of his neck, and he could practically hear the blood squirt out of it. A low canine growl sounded from behind him, He whipped his head around to face whatever attacked him, a pack of large, sharp-toothed dogs stared back and him, one kicked his hind leg, preparing to charge, his reflexes caught him last second and he jumped out of its way with a yelp. Landing back on the ground he ducked from a swipe from another dog that surely would’ve taken his head out and punched it in the jaw, a horrible snarl came out of it and another dog howled at him then pounced, it was all too much, even one dog was a challenge for him.
But four? No he couldn’t, no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t even battle one without his weapon, he let out a scream and charged at one, preparing to wrestle it. But instead it sunk its teeth into his calf and forced him to the ground. Fear spiked in his chest and pierced his lungs, he felt as if he couldn’t breath, this might have been his last moment, he closed his eyes, hoping it would ease the pain; the pain of death.
A figure from afar shouted, and ran his sword through the dog holding Finnick down, it burst into gold dust which swept into his skin. His saviour slashed another dog and feigned defeat to catch it off guard, Finnick recognised these techniques, it was just like Perseus’ slower and sloppier of course, Perseus was a god, a demigod now he reminded himself, still nobody could match him, but still the same fighting style. Finnick blinked and suddenly all the mutts were gone, gold dust covered the ground. The boy stuck out his hand towards Finnick and his eyes,
His eyes were just like Perseus’.
Finnick grabbed the hand and pulled himself up from the floor.
“Thank you so much, I, thank the president, I thought I was going to die.” Finnick rushed out in a hurry, so much unlike his usual self.
The boy guffawed, “Thank the president?” he laughed, too happy for somebody who just fought off four killer dogs.
“What were those things?” Finnick asked, the closest thing he knew like those were mutts, but the capital didn’t exist back then this was America, the word felt foreign on his tongue.
“Those were just some hellhounds, no biggie.” The boy casually shrugged them off as if they didn’t just try to kill Finnick, “im Percy Jackson, and you are? I'm guessing you're a demigod based on how you can actually see the monsters, unless you're a mortal with clear sight.” He rambled on, then looked at him expectantly, a silent gesture for Finnick to introduce himself, but he didn’t, he stared.
“Perseus?” He questioned, his voice breathless and ringing with hope.
He looked like Perseus but less mature, more of a boy-ish charm, he guessed Percy was around 16. He also looked more lively and happy, Finnick had only seen Percy with this sort of expression a couple times - usually when they were alone together - Mostly Percy’s face was either a scowl or a look of deep thinking – longing almost.
Percy made a face “Uhh yup, that's me, good guess but please, call me Percy, only monsters, like the ones we saw earlier call me Perseus.” Then he laughed “Or my mom when she's really mad at me.”
But Finnick thought that only close friends could call him Percy, even Finnick himself didn’t call Perseus, Percy.
Finnick was about to open his mouth, explain the whole situation when a familiar voice spoke in his head, it was low and soft
Don’t reveal your true identity, let him believe you're a normal demigod, who knows nothing about the mythological world.
“Im Finnick Odair.”
“Well Finnick, let me bring you to camp.”
“Camp?” he questioned in a puzzled tone. Aphrodite hadn’t mentioned a camp to him.
“Camp Half-blood, it's a safe haven for demigods like us.” Percy answered
“You’ll learn how to fight and defend yourself from creatures like what you just fought, which by the way, you fought them pretty well, any normal person without training would’ve been killed, gods it even was a bit of a struggle for me,” he laughed, then turned his heel and set off in the direction he came from.
It did not look like a struggle for Percy.
Thinking back, he always knew there was something strange about Percy, some of the questions he asked were confusing.. Things that every district child knew he didn’t, things that nobody knew he did. His thoughts instantly flickered back to a moment in Percy’s games, “sashimi,” he had called the raw fish, that certainly wasn’t a word known in Panem, it felt foreign, hard to pronounce; when he said it the mentors looked at him, thinking it was a district 4 delicacy, only he and mags knew it was deeper than that. That's when his suspicions of Percy started coming through, not to mention his inhuman fighting skills, catching an arrow out the air, outrunning a bear and wrestling a boar, was something nobody should be able to do.
Now he knows how Percy could do that, godly genes.
When he snapped out of his deep thoughts he looked up to see numerous cabins that were spanning in a U shape in the middle of the semi circle was a giant campfire with stools placed around it, there was a river running through the camp which connected into a large lake.
He noticed a large wooden building in the distance and a massive arena, like the ones they have in the capitol.
This place was strange.. he had heard stories of America but they said it was a land of war and violence, and whilst he knew that wasn’t entirely true, he expected it to be less developed than even district 12, this camp alone was something that belonged in district 2 at the least.
Perseus, Percy he corrected himself, was telling him the works of his world, he was using his hands a lot to talk and kept getting side-tracked. It was kind of cute to be honest, he smiled to himself, wondering what happened to make Percy change.
“So most likely you don't have a mom or dad, or at least one of them is step-parent, because like, gods aren’t allowed to stay and parent their children.” Perseus explained, now Finnick realised how strange his accent was, not like the capitol but definitely not like any of the districts, it must’ve been a unique accent.
“Who's yours?” Finnick questioned casually, hoping to know better about what Percy’s backstory was like.
“My father is Poiseidon, you should get claimed around tomorrow but I can help you narrow it down at least,” Percy turned his head away from the lake where he had been looking, “Which one of your parents are missing?” Percy asked him.
He hesitated, which god will claim him? He wasn't even a demigod!? He prepared to make up a lie and say it was his father when he heard her voice again.
Tell him it's your mother, I will claim you tomorrow at the campfire.
“Uh, my mother”
“Oh I thought you would’ve been a child of Apollo, you look like his kids, blonde hair, blue eyes” Percy looked at him thoughtfully and Finnick blushed under his gaze (hey! he had less control over his 14 year old body).
“Oh,” Finnick said uselessly.
“Well, it's either Aphrodite, Demeter or Athena,” He paused and furrowed his brows, “Maybe Hecate, but that's unlikely, we don’t have a lot of children of a Hecate,” Percy added.
“So where will I stay now?” Finnick asked, Percy had said before that you sleep in the cabins of your divine parents, but if Aphrodite was going to claim him tomorrow night, then what, he’ll sleep in the forest?
“Oh, you’ll be in the Hermes cabin, it's not really that bad anymore.” Percy hummed, then looked up,
“We’re here now, come inside Chiron will explain everything.”
Meeting Chiron was, interesting, first off he's a half horse, half man which shocked Finnick and he had accidentally punched Chiron in his cheek, for a second he thought that Chiron would be furious, and force him out of camp, but all he did was laugh saying that Finnick had a strong punch.
It turned out that Percy had basically told him everything about the godly world and he didn't have to watch the introduction film.
“Percy, go give young Finnick a tour around the camp, will you?” Chiron asked, honestly Finnick really wanted to talk more to Percy, learn about what he used to be like.
They headed out the door and Percy showed him around various places in the camp.
“So these are the cabins, that big, grey one is Zeus’ and next to is Hera’s, she doesn’t have any children and Zeus only has one: Thalia who's a hunter of Artemis, so she doesn’t stay here.”
“Percy! How could you forget? You have sword training for the Demeter and Dionysus cabin in five minutes,” A girl with blonde, curly hair called out from a distance, running up towards Percy. Percy leant in to kiss her briefly, affection displayed in his eyes.
The colour drained out of Finnick’s face, he didn’t know Percy had a girlfriend, was he only with Finnick because he missed having a lover by his side? The logical side of his brain doubted that very much.
His girlfriend, Annabeth moved towards Percy’s ear, he couldn’t hear her but over the years in the capitol he had learned how to read lips,
“Nico 2.0,” she giggled.
Who was Nico?
“Oh shoot, sorry Finnick I gotta go! Maybe Annabeth can finish your tour?” He looked at his girlfriend with pleading eyes.
“Okay” she agreed, Finnick didn’t think she really wanted to tour him.
“Cool okay thanks,” Percy rushed out before he turned to run off towards the training grounds, what does he mean cool?!
He looked at Annabeth and she turned her sharp, calculating gaze onto him,
“Uhm hi..?” He stuttered awkwardly, Percy’s girlfriend was scary.
“So how do you like camp so far? You’re liking the people?” She asked, it felt like the least intimidating thing she had said to him since they met.
“I mean, camp looks pretty nice, and I haven't really met anyone here yet except for Percy and Chiron, so I can't really say anything.” Finnick shrugged, trying to act as nonchalant as possible.
“Oh I see, how do you feel about them?” It seemed as if her questions were more like quizzes like there were underlying meanings to them he hadn’t yet worked out.
“Well, Chiron is okay, when I first saw him I accidentally punched him,” she didn’t laugh, like she thought it was normal to do that, you know what it probably is here in this weird place.
“Percy’s… He's really kind and funny and when I first came here these hellhounds attacked me and he saved me from them and I probably would’ve been dead if it weren’t for him.”
He realised his mistake too late, she probably thought he was a silly boy who had a crush on her boyfriend, heat rose to his cheeks, great now she thinks he's blushing, Aphrodite must’ve given him the wit and clumsiness of a 14yr old as well.
He saw a group of girls walk past and whisper to each other, they all had their hair and face done and looked exactly like the epitome of perfection.
Annabeth blinked at him, she looked like she was filing that information away for later. What information, that Finnick has a huge crush on Percy? He didn’t even have one, Perseus was his boyfriend, just in the future.
She whipped around and gestured for him to start walking,
“So this is the Poseidon cabin,” she continued on with the tour like nothing happened.
Finnick didn’t know what would happen when everyone finds out he's not really a demigod, and has no secret powers, even Aphrodite claiming him wouldn’t help when they finally realise he’s not one of them.
“So this is the Aphrodite cabin,” Finnick looked up at Annabeth, interested in what she had to say about it, “Children of Aphrodite are generally the weakest at camp,” she finished with, he suspected Annabeth thought he would be a child of Aphrodite, so why was she trying to insult Aphrodite's children?
“And this is the Hermes cabin, where you’ll be staying till you get claimed.” She finally finished her speech, and looked at him expectantly, was he supposed to do something?
“Well, go inside.”
“Oh right, " mumbled Finnick as he stepped inside, compared to all the other cabins, this one looked unimpressive.
He tried asking Annabeth why the Hermes cabin was open to unclaimed children and not the other empty cabins, like Hera’s or Artemis’ but she just cut him off.
“This is Finnick!” She called out to the other campers in the cabin, all of which seemed more interested in something else in the middle of the room, when Annabeth came in they all rushed to hide it and shoved it under a cabinet.
When he looked at her confused, she rolled her eyes “Children of Hermes, god of thieves and mischief, probably up to no good.”
Well this is going to be a long night.
“Undetermined or determined?” one of them asked,
“Undetermined,” She shouted, before turning away and leaving the cabin.
Finnick stood there awkwardly.
A guy around 18 stood up, “Hey, im Connor Stoll the Hermes’ cabin counsellor,” he spoke then motioned for Finnick to sit down, it was awkward because they were all sitting in a circle looking at him.
“You should get claimed pretty soon,” another boy piped up.
“Yea, but sometimes they get claimed in like up to a week,” somebody else joined in
“Compared to how long it took most of us to get claimed, that's still pretty good,” The guy who he knew to be Conner said.
“Wait, what do you mean it took you guys longer to get claimed?” Finnick asked hurriedly, hoping they wouldn’t ignore him this time.
“Oh, ever since Percy gave up immortality to wish for the gods to claim their children quicker, most people get claimed in like a day.” Conner explained.
Finnick couldn’t believe it, Percy supposedly gave up immortality to wish for the gods to claim their children quicker? But it did sound like something Percy would do, he's too selfless.
“He gave up immortality?!” Finnick exclaimed,
“Yea, even though it's super hard to get offered immortality, only one other hero did and that was heracles, who was crazy good at fighting.
Before Finnick could answer to that another person interrupted,
“Yeah, well Percy’s crazy good at fighting too! He was the one who killed Kronos, for Hades sake he deserved immortality.”
“Wait, who's Kronos?” Finnick felt dumb for not knowing any of this, usually he was pretty well-informed.
“So basically, our old Hermes counseller, Luke Castellan, went crazy and supported the titan king, Kronos who has been dead for like, ever since the gods were born.”
Finnick interrupted, “when were the gods born?” he expected it to be around maybe a 1000 years ago? “How do you not know? Obviously in Ancient Greece.” A scrawny boy in the corner said, judging him.
Well that still didn’t answer his question, but okay?
“So like Luke was really popular at camp and was good friends with Percy and Annabeth so for them it was kinda hard to fight him, and Percy played a big part in the war, like there was a whole prophecy about how he would either destroy or save Olympus when he turned sixteen,”
Finnick felt really bad for Percy, to have all that on your shoulders at 16 was even crazier than the hunger games, at least Finnick didn’t have to kill an all powerful being.
“Yea, I heard he fought basically all the Titans like, Iapetus, Hyperion, Atlas, Kronos, and more I forgot.”
“What?!” Finnick didn’t know just how powerful Percy really was, he was probably holding back as well in the games to appear mortal.
“Yea, and he's like the best swordsmen in a century, even better than Luke.”
“Didn’t he kill the minotaur when he first came to camp, without training?”
“Wait, who's the minotaur?” Finnick asked,
“Ughh come on you have to know that one, even mortals know him.”
“He’s a monster who's half man half bull.” explained Conner,
“So like Chiron?” Finnick asked, confused, that caused almost everyone to laugh, he didn’t even get what was funny about that.
“No, his head is a bull head and his body is a man,” Conner explained in between laughs,
“Oh,” Was all Finnick said, this stuff seemed crazy, half bulls, half horses?! And Percy.. He never mentioned any of this to Finnick, Finnick would’ve believed him if he did, comfort him as well, he knows that the capitol could be listening in, but if he was the Son of Poisedon and could breath underwater like they said couldn’t they just talk underwater?
It was all so confusing and frustrating.
“Finnick, look,” Conner said and Finnick's head snapped upwards, “We stole Clarisse’s electric spear.” He saw the object that they had previously hidden from Annabeth.
“What are you going to do with it?” he asked, the spear crackled with electricity, he’d never seen anything like it.
“Since tonight is capture the flag, we replaced her spear with a fake one,” Somebody added.
“Yea and the fake one is charmed to fly away and start attacking her, we asked Lou Ellen from the Hecate cabin to help.” Connor snickered.
A bell rung out in the camp
“Lunch time guys! Follow behind me in a line.” Connor shouted, and was met with a chorus of cheers.