Witness Protection for Demigods

The couch was itchy. Percy shifted his weight, trying to get comfortable while simultaneously keeping his arms off of the fabric. He glanced up and caught the eyes of the angry looking girl and the Filipino boy, they narrowed their eyes. He coughed and looked back down. His new “aunt” nervously started passing out water. 

“Look, I know this isn’t easy but Percy here deserves to live a normal life”

The angry girl crossed her arms, “He doesn’t need to live Peter’s life”. 

May shook her head. “It’s the only option we could find Michelle”. 

The girl narrowed her eyes, “Yeah? What about witness protection? Moving to China? Plastic Surgery? He doesn’t just get to steal Peter’s life!”

Percy felt nauseous, he hated this. But there were no other options. The world had changed when he wasn’t looking, magical abilities weren’t so foreign anymore and the mist had failed him. Now, some agency called “Shield” was after him. He didn’t want to hide away at either camp for the rest of his life. Peter zoned back into the conversation, the boy was talking now, Ted or Ned or something.

“Peter… he was selfless” He spoke, “If his identity could be used to help someone else… I think… I think that would make him happy”.

“You can’t be serious…”

“What does it matter Michelle, he’s dead!”

She didn’t respond, just furiously stared at her cup of water. “Look” he said, “I know this is asking a lot of you, I know how hard it is to lose a friend, believe me” that got their attention. “I hate this too, I hate that this is my only option, but please. I just want to live a normal life, without my father messing it up”. He sent a silent apology to Poseiden but honestly it wasn’t a lie. May had told Ned and MJ that Shield was looking for him because of his connection to his criminal father. She had told them Percy was on the run not just from Shield but from his father too, and his father’s enemies. He had been painted as some poor gangsters kid who just wanted to live a normal life. Honestly, it didn’t feel too off.

“So what?” Michelle asked, “You just knocked on May’s door and asked for her dead nephew's name? You expect us to believe that?”

It was May’s turn now, “I already told you Michelle, this wasn’t a last minute decision. We knew something awful might happen one day, and so we prepared. It’s just… we never expected for Percy to actually become Peter…” That part was true. Earlier, May had told Ned and Michelle that Peter was also related to Percy’s “gangster” family and that they had safety plans in place. They were made as soon as the two women noticed the rise of magical powers and the failing mist. The original plans were for Percy or Peter to become a sibling or cousin. In a way, the truth wasn’t too far off.

Peter Parker had been a demigod.

Not that he ever lived long enough to find that out. But his aunt had known.

Chiron had introduced his mom to May Parker when Percy was missing as a sort of support system. This was shortly after Peter had died and both women were reeling, they had helped each other stay above water and deal with day to day life. Now they were practically sisters. From the stories May told of her nephew Percy really wishes he could have met him.

Peter had been the son of Palikoi apparently. A minor god of hot springs and geysers, son of Hephaestus. Before he died, Peter had never run into a single monster which was insane for a demigod of thirteen years. May had apparently thought Peter would be able to live a normal life. That was until he was found in central park, dead due to some sort of toxic substance. The bribed underground coroner (because they weren’t giving that sort of poison to the government) ruled it as a suicide, spurred by his uncles death just six months before. Only Percy and May knew the poison was from a gorgon. But Michelle and Ned? They were only mortals and so they got to wake up every day and believe that their best friend took his own life.

It really was awful.

Percy was still nauseous.

It was a miracle the carpet hadn’t caught on fire yet with the hole Michelle was trying to glare into it. “So you want us to keep this a secret” May nodded, “And school?”

It was Percy’s turn to speak now, “I’ll be going to Midtown for at least two months to avoid any sort of suspicion, after that you’ll never have to see me again”

“Looking forward” Michelle deadpanned.

“But we have to pretend to be friends during those two months?” Ned asked. 

Percy shook his head, “You can pretend we’ve become estranged, that my… mental health caused a split in our… friendship…” Ned’s shoulders shook with a barely contained sob, Michelle’s knuckles were white. Percy felt extremely vulnerable, “I… I’m so sorry, I don’t know what to do. If I stay at home, I’ll be taken away or put my family in danger, if I try to run I’ll probably be found eventually cause they’ll be expecting that. I just want to live a normal life for once. I want to go to school again…” He thought of Annabeth and the last time he saw her, dying in his arms. She hadn’t been able to see the end of the war but she had still been smiling. “In another world we’re just university students Seaweed brain, we have dumb problems like real teenagers and we go to football games or the mall” She had coughed then and blood had spurted out of her mouth and other places… “Doesn’t that sound nice Percy? I think that’s where I’ll go next”. While a hero, Annabeth had chosen reincarnation, she hadn’t wanted to spend her afterlife haunted by gruesome memories and Percy didn’t blame her. He just missed her, that was all. And now, he wanted a taste of that life she dreamed up for them. Those words were the only reason he felt okay enough to do this. That and May had explained that Peter truly would have felt good about it.

Ned finally looked up, “I don’t like this. I don’t want to do this. But I trust May, and I trusted Peter. I won’t say a word Percy. Just stay out of our lives”.

ouch

Michele grabbed Ned’s hand. “You will never be Peter.”

May released a small smile and Percy guessed that was as good as they were going to get. Michelle and Ned would not help him in any way, but they wouldn’t hinder him. And in two months, he would be gone.

Percy left the room to let the rest of them crunch out the details, he felt they would be more comfortable with him gone. After he heard a door close he walked back into the living room across from May who was gathering a few pieces of paper.

“So that was…” May sent a smile his way as he plopped himself back down.

“It went better than I expected, Ned was Peter’s best friend since kindergarten and MJ… well I think she wanted to be more than friends” May looked sadly down at one of the pieces of paper, Percy felt a pang in his heart. MJ would never get the chance to see where her feelings could have taken her. He could sympathize with that. May put the papers down, now in a stack and rested her head in her hands. They sat there for a few minutes, May just thinking and Percy letting her feel. “I’m so glad that I’m able to do this for you Percy, It's just. I also kind of hate you”. Percy ignored the twist in his stomach and let her talk, “You being here, the only reason you are here now is because Peter is dead. You survived countless monsters. Peter fell to the first one”.

“I’ve been incredibly lucky”

She shook her head, “Don’t lie to me Percy, I should have told him about all this sooner, maybe then…”

He shook his head, “It doesn’t work like that May, if you told him sooner the monsters would have just come sooner. There’s no point in debating what ifs. You did everything right, letting him live a normal life for as long as he could. Thirteen years is pretty good when it comes to demigods. I’ve seen a lot younger, and a lot more experienced die”.

She gripped her hair tighter, “you’re right” she sat up, “you know your mom told me the same thing?” May stood up and handed Percy the stack of papers, “Ned and MJ wrote down anything they thought it would be important to know”. Before she left the room she turned around one last time, “Oh, you should probably start calling me Aunt May”.

Peter’s room was exactly the way he had left it that day he died. May told him she just couldn’t change it, Percy offered to sleep on the couch. May had just shook her head and stated that it was time to let go and she hoped Percy would personalize the room however he wanted. So that’s what he was doing now. May had left the apartment as soon as he had started, she said it was to get groceries but Percy could tell it was grief. 

Currently, he was going through all of Peter’s things and putting them carefully into boxes to store in the closet. It felt so violating to be going through Peter’s things. The objects used by a dead boy he had never met, it felt too personal for him to be doing this but he was learning a lot. Besides, May confessed that she never had the willpower to step foot into her nephew's room. It wasn’t hard to tell that Peter had been a massive geek and an Annabeth level genius. That one had hurt. He owned more science pun t-shirts than any other type of clothing, including individual socks. He had notebooks filled with chemical formulas and sketches of some high-quality looking tech that Percy couldn’t ever dream of figuring out. There were clothes shoved under his bed like he had tried to clean up the room in a rush, his bed was unmade, and a history essay was half-completed on his desk. It felt like Percy was getting a glimpse at a frozen moment of time. Peter was so normal. He had been a regular teenage boy who worried about his appearance if various bottles of hairspray told him anything. He had gone to school, met up with friends, and gotten into a few fights (Percy had found some wads of toilet paper covered in blood and a spotted shirt that seems to be stained from a nose bleed). He was living a life.

But Peter was dead.

When Percy was done everything in the room had been stripped bare, all that remained was a worn desk, a metal-frame bunk-bed, and a pillow. Percy could do without blankets for a while. He moved all the boxes into the closet and was just barely able to shut the door. Guess he wouldn’t be using that. After that he went into the laundry closet in the kitchen and grabbed some sheets May had set aside earlier plus a ratty blanket he found in a hallway closet. He moved back into his bedroom with the new supplies and started setting up his bed. However, as he lifted up the mattress to tuck the sheet underneath he found a small notebook, it was black with a red and blue mask design painted onto the front. Peter set the mattress back down and opened it up. Inside were sketches of some sort of tight suit meant for a superhero. There were all sorts of angles and a few pages designated to even more chemical formulas along with what he thinks is an equation for the strength of something. He recognized it from Annabeth’s old bridge projects. He chuckled as he flipped through the pages. Peter and Annabeth really would have gotten along. He closed the notebook and put it in a desk drawer; he didn’t need to invade Peter’s privacy any more than he already had.

When Percy went to bed that night he had another dream similar to the one that started this whole mess. He was in a large room although he could only see the objects closest to him; a small table, a desk, a bunch of computer screens, and a large black man with an eyepatch that sat behind the desk. After that it just all faded into black. The man behind the desk looked very official in Percy’s totally biased opinion, even had the collar of his long black trench coat sticking up instead of tucking it down. That’s how you knew they meant business. That and the fact the plaque on his desk read “director” (it was in big block letters, a dyslexics worst enemy but somehow he still knew what it said). Next to it was the emblem of a shield. The man was talking to someone else in the room outside of Percy’s vision, based on the voice alone he would guess female.

“And there’s been no sightings since?” The official man asked, sorting through a stack of papers. Percy winced in sympathy, the stack was about two drachmas high if you stacked them lengthwise.

“None sir” the female voice replied.

“What did you find with the family?”

“A mother, a stepfather, and a newborn, all cleared. The mother may know where he is but she isn’t talking. She claims he disappeared months ago and there is a report but cameras in the area indicate Perseus was living at home for at least two months before the sighting. We bugged the place. Would you like us to bring the mother in?” Percy could feel his rage bubbling to the surface, if they laid a finger on his mother he…

The man interrupted his thoughts, “That won’t be necessary, if she’s not talking now she won’t talk later. Send some agents to tail her, I want to know where she is every second of the day, who she talks to, where she eats, what she eats…” he paused, “you said she was an author?”

“Yes sir”

“Everything she writes then too, add some cameras around all surfaces she writes on”. The woman replied in confirmation. “Has any other sightings been noted, anything at all that could relate?” the man asked, this time pulling about a single piece of paper from the stack and setting it on the top of the pile. Percy could just make out his smiling face in the top right corner with some bolded red text stamped across.

“No sir, the incident at the lake was the last one”

“Then send out a notice to all active agents, keep your eyes and ears open for anything pertaining to a black-haired teen with a sword and possible hydrokinesis”

“Yes sir, is that all”

The man nodded and the woman's footsteps gradually got quieter. Percy watched as the man pulled out a file and opened it on the desk. The first picture was a blurry photo of Percy as he battled an unusual harpy-esque monster next to the lake near his mom’s apartment; he'd gotten careless…

“Where are you Perseus Jackson…” the man muttered as Percy woke up.