Clockwork

1

"Happy birthday dad!" Percy heard his 10-year-old son scream when he walked into the kitchen. "Thanks, little man." He said to the little blonde boy. Annabeth walked into the kitchen and kissed her son on the cheek. "Happy birthday Seaweed Brain." She said to him.

She gave him a peck on the lips before she smiled. "I have to go, but don't forget that we and the rest of the seven are meeting up for the party." Percy groaned. "But I don't wanna party!" He whined. "Nope, don't give me that! You're getting this party." Annabeth said sternly. Way to sternly for the current situation.

"Annabeth!"

"Perseus Achilles Jackson!"

"Achilles isn't even my middle name!"

"Kenny, tell your dad that he has to go to the party," Annabeth said, looking over at her son who was in the act of sneaking a cookie. He slowly put the cookie back into the jar and intertwined his fingers. "Take your own advice dad. 'Listen to mom.'" Kenneth said in a loud whisper as he looked over at Annabeth. Hopefully, since he was on her side, she wouldn't scold him for the cookie.

She didn't.

"Exactly Percy. Now I'll see you then?" And without even waiting for an answer she was out of the house."

Percy grumbled and looked at his son, who laughed nervously before taking off, Percy right on his heels.

|A few hours later|

Percy leaned on the tree that he and the seven were supposed to meet. It was in the forest, not too far out, but far enough to be a good way from the camp. Percy had been waiting for 10 minutes before he started getting bored. At first, he thought he saw Jason but was disappointed when he found that it was actually Adrien, a son of Aphrodite. He was one of the youngest in the Aphrodite cabin, but his charmspeak proved to rival even Piper's.

"Hey, Adrien. What are you doing here?" Instead of answering, the blond son of Aphrodite looked at the son of Poseidon with hatred.

Percy felt a sharp pain at the back of his head and as black dots danced across his vision, he saw familiar gray eyes staring harshly into his own.

~

Percy's eyes opened and he stared into the darkness, unblinking. He sat up, hearing a loud creak when doing so. Moving his mechanical arm once more, he heard the unsatisfying sound of gears scraping together.

Percy reached over and touched the wall, his hands finding the light switch and flipping it. His eyes instinctively closed, not yet used to the light, and when they opened he was sure that the workshop was even messier than when he had gone to sleep.

He put a careful foot to the ground, standing on his single leg as he began to hop around the workshop, looking for the screwdriver to work on his arm. When his arm stopped making the noise, Percy hopped back to his bed, his leg getting tired and locking up on him.

It didn't take long for Percy to get bored, and so he got back up and hopped to the very back of the workshop, where the only window was. Tall big blue waves crashed into the side of Olympus. Percy didn't know how long he stood there, just watching the waves, but soon his patron opened the door a grim look on his face. In his hand was a newly engineered mechanical leg, nearly identical to the one he had now. Smooth and agile, except it was his right one.

"Good, you're awake," Hephaestus says gruffly. "Come, the Council wants to meet you." Percy sighed. He had wanted to hold off on the connecting his nerves to a large piece of metal but it looked like it had to happen as soon as possible.

For three hours, the god of fire connected the leg, making the son of Poseidon flinch every time he clipped the metal to the nerves.

When the god of fire was finished, he nodded to the armor on the wall. "Get dressed, and meet me at Olympus. 30 minutes before the Council meeting kid. Don't be late!" Hephaestus said, before bursting into flames, flame traveling away. Percy sighed. Yet another council meeting.

When Percy was killed, Hephaestus took pity on him and decided to fix him up. He was badly dismembered, and Hephaestus couldn't reattach his human limbs, so he attached celestial bronze limbs instead. Vital organs didn't survive Percy's death, Percy's heart, in particular, his brain keeping his body moving and a makeshift heart pumping in his chest.

Perseus Jackson had been dead for 10 years now, and he had been almost completely forgotten. His wife remarried, his son knew close to nothing about him, not many of the campers who knew about him even came to camp anymore. But Percy found that he didn't care. Hephaestus was his patron, and he was only known to the Olympians as 'Clockwork'.

Percy put on the armor that Hephaestus had custom made for him. The armor was thin but it looked bulky on the outside and seemed a lot heavier if picked up by others.

Sometimes, Hephaestus got Aphrodite to cover Percy in aesthetic skin to make him more human-like but stopped when it kept falling off during battle. So Percy looks full machine to anyone except for Hephaestus and Aphrodite.

He was ready, and he opened the door which was rarely used by Hephaestus himself and looked out at the roaring waves below him.

And he fell forward.

The sea rose and met him halfway, tunneling him to the entrance of Olympus. After the sea put him down, Percy soundlessly walked into the throne room. "...I didn't think she'd get pregnant!" Percy heard Zeus defend himself. No one noticed his entrance until he stood beside the throne of Hephaestus.

"Ah, Clockwork, glad to see you." Hestia greeted him warmly. Percy's head turned towards her and nodded respectfully, and he responded with a voice that used to be human, but all humanity had been drained from it, leaving it toneless and empty. "The feeling is mutual, Milady."

The other gods stopped bickering when they heard his voice and Zeus cleared his throat. "Now that everyone is present, let us call this meeting to order." He said.

Percy heard Hera scoff at her husband for changing the subject. "Now tell us, daughter, why have you called this meeting?" Zeus asked Artemis, ignoring his wife. "And more importantly, why have you requested the presence of my champion?" Hephaestus asked.

"Well, your creation may be of use to me and my hunters," Artemis says. "And how is that?" Zeus asks his daughter. "Father, I'd like the aid of Clockwork." "I won't-" Hephaestus started the same time Zeus responded with a, "Whatever you wish."

"You have no right!" Hephaestus protests. Percy stood there silently by his patron's side. "I have every right, for I am the ruler of the Universe, the King of the cosmos."

"I wasn't aware that you outranked even Lord Chaos, sky god. That piece of information was never uploaded into my database." Percy said, his words echoing off the walls of Olympus as the king of the gods fell silent. "It's evident you don't have respect in your database either," Zeus said. To him, Hephaestus' champion was nothing but a hunk of metal, one that could be put to good use as he seemed to follow every order of Hephaestus. Surely, as Hephaestus served him, this machine served him also.

"I don't respect those who disown their children," Percy said, referring to Thalia Grace. Zeus' face twisted in anger, and without warning a bolt of lightning struck from above, headed for both Percy and his patron.

Percy shielded Hephaestus and with electricity coursing through his body he turned to Artemis.

"My sincerest apologies milady. Please, elaborate on why you need my aid?" Percy asked, and neither Zeus nor Hephaestus spoke after that.

Hephaestus because while he didn't want Percy to help Artemis, he respected Percy's decision.

Zeus because the machine created by his wife's son just withstood one of his lightning bolts, and had also carried on like nothing happened.

DemonsFromAbove here! Hoped you liked the part and the description needs work so I'm open to suggestions.

So I'm just gonna go... Bye...