Latest Update:September 1, 2022
Summary: 23 year old Percy Jackson is thrown from his world into another universe, one that seems too similar to his own. What happens to him as he relives his own adventures, but beside himself. Or is it herself? Future character pairing, Mild language, AU & Time Travel, OP MC
Link: https://m.fanfiction.net/s/13760677/1/My-World-But-Not-Mine-Part-I
Word count:222k
Chapters:28
Chapter 1: Westover Hall
Percy POV:
"SHIIIIIIIIT!" I grimaced as I tumbled out of the trees, pushed through the air by an unseen force. I rolled and came up in a defending stance, Riptide raised and legs apart.
"What the heck attacked me?" I groaned, swiveling my head back and forth. I had been hunting a manticore in Maine, ironically, when all of a sudden, something behind me slammed into my back and sent me hurling into the trees. I had felt my body smashing into something that felt like glass, before that something gave way and dumped me into the snow.
I checked my back and sighed in relief to find that my travel pack was unharmed. I dug out a piece of ambrosia and bit off a chunk, letting the godly food heal the bruises and scratches on my arm and back. Once I had gotten healed enough, I stood up, sending out my senses using the snow molecules in the air to see if anyone was around me.
"Nothing." I muttered. "That's odd." I shrugged and continued north, deeper into the woods, following the magic monster tracker the Hecate kids back at camp had created. Lately, monster activity had been getting more devious, and since then, the stronger demigods had been sent out to track the more intelligent beasts to figure out exactly what was going on. I followed the compass, my sword still held aloft and ready for any oncoming attack. I continued to walk forward until I reached the edge of the forest. I looked ahead and stared confusedly.
"Wait a moment... this looks like Westover Hall." I frowned. "I thought I was heading the opposite direction from that place." I glanced down at the compass and scrunched my eyebrows together in further confusion. "The manticore is inside? What is this, Dr. Thorn wannabe?"
I shrugged and activated my cyber suit, an advanced set of celestial bronze and silver alloy armor that Tyson created alongside Leo that gave the user a variety of buffs, including silencing all movement sounds, becoming invisible to the naked eye, radar, and sonar, damage and magic resistant, the ability to fly via jetpack, and the unique ability to adapt to the individual's powers. Since my main source of power was water based, my suit had various additions that helped or supported my powers, such as allowing me to hold a self-made hurricane for longer without tiring. It also stored my various armaments, including hunting knives, shurikens, my bow and a proper sheath for Riptide. Before leaving for the missions, each demigod was trained by Chiron and Artemis in various hunting and fighting tactics to ensure that each individual was wholly capable of hunting by themselves.
I focused and changed my body composition into water vapor, a tough skill I had learned from my dad after a week's worth of extreme training. I phased through the walls of Westover Hall, searching for the manticore. My goggles scanned the school with infrared, until it landed on a human shaped figure at the door. The scanner however also picked up other entities, making me narrow my eyes. Though the scanner was mainly for monster tracking, it also could recognize other mythological beings, including demigods, nature spirits, and whatnot. And entering through those main doors were a group of 4 individuals, 3 of which I recognized.
"What the...?" I muttered. "The hell are they doing here?"
I whipped my head to the other side, and scanned two other individuals that he recognized, one of which was supposed to be dead. And that thought struck me with the force of one of Jason's thunder strikes.
"Dafuq? What the hell is going on?!" I vapor traveled into the danceroom and gasped, my eyes definitely not fooling me this time. My eyes widened. "What in the name of Zeus' underpants is happening?"
There, sitting on the exact same benches, were the twins, Nico and Bianca di Angelo, the children of Hades I had helped bring to Camp Half Blood alongside Thalia, Annabeth, Grover and the Hunters. And speaking of Grover and my friends, there they were, walking through the door with a girl with my jet black hair and sea-green eyes. If I didn't know better, I'd go as far as to say that that girl was my female doppelgänger
I shook my head. Nothing was making sense, not this situation, not what I was seeing, and definitely not the fact that the manticore I had been hunting suddenly showed up on my identification scanner with Dr. Thorn's name.
"Did he esc–?" I shook off my thoughts. If everyone was here and looking about ten years younger, Dr. Thorn wouldn't have been locked up in a maximum security cage in the underworld. Whatever this strange time traveling alternate universe was, Dr. Thorn was alive and well, and free roaming too.
I huffed. This changed my mission entirely, and brought many new questions. What was I doing here? What was going on? I watched the scene with slight nostalgia, every action and word that came out of my friends' mouths exactly the same or similar to my own experience in Westover hall. The only difference being that I was... a girl? I phased outside, towards the cliffs where the oncoming fight would take place. If this reality was anything like mine, this would be the place where the Hunters and demigods clash, which might give me some answers.
I deactivated my vapor form and reformed into a solid body, my cyber suit keeping me blended into the dark woods. Moments later, Dr. Thorn came storming out, dragging the di Angelo twins by their necks, along with my female clone. And just seconds after that, while my female clone was talking shit with the manticore, an invisible Annabeth slammed into her and the twins, bringing them down as Thalia and Grover charged into battle. To me, the whole scene was continuously surreal, watching my own fight scenes as a bystander this time, as if someone had videotaped my whole life and edited a girl into my position instead.
I figured that I shouldn't change the flow of time in this reality, in case I messed something up, making it really hard for me to ignore the freaking helicopter zooming towards the fighting demigods. But if I remembered correctly, the helicopter didn't do much anyways, and so I commanded the swirling snowflakes around the chopper to ice up the rotors, making the vehicle careen to the side as it slowly froze up from the outside. A little blood flow restriction knocked the mortals out inside, enough so that when they awoke, the mind control established on them by Atlas would be wiped. The demigods didn't seem to notice the chopper's malfunction, as they were wholly distracted by Dr. Thorn evolving into his true form. I continued to help a bit, controlling the snow on the ground and in the air subtly to help trap the manticore in one place, allowing Thalia to get multiple hits on the beast. However, this Thalia was nothing like the Thalia in my universe, and could hardly do any real damage to the manticore.
Just like in my battle in the past, Dr. Thorn was kicking the demigods' butts, his spiked tail and projectiles keeping Thalia at bay with ease and keeping Annabeth and my female clone from getting close. The familiar bronze flash of Riptide in my clone's hands reminded me just how far I myself had improved in terms of swordsmanship, and I wondered just how well the girl wielding the duplicate sword at the moment was at using said sword. I refocused onto the match and watched Thalia get smacked into the snow, before counting silently in my head. In the tenth second, a loud hunting horn sounded through the woods, right on time as I expected. I grinned. The Hunters had arrived.
The first silver arrow streamlined like a jet into Thorn's shoulder, and was closely followed by several more that attacked the manticore's head and flank, making Thorn roar in fear and frustration. The manticore shot his own volley of spikes back, only for said spikes to be shot in half by another volley of arrows. My doppelgänger ran at the manticore and was pathetically swept aside, before a group of teenage girls wearing silver hunting outfits raced out of the woods, arrows knocked in preparation for another volley. I had to stifle a laugh at Thalia's expression, forgetting for a moment that the lieutenant of the Hunters used to hate the Hunters before she joined them.
My eyes widened as a Hunter I did recognize stepped out, a girl who in my world had been turned into a constellation after her death. Tall, graceful, and gorgeous curves with coppery colored skin. Dark midnight black eyes that shone with power, and the familiar silver circlet I had gotten used to seeing on Thalia braided into the girl's long dark brown hair. The girl who had died on their journey to save the goddess of the hunt, Zoe Nightshade.
It hurt me mentally to see the girl alive and well again. She had fought and died in front of me, called me honorable and respectful, and grew to trust me as a warrior despite her deep hate for the male race. I wondered briefly if I would be able to protect Zoe from death this time, and shook my head, knowing that unless the prophecy stated otherwise, Zoe might die again. I was wholly ready to ignore the prophecy though. Me being here was already not supposed to happen, so tweaking the prophecy would be no big deal, right?
Dr. Thorn attempted to complain about the Hunters' interference, but was rebutted by Artemis' timely argument, and the manticore turned tail to flee. I grinned, Artemis' twelve year old form not fooling me for a second. I had gotten trained by her in that form for 18 months, and knew those eyes of the goddess anywhere. And despite her visible physical age, her expression was one of a millennia old deity, stern and dangerous, with a silvery yellow gaze that pierced the night like the arrows the Hunters fired.
The manticore charged Thalia, knowing she was disarmed. Annabeth leaped onto the manticore to distract it, making my doppelgänger yell in panic when Zoe ordered the Hunters to fire. Just like usual, the Hunters missed Annabeth and hit true on the manticore's body, making him grimace and howl in pain. He snarled and wailed, "This is not the end, Huntress! You will pay!"
He aimed to jump off the cliff but I had other ideas. I bolted from my hiding place, turning off invisibility and shocking every person in sight. My ocean blue bow was pulled back, with three pitch black arrows knocked. While my mind controlled the surrounding snow to yank Annabeth off the beast, I fired my arrows, which flashed towards Dr. Thorn, forming a glowing orange net around the manticore, trapping him at the edge of a cliff, unable to escape. The beast roared and clawed at the net, but the material was indestructible, a type of godly material Hephaestus and Leo discovered that was the most powerful type of god-resistant metal in the world. The net nullified all magic, and was not able to be damaged physically in any way. It didn't affect demigods as badly as it did immortals, titans and monsters, so the hunters were able to wield the weapons made of the material, dubbed Tiber Titanium, with relative ease, as the material didn't sap their powers. Like seastone against devil fruit eaters, the material sapped the user's energy unless they had trained resistance against the draining effects.
I watched expressionlessly as the manticore tried to escape in vain, succeeding in only driving himself to utter exhaustion as the T.T. metal slowly drained all of his physical power. I was aware of the silence around me but continued to finish trapping the beast, pretending not to notice the looks on my friends' faces as I shot a beam of shrink ray out of my wrist rifle at the stunned manticore, turning the beast into the size of a toy car before tossing the beast into a storage container also made of T.T. metal, the container being the size of half a tissue box.
I brushed my hands on my pants and turned around, only to find every Hunter pointing their bows at me, including Artemis herself. Annabeth had pulled her dagger, Thalia had reclaimed her spear and shield, Grover sat in the back, his arms in front of the twins. And my female doppelgänger stood a few feet from me, Riptide glowing in her hands.
I kept my suit activated, but uncovered my mouth guard.
"Don't move!" Zoe spoke, her voice cutting through the air. "Identify thyself!"
I couldn't help it. I giggled, my shoulders shaking. Then I coughed, letting out another chuckle. Before the audience knew it, I was full on laughing.
Zoe didn't seem deterred by my behavior. "Who are thou?"
I stopped laughing and smirked. "I can't tell you yet, Miss Zoe Nightshade."
The lieutenant's eyes only narrowed at being identified by me, but I could also see the tightening of her hands on her bow.
"Shoot me," I taunted. "I dare you."
"We don't shoot without reason," Artemis spoke up, "But if you don't identify yourself, we'll have no choice but to bring you before Olympus."
I snickered. "Artemis, for the goddess of the Hunt, I expected more of you. But you can't beat me."
Grover and Annabeth almost got a whiplash as they turned their heads at the auburn haired girl, their eyes widening in shock.
Like her lieutenant, Artemis' eyes only narrowed, though her eyes seemed to glow more intensely than usual. "You recognized me. Impressive."
I shrugged. "I mean, it's not that hard to recognize godly auras. Like, yours is one of the few that isn't bitching about their egos."
Artemis fired a single silver arrow at my head, to which I caught in my hand, the tip inches from my face. "Nice shot. But that won't work."
The goddess smirked. "Sorry, but that wasn't a normal arrow."
No sooner than she finished talking, the arrow exploded, wrapping me in a silvery white net that contained the goddess' own essence. I grinned. Normally, this type of net would've trapped me no problem. But I had my own tricks up my sleeve and unsheathed my Tiber metal knife, and deftly sliced the net apart with four short strokes.
"Sorry," I chuckled. "That won't work on me. But please by all means, try shooting me more. Maybe you'll show me more entertainment than your little trick arrows?"
Artemis actually looked pissed, which made me proud. I don't think I had ever succeeded in purposely attempting to annoy the goddess before.
"Why are thou here? And thou still haven't told us who thou are." Zoe interjected in her leader's silence.
I created a chair out of snow for me to drop into. I leaned back and crossed my arms in front of me. "Miss Nightshade, that's private information that I can't tell you. But, if you would like to call me by name, you can call me Riptide for now."
The reaction was small but I saw it. The flicker of a quick flashback in Zoe's eyes at the moniker that I had made her call me by. The same word as the name of my sword, the very same weapon she had given to Hercules, the man who abused her love and feelings for him.
"Riptide?" my doppelgänger voiced.
"What, I can't be called your sword's name?" I said nonchalantly. She flinched and looked down at her blade. "Look, I'm not here for any trouble. There are a couple of you here, Annabeth Chase, Thalia Grace, Grover Underwood, Nico and Bianca di Angelo." I continued, stifling my laughter at each named person's expressions. "I just saw you all in a tight spot and decided to help out."
Artemis lowered her bow. "Fine. But if you step one foot out of line, I won't hesitate to bring you down."
I nodded. "Roger that, ma'am. But like I told you, you can't beat me, let alone catch me."
The goddess scoffed. "We'll see about that. Zoe, set up camp!"
"Yes mi'lady." Zoe shot me one last glare before moving off with her sisters to set up camp. I remained in my seat, watching the hunters do their thing. I silently watched Thalia chew out my doppelgänger for going off and attacking Thorn alone, until Annabeth split the girls up. Grover began chatting up with Nico, probably about Mythomagic, while Bianca was led by Artemis to the main tent. I was just about to pull out my own carry-on tent when the sound of footsteps approaching me made me look up.
"Riptide?" The girl that looked like me asked. "Gosh it feels weird to call someone that."
I chuckled. "I can see why. After all, isn't that your sword's name?"
"How did you know that?" The girl asked, her sea-green eyes shined with apprehension and curiosity. "Actually, you seem to know a lot."
I looked up at the sky. "Your sword has a rather tragic history," I replied, mirroring Chiron's words back then to her. "It's probably best if you don't know."
"What about my friends," The girl continued. "You know all their names, have you met them before? Or... are you Luke?" Her voice hardened, and Riptide immediately flashed out. I caught the blade with my forearm, whacking it out of her hand.
"Whoa, watch you point that thing." I said. "And uh... I swear on the River Styx that I'm not that backstabbing yellow haired lanky bastard named Luke." Thunder boomed, making the girl sigh in relief.
"Okay, you didn't have to swear it though," she muttered. "And my friends call me a Seaweed Brain."
My mind short-circuited. Another weird thing, that I wasn't the Seaweed Brain here. "Seaweed Brain? What kind of nickname is that?" I chuckled. "And if I didn't swear, would you have believed me?"
The girl shrugged. "Probably not. And I got that nickname from Annabeth, you know, the blonde girl? Cause my dad's Poseidon, and yah."
I nodded in understanding, cause I did understand. "So, what's your name? I gave you my temporary one, can I have yours?"
The girl glanced at me, her same colored eyes so strikingly alike mine that it was slightly unnerving. "My name is Atalanta Jackson, daughter of Poseidon."
Link: https://m.fanfiction.net/s/13760677/1/My-World-But-Not-Mine-Part-I