Latest update:COMPLETED ⭐️
Summary:Percy explodes Mt. Saint Helens and wakes up almost 2,000 years earlier during the destruction of Pompeii. Now he's stuck in ancient Rome and has to navigate life as a refugee, a Roman and a demi-god while trying not to start any cults or get married to any princesses.
Link:https://m.fanfiction.net/s/14351859/1/Volcanic-Eruptions-and-Ancient-Rome
Word count107k
Chapters:20
Chapter 1: An exploding time-traveling volcano
Percy is in the middle of Mount Saint Helena ankle deep in magma and surrounded by Telekhine soldiers. In his left hand he has the golden blade the Telekhine smiths had been trying to make. Kronos' blade. Annabeth has left and Percy just needs to hold off the monsters long enough for her to get far away. His feet burn. Even if he was more fire resistant than most mortals he wasn't -apparently- completely magma proof. Good to know. Percy kind of wished he'd known this before getting into the middle of a volcano.
Percy is surrounded by more than fifty large 7-foot wolf-headed monsters with swords and the bottom of his feet feel like they are on fire. He smells his own flesh burning. This is not going great. His heart beats like crazy as he clutches Riptide in one hand and Krono's blade in the other.
"Ok you overgrown chihuahuas, which one of you thinks they can take me? Who will fall first?" Percy shouted. If the Telekhines attacked him one at a time Percy might be able to hold them off.
"ATTACK!" shouted one of the bigger and uglier wolf-headed hulking beasts and a group of them rush at Percy. So much for that plan. Percy runs. He wishes there was water nearby.
His feet sink into the magma, slowing him down. He tries to lead the hoard away from the tunnel Annabeth had gone down. He tries to outrun them. He tries to get back onto solid rock instead of burning magma. He tries to fight them off. He tries-
And fails.
He cuts down several of the beasts, covering Percy in gold dust. Then three Telekhines jump him and pin his arms down, trying to pull Kronos' blade out of his grip. A fourth Telekhine runs forth and swing a large axe blade right at Percy's torso. Percy's going to die. His mom will be so disappointed. In the half a second before the blade cuts through him, Percy screams and pours all of his power out. He doesn't have a goal, only fear.
BOOM
The earth shakes and Magma goes flying. The Telekhines scream. The air explodes with sound and ash and Percy feels himself burn and fly through the air. He feels Kronos' blade get ripped from his fingers by the wind and cut his left arm. He hopes Annabeth got away.
Everything goes black.
.
Unexpectedly, Percy wakes up. His entire body aches, his lungs burn and his left forearm screams in pain. He is being carried on some kind of cloth. "Annabeth?" Percy asks, coughing painfully. His head hurts, his mind is muddled, and it is dark. Are they still in Mount Saint Helena?
"What are you doing here? I told you to leave. How did you-" Coughing, "Survive the explosion?" Percy's mind is working very slowly and every muscle in his body is screaming. Hoover Dam that's painful. Note to self: Do not stand in the middle of a volcanic explosion again. Not fun. 1/5 stars, would not recommend.
The two people carrying him put Percy down and Percy groans as his back touches the ground. He does not have the energy for things like "standing" or "thinking". Still, after a few breaths, Percy realizes that the people carrying him are not Annabeth, and that they are not alone.
Listening to the shuffling and fearful muttering around them, Percy guesses he is among a group of about fifty people. He cannot understand them but the cries of fear, sobbing and the deep painful coughing of poisoned air doesn't need translating.
They are outside and it's dark out. The only light comes from two burning torches that are several feet away being held by terrified looking people covered in ash. The trees around them are dimly lit as the air itself seems to be eating the light. The air is filled with thick ash and stinking sulfur. This is likely the reason Percy's lungs are burning. The group of people around him cough and sob in equal measure. Some of them are wearing pillows on their head, as if afraid of things falling from the sky. Ash is falling from the sky. It's as if it is snowing heavily, but the snow is hot instead of cold and black instead of white.
The aftermath of a volcanic explosion. The aftermath of a volcanic explosion Percy caused. He caused this. A pit fills his stomach. He hadn't meant to explode a volcano. He'd just been scared, and he needed to keep the monsters busy as Annabeth ran away. He had to keep Kronos' blade out of the hands of his army. He never meant for people to be hurt.
Two people- a teen boy only a few years older than Percy and a middle-aged woman- had been carrying Percy on a makeshift stretcher that was really more of a blanket. The boy tries to speak to Percy, but he spoke a language Percy doesn't understand. Spanish maybe? He knows Spanish is basically a second official language in California and some of the words sound similar to what his Spanish teacher Ms. Garcia-Lopez had tried to teach him last year. Unfortunately, Percy was not good at Spanish, so he pats the guy on the shoulder and hopes he understands Percy's genuine "Thanks for carrying me, man."
The woman tries to help Percy up, but Percy is far too exhausted to stand. "I'll be ok," he tries to assure the woman, not knowing if she can understand him, "I just need to lie down a bit." Percy lies down on the ash covered ground. He tries to look around but it is still too dark. His left arm hurts in a way Percy recognizes as a deep cut. Percy hopes he isn't in the Maze. He's too tired for monsters. Exhaustion pulls at him.
Percy feels more than sees a stream nearby. The water is clogged with the same poisonous ash that covers the earth and fills the air. Percy reaches out toward the stream and with a twist in his gut pulls it forward until his fingers touch the water.
Percy lets the cool water flow through his fingers and up his arm. The water is a balm on his open wound. Percy assumes that the blade from Kronos' scythe had torn through his flesh during the explosion. He certainly doesn't have the blade anymore.
The wound starts to heal in the water. Percy knows the mist and the darkness will cover his actions so the mortals (Maybe? He hopes they're mortals and not hungry monsters) don't see anything weird. With the last of his energy, Percy clears the water, pushing the volcanic ash out of the stream. This way people will be able to drink clean water; it's the least he can do. Once he's finished though the exhaustion overwhelms him. Percy hears the woman that had been carrying him say something in Spanish, but Percy is already passing out as she grabs hold of his shoulder.
.
He wakes when someone wipes his face with a cloth. Apparently, more than two inches of ash and dust had built up on top of him as he slept. He's still being carried on a makeshift stretcher- AKA two people holding a blanket. A third woman wipes the ash off of Percy face and Percy smiles tiredly at her. Percy tries to thank her but he doesn't speak Spanish and she doesn't speak English so it doesn't go great. The boy and the woman (the boy's mom?) that are carrying his stretcher-blanket let him down.
His arm is healed from the water, which is nice. Percy's still tired, but more of a "stayed up all night playing video games instead of sleeping" kind of tired instead of a "my entire body is about to collapse into goo and never form anything resembling a Percy shaped creature again out of sheer spite" level of exhaustion. So that was nice.
People shuffled around nervously, but Percy couldn't really blame them. They had just survived a volcanic explosion. Also, the air was still poisonous, and it was raining ash like snow in a polar vortex. Not great.
Pulling his tired body up, Percy looks up at the sky. The clouds are so thick and dark that it is almost as dark as night, but there is a little bit of ambient light filtering through, so Percy assumes it is daytime. They were on a hilly road surrounded by what might have once been a forest but was now a wasteland of ash lumps. The mountain several miles away was on fire- probably not great. Part of the mountain's peak had been blown off and it was pushing black ash several miles into the air. That ash was raining back down. Occasionally a rock big enough to bash someone's head in falls from the sky.
Percy is not wearing his normal clothes. It seems they were burned off in the explosion and Percy is now wearing an ash-colored blanket. Percy looked around at the assembled group of people in the dim light. Woman, children, men- all of them covered in dark ash. The people's skin and tunics were grey from ash. Most of them were breathing heavy or coughing. People were occasionally kneeling to drink from the stream Percy had pulled through the crowd last time he was awake. Apparently, the stream had followed Percy in his sleep. They need to get away from the volcano and to a hospital ASAP.
The problem was, Percy has no idea where he was or where the nearest hospital was. Also, he had no shoes and his feet were severely burned. Percy closed his eyes; this was no time to be focused on his own wounds. If they didn't get somewhere safe soon, people would die. The stream Percy had pulled from nearby was flowing swiftly downhill. They could follow the stream to the nearest body of water. If they could get to the Pacific Ocean then Percy would be able to orient himself. Percy always knew where he was on the ocean.
Percy stood up and addressed the crowd, "We need to keep moving. If we can make it to a lake or an ocean, I'm sure the rescue teams will be able to find us easier." He pointed downstream, hoping that even if people spoke Spanish they would understand. If people wanted to stay it's not like he could force them to keep walking, but he could lead the way.
Percy stepped into the cool stream, letting the water sooth his burnt feet and started walking. Behind him people started moving as well. After half a mile Percy glanced behind him and slowed his pace. These were not demigods; they were exhausted families. Some people were struggling more than others. He slowed his pace and waited for a few people to catch up with him before continuing.
People were talking among themselves. Their subdued tones were broken by sobs and long painful sounding coughing. Percy only catches the occasional words like "Pompeii", "August", "venom", and "volcano". Percy thinks it's Spanish, but it was a weird Spanish that he couldn't quite understand. In high school Percy got a C- in Spanish so he's not too surprised he can't understand anything other than the occasional word. He also learned Mexican-Spanish, and maybe this group of people spoke Spanish from a different country. Like Spain. Or Chile. Or Venezuela. Or - No, focus, Percy!
Percy finds the woman who had been carrying him when he first woke. She was a middle-aged woman wearing a simple dress and sandals- all grey from the ash of course. "Hey, I wanted to thank you for carrying me. I don't know how long you had to do that but thanks. Um, Gracias. Mucho gracias," Percy says. The woman had looked almost afraid or sad when Percy started talking; she averted her eyes and says something in weird-Spanish that Percy assumes means "no problem" but could have just as likely been "You owe me like a thousand dollars and like twenty coffees". Percy tells himself to try to pay more attention in Spanish class next year.
They walk for a while. Percy's mind is still cotton from exhaustion and, you know, being exploded in a volcano. Still, occasionally he looks at the ash raining sky hoping to see a helicopter or a search airplane. He doesn't find anything. Then again, it's probably not a great idea to fly a helicopter in air that is raining ash and dust. Probably not great flying conditions. Percy may not be a helicopter pilot, but he assumes being able to see is probably pretty important for pilots.
A child and their aging father (or grandfather?) lag behind the group and Percy stops, motioning for the group to keep walking before turning back to the pair. The man is walking unsteadily with tear tracks down his face and the child looked exhausted and terrified. Their tunics are gray with ash. Percy tries to put on his kindest voice, "Hey kiddo. Do you want to climb on my back? It's a pretty shitty day, but we'll get through it together, ok?" He uses body language to try to communicate piggy backs, and after a few moments and the kid presumably asking his dad for permission, the kid gets on Percy's back. Kid then almost immediately passes out. Poor kid. Percy tries to smile a bit at the man, but nothing about this situation is good so everything comes across as forced.
They walk at an agonizingly slow pace. Hours pass and the world gets darker. If Percy was alone he would walk faster but he's not alone. These people carried him for who knows how long, so he can carry them back. The sky continues to rain ash. The people whisper. Percy is beginning to think they don't speak Spanish. Portuguese maybe? Italian?
Percy uses the water from the stream to push the built-up ash out of the way. At times the ash reached four feet high. This wasn't ash like the stuff left over from a campfire at camp half blood. This was heavy hot dust that built up like snow but was harder to move through. Rocks occasionally pelted down from the sky like hail- the type of hail that could crack a windshield. A rock flew down from the sky and hit the arm of a man to Percy's left. It ripped off a chunk of his flesh and the man cried out in pain. Percy was beginning to see why some people had tied pillows to their head. This was like a snowstorm in hell.
No one has phones. They must have really had to run pretty fast if no one brought their phone. Or maybe Percy had been unconscious longer than he thought, and all their phone batteries had already run out.
The ash and dust in the air obscured vision to such an extent that the group were a few hundred yards away from the ocean before Percy even sees it. He couldn't help but let out a relieved laugh. Finally! Ocean! Percy wakes the kid on his back and returns him to his father carefully before turning and sprinting into the water.
In the water, Percy feels his burnt feet heal and his lungs clear from all the dust that had been building up. Much like he had with the stream before, Percy separates the water from the poisonous ash, pushing the ash away so he can feel the salt water. He knows exactly where he is- a useful perk to being Poseidon's kid. He's off the coast of Italy near Naples, nowhere near Mount Saint Helena. The fog that had been muddling his mind since the volcanic eruption washes away and a few things become very obvious to Percy very quickly.
No phones. No helicopters. Tunics and sandals. A wound from Kronos' blade. Kronos is the titan of time. Speaking not-Spanish. The coast of Naples. Pompeii.
Pompeii.
Oh. Oh no.
Link:https://m.fanfiction.net/s/14351859/2/Volcanic-Eruptions-and-Ancient-Rome