(Forbidden child) Leo Valdez and (Latino) Percy Jackson as siblings au (with valgrace):
(This goes of the concept that Gods have control over the powers their children inherit.)
Certain children are forbidden, in the Godly world. The newest ruling is in regards to the children of the Big Three, but there have been certain bans years before that.
Children of Apollon don't have control over plagues.
Children of Hermes aren't meant to inherit traits from his 'Psychopomp' epithet.
Children of Dionysus don't take after Dionysus Zagreus nor Dionysus Bro'mius.
Children of Hephaestus don't have control over fire.
They haven't for centuries.
And yet, here stood Hera. Explaining that his son, Esperanza's son, is destined to be a great hero. Convincing him to break the rules.
Leonidas Valdez is born with fire in his veins.
His mother warns him. Tells him to never use his gift until his father allows him. He disobeys when the sleeping woman threatens her.
His mother dies. TĆa Rosa turns the family against him. He stumbles from foster family to foster family, lost, sleeping under the Houston Bridge.
Until he meets a boy with a troublemaker's grin and pockets stuffed with candy.
"I'm Percy." He introduces himself. "I go to the boarding school on East Street."
"Are you meant to be here?"
"Not at all! But I've got clients who want to buy candy and I've got to get the stuff somehow."
That is how Leo Valdez meets Percy Jackson. In a few months, he will be introduced to Sally Jackson. In a few months, he will have a family. But for now, he giggles and offers to help the boy smuggle candy.
Chiron comes to Yancy's having been told about two incredibly powerful boys.
They don't seem like much, at first glance. The Jackson twins aren't identical, but they both carry an air of mischief around them, smuggling in candy and selling it, as well as doing everything to subtly annoy Nancy Wheeler.
It takes a moment for Chiron to get out of this mindset. In fact, he's on the verge of giving up and having to tell Grover he was mistaken, when the Field Trip happens.
Nancy Wheeler makes a comment about Leonidas and when his face falls and Perseus turns to her with fury, the fountain swallows the girl whole.
He doesn't know which one of them does it. Alecto doesn't either, and she doesn't care, so she attacks the both of them.
He isn't sure which of the two slayed her either.
(Both Leo and Percy will see the Fates. The string Leo is shown is sea green. The string Percy is shown is blazing orange.)
A few months later, the siblings stumble into Camp Half-blood. Perseus looks devastated. Leonidas seems numb. Grover is unconscious, and soon the two of them are too.
The twins become quick friends with the other Campers, especially with Travis and Connor, apparently sharing their penchant for mischief.
Chiron hopes he was mistaken. He hopes that they're children of Hermes.
But it seems less and less likely, especially when the Ares campers try to 'initiate' them, and the pipes in the toilets burst.
As they start participating in Camp activities, the chances continue to plummet. Leo thrives at the forges. Percy keeps winning at canoeing and is great with pegasi.
And then, Capture the Flag.
Both of them get stationed at the creek.
Then, the hellhound appears. It attacks Leo, but Percy jumps in, taking the hit himself. He gets healed by the water.
Technically, only Percy gets claimed that night, but everyone knows.
Percy might be the son of Poseidon Pelagios, the son of the sea, with a siren-like voice, aqua-like eyes and a fluidity that came from the tides, but Leo?
Leo was his other half. The son of Poseidon Ennosigaios, the Earthshaker, the son of the God who sired cyclops who work in forges. Leo had eyes that burned like blazing metal, hands created for handiwork and a connection to the earth that made it shake when he was angry.
Percy, the only official son gets sent on the quest. He goes with Annabeth and Grover. Leo follows anyway.
When they return the bolt, Leo and Percy do it together. Poseidon will look at the two, and assume he was mistaken when he thought he only had one son. That is the day Leonidas Jackson gets claimed by the Earthshaker.
When Luke invited them to the woods, it's Leo who gets poisoned by the scorpion. Percy will have to carry his baby brother with the dawning knowledge that Leo is so much more vulnerable than him, he can't just be dropped into the water to heal.
In this version of events, this is the moment a different power stirs in Percy. By all means, Leo should've died that day. He had no explanation for surviving.
(Percy will know. He will feel something shift in him, that day. He will notice the slight tint of gold to his blood. He will not tell anybody for years, not even his brother.)
(Both of them saw their brother die, before coming to Camp Half-blood. Leo did die, the poison caused his heart to stop before Percy willed it to continue. Percy did die, or at least the mortal part of him did, if only for a moment.)
When they return to Camp next year, Leo will be a major help in taking down the bulls. He joins Percy on this quest, just like last time. He helps save Clarisse's ship from exploding and the two come back home to meet Thalia.
(Leo does NOT get along with Thalia, and because of this Percy won't either. They only act civil for Annabeth's sake.)
When they go to meet the di Angelo's, it's not Annabeth who gets kidnapped. In this world, the manticore threatens Leo, and Percy, loyal Percy, seeing his younger brother panic and set his fingers alight, intervenes immediately.
Percy falls of the cliff. Apollo, the protector of youth will take the sky from him.
Leo will join the hunters to find him.
He will save Bianca from Talos, managing to turn the automaton off before it kills her.
Zoƫ will die anyway. Thalia will take the sky so Apollo can fight, which will turn over a new page for her relationship with the Jackson siblings.
Thalia becomes a huntress.
In the Labirynth, it's Leo who blows up the forge. He ends up meeting Calypso far earlier and he befriends her. He still leaves, of course. He has to go back to his brother. But he will remember this.
The war starts properly with the Battle at Camp Halfblood. Then, it continues.
Percy and Beckendorf go onto Princess Andromeda. Leo stays back, convinced to do so by the duo.
Charles, one of Leo's closest friends (and brother, not that anybody knew) dies.
He can't even grieve his brother properly.
They defend Manhattan. So many more people die. But they live.
Annabeth and Percy get together. Leo grows more confident. Percy makes the Gods claim their kids. Leo makes them free Calypso and let all the traitor Gods of the hook.
They live. They heal. Leo remains the son of Poseidon.
Percy Jackson disappears.
And Leo, he tries. Tries to function at Camp Halfblood, at home with Paul and Sally but it's wrong without his brother. Wrong without the boy who gave him a family in the first place.
So he does what he's always been good at. He runs.
He keeps in contact with everyone of course. But he goes from school to school, looking out for demigods he can help. Then one day, he meets Piper McLean.
They become fast friends, as he makes sure she's actually a demigod before taking her to Camp. And as he's ready to tell her the truth, something... switches.
There's... a boy. Piper's boyfriend. Jason. Jason Grace. With blond hair and blue eyes, and that edge to him that Thalia and Nico and Bianca and Percy have that he never quiet learnt to mimic.
Jason looks like Thalia. He sparks like her. Could he be?
How come Leo hasn't noticed this earlier?
(Something is wrong. Like in Manhattan, when Hecate and some of her children used the mist against them. Something is wrong.)
Jason doesn't remember a thing. That's... bad.
Leo has a lot of memories with Jason. Jason... Jason feels safe, in a way similar to Percy. Leo doesn't have to pretend around him like he does around Camp. With him, he's just Leo, with quick fingers and an even quicked mind. Not the son of Poseidon. Not the hero of Olympus.
(In his memories, when Jason got together with Piper it isn't just worry about being a third-wheel that ails him. It's jealousy.)
He takes then to Camp. Him and Piper have a bit of a falling out, when she realises he knew the entire time, but she forgives him.
He realises his memories are fake. He takes in better than Piper, of course. That doesn't stop him from crying in Cabin 3 later than night. This boy that he remembers, that kwot him sane whilst his brother was gone, does he even exist?
They go on the quest. He's more ready than he is in the original canon. He's been holding a sword since twelve and fighting monsters just as long.
It isn't enough. Piper and Jason still get captured.
They will be the first people outside of his family that he will tell about his actual powers.
The rest of the Seven will follow soon after.
(Percy will have the vaguest memories of two people, while missing his memories. A blond girl with grey eyes, and a boy that looks not unlike him, but with blazing eyes. When he sees Sammy in Hazel's memories he realises their destiny has been interwined for far longer than he thought.)
When Leo ends up on Calypso's island again, he rages. How dare they lie? How dare the gods go back on their promise?
He won't love her, in this world. But she's his friend and she's been stuck here, unfairly.
(Percy's already fragile mortality will shatter even further, in Tartarus. Controlling poison will feel natural.)
When they learn the prophecy, Leo feels the choice is even easier.
Storm could be Jason or Percy.
His older brother has been sacrificing himself for Camp for years now. Now, it's his turn. He won't let his brother or the boy he loves die if he can help it.
It will hurt, lying to Piper. But he'll have no choice.
