#we remember HOW he defeated kronos right

[rowanintheriver]

hmmmmm not to be back on my jason grace agenda but something about percy, thalia, and nico facing iapetus and barely winning. (between titans curse & battle of the labyrinth, setting percy’s age at 14-15). and jason defeating krios, alone. hand-to-hand combat, aged 15. something about how in the house of hades we even hear that iapetus is, in fact, weaker than krios. this guy is so metal actually

[the-dumpster-fire-of-life]

The One That Got Away

No matter how long you stared down at his face, Annabeth, Percy, and Grover standing over you, all in silence, you couldn't stop.

Luke, sitting right there after so long, was gone. Your hand was on his cheek, running circles over and over again as if some ritual to wake him up.

But that wouldn't work.

Luke was gone. Luke would never wake up. Your Luke, your boyfriend, and best friend, has helped you defeat Kronos, only to leave you once more after.

You stifled another sob at the thought. Muttering small “Oh, Gods.”, “I'm sorry”’, and “Luke, please.”

Grover, Annabeth and Percy could only stand over you in silent support as you mourned.

You'd been against Luke for years. After loving him for as long as you can remember, that wasn't enough to stop him from going to Kronos, that wasn't enough to get him back.

You mourned your relationship. You mourned a future he promised. You mourned him.

The Gods all arrived moments later, their footsteps thundering into the throne room as they came in fully fledged in their battle armor.

They only found five teenagers, three hovering above with their heads hung low, and one holding the dead one as they all mourned over the broken body of a half-blood.

“Percy…” Posiedon was the only one able to speak, awe in his voice. “What…what is this?” Percy's father asked, you couldn't make yourself for the life of you to face the Gods.

You couldn't call that a family as you sat and mourned your own, the only family you've known standing over you as almost protection as you mourned.

Percy was the only one able to turn and look at the Olympians.

“We need a shroud.” Percy said, his voice cracking at his words. “A shroud for the son of Hermes.”

You gave a broken sob at the thought.

—----------------------------------------------------------

After Luke was taken away, his body behind readied and having to pry him and you, you didn't really know which it was, from one another, all you could do was stare into nothing.

Your hands worked almost like muscle memory, making the shroud. You've done it so many times for fallen campers, friends, Beckendorf, Sileena, even Percy at once, and many more.

Your hands worked quickly and quietly, the faint wrestle of the shroud against your fingers was anything but comforting.

Neither were the footsteps behind you.

Even if you didn't look, you knew who it was.

“Well,” Hermes started, his own voice heavy and you could tell

“Luke-” The man tried to begin, but you cut him off just as quickly.

“Don't talk to me about Luke.” your voice could have been laced with malice and that would've been a better poison to the man.

Hermes looked at you, watching you glare at him before he nodded.

“..I know. I know. I…I don't have the right.” the man sighed.

“Yeah, you don't.” you said sternly, glaring at the man through tearful eyes.

“But you do, my dear.” Hermes sighed, watching you look at him with tearful eyes of hatred, but he knew that wasn't just at him. Well, a lot was, but everything.

“Don't talk to me- don't talk about him, like you know us.” you shook your head, scoffing at the thought.

“I don't, and I can say that is a grave mistake on my part, which I will never forgive myself for.” Hermes said, nodding his head as he looked at the floor, mulling everything over.

You scoffed again, a sob mixed into it as you turned back to the shroud, not wanting to cry anymore. But that was pointless as Hermes started again.

“But what I do know is that my son loved you. You…you made him very happy, child.” Hermes said swiftly, watching as your back tensed like another sob was being withheld.

“...no, he didn't. If he did-” you tried to start, Hermes butting in. “My son had immense pride, like someone else I know,” Hermes started, gesturing to himself.

“he thought he was doing what was meant to be,” The God shook his head before sighing once more. “but he loved you.

“...we were fighting for so long, I- I don't know if he still loved me." You shook your head, laced with doubt and worry.

Hermes gave a bittersweet smile at your words. You were too young to experience such a thing. But, that was the life of a Half-Blood, sadly.

“..he did. I know he did. It was-” Hermes struggled to find his words for a moment, shaking his head. “One of the only things I know for certain, about my son.”

“...you didn't know a lot about him.” You couldn't help but say. Hermes just nodded. “I do not. But, I would watch over him. And Everytime,” Hermes could almost smile as he recalled.

“Everytime he was with you, everything was better for him.” The old God said, you didn't turn to face him but you closed your eyes, sighing as you felt more tears sting your eyes.

“I know it isn't a lot of reassurance, my girl,” Luke's father said solemnly.

“But my son, he will be free. And…one day, if you so wish, you may join him, when you have lived your life, had your adventures, and so much more.” Hermes offered.

“And when the time is right, you may join Luke again.”

You picked your head up from staring at the ground, confused before it settled on what the god meant. You looked over your shoulder at Hermes.

“...why not now, if you can give it?” You couldn't help but push, getting a small chuckle from the man.

“I may not have known my son better than you, but we both know he would not wish for you to cut your life short for him.” Hermes said, almost wistfully.

You couldn't help but know it to be true.

You thought for a moment before nodding softly, going back to your shroud. You muttered what you thought was a thank you, but Hermes shook it off.

“You do not owe me thanks. If anything, I owe you.” Hermes said.

“You gave my son happiness, for years. He experienced love, one of a kind, from you. So, thank you, (Name) (Last Name).” Hermes said, and you could almost make a smile out of his face, bittersweet but there.

“Find us when you are ready.”

Was the last thing Hermes said, leaving you to the Shroud, and walking away to join whoever.

You thought for a moment, looking at the man's back as he walked away, then back to the shroud in your lap.

Even if more tears sting your eyes and you couldn't help but sob, you smiled.

Because yeah, Luke was gone, the love of your life, but…you would see him again one day.

You were just setting him free.

You gave a wistful smile, one that Lukes soul, detached from its body and watching from afar, couldn't help but admire.

He was admiring like every other time before. Like at the camp bonfires. Like when he would sneak you out of your cabin into the woods by the lake.

Like when you told him you liked him, and like when you said you loved him back.

Luke wanted to reach out, cry and cry with you but he knew that he couldn't.

So, he would admire you now. Make up for lost time.

And as Luke sat from afar and watched you, a small smile on his face, he knew he would wait for you. As long as it takes

-----------------------------------------------------

[itsnotmuchyet]

Okay, this is just a quick (lies, this ended up so long) and dirty articulation of why I don't like Annabeth Chase from PJO, her relationship with Percy, and what I think could fix it. (It got too long so I cut that bit. I'll write it if someone asks, but right now this is just a deconstruction of how, in my opinion, Annabeth Chase is not a well-written and compelling character.) This will be rambling and scattershot but hopefully it all makes sense, even if you don't agree.

First of all, Annabeth Chase has a lot of potential. I'm about to talk some shit, but I want to be clear, I see a lot in her character that could be interesting. I attribute most of my problems with her to Rick's writing, which, for all its good qualities, is not the strongest or most consistent imo. This isn't intended as a hate piece, just a way to organize my thoughts. I'm doing this all from memory, and am open to feedback, disagreement, or correction if I make a mistake so long as it's done in a civil way. Thank you.

I think my biggest frustration with Annabeth is that I simply don't believe her intelligence. I would LIKE to. But I think we are told that she is smart far more than we're shown, which makes the praise heaped upon her somewhat galling.

When I think about great strategies in these books, Percy comes to mind first. In The Last Olympian, he's the one who plans out the destruction of the bridges to frustrate Kronos' approach, including making diplomatic deals with the river gods and strategically deploying demigods to get it done. He's the one to realize that Poseidon is critical to success, find a way to get his attention in the middle of a war, and convince him to take heavy losses in Atlantis — and lose that battle which was very personal and precious to him — in order to win the ultimate war against Kronos. It is also Percy's strategy which is successful in defeating Typhon. Percy is constantly thinking up strategies in high pressure environments, such as fights. For example, in the Labrynth, when he realizes that his half-brother is healed by earth so he concocts a method with what he has around him to keep his brother suspended so he can be killed.

Now, other demigods also make important contributions in The Last Olympian. Wasn't it Nico who convinced Hades, Persephone, and Demeter to join the fight? And Annabeth activated Daedalus(??? spelling) statues in defense as well. But Percy is one that we are most often shown being strategic. I think it just goes under the radar because Percy does not have a high self esteem and does not praise himself internally for a lot of the clever stuff he does.

Annabeth most often contributes by knowing something. She often serves as exposition; she'll recognize a myth first, and explain it to Percy. But not only is prior knowledge and memorization not a replacement for actual strategy, BUT PERCY GETS BETTER GRADES THAN HER. I think it's in that Demigod Files book?? All Riordan's stuff has at least a month's waitlist at my library or I would double check my source, but I distinctly remember an entry where Annabeth is like, "Seriously, how is Percy getting better grades than me?? I'm the one who taught him how to put an essay together and now he's breezing through them??? Wtf." I find this intensely frustrating. Because what do you MEAN she's not even more successful than Percy academically? It's just, it's frustrating, because she's supposed to be so super smart, and I'm struggling to see where that actually gets expressed. If her only advantage is an earlier exposure to the Greek myths than Percy and a good memory, then her value as a character is highest near the start of the series and can only decline from there.

Even her encounter with the Sphinx highlights this. She had the trivia knowledge to answer the questions but not the wisdom to just, do that and not start an unnecessary fight in the middle of their quest.

I can think of several times in the books where Annabeth stutters, trying to think of something, while Percy improvises something that might be a little goofy but it WORKS.

Actually, Percy is by far the better manipulator out of the two of them. He is insanely good at reading his enemies, figuring out how to convince them to ally with him if possible, or defeat them if not. His big vulnerability is he can't do that for shit with people he cares about. Percy is actually very conflict avoidant in his personal life, I've noticed? And he's very quick to empathize with a friend and try to see things from their persepective (like when Grover kinda SABOTAGED his college applications and Percy heard him out and supported him in his emotional struggle with Percy leaving).

By contrast, Annabeth doesn't seem interested in the emotional wellbeing of her friends?

Annabeth often insults Percy's intelligence and his strategies. She says his head is full of kelp, seaweed brain, outright calls him stupid at least once (during that quest for Hermes, if I recall; was that in the Demigod Files as well? It wasn't in a main book I don't think). Everyone says that Annabeth is so smart, she's the daughter of Athena she's the architect of Olympus!! Meanwhile, the person I see actually implementing successful strategy is the person Annabeth constantly insults. She says that he's lucky, that he needs help to do anything, couldn't think his way out of a paper bag without her????????

That's what drives me crazy about Annabeth. Nobody ever calls her on her bragging or her putting down of other people. She doesn't learn. Not even when her carelessness and overconfidence gets her DRAGGED INTO TARTARUS. I'm so sorry, but is it not embarrassing for a daughter of Athena to be defeated like that??? All you had to do was keep an awareness of your environment, put two and two together that you're covered in webs just like the spider who just fell through the floor, and realize you'd better do something about that ASAP. And, like. Look. My issue isn't that she was pulled into Tartarus. My issue isn't even the way it happened. It matches with her fatal flaw.

My issue is that, like with everything else she gets wrong, she never seems to learn or grow from it. Like when Luke tricked her into holding up the sky. That to me is a perfect opportunity for a genuine character moment. It's so humbling, and would leave you so shaken. A moment for an unwanted but desperately needed reckoning between who she wants Luke to be and who he is. I'm not even saying she should have given up on him. I don't mind that she couldn't or that the whole thing was so messy and painful for her, but the way that it was expressed in the book made me feel like Annabeth was either willfully blind or untrustworthy. Her denial of Luke's worst aspects, her defending of him, her refusal to hold space for other characters feeling differently to her, all of it fostered suspicion in me when I first read the PJO books.

I remember when I first read the scene where Percy reveals his Achille's heel to her. My hair stood on end. Something about the way her eyes are described as "distant" when she asks where it is, and how Percy hesitates. In that moment I was screaming for him not to trust her. I did not want her to know. I thought his fatal flaw was going to kill him. Percy is a character who cannot anticipate betrayal.

Of course I was wrong about Annabeth there. Or was I? Other people before me have noted that when Annabeth judo flips Percy onto his back in New Rome, she does not know that the Mark of Achilles has been lifted. I don't think that the throw would have necessarily killed him if it hadn't; he lands on a flat surface. But it was certainly DEEPLY careless and foolhardy of Annabeth, EVEN BEFORE you take into account that it was, strategically, a STUPID thing to do. It makes me want to scream how dumb this moment makes Annabeth look. It's the tense, fraught first meeting in years between ancient enemies. You're the leader of your group, the diplomatic ambassador from Camp Half Blood. It's imperative that this goes well, for the fate of the world. And your emotions run so high upon reuniting with your kidnapped boyfriend — who was stolen by a god and has been through you-don't-know-what kind of godly fuckery — that you take it out on him, the VICTIM, and physically attack him. Didn't she put a knife to his throat?? If PERCY hadn't defused the moment, handled it, Annabeth would easily have destroyed the Greek-Roman alliance right there, no ghostly possession of Leo needed. With friends like her, who needs enemies?

Her relationship with Percy…I've never understood why they're the golden couple of the fandom. Annabeth seemed more interested in Luke than Percy, and when she was interested in Percy it was always…like, okay, Annabeth was vulnerable with Luke. I don't think he ever had a thing for her, but there was a tenderness to how she'd interact with him. When she interacted with Percy — think of the school dance, or how she handled having Rachel on a quest — she refuses to be vulnerable with him. If she has a crush on Percy, she hides it under glares, insults, and demands. Annabeth won't ask Percy to dance with her, she'll hit him and call him stupid for not asking her. She will not let her guard down with him.

This is a throughline in their relationship; even in Tartarus, she's thinking about how she likes to keep Percy on her toes. Yeah, Annabeth, we know. It was obvious when you manufactured a whole drama around your "one month anniversary." Which, no, that's not a thing, and it's completely normal of Percy not to anticipate that you would want him to do something special for it. I hated that whole story (it's in demigod files, I think). It's just Annabeth dangling Percy over undefined consequences if he doesn't read her mind and figure out what she wants and needs. He does all the work and she judges it. It's not cute or fun.

I do place most of the blame on Riordan's writing. What's that scene where Annabeth pushes Percy unexpectably off a cliff, triggering a very sensitive and dangerous encounter that he had to negotiate under time pressure while Annabeth watches? How does that scene start? "Get you a girlfriend who…" It's framed as a positive that Annabeth will just shove Percy into dangerous situations without warning when she absolutely does not have to do that. Isn't she supposed to be strategic? Why can't she think up a strategy and tell him, instead of shoving him at the problem and just, putting it on him to find a solution? "Give the problem to Percy" isn't a strategy worthy of Athena, I'm sorry. But my point is, Rick genuinely seems to think their romance is good and these red flag moments are cute and flirty. He is not writing Annabeth as an asshole on purpose.

I tend towards death of the author analyses myself, but Rick's writing is not consistent enough for that. You kinda just have to identify what he was trying to do, see where it failed, and decide how you wanna interpret that. And when it comes to Annabeth…I just want to either burn her relationship with Percy down or rewrite her character.

What else is there? Oh yeah, does anyone else feel like the way her family is written makes her seem…overdramatic? Like, meeting her dad and stepmom…it's an anticlimax. This girl was so unhappy she ran away from home as a child. She chose to become homeless in a world where monsters hunt her down, AS A CHILD, rather than stay with her dad. There's a deep unhappiness and loss to that. When she talks about it, she talks about being unwanted, a burden that her dad was unable and unwilling to handle, not being heard, not being believed. She is describing victim blaming. In that house, she, a six year old child, was seen as the problem.

And after that build up, we meet her family, and they are…well, they're fine, aren't they. Her step mom is concerned for her. She and Annabeth's dad (no i don't remember his name rn) seem to want the best for her, to help however they can. Mr Chase—is his name Frederick maybe???—Mr Chase takes the initiative, after Percy and his friends let him in on a sliver of what's going on with Annabeth, to melt down old weapons to make bullets and FLY A HELICOPTER to come save his daughter.

I'm honestly at a loss about what we're supposed to think here. At the end of Titan's Curse Percy gently suggests to Annabeth that she give her family another chance. If I recall, she says some things can't be repaired, but it's implied that she does actually try again with her family later. This always seemed to me to undermine Annabeth's entire narrative…the way she describes being treated simply does not match what we observe for ourselves in Titan's Curse.

I could go on but I'll cut it here. Maybe I'll make a post about I'd rewrite her if I could, because I do WANT to like Annabeth. There's a lot interesting that could be done with her. Probably not though bc all the Annabeth stans are gonna block me for this one I fear. Maybe I'll post my criticisms of other PJO couples instead lol (I won't. if you've read this far you'll find this claim dubious, but I actually don't enjoy being a hater. anyway i don't have nearly so much to say about any other pjo couple). Thanks for reading.

[riordanness]

wildest dreams - [p.jackson]

pairing: percy jackson x reader

wordcount: 1.3K

warnings: none

requested: yes!! (anonymous)

“In your wildest dreams, Jackson,” I scoff, staring down the boy fiercely. My sword in hand, my battle armour on, I was easy to beat this stupid son of Poseidon once and for all.

He grins at me, his smile slightly lopsided. “Okay, Red,” he teases. “Bring it on.”

I roll my eyes at the nickname. He’s been calling me it ever since he came to camp, two years ago. Ever since he found out I was the daughter of Ares, and I lived in a big ugly red cabin with a terrible paint job. I mean, I hate the cabin’s decor as much as the Aphrodite kids, but that doesn’t mean Percy Jackson gets to insult me.

I yell, and charge at him, our swords meeting in midair with a clang. I whirl, aiming for his unprotected side, but he blocks me, sidesteps, jabs at my stomach.

I stumble back, slashing at him, as anger flashes through me. I want to beat him. I have to beat him. This has been going on long enough, and I need to get my revenge.

Two years ago, Percy Jackson came to Camp Half-Blood. On his first proper day here, he tried to drown Clarisse, my older sister, and two of our other siblings. He made a fool out of Ares cabin. Then, later that summer on his stupid lightning bolt quest, he fought our father, the god of war himself, and somehow, he won. He ruined Ares’ reputation completely.

Ever since, I’ve wanted to turn Percy into a Poseidon pancake.

“Come on, y/n!” Adam, my favourite brother, cheers from the side of the arena. “Beat Jackon’s ass!”

“I’m trying!” I shout back, as Percy manages to catch the hilt of my sword in his. He’s stronger than me, and taller. He pushes down, fighting against my strength. Then, as he’s pushing his sword down, he suddenly twists, and I’m forced to let go. My weapon clatters to the ground.

There’s silence from the bleachers. Every camper there, who came to watch us duel, has no idea what to say.

I have a lump in my throat, and I don’t know how it got there. A sudden, overwhelming feeling of defeat grips me, and I send a tearful glare in Percy’s direction.

“I hate you.”

I shove past him, hoping my final words sting him as much as my loss to him stings me.

“You should let this go, you know?”

I glance up in surprise. Leah and I are on stable cleaning duty today, which is an absolutely awful job, in case you were wondering.

“Let what go?” I ask.

She waves her hand aimlessly in the air. “This whole… Percy Jackson thing.”

I raise my eyebrows, disbelieving. “You want me too, what? Forgive him?” I make a sound in my throat that’s almost a gag, almost a growl. “Hell no.”

“Come on!” Leah pleads. She’s the daughter of Athena, with pretty dark skin, dark braids, and warm dark brown eyes. She’s shorter than me, but way smarter and prettier. We arrived at camp almost the same time, three years ago. I’m still not sure why she likes being my friend, but I love Leah.

“Look,” she sighs, leaning against her broom. “I hate Poseidon as much as the next girl, and Jackson isn’t exactly my favourite person.” She grimaces, probably remembering the time Percy messed up and made her team lose at Capture the Flag. I’d won that day, so maybe I should thank Percy for his service.

“But,” Leah continues, “he’s not really a bad person. Like, yeah he’s a total dumbass and annoying and way too cute for his own good–”

“What?” I half groan, half laugh. “No he’s not.” I try to believe it myself.

Leah ignores me. “He’s not worth making your enemy.”

I sigh. “I guess you have a point…” Even saying that feels wrong. I want to hate Percy; I want to get my revenge and prove for once and for all that Ares isn’t lame, that we can be great.

But, Leah is right. There are bigger things to worry about now. There are rumours; Kronos is rising. Luke Castellan is making an army. Camp Half-Blood will be going into war.

I realise my grip on my pitchfork is so tight that my knuckles have turned white. I let go of the pitchfork, watching it fall into the straw on the stable floor and almost disappear.

“Go.” Leah gives me a little shove. “I saw him doing paperwork sorting for Chiron on the porch a little while ago.”

I give her a quick nod, brace myself, break into a sprint, running towards the Big House.

I spot Percy long before I reach the Big House porch. As I near, my footsteps slow to a walk, and I have to force myself to take a deep breath, striving for calm. My temper isn’t easy to control.

“Hey,” I call, taking the front steps two at a time.

Percy half-glances up, looks back down at his pile of letters and documents, then double takes at me. “Y/n?”

I try for a smile, waving at him with my fingers. “What’s kicking?”

“Uh–paperwork,” he replies, looking at me in slight confusion, probably wondering what I’m doing here. “For Chiron?” he adds quickly, then scrunches his nose in a way that almost makes me want to agree with Leah about Percy being cute. Almost.

I nod. “Sounds like torture to me.”

Percy grins wide. “Tell me about it.” He waves the stack of papers in the air as he gets to his feet. He’s only standing half a metre away from me now, closer than we’ve ever been without trying to beat each other up. “I never remember how much I hate being dyslexic until I try doing this.”

I bite the inside of my cheek, suddenly having no idea what to say. Percy seems to notice the awkward pause, and frowns uncertainly at me. “Why are you here, y/n? I doubt it was for just a chat.”

I let out my breath slowly. “Uh—yeah. I came to make out—I mean up! Make up.”

Percy tries to hide his smirk, and fails. I feel my jaw ache from clenching it. All my old hatred for this boy bubbles almost out of control, but I fight it, like I fight everything, and this time I win.

“Okay…” Percy muses. “Y/n, the daughter of Ares, god of war, wants peace.” He stresses the last word. “Not to mention I humiliated both her older sister and her father, when I was twelve.”

I grit my teeth and glare at him. “Do you want me to pulverise you, Jackson? Because I will.”

“Oh really?” Percy has an eyebrow raised. “But I thought you came to make up? Or was it out?”

“Why did I let her convince me to do this,” I mutter, already ready to just make a run for it. But no. Leah was right, albeit pretty frustrating and exasperating and extremely embarrassing. I did need to end this somewhat ridiculous rivalry with Percy. And I guess it was now or never, right?

“I’m sorry,” I blurt out before I can change my mind. “I’ve been stupid and selfish and I’m sorry.” I hold my hand out to him. “Friends?”

Percy stares at me, then my outstretched hand for a count of three. At first, I was almost certain he was going to leave me hanging. That would be so like him! But then, he grins, that adorable, dumbass smile I’ve known for so long now.

“I don’t want to be friends, Red,” he says, his words solemn and his tone teasing. “I’m in love with you.”

[apollosgiftofprophecy]

ToA Theory 1 - Apollo's Waking Visions

First official theory post, here we go! :D

Alright. So. After rereading The Dark Prophecy, I started wondering about something. In TDP, Apollo experiences waking visions, where he conks out for a bit and has prophetic visions.

I found this interesting because, well...isn't Apollo supposed to be cut off from prophecy? With Python back in control of Delphi?

Because think about it. Python controls Delphi, the root of all earthly prophecy. This would include Dodona, Trophonius, Herophile, and Sibyl - sure, they aren't strictly connected to Delphi, but it's pretty heavily stated that Delphi just straight-up Makes The Future. It's prophecies are The Big Deal and you Should Listen.

Meanwhile the other Oracles seem more guiding and "beware!" instead of "this is how it's gonna be".

(sidenote: found out there are MORE oracles and I wanna know WHERE THEY ARE IN RRVERSE CANON because I want my boy Branchus okay??? Okay. Branchus's oracle was second only to Delphi let's give Apollo's first boyfriend the attention he deserves!)

So of course, like all great members of this fandom, I started thinking.

Let's do a little family history first. ;)

Buckle up. We go down a deep rabbit hole 😎

Apollo and Artemis are twins, born to Leto and Zeus. Zeus's parents are Kronos and Rhea. Leto's are Koios and Phoebe.

Rhea has connections to Dodona, as we learn in-series, but she doesn't really seem to be all that involved with prophecy.

Her siblings, meanwhile...ho ho ho, they are a WHOLE NOTHER STORY!

Let's start with Phoebe. Phoebe, like all first generation Titans, is the daughter of Gaea and Ouranos. She married her brother Koios. Her children consist of Asteria, Lelantos, and Leto. As well as Artemis and Apollo, her other two grandchildren are Hecate (Asteria) and Aura (Lelantos).

Her name means "bright" and is the root of Apollo's most famous epithet - Phoebus. She is often described as "golden-crowned" and is the Titan of bright intellect, the overseer of Earthly Prophecies, and is the second guardian of Delphi, after her sister Themis. She gifted Delphi to Apollo for his birthday after he defeated Python.

Classic grandmother move.

Anyway. There's a bit of Phoebe lore. Time for her elusive husband :3

Koios. His names means "question" or "questioning", probably because he's the Titan of inquiring intellect. He's also the overseer of Heavenly Prophecies, and has an oracle up in the North Pole guarded by an earth-dragon - you'd know this serpent by the name of Draco, the constellation btw. Additionally, Hyperborea (where Apollo goes in the winter times) is part of his domain.

eyes

Unfortunately, we have very little mythological lore on these two, and even less in the RRverse (I cling to that one (1) Koios scene) which sucks because I love them already BUT it does give me lots of legroom to mess around with canon >:)

Back to the theory now. As you may have guessed, I'll be taking us in a direction concerning Apollo's mysterious grandparents. But what does this have to do with Apollo's visions?

Well. Remember when I mentioned that Delphi is the root of all earthly prophecies?

...look at Phoebe's paragraphs. She's the overseer of Earthly Prophecies, right? So it makes sense she's been affected by Python's takeover too.

(if you've read my fics you'd know this already lmao)

Asteria, Apollo's aunt, is a little trickier. She, too, has a hand in divination, but mainly through the night/stars and dreams. <-will come back to that later.

Koios, again, is overseer of Heavenly Prophecies, and is heavily implied to be able to commune with Ouranos's spirit. This is, apparently, a Big Deal because nobody else is mentioned to be able to do this.

...Except...remember this throwaway line in The Hidden Oracle?

^Apollo can see Ouranos too.

Within this theory is a sub-theory, so to speak - that immortals with the gift of prophecy can see Ouranos, since they can see what cannot be seen. This would include Phoebe, Asteria, Koios, and Apollo.

And it'll make sense why they'd keep it to themselves. Kronos wouldn't have been happy to hear his dad was still around. Neither would Zeus, for that matter.

So here I was. Contemplating. Wrote a few fics based around this idea. And one in particular got me thinking (fic in question being When The Stars Align), and a little ways down the road I realized something.

If Phoebe, the overseer of Earthly Prophecies, would have been affected by Python's takeover...was Koios? Could he even be affected?

Because here's the deal: Koios is the overseer of Heavenly Prophecies. Prophecies from the Sky.

Phoebe's are of the Earth - the Earth that Python has taken control of. And Delphi is the root of Earthly Prophecies - not Heavenly.

That would be Koios's oracle, up in the North Pole with Draco.

...So that means Heavenly Prophecy must have still been in business during ToA.

But then comes the question: If it was still within the gods' control, why didn't they use it?

Well...Draco's there, for one. He's probably the Python-equivalent of the North, and clearly he's still there since no myth has spoken of his death (that I know of).

If you ask me, I just think the gods are too nervous/afraid to try Koios's oracle. They were too scared to face Python, after all, until Apollo arrived. I think they'd be scared of a serpent who comes and goes from the stars as he pleases.

And as for why Apollo hasn't done anything about it...well, I think his fight with Python left him rather scarred, don't you think? He probably went "yeah grandma's oracle is enough" and the only time he ever got close to Koios's was during his time in Hyperborea.

So getting back to the main theory now. (So many rabbit holes to dive into with this post. The ADHD Urge is real)

Since Heavenly Prophecies is still active, but Earthly is in Python's control, I conclude Apollo's visions come from the Heavenly source.

Could they have come from the now-working Dodona? Maybe. But Dodona's all about those windchimes and trees. It doesn't have the Vibe, so to speak, for granting visions.

And remember. Trophonius, Herophile, and Sibyl aren't destroyed/freed yet. They have Zero connection to Apollo at this point because Python cut him off from them.

...but he didn't from the North. From Koios's divine power.

Because remember. Apollo is the god of prophecy.

Not of Earthly Prophecies, like Phoebe.

Not of Heavenly Prophecies, like Koios.

Not of nighttime divination and dreams like Asteria.

Of. Prophecy.

Prophecy as a whole. The entirety. The whole enchilada.

Every part of prophecy he's the god of, be it tarot cards to the Oracle of Delphi itself.

In my opinion, I think whatever Koios's Oracle is, it has just as must power as Delphi. The only problem was that...everybody just left it be. Nobody considered it because:

1) scary dragon

2) scary titan ruled the place

3) honestly at this point I think it's just straight-up forgotten about. Like Branchus's Oracle. I think at one point Apollo himself mentions there are other Oracles besides the ones in-series, but there's so many that his mortal brain cannot comprehend how many.

If the Grove of Dodona nearly faded into obscurity, then I think it's entirely possible Koios's Oracle was forgotten about (or so we think...I'm gonna be chewing on this for a while.)

Coming back round to TDP...I think this is a reasonable explanation about Apollo's visions. To summarize:

Apollo is cut off from Earthly Prophecy, his usual source of foresight that he gets from Phoebe

The unused, near-forgotten-about Heavenly Prophecy side of Apollo ignites to steer him on the right path

This is possible because Apollo is the god of prophecy itself, and not a single subset of prophecy, so he's not limited in the same way Phoebe is

Koios's Oracle is still out there and kicking and I will die on this hill

One problem. What about Asteria? She can interpret the future from the stars...aka the Sky. Like Koios. So couldn't she provide some insight to the future, since she, too, is connected to Heavenly Prophecy?

This is where things get a lil' tricky. And where I really slap on my tinfoil hat and start headcanoning my way through lmao

Basically, I think that since Asteria became the island of Delos (long story) a good chunk of her power is ingrained there. She's not as strong as she used to be, so her foresight isn't as strong.

This, in turn, I think could also serve as a reason why Koios's Oracle is "asleep" so to speak and nearly lost to memory in the RRverse - in fact, I think Asteria and Phoebe are the only ones who bother to remember its existence.

And Leto, of course. But I don't think she wants her son to know of another Oracle with a giant snake guarding it. She's had enough heart-attacks, thank you.

(Same with Lelantos, tbh.)

Canon is my sandbox and I am making some sweet sandcastles out of it XD

TL;DR

Apollo's visions in TDP stem from Koios's source of Heaven Prophecy because Phoebe's source of Earthly Prophecy (Delphi) has been taken over by Python. Koios's source firmly knocks on Apollo's mental doors and decides to kick back into gear to help its titular patron's grandson out. Because Apollo is the god of prophecy itself - every bit of it.

Extras:

I find it fascinating how magic and prophecy are both part of the same family tree (Hecate & Apollo).

and yes. You should expect a fic concerning Koios's Oracle at some point. but no promises on when :3

Thank you for coming to Insane Theory Time With Alder. I hope there will be more lmao

Websites you can look into:

Koios (Theoi)

Phoebe (Theoi)

Hyperborea (Theoi)

[athenaareia]

hello PLEASE i am here for the yap about lalthambika i want to know everything you coudln't include because of outsider pov

there's actually a LOT brewing in the fic, because one point we have to remember is that except apollo (because sight) and annabeth (tartarus) have really seen her yk?

the idea actually began with a "hm... desi rhea + ma durga is in every girl/woman = fic?" and then I went down a rabbit hole of epic proportions.

some of this is addressed in the beginning notes, wherein I contextualize why exactly I had rhea take on characteristics and powers etc of both maa AND krishna - because if you keep looking further, they're the same.

other random facts:

as the tags say, sally and yashoda ma would get along so well in terms of their weirdly powerful prophecy babies that they love so so much. and notice how rhea steals cookies the way krishna steals makhan??

everyone sees her differently because a, she has many forms but more for this, b, for their own understanding. notice how I say hera sees women and mothers where artemis sees young girls? it's a matter of being your domain

grover is barely conscious, but basically rhea channels navdurga when fighting the minotaur (and I just realised that's unintentional symbolism because mahishasur was also half-buffalo). in my head it's mainly ma katyayani

rhea having that charming smile? actually krishna canon.

yes. she is literally everywhere, which is why she appears suddenly to give advice. also it's very funny to me.

I did imply that leo had taken brief sanctuary at a hindu temple, and that's where he heard the hymns/aartis rhea was singing. ashwatam keshvam is stuck in my head so she definitely sang that once, and also 100% can confirm she likes singing yada yada hi dharmasya for the bit.

did I casually ripoff annabeth's realization moment in tartarus from the mahabharat? yes. I even built up the exposition of them being a best friend duo who also happen to be cousins. plus I even made tartarus akin to a battlefield for annabeth. truly created kurukshetra!tartarus ft. arjun!annabeth and krishna!rhea before gta 6.

jason's scene? also a ripoff because I can't let my baby die and also it was the PERFECT opportunity. I'd be stupid to let that go. basically, you know how draupadi prays to krishna during the vastraharan and her saree becomes never-ending? jason asks rhea for help and so he gets more strength and also rhea takes one look at caligula's spear and says "not on my watch".

also personal fav moments: having her keep one foot over medusa because her iconography often has her standing over the demons she defeated. and ofc, manhattan bridge. the story goes that ma kali is technically a representation of ma durga's wrath. and we know she cares for and protects her followers like they're her children. so that's the aspect rhea taps into after annabeth is stabbed. also, in some iterations, ma kali is translated as "invincible" (I think?), which is what kronos later calls her.

apollo can see her properly because he's god of both knowledge and prophecy. he sees all her forms, but primarily, I think he can see ma adishakti herself (hence the subtitle name for his pov). the gods are old, they've met other pantheons, so they definitely suspect. apollo is just completely sure, and he's right.

another fun fact! ten points to you if you figure out what I mentioned without even meaning to in the last paragraph.

[genericpuff]

So I just read episode 275 and I’m sort of confused?

(I took screenshots, but the ask won’t let me include them so) At the end of the episode Hera summons these little balls of light(?) , maybe small stars(?) and then she casts them down onto Kronos.

I feel like that was really anticlimactic and not illustrated well. Along with the viewer not seeing Hera fight Kronos, a God that’s been tormenting her, her last attack(?) doesn’t feel right — like, there’s no power behind, if anything, I’d compare it to what a healers animation in a game looks like.

Rachel even emphasizes how strong and brilliant Hera is with Persephone, but then doesn’t show us anything. I know the scene was split between Hera and Hades dealing with Kronos physically and mentally (asleep), but it was sort of disappointing.

What I think really sucks about the setup for the Hera vs. Kronos fight is that, as cool of a concept as it is to have Hera and Hades both fighting Kronos in separate timelines, it fails on multiple levels:

1.) All the build up of Hera saying "I was created to destroy you" winds up meaning nothing because it cuts away to Hades for the entire fight

2.) When it does cut back to Hera, she's just kinda... sitting on Kronos? Like what did she do besides just breaking one of his fingers? Why weren't we allowed to see that? I think this is more so clearly Rachel's inability to write/draw fight scenes showing through, so she relied entirely on the Hades' sequence which was less physical fighting and more just Hades monologuing before turning Kronos into a diamond.

3.) And speaking of the diamond thing... so we're just expected to believe Hades could turn not just people, but Titans into diamonds? This whole time? How is he just suddenly able to do this? It feels like a shonen anime where the main character has a flashback to a scene from 3 seconds ago (in this case, Hades' conversation with Melinoe) and then unlocks a new special ability through it, but it somehow feels even less earned than it does in anime (and trust me, I can't stand that anime trope at the best of times LOL) Like at least in something like Naruto it's like... okay we have this ability Naruto's been trying to master and we've seen him work at it for a few episodes so seeing him finally nail it on the brink of defeat is like, really hype and fun. But Hades just turns Kronos into a rock out of nowhere when we had zero reason or build-up to believe that would ever be possible. Why not, IDK, have Morpheus finally master her ability to dream dive and use that to trap Kronos in an eternal sleep? At least that would have had some pre-existing foundation especially with how much of S3 was focused on the dream diving shit. IDK, the whole thing's really contrived and silly and relies a lot on the reader just going "okay! yeah that makes sense!"

4.) So Hades turned timey-wimey Kronos into a diamond... but then it cuts back to present Kronos who's just been somehow defeated by Hera through ✨magic✨ and that's just it? What about present Kronos? Is he just still trapped in Tartarus now? Why isn't he also a diamond if Hades turned some past form of Kronos into a diamond? Or was the goal just to free Melinoe so present Kronos couldn't keep using her powers? But who's to say Kronos can't just do what he did again by reaching through time to grab Melinoe and start the whole thing over again? Especially now that Melinoe doesn't remember what happened and would be none the wiser that Kronos has attempted this before? Is it because this is present Kronos whose time abilities were 'exhausted' to him 'long ago'? Then how was he able to pull Hades into the time-bowl to begin with? Again, just like the diamond thing, this entire conflict relies a lot on readers just shrugging and accepting it because there's zero foundation for the concepts that are being portrayed and thus zero logic besides "just go with it".

I can go on and on about it but at the end of the day LO just isn't a comic that should have attempted having any big Marvel fight scenes. This is an issue in a lot of romance comics that have gone on too long, they start to lose the plot around their third season and then just throw everything out the window for some other big plot that makes no sense within the context of the story. Somehow LO, a Greek myth fantasy adaption, made fighting the God of Time seem out of place and boring.

God I can't wait for Hades 2.

[justmenoworries]

Lore Olympus Episode 275 Spoilers

It's okay.

Yeah.

Just... okay.

Hera breaking Kronos' fingers and telling him he's a pathetic little bitch-baby was amazing and a long-time coming. Wish we'd see more of that battle but nope. RS couldn't possibly let anyone but her precious Smurf Boy and Persie have the spotlight for an extended amount of time.

Hades and Kronos just feels like a broken record at this point.

Kronos "Ur bad."

Hades : (

Hades "But wait... I'm not bad!"

Rinse and repeat.

With the exception that RS actually has to wrap shit up this time so Hades remembers he's one of the main characters and defeats Kronos on his side by doing the ajksdajsgj and turning him into a diamond.

Oh and he also completely forgives Kronos for trying to cannibalize him and his brothers, abusing and basically killing Rhea, abusing Hera and trying to do the same to Persie. Because once again a piece of media has to bang the shitty "You have to forgive your abuser to really heal uwu" drum. Which is bull by the way. Abusers deserve nothing from their victims and least of all forgiveness. You are never required to forgive a person who hurt you like that.

Is the whole Persephone Nymph thing RS trying to be smart? "Oh haha everyone complained about the Same Face Syndrome in my comic, now look, I'm doing it too!" How about actually fixing the problem instead of lampshading it Rachel?

Also, hurray for Persie once again not doing shit to solve problems she caused. Now she apparently doesn't even need to fix the whole mortal realm crisis.

Also, Persie, why the fuck didn't you try speaking with Erebus??? You were literally right there in the Underworld. Guess that would've been too much work.

Loving how everybody just flat-out forgot about Morpheus. She's presumably still around in the timey-wimey dimension Hades and Melinoe are but we don't see her. At all. After RS spend episodes hinting at there being an arc for Morpheus about insecurity.

Neat./s

[artracoon]

PJO SERIES HOT TAKES/UNPOPULAR

OPINIONS. Sorry if I offend anyone, it's just an opinion. NO HATE I LOVE RICK AND THE ACTORS 💙(I just don't like Disney directing tbh)

The Athena kid in me is screaming at the top of their lungs because they think they could make a better script than Disney. BRO FINISH 2

Chapters in like 5 minutes- AND THE FIGHT SCENE BETWEEN MS DODDS AND PERCY

WAS RUUUUSHED Slow down Disney that was a good bit. They also made it happen outside instead of having her lead him inside. How hard did the mist have to work with all those people there???

Is it just me or is Sally kinda mean, where's our mom figure? Im crying over Luke's acting it was so good but also why are you dropping bombshells on us the second episode??

No offense to the actors but some of the lines felt like they were from Disney channel in the 2000s. It feels almost like a completely different story I understand why but I thought it was going to be more accurate

Love Annabeth’s "you drool when you sleep" but why was the scene setting so weird??

1 I drastically miss the Hellhound scene. It was one of my favorite scenes. They should have made the first two episodes *| accidentally vaporized my math teacher" and "My mom teaches me bullfighting" then they wouldn't have had to rush it so much. So much information was thrown at us in the first episode I couldn't process it. Also the convo between Percy and Sally in the Cabin was really unrealistic... Why did she have to drop that on Percy so fast I thought Mr. D and Chiron were supposed to have that conversation with Percy.

The bathroom scene was fine but I really wish Annabeth could have been there, instead of making her look like a huge stalker. We could have had her show him around camp like I get we want to build that relationship with Luke so it hits harder but Idk I personally wouldn't want her on my team if all she did was go "Im stalking you to see if your worthy" ditch me and watch me fight 3 v1 and then push me in the ocean. The Ares kids bashing... but Clarisse's acting was great. That scream of anger was amazing.

I feel like they took the first book and went

"eh don't need this, or this hmmm nah that doesn't seem important" and then shook it all about. They changed so much to save time but they didn't even make it a movie so there wasn't much point??

The intro was fine. I didn't really like the dialogue between Percy and Sally at the beginning. The museum was okay but we didn't get a lesson about Kronos so no foreshadowing for that at all. No one really seems to remember this but Percy didn't keep the pen and it doesn't make sense for him to as-well with getting kicked out of school. In the Book Percy was given the pen while fighting Miss Dodds. Afterwards he was still unknowingly clutching the pen when he went to talk to Mr.Brunner who took his pen back saying he should bring his own pen next time, making Percy more confused because Mr.Brunner had given him the pen.

Later when he's leaving for the quest Chiron gives him the pen saying it was from his dad. That means Percy wouldn't have had the pen during his time at camp and his fight with the minotaur. So it wouldn't make sense for him to defeat the minotaur with its horn rather than his pen if he had the pen. In the book he HAD to defeat the minotaur with his own horn because he had no other weapon.

He had a hard time on the beach and during sword training because no other sword felt right. I could rant forever on everything they overlooked.

Sorry no one asked for this rant i'm just so upset because Rick said it was going to be accurate and he chose these Actors because they would be able to play the parts more accurately but the script doesn't work so I there's no point in having actors who would do a good job if the script doesn't do a good job

[starswritewhispers]

neither man nor god [3]

A03

Chapter 2

The air in the room was heavy, weighed down by the tense stares exchanged from group to group.  Satoru could see Yuuji nervously fidgeting in the corner, most likely uncomfortable at the idea of going against Nanami in any way. A long sigh slipped from Satoru’s lips as he focused his attention on the son of Hades once more.

“Your evidence?” He asked, drumming his fingers against the long wooden table. “My mother died defeating Sukuna, so I am quite curious to know how he survived.” The smile on his face was closer to a baring of his teeth as Suguru glanced at him. 

“Sukuna was defeated right outside Kronos’s temple,” Suguru reminded him and the family hum of electricity rang through Satoru’s body.

“Yes, I am quite aware of where it occurred,” he bit out, ignoring Toge’s wince. “We going to relive all of that horrible day or are you going to get to the point?” “One of Sukuna’s most devout followers,--Jorge– was willing to sacrifice his own life in order to perform an ancient ritual,” Suguru’s voice fell flat, as though he was searching for something but couldn't quite find it. “At first, we feared that Kronos had risen and was merely walking around in Sukuna’s body.”

Yuuta cursed next to him as Satoru stared Suguru down, knowing what words would follow, but desperately hoping they wouldn’t. There would only be one worse alternative than the rise of Kronos and the mere thought of it made him sick with hopelessness. “Sukuna won out in the battle of their soul’s wills,” Suguru confirmed, looking over at Toge with a nod. “When we captured Jorge, Toge was the one assigned to interrogate him and when Toge tells you to tell the truth,” he shrugged and Toge’s eyes lit up with an odd bittersweet form of amusement. 

“It’s impossible to lie?” Yuuta guessed in the same awe-filled tone he had started to use whenever Toge’s powers were mentioned. “He could’ve had a charm or a spell over him,” Satoru countered, crossing his arms over his chest. “To assume that Sukuna has been reborn as the king of titans based off of one interrogation seems a little quick–” He spared a half-hearted glance to Toge. “No offense, of course.” Toge shrugged, waving his hands around as if to say none taken.

“Which is why it wasn’t based on just that,” Suguru sounded amused, as though he anticipated Satoru’s quick denial. “Haibara, the right hand of our king–”

“Isn’t he the one who is rumored to be Thanatos bo–” Satoru began to cut Suguru off but was stopped by a soft voice from his right. “Is that relevant?” Yuuji’s interruption seemed to shock the room as he cast a glare at Satoru. “What did Yu discover?” Satoru internally winced, making a note to himself to apologize to Yuuji after this meeting. Of course, he’d be defensive over Haibara, the man was nearly inseparable from Nanami, and since Nanami trained Yuuji, it’d only make sense that Haibara did as well. 

“Sukuna,” Suguru answered, voice akin to pity now. Satoru could see Megumi reach for Yuuji’s hand,  could see Yuuji’s chest heave as the words sank in. “He–” “Is he alive?” Yuuji demanded, shaking his head. “No, he must be, I would’ve received word otherwise.” With a sinking feeling, Satoru remembered the mention of the letter at dinner and he exchanged a quick, worried, glance with Yuuta. “Haibara and his company of a hundred men crossed paths with Sukua,” Suguru began, voice tight with grief and rage. “Only he and two others made it out alive, but they’ve all been riddled with injuries. He’s currently alive, but has been slipping in and out of consciousness for the past week.” Yuuji nodded, a look of relief passing over his features. Satoru could see the way he tightly squeezed Megumi’s hand, as though that simple act gave him strength. The feeling of envy began to weigh in his gut again as he forced a smile to his lips. “So, everything that could go wrong, went wrong?” His voice was airy, easy and light, as he grinned at the table. Suguru held his gaze, quirking a brow at him, as if he could already read straight through him. “Pretty much,” he agreed anyway, a laugh following his words. “Which is why we’re here-” “It would make more sense to discuss terms of an alliance in your kingdom,” Satoru began, swirling a goblet idly.  “After all, you’re the ones asking for help, you should be accommodating.” The truth of his words were too deadly to risk letting slip, that the walls in his castle had ears and eyes, that the older council members and advisors were not to be trusted and would sell any of them out to save their own skin.  He could see irritation flickering in Toge’s violet eyes, but shockingly enough, understanding in Suguru’s deep purple ones. The man smiled at him and it felt like being understood.  “If you would care to accompany us on our journey home, I’m sure the king would be more than understanding,” he agreed, bowing his head slightly.

“We can discuss arrangements privately tonight,�� Satoru decided, looking around the table. “For now, run me through everything Haibara reported.” As Suguru began to reiterate the events, Satoru could once again feel the comforting hum of electricity in his bones. For once, it wasn’t anger or his call to power that was setting him ablaze–it was excitement.

[kotamagic]

Lore Olympus this week is some painful flashback time for Hera. There was a trauma warming on the site, and it applies here too. Let's begin...

Kronos has been haunting Hera. This isn't news, but it hasn't been mentioned for a bit with all the other stuff going on.

What IS terrifying is that he appears to be PHYSICALLY PRESENT with Hera in her chambers, to the point where she's keeping anyone and everyone away, likely for their safety.

We get a closer look into Hera's perspective of her role as the Golden Traitor. She feigned having her clothes stolen to initially get Kronos' attention, and then it was her job to KEEP him distracted.

This act, while it worked, caused tension between her, Zeus, and even Demeter.

The worst part of the plan was that flirting with Kronos wasn't enough. She eventually had to fuck that bastard.

This caused no end of mental, emotional, and very likely physical trauma for Hera. The only thing keeping her in the role was the hope that this would work and that it was for the good of all.

Sound familiar? Remember Demeter talking about being a "good daughter" in therapy? Yeah, seems to be a trend with the Traitors --- doing horrible things (mostly to themselves) for the good of all.

Am I seeing this right?

Kronos wants Hera to admit that she did have actual feelings for him all that time ago?

We don't know how long Hera had to keep up the act until they finally defeated Kronos, but given that they're all immortal, it could've been a VERY time. Is Stockholm Syndrome the condition I'm looking for? Or another trauma-based condition with similarities?

Even as he haunts her in her chambers, Hera won't admit to feelings for Kronos. Because she doesn't have the feelings for him that he wants her to admit to. Hera is completely drained and tired of Kronos. She is exhausted, but even after all this time, she can't have peace.

I'd also like to point out that in the shot of Kronos looking at Hera laying down, he's see-through. That tells me that he is still very much in Tartarus, but with enough power to still cause harm.

A good friend comes to check on you when you're not doing good. A best friend barges in to help even when you told them not too.

Thank you, Hestia, for breaking through. You're getting Hera slowly on the mend. And her efforts pay off...

...when Hera finally speaks out about Kronos' presence.

Now the secret is in the open. Let's hope that Kronos doesn't rip Hera a new one (again). Let's also hope that when Hestia brings it up to those who can actually address it, they don't laugh it off.

*gives Zeus a death glare*

Anyway, thanks for coming to my LO post!

[m4gp13]

Day 6: Songs / Gods

OctaBryThanBaster (Octavian x Bryce x Ethan x Alabaster) but this just features Ethan and Bryce

Word count - 2767

@them-awesome-rarepairs

-

Standing in a snowy corner of Central Park, Ethan shifted on his feet and heard the snow crunch under his heavy boots. “And you’re sure this will work?” he asked of the boy standing next to him.

Bryce cast him a sidelong smirk that showed off his long canines. “What? Don’t you trust me?”

Ethan frowned. “I’m standing in front of a pile of rocks with a guitar, in order to sneak into the Underworld. Forgive me if I’m a little sceptical.”

Bryce hooked his arm over Ethan’s shoulders and brought him in close; messing up his hair with a loose fist. “I always do. And if it all goes even further to Tartarus than it already is, just remember it was your boyfriend’s idea.”

With a huff, Ethan rolled his eye but made no attempt to dislodge himself from the crook of Bryce’s elbow. “He’s your boyfriend too.”

“Eh, you had him first.” It was a decent perk of having a son Hecate as a boyfriend. Instead of taking one of the less pleasant and more permanent ways of ending up in the Underworld, Ethan could just get Al to point him in the direction of the Musical Rocks route. Bryce used his hold on him to tug him up the snowy path to the big pile of boulders that was supposed to take him to the Underworld. Ethan straightened his back as much as he could under Bryce’s weight and tried not to look too nervous. It was only hell. And he only had to play a little ditty on the guitar to get there.

When they were but a few feet from the stones, Bryce stopped and removed his thick winter coat to lay it over the snow like a picnic blanket. “What are you doing?” Ethan asked, a few steps of legibility away from a groan.

Bryce sat cross-legged on the blanket like an eager elementary schooler in circle time, and beamed up at him. “Getting us a comfortable spot for the show. Won’t you join me?”

“We won’t both fit on that.”

“You can sit on my lap.” Bryce leaned back and patted his thigh while Ethan frowned at him with an unimpressed look. “I’m not joking,” he said, smile growing wider. “Come on. It’ll be fun.”

Ethan held the guitar up by the fretboard, feeling a little like a butcher hoisting an animal carcass by the ankle. “I barely know how to use this thing.”

“I’ll help.” All the logical parts of his brain were telling Ethan to throw the guitar in Bryce’s face and stomp back to Mt Othrys. He could face whatever consequences Kronos wanted to throw at him later. But the other parts of his brain, his body as well, looked at Bryce’s stupid, goofy smile and got snagged on his hook, begging to be reeled in. Ethan heard his boots crunching over the snow and before he knew it, he was indeed tucking himself into Bryce’s embrace and relishing in the soft heat of his hands on his hips while they got themselves comfortable.

Taking stock of exactly what he was doing, Ethan tipped back against Bryce’s chest with a defeated sigh, still rigidly tense. “I’m serenading a pile of boulders so I can go to hell, while sitting in my boyfriend’s lap like a child.”

“Underworld,” Bryce corrected, and before Ethan could elbow him in the ribs added, “And does it count as serenading if you don’t use your voice?”

“Don’t care, didn’t ask.” Ethan twisted around and hefted the guitar in his hands. “Now what do I do with this?”

Bryce’s chuckles reverberated into Ethan while he raised his hands to his boyfriend’s. He took a gentle hold of Ethan’s left wrist and guided his right hand up to the fretboard, resting each of his fingers on the equivalent on Ethan’s hand. Leaning forward, he propped his chin up on Ethan’s shoulder, which looked a little ridiculous given that Bryce was almost a foot taller and had a good few inches on Ethan, even with him perched on his thighs.

“Just follow my lead,” Bryce said. His lips were close enough that his warm breath tickled Ethan’s cheek and forced the blood to rush to his face. He really should have come alone. With Bryce here, there wouldn’t be any blood left in his hands to keep his fingers moving across the strings.

“What will we play?” he asked.

Bryce hummed to himself before a wicked smirk cut across his face. “Pick at the ready,” he ordered and Ethan fought back a groan. He did as he was told while Bryce arranged his fingers on the cords and steadied Ethan’s other hand in preparation for the strumming. “Keep your wrist loose and follow my lead.” He rocked his hand to move the pick pinched between Ethan’s fingers up and down the strings. He didn’t recognise the first few notes as they adjusted to the arrangement but after they got the hang of it–

“Is this fucking American Pie?” He tipped his head back and tried to grumble through his grin. “It’s so long!”

“And we’ll love every second!”

As much as Ethan wanted to kick him in the shins and smash the guitar against the rocks, he couldn’t easily prove him wrong. Growing up, Ethan always got told he had his dad’s taste in music and he supposed there was some truth in that. Older songs were just fun to him. And Bryce, the asshole that he was, knew it. He knew guitars much better than Ethan and although he gave it a valiant try, he wasn’t quite good enough to make up for his co-player’s lack of experience. Ethan tried to follow his right hand on the cords as close as he could but a lot of the cord changes were too fast for him to keep up, often making their strums hit at the wrong time and sending discordant wails echoing from the instrument.

Bryce didn’t seem at all dismayed. His dopey smile didn’t falter for a second while he nodded his head or tapped his foot to the time they were supposed to be keeping. Every time Ethan cringed at a sour note, Bryce chirped, “Don’t worry, we have plenty of time to get the hang of it!”

And, gods damn him, they did. Sort of, but it was better than how they started. The song had its repetitive parts and Ethan started anticipating when to put his fingers where, which stopped the chord changes from being a flailing mess of digits getting tangled up together. It went from sounding like a mangled dirge to something almost passable as a functional song. With Bryce’s soothing presence, it even started to become a little relaxing. Ethan’s rod-straight back eventually softened as he allowed himself to lean into Bryce and his warmth; a gentle shield against the brisk cold.

“Bryce,” Ethan murmured under his breath, watching as it froze into a small cloud before him, “Do you think the Underworld gods like music?”

“I think everyone likes music to some degree,” he answered, not taking his eyes off the guitar or his hands off of Ethan’s.

“I mean more than usual,” he said. “More than the other gods.”

Briefly, Bryce flicked his eyes up to Ethan’s. “I’ve never thought about it. Why?”

“Just the entrances. The LA entrance to the Underworld is a record label and this one opens with music. I know it’s because of Orpheus, but it was his music that cut his path to the Underworld and charmed the gods into letting him try to get Eurydice back. I just thought there might be something to it.”

“That’s . . .” Bryce leaned his head closer to Ethan’s and the lengthening tips of his shaggy hair brushed against his face, “An interesting point, actually.”

“Actually?”

“You know what I mean.” Bryce nudged him with a shoulder. “To be honest, I’ve never really given it much thought. Underworld gods and songs, that is.”

Neither had Ethan until about five minutes ago. “Do you think it’s like a ‘chicken and the egg’ scenario?” he asked, and at the look of bewilderment crossing Bryce’s face, he clarified, “Maybe the connection stems from Orpheus’ influence or maybe Orpheus only had influence because of the connection?”

“Well,” Bryce said as he teased a softer melody from the guitar. The way his deft fingers worked their magic across the board was almost mesmerising. Ethan could have watched it all day. “They are Underworld gods, right?”

“Yeah. What does that have to do with songs?”

“Think about it.” Bryce shrugged. “They’re all a bunch of ancient, immortal beings doomed to spend an eternity surrounded by death. Everything just stays exactly as stale and dead as it’s been for the past several thousand years. It’s all stagnant.”

They were getting to Bryce’s favourite part of the song and his hands started moving faster with firm intent but Ethan wasn’t paying much attention. He was too busy trying and failing to work out Bryce’s logic in his head. “You’re losing me.”

Bryce snorted a laugh that hummed through Ethan’s back. “Songs are art,” he said, emphasising each word in time to the beat. “They’re inherently reflective of when they’re made, so they’re changing all the time.” A smirk slanted up his face. “In New Rome and Camp Jupiter, they liked to emulate the ancient Romans as much as they could. But we’re not ancient Romans, and it shows in everything except the latin.”

“So,” Ethan drawled as his hands tried desperately to keep up with Bryce’s effortless movements, “You think the Underworld gods like music because everything is the same down there but songs are always changing?”

“Yeah, pretty much.” His strumming thankfully started slowing as the song began winding down to the last few repeats of the chorus. His hair kept falling in his eyes but he didn’t seem to take much note of it. “If I was a god living in the Underworld, the only people I’d ever let in were the people who could handle a melody.”

“Would you make them all play for you?”

“Probably. That’s the nature of godhood, right?” He slashed the pick down the strings. “Mortals like us are just entertainment to them.”

“Oh?” Ethan glanced over his shoulder at Bryce’s face, trusting him to carry on the tune on his own. “Rather dissenting for a Roman.”

“Well, you’re rather obedient for a Greek,” he huffed under his breath.

Ethan stiffened and sharpened his look at Bryce. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Bryce sagged with a sigh, but his hands didn’t skip a beat as they kept plucking the last few melancholy notes from the strings. “She doesn’t love you, you know,” he said, making Ethan stiffen even further against him. “She’s a goddess. It’s in her nature to use you. You’ll never be anything but a resource to her.”

The ending of the song drifted on the air and before Ethan could snap back, a deep rumbling drew his attention to the mound of rocks before him. The thin layer of frost coating them was shaken off to drift to the ground as the old stones grinded against each other. As if a knife had been stabbed into it, a long, thin slice of blackness appeared gouged into the surface and widened from its tapered tip to a flat bottom. The rumbling stopped, and Ethan felt Bryce’s hand grip tighter onto his.

They sat in silence as they assessed the triangular crevice that appeared where the boulders used to be. A serpentine shiver snaked its way down Ethan’s spine and curled up into an uneasy knot in the pit of his stomach. The scent of mildew and rot drifted from the open passage to assault his senses and give him harsh reminders of his time in the labyrinth a few months ago.

Instead of getting up or shoving Ethan off, Bryce let his fingers trail further down the inside of Ethan’s wrist and forearm. “You know–”

“If you’re going to tell me that I don’t have to do this, and that it’s too dangerous, and that I’d be much better off if I just ran away with you to hide until this war blows over–” He cast him a dull look over his shoulder “–Save your breath. We’ve been over this.”

He watched Bryce transform before his eye. “She doesn’t deserve your help.” His voice cut like a knife, his eyes narrowed into pointed shards and all the softness he’d enveloped Ethan in for the past several dozen minutes had been instantly chipped away to form a serrated edge.

Ethan set the guitar on the ground beside them. “That’s not for you to decide.” He got up to go but Bryce wrapped his arms around his waist, keeping him down and pressed against him. “Bryce!” Ethan snapped. He couldn’t wriggle his way out of Bryce’s grasp so he twisted around in his lap to face him and shut up any protest working its way to Bryce’s lips with a militant glare. “You have no right to tell me what I can or can’t do for my people. Not when you’re no better.”

Bryce’s head snapped up and his eyes locked onto Ethan. “Excuse me?”

His arms had loosened so Ethan took the opportunity to haul himself to his feet, looking down at his boyfriend. “What’s Orcus ever done for you? Or the legion, for that matter? And yet you still defend them, you’ve never considered joining the army and you’d kiss their boots in a heartbeat. You have no ground to stand on when it comes to me and my mother.”

“That’s completely different.” Bryce braced his hands on his knees and hunched forward. Even sitting on the ground with his head craned back to look up at Ethan, he still appeared as if he was looking down his nose at Ethan. Probably from being so used to being the tall one. “You don’t see me running around doing errands for them.”

“You would if they asked you.”

“What’s that got to do with this?” Bryce demanded.

Ethan didn’t care for his deflections. “If the legion came for you right now and offered you a place with them, would you take it?” Bryce didn’t answer. Not verbally. But Ethan watched the shameful drop of his head and the way he let his hair fall like a curtain before his eyes, shielding them from view. “See?” Ethan said. “We’re both servile little mortals.”

“It’s–” His voice broke. “It’s not easy, being an exile.”

Ethan sighed. “I know.” He was well acquainted with that kind of lifestyle.

Bryce flicked his eyes up to meet Ethan’s. “But you’ve never asked me to join the army.”

“It’s not easy being in the army, either.”

Bryce opened his mouth as if to snap a retort, but his eyes skipped past Ethan to the yawning mouth of the cave before them and wisely shut his trap. Ethan turned around, taking a deep breath to steady himself, and started walking towards the entrance.

The snow crunched behind him and in an instant he was facing Bryce again, his wrist clenched in his hand. His eyes were wide and desperation was etched into every line of his face. “If you don’t come back–”

“You’ll what?” Ethan cut in and arched a brow at his boyfriend. “Kill me?”

“No,” he huffed. His shoulders sagged and for a moment Ethan thought he was about to let go and send him on his merry way down to hell. He didn’t do that. Instead, he tugged him forward by his wrist and enveloped him in a hug. “Just remember that I know how to get down there too.”

Bryce’s body was a bastion of warmth and Ethan couldn’t help but bury his face in his chest, savouring it in case he’d never get to feel it again. “Yeah,” he murmured against him. “I won’t forget.”

Bryce pressed a shallow kiss to his forehead and stepped back. His lips were quivering but he forced them into a smile nonetheless. “I’ll see you soon,” he said. “And if I don’t, you can tell Hades and Persephone to expect the concert of an unlifetime.”

Ethan gave Bryce’s hand a quick squeeze. “I’ll pass it along.” This time, when Ethan turned to leave, Bryce didn’t stop him. He could still feel his eyes on his back and when he stepped into the shadow of the dark cave, he held Bryce’s warmth close to his chest; his shield against the surrounding cold.

-

[via-rant]

Obrumbratio Scintillae

Chapter 3 -

"Hey darling. What's the matter?" Faith said walking in on Luke laying on his bed, staring at the ceiling. She sat on the edge of it and grabbed his hand.

"I don't know. I've done this before. They're powerful, we need them to defeat the Gods. But it also feels... wrong."

"It didn't for the others?" Faith asked and he shrugged. It was difficult to understand for him too. It was easier to side with them, to betray Annabeth and Thalia and Percy. But he was doing the right thing... right? But the way Kronos talked about the two. They wouldn't just use them. At least he wouldn't. He doesn't even know Kronos. He did eat his own kids. He shook his head.

"No. We can trust him." Faith smiled and layed with him, kissing his cheek.

"Of course we can."

---------

It's been a few days since Leo and Nico arrived. They got a tour and were introduced to some of their trainers and got their schedules, both a little upset they had different ones. Training with other people and monsters. It was weird at first but they got used to it pretty quickly, loving the adrenaline and energy they use up so they could actually sleep at night.

Nico talked about mythomagic and Leo about his machines during lunch and dinner as everyone gave them weird looks.

Leo kept a close eye on Nico to make sure he was warm enough and asked his trainers to do the same. He hoped he wouldn't have to use his fire again. Leo was glad Nico didn't remember that. Or thought he didn't. Nico didn't want to bring it up if it wasn't necessary knowing how hesitant he is around any kind of fire. The same way he was about his dad. So they didn't talk about it.

They talked about their loved ones. Leo talked about his mom and Nico his and his sister. Leo mentions he had a sister too. But that was it. Which was fine. They never really talked about how they died. Just that they did before changing the subject.

None of the other kids really liked them. They sometimes catch one of them glaring at them. If it weren't for Lukes and Faiths protection then they'd be hurt pretty bad by now. Probably knocked out. But one of the kids went too far while sparring with Leo. He smiled his usual smile, throwing his wooden knives with impeccable aim and making jokes along the way but it wasn't enough. The gorgon got too angry and slashed his back with her tail, giving him a big gash. Everyone stood there with smirks just watching him struggle to get up. Luke immediately ran to him and gave him some ambrosia.

"Why are you all standing there?! Get some bandages!! Get some water!!" He yelled looking around at all the monsters.

"The kid needs to learn something!"

"Learn?! He's hurt!"

"He's weak! If he can't handle this then he shouldn't be here!"

"He's losing blood!"

"Luke. It's... it's okay. I... can..." Leo shook with effort to stand but he just passed out. Luke groaned and picked him up himself, running to the infirmary. He fixed him up, not questioning the scars on his back. He didn't focus on that. He sat on the side of his bed in concern and confusion.

Do that a few more times, he'll get over it. Luke's face twisted in disgust.

"Do you have any idea how the human body works?"

Maybe not. But we train humans too. Like you. That happens all the time. They're all the same. The door opened suddenly and Nico came running in.

"Is he okay?!"

"He's fine. Just unconscious." He visibly relaxed but still looked worried. He looked at them and smiled at the relationship they had.

"He'll be fine. I'll talk to them about being more gentle. Okay?" Nico nodded and sat next to him. Luke was about to leave when he heard people coming from the other side of the tent. He turned around and he didn't know how to feel at the sight of the Jackson kid. In an enemy tent. Pointing his sword at him, Nicos at Percy.

---------

Yeah the other post kinda just boosted my motivation!! Like times a thousand I finished this so fast!!

@moa-broke-me @yonemurishiroku @pjo-hoo-toa-freakazoid @potatoman-taterdude @the-demigod-slytherclaw @im-always-lost-in-a-book @stillcarmine @art-randomness @cryptic-ember

So it doesn't show anything for @/unidentifiedimp if you find this please let me know you changed it or something! I'd love to continue tagging you, if you're still interested! If anyone else knows about them, let me know please!

[halothenthehorns]

Chapter 19: GROVER CAUSES A STAMPEDE

Today Alex wore a baggy pink hoodie with the ASL hand signs spelling the letters in pink and green stitching, and loose black sweats. She was barefoot. Every other toenail was painted silver. It was Sunday morning somewhere as she came in making the most casual clothing in the world still somehow look like it was hand-selected with care with her green hair in a loose tail at the base of her neck sipping and blowing on a cup of coffee.

As she flopped in to her seat beside Magnus, he saw she'd done the same to her fingernails, every other one was glittering silver.

He tried to turn back and keep talking to Jason like he knew he'd been doing a whole five seconds ago...and couldn't remember what on earth they'd been talking about.

His hearing tuned in and out badly as Alex proceeded to inform everyone who entered her pronouns for the day, trying to swallow around the fact she hadn't felt the need to inform him and what that could mean.

Thalia had to manhandle Percy into the room, hands on his shoulders. He was still rubbing the heel of his hand into his eye like he couldn't believe somebody had the audacity to get him moving. They weren't sure how she managed it, and the look on her face screamed she really didn't think any of them were worth it. Yet she still picked up the book without protest, so that had to count for something.

Nico and Will came in last, Nico holding onto Will's wrist and muttering a string of curses about, "staying up to late," and, "all your fault," which did not erase either of them infusing the room with a sense of serenity for how much they were snickering as they carried platters of breakfast food for everybody which they passed out, Will even having a cup of coffee in one hand the whole time doing it. When they sat back on the couch, they were closer together than ever, just one shadow on the wall. It was a minor miracle Will's syrup covered pancakes didn't splash over Nico's crepe.

This was not going to be a pleasant day though. Nobody believed for a second Kronos was going to manage a full frontal assault on the camp without a single casualty. The best they could hope for was that someone, somehow found a way to close the entrance to the Labyrinth in camp before it got that far, but it was a long shot.

Thalia started reading with a regalness to her voice. The weight of what she was telling not lost on her for the lives gone, but also the spark of excitement in a battle pulling her in.

"I always knew Grover would find a way to put those pipes of his to good use," Percy snickered in surprise, only sorry Grover wasn't here to demand if he meant his singing voice or his reed pipes and the answer was definitely both.

"Does Grover outrank Percy on the battlefield and cause a stampede of campers?" Alex asked in excitement.

"Or he finds a way to collect The Wild together and sends barn animals at the enemy, maybe all the monsters of the forest," Magnus said in trepidation.

"As long as it's not a stampede to the enchilada diner, then you'd lose valuable warriors right before the battle," Jason chuckled.

Distance was shorter in the Labyrinth. Still, by the time Rachel got us back to Times Square, I felt like we'd pretty much run all the way from New Mexico.

"Sorry for the delayed question," Magnus interrupted, leaving Percy already wound up in exasperation how much he'd have to deal with before they even got to the fight. "But um, did it ever say why Pan was down there? Like, a satyr tried to give the message he'd passed on, and then, what? He went down into the labyrinth to fade, and couldn't because nobody believed that first guy? Or was he so weak he really did fall in? Not sure I follow that part."

"You are way over thinking that one Magnus," Percy shrugged. "Why do the gods do anything, show up anywhere they want? We have no more clue why Pan was down there than why Aphrodite decided to show up in the desert to make me hold a mirror."

"Uhhu," Magnus sighed in defeat, figuring as much before he even asked.

We climbed out of the Marriott basement

"That's where you popped out?" Jason asked in surprise. "I would have thought it would change, or she'd at least point out the path of how to get to camp so you guys could try to somehow close it from the inside."

"After everything Clarisse tried to get that thing to close, we weren't going to waste time playing whack-a-mole on maybes," Percy shook his head.

and stood on the sidewalk in the bright summer daylight, squinting at the traffic and crowds.

I couldn't decide which seemed less real—New York or the crystal cave where I'd watched a god die.

There really was something so magical about the mundane, Magnus nodded along. What was once the peak of human engineering was now walked past without a second thought. A god fading from existence because his domain had long vanished was generally accepted two thousand years ago and not even going to be a blip on most of those campers' radar. Every few pages of this still got to him sometimes like he was waiting for the camera crew to pop out, but he now had seven backpacks of nonperishable food to take back with him and counting while Percy started flicking french fries at Jason without a care where they landed as they were magically swept away.

I led the way into an alley, where I could get a nice echo. Then I whistled as loud as I could, five times.

A minute later, Rachel gasped. "They're beautiful!"

Alex sighed with envy. First the hippocampi, now this, everybody got to ride the awesome creatures before her!

"Continuing the tradition every girl I've met has been a horse girl," Percy chuckled, as even Thalia couldn't keep the glee out of her voice and she wouldn't ride them unless it was a life or death situation.

"That's because you haven't been around the stables when it's cleaning times for other cabins," Will snorted, plenty of his sisters weren't fond of the smell no matter which animal it came from.

Alex suppressed her own amusement Percy would think twice about mocking her love of these majestic animals if he ever found out she was related to horses too. Her mom had given birth to an eight-legged one.

A flock of pegasi descended from the sky, swooping between the skyscrapers. Blackjack was in the lead, followed by four of his white friends.

"Is white the standard color, or is that coincidence?" Jason asked, his hazy mind trying to supply one of them being brown for some reason.

"The majority of the ones we find are white, though they can come in all colors," Will shrugged. "They're also usually male for some reason. We're not really sure why at all."

Jason looked extremely concerned why nobody had ever done any sort of study to find out details about this, but it also really wasn't the point right now. Besides, even he wasn't so sure he could keep Percy's attention long enough to ask the pegasi any questions, let alone if they'd know the answers to their own biology.

Yo, boss! He spoke in my mind. You lived!

"Yeah," I told him. "I'm lucky that way.

Thalia set the book down in her lap to do air quotes and everything. "Lucky," she was watching him with concern if his head was about to explode, again. "Do you have a good explanation for that choice of words?"

"I'm still alive?" He shrugged. He didn't have a better answer, nor care to play games right now. There was a nasty feeling deep in the pit of his stomach that he knew wasn't going to go away with silly comments. It was a miracle he'd gotten any sleep at all with how long it had been there.

Listen, we need a ride to camp quick."

That's my specialty! Oh man, you got that Cyclops with you? Yo, Guido! How's your back holding up?

"And here I thought he'd bonded with Annabeth," Alex chuckled. "I bet she'd be devastated right now to know it was just Blackjack giving orders of who goes with whom."

"Why do you remember which pegasus carried who?" Percy looked at her like she was nuts. He'd been there and he couldn't have recalled if Thalia had been on which horse.

"Pays to pay attention Perce, maybe someday you'll remember that," she smirked. "You never know what could be important."

Percy still clearly thought she was just nuts, but he didn't retort, which was the only sign they were going to get to keep going.

The Pegasus Guido groaned and complained, but eventually he agreed to carry Tyson.

"Tyson must be in heaven right now," Will grinned. "Finally getting to ride the flying ponies, and one who already likes Annabeth no less."

"He was clapping his hands and bouncing in excitement so much he was going to give Guido a nervous tick," Percy nodded.

Everybody started saddling up—except Rachel.

Percy's hands fluttered across his lap nervously. He wished he could have offered to ride with her, maybe he could hide her under his jacket to get her into camp. It didn't seem right, leaving her behind after she'd done so much for them and he'd nearly gotten her killed multiple times now.

"Well," she told me, "I guess this is it."

I nodded uncomfortably. We both knew she couldn't go to camp. I glanced at Annabeth, who was pretending to be very busy with her Pegasus.

"Yeah, the girl that's been around them longer than anybody is trying to remember which side she's supposed to hop on," Jason almost managed to say with a straight face.

"Thanks, Rachel," I said. "We couldn't have done it without you."

"I wouldn't have missed it. I mean, except for almost dying, and Pan..."

"Surely the real highlight was pretending to be asleep so you and Annabeth could talk," Magnus offered.

"Yes, Rachel will never shut up about that one time we almost died in an earthquake after a dirt nap," Percy sighed. Why did all of his friends keep almost dying? Maybe Rachel was right and he did need a normal day, just to live for one moment in his whole life to not be afraid when it would end.

Her voice faltered.

"He said something about your father," I remembered. "What did he mean?"

Rachel twisted the strap on her backpack. "My dad...My dad's job. He's kind of a famous businessman."

"Rachel's the best person right now," Jason snorted. "If you'd asked anybody else that, they still would have evaded you and you wouldn't have found out until you dreamed about it next summer or something!"

"I couldn't have blamed her if she didn't, we're all entitled to a private life," but Percy looked rather pleased all the same she'd had enough certainty in their friendship to answer that. He'd gained her trust enough to know she wouldn't be treated differently.

"You mean...you're rich?"

"Well, yeah."

"Like, rich enough to name drop daddy bucks and get a chauffeur his worship," Will's mind boggled at a mortal having that kind of power usually only a god possessed. He certainly wouldn't drop everything and go running errands just because somebody could sing a song really well.

"So that's how you got the chauffeur to help us? You just said your dad's name and—"

"Yes," Rachel cut me off. "Percy...my dad's a land developer. He flies all over the world, looking for tracts of undeveloped land." She took a shaky breath. "The wild. He—he buys it up. I hate it, but he plows it down and builds ugly subdivisions and shopping centers. And now that I've seen Pan...Pan's death—"

Thalia made a little humming noise of agreement. Her dad was the worst example of a god in her eyes, she loathed being judged by what he did. Rachel shouldn't blame herself for what her parents did, she wasn't complicit in the slightest for his crimes, something she still had to remind herself of all the time.

"Hey, you can't blame yourself for that."

"Then who can we blame for that?" Percy muttered. He really didn't blame Rachel. Maybe it was Grover's empathy link driving the emotion harder than usual, but he felt resentiment to his own mortal parts right now for getting just a glimpse of something he'd never get any closer to than that cavern.

"Change itself, time marches on," Thalia said in agreement. Artemis would have wept had she been there.

"You don't know the worst of it. I—I don't like to talk about my family. I didn't want you to know. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything."

"No," I said. "It's cool. Look, Rachel, you did awesome. You led us through the maze. You were so brave. That's the only thing I'm going to judge you on. I don't care what your dad does."

Nico considered that's how one could solve world piece right there. If no one in camp ever judged him for what his dad did, he'd have a happy normal life like any of them. There would be no sorting of cabins, no isolation . . .

Rachel looked at me gratefully. "Well...if you ever feel like hanging out with a mortal again...you could call me or something."

"Uh, yeah. Sure."

She knit her eyebrows. I guess I sounded unenthusiastic or something, but that's not how I meant it. I just wasn't sure what to say with all my friends standing around. And I guess my feelings had gotten pretty mixed up the last couple of days.

There was a very small part of Percy that was trying to pipe up and tell him what Annabeth and Rachel wanted from him. It sounded suspiciously like Grover's voice calling him an idiot while his thoughts drifted to Juniper.

But to say the words out loud felt like slamming a door shut, which his mom had always discouraged him from doing. Honestly, he just wanted both Rachel and Annabeth in his life without having to choose some stupid meaning behind it.

"I mean...I'd like that," I said.

"My number's not in the book," she said.

"I've got it."

"Still on your hand? No way."

"No. I kinda...memorized it."

Her smile came back slowly, but a lot happier. "See you later, Percy Jackson. Go save the world for me, okay?"

"And you now have the financial backing to do it," Jason snorted. "Now you'll be unstoppable!"

"Yeah, let's see how that goes," Percy's smile was almost maudlin. He couldn't remember the battle to come, but he knew he hadn't saved everyone in camp just by a go get'um attitude.

She walked off down Seventh Avenue and disappeared into the crowds.

"Where she probably went to the airport and commandeered a private jet next to take her wherever she wanted," Magnus muttered.

Alex shook her head slowly, her smile fond but distant. Magnus clearly had no idea how easy it was to let go of wealth when you hated every penny.

When I got back to the horses. Nico was having trouble. His Pegasus kept shying away from him, reluctant to let him mount.

He smells like dead people! The Pegasus complained.

Nico sighed, though he'd never needed confirmation. He'd guessed that's what the problem was.

"You and Tyson are way to much alike," Alex told him cheerfully.

That would have been an insult anywhere else, but Nico knew how much Alex liked Tyson, the cyclops that could build anything and was the champion of at least half of Percy's successes and loved horses that didn't like him back, not Tyson the monster.

"Yeah, maybe we'll start an anti-horse club or something," Nico's smile was more half-hearted indulgence.

"Robot pegasi," Magnus nodded along with consideration. "Tyson would love to build them for all the kids that are allergic or have some other issue with being around them. Sounds like a great plan."

Except for kids who hated automatons just as much, Will frowned but kept that to himself as Nico gave a half-hearted laugh at the thought.

"If Blackjack starts a revolt, I claim Sweden in the war," Percy snorted.

Hey now, Blackjack said. Come on, Porkpie. Lotsa demigods smell weird. It ain't their fault. Oh—uh, I didn't mean you, boss.

Percy looked around in bemusement at the ensuing laughter, giving his arm a theatrical sniff. "I swear I bathe! I don't know what he's on about!"

"We probably do smell pretty strange and foul to them," Thalia nodded though. "Between our clothes and our skin being covered in all sorts of things and maybe even vaguely predator like to them but they aren't quite sure what to call all of that so we're just weird."

"It's a good thing you didn't smell like a fresh summer field, or those flesh eating horses would have eaten you, calcified seashell or not," Jason smirked.

"So that means they would have let Nico clean out their stall without batting an eye," Percy rolled his own.

"Pass, I wouldn't have made a deal to save your butts," Nico scoffed. He probably could have just made the shadows dissipate all that dung and only would have passed out, like, once from the effort of it all, but like Hades would he go around admitting that.

Percy gave him an exaggerated, tragic face and even clutched at his camp shirt while Thalia loudly read on around them or they'd be here for years.

"Go without me!" Nico said. "I don't want to go back to that camp anyway."

"Nico," I said, "we need your help."

He folded his arms and scowled.

It had seemed to be the obvious response to give when Percy Jackson had said that to him, rather than running into his arms and hugging him. Nico fiddled with his ring in surprise he didn't feel any sort of resurgence of that feeling now.

Then Annabeth put her hand on his shoulder.

"Nico," she said. "Please."

Slowly, his expression softened. "All right," he said reluctantly. "For you. but I'm not staying."

Percy's face twisted like a wet rag as a million wrung-out emotions came pouring out for that. He thought Nico had a crush on him...did he have one on Annabeth too?! Or, wait, was Nico faking his reluctance and he did want to come back, or was Annabeth just that amazing she could get through to someone who didn't even like her, or-

Thalia was snapping her fingers under his nose to get his attention as he shook his head and realized he had been stirring up the ocean already. To much pent up frustration from incoherent dreams that tried to be memories last night, to much frustration at constantly wondering things he'd already lived through once, and way to much concern over a kid who was sitting right there watching him with those dark brown eyes that grew calmer by the day. Percy still half expected Nico to smack him with the broad side of that sword if he asked out loud.

Nico muttered something to Will, who made a gesture like, 'that's all you.'

"I saw why you liked Annabeth right then," Nico grudgingly answered. It wasn't against his will or anything, he just didn't like explaining his old thought process to himself, let alone out loud. Percy was about to experience a really harsh blow in memory of his camp though, and he felt the need to offer him something before all that. "Her tone was, very persuasive. Kind, but no room for argument, like, kind of reminded me a little of, well, Bianca, I guess."

Percy had never got the same feeling thinking of Annabeth, but he nodded his head in thanks Nico answered that bizarre moment.

I raised an eyebrow at Annabeth, like, How come all of a sudden Nico listens to you?

"She's clearly a Nico whisperer," Jason chuckled.

"Patent pending," Thalia snorted.

She stuck her tongue out at me.

At last we got everybody on a Pegasus. We shot into the air, and soon we were over the East river with Long Island spread out before us.

We landed in the middle of the cabin area and were immediately met by Chiron, the potbellied satyr Silenus, and a couple of Apollo cabin archers.

Jason couldn't help a sigh of relief they didn't just waltz into camp with everybody's eyes only on the Labyrinth entrance. Then he felt guilty for that relief, of course they knew to watch their backs in case of some other possible entry. He really had to stop underestimating them.

"Not exactly the welcome party I still feel like I deserve," Percy sighed.

"We had a cake ready," Will said innocently, "but we forgot about it in the oven and nearly set the kitchen on fire during the battle."

"The worst crime those monsters could do to camp," Percy nodded tragically, his stomach in actual painful knots like he'd just downed fifty floats in a row with his lack of knowledge of what actually happened.

Chiron raised an eyebrow when he saw Nico, but if I expected him to be surprised by our latest news about Quintus being Daedalus, or Kronos rising, I was mistaken.

"Was he more surprised that I'm still alive or just trying to even remember who I was?" Nico rolled his eyes.

"Well, since he didn't throw Annabeth a party when she came back alive, Chiron probably figured it would be rude to even acknowledge you," Alex snorted.

"I feared as much," Chiron said. "We must hurry. Hopefully you have slowed down the Titan lord, but his vanguard will still be coming through. They will be anxious for blood. Most of our defenders are already in place. Come!"

"Wait a moment," Silenus demanded.

"I thought you said Selina for a moment and I was very confused why she cared so much," Jason said crosseyed.

"I'm sure she's always been very invested in everything that goes around camp, gets the best gossip that way," Magnus snorted, while Will and Thalia tried their hardest not to look guiltily at each other their jokes hit a little to close to home on that one.

"What of the search for Pan? You are almost three weeks overdue, Grover Underwood! Your searcher's license is revoked!"

"Is that really relevant right this second," Thalia didn't try hard to suppress a scowl. "His home is under attack too."

"Chiron made a big stink about giving Grover more time," Percy pushed invisible glasses up the bridge of his nose mockingly and put on a poor impression of the old goats voice, "he probably wanted to be there to rub it into Chiron."

"And it won't go very well for Mr. Oats for Brains," Thalia agreed viciously.

Grover took a deep breath. He stood up straight and looked Silenus in the eye.

A description never yet given to him, that went over none of their heads. Thalia sounded so proud, like she was going to hoist Grover up onto a podium any moment and know he could deliver such depressing news with the grace it was needed.

"Searcher's licenses don't matter any more. The great god Pan is dead. He has passed on and left us his spirit."

"What?" Silenus's face turned bright red. "Sacrilege and lies! Grover Underwood, I will have you exiled for speaking thus!"

Several people sighed. Nobody was truly surprised this would be a common reaction and would likely cause a bit of panic in these circles, but it was never fun to hear of something they knew to be the truth and called nuts for it. They'd all lived their whole lives with that feeling.

"It's true," I said. "We were there when he died. All of us."

"Impossible! You are all liars! Nature-destroyers!"

"That's a bit of a harsh insult to throw around willy-nilly," Alex smirked. "Percy, yes, no contest, to many burning buildings. Annabeth reads so much you could make a case for her and those books, but Tyson's the child of a nature spirit so he's exempt, but Nico hasn't actively done any harm to the circle of life yet."

"Yet," Nico echoed miserably. He often sucked the life out of every plant and bug and occasionally even animals if he used his powers to much and instinctively preserved his own over natures. He'd found himself in many a circle of death via his own doing.

"You're still exempt, there's no nature without death," Alex shrugged.

"My dad creates ocean life, don't I get exempt?" Percy looked a little pouty. He was pretty sure you could get oxygen from seaweed and everything.

"Start putting out your own fires pyro," Alex waved him off, obviously not cutting him any slack, which made Percy clutch his heart in betrayal. Percy decided maybe he should pretend to be less well ajusted or something...on the other hand, that sounded like way to much effort.

Chiron studied Grover's face. "We will speak of this later."

"We will speak of it now!" Silenus said. "We must deal with this—"

"Silenus," Chiron cut in. "My camp is under attack. The matter of Pan has waited two thousand years. I fear it will have to wait a bit longer. Assuming we are still here this evening."

Alex pretended to do a very dramatic mike drop for that awesome shutdown and Percy was very sorry Grover wasn't here to see it after the cutting look he'd been giving Silenus.

And on that happy note, he readied his bow and galloped toward the woods, leaving us to follow as best we could.

"That about sums Chiron up pretty well," Magnus muttered.

It was the biggest military operation I'd ever seen at camp. Everyone was at the clearing, dressed in full battle armor, but this time it wasn't for capture the flag. The Hephaestus cabin had set up traps around the entrance to the Labyrinth—razor wire, pits filled with pots of Greek fire, rows of sharpened sticks to deflect a charge. Beckendorf was manning two catapults the size of pickup trucks, already primed and aimed at Zeus's Fist. The Ares cabin was on the front line, drilling in phalanx formation with Clarisse calling orders. Apollo's and Hermes's cabins were scattered in the woods with bows ready.

Many had taken up positions in the trees. Even the dryads were armed with bows, and the satyrs trotted around with wooden cudgels and shields made of rough tree bark.

"Imagine if you always did put that much effort into capture the flag though," Jason was getting second hand adrenaline just from hearing of all these war efforts as he watched Percy start twitching in his seat. "I bet you would have found even greater ways to capitalize on all this, drills are run so the expected is mundane and to find ways to make it all run smoother."

"I've finally figured it out," Percy told him with a straight face. "You grew up inside of a book, and this is your first interaction with actual people."

Jason sighed and flipped him off while Thalia's laugh sounded oddly mechanical next to Percy.

Annabeth went to join her brethren from the Athena cabin, who had set up a command tent and were directing operations. A gray banner with an owl fluttered outside the tent. Our security chief, Argus, stood guard at the door.

Aphrodite's children were running around straightening everybody's armor and offering to comb the tangles out of our horsehair plumes. Even Dionysus's kids had found something to do. The god himself was still nowhere to be seen, but his two blond twin sons were running around providing all the sweaty warriors with water bottles and juice boxes.

Percy tried to smile through the growing tension in the room. It was a sight to see for sure, his entire camp pulling together in one unified front...but his mind flashed back to school field trips where all his classmates cheered about going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art just for a day out of desks. Mr. Brunner had sat at the front with such a bright, friendly smile like he was looking forward to it just as much, and yet Percy now wondered if it was just for seeing kids blissfully yelling about a trip where they all had a sure chance of coming back alive.

It looked like a pretty good setup, but Chiron muttered next to me. "It isn't enough."

Thalia let out a regretful sigh of agreement. They'd been to far away to make it back in time to help, but slightly less important, her heart went out to Chiron needing to admit that to someone. Percy was seen as a leader around there just as much as their trainer. It didn't make it fair to Percy to have his momentary bubble of hope popped, but it was a reality they both needed to understand going in to make the best plans.

I thought about what I'd seen in the Labyrinth, all the monsters in Antaeus's stadium, and the power of Kronos I'd felt of Mt. Tam. My heart sank. Chiron was right, but it was all we could muster. For once I wished Dionysus was here, but even if he had been, I didn't know if he could do anything. When it came to war, gods were forbidden to interfere directly.

"Given that it's a stupid ass decision, they seem to elect to ignore it all the time," Alex rolled her eyes painfully hard.

"Man, you try taking it up with Zeus," Percy sighed.

"Woman, I gladly would if you'd pass me that keycard up the elevator," Alex grinned a mischievous smile that already seemed to be planning a heist.

Percy laughed and the others felt a swooping sensation of dread at what chaos those two would get up to when let out of here.

Apparently, the Titans didn't believe in restrictions like that.

"I do wish they all had to follow some universal guidebook," Jason agreed with a sigh.

"They all break the rules anyways, or the cosmos would lose free will or some shit," Nico shrugged.

"Are those our only options?" Will frowned, but he was always looking for some kind of middle answer.

"The only ones I've heard," Nico felt a little bad for phrasing it that way and clearly crushing just a smidge of Will's never ending positivity, but he wasn't changing his thoughts just for that.

Over at the edge of the clearing, Grover was talking to Juniper. She held his hands while he told her our story. Green tears formed in her eyes as he delivered the news about Pan.

Percy had watched Grover brush away her tears gently, kissing her cheek and then running his fingers through her amber hair and holding her as she tried to weep softly. His mind had flashed back to Annabeth sobbing in that Laybrnth while he'd stood by and did nothing. He knew he didn't have the nerve to do anything like that to comfort her, but he also kind of hated himself in that moment if that's what she'd needed and he couldn't give her.

He wasn't even sure if Annabeth moved on from this by the time the battle had started, if she'd gone into that tent to go over plans with her siblings still fighting off grief or anger or any number of things he couldn't guess at. If she'd gotten hurt in this fight because he was a useless friend he didn't know what he'd do- "sorry!" He'd caught himself doing it this time as the water began churning violently around them.

"No harm no foul," Thalia sighed as she adjusted her jacket, "just let me know if you want me to stop or you need a breather."

Percy nodded his agreement while staring holes into his shoes. 'He didn't need to draw his pen, Annabeth was alive,' the old mantra began chanting through his head again already.

Tyson helped the Hephaestus kids prepare the defenses. He picked up boulders and piled them next to the catapults for firing.

"Stay with me, Percy," Chiron said. "When the fighting begins, I want you to wait until we know what we're dealing with. You must go where we most need reinforcements."

"One man army huh?" Jason said fondly, a little nostalgically, like he might have some experience with that. It sounded that way to Percy's ears, though Jason didn't seem aware of it.

"Historically not," Percy shook his head. He had won plenty of fights on his own, but not to that extent...and yet his brain kept fizzling right on the edge of pain. This was not the only fight he'd been in, and something of this was making his skin tingle like he'd taken another dip in lava. It was so hard to concentrate on the here and now so he didn't agitate his memories and still make himself be disconnected enough he didn't lung into battle against the seaweed beanbags; he had no clue how he'd made it this far!

"I saw Kronos," I said, still stunned by the fact.

"That's not something you're expected to get over in twenty-four hours Percy," Magnus nodded. "That's not something I expect you to get over in twenty-four years."

"I'd like it if the guy could do his one job and put a time stamp on that then," Percy huffed.

"I looked straight into his eyes. It was Luke...but it wasn't."

Chiron ran his fingers along his bowstring. "He had golden eyes, I would guess. And in his presence, time seemed to turn to liquid."

I nodded. "How could he take over a mortal body?"

Percy's breath came out painfully sharp, gusting around the room to share the chilly blast. He knew the answer to that now... somewhere in his head.

"I do not know, Percy. Gods have assumed the shapes of mortals for ages, but to actually become one...to merge the divine form with the mortal. I don't know how this could be done without Luke's form turning into ashes."

"Kronos said his body had been prepared."

Percy felt like there were ants crawling over his skin, biting and swarming as he shivered hard enough to cause physical rivulets like zip ribbons all around him. Like his body was trying to scream the answer at him, but he'd never been very good at listening.

"I shudder to think what that means. But perhaps it will limit Kronos's power. For a time, at least, he is confined to a human form. It binds him together. Hopefully it also restricts him."

'He didn't seem very restricted puppeting Luke around,' Thalia shivered in disgust, even though she knew this to be the key to their victory. He was still in there somewhere, and that just made this all the worse to hear of every word. Was he sleeping? Screaming in agony every second Kronos invaded him?

"Chiron, if he leads the attack—"

"I do not think so, my boy. I would sense if he were drawing near.

"Well that's, useful," Magnus blinked spastically at this random bit of information.

"Thankfully it's not a trait we all share with our godly parent," Percy said in relief. For all he knew, he might have a sense of his dad every time someone turned on a faucet.

No doubt he planned to, but I believe you inconvenienced him when you pulled down his throne room on top of him." He looked at me reproachfully. "You and your friend Nico, son of Hades."

"Oh, shit," Thalia busted out laughing in surprise like she was the one who'd been called out.

"When did he..." Nico looked a tad more confused, though mostly bemused too at this turn of events. Chiron had known when he'd come in on pegasus with the others and hadn't turned him away?

"I have no idea," Percy said with a crazy grin. It didn't bother him in the slightest he didn't seem able to get anything past Chiron, it was just kind of cool.

A lump formed in my throat. "I'm sorry, Chiron. I know I should've told you. It's just—"

Chiron raised his hand. "I understand why you did it, Percy. You felt responsible. You sought to protect him. But, my boy, if we are to survive this war, we must trust each other. We must..."

His voice wavered. The ground underneath us was trembling.

"Saved by the bell," Alex muttered. Trust was not easily given, and while Chiron seemed like a nice idiot, he wasn't someone she'd go out of her way to share her history with right now. If he'd known about Nico all along he should have said something, made some effort like the very old adult he was that someone was out looking for Nico or any of the countless kids missing. He and Daeadlus seemed such polar opposites and yet equally idiotic on this stance of just watching and waiting to long until it would do no good.

And yet Chiron was also responsible for hundreds of kids, and she couldn't even fully blame him for keeping his distance from them all in a purely scholarly manner. How many kids had to die before you grew desensitized to it? A number that Percy very likely was going to get a glimpse of after this battle.

Everyone in the clearing stopped what they were doing. Clarisse barked a single order: "Lock shields!"

Then the Titan lord's army exploded from the Labyrinth.

Thalia had been in plenty of battles, the worst of which had been where a freaking statue fell on her and she was forced to sit there and wait. Not knowing what was happening, who had lived. She couldn't do anything but lay there and glare at that marble of her most hated goddess. She never expected that feeling to come back quite like this as she glowered at the book forcing her to sit on the sidelines and just describe this coming mayhem.

I mean I'd been in fights before,

"You don't say," Nico said with a massive eye roll. "Here I thought this whole time we were listening to your vivid imagination."

"And then I woke up and it was all a dream," Thalia loudly played along without looking up from the book. "I was back in my little rundown apartment and my mom had never heard of Grover-"

"Don't you be reusing my jokes," Alex scoffed while Percy laughed half-heartedly. "Get your own!"

"Like you're the first one to claim that in the history of ever," Nico challenged.

Percy cleared his throat awkwardly to cut off whatever loquacious response Alex would have given. He really wasn't in the mood in the middle of a fight for bickering.

but this was a full-scale battle. The first thing I saw were a dozen Laistrygonian giants erupting from the ground, yelling so loudly my ears felt like bursting. They carried shields made from flattened cars, and clubs that were tree trunks with rusty spikes bristling at the end. One of the giants bellowed at the Ares phalanx, smashed it sideways with his club, and the entire cabin was thrown aside, a dozen warriors tossed to the wind like rag dolls.

"Well, nobody can say they didn't do anything useful," Percy frowned. "They were target practice."

Jason hissed at him to shut it next. A shield formation was always a great start because it tested what the pawns would do. The fact that this was starting with brute strength was a bad thing, it meant they planned more tricks up their sleeve later in the fight.

"Fire!" Beckendorf yelled. The catapults swung into action. Two boulders hurtled toward the giants. One deflected off a car shield with hardly a dent, but the other caught a Laistrygonian in the chest, and the giant went down.

Apollo's archers fired a volley, dozens of arrows sticking in the thick armor of the giants like porcupine quills. Several found chinks in armor, and some of the giants vaporized at the touch of celestial bronze.

But just when it looked like the Laistrygonians were about to get overwhelmed,

Magnus's lips motorboated in frustration. He would hope this camp could take down the first wave before the second even hit, it's what they apparently trained for, team work and mayhem to confuse their opponents. They had only started and things weren't going according to plan. He knew Annabeth and her siblings would account for this, they had plans all the way down to zz to get through this...he hoped.

the next wave surged out of the maze: thirty, maybe forty dracaenae in full battle armor, wielding spears and nets. They dispersed in all directions. Some hit the traps the Hephaestus cabin had laid. One got struck on the spikes and became an easy target for archers. Another triggered a trip wire, and pots of Greek fire exploded into green flames, engulfing several of the snake women. But many more kept coming. Argus and Athena's warriors rushed forward to meet them. I saw Annabeth draw a sword and engage one of them.

Percy's hands twitched like he was possessed. He knew she could handle herself, she wasn't the one who needed his help, but he could sure use hers right now. Her voice muttering what she had planned for them, her sharp gray eyes studying everyone here and their reactions, her warmth next to his the reminder he so needed this was all in his head no matter what his aching feet longed to throw him into.

Nearby, Tyson was riding a giant. Somehow he'd managed to climb onto the giant's back and was hitting him on the head with a bronze shield—BONG! BONG! BONG!

The collective laughter around the room really didn't match the tone right, especially because Will's was the loudest of all. He looked on the verge of tears any moment seconds ago, because he hadn't seen nearly everything. He hadn't wanted to hear in vivid detail the monsters that killed so many, let alone what Percy had witnessed.

He hadn't seen this either, and the brief levity gave him a chance to breathe in and out again normally.

Chiron calmly aimed arrow after arrow, taking down a monster with every shot. But more enemies just kept climbing out of the maze. Finally a hellhound—not Mrs. O'Leary—

"Please tell me you put a bow on her head to help her stand out," Alex grinned an even wilder smile than usual, the eye of the storm among a chaos only described.

"When would we have done that Alex?" Percy asked in exasperation. Nobody had given him another whistle to summon her.

Alex's face clouded with momentary disappointment, she'd been automatically imagining the awesome dog in the trenches to help.

"We wouldn't have needed to anyways. If it was smaller than her it was an enemy," Will said with a sad smile. "If it was bigger than her, we were all screwed by the pooch. Beckendorf made her one anyways though, just in case. Bright pink ass collar with spikes on it."

"Lovely," Alex brightened considerably at once.

leaped out of the tunnel and barreled straight toward the satyrs.

"Is that some kind of nature versus nature thing?" Magnus asked. Not that animals had shown any particular favor towards satyrs, but he couldn't help but still think of them as one group in his mind with the fur and all.

Nobody really answered. Maybe they'd just smelled like the best food. Maybe they'd just sensed them as the easiest target.

Percy shifted his weight, a stance that would have him leaping into battle the only response.

"GO!" Chiron yelled at me.

Percy might have understood Chiron's tactics, he was glad he'd waited for just this reason to do the most good. It still didn't stop the guilt that had pounded in his every step as he'd waged through battle, wondering with every swing of his blade and every splatter of blood he ran through if he could have helped more.

I drew Riptide and charged.

As I raced across the battlefield, I saw horrible things. An enemy halfblood was fighting with a son of Dionysus, but it wasn't much of a contest.

The enemy stabbed him in the arm then clubbed him over the head with the butt of his sword, and Dionysus's son went down.

Will shivered at the horrible detail he hadn't really wanted. He didn't know where Pollux was, if he'd witnessed his own brother's death. He couldn't ask...but a part of him wanted to know if it was better than having witnessed the act. There probably was no good answer, seeing it and knowing you couldn't have done anything, or always left wondering if you could.

The twins had spent the whole week prior being just as skittish and worried as some of the younger kids, Connor had told him once they'd kept hoping their dad would show up to fix all this and so they'd been trying to slack off on the war prepping until Chiron convinced them to help.

Will was ashamed to admit he didn't know what had changed their mind about helping in the battle. Had they been talked into doing it by someone they admired, did Percy's return instill in them the same sense it had in everyone that they'd have to fight for their home no matter their own reason?

Maybe it was as simple as the fact that Dinoysus' had once been a conquering God of more gumption than playing card games on diet coke, and they'd been trying to make him proud.

Another enemy warrior shot flaming arrows into the trees, sending our archers and dryads into a panic.

A dozen dracaenae suddenly broke away from the main fight and slithered down the path that led toward camp, like they knew where they were going. If they got out, they could burn down the entire place, completely unopposed.

Magnus went a little crosseyed in confusion. Weren't there monsters in there all the time? What was stopping them from over running the camp? The immediate threat was the onsurge of monsters, but the camp had always been vulnerable to that kind of attack.

Perhaps it was just because these snake women were intelligent? As far as he'd heard none of the other monsters had that kind of reasoning. It was all he could come up with, and he wasn't going to interrupt his friends looking so miserable and upset with pointless questions of what spots in particular of their home they were defending.

If he had an actual home to defend, he'd probably start with the bathroom, but that was just him.

The only person anywhere near was Nico di Angelo. He stabbed a telekhine, and his black Stygian blade absorbed the monster's essence, drinking its energy until there was nothing left but dust.

"How close have you come to testing the limits of that thing?" Alex asked, her mind boggling at implications of stabbing gods and maybe putting that thing on a motor and just plowing through this whole army weed-whacker style.

"Not very," he admitted, thumbing the black leather grip. "I can't exactly go to the nearest smithy if it starts chipping or gets over loaded, I haven't wanted to push it to far yet."

Alex's eyes burned with hunger for the story of how Nico got that sword in the first place again, but now certainly wasn't the time.

"Nico!" I yelled.

He looked where I was pointing, saw the serpent women, and immediately understood.

Nico smiled for himself that he didn't straighten up in his seat like an idiotic child that he and Percy were on the same page. His already tested and proven battle reflexes were finally being put to use other than saving his own skin, that's what he was happy to be remembering for once.

He took a deep breath and held out his black sword. "Serve me," he called.

The earth trembled. A fissure opened in front of the dracaenae, and a dozen undead warriors crawled from the earth—horrible corpses in military uniforms from all different time periods—U.S. Revolutionaries, Roman centurions, Napoleonic cavalry on skeletal horses. As one, they drew their swords and engaged the dracaenae.

Alex's mouth was open in a silent scream, but her eyes were to alight with joy like she was at her favorite concert for Nico to be to concerned. "I have, so many questions," she finally managed to gasp.

"I'd only managed to summon one at a time before and have them do menial tasks," Nico offered, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly all the same even if he had no problems answering. "This was a step up, I um, hope it did some good." He'd passed out without seeing the epic end to the battle to know.

Nico crumpled to his knees, but I didn't have time to make sure he was okay.

Nico tried hard not to flinch at that. He knew Percy's true fight was for the entire camp.

Yet in his memory, he'd done what he'd been convinced he couldn't. Used his powers for good for Percy's home, and then woken up to him being there, holding him, helping him. His crush had been undeniable from the moment that nectar had tasted like salty-sweet taffy.

It was different, it was better to hear the whole picture like this. It made the rejection of Percy's non-feelings more grounded every time it happened.

Slowly, carefully, Will let his long fingers brush at Nico's shoulder, completely non-obvious considering where his hand had been hovering most of the time. Nico exhaled and looked at him with amusement, so Will let his arm fall to rest across the plain of his shoulders, which felt more natural every time he did it. Nico didn't know where he'd been in this fight, probably right on the front lines running around pulling people out of the fire while more fighters had just taken their place. Nico wasn't sure where he might fall into the dynamic at camp in the future, but it was a reassurance he wasn't used to feeling that whichever it might be he'd have someone there with him.

I closed on the hellhound, which was now pushing the satyrs back toward the woods. The beast snapped at one satyr, who danced out of its way, but then it pounced on another who was too slow. The satyr's tree-bark shield cracked as he fell.

"Hey!" I yelled.

The hellhound turned. It snarled at me and leaped. It would've clawed me to pieces, but as I fell backward, my fingers closed around a clay jar—one of Beckendorf's containers of Greek fire. I tossed it into the hellhound's maw, and the creature went up in flames. I scrambled away, breathing heavily.

The brutality of that shocked Percy as his hand spasmed with delay from the act. The cry of that monster as it went up in flames, the smell of burnt fur lingering in the air as it had crumbled to ash before his eyes. He'd always loathed animal abusers, they were as low as Gabe, throwing trash and beating whatever stray they saw in alleyways Percy would always get in trouble for trying to step in and stop.

It wasn't the same, he tried to assure himself, this was a demon that would have eaten everyone in his camp.

The thought didn't comfort him to much as he tried to let his attention go to the next problem without lingering on some little black haired punk of a kid with angry green eyes running into an alleyway, screaming at him for trying to light that cat's tail on fire...

The satyr who'd gotten trampled wasn't moving. I rushed over to check on him, but then I heard Grover's voice: "Percy!"

A forest fire had started. Flames roared within ten feet of Juniper's tree, and Juniper and Grover were going nuts trying to save it. Grover played a rain song on his pipes. Juniper desperately tried to beat out the flames with her green shawl, but it was only making things worse.

Percy's frantic mind was screaming at him to do something with such pressure, he didn't realize he was getting to his feet until Thalia yanked him back into his seat without looking up. The water was still pulling dangerously about the room, everyone else looked seconds away from grabbing their shoes and socks for safety so they wouldn't get caught in the draft he was causing.

I ran toward them, jumping past duels, weaving between the legs of giants.

The nearest water was the creek, half a mile away...but I had to do something. I concentrated. There was a pull in my gut, a roar in my ears.

Percy would have jumped onto that fire and rolled on it if he thought that would have helped the situation, Magnus shook his head in admiration at the look of frantic energy that just overcame him. The water tugged more powerfully around their clothes, their chairs were starting to quiver in place ready for launch, but Percy was breathing deep and long, chewing on his pen cap so hard odds were in their favor they weren't going to be flung into a wall to soon.

Then a wall of water came rushing through the trees. It doused the fire, Juniper, Grover, and pretty much everything else.

"Did giving the monsters a bath scare some of them away?" Nico asked.

"I wish there were some fire giants around, two for one," Alex nodded.

"Only you would be wishing for more monsters right now," Thalia grumbled.

Grover blew a spout of water. "Thanks, Percy!"

"No problem!" I ran back toward the fight,

"Literally," Jason shook his head. Percy was turning the tide of battle wherever he went and then just jumping right into the next fray. It was inspiring, and it really made him wonder what he wasn't capable of.

and Grover and Juniper followed. Grover had a cudgel in his hand and Juniper held a stick—like an old-fashioned whipping switch. She looked really angry, like she was going to tan somebody's backside.

"I will never look at that tree the same way again," Will assured with a tiny eep noise at the end.

"As you shouldn't," Magnus nodded seriously. Vengeful spirit trees, he probably liked the sound of that to much.

Just when it seemed like the battle had balanced out again—like we might stand a chance—an unearthly shriek echoed out of the Labyrinth, a sound I had heard before.

"Clarisse trying to sing?" Nico asked without hope.

"Man are you lucky you slept through this next part," Percy shivered, his head pounding with stress about what that she-demone was going to do to his camp.

"Passed out," Will corrected with a sigh, wondering if he should start carrying a bottle of nectar on him already that had Nico's initials inscribed or something.

Kampê shot into the sky, her bat wings fully extended. She landed on the top of Zeus's Fist and surveyed the carnage. Her face was filled with evil glee. The mutant animal heads growled at her waist. Snakes hissed and swirled around her legs. In her right hand she held a glittering ball of thread—Ariadne's string—but she popped it into a lion's mouth at her waist and drew her curved swords. The blades glowed green with poison. Kampê screeched in triumph, and some of the campers screamed. Others tried to run and got trampled by hellhounds or giants.

"What on earth do you think the trophy she'd leave behind would be?" Alex asked intensely.

"I don't think any hero's ever managed it to ask," Jason said with a look of concentration in place of what Percy was going to do to achieve this.

"Di Immortales!" Chiron yelled. He quickly aimed an arrow, but Kampê seemed to sense his presence. She took flight with amazing speed, and Chrion's arrow whizzed harmlessly past her head.

Tyson untangled himself from the giant whom he'd pummeled into unconsciousness. He ran at our lines, shouting, "Stand! Do not run from her! Fight!"

Percy began puffing up his chest with pride, the beginnings of bragging on the tip of his tongue that in a few year's time Tyson would be running those underwater forges-

But then a hellhound leaped on him, and Tyson and the hound went rolling away.

But Thalia had only paused for a moment with a proud smile before she'd continued and knocked the wind out of all their sails. Tyson was owed his revenge on this creature, but if that wasn't in the cards, what chance did Percy have if luck still wasn't as easy to bottle as those Greek flames?

Kampê landed on the Athena command tent, smashing it flat. I ran after her and found Annabeth at my side, keeping pace, her sword in her hand.

Had there been any kids in there? Magnus was to horrified to ask, to scared to wonder at Annabeth's nonreaction to some silver tarps, to terrified what his own reaction would be. Relief it wasn't her? A little less sorrow and a little less surprised because it was just another in a long list of kids already?

"This might be it," she said.

"Could be."

"Nice fighting with you, Seaweed Brain."

"Ditto."

"Those would have been cool famous last words," Jason smiled.

"And yours is probably going to be, wow," Percy rolled his eyes. He did not like thinking about Annabeth's last words in the slightest.

Together we leaped into the monster's path. Kampê hissed and sliced at us. I dodged, trying to distract her, while Annabeth went in for a strike, but the monster seemed able to fight with both hands independently.

"I was joking about playing with ambidextrous people earlier," Magnus groaned.

"This has nothing to do with jacks," Percy responded, "and you shouldn't exclude people Magnus."

"I'm going to throw something at you with both hands," he huffed.

She blocked Annabeth's sword, and Annabeth had to jump back to avoid the cloud of poison. Just being near the thing was like standing in an acid fog. My eyes burned. My lungs couldn't get enough air. I knew we couldn't stand our ground for more than a few seconds.

"Where's Clarisse with a cannon when you need her?" Thalia groaned.

"Probably boxing with a Dracena somewhere nearby," Percy groaned along, causing Will to flinch he had no clue how close to true that was.

"Come on!" I shouted. "We need help!"

But no help came. Everyone was either down, or fighting for their lives, or too scared to move forward. Three of Chiron's arrows sprouted from Kampê's chest, but she just roared louder.

Percy was smiling of all things as his life was in peril while looking around this room. He was still working his jaw in an agitated pattern not to scream and cause a massive wave of destruction not knowing how Annabeth made it through this, but there was a comfort of knowing backup would have come if it could. Those kids at Camp were barely trained more than him, yet even Magnus looked ready to throw his beanbag in this primordial monster's face instead of at Percy like he'd just threatened in a bid to help. Even if nobody managed to lend a hand, it was the assurance of knowing they would that was helping to ease the tension slightly.

"Now!" Annabeth said.

Together we charged, dodged the monster's slashes, got inside her guard, and almost...almost managed to stab Kampê in the chest, but a huge bear's head lashed out from the monster's waist, and we had to stumble backward to avoid getting bitten.

Slam!

My eyesight went black. The next thing I knew, Annnabeth and I were on the ground. The monster had its forelegs on our chests, holding us down.

Will clenched so tight in his skin it hurt, and yet he couldn't exhale. Gods had he had nightmares about this. He'd seen this snake woman from a distance and pissed himself, screaming and scaring Connor while he was trying to tend his concussion.

Nico was rubbing his lip thoughtfully as he shifted his weight closer to Will without thinking. She was one of those rare, only-ever-heard-of cards they'd supposedly only printed one of and was lost to time. He'd only read depictions of her online, now he'd missed his chance to see her in person and how Percy had taken her down.

Yet all that was on his mind right now was patting Will's knee and muttering distractedly about a good shedding spell he'd make sure was in Will's deck that would erase poison damage. He didn't know how else to help, but it seemed to do the trick. He didn't run out of the room screaming at any rate.

Hundreds of snakes slithered right above me, hissing like laughter. Kampê raised her green-tinged swords, and I knew Annabeth and I were out of options.

Percy didn't mean to hold his breath. He didn't mean to have the water receding towards him like the eye of the most massive storm to torment the earth. 'Annabeth's alive, she's alive!' The old chant began screaming in his head again, but how in the gods name she'd gotten out of this one he was terrified to guess. Unless he'd chopped Annabeth in half and Deadelus made her a robot body, he couldn't see a way out of this-

Then, behind me, something howled. A wall of darkness slammed into Kampê, sending the monster sideways. And Mrs. O'Leary was standing over us, snarling and snapping at Kampê.

"How much would it offend that old pig friend of yours if I tracked him down and made all the bacon from him for this good girl," Alex asked.

"I mean, Grover doesn't really need any more blessings from the wild, so maybe only normal vegetarian levels rather than godly offended," Percy shrugged like he'd know the difference anyways.

"Good girl!" said a familiar voice.

"Yes, yes she is," Percy agreed fondly. He didn't even care if Kronos himself had somehow joined the fight and was saying that for an entirely different reason. He owed her all the belly scratches and ear scratches and butt scratches she wanted for saving Annabeth's hide. Oh, and his.

Daedalus was fighting his way out of the Labyrinth, slashing down enemies left and right as he made his way toward us. Next to him was someone else—a familiar giant, much taller than the Laistrygonians, with a hundred rippling arms, each holding a huge chunk of rock.

"Briares!" Tyson cried in wonder.

"Finally!" Percy whooped, nearly bouncing out of his seat in excitement. "We get the cool reinforcements!"

"A hellhound, a robot, and a hundred hands walk onto a battlefield," Alex chuckled. "You've got to give me a minute to come up with a punchline to that one."

"I'm not waiting around for that, but do let us know," Thalia chuckled.

"Hail, little brother!" Briares bellowed. "Stand firm!"

And as Mrs. O'Leary leaped out of the way, the Hundred-Handed One launched a volley of boulders at Kampê. The rocks seemed to enlarge as they left Briares's hands. There were so many, it looked like half the earth had learned to fly.

BOOOOOM!

"The best boom in the history of that camp," Will savord every echoing crash in the trees, the smell of acid that had vanished on the breeze, the new pile of boulders no kid would have to fall into.

Where Kampê had stood a moment before was a mountain of boulders, almost as tall as Zeus's Fist. The only sign that the monster had ever existed were two green sword points sticking through the cracks.

"Coolest, trophy, ever!" Jason was practically salivating at the chance to make a plaque and shrine this thing. He'd probably trade his sight for x-ray vision in a few moments.

"Not exactly the highlight of my day, but it was up there," Percy nodded. There was still a tinge of sadness coupled with adrenaline in him that made him sound more lackluster.

A cheer went up from the campers, but our enemies weren't done yet.

One of the dracaenae yelled, "Ssssslay them! Kill them all or Kronossss will flay you alive!"

Apparently, that threat was more terrifying than we were. The giants surged forward in a last desperate attempt. One surprised Chiron with a glancing blow to the back legs, and he stumbled and fell. Six giants cried in glee and rushed forward.

Thalia read that through gritted teeth. Her frustration she wasn't there was evident in her every word, her every gesture of twisting the book this way and that in front of her face as if trying to shift her position into a fight.

"No!" I screamed, but I was too far away to help.

Then it happened. Grover opened his mouth, and the most horrible sound I'd ever heard came out. It was like a brass trumpet magnified a thousand times—the sound of pure fear.

Percy reached up and touched his ears to make sure they weren't bleeding. That little guinea pig in him had awoken with a vengeance, had heard that noise as its own.

And yet pride in what his best friend had done was all he overwhelmingly felt, then and now as the chaos of their side had trumped the monster's own.

As one, the forces of Kronos dropped their weapons and ran for their lives.

The giants trampled the dracaenae trying to get into the Labyrinth first. Telekhines and hellhounds and enemy half-bloods scrambled after them.

The tunnel rumbled shut, and the battle was over. The clearing was quiet except for the fires burning in the woods, and the cries of the wounded.

There was a poignant moment of silence where everybody kept expecting everybody else to break in and say something. Percy to be whooping with joy? Grover certainly had caused a stampede with another unknown satyr power apparently.

It was those last five words though that took away any jubilation or laughter that might have been had for another day won.

I helped Annabeth to her feet. We ran to Chiron.

"Are you all right?" I asked.

He was lying on his side, trying in vain to get up.

"Did we finally find it? The thing to win every battle?" Percy asked with honest interest. "It's got nothing to do with me, it's anybody threatening to put that centaur back in his wheelchair. Grover went nuts, Annabeth was willing to go on a mission with Tyson to save his job. I think we've cracked the code guys!"

"You will not be breaking Chiron's legs next time you want out of chores Percy," Thalia rolled her eyes.

"Dang it Thalia, let me have a win!" He huffed.

"How embarrassing," he muttered. "I think I will be fine. Fortunately, we do not shoot centaurs with broken... Ow! ...broken legs."

Alex couldn't help a very muffled snort of laughter she almost covered with a sneeze though. It really wasn't funny...it had just made her laugh.

"You need help," Annabeth said. "I'll get a medic from Apollo's cabin."

"No," Chiron insisted. "There are more serious injuries to attend to. Go! I am fine.

"You could at least offer him a hug," Magnus tried to say without a smirk.

"I'm surprised Annabeth hadn't tackled him the rest of the way to the ground to do so," Percy agreed.

"Would your magic god food work on him since he is the son of a Titan?" Magnus asked.

"Ah, but you answered your own question," Will shook his head. "Children of the Titans are different than children of the gods. I'm not sure it would have worked on Zoe or Calypso because it was made after their existence. I'm not positive of that, but I know Chiron refused to eat any. Said the other campers needed it more, but I suspect he thought it would be a waste on him."

"Psst," Alex said without the least hint of subtlety in a clear attempt to change that dower subject. "How do you x-ray a horse?"

"A very large, mobile machine, sends the images to a computer from what I understand," Will said, fascination bright in his eyes. Argus had taken him by bus, and they had no clue what the vet had seen through the Mist. Will hadn't even known about any of it until long after it was done while he helped prepare the shroud for Lee.

But, Grover...later we must talk about how you did that."

"That was amazing," I agreed.

Grover blushed. "I don't know where it came from."

Juniper hugged him fiercely. "I do!"

"Can she explain it to me?" Jason asked, raising his hand hopefully.

Thalia tugged his arm back down with an eye roll. He knew full well Percy would never get such an explanation right after it happened, it would probably break the cosmos.

Before she could say more, Tyson called, "Percy, come quick! It is Nico!"

Percy startled, and then looked over at him with a guilty apology on his tongue like he was sorry Nico wasn't his first thought every second of every page.

Nico gave him a casual shrug. He expected nothing else from Percy at this point. He was only ever on his mind when he was in danger, and he wasn't going to start throwing himself in the way of oncoming traffic just to keep his attention, so it didn't seem like much of an issue to him anymore.

There was smoke curling off his black clothes. His fingers were clenched, and the grass all around his body had turned yellow and died.

"Can you..." Thalia paused, not sure how to ask.

"Literally suck the life out of living things? Yeah," Nico nodded, swallowing his nerves.

"Yeah, no, that doesn't surprise me," Thalia shrugged. It seemed perfectly in line with his dad's domain. "Why do you use a sword if you can just do that though?"

"It's not a skill I go around showing off," Nic's voice was getting a little stiff with this continuing, he couldn't help but feel uncomfortable explaining himself. "It takes concentration to pull off that kind of energy and a lot of focus, that was the first time I did it, and it came from panic. My sword is just an easy extension of it."

Thalia nodded in understanding. She could always summon lightning without a weapon in hand, but it was easier with a conduit to focus on. Percy seemed unique in not needing one then.

Magnus was leaning very far back into his seat and Percy was giving him one of those strange, patented, is this guy serious looks. He'd definitely spooked some of them, but Nico didn't see it as any more dangerous or unnatural than what Percy could do. Thalia hadn't even begun to test the limit of her powers of what she might be able to pull off.

There wasn't judgment in the slightly awkward silence though, and that felt like the important thing to him.

I rolled him over as gently as I could and put my hand against his chest.

Nico couldn't help but blush in surprise though, his eyes betraying his gratitude Percy immediately smiled at. Percy hadn't flinched, freaked out about touching the dead kid, hadn't even hesitated to see if he was okay even if he was freaked out by his powers. Percy was still a hero in all the ways that mattered.

His heart was beating faintly. "Get some nectar!" I yelled.

One of the Ares campers hobbled over and handed me a canteen. I trickled some of the magic drink into Nico's mouth. He coughed and spluttered, but his eyelids fluttered open.

Will's wrist went limp, whatever tension had been left keeping his arm there falling off to instead rest fully on Nico's shoulder and curling there. A soft, protective gesture he didn't even seem aware of as he shifted his weight around and continued frowning at the book and holding Nico just that little closer.

Nico hadn't known his brother, he hadn't known any of the kids who died that day really. If this was the only comfort he could give Will for this memory than he was happy to be here for it no matter how embarrassing it now was looking back.

"Nico, what happened?" I asked. "Can you talk?"

He nodded weakly. "Never tried to summon so many before. I—I'll be fine."

We helped him sit up and gave him some more nectar. He blinked at all of us, like he was trying to remember who we were, and then he focused on someone behind me.

That had been a scary feeling, Nico's heart rattled in his chest now at the memory. The vague feeling of knowing them and unsure why, the way his mind had been clouded with exhaustion and their clothes had been so strange. He'd forgotten them, for a split second of consciousness. The thought had made him angry without being able to put a pin in why for months after this.

"Daedalus," he croaked.

"Yes, my boy," the inventor said. "I made a very bad mistake. I came to correct it."

Daedalus had a few scratches that were bleeding golden oil, but he looked better than most of us. Apparently his automaton body healed itself quickly.

Mrs. O'Leary loomed behind him, licking the wounds on her master's head so Daedalus's hair stood up funny.

"Is that old myth true too?" Magnus asked with exhaustion. "That dog's mouths are cleaner than toilets thing?"

"Definitely not," Will crinkled his nose up at the idea of offering a dogs bacteria infested tongue to an open wound. "Their saliva creates a kind of film on their wounds to help them, but it does us no good. She's just a sweet baby girl who wants to help." He finished in the same cooing tone as if hearing of a toddler trying to hold a stethoscope.

Briares stood next to him, surrounded by a group of awed campers and satyrs. He looked kind of bashful, but he was signing autographs on armor, shields, and T-shirts.

"So we did have a hundred pens available," Percy sighed in relief.

"And where's my signed t-shirt Percy?" Thalia sniffed. "I haven't gotten a single souvenir from any of your adventures!"

"Do you want to go to Waterland together Thalia?" Percy grinned. "I'm not sure you'd like the outcome any more than Annabeth."

"I like my chances," her grin was full of zeal. She'd still love to go there and not be gawked by anyone in what she wore, just hang out with friends for a day like only the privileged could manage.

"I found the Hundred-Handed One as I came through the maze," Daedalus explained. "It seems he had the same idea, to come help, but he was lost. And so we fell in together. We both came to make amends."

"Yay!" Tyson jumped up and down. "Briares! I knew you would come!"

"I did not know," the Hundred-Handed One said. "But you reminded me who I am, Cyclops. You are the hero."

Tyson blushed, but I patted him on the back. "I knew that a long time ago," I said.

"I think you should win a Best Big Brother award just for that," Jason grinned.

Percy blushed just a bit and shrugged, "for stating the obvious? Gods, I'd get all kinds of awards for once if that's the case."

"But, Daedalus...the Titan army is still down there. Even without the string, they'll be back. They'll find a way sooner or later, with Kronos leading them."

Magnus looked a little confused why Percy was demanding this of Daedalus, he'd had more than one horrific thought about that place being under no one's control, but Thalia got it. Percy always had a tendency to blurt out what was on his mind, he probably thought of Deadauls as an expert who would have some solution he'd just been withholding until now.

Daedalus sheathed his sword. "You are right. As long as the Labyrinth is here, your enemies can use it.

"I'm imagining Kronos being at least a bit weary if Grover can just yell at them to get out though," Alex offered, regardless of the results, it was just funny to say.

"You're right," Percy nodded seriously, "but then we'd have to put up a guard around Grover twenty-four-seven and it might cause some strain with Juniper. I think whatever this guy has planned might be better in the long run."

"A sacrifice Daedalus more than owes," Jason murmured with a hollow voice. What he'd done was wrong, no one should cheat death. The consequences were beyond mortal comprehension. His skin tingled unpleasantly at the thought, and he swallowed whatever feeling that was trying to bubble up.

Which is why the Labyrinth cannot continue."

Annabeth stared at him. "But you said the Labyrinth is tied to your life force! As long as you're alive—"

"Yes, my young architect," Daedalus agreed. "When I die, the Labyrinth will die as well. And so I have a present for you."

"Who needs homeless Santa when you've got the people in Percy's life whipping out gifts once a year," Alex said. She had long wanted to meet Annabeth, Magnus's cousin, the genius girl whose plans everyone had such instant faith in. Now here was yet another reason, just to get her own peek at whatever this was going to be!

He slung a leather satchel off his back, unzipped it, and produced a sleek silver laptop computer—one of the ones I'd seen in the workshop. On the lid was the blue symbol.

"My work is here," he said. "It's all I managed to save from the fire. Notes on projects I never started. Some of my favorite designs. I couldn't develop these over the last few millennia. I did not dare reveal my work to the mortal world. But perhaps you will find it interesting."

He handed the computer to Annabeth, who stared at it like it was solid gold. "You're giving me this? But this is priceless! This is worth...I don't even know how much!"

Magnus couldn't begin to comprehend how much that must be worth to her. It often made him uncomfortable, how much 'stuff' she had. Her cap, her knife, two or three homes, now a laptop with more knowledge packed into it than possibly the internet itself. Her life was so different from his in every possible way he felt like an alien in comparison right now. Maybe he was crazy for sticking around in here with the vague hope she'd want something to do with him when she had all she'd ever wanted.

"Small compensation for the way I have acted," Daedalus said. "You were right, Annabeth, about children of Athena. We should be wise, and I was not.

"Hard to be too brilliant when you're afraid," Will sounded plenty sympathetic to his cause. Daedalus had done some horrible things, yes, but nobody could claim to have lived a perfect life. His had just been longer than most, his mistakes had amounted to more years, but whatever his punishment; Will hoped he didn't suffer some eternal pain for the good he'd done too. It had to be some kind of balance.

He glanced at Nico, unsure if he knew the answer, but secure that he could ask and Nico might even be happy to find out for him.

Someday you will be a greater architect than I ever was. Take my ideas and improve them. It is the least I can do before I pass on."

"Whoa," I said. "Pass on? But you can't just kill yourself. That's wrong."

"You would not be the first person I think to give PSA advice, and yet here we are," Thalia struggled to give him a good smile for that one. He knew as well as she did self-sacrifice, but that didn't make it easy to see others using it.

"One of those awareness weeks in school I always somehow managed to miss and yet never needed," Percy agreed, his stomach squeezing painfully at what he might be about to remember.

He shook his head. "Not as wrong as hiding from my crimes for two thousand years. Genius does not excuse evil, Percy. My time has come. I must face my punishment."

"You won't get a fair trial," Annabeth said. "The spirit of Minos sits in judgment—"

"I will take what comes," he said. "And trust in the justice of the Underworld, such as it is. That is all we can do, isn't it?"

He looked straight at Nico, and Nico's face darkened.

"Yes," he said.

Nico didn't appreciate being tested, having his morals questioned, having everyone look to him first when death was the subject. Yet, this was entirely his fault. He had, even for the briefest time, the intention to murder someone. Just because he hadn't gone through with it didn't entirely absolve him...but who was he to go to for absolution? His dad? Ha!

Deadelus seemed to have forgiven him, in the way he spoke to Nico. He'd done a lot of unquestionable good with his powers this day. Enough he hoped his mother and sister would still be able to be happy with him to balance out what had started this path.

"Will you take my soul for ransom, then?" Daedalus asked. "You could use it to reclaim your sister."

"No," Nico said. "I will help you release your spirit. But Bianca has passed. She must stay where she is."

Those words had pierced something in Percy at the time he'd been to involved with everything else to deal with, but he felt them full force now as he saw Nico still studying his boots and taking deep breaths, probably still trying to not cry over there. Percy's mom had died and he'd gone to hell and back to rescue her. If he could have done the same for Bianca without having to sacrifice somebody else he would.

There were Greek stories about such a thing, he knew that somewhere in his mind. Lovers were usually the point of those, but who says one couldn't do that for family?

Nico must have looked into those though. If there were any way to bring her back without hurting someone, he was sure Nico had looked into those first, and Percy wasn't going to presume to suggest otherwise.

Daedalus nodded. "Well done, son of Hades. You are becoming wise."

Nico grumbled and scoffed and didn't really appreciate the compliment right now. It was wise to be forced into making the decision to be alone rather than murdering someone? That was a more obvious choice, not wise.

Will whistled gently beside him, saying, "wow, I can't imagine the smartest guy who possibly ever lived calling me wise. For doing something even he avoided."

"Mmm, I guess," Nico sighed. It sounded slightly better when put like that, and he found himself smiling Will had such a unique talent of putting a good spin on anything.

Then he turned toward me. "One last favor, Percy Jackson. I cannot leave Mrs. O'Leary alone. And she has no desire to return to the Underworld. Will you care for her?"

Percy's mind made some pretty large glitches trying to process walking her down the street and how many garbage bags Deadulus went through picking up after her...which was cut off very loudly by Alex exclaiming, "You got to keep her!"

"I, guess so," Percy found himself smiling despite what a horrible idea it sounded like the moment he thought it. He had always wanted a dog.

...who whimpered pitifully, still licking Daedalus's hair.

"She needs hugs!" Magnus couldn't bring himself to have a trace of mocking in that. He probably would have done it himself as much as the idea of her had grown on him, him!

"Do you need a hug Magnus?" Alex asked him, without enough sarcasm in her voice to make his blood pressure skyrocket as he just looked at her blankly.

Mercifully, Thalia wasn't sitting around waiting for all of them to get their tongues untied.

...my mom's apartment wouldn't allow dogs, especially dogs bigger than the apartment, but I said, "Yeah. Of course I will."

"You have a dragon at your camp, and your first thought is to take her home?" Alex derailed at once like nothing had happened. "I bet they're going to love playing together across the strawberry fields!"

"Good point," Percy said fairly. He'd been way to worried about her knocking down a city bus chasing a stray cat to think past that.

"Then I am ready to see my son...and Perdix," he said. "I must tell them how sorry I am."

Annabeth had tears in her eyes.

Daedalus turned toward Nico, who drew his sword. At first I was afraid Nico would kill the old inventor, but he simply said, "Your time is long since come. Be released and rest."

The words had just come naturally to mind, though it was a ritual he'd never performed before this. Nico had felt the power of it flow through him, a tug in his gut, a source he'd always felt connected to. He'd never questioned Percy's descriptions of using his own abilities, the innateness of learning to walk and talk came just as naturally as discovering what you were capable of given the right circumstances.

A smile of relief spread across Daedalus's face. He froze like a statue. His skin turned transparent, revealing the bronze gears and machinery whirring inside his body. Then the statue turned to gray ash and disintegrated.

He hadn't left a 'trophy' behind, Jason realized. He might have vanished like a monster, but his soul was destined for more than Tartarus. He would not try to sneak past for rebirth. He was merely a very, very intelligent mortal man who had finally learned his lesson.

Mrs. O'Leary howled. I patted her head, trying to comfort her as best I could. The earth rumbled—an earthquake that could probably be felt in every major city across the country—as the ancient Labyrinth collapsed.

Nico winced at the lack of a sharp noise in his ears from that. In some dull area of his mind he'd been surprised. There had been no other lost souls in the Labyrinth, Kronos must have allocated all of his forces into doing this or had them elsewhere. No other lost kids had stumbled in there and died because of his act, and now, none ever would again. He really wanted to believe something he'd done with his powers had done more good than harm, for once.

Somewhere, I hoped, the remains of the Titan's strike force had been buried.

I looked around at the carnage in the clearing, and the weary faces of my friends.

"Come on," I told them. "We have work to do."

Thalia closed the book with a sense of finality, even though there was obviously a few more pages left. She looked from it to Nico with a guilty sense of finally knowing just a bit more about him. He had only ever been another half-blood kid to her, nobody on her radar really before they were trapped in the underworld, and then it was just a quest to survive. She'd never taken the time to get to know him, a decision that had mostly been out of her hands up until now between everything else going on in her own life.

She'd never had the same sense of loneliness he'd felt, she'd always had Jason, then Luke, and now Annabeth in her life when she needed them most. Yet Nico had been the one to find her brother after all this time, and she'd known virtually nothing about Nico except his sister's name. Maybe if she had taken the time to get to know him like she had Percy she could have even been kept in the loop.

It was something she could at least make an attempt to correct as she smiled at him and offered the book like she had plenty of times before, but asked first, "you okay to keep going?"

"Mmm, I suppose," Nico sounded far from enthusiastic. It definitely felt like a curse that the next chapter would be filled to the brim with lists of names of all the kids Will used to know that he'd be the one reading about, of course.

To skip or ask to be passed over felt like going backwards though. Everybody read over uncomfortable stuff and he didn't want to be the exception.

Still, he thanked Thalia as he took the book from her and flipped to the next chapter, and only then felt Will squeeze his arm where his hand had still been resting, never pulled away. He probably wasn't the best judge to know otherwise, but it felt supportive, and kind, as he read of the next miserable experience.

[literallyjusttoa]

Some interesting differences between Greek and Roman myths (and other things) that I think would've been really cool to explore in HoO and ToA

Disclaimer: I am no scholar, and while I have tried my hardest to check my resources for accuracy, any sort of second-hand account of mythology has a chance of holding misinformation. I sadly do not have access to many primary sources, so this might not all be 100% accurate!! If you see something and you know it's wrong, pls let me know so I can fix it!

Anyways, onto the list! This is REALLY long, but the organization is gonna go like this.

Fact about the difference between Greek and Roman myths or worship.

Reason why I think it would be interesting to explore in the riordanverse.

and so on and so forth. This is really just for me to document ideas I've had, but hopefully y'all get something out of it too, read at your own risk, I suppose.

The Romans believed that after the Titanomachia, Saturn (The roman name for Kronos) fled to Italy and took refuge with it's king. Saturn eventually shared the throne with this king, and their kingdom was known to be joyous and peaceful. Romans actually worshiped Saturn bc of this, and he had a temple at the foot of Capitoline Hill.

Imagine if Percy arrived at Camp Jupiter, and one of the first things he sees is a temple to the titan he just spent 5 years trying to defeat. Like, I know he has no memories at this point, but I'm sure it would make him at least a bit uneasy. I think this would do a lot to sell the greek/roman schism in HoO, bc that whole plot point never really hit with me. We keep being told the Greeks and Romans hate each other almost instinctively, but other than Octavian, we aren't really shown it. Also it always seems like the Romans hate the Greeks and the Greeks are just kind of offended that the Romans hate them. Having actual tangible reasons for our main Greek character to feel uncomfortable around New Rome would a lot to make this actually feel like an equal issue.

2. In Greek mythology, Zeus was thought to be powerful, but not a supreme force. He was still beholden to the strings of fate. On the other hand, Jupiter was seen as the lord of life and death, having complete power and control over the cycle of life. He was more powerful than fate, and never came down from Olympus, as Zeus was known to do often.

Again, a HUGE discrepancy that I wish the books explored. This just kind of goes with the underdevelopment of Jason in HoO, but how cool would it be if Jason had this understanding of Jupiter. Like, yeah, in canon Jason points out that Jupiter is stern and distant, but it never gets to all-powerful controller of life levels. Having Jason see his father's distance as right and just would make him an incredible contrast to Percy, who just spent the last 5 books trying to get gods to be more open with their kids. It would add so much to Jason's arc about being torn between Camp Jupiter and Camp Half-Blood. As a Roman and Praetor, Jason understands why his father never speaks with him, but as a kid, he wishes he could know the humanity of the Greek side of his father. (ofc in pjo Zeus sucks either way but Jason doesn't know that)

3.Juno was actually seen as much nicer and more matronly than Hera, and was said to watch over every woman from her birth until her death.

I just think this would do wonders for Hera's characterization in the riordanverse. Imagine if we got to see her actually help one of the girls on the Argo II as Juno, especially since she basically put EVERY SINGLE MALE CHARACTER on the Argo II personally, yet had nothing to do with he female characters??? Seriously, Hera was behind Leo, Frank, Jason, and Percy being a part of this quest, but as far as I can remember, she had nothing to do with Annabeth, Piper, or Hazel being there. What is up with that? It would've been so cool to see Juno watch over Hazel, or help Annabeth (Could lead to some awesome character development for both Hera and Annabeth), or even just give some advice to Piper. Seriously we were robbed.

4. This isn't really a difference, but there is actually a period in Rome where Apollo does not seem to have been worshiped at all, or at least not in any major capacity. One temple is noted to have been built for Apollo in 430 B.C.E., but we don't really see him again in any sort of public way until Augustus takes power hundreds of years later. Seeing as Apollo was one of, if not the most popular Greek deity, this is a rather large change. Of course, once Augustus brings him back to the limelight, worship of Apollo becomes hugely popular, with many emperors claiming his moniker to show their own divinity.

This could actually fill a big plot hole in the riordanverse. It makes no sense that Apollo has 6-7 Greek children as of the end of ToA, yet he has no roman kids at all? However, in this light we see Apollo as a god who never really connected with Rome, and was a bit of a late runner when it comes to Roman worship. If you look at it from a character standpoint, instead of a strictly historical or mythological view, it almost seems like Apollo was holding onto Greece. The Romans started taking Greek colonies in the 200's B.C.E, and have fully taken the area by 146 B.C.E.. In this time, and even before it, almost every Greek deity was co-opted into Roman worship. Apollo, however, stayed steadfastly Greek, until Augustus started to pray to him for victory in battle. (Fun fact: Augustus actually credited Apollo with his victory over Marc Anthony and Cleopatra in Actium) This whole thing makes it look like Apollo just didn't want to be Roman, or at least he didn't want to let go of Greece like the other gods were. And it seems like he didn't let go of Greece at all in the end, as there are very few notable differences between his Greek and Roman depictions. From this, I take two things. One, Apollo was probably never Roman, at least not in the way HoO depicts a god being Roman. This creates some interesting implications for how Apollo lived during Roman times, but that's a whole other thing. Two, because of this, Apollo might not be able to have a Roman demigod child. After all, the demigods at Camp Jupiter are classed as such for being born to specifically roman counterparts of gods. If Apollo has no such counterpart, he can't have the kids. Of course, this begs the question of Octavian, but I'll expand on that later.

5. When you look into it, the Roman god Diana is actually much closer to many characteristics of Hecate than she is the Greek portrayal of Artemis (though this is mainly because Artemis and Hecate were mixed together often, even in Greek times.) It is said that Diana has three forms: In the heavens she was Luna, the moon; on earth she was Diana, the goddess of the hunt; and in the underworld, she was Proserpine, a malevolent master of witchcraft.

Ok, ok I know this actually makes no sense in the context of HoO, but wouldn't it be so cool if Hazel worked with Diana instead of Hecate. I just think it would really expand the arc!! Seeing a different side of Artemis, one of the godesses we've probably saw the most of in the original series, would be so neat. Also, Diana as Proserpine having connections to both witchcraft and the underworld makes her a perfect fit. IDK IDK I just think it would be really cool. PLUS it would give Hazel and Frank a fun little parallel bc Frank would be inspired by Apollo while Hazel was trained by DIana. Vague sun and moon parallels my beloved.

6. The job of an Augur is actually much closer to the Greek's soothsayers than it is their oracles. While oracles are said to interpret the god's will, soothsayers and augurs see the future simply through simple acts of nature. The way in which augurs tell the future actually has a lot less to do with the gods than one might assume.

I just wish this fact was mentioned in HoO bc honestly it clears up so much for me. Also when it comes to Octavian, I think it makes more sense for him to be blessed by Apollo instead of descended from him (I know he says he's both in the book but shhh wait let me keep going for a sec) Soothsayers and Augurs were priests, directly picked by the gods to divine the future on their own. While oracles were basically the gods mouthpieces, Augurs would be allowed to divine their own interpretation of the future from what they saw in nature, all condoned by whatever god blessed them (probably Apollo). In this way, the whole "Apollo is turned mortal bc he supported Octavian" thing makes a lot more sense. In canon, we only get told through a throwaway line that Apollo was "totally swayed by Octavian's promises of power guys, trust me." It always just seemed so out of left field to me. If I were to take it in a new direction, I would lean much more into the fact that Octavian was an appointed priest of Apollo, who abused his supposed ability for prophecy to cause war. Apollo is now directly stated to be Octavian's willful benefactor, so of course he'd take the fall this. It would show Apollo's callousness. He doesn't care for Camp Jupiter as much he does Camp half-blood (see point 4) so he let the position of Augur become corrupt with little complaint. Also, if Octavian isn't Apollo's descendant, my whole "Apollo can't have a roman kid" theory is FOOLPROOF HAHAHAHAAHAHAHA

7. While both cultures had large religious festivals, Rome's were much more centralized and documented. This is mainly due to Rome being ruled by a single republic or emperor, as opposed to Greece's city-states.

This isn't changing anything in canon as much as wishing there was more of it. Man, I wish we could've seen more of the Roman festivals. We're always just told they happen, but I wanna know the specifics! These are huge religious events! Are the New Romans actually fully worshiping the gods these festivals celebrate? How do the Roman characters we have feel about the festivals? Does Jason miss them while on the Argo II? Do Hazel, Frank, and Jason try to put on a small celebration for the festivals that pass while they're sailing to Rome? Let these things be important dangit.

8. When the Greeks sculpted, they focused on the ideal form, with emphasis put on the athletic male figure. Because of this, the face of the figure was not specific to any individual, as it was not the focus. In contrast, the Romans put a heavy emphasis on the face. In Rome, you wanted your lineage to be known, so you had your face sculpted with intense detail. That way, sculptures of your face could be compared with sculptures of your forefathers, or your children.

Again, I wish we were shown more of a difference between Greeks and Romans than "Romans are strict and organized, Greeks like to have fun" They're two entirely different cultures!!! Imagine if we showed the Roman emphasis on lineage in someone other than Octavian. Have Jason be genuinely proud of the affluence being a son of Jupiter gives him, let that be a flaw of his, a point of contention on the Argo II. Show how family pride can be important in arcs like Frank's, where he learns how to accept the fact that he is Mars' son, and grow into that role. Put the emphasis of these arcs on the fact that they're struggling with the ROMAN idea of family lineage. Let being from New Rome be an real identity. I feel like the synopsis of this whole thing is that I wish the Romans had whole beliefs that were wildly different from the Greeks. They could value different things, interact with the gods in distinctly different ways. We always see the conflict of swords between the Greeks and Romans, but never the conflict of beliefs, and I think that kind of sucks. Also it makes NO SENSE THAT THE ROMANS HATE THE GREEKS ANYWAY! Ancient Romans fucking loved Ancient Greeks! They saw the Greeks as their ancestors, adapting all of their religion and art out of a genuine appreciation for the culture. If anyone should hate anyone, it should be the Greeks, bc the Greeks were the ones who GOT CONQUERED. But in HoO, all of the Greeks just seem mildly disgruntled by the idea of Romans. idk it doesn't make much sense to me.

If you got to the end, I hope you got something out of my rambles. I honestly still feel like I have more to say about this stuff, so if anyone has any questions or wants me to expand on anything lmk! If not tho, thank you for reading!

[satoshy12]

Reading Kronos talks about his children

Kronos about his children

It had been a normal day at Olympus in the meeting of the Winter Solstice as suddenly fate appeared before them and seemed to not be able to stop laughing.

The Fates: "Here you can't leave this room, till this is done, hahahaha."

With a Poof sound, they were gone as fast as they were there.

Athena made her way to the little Book they left for them to read and picked it up.

"Athena what are we even supposed to see?" Zeus demanded his favourite child.

" Here stands "Kronos talks about his children" looks like what grandfather thinks about you father and your siblings." Athena read out loud.

"Father's thoughts about us?" Hestia asked not sure if she heard it right.

"Seems so." Poseidon looked at his siblings, all of them not sure if they really wanted to know it.

"Athena starts reading." Zeus commanded his daughter," the faster you read the faster we are done."

"Okay."

It has been a normal day at Tartarus the Titan Kronos was once again having a card game with the Norse God Loki and Egyptian God Seth.

"Father knows those gods?"

"Looks like it sister." Demeter answered to the Goddess of the Hearth.

"So favourite children, mine was Vali?" Loki started as he lost his hand," do you have one?"

"Do I look like Rhea?" Kronos said he was sure won the game," I treated all my children the same."

"You eat us!" Poseidon to the screen," mother saved us."

"Umm, mother only saved Zeus, we were saved by Zeus." Demeter started," so in a way she played favourites at that time."

"Hahahaha, I am mother Rhea's favourite." Zeus started to laugh at his brothers.

Before Zeus and Poseidon started a new argument Athena continued to read.

"Really?" Seth," What are their names?"

"My Perfect, has never will have done anything wrong, Baby Princess Angel, Flawless Perfect, Fire Angel, Cookie Princess, Best Girl, Good Girl, …."

"Father."

"What is it, daughter?"

"Grandfather is talking about the next 200 sites about Aunt Hestia and how great and perfect she is."

The gods in the room have to give the Titan King that truth Hestia is truly the favorite in the family. But 2000 sites to listen to Kronos talking about Hestia?

"Just start reading as fast as you can."

"……….. good girl….how perfect she is….want to see her baby pictures from my memories…. Shows pictures…."

More and more Hestia blushed and her family was shocked how Kronos sounded like a doting father to Hestia.

'Why did the Fates laugh then?' Hades thought as he looked at his older sister who was now blushing Black Gold on her face.

'This is embarrassing.' Hestia accepts a little doting of her dad but this is too much for her.

".... the glorious fabulous heir to my throne and Powers! Hestia the Bestia!!!"

Silence was in the council room.

"Wow." Apollo broke the silence,"2000 sites only about Aunt Hestia."

The rest of the family looked at Hestia who was seemingly burning. Outside and inside so golden she was from the Ichor.

"What is with your other children?" Seth wasn't that shocked to all that talk he is the same about Anubis when he sees him.

"Now it's interesting. Let's see what father thinks of us."

"Hestia little sister 1, Hestia little sister 2, Hestia first brother, Hestia second brother and not to forget my loyal Stone."

"HE DOESN'T EVEN REMEMBER OUR NAMES!"

"What kind of father are you!"

"See I told you?"

"Stone, WHAT IS ABOUT ME. I DEFEATED YOU AND I AM THE KING OF THE GODS. I AM YOUR SON ZEUS!!"

Seth and Loki couldn't stop themselves from laughing and laughing how Kronos first even said he doesn't have a favourite child.

"What is with Zeus?"

"What by Ouranus's Balls is a Zeus?"

While most of Hestia's siblings were angry at not being remembered even by their name they couldn't stop themselves from laughing hearing that Kronos doesn't even remember having Zeus.

And the god in question was turning a releasing lighting around him and his master bolt glowed to show his owner's anger.

"So the Stone? Haha hahahaha"

"Oh my loyal Stone is next to Hestia my heir in the case i Fade. Whatever this Zeus thing is he wasn't eaten by me so not my child. Zeus comes up with such a name. Hestia is a good name on the other hand Worthy of a Perfect being like her. "

"The stone?"Ares yelled, "The freakin 'Stone?!"

"The stone is the heir? After Hestia for his powers. How would that even work?" Athena asked herself.

The children of the titan couldn't even open their mouths right now.

Seth and Loki with their pantheons could after this moment no longer look at the Olympians the same.