A/N: Here is the sequel… We hope you guys enjoy it!
Disclaimer: I honest to god I do not own PJO, no matter how much I may wish otherwise.
When the storm begins to grow
The two of one to the east must go
And gain the blessing of the four
To face their fight against death's door
When the Hunter, the Guardian, the Princess and the Land
Unite once more for the final stand
But to watch the duel where one is slain
For only then can peace be claimed.
Sighing, the goddess of the earth pushed herself to walk the final steps to the throne room of Olympus, pushing the doors open to reveal the fourteen of the council, all of whom stopped talking when she entered, turning to face her with tension clear as day on their faces. For a second, their expressions brightened when they noticed who it was that had joined them, but, when they noticed her depression, the light died as quickly as it came.
"What is it? What's wrong?"
Unwilling to answer the question straight off, Piper ignored her mother in favour of dropping into the throne that was always there for when she gave them an update on what was happening in the void. Her visits to Olympus were regular, once on both solstices, but even if it had not been the shortest day of the year, she would still have come.
"I bring bad news I'm afraid. Anything I should hear from you guys before I answer?"
There was a brief murmur of worry, and a couple of heads shaken which she took to mean that there was nothing being discussed that she didn't already know, so, with a groan, she fell back into her seat and covered her eyes with her hand.
"Well… starting off on a lighter note, Poseidon and Athena are now officially grandparents."
There were a few cheers at that, and a strange look shared between Athena and Poseidon before they quickly looked away, both of them blushing like crazy. They had been informed at the last solstice that Annabeth was pregnant, but this just made it all the more real to them.
"Boy or Girl?"
Someone, probably Hermes called out, seeing as though he was the one bouncing up and down in his throne from excitement, his eyes flashing with the prospect of having a new godling child in the family to play pranks with in the near future. His expression was enough to ease some of Piper's tension, and she nearly laughed, but settled for shaking her head in disapproval instead.
"Both."
There was a stunned silence followed by a few cheers and Dionysus collecting his winnings from Ares who was grumbling under his breath at losing the bet. Over from her place by the fire, Hestia called out in a soft voice that carried across the room, cutting through the noise and leaving only a hushed quiet behind as they waited for the answer.
"Names?"
"Orion and Cassiopeia. I think Annie was the one to pick them."
For a while, the room fell back into another bouts of conversation and Piper let it. She hated to be the bearer of bad news, but there was no way around telling them. Still, she was going to let them have their fun for now, or, at least she was until Apollo decided to call out:
"I call god father!"
There was a hush in the room after that where Artemis clipped her brother round the back of the head with her bow, sending him sprawling to the floor as she glared down at him.
"1, Dear Brother, that is a Christian custom, not one of our own.
2. The god parents are only for if something happens to the real parents of the child, and, seeing as the parents are immortal that is not going to be an issue!
And 3. Why in father's name would anyone ever appoint you the guardian of their child in the event that something was to happen to them?"
For a second, it looked as though the sun god was actually thinking about that, but, after opening his mouth and closing it several times when he could think of nothing to say, he only slouched back into his throne, rubbing the sore spot on the back of his head and smiling brightly.
"Oh well, guess I am just going to have to be the cool uncle then along with Hermes."
It looked like another argument was going to break out at that comment, but Piper quickly allowed a mini quake to shake the room so as to get their attention once again. This was the bit she had not been wanting to tell them, especially as, seeing their reaction to the news of the twins' birth, it was not going to go down well.
"No, you're not. None of you are going to be able to be able to be anything to the twins, not for a long time anyway. They are not allowed to know anything about this world and, when they find out, they need to be treated as normal demigods."
That announcement was greeted with the loudest complaints that had been heard for a while up in the throne room, none of them being quite as loud as the new grandparents however.
"What do you mean they can't know about this world? Wont they be growing up in the void anyway?"
"Why do we have to treat them as normal demigods?"
"Why do we have to ignore them?"
She let the noise wash over her for a short while before holding her hand up to call for quiet, when that failed, she sent a pleading look at Zeus, asking him to call the meeting back to order for her to explain. He did not look to happy about the new information either, but he did quiet the others down enough for her to start speaking once again.
"Back in the void, things are shifting, Chaos is losing control of some of the older Primordials, the ones that seem to have been allied with Gaia, and it is beginning to look like there may be battles over control. As the first born of two Primordials, the twins are going to be incredibly powerful, as so, a target. To protect them, Annabeth and Percy are going to hide them here on earth, which is why you can't show them any special treatment!"
Now that got the room quiet, as all eyes were turned to her, faces slightly paler than normal. For a while, no one said anything, but then Athena spoke up.
"But their powers… as children they are still going to have a strong enough scent to draw every monster in the country to them. If we cannot show any special interest to them, how will they survive until they can get to camp?"
That was a point that had come up earlier in the meeting she had had with the tearful parents as they explained to her the plan, so thankfully, she knew the answer.
"Chaos knows a way to split their power. He's going to perform the spell then give a part of it to the four of us, me, Hart, Celeste and Darren, to hold onto until they come to claim it back, he decided that it would be safer."
"But Hart is currently a spirit in the underworld, admittedly she is living in my palace, but that still makes it practically impossible to get to her, Celeste is off with the hunt, Darren is guarding the doors of death from the tartarus side and you have your own duties to attend to… how will they be able to get their powers back?"
There were a few noises of agreement at Hades' comment, but the rest just seemed to be staring at Piper for an explanation, which she readily supplied.
"That is why we are the ones to hold on to their power. They need to have the strength to get it first, to make sure that they are mature and smart enough to use it properly without giving themselves away. Anyway, it is easier to have the energy so far spread out so that it doesn't try to reconnect itself."
It was nowhere near the explanation that Chaos had given her earlier, but she had been a little distracted at the time and that was about all she could remember of it. Thankfully, the gods seemed satisfied with this so she went on to the next bid, absent mindedly guessing about what sort of reaction this part was going to get.
"Also, this spell, although it can take away a lot of their powers, they are still going to be pretty strong for demigods, especially when they are together, which means that we are going to have to try and pass them off as kids of one of the big three."
As she spoke, she turned to look at the gods in question, eyes flicking over all of them as she paused before saying the next bit. It seemed like they had all decided that it would be Poseidon, given their parents, so Hades and Zeus were looking decidedly bored, until she began speaking again.
"And, well, Hades, we were going to ask for you to claim them."
There was a heartbeat of frozen stillness as the god blinked at her slowly, not sure what to make of what was just said. Noticing that he was not going to comment, Piper began speaking again, her words leaving her faster than she had intended them to as she mentally cringed at the babbling tone of voice she was using.
"Well… they kind of inherited the powers from Annie and Percy's positions, probably, not the ones they got from you guys. So, as they are the primordial od Night and Darkness, the twins' powers would be easier to explain away as them being children of the underworld rather than having to make up an excuse as to why children of Poseidon or Zeus can manipulate the darkness and shadow travel…"
She trailed off expecting to get shouted at but was only greeted by the god in question nodding tiredly, though he did seem happy to have been chosen for this. All around the room, the council were also showing signs of agreement, though Demeter looked decidedly sour, showing that they thought this to be the best choice. Sighing in relief, Piper slumped back into her chair and gave them the last piece of information they would need from her before she could zone out for the rest of the meeting.
"Okay, with the mortals, the two of them are going to be called Oliver and Charlotte Morgan. Annies going to drop them off at an orphanage in Arizona called St Julie's or something like that. She is going to say that there was a house fire that killed their mother and that the police asked her to drop them off as they have no other relatives."
"Okay, anything else I need to know before I 'adopt' the devil spawn?"
There were a few glares sent his way at the last comment, Athena even muttered something concerning Pots and Kettles, but Piper only grinned and tilted her head up to the ceiling.
"Oh yes, Annie says, if you don't claim her kids on the Greek side, she is going to hamstring you and hang you upside down from the Statue of Liberty's torch."
"Charming."
A/N: There we go, I hope you enjoyed the Prologue of the sequel, and, I will warn you, this one is going to be a lot darker than TBTL. Still, thanks for reading and over to you Sara!
Sara: Wow, Ella's working quickly at the moment, I think it is cause she is trying to avoid doing homework. Still, its that special time of the day today... BETA QUESTION TIME so, for this one, a special question:
Who is the Primordial god of the sea?