Warnings: This story is an AU ONLY based the first five books. Any characterization that comes after is being ignored. This project is going to feel random in tone and pacing sometimes, due to the way it was/is being written. The primary function of this project is writing practice. This does not fit into the same genre as Percy Jackson. This story will not attempt to mimic the Percy Jackson style. There are teenagers without supervision acting like teenagers, described non-graphically within this story. There are a reasonably improbable number of gay or bisexual characters described within this story. The story contains both gay and lesbian characters doing gay and lesbian things.

This story will primarily take place after an AU ending of Book 5. It will reasonably frequently change character perspectives.

This story is not part of the YA genre. As such, I don't need to rely on fridge horror visons of a terrible world to make something have stakes. If there is going to be loss or violence, there will be loss or violence. However, despite the first few chapters, this is primarily a low-action character drama.

I am planning to publish around 2000 word chapters twice a week. I am expecting the story to run for 23 chapters, finishing sometime in late august. Considering my timetable, you should not expect a continuation/sequel/spin-off this year. This means that the story will probably lack a normal narrative ending for some time.
_

Start.

I did not exist.

Then, there was power, form and time and information. These concepts imposed themselves on me, one by one, until suddenly.

I existed. I knew. I was.

There was a man with glowing golden eyes, standing next to me in an elevator.

"Shade," the voice spoke. "I am Kronos." Kronos stood tall and powerful, his voice reverberating with a double timber.

Kronos didn't move. He was addressing me. Power, given by old rights, flowed between us.

"I give you a name," said Kronos. "And you shall do my bidding. By granting form, I grant life, and by granting a name, I grant purpose. So shall it be." Kronos invoked the pact of the immemorial, that which gave me form.

There was a pause

"Luke, what should his name be?" Kronos asked.

Kronos spoke again, this time without the ring of power. "Agamedes, perhaps?" That must have been the voice of Luke. They were sharing a form.

"No, we used that one," Kronos responded. He sounded bored.

"Fine," Luke answered, tired and annoyed. "Billy Jean Alexander."

Kronos though about that for a moment. He shrugged the body.

Kronos turned a portion of his power to me.

"Your name is Bill," Kronos spoke to me.

My name Was Bill.

"When we get out of here, Bill, your job is going to be to find and hide the Ophiotaurus. Return it to me when I call you." Kronos ordered me.

I waited.

"Now, let us review," Kronos started, and then paused, stretching his hands. I could feel a whine of power in the background, the slow destruction of godly protections.

"Yes, my lord." Luke's voice spoke from the body.

"Let me rephrase that, I'm going to review, and Bill here is going to tell Coeus what happened when he finally arrives from Vegas."

"Yes," I answer.

Luke does not say anything when Kronos takes another moment to stretch.

"It is the eve of what will be called the Battle of New York. Did you get that?"

"Yes," I answer.

"Good. I am Kronos. My time powers have now returned in full, and the Gods lack the Seal of Lost Worlds. My power is unchecked like it was in the war against our father. I ascended to power in this line ten years ago. I was able to unleash some of the most powerful monsters within the underworld. With those servants, I exterminated nearly every active demigod I could find and was able to wipe out the adult demigod population entirely. The gods failed utterly at protecting their children, and eventually, Chiron's camp was the only haven for them. Following that, I started to poke and prod at the power base of Olympus."

Kronos paused to laugh.

"I found out something fantastic. The gods were utterly reliant on their demigod children to help deal with problems in a timely manner, and they did nothing to ensure loyalty from them. The demigods were already isolated and furious, even before I increased the pressure upon them. I managed to turn at least a third of them to our side, including my current host. This was valuable for several reasons, but most importantly, Olympus's main method of protection was a complex weave of prophecies. I've used my powers to gain a clear advantage in this war, and now all that remains is to take Olympus itself. I have enacted several plans leading up to this with our… information advantage. Perseus Jackson, a prophesied son of Poseidon and one of the Gods last remaining loyalists will arrive with his companions to confront me, and I will destroy him. Olympus will fall, tonight."

Kronos paused. His eyes glowed with power and rage.

He glanced at his wrist, and a watch appeared upon it. It ticked once. The elevator moved suddenly. It hadn't been moving before now, I noted.

"Note to self: The protections on Olympus from the Empire door are weaker, but still require time to breach."

He took a breath and turned back to me.

"Are you still recording this?" He asked me.

"Yes," I answered.

"This time, the war progressed mostly smoothly. I was also able to make temporary allies with several of the enemies of Olympus. We raised the pressure rapidly and made gains, though the young demigods were occasionally able to push back unexpectedly. We… usually had redundancies, but there were a couple of real setbacks."

Here Kronos paused.

"Like one of my generals getting knocked off a cliff into sharp rocks when trying to spring a trap. That wasn't part of the plan, was it Luke?"

"No, my lord," Luke answered, quiet.

"Without demigods to die for them, Olympus is falling on all fronts. The war in the east progresses at pace. We have armies presently in several places on the east coast, and Olympus and her allies are one and all under siege. The army in Florida has entirely routed enemy forces in the south. Oceanus is leading a siege of Atlantis, and a pincer has forced Poseidon to rally to his allies. Presently, I have a major force attacking New York itself, led by Hyperion. While I move on Olympus itself, I expect Olympus and what remains of the half-bloods to make a desperate defense below."

"My lord, may I suggest that we attempt to take some of the demigods alive? They could be powerful servants." Luke spoke up.

"Something to consider, but not for this battle. Most of them will survive the battle anyway, though I expect injuries,"

"I… am confused, my lord," Luke asked, confused.

"We will lose the Battle of New York, Hades himself will arrive at the last second with his forces to save the battle. Most of the demigods will survive to fight another day. The battle is a distraction."

The elevator shuddered and started moving again.

There was no other sound.

"The wards around Olympus have collapsed. I am going to deal with the prophecy. Stop recording." Kronos told me.

"Yes." I complied.

"Luke, a piece of advice."

"My lord?"

"I am a Lord of Time. Betrayal only works until I decide to inform my past self of what happened and change it. I am not at all sorry about this."

The man in the elevator started glowing gold, and Luke started screaming.

After several seconds, the glowing stopped. Kronos checked his watch.

"Well, being inside a mortal body, this isn't quite what I was expecting," Kronos spoke aloud. His movements were smooth, and his scars were golden.

The elevator came to a stop.

The door opened, looking over Olympus. Kronos set off.

I moved to find the Ophiotaurus, as was my purpose.
_

Kronos.

I walked out of the elevator in my new body.

A mortal poet once wrote 'Not at all similar are the race of the immortal gods and the race of men who walk upon the earth.' The insight within that quote is more than most mortals achieve in their short lives. The nature of mortals and that of immortals is fundamentally different. Most beings cannot even conceive of what it is like to be a god. To get technical, I am a titan, which is distinct from a god. But this is a distinction largely orchestrated by angry, rebellious children waving around a lightning bolt to compensate for something.

Time and memories don't quite flow the same for a more conceptual being. For a Lord of Time, this goes doubly so. Mortal flaws in judgment and, logic do not apply to me when I'm in a godly state. Even forced into a mortal form, where I'm forced to rely on the memories of my host must battle the mental corruption of mortal blood, my command of time allows me greater insight into the world then mortals can hope to understand.

It is with that godly certainty I know I was totally and completely justified in crushing the mind of this whiny, dramatic demigod it was currently residing in.

Luke was a little shit who deserved it, is what I'm trying to say.

I had run this little war before, and it had been mostly successful except for a couple of minor issues. Those issues had suddenly become major issues at my moment of triumph and had blocked me from my goal.

I, as the lord of time, have the ability to send memories back to my prior self. I could do this at the climax of my defeat or even years afterward. In this way, I cannot lose so long as my power remains unsealed.

This was the reason I, and therefore my forces were so confident. I could just try again if I lost. In the last war, several forces had conspired to defeat me, but I had laid contingencies ensuring that I wouldn't be sealed again. Outside of that, my victory was just a measure of Time. I could warp the universe with an extra exertion of my power to make the 'next round' more advantageous to me.

With this in mind, I had sent the information back, and moved to be victorious in my second attempt at the war to destroy Olympus.

That was the plan.

On the eve of attempt line 43, alteration 5e, I understood that something, somewhere had gone horribly wrong a very long time ago. To draw an expression from my Luke's mortal memories, 'there was some real bullshit going on.' Several plans (for example, a horde of magic weapons I was going to arm my forces with for this battle) had been disrupted by random demigod using information that they managed to get from dreams (despite, I will note, having the god of sleep on my side). In addition, my significantly stronger force was going to lose the 'Battle for New York'.

No matter the resources I committed, who I killed or what monster I unleashed Olympus would win that battle. This time, I simply forced all of the gods to contribute to the defense and planned it as a distraction.

I had two main plans in place, now. One of them I knew would give me time to delay at the very least. The other fell into the category of 'demigod ideas.' It was spectacularly dumb, on a level not usually conceived by immortals, but perhaps the surprise of it would allow me to carry the day.

I had spent several timelines testing. My 'demigod idea' had gone from "not even worth calling a plan" to "plan b." After this much-repeated failure, you really have to take yourself a little less seriously.

I destroyed a statue of Zeus I was walking past. Simply destroyed his stupid, smug face.

Let me tell you, having a body and no whiny demigod traitors sharing headspace really helps the mood. I was nearly joyful. The mortal brain chemicals are really something special.

Even to a titan as mighty as myself, there was some risk to mental corruption from wearing a form like this.

I marched forward into the kingdom of the gods, whistling some pop song Luke had liked.

I blew up another statue.

I was also wrecking things because I'm petty. We all have flaws.

It was worth the use of godly power.

Luke's latent influence on my mind was very real, but it didn't change the fact that he was right about this place really needing a 'God of Good Design Choices.' Gold on gold on white, the Olympians must be allergic to taste.

I was most of the way up the mountain when two minor godlings stepped in front of me in a spectacular display of tactical competence and announced their presence with some sort of declaration. I really could not give less of a shit. I tuned out what they were saying, while simultaneously noticing that their posing left a rather serious vulnerability open.

A digression, the concept of completely unchanging gods, isn't true at all. Over as many attempts as I've had, you do learn new things.

For example, you both learn how to put up with the endless daddy issues of bitchy demigods, and then you learn to crush their mind and take over their body once they do something stupid like, say, getting knocked off a cliff in an extremely simple mission, again.

I wasn't bitter in the least about the competence of my minions.

On a more relevant note, you also learn things like how to slow time around yourself and then launch forward and stab two overhyped minor god pieces of garbage. Right in their throats, one after another.

I left them to the important task of drowning in their own blood. Let me tell you, that is a wholly unpleasant time. The left one gurgled something at me. I used my power to drop a statue on him without looking back.

Hasta la vista, baby.