"So, did you see the news?" Nyx asks.
Nyx, Percy's sister, was by no means a stranger to violence and war. In fact, despite her small stature and her beauty, she was indeed a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield, and even though her speciality was as a saboteur and hired blade, she could very well hold off an army of Chitauri warriors, even their best men. That was no jesting matter as the Chitauri bladesmen and their ultimate superiors, the Heralds, struck fear into the hearts of even the most brave, the most courageous of Centaurius Knights. Her long, dark silky hair reached the small of her back and her eyes were a brilliant fusion of black and blue, though they mostly changed from time to time due to them being kaleidoscopic. To those that knew nothing about her, they would've likely mistook her for a noble lord's chambermaid or concubine, with her otherworldly beauty and grace.
Percy nods in response. "Heard that the Krait Empire's waging up arms against the Crones. And Centauri's caught right in the middle of their crossfire."
"The Order of Chaos will be alright, Percy. They can stand their ground, especially considering they currently have the strongest force in the Universe. No House, be it Krait, Crone, or even the Chitauri, can stand up to our knights."
"That's not what I'm afraid of." Percy cuts her off. "If both of us are gone, and he knows, our Empire would crumble. We are all that stands before Centauri's collapse. Order and Thanos make a dangerous duo, and our operation must not fail. That is for certain."
Nyx sighs. "I wish you were sprouting nonsense like you normally always are. But it seems we are in a dire situation. Both of the biggest baddies in the universe, save the Cosmic Entities themselves, are after us and the Infinity Stones."
Percy's head snaps up. "Infinity Stones? That's what they're called?" He shakes his head unbelievably. "I thought they were magical fruit loops."
Nyx smiles at him, patting him on the back. "Don't worry, you'll have me on Earth to suppress your stupidity." He groans, laughing along a little as the ride there is filled with banter between the siblings.
--Time Skip--
Percy's chest tightens as the ship enters orbit around the Earth and breaches the planet's atmosphere. He had gotten so used to travelling at lightspeed on their way there that the sudden change of speed should have crushed his chest, fractured his ribs and destroyed his heart had it not been for his godly enhancements. (A/N: Yes, Chaos made him a Primordial as part of him serving under her.)
He grips onto the chair desperately, as if he's afraid of being catapulted out of the shuttle. "Pulling up!" Nyx yells over the roaring of the superheated metal as the craft stabilises suddenly and Percy's stomach churns as he tries to fight the nausea. Slowly, the shuttle touches down as the engines whirr softly before completely going silent.
Percy hears a mechanism going off outside of the spacecraft and some distinct chattering. The shuttle lands with its extendable legs and a cloud of dust is kicked up by the impact.
"Oh, Chaos." Percy groans, massaging his head. The world around him spins for a few moments, before the dizziness subsides and he restores his vision. That doesn't help with either the headache or the chest pains, however. Nyx, who's standing opposite him and looking out the window, seems only slightly perturbed but otherwise already like her normal self.
She is, however, curious about their landing spot. "Why did we land in the middle of a camp? Moreso, why are there little kids here?" She questions warily, afraid of possibly provoking the youngsters to react violently.
"Yeah... where even are we?" Percy asks the pilot, who shrugs and just replies, "I'm following the Lady's instructions. Care to exit before I return?"
The first step up is the hardest for Percy. Having to adjust to actually balancing himself almost made him fall, and he had to rely on Nyx to actually even take the second one. However, soon he manages to haul himself out of the vehicle as it elevates, retracting its mechanical legs. It pushes up from the surface as the engine roars, and the patch of earth that was once under it is sent flying into some of the camper's faces.
One of them approaches - a blonde teenager, with gray eyes and dressed in a pair of jeans and an orange shirt that has faded letters on it: CHB. Her eyes are calculative and stormy, and Percy manages to find a resemblance between her and the Lady Castèl back at Centauri, that both of them were leaders in their own way. Perhaps if her performance was not well in battle, then she would do better in the command tent.
Another steps up, this time a satyr wearing the same shirt as the blonde, and a pair of horns growing on his head. His chin has a small stubble, as if he'd forgotten to shave for a day or two.
They both look him over, eyes widening in surprise. The blonde pinches herself and rubs her eyes for some reason, and when she takes another look at him, her expression turns into a happier one. "P-Percy?" she stutters, before launching herself at him and enveloping him in a tight hug. The satyr doss the same, though he approaches Percy by walking rather than jumping onto him.
"It's good to see you, buddy. It really is." He pats Percy's back, like he still can't believe that Perseus Jackson is in front of him, alive and well after his lengthy disappearance.
Percy pulls himself away, and the two look at him questioningly. "I don't... I don't know who you are," he admits, and Nyx gives him a questioning raise of her eyebrows.
"Like, I only remember this is my homeworld, about my mom and my dad, but..." he stops, trying to force the words out of his mouth. "I can't remember you. All of you, not even this place." He stops when the blonde starts to tear up, and she screams at the sky.
"OLYMPUS!" She sounds heartbroken. "WHY? WHY ME? WHY DO YOU TORTURE ME SO? IN THE NAME OF MY MOTHER LADY ATHENA, I ASK YOU HERA, TO WHAT EXTENT WOULD YOU GO TO RUIN MY LIFE? TELL ME!" She shouts in despair as thunder rumbles overhead, and a flash of light blinds the campers, but not Percy and Nyx. When the light subsides, all the campers, save the blonde, drop to one knee in respect.
"I did not expect this." The Lady Hera says, shocked at the sight of the boy before her. He was supposed to be at Camp Jupiter now, wasn't he? What tricks were the Fates pulling now?
"I suppose you need information." The blonde teen says sadly. "Follow me. We can talk in private with the cabin leaders. She can come too." She gestures to Nyx, who shrugs and says, "Lead the way."
--Time Skip--
"That... is the strangest bullshit I've heard all day." The girl standing on the side and brandishing her knife - Clarisse, Percy had learnt - said.
Percy sighs. Did he really have to go through all that again? Before he continued, Annabeth, the blond girl from before, cut in.
"So you know you were born on this planet, but you don't remember anything at all? Not even... not even us? Kronos, the Titan War, Olympus?"
Percy shakes his head. "Nothing about Kronos or even fighting him. I only recognize him from my lessons about the different mythological pantheons. Nothing here. It's like I was born here, taken away and force fed new information when I came back."
"So, we're up against a universal threat after these so-called 'Infinity Stones' as you put them? How do we stop him?" Chiron asked.
"That's the thing." Percy admits. "I don't know. All mother told me was to stop him. No methods or anything. She said something about her entire plan relying on me, though. Don't really understand that. So, I just suppose I have to fight him off until he decides to just... keel over and die, I guess."
At this moment, Grover, the satyr, walks over with an album of photos, passing them to Percy.
As Percy opens the photo album, Grover talks in the background. "This one is during our first quest together. We were trying to find your mother and retrieve Zeus's master bolt from a traitor who we believed to be Hades, but was actually Ares. This is a photo of you and Nico, the son of Hades, before he went missing and led us into the labyrinth. He's been gone since you decided to vanish. This is a photo of the three of us - me, you, Annabeth - and the extra mortal, Rachel Dare, at the Hoover Dam, after the battle of the labyrinth. Annabeth never really got along with her. This last one is a photo of all of us after the Battle of Olympus. You went on a one-on-one fight with Kronos himself and stood your ground. No one opposed your leadership after that."
Percy shook his head, not letting the words come out. "I don't- I seriously don't know." He whispers.
And he leaves the tent with tears threatening to leave his eyes, and Nyx following closely in tow. Annabeth and Grover just look on sadly, and the rest of the cabin leaders just look down, suddenly unsure of what to do with their hands and not knowing how to react because frankly, none of them knew how Percy felt, and hence didn't know how to comfort him.
"Percy." Nyx soothes him, rubbing gentle circles on his back with her palm. "It's okay, stop crying..."
"No." Percy shakes his head. "No, it's not okay. I... I had a life here, on Earth, I had one. And I don't even remember, I only remember being born, and my mother screaming when I was lifted up, out of my crib and into the sky by Chaos. That's all I remember. My biological family here. She and Poseidon were the only real ties I had here on Earth, and now I get... this." He laughs bitterly. "Chaos lied to me. My own step-mother lied to me."
"That's not true." Nyx says firmly, interrupting him before he could go on. "I remember you when I was just a child, how Chaos... Mother, would pamper you and always give you what you wanted. I remembered you when I was a child, Percy. She can change who you are, but she can't change your age. You arrived on Centauri as a mere little baby at the age of 1 month, and that was when I was 4. You spent your entire life... almost your entire life with me." She squeezes his hand with hers. "It'll be alright, Percy. We'll ask Mother and get to the bottom of this. Together."
Percy sniffs. "Alright. Together it is." She stands up and extends her hand for him, and he accepts it, his heart racing and thumping so hard against his ribs when she gives him that beautiful smile that only she could ever give to him.
And for once in his life, he accepted it. He had a serious and possibly disgusting crush on his sister... well, step-sister, to be exact, but she was still his sister.
God, this was so fucked up. But then again, that was his life in a nutshell, after all.
A/N: Please review if you have any opinions so far! I hope you all enjoyed and have a great day! Also, in terms of the politics between the different factions in the universe, I'm going to use this as mostly a plot device, but some things that I'm going to add into the plot may be hidden in short little snippets of conversation about these wars and rivalries.