A/N: Hey guys! Here's me signing on with another chapter. Here's a warning: I tend not to work on chapters on weekends, so don't expect updates. When I say don't expect them, it doesn't mean they won't happen, it simply means that it will be extremely difficult for me to update.

To appease all of you people who were saddened by Nico's brutal death, I've put in a compensation chapter in here. Enjoy. I did say the story was going to get very dark at some points. Anyways; chapter 10! Also, please note that the pairing WILL REMAIN Perchaos NO MATTER WHAT happens in the story. So, don't freak, I beg of you.

Thank you all for your awesome reviews and PMs! Sorry if I can't get back to each and every one of you individually, it's just that I'm extremely occupied. Thanks you to all of you beautiful people for favouriting and following this story/me.

Disclaimer: I own the plot of this story, and some concepts in the plot. Not PJO or HoO.

Hades was mad. Here was the council telling him that he was not allowed to break the laws of death; he was the bloody god of the underworld! He ruled the damn place; why should he be limited by the same laws as everyone else? A small part of him told him that he was in grief and thus being extremely irrational; even the gods had to respect the laws of death. Blinded by his own sorrow he disregarded that side of him completely; however, he could not wallow like this. The murderer of his son would pay; she would pay with every single fibre of her body. Hades had no doubt that Gaea was behind the incident.

Just you wait, Gaea. I'll rip your soul out and have Cerberus feed on it for eternity. You will not escape us this time around. He smiled malevolently; this was one of the basic punishments he had reserved for her. Hades frowned; he would need help in bringing her down, though. He decided; he would request the other Olympians the right to decide her punishment(s).

Zeus was in shock. His nephew had been murdered extremely brutally; he was afraid for Thalia. Of course, she was much safer than Nico, surrounded by the Hunt; she wasn't wandering off on her own in between the Underworld and the upper world. Still, it galled him to think that they, the gods, had been able to do nothing for the son of Hades. He had been extremely saddened to see Hades heartbroken when the Olympians had been forced to deny the request for evading the laws of death.

He would definitely have to do something soon; it was great Hades was on their side; Gaea was going to have a formidable enemy in Hades. On the other hand, unrestrained for too long, Hades would definitely turn extremely sour and might cause them problems. Zeus fervently wished to the fates that somehow, something would happen to right this situation.

Persephone was saddened at the loss of the brave demigod's life. She did not want to say that she was partly the reason he had died, Hades would never forgive her. She had simply been going on a promenade when she had met Nico. The latter seemed to have a terrified look on his face, but it wasn't exactly right; he didn't seem to be terrified of something. In fact, now that she looked through her memories closely, he had been terrified for her. Rightly so; Gaea had at that moment appeared to them; she seemed to have been pursuing Nico in some way. Nico had bought Persephone enough time to escape the primordial, but had died as a consequence. She would forever respect his sacrifice. She regretted the times she had been despicable towards him; she was just galled that Hades had children with other women and not with his own wife. She had wanted to tell Nico that she considered him as her own, and she resolved to go see him in the fields of Elysium and talk with him. His father was not allowed to do that too much, but Persephone was not related in any way to him; she could do as she pleased. She decided to go and let Hades know, either ways; he was her husband, he deserved to know she would be visiting him. She came upon a very quiet Hades in his chamber.

"Ah Persephone. Where are your smiles?"

She frowned. He was going to be difficult. "What do you mean, Hades?"

"You know very well what I mean. You hated the boy; he's dead now. Shouldn't you be happy?"

Persephone burned with anger at his comment but controlled herself; his grief was making him very irrational. "He had become just as much my son as yours. I wasn't the one that was unbelievably bad towards him when he first came to us. I did not manipulate him."

Hades looked liked he would have sent her to Tartarus, a murderous look flashing through his eyes. Then his face dropped. "Don't remind; I feel bad enough without more guilt being dumped on me."

Persephone decided it would be easier to comfort and calm him if he was a little more weighed down. "You only considered him a replacement for Bianca, didn't you? Well that's what you get for ignoring him for so long."

Hades lifted his face at her, and the look on his eyes melted her heart. "Hades, dear; listen. I'm not limited by the laws in the same way you are. I'm going to go visit Nico and thank him for everything. Would you like me to tell him something?"

Persephone memorized his answer and took her leave from Olympus. She was careful not to go anywhere near any kind of greenery; that habit had almost gotten her killed, and had gotten Nico killed. She sighed and walked towards Charon.

Percy was incensed. He wanted to pursue Gaea, but this was not the right time. He had assigned everyone their respective duties; it was time he went and did his own. He had hoped that he could have made the journey to the void at a different time; his help was much needed on Earth. Then again, if he had his answers, maybe he would not need to take the fight to Earth. Well, that's already the case. The best I can do is to take the fight away from earth. Percy had finished deliberating; he called on the primordials he had promised to carpool home and appeared at their location. They all thanked him and together stepped through the portal.

The other side looked much better than he remembered. It seems to have flourished just fine in my absence; I wonder who would want to disrupt this peace. He turned questioningly at the other primordials as they literally sauntered off to meet with their friends once more. Percy sighed, annoyed. This was going to be a long mission.

On Midgard, Fenrir had managed to locate where his father was being held. He joined up with the nearest hunting pack, citing the overlord of the wolves as his master and a divine command he had to follow. Not that the pack needed that sort of encouragement in the first place; Fenrir was one of the most powerful wolves in existence. However, it did not hurt to have more support.

He informed the wolves that all he really needed was a two-step diversion. A first wave of wolves would direct attention to one entrance of the cave, and then a smaller group of wolves would lead to the second door, thus making the enemy believe that this was the main idea behind the diversion. Then Fenrir would crawl in through the opening of the first cave, using a path hidden behind the paraphernalia and equipment the enemy was stacking. The rest was simple enough; butt in, bite through some chains, leave. The wolves gathered around him growled their laughter, happy with the plan. This hunting pack seemed fine with acting as live bait; Fenrir would still need to be quick. Guerrilla warfare tactics came naturally to the wolves; that was how they hunted, unseen, killing from the shadows.

As they put their plan into action, Fenrir wondered what he would do if some of the gods that were imprisoned were doubles, spies posted to counter the very situation he was working himself into. He growled; he would burn that bridge when he got to it.

Thankfully, the Protogenoi seemed to have been otherwise occupied; none came into view as he destroyed the dungeon bars. He gasped when he looked inside.

It was an ungainly sight; Ichor had splattered and dried around the room. He recognized a few minor gods and goddesses from different mythologies and looked deep into their souls. The ones where he found no desire to join Gaea he stopped to bite through their chains. This continued for a short while; at last he came upon his father. He was furious to see Loki had been turned blind. At least, he was not able to use his eyes.

"Father..."

The council of the gods heard from Artemis that Percy had concocted a plan to protect as many deities as they could. Athena was curious; she did not think Percy had the capacity to come up with it. She reasoned that her blessing must have brought out this side of him. The plan was indeed incredible; if they could pull it off, this confrontation would end with minimal casualties and with an overwhelming number of alliances and camaraderie with other mythologies. Future threats could be avoided even before they could begin. As she was about to ask when they could begin, Artemis told them that the plan had already been put into action; it seemed wiser than waiting for the council to have to meet about it and ponder on it.

The council was outraged; Artemis should know better, even if this was a good decision, it wasn't hers to make.

"You're right, of course. I did not make the decision, you see, Percy did." The pantheon looked at her, shocked.

"And you complied to his orders?"

"Well, he is my protector, therefore I am bound to listen to him when he is protecting my life."

Athena could not resist but smile at her; she had gotten the perfect explanation in place to avoid anyone getting any blame. Then she suddenly remembered something.

"What about Percy? Should he not be here with you, explaining the situation to us?"

"Percy... left on his own mission." Poseidon immediately tensed up at her comment. He flashed an angry look. "You let him? After what happened to Nico?" Hades winced at his fallen son's name. "Sorry, brother. But you know what I mean, Artemis! How could you let him go off on his own?"

"Poseidon, you should really give your son more credit. You saw what he did to Typhon. On top of that, he had been blessed by Chaos. Do you truly believe him to be ... inadequate... for his task? Besides; this task was assigned to him."

"Assigned? By whose authority?"

Artemis spoke one simple word, and Poseidon sat back down. Who was he to go against the higher being?

Artemis decided that Olympians needed to know that hope was not lost; they might make rash decisions otherwise.

"There is one thing you should know. We are not as alone as we had thought."

The Pantheon looked at her before answering that they knew very well that they weren't alone. After all, wasn't the plan put in place to help save deities from many mythologies?

"That was not the way I meant it in. You should be looking at a different dimension of this; only then would you understand." Having finished, Artemis was about to get up when Annabeth, who sat at the table below them, allowed in their presence due to the immense help she had been these past few months and how important she was to Olympus, spoke up.

"You know, what Artemis is true." She threw the latter a knowing look before continuing.

"Percy passed by, before leaving on his mission. He made some adjustments to the Olympus defence plans, especially since we are going to have to accommodate a lot of new deities. It would be helpful if Apollo could delegate the chariot duty to someone else; his presence would be greatly appreciated at the gates of Olympus. After all, we wouldn't want spies coming into our home."

Each Olympian paid close attention to her as she turned to each of them, suggesting different plans of action for each of them. Suggestions, of course, for she could not pretend to impose anything on them, but very strong suggestions nevertheless. She left Zeus and Hera alone; the rulers of Olympus would be watching the situation unfold. The Olympians didn't bother to question the strangeness of the events; Percy was involved, strange things were happening; end of story.

Thalia Grace was in trouble. Somehow, she had managed to get herself separated from her team, and she was now on a weird meadow that seemed to glow. This was definitely not her day. Her team didn't know about Nico, or else she would have been slightly more spooked at the current point in time. However, having no knowledge of what had happened to one of her best friends, she merely pulled out her bow and nocked an arrow, believing herself ready to face any monster that Gaea sent to her. She could not have been more mistaken, but thankfully, she had Infinity watching over her. He would intervene at the last moment, pulling her out if she did not manage to save the prisoners in time. True, her team had gotten separated; it was also true that they were about to arrive to the prisoners from one side while she would be on the other. A perfect hammer and anvil manoeuvre, except that manoeuvre was meant to be done with a lot more people on both sides. One side would hold; steadfast and mighty, taking the brunt of the hits while the other side would sweep in and deal heavy damage to the enemy, effectively slamming them against the shields of the other side. Hence the name hammer and anvil. What Thalia was doing, however unwittingly, was much of the similar tactic. As soon as she saw the cage, but no Gaea, she knew that they were either dealing with a primordial that gone on a lunch break or they were dealing with a very sneaky person. Not wanting to lose her advantage of cover in the trees near the meadow, she started to climb the trees. As soon as she had gained some altitude, she noticed the other huntresses from her team and made herself visible only to them. They noticed and pointed towards the lone figure in the cage. She frowned, and then recognition washed over her face. What she didn't understand was why Krios was imprisoned. More importantly, why had he been left alone? This was obviously a trap. She knew that if they got close to him the trap would get sprung and they would not be able to escape. She sighed and gave a clear no to the huntresses. They frowned for a second before listening to her; they would not help this one. As they met up, Thalia explained how obvious a trap this was.

"They had probably expected us to go in and save him no matter the situation because of our sense of duty towards the gods." She laughed a bit, and the other huntresses smiled. Their loyalty was to their brother, just like his loyalty was to them and how he watched over them all; the huntresses bowed down and respected him. They knew even Artemis would follow their brother anywhere; that much was clear from the way she did not question his instructions. Of course, only an idiot or a brave individual would question the decisions of a higher being.

The Hunters decided they had done enough for now; it was time to return to Olympus. Without further ado the team ran up to join with another team not too far from them and then continued on their way from there.

Percy had managed to escape the most pleasurable torture of having to meet up with long-lost (and forgotten) friends; he did not have time for that. When he got near the house of Hel, he stopped. She had ruled this place for a long while before she wanted a break from all of it and had happily stepped down at the first opportunity. The opportunity had come under the motion of a council, with a representative from each species participating in the discussions. No more than one representative per species, and there was no first-amongst equals business; everything was voted on, and everything went by quickly. Yay's or Nay's didn't take too long to happen. Percy smiled; Hel would definitely tell him what he wanted to know.

He passed Thor and Odin on the way; they were saddened to see how much Loki had been suffering and begged Percy to let Loki come to them. He was moved with pity at their grief; but Loki had a mission that he needed to see through the very end, and it couldn't happen from Niflheim. His heart grave, he denied their request, but it hurt him as much as it hurt them. He asked them for Hel and they pointed to the first room on the upper floor.

"My lord! You have returned! It is so good to see you after so long!"

Percy smiled. "Hello, Hel. I trust you have been keeping well?"

"Yes lord. I saw what happened to my father over the years, though, and I cannot help but say that I wish he were here instead of suffering down on Midgard."

Just as Percy was about to respond, she continued. "However, I know that he is yet needed there and cannot come to us just now. Very well. Now tell me, what is it you require of me, my lord?"

"Tell me, what do you know about the Lady at the top?"

Persephone had finished talking (mostly apologizing) to Nico; she was not even shocked to see tears running freely from her eyes. Nico saw this and comforted her in the best she thought he could ever have done.

"Do not mourn me, mother. I am very happy where I am, and I would do what I did again to save you from harm." Persephone's heart melted at his words and she enveloped him in a tender hug.

"Nico, if you were still alive on this day, I would have made you my true son. What I offer you in exchange is but a paltry gift; I hope you would still accept it, though." Saying that, she gave him one of her own bracelets of power.

"Mother, I couldn't! This is one of your bracelets of power! If this were to fall into the wrong hands, then you would be in trouble!" Nico choked on his words, he couldn't continue; his adoptive mother truly loved him. He felt tears swimming in his own eyes.

"I know, son, and that is why I am happy to trust you with it. You have saved me in life, you will keep my essence in death."

With that, she let him go and join his friends, all of whom had achieved their well-deserved rest. "Maria, I'm just happy to be able to call him my son, even though he is yours. I hope you do not see any problems with that."

"No, of course, my Lady. I simply hoped he would have had a safer mortal life than the other demigods." She curtsied to the goddess and went away, tending to her own business. Persephone stood in deep thought for a minute before flashing to her bedchamber on Olympus.

"...and that, my lord, is all I know about the Lady at the top." Hel took a deep breath before continuing. "She has not interfered directly with anything, has she, my lord?"

Percy looked at her with an apologetic look. "I wish I were able to say so, child. However, that is not the case. She has bypassed one of the fundamental laws I had set up when I created this place."

Hel frowned, her brain going into overdrive. Only a higher being or a direct descendant of either Void or her lord could do that. "My lord, you have not borne any children by any woman, have you?"

Percy almost laughed at the question. "Not that I know of, Hel. Why do you ask?"

"No real reason... Call it female intuition if you will."

Percy snorted lightly at her, even though he knew that it was most likely something that was extremely concrete for Hel to even mention it in passing. "Well, once you're sure of your... hunch... be sure to let me know, yes?

"Of course, my lord."

Percy set off in the direction that Hel had pointed. The Lady at the top, it turned out, was called that for a very specific reason. She had appeared only recently and had built herself an abode on top of a nearby mountain peak, high in the clouds. He appeared at the location Hel had described and then staggered back, stunned by what he saw. Was this another higher being? No, she did not have enough power. But her power was indeed tremendous. It easily surpassed that of a primordial, but was too weak to be that of a higher being, even by the standards of Chaos.

"What is your name, maiden? For I sense you are indeed a maiden."

The look on her face turned venomous. "Don't pretend you don't know me, father." She spat. He looked at her disbelievingly. "I swear upon all the higher beings that I do not know of you, and neither do I know of any children of mine."

These words seemed to stun her. She obviously knew about the power of this oath; it was not something even the higher beings would take lightly. But then she turned her gaze steel-hard and looked at him accusingly.

"My name is Cosmos, father. Now do you remember me? You left me and my mother out of the multiverses when you could have helped us!"

Percy was getting frustrated; this girl obviously didn't trust anything but the Unbreakable Oath. He looked at her again and spoke softly, masking his annoyance. "I swear by the End of all things that I do not know you. What is your mother called?"

The girl looked at him disbelievingly at first, but then her eyes betrayed tears. "But—but she promised! She told me you knew of us! She said you cared for us in your own way but that I should never go looking for you! She—she ..." She broke down in tears.

Percy immediately enclosed her in a hug, and then it suddenly clicked in his minds. "Wai—wait! Is your mother Void? How is this possible? She and I never did anything other than..." his voice trailed off, bitter memories of his failure rushing at him. He still kept Cosmos in his grasp. She had stopped sobbing and had started to calm down.

"Tell me, Cosmos, how did you and your mother survive? I did everything but I could not keep the temporal rift open! I even offered my soul to open up another temporal rift! And how did you manage to come through?" By the end of his series of questions he had tears running down his face. Cosmos saw this and her recently-warmed cold heart melted; she could not stay angry at her father, however much she wanted to. It was truly not his fault; he had known nothing about her. If there was someone to be mad at, it was her mother. She had lead her to believe that her father cared for her; a foolish hope. Unknown to her, however, Percy heard all of his daughter's thoughts.

"Cosmos, baby, how could I never care for you? I can feel it now; our bond is forming at an incredible rate; you truly are my daughter. You know what? I promise you something. You will be my one and only child."

"It's alright, father, you do not need to do that for me. I'm just mad at mother. And yes, she is fine. She created a place for herself, and she is happy there." Too darn happy, she muttered under her breath.

"As for your last question, father; I am your daughter after all, and since you unknowingly created a portal for me when you named this world void in honour of my mother, well, I decided to use it."

She thought through what she would say, and then settled on apologizing for helping Gaea. "Do not apologize to me, my dear daughter. We all make mistakes; it would be better for us if those mistakes happened early on in our lives so that you may have a chance to use the knowledge you learn from making them."

Cosmos was overjoyed by her father's demeanour; he was nothing of the uptight and exasperating pain in the backside that her mother had led her to believe. Her lips quivered at the thought of being forced to leave him; she had just so recently found her father. What would her mother say if she didn't stay with her? The answer came to her quickly enough. She would not even notice.

Percy heard her conflicted feelings and decided he would surprise her. "Of course, now that I've found you, there is no way in all the multiverses that I'm going to let you go."

Cosmos' eyes lit up at his words. Percy was mesmerized by them. She had inherited both his and her mother's midnight black eyes and hair. She was one of the most beautiful beings he had seen in the many eons he had lived, and he had seen a lot of people. He was glad, for some reason, he always felt empty without having someone to call his little girl. This was probably why he had taken so quickly to Amaterasu; his uncreated bond with his daughter had driven him to moon-bond with her.

"Now, Cosmos, there is a small matter that needs taking care of."

"Gaea, daddy?" Percy heart lifted at hearing her words. He chuckled softly. "No, dear child. I have to get you to meet your grandpa. He would never forgive me for not presenting you to him."

Cosmos shivered. She was finally going to meet with Infinity. She knew about the higher beings; Infinity, Existence, Void, Order, Balance, and Chaos, the last-minute addition. She smiled at her father and walked through the portal that he created and fell into step behind him.

The meeting had gone much better than she had hoped; her grandpa had absolutely adored her. He had turned a questioning eye towards Percy (as she learned he was called in his current form) at the end of her retelling, as if asking about another being. The two had gotten entranced in some kind of mind fight which she could unfortunately not read, but the outcome got Infinity chuckling and Existence red as a tomato. Deciding not to wonder too much about what she had heard, she asked Percy where the other beings where. He turned at her and smiled. They were apparently also doing the same thing as her father, so they could not be here for some time.

Existence turned towards his father and then said something the other had been hoping to hear for the past few millennia.

"It is time, father. I have found the answer. We must go fetch the others."

Infinity was overjoyed, but he decided to rationalize the thought processes. "Very well, but first, we have to deal with Gaea and the runaways. It seems she got the rest of the Titans to join her. Tartarus was overpowered. Don't worry, I kept him safe."

It burned Percy that while he was in his mortal coil he could not face Gaea. That was apparently one of the rules set forth by Chaos at the moment of creation. No deity, be they primordial, titan, or other, could be allowed to face another while in the form of another being. They were required to be fully unleashed. Percy reasoned that something would need to happen to set things straight. Either that, or Cosmos would fight in his name. He had no doubt that she would do it, but she wasn't a full higher being; she might get hurt fighting so many primordials and titans at the same time. They kept Chaos at bay by combining only ten of their powers, and she was a higher being. Granted, she was the least powerful of them, but that still didn't make him happy. Cosmos was not as powerful as Chaos; at least, not yet.

He told the two of his plans; it was time to reveal himself to the Olympians. Cosmos would stay by his side. Infinity was glad. No more mind-wiping business for him to take care of. He nodded at Percy's unuttered question; it was fine for him to spend some time off the multiverses with his daughter. Percy smiled and looked at his daughter; the latter had no clue what was going on, but all of a sudden she could feel everything stopping. When she said everything, though, she truly meant everything. She turned at her father, awed by his power. He saw her look and chuckled.

"Cosmos, baby girl, don't look so surprised; I am Existence. I decide who exists, what exists, as well as when it exists."

She smirked. "This is so cool! So after a good day's work, you can just stop time in all the multiverses and sleep?"

"It doesn't quite work like that. Check your energy level." She did as he asked, and she frowned; it was frozen stable. She couldn't fall asleep even if she wanted to, she wasn't thirsty, but she wouldn't be able to drink even if she wanted to. She suddenly understood why this was not so desirable.

"Yes, Cosmos. We are in stasis. We are stable, just like everyone else. It's one of the safeguards to prevent a rip in space-time. You know only too well where that would lead." She shivered at the thought. No, it was definitely not the time for the End.

They stayed there for Existence knew how long, and at the end both were very happy to have each other. Percy sighed. It was time to return, and to announce his presence to the Olympians. He saw that Fenrir had saved Loki and that he was now in Siberia, and he understood that not much time had passed since he had come to the void.

He took one step to return to the void, making sure he had his daughter in a tight hug, and took one more to emerge in the throne room of Olympus.

As soon as he did all the Olympians, along with the gods and goddesses they had rescued and the huntresses arrived. The room was becoming a tight fit, so Percy obliged and extended the room into a much larger auditorium. As the deities processed what happened, Artemis and the Hunt recognized him and rushed forwards, meaning to tackle him. When Cosmos saw this, she misinterpreted it as an attack and stood defiantly, her back to her father, as if to protect him from all these people.

Percy laughed, a rich, mellow voice ringing against a background of pure silence, and the tension eased. As he motioned at Cosmos to sit beside him on the sofa he had conjured for the purpose, Zeus commanded all the deities in the room to calm down and to follow Percy's example. When everyone had calmed down, Zeus began speaking.

"Perseus Jackson, what is the meaning of this?"

Cosmos couldn't bear the insolent tone of this being, and she snapped at him. "Watch your tongue, god, this is my father you are speaking to. You would do well to address him with respect."

Percy chuckled loudly. "Easy, baby girl. I didn't show much respect to them as a demigod. You can't expect them not to return the favour." He heard Artemis and Amaterasu both choke at the way he addressed the girl standing in front of them. He turned to the Hunters.

"Sisters, it is still me, and I most certainly do not require any form of respect from you if you do not wish to show me any." To his complete surprise and his daughter's utter delight, the whole Hunt kneeled before him. "Brother, we respect and love you. We are all together in the Hunt, and by being in the Hunt we are all indebted to you. This debt we may only repay through our own methods." Percy didn't quite like the sound of that, but he smiled at them anyways.

He turned to the Pantheon. "Zeus, you asked a rather complex question. I will answer it indirectly, over the next few hours. However, since we do not have that much time on our hands, I am placing all of us in stasis." With that, Percy clapped his hands, and the deities present dropped their jaws.

So, did you guys like it? I figured I rushed some parts and made others a bit too slow, but I had not intended to break up this chapter here. However, I wanted to keep my track record of at least one update a day going, so I had to do this.

Let me know what you think of this, thanks!

Cheers.