"We got some very thick clouds today-"
Carter Kane tuned out the TV forecast as he looked at Sadie's reflection on his scrying bowl. "What do you mean you'll be staying there for a couple more days?"
"It's important." Sadie said. "Isis wants to observe Minato."
"And this Minato person, he's the Messiah? Are you sure about that?" Ever since receiving an SOS from the Japanese Nome that something weird was happening, Sadie started to act weirdly.
She nodded, "You should've seen him!" There was a begrudging look of respect on her face, "he faced against the Greek personification of Night, and-"
Zia gently pushed his sister aside, "Carter, if I may add: it wouldn't hurt to observe this phenomenon. It's something that has only been documented in antiquity. You should've seen it! There were theoretical-level cheese phenomena only theorized in the most obscure of scrolls! Why, if we were to present this-"
The view shifted. Someone had grabbed the bowl. The head of the Japanese Nome came into view. "I do think we should give it a few days. The Messiah is an existence that hasn't been documented for more than a millennia. It would be wise to see what it is he's up to. Especially if the rumors were true."
"What rumors?" Carter didn't want to ask but curiosity got the best of him.
"That he is about to make a debut in the supernatural world."
There was a knock from behind.
"Hey Harley."
The young boy looked up, but the welding helmet on his face made it difficult for him to see so he raised it up. "Oh, hey Alice."
They were in the dock of Argo II but, "How'd get here?"
Alice giggled, a prankster's glint in her eyes, "I'm a magical girl!"
From her pocket, she brought out a domino mask and a plastic stick. She placed the mask over her eyes and did a twirl with her stick. "In the darkest of night, I, phantom thief Chocolat Parfait... shall steal your heart away." She'd pressed a button on the stick and it suddenly lit up in pink. "Surrender now in the name of Justice!" She placed a hand on her hip and did a pose.
"I'm not sure I follow." Still he clapped for her performance. He looked around, seeing if his cabinmates have found an interloper in their cabin. Since their work was pivotal to this campaign's success, security has been pretty tight around here, in case Gaia's forces-
"-ley! Hey Harley!" He felt a light smack on her forehead, "I swear, you're into your own world sometimes. It's an anime I watched back home. It's dubbed in English though, because I can't seem to read subs well."
He tilted his head, "Well yeah, all demigods are dyslexic."
"What's that?" Alice placed her toy (Harley realized) back into her pocket.
"It means we can't read well. Like how letters are all jumbled for us."
"Oh," Alice nodded, "you're pretty smart, Harley."
He could feel his face heat up. He wasn't used to being complimented like this. Normally, the other kids would call him know-it-all or twerp, and maybe Nyssa and his half-siblings would tell him he did a good job, but Alice said it so simply that it took him by surprise.
"A-anyway… have you seen the others?" They were in the ship's bridge, which made Alice even more suspicious. How was she able to bypass all the security measures and the traps of the cabin and this ship?
"I only saw two people: there was a girl doing repairs by the back while your head was by the engine room.
"You were in the engine room?" He asked incredulously since it was the ship's most secure area.
"I was looking for you, okay?" She looked around, "There are lots of buttons here. That and levers and stuff." She turned to him and did another pose, "Perfect for a phantom thief to snoop around with!"
"I don't know what a phantom thief is, but make sure you don't press any buttons."
"You mean like this big one right here?"
Too late.
The whole Camp was disturbed by a loud alarm going off.
Campers by the sea pointed as a literal dock appeared out from underneath the sea floor, splitting it in half.
When Minato entered the class, everyone was animatedly talking.
"Hey, hey, our video man!"
"Oh em gee- like, did you see our views?"
"I heard the faculty was at an uproar when they found out-"
Minato went to his desk and took a seat.
"Morning, Minato-kun." Before class, Suzu was normally on her seat, which was far from his, but because the person who occupied the desk beside him wasn't here yet, she plopped on the table to his side and crossed her arms.
"Morning." He greeted, placing his bag by the side, "Everyone seems to be energetic today."
"You haven't heard it yet, have you?" Suzu brought out her phone and showed the video their class posted last night. "Our video got viral."
"Six digits," Minato whispered. "Oh my."
"It's Taichi's fault, if you ask me. He's too beautiful." Minato couldn't decide if she was joking or not. "Mayu's currently at the faculty trying to explain that these numbers aren't usual and wouldn't ultimately affect the bunkasai"
"Why?"
She harumphed, "The faculty thinks that we should cancel the event because of our viral video."
Mayu entered the class, followed by Ayato. She looked like she'd seen hell.
"How was it?" One of their classmates.
With a sigh, she raised a thumb. "So far so good. I showed the video's analytics, told them that while our viewers know where our school is, we have never disclosed and will never disclose when the bunkasai will happen."
There was a pause in the air, "But…?" one of their classmates asked.
"But we'll have a final verdict after tomorrow, after we post our third video later." Mayu said massaging her nape.
Taichi entered the classroom, "They'll want to see if our next video would have the same engagement and views."
"It's not like we could just stop posting our videos," Suzu stood up and pointed at a table full of materials their class had to review for their video later, "Not when the entire student body now looks at our class as the means of free advertisement. Pulling the plug on our 'Home Base' would put friction between the student body and the faculty."
Mayu nodded. "Right. In the meantime, let's try to put a hamper on our current video's engagement." She turned to the members of the video editing committee, "Turn off the comments to all of our videos and let's unlist them."
"But then no one would be able to see our videos."
"We'll return it after school. Hopefully, the algorithm would bury our video because of this." She brought out her phone, "A quarter million views." She exhaled.
"How do you know all this?" One of their asked-
Drew and Kenta only entered when Mayu was giving out orders to everyone. Damn, Mayu is such a charismatic leader.
"How do you know all this?"
Drew knew it was because of her writing hobby. She once peeked into her laptop and saw the tabs opened on her web browser – with Mayu citing research.
"Internet." Drew said, entering the class. There was a reason why Mayu hid behind a pen name and Drew would want to protect Mayu's anonymity.
In any case, she turned to Taichi, "Taichi-kun, how are you? You're the one who got the biggest boost in follower count. I can't imagine how overwhelming that is." It's not like the video showed their handles on the screen or in the description box, but one of the most liked comments were the links to the socials of all the people who appeared on the video.
Her male friend shrugged, "I've muted it for the time being." He dismissed his classmate's worried looks with a laugh, "I don't want to be famous."
"Yaba! This is so cool!" Alice pointed at a monitor that turned open as the big button she pressed made everything turn alive.
"Jesusmaryjoseph, I'm dead. I am so dead." Harley pushed his friend aside to man the controls. He had to turn everything off. "They're going to kill me."
"Harley!" an angry voice shouted in the distance.
Alice jumped around in glee, "This is so neat! It's like the ship Chocolat Parfait uses to run from the bad guys."
"We need to turn it off, I am so gonna get killed by Leo."
"Harley!" a male voice echoed from the back, "What the hell?"
"Wasn't me!" Harley was typing on the main console, he looked at Alice, eyes sparkly with excitement – he told her not too but maybe he was too slow. "Actually it was me."
The floor rumbled, making him lose his balance, but he could feel it. The port was completing it's transformation sequence, in the process of bringing out Argus II to the world.
Alice wobbled a bit but had turned to Harley with an incredulous look. "No, it wasn't Harley fault, it was me-"
Sunshine seeped through the windows as more machines came alive. From the side, an exhaust let out steam, creating a loud hissing sound.
"Who are you?" Another voice yelled from the back, this time a female. Nyssa.
"Magical Girl Chocolat Parfait!" Alice was giddy with delight.
The main monitor hummed, and a female computer voice spoke from the speakers, "Launch sequence, engaged."
Leo emerged from behind and walked over to Harley, "You are in so much deep trouble."
Nyssa appeared too, "Harley, what did you do?"
Alice stomped her foot, "It wasn't Harley's fault! It was me."
"Yeah right," Leo said sarcastically, "you wouldn't know how to operate this beauty."
"Nuh-uh." She went over to them and squeezed between him and Leo, "I just pushed this button-"
"Galatea program initiated."
"Stop pushing more buttons!" Leo said, sending daggers towards her.
"Harley," Nyssa was typing furiously on a keyboard, "can you take your friend to the side."
He nodded before, grabbing his friend's arm. "Alice, c'mon, let's go-"
The floor rumbled again, and the pulling feeling not unlike going up the elevator came into them. Argus II was beginning to rise.
"Galatea program initiation: complete. Welcome come to Argus II. I am Galatea, Argo II's built-in AI."
Alice's eyes lit up, "So cool! Are you the ship's spirit?"
"The Galatea is a program coded by Jake Mason. As an AI, I have no spirit." The monotonous but calming computer voice intoned.
Alice shook her head, "Nuh-uh, the fact that you are able to talk to me means you're alive!"
"I am… alive?" the inquisitive voice in Galatea was off.
Alice nodded, "Like Siri and Alexa!" She turned to Harley, expectant, "Don't you think so too, Harley?"
Harley wanted to disagree because the AI Jake coded was far more advanced than Siri and Alexa, but-
"Galatea," Leo was still typing furiously on the console, "can you stop the launch sequence?"
"Galatea could, but that would require resetting Galatea's mainframe."
"Good-" Leo started.
"But resetting Galatea's mainframe would purge all accumulated data of Galatea."
"Why does it sound like resetting Galatea is like killing her?" Alice asked to no one.
"Galatea is an AI program, and thus cannot be killed in a traditional sense, but resetting Galatea would delete all data collected from Galatea's interactions with everyone, short as they are."
"Aw." Alice cooed in pity.
Harley silently agreed with Alice, it was sad to erase Galatea's memories. Bad too because it was basically erasing her existence.
"No problem, I'm on it." Leo stopped typing and was about to leave the room, but Alice stopped him.
"You can't!"
"Hey," it was the first time an Iris message pushed through, and the relief that washed over to him was indescribable when he saw her again.
Reyna was kind enough to procure him a small pouch of drachmas. He'd already called his mom a few days ago to inform her that he was okay. A call from Annabeth however only got through today.
Annabeth smiled, "Hey."
Percy found himself surprisingly free now that Gwen had taken most of the senior legionnaires out for an impromptu fieldtrip to the city. "How are you? Had breakfast yet? What are you doing?"
To be completely honest, this would've been a normal long distance relationship except for the fact that a goddess had whisked him away to the other side of the country. That said, Percy did not have any experience with long distance relationships, with Annabeth being his first girlfriend.
Her laughter felt like spring sunshine, "I'm fine now." From the background, Percy could see that she was by the sea, probably sitting on the ground, feet deep in the sand. "For breakfast, just a sandwich."
The wind picked up, making her hair sway, "Are you eating right now?"
Seeing her like that made his heart race, but then her question made him chuckle, "I am, actually." He raised his BLT wrap sandwich and took a bite, "The senior campers are out on an impromptu sabbatical."
"Love your new vocabulary." Her smile was infectious. "Wait, sabbatical?"
"I read the books you recommend." He feigned getting offended. "Someone important appeared, at least that's what I heard from the few snippets of information I was able to gather."
Annabeth raised a brow, "Snippets? Nice." Her praise was sincere. "Would be nicer if you were here with me."
"I know." The crashing of the sea was a nostalgic melody. And wishing for the impossible was a counterproductive use of their time, so he had to change the topic. But what do they talk about?
"I miss you." He blurted out impulsively. Like, a lot. Like disarmingly a lot to the point where Percy's mind would randomly wander what Annabeth Chase was doing at random points during his day. During his lunch break, he often thought about what she had for lunch: is she still eating that gods-awful burger that looked like it could give a person a heart attack with a single bite? Has someone managed to pry her away from her 'casual research' because she spent four hours on her desk, inhaling whatever it is she fancied to learn that day with no breaks? Does she have someone whom she could info dump about the new thing she learned on architecture or some random snippet of information she learned from one of her thick tomes?
He hoped that someone would be there to accompany her for those rare moments of quiet, peaceful nights where she'd drink a mug of warm cocoa by the fire on the war room.
He wished he were there with her, sitting beside her, looking at the sea, an arm over her shoulder, keeping her close as she leaned on his chest.
Missing Annabeth was an understatement, but Percy wasn't really that good with words and being eloquent.
That didn't mean Annabeth wasn't aware of the nuances to his very limited but growing vocabulary, "I miss you too." Her smile morphed into a longing one. Tucking a lock of hair behind her ear, Percy watched her about to say something when their moment was interrupted by loud alarms.
Annabeth looked out and saw the sea in front of her part in half… and a ship!
"Argo II!"
"What's going on?" Percy's voice was concerned.
"I need to go-"
Jason was having a discussion with Lou Ellen, accompanied by Mike, when they heard the alarm.
Jason excused himself and ran towards where he came from. Lou Ellen looked at Mike, who shrugged.
"We're following Jason." Hecate's daughter said, which made Mike groan.
"You can't just erase Galatea's memories!" Alice was pulling on the hem of Leo's shirt.
"She's a program. She's not real." Leo looked at her like she grew a head.
"She's real to me." Alice said, when Leo stopped trying to leave the room.
"She's a bunch of ones and zeroes in a computer."
"I don't know what that means, but there must be another way!" Alice turned to Harley, "Harley, help Galatea. I feel bad for her."
"Err…" Harley didn't know who to side with. On one hand, he agreed with Leo's sentiments, but Alice made a sound argument.
"Is Jake around?" Nyssa asked, still typing on her keyboard.
"Why?"
"Galatea's Jake's creation." Nyssa hit enter, but that made the alarms ring harder. "Shit." She turned to Leo, "You shouldn't mess with other people's projects."
Leo crossed his arms, "You're right."
Harley, turned to Leo before looking around, "Galatea, this is your maiden voyage but we think you're not yet ready."
"Noted. Let me try contacting this Galatea's father."
"What's going on?" Jason met up with Annabeth who was already by the beach.
Lou Ellen and Jake were with him, Jake too - carried by one of his cabinmates.
"Like, ew… what is that?" Jason turned and saw that the Aphrodite kids that Piper didn't like were there, in swimsuits and floaties.
Lacy appeared and walked over to them, "What's going on?"
"That's what I asked." Jason turned to Jake, "How about you?"
"Nyssa and Leo haven't approved Argo II's launch yet." Jake said.
"That's semantics." Annabeth said, "That's Argo II keel being laid on the sea. Actually, more than a keel."
"This isn't a debate on when a ship's considered complete," Jake said, "someone has started Argo II's launch sequence."
"Someone," Lou Ellen started, placing a hand over her brows, looking at something from afar, "is on the Argo II. They're getting out of-"
"Is that Leo?" Mike said.
"The ship got out," Harley looked out through the window. The ship rocked when the ship docked on the sea.
Alice beamed, "This is so cool! C'mon Harley, let's go check outside!"
He then felt Alice grab his hand and pull him towards the exit.
Outside, the morning sunshine tickled his skin. Being forced to work non-stop on Argo II underground for days on end, he had to admit that this was a nice change of pace.
Outside, Alice's bouncy attitude was infectious. "Harley, you helped make this ship, right?"
Harley nodded shyly, "I guess."
She beamed, "This is awesome. I am very impressed, Harley." She patted his shoulders, "Great job!"
His face was starting to heat up, "I-"
Leo appeared on the side, waving his hands.
"Are they calling us?" Jason asked, squinting his eyes as he shielded his eyes.
"I guess." Annabeth said.
"Do you suppose they're in trouble?" Mike asked, "It looks like they're signaling for help."
Nyssa emerged from the bridge, "It's useless. The launch sequence isn't stopping."
Leo frowned, "I told you we should've reset Galatea's mainframe."
Nyssa crossed her arms, "And we've agreed that we wouldn't mess with someone else's work. Argo II isn't your project, Leo. It's ours."
Leo couldn't disagree with that because Nyssa was right but, "Argo II's maiden voyage is a disaster."
It was Harley's turn to give a say, "Nuh-uh. We know that Argo II is basically complete at this point. Everything's in working order, as far as I'm concerned."
Alice turned to Harley, "Really? Then what's stopping Argo II."
Her question made Nyssa, and Leo, turn to the head engineer.
Leo shifted slightly, "I wanted it to be perfect."
"So you do believe in the Curse." Nyssa pointed out.
"No!" Leo was quick to rebut,
But the ship rocked on it's butt.
"What the-?!" The ship…
Jason heard Lacy exclaim, "The ship, it's floating!"
Annabeth summed it up: "That can't be good."
Reyna watched as the most senior of campers were walking with a sort of dreaded anticipation as they entered the city. Actually, excitement couldn't be a more accurate descriptor to the whole group vibe too.
There were the infallible senior officers of the 1st Cohort, chatting animatedly to the usually chill senior members of the 3rd cohort. The members of the 2nd cohort had this energy that she never knew they had. Gwen and Dakota were bickering, odd, because they usually got along the most compared to the other dynamics of senior centurions of the other cohorts.
They entered the hospital, but not inconspicuously. Most of the people, patients and staff, looked at them with a knowing look on their faces.
Following the group, Reyna realized that they were going up to a floor that was usually reserved to the more affluent members of the city. A floor usually reserved for ex-centurions, heroes and legacies of prominent campaigns that echoed in the city's history, and well-known members of the senate.
Just when she tried to rake her memories on who this Phia person is, and why and how was she able to get such a response from the community, they were already there.
"I-" Octavian spoke up, and Reyna ended pinpointing the energy he was exuding, it was nervousness. Unease. That him being out of his element was so foreign to Reyna that she was sure this Octavian was a different person. "I don't think she'd want to see me."
Dakota turned to him, "I disagree."
Gwen actually cheered him up, "I think she would most definitely be excited to see you."
"But I-"
The centurion of the first cohort shook his head, "No buts," he gave his arm a friendly jab, "She's awake now."
Octavian was silent for a moment, before nodding and steeling himself. They were standing in front of the hospital room, and Reyna looked at all of them. Members of the legion of similar age – from the same generation probably – but not enough to form a single cohort. Unless~
Octavian opened the door.
"Is the Argo II supposed to do that?" Lacy tilted her head, trying to make sense of a ship that was beginning to float.
"Hell no," Jake said.
"So, they are signaling for help then," Annabeth concluded.
"We should try and put a stop to that then." Lou Ellen said, almost nonchalantly.
Jason looked at all of them, "The hell, you're all acting very chill about this."
Annabeth shook her head, "Sorry," Lacy saw Annabeth's tactician switch turn on, "We need to stop them from getting off the ground, I mean the sea."
"We can't damage the ship though, we've invested too much resources on her and any damage would delay Argo II further."
Annabeth nodded, "Lou, can you do something? With magic I mean?"
"I could try." With a glowing hand, she tried to pull down the ship, which budged for a bit, but, "Easier said than done, I guess."
Annabeth looked around and had to think quickly. What could five Aphrodite kids, two Hepheastus kids, one son of Zeus, one daughter of Hecate and one son of Urania do?
"What we need is to stop that thing from floating up any further," Annabeth repeated to herself.
"Lou, can you conjure ropes or chains from the ship to us?"
"Already on it." Lou Ellen's hands glowed.
Annabeth turned to everyone, "Okay, here's what we'll do."
Leo watched everything happen real time.
Chains emerged throughout the whole ship and extended towards the kids by the shore.
"Anchors." Nyssa realized what they were doing, "They're trying to weigh down the ship."
Harley started to pace, "B-but… but…"
"What is it, Harley?"
The kid looked at Leo, almost teary-eyed, "But didn't we make sure that weight wouldn't be an issue? Part of Argo II design is to ensure that it couldn't be tied down unless we decide it to. It's a program I added in one of Galatea's functions. Jake should know this."
It was at this moment that Argo II's infallibility became an issue to its engineers. On one hand, Leo felt a sense of achievement over the fact that Argo II was very difficult to capture, but…
"We have to tell them."
Too late. And Jake seemed to have forgotten about Harley's program.
The group of teens and kids in swimsuits and floaties had managed to secure the weighty anchors that were supposed to keep the ship from floating any further.
Until the heavy anchors started to levitate too.
Jason began to shout out orders, "Grab a hold of them!"
Bad idea.
All of them got carried up too. A few fell but quickly tried to catch up on stopping the ship from floating up. Like fighting a losing tug of war. It was a futile effort.
"Fuck!" Mike summarized as he clung on the chains that dangled from the ship.
Lou Ellen floated using magic, saving the kids whose grips slipped. "We're too high up!"
"No shit," a son of Aphrodite quipped, grabbing a younger sibling that Lou Ellen saved from a fall.
"Do we jump?" Jake asked, being carried by his half-brother.
"At this height?" Annabeth said, "We're demigods, but I don't wanna take that chance." She turned to Lou, "Lou, can you ask help from the people-"
She didn't need to, the chains were already being raised up.
Carter has just ended communications with the mages stuck in Japan when Jaz barged in.
"Carter, you have to see this!"
And then he was dragged outside.
What he was looking at was, "Is that a floating ship?"
"Is it hostile?" Walt Stone asked.
The other trainees watched as the ship in question floated-
"It's coming towards us." One of the kids said, growing concerned.
"What do we do?" Another asked.
Just when Amos and Sadie weren't here.
Aha! But what if this wasn't a coincidence.
"Jaz," the Nome needed a leader now, "Guide the kids inside." He turned to Walter, "We'll try to see if we could change the ship's direction."
Concentrating on his magic, Carter Kane manifested his powers. Surrounding himself in Horus' aura, he began to float in the air. It felt like growing an outer skin, but at the same time, it felt like nothing,
"Cool!" one of the kids said, as Jaz guided them to the Nome.
"That's a combat avatar!"
The first thing Octavian saw was her hair. The color of dark, burned wood, but with the same luster and shine as before. Her complexion was paler, quite possibly because it's been years since she's seen the sun. Her lips were cracked, but then she smiled.
His heart skipped a beat. It was still the same smile as before.
Once upon a time, it was a smile she directed at him often.
While the same, it evoked an indescribable ache that burned deeply in his gut. Nostalgic as it was, it felt painful. Yet wonderful at the same time.
Her eyes were such a distinct hue that when the sunshine touched it, he could've sworn they were purple.
Her voice, croaky from years being in a coma, tasted like music to his ears.
I missed you. He wanted to say it out loud. He wanted to pour his heart out to her again, but-
"Octavian~" Her voice, her gaze, the affection… it felt like…
Home.
Īsan Nakamura emerged from the hole that was the Underworld's entrance. Well Izanami's sector of the underworld.
School was… not an unwelcoming experience. Well, better than before. Before everything.
The student body now wore their winter uniforms. He would've wanted to make a quick side trip to the nearby konbini but his allowance wasn't much – unless he pawned off the antiques that was present in Izanami's shrine.
He wouldn't though. Izanami's magnanimity was questionable at best. At least he thinks it's questionable because, despite being of Japanese descent, he was not well versed in his native country's mythos.
His mother-
"Psst."
He looked around.
"Over here."
In an alley, that's where the voice came from.
Normally, Īsan would ignore it but the voice sounded familiar. He didn't want to, but it was an inch that grew more uncomfortable the more you ignored it.
Who he saw made his lone eye widen. The voice was familiar because he knew who it was. "Commander."
"Ethan."
A/N: Mandatory short post informing you that we are now in canon-divergent territory as far as PJO timeline is concerned. Apologies for the delayed update, but I hope you liked this chapter. Take care and be careful everyone!