The Chaos War

by DelayedInspiration

It is the worst case scenario: Tartarus, Nyx, and Akhlys join in the name of revenge, resurrecting the Titans, Giants, Kronos, Gaea, and the Triumvirate. The amount of energy released carries across time and space, freeing Loki and Apophis. These ancient enemies unite to defeat the heroes that defeated them, and their power is overwhelming. And so the game begins.

2. The Real Villains

The Real Villains

A terrific opening chapter! Thank you all for your support on this story and in my other endeavors.

The next chapter will feature the introduction of Asteria, but first, this one. This chapter will set the tone between the Seven Masters and everyone else for the rest of the story, so mostly dialogue here, but I like to think it's gripping dialogue.

Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or any other media

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The reactions of those occupying the throne room were wide as varied as the occupants. Watching the Tower of Nero explode and collapse like the Twin Towers, killing thousands, was horrific to most and awesome to some. Watching Shin'en march right into Congress was viewed as badass, and there had been a spike in tension when all the Congressmen transformed into pandai, the deadliest melee monsters to date, then widespread confusion about the white wind, and then another tense spike when Shin'en engaged the emperors.

The veterans of the Imperial War knew firsthand just how powerful Caligula and Commodus were, and all the demigods were taught about the power of human belief. That was how Olympus moved across the globe, from Greece, throughout Europe, then across the Atlantic, all of the ancient places moving with it, the heart of the West, as it was called. The power of human belief was what had kept the emperors alive for so many centuries, and they were only able to begin moving as modern mankind devoted more focus and research into ancient history.

The advent of the Internet was a big help, as confirmed by Nero himself when he informed Apollo during the events of the Hidden Oracle that he was "immortal on Wikipedia."

Because of this knowledge, all of those who were in the know knew and understood that the emperors now, with the nature of their revival and what they had done to the world, were leagues more powerful than what they had been last year. That in and of itself was a terrifying thought, and the terror only increased (generally) when it was revealed that Caligula had absorbed Helios and was even more jacked up.

And Shin'en manhandled both him and Commodus at the same time.

Then there was the sheer brutality of the First Master, how he'd smashed in Commodus's skull and then ripped it from his body, spinal cord included, not to mention how he broke the emperor's fasces over his knee like it was a stick and then tanked the resulting explosion. And that trick he pulled on Caligula, seemingly getting burned beyond crispy, only to be sitting off to the side in a throne of ice.

Badass and unnerving.

How had he done it?

What had he done?

Could he do it again?

Could he do it to whomever, whenever?

And that white wind he used…what was it? How could it be so cold as to be able to freeze a star's nuclear fire?

Athena had her suspicions that Shin'en was somehow generating sub-zero temperatures, and was able to maintain them at a level that even the heat of a star wasn't able to hold up.

Then there were the Giants.

Shin'en spoke about "Inner-Pantheonic Law," and no one knew what that was, though apparently there was some clause that beings of different pantheons could subvert the magical stipulations surrounding other pantheons. Annabeth suspected this meant that her cousin Magnus, or her friend Sadie Kane, could kill a Giant by themselves without the aid of a god. If that held true, then what did that mean for Shin'en?

That big, scary, glowing thing he'd conjured around himself, calling it the Susano'o…purveyors of anime recognized that from Naruto, which made the red cloud on Shin'en's coat click in their heads as to where they'd seen it before. Annabeth knew Susano'o to be the Shinto storm god, which made her draw the conclusion that Shin'en was connected to Susano'o in some way, and the anime nerds concluded that this particular Percy Jackson had chakra from the Naruto world, had the Sharingan, and was apparently affiliated with the Akatsuki.

All correct.

The way Shin'en thrashed the Giants was, once again, met with mixed reactions of awe and terror. It was always fun watching the bad guys who caused so much grief and anguish get beaten, but there was something scary about how Shin'en did it, so brutally and dispassionately, like an exterminator going out of his way to crush the insect horde under his boots instead of with his chemicals.

Orion brought about truly mixed emotions among the Hunters and Amazons, especially Reyna, along with Nico and Hedge in the crowd. Orion had hunted the latter three across the planet, narrowly getting his hands on them at every turn, and when he finally had them cornered in San Juan, he'd carved through dozens of good, strong girls, blasting traumatic holes in everyone's memory before he was finally driven off.

A pyrrhic victory to be sure.

Reyna was disturbed by Orion's apparent obsession over her, and the reassuring hands of Thalia, Nico, Hedge, and Hylla, who had also been teleported to Olympus by Apollo and found her sister, did little to bring comfort to the former praetor, especially when she witnessed how Orion now fought. Like Shin'en had accredited, with Orion's displayed increase in power, Reyna had no doubt she'd be made mincemeat if she and the Giant fought, and the Hunters and Amazons found themselves doubting if they too could take on the bane of the archers if the situation arose.

Watching Shin'en brought the mixed emotions of Yeah, kick his ass! and Wow…this guy we don't know is doing a better job of kicking his ass than we ever did…all the struggle we went through, the blood and tears, and this guy comes in and just beats him to a pulp…

They were burdened with feelings of inadequacy.

However, all of this was nothing in the wake of Shin'en's interaction with Nero. That struck chords around the whole room. The words that were shared, the way Shin'en spoke about the God, the God of the Hebrews that wrecked Egypt, the God of the apostles that yanked the Greco-Roman rug out from underneath Europe, and the God of the world's dominant religion. The God that was full of love and mercy, that came with an almighty hand of justice and destruction.

The way Shin'en spoke about that God, as if he knew God personally, had had enough interactions with Him to accurately comment on His character, was as mysterious as it was disturbing, especially that one particular line:

God's love is not unconditional…he does not love me…

In tandem with that line, there's what Caligula had said about Shin'en:

Yūrei Squad…black-ops death unit…Civil War…Ghosts of the Bloody Mist…torture and execution…slaughter of everyone, adults and children alike…the destroyer of worlds…

Caligula had been set to say more, but had been cut off by Shin'en's irritation and annoyance.

The final deciding factor that set the atmosphere of the throne room to shocked horror was how Shin'en killed Nero, crushing the emperor's skull between his hands, displaying not only raw strength, but a deep, personal grudge the likes of which beyond anything Nico could've conceived during his heavy emo phase during the Titan War. It was obvious that Shin'en had extremely personal issues with Nero since that's what he kept repeating during the battles, where is Nero, and how Chaos himself admitted that he had revived Nero to act as a hook to get Shin'en to cooperate.

The ancient lord will coerce, as the prophecy said.

It was the reasons for which Shin'en ended Nero so brutally that quieted the throne room. Where Ares and most of his children and handful of others had almost been on the verge of cheering as they watched Shin'en lay the smackdown, all that wind vanished upon watching Nero's execution.

What had Nero done to earn such wrath?

How did they avoid being on the receiving end themselves?

And prevailingly: what would Shin'en do to them if he ever became angry enough with them?

Those were the questions of the general populace, but the most amount of concern fell upon the shoulders of chiefly Sally, whose mind had already assimilated Shin'en as her own son to cope with the shock of the whole situation, then Apollo, whose newfound sense of compassion and empathy fostered through his time as Lester drove him to care about other demigods, then Percy and select co., and finally Poseidon, who had assimilated Shin'en as a son like Sally had.

They were less concerned with the general brutality and more about the black-ops death squad, destroyer of worlds, God does not love me, deep hatred for Nero, and what Apollo had been on the verge of saying before Chaos shut him up and didn't let him communicate his medicinal findings to anyone, not even through godly telepathy.

Like Apollo had been saying, like his son Asclepius, as a healing god, he had the power to discern a person's medical history, however, where Asclepius could tell a person's whole medical history, like how Piper had fallen off a horse when she was six and broke her arm and was on a vegetarian diet, and how Jason was near-sighted and had recently taken an Imperial Gold sword and had a mole on his foot, Apollo could only discern more vague things, like how Piper was a vegetarian diet, and that Jason was near-sighted. Regardless of these limitations that stemmed from having his power split between so many areas, Apollo was easily able to discern that Shin'en had PTSD, MPD, was a smoker, and a large percentage of his dermis was scar tissue.

Apollo honestly shuddered at what his godly son would be able to tell.

It was obvious to Apollo and several others that Shin'en needed psychological help—a lot of it—but he was the type that wasn't going to accept any and would be insulted at the offer. With the way he walked, talked, and fought, so calm, controlled, suave, efficient, and lethal, that he was used to being a lone wolf, dealing with all of his problems himself.

Just who was Shin'en Yūrei?

Athena, and anyone else who knew Japanese, knew that name meant Abyssal Ghost, and Athena figured that name hadn't been ascribed at birth, but had been given at some point, most likely in lieu of some event. What had to have happened to where someone garnered the name Abyssal Ghost?

Or, alternatively, Ghost of the Abyss?

Questions about his name aside, a line of the prophecy was now made clear: If the Abyss cannot escape. Shin'en was who the prophecy was referring to, he had to be, just what was it he was supposed to be escaping?

Athena burned all over with brimming questions, and she was trying to come up with a plan to ask them that didn't land her in a whole lot of deadly trouble. Goddess or not, she wanted zero part of Shin'en's wrath.

Chaos smirked a little and exercised his will.

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When Shin'en next blinked, he was gone from D.C. and was standing before the throne room doors of Olympus. Growling in annoyance and mild anger, a decent amount having been vented in the crushing of Nero's head, but not all, Shin'en pushed the doors opened and went marching straight for Chaos. He noted out of the corners of his eyes how everyone was now seated in chairs instead of just standing.

"So, buddy, feel up to the challenge of what's before you?" the supreme lord of the Percy Jackson multiverse asked casually.

"The challenge of three Primordial deities working together to resurrect a fourth, on top of every Titan, Giant, monster, and more, along with a trio of juiced-up god-emperors, and Loki and Apophis and an entire menagerie of other bullshit?" Shin'en growled in one breath.

"Yeah, that," Chaos smiled.

Shin'en glowered at the deity.

"Hey, just think of it this way: you'll have plenty to do!"

"I already have plenty to do. I'm a planeswalker with nearly unlimited access to the Dimensional Hall."

"True, but now you'll have something more specific to do! Besides, you know Nero will be back soon enough, which will provide ample opportunity for that hobby of yours."

"Hobby."

Chaos grinned at the sheer hostility shown at the intentional downplay of Shin'en's feelings regarding the emperor.

"There's not much you can do about it anyway, since I've already locked you here," Chaos said evenly. "I want you to do that awesome dimensional problem-solving thing you're good at, and you're going to do it. After it's done, you can take as many cracks at me as you like, kiddo."

"Really? All of that by myself?"

"Nah, I'll just go get one of my space armies comprised of all the dead characters that I've promoted to be my generals over all the other guys that have been in the ranks for centuries!" Chaos chirped.

Shin'en's glower intensified, eyebrow twitching slightly.

"Nah, just kidding. That used to be a fun concept until the fandom became overbloated with those stories. I'll get you the Six."

"The Six?"

"The Six. The Alien, Leviathan, Ghoul, Psychopath, Assassin, and Gunslinger."

"You're including Tobi?" Shin'en asked, exasperation clear in his voice.

"Of course, I'm bringing in Tobi!" Chaos responded, sounding honestly insulted. "It wouldn't be a party without Tobi!"

Shin'en groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"What's wrong with…ah, Tobi?" Apollo managed.

"He's a teenager with enough psychological damage for a whole volume of textbooks, mentally stuck at about three-years-old, a sadomasochist thanks to the abuses of his mother and the domain of his father, and immortal," Shin'en answered, still pinching his nose.

Looks were exchanged among the audience at that rollercoaster of a description.

Before anyone could ask who Tobi's mother and father were, Chaos clapped his hands.

"Right, I'll take this as a yes to my proposition?"

"Go fuck yourself."

"Why do that when I can be a t-girl and get my tight ass reemed by you from another dimension?"

Shin'en growled. He shut his eyes really tight, took a deep, calming breath, straightened his back, schooled his features, and opened his eyes. His whole demeanor changed, transforming into that of someone that was here to take care of seriousness business and would not be tolerating any jokes or silliness. Chaos also dropped his smile, adopting a similar attitude.

"Mission objectives?"

"The preservation of Planet Earth, the neutralization of mythological and other threats against it, and survival."

"Human race?"

"Expendable."

"Cities and all other man-made structures?"

"Expendable."

"Deities of all religions and myths?"

"Expendable."

"The people in this room?"

"Less expendable, but their survival is preferred."

"Understood. Anything else?"

"Games like this have rules. Gaea will once again require the sacrifice of a male and female demigod to fully wake, but she must wake. Kronos will require a host before assuming full power, but he must assume full power. Apophis will only be a credible threat if he breaks through the Duat, but he must break through. Ragnarök must be initiated, but all other events are subject to change. I will issue specific assignments that must be completed, or else."

Shin'en kept his face totally neutral, but on the inside, he was fuming. The gods were bad enough as it was, siring and mothering children that they abandoned to a life of pain and suffering, and then sending either their offspring or some other deity's off on life-threatening excursions and the reward was barely anything more than a thank you.

Chaos was so much worse.

Where he had the power to destroy any Percy Jackson dimension he chose for whatever reason he could think up, where he had the power to dictate and control every event and situation that came up, where he could fix any problem that arose, he instead was so much more fond of yanking other Percy's across time and space to do that for him. Not out of laziness or a sense of superiority, like how a king couldn't be bothered to handwash his own plate, seeing it as act so far beneath his station as to not even consider doing it, but for his own personal amusement.

It was fun for Chaos to play around and cause his namesake.

Like he had said, this whole situation, the Primordials rising, Loki and Apophis free, the return of the Triumvirate, all the other things that were scheduled to happen—it was all just a game to the ancient lord. A game to be turned off and on at his leisure, a game where he controlled all characters, a game to play just because.

Everyone was just pieces to play with.

Like any normal person, Shin'en detested this sentiment.

"Understood," he said.

Chaos nodded. "Show's all yours, kiddo. Remember: have fun."

With that, Chaos transformed into a bunch of bubbles that floated away in every direction and eventually all popped, leaving Shin'en standing in the middle of the Olympians, their kids and descendants, and assorted mortal parents and siblings, those of which that couldn't handle the myths being sedated with Mist. To cope with all that had been dumped on his shoulders, Shin'en produced a cigarette and lit it with a spark from his finger.

He took a deep drag, burning through the whole length in one breath, held it in as he tilted his head backward, and then let out all the smoke in one exhale. Making the butt vanish in his hand, Shin'en lit another cigarette.

"Excellent," Zeus said, deciding to speak and take charge of the situation. "Shin'en, you have my permission to lead the armies of this house. I have no doubt that with you as leader, and with so many powerful half-bloods by your side, victory will be swiftly achieved, and the enemy once again defeated. Everyone, I expect full cooperation-"

"Will you please shut the fuck up. I don't need your incessant prattle ringing in my ears right now."

Dead silence hung heavy in the throne room after that comment. The look on Zeus's face, frozen mid-sentence, shifted into one of anger at this disrespect.

"Excuse me?" the king of the gods said, voice spoken in a whisper yet heard by everyone, carrying with it all the danger of a distant storm made of midnight-black clouds.

Shin'en regarded Zeus dispassionately. "I'm not wasting the energy on raising my voice to talk to you. Either get down here or shut up."

"Uh, Brother-" Poseidon tried, but was wholly ignored.

Zeus rose from his throne and literally stormed forward, transforming into a dark cloud that emitted thunder and lightning as it moved. The angry cloud downsized and reshaped into a human-sized Zeus standing at a monolithic 6'10, exactly a foot taller than Shin'en. He walked forward to tower over the First Master, looking down on him from over his nose with his head tilted up.

Shin'en's lips quirked up. "All of you leave us," he said around his steadily burning cigarette. "This will be best kept private."

Before anyone could consider actually leaving, everyone still reeling from what Chaos had called them and the human race—expendable—Zeus said, "Everyone stay. I am in charge he-"

Shin'en placed the side of his hand on the king's shoulder, rendering him silent.

The gods found themselves gripping their thrones, and everyone else found their pulses quickening and their butts clenching in response to the ramped-up tension.

"Do you feel in charge?" Shin'en asked, voice low and menacing.

Feeling threatened in a way he had never felt before, Zeus did not know how to appropriate react. Brain struggling to figure it out, he said, "Chaos has brought you here to fight against the ancient enemies…"

Shin'en's eyes bored into the king's. "And this gives you power over me? You have nothing of use or value to me. Your life is not even a minor priority."

Shin'en's hand moved to clamp around Zeus's throat, and with that grip, he forced Zeus down to his knees. Blazing scarlet never left fearful electric blue. In that moment, something clicked in Zeus's head: what Shin'en had done at the Tower, what had been revealed about him through Caligula, the way Shin'en fought, and the way he so readily accepted all of mankind, its accomplishments, and even everyone here as expendable…

"You are pure evil," Zeus managed to croak.

"I am necessary evil," Shin'en said objectively. "I am the world's reckoning, here to put out the fire that has been allowed to rage beyond control."

He shoved Zeus backwards, the king's body squeaking across the floor as he slid all the way back to the foot of his throne.

Shin'en finished his cigarette and crushed the butt under his foot. Directing his attention to the shocked and stunned crowd, he smiled apologetically.

"I am sorry," he said pleasantly enough, "what we have here is failure…to communicate…" all mirth dropped in an instant. "I want to make this perfectly clear: I am not here to be anyone's friend. I am not here as an ally. I am not here as a savior. I am here on a job I don't want with people I don't like to clean up a mess I didn't make. I-"

Shin'en stopped mid-speech and looked down at his leg. Everyone else looked down at his leg and saw there was something gnawing on it. Specifically, his ankle.

"Hey!" he called down to the baby. Estelle looked up and offered a slobbery, beaming grin. "You having fun down there?"

Estelle giggled and made a happy thirteen-month-old noise. She sat back on her butt and raised her arms, wiggling her pudgy fingers.

Shin'en scooped her up. "Is my sandal tasty?"

"Gaaah-oooh-ah!"

"Really? You don't say."

"Skee-yah-yah!"

"Fascinating. How about you try this instead."

In a little puff of smoke, a bottle full of formula appeared in his hand, and he popped the nipple in Estelle's mouth. She instinctively started sucking, and when Shin'en pulled the nipple out, she burped right in his face.

"That was rude. Didn't your mommy teach you any manners?"

Estelle bounced in his arm, recognizing the word "mommy."

"How did you even get over here, anyway?"

"Doh-gah-yeee!" Estelle explained.

"Yes, it all makes sense now."

Estelle reached for Shin'en's face and hair, touching and feeling him, totally awed and fascinated by his appearance and how much he looked like Percy. Shin'en allowed this, allowed the baby to learn and munch on a length of hair, and everyone was thrown for a loop. One minute he was delivering a bone-chilling speech, manhandling the king of the gods, the next entertaining a baby in a textbook paternal manner.

Shin'en walked over to Sally. "You dropped this," he handed Estelle over and before Sally could speak her mind, Shin'en had already glided to stand before Annabeth, "I need your phone. Please."

"U-Uh…"

"Now."

The frigid demand was instantly met, Annabeth fishing her phone out of her pocket to hand it over. Shin'en held it up to the light, looking at the fingerprints, then turned the phone on and put in the password. Annabeth's jaw dropped.

"H-How do you know my password?"

As he dialed a number, Shin'en sent her a derisive look that said How could I not know your password?

Her password being Percy's birthday in reverse.

The line clicked as someone answered.

"Annabeth!" the relieved voice of Magnus Chase came through warbly, a bunch of background noise of shouting and speaking. "Are you alright? There was the attack, the flash of light, then we're back in Valhalla and all the gods are here in the Feast Hall and there's this guy in a wheelchair-"

"Magnus," Shin'en said.

Annabeth's cousin went silent for a short time, the only noise coming from the phone being the indistinct background noise until Magnus uttered a single, barely audible word that was laced with fear.

"You…"

"Yes, me. Put Odin on the line, please. Right now."

The sounds changed as Magnus moved to do just that. All background noise came to a complete halt as a new voice spoke from the phone.

"Am I speaking to Shin'en Yūrei?" Odin asked, completely serious.

"That is correct. Is the one calling himself Wheels there?"

"Yes," Odin answered, annoyance and irritation evident in his voice.

Shin'en's lips quirked up before he schooled himself. "You are to give him your full cooperation in whatever he asks of you, and carry out this task for me: Hotel Valhalla is to be renovated with more floors and more rooms, as it will be serving as host to many more guests. Use your divination to determine an accurate number."

"Why my halls?" Odin demanded, others silently agreeing.

Why not Olympus?

Shin'en answered, "Olympus is vulnerable and exposed, while Hotel Valhalla is an extradimensional fortress with limited entry and exit points, all of which are known and monitored by yourself and a cabal of other gods, while the hotel itself is home to an army of magical superhumans. In this crisis, you will serve as host to the children of Greece, Rome, and Egypt, and all extended family and friends. Am I clear?"

Or do you want Loki to run rampant was a threat left unsaid but was acutely felt.

"Crystal," Odin said, keeping his voice level at the fact that he was now being reduced to a similar status as his bellhop Hunding, in that he was being given orders to do things and no choice but to do them.

"Very good. I also expect all hotel benefits to be afforded to these new guests. I trust that won't be a problem."

"No..." The way Odin responded, he sounded just as confused as everyone else, but more as to the why.

What hotel benefits?

"Good. Thank you, Odin."

Shin'en pressed the button to end the call and tossed Annabeth her cellphone back.

"Congratulations. I hereby appoint you as Chief Exodus Officer. It is now your job to coordinate the total relocation of everyone here, and everyone they want to bring with them, to Hotel Valhalla."

Annabeth squeaked, "What?"

Clarisse stood up. "We're just going there to regroup and reorganize, right?"

"Wrong. I am shoehorning everyone into the hotel so you stay out of my way, and I'm going to be doing that by locking every exit and entry point of the hotel."

"You can't do that!" Clarisse insisted, with a few others voicing their own support of being kicked out of this conflict.

"Wrong again," Shin'en said, inspecting his rings. "I can, and I am, but the thing is that I don't have to. As Chaos said, your survival is preferred, but not mandatory. If I so wished, I could leave all of you up here to die, but I am choosing, out of the goodness of my heart, to give you all an avenue of protection and safety. You don't have to take it; you can fight the emperors if you want, the ones that are several thousand times more powerful than what they were, along with the Primordials and their Titan and Giant offspring, and no doubt millions of monsters, potentially even billions, on top of dealing with the ultimate evil entities of Egypt and Norway. By all means, go for it. Die in battle and hope for the best."

Clarisse shifted and then sat back down.

Percy stood up, just a few chairs away from Shin'en. "But we want to help!"

Shin'en stared at Percy for a full second before he broke into a huge grin and threw his head back. A loud wheeze left him that turned into raucous laughter.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Shin'en paused for half a second to glance at Percy's face before he laughed even harder. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Then the smile was wiped clean off his face by force of will and he leveled a very cold stare at Percy.

"Now you want to help? That's great Percy, that really is. If you listen closely enough, you can hear Jason and the rest of the Romans clapping in the distance."

Percy's whole mood shifted as memories of Lance surged to the forefront of his mind. The moods of a lot of people shifted, as memories of Lance surged to the forefront of their minds.

"It's admirable even, that you want to help, considering this whole mess is your fault."

"I—wha—huh?"

"Well, I take that back. It's yours and Annabeth's fault, though mostly yours."

"My fault?" Annabeth squawked.

Shin'en icily regarded the power couple, hands coming up to clasp behind his back.

"Yes, your fault. What has happened is that Tartarus, Nyx, and Akhlys have combined their powers to bring back the ancient enemies, or did it not click in your mind how the Triumvirate and so many Giants had reformed after barely a year? How do you think that happened? What in the cosmos would motivate three of the most ancient and powerful deities to unify and work together?"

It clicked in Annabeth's head faster than Percy's. "Us," she said barely above a whisper.

"That's right," Shin'en said in the tone of a preschool teacher after a toddler asserted that two plus two equaled four. "You two. Percy, turning Akhlys's own domain of poison against her and nearly strangling her to death created some really intense feelings. Annabeth, you humiliated Nyx in front of her own children, something that pisses off even normal people. And the two of you together escaped the grasp of Tartarus himself when he personally went out of his way to kill you. That's really vexing, assuming a physical form after thousands of years for a single purpose, only for that purpose to evade you. You two pissed off three Primordial deities in less than 24 hours. Let me go get Guinness so they can mark it in their records."

Whispering and muttering broke out, the atmosphere one of shock and anger at what Shin'en had said.

"Oh? You've not told them of your exploits in the Pit?" Shin'en asked rhetorically. "I'm sure you'll have loads to talk about in the near future, but it will have to wait. Listen up!"

Silence reigned at Shin'en's raised voice, but Percy's ADHD and mounted frustration.

"But that was all out of self-defense!"

"Oh, it certainly was, but when I say mess, I'm not just referring to the mythological…but I'll save this conversation for when I have you, Carter, Magnus, and your assorted sidekicks all in the same room together in order to save on breath."

Shin'en redirected his attention to the room, raising his voice again.

"Starting from the time I walk out of those doors, you will have three hours to gather what family and friends that are not here, and what belongings you want to have with you, and then get to Hotel Valhalla, entrances to which will be provided by Annabeth Chase. After those three hours are up, all entrances will be locked, and anyone that's left outside will be summarily categorized as acceptable losses. Good luck."

Shin'en didn't get a step forward before Grover shot to his hooves.

"But what about the nature spirits!?" he cried, thinking of his fiancé Juniper, Meg standing up with him, thinking about the Meliai, the first dryads ever born, that guarded her family home of Aeithales in Palm Springs.

Others stood up, shouting what about this and what about that.

Shin'en's answer was dry and bored. "Oh, no, not the nature spirits and all that other drivel. If only there was a cabal of gods somewhere close by that could do something about all of that."

Everyone looked at the Olympians, who all besides Apollo shifted uncomfortably in their thrones at the prospect of having to do things. Apollo looked ready to take care of business, and Athena and Artemis adopted that attitude when she looked at her brother. There was work to do, and it needed to get done if they were to survive.

"Where are you going?" someone unimportant asked among the crowd.

"To the hotel," Shin'en said. "I need to make sure Wheels is doing his job and not trolling Fierro into committing suicide."

Shin'en pushed the big doors open and left, vanishing when he got a fair distance away.

It was still and quiet for a few seconds as everyone pondered on what that meant, before someone decided to galvanize the congregation by imitating Kermit the Frog.

"We're wasting time! AHHHHHH!"

The throne room exploded with action.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Shin'en appeared in the Feast Hall of Hotel Valhalla, crossing through the extradimensional barrier through a means that will be revealed later. The Feast Hall was different now than in the books. Once described as a concert hall-sized cereal bowl with dozens of doors lining the top perimeter, tiers of benches and tables leading down to a long table that the thanes occupied, with a huge tree growing in the center that went all the way through the magic ceiling. Now it was shaping up to look like the Batcave.

The bowl-shape seating was now a huge U-shape, going up even higher that before to accommodate the new arrangements, and instead of there being doors lining just the top, now there were doors lining every level of seating. At the opening of the "U," was a huge computer with many screens built into a wall that didn't used to be there, with other machines set up around the area, along with couches and recliners, all sitting on a marble floor. Its operator had this big grin on his face as he was yelled at by the hotel's resident shapeshifting child of Loki.

Wheels was aptly named, since he was in a motorized wheelchair with more secrets to it than the CIA headquarters. A skin tone more on the paler side, dark hair cut short, welding goggles with big, black, circular lenses over his eyes, a t-shirt that depicted Jason Heuser's rendition of FDR, and a pair of khaki cargo shorts that showed off his leg stumps, rounded off above where his knees should have been, Wheels was another Percy Jackson from another world, one that answered the question of What would Percy be like if he had no legs but was the son of Hephaestus?

Along with a certain conservative sense about him just for the sake of his own amusement.

"Are you gonna give me a substantial answer, or just bitch in my face?" Wheels asked with a grin, a Southern twang to his voice.

Alex Fierro was backed up by his floormates, the huge Halfborn Gunderson, the sharpshooting Thomas Jefferson Jr., Mallory Keen, and boyfriend, Magnus, who all looked uncomfortable about being here. Off to the side, the thanes were watching, all of them shifting, and the einherjar were all in attendance. Odin was absent, busy renovating the hotel for all the incoming guests.

Alex was fuming, the others trying to calm him down since as far as they had seen, Wheels had equal standing with Odin.

Shin'en rolled his eyes. "Wheels!" he called. "What have I told you about picking on the mentally ill?"

Snickers and chortles erupted amongst the gathered einherjar, since it would've total fantasy to say that a bunch of nigh-immortal superhuman killers would care one way or the other about the thoughts and opinions of the LGBT. They would, however, care about being told what they could and could not say and think about a person or people, and if you had read the Magnus Chase books, it is easily said that Alex is an asshole.

When Shin'en spoke, said shapeshifter bristled, anger overriding any proper thought process.

He walked over at his own pace and stood next to Wheels, "What did you do this time?"

"Nothing, really. This one decided to bother me with its stupidity while I was ordering Odin around, so I asked it what was the point of being transgender if you're gender fluid, and hilarity ensued."

Shin'en's eye twitched, annoyed and irritated because this was just like Wheels. There was a far more pressing matter to attend to right now, and he had to stop down and bother with the miscreants. However, for the sake of future operations and potential interruptions, Shin'en turned his attention to Alex.

"Well?" he asked, voice low and heavy. "What is the point of being transgender if you're also gender fluid? Doesn't being fluid undermine being trans, as trans would mean you are going from one to the other, permanently, but fluid means you freely change between the two?"

"I…ah…well, there's more than two genders-"

"I don't believe that's the answer to the question I asked. I asked about the point of simultaneously being trans and fluid, not for your input about how many genders there are. Try again."

"I don't have to take this from either of you!" Alex snapped, falling back on the idea that the best defense is a good offense instead of explaining his identity in a calm and collected way that was respectable. "You're both just-grk!"

Shin'en seemed to teleport from one spot to another, his hand clamping hard around Alex's throat. His red eyes smoldered as they bored into the Loki-spawn's mix-matched windows.

"Have you ever stopped to reflect on the fact that people don't like your kind not because of your lifestyle choices, but because you're a bunch of unlikeable assholes with a false sense of entitlement?"

With a light shove, Shin'en sent Alex skidding across the floor until he banged into the thanes' table, still awkwardly situated at the ground level. Before Alex could think to get up and run for his life, Shin'en's foot was on his chest hard enough that it was a struggle to breathe.

"Listen and listen well: I do not have the time for you. I am here to conduct business, not listen to your ravings about the immaterial. The faster you learn about how unimportant you and your opinions are compared to the grand scheme of things, the happier you'll be. Understand?"

Alex barely managed a nod.

"Good."

Shin'en pressed hard and his foot went through Alex's ribcage, organs, and cracked the floor underneath. About three seconds later, the body and all that came with it faded away.

"That'll never get old," Shin'en muttered to himself with a tiny smile.

There was nothing greater than being able to kill someone who was mildly annoying you, and you didn't have to worry over any legal ramifications or clean-up operations.

Shin'en turned around and looked at the others of Floor 19, who didn't looked particularly shocked at seeing Alex's death, since that was a daily occurrence here in Valhalla, with the einherjar dying and resurrecting about an hour or so later in preparation for their final death at Ragnarök. Instead, the einherjar just looked awkward.

"Leave, children. This is where the adults will be."

The threat had them all hastily scrambling to the nearest exit and through the hotel where Fierro's room was. Shin'en directed his attention to Wheels.

"Quit wasting time and get us operational."

"Yes, Lord Vader."

Shin'en rolled his eyes again and barked a single word. "Helgi!"

The manager of Hotel Valhalla instantly appeared in a puff of smoke. "Yessir, Lord Odin—oh! A-Ah, my…" Helgi cleared his throat. "My apologies, sir. How can I be of assistance?"

"Are the VIP suites ready for occupation yet?"

"…the…VIP…suites…?"

"Yes, the suites which I, Wheels, and the other Six will be occupying during our stay here."

Sweat broke out across Helgi's face. "They will be ready with the utmost haste, sir! Hunding!"

The bellhop slave of Helgi appeared in a similar puff of smoke. The poor man looked ragged and worn down even more than he usually did. "Yes?" he wheezed.

"We need eight VIP suites right now! Get to it!"

"No."

It got really quiet in the Feast Hall at Shin'en's single utterance. The First Master stared right through Helgi, making the manager shake in his shoes.

"I want you to personally oversee this matter," Shin'en said, punctuating the word you by pushing his finger hard into Helgi's chest, making the man stumble backwards and rub the place where he'd been pressed because it was hurting. "Get to it, Manager Helgi. I expect you to be finished within the next ten minutes, and to help you along, this," Shin'en handed Helgi a clipboard brought out from the storage seal on his palm in a cloud of smoke, "a brief overview of the incoming tenants."

"Th-Thank y-you."

Helgi vanished to attend to his assigned chore.

Hunding looked ready to cry and give Shin'en a big hug, to which he staved off that event with an open palm for stop. "Attend to your other duties."

Even though said duties included literal doodie due to einherjar with upset stomachs, Hunding still looked eye-wateringly grateful to not have something else dumped on him by Helgi. The bellhop vanished to do his job, leaving the einherjar in a state of discomfort.

The relationship between Helgi and Hunding was well known amongst the hotel, with Helgi having killed Hunding back during the 8th century, both of them arriving in Valhalla at the same time, with Odin siding with Helgi over Hunding in their feud during life. As such, Helgi got to be manager, Hunding the slave (read: bellhop), and the former had total authority over the latter by missive of Odin himself.

And Shin'en had given Helgi orders, and Helgi was obeying.

It was a power move, to show that Shin'en's authority here superseded that of Odin's, the All-Father, chieftain of the Aesir, the owner of Hotel Valhalla, and the god of the Nordic myths.

Shin'en put his hands behind his back in his posture of a powerful and authoritative leader, and started for the nearest stairs to get to a door. He passed the thanes' table on his way out, saying, "Relocate," without pausing in stride or to look back and make sure his order was being carried out, though it certainly was by the scared thanes.

Wheels rolled his eyes when the doors shut behind Shin'en.

"Show off. Now, to get those teleporters functioning."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Hotel Valhalla exploded with activity soon enough as the lobby blew up with Greco-Roman demigods, their mortal families and friends, the major and minor gods of the pantheon, nature spirits, and even the magicians of the House of Life and their respective Egyptian gods, Carter and Sadie having been contacted by Percy and Annabeth, and then backed up by Amos and Ra himself that things were not at all good and they needed to engage in this mass exodus.

The attacking militaries protected by rogue magicians was certainly a deciding factor.

The staff of Hotel Valhalla were on their toes in a way they never had been before, dealing with a rush of about three thousand people—people that were lost, confused, panicking, and were soon put in states of temporary catatonia for the sake of convenience during this crazy time and placed in the really comfy beds of the hotel's suites.

The whole thing could've been a whole lot worse if not for Apollo's compassionate example, getting down and dirty with helping everyone in everyway that he could, and he was assisted by most of the other Olympians, with Ares being sent to his room by Hera for all the fights he was starting between the residents.

For all the craziness that went down, the hotel became quiet again with 78 minutes to spare before Shin'en's deadline of three hours was up. Those of Greece and Rome found themselves in living spaces more luxurious than they had ever known, with many magicians of Egypt thinking the same things, though there were those from the pantheons that turned their noses up at the accommodations, lamenting how a house-sized bedroom tailormade for their whole personality and history still wasn't enough.

Percy had his own room, just like everyone else, though everyone else wanted to be in his room. Grover, Annabeth, Hazel, Frank, Leo, Piper, Calypso, Thalia, Reyna, Nico, Will, Magnus, Alex, TJ, Mallory, Halfborn, Carter, Sadie, Walt, Zia, Poseidon, Apollo, Meg, Paul, Sally, and the napping Estelle. 26 people were in Percy's room, and he was the traumatized center of attention with Annabeth right next to him as they finally opened up about their time in Tartarus, strangling Akhlys, humiliating Nyx, and escaping the personification of the Pit itself, according to Shin'en, along with Damasen and Iapetus, aka Bob.

Hugs and tears were exchanged, and after that confession was made, conversation shifted to Shin'en and his words. What had he meant when he said he was the reckoning, here to put out the fire, and that this whole mess went beyond just the mythological? And not just what he said, but what he'd done, blowing up the Tower, killing thousands of innocent people—children—then crushing Nero's skull in his hands.

"Apollo," Sally said. The god looked at her. "You tried to say something about my son," Percy looked a bit queasy at the thought of Shin'en as his brother, "but Chaos wouldn't let you. Can you say it now?"

Apollo swallowed and spoke, hesitantly at first, but with more strength when he realized that the block was lifted. "He has P…T…SD, and MPD. I don't know how many personalities there are. He has depression, dyslexia, and ADHD, and he smokes—obviously, but, uh—erm, and he has a lot of scars on his body. I think…I think most of the are self-inflicted."

"Black-ops death unit," Reyna recalled quietly. "Bloodline Civil War."

"Last surviving member," Nico said.

Frank felt woozy, as did the other Greekomans, as they were now going to be collectively called. "Known for-"

"Our success rate, torture methods, survivor policy, and penchant for wholesale slaughter."

Heads whipped around to see Shin'en just casually leaning against the wall next to the door.

"Speak of the devil and he shall appear," the First Master with twisted grin, eyes dark emerald and gleaming. "You are correct, Apollo. I do have PTSD, though it is very much under control, and I have nine different personalities having a tea party in my mind right now. My scars are self-inflicted, but not because I started carving myself up. I healed those cuts and stabs while they were still fresh. Black operations…you've got no idea just how black, and you don't want to."

As Shin'en walked through the midst of the gathering, they all shrank away from him due to the aura he was putting out. He made them all feel like the colorful fish that swam and darted about a coral reef, while he felt like Jaws.

"You're hurting and in pain," Apollo said in a small voice. "We want to help you."

That sentiment was not largely shared.

Shin'en chuckled.

"The Bloodline Civil War was a war between a pint-sized dictator and the so-called rebels. These rebels were comprised of people with special powers, known as kekkei genkai, or bloodlines, and sympathizers of the cause. Now, I don't know if you know this or not, but wars cost money, and armies need money in order to function—clothes, weapons, food, supplies, bribes, mercenaries, etc., and that was the job of Yūrei Squad, to make money for the Rebels in any way we could…any way."

Shin'en's voice lowered and his eyes got even darker, his PTSD starting to show.

"Poseidon, Apollo, both of you are well over 4500 years on this earth, and have seen a great many disturbing things, but have you ever seen the look on a paralyzed man's face as you slowly drove a sword into the pregnant belly of his screaming wife? Do either of you know what sounds he makes when you bury him alive with the corpses? I do; that's what we did to politicians who refused to bow to local gangs and mobs, or to anyone if we were paid enough for it. Officially, Yūrei was the foremost mercenary group of the country, willing to do any dirty job for the right price, and boy did we do any job."

Shin'en's lips slightly quirked up. "I was ten years old when my career with Yūrei started, and two months shy of turning thirteen when the war ended…"

Everyone felt like they were about to throw up.

"But enough about me," Shin'en said pleasantly, switching gears so fast that he caused emotional whiplash. "Let's talk about all of you, and how the state of the world is all of your faults. I mean, goddamn, Piper, Jason wasn't even dead three months before you were tongue-fucking some Cherokee pussy—now, I understand we can't get hung up on dead loved ones, but with how fast you moved on, I can't help but wonder if you ever really loved Jason in the first place, which would be really bad, because that would mean Jason died with you lying to his face."

And just like that, with an intentional use of derogatory words, the whole room changed. No longer was the main feeling shock, revulsion, horror, sadness, but now anger, outrage, and defensiveness. Some noticed the intentional change, like Annabeth, the 1200-year-old Halfborn, the two gods, Paul, and Sally, all with their intuition and experience, but the rest were a bunch of hotheaded teenagers that rose to their friend's/friend of their friend's defense.

But Shin'en was very fast. As quick as the atmosphere changed, he changed it again, once more putting out the aura of an apex super predator, and them prey. They were instantly cowed, shrinking in on themselves.

"Now we get to business. I said…that the state of the world is all of your faults…and I said I would explain that when I had you, Magnus, Carter, and your assorted sidekicks all in the same room, and here we are. A question will lead us: what are the problems of the world? This an open-ended question free to all responses….Don't be shy, speak up."

A cannonball settled in Annabeth's stomach as an inkling began developing in her mind about where this conversation was headed.

Being the one called out first, Piper answered stiffly, "The hate that girls get for loving another girl romantically."

Will piggybacked, "The hate that gay men get."

Then Alex, "The discrimination that transgender people face."

Then Carter, "How mixed-race couples are frowned upon."

"Racism," TJ said, changing the gears a little bit. Hazel nodded along with him.

"How immigrants are treated," Leo said.

"War," Reyna and Frank said at the same time.

"The hate that Muslims get," Magnus added.

Samirah wasn't here due to having her hands full with helping her family adjust and cope with what was happening, as were many others that should've been here right now, like Rachel for example.

"Sexism," asserted Thalia.

"The education systems," Paul threw in his two cents.

"Broken families," Sally said, eyes misting as she looked at Shin'en.

"Government corruption," Meg shrugged, recalling Nero and how he had every official on the Eastern Seaboard bought and paid for.

"Poverty," Zia said.

"Disease," said Walt.

"People hoarding money," Sadie answered.

"Pollution," Calypso and Grover said at the same time.

"How dysfunctional my family is," Apollo grumbled.

"Police brutality," Nico said.

"Crime," Percy said.

Answers continued coming from all over, answers being oil companies, big corporations, the welfare system, the two-party system, forms of government like communism, how capitalism was being abused into cronyism, etc. All the while, Shin'en stood there listening, remembering each of these things, and once ideas were running short to the point that a full ten seconds passed without another answer, he spoke.

"The problem that overshines all of these is that of the people with the power to do something abstain from doing it."

"…what do you mean?" Magnus hesitantly asked.

"I mean that all of these worldly problems can be laid at your collective feet."

"But we saved the world!" Magnus insisted. He gestured at the gathered Greekomans, the four Egyptians, and then at himself and the other einherjar, speaking each time. "They saved the world from Kronos, then Gaea, then the Triumvirate; they saved the world from Apophis; and we stopped Ragnarök!"

"Saved?" Shin'en challenged. "You didn't save anything besides the problems all of you so eloquently described. Think of the world as a machine with many gears, and on those gears is written a problem. As long as those gears keep turning, the problems continue happening. Kronos and Gaea were monkey wrenches to those gears which would have certainly busted the machine, Apophis was a bomb that would've destroyed the machine entirely, and Ragnarök is the scheduled destruction of the machine. The only thing you did was prevent the monkey wrenches from screwing anything up, and you saved the machine entirely, and you merely added to the timer. None of you saved anything. You only enabled all of these problems to persist and get worse."

"No, we didn't-!" Sadie tried, but Shin'en shut the British girl down.

"Yes. You. Did. Think: If Kronos had won, would any of those stated problems exist? If Gaea had won? If Apophis had succeeded in destroying all of Creation? If Ragnarök had happened?"

"No," Annabeth cut in. "Objectively speaking, no. If any of those scenarios had come to pass, then there'd be a host of other problems to deal with, but all those we listed would effectively vanish. Objectively speaking."

"Correct," Shin'en inclined his head. "Objectively speaking, none of these problems would exist had you failed in your respective missions. Magnus and company, I frown upon you the most since the Ragnarök prophecy makes it clear that after the fighting is over, the world will become an eternal paradise, which is also prophesied in the Bible, and since we're running on the idea that all myths and religions are inherently true, that means the only thing you did was Delay the inevitable and ensure the continued suffering of all mankind. Well done."

Magnus and company shifted uncomfortably.

"However, credit must be given where it is due, and it can be said that all of you did a good job in giving humanity so many more shots and opportunities to correct itself, all of which mankind happily missed and dodged, which brings us back to the topic at hand. It's been objectively established that in saving the world from the mythological threats, you enabled the worldly problems to persist, which brings me back to the problem I stated: that the people with the power to bring about change failed to do so."

The heroes shifted in their seats as they began along the same lines of thinking that Annabeth was already way ahead of them on.

"With great power comes great responsibility," Shin'en quoted, voice heavy and laden with disappointment. "All of you have great power, there is no denying that, and where you all used it to great effect against the myths, you stopped short against the humans. As all of you stated, there are far more problems than just gods and monsters, and where humans won't do anything about them for the sake of their profit margins, it falls to all of you to fix those problems. What sits before me is the greats force for change perhaps ever assembled.

"Piper, at any moment you could've waltzed into the middle of a session of Congress and changed the course of America forever. Hazel, with your powers and lack of curse, you have virtually unlimited access to wealth and could've funded any project or campaign you deemed appropriate, but you haven't so much as given a penny to at least the Red Cross. Leo, teaching disenfranchised kids how to change their own oil is a good step in the right direction, but nowhere near enough; with your mechanical expertise you should've been figuring out a cheaper, more efficient and feasible manner of desalination, how to run factories across the globe on green energy without dumping waste into the rivers, and figuring out to make all motorized vehicles stop requiring oil, gas, and diesel—as a start.

"Nico, you could've become the greatest detective ever. With your authority as the Ghost King, you could've been communicating with the dead to get the story and identity of the killer from them, and then exercised judgement, ensuring that justice was carried out. Will and Magnus, with your respective healing prowess, you could've been going from hospital to hospital, following in the footsteps of Jesus as miraculous healers—Magnus, running the mansion for homeless people, LGBT kids, and whoever else was a good thing, but like with Leo, not enough.

"Frank, Alex, Magnus and Hazel probably wouldn't like it, and there's a small risk of contracting STDs, but the two of you could've been saving every endangered species on the planet. Grover, you are the second-most disappointing of all; with your station, power, and authority as Lord of the Wild, granted by Pan himself, giving you immense power over nature, I would've expected you to be travelling across the continent, turning every scrap of litter into a flower, and every landfill in a huge mound of topsoil—or do you not know the right spell for that? Meg, Calypso, I lump you in with Grover. With your skills in nature magic, you should've right there with them cleaning up the trash."

Shin'en's eyes swept over Poseidon. "Lazy," was the derisive, almost offhanded critique. The sea god winced.

Shin'en's eyes further swept over Mallory, TJ, and Halfborn, saying nothing to them, which honestly hurt them more than words because it sent the message that they were so pathetic to the First Master to not even bother with. Thalia and Reyna both found themselves gulping when those dark eyes settled on them, but like with the einherjar, he said nothing of them, which to them meant he thought so very low of them. Then Shin'en's eyes settled on the Egyptians, specifically on Carter, who shrank.

"You are without a doubt, the worst one out of them all. The mighty pharaoh, king of all Egypt, bearing the crook and flail of Ra himself, with sovereign authority over all magicians of the House of Life, and over the gods of the pantheon, with power as the Eye of Horus as icing on the cake. And what did you do with all of this great power? This power that could've eradicated disease, grown enough food to feed all bellies ten times over, to see evil before it happened, to discern the wicked from the just, to shape the very world itself into the image of paradise shared by all in this room? This power—what did you do with it?"

Carter could only find solace in his feet as he murmured something.

"Louder," Shin'en ordered.

"…nothing…"

"Nothing," Shin'en echoed. "You did nothing with it, and none of you ever thought to say anything to him about it, did you?"

The question was directed primarily at the three other Egyptians, Carter's sister Sadie, her boyfriend Walt, who also hosted the god Anubis, who was also being very quiet, and Zia, Carter's girlfriend, but it was also an open-ended question for everyone, and not just about Carter's lack of performance.

"Every shooting that makes it on the news; every secret, corrupt action of those in government; every plot of extremists and terrorists; every person that hoards food and money; every back-alley rape, murder, and beating—all of these things could've been seen, and all of these things could've been prevented. You have the means and manpower, Carter…what stopped you? What stopped any of you?

"Annabeth, what stopped you from rounding all of these kids up and coordinating the best superhero team ever, each of your friends and comrades able to see into the future, manipulate mind-altering magic, control the very forces of nature, and easily overturn an Abrams tank? All of these problems that you identified—racism, corruption, crime, poverty, sanitation, disease, starvation, pollution, LGBT—no one here even attempted to do anything about them. Why? What was so engaging that you ignored these problems? What cause trumped these problems in terms of importance?"

The air got cold as Shin'en's anger began to steadily radiate from him, and he went down the line, snarling at every person in turn.

"High school…high school…high school…high school…high school…high school…high school…high school…high school…high school…running a summer camp…running a summer camp with your boyfriend….You are a coward who literally dodged her responsibility in favor of joining the Chastity Belt Girl Scouts, and you are a coward as well, pussing out of the legion for the same reason….Galivanting through the woods with a dryad….I don't expect anything from the dead whose sole purpose for existing is just to die again….And you two."

Percabeth felt like a couple of small children who'd been called to the office, and instead of finding Mom waiting, they found Dad.

"College? Are you fucking kidding me? The world is literally going to hell in a handbasket around you, and you're worried about college? What even is your major, Percy?"

"Marine biology…"

Shin'en stared down his nose at his counterpart. "Do you have any idea how unfair that it to everyone else in that field?"

"Yes…"

As established in Chapter 4 of Armageddon, my personal canon includes in children of Poseidon the power of being a fish encyclopedia, in that they knew everything there was to know about any marine life upon question. With a year of college under his belt in the name of such a degree Percy figured that out eventually, so he knew just how unfair it was for him to be a marine biologist. Other people spent years of their life going through school and internships, taking tests and studying their brains out, and he knew it all right off the top of his head.

"Makes you something of a cheater, wouldn't you agree?"

Percy's jaw tightened, his grip on his knees making his knuckles turn white. He'd been sitting here in silence as Shin'en verbally tore his friends apart with his deep, level, derisive, disappointment-laden voice, making them all feel inadequate and terrible. Percy's mind likened Shin'en to a bully picking on a kid for liking Yugioh or Pokémon.

Percy looked up. "We don't have to take this from you!" he said, putting some bite into it, changing the tide. "We have a right to choose how we live-!"

"Oh, you most certainly do!" Shin'en interrupted forcefully. "And it's a right that everyone has. Bruce Wayne didn't have to dedicate his life to fighting the criminals of Gotham as Batman; Clark Kent didn't have to reveal himself and become Superman, the greatest hero of all time; Diana didn't have to leave Themyscira to become Wonder Woman; Tony Stark didn't have to design an exosuit and start fighting villains as Iron Man; Steve Rogers didn't have to pick his shield back up and lead the Avengers; Peter Parker didn't have to start scaling walls and shooting webs everywhere—none of those heroes had to become such. Like you, they could've saved the world once and then put the cape up, but they didn't. Day in and day out they were fighting for mankind, something all of you failed to do, and it was noticed.

"What do you think the Primordials were doing for the past year, hm? Do you think they were having tea parties in the Pit, fantasizing about destroying you? No! They were watching, assessing, amassing power and numbers, examining your power, the power of everyone here, and that of the new generation of heroes—and they've determined that now is the time to strike!

"Humanity is divided in a way never before seen thanks to Twitter, Facebook, Fox, and CNN—a person can't even post 'God bless you and have a great day!' without some asshole having to chime in and say that God isn't real and all religious people are nutjobs who are holding back society from progressing forward in some way. It was easy for the Triumvirate to warp the minds of the populace, because the populace is tired of all the division to some degree, and crave any form of unity, and now the enemy is backed by the believing power of 7.5 billion people, because all of you gave up!"

Percy snapped and bolted to his feet. "WE NEVER WANTED THIS LIFE! WE NEVER WANTED TO BE DEMIGODS WITH BROKEN HOMES, ABSENT PARENTS, WATCHING OUR FRIENDS DIE LEFT AND RIGHT!" After several huffs of air, Percy finished in a quiet voice, "I never wanted to be a half-blood…"

"That's too fucking bad, boy, because you are one," Shin'en said gravely. "The moment Poseidon's spunk filled Sally's uterus, you became blessed with immense power, and with that power comes responsibility, responsibility that you shirked and refused to accept. Saving the world goes far beyond defeating gods and monsters, since the worst of those monsters look like you and me."

Shin'en pushed his finger into Percy's chest and made him sit back down.

"…what about me?" Apollo spoke hesitantly. "You had something to say to everyone else, but you skipped over me."

"That's rather impressive, throwing yourself in with them. It shows how much you've grown up."

Apollo, Meg, Paul, and Sally lurched at Shin'en's statement, for it was the same thing Sally had said a year ago.

Shin'en continued, "You have room for improvement, Apollo. After being restored, you went out of your way within the limits of Zeus's bounds to help others, using your domain of the sun to see everything the light touches. Demigod children struggling in the streets, being abused at home, sending and guiding satyrs to retrieve them and get them safely to Camp Half-Blood, but that's all that you did."

Apollo frowned at himself, for it was true. For the past year, he had been sending and guiding satyrs to distressed demigods of all parents, using the sun's light to see all, but he'd been so focused on just demigods that he'd gotten tunnel vision and missed several other disastrous events, ones he could've prevented in some way. So many headline tragedies in recent weeks had happened under the sun.

Shin'en regarded the congregation.

"All I see before me is a bunch of little boys and girls that all collectively went poo-poo in their undies because they'd already been to the potty today and didn't want to get up and go again because a new episode of Barney was on, and I am the one that's been called in to clean up the couches and the floors, do all the laundry, and wipe your filthy bottoms."

There was much cringing and wrinkling of noses at the analogy, Shin'en reducing everyone here to the status of a small, lazy, irresponsible child that chose to soil themselves instead going to the bathroom, due to deciding that a cartoon was more important than personal hygiene and cleanliness. The vernacular was intentional, using childish terms to further hammer in how pathetic he equally saw them as, the girls being as lazy and nasty as the boys.

"Yes, all of you are entitled and free to choose how you live, and you have done so, but at the cost of others' lives. All of you have the power, and therefore all of you had the duty and responsibility to address what you deemed to be the problems of the world, and none of you did so. You brought up the discrimination against the LGBT and the divisions between the races, but did any of you do anything? Attend a rally, perhaps? Start a blog or a podcast? Send a letter to Congress? Do any of you at least even own the flag?"

The way Piper, Will, Nico, Magnus, Alex, Carter, and TJ looked down, the answer to all of the above was clear.

"You brought up issues with Congress itself, but did any of you do anything about that? No, you just sat there and whined about it. Gun legislation? Just whined. Pollution? Crime? Food? No proposed solutions, just more whining. The only thing any of you did about any problem was whine about it, never any action."

"What are we supposed to do?" Piper glowered. "March into the Capitol Building and the White House and take over the country, then march into the United Nations and do the same?"

Shin'en's lips quirked up. "I want you to think very hard about my next question: why not?"

The way he said it rattled the room.

"Yes, why not do just that? All of you have the vision, and all of you certainly have the means. Why not take over the Unites States and the Nations, divert trillions of dollars out of defense and into farming and education? Why not go to the Middle East and get the Muslims to calm down? Why not make the world disarm all of its nukes? Why not take over the world and reshape it into the vision of paradise that you all see, with kindness and compassion all around, plenty of food for everyone, justice delivered on all counts, equality and equity the world over? You've got the power in you—so why not?"

Basic and standard answers floated through their minds that it wasn't right, it was wrong in some way. It was like mind-control, forcing people to behave and think in a certain way, robbing them of their freedom and right to choose, but they were all smart and keen enough to recognize that the alternative situation to doing just what Shin'en described was the current dreadful state of the world.

"Metro Man made a good point, that no one said being a hero had to be a lifetime occupation, but he also said that you can't just quit. And that is what all of you did. You quit. You stood by while there was work to do, and let it pile up to the point where it's at now, beyond your control, and now my problem."

"But taking over the world like that and forcing people to be how we want them to be is wrong," Sadie insisted.

"There's more than one way to skin a cat," Shin'en said, making Sadie and Carter blanch because the closest thing they had to a living mother was Bast the cat goddess, who had taken care of them during their time fighting Apophis. "World domination and imposing your vision of a brighter future by way of magic is but one of many ways to solve its problems. It's the fact that all of you did nothing at all is what makes you worse than anybody who tried anything."

Shin'en produced a cigarette, lit it, took a drag, and released the smoke out of his nose in a deep sigh.

"However, it's all over now. There are no more choices for you to make. You had your chances, and you wasted every single one of them. Now the torch is gone from your hands and placed into mine. The rest of the Masters will arrive, and once we are convened, the war will begin in earnest."

"Then what was the point of this?" Percy demanded, though he looked tired. "Make us all feel bad?"

"No," Shin'en answered. "One day, you will know why I spoke with you, but for now, keep it in your heads that everything I do, is because all of you did nothing. As far as I'm concerned, the real villains are in this room."

Then an unseen radio went off and Wheels' voice was heard. "Shin'en. It's time."

"Copy."

Shin'en gave the room one last hard look.

"You will see things during the course of this war that will challenge everything you know. You will be changed people, assuming you survive. Like Chaos said, get familiar with the Multiverse Theory and open your minds to infinite possibilities. Just to start, I was adopted by the Shinto god Susano'o and given the substance known as chakra, and taken to the world of Naruto, where I became a shinobi, and eventually a member of the Akatsuki organization. Wheels is another Percy Jackson, only in his world he's not the son of Poseidon, but the son of Hephaestus. As for the rest, start doing your research on the Aliens vs. Predator franchise, the Claymore anime, the Tokyo Ghoul franchise, the Shinto god Jashin, the Assassin's Creed franchise, and the Black Lagoon anime."

With that, Shin'en left the room, leaving everyone to stew in their thoughts.

He'd gotten into their heads.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The final renovations to the Feast Hall were completed. Wheels' control area was now set on a raised platform like a stage, with steps leading down to the ground level, an area of marble floor with a fair distance from everyone else. To the left of the platform was a hollowed-out section of the stands that was occupied with machines that looked like the Zeta-Tubes from Young Justice. On the wall high above Wheels' main jumbo monitor was a pair of huge screens with a feed from unseen cameras that showed what was happening.

And what was happening was nothing short of unsettling.

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Hotel Valhalla," Shin'en said from the edge of the platform, hands clasped behind his back, voice heard throughout the Feast hall.

"This unprecedented gathering of the forces of the Norse, Egypt, Greece, and Rome is due to an unprecedented threat. The Primordial deities Tartarus, Nyx, and Akhlys have combined their powers to reform the Titans and the Giants, the god-emperors Caligula, Commodus, and Nero, and raise an army of monsters with numbers comparable to the human population. Additionally, Loki has managed to free himself from his prison and is now attempting to start Ragnarök, and all of this has created enough chaotic energy that Apophis has returned to a physical state, and is once again making way to destroy all that there is. All of these enemies have combined, joining forces to create an army of evil the likes of which is unheard of. As such, nothing is certain anymore, not even the Ragnarök prophecy.

"However, the ancient creator deity known as Chaos, a being beyond Odin, and beyond even Ra, has decided to not let you face this threat alone, and has called upon certain individuals to assist you. I am Shin'en Yūrei, and this is my tech guy, Wheels."

"Howdy," Wheels waved lazily.

"There will be six others who will join us in due time. In the meantime, for your safety and protection, Hotel Valhalla will be under total lockdown. Odin, the key, please."

With an expression cast from stone, Odin presented the Master Key to his hotel to Shin'en, along with the Master Lock. Shin'en accepted the items, put the Key into the Lock, and turned. The hotel shuddered, and the whole Feast Hall heard 540 clicks resound throughout, signaling that all entrances and exits were now locked.

The Lock and Key disappeared from sight as if in some poorly edited video, and based on the way Odin twitched, he had not been expecting that or knew where his things had just gone.

"Thank you, Odin," Shin'en said dismissively, then continued.

"For those that are new to the hotel, it is paradise. You have everything you need, and everything you want. For your mental health, I strongly encourage getting acquainted with the facilities and getting it into your minds that this whole situation is just a big vacation, because no one besides whomever I deem necessary will be leaving this place, as it my job to keep as many of you alive as I possibly can. There will be those who undermine me and endeavor to break out, and this is my one and only warning to you: death is not what it has been anymore, in that if you die, you face the Underworld, the Valkyries, or the Scales. Instead, if you die, you face eternal judgement of the Most High, so unless you've repented for your sins, I highly recommend staying put, and staying happy. Let me and mine handle this, you just sit back and watch."

The computer beeped. In a feminine voice, it said, "Dimensional activity detected. Dimension DI-2; Asteria Jackson incoming."

The teleporter activated, the tube glowing and opening, releasing particles of light that streamed everywhere. Out of the light came a teenaged girl wearing denim capris, a gun holstered on her right thigh, blue high-top Converses, and an orange CHB t-shirt, a weapon of some kind held across the small of her back. Her skin was sun-kissed, a strange bracer on her left arm; her shoulder-length hair was black as raven's feathers and held in place by a blue headband, and her eyes were a startling venomous green. But it was her face that caused gasps and caught attention.

It was Percy's face, a bit softer, but Percy's.

The Second Master was Percy Jackson, but as a girl.

Asteria Jackson of dimension DI-2 was now in attendance.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

And that's the second chapter, ending with the introduction of Asteria, whom some will recognize as being in disguise. The reason behind that will be revealed next chapter.

Now, the real meat to focus on is Shin'en's conversation with everyone, and how he asserts that they have the freedom to live their life, but they have a responsibility to do more than just fight gods and monsters due to their powers, quoting Uncle Ben and Metro Man, and citing numerous superheroes. The question of is Shin'en right or is he wrong is open to debate, but regardless of the true, subjective answer, the weight of the conversation and all that follows will affect the heroes of the Riordan-verse.

The next chapter should not be anywhere near this long…I think.

It's just Asteria's intro to the Chaos War that'll end with Leviathan's.

In the meantime:

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