Chapter 34: I Get Casted With Some Straight Up Fairy Godmother Witchcraft

Contrary to popular belief, it would seem Zeus did have a reasonable side after all, given the fact the Mermaid Cow had yet to be unsuspectingly smited. I noticed Hermes hovering over Zeus' throne with a sleek object that looked a lot like the iPad I've seen Thanatos carry on deathly excursions, and I snorted.

The guy that boasted about his top notch security system is currently ordering a new one.

Thalia and Bianca didn't seem to mind their new roles. Thalia looked, if possible, even more confident with her silver diadem, and Bianca didn't seem all too bothered by the fact that she wasn't a Hunter of Artemis anymore. But they both looked exhausted, too, like the day weared away a good couple of years on their lifespans.

Percy and Annabeth were talking with their respective Godly parents, and Grover was happily munching on another tin can while striking conversation with Mr. D.

Just when I thought things were finally beginning to settle down, a certain God's presence ruined the peace.

The shadows began to dance in the corner of the wall. It was subtle at first, like they were dancing to a slow song. Then their movements became more sporadic and unpredictable, but seemed to concentrate into a solid mass that was growing taller and taller.

In the name of my father…

Of all the times he could've come why did it have to be now?

I pulled my best poker face but I wasn't sure it would hold up with the surprise guest arriving.

Dressed in midnight garments sewn with screaming souls, and adorning an unreadable expression, the God of the Underworld, Lord of the Dead, and my father emerged from the dancing shadows in the corner of the throne chamber. His black callous eyes fell right on Bianca and I.

Oh, Styx.

I could feel Bianca's tension through the hand on my shoulder. I realized I was holding my breath, and an uncomfortable feeling like skeletal fingers tap dancing shivered down my spine. Why? After everything I've been through, why am I suddenly afraid to face my own father?

From the far corner of the room, Hestia smiled warmly. "Welcome, brother."

He nodded in acknowledgment towards the Goddess of the Hearth with what might've been a ghost of a smile on his pale face. "Sister."

"Hades? What business do you have here?" Zeus demanded, and by the expression on his face, I could tell he was seconds away from blasting some trigger happy bolts all over the place.

My father merely scowled, already accustomed to his idiot brother's antics. "Nothing concerning you and your overly inflated ego if you must know," he replied with his usual monotone. With the wave of his hand, he summoned an imposing throne of shadow and bone, sat in it, and glared at nothing in particular.

Demeter crossed her arms and snarled, "Come to flaunt my daughter's imprisonment in that dark dump you call home? Tell me, Hades, have you been feeding her any pomegranates lately?"

"Contrary to popular belief," Hades said in a chilling voice, bestowing the Goddess with the family owned death glare, "I do not treat her as though she is a dog, I treat her as she is—my wife. The sooner you start accepting that, the sooner my poor eardrums will be relieved of your insufferably irritating insults."

I couldn't help but roll my eyes. As per usual, my father is 110% done with Demeter, and I have no doubt Persephone and the Underworld's infinite mounds of paperwork have been pushing him to his limit, too.

"She is my daughter. You will treat her as the Goddess of Spring she is," the cereal fanatic quipped.

I had to cough to mask my laugh. Thankfully, only Percy seemed to find this unusual and raised his eyebrows at me in question. No one else batted an eye about it. But really, Goddess of Spring? More than half the time, it's Persephone that comes up with the gruesome torture devices in Punishment, and Gods know she enjoys it. When Dad leaves his seat in the Judgement Pavilion to attend to other duties in the Underworld, it sure as heck isn't his appointed judges that sentence the most merciless punishments in the history of civilization. No. It's his wife. Over the span of a millennia, when demigods venture into the Underworld, Hades isn't the one that tempts them to eat the pomegranate seeds. No, it's the Goddess who was wrought victim to the damning seeds in the first place.

Calling Persephone the Goddess of Spring is like calling a blood thirsty hellhound an adorable puppy.

"Enough of this," Zeus growled, straightening the collar of his suit as if that was intimidating. "Hades, what is your business here? You are interrupting a rather important meeting."

Hades raised an eyebrow. "I have as much of a right to be here as you do, little brother. Surely you are not challenging my authority?"

"Not at all," Posiedon answered for Zeus, his demeanor as calm as a slow lapping wave. "We are merely wondering why you've come to this meeting of all occasions. I've always taken you to be the God who prefers not to attend these sorts of excursions."

Hades' stare was colder and more haunting than the depths of Tartarus. "Then it would seem you do not know me as well as you think, Posiedon." He didn't care to elaborate why. "If you are concerned I wish to start some ridiculous war, you needn't worry. There are far more important matters I'm in need of attending to."

Again, he didn't elaborate.

Suddenly Hestia strolled over casually at a modest height for a goddess and placed a hand right on my shoulder. The gesture looked subtle enough, but somehow conveyed Aunt Hestia's support all at once.

The Goddess of the Hearth was interesting like that.

"My Champion," Hestia said lightly, "has something he wishes to tell to you all. Information. Vital information that will determine the very fate of humanity—and all of us—as we know it."

There was something like curiosity in my father's black eyes, but it was hardly noticeable with his scowl.

Zeus' expression was curious if not confused. "This feeble boy is your champion? Why? Has he been claimed? I do not recall you ever claiming a champion before."

"Unclaimed," she clipped. "But do not underestimate him. Strength is not everything. Undying hope and inexhaustible willpower can be just as powerful, if not more. All of which he possesses and has an affinity for. All of which will help him complete his mission."

The King of the Gods looked a bit skeptical, but said, "I see. And what is it the boy wishes to tell?"

Instead of answering, Hestia held her hand out to me. "It is time, Nico. Please, take my hand. Do not be alarmed. This will only be temporary."

I casted a doubtful look, confused by what she was asking, but took her hand nonetheless. After all, it would be unwise not to accept what a Goddess is giving you, whether it's a hand or a gift. I only had a split second to register her warning she gave us to close our eyes before white hot, searing light engulfed the room and my vision.

My breath hitched in surprise as gut-wrenching pain unwinded me from the inside, restitching every fiber of my being in the span of a millisecond. Then the light died down and the pain receded. But a strange feeling lingered underneath my skin like I was out of sync with the entire world.

The looks of shock and disturbance certainly didn't help the feeling lessen.

"That is some straight up fairy godmother witchcraft right there," Percy muttered, eying me, but the room was so silent everyone heard him.

"What?" I asked, paying no attention to the fact that my voice was deeper than usual.

Like a broken dam, questions and shouts flooded in with the overwhelming force of a tidal wave. "Why does he look so pale?" and "Why does he look older?" and even "What happened to baby Nico?!" were the only questions I could discern from the many others.

Annabeth grabbed me, inspecting me with uncomfortable intensity. "This is what you looked like before, isn't it?"

I was feeling thoroughly confused which was pretty uncommon given the fact that I'm a time traveler with knowledge of the future. "What are you—?"

The question died in my throat.

My hands were in fact significantly paler than I've grown accustomed to. Like, been-vacationing-in-the-Underworld pale. And I was wearing an aviator jacket. And I was taller. And there was hair falling in my eyes. And suddenly I never felt so right.

The answer to my question couldn't have been clearer: I was somehow transformed back into my 14 year old self.

"You—You changed me back?" I asked Hestia in disbelief, who was adorning an unusual smirk.

She nodded. "Temporarily. I thought it might be more suitable to introduce yourself as you, and not your past self."

Well, hopefully this doesn't complicate things.

"Thank you," I said with a small smile, and I really meant it. This is one of the weirdest yet nicest things anyone has ever done for me.

I turned to Bianca questioningly, expecting her to shriek in terror at my unholy get up of black on black on skulls. But to my surprise, all she did was brush the hair out of my eyes with great difficulty and bluntly said, "You need a haircut."

She wasn't wrong. But I wasn't about to admit that.

"What is the meaning of this?!" Zeus demanded, and I've never seen him look so confused in all my time on Olympus. Upon closer inspection, he frowned. "This boy… looks familiar…"

Then his stormy eyes suspiciously narrowed in on Hades, who was seemingly watching the ordeal impassively. It would only take someone who's been around him long enough to know the tenseness of his jaw was set too hard not to be angry, or perhaps very, very confused. But it was hard enough to read any sort of emotion on my father's face, let alone what kind. So I assumed the worst: Hades was about ready to sentence someone into eternal damnation—possibly me—because generally that was always the case, and if it wasn't that… well, I didn't know what to think.

I regarded the Gods carefully, stringing together the words I would need to plead my case. A wave of revelation washed over me when I realized I didn't feel so angry anymore. Just tired, like there was no fight left to give. I wasn't sure if that was because of everything that's happened, or the fact that I held the sky for an allotted 2 minutes, or a combination of the two. For so long I was angry at the Gods, cursing their existence for what they did to us. But really, what good does it do? It won't change anything. It won't bring Hazel back to life. It won't bring any of them back to life.

All it does is corrode me from the inside with this bitterness and hatred I can't let go. Is this corrodence the reason why Luke Castellan and so many others sided with Kronos? Is it why so many of us demigods couldn't make peace with our counterpart pantheon? Is it why it all went wrong? If there's one thing I've learned the hard way, it's how damaging the corrodence can be to a person and a civilization, but a feeling like pity came over me when I realized some people never learn.

"I think it's time I introduce myself. Properly."

Bianca and my friends, the people who had stood by me through everything were about to speak. But I shook my head, hoping the message was clear. I lived through the war. I traveled back in time. I have to tell the story.

I owe it to all the wildflowers in the field.

"My name is Nico di Angelo, Angel of the Fallen, time traveler from the future, and sole survivor of the Second Gigantomachy," I announced, and it was like this certainty alighted inside of me and I finally knew my place in this world. "Mother Earth is awakening and has been for over seventy years. She will start a war the following summer of the second Titanomachy, and her children—the Giants will walk on this earth once more. The most time you have to prepare is three years, and even less than that if the Greek and Roman Pantheons are ever to be united to stop her."

Silence.

The entire room was left in a suspended void of quiet from what I had to say. It would seem even the walking Mythomagic cards come to life couldn't believe I was a time traveler from the future. Strange.

But their silence was disconcerting. It was no secret the Gods would have pretended the flashing signs of Kronos' return simply didn't exist had Artemis not been rescued and at the Winter Solstice meeting. Though there was something even more disconcerting about the astonished and delayed reactions to my warnings, as if warning or no, they wouldn't be prepared to fight another threat worse than before anyway.

So I continued, expressing what was really going through my mind, and I didn't hold back. Fate knows the Gods need an unfiltered eye opener.

"It would seem," I said, my voice as empty and distant as an abyss, "even now, especially four years from now, you still can't work up the courage to accept that there are forces greater than you who want your thrones. You still hide away from your problems. You build these grand walls and sit on your high pedestals while your children die everyday fighting for your cause. That's how Gaea won. That's how Kronos almost won, too. They exploited your weaknesses: your ignorance. Your pride. Everyone knows a God and a demigod must work together in order to kill a Giant. We pleaded to you, screamed towards the heavens while the Greeks and Romans slaughtered each other. But you never came. Gaea basked in all of the blood of Olympus staining her rolling hills and flower fields without lifting as much as a finger.

"Now look me in the eyes and tell me you won't make the same mistake."

No answer came. Some voice in the back of my mind was telling me now was the time to panic.

"YOU DARE SPEAK TO US THAT WAY, BOY?!" Zeus roared, enraged, and I knew I really made him mad this time. "You dare challenge the might of Olympus with your bitter lies and—"

"He's right, you know."

Everyone turned their attention from Zeus who looked ready to smite me to Apollo, who ditched the sunglasses and blinding smile for older eyes and a somber expression. His eyes, I noticed, didn't seem to shift in a thousand shades of the sky anymore, but now a thousand shades of the future. Every possibility and probability, every victory and loss, every chance and fate swirling in intangible fractured pieces no one but the God of Prophecy could comprehend.

"The Angel of the Fallen is right," he repeated wearily.

Zeus looked to be at a loss for words, sputtering like a fish out of water, though I don't think anyone was really expecting the response out of Apollo of all Gods. "What—What do you mean the brat's right?!"

"The boy isn't lying," my father said coldly. He eyed me the way he eyed all the lost souls in the Underworld. With unseeing eyes and no remorse. "There is an aura of death clinging to him that I haven't seen since the Civil War."

Apollo shook his head, an apologetic expression I've never seen before on his face. "Everything he said was true. In fact, I can see it happening now. It's… it's terrible. Never in all of my immortal existence have I've seen a war end this badly. The Greeks and the Romans… And we hid away from all of it…"

"So she really is rising? The boy spoke the truth?" Artemis whispered urgently to her brother. "How long do we have?"

"Not long…" The Sun God muttered, and his gaze focused on a distance no but he could see. "You casted the spell, Aunt Hestia. You brought him here in hopes of… Yes, I can see it. There's so many possibilities…"

"Can it be done?" Hestia asked, and I could hear the fear in her trembling voice. "My efforts will not be in vain?"

"Yeah," Apollo answered, but he hesitated. "It can be done. But us Gods? We can't do it. And there's a price that must be paid… I can't say anymore. The Fates won't allow me to. But yeah, the Angel of the Fallen and the chosen Seven can do it. And there's more…" Then his frown deepened, if possible. "This timeline is really going to… oh, me." Then he mumbled so incoherently I was convinced I didn't hear him right. "Freaking giant chicken warrior… Wait, that's supposed to be a falcon?"

Then his words sank into my skin like freezing water, numbing the delaying blow that was bound to come. It can be done. But us Gods? We can't do it.

It was ludicrous really. Laughable even to think the Gods could ever fix this. They were incapable then, who's to say they aren't incapable now? This whole time, I've been trying to glue myself back together long enough to get a message to the Gods, long enough to hear them say all those deaths weren't in vain. But Apollo's sharp words shattered me before I could even be mended.

They were just an example to learn from, a little voice inside reassured me, not a bad memory to dwell on. But I found no hope in the thought, because I knew just as well it wasn't right. No, those deaths were just the beginning of a bad memory.

A bad memory that won't end with the fall of Olympus.

Something inside of me snapped, and the room grew very, very cold.

"You're telling me I came all this way for nothing?" My breath steamed in the unforgivable cold, my voice descended in a whisper with the fury of a thousand forgotten ghosts. "You're telling me their deaths were all in vain… because you can't make your kids get along? All because of some three thousand year old feud no one but you remembers? Do you even care what will happen to your kids?"

A shadow crossed Apollo's face as he said hopelessly, "It has to be you and the Seven. I'm sorry."

"But you're Gods! You're all powerful beings!" Percy shouted incredulously. "Can't you just—?"

"You're only as powerful as we make you," Annabeth said, the answer dawning on her face, and it was like her steel gaze was gleaning forbidden secrets. "Western Civilization. You move where our influence takes you. You become what the greatest civilizations want you to be. That's how the Roman Pantheon was born. That's why you can't unite it. If our influence doesn't wish to unite, then you cannot wish it either."

"Even our power has its limits," Artemis admitted quietly, and I got the feeling she was one of the only Gods with the guts to say it.

The frost stopped creeping along the marble.

"We are mere figments of your beliefs and your ideas in our purest forms," said Athena. "Nothing more."

The other Gods shifted uncomfortably in their thrones, and I knew right then and there nothing more needed to be said.

"Then… why do we even worship you?" Thalia asked. "We're just worshiping ourselves."

"Well someone has to keep the domains and principal beliefs in order," Aphrodite said matter-of-factly while filing her nails. "Love wouldn't be love without me."

Ares snorted. "And war would be a bloody mess and a whole lot of nothing without purpose and drive." Everyone stared at the God of War. "What, you think I tempt empires to fight just for quality entertainment?" The stares did not lessen. "Okay, maybe a little bit, but not always."

In his sea slab throne, Posiedon smiled tiredly, the lines next to his eyes crinkling in mirth. "The underwater kingdom would be chaos without a ruler. The waves and storms need restraint, or they will never cease."

"Yeah," Grover agreed. "We definitely need them."

Next to us, Hestia frowned. "Close your eyes," she warned.

A burst of light suddenly erupted in the throne room, and I felt the familiar sensation of my body unwinding and restitching itself together. It was painful, but this time, I felt grounded somehow, like I didn't feel so out of place anymore. When the light died down, it was suddenly a sorry sight to see Percy's tattered and singed jacket, and I missed my aviator jacket very, very much.

Well, it was nice being 14 again while it lasted.

"I'll find a way," I said at last. "I don't know how, but I'll figure something out. I'll help the Seven unite the pantheons. Things won't happen like they did last time."

"And we will begin war preparations," Hestia promised. "For both wars. This time, we will be prepared for what is to come."

As much as I wanted to believe in that promise, some premonition in the back of my mind kept nagging me, as if warning me Fate would not be so kind to keep it.

The meeting was winding down once again with nothing left to be said. We all waited for Zeus to call the meeting adjourned, but he just kept staring at me and Bianca. It was… odd, to say the least. I've never been one to draw too much attention, but there was something about Zeus' stare that gave me the impression he knew something I didn't.

It was extremely unnerving.

"Brother," Posiedon prodded impatiently, "are you going to end the meeting? I wish to speak with my son, and my domain cannot be left unattended for so long."

Instead of answering him, Zeus muttered, "I can't be the only one who's noticed the resemblance the boy and the girl share with my brother. Their looks are unnatural."

Bianca and I exchanged uneasy glances with each other, and I I knew we were both thinking the same thing: Is this idiot beginning to unearth the 70 year old secret that should have stayed buried?

Well, I can't say we haven't made it a little obvious, but still.

"Yes," Athena agreed, watching us carefully. "And their relationship with the Sea Spawn and the Grace girl is rather questionable."

An unspoken agreement seemed to pass between me and Bianca. We both adorned blank poker faces that could've passed off as statues—or maybe even corpses with soulless eyes and lifeless faces. We didn't speak. We only stared.

"I gotta use the bathroom," Grover announced out of the blue. "Are there any bathrooms on Olympus?"

"Down the hall and to the left," Mr. D directed distractedly. He was reading a new magazine with what looked to be gladiators on the front cover. Huh. I always thought gladiators were strictly Roman.

Grover thanked him and was halfway across the room before Zeus ordered, "No one is permitted to leave this room until I get to the bottom of this."

For the love of Gods.

Grover's face paled so much his freckles were almost nonexistent. Percy, however, was not having it. "My friend needs to pee," the Son of the Sea God argued. "Grover's blatter always acts up when he's nerv—" He stopped himself, as if he said something he shouldn't have.

By the looks of it, Annabeth seemed to think so, too.

"And why," Zeus asked, "is the satyr so nervous?" But the look on his face suggested he already knew why.

"Probably because you won't end the meeting," Thalia hissed, glaring fiercely at her father.

Zeus paid no attention to her. He studied Bianca and I for a moment longer. Then, as if the answer dawned on him, he spat, "The boy and the girl are the unfortunate and disgraceful products of a broken vow." Zeus glared at my sister and I like we actually had a say in the matter. "Seeing as my villainous brother, Hades, has broken the oath not once, but twice, I will see to it his children are sufficiently punished for their crimes against the sacred oath and the well being of Olympus."

My friends all tensed, but made no move to protest. Hades had yet to confirm or deny Zeus' claim, though either way, there wouldn't be a reasonable way out of this. Still, I was trembling, but not from fear. The last solution to Zeus' problem resulted in my mother's and hundreds of innocent people's deaths.

Flashes of my mother's face haunted me in ways only I could see. My mother's thin smile as she reassured my father everything would be alright. Her warm coffee eyes trained on the ceiling as a storm rumbled beyond. The moment the horrid ringing sounded as she went to grab her purse…

What would my mother think if she saw just how cruel this world really became? And she thought I could change the world for the better, I recalled bitterly. How is that working out right now?

"You play a dangerous game, little brother," Hades' whisper was breath shattering cold, but his manic gaze was black fire that could devour souls. "Claiming these children are mine. Claiming I've broken the oath you brought upon me. An insult to me and to my reputation, I think. Although, I do have more than enough subjects to spare should things get out of hand. Death is, after all, eternal. The living are short lived at best."

Posiedon, I noticed, as well as all the other Gods shifted nervously in their thrones, because they knew they would have to choose sides should WWIII break out.

A flash of fear shone through Zeus' eyes, but it disappeared just as quickly. "Di Angelo." He said the name like it was a taboo. "I believe I have heard that name before. There is a rumor… Maria di Angelo. Apparently she was quite well known to them, but not to us. As far as my knowledge goes, she tried to attempt the impossible with those fools." I frowned, not understanding what he meant by that statement. "Then she went as far as challenging me. I would think her death was more merciful at the hands of me than them."

My father's expression was unreadable. "Are you so quick to believe even the most ridiculous of rumors and lies? If I'd known that three thousand years ago, I would've fed you to Father and been done with it. Or perhaps I should've sent my three headed dog as a birthday present."

It was times like these I couldn't tell if my dad was joking, and he made a point to tell me a while back the feeling was pretty mutual. Still, the glint in my father's eyes suggested he still had more schemes of maiming he had yet to reveal.

Zeus' laugh was anything but amused. "The rumor that the wretched mortal was a former lover of yours sounds believable if not true." Then his eyes darted to Bianca. "The girl, I'm sure, shares quite a resemblance with her mother. But her eyes remind me of yours. Black. Mad. Cold. And the boy has our dear mother's curls, don't you think?" He didn't wait for an answer. "If these children really are yours as much as they are her's, then you have broken a far more dangerous oath than originally thought. One that will be the downfall of us all."

Hades' glare was enough to make a demigod—or any God for that matter—wither in agony until they reduced to ash and nothingness. But Zeus held his brother's gaze, and it was like there was a silent message between them, a secret neither of them would share.

Artemis seemed to be catching on pretty quickly. At least to the fact that revealing our true parentage would be very, very bad. "Bianca and Nico di Angelo are indeed children of Thanatos, Father," she claimed, but the minuscule look she casted Hades told a different story. "I know because I have seen them use abilities only children of Thanatos would possess in the midst of battle. To insult the God of Death and the God of the Underworld any further with false accusations of the parentage of the children would be unwise."

Zeus must have really trusted Artemis, because his looks of suspicion in our direction relented, at least for now. But something told me Zeus was not entirely convinced, and it would only be a matter of time before he found out the truth.

"...I see," the King of the Gods said, regaining his composure. "Very well. If that is all, this meeting is adjourned."

I didn't miss the sighs of relief that spanned all through the throne room from Gods and demigods alike, and I didn't miss the quiet exit my father made either.

Today was a victory, at least, but not without a cost. A vision of Zoë's empty eyes beneath the light of the stars flashed before me, but, with great difficulty, I banished it to the back of my mind. There is still work to be done—tremendously more work than previously thought, what with the revelation that the God's cannot unite the Greeks and Romans. But we have to do it. The Greco-Roman Pantheon must be whole if we are to ever stand a chance against Gaea and her Giants.

I glanced at my friends who were smiling and making their way to their parents—minus Bianca who didn't have that luxury, and Grover who was dashing to the nearest bathroom.

Yeah, I thought with a small smile. We can do it.

A/N:

Hey, guys. I know it's been a while since I updated. The reason for that is because I rewrote this stupid chapter in three different ways because I felt it kept running flat, all of which took days to write and edit individually before I was finally satisfied with how it was written. Like, seriously, there was some wack stuff happening that I just couldn't get over, and it was causing me a lot of writer's block and stress. And then there was some other fun activities that took up most of my time. But you know, I assumed this chapter could be done quicker since my mind wasn't stuck on AoT anymore.

Obviously that was not the case.

Anyway, hope you guys are happy with this chapter. I put a lot of thought and some ~foreshadowing~ in it in hopes of stirring some questions that may or may not be answered in the next book. I also tried my best to keep all of the Gods—especially Hades in character. I wanted the reveal of Nico being a time traveler to fit his personality and characterization, and I think the mixture of politeness, coldness, and callous honesty was the direction I needed to go. I figured revealing the parentage of the di Angelo siblings would be too soon as well, so I did this weird passive aggressive conversation between Hades and Zeus, and I guess everything about that conversation will make more sense in the sequel. So... yeah. I'll try to get the next chapter up soon. Hopefully this time I won't have so much writer's block, but this is a fun chapter I've really been looking forward to writing since like, the middle of the book.

Well, stay safe guys!