Energy Unbound
Chapter 14
Rumors
The Underworld.
A wretched hive of scum, villainy, and the occasional hero or unusual mortal destined for Elysium.
Vast plains of dark rock only interrupted by the four star attractions. Five, if you counted the entrance. The hellish red haze that obscured the Fields of Punishment from view, the near literal glow the Elysians put off, the dark hole leading to the most literal analogue to the Abrahamic Hell ever created, and the Palace of the Underworld.
Lord Hades' home.
Modeled off the Council Temple of Olympus, only about three times bigger, it was Hades' way to snub his nose at those who had shunned him. His 'family', who except for a rare few, all hated him and had banished him from their pristine, if false, paradise.
It still surprised him how much he'd grown to like his nephew, one Percy Jackson. If he didn't know better, he'd assume the young man's mother to be a goddess herself. As for his father? Well, ever since Jackson had given Hades' brother a wicked tongue-lashing, the Lord of the Seas and the Lord of the Underworld had developed something that could be called a sibling relationship.
If you squinted.
Of course there was always his sister. The one he would tear the Underworld open for, the one he'd do pretty much anything to save.
Hestia. The only one who truly knew him, in every way. They'd been closer than lovers, once, a long time ago… so many millennia in the past. He would have made her very happy, and she him.
Hades shook his head to clear his thoughts of her. His idle musing about his family and his lot in life were not the primary focus of the god's day. Oh no, his ire was firmly emplaced upon a pair of tricksters.
Chaos damn Hermes and Apollo.
His Palace was not supposed to be pink!
A cacophony of bones rang out in the still silence of his Throne Room. One of his minions had fallen off the scaffolding of bone he'd provided them for the repaint job.
It turns out that undead armies aren't that good at painting.
"Fail in this task one more time," he bellowed, forcing his voice to cascade across the Underworld, "and see how long it takes you to reform!"
The multitude of skeletal soldiers sped up their efforts. The fallen one ran from the Throne Room, joining up with his comrades elsewhere in the Palace. Hades leaned back in his throne and grinned. He let his body relax slightly, connecting to his domains in an attempt to calm down.
It wouldn't work. It never did. It didn't then, either.
But something else was lightly brushing against his senses. It was enough to distract him from his anger. His mind, ever alert as the eldest son of Kronos by nature was, sought out the flicker in his personal darkness.
It was abnormal.
Every god or goddess who knew anything was aware of just what that might mean. There were very few things that could intrude on the mind of an immortal being when they were connected to their domain like he was. A more powerful being, though the difference had to be vast. An error of his own mind, perhaps a new aspect forming. Given no major civilizations had fallen recently it was more likely a minor dispute between his Roman and Greek children, though he was unaware of any reason Hazel and Nico might be fighting.
The last one that applied normally was impossible. He had no immortal heir.
Hestia could in theory contact him this way, as he had given her access and she had responded in kind. But this did not feel like his sister. What would be the point, anyways? She was welcome in his domain at any time she wished. He even kept a Hearth of his own burning through the endless eons specifically for her.
It couldn't be a more powerful being. He would have noticed them arriving on their world. Celestials did not accomplish subtlety. Hades would be surprised if they even knew what that word meant.
If it was not Hestia, and was not a higher being of the needed caliber, it might be a fight between his children, however unlikely it was. They were very young adults now, after all. With an absent thought his mind pinged the essences of his progeny. Just in case. Only to check.
Despite what most beings thought of him, he did care.
Abruptly his eyes shot wide open. His ichor stopped flowing, ice crawling through his veins.
Impossible! he raged.
Normally when he performed the checkup of his children, their divine essences sent back only small echoes of his own power. It would be flavored depending on which of them replied; structured and orderly for Hazel, chaotic and depressed for Nico.
But no matter what it would be weak.
The response he'd just received was anything but.
His anger, fear, and surprise exploded out across the Underworld. The power unleashed decimated the rocky ground of the massive cavern, eventually escaping up to the surface and setting off a series of massive earthquakes. Los Angeles would be shaking for a while, despite Hades quickly reigning in the outflow of his energy.
The Lord of the Dead did not apologize. He might be feeling something akin to what mortals described as 'whoops' at that moment, though.
His earlier assumption that he had no immortal heir was apparently very incorrect. How?!
How did his two children, without him noticing, become a minor god and goddess overnight?!
And why did their responses carry a small hint of unrelenting, all-encompassing power?
Hades' face paled even more than the usual alabaster white he decided his skin should be. There was only one kind of being capable of this. Either his great grandmother had woken up, or one of the Celestials was on Terra.
And they'd affected his own blood. Immensely powerful, unbeatable being or not; THEY WILL PAY!
The Pit smiled.
His mother was awake. She walked her surface again. Even as far down in her crust as his true body resided, he could feel her energies begin to cycle up to consciousness once more.
Huh. It looked like his grand nephew was having a temper tantrum far above him.
Odd.
An errant thought sent his minions to prepare his mother's chambers in his Fortress. A Titan and a Giant, both who'd expected death for their actions against him. Their shock when he began laughing out loud after the mortals had escaped would be a memory he treasured for the rest of his existence.
His sister was insane. All of them knew it. If he hadn't stepped in to 'help', but in reality limit her and her ambitions, the mortal civilizations would probably be gone now. To be fair, it was their own fault. They'd poisoned her, and over the eons of her sleep it had weakened her mind. Their mother staying out of it, not coming into the mortal scope of thought, certainly hadn't helped.
Not that the Pit could blame her. He felt their poison on his outer shell as they tried to dig for what they amusingly called 'black gold', shoving torrents of acidic liquid down their wells in an attempt to crack what the Mist told them was bedrock. It would feel like burning wounds to his mother.
Even as he thought of it, another flood broke open the layers of sediment around him. He had to restrain himself every day, every second, or he would kill them all. Unleash the gates of the most literal version of Hell and drown them in tides of monsters.
Tartarus was a treacherous bastard. He knew it. Everyone thought it. But he wouldn't betray his mother. She had a protection order on her mortal children. After the Flood, she wouldn't tolerate any harm befalling them from his siblings.
Didn't keep him from sometimes letting certain weak monsters escape him, though. They only targeted children of his grandchildren anyways. Anyone who hadn't learned that lesson was not allowed out to play.
Like he always told everyone; he was a bastard. Not in the method of birth. His attitude and behavior were what declared him as such.
Nobody had the balls to call him on it, though.
Except a certain young mortal, one he'd been keeping an eye on ever since he'd 'escaped' on the elevator of the Doors of Death.
Jackson had impressed him. He could admit that. The boy fought his, admittedly weakened, avatar to a standstill. So what if he had a Titan, a Giant, and another mortal for aid? He'd fought Tartarus inside his own body and escaped.
The boy had guts. He could see why he'd challenge Ares and mouth off to Zeus' face without fear. Why he'd even talk back to the literal embodiment of Hell itself. It was why he'd gifted a small amount of his own power to Jackson, just to see what he could do with it.
Tartarus was dangerous when bored.
Due to this monitoring, he was aware of the change the boy and his mate underwent. One day he was skirting godhood, she following closely behind. The next they registered as something like his own children.
What brought that change on? Ah. She is here. The fact they weren't currently in deep space, nor did he sense a world-spanning aura of power, meant that he could reasonably assume she wasn't here to do something… bad for all involved.
Not like she'd done to his mother's brother. Even now that stung. He was the only one who knew. She'd forgotten him in her memory modification sweep, secreted away as he was towards the Planet's core.
Bah, he scoffed, nobody liked Nibiru anyways.
Tartarus was amused at the situation. The potential for chaos had just risen immensely. How interesting. He was not sitting on a small fragment of a Chaos Shard for nothing, after all. He would do nothing, alert no one, to this change.
He would however require popcorn. "Bob! Damasen! We have a new show to watch! Popcorn, on the double!"
Oh no, Nox thought.
Tartarus was amused.
The Lady of Night shuddered. Her brother could be downright terrifying when he found an object for his attentions. Secluded as she was in the glorified guardhouse for the Chaos Shard, her Palace of the Night, she was technically immune from his manipulations and games.
Unless he found another couple of demigods to tease her with by directing them into the Palace, that is.
Even after all these years she still couldn't figure it out. How had they survived? Mortals should simply dissolve into the Void upon entering her presence.
But Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase, son of Poseidon and daughter of Athena, hadn't even noticed.
Her brother had confirmed he had nothing to do with their immunity. He made sure they didn't die in his own body. He had no control over her manifestation.
And as amusing as her reactions to his bullshit normally were, he wouldn't risk infringing upon her domain. Deities usually just flat out faded when they broke Oaths like the one they'd taken.
So how?
Like her brother, she'd tracked Jackson. A tiny bit of her own essence imbued into his own. Not quite a blessing, but enough so that he need not fear the darkness. He never noticed it, but he could navigate through dark rooms and on moonless nights without much trouble. He could even see better in the dark. Not by much. Just enough.
And of course, she could watch him and his girlfriend through it.
So when she sensed the Pit become amused and figured out it was because of Jackson, she briefly touched that fragment of herself with her mind.
Aaand promptly lit on fire.
"AHH!" she screamed, running out of her throne room. The black flames leaped from her body and ignited the air that filled the hallways of the Palace. In what felt like a single moment the entirety of the internal space was aflame.
It wouldn't actually do any damage but it was going to be a bitch to clean up later.
Focus, you imbecile! Nox scolded herself. Get the flames off first, deal with the vacuum that had followed the burning air later.
She made it to her personal bedroom in the Palace and waved a bath into existence. The water was cold and dark, but it would do. Nox flung herself into the cooling waters and sighed with relief.
"What the Chaos was that?!" she shrieked out loud.
A cursory examination of her memories showed the answer. She'd contacted the piece of herself in Jackson with her shields down, and without the protection of her Domain Throne. Somehow an immense amount of raw energy was unleashed from the shard and backtracked along the connection, manifesting as incredibly hot fire, enough to ignite the limited Oxygen in the air of her Palace.
That could really only mean one thing. How the Chaos is Jackson a deity?!
Sol was bored.
So, so bored.
She absentmindedly twirled two flares of her own matter around on her surface to produce a darker spot in the shape of a puppy. See how those scientists on Terra reacted to that.
Ugh. SO BORED!
She contemplated reversing her spin just to see if anyone would notice. Of course, that might take a few years to actually travel outward to her surface, so it wouldn't do anything for her boredom now.
Life was so much easier when she was an adult. She wasn't really ever truly bored then.
But being a kid was so fun!
Somewhere in the remnants of her true self she snorted at her own consciousness. The minds of higher beings like herself were always some kind of gestalt. Their existences were too vast for one sentience, after all, even if most of them acted like they were singular consciousnesses.
So it was that her older self was on standby and her younger self was currently 'her'.
Bah! Enough philosophical stuff, she was bored!
Ooh! Maybe she could go poke Enlil again! No… He'd probably be angry at her for making his Red Spot worse.
It was an accident! Come on, it was her birthday. How was she supposed to know the coronal ejection she used to blow out her asteroid candles would cause a giant storm in his atmosphere?
Bored bored bored bored so bored.
Wait, what was that?
Her eyes widened in surprise and she squealed with glee. Her daughter was waking up again! Terra was back! They could have so much fun together messing with her children. It'd been so long since she got to play with a civilization on any real level. Ever since Nimrod… no, Nemo? What the heck did she name him?
Oh yeah, Nibiru.
Ever since Nibiru decided to be a poopy head and blow up Ia. Poor little Ia. Or as Terra's little ones called her hypothetical existence, Phaeton.
They weren't to blame. They wouldn't have any idea of her gender after all.
Ia, her little one who went way too close to the orbit of Nibiru and Enlil.
It wasn't really Enlil's fault. Sol loved all her children, but Nibiru… she must have done something wrong with him. He was one of the first, after all, and she was a rather new star. Nobody in the local group would help her out in her attempts. They were all way too snooty for her liking.
She couldn't bring herself to end him even after that. Thankfully, Progress had come to her aid, saved the soul of her little one, and exiled Nibiru from her system. He would drift through space for a long time before coming back.
Hopefully he got the memo this time. And Terra wouldn't ask her to hide her true self from her mortals anymore, so she could give Ia a new body!
After all, her stasis chamber, Ceres, was starting to become sentient herself. It wouldn't be long before they merged or she was forced to move Ia's soul into herself to protect it.
Hey, is that Ouranos calling her?
It is!
OOOH, MOVIE MONTH!
Yes yes yes yes yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees!
The Sky chuckled.
It was always entertaining for him, the antics of those so far below. Up here where the atmosphere was thin sat his City, the bastion of his power and the Guardian of his Planet.
Unlike all those entities, gods, and primordials who dealt with the chaotic miasma that was the surface of Terra and below it, he was free.
Yes he had to do negotiations with the other Planets, acting in lieu of his sleeping mother, and had to put up with the chattering of Sol herself. He had to redirect or absorb her never ending waves of energy and dangerous radiation to protect those below.
But he was free. And Sol was actually quite fun to talk to. In her current incarnation, anyways.
Nothing like Luna, with her reserved regality and aloofness. They had tea every day; he was used to her… peculiarities. Without fail, ever since he'd been 'killed' by his son, when Luna's true body came out from behind his mother's shadow her avatar would appear in his City's gardens. He usually made the appointed tea time, provided Sol hadn't burped and launched an ejection their way that day.
Regardless of his musing, events on the surface had begun heating up. He wasn't actually sure what was going on, but his brother Tartarus was amused, Nox terrified and the Underworld's current owner was flipping his shit. Something big was going down, hiding itself extremely well, and was enough to interest the Pit.
He barely controlled his laugh of joy. Normality was so boring! It was about time for some kind of adventure to begin! The previous 'wars', and he chuckled at how his children and grandchildren thought such things were worthy of the word, were mildly fun to watch. But whatever was happening now? This, this is what he commissioned that five hundred inch plasma screen TV for. It was perfect for viewing from his Throne at full size and he had a unique perspective on the world to feed to the screen.
So what if it was technically him watching himself? Movie theaters, television, and entertainment were some of the important things in life. He could ignore the fact he could see everything on the screen anyways just for the experience of his own home theater.
Whatever was happening, it had all the pantheons across the world aware of it at some level. Even if only a couple of seers saw the incoming blips in the timelines, or as with his children's side of things, were completely ignorant save a few, everyone was involved. There were several 'dead' pantheons that had completely flipped out and were scrambling to meet for emergency discussions.
His eyes widened as a pulse from the surface swept through his City. His mother had decided to wake up! Oh this definitely meant something.
"Luna, Sol," Ouranos called out into the star system, "It appears we'll be having another movie month."
Sol popped into existence in his Throne Room with a flash of coronal fire. She took the form of a young girl these days, reflecting her current 'mood'. Orange haired, of course, and her eyes had a representation of her true self instead of irises. Her hair flowed around in the low gravity of their high orbit of his mother as she bounced up onto his Throne besides him, which he'd only just in time turned into a rather comfortable couch. He summoned popcorn out of thin air, literally, and handed the little star a container of the stuff.
Luna appeared next to him with grace and poise in a flash of gray light. She accepted his offer of popcorn daintily, placing it on her lap and nibbling the popcorn pieces individually.
"Come on Ouranos, I wanna watch!" Sol pleaded.
Ouranos sighed and ruffled her hair. "Sure thing little one."
The TV blinked on, and they watched.
A/N: Apologies for the update time. My buffer has unfortunately run out so I am writing live now. Here's the next chapter. After this there's one or two more ramp up chapters before everything really hits the fan.
For those who are unaware of ancient or modern astronomy or mythology;
Enlil = Jupiter
Nibiru = Planet 10, Planet X, whatever. In my story it's a planet wiped from memory or has had memories of it edited by Progress. Astronomers recently discovered the planet I'm using for Nibiru out in the Kuiper Belt. It's apparently known as Eris, but given Eris actually exists as a separate entity in my 'verse, I'm taking the conspiracy nutcases' name out for a drive. I can always handwave it and say humans have no clue of the real structure of things. It's a nice bit of handwavium.
Ia = random Babylonian female name. Ceres is a dwarf moon in the Asteroid Belt. The planet I'm naming Ia, which was named Phaeton by modern astronomers, was a hypothetical planet between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars. It was ripped apart by Jupiter's gravity to form the Asteroid Belt. In my history, Nibiru was between Mars and Ia, and is responsible for Ia's death. Just how that happened is spoilers though.
Ouranos = Greek primordial of the Sky
Luna = Roman name for the Goddess of the Moon. Not Artemis, the actual moon goddess.
Sol = Norse name for the Sun Goddess. It has these little weird dot things on top of the o in formal writing but I'm too lazy to hit the unicode for that a couple dozen times.